The poor mans tears opened in a sermon / preached by Henry SmithThe poore mans teares opened in a sermon / preached by Henrie Smith

Again, being washed or baptized ⟨p. 61⟩in the name of the father, Son, and holy Ghost: we are advertised, that we must give godly, christian, and holy names unto our children in in token of their sacred profession, for holy is he that hath called us, and that we may be the more forward so to do. It will be worth our labour to consider of a few examples, tending to the same purpose,¹ as of Zechariah the father of John the Baptist, who being dumb when that his son was born, his friends made signs unto him, how he would have him called, and asking for writing tables, writ, saying his name is John: the which word John is as much as (to say) Grace: and thus was Zechariah commanded by the Angel to name him.² The scripture accordeth plentiful examples of those that have given names to their children, affordeth to such occasions as have been offered in the time of their travel: As when Rachel went with her husband Jacob toward Bethel ⟨p. 62⟩to build an altar unto God: She travailed in child-birth, and in travelling dyed: but before she departed,³ she called his name Benoni: that is, the son of her sorrow; but his father Jacob called him Benoni; that is the son of his right hand. So Leah having born to Jacob four sons she said, now will I praise God, &c. And that she might the better bear in mind her promise, she named her last son Judah. ⁴When the man of Benjamin came from the Israelites with his clothes rent, and dust upon his head in token of heaviness, and certified father Ely, ⁵that Gods Ark was taken by the Philistines, and that his two sons were slain: the old father fell backward out of his seat, and broke his neck, and his daughter in law. Phynies wife being frighted with fear: fell in travel and dyed in child bed: but before her death, she called her son Ichabod (that is) the glory of God, meaning thereby that ⟨p. 63⟩