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…

Thus we have learned how to apply knowledge, that it may do us good, not to our ears like them which hear Sermons only; nor to our tongues, like them which make table talk of religion; but to our hearts, that we may say like the virgin,¹ My heart doth magnify the Lord: and the heart will apply it to the ear,² and to the tongue, as Christ saith, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The last point is, that the remembrance of death makes us to apply our hearts to wisdom. Moses commended not many books to make a wise man learned, but as David commends one book in stead of many:³ Meditate in the Law of God day and night: for, the reading of many books (saith Solomon) is but weariness to the flesh. ⁴Therefore as though Moses had marked what did move him most to seek after GOD, he prayeth that that thought may run in his mind still, the remembrance of death. As many benefits come unto us by death: so many benefits come unto us by the remembrance of death, and this is one, It maketh a man to apply his heart to wisdom: For when he considereth that he hath but a short time to live, he is careful to spend it well,⁵ like Moses, of whom it is said, that when he considered how he had but a season to live, he chose rather to suffer afflictions with the servants of God, than to enjoy the pleasures ⟨p. 570⟩of sin for a season. This is that which makes the old men fast, and watch, and prepare themselves more than young, because they think themselves nearer the door, like old Isaac, which when he was blind for age, said unto Esau,⁶ Behold, I am now old, and know not the day of my death; that is, because I am old, I look to die shortly. And therefore as Isaiah taught Hezekiah,⁷ to set all things in order before he died: so he called his eldest son, to whom he thought that the inheritance belonged, that he might bless him before he died. This wisdom the Fathers called, the wisdom of the cross, which we call the best, because it was deerest bought. It is hard for a man to think of a short life, and think evil; or to think of a long life, and think well. Therefore when Jeremiah had numbered all the calamities & sins of the Jews; at last he imputed all to this,