either Again it is said of the Stars Judg. 5.20 that in their Courses they fought against Sisera Now what can be understood by that fight but that something they did And if something which way was it not by Sword or Bullet nor by meer standing to gaze or to give light but by some secret way they had every one of them as their Course came up to afflict the Enemy But especially of the Sun and Moon it is said how God set them in the Firmame◠not only to give light upon the Earth but also to rule over the Day and the Night and he made the Stars also Gen. 1.17 18. but these it seems as subordinate and ruling under the others Now this rule must needs be more then a bare giving light and heat For the Moon is but subordinate her self in both these things unto the Sun And yet hath God given her Ordinances of her own and to the Stars Ordinances of their own Jer. 31.35 whereby they also rule in the Night Now to rule and to give Ordinances to the Suns of the Day and Night can be no less then to sway over them in command and power so as to help or hinder and to kill or save and such like But especially is the great influence of the Sun declared in holy Writ in that our Saviour who is the Life and Salvation of our Souls is described to the World under the similitude of the Sun as he is called the Sun of Righteousness that should arise with healing in his Wings Now were it so that the Sun was not a Fountain of life and health as well as of Light Mal. 4.2 to what purpose is he called a Sun with health or healing c. Again he is called the Day-star which shall arise in our hearts It is not said in our minds where the light seems to reign but in the heart where hence the life comes Intimating that as the Sun gives natural life and health unto the heart even so does Christ give Spiritual life unto the Soul 2 Pet. 1.19 Whence is it manifest out of Holy Writ that as our Lord Jesus by his Grace and holy Spirit does give life unto the Spiritual World so does the Sun not only by his heat and life but also by a vivifying virtue lodging in his influence give a natural life unto the Earthly World Or else in vain was such a Comparison made between Christ the Heavenly Revel 1.16 12.1 and the Sun the natural light But as for those Eggs the Doctor talks of with disparagement of the Sun's influence which seemed to be hatched with artificial heat without the Sun's help it must be remembred that in all those Eggs was there a seed of life fore-prepared by the influence of the Sun and Moon and other Planets upon the Hens from whose Bodies those Eggs were gathered insomuch as nothing was wanting but heat only to perfect the act of producing the fruit And yet that heat too whereby they were produced was not meerly artificial because the Sun has an influence upon all heat as opportunity serves quickning and qualifying it with a vivifying faculty saving that when the excess destroys and the evil influence of the Planet ♂ interposing debauches it But what says the Doctor to the Insects can he produce such too by artificial heat Or will he grant that the Sun works by a quickning as well as by an heating influence Which if not let him say which way else flows forth that life they have or else the Principles of Astrology will be clearly quit of all his groundless and frivolous foolery he charges upon them and the charge will henceforwards rest at the Doctor 's own door he having granted by his own Concessions so much as with this little help I have added to them by way of explanation of the Case only will amount high enough to prove all those things to be the very Truth and wisdom of Nature which he brands with these opprobious Calumnies of groundless and frivolous Fooleries and Rhapsodies of Fooleries and abundance of such like stuff But seeing he hath singled out the parts of Astrology and fallen upon each part in particular I think my self therefore concerned as particularly to vindicate those parts from his foul mouth'd Pen. Sect. 6 The first part he begins with is the influence of the Planets And as a foundation to his work he proposes to himself by way of Objection thus Ch. 16. § 1. That the Being of the Stars and Planets would be useless were there nothing in the Art of Astrology To this he answers No. For were there no thing in the fixt Stars but light and heat it would not follow And why Because the wiser and later Philosophers have made them as so many Suns As if because they are Suns it were excuse enough for them to stand for Cyphers whereas standing for such the more rather is to be expected from them the Sun being the Prince of all Stars as the most noble and well bred beyond them all But how does he prove them as so many Suns The wiser and later Philosophers have made them so That is they have conceited so and as wise as they are of another opinion And yet says the Doctor this Hypothesis our Astrologers must confute before they can make good the force of their first Argument The Hypothesis it self is but a meer conceit without proof and yet forsooth we must confute it Sure the Doctor has forgot since he was in the Schools what belongs to an Argument But suppose them so many Suns and without all influence but Light and Heat Whom is it they are made to shine to or to make warm As for us we feel nothing of their heat and make ten times more use of a Candle then of their light For whose use then were these multitude of Suns Created In answer to this the Doctor refers us to B. 3. Ch. 1. § 6. of the Expla where we find naught to the the purpose but a Verse out of blind Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Englished thus He rose to shine to Gods as well as men Well fare old Homer at a dead lift the blind man hath hit the mark by chance But ah poor Doctor what a shift was here to fly for refuge to a poor blind Poet to help him out in a point of Philosophy that Homer himself could never possibly understand But it was well apply'd however for the Doctor 's poetical Suns and Homer's poetical Gods are very well met Next as for the Planets he answers that the same Philosophers have suggested That they may have some such like use as our Earth has that is to be the Mothers of living Creatures But what living Creatures Nay says the Doctor they have defined nothing concerning the natures of them and 't was wisely contrived their Opinion becoming thereby so much the more harmless and unexceptional as it is in it self highly probable
and Moon are not able to compare with the smallest Wax-candle And this little Light too being onely by night and that also onely when there be no Clowds to hide them what shall we say now Did God make all these glorious Bodies many of which are bigger than the whole Earth merely for a Twinkle of the Night and that at certain choise Times and Seasons onely What make they then in the Day-time and what have they to do in the dark and obscure Nights Were they made to ride the Heavens for Cyphers onely think we at such times Lo every little Dasie that grows upon the cold ground has a secret and insensible virtue wrapt in its Leaves and Flowers and have these Celestial Spangles no Influences but what we catch with our eyes as they are now and then once in a week or month to be found sparkling their dim glances upon us Nay they cannot be such mean and empty Tubs no they are as so many Kings and great Lords and all of them have their Commands Gen. 1.18 and that as well by day as by night and in the clowdy as well as the clear nights And now seeing this their Lordship is not managed by sensible and palpable acts and agitation it must needs follow that they have a secret and an hidden way of Rule whereby they operate imperceptibly in all their agitations of their Dominion And as these And finally that the Sun Moon and Stars besides their sensitive operations have their secret and imperceptible Influences so also the Sun and Moon besides their sensible operations have also their imperceptible actions For it is not the mere Heat which giveth Life nor the mere Moisture that helpeth to live for if so then might Man make living Creatures artificially but this we see he cannot do the Heat may hatch the Eggs but all the Art of Man cannot make an Egg that can be hatch'd No for there is a secret Act of Sun and Moon besides the mere putting to of Heat and Moisture which produceth Life both in Sensitive and Vegetive Animals And in these secret and insensible Operations or Influences besides the Light which they give consists that Rule which the Sun Moon and Stars do exercise over all the Sons of Day and Night And herein are written all those Ordinances of the Moon and Stars which are to be a Law unto Mankind and to the whole Body of Mortality so long as the World endureth Jer. 31.35 36. And this mystery of these secret Operations is that which we call the Astrology of the Heavens Sect. 4 The second proof by Scripture shews That the Constellation of the Pleiades and of Orion have their Astrological Influences Now have the Stars all of them their natural Influences and such natural Influences as touch upon all things as far as Day and Night extend their limits then must Mankind also come under the touch of this Influence as well as Brutes and Vegetives But what authority can they pretend to over Man speak to him they cannot to commnd him ought for they are not intelligent Bodies no more than is the Earth their Authority therefore can be nothing else but the execution of their secret Influences which in a certain course or order they pour upon Mankind and these Man being unable to avoid the Stars are said to give Law to him Gen. 1.26 17 18. Job 38.21 32 33. Astra regunt homines and to have their Ordinances unto which Man also must submit Thus the Stars called the Pleiades have their Ordinances that is their sweet Influences or Virtues See Argol Astr ante Ephem lib. sec cap. 8. Stellae tempestuosae sunt Orion Arâ—urus c. pluriosae Pleiades which no power of Man is able to restrain And the Stars of Orion have also their Ordinances that is their binding faculty by Frost in Winter or by Showers in Summer bringing to pass such an hard and tough Coat of Armour upon the ground as all the Art of Man is not able to prevent Thus Mazeroth and Arcturus with his Sons have also their Ordinances and the whole Host of Heaven hath its course and its Rules in that course which though a man cannot see nor perfectly attain to know yet some track thereof may he apprehend These names of Pleiades and Orion it is true are not found in the Hebrew Translation but onely in the Septuagint but it seems those LXX Interpreters were acquainted with those Constellations and understanding both Languages converted the Hebrew words into such Names as the Greeks called those Constellations by Sect. 5 To this purpose it is said by Debora the Prophetess that they fought from Heaven The third proof by Scripture shews that Sisera and his Host were worsted and overthrown in Battel by influences of the Stars Judg. 5.20 The Stars in their courses fought against Sisera Now this was not by Sword nor Pistol nor yet by Thunder and Lightning for that Bullets fall from no higher than the Air onely but the Stars are infinitely in the Heavens above and beyond all Air and therefore could it be no other ways but by some secret yet fatal Influences whereby Sisera and all his Host were blasted from their Cradles with unlucky Aspects of these Stars which were so contrived in Nature as to fall out all of them together end so wrought as many thousands of them fell in Battell all on one day For though these men might have been born under as many several hours as they were men yet met each man that fatal wound at his several hour of birth the force of which as it fell from various evil Stars and from variety of envious Aspects on each mans pate so gave it each man his bane with such variety of limitation as both old men and young encountred their dooms together and the limitation of many thousand Fates and it may be of as many thousand different lengths met all upon one day And yet infortunated each Star so variously each according to its proper nature course and method as every Star slew his man or men and it might be by different kind of deaths But as the Stars fought against Sisera so sought they as much for Barak and his Host fortunating the several times of each mans birth in that Army and here each Star stuck to his man and all in such an harmonious contrivance as though there were as many several minutes of Births as there were several Men yet were there as many benevolent Aspects of the Stars to fortunate those Births and that so and with such different force as though each mans Birth bare date assunder yet the younger Births by the nearer speed overtaking the less half of those which were elder all mens good fortunes in that Army jump'd together at one and the same time Sect. 6 The fourth proof by Scripture shews that the Meteors of the Air are lodged by the Influences of Heaven against appointed times
their peculiar Offices other wayeâ— and 2. Though they are Subjects of Nature 〈◊〉 we are Shewing how it is wrought by means and that either by the Soul of the World or however by the Heavenly Influences yet are they no part of the frame 〈◊〉 Nature whereout all things in their order anâ— formed Now were it by the Soul of the World then for certain must there be such a Soul which as yet we are not sufficiently inform'd of and then must that Soul have its specâ—â— seat in the World worthy of it self where tâ— dwell and from whence to inform all thâ— whole Earth and if so then dwells it undoubtedly amongst the Celestial Matter and from thence supplies the Earth with such stoâ— of Virtue from the Heavens and Stars therein as brings to pass all that Shape Colour Smell Life and Increase which we see comâ— to pass Or if you deny this then must the Earth be supplied with all her wonderful Virtues from some Supernatural Material Substances and if so then name any thing besides the Heavenly Matter and the Stars of Heaven that can be that Substance and I have done Now either way will there be at Heavenly Astrology or an Astrology in the Heavens Onely the question is whether these Celestial Influences create the Earth immediately by God's blessing or whether there be a general Soul of the World between yea or not Vtrum horum mavis accipe I ask no more Gen. 1.1 2 3. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the Deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Here when there was nothing but Earth and Water and Darkness over all yet the Spirit of God maintained that rude lump the Earth did he manage by the Water and the Water in the Dark by himself But now both the Earth and Water are under the face of Heaven and the Light is upon this Heaven and the Spirit of God moveth upon the face of the Heavens in that Light and as he actuateth the Earth and the Waters by the Heavens so doth he actuate the Heavens by himself Sect. 8 Thus Reason complieth with Holy Writ More proofs of Scripture confirming our Rational Arguments to be true and both Scripture and Reason are Witnesses with our Experience That there is an Astrology for certain lodged in Heaven And yet â—arther the Scriptures also do confirm all that I have brought for Reason to be both truly Rational and Divine Deut. 33.13 Concerning Joseph it is said by Moses that his blessing shall be of the precious things of the Sun and Moon Now it is well known that amongst other of these precious things by that Tribe enjoyed was the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes whence follows it that it is in the power of the Sun and Moon amongst other precious blessings under God to influence a man unto the Dignity of a Crown and so to fortunate his affairs as to bring about the enjoyment of it Hos 2.21 God promiseth by the Prophet Hosea how he will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth and be Earth the Corn and Wine and Oyl and they Israel Wherein he shews us that as Man lives by Corn and Wine so they by the Earth and so the Earth by the Heavens And if so then from the Heavens is it that the Earth receives that vertue whereby it brings forth all Smell Colour Deut. 28.12 and Virtue Moses tells us God shall open his good Treasure the Heaven and that not onely to give rain unto the Land but also to bless all the work of the hand Whence it is evident that there lodges in the Celestial Bodies a Faculty of fortunating Civil Affairs as well as of managing natural things and that the root of all Earthly Blessings is from Heaven Moses says again Deut 4.19 that the Sun Moon and Stars God hath distributed to all Nations under Heaven And the Psalmist speaking of the Sun and Heavens Psal 19.1 2 3 4 5. says They declare the glory of God and shew forth his handy-work Day and night do continually tell of them and that their voice is heard into all Languages and their words are gone into the ends of the world By which it appears that the Heavens and all the Stars therein are full of such Virtues as the whole World hath need of And these Vertues God hath given unto the Heavens for this purpose His Spirit saith Job hath garnished the Heavens Job 26.13 And by the Spirit of his mouth saith the Psalmist was the whole Army of Heaven made Psal 33.16 Sect. 9 Argumentation from Gods Eternal Prescience Acts 15.18 Known unto God saith St. James are all his works from the beginning of the world These Works are either Natural or Miraculous The Natural Works of God are that whole frame of the Creation together with all Circumstances and Concerns relating thereunto in times past present and future which as a most curious piece of Art The frame of Nature compared to a Watch. Ezek. 1.2 2 3 c. to the end consisteth of all the Story of the whole World and yet is all set together in one onely entire piece of Workmanship it is like unto a Watch made up of a world of small Wheels wrapt up together one within another and yet all taking one from another and working one by and under another until you come unto the Master-wheel or first Mover which being wound up at the Creation with the Line of Time How God foresees all passages of the World by a certain order as a Watch-maker knows the Wheels of his Watch. 2 Pet. 3. of a seeming infinite length of Thread wreathed up together upon the Wheel has ever since the beginning been winding off unto this present Age and yet is there still more Line upon the Wheel but how much remains is kept onely in the breast of the Almighty but when this Line shall be utterly wound off then will this frame of Nature find its period and all Wheels must cease their motion Now in the mean time as the Watch-maker knows all the Wheels Pullies and little Pins in the Watch as perfectly as a man knows the Cloaths on his back or how to put them on or off so knows the Great and Almighty God the whole World and all the Wheels Pullies and Pins contained in every part thereof and this infinitely better than we know the Fingers of our Hands or Toes of our Feet To every man that is born of a Woman there is a certain order or course of his life how he runs thorow Health and Sickness Honour and Dishonour and all the passages of his Life from his Cradle to the Grave For Man is of himself as it were a little World within himself How every man is compared to one Wheel of the great Worlds frame and a Work
of many Wheels within that one and though he stand as it were but one Wheel in the frame of the great World yet within this One seem there to be many thousands of Wheels operating and thousands more within every one of those first thousands and more still within them and every of them almost ad infinitum especially in long-lived people and persons of great undertakings and all these moving within and one under another as they are carried by the Thread twined on the outmost and greatest Wheel do run on in their order until that Thread break or else be wound off and there they make a stop All these things God who made Man at the first perfectly knows and fore-knew from the beginning of the World and by this order of Mans life he perfectly knows and fore-knew exactly all passages of our lives yea even all the thoughts of our hearts both sleeping and waking Joh. 2.24 25. and how one thought drives off and brings in another and continues on in so doing until the last minute of life whereat the breath fails Now every man being as it were a particular Wheel of the great World it must needs follow that all men move in a certain Frame or Wheel above themselves by virtue of which the Master-wheel of every man's life is is set a going And this Wheel also is subordinate unto others and they also are the same unto still higher than they until we come at last unto the Master-wheel of the whole World which is the high and mighty Wheel of Heaven wherein the Sun Moon and Stars are set as so many Notches carrying on the great works of Nature unto the end How mans Will is an independent Wheel within the World 1 Cor. 9 26 27. Hence come the Originals of all Natural Qualities Passions and Accidents of our lives the motion of the Will and Reason onely excepted which as an independent Wheel within the Wheel of Nature has a kind of motion of its own and therefore however it may be inclined or allured by the Works of Nature How the Heavens are the great Wheel of Nature yet cannot be forced by them But now above and beyond this great Wheel of Nature there is yet one Wheel more within which the Heavens themselves are turned And here is it 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4 wherein is hid that great Line of Time whereby the whole World is made to hold on and continue its motion And how God ruleth over all Isa 40.22 23 c. and this Wheel is God himself who draws out the Line of Time and sitting upon the Circles of the Earth he stretches out the Heavens as a Curtain and beholdeth all the Inhabitants of the World as Grashoppers under his feet and hence sees he as it were with one view all the World naked before him both past present and to come Sect. 10 Now as it was the opinion of the Platonists Of the Soul of the World That there is such a Soul and many of the wisest Philosophers in old time That there was as well one General Soul of the Whole World as there is one Soul informing every mans Body so is it still the opinion of many very learned Christians and it seems with a great deal of reason that the World has such a Soul For were there not one and the same general living Virtue comprehending the whole Natural World from the outmost Circumference of the Heavens unto the innermost Centre of the Earth how possibly could the Sympathies and Antipathies of Nature work such compliances and differences at such distances as we see they do and that as far as it is from Heaven unto the Earth and too without any visible or imaginable contaction unless some such Animal Virtue be in the World to carry such an invisible correspondency between Creature and Creature Now where Life is these things are aptly effected Thus the Infant in the womb is nourished by the meat which the Mother eats Now be it so that there is such an Universal Soul yet is it questionable whether this Soul be Intellectual or merely Vegetive That there is an Intellectual Power informing the whole World as the Soul does the Body is not to be doubted for otherwise would the frame of Nature be no more but a huge blind lump But Nature being led by good eyes such an Intellect must there be somewhere And that it is not an Intellectual but a Vegetive Soul onely Jer. 23.23 24. that either gives or lends such Eyes to Nature But then should the Soul of the World carry this Intellect in its own Brain it would follow that this Soul is a God For to be an Intellectual Being filling Heaven and Earth with its presence is an Attribute of Gods And therefore I conclude that there is an Vniversal Soul in the World but it is onely Vegetive and not Intellectual yet in this Soul dwelleth the Spirit of Almighty God Acts 17.28 who filleth Heaven and Earth with his presence and from hence garnisheth the Heavens Job 26 1â— Deut. 4.19 and causeth the precious Virtues of the Sun Moon and Stars to be carried and distributed into all parts of the World Job 38.33 And thus immediately God ruleth in the Heavens and ruleth all the World mediately by the Heavens How Gods Spirit informeth the World in this Vegetive Soul not without means but by means Job 38.26 'T is true indeed that God is as well able to govern and maintain all things without means as he was at first to constitute and create the frame of Nature but such is his pleasure that he does work by means and not immediately in all things It is a common and a true Maxim that God and Nature have made nothing in vain and yet it is as true that Grass grows where nothing lives to eat it Now were the World governed by Gods immediate presence onely then is this Grass growing a work in vain because God's presence brings forth all things at list and with stints and increase as he listeth Rom. 11.36 and therefore his list being at all times and in all places able to cease its operation might have prevented this plenty in a desolate Countrey But Nature running her course in a constant track has no power to cease her work without a miracle and therefore however the Grass may grow in vain yet Natures operation is not in vain which by virtue of one and the same act produceth the Grass in all places and that as well in the populous as desolate Countreys Sect. 11 Next come we to Gods miraculous works Of Gods miraculous works and how they are foreseen by God in the frame of Nature from Eternity Josh 10.12 13. 2 King 20.11 Joh. 11.53 44. Ch. 9.6 7 c. which also from the beginning were known unto him These are such as have been contrary or at least divers to the course of Nature or other Supernatural Such a
as Dr. More very impiously goes about to make it very demonstrably argued cleared and made evident Sect. 1 THE Doctor 's Charge against this Heavenly Science find we shewing its Teeth first against its parts severally and lastly concluding against the whole Body thereof That which he urges against the several parts find we introduced as it were an Assumption which makes up his second Proposition the first being understood And from whence he concludes That which it seems was the Thesis of his first intentions And this Thesis to bring it into as narrow room as conveniently we can seems to consist of two heads First That Astrology is a vain Art And Secondly That it is a wicked and diabolical Art B. 7. Ch. 17. § 7. of his Explanation But for more surety take it in his own Language as follows Now therefore to conclude Seeing that the principles of Astrology are so groundless and frivolous nay contradictious one with another and built upon such false Hypotheses and gross Mistakes concerning the nature and System of the World seeing it has no due object by reason of the interposing of the free Agency of both Men and Angels to interrupt perpetually the imagined natural series of both Causality and Events seeing there is not sufficient experience to make good the truth of the Art they that have practised therein having not observed the pretended Laws thereof with due accuracy and therefore if any thing has hitherto his true it must be by Chance which quite takes away their plea from Events so that their Art is utterly to seek not only for Principles which I have demonstrated to be false but for Experience and Effects which hitherto have been none and assuredly they make nothing of pronouncing loudly that such and such a Configuration will have such an Event though they never experienc't it at all or very seldom As it must needs be in the Conjunction of ♄ ♃ and ♂ which returns not in 700 years seeing also that those Predictions that are pretended to have befallen right are so few that they may be justly deemed to have fallen right by Chance Here now have you the sum of his Argumentation for the Vanity of Astrology as that it is a foolery utterly groundless And from hence goes he on saying And seeing if any thing has been foretold very punctually and circumstantially it may as well nay better be supposed to proceed from the secret insinuations or visible converse with the aery Wanderers then from the indication of the Stars and lastly seeing there is that Affinity and secret Association of Astrology with Daemonalatry and antient Pagan Superstition that person must have a strangely impure and effascinable passivity of phancy that can he bound over to a beleif or liking of a Foolery so utterly groundless as Astrology is and so nearly verging to the brinks of Apostacy and Impiety Here 's the sum of his Argumentation for the Wickedness of Astrology as that in so nearly verging the brinks of Apostacy and Impiety And 't is enough now let us see what Astrology has to say in answer and that first to his Vanity and then to his Impiety Sect. 2 To prove the Vanity or rather Foolery of Astrology as the Doctor calls it He sets a Puppet upon a Frame with four rotten Legs which must needs fail it and in the mean time standing by to see it fall he hatche's a loud laughter as if Astrology were utterly fallen down and broken and yet no such matter so much as towards First He begins Astrology a Foolery because the Principles of it are Groundless and Frivolous nay Contradictions and built upon false Hypotheses c. But why so And first why so Groundless and Frivolous It is in this thing in which he seems to hint especially at the Influences and Aspects of five of the Planets and the Aspects of the whole seven which things he alledges are groundless and frivolous Phancy's and a Rhapsody of Fooleries as B. 7. Ch. 16. § 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. of his Explan In answer to this first take we up the Gentleman 's own grant § 3. The Moon he acknowledges in the Full swells many things with moisture which effect is both sensible and palpable and also reasonable First because of her proximity Secondly because of the reflexion of the Sun-beams from her Body which being but of a moderate power melts the Air and Vapours into an insinuating liquidness but do not dissipate them as do his direct beams by Day And this feat he doubts not but that any other of the Planets would perform if they were so placed that their Discus would seem of equal bigness with the Moon and she were removed into their place Again he grants § 4. That by certain experience we find that the flux and reflux of the Sea depends on the course of the Moon so that there can be no deceit in the business And again as to the Loadstone and Polar Star he grants in the same Section That there are some sensible effects from the Heavens certain and constant But it is not he says so much the influence of the Heavens as the Magnetism of the Earth in which this direction of the Needle towards the North consists Because three Miles from Rossebury the Needle amidst a many Sea Rocks ceases not to turn about for the space of a whole Mile Thus much hath fallen from the Doctor 's lips without crushing or pressure Only as he quotes it from Sir Christopher Heydon And because he has so ingeniously set down the Argument of that learned Knight on behalf of Astrology Ch. 15. § 1. I am unwilling to do the Doctor so much wrong as together with his concessions to deny his quotations the liberty to go along with them and from the Doctor 's own Pen speak as follows It 's plain that the Moon hath a moist influence and that at her Full the brains of Beasts generally the eyes of Cats and the meat of Shell-fishes are swelled to a greater bigness and that they are lessened in the Change That the Moon also guides the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea whose influence is equally seen when she is under the Horizon as when above when near our Nadir as when near our Zenith Whence is it plain say they that the Heavenly Bodies have not only an influence besides light but more searching and penetrating then light it self as being able to make its way through the thickness of the Earth and to reach its effects on the farther side thereof Both which wonders they farther confirm from the Magnetical Needle that looks towards the Pole Star though on the other side of the Tropick of Capricorn where the North Pole will be hidden twenty or thirty degrees below the Horizon Whence is it manifest say they that the influence of the Pole Star pierces through the bowels of the Earth and is a notorious Argument of the secret and irresistible virtue of the rest of
have every one of them as much power or virtue or influence or somewhat only they want proximity as to us in order to exercise that power upon us as the Moon does Now this is as much full if not more then any Astrologer would say himself saving that wherein the Doctor is apparently oversighted mistaken or lost with ignorance concerning the power of proximity and the virtue of a seeming Discus with the Planets For First For matter of proximity the Doctor it seems is yet to learn how the Heavenly Bodies are neither helped by proximity nor hindred by longinquity in the exercise of their powers or in the pouring down of their Influences It seems either he had forgotten or did not know that the farther the Moon is from the Sun the greater is the light she receives from him and the nearer she is to him she receives still less and less And it seems either it was out of 's head or he had never heard or understood That the Magnetical Needle is as constant to the Polar Star and as diligently attending it as well in the utmost Southern parts of the World as in the nearest Northern Coasts almost under it And again it seems however it came about that sure the Doctor took the Heavens and the Æther in them to be as it with us here on Earth full of Rocks and Mountains Stone-walls and Church-steeples and great thick Woods which interpose the power and virtue of the higher Planets from lightning on us at so great a distance Or else he mistook the Planets to be meer Opake Bodies of yellow or red Clay dull Souls like old men who see not without their Spectacles Ch. 16. § 8. For so say's he were they in the Moons place they might do much But what would you have from Dunstable-hills be they never so white and shine the Sun never so bright upon them yet is it not possible they should appear beyond York And as for the Moon her self he takes her to be no more it seems but as it were some great House built with Mud-walls and great Glass Windows which carried in the Heavens about the World is good for nothing but to conveigh the light of the Sun by reflexion upon the Earth by night when the Sun is out of sight himself or the heat of the Sun by the same reflexion thorow the vapours of the Air to fill us with moisture And lastly as for the Sun it self which gives the Moon her whole light he conceives that too to have no more then a meer general influence of heat and that by this meer beat only it cherishe's and excite's the seminal Principles of things into actual perfection and all no otherwise then the Ægyptians and Livia's Maids of Honour were wont to do when they hatch't their Eggs without help of the Hen Ch. 16. § 6. Thus strangely goes the Doctor on undervaluing these glorious Bodies through his ignorance or forgetfulness or both not knowing what he does For do we but overthrow these fond conceits of his then all he has said against Astrology how frivolous and how foolish a thing it is falls to the ground and the Fool immediately flies in the Doctor 's own face To confute them therefore First Let him but read over again his own Objection out of Sir Christopher Heydon Ch. 15. § 1. They alledge says he that it is a thing beyond all beleif that such an innumerable company of Stars whose light is not considerable nor their position so exact for Ornament should 〈◊〉 made for nothing else but to look upon Therefore say they there is some other Mystery in it and th◠they are indued with certain hidden influences and have their several peculiar virtues as the Herbs and Flowers of the Feild Again the Earth and Water being such simple Bodies as they are the various productions in Nature could not be were it not for that infinite variety of the Coelestial Bodies the Stars and their several influences upon the Earth Again Yearly experience teaches us that the approach of the Sun renews the World and makes an annual Resurrection of Plants and Insects and such living Creatures as are born of putrefaction and have no other Father then the fiery bearded Sun If then this one Planet does such rare feats certainly the rest of the Planets and fixt Stars do not stand for Cyphers but have their virtues and operations as well as he whose virtues and influences say these Stargazers our Art doth punctually and particularly define Thus speaks the Objection in the Doctor 's own Language he may remember it is but very little of it which he has laboured and shifted to evade just nothing of it which he has answered Secondly The Doctor may understand that however himself may be to seek and has not observed so much yet are there amongst Star-gazers as he calls us such who have very curiously watched all the 7 Planets and many of the fixt Stars and do find by certain experience and that without any deceit in the business and as sure as he has it that the Moon leads the flux and reflux of the Sea that they all have their proper influences upon us even as the Moon upon the Brains of Beasts c. But if the Doctor will beleive none of us as to this matter yet let him go to the Sheep-herds in the Feild and inquire of them if a Lamb or a Calf yeaned or calved in the New Moon be not usually giddy and do not usually die of such Giddies unless it be that the Planets ♃ or ♀ are situat in some such Aspects at birth as to prevent those Giddies or to preserve life at least when those giddies fall Or let him ask the good Wives or their Midwives who have had warning of such things if they have not often observed how the Planets ♄ or ♂ either rising or setting at or very near after the time of birth do not certainly kill such Infants as are then born And if he cannot find such Wives or Midwives I 'le do him the favour to render him an account of experiments enough and sufficient evidence of the truth of the same Or if none of all these may be beleived Thirdly The Doctor may be pleased to study the Holy Writ a little better and he 'l find it recorded there to the same purpose First Doe's he not find tell there of the Constellation of the Pleiades and Orion how the Almighty challenged Job Job 38.31 if he was able to restrain the one and unbind the other Now if they had or have no influence but their meer light or ornament in the Heavens what was that then which was to be bound or unbound in one or the other Canst thou restrain Pleiades says He It appears therefore that the Stars called Pleiades have great influence either to help or harm or both as occasion serves and this was it of which God asked Job if he could prevent them in
men are not apt to beleive the Doctor that every seventh day they are so critical and stirring But rather say they sometimes that Stir and Alteration in the Patient happens on the third or fourth day or on the ninth and tenth day as the Moon happens to arrive at her â–¡ or ☠in so many days after the Patient fell amiss And however the Doctor happened to be sleepy or heedless when the story was told him he might have taken notice how generally the people cry out upon the full and new Moon for exasperating acute Diseases and how many there be who die about those times And had he heeded the World of experiments of this kind he had not been found so grossly â—ardy in calling the stirs and alterations in the Patient in dependent on the course of the ☽ And truly seeing the Doctor was so kind to us I am sorry he was so vilely slur'd in his intelligence with so many and so ugly mistakes But what 〈◊〉 the Doctor would have had from hence First That without fear or wit we have bestowed Houses two apeice upon the rest of the Planets though neither reason nor effect answerable Secondly That such small hints as these are the solidest foundations of the Phantastick structure of Astrology But how easily are these by-â—ows awarded off For First All the Doctor 's reasons for what he alledges I have shewed to have been started and brought in without fear or wit and therefore are no reasons Secondly Were they never so reasonable yet is there the very same reason why â™’ should be the one House of ♄ as he himself alledgeth why ♌ should be the House of ☉ And as much reason why ♑ should be the other House of ♄ as he affirms why ♋ should be ☽ 's House For if the hottest Planet may have that House where he is at hottest why may not the coldest Planet have that House where he is at coldest And if the ☽ who is a freind of Nature may be housed in the most vertical Sign why may not ♄ who is the Enemy of Nature dwell in the most unvertical And if so why then says the Doctor without fear or wit or without reason or effect answerable we have given houses two apeice to the other Planets whilst we have the very same reason for one as himself gives for the other And why will the Doctor thus shamelesly slur his own Worship with such unbecomeing stories to his own Reverence Thirdly Be the Structure of Astrology so phantastick as the Doctor says why then does he himself lay the foundation of it For does not he grant it to be truth which we alledg of the Houses of ☉ and ☽ And if so then it seems there is somtâ—ing in Astrology though not so much as we pretend to and this by the Doctor 's own Concession Why then crys he a phantastick Structure of Astrology Lastly Why does he charge us to have 〈◊〉 reason nor effect answerable for the Houses of the other Planets besides the Sun and Moon For if the Doctor knows of none we have yet had he asked we could have told him reason enough Or he might have understood it out of Sir Christopher Heydon And I doubt not but I have shew'd him in my foregoing Discourse of what Astrology is Sect. 11 Well all that has past hitherto were but the Doctor 's flourishes it seems Now comes this Battery henceforwards and that with such a menace of Shatter at us that woe be to poor Astrology it shall not so much as find room in the imaginations of men Ch. 16. § 7. ending Now therefore good Readers prepare to make clean and rid your imaginations for loe this Battery is planted First He begins in § 8. That they prefer the Planets before the fix't Stars is without all reason the Planets being but Heaps of dead matter much like that of Earth and having no light but what they borrow from the Sun For that which seems to be the innate light of the Moon is but the reflexion of the Sun 's beams from the Earth Wherefore their activity and influence may justly seem less then that of the fix't Stars which shine with innate and not borrowed light This is the first Battery have at your imaginations good people therefore For be the fix't Stars to be preferred above the Planets woe be to us we are gone But heark a little how does he argue The Planets are Heaps of dead matter much like that of Earth but the fixed Stars are not so But how came the Doctor to know thus much I trow was he ever up so high as the third or second Heaven to see these things that he is so peremptory at it that they are so Or has he had private conference with St. Paul concerning those things unspeakeable as he told us in publick in these Heavens so high Or if neither 2 Cor. 13.3 4. did not some wandering Daemons of the Air bring him the Intelligence Which if perhaps so yet good people take heed your imaginations be not fooled for the Devils are Liars never to be beleived But what seems most likely is as he said before some late Philosophers have said so Ch. 16. § 1. And the Doctor himself crys it 's highly probable or as much as to say I think so What tame imaginations I marvail aâ— those which must be cleared of all room for Astrology with such pitiful Batteries as the Doctor 's Think so 's But let me beg the favour of the Gentlemen before they clear the room to spend an Ha ha ha or two upon these pretty Batteries which are like throwing stones at the Wind and never touch it But what do we talk for it may be the Planets are but dead matter for some say it's like enough so Yea but says another will the Doctor himself swear it for else no body is able to witness it For in good earnest I am willing enough my self to have it so if it could be proved And it may be I think so too but what the better Well go on Doctor Secondly says he They have no light but what they borrow from the Sun But how proveâ— he this For that which seems to be the inâ—aâ— light of the Moon is but the reflexion of the Sun 's beams from the Earth But before we answer this let the Doctor remember Ch. 16. § 3. where his own Worship avers That it is an insufferable folly to argue from such reasonable and palpable effects of the Moon that the other Planets also are the same which yet we can deprehend by neither reason nor experience Here now it 's come home to him The Moon says he has no innate light but what she borrows this is reasonable and palpable but what reason or experience can deprehend that ♄ ♃ ♂ and ☿ must therefore have none also Oh the insufferable folly therefore of the Doctor 's own Worship and of these great Batteries Now therefore aware your
imaginations Gentlemen or he 'l leave you no room in them for Astrology For these are dangerous Arguments But Thirdly The fix't Stars have an innate light That is the Doctor thinks so For he has no other proof And therefore their activity and influence is greater then that of the Planets The Atheist thinks there is no God and therefore for certain there can be no room for any in the imaginations of men Some think the Pope is a Fool and that the Grand-Signior is a Mad-man and therefore for certain they are so Some think Doctor More to be a meer Whim and some think More to be derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore for certain it is so But what do we talk all mens thinks are not to be compared with the Doctor 's However were it so that the fix't Stars are to be prefer'd for matter of light or magnitude above some of the Planets and that the Planets were really nothing but dead matter like the Earth yet as to their activity and influence upon us by reason of their moveable faculty and their virtue such as it is more nearly apt to suit with and to make impression upon our Bodies which are neither light nor Air but rather Earth they are undoubtedly to be preferred as the greatest Agents at least if not the noblest Bodies Sect. 12 But the Doctor 's Batteries strike thick and what they cannot do by force they will endeavour to compass by multitude of blows For in the same Section he comes on again and argues That for the quality of the Planets they define the Sun hot and moist rather then dry but ♂ hot and dry parching c. And then concludes Impudent Impostors What will they not dare to intrude upon us when they will vent such stuff as is liable to confutation by our Senses I marry Sir here 's the main Battery â—sa 28.15 We have made lies our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves said they in Isaiah so as Hell shall not hurt us nor the overflowing scourge come at us I will not say the Doctor lies but I am sure it 's false that he says Astrologers holding no such thing as that either ☉ is hot and moist or that ♂ is parching dry Now indeed will a mans Conscience serve him or his Genius lead him to poison his arrows thus no wonder if he fire out Astrology from forth the imaginations of men For by this kind of Battery may a man coin the Heavens to be meer Hell and Hell to be Heaven Thirdly He argues saying all the Planets are Opake Bodies and whatever their colour is are as cold as Earth for neither yellow nor red clay cast any more heat then white Wherefore a shamless foolery to pronounce ♂ hot and dry and ♄ cold and dry And since from these they are reputed benigne and malignant Masculine or Feminine c. All this part of their pretended Science is but a Rhapsody of Fooleries also Here 's another Battery now half as good as the last I cannot say the Doctor lies indeed but I am sure he does not know that he tells true And some say it's tanta-mount to a lie when men so confidently affirm for truth that which they know not whether it be true or false yea though it should happen to be ne're so true And yet should it be all as true as confidently he avers Yet what would it boot him For if ♂ be not hot and dry as is the Sun or as Fire neither do we pretend so Only as Pepper or Salt he operates an internal heat And so ♄ an internal cold Also were all the Planets meer Opake Bodies why may they not be Male and Female notwithstanding as well as the Male and Female Orchis or the Male and Female Ash or Holy-trees And why not Benigne and Malignant as well as a Cherry is one and a Crab is the other and yet both are Opake Bodies And yet no Rhapsody of Fooleries in either Only the Doctor delights to hear his whole Lecture of â—ailery full out And now have I answered to the whole rabble of his Discourse concerning the foolery of Astrology as he alledges because the Principles of it are groundless and frivolous I will not say with what a clatter as he talks his Arguments are fallen to dust No I leave it to the Reader rather to take it as he likes and let him judg as he please Only I humbly guess that hitherto Astrology is free enough from foil and that all wise men will say as much Sect. 13 The next thing he alledges to prove the vanity or foolery of Astrology is that it is Contradictions And this Contradictiousness he only hints in Ch. 16. § 9. Here to that of the Earth's being so pervious to the influence of the Stars and Planets He says First That it 's a Principle without Proof And Secondly That if he give 's it us we must be fain to vomit it up again it being destructive to our whole Art For if the Rays and Influences of the Stars and Planets have free passage through the body of the Earth the whole Ceremony of erecting a Scheme for such a Longitude and Latitude is medless nay as to the Heavens the Fate of all men would be alike For that hidden Influence which governs all would reach to all points from all parts of Heaven at once As to the First That it 's a Principle without proof it has been sufficiently handled in the fourth Section of this Chapter In the Second lies that Contradictiousness he speaks of As if the Influence of the Planets could not be able to peirce the Body of the Earth without influencing all parts of the Earth aliâ—â— It is apparent by relation of them who know it that the influence of the weapon-salve peirceth thorow the Air an hundred Miles and more and yet neither worketh upon the Air nor any kind of wound in that Air save only that one which is related to the knife whereon it is applied So the Pole-star though it peirce the body of the Earth yet affecteth nothing but the Magnetical Needles which seem to be of its near Relation So also the Plaster upon a Sore attracts not the blood but the corrupt matter only out of the wound although it searcheth equally into the flesh amongst the sound as well as the rotten flesh And why may not the Planets then although they peirce the whole Earth thorow and thorow yet single out each one their peculiar Objects and each influence of every Planet find out their own proper Relations to work upon and all this without any the least contradiction Sect. 14 But lastly Astrology must be a foolery because built upon a false Hypothesis Now this false Hypothesis is that which he treats on in § 10. And after a fit of conceited merriment and flim flam jests he goes on laughing and saying to himself The best jest of all is that there
I have medled or dealt with in this kind and no more than what the most Learned and Famousest of our modern reformed Writers have done before me Wherefore I am none of those who pretend to be read in State-Astrology or to be versed in the curious tracks of Meteorology Nor am I any profest Artist either in the understanding of Hororary Questions or in scanning the abstruse paths of Genethliacal Predictions And how it shews him the great Glory of Gods works Onely so much have I learned as shews me the great glory of my Creator written in the Sacred frame of the Heavens while I behold their admirable operations and productions and how the frame of Nature hangs upon them and is contrived from the beginning continuing and going on as if all things came to pass by Chance and yet is there a dependance of all things one upon another and of all sublunary things upon the Heavens and of the Heavens upon God as if Nature it self were nothing else but an Artificial Fabrick made by God from the beginning And now Astrology is nothing else but that Study whereby a man perceiveth the secret Virtue of the Heavens and the shining Bodies therein contained and is induced by the more he knows of his handy-work to spend the more time in wondering at the most immense and infinite Wisdom and Power of God For the more a man attains to know of these Heavenly Virtues the more he sees of the reason and manner of Natures Operation in things that are past and the more he sees of this reason the more it makes him to admire him that made and laid the frame of it And as he attains to see the reason of things past by the same skill he attains to see things to come and by the Birth of a Native And profitably serves him in prediction of future Events he reads in the Heavens most part of that Natives whole life and the Story thereof as his Blessings and Crosses Gains and Losses Honour and Dishonour Sickness and Health and all the years of his Life and the time of Death even as if he had seen them acted in their several times and seasons Eccles 1.5 For this God hath given unto the wise man to know the time and the judgment Sect. 3 The reason of the Author in publishing this Treatise But many men do not believe that by Natural skill all or any of this can fairly and lawfully be procured And because amongst the many who believe us not and are therefore enemies to Astrology I have so much charity as to believe are some good and godly as well as wise men who more out of mistake than malice have taken up their prejudice And because amongst these also are many most Learned Astronomers And for whole sake he hath done it unto whose names the Astrologer is greatly obliged for much of his skill and especially because amongst these two may be found some whose prejudice to Astrology has rendred them so unhappy as not to have read that excellent piece of Art called The Doctrine of Nativities published by Mr. Gadbury a Person famous as well for Astronomy as Astrology or any other Learned Treatise of this nature and yet perhaps out of some curiosity may be drawn in to taste of these few Lines Therefore for satisfaction of all such I humbly offer these three Propositions 1. That there is an Astrology in the Heavens The sum of what he undertakes to prove consists in three Propositions 2. That this Astrology Man in the state of Corruption may attain in some measure to understand 3. That this understanding may be lawfully and fairly compassed by Natural means without any Diabolical helps The first Proposition Sect 1 THat there is an Astrology in the Heavens that is The Proposition explained The Heavenly Bodies have all their Influences wherewith they operate upon all Earthly Subjects and that upon the Intellectual and Sensitive as well as the Vegetative to incline and lead them here and there and more or less in the constitution of their Qualities and Contingencies of their Destinies though not absolutely to force their Wills according to the power and virtues of that place of Heaven and that band of Stars unto whose charge every of those Subjects are committed Sect. 2 God has not fix'd these mighty Bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars which The first Proof by Scripture shews that the Sun and Moon have as much to do with the sway of earthly affairs as hath a King amongst his Subjects to such as know their Dimensions are known to move in their Orbs as so many other Worlds in the Heavens for mere Signs like Beacons on an Hill nor yet for mere Seasons or Land-marks of Time so as to be no more but mere Boundments unto Days Months and Years Yea there is infinitely more in them than so for unto every one of them hath he committed an Authority and Power Gen. 1.16 as it were a King upon his Throne to Sway and Rule over all things subject unto Day and Night The Sun is the Fountain of heat and that Heat is the Nurse of Life and thence therefore find we every living Creature waiting upon this Sun for its life as it were so many Servants upon the Master of the House and this is palpable Now the Moon seems to be as much the Fountain of Moisture as the Sun is of Heat and Moisture being an Handmaid unto Life hence also may it seem requisite therefore that where the Sun is honoured as Master of the House the Moon may challenge the Title of Mistress and this also is palpable though not in that degree of it to the heat of the Sun For though the Moon doth not sensibly distil Dews of Moisture as does the Sun his Beams of Heat 't is because she is the weaker Vessel and wants of him so exceedingly in comparison of Power Yet that she is the Mistress of this Moisture as well as of the Night is apparent by the Tydes which constantly attend her Motion and that with increase and diminution of force as she appears in strength or want of Aspect and by the Eyes of Cats which sensibly swell and fall as the Moon is strong or weak Sect. 3 And that the Stars also have their sway and that by day as well as by Night But besides these Seigniories of the Sun and Moon the Stars also it seems have their Principalities in the Heavens The Lord who giveth the Sun for a Light by day giveth also the Ordinances of the Moon and Stars for a Light by night Jer. 31.35 And to these Stars also hath God committed a certain Rule or Dominion over the Day and Night Gen 1.18 and that promiscuously Now the Stars have no sensible operation upon us besides that little light they administer unto our eyes and that is so very small that all the Stars in Heaven besides the Sun