a description of a great sea-storm, that happened to some ships in the gulph of florida, in september last; / drawn up by one of the company, and sent to his friend at london. one of the company. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing d interim tract supplement guide c. .f. [ ] estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books; tract supplement ; a : [ ]) a description of a great sea-storm, that happened to some ships in the gulph of florida, in september last; / drawn up by one of the company, and sent to his friend at london. one of the company. sheet ([ ] p.). printed by thomas milbourn, for dorman newman, at the king]'s armes in the poultry, [london : . verse: "the blustring winds are husht into a calme ..." "licensed, august the th. . roger l'estrange.". imperfect: cropped at foot with partial loss of imprint; portion of imprint suggested by wing. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng storms -- mexico, gulf of -- poetry -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a description of a great sea-storm , that happened to some ships in the gulph of florida , in september last ; drawn up by one of the company , and sent to his friend at london . the preface . the blustring winds are husht into a calme ; no air stirs now , but what my muse embalm'd , breaths forth to thee , dear friend ; heaven smiles upon my paper , and the sea turnes helicon ; the mermaids muses all , the sea-nymphs , bring aid to my genius , whilst to thee i sing of storms , gusts , tempests , if compar'd to these , bermoodus winds are but a gentle breez ; and to express them fully , i am faine to raise in verse a kind of hurrycane . the storme . nothing but air and water is in sight ; ( i am no poet here , since truth i wright . ) when eolus with his iron whistle rouzes the blustring breathings from their airy houses , which like to libertines let loose , will know no law to guide them , but begin to blow the sea to swell her teaming womb , brings forth wave after wave , and each of greater birth : waves grow to surges , surges billowes turn ; the ocean is all timpany , the vrn of water is a brimmer ; neptune drinks so full a cup it over-runs the brinks . to amphetrites health , the proud waves dash at heaven as though its cloudy face t' would wash : or sure the lower water now was bent to mix with that above the firmament ; or the cold element did go about to put the element of fire out . our ship now under water seems to sayle like to a drowned tost in john cook 's ale. the sea rould up in mountains : o! 't is such your cottsall-hill's a wart , if 't be so much , which fall again into such hollow vales i thought i 'de crost the sea by land ore wales ; and then to add confusion to the seas , the saylers speak such babel words as these : hale in maine bowlin , mizen tack aboard ; a language , like a storm , to be abhorr'd : i know not which was loudest , their rude tongues , or the bigg winds with her whole cards of lungs . so hideous was the noise , that one might well fancy himself to be with souls in hell ; but that the torments differ , those souls are with fire punisht , we with water here . our helme that should our swimming-colledge sway , we lash't it up , lest it should run away . have you a hedge seen hung with beggars fleeces ? so hung our tattered mainsaile down in pieces . our tackling crack't as if it had been made to string some fiddle , not the sea-mans trade . whilst her own knell the sea-sick vessel rings , in breaking of her ropes , the ships heart-string as to repent , but never to amend ; so we pumpt th'ship , even to as little end ; for all the water we pumpt out with pain , the sea returns with scorne , and more again . the guns we carry'd to be our defence , heaven thunder'd so , it almost scar'd them then● and yet to heaven for this give thanks we may , but for it's lightning we had had no day . the dropy clouds drinking salt-water sick , did spew it down upon our heads so thick ; that twixt the low'r and upper seas that fell , our ship a vessel seem'd , and we mackrell . pickl'd in brine , and in our cabines lye soust up for lasting immortality . the fear of being drowned , made us wish our selves transpeciated into fish . indeed this fear did so possess each one , all look't like shotten-herring , or poor-john : nay of our saving , there was so much doubt , the masters faith begun to tack about ; and had he perish't in this doubtful fit , his conscience sure ( with his own ship ) had for which way into heaven could his soul steer , starboard or larbord that still cries , no neer ? but we were in great danger , you will say , if sea-men once begin to kneele , and pray ; what holy church ne're could , rough seas hav● made sea-men buckle to devotion , and force from them their letany , whilst thus they whimper out , good lord deliver us ! so pray i too , good lord deliver thee , dear friend , from being taught to pray at 〈◊〉 be wise , and keep the shoar then , since you m● go in by land to your virginia . licensed , august the th . . roger l'estrange . 〈…〉 armes in the poultry , . strange and terrible news from sea., or:, a true relation of a most wonderful violent tempest of lightning and thunder. on fryday, the th. of this instant jan. . : whereby the main-mast of a ship, riding at anchor off of cows was split from the top to the bottom: : fourteen men upon the upper deck, and three between decks struck, and five of them left for dead, their eyes and teeth being immoveable, and their bodies stincking so of sulpher, that none could endure the smell. : with several other lamentable passages communicated in a letter from a gentleman on board, to a friend in cheap-side. / with allowance, r. l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) strange and terrible news from sea., or:, a true relation of a most wonderful violent tempest of lightning and thunder. on fryday, the th. of this instant jan. . : whereby the main-mast of a ship, riding at anchor off of cows was split from the top to the bottom: : fourteen men upon the upper deck, and three between decks struck, and five of them left for dead, their eyes and teeth being immoveable, and their bodies stincking so of sulpher, that none could endure the smell. : with several other lamentable passages communicated in a letter from a gentleman on board, to a friend in cheap-side. / with allowance, r. l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . [ ], p. printed by a.p. and t.h. for john clarke, at the bible and harp, in west-smith-field, [london] : . reproduction of original in: british library, london, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lightning -- england -- early works to . storms -- england -- early works to . cowes (england) -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - pip willcox sampled and proofread - pip willcox text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion strange and terrible news from sea. or : a true relation of a most wonderful violent tempest of lightning and thunder . on fryday , the th . of this instant jan. . whereby the main-mast of a ship , riding at anchor off of cows was split from the top to the bottom : fourteen men upon the upper deck , and three between decks struck , and five of them left for dead , their eyes and teeth being immoveable , and their bodies stincking so of sulpher , that none could endure the smell . with several other lamentable passages communicated in a letter from a gentleman on board , to a friend in cheap-side . with allowance , ro. l'estrange . printed by a. p. and t. h. for john ' clarke , at the bible and harp , in west-smith-field , . strange and terrible nevvs from sea. &c. 't is generally known what exceeding rough and tempestuous weather we have had of late ; and i presume few parts of england have escaped the notice . i wish all may have avoided the harms of that prodigious storm that happened on fryday the th , instant , about three a clock in the morning : at london it was very surprising and dreadful , coming with so sudden and impetuous a violence like a hurriance , that it generally affrighted people , making many leap out of their beds in astonishment , as if dooms-day had been at hand , to inform themselves better of this unexpected occasion of terror ; it being followed with such an excessive volly of hail , that the like has hardly been known in our age ; and several of the watch-men have assur'd me , that divers of the hail-stones at their first descent were very little inferiour to pidgeons ( nay , some say pullets ) eggs in magnitude ; the thunder and lightning that proceeded , was very considerable here , but nothing so extraordinary as in parts remote , and especially at sea , of it's strange and lamentable effects there ; we have one very remarkable instance , faithfully communicated from a gentleman on board , as follows . on tuesday last we sail'd to cows , the wind coming up at west , we cast anchor there , intending to take the opportunity of the first fair wind , but it continued not only contrary , but also extream high blustering and outragious , and on thursday a prodigious mixture of so much rain , hail , wind , thunder , and lightning , as if the element had been involved in civil wars , and factious meteors had took a solemn league to depose the sun , and huddle the world into it's primitive chaos of darkness , confusion and horror : but this was still but a suitable prologue to a more dismal tragedy ; for behold ! about three a clock on fryday morning , ( the very time of the mighty storm at london ) there brake a clap of thunder so dreadful into our ship , that we all imagin'd one of our guns had casually took fire , and went off , but were soon taken off from that imagination , when we perceived the hideous flashes of lightning which acccompanied it : so dreadfully as if all the planets descending from their orbs had with united fires set the hemisphere into a general and continued blaze ; nor was the terror of the sight all the effect it had upon us , but in a moment it split our main mast , as easily as you would peal a rush , from the very top to the bottom in the hold : nor did other parts of our tackle speed much better : for our main top-mast was shivered into small peices , and the pendent at the main-top-mast-head burned to ashes , but what was still more sad : it beat down by its violent impetuosity fourteen men upon the deck , and had like to have hurl'd several into the sea , nay it cast dovvn three that vvere betvveen the decks : for its force was so great , and with all its operation so subtile , being as it were a spirituous body that nothing could withstand it . on these poor men that had the ill fortune to be hurt by it : five of them for a considerable time after were taken for dead , having no simptomes of life left : for there was not the least perception of breath or pulse , and both thei● eyes and teeth were immovable , and yet had no visible wound , bruise , or hurt about them , but stunck so extreamly of sulpher ( or brimstone ) that we could hardly endure to go near them . in this desperate condition they continued half an hour or thereabouts : but at last by rubbing them , forsing open their mouth , and pouring down spirits and other restoritive cordials , we recover'd them to some operations of vitality , & do hope to preserve all their lives , but they are so strangely crazed in their senses that 't is feared they will scarce ever enjoy the exercise of their reason and understandings so fully as formerly . besides these , there are more that are miserably burn'd through their cloaths , i mean their flesh scorch'd , and yet their garments not consumed , nor so much as sing'd as far as we can perceive ; their skin is much discoloured , and looks as it were burnt to a coal , but the doctor does not doubt to cure them perfectly . by reason of this disasterous accident , we are forc'd to return to portsmouth for reparation , &c. dated jan. th . . by this most certain and plain relation , we may perceive the wonderful strange force of lightning , how strong it is , and how penetrating , how sudden in its approach , how terrible in its execution . philosophers have treated largely both of the generation of thunder and lightning , as also of their dismal effects : but methinks none has described it with a more happy mixture of judgement and fancy , than the noble du bartas , whose words with some small variation i shall presume here to repeat . — hark! hark! methinks the worlds wall shakes , the earths foundation shrinks ; and sure the furies in black erebus , transport their hell between the heaven and us : thunder ! what 's that ? they say a vapour moist , which both from fresh and from salt water 's hoist : in the same instant with hot exhalations , in the aiery regions secondary stations ; where fiery fumes besieg'd with the crowd , and keen cold thickness of that dampish cloud ; strengthen their strength , and with redoubled vollies , of joyned heat on the cold leaguer sallies : and without resting , loud it groans and grumbles , and rouls , and roars , and round , round , round , it rumbles : till having rent the lower side a sunder , with sulph'ry flash it does go off in thunder . this lightning of a purer fume is fram'd , through'ts own hot-dryness evermore inflam'd ; whose power past credit , without rasing skin , can bruise to powder all our bones within ; can melt the gold that greedy misers hoard , in closebarr'd coffers , and not burn the board ; can melt the blade , and never singe the sheath , can scorch an infant in the womb to death . and never blemish in one sort or other , flesh , bone , or sinew of th' amazed mother : consume the shooes , and never hurt the feet , empty a cask , and yet not perish it , &c. these properties we have in part seen verified in this narrative : may all people lead their lives in sobriety and godliness , working out their salvation with fear and trembling ; that guarded with faith and a good conscience , they may either avoid , or with a christian resolution meet all such sudden calamities . certainly he that seriously considers the majesty and power of our creator manifested in the amazing voice of thunder can never be an atheist : those that would know more of the nature of lightning , let them read fulle of meteors . finis . a strange relation of the suddain and violent tempest, which happened at oxford may , anno domini together with an enquiry into the probable cause and usual consequents of such like tempests and storms. harrison, robert, th cent. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a strange relation of the suddain and violent tempest, which happened at oxford may , anno domini together with an enquiry into the probable cause and usual consequents of such like tempests and storms. harrison, robert, th cent. [ ], p. printed for richard sherlock ..., [s.l.] : . attributed to robert harrison. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). reproduction of original in harvard university libraries. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng storms -- england. oxford (england) -- climate. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a strange relation of the suddain and violent tempest , vvhich happened at oxford may . anno domini . together with an enquiry into the probable cause and usual consequents of such like tempests and storms . printed for richard sherlock booksellour in oxford . anno. dom. . animadversions upon the late suddain tempest , which happened at oxford on the thirty first day of may last past . those accidents which are least expected , are either most dreadful , or most admirable : that which is common is contemned ; and familiarity makes men disgust the most noble , because usual , works of god. the occurrence of unexpected casualities breed terrour ; of unfrequent wonder : this over-joys the ears : that overwhelms the mind . here then i have a subject will exercise the faculties of both soul and sense ; if you have a mind to hear what former ages have been seldome acquainted with , if to understand what later times may justly deprecate ; i shall faithfully publish the relation , and seriously examine the events , of a late accident , which may respond to both your desires . 't is pleasant to scann the variety of natures operations , but grievous to pry into her cryptick machinations . the tempest was amazing in facto , but will be terrible in futuro ; 't was repentine and violent , but will be significant and notable : but to the business . upon the of may last . the morning was calm , serene , and clear , at ten of the clock an uncouth and intense heat of the sun seem'd to scourge the moistned plains , as if he would have redeem'd in a moment the continued bathings they had been so long plung'd into , by the quick and penetrating stroaks of 〈◊〉 redoubled beams . this continued till about a quarter of an hour after noon ; when presently a steddy and soft wind seem'd to dislodge from his back , and hoord up several clouds and vapors not far from our zenith ; having obser'vd this , i forthwith erected a scheme , and beheld the position of the heavens ; from which i had no sooner learnt the impending event , but immediately the presaged storm came out of hand to attest the veracity of my judments . a miraculous , dismal , and hideous storm followed : first , a cataegis , or rushing murmur was heard in the upper regions , which anon was felt in the lower : a huge , blustering , and boisterous wind descended with such vehemence and irresistable force , that it proved inimical to antient trees and antique edifices ; was dangerous , if not destructive , to way-faring men , and out-laying cattle ; 't was thick , and black , and with such violence reflected upon the ter●●●●ous globe , that thereby it wheeled , and contorted it self into such windings , that it hoised up , and as it were absorbed , the more subtile , light , pulveriz'd and dry particles of the terrestrial bodies , which had been divided and separated by the preceding ardour of the sun's scorching beames ; these opacous particles were so gross and many , and so variously tossed in our atmosphere , they denyed us our meridian lustre of the sun ; for thse beams the upper clouds transmitted , they terminated : so that without a contradiction , we might have asserted a solar eclipse , at two signs elongation of the luminaries . whereas other subitaneous and erratick winds ( as they call them ) are usually distinguished into three species , the typhon , prester and ecnephias ; this thyella or storm is reducible to none , but includes them all ; the first blast was like the ecnephiae , which are the effect of distracted and shattered airy clouds ; typhon proceeds from the fumigation of the clashing vapors ; and prester is a whirlewind intermixt with fire , which were all visible in the time of this storm 's continuance . and the concomitant thunder was no less astonishing , then the described wind : for besides the frightful claps at every eruption , the lightening was deadly , ruinous , and powerful ▪ the fulgur quick and crispisulcant , and appeared several times to compose and distort its self to the form and similitude of an oxe's horn ▪ otherwhiles to the likeness of the pyramidical flame of a burning torch , or indeed not much unlike the spiritual cloven tongues : this coruscation comprehended those three kinds of ominous and pernicious sceptoe's : viz. the psoloes , fuliginous ; killing and destroying the tender herbs : arges , rapid ; blasting and smutting the hopeful fruits : and elicias , morbiferous ; and lineally compos'd according to the forementioned figures . lastly , the rain was thick , strong , and ponderous ; its fall caus'd the tender scions as it were reverence it , and bow to its presence ; several of the drops were extended to the full breadth of a six-penny-piece , which also followed one another so closely that they seemed one continued spout or stream ; so that in less then half a quarter of an hour , these pouring cataracts raised the water in a round and uniform vessel of about foot diamiter , near two foot higher then before , without the asistance of any other interfluent rivulet , or commixing water . hesiod in his theogonia decyphers a fictitious tempest ad amussim , with all the expressive terms that horrour and amazement can invent : but truth delights in a plain dress ; such in reality was this , as i have here described it ; whose more immediate and direful effects , are sadly evident in several instances , as in the subversion of bridges , the discussion of walls , and demolition of houses ; the despoliation of some trees of their boughs , and others of their fruits , the eradication of newly sown seeds , the exsiccation of those more deeply rooted , and a general either deprivation or depravation of the radical and vivificating moisture of all trees , herbs , fruits and plants : what the wind left , the rain beat down ; and what that spared , the lightening struck : these are tokens too evident . again , t was easy by a sleight animadversion to understand the malitiousness of this tempest , even from sensitive perceptions : you might have smell'd the vapours in their descent , abounding ( and therefore infecting subjacent bodies ) with stench and corruption : you might have beheld an unusual proreption of animalcles out of the bowels of the earth , hunting and searching about for food , as sensible of some convenient aliment , which they commonly extract out of corrupted matter : you might have tasted a vitious juice or moisture adhereing to the leaves of vegetables , afterwards incorporated therein , and remaining a sure ground for the generation and nourishment of insects , caterpillars &c. when the vivific energy of the sun shall more powerfully work upon them. now because such events , with the vulgar , are usually sealed immediato dei vel daemonis digito , with the immediate finger of god or the devil , i shall essay to demonstrate this phaenomenon to be the meer result of secundary causes , and to salve it from the common observation of such like contingencies , and the plain operation of physical causes . for consider : i suppose the integral parts of all sublunary bodies , as the mixt bodies of earth , water &c , to be minute , slender , sleight , and slippery , and accordingly as these parts are mingled and intertexed one with another . the body is constituted fluid or solid &c : but i conceive , the fluid bodies are composed of oblong , solid bodies of variously figurated , particles ; now these parts or particles being themselves compounded ( according to the corpuscularian philosophers ) of self-moving atoms , are either continual movents or feasible moveables : however , t is certain that by the diversly qualified irradiations of aspected planets , and chiefly of the two luminaries , these minute particles are actuated or put in motion ; by which motion or agitation they are caused to ascend upwards , without any inclination of their own ; because they find no other place , to or by which they may more easily continuate their motion , for their natural downwards is obstructed by the earth ; just as the dust being trampled upon , and put in agitation by the prancing feet of coursers , assays vpwards , although it have much more of an internal principle to retard such motion . those which are called vapours are the parts of fluid and more light bodies , wherefore their ascent is easily soluble ; but the exhalations , which are parts of solid and more gross bodies , i suppose to be wheedled vpwards , being complicated in the embraces of ascendant vapours . these vapours then , being , as i said , agitated by the influence of celestial bodies , are yet more forcibly struck and moved by the intense sun beams , as is manifest by their then more frequent and apparent ascent : and altho they be oblong , yet in their ascension seem globular , because of their ready and quick circumgiration , whereby they impel one another ; till at length this motion begin by litle and litle to languish and decay , when once , above the atmosphere , they lose the sun's reflex beams ; and so at last , by the cold of the middle region , cohere and stipate more close together ; yet not altogether destitute of motion , but retaining a self-inflecting activity , effectual to the conglomerating and reducing them unto mutual amplexes ; whereby , together with contrary winds assistant to the unition and conjunction of their vagabond parts , they concresce into clouds . whence t is evident , there are these causes prerequir'd to the generation of clouds , viz. the superlunary influence to exhale vapours ; gentle winds to conjoyn them ; and sufficient frigidity to congeal them : which must all be duly contempered ; and which never so joyntly and proportionally concur , as in the spring , and hence proceeds the frequent alteration of weather in that season . but because i said , that exhalations were carryed aloft by their adhesion to vapours ; 't is to be noted how they are separed in the superiour regions ; for we observe that some clouds are wholly airy , others watry , others fiery , &c. which manifestly denotes that exhalations and vapours are sometimes separated : which will appear if we consider their gravity or levity ; for 't is plain that oft times the gravity of exhalations may stop their course , and stay them behind , while the light vapours ascend higher ; or sometimes they may be left alone , while that impells downwards the more volatile vapours from them , which is not effectual to the moving of them ; or lastly they may be distinguished by the constant agitation of the winds , like butter from milk. now therefore these airy , fiery , and watry clouds have large superficies's considering their matter , as sense can testifie ; and therefore are suffulted by the air 's resistance , lest they should descend , even against their own inclinations : but by the supervening heat , and perhaps other qualities of celestial bodies , some ( or all ) of their particles are liquefacted , or otherwise prepared , and thereby unite the rest together more closely and compactly , and consequently become more heavy ( for ponderosity proceeds from the smallness or paucity of pores ) till at length their own weight press and force them downwards ; being adjuted sometime by an impulse of the superiour , sometime by a recess of the inferiour air ; through which they are strained , and as it were sifted , so that accordingly as that is more laxe or presst , the rain or wind are greater or less ; or as they connect with analogus vapours or exhalations occurring in their descent . thus you have seen in brief , the manner of the ascending and cohereing of vapours , the impending and descending of clouds . all this happened to this storm by a signal and suddain concurrence ; t was signal , because boisterous ; suddain , because vnobserved . the preceeding serenity , clearness and emptiness of our air , was the reason , why the brisk , quick , and stated southern winds disburthened themselves here so fast of their clouds ( collected , exhaled and concreted in forraign countries ) because of that resistance was in the stuffed air ( circumscribing this pure air of ours ) less capable of admitting such grossly-coherent clouds , being cloyed with such like before : or perhaps several opposite winds blowing at the same time from opposite plages ( as has not been seldome observed ) might terminate in ours , and so impell hither , dislodge themselves , and pile up , in our vertex , several clouds of different contextures and composures : and hence the storm was made up of the extreams of wind , thunder , and rain . amongst these clouds being thus comping'd and penn'd up ( on the south and west , by their proper winds , on the east and north by the closeness of the air ) the celestial powers bred intestine broils , and tumultuous strivings , whereupon each meditated their exit downwards , through the lower regions of the air , being less stipated , and more yeilding , then the other circumambient : and this with the more impetuosity , because of the more agitated ( not rarified* ) particles , conspiring all to a motion deorsum , both by natural tendency , and influential impression ; and with difficulty overcoming obvious remora's . so , the whirl-wind was caused when an aerial and superiour cloud was dilated , ( that is when his litle , long particles put on a brisk and circular motion , which required more room then when they were almost quiet and still ) by superlunary agents , and forcing his way through some narrow chink of an inferiour cloud , where it found least resistance , descended as it were perpendicularly and from the zenith ; the manner whereof may be rarely exhibited in an eolipile . the thunder was generated by a tabulated and compiled order of oblong clouds , the superiours of which , being forcibly condensed by celestial beams , and by that condensation gravitated , and by that gravity violently detruded upon those subjected clouds , caused a mighty sound by their impinging and atrition thereupon , which rebounded in the atmosphere ; and because the exhalations were partly inflammable ( such are the spirits of metalls , the effluvia's of sulphur , arsenick , nitre , ammoniack , bitumen , mercury , camphire , vitriol , antimony and such like , abounding in the bowels of the earth and emissed by subterraneous fires ) therefore , i say , by this elision and attrition of the clouds , fire or flame was accended ; which flame has us●●lly those effects , which are consequent to the natures of the exhalations or vapours , whereof the cloud is composed . the forementioned variety of the shapes of this flame or coruscation , i conjecture , to have born some analogy , with their respective parts of the superiour striking , and clashing cloud . the rain was generated by the hasty resolution of an inferiour cloud , whose ponderous ingredients promoted its descent ; the largeness of the drops proceeded partly from the other vapours which coupled with them in their rode to the earth ; but chiefly from the compactness of the cloud , which may be said rather to have been broken in peices , then resolved into parts : or perhaps , what is very probable , one watry cloud fell upon another ; so that in joynt forces both mutually conspired to a descent , and the drops of th' one , mixt with those of th' other . lastly , the ready cessation of this storm was caused by the few , but forcible , stroaks of the superiour upon the inferiour clouds , which presently either totally dejected , or dissipated them. here suffer me to take a short digression , and make a parallel . we had a great , mighty , rushing wind a few days before , the apostles on the very day of , the pentecost ; that was defluxus caeli , this exhalatio terrae ; that really came down from heaven , this apparently ; that filled only one place , this especially one ; that happened where the apostles and disciples were gathered together , this where god's ministers , christ's disciples are chiefly resident ; that when men of different nations were dwelling at jerusalem , this when men of different countries were commorating in england : that brought cloven tongues , this their similitude ; those represented ( with the prophet ) the tongues , the best member we have , these ( with the apostle ) the worst member we have ; that filled the disciples hearts with the holy ghost , this the peoples hearts with holy thoughts ; that caused amazement , this terrour ; that was a certain seal of his first comeing in the flesh , this may be a probable sign of his second comeing in glory ; that was a token of the plentiful harvest of the gospel of christ , this of the scarce crop of the fruits of the ground : the summ of all is ; that as the spiritual tempest was god's ordinance and method to prepare men for the reception of the holy ghost , so this natural one to awaken them to the work of repentance . thus i have endeavoured to trace out , and solve the unexpectedness of this tempest ; in all which i do not recur to that self-moving and subtile matter , which the cartesians so much dote upon ; but allow the celestial influences to be the principle efficient , and primary movent in all such accidents . for the position of the heavens did evidently manifest this tempestuous weather ; and t was only the promising sudum , made it unaccountable to the vulgar , and the precedent serenity of the upper regions in our zenith ; which was permitted until the more effectual and continued darting of the stellar beams upon the suddainly-coagulated mass of vapours ; which after due , prepared , and sufficient operations , dissolv'd , dishevel'd and hurried them downwards ; and the more forcibly , because the more perpendicular rayes of the planets produced this so repentine effect . we find mars , sol and mercury were pofited in gemini , where they had all some essential dignity just without the cusp of the tenth house in the south south west plage of heaven , whence all this storm arose ; and we had all the rest of the planets in or about medium caeli in such an hubbub and confused manner , as it was impossible but some notable effect should quickly follow ; observe the congruity of this position with the storm , which seems to have been govern'd by the influences of the ninth , tenth , and eleventh houses : the beginning of the tempest was wind , wherefore in the ninth house we had the two planets hot and dry by nature , together with ambiguous mercury , in an airy sign : the middle was part thunder , but most rain , wherefore in the precise tenth house we had a moist planet in a watry sign ; the end was most thunder and part rain , so in , and upon the cusp , of the eleventh house were the planets ( some of an hot and dry , others of a moist nature ) in a fiery sign ; so that in all things the storm was consonant to the triplicities then possess'd by the planets . but as the storm was rare , so its effects , or rather events , will be no less admirable : the summer , i judge , will be pestered with many showers , and abundance of disturbing southerly winds ; expect diseases more rife ; an universal scarcity of wholesome , but plenty of noxious fruits . autumn will abound with rain unusual , and sickness epidemical ; a soultry , dark , cloudy and unwholsome season ; and such unconstant weather , that the husbandman will find it difficult to make the profit recompense his labour this year : and to gather empty husks will be as great a loss to him , as grievance to the whole nation . the fields will be either scorched by interfering ardour , or drowned by continual moisture . these are my sentiments upon this unusual accident ; which seem to be more ratified , by the preventional comet , and postventional conjunction ; of the one i have already spoken , of the other i intend to treat . search the annals , and you may find what has been the usual consequents of such like tempests . such an one happened in the sixth of hen. . whereupon followed a dearth , an earthquake , and a comet . so in the fifteenth of richard . march . a suddain and terrible tempest arose , with the violence whereof much hurt was done , after this ensued great mortality by pestilence , so that much youths died every where , in cities and towns in passing great numbers , herewith followed a great dearth of corn , so that a bushel of wheat in some places was sold at thirteen-pence , which in those dayes was an exceeding great price : so in the sixteenth of the same , were several such tempests , whereby the corn was spoiled , a plague followed in essex and a dearth in cambridge ; and in the fifth of q. mary was a signal tempest of wind , which our's equall'd in violence not in continuance , and thereupon followed a great mortality in the next harvest , by quartanes and other epidemical rotts . but more instancies would be as unnecessary as tedious . this therefore is the flagellum dei , to scourge the people's pride by blasting their felicity : this is the denounced wrath of god , to bring down their high minds by lopping of the staff of their bodies : but oh what energy , what prevalency might a sincere ninivitical humiliation have against the powers of heaven ! how might it wrest and extort mercy from god , and avert these impending catastrophies ! which that you may all speedily set upon , is the hearty desire , and earnest prayer of your friend and servant — notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e south-vvest , or south-west by south . arist meteor . arist. met. cartesius meteor . as the peripateticks . assert . forreign embassadours . psal. . . james . . raph ▪ holins . looke vp and see vvonders a miraculous apparition in the ayre, lately seene in barke-shire at bawlkin greene neere hatford. april. th. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) looke vp and see vvonders a miraculous apparition in the ayre, lately seene in barke-shire at bawlkin greene neere hatford. april. th. . dekker, thomas, ca. - . [ ], , [ ] p. : ill. [by n. okes] for roger michell, imprinted at london : . sometimes attributed to thomas dekker. printer's name from stc. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng storms -- england -- berkshire -- early works to . meteorites -- england -- berkshire -- early works to . berkshire -- england -- history. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - jennifer kietzman sampled and proofread - jennifer kietzman text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion looke vp and see wonders . a miraculous apparition in the ayre , lately seene in barke-shire at bawlkin greene neere hatford . april . th . . imprinted at london for roger mi●●●●● ● . to the reader . as thou doest reade , so practise to vnderstand , and make vse of thy labour : let not this knowledge vanish away like a dreame , but keepe it as a monument ingrauen in brasse or marble . this is a strange chronicle , written by a strong hand : the best antiquary in the world hath set it downe , for god himselfe puts his owne name to it : a few leaues of his filling , are an ample volume : euery small epitome written by him , is a booke in folio . here thou shalt finde no great number of lines , but much more matter comprehended in them , then the words seeme to carry . this is but a picture of a battaile fought in the aire : a naked description of a terrible fight ; fearefull no doubt to the standers by ; but it may be comfortable to thee , if heereby thou getst thy selfe arm'd to combate with thy sinnes , for questionlesse vppon some such occasions grew this quarrell ; which may easily be taken vp , if thou ( and euery one of vs ) submit our selues , confesse wherein wee are faulty , and so plead for attonement . nothing is here presented to thine eyes , to fright thee , but to fill thee with ioy , that this storme fell so farre off , and not vppon thine owne head. yet beware , for the same hand holds a rod to strike euery one that deserues punishment . pray to heauen to free thee from it ; and so wishing thee the strong heart of a true christian , to beare with patience , what thy selfe shalt feele , and to pitty others , i bid thee farewell . 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 , 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 we are , to run vpon rockes and quick-sands ; 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 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 ; 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 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 ; and gods mercy like the mountaine of bashan . 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 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 shal be turned to brasse ; earth to iron ; dust and ashes be giuen for raine ; 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 , thou must obey elisha , and wash thy selfe seauen times in iordan : weepe seauen times a day ; nay seauen times an 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 pray to heauen , we shal be fruitfull , and these fiue shal bee our sonnes and daughters . by this meanes our mara shall change her name to naomi , and our bitternesse be turned into sweetnesse . haue we not great cause then to magnifie him , who crowneth the yeare with plenty , 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 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 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 . about fiue of the clocke in the afternoone . this miraculous , prodigious , and fearefull handy-worke of god was presented , to the astonishable amazement 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 ) 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 . 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 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 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 , 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 , 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 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 shal be 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 . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e psalme . deut. . king. . ruth . . . psal. . psal. .