of the State may in time see reason to interdict the publication of prodigies and Astrological predictions under as severe a penalty as it hath old prophecies all being but the ignes fatui leading to the boggs of sedition by amuzing men with a false light the pretended knowledge of the signs and state of future times CHAP. VI. Concerning Prodigies Penal HAving thus in a method as much required to the rules of Logick as the uncertain and doubtfull colour and condition of the Subject would allow discoursed the first part of my Argument Prodigies barely signal that which the order propos'd lays next before us is the consideration of Prodigies penal By which I understand poenarum monstra judgements of an unusual make and more dreadfull aspect Now these are either Personal befalling some particular members of the common body who to use the significant language of Scripture have not died the common death of all men nor been visited after the visitation of all men or National when the whole body of a Nation or the greater part thereof is smitten with a rod of an unusual size These also may easily be conceived by men as a kinde of hand out of the clouds to write Tekel upon persons or causes distastfull to themselves and therefore I shall as I can direct to a sober notion concerning them both in these five Conclusions SECT I. Prodigies Penal how to be interpreted Two conclusions here laid down to direct to a right notion in reference to judgements extraordinary These without other proof no safe signs of the extraordinary sinfulness of Persons Men apt to think them so and why Nor yet of causes proved by several considerations Eminent judgements upon eminent sinners to be greatly heeded A judgement signal and remarkable in three cases especially Two miscarriages to be avoided in the observation of the punishments upon our Neighbour OUr first Conclusion is this Iudgements Extraordinary are not without further evidence concluding Arguments of the extraordinary sinfulness of Persons or causes First Not of the extraordinary sinfulness of Persons Men are generally prone to finde their own vertues in Fortunae blanditiis to weigh their own merits at the false beam of outward blessings and successes and their brothers faults in Parcarum tabulis the sad destinies and evils which lie upon his lot Iobs friends judged the dimensions of his iniquity by the shadow of the sufferings which were laid upon him and concluded the former great because the latter were so Shimei concluded David to be a man of bloud because evil was raised up to him out of his own house 1 Sam. 16. 8. The Disciples that the man or his parents had greatly sinned because he was born blinde Joh. 9. 2 3. The Barbarians that the Apostle was deeply indebted to divine Justice when his hand was arrested by the viper Acts 28. 4. The Disciples that those were the greatest sinners in Ierusalem upon whom the towre of Siloam fell and became both their monument and executioner Luke 13. 4. Thus among the Heathens of old if a person were struck dead by lightning they presently conceived his crimes as black as his smitten body and look'd upon him as judged by heaven it self good for nothing but to make an example of to the rest of men And the Oratour vainly inferr'd God had no great love for his children of old the Jewish Nation because he severely corrected them so often And many amongst our selves if the fire of God fall and consume their neighbours dwelling if he fill not up the number of his days nor be gathered to his grave in peace are apt to hasten to a rash sentence and to write in his ashes Forsaken of God Now such hasty conceits as these rise up in our minds partly from a peasantly notion of good and evil in us we are apt to over-rate our bodies and estates and then to estimate the favour of God by the references and aspects his Providences bear towards them Besides we conclude the great rule of justice being this that all punishments be adjusted to the merits of the person that all punishments extra ordinary are the most proper indications of a correspondent guilt Whereas Gods distributions of rewards and punishments in this life are not directed by any of our short and scanty maxims and notions He often puts that metall into the hottest fire which he intends shall bear his own image in most lively figures He hath priviledged his servants from some sin but from no punishment Iosiah may fall in a battel Uzzah be suddenly smitten for an errour of love and zeal a daughter of Abraham be bound by Satan a Iob delivered to the power of Satan both in body and estate A person may like the leper under the law be smitten with a very black and dark plague and yet be pronounced clean before men Look as in some Prodigies signal things seem so delivered to the powers and forces of secondary Agents that the world appears but a kinde of great Engine moved solely by certain weights and springs within it self and all effects resolvable into bare and single Nature so in Prodigies penal Gods arrows seem so to fly by dark and heavy plagues to fall with so little choice and distinction that the world seems a great lottery and time and chance to happen to all events and persons God perhaps intending this cryptick management of affairs as a kinde of Divine tentation to prove whether we be such men in understanding as to stand by the doctrine of a Providence while the necessity power and wisdom thereof are rendred so much to dispute by the great appearances of Nature and Fortune and whether we be quick-sighted enough to discover that the living creatures have the hands of a man though half hidden under the covert of their wings that all causes and events are managed by a hand of Wisdom and reason though they may seem to fly at random to our first and more unwary thoughts Excellent therefore the advice of Solomon who having told us that there is a just man who perisheth in his righteousness and a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness thus directs in the following words Be not righteous over-much neither makeâ—thy self over-wise i. e. Do not in thy fond thoughts acquit thy self more righteous then the person upon whom thou seest such a judgement fall neither make thy self over-wise by arrogating an understanding sufficient to expound this riddle of Providence God 's dealing out such hard measure to such a person It is a rashness to say the tree was rotten because we see it blasted If it be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the phrase of the Apostle such an affliction as some man hath suffered and any may let us not by any censorious speeches poison our brothers wounds which call for the oyl of our comforts and prayers When we read that Antioch where the Disciples
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
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
signs were generally great and mighty transcendent to the powers and possibilites of Natural Agents that it might appear his power was greatly concern'd in them and that they came forth upon a greater purpose then the bare service of the laws of Nature and the powers of some second Causes Fourthly The condition and temper of the Oeconomy we are now Under admits not our expectation of any signs from heaven either to witness against the practices or opinions of any party of men or to give notice of an approaching mercy or judgement to all which purposes they ministred heretofore God was pleas'd heretofore suitably to the non-age of the Church to address himself very much to the lower faculties of the Soul Phancy and imagination accordingly we finde Prophecies deliver'd in vehement and unusual schemes of speech such as are apt greatly to strike and affect upon imagination Christ was promis'd os one speaks sub magnificis admirationem facientibus ideis the mysteries of the Gospel were held forth in most splendid types and symbols and the law of God forc't upon the spirits of men heretofore by the terrours of a thundering heaven and a burning mountain and a speedy Vengeance upon the despisers thereof the spirits of good men carried out to actions and tempers beyond their natural capacities by the pregnant and vigorous impresses of the divine Spirit and the fears of the Church excited and her faith assisted by mighty signs and wonders the withdrawing whereof the Church bewayls they all vanishing as the light of divine Revelation prevail'd as stars doe upon the approaches of day-light But they which talk of and look for any such vehement expressions of Divinity now mistake the temper condition of that Oeconomy which the appearance of our Saviour hath now put us under wherein all things are to be managed in a more sedate cool and silent manner in a way suited to and expressive of the temper our Saviour discover'd in the world Who caused not his voice to be heard in the streets and to the condition of a Reasonable Being made to be manag'd by steady and calm arguments and the words of Wisdom heard in quiet in a smooth and serene temper the mysteries of the Gospel come forth cloth'd in sedate and intelligible forms of speech the minds of men are not now drawn into ecstasie by any such vehement and great examples of Divine Power and Justice as attended the lower and more servile state of the World The miracles our Saoiour wrought were of a calm and gentle nature curing the blinde restoring the sicke and lame not causing of thunder and storms as Samuel but appeasing them none of them such as the Jews call'd for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signs from heaven such prodigious and affrighting thunders and fires which attended the delivery of the law and the spirit of Elijah Indeed the Veil of the Temple was rent the Sun dreadfully eclypst the Earth terribly shaken at his death but these astonishing wonders were made use of as his last reserve to conquer the prejudices of an obdurate people upon whom his more gentle and obliging instances of Divine Majesty made no impression and perhaps these prodigious changes in Nature were intended as prophetick emblems of the great change shortly to ensue in heaven the way of worship and religion and Earth the powers and Kingdoms of the World by the power and Doctrine of that Person who then died upon the Cross. That mighty rushing Wind at Pentecost which was issu'd in a soft and lambent fire upon the heads of the first Preachers of the Gospel was possibly a figure of that more vehement and terrible State of the law which usher'd the way for and determin'd in the more sedate and gentle dispensation of the Gospel God hath now in a great measure left frighting of men to heaven by visible terrours the law of the Messias was deliver'd upon the mount in the small and still voice and is set home upon the hearts of men by the terrour onely of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more heavy vengeance in another World then what overtook the despisers of Moses law God expects now that we should be judiciously religious and acted to his service by a Spirit of love and of a sound minde to fear his threatnings more then the burnings of Sinai to look upon a bad man since the appearance of Christ to take away sin as the greatest Prodigy and to expect the signs of an approaching judgment non in Erratis Naturae sed seculi Thus have I endeavour'd the proof of the Thesis propos'd by some general Reasons and Arguments Others there are of as great moment which that I overlay not the Readers patience shall be reserv'd as so many nerves and sinews to run through and hold together the main body of the ensuing Discourse SECT II. Some Particular Prodigies prov'd no signs of ensuing Evils Comets commonly thought presages of evils and why A difference between comets and some luminous bodies in the Heavens like them Prov'd not to be signa operantia of any evils in Earth The difficulty of determining the specifick Nature of a Comet prov'd no incenst exhalation by a Considerations further evinc't no effective cause of evil from the dimension and the acknowledg'd altitude thereof Three Arguments to prove them not to be Signa indicantia of any evils The difficulty of reprehending any errour which bottomes in phancy and imagination The Omission of a particular discourse concerning some other Prodigies excus'd THat which the law of our intended method lays next before us is the proof of the Thesis propos'd by a particular Induction I shall therefore direct my thoughts upon some t were to overvalue the Argument to speak to many Prodigies which have been thought the most plausible pretenders to the honour of being Symbola Prophetica Amongst which Comets are of more especial regard and have been receiv'd by the faith or fears of most times as a kind of Beacon fir'd from Heaven to alarm the World and to give intimation of an approaching evil The Cauda Cometae especially seems to the eye of ignorance the emblem of a Flaming sword or fiery rod and to carry the dreadfull images of some mighty scourge prepar'd to correct a froward world withall With the Poet it passeth as a rul'd case Nunquam coelo spectatum impunè Cometam A comet never shone from Heaven to give the world any pannick fears The Astrologers as confident of the final as the Peripateticks of the formal cause of any such unusual lights take themselves upon the appearance of them to be the Filii coenaculi which are to expound to the world these mystick characters of Heaven Indeed any alteration and unwonted wrinckle in the face of heaven is thought like a frown a presage of anger and some intended evil partly because Heaven is conceiv'd the throne of justice whence 't is most proper to
like tortur'd men she then discovers her secrets either when veâ—'d by Art in lesser bodies or disturb'd by accident in greater Comets new Stars monstrous Eclipses Earth-quakes Meteors c al serve the knowledge of one mystery in Nature or other The knowledge of Nature is greatly absolv'd by our understanding Quid fieri potest Quomodo what can be done therein and how it is donâ— the former knowledge we advance to especially by an attendance to Natura libera vel vincta Nature in its constant and more easy freedom of Operation or as demeaning it self under the constraints of Art The latter knowledge we fairly arrive at by a regard to Natura Devians Nature erring and running out of her more common road because the Errours of Nature correct those Idols which the soul is easily abus'd with all while attending solely to things common and usual whence it is apt to take up its maximes and also because these are sometimes a kind of rude and imperfect pieces in Nature and so serve like a ship halfe built to discover her silent processes and more cryptick methods in the building up and compleating of her works And therefore if we had a more faithfull History of the Anomals in Nature the want whereof is owing not a little to the superstition of men which stains all it toucheth we might be soon able to see beyond the surface of those things which as yet seem plac'd in the world but to confound and pose us But the evil is that as the History of Times is usually drawn up so as it may minister not to truth but faction the History of Nature so as to gratifie either interest or curiosity so the History of Praeternatural occurrences as it may serve wonder or superstition not in so judicious and faithfull a relation of the critical circumstances of accidents as to make a square basis whereupon to erect the steady principles of Philosophy Sixthly Such unwonted occurrences give us to understand that the most common rules of natural operation are not without exception nor her most known laws simply immutable God is able to overthrow Nature by it self by appointing one Natural cause to disturb and countermand the weaker efforts of another He can cause that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Iams's phrase wheele of Nature to fire and destroy it self by delivering it to the violent and disorderly motion of its several parts All the creatures are at God's foot all their Orders and motions but the laws which his infinite wisdom appointed them unto Accordingly S. Austin speaking of the foremention'd prodigious Phasis of the Planet Venus tell us God would have men thence learn Se Deo non debere praescribere that they ought not to prescribe to God and that he is able Naturam in longè aliud quam nobis cognitum est vertere mutare command Nature into a quite different order and posture from what our shorter thoughts can reach unto and that Voluntas Conditoris conditae rei cujusque natura est the nature of every thing is but the present will of its maker As all arbitrary and contingent Agents and events seem in a sort necessary with respect to the knowledge of God so all agents as to us necessary are mutable and arbitrary consider'd with respect to the power of God All the creatures are but so many earthen vessels bearing upon them the arbitrary figures and impressions of their mighty Former Seventhly T is usually added that all these exorbitances in Nature serve to foyle and set off the general beauty and elegancy of its works All that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the language of Plotinus matter not fully subdued and layd hold upon by Form doth but enhance the value of all those comely proportions elsewhere discovered in the Creation These great ends and greater no doubt are some of those which lie hidden in the recesses of the Divine Mind offering so fair and easy an account of these irregular accidents if at least we may so term events falling out by as necessary though less known and common a rule and law of Nature as its daily labours to receive them without any Interpreter to explain their language as a kind of Divine messengers to bring us news from Heaven and as the Angel to Daniel to make us Understand what shall befall our people hereafter is to weary our selves to catch a shadow and like Adonis to fall in love onely with the reflections of our own face phancy and abus'd imagination and to be vain without any Apology in the world SECT VII An Answer to the several Scriptures alledged in favour of the adverse Opinion The first Scripture Mat. 16. 3. speaking of signs of times answer'd by shewing the great disparity of signs things signified the times spoken of and the Persons spoken to from those concern'd in this Argument The second Scripture Joel 2. 30 31. Vindicated The day of the Lord how understood in Scripture mighty changes in the creation in prophetical Scriptures to be understood mystically and why The Prophecy of Joel how understood and when accomplished The third Scripture Luk. 21. 11. answered largely HAving thus driven this Opinion from all its little holds it remains now that we beat it from its Fort Royal the Authority of Sacred Scripture which seeems to speak favour for it Now the first place of Scripture I take notice of prest to the service thereof is that speech of our Saviour Mat. 16. 3. Ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the sky and can ye not discern the signs of the times In which words our Saviour intimates that as God in the works of Nature hath consulted the conveniencies of common life by appointing some certain signs of the seasons ensuing so hath he also in his providence assisted the happiness and advantage of our civil and Spiritual life by ordaining some signs of the times whence we may be able to make a Crisis of the issue of things and that it is a great instance of folly in men that they are such able Interpreters of the various lines in the face of heaven but very uncapable and stupidly inobservant of those rational signs and intimations of the staâ—e and condition of the present or future times of the Church Now then what signs of times can more plausibly and rationally be assigned then prodigies which the heaviest men can observe and the wisest cannot readily define to what end some of them Comets especially and New stars can serve unless to point out to the world a difference of times I answer Scripture like over prest grapes gives a very ungratefull tast and sense when prest beyond its easy and native intent and purpose that so the present Text is will appear if these four particulars be duly attended unto First The great disparity of signs the signs whereof the Text is understood were 1. Signa moralia signs of a moral Nature such as were the gradual lessening of
entertain'd their coming God may appoint the crowing of a cock at such an instant of time to be one of his signs So when the Disciples had asked a signe of their Lord when all his predictions concerning the Temple and Nation should come to pass and he had mentioned amongst others Great earthquakes they were then prefer'd a kinde of Sacraments and prophetick symbols of the terrible shaking of the Jewish worship and polity now approaching And indeed when the great wickedness and security of that generation had merited that that fatal time should fall as a snare upon all them that then dwelt on the earth such signs as had a natural cause seemed the most proper indications thereof as which because happening at that time might sufficiently warn and alarm the Christians and lull faster asleep the more Atheistical and incredulous part of that age appearing to them but the more unusual works of interrupted nature To conclude now that because some earthquakes of Gods appointing were his signs therefore all are is as inconsequent an inference as this the bread and wine are signs and seals in the Sacrament because stampt with a divine institution therefore all bread and wine may challenge the same degree of reverence and regard from us Secondly These earthquakes had such characters upon them as might sufficiently inclose and distinguish them from the common issues of disturbed nature As 1. Their greatness the Text styles them great earthquakes It is likely there appeared in them more then the bare force and impatience of some crude and imprisoned vapours We read of an earthquake in the days of Uzziah so great and terrible that we finde it made an Epocha in the Jewish histories Iosephus reports that some furlongs of the mountains about Ierusalem were rent asunder and cities swallowed up by it If Aristotle styled the Celtae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mad men because an earthquake would sooner make a mountain tremble then them certainly the title is too little for those which are not impressive to some fear of God when they see him thus let loose the powers and forces of natural agents upon them 2. Their multitude there were earthquakes in divers places Nature ran often against her bias in the same instances that so the effect might not be intituled to the rub of some casual impediment but to the hand of heaven over-ruling and directing it And should I here grant which I see no reason to do that many and great earthquakes in a continent especially are a signe of some approaching evil our adversaries could advance little upon the concession both because the example will I believe be found a heteroclite and to stand alone in the History of Nature as also because I conceive they would not adventure to compare a monster or fiery meteor with the terrours of so many earthquakes generally singled out in Scripture as the monitours of the Divine power and majesty 3. Their dismal attendants The creatures would not nourish such rebels against heaven as were then upon earth there were fâ—nines the air refused to cherish and refresh them there were pestilences the eyes of heaven shrunk away from such hated objects the lights of heaven were darkned the earth groaned and staggered in a sort under her vile burden there were earthquakes in divers places so that these signs might as letters do speak that to a pious fear in conjunction which they could not have done in separation 4. Their Divine prediction There shall be earthquakes and each earthquake was a signe not as Eventus mirabilis but as Eventus praedictus Saul his meeting of three men carrying three kids and three loaves and a bottle of wine when he parted from Samuel might have been received with the slight and passing notices of a casual and common accident had it not been foretold by the Prophet as a signe of Gods presence with him And thus any of these earthquakes might perhaps have been received but with the common wonder which any rare and prodigious occurrence calls forth but because foretold it was a signe when it came to pass that that eye of prescience which could foresee an event which held of no certain cause did with as much truth and certainty foresee that fearfull desolation approaching whereof it was appointed a signe and symbol So that this place of Scripture appears to lend as little strength and support to that weak and falling cause which seeks for confidence and assistance from it as the foregoing From what hath been hitherto spoken concerning Prodigies Natural it may appear that howsoever they may possibly serve as a pretty ground for the fancy of a Poet or Oratour which are to apply themselves to that part of the soul which doth parùm sapere they are too sandy and sinking a foundation to build any religious conclusions upon we must not introduce scenam in vitam nec fabulas in fidem Pious frauds are a kinde of feet of clay which will at last deceive and siâ—k under that weighty body of religion which ever relies upon them for support CHAP. III. Concerning Prodigies Preternatural Prodigies Preternatural what The observation of them proved a hurtfull vanity The profane opinion the Heathen had of God upon the presence of any of them noted from their writings The evil influence they have upon the minds of men now A double account given of the prevalence of this perswasion The conceit of Gods giving forth some shadows and pictures of his great works before he set about them toucht upon The Authours judgement of Apparitions delivered in five Conclusions An enquiry into the truth of the Prodigies mentioned in Josephus The wonderfull Prodigies mentioned in Ovid and the Sibylline Oracles whence taken ALl the Extraordinaries in the world which fall out by no steady and certain rules and causes Such as are the approach of a strange and unknown kinde of fish to the shore the firing of houses by lightning disorderly ebbs and flows of the sea some spots as it were of bloud appearing in stones or statues and a hundred such like to serve as I can the distinctness of the Discourse I style Prodigies Preternatural All which as soon as fastning upon my hand I shall shake off as the Apostle did the venemous beast and deliver the observation of them to that smoke and darkness whence it did at first proceed that my Reader nor my self derive no infection from so hurtfull and headless a vanity 1. I style the observation of such things a very hurtfull vanity The regarding of these and the like occurrences as presages of evil served heretofore but to cherish in men this deformed thought of God that all things being subject to the law of an insuperable Faté and a blinde necessity all he could do was onely to foresee an evil and so to piece out his power with his courtesie by these and the like accidents to awaken men to shift for themselves and as they could to get
approaching beams of knowledge Philosophy leads us as men doe horses close up to the things we start at and gives us a distinct and through view of what frighted us before and so shames the follies and weakness of our former fears He that knows what slow conquests a flame makes upon any humid viscous matter will not easily account every gentle fire continuing for some time in the air a kinde of flaming sword miraculously appointed by God to drive the secure world out of its fools paradise He that knows and considers how possible it is for springs sometimes to fail nay how wonderfull it is that they fail no oftner cannot readily receive any casual breaches in the streams which hold of them as presages of some civil breaches in a State consequent thereunto Besides Philosophy informs us of the methods of nature in reserving constancy and immutability to the interiora coeli terrae but banishing the great instances of variation to the superiour parts of Earth and inferiour of Heaven and accordingly to the earth-quakes eruptions of strange fires new fountains preternatural generations in all which the more central and retir'd parts of this vast globe are not at all â—oucht and concern'd there correspond in the exteriora coeli mighty thunders Comets new stars appearing now and then alterations in the figures of the Planets variety of new spots observ'd to rise and set in the body of the sun some though rarer failings of its usual splendour c. The orders and causes of Nature thus understood would quickly chase away all those Mormos which fright men in the night of their ignorance Fourthly A generous indifferency and deadness of minde as to tâ—e good or evil things of this world The more the heart of a man outgrows the joys and fears of this world the more will all things therein appear to him much too little for the solemnity of a prodigy the more will he think nothing here of value enough to have its fall come with pomp and observation and the less will he concern himself to know the future condition of such a vanity as this world is 'T is only when mens hopes and fortunes are much embarked in this world that they are impressive to any great fears in reference to its future state The Gentiles of old that could never lift up their heavy and drossy minds above the dull flats of things sensible and worldly were the greatest Professours of all the arts of Divination by all manner of strange and unusual accidents And the Iews to whom God had promised a heaven on this side thereof in the liberal enjoyment of this worlds blessings were very solicitous about the meaning of strange Providences the signs of the times the issue of things and God was pleased by many Oracles signs and prophecies to accommodate himself to this low and wordly temper of theirs But since the introduction of a better hope the tenders of such spiritual promises we have scarce any intimations and notices given us of things future unless some very dark prophecies in the Revelation which some learned men conceive already accomplisht God hereby supposing our eyes now to be fixt so upon the more clearly reveal'd felicities of another world as not much to look down to the futurities of this Fifthly The discarding of that rash principle that God hath appointed some extraordinary signs of succeeding times There are variety of times and seasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 8. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 3. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 19. 44. there is in Divine dispensations a kinde of chequer-work of black and white days taking place by turns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the scene of this world is thus shifted and varied that both the various attributes of God and the graces of his Spirit in his servants may appear and act their parts by turns Now men are very impressive to this perswasion that as God in Nature hath ordained signs of seasons ensuing for when the trees put forth we conclude that summer is nigh and it will be foul weather when we see redness and lowring to sit upon the eye-lids of the morning so that he hath in his Providence given us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signs of the times approaching some tokens for good or evil whereby we may know what clothes to put on whether we must prepare the garments of praise to entertain the joys or clothe our selves with a great sorrow and humility to prevent or prepare for the evils which a few days may bring forth Before they have ram'd this ground they hastily advance this conclusion that Prodigies are a very great and proper signe of the times because every eye may easily foresee an evil in such signs though the sons of wisdom alone are able to foresee it in the probable causes thereof But that this is a very sinking and deceitfull ground to stand upon will appear upon a brief resolution of this Question Whether or no now under the times of the Gospel God vouchsafe particular Kingdoms any such extraordinary signs of the times as are contended for Particular Kingdoms I say for as for those signs some speak so much of of the fall of Anti-christ of the last times of the binding and loosing of Satan of the lost-judgement c. they are all of a very catholick concern and are so loose and general that like the heavenly bodies it is hard to determine their aspects to any particular time and place and if any such signs do hereafter appear they will serve rather as Arguments of Gods providence and prescience then as monitours of that just distance of time they have left those Events behinde them of which they are at large the forerunners and so are wholly forein to our present enquiry In order to a more distinct answer to the Question proposed I must necessarily premise this distinction of the supposed signs of times There are 1. Signa indicantia tantùm such signs as have no real and effective influence at all upon the Event succeeding but serve as a kinde of Bath Col onely as some softer voice from heaven to declare it to persons of more purged and attentive ears Such as are Prodigies of all sorts the aspects of heaven some old prophesies plausible parallels in many instances between the occurrences of former times and our own some stated periods of time beyond which bodies politick have not been observed to continue without some gray hairs upon them as the Prophet speaks some great decays changes and alterations some mystical prophecies or general promises in Scripture forced by a strong and active fancy to the narrow sense and interest of some private times and occasions Many such kinde of signs there are which because I intend not to feed curiosity but to starve it I purposely omit 2. There are other signs spoken of of better name and credit which we may style signa operantia such signs as