N00277:235
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.
Whether any of these have guessed right, he that lives thirteen years hence, will be better able to say: I am apt to believe that ere this Century be expired, there will be very great Revolutions in the World. But besides these general ones, there are particular Conjunctions of the two Superior Planets, which meet together once in (about) 20 years, and use to continue in their conjunction, until Mars come and join with them; and then it is admirable to behold three great Stars shining in the same sign in the Heavens▪ without any scintillation, *and these some call great Conjunctions (1)as portending great Events in ⟨p. 139⟩the World. And such a conjunction there has & will be within this twelve months, besides several others, in the same year and in the same Sign in the Heavens (as but now was noted) which is admirable to consider; some say the like hath not been these two thousand years. And it being in one of the signs in the fiery Trigon, there are who conclude that great Desolations by burning are at hand. I find that some weighty Writers conceive that such rare Conjunctions are portentous not only of great Revolutions and Changes, but also of new and unheard of Diseases amongst Mortals. The judiciously learned Hospinian kseems to incline unto this Opinion. It cannot be denied, but that the Planets have a great influence upon the Earth as to things which according to the course of nature are produced: The five lesser Planets are in the Scripture by way of eminency termed lStars of light, and are conjunctly mentioned with the Sun and Moon, as affording light, and being influential to the Earth beyond what may be affirmed of other Stars, Psal. 148.3 therefore to observe the Motion of the Celestial bodies, and what effects they do produce according to the ordinary course of nature, which the divine providence hath stated, is lawful and good. Turnheuseri•s reports (how he knew it to be so, I