his House while one third part of it is usurped by Jupiter another by Mars and the last by the Sun What shall I say of their Fines or Bounds which after the same manner leave the least part of the Houses to be possessed by the right owners of them when the Builders of them fall together by the ears here below about them as about some weighty and difficult matter in dispute What of their Monomaeria which some Astrologers cannot hold without laughing at themselves for it Is any thing more ridiculous than to appoint particular Signes to be Presidents over particular Provinces and Cities Indeed if the Heavens stood still there might be some slender pretence for the subjection of Countries to such Signes as were directly over them but since the Sphears are continually moving with what reason can that be imagined Especially since in the allotment the Dominions are not chosen according to parallels so that the places to be governed might be lookt upon with an equal aspect but as it were by leaping from distant Parallels and wholly confusedly toward the South and North neer remote coherent interrupted and however it chances without order I confess I cannot but smile to think how when they have assigned a whole Kingdome or Country to the soveraignty of some one Signe they yet referr particular Cities therein to the presidency of other Signes and such as are remote from the Signe first made Lord Paramont thereof Nor can I suppress the Rising of my spleen when I consider the dominion of the Signes over the several parts of Mans body For why should Aries be Governour of the Head rather then Gemini or Cancer that are the highest Signes of all Why should Pisces rule the feet of others when they have no feet themselves Why should Pisces that are next to Aries be appointed to preside over a part so remote from the Head Again nothing can be more wild and absurd than to constitute the Signes Lords of several Years as if they Ruled successively and the Government of one Signe being expired with the Year the Scepter were to be surrendred to the next successor at a sett time and then each Governor remain idle for the space of eleven Years together To conclude what shall we think of that poor refuge of our Astrologers when having observed that the Asterisms have removed themselves from their ancient places they transferr the virtues formerly attributed to the same to the 12. parts of the first moveable Heavens were not those virtues assigned at first formally and according to the conceived nature of each particular Asterisme Had the Heaven been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Star-less do you conceive that the Ancients would nevertheless have so named the twelve parts of the Zodiack as they did in respect of the Asterismes and have endowed them with the same virtues Nor can you say that their virtues were then observed when the Asterismes were each one in its proper twelfth part of the Zodiack and that those virtues were attributed to the Asterismes which of right belonged to the twelve parts of the Zodiack For since the Asterismes were in the twelve parts that beare their names only two thousand Years ago before that time the Asterisme of Aries was in the place of Pisces Leo in the place of Cancer and so of the rest and then no such thing could be Observed in the supposed moist parts of the Zodiack that would be agreeable to Fiery Asterismes by which they were possessed and from which the twelve parts that were afterward possessed by them were accounted and named Fiery And thus much in just derision of Astrologers conceipts of the 12. Signes CHAP. X. Their Attributes of the Planets destroyed AS for the supposed Nature and Virtues of the Planets however somthing in that kind might be from what we formerly granted inferred of the Su◠and Moon yet how we should come to determine the several natures of the other Five Planets I profess I am yet to learn In particular because Mars appeare◠reddish may we therefore conclude that he is a Burning scortching Planet Saturn because pale Is he therefore Cooling O this would be an admirable Consequence if a Carbuncle would but burn and Lime cool the hand that toucheth it As if all things that look reddish must of necessity be Fiery and all that look pale or whitish be Cold as Snow But it Mars be so scortching why are not we sensible of his heats in the middle of Winter and especially when he is Acronycal Why do we not feel the Cold of Saturn in the middest of Summer Is it because there are other more opportune times for us to experiment their virtues Or how can we distinguish and say that such a degree of heat doth proceed from Mars not from the Sun And such a degree of Cold from Saturn not from some other cause But let us grant that Mars is Hot and Saturn Cold and will it then follow that they are such Malefical and destructive Planets as that no Child is born whom they do not during their tyrannous influence invade with their poisoned darts Methinks it were more reasonable to beleeve that Mars doth comfort and cherish us with his heat and Saturn refresh us with his cooling influence The same may be said of Jupiter and Venus only it is somewhat more tollerable that Astrologers imagine them to be Good and Kindly Planets But oh that they would not run out into Extremes For when they come to this that nothing of good and happiness befalls man but by the dispensation and favour of these Planets is any thing imaginable more fabulous more prophane It is somwhat strange that extolling this unknown beneficence of these Planets they blush not in the mean time to be ungratefull to the Sun whose soveraigne benefits are dayly proclaimed through the whole World For Mercury I cannot much wonder his attributes are so few and uncertain considering he seldom renders himself conspicuous and so they cannot discern what sex he is of And here it is not worth the while to rehearse all their fooleries concerning the sexes of the Planets and other the like extravagances Only I would enquire how they come to know that the Planets in their own Houses have Five not Four Testimonies of Fortitude and in their Exiles Five not Four Testimonies of Debility Why have they in their Exaltations just Four not Five nor three And so of the rest Have they measured with an Ell or Weighed in the scales the forces of the Planets in each Place of the Zodiack that-they dare pretend to Calculate them so Exactly and according to the number of suffrages to determine the fates of Mortals and their affaires We might insist upon these particulars more expresly and especially upon the Fortitudes and debilities of Accidental Dignities But that no man who considers them can doubt that they are all gross and ridiculous Fictions meer arbitrary inventions having no ground either in Reason
or such an impression Again it is confessed that Heat doth arise from the Celestial rayes of light but it is no good consequence that therefore there is no Heat in the Earth but that which comes from those rayes Cold also ariseth from the absence of the Sun but it followes not that therefore there is no cause of Cold inherent in the Earth which may diffuse it selfe through the Air and over-power the weaker heat of the Sun Barrenness also and Epidemical Diseases arem any times induced by two much Cold or Heat or other affections of the Air but the Cause of those Affections arise from the very Earth and if they were not known nor the seasons of the year when they usually take their turns of Predominion in the Air could we divine by any Celestial inspection or how or when they would mis-affect us The Affections of the Air we confess work somthing not only upon the temper of the body but also upon the mind it selfe by the intercession of the temperament but the main buisiness is to be able to foreknow when the Air will be so or so qualified of what particular temper a man must be in order to his being moved and altered by such an affection upon what occasion he shall be at that time in such or such a place where the Air is so mis-affected neither of which I am sure can be learned from the Rules of Astrology Furthermore we deny not but a man may be according to his individual temperament more disposed to Love marriage and procreation of Children than to Continence Single life or barrenness but the Difficulty is how to fore-tell what his individual temperament will be and what occasions he shall meet with to induce him to love this or that Woman rather than any other in this or that year of his life rather than sooner or later and what inducements that Woman shall meet with either to accept or refuse him for her Husband and whether they shall have issue or not c Likewise a mans complexion may be such as to dispose him to Anger Quarrels and a Soldiers life but who can fore tell what occasions of Anger Quarreling or Fighting he shall meet with at such or such times of his life whether he shall hearken to the dictates of his own or friends prudence and decline the danger or not whether he shall be victor or not whether sickness imprisonment or other accidents shall hinder him from going to the Wars or not whether his wounds shall be in such a place or mortal or not Lastly we deny not but the Studies Successes Fates of Men are Various but the Riddle is how we should know that God hath suspended their Studies Successes and Fates upon the Stars and not rather upon other Causes which for the most part are easily known and as easily pointed out though we never know them till after the Events and so in respect of our ignorance may be said to work by chance or accident But in the Heavens we can find no such probable Causes for such Events and indeed it seems meer foolishness and unjustifiable rashness to suppose these petty affairs to be so important and considerable as that God should impose the care of them upon the Stars or that their Successes should depend upon none but such great and noble Causes Phavorinus apud Gellium judgeth it to be meer madness for us to imagine that because the Tides of the Sea agree with the course of the Moon therefore the trivial contention of a Man with his Neighbour about some smal Water-courss or some Bank lying in common betwixt them should be judged for or against him according to the state of the Moon when his suit was commenced as if that matter were predeter mined in Heaven and of absolute necessity so or so to succeed And thus we see how little reason They have to pretend Reason for their defence CHAP. XXI Their Pretence to Experience Vnjust WE are now at length come to their Last and strongest Hold Observation or Experience which they so frequently boast of and against which far be it from me to make any opposition if there be the least of truth in what they alleadge since against genuine and certain Experience no Reason can prevail But it was well said of that brave Prince of Physicians Hippocrates 1. Aphorism that Experience is Fallacious since so many things inter vene that may occasion mistake and make men run into a Paralogisme or accepting that for a Cause which really is none and since those Experiments are very rare which convince such an effect to arise from such a particular Cause and no other And therefore no man hath ever denied but Experience is to be weighed in the ballance of Reason least there should be some fallacy concealed that might prejudice our assent and so that strict examination ought to be made of all particulars and circumstances since nothing is more common in matters of Experiment than for unskilfull to be deceived themselves and for dishonest men to deceive others nor are we without great circumspection to yeeld our assent to all experiments especiall such as we rather hear of from others than see with our own eys And as for the matter in hand how many things are there that oblige us to question the truth of those Experiments which Astrologers obtrude upon the World as testimonies of the Certainty of their Art In the First place we have already seen that the Chaldeans performed nothing in this kind nor Hipparchus from either them or the Egyptians nor Ptolomie from all of them as to the point of observations relating to the true motions or true places of the Five Planets Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus Mercury Wherefore the Chaldeans were very far from eithet establishing the Fundamental statutes of the Art by their own Observations or proving that they made those statutes upon any considerable grounds at all Again whereas each single precept or Rule ought to have been constituted upon many experiments had of the certain variety thereof we have plainly seen that it was not possible for them ever to make the same experiment so much as only twice because the same position of the Heavens cannot return again not only after many hundreds but also many millions of years Further the Ancients were ignorant of all those notable discoveries that have been lately made aswell of the Fixt as Erratique Stars which would have required them to alter their Astrological decrees and chiefly those which concern the spots in the Sun which being frequently both more in number and greater in bulk than Mercury or Venus ever appeared ought to be presumed to have stronger operations upon the Earth than either of them being interposed betwixt the Sun and us or as they phrase it in the Heart of the Sun Besides should it be granted that the decrees of the Chaldeans were grounded upon and confirmed by Observations and that the discoveries lately made to
but also reproacheth it with the odious terms of vis maxima erroris and deliralis incredibilis the very quintessence of Error and a madness incredible adding withall non omnem errorem dicondum esse stultitiam most ingeniously intimating the Fraud aswell as folly of Divinatory Astrology in his 2. Books de Divinatione Furthermore it is likewise true that in the ancient Greek Poets Philosophers and other eminent Authors we read of various predictions from the Stars but these were very far different from the Art Astrological which the Chaldeans of old and our half-witted Astromancers now a dayes so much glory in For such Prognostications nothing at all concerned the Events of Human affairs to which Astrologers chiefly pretend but only the several mutations of the Air of Tempests of plenty or dear years and the like and these they deduced only from the various Risings and Settings of the Stars as may be proved out of Hippocrates lib. de aer aqu loc Plato in Epinom who speaks that particularly of Hesiod and some other old writers but not from the casting of Figures as the Vulgar phrase is or the laborious Erecting of Scheams so much used by our Astrologers and admired by the ignorant who address to them as to the oracles of Fate and the secretaries of Divinity It appears therefore that those Predictions recorded among the Ancient Grecians were not called Astrologicall but by the simple and modest appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presignifications or rather yet more simply Significations and this because the Stars according to the variety of their Risings and Settings do signify as well the several seasons of the year for Seed time for Harvest and for other works of Agriculture as the dayes on which the Husbandman may expect Rain Winds and other changes of Weather Nor was this observed only by the Grecians but familiar to most if not all other Nations as it is even with us frequent for such Country People as have no Kalenders and cannot read them if they had to observe certain Celestial Signes or Stars which as they either Rise in the Morning or Set in the Evening and as they are near unto or far from the Sun at its Rising or Setting declare at what seasons through the whole course of the Year such and such labours of Husbandry are most opportunely to be performed And yet I must confess the Grecians seem to have been more studious and exact than any other Nation not only in observing but also in digesting into Tables both upon what dayes of the Year such and such of the principal Stars usually arise and Set and those mutations of the Air or changes of Weather which did commonly succeed at such times and so may be signified by them accordingly I dare not affirm that they took occasion for this their exactness from that vast Golden Circle erected in Egypt and at last plundered by Cambyses which according to the account of Diodorus was a Cubit in thickness and three hundred sixty and five Cubits in compass with an inscription of each day in the Year on a particular Cubits space and the names and significations of those Stars that Rise or Set on each day respectively Yet certain I am of this that Geminus in Element Astron cap. 14. tels us that the Ancients usually made this Observation that taking the Signe and the degree of that Signe in which the Sun was in the beginning of the Year or first step of his annual progress and noteing afterward what changes of the Air or Weather did commonly fall out upon each day Week and Moneth they might at length referr that change to the places of the Sun through every Signe and degree thereof in the Zodiack His words are worthy the reading and therefore I shall faithfully recite them Id autem per plures annos observantes mutationes quae maxime arc a Zodiaci signa loca contingerent conscripserunt in Fabulis non ex arte aliqua neque ex certa methodo describentes sed ab Experientia id quod prope verum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congrueret sumentes And of these Observations were framed Tables such as the Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some whereof are extant even at this day as particularly those of Geminus himself and of Ptolomy and those were collected out of the more antique ones of Democritus Metrodorus Dositheus Euctemon Meton Eudoxus Calippus Hipparchus Philippus Philemon Caesar and others For every one according to his curiosity of experimenting what changes of Weather dayly hapned in his Country composed a certain Diary of such changes and of many Diaries made Year after Year framed at last one great Parapegme or Table the Risings and Settings of the Stars and the affections of the Air observed most commonly to ensue immediately thereupon being expressly referred to each day respectively Hence some of the principal of these Parapegmes were so translated into Kalenders as that it is manifest Ovid would from thence illustrate his Fasti Tempora cum causis Latium digesta per annum Lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa canam And at this day our Vulgar Kalenders retain so much of the Ancient fashion as that in every month is inserted the precise time of the Suns ingress or entrance into the Signe proper thereto how many hours are in each day together with the image of Harvest Vintage and what is else the chief business of the Husbandman in each Month. Hence also were derived these General Precepts of Good Husbandry which are delivered in elegant verse by Hesiod among the Greeks and by Virgil among the Latines in imitation of him in his Georgicks CHAP. IV. That the Risings and Settings of the Stars are not the Causes but only Signes of Tempests and Mutations hapning in the Air contrary to the Vulgar opinion THat this was the Tenent of Epicurus and most other of the more sage and orthodox Philosophers among the Ancients is sufficiently inferrible from the very modesty of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significationes as was afore intimated which they generally used as most proper to express this notion Besides as for the General Cause of Seasons and aereal mutations they referred them for the most part to the Sun allowing nevertheless some activity in the Moon together with inferior causes towards the production of Cold Wind Rain and the like changes of Weather but the Stars both fixt and erratique they accounted no other then meer Signes of those particular times wherein the Sun and other Causes do usually concurr to the generation of Heat Rain Winds and the like mutations in the Air. That Epicurus was of this opinion is plain from his text in the 10. Book of Diogenes Laertius the sence whereof is this That whereas the Risings and Settings of the Stars according to the course of the Year do signify the various mutations of the temper of the Air proper to each of the four seasons in this they do no
the particular condition and nature of the Countries themselves The Ancients I am sure chose to ascribe it to the different Soyls and situation of Countries and thereupon they thought fit to compose particular Tables for particular Regions and those too made up of many Years Observations conferred together because no General ones could serve the turn Hereupon also they conclude that the Tables of the Egyptians could be of use at the most only to those Nations who lived in the same Parallel or Climate and had but 14. hours day at the longest that those of Dofitheus and Phillippus might be usefull to such Nations who had 14. hours and an half of day those of Democritus and Cesar and Hipparchus to such who had 15. hours of day those of Callippus Eudoxus Meton Euctemon Metrodorus and Conon to such who Inhabite intermediate Climates I add moreover that these Tables cannot be usefull not only to such as live in divers Parallels but even not to such as live in the same but more toward the East or toward the West since experience attesteth that there are divers mutations of the Air not only toward the South and North but also toward the East and West The Third That these Signes afford but light uncertain Conjectures at best For their signification is most uncertain even in respect of the same Country which yet would not be in case they were as well Germane Causes as Signes And since the most that can be justly said in this kind is that the Air is made hot in Summer cold in Winter and Temperate in the Spring and Autumn but no man can certainly foretell of what temper the Air will be in this or the next Year at the time the Dog-star doth arise or Arcturus set because it is manifest some Years even in the middest of Summer there fall out very Cold days and very warm ones in the midst of Winter and those days that chance to be very wett and tempestuous this Year may be dry and serene the next and because in one Year it is wett weather all the Summer and dry all the Winter some Years are very dry all along and others continually wett Therefore is it manifest that concerning the particular changes of weather at sett and punctual times no certain rules of prediction can be drawn from these Signes Hence we may come to understand that those Tables do indeed contain what their Authors observed to have hapened in those Years during which they addicted themselves to make and record their Observations but yet cannot be extended to another series of Years in which perhaps there may be so great a difference as even to cross the former Tables in most things Which Geminus doubtless reflected upon when he so much commended Aratus for that conceiving the Signes of such changes to be fallacious as were taken from the Rising and Setting of the Stars he had recourse to others exhibited by nature such as are the Colours appearing in the Sun or Moon at their Rising or Setting the Circles about them called Halo's and Paraselenes and the like because these having their Causes and production in the Air hold some natural affinity and connexion with rain clear weather wind heat and other affections of the Air. Of this sort likewise are the motions observed in some Bruit Animals which as are sensible of so do they also prognosticate the changes of the Air both as they begin and encrease and this by running up and down by Drousiness by Bellowing by Crying making certain unwonted Noyses and the like according to that of the Poet Cana fulix it idem fugiens é gurgite ponti Nunciat honibiles clamans instare procellas Haud modicos tremulo fundens é pectore cantus c. CHAP. V. The Fundamental Maximes of Astrology examined THese considerations premised by way of Introduction let us now come up close to Astrology it self as distinct from Astronomy begining our Examination first at the General plants or fundamental positions thereof and then proceeding to the particular Praedictions thereof aswell concerning Changes of weather deduced from other Signes besides the Risings and Settings of the Stars as concerning the Fortunes of Men which Astrologers commonly deduce from their Genitures or Nativity Themes And these few things among innumerable others pertaining to this so promising Art will be sufficient to demonstrate the Vanity and Frauds of it The First general maxime whereby Astrologers endeavour to gain credit and reputation to their documents is what all men readily confess viz. that the Stars are not meer Signes but also natural Causes of very many effects as if Men were bound to admitt the same position for truth concerning other effects which they boast the divination of afore hand It is well known say they that inferiour natures are not subjected to superior in vain since they are so manifestly cherished moved and governed by them That the Sun is the Cause of Light and Heat and that by its access and recess annually it doth induce the series and vicissitude of seasons that it doth procreate plants and animals and in particular men according to that common saying Sol Homo generant Hominem that it doth extract vapours from the Earth which become the matter of Rain of Winds and the like That the Moon doth fill and empty all shell Fish the bones of animals the brains of Coneys and hath great power over all moyst bodies and especially the Sea whose Tides are conformed to her motion Lastly that there are certain Influences by which not only these two principal Luminaries but also the other lesser ones exercise their virtues upon sublunary bodies For since the Stars ought not to be conceived idle and ineffectual and that there are some certain Effects which cannot be referred to any other Causes but them as the Critical mutations of diseases and the inequallity of seasons c. And this is the sum of what our Astrologers alleage for support of their pretence and whereby they study to endear their Art and prepare the minds of men for the more smooth and easy admission of what they afterward impose with prodigious confidence And indeed what they urge concerning the Sun and Moon seems so plausible as yet even judicious men may at first diligently listen thereto and conceive some expectation that they would proceed to prove the rest of their suppositions with the like evidence not suspecting that upon such specious foundations they would soon fall to erect nothing but ridiculous Fables and wild absurdities But alas how far are they from making the members of their artificial body respondent to the Head of it For behold they have no sooner layd down this ground but they instantly run out to such superstructures which have no solidity nor strength from either Experience or Reason And indeed I cannot but wonder and blush when I observe the First writers of this Art Ptolomy Firmicus and Manilius after they have begun their discourses
will not happen precisely on the same day the next Year but sooner or later and therefore it is no wonder if it doth not prove wet weather the next Year upon the same dayes that it is wet weather this Year And what I say of wet and dry Weather may be applied also to all other changes of the Air since by the same reason the matter of Winds Hot or Cold as also of Thunder Hail Snow and the like is not prepared in a readiness in the same parts or places of the Earth at the same times one Year that they were another Which one would think to be a more probable Cause of the variety of weather both as to times and places than that imaginary variety of Astral influences which Astrologers so much cry up If this be so say Astrologers then these Mutations cannot be prenoted or predicted by any rules of Art I confess they cannot especially long before for otherwise there are those Signes by which I allow that we may fore-see and fore-tell great changes of weather when they are neer at hand What then Must Astrology noble and divine Astrology be vain and useless and be able to make no probable Conjectures at all concerning the precise times of these Changes Yea truly I think so nor need I say more to justify that my opinion than what I have said already in this Chapter But Were those Laws made in vain which allow of and tollerate the profession of Astrology in those matters that concern Agriculture Medicine and Navigation For those Laws I conceive they are to be lookt upon as many others which provide for the tolleration of lesser Evils in order to the prevention of Greater For because the Mind of Man being alwayes greedy of knowing things to come is easily carried away with those splendid perswasions that Astrologers have contrived to allure and inveigle it to a beleif of their Art therefore that they might a vert mens minds from a too curious and sollicitous investigation of future Contingents such as the Arbitrary actions of men fortuitous Events dangers calamities the day and manner of death and the like from the prediction of which mens private lives and the publike peace are commonly disturbed therefore I say was it that the wise Law-makers prohibiting this Fortune-telling part of Astrology permitted the use of the other concerning Weather-conjectures as that which might set bounds to and in some sort humour mans Curiosity and occasion less of disturbance both in private and publike And this Licence might in the mean time seem to the people to be the more reasonable and beneficial while it carried the pretext of some true observations of the Rising and Setting of the Stars in causing Winds or Rains of the Moon in the full or wane encreasing or decreasing her light for the most advantagious sowing of Seeds Setting Grassing removing of Plants and Trees letting of Blood Purging Venery Baths and the like of Tides of the Sea of the pale Moon commonly preceding Rain the red winds the white fair weather and the like Signes which though they do not belong to Judicial Astrology are yet commonly referred to it partly through the ignorance of the Multitude but mostly through the cunning and arrogance of Astrologers that so they might acquire the greater credit to their profession And hereupon we may see some Phisicians who pretending to have more profound knowledge in Celestial matters than is usually expected from others of the same profession think to acquire the reputation of Transcendent Artists by giving out that they will not undertake the cure of any sick person especially of great quality or Condition unless they have first made solemne inspection into his Nativity-scheam and erected another Scheam for the Year past another for the very instant of his falling ill and others for the times wherein each Symptome first invaded him when yet in troth either they do no such thing at all or if they do it is to no more purpose than if Themselves should dream that he would live or dy and all this is but a knavish trick to make men beleeve they are much wiser than really they are and the while they underhand consider the same prescrips and Aphorisms of Principal Physicians that the more modest more honest and more learned Practitioners of that Art inform and guide their judgements by Again what wonder is it if the Authors of those Laws made in favour of Astrologers being wholly taken up with matters of more importance to the state and perhaps somwhat touched with the infection of these cunning Impostors aswell as the rest of the people would not wholly interdict the profession of that pretended skill to which as men they did not deny their assent at least in part Nevertheless it was contrary to the intention of those Law makers that Astrologers should as they do wrest that Tolleration of only a part to the justification of the whole of Astrology For by what reason can they come to know the individual Complexion of a sick man by looking upon the Stars or Ephemerides how can they know the time vehemence duration period of his sickness or that the same will be short or long mortal or not mortal and all other things that are expressly forbidden by those Laws In a word if it be fit for any man to conclude the verity of Astrology from this Tolleration of it certainly it is much more fit for us to conclude the Falsity and Imposture of it from the frequent renewing of those Laws made against it And thus much in Confutation of that part of Astrology which concerneth the Prediction of Changes of Weather CHAP. XIV The Genethlical part of Astrology examined and exploded IT remains that we now survey that other part of Astrology called the Genethliacal or which from the inspection of the Genitures or Nativity Themes or as they are Vulgarly called Scheams of men doth institute Predictions of all the remarkable Events that befall them in their whole lives For though the most part of what hath been delivered by us in the precedent Chapters doth in some sort relate aswell to this Latter as to the Former part and so may easily be accommodated unto it yet there are some things peculiar hereto which require a peculiar consideration In the First place we are to remark that that man doth make but ill provision for the peace and quiet of his thoughts who doth but lend an eare to Astrological predictions though he fix not his mind upon them For though they are but vain and a man doth strive to confirm himself in the opinion that they are meer fopperies yet in respect of the common perswasion that there is somthing in them he shall find himself very prone to give some credit to them and so give some occasion of disquiet or other evil to himself For if the Astrologer shall have predicted his death instantly the thought thereof enters his mind causeth a troublesome apprehension
Nativity to be all above the Horizon then also the supposition might seem more tollerable but to make their virtues and efficacy all one whether they be above or under the the Earth this is most intollerable For since in the night time we feel no virtue of the Sun but what remains diffused through the Air the day before because his beams cannot pierce through the body of the Earth is there any reason we should beleeve that either the Sun or any other of the Planets when they are depressed under the Earth can so transmit their virtues upon an Insant entring the World as to destine all things belonging to him as effectually as if they were above the Earth and in a posture convenient for the direct transmission of their rayes upon the subject on which they are to operate The same also may be said of the virtue of those Planets which at that time are covered by the Sun or Moon Lastly If they would allow that the rayes of the Planets should be so received by the tender Infant as to operate according to his constitution derived from his Parents and so to be varied to the production of various and sometimes contrary effects then they might more justly expect our assent but to make the Planets to do all things to subject both a sickly and un-sound Infant and a lusty and strong one if born at the same instant and in the same City to one and the same influence and the same effects Is this to be endured by reason Nor can you think that they are able to allow any thing of this kind by distinguishing for if they should but say that the influence of the Planets were only general or that the least power of Concurrence or opposition were to be ascribed to the Complexion of the Infant then Farewell their whole Art For the persumed Certainty thereof doth so depend upon the Starrs as that it must be wholly destroyed in case any respect be had of the individual Constitution of the Patient as a special and determining Cause which for the most part is not understood and which is subject to infinite variety And you well preceive that Astrologers require only two things viz. The time of the Nativity and the Altitude of the Pole or Latitude of the Place and from these two alone they undertake to predict the Infants Fate most certainly most punctually And perhaps it might be granted that at the time when one is born the same doth befall him that doth when he issueth forth from the place in which he was cherished by a special heat into the cold Air or the Air affected with any other degree of warmth as we see doth happen to a Red-hot Iron when it is taken out of the Fire and Plunged into cold water but when it shall be also granted that the external Air affected with the Rayes of the Stars is available to the changing of his temperament and to cause that his life should be longer or shorter yet nothing can be more like a dream yea more vaine then a dream then that therefore it is determinable how long precisely to an hour that Infant shall live since according to the care that is afterwards taken of the Child his life shall be longer or shorter and more or less subject to infirmities or what advencures of prosperous of adverse fortune shall thenceforth befall him since those depend upon such future occasions as have no relation at all with the condition of his Birth Let a man but seriously consider with himfelfe how many there are and have been in the world with whom he hath had to doe in some affaire or other either directly or indirectly from his Childhood to this present day in order to his dispatch of several buisines that he might take this or that Iourney acquire this or that Honour or Dignity heap up this or that mass of wealth sustain this or that dishonour or loss and so run over the most considerable Encounters of his life then let him consider whether those so many men of different Ages Complexions Humours Conditions Nations Countries without all which living at such times and in such places and meeting with him upon such occasions he could not have effected such designes or met with such Events had any relation at all to his Nativity Let him I say consider that when they could not but live at such a time in such a place meet him and be willing to do these or these things for or against him unless because others lived before them are dead and did this or that for them and so of the rest since the Fates of those men also depended upon others that went before them from Age to Age upwards to the begining of the World so that from thence forward all the successions of men and all the series of affaires to this present day are to be unravelled for if all things had not been so as they were neither had those men lived with whom he hath had to do nor those Events been which have besallen him Nor can our Astrologers evade this necessity by saying that the Planets do not designe particularly and singularly what Good or Evill and from whom and when and where a Man shall receive it for since the rayes are singular by which the Planets designe any one accident it is necessary that the definition be of a singular Event nor can the Event be singular unless from the singular circumstances of Person Place Time and manner And manifest it is that other Events then what are really to come cannot be defined nor can there be otherwise terms of singular actions that I may not take notice how Astrologers boast the certainty of their Predictions chiefly in respect of circumstance of Time which is most singularly and in respect of which such an Event cannot happen to such a Person unless that Person be at that time in such a place in such company upon such an occasion That I may likewise omitt that Astrology must be confessed most vain and useless unless it be able to premonish men of singular Events together with the Persons occasions and other circumstances of them for otherwise no man can know when how or from whom to expect benefit or detriment or what he must do to meet his good promised or decline his Evil threatned CHAP. XV. The Moment of an Infants Nativity uncertain TO persue the Doctrine of Astrologers touching this Omnipotent Moment of an Infants Nativity let us observe how strict and punctual they are in the investigation of it and this to the end that they may exactly know what point of the Ecliptick ascended at that time above the Finitor and that being found out to erect a Scheam of the position of the Heavens at the same and this done according to the Planets being in such or such Houses they proceed to give judgement of the future accidents of the Infant And indeed it is not without good cause