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 if ye mark, there is a kind of men which cannot abide to hear of death, they are sick with the name of it: the reason is, Ahab cannot abide Michaiah,¹ because he never prophesied good unto him but evil: so death never prophesied good to the wicked but evil, for which they cannot abide it. Therefore as Pharaoh bad Moses go out of his sight: so they bid death go out of their sight, and say when he comes as Ahab said to Elijah, Art thou here my enemy, when they should say, welcome my friend? For as the devils thought Christ was come to torment them: so the ungodly think that death comes to torment them. Is it peace, when they see death, they doubt it is not peace, because they never loved the God of peace. O that I ⟨p. 565⟩could bring you into their hearts, that ye might see more then tongue can express: for I do not think that any Epicure, or worldling, or Nonresident, have any joy to think of death, or desire to be dissolved, but rather that he might never be dissolved, because death comes to the wicked like a jailer, which comes always to hale unto prison: therefore their care is not to remember death, that they might apply their hearts to wisdom: but to forget death, lest they should apply their harts to wisdom, and loose their pleasures before the time: for he which is not purposed yet to leave his sins, would not be troubled with any thought that might make him take his pleasure fearfully, least he should leave sin before sin leave him. Therefore the devil doth never teach a man to number his days, because he gains by the forgetfulness of death: but the Lord which would have a man to apply his heart to wisdom, it is he which teacheth us to number our days: and therefore Moses prayeth unto him, & because we pray not unto him as he did, to teach us to number our days, therefore we die like worms before we be aware. So far we are from that which he shooteth at, to apply his heart to wisdom, that we are not in the way unto it, that is, to remember that we shall die. The last point is the cause why Moses would learn to number ⟨p. 566⟩his days, that he might apply his heart to wisdom as if he should say, until men think upon death, they never apply their hearts to wisdom, but busy themselves with worldly matters, as though they were feathering a nest that should never be pulled down.