Did not our great Reformers use This Sidrophel to foreboad News And hath he not alway foretold Whate'er the close Committee would Made Mars and Saturn for the Cause The Moon for Fundamental Laws c. ERRATA PAge 4. line 38. for He read But p. 7. Marg. for L. H. r. lib. 4. p. 8. l. 17. r. many degrees better p. 9. l. 19. r. discoverer p. 12. Marg. r. 1652. p. 19. l. 33. for professor r. possessor p. 20. l. 2. r. 20. p. 29. l. 21.22 for Impostor r. Prophet p. 41. Marg. r. Tom. 2. p. 46. Marg. r. de Peste Some Literal Mistakes are left to the Readers Candor To W S n. THERE is Egregious Sir a Quack Astrologer in your House who some Years since Publish'd a Scandalous Reflection on me without either Reason or Provocation so to do which a Friend of mine imparting to me for I used not to mispend Time or Money in such empty Stuff with which his Pen hath surfeited the World I expostulated the Matter with him by Letter and demanded his Authority or Reason for the Reproach or an Acknowledgment of the Fault or Mistake if it were such but instead of giving me any manner of Satisfaction He in the next Publick Effort of his fertil Pen falls a railing and chattering like an obnoxious Criminal and attempted by dint of Scolding to Huff me out of those Resentments which he had great reason to fear would be severe upon him Nihil est audacius illis Reprehensis iram atque animos à crimine sumunt Indeed at first I was so little displeas'd to see my self treated in a manner so much to his own Shame and Opprobrium more than mine that I slighted the Bawling Brain-sick till I found him at me again And for want of new Matter giving the People twice Sodden Cabbage the same fulsom Stuff in a second Almanack which he had done in that wherein he first put that Falshood on Crato and me The Repetition of this groundless Affront after I had charged him with the Falshood thereof and he had tacitly allowed it himself made me steal a few Hours from other Avocations to do my self right and stop the Carreer of his Scurrilous Pen. But since he denied to take notice of my Private Challenge I could not readily think of a better way to gain that Point that by this Publick Address and Appeal to you who are so much alike and so near of kin to him But before we engage in so rough and unpleasant a way as a close and serious Discourse of this Matter will carry us to It may not be amiss to sweeten our Humours by some divertive Entertainment in the beginning of our Course and because some of his Quack Postures afforded me such Pleasure that I felt little of the pinching part of his Bum-fodder I will make you merry with a Specimen of his Worship's Wit both in Verse and Prose I begin with the former not only because the Pamphlet abounds therewith but for the excellency of it being the very quintessence of Helicon and Heart Blood and Guts of the Muses Homer Pindar Virgil or Cowley were meer Fools to Sidrophel or Watchum his Journeyman Poetaster not one of them ever made such bold strokes or can show such Flowers as I can out of his doggrel and fastidious Rhyme Renowned Prince Prevail and Prosper still And make like God's Decrees your Royal Will There 's a Bird for the King against whose Father's Tyranny and Arbitrary Actions he had just before bent his doughty Song and now He comes to admonish his Majesty to the same Practice Where is the Liberty and Property of Subjects so much talk'd of If they be governed by a Prince whose Will like the Decrees of Heaven is Absolute and Irresistible For so the Assembly in their Confession and Catechisms define Predestination or God's Decrees to be viz. destining or determining from all Eternity such to Heaven such to Hell L. Du Moulin allows scarce One in a Million to the former without foresight or respect had to Good or Evil in them but merely to show his Power and for his Glory To imitate this must be very Arbitrary and Tyrannical And like the Grand Louis his declared Reasons for making his last War on the Netherlands and spilling the Blood of so many Thousands not for their Fault but his Glory Thus in a roaring Song against Arbitrary Power which had tumbled King James out of his Throne He recommends to King William a Walk on the same dangerous Precipice You by your lightning Steel Give to the stupid Foe a sense to feel This is a whole Nosegay for his Majesty made up of as much Nonsense as ever was in so little Meeter He had reason to scorn assistance from the Muses in his first Poetical Sally in January he hath a Furnassus in his own Breast Excludit sanos Helicone Poetas Democritus He hath a peculiar sort of Poetry a Specimen of which may be thus Paraphras'd in Prose Your Sword made the living dead i. e. the Stupid feel cujus Contrarium The Gallick fury vanish'd like a Ghost And trembling stood before your Mighty Host I know not whether he intended this for Prophecy or History I am sure it 's neither Sence nor Truth The French have not shown themselves such Cowards of late as to lose their Courage at the sight of an Enemy But the Jest is their fury vanished and yet stood trembling There is a sort of a Contradiction in that vanishing and standing fury and trembling are different things This was in June It seems the hot Weather made the Monsieurs cold and the cool Weather heated them for in September he tells us they became brisk Threatned Revenge and boldly swore They valiant are when that no Foe is near But always sneak when Enemies appear This was verified at the Siege of Namur where our new Observator affirms That the Confederates in seeing the Town lost before their Faces won more Glory 1692. than the sneaking French who took it in despight and in sight of such Puissance as the Confederate Army Headed by so great an Heroe and Renowned Prince But his choicest Flowers are at the end of this Gallymawfry where he ingeniously mingles Poetry and Prophecy and both of so true a stamp as if Apollo had made him an Oracle as well as a Poet. For my part I don't know which to admire most the Prediction or the Rhyme Deceit 's the Line which some great Men do tread Death reigns among the Living not the Dead Both these are for Rhyme neither of them for Sense and may be thus Travestee'd There dwells no sense within the Poet's head For Death can't reign where 't hath not conquered No more than Life can do 't among the Dead With this scrap of my Muse we will pass by his Poetry and taste a bit of his Prose of which he gives us a most delightful Morsel in the third Paragraph of that Nonsense his
D. 1464. Arnoldus That Antichrist would appear 1345. and that A. D. 1174. the Arabian Jewish and Christian Astrologers all agreed that the utmost Desolation of the World by Tempest would happen A. D. 1186. How false these Predictions were time hath shewn the World Sextus ab Heminga collected thirty Eminent Nativities Calculated by the best Rules of this lying Art and they proved all false by Experience sad Events happening to those on whom the Heavens by the Rules of Astrology smiled and happiness to such as they frowned upon Cardan and Gaurichius both Calculated the Nativity of Hen. 2. who was slain in his fortieth Year Causin Holy Court p. 360. by a Splinter of Mongomery's Launce though one of them said He should live to an happy old age and the other that if he survived the great Climaterick Year he should live gloriously to 70. Both did the like with Luther and were both alike mistaken Cardan who as Gassendus saith was a Man of the best Wit Brains and Learning of any Astrologer spent an hundred hours on the Birth of our Edward 6th and after all that Industry was scandalously mistaken in his Fate Gassend p 748. lib. 1 de quad c. 2. Sect. 13. for He died in his 16th Year who by the Astrologer's Calculation should not be sick till his 25th and after that die of a Flux and a Fever Si vis divinare contrarium ei ad unguem dicito quod Astrologi aut pollicentur aut minitantur was the saying of Martianus not only commended but verified by Cardan Who after all his Skill confest that scarce one of their Predictions in forty proved true Lib. de Judic cap. 6. Dâ— More Myst p. 356. So that the best of them can't forbear owning themselves no Wizards they all seem Infatuated and more under the Power of Witchcraft than above it J. R. Camerarius was as much out in his Judgment upon the Nativity of Henry 4th and Gassendus relates how much Nostradamus was mistaken in his Genethliacs on the Scheme of Suffredus his Nativity For to him all things happened quite contrary to the Lying Predictions of that famous Astrologer Now if such Masters in the Art had not Skill enough to avoid such gross Mistakes What can be expected from such half witted Astrologers as Merlinus Liberatus and Sidrophel who every Year expose themselves to this Censure And as for Friend John the humble Servant of Vrania all the many Calculations in his Collect. Genet are accused of Falshood by his Brother Partridge Opus Reformatum 7. Their not foreseeing the most remarkable Events sufficiently shows the Vanity of their Art and their own Ignorance This is manifest in the great Accidents of the last Thirty Years the Reslauration of King Charles II. the Plague and Fire of London the treble War 1666. Oates 's Plot the great Snow 1681. and the Frost 1683. the Death of King Charles and the Fate of his Brother the Stupendous Revolution 1688. the Death of Pope Innocent XI the Dukes of Newburgh and Lorrain who were the grand Pillars of the Confederacy and died in one Year the great and Marvellous turn of Affairs in Austria Hungaria and the Morea the many terrible Earthquakes in Jamaica Sicilia Naples Flanders and London and the Death of Queen Mary were things our Astrologers foreknew no more than Lilly could Divine who shit at his Door Think you that Sidrophel so cunning a Conjurer as he would be thought if he had foreseen the time of that great Ladies Death would have placed Lawrels on her Brow and told her of their being always green but the Year before they withered Against this Reflection I know but one Instance they have to object and that is the Hints Mene-Tekel gave of King James's Death a little before the Abdication Suppose but not granting that to be true too it doth not follow because once in an Age among a thousand false Prophecies one is fulfilled that they are true Prophets more than that the Devil is not a Lyer because he once spake truth The veracity of them both is the same in despight of a single Instance each have to the contrary One Swallow doth not make a Summer When Astrologers like the Father of Lyes commonly fail and err in their Predictions it 's to be supposed that Chance or some other Intelligence not the Stars put them so rarely into the right Children and Fools speak truth saith the Proverb And the Scriptures tell us that the Devil himself by the Miraculous Power of Christ had such a force put upon his Nature as to do it once when he acknowledged our Saviour to be the Son of God Astrologers may therefore be allowed to resemble them in this as they do in all things else though like common Lyers they are not to be believed till their Truth becomes apparent by experience and that God wot will be but seldom If it be a good Argument to prove the Truth of Astrology that some Predictions have been verified by the same sort of Logick it 's to be proved false because their Divinations are oftener so than otherwise as is confessed by Cardan and proved by Picus Heminga Gassendus Chambers and many others Mene-Tekel not only got the Author a great Name but patcht up the decayed Credit of Astrology among the Populace because they could not see the Spirit by which he Divin'd But wiser Men knew he Predicted by Intelligence with the Contrivers not the Planets The Stars that presignified it to him dwelt on Earth not in the Twelve Houses of Heaven And they perhaps did not err who lookt on the whole thing as a Political Device to dispose the Minds of People to that great Change We all know that he fail'd in the Death of King James the Employment of his Gallows and many other particulars And he that knew the great and universal discontent in the Nation at the Management of Affairs under that unfortunate Prince and how many were engaged to dethrone him might without Astrology foresee as much as he I know a Great Man who although no Conjurer told me as much and as soon as Mene-Tekel did of that business The Laplanders may easily foretel a Storm they are about to raise and he that is the Instrument of Mischief is best able to Predict the consequence of his Design Like those Skilful Poysoners Naturalists * Theophr Hist Plant. l. 9 c. 6. Boyl Nat. Phil. p. 264. Medela Medie p. 103. Ramsey of Poyson p. 10. and Travellers tell us of who contrive the fatal Dose so that the Victim shall not die in many Years after taking it and then not miss an hour Such a Pandora may easily turn Astrologer as well as Poysoner and foretel the time of the Patient's Exit more certainly than any Genethliac by the Nativity We are told that the Indians have and Caesar Borgia had this pernicious Skill and it 's suspected that there were in England some who without Astrology
knew many days before King Charles was sick when he should die By the same way Dr. Bates Cromwell's Physician became a truer Prophet than Thomas Goodwin his Chaplain the Dose the one gave being too hard for the Prayers the other made for that Vsurper Though they were alike confident the one of his Death the other of his Recovery yet the former went on the surest grounds as appeared in the Event Thuanus Scaliger and Gassendus say that Cardan lost his Life to save his Credit for having Predicted the time of his own Death he starved himself to verifie it Magastrom p. 173. Dr. More Myst p. 358. or else being sure of his Art He took that to be his fatal day and by those apprehensions made it so And I do not want a learned Author to back my belief that great men have untimely died by some Artifice of the Astrologers for the same reason Domitian having Decreed to banish all the Astrologers they conspired his Death and one of them Ascletarion Sueton. lib. 12. Sect. 15. told him when it should be The time appointed happening while Apollonius Tyanaeus was Disputing in the Schools at Ephesus he suddenly stopt and cryed out well done Stephanus Kill the Tyrant And then told the Audience that the Emperor was wounded This contributed highly to the Fame of that Impostor although it prov'd him such no more than the Duke of Braganza or one of the Priests who contrived and managed the Revolt of Portugal if they had foretold it A Son of Nostradamus told the Men of Friuli that he was sent by his Father to premonish them of the ruin of their City by Fire such a Night They believing the Oracle and watching narrowly to prevent the Conflagration found him and his Accomplices scattering Fire-Balls in divers parts of the Town Pope Hildebrand was one who Studied and Practised this Art and yet had so little Skill or Confidence in it that he hired several Ruffians to Murther the Emperor Hen. 4. at the time he Predicted his Death Acts and Mon. Vol. 1. p. 199. Vol. 2. p. 170. This we are told by Cardinal Beno of his own Religion Beside Fox and others of ours Ollerius Barcinonensis foretold the Assassination of Hen. 4. of France by Ravaillac from a secret Intimation of the Design known to some Grandees of Spain and others of the Court of Rome who were no Astrologers The Author of the Turkish Spy tells us that Fr. Corvinus the famous Italian Astrologer the Night before that Murther said on the top of his House in Florence That to morrow the greatest King in Europe would be kill'd But says the Intelligence he had was from Earth not Heaven or the Stars And Merlinus Liberatus will not allow his Friend John to have any other foresight of the Prince of Wales his Birth than by the Transactors of that Mysterious Affair that is by the same way and means himself knew what he Published in his Mene-Tekel For without the help of Satan or the Stars any one may Predict Events if they are in the Contrivance or have Intelligence with those that are so 8. Their Ignorance of their own Affairs Misfortunes and Fates before they happen proves them unable to foretell that of other Men. Astrologers saith Agrippa while they gaze on the Stars for direction c. fall into Ditches Wells and Gaols and like Thales become the Sport and Derision of silly Women and Slaves Astra tibi Aethereo pandunt sese omnia Vati Omnibus quae sunt fata futura monent Omnibus ast Vxor quòd se tua publicat id te Astra licet videant omnia nulla monent was an Epigram made by Sir Tho. More R. Castro Med. Polit. l. 2. c. 2. and I fancy our witty Hudibras was as sharp upon Sidrophel and Wachum in English as the other was in Latin Quoth Hudibras the Stars determin You are my Prisoners base Vermin Could they not tell you that as well As what I came to know foretel By this what Cheats you are we find Who in your own Concerns are blind The Learned Mr. Purchas tells us that the Death of Hagag a Sarazen King Pilgrim p. 226. was foretold by an Astrologer who did not foresee his own for as soon as he made his Prognostick of the King his own Head was struck off Sir John Chardin in the History of his Persian Voyage Page 40. 131. 132. Appen 25. tells us That Astrologers are in very great esteem among that People And that they alway crown their Kings in the minute they direct And if after that the King be unhappy he is crowned again on a new chosen time Causin Holy Court as Solyman the Third was so crowned while he was in that Country But the Astrologers often mistake and are as often put to Death King Hen. 7. understanding that an Astrologer had foretold the punctual time of his Death sent for him and enquired where he the Conjurer should keep his next Christmas He answered that he knew not Then quoth the King I do without Astrology tell you it shall be in Gaol And thither he sent and kept him long enough to see by Experience that the King was a truer Prognosticator than himself J. Galeazus Duke of Milan treated another Impudent Astrologer with more severity for having Predicted that he should long survive that Prince he Ordered the Wretch to be immediately hanged Such another Story is in the Anthologia of Diophantes the great Astrologer Gassend done in Verse Gaurichius did not foresee by the Stars that he was to suffer on the Rack nor Cardan that his Son was to be hanged for Poysoning his Wife I was personally acquainted with Dr. W. Ramsey who publickly boasted of Skill enough in Astrology to foreknow a Mans Fate particularly whether he were born to die rich Chr. Astrology cap. 6. Sect. 6 be fortunate in Marriage c. and depended so much on it as to assure himself of great Wealth and happy Nuptials who yet died poor in a Gaol after he had Marry'd such a Wife as provoked him to write that Satyr against Matrimony called Conjugium Conjurgium That Beelzebub of Astrologers W. Lilly was wholly Ignorant of the Restauration when he wrote those Trayterous Libels which forfeited his Neck to the Gallows Friend John was so certain that Popery would prevail Opus Reform p. 85. and eradicate the Northern Heresy and so Ignorant of the late Revolution that he not only persuaded a Gentleman to turn Papist for these Reasons but embarkt himself in that Interest and thereby drew such a Storm on his Head as he would have avoided if his Art had given him the least Prospect of the right way or had not led him into the wrong Would Sidrophel think you have undergone the hazard and trouble of a Voyage to America to repair a broken Fortune if the Stars had let him see that he should have returned no wiser nor
richer than he went out Pray ask that Lying Astrologer who so often writes as if Conscience and Religion not Debt and Beggary drove him thither whether it was not he that raised so many Devils as during his abode there and since have possest the choicest Saints in New-England To conclude All that pack of Fools and Knaves who pretend by Judicial Astrology to foresee good and bad fortune to hit opportunities and nick lucky minutes for making things happy confute themselves being for the most part hated scandalous little needy fellows the very abjects of that fortune whose favours they pretend to foresee and manage 9. Astrology cannot be true because Men born at one time and in one Horoscope and Constellation meet divers often contrary Fates Kings and Slaves Lords and Beggars have been born in one minute Twins begotten at one Coition and yet of different * See many singular Instances of the different Fates and Dispositions of many famous Twins in Mr. Chambers p. 53. c. Dr. More 's Myst Iniq. p. 357. Heyden p. 252. Sexes Humours and Fortunes Of Seed thrown into the Ground in one moment some have taken root some been eaten by Birds and Worms and some proved fruitless A Man born at once by the Rules of Astrology should die all together But contrariwise some Men survive their Ears Noses Hands Feet Legs and Arms many Years Nor is it so in Genethliacs only but in Judicial and Horary Astrology also Ships commencing Voyages in one minute and Mens Journeys in one moment have had different success If two Men or more about to fight a Duel or run a Race come in one moment to enquire of the Astrologer their success by the Rules of that Art both must win or lose conquer or be conquered because they both put the Question together So if two or three Men ride or run a Race and in one moment start forth if Astrology were true they must both win or both lose which cannot be 10. The death of Multitudes of Men in one minute some in one moment in one place by one cause cannot happen by the Rules of Astrology Because the Stars never concur to such an Identical Fate in so many thousand Nativities Sir W. Raleigh p. 153. as theirs who fell in the Battel between Semiramis and Stourobates where Four Millions were slain on one side besides the many Thousands which fell on the other The Army of Xerxes when they pass'd the Hellespont consisted of Seventeen Hundred Thousand Men Idem l. 3. cap. 6. the greater part of which fell in the Battels of Platea and Mycale In the Scripture we read of 320000 slain at one time Joshua cap. 11. Chron. 2.16 on one side and 500000 at another beside the many who perished on the side of the Vanquishers 180000 Assyrians died by the hand of an Angel at one time in the days of Hezekiah Are these things accountable by the Rules of Genethliacal Astrology If the small distance that might be between their Fates be an Evasion What think you of vaster numbers who have perished together in a moment by one accident The Hundreds blown up with Opdam the Thousands swallowed by the Earth with Corah c. in the Wilderness and of late in Jamaica Sicilia c. or the Inundations of Deucalion Holland c. or the Flood of Noah Can their Fates be found Predicted by so long a Conspiracy of the Stars as must be in the many days in which those Multitudes of Nations were born Can the different Births of so many Myriads of Men have in the compass of an Hundred Years such conspiring Horoscopes as shall determine them all to one sort of Death and puncto of dying Can the Heaven for so many millions of minutes as these Multitudes were Born in have so constant and agreeable an Aspect Dr. More 's Myst p. 357. as there must be if Astrology be true to determine the Fate of such infinite Numbers to the same Numerical time and Identical manner of Death I call them infinite Numbers believing with Sir Tho. Brown Pseud Ep. l. 6. c 6. that the World was then as full of People as now 11. If the Stars Influence or Coelestial Constellations beget such Accidents as occur on Earth How comes it that when the like Horoscopes recurr as were at the Genesis of Alexander Caesar or Judas Men most famous for Piety Art Valour Poetry c. or infamous for Wickedness have not been again produced 12. If Human Actions be directed by the Stars Whence is it that National Customs of Food Cloathes Religion Marriages Diseases Languages Laws Tempers Colours Constitutions c. come to be peculiar and constant to each Kingdom when the Influence of Heaven on them is so various The Heavens change but the People do not The People of the greatest part of the Earth are black the Wind blows constantly one way for Eleven Months of the Year and the Weather during that time Serene without Rain or Storms And in that Month varieth with Tempests and great Showers or Floods from the Sky This cannot be from the Stars 13. The Astronomancers talk much of the untimely death of Picus and other Writers against their Art as if it were a Revenge the Stars took on such as derogated from their Dominion But have they not as much Power to Prevent as to Revenge such Injuries done their Sovereignties If all our Actions or those only of Importance be directed by the Stars Is it not absurd to suppose they should inspire so many great Fathers Philosophers Divines and the most Learned Men the World hath owned with Disposition or Ability to write against them and single out one or two of them to punish and suffer so many others who have as much or more affronted their Deities to escape and prosper 14. The Exclamations made by Men Great Learned and Good some of which have studied your Art to the bottom gives great reason to think it Fallacious and Wicked St. Augustin Calvin Perkins Briggs Heminga Dr. Humes Angelis and other Divines Picus Mirandula J. Scaliger C. Agrippa Mr. Freke and many Philosophers who were Famous Astrologers call it Fallacious Fabulous Ridiculous and Vain and its Professors Cheats Impious Factious and Dangerous in a Commonwealth Beside Multitudes of the most Famous Men of all Learned Professions who have decryed it as a Delusion and exposed the Vanity Falsity and Wickedness of such as pretend to Prognosticate by it Among the Fathers not one of them was for it but Origen Tertullian said that it was invented by the Devil and he banish'd Heaven for it St. Ambrose calls it wicked and vain St. Basil St. Jerom and Epiphanius call it foolish Madness invented by Satan So doth St. Cyprian St. Chrysostom Eusebius Lactantius St. Gregory and almost all the Fathers wrote against it Aquinas calls it a Devilish Art Luther Junius Melancton P. Martyr Gualterus Willit Causin B. Charlton M. Chambers Mr. Purchas Bishop Taylor
them all Plutarch Tacitus Suetonius c. say that Otho was induced to the Murther of Galba by the Astrologers Magomaâ—â—â— 346. who told him he was to succeed him in the Imperial Throne And by the same way Stephanus was prompted to Assassinate Domitian Cambysis was Murthered by two Astrologers Plutarch Alcibiades to obtain his Ambitious aim suborned them to encourage the Athenians to a fatal War with Sicily Many Astrologers combined to dethrone Valens and set up Theodorus a Pagan Wieri praestig c. 10. p. 2â— by pretending they found his Name prenoted by the Stars but the Emperor not only slew those Trayterous Diviners but as the Historians say all those whose Names began with Theod. that he might be sure to baffle their Prediction By such Men and encouragement from the Stars it was that Valentinian the Younger was murthered Libo Densius encouraged by Firmius Catus to make Insurrection against Tiberius in confidence of success by Astrological Prediction was defeated and then slew himself and such was the Foundation of Catiline's Conspiracy The Story of Caracalla is very famous He while in Mesopotamia being Jealous of a Plot against him sent to the Roman Astrologers to be informed They accused Macrinus his faithful Praefect of a Conspiracy which nothing but his Death could frustrate This Answer coming while the Emperor was intent on some sport 〈◊〉 gave it Macrinus to read and he finding his innocent Life in danger by this trick of the Astrologers secured it by the murther of Caracalla of which he had not thought before Such Diviners had assured the Wife of Pheroras that the Line of Herod would extinguish Joseph Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 3. and her Husband succeed to the Crown They to assist their Stars and work out their own good Fortune conspired against the King's Life and lost all their own by the stroke of Justice Mahomet the III. had a Rebellion raised against him by the Astrologers Purchas Pilgr p. 276. Predicting that his Son should overcome and succeed him But all proved false and the Son Astrologers and Rebels were slain The D. of Visco was by the Astrologers assured of his having the Crown of Portugal after the Death of Don Juan el Grandes But impatient of gaining it he Rebelled against him a first time and was both Defeated and Pardoned Upon a second Attempt he fell by the Hand he would have untimely ruined Essay 11. lib. 1 M. Montaigne tells us that the Marquess of Saluza the French General in Piedmont in the Days of Francis the First having all imaginable Advantage against the Enemy was notwithstanding so terrified by the Astrologers who had Predicted the Success of Charles the Fifth and the Ruin of France that he basely Revolted to his own perpetual Infamy and Ruin We will leave Foreign Instances of the mischief done by Astrologers to Princes and Kingdoms and now take a view of what hath been wrought by them in our own Country so long famous for giving Credit to such Heathenish false Prophets as will appear by the following History The Scots have been often thus betrayed into Rebellion Speed p. 672. and the Murther of Kings The Earl of Athol was prompted to Conspire against James I. by their assuring him that he should be Crowned in that Kingdom and true it was for the King understanding what instigated him to Rebel he caused a Crown of red hot Iron to be put on his Head by which and some other Tortures he ended his wretched Life Fuller's Worthies of Wales p. 19. The Welch have a Saying published by one of them that beside God there is no Diviner and yet so far pursued their hard Fate that by the Instigations of those Astrological Boutefeaus who had possess'd Prince Leolin that He should wear the Crown of Brutus he first refused to attend the Coronation of Edward I. then Rebell'd against him and Invaded England but was Vanquish'd and Slain His whole Family extirpated His Title annexed to the Crown of England and the Welch subjected to its Laws ever since Afterward in the Days of Henry IV. Owen Glyn Dower Dwy became inveigled by a Prophecy of Merlin's Dr. Powel's Hist p. 386. whose Name Lilly and Partridge affect that the time was come wherein the Britains by his Assistance should recover their Ancient Freedom and Liberty Rebelled made War and were overthrown and curbed by such Laws as Dr. Fuller compares to those of Draco written in Blood In our part of this Isle we find Peter Pomfret attempted to raise a Commotion against King John by buzzing into the Peoples Ears certain Prophecies from the Stars And in the Reign of Edward VI. by the same Device Fox's Acts and Monuments in â—d 6. the People were made believe That there should no more Kings Reign in England That all the Nobility should be destroyed and the Government fall into the Hands of four Commoners A Prophecy much like that of Sidrophel's but express'd in plainer English Upon which they Rebelled in Devonshire Oxford Buckingham Norfolk and York to the great hazard of the unsettled Kingdom and Protestant Religion then as young and weak as the Prince who was Head of both In the Reign of his Famous Sister and Successor Sir W Churchill's Div. Brit. p. 313. Q. Elizabeth they played the same Part with her for the Papists deluded by Astrological Predictions of her short Reign were easily drawn into many desperate Conspiracies against Her to the great Peril of that Renowned Life and Government How accessary they were to that grand Rebellion against Charles the Martyr to the great Detriment and eternal Scandal of the Protestant Religion as the Statue 12 Car. 2.30 most sensibly expresseth it appeared by the Almanacks and other Fire-brand Libels published and scattered about the Nation by those two great Incendiaries Lilly and Culpeper After the Restauration of his Son they continued to Plot against the Government upon the same bottom For if we may believe the Narratives of Dugdale and Smith Page 26. the Astrologers having told the Jesuits that King Charles would outlive his Brother they resolved to cross the Stars and cut him off that the Duke might Succeed to effect their long projected Design of introducing Popery and hence sprang that Plot which caused so much noise and fear to this divided Kingdom The History of the late unhappy Duke of Monmouth shews how much he was seduced by this wicked Art and instigated to that Rebellion which ruined him and endangered the wellfare of us all How much the like Design hath been agitated since by the like Men I have sufficiently shown Tacit Ann. 12. lib. 2. Dion in vit Dom. Vlpian de Offic. Proc. lib. 7. Sueton lib. 9. C. Agrip. van c. 31. Dr. Cave Eccl. Introd p. 22. Indeed in all Ages and most Nations they have been so pernicious to the common Wellfare that as I have proved they were often driven out of Rome and Italy in