In 1680, when an unusually alarming comet appeared, an eminent Scottish divine, with admirable nationalism, declared that comets are "prodigies of great judgment on these lands for our sins, for never was the Lord more provoked by a people." In this he was, perhaps unwittingly, following the authority of Luther, who had declared ; "The heathen write that the comet may arise from natural causes, but God creates not one that does not foretoken a sure calamity.
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