the mountains And said to the mountains and rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb For the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Rev. 4.1 2 3. chap. 5.1 6 8. chap. 6.12 17. which Scriptures in the plain literal sence plainly confute that opinion And here I challenge any Astronomer whatsoever to render any other meaning hereof if he can than the plain literal meaning But if he be not able then let him believe what is therein written in the book that God gave to the Lamb chap. 5.1 7. chap. 6.12 17. which agrees with Christ's words Matth. 24.29 30. Luke 21.25 27. and with Isai 13.10 11. and Joel 2.31 And if so many Stars fall to the earth as there fall green figs to the earth from a fig tree when she is shaken with a mighty wind then multitudes of Stars will fall to the earth and probably some of them which are of the first magnitude For according to Bagwell in his Mystery of Astronomy which is highly praised by John Booker and five others he tells us that a Star of the first or greatest magnitude of which there are 15 that every one of them is 107 times bigger than all the Earth Of the next degree 46 each of them 87 times bigger than all the Earth Of the third sort 208 every one of them 22 times bigger c. Of the fourth sort 280 54 times bigger c. Of the next degree 221 36 times bigger c. And of the least sort 55 which are set down to be every one of them 88 I suppose he meant 8 times bigger than all the Earth John Seller in his Atlas Coelestis of the 6 degrees aforesaid saith thus of them According to Ptolomy's computation they amount to 1022. Pliny he saith reckons them 1600 and the absolute number of all the Stars to be innumerable at least by humane calculation And according to Tycho and Boyer a Star of the first magnitude is compared to the Earth as 68 to 1. That is 68 times bigger than the Earth A Star of the second magnitude is as 28½ to 1. The third sort for greatness as 11 to 1. The fourth as 41 to 1. I suppose he meant as 4 to 1. The fifth as 1 / 18 to 1. And the sixth as â…“ to 1. That is three times bigger than the Earth See I pray how they differ Bagwell aforesaid saith thus also that some other of the ordinary Stars are much bigger than the whole compass of the Earth and that the least of all the Stars in that heaven are bigger than the Moon Believe him who will but I will not For I read in the Scripture of Truth that God said let there be Lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so God then made two great Lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made also the stars and set them in the firmament of heaven Gen. 1.14 15 16 17. Which foresaid Scripture enlightneth my understanding to believe that the Sun or Moon are bigger than any of the Stars And if there be such a number of Stars and that they be so many Worlds as Cardinal Cusanus and Jornandus Brunus affirm This is set down in the Book said to be made by Bishop Wilkins to prove that 't is probable there may be another habitable World in the Moon they will so cover the Earth that the Kings of the Earth c. sha'l not need to say to the Rocks and Mountains Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne When they are then hidden with so many Worlds probably some of them 107 times bigger than all the Earth And if their sayings be true it will be impossible for the Kings of the Earth and their Armies to make war against Christ and his Armies which they will doe as God's word declares Rev. 19.9 11 19. And concerning the Sun's bigness it is so great as a great Astronomer told me at Greenwich that it is impossible if his words be true that the Moon should shadow all the Sun from all the Earth at one time as Tycho affirms it cannot doe but he is therein contradicted by the supposed Bishop aforesaid who saith That the Diameter of the Moon for the most part appears to be bigger than the Sun 's and also saith That Tycho is therein singular being opposed by Keplar and all other Astronomers I say it is impossible that she should totally eclipse the Sun if she be less than the Earth 45 times as Atlas Coelestis saith she is and that the Sun is many Millions bigger than the Earth as the Astronomer aforesaid saith he is And now Countryman what doest thou think of this bigness The Astronomers laugh at thee for thinking that the Sun is no bigger about than thy Cart-wheel I will tell thee what I think and that is That it is not so much about as the Nave of the Wheel But they tell us that his distance proves him to be vastly bigger than the Earth Why so Countreyman there 's no reason for them to say so for Lights appear biggest when they are farthest off I remember that the Fields men in Dullingham Field thought that they had seen a Scare-fire that is an House in flames of fire when it was nothing else but a Candle shone through the glass upon the top of the Lord Gorâ—e's Chamber in Stechworth a mile or two off And thou mayest take notice that the Sun shows bigger when he rises and sets than at noon time of the day when he is at the highest and nighest to us And thou mayest take 〈◊〉 Hat and prove this plainly Suppose the hole of thy Hat wherein thou puttest thy head doth signifie the round Earth If thou measurest from the place right against the knot of thy Hatband to that part of the verge of the Hat that is nighest the knot that part of verge is nearer the knot than the other part of the verge is that is farthest of from the knot As for example Suppose the hole in thy Hat be 8 Inches over and the verge of thy Hat be 4. If thou measurest from the knot aforesaid to that part of the brim that is nighest to it it is but 4 Inches but if thou measurest to the farthest part of the brim it is 12. Now suppose the Earth to be round like a ball as it is if the Waters be measured with it and that it is about 8 thousand English miles thick as I shall afterwards demonstrate it is if I have occasion to write again of this subject The Sun must needs be 8 thousand miles farther off from thee when he is right under thy feet than when he is right over thy head as he doth so move in 12 hours time to those that live under the
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees in teaching the Law ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven Ye have heard said he that it was said by them Scribes and Pharisees of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment There was all that they taught about killing But I say unto you said Christ That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment Which is as much punishment as they taught for killing their brother without a cause And whosoever shall say unto his brother without a cause Racha shall be in danger of the counsel but whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Therefore said he if thou bring thy gift to the Altar to be offered by the Priests and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Matth. 5.1.17.24 And in his Sermon in the Temple probably his last Sermon that he preached there He said unto the multitude and his disciples The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe of Moses's law that observe and doe Matth. 23.1 2 3. I think I have spoken enough of this matter at this time I therefore will give an answer to them that would know the Signs when the times of the restitution of all things shall begin IF you would know of me some Signs when Jesus Christ will come To the valley of Josaphat and give to Men their doom When Sion's City 's built so large as by me is set down And that the Lord therein doth dwell which is her chief renown And that the Saints are divine born doe eat and drink the best Adorn'd like Kings doe judge the World with Seed by wives are blest Then I 'll you tell what I have read shall happen before then War Plague Famine Fear Pit and Snare shall thin the World of Men. Heav'n powers doe shake the Sun turns black the Moon blood and I find Heav'n Stars doe fall like Figs from trees shak'd with a mighty Wind. The Mountains melt Mount Ol'vet cleaves to East West North and South Such as fight Christ are kill'd by the two-edg'd sword of his Mouth Before those glorious times begin wherein the Saints alway In holiness without fear serve their God both night and day The Mountains of Isr'el yield fruit and food doth grow upon The hills and dales and valleys and upon the Mount Sion The Son of Strengths with twelve times twelve thousand chast ones appears Whose presence in that Holy place is gained by the tears Of those that weeping to Sion that Mount do ask the way And there a Cov'nant with the Lord do make to last for ay These hundred forty four thousand are men bought from the Earth In whose mouths there was found no guile and therefore they go forth With the Lamb wheresoe'er he goes and they have also right To be before God's Throne and there to serve him day and night And many such are then in Heav'n when Rome shall be no more And Hallelujahs sing to God for judging that great Whore. These first-fruit men are cloath'd with Robes long pure trim white and fine Procured by the bloud of God and they as Stars do shine But lo a Dragon great and red doth wait Christ to devour But then the Son unto God's Throne is caught up that same hour And then in Heaven a fight is fought by Mich'el and his Men Who throw the Dragon down from thence not to come there agen For neither Satan nor his Sp'rits are able to prevail ' Gainst Mich'el and his Angels bold which make them for to quail The field they win by the Lambs blood and by his Test'ment-word Which makes them careless of their lives not fearing Satan's sword When as that Satan sees himself cast down upon the Earth Then he against the Isr'elites in malice marcheth forth But they from him doe flee as fast as Eagles with great wings Then he on the Sea-sand doth stand and thence a Sea-flood flings After them in their flight that so he may cause them be drown'd But his intent prevented is by a gulf in the ground Before Jehovah Shammah's built where Christ and Christians dwell A thousand years 'fore New Salem comes down from Heav'n I tell A Nor-west King of Japhet's line doth march and conquer Babel Roma Palestine Egypt and rules Phut and Cush the Sable Paras Gomer Mesheth Tubal the Togarmites and Gaul With all the Nations under Heav'n upon this mighty Ball. The Princes of Europe burn Rome the last Pope he is slain Whose wondred at by the whole World because he lives again And opeâ— his mouth in blasphemies and proves an angry rod To those that will not worship him in that same house of God That placed at Jerusalem is the Holy City call'd For in a part of that same house as God he is install'd Where he doth sit and vaunt himself above all Gods to be And the false Prophet fire and stars makes t' come down from the Sky And other Miracles he doth the Nations to deceive For he an Image makes to speak that they a mark receive In their right hand or else forehead for therein doth he fix To be seen the print of his name Six hundred sixty six To honour him as God it is that killed was with sword And so fall from the God of Gods and Christ his Son and Word If not they kill'd must be with Sword this is it that he saith And then it will be manifest who patience hath and faith But whoso takes the mark of him that killed was with sword Shall drink the wine of God's fierce wrath this is God's Angel's word And from Gog's mouth goes like a Frog doth Wonders not the least For he o'er dry'd Euphrates brings the Kingdoms of the East Unto Jerus lem not Rome where Gog Magog will dwell For to the first not to the last that Flood 's an obstacle And there in Mauzim he adores a strange God which his Sire Ne'er knew with gold and precious stones provoking God to ire Whom he regards not but Women he lusteth after much And to ascend above the Stars in heart his thoughts are such And to change Times and Laws his thoughts are fixed much upon And he hath power to doe so till three years and half be gone In all which time he makes to cease the daily sacrifice And heads an Hoast ' gainst Jesus Christ when he comes from the Skies O Lion rais'd from thy dark house which hast the snorting horse To stand against the chiefest Prince this is not thy best course For he with six Plagues will the strike Blood Pestilence and Fire Brimstone Hailstones and great Flood-rain as tokens of his ire Then dead
02 〈◊〉 These Rules following saith he will give satisfaction 1. Note saith he that the distance of the Sun froâ— Earth is 4169955 miles 2. The Diameter of the Earth is 6872 miles 3. The Sun's distance I divide by Earth's Diameter and find the Quotient to be 614 and so many times the Diameter of the Earth reaches up 〈◊〉 Sun. 4. I proportion by the compass the Diameter of the Earth in a figure the length of a Barley corn or 〈◊〉 part of an Inch which being divided by 3 makes 204 Inches and that being divided by 12 comes to 17â—â— 5. I chuse a plain level just of that length namely 17 Foot upon which at one end I place the figure 〈◊〉 Earth and at the other end thereof I set a light in proportion to the Sun. 6. The same light being at th◠〈◊〉 from the figure of the Earth makes the shadow thereof to be 11 times the length of the said Diameter 7. I multiply the said Diameter which is as abovesaid 6782 miles by 11 and that produceth 74602 miles which is the length of the said shadow and may well cause so great a darkness as night it self to our sight notwithstanding the greatness and glorious light of the Sun as he saith To this I reply That if a plain level be chosen of 17 Foot upon which at one end be placed the figure of the Earth inflamed almost round about as the Moon is as a round ball will be that is hung over a brisk fire as we may perceive it is at all times especially when she is in the full I say then That that round figure casteth not a shadow 11 times the length of the Diameter of the figure but onely according to the Diameter of the figure not inflamed And from hence I argue that if the Moon were as far from the Earth as the Stars are suppose 10 20 50 or 100 miles she would not be darkened or eclipsed by the Earth at all but it may be that her distance is but â…” or ¾ from the Earth of their distance If I be asked why I reckon it or rather guess it to be but 10 20 50 or 100 miles from the Earth to the Stars which Bagwell aforesaid saith is so far distant that it is 116000000 of miles And if it were possible he saith that a Stone should be let fall from thence of that bigness and weight as it should be continually a falling 150 miles an hour untill it should fall to the Earth it would be 88 years 3 months 2 weeks 4 days 5 hours and 20 minutes falling down from thence to the Earth Tycho Brahe saith that to the starry Firmament is 14000 Semidiameters of the Earth which is 56000000 miles or thereabout which is but half the distance Albategnius saith 19000 Semidiameters Keplar a Copernican 142746428 Semidiameters of the Earth which is about 570985712000 miles which is no less than 10196 times bigger than Tycho Brahe reckons it to be There 's a swinging Sum Ten thousand one hundred ninety six times bigger than Tycho Brahe declares Thomas Hill in his book of the Sphere saith That the Earth compared unto Heaven is as a point yea so little in comparison he saith as a Pepper-corn unto a Circle of a thousand paces compass For if the Earth saith he were of any sensible greatness a man should not see the half of Heaven And how greater the Earth should be by so much the lesser should a man see the half of Heaven I allow of what he saith if the sight of our eye did not fly as it doth in a bowed line but it doth for that some years ago the Moon did rise totally eclipsed when the Sun and Moon were both above the Horizon and that the Moon began to recover her light at the lower part of her being next our Horizon and therefore under the Earth And this was seen by my self William Gorham of Cambridge and J. Hands that made the book called Astronomia Christallina who supposed the Earth to be the Center of the World and that it turned round about upon its own Axis every 24 hours and by that means he supposed the starry Sky to be immoveable and that the Planets did move from West to East upon the Poles of the Ecliptick an opinion to me more probable than that of Copernicus for by this opinion every 69 miles nearer the Pole raiseth a degree which could not have been seen by us if our sight had run to them in a strait line And that which is to be seen at Greenwich Stairs puts the matter quite out of dispute concerning the sight of the eye For if you stand upon the Garden-stairs when the Tide is down at a low water and look over the River you cannot see the Cattel feeding in the Marsh by reason that the bank of the River intercepts your sight neither can you see the house wherein the Ferry-man lives nor the top of the Chimney when the Tide is down as aforesaid But when the Tide is up then you may see the chimney and the house and the dore of the house which commonly stands open and the ground upon which men walk when they go into the house and the cattel feeding yea a Dog may be seen then in the Marsh if there be one by them that stand upon the Stairs aforesaid as I was told in the Boat by one of them that brought me from thence when I had been there to make an observation concerning what was told me of this matter Neither could Satan have shown Jesus upon an exceeding high Mountain he was too subtile to undertake to show the sight of them in a valley all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them which he did doe Matth. 4.8 if Christ's sight did not then fly to those places in a bowed line For probably the Mountain whereon he was set was Mount Nebo not far from the place where he was baptized as others think See for this Fuller's Pisgah Sight of Palestine and that is not nor any Mountain in Palestine one mile high and if he was shown all the Kingdoms aforesaid there in a strait line from his eye it requires a higher Mountain to stand upon than is needfull to doe it upon a Mountain that is mid-way of the Kingdoms aforesaid Now the length of the Kingdoms aforesaid in that day was from the East-Indian Ocean to the West of Spain 1 Maccabees 1.3 chap. 8.1 3 4. Dan. 2.39 40. chap. 7.23 which is 103 degrees at 69 miles to a degree according to the part of the circle that is made upon the 10000 square Furlongs And to see from thence to them two places aforesaid the Mountain must be 2153 miles high as may be seen in that Figure or else he must look 430 miles under the Earth according to that Figure And thus is Hills's Argument aforesaid answered or any Argument against my drawing the Circle of the Earth so big and the Moon Sun and Stars so near it I therefore conceive it is better to heed holy Scriptures than to hearken to what they say Now the Scriptures of Truth tell us That God made all the Stars Sun and Moon in one day Gen. 1.14 19. Whereas in making the Earth and Waters with their appurtenances he wrought part of the first day all the third day all the fifth day and all the sixth day as may be seen in that chapter I conclude therefore that they are not so many Worlds as Cardinal Cusanus and Jornandus did hold And concerning them Lights aforesaid Judg. 5.20 saith That the Stars in their runnings fought against Sisera And if they did run they did not stand still as the Copernicans affirm Joshua knew that the Sun was in his race and the Moon in her walkings or else he would never have commanded them to stand still Josh 10.12 So that that day was as long as two Eccles 46.4 Hezekiah did believe that the Sun did move forward and that he could go backward according to the word of the Lord Isa 38.8 I therefore conclude that they doe move the fixed Stars in Heaven which probably is one of the three Heavens 2 Cor. 12.2 run round about the Earth 366¼ times in one year the Sun 365¼ little more or less either of them Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury according to the law that God hath given them Psal 148.6 Luna half so many times as there be Tides in a year All of them except the fixed Stars move one while toward the North and another while towards the South sometimes nearer and sometimes farther from us as it were in a screw line not compelled with Strings as the Ancients did think or with Wheels or some such device to make Epicycles and Eccentricks nor turned about by Angels as others immagine but as Fishes move in the waters as I have read some suppose The Jews did probably think that they were living creatures because they burnt incense to them And Rev. 9.1 2. tells us of a Star's sliding down to the Earth with the key of the bottomless pit which he opened and that doth strengthen my judgment that they are so I did intend to have made Observations concerning the Figures of Copernicus Tycho and Ptolomy showing the difference of these Astronomers positions of the Planets and how that RANNEW's Figure is to be preferred before them but I have not now time and Paper But I will say thus much That I bear no ill-will to any man's person but I am troubled to see mens Writings make the Word of God of none effect in these matters and so hinder mens believing the Scriptures in other things Farewell courteous Reader Thy friend to serve thee