The people had been taught by those of former times to look for a literal fulfillment of this sign. Thomas Burnett, in his “Theory of the Earth,” printed in London, A.D. 1697 said of Matthew 24:29:— GSAM 96.1
“No doubt there will be all sorts of fiery meteors at that time; and amongst others those called falling stars, which, though they are not considerable, singly, yet if they were multiplied in great numbers, falling, as the prophet says, as leaves from the vine or figs from the fig-tree, they would make an astonishing sight.... We need not look upon these things as hyperbolical and poetic strains, but as barefaced prophecies, and things that will literally come to pass.” GSAM 96.2