A00665:1022
A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written
A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, written by the blessed apostle St. Peter. By Thomas AdamsA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written by the blessed apostle St. Peter. By Thomas Adams
London: printed by Richard Badger and Felix Kyngston for Jacob Bloome, 1633London: printed by Richard Badger and Felix Kyngston for Iacob Bloome, 1633
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.
For the Poets, their writings were but Fables. Innumerable such: whole books •f Metamorphoses; it is all one, whole books of Fables. They did but fabulize an apish imitation of Gods truth. Must Abraham sacrifice his son to the GOD of •eaven? Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter to the Prince of darkness. A Ram ⟨p. 290⟩redeems Isaac, so a Hind redeems Iphigenia: this was a cunningly devised fable. Noah's Flood shall be quitted with Deucalion's Deluge. For our Noah they have a Janus, for our Sampson an Hercules; for our Babel-builders, such as lay Pelion upon Ossa, Giants. If Lots wife be turned to a Pillar, their Niobe is metamorphosed to a Stone. Let God historify his Jonah, Herodotus will say more of his Arion. But saith Saint Augustine, we may justly suspect, that the Greek tale of the one, mean• the Hebrew truth of the other. The Devil strives to be Gods Ape. If theo Lord thunders from heaven, hail-stones and coals of fire: the Red Dragon also maketh fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men, Revel. 13.13. God delivered his truth; Satan had his imitating fables, to seduce and divert mens minds from the substantial truth, to enervate the credit of goodness, and to amaze mens hearts with the counterfeits. Their writings were fabulous; they held it as their Patent with Painters, Quidlibet audendi aequam potestatem; an equal power to feign any thing. Some were scurrilous and obscene, most of them impious and profane. They durst make their gods murderers, whore-masters, malicious, contentions, unjust, cruel. And Ovid confesseth; Ignoscite fasso, Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos.
For the Poets, their writings were but Fables. Innumerable such: whole bookes •f Metamorphoses; it is all one, whole bookes of Fables. They did but fabulize an •pish imitation of Gods truth. Must Abraham sacrifice his sonne to the GOD of •eaven? Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter to the Prince of darknesse. A Ram