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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

the Rain-Bow fixed upon a watery Cloud by the Reflection of the Sun upon it This is such a wonderful work of God that the very Heathens feigned it to be the Daughter of Thaumantias which signifies VVonderment This is a work top-full of VVonders witness 1st The beautiful Form and Fashion of it a Semi-Circle the ends whereof were never seen by any Mortal but as 't is terminated by the Horison 2ly The Various Colours it carrieth exceeding the splendour and livelyness of the deepest Dye in the World which have as some conceive their various Significations as the two grand Destructions of the Old World and of this New by Water and by Fire the watery colour of the Rain Bow signifying the former and its fiery colour the latter 3ly The several Prognosticks of it according to Scalage saying a morning Rain-bow portends Rain but an evening one fair weather 4. The Shape of it being that of a Bow therefore called the Rain-bow which yet never shooteth any man unless it be with Admiration Delight c. 5. The posture of it the Bent of the Bow is from the Earth and towards Heaven as if man were shooting at God and not God at man This Bow with both ends downwards and its back to Heaven must needs be nuntius faediris serenitatis an Emblem of Peace and a messenger of Mercy to mankind for he that shooteth holdeth the Back of his Bow always from him and this may be the Signification of its third to wit Green colour that is the merciful preservation of the VVorld betwixt those two grand Destructions of it signified by its watery and fiery colours aforesaid 6ly The unreadiness of it as to any Execution of Divine Displeasure David saith God hath bent his Bow and made his Arrow ready Ps 7.12.13 But here though the Bow seem bent yet we see no String neither do we either read of as Ambrose well observeth or behold any Arrow ordained for this Bow If he doth so at any time 't is as the Psalmist there tells us against Persecutors and not against his People The time would fail me to speak of the Wind both Tempestuous and VVhirlwinds whereof I have spoke something of it in my Crown of a Christian in Chapter of Meditation and of other Meteors in the Firmament that are ordinary products of Nature yet Marvelous Wonders in Nature as to mans Capacity and Apprehensions It shall suffice to say only this in General at this time which is no less a signal and singular Wonder that out of one and the same equal matter to wit out of those same Vapours which are exhaled out of the Earth and Water so many several and differing Meteors should be engendred by the Almighty Power and unsearchable VVisdom of God Come we now to those that are Extraordinary and confine our selves to this past year 1680. only which God hath made Annum Mirabilem a wonderful year as he did that past year 1660 also How those two famous years run in Paralel lines and yet how that Congruity hath also its Disparity is made manifest in the Application The 1st Sign from Heaven or Prodigy in the Heavens that this VVonder-working God shewed to the VVorld was according to my now modell'd method that prodigious Comet or Blazing-star seen all over Europe upon which I have Published for publick good a little stitcht Book of three sheets Entituled A Philosophical and Divine Discourse Blazoning upon this Blazing-Star unto which I must here refer the Reader for a distinct discerning of the Product Form Colour Motion Scituation and Signification or Probable Prognosticks c. Thereunto Here adding this little supplement at this time This last Comet in the year 1680. was so prodigious that the like hath not been seen for length and breadth of its Train this 800 years I have consulted Osiander's Epitome of the Centuries who indeed mentioneth a Comet of an unusual magnitude a little before the Death of Constantine the Great which he saith was exposed to publick view tanti principis obitum Destgnâsse as a Prognstoick of the period of so great and so good a Prince Cent. 4. Lib. 2. Cap. 25. pag. 214. And the same Author tells of another Comet of a prodigious greatness shooting his Dreadful Rays above the City Constantinople and reaching almost as he saith from Heaven to that City which was as he addeth to give warning of Gajan the Scythian and Arrian's Design to set that great City on Fire yet through the goodness of God at the prayers of his People in it that Hellish Plot as he sayth was most graciously prevented and that by an Apparition of an Host of Angels which terrified this Cursed Arian from his burning project See Cent. 5. Lib. 1. Cap. 19. Pag. 89. I would to God the same mercy may be shown to London for the prayers of many in it Gen. 18.32 Isay 65.8 The same Author also telleth of another Comet in the 6th Century which did portend the Overthrow of the Metropolis of Cilicia by an Earthquake and much more mischief done in the East Cent. 6. Lib. 1. Cap. 34. and of another Horrible one of an unusual Longitude in Justinian the Emperors time which fore-ran that horrible Butchery the Hunns made over most of Europe Cent. 6. Lib. 3. Cap. 9. in the year 557. after Christ But I do not find in my Reading any such prodigious Comet as to its Train save only that one which was the fore-runner of the Turkish Monarchy in the 6th Century and who knows but this paralel Blaze may likewise presage the Approach of the fifth Monarchy of our Dear Redeemer who will sooner or later take to himself his great power and Reign Rev. 11.17 He will certainly Divide the spoil with the strong Isa 53.12 He will not always be an underling in the World but will put in for his part which his Father gave him Ps 2.8 in despight of a strong Turk strong Pope and strong Potentates and a strong Devil who is the Master of them all for his Father will make all his Sons Foes his Footstool Ps 110.2 and Matth. 22.44 He will put down all power that is opposite to the power of this Prince of Glory 1. Cor. 15.24 and put them who now Crest it high against Christ into the fittest place for them to wit under Christs Fect T is beyond doubt that this present Comet put Rome into a strange Consternation oh pray pray pray that the Influence of it may consume all the dreggs of the Roman Church in all that B●asts Dominions as Keplerus foretold long ago should be the effect of that Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Leo a sign of the Fiery Trigon And the reason why such an Effect was expected may be this The various Returns of those eminent Trigons fall out very rarely in the World Acute Tychobrahe thus reckons them The first was under Enoch The second under Noah The third under Moses The fourth under Solamon The fifth

chiefly aimed at 2ly We do not find in our Case any seeking to this Apparition for that is Tantamount a Worshipping though there be no bowing and how far amounts holding Conference with Apparitions see above but yet it seems an higher step to obey their Commands especially such as are dissonant to the Law of Nature or Nations or Scripture which is not our Case neither doth this comport with the latter Instance though here 's a Divining Damsel yet not such an one as the Septuagints usually call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Devil spake out of their Bellys for which cause also the Hebrews call them Oboth or Bottles because the Bellys of those Women thus made use of by the Devil swelled as big as Bottles when they began to Prophesy 2ly Neither do we hear of any gain either to her self or to her Masters here as appeareth there 3ly Neither do we find any Disturbance given to Gods Worship under specious pretences here as is found there They that desire to know more of those Divining Intrigues let them consult Baldwins Cases of Conscience Lib. 3. Pag. 533. to 620. c. too long here so much as to abridge in this small Treatise and other Casuists I add this only 1st If the Death of any be foretold by the Devil we ought not to believe it as from him the Lyar God can Cross it 2ly If God permit it 't is to harden the superstitious Observers of it 3ly 't is enough Gods Word foretels that all shall fall out for the best to them that love God Rom. 8.28 So ail's welcome so far as Gods Word guideth us we walk safely but if we step farther into a By-way 't will lead us down into the Chambers of Death I Omit the strange Apparitiors at Pons Town in Tipperary in Ireland attested by 16 persons Eye Witnesses and Printed The last and latest of Land-Prodigies omitting many others that come not yet well proved to my Hand is the Death of 3 Tower-Lyons called Old Charls Queen and Duke which is the more Remarkable because we do not find scarce in a whole Age any Record of the Death of so much as one of those Royal Long Lived Creatures the Keeper whereof is so much obliged both by Loyalty and Advantage to preserve them much less of so many and that within few days as if they had conspired to march off together the more to amuse and amaze this Tripple Realm for every Kingdom one to Exemplify it in our English Chroniels though something like it is said to happen in King Richards Reign yet I cannot find a fit Paralel unto this strange Prodigy upon Record save only in Henry the sixths Reign Whereof Sir Richard Baker who is generally owned as an Impartial Chronicler of former Times giveth us this Account That in the 18th year of Henry the sixth all the Lyons in the Tower Dyed Bakers Chron. pag. 199. This Kings Reign was attended with many mischiefs betwixt him and the then Duke of York Henry the Fifth after he had Conquered France and kept his Court with incompatable Magnificence for some time then he Returns with his Queen into England who was delivered of a Son at Windsor called therefore Henry the 6. of Windsor upon whom at his Birth his Father spake Prophetically I Henry of Monmouth have gain'd much and shall remain but a short time but Henry of Windsor shall Reign long and loose all and acording to this Paternal Prophesy the Son first lost His All in France and after 2ly His All in England In this Henry the sixths time France Normandy Aquitain were all lost from the English and in England such were the bloody Contentions between the two Houses of York and Lancaster that ten several fierce Battels were fiercely fought between the two Factions whereof 5 were fought in Henry the sixths time The first at St. Albans in which Yorks prevailed the second at Black-Heath in which the Confederate Lords were Conquerors the third at Northampton in which Henry the sixth was again overthrown the fourth at Wakefield in which the King was Victorious the sixth at Towton in which the new Duke of York carried it who became thereby King Edward the IV. In whose time also five more several set Battels were fought upon the same Quarrel as first that at Exham secondly that at Banbury thirdly the Battel of Loose-Coats fourthly that in Barnet Fields and fifthly that at Tewxbury Thus even the White Rose was Dyed Red over and over again with the blood of many brave men and a Period was never put to this Contention twixt the White and Red Rose until that concluding Battel at Bosworth Fields in which the Plantaginets expired and both the Houses were after united in Henry the VII Rosse's History of the World pag. 534. c. and Dr. Prideaux's History of Successions in our own Land pag. 333. Who tells a memorable Story of those such Catching Times as he calls them of one Burdet a Mercer in Cheap side who jocularly said to his Son if he would ply his Book he should be Heir to the Crown meaning his own House which had the Crown for its Sign and had no Relation to the Crown of the Kingdom for this Jest the Man lost his Life assuredly an Honest Jury would not have given him such hard Measure God bless us from such Contentious and such catching Times which were presaged not only by the Death of the Tower Lyons as above but also by several other Prodigies as a Blazing Star Monstrous Births a prodigious C●●k out of the Sea at Portland crowing three times and turning his Head to the South North and West and Pauls Steeple was fired with Lightning See Ra●●es History of the World pag. 534. And Sir Richard Bakers Chronology of the same time all these Prodigies were Presages of sad future Calamities Enquiry Why must the Death of Lyons be made a Prodigy seeing they are M●r●● as other Beasts and Dye only in the common course of Nature Answer the first Consider in the general A Lyon 1st For his Majesty that sits enthroned in his looks 2ly For his Magnanimity as disdaining to go out of his stately pace though Danger pursue him Prov. 30. v. 30. 3ly For his Formidableness insomuch that when the Lyon Roareth all the Beasts Tremble Am. 3.8 and have not power to fly from him though they can out run him hence he is the Hyeroglyphick of Dominion and worthily as well as vulgarly is called the King of Beasts Hereupon the Fall of a Lyon is as the Fall of Abner the Fall of a Prince 2. Sam. 3.38 'T is looked on as a Fatal Fall the Death of a Lyon was the presage of Julian's death saith Ammianus Marcellinus Answer the second more specially as the living Lyon Resembleth Majesty Domineering according to Aesops Apologue over the Ass and the Fox in sharing the Prey they had joyntly caught in Hunting So the Dead Lyon representeth Majesty Deceased according to

Alciats Emblem and the Greek Epigram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thouth the Lyon while living be the Noblest of Beasts Prov. 30.30 yet when Dead this Noble Beast is exposed to the Scorn of the most weak and timorous Hares Hence arose the Hebrew Proverb that a living Dog with them the basest of Creatures was better than a Dead Lyon both as to Use and as to Essence Eccles 9.4 Importing that the meanest man Living is better than the greatest man Dead Answer the third The Death of a Tower Lyon is more portentous than the Death of many Lyons in the Wilds of Lybia whereof no notice would be taken but a Tower Lyon is the Darling as well as Emblem of Princes and the Delight as well as Wonder of the People that have been admitted to behold them and seeing they naturally live longer than the oldest of Men scarce any one Age brings Tidings of the Death of a Tower Lyon as before so carefully attended c. This occasions the general Opinion that such an Occurrence is a Fore-runner of some Fatality Answer the fourth How much more the Death of 3 Tower Lyons at once as if a Lyon Pestilence that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divine Thing had been sent to kill three Lyons at one blow this hardly finds a Paralel in History the strong Tower it self with all its high Walls deep Trenches brass Guns great Guards and warded Gates could not be a Tower of Defence to them or to any one them and if Tria had been Omnia here as it is in Philosophy the Tower had been left a Lyon-less Tower Sacred Story speaks of one Prodigy not altogether dissonant to this to wit Samson turned aside to see the Carcase of the Lyon and behold there was a Swarm of Bees and Honey in the Carcase Judg. 14.8 prodigiosum est saith Lovater quòd Meilificarunt Apes in Cadavere c. 'T was no less than a Prodigy that Bees should breed and make Honey so soon in such a place seeing they are naturally driven away by an ill Smell as abhorring all stinking things such as this Carcase must needs be upon its Putrefaction herein Pliny Columella Aelian Varro and all Naturalists do unanimously concurr Indeed some as Virgil Ovid c. do say Bees may breed in the Carcase of a Bullock raturally but never in the Carcase of a Lyon which hath a more foetid flesh and a more stinking smell however not in so short a time as was between Samsons Contract and the solemnizing of his Marriage It therefore only came to pass by the special Providence of God producing this Prodigy not only by a praeternatural but also by a Supernatural power Now that the Tower Lyons be dead though we had no hand in their Death as Samson had in his let us turn aside a little to view these Carcases as Samson did this and behold both the Congruity and Disparity of them As 1st God Bless us that no Swarms of those Bees of Babylon Isa 7.18 may breed out of their Carcases nor out of them whose names they bore to Sting us with their Fatal Stings And God bless us not only from those Honey-less Wasps and Dronish Robbers but also that the right Honey may be bred in the body of the superviving Lyon call'd Charles the II. and in him whose name he beareth 3ly Though we find no Honey in any of those 3 Carcases as Samson did in his one yet may we find such a Riddle in them which may puzzle and Non-Plus all the uncircumcised Philistins Judg. 14.12.14 Out of those Eaters may came forth Meat and out of the strong sweetness This Problem as many of Gods Providences is made up of contraries yet the aenigmatical Sentence seems to signify that it should come to pass the Philistins which ruled with rigour over the Israelites at that time should be subdued and eaten up by the Israelites and when they were most strong they should not damnify but accommodate the Hebrews The good Lord grant the same Priviledges to the Protestants over the Papists who have eaten us up as their Daily Bread with the like voracity as the Hungry devour Bread Ps 14.4 Yea those cruel Cannibals makes Flesh as well as Bread of poor Protestants and do as barbarously and brutishly worry them with open Mouth as the bloody Lyons do the helpess Sheep Ps 27.2 O that they may now stumble and fall in attempting it and both they and their Leviathan the Pope with his broken Head may be given as meat to the people Inhabiting the Wilderness Ps 74.13.14 Then would God unriddle how out of the grand Eater cometh Meat and out of the strong cometh Sweetness This Leads me to the third and last Scene or Theatre whereon God thews his Wonderful Signs to wit as in Heaven and on the Earth so upon the Waters As I do designedly omit many marvelous things mentioned in Forreign and Domestick Letters such as the Earth-quake at Malago which overturn'd their Religious Houses and put all Spain into a Fright c. And such as have lately hapned also in our Lands because they come not well Attested to make them enough Authentick in the foregoing Stage or Theatre so I must do in this last omitting many Stories and pitch first upon that which hath unquestionable Testimony of the Truth thereof to wit the Drying up of the River Wye in Wales between Radnorshire and Brecknock-shire where 't is near as broad as Thames at Brainford about a stones cast over and of a sierce Current yet on the 25th of January last at Lewysford it stop't its course and parted it self and became dry so that several persons walked over Dry-shod some gathered up Fishes for several Miles this continued for several Hours This is Attested for Truth by Mr. Probat High Sherriff of Radnorshire and Mrs. Jones whose letter hereof I had to assure me both Eye-Witnesses and it was also observed that the two Rivers I thou and Yrvon which fall into that River Wye were at the same time likewise suddenly dry but after a few hours flowed with more Violence and higher than usual and as my Letter addeth no natural Reason could be rendred hereof Now to exemplify this Prodigy by Paralel Instances from Sacred and Civil History 1st Satred Story saith that when God brake the Heads of the Dragon Satans sworn Sword-men and Pharoahs chief Captains and the Head of the grand Leviathan or Pharoah himself then did God also Divide the Sea and clave also the Fountains and the Flood Ps 74.13.14.15 Drying up mighty Rivers as Jordan Euphrates and the Red Sea which in respect of the Main Ocean was but a mighty River This the Angel of God Divided and dryed up for six hundred Thousand to pass over in Rank and File Exod 14.21.22 Ps 136.13 and 106.9 Gods Rebuke was upon the Waters clove them in twain and bound them up with his Swadling Band as easily as a Nurse doth her Infant Job 38.9 so that they

could neither wave nor swell nor flow but became as a firm Wall frozen into hard Ice on both sides of Israel Ps 78.13 Thus the fluid Waters were fixed and became as Stone Walls on each hand of them while they passed through with ease and safety This the Psalmist Wonders at and asks the Waters What ailed thee O thou Sea c. Ps 114.5 and thence he passeth to Jordan more Paralel to our Case asking what was the matter with you both that the one Fled and the other was Driven back can there be any natural Reason given or was 't the powerful presence of God that affrighted you into this Retrograde Run or Motion v. 7. This Instance sheweth we may many times ask Questions and yet neither doubt of the matter nor be ignorant of the Cause This more Paralel Case of the drying up Jordan Josh 3.13 The Waters of that River were cut off that is the Waters that came from above were cut off so as to stand still as on a Heap and the waters that were below according to their ordinary course ran away into the Dead Sea so the Channel was left Dry having no waters coming down from above to feed and fill it This was a wonderful Work of God and much admired by the Psalmist in his Ps 114. Now this Jordan was a compound of two Rivers Jor and Dan as our Welsh River was yet the Course of both the streams were stop't for some Hours so the Channel was dry though 't is true the Camp of Israel was not there with the Ark to pass over into Canaan The Chaldee Paraphrase Addeth the drying up of Arnon and Jabbok whereof see Num. 21.14 and Deut. 2.37 as Revel 16.12 mentions the drying up of Euphrates for the Kings of the East to pass over c. but leaving Sacred come we to Civil Story Our Famous Cambden Reports of another River in Merionith shire in Wales the River Dee that runneth through Pimble-Meer or Lake it mingles not her Streams with the Waters of the Lake though this be a great Marvel and hath also a good Moral to wit that we should not mingle the streams of our Affections with the puddle Water of Corrupt Company when carried headlong at unawares among them yet it is far short of our present Prodigy and the same Cambden relates how the River Ouse near Bedford in the last year of King Richard the II. stood still and ceased his Course so as the Channel remained dry for the space of three miles together Cambden Brit. pag. 399. which was then adjudged to signify the Revoltings of the Subjects from their Prince Bakers Chron. pag. 154.167 He being mislead by his Favorite Michael de-la-pool and other Sycophants did incurr the hatred of his People Prideaux Introduction pag. 324. In his time was the marvelous Parliament and that which wrought Wonders See Baker of his Reign Also in the Reign of Henry the VI. The same River Ouse on New-Years Day suddenly stood still and divided it self which as was conceived did portend the prodigious Broyls between the Houses of York and Lancaster see Bakers Chron. among the Casualties as he calls them of his Reign The like hapned in the year 1660. to the River Derwent near Darby which was dryed up upon Nov. the 29. for many miles and some hours so that the Mills stood the Boats were on ground the Fishes taken up upon the Sand by Children and men walked over dry shod This was the greater Prodigy not only because 't is a broad River and runs with a fierce and full Stream as Cambden Britt pag. 554. relateth but also because the Waters of the Sanctuary were dryed up soon after by the Silenting of some thousands of Orthodox Ministers As those Rivers returned all of them to their course again so the good Lord know us in our Wilderness and 〈◊〉 the Land of great Drought Hos 13.5 and make us again as a watered Garden whose Waters fail not Isa 58.11 That our Fleece as Giacons may not still be Dry. Judg. 6.39 but the Lord be as springs of Water to us 〈◊〉 all our fresh springs are in him Ps 87.7 an everflowing and overfl●●●ng Fountain of Grace and Comfort Were not my Book already swoln too bulky I might insist also upon the pr●●●gious Whale which was found lately in the River Wevner within 6 miles of Chichester 50 foot in length and 28 in thickness who broke off his own Tail with strugling and turn'd the River into Blood with his Blood an undoubted Prodigy for the Whale never breaks forth out of her beloved Ocean which is her peculiar Dominion into narrow Rivers but it presages Storms where such a thing hapneth Assuredly Jonah's was the greatest of Prodigies who ship'd him to the shore and in the mean time afforded him an Oratory a place to 〈◊〉 in Four Prodigious Wonders were concurring therein saith Mercer est That the Heat of the Whales Stomach did not Consume Jonah as it did other 〈◊〉 2ly That in so close a Prison he could both breath and live without the common use of Air and light 3ly That be was not choaked with the Stench of so fifthy a Jakes as the Whales Belly 4ly That he had his Senses as well as Life there to pour out such an excelient Prayer and Praise to God Jonah was the true Arion the Poets mention out of whose History Christ gathers the Mystery of his own Death Burial and Resurrection Jon. 〈◊〉 and 2.10 with Matt. 12.40 This great Sea-Monster that never useth to come near the Shore but Sports himself in the deep Waters Ps 104.26 yet when the Great God the chief Centurion commands him thither he must go and Vomit up Jonah upon dry Land He breaks the Head as well as Tail of this Monstrous Leviathan and gives him to be Meat to the People inhabiting the Wilderness Ps 74.14 Though no Mortal man can Ring him like an Hog or Rule him like a Bear Job 41.2 c. yet the Immortal God can and did so to Senacherib that crooked Leviathan Isa 27.1 37 29. and doth so both to the Great Turk who would Devour Europe and to the Great Pope who would destroy the Reformed Countrys Procopius tells of a great Whale in his Time that much Infested the Coasts of Constantinople and did much Mischief for fifty years together but at last was taken and tamed by slaughter though 30 Cubits long and ten bread Thus Jehovah will Take and Tame both Behemoth the Turk who Eats up men like Grass upon the Mountains Job 40.15 c. and Leviathan the Pope who Sports himself in his See to devour Protestants God will pull those 2 Kings of the Children of Pride out of their Seats though they have Infested the Church many fifty years and both Saddle and Bridle them Job 41.13.34 In due Time God will make this latter Leviathan to break his own Tail and let out his own Blood as that Colchester Whale did and God will break