An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

There are single Stars, and Stars (as I may say) in a combination, commonly called a Constellation. There is an Evening Star and a Morning Star (which yet are but one) called by the Greeks [Greek or Hebrew], and by the Latins Lucifer, The light bringer: because that Star appears very bright immediately before day-break, or before the Sun riseth; and the same Star which ushered or led in the Sun in the morning, comes behind the Sun in the evening, and is then called Hesperus, The Evening Star.

There are single Stars, and Stars (as I may say) in a combination, commonly called a Constellation. There is an Evening Star and a Morning Star (which yet are but one) called by the Greeks 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, and by the Latines Lucifer, The light bringer: because that Star appears very bright immediately before day-break, or before the Sun riseth; and the same Star which ushered or led in the Sun in the morning, comes behind the Sun in the evening, and is then called Hesperus, The Evening Star.

Here the Lord speaks in the plural number, of the morning Stars, not in the singular, of a morning Star. And the Lord calls them morning Stars (say some) because the Stars appear most clearly, and shine most brightly, near the approach of the morning, or break of the day.

Secondly, Others conceive them so called,¹ because they were created or formed in the very morning of the World; they were early made. For though (as I shall touch afterward) as to their perfection, the Stars were made the fourth day; yet their Creation is comprehended in the work of the first day, under those general words (