some time or other but not be drowned because forsooth Fishes swim Cardinal Signs possessing the Angles of a Nativity make the Person most eminent and famous in his Generation saith the same Artist the greatest Actions of the World depending on the Cardinal Points of the Heavens viz. Aries Cancer Libra Capricorn Thus Tullius Cicero Gustavus Adolphus late King of Sweden Archbishop Laud and Oliver Cromwell are they not well suited by him had the Cardinal Points upon the Angles of their Nativities Peter Gassendus poor Man because he writ against Judiciary Astrology and checked and confuted the Art of Genitures hath all things naught in his Nativity His ill habit of Body and worser if this Censor is to be credited of Mind is plainly to be seen in the Heavens Never was wretch so bespattered by Man of Art What work would this man make with the Nativity of the worthy Dr. Henry More if he could get a sight of it He would reade his Life and all his Writings in it at the first view He would make the Lord of his Ascendent plainly shew him to be a Retired Melancholick Collegian all his days a Philosopher and particularly of the Platonick Sect and which is as ugly a thing as can be in any Man's Geniture a professed Adversary of the Church of Rome and all its Corruptions Thus but more grievously he should smart for writing against dear Vrania for daring to insert his Confutation of Judiciary Astrology into the Mystery of Godliness and for Printing it lately by it self But look you now because Vincent Wing published a piece against Gassendus wherein this excellent Person 's Objections against Astrology are pretended to be answered and was himself a Well-willer and Brother Philomathemat his Nativity hath all things good and laudable in it But then again he tells us that William Lilly his Enemy though Fellow Astrologer had the Moon in Pisces a Wet and Drinking Sign which made him a piece of a Good Fellow But I am weary of such light and ludicrous Stuff and have more serious and weighty matter to set before the Reader Onely from this it appeareth that Astrological Observations and Genethliacal Judgments are oftentimes the products of a capricious and fancifull and as you see here of a spightfull and malitious Brain And for this Reason as well as some Others particularly because these Men have undertaken to calculate the Nativity of Buildings as well as of Humane Bodies of hard Stones no less than of soft Flesh the most Learned and Judicious Astrologers have not asserted the Doctrine of Genitures although in other things they have defended Astrological Judgments Thus I have searched into those feigned Hypothese and fallacious Principles on which a great part of Judiciary Astrology is founded And though I do not think the Whole Art is rendred altogether vain and useless by them yet I assure my self that there can be no true Predictions from any thing that is false in any Art and for that Reason the Common Astrologers ought not to be confident of their Undertakings and those that consult them may justly suspect their performances Fourthly These Pretenders to Astrology go beyond the wisest Patriarchs and Founders of their Art they exceed the limits of their Science and the Sentence is passed against them by their own Judges I will name onely two of them but they are the chiefest and of the greatest Renown The first is Ptolemy the Prince of Astrology whose first and leading Aphorism is this That generals onely can be foretold by this Art and that those alone who are Divinely inspired are able to predict particular Events An Astrologer may tell the Propension and Inclination of a Man from his Natural Temperament and this from the Stars but he cannot from that general Inclination tell what determinate Effects will ensue He ought to content himself with a general Judgment and not to be definitive in special Cases in particular and individual Accidents This is the Decision of the great Father of Astrologers What then becomes of their Horary Questions which descend even to the most particular and Personal Affairs What Resolution is to be expected of the Queries about the Marriage of such an individual Couple the particular Events of this Seaman's Voyage that Counsellor's Cause this Merchant's Adventure that Soldier 's Engagement the time of the Death of any of these and rather than they will stand out the retrieving of any Neighbour's Silver Spoon lost or stollen Again it is confessed by the same Master and Dictatour of Astrology that the Influence of the Stars is not Necessary and Unavoidable but may be evaded by Mens Industry and Care 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A wise man saith he is able to avert the Effects of the Stars when he knoweth the Nature of them and he adjoineth Socrates as an Example of this who when an Astrologer had told him his Natural Inclinations confessed them true but these saith he are all conquered by Prudence and vertuous Endeavours my Soul hath got the Mastery of my Body Philosophy and Moral Discipline have corrected my Natural Propensions A wise Man hath Dominion over the Stars he subdueth those Motions which come to him from thence and they are Fools onely who are led by them The second great Judge and Rabbi of this Art is that noted Florentine Iunctinus an Authour that Judiciary Astrologers deal very much in and therefore I will alledge four or five set Determinations of his wherein the vanity and I may say Nullity of the common and Irrational way of Astrologizing are discovered and condemned And what he saith is the more observable because I take it out of that Treatise which is intituled The Defence of Astrologers Those Astrologers saith he there who will needs know and predict all kinds of particulars are Fools And in the same place An Astrologer can tell nothing certainly as to such things as concern Man's Will This is often repeated by him Excellently again in the same Treatise The Significations of the Stars are not like the Commands and Edicts of Praetors i. e. necessary and indispensable but are in Subjection to the Command and Will of God And what the Sense of all sober Astrologers is we may learn from those words of his viz. Astrologers do not hold that the Heavens are wholly and altogether the Cause of our Fortunes or Misfortunes but that they act onely according to the Subject Matter which accordingly as it is disposed doth more or less receive the Celestial Influence It might be added that Iunctinus ingenuously confesseth That the Wonders and Miracles of the Old and new Testament being works brought to pass by God himself and not depending on second Causes cannot be foretold by Astrology This is the sense of the two great Dictatours of Judiciary Astrology and all the sober of that Study acquiesce in it Thus though the Hebrew Rabbies several of whom were notable Students and Proficients in Astrology as Aben
and voluntary ones cannot As the things which depend on the mere Power and Pleasure of God so those that issue from the Freedom and Election of Man are beyond the reach and out of the ken of Astrological Predictions Mens Wills are the Planets that guide them and make them Erratical It is not in the power of Astrologers to fix these and to bring them within the sphere of their Knowledge We see and observe that their Conjectures are uncertain concerning the change of Weather How often may they be confuted in their Predictions of Rain Snow Frost Winds c Some have writ down the weather quite contrary to their Prognosticks as Buchanan dealt with his Almanack above fifty Years together and as the Earl of Mirandula hath observed and have found that what they set down came nearest to the truth If an Astrologer then faileth so mnch in telling the weather how much more in undertaking to determine those Events which depend on the Will and choice of Man If he cannot exactly foretell the Changes of the Clouds and Elements how will he be able to acquaint us before-hand with the Alterations in Families and Kingdoms which are more uncertain It is by reason of such bold Pretenders and Undertakers that Astrology is rendred vile and scandalous and the Professours of it looked upon as Lyars and Impostours For what can be more like cheating than for a man to take upon him to determine certainly of future Contingencies when the Objects of his Predictions are every minute alterable by the interposal of free Agents who have power to interrupt the Causality of the Stars For though men may be thus and thus Disposed and Inclined according to the different Constellations and their Aspects yet they are left free and are not constrained and forced to doe this or that And if this be true the most sagacious Artist on Earth cannot punctually determine their Actions this being an impregnable Proposition That nothing can be certainly foretold by Man which is in the power of a free Agent Thirdly Astrology is abused not onely when the free Agency of God and Man are infringed but when the Concurrence of those other Causes which are requisite in the life of Man is wholly neglected This then must be laid down as a necessary Proposition That the Tempers and Constitutions of Men and consequently their Dispositions and Actions and all humane Affairs which are the issue of them depend upon several conjoyned Causes It is true that we receive our Complexion and Temperature from the quality of the Heavenly Bodies but not from them only but from other Causes and Authours I have granted once and again that there is a great consent and intercourse between the upper and lower World Heaven and Earth are confederate Many things are derived to our Natures from above many of our Inclinations are received from thence many Events and Accidents are depending on the Astral Revolutions but they do not derive their force from them alone There are other Causes besides the Prime Efficiency of God and the free Agency of Men which powerfully influence on Humane Actions Say then that the Stars act on the Body of Man and say that the Complexion of the Body swayeth the Mind as is acknowledged yet this Complexion depends on the Temper of the Parents and the quality of their Seed on the temper of the Air of that Countrey which he was born in and afterwards lived in on his Diet and Food he constantly takes on his Education and manner of Life All these and several other things make a great difference in men and the influence of the Stars may be hindred by any of them much more by all of them together Though the Heavens dispose to such and such Temperatures of Body yet they are easily changed and over-ruled by the Concurrence of these To speak freely the Stars act as all other natural Causes do according to the Capacity and Disposition of the matter they work upon Now the Disposition of Inferiour Bodies is very different and on that account they receive not the Heavenly Influences alike Just as we see the Effects of Diseases are according to the Diversities of Mens Bodies and therefore no certain Judgment can be made of the issue of one Man's Distemper from what is observed in another For Example a Physician sees such and such Signs of Death in two persons who have high Fevers but though the Prognosticks are equal in both yet the Natural Temper of one may be stronger than the others and so be too hard for the Disease and overcome it but it was not possible for the Master of Medicks to foresee this The Case is the same here and it is confirmed by Experience All persons who were born under the same Planets are not of the same condition and Fortune in the World and on the contrary the Conditions and Fates of Men are alike as when many thousands fall in Battel in one day though different Stars reigned at their Births and the Reason is because all men are not alike capable of the Influence of Heaven for there may be wanting a Concurrence of several Causes which I have before named to make them equal and it is undeniably true that the Heavens are not the Integral Causes of Mens Conditions and Actions I infer then irrefragably That no Astrologer can certainly foretell future Events which depend upon so many Causes whilst he is carefull onely to be acquainted with one sort of them And from all the premised Heads it is easie to conclude how shallow and imperfect the Judgments of common Astrologers are and what little reason they have to be absolute and peremptory in their Predictions For the Actions of Mens Lives and the different Events that happen to them are derived from several Springs and Originals besides the Heavenly Bodies A Judgment cannot be made of a Man's Life from one of these onely but from all The Prime Source and Fountain of all is God or the Divine Providence which Commandeth the Sun and it riseth not and sealeth up the Stars Job 9. 7. which can countermand the Ordinary course of Nature and particularly that of the Celestial Bodies Or the same infinite Power can change the Temper which was received from the Stars and cause his Grace to check and controll the Influence of their Aspects so that it shall be out of the reach of any humane Science to make a steddy Judgment of any Actions or Events that belong to such Persons And as for that other Spring of Mens Actions their Wills these being Free and Arbitrary cannot be confined by Art and whatever Actions depend on voluntary choice and determination cannot be foreknown unless they be revealed by him who is the onely knower and Searcher of Hearts It is His sole Pretogative to foresee future Contingencies which depend on free Causes Though it is true the Devil hath claimed This in all Ages witness the many ways of Divination by Oracles
livid hue all differing according to the mixture of more or less Light Lastly the Smell as well as Colour of Comets hath been taken notice of and this hath happened onely then when they have hung hovering near the Earth an Instance whereof Historians give us in that Comet which was seen A. D. 396. in which they acquaint us that a strong and Sulphureous Smell was felt And thus I have in pursuance of the first Task I set my self enquired into the Nature of these Heavenly Bodies I have particularly considered their Origine Make Figure Situation Motion and the rest of the Phaenomena appertaing to them And I may with confidence aver in the close of all that he who sees not how difficult if not impossible it is to unriddle the Nature of Comets sees nothing in Philosophy and the Nature of Things What contrary Accounts do Philosopher give of them Those that will not wholly grant the Efficacy and Operation of Comets must whether they will or no confess their Influence in This that they have caused grievous Wars and Feuds among Astronomers who we see are engaged with great vigour against one another and in the conclusion purchase nothing but Obscurity and Uncertainty The variety of their Opinions and the interfering of some of them with Themselves undeniably prove to us that the things they search into are rather to be admired than explained I think I have at one time or other read a good round company of Authours that treat of Comets and I could never yet find that the most knowing and judicious among them are confident and peremptory in the asserting of their Hypothesis about them no they unanimously acknowledge their Ignorance and Shallowness they own themselves to be non-pluss'd and have no other Esteem and Apprehension of these strange Sights than of things most wonderfull and astonishing One of the greatest Natural as well as Moral Philosophers that ever the World bred speaketh in the beginning of his Book of Comets after this manner concerning his intended Disposition of Comets Quae an vera sint Dii sciunt quibus est scientia veri Nobis rimari illa conjecturare in Occulto tantùm licet He pretends not to Science but contents himself with bare guessing And in the same book he gives this Reason of it Quà m multa praeter Hos i. e. Cometas per secretum eunt nunquam humanis oculis orientia Neque enim omnia Deus humanis oculis nota fecit Quota pars operis tanti nostris oculis committitur The great Governour of the World hath thought fit to hide many things from us and amongst them the Account of these Phaenomena is one More particularly he ingenuously confesses that that of the Tail or Bush must be attributed to the Nature of Comets so he expresses it and as he explains himself to causes which are occult to us Though others have thought they have been able to solve these Phaenomena yet our great Philosopher was not ashamed to confess his Inability and therefore he chose to resolve them into some secret Virtue and wonderfull Power which also made him style a Comet Novum è coelo Miraculum Tycho Brahe allied to the chief Nobility of Denmark but more related to generous Truth speaks thus Cum iis non invitè sentio qui Cometas intra Naturae secreta nondum explanata reponunt eósque ex occultis causis provenire asseverant Comets are rightly ranked in the number of those secrets of Nature which are kept close to this very day and it is very rational to believe that they are the Products of hidden Causes Both this excellent Astromer and another clebrated Mathematician whom Germany boasts of frankly acknowledge the shallow notices they have of these Bodies and like true Philosophers and Christians confess that the wonderfull Works of God surpass Man's profoundest Knowledge And hear the faint words of that admirable Astrologer who is so famous for his several learned Treatises Quia quantum volo non possum liceat ergo quantum possum proestare Since I cannot by reason of the difficulty of the performance make what Discoveries I would about the nature of Comets I will sally out as far as I am able though I know alas my Attempts will be very Feeble and Imperfect where the Subject I treat of is so lofty and arduous What saith that Modern Meteorologist Ego Cometas in maximis abditissimis Naturae Miraculis pono If any one would know saith he what account I make of Comets I declare that I rank them among the greatest and most hidden Miracles of Nature And after he had been rendring a Reason of the Tails of Comets and refuting other mens Opinions he complaineth that he remains unsatisfied and that such Lank Accounts would rather starve than satiate an inquisitive Mind Haec tamen non omnino mihi mentem implent sed abeundum tamen jam est vel semifamelico And speaking there of other Phaenomena of the Beard or Tail he concludes at last most devoutly and ingeniously in these words Sed quà m neque hoc neque quicquid aliud prospicio mihi intellectum in tranquillo ponit Ite nunc mortales acie illâ Divina rimamini penetrate quam unius etiam Cometae barba vobis hebetat obtundit Neither this Hypothesis nor any other that I ever met with yields me satisfaction How then can ye fond Wretches pretend to search and even pierce into Divine Mysteries with that sorry Wit of yours which you see one Hair of a Comet is able to blunt and turn the edg of And so he goes on to confess and bewail the defects of Philosophy and our Understandings Another Writer on the same Subject talks after this rate Haec quidem possibilia sunt sed non nisi Divinando determinari possit qualiter de facto res se habeat Perhaps this way of explaining the Nature of Cometh is not altogether impossible but in my mind there is no man can directly tell us how things really are unless he had the Art of Divining A late Astronomer in imitation of the Great Men before cited reckons Comets inter Arcana mundi abditissima naturae Miracula and in the same place he makes bold and yet with a great share of Modesty to say that God propounds this Splendidum Aenigma nunquam solvendum he puts this Riddle to the World which no Philosophy will be ever able to explain This subtile Jesuite who had set down and examined whatever others had writ concerning the Production of a Comets Train and its turing it self constantly from the Sun as if he despaired of solving the difficulty in a Philosophical way at length betakes himself to this Freak viz. that the Face of the Comet is turned towards the Sun like an Heliotrope or as one Face of the Loadstone turns it self to one of the Poles Would not one imagine that he might as well
have said to solve all that the Head of the Comet had Brains and knew when it was to Face about There is Another who refers the business to a secret Antipathy between the Rays of the Sun and those of a Comet insomuch that these latter are as it were afraid of the former and consequently flie away from them But the Jesuite grows more sober afterwards and finding after all his exquisitive Searches that the Doctrine of Comets was obscure and unaccountable at last he ascribes the Make and whole Regimen of them to God or some Intelligences and in the close of his Learned Tractate of Comets he ends thus In re adeò incerta liceat tandem nobis ex hoc Labyrintho si non exire at certè evolare It is impossible saith he in such a perplexed Maze as this to find my way out fairly and orderly and therefore I hasten to get out how I can You hear in what humble and despairing Language they utter themselves And it is certain that the Persons who speak after this manner had great Insight into Philosophy and were the chief Favourites and Confidents of Nature It had been an easie thing for them to have pitched upon an Hypothesis and gone through with it against all Opposers and they had Credit and Authority enough to back what they had a mind to avow This was not the course they took but they suspended their Judgments and nothing but mighty Dissatisfaction and Amazement appear in their Writings and instead of being positive and decretory they confessed themselves Silenced and Puzzled These great Dictators in Philosophy would not be found in this odd posture if the matter of their disquisition were not some thing Extraordinary and Wonderfull nay if every thing in these Bodies were not Rare and Astonishing which is a demonstration that they were set up in the Heavens on purpose to call our Eyes to them that they were designedly placed there to create Wonder and to be taken notice of and that they are the Amazing Finger of God to the World But though the wisest and subtilest Heads were backward in giving an Account of the Natural Philosophy of Comets yet as you shall be convinced afterwards they are plain and peremptory in delivering their Opinions concerning the Effects Ends and Events of them the consideration of which is my next and indeed my Main Business Having then dispatch'd our Enquiry into the Matter Figure and other Properties of Comets I am to shew you in the Second Place that they carry in them the true Nature of Causes and Signs or as others are pleased to word it of Operative and Indicative Signs Some have stifly denied both these but I doubt not but I shall make it evident to any Considerative Man that they lie under a great Mistake I assert then that Comets signifie both Naturally and Arbitrarily that is in Themselves and likewise by Divine Institution Whether you consider them Physically or Theologically they are certain Indications and Signs of future Evils To prove them to be Causes or Operative Signs I will treat of them first Physically and here I will offer to you these two things 1. That they have a Connexion with the Nature of the things produced 2. That they are plain Representations and Resemblances of the things signified as Signs ought to be First I say They have some Agreement and Connexion with the Nature of those things of which they are said to be Omens And it is necessary that this be cleared unless we will step directly into Magick and Divination The things which lead us to the knowledge of future Events must have a Natural Connexion with the things they are said to point at or else they may justly be reckoned to be vain and Fantastick as Tully excellently proves the vanity of the Gentile Divination from this that those means which they used as the Bowels of Animals the Chattering of Birds and the like had no cognation and alliance with the fortuitous things the knowledge and foresight of which they pretended was acquired by them He shews that there is not any Consent or Sympathy between these things and thence concludes they are Cheats and Impostors And so here it may be justly asked Are future Evils produced by Comets as by their proper Causes What certain Connexion is there between those Calamities and these Apparitions so as that we should be able to gather from these that such effects will assuredly follow We are certain that the Philosophers of old thought there was some Affinity between them and that Comets were both Signs and Causes It is vouched by them once and again that great and vehement Winds and excessive Drougth are the Physical Effects of these Appearances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they appear often they portend Winds and Drougth And immemediately after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they be frequently seen the years are remarkably Dry and Tempestuous Our Philosopher in his Natural Questions is of this persuasion and observeth that after Comets and he gives particular Instances great and continued Tempests accompanied with Earthquakes followed as the Natural Effects of them And not onely the Ancient but Modern Sages aver the same Thus the Learned Kepler lib. de Cometis and Cardan lib. de rerum varietate l. 1. c. 1. prove the Natural Effects of Comets and the latter of these is not confuted by his acute Opposer Scalig. Exercit 79. c. According to these it is no uneasie thing to make it evident how by the extraordinary and hurtfull Heat which is produced by a Comet both when it is in Sight and after its Extinction several other Evils are caused in a Natural way From the Air and Earth being infected how easie a consequence is there of Barrenness and unfruitfull Seasons If it once be admitted that Comets distemper and inflame the Air and exhaust the Succus of the Earth it will necessarily follow that a barren Soil and the corrupting and blasting of the fruits must be the Products of them And from these will naturally ensue Dearth Scarcity and Famine And as the inevitable Effect of both we must expect Sickness Diseases Mortality and more especially the sudden Death of many Great Ones because these are sooner and more easily hurt than others for their delicate Feeding and Luxurious course of Life and sometimes their great Cares and Watchings which weaken and infeeble their Bodies render them more obnoxious than the vulgar sort of People Hence it is that Comets may deservedly be said to presage the Death of mighty Monarchs and Princes to be Funeral Torches to light Kings to their Tombs And because by their noxious and infectious Irradiations Mens Bloud is apt to be heightned into Fevers and Calentures and all malignant Distempers and even into the most contagious Diseases the Consequence of a Raging Pestilence from a Comet is very easie and natural if not almost necessary Thus it is plain that the greatest and
most dreaded Calamities have a Dependence on these Prodigies and are the Real and Physical Effects of them And whereas it is Objected That the Effects of Comets as they are presented to us by those that treat of them are contrary to one another this is soon answered for that there should be Contrary Effects from the same Cause is no unusual thing in Philosophy wherefore great Inundations likewise no less than Drought may be the Product of these Causes for that intemperate Weather which the Flames of Comets beget causeth an extraordinary heap of Vapours and Exhalations to be drawn up which form themselves Naturally into Clouds and those Clouds in a short time must needs fall down in excessive Showres and immoderate Rains And it might be shewed also that great calms as well as Storms and Tempests Cold and Frost no less than extreme Heat may be the Effects i. e. secondary Effects of the same Cause Moreover It is no hard Enterprize to shew how Comets are the Causes of Civil and Political as well as Natural Events For from what hath been said before viz. that they portend the Death of Princes it follows that they probably Bode great Changes and Vicissitudes in Kingdoms in reference to Religion and other Matters for History abundantly informs us that these are oftentimes the Consequences of a new Prince's succeeding in the Throne Besides from the inflamed Spirits of Men caused by a distempered Air Wars and Tumults Broils and Seditions naturally proceed So that Comets have been the Causes and Forerunners not onely of great Storms and Concussions in the Air but of Turbulent and Tempestuous Seasons in the State of Confusion Massacres Slaughter Bloudshed and Mischiefs of all Dimensions both at home and from foreign Quarters These have been thought by men of sober Philosophy to have been the significations and Presages of Comets I will sum up all their Dire Effects in these plain Verses which I lately met with Dira Cometarum proles pestisque famésque Seditio regum foedera vincla neces Excidium patriae ventorum praelia morbi Insoliti caedes funera nulla fides Dissidium nubis tremulae telluris hiatus Fulgetra cum tonitru fulmineaeque faces Aestates siccae aut nimio mox imbre madentes Externo infuso milite vastus ager Dira locustarum volucrúmque examina regum Translata hostili sceptra videnda loco Abdacti ex patria populi civilia bella Diluvia pecorum non abolenda lues When once a direfull Comet spreads its Train Contagious Deaths and pining Famine reign Monarchs make Leagues to render Empire sure Sedition now keeps Gaols and Deaths in ure Countreys are Sack'd impetuous Storms arise And Bodies feel unheard-of Maladies Slaughter grows bold Faith seeing this expires The heated Clouds disclose their inbred Fires And now by Sympathy in Thunder groan Th' Earth Quakes and Trembles at the dismall Tone Heaven mourns in scorching droughts and then again Despairing weeps in lavish showres of Rain A foreign Foe in glittering Arms appears And dries up the poor Remnant of our Tears The Airy Region then displays its Host Of scarce-known Fowls which hover o'er the Coast. See next how Sceptres here and there are hurl'd And Regal Globes are tost about the World Some are led Captive to a Foreign Strand Whilst Wars at home afflict their Native Land Great Deluges come next and ' cause the Fate Is Vniversal from a Comet 's Date Not onely Men but Beasts must in it share Hence Rot and Murrain are the Cattels fare Such Effects as these may be expected from those Causes and I do not see why they may not be called Physical Events since they proceed from those as from Natural Causes and Agents Nor doth the eminently knowing Kepler dissent from this though when he speaks of the Comets that appeared in the Years 1607 and 1618. he holds they are the Causes of Disorders and Calamities here below by a certain kind of Sympathy which the Sublunary Elements have with the Heavenly Bodies for notwithstanding his expressing himself after that manner he means no other than what Aristotle Ptolemy Cardan and others did viz. That there is a Natural Connexion between Comets and those Evils which are seen to ensue them though it must be granted that these Portentous Sights are not Necessary Causes i. e. Those Dismall Effects do not certainly and infallibly follow them one is not necessarily and always the Product of the other of which more hereafter But that which I say and I think I have proved is this that they are commonly chained together like Natural Causes and Effects and that the Natural Power of those Causes is able to produce and generally doth actually produce such Effects and this is enough to prove them to be True Causes Secondly They are as Signs ought to be Plain Representations of the things signified We may learn from the very Make of Comets what they are designed for Their Figure is representative of that which is meant by them Sometimes they display themselves in the shape of Besoms as if they taught us by that homely Embleme what we ought to doe viz. to remove our Defilements and Pollutions not to say as if they were sent to tell a Nation that they shall be swept away and destroyed for their Sins How often without any help of Fancy doth this prodigious Light appear in the likeness and proportions of a Rod to acquaint us that it was designed to correct and discipline a froward People and that we ought to submit to it's Pedagogy When we see it at another time representing it self like a Torch or Flambeau how can we think otherwise than that it is sent to give more Light to the dark World or if it despise that to shew that it deserveth to be burnt up I know that all this will pass with some for mere moral Reflexions or divine Fancies It will be said that some devout Fools will make things to be like any thing they please But then I desire to know whether the old Pagan Philosophers were a sort of Religious Fools whether Seneca and Pliny whom I have often brought on the Stage especially the latter of them whose Writings let us understand he was one of Those Fools who say in their Heart there is no God whether These and all the profound Astronomers who have writ of the Figures of Comets and did it not to exercise their Fancies but to display their Judgments whether These I say were Religious and Fancifull Fools Untill this be Answered I proceed Who knows not that these strange Flames appear most commonly in the shape of Military Weapons and Instruments of War and Bloud You may see one appear like a Dart or Arrow another like a Lance or Spear a third bowed like a Warlike Horn or Trumpet as it were to sound an Allarm from Heavens a fourth in the figure of a Sword a known Weapon of Bloud and Slaughter The Head of This
the Suffrage of this Learned Church-man is the more to be valued because the Design and Aim of his whole Book is to invalidate the Presages of all other Heavenly Bodies so that it was the mere conviction of Reason and Truth that made him Except these and declare that they are really portentous Thus you hear what Poets Oratours Philosophers Historians and Politicians Mathematicians and Divines have said of this matter I have one Testimony more to add and it is of a Person who was all these I had almost said more than these For though he was no Divine by Function and Profession yet how vastly accomplished he was in the Study of Theology and the Scripture his Works have proclaimed to the World And it is as well known how excellent a Poet Oratour Historian Statesman c. and how great a Master of Reason and all usefull Learning he was This man who was Himself a Prodigy thus gives us his Thoughts in few but decisive words concerning these wonderfull Ostenta we have been treating of Solent magnas rerum Conversiones praecedere Cometae Gladii Ardentes aliáque Signa ejusmodi Comets and Fiery Swords and such like Signs are wont to be the Fore-runners of great Changes in the world I have done now with my Testimonies and truly I am heartily glad of it for I affect not to muster up the Writers and to see Authours stand in Rank and File I know that good Sense will defend itself without a Bead-roll of Learned Names But it was Necessary on this occasion to heap up Quotations because those of the contrary Opinion are pleased to brag of their Authours But I hope it will now appear that all the World is not of their side and that the assertion which I maintain is not onely the sense of the Many but of the grave and wise the sober and judicious and those whose Sedate Judgments over-rule their Imaginations Men of all Studies agree in this Humanity and Divinity concenter here heathens and Christians the Popish and the Reformed and some of every Persuasion are heard to declare that Comets are supernatural Signs and were appointed to terrifie and admonish this Inferiour World and to be Precursors of approaching Miseries But that which I most mind is that we have on our side the ablest Judges and best Advocates of this Cause for such I reckon the truly Pious and Vertuous to be I have observed both in Mens studied Writings and ordinary speakings that those who favour this Point are generally found to be Persons of a greater Inclination to Piety and Goodness than others are They seem to have minds more Divinely enlightned and more inwardly touched with the sense of Religion and the Providence of God in managing the World And who are they that defend the contrary Commonly I do not say always they are Men of greater Wit than Conscience they know how to blanch a bad Cause they delight to shew their Skill in maintaining an Argument and weathering a Paradox They are likewise great Flatterers and Parasites and love to humour the Age. They nourish the sottishness of People and give Narcoticks and Opiates to those that are of themselves drowsie and stupid And if this be done by those who are of that holy Functioon which engages them to give warning to their flock of imminent Dangers to discharge the Office of Watchmen and not to sow Pillows under a soft and Effeminate Generation of Men the Crime is yet more Black and Intolerable They carry on the Plot of Atheists and Epicures to root out the Notion of a God to extirpate Providence to debauch Mens Lives and Manners and to blot out the sense of another World I am now to enter upon the Fourth and Last General Part of my Discourse which is to Answer the Objections which are levelled against the foresaid Doctrine For so it is that there are a sort of People who in defiance of the Nature of things the clear Discoveries of Reason the Direction of Providence the Divine Testimony of Scripture and a Cloud of Humane Witnesses are resolved to maintain their Post and in order to that they discharge with great fury several severe Cavils against the opposite side and think thereby to fright others from coming over to Us and imbracing our Assertion First It is Objected that our Doctrine proceeds from Pride and a haughty Spirit These Men say they have an over-fond conceipt of themselves as if God took especial care of them in every thing that happeneth Can't a Star appear but it must be for their sakes What is the Reason they are so concerned It proceeds from no other bottom than this viz. The unsufferable Vanity which some abound with who think themselves such Persons to whom Prodigies forsooth must be sent I answer 1. That this is a gross mistake that Comets or the like Prodigies appear for the sake of one sort of Persons onely or that any Intelligent man ever said so 2. Whereas it is said that it proceeds from the Pride and vain Conceit of Men that Comets are thought to signifie I retort with undeniable Truth that it is the effect of Pride and Arrogance to reckon them as needless and Trivial and to despise the manifest Work of God Nay 3. This is an Argument of gross Profaneness as well as Pride This is clear from the present Cavil that the Patrons of that Cause carry on as I said the Plot and Design of Atheistical Spirits who would exclude God from the Government and Care of the World Whereas it is certain that all ranks of Beings but especially rational Creatures are under the Eye and Conduct of Heaven The Stoicks said well that as Man was made for God so all things were made for Man The whole Mass of the Creation is serviceable to this Darling and Delight of the Almighty Man is as it were the Centre of the World in respect of final Causes saith an understanding Person The Celestial Bodies as well as those of a lower Order administer to his best Advantages When the Man after God's own Heart had considered the Heavens the Work of God's Fingers the Moon and the Stars which he had ordained he cried out as himself tells us What is Man that thou art mindfull of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him As if there were no greater Argument and Demonstration of the Divine Care and Providence over Mankind than what is to be observed in the Heavenly Bodies And if it be said that those words speak of the Natural and Regular Appearances in the Heavens as the Sun and Moon and ordinary Stars I reply that the Argument is the stronger on our side for if the usual and ordinary Luminaries are a proof of God's Mindfulness of the Inhabitants of this Inferiour World then much more the strange and extraordinary ones are such And this is sufficient ground to consider the Heavens as that Holy man did to regard and take notice
that Learned French Physician his Judgment and Practice in this case are well known I question not but the carefull observing and due attending of the Times of the Heavenly Aspects and Influences are very usefull in Physick though now that course be laid aside generally by Practitioners A Third End of these Lights in the Heavens is to be for Days and Years v. 14. that is by the constant Motion of these Bodies Time is measured and numbred by these Time is divided and distinguished into greater and lesser portions as Years Months Weeks Days Hours c. By these we keep an account of our Actions we call to mind reckon compute forecast we understand the duration of Beings the certain Intervalls and distances of things the Ages and Generations of the World which is of singular Use in Man's Life Their Fourth Use is to divide the Day from the Night v. 14. or as it is said afterwards v. 18. to divide the Light from the Darkness and to rule over the Day and over the Night These Heavenly Bodies by their Setting and Rising cause Light and Darkness and consequently are the Authours of the successive Returns of Day and Night to us This is set them as an immoveable and never failing constitution and therefore is styled the Covenant of the Day and Night Ier. 33. 20. and the Ordinance of Heaven Ier. 31. 35 36. And under This Vse of the Heavenly Bodies is comprehended their Warming and Chearing Virtue especially of the Sun which brings to us Day and This together and of which the great Observer of God's Works thus speaketh There is nothing bid from the heat thereof and also their fructifying generative and prolifick Faculty whereby they may justly be said to Rule and bear sway in the World The Fifth and Last Use of these glorious Lights in the firmament of Heaven and which is the use of them wherein we are most concerned at present is to signifie something to the World Let them be for Signs v. 14. And in the place before commented upon they are called the Signs of Heaven Which an Astronomical Poet expresseth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here then may Business is to shew how they are said to be for Signs or What it is that they signifie to the World Accordingly I assert that they signifie three forts of Occurrences viz. Natural Civil and Divine First They give notice to us of Natural things as Rain or Drought Storms or Calms Heat or Cold Winter or Summer with the other Seasons of the Year the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Plenty or Scarcity of the Fruits of the Earth in short the Change of Weather and Alteration of the temper of the Elements These are signified by the Sun 's Rising or Setting with such and such Stars or Constellations by the Access or Recess of the Planets to and form the Sun and among themselves This it seems is a thing which was thought worthy to be mentioned by a Divine Pen-man for he biddeth the Rebellious Jews seek him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion i. e. God who by the Appearing of these and other Constellations at certain times gives notice of the different Seasons of the Year And this was a way of speaking which well became Amos the Herdsman who had been used to keep his Cattel and watch in the Fields all Night and there had leisure and opportunity to observe how the several Seasons were ushered in by these Lamps of Heaven But hear what another inspired Searcher into the Heavenly Bodies saith of the great Creatour viz. that He maketh Arcturus Orion and Pleiades and the Chambers of the South That is he maketh the Year the Parts of which are signified and known by the rising of these Constellations for Arcturus or the Bear 's Tail a Star of the first Magnitude in the Northern Hemisphere is said to arise in Autumn Orion a Southern Constellation made up of many splendent Stars arises in Winter It is called Nimbosus Orion by Virgil and is accordingly deemed by Astrologers to be the Cause of great Storms and Tempests It s name in Hebrew is Kesil whence perhaps the Month Kisleu among the Jews which answers to November had its denomination this Constellation rising in that Month. And by the bye let me shove in this Criticism when we reade that the same word Kesil signifies a Fool as in Solomon's Proverbs and other places we need not wonder that a Constellation which causes Change of Weather gives name to a foolish light and unconstant Person The Pleiades or Seven Stars arise in the Spring And Iob makes mention of the Chambers of the South which perhaps are the Stars which arise in the Summer and so the four several Quarters of the Year are set down Aratus and Hyginus and other Ancients discourse of this kind of Prognosticks Of these Philo the Jew speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stars were made not onely to enlighten the Earth but to be signs of future Accidents i. e. as he there explaineth himself of different Seasons of Weather Which is his meaning in another Treatise where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Signs of all these things that you see upon Earth are set up and erected in the Heavens And I am mistaken if the Learned Father speaketh not of these Prognosticks when he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Observation of the Luminaries of Heaven is usefull and even necessary for Man's Life unless People will beyond measure and with an unlawfull curiosity search into the Signs which those Bodies afford us Secondly These Heavenly Bodies were created not onely to signifie Natural things but Humane and Civil Occurrences and these either Private or Publick the Concerns of Families or Kingdoms All sorts of Actions and Events whether good or evil or indifferent may at one time or other be partly discerned from the Observation of the Natural and usual Motions of the Host of Heaven For though I cannot make out the dependence and affinity between them and these as of Effects and Causes and though the Knowledge which is gained thence is usually uncertain yet I cannot assert with the boldness which I see others do that there are no Natural Effects following from such Positions and Situations of the Stars but I have reason to believe on the contrary that their various Motions and Aspects are in some measure Significant Let us consider then that the Seven Planets are always in one or other of the Twelve Signs or which is the same thing they are directly under some part of the Zodiack which is divided into 12 parts in all or to speak plainer yet the Wandring Stars move under some particular fixed ones and the mutual Habitude which those have to one another as they are placed under these or as Artists speak as they move through these Signs causeth several Aspects And these Aspects are either Right or Collateral
effectuum qui in terris fiunt causas quae in coelo sunt cognoscant aliquando etiam antequam fiunt ipsos effectus in suis causis praevideat This is the use of true Astrology to understand from it the Causes which are in the Heavens of many Effects that are on Earth and sometimes to foresee those Effects in their Causes before they come to pass Thirdly The heavenly Bodies are Signs as of Natural and Political Affairs so of things Divine and above Nature's Order And as the two former are signified by the Ordinary Motions of these Bodies so the last are discovered by the extraordinary and unusual aspect of them When those great Luminaries are disturbed and out of Order then and onely then they as well as those extraordinary Bodies in Heaven which this discourse hath designedly treated of are certain Indications of the exerting of some Divine Power and the bringing to pass some strange things in the World For this I take to be an unquestionable Maxim that those Accidents which exceed the ordinary course of Nature and are above the usual Laws and Power of it are the particular Finger of God and are for extraordinary ends and purposes From whence I gather that the constant Courses of the Celestial Luminaries portend not evil and hurt to Mankind but they are the unnatural Motions Alterations and Appearances of them which render them prodigious As when the Sun hath been extraordinarily deficient as at that darkness which was one of the Plagues of Egypt when the Sun and Moon have stood still as when Ioshuah was taking vengeance on his Enemies when the Stars fought against the Host of Sisera when the Sun went back in King Hezekiah's days Not onely Poets but Historians take notice of and transmit to posterity the remarkable Obscuring of the Sun which was observed almost that whole year in which Iulius Caesar was unfortunately killed Solis quoque tristis Imago Lurida sollicitis praebebat lumina terris From Heaven a shadow onely then was hurl'd Of the Sun's Light to scare the won dring World And another Poet thus Caput obscurâ nitidum ferrugine texit Impiáque aeternam timuerunt secula noctem A rusty scum eclips'd Sol's glorious Light And th'impious Age dreaded an endless Night And we are told by a grave Historian too that this presaged and accompanied that horrid Murther The Eclipse at Christ's Passion was a miraculous darkning of the Sun's Body for against the course of Nature it was obscured in Full-moon Great Signs from Heaven as it was prophesied by our Saviour were the forerunners of Ierusalem's Destruction Luk. 21. 11. There was an Example of an extraordinary Defect in the Sun about an hundred years after saith a Learned Father Seventeen days darkness was the attendant of Constantine's Death who had his Eyes put out by his Mother Irene if some Historians may be believed We have it from the Testimony of him who is Infallible and Truth it self That there stall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars before his last coming Luk. 21. 25. The Sun shall be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of the Heaven shall be shaken Mat. 24. 29. We see then what it is that makes the ordinary Heavenly Bodies Prodigious and Presaging viz. Their being disordered and going against their natural course When they are thus they are of the nature of those extraordinary and preternatural Lights which I have before discoursed of whose very Appearance is Ominous By this we may know what notions to frame of the Aspects of the Stars the particular Phases of the Moon and the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon before spoken of It is certain that these although they may signifie in General and cause several Events yet contain not any thing in them i. e. in their own Nature which is Boding and Unfortunate Nor are they designed as Comets are to be Signs of some remarkable Evils and Calamities For I build on this ground that extraordinary Events are not foresignified by ordinary and natural Accidents but such are the Aspects of the Planets and particularly the Conjunction of Saturn and Iupiter this year so much talked of by the common Prognosticatours These are made and come to pass by the usual and Fixed Motion of the Planets They fall of themselves into these Figures These are the Natural Shiftings of the Stars And as a demonstration of it these like the rising and setting of the Sun and the entry of it into the Equinoctial and Solstitial Points and the Phaenomena of that nature are certainly discerned and may be foretold many hundred years before hand And therefore they are not in themselves portentous they are no tokens of God's Wrath there is nothing signified of the Divine Displeasure by them But this cannot be said of Comets because they are Preternatural Appearances and being such cannot possibly be foreknown by Art I never read that any Astrologer put out Ephemerides of them Nor can the Shiftings of the Moon be said to be Presaging and in themselves Ominous and that for the foresaid Reason For though I deny not her Influence on the Bodies and Minds of Men and as to her producing of Changes in the World yet it is plain that she was not set up in the Firmament to portend approaching Distresses by her various Figures and Faces which she sheweth for all these are Natural and of course She is constant and unvariable in her Changes they may be all known and told long before Besides any man of common sense will grant me this that what is usual and frequent cannot be prodigious I might here say something of Eclipses and it is this I declare against the Doctrine of those well-willers to the Mathematicks who generally reckon these as ominous From what hath been said it may be gathered that they are not to be judged as such for they are not contrary to the usual course of Nature and what is not so cannot carry any ill Omen with it If an Eclipse particularly that of the Sun be portentous in it self then every Night which is no other than the Interposition of the Earth between the Sun and us is of that Nature also and consequently we have an unlucky time of it all our Lives It was the Ignorance of the Cause of Eclipses which first gave occasion to People to think they presignified some Evil and hereupon the foolish Pagans were mightily disturbed at this Sight and as for the Moon they imagined she was in Labour and accordingly came with great Noise and Officiousness no other than the Midwifery of Pans and Kettles to relieve the teeming Lady But we know that the Sun and Moon come naturally to this Situation and Posture and the time of their Eclipses may certainly be foreknown for they depend on the determined and unerring Motions of the Heavenly Bodies they must happen at
Power and too exorbitant a Regency is ascribed to those Bodies This is done when such an Agency and Virtue is given to them by us as is prejudicial and derogatory 1. To God's universal Power and Government 2. To the Agency of Man's Will And 3. To the Concurrence of other Causes In these Three the Judicious Reader will find the whole Abuse of Astrology as to this latter extreme of it summ'd up For they who immeasurably and proudly brag of this Science defend the Stars to be as it were Divine Agents or that they are instead of God and they go so far as to destroy the native or acquired Freedom of Man's Faculties and they exclude all other Causes but the Stars from having a share in mens Actions On the Contrary if we would avoid the excess and Extravagancy of Astrology if we would correct so wild a Folly we must let God Man's Will and Ioynt Causes have their due place First I say Astrology is shame fully abused when Men attribute such a Power to the Heavenly Bodies as to deny God's Government and Superintendency or which is all one when they deprive God of his Sovereign Power and Dominion to give it to the Stars Some of the High-flown of this Faculty have been guilty of excluding the Divine Providence and Concourse whilst they have defended the Influence or rather Efficiency of the Celestial Powers This is a kin to that Pagan Persuasion That these Bodies have a certain Divinity in them and that they fatally and necessarily act upon us Hence the Chaldeans and others offered Sacrifice to the Stars and expected all good or evil from them which is making them Gods The Epicureans held that every one had his proper Star as a peculiar Daemon or Numen And not onely the Gentiles but Iews polluted themselves with the Worship of the Host of Heaven Manasses being their chief Perverter herein 2 Chron. 33. 3. But if some who pretend to Astrological Studies are not directly guilty of this as I cannot prove they are yet they act almost as profanely whilst they extravagantly and impiously extoll the Power of those Bodies above even so far as to deny God to be the principal Moderatour and Disposer of all Affairs and whilst they assert that extraordinary and preternatural Events and such as depend wholly on God's mere Pleasure and have no Relation at all to natural and common Causes are the Effects of the Motions and Aspects of the Stars and might have been foretold and prognosticated by them A most Intolerable Arrogance and Blasphemy For though I have above granted and am always ready to grant what is Reason and good Sense that God may and doth make use even of natural Instruments in the production of supernatural Effects yet this is a thing that is exceeding rare and then also it is impossible that these Arbitrary Effects should be foretold by any Knowledge that Men have of the Stars But there are some supernatural Effects and Productions which depend not in the least on second Causes but are wrought by God himself without the assistence of Instruments or any Means nay even in defiance of all Secondary Causes as most of the Miracles of the Old and New Testament and these could never be prognosticated by the Stars And therefore the Insolency and Impiety of those is to be abhorred who have told the World in Print that the Judgment of God in the Deluge of old and all the Appearances of Angels afterwards and the Prophesies and Wondrous Dispensations to the Jewish People were from the particular Influence and Operation of the Stars at those Times and that all Christ's Actions Life and Death and consequently our Redemption depended on the Figure of the Heavens at his Nativity in short that Christianity itself was beholding to the Constellations that the Gospel was indebted to the Aspects of the Stars and that all things of Religion are from the Position of the Heavens If the Reader pleaseth to cast his Eye on the Margent he will see that this cursed Doctrine was patronized not onely by professed Atheists but by great Divines and Church-men but let not that offend him for they were such as belonged to that Church which is said by some to be the Nurse of Atheism and Profaneness witness the swarms of Atheists in Italy and the adjacent Countries But sober Reason as well as Religion will inform us that the things before named are above the power of Nature and therefore out of the reach of Astrology This Art hath nothing to doe with supernatural Events with the Divine Oeconomy and God's immediate Will and Pleasure And though in respect of things of another Nature I grant the Heavenly Bodies to have an Influence yet this must be remembred that they cannot Act without the Almighty's Order He telleth the number of the Stars and calleth them all by their Names i. e. He hath the full Command and Disposal of them It is no Dream but a Reality that the Sun Moon and Stars come and bow down and make Obeysance to Him Which indeed is after the rate of the sober Philosophy of the Stoicks viz. That the First Cause is not tied to the Stars These are subject to the Prime and Omnipotent Being who can suspend their Influences whensoever He pleaseth This I suppose is the meaning of what the Hebrew Doctors tell us God said to Abraham in Chaldaea when he studied Judiciary Astrology there Abraham egredere de Astrologia tua nullum enim est sidus Israeli Trouble not thy self about the Stars for there is not one of them can be unlucky to Israel And on this consideration it might be made evident that no man can be Positive in foretelling future Events by the Stars Secondly Astrology is abused and perverted by those who attribute such a Power and Sovereignty to the Heavenly Bodies as whereby they destroy the liberty of mans Will and introduce a kind of fatal Necessity whereupon they ground the certainty of their Prognostications For these men fondly hold that we are all fatally tied to the Stars whereas Man being a free Agent it is folly to imagine that his Will can be constrained This faculty remaineth Arbitrary and Unconsined and therefore no Artist can Divine what the Acts and Exertments of it shall be It is true that Reason and Wisedom have the Dominion but in few Men. The Generality are led by their sensitive and brutish part which is immediately Subject to the Influence of the Heavens But it is not impossible nay it is easie by the aid of Divine Grace and by a resolute Resisting to avoid their Operation upon us Prayers and Endeavours frustrate the Stars for their Influence is not inevitable so as to force any Man's Will and hereupon it is undeniably consequent that voluntary Actions cannot be Infallibly foretold I have shewed already that Supernatural Actions cannot be predicted by the Stars Now I believe it will as palpably appear that Free
though we are told indeed that they were sometimes called back again as Tacitus speaking of these Astrologers saith they are a sort of Men quod in Civitate nostra vetabitur semper retinebitur Hist. l. 1. Thus among all wise and sober Persons whether Christians or Gentiles the common Prognosticatours have been odious and execrable If my business lay in this sort of Studies I would present the Reader with the excellent Sense of those Authours who have with equal Solidity and Acuteness encountred this Imposture Such were Sextus Empiricus of old in his Hypoiyp Pyrrhon Cicero l. 2. de Divinat Phavorinus in an Oration against Astrologers in A. Gellius l. 14. Plotinus l. 3. Ennead 2. Marcilius Ficinus that Learned Platonick Philosopher and Astronomer who writ Contra Iudicia Astrologorum Iohn Picus Count of Mirandula Thomas Erastus a Physician and Philosopher Causinus the Jesuite De Domo Dei The admirable Gassendus Chamber publick Lecturer of Astronomy in Oxford his Treatise against Judiciary Astrology Barclay in his Argenis where Nicopompus is introduced making an ingenious speech on this Subject I could mention others and set before you the summ of their several Topicks but that it would seem to savour something of the vanity of those I am confuting who are wont to boast of Authority great Names and numerous Arguments But waving these let it satisfie the Religious Enquirer that the Astral Influences in that Sense which I have explained them are disallowed by the Infallible Test of all verity the Holy Scriptures When the Divine Law saith There shall not be found among you any one that useth Divination or more exactly according to the Original in the plural he that divineth Divinations Deut. 18. 10. the unlawfull foretelling by the Stars is here forbid among other ways of Divining And to this Prohibition perhaps may allude that Jewish Saying though I know it admits of another sense The Law is not found among Astrologers and Genethliacks This impious Art is reckoned among the Abominations of the Gentiles in that fore-named place Ier. 10. 2. Where the Israelites who were shortly to be Captives among the Chaldeans are forbid not onely to learn their Idolatrous Astrology and worshipping the Heavenly Host but even to attend to their Divination by those ordinary Stars which being natural and usual cannot be ominous This likewise is condemned in Isa. 47. 11 12 13. where after God by the Prophet had told the Chaldeans who were hugely addicted to Astrology and first brought in the abuse of it that Evil should come upon them and they should not know from whence it riseth whereas they pretended to spy the Cause of all Events in the Stars and mischief should fall upon them and they should not be able to put it off whereas the guise of the great Star-gazers was to flatter those who consulted them with Promises and Assurance of happy Occurrences in an Ironical and upbraiding manner he addeth Let now the Astrologers and Star-gazers and monthly Prognosticatours stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee In which bitter Sarcasm that Astrology which ascribes all to the Stars is exploded and their folly is laid open who trust not in God but in the Heavenly Bodies or rather in those who pretend to know by observing them when Kingdoms shall be saved or destroyed And thus I have largely set down the true Vse of the Heavenly Bodies and also the too frequent Abuse of the Knowledge of them I have endeavoured rightly to state the Controversie and to distinguish between Art and Imposture between True Knowledge and Vain Pretences And if this were impartially done in all Sciences we should see an unspeakable advancement of all sorts of Learning and Truth would have an uncontrollable Dominion in the World I have made it my business to fix the true Limits and Boundaries of Astrology a thing which I saw was very much neglected It hath also offended me to see how some Writers treat all the Sons of Vrania with Contempt and Derision and affect jeering rather than arguing therefore I have been carefull to carry my self inoffensibly as to this It becomes sober persons to dispute with Civility It is best to confute an Opinion without railing at them that hold it In short I have been so just and equal as to give Astrology its due and no more It was truly said by an observing Person Est Astronomiae nobilis gloriosa Scientia si Clientelam suam intra Moderationis metas cohibeat quam si licentiore vanitate excedat non tam Philosophiae species quà m Impietatis decipula est The Knowledge of the Stars is a noble and glorious Science if it keepeth its Retainers within the bounds of Moderation but if it once leaps over those and runs into Vanity and Extravagancy it is no longer a part of Philosophy but becomes a wicked Engine to entrap Mankind Here is the right and the wrong side of the Art Take it in the former representation and it is worthy of our Thoughts and Studies as without doubt it was of those who lived in the first and best Times It is not improbable that Adam delivered it to his Children Thus the Iewish Antiquary relateth he instructed Seth in it and that Seth left the Rudiments of it inscribed on two Pillars A Learned Man telleth us of a Book yet extant of Enoch concerning Astrology And the Iewish Historian in his Antiquities before quoted acquainteth us that Abraham was skilled in this Art and was the first that taught it to the Egyptians a People rude and unlearned in that and all Sciences till he came among them This was the good and lawfull the natural and usefull Astrology but it was soon abused and corrupted as Philosophy Natural Magick and other Studies were The Devil at last stept in and with Superstition and Lies depraved the Practice of it And now many pretend to doe that by this Art which it is utterly impossible to doe either by it or any other Especially the Masters of Genethliacal Predictions are rash and daring and deliver things false and absurd having no ground for their Principles and Conclusions How often do these Barchocabs Sons of the Stars prove Barcoziba's Sons of a Lye and Imposture How frequently do those ignorant or inconsiderable People who consult them those who affect to have their Purses emptied so their Heads may be filled with pleasing Fancies how frequently are they heard to complain of these cheating Oracles Nor do I speak this to disparage and blacken the whole Science for I know it is usual with the Professours of an Art to carry it farther than is fitting and lawfull The common Astrologers undertake more than they know they can give a fair account of and they are not the onely People that doe so Some Physicians and Lawyers will put their Patients and Clients on mad Adventures and some that pretend to Divinity will assert any thing It