Page 175 - Foundations

emblems to the glory of Messiah, rather than to the nonsense usually attached to them. I have been
following up the inquiry, and have interested several men of learning and piety on the subject. We
are discussing in what form to bring it forward. All the languages of Babel are required in evidence,
but as I chiefly desire to interest young persons with the results, what shall we do with the tongues?
Some say notes, some say an appendix stating the facts in plain English. So I will try how the theory
appears to you, without the abundant evidence belonging to it, which every day accumulates.

Tradition and internal evidence agree in attributing the origin of astronomy to a time about 5500
years ago, and a place between forty and fifty degrees of north latitude. Tradition goes yet further,
and by Josephus names Seth, the son of Adam, as its originator and traces it through Abraham to the
Egyptians and Chaldees, from them to Persia and India, etc.. Refer to the prophecy recorded as given
to Adam, the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head, but the serpent shall bruise his heel...
Sacrifice also was instituted, and no doubt explained; and Enoch, who prophesied of the day of
Judgment, evidently had further revelations than those. I find it generally allowed by ancient writers
that the sign of Aries had a sacred, design, and mystical meaning, and was often considered to be the
sacrificial Lamb; such I hold it, “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” the promised
Lamb of God. In Taurus you find the first Cherubic head, the Bull’s; in Gemini, the Man’s, also
explaining the double nature of the expected Messiah; in Cancer the Eagle, still existing in the
Egyptian Zodiacs of Esne and Dendera; in Leo, the fourth, the Lion; as you will find them in Ezekiel,
st
chap. 1 . These heads are considered as typical of the Triune God, in union with the human nature:
the Bull, from a Hebrew word signifying far and clear sightedness, symbolizes omniscience; the
Eagle, from its rapid flight, Omnipresence (see Job xxxix. 3); the Lion, Omnipotence. Virgo was in
all ancient spheres a woman nursing an infant, and holding an ear of corn in her hand, which to all
nations spoke His name, the Seed. Albumazar, an Arabian astronomer of the ninth century, says,
speaking of Virgo, “This infant is by the Hebrews called Issa, the Savior, whom the Greeks call
Christ.” The next sign, Libra, was formerly the crown, and called the house of propitiation;
justification by the Messiah was expressed by a man bearing the scales. In Scorpio is a man bearing
a serpent, and with his foot on the head of a scorpion; called in ancient Egyptian (it is supposed) the
house of preservation or deliverance. Sagittarius, a figure with two faces, a man’s and a lion’s, with
the body of a horse, the type of swiftness (“Behold, I come quickly,” etc.), the scorpion stinging the
horse’s heel; anciently called the station of loving-kindness. The Messiah’s attribute of arrows will
occur to you, but you will not divine that, in pronouncing arrow in Hebrew and other ancient
tongues, they recalled the first name by which He was announced, Shiloh. Capricornus, anciently the
house of sacrifice, where the victim, “hind of the morning,” is escaping from the mouth of Leviathan,
a type of death and the power of Satan. Aquarius, house of benefits or gifts; the risen Messiah
pouring out the gifts of the Holy Spirit, under the appointed type of water. Pisces, two fishes, above
united by a band, which also holds the Leviathan bound below, [typifies] the union of the Jewish and
Gentile churches (fish meaning multitude, congregation) and the final binding of the adversary
Satan...

Now the proof of all this would fill a volume. I wish you would think it over, and make every objection
that occurs to you, and point out where proof seems wanted. Every constellation, except those not
visible in Chaldea and northward, is also a memorial of a prophecy of Him who was to come, the
Desire of Nations; I will give you those to consider when I hear what you say to these. I find the study
most devotional, and opening Scripture to me daily. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” most