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…

Therefore God speaking of kings,¹ saith, I said ye are Gods, but ye shall die like men. If kings must die like men, then the expectation of men is death: therefore when this king was ready to die, he said to Solomon,² that he should go the way of all the earth, calling death the way of all the earth: to which Isaiah be ares witness,³ crying, all flesh is grass, that is, it falleth, and is cut down like grass.⁴ In paradise we might live or die: in the world we live & must die:⁵ in heaven she shall live and not die. Before sin nothing could change us: now every thing doth change us. For when winter comes we are cold, when age comes we are withered, when sickness comes we are weak, to show that when death comes we shall die. The clothes which were upon our backs, the sun which sets over our ⟨p. 554⟩heads, the graves which lie under our feet, the meat which goes into our mouths, c•ie unto us that we shall we are, and fade, and die, like the fishes, and fowls, and beasts which even now were living in their elements, and now are dead in our dishes. Every thing every day suffers some eclipse, and nothing stands at a stay, but one creature calls to another, let us leave this world. Our fathers summoned us, and we shall summon our children to the grave: first we wax old, then we wax dry, then we wax weak, then we wax sick, so we melt away by drops; at last as we carried other: so other carry us unto the grave: this is the last bed which every man shall sleep in: we must return to our mothers womb.⁶ Therefore Jacob called his life but a pilgrimage,⁷ therefore Paul called his life but a race; therefore David calleth him self but a worm;