LOOK Up and see Wonders.  
A miraculous Apparition in the Air, lately seen in Berkshire at Bawlkin Greene near Hatford. April. 9th. 1628.  
Imprinted at London for Roger Mi●●●●● 16●8.   

To the Reader.  
AS thou dost Read, so practise to Understand, and make use of thy Labour: Let not this Knowledge vanish away like a Dream, but keep it as a Monument engraven in Brass or Marble. This is a strange Chronicle, written by a strong hand: The best Antiquary in the World hath set it down, for God himself puts his own Name to it: A few leaves of his Filling, are an ample Volume: Every small Epitome Written by him, is a Book in Folio. Here thou shalt find no great number of Lines, but much more Matter comprehended in them, than the Words seem to carry. This is but a Picture of a Battle fought in the Air: A naked Description of a terrible Fight; fearful no doubt to the Standards by; but it may be Comfortable to thee, if hereby thou getst thyself Armed to Combat with thy sins, for questionless upon some such occasions grew this Quarrel; which may easily be taken up, if thou (and every one of us) submit ourselves, confess wherein we are faulty, and so plead for Atonement.  
Nothing is here presented to thine eyes, to fright thee, but to fill thee with joy, that this Storm fell so far off, and not upon thine own Head. Yet beware, for the same Hand holds a Rod to strike every one that deserves punishment. Pray to Heaven to free Thee from it; and so wishing thee the strong heart of a true Christian, to bear with Patience, what thyself shalt feel, and to pity others, I bid thee farewell.   

Look Up, And See Wonders.  
SO Benumbed we are in our Senses, that albeit God himself Hollo in our Ears, we by our wills are loath to hear him. His dreadful Pursiuants of Thunder, and Lightning terrify us so long as they have us in their fingers, but being off, we dance and sing in the midst of our Follies. So blind are we in the understanding of Heavenly matters, that we cannot see our way to Goodness, but run headlong into the Paths of our own everlasting undoing. Dangers have not the skill to fright us; Death only is the Man, that can do good upon us: And yet, though Death knocks at our very Doors, nay; albeit we see him sit at our Bedside, yet the hope of Life, plays her idle, vain, and wanton Music under our Windows.  
Into what a miserable Sea of calamities does a man then throw himself, when in this his earthly Navigation, he sails he cares not how, nor knows where to find a safe Landing-place.  
We had need therefore to make much of understanding, wise, and skilful Pilots, for the best of us all is an ignorant Mariner. Apt enough we are, to run upon Rocks and quicksands; but an excellent Seaman is he, that in all weathers can bear up Sail, and by the virtue of his good Compass, is able to avoid such mortal Dangers.  
The four Elements have been Preachers to us, yet we get (or at least, show) little amendment by the Doctrine, they have Read unto us. The Earth, (once fruitful) hath of late years felt the curse of Barrenness: Her womb hath been the devourer of many thousands of her own Children; she has not played the part of a Mother, but a Stepdame, for instead of strong wines, she hath been drunk with blood.  
How hath the other Element of water been troubled? What Monsters hath the Sea brought forth? The sons of Murder, Rapine, Fury, and Piracy. As for Fire, it hath denied of late to warm us, but at unreasonable rates, and extreme hard conditions. But what talk I of this earthy nourishment of fire? how have the Fires of Heaven (some few years past) gone beyond their bounds, and appeared in the shapes of Comets, and Blazing Stars? The Air hath been infected, and millions have dropped into Graves, by sucking in her mortal poison. The Air is the shop of Thunder and Lightning: In that, hath of late been held a Muster of terrible enemies, and threatners of Vengeance, which the great General of the Field, who Conducts and Commands all such Armies, (God Almighty, I mean) avert from our Kingdom, and shoot the arrows of his indignation some other way, upon the bosoms of those that would confound his Gospel.  
Now, albeit that these four great quarter-masters of the World (the four Elements) have in former times, and in this of our own, been in civil Wars one against another, and bend their Forces at the Heart of this Kingdom; yet how happy are we, to eat our bread in Peace, and to drink our wholesome and sweet Waters? No Nation beneath the Sun hath more cause to sing Praises to God, and send up Thanks to Heaven than ours.  
The Drum beats here, but the Battles are abroad: The Barbed Horse tramples not down our cornfields: The earth is not manurde with man's Blood (as it was in the Wars of the Barons; and those of the two Royal contending Families, of York and Lancaster.) Here we press Soldiers; but other Countries bear the burden of their Armies. here they kindle their Match, but the fire is not given, till they come into Foreign Kingdoms.  
This Security yet must not be suffered to rock us fast asleep; and so with Samson, to have our strength cut from us, by the Strumpet of our carelessness: For albeit, our Gates have no Canons planted against them▪ Nor no scaling-ladders se● to the Walls of our Cities; yet there are Whole Ambushes of enemies lurking in our private Bosoms; And those are our sins, which daily lay trains of powder, to blow us up, and confound us.  
For these, there is an Eye open, which day and night doth over look our actions; and if mild and gentle chide cannot call us home, let us thank ourselves, and the stubbornness of our hearts, if we groan under the stripes of correction.  
Let us turn to God, and God will not turn his Face from us: Say thy sins were as black as Hell; yet Repentance shall make them like the Wings of a Dove, covered (as the Kingly Prophet sings) with silver, the Wings bearing the colour of yellow Gold. Repentance is able to make the soul as white as the snow in Zalmon; 
Psalm 67.  and God's mercy like the mountain of Bashan.  
Repentance is a golden Key, which opens Heaven, and looks up to God's anger. Repentance wins him to smile upon us, and to say thus; If thou still art climbing up this Hill of Repentance; Blessed shalt thou be in the City; and Blessed in the Field: Blessed shall be the fruit of thy Body; and the Fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy Cattle: The increase of thy Kine; and the Flocks of thy Sheep: Blessed shall be thy Basket, and thy Dough: Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in; and blessed also when thou goest out.  
Thy Land-Souldiers (O England) shall not stand in fear of any Italian Spin●laes; nor thy Navy Royal of any Spanish Armadas: For, thine enemies that rise against thee, shall fall before thy face; they shall come out against thee one way, and fly before thee seven ways.  
His word that speaks this, may be taken better than any Kings in the World; and therefore hold out both thy hands, under this Tree of Blessings, and catch the golden Apples, when so freely they are shaken down into thy lap But if thou trample these gifts under thy feet, and spurnest at God's Favours bestowed upon thee; New quivers of punishments will then be opened, and other strange fearful arrows be shot at thy bosom. Heaven shallbe turned to Brass; earth to Iron; dust and ashes be given for Rain; 
Deut. 20.  our Wives shall have others lie with them; our great houses shall have others dwell in them, our Vineyards to be planted, yet we shall never taste them: Our sheep to be given to our enemies; and our sons and daughters to be led into Captivity.  
If therefore with Naaman, thou wouldst be cleansed from thy Leprosy of sin, 
2 King. 5.41  thou must obey Elisha, and wash thyself seven times in jordan: Weep seven times a day; nay seven times an hour, for offending thy merciful Father: Whosoever with Ahazia, the King of Samaria falleth sick, and sendeth for recovery to Baal-zebub (the God of Ekron) and not to the true God indeed, he shall not come from his bed, but die the Death.  
For, we sink to the bottom of the waters, as the Carpenter's axe did (in the second of the Kings,) but, though never so iron-hearted, the voice of an Elisha (the fervency of Prayer, and praising God) can fetch us from the bottom of Hell, and by contrition make us swim on the top of the waters of life.  
Stand therefore at the Gates of God's mercy still; beg still; knock still; and knock hard: For Hannab, was barren, yet being an importunate suitor, her petition was heard, and signed: She was fruitful, and had three Sons and Daughters: So, when we are barren in Repentance, in Thanksgiving in Charity, in Patience, in Goodness, let us unfeignedly pray to Heaven, we shallbe fruitful, and these five shallbe our Sons and Daughters. By this means our Mara shall change her name to Naomi, 
Ruth. 1.20.  and our bitterness be turned into sweetness.  
Have we not great cause then to magnify him, 
Psal. 65.  who Crowneth the year with plenty, 
Psal. 104.  and whose steps drop fatness: Have we not reason to tremble at his threatenings, who covereth himself with Light, as with a Garment, and spreadeth the Heavens like a Curtain? who layeth the beams of his Chambers in the Waters, and maketh the Clouds his Chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind? This Almighty Thunderer, hath Spirits attending upon him, for his Messengers are flaming fire to run of his errands: If he but looks upon the earth in anger, it trembles: If he but touch the Mountains, they smoke, and are consumed: So that if we fall not on our knees, to do him reverence. If we open not our lips, to glorify his Name: If we fall not flat on the Earth, at the sound of his dreadful voice; woe be to us, we are lost for ever, undone for ever: His blessings (if we receive them not with the right hand) are to us, as messes of meat set upon a Grave What then are his chastizements? O● they are terrible and not to be endured. Many windows hath he set open in Heaven, to show what Artillery he has lying there, and many of our Kings have trembled, when they were shown unto them. What blazing Stars (even at noon-days,) in those times, hung hover in the Air? How many frightful Eclipses both of Sun and Moon? What apparitions of battles? How many times have Armies fought against Armies, in the disturbed upper Regions?  
It is not for man to dispute with God, why he has done this so often, nor rashly to pronounce judgement upon any thing, it pleaseth God to accomplish now; but, with fear and trembling casting our eyes up to Heaven, let us now behold him, bending his Fist only, as lately he did to the terror and affrightment of all the Inhabitants, dwelling within a Town in the County of Berkshire.  

Look up therefore now; and see a New Wonder.  
THE name of the Town is Hatford (in Berkshire) some eight miles from Oxford. Over this Town, upon Wednesday being the ninth of this instant Month of April 1628. about five of the clock in the afternoon. This miraculous, prodigious, and fearful handiwork of God was presented, to the astonishable amazement of all the beholders, Men, Women, and children, being many in number.  
The weather was warm, and without any great show of distemperature, only the sky waxed by degrees a little gloomy, yet not so darkened but that the Sun still and anon, by the power of the brightness, broke through the thick clouds, and made them give way to the Majesty of his beams.  
A gentle gale of wind then blowing from between the West and Northwest; in an instant was heard, first a hideous rumbling in the Air, and presently after followed a strange and fearful peal of Thunder, running up and down these parts of the Country, but it strake with the loudest violence, and more furious tearing of the Air, about a place called The white Horse h●ll, than in any other. The whole order of this thunder, carried a kind of Majestical state with it, for it maintained (to the affrighted Beholders seeming) the fashion of a fought Battle.  
It began thus: First, for an onset, went on one great Cannon as it were of thunder alone, like a warning piece to the rest, that were to follow. Then a little whileafter, was heard a second; and so by degrees a third, until the number of 20. were discharged (or there about) 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 Retreat▪ Amongst all these angry peals, shot off from Heaven; this begat a wonderful admiration, that at the end of the report of every crack, or Cannon-thundering, a hizzing Noise made way through the Air, not unlike the flying of Bullets from the mouths of great Ordnance: And by the judgement of all the terror-stricken witnesses, they were Thunderbolts. For one of them was seen by many people, to fall at a place called Bawlkin Greene, being a mile and a half from Hatford: Which Thunderbolt was by one Mistress Greene, caused to be digged out of the ground, she being an eyewitness amongst many other, of the manner of the falling.  
The form of the Stone is threesquare, and picked in the end: In colour outwardly blackish, somewhat like Iron: Crusted over with that blackness about the thickness of a shilling▪ Within, it is soft, of a grey colour, mixed with some kind of mineral, shining like small pieces of glass.  
This Stone broke in the fall: The whole piece is in weight nineteen pound and a half: The greater piece that fell off, weigheth five pound, which with other small pieces being put together, make four 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 only thought, but said, that verily the day of judgement was come. Neither did these fears take hold only of the people, but even Beasts had the selfsame feeling and apprehension of danger, running up and down, and bellowing, as if they had been mad.  
It is in the Country credibly reported, that some other Thunder-stones have been found in other places: But for certainty, there was one taken up at Letcombe, and is now in the custody of the Sheriff.  
Many do constantly affirm, that the shape of a Man, beating of a Drum, was visibly seen in the Air, but this we leave to prove.  
Others report that he, who digged up the Stone in Bawlkin Greene, was at that instant stricken lame, but (God be thanked) there is no such matter.  
Report in such distractions as these, hath a thousand eyes, and sees more than it can understand; and as many tongues, which being once set a going, they speak any thing. So now a number of people report there were three Suns seen in the Element; but on the contrary side, they are opposers against them, that will affirm they beheld no such matter, and that it was not so. Admit it were, how oftentimes have three Suns, four; nay five, and sometimes more appeared in the Air, both in England, and other Countries round about us? They who out of their Astronomical judgements write of such apparitions, alleging, and proving by strong arguments, that such disturbances in the Celestial bodies of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, do more often from Natural causes, than Supernatural.  
Howsoever, it is not fit that any man, should take upon him, to write too broad and busy Comments on any such Texts as these Let us not be so daring as to pry into the closet of God's determinations. His works are full of Wonders, and not to be examined: Let us not be so foolish, as turn Almanac-makers, and to Prognosticate, Prophecy, Foredoom, or Foretell, what shall happen, fair weather or foul, to our own Kingdom, or any other; scarcity, or plenty▪ War, or Peace, for such giddy-brayn●d Meddlers, shoot their arrows beyond the Moon.  
The Heavenly designs are of a higher Nature, than to hold any correspondence, commixture, or conjunction with the fantastical compositions of Humane frailty. God's Books are not so easily opened: Man's eyes are too weak-sighted, too dull-poynted to look into his Voluminous, and Mysterious Wonders. The Learning of all the Universities in the World, is mere ignorance, to the Almighty's understanding.  
Lay by therefore thy Jacob's staff, thou that art too scrutinous, to look into the Thunderers treasury; forbear to take the height of these false imaginary Suns; and fright not thy Country with thy overdaring, foolish, and vain glorious predictions. I speak not this to Arm any Man with security, negligence, or misbelief; or to make him think, that God when he shows us such signs, such rods from Heaven, (doing so but seldom,) does it to no purpose; But let not us be too inquisitive what that purpose is: the wranglings of Schools, is not so unpleasing, to ignorant standers by, as our contentions and quaeres about this business, should be to God.  
Enough it shallbe for us to see, and fear; to hear, and not meddle; to apprehend what our weakness can, and to admire the depth which we cannot read.  
The Master of the household being angry, it is the duty of us his servants, to do our best to please him, keep him quiet, and not to provoke him to a higher indignation, lest in his just fury, which every day (every hour,) we are apt to run in. to, he utterly confounds us, and bring us to nothing. Which, the Almighty for his own mercy's sake, forbid forget, and forgive our sins. Amen.   
FINIS.