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…

I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.

I desire to bee dissolued and to bee with Christ.

Here is Pauls desire to be dissolved, and the cause, that he might be with Christ: wherein first you shall see the difference between the faithful and the wicked, how one loatheth this life, and the other longeth after it. Secondly, because the Apostle seems to desire death, you shall see whether any man may wish to die. Thirdly, because after his dissolution he hopes to be with Christ; you shall see the diversity of judgements between Paul and the Papists, which think when they are dead, that they shall go on to Purgatory. Lastly, because the souls which are with Christ cannot walk as they did when they lived upon the earth, you shall hear a little of walking spirits, which have ⟨p. 522⟩been so much talked of in the time of popery, and were taken for the souls of them which were dead: after we will speak a little of the Sacrament which ye come to receive, and so commit you to God. I desire to be dissolved. ¹Before Christs coming, when the Kings or Patriarchs died, it is said, that they went to their fathers,² as we read of David and Solomon,³ &c. but after Christs coming, when the faithful die, they are said to go to Christ,⁴ as we read of the penitent thief, Luke 23. 43. Not because the Patriarchs went not to Christ as well as they, but because yet Christ was not ascended to heaven: therefore they are not to go to Christ, although if they went to heaven they must needs go to Christ, because Christ touching his Godhead, was always in heaven. I desire to be dissolved: As the worldly long for Christ to come to them, so the faithful long to go to Christ, for unless we ascend to him as he descended to us, his descending is in vain, because he came down that we might go up, he descended to take our flesh, we ascend to take his kingdom, he descended to be crucified, we ascend to be glorified, he descended to hell, we ascend to heaven, that is, to joy, to glory, to bliss, to our father, to our Saviour, to our comforter, to Angels, to Saints, to eternal life: therefore good cause had Paul