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
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

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.

    34/150 (page 12)
    Of Natural Prodigies. I Mat, 16. i. Heb. 12. 26,27, Seft. 1. hard in quiet [inafmooth and ferene temper;] the myfteries-of the Gofpel come forth cloth’d in fedate and intelligible forms or fpeechj the minds of men are not now drawn into ecfialie by any fuch vehe^ ment and great examples of Divine Power and Juftice as attended the lower and more fervile ftate of the World. The miracles our Sa~ oiour Wrought were of a calm and gentle nature [curing the blinde, refioring theficke and lame, not caufing of thunder and ftorms as Samuel, but appeafingchem] none oithem fuch as the Jews call d for. &X, igqv'ts, ligns from heaven, fuch prodigious and af¬ frighting thunders and fires which attended the delivery or the law and thefpiritof Elijah* Indeed the Veil of the Temple wm rent, the Sun dreadfully eclypft, the Earth terribly lhaken at his death, but thefe afionilhing wonders were made ufe of as his laftrelerveto conquer the prejudices of an obdurate people, upon whom his more gentle and obliging infiances of Divine Majefty made no lmpremon: and perhaps thefe prodigious changes in Nature were intended as Prophetick emblems of the great change Ihortly to enfue tn heaven [the way of worfhip and religion] and Earth [the powers and Kingdoms of the World] by the power.and Do&rine of thatPer- fon who then died upon the Crofs. _ ,rc That mighty rujhing jVind atPentecoft which was iflu dma forc and lambent fire upon the heads of the firfi Preachers of the Gofpel was poflibly a figure of that more vehement and terrible State of the law, which uflier’d the Way for anddetermmd in the more fedate and gentle difpenfation of the Gofpel. God hath now (ma great meafure) left frighting of men to heaven by vifible terrours; the law of the Melfiaf was deliver’d upon the mount in the fmall and ftillvoice, and isfethome upon the hearts of men by the terrour Mat. 23.14. onelyof a ri&os'oTze.vv more heavy vengeance m another World, then what overtook the defpifersof Mofes law ■•^od pe&s now that we fliould be judicioufly religious, and acted to his fervice by a Spirit of love and of a found mindcj to fear his threatnings more then the burnings of Sinai, to look upon a bad man (fince the appearance of Chrift to take away fin,) as the greateft Prodigy, and to expea the figns of an approaching judgment^* nErrxtu Natu- r*,Thushiave I endeavour’d the proofof the Thefts propos’d, by fome general Reafons and Arguments: Others there are. of as great mo- ment, which (that I overlay not the^Readers patience) lhallbe referv’d as fo many nerves and finews to run t hrough, and hold to¬ gether the main body of the enfuing Difcourfe. SECT; * • -At