The Worthy Churchman, Section 3
SECTION III. The Carbuncle.
IT is the third also in the Revelation, though it bee there called a Calcedonie, aPlin. lib. 37. cap. 7.which is a species of the Carbuncle. It is the name both of a disease, and of a Gemme. bCuspinian 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 hauehave heard of the propheticall Distich, fathered on Buchanan touching King Iames:
Sexte, verere Deum, veniet tunc terminus aevi,
Cùm tuus ardenti flagret Carbunculus igne.
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.cBareketh à barak, Coruscatio. The Hebrew name comes of a root which signifies Coruscation, and Lightning. dforeign, 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.
eEx Lapidario antiquo foreign. Ardentes superat gemmas Carbunculus omnes,
Nam velut ignitus radios jacit undi que Carbo,
Hujus nec tenebrae possunt extinguere lucem.
We must foreign, andfMath. 5. 16. Let our light shine before men. It is no simple Encomium given us by Christ, that we aregIbid. 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 anhforeign 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 asiEphes. 5. 8. a child of the light. But if a Churchman, who should bee both lumen and lux, enlightned and enlightning, beekIbid. 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, wch 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 oflExod. c. 28. v. 30, 31, 34. and c. 29. v. 20. 27. & Deut. 6. 8. Moses; instructions must bemPro. 7. 3. id est, opere imp. Lavater in loc. bound on our fingers, as well as written on the table of our hearts, there is the phrase ofnPro. 6. 13. instructing with the fingers, as well as with the tongue: there is tooZeph. 3. 9. serve the Lord with the shoulder, no lesse then with hart or voyce; there ispMat. 23. 3. to sit in Moses Chayre, and to doe as they say; there isq1 Pet. 5. 2, 3. to feed the flock, & to be an ensample to the flocke: there isr1 Cor. 9. 27. preaching to others, and being ones selfe a cast away; there is tos1 Tim. 4. 16. take heed to a mansself, as wel as to his doctrine; there is both docere tAct. 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 ofuRom. 2 20. foreign, a forme of knowledge; *2 Tim. 3. 5.and also foreign a forme of godlinesse. So Scripture. There isxChrys. decaeco nato. foreign and foreign, there is a preachingyTheophilact. in Mat. 3. 5. foreign, and foreign: there iszEx. Manusc. Epist. Lich. Cov. foreign and foreign: there is foreign and foreign: There isaRu…in. Eccl. Hist. lib. 2. c. 10. the faith of the eare, and of the hand; there is a feeding the flockebVerbioratione, exempli exhibitione. Bern. Ser. 2. de res. Domi., as well by a holy life, as by Orthodoxe sermons: there iscAug 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: dCantic. 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:ePsal. 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 isfGraci norunt quid fit honestum, sed soli eo utuntur Lace…emonij. Sever. apud Plutarch. Graecian-like to know what is honest, and Lacedemonian-like to doe what is honest: there is agSir F…: Bac. advancement of Ler. speaking to the eare by voice, and to the eye by action. There arehSen. 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 areiVnus 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 onelyonly published bookes in defence of our Ecclesiasticall politie, but had founded a famous Schoole and Hospitall at Croyden: kHospitale 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. Forlforeign Onomatopoeia. zeale is a word framed of the very sound that fire makes when it meets with such an opposite as water. Somforeign. Iliad. foreign. 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 suchnTit. 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 oGal. 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 topIer. 20. 9. Ieremy was as fire in his bones, and toqIob 32. 19. Elihu as new wine in bottles. Did not he deserve the name ofrConveniunt 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 notsActs 1. 13. Simon Zelotes. foreign a suting name for an Apostle? Is it not a sore matter that one of our owne should parallell tBrightm. in. 3. cap. Apoc.the Church of Laodicea and England; and tells us he did it not ficcis occulis? Doe not your spirits uIohn 24. 32.burne within you in an holy emulation? I say no more, but*Reu 3. 19. be zealous.