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.

Spencer, John, 1630-1693

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.

46/150 (page 24)

$if. 40. s- Jer- so, 38. Pf. 105. 3 6. Serm. 68. De fomniis. Vergil. Georg, l. r; prefs images and pourtraitures of himfelf, who believes and trembles. He would have his rites of worfhip of old, e>e)ie\cty.v^ejeti frightful! and amizing mylleries*,the Idols wherein he was worfhipt, bear in their very names and titles a remembrance of that bafenefs and fervility of fpirit which attended his votaries in the fervice offo ahfolute a Tyrant, (being Ril’d fometime s, honours (as ’tis rendred in the margin. 2Chron. 15.16.) fometimes, qand, D’EPK Signifying trouble and terrourf) and the Devils are Ril'd* DHJW coming from a Word which Signifies horrere, becaufeuiu- ally tendering themfelves to view in the moll frightfull forms. Now this fuperllitious perfwafion of Prodigies,, doth hugely mi- nifter to bondage of Spirit, and tends to feal men with a mark of Cain ('according to the JewsJ)a perpetual trembling and hllonifh- ment. The obfervation of prodigies proving fo ferviceable to the dark kingdom, if the experience of former times feem at alitocre- ditand recommend it, I Should be ready to alfert that of them. Which S. Bernard doth of Dreams Ex aftu Viaboli aliquando vera pro* nunciant%ut toties inmultk fallani ; through the fubtile agency of the Devil, they appear to declare truth fometimes, that they may the oftnerabufe men with Vain hopes or fears, with the lefs fufpicion afterward. , :*■: i : 6. This commpn perfwafion in men, h owing very much to the power and Magijterial authority of a traditional fuperftition, handed down from the very fir ft times of Gentile ignorance. There may very eafily be a Cabala Errorum, though hardly a Cabala Veritatim; Our Nature in this laps’tftate fas the ground to weeds.) being a Mother to errour, but (as that to good corn) a Step-mother to truth. How apt our Na¬ ture is to catch and propagate the infedlion of a fuperllitious tradi¬ tion, may appear from that ancient and modern ufage of graying for a Perfonuponnee\eing}the vulgar prefages confequem to the approach of any ftrangefifth to our Jbore, the regarding of any cafual flops and breaches m any hjiown Rivers, any odd noyfes hear (Bin the ftlences of the nighty and births [cal'd with the odd figures of an ungovern'd imagination,and many more (too mouldy with age to fet before the Reader) receiv’d of old among the Heathens, and at this day among too many Chrillians asDivineMonitours.and 2s Natures Rarting out ofitsufualroadflike the'Ajje.in lacre.d Writ) becaufe fome deilroying Angel Rands iuR before it. , ■ \V e Ihall find thefe and the like alterations in Nature, confequent to the death of Caftan, and precedent to the battail at Philippi re¬ corded with the great regards of the Heathen Poet, Tempore quanquam illo Telia2 quoque & aquera Bonti Obfcaniquc Canes, importunaque Volucres Signa dab ant_ Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudua filentes Infandum! fiftunt amnes, termque dehifount, &£. jjhicli pofiibly aftifted this tradition, was the fucceeding of Rome Chnftian> as into the place, fo into very many of the rites and ulages of Rome Fagani (as might be eafily made appear at large were \ . - . - ■ . ‘$