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
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
Publick Diviners who knew to bend these Osier accidents as the Mufti can doe the Alcoran to such a sence and signification as might make the easie multitude manageable to the purposes and designs of their Rulers And 't were to be wisht that some Christians had not since transcrib'd the copy of this Ethnick example and endeavour'd to serve some secular ends upon the credulity and superstition of the multitude by the tendring of any such Prodigies or Prophecies to their hopes or fears All that I shall add further in this place is this He that alledgeth barely the Spirit of God to justifie an Opinion in Religion may thank himself if he perish in the other World and he that quotes onely a Prodigy in Nature to encourage any sedition in State may thank himself if he perish in this Secondly This Discourse without oweing much to the Author will be pregnant with pleasure and delight For things rare and unusual the subject thereof call forth the Soul to a very quick and gratefull attendance whilst matters of greater worth and moment of more familiar occurrence like things often handled and blown upon loose their value and lustre in its eye Now the contemplation of things new and strange gives the Soul so high a pleasure 1. Because they prove the occasions of wonder and admiration which the Philosopher ranks among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things pleasant and delightfull because saith He admiration comes attended with a tacite desire of learning more fully the nature and causes of its object though I rather think because admiration is as the Lord Verulam well stiles it abrupta quaedam scientia an Essay to knowledge besides we shall observe that the acts of the Soul which are intense and call it much off from it self as profound contemplations great joys ectacies a great love and so high admirations create it a most chast and refin'd pleasure 2 Because Objects not as yet fully known as objects rare and strange are keep the Soul in a State of hope and expectation of some huge satisfaction in a greater intimacy and acquaintance with them Now as to this Worlds heaven the Viatores because improving their felicities by an active phancy are usually more happy then the comprehensores 3 Because the Soul of Man affects a kinde of insinity in its objects The affections are alway reaching after new pleasures the desires are carried forth after new possessions phancy is perpetually entertaining the minde with new Ideas the Understanding is continually calling for a new Scene of contemplations Scaliger alledgeth this reason of the delight men naturally take in fables the pictures of Anticks and Monsters things rare and extraordinary even because they exceed the common limits of truth and mend the prospect of the Soul which by its unconfin'd desires and motions gives it self to understand that it is of higher extraction then that of a beast and cannot truly compose and enjoy it self but in Union with God the infinite Ocean of truth and Goodness Thirdly That which further engag'd my thoughts upon this Argument was a consideration of the Seasonableness thereof We have been of late perswaded by three or four several impressions of Books as there never wanted those which would farme the weakness and easiness of the multitude that England is grown Africa and presents us every year since the Return of his Majesty with a new Scene of Monstrous and strange sights and that our lot is fallen into an Age of Wonders and all held forth to the People like black clouds before a storm the harbingers of some strange and unusual plagues approaching in the State A matter not much to be wondred at when the Nation like the Womb of Rebekah carries such striving and contesting Parties The Poets feign the Giants the sons of Earth to have bidden battel to the Gods and to have perisht by a thunderbolt in the confidence of that attempt And the Earth their Mother to avenge the death of her Sons to have brought forth their last Sister Fame A fable expounded by the excellent Verulam of unquiet and seditious persons a kind of Filii Terrae the creatures of the People usually envious against their Rulers and soon weary of the present State of things who when crusht and ruin'd in their attempts against the Gods on earth their rightfull Governours their fâ—ll is a veng'd by a fama querula seditiosa popular clamours libels odious representations of them to derive upon them the common envy with which may be number'd the reports of strange prodigies and prophecies giving hopes of some approaching change of affairs an observation which I am sure will offend none that are studious of the Sacred character Persons which are quiet in the land To all that hath been hitherto discourst concerning the profit pleasure seasonableness of the Argument before us I shall superadd this one consideration to excuse the trouble these papers give the Reader A hasty ignorant rash rejection of things which obtain though unworthily the place and repute of religious and sacred as prodigies doe gives no small advantage to Atheism An over-hasty pulling off even the wens and excrescencies from the body of Religion may prove of as bad consequence as a permitting them still to grow upon it As our Saviour would not be call'd Good in an ignorant courtesie so neither should these Prodigies Vain in an ignorant scorn He that without light and resolution slights and neglects things but presum'd sacred and religious is but a more fortunate Atheist and more harmlesly profane Look as sometimes Persons once Sacred found guilty of capital crimes are solemnly degraded before they are executed so things once reputed Sacred should be first degraded by a well inform'd judgment from that Opinion and degree of respect they held in mens minds before they be thrown off and deliver'd to their neglect and disregard And this is all that that I thought necessary to premise to level the way to a fairer reception and interpretation of the ensuing Discourse J. S. A DISCOURSE Concerning PRODIGIES Wherein the Vanity of Presages by them is reprehended and their true and proper Ends asserted and vindicated CHAP. I. Concerning the several kinds of Prodigies Great wonders of divine efficiency alone these divided into Ordinary and Extraordinary The kinds of the former toucht upon Wonders extraordinary comprised under the general name of Prodigies divided into Signal and Penal The use of that phrase excused Prodigies Signal Natural Praeternatural Supernatural what The Prodigies related in the Ethnick Stories excluded this number and why Prodigies Penal described IT is the Prerogative Royal of the King of heaven that He onely doeth great wonders commands Nature to what actions into what posture may best serve the ends of his own honour and wisdom The biggest works the devil doeth have but a tympany of greatness are a kinde of practical fallacies as he is but Simia Dei so the greatest work which falls
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
the ayr fore-runners of plagâ—es and wars c. And so far received he them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euâ—ebius stiles the Portenta preceding the overthrow of Hierusalem Gods visible Sermons of Repentance that as we are inform'd He wrote a just Treatise lost in his life-time concerning Prodigies or Divine Foremarnings betokening Bloud To all which Testimonies my answer shall be first more General That 't is â—o wonder to see this Opinion credited by some Great names in regard that as in Heresy Populus sequitur Doctiores the People usually follow the Learned as being in a matter more abstract and subtile more apt to believe then to judge so in Superstition Doctiores sequuntur Populum the Learned are not seldom observ'd to follow the People because easily surpris'd into an Opinion that can enter so valuable a plea for it self as common consent This Notion of Presages by Prodigies being so popular and catholick wise men in their first and unwary years when they are discipuli plebis may entertain conceits thereof which shall plead prescription against the strongest reasons to disposess them As Iron in a greater and more massy bodie sequitur naturam communem follows the law of common Nature in all heavy bodies and moves to the Earth but in smaller pieces sequitur naturam privatam it follows its own private nature and directs itself to the Loadstone Thus learned men where they are prest by the force and weight of Education and a common prejudice generally follow common Nature in men which inclines to embrace Society and therefore move in judgment Secundum viam Tâ—rrae but in matters out of vulgaâ— ken and where they cannot be tempted by a common agreement they move secundum viam consilii and periue the dictates of their own private light and understanding Even wise men in many instances held Aâ—â—â— focos their faith and their estates by the same tenure tradition from Ancestours and therefore we may receive their judgements tanquam ex Gathedâ—â—â— as engagements to consider not always tanquam ex Tripâ—â—e as obligations to believe I proceed next to a more distinct and particular answer to the severall Authorities alledg'd And first to the Testimony of Heathens The many places of Scripture where in God hath threatned to issue out a speedy arrest upon Persons deeply indebted to him without so much as warning them by any lesser judgements and signs of Vengeaâ—ce to agree with Him â—â—ile in the waâ— doe sufficiently resolve me of the vanity of that foremeâ—tion'â— assertion of Herodotus Yet because it is deliveâ—'â—â—poâ—â—he â—eemiâ—g faitâ— of a great experience and our Advebâ—aries build so much upon 〈◊〉 I return to it 〈…〉 It is a conclusion which proceeâ—s upon the â—redit of a single instance that of the people of Chios there mentioned whose final desolaâ—ion was usher'd by two very affecting examples One that of a hundred young men whom they sent to Delphos two onely return'd the rest being consumed by Pestilence another but a little aftei the same time the roof of the Schol-house fell so suddainly that of an hundred and twenty children but one escap'd with life Of wâ—ich He saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these signs God â—oreshew'd their approaching fate withall Now with this so shallow and contracted a foundation he ventures the building of his Catholick assertion Quoties ingentes c. A thing not much to be wonder'd at because where men are very fond of an assum'd principle any single example which speaks favour for it shall be more attended unto then a hundred which disparage and â—efute it Besides one Affiâ—â—â—tive especially if plausible as this is doth far moie affect and engage our minds then many more evident Negatives because they are infinite disperse our sight and deliver us to uncertainty 2. It is no wonder at all to meet with such an assertion amongst Heâ—thens and any little Accidents blâ—wn out by a superstitious phancy into thâ— shew and appâ—â—â—â—nce of strange Omens if we consider 1. That they look upon their Gods as a kinde of Fayries which would throw firebrands and furies about the house for the omission of some petty criticisms in their rites and that therefore they gave forth frequent intimations of these impotencies and distasts They thought they were lost with a trifle and won again to a good Opinion of them by paying them the homage of a little crouching and circumstantial Devotion 2. The hopes and fortunes of the Heathens were layd up generally in this world and therefore their fears in reference to it were easily awakened The Heathen Caecilius truly acknowledg'd that all the religious rites instituted by their Ancestours were level'd to no higâ—er an end then the good of this lower life being either intended as gratefull reâ—urns to the Divine bounty forsome temporal favours receiv'd â—â—deâ— ouâ— addresses to divert a feared or appease a felt displeasure of the Dâ—ity And therefore no wonder they were soon awaken'd into a great fear when any strange occurrence of whose end and cause they were unresolv'd fell before their notice least it should abode the running of that vessel upon rocks wherein theiâ— hopes and happiness were imbark't Men are apâ— to entertain great fear in reference to that wherein they apprehend themselves greatly concern'd To the testimony of Fathers I answer in General that ' tâ—ere no wonder to find them living so near the times of Gentilism speaking in favour sometimes for some of the Doctrines thereof the main trunâ—k and body of the Gentile superstition was indeed hewâ— down in their minds but still there were some small roots and fibres remaining which are observ'd to spring up ever and anon and trouble their writings But however we shall I believe seldom find them expressing any great regard to this grand doctrine of the Gentile Theology As for Tertullian howsoever he may seem like some carved images about houses to support and grace our adversaries building yet he will prove in truth to be like them barely forc't and fasten'd on and to lend no strength at all thereunto for 1. the Father writing to the Heathens there might lawfully discourse with them Ex hypothesi Ethâ—icae Theologiae for they regarded those mighty Vulcâ—nos as the courts of Pluto and a kind of testimony or fit emblem of the fires and vengeance in another state 2. He stiles these fires eruptions but testimonium exemplum a testimony and example of the Divine judgment which in a laxe sense he might well doe these seeming to be set forth by the Divine wisdom as glasses and pictures to convey to the duller world some weak images of the horrours of those everlasting burnings in another world 3. These durable fires are alledged not as any signs of an everlasting burning but as the best argument Nature afforded to prove the possibility of such a burning against the sons of Nature who thought a fire which consumes not to be a great contradiction And to a like
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
forth Mazzaroth in his season or canst thou guide Arctiorus with his sons Knowest thou the Ordinances of heaven canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth In Arithmetick who can number the clouds in wisdom In Natural History knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth c. God will have some things in Nature unsearchable to hide pride from man and to discover himself to him for it must needs be presumed that all these mysteries came forth from and are comprehended by some First Mind and mighty Wisdom We are urg'd next with the words of the Prophet Ioel. chap. 2. 30 31. I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the Earth bloud and fire and pillars of smoak The sun shall be turned into darkness and the â—oon into bloud before the great and terrible day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is near the Sun and the Moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withâ—raw their shineing From which words those Act. 2. 19 20. are borrowed To which may be added because of a likeness of expression that place Luk. 21. 25 26. And there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon upon Earth distress of Nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken In which former scripture by the Day of the Lord we are to understand some special day of vengeance it being usual in sacred Writ as some of the Hebrew Doctours observe to intitle days eminent for any unusual expressions of Divine favour or displeasure Days of the Lord whereas we find this day prefac'd and foretold by such prodigious occurrences as easily resolve themselves into causes natural I answer First Learned expositors generally understand those places not in any literal sense but receive them all as so many prophetical schemes of speech instances whereof are of most familiar occurrence in the Prophets expressive of some wonderfull evils shortly to afflict the world as they do also on the contrary the promises of a new heaven and a new earth the increase of the light of the sun and of the moon c. but as so many figurative expressions of some white and gladsom days shortly to succeed Particularly the learned Grotius is so secure of a figurative sense of such places that he tells us they are never to be expounded in all scripture to any other And indeed should we expound them literally we should soon honour the falls of great men or destruction of cities with greater or as great wonders as attended the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour Besides what Histories ever mention any such astonishing alterations in the frame of Nature as the literal sense of these places would introduce a faith of Now the Prophets chose thus to deliver themselves for some or all of these Reasons 1. Because it was the custom of the Eastern Nations to describe great and mighty storms and troubles in a state in such phrases as these the darkning of the heavens falling of the stars shaking of the earth flying away of the Mountains c. 2. Because these being the most remarkable and glorious bodies in the world terrible alterations in them seem the most proper representatives of mighty changes and alterations in kingdoms 3. Because the terrible judgements of God upon the Babylonians Egyptians Iews and obstinate Gentiles set forth in such expressions were but supremi judicii specimina little images and types of the last and dreadfull judgement and therefore not unfitly character'd by the terrours and horrours which shall usher that last and great Day 4. Because these are expressions mighty and vehement and so very expressive of and sutable unto that hot and vigorous impression which the Spirit of Prophecy made upon the minds and imaginations of those holy men which were acted by it 5. Because that anxiety and perplexity of mind which should attend the plagues coming on men should be as great almost as if they saw the eye of heaven the sun put out and the earth to tremble under them c. Now in this figurative sense the words were accomplished in their first and original intention when that great misery was brought upon the earth by Nabuchodonosor and they receiv'd a further degree of accomplishment as S. Peter intimates Act. 2. 19. under the Romanes when the land which was but shaven before by Gods hired Razor had an utter baldness brought upon it to use the expression of the Prophet and it shall have its fulfilling in the outmost latitude of its sense at the day of judgment of which some Interpreters solely understand it Propecies have their Gradus Scalus compleâ—enti as the Lord Bacon speaks the last day only is that true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulness of time wherein they shall be completely fulfilled God often draws similar and parallel lines of confusion over different times and places whips many stubborn children with the same rod and therefore prophesies of the same vengeance may have their repeated accomplishments Secondly Some learned men understand in these places a real and literal darkning of these great bodies of light though arising not from any common and natural but an extraordinary and supernatural cause The reasons of which exposition I shall remit to their proper place which if they appear satisfactory nothing can be thence concluded in favour of presages by these Prodigies which are but some more unusual effects lying hid in the powers of natural Agents and sometimes exerting themselves There is one place of Scripture more which may seem to some to require perhaps to refuse an answer viz. that Luke 21. 11. where our Blessed Saviour foretelling that large line of confusion to be stretched out upon the Holy City and whole nation of the Jews as as a precedent signe thereof tells his Disciples Great earthquakes shall be in divers places and famines and pestilences c. now earthquakes have been numbred with Prodigies natural I answer First When God hath once sealed them by his sanction and institution Prodigies natural may be regarded as the signs of events arbitrary and supernatural Gods bow without a string in the heavens is to us a signe that the world need never fear perishing by any such fatal arrow as once was shot out of the clouds A universal deluge although it be owing to a natural and necessary cause as being by Gods institution advanc'd to the dignity of a signe of grace and favour Thus when God had told the people that as an expression of his great displeasure against them for asking of a king He would send thunder and rain things in themselves natural except it be said that the peculiar condition of that season and climate made them approach to a miracle it was a religious fear with which the people
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
hath had peaceable possession of the common faith for so many ages for to say no more 't is in many regards an example extraordinary and 't is a good maxime examples extraordinary neither break a rule nor make one Upon which account alone I have no great fear that the other instance wil much prejudice our cause though I allow both a truth and a significancy to that apparition though perhaps I should not have judg'd so much in favour thereof had I not been brib'd by the authority which the suffrages of so many wise men and the antiquity of the Authour seem to drive upon that Apocryphal writing wherein it is found Thirdly There appears not now any ground at all to receive any such apparitions in the ayr as the certain signs and monitours of any calamities to ensue upon a Nation and that First Because we have no warrant from the Book of God so to regard them having no precept at all to oblige us nor yet any example therein to encourage us The signs of future events which we sometimes find God making use of were such as out of their institution were no way apt to foreshew any any such event they were most commonly signa ad placitum such as carried no similitudes of the things whereof they were signs as the apparitions of armies in the air seem to do of some succeeding battel that so none might be encouraged afterward to regard them as Omens when again occurring and fancy that they ministred at all to the vanity of any such observations Now a negative argument from Scripture seems conclusive enough in a matter wherein the faith of a Divine prescience and providence and mans dutifull observance of God in the way of his judgements appear so much concerned and assisted as we are told they are in the religious observation of such things as these Secondly Such kinde of signs would lay men naked and exposed to perpetual delusions and impostures for how often do the antick shapes of the clouds serve the imaginations of dragons and armies in the air That word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zech. 10. 1. which we render clouds the LXX by a verbal mistake of the radix translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apparitiones and a melancholy fancy is as subject to this real mistake the translating of clouds into apparitions of Churches or castles or armies Can any serious Person then believe that God would have us apply our selves to such a Proteus as a cloud is for a solution of any doubt de futuro which can shift into any shapes and forms of things Hath he not all along appear'd to value our understandings at a higher rate then to require them to a regard of things so exposed to suspicion and the conceit of some imposture Thirdly Such kinde of apparitions in the air have been known not succeeded by any black and tragical Event The truth is Wisdom which useth to draw her lines by the steady and even rule of some well assumed principles hath not appear'd so critical an observer of such accidents and their Events as folly hath been and therefore we are not so well provided of examples to reprehend this vanity as otherwise we might be I must therefore satisfie my self with a single instance which occurrs in a learned and sober Writer who delivers it as a matter reported to him by Persons of good credit how that in the year before he recorded that relation there were seen two opposite Battalions in the air lancing out their spears and discharging as it were their muskets victory now reeling and in the end one side giving chase to the other Whereas all these things proved but è vitro fulgura being followed onely with jubilees and the voice of joy and peace in our dwellings for many years Nor can they be with any colour of reason presumed to foreshew our succeeding civil wars being removed by the distance of so many years Now one negative instance in such cases is of more force to unfix and discredit a pretending rule then two affirmatives to establish it because the latter the world being so full of evils may fall out by a kinde of chance or the agency of seducing Spirits whereas the former seem to proclaim some necessity of the Event in nature and the no purpose at all of God to give notice of any of his counsels by any such emergencies as these Fourthly I doubt not but many of these aery apparitions might be solved by a natural cause To let pass the conceit of real armies somewhere fighting on earth reflected in the clouds as in a glass as at best but an ingenuous vanity the supposed firing of Ordinance and muskets is I believe generally nothing but the coruscation of some incensed exhalations breaking forth by pauses and intervals from the clouds and as thunder doth with the noises and terrours of those military engines The running to and fro of hors-men and companies may be represented to an active fancy by the clouds carried by the unconstant force of the winds to very giddy and unequal figures and motions The stands of pikes and spears may be but the ragged and deformed protuberances of the disturbed clouds Onely I am apt to believe that Nature draws the images of these things in such rude and imperfect figures that men are forced much to assist and quicken the dulness and defectiveness of the type by the fictions of imagination Fifthly Some of these aery apparitions and noises are managed with that method and artifice come forth in such chosen seasons if we credit relations that I doubt not to intitle them to the power and operation of the Aery Principality Impure Spirits like juglers may oft do strange tricks to call upon themselves the regards of the world and when they see causes big with their effects may by such signs foreshew them to derive upon themselves either the Opinion of prescience or of some great affection to men whom they awaken though indeed it be but as Delilah did Samson when the Philistines some great evils are just upon them or else as S. Austin speaks noxiae curiositatis retibus implicare to fly-blow the minds of men with curious and impertinent enquiries into times to come Sure I am we finde the Appearances of armies and the noise of arms and trumpets in the air found among such bad company so many hatefull Omens and Prodigies observed by the Heathen as is sufficient to blemish them and to give suspicion that the observation and production of both was owing to the same Father of lies Ovid having mentioned the noise of armies and trumpets heard in the clouds relates as presages of equal place and repute the weeping of Statues the wandring of Ghosts the odd figures and colour of the Sacrifice and the like doth Virgil in that place so often cited The Devil well knew that without the maintaining of some Opinion of his foresight in the minds of men the
receive them how strange soever with the religion of a very passive soul and submissive faith But if we once put Right Reason which is Ianitor Animae thus by its office and place our inward house will soon lie open and free for any vile and vagrant Opinion to take up and dwell therein It is indeed the great maxim of those Sons of mystery the Cabalists and some Chimists that Intellectus perficitur patiendo the minde of man like matter is rendred most capable of being well informed by becoming pura potentia a passive power and that truth offers her self solely to such passionate and humble suiters which can be content even to forgo themselves to gain her But sure I am God hath no where required us to a faith which cannot satisfie the reason of a man which searcheth into the grounds and evidence thereof He hath commanded us to prove before we hold fast to chew before we swallow to sound as well as sail And therefore till we see some better reason offered to acquit our owning of them as the signs of Gods counsels besides the imaginations and dictats of dogmatical men which will venture to break open Gods Cabinet while they want any sure key to unlock it it is but a just respect to our selves to maintain our freedom of dissent and to believe such strange works levelled to some other white then what they imagine As for the seeming Reasons which this Opinion leans unto they will appear like the staff of Egypt either to break under or by an easy retortion to pierce and wound it For whereas it is urged that except we admit this end of these semi-miracles the most quick-sented will be at a fault wholly at a loss what end of them to assigne and pitch upon I answer Is it so great an inconvenience to admit of some passages in the book of the creature of which we are not scholars good enough to make a right and proper construction Are there not some works of Providence which God hath made deep and mystical on set purpose that man might be humbled by them into a sense of his own ignorance and shortness see Isai. 48. 7. Eccles 7. 14. and is it a strange thing to hear of some works in the compass of Nature out of our reach such as we must behold as children do the Moon onely with an ignorant wonderment Yea but the world will be alway surprised by judgements if we admit not such Prodigies the signs of them And hath not God told even those whose profession it is to look after and expound the pretended signs of times the moâ—ethly Prognosticatours that desolation shall come upon them suddenly and they shall not know And is not man expresly said not to know his time but to be snared in an evil time falling suddenly upon him Eccles 9. 1â— In sum the great confidence of the Opinion we contend with seems to lie for ought I can perceive but in a series of many Assertours which like persons in the dark shut their eyes and take care onely to hold fast by those which went before them 2. These Heteroclita Naturae things which fall off from the rule and law of common and usual Nature minister to bigger ends then presages For 1. They teach vs to pay the tribute of admiration to him who though by the ministery of second causes doeth these great wonders Deliberate wondring when the soul is not suddenly surprised being raised up to an height is as one saith part of adoration and cannot be given to any creature without some sacriledge Such wondring consists of Reverence and ignorance which best becometh even the wisest of men in their searches after God his ways God hath his wonders of justice such wherein he causeth a strange coincidence of blinde and contingent Agents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work together for the detection and punishment of some great Criminals that men may easily see that the wheel brought over them was full of eyes conducted by some great Intelligence He hath also his wonders of mercy such wherein he walks in ways not cast up to accomplish the well-being and preservation of those which honour him by a great faith such whereof every pious breast is the Office wherein they are registred and recorded To these He hath been pleas'd to add his wonders in Nature the commonness of his other works being apt to Soyl them and to keep men from attending to all that Wisdom and unsearchable Greatness displayed in them 2. These things shew us all the creatures to be in Gods hand and easily commanded like the clay in the hand of the Potter to what figures and uses he shall think fit at any time to appoint them unto According to that of Iob. c. 9. 5 6 7. Who removeth the mountains and they know not which overturneth them in his anger Which shaketh the earth out of her place and the pillars thereof tremble Which commandeth the sun and it riseth not and sealeth up the stars The other great Arguments against or for the observation of any such occasions of wonder as were last mention'd as Ominous being the same which fill out the foregoing papers I shall not hear offer the Reader the taedium of any repetition CHAP. V. Remedies advised against the Superstition of Prodigies Signal Some men greatly propense to judge by measures vehement and extraordinary and why The evil of the common superstition of Prodigies further noted 5 remedies advis'd against it 1. The discarding of all jealousies of God These an especiall occasion of this superstition in the minds of the Gentiles 2. The avoiding of any great fears or hopes in reference to the future These apt to make men regardfull of Prodigies and Prophecies with the reason thereof 3. The study of natural philosophy The nature of knowledge in general to fortifie against the fears of evil the particular usefulness of natural Philosophy hereunto 4. A great indifferency of minde as to the issues of things in this world Persons most in love with the world most sollicitous to know its fortune evidenc'd in the Iews and Gentiles 5. The discarding of that vulgar principle That God gives us now signs of times That question whether there be any or no answered in three conclusions The vanity of attending to vulgar prophecies reprehended An answer to Luke 21. 11. brought for proof of them Why some signs of destruction given to the Iewish nation Great changes in the world not easily foreseen and why Times hidden from men with the reason thereof men greatly addicted to regard any pretenders to divination the evil of proposing of or attending to any signs of times THere are a company of men in the world whose melancholy fancies like the Cyclops in the Poet are perpetually imploy'd as it were in framing thunder-bolts for heaven to throw down upon that world themselves are fallen out withall Never doth the face of heaven appear mantled up in clouds but their
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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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