The Worthy Churchman, Section 11
SECTION XI. The Onyx.
WHich is the fift with S. Iohn: onelyonly note that there it is called the Sardonyx: for the Sardius often growes out of the Onyx, so as in the bottome of the stone is seene an Onyx, in the top a Sardius, whence it takes the name from both, and is called a Sard-onyx. Such an oneaVide lib. …. Subtil. Cardan had himselfe. And it well differenceth both the Sardonyx from the Sardius, that the fift, this the sixt in the foundation; and also the Sardius from the Onyx, that the first, this the last save one of the Pectorall. The want of observing whereof hath bred not a little confusion amongst Authors.
The Vertue.
THis stone beingbAlbertus. hung about the neck, confirmeth and strengthneth the whole body: cCardan.which it doth because it is of a cold astringent quality, whereby it unites and constringeth the spirits: for which reason the Indians use to carry it about them as an amulent against venery. And surely God had need to deck his Priests with health, that his Saints may rejoyce and sing. A painfull labourer in Gods Vineyard had need of a compact athleticall body, ne pe…cet ad extremum. Let his brests runne with milke, and his bones with marrow, study and paines will exhaust his spirits, and consume him as the f…me doth the oyle in his lampe. Notwithstanding, how many will make themselves our taske-masters, speaking to us as to bricke-makers, dExod. 5. 17.Ye are too idle? these, it may be, would even tell Tostatus as much, for all his 14 Volumes in folio, which a Scholler knowes could neuer have beene done but by an Edmund Iron-side, nor scarce written buteIer. 17. 1. with a penne of iron. Reading is the least part of study, and yetfEccl. 12. …2. much reading is a wearinesse to the flesh: it is well that so wise a man as Solomon hath said it, and in that booke too where he styles himselfe The Peacher, else hee would soone have beene impleaded. Preaching is but one part of ministeriall paines, which is something if it were no more then declamare ad clepsydram, to cry aloud, and lift up a mans voice like a Trumpet for an houre together, which Perkins found, who after his preaching used to spit up his lungs. But it is the soule that preacheth, the understanding is busied to conceive, the memory to recount, the affections to expresse, &c. thereforegforeign koheleth. the Hebrew word, and hforeign.Greeke too is of the feminine gender, q. d. a shee Preacher, meaning the Soule. But if a mans bones were of brasse, and his strength the strength of stones, and yet he be so much wasted, as like S. Iohn at Ephesus, he must be carried to his Pulpit in a chaire, his infirmities may be his comfort, if he be divinis consumptus laboribus, as wasiHumphred. de Juello. said of B. Iewel.
The Colour.
THe colour is just the same with the nayle of a mans hand,kDicitur foreign, quia colore similis est ungui humano. Plin. l. 37. cap. 6. whence by reason of the similitude, it hath the name of foreign: therefore they that parallell these 12 stones with the 12 Patriarchs, write Iosephs name upon this, understanding by the flesh-coloured whitenesse, Candorem virtutis, that candidnesse and whitenesse of vertue which was in Ioseph. For Onyx colour (like Roses spred on Lawne) is ad unguem foreign, vertues tincture and dye. Palenesse in the face is rather the colour of vice; for we are wontlHor. ep. 1.—nullâ pallesce…re culpâ. pallescere culpâ; besides that it is the colour of death, sins proper stipend, mApoc. 6. 8.Behold, a pale horse, and death sitting on him: nHor. …d. lib. 1.Pallida mors, &c. Red is the colour of guiltinesse, anger, and choller: but that inimitable mixture of both, which is in the nayle, wherewith every finger of the hand is so artificially tipped, as it were with pearle-shell, is the proper livery of a pious and vertuous disposition. It is a shred of an Italian Letany, From a blacke German, and a pale Spaniard, and a red Italian, libera nos Domine. The application is this, that we take to us that sweetnesse of manners, and amiablenesse of cariage, which may win men to our Ministery, and endeare us to them with whom we converse, that we joyne to those Theologicall vertues of faith, hope, and charity, without which we cannot s…ve our selves; those Morall vertues of candor, gentlenesse, affability, curtesie, and meeknesse, without which we shall hardly ever save others. Learning and grace (pGalba ingenium malè habitat. like Galba's wit) may dwell ill, to wit, in a morose and crabbed nature: but we should doe our endeavor, that Those who will not give eare unto the Word, may without the Word bee wonne by our blamelesse and candide conversation.