and Parthians, with an innumerable host, invaded Asia, calling himself, The wrath of God, and the desolation of the earth.—[Read Carion, lib. 5, page 854.]
Also, in the year 1529, appeared four comets; and in the years 1530, 1532, and 1533, were seen, in each year, one.
Languet saith, that there were three within the space of two years, upon which these, and the like calamities, followed, namely, a great sweating sickness in England, which took away great multitudes of people. The Turk in the quarrel of John Vuavoida, who laid claim to the crown of Hungaria, entered the said kingdom with two hundred and fifty thousand fighting soldiers, committing, against the inhabitants thereof, most harsh and unspeakable murders, rapes, villanies, and cruelties.
Great famine and death in Venice, and the countries thereabouts, which swept away many; the sweating sickness in Brabant, and in a great part of Germany.
Great wars likewise about the Dukedom of Millain, between the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and Francis, the French King.
About that time, also, all Lusitania, or Portugal, was struck with an earthquake, insomuch that at Ulisippo, or Lisbon, above a thousand houses were thrown down, and sixty more so shaken that they were ready to fall; with many other evils that befel those parts about that time.
And to observe what hath fallen out since this last comet appeared, will not be unuseful, either in Europe or America.
In Europe, the great contest between our own nation and the Dutch, which hath threatened bloody war; and what will be in the conclusion is known only to God. Besides other contests between the Dutch and some other of their neighbours; as also the pestilence, very hot both in England and Holland.
In America, the late and sad blow that our countrymen, at the Isle of Christopher’s, received from the French.12
And as to ourselves in New England, although, through the mercy of our good God, there is no breaking in, nor going out into captivity, nor complaining in our streets; yet we have been threatened with invasion by foreign force, and sometimes in expectation thereof; as also we are not to slight the hand of God in his late sore strokes in taking away so many by thunder and lightning, to the great amazement and terror of many. As also, God’s continued strokes in drought, blasting, and mildew, with which much of the fruits of the earth have been destroyed. All which, considered, ought to induce us to search and try our ways, and to enter into a strict and serious examination of our hearts and lives, and having found out what those sins are that are most provoking to the Majesty of Heaven, we may reform them, whether in church, in state, in family, or in persons; that so he may not stir up all his wrath, but yet may delight over us to do us good, from the beginning of the year to the end thereof.This year it pleased God to smite the fruits of the earth, namely, the wheat, in special, with blasting and mildew, whereby much of it was utterly spoiled, and became profitable for nothing, and much of it worth little, being light and empty. This was looked at, by the judicious and conscientious of the land, as a speaking providence against the unthankfulness of many for so great a mercy, and their murmuring, expressed in their words, by slighting and undervaluing terms of it; as also against voluptuousness, and abuse of the good creatures of God, by licentiousness in drinking, and fashions in apparel; for the obtaining whereof, a great part of this principal grain was oftentimes unnecessarily expended. This so sad a dispensation, with other particulars, occasioned the observation of some days in a way of humiliation before the Lord, somewhat more frequently than ordinary. Let it also be observed, that yet in judgment he remembered mercy, by affording a plentiful harvest of other sorts of grain, so as the country suffered not in respect of the want of bread this year, but had plenty thereof.
This year also, his Majesty’s commissioners, namely, Col. Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr, knight, George Cartwright, Esq., and Samuel Maverick, Esq., arrived at Boston, in New England, in the month of July; the
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