among whom were Petosyris Necepsos Hermes and that great man Ptolomie who after his prodigious labours in the instauration of Astronomy cultivated Astrology also in a particular Book which they call his Quadripartite Work In the Second they alleadge Reason and particularly that that admirable magnitude multitude pulchritude and variety of Heavenly bodies cannot serve to no other end or purpose at all but to be gazed upon That the Connexion of the inferior World to the superior so as that it deriveth its virtues and force of activity from thence is sensibly manifest That the Efficacy of the Sun and Moon upon all sublunaries is generally confessed and that other Stars both Erratique and Fixt ought likewise to be allowed to have their peculiar Faculties such as cause more admirable Effects than can be referred to them meerly as Luminaries That from the various positions of the Moon with the Sun the temper and constitution of sublunary things is dayly changed and therefore from the various configurations of the other Planets and Stars there must arise a great variety of vitues and effects which being acknowledged by Shepheards Plowmen and Marriners cannot but be better known to Astrologers who search more profoundly into their natures That the Heavens as all men allow are the Cause of Heats Colds and all Changes happening in the Air and therefore they must cause likewise Barrenness Fruitfullness diseases and all affections not only of mens bodies but also of their Minds which follow the temper of their bodies and so be the Causers of their Loves Marriages and Children of their Animosities Quarrels Wars Slaughters c. Again that the wonderfull variety of ingenies Studies Habits manners among several nations and several persons of the same nation can have no other origine or disposition but what proceeds from a superior Cause i. e. the Heavenly influences Lastly that the Fates of men being so diverse so unexpected and many Times so undeserved cannot be referred to any but a Celestial Cause as Firmicus confirmeth by a long series of Examples and Manilius sings in these and other verses Fata quoque vitas hominum suspendit ab Astris Quae Summas operum parteis quae lucis honorem Quae famam assererent c. In the Third they take sanctuary in Observation and Experience For say they though we be ignorant of and cannot investigate the true cause of some Effects yet we are not therefore to conclude that either those Effects doe not happen or that from the exact observation of many of them an Art may not be framed Otherwise it might be said that the Loadstone hath not that Virtue of attracting iron and directing to the Poles which our sences assure us it hath or that the Art of Navigation cannot consist of the observation of magneticall effects because no man can give a good cause or reason for the demonstration of those admirable Proprieties of the Loadstone By equal reason though we cannot demonstrate why such or such effects should ensue upon such or such positions of the Heavens which we are able to predict yet it is sufficient that many the like observations have been made of the like effects following upon the like positions so that an Art may be thereupon erected according to which it may be predicted that when such positions happen again the like effects will follow upon them They proved and affirme that this Art is confirmed by so many and certain Experiments as that it can be no longer indubitated And here might be cited many Famous Predictions made by Chaldeans to Alexander Antigonus and other Ancients but that those which were delivered concerning Augustus and other Roman Emperours sound more loud in the mouth of Fame For of Augustus it is reported by Suetonius that P. Nigidius having found the hour of his Nativity affirmed that he was born to be Lord of the whole Earth and that Theogenes enquiring into the Position of the Heavens at his Birth leaped for joy and adored him as one that should be a mighty Prince Of â—…rius it is well known that Scribonius Promised glorious things while he was yet in his Cradle and that the time would come when he should obtain the Soveraignty of the World Of Caligula that Sulla the Mathematician being demanded what his fortune should be according to his Geniture answered him that his death was neer at hand and inevitable Of Nero it was foretold that he should be first Emperour and then a Matricide But above all the story of Domitian is most memorable For saith Suctonius he was never so much moved with any accident as with the answer and misfortune of Ascletarion the Mathematician For being brought before Domitian and confidently avowing the Predictions that he disfused as deduced from the misteries of his Art Domitian asked him what should be his own end To which he returned that he was certain he should be ere long torn in pieces by Doggs Domitian to refute this prediction commanded him to be instantly slain and buried whereupon he was accordingly killed upon the place and caried to be burned But as the fire was kindling under the Rogues there suddainly fell so Prodigious a shower of raine as extinguished the fire and drove away all that assisted at the funeral and instantly there came thither a multitude of Doggs and plucked downe the dead Body from the pile of wood tore it in pieces To recite more examples in Antient times is superfluous for even in our dayes every man heares of some eminent Adventure or other that fell out according as it was predicted by Astrologers But we cannot omitt what they have observed to befall some notable opposers and contemners of their Art For of Plotinus it is recorded by Firmicus lib 1. cap. 3. that he who laughed at the rules and predictions of Astrologers perished by a most lamentable death adding these words And so he felt the power of Fate and suffered that end which the fiery judgements of the stars had decreed for him and being destroyed by the bitterness of that sickness he taught all men by his own sad example not by liberty of speech that the force and power of the fates can by no meanes be contemned And Gauricus speaking of Joh. Picus Mirandula who in twelve Books invaded and derided Astrologers sayth that he died immaturely in the 32. year of his age from the Direction of his Horoscope to the body of Mars as had been precisely fore-told him by some very learned Astrologers adding withall that he wrote against Astrology in a passion of anger because three Genethliacks had predicted that he should die before the six and thirtieth year of his life And this is the sum of their main Plea CHAP. XIX Their Pretence of Antiquity and Ancient Authors confuted NOw as for the great Antiquity they boast of we down-right deny it both in respect of what we have already said touching the Antiquity of Celestial Observations and of the memorials of
know That we ought not to account that Art Superstitious which seems to have God himself for its Author according to that saying in Genesis 1. 1. that He created the Sun Moon and Stars that they might serve for Signes and Seasons and Dayes and Years But they who make this Objection ought to shew us when and how He instituted this Art and where he hath declared that he created those Luminaries to that end that we might come to a foreknowledge of future Events such as the vain glorious Professors of it boast themselves able to divine from the Observation of them Now no such thing can be proved for as to that text of Scripture it must be understood only of the Signes of Seasons of the Times of Festivals and other the like vicissitudes And to rack the meaning of it to the presignifications of particular Humane Accidents as Marriage or single life Children or barenness wealth or poverty love or enmity honour or infancy virtue or debauchedness length or shortness of Life health or sickness Death natural or Violent prosperity or infelicity in designes Warr or Peace plenty or famine victory or captivity and a thousand other the like occurents and encounters both in States and private families and persons all which our Star-prophets pretend to foretell I say to extend the sence of that place of Scripture to the presignification of such Events is manifestly repugnant to the Scripture it self in many other places wherein it doth expresly teach that such future Events can be foreknown only to the Prophets i. e. men possessed with the Spirit of God and selected for Supernatural Revelations not such as are addicted to Star-gazing For the Divine Spirit doth condemn the Chaldeans themselves for professing that they could deduce the knowledge of things to come from their skill in observing the Heavens That place in the Prophet Isai chap. 47. is well known where speaking to Babylon which he calls the Daughter of the Chaldeans he saith Thou hast failed or art wearied in the multitude of thy Councells let now the Astrologers the Star-gazers the monthly Prognosticators 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 from the power of the Flame c. So likewise is that of Ieremy chap. 10. Learn not the way of the Heathen nor be dismay'd at the signes of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayd at them and the customes of the people are vain But before we come to examine the Presignifications themselves you perhaps desire to be informed what reasons I have to rest satisfied in that tradition of Vitruvius I now mentioned concerning the first introduction of Astrology into Greece by Berosus and that the Grecians had no knowledge thereof before his daies And this because that introduction of it by him and the advance of it by Antipater and Achinapolus were no higher than the Age wherein Epicurus lived and because all those more antique Poets Philosophers and other Authors made frequent mention of Astrology and Predictions from the Stars and the Author of that Book concerning Astrology which is ascribed to Lucian enumerateth Orpheus Tiresias and others who taught Astrology to the Greeks Wherefore to justify my opinion in that particular I affirm that as to Orpheus Tiresias and others the tradition is meerly Fabulous and grounded only upon a presumption that these men predicted things before they came to pass and especially Tiresias whose fable is known to every Man But here it is memorable that though this Author doth confidently avouch that the Ethiopians and Egyptians were the first Inventors of Astrology yet he afterwards confesseth that the Grecians heard nothing of that Art from either of them so that from his testimony nothing can be alledged to impugne that probable opinion of Vitruvius that Astrology was derived to the Grecians from the Chaldeans As for the rest true it is indeed that the name of Astrology was of much greater antiquity among the Grecians then that of Berosus but they thereby understood no other science but what Plato alwaies called Astronomy as it is even in our daies to distinguish it from the Judiciary which hath by custome acquired and appropriated to it self the honourable title of Astrology and this even from the time of Sextus Empiricus when that difference became Vulgar but not this Divining Art concerning which Plato Aristotle and other of the Ancient Grecian Philosophers are wholly silent except only where Aristotle 1. politic 11. refers to Astrology that prediction of Thales concerning a great plenty of Olives to come in the following Autumn which yet was only Meteorological as I shall have occasion to declare more particularly hereafter For though in prior 30. He hath this saying Astrologicam Experientiam trudere principia scientiae Astrologicae yet he thereby intends only Astronomy calling the Observations of the Celestial Phenomena Experience according to which Hypotheses or as He there termeth them Demonstrations ought to be excogitated And when Epicurus seems to deride Astronomical Curiosities calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Servilia Astrologorum machinamenta and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inanem Astrologiam we ought to understand him only of the too scrupulous and unprofitable study of framing several Hypotheses or suppositions for the solution of the Apparences I deny not but Eudoxus somwhat the ancienter of the two as being an Auditor of Plato and mentioned with attributes of honour more than once by Aristotle speaketh plainly of Chaldaicall predictions as making it one part of his busines to reprehend and condemn them and yet I must affirm that he did this not that he had learned them of his Country men the Grecians but that in his various peregrinations in the East he had gotten the knowledge of that prestigious Art from the Chaldeans Again though Vitruvius be positive that Berosus first opened a School for the erudition of Men in this corrupted Astrology and taught it publickly in Greece yet that hinders not but that some other men otherwise well learned may have travelled through Greece and professing themselves to be Chaldeans and skilfull in those studies dropt up and down some rude hints and imperfect rudiments of this Sophistry as they wandred from place to place as in our dayes we see a sort of vile and impudent Vagabonds who run up and down owning themselves for native Egyptians and deluding the credulous multitude with pretences of strange mysterious insight into the rols of Destiny and predictions of the fortunes of particular Persons So that it is no wonder if Plato Aristotle and other great Men had those obscure fellows in such contempt as they would not vouchsase so much as to name them in their writings For observe how Cicero in whose time Astrology seems to have gotten somwhat more of reputation among the People doth not only call it Monstra Chaldaeorum the monstrous issue of the Chaldeans brains
but also reproacheth it with the odious terms of vis maxima erroris and deliralis incredibilis the very quintessence of Error and a madness incredible adding withall non omnem errorem dicondum esse stultitiam most ingeniously intimating the Fraud aswell as folly of Divinatory Astrology in his 2. Books de Divinatione Furthermore it is likewise true that in the ancient Greek Poets Philosophers and other eminent Authors we read of various predictions from the Stars but these were very far different from the Art Astrological which the Chaldeans of old and our half-witted Astromancers now a dayes so much glory in For such Prognostications nothing at all concerned the Events of Human affairs to which Astrologers chiefly pretend but only the several mutations of the Air of Tempests of plenty or dear years and the like and these they deduced only from the various Risings and Settings of the Stars as may be proved out of Hippocrates lib. de aer aqu loc Plato in Epinom who speaks that particularly of Hesiod and some other old writers but not from the casting of Figures as the Vulgar phrase is or the laborious Erecting of Scheams so much used by our Astrologers and admired by the ignorant who address to them as to the oracles of Fate and the secretaries of Divinity It appears therefore that those Predictions recorded among the Ancient Grecians were not called Astrologicall but by the simple and modest appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presignifications or rather yet more simply Significations and this because the Stars according to the variety of their Risings and Settings do signify as well the several seasons of the year for Seed time for Harvest and for other works of Agriculture as the dayes on which the Husbandman may expect Rain Winds and other changes of Weather Nor was this observed only by the Grecians but familiar to most if not all other Nations as it is even with us frequent for such Country People as have no Kalenders and cannot read them if they had to observe certain Celestial Signes or Stars which as they either Rise in the Morning or Set in the Evening and as they are near unto or far from the Sun at its Rising or Setting declare at what seasons through the whole course of the Year such and such labours of Husbandry are most opportunely to be performed And yet I must confess the Grecians seem to have been more studious and exact than any other Nation not only in observing but also in digesting into Tables both upon what dayes of the Year such and such of the principal Stars usually arise and Set and those mutations of the Air or changes of Weather which did commonly succeed at such times and so may be signified by them accordingly I dare not affirm that they took occasion for this their exactness from that vast Golden Circle erected in Egypt and at last plundered by Cambyses which according to the account of Diodorus was a Cubit in thickness and three hundred sixty and five Cubits in compass with an inscription of each day in the Year on a particular Cubits space and the names and significations of those Stars that Rise or Set on each day respectively Yet certain I am of this that Geminus in Element Astron cap. 14. tels us that the Ancients usually made this Observation that taking the Signe and the degree of that Signe in which the Sun was in the beginning of the Year or first step of his annual progress and noteing afterward what changes of the Air or Weather did commonly fall out upon each day Week and Moneth they might at length referr that change to the places of the Sun through every Signe and degree thereof in the Zodiack His words are worthy the reading and therefore I shall faithfully recite them Id autem per plures annos observantes mutationes quae maxime arc a Zodiaci signa loca contingerent conscripserunt in Fabulis non ex arte aliqua neque ex certa methodo describentes sed ab Experientia id quod prope verum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congrueret sumentes And of these Observations were framed Tables such as the Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some whereof are extant even at this day as particularly those of Geminus himself and of Ptolomy and those were collected out of the more antique ones of Democritus Metrodorus Dositheus Euctemon Meton Eudoxus Calippus Hipparchus Philippus Philemon Caesar and others For every one according to his curiosity of experimenting what changes of Weather dayly hapned in his Country composed a certain Diary of such changes and of many Diaries made Year after Year framed at last one great Parapegme or Table the Risings and Settings of the Stars and the affections of the Air observed most commonly to ensue immediately thereupon being expressly referred to each day respectively Hence some of the principal of these Parapegmes were so translated into Kalenders as that it is manifest Ovid would from thence illustrate his Fasti Tempora cum causis Latium digesta per annum Lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa canam And at this day our Vulgar Kalenders retain so much of the Ancient fashion as that in every month is inserted the precise time of the Suns ingress or entrance into the Signe proper thereto how many hours are in each day together with the image of Harvest Vintage and what is else the chief business of the Husbandman in each Month. Hence also were derived these General Precepts of Good Husbandry which are delivered in elegant verse by Hesiod among the Greeks and by Virgil among the Latines in imitation of him in his Georgicks CHAP. IV. That the Risings and Settings of the Stars are not the Causes but only Signes of Tempests and Mutations hapning in the Air contrary to the Vulgar opinion THat this was the Tenent of Epicurus and most other of the more sage and orthodox Philosophers among the Ancients is sufficiently inferrible from the very modesty of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significationes as was afore intimated which they generally used as most proper to express this notion Besides as for the General Cause of Seasons and aereal mutations they referred them for the most part to the Sun allowing nevertheless some activity in the Moon together with inferior causes towards the production of Cold Wind Rain and the like changes of Weather but the Stars both fixt and erratique they accounted no other then meer Signes of those particular times wherein the Sun and other Causes do usually concurr to the generation of Heat Rain Winds and the like mutations in the Air. That Epicurus was of this opinion is plain from his text in the 10. Book of Diogenes Laertius the sence whereof is this That whereas the Risings and Settings of the Stars according to the course of the Year do signify the various mutations of the temper of the Air proper to each of the four seasons in this they do no
Thunder Lightning and Winds as also of the wholsomness or unwholsomness of the Air of the Plenty or scarcity of Corn and other Fruits of the Earth and the like For the Prediction of the Constitution of the Quarters or Seasons of the Year from three Figures of each Quarter they collect likewise the Lord of each according to the predominion of Fortitudes and then pronounce what kind of Spring what Summer what Autumn what Winter is next to come according to the qualities of their respective Lords For Mars for Example shall encrease the heat in Summer mitigate the cold in Winter make the Spring rather Warm then cold and likewise the Autumn Saturn the quite contrary and so of the rest Lastly for the Prediction of the Weather each Day through the whole Year They will have Four Themes or Scheams to be erected for each moneth one at the moment of the New-moon one at that of the Full-moon and one apeece at each of the Quarters and then collecting what Planet is Lord of a Quater of a moneth they Prognosticate the Temper of the Air aswell for that whole Quarter of the Moneth as for each Day therein according as the Dominion decayeth or continueth strong respectively to that dominion which is to succeed at the next Quarter or as that is of a contrary or the same or of a middle nature But because the Predictions taken from these predominions are for the most part fallacious therefore they call in other things also which may impede the Effects otherwise to succeed and produce some contrary to them For that I may not insist upon the notable variety of Effects which they will have to arise not only from several Stars of the Zodiack according as they call some Saturnal some Jovial some Martial c. But also from the Twelve Houses and the several parts of them whereof they make some to be of their own nature Exciters of Thunder some Causers of Rain some of Hail some of Snow some of North some of South Winds c. And thus you may observe how they derive the chiefest variety from the Aspects of the Planets and those places in which they are the while Now among these Aspects the most powerfull for change of weather they make that called a Conjunction the next an Opposition the next a Quartile then a Trine and last or least of all a Sextile For they will have the forces of every Planet to be corroborated by the additional forces not only of such other Planets as are of like virtues but also of indifferent ones as on the other side they will have the influence of each to be abated or mitigated by the influences of Contrary Planets according to their mutual Aspects and in the General that clear and wholesome Weather is signified by a Trine or Sextile soul and unwholesome by a Quartile indifferent by a Conjunction rather the one than the other according to the condition of the Ruling Planet As for their Apertiones Portrarum or Catarracts i. e. of great turbulency in the Air by high winds great Rains Thunder showers Hail stormes c. these they will have to be caused not only when the Planets whose natures and houses are opposite or respect each other in an opposite or Quartile aspect but also and chiefly when the Moon leaving one Planet or its aspect is carried to another Planet or its aspect which is opposite thereto For thus when the Moon for Example is carried from Saturn to the Sun or contrariwise from the Sun to Saturn They will have dark Weathér Foggs Mifts aboundance of showers and extream Colds to be engendred and portended When the Moon marcheth from Jupiter to Mercury or from Mercury to Jupiter then we must have high Winds and especially from the North and East as also Lightning Thunder and the like tempestuous Weather c. In respect of the Places likewise They make no smal difference For if the Planets be Oriental and Direct and about the Apogeum then must they signify Drie weather if Occidental Retrograde and about the Perigeum wett weather Mars only excepted who at such times encreaseth Heat and Dryness But our chiefest care must be to regard the Signes in respect of the Triplicities or Trigons in which the Planets are configurated among themselves For from thence respective to the aspects of the Planets made in them there ensue Fiery Watery c. effects But above all they cry up a Conjuuction and so much the more if it chance to be of those Planets which they call the Great or Greatest For if such a Conjunction happen in Fiery Signes then it portends great and dangerous Conflagrations if in Watery then great Inundations if in Earthy then huge Earth-quakes in Fiery then fatal Plagues and Pestilences And wheresoever it hapneth if Saturn be predominant it produceth great sicknesses and contagions if Jupiter be predominant either no diseases at all or very gentle ones if Mars rule acute diseases The like affections of the Air They praesage from the Conjuctions of the inferior or lesser Planets and chiefly if they are all conjoyned For if they meet in Watery Signes then we must certainly expect deluges And to prevent your wonder at this though they derive fair Weather from the Sun and three superior Planets they decree Clouds from the three Inferior and add that Mars somtimes of the superior dòth cause rains and Mercury of the Inferior serenity For they take Mercury for Eolus who doth somtimes raise high Winds and stormes and somtimes blow them away again and sweep the welkin as with a broom If he be conjoyned with Saturn then doubtless we shall be troubled with dark rainy and blustering winds if with Jupiter we have gentle and refreshing gusts if with Mars partching and burning blasts if with the Sun hott and unwholsome gales Iomitt how they attribute Hail to some Aspects Thunder to others snow to others and the like and how the Planets as they pass neer the Fixt Stars do mightily encrease their virtues for when Mars passeth by the Pleiades he doth so heighten their watery forces that woe be to us for deluges and how they admitt the same effects concerning the Rising and Setting of the Fixt Stars respective to the Sun all which are contained in the Tables and Kalandars of the Ancients as we have formerly observed with an infinite number of the like Extravagances whereof their Books are full After this short accompt of the Grounds and Manner of their erecting Praedictions of changes of weather we might well spare any further discussion of them their Vanity being obvious to every mans consideration For how frivolously do they elect the Lord of the Year of each Quarter of the Year of each Quarter of the Moon that designation of a number of Testimonies of Fortitude and Debility being meerly Chimerical and yet made the Signes by which they are guided in their Election If there must be a Lord paramont among the Planets one