IF all Scriptute inspired from aboue be profitable to teach, to correct, to im­proue, and instruct (as 2. Tim. 3) good for informa­tiō & reformatiō, confirmatiō, & refuta­tiō, correctiō, & directiō, life & learning, doctrin & maners: then needs there as I hope no Apologie, why I at this time, & in this place should specially make choise of this Text, as before so great a King to entreat of so base a subiect: the Smith [Page 2] and the Anuile. Where all is good, and all as gold seuentimes refined, the choise of any cānot be amisse. For who can say this might be better, where all is best, & al suparlatiue? except it be paraduenture in respect of circumstāce of time, & per­sons. Now for the time, you see it is Loe-Sunday, & therefore me thinks this lowe subiect may best beseeme it. And for the persons heere present, they are spea­kers or hearers.

Howsoeuer this Theam may be thoght too base for so high an Auditorie, if it be well considered it may well be thought most fit for so base an Orator. Tractent fabrilia fabri. I knew none I might bee bolder with then the Smith. And if Salo­mon a King of that greatnes vouchsafed to write of the least of his fellow-crea­tures, euen from the Caeder to the shrub: and our heauenly Salomon with his own hands to create the Smith, and by his spi­rit to treat, as here, so els where of him; it shall not seem tedious or too base of our [Page 3] gracious Salomon to vouchsafe to heare, where his god hath vouchsafed to speak. And I doe not doubt, but that the same God, that gaue water out of the flint, & honye out of the hard Rock, can also out of this dry Theame drawe the water of life, far more sweete then the honye, or honye combe. Vpon this presumption of his good grace, & your gracious patiēce, I proceede to the further vnfolding of this present text, touching the want of a Smith throughout all Israel, and the rea­son thereof. Then there was no Smith to be found throughout all Israel, (theres the want:) For the Philistims said, least the He­brewes make them swords & speares: there is the reason; and the reason of this rea­son, is in the premises of this Chapter, wherto if it please you to cast back your eyes, you shall see how Saul seeking by preposterous zeale to salue one fault with another, and by vnsanctified sacri­fice to please & appease his angry God, more deepely displeased. In vitium ducit [Page 4] culpae fuga si caret arte. For this his offence he was reproued of Samuel, reiected of God, forsaken of his people, oppugned of his enemies; who now with 3. bands (a threefold cord not easily broken) had beset and beseeged him. (A perilous pa­renthesis) euen at such a time as hee was cleane disarmed, his Armour taken a­way, and his Armourers (the Smiths) re­mooued out of the land. Miserima pri­uatio quae omnem tollit ad habitum regres­sum. Which killes the yong ones with the damme, and with one cracke, as it were, takes away all present possession, and future possibilitie. Spem & rē. And such was at this time the state of Israel, for want of a Smith. Which is here am­plyfied, as you see, as by crcumstance of time whē, & place where, so also the rea­son why. For had it bin of any other Ar­tisan thē the Smith, their armorer; or at a­ny other time, thē the time of armes and the day of battle; or in any one city of Is­ráel; & not throughout Israel; or at the [Page 5] appointment of their own king & his of­ficers, vpon some generall weapon take the better to keep thē in peace amongst themselues, & alleageance to their soue­raigne, & not by inforcemēt of the Phi­listims their vtter enemies, the more to affeeble & inthrall them: it had beene neither so grieuous for thē to beare; nor so notorious for vs to heare; and hea­ring to obserue the enemies pollicie, their misery & Gods great mercy. Who hauing thus brought them into most im­minet dāger, & vnauoidable feare with­out any merit, or means of theirs wroght their deliuerāce. For so we shal see in the sequel of the story, where misery aboun­ded, there mercy surper-abounded, and wheras in their miserie at the day of bat­tle, they had in all the campe, against 3. bands of their enemies, all armed with all maner of weapons for offence, but 2. swords of defence: It so pleased God, those 2. were enow. Ecce duo gladij, but 2. swords for so many, & against so many a word of extrem wāt. satis est, those 2 shal [Page 6] suffice a word of supreme mercy & yet no greater mercy to them, then comfort to vs all, that haue such a God, as able to saue without meanes as with meanes; with a few, as with a multitude. For the foolishnes of God is wiser then men, & the weaknes of God is stronger then mē And therfore feare not thou worme of Iacob, thou hast euer, more with thee, thē can be against thee. And thus much in general of the summe & substance of these words. Now if it please you more particulerly, let vs examine them as they lie in order, and first of the circumstance of time as it is heere offered. Then there was no Smith; for so as yet we reade it: & though the originall may perhaps other­wise bee translated, yet hath it hitherto gone for current, & shall for me (being without the compasle of my commissi­on, passe vncontroled. The rather at this time, for that the notation of the time designed in the first verse of this Chapter, hath wonderfully perplexed, [Page 7] if not plainely posed all the Cronologers that euer haue laboured in vnknitting this knot. Who seeking to set downe some certainty of time, and to giue the corollary, a whē to this then, haue indeed intangled themselues and their Readers with greater incertainty. Infinit & end­lesse are their coniectures. I will onelye touch some 3. or 4. of the likeliest and so leaue you to your choise. The words are these. Saul now had bin King [...] yere, and he raigned two yeares in Israel. If he now had reigned two yeares, how is he said to haue beene King but one yeare? when this was done (filius vnius anni) if but one yere King, how is it true, that he had raigned two yeares' 1. One saith, when he had beene King one yeare full, currente secundo the second incompleate for so wright Kinges, the first day for a yeare: Yet euen in the stile of Kinges, it cannot be justified, that he that is now in the second yeare of his raigne, hath raigned two yeares. The second yeare [Page 8] begins as soone as the first is ended, but two yeeres are not to be reckoned, til the third yeere begin. 2. Another, seeing this shift will not serue, reads it thus. When Saul had been one yeare King of Israel, and then with a parenthesis, (for he raig­ned in all two yeres,) that is lawfully (as it were with a tricke of aequiuocation) before he was reiected of God, (as Chap, 16.) & yet we know that after y ^e he held the kingdom many yeres, beeing depri­ued by Samuel not of the present posses­sion in himselfe, but of future succession in his of-spring. The third would haue it thus, that he had been King de iure 2. yeares, but defacto one yeare, for so long onely had hee taken the state of a King vpon him: a wonder hee should bee so slowe, where others are so swift before they come at it. But this crosseth the plaine text of the 10. and 11. Chapters, and is againe crossed of the fourth opi­nion. For that cleane contrarie, ima­gins that though he had now been king [Page 9] defacto 2. yeeres, yet deiure indeed hee had been but one yeere of that account, so soone hee began to degenerat from the nature and office of a King. So that it should seeme soone gotten: soone for­gottē, lightly come by, lightly set by. See­king for his Fathers asses, he stūbled on a kingdom before he knew what it meant, & we know the common saying, Asperi­us nihil est humili cum surgir in altum. A verse in Church and Common-wealth found commonly too true. And there­fore God graunt vs alwaies Kinges of this kingly race to sit vpon this Throne of great Brittaine. To play the King a­right, it is a thing not easily learn'd by nurture, except it be originally im-bred by nature. But for this point, it should seeme, as Seneca sayd of one that was counted an old man of many yeres. Non ille tam diu vixit, sed tā diu fuit, as one that had out-liued himself: so they thought of Saul, though he had now had a being in the kingdom for the space of two yeres, [Page 10] yet had he liued as King but one yeare. To be a King (say they) is not to eate & drink, disport, & play: But to manage the affairs of the estate with care & diligēce, & with an euer waking eye to sway the Scepter. Sceptrūoculatū. This should be his meat & drink, his sport and play.

To whome we answere, though these greater works of the law must specially be obserued, yet may not those lesser vt­terly be neglected. Nāer haec quoq fieri o­portet. These also are lawful, & necessary recreatiōs, though no ordinary or vsuall occupations. For I hope they are not of Lactātius mind, that thought the Hauke, the Hoūd, the Hare & the Partrich (with such like) were things ordeined of God, rather to trie & exercise our abstinence, then feed our delights, As though that good God, that tempteth no mā, had in­uēted so many creatures as temptations to insnare vs, & not as repasts to delight vs. As if he had made the world, as it is thought Willam Cōqueror made the new [Page 11] Forrest, not so much with the game thereof to disport himselfe, as with the laws and penalties to intangle the Eng­lish Nation.

Surely this was neuer the meaning of our mercifull God and therefore in this poynt I must needs condemne Lact anti­us as a man more stoicall, thā the Stoiks themselues, for they said all things were made for man, and man for god, and therefore might by gods leaue by man be vsed for his good, and gods glorie. But by no meanes to the dishonour of god, the hurt of others, the mispend­ing of time, which as it ought in all men to be most pretious, so in publique per­sons of much more accompt, beeing much more accomptable.

These cautions obserued long may our Princes inioy those princelie harm­les pleasures, so farre foorth as it may bee without harme to others, hurt or hazard to themselues, hindrance to the state, and offence to god. God graunt [Page 12] vs alwaies chaste Hippolitus chasing the wilde & sauage Beasts to that end ordai­ned, rather than those beastly Nimrods, bloody and hungrie Hunters, that hunt after men with nets, seeking to pray vpō their neighbor-Nations, & homeborne Subiects: such as somtimes this land hath seen, we haue hard of vs, & others feele.

England was wont to be counted the Popes Asse. Now it hath long since cast both Fole and Rider, God grant it neuer be so ridden again. But so it should seem that Saul mistaking the subiects he found, for the Asses he sought began to lay hea­uier burthens vpon them thā they were able to beare: and that might bee the cause they were so soone weary of him, and that they made so little reckoning and so short account of his raigne.

For as Gregory sayth of him, though hee were a man of great groath, higher than them all, and of many yeares, yet is hee reckoned but Filius vnius [...] (So reade Vatablus, and the Chaldea [...] [Page 13] Paraphrase, & manymoe) Illis solum an­nis regnasse dicitur, quibus innocens & hu­milis putabatur. And therefore as there he addeth, in his Commentary vpon this verie place; Illo solum tempore nos vixisse gaudeamus, quo innocenter & humiliter viximus. Nam quae in vanitate consumun­tur, quasi per dita non memorātur. Yet was not this the fault that is here most speci­all and properly noted to haue been his ouerthrowe, but rather the sparing where God bid strike. Crudelis & Stulta misericordia, as Samuel tels him, and re­seruing the fatlings vnto himselfe. Dat veniā coruis, vexat cēsura columbas. But bi­cause this note came but in by the way it shal draw me no further out of the way.

This may suffice to shew the diuers opinions of our distracted Chronolo­gers; well it is with vs, that our faith is no way founded on these fond Braughto­nists. Iosephus Scaliger the mender of [...]imes, and learnedst of them all, confes­ [...]th that of 2000. there are not two to [Page 14] be found in one mind. And therfore wel may we maruel, not as of old, Quod arus­pex aruspicem sed quod Chronologus chro­nologum videns àrisu abstineat. They are not able to giue a when to this then. But for the matter it self, howsoeuer the time be vncertaine, yet that the State of Israel at this time was most miserable, it is most certain, & all for want of a Smith; which it may bee before they needed, they would neuer haue deemed. But Ca­rendo magis quam fruendo. It is the want, that shewes the worth of euerie thing; the full belly loathes hony, the thirstie soule wold wring water out of the flint.

If our wanton Professors were forced (as in former times) to run from East to West, to fetch the water of life through fire and water, with perill of life, were it out of the meanest Cisterne, they would sweare they neuer drunke sweeter licor. Or if they were now driuen to seeke to the Philistims for a file to sharpen their Goads and Mattockes, as some-times [Page 15] the Hebrewes, and not long time since their Fore-fathers were glad, how glad would they bee of any peece of the Bible (neuer so meanely translated) or any poore catechisme in their mother-tongue (neuer so plainely penned) to whet their zeales, and arme their soules against the day of Battell. Whereas now when their Smiths are multiplied, the armories enlarged, the Forges open, euerie Shop full f [...]aught, euerie mans Gomer, that will vouchsafe to stoope and take it vp, either at home or the next doore filled with Manna; Man-h [...] what is this, but light bread? the hea­ring and reading of the word of God as a thing of nothing. Our Smiths vn­skilfull (except a fewe of our owne [...]) our prayers vnsanctified, our Sacra­ments superstitious, if not idolatrous; our Bibles no Bibles; so corruptly tran­slated. If any one quirke can be found by all the caueling heads in the Land, away with all; tis all too light, so soone [Page 16] haue we forgotten those daies of want; and so soone hath peace and plentie taught vs to wantonize. God grant this wantonnesse bring vs not backe to our former want. That therby wee may be taught, (which otherwise wee will not learne) to acknowledg howe great and vnspeakable are these blessings which we haue so long, & so vnworthily enioy­ed vnder our gouernors the Lords an­nointed, too too good for people so ingracious & ingratefull. But I feare mee whilest I follow too farre this circum­stance of time, I shall haue the lesse time for that which most concernes the sub­stance of our text, that is, the want of a Smith, & whereto I haue alreadie made my entrance, but no further, than I find the worth of the Smith, implyed in the want of the Smith, and amplified by rea­son of the time (when) he was wanting.

Then there was no Smith, for so is Charash, I thinke of all translated, though in his originall and natiue sig­nificatiō [Page 17] it may stand as well for faber lig­narius, as ferrarius, a Carpēter as a Smith, or any other labouring in the cunning fabrike or framing any such like mecha­nicall worke. Yet is it here agreed, as I take it, by the grand Iurie of all that haue been impanneled vpon this poynt, to signifie the Smith, the Blacke-Smith, who is indeed the roote and the stock of them all, another Adam, in whome were tythed all other mechanistes as yet vnborne. No Smith in Israel? No great losse; the lesse hammering, tho lesse noyse, a base mechanist, the Cyclops of-spring, and at the best, base Vulcanes broode.

What vse of the Smith, or what need of the Sonne of Tubalcain? What wise­dome can there be in him that fryeth in the fire, and keepeth the Forge? Bona verba quaeso. Noliquos singulos contemnis, eosdem vniuersos putare nihili. For as Saint Hierom saith to Laeta, Non sunt ea con­temnenda quasi parua sine quibus mag­na [Page 18] nequeunt consistere. Base is the foūda­tion where the building is brauest. But we see in a great building of stone it is hard to moue, any one that is of the buil­ding, but it indāgers all. I say of the buil­ding, for that I know in most buildings there are many superfluities, for shew rather then for substāce; such as may be spared without losse or dāger: & yet per­haps they set a face on it, as though allay on their necks. Like the little Images, & Angels on the roofes of many churches, that bend their backs and browes, as though all the burthē lay on thē, where as indeed they are borne, they beare not at all. So surely in the politique buildings of states & kingdōms, many stones a loft, might easily be spared. Many warts and swellings in the body, rather diseases thē parts of the body, that might be welspa­red, and paired away. And hereby they may be tried whither they be parts inte­grall or essentiall, or meere superfluities. We see the poor Black-Smith, no sooner [Page 19] gone, but hee was missed, and his want found dangerous.

Would it be so think you, with a sight of lewd and idle professors that make a trade of sinne? as Tiplers, Tauerners, Pi­pers, Plaiers, Pandars, Marchāts of need­les wares: but aboue all those, scribling brokers, and their Maisters the Vsurers. The very Vermin of the earth; neuer made by God, but bred as mōsters of the error of nature, the corruption of the earth, or earthly mē, & corrupt māners: neuer in the Catlogue of those creatures that came vnder the Suruey (Gen. 1.) & being seen & allowed, receiued the sen­tēce of approbatiō. But being of a latter brood, they were all once swept away with the flood, they neuer came within the Arke. But whē the flood fell, they rose vp, as other Vermin of the slime of the earth, & haue euer since held by in­trution. But the time will come when they will be cast out, with a nesciovos, away from mee, I know you not for a­ny [Page 20] of my creatures. In the mearle time, if they will needs hang on like counter­feit Gibeonites, it were well they were v­sed in their kinde for bearing of burdēs, from which most commonly they are most exempt. Sure I am, of all the sub­iects in this land, there are no fitter sub­iects for Subsidies, tasks, & loanes, then they that make a professiō of lending & a gaine of their vncharitable charity, to the vtter ruine of many yong Gentlemē, that come often times to their lands, be­fore they come to their wits, or yeres of discretion. Assuredly, if those ranke vn­natural boughs were wel pruned & pa­red, the naturall branches might be the more spared, & grow the better. For of those that are naturall indeed, there is not one, but would and should be che­rished euen frō the roote, be they neuer so meane. It was the error of the epi­cure, to thinke that the Gods were care­ful of the greater things only, & careles of the lesse Sure I am, our God (the great God of heauen and earth) beholdes, [Page 21] maintaines, supports, and protects the smallest with the greatest: the haires of our head, the sparrowes of the aire, the lillies of the field, the grasse of the earth; so hath he appoynted that glorious car­būcle of the heauēs his sun, to shine vpō his basest creatures, and the Sonne of rihhteousnes his only begotten & dear­ly beloued, to die for the sins & saluation of the poorest soule: & the soule of man to in spire not only the hart, & the head and principall partes, but euen the least ioynt of the little finger. Anima est totain toto, & tota in qualibet parte, as wholy in euery part as in the whole. Now kings and princes, they are as the soule in the body, the sun in the heauen, the gods of the earth, by whose sweet influence e­qually, yet proportiōably is deriued frō the circūference of their greatnes to the lowest of their Subiects, the center of their grace both life & liuing, and there­fore they no doubt in al their laws & cō ­sultations (wherein many things by ma­ny priuate persons vpō priuate respects, [Page 22] and partialities are cūningly caried) with an euen eie, will prouide, as well for the poor Artisan & such as liue all of the pe­ny, as for the rich landlord & his farmer, that gaine by dearth, & raise their plenty out of others penury. Sapiētis est, saith the wise Orator, sic curare vniuer sam Rēp: vt nullam partem negligas. It is wisdome so to prouide for the whole kingdome, that no one part (though neuer so mean) may seeme neglectd, much lesse any princi­pall part, because lesse in number, of the rest contemned. For, how can the head say to the foot, or any part natural, I haue no need of thee? when as it is certain, he that treads on the toe, grieues the heart, and hee that trips at the heele, intends to bring the head to the ground. S. Basil in one of those sermons that he wrought a­gainst the couetous cormorāts, & corn­uorants of his time, that oftē times droue the poor that had nothing els, to sell thē-selues or their children as deere as them­selues to buy the refuse of their corne; the more to mollifie the hardnes of their [Page 23] harts, if any way it might be, sets before thē a poore soule for meere need, in ex­tream dearth driuen to starue all, or sell one of his childrē, & as it were with Thy­estes to feed on his own flesh, transubstā ­tiated into a kind of course bread. Here­vpon with heauy hart cōming home to his wife, wils her, after some short & sor­rowfull consultatiō to bring before him all his children, that therby he might ad­uise, which of thē al might best be spared And beginning at the eldest, & with wa­try eies beholding him, he cōsiders, that he was the beginning of his strength and excellency of his dignity. The first that e­uer cald him father, by birth right of do­ble honour, but in the market, of equall price, & therefore not to be sold without some losse. On the otherside, the yongest yet to yong for seruitude vnable for ser­uice, & to himself as yet of least charge & greatest comfort. The third like the Fa­ther, the fourth the Mothers own child, the fift the very expresse picture of the Grādfather, who though he were gone, [Page 24] might not so soone be forgotten, the sixt like to proue a souldier, the seauenth a scholler, & one of these (howsoeuer the world went) were like to be a staffe and stay of their old age. And so of all the rest (if he had neuer so many) he had none to spare.

Thus or to this effect, Saint Basil. & S. Ambrose hath the very like storye of a poore debtor, driuen by the hardnes of his creditors, either to part with one of his Children, as a Bond-slaue, by a cer­taine hower, or to yeald himself to bōds & prison. When he had considered the time expired, hee rather chose to goe himselfe then send any of his Children. Euen so I doubt not, euery kinde King, being Pater patriae, the father of his coū ­try, & great Grandfather of all his peo­ple, if he were put to his choyse, which of all his children, the necessarie parts, & natural mēbers of his body politiquelis might best spare, whether Clergy, Com­ōns, or Nobles: or of the Cōmons; Arti­sās, Souldiours, or husband men: or of his [Page 25] Artisans; Cookes, Taylors, Carpenters, or Smiths. Where all are necessarie, I thinke hee would finde it hard to spare any. Assuredly if any were wanting, it would seeme most needfull.

And so of diuers Kingdoms, though great difference, yet in the impartiall af­fection of his fatherly minde, all aequal­ly prised. If any lesse dandled, perhaps it is the elder, as better able to goe alone, and shift for it selfe. It is the wisedom of our burrow English to respect the yon­gest that had most need, as wel as the el­dest that hath most right. Yet not all to the eldest, nor al to the yōgest, but where all are children, to giue euery one his childes part, as well the Black Smith as the gold-Smith.

Howsoeuer golde bee more for ornament, sure wee are tis yron must serue for muniment and many good v­ses in peace and war, In peace no questi­on, in war it hath been some-times que­stionable, but is now (as I take it) past all [Page 26] controuersie. For howsoeuer Phillips Asle hath gone verie farre, with some vendable Traitors, yet sure it is, a little Spanish yron hath gone much further, inuading the mines of India, surprising the golden Asse, and bringing him and his people into extreame seruitude, and slauerie. But what need we roue so farre to shew the force of yron in conquering men, when as at home we may behold the might thereof, in throwing downe the mightie Okes and great woodes of England? So powerfull is yron, the bles­sing of Assur.

But what were yron without the y­ron Smith, by whose Arte and arme the stubborne mettell is to bee incountred, and made as plyable as wax, for euery good purpose?

So necessarie an Artisan, that the E­picure thought the world could neuer haue been made without a Smith; and it is the conccipt of Hillarie in his 18. Ca­non vpon S. Mathew, that if not God the [Page 27] Creator of the world, yet Christ the re­deemer, was a Smith, and not a Carpen­ter, as is commonly thought, because by the wood of the Crosse hee was to re­payre the world: a woddē reasō Sure it is if neither God the creator, nor God the redeemer were a Smith, yet the Smith by the heathē was made a God. On whom were faine to depend all the rest of their Gods. Ceres for Sythes, Bacchus for pru­ning kniues, Pan for Sheepe-hookes, Mars for sword and Speare, and Iupiter him selfe for fearefull thunder-boltes.

If this bee fabulous, it hath his mea­ning, and without all fables, it is most true, that if neither the world were for­med, nor the Church reformed, nor the Gods maintained by the Smith, yet could none of all these, long haue con­tinued without the Smith. His Anti­quitie shewes his necessitie. Antiquiora sunt necessitatis inuenta quam volupta­tis. Now we know that as the Logician amongst the Philosophers is counted & [Page 28] called Instrumentum instrumentorum, the instrument of instruments and hand of Philosophye, so much more may the Smith be esteemed as the hand of all hā ­dicraftes whatsoeuer. And therefore if Adonibezek in cutting off the Thumbes of 70. Kings so greatly disabled them; there is no doubt but the Philistims in cutting off the hands of all Israel, vtter­ly disarmed them. For what were the head for inuention, if there were not al­so an hand for execution?

Howbeit, this hand hath had not the prayse for inuenting it selfe, (if I may so say) and many other Arts and Sciences, out of it selfe. The cunning and sweet­sounding musition (as Iosephus thinks, and diuers others) came out of the same Forge. And he that now so shines in e­uery corner, the Gold-smith, or rather the gilding-smith (for al's not gold that glisters) hee is but the yonger brother, howsoeuer he hath now gotten the start and out-stript his elder. It is but the er­ror, [Page 29] & blindnes of this old world in her dotage, to giue the brith-right to the yō ­ger. Certaine it is, that golden age of the Primitiue world, had more golde and lesse gilding. As Pope Boniface said of the Church when it had woddē cha­lices, it had golden Priests. So sure I am, when in the worlde there were fewer Gold-smiths, there was more golden dealing. Then was the Temple full of gold, and all therein of pure gold, which now by a strange kinde of Alchymie is turned to lead, and lead to straw. But it may be Coruptio vnius est generatio alte­rius; though the Church goe downe dis­robed, and Church-robbers thriue, they are warmed with her fleeces and glister with her gold, And that makes so many golden patrons, leaden Churches, and wodden Priests in so many parts of this Land. And can they meruaile when as there are so many that serue at the Altar, and starue at the Altar? that feede the flock, and are fleeced of the Wolfe: [Page 30] Honos alitartes. If they wil allow but Mi­chaes wages, they must bee content with Michaes priests. For we haue of al prices, Cruell Pharoes, that set vs to frie in the surnace, and send vs to seeke out strawe where we can get it, and yet finde fault with our task-masters if all bee not well, when as we are not allowed so much as should serue for necessity. But of necessi­tie I must leaue them, or rather reserue them awhile, for a place more proper; for this time this may suffice literally to haue spoken by way of explication of the Black-Smith. Now if it please you, morally a word or two by way of appli­cation, touching the Spirituall Smith; who labours no lesse in a Forge as pain­full by the hammer of the word, & fire of the spirit, to work (if it be possible) the hard heart of man, which in this yron age wherein we liue, is become as hard as any yron; nay as vntractable, and vn­malleable as the stones of the earth: the stony brood of Ouids Deucalion.

[Page 31] Bonauenture vpon those words of God by the Prophet, where he promiseth to take away their harts of stone, & insteed thereof to giue them hearts of flesh, Nay Lord (saith hee) rather heartes of stone, then hearts of flesh. For when thy Sonne my sweete Sauiour suffered, the Sunne was darkned, the earth trembled, the vaile rent, the graues opened, and the stones claue a sunder; onelye man, the fleshly heart of man, more hard then the stones, shewed neither sense nor simpa­thy. Solus homo non cōpatitur pro quo so­lo Christus patitur. In the first of Kings & 13. Chapter, at the voice of the man of God, the stones of the Altar went a­sunder, the heart of Ierobeam no whit mooued. When the heartes of men are growne so hard, had they not need of hammering? Surelye the worde of God it is the hammer, which he to this end hath put into our handes, onelye God graunt wee haue the art, and heart and courage to vse it aright. But as [Page 32] Scanderbee said of his enemies, that ta­king him captiue, had taken his swordé frō him: they had Scanderbees sword, but not his arme; so I feare me though wee haue the word, the sword, and the ham­mer of God, yet wee want the arme of God, & that authority which they were wont to take vnto thē-selues that went on his message. Else what were hee in court or Countrey that should dare of­fend in any open and enormious sort, and we not dare to tell him of it? but pet­like it is not now the fashion to set out sin in his colours, nor strike at impietie in the highest: thats Scandalum Magnatum, rude and barbarous, fitter for the forge; then the Princes pallace. Go preach thus in the countrey, but prophecie no more in this maner at Bethel, for it is the kings Court, and it is the kings Chappel.

Thus are you willing to sleepe and sinke in your sinnes, and haue no man awake you. If any man speake, hee must speake Placentia. Thats the cause, you [Page 33] haue somany gold-smiths, and so much gilding. Wel I wot; we are by God and his Maiestie, called to this place, for ano­ther purpose; not with sweet words to salue the sores of Zion, nor with vntēpe­red morter to daube vp her breaches, nor to sowe soft pillowes vnder the el­bowes of such as Sathan hath lulled a­sleepe in carnall securitie, but with the loude sounding trumpet to rouze and a­raise thē. And such I am sure hath God raised & sēt vnto you many a one. Your selues shall say, your hearts shall tel, and cōsciences shal testifie, that as you are of al sorts, you haue had of al sortes, if by a­ny meanes possible we might winne a­ny vnto God.

Nowe therefore take you heede, when as there is nothing wanting on Gods part, that you be not foūd wāting vnto your selues; that you reiect not the hammering of the Blacke-Smith be­cause it is hard & harsh. Vse your gold-smiths for ornament of your housen, [Page 34] your tables and cup-boards, and backes also, if your purse and place wil beare it: but for your soules, beware of gilding. It is as easie for vs, and perhaps for the pre­sent, more pleasing to you: but the time wil come, whē as you shal say, why euer had we pleasure in it? Dulciora sunt vul­nera corigentis, quam oscula blandientis. O let the righteous rather reprooue me friēdly, but let not their precious balmes of smoothing & flattery break my head and wound my soule. For that in the ende will bring but destruction. And therefore in the bowels of Iesus Christ, I boseech you, and in the name of the almighty God, I exhort & require you, as euer you thinke to answere it to him that sent vs, that with all mildnesse and meekenes, you receiue the word of ex­hortation, which is able to saue your soules, if onely you be willing with ply­able patience to submit your selues to those that are set ouer your. If you re­ceiue them, it is for your owne good; If [Page 35] their salues bee some-times sharpe, you shall finde them the more soueraigne if you abide them. If not, the greater their griefe. And if you grieue them, who shal glad you in your greatest diseōfortures, but they that are grieued by you?

It is hard with the Patient, when through his impatiencie the Phisition is prouoked with teares to leaue him.

If they that watch ouer your soules, and must giue an accouut thereof, bee driuen to doe it with griefe and sor­row, and not with ioy, it will bee little for your ioy, in that dreadfull day of the appearing of our Lorde Iesus Christ, whose Emassadours wee are, and your poore seruantes for his sake. At whose appointment we labour and trauell in this fierie Forge night and day, by continuall meditation, the ty­ring of our soules, and endlesse rea­ding, the wearinesse of our fleshe, to worke the fleshly heart of man, more hard that yron. Neuer any Yron-Smith, [Page 36] with greater care, lesse consideration, and more contempt.

For proofe, I cite no other Text then the threescore & fourteenth Canon of this present Conuocation. In the ende thereof, it is permitted to poore benefi­ced men and Curats, not able to pro­uide themselues long gownes, to goe in short gowns of the fashion aforesaid, the meaning is plaine, priests-cloaks. I finde no fault with the Canon (it is of necessi­tie that we cut both coat and cloake ac­cording to our cloth.) But I note the miscrie of the times wherein we liue. They haue vsed vs as the King of Ammō vsed Dauids Embassadors 2. Samuel. 10. they haue cut our garments off by the hammes, & now that we wāt matter; we must distinguish our selues by the ma­ner of our garment, & that which comes short of a long cloak, must be helped on with the name of a short gowne. This hath precising proceeded to circūcising And wheras the Popish priests had th, [Page 37] super fluity of their haire shaued, we haue the substance taken from our beards; we are the right shauclings: wo worth such shauers Let them chuse whether they will, the blessing of Midas, or the curse of Geh [...]zi vpon them & theirs. But bles­sed be our gracious Dauid and his poste­ritie, that had pittie on our nakednesse, and prouided at length a counterpoise to their mort-maines.

So are the times altered; Moses was faine to cry hoe, & the Kings of former times by statutes of Mortmaine, to pro­uide they should giue no more to the Church. And was it not now high time to prouide on the contrary that they should take no more frō the Church? As that act of Parliament would be written in Letters of gold, to his eternail glory, that of himselfe hath done it. So should the rubrick of that canon be writtē with blood (the blood of the Church) to serue as a testimonie to God & the world as long as it shal indure, against those sacri­legious [Page 38] blood-suckers that cut off their impropriations & simoniacal improue­ments, haue not left so much as to couer our nakednesse, and their shame.

But I know their answer, some haue too much, & thats the cause that others haue too little. If they may bee admit­ted to vmpeir the matter, they will finde enough for all, by taking from some and adding to others. Thus their fathers haue plaid the theeues, and now come they to compound the matter. Foure men pas­sing ouer New-market heath were set vpon, 2. escaped with 2. hundred pounds apeece in their purse, the other 2. are robbed of all they haue: but see the ho­nestie of those robbers; they wish them to goe after their fellowes and take of them an hundred pound a peece, and then al shall be equall. But with what e­quitie? or who made them iudges of this equalitie? You read the Story in Xeno­phon, how Cirus the yong prince was v­sed. His master tooke two coates from [Page 39] two men, the greater coate belonged to the lesser man, the lesser to the greater, and willing him to dispose them accor­ding to right: Cyrus gaue the greater coate to the greater and the lesser to the other. Now though this were a point in the Prince of beseeming equitie, to fit euery one according to his stature, yet was he reproued by his master, who told him in a case of decencie it had not beene amisse, but in a case of iustice, hee must giue euery one his owne, be it little or much. That which we haue we hold as our owne, as we are able to iustifie by all good lawes both of God and man. And if they mistake so much of all po­pish practises, & stand so much indeed, as in shew they will seeme for the law of God, let them indeed renounce all po­pish impropriatiōs, & allow vs as much and no more, for our part and portion, then wee can euict by Gods owne ordi­nance and appointment to be due vnto vs, and tha'ts the tenth at least.

[Page 40] If they refuse this, (as hitherto they haue done) let them make what shewe and semblance they will of Religion or conscience, in restoring the depriued to their possessions, I shall hardly beleeue them, but that they haue some other re­spect then outwardly they pretend. It may be, they thinke those yong Cubber wil houle as the old Wolues do: down with the Church, away with Byshop­ricks, what vse of Chathedral Churches, so many Prebends, so many Chaunters; but I hope if their Presbyteries were vp, they would desire their yong masters to make restitution. Between the designe­ments of the Lay-puritane & Church­puritane there was euer great ods, how­soeuer they seeme to looke one way, their ayming is not all at one ende. But sure I am, their meaning for the meanes is all alike, the ruine of the Church, the imbasing the ministery, decaying of lear­ning, and exposing the Ministers to vtter contempt, as by others experi­ence [Page 41] it is too well knowne. And thus much of this.

The third point follows, the generali­tie of this want, euen throughout all Israel. Then there was not a Smith to be found throughout all Israel. So powre­full were the precepts of the Philistims, they commanded and it tooke place, they spake the word and it was done, euen throughout the Land. A good resolutiō though in a bad matter, & fit for gouernours to vse, faire wordes (as he said) and straight Lawes, aduisedly published, and throughly executed; thats the life of the Law, which other­wise is but a dead Letter, & a leaden dagger in a painted sheath. Had the Persians been as aduised for inuention, as they were peremptorie for executiō of their Lawes; or were England as re­solute for executiō, as it is absolute for constitution of all good orders and or­dināces for church and cōmon-wealth; England and Persia, might be endles in [Page 42] their bounds, & eternall in their fame.

When Ahab had long trauelled for Naboaths vine yard & could not com­passe it; what saith Iezabel, art thou a King? & she said not much amisse for the generall, howsoeuer shee erred in that perticular. Surely where these cō ­curre, wise Laws, peremptorie Com­maunders, and due xecutioners, there is the state like to stand, & the King­dome to flourish, euen from Dan to Bersheba, as Corpus homaeomerō, no par­tie colored coat, without seam or rent: al of one cut, one colour, one God, one King, one religion, one discipline, vni­tie of faith & vniformitie of Ceremo­nie, with out sect, Schisme, or Heresie.

In this body of ours, it cannot bee denied but that there haue bin diuers diuisions, & the diuisors haue bin spe­cially three: the Papist, the Atheist, & the Puritane. The one impugning our doctrine, the other our Manners, the third our Discipline. The first, [Page 43] moste perilous or the State Publike: The second, no lesse pernitious for priuate corruptions: The last, most idlely cutious in pointes of least itmportance, concerning neither life nor learning; doctrine, nor manners; yet so obstinately vrged, as though they had sworne neuer to be satesfied, though neuer so often and fully sa­tisfied, by the King himselfe: (Ex­emplum sine exemple) his Nobles, By­shops, Iudges, Clergie: by writing, printing, conference, and all meanes possible, or likely to giue satisfaction. As no doubt they haue done to diuers howsoeuer the rest (like busie flies oft beaten off) still returne to light in the selfe. same place, seeking to sucke out matter where they finde none. And by importunity to extort what by ar­gument they could neuer evict. Yet hath it beene greatlye meruailed by many of their complyces; that of these three the last, and least enemies, (as is [Page 44] thought euen of many good men) to God and the state, should bee the first that should feele the edge of the lawes vnder this his Maiesties moste milde and easie gouernment: and so many Cannons set out and shot out against them and so few against others? To whome we answere, and that out of the Smithes Forge, it is not good to haue too many yrōs in fire at once. Ad duo quitendit non vnum, nec duo pren­dit. But if but one, why must this bee that one, that is hot enough, and hath more neede of water then fire?

In the first of Liuies Decades, we reed of a Combat appointed to end, and vmpiet a great quarrell between two Nations, vndertaken by three Horatij against as many of the Curiatij.

Now in fortune of fight, it so fel out (as you know) that of the Horatij two were slaine, and then remained but one to three. Three to one he should be conquered. For as we say. Ne Her­cules [Page 45] quidem contra duos. Hee had neede bee stronger then Hercules that should thinke himselfe strong enough for two. And therefore the young Gentleman went to it, virtute non vi, rather by fine fraud then plaine force. If there can be any finenes in running away, and not rather Good lucke, as Demosthenes left written on his Tar­gette, when hee left the field, and betooke himselfe to his heeles. But so fled Horatius, as it shold seeme, that he had animūreuertendi. He fled for a vātage: for by this meanes, he drew his enemies the combatants to follow the flight. And whē he espied any one be­fore his fellows, he suddenly turned & dispatched him, and so singling out these three bretherē one after another, hee easilye conquered each of them, whereas against them, all at once, hee could neuer haue had any hope to preuaile.

The bauen when the band is bro­ken, [Page 56] sticke by stick is easilye knapt a­sunder. You see the similitude, and the reddition is not obscure. Of our three Horatij two are gon not cōque­red by the Curiatij, (mauger all the might & spight of hel it selfe, of Rome, it selfe) bul transported by God from this militant Church to that tryum­phant Hierusalem. The third remaines for whome no doubt remaines the victorye on earth, and tryumph in the heauens, which neuer shall haue end. But during the fight if hee seeme to flie, or giue a foote, let him take heed that followes fastest. In the second of Samuel and second Chapter, if Asahel had not beene so swift of foote, and so eager in pursuite to out-runne his fel­lowes, he had not run so hastely on his owne death. And so surely, if these men more furious then Nimshi, more swift thē Asahel to out-run themselues, their Soueraign & his lawes, could haue bin intreated eyther finally to desist, or a [Page 57] least for a while to haue turned aside to the right hand, or the left, or to haue di­uerted the heate of their zeale, & edge if their pennes against papist or atheist; as they haue escaped with their liues, so mght they in all likelyhood haue kept their liuings.

Of the which they are now some few of them most iustly depriued. I dare say with greater griefe to vs all, then ey­ther losse to themselues, or hazard to the Church. Howsoeuer it hath bin formerly giuen out, that if they were si­lenced, the Church might soone shutte vp her Shop windowes. There would not bee a Smith left in all our Israel that could skill indeede of the right hammering, and handling of the word of God: yet I hope matters will be so handled, that if they all stand out, they shall not bee much missed. God wee knowe, is able of stones to rayse vp those that shall serue his turne, if men should fayle, or vppon euery tryfling [Page 48] discontentment, so wilfullye aban­done that sacred vocation whereunto they are by so manye bondes so strictly obliged. And without any such mira­culous worke, (if it please him to afford but his wonted graces to the two Vni­uersities) I nothing doubt, but from time to time, they shall be able to sup­plie more sufficient Ministers, then all their complices will bee content to al­lowe sufficient liuings.

And now that they are thus dealt with by Law, we all expect that the like order, or rather much more sharpe and strict bee taken, as for the Atheist, so speciallye for the Papist. Else must we needes confesse, Reduuiam curaui­mus, Capiti cum mederi debuissemus. But I hope they shall, ere it bee long, haue iust occasion to thinke and speake o­therwise; when they shall see their Swordes and Speares, and Smithes, their Armour and Armorers, their Priestes and Iesuites and cunning se­ducers, [Page 49] with all their Syren-Songes, their Bookes, Pamphlets and Printers, and all meanes and ministers thereto tending, cleane cut off by the Sworde of Iustice, and the lawes of the land. A moste iust & necessarie weapon-taken to keepe them frō hurting themselues, and others, as children and mad-men.

That it will be so, I make no doubt that it should be so, I seeke no other ar­guments against thē, then their owne practise against vs. & Bellarmines owne proofes in his third booke, de Laicis, & 20 chapter for the abolishing of all he­retical books. For I wil not presse that which followes in the next chapter for the burning of Heretikes. Howbeit wel we know, & they must needs acknow­ledge (if their case and cause were e­qual) better kill then be killed. If they will needs threaten, they may perhaps prouoke others to begin. I will inuert the olde saying, Pereant omnes potius quam pereat vnus; For is not hee a­lone [Page 60] worth many thousands, on whom so many thousands po depend?

Surelye, it is high time to take the peace of them all, and binde them to their good abearing, when as so o­penly and presumptuouslye they shall dare to threaten the disturbance of our peace, and destruction of the chiefe Pil­lers and preseruers thereof; whome the Lord in mercy long preserue. But for this point, if wee had no other Schoolemaisters, wee neede no other then these Philistims a people in their generation wise enough to set vs to Schoole.

And so I passe to the fourth and last part, the reason why they remooued the Armourers, (and that was) least againe they should renewe their Ar­mour. For so they sayde: Least the Hebrewes make them Swords & speares.

The dint of the Sworde, and push of the Pike; two sorts of wea­pons very powrefull, especially in [Page 61] those dayes, for offence or defence; Comminus or Eminus, farre, or neere. But this was (as it should seeme) in the worldes child-hood, the infant-age of hell, and hellish Smiths, but No­uices as yet, and Prentises in their Trade: they had not as yet proceeded masters of their craft.

Anon after, in Salomon his time we read of a generation, whose teethe were Swordes, and their iawes as Kniues. Whose off-spring, heere a­amōgst vs (the cursed off-spring of the Anakims) haue bent their tongues like Booes, and shotte out their wordes like arrowes, sharpe, and swift, and full of poyson, euen as high as the heauen, and as farre as from one ende of the world to the other. Sure I am, at one flight from Rome to England, haue flown their firey thunder-bolts.

These men not content with dagger, dagge, and poison for their priuie plots, (which God for hea­uen [Page 52] so oftē hath detected & deiected) nor with swords, and speares, Gunnes and Cannons, for open Rebellion, (which God in mercie so many yeres hath stayed in this Land) but as hee speaketh of the Greekish Stratageme, Instar montis aequum; they had deui­sed a Cannon as big as an huge bigge house, full rammed and charged with a store-house of powder, to the which if all the fire of hell and Purgatorie could haue lent & sent but one spark, we had all beene consumed. Won­der it was not set on fire, with the sul­phureous blast of their hellish breath. Then there was a deale of dead pow­der (so it pleased God) without fire; since, that a false fire (the Lorde bee thanked) without powder. If the one affrighted vs, & the other amazed vs being both but a fallax, (God graunt they alwayes so deceiue, and wee be neuer worie deceiued) but if they had argued indeed a Diuisis ad Coniuncta, [Page 53] putting fire to powder; or powder to fire, where then had we beene? Surely, they had swallowed vs vp quicke, or sent vs vp quicke to the heauens, at least our soules. Howsoeuer our bo­dies hauing accompained thē as high as they could, had descended again to the foote of the mountaine; and there (as Abrahams seruants) expected their returne, or wayted for the time when they should be called vp vnto thē, ne­uer againe to be disseuered: but for the present, they had been most lamenta­blye deuorced, had not the Lorde beene on our side, (then might Is­rael say, now & euer may Israel fing) Had not the Lord himselfe beene on our side when men rose vp against vs. May I call them men, being in the shape of men, more then deuils incarnate? then beware of men as saith our Sauiour. Homo homini Lupus, Mā to man is be­come a wolfe, a beare, a lyō, a leopard, a tygre, a deuil. Not all those strange [Page 64] mixtures of so many beasts in [...] Prophecie able to expresse the thousandth part of those beastly minds. [...] praised be the Lord, who hath not giue [...] ouer for a praye to the teeth of those cur­sed Cannibals, who seeing they cannot satiat their mawes with the blood of Christ, in their vnbloody Sacrament, haue sought to ingorge & imbrewe thē ­selues with the blood of Seruāts, for no other cause or quartel in the world, [...] that they are his seruāts. True it is, they cannot say worse of vs, then we thinke on our selues; our sins we confesse [...] deserued such a punishment, but thogh wee for our sinnes are most worthy to suffer it, yet are they of all men most vnworthy to inflict it. I date be bold to giue the Challenge, let him that is guiltles amongst them, (I except not the holy of holiest) throwe the first stone, or put fire to the powder.

But Lorde if it bee thy will ac­cording to our deserts to plague and [Page 65] punish vs, let it bee thy pleasure to take the rodde into thine owne hands. Liceat periture viribus ignis igne [...] tuo, clademque authore leuare. For why shouldst thou sell vs into the hands of these vncircumcised Phi­listims, that will neuer therefore bee thankefull vnto thee, but giue thine honour vnto stockes and stones, and sacrifice thy praise to the Shrines of [...] dead? whereas thou knowest all our helpe standeth in thy Name one­ly. Thou onely art our God, thou onely art our Creator, our Sauiour our Redeemer, and onely Protector. By thy meanes onely wee acknow­ledge our soule is escaped, as a bird out of the snare; past danger (as wee hope) but not past feare. And there­fore no meruaile though wee start at [...]ery bush, although we see the snare [...] broken, wee are escaped, and they are fallen into the pit they prepared for [...]. O so let thine enemies perish, O [Page 56] Lord, so let them all that plowe ini­quitie, and sowe affliction, reape the same. But let thy mightie hand [...] still at hand against them all, to defend and protect our King, our Queene, our Prince, their Off-spring Counsell, Clergie, Nobles; Commons, and all their Realmes and Kingdomes, that in sinceritie & truth still call vpon thy name.

So shall we thy people, and sheep of thy pasture (thus preserued from blood and slaughter) sing alwayes vnto thee the Blessed Trinitie, three persons and one God, all ho­nour, laude, and glory now and for euer.

Amen, Amen.