The Worthy Churchman, Section 12 – Conclusion
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 onelyonly one of the twelve, butaApoc. 21. 18. the structure of the wall also is of Iasper: andbCap. 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 incIaspis. Latine,dforeign. Greeke, andeIosphe. 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.fVide 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 mustgVerbum est apud Dioscor. l. 5. foreign: it is not the least part of Ministeriall wisedome to proportion spirituall food to the strength of the receivers stomach: there are bothhIo. 21. 15. 16. 17 lambes and sheepe to be fed: there are bothiHeb. 5. 13. 14 babes and adulti that must have meat: there arek1 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 l1 Cor. 3. 2.both milke and strong meat: mD. Augustinshallow waths which may bee foorded by a Lambe, and abisse whirlepooles where Leviathan may swimme and take his pastime: there arenMat. 21. 15. compared with Apoc. 19. 1. Hosanna's fitted for the mouths of babes and sucklings, and Hallelujahs sung by celestiall quires: there areoHeb. 5. 12. with 1 Tim. 3. 16. foreign the very elements and first principles of the word of God which the simplest may learne, as there are foreign abstruse and profound mysteries which doe foreign 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 somepRom. 6. 17. foreign orq2 Tim. 1. 13. foreign, 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 foreign, Theodoret his Epitome foreign, Lactantius his Institutions, Augustine his Enchiridion, &c. wee should first lay the foundation in the milk of catechisticall points, and then build thereon the gold of positive or polemicall Divinity. SorEccl. 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 flockesGen. 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. tLoimatius 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 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 foreign uLuk. 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 itaGn. 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, we are all unworthy (b2 Cor. 2. 16. foreign) if wee bee brought to the Standart of the Sanctuary: it is well all is required of the best of us, either by SaintcTim. 3. 2. and Tit. 1. 7. Pauls rule, ordLuke 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 eforeign 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 onelyonly 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 PsalmeslExcellentissimo, Iun. vincenti, Sanctes. foreign or as Alexander legacyed out his kingdome foreign and then inspire those Bishops, in their ordinations m1 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 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 mouthnProv. 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 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 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.