N00242:13
Heavens alarm to the world. Or A sermon wherein is showed, that fearful sights…Heavens alarm to the world. Or A sermon wherein is shewed, that fearful sights…
Heavens alarm to the world. Or A sermon wherein is showed, that fearful sights and signs in heaven are the presages of great calamities at hand. By Increase Mather; teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Eleven lines of Scripture texts]Heavens alarm to the world. Or A sermon wherein is shewed, that fearful sights and signs in heaven are the presages of great calamities at hand. By Increase Mather; teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Eleven lines of Scripture texts]
printed by John Foster, 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
As for that Blazing Star, which hath occasioned this present Discourse, it was a terrible sight indeed, especially about the middle of December last, the stream of such a stupendous magnitude, as that no man now living ever beheld the like. That in the year 1618. was looked upon as very prodigious, (b)yet the radiant Locks of it were not extended above 45. degrees in length, when as this was about 60. degrees. Yet I cannot say there never was any so dismal since the world began, for I have read of diverse no less fearful. Seneca (c)speaketh of a Comet whose magnitude was equal with that of the Sun: and of another that prodigiously diffused it self over the Vialactea; and of one that extended from Helice to Buris. That which appeared Anno Christi 1452. (d)was above 50 degrees in length. Writers speak of some blazing Stars that have been attended with a much longer stream Nevertheless, one so fearful to behold as this, hath rarely been known: and without controversy some great thing is portended thereby. I see little reason to conclude, that it is an Omen of happy days to the world, until God hath made way for mercy by great Judgements. Especially considering, that we are fallen into the dregs of time, wherein the days must and shall be perilous: It was long since (e)conjectured, that in the Ages more immediately preceding the day of Judgement, Comets and other fearful Sights should be more frequent then formerly, 5as intimations of the great and amazing Revolutions in those Ages to be accomplished. It will not be long before the second Woe Trumpet hath done its work, and then the third Woe will come quickly. The Lord grant that we may be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of man at his coming.
As for that Blazing Star, which hath occasioned this present Discourse, it was a terrible sight indeed, especially about the middle of December last, the stream of such a stupendous magnitude, as that no man now living ever beheld the like. That in the year 1618. was looked upon as very prodigious,