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.

73/150 (page 51)

$yzov* fulness of time, wherein they (hall be completely fulfilled. Gcd often draws firmlar and parallel lines of confufion, over different times and places , whips many ftubborn children with the fame rod, and therefore prophefies of the fame vengeance may have their re¬ peated accomplifhments. Secondly, Some learned men underffand in thefe places a real ana literal darkning of thefe great bodies of light, though arifing not trom any common and natural, but an extraordinary and iupernatural caule. The reafons of which expofition, I fbail remit to their proper place; which (if they appear (atisfaftory ) nothing can be thence conclu~ ded in favour of prefages by thefe Prodigies, which are but fome more unufual effefts lying hid in the powers of natural Agents, and fome^ times exerting themielves. There is one place of Scripture more which may feem to fome to require (perhaps to refufe) an anfwer, vi\. that Luke ax. n. where our Bleifed Saviour ( foretelling that large line of confufionto bs ftretched out upon the Holy City, and whole nation of the Jews, at as a precedent ligne thereof, tells his Difciples, Great earthquakes Jhall be in divers places, and faminesj and pejtilences, &c. now earthquakes have been numbred with Prodigies -natural. I anfwer, Firft, When God hath once fealed them by his fanmon and in- ftitution, Prodigies natural may be regarded as the figns of events arbitra¬ ry and jupernatural. Gods bow- (without a Bring ) in the heavens, is to us a figne that the world need never fear perilling by any inch fatal arrow as once was {hot out of the clouds, [A univerfal deluge] although it be owing to a natural and necelfary caufe; as being [by Gods u.ftitution ] advanc’d to the dignity o[ a ligne of grace and favour. Thus when God had told the people that, as an expreffion of his great5difpleafure againft them for asking of a king , He would fend thunder and rain ( things in themfelves natural, except it be faid that the peculiar condition of that feafon and climate, made them approach to a miracle) it was a religious fear with which i Sam. 12. the people entertain’d their coming. God may appoint the crowing of a cock ( at fuch an inftant of time ) to be one of his figns. So, when the Difciples had asked a ligne of their Lord> when all his pre~ Luke it.fi diftions concerning the Temple and Nation, fhould come to pafs^ and he had mentioned (amongft othersjGreat earthquakes}they were then prefer’d a kinde of Sacraments and prophetick fymbols of the terrible Chakingof the Jewilh worlhip. and polity now approach¬ ing. And indeed when the great wickednefs and fecurity of that- generation had merited.)that that fatal time (hould fall as a fnare upon all them that then dwelt on the earthfuch figns as had a natural caufe feemed the moft proper indications thereof, as which (becaufe hap¬ pening at that time) might fuf&ciently Warn.and alarm the Chrifti- ans, and lull fafter alleep the more Atheiftical and incredulous part’ of that age; appearing to them ^ but the more unufual works of in¬ terrupted nature. To conclude now, that becaufe fome earthquakes, of Gods appointing, were his figns, therefore all are , is as inconfe— quent an inference as this.; the bread and wine are figns and feals in*$