The Worthy Churchman, Section 9
SECTION IX. The Amethist.
The Vertue.
THis is here the ninth, and with St. Iohn the last of all the twelve: looke what Vertue is given by herbarists to Coleworts, and the Almond tree, the same do lapidaries give to the Amethyst, to wit, that it resists Drunkennesse, by consuming the vapour of the wine, and hindering it to ascend to the braine. This is attributed to it not by one or two, but by all authours that I have seene; exceptaVmbilico app… situs admodum vini vaporem ad se trabit & discutit. Arist. one that questions it:aa Io. Tho. Frigius de lapid. pretios. and the verybAb a priv. & foreign vinum▪ name strongly imports it, q. d. from or contrary to wine. clib. 1. c. 177. foreign.Dioscorides makes this word the concrete to bitter Almonds, saying that five or six of them being taken foreign are as good as Amethysts. Wee should hereby learnedPlin. l. 27. c. 7: foreign for this stone was not put into the pectorall for him that ise1 Tim. 5. 23. foreign a Timothy, haec non scribuntur aquae potoribus, but to tofEsa. 28. 7. the Priest and Prophet who erre by reason of wine, and faile in vision with strong drinke. Note then that there is here an Amethyst as well as a Rubie, that these precious stones are not to bee set on our noses or fuaces (which many a man may thanke his cold liver for) but on our breast-plates. Divinity is an artgTheologia est ars rectè vivendi. P. Rom. Th…. rectè vivendi, not bibendi, unlesse we will turne bibere into vivere, in our lewd lives, ashHispani & Vascones B emolliunt ad V digamma, homines sobrij, & quibus non placet bibere sed vivere. Lyps. de pronun. Lat. ling. cap. 12. the Italians and Gascoignes doe in their pronunciation. The office of a Diuine not foreign but foreign iActs 19. 8.to perswade those things which belong to the Kingdome of God, unlesse we thinke foecundi calices quos non fecere facundos? We must keepe the Feast Tabernaculorum, not tabernarum, of Tabernacles, not Tavernes;kProv. 31. 4. It is not for Kings to drinke wine, nor Princes strong drinke: much lesse is it for Priests. For it was the blessing of Iudah the Lawgiver, not of Levi the Priest, thatlGen. 49. 12. his eyes should bee red with wine. It is true, the Church is called a vineyard, but wee are termed labourers in that vineyard; wee are set to worke, not to eate clusters of grapes; let us a little reason the matter. Can it bee fit, that Christ for us should drinke gall and vineger, and we wine & sugar? that he should thirst, & we be drunk? that those hands which give the blood of Christ in the chalice to penitent sinners, should lift the blood of grapes in bowles to themselves? that those eyes which should be sod in teares for the sinnes of the people, should be red with wine? that it should now be a vertue which was a curse, with stammering lippes to speake to the people? that a Prophet should usurpe a Patriarchs blessing, to wash his garments in wine, and lace them with streames of strong drinke, so as like the dew of Hermon upon Aaren, it run downe his beard to the skirts of his cloathing? that those whom their parents and friends have dedicated ad aras, should suit better ad haras, fitter to bee a swineheard, then a shepheard? fitter (I speake boldly, but faithfully) for a haltar, then an altar? The Law was so strict that a Priest might not drinke wine or strong drink oLevit. 10. 9.when he came into the Tabernacle of the congregation: and St. Paul requires that we bee not p1 Tim 3. 3.given to wine? Wine may be given to us (qProv. 31. 6. da vinum lugentibus) but we not given to wine. He isrGen. 49. 11. an ass that is bound to a vine, that is, hath said so oft, I will seeke it once againe; as now the drunken devill cannot be cast out of him: the matter were lesse if no body would tells2 Sam. 1. 20. our disorder in Gath, nor publish it in the streets of Askalon: or if like Noah, we had still some friend or sonne by us, to lye us on a bed, and cover our nakednesse: or if all were of noble tforeign Zonaras, cap. 1. tom. 2. an.Constantines mind, that if he were an eye witnesse of a Church-man offending, hee would cover him with the lappe of his purple gowne; or if our people thought so well of us, as when they saw us courting a mistresse, to thinke wee did it to blesse her, or when they saw us drunke, to imagine us to be ravished in spirit, or to have seene a vision. But the case is quite otherwayes, they looke on our faults thorow multiplying glasses; if our sinnes bee foule and blacke, they shew farre on our white Ephods, if they be splendida peccata, they shew farre on our blacke coats. Our Charge are ready to say as Michal ofu2 Sam. 6. 2…. David, our ghostly father hath uncovered himselfe this day in the eyes of his people, as a foole uncouereth himselfe. Yet God forbid I should seeke to abridge any of that lawfull liberty which cost Christ as deare for us as any other; tho others gnats and moats be our beames and camels, yet are not others vertues our vices. Quod licet Christiano, licet manacho; not onelyonly Tully dates his Epistle to *Vide Cic. ad Atticum lib. 2. Epist. 11.his Atticus, à tribus tabernis, but alsoxActs 28. 15. St. Paul was met at the three taverns, the same place, so doth he allow Timothy y1 Tim. 5. 23. foreign., a modicum, a little wine: and Salomon in his chiliads prescribes the same dosis foure severall times,zCha. 15. v. 16. a little with the feare of the Lord;aChap. 17. v. 1 a little with peace;bChap. 16. v. 8. a little with equitie; cChap. 15. 17.a little with love; not foreign as in the feast in Homer; nor as in that of Assuerus at Sushan, wheredEsther 1. 8. every one dranke as much as hee pleased and would, unlesse we first will no more then we should, and then we may what wee will. Our Saviour at Cana turned water into wine, let us, if wee have offended in intemperancy, turne that wine into the teares of godly sorrow, the water of our second baptisme; in a word, if we stand, let us beware we fall not; if wee have fallen, let us care how to rise againe. If any thinke I have shred to many gourds into his pot of drinke, it is my zeale against that vice, which I may rightly call dehonestamentum Cleri.
The Colour.
THE Colour of the Amethyst iseAmethysti fulgens purpurae Plin. l. 37. c. 6. a fulgent purple, much of the colour of wine; neither differs it much from the colour of the red Sardius, which was the first stone; Purple and scarlet did not differ so much of old as they doe now, although they were of divers ingredients, the purple of the juyce of a shell-fish, and the scarlet of the graines of a berry,fRex Iacobus in his patterne of a Kings inauguration, p. 30. Item Beza annot. in Mat. 27. v. 28 & Horat. ser. 2. sat. 6. ancient purple was of a reddish colour, tho now these sorts of dyes be lost: and that garment wch the soldiers put on Christ, Matthew cals itgCompare Mat. 27. v. 28. with Mark. 15. 17. Ioh. 19. 2 chlamidem coc…ineā, a scarlet robe, but both Mark and Iohn call it vestem purpuream, a purple garment. Anchises when hee sacrificed, covered his head with red, and Aeneas his sonne was commanded the same. Our eminent Prelates and Doctors, and also the Cardinals in the Church of Rome doe weare Hoods and Gownes of Purple and Scarlet, which occasioned Beza's salt Epigram ofhCrede mihi nullo saturatas murice vestes. Divite nec cocco pilea tinctavide…: Sed quae rubrae vides sanctorum caede virorum; Et m…rsa insonti tota cruore mandent. Aut memor istorum quae celet crimina vestis, Pro dominis iusto tacta pudore rubet. Cardinalis purpuratus. So also souldiers and men of Armes; for the Trojans and Romans used to weare Mandilions of red. Tamberlaine the second day of his siege set up a red Tent. The hearses of those that had fought valiantly, were covered with red, as painters use to attire all in red, or to give them a red mantle in token of their martyrdome, who have valiantly shed their blood for the faith of Christ; the reason is becauseiLoimat. in his booke of colors chap. 14. red or purple signifie courage and magnanimity: Therefore the Lyon and such stout beasts cannot endure the sight thereof. Wee read ink1 lib. cap. 6. ver. 34. Macabees how to provoke Elephants to fight, they shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberries; and surely those that have continually bellum cum vitijs, stand as much need of courage, as those that combate with men: and I see not why those who have gifts from God, and calling from men, should not be as stout as Ambrose. The badge of Iudah the Lawgiver, was a Lyon: Zinglius dyed in the field. Luther sayd, if every tile in Wormes were a Devill, he would goe thither for the truths sake. Calvin, when the Senate of Geneva had granted a relaxation of the excommunication of Bertelier sayd, before this decree take place, either my blood or banishment shall seale it. Archbishop Whitgift feared not to say, in these cases, The Lords of the Counsell are to be advised by us, and not wee by them, besides that one of his Apophthegms to his familiar friends was, two things did much stead him to be confident in good causes, orbitas & senectus. Campian wrote to the Lords of the Counsell, while they had one drop of blood to lose at Tyburne, they would not forsake their cause. O that such metall was misplaced! but certainly, They that dare doe, dare suffer. And this was the cause why in old time Ecclesiastickes lFax Act. Mon. pag. 113.desired Martyrdome, as much as they doe Bishoprickes now. In a word, while wee bee notm1 Pet. 4. foreign, but place right meer-stones to circumscribe and bounder in our boldnesse, within the proper sphere of its owne activity; it will well enough become every one of us to challenge Baconthorps style of Doctor resolutus.