The sermons of Master Henry Smith gathered into one volume. Printed according to his…The sermons of Maister Henrie Smith gathered into one volume. Printed according to his…

This is like a bait in their journey, to think as the Samaritan told his host, if thou spend any more I will recompense thee when I come. So Christ will mend their wages, when he cometh. Why should not God try his friends, as well as we try our friends, the same afflictions (saith Peter) are accomplished in others, nay, greater afflictions are ⟨p. 493⟩borne of other, which would make us despair like Cain, Christ was consecrated by afflictions, therefore we cannot be consecrated without afflictions, who would not go to heaven with Elijah, though it were in a whirlwind? if our troubles be light and few, it is because we are weak & tender:¹ therefore God doth respect our feebleness, & layeth no more upon us, because we are not able to bear more. It is not a sign that we are righteous, because our troubles are few; but because our troubles are few, it is rather a sign that we are not righteous, because Many are the troubles of the righteous. For they must be made examples of patience, they must suffer their hell here, they must be squared for the temple, therefore they must have many strokes to make them fit: God is not like a Wasp, which when she hath stung once, cannot sting again: but there is a generation of crosses, and a plurality of troubles. When David spake of trouble, he spake of troops and heaps, and stars, and sands, and therefore he saith, Many, as though he were fain to lay them down in the gross sum because he could not reckon them. By many tribulations (saith Paul) but how many he could not number:² For except our sins, there is not such plenty of any thing in the world, as there is of troubles, which come from sin: ⟨p. 494⟩as one heavy messenger came to Job one after another:³ so now we are not in Paradise, but in the wilderness,⁴ we must look for one trouble after another; therefore afflictions are called waters, because as one wave falleth upon another, so one trouble falleth upon the head of another.