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
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
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
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
were first called Christians and the Churches of the Colossians and Laodicea to which the Holy Ghost directed particular letters by the hands of S. Paul and S. Iohn perished by an earthquake of Gods forsaking the Levantine Churches of the seas sudden breaking of its sandy girdle and overwhelming Cities or Countreys of the many thousands which perished upon the second terrible eruption of fire from mount Vesuvius or the like judgements great enough for an Epocha we are not to afflict their miseries by charging a greater guilt upon their persons and memories then on other men but rather with the Apostle Stand and behold the severity of God upon them which fell and adore his goodness to us who are not thus surprised in our wickedness or visited with some strange affliction which might make us infamous as well as miserable and encourage uncharitable men to clap their hands at us and to hiss us out of our places Secondly Neither are any such extraordinary judgements in destitution of any other evidence to be received as conclusive arguments of the sinfulness of causes civil or sacred Doctrines and causes change colour and appearance in the eye of the multitude according as heaven shines more or less upon them by successes Our histories make mention of a very hot contest about the marriage of Priests whether were more acceptable with God they which vowed single life or they which were married At last the Contenders agreed to remit the controversy to the debate of a Synod where they which asserted the marriage of Priests placed themselves on one side of the room and they which appear'd against it on the other and so it happened that the side of the house whereon the defendants of the marriage of Clergy-men sat fell down and many of them were hurt and many lost their lives Which accident was construed Gods determination in the dispute and received as a signe that he was better pleased with those which vowed single life and the arguments of their adversaries were hereby long after knock'd at head as well as themselves Baronius to inferr the piety of that paiment takes notice that the Church of England was even overspread with schisms and heresies simul ac denarium Petri solvere desierunt as soon as ever the people left off to pay Peter pence And of late si quid humaniâ—ùs acciderit any distemper incident to humanity have befallen persons in attendance on the publick Service they have been rashly urged as caveats from heaven against the very prayers And thus in common life where men are at variance and see the rod of God lying upon the back of their adversaries they are ready to say God hath espoused their cause and avenged their quarrel and so to kill their brother with Gods sword and make him a party in all their petty quarrels and animosities Against all such unclean proofs which like the Crab go backward from events to rules I offer these considerations 1. As God in his word hath recorded some actions of very eminent persons as the equivocating of Abraham with Abimelech Rachel her defeating of Laban with a falshood some actions of Samson c. not noted like the Jewish Sepulchres with any visible signe of reproof and dislike that so men might not unwittingly defile themselves by copying out the example in which he doth but prove our constancy to his even and undoubted precepts and try whether we have understanding to put a difference between the bright and darker side of that cloud of witnesses we are to eye in our way to heaven so also in his providence there are tentationes divinae God often blasts the cause of truth and goodness by adverse providences the cloud often rests upon the tabernacles of the Righreous the fire of heaven sometimes strikes a religious house the chief witnesses of truth shall be forc'd to know themselves by the title of Victus Dei populus God hereby makes trial whether we will believe the Spirit of the living creature to move in the wheels whilst they describe such involv'd and perplex'd circles and motions whether we love truth and vertue or rather their fortunes and felicities Besides the divine relation and light of righteousness and truth never make such clear reports of themselves as when they break out and shine forth at last through all the clouds of persecution and heresies God often permits them for a time to be obscured withall 2. Prodigious evils upon its Adversaries is a plea which almost any cause is able to enter for it self at one time or other The Israelites fell twice before the Benjamites though engag'd in a war seldom unprosperous intended onely ut vindicta publica We â—inde the Heathens often mentioning the judgements which be fell the contemptores Deorum religionis among them And Herodotus tells us that several Barbarians as he styles them adventuring to rush rudely upon the Temple of Minerva had the irreligion of the attempt aveng'd upon them by a fire from heaven An event to which I incline to intitle the especial agency of the Devil amongst whose stranger works the causing of fire to come down from heâ—ven is especially instanc'd in Rev. 13. 13. to maintain thereby a reverence in the minds of men to his altars and rites and perhaps to imitate the fire which came forth from God under the old law to avenge the irreverend and unhallowed approaches to his altars or which fell from heaven to chastise the rude and violent addresses of the Captains and their fifties to a Man of God However neither of these two examples for I must rather croud then leave out instances they are so many will encourage any man to acquit the Benjamites or to bless an Idol 3. God hath supply'd us with more even and steady rules to estimate the straightness or crookedness of any cause by then Prodigies penal which an active fancy may easily tune to the air of any opinion and practice whatsoever We have the Oracles of God the counsels of wise and good men the common principles which manage the discourses of the world the laws of a state and our own exercised reason which is in the language of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Oracle of truth to resolve us in the emergent doubts of life And it is especially because men are under a quick sense how exact an eye is requisite to discern how nearly any of these rules touch the building any cause or doctrine of whose evenness there may be a doubt and that this method of knowledge engageth them to dig for understanding and requires them to an industrious use of themselves in the acquist of true resolutions in a case and perhaps may detain them some time but in the place of candidates and Probationers for truth that they are so easily inclin'd to attend to the supposed intimations of a Revelation some strange prodigy or prophecy a mighty impulse which give them
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
Gods judgements upon others come forth upon purposes of grace and are intended but as the cutting and lancing of one member to draw away the corrupt humours from the rest Fifthly Lesser national judgements are to be regarded as the signs of Gods present displeasure and as his summons to repentance Scripture makes mention of Gods cutting of a Nation short 2 Kings 10. 32. and of his cutting of them off Jer. 44. 11. the instruments whereby he doth the former are very intemperate seasons murrains of cattle Epidemical diseases long dearths great defeats of Armies c. For as there are Vitia Hominum vitia Temporum the vices and follies of men taken asunder and of men consider'd as a body and under such common and moveable circumstances so there are Mala Hominum the evils which fall upon the lots of private men and Mala temporum the evils of the Times the Judgements which ceaze and touch men as united and meeting in one common body and interest and under the guilt of some publick and National impiety Now these are I say to be received by the common sense of a Nation as Gods warning pieces to come in and submit themselves to him by repentance least he storme them by some more black and terrible judgement For God sometimes deals by Nations as with persons who are first brought to a Council next to a Iudgement then to hell-fire The great day of destruction from the Almighty foretold by the Prophet was usher'd by these lesser evils the cutting off â—he meat from before their eyes the rotting of the seeds under the clods c. And before God layd the Axe to the root of that fair tree the Jewish Church he was pleased many years to chop and prune it by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many little and prelusory Judgements that its unfruitfulness might be corrected And that showr of vengeance which at last overwhelm'd the Romane Empire was prefac'd by some smaller drops It lay long in the fire of many heavy afflictions but like the clay whereby it is emblem'd Dan. 2. 42. it lost nothing of its impure and drossy nature and at last this incorrigibleness brought on its final ruine and execution by the Barbarous Nations of the North. I say not that these instances can warrant us alway to receive all such lesser judgements as the tokens and harbingers of much greater and to borrow the language of the Prophet as the swellings out in a high wall whose breaking is coming suddenly For God often makes great sins the triumphs of his goodness and lays a very sad ground in some lesser evils when he purposeth to lay on his fair colours of peace and happiness He causeth it sometimes at even when darker and blacker times were expected to be light Besides the unchurching or unpeopling of a Nation his greater judgements are ways which under this spiritual Oeconomy the Divine Justice seldom walks in God indeed heretofore when the world in the greener years thereof was most under the conduct of its lower faculties and most apt to be drawn or driven by rewards or punishments temporal singled out the Jewish Nation in whose outward state of prosperity or adversity to read visible lectures of Divinity and obedience to the Nations round about and that the Nations might take the fairer view of their state God tells them Ezek. 5. 5 6 7 8. that he had plac'd Ierusalem in the midst of the Nations round about her and that they might call the eyes of the world the more upon them their plagues were such as scarce admitted their parallel instances But God chooseth now generally to punish incorrigibleness under temporal by spiritual judgements He sometimes delivers a people like Samson to blindness and stupidity who having been often bound by the câ—rds of their Delilah sins as Solomon speaks would never take warning When ever therefore the smoke of Gods lesser judgements speaks his anger to be kindled but a little we are to express a quick sense thereof and endeavour its quenching by a speedy removal of the fuel those National sins which may continue and increase it God will account with men one day not onely for the abuse of National mercies but National judgements And thus by Gods assistance have I issued my meditations upon both parts of the Argument and offered the best defence I could to the cause I undertook too just and good to be lost for a Nihil dicit Upon a review whereof I am not conscious to my self of having trespass'd against the Apostolical precept by returning upon our Adversaries railing for railing and of giving any suspicion of the weakness of my cause or Arguments by calling in passion or reproaches to their relief and assistance They which think an argument pierceth the less because not manag'd with some keeness of style may as well think a rasour cuts the worse for having its rough and grating edge a little taken off The truth is I apprehended not any such mountainous difficulties at any time in my way that I should need like Hannibal in the Alps to force a passage through them with fire and vineger any hot and tart expressions and reflections CHAP. VII The Conclusion The Omission of a particular enquiry into the truth and consequence of some late strange relations excused The undertaking proved needless difficult unprofitable Relations of matters wonderfull why greatly liable to suspicion The Caution of the superstitious Heathens in receiving such stories noted Men most apt to be abused with such relations where Religion is concerned in them The excellent manner of relating wonders in Sacred Writ The conviction of an Enthusiast or a Superstitious person why greatly difficult Projectours almost in every Science Why so readily attended to The Philosophical study of Prodigies commended An acquiescence in the present dispensations of Providence an effectual remedy against curiosity IT might possibly be expected that this discourse should have touch'd more closely upon the occasion and have come to a more distinct view and particular examination of at least some of those strange relations which of late have been prest upon the faith of the Nation with so great a confidence and so troublesom an importunity An undertaking which I purposely declined looking at it as Needless Difficult and Unprofitable First As in it self Needless For besides that I think it hard to finde a faith that can swallow any such Camel-stories as many of them in all the circumstances with which they are swell'd out appear to be there are no relations in the world which we may with greater reason arrest upon suspicion of imposture then such as these are And that 1. Because of the ignorance of the greater part of their Attestours in natural Philosophy Now where men look upon an object strange and prodigious through so gross and thick a medium it is no trespass against charity to believe they sometimes report them beyond their proper and just