of the benevolent Planet Jupiter the Patron of things Divine c. proceeded that great and unfeigned Love Duty and Reverence which Mr. Wing constantly paid to Religion and to the service of God being always known for a true and zealous frequenter of the Church and an adorer of the Clergie esteeming them the most worthy of Honour and Reverence that God himself had been pleased to commit the charge of his most honourable and valuable Jewels in the World unto even the Souls of Men. He was indeed so much and so great a votary to Religion and Piety that many of the Almanacks he annually wrote were in a manner Sermons or Expositions or Applications of some useful Texts of Scripture encouraging People by the Word of GOD as well as by the Works of God to follow that which was Religious â—audable Good and Profitable By which ingenious and pious practice of his we are made happy in the acquaintance of this great truth against the perverse wilful obstinate unreasonable and crooked Opinions of the Enemies to all Stary Learning That a Man may be a good Christian and yet an Astrologer and that Divinity and Astrologie to a sober and unprejudiced understanding are not incompatible there being no such antipathy between the Word and works of God or those that study the one and the other as Naturalists tell us there is between the Sun and Rue or the Vine and Colewort but that they may well stand and grow together Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei Psal 19. vers 1. He was a Person of a very ready ripe and pregnant wit and had good judgment and memory thereunto annexed The want of the later of which was a defect that the learned Doctor Hammond exceedingly bewailed in himself saying that it was easier for him to Pen twenty Sermons than to get one by heart What Mr. Wing read was his own and thence he began to be a Mathematician in his younger years being capable of understanding all the parts of Arithmetique of the several ways used in Surveying Land Measuring all sorts of heights and distances c. As also of making all kinds of Dyals with many other neat and commendable acquirements by that time he was but Eighteen Years of Age as I have often heard Himself as well as others report So that in a sence it may be said of him as it was of the Holy St. Remigius and the great Doctor S. Thomas Aquinas That from the time of his first capacity of Learning he out stripped those that were much his Superiours in Age and I may justly add in Education also And truly he had need be naturally ingenious that attempts such lofty crabbed coy and difficult studies at any time much more in his Juvenile Years When the Feather of Youth is high and spreading and principally waves us to vanities seldome suffering our inclinations to reach after serious or weighty things they being as contrary thereunto as Blood to Melancholy Heat to Cold Winter to Summer c. But this Mr. Wing was born to prove the Influences of the Stars certain and true and by an apt demonstration in himself to shew us That the God of Stars is not tyed to the meaner methods and observations of Men or to his own ordinary way of working but pursues the Rules of his own good will and pleasure varying from his common course how and when and as oft as he pleaseth Thus he can satisfie the stomach beyond Man's reason without food the Thirst without Wine and feed our intellectuals also if he vouchsafe it without instruction of Books or Letters 'T is his Prerogative peculiar to make strong things of weak and excellent things of things contemptible and despised an Age in Youth and contrariwise a Childishness in elder years and by this his foolishness sometimes to amaze othertimes to destroy the wisdom of Men. Thus to declare his Omnipotence he is pleased to raise Ventidius though of a very low and mean extraction to the greatest honour and dignity in Rome And to make Cicero whose Parentage or Original if story may be credited was scarce known Pater Patriae the Father of his Country And thus by God's especial favour and benignity is Mr. Wing raised from an indifferent degree and quality to be a Reputation to his Country and a promoter of the severer Sciences And from them to an equal honour for indeed He hath taken more than equal pains with the admirable and ingenious Kepler with the ever celebrated Alphonsus with the renowned Ticho Brahe with the immortal and ever glorious Julius Caesar with all which illustrious and famous Persons his Name and Memory will for ever shine in the treasury and bibliotheck of Fame for his indefatigable and admired Industry Acquisitions and Performances in all Mathematical and Astrological Learning To fit him with a Soul for these illustrious enquiries for such they are he had in his Nativity a noble reception of Mars and Mercury and Mercury swift in motion and this by the dignity of the House Viz. the greatest that can be and such that Astrologers generally account equivalent to a Sextile or Trine Aspect of them and the Moon which is the Conveyer of all the other Planets influxes to this our Terrene Star is hastning to an Aspect of them both Which in an Astrological sence forceth the imagination fancy and ingenuity of a Person pardon the expression for it is very true that is so born beyond the common rate of exertion and ripens the mind with all its faculties in so celerous and active a manner that it affordeth a Harvest of Wit and Judgment in such Men before there will be an appearance of a Spring in others that shall unfortunately want these forwarding Configurations And thus it cometh to pass that some Persons are so prodigiously and to a Miracle illuminate and afford great Crops of Art and Learning before others of more tenebrous and Cloudy souls can put forth either Leaf or Blossome Thus it was apparent in the Nativity of that Reverend Prelate the late Lord Primate of Ireland Doctor Vsher whom Paulus Testardus justly stile Seculi Ecclesiae decus eximium the greatest honour of the Church and Age who having such a Configuration in his Geniture was so active and forward in his studies that the History of his Life saith he was created Master of Arts at Twenty Years of Age. Thus also the late Reverend Bishop of Durham Doctor Morton from the same Reason in his Nativity was learned betimes in comparison of many others as is recorded in the History of his Life So also the late Learned Doctor Hall Bishop of Norwich being born when Mars and Mercury were in Trine Aspect was known to be Master of as large and spreading intellectual abilities as any learned in the whole World Witness the several incomparable Pieces he wrote and left behind him in Print especially that
learned and pious Treatise entituled his Contemplations Thus likewise the most learned and acute Phylosophers Henry Cornelius Agrippa and John Baptist Morine c. whose noble Genitures shewed the same worthy configurations and who more nimble and fortunately forward in all kind of learning than they Infinite numbers more could I instance in who as these already mentioned with our Mr. Wing enjoying such excellent and beneficial rayes of the Stars have been as Comets in the Ages they lived and flourished in attracting the Eyes and Wonder of all Men towards them for their great and fortunate parts and performances but these few are sufficient By this we are instructed how God Almighty in his wisdome hath suited and proportioned all inferiour actions Persons and things to the motions and configurations of the Heavenly Bodies and how much it makes for the honour of his Majesty that all temporary productions are ordered and disposed of by this Coelestial Clork-work as it hath pleased him to appoint and ordain at the first From this happy reception of Mars and Mercury together with the Moon 's configurations with them of which before you have heard It is observable That Mr. Wing was not only capable of knowledge and understanding c. but was therein very communicative and diffusive He hated to hide his Talent in a Napkin or covetously to cloyster up that Science which He so happily above many thousands of others had attained unto and was blessed with all He was freely willing and ready to impart any thing let it be never so curious and choice a secret to any ingenious Person or Son of Vrania and hath often publickly professed that it was his great discontent and trouble if at any time in his writings he thought he had not been plain even to the meanest or most ordinary or costive understanding And to go a little further in this Argument these configurations did not only give him a great love unto and a delight in knowledge but a strength of mind and ability of Body for the same Thus was he fitted for travelling thorow the most crooked and crucifying parts of Astronomy c. As those of the restoring the most hard to be found places of the two most Critical Planets in the Heavens Mars and Mercury He had in all respects an active Geniture and accordingly hated slothfulness and idleness with a perfect hatred accounting it a shame and error for any Man to foster or cherish such contemptible issue or to think that he was created or brought forth into the World for so despised and inglorious an end And was therefore so frugal of his time like the Thuscan Philosophers that thought the loss of a Day irreparable as not only not to mis-employ or mispend any the smallest part or portion thereof after he was of capable and understanding Years but very prudently and advantagiously to improve every little Minute making his Books his recreations and his severer and wasting studies his Pleasures If he were of any thing covetous it was of knowledge being indeed scarcely ever satisfied therewith making it his business to frequent the Company of the most learned and excellent Men when he came to London at any time and so to spend his time whereas others generally turn such journeys into pleasure and recreation And truly so did Mr. Wing too For such converse was his soul-satisfying delight his Mind being principally placed upon such a felicity Thus did Mr. Wing constantly both abroad and at home labour after the discovery of the most mysterious things in Astrologie Geometry Algebra Trigonometry and all other parts of Mathematical Learning But Mr. Wing did not labour after this toylsome manner Churl-like only to satisfie and please himself but to profit and advantage others And to this purpose after his many years painful labours and a consuming of himself in study and business he hath published to the World these several Books following 1. His Vrania Practica or Practical Astronomy 2. Harmonicon Coeleste or the Harmony of the Visible World 3. Astronomia Instaurata in four parts 4. Ephemerides of the Coelestial motions for 20. Years with an excellent Introduction to the knowledge of all Mundane Alterations 5. An ingenious Treatise of Surveying 6. Examen Astronomiae Carolinae in his own Defence 7. Astronomia Britannica written in Latine now in the Press and almost ready to be published 8. Computatio Catholica an excellent Treatise now almost also ready to be published Besides his Annual Labours which always tended to the utility of the ingenious Astrologers and Mathematicians In which Pieces of Astronomy he hath most facilely solved the not very easily solved Phaenomena of the Heavens and so plainly proved the motion of the Earth to be an apparent Physical truth that the very Soul of Copernicus the first Inventer of that Opinion as to this later part of the World by a happy Metempsychosis seems to have enlightned Him to the Demonstration thereof and this by such unerring Axioms and most conspicuous verities that the long embraced contrary Opinions with all the insoluble systems thereunto belonging are quite out of Doors and scarce so much as thought of now much less with pristine earnestness defended by any of the most able Astronomers of this Age. So that had the unfortunate Bishop of Ratis bone but lived in our more transparent and knowing times he had never dyed a Martyr for so sure and sound a Truth Nay had Saint Augustine been contemporary with Mr. Wing his doubt about Antipodes had been fully resolv'd May we not now without vanity aver that He was the Restorer of Astronomy to this later Age And not only so but that he was so happy in his attempts of that kind that he did nothing without success Nay I conceive I may without offence urge it since others far more competent Judges of his surpassing abilities than my self have done it before me That Mr. Wing hath performed more in and toward the rectification and perfection of the Coelestial Motions than all the ingenious Mathematical heads in both Vniversities have of late Years done and for the same was honoured and had in eminent esteem with most of the best learned in this our British Nation Among the many observables in Mr. Wing this we may not omit in his Praise and to his Eternal Honour let it be remembred That He was always a Loyal Person and good Subject and in the worst of times when it was esteemed a Crime to be obedient to a lawful Prince and Sovereign and so much the fashion to be Anarchical and Rebellious Mr. Wing was so conscientiously just as always to own his Allegiance accounting it far better to perform a vow made to God on the behalf of his Prince than nimbly and unchristianly to swallow Perjury a Sin the very Heathen would disdain and protest against and although the times he was necessitated to live in afforded him many great and
unhappy examples to that unloyal and ungodly purpose yet he still continued his integrity and duty as well knowing that Treason against our Sovereign is equal to Sacrilege against our Saviour Indeed Mr. Wing had not only a just and Loyal Heart but a good and Loyal Nativity to shew and to signify it There was when he was born in the Heavens a happy Trine between the Lady of the Ascendent and Governess of the Medium Caeli We know it is as Natural for some Persons to be repugnant and opposite to Government and to their Prince or Governor as for some Children or Servants to be disobedient or rebellious to their Parents or Masters The reason whereof is perhaps a secret in Astrologie and scarce known to the best of Artists It may be worthy thanks to divulge it and it is this That as the gentle and amicable Rayes between the Lords of the Medium Caeli and Horoscope make loyal and dutiful Persons or Subjects so their unfriendly beames to each other create Rebels Incendiaries and unloyal Persons The ingenious Genethliacal Astrologer may spare me the trouble of Instances he can easily prove the truth hereof himself Albeit Mr. Wing was a Man of such admirable parts as you have heard yet he was the least admirer of his own abilities of any Man in the World but still industrious to improve them His desire was so strong after study that he even neglected himself for it's sake and for the great contentment he took therein And though his attainments were great yet was he known more to lament and bemoan his defects and imperfections than any way to boast of his skill He was no way Ostentatious but on the contrary very humble and had nothing of the Pharisaical temper or humour but like the Laden Ear in Harvest still bent his head downward and with the Peacock more often look'd upon his Feet than his Plumes being ever observed in all company to give unto others the precedence or right hand which perhaps did not inherit the hundreth part of his understanding and knowledge But now although he was of so self-denying a temper and disposition and never apt to begin quarrels or contentions with any Man yet hath it been his fortune against his inclination to be engaged in differences he having been by some ambitious and troublesome Persons publickly abused in Print by two especially who have after their heaping upon him undeserved reproaches in an impudent and shameless manner made use of his works to dress and furnish out their own and this without crying Peccavi or seeking of a reconciliation from him To signifie which hard measure from his unexpected as well as undeserved Antagonists he hath in his Nativity Mars an angry Planet Lord of his Seventh House posited in Virgo Retrograde in the Twelfth Angle which hath signification of scandal and detraction c. And the Moon Cum cauda Draconis and in Quadrate of Mercury in the Seventh House a place denoting publick Adversaries strifes and contentions c. apt and proper Arguments hereof as any Astrologer must needs understand and acknowledge More plain and speaking testimonies of the Malice of Enemies cannot in any Nativity be found as if Mr. Wing had been born into the World on purpose in matters of controversie to encounter Men of brutish Principles and Conditions Howbeit it is eminently known that Mr. Wing was of courage sufficient and capable for to resent an injury and would upon any good occasion be so just to himself and to the truths that the World was made partaker of by his happy Pen and Pains as to give his Enemies to understand he did not wear his Soul without him Who ever did that had the grand significators of his Nativity strong but could easily vindicate himself from their causless cavils and scomma's and their want of ingenuity and charity towards him And when beyond reason provoked he did accordingly with a spirit of soberness reply unto those his Antagonists who were so bold and daring to attempt the lessening of his unblemish'd Fame and Reputation to do that which was indeed impossible and therefore I spare their Names make way thereby for the advancement of their own He also hath the Virgins Spike ascending and the Moon with the Stars of Apollo and could not from thence but have a great Spirit and be readily apprehensive though not revengeful of injuries And would therefore in cases of difference only endeavour to acquit himself but not calumniate his adversaries And therefore we may say of him as it was of another in a like case Non silet silet He might be said to be silent and passive toward his Enemies in respect of revenge but not in regard of reproof And surely herein he is no more to be ceusured than the harmless Worm for turning again when it is most churlishly and injuriously trod on Nor was Mr. Wing singular or alone in partaking of the malice of Enemies or of being unworthily traduced Mr. Wing's Saviour who had the same Ascendent with him was so served before him The brightest Sun attracts the basest and most envious exhalations The great Hippocrates had a Thessalus to oppose him and Divine Homer met with a Momus and Zoilus And we know that there are as many Nebulous and Cloudy-Starrs in the English Sphear as there be Glorious and Shineing ones No Truth in Heaven or Earth but hath its Anti-truth No Day without its Shadow or Diamond that wants it foyl Never was any Person famous for any thing yet but as he met with Favourites so he found Detractors And what excellency can we name or think of that hath been free from opposition or interruption And therefore it is no wonder that a man so popular as Mr. Wing hath met with his Share of affronts and abuses it should rather have been Recorded a Miracle for him to have missed them But Mr. Wing was too great a Philosopher and too good an Astrologer to be concerned or troubled at such vanities It was a satisfaction to him sufficient to know that he had justly and fairely demonstrated and advanced the Truth of what he Studied and therein discharged a good mind And he having met with the approbation and thanks of the most judicious and knowing for his great pains and industry looked upon the ignorant and false attempts of his adversaries to be too sinâ—enâ—less to impare his worth and their hatred too imbecil and truthless to torment or discompose him He appeared first upon the Theatre of the world in the two and twentieth year current of his Age beginning then to Write and Print his Annual Books or Almanacks and as a fit direction for the favouring of such a purpose the Sun then came ad Sextilem Veneris in Tauro She being Governess of his Ascendent and one of the Almutens of his Geniture and the Sun the Grand Patron of publick Fame and Glory located in Septimâ Domo
the great Angle of business and action And that which is as remarkable together with so favouring a Direction he had a very auspicious Revolution for that year as you may behold by the following Scheam thereof Revolutio Solis ad punctum Radicis 1640. ☿ April 8◠7h. 58′ P. M. ☽ â vac ad □ ♃ ⚹ ☉ ♄ In this Coelestial Figure you see the Lords of the Horoscope and Medium Coeli are in their sublimities or exaltations and in a short quadrate to each other equivalent to a Sextile and the one of them in Trine to the Mid-heaven and the other casts the same Aspect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or eleventh Angle and Royal fixed Stars prime Cusps of the Scheam The Lady of the Ascendent at birth as there is Almuten of this Revolution and herein returned to her Radical place casting a friendly Sextile to Mercury the Patron of Learning and Books in the Seaventh House and a Trine to the Nineth and Ascendent It is in all respects a most admirable position of Heaven and most properly agreeth unto the happy and immortal effects of this Natives Pen. Indeed Mr. Wings writings found a most excellent welcome into the World among all sorts of ingenious persons even so great and happy an one that at length in that year wherein Fifty Thousand of his Almanacks have not sold or gone off the Company of Stationers as I have been credibly informed had esteemed it but a year of an indifferent sale So universally spreading was this persons Fame he beginning to write under so happy and Favourable a Revolution and direction And these his Annual Books or Almanacks he continued twenty eight years together thereby making an addition to his former Reputation but never growing less or loosing of any his once purchased Honour He still gained ground but never lost any and not only his Almanacks but his other more laborious writings also met with a very happy entertainment and success So that in Truth all persons that have Printed and sold his works as well as those that have bought and read them are Debtors to his memory and pains And the Book-seller and Printer as well as the Astronomer must mourn the unhappy loss of Mr. Wing But now Mr. Wing was not only a good man and singular good Artist but he was a kind and loving Neighbour and for his temperate and sober behaviour and demeanor was infinitely beloved of all those he lived among as well of the more Rustical and unpolished sort of people which generally look upon Astrologers as Conjurers and Mathematicians as Mad-men as of those of the best quality and breeding obliging the latter by his Ingenuity and Industry in Science and the former by his Humility and readiness at all times to do them good So that the meaner sort of people were always ready to serve him and the better sort of Persons to assist and encourage him in any of his Studious attempts He was a Serious Cordial Friend and hard to be removed in affection when once he had settled it upon any man and when he was necessitated to be an Enemy being naturally so great a lover of Peace and Friendship it was as great a trouble to him as the knowledge of Letters was pretended to be to a Noble Roman when he came to signe the death of any Offendor In his greatest provocations and from the very worst of his Enemies as I am informed he would admit of a Reconcilement upon the easiest terms imaginable he ever loved to preserve Amity and Friendship and to crush or banish Enmity and Hatred He was likewise known to be a most careful and loving Husband and a Kind and Indulgent Father as appeared both in the Prudent government of his Family in his Life-time and by his disposeing and ordering of things at his Death for the good of his Relict and Children that they might not after his Decease turn Wolves and Tygers each to other as in too many very good Families for want of such care and foresight it is God knows too frequently seen and when past remedy too vainly lamented Lastly Mr. Wing was a man so naturally made for Action and so much abominating Remisseness and Dulness that to follow his employments he often hazzarded his much to be prized Health he having for near thirty years together been constantly upon business riding early and late in all kinds of weather wayes and seasons which sine Dubio was the propinquate cause at length of a very great Hoarsness which began to seize him violently in the beginning of the forty-nineth year of his Age it being a year Climacterical which Hoarsness was after some interval of time attended with a Consumption and Catarrhe whereof in the moneth of September 1668. and the twentieth day thereof when the Moon was in an opposition of Saturn he ended all his Tedious Labours and Travels with this his Terrestrial Pilgrimage And so receiving an exchange to a better Life is now at Rest with God Behold how the Heavens were posited in the Revolution of the Year of his Death as you may see in the following Sceam ☉ ad Rudicem pro Anno Mortis 1668. April 8d. 7h. P. M. ☽ â ⚹ ♃ ad ☉ Herein you see the Lord of the Ascendent and Lord of the Eighth House are applying to a Conjunction and this upon the Cuspe of the Eighth House in the Radix and not only so but they are both of them in a hateful opposition of Mars and in Quadrate Aspect of Saturn and the Lady of the Ascendent in the Radix is in this Figure returned to the place of Saturn and Oculus Tauri who were radically placed in the House of Death Saturn also is by Direction as well as Position promittor of Death in this Nativity All which are as so many Trumpetters of this Natives approaching Fate which he instead of being daunted at welcomed with a great deal of Chearfulness even to the very last And indeed no man that hath lived well and uprightly done good in his Generation as Mr. Wing had done need be affraid of Death or of the knowledge of the time thereof It was a Blessing that Holy David prayed for and that St. Paul desired And although it may be the Sinful mans Terror and Torture to know it it is the Just mans Joy The Direction that Cut off Life was the Sun to the Body of Saturn viz. the meeting of the Hylech and Anareta in an Anaretical place thus proved 0 1. Longitudo Solis ♈ 29. 18. Descensio Obliqua 41. 27. Longit. Saturni ♊ 6. 24. Latit Saturni merid 1. 51. Declinatio Supra terram 19. 38. Ascensio Recta Saturni 64. 51. Differentia Ascentionalis 26. 9. Descensio Obliqua Saturni 91. 0. Arcus Directionis 49. 33. If the Learned Ptolomy may be credited as indeed why should he not if he speak truth when he sayes Aphor. 37. That those persons who have Libra