The Worthy Churchman, Section 5
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 theaSappir Hebr. foreign Gr. Sapphirus Lat. principall Languages.
The Vertue.
THe true vertue of this stone is that it is availeable against the disease called the Carbuncle. bEx vetusto codice.Albertus that famous Germane Priest, whom all Schooles honoured with the name of Great, and P. Iovius makes the first of his Viri illustres, saith he saw two Carbuncles cured onelyonly with the touch of this gemme.cAntidot. lib. 3. §. 6. Weckerus affirmes it to be profitable both for this and all other diseases of the skinne; adding, ut ego sum expertus. dLib. 7. Subtil.Cardan requires it be a good one and often applied, for then it hath vim alexipharmacam, eFran. 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,f2 King. 15. 5. because he was a Leper. g2 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 hIude 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, the high and supreme censure of the Church, whē notorious sinners are cast out of the congregation, butiVirg. 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 evenkIsa 1. 8. scarlet and crimson sinnes may be whited over; that sinnes of the deepest tincture(lHor. bis murice tincta) are not onelyonly pardonable, but in the way to be pardoned. The hyssope mPectus & pulmone expurgat. Lemmius de herbis bibl. c. 26.is of a purgative nature, purge mee with hyssope, saithnPsal. 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 onelyonly 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 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?oLevit. 14. 2. This is the law of the leper, hee must bee brought unto the Priest, that is, not onelyonly 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 foreign vertually, we doe foreign 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 apEusebius Emissenus. guide-starre.
The Colour.
THE Colour is blew, inclining to the colour of the heauens, whereby it comes toqLoimat. 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: yearLoimat. 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 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.sNumb. 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 vponupon other things was buttPhil. 3. 8. foreign doung, a worduBeza in loc. then the which nothing can sound more to contempt, for it is as much as foreign 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 vsus, in that God by nature, Os homini sublimi dedit, coelum que tueri: let the very appellatives of foreign comming from foreign, and of foreign from foreign prevaile with us, or let Saint Pauls wordxRom. 1. 1. foreign, which belongs to our office to doe it: Let the imprest of our frontlet Holinesse, which is the separation of a thing from a terrene & common use, as the term à quo (so much sounds the Greeke wordyforeign ab a pr…v. & foreign terr…. foreign,) 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 onelyonly 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 onelyonly with our eyes to gaze up into heaven like thosezActs 1. 11. Galileans, or like the PopeaSir Fr. Bacons Apophthegm. who had found the keyes, but sursum Corda like David, Psal. 25. 1.