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
may by all good means lawfully seek to make it up again nothing doubting but that by a sober and diligent search we may in some * Multum est de rebus coelestibus aliquid cognoscere measure learn what God hath written in the Works of his hands yea even in those things which the Text calls here The Signs of Heaven Diogenes Laertius saith that Thales Milesius was the first among the Grecians that was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Wise man because he was the first among them that found out the Secrets and Mysteriesof the Heavenly Bodies And Pliny in his Natural History reporteth that Solon who was called the wise Law-maker among the Athenians did by the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon foretell the defects and subversions of certain States and Kingdoms in Asia To whom Melancthon that great Divine so often mentioned hath fully accorded For having said that many things may be judged by the Stars he reckoneth among them even the Mutations of Common-weals calling that also a part of the Physicks But how can any thing of this be learned from the Signs of Heaven Doth not God dispose of Kingdoms and Common-weals I answer yes he doth and it is one thing so to dispose of Kingdoms as to translate them to another Nation another thing so to dispose of them as they who live in them be punished for their sins both which God doth But how They who in this send us to God and to his Decree say that which is primarily true but they do not shew us how it is secondarily effected For although concerning some things extraordinary the cause be hid and doth not appear so much as in a remote way yet such as be either ordinary or not altogether extraordinary are not wrought by the first cause without an administration of the second But you will say the changes of Common-weals are altogether and at all times extraordinary No not altogether nor at all times For a previous disposition thereunto may be discerned and seen many times by the Signs of Heaven but how far or to what height their operation herein shall extend is seldom or never fully known in every particular to any but by the spirit of Prophecy and the reason is because certainly to foretel of contingent events belongs to none but God himself Esa 41.23 And yet for all that the Signs of Heaven have here also their working and are serviceable to God even for such purposes as these else never would it be written in the Scriptures That the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera Judg. 5.20 Nor would David say in Psalm Fifty at the fourth Verse He shall call to the Heavens from above and to the Earth that he may judge his people Nor last of all would it stand upon record in humane story nor be granted by the consent of all Ages That great Eclipses and Conjunctions have always had sad events So that the Scripture speaketh not in vain when it saith concerning the Sun Moon and Stars Let them be for Signs as well as for seasons days and years But to give a further touch upon this There is I confess no Chaldean fate to be feared nor any necessity to be imposed upon the * That the Stars and other Celestial bodies incline the will by mediation of the sensitive appetite which is stirred by the constitution and complexion cannot be doubted as saith Sir Walter Ralegh in his History of the World l. 1. c. 1 9 11. Corpora coelestia saith Damascep constituunt in nobis habitus complexiones dispositiones Ide ex Damas wills of men but onely an inclination and this inclination is not caused by an immediate working of the Stars on the intellectual part or minde of man but occasioned rather mediately or so far forth as the soul depends on the temperaments and material organs of the body to which it is to indulgent and yeeldeth to often to the motion thereof which is no strange thing neither For if we consider the operation of the soul so long as it is in the body it dependeth indeed upon material and corporal organs whose Elementary matter whereof they consist is as subject to the operation of the Heavens as any other Elementary matter whatsoever In which regard it cannot be denied but that the Heavens in some sort do work upon mens mindes and dispositions And hereupon it comes to pass that in places where the present state of things is apt to kindle into a combustion That there I say Mars being powerful in operation doth sometimes sowe the seeds of War by his working upon adust choler and the like Or the Air being greatly out of tune by the bad influences of the Planets causeth not onely many sicknesses but strange disorders of the minde and they breaking out into act do many times disturbe States translate Kingdoms or work some unlucky disaster or other For when the Air is distemperatly heated then it is for certain very apt so to disorder and dry up the blood in humane bodies that thereby great store of red and adust choler may be purchased and this stirreth up unto anger with the thought of many furious and violent actions and so by consequent to War and from War cometh victory from victory proceedeth change of Common-weals and translations many times of Kingdoms with change of Laws and Religion according to that common saying Novus Rex nova Lex New Lords new Laws All which is very plain and yet there be some so full of scruples that they do altogether oppose this manifest Doctrine others so full of self conceit and epicureous security that they do wickedly deride it whom whilest we suffer to play the fools with their fond sancies frivilous frumps and affected derisions we may truly beleeve that they rather want a little Hellebore to cure their Brains then force of reason by arguments and demonstration to inform their Judgements Such a one I think in this was Pericles that great and famous Athenian who in the beginning of the Peloponesian War being ready with a great Fleet of an hundred and fifty ships to hoyse up sail See this Story in Plutarchs lifes was presented even as he went up into his Gally with a great and terrible Eclipse of the Sun which made the skie so dark that some of the bigger Stars appeared At which the Governor of the ship was sore affrighted and thereupon together with the rest of the company refused to sail which when Pericles perceived either truly contemning the threatnings of the Stars or fearing that the hearts of his Soldiers should fail he put his Cloak for a while before the Governors eyes and then by and by taking it away again asked him If that which he had done with his Cloak portended any thing To whom the Governor answered No No more saith he maist thou think is signified by this Eclipse though the Moon be now between the Sun and our sight Which being said
they defended with such obstinacy That when they were reproved of him and taught to do otherwise they answered That they would not do according to his Teaching but follow rather the desperate bent of their own Bows as I may say In worshipping the Moon as Queen of Heaven This you may see in the Four and fortieth of Jeremy at the Sixteenth and seventeenth Verses where the words be these As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not say they hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our mouth to burn incense to the * The Moon as in Job Chap. 31.26 Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem Of which they give this Reason For then say they we had plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil By which last words plenty of victuals were well and saw no evil it well appeareth That it was fear as much as any thing else which made them thus advance this practise And truly fear is an effect proceeding from the nature of Superstition and so far prevailing That it will there make gods where it doubteth most of danger As the Egyptians did in making Fortune a godess for they kept an annual feast in honor of her diety giving her thanks for the year which was past and earnestly imploring her favor for the year to come It was Plutarchs observation That the Superstitious always think the gods ready to do hurt By means whereof he accounteth them in worse case then Malefactors or Fugitives who if they once recover the Altar are there secured from fear where nevertheless the Superstitious are in greatest thraldom And from hence arose that ancient saying Primos in orbe deos fecit timor Fear first brought gods into the world And hence it also was That the Heathen in institution of their Sacrifices did offer as well to all their gods that they should not hurt them as for any help they expected from them And so in some sort it is even among us though called Christians for we have some that are troubled if the Salt do but fall towards them others that be afraid if a Raven do but crook over them or an Hare but cross the way before them or a Pin but lie with the point towards them for then forsooth they think the gods are angry with them they dare not therefore so much as stoop to take it up forgetting in the mean while what David saith in the 31 Psalm at the sixth or seventh Verse namely this I hate all those saith he who hold of superstitious or lying vanities but my trust hath been in the Lord. O what a misery it is to dote as some men do through the godless fear of foolish fancies But above all we have an example of the poor silly Indians who sacrifice their children unto the Devil at this very day because they be mainly afraid of him And of old as it is storied we have the example of Alexander Magnus who sacrificed to the Sun Moon and Earth that thereby he might divert the evil which as he feared was portended by an Eclipse but a little before And the Jews forementioned did not onely burn incense to the Moon whom they called the Queen of Heaven but did offer up cakes unto her also as in Jere. 7.18 From which kinde of Idolatry Job did thus acquit himself saying If I have beheld the Sun when it shined or the Moon when it walked in brightness or if my heart hath secretly enticed my mouth to kiss my hand unto it or by way of worshipping it then this were iniquity that ought to be punished Job 31.26 A smatch of which is still remaining even among us in some old doting Women who at the first sight of the New Moon do use to say Yonder 's the Moon God save her grace For from whence should that Speech arise but from the reliques of that Heathenish kinde of Idolatry which made gods of the Sun the Moon and the Stars But when Job spake against it he said It was iniquity that ought to be punished as you have already heard And well might Job say so because God Almighty had forbidden it as in Deut. 4.19 Beware lest thou lift up thine eyes to Heaven and when thou seest the Sun and the Moon and the Stars even all the host of Heaven shouldst be driven to worship and serve them which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all Nations under the whole Heaven By all or most of which hitherto mentioned we see that God Almighty would not have his people learn the way of the Heathen either in a servile slavish fear actively considered whereby they worship the Sun Moon and Stars or in a passive fear as in the Text whereby they are made afraid amazed or sore troubled in minde with thought of what may happen from the significations of the signs of Heaven For though they be signs and thereupon may and do signifie else they were no signs yet thus saith the Lord Be not afraid of them for the Heathen are dismayed at them All which in a word tendeth to this namely That the Prophet here teacheth Gods people to have their trust so firmly fixed on him that what disaster soever the Heavens in the course of Nature should at any time threaten unto them they ought not to fear it For as one truly speaketh Astra regunt homines sed Deus astra regit The Stars have a power over men such as it is but God ruleth the Stars Or as another saith Justè age Sapiens dominabitur astris Et manibus summi stant Elementa Dei That is Do godly deeds so shalt thou rule the Stars For then God holds the Elements from Wars Whereto agreeth that of Melancthon a great and famous Divine who speaking of this of Jeremy Be not afraid of the signs of Heaven saith Oh sweet consolation proposed to the Church of God and to all that call upon him For though the Prophet doth not say They signifie nothing nay rather in naming them signs doth declare they sometimes signifie or threaten great and sad things yet he would have the godly comforted and not be dismayed at them Not saith he because they signifie nothing but that the pious may trust that they shall be covered and kept of God even in those dangers For as Christ when he biddeth us not to fear death doth it not because death is not bitter but because he would have us know that even in death he is present to preserve us So here the Lord God in saying Fear not the signs of Heaven doth it not because they are not sometimes of an evil signification and may therefore produce effects of a sad event but because he would have our whole trust and confidence be
the Elements but upon all things else that are made thereof For that they work upon the inferior World is an Axiome so firmly grounded upon experience that all the World will never be able to confute it Aristotle therefore in the opinion of Melancthon spoke the truth when he said That this inferior World is governed of the superior and that the superior Bodies are the cause of motion in the inferior These virtues or powers by which they work were at the first divinely stamped in them and are called in Job 38.31 by the name of influences the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Super fluo that is To flow into or upon Which derivation employes thus much namely That they must have some Object to flow into or work upon it would else be non-sence to use that name of influence Thus then they work And as they work so by their working they speak even to all those who will but lend an ear to hear them When therefore David in the Nineteenth Psalm had said The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work Then this he also added namely That there is neither Speech nor Language but their voice is heard among them Whose voice doth he mean there but the voice of the Heavens which at the first verse he had said declared the glory of God And indeed in a right consideration of all this there is a double speaking to be observed the one for God at the first verse the Heavens declaring his glory in such a glorious piece of work as they are the other to men at the third verse in regard there is neither Speech nor Language but their voice is heard among them All which is true For though both these voices strictly taken are spoken unto men as well the one as the other yet the last upon occasion may be said to be spoken to them in more particular And thereupon it is that Moses in the first of Genesis at the fourteenth Verse speaking of the Creation of the Heavenly Bodies saith God made the Stars for Signs as well as for Seasons Days and Years which could not be if they signified foreshewed or spake nothing by being Signs to us who are here below For to whom should they be Signs if not to us who inhabit here in this dull dark Globe of Mortality over whose Heads they hang that casting our eyes upon them we may not onely behold them but according to that wisdom which God hath given us look into their significations by considering their Motions Configurations Risings Settings Aspects Occultations Eclipses Conjunctions and the like This we may do nay rather should do according to those abilities that God hath given us Why else hath he hanged up those Signs in open view to those that dwell in the face of the Earth Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri jussit Man looks not downwards as do the Beasts that perish but God hath given to man a lofty countenance and by that doth as it were command though not to be afraid yet to look up to the Signs of Heaven Nor is this offensive unto Piety or prejudicial to true Religion more then those other parts of natural knowledge which Christians study as not repugnant to Divinity For as the other parts of natural knowledge bring no harm at all to Christian Religion so neither doth this Nam hanc quoque partem Physices esse sentimus as saith Melancthon For this we also take to be a part of the Physicks as he affirmeth not in one but many places I know indeed that the Devil hath been always busie to sow his Tares among the Wheat and into the * So Sir Walter Rawleigh calls it in his History of the World profitable knowledge of the Celestial Influences hath had an envious endeavor to shuffle in his damned superstitions poysoning some with his doctrine of Characterical devices making of Images under such or such a Constellation and to the knowledge of the secret Vertues of Nature hath fastned his doctrine of Numbers Charms Inchantments Incantations and the like Teaching men to believe in the strength of words and letters thereby either to equal his own with the All-powerful Word of God or to diminish the glory of Gods creating Word by whom are all things yet should not this scare or terrifie the discerning Christian from searching with sobriety into the works of God For as David saith in the 111 Psalm at the second Verse The works of the Lord are great sought out of all those who have pleasure therein And as this was Davids Doctrine so was it King Solomons practise For as the Scripture telleth us in the First Book of the Kings the Fourth Chapter at the 31. Verse and so on He was wiser then all men Then Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman and Chalcol and Darda the Sons of Mahol and his fame was in all Nations round about He spake of Trees from the Sedar Tree that is in Lebanon even to the Hyssop that springeth out of the Wall he spake also of Beasts and of Fowl and of creeping things and of Fishes And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all Kings of the Earth which had heard of his wisdom Thus there in that Scripture and in the Book of Wisdom whose title is The Wisdom of Solomon at the 17. Verse of the Seventh Chapter and so on I know saith he how the World was made and the operation of the Elements the beginning and the end and the midst of times The alterations of the turning of the Sun and the change of the Seasons The circuits of years and the possessions of Stars The natures of living things and the furiousness of Beasts The power of the Winds and the imaginations of men The diversities of Plants and the virtues of Roots And all such things as are either secret or manifest them I know for Wisdom the Worker of all things hath taught me All this Solomon knew God gave him this Wisdom which had it been Diabolical and vain he should never have had But because it was not he prayed for it and had it in a measure more then ordinary To which full measure though every own cannot attain yet so far as by all good means he can he may lawfully seek it for the making up of what was lost in Adams fall For before Adam fell he knew the nature of every thing insomuch that he gave names to all the living Creatures Gen. 2.19 7 8 and whatsoever Adam called every living Creature that was the name thereof But now what is Man or what depth of knowledge is it that he can have but by great pains and industry His natural knowledge is not great nor at any time so much but that it may be bettered by acquired skill Seeing then this breach came into the World through Adams fall we
practise and not by that which truly and indeed is called Astrology For that which truly and indeed is called so is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the language of the Stars or the speech of the Heavens whose voice as I shewed you before out of the 19. Psalm at the 3. Verse is heard over all the Earth For there is neither speech nor language but their voice is heard among them The Apostle Paul in Rom. 10.18 doth onely allude hereunto and not litterally understand it of the Preaching of the Gospel as some would have it For as the voice of the Heavens is heard in all Lands so the sound of the Word which was Preached by the Apostles went into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World Thus then I see as Dogs bark at them they know not so some among men condemn and hate the things they throughly understand not Moreover another way of the Heathen was to inchant the Signs of Heaven as both their Poets and others report Carmina vel coelo possunt deducere Lunam saith one Charms can bring down the very Moon out of Heaven And so also doth Diodorus Siculus testifie Lib. 2. c. 8. Upon which power the Heathen people did so much rely that as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses in Pharaoh's time so did the Chaldeans withstand Gods Prophets in Esay's time and afterward insomuch that they reposed their safety and the safety also of their Empire in the power of this wicked Inchanting brood of Astrologers who were either such themselves as had through Satans subtilty corrupted the art with damned Diabolocal inventions and not such as medled with no more then pure Astrology or else were mixed as one in counsel and purpose with those who wickedly believed that they could cross God and hinder the operation of the Heavens by their devilish inchantments Now these the Lord God Almighty derided in Esa 47.12 13 14. Verses saying Stand now with thy inchantments and with the multitude of thy Sorceries wherein thou hast labored from thy youth if so be thou shalt be able to profit if so be thou mayest prevail Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels Let now the veiwers of the Heavens the lookers on the Stars who give knowledge concerning the months stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee Behold they shall be as stubble the fire shall burn them they shall not deliver themselves By which words of If so be thou mayest prevail let them stand up and save thee they shall not deliver themselves is clearly shewed that Chaldea relied solely upon the power of these wicked men who opposed God and gave no heed at all to the predictions of his Prophets Of which opinion was Balak the King of Moab when he sent for Balaam desiring that by his inchantments he would curse Gods people saying unto him with great confidence I wote well that he whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed Numb 22.6 But all this would not serve the turn for there is no inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel And therefore when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel he went not as at other times to seek for inchantments but set his face toward the Wilderness Numb 24.1 And thus I believe we have the right meaning of that Text even now alleaged out of the Prophecy of the Prophet Esay Or suppose this be not the full meaning but that rather we are to understand it of Gods deriding the Chaldean Astrologers for not foreseeing by the Heavens what his Prophets foretold yet what can be thence concluded but that the highest God doth sometimes when he pleaseth produce that which could not be foretold by the observation of the Stars This I grant is not altogether improbable howbeit I rather think the other to be the truest interpretation as best agreeing to the scope of the Prophecy What shall I say more the Text saith here Be not afraid of the Signs of Heaven and so say I Be neither too fearful of them nor yet to careless to regard them nor the significations intended by them For though they be Signs and do therefore signifie yet let not this trouble you be not overcome with fear be not dismayed at them For if thou belongest to the Israel of God and wilt but search and try the ways repent of sin watch and pray seek to God and redeem the time now the days are evil then know that there is a God who is the God of Israel who will be for thee and will either remove a threatned evil and leave a blessing behinde him or will else dispose of the worst that either may or can be for thy assured good For as David saith in the 121. Psalm He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord himself is thy keeper the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand So that the Sun shall not smite thee by day for so the word signifieth nor the Moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil yea it is even he that shall keep thy soul The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth for evermore All glory therefore be to God both Father Son and holy Spirit As was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen Amen FINIS