The Worthy Churchman, Section 7
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 foreign Ligurium, the Ligure, as if it were from the Countrey Liguria. But two great Clerkes Erasmus and Vatablus correcting Hierome, will have it foreign Lyncurium, as compounded of foreign Lynx, and foreign 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.
—aOvid. quicquid vesica remittit,
Vertitur in lapides, & congelat aere tacto.
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 bladderbIf any be curious to know more hereabout, I referre him to the English Gesner of Mr. Topsel..
The Vertue.
THE naturall property of this stone is to have an attractive power, thatcConfricatus 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 wch they themselves have found in the wayes of God; it is of a leavening and communicating nature: heredProu. 9. 17. hidden bread is not pleasant, nor stollen waters sweet. eGen. 22. 5.I and the lad, sayd Abraham; fIosh. 24. 15.I and my house, sayd Ioshua; gHest. 4. 16.I and my maides, said Esther. hIohn 1. 46.Come and see, said Philip to Nathaniel; iCh. 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, kVolentes 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;l1 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: 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, mCant. 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, nforeign 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 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 stoneoEmaribus 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: foraVlpian. 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.
bOvid. …Mos erat antiquis niveis atris que lapillis,
His damnare reos: illis absolvere culpa.
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. cTertul. 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 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 thatdIob 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 toeMat. 16. 19. &c. 18. v. 18. Iohn 20. 21. 23. Iam. 5. 17. Apoc. 11. 6. Scriptures, tofVisitation of the sicke. the Liturgy of our Church, togCal. l. 3. instit. c. 4. sect. 12. Beza antith. pap. & Christia. those whom we esteeme most orthodoxe, andhD. Holland absolved D. Reinolds, &c. the practice of worthy men. But besides this,iLoimat. 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.kLyps. electorum l. 1. c. 13. The ancient Romanes used to weare a white garment in their solemnities, which if it bore onelyonly the native colour of the wooll, was called foreign or alba toga, if it did shine by art, foreign or candida. lCap. 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 be as spotlesse as Lawne in an harmlesse and Dovelike innocency. We must be wise as Serpents, innocent as Doves: mT. 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 longnApoc. 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.