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.

110/150 (page 88)

$manitns accident, any diftemper incident to humanity, have befallen perfons in attendance on the publick Service , they nave been rafhly urged as caveats from heaven againff the very prayers. And thus (in common life ^ where men are at variance, and fee the rod of God lying upon the back of their adverfaries, they are ready to fay, God hath eipoufed their caufe and avenged their quarrel; and fo, , to kill their brother with Gods fword , and make him a party in all their petty quarrels and animofities. Againff all fuch unclean proofs, which (Uke the Crab ) go backward, from e vents to rules, I otter thefe confiderations, i. As God in his word, hath recorded fome a&ionsof very emi¬ nent perfons [ as the equivocating of Abraham with Abimelech, Ra¬ chel her defeating oi Laban with a fallhood, fome a&ionsof Samfon, &jc. ] not noted (like the-Jewifti Sepulchres^ with any vifible figne of reproof and ddlike, thatfo men might not unwittingly defile themfelves by copying out the example (in which he doth but prove ourconffancy to his even and undoubted precepts, and try whether we have underltanding to put a difference between the bl ight and darker fide of that cloud of witnefj’cs we are to eye in our way to heaven ) fo alfo in his providence there are tentationes diving i \ God often blaits the caufe of truth and goodnefs by adverfe provi¬ dences, the cloud often reffs upon the tabernacles of the Righteous^ the fire of heaven fometimes ttrikes a religious houfe, the chief Wit- neffes of truth fhall be forc’d to know themfelves by the title of Vi fins Vei populus, God hereby makes trial whether we will believe the Spirit of the living creature to move in the wheels, whilff they de- feribe fuch involv’d and perplex’d circles and motions; whether We love truth’ and vertue, or rather their fortunes and felicities. Befides, the divine relation, and light of righteoufnefs and truth, never make fuch clear reports of themfelves, as when they break out and fhine forth at laff, through all the clouds of perfection and herefies, God often permits them for a time to be obfeured withal}- V • Prodigious evils upon its Adverfaries, is a plea which almoff any caufe is able to enter for it felf at one time or other. The Ifrae- Jfttdg. io« 10. lites fell twice before the Benjamites though engag’d in a war ( feU dom unprofperous) intended onely ut vinditta publica. We finde the Heathens often mentioning the judgements which befell the Vid. ValJ contemptores Deorum religionis, among them. And Herodotus tells Max. Cap. us that feveral Barbarians ( as he ffyles them ) adventuring to rulh de Contempt, rudely upon the Temple of Minerva y had the irreligion of theat- Relig. tempt aveng’d upon them by a fire from heaven. An event to which Herodot.1,8. I* incline to intitle the efpecial agency of the Devil ( amongft G g7. whofe ffranger works , the caufing of fire to come down from heaven% is efpecially inffanc’d inRev; i j. i$. ) to maintain thereby a reve¬ rence in the minds of men to his altars and rites, and perhaps to imi¬ tate the fire which came forth from God, under the old law, to a- venge the irreverend and.unhallowed approaches to his altars; or which fell from heaven to chaff ife the rude andviolentaddreffesof the$