Miraculous Powers

CHAPTER V. PROPHESYING

D’Aubigne says: MIRP 70.3

“John Huss did more; prophetic words issued from the depths of his dungeon.” Huss saw the Reformation about one hundred years before Luther came, and was, says the historian, “The John Baptist of the Reformation.”—Hist. Ref. p. 30. MIRP 70.4

Milner, speaking of Sextus bishop of Rome, says: MIRP 71.1

“While they were carrying him to execution, Laurentius, his chief deacon, followed him weeping and said, ‘Whither goest thou, father, without thy son?’ Sextus said, ‘You shall follow me in three days.’ We may suppose him to have been possessed with the spirit of prophecy in saying this, because we are certain that miraculous gifts were as yet by no means extinct in the church.”—Church History, p. 166. MIRP 71.2

Charles Buck, author of Religious Anecdotes, speaking of the execution of George Wishart, a Protestant, says: MIRP 71.3

“Then looking toward the cardinal, he said, ‘He who in such state from the high place, feeds his eyes with my torments, within a few days shall be hanged out at that same window, to be seen, with as much ignominy as he now leans there with pride; and so his breath being stopped, he was consumed by the fire, near the castle of St. Andrew, in the year 1546. This prophecy was fulfilled, when, after the cardinal was slain, the provost, raising the town, came to the castle gates crying, ‘What have you done with my lord cardinal? Where is my lord cardinal?’ To whom they within answered, ‘Return to your houses, for he hath received his reward, and will trouble the world no more.’ But they still cried, ‘We will never depart till we see him.’ The Leslies then hung him out at that window, to show that he was dead, and so the people departed.”—Relig. Anec. pp. 188, 189. MIRP 71.4

John Wesley relates: MIRP 71.5

“A little before the conclusion of the late war in Flanders, one who came from thence gave us a very strange relation. I knew not what judgment to form of this, but waited till John Haine should come over, of whose veracity I could no more doubt than of his understanding. The account he gave was this— MIRP 71.6

’Jonathan Pyrah was a member of our society in Flanders. I knew him some years, and knew him to be a man of unblamable character. One day he was summoned to appear before the board of general officers. One of them said, “What is this which we hear of you? We hear you are turned prophet, and that you foretell the downfall of the bloody house of Bourbon, and the haughty house of Austria. We should be glad if you were a real prophet, and if your prophecies came true. But what sign do you give, to convince us you are so; and that your predictions will come to pass?” He readily answered, “Gentlemen, I give you a sign. To-morrow at twelve o’clock, you shall have such a storm of thunder and lightning, as you never had before since you came to Flanders. I give you a second sign: As little as any of you expect any such thing, as little appearance of it as there is now, you shall have a general engagement with the French within three days. I give you a third sign: I shall be ordered to advance in the first line. If I am a false prophet, I shall be shot dead at the first discharge. But if I am a true prophet, I shall only receive a musket ball in the calf of my left leg.” At twelve the next day there was such thunder and lightning as they never had before in Flanders. On the third day, contrary to all expectations, was the general battle of Fontenoy. He was ordered to advance in the first line. And at the very first discharge, he did receive a musket ball in the calf of his left leg.’”—Wesley’s Works, pp. 284, 285. MIRP 72.1