which conceives it most proper that there appear no smiles in the face of Nature but that she come forth cloth'd with terrour and amazement when some great vengeance and destruction is present or at hand This disposition of Soul doth never more strongly exert it self then when the Prodigies being no unfitting emblems of the judgement doe impregnate imagination and offer a mighty assistance thereunto Thus as 't is call'd the raining of bloud which is but water tinctur'd by the condition of the soyl whence it ariseth or rather where it falls shall strongly sollicite the fear of some great effusion of bloud in the state the appearance of two Suns at once which is but the figure and glory of the Sun drawn by its own beams upon a disposed cloud doth greatly encourage the phancy of two Competitours for Royalty in a Nation some great Eclypse seems to a soft imagination to hang the world with black against the approaching funeralls of some Great Person the Casual parting of the River Ouse in Bedfordshire seem'd after the event a presage of the succeeding division between the house of York and Lancaster These and many more where they meet with an imagination strong enough to supply and relieve their weakness shall prove an event beyond Geometry and the Reasons and experience of all men and times 9. Humane Nature is greatly propense to entertain things vehement and extraordinary with an Opinion of a more then ordinary sacredness in and presence of God with them In the Old Testament things more vulgar and accommodate to a humane size and measure had the name of Man call'd upon them thus we read of the Rod of a Man 2 Sam. 7. 14. the cords of a Man Hos. 11. 4. the pen of a Man Is. 8. 1. that is gentle and usual on the other side things rare and which hardly admit their pattern are attributed unto God Horeb the Mount of God Exod. 3. 1. the River of God Ps. 65 9. the trees of God Ps. 104. 16. the fire of God Job 1. 6. that is great and extraordinary Now the ancient Hebrews to whose law of speaking the Holy Ghost accommodates himself in their customes and language seem to make the truest report of the easy sentiments of simple Nature Accordingly these strange and prodigious alterations in Nature appear to men because not of familiar occurrences stampt with some Characters and touches of Divinity and so apt to raise a great opinion of themselves in men as if sent forth upon no less errand then to call them to an expectation of some strange work from God From what hath been hitherto discourt 't is easy to infer the fallacie of that First Argument against us taken from the common perswasions of men For it is a perswasion very general indeed but growing not from natural but casual or abusive principles And in such a case the more common and prevalent the perswasion be the more dangerous because it derives a great credit upon errour and gives it the colour of an Oracle Vox populi is a fallacious topick to conclude from except the Opinion generally maintain'd cross the ease and interest of the World and men like Uriah carry the letters the Principles which judge and condemn themselves as the common notions concerning Good and evil of the Existence of a Deity a Future judgement the Souls immortality c. 'tis in this case a sign that the truth is seal'd upon the Natures of men and rather lays hold of them then they of it And this in answer to that first objection CHAP. IV. The Objection grounded on humane authority answer'd The testimonies of Heathens Fathers Modern writers alledg'd against the truth contended for Answer'd first more Generally some account given why so many learned men have given countenance to the coâ—trary perswasion A particular return to the testimony of Herodotus Heathens greatly fond of this notion and why The Fathers no great favourers of this Doctrine The Testimony of Tertullian unserviceable to our Adversaties S. Austin express against them The testimony of Machiavel disabled by a three fold consideration D. Jackson whence in probability so inclinable to the regard of Prodigies some account of his lost book of Prodigies The ill use the Heathens made of Prodigies the observation of them unbecoming our Religion and a dishonour to God ARguments from humane Authority generally shew betâ—er in Rhetorick then Logick and press the modesties of men more then their Iudgements Yet because the Most judge altogether by their Proxies and are apt to suspect fallacies in strong reasons but none in Great names I shall next make answer to a second Objection with which this truth is assaulted viz. the Testimony of learned writers Heathens Fathers Modern Authours to the contrary where two of each kinde it may suffice to take as the representatives of the Rest. Among Heathen Writers Herodotus seems to our Adversaries of especial remark in this Argument entering it as a try'd case Quoties ingentes eventurae sunt calamitates vel civitati vel nationi solent signis praenunciari and Valerius Maximus seems to subscribe the Opinion in that whole chapter which he hath written De Prodigiis and the Regards due to them Among the Fathers we finde Tertullian telling the Heathens deriding the Christian Doctrine of an Everlasting fire of some prodigious Mountains always burning upon occasion whereof He adds hoc erit testimonium ignis aeterni hoc exemplum jugis judicii poenam nutrientes Montes uruntur durant And S. Austin having noted that a little before the Bellum Sociale in the Romane Empire dogs horses oxen asses and such like creatures usually the most submissive subjects to the law of obedience to man all on a suddain put off their gentle and tractable Natures ran away from their owners grew fierce and hurtfull and approacht as near to Lyons and Wolves as their shapes and figures would permit of which strange occurrence He thus delivers his sense Quòd si hoc signum fuit quòd tantum malum fuit quantum malum fuit illud cujus hoc fignum fuit Amongst Modern Writers Machiavel a Person generally thought a more fast retainer to Atheism then superstition hath thus abetted the observation of Prodigies Ut causam facile confitebor me ignorare ita rem ipsam cûm ex antiquis tum novis exemplis agnoscere oportet confiteri omnes magnos motus quicunque aut urbi aut Regioni evenerunt vel à conjectoribus vel à Revelatione aliqua prodigiis aut coelestibus signis praedici praenunciari solere to whom may be added to pass by Luther Melancton Camerarius and others the Testimony of the Reverend D. Iackson The manner saith He of Gods forewarning is very various sometimes â—e forewarns by signs in the sun and moon sometimes by apparitions in the Aâ—r sometimes by monstrous births sometimes He makes the murrain of Cattel and Mortality of â—easts of the field or birds of
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
purpose we find the very same instances alledg'd against them by another of the Ancients Sicut ignes fulminum corpora tangunt nec absumunt ficut ignes Aetnae Vesuvii ardentium ubique terâ—rarum flagrant nec erogantur itâ— poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascetur sed inexesacorporum laceratione nutritur To the testimony of S. Austin I answer 1. That strange occurrence by him mention'd might possibly appear to him cloth'd in more significant circumstances then to us it doth who cannot but look at the suddain Mania of so many creatures but as the natural though more unusual effect which in those hotter climates the unfitting season of the year might possibly have upon them 2. He speaks but doubtfully thereof Hoc si signum fuit 3. But if our adversaries appeal to S. Austin to S. Austin shall they goe Who in his more awaken'd thoughts thus delivereth himself in defiance of all such Ominous observations Monstra dicta sunt à Monstrando quod aliquid significando demonstrent Osteâ—â— ab Ostendendo Portenta à portendendo id est praeostendendo Prodigi◠〈◊〉 porro dicant id est futura praedicant Sed viderint eorum conjectores quomodo ex iis sive fallantur sive instinctu Spirituum quibus curae est tali poena dignos animos hominum noxiae curiofitatis retibus implicare vera praedicant sive multa dicendo aliquando in aliquid veritatis incurrant The testimony of Machiavel will appear of no great moment in this Argument if it be considered 1. Those signs which he hath noted in the same chapter as the praecursours of some great evils are vain beyond the visions of a feaver and the whispers of the wind for he there tells us that the death of Lorenzo de Medices the Founder of the Dukedom of Tuscany in his family was portended by the defaceing of their Great Temple in Florence by fire from heaven and the Banishment of Petrus Sodâ—â—inus one of the Pillars of State by the burning of the Senate house by lightning Tenterden Sâ—eeple and Goodwin Sands We may conclude by these ears that the whole harvest of his other observations he grounded his fore-mentioned speech upon was little besides chaff and husk 2. The suspicion of Atheism renders him also not a little to the suspicion of Superstition The Heathens of old styl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists in the world were the most superstitious observers of presages and Omens They which live most in neglect of God think they see tokens of a divine Nemesis in every strange accident they behold Superstition and Atheism like water and ice produce one another slavish and superstitious fears of God leading to Atheism as their cure and Atheism leading to greater fears of him as its deserved punishment 'T is a great justice that that wickedness should be punished with false fears which hath discarded the true They which will not fear God and hell and sin shall fear a Prodigie being therein like the horse to which they stand compared Ier. 8. 6. which will start at its shadow and yet rush furiously and without fear into the battel 3. Man is born to trouble as the sparks flie upward The wheel of Providence is continually going over Kingdoms and Persons The world like Mount Calvary presents us with nothing almost but crosses and deaths spectacles of misery Heaven onely is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken and therefore no wonder if any unusual accidents be soon seconded by some tragedy or other though never intended its Prologue and precedent Monitour The errour as I doubt not to style it of the Reverend Doctour Jackson in this argument may be easily pardoned to his singular piety and learning the light and lustre of which like that of the Sun may easily hide any of his spots and blemishes from the severer eyes and notices of the world Great minds like the heavenly bodies though they are moved for the main with the force of the Primum mobile the weight and evidence of truth yet they appear sometimes to have their dâ—clinationes proprias some private motions and declinations of their own to which their peculiar Genius impressions â—rom the Age or their education may very fatally betray them This opinion concerning Prodigies and signs of events future â—hich the general strain of his writings speaks his minde hugely possâ—â—â—â—nd dy'd withall I am ready to reckon amongst those Idola spectis false notions which the black and melancholy mansion his excellent soul plainly appears to have dwelt in did abuse his minde withall Any events extraordinary in the world seem all along to have had a great impression upon his soul and seem expounded sometimes a little more particularly then their just value and moments will well warrant and allow Melancholy is of a very impressive temper and poetick nature and is apt like a dark room to receive in the images of objects without in very monstrous and antick figures and representations As for his Book of Prodigies mentioned I profess my self not greatly tempted to follow its casual loss with any deep sighs and that not onely because mens understandings have been too much undervalued by books of that Nature already extant to a number sufficient to a cure of the most troublesome curiosity in such enquiries buâ— 1 Because the few Prodigies and signs of times commended with a great seriousness to our notices in his Sermons on Luke taken for the greatest part out of Herodotus Livie Valer. Max. and Machiavel will appear to any man that doth not use to start at shadows too thin and weak to bear up any such weighty and serious conclusions as he teacheth his Reader to build upon them the knowledge whereof I had rather should be owing to the Readers curiosity then to my rehearsal Now I think we may make some judgement of the value of the whole piece by the coursness of a Remnant thereof 2. Because it designed an Errorum Apotheosis a kinde of consecration of the greatest part of the errours and follies of the Gentile superstition as appears in a high degree of probability from those words which fall from him in the fore-cited papers where speaking of such kinde of Portenta and signs of heaven at which the Hea then used to be dismayed he thus delivers himself Though to believe as much concerning the signs of the times as the Heathens did though to make as good or better use of them then they did be not sufficient to acquit us from ruine and destruction fore-signified yet not to believe as much as they did not to make so good an use as they did not to be so much affected as they were is enough and more then enough to condemn us enough to bring that ruine and calamity which they portend or fore-signifie inevitably and in full measure upon us A strange speech What is this but to set Christians aurum colligcre exstercore as
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
drawn from those fearfull sights and great signs from heaven mentioned Luke 21. 11. precedent to the destruction of Ierusalem and the Jewish polity to encourage the expectation of any such signs of times now or the advancement of Prodigies into the repute of any divine Monitors they will appear to be greatly inconsequent if we consider 1. All those accidents were foretold and particularly appointed by God as signs Particularly the opening of the gates of the temple some time before its desolation of their own accord though of such massy brass that they could not be shut or opened if we credit Iosephus without the twisted strength of twenty men and though secured with great bars of iron is thought by some learned Jewish and Christian Expositours the accomplishment of the prophecy of Zechariah chap. 11. vers 1. Openâ—thy doors O Lebanon that the fire may devour thy cedars Where by Lebanon they understand the Temple built especially of the cedars there growing as it is elsewhere in the Prophets used to signifie And Munster upon the place tells us that one of the Jewish Doctours upon occasion thereof thus rebukes the Temple Ego cognosco imminere tui desolationem juxta vatiâ—inium Zechariae qui dixit Aperi Libane portas tuas But what pattent can be shewed from the Book of God whereby any much less all the forementioned Prodigies hold the place and honour of Divine signs 2. The miseries foretold by those signs were great without example Iosephus calls them evils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of some signs They came not forth as the Heraulds of some petty war or to precede the funerals of some great Personage but as it is called a great tribulation such as was not since the world began nor ever shall be Exemplóque carens nulli cognitus aevo Luctus erat 3. The destruction of Ierusalem was a type and picture of the final destruction of the world And therefore fit it was that the terrours of the latter should be a little pattern'd and shadowed out in the fearfull sights and Prodigies attending the former besides the consternations of soul and failings of heart which these foregoing signs wrought in some men before the decree brake forth made the destruction of Ierusalem in all the circumstances thereof the more lively type not onely of the terrours of the last judgement but of those horrours and sinkings of spirit in bad men which shall go before it 4. Our Blessed Saviours extraordinary prediction of those Prodigies as his signs to that generation seems rather to assure them not intended the common fore-runners of any great plagues and wars and that no good crisis can be ordinarily made of the future condition of a state by a regard to any such in themselves doubtfull and unfaithfull indications For what need of predictions if these signs were to fall out by a kind of common rule and law of providence and how unnecessary had it been to appoint such accidents for signs of evil which draw after them a series of evils with so great a constancy that they seem without a Prophet to appoint themselves the signs of the times 5. The condition of those times seem'd especially to require some such signs For 1. They serv'd then as mercifull warnings to Christs followers to hasten their escape from that house that City which was ready to fall upon them and involve them in its ruins 2. The Jews requir'd signs from heaven and God would not be wanting to any probable means and motives of their repentance 3. The Jewish oeconomy commenc'd in fearfull sights at mount Sinai and great signs from heaven and fit it was its conclusion should somewhat resemble the solemnity of its beginning 4. The many signs given by our Saviour serv'd gradually to wean the hearts of his followers from Hierusalem once the light of their eyes of whose determin'd desolation these gave them such full and repeated assurances Secondly We cannot receive any Signa Operantia as the faithfull and unquestionable intelligencers of the condition of succeeding times as the unquestionable intelligencers I say and that 1. Because God often acts secondary Agents to secret and unknown ends He acts sometimes without but usually beyond them and hath oftentimes ends to serve upon their motions and counsels which they reach no more then a beast doth the intention of its Rider 2. Because God often accomplisheth his biggest ends by means unpromiseing and almost invisible He frequently rows his purposes to harbour while the means seem to look quite another way what is observ'd of the methods of God in Nature holds true generally in the methods of his Providence The greatest works are perform'd by the least and most insensible Agents We shall finde great kingdoms in History commencing like a great snow-ball from a handfull increasing to a greatness in the eye of fense immoveable and at last concluding in soyl and dirt But especially observable is this usage of Providence in the management of the affairs of the Church which like Christ the head thereof springs as a root out of a dry ground and was never any great gainer by the wars and arms of Princes 3. God sometimes makes use of means great and pompous to some ends weak and little in the eye of sense To what great actions all on the suddein did he strengthen the hands of the King of Sweden his victories drew the eyes of the world upon him and 't was concluded by some that Providence design'd him the Apocalyptick Angel which should pour out one of the Vials upon the Beast when behold unexpectedly the current of his successes runs under ground and men engag'd to conclude God had ends more secret and spiritual to accomplish by him then they imagin'd 4. God usually advanceth his great works and ends by pauses and periods Providence in the advancement of the church hath usually its fines abruptos God in the works of Nature doth compendium facere goe the nearest way to his ends but in the works of providence he doth circulum describere goe about and his work advanceth by such slow and silent progresses that in the issue it seems to any but a prudent and severe observer the issue of time and chance rather then any steady and well advis'd understanding 5. God hath an unknown variety of means and methods to accomplish his purposes by He works by any means by weak by contrary by none He sometimes brings his greatest ends to birth by the midwifry of seeming casualties and little emergencies which taken asunder are weak and common but viewed in consort speak excellent art and counsel the observation whereof drew forth that Christian speech of Machiavel in an Ethnick dress Fatorum viae rationes producendorum effectuum obscuriores sunt quà m ut à nobis intelligi queant Upon these and many more accounts out of the lines of our present Argument the fairest promises of these active signs may
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