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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	work_n	work_v	world_n	448	4	4.4998	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52817	The signs of the times, or, VVonderful signs of wonderful times being a faithful collection and impartial relation of several signs and wonders, call'd properly prodigies, (together with some philosophical and theological descants upon them) which have been seen in the heavens, on the earth, and on the waters, as they have been testifyed by very credible hands, all of which have hapned within the compass of this last year 1680 : which may well be called another annus mirabilis, or wonderful year, wherein the Lord hath given us loud warnings to repent of our sins and return to him, that he may have mercy upon us / by C. N.	Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.	1681 (1681)	Wing N463; ESTC R32306	68,903	90

Musitian according to Davids Dedication to many of his Psalms and that he is about to play over some eminent Acts of Providence which he will mannage throughout with most excellent skill upon the Stage of the World even such curious Lessons though consisting of Discords which may prove sad cordoliums to the VVicked yet sweet Cordials to the Godly The second particular in this General Discourse is the Scene whereon the great God shews his marvelous Signs and Wonders and where they have their extraordinary scituation whereof we cannot have a better account from any better Hand than from the sweet singer of Israel Ps 135.6 VVhere after he had declared 1. Gods Goodness v. 3. Then 2. Gods Greatness v. 5. Yea greater than all Gods either Deputed as Magistrates Ps 82.1.6 Or Reputed as Idols Ps 115.4.1 Cor. 8.4 He comes to declare what a most free Agent this good and great God is v. 6. Doing whatever pleaseth him whereby he confuteth three sorts of the Truths Adversaries 1st The Stoicks that bind Gods Almighty Hands under a Fatal necessity as if God could do nothing but as second Causes do move and oblige him 2. The Epicureans who dotingly Dream that God called Actus purissimus is altogether Idle sitting in Heaven at his own ease and altogether unconcerned with the Affairs of this lower World which they say are managed by chance and fortune 3. The Ethnicks who confess God to be concerned in the greatest matters of this lowermost World but not with the least of them saying Non vacat exiguis Rebus Adesse Jovi Jove is not at leisure to be present at small matters David here doth Demonstrate the grossness of all those three mistakes saying God is always at work as John 5.17 and he works freely what he pleaseth Ps 115.3 and under no Constraint or Restraint no second cause can either help him or hinder him even the seeming Impediments he over-ruleth and making them serviceable to his own irresistible Will as Phaorah's Daughter is made to preserve Moses who was to Destroy Pharoah's Kingdom c. And lastly he nameth the three grand Stages or Theaters whereon God worketh what he willeth both his Ordinary and extraordinary works to wit Heaven Earth and Sea the great God is concern'd in all things that come to pass in all these parts of the visible World This leads me from the General to a particular Discourse of those mighty Signs Wonders and Prodigies which the great God hath very lately shewn to the World upon all those three Scenes or Stages And first in the Heavens this Mighty God Jehovah not Jove or Jupiter is declared to be the Maker of all Meteors Jerem. 10.13 Ps 135.7 whether they be Fiery Airy or VVatery and whether they be Ordinary or Extraordinary 1. Ordinary 't is the great God that causeth Vapours to ascend from the ends of the Earth Ps 135.7 And Jerem. 10.13 Those Vapours the Sun Moon and Stars exhaleth out of the Earth and Sea by the Ordinance of the Creator whereon those usual Meteors as Clouds either with Rain or without Thanders and the Rainbow c are made as on their proper matter This may be exemplified in the little World Man in whom Vapours are experienced to Ascend up from below unto the Brain and from thence again do Deseend in a Defluxion of Rheum down upon the Lungs c. Thus it is in the Great World as to the first common Meteor to wit Clouds which are moist Vapours dra●n up as is aforesaid into the middle Region where being by the coldness thereof condensed and congealed they so continue there until by the warmth of the Sun they come to be dissolved and turn'd into Rain Zanch. de Op r. Dii lib. 3. cap. 6. pag. 381. Hereupon they are called Gods Garden-Pat for watering Plants wherewith he duly watereth the wide Garden of the World Now this though Common is one of Gods mighty Sig s and Wonders that he should bind up such a vast weight of water in his Clouds which are nothing but Vapours knit together and so are Vessels much thinner than the Liquor contained in them 't is a mighty Wonder that the Clouds are not rent under them Job 26.8 And so to cause a Cataclysme or warer Spouts as Marriners call them to drown not only Ships at Sea but also the whole Globe of the Earth This wonderful work of God that such a Massy weight of VVater should be confin'd to a thin Cloud as if a strong man should be conjur'd into a slender Cobweb and there be kept Nolens Vole●s If well weighed would be sufficient to convince the greatest Atheist in the VVorld of an Omnipotent Deity no meer man can spread aloft the thinnest Curtain absque fulcris without some solid thing to uphold it Yet the great God spreadeth those thin Curtains the Clouds over the whole Face of the Firmament Job 25.9.36.29 such as have great Floods bound up sometimes in them as in a Garment Prov. ●0 4 Yet have they nothing but the fluid Air to sustain them there be also Clouds without water as well as with which seem to carry the less VVonder in them yet if we Consider that all Clouds are Gods Spunges as Zanchy that Divine Philosopher calleth them which are in time filled with the waters that are above the Firmament and the true reason why some Clouds do Rain upon the Earth and others doe not is because God doth not squeeze all those Spunges with his mighty Hand and thus God saith I will command the Clouds to Rain no Rain upon this or that place Isa 5.7 Those are Clouds without Rain Prov. 25.14 For God presseth them not and those which God squeezeth as man doth a Spunge he doth it not with all his might but gently that they may moderately drop upon the Earth to refresh it but not to Ruine it as was done to the Old VVorld when God opened the Cataracts of Heaven and wrung those Spunges hard upon them the Consideration hereof should bring man to the knowledge of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God Rom. 1.19 Job 38.37 Jer. 5.22 The second common Meteor is Thunder c. This is also Wonderful that Fire and Water should mingle in one Cloud and that Hard Stones according to the vulgar Opinion should come out of the midst of thin Vapours These are Wonders in Nature far beyond Humane Apprehension that one and the same Cloud should one while be an Aery Sea to powr down a whole Tide of VVater and another while even immediately be as some Aery Furnace which scattereth abroad flashes of Fire into all parts of the Earth astonishing the VVorld with the dreadful noise of that Eruption and that God should fetch Fire out of the midst of Water and hard Thunderbolts out of the midst of such a soft Exhalation as a Cloud is Hac sunt sane Tremenda atque admiranda no less to be Dreaded than Admired The third comman Wonder in Nature is

Impression which through his Angelical Nature he is able to make upon matter can do wonderful things to cheat the blind world as he did Pharaoh and the Aegyptians by his Vassals the Sorcerers But he cannot work such a Wonder as is a Miracle The Lending Power will never accommodate the Borrowing party with such a Power as may be prejudicial to his own holy and glorious Design The only wise Creator will never gratify his Creatures nay the worst of his Creatures such are all Sorcerers for any such end as either to obstruct his WORK or to cheat the World Hereupon Austin de Unit ate Feeles cap. 16. saith excellently That the pretended Miracles of his time were either figmenta mendacium Hominum aut Portenta fallacium Spirituum either the Forgeries of lying Men or the Portents of Deceitful Devils for a true Miracle is the work of an Infinite Power whether primarily or Secondarily performed and hence David saith That God only doth wondrous Things Ps 72.18 Indeed God somtimes useth men as moral Instruments but never as natural Causes in working VVonders which surpass the Power of Nature Hence also Nebuchadnezzar when God drove him from men by his own Courtiers and subjects and so had tam'd him and taken him a loop or link lower by making him graze among the Beasts himself becomes a Catholick Preacher to the VVorld publickly proclaiming the Great God to be the only Author of Signs and Wonders 'T is the Lord only that sheweth them And they are all His with an Emphasis and not only So but they are Rab Rabbin Great many and Magnificent as the word signifies Dan. 4.2 3.33 34 37. Mark how he enlargeth upon this point again and again and he calls God's great Acts towards him in his Expulsion from his Throne 1. SIGNS as they did signify Gods Wisdom Power and Justice to him and 2. VVONDERS as worthy to be Wondred at by him when yet in the Highest Ruffe of his Pride and Prosperity should have both a Vision and Execution of his Downfal from the Highest Pinacle of his Arch Triumphant Mark Nebuchadn hereupon celebrates God's Kingdom only had David handled this he had added as in his Hilled Gadol or great Gratulatory Psalm the 136. He doth often His Mercy endureth for ever which is the foot and burthen of the whole Song not as an idle tautologie or vain Repetition but as a most notable intimation of the Saints unsatisfiableness in praising GOD for his never-failing mercy his Covenant-mercy his special mercy in CHRIST who was the most signal Sign Isa 7.14 in and by whom God only worketh wondrous things Ps 72.17.18 Where David blesseth God for all the forementioned Benefits by the Lord Christ of whom his Son Solomon was but a Type hereof Nebuchadnezar was Ignorant However 't is admirable he could go thus far as to acknowledge the Lord Jehovah to be the true and wonder-working-God whereby he testified his Repentance in his admiring as in a Rapture the mighty and matchless power of God he was constrained to give God the Glory of all his wonderous Works hence some think he was truly and throughly Converted here seeing he falls so kindly under the mighty hand of God whereby as he penitently acknowledgeth those great Signs and Wonders were wrought concerning him that such a mighty Monarch as he was should be chased from his Kingdom yea and from among men and live among brute Beasts feeding upon Grass as they fed who had formerly fed on the choicest fare the chiefest Cates and Delicates in the World and that for 7 long years yea deprived of his Humane Understanding all this time oh that the proudest Potentates of the World would well ponder this wonderful Work and yet after all this be restored to his right Intellectuals and to his Royal Dignitys How well doth he stile them Gods great Signs and Wonders for who but God can look upon the proud and bring them low Job 40.11 12 13. God did abate his Pride and abase his Power to bring him to Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath a most powerful Eye both for Eversion as here and for Conversion as ●nk 22.61 and here probably also The whole work being a supernatural change both forward and backward outward and inward and every circumstance occasion manner degree and time c. seeming no less then a new Creation Again 3ly The Wonders of Gods working are either Ordinary or Extraordinary 1. Ordinary God often shews himself maximum in minimis the greatest Artist in the smalest matters not only in that miraculous plague of Lice made of the Dust upon the Land of Aegypt which so fainted under these poor Vermin armed with the power of God that they were forced to cry out This is the very Finger of GOD Exod. 8.17 18 19. wherein 't is very Admirable to observe how this Act of Omnipotentency in such base and vile Creatures as are Dust and Lice consounded the Imposture and Power of Jannes and Jambres 2 Tim. 3.8 9. yea and of the Devil their Master yet th● Great God was highly honored thereby for 't is said All th● dust of the Land was made Lice by Moses ver 17. then the Magicians had no matter lest them to try their Diabolical Art upon unless they could create Dust and suppose they had some Du●● left them for an Experiment yet though they stretch'd ou● their hands with Rods and did their utmost Endeavours The could not vers 18. They could neither Create Dust where there was none nor where there was some convert it into Lice Neither could these Magicians save their own Skins c. Thus it plainly Appeareth That the power and Providence of God extendeth even to the lowest and vilest things in the Creation and that God can after a Miraculous manner f●● the Greatest power either of Men or Devils therewith at 〈◊〉 Pleasure And this is Gods shewing himself the greatest Operator in the least of his Operations and not only I say in extraordinary but also even in ordinary Cases Indeed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eternal Power and God head is manifest and knowable in the whole Creation yea in the Decimo-Sexto's as well as in the Great Folio's thereof Every Creature hath Aliquid Dei aeque ac aliquid Nihili Something of God in it as well as something of Nothing otherwise it could not be said to be created out of Nothing by the Creator and many times we Admire that there should be more of Art and Activity in a Dwarf Bee or Ant than in a Giant or Elephant most great Souls are sometimes couch'd in most little Bodies Amd the truth is True and real Wonders are God's daily work upon which Account they may be called Ordinary as I shew in my Crown of a Christian upon that Book with Three leaves the Creation of God viz. Heaven Earth or Sea Psal 135.6 There be Wonders without number in all those Three Job 9.10 Such as the Wisest

when she looks most fully in a direct line upon the Sun then is she in the Full and most fully inlightned This is the great Duty Required to look vpon a Crucified Saviour Zech. 12.10 and Salvation in the Extent of it is in the former Scripture propounded as the Grand Wages of that work and Duty and that Universally to all Right Lookers both Jews and Gentiles The second Instance of a godly man desirous to see Signs is Gideon as Moses was the first both of them reckoned among Gods Renowned Worthies Heb. 11.20.32 This Gideon though but weak in Faith yet was faithful in weakness and therefore is he dignified with a Room in that Court-Roll of the most radiant Starrs in Scripture Horizon yet his Faith though true being weak required some Supporters hence he saith then shew me a Sign Judg. 6.17 This Sign Gideon sought not as that Adulterous and Evil Generation the Pharises c. did out of Curiosity and Incredulity but as Moses before him c. for farther Confirmation of his Faith concerning his call to so great a Work whereby he might be satisfied that it was God and not man or Devil that called him A good Cause a good Call and a good Conscience will make a good Courage and all are necessary to a Captain or Soldier Especially the Lord looked upon him as well liking his speech v. 14. vouchsafes him a Sign v. 21. signifying that the Midianites should be Destroyed without mans labour seeing Fire came out of the Rock as before Water had done Exod. 17.7 without any humane help to consume the Sacrifice therefore did Gideon erect an Altar to the Lord who had thus confirmed him not only by these Signs v. 17. but by two other Signs v. 36.37 and thus comforted him against his despondencies and called the name of his Altar Jehovah Shalom the Lord of Peace v. 23.24 O that this Inscription were upon all our Hearts as 2. Thess 3.16 The Lord of Peace give us peace always by all means this would answer all Doubts and advance Faith above Fear The sign of the Fleece Gideon desired to be doubled not out of Incredulity to tempt God but out of Humility to be supported under the sence of his own weakness and unsuitableness to so great an undertaking against which he found marvelous Relief in the double Wonder of the Fleece which intimated two things to him 1. Concerning Israel 2. Concerning Midian 1. As to Israel that was represented by the Fleece being sometimes wet with the Dew of Heaven and sometimes dry 2. As to Midian they had Fleeced Israel of all their good things and pull'd all the Wooll from off their backs as the Shearer in that Fleece had don to the poor Sheep turning him naked out of doors into the open Fields but now Gideon with the Lords help should fleece Midian the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon should do as much for them as they had done for Israel pay them home in their own Coyn and requite them to the full after the Law of retaliation hereby Gideons Faith weak at first did gradually grow strong by those confirming Signs so comes he in as a Candidate in that Apostolical Catalogue Heb 11.32 Amongst the highest Favourites in the Court of Heaven Besides those two Godly Men Moses and Gideon that desired confirming Signs there be many others to whom God vouchsafed Signs though undesired as the Tree of Life to Adam Gen. 3.22 The Fire of God to Abraham Gen. 15.17 The budding of the Rod to Aaron Num. 17.5 The Sun standing still to Joshuah Josh 10.13 And its running back to Hezekiah 2. Kings 20.8 9. Fiery Tongues to the Apostles Acts 2.3 4. A Draught of Fish to Peter John 21.6 A Star to the three Wise men Mat. 2.2.9 Dumbness to Zechariah Luke 1.20 and many other Signs to Believers Mark 16.17 18 20. Yet sometimes we find God forcing Signs even upon wicked men as upon that branded one Ahaz Isai 7.10.11.12.14 c. Though this was King Ahaz wicked with an accent even he shall see that while he was under the power of a malicious Devil yet hath he to do with a most gracious God who by a wonderful condeseension will needs give him a Sign 't is an unheard of vouchsafement to vouchsafe a Sign to such a notorious Unbeliever this is more than Christ would do to the Pharisees whom he calls a bastardly Brood for desiring a Sign as before Matt. 12.39 Ask a Sign either in the Depth c. Here was a fair offer to a most foul Sinner he might have had a sight of Heaven or of Hell for a Sign yet instead of an humble and thankful asking he sordidly answered tantamont I le ask no askings I lle try no Signs I know a trick worth two of that I 'le send to the Assyrians so help my self God may keep his Signs to himself I crave no such courtesy at his hands c. Did ever any branded Belialist or black-mouthed Bedlam speak worse to God than he in all this no wonder if God set a black brand upon him saying This is that Ahaz 2. Chron. 28.22 Yet notwithstanding all this ingratitude and provocation God of himself gave Israel a Sign Isa 7.14 A singular Sign a Sign both from above and from beneath inasmuch as this Immanuel born of a Virgin did joyn pure Heaven and base Earth together in his two Natures Again those Signs which the Scripture mentions are manifold as 1. Such as be meerly Natural Gen. 1.14 2. Praeternatural beside the power of Nature in her ordinary production such are Prodigies in Heaven and Monsters on Earth c. 3. Supernatural which are either Divine such as were the Miracles God wrought by the Prophets and Apostles or Diabolical as the Lying Wonders Deut. 13.2.3 2. Thess 2.9 and Rev. 13.13 As there be Natural Signs so there be Instituted Signs to wit the Sacraments which are call'd Signs and Seals of the Covenant Rom. 4.11 Moreover the Signs God shews to men are either ordinary or extraordinary commnnia aut Insolita Signa Except we see not common but unusual signs we will not believe John 4.48 We have a frequent sight of Natural Signs and of Artificial Signs the former hanging in the Heavens exposed to open view the latter hanging over every House almost in this great City yea and such signs as be significant indeed some Signs are significant ex primaria intentione instituentis purposely and primarily Instituted to signify something whether the Institutor be God or Man God is the only Institutor of all significant signs in Sacred things as he Instituted the two Sacraments under the Law and the two Sacraments under the Gospel other significant Signs or Ceremonies which are only mans Institution and never came into the mind of God Jer. 7.31 Nor out of the Mouth of God Deut. 4.1.2 ought justly to be exploded All Divine Worship must have Divine Warrant and Divine Institutions may not be mingled