Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	call_v	heaven_n	word_n	5,297	5	3.9799	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

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

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