image of the King and looks like Sterling so there are in Art in Nature in Religion the many instances of things that do only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carry a fair face bear a title and garb beyond their true and real value As there is a â—â—ue Masculine Rhetorick wherein the golden aples of some rich conceptions are set in the silver pictures of some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of desire expressions chosen and fitly set so there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the charm of some soft and siren words and periods which like a tinkling cimbal make a pretty sound in the ear for a time and rather inchant the mind then inform it In Nature also there are the real Diamonds and Angels of light and others which by Sophistry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are only transformed into their likeness and usurp their title Religion also through the Arts of evil men is forced to carry two differenâ— faces of things under the hood of one and the same name and outward appearance in which we find lying wonders fanâ—astical depths a knowledg falsly so called a Spirit of error and so false Prophecies disguised in the titles and images of the true It is indeed the great blessing promised to the times of the New Testament that we should be delivered from all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Targum stiles them Prophets of the spirit of a ly which should call men to the worship of Images and God hath fulfilled the same unto us there being now none of those lying Prophets among us that the minds of the Heathens were abused withall who used to erect some Idols themselves had devised telling the people they were the Images of such a star or constellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was made known to them by Prophecy Yet there are still left among us that there may be an exercise of Christian prudence as well as of other Virtues some Prophets of a ly which call men to a reverence of the images of their own busy Fancy some who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodoret of the Enthusiasts of his Age call the idle phantasms of their dreams prophetick visions Our present business therefore is to rub off the gilt of these shining vanities Supposed Prophecies and to discover the folly of that faith and affection with which they are so generally entertained and in order thereunto to lay down some characters of dictinction between real and pretending Prophets and to inquire as we can whether the Sun be quite gone down over the Prophets and the minds of men never visited now with any beams of Prophetick light so familiar in the former Ages of the World The Argument I know is as fruitful a field of imposture as the foâ—egoing and the persons to whom I oppose my self therein are men of a more exeâ—cised faith then understanding and there is nothing more reverenced by some and eâ—ploded by others then Prophecying and therefore I easily foresee that I shall like the candle praelucendo perire suffer greatly my self in the prepossest thoughts of the most while attempting to give light to others in so imposterous and litigious an Argument as this is But when bodies Politick have been often choked like Adrian with gâ—ats ruined by some occasions they despised and thought most beneath their caution Propheciâ—s and Enthusiasms among the rest and because if all men of more improved intellectuals should value themselves so far â—s never to stoop to a notice of those contemptible errors which the people are abused withall no body would be informed as no bodies sores cured if all should be nice I have the intentions and hopes of a publick service to ballance the prejudices of some severer persons But that which more effectually reconciled me to this attempt was a regard to the special sutableness thereof to the present Age and the great Affinity between this and the foregoing Argument The Age wherein our lot is fallen is an Age of Action and Expectation and in such times prophecies generally take confidence to become publick being then most grateful to men usually very impatient of uncertainties where they are hugely concerned Among the Jews we find Prophets and Oracles especially consulted in times of some publick distraction and Polybius tells us that when the Armies of the Romans and Carthaginians were ready every day to joyn battel every bodies mouth was full of Oracles and Prophecies Men upon such occasions are apt to believe as they affect and then to presage as they believe Besides 't is a time of improvement in all humane and divine knowledg and that happy day seems risen upon us to which God hath promised an increase of Knowledg Nature begins now to be studied more then Aristotle and men are resolved upon a Philosophy that bottoms not upon phancy but experience a Philosophy that they can prove and use not that which commenceth in faith and concludes in talk And considerate men are too much themselves now to be brought like bees to hive under any odd form of Opinion and party of men by the confused noise and dinn of Carnal reason the Spirit of God Superstition Reformation and the coming in of Popery Now while Wisdom seems thus to have hewn out her seven pillars and her house is going up so fast it is â— duty to assist her work by removing aâ—l the rubbish of Prodigies Vulgar Prophecieâ— and what ever Doctrine makes the minds of men soft and easy by teaching men to believe without evidence and so unfit to make a due judgment of things More-over 'T is a time wherein as 't is usual Folly is as busy as Wisdom Never greater talk of terrible Signs Revelations new-lights Prophecies and Visions in our own and other Kingdoms then now We have had â— Volumes of Prophecies and Visions lately tendred to the World and that by men of no common name and with a confidence I think beyond the examples of History For as many amongst our selves disbelieve the Writing of God though sealed with so many mighty signs martyrdoms accomplished predictions a resurrection from the dead and the attestation of millions of wise and good men so they protest their visions in the face of the Sun without any considerable signs and notwithstanding the contempt of all sober Christians and those contrary events whereby God hath frustrated the tokens of these lyars and made these Diviners mad And some of them sticâ— not to tell the World that by how much the â—carer that Great day of the Lord is the more evidently and familiarly doth he excite his Prophets and that they understand the frequent possessions Witchcrafts and fanatical Enthusiasms of the Quakers Satanicas esse praestigias quibus opera Dei obsuscare nituntur ut olim Jannes Jambres Mosi restitére to be the delusions of the Devil whereby they endeavor to obscure the works of God as Jannes and Jambres withstood
and that he appear a person not apt to deceive others Now all aptness to deceive others grows either from a fear of cispleasing by some greivous or hope of reward by some grateful prediction and therefore that he may be proof against temptaion from fear or hope they make him armed with valor and riches And perhaps that Maxim we met with before among the heathens somewhat like this among the present Jews might carry some respects to some such considerations as these But I conceive the more Ancient Rabbies intended some richer Sence in this Maxim understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wise man in a more lax and general signification so as to comprehend a person furnished with all the kinds of wisdom with Natural wisdom that is Soundness of mind both before and in the time of the prophetick afflatus Accordingly Vorstius tells us from the writings of the Jews that among many other preparatory requisites to prophecy the first they lay donw is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Natural disposition an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a firm and sound constitution of body that there appear no shew of a person crazy and sunk into phantasms And all writers ancient and modern have been careful to secure the Divine Prophets in the Opinion of being sober and rational even while acted by the Prophetick Spirit fully able to conceive and express what was sealed upon their minds by the hand of God upon them God sometimes sent his Servants as Epiphanius distinguisheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ecstacy of sleep in the silence and composure whereof the Soul might best attend the softer whisperings of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not an Ecstasy of mind whereby the Understanding became useless and the language confused and inconsequent whereas the Ethnick Prophet was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Organ of the Devil sounding forth such discordant and rude airs as he inspired him with of which the person scarce retained the remembrance when the fit was over 'T is noted of the Idol-Prophet that he used not to prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till in the previous use of some extatical solemnities he became frantick and epileptical To this Natural was superadded a Livine Widom great skill in the Law of God and the mysteries relating to the person and Kingdom of the Messiah in conjunction with a divine Philosophy the knowledg of the works of Nature with reference to piety and virtue the most valued learning of those whiter Ages of the World God did not use to hazard the reputation of his Oracles by trusting them with such Prophets whose rudeness would have rendered their persons and Message to the common scorn but the prophetick Spirit found them or made them wise and understanding men and that in so eminent a degree that the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wise men seems to have been anciently the peculiar addition of Prophets and used characteristically as Scribe was originally the distinctive title of a Son of the Prophets and an expectant of that sacred function and therefore an ancient Doctor of the Jewish Nation tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after 40 years the time they assign to prophecy after the second Temple all the Wise-men were called the Men of the great Synagogue as conceiving that title now too August and sacred for them to wear as the Primitive Bishops did the title of Apostles to whose places but not to their measures of the Spirit they did succeed and from hence it came to pass that all the Devils prophets that assumed the skill usurpt also the stile of God's Prophets and were intitled Wise men and perhaps the more ancient Philosophers amongst the Gentiles as they borrowed their Wisdom so also the stile of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wise men from the prophetick Doctors of the Jewish church so eminent in all the parts of Wisdom By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rich man there they understand as Maimonides expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man that rejoyceth in his portion of riches honor health pleasure which his father hath allotted to him that is of a contented and chearful Spirit for as that water which is not mudded with Earth nor ruffled with the wind is most apt to receive and reflect an image so that Minde which is not soyled with covetous desires as with earth nor discomposed with anger or sorrow as with wind is most receptive of a prophetick image and impression Accordingly we find none of Gods Prophets nay none of his servants blemished in Scripture for an inordinate love to this worlds goods and so far did they stand from a morose and sowr humor that we scarce read of any inspired persons but were frequent in the use of the instruments of Musick that by the soft and gentâ—e airs thereof they might allay all undue â—eats and charm their unquiet thoughts into stilness and silence By that third word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they understood I conceive these three excellencies 1. Great courage and presence of mind that which we may find aâ—l the Prophets in Scripture eminent for Upon which account perhaps the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stout or valiant became the almost distinctive Epithite of a Prophet Our forementioned Master speaking of Abraham describes him by the character of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this stout one And some of the Râ—bbins conjecture that the Moneth Tisri oâ— September is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Kings 8. 2. the moneth of the Valiant because say they three great Prophets were born therein But this singular presence of mâ—nd I conceive rather an effect of then a disposition to the prophetick Spirit 2. Power over inordinate affections for so Maimonides having asked upon occasion of this Maxim who is the strong man makes answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man that subdues his concupiscence for herein the true strength and vigor of the Soul reports it self that it can maintain its supremacy and give check to all its rebel-passions and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used in Scripture for temperance signifies a having somewhat in ones power and holding it within the compass of ones strength All inordinate passions the Iews used to stile the vails of the Prophets which intercepted the light of Prophecy ready otherwise to fall upon them and therefore rightly judged a power over the motions of the lower Soul essential to the Prophetick State 3. Singular gravity and severity of life and manners for in such a sence the word occurs 2 Sam. 22. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the strongly or heroically perfect thou wilt shew thy self perfect And a late learned Papist conceives that the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 6. 4. was anciently the distinctive character of the Prophets and that we are not there and in other places to understand as we translate it Gyants
their occasion and why should we imagine that Prophecy numbred with them survives them all a gift of which I am sure the World hath incomparably less need then of any of the rest Those other gifts of the Spirit could ease the pains enlighten the Eyes resolve the Conscience presently confirm the Faith of men which a Prophecy could not do and therefore whereas we find those gifts very familiarly used and liberally conferred in the first times of the Gospel yet we meet with this prophetick gift very rarely exerted by our Savior or his Apostles and some of the Persons who had it as if they were rarely to be found are particularly mentioned in the New Testament viz. Agabus Barnabas Simon Niger Lucius Manahen Silas the four Daughters of Philip and some few others Why then should a Gift which was of so little name and consideration â—n compare with the rest continue in the Church when all the other like Scaffolds when the House is built are taken away now that the House of God is built up and the Faith confirmed Certainly the fond affection which some men have for Prophecy and that strength of face with which others pretend to it are the things which suborn their Understandings to believe that so acceptable a gift is honored with a longer continuance in the World then the rest of its Brethren If we consult Antiquity it will appear more likely that this gift alone is faln there being more frequent mention therein of some Miracles wrought in the Name of Christ but less is said concerning the Prophetical Spirit especially after the second Century 3. Prophecy cannot now minister to any of those great ends to which under the first times of the Old and New Testament it did It served under the Old Testament as a seal of the divine Inspiration of those Scriptures in which it was found and was a pregnant assurance to present and future Times that all those Promises Precepts Threatnings found in conjunction with any accomplish'd Prophecy were equally of divine Original To this purpose speaks a Iewish Doctor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fundamental Reason why Prophecy is extant in the Prophets is onely this That they may with the greater authority exhort men to an observation of the Law to divine Worship and to do what is acceptable unto God and that Man may be perfect with God not barely that they may declare things to come This is found in the Prophets but out of a secondary intention onely to confirm the truth of their inspiration and the like reason of Prophecy in Scripture is alleged by Origen Whereas these Vulgar Prophecies cannot need not seal any divine Doctrine or part of Scripture if they should be fulfilled and therefore have no more real value then the seal in separation from the writing They tell us perhaps which no wise man much concerns himself to know that after such a period of time such a great Prince shall ascend the Throne such a famous Event shall fall and if the Prediction chance to succeed the Prophet looks big and the People wonder and that 's all Moreover Prophecy served like the Shechinah in the Temple as a testimony of God's dwelling in and owning of that Church in which it was found And accordingly the departing of the Prophetick Spirit from a people if found elswhere in the World was a Sign God had given them a bill of divorce Thus God at last assured his rejection of the Iewish and acknowledgment of the Gentile Church by his taking Prophecy wholy from the one and giving it at the same time unto the other that which Origen and Iustin Martyr take frequent notice of in their Disputes against the Iews and Heathens Now Prophecy is no more necessary in this Age then Miracles to witness Christs presence with his Church for she hath had it liberally already and when it departed it went not from her to Iew or Turk but back to Heaven leaving behind it the many virtues of the Spirit in themselves more undoubted pledges of his favor And besides the Christian Church now is crumbled into so many Sects and Forms that were Prophecy now in the World men would be apt to receive it as a testimony not to their Church but to their Party to which purpose the Faction of Rome pretends it and therefore perhaps Prophecy was to be found in the more united times both of the Iewish and Christian Church but went away when they began to distinguish themselves by little Forms and Notions lest it should seem to witness not to the Truth of God but humors of Men. A third Reason assigned by some Iewish and Christian Writers why God gave the People of the Iews their Oracles and Prophets to give them the knowledge of Futurities as the success of a Battel the issue of a Sickness the condition of other Kingdoms in after-times c. is this Because else in all likelihood they would have apostatized to the Rites of the Heathen who had their Oracles and Diviners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being prompted thereunto by that natural liquorousness in the minds of men after the knowledg of things to come as Origen gives the reason and Scripture seems to assign the same why God gave them Prophecy even to secure them from all temptation to consult the Oracles of the Heathen which we find they sometimes did in the silence or absence of the true Prophets To suppose Prophecy necessary now for this end to save mens longing after the knowledg of things sealed up in the Counsels of God is to reproach the World and to suppose it as liquorish as in its more childish years Hath not the World out-grown the follies of Auguries Soothsaying and profest Diviners long ago and took up in the resolves of Reason as the best Oracle to consult in a civil business and must Christians be thought the onely persons that want a Prophecy to arrest their anxieties in reference to hereafter and a Prophecy of the certain truth whereof they are as much unresolved as of the issue of affairs And besides we shall observe how God sometimes chastised that wanton humor in the Iews by permitting even his own Predictions to be not seldom the occasions of very evil Effects If we proceed to a view of those Ends which prophecy serv'd to more specially in the times of the New Testament it will more clearly appear a great impertinence now It served then as a divine largess to grace the solemn Inauguration of our Saviour to his Mediatory Kingdom To assure the acceptance of his person and undertaking with God who impowered him to confer such great gifts on men To fore-warn and so to fore-arm young Coverts apt otherwise to be scandalized by the then approaching persecutions for Christ's sake To seal the reception of the Gentiles to the dignity of Sonship upon whom God had bestowed so great a portion of
Moses of old As for that Affinity noted between this Argument and the fore-going it will appear in the correspondence observable between Prodigies and Prodigies in the General Nature evil Consequents and common acceptance of them both 1. In their General Nature For as Prodigies are received as the reason of the name intimates as a kind of Real prophecies predictions as in a figure of some great plague or change in State So Prophecies as a kind of Verbal Prodigies wonderful indications of the fortunes of Kingdoms or private persons both feed the curiosities of men by the pretended notices of the future and have alwaies gone undivided in the Opinions and regards of easie men both among Heathens and Christians Having therefore imbittered and dryed up that one breast the Opinion of Prodigies which used to suckle this childish humor of curiosity in men I shall endeavour to do as much to that other of common Prophecies that so the minds of men may be forced to take to some more substantial nourishment and may come the more entire and undisturbed to sober and wise thoughts 2. In their evil consequents These Vulgar Prophecies having as malign an influence upon the State Religion the Understanding and Common life as Prodigies 1. They are of very evil consequence in the State The monuments of our own and forrein Nations assure us that there is not a more fruitful womb of seditions and confusions in States then the Opinion of such predictions is He that shall read ur Histories saith our great Lawyer shall find what lamentable and fatal events have fallen out upon vain prophecies carried out of the inventions of wicked men pretended to be ancient but newly framed to deceive true men and withall how credulous and inclinable to them our Countrey-men in former times have been The reason why the publication of any such evil prophecies as he tells us hath been made felony without clergy by some ancient Statutes in our Kingdom and still interdicted under severe penalties both in our own and forrein Countries What attempt will not take confidence from a perswasion that God will succeed it and that it is the accomplishment of some divine prediction and besides how certainly will the best cause fall to the ground where the hands which are to suport it are weakned by an Opinion of some unpromising Omen or Prophecy The Ancient Ethnick States-men seem very sensible what a ready weapon of Sedition this sacred Opinion of Prophecies in the people was and therefore being unable to wrest it from them they endeavoured as much as they could to blunt its edg by subtil maxims such as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Persons very simple or very poor never saw any dreams in which the publick was concerned And that none but a King or a General was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preferred by the Gods the Prophet of a City Or by appointing some prudentdent Over-seers and interpreters of Prophecies Their Doctrine as we learn from Plato was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not for the person acted by a prâ—phetick fury whether he continue in it still or no of himself to judg his Prophetick Visions or Speeches for as it is commonly and truly said to speak and do things becoming belongs soly to a wise person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore the law provides that an order of Prophets be set Iudges over all Enthusiastick Divinations which Prophets some by mistake call Diviners Where indeed the Order of Prophets to whom He gives the preheminence were none else but wise and prudent Men as a late Writer truly but whereas he adds who by reason of the Sagacity of their Understandings were able to judg of those things which were uttered by this dull spirit of Divination which resided only in faculties inferior to Reason I conceive he misapprehends the end and office of these prudent Persons who were indeed Iudges but not to interpret but to moderate these prophetick furies For if these Enthusiasms were really divine no wise man would and if really phrenetical no wise man could judg them so as to expound and interpret them for can any man make any sober judgment of the phantasms and heats of distraction or find any reason in that which never approached the faculty of Reason These Wise Men therefore seem a â—ind of Ethnick Sanhedrim to judg of pretended prophecy in an authoritative way and to expunge or expound according as might best comport with the occasions of State And the better to blanch over their Sentences and to make them look like Oracle they were themselves reported and verily thought by the people really prophetick persons Answerable to which subtil men among the Graecians the Romans had constantly chosen out of the City their sole Keepers and Interpreters of the Sibylline prophecies which serveâ— as a kind of Ethnick Alcoran expounded alway by those Mufties according as the circumstances of State might require and 't is not unlikely that Caesar had been tampering with one of them who told the Romans in open Senate as from the Oracles of Sibylla that he that they had now their King in reality must have the title of King too if they would be in a safe condition I incline to believe that this political Sophism in reference to Prophecy was couched by the Poets in the fable of their Hermaphrodite-Prophet Teresia whom they feign stricken with blindness by Iuno but in recompense of that ill turn blest by Iupiter with prophecy and further that this person had the forms of both Sexes and was often instrumental to accord many differences and strifes among the God Wherein they seem to intimate that prophecy as found among them was given only to persons bereft of the use of Wisdom as in a dream or in the eclypse of reason by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch calls it Prophetick effiux in truth a subtil vapor ascending the body of the Pythia from those hollow caverns over which she stood and begetting a kind of dry drunkenness in her for a time and so disposing her to an imitation of the Ecstacies and prophecies of an Enthusiast Or else of the very habit of wisdom and that by Iuno a hand of Providence as no men distracted hypochondriacks Epileptical persons old women and this by God to compensate their great blindness and folly in all other matters Now these Prophecies seemed to carry the form of a Woman as being delivered generally by that Sex but constantly by persons extremely ignorant credulous talkative and impotent both in mind and body and of a Man as being directed expounded and over-look'd by the care and wisdom of some prudent Men. And the fable seems further to intimate of what singular Use in State these pretended prophecies proved when subtilly managed to compound differences among the Gods Men of minds or power too high to be set down by any Law but what
the Authors But because God in the trial of Prophets hath directed us to a regard of the issues of their Prophecies this matter may seem to merit a more close and particular Consideration to which therefore I shall next apply my self CHAP. V. The failing of Vulgar Prophecies an assurance of their Vanity Vulgar Prophecies referring to the Publick generally false that proved from Justin Martyr and the falshood of some Modern Prophecies particularly instanced in A fayleur but in a circumstance a sign of the forgery of the whole Prophecy and why ◠A five fold account given of the pretended accomplishments of some Modern Prophecies How far it seems fitting that Prophecies should descend to the circumstances of Events An account why some of these Prophecies hit and others miss All Divine Prophecies fulfilled which were absolutely delivered Some Characters to distinguish such Prophecies by THat which may yet more fully secure us in a perswasion of the Vanity of all these Modern Prophecies is this All these unattested Prophets generally fail in all their Prophecies but always in some Generally in all viz. such are most fit to assure men of their divine Inspiration as those onely are which are of a publick reference Ieremiah tells us that the Prophets which had been before him of old prophesied both against many Countries and against great Kingdoms of War and of Evil and of Pestilence as they also did sometimes of great National Blessings Now the coming to pass of such Prophecies was the most undoubted evidence of their Divinity for though the Devil may be presumed able to bring about some little turns in the lives of private men yet the spirit of the living creature onely moves in those great Wheels the turns in States are soly under the particular conduct of God those Wheels are too great for him to move one way or other And therefore Iustin Martyr when the accomplish'd Predictions of the Ethnick Prophets were opposed to him returns this judicious Answer No event which the Ethnick Prophets foretold either against the Truth of God or his Worshippers or referring to the publick Affairs of the Grecian States ever came to pass though perhaps some matters of a more narrow concern might which fell more within the Devil's compass An Observation more fully justified in the pretending Prophets of later times what is become of all the Oracular leaves of Grebner hath not the wind taken them away and the whirlwind scattered them as it did those of the Sibyl He prophesied saith Mr Mede great matters of Henry the fourth of France which proved clean contrary of Queen Elizabeth and other Princes which never came to pass I have I know not how often to satisfie one or other told them as I now tell you and yet every five or six years it comes up again as if it had never been discovered Men are prone to believe anything they would have c. And how have all the swelling Prophecies of Cotterus Christina Poniativia and Drabicius concerning the sudden Conversion of the Turks the Establishment of the German Churches by Frederick King of Bohemia and Gustavus of Sweden the sudden Propagation of the Gospel throughout the World the advancement first of Ragotzi the Father and then the Son and then the Brother to the Crown of Hungary of the dreadful overthrow of the Papacy many of them delivered about fifty years ago been delivered of nothing but the wind even their great Patrons themselves being witnesses while yet so inchanted with the Opinion of them as to publish them now as the Oracles of God when Divine Providence hath encouraged sober Christians to hiss them out of the World And indeed it is so the usage of Divine Providence to shame the impatience and curiosity of men discovered in attending to such Prophecies that I perswade my self it is next to impossible to instance a Modern Prophecy referring to the Publick that speaks distinctly as to words and time of accomplishment that failed not in the substance or some eminent circumstance thereof Now a fayleur but in a tittle is a dead Flie sufficient to make the whole Prophecy smell strongly of an imposture Of Divine Prophecies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Master to whom we have had such frequent recourse well notes not the greater nor lesser part substance or circumstance ever fell to the ground And He tells us those words of Ieremiah The Prophet that hath a Dream let him tell a Dream and he that hath my Word let him speak my Word faithfully what is the chaff to the wheat their Doctors used to gloss thus Prophecy is a thing pure without the allay of any falshood mixed with it like wheat cleansed from the chaff but Dreams and other vulgar Indications have a lie always intermixed and are like chaff in which there are but some few grains of wheat God is careful to accomplish the very criticisms and circumstances of his Predictions because this gives the greatest assurance of their Divine Author For the substance of Events may possibly be thought Object great enough for the Eye of humane Prudence to see afar off but circumstances are easily presumed too little for our heavy Eyes to discern at any great removes If any Person better seen in the Writings of Modern Prophets then I have any ambition to be thought to be is able to instance a Prophecy of any longer date whose words did exactly touch the Event foretold both in the substance and circumstance thereof yet he shall alway observe his Prophet to have failed in some one nay in very many other instances if any thing talkative as it is well the prophetick humor in such persons disposeth them to be which is a sufficient assurance that he foretold nothing by a divine suggestion Thus Savanarola a Dominican foretold long before that Charls the eighth of France should come into Italy with a great Army which came to pass But withal that God had revealed to him that the State Ecclesiastick should be reformed by force of Arms which saith the Historian hath not yet nor yet hapned but at that time was very likely to have been effected The Examples of this kind are too great for Arithmetick The two branches of this Consideration I find struck at by a double Objection which I shall endeavor to secure them from It is opposed to the first That very many of these Modern Prophecies have been very punctually accomplish'd though unseal'd by any divine Sign attending the delivery of them In Answer hereunto I return 1. Meer prudential Conjectures after the Event often commence accomplish'd Prophecies in vulgar Opinion the common sort of people being apt to invest every thing that lies out of the road of their thoughts and observations with the Opinion of some Divinity lodged in it Thus that famous Speech of Seneca the Tragaedian Venient annis Secula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula rerum laxet ingen