appearances above the Moon in the words of Varro as they are quoted by St. Augustine in 3 Books De civitate Dei and as I take it the eight Chapter In coelo mirabile extitit portentum nam in stella veneris nobilissima quam Plautus vesperruginem Homerus Hesperon appellat pulcherrimam dicens Castor scribit tantum portentum fuisse ut mutaret colorem magnitudinem figuram motum quod factum ita neque antea neque post fit hoc factum Ogyge rege decebant Aâ—â—rastus Cyzicenus Dion Neapolites Mathematici nobiles In Heaven saith he appeared a most marvellous great wonder the most noted Star called Venus which Plautus terms Vespurruga and Homer Hesperus the fair as Castor hath left it upon record changed both colour bigness figure and motion which accident was never seen before nor since that time the renowned Mathematicians Adrastus and Dyon averring that this fell out during the reign of King Ogyges of which he gives no other account then this This happened Quia ille voluit qui summo regit imperio ac potestate quod condidit That the world might acknowledge God its Creator and commander who can alter or destroy the natures restrain or suspend the operation of all things therein at his pleasure which keeps men from worshipping them as Gods since they cannor keep themselves from alteration But one absurdity follows not another so fast as one impertinent argument ingages another From the alteration of the world we proceeded to the end of it now approaching 666. was up that text There shall be signes in Heaven was urged not remembring the place where it is written An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh a sign Considering to what disorder these loose imaginations may reduce the more ignorant people it was not unseasonable to insert a just account of the end of the world which take thus briefly I. That the world shall have an end is not only an Article of the Christians faith but the very result of the Heathens reason Qualis est futura vita sapientis c. How shall a wise man live without friends if in prison or banished Saith Seneca in his ninth Epistle Qualis est Jovi cum resoluto mundo is his Answer as Jupiter shall live when the world shall be dissolved contenting himself within himself Quid enim saith the same Author mutationis periculo exceptum non terra non coelum non totus hic rerum contextus quamvis Deo agente ducatur non semper tenebit hunc ordinem sed illum ex hoc cursu aliquis dies dejiciet omnia sternet abducetque secum vetustas supprimet montes Maria sordebit unus omnia condet dies The curious may see Oecumenius in Collectaneis super 3. post Pet. out of Heraclitus Empedocles Anaxagoras Democritus yea and Aristotle himself Lucretius and Lucan in their excellent Poems the first De rerum Natura 3. the second in his Pharsal l. 1. Sic cum compagi solutâ c. See Euseb Demonstrat Evang. l. 3. Grot. de verit Relig. l. 2. Morney du Plessis ibid. II. That the World shall end by Fire is as certain among the Gentiles as among us as appears from the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seneca's exitus hujus mundi â—gnis humor primordium Panaetius the Stoicks fear Nè ad extremum mundus ignosceret Lucans Rant Communis mundo superest rogas ostibus astra misturus Ovid's great reach Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus quo mare quo tellus correptaque regia coeli ardeat The Sybills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in Clemens Alexandrinus and many more in Ludovicus Vives who made this Observation Exustionis ultimae odor quidam etiam ad Gentes manavit de Fid. l. 2. Magnis de exustione mundi and Eugubin de Perenni Philosophia l. 10. III. There is this reason why the World should burn by Fire because that as the waters above the Heavens and those under the Earth the moisture that dwell in the Fountains of the deep and that which was let out of the windows of Heaven prepared the Universe for the first Inundation so likewise the Fire that dwells notwithstanding the Noble Tychoes Arguments in the upper Region and the Starrs and the Sulphureous matter that is lodged in the Caverns of the Earth do prepare it for the last conflagration when he who dwells in everlasting burnings and is Consuming Fire shall come out of the Light invisible with ten thousands of his Angels waiting upon him and a thousand times ten thousand going before him those Angels that are Spirits and those Ministers that are a flaming fire casting a glance and glory over the amazed Universe that shall awake those Seeds and Principles of Heat and Fire that have insinuated themselves into this vast Frame to an universal combustion that shall make this all but one great Body Flame and Smoak of Fire and Darkness as is prepared for the Devil his Angels and Servants IV. It s confessed that the burning of Vesuvius and Aetna and the other flames mentioned by Dr Moor do intimate that last Fire yea and what is more to see an exhalation of 800 miles compass such as some say this is set on fire by the coelestial heat doth argue it for sure besides the divine power our Religion points us to its possible the Heavens may be placed in such a Position and Aspect as may burn as much more and so till we come to a possibility that a fiery Conjunction may burn the Universe yet because this is but wide and conjectural it should not trouble our heads with fear or disorder upon any strange appearance onely it should dispose us to some serious thoughts of that passage 2 Pet. 3. that as by the word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the Water and in the Water c. Whereby the World that then was being overflowed with water perished But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men But beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day The Lord is not stack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and
resolved to sit up upon Sunday Night and send for the Learned and Ingenious T. F. with his Instruments with whom about one of the Clock after incomperable discourses out of Tycho Brahe concerning the Comet of the last Age I went out to your beloved Lodge which lyeth you know most happily for it whither as soon as we could discern the so much talked of Star my Lady and the young Folk being awaked and invited to the Prospect You would not imagine what pretty little Observations every body made about the colour and the fashion of it But the wonder being a little over and we at leisure and able to make distinct and particular reflections take them as we made them with their Night and disorder about them this being not to express our Art but our Duty A Comet we concluded it and a Comet our Ingenious friend defined to be an exhalation hot and dry of vast quantity fat clammy hard-compact like a lump of Pitch which by the heat of the Sun is drawn out of the Earth into the highest region of the Air and there by the excessive heat of the place is set on fire appearing like a Star with a blazing flame carried most usually by the motion of the Air which is circular but never goeth down out of sight though it be not seen in the day time for the light of the Sun but still burneth till all the matter be consumed And that we might be sure that the matter of these Blazing appearances is great There was never he said and Wendeline said so before him a Comet but at the least it continued eight dayes some of them continuing 40 dayes some 80 some 4 months some 6. It must needs sure be an admirable deal of matter that can give so much nourishment to so great and fervent a Fire and for so long a time After some discourses of Anaxagoras and Democritus his Opinion that a Comet was none other than an heap of massy Planets together which modern Philosophy hath made so ridiculous that it is fitter for Democritus to laugh at than discourse and so absurd that Anaxagoras his Snow is black is more rational observing all the Planets distinctly above the Horizon And yet a Comet seen distinct from them Of Empedocles his fancy that they were an heap of vapours gathered together by the Genii or Angels of each place which we thought not fit to discourse considering our vast distance from the genuine notions of Spirits of the Pythagoreans imagination of which our Hypocrates not the Physician seems the Master that a Comet is one of the Planets which disappears at its nearer distance from the Sun hid in its light and appears again after some time when further off that glorious body as a new thing an Imagination that Julius Scaliger thinketh not fit to answer any otherwise than Aristotle had done before him 1. Meteor 6. viz. by asserting the appearance of of two together in his time as the Stagyrite had done in his even when all the Planets were seen in clear night as clearly as the Sun at Noon day After I say these extravagant chats the Gentlewomen fell into a discourse of the colour of it an argument of a more superficial consideration the substance whereof was to this purpose that Colour being as the Philosopher saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reflection of light upon the outside of an enlightned body or matter according to the matter therefore must needs be the Colour of any body and so of these Comets if the matter be very thick they are blew like burned brimstone if but meanly thick they are ruddy as a burning flame if thin they are white as the pulifaced Moon and as the matter is more or less so disposed they are yellowish duskish greenish c. although besides all this I remember the Conimbricensian Philosophers and they no Fools I 'le assure you assign the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the predominant Stars under which these Meteors appear as the reason of the variety of Colours for they place every Comet under its peculiar Star 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the natural Philosopher this seems to be but some thin Exhalation for it looks but poorly upon it From the Colour we passed to the Frame and Fashion of it and that likewise was observed to arise from the Matter of it for there are three Proportions wherein these Meteors appear with a Beard hanging down with Beams round about with a Tayl stretched out obliquely in length The first of these appears when the Exhalation is thick in the midst and in length downwards also meanly thick The second is when the Exhalation is thick in the midst and equally thin round about the edges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are our Masters words The third to which it seems he was a stranger as Seneca was after him is like the first save that the Exhalation hangeth not down but lyeth side-long and is usually of a greater length than the Beard Upon this occasion I could not choose but recollect how Pliny as I take it in the 7th Book of Natural Questions and 11 or 12. Chapters or rather the 2. Nat. H. 1 2. makes ten sorts of Comets The first two that I have mentioned the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or after the similitude of a Dart The fourth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or like a Sword The fifth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Tub hollow and dark The sixth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or horny or rather turning and winding like a Horn The seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 round as a dish or like the picture of the Sun scattering thin watry Beams from the edges The eight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Horses Mane The ninth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silver-hair'd because of the light and fulgor of the circum-jacent flame And the last the Blazing Star we have now before us but all these may be referred to the number fore-mentioned After all this you will expect the description of this Comet which the excellent T. F. hath drawn as exactly as I have seen his Pencil being nothing below his Pen it seems the exhalation is somewhat thick a top which makes it look like a Star and of all the Stars likest Jupiter of any Star as I could imagine though our friend would needs contest it was like Mars and really it was like to have its influence upon us for it was almost a quarrel and effectually a wager between us about the figure But whatever that Star-like appearance is its tayl or the long vapour that stretcheth from it is some 6 yards and a half in length and 3 in bredth pointing obliquely Westward very sharp towards the bottom although its possible it should alter its proportion as it spends its matter which I suppose was almost half spent when we observed it But we were not puzzled so much in the figure as in the scituation of it for our Assistant with
the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we acccording to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless And account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you As also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen Of the Influence between a Planet or Comet and Men. FRom a wild discourse of the end of the world we are led into an account of the Influence that this Comet may have upon Men who do as much fear their own end from it as they did before the World as if it were a Torch onely lighted to lead to Funeralls Comets have no other Influence then that natural one we spake of elsewhere besides the vertue of their respective Planets nor the Planets any but in Conjunction with the Elements nor they but in their predominancie in every particular man whence this usual Table of Operation is made whence we may gather what we are to look in our particular capacities from this famous Meteor The sympathy of the twelve Signes with the four Elements ♈ Fiery Hot and dry Cholerick ♉ Earthly Cold and dry Melancholy ♊ Aerial Hot and moist Sanguine ♋ Watery Cold and moist Phlegmatick ♌ Fiery Hot and dry Cholerick ♠Earthly Cold and dry Melancholy ♎ Aerial Hot and moist Sanguine ♠Watery Cold and moist Phlegmatick ♠Fiery Hot and dry Cholerick ♑ Earthly Cold and dry Melancholy ♒ Aerial Hot and moist Sanguine ♓ Watery Cold and moist Phlegmatick The nature and qualities of the seven Planets in union with the four Elements ♄ Earthly Cold and dry Melancholy ♃ Airy Hot and moist Sanguine ♂ ☉ Fiery Hot and dry Cholerick ♀ ☽ Watery Cold and moist Phlegmatick Some influence no man will deny the Stars and those Exhalations that depend upon them that considereth Sir Walter Raleigh's words who would say that it could not be doubted but the Stars were instruments of some greater use than to give an obscure light and for men to gaze on after the Sun set it being probable that the same goodness that endued the meanest being with some virtue denyed not a bodies proportionable power to those glorious bodies which are created without question to the same end in heaven that plants flowers c. are in the earth not only to adorn but to serve it according to this Stanza I 'le never believe that the Arch-architect With all these fires the heavenly arches deck'd Only for shew and with these glistering shields To amaze poor shepherds watching in the fields I 'le ne're believe that the light flower that pranks Our garden borders or the common banks And the least stone that in her warming lap Our kind nurse Earth doth courteously wrap Hath some peculiar virtue of its own And that the glorious Stars of heaven have none But shine in vain and have no charge precise But to be walking in heavens galleries And through that Palace up and down to clamber As golden gulls about a Princes chamber But if the true and uttermost virtues of herbs and plants which our selves sow and set under our foot cannot be comprehended by us Hardly do we guess aright the things that are upon the earth and with labour do we find the things that are before us but the things which are in heaven who hath searched out Wisd 9.10 much less can reach the farthest power of these Stars of whose effects upon natural things skilful Astronomers may give a good account but for the things that rest in the liberty of mans will the Stars saith an excellent person have doubtless no power over them except the will be led by the sensitive appetite and that again stirred up by the constitution and complexion of the body as too often it is especially where the humours of the body are strong to assault and the virtues of the mind too weak to resist Incline a man they may force him they cannot reason and Religion may so alter the inclination of the first whereof Socrates was an eminent instance of old and Cardinal Pool was such of late the firsts nativity being calculated the Astrologer was laughed at for saying he was deboist and an ill-natured man till Socrates defended him saying He was such a one before education had changed him the other being certified by an acquaintance who pretended skill in the favours of the Stars that he should be raised and advanced to a great calling in the world made answer That whatever was portended by the figure of his birth or natural generation was cancelled and altered by the grace of his second birth or regeneration in the blood of his Redeemer The natural conclusion whereof is that in Buchanans words De Sphaera Quanquam moles omni sibi parte coherens Una sit nexis per mutua vincula membris Conspiret positusque semel Rectore sub uno Observet Leges c. Though there is some coherence in the series of things yet is it not so fatal and necessary but that Gods power our education or grace may change it and though guilty men fear where there is no fear and by that fear fall into what they feared that passion betraying the succor of teason yet good men knowing that the Stars are made to serve and not to rule them men were not made for Stars but Stars for men and that their prayers as did Eliahs Hezekiahs who were men subject to their infirmities can avail much against the heavens their influence and Stars settle themselves upon providential Principles against all events chusing rather a modest ignorance then a curious inquisition following the pithy counsel of Phavorinus apud A. G. l. 14. c. 1. with which we shall conclude Either they portend thee bad or good luck if good and they deceive thou wilt become miserable by a vain expectation if bad and they lye thou wilt be miserable by vain fear if they foretel true but unfortunate events thou wilt be miserable in mind before thou art by destiny if they promise fortunate success which shall indeed come to pass these two inconveniences will follow thereupon both expectation by hope shall hold thee in suspence and hope will devour and deflower the fruit of thy content This Discourse raised such expectations concerning this strange thing that we were