N00277:233
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired…
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as they have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as thay have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]
printed by S.G. for S.S. i.e, 1683
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.
And although such evil Events as those in the preceding Chapters related, have sometimes happened without any blazing star immediately forerunning, that doth not prove, that when such signs do appear in heaven, they are not signal of miseries not far off. Wars & commotions have happened though Armies have not been seen fighting in the Air. Will any man therefore say, that such apparitions are not to be accounted ominous or significative that evils of that nature are like to ensue? However, it is certainly much better for men to fear and prepare for the worst, then that Judgement should overwhelm them in their sin and security. A Jesuit confesseth, fthat when Johannes de Capistrano upon the appearance of a Comet. A▪D. 1460. declared in his public Sermons, that except the world did reform their lives and w•yes, they might justly expect that great Calamities were at hand, it was both piously and prudently done of him. It is dangerous for men to jest with such awful works of God. They that do so are guilty of worse ⟨p. 136⟩then barbarous profaneness: and such persons (be they high or low) seldom long escape the vengeance of Heaven. Some have observed that gwhen Pericles slighted a great Eclipse of the Moon, it proved a fatal Eclipse to him, and to those that he was concerned in. And Vespasian's Example should teach men to be careful how they despise such Works of God. Lege Historiam ne fias Historia. The merciful and righteous God useth to discharge his Warning pieces, before his Murdering pieces go off. Thrice happy they who take the Warning. I know not but that the possessed man might speak Truth, who affirmed the best Verse in Virgil to be that, Discite justitiam moniti & non temnere Numen.
And although such evil Events as those in the preceding Chapters related, have sometimes hapned without any blazing star immediately forerunning, that doth not prove, that when such signs do appear in heaven, they are not signal of miseries not far off. Wars & commotions have hapned though Armies have not been seen fighting in the Air. Will any man therefore say, that such apparitions are not to be accounted ominous or significative that evils of that nature are like to ensue? However, it is certainly much better for men to fear and prepare for the worst, then that Judgement should overwhelm them in their sin and security. A Jesuit confesseth,