73 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



colonies, preached his sermon on " Heaven's Alarm to the World, . . . 

 wherein is shown that fearful sights and signs in the heavens are the 

 presages of great calamities at hand." The texts were taken from the 

 book of Revelation : " And the third angel sounded, and there fell a 

 great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp " ; also, " Behold, 

 the third woe cometh quickly."* 



In this as in various other sermons he supported the theological 

 cometary theory, fully. He insists that " we are fallen into the dregs 

 of time," and that the day of judgment is evidently approaching. He 

 explains away the words of Jeremiah, " Be not dismayed at signs in 

 the heavens," and shows that comets have been forerunners of nearly 

 every form of evil. Having done full justice to evils thus presaged in 

 scriptural times, he begins a similar display in modern history by cit- 

 ing blazing stars which foretold the invasions of Goths, Huns, Sara- 

 cens, and Turks, and warns gainsayers by citing the example of Vespa- 

 sian, who, after ridiculing a comet, soon died. The general shape and 

 appearance of comets, he thinks, betoken their purpose, and cites Ter- 

 tullian to prove them " God's sharp razors on mankind whereby he doth 

 poll, and his scythe whereby he doth shear down multitudes of sinful 

 creatures." At last, rising to a fearful height, he declares : "For the 

 Lord hath fired his beacon in the heavens among the stars of God 

 there ; the fearful sight is not yet out of sight. The warning piece of 

 heaven is going off. Now then if the Lord discharge his murdering 

 pieces from on high, and men be found in their sins unfit for death, 

 their blood shall be upon them." And again, in an agony of supplica- 

 tion, he cries out: "Do we see the sword blazing over us ? Let it put 

 us upon crying to God, that that judgment be diverted and not return 

 upon us again so speedily. . . . Doth God threaten our very heavens ? 

 O pray unto Him, that He would not take away stars and send comets 

 to succeed them." f 



But even in the midst of all his arguments appears an evident mis- 

 giving. The thoughts of Newton in science and Bayle in philosophy 

 were evidently tending to accomplish the prophecy of Seneca. Mather's 

 alarm at this is clear. His natural tendency is to uphold the idea that 

 a comet is simply a fire-ball flung from the hand of an avenging God at 

 a guilty world, but he evidently feels obliged to yield something to 

 the scientific spirit ; hence, in the discourse concerning comets, pub- 

 lished in 1682, he declares : " There are those who think that, inas- 

 much as comets may be supposed to proceed from natural causes, there 

 is no speaking voice of heaven in them beyond what is to be said of 

 all other works of God. But certain it is that many things which 

 may happen according to the course of nature are portentous signs of 

 divine anger and prognostics of great evils hastening upon the world." 



* Rev. viii, 10, and xi, 14. 



f See "Ileaven's Alarm to the World," Boston, 1682. (In President Sparks's collec- 

 tion, Cornell University Library.) 



