B25425:65
TroposchemmalogiaTroposchēmalogia
Troposchemmalogia: Tropes and figures; or, A treatise of the metaphors, allegories, and express similitudes, &c. contained in the Bible of the Old and New Testament To which is prefixed, divers arguments to prove the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures wherein also 'tis largely evinced, that by the great whore, mystery Babylon is meant the Papal hierarchy, or present state and church of Rome. Philologia sacra, the second part. Wherein the schemes, or figures in Scripture, are reduced under their proper heads, with a brief explication of each. Together with a treatise of types, parables, &c. with an improvement of them parallel-wise. By B. KTroposchēmalogia: Tropes and figures; or, A treatise of the metaphors, allegories, and express similitudes, &c. contained in the Bible of the Old and New Testament To which is prefixed, divers arguments to prove the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures wherein also 'tis largely evinced, that by the great whore, mystery Babylon is meant the Papal hierarchy, or present state and church of Rome. Philologia sacra, the second part. Wherein the schemes, or figures in Scripture, are reduced under their proper heads, with a brief explication of each. Together with a treatise of types, parables, &c. with an improvement of them parallel-wise. By B. K
London: printed by John Darby, 1682
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.
III. This Royal Descent, or Divinity of the Scriptures, further appears,1 by that Majesty and Authoritativeness of the Spirit of God speaking in them, and that extraordinary and inimitable Stile wherein they are written. As 'tis said of our blessed Lord, Mat. 7.28. That he taught as one having Authority, and not as the Scribes: So the Scriptures teach with an awful Authority.† The Stile of the Sacred Scripture is singular, and has peculiar Properties, not elsewhere to be found; its Simplicity is joined with Majesty, commanding the Veneration of all serious Men.* Augustine says, That the Holy Scriptures seemed rude and unpolished to him, in comparison of Cicero's adorned Stile, because he did not then understand its (interiora, or) inward Beauty: But when he was converted to Christianity, declared,‖ That when he understood them, no Writing appeared more wise and eloquent.† Greg. Nazianzen, a Man of prodigious Wit, Learning, and Eloquence, ⟨p. iv⟩when he came to study the sacred Scriptures, vilifies all Ornaments of Literature amongst the Greek Philosophers, as infinitely below those Divine Oracles. Illyricus says, That although we find not in the Holy Scripture that idle or delicate Itch of Words, that external Sweetness or Allurement, that Numerosity of Sounds, or those pleasing Trifles, which vain-glorious Orators of Greece and Rome beautified their so much famed Harangues with; yet we find there a grave and masculine Eloquence, exceeding all others. And shall we indeed think, that the great God would use Inductions, as Plato; Syllogisms, as Aristotle; Elenchs, as the Carmeades; Epiphonema's, as Cicero; Subtleties, as Seneca; or Words far fetched, joined together with an artificial Syntax, with respect to Weight, Number, and Sound? If a Royal Edict were published in that kind of Speech, consisting of School-Follies, every wise Man would laugh at it. The more plain therefore the Word and Law of the great God is, 'tis (we say) the more becoming the Author thereof, and an Evidence of his Divine Stamp and Authority. Yet in that Humility of Stile in Scripture, there is far more Height and Loftiness, and more Profoundness in its Simplicity, more Beauty in its Nakedness, and more Vigour and Acuteness in its (seeming) Rudeness, than in those other Things Men so much praise and admire, &c. Easiness and Plainness doth best become the Truth. A Pearl needs no painting;