Henry Smith

When we read, God speaks to us, because we read his Word. But when we pray, we speak to God… “The prayers of the saints…” are called “incense” because when they ascend to heaven God seems to smell a sweet savour like incense.
Whoever fell into error, or into apostasy, or into despair, before he fell from prayer, the preservative of the soul? If prayer had been here, these evils had not happened. This is the “holy water” which drives away unclean spirit (Matt. 17:21)… It is a good thing to preach, and yet you see we do not presume to preach before we pray, because Paul plants, Apollos waters, but God gives the increase.
—Henry Smith “The Ladder of peace”

It is against the name and nature of covetousness to be content, as it is against the name of nature of contentation to be covetous… No covetous man is God’s servant, but God’s enemy.
—Henry Smith “The Benefit of Contentation.”

“Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesying. Try all things and keep that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.”

Zeal is the fire of the Spirit… God is pleased with zeal as men are pleased with love… Our goal should be a temperate zeal… The disciples were commended for their zeal when they left all to follow Christ. But Christ reproved them for their zeal when they would pray for fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans.
—Henry Smith–”The True Trial of the Spirits” Text 1 Thess. 5:19-22

As the eyelid is made to open and shut, to save the eye, so patience is set to keep the soul and save the heart whole, to cheer the body again. Therefore if you note when you can go by an offence and take little wrong, and suffer trouble quietly, you have a kind of peace and joy in your heart, as if you had gotten the victory. The greater is your patience, the less is your pain…. “In all things,” says Paul, “we are more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37)… As the tree which Moses cast into the spring seasoned the bitterness of the waters, so patience, cast into our troubles, seasons the bitterness of the cross… This power has God given to patience, the medicinable virtue, that it should be like a wholesome herb in the world, or a general physician for all persons and diseases.
—Henry Smith–”The Trial of the Righteous”

If we be Christians [let us] persevere, and take heed lest we fall… Not lest we fall from our election, but lest we fall from our righteousness… We must have confidence towards God, but diffidence towards ourselves.

The Israelites fell… they flitted from sin to sin, like a fly which shifts from sore to sore They tempted the Lord, murmured, lusted, committed idolatory, [and] served the flesh.. As they fell away, so may you But by their fall, you may also learn to stand.

Who can say what he will do when he is tried?

The best men have had their slips, but always they rose again—as though they had sinned to teach us repentance… Therefore, their sins are written… to admonish us… We must behold the sins of others, to learn by them… These things are not written for our imitation, but for our admonition.
–Henry Smith “Food for New Born Babes”

The people’s neglect of the prophets has made the prophets neglect prophesying… the drone never studies to preach. The second thing that makes prophets and prophesying despised is the lewdness and negligence of them that are able to do well in their ministry, yet do the contrary… by their slubbering of the Word, for lack of study and meditation… So the people stay at home, and say they know as much as the preacher can teach them.
—Henry Smith “The Benefit of Contentation”

Think that the Word is an epistle from God… the will wherein legacies are written, a charge from the Judge of life and death. Two things out of every sermon are especially to be noted: that which you did not know before, and that which speaks to your own sin. So shall you increase your knowledge, and lessen your vices.
—Henry Smith “The Art of Hearing”

What has brought usury, simony, bribery, cruelty, subtilty, envy, strife, and deceit to to this city…. and made every shop a market of oaths lies and frauds, but the superfluous love of money? [Here] is the root of all evil… the spawn of all sin.
—-Henry Smith “The Benefit of Contentation.”

The devil also has this trick: instead of applying the doctrine, which we should follow, he turns us to praise and extol the preacher…Take heed how you hear… There is nothing so easy as to hear, and yet there is nothing so hard as to hear well.
—-Henry Smith, “The Art of Hearing.”

Pray continually…When the heart rejoices in God, then is it fittest to call upon God…The godly have another joy which the world knows not of. “A good conscience is a continuous feast.”
(Prov. 15:5)
—Henry Smith

If we cannot rejoice in praying, how shall we rejoice in suffering? No man has such a joy as he that is often talking with God in prayer…for the company of God is nothing but joy, and gladness of heart.
—Henry Smith “The Ladder of Peace.”

Much have they to answer, which are not contented to die in peace, and stay till they be dissolved, but [act] as though they were the authors of life and death… to cast assunder that which God has joined: the loving soul and their body.
—Henry Smith “The Pilgrim’s wish”

Now the means whereby we receive all our growth and increase in God is the lively preaching of the Word of Truth… Therefore, thirst and long for the Word of God as little infants [which are new born] cry for their mother’s milk to nourish and sustain them…God is our Father to beget us; the Church, his spouse, our Mother to conceive us; the seed whereby we are bred and born again is the Word of God; the nurses to feed and wean and cherish us are the ministers of the gospel; and the food whereby we are nourished and held in life is the milk of the Word.
—Henry Smith “Food for New Born Babes”

In Exodus 3:5, God teaches us how to hear when he speaks to Moses and bids him put off his shoes. So should we put off our lusts, thoughts, cares, fancies, and all other business when God speaks… in 1 Cor 6:1, Paul teaches us to how to hear when he says,  “Receive not the grace of God in vain,” showing that many hear comfort, and are not comforted; many hear instruction, and are not instructed. James teaches us how to hear (1:22) when he says, “Be not hearers only, but doers,” showing that you should do as you hear….In Luke 10, Mary teaches us how to hear, when she leaves all to sit at Christ’s feet and mark his doctrine. In Luke 2, the virgin teaches us how to hear. When she heard the sayings of Anna, Simeon and Christ, it is said that she pondered them and treasured them up in her heart—showing that our ears should be but messengers to the heart.
—Henry Smith

As God loves “a cheerful giver,” so he loves a cheerful server, and a cheerful preacher, and a cheerful worshipper…God requires no sorrow but the sorrow for sins; no fear, but the fear to sin, no care, but the care to please him.
—Henry Smith “The Ladder of Peace.”

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Here is Paul’s desire, to be dissolved. Why? That he might be with Christ…The faithful long to go to Christ. For unless we ascend to him, as he descended is in vain because he came down that we might go up…He descended to be crucified, we ascend to be glorified…Good cause had Paul to desire to be with Christ. Yet he will not dissolve himself, but desires to be dissolved ..neither does he make any petition to God to take away his life… Paul would have us learn that death is better than life because it leads to Christ…The faithful rejoice that they shall go to Christ…This is our glory and life, that he lives in glory…If the head be crowned, all the body is more honoured …Where the head is, there the body must needs be.
—Henry Smith The Pilgrim’s Wish Philippians 1:23

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If we be Christians [let us] persevere, and take heed, lest we fall…Not, lest we fall from our election, but lest we fall from our righteousness…We must have confidence towards God, but diffidence towards ourselves.
The Israelites fell, they flitted from sin to sin, like a fly which flits from sore to sore. They tempted the Lord, murmured, lusted, committed idolatry [and] served the flesh…As they fell away so may you. But by their fall, you may also learn to stand.
But who can say what he will do when he is tried?
The best men have had their slips, but always they rose again—as though they had sinned to teach us repentance …Therefore, their sins are written…to admonish us…We must behold the sins of others to learn by them. These things are not written for our imitation, but for our admonition.
–Henry Smith “Food for New Born Babes”

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Christ calls none to him; but them which hunger and thirst, as if none were fit to hear the Word, but they which hunger and thirst after it and bring a stomach with them.
–Henry Smith “The Art of Hearing.”

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Take heed how you hear. This is the warning of Christ to his disciples, after they hear the parable of of the seed (Luke 8:18)…When I consider how many labourers God has sent to his vineyard, and yet how little fruit it yields to the sower, I cannot impute it to lack of teaching, but to the lack of hearing…to a kind of negligent hearing [so that] a thousand sermons have been lost and forgotten, as though they had never been preached at all.
The devil ….labours all he can to keep us from hearing. To effect this, he keeps us at taverns, at plays, in our shops…He casts fancies into our minds, drowsiness into our heads, sounds into our ears, temptation before our eyes…He infects us with prejudice of the preacher… or takes us to dinner, or pastime, to remove our minds, that we should think no more of it.
—Henry Smith “The Art of Hearing.”

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First Peter 2:2 contains and exhortation to incite and stir up the believing Jews. As God had enlightened them with some knowledge of his true and sanctified them in some measure with the grace of his Spirit, so they should proceed… and daily increase more and more in the faith and fear of Jesus Christ.
—Henry Smith “Food for New born Babes”

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I sought for a text which speaks against covetousness, which I may call the Londoner’s sin… God has given you more than others, which should turn covetousness into thankfulness. Yet as the ivy grows with the oak, so covetousness has grown with riches…who within these walls thinks he has enough, though there be so many that have too much?
This is the devil who bewitches you, to think that you have not enough when you have more than you need…Paul craves your covetousness, that he might bury it… You have found little joy in money, you shall find great joy in the Holy Ghost. You have found little peace in the world, you shall find great peace in conscience. He that will have contentment must leave his covetousness in pawn for it. (1 Tim. 6:6)
–Henry Smith “The Benefit of contentation.”

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Moses prays for himself and the rest: “Teach us, O Lord, to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” That is, seeing we must needs die, teach us to think of our death that we may die in your fear, to live again. The consideration of our mortality will make us apply our hearts to godliness.
This the day of salvation…Work out your salvation. This is a long task. Therefore we need to number our days and not lose a minute, lest we be benighted before our work is done… Else we cannot “apply our hearts to wisdom.” Unless we think upon death, we cannot fashion ourselves to a godly life. [We] must pray, fast, watch, hear, and do, as becomes him who shall shortly give an account of his stewardship.
—Henry Smith, “The godly mans’s Request.”
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This is the state of the Church militant; she is like the ark, floating upon the waters, like a lily growing among thorns, like the bush which burned with fire but was not consumed; so the city of God is always besieged; but never ruined. Christians and persecutions [are] close together, like Christ and his cross …Their peace in persecution, their rest labour, their riches poverty, their glory reproaches, their liberty imprisonment… [like stones] they must be squared by the temple [by] a generation of crosses, and a plurality of troubles…All this while Christ seemed to sleep, as he did in the ship. Now he rebukes the winds and waves, and troubles fly before him…the Sun rose, and the mists vanished.
—-Henry Smith “The Trial of the Righteous”

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There is a plurality of God’s mercies…his temporal mercies on earth, and his everlasting mercies in heaven…So we are to give our bodies a sacrifice to God …Every member owes a duty to the Creator: the heart to love him, the hand to serve him, the tongue to praise him, the ear to hear him, the foot to follow him.
—Henry Smith, “The humility of Paul.”

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If this be not amended, I let you to understand that the poor must cry, and their voice shall be heard, their distress considered, & our vengance shall be wrought I tell you troth, even in Jesus Christ that the poor hath cried unto the Lord, and he hath heard them. With speed therefore open your ears: if not to man, yet to Christ, who continually commaundeth us to give and bestow upon the poor and needy. Give and it shall be given you saith he by S. Luke, and setteth before our eyes the example of the poore widowes mites. .
–Henry Smith, “The Poor Man’s Tears.”

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This may well be called the Ladder of Peace, for it stands upon three steps, and every step is a step from trouble to peace, from sorrows and joys, and he who can give thanks has obtained his desire. A man cannot rejoice, and mourn; cannot pray, and despair; cannot give thanks, and be offended… When you forget to rejoice in the Lord, then you begin to muse, to fear, to distrust, and at last to despair, and then every thought seems to be a sin against the Holy Ghost.
—Henry Smith, “The Ladder of Peace.”

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Once Baal’s prophets were punished, but now Christ’s prophet’s are punished…if we be prophets, where is our reverence? When the preachers and teachers Christ sends to his Church are abused and persecuted…then he will remove their light and his gospel to others.
—Henry Smith

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We are not commanded to preach, hear, fast, watch, or give continually. But we are commanded to pray continually, as though prayer were more needful than all the rest…We lack continually, and we are tempted continually, and we sin continually. Therefore, we need to pray to God continually, that God would supply our wants and forgive our sins, and prevent our temptations.
To pray continually is to lift up our hearts to God and to pray in our thoughts…. though we open not our lips.
God is readier to give, than we to ask. Therefore let us pray that our neglect of prayer may be forgiven
—Henry Smith “The benefit of contentation.”

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Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles, writing to the Romans, showed them what God had done for them. Now he shows them what they should do for God… That is, as Christ gave himself for you, so you must now give yourselves to him. As he was sacrificed for you, so you must be sacrificed for him. Not your sheep, not your oxen, nor your goats, but yourselves. You must be the sacrifice–living, holy, and acceptable.
–Henry Smith “The humility of Paul.”

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I know that in these days an in this iron age it is as hard a thing to persuade men to part with money as to pull out their eyes and cast them away…Nevertheless, I cannot but wonder that are men are so slow in giving of alms and so hard-hearted towards the relief of the poor, when the promises of God warrant them not to lose their reward…The kingdom of heaven belongs to him that shelters strangers, clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, comforts the sick, and performs such charitable acts of compassion (1 John 3:17; Matt. 25:31-46)…The excellency of Christians belongs in leading a godly life, and a giving of alms, a charitable relief to the sick, the lame, the blind, the powerless, the needy, the hungry, [out of] that which God has mercifully bestowed upon us.
—Henry Smith, “The Poor man’s tears.”
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