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A62021 Signa coeli: the signs of heaven, or, A sermon on a text in the tenth chapter of the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah, at the second verse preached on ... the nine and twentieth day of March ... 1652 ... by John Swan ... Swan, John, d. 1671. 1652 (1652) Wing S6237; ESTC R33890 16,877 30

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SIGNA COELI The Signs of Heaven OR A SERMON On a TEXT in the Tenth Chapter of the Prophecy of the Prophet JEREMIAH at the Second Verse Preached on the day before that great Eclipse of the Sun which was on the Nine and twentieth day of March in this Year of our LORD GOD 1652. And Year of the World 5656. By John Swan Minister of Gods Word Pauci intelligunt multi reprehendunt Non ait Jeremias Nihil esse Signa Coeli imò cum nominat Signa portendi aliquid adfirmat Melancth Praefat. in Joh. Schoneri Libros London Printed for John Williams dwelling at the Sign of the Crown in Paul's Church-yard 1652. JEREMIAH 10.2 Thus saith the Lord Learn not the way of the Heathen and be not dismayed at the Signs of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayed at them THat which hath caused me to make choice of this Text at this time is the great noise which I have heard among the common people concerning that Eclipse of the Sun which to morrow in the Forenoon will present it self unto us It is indeed an Eclipse that will be very great and may therefore have some sad effects which will in time shew themselves among us Yet should not this so trouble perplex or cast down the mindes of Christians as if they had no God to stay upon For what is it but the way of the Heathen to be afraid of the Signs of Heaven which way we must not learn For thus saith the Lord Learn not the way of the Heathen and be not dismayed at the Signs of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayed at them I have read the words according as I finde them rendred in our last Translation agreeing therein to the Original and to others who have repeated it in another Tongue Melancthon saith Nolite timere à signis Coeli quae timent Gentes Be not afraid of the Signs of Heaven which the Gentiles or the Heathen fear And Junius or Tremelius thus A Signis Coelorum ne consternemini quia consternantur Gentes ab illis That is Be not astonished or sore troubled in minde at the Signs of Heaven for the Heathen are amazed at them As if he should say The thought of what the Signs may signifie hath taken away their heart hath cast them down astonished them made them afraid amazed and sore troubled in minde But be not so You that have the Lord for your God For thus saith the Lord Learn not the way of the Heathen and be not dismayed at the Signs of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayed at them In which Text I finde a Prohibition wherein the people of God are prohibited from learning the way of the Heathen One particular whereof is this namely That they feared or were dismayed at the Signs of Heaven beside which they had other ways wherein they offended as I shall afterward shew you Some I know by the word fear in this place understand a Religious reverence or fear such as is pertinent to Divine Worship and thereupon they do not read the Text Be not afraid of the Signs of Heaven but Fear not the Signs of Heaven In which reading the sence or meaning is very different For by saying Fear not the Signs of Heaven they conclude that the Prohibition in the simple meaning thereof is no more then worship not it being here the intent of the Prophet to keep back the Jews from worshipping the Heavenly Bodies called in the Text by the name of the Signs of Heaven For that the word fear is often taken so in Scripture cannot be denied As for example in the Nine and twentieth Chapter of Isaiah at the thirteenth Verse we have these words And their fear toward me was taught by the precept of men Which words when our Saviour Christ expounded in Matth. 15.9 he took the word fear for worship saying In vain they worship me teaching for Doctrines mens Traditions So also in another place when the Children of Israel had sinned it is said They feared other gods as is written in the Second Book of the Kings the Seventeenth Chapter at the seventh Verse They feared other gods that is They worshipped other gods And in more particular that it must be taken so here in this place the words following at the Fifth Verse do make more evident for there the Prophet speaking of the Images of the Heathen which they made erected and worshipped saith thus Fear them not for they stand up as the Palm-tree but they speak not c. By all which a man would think that such indeed were the signification of the word fear in this very place and that it were needless to seek any other interpretation thereof But I shall shew the contrary and evidently declare that it is not so For first in justification of that reading which renders the Text Be not afraid of the Signs of Heaven or Be not dismayed at them It is a reading which is exactly suitable to the Hebrew word here used which doth certainly signifie a passive surprisal or possession with fear and not an active as doth that aforesaid in Isai 29.13 And can therefore in it self import nothing that is pertinent to such a fear as simply hath relation to Adoration For though both the Heathen and Jews also were guilty of worshipping the Host of Heaven for which they are elsewhere reproved as I shall shew you by and by yet the word here used imployes no such thing nor is ever so to be taken except as some think the object of fear when it is named be either put for the true God or for some Idol to be worshiped in the stead of God Then Secondly For that also at the Fifth Verse of this Chapter before mentioned where idolatrous fear of worship of Images is forbidden the phrase is not the same for the phrase is altered and is there no passive surprisal or possession with fear of astonishment as in the former word at the second Verse but is there an active fear such as is pertinent to adoration as the word there used hath declared The word therefore not being the same in both places causeth the sence and meaning not to be the same in one place that it is in the other but that the one differeth from the other even as far as doing is from suffering Howbeit I neither can nor will deny but that passive fear drives superstitious men many times to that active fear of adoration For though it be certainly true That God Almighty made the Sun Moon and other Stars yet such is the folly of some among men to make them gods which they do by their vain wicked practises of worshipping of them And so the greatest Lights are by them abused to the greatest darkness and by deifying of them they damnifie themselves by being as blinde and as superstitiously addicted as were the Heathen Gentiles This the Jews even in this Prophets time as also in some times before were guilty of which