Somewhat: WRITTEN BY OCCASION OF THREE SUNS seen at Tregnie in Cornwall, the 22. of December last. WITH Other memorable Occurrents in other places.  
Imprinted M.DC.XXII.   

Believing Reader:  
YOu are saluted, by( I think) you know not whom: I would be sorry you should; for a beggarly generation of mercenary liars have drawn an inevitable suspicion upon the reporters of all truths in this kind: But as it is your virtue that hath exempted you from the number of ordinary censurers, so let your charity excuse me from being of the number of ordinary writers.  
The Seller of these presents entreated I would speak a word or two to you in his name: but I thought it most necessary to be mine own advocate; lest, if it should happen this concealment to be found out,( as Multa fidem promissa levant. The largest promises come from the longest tongues) I might be exposed to the tyrannous rage of them, who by my expense of two hours, are anticipated in their project, importing at least two pieces, and twenty or thirty copies. Believe this therefore, as I would believe any thing that ●s not de fide, that what I have written, is the truth as I believe; and I think I have just reason to believe it, for it hath been confirmed by the voluntary oaths of many, the truth of which none can doubt of, but such as use themselves to swear untruths, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I confess, I heard not of it( how could I?) till it was too late to see it; but if I had, there motenesse of the place would peradventure have persuaded me( according to the proverb) rather to content myself with believing it, than to go to see it. But that I may not be too light in so grave and weighty a matter, I will conclude with that common excuse, You have it as good cheap as I, and cheaper; for it cost me thrice as much time in writing, as it will do you in reading; yet the loss of that is the greatest hazard you can make, in so poor an adventure.   

Somewhat:  
Written by occasion of the report of three Suns seen at Tregnie in Cornwall, the 22. of December last.  
WHen I consider the present state of things, with how strong and powerful delusions the great enemy of mankind goeth about to overspread the whole Church, labouring by all means, that the floods of untruths, belched from his wide throat, might carry away that Glorius woman clothed with the Sun, crowned with Stars, and treading upon the Moon; I have just reason, with all humility and becoming reverence, to take into consideration that gracious instruction, which his Majesty, in his Meditations upon the 20. chapter of the Revelation, raiseth and enforceth by occasion of the Devils losing, by the rising of Antechrist, namely, that Whereas the justice of God, in respect of man's falling wilfully from the truth( as Paul saith) justly did send to the world the great Abuser with efficacy of lies; as well to tyrannize spiritually over the conscience by heresy, as corporally over their bodies, by the civil sword. Therefore we must fear to fall from the truth revealed, and professed by us, that we may be free from the like punishment. For assuredly, though I dare not say, that every falling away from the truth, with what circumstances soever it may be qualified, is a sin against the Holy Ghost; yet I think I shall not stray from the judgement of the most and best Divines, if I affirm that the sin against the Holy Ghost is never committed, but there must necessarily concur a wilful and obstinate denial of a known and inwardly confessed truth, or A withholding and keeping of it back in unrighteousness.  
Which sin of sins, because lamentable experience teacheth every man whose eyes are open, that it is stealing upon us: The Lord in mercy hath not only frequently protested against it in his word, denouncing judgement without mercy, to all them who shall dip hands or hearts in the guilt thereof: But also by signs and wonders, by strange and uncouth prodigies, he gives warning that he folds not his hands together like a sluggard, loath to pull them out of his bosom, or like such a God as the wicked fain( because they would fain have it so;) seeth not, neither understandeth any thing. But that his eyes behold all the wickednsse that is done upon all the earth; as if he had no more than one particular person to attend unto: and that he is whetting his sword, and making ready his quiver full of arrows against impenitent sinners, and such as will not fear his name.  
His abundant mercies indeed will not suffer his justice to take vengeance of sinners, before he have( according to his own Law, in case of Israel's making war against other cities and nations) offered peace and reconciliation unto us: But for all that, when he seeth his love despised, his long-suffering contemned, and all his covenants trodden under foot; He is at length accustomed to show himself the Lord of his promise; and that all his former patience proceeded not( as it falls out many times with men) from fear of opposition, or the greatness of the delinquents; but only and merely from his immeasurable love, which hateth nothing that he hath made, and is so loath to punish, that if all had continued in their primitive order and created purity, the very Word had never been named, nor had the thing itself ever been created.  
I should not have spoken so much, nor with so much confidence upon this occasion, had I not known that the same God who always hath written the texts of these predictions with his own hand, hath likewise ordinarily given this Interpretation of them; and withal that admonitions, whether in season, or out of season, cannot hurt; It being a happy occasion, whatsoever by any means draweth us to amendment of life. Let not Philosophy wrangle with me for neglecting her, when I am employed in the service of our common Mistress, Divinity; I willingly give unto her the knowledge of immediate and second causes; but she herself hath taught me, to give unto God the ordering and disposing of Nature, and a constant influence into the least effects, which she produceth.  
It were an hard matter for me to say, that Parelij( so the Grecians call an appearance of many Suns together;) and Paraselenai( which are when it seems that many Moons appear at the same time) are caused by the reflection of the beams of those Planets, from an equally condensed cloud interposed between them and us; as Rainbows are( by the refraction of their beams) from an hollow, waterish, or dewy cloud, unequally condensed or thickened( which is the cause of the variety of colours) as is plain by a three square glass, which representeth more colours, or at least more lively than are in the Rainbow. Of which who so are desirous to see more, may read Seneca largely discoursing thereof, in the first book of his Natural questions, the 11, 12, 13 chapters, and diverse others.  
And was there none among the many thousands of Israel, that could satisfy the amazed multitude, concerning the causes of thunder and rain; but that they must fall to such a dejection upon the sight and hearing of them, as is expressed, 2 Sam. 12. 18, 19 Certainly, the unsafe curiosity of mankind, when it hath gained credit in some things, scorns to acknowledge his ignorance in any thing, as we see by them, who being believed, or thought to speak probably in the disclosing of the causes of Snowes, Dewes, and Rains, have from thence assumed unto themselves to be able to give natural reasons of the Deluge, of raining of Blood, Milk, Wheat, Stones, wol, Iron, and such like, whereof many histories written by credible Authors do make mention. How much better and safer is it for us, though these things be granted possible by Nature; yet since it cannot be denied that they are not ordinary in Nature, to take the advantage of them for the preventing of that wrath, which, whether it be prognosticated by these ostents, or no, will surely be revealed from Heaven upon us, when the measure of our iniquity shall be filled.  
Were we at that point with God, where we should be; we needed not to be afraid at the signs of Heaven; simply and positively we need not fear them; as though they could hurt us, without the impulsion of his hand which made Heaven and earth; or as if, though he had commanded his Army Royal of all creatures to march against us, and the Heavens themselves to fight against us, as against Sisera, yet it were not in his power, upon our repentance to sound the retreat, and make them all retire, and again to renew the league between the stones in the street and us. But when we see the signs the same, and know our sins the same, God will, without doubt, rather accept of an humble fear, that trembles at the hand, that shakes the rod, than of a presumptuous and unreasonable confidence, that he who punished the perjury of Troy, should love the lies of Rome,( to use S. Augustine's words) or to use the phrase of Scripture, that he who punished judah for three transgressions should wink at Israel for the multitude of her rebellions.  
When there were three Suns seen at Rome, which by little and little did all grow into one body, It was answered by the College of Soothsayers, that it portended the uniting of the three parts of the world,( which then were only known) Asia, Africa, and Europe into one Empire; Grande spectaculum( saith mine Author) & quod grandia significavit; This was in the year after the world's Creation 3923. and after the building of Rome, 711. about 41. years before the incarnation of our blessed Saviour, M. Aemilius Lepidus, and L. Munat. Plancus being Consuls. The success proved it true; for shortly after, so much of the world, as was either known, or worth conquering, acknowledged the Sovereignty of the Roman Empire: Had these lately seen three Suns,( whereof I am to speak) appeared but twenty years' sooner, we might peradventure have hoped they had but foretold, what we have since found true, The happy union of these three mighty Kingdoms, in our blessed Peacemaker: But seeing they come too late to foretell it; let us hope they come not too late to confirm it unto him and his posterity, as long as the Sun and Moon endure.  
Notwithstanding, even at that time, there were some that on the other side did stiffly maintain, that these three Suns could not presage any good unto the Roman Empire; but rather a division and distraction of that Imperial power, as indeed it proved true; for the year following began the Triumvirate of Lepidus, Caesar, and Antony, which made way unto Caesar's Monarchy, the period of the Romans liberty, and the beginning of the decay of their greatness. And certainly, it hath not been often seen or observed, that such Prodigies have been forerunners of any good unto the place where they were seen: howsoever, upon a turning of the hearts of the people unto God, without question, God can turn the threatened plagues upon the heads of the Heathen, and such as have not known his name.  
The like apparition of three Suns and so many Moons which happened in Italy in the year of Grace 1164. was thought to presage the great dissension of the Prince's Electors in choosing the Emperor, and the schism which lately followed in the See of Rome. And what the three Suns which three years after were seen in Poland might seem to fore-shew, the Chronicles of that Country do sufficiently demonstrate.  
And to pass by many other; those three Suns which were seen at Magdeburge upon the 21. of March 1551. about seven of the clock in the morning, accompanied with seven Rainbows: and the three Moons appearing the night of the same day: the three Suns appearing again in the same place, the 21. of April following, accompanied only with three Rainbows, might probably be thought to fore-shew the strait siege, which( by the command of Charles the fifth) Maurice the Duke of Saxony▪ and Albert Marquis of Brandenburge laid against that City by the space of fifteen months; whereby the Citizens were driven to great extremities, though afterward they made their peace upon good conditions.  
What should I speak of the three Suns appearing over Vinarium a little City in Doringia the tenth of February 1555. Or of the like in France before the battle of S. Quintin's? Because according to the Spanish proverb, Dam lueng as vias, lueng as mentiras; From far countries, foul lies: I will come close to our own times, and our own home; nay, as our Saviour said, Regnum Dei est intra vos, The Kingdom of God is within you: So will I say, It is not beyond the seas, that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it? But the thing is very near unto thee, yea even before thine eyes to see it: And therefore the more inexcusable are they, that either will not believe it, or reflect no more upon it, than if they believed it not: Howsoever, thus it was.  
Upon Saturday the 22. of December last, at Tregnie, a market-town in Cornwall, well known to Cornish men, in respect of his nearness to Falmouth, about eleven of the clock before noon, the Sun being under a cloud, it was observed that from the body of the Sun there proceeded a more scattered and dispersed light than was wont, as if the body of the Planet had been greater than it had formerly been: But this being attributed only to the brightness of some cloud between him and us, little notice was taken thereof, till about a quarter of an hour after, this diffused light seemed to concentre, as it were, and gather to three heads, which in short space appeared to the view of the beholders to be three Suns, of equal lustre and brightness, and placed as near as could be guessed in a Triangle; all shining clear, and scattering their beams with so great light, as that the eye of man could not fasten upon any one of them more than another. And yet which is remarkable, the light of the day was not increased, otherwise than in a clear Suune-shine day, at such time of the year it is accustomed to be; so that they who were in their houses could not, by reason of any such symptom, take notice thereof.  
This strange and extraordinary sight made the people( who were assembled there in great number that day, as being market-day) to forsake the streets and other places, where any thing might interpose itself between it and them, and to betake themselves into open places, whence they might the better discern it; where they, with fear and amazement, did a great while gaze upon it, not being able to discern which was the natural Sun, and which his adventitious and Mimic reflections. They that were of better judgement, guessed them to be distant one from the other about two degrees, or two and one third.  
Nor were they only that were at Tregnie partakers of this fearful and preternatural oftent; but as many as dwelled within four or five miles round about were, or might have been eye-witnesses unto it; peradventure, not in so plain and conspicuous a manner, because the cloud was not either of height or largeness: but it is avouched by some Gentlemen of good worth and quality, that being that day four miles from Tregnie into the landwards, about twelve of the clock, they did plainly see and discern it.  
At the same time, and so long as these three Suns appeared, there were seen in the air, just opposite unto them, and almost due North three Rainbows, two of which were the one within the other, but the third, against the course of nature, had his centre in the Zenith of that place, and was almost contiguous unto the other two, having his back almost joined to theirs. That Rainbows should appear, we know it to be no wonder, and that so many Rainbows as Suns, we believe it possible; but that any Rainbow should be greater than a semicircle, or have his centre above our Horizon, is a thing which elder times have not been so well acquainted withal.  
These Suns and these Rainbows continued in the manner abovesaid, from a quarter of an hour after eleven, until half an hour after twelve; at what time the light of the Suns, beginning by little and little to grow weak, the thick cloud got the victory over them, and took them away from the eyes of the beholders; and at the same time also the Rainbows their attendants vanished, and left the day a little troubled,( but much more the minds of the people;) yet about one of the clock, or soon after, the Sun broke out again in his wont and accustomed manner, and the rest of the day was clear and free from clouds.  
Since this strange apparition, namely upon the tenth of january last, there happened in Devonshire, yet not far from the other place, being on the edge of Cornwall, another wonder, which did as much affright the ears of men, as this did their eyes: For in the afternoon of that day, being the Thursday after Twelfth day, there were heard in the air, unusual cracks or claps of thunder, resembling in all points, the sound of many Drums together, sometimes beating Charges, sometimes Retreats, sometimes Marches, and all other points of war: which after it had continued a good time, it seemed that the same thunder did most lively express many volleys of Smallshot, and afterward the like volleys of Ordnance, with so great, and yet so distinct noise, that many of them who dwelled near the sea, went toward the shore to see what it might mean, as verily supposing there had been some great sea-fight near upon that Coast. These several fearful noises were again and again renewed in the same order, till at length, with an horrible and extraordinary crack of thunder, there fell in a ground of one Robert Pierce, where there were diverse workmen planting appletrees,( which ground lay near the house of one Master George Chidley) a thunderbolt, if I may so call it, being a stone of three foot and an half in length, of two foot and an half in breadth, and one foot and an half in thickness, the substance whereof was in hardness and colour not much unlike a flint, as appears by many pieces thereof, which are showed up and down by many credible and honest Gentlemen, who with their own hands broke them off from the main stone. After the fall of this stone, which with the weight thereof was clean buried in the ground above a yard deep, the thunder ceased, and people began as much to wonder at that which they now saw, as they had lately done at that, which with so much fear & amazement they had heard.  
You have now heard a simple, plain, and short narration, of some great and fearful wonders, what the causes of them were, we all may peradventure conjecture, though none of us can demonstratively show: What the effects of them shall be, I scarce think any man can conjecture; sure I am, no man can certainly tell; It is neither safe nor good for us to be Polimanticks, but in all patience and prepared resolution, to submit ourselves to the will of God, we may well determine it the duty of every Christian.  
I had here put an end of this short and unpolished discourse; but that being in hand with it, there was brought unto me a brief( but excellent) and simple narration of the massacres committed by Papists, upon the persons of more than 400. men, women, and children, of the Reformed Religion, in the Valletelline( a place in the Grisons Country among the Rhaetian Alps, of good importance for many respects) both in Tirano, Teglio, Sundrio, and Malenco, and diverse other places of the Country near adjoining: the ninth, tenth, and eleventh of july 1620. wherein, though I confess there be such examples of cruelty and inhumanity, as a Turk, Infidel, jew, or any other saving a Papist, would blush and tremble at; yet not conciding so aptly with this purpose, I will for the present omit them, and( which agreeth better with this argument) only touch upon such Prodigies, as the Author of that Treatise, who as an eyewitness reporteth what he saw and felt, Et quorum pars magna fuit. affirmeth, to have been seen and heard in those places, both before the Massacre and after; and thus they are word for word with the Italian copy.  

Signs and Prodigies which happened before the massacre in Valletelline, the ninth of july 1620. after the old account.  
THere being thorough out all the Valletelline, Guards or Sentinels set in every Steeple or Bell-fray; together with certain others appointed to several places, to give warning by fire, to the intent that all the Valley, as well by the fires, as by the correspondence of the sounds of the bells, might be in an instant advertized to take arms for their own defence, against such enemies as pretended to assault the said Valley: About the Calends of May, 1620. In Sondrio, the Sentinels that were( as aforesaid) appointed to watch in the steeple made relation, that in the night they heard in the Church of S. Geruais, a great murmuring and noise, as if it had been of many people, earnestly reasoning and disputing about some great and serious matter: and that from the body of the Church, there shone up into the steeple a great light; whereupon the Sentinels, lighting their candles, went to go down into the Church, to see what the matter was: But as they were going down, their light was blown out, and they going back to light it again, it was again blown out, with greater noise and violence than before. And suddenly, the light which was in the Church ceased, and the waits ●f the clock fell down, and the bell was tolled ten times, as it is accustomed to be done, in case of giving an Alarm, which thing was heard of many.  
In Tirano likewise there were some such blows given to the greater bell; In so much, that the Magistrate sent suddenly to see what it meant: but he found that it was not done by any man: And as the messengers returned home from the steeple, the bell of the Palace itself was heard to ring; and they of the place wondering and looking diligently what it might be, they saw descending by the rope of the said bell, somewhat in the likeness and proportion of a Cat.   

Signs and prodigies heard and seen in Valletelline, after the horrible massacre: As it is affirmed by diverse credible persons, that have since come from thence, and were there, at, and aft●r the massacre.  
IN the Churches which were formerly used by them of the Reformed Religion, and principally in Teglio and Tirano, there hath many times been heard a voice to cry, Woe, woè unto you, vengeance from God for the blood of Innocents.  
There hath also been often heard the bell of the Church of them of the Reformed Religion in Tirano, to toll without any man's hands, at the time that the Sermon was wont to be; and in the same Church there hath been often heard a voice, as if it had been of the reverend Antonio Basso, late Minister of that place, and there massacred, when he was wont to preach. Of this Antonio Basso it is likewise reported, that being slain be the rebellious and seditious Papists; they not satisfied with this, cut off his head, and carried it into the Church, and set it upon the Pulpit, where he had been accustomed formerly to preach, and then mocking, cried unto him, Cala a basso, Basso, cala a basso, c'hai predicato assai, etc. that is, Come down, Basso, come down, thou hast preached long enough.  
In Sondrio there was seen coming down from the Mountains, as it had been, an host of armed men; whereupon many going out of Sondrio, were about to run away to save themselves by flight; but in the end this apparition vanished like a cloud; yet it hath been so great a cause of fear among the people, that many have forsaken their dwellings in the Valley, for fear of the divine punishment.   
To make an end now where I began, at home and amongst ourselves; though this brief narration was not by me intended, as a pious fraud, to make men afraid where there is no cause of fear; yet howsoever the truth of it be,( for I will not engage my faith unto you for the certainty of it, though in myself I be well enough satisfied thereof, in respect of the credit of such as reported it, as having been eye-witnesses:) Let others please themselves in the persuasion, that, Nihil est in istis terribile nisi ipse timor,( as Seneca speaks) There is nothing fearful in these things, but the fear itself: yet the wise will be admonished by every occasion, Et quod aequum est sperare, & ad id quod iniquissimum est se compararet; both( as we say in honest English) to hope the best, and to provide for the worst; which how to do, as becometh Christians, no man hath better taught us, nor in fewer words, than our Sovereign himself in the end of his Meditation upon 1 Chron. 15. vers. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. First, by constant remaining in the purity of the truth, which is our most certain covenant of salvation, in the only merit of our Saviour: And next, by reforming our defiled lives, a● becomes regenerate Christians, to the great glory of our God, the utter defacing of our adversaries, the wicked, and our unspeakable comfort, both here and also hereafter.  
Amen.  
FINIS.