A00564:288
The black devil or the apostate Together with the wolf worrying the lambs. And…The blacke devil or the apostate Together with the wolfe worrying the lambes. And…
The black devil or the apostate Together with the wolf worrying the lambs. And the spiritual navigator, bound for the Holy Land. In three sermons. By Thomas Adams.The blacke devil or the apostate Together with the wolfe worrying the lambes. And the spiritual navigator, bound for the Holy Land. In three sermons. By Thomas Adams.
London: printed by William Jaggard, 1615London: printed by William Iaggard, 1615
Title page typeset from the transcription.
LYCANTHROPY. OR THE WOLFE Worrying The LAMBS.LYCANTHROPY. OR THE WOLFE Worrying The LAMBES.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
This is the Description of those, among whom the Lambs are sent. There is a natural antipathy of these, one against another; ever since God put emnity, an irreconcilable hatred and contrariety, between the seed of the Woman and of the Serpent. I have read, that a string made of Wolves guts, put amongst a knot of strings made of the guts of sheep, corrupts and spoils them all. A strange secret in nature: and may serve to insinuate the malice of these Lycanthropi against Lambs: that they do not only persecute them living, but even infest them dead.
This is the Description of those, among whom the Lambes are sent. There is a naturall antipathy of these, one against another; euer since God put emnity, an irreconcilable hatred and contrariety, betweene the seed of the Woman and of the Serpent. I haue read, that a string made of Wolues guts, put amongst a knotte of strings made of the guttes of sheepe, corrupts and spoiles them all. A strange secret in nature: and may serue to insinuate the malice of these Lycanthropi against Lambes: that they do not onely persecute them liuing, but euen infest them dead.
No marvel then, if the lambs care not greatly for the company of wolves. For if one scabbed ⟨p. 23⟩sheep infect the whole flock for morality: what will one wolf do among the lambs for mortality! Therefore so far as we may, let us fly the society of wolves. With the merciful thou shalt show thy self 1merciful, &c. Therefore with the Poet; fly wicked company, et te melioribus offer. But how can this be, when we are sent as Lambs in medio luporum? The lamb would not willingly be alone: yet is far better when solitary, then in wolfish society. Plutarch speaks of certain Law-givers, that would have their Priests abstain from Goats: a luxurious beast, and making men by contact obnoxious to Epilepsy. (As the Jews were commanded in Leviticus, to abstain from unclean things.) Though we cannot escape the company of wolves: let us abhor 2