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.

54/150 (page 32)

$Eph. i.i2. Ievit.2 6,$6* *pfoh.Polycar. his Traci, Tragi c. Camerar. de Oftent. Peucer. his Tcratofcof. whole harveftof hisother obfervations, he grounded his fore-men¬ tioned fpeech upon, was little befides chaff and husk.1 2. The fufpicion of Atheifm genders him alfo not a little to the fufpkion of Superfiition. The Heathens of old i\y\'d C'AS-so/ iv ;to<r^ft>)Atheifts in the world, were the moftfuperftitious obfervers of prefagesand Omens. They which live moft in negledtof God, think they fee to¬ kens of a, divine Nemefis, in every ftrange accident they behold. Superftition and Atheifm (like water and ice) produce one another; fiavifh and fuperftitious fears of God, leading to Atheifm as their cure, and Atheifm leading to greater fears of him, as its deferved punilhment. ’Tis a great juftice, that that wickednefs Ihould be punilhed with falfe fears, which hath discarded the true. They which will not fear God, and hell, and fin, {hall fear a Prodigie ; be - ing therein like the horfe (to which they ftand compared, 3^. 8. 6.) which willftart at its Shadow, and yet rujb [furioufly and without fear] into the battel. Man is born to trouble as the fpar%s file upward. The wheel of Pro¬ vidence is continually going over Kingdoms and Perfons 'The world (like Mount CalvaryJ prefentsus with nothing almoft but crof- fes and deaths, lpedtacles of nailery, LHeaven onely js a Kjngdom that cannot be Jbaken^ ] and therefore, no wonder it any unufual accidents, be foon feconded by fome tragedy or other, though never intended its Prologue, and precedent Monitour. The errour ( as 1 doubt not toftyleit)of the Reverend Dodlour Jaclifon in this argument, may be eafily pardoned to his fingular piety and learning; the light and luftre of which (like that of the Sun ) may eafily hide any of his fpots and blemiihes from the feverer eyes and notices of the world. Great minds (like the heavenly bodies) though they are moved ( for the main ) with the force of the Primum mobile, the weight and evidence of truth; yet they appear fometimes to have their declinationes propria?f fome private motions and declina¬ tions of their own, to which their peculiar Genius, impreftions from the Age, or their education may very fatally betray them- This opi¬ nion concerning Prodigies, anafigns of events future (which the general ftrain of his Writings fpeakshisminde hugely poffeft and dy’d withall)I am ready to reckon amongft thofe Idola fpecusfglCe notions, which the black and melancholy manfion his excellent foul plainly appears to have dwelt in, didabufe hisminde withall. Any events extraordinary in the world, feem all along to have had a great im- preflion upon his foul, and feem expounded fometimes a little more particularly then their juft value and moments will Well warrant and allow. Melancholy is of a very impreffwe temper, and poetick na¬ ture, and is apt ( like adark room ) to receive in the images of ob- jedts without, in very monftrous andantick figures and reprefen- tations. As for his Book °f Prodigies mentioned, I profefs my fel-f not great¬ ly tempted to follow its cafuallofs, with any deep fighs; and that not onely becaufe mens underftandings have been too much undervalued by *books of that Nature, already extant to a number fufficient to a \ -cure$