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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	blood_n	matter_n	part_n	1,493	5	4.5242	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42469	Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words, Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signes of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them, Jer. 10. 2 against the scurrilous aspersions of that grand imposter Mr. William Lillie : as also against the various expositions of two of his advocates, Mr. John Swan, and another by him cited, but not named : together with the annotations themselvs : wherein the pretended grounds of judiciary astrologie, and the Scripture-proofes produced for it are discussed and refuted.; Vindication of the annotations by him published	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1653 (1653)	Wing G330; ESTC R7339	172,651	208

them as if there were no way to escape them To which purpose is also added that the Chaldean Astrologers held that such things came to passe by a kind of fatality which ours do not and Osiander therefore sayes that Astrological Predictions are not to be condemned if they be esteemed but as conjectures not as certain Prophecies But first are these things the les to be feared of Gods People because God hath an hand in them and they come by his appointment for ar they not tokens then of his wrath and doth he not then by them preach as much to the Sonnes of men and more specially to his people It is most tru that Augustine wel observes that Signa verba visibilia verba signa avdibilia Signs ar as wel visible words as words audible signs and unto signs therefore is a Voice ascribed Exod. 4.8 and by the rod is God said to speak as wel as by the word to the understandings of those that are spiritually wise Mic. 6.9 Jer. 9.12 When the Lion roares who feors not saith Amos c. 3.8 and shal God then roar from heaven Amos. 1.2 and men not fear yea not exceedingly fear end be dismaied here on earth Psal 76.8 Yea but Gods people must not fear so much tho others so do And do we not find it in Gods Book made a note of Gods children such as fear God and even tremble at his word Ezr. 10.3 Esay 66 2. The difference is very observable noted in Jehoiakims time between the Princes of Juda that were not yet so obstinate in evil and the King with his Courtiers wholy abandoned thereunto upon the reading of those dreadful denunciations by Jeremie delivered and compiled by Baruc penned and published in the hearing of either it is said of the former they were afraid as wel the one as the other as wel the better as the wors sort of them Jer. 36.16 but of the latter t is related that they were not afraid nor did rent their garments as was expected they should have done vers 24. And its tru therefore that Bernard saith Soli filii irae iram non timent It s a note of a child of wrath not to fear Gods wrath not to stand in aw of his Fathers Rod not to tremble when he hears his Father threaten as by these signs these men say he doth or when he seeth him about to take the rod in his hand ready therewith to lay about him Yea the truth is when judgements ar by God or from God denounced and threatned they usually fear most that have least cause to fear When God threatned by a deluge to drown the whole world it is said Noah feared who was to be saved Heb. 11.7 but likely it is as one of the Ancients saith that the wicked of the world who were thereby to be destroyed scoffed at him and his sonnes that laboured with him in the building of the Ark noted as an effect of his faith and fear imagining and it may be telling them to their faces that they should sooner come to see them by toiling so drownd in their own sweat then they to see them drownd in such a deluge as they feared David a man after Gods own heart 1. Sam. 13.14 says to God of himself When thou takest away the wicked of the world like dros tho I love thy testimonies yet my flesh trembles for dread of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements Psal 119.119.120 I might ad religious Josias his vest rent and heart qailed at the hearing onely of the menaces out of Gods Book therein recorded by Moses 2. King 22.11 19. But I shall with a lively representation of a dread accompanied with a strange consternation of spirit as by the symptomes of it may appeer close up this passage Upon a dreadful Vision of future events represented to the Prophet Habakkuk when I heard it saith he My bellie qaked my lips qiverd rottennes seized upon my bones and I trembled as if the ground had shooke under me Hab. 3.16 Was not this think we a dismaying fear or was it not such as might well have ben expressed by the word used here in the Text Yet neither is the Prophet reproved for this his so great fear nor can any man justly be condemned if on the like occasion he be so affected as he was Nor is such a measure or manner of fear inconsistent with a firme constant relieng upon God for a never fayling stay and a gratious issu nor doth necessarilie implie or import a diffidence and distrust of Gods providence or promises concerning such succor and safetie or such protection and provision as God hath by his Word engaged himself for unto those that be his as in Habakkuk by his own sincere and ample profession there subjoyned it doth evidently appeer Vers 18. Neither therefore doth the term here used infer any necessitie of diffidence and distrust Nor ar the places fitlie produced as parallel to this so taken as themselves would expound it wherein Gods people are incited not to fear death when they are called to give testimonie to Gods cause and to seal the truth of it with their blood Matth. 10.28 There is a vast difference between death threatned by man for our sticking close to God and death denounced by God for our slipping aside from God in whole or in part there is matter of worth valor grace honor joy and gloriation in the one 2. Thes 1.5 Rev. 12.11 Phil. 1.29 Act. 5.41 Phil. 2.17 Rom. 5.3 matter of wrath disgrace shame grief horror and confusion of face and spirit in the other 2. Sam. 24.1 1. Sam. 2.30 Psal 44.13 Ezr. 9.6 Jer. 9.1 and 4.29 Ezr. 9.15 Jer. 23.9 Dan. 9.7 8. David was afraid of the sword of the destroying Angel and it had ben an height of impietie far above the sin committed by him in numbring of the people not to have ben sorely afraid of it knowing whose sword it was and for what cause it was unsheathed 1. Chron. 21.16 30. Nor ar the signs foreshewing the neer approach of the last day Luk. 21.28 no more then such as gave assurance of the speedie ruine of Babylon Jer. 51.46 the ful redemption of Gods people depending upon the one as their temporal deliverance out of captivitie on the other to be paralleled with such signs as give warning of Gods wrath here to be executed upon people for their wicked cariages whether in way of vengeance and judgement or of correction and chastisement and that upon Gods people sometimes as wel as upon others Amos. 3.2 yea even upon good and bad together Ezek. 21.3 It s no reason therefore to imagine that God should forbid his people to be affrighted with such signs of Heaven as do from Heaven denounce such dismal judgements ready to be inflicted upon people for their sins Yea t is rather to be expected as a thing justly reqired that if nations more remote from God as wel in

a close and gloomy day they would come abroad and be frisking upon the lawn as presaging that winter was in a manner gone and litle hard weather behind and that this had also ben observed by his Father before him as also by other Keepers as wel as himself Now when I perceived this his relation to take with some of the company and one among the rest had past his verdict that there might be somewhat in it conceiving it no fit cours to debate any further by way of argumentation in the businesse I thought better as Socrates sometime dealing with the Sophisters of his time to move a qestion onely to the Keeper tho Mr. Lilie tax me for that cours and would have puzzeling qestions debarred from these disputes I demanded therefore of him which Candlemas it was the Popish o● ours which are tenne dayes asunder on which the Deer were so disposed and he answering ours for he knew no other I inferred thereupon that that would then afford a good argument to prov not theirs but ours to be the right Candlemas day for that the Deer went not by any Kalender but by instinct It was soon perceived what the Demand and Inference aymed at and the businesse was instantly at an end But what frivolous fopperies will not pass for currant if tales and stories of occurrencies may be admitted for good proof Again neither is Mr. Swan able to make good what he here avows and the contrary also to what he affirms hath by others been averred as formerly I have shewed Tho to shift off that they have devised another trick by telling us that those Events need not follow them close at the heels they may come a year or two after when they shall please to assign them that endued them with this facultie and gave them this power and so come they earlier or later from them they proceed But lastly it followeth not such and such things came after them and therefore were either portended by them or proceeded from them When as by other causes they either might be or apparently were produced whereof more when we shall come to Pericles and the Solar Eclipse in his time To conclude as Tully saith of a Philosopher so say I of a Divine It is not a Divines part to ground a truth especially in matter of faith upon the testimony of such witnesses as may by peradventure speak true or through faltinesse fain and fail by reasons and arguments matters must be proved not by events such especially as any thing almost may be made good by and with that of the Lord Howard in his Discours of Blind Prophesies Vntil a man can as wel produce a certain reason to make his guesses good as score up a register of blind events we may rather commend his luck then his learning But we shall have a Testimony beyond all exception and that arguing not à posteriore from the Events but à priore from the first cause and ground of this use and office of the Stars for the Scripture saith Mr. Swan doth not speak in vain when it saith concerning the Sun Moon and Stars Let them be for signes as wel as for seasons dayes and yeers Gen. 1.14 I will not stand long to qarel with Mr. Swan about his rendring of the Text thus Let them be for signs as well as for seasons dayes and years The words are precisely Let them be for signs and for set seasons and for daies and yeers Nor will I pres the version of Junius and Tremellius who render it Sint in signa tempestatibus diebus annis Let them be for signs both for seasons and for dayes and years tho the version be not improbable such use of the copulative that it reqires being very freqent in Scripture as Esay 4.6 from storm and from rain that is from a storm of rain on which place see more instances of the like So Matth. 3.11 He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire that is as most Interpreters with the Holy Ghost like unto fire of which yet more else where not as Mr. Swan here as well with the H.G. as with fire So certainly John 3.5 Vnlesse a man be bred of water and the Spirit that is of the Spirit in Baptism by water represented nor dare I say whatsoever Mr. Swan may as wel of water as of the Spirit Now this their version admitted and it may be doubted whether Mr. Swan can refel it it will clearly sweep away all those his superstructures of such and such either Events or Effects that are founded thereupon But we wil admit Mr Swans Version without further debate Take we the Text as he renders it will it thence follow that the Scripture should speak in vain when it saith of the Sun Moon and Stars Let them be for signs unles the great Eclipses and Conjunctions had alwayes sad Events for upon that account is this inferred by him Pag. 19. Yea but saith Mr. Swan they could not be signs to us here below and to whom else unlesse to us If they signified foreshewed or spake nothing to us by their motions configurations risings settings aspects occultations eclipses conjunctions and the like And this he sets on to put the more strength into it by a qeint nicetie from Psal 19.1 3. wherein he so much pleased himself that he repeateth it again Pag. 23. For in the right consideration of that Psalm saith he there is a double speaking to be observed the one for God in the first Verse the other to men at the third V. that is as where in the second cours it is served us in again to Astrologers for this latter language is Astrologie not the former as before you heard from him But first is not this enough to make them signs not in vain but truly and deservedly so termed if they signifie and declare unto us the might majestie glory wisedome and excellency of that God that made them and setled them in that transcendently admirable constant state order course and entercourse for the benefit of the creature here beneath wherein to this day they continue but of this further also hereafter 2. What reason can be rendred why the Voice spoken of in the third Verse should not be the same that was generally propounded in the first Verse illustrated more particularly by one speciall branch of it in the second Verse and the vast extent of it in the third 3. As himself reasoneth If they be signes then they signifie and speak somewhat and to whom but to us So here if they speak for God they speak to some body for him and if to any to whom but to us whom God saith Mr. Swan hath given a loftie countenance to look up unto them And if to us why not to mankind in general or why to Astrologers onely Or lastly ar there such Wizards as our Astrologers in all parts of the world for they are

fore knowledge or wel-grounded rules of art yet being observed to have faln out so in some Eclipses that have ben regarded that is reckoned to have proceeded from the Eclipse that was no more thereof guilty then the Man in the Moon or the thorns at his back whereas tho never so oft it fall out otherwise there is litle notice thereof taken and a multitude of Eclipses passe away as in this regard they all wel may without any regard at all If after this or the like Eclipse therefore any strange judgment should ensu any unusual malady grow rife among us or other dismal event befal us a vain thing t were to ascribe it to the Eclipses or defections of the Lights in the skie that cannot be shewed in the nature thereof to portend any such event or to produce any such effect Wel may we do rather to call to mind and consider in such cases what he sometime said Morbos novos novi peperere mores and Morbos multos fercula multa fecerunt that New fangled devices bred many new diseases and Variety of diseases sprang from variety of dishes implying that the excesse and riot of the times were the main cause of many unusual maladies and strange diseases that had not formerly ben so much known or so rife in those parts And surely if we shal in these dayes look into mens minds or cast an ey upon mens lives and consider what variety of new and strange conceits tending to impiety and prophanenes to loosnes and licentiousnes ar rife in the one and what an height of rancknes those wicked weeds springing up amain from such cursed seeds are shot up unto in the other and that accompanied with such a shameful degree of shamelesnes that they do no more now as in former times skulk in the dark but dare open faced without mask or veil stalk in the streets qasi pudeat non esse impudentes as he sometime said as if people were grown ashamed of nothing save to seem ashamed of any thing we may with much better ground both from Reason and Religion then any these Wizards give for their assertions herein deem the procuring and producing cause of such evils to consist not in defectibus deliquiis as they term them in the defect of the light in those glorious Luminaries above our heds in the heavens as this Fortune-teller and his complices do but in the abundance of defection from God and goodnesse in mens hearts and the boundles deluge of delinqencie in all manner of impiety and impurity and that joyned with impunity matter of dreadful and direful presage indeed overflowing in mens lives that may justly seem to wrest and wring judgment out of Gods hand lest by his longer forbearance he should wrong himself and give wicked wretches occasion to think him to be like themselvs and to like wel enugh of their detestable practises and abominable designs But to what purpose doth this man talk to us of Antiqitie and of Hali and Ptolomee and Plotinus and Proclus and Albumazar and Baranzanus or of Rigel Origan Cardan Leovitius Dafypodius c. or of long experience of former ages when as he vaunts of himself as Lucretius sometime with alteration of a word Avia Signorum peragro loca nullius ante Trita Solo. Amids the Signs of Heaven I trace a way That no foot trode before me to this day So he professeth and glorieth that he walks in those uncouth paths that no former Autor had troden in and makes his brags that he hath begun a new manner of Astrologie either not known to the Ancients or omitted in their writings And how can any of those Autors be they of never so great Autoritie either ancienter or of later times attest unto him or he receiv any confirmation of his Assertions from them that are wholy silent of and not unjustly therefore hence deemed by him if it be so as he affirms it to be utterly unacqainted with the way that he walks in unlesse they should speak by way of Prophecie of his new manner of Astrologie as Alabaster saith that Salomon did of that new manner of Exposition of Scripture that should come to light in these latter dayes and was revealed unto him Or how could there be observations taken and experiments made by other before him of that which before him no man that appeers was privie to until either it was of late revealed unto him or else he stumbled into unawares Howbeit to stop all our mouthes as he thinks and make us keep our wind and pens for other purposes hereafter he tels us he hath Ficinus that excellent lerned Preist so he styles him and so they must needs all be that write ought in defence or favour of him or his art on his side one belike that had dreamed somewhat of his way before and the opinion of this man which what it is and how far forth M. L. therein either closeth with him or swarves for him hath already ben shewed he saith he esteems more then a thousand of our own Preists who blame Astrologie because it is above their capacitie We wil not stand to qestion Ficinus his excellent lerning he was no doubt of much lerning for the times he lived in Howbeit the lerned of these later times have esteemed his translations of Plato but barbarous peices and some of them have pronounced them to be no other then Plato turned out of his choise purple robes into course beggerly rags Nor doth M. L. speak much out of him which before ye heard and I forbear to speak what by others he is reported to affirm of the uncertainty of their predictions not having his books by me But let Ficinus be what Mr. L. pleaseth M. L. his Art it seems is a very profound Mysterie such an one as our English Preists shalow capacitie is not able to comprehend and he closeth up therefore his Discourse concerning the Effects of this Solar Eclipse and his predictions thereof with this Motto Qi potest capere capiat nor is it marvel that his Astrologie should so far transcend their scanty comprehension when as you have heard before it consists of such new notions and strange conceptions as the former Masters and Professers of this Mysterious Art were altogether unacqainted withal And a Mysterie be it but sure enough not that Mysterium pietatis that Mysterie of piety or godlinesse that the Apostle speaks of 1 Tim. 3.16 rather Mysterium impietatis a Mysterie of impiety or ungodlinesse or Mysterium iniqitatis a Mysterie of iniqitie and wickednesse as the same Apostle elswhere consisting of lying signs and wonders tending to deceiv and delude people and by strong delusions to seduce them from the truth and induce them to beleiv lies 2 Thess 2.7 9 11. Such a Mysterie as the scarlet whore carried in her forehed the Mother of fornications and witcheries wherewith she bewitched and infatuated the

way to insert the judgement herein of a great and eminent Astronomer or Astrologer call him whether of the two you please John Kepler the Emperors Mathematician in his Treatise of a New Star discovered in the Foot of the Serpentarie Chap. 14. hath this passage Most kinds of Divination among the Heathen were botomed upon this foundation that by Dreams by the entrails of beasts slain for sacrifice by the occurrences of some creatures by monstrous births by thunder and lightning by tempestuous winds by extraordinarie inundations by earthqakes by celestial prodigies comets and the like the Gods were deemed to give men answers and the power and direction therefore of these creatures or occurrences whereby ought in that kind was signified was transcribed to those Gods who thereby were deemed to discover their mind to men But on the other side if it were made to appeer that the motion or apparition of creature or occurrence supposed to portend ought did proceed from a natural cause so as there was no suspition of a supernatural gubernation or direction they were freed from any further solicitude of mind and composed themselves to qietnes unles peradventure some natural connexion were found between the sign and the thing signified for disposal whereof there were no need of any free and reason-using cause From the neglect of this foundation sprung up a great part of Astrologie or superstitious divination from the Stars For when many strange signs had br●d a belief that the Gods did by such speak unto men unskilful persons began promiscuously to transcribe whatsoever came to pas in the Heavens unto the Gods free disposal and to make an omen of it especially if by the noveltie or raritie of it it did much amaze their eye-sight as the Eclipses of the Luminaries and the Conjunctions of manie Stares VVho if they had at first well weighed or duely considered that all these things ar brought about by a set Law or course of Nature then they would either have sought in Nature a connexion of these celestial occurrences with those events that ar wont to follow thereupon or if they could have found none they would not have fallen into this lightnes of belief But others proceed●d to worse matters from foolerie to impietie For when they saw that the motions of the stars depended on a natural necessitie they brought in a new device not that should freely conform and frame the motions of the celestial bodies but that should in an ex●mplary way make use of their motions in framing and administring humane affairs Hence came those many thousands of Star-spr●tes far beyond the number of Mr. Lillies seven Planetarie Angels which from Trithemius and Napeir he told us of and indeed why should not the rest of the Stars have their Rulers as well as the 7. Planets but m●re truly saith Kepler Legions of infernal Devils unto whom this execrable Magike falslie termed celestial taught men to offer certain sacrifices powr out certain prayers keep certain feasts light Tapers on certain Planetarie dayes and houres and wear garments of some peculiar colour By this means came at length to be averred the Devils themselves being their fellow workmen therein those most foolish and ridiculous Decrees of the Astrologers concerning the Houses and Dominations of the Planets It were expedient at length to grow wise again The first inventers of these trifles w●re not so unskilful as we blamed those before impietie brought in this skil But you Christian Astrologers ar verie children to them when letting goe the kernel ye hang about the shell when ye imbrace the body leaving the soul when without Magik ye exercise this foolish trifling Astrologie that makes use of the Planets houses alone I suppose he means without making use of those Inhabitants the Star-spirits which error I hope Mr. Lilly in his Novel way hath reformed well fare ye that can so wash a lether pilch that it shall ta●e in no moisture Thus he whome the rather I cite thus at large partly because his works are not so obvious and partly because he is one against whom that Exception will not hold that he blames and condemns Astrologie for want of capacitie to understand it or for ignorance therein as also because in this passage of his we have divers points hinted that may be of much use in our future discours and debate as 1. That things deemed to come besides the cours of nature were usually deemed ominous 2. That when known to come in a set cours as eclipses and conjunctions of Stars do they used not to trouble any understanding mans mind 3. That through want of skil or regard to distinguish between the one and the other men came to have promiscuously a like conceit of either and to deem Eclipses and conjunctions of Stars ominous 4. That some hence took occasion to draw people to impiety by making them believ that their were certain Spirits or inferiour Deities attending these Stars that did by them dispose and order humane affairs and t●ught them therefore to worship them the study whereof was termed celestial Magike 5. That hence sprang that foolish and ridiculous Astrology of telling mens Fortunes by the Planets and their houses And lastly that it is as fond a thing to imagine that any man can practise this kind of Astrology without some Magical superstition as it is to undertake to wash a lether pilch and not wet it Yea that there can be no use of the one for such ends and purposes as by them it is applyed unto unlesse the other also be admitted which is the very spirit and life of it But to return to Mr. Swan again wherein he and we agree here ye have heard to wit that they should not be afraid or dismaid at the signs of Heaven that is the Stars in regard of such evil and dismal presages as the Chaldean Astrologers from the Conjunctions Oppositions Motions of them c. endeavoured to posses their minds with Now the qestion is what the reason should be why the Prophet or God rather by the Prophet would not have his people to be affrighted and dismaid at the signs of Heaven And here Mr. Lilies two Advocates and we part For passing by the reason expressed in the Text they suggest us other reasons to ●ustle that out Not saith the one of them because they did not portend such sad matters or produce such sad and dismal effects Take that away and the very ground of their Art is clean gone that which they have from God on whome his people are taught to have their trust so firmly fixed that whatsoever disaster the Heavens in the cours of nature should at any time threaten unto them they ought not to fear it And saith the other The scope and drift is that they should not so stand in aw of them as the Heathen that looked no higher then the Firmament and not knowing the God of Israel that over-rules all so feared

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 whip● 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 av●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