IF all Scriptute inspired from aboue be profitable to teach , to correct , to improue , and instruct ( as 2. Tim. 3 ) good for information & reformation , confirmation , & refutation , correction , & direction , 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 and the Anuile . Where all is good , and all as gold seuen times refined , the choise of any cannot be amisse . For who can say this might be better , where all is best , & al suparlatiue ? except it be paraduenture in respect of circumstance 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 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 patience , 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 , ( there 's 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 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 & rem . 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 when , & place where , so also the reason why . For had it bin of any other Artisan than the Smith , their armorer ; or at any other time , than the time of armes 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 , vpon some generall weapon take the better to keep than in peace amongst themselues , & alleageance to their soueraigne , & not by inforcement of the Philistims their vtter enemies , the more to affeeble & inthrall them : it had beene neither so grieuous for them 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 danger , & vnauoidable feare without any merit , or means of theirs wroght their deliuerance . 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 want . satis est , those 2 shal 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 men And therfore feare not thou worme of Iacob , thou hast euer , more with thee , than 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 , 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 when 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 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 the 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 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 forgotten , lightly come by , lightly set by . Seeking for his Fathers 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 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 tam 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 , 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 & diligence , & 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 recreations , though no ordinary or vsuall occupations . For I hope they are not of Lactantius mind , that thought the Hauke , the Hound , 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 man , had inuented 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 Conqueror made the new 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 , than 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 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 vpon 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 than 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● 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 memorantur . 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 veniam coruis , vexat censura 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 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 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 ; t is all too light , so soone 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 signification it may stand as well for faber lignarius , as ferrarius , a Carpenter 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 nequeunt consistere . Base is the foundation 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 indangers all . I say of the building , for that I know in most buildings there are many superfluities , for shew rather then for substance ; such as may be spared without losse or danger : & 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 burthen lay on them , 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 than 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 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 , Marchants 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 monsters of the error of nature , the corruption of the earth , or earthly men , & corrupt manners : neuer in the Catlogue of those creatures that came vnder the Suruey ( Gen. 1. ) & being seen & allowed , receiued the sentence of approbation . But being of a latter brood , they were all once swept away with the flood , they neuer came within the Arke . But when 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 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 burdens , 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 profession of lending & a gaine of their vncharitable charity , to the vtter ruine of many yong Gentlemen , 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 from 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 , 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 carbuncle of the heauens his sun , to shine vpon 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 from the circumference 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 & consultations ( wherein many things by many priuate persons vpon priuate respects , and partialities are cunningly 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 . Sapientis est , saith the wise Orator , sic curare vniuersam Remp : 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 cormorants , & cornuorants of his time , that often times droue the poor that had nothing els , to sell them-selues or their children as deere as themselues to buy the refuse of their corne ; the more to mollifie the hardnes of their harts , if any way it might be , sets before them a poore soule for meere need , in extream dearth driuen to starue 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 . Herevpon with heauy hart comming home to his wife , wils her , after some short & sorrowfull consultation to bring before him all his children , that therby he might aduise , which of them al might best be spared And beginning at the eldest , & with watry eies beholding him , he considers , 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 Grandfather , who though he were gone , 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 bonds & 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 country , & great Grandfather of all his people , if he were put to his choyse , which of all his children , the necessarie parts , & natural members of his body politiquelis might best spare , whether Clergy , Comōns , or Nobles : or of the Commons ; Artisans , Souldiours , or husband men : or of his 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 yongest , 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 t is 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 controuersie . For howsoeuer Phillips Asse 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 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 wodden 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 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 & called Instrumentum instrumentorum , the instrument of instruments and hand of Philosophye , so much more may the Smith be esteemed as the hand of all handicraftes 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 sweet-sounding 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 als 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 , & blindnes of this old world in her dotage , to giue the brith-right to the yonger . 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 wodden 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 : 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 .