study the Heavens and to be acquainted with the Stars I will leave Mr. C. therefore to repent of this Minor and proceed 4 Argum. That which is false delusive and uncertain is not to be practised countenanced or tolerated But such is fore-telling things by the Stars Therefore c. Resp I deny the Minor for it is no kin to the truth at all and argue against it thus If fore-telling by the Stars were false delusive and uncertain the Fates of particular Persons the variety of Seasons great Droughts Sicknesses Peace Wars Plenty or Scarcity were not to be certainly predicted But these things are certainly to be foretold by the Aspects and Positions of the Stars Ergo foretelling by the Stars is not false delusive and uncertain but certain real and true Lucius Bellantius foretold the Death of Picus Mirandula that great Antagonist to Astrologie who while he was writing against that Art his own Death concurring evinced it to be true without further Argument Zonarus reports that Julians death was foreseen to a day Gauricus forewarned Henry the Second of France of the 41 year of his age and in the same year that Famous King died Spurina forewarns Caesar of the Ides of March and Caesar was then slain in the Senate-House upon which the Ingenious Poet Tho. Pecke Esq thus Elegantly versifies Viz. To run that middle Race Caesar said in Astrologies Disgrace The Ides of March are come And so they be Reply'd the Prophet but You 'l something see Before the Ides be past His words had grounds Before night Caesar receiv'd twenty wounds The Emperor Vitellius assign'd a day for Astrologers to depart Rome they assigned him another for his pasport out of the world as is recorded by Sir Christ Heydon and he then dyed Then for general Things or accidents let it be remembred that Thales foretold a plenty of Olives and enriched himself thereby Democritus and Sestius presaged a dearth of Olives as is witnessed by Pliny Regiomantanus predicted the great Changes that happened in 1588. long before the year came Hippocrates foretold a Plague by Astrologie Mr. Booker predicted the fate of the Irish exactly in 1646. and the Bellum Episcopale that happened in England also in 1639. and 1640. which Episcopal War was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all our English Miseries Nay I could make it appear that not only accidents on earth may by Astrologie be presaged but in Heaven also As was the Comet or Stella Crinita in December 1652. by my learned and loving Friend Mr. Joshua Childrey and this three Moneths before it happened See his Sygiast Instaur 1653. This therfore may serve for a sufficient Refutation of the Error and Prejudice I was about to say Ignorance in Mt. Clarks fourth Argument 5. Argum. That which nourisheth vain and forbidden hopes and fears is not to be practised countenanced or tolerated But so do Astrological Predictions Therefore c. Answ I answer by denying the Minor For Astrological Predictions do not nourish or cherish vain and forbidden hopes and fears but rather fortisies mens minds against them The Text viz. Jer. 10. which Mr. C. cites to support his Minor I have before proved hath nothing at all to do with either Astrologie or Astrological Predictions so that you see it proves nothing of the Minor in question However I Anti-Argue The Art which draws men to a Consideration of the wonderful works of God doth not nourish vain or forbidden fears But Astrologie and Astrological Predictions do so Ergo c. That Astrologie draws men to the Consideration of the wonderful works of God is proved in the answer to the third Argument both from Scripture-Authority and Reason Thus much therefore may serve for a Refutation of his fifth Argument 6 Argum. That which most godly and learned men upon experience have renounced and repented of that is neither to be practised countenanced or tolerated But godly men have renounced and repented of their studie of Astrologie Therefore c. Resp I answer by denying the Major If General Councils may erre then surely particular persons though never so godly or holy Sed verum prius Engo posterius There is no man dare assume the Epithet of infallibility on earth neither do I believe that any of those whom Mr. Clark stiles most godly and learned would have so done had they been with him at the framing of his Argument The word most in his Argument must be understood either as a note of number or of excellency and transcendency of knowledge and ability to discern and distinguish If of Number I shall be able to out-vote him for he hath named but three viz. St. Augustine Perkins and Mr. Briggs If of Excellency c. I presume he hath made as ill a choyce as could be For St. Augustine although a learned man was to seek in many things and consequently was subject to errour witness his stiff opinion against Antipodes which clearly declares him ignorant of Astrologie and his censure therefore the less to be regarded and 2. his approbative relation of a Monstrous great Tooth proves him to be a person very credulous and therefore the less to be heeded in his Judicial Censures Mr. Perkius never understood Astrologie and is therefore no competent Judge thereof I grant he studyed it but never attained the excellency of it and that was the reason of his quarrelling thereat The Fox in Aesop blamed the Grapes for being too high but the fault was in his dwarfish Stature Mr. Briggs was indeed an eminent Mathematician and therefore the most comperent of the three to judge of the Controversie But a man may be a good Mathematician and yet no good Astrologer I illustrate it thus Mr. Clarke may be a good Divine yet no good Casuist He may be a good Divine yet nor grounded in the universal point A te à Scientia Every man is not born to one kind of inclination if all were excellent in one thing many things both useful and worthy might by that means come to be neglected It is in Philosophy and the Mathematicks as in Divinity there are several parts in them fit for the several persons that study them But Unto our Story let us turn our Tide And draw toward a Conclusion I assert in opposition to Mr. Clarke That which most godly and learned men upon experience have commended to the world as worthy laudable and useful ought to be countenanced practised and tolerated But most godly and learned men have so commended the Science of Astrologie Ergo c. The Major no man that is in his sences will offer once to deny The Minor I fortifie thus The Patriarchs themselves studyed Astrologie and thereby commended the same to the world as worthy Josephus tells us that Abraham did not onely study but taught the Aegyptians this Art Isaac is said to have studied the Heavens when he went into the field to meditate Upon which the learned Mr. Caryl saith It is good to
could by his many years Study Nevertheless I could easily bear with Mr. Allens weakness of this kind were he not so highly provocative in consideration of the gross jugling of our present greatest Preenders to Astrologie whose Ignorance to say no worse in a sence is a far greater blemish to that Noble Science then any of Mr. Allens addle-headed Detractions For his Additions scrap'd and patch'd up together here and there out of Gassendus I refer the Learned Antagonists but not him to what follows and also to the Answer thereunto written by the learned Morinus late of France And for his other childish and unconnex'd Expressions which can scarcely call sence their Dad that his pair of Epistles are fully fraught with I account it beneath ingenuity to take cognizance of as finding him therein within the reach of the Poets lash against Ideots c. For Fools that rave and rage not knowing why A Scourge is far more fit then a Reply And so I take leave of Mr. Allen and his Simplicity wishing him better and more profitable Employment both for his Brain and Purse Gassendus's ARGUMENTS Against ASTROLOGIE Which the Silly ANTAGONISTS So much boast of Retorted and Refuted Proving the Worth Truth of Astrology from his own Nativity which himself gave to the Learned Morinus late of FRANCE LONDON Printed for Samuel Speed at the signe of the Printing-Press in Pauls Church-yard 1660. Nasc Petrus Gassendus 1592. Jan. 21 d. Silo Novo 17 h. 52 m. P.M. Lat. 43 d. 52 m. Obiit 1655. Octob. 24.  Lat. Plan.  ☽ 4 30 M. ♄ 0 31 M. ♃ 0 38 S. ♂ 0 12 M. ♀ 5 40 M. ☿ 2 4 M. Gassendus's Arguments Against ASTROLOGIE answered PAge 66. How many Apertiones Portarum not onely in every year but also in every week nay day O foelicem Artem si desa Soli judicarent artificus But here Mounsieur Gassendus his Epianogass Caudo Charl. Translators shewed they were none and not onely ignorant of the Nature but of the time and terms of things They knew neither what Apertiones Portarum were nor when they happen they do certainly apprehend there are Flood-gates and Sluces in Heaven from whence water is poured down by Buckets full Thus those that say Astrologers Axiomes are Arbitrary and Imaginary that there are no such things in Nature as Aspects do imagine the vainest Phantosmes and Chimaera's in the world for I would fain know of them what Apertiones Portarum those are every day but they cannot tell Indeed the Astrologers tell us what Apertiones Portarum are the Geometer al Positions or Distances of those Planets whose Houses are opposite which are not so frequent as they imagine for besides those of the Moon and Saturn sometimes there happen none six weeks or two moneths together and then those of the prodigious or superiour Planets are more powerful to operate on these Terrestrial Bodies but those of the inferiour less considerable as experience doth sufficiently testifie to any but those that are not to be perswaded though they are convinced and though they see will not understand I think no man can be so unreasonable as to suppose that any one will be so irrational as to justifie all the Pleas of Astrologers that many times might accept like Gassendus of some things to be Causes that are not so and Gassendus himself or his learned Translator and Transcriber who desire that their Cock-brain'd Disciples should always Jurare in Verba Magistra and justifie their ridiculous impertinences in all the idle follies of this Book and others of their Philosophy But to answer his Question by another Why Mars should not rather repress and abate then extimulate and highten Watry Influence of the Pleiades and the Moon Mercury and Venus rather excite and encrease it We demand why Water poured into Water and Fire put into Fire do not produce more dissentaneous effects then each other confronted with its Antagonists or because Gassendus his Ape is perhaps a more famous Physitian then a Philosopher having been Leech as he professes to the late King which he may as lawfully pretend to as any quacking Chirurgeon that followed any of his ragged Regiments we ask why twenty Grains of Diagredium does not restrain a Diarrhaea more then Milk being hot and dry the other cool and moist So I see no reason why Mars may not cause Showres by Antipathy and Dissimilitude of Natures being in Conjunction with the Pleiades yet not lose his own Vertue of heat for we see if he meet with any considerable Aspect at that time he produces often Thunder Lightning and Rain an effect of both Natures for great Mutations and Disturbances of the Air may as well be caused by Antipathy as Sympathy and Mars may as well cause Rain as Saturn though not upon the same reason as well as a Flux proceed from Choler as Flegme or why his Worship hath given a Purge that works more then his little prescience could foresee or perhaps his prescription prevent But whereas he talks That there is variety of weather upon the same Aspects in England and France I answer That the Stars operate in every Country according to the variety and Nature of the Clymate for the same effect is not like to proceed from the Conjunction of Saturn and Sol in Aegypt that does in England for to predict Rain there where is but little or seldom any from the Nature of the Solum as well as Coelum were ridiculous but where there is Conjunction of Saturn Sol and great store of Rain in England I aver that it shall be colder in Egypt much more then ordinary at the same time and so in every Country according to its Nature the Planets have their effects according to that not more trite then true saying The Sun hardens Clay and softens Wax Pag. 126. But to shew more and more his skill or rather his ignorance in Astrologie he goes on and says Nor are we to say such an Infant was born infected with a foul and contageous Disease because the sixth house was his Horoscope but because his Mothers lower house was impure and infectious Is this the famous Gassendus the Scribbler of those Voluminous Atomes how many impertinences are those Volumns stuffed with when these few Pages are nothing else but a Dunghil of those Vanities that he hath raked up to throw in the Faces of the Astrologers and the wind blows back into his own Is this that famous Astronomer that pretends to have made so many Observations this very passage shews his ignorance and impudence and makes it apparent to all men that he is but a meer Impostor and goes about to delude the world with the opinion of his general learning and great skill in Astronomy when as it is more clear then the light of those glorious bodies whose Vertue he would obscure that he understands nothing in that Divine Study but that by some chance he stumbled upon those
Observations he hath published to the world as his own for could any man that understands the Astronomy of the Primum Mobile or indeed sence say That the sixth house was the Horoscope Where is the Sagacity of the Probastical Translator that leaves out and puts in what he pleases VVas it possible that thou couldest be trappan'd by Gassendus in these Fooleries couldst thou be over-reached by one in thine own Trade but the truth is there was nothing next to their ignorance that brought in this gross conceit but onely that witty quibbling as they thought it upon the Houses The sixth House and the lower House and it was a witty one indeed and well became the mouth of a Church-man and the Obscenity of such an Epicure as the person of Quality But to help the lame Dog over the stile we will suppose they mean as they say that the Stars are not causes of the Contagious Disease of a Child nor of their ill or good Disposition but the Complexion of their seed their diet and course of life c. But if that were the cause why are many Children polluted and sickly whose Parents are very sound and many Children are very healthful and strong whose Parents are sickly And of this there are examples in every Family If these things were true that Children were like their Parents why was not Rehoboam as wise as Solomon Hezekiah as wicked as Ahaz or Manasseh as righteous as his Father Was ever a more licentious Prince then K. Harry or a more vertuous then his Son K. Edward But it is consentaneous with the Doctrine of Epicuro Gassendus to ascribe more to good Chear then to the Stars and to the pleasing of his Palate then unto the Heavens Now I see whence persons of quality proceed from a polluted lower house which makes a corrupted upper house and that vents all these rotten Reasons but yet we deny not but that many times the Child is like the Parents which proceeds from the similitude and harmony of Genitures and not from the dyet Also that the Mothers lower house adds much thereunto provided it is like Madam Youngs alias Madissons Sir Pauls Ladies Madam Drunkards all the Translators Friends and Acquaintance But that you may see the Reasons of the rottenness of Gassendus his upper house and lower house I will adjoyn his Geniture given from himself to Morinus Here you may see the Malignant Planets Saturn and Mars have the chief Dominion in his Scheme Saturn is the Lord of his Horoscope considering his Latitude falling into the sixth house though the sixth house be not his Horoscope Peregrine Retrograde in his Detriment and unfortunate in Cancer which made his Lungs much oppressed with Phlegme rotten and corrupt of an ill habit of body very sickly subject to Catarrhes c. That for manners Saturn in Quartile with Mars both in the same Aspect with the Ascendent made him of an evil disposition envious suspitious revengeful angry peevish contentious in jurious frandulent a Lyar a Calumniator an Impostor covetous a Robber of other Mens Honour a false Friend a pirfidious Traytor a notorious Hypocrite an Atheist and to say no worse of him than he does of Mr. Des Cartes though unjustly a Toad swelled with Pride and malicious Venome as you may see in that Book against de Cartes and others of his Works As he had Mercury in Sextile to Mars and the house of Saturn so had he a wit apt enough for mischiefs quarrels and contentions sharp in disputations as in Quartile to the Moon so was it turbulent enough and had Mercury not applyed to a Sextile of Jupiter also he had been so ill natured that he had not been sociable but that good Aspect gave him so much wit as hypocritically to dissemble it and cloak it under Zeal to Religion and make that seem the severity of his Devotion that was the moroseness of his Nature But if we go further we shall finde it agree with the Accidents of his life as well as his Disposition About the time the Medium Coeli was directed to the Sextile of the Moon we finde he had a Journey into Holland When the Sun was directed to the Trine of Jupiter he was made Praepositus Diniensis where for the most part he was non-Resident During the effects of the Sun to the Trine of Venus and the Mid-heaven to Venus he was made Mathematical Professor Upon the Direction of the Moon to the Quartile of Mars he had an Inflammation of the Lungs Which also returned upon him again when the Horoscope was directed to the body of ♂ and after to the Quartile of ♄ which produced a Consumption in which Disease his Physitians just such as his Translator being over-free of his blood at threescore and three brought him to that excessive weakness that he never recovered and dyed whining that his too much obsequiousness to their prescriptions had snatcht him out of the world in viridi senectute Take his Friend Borellus Relation and his own words Obs xi Cent. 3. Possem hic viri semper lugendi mortem dolorosam toti Europae imo mundo recensere nimio illo remedio sanguineo verba ab ejus ore deprompta referre quibus ante obitum fassus est se nimio obsequio periisse cum heroe suo ad inferos cum viridi adhuc stante senectute descendisse by which you may perceive that though a Church-man he was very unwilling to leave this Terrestrial Paradise for one that was uncertain And by his words indeed I do not find he had much hopes of it Another thing I must desire you take notice of that it is as possible to be kill'd as dead with a Launcet as a Poniard and that he had some signification of violence in his Nativity for the Lord of his Ascendent is in Quartile to Mars and both behold the Ascendent with evil Aspect and whoever hath that Position I advise him to beware of such a Physitian as Mr. Doctor FINIS