Item #49471 A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by them is reprehended, and their true and proper Ends asserted and vindicated, to which is added a short Treatise Concerning Vulgar Prophecies Wherein the Vanity of Receiving them as the certain Indications of any future Event is discovered And some Characters of Distinction between true and pretending Prophets are laid down ( Two Volumes in One ). John SPENCER.
A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by them is reprehended, and their true and proper Ends asserted and vindicated, to which is added a short Treatise Concerning Vulgar Prophecies Wherein the Vanity of Receiving them as the certain Indications of any future Event is discovered And some Characters of Distinction between true and pretending Prophets are laid down ( Two Volumes in One ).

A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by them is reprehended, and their true and proper Ends asserted and vindicated, to which is added a short Treatise Concerning Vulgar Prophecies Wherein the Vanity of Receiving them as the certain Indications of any future Event is discovered And some Characters of Distinction between true and pretending Prophets are laid down ( Two Volumes in One ).

London: Will. Graves, 1665. Second Edition Corrected & Enlarged. Hardcover. Small octavo. [xxxii] + 408pp. + [viii] 136 + [vi]. Contemporary brown leather boards. All edges marbled. 2 volumes in one, each with its own separate title-page. The title-page of the second volume reads "Each volume with its own title page, the second title-page reading ""A Discourse Concerning Vulgar Prophecies. Wherein The Vanity of receiving them as the certain Indications of any future Event is discovered; And some characters of Distinction between true and pretending Prophets are laid down." The work is described as "A greatly extended edition of Spencer's refutation of omens and apparitions and the first to include his new publication, a "Discourse Concerning Vulgar Prophecies." The book examines a copious assemblage of superstitions and auguries, such as comets, eclipses, the turning of ponds to blood and the moving of mountains, tracing the history of the Old Testament and classical mythology and commending the study of Natural Philosophy. John Spencer (1630-1693) was an eminent Hebraist and has been held to be "the founder of the study of comparative religion." (Wing, S4948) Leather binding somewhat worn & discolored (not unpleasantly mottled), front hinge cracking, but board firmly attached by its cords. Endpapers discolored, occasional minor edge chips to some pages, small hole in top corner of page 405/406 (affecting page number), there are some small burn-holes to the text of pp. 83-90 of the second volume, progressing and then reducing in size, with the largest being no more than the size of two match-heads and causing the loss of three or four letters of text on either side. Otherwise a tight & complete near-VG copy. Item #49471

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