their vain perswasions concerning Prodigies but that I observe their usage is upon any such occurrences to charm down their fears with such like words What these things signifie time to come will declare Secondly It will also serve the honour of Religion which the common reverence of Prodigies doth greatly trespass upon and that 1. As it detains men under a constant Paedagogy to many base and servile fears Whence Religion is easily concluded a great Adversary to what it mainly designes to bring on upon the world a true generousness and universal freedom of spirit and that its whole business is to subdue the spirits of men to some cold and little observances pale and feminine fears Hence men quickly grow weary of it as of a yoke that continually galls them and conclude themselves gainers if they may but purchase manhood with Atheism This was that especially which gave Epicurus the confidence of thrusting God and Religion quite out of the world and solving all the Phoenomena of Nature without calling in any assistance from the power and providence of any Agent superiour to Naturall even that bondage and servility which he observed mens ears bor'd unto by the Religion of his times which was nothing but a timerous and base observance of the Signes of heaven direfull Omens prodigious occurrences against whose evil abodements men arm'd themselves with paper against pod-guns a few bodily and ineffective Rites and Ceremonies Fear bindes in the powers of the soul debars it the easie use and enjoyment of it self and therefore the soul hates the womb that is conceived to bear it Religion can never be amiable till it appear designed not to increase the fears of men but truly to cure and remove them 2. The superstition of Prodigies commits no small waste upon Religion in regard the fears it creates abuse the mindes of men proving generally but è vitro fulgura vain as the shadows of the night These Prodigies threaten a vengeance to we know not whom and to fall we know not when Now as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the false and tinsel miracles among the Papists most fatally wound Religion because deriving a suspicion upon the true ones when once detected so false and delusive fears introduc't upon pretences religious disparage and discredit all the true ones and Religion is in danger to be concluded but mendacium officiosum a using the weakness of some men to the service of the common peace and quiet Religion is not to be dallied with non patitur â—usum fides Pious frauds as strong-waters do the body may perhaps help Religion in a fit but if used familiarly disable the native heat and strength thereof Hay and stubble laid upon a good foundation such I account well-meant forgeries in Religion will catch fire and consume at last and leave a great stain and soil upon the very foundation 3. As it reports Religion a Systeme of some pitifull rites sâ—eaking and beggerly entertainments of the minde there is nothing more effectually enclines subtile mindes to Atheism as the evaporating of Religion into a multitude of touchy and critical modes and observations which cannot command a reverence to themselves before discerning minds which soon see through them they are so thin and airy To dismis this second particular If these devouter perswasions concerning Prodigies produce not in some minds any such sowre thoughts of Religion 't is solely oweing to the power of some happier principles in conjunction with them by whose activity the malign influence of the former is overpowr'd and corrected Thirdly It may be of Use to reprehend a very common and Pernicious Errour 1. A very vulgar and common Errour I profess not to know any one Errour to which all times and Persons have been so fatally abus'd withall as this of presages by prodigies whereas there are some false notions which are Errores Personae others which are Errores Seculi holding of the peculiar temper condition circumstances of the Person or Age in which found this seems to be in a manner Error Mundi having been justifi'd by Iews Gentiles Christians some Ancients Modern Learned Simple as will more fully appear in the sequele and may in part by some few instances which to serve the necessity of the present Argument I shall here inserâ— How far the Heathen were leaven'd with this fond notion the names and titles whereby they us'd to express any such Anomalous instances in Nature is but too pregnant a demonstration all of them carrying with them a promise of foreshewing somewhat Future that which perhaps hath betrayed a great many to a like opinion of them most people understanding little besides names and words Amongst the Fathers to do them right I find none so express as Origen who speaking concerning Comets tells us it hath been observed that so oft as any great and eminent changes happen in earth such stars have been known foreshewing the translations of Kingdoms oâ— wars or whatever may happen of force sufficient for any great commotions and disturbances here below Amongst the more Modern it may here suffice to take notice that the first occasion and Original of Rogation week observ'd now upon the religion of greater principles in the church is by Historians as we are told refer'd to Claud. Mamertus Bishop of Vienne in France for the a verting of some judgments which upon the observation of many inauspicious accidents and prodigies were sadly fear'd to be approaching Among the Learned the height of Grotius calls my eye upon Him who thus expresseth himself solent magnas rerum conversiones praecedere Cometae gladii ardentes aliaque signa ejusmodi As for the common sort of men as they are by the plainness of their state more apt to retain a quick sense of those early notions quae sâ—quuntur Naturam simplicem which follow Nature simple and unsuborn'd by subtilty interest or passion for we find the notices of a God of a future state of the souls immortality takeing faster hold of the populacy then of some of the more subtiâ—e and discussive Philosophers so withall are more impressive those which follow Naturam viâ—â—atam Nature tainted and deprav'd with guilt and ignorance and the many Idols consequent unto both amongst which this notion concerning Presages by Prodigies will appear in its place to be no small one so that it may seem like some weeds in the water to have a very diffus'd and broad leaf but growing from a very weak and pitifull root generally receiv'd but without yea against evident and apparent reason 2. A very pernicious errour as having a most malign influence upon the Minde and Understanding upon Philosophy and upon Divinity 1 Upon the mind and Understanding it self No two things do so usurp and wast the faculty of Reason as Enthusiasm and Superstition the one binding a faith the other a fear upon the Soul to which they vainly intitle some divine discovery both train a man up to beleeve
intire in the ashes when his body was consumed his friends from this Ordeel trial concluded the â—toutness and sincerity but his adversaries the obdurateness thereof But the grave Historian makes a more sober gloss upon this providence then either in those words Adcò turbatis odio aut amore animis ut fit religionis dissentionibus pro se quisque omnia superstitiosè interpreratur Mens minds disturbed with love or hatred as it falls out in religious differences each party superstitiously interprets all accidents in favour of it self In the interim we may safely infer the vanity of trusting much to these Prodigies which like mercenary souldiers may be easily brought to fight on either side in any case Accordingly Philo tells us that the law of Moses banisht from the Jewish Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the observers of birds and regarders of Prodigies because these Diviners were led but by specious and plausible conjectures entertained different phancies of the same things both because their subjects had no steady and fixt Nature and themselves were unprovided of any sure Maximes by which to measure and prove the conceits of their own minds in reference to them Can it now be reasonably imagined God all whose ways are judgement ever intended these portentous occurrences as his trumpets to alarm a drowsie world which give forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so obscure and uncertain a sound Can it possibly be presumed that any thing is there signified where nothing ever was or will be certainly understood If these be the signs of the gods said Tully discoursing upon this argument why have they always been so dark and obscure for if they come forth that we might understand things future they ought to declare them more openly and plainly aut ne occultè quidem si ea sciri nolebant or not so much as darkly if they would not have them understood Did God ever in all the Scripture foretel an evil by any such winding and squint-ey'd Oracles as the Old Serpent made use of which used to work men to some confused and pannick fears or to ensnare them while seeming to warn them When he spake to Egypt by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words of his signs Psa. â—05 27. they were such as were clearly expressive of his minde and purpose they were such as like arrows shot into a Town with letters bound about them did bear upon them their own signification and gave very intelligible intimations of their end and intention whereas all these signes as commonly reputed give forth no certain notices of the events they point unto For they are not Hieroglyphicks of the judgements as bearing no likeness and resemblance of them no effective causes of them nor yet did Scripture a consideration in stead of all arguments ever warrant us to receive any of them with those religious and awfull regards which are owing to the Monitors of the Divine displeasure which certainly it would have done had the honour of God and the good of men been so hugely concerned in them as some would have us to imagine Secondly The times wherein these Prodigies have been received with their first and most religious regards were such as sufficiently lessen their repute with all persons that use not to trust their faith without some security Excellent that speech of K. Iames A good Crisis of a President or custom may be made by an attendance to the condition of the times wherein they first obtained which if remarkable either for the ignorance or confusions of them they greatly render the things to suspicion and challenge which received their first birth and original in them Now then if as the Astrologers use we calculate the Nativity of this Opinion of Prodigies we shall finde nothing promised and signified to oblige our affections because as truth obtains most in times of great knowledge and peace when we have most ability and leisure to judge so the times wherein this first and principally prevailed stand blemisht with these two great evils Ignorance and Distraction First They were times of greatest ignorance both in matters of Religion and Learning 1. In matters of Religion who more critically observant of all such unusual accidents then the Heathen who knew not God whose whole Religion in the practice of it was but a System of ridiculous obscene and inhumane rites and in the speculation thereof but an endless observation of Omens and prodigies and a pretended skill of interpreting dreams and strange accidents It was among the Egyptians as we learn from Strabo a great instance of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enter into their sacred records all the Errata Naturae and perhaps in an imitation of them the Romans kept their annual Registers of the several anomalous occurrences in the world some fragments of which have reacht our own times Upon a deliberate perusal whereof four things not unserviceable to our general Discourse offer themselves to our observation 1. That the Events succeeding them were as often happy as unfortunate the truth whereof the curious Reader may soon resolve himself of by a short survey 2. That they generally concluded in superstition the people being readily wrought on to institute novas Ferias to consecrate new Temples to the gods to institute new Rites expiare prodigia procurare monstra as their phrase was to divert the unlucky Omen 3. That there hardly passeth a year or two in that Register wherein there are not recorded several of these Portenta 4. That a vain opinion of these things held the people under a perpetual pedagogy to base and ignoble fears of God and impendent evils Upon which accounts I do more then incline to beleeve that the devil who hath the posseaeris at his command did often by divine permission procure many strange impressions on Nature thereby to fright those to his altars which he could never perswade and to subdue the minds of men to his own image a perpetual fear and trembling before the sence of a Deity But God who useth to make the devils mines to fall in upon himself made no doubt this happy use of these slavish fears in the minds of the Gentiles even the ushering in of the Gospel Jubilee with the greater acceptance among them as by the fears terrours of the Law he also levelled the way to its more ready and cheerful reception among the Jews But to return Secondly As ignorant were the times in Philosophy as Religion perfect strangers to the Reasons of things for as it is well observed as the knowledge of the natural causes of Earthquakes Eclipses Lightnings Meteors c. obtained amongst the Gentiles of old so all their ominous fears their libri fulgurales interpretations of prodigies fell into contempt and disrepute the more men advanc't into the light the less apt were they to start They then began to smile at their former superstitions as men in the day laugh at those dreams
some contemplative Persons may perswade themselves that the foundation of this Opinion is not laid so much upon the surface as I would make my Reader to believe for as there was a pretty conceit among some of the Ancient and more mystical sort of Philosophers that all things in the upper and intelligible world were limned forth in some parallel instances and fimilar figures here below and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 matters intelligible were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the true fillings up of things sensible which carry but some general and rude lines and images of them thus some persons seem strongly perswaded that all the greater works of God are pourtrayed and shadowed out first in some little pictures and images of them and that therefore many strange accidents are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be received as a kinde of shadows of things to come as a sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplars and types of some great and unusual work to follow after Thus the sinking of the Lambeth Ferry-boat with the Arch-Bishops coach-horses and coach-men to the bottom of the Thames Sept. 19. 1633. the very first day he removed from Fulham to Lambeth was saith one no doubt a presage of his own and the Arch-Bishopricks sinking through his pride and violence with as good reason may I add that their swimming again at last was a signe that the function should at last appear above water But I believe it will appear to the most altogether unnecessary to bestow much breath to break this pretty bubble which hath nothing but wind therein and will break and refute it self by its own aiery unstable and transparent principles though perhaps with some that know not to distinguish between an argument and a similitude the conceit may appear of more value and moment Apparitions whether in the air of Armies of cities or by any particular application of Angels good or bad in a way of counsel and conference reckoned among Prodigies Preternatural no power transcendent to created being exerted in them may perhaps appear in this place argument big enough to deserve a more serious and particular examination In which undertaking I may hope for pardon if standing in no better light I hit the butt though not the white and deliver what may seem most consistent with so briety and approach nearest to the truth All that I think fit to offer in this Argument shall be disposed under these five Propositions First There have been some such apparitions as these mentioned I readily grant that this Argument like an enchanted house is full of Phantasms and delusive images and that many stories of this Nature there are which like Spectres are filled out in shew with body and substance which when we come to handle and examine by making search into their grounds and evidence we shall find them vanishing into the ayr of common report or the single testimony of some superstitious or melancholy imaginant And therefore I know many men are not at all impressive to any such relations but look upon them all but as apparitions indeed things which never advanc'd nearer to realities then the images of a dream Look as in Religion some men to present God but with a flattering faith take great pleasure to invent new mysteries there in to fancy a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some what inexplicable in every article thereof till they have made it a contradiction to the most natural maximes and easy sense of our minds and a scandal to men that can discourse so others are very busy in filling up every depth and removing every real mystery therein till they have left no image or footstep of its unsearchable Authour thereupon thus it comes to pass in the matters of providence some men are hugely taken with mysteries therein delighted to hear and relate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat new and strange their pia Mater is alway big with some religious Legend or prophecy to obtrude upon the easy world as a divine discovery Others again would remove all prodigies apparitions and what ever goes off from the figures and measures of common and ordinary and know not to admit a perswasion of any thing of whose causes ends or examples they are not aware Lucian commends this temper in Epicurus Democritus Metrodorus that if any thing rare and wonderfull fell before their consideration they had put on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resolution as inflexible as adamant to endeavour a solution thereof and its reduction to the proper ends and causes which if they were able to doe well and good but if not to arrest all further search and wonder with this sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a lie and impossible to be at all An easy art to maintain the repute of understanding men And we shall not seldom find men especially such as are arrived at no great experience of themselves or things advancing the length of their own understanding and experience like as our Einglish King did his arme the common standard and measure of the truth or falshood of things an instance of which temper appears in their slow and heavy motion to a faith of such things apparitions among the rest whose natures causes ends or patterns fall not within their compass But certainly as to be of a waxen faith impressive to any narrations of this nature is an instance of softness and superstition so an obstinate and pertinacious incredulity retains a little to Atheism because removing one of the greatest and most pregnant arguments of a Deity and gives cause of suspicion that the Person hath ingenium difficulter sanabile in Religion which as we may observe is so managed as to suppose men candid and ingenuous such as will sit down with high probabilities where the condition of the things to be believed admits not evidence and demonstration The stories of all times are full of relations of such things as these and therefore unbelief in this particular is guilty of the rudeness of giving the lie to the world They which have itching ears for such stories may have them sufficiently scratcht by Cardanus Grosius and other writers in this curious argument Secondly It seems probable that some Apparitions in the ayr have been intended the Monitors of some judgement approaching I shall instance but in two examples One mentioned by Iosephus who tells us that a little before the destruction of Hierusalem by the Romane army 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there appeared amongst other prodigies chariots and armed companies of horsmen issuing out of the clouds and intercepting the heavens with the multitude of their troops which was received by him and others not so drunk with pride and opinion as the rest a representation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the marching forth of the great Lord of hosts with all warlike appoyntments to take vengeance of that rebellious city and nation Our other example shall be taken from an Authour
beyond possibility of proof to deliver over himself in a kind of captivity of Understanding to the confident dictates of the sons of imagination to determine of things by measures phantastical rules which cannot maintain themselves in credit by any sober and severe discourses both inure the mind rather to divine then to judge to dispute from Maximes rather vehement then folid and place a man if he chance to mistake beyond possibility of conviction it being in vain to press an argument upon him that thinks he can confront a Revelation a miracle or some strange judgement upon his Adversary against your conclusion nor is there a greater evil then wickedness establisht by a law and errour by religion and an ignorant devotion toward God And therefore no pains and care too much to remove these two beams from the eye of humane Understanding rendring it so insufficient for a just and faithfull discovery of objects in Religion or common science 2. Upon Philosophy For when once Superstition hath advanced these Prodigies into the repute of divine messengers it will easily be inferr'd a necessary respect towards them to keep some distance and not to approach them too nearly by too busy and curious an enquiry into their natural and immediate causes We find among the Grecians those which first made a tender of the natural causes of lightnings and tempests to the as yet ruder ears of men were presently blasted with the reproach of Atheists as if to shew how many wheels in some great Engine move in subordination to the production of some great work were to obscure and ecclypse the art of the Artificer 3. Upon Divinity also Because the conceit conciliates reverence to a lie and christens the vain and soft fears of ignorance by the name of prudent foresights and religious observances of God whence the soul is brought like some of the ancient Heathens to give worship to its very passions and diseases Stories of Prodigies may perhaps serve to deceive the taedium of a winter night but when once they advance à focis ad Aras from the chimney corner to the Church and are adopted the measures of a religious faith or fear advanc'â— the serious motives of Repentance 't is time to throw contempt upon them A lie never did never could serve the interest of truth The Church of Rome whether to serve the interest of Philosophy or Divinity I shall not here concern my self to enquire hath exprest her self fas est ab hoste doceri by her representatives a great adversary to this instance of superstition the observation of portentous accidents We find in the Catalogue of books prohibited by Urban viii this interdicted among the rest Author Chronici prodigiorum ostentorum ab exordio Mundi usque ad An. 1557. And Gregory the Great represented to posterity as one most studious of the propagation of the Christian Religion was acted by so great â— zeal against it that we are told he took care for the extirpation of that otherwise excellent Historian Livy out of all Libraries ob tam frequentem accuratam portentorum enumerationem for his so frequent and critical enumeration of all the Portenta which seem'd to attend any great Action Though I think too hasty and severe a judgement past upon that Historian whom we shall easily perceive noâ— more leaven'd in mind with that kind of superstition then Herodotus or Tacitus and others which stood in no better light then he did However much may be pardon'd to a great zeal to a good undertaking The mind of man was made for Truth and Goodness and therefore should nor in any matter if the remedy fell within our compass be put off with the bare form and idol of either But where an errour hath once ceas'd it which is what some say of a comet both malum causa mali an evil and a pregnant cause of evils no need then of the voice of thunder to awaken charity to endeavour as it can its remedy and removal Thirdly This Discourse may be profitable to serve the just interest of State and that 1. As it tends to secure the honour of Acts of State and the results of publick counsel How mean a value and regard shall the issues of the severest debates and the commands of Authority find if everâ— pitifull Prodigy-monger have credit enough with the People to blast them by telling them that heaver frowns upon them and that God writes his displeasure against them in black and visible charecters when some sad Accident befalls the complyers with them 2. As it tends to make men more manageable to the commands of Authority which easy men may quickly be frighted from by such images of straw as the relations of monsters and strange sights are Of what ill consequence the Romanes at last found the observation of â—ignes and Omens to be in war especially appears from what Tully hath left recorded viz. that howsoever they were in his time ab Uâ—banis retenta retain'd in some repute with the Citizens for good reasons of state yet they were a bellicis sublata quite banisht the camp because they found that the ignorant multitude like beasts would not drive well if any such bug-bears were suffered to lie before them Now where weak men like the horse of Alexander are ready to start and fly off from their Rulers and Guides because frighted with shadows 't is but a charity to them and the publick to turn them to the Sun to lead them to the light by a faithfull information of their judgements 3. As it ministers to the quiet and tranquillity of the State That man that hath already incircled his own head with a Glory and is strongly perswaded that Gods honour and the Gospel stand or fall with his private Opinion will need no great Rhetorick to perswade him to receive a prodigy as a sign from heaven to encourage any endeavours to advance it Prophesies concerning the deaths of great persons or changes in the State a kind of weak ayr which carries about and commands but the more chaffie and lighter faiths the wisdom of the Nation hath judg'd of such evil consequence in a State as by two several Acts of Parliament under severe penalties to interdict the publication of them Now Prodigies have ever been propos'd as a kind of types and real Prophesies of some black days and some wonderfull alterations at hand and therefore may easily be presum'd to have as malign an influence upon the people apt to be mightily mov'd with what ever comes toward them with any shadow and promise of Divine and Sacred as the former Among the Ancient Romanes subtil Statesmen made use of that Superstitious observation of Omens and Prodigies to which they saw the people in the ruder ages especially so invincibly addicted to act and manage them to what perswasions might best serve the necessities of State to which purpose they had their Collegia Vatum
and Apparitions of Saints And with a like faith though better affection because found in a Poem I receive many of those Portenta which as 't is said attended the fall of Cesar simulachra miris pallentia modis Visa sub obsourum noctis pecudesque locutae Infandum fistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt Et moestum illachrymat templis ebur aeraque sonant Nec puteis manare cruor cessavit Virg. Georg. l. 1. 'T was but proper for a Poet to hang the whole frame of Nature as it were with mourning and astonishment upon the fall of so great a Person as Cesar was Gods miracles carried majesty in those visible characters of Power Greatness Wisdom stampt upon them they were never vain and ludicrous and they came forth upon some errand of importance like a broad seal they carried Majesty in their aspect and came to derive credit and authority upon some matter of great weight and moment Secondly There are a sort of Prodigies Penal for I take the word in the latitude of its sence such as are judgements upon Persons or Nations of a dreadfull and unusual figure and condition sudden arrests by death strange diseases death by lightning or the fall of a towre unusual plagues defeats of Armies at huge odds and disadvantages muâ—rain of cattel very unseasonable years c. These distinctions premised I shall offer the best service I can toward the deciphering of these dark characters of divine Providence and make enquiry in the order they now lie before us into the intent and meaning of these new and unwonted occurrences In which Essay I shall assume the liberty which I readily allow another of advising freely with Reason for we cannot in this Argmâ—ent take to any other Oracle to resolve us if we intend to be wise to sobriety It is but a just valuation of our selves to let no vulgar notions commence our perswasions before they have past the scrutiny of our Reason and appear to merit our assent CHAP. II. Concerning Prodigies Signal Natural I Shall descend now to a close and distinct discourse concerning the forementioned Prodigies Signal and amongst them first concerning those which more immediately resolve into causes Natural Concerning all which I offer this general Thesis to proof Prodigies Natural are not intended nor to be expounded the Prognosticks of judgements suddenly to ensue upon whole Nations or particular persons It is especially ignorance of their causes and ends which hath preferred some of these Natural Prodigies to so great a veneration and regard in many mens minds As Ethnicism of old made the gods it worshipt so ignorance oft makes the Furies it dreads This Thesis I shall endeavour to perswade 1. By some general Reasons and Arguments 2. By a particular Induction and Survey of such as seem most plausibly pretended the silent Monitours of some approaching vengeance First By some general Reasons SECT I. Reasons to prove Prodigies Natural no Signs of a future judgement The first Argument taken from their doubtfull and uncertain indication That proved from the confessions of their ablest Expositours From their different Expositions in all times The Interpreters of them banisht the Iewish Common-wealth of old upon this account Philo. Thuanus The Argument further urged from Tully God's Signs express The uselesness of those which are not 2. From a consideration of the times wherein most attended to The reason why a regard is to be had to the times and seasons When Laws or Usages first obtained noted from K. James The times noted especially for gross ignorance in matters of Religion and Philosophy Some Observations upon the remaining Registers of such accidents yet extant The times remarked also for the publick fears and distractions happening in them Livy Seneca 3. From the natural and necessary Causes of these things More of Nature observable in a Prodigy then common Occurrences 4. From the Nature and temper of the Oeconomy we are now under THe Argument which I shall first offer to reprehend the common vanity of receiving them as a kinde of indications in bodies Politick is this Their pretended indications are so hugely perplext doubtfull and uncertain that it cannot be concluded what judgement they portend or when to ensue or whether private persons or whole Nations be alaâ—m'd by them If God do write Fata hominum in these mystick characters there is none on earth found able to reade the writing and with any certainty to make known the interpretation thereof Most of their Expositours like those upon Aristotle are rather Vates quà m Interpretes Concerning that prodigious Comet which shone in our Hemisphere Ann. 1618 one that pretended himself as much Coelo à Conciliis as other men yet thus freely delivers himself Deum immortalem quantò ille plurâ—s de sese fermè Opiniones quà m crines sparsit To a like purpose Tycho Brahe discoursing de Nova stella Cygni Ann. 1600. Decreta Phoenoâ—en 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coelitùs illucescentium ab iis qui artem astrologicam profitentur praesagiri sat evidenti experimento nequeunt but yet so hard it is even for wise men to discard their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen calls them Opinions brought with them and woven into the very first contexture of their minds he adds Non idcirco statuendum â—â—um Naturam talibus noviter formatis corporibus inaniter illudere nihilque praesagii mundo ostendere as if they must needs be in vain unless they assist presages which yet no man is able to reach the certain knowledge of A truth which the different purposes and significations to which these Prodigies have been in all times expounded make faith of In the more ancient times of the world when they had their Collegia vatum publick Professours of the Arts of Divination by any unusual Phoenomena in Nature we shall observe Earthquakes Comets Lightnings c. expounded sometimes laeta sometimes sinistra Omina All these images like some among the Papists were made to look upon the people with a frown or a smile according as the Priests of old for State-reasons were pleased to manage them by their subtle interpretations Thus in latter times they have always like bells sounded to such a tune and sence as the passengers pâ—ancy would impose upon them That pluvia purpurea bloudy rain in the language of the Naturalists falling at Bruxells Ann. 1646. concerning the reason of which there are extant the several judgements of Learned men was no doubt received by timerous and softer phancies as a presage of a bloudy war suddenly to ensue whereas others owned it tanquam Omen pacifici foederis and a Signe that heaven would sooner rain bloud then there should be any further effusion thereof on Earth or Sea as the Poet expresseth himself upon that occasion Iam satis effusum terrâque marique cruoris Ipsae testantur qucis pluit axis aquae Thus when the heart of Zuinglius who was burnt being found among the flain was found
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
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
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
fires on his altars would quickly go out and therefore he appointed all the changes in the Exta in the face of heaven in the births of creatures in the flying of birds c. as a kinde of signs from the Gods of some great and strange effects which when he saw their causes to swell out withall and just ready to be delivered of them he could easily bring about all these little changes falling within the compass of his power that on which side soever the die of affairs fell were the success of an undertaking on this side or that he might still secure the repute of his prescience by holding his easie Votaries in hand that the preceding Prodigies were a warning of the things which fell out and therefore he served the ends of imposture much better upon these dumb and doubtfull then his speaking Oracles wherein he hazarded his credit greatly by returning doubtfull or false solutions to the questions proposed to him de futuro well therefore may the Devil be presumed upon an easie foresight of some great disaster to cause the entrails of the Sacrifice to put on a sad and unusual face and therefore the Poet upon such an accident spake more truth then he was aware caesique in viscera Tauri Inferni venêre Dei. So also upon his sight of an approaching battel he may easily give forth a prophetick emblem thereof in some such martial images and impressions upon the aery Region his proper province If all this satisfie not I shall readily deliver the Reader to the freedom of his own judgement in reference to such things For my self when I finde in the Book of God that holy and heavenly Host not called forth but to wait upon some great and important Services the protection of a Patriarch or a great Prophet the declaration of the Birth of the Son of God or perhaps to attend Gods great act of justice upon Ierusalem I know not to entertain any such cheap and little thoughts of them as once to imagine that the Angels are ever sent forth to run a tilt in the air to finde the vain world talk and to tell it news or that God would ever confer the honour of so solemn and great a presage upon a paultrey battel at sea or land which is generally intended but to serve the lusts and passions of men which have broken all those cords of love precepts of charity whereby they were bound one unto another Fourthly The Apparitions of evil Angels in what places forms companies and their premonitions by what voices and signs soever ought not to be attended unto as the prognosticks of any Events whatsoever Many relations there are current in writers and common converse of such apparitions in very terrible forms and that before some great plagues and wars and I shall not once attempt to build my cause upon the ruines of the credit of them all we finde in Scripture the fall of Saul and Ionathan foretold by the apparition of an evil Angel Such apparitions have happened though generally in times and places of greatest ignorance and superstition and that perhaps as was said that these lying Spirits may maintain an Opinion of their foresight of things though the matters signified by them be such as may easily be discovered in their natural or moral causes or to derive a suspicion upon the stories of Angelical apparitions in sacred Writ or to get such a stock of credit whereby they may set up cheaters with the less suspicion for the future or perhaps in a kinde of petty triumph over those men whose sins together with their temptations have betrayed them to such fearfull judgements or perhaps evil Angels being often the Executioners of his judgements God will have these Apollyons seen as it were upon the stage before execution that men may know and consider into whose hands in all likelihood their iniquities have betrayed them But admit the depths of God or the Devil in such apparitions past our fathoming sure I am we have no warrant at all to give any evil Spirit the honour of the least trust and regard by an observance of any word action or signe of his God would disown one of his Royal titles when once black'd and profaned by the Devils usurpation Hos. 2. 16 17. our Saviour refused a just and true testimony to his Divinity when given in by the Father of lies Mark 1. 24. Gods servants refuse his good creatures when once set upon the Devils table 1 Cor. 10. 21. We are allowed no fellowship with devils by whom truth is never told but to serve some delusion and imposture And therefore though we read Psal. 78. 49. that God sometimes made use of evil Angels as the Executioners of his judgements yet never that he commissionated any of them to be the Denouncers of them To receive therefore the apparitions voices drummings or antick noises of Spirits in any place whatsoever as presages of some approaching evils as if like some strange creatures in the sea they used to shew themselves and play in sight against a storm is to consult shame to our selves and our Religion To our selves because rendring our selves thereby to the suspicion of having a great credulity and curiosity pregnant arguments of a soft vain and unfurnished minde To our Religion deriving upon it an appearance of falshood in those many assurances it offers us of the treacheries and impostures of those forsaken Spirits Such apparitions report nothing to us with truth and faithfulness but what they tempt men least to believe the Being of a God and so as the Vipers flesh cures its own biting enable us to quote the Devil against Satan and to cast him out by himself It is therefore our wisdom not to invite the Devil so far to be our Oracle as to vouchsafe the least credit or regard to any of his prophetick speeches postures actions but to resolve to take the goodness and providence of God as security sufficient for the peace and composure of our minds and not to put our selves out of his keeping and so make way for the accomplishment of any of them by any distrustfull fears arising from any signs whatsoever given forth by so sworn an enemy to God truth and the peace of man Fifthly The appearances of good Angels are now rarely given hardly discovered never to be expected I say Rarely given I do not say never lest I speak without book To omit some very probable relations of this nature that Apparition is usually thought a Herauld from heaven which advised Iames the fourth of Scotland in whose counsels at that time the concerns of a Nation were wrapt up to forbear some vicious practices but especially the fighting of his intended battel with the English in those words Rex Ego ad te missus sum ut te admoneam ne quò instituisti progrediaris quam admonitionem si neglexeris non erit è re tua nec eorum qui
quickly prove lies to us and abuse our trust As for that Moral signe so much talkt of The fulness of the iniquity of a land 't is to intrude into Gods counsels to determine when it is the Ephah stands by him alone and he onely knows how near it is to filling But possibly it will here be objected in the words of Iob. Wâ—y seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty doe they that know him not see his days i. e. why at least doe not wise and good men styl'd the persons which know God in scripture see the times of great mercies or judgements usually call'd Gods days as was noted before when as yet at distance and approaching I answer Even good men like men in a mist though they can see their way yet cannot see far before them for very good reasons 1 That so the knowledge of the good or evil of the time to come might not disturb the duty of the time present 2. The knowledge of Gods counsels is the prerogative onely of our Saviour He is Palmoni the great numberer of secrets Dan. 8. 13. It is honour great enough for us to be filii thalami to the King of heaven he onely must be socius confilii 3. God will hereby teach us to walk by the rule of his word not the issue of things 4. That so we might honour him with a great faith following of him as it were like Abraham not knowing whither we goe 'T is a sign we dare venture our selves with our Pilots skill and integrity when we sleep securely not knowing particularly what course he steers 5. That so not knowing in what time or manner our Master will come unto us we might be always watching 6. It is a curious and unnecessary knowledge God hath so appointed it that ad minimè necessaria minimum lucis acciperemus Scripture acquaints us not with the figures of our Saviours person nor the usages of his life before his publick ministry nor the methods of the Divine Decrees nor the orders of the Angelical hierarchy and multitudes of questions referring to the future state and the accomplishment of Prophecies it remits to the solution of our great Elias at his second coming God is pleased to recommend to us the plainness of his precepts which we must know by the obscurity of his Providences which we need not so unnecessary the knowledge of things future that some of the Ancients conceive that therefore God gave the People of the Jews their Oracles and Prophets which were to inform them even in matters of a worldly concern as the success of a battel recovery from a fit of sickness the condition of other kingdoms in after times c. because else in all likelyhood they would have apostatiz'd from the true God to the rites of the Gentiles who had their Oracles Auguries Diviners Soothsayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being prompted thereunto by that natural liquorousness in the minds of men after the knowledge of things wrapt up in futurity So unnecessary did our Saviour seem to judge this knowledge that his prophecies if all put together would not much exceed the writings of the least of the minor Prophets though himself the Great Prophet of his Church Thirdly There are some effective signs of Events upon a view whereof a very probable judgement may be sometimes made by a wise person of the issue of affairs Sometimes indeed second causes which seem most pregnant with such effects shall have miscarrying wombs and all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the phrase of the Philosopher the most probable counsels of the great Oracles of state which own no providence nor power Superiour to their own shall be turned into foolishness to give the world arguments of a Divine providence concern'd in the affairs of â—â—â— But yet oft times God permits things as trees doe to fall that way to which in the judgement of prudence they seem to incline that so humane foresight and prudence the image of Providence may appear valuable to men and the wise man and the fool may not be thought to stand upon a level and all things to run upon a die It is a pregnant argument that wisdom was never very friendly to the world that it hath been so prone in all times to receive pretended divination and prescience with more sacred regards then laws and wise men and yet at the same time have given the glory of the gift thereof to the weakest understandings Madmen Persons transported by the heats of a feaver their prophets when in a fury Star-gazers Fortune-tellers Women for such were the Sibylline Oracles deliver'd by critical observers of omens and prodigies persons that declaim hotly against what they understand not humane learning and such as like old men see and know least of things near and present have been often thought to see things at some distance and in futurity most exactly and distinctly But we shall finde God in Scripture so far securing the honour of true Divination as to confer the gift thereof generally upon men and those of a pious and learned education and all the shadows there of which may be yet found in the world Solomon tells us dwell in a wise and understanding Soul Prov. 22. 3. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself and that not by consulting of Prodigies but observing the seeds and causes in which it lies hid As all other gifts and abilities once miraculous and extra ordinary those of healing of speaking with tongues of interpreting the Scriptures of discerning of Spirits so this also of foreseeing events future so far as they remain yet in the world are reserv'd solely as the reward and honour of the diligent observant and understanding person To dismiss this particular Times and Seasons are especially reserv'd in Gods power and 't is our wisdom to study rather how we may redeem the present time then understand the future As for that threed-bare Argument therefore Signs of future times I could wish it might be worn no longer in writings and discourses not onely because things shew of colour but according to the light men stand in but because the men whom they are designed to deterr from any course of sin start at them possibly at first as birds doe at the images of a man in the fields but afterward sit down upon them and neglect them perceiving in the issue of things that they are devoyd of life and motion truth and certainty and so these false fears in religion may chance to discredit the true as the adventitious heat in bodies oft-times supplants and betrays the natural besides all such signs of times doe but tender the short and narrow thoughts of man as the standard of Gods and tend to detain people always in a gazing and expecting posture so that they compose not to the work and duty of the day And to encourage rash and unwarrantable purposes and therefore perhaps the wisdom
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a suffering in the very same instances and ways wherein men sinn'd and the cross is as it were shap'd out of the forbidden tree whereby they offended Thus Davids adultery was punish'd in Absaloms incest Pharaoh who would have all the males drown'd was himself drown'd and the wickedness of Abimelech in slaying his 70 brethren was returned upon his own head in that strange and violent death whereby he perish'd God is pleased so frequently to punish men thus that the Prophets often seem to foretell a judgement rather by a rational attendance to the condition of the sin then by a Divine afflatus In such examples of Divine justice Gods rod hath a voice as well as a smart and it becomes us to be his notice-takers and not with the Philistines 1 Sam. 6. 9. nickname the most apparent hand of God a chance which hath happened and that we may not be thought to censure our Brother turn charitable Atheists Or 2. the judgement may proclaim the sin when there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the judgement seems the symbol of the sin and justice pays men in value though not in kinde Thus God threatned the Israelites that as they had served strange Gods in their own land so should they serve strangers in a land not their own Solomon serv'd God with a divided heart and but half his Kingdom goes to his posterity When we see the scandalous sinner corrected thus by his own wickedness and made even to drink the dust of his own Idol we should make a pious meditation on the occasion 2. When the judgement surpriseth the sinner in the very acting of his wickedness and sin the off-spring destroys its parent as it is said of the viper in the very production When the false swearer is immediately stricken by God and the blasphemers tongue suddenly curst into silence and death sent to make the Oppressour vomit up his newly stollen morsels when Herod and Nebuchadnezzar have their sin and punishment bearing an equal date In short when justice thus lays aside its leaden feet and treads close upon the heels of the offender God intends to learn us some great lesson in the example and it is a signe we are past feeling if we can see him thus cutting off now one and then another member of our common body without some shrinking and religious sense thereof in our selves 3. When the judgement is such as the general experience of times proves the usual consequent of such a crime As a sudden and untimely death of sedition the ruine of estates of Sacriledge an antedated and diseased old age of riot and drunkenness an almost general impenitency of uncleanness a naked and expos'd posterity of oppression and unrighteous gain strange discoveries and an infamous death of bloud shed neglect and scorn of men of a great ambition the blasting of designs which proceed upon the violation of the religion of national compacts an untimely and strange death of cruel and bloudy persecutions Gods judgements are generally a great deep the reasons of them past our sounding but his righteousness is sometimes as the great mountains visible to the dullest eye in the judgements wherewith he corrects those sins especially which fall most directly cross to his government of the world It will become us now to own our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Recorders to register in a pious remembrance all such great displays of his justice in the world Such extraordinary judgements are intended Gods testimonies to his providence and righteousness and the writing of them in the dust is none of the least causes of Atheism in the world And therefore a learned Personage not without good reason reports it as a great defect that there is not yet extant an Historia Nemesews a judicious and well attested history of the divine vengeance containing the most remarkable monuments of Gods justice in which it might appear how evil hath hunted as it were through many turnings of affairs and mazes of life the violent person and at last overthrew him A dull and stupid inobservance of such examples of Divine justice a looking at them all but as the casual drops of misery falling from that common cup in the hand of God Psal. 75. 8. indifferently upon good and bad stands often arraign'd in Scripture as a very great sin What hath been spoken to prevent any corruption of judgement or practice must be taken with a grain or two of salt 1. Where no particular sin of any blacker die appears in the life of our afflicted Brother we must not presume from an inspection of the condition and figures of the judgement to draw up any particular charge against him We are not as soon as ever God writes bitter things against our neighbour as Iob phraseth it rashly to undertake to expound the particular sense and meaning of the writing lest we call that a scorpion which God intends a rod and that an instance of wrath which is intended but an exercise of Grace Gods judgements often come forth upon errands which they to whom they are sent may better understand then persons unconcern'd We are not to conclude the punishment from the sin saying Thus and thus hath such a man done and it will come home by him this is to prescribe time and measure to the justice of God neither may we infer the sin from the punishment intituling some such great evil of sin to such an evil of punishment for God may give a good man his evil as to a bad man his good things in this world But where we are as sure from Scripture not fancy apt to abuse us where our selves are concern'd that the sin is extraordinary as we are from sense that the judgement is such we may then cry out with the followers of the Lamb Rev. 15. 4. All nations shall worship before thee O Lord for thy Iudgements are made manifest 2. Care must be had that no such observations be leaven'd with any uncharitable sentence upon our Brothers final estate A great judgement on his body may be intended a great mercy to his soul and perhaps the shame and misery of this life may commute for hell uzza's zeal might further the salvation of his soul while the indiscretion thereof brought a fearfull destruction upon his body SECT II. Prodigies Penal how to be interpreted Three conclusions more to direct to a right understanding in reference to Prodigies penal Four instances of Gods extraordinary judgements upon the adversaries of his Gospel The singularity of Gods judgements upon the Iewish Nation wherein appearing Extraordinary judgements no conclusive arguments against a cause now and why Why usually thought they are The words of our Saviour Luk 13. 1 2. in reference to the Galileans explain'd The judgement upon them whether a signe of the time to that generation Lesser National judgements arguments to repentance no signs of the time Temporal judgements on
Nations more argumentative under the Old Testament then the New Religious arguments to be managed with coolness and candour THe third Conclusion to direct to a right understanding in reference to Prodigies penal is this Iudgements singular and miraculous surprising persons in defence of a cause evidently devoted in Scripture to destruction may be regarded as partial testimonies from heaven against it It is readily acknowledg'd that there is light enough in Scripture to distinguish doctrines and causes by but yet where God hath been pleas'd by any such mighty judgements to open the eyes of men to a clearer perception of it and to hold them in a more serious attendance thereunto they are not to overlook it for fear they appear to seek a signe from heaven or to offer weak men an encouragement to wrest the darker works of Providence as they do the words of Scripture to the ends of superstition and some little interests and Opinions to which they engross the favours of Heaven To serve the more distinct understanding of this conclusion I shall propose these few examples 1. When the Jews in the assistance of Iulian the Emperour assayed the restoring of their ruin'd Temple and so to oppose Moses to Christ God miraculously determined the controversy for the fire which used before to come forth from him to consume the sacrifice now came and consum'd their intended Temple and Altars destroyed the workmen about it and their several instruments and the whole designe was blasted by such terrible appearances of God against it that many Jews were perswaded by that visible argument against Judaism to entertain the faith of Christ. 2. That terrible fire which issued out of the ground in the second year of Titus not long after the destruction of Ierusalem and the Jewish Temple and laid in ashes the Temples of Iupiter Capitolinus Neptune Isis Scrapis the Pantheon c. and their other devoted places was so strange an instance that the Ethnick Historian makes this judgement thereupon Malum id divinum potiùs quà m humanum videtur fuisse and was in all likelihood regarded by the Christians of that time as a signe that no cause or Religion Ethnick or Jewish should be able to stand before the Christian and that the day foretold wherein God would famish all the Gods of the earth and meâ— should worship him every one from his place even all the isles of the heathen was just now a dawning 3. That almost constant succession of Romane Emperours whose robes for the space of three hundred years were dy'd in their own bloud shed by the hand of violence seems an instantia monadica in Providence and to carry much of a miracle with it and may be receiv'd as an argument of Gods controversy with them for the butchering of so many of his innocent sheep under their bloudy government though perhaps some will entertain the example but with common thoughts because of the circumstances the Empire was then in 4. There is no Nation under heaven whose sins God hath visited upon them with a judgement of so private and reserv'd a condition as that of the Jews whether respect be had to the nature or season thereof 1. There is a singularity therein in regard of the nature of it Iew is become throughout the whole world rather nomen Odii quam Gentis They are now as much scatter'd over the World as before impal'd and distinguisht from it They alone live in banishment wheresoever they come Now their becoming thus like Cain vaga bonds and fugitives upon earth which no Nation besides is speaks them like him gone out of Gods presence and guilty of some horrible murder even no less then that of the Lord of life which the scripture chargeth upon them 2. There is a singularity in the judgement upon them in regard of the Season thereof For before they had stain'd their hands in the bloud of the Lord of the Temple their Temple though sometimes defac'd was never made vile and contemptible by any abomination of the heathen set up in the most Holy No war no sedition no captivity no vastation nor any other sad occasion whatsoever made so great a wast upon the religion and reverence of that place that an idol or image against the essential sanctity thereof should be tendered to worship therein as Agrippa in his Embassy to Caius the Emperour largely tells him for that the very heathens had been tutor'd into a reverence thereof by those fearful judgements which as he there tells him they had observed the King of heaven alway avenging any lesser indignities offer'd to that his chamber of special presence But no sooner had they committed that wonderfull and horrible thing but God delivers the place of his ancient habitation the desire of their eyes to the defilements and dishonour of an image that the Emperour erected in the Holy of Holies as a sign that place should no longer be his rest because it was polluted and that he had forsaken both it and them Moreover most constant were the judgements which at last befel the enemies of the Jewish Nation before their great sin of rejecting the son of God Israel was then holiness to the Lord and the first fruits of his increase all that devour'd him did offend evil came upon them from the Lord. Whereas afterward so constant their successes when attempting upon them as if to fight against that nation were the only way of obliging victory and the assistances of God Which singularity in the divine judgements was a sign that God had now put a period to the Jewish worship and that their putting of Christ to death lookt of a blacker colour in the eyes of Justice as procureing more dreadfull evils upon then all their other sins could ever doe I easily foresee how ready some persons may be to build hay and stubble upon this foundation and to conclude such a cause or party branded from heaven if any judgement like an executioner in a vizard frightfull as well as fatall befall the persons appearing in defence thereof And therefore I must here minde them how inconsequent any such reasonings can be not only because I more then doubt whether any of the judgements they can instance in touch in any points and angles of similitude those already mention'd and because they came not forth to decide causes collaterally but diametrically oppos'd not differences between Paul and Cephas but God and Bâ—lial but because Judaism and Gentilism were causes evidently devoted in sacred scripture and the judgements following them were but the accomplishments of its predictions and the executions of a scripture sentence upon them But we have now no better warrant to infer the goodness or badness of some lesser causes and opinions men espouse from the judgements which may sometimes overtake the assertors of them then to make judgement of the loyalty of a wife by a water of jealousie For as sometimes the Person may fall
in the cause because that is displeasing to God thus Iosiah fell in the expedition against the King of Egypt so sometimes the cause may fall in the person because he is displeasing to God as the Israelites in the controversy with the men of Benjamin Besides we are to presume that God speaks to us more plainly by his providence then by his word wherein he hath permitted some lesser matters to stand in a very doubtfull light to engage us to an exercise of our understandings to find the truth and of our charities to those who having not such strong and excercised senses as our selves chance to mistake it It were therefore heartily to be wisht that men had that largeness of heart as not to think heaven and earth concern'd in the standing or falling of their little interests and perswasions that they would leave off that worst kind of enclosure the entailing salvation solely upon their own party and not goe about to hedge in the Holy Dove by appropriating the graces and influences thereof to themselves For then men would not be so prone to believe Gods judgements design no higher then the service of their little passions and animosities and that he is as little able to forbear and make aâ—lowance for the mistakes and infirmities of men as themselves Personal judgements extraordinary are to be regarded as Gods visible sermons of repentance to a multitude under the guilt of the same or greater sins The great Lord of Hosts sometimes decimates a multitude of offenders and discovers in the personal sufferings of a few what all deserve and may without repentance expect Now as the ends of brands are noted to shed forth their tears in a kind of sad seâ—se of the loss of those parts which the fire hath already seaz'd thus they which are in the phrase of scripture as brands piuckt for the present out of the fire should express a christian sense of the falls and of the sins of those persons which God was pleas'd to make their proxies in correction Great judgements are not to be interpreted so much the signs of our brothers sins as the reproofs of our own Because the pregnant example of the Gaiileans occurring Luk. 13. may lend a great light and strength both to the particular conclusion before us and our general argument it will be no unâ—ervaluing of our pains to paraphrase a little upon our Saviours words upon the occasion Vers. 1. There were present at that time some that told Him of the Galileans whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices 2. And Jesus answering said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things 3. I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words I choose with Grotius to render ad modum â—undem after the same manner for I conceive our Saviour doth not vary his speech vers 5. when discoursing of those which perisht by the tower of Siloam thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall perish ad modum similem in a manner like them but upon some reason of moment which I thus explain These Galileans were a faction of Iudas of Galilee of whom we read Act. 5. 37. whose great doctrine it was that it was unlawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pay tribute to the Romanes or to acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any mortal Lords after God had been their King or to offer sacrifice for the Romane Governours Now Pilate provokt by the dishonours or the dangers wrapt up in this doctrine stains the Altar with the bloud of these seditious sacrificers setting upon them now come to Hierusalem to attend the religion of the paschal rites Now this personal judgement was a little Map wherein the lines and figures of that terrible calamity which afterward fell upon the whole Nation were excellently represented some of them perishing ad modum â—undem and others ad modum similem For as these Galileans perisht on the feast of Passover in a sedition varnisht over with the specious colours and pretences of religion and conscience so did a great part of the Nation afterward fall in a rebellion against Caesar for Gods sake pious pretences that they especially were Abrahams children God's free people and to pay no sanctuary shekel to a Heathen Ruler and that on the very passover day in the Temple the place of sacrifice And the persons upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell were a kind of type of the many thousands besides which perisht in the ruins of the City of which that Tower carried the image and representation in which they were surpriz'd by the Roman army so that they did perish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a manner similar unto them Concerning which strange examples I must confess I see no reason to receive them with the Reverend D. Iackson absolutely and in themselves consider'd as any intended signs of the time to that Generation nor doe I think the Jews had any ground to think those sad accidents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happened unto them as any true and proper types and figures of an analogous destruction to fall upon themselves in the revolution of a few years for could any mere man certainly foresee or but suspect that any such storms and shours of evils would suddainly fâ—ll upon the Jewish state upon the rising of this cloud no bigger then a mans hand the death of a few private and inconsiderable persons As a forain Divine speaking of the English art of preaching said truly plus est in Artifice quam in arte it derives more from the Artist then any set rules of art so we may say upon our Saviours prophecies and foresight exprest upon this occasion plus fuit in significante quam in signo His prophetick paraphrase upon that sign gave it that significancy and expressiveness whicâ— of it self it had not the type speaking no more without the divine gloss and sanction then the smiting of any King upon the ground three times with an arrow now signifies that he shall smite his enemies three times because the the instance was once by Gods appoyntment a happy Omen of such a blessing to a King of Israel But howsoever the Jews ought to have seen the sword of God in the hand of Pilate in that sad example to have consider'd that while he like the leech drew all this bloud to serve his own bloudy and revengfull Nature the great Physitian intended it as meâ—icinal to the body of the nation to teach them the wisdom of a speedy repentance therein least a like or greater judgement should surprize themselves and the rather because so guilty of the same sin the hiding of the sword of sedition in the Ephod of religion and conscience toward God and not seeing their fellows secur'd from the arrest of Judgement by the religion of an Altar and the prerâ—gative of a Temple All
figures and dimensions It is the nature of ignorance fingere simul credere 2. Religion seems much concerned in such relations Now men like Iacob will be ready to venture upon a lie for a great blessing the advancement of Religion Besides as Atheism gives all events to the second so Superstition Religion scar'd out of its wits gives all solely to the first cause and is therefore quickly perswaded to fill out its relations with all the examples of wonderfull and extraordinary that effects may appear the more worthy of the immediate power of God Moreover blinde and ignorant fears of God make the minde impressive to any kinde of religious Legends Never was the world more truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo styles it a Region of lies and fallacies then in the more dark and ruder times of Gentilism and Popery when an ignorant devotion toward God had made Religion almost nothing but a continued history of prodigies apparitions miracles voices from the clouds and the like and therefore the Lord Bacon advising a just history of Prodiges to direct to the true interpretation of Nature and knowledge of causes gives in this prudent Caveat Maximè habenda sunt pro suspectis quae pendent quomodocunque à Religione ut prodigia Livii c. Superstition as it is said of the viper bites off that head weakens and softens that faculty of reason by which it did at first conceive and makes it receptive of any odd fancies and impressions 3. The strength of these Relations like that of Nisus in the Poet lies generally in the weak hair of some single or double testimony Now as there is little reason to conceive a whole Nation concern'd in the visions of one or two private persons if they were true Gods signs and wonders which were intended as lessons to a Nation or posterity being generally attested by numbers so as little reason to hang the weight of so serious a faith and great affections in Religion upon so slender a wire as the testimony of one perhaps two or three men in such matters is The Romanes of old though as apt to swallow such prodigious stories as any yet used to chew them fiâ—st by a serious examination sometimes by the publick Magistrate made of the credit of the Attestours and truth of the Relations And we shall finde in Livy prodigious accidents sometimes past by without any religious regards viz. where the testimony appear'd incompetent and this lest what was intended a devotion to their Deities might chance to prove a mockery 4. Some men seem even naturally fabularum proci the very courters of fables and Legends Either out of a native vanity and emptiness of minde whereby like the Cameleon they are better pleased with aery then substantial nourishment or a mean kinde of ambition of being look'd at and stared upon by the ruder multitude who in all likelihood would neglect them if their books and discourses were not somewhat antick and extraordinary Hence the men can scarce relate any matter especially if going a little off from common and quotidian but it must look big and borrow somewhat of a Romance Very observable therefore the manner of the relation of any great wonders in Sacred Writ wherein we shall finde the most glorious displays of the Divine power delivered in that simplicity and coolness of style in that lax and general way with as little of ecstacy and emotion of minde appearing in the Relatour as if some vulgar and quotidian occurrence had fallen before him that so there might not appear any symptoms of that common itch in men to tell strange stories or any affectation of strangeness and the common wonder or a great solicitousness to raise the esteem of that cause or party to which they were an honourable testimony from heaven in the minds of men Secondly Such an undertaking would prove exceeding difficult It being much more easy to beleeve many a strange story then to attempt its refute especially where the Scene thereof is laid at a great distance off Besides very difficult it is to make any steady judgement of some Prodigies without an actual presence to them such are the water of ponds or fountains turn'd as it is pretended into blouâ— the interruption of the current of rivers some spots as of bloud discovered upon stones or statues c. the causes of which appearances will scarce be ever hit by persons which stand at a great distance and understand not the condition of the season climate water earth when and where the events fell out 3. The undertaking would have proved very unserviceable to our main purpose for 1. Our designe was not the disparagement of the Persons of our Adversaries of which any attempt upon their credit would have been indicted but of their cause 2. A solicitous enquiry into the truth of the Relations would have been concluded a tacit acknowledgement of the value and significancy of them if they should chance to prove truths 3. Having cut off the neck of this Opinion those precarious principles it holds of a cutting off the particular heads monstrous relations which grow upon it would be needless nay endlesâ— for others would quickly rise up in their places 4. We have as Tâ—rquinius did the heads of the taller poppies directly struck at the credit and significancy of the most eminent and pretending Prodigies Comets and Apparitions 5. I conceiv'd that more words would have been but lost upon persons which after all that hath been said have a great devotion for this ancient Idol the Opinion of Presages by Prodigies Speculative errours generally scorn the truth practical errours â—ate it but it is the usage of Superstition and Enthusiasm to fear it because in the two former self onely but in the latter God is presum'd especially concern'd All the images and fictions of the braiâ— like those in the fancies of Poets being translated presently into heaven and Gods honour and counsels thought to stand or fall with them 6. Because as for persons of more free and unengaged minâ—s and that use not to believe without asking themselves why I was not without some hopes that what hath been already discours'd in this Argument may suffice to their resolution and satisfaction Upon all which accounts I did not conceive it necessary to concern my self in any solicitous enquiries into the truth or falshood of particular relations or a tedious discovery of the lightness and insignificancy of them singly and apart and so to kill this Superstition as they do some kinde of vermin by parts and pieces After all that hath been already said before I conclude the Readers task and my own I conceive it necessary to call him to a notice of that strong and almost catholick propension in our nature against the reproaches even of our understanding part and the loud voice of a great experience to entertain with a kinde of sacred regard persons who assume to themselves an ability to