Looke Vp, And See Wonders.
SO Benummed wee are in our Sences, that albeit God himselfe Holla in our Eares, wee by our wills are loath to heare him. His dreadfull Pursiuants of Thunder, and Lightning terrifie vs so long as they haue vs in their fingers, but beeing off, [Page 2] wee dance and sing in the midst of our Follies. So blinde are wee in the vnderstanding of Heauenly matters, that wee cannot see our way to Goodnesse, but runne head-long into the Pathes of our owne euerlasting vndoing. Dangers haue not the skill to fright vs; Death onely is the Man, that can doe good vpon vs: And yet, though Death knockes at our very Doores, nay; albeit wee see him sit at our Bed-side, yet the hope of Life, playes her idle, vayne, and wanton Musicke vnder our Windowes.
Into what a miserable Sea of calamities does a man then throw himselfe, when in this his earthly Nauigation, hee sayles he cares not how, nor knowes where to finde a safe Landing-place.
Wee had neede therefore to make much of vnderstanding, wise, and skilfull Pilots, for the best of vs all is an ignorant Marriner. Apt enough [Page 3] we are, to run vpon Rockes and quicksands; but an excellent Sea-man is hee, that in all weathers can beare vp Sayle, and by the vertue of his good Compasse, is able to auoyde such mortall Dangers.
The foure Elements haue beene Preachers to vs, yet wee get (or at least, shew) little amendment by the Doctrin, they haue Read vnto vs. The Earth, (once fruitfull) hath of late yeares felt the curse of Barrennesse: Her wombe hath beene the deuourer of many thousands of her owne Children; shee has not playd the part of a Mother, but a Step-dame, for insteed of strong wines, shee hath bin drunke with bloud.
How hath the other Element of water beene troubled? What Monsters hath the Sea brought forth? The sonnes of Murder, Rapine, Fury, and Pyracy. As for Fire, it hath denied of late to warme vs, but at vnreasonable rates, and extreame hard conditions. But what talke [Page 4] I of this earthy nourishment of fire? how haue the Fires of Heauen (some few yeares past) gone beyond their bounds, and appeared in the shapes of Comets, and Blazing Starres? The Aire hath bin infected, and millions haue dropd into Graues, by sucking in her mortall poyson. The Aire is the shop of Thunder and Lightning: In that, hath of late bin held a Muster of terrible enemies, and threatners of Vengeance, which the great Generall of the Field, who Conducts and Commands all such Armies, (God Almighty, I meane) auert from our Kingdome, and shoote the arrowes of his indignation some other way, vpon the bosomes of those that would confound his Gospell.
Now, albeit that these foure great quarter-masters of the World (the foure Elements) haue in former times, and in this of our owne, bin in ciuill Warres one against another, and bent their Forces at the Heart of this Kingdome; [Page 5] yet how happy are we, to eate our bread in Peace, and to drinke our wholesome and sweete Waters? No Nation beneath the Sunne hath more cause to sing Prayses to God, and send vp Thankes to Heauen then ours.
The Drum beates here, but the Battailes are abroad: The Barbed Horse tramples not downe our Corne-fieldes: The earth is not manurde with mans Bloud (as it was in the Warres of the Barons; and those of the two Royall contending Families, of Yorke and Lancaster.) Here we presse Souldiers; but other Countries beare the burthen of their Armies. Heere they kindle their Match, but the fire is not giuen, till they come into Forraigne Kingdomes.
This Security yet must not bee suffered to rocke vs fast asleepe; and so with Sampson, to haue our strength cut from vs, by the Strumpet of our carelesnes: For albeit, our Gates haue no Canons [Page 6] planted agaynst them▪ Nor no scaling-ladders se [...] to the Walls of our Cities; yet there are Whole Ambushes of enemies lurking in our priuate Bosomes; And those are our sinnes, which daily lay traynes of powder, to blow vs vp, and confound vs.
For these, there is an Eye open, which day and night doth ouer looke our actions; and if milde and gentle chidings cannot call vs home, let vs thanke our selues, and the stubbornnesse of our hearts, if wee groane vnder the stripes of correction.
Let vs turne to God, and God will not turne his Face from vs: Say thy sinnes were as blacke as Hell; yet Repentance shall make them like the Winges of a Doue, couer'd (as the Kingly Prophet sings) with siluer, the Wings bearing the colour of yellow Gold. Repentance is able to make the soule as white as the snow in Zalmon;Psalme 67. and Gods mercy like the mountaine of Bashan.
[Page 7] Repentance is a golden Key, which opens Heauen, and lookes vp to Gods anger. Repentance wins him to smile vpon vs, and to say thus; If thou still art climing vp this Hill of Repentance; Blessed shalt thou be in the City; and Blessed in the Field: Blessed shall be the fruite of thy Body; and the Fruite of thy ground, and the fruite of thy Cattle: The increase of thy Kine; and the Flockes of thy Sheepe: Blessed shall be thy Basket, and thy Dough: Blessed shalt thou bee when thou commest in; and blessed also when thou goest out.
Thy Land-Souldiers (O England) shall not stand in feare of any Italian Spin [...] laes; nor thy Nauy Royall of any Spanish Armadoes: For, thine enemies that rise agaynst thee, shall fall before thy face; they shall come out against thee one way, and flye before thee seauen wayes.
His word that speakes this, may be taken better than any Kings in the [Page 8] World; and therefore hold out both thy hands, vnder this Tree of Blessings, and catch the golden Apples, when so freely they are shaken downe into thy lappe But if thou trample these gifts vnder thy feete, and spurnest at Gods Fauours bestowed vppon thee; New quiuers of punishments will then be opened, and other strange fearefull arrowes be shot at thy bosome. Heauen shalbe turned to Brasse; earth to Iron; dust and ashes be giuen for Raine;Deut. 20. our Wiues shall haue others lye with them; our great houses shall haue others dwell in them, our Vineyards to bee planted, yet we shall neuer taste them: Our sheep to bee giuen to our enemies; and our sonnes and daughters to be led into Captiuity.
If therfore with Naaman, thou wouldst be cleansed from thy Leaprosie of sinne,2 King. 5.41 thou must obey Elisha, and wash thy selfe seauen times in Iordan: Weepe seauen times a day; nay seauen times an [Page 9] houre, for offending thy mercifull Father: Whosoeuer with Ahazia, the King of Samaria falleth sicke, and sendeth for recouery to Baal-zebub (the God of Ekron) and not to the true God indeede, he shall not come from his bed, but die the Death.
For, wee sinke to the bottome of the waters, as the Carpenters axe did (in the second of the Kings,) but, though neuer so iron-hearted, the voyce of an Elisha (the feruency of Prayer, and praysing God) can fetch vs from the bottome of Hell, and by contrition make vs swim on the top of the waters of life.
Stand therefore at the Gates of Gods mercy still; begge still; knocke still; and knocke hard: For Hannab, was barren, yet being an importunate suiter, her petition was heard, and signed: She was fruitfull, and had three Sonnes and Daughters: So, when we are barren in Repentance, in Thanksgiuing in Charity, in Patience, in Goodnesse, let vs vnfeignedly [Page 10] pray to Heauen, we shalbe fruitfull, and these fiue shalbee our Sonnes and Daughters. By this meanes our Mara shall change her name to Naomi, Ruth. 1.20. and our bitternesse be turned into sweetnesse.
Haue we not great cause then to magnifie him,Psal. 65. who Crowneth the yeare with plenty,Psal. 104. and whose steppes drop fatnesse: Haue we not reason to tremble at his Threatnings, who couereth himselfe with Light, as with a Garment, and spreadeth the Heauens like a Curtaine? who layeth the beames of his Chambers in the Waters, and maketh the Clouds his Chariot, and walketh vppon the wings of the winde? This Almighty Thunderer, hath Spirits attending vpon him, for his Messengers are flaming fire to runne of his errands: If he but lookes vppon the earth in anger, it trembles: If hee but touch the Mountaynes, they smoake, and are consumed: So that if wee fall not on our [Page 11] knees, to doe him reuerence. If we open not our lips, to glorifie his Name: If we fall not flat on the Earth, at the sound of his dreadfull voyce; woe be to vs, we are lost for euer, vndone for euer: His blessings (if we receiue them not with the right hand) are to vs, as messes of meate set vpon a Graue What then are his chastizements? O [...] they are terrible and not to be indurde. Many windowes hath he set open in Heauen, to shewe what Artillery hee has lying there, and many of our Kings haue trembled, when they were shewne vnto them. What blazing Starres (euen at Noone-dayes,) in those times, hung houering in the Aire? How many frightfull Ecclipses both of Sun and Moone? What apparitions of battailes? How many times haue Armies fought against Armies, in the disturbed vpper Regions?
It is not for man to dispute with God, why he has done this so often, nor rashly to pronounce judgement vppon any [Page 12] thing, it pleaseth God to accomplish now; but, with feare and trembling casting our eyes vp to Heauen, let vs now behold him, bending his Fist onely, as lately he did to the terrour and affrightment of all the Inhabitants, dwelling within a Towne in the County of Barkshire.
Looke vp therefore now; and see a New Wonder.
THE name of the Towne is Hatford (in Barkeshire) some eight miles from Oxford. Ouer this Towne, vpon Wensday being the ninth of this instant Moneth of April 1628. about fiue of the clocke in the afternoone. This miraculous, prodigious, and fearefull handy-worke of God was presented, to the astonishable amazement [Page 13] of all the beholders, Men, Women, and children, being many in number.
The weather was warme, and without any great shewe of distemperature, only the skye waxed by degrees a little gloomy, yet not so darkned but that the Sunne still and anon, by the power of the brightnesse, brake through the thicke clouds, and made them giue way to the Maiesty of his beames.
A gentle gale of wind then blowing from betweene the West and Northwest; in an instant was heard, first a hideous rumbling in the Ayre, and presently after followed a strange and fearefull peale of Thunder, running vp and downe these parts of the Countrey, but it strake with the loudest violence, and more furious tearing of the Ayre, about a place called The white Horse h [...]ll, than in any other. The whole order of this thunder, carried a kind of Maiesticall state with it, for it maintayned (to the affrighted Beholders seeming) [Page 14] the fashion of a fought Battaile.
It beganne thus: First, for an on-set, went on one great Cannon as it were of thunder alone, like a warning peece to the rest, that were to follow. Then a little whileafter, was heard a second; and so by degrees a third, vntill the number of 20. were discharged (or there abouts) in very good order, though in very great terror.
In some little distance of time after this, was audibly heard the sound of a Drum beating a Retreate▪ Amongst all these angry peales, shot off from Heauen; this begat a wonderful admiration, that at the end of the report of euery cracke, or Cannon-thundering, a hizzing Noyse made way through the Ayre, not vnlike the flying of Bullets from the mouthes of great Ordnance: And by the iudgement of all the terror-stricken witnesses, they were Thunderbolts. For one of them was seene by many people, to fall at a place called [Page 15] Bawlkin Greene, beeing a mile and a halfe from Hatford: Which Thunder-bolt was by one Mistris Greene, caused to be digged out of the ground, she being an eye-witnesse amongst many other, of the manner of the falling.
The forme of the Stone is three-square, and picked in the end: In colour outwardly blackish, some-what like Iron: Crusted ouer with that blacknesse about the thicknesse of a shilling▪ Within, it is soft, of a gray colour, mixed with some kind of minerall, shining like small peeces of glasse.
This Stone brake in the fal: The whole peece is in weight nineteene pound and a halfe: The greater peece that fell off, weigheth fiue pound, which with other small peeces being put together, make foure and twenty pound and better.
At the hearing of this horrid Thunder, all men (especially about Sheffington) were so terrified, that they fell on their knees, and not onely thought, but [Page 16] sayd, that verily the day of Iudgement was come. Neyther did these feares take hold only of the people, but euen Beasts had the selfe-same feeling and apprehension of danger, running vp and downe, and bellowing, as if they had bin mad.
It is in the Countrey credibly reported, that some other Thunder-stones haue bin found in other places: But for certainty, there was one taken vp at Letcombe, and is now in the custody of the Shriefe.
Many do constantly affirme, that the shape of a Man, beating of a Drum, was visibly seene in the Ayre, but this wee leaue to prooue.
Others report that he, who digged vp the Stone in Bawlkin Greene, was at that instant stricken lame, but (God bee thanked) there is no such matter.
Report in such distractions as these, hath a thousand eyes, and sees more than it can vnderstand; and as many tongues, which being once set a going, [Page 17] they speake any thing. So now a number of people report there were three Sunnes seene in the Element; but on the contrary side, they are opposers against them, that will affirme they beheld no such matter, and that it was not so. Admit it were, how oftentimes haue three Sunnes, foure; nay fiue, and sometimes more appeared in the Ayre, both in England, and other Countries round about vs? They who out of their Astronomicall iudgements write of such apparitions, alleadging, and proouing by strong arguments, that such disturbances in the Caelestiall bodies of the Sunne, Moone, and Starres, do more often from Naturall causes, than Supernaturall.
Howsoeuer, it is not fit that any man, should take vppon him, to write too broad and busie Comments on any such Textes as these Let vs not be so daring as to pry into the closet of Gods determinations. His workes are full of Wonders, and not to be examined: Let vs not be so foolish, as turne Almanacke-makers, [Page 18] and to Prognosticate, Prophesie, Foredoome, or Fore-tell, what shall happen, faire weather or foule, to our owne Kingdome, or any other; scarcity, or plenty▪ Warre, or Peace, for such giddy-brayn [...]d Medlers, shoote their arrowes beyond the Moone.
The Heauenly designes are of a higher Nature, than to hold any correspondence, commixture, or coniunction with the phantasticall compositions of Humane frailty. Gods Bookes are not so easily opened: Mans eyes are too weake-sighted, too dull-poynted to looke into his Voluminous, and Misterious Wonders. The Learning of all the Vniuersities in the World, is meere ignorance, to the Almighties vnderstanding.
Lay by therfore thy Iacobs staf [...]e, thou that art too scrutinous, to looke into the Thunderers treasury; forbeare to take the height of these false imaginary Sunnes; and fright not thy Countrey with thy ouer-daring, foolish, and vaine glorious predictions. I speake not this to Arme any [Page 19] Man with security, negligence, or misbeliefe; or to make him thinke, that God when he shewes vs such signes, such rods from Heauen, (doing so but seldome,) does it to no purpose; But let not vs be too inquisitiue what that purpose is: the wranglings of Schooles, is not so vnpleasing, to ignorant standers by, as our contentions and quaeres about this businesse, should be to God.
Enough it shalbe for vs to see, and feare; to heare, and not meddle; to apprehend what our weaknesse can, and to admire the depth which we cannot read.
The Master of the houshold being angry, it is the duty of vs his seruants, to doe our best to please him, keepe him quiet, and not to prouoke him to a higher indignation, least in his iust fury, which euery day (euery houre,) we are apt to run in. to, he vtterly confounds vs, and bring vs to nothing. Which, the Almighty for his owne mercies sake, forbid forget, and forgiue our sinnes. Amen.