Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	holy_a	scripture_n	9,894	5	6.0621	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86055	Natura prodigiorum or, a discourse touching the nature of prodigies. Together with the kinds, causes and effects, of comets, eclipses, and earthquakes. With an appendix touching the imposturism of the commonly-received doctrine of prophecies, spirits, images, sigils, lamens, the christal, &c. and the propugners of such opinions. / By John Gadbury philomathēmatikos.	Gadbury, John, 1627-1704.	1660 (1660)	Wing G91; Thomason E2131_3; ESTC R202414	80,331	276

to be the only instrumental cause and the bringer of Prodigies forth It therefore freely follows and that by sufficient proof That Prodigies have a Natural cause And so I descend unto my third Question Quest 3. Whether Prodigies are the Antecedents of worldly changes Resp For answer unto this Question I shall begin with the authority of the Learned Molineus fol. 160. Non est negandum coelestia vel aëria ostenta saepe fuisse praenuntia calamitatum We may not deny saith he that the Heavenly or aërial Prodigies are oftentimes the Messengers or Ambassadors of misery and calamity unto mankind In the year of our Lord saith Lycosthenes and from him Dr. Bateman 1500. there appeared a Comet of a dreadful greatness for eighteen days together in the North under the tropical sign Capricorn and saith he the same year the Tartarians spoyled Russia and Polonia Dubartas as paraphrased by J. S. in his second days work fol. 16. goeth farther and saith The Drops of fire which weeping Heaven did showr Upon Lucania when Rome sent the flowr Of Italy into the wealthy clime Which Euphrates fats with his fruitful slime Presag'd that Parthians should the next year tame The Proud Lucanians and nigh quench their name The clash of Arms and clang of Trumpets heard High in the Air when valiant Romans-war'd Victo●iously on the now canton'd Suisses Almans and Cymbrians One speaking of Prodigies adorns this truth further thus Solet enim benignissimum Numen ubi mensura flagitiorum nostrorum ad plenitudinem venit vindictam hic potius temporariam quam aeternam parat naturalium istorum effectuum occasione uti terrore illo ad poenitentiam sui respectum convertere It is thus in English The wise Creator of heaven and earth is wont when the measure of our wickedness comes to an height rather to inflict upon us temporal then eternal punishments and to use for our amendments the occasions of these Natural effects thereby to convert us with the terrour of those sights to a repentance and dutiful respect of him And the same Author speaking of Prodigies in another place saith In mundo multos significant effectus mirabiles i. e. In the world Apparitions and Prodigies do signifie and declare many wonderful and remarkable effects Nec est quisquam nisi cuius animus ab religione plane obrutuit qui ad fulmina fragorem tonitruum aut cruenti cometae aspectum non tangatur metu Cometam qui dicitur Xiphias portendere bella experientis comprobatum est Pogoniam presignificare mortem regum Quam ominosa fuerit stella crinita 1607. testantur tot calamitates urbium Ecclesiarum projecta cadavera Saith Molineus Neither is there any unless such a one who hath no Religion who is not affrighted at lightning and the clashing noise of Thunder and the sight of an horrible Comet A Comet like a Sword as we have sufficiently proved by experience portends wars And a Comet with a Beard doth signifie the death of Kings how ominous that stella Crinita or Blazing Star which appeared in 1607 was so many calamities of Cities and desolation of Churches sadly testifies The Holy Scripture seals this truth and adds abundant weight thereunto as most fully appears from that sign in the Heavens which appeared to the children of Israel in Egypt Exod. Chap. 13. And that also in Joshua's time of the Suns standing still Josh Chap. 10. But especially in those two memorable ones ●t the birth and death of our Saviour Mat. Chap. 2. c. Nay if we consult History we shall find That there hath never been any notable Apparition or Prodigie seen in the Heavens but it hath been attended in the seq●el with some more then ordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or change here on earth And it is a right-handed and sublime truth that God maketh use of the Heavens and Elements for the discovery of his mind and intent unto the world as well as of the tongues of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or messengers viz. his Prophets and Apostles yea he speaks unto mankinde by them as the Kingly Psalmist hymneth Psal 19.2 Dies ad Diem eructat Sermonem nox ad noctem ostendit Scientiam Our Translation renders it Day unto day uttereth speech night unto night knowledge The intercourse of day and night speaks or declares the mind of God unto mankind generally But when the days or nights are chequered with Prodigies or sights unusual then do they discover the mind and intent of the most high unto mankind more particularly Loquitur cum hominibus Deus non modò lingua humanâ per Prophetas Apostolos Pastores sed non-nunquam etiam ipsis Elementis in formas imagines diversas compositis saith one God speaks with men not only with the tongues of men by Prophets Apostles and Teachers but sometimes also by the Elements composed or wrought into divers forms and shapes Tertullian after an enumeration of many wonderful apparitions and Prodigies cries out Omnia haec signa sunt imminentis irae Dei That they are all signs of the imminent wrath of God Nay Dubartas illustrates it yet further Sec. days work fol. 14. Here in the night appears a flaming Spire There a fierce Dragon folded all in fire Here a bright Comet there a fiery stream Here flying Launces there a burning beam Here seems a horned Goat environ'd round With fiery Flakes about the Air to bound There with long bloody hair a blazing Star Threatning the world with Famine Plague and war To Princes death to kingdoms many crosses To all estates inevitable Losses To Herds-men Rot To Plow-men hapless seasons To Saylors Storms To Cities civil Treasons Then the which what can be more plain to prove that Prodigies are not onely the Antecedents but the ordinary and usual Antecedents of worldly changes I willingly pretermit an infinite number of examples in this kind as the many and admirable Prodigies pre-curring and presaging the death of Caesar and the innumerable company of Ravens seen in the Air before Alexander the Great passed from Media into Babylon and the perfect companies of Armed men seen in the Air at the time the Greeks had a conflict with the Persians and the fiery Spears seen in the Air before the Sabines invaded the Romans and the three Suns that appeared in the Heavens and in a strange manner contended each with other for superiority not long before the cruel contention that happened between Galba Otho and Vitellius for the Empire of Rome And the four Suns that appeared besides the true Sun in the year 1233. which presaged that unappeasable quarrel between Henry the third King of England and the Lords of the kingdom and also the forerunner of that sad devastation to England by fire and sword it being then consumed and utterly destroyed from Wales to Salisbury with many more reserving them for the second part of this Treatise And so I shall close this answer with that divine saying of