those firy Spirits will put men upon great freedom of speech that which a very affecting dream will sometimes do to deliver themselves of those strange thoughts which upon such occasions will rise up within them Now 't is no wonder at all as the Philosopher saith if such kind of men being thus incited to speak very much and of very various things the Scenes of Fancy being so often shifted by these giddy vapors that they have some fortunate hits and true divinations That 't is only the forrein heat of these Vapors which excites these predictions appears probable in that every flatuous calefaction of the brain whence soever it arise is apt to make a man ecstatical to express it self in wonderful speeches and those often prophetical The vapors of wine meeting with some constitutions have strangely ap'd an Enthusiasm as appears from those Verses of the Poet upon occasion of the truly Iovial doings upon some of their idolatrous Festivals Invenies illic qui Nestoris ebibat annos Quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos There shall you find old men turn'd boies by wine Young Maids old Sibyls who by th' cup divine Accordingly in some Oracular places the Diviners used to excite the Prophetick faculty as they thought by a liberal dose of wine or some water which had a kind of inebriating property such hot and unwieldy vapors though excited by a feaver have made dying men so famous for their prophetical Essays in all Ages and Nations though they have been vainly thought as all Extraordinaries especially about the minds of men usually are of a more divine extraction And that prophetick fit which seiz'd the Pythia placed over some hollow cavern of the Earth was owing to the subtil and fiery spirit as Iamblicus calls it thence ascending her tender body and intoxicating of her though in soâ—ewhat a more violent maner then wine wâ—uld have done in so much as sometimes she dyed in the fit and sealing her Fancy already strongly possest with the extraordinary Sacredness of her place and office with wild conceits which she delivered in as wild a maner and this account of the pretended inspiration of the Pythia is favored by Strabo telling us that she expected the Oracular power being placed oveâ— the narrow mouth of the Sacred cavern and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from thence was carried forth an Enthusiastick vapor or spirit which excited the atent disposition to prophecy in her soul as the wind doth the Musical power of some well-tuned Organ And therefore I think Plutarch not so much out as commonly thought in his Treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the ceasing Oracles for so it should be rendered all not being silenced in his time nor long after when attributing their Silence in some formerly famous places to the languishing of that Enthusiastick Vapor which inspired the Pâ—ophetess the caverns as he conceives lying continually open being apt like exposed liquors to lose Spirits and to decay it their ancient vertues This imposture the Devil abused the world withal till the light of the Gospel and Philosophy made the fallacy notorious To return As for that mighty ardor whereby they are carried forth to deliver themselves it is perfectly a natural thing being but the impatience of that hot and nimble vapor of fermented Melancholy The Sibyls of old which Aristotle rightly judgeth inspired only by this fiery Spirit used often to mention those divine fires they felt themselves as they thought quickned and excited by which were only the Symptomes of this exalted humor of which the same Philosopher notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. it becomes even like boyling water when once sufficiently heated And that they are only these hot and restless Spirits arising out of the caverns of the body much of temper with those in the Pythia which inspire them appears in that we generally find them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius stiles the Preachers of Montanus his doctrine Prophets that talk without measure Their books and discourses are so voluminous as if they feared nothing more then the poor title of Minor Prophets witness the mighty bulk to which the Revelations of St. Brigid Drabitius and others swell into We may ever have Prophecies from these persons very good cheap Whereas when the Spirit of wisdom incited the holy men of old their words were weighed in a balance their discourses consequent their seasons of Prophecy few and chosen and their Doctrine precious as the gold of Ophir While I thus salve the strange Phoenomena about these Vulgar Prophets by the powers of Melancholy I intend not to deny but that the Devil who works by darkness as God by light may sometimes interpose and where he finds the Mind fitted by this distemper for him to work upon may to make the imposture more fine and subtil act it to some expressions beyond the bare capacities of this jugling humor as to speak languages to tell some things at distance as the certain coming of such a friend or Epileptick fit upon such a day or hour which the German Prophetess Christina often did It seems to have been the received opinion of the Ancient Iews that an high Melancholy or distraction was attended alway with an evil Spirit whence that speech of theâ—rs concerning our Savior He hath a Devil and is mad upon which Text Mr Mead tells us that they used to stile their Melancholici and Maniaci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And according to the strain of all the Jewish Scholiasts as Master Smith informs us by the Evil Spirit of Saul nothing else is meant but a Melancholy kind of Madness which made him Prophecy or speak distractedly and inconsistently and when the gentle aires and motions of Musick had dissipated these Melancholy vapors the Evil Spirit departed with them CHAP. VII Probable Arguments to prove all divine Prophecy now ceast The Cessation of Prophecy now not absolutely asserted and why Five reasons alledged to prove its cessat on probable A promise of Prophecy to any Age the greatest Security that it is not imposed upon by Pretenders to it No Promise of Prophecy made to the ends of the World The several ends Prophecy served to under the times of the Old and New Testament proved unserviceable tâ—â— any such ends now Why Prophecy not given now to comfort good men it affliction Why it exspired in the Jewish Church so long before our Saviors coming Several reasons alledged against the received Opinion of a Bath Kol succceding to Prophecy under the second Temple The Original of that speech of Strabo that Moses advanced him self by the promise of a Religion without Sacrifice or Prophecy guest at Such a Religion proved the felicity of this New Dispensation THE last Consideration which I shall superadd to disparage the saith of these Vulgar Prophecies is this It seems highly probable that the
image of the King and looks like Sterling so there are in Art in Nature in Religion the many instances of things that do only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carry a fair face bear a title and garb beyond their true and real value As there is a â—â—ue Masculine Rhetorick wherein the golden aples of some rich conceptions are set in the silver pictures of some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of desire expressions chosen and fitly set so there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the charm of some soft and siren words and periods which like a tinkling cimbal make a pretty sound in the ear for a time and rather inchant the mind then inform it In Nature also there are the real Diamonds and Angels of light and others which by Sophistry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are only transformed into their likeness and usurp their title Religion also through the Arts of evil men is forced to carry two differenâ— faces of things under the hood of one and the same name and outward appearance in which we find lying wonders fanâ—astical depths a knowledg falsly so called a Spirit of error and so false Prophecies disguised in the titles and images of the true It is indeed the great blessing promised to the times of the New Testament that we should be delivered from all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Targum stiles them Prophets of the spirit of a ly which should call men to the worship of Images and God hath fulfilled the same unto us there being now none of those lying Prophets among us that the minds of the Heathens were abused withall who used to erect some Idols themselves had devised telling the people they were the Images of such a star or constellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was made known to them by Prophecy Yet there are still left among us that there may be an exercise of Christian prudence as well as of other Virtues some Prophets of a ly which call men to a reverence of the images of their own busy Fancy some who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodoret of the Enthusiasts of his Age call the idle phantasms of their dreams prophetick visions Our present business therefore is to rub off the gilt of these shining vanities Supposed Prophecies and to discover the folly of that faith and affection with which they are so generally entertained and in order thereunto to lay down some characters of dictinction between real and pretending Prophets and to inquire as we can whether the Sun be quite gone down over the Prophets and the minds of men never visited now with any beams of Prophetick light so familiar in the former Ages of the World The Argument I know is as fruitful a field of imposture as the foâ—egoing and the persons to whom I oppose my self therein are men of a more exeâ—cised faith then understanding and there is nothing more reverenced by some and eâ—ploded by others then Prophecying and therefore I easily foresee that I shall like the candle praelucendo perire suffer greatly my self in the prepossest thoughts of the most while attempting to give light to others in so imposterous and litigious an Argument as this is But when bodies Politick have been often choked like Adrian with gâ—ats ruined by some occasions they despised and thought most beneath their caution Propheciâ—s and Enthusiasms among the rest and because if all men of more improved intellectuals should value themselves so far â—s never to stoop to a notice of those contemptible errors which the people are abused withall no body would be informed as no bodies sores cured if all should be nice I have the intentions and hopes of a publick service to ballance the prejudices of some severer persons But that which more effectually reconciled me to this attempt was a regard to the special sutableness thereof to the present Age and the great Affinity between this and the foregoing Argument The Age wherein our lot is fallen is an Age of Action and Expectation and in such times prophecies generally take confidence to become publick being then most grateful to men usually very impatient of uncertainties where they are hugely concerned Among the Jews we find Prophets and Oracles especially consulted in times of some publick distraction and Polybius tells us that when the Armies of the Romans and Carthaginians were ready every day to joyn battel every bodies mouth was full of Oracles and Prophecies Men upon such occasions are apt to believe as they affect and then to presage as they believe Besides 't is a time of improvement in all humane and divine knowledg and that happy day seems risen upon us to which God hath promised an increase of Knowledg Nature begins now to be studied more then Aristotle and men are resolved upon a Philosophy that bottoms not upon phancy but experience a Philosophy that they can prove and use not that which commenceth in faith and concludes in talk And considerate men are too much themselves now to be brought like bees to hive under any odd form of Opinion and party of men by the confused noise and dinn of Carnal reason the Spirit of God Superstition Reformation and the coming in of Popery Now while Wisdom seems thus to have hewn out her seven pillars and her house is going up so fast it is â— duty to assist her work by removing aâ—l the rubbish of Prodigies Vulgar Prophecieâ— and what ever Doctrine makes the minds of men soft and easy by teaching men to believe without evidence and so unfit to make a due judgment of things More-over 'T is a time wherein as 't is usual Folly is as busy as Wisdom Never greater talk of terrible Signs Revelations new-lights Prophecies and Visions in our own and other Kingdoms then now We have had â— Volumes of Prophecies and Visions lately tendred to the World and that by men of no common name and with a confidence I think beyond the examples of History For as many amongst our selves disbelieve the Writing of God though sealed with so many mighty signs martyrdoms accomplished predictions a resurrection from the dead and the attestation of millions of wise and good men so they protest their visions in the face of the Sun without any considerable signs and notwithstanding the contempt of all sober Christians and those contrary events whereby God hath frustrated the tokens of these lyars and made these Diviners mad And some of them sticâ— not to tell the World that by how much the â—carer that Great day of the Lord is the more evidently and familiarly doth he excite his Prophets and that they understand the frequent possessions Witchcrafts and fanatical Enthusiasms of the Quakers Satanicas esse praestigias quibus opera Dei obsuscare nituntur ut olim Jannes Jambres Mosi restitére to be the delusions of the Devil whereby they endeavor to obscure the works of God as Jannes and Jambres withstood
is seldom owned in them as the Author of the Evils foretold nor Repentance as the remedy * They frequently betray men by some ambiguous expression to the Evils they seem to warn them of * They commonly come forth and are most attended to in times of action and expectation and therefore most likely to be then invented * They are generally found as lines drawn by no rule to cross and thwart one another * The stile they are delivered in commonly wears the Devil's livery being so full of darkness and perplexity that it may serve to any interpretation * The knowledg they pretend to give is profitable to no great end whereas all the gifts of the Spirit are bestowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to some common benefit * They are generally delivered in such affected barbarisms halting meeter fantastical pictures and emblems which carry nothing of that grace and majesty which attends the breathings of the true Spirit of Prophecy in Scripture * Events are oft foretold in them without those circumstances of time place persons and the like which might assure the Events to be as well foreseen as foretold when they come to pass * The matter 's foretold in them are cheap and trivial and such as it were infinitely better for men not to know * The pretended Visions often monstrous beyond the fictions of Bedlam the stile fluttering and uneven like the heated spirits which conduct it In short Let but any wise man read over the Prophecies of Scripture and then those of Merlin or Nostredame and I believe he will scarce need an Argument to perswade him that they were never both inspired by the same Spirit But there are two things of more especial note in these Vulgar Prophecies which are the Characters of Vanity 1. Those Poetical numbers in which they are frequently delivered For whereas all the great Prophets of God delivered themselves in a natural and unforc'd order of words the far greater part of these pretended Oracles of elder and later times are delivered in Verse the better to inchant the fancies of the people and to become observable for an Oracle in Verse at once commands and courts the Soul to a regard thereof The Devil's Oracles of old were so generally clothed in numbers and those enamel'd with all the curiosities of art that when they became about the times of Plutarch more familiar and simple it was so much observed that he wrote a Dâ—scourse upon the occasion intitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why the Pythia doth not now as heretofore use Poetry in her Oracular Speeches To satisfie which Qâ—estion among other things he tells his Reader That God had now removed from his Oracles Poetry and variety of dialect and circumlocution and obscurity and ordered them to speak to those which counsuâ—t them as Kings to their People and Masters to their Scholars in language intelligible and perswasive But this rather shews the knot then unties it The true Reason of this change of language was I conceive either because men began to suspect that where there was so much of man appearing in the Oracle there could not be much of God and that Inspiration is too hot and active a thing to move the sober and cool pace of a Poem or else because the tempers of men were grown more sedate their minds discourses not so turgent and ecstatical as heretofore or because he saw the clouds began to break and God addrest him to men in more natural and familiar ways and therefore the Devil who would never be out of fashion came nearer to the minds of men and laid aside the state and solemnity he formerly spake to them with Or perhaps because the true Oracles of God delivered in more easie and neglected language began to lie more exposed to the common view and he would not have his to differ from them but to imitate them There is that coolness and curiousness in a Verse which speaks it greatly unsuitable to the vehemence and seriousness of the Prophetick Spirit It useth to beget transports of mind which cannot bear the slowness and nicety of a Poem for as common and quotidian thoughts are beneath the grace of a Verse so great and vehement are above the straits thereof they are impatient of borrowing feet that are fit to fly And therefore Tullâ— enters this judicious exception against the Cibylline Oracles of his time that they weâ—e delivered in Verses and many of those Acrosticks and caâ—ried the evident tokens of art and contrivance and therefore saith he magis artis diligentiae erant quam incitationis motus they were rather the issue of Art and diligence then Enthusiasm and divine motion Nor is the Exception entred by a late learned Writer against this Exception of Tully That the Book of Job is Poetical and some of the Psalms Acrosticks of any great moment those writings being inspired by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghosâ— as the Iews distinguish a more gentle and easie afflatus that was still and sedate and approach'd very near to the more rational and divine actings of a wel-disposed mind Whereas the motions of the Prophetick Spirit strictly so called are quick and vehement and such as the slow feet of a Verse cannot hold pace withal And as for the Poetry in those Books it is ratheâ— in the phrase and matter of them then in the measure For if there be any set numbeâ—s observed in them they are generally so mysteriously couch'd that none of the learned have been able yet to make any certain report of them And therefore upon this score I should make no great doubt to throw out the vast rabble of rhyming clinching versing Prophets as persons that tell the worst lies in the best maner Another thing which proclaims the Vanity of these Vulgar Prophecies is the circumstance of time with which they are generally delivered For either they prefix no time at all or a very long period thereof to be accomplish'd in whereby they can minister neither to the honor of God nor the good of man For they can give no testimony to his Providence or Prescience because they will be thought to be fulfilled by chance or the Prophecy because long ago delivered will be forgotten and the Event when it comes be thought to have stood in no relation at all to the Prophecy and therefore it may perhaps by the singularity thereof beget wonder in men but not piety Nor can any man be warned by them to avoid an Evil which may come for ought he knows not till his head be laid nor can they give check to the sins of the time for men will be ready to say like the scorners in the Prophet The days are prolonged and every Vision faileth Nor if the Prophecy fail shall the Prophet be alive to bear the shame of his impostures The condition of those Prophecies in sacred Writ which take Ages to be accomplish'd in is quite diffeâ—ent
A DISCOURSE Concerning Vulgar Prophecies WHEREIN The Vanity of receiving them as the certain Indications of any future Event is discovered And some CHARACTERS of Distinction between true and pretending Prophets are laid down By JOHN SPENCER B. D. ISAI 44. 24 25. I am the Lord that stretcheth forth the Heavens alone that frustrateth the tokens of the Lyars and maketh Diviners mad EZEK 13. 9. My hand shall be upon the Prophets that see Vanity and that divine Lies they shall not be in the Assembly of my People LONDON Printed by I. Field for Timothy Garthwait at the Kings head in S. Pauls Church-yard 1665. C THE PREFACE THe Soul of Man was â—â—de for intimacy and converse with God and therefore in a tacit sense thereof is continually reaching and aspiring after it But Lust and Pride having blinded its Eye it is apt to affect and seek it in fond and fantastick ways Whereas good men are as Antoninus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 become familiar with God by holy practices by profound Humility by abstractions from the World and Lust Men have conceited it is procured and maintained by going off from Reason by Raptures Visions Prophecies Enthusiasms hot and vigorous impressions of spirit and have verily thought as the Ancient Heathens by their Prophets that they are scarce ever full of God till they are half beside themselves And therefore the Lives of the Romish Saints are stuffed out with perpetual Stories of such things as these which do but render them â—o the contempt of men that have a true and sober Notion of Religion In confidence of this conceit such numbers of Devoto's in all Times have pretended Enthusiasm and extraordinary illapse from Heaven though to different ends and purposes according as a different habit of mind or body and some mutable circumstances of the Age or course of life might determine an hot Humor and busie Fancy for it is little else to â—xert it self Among the many giddy Fancies and Errors of the late Times bred like the Worms in the Manna out of the Body of our corrupted Government and Discipline this was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaâ—ing imposture That the true Seculum Spiritus Sancti was now coming on upon the World wherein the immediate Teachings of God should antiquate the more dead anâ— obscure Teachings of the Gospel as those did the more weak and cloudy Instructions of the Law that the Minds of Holy Men should conceive like the Virgin Mary by the sole overshadowings of the Holy Ghost without any Assistances from Man or Humane Literature That Men should be autorized and assisted to the due performance of the Duties of publick Preaching and Praying by the incitements of God upon the place That God was about no new Work but his Secrets were still made known unto the Faithful That the mighty impressions and propensions upon the spirits of the Faithful was an interpretative Voice from Heaven a kind of Bath-Col to supply the defect of Scripture-Prophecy in Dispensations more dark and aenigmatical Whence it came to pass that every morbid heat of Passion and blind Zeal was christened by the name of an Ignis sacer the sacred impress and discovery of the Holy Ghost and every crazy Fancy and Dream dub'd a Prophetick Vision Now as Storms and Tempests at Sea though they prove the Evils of many a private man yet are the good things of Catholick Nature because serving as a kind of natural Exercise to keep that vast Body of Waters from putrefaction Thus howsoever the bold Pretences to Revelations Prophecy and a greater intimacy with the Divine Spirit proved the great Evils of those particular Times causing many weaker vessels especially to make shipwrack of Conscience and a sound Mind and betrayed them to gross and shameful Notions in Religion and Policy yet to the Church of God in general this hath proved the happy issue of this Ignis fatuus of Enthusiasm in all the expresses thereof even so effectual a Discovery of it both iâ— its Effects those bogs of Sedition Blasphemy Profaneness Giddiness it leads into and in its Cause onely a natural fâ—rvor and pregnancy of spirit iâ— some more refined and an heated Melancholy in other grosser Enthusiasts then hath been formerly made and such as might effectually secure the Person that can do more then believe from being easily abused by such shining Vanities as any pretended Enthusiasms make a proffer of So that the present Undertaking to lay forth the impostures wrapt up in this most famoâ—us instance of Enthusiasm supposed Prophecy may seem to have nothing to justifie it but an honest intention Especially considering thaâ— there are Penal Statutes provided to prevent the spreading of Seditious Prophecies by the Severities of which those may be whipt into their wits whom the Physick of an Argument cannot cure of their Prophetick Frenzies These Considerations would easily have perswaded me to have spared the Reader and my self a further trouble but that I saw so great an affinity between the present and precedent Subject that the Discourses upon both would like both the feet derive a mutual strength and assurance upon each other and that the Prophecies which are the issues of an hot head and disturbed imagination are but the one half of those which abuse the Faith of the People I considered withal that Prophecy is the most obstinate piece of Enthusiasm having our innate Curiosity and an Experience as great as Prodigies to make it considerable Besides while good Laws are the best Security of the Peace sober Principles laid in the Minds of the People are the best Security of the Laws A DISCOURSE Of the Vanity of VULGAR PROPHECIES CHAP. I. Some general accounts given of the Argument Counterfeits in Art Nature and Religion False prophecy one instance of them What kind of false Prophets the times of the New Testament are freed from The miscarriage of States oft by occasions contemptible noted The present argument sutable to the age because an age of action of intellectual improvement and yet in many of Enthusiasm Several confident pretenders to prophecy of late taken notice of The affinity between Prodigies and Prophecies in the general â—ends of both Prophecies of evil consequence in States and why Our Nation extremely inclined toward them in former times The ancient Ethnick Statesmen how they secured themselves against the prophetick humor of the people Judges of Prophecy in Plato who The Sibylline Oracles of what use among the Romans The Opinions the ancients had of Prophecy couched in the fable of Teresia Religion a great sufferer by them in the Practise Credit Doctrine and Foundation thereof These noted prejudicial to the mind and why And to common life Two examples to evince that taken notice of Prophecies as universally attended to as Prodigies amongst Heathens Jews Christians with a threefold account thereof THE hypocrisies of things are as familiar as those of men for as there is a great deal of reprobate Silver which carries the
pretends from God and to conclude all pro and con in a Nation about matters referring to the Gods and Religion Accordingly the ancient law-givers Numa Scipio Lycurgus Lysistratus Sertorius and the rest called their laws Oracles and the ten tables pretended from God as well as the two And Tully advised the secret custody of the Sibylline Oracles Valeantque saith he ad deponendas potius quam ad suscipiendas novas religiones thus some subtil men among the Iews to accord the fierce disputes between the School of Hillel and Schammai invented the story of a Bath Kol the lowest degree of prophecy according to them a voice from heaven saying Et horum illorum verba sunt verba Dei viventis But when the laws of God will not warrant us to tell a ly for his honor much less for our interest it is an instance of the piety and policy of the State to enact severe laws against persons of so prostitute a Conscience as to encourage a sedition by any pretended prophecy that so the just reverence of Divine prophecy may be secured and Faction may not use those Arts to disturb which Honesty dare not to secure the common peace 2. Vulgar Prophecies have as malign an influence upon Religion In the practice thereof for in an Opinion of such things the thoughts of some men are wholy entertained with enquiries where will God be next and their great question is Watchman what of the night what news of things as yet in the dark and out of view the work of the day scarce ever aproacheth their thoughts the great sign with them of a familiar acquaintance with God is wheâ— he is continually whispering news in mens ears and making them intimate to his secrets and no man shall be thought a spiritual preacher by them but he that can loose the seals of the Apocalyptick visions In the interim by such fond thoughts and curiosities the minds of men are made vain and trifling their spirits too subtil and airy to fix upon a serious thing and while their eies are thus at the ends of the Earth they neglect to heeâ— their way and become like silly birds but the fairer mark for the Fowler by standing thus at gaze And as great a sufferer by such things is Religion in the Reputation thereof for when subtil men shall see us like the ancient Egyptians inshrine every Ape give reverence to every vain person and clouted rhime which may ape the gestures and stile of a prophet or prophecy they will be ready to conclude Religion a meer Systeme of phantasms inexplicable impressions and a tutoring of men to a faith of contradâ—ctions or meer imaginations And all the Devoto's in the world shall be thought a Society of easy men that can say much and prove nothing and that what was falsly â—aid of the Iews of old give worship to an Asses head to the idle Visions of their own or other mens heads as soft and ignorant as theirs Besides an easy faith of such Vulgar Prophecies as of divine impression doth greatly prejudice Religion in the Doctrine thereof For men will readily conclude him a Man of God and that the Word of the Lord is with him be his Doctrine what it will that seems to tell them things to come the reason why the Seducers of greatest name in Story have pretended Prophecy The Church of Rome proves her self the Temple of the Living God and Gods presence with her by the Voice of his Oracles heard therein She hath she tells us the Spirit of Prophecy called the Testimony of Iesus to bear witness to her Doctrine discipline and worship and to this purpose gives us in a list of her Prophets but most of them women and of their wonderful predictions and challengeth us to instance any such parallel examples To whom we return We are not careful to answer thee in this matter while the house of God with us is built upon the foundation of the true Prophets and Apostles it will not need daubing with any such untempered mortar as Vulgar Prophecies are to give strength or beauty thereunto But Religion is a far greater sufferer by such Spurious Visions and Prophecies in the foundation thereof that Sure Word of Prophecy upon which it bottoms There can hardly be a more subtil way invented to sink the value and credit of all divine prophecies and illapses then the multitude of those tinsil Enthusiasms whâ—h are in the World Men will quickly grow coy and loth to trust themselves wâ—th a Revelation when they see so much imposture breaking in upon the world that usurps that name The Ethnick world had been for many ages imposed upon by Enthusiasms Dreams Oracles Prophecies Apparitions of the Gods till Socrates in a discovery of the Vanity of them called men to an use of judgment and taught them to entertain no doctrine without or against apparent reason And the many abuses formerly put upon them made them no only readily entertain his doctrine but so prejudiced them against the very air of a Revelation that as the Jewish masters were perpetually demanding of signs so the Gentile Philosophers Demonstrations of the first preachers of the Gospel and upbraiding them that their Doctrine was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a paradoxical doctrine and altogether impossible to be demonstrated And amongst our selves while some must have an Enthusiasm in all the great turns of life and must be fed like the Patriarchs with Visions and Prophecy others seeing the imposâ—ures wrapt up in them hate such light meat and begin to look upon a Revelation as a matter un-intelligible both in the maner of conveyance and the way of discovery and discrimination and to think no man can answer the taking up of any Opinion upon the credit of a prophetick testimony to his cool and advised thoughts But if the more fortunate credulity and simplicity of the persons to whom these Visions and prophetick Raptures happen make them impregnable by a temptation to any such subtil Atheism yet still Scripture is disparaged while the affections of men are divided between an old Prophecy and a new and that sickly humor in some men of longing after somewhat new in Religion is fed mens gadding Fancies are gratified and Religion is exposed to the danger of being evaporated into air and rapture 3. These pretended Prophecies do as much usurp upon the mind and understanding because instructing both Deliverers and Receivers onely to a bold and forward Faith For they that deliver them presume it were not to believe but to dispute if they should like Gideon desire a sign of God that it is he indeed that talketh with them these impressions they conceive are both writing and seal to themselves and proclaim by their own mighty force and vivacity that they are set on by a divine hand the mind of man say they under the Divine Visitations is onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to attend in an humble
occurrence in their Writings are a sufficient assurance Particularly the Eastern Nations were so mad upon Divination that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are full of the East seems used proverbially by the Prophet to set forth that mighty passion with which the Iews were carried after Divination and the knowledg of Futurities And with how easie a Faith the Iews used to meet any pretenders to Prophecy though calling them to the most open defiance of Reason and Religion Idolatry the Writings of the Old Testament will sufficiently resolve us And Christians though these Vulgar Prophecies have been proved by an infinite Experience a dead catch devoid of the life of truth and perspicuity stoop as greedily to them when ever thrown before them as if they were all Oracle For they easily believe no man to be so projectedly Atheistical as to intitle God to the Visions of his own brain not considering that the spirit of heated Melancholy may inspire these Prophets and abuse them with some vigorous impressions as much as they do other men Now it cannot but seem strange to our first thoughts that while all other Sects and impostures suited to the present gusto of the people have had their peculiar times and places of acceptance and the Wheel of Fortune as it is called hath gone over them all and crush'd them in the dust Enthusiasts and pretences to Prophecy should prove an obstinate cheat which all Ages and Nations have been thus gull'd withal especially considering that the hiding of Events from us is so great a security to the quiet of our minds and felicities are always greater and Evils because they then afflict us but once the lighter which do surprize us This so strange and catholick a Vanity must determine our Inquiries after some catholick and immutable Causes in humane Nature which may give us some probable account thereof They are I conceive especially these three 1. A catholick presumption of the singular readiness of God to communicate with Man especially if a more refined person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and separate from all the ways of the people as the Masters say a Prophet must be This perswasion may grow either from a kind of tacit sense in the Soul that it was made for converse with God to refer to him to derive light and law from him A remembrance of which birthright of the Soul remained a while in the more simple and innocent years of the World in that frequent intercourse between God and Man by the mission of Angels vouchsafing of divine Visions and Prophecies immediate Oracles and that administration of civil affairs in the Iewish Kingdom by the immediate direction of God himself Or else which is more explicable it might possibly arise from a fantastical measure of goodness in God Men have thought it could not stand with the goodness of God to suppose him reserved and to leave them in the dark in some very doubtful and perplexed circumstances of life and therefore si Dii sint divinatio est was thought by Tully and others a very natural consequence And a late Writer to prove Prophecy not yet ceased placeth this in the front of his demonstrations so he calls them the eternal duration of the Divine Goodness and Bounty which will oblige him saith he to as free a communication of this prophetick light now as in the years of old and therefore concludes his Argument with a brand upon the inexcusable wickedness and rashness of those men who would have this Fountain of Divine Grace dried up while denying Prophecy But who art thou O vain man that wilt thus mete out the Heavens with thy span prefer thy short thoughts of what is fit and good the measures of infinite Bounty and Goodness Doth not the Papist conclude an infallible spirit in the Church from the same topick the Enthusiast doth a prophetical spirit therein even because God's goodness will not permit him to withhold so great a Blessing Certainly if God's goodness prove the spirit of Prophecy to be at all in the Church it will prove it also as plentifully poured out now as in the primitive Times God being as rich in goodness now as then 2. Opinions of this World vast and unmeasured is another great support of the credit of Vulgar Prophecies Men in all times have been apt to value the concerns of this World amiss to think persons and affairs hold the same place in the thoughts of God as of a man and could not imagine that what was a great reality to their inchanted minds was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Fancy in the account of Heaven and therefore easily conceived that all Events of greater note came with observation and had the harbinger of a Prodigy or Prophecy to run before and give notice when ever they are coming after This Vulgar Judgment of things drew forth that speech from the Roman Historian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It hath often occurred to my thoughts as a Wonder that when the City of Byzantium hath risen so exceedingly that no City besides can vie fortunes or greatness with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Prophecy was ever given our Ancestors from the Gods of its singular felicities and increase And my thoughts as he goes on oft running upon this strange instance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having turned over many Volumes of History and Collections of Oracles scarce at last have I light upon an Oracle of Sibylla Erythrea which seems to carry some prophetick ayrs of the succeeding grandeur of this City But yet after a full recital of the Oracle he concludes as he had reason so loose and general the words are If the Oracle shall seem to any one to speak a different sense let him take to it if he please 3. There is in the minds of men an infinite thirst after the knowledg of Futurities What purchase would be thought by many men too great for the knowledg of such things as these How long such a King shall reign who shall succeed to the Throne when Antichrist shall fall how long they shall live whom they shall marry what shall be the issue of such a War when such a cloud of affliction shall go off from their Tabernacle this thirst made the Religion of the Gentiles that thought there was nothing beyond the Horizon of sense almost nothing but a continued Divination an unwearied pursuit of this knowledg in Oracles in Omens in Prophecies in Prodigies in Auguries in the Signs of Heaven in the Guts of the Sacrifice and the like and so far befooled them that they oft preferred the ravings of a mad-man the chirpings of a Bird the babble of an Astrologer and the Dreams of an old woman to greater veneration then the words of the wise and made the smoke of his house appear a better Oracle then the man of counsel that dwelt in it And an impatience of the ignorance of things to come
fooled the Iews as well as the Gentiles out of their Reason and Religion both at once tempting them to ask counsel at their stocks and to seek to their Staff to declare futurities unto them Amongst our selves a like affection for this knowledg betrays so many men to such Opinions of Astrologers Fortune-tellers the predictions of Enthusiasts and men upon a death-bed Look as those gross vapors which while heâ—e below are of no name and consideration but as soon as they mount the Heavens and carry light and fire with them draw the eyes of men upon them and are thought Divine presages Thus those persons whose grossness and dulness in all matters referring to Religion Learning or common life rendred them to the neglect or pity of sober men as soon as that black humor in them takes fire and the men seem to speak from Heaven and to carry a prophetick light with them they presently become considerable are advanced the common Subjects of Discourse their Prophecies are studied more then the Bible and men wonder to see how little those fools-bolts mist of the mark they were level'd unto Now the teeth of men have thus water'd for this forbidden fruit the knowledg of things to come partly from a weakness and childishness of temper whereby they cannot relish and digest the strong meat of substantial Doctrine and solid argument partly from some present uneasiness of condition the duration whereof looks like an Eternity to their short spirits while they know no end thereof partly in a vain hope that according as a good or an evil is prophesied concerning them so their diligence may be applied to promote it or prevent it In consideration of all the premises I have applied my self with the greater seriousness to sink the reputation of those pretending Prophecies which so much ingross the studies and affections of many men and to evince that pretenders to Predictions now are in all likelihood Prophets onely of the deceit of their own heart and that none of their Prophecies are to be attended to as the certain indications of a future time CHAP. II. The Vanity of Vulgar Prophecies detected from the unworthiness of the Pretenders to them All things and Persons thought by the Heathens to partake somewhat of a Prophetick Power Wisdom onely excluded by them from any share in that gift The Perswasion too much abetted by some Christians To reprehend which the first Consideration is proposed That Prophetick Maxim That Prophecy rests not but upon a wise a valiant and a rich man how understood by the Modern Jews A conjecture concerning the Reason of it in their sense How understood by the more Ancient Jews shewn at large from their Writings God's Prophets never mad in a Prophetick fit Wise-men an ancient addition of the Prophets the title usurped by the Ancient Philosophers and Magicians Jews Christians and Heathens required Sanctity in order to true Prophecy None born Prophets of the Jews and why Our pretended Prophets largely proved devoid of all true Prophetical qualifications and therefore not creditable The Church of Rome why so fruitful in such Prophets HOw much a fond affection for Prophecy had blinded the Minds of the Ethnick World appears by their conceiting the Prophetick light as much diffused as the natural and that as every thing did according to its measure participate of the Goodness so of the Prescience of God They regarded the whole World and all the parts thereof but as so many softer Oracles not a Star or Comet in the Firmament not a Monster on Earth not a Staff in the Wood not a Gut in the Sacrifice not a Line in the Hand but was thought prophetical The Earth was thought pregnant with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Prophetick efflux and most Divine Spirit able to inspire the Pythia which stood over it The Souls of all men were thought continually uttering some softer voices of Prophecy but could not be heard till a Dream or an Ecstacy or a Frenzy had hush'd the clamors of an obstreperous Reason and therefore even persons which could not speak sense yet were presumed able to speak a Prophecy In short every thing was thought pregnant with some Presage but onely Reason and the Mind that had wisdom for as to that their Doctrine was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortal wisdom stylo novo corrupt Reason diverts and extinguisheth that Enthuusiasm which would otherwise rise upon the Soul And I am sorry to see that amidst all this light which falls upon us from Heaven men should yet be so little awakened out of the Dreams of Gentilism as to think Divination almost as familiar a thing as the Heathens did anâ— that while we profess Miracles the Seal of Faith and Prophecy the Rule and Prophet the great title of the Lord thereof we should be so lavish of these sacred names as to throw them away upon every prodigy which our Philosophy cannot Salve and should still conceit a monster a Comet a great wind the falling of the salt or the tingling of the ears as prophetical as they did and profane the sacred title of prophecy by bestowing it upon the crazy fancies of every idle visionist and be ready to call him a Prophet that hath scarce reason or morality enough to intitle him Man That this is no scandal may in part appear from the fore-going Treatise but will more fully by what time we dismiss our first Consideration to reprehend the vanity of receiving these Vulgar Prophecies as Gods signs of the condition of a future time which is this The Prophets which deliver them are generally devoid of all the Prophetick qualifications necessary to conciliate reverence to their Persons and Prophecies What these are we may best learn from the Jewish Masters now with them 't is a ruling Maxim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prophecy rests not but upon a wise a valiant and a rich man where by the Wise man they understand a Man of prudence and well practiced especially in their Cabbalistical and traditional learning in great price with them the other words they expound in the rigid anâ— usual sense and meaning of them because observing in Scripture so much courage attending the prophetick Spirit and generally great riches excepting say they in tâ—e instances of Moses Samuel Amos and Iona who yet did not conflict with extreme necessities nor yet I think any of the Prophets except in a time of some common calamity when their straiâ—s and indigencies were rather a testimony to their office then a scandal But I think the most rational account that can be given of this Maxim thus expounded is this The greatest assurances which Faith can require in the Prophet himself are these two that he appear a person not apt to be deceived himself by taking the impression of a strong Fancy for the hand of God upon him which therefore that first requisite of wisdom secures him from the Suspicion of
sed homines virtute sanctitate ad miraculum usque potentes quasi Gygantes for which he gives several reasons It hath been the acknowledged doctrine both of Iews Christians yea Heathens that God never sets up a prophetick light but in golden candle-sticks persons of most refined minds and maners Amongst the Jews it obtained so much that Maimonides tells us that hitherto there was never the man that would say that God did cause the Divine Majesty to dwell in a bad man but then only when he had reformed his life nay so assâ—r'd were they in this Doctrine that the same Master tells us elsewhere that if a prophet arise and shew them a sign or a wonder yet they believe him not if not found to have walked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the waies of prophecy in holiness and separation from the world in the study of Wisdom c And as much was this doctrine subscribed unto by the Christians Origen takes notice that the Prophets God ever spake by were eminent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the inimitable sanctity and incomparable settledness of life and maners and many more besides himself cited by a Modern writer concerning Prophecy And the very Heathens thought the Divine Majesty did so hate to touch any unclean thing that the prophetick illapses could never grace an impure Soul Aristotle speaking of prophetick dreams tells us to suppose that they are ever sent from God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he sends them not to the best and wisest of men but indifferently and as it happens is an absurd conceit and therefore the wiser heathens prepared themselves for the reception of any divine communications by abstinencies washings some fantastical separations and sanctities which proceeded upon a tacit sense of this truth that the light of heaven cannot shine through dirt and filth nor God ever make an unhallowed place or person his Oracle And if we consult Scripture we shall find that howsoever the order of Kings by whom the Judicial and of Priests by whom the Ceremonial law was administred was maintained by a natural and hereditary succession of persons in the families of David and Aron yet the order of Prophets by whose care the Moral law was especially secured was alwaies elective never any born Prophet of the Iews but the office was served by such persons as God found qualified generally with wisdom always with piety And therefore our Savior tells us we may know fals-Prophets by their fruits by some evil maners or some doctrine which directly tends to incourage them As for the instances of Amos Balaam and Caiaphas which may be opposed to what hath been said I shall return but this for brevity's sake that they are examples singular and in their occasions extraordinary and therefore like the jogging of young trees do but more fully confirm and settle the rule they seem to shake Having thus fitted our prophetick ballance if we proceed now to weigh our pretending Prophets therein they will be found greatly wanting For the greater part of our little Prophets appear devoid of that natural wisdom and soundness of mind of which the true prophets of God gave such undoubted evidences That word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prophets deriving from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 madness carries in the Original thereof a remembrance what kind of crack'd mettal the Ethnick Prophets of old were generally made of and it derives a great suspicion upon our modem Prophets of some such crazy temper that so great a part of these ignes fatui have risen from the boggs of the Romish cells and hermitages where the strict separations from Company and hones business the high applauses of an abstract and ecstatical devotion the severe disciplines of the body by excessive fastings and scourgings the strict forbidding of Marriage â—o persons not capable of that doctrine the common Opinion of the frequent visits of the V. Mary and other Saints vouchsaft to more severe livers together with a strong opinion of meriting by such devout singularities the highest favors and intimacies with God cannot easily fail of intoxicating weaker heads especially with the conceit of some extraordinary visions and prophetick inspirations Accordingly such swarms of prophets and rapturists have flown out of those hives in some ages that the Council of Constance Anno 1415. was conven'd as Gerson tells us especially to determine which should pass for Canonical and which for Apocryphal prophets in that Church and the many gross fallacies put even upon wise men by such frequent Visionists put him upon writing those learned and pious pieces extant in the collection of his works De probatione Spirituum De distinctione verarum visionam à falsis De examine Doctrinarum and that Epistle intituled Doctrinae ad quendam Eremitam in all which he doth with great Sobriety and Christian zeal advise against the spreading infection of those more solemn and demurer frenzies Visions and pretended Prophecies Nor perhaps will that term be thought a bolt let fly without aim if the Reader consider further how frequent such prophetick visions and illapses are with these persons Revelations usually are as familiar with them as Arguments with other men those three Prophets Kotterus Christina and Drabicius which of late years have made such a noise in Germany as fruitful in Enthusiasts as Africa in monsters had their weekly or dayly Visions and heard from God almost every day and the Visions of any one of them may compare numbers with all that the prophetick writings make mention of A consideration that will give us a great jealousy that the most of them were but the visions of a disturbed Fancy and the spurious issues of that inchanting humor of Melancholy which will present as many delusive images to a man as a conjurers glass And perhaps therefore did the holy Prophets record the year and the month when they received the divine illapses that so their Visions and Prophecies might not be thought the fatal and therefore frequent workings of that black humor in them but the arbitrary and therefore oft interrupted Visits of the true prophetick Spirit If we proceed next to make search into their acquired Wisdom we shall soon perceive them greatly unworthy the title they assume Is the hundredth part of them as formerly improved by any ingenuous education are they not persons generally whose grosness and ignorance gives them a great confidence credulity and talkativeness three gifts of singular use to men of their profession are they not silly women S. Brigit S. Hildegardis S. Catherin Senensis S. Teresia S. Matild S. Elizabeth which are of greatest name for Prophecy in the Romish Church Who were the men in the late times that most affected the Opinion of Prophecy and inspiration but they which like the Lyon in sacred writ would gladly tear God's learned Prophets in pieces but had a kindness for the Ass The Ebionites a sort of
however all the Heralds of Heaven had the badg of some divine Signs whereby unpossest minds might easily distinguish them from Impostors Of these it will suffice to my present purpose briefly to point to some few which the Ages to which Prophecy was promised seem to have made the greatest reckoning of As 1. The discovery of some present matter evidently out of the compass of all humane knowledg as the secrets of the heart the counsels of the bed-chamber matters done at distance and with all possible secrecy and the like Such wonderful discoveries were of great consideration with the people in that time to which God had promised Prophecy to assure the divine Mission of the Prophets accordingly our Savior was frequent in the use of such divine Signs and so were the other Prophets it is likely and therefore the Iews which looked upon our Savior but as a Mock-Prophet required him to a discovery of a Mock-Secret the person who smote him on the face while he was blindfolded the revealing whereof they called Prophecy 〈◊〉 discovery of such kind of Secrets being received as the Seals of a Prophetick Spirit 2. The constant coming to pass of Eveâ—â—s foretold in very critical and contingent circumstances Many things the Prophets foretold to fall out within the compass of a few months or days that so their Prophecies of a longer time might have the greater credit and men might quickly understand that they were established Prophets of the Lord. Thus it is said they knew Samuel to be when they saw none of his prophetick words to fall to the ground and Ezekiel having delivered his Prediction adds And when this cometh to pass then shall they know that a Prophet hath been among them And God himself in the trial of Prophets appointed the Iews to look to the issues of their Predictions Deut 18. 21 22. Upon which Text Maimonides lets fall this gloss Cum quis ipsum munus propheticum sibi vendicaverit dicemus ei ede nobis promissi refer nobis aliqua eorum quae nota fecit tibi Dominus quo referente si vera evasâ—rint promissa ejus omnia hinc prophetiae ejus veritatem percipiemus Quod si in aliquo ipsoruÌ„ vel minutissimo mendax fuerit hinc nendacem cum esse cognoscemus Atque haec est expressa legis de hujusmodi probatione sententia So that it seems probable that the â—â—ews required but the Sign of some accomplish'd Prediction not always a Miracle from the more common sort of Prophets and therefore some derive the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sign from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venit because the most frequent Sign of Prophecy the Prophets gave and the people required was the coming to pass of some Prediction delivered is such circumstances as no Eye of humane prudence could possibly foresee 3. Some gifts and abilities extraordinary gotten suddenly and without humane industry and abiding with them for many possest persons have for some time spoken languages and made shew of singular abilities to discredit this prophetick Sign as to deliver himself ex tempore in very weighty sentences to sing praises to God with singular art and dexterity upon the place to interpret Scripture with great evidence of truth All which were comprized by the Iewish Doctors in that degree of Prophecy they stiled for distinction's sake Spiritus Sanctus This prophetick Sign our Savior and his followers did seal the truth of their Enthusiasm withal as other Ancient Prophets had done before them It is God onely that can make his way to the Soul immediately and seal it with the abiding characters of Wisdom 4. The attestation of some Person of whose Prophetick Spirit there is no question According to that Maxim of the Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prophet of whom some other undoubted Prophet witnesseth that he is a Prophet is assuredly a Prophet Accordingly they note that the testimony of Moses to the divine Mission of Ioshua procured him the Faith of the People before his conduct was credited from Heaven by any Miracle Which rule I take to have a truth therein though I deâ—ur upon that other they sometimes superadd to it Every Prophet which arose spake in testimony of his companion in Prophecy It is likely some did And therefore perhaps would our Savior have his Prophecy attested by Iohn the Baptist generally reputed a Prophet by the people that so â—his as well as all other prophetick Signs which ever singly and apart derived credit upon the person and message of any other inferior Prophet might conspire in the Person and Prophecy of him the great Prophet of his Church 5. The immediate voice of God from Heaven to him before witnesses was another Sign of a Prophet in ancient times especially before the building of the Tabernacle but when Prophecy became more common God chose to speak to holy men by Dreams and Visions and perhaps the ceasing of that more usual way of divine Manifestation under the second Temple might occasion some to think he might possibly return to the more ancient way of revealing himself by a Bath Kol a voice from heaven However with this also Sign God dignified our Savior 6. The general prevalency of their prayers especially in matters of a more publick reference was a very probable sign of true Prophets anciently God assigns this as the Characteristick note between false and true Prophets that one had great interest and power in the Court of heaven and the other none at all But if they be Prophets and if the word of the Lord be with them let them now make intercession to the Lord of Hosts c. This was a sign of a Prophet because it was a sign he prayed by a special instinct from God whereby he knew what blessings God was ready to bestow and besides it was a sign of that singular favor he had with God and therefore we shall find an high value set upon the the prayers of a Prophet both by God and men in Scripture And perhaps in confidence of the prevalence of his prayers some people that held our Savior for a great Prophet though not the Messiah brought their young children to him that he might lay his hands upon them and pray Matth. 19. 13. This prophetick sign also attested the Prophecy of our Bl. Savior Ioh. 11. 42. These were some of those more general signs which gave testimony to the Divine Mission of a Prophet but besides these there were also frequently added some particular signs of the truth of this or that extraordinay prediction especially if of some matter of greater import of the truth whereof it was somewhat necessary the people should have a full assurance the instances whereof are of familiar occurrence in the Book of God and therefore the Disciples when our Savior had foretold an Event
so great as the destruction of Ierusalem and the Temple demanded of him a sign both of the truth and time of the accomplishment of that Prophecy Master when shall these things be and what shall be the sign when all these things shall come to pass These particular and almost present signs gave assurance that the Prophet did not deliver conjectures but Prophecies and the doubling thus of his Prophecy was a sign that the thing was certain with God and not foretold conditionally onely as judgments and blessings often were and that the agreement between the Prediction and the Event when coming to pass was not a chance but a Providence So that these were more immediately the signs of the Prophecy as the other six of the Prophet From all this it seems more then probable that all true Prophets came distinguished by some divine sign although it appear not now from Scripture what particular sign it was which gave credit to each Prophet therein mentioned and that anciently Men were wiser then to let every prophecy pass currant as soon as ever it had the image of the King of heaven stampt upon it carryed the face of an inspiration from God Men then understood Prophecy upon many accounts too much exposed to suspicion of imposture to be credited upon the single testimony of every zealous pretender thereunto â—and therefore all Prophets though they came not recommended by equal testimony the occasions they were to serve not being of equal moment yet still with what might suffice to place their divine Mission beyond a question Some were attested by Wonders some by signs some by both If then to apply all this to the occasion Men would once be so advised as to demand some such divine sign as used heretofore to credit the Prophetick function of these pretended Prophets they would certainly all sneak away like Juglers when called to shew a Miracle What have they generally beyond Ordinary besides ignorance and confidence What Miracle or Sign doth God bear witness to their b Mission by what have all the great Swelling words of Enthusiasts been at last delivered of beside the crude air of some flatulent imagination have they after all the noise they have made blest the world with the discovery of any useful secret in Philosophy or Divinity are not Scripture prophecies as dark diseases as desperate nature vail'd as much now as in former Ages do not all their books like the barren fig-tree bear leaves only a few rampant Metaphors and some higher straines of prophetick Scripture jumbled together like the images of a dream shall we then appear so unworthy of the title we carry as to think a few exstatical looks and Scripture phrases sufficient to intitle a man to the Opinion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Master of light as the Iews use to stile a Prophet It is not to be imagined that God would send Prophecy into the world and not have it regarded or that it can be regarded if it come attended with nothing whereby it can be known When the Apostles had such an extraordinary measure of the Spirit there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manifestation of the Spirit as the extraordinary Measure of the Spirit then poured out gave testimony to the Gospel so the mighty signs and wonders which attended it gave testimony to the Spirit To all this I know it will be opposed that many of these modern Prophets come attended with signs sufficent to the man who is of an humble and teachable temper whom alone God seeks to satisfie viz. these four Eminent Sanctity A very liberal and powerful gift of Prayer The mighty energy and impression of their Visions and Prophecies The accomplishment of very many of their Predictions To all which I shall return a few words First We are told that they are persons of very eminent Sanctity that are wholy abstract from the pleasures and honors of this world and have no fleshly relishes appearing in them and therefore 't is most unlikely that they would deceive others or should be deceived themselves by a false Prophecy To which I answer There is nothing more misjudged then Sanctity 't is too commonly thought to stand in some more solemn looks at a Sacrament in visiting of an holy shrine in some extatical devotions in the use of some interpreting garbs faces and Phrases in caressing of Christ by some pretty attributes in declaiming with much zeal against some odious names heresie Antichrist and Superstition in carrying it very morosely towards men of a different form from ones self in some severer disciplines and neglects of the body and therefore 't is unsafe trusting our faith with a prophecy upon a report of the sanctity of the Prophet Besides no men more subject to such delusions then men of devout affections if of strong fancies impressive tempers and weak intellâ—ctuals for in such persons an indiscreet use of Râ—ligion by very pensive and solemn thoughts affected retirements and Silences â—oo intense Meditations continual fervors and endeavored heats unreasonable fastings and watchings the neglect of innocent diversions and relaxations especially if joyn'd with the continual study of some dark prophecies and visions in Scripture more proper entertainments for Men of great learning cannot easily fail of intoxicating the mind with wild and extravagant imaginations The overstraining of them by such intense devotions and perpetual fervors hath produced so many crack'd brains pretended Prophets and visionists in the Religioâ— houses of the Romish Church who is yet so ill advised as to cite them as the proofs of that prophetick Spirit she laies claim unto Moreover It hath ever been the Policy of the Devil to do the Church the greatest Mischief by men of greatest name for Religion He knows good men are soonest decoyed by those which seem of a featheâ— with themselves and that error will sooâ—er be entertained from aâ—pious then truth from a profane person And therefore the Iews among the four things which they say destroy the world number A Religious man that is a Fool. God perhaps permits it thus to be that men might learn to make him only Lord of their Faith and not to give an absolute trust his due alone to the wisest or best of Men. Good men are no more exempt from mistakes and lunacies then they are from a feaver or the infirmities of Age. But we are further told that many of these prophetick Persons are sealed by the singular gift of praying in the Holy-Ghost Their lips seem touch'd by a coal from the altar so fervent and so Scripture-like are the expressions they bespeak God withall upon the suddain Nature useth to be eloquent indeed in its own concerns but lisps and is a child in the things of heaven useth to speak to God in language of icâ— words that freeze and even dy between the lips and besides where words come without forcing and sit handsomely about the matter dantur in illa hora 't is
surely not they which speak but the Holy-Ghost which speaketh in them Nature seems not sufficient for such singular performances upon the place Moreover their words like arrows pointed and fired make a very deep and abiding impression upon the hearts of the hearers the Souls of men become half unbodyed while they hang upon the lips of these extraordinary persons and therefore surely non vox hominem sonat there is more in these words then the voice of a Man and the charms of a little fervent and Pathetical language I answer This devout ardor with the effects consequent thereunto doth extremely inchant the minds of men with great Opinions of the Men in whom it appears and is readily received like the divine fire that came down upon the Sacrifice as the testimony of God to the person and to all he offers David George obtained the repute of a Prophet chiefly assiduo ac ardenti in speciem preces ad Deum funclendi studio Whereas all these strange phoenomena may be salved by meer mecharical principles all generally being but the â—ssue of a natural pregnancy and fervor of temper exerting it self in fluent words tinctured with religion and Scripture phrases Where there is naturalis quaedam animi mobilitas which Quintilian requires in order to speaking well ex tempore a natural moveableness of Soul whereby it is inabled to turn it self nimbly and with ease to new thoughts and words and this assâ—sted or rather created by some more brisk and active spirits it may equal perhaps exceed the performances of more advised thoughts A moderate heat wherein all the Spirits flow to their proper principles and fountains the vital to the heart and the animal to the brain and are put into quick but manageable motions doth raise in a man a more fine and exquisite power of perception and cause the images of things to appear more distinct and to come faster upon his mind then otherwise they would and by consequence make the Understanding more pregnant and the expressions more fluent and easy And therefore when the Orators of old attributed their more fortunate performances and rhetorical inlargements in their extempore declamations before the people then much in use to the special assistance and incitation of God Quintilian judiciously gives them to the present heat and fermentation of spirits the great instruments whereby the Soul performs all its works in this embodied state His words are these Si quem calor ac Spiritus tulit frequenter accidit ut successum extemporalem consequi cut a non possit Deum tunc adfuisse Veteres Oratores aiebant sed ratio manifesta est nam bene concepti affectus recentes rerum imagines continuo impetu feruntur quae nonnunquam mora styli refrigescunt dilatae non revertuntur Which words I shall dismiss untranslated lest like liquors put into another vessel they should contract a flatness and loose Spirits Now these words of Quintiliaâ— give a good account of the extempore felcities of the Orators of those times which themselves had such great thoughts of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak divinely or by inspiration was the usual phrase whereby they exprest speaking fluently pathetically and with coherence without more thoughts then just ushered the words they spake And that Spirit which generally inspires our Divine Orators and makes them un-over with such winning rhetorick is much of kind with that which incited those civil ones viz. a natural fervor of temper excited by some superficial affection and assisted by a plenty of fit expressions made familiar to them by study and custom For we find men of very evil lives Ignatius Hacket and others eminent for this religious Rhetorick and fervor and many of these Orators have confest themselves greatly straitned and bound ut as the phrase is when in their closets who are carried with full sails when to act before a Company because desire of Opinion makes them more concerned excites affection and consequently that ardor so essential to a smooth performance They are in the Phrase of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ful of the Theater are touched with applause and therefore act to the height of themselves in publick but are cold and indifferent where the breath of man is wanting to excite and blow them up Now our admired Prophets having this natural fervor and pregnancy of Spirit to wing their Fancies and this heat intended by the new forces of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Longinus stiles the Earthy vapor which inspired the Pythia an enthusiastick vapor of heated Melancholy arising from the hypochondria it cannot fail of displaying it self in such rapturous and lofty strains of divine rhetorick as shall be verily thought to flow è vena Israelis from the same Divine Spirit which inspired the Prophets when the persons are but heightned by a fume somewhat more gross and unruly then that which inspires our common Poets whose more happy heats and sprucer fancies have been thought the issue of borrowed Spirits and therefore the blood of the grape been generally vouched by them the most natural exciter of the poetick vein Besides these Prophets are much advantaged for a more lively imitation of Enthusiasm above the more Vulgar pretenders to it by an exalted Imagination For the most vehement Objects of Religion God Heaven Hell the glories of the new Hierusalem some prophetick Scheams being made familiar to their softer fancies stand before their minds in very distinct and affecting ideas Now where imagination is thus boiled up and often rub'd upon by the most moving objects it fails not of raising affections and and consequently expressions great and vehement as the objects are from whence they do arise And therefore Quintilian to assist the power of Speaking very movingly and fluently extempore which the Orators of those times so much endeavoured adviseth to imprint upon imagination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the images of the things we are to speak about as if we were to speak about the murder of any person suddenly to make all the terrible images of the bleeding man to walk upon the Scene of Phancy and to set as it were before our eyes all the black circumstances of the action thereby to quicken affection and by that Expression I intend not these words to stifle the devout ardors of holy men displayed in affectionate pantings after God and a divine Nature in desires too big for words divine relishes and that unforced Rhetorick which the abundance of their hearts instructs them unto when to bespeak God in private For our Religion could no more please our selves then God if it could not ravish the heart as well as renew it if it were a kind of caput mortuum an heavy stark insipid thing without heat and Spirit Heat and zeal is the calidum innatum of the New Man without which he neither lives nor moves Only care must be had that this heat and zeal like the
the Authors But because God in the trial of Prophets hath directed us to a regard of the issues of their Prophecies this matter may seem to merit a more close and particular Consideration to which therefore I shall next apply my self CHAP. V. The failing of Vulgar Prophecies an assurance of their Vanity Vulgar Prophecies referring to the Publick generally false that proved from Justin Martyr and the falshood of some Modern Prophecies particularly instanced in A fayleur but in a circumstance a sign of the forgery of the whole Prophecy and why ◠A five fold account given of the pretended accomplishments of some Modern Prophecies How far it seems fitting that Prophecies should descend to the circumstances of Events An account why some of these Prophecies hit and others miss All Divine Prophecies fulfilled which were absolutely delivered Some Characters to distinguish such Prophecies by THat which may yet more fully secure us in a perswasion of the Vanity of all these Modern Prophecies is this All these unattested Prophets generally fail in all their Prophecies but always in some Generally in all viz. such are most fit to assure men of their divine Inspiration as those onely are which are of a publick reference Ieremiah tells us that the Prophets which had been before him of old prophesied both against many Countries and against great Kingdoms of War and of Evil and of Pestilence as they also did sometimes of great National Blessings Now the coming to pass of such Prophecies was the most undoubted evidence of their Divinity for though the Devil may be presumed able to bring about some little turns in the lives of private men yet the spirit of the living creature onely moves in those great Wheels the turns in States are soly under the particular conduct of God those Wheels are too great for him to move one way or other And therefore Iustin Martyr when the accomplish'd Predictions of the Ethnick Prophets were opposed to him returns this judicious Answer No event which the Ethnick Prophets foretold either against the Truth of God or his Worshippers or referring to the publick Affairs of the Grecian States ever came to pass though perhaps some matters of a more narrow concern might which fell more within the Devil's compass An Observation more fully justified in the pretending Prophets of later times what is become of all the Oracular leaves of Grebner hath not the wind taken them away and the whirlwind scattered them as it did those of the Sibyl He prophesied saith Mr Mede great matters of Henry the fourth of France which proved clean contrary of Queen Elizabeth and other Princes which never came to pass I have I know not how often to satisfie one or other told them as I now tell you and yet every five or six years it comes up again as if it had never been discovered Men are prone to believe anything they would have c. And how have all the swelling Prophecies of Cotterus Christina Poniativia and Drabicius concerning the sudden Conversion of the Turks the Establishment of the German Churches by Frederick King of Bohemia and Gustavus of Sweden the sudden Propagation of the Gospel throughout the World the advancement first of Ragotzi the Father and then the Son and then the Brother to the Crown of Hungary of the dreadful overthrow of the Papacy many of them delivered about fifty years ago been delivered of nothing but the wind even their great Patrons themselves being witnesses while yet so inchanted with the Opinion of them as to publish them now as the Oracles of God when Divine Providence hath encouraged sober Christians to hiss them out of the World And indeed it is so the usage of Divine Providence to shame the impatience and curiosity of men discovered in attending to such Prophecies that I perswade my self it is next to impossible to instance a Modern Prophecy referring to the Publick that speaks distinctly as to words and time of accomplishment that failed not in the substance or some eminent circumstance thereof Now a fayleur but in a tittle is a dead Flie sufficient to make the whole Prophecy smell strongly of an imposture Of Divine Prophecies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Master to whom we have had such frequent recourse well notes not the greater nor lesser part substance or circumstance ever fell to the ground And He tells us those words of Ieremiah The Prophet that hath a Dream let him tell a Dream and he that hath my Word let him speak my Word faithfully what is the chaff to the wheat their Doctors used to gloss thus Prophecy is a thing pure without the allay of any falshood mixed with it like wheat cleansed from the chaff but Dreams and other vulgar Indications have a lie always intermixed and are like chaff in which there are but some few grains of wheat God is careful to accomplish the very criticisms and circumstances of his Predictions because this gives the greatest assurance of their Divine Author For the substance of Events may possibly be thought Object great enough for the Eye of humane Prudence to see afar off but circumstances are easily presumed too little for our heavy Eyes to discern at any great removes If any Person better seen in the Writings of Modern Prophets then I have any ambition to be thought to be is able to instance a Prophecy of any longer date whose words did exactly touch the Event foretold both in the substance and circumstance thereof yet he shall alway observe his Prophet to have failed in some one nay in very many other instances if any thing talkative as it is well the prophetick humor in such persons disposeth them to be which is a sufficient assurance that he foretold nothing by a divine suggestion Thus Savanarola a Dominican foretold long before that Charls the eighth of France should come into Italy with a great Army which came to pass But withal that God had revealed to him that the State Ecclesiastick should be reformed by force of Arms which saith the Historian hath not yet nor yet hapned but at that time was very likely to have been effected The Examples of this kind are too great for Arithmetick The two branches of this Consideration I find struck at by a double Objection which I shall endeavor to secure them from It is opposed to the first That very many of these Modern Prophecies have been very punctually accomplish'd though unseal'd by any divine Sign attending the delivery of them In Answer hereunto I return 1. Meer prudential Conjectures after the Event often commence accomplish'd Prophecies in vulgar Opinion the common sort of people being apt to invest every thing that lies out of the road of their thoughts and observations with the Opinion of some Divinity lodged in it Thus that famous Speech of Seneca the Tragaedian Venient annis Secula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula rerum laxet ingen
discourst of late who though he saw his predictions clearly refuted by events and told thereof at one ear by his Friends and at both ears by his enemies yet was so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carried away by the power of his prophetick dreams as to secure himself in his fond opinion of Inspiration by returning Annon vox Dei est quae dicit c. Is it not the voice of God which saith God doth nothing but he reveals his secrets to his servants and that in the later daies he will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh and young men shall see Visions and old men dream dreams Scriptures which any pretender to prophecy might have cited in his vindication as well as he 2. Those wonderful Visions represented to their minds in some Ecstacy or profound sleep At such a time some very frightful or lovely images shew themselves upon the Scene of Fancy and those as dreams take figure from the occasions of the day generally made after the likeness of those Apocalyptical or other Prophetick Visions with which the minds of such persons when awake are commonly entertained and deeply sealed Now these Visa by the great singularity of their form vivacity of representation and prophetical analogy do so wonderfully affect and possess the Mind and inchant it with such huge fears or joys that the Melancholy person doubts not to receive them with the faith and affection of Divine discoveries And therefore if the more terrible aspect of the images represented to his mind proclaim them the proper emblems of some great evils he presently concludes that God who tenders his servants with the care and affection a Mother doth her sucking child would willingly have them forewarned that so they might by repentance prayers or prudence avert the impendent evil from themselves or fortifie their minds with Christian patience to receive its coming But if their more delightful form prefer them the types of some joyful Event as is the freedom of the Church laboring under some heavy oppression the propagation of the Gospel and the enlargement of Christs Kingdom they hastily catch at the welcome token and that is thought foretold therein which themselves have the greatest passion for And they are the more soft and easy to such prophetical conceits because those passions of Fear and Hope so intimate to our Natures and which generally govern the Perswasions even of wiser men are so regnant in their Souls made so impressive by Melancholy and some tinctures of Religion Now these pretended Visions which conciliate Veneration to these Prophets with ruder persons will appear much beneath our wonder if it be considered that Melancholy when it exceeds its just proportions is very productive of them This the Philosopher hath noted Men that are of a talkative and melancholy temper see any kind of Visions And this especially because they have so deep a resentment of the most affecting objects whose images therefore recur to the fancy when they are asleep in most distinct and lively figures Now the Visions of such men are the more evident and lively because of the dryness of their temper as Gallen gives the reason whereby there are no such mysts and vapors rising up to confound and obscure them which are the cause why the night-Visions of persons full fed or overcome with wine are so confused and leave such languishing impressions upon their waking Fancies These images being so clear and active the mind takes them as the birds did those on the tables of Apelles for true and real things and as when we suddainly awake out of some very affecting dream the figures which its clearness and strength of impression made upon the Fancy cannot not presently be blotted out but we continue for a time to entertain it with the affections of a great reality thus but by a more obstinate delusion are the persons we now speak of imposed upon by an unruly Fancy For when deep sleep hath fallen upon them and cut the Soul off from all converse with things sensible it is wholy immerst in the view of those images which walk upon the stage of Imagination with which the common sense is as inwardly moved as if excited by some object from abroad and therefore it receives them with the Opinion of their being not phantastical but real and divine appearances As for those Visions these Prophets speak of when they are awake they may arise from those vehement and intense thoughts which represent some great Objects to them in very distinct and affecting Ideas with which the mind is so fully possest and sealed as not much to attend to the circumstance of the real presence thereof and therefore easily perswades it self that object stood before it of which it had so lively a perception and with which it was so inwardly touched and affected Besides nothing so familiar as for men of very impressive phancies and timerous disposâ—tions to have a continual scene of strange sights presented before them The Philosâ—pher noted long ago that to persons young and that look intensly if it be dark there appear many strange images moving to and fro so that in a great fear they hide themselves in the bed-clothes Whereas in such sights the Fancy is both Scene and Spectator to it self This shews that 't is possible that these pretended Visions may be but the inchantments of Melancholy But he that considers that Divine Visions were vouchsaft as rarely and upon as concerning occasions as Miracles will believe it probable that they are no other Did God dispense the favors of these divine visits to the Patriarchs and Prophets so sparingly of old and are they become now as familiar to some men as dreams to others Familiars hath been the title of bad spirits but never of good 3. Their vehement incitations to prophecy They feel the new images of things or persons striking with great strength and evidence upon their Fancies and themselves quickened by a very hot and active principle whose powers they cannot easily stand against to make the Vision plain and to declare to others what conceits and passions it comes attended with and therefore they conceive that the word of the Lord is as a fire shut up in their bones and that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholy possest by some divine power which they cannot bear themselves against nay indeed should not for who are they that should withstand God Whereas all these things are but the subtil fallacies which the fumes of hypochondriacal Melancholy when grown hot and fiery put upon the Fancy being as apt to intoxicate the brain and make it impressive to as odd conceits as the active vapors of lusty wine These vapors being carried by the brain with a mighty force confouâ—d the natural figurations thereof and excite some new Idols therein which by the sâ—ngularity of their appearance and importunity of occurrence cannot but create affections correspondent to them which together with
true Prophetick Spirit is now gone up and that all divine Revelations as well of future Events as new Doctrines are wholy ceast in the Church of God I shall not be positive in this Assertion because I find a Synod convened in Germany Anno 1633. where the Divines being moved by some zealous persons to declare themselves against all pretended Revelations and Prophecies now that God had so eminently refuted the famous Visions of Cotterus and Christina Poniatovia in the unexpected deaths of Gustavus of Sweden and Frederick of Bohemia prophecyed of by them as the Saviors and Restorers of the German Protestants They declined it adding that yet no Church or Consistory or University had altogether rejected or condemned such kind of new Prophecies and why would we be the First Certainly then 't will very ill become my privacy and obscurity to take the Chair and pronounce confidently that folly is with them all and that there is nothing of Divine Prophecy now in the world besides the vain noise and affectation thereof I shall only crave the freedom to tender those reasons which make it seem probable to my self that there are no such extraordinary visits of the Divine Spirit now to be found in the world Whereof the first is this 1. God hath by no Promise encouraged our Expectation of any such prophetick inspiration in these latter Ages of the World When ever God gave Prophecy to his Church as it usually came attended with some other eminent gifts whereby men might understand it was an Age of Extraordinaries so it was alway ushered by some promise thereof God gave Prophecy to the Church of the Old Testament and to the Times wherein our Savior was first manifested and preached to the world stiled the last daies being the expiring times of the Jewish Oeconomie and there was notice given thereof by a fore-running Promise delivered by Moses and Ioel. God would not have so great a gift that comes forth as all extraordinary ones do upon some errand of import to steal into the world and men be in danger of losing the benefit thereof while destitute of any thing to resolve them whether there be any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Ghost thus given yea or no. Besides where we have no special promise we have no ground at all of expectation or trust and if we trust our Faith with any pretended Prophecy and Revelation though presented with all the probable appearances of truth before we know whether God hath made promise of any such matter now we do but tempt God and expect he should charge himself with us while we walk in praecipitiis in waies wherein he never told us we should meet him A Promise from God in this matter is I think one of the most necessary securities to our faith There were under the times of the Old Testament undoubtedly as many persons inspired only by the Spirit of heated Melancholy and more by a much worse then now there are but that which was the great security to the minds of good men then that they were not cheated by any of the gilded Prophecies then current among them was that God had made them a Promise to send them Prophets from time to time to resolve them in all matters relating to this life as well as the other and therefore they might presume the Providence of God would be more especially watchful to preserve them if not greatly wanting to themselves from being fatally abused while expecting instruction by a Prophecy a way of divine Sanction in those times In confidence especially of this divine security we find even Princes proceeding without scruple to action and in matters of very great moment upon the bare word of a Person that pretended to speak from God though without any Sign that we read of given to seal his Mission from God upon that occasion whereas now a Prince would but fall the Martyr of his own credulity if trusting his affairs with the most importunate voices of a pretending Prophet against sober Reasons of State when there appears neither divine Sign nor promise of Prophecy to warrant his Faith It is readily acknowledged that none of God's true Prophets but came attested at one time or other with some divine Signs but yet he that shall consider that these were not vouchsafed to bear testimony to each particular message which they delivered as from God and that many Signs were given by them as the causing of iron to swim disclosing the secrets of the bedchamber foretelling the death of some person and some seeming contingencies which â—t is likely fall within the Devil's compass to shew and that sometimes the Prophets countermanded their own counsels and advices and that those holy men were no more exempt from the delusions of Melancholy then good men are now and that Miracles have been so counterfeited by the Arts of Magick that even wise men have not been able to detect the imposture must needs grant that the promise of God to teach men by Prophecy together with the Prophet his appearing as the Iews speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man fit for Prophecy was generally the firmest ground of trust they had to build the faith of the Divinity of his Signs and Prophecy upon And therefore I think many Signs might more firmly conclude the divine inspiration of men in those Ages to which Prophecy was promised then the like can do if tendred by any Pretender to inspiration in our own Now then there being not the least air of any promise of Prophecy made to the last Times of the World we have reason to think that the Prophetick Spirit is flown back to Heaven like Elijah and hath left nothing behind it but its mantle its garb and dress which Imposture sometimes walks up and down the World withal As for that place of Scripture so often alledged by the Modern Enthusiasts to justifie the Expectation of Prophecy now It shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie c. it is wholy impertinent because as Theodoret notes it received its evident and literal accomplishment at the day of Pentecost But a greater then Theodoret is here S. Peter who expresly fixeth the accomplishment of that Prophecy in the liberal effusions of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit upon that great Day where we may note by the way that he seems not to understand the place of Prophecy strictly taken for Prediction in favor of which alone it is alledged by our Adversaries but for those other extraordinary gifts of the Spirit there mentioned and for which Prophecy doth often suppose elswhere in Scripture 2. All other extraordinary gifts which anciently attended the Prophetick Spirit are now ceased The gifts of healing of working Miracles of discerning of Spirits of divers Tongues of interpretation of Scripture have all expired with
their occasion and why should we imagine that Prophecy numbred with them survives them all a gift of which I am sure the World hath incomparably less need then of any of the rest Those other gifts of the Spirit could ease the pains enlighten the Eyes resolve the Conscience presently confirm the Faith of men which a Prophecy could not do and therefore whereas we find those gifts very familiarly used and liberally conferred in the first times of the Gospel yet we meet with this prophetick gift very rarely exerted by our Savior or his Apostles and some of the Persons who had it as if they were rarely to be found are particularly mentioned in the New Testament viz. Agabus Barnabas Simon Niger Lucius Manahen Silas the four Daughters of Philip and some few others Why then should a Gift which was of so little name and consideration â—n compare with the rest continue in the Church when all the other like Scaffolds when the House is built are taken away now that the House of God is built up and the Faith confirmed Certainly the fond affection which some men have for Prophecy and that strength of face with which others pretend to it are the things which suborn their Understandings to believe that so acceptable a gift is honored with a longer continuance in the World then the rest of its Brethren If we consult Antiquity it will appear more likely that this gift alone is faln there being more frequent mention therein of some Miracles wrought in the Name of Christ but less is said concerning the Prophetical Spirit especially after the second Century 3. Prophecy cannot now minister to any of those great ends to which under the first times of the Old and New Testament it did It served under the Old Testament as a seal of the divine Inspiration of those Scriptures in which it was found and was a pregnant assurance to present and future Times that all those Promises Precepts Threatnings found in conjunction with any accomplish'd Prophecy were equally of divine Original To this purpose speaks a Iewish Doctor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fundamental Reason why Prophecy is extant in the Prophets is onely this That they may with the greater authority exhort men to an observation of the Law to divine Worship and to do what is acceptable unto God and that Man may be perfect with God not barely that they may declare things to come This is found in the Prophets but out of a secondary intention onely to confirm the truth of their inspiration and the like reason of Prophecy in Scripture is alleged by Origen Whereas these Vulgar Prophecies cannot need not seal any divine Doctrine or part of Scripture if they should be fulfilled and therefore have no more real value then the seal in separation from the writing They tell us perhaps which no wise man much concerns himself to know that after such a period of time such a great Prince shall ascend the Throne such a famous Event shall fall and if the Prediction chance to succeed the Prophet looks big and the People wonder and that 's all Moreover Prophecy served like the Shechinah in the Temple as a testimony of God's dwelling in and owning of that Church in which it was found And accordingly the departing of the Prophetick Spirit from a people if found elswhere in the World was a Sign God had given them a bill of divorce Thus God at last assured his rejection of the Iewish and acknowledgment of the Gentile Church by his taking Prophecy wholy from the one and giving it at the same time unto the other that which Origen and Iustin Martyr take frequent notice of in their Disputes against the Iews and Heathens Now Prophecy is no more necessary in this Age then Miracles to witness Christs presence with his Church for she hath had it liberally already and when it departed it went not from her to Iew or Turk but back to Heaven leaving behind it the many virtues of the Spirit in themselves more undoubted pledges of his favor And besides the Christian Church now is crumbled into so many Sects and Forms that were Prophecy now in the World men would be apt to receive it as a testimony not to their Church but to their Party to which purpose the Faction of Rome pretends it and therefore perhaps Prophecy was to be found in the more united times both of the Iewish and Christian Church but went away when they began to distinguish themselves by little Forms and Notions lest it should seem to witness not to the Truth of God but humors of Men. A third Reason assigned by some Iewish and Christian Writers why God gave the People of the Iews their Oracles and Prophets to give them the knowledge of Futurities as the success of a Battel the issue of a Sickness the condition of other Kingdoms in after-times c. is this Because else in all likelihood they would have apostatized to the Rites of the Heathen who had their Oracles and Diviners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being prompted thereunto by that natural liquorousness in the minds of men after the knowledg of things to come as Origen gives the reason and Scripture seems to assign the same why God gave them Prophecy even to secure them from all temptation to consult the Oracles of the Heathen which we find they sometimes did in the silence or absence of the true Prophets To suppose Prophecy necessary now for this end to save mens longing after the knowledg of things sealed up in the Counsels of God is to reproach the World and to suppose it as liquorish as in its more childish years Hath not the World out-grown the follies of Auguries Soothsaying and profest Diviners long ago and took up in the resolves of Reason as the best Oracle to consult in a civil business and must Christians be thought the onely persons that want a Prophecy to arrest their anxieties in reference to hereafter and a Prophecy of the certain truth whereof they are as much unresolved as of the issue of affairs And besides we shall observe how God sometimes chastised that wanton humor in the Iews by permitting even his own Predictions to be not seldom the occasions of very evil Effects If we proceed to a view of those Ends which prophecy serv'd to more specially in the times of the New Testament it will more clearly appear a great impertinence now It served then as a divine largess to grace the solemn Inauguration of our Saviour to his Mediatory Kingdom To assure the acceptance of his person and undertaking with God who impowered him to confer such great gifts on men To fore-warn and so to fore-arm young Coverts apt otherwise to be scandalized by the then approaching persecutions for Christ's sake To seal the reception of the Gentiles to the dignity of Sonship upon whom God had bestowed so great a portion of
his Spirit To prefer the Christian Oeconomy to as sacred regards with men as the Iewish had of old because attended with as liberal an effusion of all extraordinary gifts upon men as that was Now it were greatly to under-rate the Reader 's time and my own to prove Prophecy in this Age utterly unnecessary for the service of any such ends as these So that there appears not any sufficient Reason why we should believe there are any Examples of the Prophetick Spirit now extant in the World Miracles and Prophecies always came forth from God to serve some great occasions his Servants never wrought a Miracle or foretold an Event as Juglers shew tricks or Gypsies tell fortunes onely to cause wonder or to supply discourse now these occasions being long ago expired it is but reasonable to presume that Miracles and Prophecies are faln with them To all this perhaps it will be opposed That oft-times a very black and tedious night of affliction covers the Servants of God and that a Prophecy might then serve as the voice of the Cock to bring the joyful news of an approaching morning of deliverance and that for this end also God often favored his ancient People the Iews with Prophecy even to let them understand when their miseries should determine lest they should grow weary and faint in their minds I answer God hath now supplied good men with higher cordials then a Prophecy to support their sinking spirits with in a day of Evil. He hath confirmed his singular affection to them by the great gift of his Son he hath told them that all things shall work together for their temporal or eternal good that they have a merciful High-Priest that is touch'd with a feeling of all their infirmities that their light affliction which is but for a moment works for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and are not these Considerations better to them then ten Prophecies Besides God having now caused the felicities of the other World to stand before us in so full a light he would have our minds less intangled with sollicitous and unquiet thoughts about the futurities of this It greatly becomes us now to be more heroical and manly in our hopes and resolutions then the Iews were whose temper was as weak wordly and carnal as their way of Worship in compliance with which God encouraged their service by a Covenant made up of worldly Promises possession of the Land the abundance of all things freedom from evils and bondage Now lest in a tedious affliction they should think God had forgotten his Covenant and should cast about for some new Master the Prophets were sent from time to time to resolve them of the cause and continuance thereof and that their patience might not tire to tell them when their warfare should be accomplish'd Besides their notices of the felicities of the other World being so obscure and languishing might easily render them to greater impatience of the undetermined miseries of this and therefore when in the times of the second Temple they began to be more clear in the Doctrine of a Resurrection and a life to come Prophecies of a temporal reference became more rare as appears from the words of that Psalm written it is thought after the Captivity where the Church under great pressures thus bemoans her self We see not our Signs there is no more any Prophet neither is there any among us that knoweth how long which words suggest to us a fourth Reason 4. Prophecy expired in the Jewish Church for two or three hundred years before the coming of our Savior This is a truth of catholick acknowledgment all Ievish and Christian Writers confess it but only Iustin Martyr who once and again tell Trypho the Iew There never ceased in your Nation either Prophet or Prince till Iesus Christ was both born and had suffred But in this Opinion that excellent Man stands against all the Ancients and against Canon and Apocrypha and therefore his Testimony not binding Now if Prophecy ceased then we have no reason to presume it continues now for what ever Arguments seem to conclude it necessary to the Christian Church now would with much more strength conclude the necessity of it to the Iewish then for the Scripture was then more dark and incompleat then now the People were of a more weak and worldly temper the Oeconomy more carnal the Age more accustomed to Prophecies Men more in danger of being tempted by the absence of Prophecy to consult the Devil's Prophets and Oracles then so frequent in the World and a succession of Prophets more fully promised without any limitation of time then now Besides the reason of its cessation seems to have been catholick viz. this It had now ministred to all those great Ends to which it was thought necessary in the Times to which it was vouchsafed and therefore as it is said of David having thus served its Generation it fell asleep For though it be true that the cessation of Prophecy as also the absence of the many Glories from the Second Temple which the First had might serve to take men off from looking too intently upon the face of Moses whose splendor plainly appeared to be nigh to vanishing away and to quicken their desires after the more inward and abiding Glories of the Messiah's Kingdom and to cause them to expect that New Dispensation so long promised before which should restore the Prophetical Spirit more abundantly yet I conceive this to be neither the onely nor the principal Reason of that long interstitium of Prophecy in the Iewish Church For the Ark the Shechinah the heavenly fire and the rest were ceremonial appendices and served the pomp and splendor of that Lower Dispensation the utter absence whereof from the second Temple might shew that Oeconomy now waxing old and wearing away but Prophecy lasted it is concluded for at least forty or fifty years under the second Temple and besides was given rather for Moral then Ceremonial Ends which having sufficiently served it was beneath the sacredness thereof to be continued to serve onely the pomp of the Church or the curiosities of Men. The onely thing now occurring to my thoughts which may seem to weaken the force of this Reason is the common Opinion of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filia vocis a soft voice heard as descending from Heaven and was say the Masters a lower degree of Prophecy continuing under the Times of the second Temple as a kind of twilight in the Iewish Church after the setting of the Sun of Prophecy and to which the Targum is thought sometimes to refer But as for this prophetick voice I see no great reason why we should stick to number it with those Iewish Fables mentioned Tit. 1. 14. and invented as many more were to serve the glory of that Nation and to greaten the favor of Heaven thereunto there being no two Nations so much remarked