Man and the Corruption and the Crush which the World endured thereupon nor the infinite Sins of after-Mankind and the Desolations that do continually follow thereupon did necessarily require any correction or amendment of that first Frame But such was the infinitely to be admired and never enough to be adored Forecast and Providence of God that at one View appearing unto him all the several Turnings and Windings of all mens Wills and the total Sum and Upshot of of all Virtue and Vice He did at once so contrive that all Fates of Prosperity and Adversity of Reward and Punishment should so fall out and come to pass as to answer the Virtues and Prayers of the Righteous and the Vices and Villanies of the Wicked each according to their Works in due and fit suiting times Now the Substance of this great and glorious Frame which the Almighty hath made is that which we call the World And this World consisteth of the Heavens Gen. 1.1 and the Earth And the Form of it is as the Prophet Ezekiel hath described it after the manner of a Wheel Ezek. 1.15 16. and that so as One Wheel hath many Wheels within the same involved one within another And as the Prophet sayes so we find it by Mathematical Demonstration that the Earth is indeed a round Globe of Sea and Land and this Globe is circumscribed by the Air as within a greater Wheel which is globous too and the Heavens are as it were a great Workmanship of many Wheels wrapt up together one within another and the Earth and the Air wrap't up in the innermost of them all Such are the Subjects of Nature The Forms informing this Natural Substance Ezek. 1.10 as the Prophet also describes them are four Living Creatures immeasurably endued with Wisdom and Courage and Agility and Strength as they are described unto us Hieroglyphically in the shapes of a Man an Eagle a Lyon and an Oxe and all of them with Wings for our better Understanding of the same And that work which the Prophet ascribes unto These seems to be the same which Plato attributed unto the Soul of the World By These are all the Wheels of Nature put into Motion and actuated and hence comes Life and spirit and power and virtue into the Heavens and from the Heavens into the Earth and from the Earth into Man and Beast so as one Wheel moveth another and all of them do move one within another and these in and thorow all of them and hence come the Magnetical Wonders in Nature and all Virtues of Sympathy and Antipathy which work by invisible concoction of sucking and expelling Now beyond and above these four Angels as the Prophet sayes is Fire and Light Ch. 1.22 26 27 28. and dreadful Majestie of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost Rom. 11.36 Of whom and for whom and to whom are all things To whom be glory and honour and praise for evermore The great and chief Subjects of this World are Angels and Men the one in Heaven and the other upon Earth The Angels are either Good or Bad and do know their Reward or Doom But Mens Works are yet upon the Anvil and Time with them is still going on Alas we Mankind are very miserable by Nature as we may thank our selves for it but yet is there an happiness in store for us may we be so wise as to lay hold of it Alas we are utterly lost in our selves and no strength remaineth either to will or to do ought that is good Only in Civil Affairs we have a Will to do a little weak as it is and free to do evil But thanks be to our God who has sent a Saviour and with him Grace that loosens the Fetters of Will and puts strength into us that we may be able to accept of good things that are offered He forceth no mans Will only by Grace infuses power and so leaves us to chuse or refuse and hence some do embrace Life and others oppose Hence followes Virtue and Vice and after that Prosperity and Adversity Sickness and Health Life and Death and all the Vicissitudes of Nature And though the Accidents Good and Bad of one mans Life are innumerable and though the men who are the Subjects of those Accidents in One Age are also innumerable and though the ages of men since the Creation are innumerable too Yet all these Accidents which do befal all the men of all Ages do come to pass according to a certain Scheme or Method as God by Nature hath appointed And in this Method Men do live by the Earth and the Earth sucks Hos 2.21 22. and drawes all its Virtue from the Heavens and they from the four Angels and they from the Holy Ghost and He receiveth from Christ and Christ from God the Father Now all Mankind have every one of them a certain portion of Wisdom Power and Wealth Wherewith they occupy in this World and operate their Contrivances And many men do take courage grow mighty and purpose as if they would do what they list upon Earth And yet there are two things we do see overtop the wisest greatest and proudest of men in all their enterprizes and these are Time and Chance two mighty Lords upon Earth that do strange things Time is that Motion of Space which proceeded out of Eternity that was before the World began and holdeth on unto Eternity which is to succeed at the Worlds end And out of this one long Time are engendred infinite spaces of Time of great variety of sorts And these are either general or special and both of these sorts are either fortunate or unfortunate Times Eccl. 3.1 2 c. There is a Time of Pleasure and another Time of Pain and Grief a time to rise and a Time to fall a Time to be born and a Time to dy There is a lucky Time of mans life wherein if he go out to battel though with but few men Chap. 9.11 yet he carrieth the day and there is another Time wherein though he go out with forces never so great yet shall he be so unlucky as to lose all that he fights for So also is there a Time when Overtures of Marriage shall come luckily but a mans desires answer not and there is a Time when desires of Marriage shall strongly prompt but Overtures will prove unlucky but there is a Time too when desires and Overtures shall suit together And so also there is a Time when Riches shall offer themselves whether a man sleep or wake and anon again though a man pursue them with wings yet so unlucky a Time occurrs as shall render all his Endeavours fruitless Some men do come into the World in a lucky hour so as whether they be wise or foolish yet shall they be buoyed up upon the wings of fate for matter of Wealth or Honour or Pleasure in all that they take to while wiser and better men smitten
by an unlucky Time of Birth shall be as unworthily disparaged and in all Purposes shall be as unhappy Some shall be lucky in the Van of their Contrivances and as unfortunate in the Rear and others again contrarily And thus time seeems to mock and make sport with the men of this life and to scoff at all their Skill and Courage and Agility as if they were but meer idle Stories Now Time of it self is but a dead thing a meer Instrument but the Wheels of Heaven turning upon it do print riddles in its face and carve and cut out the various shapes of Prosperity and Adversity upon every shred thereof And pretty it is to observe how a Child as soon as it draws breath becomes Time-smitten by the Face of Heaven and recieves an impression from all the parts of Heaven and the Stars therein which taking Rise from the Ascendent Sun and Moon and other significant places does operate as the Impressors stand in distance nearer or farther off and this seems to be a concatenation of many knots which untie by course and by distant turns and as every knot unties different times seem to fly out and to do their errands and of these sometimes you shall have two or three or more lucky knots opening together and otherwhiles as many bad ones Ch. 3.11 All Times are beautiful in their seasons if men could hit them but by reason of Sin it pleases God that the world in our hearts blinds our wisdom that we miss of our desired Aims and of Grace to rest contented in our States The second Great Lord of the World is Chance And these Chances are nothing else but the most admirable Curiosities of Nature which occurring from variety of rare and secret operations of Heaven do throw into our Contrivances many strange Hits which we could never have imagined to have met with in our own foresight And hence there is really no such thing as Chance in Nature Much less can there be any thing that comes by chance in respect of God But with us all those Curious Hits that Heaven sends which strike in between the Cause and its Effect we call Chances as if things blindly hitting in upon us for so they seem to us because of the unfathomable Reasons thereof Thus in shuffling of a Pack of Cards or in casting of the Dice it seems to us a meer Chance what Cast shall happen uppermost or what Card shall be nethermost for a man shaking the Dice at all Adventures and delivering his hand at all Adventures and the Dice trindling away at all Adventure who can say with any reason what side of the square Dice shall be uppermost And yet it appears plainly by experience that there is a certain Luck in Nature that in all these Adventures secretly guideth both the hand and the elbow and the Dice into such steady Casts as do make a man either win or lose in a methodical course And so also it happeneth in case of Battel that Chances do come and in case of Getting Wealth Chances do come and by a secret kind of Fate do turn the Scales beyond all that reasonably could have been expected Now as a man by blowing of coales raiseth sparks of fire that fly upwards so do the Heavens breath into humane actions multitudes of such Chances that overturn the wisdom and Power and all the greatness of man These Chances are always managed by a certain Luck either good or bad that drives the nail and this by some Heavenly influence that either infuses some secret Virtue or Poyson into the designed actions as Courage into their hearts on one side or Dismay into their minds on the other side and Skill into some mens head to hit upon the right course to be rich or folly into other mens whereby they run headlong next way to be beggers or else fortunateth or infortunateth by mistakes of words signs or acts that turn to the best or worst by strange Hits or miscarriages and thus many times mistakes in battel beget an utter Rout after a victory almost made sure by meer utterance of a wrong word or steering a wrong course But which way soever it happens the whole mat is carried on by a good or ill Luck and the hand of God is at bottom of that Luck and that hand of God is not put to by any new contrived act but follows on course in the motion of nature even as from the beginning it was contrived from all Eternity Thus both Time and Chance are the Servants of Nature under whose Commands they sway the World and worldly men yet by her laws are both of them disposed Time measures out the extent of mens lives and sets bounds how long a man may live by strength of Nature and how much of that Time shall be extenuated by means of the interruption of Sin and it also carves out Limits unto all particular Fates as of single life and Marriage of Blessings and Crosses of Sickness and Health and all such like matters And Chance acts in observance of those Limits in bringing about the good and bad Successes of every Fate This operates all manner of Surfeits of body and losses in Goods that come to pass by reason of exorbitant manners and this introduces the power and acts of Nature in sucking and drawing blowing and driveing alluring and affrighting For as a man has power by his breath to draw water upwards against its Nature thorow a narrow Pipe and by the same breath to blow away sand or dust even as the winds do So the Powers of Heaven also But as they are greater bodies and endued with greater virtue so can they act their part with infinitely more curiosity and strength as for instance in the Magnet-stone We see it has such a virtue that it can draw Iron and attract it by a sucking force that is so very curiously lodged within its teeth that the act thereof is altogether imperceptible Yea more we see that this Stone has power to communited cate its virtue so as a Knife whetted thereon has also a Magnetical Virtue to draw a Needle Now the Magnet it self has all this virtue communica-to it from the very North point of the Heaven or some Star there situate which so affecteth the Needle touched by such a Stone that where ever it is though never so many degrees distant therefrom and though Rocks and Mountains and some part of the Earths Body interpose Yet this virtue of the North Pole sucks and draws thorow all at the utmost distance and pulls the Needle point alwayes Northward unless violence be used to the contrary And thus the Sympathetical Powder has its Virtue from the Heavens and thus all manner of Herbs have theirs and thus all manner of Salves and Plaisters have their virtue to draw and heal But as the Heavens can give this Power so have they it in themselves exceedingly more Curious and Powerful by which all Chances in Nature
I have medled or dealt with in this kind and no more than what the most Learned and Famousest of our modern reformed Writers have done before me Wherefore I am none of those who pretend to be read in State-Astrology or to be versed in the curious tracks of Meteorology Nor am I any profest Artist either in the understanding of Hororary Questions or in scanning the abstruse paths of Genethliacal Predictions And how it shews him the great Glory of Gods works Onely so much have I learned as shews me the great glory of my Creator written in the Sacred frame of the Heavens while I behold their admirable operations and productions and how the frame of Nature hangs upon them and is contrived from the beginning continuing and going on as if all things came to pass by Chance and yet is there a dependance of all things one upon another and of all sublunary things upon the Heavens and of the Heavens upon God as if Nature it self were nothing else but an Artificial Fabrick made by God from the beginning And now Astrology is nothing else but that Study whereby a man perceiveth the secret Virtue of the Heavens and the shining Bodies therein contained and is induced by the more he knows of his handy-work to spend the more time in wondering at the most immense and infinite Wisdom and Power of God For the more a man attains to know of these Heavenly Virtues the more he sees of the reason and manner of Natures Operation in things that are past and the more he sees of this reason the more it makes him to admire him that made and laid the frame of it And as he attains to see the reason of things past by the same skill he attains to see things to come and by the Birth of a Native And profitably serves him in prediction of future Events he reads in the Heavens most part of that Natives whole life and the Story thereof as his Blessings and Crosses Gains and Losses Honour and Dishonour Sickness and Health and all the years of his Life and the time of Death even as if he had seen them acted in their several times and seasons Eccles 1.5 For this God hath given unto the wise man to know the time and the judgment Sect. 3 The reason of the Author in publishing this Treatise But many men do not believe that by Natural skill all or any of this can fairly and lawfully be procured And because amongst the many who believe us not and are therefore enemies to Astrology I have so much charity as to believe are some good and godly as well as wise men who more out of mistake than malice have taken up their prejudice And because amongst these also are many most Learned Astronomers And for whole sake he hath done it unto whose names the Astrologer is greatly obliged for much of his skill and especially because amongst these two may be found some whose prejudice to Astrology has rendred them so unhappy as not to have read that excellent piece of Art called The Doctrine of Nativities published by Mr. Gadbury a Person famous as well for Astronomy as Astrology or any other Learned Treatise of this nature and yet perhaps out of some curiosity may be drawn in to taste of these few Lines Therefore for satisfaction of all such I humbly offer these three Propositions 1. That there is an Astrology in the Heavens The sum of what he undertakes to prove consists in three Propositions 2. That this Astrology Man in the state of Corruption may attain in some measure to understand 3. That this understanding may be lawfully and fairly compassed by Natural means without any Diabolical helps The first Proposition Sect 1 THat there is an Astrology in the Heavens that is The Proposition explained The Heavenly Bodies have all their Influences wherewith they operate upon all Earthly Subjects and that upon the Intellectual and Sensitive as well as the Vegetative to incline and lead them here and there and more or less in the constitution of their Qualities and Contingencies of their Destinies though not absolutely to force their Wills according to the power and virtues of that place of Heaven and that band of Stars unto whose charge every of those Subjects are committed Sect. 2 God has not fix'd these mighty Bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars which The first Proof by Scripture shews that the Sun and Moon have as much to do with the sway of earthly affairs as hath a King amongst his Subjects to such as know their Dimensions are known to move in their Orbs as so many other Worlds in the Heavens for mere Signs like Beacons on an Hill nor yet for mere Seasons or Land-marks of Time so as to be no more but mere Boundments unto Days Months and Years Yea there is infinitely more in them than so for unto every one of them hath he committed an Authority and Power Gen. 1.16 as it were a King upon his Throne to Sway and Rule over all things subject unto Day and Night The Sun is the Fountain of heat and that Heat is the Nurse of Life and thence therefore find we every living Creature waiting upon this Sun for its life as it were so many Servants upon the Master of the House and this is palpable Now the Moon seems to be as much the Fountain of Moisture as the Sun is of Heat and Moisture being an Handmaid unto Life hence also may it seem requisite therefore that where the Sun is honoured as Master of the House the Moon may challenge the Title of Mistress and this also is palpable though not in that degree of it to the heat of the Sun For though the Moon doth not sensibly distil Dews of Moisture as does the Sun his Beams of Heat 't is because she is the weaker Vessel and wants of him so exceedingly in comparison of Power Yet that she is the Mistress of this Moisture as well as of the Night is apparent by the Tydes which constantly attend her Motion and that with increase and diminution of force as she appears in strength or want of Aspect and by the Eyes of Cats which sensibly swell and fall as the Moon is strong or weak Sect. 3 And that the Stars also have their sway and that by day as well as by Night But besides these Seigniories of the Sun and Moon the Stars also it seems have their Principalities in the Heavens The Lord who giveth the Sun for a Light by day giveth also the Ordinances of the Moon and Stars for a Light by night Jer. 31.35 And to these Stars also hath God committed a certain Rule or Dominion over the Day and Night Gen 1.18 and that promiscuously Now the Stars have no sensible operation upon us besides that little light they administer unto our eyes and that is so very small that all the Stars in Heaven besides the Sun
and Moon are not able to compare with the smallest Wax-candle And this little Light too being onely by night and that also onely when there be no Clowds to hide them what shall we say now Did God make all these glorious Bodies many of which are bigger than the whole Earth merely for a Twinkle of the Night and that at certain choise Times and Seasons onely What make they then in the Day-time and what have they to do in the dark and obscure Nights Were they made to ride the Heavens for Cyphers onely think we at such times Lo every little Dasie that grows upon the cold ground has a secret and insensible virtue wrapt in its Leaves and Flowers and have these Celestial Spangles no Influences but what we catch with our eyes as they are now and then once in a week or month to be found sparkling their dim glances upon us Nay they cannot be such mean and empty Tubs no they are as so many Kings and great Lords and all of them have their Commands Gen. 1.18 and that as well by day as by night and in the clowdy as well as the clear nights And now seeing this their Lordship is not managed by sensible and palpable acts and agitation it must needs follow that they have a secret and an hidden way of Rule whereby they operate imperceptibly in all their agitations of their Dominion And as these And finally that the Sun Moon and Stars besides their sensitive operations have their secret and imperceptible Influences so also the Sun and Moon besides their sensible operations have also their imperceptible actions For it is not the mere Heat which giveth Life nor the mere Moisture that helpeth to live for if so then might Man make living Creatures artificially but this we see he cannot do the Heat may hatch the Eggs but all the Art of Man cannot make an Egg that can be hatch'd No for there is a secret Act of Sun and Moon besides the mere putting to of Heat and Moisture which produceth Life both in Sensitive and Vegetive Animals And in these secret and insensible Operations or Influences besides the Light which they give consists that Rule which the Sun Moon and Stars do exercise over all the Sons of Day and Night And herein are written all those Ordinances of the Moon and Stars which are to be a Law unto Mankind and to the whole Body of Mortality so long as the World endureth Jer. 31.35 36. And this mystery of these secret Operations is that which we call the Astrology of the Heavens Sect. 4 The second proof by Scripture shews That the Constellation of the Pleiades and of Orion have their Astrological Influences Now have the Stars all of them their natural Influences and such natural Influences as touch upon all things as far as Day and Night extend their limits then must Mankind also come under the touch of this Influence as well as Brutes and Vegetives But what authority can they pretend to over Man speak to him they cannot to commnd him ought for they are not intelligent Bodies no more than is the Earth their Authority therefore can be nothing else but the execution of their secret Influences which in a certain course or order they pour upon Mankind and these Man being unable to avoid the Stars are said to give Law to him Gen. 1.26 17 18. Job 38.21 32 33. Astra regunt homines and to have their Ordinances unto which Man also must submit Thus the Stars called the Pleiades have their Ordinances that is their sweet Influences or Virtues See Argol Astr ante Ephem lib. sec cap. 8. Stellae tempestuosae sunt Orion Arâ—urus c. pluriosae Pleiades which no power of Man is able to restrain And the Stars of Orion have also their Ordinances that is their binding faculty by Frost in Winter or by Showers in Summer bringing to pass such an hard and tough Coat of Armour upon the ground as all the Art of Man is not able to prevent Thus Mazeroth and Arcturus with his Sons have also their Ordinances and the whole Host of Heaven hath its course and its Rules in that course which though a man cannot see nor perfectly attain to know yet some track thereof may he apprehend These names of Pleiades and Orion it is true are not found in the Hebrew Translation but onely in the Septuagint but it seems those LXX Interpreters were acquainted with those Constellations and understanding both Languages converted the Hebrew words into such Names as the Greeks called those Constellations by Sect. 5 To this purpose it is said by Debora the Prophetess that they fought from Heaven The third proof by Scripture shews that Sisera and his Host were worsted and overthrown in Battel by influences of the Stars Judg. 5.20 The Stars in their courses fought against Sisera Now this was not by Sword nor Pistol nor yet by Thunder and Lightning for that Bullets fall from no higher than the Air onely but the Stars are infinitely in the Heavens above and beyond all Air and therefore could it be no other ways but by some secret yet fatal Influences whereby Sisera and all his Host were blasted from their Cradles with unlucky Aspects of these Stars which were so contrived in Nature as to fall out all of them together end so wrought as many thousands of them fell in Battell all on one day For though these men might have been born under as many several hours as they were men yet met each man that fatal wound at his several hour of birth the force of which as it fell from various evil Stars and from variety of envious Aspects on each mans pate so gave it each man his bane with such variety of limitation as both old men and young encountred their dooms together and the limitation of many thousand Fates and it may be of as many thousand different lengths met all upon one day And yet infortunated each Star so variously each according to its proper nature course and method as every Star slew his man or men and it might be by different kind of deaths But as the Stars fought against Sisera so sought they as much for Barak and his Host fortunating the several times of each mans birth in that Army and here each Star stuck to his man and all in such an harmonious contrivance as though there were as many several minutes of Births as there were several Men yet were there as many benevolent Aspects of the Stars to fortunate those Births and that so and with such different force as though each mans Birth bare date assunder yet the younger Births by the nearer speed overtaking the less half of those which were elder all mens good fortunes in that Army jump'd together at one and the same time Sect. 6 The fourth proof by Scripture shews that the Meteors of the Air are lodged by the Influences of Heaven against appointed times
their peculiar Offices other wayeâ— and 2. Though they are Subjects of Nature 〈◊〉 we are Shewing how it is wrought by means and that either by the Soul of the World or however by the Heavenly Influences yet are they no part of the frame 〈◊〉 Nature whereout all things in their order anâ— formed Now were it by the Soul of the World then for certain must there be such a Soul which as yet we are not sufficiently inform'd of and then must that Soul have its specâ—â— seat in the World worthy of it self where tâ— dwell and from whence to inform all thâ— whole Earth and if so then dwells it undoubtedly amongst the Celestial Matter and from thence supplies the Earth with such stoâ— of Virtue from the Heavens and Stars therein as brings to pass all that Shape Colour Smell Life and Increase which we see comâ— to pass Or if you deny this then must the Earth be supplied with all her wonderful Virtues from some Supernatural Material Substances and if so then name any thing besides the Heavenly Matter and the Stars of Heaven that can be that Substance and I have done Now either way will there be at Heavenly Astrology or an Astrology in the Heavens Onely the question is whether these Celestial Influences create the Earth immediately by God's blessing or whether there be a general Soul of the World between yea or not Vtrum horum mavis accipe I ask no more Gen. 1.1 2 3. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the Deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Here when there was nothing but Earth and Water and Darkness over all yet the Spirit of God maintained that rude lump the Earth did he manage by the Water and the Water in the Dark by himself But now both the Earth and Water are under the face of Heaven and the Light is upon this Heaven and the Spirit of God moveth upon the face of the Heavens in that Light and as he actuateth the Earth and the Waters by the Heavens so doth he actuate the Heavens by himself Sect. 8 Thus Reason complieth with Holy Writ More proofs of Scripture confirming our Rational Arguments to be true and both Scripture and Reason are Witnesses with our Experience That there is an Astrology for certain lodged in Heaven And yet â—arther the Scriptures also do confirm all that I have brought for Reason to be both truly Rational and Divine Deut. 33.13 Concerning Joseph it is said by Moses that his blessing shall be of the precious things of the Sun and Moon Now it is well known that amongst other of these precious things by that Tribe enjoyed was the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes whence follows it that it is in the power of the Sun and Moon amongst other precious blessings under God to influence a man unto the Dignity of a Crown and so to fortunate his affairs as to bring about the enjoyment of it Hos 2.21 God promiseth by the Prophet Hosea how he will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth and be Earth the Corn and Wine and Oyl and they Israel Wherein he shews us that as Man lives by Corn and Wine so they by the Earth and so the Earth by the Heavens And if so then from the Heavens is it that the Earth receives that vertue whereby it brings forth all Smell Colour Deut. 28.12 and Virtue Moses tells us God shall open his good Treasure the Heaven and that not onely to give rain unto the Land but also to bless all the work of the hand Whence it is evident that there lodges in the Celestial Bodies a Faculty of fortunating Civil Affairs as well as of managing natural things and that the root of all Earthly Blessings is from Heaven Moses says again Deut 4.19 that the Sun Moon and Stars God hath distributed to all Nations under Heaven And the Psalmist speaking of the Sun and Heavens Psal 19.1 2 3 4 5. says They declare the glory of God and shew forth his handy-work Day and night do continually tell of them and that their voice is heard into all Languages and their words are gone into the ends of the world By which it appears that the Heavens and all the Stars therein are full of such Virtues as the whole World hath need of And these Vertues God hath given unto the Heavens for this purpose His Spirit saith Job hath garnished the Heavens Job 26.13 And by the Spirit of his mouth saith the Psalmist was the whole Army of Heaven made Psal 33.16 Sect. 9 Argumentation from Gods Eternal Prescience Acts 15.18 Known unto God saith St. James are all his works from the beginning of the world These Works are either Natural or Miraculous The Natural Works of God are that whole frame of the Creation together with all Circumstances and Concerns relating thereunto in times past present and future which as a most curious piece of Art The frame of Nature compared to a Watch. Ezek. 1.2 2 3 c. to the end consisteth of all the Story of the whole World and yet is all set together in one onely entire piece of Workmanship it is like unto a Watch made up of a world of small Wheels wrapt up together one within another and yet all taking one from another and working one by and under another until you come unto the Master-wheel or first Mover which being wound up at the Creation with the Line of Time How God foresees all passages of the World by a certain order as a Watch-maker knows the Wheels of his Watch. 2 Pet. 3. of a seeming infinite length of Thread wreathed up together upon the Wheel has ever since the beginning been winding off unto this present Age and yet is there still more Line upon the Wheel but how much remains is kept onely in the breast of the Almighty but when this Line shall be utterly wound off then will this frame of Nature find its period and all Wheels must cease their motion Now in the mean time as the Watch-maker knows all the Wheels Pullies and little Pins in the Watch as perfectly as a man knows the Cloaths on his back or how to put them on or off so knows the Great and Almighty God the whole World and all the Wheels Pullies and Pins contained in every part thereof and this infinitely better than we know the Fingers of our Hands or Toes of our Feet To every man that is born of a Woman there is a certain order or course of his life how he runs thorow Health and Sickness Honour and Dishonour and all the passages of his Life from his Cradle to the Grave For Man is of himself as it were a little World within himself How every man is compared to one Wheel of the great Worlds frame and a Work
of many Wheels within that one and though he stand as it were but one Wheel in the frame of the great World yet within this One seem there to be many thousands of Wheels operating and thousands more within every one of those first thousands and more still within them and every of them almost ad infinitum especially in long-lived people and persons of great undertakings and all these moving within and one under another as they are carried by the Thread twined on the outmost and greatest Wheel do run on in their order until that Thread break or else be wound off and there they make a stop All these things God who made Man at the first perfectly knows and fore-knew from the beginning of the World and by this order of Mans life he perfectly knows and fore-knew exactly all passages of our lives yea even all the thoughts of our hearts both sleeping and waking Joh. 2.24 25. and how one thought drives off and brings in another and continues on in so doing until the last minute of life whereat the breath fails Now every man being as it were a particular Wheel of the great World it must needs follow that all men move in a certain Frame or Wheel above themselves by virtue of which the Master-wheel of every man's life is is set a going And this Wheel also is subordinate unto others and they also are the same unto still higher than they until we come at last unto the Master-wheel of the whole World which is the high and mighty Wheel of Heaven wherein the Sun Moon and Stars are set as so many Notches carrying on the great works of Nature unto the end How mans Will is an independent Wheel within the World 1 Cor. 9 26 27. Hence come the Originals of all Natural Qualities Passions and Accidents of our lives the motion of the Will and Reason onely excepted which as an independent Wheel within the Wheel of Nature has a kind of motion of its own and therefore however it may be inclined or allured by the Works of Nature How the Heavens are the great Wheel of Nature yet cannot be forced by them But now above and beyond this great Wheel of Nature there is yet one Wheel more within which the Heavens themselves are turned And here is it 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4 wherein is hid that great Line of Time whereby the whole World is made to hold on and continue its motion And how God ruleth over all Isa 40.22 23 c. and this Wheel is God himself who draws out the Line of Time and sitting upon the Circles of the Earth he stretches out the Heavens as a Curtain and beholdeth all the Inhabitants of the World as Grashoppers under his feet and hence sees he as it were with one view all the World naked before him both past present and to come Sect. 10 Now as it was the opinion of the Platonists Of the Soul of the World That there is such a Soul and many of the wisest Philosophers in old time That there was as well one General Soul of the Whole World as there is one Soul informing every mans Body so is it still the opinion of many very learned Christians and it seems with a great deal of reason that the World has such a Soul For were there not one and the same general living Virtue comprehending the whole Natural World from the outmost Circumference of the Heavens unto the innermost Centre of the Earth how possibly could the Sympathies and Antipathies of Nature work such compliances and differences at such distances as we see they do and that as far as it is from Heaven unto the Earth and too without any visible or imaginable contaction unless some such Animal Virtue be in the World to carry such an invisible correspondency between Creature and Creature Now where Life is these things are aptly effected Thus the Infant in the womb is nourished by the meat which the Mother eats Now be it so that there is such an Universal Soul yet is it questionable whether this Soul be Intellectual or merely Vegetive That there is an Intellectual Power informing the whole World as the Soul does the Body is not to be doubted for otherwise would the frame of Nature be no more but a huge blind lump But Nature being led by good eyes such an Intellect must there be somewhere And that it is not an Intellectual but a Vegetive Soul onely Jer. 23.23 24. that either gives or lends such Eyes to Nature But then should the Soul of the World carry this Intellect in its own Brain it would follow that this Soul is a God For to be an Intellectual Being filling Heaven and Earth with its presence is an Attribute of Gods And therefore I conclude that there is an Vniversal Soul in the World but it is onely Vegetive and not Intellectual yet in this Soul dwelleth the Spirit of Almighty God Acts 17.28 who filleth Heaven and Earth with his presence and from hence garnisheth the Heavens Job 26 1â— Deut. 4.19 and causeth the precious Virtues of the Sun Moon and Stars to be carried and distributed into all parts of the World Job 38.33 And thus immediately God ruleth in the Heavens and ruleth all the World mediately by the Heavens How Gods Spirit informeth the World in this Vegetive Soul not without means but by means Job 38.26 'T is true indeed that God is as well able to govern and maintain all things without means as he was at first to constitute and create the frame of Nature but such is his pleasure that he does work by means and not immediately in all things It is a common and a true Maxim that God and Nature have made nothing in vain and yet it is as true that Grass grows where nothing lives to eat it Now were the World governed by Gods immediate presence onely then is this Grass growing a work in vain because God's presence brings forth all things at list and with stints and increase as he listeth Rom. 11.36 and therefore his list being at all times and in all places able to cease its operation might have prevented this plenty in a desolate Countrey But Nature running her course in a constant track has no power to cease her work without a miracle and therefore however the Grass may grow in vain yet Natures operation is not in vain which by virtue of one and the same act produceth the Grass in all places and that as well in the populous as desolate Countreys Sect. 11 Next come we to Gods miraculous works Of Gods miraculous works and how they are foreseen by God in the frame of Nature from Eternity Josh 10.12 13. 2 King 20.11 Joh. 11.53 44. Ch. 9.6 7 c. which also from the beginning were known unto him These are such as have been contrary or at least divers to the course of Nature or other Supernatural Such a
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
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
men are not apt to beleive the Doctor that every seventh day they are so critical and stirring But rather say they sometimes that Stir and Alteration in the Patient happens on the third or fourth day or on the ninth and tenth day as the Moon happens to arrive at her â–¡ or ☠in so many days after the Patient fell amiss And however the Doctor happened to be sleepy or heedless when the story was told him he might have taken notice how generally the people cry out upon the full and new Moon for exasperating acute Diseases and how many there be who die about those times And had he heeded the World of experiments of this kind he had not been found so grossly â—ardy in calling the stirs and alterations in the Patient in dependent on the course of the ☽ And truly seeing the Doctor was so kind to us I am sorry he was so vilely slur'd in his intelligence with so many and so ugly mistakes But what 〈◊〉 the Doctor would have had from hence First That without fear or wit we have bestowed Houses two apeice upon the rest of the Planets though neither reason nor effect answerable Secondly That such small hints as these are the solidest foundations of the Phantastick structure of Astrology But how easily are these by-â—ows awarded off For First All the Doctor 's reasons for what he alledges I have shewed to have been started and brought in without fear or wit and therefore are no reasons Secondly Were they never so reasonable yet is there the very same reason why â™’ should be the one House of ♄ as he himself alledgeth why ♌ should be the House of ☉ And as much reason why ♑ should be the other House of ♄ as he affirms why ♋ should be ☽ 's House For if the hottest Planet may have that House where he is at hottest why may not the coldest Planet have that House where he is at coldest And if the ☽ who is a freind of Nature may be housed in the most vertical Sign why may not ♄ who is the Enemy of Nature dwell in the most unvertical And if so why then says the Doctor without fear or wit or without reason or effect answerable we have given houses two apeice to the other Planets whilst we have the very same reason for one as himself gives for the other And why will the Doctor thus shamelesly slur his own Worship with such unbecomeing stories to his own Reverence Thirdly Be the Structure of Astrology so phantastick as the Doctor says why then does he himself lay the foundation of it For does not he grant it to be truth which we alledg of the Houses of ☉ and ☽ And if so then it seems there is somtâ—ing in Astrology though not so much as we pretend to and this by the Doctor 's own Concession Why then crys he a phantastick Structure of Astrology Lastly Why does he charge us to have 〈◊〉 reason nor effect answerable for the Houses of the other Planets besides the Sun and Moon For if the Doctor knows of none we have yet had he asked we could have told him reason enough Or he might have understood it out of Sir Christopher Heydon And I doubt not but I have shew'd him in my foregoing Discourse of what Astrology is Sect. 11 Well all that has past hitherto were but the Doctor 's flourishes it seems Now comes this Battery henceforwards and that with such a menace of Shatter at us that woe be to poor Astrology it shall not so much as find room in the imaginations of men Ch. 16. § 7. ending Now therefore good Readers prepare to make clean and rid your imaginations for loe this Battery is planted First He begins in § 8. That they prefer the Planets before the fix't Stars is without all reason the Planets being but Heaps of dead matter much like that of Earth and having no light but what they borrow from the Sun For that which seems to be the innate light of the Moon is but the reflexion of the Sun 's beams from the Earth Wherefore their activity and influence may justly seem less then that of the fix't Stars which shine with innate and not borrowed light This is the first Battery have at your imaginations good people therefore For be the fix't Stars to be preferred above the Planets woe be to us we are gone But heark a little how does he argue The Planets are Heaps of dead matter much like that of Earth but the fixed Stars are not so But how came the Doctor to know thus much I trow was he ever up so high as the third or second Heaven to see these things that he is so peremptory at it that they are so Or has he had private conference with St. Paul concerning those things unspeakeable as he told us in publick in these Heavens so high Or if neither 2 Cor. 13.3 4. did not some wandering Daemons of the Air bring him the Intelligence Which if perhaps so yet good people take heed your imaginations be not fooled for the Devils are Liars never to be beleived But what seems most likely is as he said before some late Philosophers have said so Ch. 16. § 1. And the Doctor himself crys it 's highly probable or as much as to say I think so What tame imaginations I marvail aâ— those which must be cleared of all room for Astrology with such pitiful Batteries as the Doctor 's Think so 's But let me beg the favour of the Gentlemen before they clear the room to spend an Ha ha ha or two upon these pretty Batteries which are like throwing stones at the Wind and never touch it But what do we talk for it may be the Planets are but dead matter for some say it's like enough so Yea but says another will the Doctor himself swear it for else no body is able to witness it For in good earnest I am willing enough my self to have it so if it could be proved And it may be I think so too but what the better Well go on Doctor Secondly says he They have no light but what they borrow from the Sun But how proveâ— he this For that which seems to be the inâ—aâ— light of the Moon is but the reflexion of the Sun 's beams from the Earth But before we answer this let the Doctor remember Ch. 16. § 3. where his own Worship avers That it is an insufferable folly to argue from such reasonable and palpable effects of the Moon that the other Planets also are the same which yet we can deprehend by neither reason nor experience Here now it 's come home to him The Moon says he has no innate light but what she borrows this is reasonable and palpable but what reason or experience can deprehend that ♄ ♃ ♂ and ☿ must therefore have none also Oh the insufferable folly therefore of the Doctor 's own Worship and of these great Batteries Now therefore aware your
work was it when he made the Sun stand still and at another time when he made it Retrograde Such also were the Works of Christ when he raised the dead and gave sight to men born blind by his Divine power Such also was the Work of God Exod. 14.21 22. Dan. 3.27 when the Sea made a lane for men to pass thorow it on dry ground and when the Fire had no power to scorch or once to harm men walking in the midst of it These miraculous Works 't is true had no immediate dependency upon the work of Nature and yet from the beginning these also God foresaw And how so He foresaw by the frame of Nature the occasion that required them and by that foresight set down in his eternal mind the contrivance of all Miracles too as they were in time to keep company with his frame of Nature And now may thus far be granted What is it which we call Astrology but the summary of all that skill and knowledge which by times the observation and experience of the whole World of Ages hitherto hath collected and communicated down from hand to hand unto us of this present Age as to what may be understood concerning the nature and operations of the great Wheels of Nature how they work upon us and what they work out of us and what accidents according to their usual track may like enough befall us Such is our Astrology and the All we count such and by this Astrology we attain to see into the great works of God and to be able to say unto his great Glory how truly great they are Sect. 12 Answers to Objections And now by this time I hope it will be adjudged past dispute that Astrology does in no wise limit Gods eternal providence but is so far from it as no Science except Divinity can declare half so much whereby God's Sacred Contrivance of the Affairs of Nature may be truly magnified as they deserve It seems greatly to trouble many people because say they be there such a thing as Astrology to be allowed then must necessarily follow a fatal Destiny not to be avoided and if so what room is left for Gods Providence or what for exercise of humane Virtues or Vices 'T is true indeed that there is a Fate in the frame of Nature but then it is Gods eternal Providence which has contrived that Fate and laid the whole platform of it Shewing how Astrology impedes not but manifests Gods eternal Providence and that so and accompanied with such an incomprehensible forecast as in no case can betide or happen unto any man either of good luck or bad or of prosperity or adversity but matters fall out so suitable to his prayers and conditions as if God had quite altered the scene of affairs at his request and yet hath nothing fall'n out but what was so order'd from all eternity For God Almighty foresaw all men and all their cases and their prayers and thoughts from the beginning and laid his frame of Nature so as to answer all prayers cases and thoughts as was fit all from the beginning But these eternal contrivances opening in time and answering so exactly to the purpose many shallow-brain'd people are apt to cry out as if the Almighty had altered his purposes changed the course of Nature and made new contrivances upon their prayers and for their sakes as if there could be no such thing as Divine Providence without disparaging the Deity to make it seem of changeable and new contrived counsels But what though there be such a thing as Fate yet does it not follow And how it hinders neither Virtue nor Vice but is an help to virtuous actions that there must be therefore an absolute fatal Necessity for there is no such thing neither the Stars nor Heavens nor course of Nature any ways pretending to force mans will they onely incline in their courses And here lies the exercise of Virtue in striving and fighting against corrupt inclinations The Heathens could say Sapiens dominabitur astris and our Saviour proclaims Matth. 11.12 Luke 16.16 that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force Yea so effectual have been the fervent prayers of faithful and good men that they have not onely turned the edge of malignant inclinations to bad qualities but have also utterly overturned the force of hard Fates Had an Astrologer known King Hezekiah's Nativity Isa 38. How King Hezekiah by his prayers overturned the force of an hard fate no doubt but he would have read his Destiny to be death by a violent Feaver in the 14 year of his Reign and yet would the King have outlived that date 15 years farther without any disparagement to the Astrologer for he would have said no more but what was truly written in Heaven But then the virtue of the good King prevailing God Almighty wrought for him and thrust by the violence of Fate for that time and so lived he on until the next deadly blow overtook him 1 Tim. 1.13 14 So also in case of ill qualities St. Paul seems by his rugged nature to have had Stars and Aspects swaying his Geniture as the late Usurper Cromwel had in his And how St. Paul overcame his natural ill dispositions 1 Cor. 9.26 27 but by his vertue he overcame Nature and so brought his body into subjection and by that means made use of all his violent passions of Nature to stir up the more zeal and fervency in Gods service whereas the other for want of that Virtue became so much the greater Villain Such another pattern as this seems to have been the famous Heathen Socrates Thus wise men rule the Stars but fools are ruled by them unto their own destruction The works of Grace and Nature how they act each in their own paths And thus Grace and Will have no bar by Astrology either of freedom or fulness of roomth for their exercise and yet keep on the Stars their courses too For the works of Grace and Nature follow each their own track Nature necessitates no mans wickedness and Grace destroys nothing of Nature onely it amends Nature and farther meddles not and Astrology makes both friends by giving light to the paths of each and shewing both how they may make each for other and all for the praise and glory of God Now such is the wonder of Gods eternal contrivance Of universal desolations and particularly of Noah's Flood and how a reason for every mans death in that desolation was written in the Heavens that never any universal desolation happens at any time whether by Fire or Water or War or Plague but every mans particular Fate in that desolation has a natural reason for it written in Heaven Every man who perished in Noah's Flood had a particular influence from Heaven upon him and such as might be seen by his Nativity which led on his Destiny to fall in
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 are so by accident Now to be able to say what is the proper quality of the Heavenly matter we must first measure out the Heavens into several spaces of place For as it is upon Earth all ground will not bring forth the same fruit so is it in Heaven all places in Heaven do not work the same effects Upon the Earth a man in his journey rideth one ten miles more or less upon the sands and by and by he traceth over as many miles more upon the clays and after that another parcel upon the gravel So seems it unto us by the best of observation as if it were in the Heavens for begin we at that point where the Zodiac cutteth the Equator to the Northwards and there we meet just entring the Sign Aries Of the Quality of the Twelve Signs and holding on from thence forwards for the space of 30 Degrees This observation says is a Sign hot and dry like an high gravelly or sandy ground and when this Sign ascends at a Birth or if the Sun or Moon be in it it usually contributes unto the Native a dry Body See Doct. of Nat. sib 1. chap. 10 sect 1. lean and spare strong and big bones and limbs piercing eyes with black eye-brows a swarthy complexion and sandy coloured or red hair and inclines him to be cholerick brutish violent and intemperate that is this Sign does naturally effect these things But if the Planets Jupiter or Venus be in the Ascendant or in this Sign it alters the case for the better both for quality and complexion of the Native but if Saturn or Mars be there then it alters for the worse For as the ground will some of it bear Wheat and other some Rie and yet by adding compass to it or by ordering it accordingly the nature of the mold is many times made to bring forth fruit contrary to its nature Even so it is when the Planets or their Aspects fall strongly into a Sign they quite change the nature of it many times But if none of these be then the Sign Aries pursues its own nature unavoidably After this follows the Sign Taurus for another 30 Degrees and this much divers from the preceding Sign is of Nature cold and dry as if out of an hot sandy soil a man were of a sudden to enter into a cold clayie Countrey This Sign Ascending or upon the Suns or Moons place usually renders up a person with a broad brow See Doct. of Nat. chap. 10. Sect. 2. thick lips and curled hair of a dark colour and of qualities somewhat brutish slow melancholly and yet a little furious Next follows the Sign Gemini of nature hot and moist like a fat and rich soil and gives a Native tall Ibid. Sect. 3. with much duskish coloured hair of a sanguine complexion and of a good wit and of qualities huhumane and aiery and not without ambition After Gemini succeeds Cancer Ibid. Sect. 4. at the entrance of which the Zodiack being in its utmost Northern point begins to bend again towards the Equinoctial Line This Sign is of nature cold and moist like a moorish and watery Land and brings forth a Native fair and pale with dark brown hair and a fat body and of qualities phlegmatick and heavy and inclined to drinking Then follows the Sign Leo hot and drie Ibid. Sect. 5. like Aries and gives a Native with a big head and a high sanguine ruddy complexion with great eyes and flaxen hair Ibid. Sect. 6. Virgo is like Taurus cold and dry and makes the Native of a mean stature and small voice black hair and a good wit Ibid. Sect. 7. Libra venters with the Line to the Southwards and is like Gemini hot and moist and renders a Native tall and slender fair and beautiful with flaxen hair and inclined to luxury Ibid. Sect. 8. Scorpio is of nature with Cancer cold and moist and brings forth usually a corpulent person swarthy with black hair of a subtil wit if not a dissembler Sagittarius is hot and dry again Ibid. Sect. 9. and gives a strong body and tall of a Sun-burnt ruddy and well proportion'd face In the entring of Capricorn Ibid. Sect. 10. the Zodiack being in the utmost Southern point begins to bend again to the Line this is a Sign cold and dry and makes a little person lean and slender of black hair and a sharp chin Ibid. Soct 11 and a long neck Aquarius is hot and moist and renders a Native pretty tall and long-visag'd Ibid. Sect. 12. sanguine and ruddy but brown with black hair Lastly Pisces is a cold and moist Sign and gives a short fleshy man pale and sickly but of a neat jetting humane apt to be conceited of himself These Signs also have their peculiar operations in Generation of Man and Beast as to the Sex some of them promise a Male-issue and others a Female that is at the Conception or in case of an Horary Question And though we cannot gâ—â—ble Nature so far as to open the utmost reason of these operations yet me-thinks sober men should rest satisfied with the relation of the experience of our constant observations and the rather for that the Husbandman treating of his Land how the one is stâ—ff ground and the other is light and how this ground will bring forth one sort of fruit and that another he can render no more reason for thâ—â— than we can for this but says he we find it so by experience and so do we Sect. 12 Of the Degrees of every Sign and how these have peculiar qualities But again these twelve Signs we are to subdivide every one of them into 30 Degrees apiece And it is further observed that though the Signs have their general qualities yet these degrees under them do claim certain peculiar priviledges as it were by way of exception unto the general quality of the Sign For as in Land of what measure soever there are peculiar veins of earth of different nature from the general soil of the Countrey also there are some places in some sort of Land that have pits and holes in them Doct. of Nat. chap. 4. and others that abound with banks and hills and others again which aboundantly bring forth briars and thorns so is it in the Heavens after the same manner As for example In the Sign Aries the Degrees 8 20 and 29 are of nature light as working a fair and clear skin but the Degrees of 3 and 16 are dark as operating a dark and swarthy countenance The Degrees 24 and 30 are called void as if working some deficiencies upon the brain The Degrees 6 11 16 23 and 29. are called pitied which render a man as if he were always in a pit or snare not knowing which way to turn him And the Degree 19 is always observed to be a Degree increasing fortune Again the first 8 Degrees are Masculine the 9 is
Femine from thence unto the 85 are all Masculine and thence again unto 22 are Feminine and thence unto 30 are Mascultne In the Sign Taurus the Degrees 6 7 8 9 and 10 are called Azimene or deficient Degrees and bespeak a man some ways lame or crooked or deformed in his neck In Aries are none of these but in Cancer are many of them and so in other Signs This Taurus also hath Degrees Light Void Pitied Masculine and Feminine as hath Aries and so hath the other Signs more or less But the Sign Cancer has a Degree called smoaky the nature of which is to work a swarth upon the complexion and this is the 20 Degree The 20 of Leo is also and in the other Signs are more such although Aries Taurus Gemini Libra and Pisces have none of them Now these things are nothing but meer observations found out by diligent taking notice of Signs and Degrees as they Ascend or as they are tranfited by the Sun or Moon and it is an experiment very obvious and apt to be proved Sect. 13 Of the Qualities of the Heavenly Matter by accident Such are the essential Qualities of the Heavenly Matter Now there are also besides these certain Qualities wherewith they are endowed accidentally and these are either by means of the situation of the Heavens or else by reason of something which hath affected this Heavenly matter with other qualities which it hath an aptitude to entertain And 1. as for the situation Heavens we know that they are always in motion either ascending or descending And as it doth appear by very good experiments according to these situations the Heavens do produce very various qualities This motion of Heaven is ordinarily divided into twelve equal parts or proportions called the Twelve Houses of Heaven and as it further appears by experience these Houses are the great Wheel of Nature whereon do depend the various fortunes contingent to all sublunary matters and things These twelve Houses are either Angular Succedent or Cadent The Angular Houses are four called the Ascendent Mid-heaven the Seventh House and the bottom of Heaven The Ascendent is that part of Heaven which is always rising up level with our Horison the very point ascending is the Cusp or principal Seat of this House Of the twelve Houses of Heaven and their qualities by accident And first of the Ascendent and its qualities and extendeth about some 5 Degrees above the Earth and 25 immediately succeeding ready to ascend But if Signs of long Ascension do ascend halfe 5 Degrees above the Earth are all that this House can claim and some 13 below are its utmost share And yet if Signs of short Ascensions do Ascend it may well be afforded twice 5 degrees above ground and 50 below The quality of whatsoever part of Heaven that taketh up the Degrees of this House is to carry along with it the health and life of every Native and thing that is conceived or brought forth within its jurisdiction And hence hath this point of Heaven a faculty of attracting or receiving the vertues of the Heavenly matter that is accidentally transiting that part of Heaven at Birth and also of the Planets and fixed Stars in their Transits and of all the rays of the Planets in their Aspects into this part of Heaven in order to the forming of the shape stature temperature of the body quality of the mind and of all accidents and contingencies which shall befall the Natives body or health or life unto his dying day Such a sympathy it seems there is between this part of the heavenly frame and of every act and thing that is hatch'd and receives life under it For as the seed in the ground after it hath first put forth root buds forth and appears above-ground so the Heavens after they have framed the Embryon and the Temperament thereof under the Earth give it life and being of its own putting forth level with them as they just ascend For we do not suppose as if the temperature and qualities of the Native were framed wholly at the exact time of Birth although the situation of Heaven at that time never fails exactly to describe them No these temperatures and qualities are formed in the womb from the Conception but yet the Birth describes them because that Birth cannot fall at any moment af time but even with that part of the Heavenly matter ascending which is interressed in those temperatures and qualities And now therefore look what the nature of this ascending point of Heaven qualified with Planets and Stars and their Aspects such a person qualified and endowed shall the Native prove and of these qualities and temperatures and of the whole health and life of the Native does this point ascending take the whole charge Of the Fifth and Eleventh Houses and their qualities Now the Attendants and Vpholders of Life are two 1. Children or Off-spring attends to hold up the continuance of it in this World And 2. Religion and Learning do come in to uphold it unto eternity in another World These two therefore in an harmonious Trine as if making up that threefold cord of which Solomon hath said it can never be broken do wait upon the ascending point of Heaven the one in a succedent House called the fifth House of Heaven and the other in a Cadent House called the ninth House of Heaven And to this purpose Doct. of Nat. chap. 6. sect 5. look what is the state of this fifth House at a mans birth such shall be the state of that mans off-spring and the Heavenly matter Planets Stars and Aspects then there shall apparently shew the Conditions Doct. of Nat. chap. 6 sect 9. Qualities and Fortunes of the Natives whole off-spring what and how they shall prove So also look what is the state of the eleventh House in a Nativity such shall the Native prove for matter of Religion and Science and the Heavenly matter Planets Stars and Aspects therein shall shew what and how the man shall prove whether for wise or foolish devout or Schismatical and what Studies and Arts he shall be inclined to follow These are the Matter for Grace to work upon but as for Grace it self Nature hath no power over that Grace must Rule Nature but Nature cannot sway Grace Sect. 14 The second Angular point of Heaven is called Mid-heaven Of Mid-heaven and its qualities and is always that point of the Heavens which culminates or is the very top of the whole Heavenly frame And what ever part of Heaven happeneth to be here culminating at the Birth of any Person or Thing that takes charge of and carries along with it ever after the Preferment Honour Profession Mastery and Authority of the Native And as are the Planets Stars Aspects and Heavenly Matter placed and situate in this point or in the Degrees thereto pertaining so shall the Native prove in his life-time for all matter of Dignity and Advance
Sun once in every 225 days But whether the Sun or the Earth be the Centre of the World and by consequence whether the Earth circleth the Sun or the Sun the Earth is not generally agreed yet amongst Astronomers The first opinion of late years hath gained the greatest number of learned Votes and seems to make the most rational Hypothesis of the Heavens But chuse whether way you please Astrology is no way concerned which way the Conquest leads but whether the Sun or the Earth be Centre of the World the Planet Mars circleth all both Sun Mercury and Venus as well as Luna and the Earth and this he does once in almost every two years The Planet Jupiter circleth Mars and all the rest but in regard of the great compass he fetches in order to perform his circuit it is almost eleven years before he can accomplish his rounds Yet the Planet Saturn circleth this Jupiter and all the rest but in regard of a far greater compass his journey does require it is almost 30 years ere he can come about Hence Saturn Jupiter and Mars are called the Superiour Planets and Venus Mercury and Luna the Inferiour and again they the slow Planets and these the swift And yet not but that Saturn may move as nimbly as the Moon onely because of his vast and spacious circuit he runs he seems to us at this great distance from him to be slow and thence is called and esteemed as he seems rather than indeed he is Now by means of these Circuits about the Earth happen the seeming Retrogradations of the Planets Mercury at every turn he gets beyond the Sun from us in his wheeling about him seems to return by retrograde motion until he is quite on this side the Sun and hence he is said to be retrograde four times in every year Venus in her rounds gets beyond the Sun but once in less than a year and therefore is no oftner retrograde Mars and the Sun or the Earth differing not so much in their motion it 's not above once in almost two years time that any thing can be made appear between him and the Earth of any kind of retrogradation Lastly the Sun seeming to circle the Earth once in one year occasions also as if Saturn and Jupiter were also retrograde once by the year Sect. 28 Of the Quality of the Planets 2. The Qualities of the Planets are to be considered either in their Conjunctions or Aspects The Conjunction of a Planet is that whereby it is bodily present and acting upon any Subject or Thing even as when a Hen sitteth hurking over her Eggs or Chickens These Conjunctions happen either when one Planet joyneth with another or of what time any Planet cometh into any concerned part of Heaven as into the Degree ascending or culminating as it was at the point of any mans Birth or Marriage or any other considerable time In this case all the Planets have their secret virtues and power of operation even as a Plaister bodily applied to any part of a mans body hath its power of attraction or corroboration To this purpose the Sun hath his secret Qualities and produceth effects hot and dry for matter of temper and worketh qualities Heroick Noble Magnanimous and Majestick for matter of humour and this does he when he is under ground and out of sight as well as when he is above-ground and in his full shine and lustre Much of the same nature is the Planet Mars hot and dry and worketh humours bold fierce violent and couragious But yet however these two may seem thus nearly of kin there is a vast difference in disposition between them for the Sun is a great and true friend of Natures and therefore however he may be hot and burning by Nature yet is he like the fire in the Bush of Moses which burned and yet consumed not But Mars more like the evil one of an envious eye where-ever he penetrates performeth his operations with a malignant and consuming heat which bites like the worm that never dies and that with a kind of glowing heat that scorches though it never flames He it is who worketh all manner of Fevers and other violent and hot distempers in the vitals and intrals of living bodies and all manner of falls blows and wounds of the body that come by violence by reason of iron wood or stone and these mischiefs he pursues with such imbitter'd venome that occasions the ranckling and festering of wounds and that so as without a curb to his fury bebecomes inevitably fatal and yet all this while not the least sensible heat shall be once felt outwardly These kind of mischiefs are sometimes also wrought by the Sun but then first it is not naturally so but by accident the nature of the Suns operation being corrupted by the cross Rays of some malignant Planet or part of Heaven And 2. when it is so there is not that venom in those distempers occasioned by the body of the Sun as in those of Mars The great work of Mars is to endue a Native with courage and resolution and to fit for War but then withall he naturally breeds quarrels by rash actions and so cuts out work and way for War The Sun endues with more Majesty and being always near unto Mercury contributes much gravity and discretion unto that Majesty The Moons operations for matter of temper are cold and moist and for matter of humour fickle and loving novelties soft and tender and yet studious Much of the same nature with the Moon is the Planet Venus onely with this difference that whereas the Moon is cold and moist Venus is rather cool and moist and whereas the Moon is but indifferently affected to befriend or envy Venus is altogether friendly to her utmost power But in operation of humours Venus stirs up exceedingly unto all manner of delights and pleasures as unto Musick Play Merriment Marriage and all kind of such like matters The Moon being naturally very cold many times breeds flegmatick and rheumatick distempers but Venus is one of Natures good Nurses and prevents diseases Jupiter and Venus are the great Nurses of Nature but the Sun and Moon are as it were the Parents of it who like Man and Wife by secret Coitions in their Conjunction and several Aspects bring forth the whole life and growth of all the World both in Vegetive Sensitive and Intellectual creatures And unto these the other five Planets and all the fixed Stars are but as it were Assistants sometimes helping and other whiles in some sense hindering the life and growth of Nature Saturn and Mars also have their good work in the frame of Nature according to their task and duties but yet by means of the corruptions of Nature they seem as it were Thieves and Robbers or like Worms which destroy Nature and therefore seem very hurtful unless it be by accident that they do any whit avail Now the Moon notwithstanding her quickning faculty yet
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
is no such Zodiack in Heaven or if you will no Heaven for such a Zodiack as these Artists attribute these Triplicities to For this Heaven and this Zodiack we speak of is an old errour of Ptolomie 's and his followers who not understanding the true Systeme of the World and the motion of the Earth in which is salved the Anticipation of the Æquinoxes have phancied an Heaven above the Coelum Stellatum and a Zodiack that did not recede from West to East as the starry Zodiack does And this figment which later Ages have laughed off of the Stage is the only subject of these â—ned Trigons and Triplicities which therefore are justly laughed off of the Stage with it Which discovery is a demonstration that the whole Art of Astrology is built but upon frivolous and meer imaginary Principles as we shall farther make manifest What a crowd of Forgeries are here met together First There 's no such Zodiack in Heaven says he This is a very confident one all Astronomers agreeing to the contrary that there is such an one Now this Zodiack is a certain imaginary Circle which cutting the Æquator in two parts carrieth some 20 degrees of breadth and coasting along with certain fixed Stars called the 12 Constellations of the Zodiack some â— degrees and odd minutes on each side the Ecliptick line vergeth to the North and South of the Æquinâ—â— some 23 degrees and somwhat above an half And whether you follow the Systeme of the World Ptolomean Copernican Argol Astron B. 1. Ch. â—1 or Tychonick it still admits of the same description And yet loe the strange confidence of the Doctor as if there were no such thing He 'l say perhaps It is but an imaginary Circle and therefore nothing real But if so yet still is he out for it is a real space of place in Heaven according to the measure of the Circle Secondly That this Zodiack we speak of is an old errour of Ptolomie's This is false too For First It was an Opinion many Ages â—lder then Ptolomy Secondly There is no certainty to this day that it is an errour there being so many of the learned still 〈…〉 â—is way against Copernicus Thirdly Let the Systeme of the World be how 't will the Zodiacal Circle is every way the same and void of any errour And whether there be an Heaven above the Starry Heaven or no such Heaven the Zodiack still keeps along its 12 Constellations Thirdly That this Figment the later Ages 〈◊〉 laughed off of the Stage This is false too For within this few years is come forth a learned Tract of Doctor Harvey's pleading for the Earth and not the Sun to be the World's Center Fourthly That the Astrological Triplicities and Trigons are laughed off of the Stage too This is true as the other Lastly That this discovery is a demonstration that the whole Art of Astrology stands but upon frivolous and meer imaginary Principles Thus fondly conceits this ranting Doctor and yet most of the late Astrologers are inclining to the Copernican Systeme I am so my self and yet find not the least concern in it to the contrary of the Astrological Principles nor can any man else saving the Doctor 's meer Figments and fond Inventions as if he knew not else what to say and was fain to bring up these stories meerly to make up a say on And yet with a most abominable begging of the question he goes on tumbling Heaven and Earth confusedly together as if all were truth that he could invent Sect. 15 In the same Section is it that he quarrels with the Division of the Signs Good man he would fain set all to rights and therefore great pains he takes to sort them in their true places The Solstitial Signs he finds are not safely called moveable but ought rather to be stiled fixed And truly I like the man that when he finds an errour will tell me on it so freely But how proves he this In my apprehension says he Ah peascods on it that spoils all What One Doctor 's Opinion against the Observation of all Ages out upon 't for shame But we 'l wink at small matters says he Yea truly in my apprehension he should have said For in my apprehension his Batteries will down with Astrology at long run yea no room for it in mans imagination But that of the Trigons is more notorious with him It makes him smile again A good merry Doctor I like such company truly He has it out of Dariot how the 〈◊〉 and Ascendent in fiery Signs comfort the Virtue Attractive in Earthy the Retentive in Aiery the Digestive and in Watry the Expulsive We said Dariot was a Physician and he honestly gives an account of his experience But let the Doctor be merry Ha Ha He what has he against this Mum mum for a Plum not a word of Argument Only shewing his teeth with a kind of envious grin Would any man dare to administer Physick then without consulting the precepts of Astrology Why Dariot hinders not administer what every man please only he advises that Astrology would be a good help Then comes he to Husbandry and there he flings at Sir Christopher Heydon That 's a notorious one says he who tells us how we may set a Plant to shoot deep into the Earth or higher into the Air by setting it at such an Aspect of the Moon Namely if the Moon be in an Earthy Triplicity the Root will shoot more downwards if in an Aiery more into the Air. And then he smiles saying a rare secret As if no such matter But good Doctor speak softly for should some experienc't man of the Spade but hear your want of Wit he would throw dirt upon your Worships Gown For thus Dogs bark at the Moon whilst wise men give God praise for her Next it came into his head to talk of the 4 Trigons and holding on still in his merry vein he went on laughing till he fell down backwards and hitting his head against the Zodiack he knew not where he was and then began to talk at random It came it seems into his muddy Pate how all the four Elements flew up into Heaven and took their places in their respective Triplicities in the Zodiack with great agility playing at leap-frog and skipping over one anothers Backs in such sort that dividing themselves into three equal parts every Triental of an Element found it self a fellow member of a Triâ— Aspect But the best jest of all was says he c. And here falling backwards it was that he fell into the mad stories of the Zodiack as I had them in the last Section Thus he goes about to batter Astrology out of the imaginations of men neither with Sword nor Buckler nor dint of Argument but by meer loud laughter and thus the Boys use to fright away the Crows And thus Cajus Caligula overcame the Cockle-shells when the Sea was gone Sect. 16 In § 11. He brings his Ax
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
distance off And now if this weapon-salve without its perfumed Socks can do thus as the Doctor confesses what need he stand wondering thus at the Heavens in their Transits that they should to do as much or more Or did not Madness and Effascination also possess the Doctor 's phancy in this story of the weapon-salve as well as out phancy's in our discourse of the Planetary Transitions But if none of all this could do yet methinks the Doctor might have been so civil as to have considered that himself is on Earth and the Planets are in Heaven on high above him and if some learned men not inferiour to himself have seriously observed and found out such operations of the Planets in their Transits and thereupon have argued the power of the Causes from their Effects as their Logick teaches them to do He might have said to himself I am not able indeed to set bounds to the Heavenly powers as to say so far they can do and no more and therefore such a thing may be for ought I know as these Gentlemen say only give me leave to suspend my beleif till my Observation shall reach it as well as their's But the Doctor it seems might one have been worthy to have seen him at the start of this conceit how he laugh't in his sleeve and hugg'd himself in the repetition of it was so proud of his Wit in matter of this perfumed Jest of the Planetary Socks that he could no longer hold but he must cry out What will not Madness and Effascination make a man phancy Lastly Against the matter of Direction in a Nativity he complains that it is as frivolous as the rest For in a Direction saith he the good change must happen when a Planet or Cuspe 〈◊〉 Aspect comes to the place where such a Planet 〈◊〉 Cuspe were at the Nativity When the Significator comes to the place of the Promissor then defeat does not fail to be done For the Promissor is conceived as immoveable and such as stands 〈◊〉 and expects the arrival of the Significator Which is a Demonstration that this Promissor is either imaginary space or nothing And which of thâ—â—â— two think you will keep promise best Thâ— Doctor it seems had got some smack of Astrology but either could not did not or would not rightly understand it For else he might haâ—â— found that there is always a certain and 〈◊〉 space measured out into Degrees and Minutes between the Significator and his Promissor Aâ—â— according to this distance of Situation in spaâ—â— such is the distance between them in time for Operation and Direction is the rule of Art where by this time is computed and being thus both in space and time a real thing is neither imaginary nor nothing as the Doctor idly argues But then he goes on Also if it be the Horoscope or ony other House which is Significator that is imaginary too as I have demonstrated I wish the Doctor himself be not imaginary for the one may be proved even as well as he hath done the other But hear him out If it be a Planet seeing yet the Planets move not as the Birds in the Air or Fishes in the Waters but is Cork carried down the Stream it is plain how this Planet never gets to that part of the Coelestial matter in which the Promissor was at the Nativity the Promissor ever sliding away with his own matter in which he swim's And therefore if he hath left any virtue behind him it must again be deposited in an imaginary space which is an undeniable argument that the whole mystery of Direction is imaginary What more folly yet Nay â—hen we shall never have done I wonder whether the Doctor knows his own meaning For 〈◊〉 he mean as he seems to do that the Planet as it might be the Moon never gets to that part of the Coelestial matter in which the Promissor was at the Nativity by Transit that 's false for she reaches it in a very few days and the Sun does as much in a few Weeks or Months Or does he mean that the place of the Planet at the Nativity never reaches up to the place of the Promissor that 's as idle For who ever pretended that the Parson's House should ever overtake the high Constable's Or does he mean some other unknown mystery which he learn't a fishing as the Cork swam down the stream But 〈◊〉 what it will he may keep it to himself and in the mean time he may understand that by the Promissor is to be understood some Aspect or Cuspe of House as suppose the âš¹ of ♀ or the Midheaven which the Planets as suppose the ☉ or ☽ or ♄ or ♃ are distant from in a certain number of Degrees and Minutes and therefore the ☉ or the rest cannot promise unto the native the benefit of such an Aspect or of coming to such an House presently or so much as if they were perfectly in the very act of that Aspect but yet in time that benefit will come up unto the Native and that as effectually as if the Aspect had been in present force Now therefore the ☉ being so many degrees off the Aspect the meaning of the coming of the Significator unto the Promissor is not by Body as it is in a Transit but virtually only As much as to say the virtue of the Significator being at a distance at the Nativity from the Promissor will be a certain number of Years and Days according to the rules of Art in Direction e're it comes to Maturity And now the time of the motion of this virtue observing a certain constant method we have thereby from the accident known a sure rule to find out the moment and time of Birth Sect. 21 Lastly Arrive we at § the 17th of the 16th Chapter of the Doctor 's 7th Book where we find him in his Triumph after Victory And truly it's pity to disturb him with any such matter as a contradiction For why should we turn his Mirth into Mourning I remember a story of the veriest Coward in a certain Battel who ran away clear out of the Field a Night and a Day before any of his fellows and came home into his City crying Victory Victory whereof followed Bonefires and ringing of Bells and all manner of Jollity ' til at the 24 hours end the whole Army came flying home weeping and wailing that all was lost whence the Scene of the City quite altered and turned upside down the first News-monger was sought for out and inquired the reason of so loud a lie he answered That it was for the advantage of the City to be continually accommodated with such lies For what Mirth and Jollity had that lie advanced whereas the truth brought nothing home but Lamentation and Mourning of Men Women and Children Such a victory as this now has the Doctor gotten and see he 's as proud of 't and as merry at it as if he had all Towns and
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
the Heavens Thus writes the Doctor by way of quotation out of Sir Christopher Heydon as who would say what might be argued on behalf of Astrology And the truth is the Doctor has so ingeniously compiled the Arguments on Astrologies behalf altogether in one entire Chapter and set them out in such neat apparel and in so good order Ch. 15. that as they stand holding together so unanimously and maintaining their cause so chearfully methinks they look so confidently sweetly on the Opposer as if they were at strife whether to wooe or daunt the Adversary to their side But on the other side the answers to those Arguments and all that comes in against Astrology do come up so disjointed rough hewen and so snarlingly one among another as if the Doctor had undertaken a notable design whereby under colour of destroying Astrology he hath set it out so neatly and upon so firm a Basis as never to be overturned and hath purposely shot at it with the throwing of his Cap only as if he never intended otherwise then to be foiled and that shamefully in order to advance Astrology the more and that he may hereafter practise it himself with the greater grace and freedom maugre all exceptions that can be brought against him And to this purpose I have the more readily taken up the Cudgels in order to comply with such a kind of wish of his But however to return unto his Concessions and they compared with the Objection on the other side unto which they refer First Does the Moon swell many things with moisture in her Full as is granted And doe's this swelling with moisture extend unto the Brains of Beasts and Eyes of Cats c. so as to make them bigger at the Full and lesser at the Change as is proposed in the Objection and not denyed in the Answer Why then it seems the Moon ha's an influence though the other Planets have not and that by the Doctor 's own Concession No but says the Doctor though such effects do flow from the Moon yet is it not by means of any influence of her's but of the Sun beams reflecting from her Body and thereby melting the Air and other Vapours into an insinuating liquidness Well but which way gets that liquidness into the Brains or Eyes of living Creatures Sure our great Philosopher has not so little reason as to imagin as if these Brains were water-soak't only as the Barley when it is steeped in the water in order to be made Malt And yet it can be no otherways For does he not talk of a liquidness which from without insinuate's into those Brains and Eyes And that collected from an Aiery and Vapourous matter too But I wonder how possibly this crafty liquidness got through the head the skin and skull and without once stirring those more outward parts with any kind of alteration wrought only upon the Brain which was so close lockt up within For do we not easily observe that when such a liquidness invades the kernel of any Fruit it never toucheth that inside until both husk and shell are either rotted off or so swell'd in substance as to cleave insunder But besides every Novice in Husbandry does know that this kind of liquidness though it can insinuate yet is it not so quick at it There are many Seeds as Haws and Holliberies and others whose Shels are not near so thick and hard as are the Skulls of Beasts and yet is it almost a two Years time before this liquidness can thorowly act upon them And yet shall we be so thick skin'd as to imagin as if this sluggish Labourer could dig thorow and dive beyond skin and skull in a Nights time and begon in another But what is worst of all how absurd is it to phancy as if the flesh of Sensitive Animals was wrought upon by liquid insinuations as are the Stems Roots and Seeds of Vegetive Plants For although outward applications may have so much influence upon the Eye or Brain so as to pain or ease them by insinuating Powers yet that Power which nourishes and so by consequence makes full Brains and Eyes or for want of exercise empties and makes less Brains or by any other way causes the Eye or Brain to thrive or diminish must necessarily be maintain'd from within from the Stomach and Belly and not meerly from any act of Sun or Moon from without only And does the Moon work this swelling of Eyes and Brains Why yes that 's granted and if so then needs must she do it by working upon the Stomach and Blood of that Beast or Cat whose Eyes or Brains she swells and if so how then can it be otherwise but that she hath an influence whereby at certain times she affords more virtue to the food and blood by means whereof it feeds more full and thriving at sometimes more then at other some For take a certain quantity of dust and mingle it with water and leaven and all the Art that may be and seeth or bake it and it thrives not after all as to be more or less But then take a certain quantity of Meal and use it after the same manner and loe it comes forth of the Oven or the Pot almost twice as big as it went in and this it does by reason of that virtue which lodgeth in the Seed whereof it was made And therefore by the same rule say we of the swelled Eyes or Brains that it was not the meer liquidness or any kind of hotness which made them so but a certain virtue secretly infused into the food and blood which made them thrive thus And this is it which the Moon hath done as is confessed And therefore follows it unavoidably that the Moon not only does such things but that by a certain influence she does it whereby she distils her virtue sometimes more and sometimes less Sect. 3 Secondly Does the flux and reflux of the Sea certainly and without all doubt depend upon the course of the Moon as is granted Then there also greatly does appear the influence of the Moon But no says the Doctor the Moon does it by a rational ground Ch. 16. § 4. And to prove this rational ground he quotes Des Chartes and from him affirms That the Ellipsis of the Caelestial matter is streitned by the Moon 's Body which makes the Æther flow more swift which is a plain and Mechanical Solution of the Phaenomenon Thus contrive's the Doctor as if the Moon caused this Ebbing and Flowing of the Seas but not by any attractive or expulsive Virtue or Influence but as if the Boys with a great Besome were driving the water of the Kennel sometimes this way and sometimes that with a violent drift or as if some great stone haled up the River and back again should cause the rowling of the water to and fro Now the truth is such things may be here below with us But to say what is done beyond and above the Air