N00277:236
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.
All this notwithstanding the curiosity and presumption of Judicial Astrologers, is not to be justified, who undertake peremptorily to Prognosticate, what the particular things are, (yea, and the places and persons concerned in them) that shall come to pass after such Configurations and Planetary Aspects. I have read of a Mah•medan Astrologer who did praedict a great inundation to be in Syria, A.D. 1095. because of a Conjunction of all the Planets (except Saturn) in the watery sign of Pisces, (like as it was before Noah's Flood) which fell out to be true. But such Astrologers have at other times come off with shame by their bold and rash predictions, as Calvisius, and Wendelinus have more then once noted e. g. A.D▪ 1•86. because of rare Conjunctions of all the Planets then happening; the Astrologers of those days declared that there would follow ho• rendous Tempests of Wind, and after that I know not what miracles, nothing of which came to pass. Again, A.D. 1323. By reason of a notable Conjunction of the Planets in Libra, one John David (a great Astrologer at Toledo in Spain) and many others with him, sent forth his Proclamations ⟨p. 141⟩a broad into the World, declaring that that Conjunction of the Planets would be attended with Famine, Earth-quakes, and such a Storm of Wind, as that there would be no living above Ground, affirming that all the Philosophers and Astrologers in Spain, Arabia, and in Greece were of the same Opinion. But when these things should be accomplished, not a word of them proved true. Another on the like ground, declared that the World would end, Anno. 1464. Another from the like Planetary Conjunctions, prophesied that Anno. 1524. a General Deluge would overwhelm the Earth; which many injudicious people giving credit unto, got either into Ships or unto high Towers, lest haply the Astrologers flood should drown them. †But the event proved these predictions to be false and foolish.
All this notwithstanding the curiosity and presumption of Iudicial Astrologers, is not to be justified, who undertake peremptorily to Prognosticate, what the particular things are, (yea, and the places and persons concerned in them) that shall come to pass after such Configurations and Planetary Aspects. I have read of a Mahmedan Astrologer who did praedict a great inundation to be in Syria, A.D. 1095. because of a Conjunction of all the Planets (except Saturn) in the watery sign of Pisces, (like as it was before Noah's Flood) which fell out to be true. But such Astrologers have at other times come off with shame by their bold and rash predictions, as Calvisius, and Wendelinus have more then once noted e. g. A.D 186. because of rare Conjunctions of all the Planets then hapning; the Astrologers of those dayes declared that there would follow ho rendous Tempests of Wind, and after that I know not what miracles, nothing of which came to pass. Again, A.D. 1323. By reason of a notable Conjunction of the Planets in Libra, one John David (a great Astrologer at Toledo in Spain) and many others with him, sent forth his Proclamations