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…

neither mirth, frankincense & gold, which the Gentiles offered, Mat. 2. but a new creature, Gal. 6. 15. Therefore we must come to some schoolmaster,¹ which teacheth us like John Baptist, what we should do, that we may grow in knowledge, as we grow in years. Teach me to number my days (saith Moses) that I may apply my heart to wisdom. Whereby Moses telleth us, that this was one of his helps, which made him profit in the knowledge of God, to number his days: as a man that hath a set time for his task listens to the clock,² and counts his hours, so we have a set time to serve God, Work while it is day, saith Christ. What he doth mean by this day, The Apostle showeth you, This is the day of salvation; that is, this life is the day wherein you should work. What work have you to do? The Apostle tells you, Work out your ⟨p. 549⟩salvation. This is a long task, therefore we had need to number our days, and not loose a minute, least we be benighted before our work be done. Teach me, O Lord to number my days. He which in the Land of Midian learned to number sheep, now he is come into the wilderness, learneth to number his days. Teach us, O Lord, to number our days. Not teach us the number of our days, for we shall forget it again, and the knowledge of times, is Gods knowledge; but Teach us to number our days; that is, that we may be still numbering and counting our days, & hours, and minutes, to see how fast we die, that every day and hour we may learn some thing. As God hath numbered our days, so we must learn to number our days, or else it seems that we cannot apply our harts to wisdom: that is, unless we think upon death, we cannot fashion our selves to a godly life, though we were as well instructed as Moses. This we find daily in our selves, that the forgetfulness of death, makes us to apply our harts unto folly, & pleasure, & all voluptuousness; that contrary to his advice: Work your salvation, we work our damnation. We are so far from numbering our days, that we do not number our weeks, nor our months, nor our years, but as the Apostle saith,³