els-where sure he is that what he hath on Jerem. 10.2 concerning the vanitie and impietie of your trade is neither contrary to the current of Antiqitie nor to reason nor to the genuine sense of the words of the Text but consonant to the doctrine of the Ancient Fathers the sounder and greater number of lerned writers both of former times and later dayes as wel Papists as Protestants the setled discipline in the Christian Churches the Decrees and Sanctions of Christian Emperors and the Canons and Constitutions of whole Councels not a few even to that of Trent it self as hath formerly ben shewed And for this puddle of non-sense as you ar pleased to style it from whence you should have done wel to have related some few at least particular passages or sentences of non-sense picked out of the whole puddle it hath it seems so puzzeld you and disturbed all your senses that you have not so much as one wise word to return in way of defence unto any peice of the Exceptions therein taken to your own Assertions related out of your own writings onely the very sight of it seems so to have troubled your stomack that it hath made you bring up much gall and spit out a great deal of venome which being unaccustomed to such scurrilous language I shal pas by and leav to you to resume if you please as dogs sometime do their vomit and to reserv it by you until you have further use of it Mean while that the Autor of that Annotation which you ar pleased so to bespatter is not ashamed of his work but is willing to have it pas the more general trial whether it be such a puddle of non-sense or no in regard that the whole work whereof his labors ar but a parcel consists of two great volumes and the price conseqently correspondent not every mans money and in fewer hands therefore in consideration hereof he hath caused that Annotation excerpted from the rest to be printed apart together with this that the more eyes of all sorts may readily see what it is whether it be such as you say and how nothing a few scurrilous terms onely excepted you have in your own defence returned thereunto One thing I had overpast which I deem not amisse to give some touch of before I conclude Besides the aspersions of non-sense incapacity and ignorance wherewith Mr. L. chargeth our English Preists and the Annotater among the rest there is another Imputation and charge of a more hainous nature to wit Envie the Divels most peculiar sin for of the Annotation on Jer. 10.2 he saith it is a puddle of Envy and Non-sense Of which former branch I had said nothing because I understood not the Mysterie wanting some Delian Diver to unfold it to me that I might know what the Mans meaning should be which now Mr. L. himself hath done for me For in an Epistle prefixed to his Worlds Catastrophe which came lately to my hands he tels his Reader that the Fraternity of the Clergie ar an Envious generation and this disease of envie is with them hereditarie And what is the ground think we of this grievous charge which he enters upon with such a passionate Exclamation Oh men of Envie forsooth they have for so many ages envied mankind the knowledge of lerning that have cloistered up books and suffered them to perish in their closets unopened because all should be ignorant but themselvs and had not some Gentlemen of divine Souls and many worthy and gallant Physitians preserved Arts and published their admirable conceptions he is confident to this very day the Fraternity of Clergie-men would have kept us at a distance and without the knowledge of many lernings we now know for which at sometimes these malevolent churlish and envious Clergiemen snarl at the Autors But what ar the Books that these men made of envie have thus mured up of set purpose to keep men in ignorance Is it Gods Word think we and the Divine Oracles or the Law and the Gospel or the writings of the Prophets and Apostles these indeed under the Papacie were locked up and sealed up and men inhibited from looking into them But these ar not the Books Mr. L. speaks of these rather he could be content should be concealed they speak no good of him and his trade tho the Planets and Aspects of them as we have elswhere observed portend no ill at all to Wizards whatsoever to others they do yet these denounce much evil both to them and to those that ar deluded by them But what ar they then such as treat of Mr. Ls. trade such as the professors and practisers of such arts when they turned tru Christians burnt at Ephesus Act. 19.19 Ah what an envious man was Paul that would suffer them so to do But more particularly that by some instances we may know what books he means There ar books saith he from the Lord of Marchistone writing on the Revelation among the Jews containing doctrines as they alledge proceeding from the mouthes of the Patriarks affirming every great Angel of seven to rule the world 490 yeers and in particular a Book of the Government of the VVorld by Angels which M. L. himself hath Englished whereof he purposes to write a special Treatise wherein from the beginning of the World to these times and some hundreds of yeers succeeding he shal endevor to manifest such Mysteries involved in this lerning as yet have not appeered wherein he shal go neer to give every Common VVealth of Europe a smart conjecture of the continuance or destruction of their State and Government having gotten forsooth the tru Key or Caâ—ala as elswhere he terms it to unlock these Mysteries which others for want thereof understand not he should have done wel to have added Mother Shiptons Prophesies which he sayes were never qestioned for antiqitie and veritie And the rest of the rabble of old wives tales as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 4.7 whereof he tels us there ar many more in the North. And what is all this but to do as Satan did with God to our first Parents who charged him with envieng man divine knowledge because he inhibited him the forbidden fruit For therefore saith Mr. L. these Clergie men keep these Books out of mens sight because out of envie they would keep people in ignorance and withhold them from attaining such deep and profound knowledge as himself by reading of them hath attained unto As for the Lord Napeir and his Countryman Robert Ponts their Calculations by Jubilees from the Worlds beginning to the Worlds end the time whereof both of them contrary to our Saviors avouchment take upon them to determine the one Propos 15. the other Cap. 19. they ar so groundles that few or none that I have seen do accord with either and for Tritemius his Treatise of the seven Planetary Angels that should in cours govern the whole World by those seven Planets which Mr. L. to make our
great Autor with Mr. Lilie as the L. Howard reports him for that work of his I have not albeit they be not certain what yeer much lesse at what time of the yeer or day of the month and much lesse yet in what hower of the night his Mother was delivered of him yet having fixed the time of his birth to such a yeer and time of the yeer and day of the month and hower of the night he pleased folowing the groundlesse tradition of his Romish Rabbines therein doth from the Stars as he conceives them disposed at that instant very solemnly and seriously deliver his judgement thereupon not onely that our Saviour was to be born of a Virgin because the first face of Virgo was then ascending whose proper image is a Virgin nursing a Child but that also he should be both a Preist and a Prophet because Saturn was then in the ninth House and in the Sign of Gemini whereas yet saith the L. Howard their great Bassa Abraham the Jew is of the mind that whosoever finds Saturn at his birth so consorted shal never proov a good Christian and that he was to suffer a violent and bloudy death because Mars was then in the house of death In which both his calculations and observations upon them although that Honorable Person control him as mistaken in the one nor folowing the principles of his own Patriarks in the other yet let them go for currant be they right or wrong in either it being nothing to the particular that we are now upon Onely thus much that if these grounds be firm and solid we may through Cardanes misreckoning misse of the assurance of our Saviour and whether his reckoning be right or no we may come to have many Saviors that is many so peculiarly qalified as he was who was alone to be our Savior since that it is scarce imaginable but that sundry should be born in divers places at or about the same instant in which the Virgin his Mother was delivered of him and conseqently under the same situation of the Stars at his birth To this may be added that whereas there are two universal and most miraculous destructions of the whole World the one past by Water the other future by Fier there want not those addicted to this pretended Star-divinitie that attribute either to the Stars For so divers of them more then one or two have affirmed that Noe might wel have foreknown the floud a long time ere God revealed it unto him from the conjunctions of those watery constellations and signs whose concurrence then produced it and whose influences are called the cataracts or floud-gates of Heaven Gen. 7.11 And with us one sometime Felow of S. Johns in Cambridge a man mightily possessed with these mysterious profundities hath confidently delivered as treading in their steps that as certain waterie signs and constellations meeting together brought in that general inundation and oecumenical deluge that drownd the whole world so a number of fierie ones in like manner conjoyning should after a certain stint of time which whether it be past or no I know not having not his book written above threescore yeer ago now at hand produce that universal conflagration that shall set the whole world on a light fire Thus contrary to that which Mr. S here tels us this their supposed Art and the received principles of it are so far from confirming Gods most strange and remarkable works as miraculous that they do rather directly infringe and remoove the miraculosity of them since that nothing is averred to have ben done in them but what the Stars by vertu of an innate power were able to produce And if it shal be replied that yet they say that God himself enstamped that virtu in them and furnished them with that power at first yet it will stand firm that those acts of a Virgin bearing a Child the drowning of the world at one time and burning all up at another are no more miraculous then the entercourse of night and day and the vicisitudinary courses of the several seasons of the yeer the one being produced by an innate power setled in and enstamped by God upon the creature at its first creation and constitution as well as the other and the creature working in a natural course according to these mens principles in either But to draw to an end of this more prolix discourse then at first I intended while as in a wild goose race I have ben enforced to folow first Mr. Lilie and then Mr. Swan I shal only tell them what Lucilius an Epigrammatist whom in the Greek Florilege they may find saith of the Astrologers of his time that amused selie people by talking to them of a Ram and a Dog and a Bul and a Bear and a ramping Lion and a shrewd stinging Scorpion and a wry crawling Crab and the like scare-bugs in the skie by such discourse having wrought them into an amazement of them and their skil to cheat and gull them and pick their purses under a pretence of reading them their destinies and foretelling their fortunes just as our Wizards do at this day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which leaving to Mr. Lilie to English either himself being so wel acqainted with Thucydides or else with the Assistance of Mr. S. or some other I shall close up all with the Verdict of that Noble Lord so oft formerly mentioned who in that work whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he never shewed lesse lerning then in that discourse I mervail where he thinks he shewed any sticks not to averre it as a truth no lesse cleer then the light it self that not Astrologie simply but their Astrologie such Fortune-telling Astrologie as these men professe hath done and is likely hereafter to do more mischief to the Church of God then all other rotten branches which not conscience alone but very shame enforceth them to lop and cast into the furnace That which the Lord open the Eyes of those in Autoritie to see and take notice of and take to heart that some speedy course may be taken for preventing of such mischeifs as from such abuses suffred unlesse timely prevented may accrew both to Church and State The Annotations on Jerem. Chap. 10. Verse 2. and part of Vers 3. Vers 2. THus saith the Lord Learn not the way of the Heathen Because the Jewish people were a great party of them to go into captivity into Babylon and other the regions adjacent yea many of them in likelihood were there in captivity already See ver 11. Chap. 24.1 29.1 2. God by the Prophet endeavoureth to confirm and strengthen them the pious especially among them for such also there were there of them Chap. 24.5 Ezek. 11.16 against those superstitions and vanities that were rife in those parts and they might be in danger being exiles and captives in a strange land to be strongly tempted unto Heb. Learn not to the way where either the particle
inhabitants of the earth Rev. 17.5 Or such a Mysterie as those were the Gentiles used in the sacrilegious services of their counterfeit Gods which Clemens of Alexandria in derision of them said might well be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 .i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 muscipulae moustraps invented to take and hold fast selie people like mice nor indeed are these mens mysteries any other then meer decipulae cheating gins contrived and set on purpose by cunning men as people commonly cal them thereby to conie-catch selie souls simple creatures such as Solomons harlot invites to her Prov. 9.16 and by making their purses lighter to make their own pockets the heavier But Sir suppose that our English Preists were all of such shalow capacitie were all of them such Wiseakers in regard of you Wizards that not one of them were able to conceiv or comprehend the abstruse secrets of your Science is that the only reason why they blame Astrologie Or were all those such blockheds and duâ—pated Dunces who not blamed it only but rejected refuted arraigned and condemned it long before them Or are they all such as in like manner condemn it at this day Or was it their ignorance in the fideral science that enduced them all so to do To look back to Antiqity another manner of Antiqitie then M. L. can shew for his Magical Imagerie And here not to repeat again what was before said of Anaxagoras we shal ad of Socrates in whose steps Plato precisely trod only what Xenophon reporteth that concerning Astrology or Astronomy for he uses those terms promiscuously being demanded his judgment he gave his advice that men should so far forth exercise themselvs in the study of the Stars as to attain thereby to an exact account of day and night moneths and yeers and as use might be made thereof for journey by land or voyage by Sea but for further curiosities for men to spend much time therein he deemed not so profitable albeit saith Xenophon he were in such things not unskilful himself partly because it might withdraw a man from the studie of things more useful and partly because it would not be pleasing to the Gods for men to be enqiring into those things the knowledge whereof they had concealed and reserv to themselvs And as for those that out of Platoes School succeeded him Eudoxus saith Tullie one of Platoes auditors and one for his skil in Astrologie by the judgment of the most lerned without difficulty deemed the cheif in those dayes was of this opinion which he leaft also in writing that unto Chaldeans in their predictions and designments of mens lives from the time of their birth there is no credit to be given Panetius also saith he a prime man among the Stoiks reporteth that Archelaus and Cassander the cheifest Astrologers of the age wherein he lived tho in the other parts of Astrologie they excelled yet this kind of prediction or foretelling by the Stars they used not and these Astrological Predictions he himself also rejecteth Scylax also of Halicarnasse a familiar frend of Panetius an excellent Astrologer and a cheif man in the government of that City repudiated all this Chaldaiacal kind of prediction Was it out of meer ignorance then that these men gave in their verdict thus against such kind of predictions or was it out of any inability and incapacity to attain unto any secrets in Nature that these our late upstart Wizards who professe to proceed in a natural way have now attained but were then beyond those mens reach or is it since their times that those good Angels Mr. L. speaks of have revealed these mysteries to such holy men as Mr. L. and the like of their rare skil in the genuine part of Astrologie you hear what ample testimony and by whom it is given them and if there be any other Eleusinian rites or Magitian Mysteries that these our Wizards exercise dealing with the Divel in the dark I suppose had they ben acqainted with them being judicious men and genuine Artists they would never a whit have liked the better of their concealed covert and counterfeit art But come we down to lower and later times Was Joannes Picus that Illustrious Count of Mirandula such a dul pate or was it out of meer ignorance of their profound mysteries that he blamed Astrologie he was for his piercing wit and depth of judgment in most Sciences styled in those times the Miracle of the age he lived in and he wrote twelve books yet extant against this Judicial Astrologie of which Jerome Savanarola how acute and judicious a man his works shew gives this censure Qi Pici Mirandulani libros de Astrologiâ legerit intellexerit neque Astrologiam irriserit dignus ipse est qi ab omnibus derideatur He that having with understanding read Picus his books of Astrologie derides not Astrologie deserves of all men to be derided himself Or is Claudius Salmasius one who in these times for his extraordinary variety of lerning as wel deservs the Title given Picus as either of the two Scaligers Joseph his Predecessor or Julius his Father either of whom some lerned men have so entituled such another ignoramus in this Wizards esteem who in his late elaborate discourse of the Critical Dayes and his Preface thereunto prefixed hath shrewdly shaken the main foundations of their Supposititious Science and it may justly be hoped wil so utterly raze them as that not onely no coin but no rag wil be leaft toward the raising and reedifying of it when he shal go on with his promised work in that Argument Mean while he hath sufficiently discovered the vanity and loosnesse of their grounds and principles and evidently shewed how deep he hath dived into these their so much vaunted of and highly esteemed Mysteries Or was John Kepler the Emperor Rodolphs Mathematician such a selie felow and of so shalow a capacitie that he could not reach their Mysteries who charges them as ignorant and unskilful for the most part in regard of any exactnesse in the genuine part of Astronomie layes open at large the deepest of their Mysteries discovers their errours and mistakes in their own principles that which Salmasius also oft doth yea writes as bitterly and tartly against them as any other whosoever as hereafter shal be shewed and freely professeth that being urged and importuned to write somewhat in that way his mind enured to Geometrical Demonstrations considering the unsoundnesse and qagginesse of their grounds it fared with it as with a restive jade or hed-strong horse that coming to a slow hangs back and cannot by any beating or rating of his rider be brought to set foot into it But to come home to our selves and here to passe by all other nor to recal the Lord Verulame whom some lerned have conceived to be one specially raised up to help to bring Arts and Sciences on
him in the minds and dooms of any endued not with reason and religion only but even with civility and common sense As for mine own either this or the former howsoever he shal think good to deal with them otherwise I shal advise him now as a frend that he take heed how he make any mention or have any word of the good Angels he told us were the first Teachers of his Trade For I can assure him there ar not a few of the mind that he is as wel able to eat a whole cart-load of logs as to make his word good concerning those good Angels by any sound proof or authentick record But their shalow capacities it may be ar not able to reach the vast extent of Mr. L. his abilities or to conceiv what great matters especially by the help of such his good Angels he is able to effect And if he can do it and wil be pleased so far to condescend to their weaknes as to do us the favor to make his power herein to appeer I do assure him on mine honest word that when he shal have so done I wil both solemnly recant all that I have written against him and by this my present hand-writing oblige my self never to open my mouth any more to speak an ill word of him Mean while if he shal find that either by his own skil or by any such assistance in a work deemed so weighty and in other mens eyes so difficult he is of force sufficient to make that his assertion good mine instant reqest then is to him that it may be one with the first of his next Herculean labors to do it for the maintaining of his own credit that avers it and the repute of his Art which for want of better grounds is by him founded upon it and the gaining of a Proselyte yea of many an one I doubt not to his Profession if the thing be once atcheived Now if it shal by any be demanded how it comes to passe that this Vindication of mine Annotations came no sooner abroad and why like Homers Litae it lags so long after M. Ls. Ate that hath so blasted it To this I answer First as in the Entrance into it I formerly intimated it was long being confined and mured up as I still am ere I heard ought of Mr. Ls. snarlings at my Notes some space of time after that ere the Book came to my hands and when upon view of it I found that for Answer to it I was put off to some Nameles Autor or Autors that were to come out and yet a longer time ere by enqiry of frends I could come to be enformed of any of them that had appeered in print much lesse to gain the sight of their works Mean while those that know what the state of my family then was partly by a greivous and tedious malady that having long afflicted my deer consort and faithful yoakfelow was then grown to an height with her and partly through her decease ensuing thereupon that filled my heart with much greif and my hed with many cares wherewith in times past while she enjoyed life with health and strength and I her I was altogether unacqainted wil easily guesse how litle mind so affected and distracted I might have to mind ought of this nature Besides that I had other irons in the fire that I was to look after I had some Works of better use I hope in the Pres both here in the City and elswhere which are now abroad the one whereof drawing then neer to the birth a new task unexpected but by others much desired that it might more compleatly came forth to the light and be the more useful when it came out I cannot say interrrupted me in the midst of my work but enforced me to lay it aside having not as yet made any great progresse in it until that were dispatcht These remoraes either keeping off at first or breaking off afterward together with mine own weaknesse slacking my pace and the want of a Scribe that might have furthered the dispatch as also the work it self growing under my hand while one thing fetches in another have much retarded the finishing of it And yet may it well come abroad timely enough in regard of the Subject Matter that this man handles in this Book wherein he falls foul on me and my Notes to free mens minds from such frivolous frights and groundles fears as he seeks to possesse them with from the several Eclipses that have faln out this yeer and that especially of the Sun since that he withal enformed us that these Eclipses begin not usually to work these their dismal effects till eight moneths after and then continu for a two or three yeers or so long as these their designers list So that the main matter of those fals fears which he would affright people with being as yet most of it come according to his computation the work comes seasonably enough if it shal prevail with any by the discovery of the vanity of the pretended causes thereof either to preserv them from entertaining such fond conceits or to purge them out where they have ben entertained already And so I shall passe from Mr. W. Lilie to Mr. John Swan one it seems of his Advocates THis Sermon of Mr. John Swan a man to me otherwise utterly unknown on Jerem. 10.2 I had not so much as once looked after much lesse medled at all with had I not ben advertised by Mr. Lilie in his Preface to his Black Book dedicated to the Common Wealth of England dated March 10. from his Corner house over against Strand-bridge as some other formerly from the three Flower deluces neer Somerset house in the Strand for it concerns those that drive his Trade to make it known where they dwel to tice Customers to them that the Annotater should have ere long the judgment of abler Divines then himself and to better purpose on that Text. nor could I by help of frends and their sedulous enqirie gain the notice or attain the sight of any that had since that time of Mr. L. his menacing prediction published ought to that purpose upon that Scripture save this of Mr. Swan on which also it was long ere I lighted Him therefore I deemed to be one at least if any more uncertain foretold should be Mr. Ls. Advocates or Patrons unto whom as having undertaken the defence of him and his cause committed to them by him against mine Annotations on that portion of Scripture I found my self by him there referred That which the rather I had cause to beleiv because I found his discourse concurring with a passage concerning the same Scripture by Mr. L. related out of a Nameles Autor much magnified of him whose work yet be it Sermon or Commentarie or what ever els whether it ever saw the publick light is to me as uncertain as what is at this day done at Rome And if it be so as may most
next day Or if ye shall please to turn the word of Fate and Fatalitie into plain English and call it Destinie if such a kind of power were conferred upon the stars by virtue of such Conjunctions and Aspects in relation to mens Nativities and Vndertakings to make them luckie or unluckie to be necessarily wel or ill affected to design them to such disasters and to come to such ends which by no wit or might power or Policie they are able to avoid then why may not one say as the knave told the Stoik his Master when he whipt him for filching it was my destiny to filch or as his Master answered the knave again and it is thy destiny to be whipâ— So the theif that it was his destinie to betake himself to that trade and the strumpet that it was her destinie to lead such a life being bred and born under such a star and that it was such an ones destiny to be hanged and anothers to be drowned and an others to be torn in pieces with dogs because by such and such constellations at the time of their Nativitie they were designed thereunto and such things ar as sure to befall them as they are sure nay more sure then they ar or can be to go to bed at night or to rise again the next day since that the one by some humane power or natural cours or their own will and act may be intercepted and altered whereas the other save by a supernatural power cannot be altered or avoyded So that constru Fate and Fatalitie which way you please these mens own grants presumed and grounds admitted a fatality of necessitie must be concluded and what impietie wil thence necessarily follow we have in part formerly shewed and shall by Gods assistance again further hereafter But here Mr. Lilies Advocates falter with him as some of them also with themselves For first Mr. Swan tels us with good ground from Gods Word that certainly to foretel contingent events belongs to none but to God himself Esay 41.23 and his other Advocate whom he so much magnifies concludes as himself relates him with these words of Osiander concerning Astrologie Nihil habet de Magiâ si modò qis Astrologicas praedictiones pro conjecturis non avâ—em pro vaticiniis certis habeat It hath nothing of Magike otherwise then it hath and Astrologers ar Magitians Wizards no other then he-witches if so be one have or account Astrological predictions for conjectures and not for certain Prophesies I Stand not now to discuss or debate how these sayings will consist which what from Mr. Swan we have above heard We will consider onely what help Mr. Lilie hath from them and whether he have so wisely and advisedly dealt in referring himself and his cause to them Hear we Mr. Lilie what he saith of himself and his predictions agreeably enough I confess to his own principles as hinself speaks in part and to those grounds also that these men and other the like Patrons of his profession have laid howsoever here they palter with him and leave their Client in the lurch But hear we him and his own confident Assertions and peremptorie in his Black-Book Assuredly the vengeance of Almighty God is ready to be powred forth upon the Dutch and Assuredly those actions which will be agitated will be acted with an high and mighty hand and certainly there is some eminent treason in or neer these parts in agitation in or neer the time of this Eclipse or during its influence to break forth and Qestionles those People who ar intended to be made most sensible of this Eclipses influence ar Magistrates of the highest rank in every Nation of Europe and those so great alterations in this Macrocosm shall be so glorious and conspicuous that there is no Nation or People of Europe Asia or Africa but they shall stand amazed and wonder at the eminency of them and The influence of this Eclips shal operate upon the common Laws of our Nation but sure I am not to its overthrow and Treasurers must account and We affirm there will be an appearance of some memorable actions c. And in his New Diurnal I am confident we shall bring those proud people the Dutch upon their knees by destroying their Naval forces c. And I am confident we of the Commonaltie joyning with the Souldier shall endeavour to call them to an account c. as in the premises ye had it What Prophet sent immediately and furnished with special commission from God ever did speak or could speak more confidently or more peremtorily then this Wizard doth Yea he tels us He is sure his judgement on the effect of this Eclips hath rather been Prophetical then Predictive albeit by his own grounds he could not be sure that ought that had faln out within those seven Moneths were any effects at all of that Eclips it being affirmed by him that it is not necessary that any such Eclips should begin to operate before eight months after it and what ar they the most of them but what he saw already either done or in doing or that any man but of ordinary sagacitie without help of Starlight might as wel foresee and foretel by probable conjecture which is the most that his greatest Patrons will by his own relation and acknowledgement allow him unles he will be deemed of them and condemned by them as no pure Astrologer but a meer Magitian in plain English an He-witch For such they imply them to be that give out their Astrological Predictions for any other then conjectures for certain Prophesies much more And doth not this man so what more common with him then to entitle his annual Predictions his Prophetical Merlin for such a year and to cite them by such a Title Yea his great grandfather Ambrose Merlins Predictions whereof he professeth to have a Book of 28. sheets by himself written it may be many hundred yeers after the old Wizard was dead and buried and past rotting in his grave he pronounceth to be Prophesies against which there can be no exception of as undoubted autoritie belike as Scripture it self Thus this earth-worm having thrust his head out of some hole and creeping below upon the ground this Egyptian frog crawling out of the mire and mud of some Nilotik mear sticks not to arrogate that to himself which his own Autors affirm truly to be Gods peculiar to give out his own croakings and predictions for Prophesies lessons taken out of the Book of Heaven to speak as peremptorily of his own figments and fancies as if he had received them from Gods own mouth and to entitle such base stuf not his own rapsodies and rabblements onely bur the fond fopperies of the Son of an Incubus if the stories of him be true an harlots bastard at the best as if they were both divine Oracles Prophecies the one and irrefragable Prophecies such as no
p. 132.133 Judg. 5.20 To as little purpose alledged p. 133 135 His long and lacinious discours of the means whereby the Planet Mars hath power to subvert States unravelled p. 135 140. and shewed to be groundlesse p. 136. impious p. 136.137 Insufficient to his intended Project p. 138.139 140. impertinent to his present purpose p. 140.141 The Cognisance of Questions what it is and being a new invention and one of our Wizards their gainfullest engins that it hath much need of good props p. 141 143 The judgement of Genitures how ridiculous and whether M. Swans Principles will reach it p. 144.145 Pericles defended against M. Swans harsh and groundlesse censure and Thucydides cleared from Lilies misreports p. 147 155 Job 38.31 32. by M. Swan alledged discussed and shewed not to say what he should proov p. 106. and p. 156 158 Job 9.7 Cited to as little purpose p. 158 160 making no more for Astromancie then Job 37.7 for Chiromancie or Revel 2.17 for the Philosophers Stone p. 160.161 Luk. 21.25 Explained and shewed to have no place here p. 161.162 Psal 111.2 and 1 King 4.11 to no purpose here produced p. 162.170 Wisdom 7.17 Apocryphal of no weight because of no credit nor coming home to the point in qestion p. 162 166 Of Adams knowledge and Salomons p. 166 168 Of Thales p. 168 169. Of Solon p. 169.170 Of Tares or Weeds rather sowen among the Wheat and how to be distinguished p. 170.171.174 176 Of Eccles 3.1 the genuine sense of the place that it no way helps those for whom M. Swan pleadeth p. 171 172 Of the men of Issakers skil 1. Chr. 12.30 to this purpose as litle p. 172.173 Of severing the drosse from the gold and chaff from the Corn p. 176 177.180.181 The condemners of this Divinatory Astrologie not guilty of confounding and casting away the one with the other p. 177.178 The Patrones of it rather blend them and would obtrude on us the drosse with the gold and the dregs with the liqor p. 179 The vanity of M. Swans pretense that the discovery and opposition of such fanatical fancies and cheating practices should either proceed from ignorance or indanger the inducing of it p. 179.180 The Rule given by M. Swan whereby to help us in discerning Christs Godhead by his Miracles cutteth the throat of his Clients cause concerning the stupendious efficacy of Eclipses p. 181 What disservice our Astrologers have done to God and Christ by attributing the most miraculous works of either to the natural Operation of Stars and Constellations p. 182 185 The close of all with the L. Howards judgement concerning the mischievousnesse of this Fortune-telling Astrologie p. 186 The Contents in the Annotations AStronomie and Judiciarie Astrologie distinguished p. 187 That for the Original of this latter its Patrons and Practicers wanting ground from the light of Nature or natural reason are fain to fly as the Papists for their Purgatorie to special revelation some from good Angels some from God himself both without any sound proof of either p. 188.189 That they do falsly and impiously fasten upon the Stars such vile affections and malignant faculties as God never gave them p. 188 That the Names given them to import such qalifications taken from Heathenish Deities in which the Devil was worshipped leadeth us to take notice of the first Autor of it p. 189 That if it had ben revealed by God or his Angels to any it would have ben to his Prophets who would in their writings have mentioned it and not transmitted it by Paynims to posterity p. 190 That it hath ben ever in the Christian Church liable to censure p. 190 That it is in Gods Word derided disswaded inhibited as a course impious vain and frivolous unbeseeming Gods people p. 190.192 Signs of two sorts which to be dreaded which not p. 191 A VINDICATION of the Annotations on Jerem. Chap. 10. Vers 2. against the scurrilous Aspersions of that grand Imposter Mr. William Lillie c. A Great man is reported to have sometime complained that it was his hard hap to hear last of some things tho much talked of abroad wherein himself was most concerned And it had been long as I was afterward informed in the mouthes of many and some great ones who in regard of my silence deemed me therefore decessed ere it came to mine eare that M. Lillie that grand Impostor had in his Black Book of the Dark Yeer been nibbling at mine Annotations on Jerem. 10.2 and girding at me after his wonted scurrilous guise as at many other of Gods faithful Ministers and Messengers of far greater worth then my self Now howsoever I have elswhere professed how litle I regard the sqibs and censures of such scoffing mates and scurrilous scriblers his especially whom I deem no better then an other Lucian for that as he under pretence of deriding and traducing the superstitious worships then commonly practised and fond conceits of their fained Deities then generally received did not obscurely endevor to root up all religious worship of the tru God out of mens lives and all reverent fear and regard of him out of their hearts so this man under colour of taxing and inveighing against such either worthlesse or scandalous persons as eyther formerly or in later times have some closely crept in and ben admitted into the Ministerie some violently or cuningly by might or slight ben obtruded upon the people or have intruded themselvs into ministerial functions and pastoral charges or have demeaned themselvs otherwise then was meet in their places he takes occasion to aspers and traduce the whole profession and to vent his spleen and gall against the Ministerie of Christ Jesus it self as hereafter shall be shewed Albeit therefore I say I litle regarded what should drop from the pen of one so affected yet was I desirous to see what the man had said and what satisfactory answer he had in this discours so much talked of returned to mine Exceptions to his Relations concerning the grounds of his pretended skill and professed practise which in those Annotations were taken thereunto To which purpose not being able my self to stir far abroad I reqested a frend to procure me the book but they were it seems as the manner is of such Prognostications for the yeer ensuing sodainly snatcht up at their first coming forth this more especially in regard of the principal subject matter of it peoples minds being generally prepossest and fil'd with expectation of strange novelties raised by the reports given out beforehand of the most dreadful Eclips that this Black Yeer should produce and the direful Effects that should follow thereupon Yet after some space of time attained when it came to my hands whereas I expected that he should have made good what he had with so much confidence formerly delivered concerning the first Original of his pretended Art from some Authentical Records and have taken away mine Objections opposed thereunto I found nothing les then what
to bespattred with her filth Now whether this Souldier or Cavalier riding an ox or a bul with his spur on its side might not rather intimate that the Cavalier or Trooper the war continuing should necessarily vex the poor husbandman resembled by the Ox that helps to til the ground by qartering upon him and with his horse treading down his gras and his corn fit as wel at least with the type as that far fetcht explication and application that this our Wizard makes of it so many miles wide of his Autors acknowledged exposition I dare permit to the judgment of any one that hath not captived his senses to assent unto and assert whatsoever our Wizard shal say But that he may not wholy desert his felow Wizard and yet put us in hope of much good hereafter I know not when towards us he tels us that tho according to the right intention of his Autor this Malitious Man or Malignant Cavalier Man or State be it shal acqire Dominion and Soveraignty by fraud and bloud as before yet because the third face of the Ram is Venus hers which represents subtiltie mildnesse playes a very comfortable prophecie for the poor Players that they shall come to be in reqest again joyfulnesse cleernesse therefore the government albeit so gotten as before shal be ordred with sweetnesse by subtiltie mercy affability c. and this he saith you may observ in the Type enâ—uing whether one of his own framing or fitted to his hand by some other he says not but it is of a Gentlewoman sitting crosse-legd barefoot and barelegd strumpet-wise fingring a lute as the manner is they say in some places where such are allowed to invite customers to them now he tels us withal that this picture seems to promise a cessation of all taxes as those of the levelling partie promised when they were up in arms and all things governed by love You see what a luckie presage it is when Aries and Venus meet when a beautiful harlot is lodged in the sign of the Ram. and from what manner of Deities we must expect the peace and prosperity of our present Government by the doctrine of these figure-casters and figure-drawers Oh but when trow we may some loose people say will these Halcyon or Venerean dayes rather appeer for there is good hope given us by the moral of the type or the tale that Stage-Playes and Stews may then come in again for Venus sure is as wel president and patronnesse of the one as of the other Or others better affected When shall all things be settled in peace and love with us Herein he gives us but cold comfort such as my self especially that ar going out of the world and can not look or hope to live long in it for he tels us that this new Soveraignty or manner of Government so gotten as ye heard before shal continu in somewhat a rigid posture but in much Majestie and austeritie until almost 1663. at which time all sharpnes and bitternesse wil be laid aside and matters ruled mildly the Levellers with Mr. Lilies help whereof more hereafter will then have freed us from all payments as wel of Taxes as Tithes and laid us all alike eaven as corn cut down and eqalised by the harvest mans hand He had told us as you heard before that the efficacie of no Eclipse could last above three yeers and yet the harsh effects of this Eclips are like to hold out thrice three yeer and upward ten yeer at least But to what end do we make wast of pretious time in survey of this mans fantastical imagerie and discovery of his grosse and palpable contradictions As Augustine said sometime that they deserved to be deceived that sought to learn Christ not by reading of written books but by gazing on painted wals so say I of Mr. Lilies images they wel deserve to be deluded that think to find truth in such figments and fancies as these One qestion yet more I would propound to Mr. L. whether these Eclipses do foreshew onely or effect also such things as he is pleased to ascribe to them For in this point he seems somewhat various One while telling us that when Astrolologers speak of the virtu and influence of the heavenly bodies they rarely I say never saith he affirm they act or do such a thing but freqently that they signifie such or such a thing and Ficinus that excellent lerned Preist saith that many things are foretold by means of the heavenly bodies as signs not as causes whose opinion he saith he esteems more of then a thousand of our own Preists who blame Astrologie because it is above their capacitie and in his New come out Ephemeris We say not as some ridiculous Divines affirm the Configurations to be the onely immediate causes here is another manner of qalification then was in the former assertion for an efficient may act or do tho neither immediatly nor alone but we say that they onely in a natural way signifie or are the forerunners of such and such things as by a distempered pulse or irregular diet the Physitian doth safely and infallibly conclude that the party must needs be neer to a sicknesse And yet a litle after What tumults and seditions all over the world did the effects of this Eclipse stir up how great qarrels did these Eclipses sow the seeds of what horrid wars did they produce and again The Eclipses of the Luminaries operate by their influences upon Cities Provinces and Kingdomes and Those Eclipses do most terribly manifest their effects which fall to be in the heart of heaven and The greatest Eclipses produce the greatest Effects And do we not need some Oedipus to arreed and assoil us these riddles They do not act or do ought but signifie only and yet they operate and effect not unlike some old Wives verdict of pepper that it is hot in the mouth but cold in the stomake hot in operation but cold in working Yea they signifie onely in a natural way as irregular diet doth a disease at hand and is not that the procuring or producing cause of the disease whereas these he saith are signs and no causes or as a distempered pulse argues an approaching sicknesse so the distempers belike of the Stars in the skie argu some distempers in mens minds here on earth and all this they do in a natural way and yet have no power to act or do ought at all And whether of the two is now ridiculous the Divines that relate what he and his complices avow tho not it may be in those very terms that he reports them or this our Wizard that being ashamed of and loath to own his own tenents because he is unable to defend them shuffels and cuts as you see and lisps and jabbers and sayes and unsays in a most selie pitiful ridiculous stupide and self-contradicting manner But his Peucer whome he citeth and relieth much upon
taken so neer to himself But here Mr. L. forsooth thinks he can easily salve all that he hath said in his base and scurrilous language against the Ministerie for in his Preface to his late Merlin he desires his Reader to be so civil so sottish he should have said as when he finds his pen somewhat sharp against the Preists to understand that he oweth unto the modest and lerned Divine all love all reverence a debt indeed that whether he wil or no he shal ever ow tho he never intend to pay nor in the least measure intends the whole Ministerie tho he yoke Monkerie and Ministerie in expresse terms together but onely such as rant daily against Astrologie that is the noli me tangere the subject that must not be delt with disturb our Parliament so they must all needs do that discover the mysteries of his conie-catching trade unjustly oppresse the Countryman with Tithes as Landlords do by reqiring their rent and molest all Parishes where they come with pride and Lordlinesse Lord Bishops belike all the poor Presbyters ar now become A very fair and specious Glosse wherein yet this Merlins brat for I hope he will not refuse to own him as his Ancester whose name he bears writes after a far more eminent Copie King James a Prince of more policy then puissance while he was yet King of Scotland penned or owned at least a Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which whoso shal advisedly read tho of no very sharp eyesight or deep reach yet may easily discry a Design carried all along in it to ingratiate himself with the Popish side by commending the fidelity of his Mothers servants as to her so to himself with the Prelatical partie by giving them hope of continuing that government that he should find here established with the Common people by allowing them their May-games and the like sports onely he had bitterly expressed himself in high terms against the poor Puritans whome he least feared and deemed generally disaffected by those other three parties Howbeit when the time drew neer of Qeen Elisabeths departure that his qiet coming in might not meet with any disturbance from that party he prefixed a Preface to his Book then reprinted wherein on his Honor he protesteth that by the name of Puritans he meant not all Preachers in general or others that misliked the Ceremonies as badges of Poperie and the Episcopacie as smelling of a Papal Supremacie but did eqally love the lerned and grave on either side intended onely such brainsick and heddy Preachers that leaned too much to their own dâ—eams contemned all authority counted all prophane that would not swear to all their fantasies c. but whether his carriage toward such of that side who went under that name when he came to the Crown here argued such an eqal affection and love to them I had rather any other should consider then my self say And this our Wizard may as well hope to walk abroad stark naked or with a net onely cast over him unseen as with such a sory disguise as this is to cast such a mist before mens eyes to keep them from taking notice whom he intends and strikes at his own expressions and professions as hath formerly been manifested making it to appeer as cleerly and conspicuously as the light at Noon day 5. What he tels us so peremptorily We know I say by experience that Eclipses are ever so attended by what experience I would fain know can this man come to know that they are ever so attended He tels us elsewhere indeed that for any memorable Eclipse that fals out in the Ram the event either for good or bad of which clause before is assuredly grounded upon the experience of twenty generations of men which tho it come far short of his Ever here yet is far more then he by his own knowledge and experience is able to reach unto And doth not Plinie tel us that the Heathen Wizards did as confidently avow the constant experience of 800 yeers and upward for their divinations by the flight of fowles and bowels of beasts and the efficacie of their magical spels and charms and we may wel beleiv that Mr. L. can as wel proov the one as they the other and give as much credit therefore to the one as to the other But his Ever here goeth far beyond either and may wel come home to that tempus immensum that immensitie of time that time before all time that reckoning of 472000 yeers before Alexanders days that the Chaldee Wisards affirmed their observations of the course of the Stars to have ben continued yea or that account tho falling far short of that of 40000 yeers that the pleader for the Chaldeans that is the Astrologers their judgment of genitures in Tullie would raise up their experience unto affirming it to be reported that the Babylonians had constantly made observation thereof in the birth of all children born with them for so many thousands of yeers before any indeed were bred or born Unto which vain and hyperbolical assertion Tullie wisely makes answer tho he had not that notice of the time of the worlds creation that we have that that report was not possible to be justified and made good by any sound proof and to the Argument in general concerning their Astrologers taken from the constant experience of Events he returns them a flat denial Perspicuum est multa vera evadere qid qod multo plura falsa qota enim qaeque res evenit praedicta ab istis It is apparent saith he you wil say that many of their predictions have prooved tru but how many more false for how smal a number of things by these men foretold hath fallen out accordingly as they foretold And Favorine a great Philosopher is so bold as to say Prae eis qae mentiuntur pars ea non fit millesima that not one of a thousand things they foretel prooves tru That which also one Weidner a lerned Physitian saith of the VVisards of these times that take upon them to foretel future events by the conjunctions of the Planets as Kepler reports him not dissenting therein from him Vera loqi casu mendacia mille locuâ—os that they light by hap-hazard upon a few truths now and then amongst a thousand lies they tel And as that Noble Earl of Mirandula hath left upon record a particular Register of not a few of his neer kindred allies and familiar acquaintance in whom these predictions tho grounded upon such calculations and applications had of his knowledge failed So Tullie likewise gives many instances hereof out of his own observation in these words Qid plura qotidiè refelluntur What needs many words they are by experience daily refuted How many things do I remember to have ben told by them to Pompey how many to Crassus how many to Cesar among other things that no one of them but should live
succeeded him in place of Command but not in Pollicie and prudent disposall of Affaires brought not disgrace and dishonour onely but destruction upon divers of them and utter ruine almost upon that State VVhich the rather I observe to shew the grosse partialitie and malignitie of these men that regard not what they say or write to the disgrace of those that have in any kinde descried or discovered and opposed their Fancies For why should the Effects of this Eclipse be said to have fallen foul upon Pericles of whose valour and integritie prudent and eqall carriage of State Affaires Thucydides himself a Man as well judicious as ingenuous tho of an other side sometime in the State and by means of him and his friends for a certain number of yeers seqestred yet affords a most ample Testimonie by evidence of Truth evinced rather then on Cleo that base turbulent Fellowâ— or Demosthenes not the Oratour but another that headie rash and unadvised Commander and others of the like stamp who out of by-respects to their own private ends fed the Peoples vain humours with specious pretences and while none durst oppose their Proposals for fear of being deemed Malignants and Enemies to the honour of the State put them upon such inconsiderate Designes as brought not shame and dishonour alone but ruine and destruction also upon some of them Why I say should that Eclipses dismall Effects be said to have lighted on him rather then on them but because Pericles had manifested his contempt of those superstitious Conceits which afterward in that very Warre prooved fatall and destructive to Nicias and the forces under his Command whereof mention is before Yea but the Effects of this Eclipse whether they lighted so upon Pericles or no brought miserie upon Athens and calamitie by a long and grievous War to all Greece Of the Original of that war we have said somewhat before shewed that it was on foot before that Eclips having ben also some good space of time in brewing and breeding ere it brake out as Thucydides declares at large throughout his whole first Book the Preface introductory to it onely excepted Nor was Thucydides so selie as these men would make him as to asscribe either the VVar it self or the continuance thereof unto such occurrents as were but the concomitants thereof Yea suppose we that that violent earthqake and that terrible Eclipse had both faln out before that war was begun as it had ben absurd to say of such an Earthqake or of any Earthqake whatsoever that it had by an innate efficacy produced that VVar that then ensued or that any earthqake hath an inbred faculty by vertu whereof it is able to produce VVars as drought doth dearth yea and necessarily in the course of nature so doth In like manner is it no lesse absurd for any man to attribute the like efficacie to that or to any other Eclipse unlesse he be able to render some reason as wel for the one as for the other And he that shall consider the occurrences of those times as they concern the Athenian State looking on them not with an Astrological but a Theological eye as it behooved Mr. S. to have done when he shal have read in Thucydides an eye witnesse of what he wrote how far that heavy visitation that seized on them at Athens and from thence overspread their whole Countrey not much afflicting any other part of Greece a strange contagious disease never known the like before that weakned them more then the war it self had done how far I say it had ben from working any good upon them that the greatest part among them took occasion thereby to break forth into all manner of wickednesse loosnesse and licentiousnesse spoiling of others and rioting with what they gat from others without fear of divine vengeance or legal penalties as also what horrible outrages were in the several States and Cities committed no place of safety least to any that was not as forward as others in acting of vilanies no regard had of faith or oath or of relations and tials natural civil or sacred honestie scorned as simplicity fidelity as folly clemency as cowardise and on the other side fraud cryed up as prudence perfidiousnesse as policie force as fortitude cruelty as courage This state of things whoso shall seriously weigh may with good ground and warrant from Gods Word yea led by the very light of nature it self alone asscribe rather those calamities that afterward during that war befel the main body of Greece that State of Athens more specially the pride and power thereof so impaired and puld down by the Spartan and they brought so low that they were enforced to beg a peace in most submisse and base manner and to accept it on most dishonourable and destructive conditions of dismantling Athens their mother City and Pyreum their haven town delivering up their whole Fleet twelv ships onely excepted and receiving a new government by thirty such as the Spartane then approved who by them supported ruled according to their own lust without regard of Law or right and exercised such extream cruelty upon them that as Cleocritus avowed they murdred more of their own countriemen within eight months space then their enemies the Spartans had in ten whole yeers unto the just judgment of God and his wrath incensed against them for their transcendent excesse of ungodlinesse and wickednesse not restrained much lesse reformed but improoved and enhaunced upon those forepast greivous judgments then to an Eclipse or two coming in a certain fixed course naturally at a set time without regard had to any superfluitie of wickednesse or ought of that nature in those times And I desire any pious and judicious Reader to deem whether of the two either are guilty themselvs or make others guilty of Epicurean security as M. Swan from Goclein is pleased to speak those that teach men not to be afraid of a litle losse of Sun-light for a quarter of an hower more then they are of the total want of it for many howers night after night coming in a known natural way as wel the one as the other but to fear Sin that may cloud the light of Gods countenance towards them and may cause him to withdraw the bright rayes and gracious sunshine of his favor away from them or those who would make them beleiv that every great Eclipse coming certainly in a set time by such a course as God setled these heavenly creatures in at first draws ever at its tail a long train of inevitable evils by a natural power stampt upon them by God as sure to ensu as night folowes the Sunset and day the Sunrising and to light upon such people and places and persons as these men have assigned them unto without any regard of their doing wel or ill For it is observed by Thucydides that in that strange infectious sicknesse wicked wretches when they saw that it surprized and swept
there ar times and set times with him tho uncertain to us for men to come into the world and to go out of it again of which things in what mans power is it concerning himself seasonably to dispose sometime to greiv and mourn by occasion of crosse occurrents and sometime to be merry and cheerful in regard of prosperous successes that which other lerned have observed to be the genuine sense of the place whereof I have entreated at large elswhere and have shewed that the words would rather be rendred For all there is a set time so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used Neh. 10.34 13.31 and Est 9.26 31. even a time not for every purpose for what purpose can any man have at such a time to be born or at such a time to dye but as the Greek wel renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for every thing under Heaven as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in the very same Chapter vers 17. and in the self same book again Chap. 8.6 So that neither doth the Scripture concern that for which it is alledged tho the thing it self be undeniable Nor doth that for which it is produced being granted concerning the observation of times seasonable in general for several occasions proov the lawfulnesse of observing times as luckie or unluckie out of respect had to the Aspects of the Stars supposed to be benign or malignant as these Wizards please to make them as if one should thus reason Some fish at some time because not in season is not wholsome to feed on ergò some times of geniture are unseasonable and it is an unluckie thing to be bred or born in them as under the Pisces or Fishes and Aqarius or the VVater-bearer because watery Signs expose persons so bred and born to hazard by water To as little purpose is that of the Children of Issachar spoken of as men of eminency in regard that they had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do 1 Chron. 12.30 Whereof the Jewish Masters give two Interpretations as David Kimchi reports them Some that they were men of great skil and experience in politik affaires whose advice therefore the King made use of for information in matter of Law and Judgement alledging to this purpose that of Assuerus who is said Est 1.13 to have spoken to the wise men that knew the times and in the next words for so it was the Kings manner towards all that knew Law and Judgment to wit to advise in all weighty affairs with such as by reading or observation of their own were wel seen in such occurrences and this way go Tremellius Junius Lavater and most Christian Interpreters Others of them which may seem to come neerer home to Mr. S. expound it men skilful in Intercalations and fixing the New Moons for being say these acqainted with the revolutions of the Signes of the Zodiak or the Planets for Mazzaloth is used by them for either they were to determine the seasons of the world and the times of the yeer And this Kimchi the rather enclines unto because it is said to know not what the King but what Israel should do tho withal he acknowledgeth that according to Ezekias appointment the King was to fix the Intercalations and the set seasons But what was the main end and principal use of this their skil saith Kimchi to let the people of Israel know the set times of their solemnities were they fasts or feasts And what is all this to Mr. L. his Clients teaching men to observe some as luckie some as unluckie days some unluckie Planet may seem to have reigned what time Mr. S. penned this discourse for his Arguments are al very unluckily framed Take them in the Enthymem and they argu a genere indefinito ad speciem definitam A dog therefore a hound A deer therefore a stag Men eminent for knowledge of times Ergo of good and evil luckie and unluckie days and howers or à specie ad speciem A lusorie Lot is lawful therefore a Consultorie Lot is lawful or A divisorie Lot is warrantable therefore a Divinatorie So There are some time◠seasonable for sundry occasions and it is a point of prudence to observe such opportunities Ergò there are some dayes luckie and some unluckie in regard of the aspects of the Planets good or bad and it is no smal point of wisedome to observe such And Some men have ben eminent for their skil in fixing aright the seasons of the yeer and set times of solemnities therefore men ought to be had in repute not and justified onely but magnified for telling men by the Stars what wil befal them as if the one were the same in effect with the other or the one a necessary conseqent of the other Or frame them into an entire Syllogism either they wil consist all of particulars or crowd into the Conclusion more then is in the premisses So that when I consider the levity and loosnesse of Mr. Swans Arguments in so weighty a businesse I cannot but call to mind that of Seneca to Lucilius Superest ex hesterno mihi cogitatio qid sibi voluerint prudentissimi viri qi rerum maximarum probationes levissimas perplexas fecerunt He saith he wonders what very wise men should mean to bring so exceeding light proofes in matters of exceeding great weight But that you may perceiv that Mr. S. himself could not but see the inconseqence of his own Arguments consider we a litle further what other Tares there be that he saith the Divel hath sowen amids the good wheat of lawful and praise-worthy Divination 1. To observ the flying of fowls and thereby to judge of good or evil successe in the wars but not to observe the crying of crowes against rain And why not this as wel as that Because saith Mr. S. hereof a reason or cause may be given and it is not therefore superstitious Observe ye not here how Mr. S. can when he lists descry the invalidity of his own inferences For upon what ground but this do we reject and condemn their Fortune-tellings of disastrous events from Eclipses and Genitures under such and such malignant Aspects as superstitious but because no tru cause or sound reason can be given of them and the maintainers of them therefore are forced for the justifying of them to flee to revelations 2. Inspection into the entrails of beasts for the same purpose as if God had written the secrets of his providence in the livers and bowels of such creatures And I desire Mr. S. to shew me why the Inspection into the Conjunction and Aspects of the Stars for the very self-same purpose as if God had written the secrets of his providence in the Stars should not be bound up in the same bundle of Tares or weeds with that former for the fire unlesse its patrones be able to proov which they wil never do tho they strain till