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 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 the oyle of his lampe and which is much better of the anoynting of Gods Spirit And tho the 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 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 Thine in Christ N. ◠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 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 The Text. Exod. Ch. 28. v. 17 18 19 20. and also Chap. 39. ver 10 11 12 13. 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 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 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 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 they are rightly censured already to bee Magorum vanitas learned trifles and we cannot better either confute their tenets or punish the authors then by a forgetfull neglect and writing
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 Set them O Lord as a Seale on thine heart and as a Signet on thine arme yea 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 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 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 he to us by his Spirit and truly absi◠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 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 written Childlesse The seale of the Office is to beget children unto God S. Paul told his Corinthian Disciples they were 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 on the hopes of such harvests such births are as strange as the 365 children of the 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 root shewes the branch for in the Hebrew the very name signifies red and the 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 to denote that even Kings are but made up and elemented of the same red earth that Adam was and though 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. 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 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 with setting a price on it Cardan saith of all other hee chose this both because of the hardnesse and beauty of it to engrave his effigies and name in and the very name of it sounds as much as desireable whence it is probable holy writt ioynes together for their value 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 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
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 a child of the light But if a Churchman who should bee both lumen and lux enlightned and enlightning bee 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 which 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 Moses instructions must be bound on our fingers as well as written on the table of our hearts there is the phrase of instructing with the fingers as well as with the tongue there is to serve the Lord with the shoulder no lesse then with hart or voyce there is to sit in Moses Chayre and to doe as they say there is to feed the flock to be an ensample to the flocke there is preaching to others and being ones selfe a cast away there is to take heed to a mansself as wel as to his doctrine there is both docere 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forme of knowledge and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forme of godlinesse So Scripture There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is the faith of the eare and of the hand there is a feeding the flocke as well by a holy life as by Orthodoxe sermons there is when the voyce is sonant and the hand consonant There is to keepe the Lords Vineyard and to keepe a mans owne Vineyard 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 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 Graecian-like to know what is honest and Lacedemonian-like to doe what is honest there is a speaking to the eare by voice and to the eye by action There are Doctors no lesse to be admired when they are seene live then when they are heard teach There are 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 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 zeale is a word framed of the very sound that fire makes when it meets with such an opposite as water So 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 husbands Neither God nor man cares to imploy such 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 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 Ieremy was as fire in his bones and to Elihu as new wine in bottles Did not he deserve the name of Ignatius who said Let torments fire wilde beasts rackes all the tortures of hell come so I may win Christ is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a suting name for an Apostle Is it not a sore matter that one of our owne should parallell the Church of Laodicea and England and tells us he did it not ficcis occulis Doe not your spirits burne within you in an holy emulation I say no more but 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