all the ancient Demean Lands of this Nation are Registred called dooms-day-Dooms-Day-Book because upon any difference the parties contending thereby received their Doom Others call it Dooms-Day Quasi domus Dei But thus much of the Word now to the Thing As the Beginning of the World hath puzled the wisest Intellects to discover so the End of it hath posed the greatest Clerks to determine Generatio una abit altera advenit quamvis terra in seculum permaneat One Generation passeth away another cometh but the earth abideth for ever Eccles. 1. 4. Which for ever most Divines interpret to signifie the Last day or Dooms-day viz. that time in which the Heavens shall melt with fervent heat and the Earth shall pass away or be changed That the World shall have an end and this as certain as ever it had a beginning is a truth so splendid that it cannot reasonably be questioned no not by the subtilest Critique or Sceptique therein But to believe every fancie or idle Notion that the Melancholy heads either of former Ages or of our own time have broached concerning the end thereof would be in an ingenious Person an absurdity of the grossest kind Philosophy teacheth us whatsoever hath a birth passeth and hasteth towards death and that every thing that hath a beginning doth necessarily and interchangeably rowle towards its end And if any man should shew himself so grand an Infidel as not to believe this let him but call to his mind the Annual and Quotidian Examples hereof in all things Sublunary which are as so many certain Demonstrations in Epitomy of the end of the World and he must necessarily be convinced Nevertheless to determine the end of the world is I take it for granted such a Determination as will never give the Author cause to boast of a judicious Brain There are three manner of ways by which I finde Persons too apt and busie in prefixing the time of the end of the world 1. By Apparitions Visions c. 2. By Mathematical Conclusions 3. By Arithmetical Conceits 1. By Apparitions c. When persons by reason of an over-heated Brain and Imagination shall conceive and believe they converse with Angels or Spirits c. As it is reported of one Thoda a certain Woman of Suevia in Germany Anno Christi 848. who prophesyed the Destruction of the world in that year and her Message she pretended to have received from the mouth of an Angel After whom in several years we have had divers others as certain and true Prophets and Prophetesses as her self Story maketh mention of one of S. Gallus in Helvetia Anno 1526. who running up and down the streets of that City cryed with great earnestness That the day of the Lord was come and that it was at present And Anno 1530. one in Germany pretending to be acted by the Spirit raves at the same rate and at last so strongly prevails with many to believe that the end of the World was come that they grew prodigal of their Goods and Substance fearing they should want time to consume them And it is still fresh in memory that in our late times of confusion here in London many Ministers of the Gospel as Saltmarsh Sedgwick c. and from their examples many illiterate men and women were constantly from the years 1647. to 1656. canting That the end of the World was come and that the day of the Lord was at hand Which persons we see have been no less mistaken then the former Enthusiastick and direct Madness did so extreamly rage and reign in those years and a spice thereof we yet have in these and the end of the World was supposed and talked of to be so near That many People upon my knowledge I speak it sold their Estates and threw Moneys about the streets expecting themselves to finde the same Quarter as Solomons Lily but afterwards turned Beggers and were glad to live on the Alms of others Some there were again that they might be the more noted for their Message and Embassy and to demonstrate themselves the more eminent Converts unto this great Delusion would wear Sackcloth and shave their crowns that thereby they might the more aptly ape and imitate the true Prophets formerly sent of God Others would wear Papers in different shapes and figures upon their Breasts and Backs with idle Inscriptions thereon pretending to come before as a Guard for the approach of the King of Heaven whom they said was coming But these Mad-men remember not that the Scripture saith He shall come like a thief in the night And others there were that ran naked not onely about the streets but into Churches denouncing destruction to the Preachers and to Mankind in general and a sudden end to the world Which wild and unheard-of Actions c. moved Doctor Boreman in his Nuntius Propheticus to say That there sprang up more Heresies and strange Opinions in England in one year then in an Age in any other part of the world there did before Secondly by Mathematical Conclusions For sundry are and have been the Opinions of Mathematicians and Astrologers about the end of the World viz. As that it should suffer a total and absolute Destruction and Dissolution at the finishing the great year or Circle and this is at the least 36000 Solar Revolutions or common Years so slow is the Motion of the eighth Sphear Nay Heraclitus as Plutarch witnesseth saith it consisteth of 80000 Solar years But if we shall give credit to the incredible indeed vast number of years of the Chinesses we shall finde that the world according to this way of reckoning should have had ere now many endings For says Scaliger according to their the Chinesses account this year of Christ 1594. it being the year in which he wrote his Book intituled De emendatione temporum is since the Creation eight hundred eightscore thousand and seventy three And Diodorus tells us the world was so ancient in the opinion of the Caldaeans that they reckoned it from the time they first began to observe the Stars unto the expedition of Alexander into Asia no less then four hundred and seventy thousand years supposing the beginning thereof to be long before they began their Observation But these Opinions may reasonably be supposed to be as wide of Truth as the others fall short of it I onely urge them to shew the impossibilitie of their designes who will needs have the time of the worlds ending concluded by such a reasonless conceit As if the Almighty because he hath tied all the works of his hands to act and perform his pleasure by a certain Rule the which they cannot transgress I speak here onely of natural things should therefore be tyed unto a Rule himself Others there are who suppose when the Polar Star touches the Pole exactly that then the end of the world shall be and now they say it is very near the same But this conceit is purely Contra-Astronomical
Medium to be found between those terms which are purely contradictory Nor is there any more of Art herein or certainty of the truth pretended hereby then in the throwing up Half a Crown by which action we certainly conclude that either Cross or Pile shall be uppermost The same Author in the next Leaf comes to deliver another kinde of Judgement upon this Great Conjunction viz. A firm Establishment of new-acquired Dominions or new Families or new Leagues and this in many places of Europe Now you see in this persons Judgement by this Conjunction men will sometimes intend to settle and unsettle Governments Kingdomes and Commonwealths c. and at other times intend onely a firm Establishment of new-acquired Dominions c. And this onely in many places of Europe And in the same breath almost he urges another passage like to the first we examined viz. It secondly intends a Confirmation or Extinguishment of ancient Church-matters Discipline or Ceremonies Which Terms every one may see are directly opposite as the former How ridiculous contradictory idle and vain such Predictions are I need not take pains to illustrate but leave them to be judged of by Persons able to distinguish of Terms and discern the Imposture and ignorant juggling of the Predictor who rather then he will not be seen to be some-body adventures to make an Enthusiastique noise though it be Groundless Artless Senceless I come in the next place having briefly examined the substance of his Predictions to demand his Reason why he calls this Conjunction A Little or Minor Conjunction for as I can perceive he hath rendred no account wherefore it should be so esteemed There seems to me two things essentially to be considered in the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter which makes their Congress to be called great viz. 1. The Regality of the Triplicity they conjoyn in 2. The Beginning of their Conjunctions for their whole circuit in that Trigon And both these concur to make this a great Conjunction For 1. it is the Fiery Trigon in which this Coelestial Congress is celebrated the most Noble of all the rest even as Fire is the most eminent among the Elements 2. Albeit it so happened that there were two Conjunctions of these Planets in the same Triplicity viz. anno 1603. Dec. 7. and anno 1623. June 8. yet these Planets not continuing their several Conjunctions in that Trigon till they had naturally ended their circuit there they could not be called great Conjunctions but rather mean or middle Conjunctions But this Conjunction now in Sagittary so begins the Fiery Triplicity that for many Ages these Planets will make their Conjunctions in the same Trigon and this without any alteration or mutation into any other Triplicity Ergo this must be not a little or minor Conjunction but a great Conjunction Nay the Gentleman that hath been pleased to call this a Minor Conjunction hath been also pleased to call that in 1603. December 7. not onely a Great but the greatest Conjunction which how truly it may be so termed I freely confess I understand not Perhaps he may have learnt a secret way to demonstrate unto us impossibilities viz. why that Conjunction in 1603. should be called a Great or the greatest Conjunction and this in 1663. though greater then that shall be esteemed and termed a Minor or Little one Astrologers consent that there are three manner of ways how Saturn and Jupiter make their Conjunctions whence they have their several Denominations 1. They make their Conjunctions in any of the Trigons in the space of nineteen years three hundred and sixteen days and this is called a Minor Conjunction 2. They make their Conjunctions from one Trigon to another according to the order of the Signes as out of the Fiery into the Earthy in an hundred ninety and nine years and three hundred sixty six days and this is called a middle or mean Conjunction 3. They make their Conjunctions in seven hundred ninety five years two hundred and twelve days as from Aries to Aries or Sagittarius to Sagittarius with respect to the mutation of the Triplicity c. and this is called a great or the greatest Conjunction that can be But of this subject let the ingenious Reader apply himself to Cardan in his Commentary upon Ptolomy fol. 362. that I mean printed a Lyons anno 1555. where he may receive exacter satisfaction then my present occasions will permit me to afford him There is another Person who pretends to be well acquainted with the Calculations and Effects of Conjunctions and he saith in one place of his Book anno 1663. this Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter happens on Octob. 10. near high Noon it may be as neer Midnight for ought he or any man else knoweth yet in another place of the same Book he telleth us it happeneth the 12 day neer 7 a Clock in the morning This I know these two Planets will be in Conjunction at the least ten days perhaps more before and after the tenth day of October but the precise day according to the best Astronomical Tables they will make their exact Conjunction will be on October the tenth anno 1663. but their Orbs touch many days both before and after But this pitiful Judger of Conjunctions commits a greater errour then this immediately following it in these words There hath been six Trigonical Revolutions past before this last entrance of the Planets into Aries 1603. In 1603. these Planets were in Sagittarius and as far from Aries as a Trine is distant from a Conjunction viz. 120 Degrees and so far is this strange Astrologer distant from the truth I should willingly have conceived this to have been the Printers errour as not willing to believe any man pretending Astrologie so ignorant and subject to errour but meeting it in his Book in words at length and no way corrected I cannot do less then suppose it to be a part of its Authors remarkable property Ignorance and that which confirms me so much the more is A most egregious mistake by him committed in the moneth of January in his Almanack He saith there The 28 day ♂ ☉ ♀ and ☿ viz. Mars Sol Venus and Mercury are all Combust Certainly his Brains and Skill likewise must needs be in combustion that shall say or write the Sun which combures all the Planets can himself be combust But he proceeds Observe the two Superiours conjoyn 23 day and all the rest the 28 day Expect great and prodigions Effects On the twenty third day there is no such Conjunction of the superiour Planets as this idle fellow ignorantly twattles of nor are the other five in exact Conjunction that day neither Although I grant the Moon is applying to the Conjunctions of the Sun Mars Mercury and Venus but meets with the Sextiles of Saturn and Jupiter by the way I perceive this forward Astrologer understandeth not what Frustration in an Astrological sence meaneth Now therefore if Persons
Paraselenae for they are Lunae Imagines or certain Images or shadows of the Moon represented in an equal cloud which is watry smooth and polished even like Glass And that the Mock-Moons have some signification of the Weather no Naturalist as I know of denieth but not one of them as I can finde assigneth any other effects unto them at all I do not hold it impossible for such things as these to appear either at or before some eminent Catastrophe on earth but should I make them the signes or causes of such a Catastrophe I must prove them always to be attended with such effects and that surely is impossible for the wisest of Mortals to perform 4. Of the Hyatus THis Hyatus is a Meteor that is to be seen in any hot Evening as it were to rend the clouds whence it is called Chasma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to gape or open And of these gapings or chaps in the clouds there are several sorts some whereof are wide and large of various colours others round and as it were deep holes as my self have often observed The first are caused by the light its being cast into a shadowy cloud according as it exceedeth more or less in thickness whence some appear though in the middle of the Night of a bright white almost like to the Day this is when the Exhalation of which it consists is very thin Some are yellowish when the Exhalation is thicker And some again are ruddy when the Exhalation is meanly thick And some are very black when the Exhalation is thickest of all and when this Meteor appeareth so wide that ad visum it seemeth to cleave the Heavens asunder then is the Exhalation of which it is made very thick in the middest and thin on the edges so that the Light being received into it causeth it to appear as though the Sky did rend and fire break out of it Secondly these Meteors appearing round or like unto deep holes in the Heavens differ nothing at all from those wide gapings but that they are less and therefore seem as if they were certain deep Pits or Holes in the Heavens and not at all rending or gaping like to the other The Natural causes of these things being thus shewn can it be less then Madness or manifest Villany in any that shall seem to conclude from these or such-like Apparitions That Wars Seditions Tumults Change of Government c. shall succeed When as we know by assiduous experience that almost every hot Evening produceth such miraculous what shall I call them Nothings For so they are you see in signification though some over-heated and other malicious heads would make them of some signal consequence and that necessarily from the Causa Materialis of which these Meteors are formed 5. Of the drying up of Rivers AMong new-found Prodigies this to be sure is none That Rivers are caused by the assembling or meeting together not onely of many Springs but of Brooks and Fords which being received in divers places as they pass are at length for the most part carried into the Sea But some Rivers there are which disappearing seem to be swallowed up of the earth but probably into the Sea by some secret and unknown Chanels Some Rivers again there be that hide their heads under the earth and in another place far distant break out again But that the exsiccation or drying up of a River for a time or for ever can be of any evil signification or tendencie unto that Kingdome or Nation where it shall happen beyond the loss of the water no Philosopher or learned Naturalist ever yet urged Nevertheless here in England a great Pretender to the mysteries of Nature in his Book Anno 1662. writes The drying up of the River Darwent near the Town of Derby for some certain hours is no less then a Wonder c. In answer or in opposition rather to which I assert That that onely is to be esteemed wonderful and prodigious of which no Natural reason is to be rendred or for which no cause can be found But we by experience know it is natural for Rivers to abate and to encrease They then abate or grow less when the terrene parts at the bottom are of an exsiccating nature as it is often seen in those Rivers whose bottoms are of a sandy quality and themselves sed by Springs descending from Hills somewhat remote from them This very commonly happens in a hard Winter which probably may be caused by the Frost binding up the mouth of the Spring that feeds it and not suffering it to perform its natural Office to the River unto which it is designed They then encrease when from divers certain Ebullitions or Boylings at the bottom constant Excitations of the water are made for there are Springs most certainly below or under as well as above or without the River unto which it is beholding or from a constant and never-failing supply from the visible Spring that feeds it Ergo neither way prodigious or miraculous What would the Reporter of this insignificant story of the River Darwent have wrote had he had a certain River in Palestina for his subject which as Josephus reporteth keeps a violent swift course for six days space together and always on the seventh day remaineth dry whenas an abatement of this River for some few hours hath so far dissetled his fancie that nothing but a Miracle must set him right again Nor doth his urging the story of the River Ouse in Bedfordshire ceasing its course suddenly and standing still Anno 1399. so that men passed three miles on foot in the very depth of the Chanel any way favour or support his idle insnuations since as Dr. Childrey soberly and with good ground supposeth the cause thereof might be some sudden Frost the time of the year being seasonable for it which might congeal those waters that fed the stream at their first issuing out of the earth at the head of the River the rest of the waters in the mean time passing away because being in motion they were not so capable of congelation Notwithstanding the story mentions not a word of the Frost which peradventure might be the cause of it for all that the custome of those that tell such strange stories being prudently to conceal those particulars that are likely to bewray the natural cause and spoile the miracle it being as natural to the generality of humane Creatures to love being the Authors of wonderful stories as to laugh And so I conclude the third Section Section 4. Some Reflections upon Dooms-Day or the End of the World LEt not the Reader expect that I shall trouble my self much about the Etymologie of the word Dooms-Day let it suffice that we know it is that Day in which each man shall receive his sentence or Doom according to merit In the time of William the Conqueror there was a Book made and kept in the Tower of London wherein
of Saturn and Mars in Gemini The world knows the pretences of that Treaty were Serious Loyal and Pious they know likewise that the intentions were like to the end of it Dishonourable Mischievous Cruel and Murtherous Anno 1656. there happened in September a Conjunction of Saturn and Mars in Virgo Oliver Cromwel in that year and under the effects thereof did lustily drive at the Government of these three Kingdoms his Tyrannical Actions therein and the many thousands of persons he ruined and the Murther Perjury Shame and Ignominy he brought upon the Nation in general and his own Family in particular c. sufficiently prove and declare his entrance upon that undertaking to be malicious unfortunate and cruel Anno 1658. Sept. 4. Richard Cromwel began at his fathers decease to act as well as he could his fathers part but within five weeks after viz. on Octob. 11. there was celebrated a Conjunction of Saturn and Mars and how soon and easily the effects thereof blew Richard away from the Government of these three Kingdoms is yet fresh in every mans remembrance Infinite examples could I give of this kind as well in private Genitures as publique Radixes but these I suppose sufficient If then the Conjunctions of Saturn and Mars be of such malefique and cruel signification surely their Oppositions cannot be supposed to portend less mischief and damage And if so it naturally emergeth That the Turks their invading the Empire being begun under the dangerous Influence of an Opposition of Saturn and Mars Non obstante their being a little rampant and victorious at the first they may in a little time fall from their present power and greatness and be glad to retreat and return home again with considerable loss and damage And this I assert to be the natural effect of this their so mighty and eminent undertaking Malum principium malus finis sequitur Some Odd Reckonings between the Author and that grand Impostor W. L. set even IN my Novice Astrologer instructed the Spurious Prognosticator the King of Swedens Nativity and in Britains Royal Star I thought I had said so much of W. L. at least to the satisfaction of all that knew W. L. that I had need to have said no more of W. L. Howbeit he is pleased to invite me to the field again and in point of Credit I am engaged though not much because he is W. L. to meet him The main matter that he seems to snarl at and recriminate upon me for now is a passage I printed in Part 3. Fol. 179. of my Collectio Geniturarum urged in favour of Mr. Gresham and descrying the eminent Plagiarism of him the said L. in a Book he published under the Title of Englands Prophetical Merlyn My words were these Mr. Gresham wrote a learned and ingenious Discourse upon a Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter which by him was never published but since his Death printed by another under the Title of Englands Prophetical Merlyn and that Book-Pyrate which published the same hath never so much as once named Mr. Gresham therein but after an usurping of his Pains hath endeavoured to obliviate his Name for ever Of which Injustice and Plagiarism unless I would consent to and wink at I could not but give the world notice that the Ashes of this worthy though much abused person might not rise up in Judgement against me for my silence herein Now although I knew that W. L. was the Man that thus had abused Mr. Gresham yet so charitable was I towards him as not to mention his Name being guided by that known Law of Civility which enjoyns men Parcere personis dicere de vitiis Howbeit W. L. is pleased to spit his venome at me to purpose for that my respect to Mr. Greshams memory and this my civility towards himself and is not contented thus nefariously to rob Mr. Greshams Ashes of their honour but with a brow of brass would fasten it upon the belief of the world That nothing in the Prophetick Merlyn was Mr. Greshams but all his own And is so malitiously impudent as to term me The most ungrateful of men living for offering to vindicate him who is not here to defend himself in a matter which L's own Conscience if at least he have but so much as a Sparrow hath Brains or a Pidgeon Liver knows to be an eminent Truth In return unto which that L. may see I am not ashamed of what I have written in behalf of Mr. Gresham I must tell the world that L. is and hath shewn himself the more ungrateful of the two for offering to bury in the Urn of forgetfulness the Honour Parts and Pains of him without whose Labours L's Prophetick Merlyn would have looked with the same complexion and countenance as do his Supernatural Sights and Dreadful Dead-man fit onely for Laughter whereas now it is furnished with the Calculations and Figures of several Conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter Yet I will not deny but L may have set the Figures of them for none but such an Ignorant in Astronomy as himself would adventure at things impossible as is the obtaining a Figure of such a Conjunction But surely L. will not be so impudent as to say he Calculated the Planets places c. for all Astronomers know that he is not able to perform any thing of that nature And I must tell L. that his Sophistry whereby he endeavours to prove himself the Legitimate Author of that Work is so idle impertinent and sapless that a School-Boy would blush to own For doth it follow because King James Lord Finch Campanella Alstedius Keplar c. persons not living in Mr. Greshams time their Names are mentioned in that Book that therefore Mr. Gresham was not Author of the better part of it L. might as well argue and as truly that because we finde W. L. in the front of it Mr. Gresham had no hand it which is a pure Non-sequitur Yet I will not deny but L. having the advantage of Mr. Greshams pains might add thereunto many ridiculous and idle matters as I am sure he hath which Mr. Gresham had he been alive would have been ashamed to own Well but if it be not L's how may some say do you prove it to be Mr. Greshams I prove it thus When L. was first about to make himself publick by Astrologie viz. Anno 1643. or 1644. he applies himself to Dr. Nicholas Fiske my honoured Friend and Tutor a Person but for the necessity of this occasion too honourable to be mentioned in the same Page with W. L. and from him as I have heard the Doctor in his life-time often report and that with shaking his head at L's impudence and ignorance he received the best part of his Prophetical Merlyn in Manuscript And not onely so but my self saw in the Doctors Study a Manuscript formerly written by Mr. Gresham of the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter 1603. part of which I finde printed in the Prophetical