A42469:231
Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words,…
Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words, 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, Jer. 10. 2 against the scurrilous aspersions of that grand impostor Mr. William Lillie : as also against the various expositions of two of his advocates, Mr. John Swan, and another by him cited, but not named : together with the annotations themselves : wherein the pretended grounds of judiciary astrology, and the Scripture-proofs produced for it are discussed and refuted.Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words, Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signes of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them, Jer. 10. 2 against the scurrilous aspersions of that grand imposter Mr. William Lillie : as also against the various expositions of two of his advocates, Mr. John Swan, and another by him cited, but not named : together with the annotations themselvs : wherein the pretended grounds of judiciary astrologie, and the Scripture-proofes produced for it are discussed and refuted.
London: printed by J.L. for Richard Thrayle, 1653
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1The first Weapon we find here darted against us, is from a word in rhe Text; which to make strike home and pierce the deeper, is welded with the arm of Melanchthon, a great and famous Divine. The word in the Text is Signa, Signs; that is, the steel head of the pile or the spear, which hence headed Melanchthon, and Mr. Swan from him thus enforces upon us. Non ait nihil esse Signa Coeli; imo cum nominat Signa, portendi aliqid affirmat. So precisely Melanchthon, as Mr. Swan reports him; (for I have not the Book; and it is said to be in a Preface to one of their Authors) who also thus renders him, The Prophet doth not say, they signify nothing; (are nothing, saith his Author) Nay rather, in naming them Signs, doth declare that they sometimes signify, or threaten great and sad things. that is somewhat more and somewhat less too then his Author saith. For his Author saith indefinitely, in naming them signs he affirms, that (not sometimes, but) somewhat is portended by them; that is, some sad matter is threatened, as Mr. Swan renders the word of portending not amiss. ⟨p. 119⟩But I demand of Mr. Swan, or of Mr. Swartert either; (for that was his Dutch name, until Luther caused him to exchange it for a Greek one) and tho Mr. Lily when he hath nothing else to oppose Calvin in defence of his trade, tell us only that Melanchthon, as grave a Divine, and more learned, as most hold (but who those be I know not; comparisons are odious; and it might well be a measuring cast between them) was a friend to it▪ and student in it, yet great names do not daunt us: I demand, I say, of either of them, is it of the very essence of a Sign, to portend or threaten somewhat? Some kind of language that Mr. Lily uses might a little help here; tho one of his axioms would again hinder as much as the other had holpen. He told us that the darkness portended in the Solar Eclipse,2 would not be so great as some imagined. So that according to his language, somewhat present may be portended, as well as somewhat future. But that is of the same stamp with that other of expatiating himself, and his penna strutii, rendered a cock-sparrows quill. I was taught when I was a school-boy, from Servius on Virgil, that portendere was porrò tender, to tend or reach forward to some further or future thing; as also that expatiari was a neutral deponent.