THE Blacksmith. A SERMON PREACHED at White-Hall before the Kings most excellent Majesty, the young Prince, the Council, etc. On Loe-Sunday. 1606. and by commandment put to print.  
By W. S. Doct. in Divinity Chaplain to his Majesty.  
LONDON Printed by Ed. Allde for Martin Clarke. 1606.   

TO THE MOST Puissant and most mighty Monarch, our most dread and Sovereign Lord james by the grace of God, King of great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the Faith. etc.  
MAy it please your Majesty to take a second Survey of this silly Sermon. When it was first uttered, you did not only hear, but hearken, & incline your ear: as it were with your gracious attention to help out my bad elocution. Pity so bad a voice should ever offer so great a wrong to the most learned and judicious ear of so good a King.  
Howbeit, volenti non fit iniuria. And, if we were not all deceived, you were as willing to bear, as I could be unwilling to offer either this or any such injury to a person so sacred. But now I fear me, if it should please you to take it into your hands it will prove but tapestry work, fairer a far off then near at hand.  
The great difference between divine and human writings. Of those the more we drink, the more we may: the deeper the sweeter. Of these to sip it is sufficient, Gustata magis quam potata ●●●ant. Howsoever it be, it was the commandment of our most Reverend Metropolitan that I should put it in Print, which I would more willingly have put to fire ere ever it saw light. But being as it is, if to this his pleasure it shall please your Majesty to add your favourable aspect, under the conjunction of two Planets so great, so gracious, I nothing doubt but the blacksmith will thrive If no use else be made hereof, yet shall the world abroad, that thinks there is nothing but gild in the Court, hereby take notice of your exceeding patience, and my great boldness, for the further imholdening of better Orators in this heavenly business: to think how great a God they serve, before whom all the Gods of the earth throw down their Sceptres and yield that obedience, as best beseems such subordinate Sovereigns, to the great Lord Paramount. Whose pleasure it is notwithstanding, that as we come from him with all boldness, so we should stand before them, as his Lieutenants, with all reverence. This was then my meaning to reform all, without offence to any. And if any thing were wanting in my duty, sure I am it was supplied by your goodness. The Lord of heaven increase and multiply these heavenly blessings upon you and yours, to your and our eternal comfort in the Lord.  
Your majesties Most humbly and entirely devoted Chaplain: W. S.   

Genere, virtute, doctrina Nobilissimo Domino H. Howardo Comiti Northampton: Baroni de Marnhil, Praecipuorum 5. Portuum Praefecto, ex illustri periscelidis Ordine Equiti, & jacobi monarch potentissimi Consiliario, fidelissimo aeternam in Do nino faelicitatem.  
SCientiae duo sunt sensus, auris & oculus, aure non contentus hic Faber-ferrarius, oculorum sese offerre voluit judicio. Praemonueram, aures plerumque hebetiores esse, oculos fere semper acutiores; multunque interesse inter operationem suhito transitivam, & opus ad diuturnitatem stabile & permanens, nec oculis solum legentium, sed et animis impressum. Sic enim usu evenire, ut quae primó oblectant intuitu, eadem obtutum sisubierint quotidianum ilico deflorescant. Sic cihorum, licet iucundissimorū, assiduitate gustus, colo●um, licet florentissimorum crebritate visus, vocum, licet suauissimarū familiaritate fatigatur auditus. Excepit ille, vocis nostrae sono, tonoque tam agresti, & absono multum de ipsius (sic sibi adblanditur Rusticus) detractum venustate. Nam venerem iactat, nescio quam, proavam suam. Itaque, qui antehac semper ab Aulae refugere solebat aspectu, nunc ea, quam dudum expertus est, humanitate factus audacior (nescit enim erubescere hic color faligineus) officinam sordidam aspernari, nihil nisi Aulam Regiam cogitare, nihil aliud somniare videtur. Mirabar qua spe fretus. Omnia pervestigans, tandem intellexi ab Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi, Metropolitano mihi multis nominibus colendissimo invitatum, ut typis ornatus typographicis rediret denuó. Huius imperio non ausus obluctari dimisi hominem. Sed ea conditione, ut cum Hovardos omnes, genere & virtute Nobiles, tum Comitem imprimis Northamptoniensem, Literatorum nobilissimum, nobilium literatissimum meo nomine salutaret humiliter. Huius opera et favore, bene si se gereret, aditum fore ad ipsus Regen (quandoquidem ita voluit) faciliorem. Multa insuper cumulavi. Sed quid multa? Hoc unum erat in mandatis praecipuum, pede ut cum claudicet altero proles vulcania, genu flexo se submittat Aulice. Atque ita & claudicationis tegumentum, & Aulicationis argumentum non vulgare adepturum. Promisit Faber affabre se facturum omnia. Sed quia rust citaitē hominis inueteratam, non ignoro a tergo insequor exploraturus & quid agat, & quid patiatur. Faxit Deus favorem ut inveniat qui meretur flagrum. Sed ego praeter votum nihil iam amplius praestare possum. Precor igitur deum immortalem ut hunc homuncionem miserum favore qui dignetur suo, favorem ipse Divinum et hic assequatur ampliorem, & in coelis amplissimum.  
Illustrissimae amplitudinis tuae Studiofiseinous Guil. S.   

THE Blacksmith.  1. Samuel 13. 19 Then there was no Smith found throughout all the land of Israel. 
IF all Scriptute inspired from above be profitable to teach, to correct, to improve, and instruct (as 2. Tim. 3) good for information & reformation, confirmation, & refutation, correction, & direction, life & learning, doctrine & manners: then needs there as I hope no Apology, why I at this time, & in this place should specially make choice of this Text, as before so great a King to entreat of so base a subject: the Smith and the anvil. Where all is good, and all as gold seuen times refined, the choice of any cannot be amiss. For who can say this might be better, where all is best, & all suparlative? except it be peradventure in respect of circumstance of time, & persons. Now for the time, you see it is Loe-Sunday, & therefore me thinks this low subject may best beseem it. And for the persons here present, they are speakers or hearers.  
Howsoever this Theme may be thought too base for so high an Auditory, 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 be bolder with than the Smith. And if Solomon a King of that greatness vouchsafed to write of the least of his fellow-creatures, even from the Cedar to the shrub: and our heavenly Solomon with his own hands to create the Smith, and by his spirit to treat, as here, so else where of him; it shall not seem tedious or too base of our gracious Solomon to vouchsafe to hear, where his god hath vouchsafed to speak. And I do not doubt, but that the same God, that gave water out of the flint, & honey out of the hard Rock, can also out of this dry Theme draw the water of life, far more sweet than the honey, or honey comb. Upon this presumption of his good grace, & your gracious patience, I proceed to the further unfolding 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, (there's the want:) For the Philistims said, lest the Hebrews make them swords & spears: there is the reason; and the reason of this reason, is in the premises of this Chapter, whereto if it please you to cast back your eyes, you shall see how Saul seeking by preposterous zeal to salve one fault with another, and by unsanctified sacrifice to please & appease his angry God, more deeply displeased. In vitium ducit culpae fuga si caret arte. For this his offence he was reproved of Samuel, rejected of God, forsaken of his people, oppugned of his enemies; who now with 3. bands (a threefold cord not easily broken) had beset and besieged him. (A perilous parenthesis) even at such a time as he was clean disarmed, his Armour taken away, and his Armourers (the Smiths) removed out of the land. Miserima privatio quae omnem tollit ad habitum regressum. Which kills the young ones with the dam, and with one crack, as it were, taketh away all present possession, and future possibility. Spem & rem. And such was at this time the state of Israel, for want of a Smith. Which is here amplified, as you see, as by crcumstance of time when, & place where, so also the reason why. For had it been of any other Artisan than the Smith, their armourer; or at any other time, than the time of arms and the day of battle; or in any one city of Isráel; & not throughout Israel; or at the appointment of their own king & his officers, upon some general weapon take the better to keep than in peace amongst themselves, & allegiance to their sovereign, & not by enforcement of the Philistims their utter enemies, the more to affeeble & enthrall them: it had been neither so grievous for them to bear; nor so notorious for us to hear; and hearing to observe the enemy's policy, their misery & Gods great mercy. Who having thus brought them into most imminet danger, & unavoidable fear without any merit, or means of theirs wrought their deliverance. For so we shall see in the sequel of the story, where misery abounded, there mercy surper-abounded, and whereas in their misery at the day of battle, they had in all the camp, against 3. bands of their enemies, all armed with all manner of weapons for offence, but 2. swords of defence: It so pleased God, those 2. were enough. Ecce duo gladij, but 2. swords for so many, & against so many a word of extreme want. satis est, those 2 shall suffice a word of supreme mercy & yet no greater mercy to them, than comfort to us all, that have such a God, as able to save without means as with means; with a few, as with a multitude. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, & the weakness of God is stronger than men And therefore fear not thou worm of jacob, thou hast ever, more with thee, than can be against thee. And thus much in general of the sum & substance of these words. Now if it please you more particularly, let us examine them as they lie in order, and first of the circumstance of time as it is here offered. Then there was no Smith; for so as yet we read it: & though the original may perhaps otherwise be translated, yet hath it hitherto gone for current, & shall for me (being without the compasle of my commission, pass uncontrolled. The rather at this time, for that the notation of the time designed in the first verse of this Chapter, hath wonderfully perplexed, if not plainly posed all the Cronologers that ever have laboured in unknitting this knot. Who seeking to set down some certainty of time, and to give the corollary, a when to this then, have indeed entangled themselves and their Readers with greater incertainty. Infinite & endless are their conjectures. I will only touch some 3. or 4. of the likeliest and so leave you to your choice. The words are these. Saul now had been King 〈◊〉 year, and he reigned two years in Israel. If he now had reigned two years, how is he said to have been King but one year? when this was done (filius unius anni) if but one year King, how is it true, that he had reigned two years ' 1. One saith, when he had been King one year full, current secundo the second incompleate for so wright Kings, the first day for a year: Yet even in the style of Kings, it cannot be justified, that he that is now in the second year of his reign, hath reigned two years. The second year begins as soon as the first is ended, but two years are not to be reckoned, till the third year begin. 2. Another, seeing this shift will not serve, reads it thus. When Saul had been one year King of Israel, and then with a parenthesis, (for he reigned in all two years,) that is lawfully (as it were with a trick of equivocation) before he was rejected of God, (as Chap, 16.) & yet we know that after the he held the kingdom many years, being deprived by Samuel not of the present possession in himself, but of future succession in his offspring. The third would have it thus, that he had been King de iure 2. years, but defacto one year, for so long only had he taken the state of a King upon him: a wonder he should be so slow, where others are so swift before they come at it. But this crosseth the plain text of the 10. and 11. Chapters, and is again crossed of the fourth opinion. For that clean contrary, imagines that though he had now been king defacto 2. years, yet deiure indeed he had been but one year of that account, so soon he began to degenerate from the nature and office of a King. So that it should seem soon gotten: soon forgotten, lightly come by, lightly set by. Seeking for his Father's asses, he stumbled 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 Commonwealth found commonly too true. And therefore God grant us always Kings of this kingly race to sit upon this Throne of great Britain. To play the King aright, it is a thing not easily learned by nurture, except it be originally im-bred by nature. But for this point, it should seem, as Seneca said of one that was counted an old man of many years. Non ille tam diu vixit, sed tam diu fuit, as one that had outlived himself: so they thought of Saul, though he had now had a being in the kingdom for the space of two years, yet had he lived as King but one year. To be a King (say they) is not to eat & drink, disport, & play: But to manage the affairs of the estate with care & diligence, & with an ever waking eye to sway the Sceptre. Sceptrunoculatum. This should be his meat & drink, his sport and play.  
To whom we answer, though these greater works of the law must specially be observed, yet may not those lesser utterly be neglected. Naner haec quoq fieri oportet. These also are lawful, & necessary recreations, though no ordinary or usual occupations. For I hope they are not of Lactantius mind, that thought the Hawk, the Hound, the Hare & the Partridge (with such like) were things ordained of God, rather to try & exercise our abstinence, then feed our delights, As though that good God, that tempteth no man, had invented so many creatures as temptations to ensnare us, & not as repasts to delight us. As if he had made the world, as it is thought Willam Conqueror made the new Forest, not so much with the game thereof to disport himself, as with the laws and penalties to entangle the English Nation.  
Surely this was never the meaning of our merciful God and therefore in this point I must needs condemn Lactantio antius as a man more stoical, than the Stoics themselves, for they said all things were made for man, and man for god, and therefore might by gods leave by man be used for his good, and gods glory. But by no means to the dishonour of god, the hurt of others, the misspending of time, which as it ought in all men to be most precious, so in public persons of much more account, being much more accountable.  
These cautions observed long may our Princes enjoy those princely harmless pleasures, so far forth as it may be without harm to others, hurt or hazard to themselves, hindrance to the state, and offence to god. God grant us always chaste Hippolytus chase the wild & savage Beasts to that end ordained, rather than those beastly Nimrods', bloody and hungry Hunters, that hunt after men with nets, seeking to pray upon their neighbor-Nations, & home-born Subjects: such as sometimes this land hath seen, we have hard of us, & others feel.  
England was wont to be counted the Pope's Ass. Now it hath long since cast both fool and Rider, God grant it never be so ridden again. But so it should seem that Saul mistaking the subjects he found, for the Asses he sought began to lay heavier burdens upon them than they were able to bear: and that might be the cause they were so soon weary of him, and that they made so little reckoning and so short account of his reign.  
For as Gregory saith of him, though he were a man of great groat, higher than them all, and of many years, yet is he reckoned but Filius unius 〈◊〉 (So read Vatablus, and the Chaldean Paraphrase, & manymoe) Illis solum annis regnasse dicitur, quibus innocens & humilis putabatur. And therefore as there he addeth, in his Commentary upon this very place; Illo solum tempore nos vixisse gaudeamus, quo innocenter & humiliter viximus. Nam quae in vanitate consumuntur, quasi per dita non memorantur. Yet was not this the fault that is here most special and properly noted to have been his overthrow, but rather the sparing where God bid strike. Crudelis & Stulta misericordia, as Samuel tells him, and reserving the fatlings unto himself. Dat veniam coruis, vexat censura columbas. But because this note came but in by the way it shall draw me no further out of the way.  
This may suffice to show the divers opinions of our distracted Chronologers; well it is with us, that our faith is no way founded on these fond Braughtonists. josephus Scaliger the mender of ●imes, and learnedst of them all, confesses that of 2000 there are not two to be found in one mind. And therefore well may we marvel, not as of old, Quod aruspex aruspicem sed quod Chronologus chronologum videns àrisu abstineat. They are not able to give a when to this then. But for the matter itself, howsoever the time be uncertain, 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 be before they needed, they would never have deemed. But Carendo magis quam fruendo. It is the want, that shows the worth of every thing; the full belly loathes honey, the thirsty soul would 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 peril of life, were it out of the meanest Cistern, they would swear they never drunk sweeter liquor. Or if they were now driven to seek to the Philistims for a file to sharpen their Goads and Mattocks, as sometimes the Hebrews, and not long time since their Forefathers were glad, how glad would they be of any piece of the Bible (never so meanly translated) or any poor catechism in their mother-tongue (never so plainly penned) to whet their zeals, and arm their souls against the day of Battle. Whereas now when their Smiths are multiplied, the armouries enlarged, the Forges open, every Shop full f●aught, every man's Gomer, that will vouchsafe to stoop and take it up, either at home or the next door 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 Smith's unskilful (except a few of our own 〈◊〉) our prayers unsanctified, our Sacraments superstitious, if not idolatrous; our Bible's no Bibles; so corruptly translated. If any one quirk can be found by all the caviling heads in the Land, away with all; 'tis all too light, so soon have we forgotten those days of want; and so soon hath peace and plenty taught us to wantonize. God grant this wantonness bring us not back to our former want. That thereby we may be taught, (which otherwise we will not learn) to acknowledge how great and unspeakable are these blessings which we have so long, & so unworthily enjoyed under our governors the Lords anointed, too too good for people so ingracious & ingrateful. But I fear me whilst I follow too far this circumstance of time, I shall have the less time for that which most concerns the substance of our text, that is, the want of a Smith, & whereto I have already made my entrance, but no further, than I find the worth of the Smith, implied 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 think of all translated, though in his original and native signification it may stand as well for faber lignarius, as ferrarius, a Carpenter as a Smith, or any other labouring in the cunning fabric or framing any such like mechanical work. Yet is it here agreed, as I take it, by the grand jury of all that have been empaneled upon this point, to signify the Smith, the blacksmith, who is indeed the root and the stock of them all, another Adam, in whom were tithed all other mechanistes as yet unborn. No Smith in Israel? No great loss; the less hammering, though less noise, a base mechanist, the Cyclops offspring, and at the best, base Vulcan's brood.  
What use of the Smith, or what need of the Son of Tubalcain? What wisdom can there be in him that fryeth in the fire, and keepeth the Forge? Bona verba quaeso. Noliquos singulos contemnis, eosdem universos putare nihili. For as Saint Hierom saith to Laeta, Non sunt ea contemnenda quasi parva sine quibus magna nequeunt consistere. Base is the foundation where the building is bravest. But we see in a great building of stone it is hard to move, any one that is of the building, but it endangers all. I say of the building, for that I know in most buildings there are many superfluities, for show rather than for substance; such as may be spared without loss or danger: & yet perhaps they set a face on it, as though allay on their necks. Like the little Images, & Angels on the roofs of many churches, that bend their backs and brows, as though all the burden lay on them, where as indeed they are borne, they bear not at all. So surely in the politic buildings of states & kingdomms, many stones a fit, might easily be spared. Many warts and swellings in the body, rather diseases than parts of the body, that might be welspared, and paired away. And hereby they may be tried whither they be parts integral or essential, or mere superfluities. We see the poor Blacksmith, no sooner gone, but he was miss, and his want found dangerous.  
Would it be so think you, with a sight of lewd and idle professors that make a trade of sin? as tipplers, Taverners, Pipers, Players, Panders, Merchants of needles wares: but above all those, scribbling brokers, and their Masters the Usurers. The very Vermin of the earth; never made by God, but bred as monsters of the error of nature, the corruption of the earth, or earthly men, & corrupt manners: never in the Catlogue of those creatures that came under the Survey (Gen. 1.) & being seen & allowed, received the sentence of approbation. But being of a latter brood, they were all once swept away with the flood, they never came within the Ark. But when the flood fell, they rose up, as other Vermin of the slime of the earth, & have ever since held by intrution. But the time will come when they will be cast out, with a nesciovoes, away from me, I know you not for any of my creatures. In the mearle time, if they will needs hang on like counterfeit Gibeonites, it were well they were used in their kind for bearing of burdens, from which most commonly they are most exempt. Sure I am, of all the subjects in this land, there are no fitter subjects for Subsidies, tasks, & loans, than they that make a profession of lending & a gain of their uncharitable charity, to the utter ruin of many young Gentlemen, that come often times to their lands, before they come to their wits, or years of discretion. Assuredly, if those rank unnatural boughs were well pruned & pared, the natural branches might be the more spared, & grow the better. For of those that are natural indeed, there is not one, but would and should be cherished even from the root, be they never so mean. It was the error of the epicure, to think that the Gods were careful of the greater things only, & careless of the less Sure I am, our God (the great God of heaven and earth) beholds, maintains, supports, and protects the smallest with the greatest: the hairs of our head, the sparrows of the air, the lilies of the field, the grass of the earth; so hath he appointed that glorious carbuncle of the heavens his sun, to shine upon his basest creatures, and the Son of rihhteousnes his only begotten & dearly beloved, to die for the sins & salvation of the poorest soul: & the soul of man to in spire not only the heart, & the head and principal parts, but even the least joint of the little finger. Anima est totain toto, & tota in qualibet part, as wholly in every part as in the whole. Now kings and princes, they are as the soul in the body, the sun in the heaven, the gods of the earth, by whose sweet influence equally, yet proportionably is derived from the circumference of their greatness to the lowest of their Subjects, the centre of their grace both life & living, and therefore they no doubt in all their laws & consultations (wherein many things by many private persons upon private respects, and partialities are cunningly carried) with an even eye, will provide, as well for the poor Artisan & such as live all of the penny, as for the rich landlord & his farmer, that gain by dearth, & raise their plenty out of others penury. Sapientis est, saith the wise Orator, sic curare vniuersam Remp: ut nullam partem negligas. It is wisdom so to provide for the whole kingdom, that no one part (though never so mean) may seem neglectd, much less any principal part, because less in number, of the rest contemned. For, how can the head say to the foot, or any part natural, I have no need of thee? when as it is certain, he that treads on the toe, grieves the heart, and he that trips at the heel, intends to bring the head to the ground. S. Basil in one of those sermons that he wrought against the covetous cormorants, & cornuorants of his time, that often times drove the poor that had nothing else, to sell themselves or their children as dear as themselves to buy the refuse of their corn; the more to mollify the hardness of their hearts, if any way it might be, sets before them a poor soul for mere need, in extreme dearth driven to starve all, or sell one of his children, & as it were with Thyestes to feed on his own flesh, transubstantiated into a kind of course bread. Hereupon with heavy heart coming home to his wife, wills her, after some short & sorrowful consultation to bring before him all his children, that thereby he might advise, which of them all might best be spared And beginning at the eldest, & with watery eyes beholding him, he considers, that he was the beginning of his strength and excellency of his dignity. The first that ever called him father, by birth right of double honour, but in the market, of equal price, & therefore not to be sold without some loss. On the otherside, the youngest yet to young for servitude unable for service, & to himself as yet of least charge & greatest comfort. The third like the Father, the fourth the Mothers own child, the fifth the very express picture of the Grandfather, who though he were gone, might not so soon be forgotten, the sixth like to prove a soldier, the seventh a scholar, & one of these (howsoever the world went) were like to be a staff and stay of their old age. And so of all the rest (if he had never so many) he had none to spare.  
Thus or to this effect, Saint Basil. & S. Ambrose hath the very like story of a poor debtor, driven by the hardness of his creditors, either to part with one of his Children, as a Bondslave, by a certain hour, or to yield himself to bonds & prison. When he had considered the time expired, he rather chose to go himself then send any of his Children. Even so I doubt not, every kind King, being Pater patriae, the father of his country, & great Grandfather of all his people, if he were put to his choice, which of all his children, the necessary parts, & natural members of his body politiquelis might best spare, whether Clergy, Comonns, or Nobles: or of the Commons; Artisans, Soldiers, or husband men: or of his Artisans; Cooks, Tailors, Carpenters, or Smiths. Where all are necessary, I think he would find it hard to spare any. Assuredly if any were wanting, it would seem most needful.  
And so of divers Kingdoms, though great difference, yet in the impartial affection of his fatherly mind, all equally prized. If any less dandled, perhaps it is the elder, as better able to go alone, and shift for itself. It is the wisdom of our burrow English to respect the youngest that had most need, as well as the eldest that hath most right. Yet not all to the eldest, nor all to the youngest, but where all are children, to give every one his child's part, as well the Black Smith as the goldsmith.  
Howsoever gold be more for ornament, sure we are 'tis iron must serve for muniment and many good uses in peace and war, In peace no question, in war it hath been sometimes questionable, but is now (as I take it) past all controversy. For howsoever Phillip's Ass hath gone very far, with some vendable Traitors, yet sure it is, a little Spanish iron hath gone much further, invading the mines of India, surprising the golden Ass, and bringing him and his people into extreme servitude, and slavery. But what need we rove so far to show the force of iron in conquering men, when as at home we may behold the might thereof, in throwing down the mighty Okes and great woods of England? So powerful is iron, the blessing of Assur.  
But what were iron without the iron Smith, by whose Art and arm the stubborn metal is to be encountered, and made as pliable as wax, for every good purpose?  
So necessary an Artisan, that the Epicure thought the world could never have been made without a Smith; and it is the conccipt of Hilary in his 18. Canon upon S. Matthew, that if not God the 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 Cross he was to repair the world: a wooden reason Sure it is if neither God the creator, nor God the redeemer were a Smith, yet the Smith by the heathen was made a God. On whom were fain to depend all the rest of their Gods. Ceres for Sythes, Bacchus for pruning knives, Pan for Sheephooks, Mars for sword and Spear, and jupiter himself for fearful thunderbolts.  
If this be fabulous, it hath his meaning, and without all fables, it is most true, that if neither the world were form, nor the Church reform, nor the Gods maintained by the Smith, yet could none of all these, long have continued without the Smith. His Antiquity shows his necessity. Antiquiora sunt necessitatis inventa quam voluptatis. Now we know that as the Logician amongst the Philosophers is counted & called Instrumentum instrumentorum, the instrument of instruments and hand of philosophy, so much more may the Smith be esteemed as the hand of all handicrafts whatsoever. And therefore if Adonibezek in cutting off the Thumbs of 70. King's so greatly disabled them; there is no doubt but the Philistims in cutting off the hands of all Israel, utterly disarmed them. For what were the head for invention, if there were not also an hand for execution?  
Howbeit, this hand hath had not the praise for inventing itself, (if I may so say) and many other Arts and Sciences, out of itself. The cunning and sweet-sounding musician (as josephus thinks, and divers others) came out of the same Forge. And he that now so shines in every corner, the Goldsmith, or rather the gilding-smith (for als not gold that glisters) he is but the younger brother, howsoever he hath now gotten the start and outstripped his elder. It is but the error, & blindness of this old world in her dotage, to give the brith-right to the younger. Certain it is, that golden age of the Primitive world, had more gold and less gild. As Pope Boniface said of the Church when it had wooden chalices, it had golden Priests. So sure I am, when in the world there were fewer Goldsmiths, there was more golden dealing. Then was the Temple full of gold, and all therein of pure gold, which now by a strange kind of Alchemy is turned to lead, and lead to straw. But it may be Coruptio unius est generatio alterius; though the Church go down disrobed, and Church-robbers thrive, they are warmed with her fleeces and glister with her gold, And that makes so many golden patrons, leaden Churches, and wooden Priests in so many parts of this Land. And can they marvel when as there are so many that serve at the Altar, and starve at the Altar? that feed the flock, and are fleeced of the Wolf: Honos alitartes. If they will allow but Michaes wages, they must be content with Michaes priests. For we have of all prices, Cruel Pharaoh's, that set us to fry in the surnace, and send us to seek out straw where we can get it, and yet find fault with our taskmasters if all be not well, when as we are not allowed so much as should serve for necessity. But of necessity I must leave them, or rather reserve them awhile, for a place more proper; for this time this may suffice literally to have spoken by way of explication of the Blacksmith. Now if it please you, morally a word or two by way of application, touching the Spiritual Smith; who labours no less in a Forge as painful by the hammer of the word, & fire of the spirit, to work (if it be possible) the hard heart of man, which in this iron age wherein we live, is become as hard as any iron; nay as untractable, and unmalleable as the stones of the earth: the stony brood of Ovid's Deucalion.  
Bonaventure upon those words of God by the Prophet, where he promiseth to take away their hearts of stone, & instead thereof to give them hearts of flesh, Nay Lord (saith he) rather hearts of stone, than hearts of flesh. For when thy Son my sweet Saviour suffered, the Sun was darkened, the earth trembled, the vail rend, the graves opened, and the stones clave a sunder; only man, the fleshly heart of man, more hard than the stones, showed neither sense nor sympathy. Solus homo non compatitur 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 moved. When the hearts of men are grown so hard, had they not need of hammering? Surely the word of God it is the hammer, which he to this end hath put into our hands, only God grant we have the art, and heart and courage to use it aright. But as Scanderbee said of his enemies, that taking him captive, had taken his swordé from him: they had Scanderbees' sword, but not his arm; so I fear me though we have the word, the sword, and the hammer of God, yet we want the arm of God, & that authority which they were wont to take unto themselves that went on his message. Else what were he in court or Country that should dare offend in any open and enormous 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 impiety in the highest: that's Scandalum Magnatum, rude and barbarous, fitter for the forge; then the Prince's palace. Go preach thus in the country, but prophecy no more in this manner at Bethel, for it is the king's Court, and it is the king's Chapel.  
Thus are you willing to sleep and sink in your sins, and have no man awake you. If any man speak, he must speak Placentia. That's the cause, you have somany goldsmiths, and so much gild. Well I wot; we are by God and his Majesty, called to this place, for another purpose; not with sweet words to salve the sores of Zion, nor with untempered mortar to daub up her breaches, nor to sow soft pillows under the elbows of such as Satan hath lulled asleep in carnal security, but with the loud sounding trumpet to rouse and araise them. And such I am sure hath God raised & sent unto you many a one. Yourselves shall say, your hearts shall tell, and consciences shall testify, that as you are of all sorts, you have had of all sorts, if by any means possible we might win any unto God.  
Now therefore take you heed, when as there is nothing wanting on God's part, that you be not found wanting unto yourselves; that you reject not the hammering of the blacksmith because it is hard & harsh. Use your goldsmiths for ornament of your houses, your tables and cup-boards, and backs also, if your purse and place will bear it: but for your souls, beware of gilding. It is as easy for us, and perhaps for the present, more pleasing to you: but the time will come, when as you shall say, why ever had we pleasure in it? Dulciora sunt vulnera corigentis, quam oscula blandientis. O let the righteous rather reprove me friendly, but let not their precious balms of smoothing & flattery break my head and wound my soul. For that in the end will bring but destruction. And therefore in the bowels of jesus Christ, I boseech you, and in the name of the almighty God, I exhort & require you, as ever you think to answer it to him that sent us, that with all mildness and meekness, you receive the word of exhortation, which is able to save your souls, if only you be willing with pliable patience to submit yourselves to those that are set over your. If you receive them, it is for your own good; If their salves be sometimes sharp, you shall find them the more sovereign if you abide them. If not, the greater their grief. And if you grieve them, who shall glad you in your greatest diseonfortures, but they that are grieved by you?  
It is hard with the Patient, when through his impatiency the Physician is provoked with tears to leave him.  
If they that watch over your souls, and must give an accowt thereof, be driven to do it with grief and sorrow, and not with joy, it will be little for your joy, in that dreadful day of the appearing of our Lord jesus Christ, whose Emassadours we are, and your poor servants for his sake. At whose appointment we labour and travel in this fiery Forge night and day, by continual meditation, the tiring of our souls, and endless reading, the weariness of our flesh, to work the fleshly heart of man, more hard that iron. Never any Yron-Smith, with greater care, less consideration, and more contempt.  
For proof, I cite no other Text than the threescore & fourteenth Canon of this present Convocation. In the end thereof, it is permitted to poor beneficed men and Curates, not able to provide themselves long gowns, to go in short gowns of the fashion aforesaid, the meaning is plain, priests-cloaks. I find no fault with the Canon (it is of necessity that we cut both coat and cloak according to our cloth.) But I note the misery of the times wherein we live. They have used us as the King of Ammon used David's Ambassadors 2. Samuel. 10. they have cut our garments off by the hams, & now that we want matter; we must distinguish ourselves by the manner of our garment, & that which comes short of a long cloak, must be helped on with the name of a short gown. This hath precising proceeded to circumcising And whereas the Popish priests had th', super fluity of their hair shaved, we have the substance taken from our beards; we are the right shauclings: woe worth such shavers Let them choose whether they will, the blessing of Midas, or the curse of Geh●zi upon them & theirs. But blessed be our gracious David and his posterity, that had pity on our nakedness, and provided at length a counterpoise to their mortmains.  
So are the times altered; Moses was fain to cry ho, & the Kings of former times by statutes of Mortmain, to provide they should give no more to the Church. And was it not now high time to provide on the contrary that they should take no more from the Church? As that act of Parliament would be written in Letters of gold, to his eternail glory, that of himself hath done it. So should the rubric of that canon be written with blood (the blood of the Church) to serve as a testimony to God & the world as long as it shall endure, against those sacrilegious bloodsuckers that cut off their impropriations & simoniacal improvements, have not left so much as to cover our nakedness, and their shame.  
But I know their answer, some have too much, & that's the cause that others have too little. If they may be admitted to umpeir the matter, they will find enough for all, by taking from some and adding to others. Thus their fathers have played the thieves, and now come they to compound the matter. Four men passing over New-market heath were set upon, 2. escaped with 2. hundred pounds apiece in their purse, the other 2. are robbed of all they have: but see the honesty of those robbers; they wish them to go after their fellows and take of them an hundred pound a piece, and then all shall be equal. But with what equity? or who made them judges of this equality? You read the Story in Xenophon, how Cirus the young prince was used. His master took two coats from two men, the greater coat belonged to the lesser man, the lesser to the greater, and willing him to dispose them according to right: Cyrus gave the greater coat to the greater and the lesser to the other. Now though this were a point in the Prince of beseeming equity, to fit every one according to his stature, yet was he reproved by his master, who told him in a case of decency it had not been amiss, but in a case of justice, he must give every one his own, be it little or much. That which we have we hold as our own, as we are able to justify by all good laws both of God and man. And if they mistake so much of all popish practices, & stand so much indeed, as in show they will seem for the law of God, let them indeed renounce all popish impropriations, & allow us as much and no more, for our part and portion, than we can evict by Gods own ordinance and appointment to be due unto us, and That's the tenth at least.  
If they refuse this, (as hitherto they have done) let them make what show and semblance they will of Religion or conscience, in restoring the deprived to their possessions, I shall hardly believe them, but that they have some other respect then outwardly they pretend. It may be, they think those young Cubber will howl as the old Wolves do: down with the Church, away with Byshopricks, what use of Chathedral Churches, so many Prebends, so many Chanters; but I hope if their Presbyteries were up, they would desire their young masters to make restitution. Between the designments of the Lay-puritane & Churchpuritane there was ever great odds, howsoever they seem to look one way, their aiming is not all at one end. But sure I am, their meaning for the means is all alike, the ruin of the Church, the embasing the ministry, decaying of learning, and exposing the Ministers to utter contempt, as by others experience it is too well known. And thus much of this.  
The third point follows, the generality of this want, even throughout all Israel. Then there was not a Smith to be found throughout all Israel. So powerful were the precepts of the Philistims, they commanded and it took place, they spoke the word and it was done, even throughout the Land. A good resolution though in a bad matter, & fit for governors to use, fair words (as he said) and strait Laws, advisedly published, and thoroughly executed; that's the life of the Law, which otherwise is but a dead Letter, & a leaden dagger in a painted sheath. Had the Persians been as advised for invention, as they were peremptory for execution of their Laws; or were England as resolute for execution, as it is absolute for constitution of all good orders and ordinances for church and commonwealth; England and Persia, might be endless in their bounds, & eternal in their fame.  
When Ahab had long traveled for Naboaths vine yard & could not compass it; what saith jezabel, art thou a King? & she said not much amiss for the general, howsoever she erred in that particular. Surely where these concur, wise Laws, peremptory Commanders, and due xecutioners, there is the state like to stand, & the Kingdom to flourish, even from Dan to Bersheba, as Corpus homaeomeron, no party coloured coat, without seam or rent: all of one cut, one colour, one God, one King, one religion, one discipline, unity of faith & uniformity of Ceremony, with out sect, Schism, or Heresy.  
In this body of ours, it cannot be denied but that there have been divers divisions, & the divisors have been specially three: the Papist, the Atheist, & the Puritan. The one impugning our doctrine, the other our Manners, the third our Discipline. The first, most perilous or the State Public: The second, no less pernicious for private corruptions: The last, most idly cautious in points of least itmportance, concerning neither life nor learning; doctrine, nor manners; yet so obstinately urged, as though they had sworn never to be satesfied, though never so often and fully satisfied, by the King himself: (Exemplum sine example) his Nobles, Bishops, judges, Clergy: by writing, printing, conference, and all means possible, or likely to give satisfaction. As no doubt they have done to divers howsoever the rest (like busy flies oft beaten off) still return to light in the self. same place, seeking to suck out matter where they find none. And by importunity to extort what by argument they could never evict. Yet hath it been greatly marveled by many of their complices; that of these three the last, and least enemies, (as is thought even of many good men) to God and the state, should be the first that should feel the edge of the laws under this his majesties most mild and easy government: and so many Cannons set out and shot out against them and so few against others? To whom we answer, and that out of the Smiths Forge, it is not good to have too many irons in fire at once. Ad duo quitendit non unum, nec duo prendit. But if but one, why must this be that one, that is hot enough, and hath more need of water then fire?  
In the first of Liuies Decades, we read of a Combat appointed to end, and umpiet a great quarrel between two Nations, undertaken by three Horatij against as many of the Curiatij.  
Now in fortune of fight, it so fell out (as you know) that of the Horatij two were slain, and then remained but one to three. Three to one he should be conquered. For as we say. Ne Hercules quidem contra duos. He had need be stronger than Hercules that should think himself strong enough for two. And therefore the young Gentleman went to it, virtute non vi, rather by fine fraud then plain force. If there can be any fineness in running away, and not rather Good luck, as Demosthenes left written on his Target, when he left the field, and betook himself to his heels. But so fled Horatius, as it should seem, that he had animunrevertendi. He fled for a vantage: for by this means, he drew his enemies the combatants to follow the flight. And when he espied any one before his fellows, he suddenly turned & dispatched him, and so singling out these three brethren one after another, he easily conquered each of them, whereas against them, all at once, he could never have had any hope to prevail.  
The baven when the band is broken, stick by stick is easily knapped asunder. You see the similitude, and the reddition is not obscure. Of our three Horatij two are gone not conquered by the Curiatij, (maugre all the might & spite of hell itself, of Rome, itself) bull transported by God from this militant Church to that triumphant Jerusalem. The third remains for whom no doubt remains the victory on earth, and triumph in the heavens, which never shall have end. But during the fight if he seem to fly, or give a foot, let him take heed that follows fastest. In the second of Samuel and second Chapter, if Asahel had not been so swift of foot, and so eager in pursuit to outrun his fellows, he had not run so hastily on his own death. And so surely, if these men more furious than Nimshi, more swift than Asahel to outrun themselves, their Sovereign & his laws, could have been entreated either finally to desist, or a least for a while to have turned aside to the right hand, or the left, or to have diverted the heat of their zeal, & edge if their pens against papist or atheist; as they have escaped with their lives, so night they in all likelihood have kept their livings.  
Of the which they are now some few of them most justly deprived. I dare say with greater grief to us all, than either loss to themselves, or hazard to the Church. Howsoever it hath been formerly given out, that if they were silenced, the Church might soon shut up her Shop windows. There would not be a Smith left in all our Israel that could skill indeed 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 be much miss. God we know, is able of stones to raise up those that shall serve his turn, if men should fail, or upon every trifling discontentment, so wilfully abandon that sacred vocation whereunto they are by so many bonds so strictly obliged. And without any such miraculous work, (if it please him to afford but his wont graces to the two Universities) I nothing doubt, but from time to time, they shall be able to supply more sufficient Ministers, than all their complices will be content to allow sufficient livings.  
And now that they are thus dealt with by Law, we all expect that the like order, or rather much more sharp and strict be taken, as for the Atheist, so specially for the Papist. Else must we needs confess, Redwiam curavimus, Capiti cum mederi debuissemus. But I hope they shall, ere it be long, have just occasion to think and speak otherwise; when they shall see their sword and Spears, and Smiths, their Armour and Armourers, their Priests and Jesuits and cunning seducers, with all their Syren-Songes, their Books, Pamphlets and Printers, and all means and ministers thereto tending, clean cut off by the Sword of justice, and the laws of the land. A most just & necessary weapon-taken to keep them from hurting themselves, and others, as children and madmen.  
That it will be so, I make no doubt that it should be so, I seek no other arguments against than, than their own practice against us. & Bellarmine's own proofs in his third book, de Laicis, & 20 chapter for the abolishing of all heretical books. For I will not press that which follows in the next chapter for the burning of Heretics. Howbeit well 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 provoke others to begin. I will invert the old saying, Pereant omnes potius quam pereat unus; For is not he alone worth many thousands, on whom so many thousands po depend?  
Surely, it is high time to take the peace of them all, and bind them to their good abearing, when as so openly and presumptuously they shall dare to threaten the disturbance of our peace, and destruction of the chief Pillars and preservers thereof; whom the Lord in mercy long preserve. But for this point, if we had no other Schoolmasters, we need no other than these Philistims a people in their generation wise enough to set us to School.  
And so I pass to the fourth and last part, the reason why they removed the Armourers, (and that was) lest again they should renew their Armour. For so they said: Lest the Hebrews make them Swords & spears.  
The dint of the Sword, and push of the Pike; two sorts of weapons very powerful, especially in those days, for offence or defence; Comminus or Eminus, far, or near. But this was (as it should seem) in the worlds childhood, the infant-age of hell, and hellish Smiths, but Novices as yet, and Prentices in their Trade: they had not as yet proceeded masters of their craft.  
Anon after, in Solomon his time we read of a generation, whose teeth were sword, and their jaws as Knives. Whose offspring, here amongst us (the cursed offspring of the Anakims') have bend their tongues like Booes, and shot out their words like arrows, sharp, and swift, and full of poison, even as high as the heaven, and as far as from one end of the world to the other. Sure I am, at one flight from Rome to England, have flown their fiery thunderbolts.  
These men not content with dagger, dag, and poison for their privy plots, (which God for heaven so often hath detected & dejected) nor with swords, and spears, Guns and Cannons, for open Rebellion, (which God in mercy so many years hath stayed in this Land) but as he speaketh of the Greekish Stratagem, Instar montis aequum; they had devised a Cannon as big as an huge big house, full rammed and charged with a storehouse of powder, to the which if all the fire of hell and Purgatory could have lent & sent but one spark, we had all been consumed. Wonder it was not set on fire, with the sulphureous blast of their hellish breath. Then there was a deal of dead powder (so it pleased God) without fire; since, that a false fire (the Lord be thanked) without powder. If the one affrighted us, & the other amazed us being both but a fallax, (God grant they always so deceive, and we be never worry deceived) but if they had argued indeed a Divisis ad Coniuncta, putting fire to powder; or powder to fire, where then had we been? Surely, they had swallowed us up quick, or sent us up quick to the heavens, at least our souls. Howsoever our bodies having accompanied them as high as they could, had descended again to the foot of the mountain; and there (as Abraham's servants) expected their return, or waited for the time when they should be called up unto them, never again to be dissevered: but for the present, they had been most lamentably divorced, had not the Lord been on our side, (than might Israel say, now & ever may Israel sing) Had not the Lord himself been on our side when men rose up against us. May I call them men, being in the shape of men, more than devils incarnate? then beware of men as saith our Saviour. Homo homini Lupus, Man to man is become a wolf, a bear, a lion, a leopard, a tiger, a devil. Not all those strange mixtures of so many beasts in 〈◊〉 Prophecy able to express the thousandth part of those beastly minds. 〈◊〉 praised be the Lord, who hath not give 〈◊〉 over for a pray to the teeth of those cursed Cannibals, who seeing they cannot satiat their maws with the blood of Christ, in their unbloody Sacrament, have sought to engorge & imbrewe themselves with the blood of servants, for no other cause or quartel in the world, 〈◊〉 that they are his servants. True it is, they cannot say worse of us, than we think on ourselves; our sins we confess 〈◊〉 deserved such a punishment, but though we for our sins are most worthy to suffer it, yet are they of all men most unworthy to inflict it. I date be bold to give the Challenge, let him that is guiltless amongst them, (I except not the holy of holiest) throw the first stone, or put fire to the powder.  
But Lord if it be thy will according to our deserts to plague and punish us, let it be thy pleasure to take the rod into thine own hands. Liceat periture viribus ignis igne 〈◊〉 tuo, clademque authore levare. For why shouldst thou sell us into the hands of these uncircumcised Philistims, that will never therefore be thankful unto thee, but give thine honour unto stocks and stones, and sacrifice thy praise to the Shrines of 〈◊〉 dead? whereas thou knowest all our help standeth in thy Name only. Thou only art our God, thou only art our Creator, our Saviour our Redeemer, and only Protector. By thy means only we acknowledge our soul is escaped, as a bird out of the snare; past danger (as we hope) but not past fear. And therefore no marvel though we start at ●●ery bush, although we see the snare 〈◊〉 broken, we are escaped, and they are fallen into the pit they prepared for 〈◊〉. O so let thine enemies perish, O Lord, so let them all that plough iniquity, and sow affliction, reap the same. But let thy mighty hand 〈◊〉 still at hand against them all, to defend and protect our King, our Queen, our Prince, their Offspring Counsel, Clergy, Nobles; Commons, and all their Realms and Kingdoms, that in sincerity & truth still call upon thy name.  
So shall we thy people, and sheep of thy pasture (thus preserved from blood and slaughter) sing always unto thee the Blessed Trinity, three persons and one God, all honour, laud, and glory now and for ever.  
Amen, Amen.  
FINIS.