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
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
by Shepherds others by Husbandmen and Seamen and some by Scholars and all communicated together Sect. 5 These Experiments they have gained from the Heavens as Physicians do theirs concerning Medicine from the fruits of the Earth their way is to gather Herbs and taste them how they are hot or cold in the First Second or Third Degree and to try them what their effects are in Potion or Plaister and hence learn they to understand what each Herb or Flower Metall or Mineral is able to bring forth And after this manner by virtue of a muititude of Experiments and a constant observation from time to time and at all times have they invented and brought up the famous Art of Physic and Chyrurgery After this very same manner has the Astrologer gained all his whole skill of the Heavens Taste them indeed he cannot but he has his Eye and his Ear and his sense of Feeling and his reason of Apprehension and judgment to observe the effects of the Heavens and their influences upon Man and Beast and upon the whole Earth and hence he is able to argue from the Effect to the Cause what the Nature is of Heaven in general and in particular and of many of the Stars what they are able to produce And after this manner by virtue of a multitune of Experiments and a constant observation from time to time and at all times have Learned Men invented and brought to light this famous Art of Vranology commonly called Judiciary Astrology and there is no more of Diabolical Art in this than there is in the study and practice of Physic and Chyrurgery there being not a tittle in this but what is learned after the same manner as are they all being the progeny of Experience and Observation Of the Subject of Uranology the Heavenly Body Natural and its confiderations and be there any difference this is the eldest Sister and the most ingenious Art of them all Sect. 6 The subject of Vranology and that as well of the Speculative as of the Practical part of that Science is the Body Natural of Heaven Heaven is a Body Natural most simple solid spherical clear and moving constantly in a Circle and this by virtue of an innate power always within it self And thus far all the Learned Philosophers generally do assent and agree This Heaven waxeth old as doth a garment as witnesseth the holy Writ Moreover the Effects do shew as much the stature of Man in every Age decreasing and the fruitlesness of the Earth in general continually increasing as if the Heavens above failed to supply Natures off-spring below with their wonted stock of vertue The matter of this Heaven is not the same with that of the four Elements or either of them either simple or mixt but either is of a purer and more excellent mold than any of them or else is a most pure quintessential matter composed beyond all that Art or Earthly Nature was ever possibly able to contrive This Body Natural of Heaven is to be considered either in its own proper matter or in respect of the Codies therein moving Heaven in its own proper matter is to be considered in its Quantity Quality or Action The Quantity of Heaven consisteth in Number and Measure Sect. 7 The Quantity of Number seemeth to divide the great Body of Heaven into several and different Orbs. Some are of opinion Of the Number of the Heavenly Orbs. that there are ten or eleven of these distinct Orbs of the Heavens that is ten of them besides the Emperial Heaven whose immensity no mortal man is able to comprehend Others suppose there are but eight of these Orbs that is seven Orbs of the seven Planets besides that one of the fixed Stars all of them containing every one his inferiour Orb within his own Circle wrapping one about another like the several Coats of an Onyon and the Sun or the Earth inclosed in the Centre of all like the Ball in the midst of the Onion of which some say one and some say the other to be the innermost but Astrology makes little matter which and so whether there be eight or ten of the Heavenly Orbs or more or fewer Astrology makes but little of concern or whether there be but one general Orb wherein the Planets and fixed Stars do ride in their several Circuits loose from the Heavenly Body as Birds flying in the Air or as Fishes swimming in the Sea Astrology does not undertake to decide But howsoever or which way soever we do account either the Sun or Earth to be the Centre of the World or the Orbs to be more or fewer or to be fixed to the Planets and Stars or loose from them both as we cannot say certainly how they are seeing they are so much above our reach of reason and comprehension so we need not greatly care or concern our selves saving for recreation in our meer Speculations Yet sure it is by perfect Demonstration That from the Centre of the World unto the utmost limits of the Starry Heaven there is a vast and immense Body of Heaven consisting of that most simple solid spherical and clear matter so as if it were most excellent refined Crystal we are able to go thorow all all which St. Paul seemeth to account but one Body of Heaven the Air between that and us making the (a) Psal 8 8. Dan. 7.2 13. first Heaven and that vast Body a (b) Gen. 1 17. second beyond which that holy Man being wrapt up was in the Emperial Heaven above all where he saw and heard things unspeakable in the (c) 2 Cor. 12.2 Matth 6.9 chap. 24.36 third Heaven Sect. 8 The Quantity of Measure cuts out this whole Body of Heaven into several spaces of Heighth Depth and Width Of the measure and space of the Heavens as they are commonly divided These spaces of Measure are chiefly bounded by the Equinoctial Line and the two Polar Points The Equinoctial Line is a great Circle which we imagine to compass the whole World of Heaven and Earth in that space extending from the Orb of the Moon unto the Emperial Heaven where the Days and Nights are of equal length all the whole year about The Polar Points are those two Points in the immense Ball of the World which are equidistant from the Equinoctial Line the one in the utmost Northern and the other in the utmost Southern point Now this Equinoctial Line is conceived to be precisely 360 Degrees in its whole circuit or divided into so many equal parts of space and every one of those Degrees is divided into the space of 60 Minutes or 60 several parts of a Degree and every Minute into as many Seconds And as the Equinoctial is so is the Meridian conceived to be the space of 360 Degrees This is another great Circle extending from the one Polar Point unto the other and twice cutting the Equinoctial Line compasseth the whole World from North to South as the
how come we I wonder to know that And yet says the Doctor this is a plain and Mechanical Solution But not so plain by his favour unless we know better of what kind of nature that Caelestial matter is he treats of or that he could tell us For do not we know that the Air is a subtil and a curiously made thin Body which aptly and easily with very small or no force upon its next Neighbour makes way for greatest Bodies to peirce and pass thorow it and we have much of reason to beleive that the Caelestial matter is much more subtil then that So as it can make room enough for the passage of the Moon 's Body thorow and thorow it to and fro without any the least disturbance to the Air or Water But on the contrary that there is no such thing in nature appears by this in that whilst the waters are carried hither and thither by the power of the Moon the Winds are many times contrarily disposed For were the Waters driven by a force of the Moon 's Body driveing the Caelestial matter and that the Air and the Air the Waters Then would the Winds also which are lighter then the Waters be driven also by the same violent Air even as the Waters are but this we see is not so and therefore neither can be the other But this argument rather looks much like that of a blunt Countrey Gentleman's who understanding but little of the System of the World conceited the Earth to be fastened unto the North and South Poles by great and massy Cakes of Ice upon which not hanging so steady but that it is tottered to and fro by the motion of the Moon which therefore as it reels towards the East swaggles the whole water of the Sea floting the same way and as it returns back again Westward brings all the whole Sea with a swaggle back again to Landwards upon us Now the truth is let them conceit this way and the other what they can there is no man can propose any certain Mechanical way whereby this rare Feat should be thus wrought It is therefore enough for our matter at this time that the Doctor has granted it to happen certainly by means of the Moon For hence are we able to say by authority from our Adversaries that the Moon 〈◊〉 the flux and reflux of the Seas and till they shall be able to shew demonstratively how it is otherwise it must go for granted that she does it by an influence strange and secret beyond 〈◊〉 what we are able to conceive And 'till then this Planet the Moon must be allowed to have such a Foolery as the Doctor styles it which we call her Astrological Influence Sect. 4 Thirdly Are there some sensible Effects from the Heavens which are certain and constant as is granted and particularly his the Polar Star such a sensible effect upon the Magnetical Needle Why then it must necessarily follow that the Heavens have their Influences and particularly that the Polar Star has its influences upon the Magnetical Needle and that searching and penetrating thorow the very Body of the Earth as by common experience may be and is daily verified No but says the Doctor it is the Magnetisme of the Earth and not of the Polar Star which draws that Needle And he renders his reason for it For some three Miles from Rossebury the Needle will turn round and round for the space of a whole Mile Well it seems then it is between the Earth and the Polar Star one of them then it seems must needs have an influence But suppose we it should be the Earth that carries this Magnetisme Is it the whole Earth that does so or some part of it only If the whole Earth why then turns not the Needle South-wards as well as North-wards And if it be some part of the Earth only where is that part Or is it amongst those Rocks some three Miles from Rossebury But if so why then beyond that Rossebury and those three Miles of it does the Needle turn North-wards and not rather towards Rossebury Is this Magnetisme in the Earth then why if so it s in no one part or place of the Earth it seems but in several it is about Rossebury and beyond Rossebury more North and who knows where the end of it is there But be it so that it be in the Earth and yet no man knows where in the Earth what ground have we that it is in the Earth Or are the Doctor 's Principles as groundless and frivolous nay and contradictious as our's of Astrology It seems there is a strange sympathy between the nature of the Polar Star and the Magnet Stone This Stone if it be nigh to the Needle has it seems a palpable power to attract the Needle towards it self And this it can do as some say who have seen the experiment though there be the thickness of a Table Board between the Stone and the Needle And in this case the Magnet leads away the Needle to the Polar Star But this is the truth of the case about Rossebury It seems there is some Magnet Rocks there abouts which draw the Needle round as it comes near to every of them and being near hand they draw away the Needle from the Polar Star But after a small distance their virtue fails and then the Polar Star draws it again But to conclude is this virtue of Magnetisme in the Earth or any part of it as the Doctor says Why then this power of attracting the Needle would be but weak and at a certain distance only for so the Magnetick Rocks at or near Rossebury work but within their distance and that 's but small and very mean But a Magnetisme there is which draws as far as from the North Pole unto beyond the Tropick of Capricorn and that through the very Body of the Earth and that therefore can be no Magnetisme of the Rocks of Rossebury no nor were all the Earth from Greenland North-ward nothing but a Magnetick Rock yet could it not do such a Feat And therefore good Doctor bethink again such 't is and must be no less then the Polar Star and not the Earth which influences the Needle thus And if so where 's the Foolery now Sect. 5 Lastly It is granted by the Doctor That he doubts not but that were the other Planets any of them in the Moon 's place where their Discus might seem of equal bigness with her's and she away from where she is in their place they might do the like Feats as she does O excellent Conceits and from an Enemy as favourable as one would wish For First That the Moon has a mighty power or virtue or influence or somewhat call it what you please whereby she swells the Eyes and Brains at her Full and carries the Seas up and down here and there as it were at pleasure is granted Secondly That the other Planets such as ♄ ♃ ♂ ♀ and ☿
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
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
to the root of the Tree and strikes at the Essential Dignities of the Planets And because this is nothing else but the increase of a Planets innate virtue by being in such or such a Sign and these being the Signs of the Zodiack He answers There is no such Zodiack in Heaven neither is it any thing And therefore is it manifest that the whole Doctrine of Essential Dignities falls to the ground But oh the wretched Beggar If he do but harbour an imagination in his brain presently it must be granted that it cannot be otherwise First As for the Houses of Planets it seems this learned Philosopher had been hammering out the reasons of those Houses and because something came into his head which seemed to himself pretty as to say why ♌ should be the House of ☉ and ♋ the House of ☽ The learned man immediately concluded that there could be no other reason but what himself had started for either one or th' other and because himself could find none that therefore for the Houses of the other Planets there was none And thence crys out how from his small hints and mistakes of reason they have without all reason and sense bestowed Houses on the rest of the Planets guiding themselves by the conceit of the benignity and malignity of Aspects Thus strangely abounds the Doctor in his own sense concluding all the utmost of our reasonings not to extend one tittle farther then just as he imagins And as if it could not possibly be otherwise without any the lest resemblance of an Argument against these Essential Dignities called the Houses of the Planets beyond his own meer ipse dixit He concludes positively that all is without sense and reason Truly this is a notable Battery of the Doctor 's and would be of great force should it be but planted against Spiders Webs The Benignity and Malignity of Aspects he has noted already it having no ground but the rash joining together of critical days with the Aspects of the Moon And for this he quotes § 7. of the same Chapter And this I have answered already too save only that it is worth observance how the Doctor measures out the wits and reasonings of all Astrologers by his own head-peice our wits may not jump one hairs breadth beyond just as it comes into his whimsical brain Next as for the Dignity of Exaltation This must be but a small preferment And why But because Albumanar makes the ☊ and ☋ which are but imaginary Circles of the Moon 's course through the Ecliptick to have their Exaltations too as well as the Planets Here now seems somthing like an Argument but then all the strength of it depends on this how absurd it is to think that imaginary Circles should have their Exaltations But consider First These Circles which to us are but imaginary because we cannot fix our eyes upon the places of them Yet are in themselves no imaginary but real points of the Firmament of Heaven as the knee is a real part of a man's Body Secondly As the parts of the Earth have their several virtues as some do naturally and aptly bring forth Fur others Broom and others Fern so these parts of the Heavens have also their several operations Lastly As any part of the Earth is made more fruitful by means of compass dung or soil applied to the mending thereof even so this point of the Ecliptick where the Moon makes her passage over it is found extraordinarily exceeding in operation above the other parts of the Ecliptick But when this passage of the Moon happeneth to fall out in the Sign of ♊ and ♠and especially in the third degree of either then appears it that the ☊ in the one and the ☋ in the other hath more then ordinary operation which is called their Exaltation And the truth of this is evident by the same kind of experience as is that of the virtue of the weapon-salve or as those are of any of the potions or Medicines commended to us by our Physicians And now if we have a real experience of the ☊ and ☋ that they have their Exaltations in their operations and the Doctor knows nothing to the contrary but this Ha ha he what then shall his Battery avail him against the Essential Dignities either of the Planets or the Moon 's Nodes called their Exaltation Thirdly As for the Lords of the Trigons he calls them the foolery of the Trigons and why Because 't was pity there were not just Planets that each Trigon might have had its two Consuls and ♂ not rule solitary in his watry one This is like a man that would confute the Doctrine of the Antipodes by crying Pish For about so much does this Battery of the Doctor 's amount to and no more Fourthly As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their prerogative he says is destroyed by the first general Argument because the parts of the Sign are as fictitious as the whole When the Doctor is at a full point as his Ha hah will extend no farther then flies he to the main shift That there is no Zodiack or that the Signs of the Zodiack are all but meer imaginary things But whatever they are imaginary to us who never ascended up so high as to observe the bound-marks of the several Signs yet for certain there is an Heaven as no man can deny And if there be an Heaven then may this Heaven be divided into parts and that as well into twelve equal parts as well as two and this all men must confess And if so then every of those twelve parts may be also subdivided into thirty equal parts by the same general confession and every one of those twelve and those 30 parts must be as really the parts of Heaven as Heaven it self is a real and no imaginary Body And if the whole and parts be real then are they no such fictitious things as the Doctor 's whimsi's do imagin But it may be the Doctor spites the Images only of the Signs as the Ram and the Lion and the rest perhaps his faith is not so strong as to beleive there is any such thing as a Ram or Lion in Heaven Neither do the Quakers believe there is any such day in the Week as Sunday or Munday We 'l therefore comply with weak Consciences for this once Let it be the first day and second day instead of Sunday and Munday And let it be the first 30 degrees after the Æquinox and then the second 30 c and not ♈ ♉ nor the rest will that please Or if it may not be the Constellation of the Ram or the Bull let it be a certain number of Stars in such and such forms imagined in the shape of a Ram and a Bull. Or it may be he thinks of the Heavens as a Shepheard on Grimsbury Green did of the Sea who when he heard of a Merchant how he sailed so many Leagues upon the Waters and inquiring what
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
lawfully and fairly this Science may be attained The Introduction I shall first shew its Pedigree and Rise and thence its Essence and the true natural meaning thereof Sect. 2 Astrology is the most excellent part of that noble Science which is called Physiology Of Natural Philosophy and the meaning and order thereof or Natural Philosophy Physiology is a Science of Natural Bodies The Body Natural may be conceived either generally as it is but one great Body or else specially as it may be divided into two or subdivided into many thousand several Bodies The general Body of Nature is called the World or the whole World which as it is generally considered makes all of it but One entire Body This general Body admits of many special Divisions and Subdivisions And first it parteth into two Branches making one Body Natural called Coelestial and another called Terrestrial And hence arise two Sciences the one of which may fitly be called Oranology or Astrology and the other Geology Sect. 3 Of Geology or Natural Philosophy Terrestrial and the meaning thereof Geology is a Science that treateth of the Natural Body called the Earth and speaks either generally of the whole Earth or specially of the parts or some particular part thereof This Science of Geology is either meerly Speculative or else for practise also Odder thereof Speculative Geology consisteth in the meer knowledge of the Earth in whole or in part and of the Principles and Affections thereof and to this purpose it treateth either of the common being of any earthly thing meerly as it is a Being abstract from all manner of Matter both intelligible and sensible and as it acteth thus it is called Metaphysical or Supernatural Philosophy Or else it discourseth of a movable Being in its Matter and that as it is perfectly material and this is Natural Philosophy properly so called or else 3ly it handleth things conversant in matters intelligible but not sensible as they are the Abstracts of Matter and this is called Mathematical or Abstract Philosophy Of this sort of Science the subject is Quantity and this is either Continued or Discreet If of Continued Quantity the Science treateth then it is called Geometry or its subordinate Perspective But be the Quantity Discreet the Science treateth of then is it called Arithmetick or its subordinate Musick Natural Philosophy properly so called treateth of Terrestrial Bodies either Simple or Mixt. The Simple Bodies are the four Elements called Fire Air Earth and Water which among them do so fill all places of the Earth from the utmost and inferiour Bodies of the Heavenly matter unto the inmost centre of the Earth so as there remaineth no such thing as Vacuity any where under the cope of Heaven Mixt Bodies are compounded of the four Elements and are either Animate or inanimate Bodies Animate Bodies are either Vegetive Sensitive or Rational Now while the Learned Artist studies the Earthly Body Natural the Sciences of Geography History and Chronology do naturally flow from that Study The first of these describeth the situation of the Earth the second declareth the story of all that was ever seen or done in it and the third telleth how much time hath passed from the Creation unto every time present Subordinate to these are Topography and particular Stories of Places and Chronologies of particular Periods Practical Geology or Natural Philosophy consisteth in such a practise as maketh use of Speculation for the profit of Mankind so as to leave a track or fruit of its operation remaining after the act is past and gone And this is a sort of Study that is called Art rather than Science The Subject of this Art is either Man himself or something else If Man himself be the subject to be practised upon then is the business either to teach him Manners and this is called Ethical Philosophy or else to teach him the Art of Reasoning and this is called Logical Philosophy or else to teach him the Art of Speaking and this is called Grammatical or Rhetorical Philosophy If something else be the Subject then either it is the Earth or the Fruits of the Earth If the Earth then is the business to dress and till it and this kind of doing is called the Art of Agriculture If the Fruits of the Earth then the business is to prepare them so that they may become fit for Health or Wealth or Food or Cloth or a thousand things as Mankind hath need of If for Health then this doing is called the Art of Medicine if for Cloth or Food c. then it is called the Art of Cloathing Drapery Cookery or by as many names as Man has uses to employ the Fruits of the Earth about Sect. 4 Of Oronology or Astrology or Natural Philosophy Celestial and the meaning and order thereof Now after the manner of the Terrestrial World so is the Celestial Astrology or rather Oranology is a Science that treateth of the Natural Body called the Heaven and speaks either generally of the whole Heaven or specially of some particular part thereof This Astrology or Vranology as it is a part of Physiology so has it the same Principles whether Internal as Matter and Form or External as the Causes Efficient and Final Principles of their own nature and Chance and Fortune Principles by accident It hath also the same Affections Internal a Motion and Rest Finity and Infinity and External as Place and Time Vranology is either meerly Speculative or also Practical Speculative Vranology consisteth in the meer knowledge of the Heavens either in whole or in part and of the Principles and Affections thereof and to this purpose it treateth of these things either Metaphysically or Mathematically or meerly Naturally Mathematically it treateth of Astronomy or Vranometry which is a Science that treateth of the Magnitude or Measure or Number of the Heavens or of the Stars of Heaven Naturally it treateth of the Heavenly Bodies and their Nature Motion Aspects and Operations And hence follows the Science of Astrology or Vranology whose business it is to study and declare these things and the reasons thereof Practical Astrology or Natural Philosophy is That Art whereby a man does so imploy his skill in the Nature of the Heavenly Bodies as to make a lasting profit and advantage of it to the use of himself or of Mankind in general Hence follows Judiciary Astrology which is an Art that by certain known and long experienc'd Rules discerns future Contingencies how and when they are to come to pass by the situation of the Heavens and the Stars therein and by their Motions and Aspects compared with the knowledge of their Nature and Operations So as in the main Astrology is nothing else but a Bundle of Aphorisms or Experiments which the wisdom of all Ages hath gathered up together concerning the Nature and Acting of the Heavens and hath communicated and published for the common good of Mankind Some of these were brought to light
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
For as much as the Earth as well as ♄ and ♃ moves about the Sun and is as much a Planet as any of them As the best Astronomers do not at all now adays stick to affirm Which do's utterly enerv◠the force of this first general pretence of the Astrologians Now I see the Doctor is in good earnest and does really think us Astrologers to be meer Fools who will aptly be bang'd out of our Argument with meer topical Arguments But who made this man a Doctor I marvel It is highly probable says he and that 's the utmost of his Argument and yet how confidently he concludes that this first general pretence is utterly enervated yea utterly cast down and lost But what if the Earth were certainly a Planet And the Planet ♄ ♃ c. were all Mothers of living Creatures as well as the Earth what 's all this to the purpose God made the Stars and Planets for us and to influence us and whatever Chimera's may dwell within them yet as the Argument says be there nothing in the Art of Astrology notwithstanding shall they be useless to us Thus see how this Reverend Doctor proves that there are Castles in the Air by eating of Apple-pies and he who has but a competent patience let him listen to his close way of reasoning or the way of his close reasonings as the Doctor calls for them to do Ch. 16. § 17. But it seems the Doctor was well enough aware what rotten legs his Argument stood upon For else why did he make such provision against its fall Though there were says he certain virtues and influences in every one of them yet it does not follow that they are discovered in their Art This is his reserve now in case his sore place should hap to be rubbed But neither will this help him For First It follows that for certain then there is a certain Art of Astrology But Secondly Whether our Art be that true Art I shall leave 'till I come to treat more fully of that subject Sect. 7 Next Ch. 16. § 2. He undertakes to answer to that of the various productions of Nature how they can be be it not for that infinite variety of the Coelestial Bodies the Stars and their several influences upon the Earth and Water which are such simple Bodies of themselves And he says That though there were this variety in them yet because this variety reacheth every point of the Earth the product would be the same unless the particles of the Earth were diversified by some other Cause Next that neither the variety of influence of the Stars nor of the Heavens if they are meerly material are sufficient causes of productions here below Again that the Coelestial matter is every where and that the Earth swim's in it as Wood does in Water so that we need not have recourse to so remote unknown activitiesr And lastly that the general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the spirit of Nature is every where ready to contrive the matter into such shaps and virtues as its disposition makes towards And this is enough and more then enough to take off the edge of the Knight's Argument Well fare a good forehead however right or wrong But be it so that the spirit of Nature is every where ready yet how knows he that the Coelestial matter is also every where We know that this Earth whether it be fixt or moveable however is wrapt up in the Air and swadled with Clouds and various Meteors And beyond that how it swims in the Coelestial matter the Doctor may aptly inquire and suppose and when he has done all it s but his opinion And therefore out of what he does not certainly know he can make no certain proof But be this Coelestial matter never so much as himself conceives or would have it yet he must remember that Nature operates not confusedly but in a just order and method and not according to any list or choice of her own but as she is ordered by her Maker in a certain Method and that not all immediately out of Coelestial matter as the Wood swimming in Water nor yet by one sort of Instrument but as she has a vast Fabrick or Work-house to work in and Millions of Tools to work by and all those have their several imployments and therefore are not intermixt as the liquid water mingling all together within it self in one entire Body but are situat each in their ranks and places so neither the Earth nor the Air about it can be so situat as to swim all parts of it at once in the Coelestial matter much less to apply every part of the Earth to its proper Instrument of Nature so as to be wrought by it with an immediate conjunction But these productions here below must necessarily be caused by the Activity of remote Instruments and their Influences but whether those Influences be material or immaterial I am not concerned to prove Yet whether they are the one or the other are they certain causes of productions at as great a distance as the Starry Heavens are from the Earth as may be seen in the influence of the Polar Star which draws the Magnetical Needles pointing upon it self from the utmost Southern Coasts But what is most to be admired with me is with what strange confidence or forgetfulness the Doctor can deny what he professes elsewhere to be a truth It is in his Immortality of the Soul B. 11. Ch. 10. § 6. Where he acknowledges that the Weapon-Salve applied to the knife that made the wound does cure the wound it self Now if Salve which is a material thing can operate thus at a distance from the wound and that as some say at a hundred Miles off from the weapon whereto it is applied why shall the Stars be rendred insufficient to do as much or more according to that degree they are in virtue beyond all that the Earth is able to produce But says the Doctor this is not by a Mechanical but by a Magical sympathy in a lawful sense And what does the Doctor know but this of the Stars may be so too Or rather how came the Doctor to understand that this sympathy of the Weapon-Salve is not Mechanical Has he an eye so curious as can watch the Air and that so as to be able to say what strings more subtil thin and fine then Air it self do run along between the knife and the wound and that so as to carry the sympathy between the one and the other and all this so exactly as to determine when there is no such matter I doubt rather the Doctor has some ill position of ♂ either upon his Ascendent or the ☽ in his Nativity which inclines him thus rashly to disgrace his Worship by so confidently asserting what is and is not before he half understands how ' t is Such another peice of Rashness is it when he asserts the variety of Coelestial influences reaching every point of the
those Leagues were was answered That they were imaginary distances in their Sailing he presently concluded that the Sea was therefore imaginary and so was the Ship they sailed in and finally he would have concluded the Merchant himself imaginary too if he had not drew his Sword and frighted him into the Faith that he was really some body But for want of such a sensible Argument the Doctor goes madly on in a kind of Enthusiastic humour and concludes That the Heaven is nothing and the parts of Heaven are nothing and therefore the dignity of Carpentum or the Royal Seat is a meer nothing and Alâ—gen is as little as nothing and that the Lords of the Decanats is but a frippery or a pretty kind of strange I know not what for frippery is a pretty word whose meaning every round Cap doâ— not understand Lastly as for Gaudium he charges it with two falsities supposed by it First As if there were Houses And Secondly As if Planets were Masculine and Feminine which supposition 's already confuted Now how he has confuted the first is fresh in memory and therefore the gall'd place needs no rubbing As for the second with great pains taking I have at length found out the place where the confutation was made and it appears in § 8. of this Chapter Where he argues thus All the Planets are Opake Bodies and whatever their colour is are as cold as Earth And therefore to call them Masculine or Feminine is a Rhapsody of Fooleries First I deny his Assumption to be satisfactory let him make that out how he came to know the Planets to be all Opake Bodies no not the Sun excepted Next the consequence is insufferable that if it were so yet that they cannot therefore be Male and Female Ash Trees are Opake Bodies without dispute and yet by all Herbalists are allowed to be Male and Female the one bearing Seed the other none And yet see how confident the Philosopher is They are already confuted And all the Essential fortitudes of the Planets are nothing else but the telling out so many Nullities to no purpose But for such stories as these I have seen many a Boy whipt They would say all was nothing when they had told twenty lies 'till as many smart jerks upon their bare Buttocks made them to feel the truth Sect. 17 In § 12. He comes to the Accidental Dignities and Debilities Where in the first place Cazimi and Combustion seems to â—â—st the weight of his displeasure And First It is unreasonable he says that a Planet in Cazimi should gain five Fortitudes and that First Because ♄ ♃ and ♂ in ☌ with ☉ 〈◊〉 beyond the Sun from us a whole Diameter of the Sun 's Orbit in distance more then when they are in ☠to him and ♀ and ☿ are farther distant by half of their own But behold how improvidently the Doctor argues never once remembering and considering the purity of the Coelestial Bodies or whether he does not yet understand it how that above or beyond the ☉ there is no more vanity nor corruption therefore and therefore no hard Rocks nor thick Mountains nor so much as a cold Cloud that can be once able to slacken the Force of their Influences and therefore the distance of Situation can no ways impede the force of their operation as is apparently seen by the ☽ which never receives more light and force of Solar Virtue then when she is farthest from him Secondly He stumbles again How can their virtue pass the Body of the Sun This is answered as before the Sun also is a pure and thin Body as the Air thorow which therefore the influences of the superior Planets do aptly peirce without any obstruction any more then thorow the pure matter of Heaven it self Thirdly He inquires yet again How can the Influence pass against the bearing of the vortex against the Planet and against us and all the attempts of Influence from the Planet and not be eluded Now talks he like a man utterly unskilled in the Trade not knowing it seems that the Planets in ☌ do comply and not at all clash Influences Fourthly He would know once more If Cazimi on this side the Sun be good why beyond the Sun it should not be bad Because Cazimi works a perfect compliance betwixt the Sun and the Planet in Cazimi be the Planet above the Sun the ☉ readily receives his beams and be the Planet on this side that as readily receives his beams thorow its own Body But Fifthly Not yet satisfied he crys If ♀ and ☿ in the Sun be of such moment why not the spots in the Sun which are far greater This he takes to be a rare argument and hugs himself in the conceit laughing to himself as if our ignorance had never thought of that Objection until of his own starting But I rather wonder how so great a Philosopher as the Doctor should be thus taken with the wagging of a straw For does not every Scullion Girl know the difference between a blemish and a beauty spot though both at once in the same face Or between a meer dead patch and an operative plaster Or between an hole in a Wall and a man standing against the Wall although at some distance each seems alike of a dark colour But Sixthly and cheifly His wonderment is taken up how Cazimi can have and deserve five Fortitudes and Combustion which is but a little distant should be cumbred with as many debilities And yet free of Combustion which is but a little more remove should have five Fortitudes again Things so arbitrarious he says and groundless as none but sickbrain'd Persons can beleive them But alas I pity the good Doctor for what the reason is I am somwhat to seek as not knowing the man but he seems himself strangely sick-brain'd as if at sometimes of the Moon he were not Capax mentis for otherwise do doubt but the man is Schollar enough For were it not so he would have bethought himself that a Walnut is first bitter on the outside unto 9 degrees of distast unto the Palat and yet dig thorow that outward rind unto the kernel and you have as many degrees of good tast and lastly you are no sooner pass't the kernel but you arrive at the 5 degrees of distast again Loe how Nature has proposed him an every days pattern plain and common of her more curious and secret Contrives And yet see how the Doctor falls to wondring and exclaiming at that which a Boy of five years of age knows to be a plain case Look but into an Honey-comb where the pots stand as thick as can be set each by other and yet may be seen one fortified with Honey as full and sweet as one would wish and the very next debilitated by reason of the stinging Bee in it as venemous as one would think could be hardly possible for such a little Creature to bring forth and yet the very next pot as