forth Mazzaroth in his season or canst thou guide Arctiorus with his sons Knowest thou the Ordinances of heaven canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth In Arithmetick who can number the clouds in wisdom In Natural History knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth c. God will have some things in Nature unsearchable to hide pride from man and to discover himself to him for it must needs be presumed that all these mysteries came forth from and are comprehended by some First Mind and mighty Wisdom We are urg'd next with the words of the Prophet Ioel. chap. 2. 30 31. I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the Earth bloud and fire and pillars of smoak The sun shall be turned into darkness and the â—oon into bloud before the great and terrible day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is near the Sun and the Moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withâ—raw their shineing From which words those Act. 2. 19 20. are borrowed To which may be added because of a likeness of expression that place Luk. 21. 25 26. And there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon upon Earth distress of Nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken In which former scripture by the Day of the Lord we are to understand some special day of vengeance it being usual in sacred Writ as some of the Hebrew Doctours observe to intitle days eminent for any unusual expressions of Divine favour or displeasure Days of the Lord whereas we find this day prefac'd and foretold by such prodigious occurrences as easily resolve themselves into causes natural I answer First Learned expositors generally understand those places not in any literal sense but receive them all as so many prophetical schemes of speech instances whereof are of most familiar occurrence in the Prophets expressive of some wonderfull evils shortly to afflict the world as they do also on the contrary the promises of a new heaven and a new earth the increase of the light of the sun and of the moon c. but as so many figurative expressions of some white and gladsom days shortly to succeed Particularly the learned Grotius is so secure of a figurative sense of such places that he tells us they are never to be expounded in all scripture to any other And indeed should we expound them literally we should soon honour the falls of great men or destruction of cities with greater or as great wonders as attended the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour Besides what Histories ever mention any such astonishing alterations in the frame of Nature as the literal sense of these places would introduce a faith of Now the Prophets chose thus to deliver themselves for some or all of these Reasons 1. Because it was the custom of the Eastern Nations to describe great and mighty storms and troubles in a state in such phrases as these the darkning of the heavens falling of the stars shaking of the earth flying away of the Mountains c. 2. Because these being the most remarkable and glorious bodies in the world terrible alterations in them seem the most proper representatives of mighty changes and alterations in kingdoms 3. Because the terrible judgements of God upon the Babylonians Egyptians Iews and obstinate Gentiles set forth in such expressions were but supremi judicii specimina little images and types of the last and dreadfull judgement and therefore not unfitly character'd by the terrours and horrours which shall usher that last and great Day 4. Because these are expressions mighty and vehement and so very expressive of and sutable unto that hot and vigorous impression which the Spirit of Prophecy made upon the minds and imaginations of those holy men which were acted by it 5. Because that anxiety and perplexity of mind which should attend the plagues coming on men should be as great almost as if they saw the eye of heaven the sun put out and the earth to tremble under them c. Now in this figurative sense the words were accomplished in their first and original intention when that great misery was brought upon the earth by Nabuchodonosor and they receiv'd a further degree of accomplishment as S. Peter intimates Act. 2. 19. under the Romanes when the land which was but shaven before by Gods hired Razor had an utter baldness brought upon it to use the expression of the Prophet and it shall have its fulfilling in the outmost latitude of its sense at the day of judgment of which some Interpreters solely understand it Propecies have their Gradus Scalus compleâ—enti as the Lord Bacon speaks the last day only is that true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulness of time wherein they shall be completely fulfilled God often draws similar and parallel lines of confusion over different times and places whips many stubborn children with the same rod and therefore prophesies of the same vengeance may have their repeated accomplishments Secondly Some learned men understand in these places a real and literal darkning of these great bodies of light though arising not from any common and natural but an extraordinary and supernatural cause The reasons of which exposition I shall remit to their proper place which if they appear satisfactory nothing can be thence concluded in favour of presages by these Prodigies which are but some more unusual effects lying hid in the powers of natural Agents and sometimes exerting themselves There is one place of Scripture more which may seem to some to require perhaps to refuse an answer viz. that Luke 21. 11. where our Blessed Saviour foretelling that large line of confusion to be stretched out upon the Holy City and whole nation of the Jews as as a precedent signe thereof tells his Disciples Great earthquakes shall be in divers places and famines and pestilences c. now earthquakes have been numbred with Prodigies natural I answer First When God hath once sealed them by his sanction and institution Prodigies natural may be regarded as the signs of events arbitrary and supernatural Gods bow without a string in the heavens is to us a signe that the world need never fear perishing by any such fatal arrow as once was shot out of the clouds A universal deluge although it be owing to a natural and necessary cause as being by Gods institution advanc'd to the dignity of a signe of grace and favour Thus when God had told the people that as an expression of his great displeasure against them for asking of a king He would send thunder and rain things in themselves natural except it be said that the peculiar condition of that season and climate made them approach to a miracle it was a religious fear with which the people
not happen some terrible Vulcanos and fiery eruptions we should not awaken into a sense of that mighty Power which keeps all that natural tinder in the bowels of the earth from catching fire before its appointed time Did there not new springs break forth sometimes from the usually driest breasts of our common Mother deserts and wildernesses we could not with the Psalmist adore the power of God discover'd in turning the Wilderness into a standing water and dry grounds into water springs Besides the exorbitances of Natural causes at sometimes and their running like unruly horses out of that way those lines which common Nature hath prescrib'd them resolve us that their general stillness and order is owing to Him who rideth upon the Heavens whose Wisdom and power moderates all their blind and impetuous forces A truth which the ancients coucht in their fable of the Gyant Typhon which signifies swelling out bidding battel to their most ancient Deity Pan or Nature but bound up and restrain'd by him in Nets as 't were of Adamant 3. Of his admirable greatness Upon the occurrence of any matters strange and extraordinary Nature hath taught us to cast up our eyes and hands to heaven in a kind of tacit acknowledgement that matters rare and wounderfull oâ— themselves to Him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great wonder worker who is accordingly to be acknowledg'd in them all And therefore though we fear not a Comet or an Earthquake yet may we thence take occasion to quicken our selves to a Reverence and fear of that greatness which appointed them The true spirit of Religion will not receive Metum a fear of distrust though the Earth remove and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea but yet readily entertains timorâ—m a fear of reverence when it perceives the earth to be but shaken by an Earthquake or the Mountains to break forth into a flame As we must not loose our Philosophy in Religion by a total neglect of second causes and turning Superstitious so neither must we loose our Religion in Philosophy by dwelling on second causes till we quite forget the First and become profane To cure Superstition by profaneness is to burn an Idol with fire taken from the Altar Secondly Some of these petty alterations in Nature serve as a kind of types Essays Assurances of that Greater and more universal alteration thereof at the consummation of the world That we might not distrust a Resurrection God hath vouchsaft us as Theodoret notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many pretty imitations and natural Sermons thereof as the rising again of decay'd plants from their roots in the spring the return of herbs and trees from their dying seeds into life again Thus the frightfull eruptions of fire from the earth wonderfully eclipses of the lights of heaven the strange fires sometimes discovered in the air the mighty tremblings of the earth may serve like Hierusalem pourtra'd by the Prophet upon a tile as little maps and imitations of that more dreadfull confusion which shall cover the whole face of Nature at the last day and as a kind of praeludia to that time when the Sun shall be cloth'd with darkness the heavens shall be on fire the elements shall melt with servent heat and the Earth with all the works therein shall be burnt up Caecilius the Heathen derided the Christian doctrine of a final dissolution of the works of Nature at the last day with his quasi Naturae divinis legibus constitutus ordo aeternus turbetur as if ever the perpetual order of Nature which hath received its seal and sanction from the counsels of heaven can ever be ruffled and disturb'd Now these strange alterations in nature are but prefaces to much stranger and the breakings forth of mighty fires out of the earth sometimes give assurance that like Uriah it carries its own fate about it such fiery materials as will quickly reduce it to a condition beneath its first Chaos in that day of vengeance wherein God will destroy the murderers and abusers of his servants and burn up their polluted city Thirdly God in them supplies the soul with such objects as He made it most apt to contemplate and admire In a work of Art as Longiniâ— observes man admires the curiosity and accurateness in a work of Nature the vastness and magnificence thereof because in the former He looks for but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat like man the measure subject of art but in the latter somewhat worthy of God and further that if any thing occurre which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strange vasâ— and in comparison with our selves bigg with a kind of Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are carried with a kind of native instinct to consider and attend unto it and he instances accordingly in the eclipses of heaven the vast oceaâ— the vulcanos of â— Etna as objects which command the mind to wonder and ecstacy The Soul hereby gives silent testimony to it self that it was made to contemplate and admire that God with whom all the first exemplars of greatness power glory beauty dwell together or whatsoever there is in the works of Art or Nature in which there appear any rude touches and shadows of wonderfull and admirable Now then as there are in Nature the Art of God those admirable curiosities appearing in the elegant fabrick of the creatures the mysterious anatomy of parts and those more subtile and cry ptick ways which Nature walks in toward her designed ends which affect not the duller and more heedless part of the world but supply the sons of Art with fresh and repeated wonders so in these prodigious instances the ruder sort of men which carry their Souls in their eyes find somewhat to engage them to contemplate and admire These works goe off from the common figures and measures of Nature are great and vehement and therefore prope objects to call forth the soul into contemplation and admiration which whilst it stands thus at gaze doth tacitly and interpretatively venerate that God who in all these strange Events appears wonderfull in counsel and mighty in working Fourthly Many of these Errata in the book of the Creature lead us to an understanding of the evil of sin which hath made the creatures thus subject to vanity and miscarriage Theophrastus hath noted that in the matter whereof natural things consist there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much of it which is unwieldly too stiffe and stuâ—born to be turned to the seal of Nature to receive those signatures and impresses which are best and primarily intended to be stampt upon it A defect which escapt not the notices of many contemplative Heathens who could not resolve themselves of the proper cause thereof Divine malediction layd upon the creatures for the sin of man Fifthly They serve to lead us into a more distinct knowledge of the works of Nature Nature is the best Interpreter of it self now
the lustre and glory of the Jewish Polity and pedagogy by the ceasing of prophecy the absence of the heavenly fire the arke of the Covenant the Shechinah the Oracles by Urim and Thummim from the second Temple the lapsing of the government from Kings to Dukes from Dukes to the Sanhedrin from them to the Romanes there having been no Kings types of Christ after David and Solomon except Hezekiah be admitted a candidate for that honour This vanishing splendour of the face of Moses that Oeconomy whereof he was the minister was a sign that the Sun of Righteousness was now a rising under whom a state of more spiritual and inward glory was shortly to obtain 2. Signa praedicta signs of times long before spoken of and of sacred and scriptural institution such as were the departing in a good degree at least of the Sceptre from Iudah the near expireing of Daniels weeks the coming of Iohn the Baptist in the Spirit of Elias the general expectation of the Messias about that time rais'd up in the minds of men 3. Signa miraculosa the mighty signs and wonders every way equal to those upon which the credit of the Mosaical dispensation was built which attended the person and doctrine of our Saviour and to which as his visible witnesses he sometimes made his appeal Whereas the signs of times I contend against are neither of any moral nature speaking not to the Reason but the phancy of men neither were they ever foretold God doth not now appear so far to value the world as to usher any change in the affairs thereof by the promises of a Prodigie nor are they miraculous the power of Nature in such a coincidence of causes being able to reach the production of any of these prodigious signs 2. The disparity of things signified All the forementioned signs were tokens for good but as the blushings of the Evening before the dawning of that happy day wherein a state big and good enough for the title of the Kingdom of Heaven was to take place Besides they were matters of no narrow and private reference the fall of some Great Person or the commencing of some petty war but of a catholick concern such wherein the felicities of Jew and Gentile were bound up matters big enough for the solemnity of a sign to preface and bring on The things signified were also matters of huge importance as that Iesus was the promised Messiah that all the shadows and rites of the law were to expire and conclude like the Phaenix in a nest of spices in the graces truths and glories of the Gospel-state that the wall of partition was now to be taken away and all Nations to own themselves brethren under one common Father These things all men were concern'd to know and believe and therefore God taught them by great signs as well as excellent Preachers Whereas Prodigies are suppos'd the signs of wrath and judgements which yet often surprize men not unfitly therefore stil'd Gods arrows which give a fatal but withall a suddain anâ— a silent wound and besides are presum'd to come forth to serve some worldly and little ends and interests which men easily perswade themselves Heaven hath espoused with as much passion as themselves 3. The disparity of the times spoken of in that Text from our own The times there intended were times rather present then fuâ—ure times wherein the Mosaical Oeconomy brought on with mighty signs and wonders was to determine Times wherein the Church was to be put under an immutable and excellent form of administration stil'd therefore the last times in Scripture Now necessary it was that some remarkeable signs of those times should be given foâ—th in scripture that so the age wherein that mighty change should fall might the better acquiesce therein and succeeding generations might have the more secure a faith of the exhibition of the true Messtas because observing all the signs of the times to which he was promised exactly conspiring in those wherein he was exhibited Whereas all the changes which chequer and vary the times of the World now are of no name and reckoning if compar'd with this The world is so acquainted with civil changes that I should expect a Prodigie rather to give notice of some days of peace and settled tranquillity to which the world is the greatest stranger 4. The Disparity between the Persons to whom those words were spoken and our selves The Jews were a People so us'd to signs that the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 1. 22. the Iews require a sign And it was the vulgar opinion amongst them that as all extraordinary Prophets were to seal their commission with a miracle so all events extraordinary were to be foreshewn by a sign Hence the Jews come to our Saviour with that bold demand What sign shewest thou unto us seeing that thou doest all these things Jo. 2. 18. and the Disciples upon the credit of this common conceit no sooner heir our Saviour foretell strange events in reference to Hierusalem and the Temple but they presently ask him what shall be the sign when all these things shall come to pass God perhaps gave them signs to assure them that the evils which befell them arose not out of the dust but came upon them from the fore-appointing counsels of heaven and to awaken their dull and worldly minds into a lively sense of his justice and providence But now in the broad day light of the Gospel 't is expected that we should not need awakening by any such monitors into a sense and awe of the Divine Majesty We must now believe without a sign and derive our repentance not from mighty Earthquakes and prodigies but an ingenious and understanding sense of â—in I suppose now that the light of what hath been said upon this Text of Scripture is sufficient to chase away all shadow of any argument from it to a bet any such signs of times as our adversaries plead it in favour of And what though we should be forc'd to return a Non liquâ—t in reference to the true ends of Comets and new stars sometimes discovered to the World must we therefore conclude them but a sort of more glorious impertinencies in Nature unless they serve our curiosity by being made signs of times Is it such news to hear so short a creature as man is past his depth We find the Almighty poseing of Iob almost through every science In Geometry Knowest thou the ballancings of the clouds whereupon are the foundations of the Earth fasten'd or who hath laid the corner stone In Natural Philosophy Hast thou entred into the springs of the sea or hast thou walked in the search of the deep hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow In Opticks Where is the way where light dwelleth and as for darkness where is the place thereof by what way is the light parted which scattereth the East-wind upon the earth In Astronomy canst thou bring
entertain'd their coming God may appoint the crowing of a cock at such an instant of time to be one of his signs So when the Disciples had asked a signe of their Lord when all his predictions concerning the Temple and Nation should come to pass and he had mentioned amongst others Great earthquakes they were then prefer'd a kinde of Sacraments and prophetick symbols of the terrible shaking of the Jewish worship and polity now approaching And indeed when the great wickedness and security of that generation had merited that that fatal time should fall as a snare upon all them that then dwelt on the earth such signs as had a natural cause seemed the most proper indications thereof as which because happening at that time might sufficiently warn and alarm the Christians and lull faster asleep the more Atheistical and incredulous part of that age appearing to them but the more unusual works of interrupted nature To conclude now that because some earthquakes of Gods appointing were his signs therefore all are is as inconsequent an inference as this the bread and wine are signs and seals in the Sacrament because stampt with a divine institution therefore all bread and wine may challenge the same degree of reverence and regard from us Secondly These earthquakes had such characters upon them as might sufficiently inclose and distinguish them from the common issues of disturbed nature As 1. Their greatness the Text styles them great earthquakes It is likely there appeared in them more then the bare force and impatience of some crude and imprisoned vapours We read of an earthquake in the days of Uzziah so great and terrible that we finde it made an Epocha in the Jewish histories Iosephus reports that some furlongs of the mountains about Ierusalem were rent asunder and cities swallowed up by it If Aristotle styled the Celtae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mad men because an earthquake would sooner make a mountain tremble then them certainly the title is too little for those which are not impressive to some fear of God when they see him thus let loose the powers and forces of natural agents upon them 2. Their multitude there were earthquakes in divers places Nature ran often against her bias in the same instances that so the effect might not be intituled to the rub of some casual impediment but to the hand of heaven over-ruling and directing it And should I here grant which I see no reason to do that many and great earthquakes in a continent especially are a signe of some approaching evil our adversaries could advance little upon the concession both because the example will I believe be found a heteroclite and to stand alone in the History of Nature as also because I conceive they would not adventure to compare a monster or fiery meteor with the terrours of so many earthquakes generally singled out in Scripture as the monitours of the Divine power and majesty 3. Their dismal attendants The creatures would not nourish such rebels against heaven as were then upon earth there were fâ—nines the air refused to cherish and refresh them there were pestilences the eyes of heaven shrunk away from such hated objects the lights of heaven were darkned the earth groaned and staggered in a sort under her vile burden there were earthquakes in divers places so that these signs might as letters do speak that to a pious fear in conjunction which they could not have done in separation 4. Their Divine prediction There shall be earthquakes and each earthquake was a signe not as Eventus mirabilis but as Eventus praedictus Saul his meeting of three men carrying three kids and three loaves and a bottle of wine when he parted from Samuel might have been received with the slight and passing notices of a casual and common accident had it not been foretold by the Prophet as a signe of Gods presence with him And thus any of these earthquakes might perhaps have been received but with the common wonder which any rare and prodigious occurrence calls forth but because foretold it was a signe when it came to pass that that eye of prescience which could foresee an event which held of no certain cause did with as much truth and certainty foresee that fearfull desolation approaching whereof it was appointed a signe and symbol So that this place of Scripture appears to lend as little strength and support to that weak and falling cause which seeks for confidence and assistance from it as the foregoing From what hath been hitherto spoken concerning Prodigies Natural it may appear that howsoever they may possibly serve as a pretty ground for the fancy of a Poet or Oratour which are to apply themselves to that part of the soul which doth parùm sapere they are too sandy and sinking a foundation to build any religious conclusions upon we must not introduce scenam in vitam nec fabulas in fidem Pious frauds are a kinde of feet of clay which will at last deceive and siâ—k under that weighty body of religion which ever relies upon them for support CHAP. III. Concerning Prodigies Preternatural Prodigies Preternatural what The observation of them proved a hurtfull vanity The profane opinion the Heathen had of God upon the presence of any of them noted from their writings The evil influence they have upon the minds of men now A double account given of the prevalence of this perswasion The conceit of Gods giving forth some shadows and pictures of his great works before he set about them toucht upon The Authours judgement of Apparitions delivered in five Conclusions An enquiry into the truth of the Prodigies mentioned in Josephus The wonderfull Prodigies mentioned in Ovid and the Sibylline Oracles whence taken ALl the Extraordinaries in the world which fall out by no steady and certain rules and causes Such as are the approach of a strange and unknown kinde of fish to the shore the firing of houses by lightning disorderly ebbs and flows of the sea some spots as it were of bloud appearing in stones or statues and a hundred such like to serve as I can the distinctness of the Discourse I style Prodigies Preternatural All which as soon as fastning upon my hand I shall shake off as the Apostle did the venemous beast and deliver the observation of them to that smoke and darkness whence it did at first proceed that my Reader nor my self derive no infection from so hurtfull and headless a vanity 1. I style the observation of such things a very hurtfull vanity The regarding of these and the like occurrences as presages of evil served heretofore but to cherish in men this deformed thought of God that all things being subject to the law of an insuperable Faté and a blinde necessity all he could do was onely to foresee an evil and so to piece out his power with his courtesie by these and the like accidents to awaken men to shift for themselves and as they could to get
and visions which frighted them in the night Besides secondly they were Times of publick fears troubles confusions generally when men were most impressive to a fear of these prodigious accidents Thus Livy somewhere notes turbido aliquo tempore versis in Religionem animis multa visa creditaque prodigia quae non erant and elsewhere tells us Hist. l. 28. 11. In civitate tanto discrimine belli sollicita quum Omnium secundorum adversorumque causas in Deos verterent multa prodigia nunciabantur Men when they think God displeased as they deal by a man they conceive their adversary look upon all his actions through the black medium of suspicion and jealousie and therefore they all seem to carry terrours and affrightments with them All strange Accidents like strange passengers in times of discomposure are suspected and examined which freely pass without our notices when peace and love spread their gentle wings over a nation when fear hath once tinctured the eye of the minde with black dreadfull apprehensions it easily sees every thing of its own colour it either finds its object or creates it in every occurrence the sun shines not upon the water or a cloud but like the Moabites men conclude signs of bloud from the redness of the colour when fear hath once softned the spirits and disabled the minde for a cool and sedate judgement and valuation of things Besides in such times Religion knows not to keep its mean but quickly runs over into superstition a servile flattery of God and an observance of him in little weak feminine instances of devotion Now the Religion of Prodigies being conceived thus in the womb of gross ignorance and nourisht by the soft and easie fears of men in affliction when their fancy like mettal in the fire refuseth no figure we cannot entertain any great Opinion of its strength and goodness without a forfeiture of our credit with more considerate and serious persons Can it be ever thought that God should advance an observation of these things into so necessary a part of our Religion adopt it a great instance of our regards of his superintendence and presidency over the affairs of the world when we see the devil made choice of it to entertain the devouter fears of his Votaries withall Did God ever take sacrifice from the devils altars The devil indeed hath alway been Gods ape but God will alway be found the devils opposite and to tread counter to him perpetually Many of the critical rites and usages appointed the Jewish Nation will be found to resolve into the divine purpose to cross and thwart by his commands the rites of the Zabii the Egyptians and other neighbouring Nations which had the devil for the Great Master of their religious Ceremonies When our Saviour came into the world the Religion of the greatest part of it through the agency of the devil ran out into a multitude of little rites weak observances bodily postures and he appoints a Religion directly opposite plain simple rational life and spirit whose main designe was to employ and perfect the minde and spirit of a man And can it be thought that heaven and hell now touch each other so far that we must borrow the measures of our biggest fears and hopes and motives to Repentance from the Ethnick Divinity in which if there had been aliquid sani to be sure the devil would have hindred its gaining so great a regard as it did among his Votaries must we now look for such a Jewel as the intimations of the counsels of infinite Wisdom are in the dunghill of obscene and monstrous births apparitions of lying spirits strange voices in the air mighty winds alterations in the face of heaven c. from which the Gentiles in the times of their ignorance to be-nighted men rotten wood shines thought to receive the light of some heavenly counsel and direction Thirdly Prodigies Natural are not to be regarded as Prognesticks of Events arbitrary even because they are Natural are owing to as necessary causes in Nature as the more common and easie productions thereof no need to call in the extraordinary assistances of heaven to solve these unusual Phoenomena for as Nature is but a constant and durable Prodigy so a Prodigy but a more rare and unusual Nature as hath been shewn by many Writers to which I remit the capable Reader Nay upon a due judgement of things there will perhaps appear more of Nature in a Prodigy then in the more harmonious consort of Uniform Agents to which common usage hath appropriated that name That Nature in its production of the several kinds of creatures should as if they were all stampt with one common seal give them forth in such equal and similar figures and proportions is a more just object of wonder then to see the natural Archeus sometimes to play the bungler and to leave its work in some parts thereof rude and mishapen That the Earth should generally be delivered of the many vapours and winds within its bowels without the pangs and throws of an earthquake and that all the host of Heaven should march every one on his way and not break their ranks neither thrust one another but walk every one on his path to borrow the language of the Prophet are prodigies beyond an Earthquake New star or monster sometime discovered to the world and therefore more justly chosen to be the constant instances of the divine Wisdom and Power and to see some strange fires breaking forth sometimes from the caverns of the earth is so much beneath wonder that Pliny tells us it exceeds all wonder that there should be any day wherein all the things in the world so pregnant with fiery principles do not break forth into one mighty flame and lay the world in ashes Now then what sober Reason can warrant us to conclude any necessary and natural occurrences the prophetick signs of Events to us purely arbitrary and contingent Either all such irregular accidents shall be allow'd presages of future judgements and then every Nation will become a Mago◠Missabib and what was threatupon the Jews our lives shall alway hang in doubt before us we shall then fear night and day and have no assurance at least no comfort of our lives or else some onely of these Prodigious Events shall be so acknowledg'd but then at whose feet must we sit to learn which are onely the Interpreters of the power of Nature and which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods messengers to proclaim to a Nation that the days of its visitation are approaching Certainly signs of judgments extraordinary must themselves be such they must as the Prophet speaks in another case be their own witnesses and like Heralds which proclaim a war bear upon them if possible that badge and cognizance whereby their office may be known all may understand to what end and purpose they come forth from God We find in Scripture that Gods real
signs were generally great and mighty transcendent to the powers and possibilites of Natural Agents that it might appear his power was greatly concern'd in them and that they came forth upon a greater purpose then the bare service of the laws of Nature and the powers of some second Causes Fourthly The condition and temper of the Oeconomy we are now Under admits not our expectation of any signs from heaven either to witness against the practices or opinions of any party of men or to give notice of an approaching mercy or judgement to all which purposes they ministred heretofore God was pleas'd heretofore suitably to the non-age of the Church to address himself very much to the lower faculties of the Soul Phancy and imagination accordingly we finde Prophecies deliver'd in vehement and unusual schemes of speech such as are apt greatly to strike and affect upon imagination Christ was promis'd os one speaks sub magnificis admirationem facientibus ideis the mysteries of the Gospel were held forth in most splendid types and symbols and the law of God forc't upon the spirits of men heretofore by the terrours of a thundering heaven and a burning mountain and a speedy Vengeance upon the despisers thereof the spirits of good men carried out to actions and tempers beyond their natural capacities by the pregnant and vigorous impresses of the divine Spirit and the fears of the Church excited and her faith assisted by mighty signs and wonders the withdrawing whereof the Church bewayls they all vanishing as the light of divine Revelation prevail'd as stars doe upon the approaches of day-light But they which talk of and look for any such vehement expressions of Divinity now mistake the temper condition of that Oeconomy which the appearance of our Saviour hath now put us under wherein all things are to be managed in a more sedate cool and silent manner in a way suited to and expressive of the temper our Saviour discover'd in the world Who caused not his voice to be heard in the streets and to the condition of a Reasonable Being made to be manag'd by steady and calm arguments and the words of Wisdom heard in quiet in a smooth and serene temper the mysteries of the Gospel come forth cloth'd in sedate and intelligible forms of speech the minds of men are not now drawn into ecstasie by any such vehement and great examples of Divine Power and Justice as attended the lower and more servile state of the World The miracles our Saoiour wrought were of a calm and gentle nature curing the blinde restoring the sicke and lame not causing of thunder and storms as Samuel but appeasing them none of them such as the Jews call'd for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signs from heaven such prodigious and affrighting thunders and fires which attended the delivery of the law and the spirit of Elijah Indeed the Veil of the Temple was rent the Sun dreadfully eclypst the Earth terribly shaken at his death but these astonishing wonders were made use of as his last reserve to conquer the prejudices of an obdurate people upon whom his more gentle and obliging instances of Divine Majesty made no impression and perhaps these prodigious changes in Nature were intended as prophetick emblems of the great change shortly to ensue in heaven the way of worship and religion and Earth the powers and Kingdoms of the World by the power and Doctrine of that Person who then died upon the Cross. That mighty rushing Wind at Pentecost which was issu'd in a soft and lambent fire upon the heads of the first Preachers of the Gospel was possibly a figure of that more vehement and terrible State of the law which usher'd the way for and determin'd in the more sedate and gentle dispensation of the Gospel God hath now in a great measure left frighting of men to heaven by visible terrours the law of the Messias was deliver'd upon the mount in the small and still voice and is set home upon the hearts of men by the terrour onely of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more heavy vengeance in another World then what overtook the despisers of Moses law God expects now that we should be judiciously religious and acted to his service by a Spirit of love and of a sound minde to fear his threatnings more then the burnings of Sinai to look upon a bad man since the appearance of Christ to take away sin as the greatest Prodigy and to expect the signs of an approaching judgment non in Erratis Naturae sed seculi Thus have I endeavour'd the proof of the Thesis propos'd by some general Reasons and Arguments Others there are of as great moment which that I overlay not the Readers patience shall be reserv'd as so many nerves and sinews to run through and hold together the main body of the ensuing Discourse SECT II. Some Particular Prodigies prov'd no signs of ensuing Evils Comets commonly thought presages of evils and why A difference between comets and some luminous bodies in the Heavens like them Prov'd not to be signa operantia of any evils in Earth The difficulty of determining the specifick Nature of a Comet prov'd no incenst exhalation by a Considerations further evinc't no effective cause of evil from the dimension and the acknowledg'd altitude thereof Three Arguments to prove them not to be Signa indicantia of any evils The difficulty of reprehending any errour which bottomes in phancy and imagination The Omission of a particular discourse concerning some other Prodigies excus'd THat which the law of our intended method lays next before us is the proof of the Thesis propos'd by a particular Induction I shall therefore direct my thoughts upon some t were to overvalue the Argument to speak to many Prodigies which have been thought the most plausible pretenders to the honour of being Symbola Prophetica Amongst which Comets are of more especial regard and have been receiv'd by the faith or fears of most times as a kind of Beacon fir'd from Heaven to alarm the World and to give intimation of an approaching evil The Cauda Cometae especially seems to the eye of ignorance the emblem of a Flaming sword or fiery rod and to carry the dreadfull images of some mighty scourge prepar'd to correct a froward world withall With the Poet it passeth as a rul'd case Nunquam coelo spectatum impunè Cometam A comet never shone from Heaven to give the world any pannick fears The Astrologers as confident of the final as the Peripateticks of the formal cause of any such unusual lights take themselves upon the appearance of them to be the Filii coenaculi which are to expound to the world these mystick characters of Heaven Indeed any alteration and unwonted wrinckle in the face of heaven is thought like a frown a presage of anger and some intended evil partly because Heaven is conceiv'd the throne of justice whence 't is most proper to
in every motion and site and every position of Beholders unless it be of a spherical figure I proceed next to a more positive description of the Nature of a Comet by proving it to be some heavenly body What kinde of heavenly body it is is as difficult as unnecessary in this place largely to deâ—ine That such a one it is was a truth credited by the joynt suffrages of the more Ancient Philosophers Aristotle seems the first who presum'd against the sense of Antiquity to degrade Comets from heaven to the degree and place of meâ—â—ors set on fire by his ignis elementaris He had one Philosophy â—â—â— Musaeis and another pro Scholis which latter because recommended to the Populacy his chief care was to make like reeds and canes generally smooth and facile in the surface onely interposing here and there a few knots to exercise the subtiler sort of his auditors not much caring though it were hollow and fill'd out with little besides aery words and easy speculations beyond which the most never take care to search and enquire Largely to endeavour the proof of this truth would be to undervalue the pains of more able Undertakers in this argument and to over-doe the end to which this discourse is levell'd In short to omit the consideration of its rise and setting the Parallax of a Comet is found much less then that of the moon which gives the most undoubted report of its exceeding it in Altitude Besides if it were not much above our Atmospheare which exceeds not the distance of fourscore miles its arcus apparentiae would be so strait and inconsiderable that as hath been prov'd it would in two or three hours quite run out of the compass of our sensible Horizon nor possibly continue so long together visible to us as Comets are generally known to doe Our second Argument to evince that no evil in this lower world owes it self to the malign aspects of a Comet is taken from the dimensions thereof It seems in the body of it scarce equal to the dimensions of a star of the first magnitude the truth is pars minima est ipse Cometa sui the true and real Comet is the least part of its appearing self in regard the tayle thereof is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not any real and substantial part thereof as commonly presum'd flaming forth as the condition of the matter doth invite the fire to follow but the shining of the solar beams through the more porous and spungy parts of the head thereof some imitation whereof we sometimes have in the beams of the setting sun darted through a dispos'd cloud or through some small crevise in a wall which after the figure of a rod first close and knit together and then spread and dilate themselves according as they advance further from the angustiae of the matter whereat they enter for it s observ'd that still as the Sun circles in its diurnal motion in the heavens so doth a Comets tayle veere and respect an opposite poynt in the heavens so that these mighty vibrations of light from its luminous body put a great fallacy upon the eye and report it much larger then in truth it is Now then can it be presum'd by any man that will ow any account of his Opinions to Reason that in it self so small a body at so vast a distance lasting so inconsiderable a time and moving so fast away can be sufficient for any such notable effects as some easy men intitle it unto What History almost is there of Comets but what arrives at us stain'd and defil'd by the superstition of the writers able to support the confidence of this perswasion How little able are we after the observation of so many hundred years to assigne the effects of the most noted stars in 〈◊〉 except the Sun and Moon 3. Our last Argument was 〈…〉 the acknowledg'd altitude of these unwonted appearences 〈…〉 marshal them in the lowest place assign them very near the 〈…〉 Now how weak feeble an impression can a few exhalations kindled at so vast a distance make upon this lower world especially considering there is the middle region interpos'd by its coldness fitted to temper and qualify the heated and exciccate ayr before it mingle with that which we here breath in Besides how little able are those weaker impressions upon the ayr to stand before those more sensible and vigorous alterations which the succeeding seasons of the year continually make upon it The Opinion which asserts Comets to be incens'd exhalations would carry in my eye more fair appearances of truth if owing them rather the presages of seasons healthfull and desireable in regard it supposeth so many noxious and impure exhalations consumed at so vast a distance from Earth by fire the most potent corrective of an infectious ayr These Reasons seem sufficient to reach the proof of our first assertion that Comets are not signa operativa malorum I am next to prove them not to be signa indicantia of them which I shall endeavour From the indifferency and Universality of their aspects and motions They often pass over the heads of many and different Countries that in 1618. was successively vertical to Arabia Persia Turky Barbary Morocco China Spain France Italy Germany Poland Muscovie c. now which of these can it be presum'd to level its malign aspects at Which of these was most concern'd in its presages surely none of them But as the Sun and Moon being design'd to declare the glory of God to the world their line therefore is gone forth through all the Earth so possibly God intending these wonderfull appearances in heaven not so much the monitours of his anger as of his glory would have them thus Catholick in their motions and shew themselves to such variety of people and languages 2 I argue against them from the aiery weakness of that foundation the art of presaging by them is bottom'd upon which we may take in the words of a Great master in all curious arts Portendunt Cometae juxta Saturnum pestes prâ—ditiones sterilitatem Circa Iovem legum mutationem mortem Pontificum juxta Martem bella juxta Solem toti or bi magnam cladem juxta Lunam magnas inundationes aliquando siccitates c. juxta Coronam in Tropicis Aequinoctiisque Regum interitum c. the cracks and flaws of which discourse appear so wide and visible that 't is needless to strike it with any Reason to make a more full discovery of them The Astrologers like children set up in their soft imagination some phantastical images of things and then fear them as if they were great realities Very sollicitous they have ever appear'd to lengthen their cords to draw all kind of Persons and Events within the lines and limits of their art but very careless to strengthen their stake to borrow the expression of of the Prophet to ratifie and make
Virgil said he did when reading of Ennius to gather the gold of devout fears and Christian foresights from the dung and dross of all the Ethnick Ostenta and auspicious observations where-ever occurring For my own part were I under the Religion of any such perswasion that all strange accidents are the warnings of heaven I should conclude it a great service to God and the good of men to exhort as opportunity invited the Christian Magistrate to institute some such Colledges as the Romanes had who received them all ut monita deorum which should profess themselves Prodigiorum Interpretes and should be ready to offer to the world the most trusty rules and Principles I were master of to manage their interpretations so that we might with some assurance conclude the intent and meaning of God in them As for that good use the Heathens made of these things where in they are recommended to our imitation what was it did they not receive any strange accidents as the indications whence to proceed to a crisis of times and to put a difference between lucky or inauspicious hours and days as if any times were delivered out of the thoughts and regards of heaven Did they not use upon any prodigious event to consult the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devils Oracles a matter pardonable to their hypothests to understand the intent and meaning of the gods in them Did they not approach the altars of their angry deities in a nicer observation of all the criticisms of superstition and the arbitrary injunctions of their religion Did they not increase to such a body and bulk at last as to disturb the peace of common life where observed and retained and to bring some men to a discarding of all thoughts of religion and a Deity as a kinde of Furies perpetually haunting their inward house and bereaving them of all true generousness peace and freedom of spirit But where do we ever finde that there pretended alarms from heaven did awaken men out of that profound sleep which in the darker times of Gentilism they were fallen into and perswade them or any others into a correction of their lives and manners To return 3. Because such signs as these are supposed to be appear greatly unworthy the. Majesty and Wisdom of God That Scripture might appear to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the language of Moses the Writing of God he hath been pleased to imprint such characters of Divinity both upon the matter and style thereof that those weak prenotions we have of infinite Wisdom Goodness Majesty do attest and bear witness to it as worthy and befitting God And surely were these Prodigies intended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heralds of heaven there would appear to severe and knowing persons somewhat able to fill out their name and title somewhat correspondent to those anticipations which the soul of man hath of what is becoming the Wisdom Majestie and Holiness of God As God cannot be loved but by appearing before the soul big with what-ever he hath framed it to embrace and open it self unto so neither can he be reverenced and observed but by such displays of himself which he knows the soul apt to receive with the most a wfull expressions of observance and regard Now then what man that hath any great thoughts of the Majestie of heaven can once imagine he ever intended any base and deformed monsters the interpreters of any of his great counsels and purposes Did God generally under the weak and worldy state of the Je wish Church send forth those Prophets whose learning education holy lives great works admirable gifts commanded even profane men to a reverence of their Persons and message and doth he now make use of Monsters Comets Meteors or the apparitions of unclean spirits as his Praecones publici Can we ever think that the wise God would have men understand his meaning when speaking to them by signs which like pictures look to any way speak to any sense and purpose the differing fancies of men please All the signs God ever spake to men by gave forth either by their own nature or his own exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a significant speech the wonders in Egypt the rites of the Pass-over the elements in the Sacrament are all Signa vocalia and the signs and wonders which as commonly thought were Gods trumpets before he fell upon Hierusalem were all to speak with Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonders big with energy and clearly significative of the approaching desolation Besides can it be imagined that infinite Goodness having appointed us a Religion pregnant with contemplations fit to entertain an Angel levelled to the lifting up of the spirits of men to that way of life which is above that comes forth to give us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freedom of speech and approach unto God and to chase before it all those pale fears and jealousies of himself the dreadfull apparitions which astonish'd men heretofore while fitting in darkness and the shadow of death should now task us to a devout observation of the familiar miscarriages of Nature in one kinde or other and to debase our selves to the bondage of some blinde and confused fears of his vengeance upon the news of a monster some ludicrous pranks of vile spirits or a fiery exhalation Upon an account of the Premises were I inclined to an observation of Omens and Prodigies I should as Prodigies use to be differently interpreted make an inverted use of the Reverend Publisher of this Great Authours works Reader write this a Prodigy that this Treatise alone concerning Prodigies should be lost and that in the Authours life-time and conclude that God in favour to the understandings of men provided that like the dead body of Moses it should lie buried none knowing where that so it might not be made an Ido◠of which perhaps the Reverence of so great a name might have inclined some to do I should not have spoken so much not to his but my own prejudice of so Reverend a Person but that I am desirous to cut off all the locks wherein I can but conceive the strength of this superstitious perswasion may lie which as weeds do by good ground tends but to eat out the heart and strength of that devout fear from which it seems to spring◠SECT V. An Answer to the Objection fetcht from Experience The Objection proceeding upon expecience proposed further confirmed from Lucan Plinie others That plea evinc'd Unsafe False Fallacious Men prone to conclude general maxims from a few examples and why Some Prodigies mentioned in History originally Apologues Super stition oft brings the evil it feareth and Atheism the evit it slights THirdly It is further opposed that common Experience the surest correctour of all Idol notrons and hastie reasonings seems to support this perswasion concerning Prodigies They have always been known succeeded by great evils and those generally such as they seemed the most natural Symbols and
credited by Apostolical citation the writer of the book of Maccabees who speaking of Hierusalem thus delivers himself It happened that through all the city for the space of almost 40. days there were seen horsmen running in the ayr in cloth of gold and armed with lances like a band of Soldiers And troops of horsmen in array encountring one against another with shakeing of shields and multitude of pikes and drawing of swords and casting of darts and glittering of golden ornaments and harness of all sorts After the mention of which apparition we may read there what a scene of woes and tragedies the City was made by the Armies of Antiochus Now I think we may discover some probable and darker characters of divine signs upon these examples but especially the first And that 1. Because our Saviour prophesied that the desolation of that people should be prefac'd by fearfull fights and great signs from heaven Luk. 21. 11. a place which our expositours generally conceive fulfilled in that and other prodigious accidents related by Iosephus and subscrib'd unto by Eusebius as the atrati deformes nuncii of so fearfull a â—estrustruction as ensued 2. Because the destruction of Hierusalem was a kinde of visible prophecy and type of the final destruction of the world now that the sign and thing signified might the more exactly touch as at the last day the heavens shall be on fire and the earth with all its works be burnt up and the whole Creation feel its final and most dreadfull pangs and throws so the destruction of Hierusalem was usher'd by its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fearfull sights mighty Earthquakes a fiery sword a flame in the Temple And as at the last day the Angels shall be the Ministers of his justice and increase the terrours of his coming by attending the Judge of quick and dead Mat. 25. 31. so this judgement upon Hierusalem came with observation and the solemnity of Angelical apparitions represented by chariots and armed companies suitably to the words of the Psalmist concerning them The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels In short some of the Prodigies preceding the fates of Hierusalem seem such equal and proportion'd representatives of those more terrible disguizes which the face of nature must put on at that last and great Day that the so call'd Sibylline Oracles make choice of many of them to describe the horrours of it by Cum visi fuerint coeli stellantis in Oris Nocturni gladii casus ad solis ortus Pulvis è coelo terram descendet in omnem Protinus medio câ—rsu lux aurea solem Deseret terram sulgenti lumine luna Sanguineis guttis stellantibus irradiabit Signaque saxa dabunt in alta praelia nube Cernetis peditumque equitumque sonantibus auris And lib. 4. Enses atque tubae simul sole Exoriente Terribilem sonitum mugitumque audiet omnis Mundus Of which and the like passages therein occurring some presuming upon the pretended antiquity of those Oracles conceive the strange Prodigies related by Ovid not as an Historian but a Poet lib. 15. Metamor to be but an imitation so great the agreement between them both in words and matter Thirdly We shall observe that Gods works of a more catholick concern have been ushered with some lighter essays to and representations of them thus the several appearances of God in the shape and figures of a Man are commonly receiv'd as the praeludia a Kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that great mistery of the incarnation The general conversion of the Gentiles was as it were essay'd in the particular conversions now of a person and then of a family to the Jewish Church The universal conflagration of the world seems limn'd forth in the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah That mighty storm of vengeance which fell upon Hierusalem and the Jewish Politie was prefac'd by some lesser drops the many miseries which our Saviour stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of sorrows and those judgements of an unusual make and character which sometimes overtake more publick and notorious criminals seem a kinde of praejudicia judicii and assurances that God hath appointed one great Day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness Thus the relation of his going forth to his strange work indeed upon Hierusalem attended with the visible apparitions of Angels in armed troops in the ayr may be concluded probable that so there may be some slender draught of the solemnity of that day when the thrones of Iudgement shall be set and the Iudge attended with ten thousand times ten thousand ministring unto him proceed to his last Act of justice upon the unrighteous world These considerations incline me to receive this narration and the significancy thereof especially because not knowing where to fix the accomplishment of our Saviours prediction Luk. 21. 11. but in this and some other prodigies related by Iosephus with the favour of a great probability but not as an undoubted truth 1. Because the single credit of Iosephus Eusebius but relating the same things in his words seems scarce sufficient to venture the faith of such a story upon both because having much converst among the Gentiles he seems to smell a little of the Gentile superstition when he adds immediately after this relation It would seem a matter scarce credible but that there follow'd evils great enough for the solemnity of presages as also because it will appear upon a compare of the same Stories related in Scripture and Iosephus that he usually tunes his relations to the common humour both of Greek and Latine Historians making them to sound as much as much as might be to the glory and honour of his own Nation 2. Because he hath put in one fly the story of a Heifer which comeing to the Altar brought forth a Lamb which makes the whole relation of his other prodigies smell strongly of an imposture T is sufficiently known how much this resembles many other legends related in the Romane stories where the mention of prodigies occurrs Can any man think God would ever work so ludicrous so cheap so insignificant a miracle 3. Because whereas he there also relates the story of the Priests their going into the Temple about Pentecost to attend the Sacra Vespertina and hearing that voyce therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us goe hence seconded with the rushing as of persons going out the whole matter seems but a fable originally invented by some superstitious heathen and a little disguis'd whose usual doctrine was that the Gods when their Temples and Altars were defil'd or taken us'd to take pett and adytis arisque relictis to betake themselves to some more hallow'd and magnificent shrines Sure I am Tacitus appears to understand this relation to some such sense as this But I think I need not much concern my self to throw out a relation which
metu mortis mortem precarentur multi ad Deos manus tollere plures nusquam Deos ullos aeternámque illam novissimam noctem mundo interpretabantur nec defuêre qui fictis mentitisque terroribus vera pericula augerent Idem ep 20. The sitting of the comment of these Historians so closely and handsomly about the Text offers an easy Apology for our embracing this literal sense thereof at least till another shall be tendered with fairer probabilities Especially considering the season to which our B. Saviour affixeth the fulfilling of this prediction seems to add some strength and confidence thereunto now that was the time immediately succeeding to that wherein the black cloud of vengeance charactered by the peculiar conditions and signs thereof in the verses precedent was to fall upon the Jewish Church and polity as may appear from those words of his recorded by S. Matthew Chap. 24. 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkned c. i. e. those days spoken of before wherein God had taken away the hedge about his formerly pleasant garden the Jewish Church and delivered it to the rage and malice of brutsh men So that as the many false Christs arising the earthquakes in divers places the general hatred of men the fearfull signs from heaven forementioned seem given as the black tokens foreshe wing fata Ecclesiae Iudaicae so this dreadfull occurrent Miraculum as Pliny calls it seems given as a signe that was to forerun fata Imperii Romani the other deadly enemy of Christianity which from that time began to sink under its own weight and to labour under great and grievous evils and not to be accounted among the signs of the miseries approaching upon the Jewish State as some learned expositours contend our Saviour having brought his discourse concerning that to an issue just before And indeed no signe seemed more proper then a burning mountain to give the Gentile world to understand that God would shew himself as severe a Judge upon the despisers of his Gospel as he had before upon the despisers of his law against whom at the promulgation thereof he proclaimed the terrours of the Lord in blackness and darkness and that mountain which burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven Notwithstanding what hath been said I shall not receive this signe and sense of these Texts with more then the favour of a probability both because I finde Expositours hovering but in the loose air of some general expressions upon them and fearfull to settle down upon an assignation of the particular time and manner of their accomplishment amongst whom commendable especially the modesty of Calvin who upon that Text in S. Luke thus delivers his sense Quomodo Sol obscurandus est hodie conjicere non possumis sed eventus ipse ostendet And besides the fiery forces in that mountain have in all likelihood sallied forth since upon men in as dreadfull and destructive a manner as upon their first eruption But lest I be thought to make too curious and unnecessary approaches to this mount of terrour I shall set bounds to any further discourse about it when I have added that if upon the Readers further thoughts concerning it it shall appear more then probably a signe of the time it will also appear so appointed by God in those Scriptures forementioned if less nothing is lost but the courtesie conferred upon the conjecture and so the credit of our present cause appears not at all prejudiced which way soever the beam of his understanding upon a due weighing of particulars shall incline A second instance in this order of Prodigies which seems to enter a very probable plea for its reception as an intended signe of an ensuing vengeance is that flaming sword as it seem'd hanging over the â—ity of Ierusalem for the space of a year together before the Romane Eagles prey'd upon it Our Saviour prophesied of some fearfull sights and great signs from heaven as the forerunners of the desolation of that City and perhaps upon a due judgement of the several circumstances of this heavenly phaenomenon it will appear great enough to fill out in a good measure that expression of our Saviours For as that Star which was coeli index to the place of our Saviours birth so this wonderfull appearance declared by its peculiar and unusual accidents that it was of no common make nor came forth upon any mean and vulgar errand It appears by the story to have descended so low in the air that it was evidently vertical to the City which had it been a true Comet it could not have done and it lasted so long and maintained so fixt a position that it cannot well be numbred among those Idola Gometarum in the Elementary region mentioned before whose subtile and fluid matter serves them not to any such long continuance at least not to so settled a posture of appearance And most fit it was that a Nation long deaf to the voice of the many great signs from heaven to proclaim an approaching salvation should receive some from thence of an approaching destruction Amongst which none seem'd so proper as such a flaming sword being a very expressive emblem of war and vengeance and a kinde of imitation and remembrance of that flaming sword which drove the first parents of that disobedient people which rejected the Tree of life a type of the Lord of life and glory from the Paradise of God They which endeavour to sink the price and value of this prodigious appearance in the air beneath the esteem I receive it with by laying beside it some other parallel examples thereof occurring in the Writers concerning Meteors shall finde me no difficult Auditour of them if they first fix the accomplishment of our Saviours Prophesie in some instance which may be more plausibly pretended a fearfull sight and great signe from heaven Thirdly None of the forementioned Prodigies when ever occurring are now to be received as the signs of any Future events An assertion which I thus build up 1 We have no sufficient grounds and reasons to perswade our reception of them as such There are I know some men which can hang their most weighty principles like the earth upon nothing Reasons and demonstrations are looked upon by them where Religion appears concerned as a kinde of cold and dull things proper onely for Atheists or hereticks to measure their conceptions by Objects hot and vehement and that do not much task and employ their faculties as Pretended Oracles Revelations strong and inexplicable impressions upon their spirits mighty Prodigies some turgent imaginations and traditional perswasions they use as silly birds in the night to that which glares most to fly about and admire The discourses and practices of many men speak them proselytes to that maxim of the old Heathens viz. In doctrines concerning the Gods or any matters Divine we must never expect science and demonstration but
drawn from those fearfull sights and great signs from heaven mentioned Luke 21. 11. precedent to the destruction of Ierusalem and the Jewish polity to encourage the expectation of any such signs of times now or the advancement of Prodigies into the repute of any divine Monitors they will appear to be greatly inconsequent if we consider 1. All those accidents were foretold and particularly appointed by God as signs Particularly the opening of the gates of the temple some time before its desolation of their own accord though of such massy brass that they could not be shut or opened if we credit Iosephus without the twisted strength of twenty men and though secured with great bars of iron is thought by some learned Jewish and Christian Expositours the accomplishment of the prophecy of Zechariah chap. 11. vers 1. Openâ—thy doors O Lebanon that the fire may devour thy cedars Where by Lebanon they understand the Temple built especially of the cedars there growing as it is elsewhere in the Prophets used to signifie And Munster upon the place tells us that one of the Jewish Doctours upon occasion thereof thus rebukes the Temple Ego cognosco imminere tui desolationem juxta vatiâ—inium Zechariae qui dixit Aperi Libane portas tuas But what pattent can be shewed from the Book of God whereby any much less all the forementioned Prodigies hold the place and honour of Divine signs 2. The miseries foretold by those signs were great without example Iosephus calls them evils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of some signs They came not forth as the Heraulds of some petty war or to precede the funerals of some great Personage but as it is called a great tribulation such as was not since the world began nor ever shall be Exemplóque carens nulli cognitus aevo Luctus erat 3. The destruction of Ierusalem was a type and picture of the final destruction of the world And therefore fit it was that the terrours of the latter should be a little pattern'd and shadowed out in the fearfull sights and Prodigies attending the former besides the consternations of soul and failings of heart which these foregoing signs wrought in some men before the decree brake forth made the destruction of Ierusalem in all the circumstances thereof the more lively type not onely of the terrours of the last judgement but of those horrours and sinkings of spirit in bad men which shall go before it 4. Our Blessed Saviours extraordinary prediction of those Prodigies as his signs to that generation seems rather to assure them not intended the common fore-runners of any great plagues and wars and that no good crisis can be ordinarily made of the future condition of a state by a regard to any such in themselves doubtfull and unfaithfull indications For what need of predictions if these signs were to fall out by a kind of common rule and law of providence and how unnecessary had it been to appoint such accidents for signs of evil which draw after them a series of evils with so great a constancy that they seem without a Prophet to appoint themselves the signs of the times 5. The condition of those times seem'd especially to require some such signs For 1. They serv'd then as mercifull warnings to Christs followers to hasten their escape from that house that City which was ready to fall upon them and involve them in its ruins 2. The Jews requir'd signs from heaven and God would not be wanting to any probable means and motives of their repentance 3. The Jewish oeconomy commenc'd in fearfull sights at mount Sinai and great signs from heaven and fit it was its conclusion should somewhat resemble the solemnity of its beginning 4. The many signs given by our Saviour serv'd gradually to wean the hearts of his followers from Hierusalem once the light of their eyes of whose determin'd desolation these gave them such full and repeated assurances Secondly We cannot receive any Signa Operantia as the faithfull and unquestionable intelligencers of the condition of succeeding times as the unquestionable intelligencers I say and that 1. Because God often acts secondary Agents to secret and unknown ends He acts sometimes without but usually beyond them and hath oftentimes ends to serve upon their motions and counsels which they reach no more then a beast doth the intention of its Rider 2. Because God often accomplisheth his biggest ends by means unpromiseing and almost invisible He frequently rows his purposes to harbour while the means seem to look quite another way what is observ'd of the methods of God in Nature holds true generally in the methods of his Providence The greatest works are perform'd by the least and most insensible Agents We shall finde great kingdoms in History commencing like a great snow-ball from a handfull increasing to a greatness in the eye of fense immoveable and at last concluding in soyl and dirt But especially observable is this usage of Providence in the management of the affairs of the Church which like Christ the head thereof springs as a root out of a dry ground and was never any great gainer by the wars and arms of Princes 3. God sometimes makes use of means great and pompous to some ends weak and little in the eye of sense To what great actions all on the suddein did he strengthen the hands of the King of Sweden his victories drew the eyes of the world upon him and 't was concluded by some that Providence design'd him the Apocalyptick Angel which should pour out one of the Vials upon the Beast when behold unexpectedly the current of his successes runs under ground and men engag'd to conclude God had ends more secret and spiritual to accomplish by him then they imagin'd 4. God usually advanceth his great works and ends by pauses and periods Providence in the advancement of the church hath usually its fines abruptos God in the works of Nature doth compendium facere goe the nearest way to his ends but in the works of providence he doth circulum describere goe about and his work advanceth by such slow and silent progresses that in the issue it seems to any but a prudent and severe observer the issue of time and chance rather then any steady and well advis'd understanding 5. God hath an unknown variety of means and methods to accomplish his purposes by He works by any means by weak by contrary by none He sometimes brings his greatest ends to birth by the midwifry of seeming casualties and little emergencies which taken asunder are weak and common but viewed in consort speak excellent art and counsel the observation whereof drew forth that Christian speech of Machiavel in an Ethnick dress Fatorum viae rationes producendorum effectuum obscuriores sunt quà m ut à nobis intelligi queant Upon these and many more accounts out of the lines of our present Argument the fairest promises of these active signs may
the conclusion without tasking them to a tedious consideration of the value of the premises and lift them up into the Tree of knowledge without any industrious climbing of their own But certainly God who bade us buy the truth never intended it should be got upon such cheap and easy terms men may suspect their wares to be nought if they cost no more then an idle attendance to such fantastical measures as these generally are 4. Gods particular judgements as to the special ends and intendments of them are generally inscrutable We commonly set so high a price upon our causes parties and opinions that we easily imagine the biggest end Gods judgements can be directed to is the bearing witness to the truth and righteousness of them By which fancy we become a kinde of spiritual Anthropomorphits shaping out a God like our selves and laying out the counsels of heaven by the poor short and often peevish thoughts and models of a man If we consult Scripture we shall seldom or never finde a person onely of a corrupt judgement in reference to some Doctrine of religion if otherwise of a blameless life smitten with any great plague from heaven but often persons of corrupt and depraved manners because all the laws of righteousness carry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a demonstration within themselves and stand in so full a light that like the Sun beams they bear testimony to themselves Whereas matters of faith and doctrine appear not before the minde in so great an evidence Men indeed are apt to follow a little difference of Opinion from themselves in religion especially with thick Anathemas and quickly to blow it out into a schism or heresy because such differences seem to dispute the strength of their Arguments but are easily inclin'd to look upon even a great miscarriage in life through the other end of the prospective and to shrink it to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bâ—â—e humane infirmity Gods honour onely being concerned in that Whereas on the other side Divine goodness makes a large allowance for a well-meant errour because the understanding like the eye cannot so easily see its own blemishes but is severe against even a little crime men being more enabled for a discovery of that To say therefore that Aâ—ius who in the manner of his death seem'd the Antitype of Iudas his bowels gushing out when he went to serve the necessities of Nature proclaim'd the displeasure of God against his doctrine or that that house in Black-Fryers which sunk down under the weight of those many Papists there assembled with their Priest to attend the offices of their Religion and buried them in its ruines was Gods warning against Popery or that the births though granted monstrous beyond the possibilities of Nature which Mrs Hutchinson and Mrs Dyer the two great Prophetesses Leaders to the Anabaptistical faction in New-England were delivered of singled out their Opinion and were visible reproofs from heaven of Anabaptism it self is to interpret the voice of Gods rods by blinde and uncertain ghesses and to repeat the vanity of that Emperour who would fetter the sea for we hereby determine the large and deep thoughts of infinite Wisdom by those little maxims short thoughts and ends our selves usually attend unto God never menac'd any such reproachfull judgement against any such errours as these in Scripture and if he had if found in conjunction with great crimes it may be more reasonably presum'd that it was directed rather against the wickedness of the heart then the weakness of the head If I would advise with my eyes in the choice of my party or Opinion I should rather observe as I could what parties of men are most delivered to the judgement of a cruel and unquiet spirit to a giddy motion from one fond notion to another who they are which seem most forsaken of vertue and true goodness For these are spiritual judgements and so more suitable to the condition of that spiritual Oeconomy the appearance of our Saviour hath now put us under Besides the Spirit of truth may nay usually doth dwell with great sufferings but great sins give suspicion of its departure But even this also upon trial will approve it self but the beâ—â— of bad rules to proceed by in the trial of causes for the enormity of mens lives like dirty hands may soyl and blemish the jewel of a good cause not lessen and sink its intrin sick worth and value and indifferent men will be ready to conclude it a falling cause which catcheth at such weak and unfaithfull holds A good cause like a souldier not well appointed receives more hurt from the reggs of its own rotten armour then the bullet of an Adversary is more disparag'd I mean by a weak and insufficient defence then a strong and subtile argument which is often thought to hold more of the pregnancy of the disputant then the cause Secondly Iudgements extraordinary overtaking persons evidently guilty of extraordinary crimes are to be regarded as the evidences of Gods providence and high displeasure against those sins God generally commits all spiritual judgement to his Son and all temporal judgement to the Magistrate who therefore hath Gods title and is said to judge in his stead But sometimes as Kings who yet have their Vice-gerents he is pleased to sit as it were in open judicature himself and to correct a high and daring crime with his own immediate stroke Which he doth either when the sword of justice is permitted to rust in its scabbard and the Magistrate neglects to put open wickedness to shame or when perhaps he is unable through a want of knowledge or power to reach the criminal or in his total absence thus in the primitive times when the Magistrate being Heathen thought not any sin against the Gospel to be fori sui he invested his publick Ministers with a power which reach'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the affliction or destruction of the flesh upon bold and hopeless offenders Now these judgements extraordinary are Vocal and Emphatical and call for our more serious notices in three cases especially 1. When the judgement bears upon it the evident pour traitures and figures of the sin The cross men bear like that of our Saviour often carries the inscription of the crime in such plain and legible characters that he that runs may read it There are some herbs which bear upon them Naturae signaturas certain signatures and marks stamp'd upon them by the hand of Nature serving as a kinde of native labels to tell us what vertues they contain and whereby it may be known even upon sight to what diseases or parts of the body ill affected they are proper and usefull because bearing some figures or colours analogous to them thus punishment sometimes carries signaturas peccati and proclaims by its very make and fashion what sin it is intended to discover and cure in us And this it doth either when there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉