A discourse concerning prodigies: wherein the vanity of presages by them is reprehended. And their true and proper ends asserted and vindicated / By John Spencer, B.D.

John Spencer

Date:: 1663

Credit: A discourse concerning prodigies: wherein the vanity of presages by them is reprehended. And their true and proper ends asserted and vindicated / By John Spencer, B.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

105/150 (page 83)

$of Gods counfels is the prerogative onely of our Saviour, He is moni, the great numberer of fecrets, Dan. 8.15. It is honour great enough for us to befilii thalami to the King of heaven, he onely muft be focius confilii. 3. God will hereby teach us to walk by the rule of his word, not the iffue of things. 4- That fo we might honour him with a great faith, following offhim, as it were, like Abraham, not know- Heb. 11.8. ing whither we goe. ’Tis align we dare venture our felves with our Pilots skill and integrity, when we deep fecurely, not knowing par¬ ticularly what courfe he fleers. $. That fo, not knowing in what time or manner, our Mafter will come unto us3 we might be always watch- Mar, 13. 3 J. ing. 6. It is a curious and unneceffary knowledge. God hathfo appointed it, that ad. minimi neceffaria minimum lucU acciperemus. Scri¬ pture acquaints us not with the figures of our Saviours perfon, nor the ufages of his life before his publick miniflry, nor the me¬ thods otthe Divine Decrees, nor the orders of the Angelical hie¬ rarchy, and multitudes of queftions referring to the future Hate, and the accomplifhtnent of Prophecies, it remits to the folution of our great Elias at his fecond coming. God is plea fed to recommend to us the plainnefs of his precepts which we mull know, by the oblcu- rity of his Providences which we need not} fo unneceffary the know¬ ledge of things future, that fome of the Ancients conceive, that therefore God gave the People of the J ews their Oracles and Pro¬ phets which were to inform them even in matters of a worldly con¬ cern [as the fuccefs of a battel, recovery from a fit of ficknefs, the condition of other kingdoms in after times, &c.] becaufe elfe in all likelyhood they would have apoflatiz’d from the true God to the . c rites of the Gentiles [who had their Oracles . Auguries, Diviners, p1{P\ ' ' Soothfayers'] ter asfjnc dv f e*mm afea tI>jj yvacnv KtyvAcu rfyf ^ *i ‘ InxAfav being prompted thereunto by that natural liquo- roufnefs in the minds of men after the knowledge of things wrapt P- 113* up in futurity. So unneceffary did our Saviour teem to judge this Iy* knowledge, that his prophecies (if all put together) would not much 14 > rf • exceed the writings oftheleall of the minor Prophets, though him- felf the Great Prophet of his Church. Thirdly, There are fome effective figns of Events, upon a view whereof Conclui.3, a very probable judgement may be fometimes made by a wife perfon of the iffue of affairs. Sometimes indeed fecond caufes, which feem moll pregnant with fuch effefts, (hall have mifearrying wombs, and all the oioi's/udju (in the phrafe of the Philofopker) the moll probable counfels of the great Or acles of (late, which own no provi¬ dence nor power Superiour to their own, (hall be turned into foolijh- nefs, to give the world arguments of a Divine providence concern’d in the affairs of men. But yet oft times God permits things fas trees doe) to fall that way to which (in the judgement of prudence) they feem to incline • that fo, humane forelight and prudence (the image ofProvidence) may appear valuable tomen, and the wile manand the fool may not be thought to Hand upon a level, and all things to run upon a die. . Itis a pregnant argument that wifdom was never very frr.nily to$