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.

53/150 (page 31)

$As for rmw/to, howfoever he may fecm (like fome carved ima¬ ges about houfesj to fupport and grace our adverfaries building, yet he will prove (in truth; to be like them barely forc’t and fatten'd on, and to lend no ftrength at all thereunto ; for i. the Father writ¬ ing to the Heathers there, might lawfully difcourfe with them Ex hypotkefi Ethnic# Thcologi#-, for they regarded thofe mighty Vulca- floras the courts of Plutoj and a kind of teftimony or tit emblem - of the fires and vengeance in another ftate. z. He ftiies the fe fires eruptions, but teftimonium exemplum, a teftimony and example of the Divine judgment, which in a laxe fenfe he might well doe, thefe feeming to be let forth by the Divine wifdom,as glaffes and pictures to convey to the duller world fome weak images of the horroursof thofe everlafting burnings in another world. Thefe durable fires are alledged not as any figns of an everlafting burning, but as the bell: argument Nature afforded to prove the poflibility of fucha burning againft the fons of Nature, whothougnt a fire which con- fumes non to be a great contradiction. And to a like purpofe we find the very fame inftances alledg’d againlt them by another of the Ancients. Sicut ignes fulminum corpora tangunt nec abfumunt, ficut ignes (s'Vcfuvii &ardentium ubique terrrarum flagrant nec erogantur-y ita pcenaleilludincendium non damnk ardentium pafceturi fed inexcfacorpo- rum laceratione mtritur. To the teffimony of S. AuJtinj I anfwer, i. That ftrange occur¬ rence {-by him mention’d) might poffibly appear to him cloth’din more fignificant circumftances then to us it doth*, who cannot but look at the fuddain Mania, of fo many creatures but as the natural, though more unufual effeCt, which in thofe hotter climates, the un¬ fitting feafon of the year might poffibly have upon them. i. He fpeaks but doubtfully thereof. Hoc fi fignum fuit. But if our adverfaries appeal to S.Auftin, to S. Aufiin fhallthey goe. Who (in his more awaken’d thoughts) thus delivereth himfelf in defiance of all fuch Ominous obfervations, Monftra diflafunt & Monftrando, quod aliquid fignificando demonjlrents ^Offenta &b Oftendendoj>oi’tet\ta H portendendodd eft,pr#oftendendo3& Prodigia, quod porro dicant, id ejt3 futura pradicant. Sed viderint eorum conjehores quomodo ex its five fallantur, five infiinclu Spirituum (quibus cur# eft, tali poena dignos animos hominum noxi# curiofitatis retibus impli¬ cate) ver a pr#dicant> five multa dicendo aliquando in aliquid veritatis in- currant. The teftimon y of Machiavel will appear, of no great moment, in this Argument if it be confidered ; i. Thofe figns -which he hath noted in the fame chapter as the pracurfouss of fome great evils ^arc vain} beyond the vifions of a feaver, and the rvhifpcrs of the windiior he there tells us that the death of Lorenzo de Medicest the Founder of the Dukedom of Tufcany in his family, was portended by the defaceing of their Great Temple in Florence, by fire from hea¬ ven ; and the Banifhment of Petrus Soderinus (one of the Pillars of State) by the burning of the Senate houfe by lightning. [Tenterden Steeple and Goodwin Sands!'] we may conclude by thefe ears that the F i whole Minut. Pel* S. Auguft, De Civit. Deil.a8.C.8,$