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.

74/150 (page 52)

$Amos i.: i King-.-* ?. the Sacrament, becaufe ftampt with a divine inftitution ; therefore all bread and wine may challenge the fame degree of reverence and regard from us. Secondly , Thefe earthquakes had fuch charafters upon them as nught fufficiently inclofe and diftinguifh them from the common if- lues or diiiurbed nature*, As, 1. Their greatnefs, the Text ftyles them great earthquakes. It is like- i. ly there appeared in them more then the bare force and impatience of fome crude and impnfoned vapours. We read of an earthquake in the days ol U\\iah, fo great and terrible , that we finde it made anEpochu in the Jewiih hiitories. fofephvA reports that lome furlongs or the mountains about ferufalem were rent afunder, and cities fwal- lowed up by it. Arijtotle ftyled the Celt& juMvoradf/'sc ^ madmen, becaufe an earthquake would fooner make a mountain tremble then them: certainly the title is too little for thofe which are not impref- hve to fome fear of God, when they fee him thus let loofe the pow¬ ers and forces of natural agents upon them. 2. Their multitude [ there were earthquakes in divers places ] Nature ran often againft her bias in the fame inftances, that fo the effed might not be intituled to the rub of fome cafual impediment, but to the hand of heaven over-ruling and directing it. And fhouldlhere grant (which Ifeeno reafon to do) that many and great earthquakes in a continent efpecially, are a figne of fome approaching evil, our adverfaries could advance little upon the concemon • both becaufe the example will I believe be found a heteroclite, and to Hand alone in the Hiftory of Nature, as alfo becaufe I conceive they would not adventure to comparea monfter or fiery meteor with the terrours of io many earthquakes ( generally fingled out in Scripture, as the mo- mtours of the Divine power and ma jefty ) $. Their dijmal attendants. The creatures would not nourifti fuch rebels againft heaven as were then upon earth. [ there were faminesj the air refufed to cherilh and refrefh them. [ there were peftilences ] the eyes of heaven fhrunk away from fuch hated objects [ the lights of heaven rvere darhjied ] the earth groaned and ftaggered in a fort, un¬ der her vile burden [ there Were earthquakes in divers places ] fo that thefe figns might, as letters do, fpeak that to a pious fear? in conjun¬ ction, which they could not have done in feparation. 4. Their Divine prediction. [There fhall be earthquakes ] and each 7. earthquake was a figne, not as EventtU mirabilis, but as Eventuspra- diffus.Saul his meeting of three ment carrying three \ids3 and three haves, and a, bottle-oj wine., when he parted from Samuel3 might have been received with the flight and palling notices of a cafual and common accident, had it not been foretold by the Prophet, as a figne of Gods prefence with him. And thus any of thefe earthquakes might per¬ haps have been received but with the common wonder which any rare and prodigious occurrence calls forth*, but becaufe foretold , it was a figne when it came to pafs, that that eye of prefcience which could forefee an event which held of no certain caufe, did with as much truth and certainty forefce that feaifull defolation approach¬ ing. vVl$