for any other Matters I shall leave them to be the Subject of succeeding intended Essays I could likewise give a further Confirmation to the said Truths by examining the Genitures of sundry Persons who have marryed and have had a Direction for their so doing according to the fore-going Rule But as they are still living or died some way unnaturally the radical and directional Signs whereof do greatly differ from those of the other as well as from those many blind Rules already given by many for judging it so has there happen'd no Direction yet or not before their said violent Deaths which according to my Rule could denote a natural Expiration But to avoid Prolixity and Superfluity I shall do this only by the Nativity of the present French King and that not so much in order to the said Confirmation as to clear a great Mistake or Uncertainty which the Generality of the Professors and Students of these three Kingdoms are under concerning the true Genesis of this crafty Monarch This raking and designing Prince was Royally Wedded when aged about 20 Years and 6 Months at the Access of his Vertical Cusp to the Trine of Jupiter Lord of his Seventh House whose Qualifications here are such as may render him fully effective of that Accident And as this great Native is yet alive so has there yet happen'd no Direction in this Celestial Transcript which according to my Rules for Death of all sorts could be in any manner mortal neither is there any such likely to happen till the Ascendant comes to the Quartile of Saturn who is not only Lord of the Sixth but otherwise killingly qualified also And this said dangerous Direction takes place about the Sixty second Year of his Age about which time the precise Year whereof may be discover'd by other Means but not by Direction alone he will certainly and naturally expire in spight of all the Means that can possibly be us'd to save him Whose Death though eagerly thirsted by many who publickly profess this Science and who by what they have already done concerning it do declare they would readily and publickly predict it if they could yet do plainly appear unable and therefore afraid to do it thereby visibly bewraying their own Ignorance and Insufficiency for all such Undertakings and Performances Thus have I compleated all that for the present I intended concerning the two Directional Propositions aforesaid fully purposing by God's Permission and Assistance to do as much for the Confirmation of the other Propositions also and for the Detection and Illustration of all other Principles and Practical Rules of this Science And though in handling the fore-going Genitures I have neither consider'd some Circumstances of some of the given Accidents nor used some other and further Means of Correction which would yield a somewhat nearer Agreement than will result from what is already done yet these single and only preparative Rectifications and the manifested near and regular Agreement of Directions with Accidents are enough to render the Propositions strongly probable Which is all that I either designed or desired A Particular Account and Enumeration of the several Sources Causes and Occasions of the many erroneous Principles Doctrines and Aphorisms now in or falsly father'd upon the Heavenly Science of Prognostical Astronomy 1. MAny are so foolishly and carelesly credulous as to receive for absolutely true and certain whatsoever has been deliver'd as such by the more ancient and more famous Authors in this Science without either receiving from the said Authors or making for themselves any Experimentary Proof or Demonstration of its Verity and this even in the Grounds and first Rudiments hereof Which also are in some Particulars variously deliver'd some saying one thing and some another as guided by their own bare Fancies by them mis-called Reason without the least Testimony from any certain or rational Experience 2. Having espoused such affirmed Principles as they fancifully conceit rather than solidly find and know to be genuine they then upon Supposition or rather groundlesly confident Conclusion of their being so do by the bare Light of their own weak Reason without taking or seeking any Help from Experience were they able to make a right Use of it forge such Rules as to them seem suitable to those Principles and accordingly because the Ninth House is said to signifie Religion which they only know by Reading or Hear-say therefore the Lord of the First in the Ninth or the Lord of the Ninth in the First must needs denote a holy gracious Native And a Thousand more such shallow and daily thwarted Whimseys 3. The very Proper Names of the Signs given them only for Distinction by such as little understood their Qualities and merely because at that time possessed by some Constellations very imperfectly resembling the Things by whose Names they were called are by many very ridiculously made a Rule whereby to judge of their signified Natures and Dispositions and of the Inclinations and Propensions of those Natives whose personal Significations are placed in them And therefore if in Taurus the Party must be laborious if in Leo fierce and cruel if in Scorpio false and treacherous if in Aquarius gentle and courteous and the like of all other Signs and for the most part quite contrary to what they really are as are these Whimseys concerning the Four here mentioned And the same is done concerning the Planets also as confidently as if Adam had been their God-father 4. This Science is inspected and studied by many not in any vertuous Inclination to consider the Works of God and contemplate the wonderful Harmony hereby discernible between Fate and Nature and to be thereby serviceable to their Generation but merely in hope of reaping Profit to themselves by the Practice of it if they see any likelihood or possibility of so doing Or through a sneaking Itch of Praise and Applause as thinking that if they can but truly predict Things to come it will be accounted a glorious Business and make them be every where gazed at with Admiration And all whose Studies are influenc'd by such Ends do generally prove but ignorant Botchers in any Mystical Science whatsoever 5. The most of those who profess this Science or pretend an Affection thereunto do busie themselves in so many other Arts and Studies beside no way pertinent or necessary hereunto and only because they are gainful creditable or fashionable that it is not possible for them to be compleat or competent in any but especially in this which is of all others the most mysterious and sublime yet is commonly afforded but the very-least part of their Time and Endeavours though vast and profound enough to employ the whole of both Concerning which so much has been already delivered elsewhere that I need not say much here 6. Many who make a deeper Search hereinto than by bare Speculation and conceitedly rational Deduction and Inference and who spend some Time and Pains in grounding their Knowledge upon their
many several Significators and Promissors as aforesaid they take that seemingly resemblant Direction to signifie the Accident which in their Estimate Figure happens pretty near the time of it as in such a Variety some or other of them cannot fail to do and do frequently assign Accidents to Directions which they grant passed over without any such Effects in many other Nativities even when the Promissor had the same or other equivalent Qualifications in both And in each Nativity in which they assign any Accident to a Direction they allow many other Directions to pass over without the like Effects though they assign the fame unto them in several other Nativities By all which Means it is very common and easie to find a near Agreement of Directions with Accidents or rather impossible to miss of it at any Hour of the Day how far soever from the true Time of Birth and oftentimes much better at a wrong Time than the right one so that a certain Rectification is by these Methods impossible Whereas according to the Method by which I practise the Grounds whereof I have discover'd from sundry Genitures of both my own and others Observation and Enquiry and whose both given Year Day and Hour appear and are proved by several observed and related Circumstances to have been very true and the Moment nearly also it is scarce ever possible to find an Agreement of Directions with Accidents to any reasonable or tolerable nearness but at the true Time of Birth only at which time they never fail to agree and that also with as great an Exactness in Time as can be shewâ—d by any other Method whatsoever All which is abundantly sufficient to evince the Truth and Excellency of this These things being premised and the aforesaid Objection clearâ—d I shall now proceed to a Discussion of the Geniture of the Prince above-named who is certainly known and generally granted to have been born on Saturday May the â—â—th in the Year of Christ according to Vulgar Account 1630â— near about Noon some saying a little before and others a little after But Noon we may take for an Estimate sufficiently exact in regard my Rule of Rectification is sufficient to lead me to the true Time of Birth were it a whole Hour or two sooner or later for that about that time of the Day it yields no Agreement of Directions with Accidents but at one certain Point of Time only Wherefore finding that at the said Estimate Time the Mid-Heaven is possess'd by 17 Degrees and an half of the Sign Gemini and that this Native was Royally married at almost 32 Years old and continued till Death a Husband to the same Party without either Divorce or open Dislike or Repentance I consider whether about that time of Day and by the aforesaid Measure of Time the Mid-Heaven do meet with any good Direction to the Body or Beam of the Lord of the Seventh or of any Planet who upon Rectification by such a Direction will be found to be Lord of the Seventh at a distance agreeable to such an Age And accordingly I find a Trine of Jupiter who is not only Lord of the Seventh in the Estimate Figure but also upon Rectification by the said Measure of Time and Age of Marriage is found to be so too and gives the annexed Face of Heaven for the true Positure at Birth with so small a Distance from the given or estimate Time as is very consistent and reconcilable with the common and daily discernible unexactness of Clocks Watches and Ocular Observations Thus have I rectified this Royal Geniture by one of the said grand Accidents And though many others do give us many Nativities for true and certain upon only one single Correction yet I hold it not sufficient nor satisfactory to do so And therefore let us examine whether according to the fore-given Rule there happen in this Figure corrected as before any dangerous Direction of the Ascendent to the Lord of the Sixth at or near about the time of this Prince's Death Upon which Examination I find that the Ascendant comes to the Body of Saturn Lord of the Sixth nearly about that time without any Discrepancy between the Distances of the Directions and of the Accidents but what is and has always been allowed of as usual by all the most skilful and experienc'd Artists in all Ages And these two Directions do mutually confirm each other not only by agreeing so nearly in Time with their ascribed Effects but also by their being Lords of those Houses which according to the traditionally delivered frequently experienced and generally received Doctrines of this Science do signifie the Means of the said Accidents And having also such Qualifications and Positions in this present Geniture as are sufficient to render them effectual to those Purposes But whereas some Currish-minded Pretenders whose Annual immodest Railleries seem to insinuate that they use this Science only as a Tool of Obloquy and Contention may captiously object That I assign this Prince's Betrothal rather than his Marriage to the proper Direction only for a Shift because it better agrees with that for his Death I answer That instead of jarring at my so doing they rather ought as undoubtly every true Lover of Heavenly Knowledge will be thankful for giving so fair an Occasion of making so useful an Enquiry whether Sponsation or Consummation especially when considerably distant or that the former happens and never the latter be the Time of the Direction's Incidence To the Decision of which Matter though I could give some further Light yet this here offer'd shall suffice for the present I Might here proceed to a further Demonstration of the Genuine Truth and Certainty of these Rectifications by particularly shewing the wonderfully exact Agreement which according to sound and never-failing Rules which generally hold true in all Nativities appears and is to be found between the Positions Configurations and the other unmentioned Directions of each of the said three Genitures and the known Fates Dispositions Events and Circumstances of the respective Natives And the like I could also do by the Figures of their several Revolutions for the Affairs and Occurrences of each particular Year wherein any thing remarkable happen'd or was done As also by producing and discussing the Genitures of many other deceased Persons and shewing the great and near Agreement of their Death and other Occurrences according to a single and determinate Rule for each with the Quality and Time of the Directions which by the said Rule do signifie them But partly to omit a Superfluity of Testimonies as unnecessary and partly because the Time or Manner of Death of some of them is controverted or void of Authentick Testimony and partly because divers of them never married or that I have received no Account of the Time when and chiefly for that I intend not to instance any Particulars but what I give a threefold Proof of which the fore-going three Genitures will not afford
the Time and Manner of his final End or Death As being a Branch of this Divine Skill which many account of all others the most useful and therefore is by most Modern Professors chiefly pursu'd and cultivated And in the performance hereof it will be safest and surest and consequently fittest to begin with those Actions and Events which are common to all or the greater part of Mankind and are also the Extremities of their several Kinds and therefore most obvious to Experimentation and their signifying Particulars most remarkable and discernable Which said most common Actions and Events I affirm to be Marriage and Natural Death Of which the former is the Extremity of Love and Courtship and the latter of Disease and Sickness and being both of them incident to very many their true Signs in the Heavens are much more speedily and easily discoverable than are the Signs of Chances that happen only to some few and are therefore the surest means of Genethliacal Rectification Moreover the better to prepare the Way to go through with this weighty Task I must in the first place require my Reader to be moderately if not perfectly versed in and acquainted with at least some one Treatise introductive to this Science of which there are already so many published even in the Vulgar Tongue of this Kingdom by Mr. Lilly Mr. Gadbury Mr. Coley and many others that all who have them not already may very speedily provide themselves And nextly I shall lay down some fundamental Maxims or Propositions whereon to raise and firmly superstruct my intended Genethliacal Edifice some of which are wholly novel to the World and though others of them have languidly glimpsed to the Apprehensions of some few Authors yet so very dimly seldomly and uncertainly that they plainly appear to be doubtful and unresolved whether they were true or no or any whit more true than some which by others are opposed unto them Whereas I certainly know and shall in due time abundantly prove them to be beyond all Exception 1. That the only true effectual significant and Divinely ordained as well as most rational Division of the Heavens into those Prognosticative Partitions which Astronomers term Houses is that which divides the visible or apparent Sphere of each particular place or point of the Earth whether City Town House or other place of Birth or Residence into twelve equal Shares or Portions by Lines meeting at the North and South Points of the Horizon and equally distant in the said apparent Sphere's own Vertical Aequator or Circle passing from East to West 2. That those Essential Dignities and Debilities and Geocentrical Configurations of the Planets handed down to us in these after Ages by Ptolomy from the ancient Chaldean and Aegyptian Astronomers are sufficient of themselves alone to signifie all things properly significable by such Matters either in a Nativity or any other Face of Heaven and are also the only true and significant Dignities Debilities and Configurations by Almighty God ordained so to do The Keplerian Aspects Placidian Familiarities and pretended Planitary Dignities and Debilities vended to the World by some late and modern Authors being only the hasty groundless ill digested Fancies of rash and idle Brains and single vain-glorious persons who though but little read or skilled in this Science and as little acquainted with the true Methods of making Experience therein to which by reason of their many other Studies they afford but the very least part of their Time and Endeavours would nevertheless pretend themselves and fain be thought able by their very few and seldom Searches and Trials to discover the true Grounds and Principles of this Science better than the whole manyaged Succession of the zealous and industrious Ancients who wholly devoted their Time and Endeavours thereunto 3. That in all Humane Genitures whether of Males or Females the first Marriage is always signified by some Direction of the Mid-Heaven to the Body or some Ray of the Lord of the Seventh House agreeable to the Quality and Success of the Marriage who or whatsoever Planet the said Lord of the Seventh be For Saturn and Mercury are in this case as effectual and significant as the Moon or Venus and these latter no more so than the former but only by their being Lords of the Seventh and never but when they are so neither do the Directions of the Ascendent Sun or Moon to any Planet or Aspect whatsoever ever produce or signifie Wedlock as shall in due time and place be plainly proved 4. That Natural Death by Sickness or Distemper of Body is in all Nativities of whatsoever Kind or Sex denoted and accomplished by some Direction of the Cusp of the Ascendent or First House to the Malefical Body or Beam of some Lord of the Sixth House or else to the Moon 's Southern Node commonly called the Dragon's-Tale And in this case the evil Aspects even of Jupiter and Venus are full as efficacious as those of Saturn or Mars neither of whom have any Power or Significancy of Natural Death but when they are Lords of the said Sixth House and then so have the other five Planets also that is to say when any of them is Lord of the Sixth The Directions of the Sun or Moon and much less of the pretended parts of Life or Fortune being never effectual or significant of Natural Death and the ordinary vulgar Rules of chusing Givers of Life and Death being utterly fabulous and extreamly erroneous 5. That not all such Directions as those mentioned in the two last preceding Propositions are always effective of Marriage or Natural Death but only when the promising or Menacing Planet is qualified with some certain Positions and other Circumstances which are requisite to render the said Direction effectually Mortal or Conjugal and free from certain others that may obstruct or impede its being so without which aid requisite Qualification and Vacancy of which there are several Kinds that shall in due time and place be declared the Native may persist in Life and Singlehood notwithstanding any such Direction The Ignorance or Inconsideration of which Assertion hath caused some late and modern Professors to run headlong into the greatest Absurdities vainly weakly and rashly concluding that because in their Estimate or Corrected Figures the Ascendent over-pass'd the Body or ill Aspect of ♄ or ♂ in some Nativities especially wherein according to their rules it was not Giver of Life therefore such a Direction could never kill in any 6. That though Rectification by either of these said Accidents if duly and discreetly performed will yield and produce the true Figure of Birth so sufficiently near as that Judgment may by a skillful Artist be safely given thereof both as to the Native's general Fate and Time of his particular Actions and Occurrences without any considerable Errour in point of Time but what may be redressed by other Means yet is it not to be expected that from any Figure so rectified the very Year or
Month and much less the Day of any other fore-going or following Accident will be exactly pointed out by Directions only so as that the Directional Distance between any two promising or threatning Bodies or Aspects directed to and the Temporal Distance between the two Accidents signified by them should especially in Accidents which happen many Years asunder be always punctually and precisely equal which I clearly find they never are though never considerably differing but near enough for any necessary Occasion of the Fore-knowledge of such Matters For albeit that the precise Year and Month and possibly also the Day of an Action or Event may be deduced and discovered from a Geniture so rectified yet not by the alone Directions of the Nativity as some have fansied and suggested who had their Measure of Time and Method of Directing been never so true and genuine as it is evident they were not yet the Errour in their Planets places would have thwarted such a Co-incidence and was manifestly the Cause of that punctual Agreement in some few Directions and Accidents which they therefore fondly concluded to be universal to all and for which the best Tables yet extant are insufficient These are all the fundamental Maxims besides what are common to the whole Science and already publick from other Hands which I think needful whereon to raise my intended Edifice and which as I have found them most indubitably true by a clear and manifold Experience so shall I by the same declare and evince them to be so to others also even when and where it may to many seem altogether impossible And though I could discharge my fore-promised Explication by many experienced Nativities not only of my own private Enquiry which by many Circumstances I find and am assured to have been nearly estimated and by which I have discovered the fore-given Propositions to be most true and certain but also by many others already published by several and in which I find the said propositions to hold true also amply discussing and illustrating each individual Geniture by instancing all its known and considerable Accidents and assigning them to their proper Directions and shewing the strange Agreement that is between them both as to Quality Time and all other Circumstances save only the forementioned immaterial temporal Discrepancy otherwise easily redressable yet shall I confine my self to the number of only three and those also already published by others and such as are credibly said and granted to have been observed with great or moderate Care and shall by me be Astronomically proved to have been so accordingly at least near enough for an intelligent Practitioner truly to correct and reduce them With this said Number and Quality of Nativities I do the rather chuse to begin my Explications partly that none may suspect or object them to be of my own Timing or Estimation a Crime wherewith some how truly I know not are now-a-days by others largely and loudly taxed and partly because that as a Threefold Cord is not easily broken so a Threefold Testimony is not easily disproved nor reasonably distrusted being held sufficient to ratifie the Matter debated in all as well Legal as Scientifical Decisions Neither shall I insist on the Instance or Assignation of any other Accidents in these first illustrated Genitures but of Marriage and Natural Death alone unless they all three and not only one or two of them were concern'd therein because I intend to insist upon nothing but what I give a threefold Proof of as not at all approving of that unsatisfactory Method now followed and practised by the generality of our Professors who not only do confidently offer to the World for true and exact when rectified only by one single Accident and that also assigned to a Direction which has manifestly faiâ—'d of effecting the same in many others without giving or knowing a Reason why it should do so But do also give us practical Rules and Aphorisms for the Judgment of a Nativity deduced from only one single Geniture and which therefore seldom or never holds true in any other to the great Discredit of themselves and of those who credulously practise or judge by their Doctrines THE first Nativity which I shall produce for the Eviction and Confirmation of my said Propositions concerning Marriage and Natural Death intending to do the like for all other Principles and practical Rules of this Science by degrees and in due Season is that of the late King Charles II. In the Rectification whereof to reduce it from the estimate Time to the true as nearly 〈◊〉 can be done by accidental Correction I shall make use of the Sun 's mean daily Motion as the Measure of Time for a Year Not that I think this too fully either natural or rational or that it will yield an exact Equality between the Distance of Directions and their signified Events which I have already proposed as a thing not to be expected but because that one time with another it affords as great an Agreement both in all Nativities and also in the various Accidents of one of the same Nativity as any other Measure of Time that ever I saw propos'd or could any way conceive or suspect to be true and rational or which had any the least likelihood or appearance of being so All and every of which said seemingly rational Measures save one or two which I have lately thought on and shall very shortly bring to the Touch-stone I have throughly tried by several experimented Genitures but never found them to answer Expectation any more or nearer than this of mean Motion And whereas some may captiously object that this confessed Unexactness may be occasion'd by a mistakeful Assignation of Accidents to improper Directions To this I answer That I can give a positive General Rule not only for the two grand Accidents aforesaid but also for several others and expresly nominate all those Circumstances and Qualifications requisite to render the Promissor effective or ineffective of them and prove by many indubitable Nativities that the said Directions fulfill'd or fail'd accordingly Which is more than ever was yet done by any Author and than can possibly be done by the Rules and Methods they follow who make or take so many both Significators and Promissors for one and the same Accident as the Ascendant Mid-Heaven Sun Moon and sometimes Fortune also for Significators of Marriage and Jupiter Venus Sol Luna and the Lord of the Seventh for Promissors and the like for all other Accidents and so many sorts of Aspects old and new Mundane and Zodiacal that they can never miss of a Direction fit enough by their Method to which to assign any Accident and by which to rectifie any Nativity without any great Change from the given Time how much amiss or mistaken soever nay even though both the Birth and the Time and Quality of the Accidents be merely and utterly feigned and that no such things really ever were for having so