The Worthy Churchman, Section 4
SECTION IV. The Emeraude, or Smaragde.
IT is the fourth in order both here and with S. Iohn; and very fitly in both places followes the coruscating Carbuncle: for as that by the excellencie of the object doth destroy the eyes of the beholder, so this againe with a friendly and acceptable greennesse doth refocillate and cherish them.
The Vertue.
IF it had as many vertues as are assigned it, it should be the Pearle of price, for which the wise Merchant sold all he had to purchase it. Yet must I either Antipodes-like tread contrary to the opinion of all men, or allow it to be aaVide Scalig. ex. 33. §. 2. chast-stone, and to have the same vertue among stones that Agnus castus hath among plants.bLoimatius l. 3. c. 17. The Persians used them both in espousing their wives, and burying their dead: and it is reported that in the grave of Tulliola, Ciceroes daughter, was one found, which Isabel Gonsaga of Este, Marchionesse of Mantua had of late yeares.cEt vetusto codice. One of the Kings of Hungary ever wore one in hora coitus, because of the power he supposed it to have to retaine the seed: and they averre,dWecker. Antidot. Spec. lib. 1. sect. 6. egregious Smaragds to have broken in the deflowring of Virgins: the reason is, for thateCardan. l. 7. Subt. it is a cold and tender Gemme, obnoxious to every injury: now in immoderate venery the body is much heated, and the bones burnt to cinders, and also there is a prodigall expence of blood and radicall moisture, which are the foment and stocke of life. We must foreign, and presse hard after chastity & continency, whether thoral and conjugall, or that of celibatude, according to the estate we are in, bound or free. Spirituall men must not be carnally given: they that worship continually in the Temple, should preserve their bodies as the chaste Temples of the Holy Ghost. S. Paul adviseth even the maried Laity to be abstenuous, that they might give themselves to fasting and prayer. Moses his Law suffered not a Priest to take to wife a widow, because she had knowne a man: and if a Priests daughter played the whore, it was to her capitall, because she polluted her fathers house. Yea even under the New Testament, our wives, if we have any, must bef1 Tim. a. 11. sober, our bed angHeb. 13. 4. undefiled bed, our childrenh1 Cor. 7. 14: holy children, our greetingsi2 Cor. 16. 20. holy kisses, our persons, calling, office, day of service, places and vestments of service, tythes, and offerings, all are holy: what is sufficient to be written in the hearts of others, must bee engraven on the Priests Frontlet, the most prominent part of his face, as it were both for his owne improvement, and others example, Holinesse to the Lord. Now there is no sinne so directly and è diametro opposite to holinesse, as uncleane lust and fleshly-mindednesse: therefore Luke 7. 37. foreign, behold a woman which was a sinner, the learnedkCausab. not. in loc. Anti-Baronius annotes to that place, that howsoever all unrighteousnesse be sinne, yet uncleanness especially, and observes out of Procopius, such as were given thereto to be peculiarly and ob eminentiam called foreign, Sinners. Erasmus after his manner whets his style against these Salamanders that must needs fry in unlawfull flames, and askes them (lEnchirid. milit. Christiani. ubi barba?) where their beard is, supposing there may well be a bush, but if they shake their bottles, there will appeare but small store of wine either of wisedome or godliness. It was often turned to the reproach of Beza, both of his person, calling, and religion, that he had written some licentious Epigramms, though it was both when hee was a very young-man, and uncalled, and might have said that mPagina lasciva, vita proba▪ Martial.though his lines were wanton, yet his life was honest. And indeed I liked not his excusing of himselfe in nPraef. ad poem.one place, till I found his hearty confessionoAnnotat. in verbum foreign, Mat. 1. in another.
The colour.
THe Colour of this stone is so greene, as grasse and herbes in comparison of it are not greene: whence it comes to be so profitable for the eyes, by affecting the ayre round about the object with rayes of the same colour,pCap. 5. l. 37. & ita viridi lenitaete lassitudinem oculorum mulcet, saith Pliny. Nero for the benefit of his fight beheld the sword-players at Rome in a Smaragd. What the eye is to the body, such is the understanding to the soule; and I finde the greennesse of this stone appliedqBrightm. in Apoc. cap. 21. to the knowledge of divine truths. It is both for ornament and use, if we be versed in the whole foreign, can dispute de omniente, and goe downe to the Philistims to sharpen our axes and hammers: so as we pearke not the Hand-maid above the Mistris. But in our profession, in sacred Theology, it is no curiosity for us to seeke out the indivisible point of every question, and to throw arguments,rIudg. 20. 16. as the men of Gibeah stones, at an hayres bredth. Let no man say to us,sIohn 3. 10. Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? We should not be more skilfull in the Statutes or tything-tables, then in Scriptures, Counsels, Fathers, Ecclesiasticall Histories, Canons, &c. we need not bid the Statist read Tacitus, or the Physitian Hippocrates Aphorismes, or the Mathematitian Euclide, or the Lawyer Iustinian. andtHor. ep. discere & audire, & meliori credere non vis. I would many of us fell not short of the industry of so great a Prince as Alphonsus King of Spaine and Naples, who read the Bible 14. times over, with Lyra's glosse upon it. Excellent therefore doth the colour of this stone follow the colour of the last, to wit, knowledge follow zeale, (like fire and water in the solemnities of the Romane Nuptialls) lest uRom. 10. 2.zeale should be not according to knowledge: knowledge to abate the edge and rigour of zeale, and zeale to quicken the dulnes and slownesse of knowledge. So*Acts 2. cloven and fiery tongues was the forme the holy Ghost assumed when it descended on the Apostles. An expedite and cloven tongue, as was said of Neros gouernment, toucheth the instrument well, but windes the pinnes too low: and a fiery zeale is as an heart without a pericardium in the little world, or as the First-mover without a Chrystalline sphere in the great world, setting all on fire: both together make a masculine Oratour indeed, and have often undeafed a stubborne eare, and left a sting (an higher hand co-working) in a steeled heart: the former is like Moses, the meekest man; the other like Elias, the most zealous Prophet; and if Christ worke by his Spirit (as O that he may) then are Moses, Elias, and Christ againe met together.