AS an Appendix to the Endeavours used in the foregoing Treatise, to Commemorate the Wonderful Works of God, and at the same time to awaken this Country unto such a Devotion and Repentance as the Works of God are calling for: It ought to be seriously enquired, Whether we have not been by any Prodigies Warned of the Evils near unto us? tho' it must be confessed, that our Hearts were Prodigiously obdurate and insensible, if we needed any, while we have Moses and the Prophets. The written Word of God is that Firmament, spread over the Spiritual, which answers the Expansum in the Natural World; and the Threatenings with the Histories therein shining •nd Thundering, would give to a sinful People ⟨image ?⟩as great a premonition of impendin Plagues, as the most Portentous Armies in th Air, or Comets in the Aether of the Universe. Yet even Insolit Accidents of Nature, as well as Faithful Cautions of Scripture have been employed for our awakening in our late stupidity. Indeed there are some from whom we might have expected a less unreasonable Scepticism, who deride all Prodigies; but these Gentlemen, like Those who deny Original Sin, do in their own Disputation confute themselves, by Giving, yea, by Being an Instance of the very thing, which they oppose. Nay, Let no more than the Authorities and Varieties recited by the Great Zuinger, in his Elaborate Theatre, upon the Head of Prodigies, be fairly considered, and I know not whether you will allow them to be called Gentlemen, that shall be so Disingenuous as to make a Ridicule of all in this kind, that has been hitherto Reported and Believed. I acknowledge, That there ought to be much Accuracy in the Observation of Prodigies; and that those things ought not always to be accounted Prodigies which are Extraordinaries; and that it is a simple thing to believe every word; and since I have seen the Nonconformists Reproached for their minding of Prodigies, by the loose Pens of certain Writers, whom, weighing well their Accomplishments, ⟨image ?⟩by their own Rule, we ought not to mind, I have been desirous that we may 'so far take the Informations, tho' we value not the Judgments of their Malice, as to be sufficiently critical in this important point; yet we may not by profanity maintain our own Security. Although' that the Eternal God, Hate Robbery for burnt offering, and it is as Pangerous as 'tis an officious thing, To Lie for Him:
AS an Appendix to the Endeavours used in the foregoing Treatise, to Commemorate the Wonderful Works of God, and at the same time to awaken this Countrey unto such a Devotion and Repentance as the Works of God are calling for: It ought to be seriously enquired, Whether we have not been by any Prodigies Warned of the Evils near unto us? tho' it must be confessed, that our Hearts were Predigiously obdurate and insensible, if we needed any, while we have Moses and the Prophets. The written Word of God is that Firmament, spread over the Spiritual, which answers the Expansum in the Natural World; and the Threatnings with the Histories therein shining •nd Thundering, would give to a sinful People ⟨image ?⟩as great a praemonition of impendin Plagues, as the most Portentous Armies in th Air, or Comets in the AEther of the Universe. Yet even Insolit Accidents of Nature, as well as Faithful Cautions of Scripture have been emplov'd for our awakening in our late stupidity. Indeed there are some from whom we might have expected a less unreasonable Scepticism, who deride all Prodigies; but these Gentlemen, like Those who deny Original Sin, do in their own Disputation confute themselves, by Giving, yea, by Being an Instance of the very thing, which they oppose. Nay, Let no more than the Authorities and Varieties recited by the Great Zuinger, in his Elaborate Theatre, upon the Head of Prodigies, be fairly considered, and I know not whether you will allow them to be called Gentlemen, that shall be so Disingenuous as to make a Ridicule of all in this kind, that has been hitherto Reported and Believed. I acknowledge, That there ought to be much Accuracy in the Observation of Prodigies; and that those things ought not always to be accounted Prodigies which are Extraordinaries; and that it is a simple thing to believe every word; and since I have seen the Nonconformists Reproched for their minding of Prodigies, by the loose Pens of certain Writers, whom, weighing well their Accomplishments, ⟨image ?⟩by their own Rule, we ought not to mind, I have been desirous that we may 'so far take the Informations, tho' we value not the Judgments of their Malice, as to be sufficiently critical in this important point; yet we may not by profanity maintain our own Security. Altho' that the Eternal God, Hate Robbery for burnt offering, and it is as Pangerous as 'tis an officious thing, To Ly for Him:
