A Strange and Wonderful Trinity, Part 1
A Strange and Wonderful TRINITY; OR, A TRIPLICITY Of Stupendious PRODIGIES, Conſiſting of a Wonderful ECLIPSE, As well as of a Wonderful COMET, And of a Wonderful CONJUNCTION, Now in its ſecond return, ſeeing all theſe three Prodigious Wonders do joyntly portend Wonderful Events, all meeting together in a ſtrange Harmonious Triangle: And all are the three Royal Heralds, ſucceſſively ſent from the King of Heaven, to ſound ſucceeding Alarms, for awakening a Slumbering VVorld. Beware the third Time.
— Si ter pulſanti nemo Reſpondet, Abibit.
They that Regard not the Works of the Lord, nor the Operation of his Hands, ſhall be deſtroyed.
Pſal. 28.45.
Lift up your Eyes on high, and behold theſe things.
Iſaiah 40.26.
London, Printed for Langley Curtiſs. 1683.
A Strange and Wonderful TRINITY; Or, A Triplicity of Stupendious Prodigies, conſiſting of a Wonderful Eclipſe, as well as of a wonderful Comet, and of a wonderful Conjunction, now in its ſecond return, &c.
AS the firſt Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in October the laſt, was uſhered into the World by a frightful Blazing Comet, ſo their ſecond Conjunction is attended with the two formidable Eclipſes of the two great Luminaries of the Heavens. The firſt of the Sun going before it, upon the 17th of this preſent January; and the ſecond of the Moon coming after it, upon the firſt of February following. Inſomuch that this middle Conjunction (ſeeing theſe two ſuperior Planets will again have their third and laſt Conjunction upon the ſecond of May next) is made the more Illuſtrious by a double Deliquium, or ECLIPSE of both the Sun and Moon, within a few days of it, before and after, it happening betwixt the twentieth and thirtieth of this January. All which have this ſtrange concurrency, to render this preſent Conjunction the more conſpicuous, and to be of greater Obſervation and Authority to its Spectators.
I have early and late taken my ſtricteſt Proſpect of the Progreſs and Regreſs that theſe two great Planets have made ſince their laſt October Conjunction; and I have obſerved they have been running Retrograde, untill at length they came into an equal diſtance each from other, and from the Lions Heart in a direct line, ſo that then theſe three great Stars in this poſture and ſituation did repreſent the exact Form of Orions Girdle (which the vulgar call the Ladys Yard-wand) bright Jupiter being the middle Nail, Cor Leonis and ſullen Saturn were the two end-Nails of that Coeleſtial Yard-ſtaff. Then Jupiter marcheth off from his middle Station to a farther diſtance from that fixed Star the Lions Heart, and the two wandering Stars Saturn and Jupiter make a nearer approach each to other all December laſt, and all this January hitherto: I have beheld every clear Evening, theſe two Planets ariſing in a perpendicular poſture, but in the Morning towards their ſetting, they have a traverſe Aſpect, running near the ſame line in the Heavens, where famous Arcturus runneth, and every Night, they come nearer and nearer each other, until they ſhall within a few days compleat their ſecond Conjunction, which will happen near the ſame time that the two great Luminaries (the Sun and the Moon) ſhall have their compleat Conjunction alſo, ſo that the Body of the Moon interpoſeth it ſelf betwixt our Sight and the Sun, and cover its Light and Luſtre from us full nine Digits: yea, and the Moon ſhall be Eclipſed by the Interpoſition of the ſhadow of the Earth ſoon after it; and that which makes all this ſtill more Marvelous, is, theſe three admirable Conjunctions (of the two ſuperior Planets, of the two great Luminaries, and of the Moon with the Earths ſhadow) ſhall be all almoſt in Direct Oppoſition one to another.
All theſe prodigious Providences, thus admirably concurring at one Juncture of time, do ſound a loud ALARM to us, to ponder both the Premiſes and the Conſequences in our Minds, until they have a kindly Influence upon our Affections: To omit the Planets Conjunction upon which I am after ſo Copious, the Theme I here Handle is the Eclipſes, which puts the World upon a Gaze: The Prophet Joel in the old Teſtament, and our Lord Chriſt in the new, foretold of ſtrange and ſtupendious Eclipſes ſhould be fore-runners of the Lords coming. Joel 2.31. Mat. 24.29. &c. Yea, both the Goſpels and the Epiſtles in the Holy Scripture do foreſhew that there will be prodigious events and appearances both in the Heavens, on the Earth and in the Sea. Luke 21.25. and that the whole frame of the univerſe ſhall ſhake and tremble, &c. as Houſes, when ready to Fall, give ſome great Cracks to fore ſignify it. 2 Pet. 3.10. &c. That Eclipſe of the Sun at Chriſts Death, Math. 27.45. was certainly ſupernatural. For (1.) It was at Full Moon upon the fourteenth day of the Moons Age at the Paſs-over, whereas natural and ordinary Eclipſes of the Sun are always at New Moon in Conjunction with it and not in Oppoſition to it. 2. That Darkneſs by a Total Eclipſe, continued [foreign] over all the Earth from the ſixth hour to the ninth: which could not be natural, for the Body of the Sun being bigger than the Body of the Moon, doth ſoon wade from under its ſhadow, and never continueth totally darkned for one hour much leſs for three. (3.) That Eclipſe was univerſal, which no natural can be, being always particular to thoſe Provinces which have the nigheſt propinquity to the Cone of that ſhadow; whereas this was not in Judaea onelyonly (as Origen miſtakes) but Tiberius ('tis ſaid) was ſenſible of it at Rome, and Dionyſius Writes to Policarp, That they had this Darkneſs in Aegypt, and he was ſo aſtoniſh'd at this Complication of many Miracles in one▪ That he cryed out [Naturae patitur Deus aut natura periclum] either Nature now determineth, or the God of Nature now ſuffereth. This dreadfdl Eclipſe happened under the fift Climacterical Conjunction of the two ſame Superior Planets ſince the Creation, wherein the Sun hid his Head (as it were) in a black Mantle, as aſhamed to behold thoſe ſhameleſs Indignities done to the Sun of Righteouſneſs (Mal. 4.2.) by the Sons of Men.
The next formidable Eclipſe we read of in Hiſtory, is under the ſixt Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, 800 years after this, upon the approaching Death of that famous Emperor Charles the Great, who dyed on the fift of the Kalends of February 814. Whereof Eginardus, writing that Emperours Life, ſaith thus [Signa multa praeceſſerunt mortem glorioſi & Sancti Imper. Caroli, nam Eclipſis ſolis & Lunae; ultra ſolitum fuit. Apparuit per ſeptem Dies macula Nigri Coloris in ſole.] Many ſtrange Prodigies did preceed this Great Charles's Death, as Eclipſes extraordinary both of the Sun and of the Moon, and a great back Spot was beheld in the Sun for ſeven days; which could not be Mercury (as ſome ſaid) becauſe of his ſwift Motion; nor could it be a Meteor (as others affirm'd) becauſe that is too high a place for theſe Exhalations, according to the known Rules of Phyloſophy. It muſt therefore be [Digitus Dei] the Finger of God, pointing at that great Providence, which removed the foreign or impediment which had thitherto hindred the further and fuller Revelation of the Man of Sin.
All Artiſts have held Eclipſes to be the moſt precious Treaſure of Aſtrology and Chronology, giving the certain and indubitable Characters of Time, as alſo that they have an irreſiſtible Influence upon Countries, Cities and Inhabitants that lay under the Line of them. Thus mighty remarks have been upon them in all Ages, both before and after Chriſt. As (1.) Plutarch▪ Varro and Dionyſius obſerve, that there was an Eclipſe of the ſun at Romulus's Birth, who was the firſt founder of Rome in the year of the World 3180. and Cicero ſays, There was another Eclipſe of the Sun at Romnius's Death in the year of the World 3235. and may not we hope, that theſe Eclipſes now may Prognoſticate, that God will Reckon with Rome, and Eclipſe her Glory, that the Vials of Gods Wrath ſhall be ſhortly poured down upon her, for her ſo long filling the Church with Hereſy, all States with Blood, evil Men with Plots, Treachery and Treaſons, but good Men with a due ſenſe of the many Holy Cheats, of that ill Infalible Chair. I omit thoſe Eclipſes that Fore-ran Xerxes: over-running Greece in the year 3469. mentioned by Herodotus: that which portended the Peloponneſian Warr, recited by Xenophon and Thucydides; That of Great Alexander routing Darius, &c. and that of the Fall of Julius Caeſar, and many other portentous ones.
(2.) All along ſince Chriſt, great remarks have attended them, as beſides that afore-mention'd in the 8th Century, before great Charles his Fall: in the 11th Century ſo great an Eclipſe of the Sun hapned at Noon, that the very Stars were ſeen in the Heavens, and then did the Sun of the glorious Goſpel ſet at Noon upon the poor Waldenſes, who were univerſally Maſſacred by the cruel Croiſadoes of the Roman Beaſt. Yet God reſerv'd an Holy Remnant for Royal Ʋſe: but thoſe that fall out near Climacterical Conjunctions (as is afore hinted) are moſt formidable, as was that in 1652. which wanted not its direful Conſequences and Confuſions.
(3.) The Inhabitants of China (who think themſelves to have two Eyes, but other people of the World to have but one) are much affrighted with Eclipſes. Looking upon the Sun and Moon, as Man and Wife, and that they are angry with them under theſe Deliquiums. &c.
(4) However 'tis the Threatning of an angry God, that the Sun ſhaell be turned into Darkneſs, and the Moon into Bloud, Joel 2.31. Mat. 24, 35. A Solar Eclipſe eſpecially towards its Declenſion (as this is about three a Clock in the Afternoon) portends Declenſions to fall ſomewhere, and more eſpecially being attended with a Lunar Deliquium, ſo ſoon after, &c. But moſt eſpecially, when it uſhers in two Conjunctions of the two ſuperior Planets, the one in this Month of January, and the other in May following, (both in Leo) this year 83, a year, which Mr. Gadbury thought (in his Praediction on 78) would produce ſtrange effects, &c. I heartily Pray, that this Declenſion may fall upon Rome and all its proud Helpers, and that this bright Sun of Righteouſneſs may not ſet at Noon upon our Heads, as Amos 8.9. and our Land be not Darkned in a clear Day: Pray earneſtly—Nobiſcum, Chriſte, Maneto.
—Extingui lucem non patiare Tuam.
Are we not upon the very Tropicks and turning points of Time, &c. The effects of the Retrograde Motion of theſe two Planets were direful in the 8th Century, and they have been no leſs already in this 16th. God grant better, &c.