I will give an illustration from our own time. The astronomers threatened a flood and the general break up of the universe for the year fifteen hundred and twenty-four, and the preachers, especially among the Christians, are still proclaiming that the end of the world is upon us. The one based their calculations upon the conjunction and clashing of the heavenly bodies, the others upon the wickedness and corruption of the times, and when the latter have invaded human society the preachers become more certain that the divine vengeance is at hand, than any astronomers are from their scheme of lucky and unlucky years. That year has gone by and left the earth for us still further to dwell upon, and though there were freshets in some places, the streams of Switzerland were lower than for many years. But there is reason to fear that this jungle of wrongs, suppression of public justice, pride, luxury and the utter shamelessness of all evil will bring on a far more destructive deluge than one in which the bodies of men and brutes should be drowned. In this the preachers predicted much more correctly than the astronomers. Meanwhile they despise each other vigorously, when they ought, on the contrary, to have more regard for each other. When the astronomers saw the stars in a sinister and threatening position, they ought to have looked with admiring wonder upon the wisdom of the Deity, which from the creation of the firmament had so regulated the course of the heavenly bodies that a fatal calamity should be threatened by them at the period when all things had become thoroughly corrupt. The preachers are right in disparaging the wanton and
unrestrained divination of the astrologers, but they ought not to scorn the benefits of astronomy any more than they should the stars themselves, For as these are instruments by which the Divine Power pours Itself out, so the knowledge of their course is nothing else than the knowledge of the course of the divine activity. Hence the preachers, as far as I can see, should respect astronomy as highly as any branch of knowledge.
The disturbances by which the world is shaken at present are not caused by chance or by the anger of the stars, but by Divine Providence, which so orders all things that the preachers are able to threaten divine vengeance, and the astronomers to foretell coming calamity. Both of these things are manifested by the goodness of God, that the way to repentance and salvation be opened more clearly before us. So far, therefore, is it from the truth that the stars run outside of the course appointed for mortals that rather since the foundation of the world their power and course have been adapted to the course of human affairs. And when we now see that these have been such that the might of thé stars has evidently been angry with mortals, corresponding to the wrath of God, and the stars are nothing but instruments of the Divine Power, it is clear that they are continuously under the sway and rule of God’s beck and call, and never do anything at random. For if any one thing were done by them at random and without God’s providence, by the same fact everything would take place at random. For he who thinks that Providence neglects one single thing, does away with Providence altogether, as has been shown before. And if the theologians and the asironomers will both reflect upon this, there will, I hope, be no more quarrels between them hereafter. The one class [astronomers] will refrain from trivial divination, and the others [theologians] will not decline to defend Providence, because they failed to regard these as instruments of the Divine Power, so constituted by the Divine Wisdom that they are ever obedient to the call of the Deity, and, stopping with the stars themselves, things without life, and not reverencing their author and mover, have limited Providence too boldly.
The astronomers, may, therefore, give warning according to the fixed and indubitable axioms of their science, that is, propositions and prineiples demanding immediate acceptance, but they may not set limits to things, partly, because many
trivial things have crept into their science, and partly because the Deity, the soul of the stars, regulates them at His will, and through them works what He will, and gives them what He will, not what we wish or teach is given them. On the other hand, the theologians can more plainly recognize Providence when they regard the stars not as some special thing apart from the Deity but as the instruments of His power.
So much about the movements of the heavenly bodies. In these I want included the celestial phenomena, the constellations, as they are called, the lightning flashes and thunderbolts, what goes down and comes up, the changes of the wind, earthquakes and storms, and everything above or below that takes place by the influence of the heavenly or upper bodies, because all these things which come from the heavens are done by the providence and immediate power of the Deity.