Ecclesiastes. THE WORTHY Church-Man, OR, THE FAITHFVLL MINISTER OF IESVS CHRIST. Described by polishing the twelve Stones in the High-Priests Pectorall; as they were first glossed and scholyed on in a Synod-Sermon; and after enlarged by way of discourse, to his two Brethren. By IOHN IACKSON Parson of Marske in Richmond-shire.
LONDON, Printed for Richard More, and are to be sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard in Fleetstreet. 1628.
To the Reader.
VOuchsafe in briefe to understand the occasion of bringing these Meditations from the Pulpit to the Presse. The Author, so neere to me, as nature and function could allye us, at a Synode held at Richmond in the North sermoned upon these twelve stones. A gratefull fame of which discourse found quicke and safe conveyance to mee by men of severe judgments. Capita libri excurro, vbi (que) summa cruditio, vbi (que) fastidij expultrix, blandita varietas, & (quod plurimum ingenij ac laboris postulant) tot tantorum (que) Authorum testimonio res agitur, vt quicun (que); sugillare aliquid ex istis lucubrationibus tuis tentaverit, canis latrator haberi possit non demorsor. Iac. Antiquarius in Miscell. A. Pol. Whereupon I desired of him a copy, which upon request he was pleased (repriving a while his more serious studies) to transcribe, fyling and burnishing it over againe, and adding hereunto [...] & secundam manum. He is my brother, and therefore love will not suffer me to dispraise any thing, nor modesty to commend much: let this small peice speake for him; yet thus farre I dare charge my judgement, (if I may be allowed to judge,) The conceit is new, and the proper birth of his owne braine, the matter likewise partly of his owne fresh invention, and his readings (which may commend him the more) clad with the mantle of his owne wit and phrase. He is throughout curt, cult, and methodicall. The whole smelling of [Page] the oyle of his lampe, and (which is much better) of the anoynting of Gods Spirit.
And tho the Burton in his Preface to his booke of Melancholy. forwardnesse and ambition of some is justly complained of, who the better to put forward themselves, put forth their Sermons: A sermon preached at the Court, A sermon preached in the Vniversity, A sermon at the Crosse, A sermon at an Assizes, A sermon at a Visitation, A sermon before the Right Honorable, A sermon before the Right Worshipfull, A sermon in Latin, A sermon in English, A Mariage sermon, A Funerall sermon, A sermon, a sermon, a sermon, &c. Yet in lieu thereof take the Censure and Sentence of a Noble and learned The L. Verulam in his Advancement of Learning ad finem. Emanationes scripturarum in doctrinas positiva [...]. Gentleman speaking definitively: to wit, that if the choise and best of those Observations, that have beene made dispersedly in sermons, within his Majesties Ilands of Britaine, by the space of these 40. yeares and more (leaving out the largenesse of exhortations and applications thereupon) had beene set downe in a continuance, it had beene the best worke in Divinity which had beene written since the Apostles time; and I doubt not but some things in this discourse may worthily be cast into that volume. This little bee spoken by way of Apology, not for him but my selfe, lest any charge mee with unnecessary intermedling. Thus committing the Author, the booke, and the publisher to thy kind love and acceptance, I rest
THE POLISHING OF THE Twelve stones in the High-Priests Pectorall.
IT is usuall (my good brothers) to earne the favour of great Ones by writing bookes for their use, and entituling them to their names for their honor. I will essay against no man, but suffer every one to enjoy his owne wisdome. I chose rather to give my thoughts issue upon a few sheetes of paper to you: both because I deeme it more honest to pay debts, then to offer Presents, and to serve vertue before fame: and also because I remēber what I lately read in Florentin [...] Hist. lib. 7. Machiavel, that wise childe in his generation, that affected things doe procure more envy, then those which without oftentation are honestly covered.
The theam that I choose being a Church-man, & writing unto Church-men, is to make a draught of A WORTHIE ECCLESIASTES, and a deserving Church-man indeed.
I will not at all preface in generall termes, which like lightning breaketh in the ayre, but seazeth on no particular subject; it is better to cull out some text of holy Scripture to be the burthen of my discourse, and I know none fitter then to polish those twelve precious stones in the High Priests Pectorall, as they are twise set downe by Moses in these words,
And they filled the breast-plate with foure rowes of stones. The order was thus: A Sardius, a Topaze, and a Carbuncle, in the first row. And in the second row, an Emeraud, a Saphire, and a Diamond. And in the third row, a Ligure, an Achate, and an Amethyst. And in the fourth row, a Tarshish, an Onyx, and a Iasper. And they shall be set in ouches of Gold.
Which place is notoriously concentrique, with that Apocalyp. Chap. 21. vers. 19, 20. The foundations of the wall of the City were garnished with all manner of pretious stones, the first foundation was Iasper, the second of Saphire, &c. Yet I perceive some termes of difference; those are fundamentals, these superstructives; those to adorne a City, the new Ierusalem, these the watchmen of that city; those signified the 12. Apostles, these the twelve Tribes; those have neither all of them the same order, nor the same names with these: for the Iasper which is the first there, is last here; and foure of those names, the Calcedony which is the third, the Chrysolite the seventh, the Chrysoprase the tenth, the Hyacinth, the eleventh; though (as S. Hierome, and our English Rabbin) they be the same stones, yet are they otherwise called.
In both of which places we must not be so Religentem oportet esse religiosum nefas. Agel. lib. 4. cap. 9. superstitiously religious of the barke and shell of the letter, as to neglect the kernel of the spiritual sense; We may not thinke these or those stones were only [Page] for ornament and shew, nothing for use and significancy. It is as easie to imagine a shadow without a body, a ceremony without a substance, a type without an antitype, a prophecy without an accomplishment, a promise without a performance, as that nothing is hid under these stones. Vnder the leaves of metaphors are often the sweetest truths. Vnloose Benjamins sacke, and the piece of plate will be found; unvaile Moses his face and it will shine. Yet know I not any text of holy Scripture more burthened with descant of mans wit, which useth to churne the sincere milke of the word till it bring forth butter, and wring the nose (prophanely called a nose of wax) till blood come Prov. 30. vlt. Naseus cereus, Albertus Pighius, hierar. l. 3. c. 3. What vexed questions are here about the names, colours, properties of these stones? What paralleling of every stone with a severall Patriarch? what citing of the authorities of Pliny, Dioscorides, Albertus, Aristotle, as if God and nature had taken these into their cabinet-counsells in producing their works? but be these things left to those who can trifle with a great deale of industry Magno conatu nugari, Ter. in Heauton.; they are rightly censured already to bee Magorum vanitas Plin. lib. 37., learned trifles Doctae nugae., and we cannot better either confute their tenets, or punish the authors, then by a forgetfull neglect, and writing that in sand which they thought to have cut in marble. I will not offer you that losse, as to obtrude on you any thing which my selfe hath beene more curious to know, then credulous to believe.
Thus much is emergent hence by good conclusion, [Page] that the legall Priesthood then, and the Euangelicall Ministery now, should bee as jewels and precious stones. If Aaron and his sonnes were so under the Law, surely Christ and his Apostles, and those who succeed them, are no lesse under the Gospell; it is well therefore that they are mentioned by St. Iohn, as well as Moses; in the New Testament, as well as the Old; in the New Ierusalem, as well as the old Tabernacle. We should all be Gems and Iewels indeed, as that worthy Antistas of Salisbury B. Iewell, was both in name and nature, according to the Greeke Lyricks of Io. Brosserius a French man in his Epitaph Vita & mers luelli per D. Humphredum..
Iewels and stones of price wee are or should be: first in the esteeme of God, of whose mysteries wee are disposers; let men thinke of us as meanely as they will, we are a chosen generation, and a royall Priesthood to him, amat gentē nostrā, he loves the Tribe of Levi, as they in the Centurions behalfe, Luke 7. Secondly, at the rate of good men, if the Galathians will give their eies for Paul, the Milanois will give animam pro Ambrosio, their lives for their Ambrose. Thirdly, in regard of those rich endowments, and vertuous habits of grace, which by coworking with God we should labour by frequent and iterated acts, to introduce both into our owne and others soules. Brightman a man of a right heart and bright braine (his particular conceits reserved) I warrant him, expresseth himselfe in these words, [Page] which may serve for a good glosse on my Text, in Apoc. c. 21. It is certaine (saith he) that the excellency of gifts wherewith teachers excell above other men, are noted unto us in this place by those things which are most precious of all other upon the earth: and withall wee are hereby taught, both what precious accompt God makes of such teachers, as also how greatly they ought to be esteemed amongst men; and it is no lesse certaine that every one of these excellēt vertues did shine forth most cleerly long agoe in the old Apostles. So he.
I need not trespasse against mine owne ease to labour for either words or method; not for words, for rare beauties are most lovely plaine dressed, and stones rich in themselves shew best set in a foyle: not for method, it is already ordo quincunx, one breast-plate into foure rowes, and those foure rowes into twelve stones, three in each row; as the yeere into foure quarters, and those foure quarters into twelve moneths, three in each quarter: or methodo analytica, twelve stones contracted into foure rankes, and those foure into one pectorall.
So then according to the number of the stones, there are to be 12. severall rhapsodies or divisions in this discourse, as there are twelve chapters in the booke of the Preacher; or as Ahijah taking hold on 1 King. 11. 30. Ieroboams garment rent it into 12. peices; in every one of which shall bee touched first the hidden vertue of the stone, for I verily thinke there is no pretious stone without some egregious vertue, as Cardan Nullum lapidem pretiosum alicujus egregiae virtutis expectē. Car. Su [...]til. lib. 7 who made Millaine as famous for a Philosopher, and a Physitian, as St. Ambrose did it for a Bishop▪ Secondly, the apparent colour or visible quality, which is limited and bounded in the surface and [Page] extremity thereof, which is so notable as many Armorists blazon by the colours of precious stones. You cannot expect from me any digression at all, or long commoration upon any thing in prosecuting these things. I may truly say as she prevaricated with our Saviour Iohn 4. The well is deepe, and I have little to draw with. I will therefore doe no more but lap of these waters tanquam canis Nilum, or as Gideons souldiers Iudg. 7. & not so much neither, till I have darted forth one ejaculation.
The Prayer.
BLessed Saviour, who in thine incarnation was a stone Dan. 2. 34. cut out of the quarry without hands, in thy Passion Zach. 3. 9. a stone cut full of eyes, in thy Resurrection and Ascension 1 Pet. 2. 6. a chiefe corner stone. Thou art the Sonne of God command these stones to be made bread, even such heavenly Manna & spirituall food as may feed our soules to life eternall, to this end give me thy booke and thy roule to eate, that I may speake truly, and judge wisely, and so worship thee the first truth & chiefest wisdome. Take away the stoninesse of our harts, that the seed of the word fall not into stony ground, and prove fruitlesse. Lord, there is nothing will hinder but our sinnes, which are ever interposing betwixt thy goodnesse and our needs: make us therefore as truly sorry that ever they were committed by us, as desirous that they may be remitted by thee, and as endeavouring that wee may not sin, as we are hopefull thou wilt not impute sin. O Iesu Christ, whom wilt thou heare if not us who have no portion but in thee, having forsaken all to bee thine Altar servants? or who will heare us, if not thou, who art a Priest aswell as a Prophet or King? or where wilt thou heare us, if not in this place which is the house of Prayer? or when wilt thou heare us if not in the houre of Prayer, when so many of us are gathered together in thy name? and in what words wilt thou heare us, if thou wilt not acknowledge the phrase and stile which thy selfe hath taught us, saying, Our Father, &c.
[Page 1]THE POLISHING OF THE TWELVE STONES IN THE HIGH-PRIESTS Pectorall.
SECTION. I. The Sardius.
THat which is the sixt in the foundation of the New Ierusalem, is placed the first in the Pectorall: it tooke the name Primum Sardibus reperta. Plin. l. 37. [...]. 7. where it was first found, from Sardinia, an Isle in the Lybick Sea; as Sardonius risus, so famous in the prouerb from the same place.
The Vertue.
THis Stone is well knowne to be a Gemme of all others Sculpturae utilissima. Plin. ibidem. most profitable for engravement, and Sigillis aptissima. Carda [...] l. 7. Subtil. most fit for Seales: both because it is of a meane hardnesse to cut, and because it parts cleane with the wax, Persons of quality use to have their crests [Page 2] cut in these stones, and set in Rings, which they weare as Signets. He that makes Bartas speake so good English, cals it the 1 Weeke and 3 day. Seale-fit Onix. I suppose hee meaneth the Sardius, both because it Nomen cum Sardoniche communicavit. Plin. ibid. communicates the name with the Onix, and Iosephus also Lib. 3. cap. 8. in his Iewish Antiquities, where hee reckons vp these twelue Gemmes, calls this the Sard-onix.
And I take it for a faire abodement, that this is the apparent property of the first Stone. Whosoever be of such stubborne mettall, as he will not receive impression, yet a Priest (like Iudah Gen. 38. 25.) must be knowne be his Signet: in that great setting open of the Seale-office, Apoc. 7. the Tribe of Dan is noted to be put out, that the Tribe of Levi might have roome. It shall ever be a piece of my Collect, both at my private Mattens and Even-song, for my brethren according to office, Cant. 8. 6. Set them, O Lord, as a Seale on thine heart, and as a Signet on thine arme; yea, Ier. 22. 24. let them bee as the Signet of thy right hand, which thou wilt not plucke off. This Seale is double; the one of the person, the other of the office: that, confirmes us to be the children of God; this, the seruants of men, in the things of God. And so wee keepe still on foot the currant distinction of Dignita [...] personae & tractationis. the worthinesse of the person, and the worthinesse of demeanour. The seale of our persons is the same with all other Saints, to wit, the giving of the holy Spirit, Ephes. 4. 24: whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption: for as two parties covenanting doe mutually seale each to other: so we seale to God by faith Iohn 3. 33., he to us by his Spirit Ephes. 1. 13.: and truly absi [...] [Page 3] that spirituall men should quite want the Spirit, from which they have their denomination. It hath beene long said, Greatest Clerks are not alwaies wisest men; so as it seemes Schollers must be glad to take simplicity to themselves by tradition: but it is more true, that the best-lettered are not ever the profoundest Divines, ( Pro. 3. 32. Psal. 25. 14. the secret of the Lord is with the righteous,) it being just with God that those who fall à bono, and care not to serve him, shall also fall à vero, and cannot know him. I say not as some, that a carnall and unsanctified man cannot convert a soule: but I suppose God doth not usually worke such noble effects by such unworthy instruments: he will honour his owne to negotiate in so high a service, while he makes it the just reproach of others to be Ier, 22. ult. written Childlesse. The seale of the Office is to beget children unto God. S. Paul told his Corinthian Disciples they were 1 Cor 9. 2. the seale of his Apostleship. Calvin to those that objected against him his barren wedlocke, answered, he had many children which he had begotten unto God. We know, it was as bitter as death to the Hebrew Dames to be issuelesse: it may bee the rather, because every one thought with her selfe, why might not her wombe be teemed of the Messias as well as any other daughter of Abraham. Shall any be more sollicitous of generation and the first birth, then we of regeneration and the new birth? because the Priest Melchisedechs style was, without father or mother, shall ours be, without son or daughter? I expect not, as when Peter preached, 3000 at one Sermon: we use not to sow our labors [Page 4] on the hopes of such harvests: such births are as strange as the 365 children of the Anno 1276. on Palmsunday baptized by Guidon Suffragan to the Bishop of Vtrech. See the History of the Netherlands. Countesse of Henneberge at once. But what, hast thou fished all thy life and catcht nothing? is there none whom thou hast made smite upon their thigh, not one at 3000 Sermons? surely thou hast just cause to suspect thy faithfulnesse in some point, and to be humbled. This of the vertue of the Sardius.
The Colour.
THe colour of it is red: the A rubeo colore sic dictus. Paguin. root shewes the branch: for in the Hebrew the very name signifies red, and the Adam homo & idem lapis pretiosus ab eadem sunt radice, i. Adam rubescere. first stone consists of the same three letters, that the name of the first man doth, in regard of the redde earth on which both are made: so that hereby we are happily resolved to our principles, and put in minde of the pit out of which we are hewne. Though wee bee spirituall men, yet we have a lay part, which is theca animae, which must once yeeld to that great statute law primo Adami, statutum est omnibus mori: Both Kings who Nebucadnetzar-like have golden heads, and Priests who Chrysostome-like have golden tongues, yet stand but luteis pedibus. Therefore in the Regall Diademe of England this very stone is the first and highest in the Crowne, Fearne in his Blazon of Gentrie. to denote that even Kings are but made up and elemented of the same red earth that Adam was: and though Psal. 82. 7. they be Gods, yet they shall dye like men. The Pope at his Inauguration hath the Master of Ceremonies to burne flaxe before him, crying, Ecce sancte Pater, sic transit gloria mundi. Both S. Basil and S. [Page 5] Augustine used the like remedy against pride; the one on the day when hee was propounded Pastor and Doctor to the people; the other when hee was applauded for his exquisite sermons. Surgite mortui, we know was S. Hieroms eare▪ wig; We should doe well when wee feed, as at the Court of Prester Iohn, to haue the first dish a Deaths head; when we walke abroad, as the Lunaticke in the Gospel, to walke amongst the graves; in our gardens as Ioseph, to have a Sepulchre; in our Churches to visit the Golgotha or Charnell-house; on our rings (if we be Iam. 2. 2. [...]) to have a deaths head engraven: that thus when our eyes traverse from object to object, they may out of every thing extract the meditation of our mortality, and the remembrance of our end. This will make us Mic. 6. 8. walke humbly with our God, and so better men, homo humi limus, cur non humillimus; and also more diligent in our office, and so better Ministers, knowing the day may suddenly come when we must give an account of our Stewardship.
SECTION II. The Topaze.
THis is the ninth in the Apocalypse: a notable gemme it is. Pliny begins his 8 Chap. of his 37 book Egregia etiam Topazio gloria est &c., with setting a price on it. Vide lib. de lapidibus. Cardan saith of all other hee chose this, both because of the hardnesse, and beauty of it, to engrave his effigies and name in, [Page 6] and the very [...]. name of it sounds as much, as desireable: whence it is probable holy writt ioynes together for their value Iob 28. 19. the Topaze and wed of fine gold; which text of Scripture withall to mee seemes to compound the strife amongst the Etymologists, about the reason of the imposition of the name, in that it calls it the Topaze of Aethiopia; and our Cosmographers point us out an Isle in the red sea called Topazus.
The Vertue.
THe Vertue of this stone is, that it is soveraigne against feare & sadnesse, the two essentiall parts of Melancholy. Cardan the most industrious searcher into the secrets of nature, saith, he hath seene a dosis of 15. graines given to a melancholist a present remedy to him. We must strive with our harts to have them cheerfull and comfortable, therefore not unfitly doth this stone immediately follow the former: because as obsignation is one office of the holy Ghost; so consolation is another: as it is a seale, so it is a Comforter. Iohn 14. 16. Some indeed grace Melancholly so much, as to turne it over to adorne wisedome, old age, vertue, and conscience; and indeed I thinke a sanguine complexion which is so tempered with a convenient measure of naturall melancholy, that the suddaine motions and enforcements of the blood bee allayed, is both most wise to see what is best, and most regular to performe it; but if it be once growne to a S [...]oici vocant crebros & inveteratos motus, Morbos animi; primos autem & leves, Affectus tantùm. Lips. Const. l. 1. cap. 1. disease of the mind, it is the most unprofitable and unteachable passion of all others; Post peditem equitem (que) sedebit atra cura. therefore the Fathers did it no wrong to call [Page 7] it the Balneum & esca Dioboli. bath and baite of the Devill. Sathan, saith holy Greenham, under the colour of repentance bringeth many to an extreame sadnesse. No sorrow, unlesse it be for sin, is good for ought, & not that neither, if it be immoderate; a pound of sorrow will not pay an ounce of debt, except it be our debts to God. A Minister therefore ought first to work his own mind to a harmles jovisance; for the more his heart is above, the better able he is to search out the whole counsell of God, and find more divine truths. Knowledge and mirth are of neere alliance: for Salomons great knowledge of things was onely latitudo cordis, the largenesse of his heart; and mirth we know doth dilate and spred out the heart, as griefe doth gripe and contract it. Besides, this is a compendious way to make profelytes, & to draw customers to the profession of Religion, when they see they must not needs be ever encreasing the ayre with sighes, and rivers with teares; but that Prou. 3. 17. the wayes of wisedome are wayes of pleasure, and that they may bee as farre from temporall dejection, as from eternall rejection. Secondly, hee should beware of making the hearts of Gods people sad, 2 Cor. 2. 7. Paul had a care even of the incestuous Corinthian, that his spirit were not too much contristated; they cast too much salt on their sacrifices, who are no sooner clasped in their Pulpits, but as if they were on mount Sinai giving the Law, speake thunder and lightning at euery word, and can [...] as bitterly as Archilochus, Isa. 50. 4. but have not the tongue of the learned to minister a word in due season to him thats weary; and throw forth a plancke, or breake open the [Page 8] Spicknard box of precious promises to him that is ready to suffer shipwracke; doe such rigid Orators consider how ten Barnabases, sons of consolation, cannot often put to silence the voyce of despaire, which one Bonerges (sonne of thunder) hath coniured up? Must a poore soule that stands need of ghostly ayde, and repaires to the Priests lipps, saying Cantic. 2. 5., Stay me with Apples, comfort me with flagons, returne Sermon-sick, complaining, Chap. 5. ver. 7. I sought my beloved, but the watchmen that went about the City found me, they smote me, they wounded me, the keepers of the walls tooke away my vaile from me, Iob 16. 2. Miserable Comforters.
The Colour.
THe Colour of the Topaze is yellow, of the colour of gold or saffron, which Loimat. Chap. 16. of his booke of Colours. signifieth preheminence and superiority, because gold is the chiefe of all metalls: whence it is that Miters, Scepters, Crownes, Thrones, iudgment-seates, the Vestures of Emperors, Kings, Popes, are either of gold, or much adorned with it: euen the Church is said to be a Psal. 45. Queene adorned in a vestment of gold. How fitly therefore doth the golden Topaze follow the earthy Ruby; that going before, lest wee be puffed up, this comming after, lest wee bee too much cast downe: this is the reason why Priests were anointed with oyle, which doth supernatare, swim above all other liquors; and the very names of Prelates, Primates, Priors, Overseers, Fathers, Superintendents, Lords, Ambassadors, did surely in the worlds better dayes entitle them to some priority both of [Page 9] order and jurisdiction. This precedency should be twofold Prioritas dignitatis & pretiationis.: the one of worth, the other of esteeme, or of vertue and honour; that is inherent in our selues; this imputed by others. The former is that whereby we should strive to excell other in knowledge and holinesse, and to worke out our owne honor by Vertue: if we were such Clerkes as Beringarius, who was said to know all knowable; and such good men as Bonavent [...]re, of whom it is said, hee was of so sweet a disposition, that Adams fall could scarce be seene in him; then surely contempt could not like a burre, thus sticke to our coat as it doth; but some of us are so foolish, as no wise man, and some so wicked as no honest man can honour us: there is no reason (as Bernard lib. 2. de Consid. to Eugenius) that sedes prima and vita ima should goe together. Isa. 9▪ 14, 15. The Prophet that teacheth lyes deserves to bee the Tayle: or if hee teach the truth, if so bee his practice give his pulpit the lye, the latter, to wit, priority of esteeme will as naturally follow the former, as the shadow the body. Wise and good Christians will give us our 1 Tim. 5. 17. double honour, and 1 Thes. 5. 13. have us in singular love for our workes sake: and a good name, though it borrow but its valuation from opinion, yet if the ground of it bee merit, and the esteem of worthy men, it is then a precious ointment indeed. Knowledge hath no enemy but an ignorant man, nor godlines but a wicked man; and as for such both their invectives are true Panegyricks, and God will sanctifie unto us the enmity of unreasonable opposites. And thus far we may safely bee Io. ep 3. v. 92 [...] ▪ After the Topaze followes
SECTION III. The Carbuncle.
IT is the third also in the Revelation, though it bee there called a Calcedonie, Plin. lib. 37. cap. 7. which is a species of the Carbuncle. It is the name both of a disease, and of a Gemme. Cuspinian de Caesar. & Imper. Rom. Leo the fourth Emperour of Rome, tooke out of the Temple of Sophia a Diadem, the most precious stone whereof was a Carbuncle, and set it on his head, and hee was presently smitten with a disease called a Carbuncle. You haue heard of the propheticall Distich, fathered on Buchanan touching King Iames:
The Vertue.
THe manifest Vertue of this Stone is to shed abroad a glorious light, as of a starre or candle, even when the most pitchy darknesse doth enfold the day: from whence it hath the name in the three principall and learned languages. Bareketh à barak, Coruscatio. The Hebrew name comes of a root which signifies Coruscation, and Lightning. [...], Carbunculus, Lychnites. The Greeke and Latine in the Theame signifie a Coale, a Candle, a Fire. Ludovicus Vartomannus, relates of an Indian King, who had them of such splendour and bignesse, that if he were met in the darke, hee was thought to shine as the Sun beames.
We must [...], and Math. 5. 16. Let our light shine before men. It is no simple Encomium given us by Christ, that we are Ibid. ver. 14. the light of the world, which he ingenuously acknowledged, who said, if God himselfe would become corporeall, he would take truth for his Soule, and light for his body. We should bee each of us an [...] Oecolampadius in the house of God. When God made the great world, the very first day, the first creature hee extracted out of Chaos was light, though the Sunne the fountaine of light was not made till the fourth day. So what is Man, the modell and epitome thereof, if hee walke not as Ephes. 5. 8. a child of the light. But if a Churchman, who should bee both lumen and lux, enlightned and enlightning, bee Ibid. darknesse it selfe, how great is that darkenesse? This light must be twofold, of doctrine, and of life; that must bee seated in our understanding, this in our conversation. There is Vrim and Thummim, a brestplate, & an Ephod, a tinckling bell, and a fruitfull Pomegranate: there was blood to be put both upon the lap of the Priests eare, w ch is the doore of knowledge, and on his thumbs and toes, which are instruments of action: there were for his part both the brest, the seat of affection, and the shoulder whereon we carry burthens. The Law of God was both to be bound as frontlets betwixt the eyes to read, and bracelets about the arme to practise. These are the knowne distinctions of Exod. c. 28. v. 30, 31, 34. and c. 29. v. 20. 27. & Deut. 6. 8. Moses; instructions must be Pro. 7. 3. id est, opere imp. Lavater in loc. bound on our fingers, as well [Page 12] as written on the table of our hearts, there is the phrase of Pro. 6. 13. instructing with the fingers, as well as with the tongue: there is to Zeph. 3. 9. serve the Lord with the shoulder, no lesse then with hart or voyce; there is Mat. 23. 3. to sit in Moses Chayre, and to doe as they say; there is 1 Pet. 5. 2, 3. to feed the flock, & to be an ensample to the flocke: there is 1 Cor. 9. 27. preaching to others, and being ones selfe a cast away; there is to 1 Tim. 4. 16. take heed to a mansself, as wel as to his doctrine; there is both docere Act. 1. 1. and facere. Christ healed the withered hand, and St. Peter the Cripples lame feet, as well as made the blind to see, and deafe to heare. Wee read of Rom. 2 20. [...], a forme of knowledge; 2 Tim. 3. 5. and also [...] a forme of godlinesse. So Scripture. There is Chrys. decaeco nato. [...] and [...], there is a preaching Theophilact. in Mat. 3. 5. [...], and [...]: there is Ex. Manusc. Epist. Lich. Cov. [...] and [...]: there is [...] and [...]: There is Ru [...]in. Eccl. Hist. lib. 2. c. 10. the faith of the eare, and of the hand; there is a feeding the flocke Verbioratione, exempli exhibitione. Bern. Ser. 2. de res. Domi., as well by a holy life, as by Orthodoxe sermons: there is Aug vox sonet, manus consonet. when the voyce is sonant, and the hand consonant. There is to keepe the Lords Vineyard, and to keepe a mans owne Vineyard: Cantic. 1. 6. They made me a keeper of the vineyards, but I have not kept mine owne vineyard; which place occasioned Bernard to wish hee had never taken on him the charge of soules. There is to love to inform others, but to hate to reforme our selves: Psal. 50. 16, 17. Why doest thou preach my Lawes, and takest my Covenant in thy mouth, where as thou hatest to be reformed? which words when Origen had read for his text, hee wept so bitterly, as he moved the congregation to weep with him. So the Fathers. There is Graci norunt quid fit honestum, sed soli eo utuntur Lace [...]emonij. Sever. apud Plutarch. Graecian-like [Page 13] to know what is honest, and Lacedemonian-like to doe what is honest: there is a Sir F [...]: Bac. advancement of Ler. speaking to the eare by voice, and to the eye by action. There are Sen. ep. 34. Eum tibi elega doctorem, quem magis admireris cum videris, quam cum audieris. Doctors no lesse to be admired when they are seene live, then when they are heard teach. There are Vnus Bonifacius praestat decem Benedictis. Bonifaces as well as Benedicts. So humanists. In summe, there is both Pulpit-craft and life-craft; science and conscience; chewing the cud, and dividing the hoofe; an enlightned understanding, and a spotlesse conversation; a glow-worme requisite in the braine, and a lampe in the hand of a Minister of the Gospell. Loe a cloud of witnesses. It was witty Apophthegme of Bois Sisi the French Ambassador, who asking what Bookes Archbishop Whitgift had written, that he saw him so much honoured; and being told he had not onely published bookes in defence of our Ecclesiasticall politie, but had founded a famous Schoole and Hospitall at Croyden: Hospitale ad sublevandam paupertatem, & Schola ad erudiendam inventutem sunt optimi libri, quos Archiepiscopus conscribere potest. Truly (quoth he) an Hospitall to relieve the poore, and a schoole to traine up youth are the best bookes an Archbishop can write.
The Colour.
THis stone is of a Flame-colour, such as burning coales are of, and therefore may very fitly signifie zeale. For [...] Onomatopoeia. zeale is a word framed of the very sound that fire makes when it meets with such an opposite as water. So [...]. Iliad. [...]. Homer useth the word of the noise a Cauldron makes, when there is a good fire under it. And the new-maried wives of the Romanes adorned their heads with a veile called Flamen, in token of their fervent affections to their [Page 14] husbands. Neither God nor man cares to imploy such Tit. 1. 12. slow-bellied Cretians, as are Vineger to the teeth, and smoake to the eyes of them that send them. That thou doest doe quickly, and like a man of metall, said Christ even to his death-boding Disciple. It is a goodly matter for a man to be as forward as he dare, and then, like a Snaile, pull in his hornes at the touch of the first obstacle. It is Gal. 4. 18. comely for any to be zealous in a good thing: but of all other let us beware of doing the worke of the Lord negligently. Whom should the zeale of Gods house consume, rather then us who are Stewards of the house? on whose heads should we heape coales of fire, sooner then on our owne? whose tongues should be touched with a coale from the Altar, rather then those who serve at the Altar, and live of the Altar? how should wee keepe fire continually in Gods Tabernacle, if we let it goe out in our owne hearts? Pitie it were that so precious a stone as the Carbuncle should be of a duskish colour: and pitie it were that light should want heat; that such faire vertues as illumination and holinesse should want zeale, to set them a working. It was friendly counsell given to Melancthon, that hee should take heed of affecting so much the name of a moderate man, as to lose his zeale: the word to Ier. 20. 9. Ieremy was as fire in his bones, and to Iob 32. 19. Elihu as new wine in bottles. Did not he deserve the name of Conveniunt reb. nomina, &c. Ovid. Ignatius, who said, Let torments, fire, wilde beasts, rackes, all the tortures of hell come, so I may win Christ? is not Acts 1. 13. Simon Zelotes. [...] a suting name for an Apostle? Is it not a sore matter that one of our owne should parallell [Page 15] Brightm. in. 3. cap. Apoc. the Church of Laodicea and England; and tells us he did it not ficcis occulis? Doe not your spirits Iohn 24. 32. burne within you in an holy emulation? I say no more, but Reu 3. 19. be zealous.
SECTION IV. The Emeraude, or Smaragde.
IT is the fourth in order both here and with S. Iohn; and very fitly in both places followes the coruscating Carbuncle: for as that by the excellencie of the object doth destroy the eyes of the beholder, so this againe with a friendly and acceptable greennesse doth refocillate and cherish them.
The Vertue.
IF it had as many vertues as are assigned it, it should be the Pearle of price, for which the wise Merchant sold all he had to purchase it. Yet must I either Antipodes-like tread contrary to the opinion of all men, or allow it to be a Vide Scalig. ex. 33. §. 2. chast-stone, and to have the same vertue among stones that Agnus castus hath among plants. Loimatius l. 3. c. 17. The Persians used them both in espousing their wives, and burying their dead: and it is reported that in the grave of Tulliola, Ciceroes daughter, was one found, which Isabel Gonsaga of Este, Marchionesse of Mantua had of late yeares. Et vetusto codice. One of the Kings of Hungary [Page 16] ever wore one in hora coitus, because of the power he supposed it to have to retaine the seed: and they averre, Wecker. Antidot. Spec. lib. 1. sect. 6. egregious Smaragds to have broken in the deflowring of Virgins: the reason is, for that Cardan. l. 7. Subt. it is a cold and tender Gemme, obnoxious to every injury: now in immoderate venery the body is much heated, and the bones burnt to cinders, and also there is a prodigall expence of blood and radicall moisture, which are the foment and stocke of life. We must [...], and presse hard after chastity & continency, whether thoral and conjugall, or that of celibatude, according to the estate we are in, bound or free. Spirituall men must not be carnally given: they that worship continually in the Temple, should preserve their bodies as the chaste Temples of the Holy Ghost. S. Paul adviseth even the maried Laity to be abstenuous, that they might give themselves to fasting and prayer. Moses his Law suffered not a Priest to take to wife a widow, because she had knowne a man: and if a Priests daughter played the whore, it was to her capitall, because she polluted her fathers house. Yea even under the New Testament, our wives, if we have any, must be 1 Tim. a. 11. sober, our bed an Heb. 13. 4. undefiled bed, our children 1 Cor. 7. 14: holy children, our greetings 2 Cor. 16. 20. holy kisses, our persons, calling, office, day of service, places and vestments of service, tythes, and offerings, all are holy: what is sufficient to be written in the hearts of others, must bee engraven on the Priests Frontlet, the most prominent part of his face, as it were both for his owne improvement, and others example, Holinesse to the Lord. Now [Page 17] there is no sinne so directly and è diametro opposite to holinesse, as uncleane lust and fleshly-mindednesse: therefore Luke 7. 37. [...], behold a woman which was a sinner, the learned Causab. not. in loc. Anti-Baronius annotes to that place, that howsoever all unrighteousnesse be sinne, yet uncleanness especially, and observes out of Procopius, such as were given thereto to be peculiarly and ob eminentiam called [...], Sinners. Erasmus after his manner whets his style against these Salamanders that must needs fry in unlawfull flames, and askes them ( Enchirid. milit. Christiani. ubi barba?) where their beard is, supposing there may well be a bush, but if they shake their bottles, there will appeare but small store of wine either of wisedome or godliness. It was often turned to the reproach of Beza, both of his person, calling, and religion, that he had written some licentious Epigramms, though it was both when hee was a very young-man, and uncalled, and might have said that Pagina lasciva, vita proba▪ Martial. though his lines were wanton, yet his life was honest. And indeed I liked not his excusing of himselfe in Praef. ad poem. one place, till I found his hearty confession Annotat. in verbum [...], Mat. 1. in another.
The colour.
THe Colour of this stone is so greene, as grasse and herbes in comparison of it are not greene: whence it comes to be so profitable for the eyes, by affecting the ayre round about the object with rayes of the same colour, Cap. 5. l. 37. & ita viridi lenitaete lassitudinem oculorum mulcet, saith Pliny. Nero for the benefit of his fight beheld the sword-players at [Page 18] Rome in a Smaragd. What the eye is to the body, such is the understanding to the soule; and I finde the greennesse of this stone applied Brightm. in Apoc. cap. 21. to the knowledge of divine truths. It is both for ornament and use, if we be versed in the whole [...], can dispute de omniente, and goe downe to the Philistims to sharpen our axes and hammers: so as we pearke not the Hand-maid above the Mistris. But in our profession, in sacred Theology, it is no curiosity for us to seeke out the indivisible point of every question, and to throw arguments, Iudg. 20. 16. as the men of Gibeah stones, at an hayres bredth. Let no man say to us, Iohn 3. 10. Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? We should not be more skilfull in the Statutes or tything-tables, then in Scriptures, Counsels, Fathers, Ecclesiasticall Histories, Canons, &c. we need not bid the Statist read Tacitus, or the Physitian Hippocrates Aphorismes, or the Mathematitian Euclide, or the Lawyer Iustinian. and Hor. ep. discere & audire, & meliori credere non vis. I would many of us fell not short of the industry of so great a Prince as Alphonsus King of Spaine and Naples, who read the Bible 14. times over, with Lyra's glosse upon it. Excellent therefore doth the colour of this stone follow the colour of the last, to wit, knowledge follow zeale, (like fire and water in the solemnities of the Romane Nuptialls) lest Rom. 10. 2. zeale should be not according to knowledge: knowledge to abate the edge and rigour of zeale, and zeale to quicken the dulnes and slownesse of knowledge. So Acts 2. cloven and fiery tongues was the forme the holy Ghost assumed when it descended on the [Page 19] Apostles. An expedite and cloven tongue, as was said of Neros gouernment, toucheth the instrument well, but windes the pinnes too low: and a fiery zeale is as an heart without a pericardium in the little world, or as the First-mover without a Chrystalline sphere in the great world, setting all on fire: both together make a masculine Oratour indeed, and have often undeafed a stubborne eare, and left a sting (an higher hand co-working) in a steeled heart: the former is like Moses, the meekest man; the other like Elias, the most zealous Prophet; and if Christ worke by his Spirit (as O that he may) then are Moses, Elias, and Christ againe met together.
SECTION V. The Saphire.
THis is the second in the Apocalypse, but here the fift in order; and it stands well betwixt the Emeraud and Diamond, as being next to the one in hardnesse, and to the other in beauty of colour. The name sounds alike in the Sappir Hebr. [...] Gr. Sapphirus Lat. principall Languages.
The Vertue.
THe true vertue of this stone is that it is availeable against the disease called the Carbuncle. Ex vetusto codice. Albertus that famous Germane Priest, whom all [Page 20] Schooles honoured with the name of Great, and P. Iovius makes the first of his Viri illustres, saith he saw two Carbuncles cured onely with the touch of this gemme. Antidot. lib. 3. §. 6. Weckerus affirmes it to be profitable both for this and all other diseases of the skinne; adding, ut ego sum expertus. Lib. 7. Subtil. Cardan requires it be a good one and often applied, for then it hath vim alexipharmacam, Fran. Rueus de Gemmis lib. 2. cap. 3. and is very averse to all pestilent and hot poisons: There is no scall or ulcer so noysome to the body, as the bile or leprosie of Sinne is to the soule: and therefore the spirituall Physitian is by all industry to take care left it gangrene and become incurable. Leprosie is a disease of reproach as well as smart: and whereas men in misery are usually comforted, pitied, and relieved of their visitants, Lepers are as fast fled from by men, as they are pursued by God. It is a note of infamy to the house of Austria that it is seldome or never without a Leper. Azaria though he were a good King, yet was glad to dwell apart, 2 King. 15. 5. because he was a Leper. 2 King. 5. 1. Naaman was a great man and honourable, but (as a flye to a whole boxe of ointment) he was a Leper. We should be every whit as shye, left the faire table of our owne or others soules be smutted with the conversation of the wicked, as of a pesthouse. We cannot plead want either of a precept to command it, while we are so strictly bidden to Iude v. 23. hate the very garments spotted with iniquity; or of an ensample to commend it, while we know S. Iohn so divinely precise as to flie out of the Bath wherin he saw Cerinthus the hereticke: and what else may bee the principall end of that spirituall outlawry, [Page 21] the high and supreme censure of the Church, whē notorious sinners are cast out of the congregation, but Virg. Eclog. 1. nè mala vicini pecoris contagia laedant, lest if the rotten were not ejected, the whole would be infected: and surely the rites and ceremonies of clensing the Leper, laid downe, Levit. 14. from the first verse to the 10. are excellent directions how to proceed in the cure also of the both of sinne. The scarlet may signifie that even Isa 1. 8. scarlet and crimson sinnes may be whited over; that sinnes of the deepest tincture( Hor. bis murice tincta) are not onely pardonable, but in the way to be pardoned. The hyssope Pectus & pulmone expurgat. Lemmius de herbis bibl. c. 26. is of a purgative nature, purge mee with hyssope, saith Psal. 51. 7. David, to note that the sinfulnesse of our nature is not healed, but where sin is purged out: The Cedar wood which corrupteth not but yeelds a fragrant and sweet smell, shewes that then are our corruptions purged indeed, when our holinesse and incorrupt manners ascend like incense before God and men. The water and the oyle represent the running and searching water of the Law to shew both the guilt and condigne punishment of sinne; and then the soft and supple oyle of the Gospell, which poured into our wounds makes all whole againe The dead Sparrow is Christ slaine for our sinnes, the quicke sparrow is Christ risen againe for our justification, and consequently the sinners mortification and vivification. The shaving of the haire teacheth, that eyes and hands are not onely to bee seene to, that they offend not, but even all superfluities to be payred away, and to accompt no sinne small that defiles a man. The putting of the oyle [Page 22] upon the lappe of the right eare, and the thumbe and toe of the right hand and foot, shewes that hearing and doing must goe together; but who must doe all this? Levit. 14. 2. This is the law of the leper, hee must bee brought unto the Priest, that is, not onely unto the High Priest of our profession Christ Iesus, who cured ten lepers at once, and can heale all our sinnes; but also unto us who are his servants and stewards, for what he doth [...] vertually, we doe [...] ministerially, what hee binds or looseth we must pronounce and declare. I am the more briefe in this Symbolicall divinity lest I incurre peccatum Origenale: neither would I have gone so farre, if I had not had a Eusebius Emissenus. guide-starre.
The Colour.
THE Colour is blew, inclining to the colour of the heauens, whereby it comes to Loimat. cb. 18. d. coloribus. signifie loftinesse of mind, and a contempt of these sublunary and earthly things. Isis the ancient Aegyptian goddesse had her Priests clothed in this colour, that the people beholding them might bee put in minde of heaven. S. Gregory ordained that the Friers called crucigeri should weare habits of blew. Cicero used sometimes to weare this colour, to shew his aspiring mind: yea Loimat. c. 3. lib. 18. many of the Apostles, and the Virgin Mary till the passion of her son used this color; and Christ himselfe is usually painted with a garment of it: And of the foure colours used about the Tabernacle, Blew, White, Scarlet and Purple, both the lace to fasten the brest-plate to the Ephod was blew, and the robe of the Ephod was to be all [Page 23] blew: To teach us to make a sky-coloured vaile to our eyes, and to cause our thoughts sit a brood on heavenly matters. Heauenly mindednesse is a fit temper for a Churchmans spirit. The oxe, or farm, or wife, may not so fill up our eye, as to neglect the Kings supper. We must not like spire steeples, point upward, & poize downward. Whosoeuer can make such poore things as a blast of fame, an husk of pleasure, or thornes of riches, matter of felicity; yet let us make choyce of the Lord to bee our God; and when we have done, maintaine our choyce. Numb. 18. 20. Thou shalt have none inheritance in their land, I am thy part and thine inheritance. (There is both aliquid amplius, and aliquid melius) sayd God to Aaron. We know the price St. Paul set vpon other things was but Phil. 3. 8. [...] doung, a word Beza in loc. then the which nothing can sound more to contempt, for it is as much as [...] scraps and offalls that wee cast forth to dogs. Let us give it the true waight upon our soules, and if any would offer us the whole world in competition to God, let us say in an holy disdaine, as Hazael to Elisha, 2 King. 8. 13. Am I a dogge that I should doe this thing? Let the very site and position of our hearts which are close-pointed towards earth, and open at the top towards heaven incite us to be heavenly minded: let our faces which are turned upward moue vs, in that God by nature, Os homini sublimi dedit, coelum (que) tueri: let the very appellatives of [...] comming from [...], and of [...] from [...] prevaile with us, or let Saint Pauls word Rom. 1. 1. [...], which belongs to our office to doe it: Let the imprest of our frontlet Holinesse, [Page 24] which is the separation of a thing from a terrene & common use, as the term à quo (so much sounds the Greeke word [...] ab a pr [...]v. & [...] terr [...]. [...],) and the appropriating it to a divine use, as the terme ad quem, doe it. Lastly, let the good word of God which hath in it not onely light to direct us, but power to assist us, doe it; while it is still admonishing us to use the world as if we used it not, to seeke those things that are above, to have our conversation in heaven, &c. Let (I say) these things move us not onely with our eyes to gaze up into heaven like those Acts 1. 11. Galileans, or like the Pope Sir Fr. Bacons Apophthegm. who had found the keyes, but sursum Corda like David, Psal. 25. 1.
SECTION VI. The Diamond.
THis is one of those foure which is not found in the Apocalypse, but by another name: but of all others it is the stone of price: for as of all metals gold is most precious, because it is most ductile and soft, so of all stones the Diamond, because it is most hard, for else in colour and beauty it is inferiour to the Carbuncle, Opale, Saphire, and Emeraud. Cardan saith there was one at Antwerp valued at 150000 Crowns of Gold: therefore Kings under whose Dominions they are, make such strict Lawes, as if one exceed two drachms, it is the [Page 25] Kings, and if any defraud him of one, he confiscates himselfe and all his substance.
The Vertue.
AN Durities inenarabilis. inenarrable hardnesse is the first and chiefe quality of the Diamond, in so much as those that cut them can find out nought but their owne dust to polish them withall. Therefore the Jahalom a rad. halam, vide Pagnin ibid. Hebrew name comes from a root signifying to breake or bruise, either [...], because it cannot bee broken with any thing more hard, or because it breakes all other stones: and the Greeke Ab a priv. partic. & [...], domo, subigo, q. d. [...], word [...]. sounds as much as indomable: which word also the Adamas. Latines retaine to call it by. Yet for all this it yeelds to and is softned with the blood of a Goat. Heare Pliny averre it with an emphasis: Lib. 37. cap. 4. Invicta illa vis, duarum violentissimarum rerum ferri ignis (que) contemptrix, hircino rumpitur sanguine. So he. Subtil. excer. 344. S. 8. Scaliger (the fourth man that Centur 2. Epist. 44. Lypsius did admire since the world was) disputing the [...] hereof, why thinner blood is resisted, and it admitted, referres it to occulta proprietas, & principium commune, and professeth ingenuously it is hidden from him. The use is excellent, thus: we are all the sons of Ovid. 1. Metam Iaphet, begot of stones, Virg. Aenid▪ 4. Durus genuit nos cautibus horrens—Caucasus. I would it were Nabal only that were 1 King. 25. tanquam lapis: but it may bee said to every one Terent. in Heauton. quid stas lapis? even Peter himselfe, if he had not beene Petra a rocke of stone, would not have stayed so many crowes before he wept, seeing Zanch. de operibus Dei lib. 3. cap. 4. the crowing of cockes foretelleth a shower. And which is worse, this callosity or hardnesse is not of [Page 26] any meane part, like those Exod. 33. 3. durae cervicis, but of the heart it selfe; Circa praecordia ferrum, it is the heart, as is said of lob 41. 24. Leviathan, which is harder then the nether milstone: yea and this is not the hardnesse of any soft Pumex, but of the Diamond which is harder then hardnesse it selfe, Zach. 7. 11. adamantina corda is the Prophets owne phrase, They have made their hearts as hard as the Adamant: and which is still worse, besides that naturall [...] which is hereditary to every son of Adam & traduced with the seed, there is an adventitious hardnesse which is more dangerous, as comming both from an habite and custome of sinning, and from the iust iudgment of God, which doth punish one sin w th another, as Rom. 1. 27. [...] a just recompence of our former errour; but which is worst of all, as in fome this hardnesse of heart is perceived, and felt, and complained on, & means sought to helpe it: so in others it is not perceived, and felt; or if perceived not felt: So holy Greenham See his Letter of hardnesse of heart. distinguisheth to his distressed friend. Such may say as Salomons Drunkard, Pro. 23. v. ult. Some have smitten me but I am not sicke, some have beaten me but I feele it not: by all this it appeares that Churchmen are as the seed-man in the Luke 8. Gospell, they must sow the seed of the word often amongst stones.
Notwithstanding, God be thanked that even an Adamant, as hard as it is, may bee mollified by the blood of a goat: Christ Iesus is this goat, hee is hircus emissarius the scape goat, carrying our finnes into the wildernesse. It is true, he is agnus immaculatus, an innocent sweet-breathed lambe in regard [Page 27] of the purity of his owne nature; but as our sinnes are imputed to him, hee is hircus foetidus, a stinking goat; so that it is true that Heb. 9. 12: we are not purified by the blood of goats, that is, of the type: but we are purified by the blood of a goat, that is, the antitype, Christ: and it pleaseth mee not a little to see Christ so pointed at in our pectorall. Christ crucified must bee the subject of all our preaching; when soever therefore we meet with any that have a stone in their heart, apply wisely and faithfully unto it the warme blood of the slaine goat. Wee must both goe our selves and bring others by Golgotha and Calvery to the mount of Olives; by Christ crucifyed to Christ glorified; by him descended into hel, unto him ascended into heaven. Divinely Perkins, Of the right knowledge of Christ crucified he: If thou wouldest come to God for grace, for comfort, for salvation, for any blessing, come first to Christ, hanging, bleeding, dying on the crosse, without whom there is no hearing God, no helping God, no saving God, no God to thee at all.
The Colour.
THe Colour of the Diamond some liken ferr [...] candenti, some to the light of a lanthorne, others to Christall, but more opake and darke, and yet more transparent, and pellucide too; which colour is very neer, if not the same with that of the female Ligure, next following, where I will speake of it.
SECTION VII. The Ligure.
THE Diamond is the last of the second row, and this is the first of the third: our last English Translators, Iosephus, Hierome, and the Septuagints call it [...] Ligurium, the Ligure, as if it were from the Countrey Liguria. But two great Clerkes Erasmus and Vatablus correcting Hierome, will have it [...] Lyncurium, as compounded of [...] Lynx, and [...] urina, because this stone is engendered of the congealed urine which this spotted beast excerneth and rendreth into the sand, there covering it as repining that any man should find it.
That there is such a beast I thinke no man doubts: for we had one of them in the tower at London, which is fully described by that famous and learned Physitian D. Cay, the skinn whereof is or was lately to be seene. And that there is such a stone ingendered of the urine of this beast wee have the testimonies of Aristole, Pliny, Plutarch, Dioscorides, Rabanus, Theophrastus, &c. and he whom I last named laboureth to establish it by reason, that it is as probable that the urine of a Lynx should congeale into a stone among sand, as the urine of a man in his reines or bladder If any be curious to know more hereabout, I referre him to the English Gesner of M r. Topsel..
The Vertue.
THE naturall property of this stone is to have an attractive power, that Confricatus paleas ad se trahit. Rabanus, Theophrastus, nec folia tantum aut stramenta ad se rapit, sed aeris etiam ac ferri laminas. Plin. lib. 37. cap. 3. being rubbed, it drawes unto it leaves, strawes, brasse, iron, gold, and the like, in regard of which quality it is like to the load-stone, jett and amber; whereby thus much is strongly insinuated, that Ministers should endeavour for a winning and drawing facultie. Wheresoever true grace is in the hart of any good Christian, there is a desire and itch also to draw others to that sweetnes w ch they themselves have found in the wayes of God; it is of a leavening and communicating nature: here Prou. 9. 17. hidden bread is not pleasant, nor stollen waters sweet. Gen. 22. 5. I and the lad, sayd Abraham; Iosh. 24. 15. I and my house, sayd Ioshua; Hest. 4. 16. I and my maides, said Esther. Iohn 1. 46. Come and see, said Philip to Nathaniel; Ch. 4. v. 29. Come see a man, sayd the Samaritane woman to her neighbours. Come and see was the word of the foure beasts, at opening the foure first seales, Apoc. 6. But a Church-man most of all should goe as the male goat before the flocke, Volentes ducens, nolentes trahens. leading the willing, and drawing the backward. He being converted must strengthen his brethren: he having received a Talent of his Master must occupie till he come: he must draw to, and build on the foundation Christ Iesus, proselytes and converts of all sorts and conditions; 1 Cor. 3. 12. gold, silver, timber, hay, and stubble: he, as Amphion by his harmony brought men from savagenesse to civility, must bring men from reason to Religion: he as another Orpheus, must draw after him wilde beasts, and woods and stones to the building of the new Ierusalem: [Page 30] he like another Hercules the Lady Proserpina, must draw out of hell such poore soules as the Prince of infernall powers hath ravished, especially such as cry to Christ principally, to him ministerially, Cant. 1. 3. Draw me and I will runne after thee. And the Eare is that by which such must be drawne to God. Cynthius aurem vellit: There is no message or embassage from God or man hath accesse but thorow these gates. Therefore hath God placed them on the top of his building, as on two turrets, the better to attend, because sound ascendeth: therefore also that the voyce doe not suddenly strike the braine, but may lengthen it selfe in the accesse, have they such sloping and hollow entries, turning Labyrinths, and bowed Meanders, as wee know noises from a Trumpet or Sagbut find a longer life then from a Flute or Fife, and raise that eccho from betweene the teeth of hanging Rockes, which they doe not from smooth-browed Plaines: therefore also have we two eares, and those standing ever open to all suitors, and one mouth, and that fenced with a double port-cullis of the teeth and lips, that (as S. Iames counsels) we should be swift to heare as slow to speake: therefore also Mercury in Mythologie though hee were a gentill-god, yet was a thiefe, because Eloquence steales away the heart of men. For men, like some beasts, are soonest taken and surest held by the eares. It is a notable Apophthegme of Plutarch, [...] Plut. polit. They say in the Proverb, It is hard to hold a Wolfe by the eares, but who so will lead a city or a people, shall soonest doe it by the [Page 31] eares: which they shall never doe, who come into their Pulpits no oftner then the High-priest into the Sanctum Sanctorum once a yeere: who, if at any time they flye from danger, I would wish them to goe hide them in their Pulpits, where none that knowes them will seeke for them.
The Colour.
THE colour of this stone Emaribus fulvum & igneum, è foe [...]i [...]is la [...] guidum atque candidum. Plin. l. 37. c. 2. if it be condensate of the urine of the male Lynx, is yellow and more fiery, if of the female, white and more languishing. Of that colour I spoke before in the Topaze, which easeth both you and my selfe of some labour: of this I am now to treat. The female is a white stone, and a white stone signifies absolution: for Vlpian. in D [...] most. cont. Ti [...]oc. in judgements of old they used to give a blacke stone to a condemned person, and a white stone to him whom they quit and cleared.
In which respect it was that Alcibiades would not trust his mother in a judgement of life and death, lest at unawares she should cast the blacke stone for the white: and Apoc. 2. 17. there is promised to him that overcommeth, a white stone, and a new name written in it, that is, absolution and regeneration. Tertul. de resurrect. carni [...] Therefore also primative Christians clad their servants in white at Whitsontide, in token of their manumission: which may well admonish Ministers to whom God hath committed [Page 32] the word of reconciliation, having chosen, separated, and set them apart to be the Committees of the loosing keyes, so as none can forgive sinnes but God, none can declare and pronounce them to be forgiven but Ministers; others may comfort with good words, none can absolve but they, that, I say, they doe not so much neglect the exercising their power of absolution, out of I know not what spicednesse of a non-informed conscience, that it hath too much affinity with auriculaer confession: but that Iob 33 13. when God strikes a man with malady on his bed, so that his soule draweth neere to the grave, and his life to the buriers, there may be a messenger with him to declare unto him his righteousnesse, that God may have mercy on him. Especially seeing it is so consonant to Mat. 16. 19. &c. 18. v. 18. Iohn 20. 21. 23. Iam. 5. 17. Apoc. 11. 6. Scriptures, to Visitation of the sicke. the Liturgy of our Church, to Cal. l. 3. instit. c. 4. sect. 12. Beza antith. pap. & Christia. those whom we esteeme most orthodoxe, and D. Holland absolved D. Reinolds, &c. the practice of worthy men. But besides this, Loimat. l. 3. c. 13. white signifies innocency and purity: therefore Solomons throne was of white Ivory. Our Saviour was both transfigured and buried in white. Lyps. electorum l. 1. c. 13. The ancient Romanes used to weare a white garment in their solemnities, which if it bore onely the native colour of the wooll, was called [...] or alba toga, if it did shine by art, [...] or candida. Cap. 9. v. 8. At all times let thy garments be white, saith Ecclesiastes. Pope Sylvester refused Constantines rich Miter for a meane white one. White hath ever beene usuall for Church-men to weare both under the Law and Gospell; yea even for the heathen Priests in their sacrifices to their Panim gods: no doubt, to put them in minde they should [Page 33] be as spotlesse as Lawne in an harmlesse and Dovelike innocency. We must be wise as Serpents, innocent as Doves: T. T. wise, I say, not wily; innocent, not innocents. It becomes us to be bunglers in sinne, and ignorant of the depths and methods of Satan, in regard of treading those mazes our selves, though not of unsecreting them to others. To souldiers a white shield was accounted inglorious, because they used to write their exploits on them. Not so to us; but if we be rightly Candidati here, we shall ere long Apoc. 3. 5. [...] 19. 8. be clothed in white: as was said of Hooper and Ridly, they disagreed about white at the first, (for good men may differ in judgement about matters of ceremony) but they after agreed in blacke in prison, in ash-colour at the stake, and in white in heaven.
SECTION VIII. The Achate.
SO called, Lib. 37. c. 10. saith Pliny, because it is found in Sicilia, by a river of the same name, and is thought to be the same with the Chrysoprase, which is the tenth in the Revelation.
The Vertue.
IT doth admirably delight the beholders with the varietie of formes, and diversity of things, which is obvious to each eye that gazeth on it. It [Page 34] sheweth you living creatures, fields, medowes, rivers, groves, trees, rockes, Natura ludente, (saith Cardan) nature even sporting and as it were wantoning with change. That famous one in the ring of King Pyrrhus, wherein were the nine Muses, and Apollo playing in the midst, is acknowne to every one either by reading or relation. So that of this gemme may be fitly applied what the Ovid. 1. metamorph. Poet said of Chaos, that it containes— discordia semina rerum. Vnder which may well be veiled that diversity of gifts wherewith it is requisite a Minister of the Gospell should be endowed; one while weaving the warpe of faith, another while the woofe of good workes; now laying the foundation, anon building thereon: first imitating the Bee, the Muses bird, gathering the Prov. 25. 27. hony of knowledge from the flowers of others; then the Spider, spinning a threed of truth out of his owne braine or experience. Alexander Hales is called the irrefragable Doctor, Scotus the subtle, Bradwardine the profound, Occam the invincible, Burley the perspicuous, Baconthorpe the resolute. Aquinas the angelicall, Bonaventure the seraphicall. These are swelling titles conferred upon them, according to the Planet which was predominant in each of their braines. Indeed S. Paul rightly censures them to be 1 Cor. 12. 4. diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. So when one and the same man undergoes the office both of a Doctor to teach, a Pastor to perswade, and a Deacon to governe; beginning with chatechisticall Divinity to his A. b. c. darians; proceeding to positive with grounded Christians; holding on to polemicall with curious [Page 35] and exquisitive heads, and ending a casuist with perplexed consciences; discreetly applying each point for and according to the auditory Method [...] applicandi Scripturas, quâ utitur D. Amandus P [...] lan [...] & alii &c: first to [...] teach truth by way of doctrine, then to [...]. improve errour by way of elench, nextly to [...]. correct vice by way of reproofe, besides to [...]. discipline in godlinesse by way of instruction, lastly to [...]. comfort and strengthen the heart in distresse by way of consolation, (which seemes to be the most Scripture-like method of all others, 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Rom. 15. 4.) this I say, is 1 Cor. 12. 5. differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And further, this variousnes of the Achate appeares in us, while we doe not rest and subside upon one object, but are strengthning this mans faith, anchoring anothers hope, kindling anothers charity, blowing the coales of his zeale, urging his repentance, directing his obedience, visiting his sicke couch: thus when alma mater Academia hath once delivered us over to Sancta Mater Ecclesia, Dura Mater to Pia Mater, wee should make the Church the center, and the Parish the circumference of our circular motion, every where espying where a great and effectuall doore is open unto us; that so Bradfords speech be not true [...], that the Devill is onely diligent Bishop in his Diocesse.
The Colour.
THe colour also is so various, as one would think their sight erred about the proper object, which is colour. It is white, red, yellow, blacke, greene, blew, what not? in so much Vt unum lapidem esse nom creda [...]. Cardan. as it seemes scarce to be one and the same stone. So must we garment [Page 36] our faces with any colour, and put on any passion, if by an holy temporizing we see we are likely to prevaile. We must be Proteo mutabiliores as well in our affections and conversing with men, as in our doctrine. If with Amos wee bee called to preach to Shepheards, we must Humi repentia verba, polit. creepe on the ground in vulgar termes; if with Isay to the Court, we must be glad to speake sterling, and embellish our sentences with words as well as things, if wee will be heard; if we have to doe with merry greeks, we must come to them as Christ, eating and drinking; if with severe Catoes, we must approach them as Iohn, neither eating nor drinking; to sanguinists we must pipe; to melancholists mourne; to Caligula wee must thunder; to such 2 Tim. 4. 17. Ad cantum Galli pavet Leo. Lyons as Nero (we must as Peter was roused) crow them to repentance. Heare S. Paul; 1 Cor. 9. 20, 21, 22. To the Iewes I became as a Iew that I might winne the Iewes: to them that were under the Law, that I might winne them under the Law: to them that are without the Law, &c. Briefly then thus much: Virgil throughout all the travels and troubles of Aeneas, brings in still his faithfull friend Achates accompanying him: wherin Scaliger. Poet. lib. 3. is to be observed the prudence of the Poet, not to suppose a man to wade through such miseries as Aeneas did, without an alter idem, a bosome friend to be [...], to be sory for his harmes, and so making his woes sit the lighter: Even so a Churchman in all his ministeriall paines & travels should be fido comitavus Achate, in thus ringing of changes, and 1 Cor. 9. [...]2. being made all things to all men, that he may by all meanes save some.
SECTION IX. The Amethist.
The Vertue.
THis is here the ninth, and with St. Iohn the last of all the twelve: looke what Vertue is given by herbarists to Coleworts, and the Almond tree, the same do lapidaries give to the Amethyst, to wit, that it resists Drunkennesse, by consuming the vapour of the wine, and hindering it to ascend to the braine. This is attributed to it not by one or two, but by all authours that I have seene; except Vmbilico app [...] situs admodum vini vaporem ad se trabit & discutit. Arist. one that questions it: a Io. Tho. Frigius de lapid. pretios. and the very Ab a priv. & [...] vinum▪ name strongly imports it, q. d. from or contrary to wine. lib. 1. c. 177. [...]. Dioscorides makes this word the concrete to bitter Almonds, saying that five or six of them being taken [...] are as good as Amethysts. Wee should hereby learne Plin. l. 27. c. 7: [...] for this stone was not put into the pectorall for him that is 1 Tim. 5. 23. [...] a Timothy, haec non scribuntur aquae potoribus, but to to Esa. 28. 7. the Priest and Prophet who erre by reason of wine, and faile in vision with strong drinke. Note then that there is here an Amethyst as well as a Rubie, that these precious stones are not to bee set on our noses or fuaces (which many a man may thanke his cold liver for) but on our breast-plates. Divinity is an art Theologia est ars rectè vivendi. P. Rom. Th [...]. rectè vivendi, not bibendi, unlesse we will [Page 38] turne bibere into vivere, in our lewd lives, as Hispani & Vascones B emolliunt ad V digamma, homines sobrij, & quibus non placet bibere sed vivere. Lyps. de pronun. Lat. ling. cap. 12. the Italians and Gascoignes doe in their pronunciation. The office of a Diuine not [...] but [...] Acts 19. 8. to perswade those things which belong to the Kingdome of God, unlesse we thinke foecundi calices quos non fecere facundos? We must keepe the Feast Tabernaculorum, not tabernarum, of Tabernacles, not Tavernes; Prov. 31. 4. It is not for Kings to drinke wine, nor Princes strong drinke: much lesse is it for Priests. For it was the blessing of Iudah the Lawgiver, not of Levi the Priest, that Gen. 49. 12. his eyes should bee red with wine. It is true, the Church is called a vineyard, but wee are termed labourers in that vineyard; wee are set to worke, not to eate clusters of grapes; let us a little reason the matter. Can it bee fit, that Christ for us should drinke gall and vineger, and we wine & sugar? that he should thirst, & we be drunk? that those hands which give the blood of Christ in the chalice to penitent sinners, should lift the blood of grapes in bowles to themselves? that those eyes which should be sod in teares for the sinnes of the people, should be red with wine? that it should now be a vertue which was a curse, with stammering lippes to speake to the people? that a Prophet should usurpe a Patriarchs blessing, to wash his garments in wine, and lace them with streames of strong drinke, so as like the dew of Hermon upon Aaren, it run downe his beard to the skirts of his cloathing? that those whom their parents and friends have dedicated ad aras, should suit better ad haras, fitter to bee a swineheard, then a shepheard? fitter (I speake boldly, but faithfully) for a [Page 39] haltar, then an altar? The Law was so strict that a Priest might not drinke wine or strong drink Levit. 10. 9. when he came into the Tabernacle of the congregation: and St. Paul requires that we bee not 1 Tim 3. 3. given to wine? Wine may be given to us ( Prov. 31. 6. da vinum lugentibus) but we not given to wine. He is Gen. 49. 11. an ass that is bound to a vine, that is, hath said so oft, I will seeke it once againe; as now the drunken devill cannot be cast out of him: the matter were lesse if no body would tell 2 Sam. 1. 20. our disorder in Gath, nor publish it in the streets of Askalon: or if like Noah, we had still some friend or sonne by us, to lye us on a bed, and cover our nakednesse: or if all were of noble [...] Zonaras, cap. 1. tom. 2. an. Constantines mind, that if he were an eye witnesse of a Church-man offending, hee would cover him with the lappe of his purple gowne; or if our people thought so well of us, as when they saw us courting a mistresse, to thinke wee did it to blesse her, or when they saw us drunke, to imagine us to be ravished in spirit, or to have seene a vision. But the case is quite otherwayes, they looke on our faults thorow multiplying glasses; if our sinnes bee foule and blacke, they shew farre on our white Ephods, if they be splendida peccata, they shew farre on our blacke coats. Our Charge are ready to say as Michal of 2 Sam. 6. 2 [...]. David, our ghostly father hath uncovered himselfe this day in the eyes of his people, as a foole uncouereth himselfe. Yet God forbid I should seeke to abridge any of that lawfull liberty which cost Christ as deare for us as any other; tho others gnats and moats be our beames and camels, yet are not others vertues our vices. Quod licet Christiano, [Page 40] licet manacho; not onely Tully dates his Epistle to Vide Cic. ad Atticum lib. 2. Epist. 11. his Atticus, à tribus tabernis, but also Acts 28. 15. St. Paul was met at the three taverns, the same place, so doth he allow Timothy 1 Tim. 5. 23. [...]., a modicum, a little wine: and Salomon in his chiliads prescribes the same dosis foure severall times, Cha. 15. v. 16. a little with the feare of the Lord; Chap. 17. v. 1 a little with peace; Chap. 16. v. 8. a little with equitie; Chap. 15. 17. a little with love; not [...] as in the feast in Homer; nor as in that of Assuerus at Sushan, where Esther 1. 8. every one dranke as much as hee pleased and would, unlesse we first will no more then we should, and then we may what wee will. Our Saviour at Cana turned water into wine, let us, if wee have offended in intemperancy, turne that wine into the teares of godly sorrow, the water of our second baptisme; in a word, if we stand, let us beware we fall not; if wee have fallen, let us care how to rise againe. If any thinke I have shred to many gourds into his pot of drinke, it is my zeale against that vice, which I may rightly call dehonestamentum Cleri.
The Colour.
THE Colour of the Amethyst is Amethysti fulgens purpurae Plin. l. 37. c. 6. a fulgent purple, much of the colour of wine; neither differs it much from the colour of the red Sardius, which was the first stone; Purple and scarlet did not differ so much of old as they doe now, although they were of divers ingredients, the purple of the juyce of a shell-fish, and the scarlet of the graines of a berry, Rex Iacobus in his patterne of a Kings inauguration, p. 30. Item Beza annot. in Mat. 27. v. 28 & Horat. ser. 2. sat. 6. ancient purple was of a reddish colour, tho now these sorts of dyes be lost: and that garment [Page 41] w ch the soldiers put on Christ, Matthew cals it Compare Mat. 27. v. 28. with Mark. 15. 17. Ioh. 19. 2 chlamidem coc [...]ineā, a scarlet robe, but both Mark and Iohn call it vestem purpuream, a purple garment. Anchises when hee sacrificed, covered his head with red, and Aeneas his sonne was commanded the same. Our eminent Prelates and Doctors, and also the Cardinals in the Church of Rome doe weare Hoods and Gownes of Purple and Scarlet, which occasioned Beza's salt Epigram of Crede mihi nullo saturatas murice vestes. Divite nec cocco pilea tinctavide [...]: Sed quae rubrae vides sanctorum caede virorum; Et m [...]rsa insonti tota cruore mandent. Aut memor istorum quae celet crimina vestis, Pro dominis iusto tacta pudore rubet. Cardinalis purpuratus. So also souldiers and men of Armes; for the Trojans and Romans used to weare Mandilions of red. Tamberlaine the second day of his siege set up a red Tent. The hearses of those that had fought valiantly, were covered with red, as painters use to attire all in red, or to give them a red mantle in token of their martyrdome, who have valiantly shed their blood for the faith of Christ; the reason is because Loimat. in his booke of colors chap. 14. red or purple signifie courage and magnanimity: Therefore the Lyon and such stout beasts cannot endure the sight thereof. Wee read in 1 lib. cap. 6. ver. 34. Macabees how to provoke Elephants to fight, they shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberries; and surely those that have continually bellum cum vitijs, stand as much need of courage, as those that combate with men: and I see not why those who have gifts from God, and calling from men, should not be as stout as Ambrose. The badge of Iudah the Lawgiver, was a Lyon: Zinglius dyed in the field. Luther sayd, if every tile in Wormes were a Devill, he would goe thither for the truths sake. Calvin, when the Senate of Geneva had granted a relaxation of the excommunication [Page 42] of Bertelier sayd, before this decree take place, either my blood or banishment shall seale it. Archbishop Whitgift feared not to say, in these cases, The Lords of the Counsell are to be advised by us, and not wee by them, besides that one of his Apophthegms to his familiar friends was, two things did much stead him to be confident in good causes, orbitas & senectus. Campian wrote to the Lords of the Counsell, while they had one drop of blood to lose at Tyburne, they would not forsake their cause. O that such metall was misplaced! but certainly, They that dare doe, dare suffer. And this was the cause why in old time Ecclesiastickes Fax Act. Mon. pag. 113. desired Martyrdome, as much as they doe Bishoprickes now. In a word, while wee bee not 1 Pet. 4. [...], but place right meer-stones to circumscribe and bounder in our boldnesse, within the proper sphere of its owne activity; it will well enough become every one of us to challenge Baconthorps style of Doctor resolutus.
SECTION X. The Tarshish or Berill.
WIth this beginnes the fourth row, it is the eight in the Apocalypse, an Indian Gemme which jewellers use to cut corner-wise, because it sheweth dull if the colour be not stirred up by the repercussion of the angles.
The Vertue.
PLiny and others are silent in the vertues of this stone. But I have a laborious Lapidary by me, who is anonymus, and so antique that (as Vix divinare Lectionem. Erasmus sayd of the writings of Hierom) I can scarce divine the reading; who affirmes the Berill being steeped in water, and that water drunke, to bee availeable against all griefes and diseases of the eyes: which assertion hee confirmes also under the mouths of three witnesses, Arnoldus, Dioscorides, and one Nuba an author to me unknowne. Lev. 21. 20. Vnder the Law whosoever had any blemish in his eye was not capable of Priesthood. Prov. 22. 9. Blessed is the man (saith Salomon) who hath a good eye. Even Profecto in oculis animus habitat, Plin. nat. histor. the whole soule seemes to dwell and reside in that little round sphericall ball of the eye, so as by that looking-glasse, it is easie to know what passion is predominant in the mind: if love, the eye lookes; if sorrow, it weepes; if admiration, it gazeth; if madnesse, it stareth; if anger, [Page 44] it sparkleth; if feare, it twinckleth; if pride, it is lift up; if humility, it is cast downe: You will wonder, so little a substance to be obnoxious to so many infirmities as the oculist will tell you. So are there many spirituall maladies therein, for which we must provide eye-salve: there is the Subsan [...]s Pro. 30. 17. scoffing and scorning eye first of all: secondly, the Immisericors, Pro. 22. 9. and cha. 28. ver. 27. mercilesse eye: thirdly, the Caecus, Rom. 11. 10. Ephes. 1. 18. blind ignorant eye: fourthly, Magnificus, Pro. 30. 13. and ch. 6. ver. 16. proud and lofty eye: fiftly, the Venereus, 1 Io. 2. 16. Mat. 5. 28. lustfull venereous eye which is full of adultery: sixtly, the Rubicundus, Prou. 23. 29. red or drunken eye: seventhly, the Aemulus, Mat. 20. 1 [...]. envious maligning eye: eightly, the Nictans, Pro. [...]0. 10. winking or dissembling eye: lastly, the Avarus, Eccles. 4. 8. covetous insatiable eye; so that the SIC MVRAENA. Muraena hath not more eies on a side then are evil eyes mentioned in holy Scriptures. But the man of God should ever be provided of a Collyrium for his ghostly patients affected with any of these kinds of sore eyes: first making them wash them in their owne syrrope, the salt and brackish teares of contrition for what is past, and then anointing them with Psal. 19. 10. honey of Gods word, which ver. 8. giveth light to the eyes to direct the whole man for the time to spend, so as he shall be constrained to speak out Ionathans words, 2 Sam. 14. how are mine eyes enlightned since I tasted of this honey.
The Colour.
THe colour is a Sea-water-greene. And Pliny who seemes to have had an exact knowledge of the Berill, after hee hath reckoned up seven distinct kinds, saith, Probatissimisunt ex iis qui [...]iriditatem puri maris imitantur. lib. 37. cap. 5. Those are the best which imitate the [Page 45] greennesse of pure Sea-water. Apocalypsis Apocalypse [...]. c. 21. Brightmans conceit pleaseth me well in this point: The watery-colour (saith he) betokeneth lenity and humility, such as water it selfe is, which will easily give place to every thing: and so it fitly followes the majesticall Chrysolite (as S. Iohn reckons them,) that so it may keepe the statelinesse thereof within measure and compasse. So he. By which element also Virgil paraphraseth the same vertue, when he compares a meeke man to a standing poole, which yet is farre more calme and gentle then the Sea, whose face is so much vwrinckled with billowes:
Heare S▪ Pauls ordination-sermon, 2 Tim. 2. 24. 25. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but bee gentle towards all men, apt to teach, suffering the evill, instructing with meeknesse, &c. Heare his Consecration-sermon, Tit. 1. 7. A Bishop must be unreproveable as Gods Steward, not froward nor angry, &c. Indeed Aristotle calls anger Calcar virtutis the Spurre of Vertue: but I have heard there is an old canon that Churchmen may not weare spurres, or have armed heeles. The meeke (saith Mat. 5. 5. our Saviour) shall inherit the land: and yet those who inherit no land (such were the Tribe of Levi under the Law altogether, such is it now for the most part) must be meeke. Ordinarily men will be perswaded to vertue, hardly compelled; they may be led to heaven, not drawne: more are won with the blandishments of sweet words, then with calling downe for fire from heaven. The [Page 46] word of God prevailes more when it falls like raine into a fleece of wooll, then when it rattles as a shower on the tyles. Oratory is more gratefull when it is put in the forme of entreaties, then when of commands. Counsels sound better to us then praecepts. It is usually not so prevalent to come with a rod, as to come with the spirit of meeknesse. Few are like nettles which bite being gently touched, most are like thornes which will not be grasped. 1 King. 19. 11. &c. When God appeared to Eliah, he was neither in the whistling wind, nor in the quivering Earthquake, nor in the scorching fire, but in a still and soft voice. Yet may this doctrine vary according to the differing dispositions either of Pastor or People: To a meeke and gentle Titus, Tit. 2. 15. These things speake, and rebuke with all authority, especially having to doe with stiffe natures. To a more forward Timothy, 2 Tim. 4. 2. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering: which difference of natures S. Gregory observes to have beene the reason of the Apostles differing admonitions. There is need of the spirit of an Ambrose and a Luther, to contest with an Emperour and a Pope.
SECTION XI. The Onyx.
WHich is the fift with S. Iohn: onely note that there it is called the Sardonyx: for the Sardius often growes out of the Onyx, so as in the bottome of the stone is seene an Onyx, in the top a Sardius, whence it takes the name from both, and is called a Sard-onyx. Such an one Vide lib. [...]. Subtil. Cardan had himselfe. And it well differenceth both the Sardonyx from the Sardius, that the fift, this the sixt in the foundation; and also the Sardius from the Onyx, that the first, this the last save one of the Pectorall. The want of observing whereof hath bred not a little confusion amongst Authors.
The Vertue.
THis stone being Albertus. hung about the neck, confirmeth and strengthneth the whole body: Cardan. which it doth because it is of a cold astringent quality, whereby it unites and constringeth the spirits: for which reason the Indians use to carry it about them as an amulent against venery. And surely God had need to deck his Priests with health, that his Saints may rejoyce and sing. A painfull labourer in Gods Vineyard had need of a compact athleticall body, ne pe [...]cet ad extremum. Let his [Page 48] brests runne with milke, and his bones with marrow, study and paines will exhaust his spirits, and consume him as the f [...]me doth the oyle in his lampe. Notwithstanding, how many will make themselves our taske-masters, speaking to us as to bricke-makers, Exod. 5. 17. Ye are too idle? these, it may be, would even tell Tostatus as much, for all his 14 Volumes in folio, which a Scholler knowes could neuer have beene done but by an Edmund Iron-side, nor scarce written but Ier. 17. 1. with a penne of iron. Reading is the least part of study, and yet Eccl. 12. [...]2. much reading is a wearinesse to the flesh: it is well that so wise a man as Solomon hath said it, and in that booke too where he styles himselfe The Peacher, else hee would soone have beene impleaded. Preaching is but one part of ministeriall paines, which is something if it were no more then declamare ad clepsydram, to cry aloud, and lift up a mans voice like a Trumpet for an houre together, which Perkins found, who after his preaching used to spit up his lungs. But it is the soule that preacheth, the understanding is busied to conceive, the memory to recount, the affections to expresse, &c. therefore [...] koheleth. the Hebrew word, and [...]. Greeke too is of the feminine gender, q. d. a shee Preacher, meaning the Soule. But if a mans bones were of brasse, and his strength the strength of stones, and yet he be so much wasted, as like S. Iohn at Ephesus, he must be carried to his Pulpit in a chaire, his infirmities may be his comfort, if he be divinis consumptus laboribus, as was Humphred. de Juello. said of B. Iewel.
The Colour.
THe colour is just the same with the nayle of a mans hand, Dicitur [...], quia colore similis est ungui humano. Plin. l. 37. cap. 6. whence by reason of the similitude, it hath the name of [...]: therefore they that parallell these 12 stones with the 12 Patriarchs, write Iosephs name upon this, understanding by the flesh-coloured whitenesse, Candorem virtutis, that candidnesse and whitenesse of vertue which was in Ioseph. For Onyx colour (like Roses spred on Lawne) is ad unguem [...], vertues tincture and dye. Palenesse in the face is rather the colour of vice; for we are wont Hor. ep. 1.—nullâ pallesce [...]re culpâ. pallescere culpâ; besides that it is the colour of death, sins proper stipend, Apoc. 6. 8. Behold, a pale horse, and death sitting on him: Hor. [...]d. lib. 1. Pallida mors, &c. Red is the colour of guiltinesse, anger, and choller: but that inimitable mixture of both, which is in the nayle, wherewith every finger of the hand is so artificially tipped, as it were with pearle-shell, is the proper livery of a pious and vertuous disposition. It is a shred of an Italian Letany, From a blacke German, and a pale Spaniard, and a red Italian, libera nos Domine. The application is this, that we take to us that sweetnesse of manners, and amiablenesse of cariage, which may win men to our Ministery, and endeare us to them with whom we converse, that we joyne to those Theologicall vertues of faith, hope, and charity, without which we cannot s [...]ve our selves; those Morall vertues of candor, gentlenesse, affability, curtesie, and meeknesse, without which we shall hardly ever save others. Learning and grace ( Galba ingenium malè habitat. like Galba's wit) may [Page 50] dwell ill, to wit, in a morose and crabbed nature: but we should doe our endeavor, that Those who will not give eare unto the Word, may without the Word bee wonne by our blamelesse and candide conversation.
SECTION XII. The Iasper.
THis is the first stone in the foundation, though the last here in the Pectorall, so proper is it here, The last shall be first. Yea there it is not onely one of the twelve, but Apoc. 21. 18. the structure of the wall also is of Iasper: and Cap. 4. 3. before it is put to represent the glory and Majesty of God the Father. We need not feare to be mistaken in the stone, for nomen tri-lingue sounds the same both in Iaspis. Latine, [...]. Greeke, and Iosphe. Hebrew; and the Arabicke word Montanus saith is Iasp.
The Vertue.
THe vertue of it is to confirme and comfort the stomach, for which the use of it is approved in Physicke. Vide Cardan. de lapid. Fr. Rueum de Gemmis, l. 2. c. 1. Jo. Magyrum Physiol. l. 3. c. 2. Galen affirmes this to be true, if they be hung against the mouth of the stomach, and professeth himselfe to have made the tryall. Wee need no greater witnesse. We must Verbum est apud Dioscor. l. 5. [...]: it is not the least part of Ministeriall wisedome to proportion spirituall food to the strength of the receivers [Page 51] stomach: there are both Io. 21. 15. 16. 17 lambes and sheepe to be fed: there are both Heb. 5. 13. 14 babes and adulti that must have meat: there are 1 Ioh. 2. 13. fathers, young-men, and little children to be written unto: in the primative Church there were Catechumenoi, as well as there were knowing and instructed Christians. So also is there 1 Cor. 3. 2. both milke and strong meat: D. Augustin shallow waths which may bee foorded by a Lambe, and abisse whirlepooles where Leviathan may swimme and take his pastime: there are Mat. 21. 15. compared with Apoc. 19. 1. Hosanna's fitted for the mouths of babes and sucklings, and Hallelujahs sung by celestiall quires: there are Heb. 5. 12. with 1 Tim. 3. 16. [...] the very elements and first principles of the word of God which the simplest may learne, as there are [...] abstruse and profound mysteries which doe [...] seale and shut up the mouthes of the subtillest. Sermons are as riddles and clerums to uncatechized soules. He is not like to be a sound Divine who reades Lombard or Aquinas before he be grounded by some orthodoxe institutions; neither are those like to prove stable Christians, who have not for the basis of their faith some Rom. 6. 17. [...] or 2 Tim. 1. 13. [...], to be the touch-stone of those doctrines which are propounded to them to receive. Looke into the writings of the Fathers both of the Greek and Latine Church, and you shall finde that Clemens Alexandrinus had his Pedagogue, Cyril of Hierusalem his Catechisme, Origen that famous Catechist his bookes [...], Theodoret his Epitome [...], Lactantius his Institutions, Augustine his Enchiridion, &c. wee should first lay the foundation in the milk of catechisticall points, [Page 52] and then build thereon the gold of positive or polemicall Divinity. So Eccl. Polit. pref. Hooker truly observes that two things procured Calvin all his deserved honor through the Christian world, the one was his exceeding paines in composing the Institutions of Religion, the other his no lesse industrious travels for exposition of holy Scripture according to the same Institutions: wherein he gained the advantage of prejudice against them which gain-sayd him, and of glory above them which assented to him. It was Iacobs care of his flocke Gen. 33. 14. to drive softly, according to the pace of the cattell. Wee must both in our dogmaticall decisions, and rhetoricall enforcements rather stoope to the capacity of the weake, then raise our matter, words, and method to the ability of one or two intellectualists.
The Colour.
THe colour is a translucent greennesse. Loimatius lib. 3. cap. 17. Greene signifieth Hope; a necessary vertue for the ebbing estate of man in this life, that seeing the dignity of his minde is not such as to beare evills out of fortitude and judgement, the wise providence of God hath provided him to ride at anchor upon hope, by a kind of absenting and alienation of the minde from the present to the future, and by giving scope to the minde to dwell upon the very muse and fore-thought of good to come: which the Poets wittily expressed in their Mythologie of Pandora, whose boxe being emptied of all gifts, yet there remained hope still fitting on the brim thereof. Neither can a Church-man be without it: for [Page 53] Gods promises doe often beare a long date; and the seed of the word even when it is sown in good ground, doth bring forth fruit [...] Luk. 8. 15. in tariance. Though some of our Disciples be of ductile dispositions, and easily follow the worke-mans hammer, in their forming to grace; yet most are of dull eares, stiffe necks, and hard hearts, jeoparding the losse both of our oyle and labour. Now wee had need have hope to expect with patience whilst we offer grace, till the Spirit cloth our words with a hidden and strong power to make them operative; we had need have hope, while they have breath, to see if when they are gone up to their death-beds, they may be gained on, that they fall not into the grave and hell both at once.
Out of what hath beene already spoken you may easily gather who is a worthy, and who is an unworthy Church-man; and surely Church-men are either the most deperdite, or else most happy men of all, even then when as holy writ phraseth it Gn. 42. 36. Iere. 31. 15. Dan. 9. 26. Gen. 5. 24. they are not at all. If others glister as flarres, they shall shine forth as the Sunne in the kingdome of God; If some burne as coales, they must fry as brands in unquenchable fire. So while they are here fulfilling their Ministery, they are either the worthiest or unworthiest of men. A meane is scarce given; for looke what degree of goodnesse a thing holds while it is right, it ebbeth into the same degree of evill when it is retrograde. The best wines make the sharpest vineger, and the Reprobate spirits found not a solstice betwixt the highest heaven, and the nether most hell. Tis true, [Page 54] we are all unworthy ( 2 Cor. 2. 16. [...]) if wee bee brought to the Standart of the Sanctuary: it is well all is required of the best of us, either by Saint Tim. 3. 2. and Tit. 1. 7. Pauls rule, or Luke 1. 6. Zacharies example is to be unreproveable, sine querela, non sine peccato, blamelesse, not faultlesse: Yet it is better we are not to be judged by unequal ballancers of things, or supercilious censurers, who cannot judge of anothers moat for their owne beame, whereby a man may come to bee irreprehensibilis, as the vulgar translates [...] 1 Tim. 3. 2. the word, and not irreprehensus, as Beza: but first by the esteeme of a mercifull and indulgent God, and then of wise and good men who expect not absolute Saint-ship from those who are men of the same infirmities with themselves:
That all were good which serve at the Altar ( non opis est nostrae) is part neither of our power, nor care: None can helpe us here, but onely the highest power of the sword and keyes. Moses and Aaron, the diademe and the rochet, the one by his regall and imperiall scepter, the other by their pastorall and paternall care. If God would put into the heart first of our noble King to give Miters and Altars, as David dedicates his Psalmes Excellentissimo, Iun. vincenti, Sanctes. [...] or as Alexander legacyed out his kingdome [...] and then inspire those Bishops, in their ordinations 1 Tim. 5. 22. to lay hands suddenly on no man unworthy; and in their visitations to correct those who had unworthyed themselves; O then might the unnaturall sonnes of our holy mother the Church, after their so long dishonesting her, bee forced to speake in the language of Nero, touching Agrippina, Nesciebam [Page 55] sanè me tam pulchram matrem habere.
But indeed it is every one of us our concerment in three regards; First that every man bee his owne Diocessan, empyring over his owne affections, and stewarding his gifts and graces so as he may be most serviceable to God & his Church. Nextly, in paying downe a thousand daily vowes on our knees, beseeching the Lord, even our eyes glazed with teares (why should wee spend such heavenly due one earthly trifles?) that hee would pedetentins forme these thing in us; still remembring that qui pro se solo orat, solus orat. Lastly, in stirring up our brethren, as one beacon gives warning to another, and one coale sets another on fire: It is parable which Salomon puts in my mouth Prov. 27. 17. as yron sharpeneth yron, so doth the face of a man his friend: wherein is a helplesse amity, better then an harmelesse enmity.
The Conclusion.
THese are those notions (my two and all deare brothers) which have beene suggested to mee; I hope by a good spirit, while I was scholying upon the High-priests Pectorall, and polishing the twelve stones thereof; which thing I could wish to have been the take of some polite Ieweller indeed, but now I will not goe about either to excuse my selfe for what was in mine owne choyce to have done, or no: neither out of a foolish modesty & affected humility, to supererogate your good opinions by aviling & treading on ( sed majori fastu, as he rightly) these schedules. You are my germane brethren both by nature and function; wherefore your [Page 56] love will not suffer you much to censure, nor your modesty to commend, if they should prevaile with you both ad veniam, and ad gratiam; which they will the sooner doe, if you remember that I write these things not to teach, but to perswade you; or non ut doctiores, sed ut meliores sitis; non ut mentem acuatis, sed ut pectus instruatis. It is apologie enough which I finde the bookes of the Macabees closed withall; If I have done well, and as the matter required, it is the thing that I desired, but if I have spoken slenderly and meanly, it is that I could.
What remaines is equally your care and mine, to wit, to set these gemmes non in pectoralibus, sed in pectoribus, in your brests, not in your brest-plates, to move you to which noble endeavour, would God I knew how best to prevaile with you, whether to put my words into the forme of entreaties or commands: whether to milke you with the blandishments of sweet words, or like Elias, to call downe for fire from heaven. I could fill my mouth with arguments. Hereby you shall shew your love to Christ the great shepheard, by feeding his sheepe and lambs; you shall gratifye your holy Mother the Church, by adding to her daily such as must bee saved; you shall make the Kingdome of heaven suffer violence, which multitudes shall even throng and crowd for it; you shall helpe many a poore soule through the grievous paines of their first birth; you shall make glad the hearts of of Gods people, and strengthen their faith, when they see you goe as the male goat before the flocke; you shall helpe to wash away the disrepute [Page 57] which stickes to our profession by those who startle at our want of learning or holinesse; you shall live comfortably and respectedly where your charge is, and not be troubled with the chest-worme of an accusing conscience, which bites more grievously, because not to death. Lastly, if the worst fall out that can fall, you shall save your owne soules, your Brest-plate shall bee made into a Crowne in the new Ierusalem, 1 Pet. 5. 4. and when the chiefe shepheard shall appeare ye shall receive an incorruptible crowne of glory: so as when your spirits sit on your lips, like a Dove ready to take flight, and the last inch of your taper is burning, you may confidently exspire the last purle of breath in the words of the great Doctor of the Gentiles, 2 Tim. 4. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth is laid up for me a crowne of glory, &c. then shall your soules be wafted in a ferry of teares to heaven, and your dormitories or graves (though they want so much as a plaine tomb-stone) shall be as Gods Chests or Exchequer, wherein your bones as sacred reliques shall expect their resurrection.
Nomen trilingue, Virtus & Color uniuscujus (que) gemmae in Pectorali Sacerdotis.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Hebr. [...] Odhem.
- Grec. [...].
- Lat. Sarda, [...]ubinus, Carneolus.
- 2. Virtus.
- Sardius ante omnes sculpturae aptissima gemma,
- 3. Color.
- A rubro Ebraum pulvere nomen habet.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Pitdha:
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Topazius.
- 2. Virtus.
- Creditur infestus bili esse Topazius atrae
- 3. Color.
- Creditur at
(que) auro fulvior esse
Quidam. n. putant hoc nomen factū à Graeco articulo [...], & Ebraeo nomine [...] paz. i. aurum, quia auro similis est [...] ùm ob valorem, tùm ob colorem.[...] paz.
-
- Heb. [...] Bareketh.
- Gt. [...].
- Lat. Carbunculus.
- Non minus ardenti gliscit Carbunculus igne:
- Et color ignitus, flaminis instar, ei est.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Nophech.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Smaragdus.
- 2. Virtus.
- Enervat (que) Smaragdina gemma Cupidinis arcum:
- 3. Color.
- Et viridi visum cum lenitate juvat.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Sappir.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Sapphicus.
- 2. Virtus.
- Sapphiri solo tactu
Morbussc.Carbunc'lus abibit:
- 3. Color.
- Caerulei, lapidem hunc, aetheris umbra notat.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Iahalom.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Adamas.
- 2. Virtus.
- Solvitur ac Adamas Hircino sanguine: Ferro
- 3. Color.
- Candenti simulant, at (que) aliis alii.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Leshem.
- Gr. [...]
- Lat. Ligurium, vel potius Lyneburium.
- 2. Virtus.
- Septima gemma trahens est, quam vesica remittit
- 3. Color.
- Lyncis: foeminei candida, fulva maris.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Shebu.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Achates.
- 2. Virtus.
- Et variis rerum formis quafi ludit Achates;
- 3. Color.
- In varia, quo non, iride plura vides.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Ahlamah.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat▪ Amethystus▪
- [Page 60]2. Virtus.
- Sic vini humores Amethystus decoquit acres:
- 3. Color.
- Purpureus, veluti myrice tinctus, is est.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Tarshish.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Beryllus.
- 2. Virtus.
- Vi quasi Collyrii sanat Beryllus ocellos
- 3. Color.
- Languentes: puro est par (que) colore mari.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Shbham.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Onyx, Onychium.
- 2. Virtus.
- Firmum reddit Onyx corpus, si colla pependit
- 3. Color.
- Circùm, [...], quod unguis, habens.
- 1. Nomen.
-
- Heb. [...] Ioshphe.
- Gr. [...].
- Lat. Iaspis.
- 2. Virtus.
- Ventriculo appendens stomachum confirmat Iaspis:
- 3. Color.
- Gemmae hujus speciem qualibet herba refert.