Vindication of His Annotations

Some few material Escapes may thus be amended.

PAg. 7. lin. 31. do not without. pag. 13. l. 21. as much. p. 16. l. 39. such as are. p. 25. marg. Adag. 2460. p. 43. l. 6. of the Ancients. p. 56. l. 32. Josh. 6. p. 60. l. 10. of that breed. p. 84. l. 3. reserved. p. 95. l. 15. Analysis p. 101. l. 16. and be. p. 104. l. 32. have gained. p. 113. l. 12. particle. p. 123. l. 17. Isaiah 44.25. p. 128. l. 37. and its. l. 38. in the. l. 39. right p. 159. l. 16. Joel 2.10. p. 161. l. 17. Cocceius. p. 143. l. 30. that, fight of p. 163. l. 15. witnesses. p. 173. l. 35. and not.

The principal Contents of this whole Discours; In the former Part.

T He Occasion of undertaking this Task.

Page 1

Lilies scurrilous aspersions of the Annotations on Jerem, 10.2. and the Autor of them,

p. 2

Answer brief to all his aspersions in general, and some of them in particular,

p. 3

Of ignorance charged on all that oppose him and his profession, p. 4. and further,

p. 82—86

Of Presbyterie and Independency, how far they concur, and where they part,

p. 5

That those of either side, and others of neither, have unanimously agreed, as well in ancient times, as in latter days, in opposing and condemning his profession,

p. 6.7.87.

The Presbyterie cleared from imputation of sedition,

p. 8.9.21.

Lilies spite not so much against the Presbyterie, as against the Ministry in general,

p. 10.11, 19.21, 22

His cunning predictions of things done, or in doing, p. 12. and compliance with the times,

p. 13.14, 58

Calvin, (though not alone) grossly abused, and falsely charged, by him and others,

p. 14.15, 16, 17

The Genevian Discipline, by a Popish writer of Note highly commended,

p. 17.18

Calvin's judgment of Divinatorie Astrology,

p. 18

The grounds of the late War by Lily pretended, discussed and refuted,

p. 19.20

Lilies contradictions in his judgments,

p. 22.23

His pretended grief for some pious Priests unmasked,

p. 24.25. & p. 74.75

His reqirie to be heard, and tried according to his own principles examined,

p. 26.27

His censures of stupidity, non-sense, dotage, crossing all antiqitie, reason, and genuine sense of the Text, in the Annotations and their Autor, discussed▪

p. 28.29.32.33

Envy charged by him unjustly on the oppugners of his profession,

p. 30.31

Lilies predictions in some particulars concerning the last Solar Eclipse, controlled,

p. 33—41

His consent with, and dissent from, another of his profession, with the grounds thereof debated,

p 35—37

Reasons, why Eclipses cannot portend or produce such things as these men ascribe unto them,

p. 41—43

Ignorance and error the main causes that make Eclipses so dreadful,

p. 44-52

The true reason of them discovered hath freed people from fear,

p. 45.46, 47.51.

Which the Egyptian Astrologers therefore would not have imparted to the people,

p. 48

Two gross errors among the common sort of people concerning Eclipses,

p. 52—54

Eclipses no prodigies,

p. 52.53

How they should presage, as Lily saith, much good to any, being deemed so dismal,

p. 54—59.71

Lilies Pictures, with his explications and applications of them, contrary to himself, and his own Autors, examined,

p, 59—64

His inability to construe aright his own Autors,

p. 62

His various and self-contradicting assertions concerning the efficacy of Eclipses,

p. 65

Peucers impious assertion concerning the efficacy of Stars in some genitures,

P. 66—68

Lilies Argument from the Rainbow refuted,

p. 68—70

Lily pressed to make good his Assertions concerning the Original of his pretended Art,

p. 70.71.91 92

His pretended experience debated and refuted,

p. 71—82

Whether more dangerous for Statesmen to advise with God's Ministers, or with Wizards,

p. 88.89

Lilies manner of refuting such as write against him, and his pretended Art,

p. 89—91

Reasons rendered of the later. yet not unseasonable, appearance of this piece in public.

p. 92.93.

The Contents in the latter Part.

THe occasion of dealing with Master Swans Sermon on Jerem. 10.2.

p. 94

Lilies charge of Ignorance upon his opponents by Mr. Swan renewed, p. 94. and satyrically pursued,

p. 115.147.178.179

Mr. Swan granteth the Text to speak, not of Idolatry, but of Astrology, such as the Chaldeans professed and practiced, p. 95.96. as also that the one oft leadeth people to the other,

p. 96

Ke • ers judgment herein, and of that whole practice,

p. 97.98

The reasons rendered by Lilies two Advocates, why the dreading of the signs of Heaven is forbidden, discussed and rejected,

p. 100—110

Fatality and certainty in their Pred • ctions maintained by our Prognosticators; yet condemned by both their Advocates as presumptuous and magical,

p. 103—109

Astrology, according to Mr. Swan, the Stars language,

p. 104.127

Our Astromancers pronounce one another palpable liars; which how it may well be deemed true of them all,

p. 109.—111

The right Reason of the inhibition of dreading the Signs of Heaven, rendered from the Text, to wit, the Vanity of the Wizards dictates concerning them,

p. 111—115

The Poets sayings concerning them by M. Swan produced, sifted and shown to be contradictory either to other, and unsound.

p. 115—118

The Stars set to rule persons and people, not by God, but by arrogant men,

p. 115.116

Signs in the Text what, and how said to be Vanity,

p. 118.122—124

That it is not of the essence of a Sign to portend ought,

p. 119—122

Christ's Words Matth. 12.39.40. discussed and cleared,

p. 121

M. Swans argument from experience examined, and rejected,

p. 124—126

His Argument from Gen. 1.14. discussed and refuted,

p. 126.127, 128.131

His Argument from Psal. 19.1.3. to back the former, of no force,

p. 127.130

His undeniable Axiom granted, concludes nothing for him,

p. 130.131

His frivolous distinction, to meet with an objection; and slight answer to as frivolous an Objection of his own framing,

p. 131.132

Psal 50.4. Inconsiderately and impertinently produced by him,

p. 132.133.

Judge. 5.20. To as little purpose alleged,

p. 133—135

His long and lacinious discourse of the means whereby the Planet Mars hath power to subvert States unravelled, p. 135—140. and shown to be groundless, p. 136. impious, p. 136.137. Insufficient to his intended Project, p. 138.139, 140. impertinent to his present purpose,

p. 140.141

The Cognisance of Questions, what it is; and being a new invention, and one of our Wizards their gainfullest engines, that it hath much need of good props,

p. 141—143

The judgment of Genitures how ridiculous; and whether M. Swans Principles will reach it,

p. 144.145

Pericles defended against M. Swans harsh and groundless censure; and Thucydides cleared from Lilies misreports,

p. 147—155

Job. 38.31, 32. by M. Swan alleged, discussed, and shown not to say, what he should proov,

p. 106. and p. 156—158

Job 9.7. Cited to as little purpose, p. 158—160 making no more for Astromancie, then Job. 37.7. for Chiromancie, or Revel. 2.17. for the Philosophers Stone,

p. 160.161.

Luk. 21.25. Explained and shown to have no place here

p. 161.162

Psal. 111.2. and 1 King. 4.11. to no purpose here produced,

p. 162.170

Wisdom. 7.17. Apocryphal, of no weight, because of no credit; nor coming home to the point in question.

p. 162—166

Of Adams knowledge, and Solomon's,

p. 166—168

Of Thales, p. 168 169. Of Solon,

p. 169.170.

Of Tares or Weeds rather, sown among the Wheat, and how to be distinguished,

p. 170.171.174—176

Of Eccles. 3.1. the genuine sense of the place; that it no way helps those for whom M. Swan pleadeth,

p. 171 172

Of the men of Issakers skil, 1. Chr. 12.30. to this purpose as little,

p. 172.173

Of severing the dross from the gold, and chaff from the Corn,

p. 176 177.180.181

The condemners of this Divinatory Astrology not guilty of confounding and casting away the one with the other,

p. 177.178

The Patrones of it rather blend them, and would obtrude on us, the dross with the gold, and the dregs with the liqor.

p. 179

The vanity of M. Swans pretense, that the discovery and opposition of such fanatical fancies and cheating practices, should either proceed from ignorance, or endanger the inducing of it,

p. 179.180

The Rule given by M. Swan, whereby to help us in discerning Christ's Godhead by his Miracles, cutteth the throat of his Clients cause concerning the stupendous efficacy of Eclipses,

p. 181

What disservice our Astrologers have done to God and Christ, by attributing the most miraculous works of either to the natural Operation of Stars and Constellations,

p. 182—185

The close of all with the L. Howards judgment, concerning the mischievousness of this Fortune-telling Astrology,

p. 186

The Contents in the Annotations.

AStronomie and Judiciarie Astrology distinguished,

p. 187

That for the Original of this latter, its Patrons and Practicers, wanting ground from the light of Nature, or natural reason, are fain to fly as the Papists for their Purgatory, to special revelation, some from good Angels, some from God himself, both without any sound proof of either,

p. 188.189

That they do falsely and impiously fasten upon the Stars such vile affections and malignant faculties as God never gave them,

p. 188

That the Names given them, to import such qalifications, taken from Heathenish Deities, in which the Devil was worshipped, leadeth us to take notice of the first Autor of it,

p. 189

That if it had ben revealed by God or his Angels to any, it would have ben to his Prophets, who would in their writings have mentioned it, and not transmitted it by Paynims to posterity,

p. 190

That it hath ben ever in the Christian Church liable to censure,

p. 190

That it is in God's Word derided, dissuaded, inhibited as a course impious, vain and frivolous; unbeseeming God's people,

p. 190.192

Signs of two sorts; which to be dreaded, which not,

p. 191

A VINDICATION of the Annotations on Jerem. Chap. 10. Vers. 2. against the scurrilous Aspersions of that grand Imposter M ^r . William Lily, &c.

A Great man is reported to have sometime complained that it was his hard hap to hear last of some things, though much talked of abroad, wherein himself was most concerned: And it had been long (as I was afterward informed) in the mouths of many, and some great ones, who in regard of my silence deemed me therefore decessed, ere it came to mine ear, that M. Lily, that grand Impostor, had in his Black Book of the Dark Yeer, been nibbling at mine Annotations on Jerem. 10.2. and girding at me, after his wonted scurrilous guise, as at many other of God's faithful Ministers and Messengers of far greater worth then myself. Now howsoever I have elsewhere professed, how little I regard the sqibs and censures of such scoffing mates and scurrilous scriblers; his especially, whom I deem no better then another Lucian ; for that as he, under pretence of deriding and traducing the superstitious worships then commonly practiced, and fond conceits of their feigned Deities then generally received, did not obscurely endeavor to root up all religious worship of the true God out of men's lives, and all reverent fear and regard of him out of their hearts: so this man under color of taxing and inveighing against such, either worthless or scandalous persons, as either formerly or in later times, have some closely crept in, and ben admitted into the Ministry, some violently or cuningly by might or slight ben obtruded upon the people, or have intruded themselves into ministerial functions and pastoral charges, or have demeaned themselves otherwise then was meet in their places; he takes occasion to aspers and traduce the whole profession, and to vent his spleen and gall against the Ministry of Christ Jesus itself, as hereafter shall be shown. Albeit therefore, I say, I little regarded, what should drop from the pen of one so affected, yet was I desirous to see what the man had said, and what satisfactory answer he had in this discourse so much talked of, returned to mine Exceptions to his Relations concerning the grounds of his pretended skill and professed practice, which in those Annotations were taken thereunto. To which purpose not being able myself to stir far abroad, I reqested a friend to procure me the book: but they were, it seems, as the manner is of such Prognostications for the year ensuing, suddenly snatched up at their first coming forth; this more especially, in regard of the principal subject matter of it; people's minds being generally prepossessed and filed with expectation of strange novelties, raised by the reports given out beforehand, of the most dreadful Eclipse, that this Black Yeer should produce, and the direful Effects that should follow thereupon. Yet after some space of time attained, when it came to my hands, whereas I expected, that he should have made good, what he had with so much confidence formerly delivered, concerning the first Original of his pretended Art, from some Authentical Records, and have taken away mine Objections opposed thereunto; I found nothing les then what I looked for: Only here and there scattered some expressions of his spleen, and overflowings of his gall; wherein he is pleased to aspers and tax me, as one of those his homebred Antagonists, that have lost their oil and reputation, by endevoring a refutation, of what they understood not; having overlookt his labors with uncircumcised affections and Presbyterial charity; most absurdly abusing their better time in criticismes and fruitless Expositions on Texts of Scripture, against the whole current of Antiqity, Reason, and the very genuine sense of the words themselves ; and, according to the Proverb, which in the Margine he applies to me, Senes bis pueri, doting, and become through Old age a Child again. And again afterward, complaining as if he had ben condemned unheard, and telling in what manner he desired to be tried, Let me be heard, saith he, according to mine own principles, and not judged without hearing, either by Thomas Wiseaker, or any of the Presbyterie, according to their unseemly Commentary, or stupid Annotations on Jerem. 10.2. and then concludes he this his scurrilous passage, with a close of the like nature,

Concerning all which in general, I might well say in few words, and so let it pass, that it is all at the most and best no more, then with the Scythian beast Bonasus, to sqirt out his filth in the face of his pursuers, hoping thereby to escape.

But a little yet further more particularly, to lay open the rather his vain folly and insolent arrogancy herein.

And first, concerning what he jabbers of his Homebred Antagonists, that have lost their oil and reputation by endevoring to confute what thy understood not ; that is, by discovering the vanity and impiety of those frivolous fictions, delusorie devices and hellish designs of himself and such as himself wherewith they endeavor to amaze the minds of the simpler sort of people, thereby to bring themselves into repute with them, and to pick the purses of those that repair to them for advice, the main matter whereby this their Art of Imposture is supported and maintained.

1. I neither know, nor have heard of any one, that have lost any jot of repute amongst the wise or learned, by dealing against them. But that it fared in this case so with himself and his complices, that they have lost much of their reputation, as well with the simpler, as the wiser sort, by their late predictions, the meanest of the people and boys in the streets ar able to give him notice more then sufficient.

2. There needs not much skil in his pretended Art, to discover the vanity of it; no more then it is reqisite for one to be over-much seen in geomancie, palmistrie, sortiarie, auspicie, or aruspicie, to descry and discover the folly of these courses, which by the unanimous votes and agreement of all sound Christians ar now generally not disclaimed only, but detested, as practices merely diabolical; howsoever M. Lily and some of his Complices, in these times of licentiousness, endeavor to cry up some of them again. There needs no deep diving into these 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the Evangelist speaks, such depths of Satan, Rev. 2.14. to descry them to be none of those, that the Apostle terms 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the depths, or deep things, of God, 1 Cor. 2.10. yea or of nature.

3. His style is overlavish in taxing all his homebred Artagonists, all those among us, that have dealt in this Argument against their fanatical and fantastical profession, as men not understanding what it was that they dealt with. Some of them peradventure have ben able to discover his want of exact skill in the justifiable part of his professed Art; whereof more anon. But why should it be deemed want of understanding in these men, that of late among us have attempted to lay open the loosnes and sandines of the grounds which they build upon, that should moov them to undertake that task, more then in those of former times, either among us, or abroad, of whom he shall hear somewhat further hereafter? No reason, I suppose, he can give for it, but this, that they ar his Antagonists, and by opposing such practices he misdoubts they may mar, or in part at least impair, his market.

Secondly, for his double jeer, of uncircumcised affection, and Presbyterian Charity. 1. The former term will best fit himself and his Complices: of whose Profession the first known Patriarchs, were not Adam, or Abraham, as they would make men believe, but people uncircumcised as well in flesh as in spirit, the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Philistines, and Syrians, from whom by tradition through the hands of idolatrous Pagans, and superstitious Mohammedans, whose disciples ond followers these men with open face and bare forehead profess themselves, it was conveyed unto those of this latter age of the world, and by Satan's subtlety hath crept into Christ's field, wherein partly through discontinuance of wonted Church censures, and partly through connivence of the Civil Powers, it hath taken to much footing and to deep rooting, and as ill weeds are wont soon to grow rife and rank, hath spread itself far and near, to the utter stifeling of piety in the hearts and minds of many, and the great blemish and scandal of Christian profession.

2. As for the Presbytery and Presbyterian party, that he is so oft girding at, endevoring thereby to cast a further odium upon them, because he conceivs them to be already at present under a cloud; that I may in part also obiter insert something in Vindication of those, who under that Title ar by this Imposter and others of the same coat freqently in like manner taxed and traduced: Howsoever this fellow in his Preface tell his readers, that Presbyterie and Independency ar not twins in union more then Esau and Jacob. Yet in the main point of Presbyterian Government in general, to wit, the allowance of the oversight of Christ's flock, not by teaching Presbyters alone, but by other also adjoined to them, unto whom the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments is not committed ; herein, I say, there is no disagreement, between those, who by the name of Presbyterians ar commonly distingvished as a different party from those who ar as commonly termed Independents, having, as by some of their own writings appears, taken that Title up themselves, and these from whom they ar wont by that term to be distingvished. Yea it may truly be averred, that this other party may the more justly of the twain be termed Presbyteriars, being more rigid in maintaining a necessity of this form of Government, then many of those that go under that name; as may appear from the Votes passed by the major part of those lately employed in the Assembly at Westminster, and transmitted by them to the Houses, that then sat: which those of the other party then took notice of, and have since made use of in some of their writings. The main difference between those two Twins, as he terms them, is not concerning the Subject of the Government, or Presbyterie, simply considered, but concerning the Extent of it, and matter of Appeal ; the one side including the entire and absolute power of a Presbyterie so composed, within the lists and limits of a particular Congregation, without admittance of Appeal unto any other Jurisdiction, in case of pretended grievance or male administration ; in regard whereof also themselves term it an Independent Government ; the other allowing in such and the like cases Appeals to a Classis, or Convent consisting of Elders or Presbyters of either kind abovementioned, selected out of the Particular Congregations to that purpose combined: and the Title of the Presbyterians doth therefore as fitly, and as fully competere, that is, agree (if it do not rather propendere, that is, weigh down, this latter way) unto the one as to the other. And we may justly say here, as that Ancient writer sometime of the name of a Christian; Christianus, si nullius criminis nomen est, ineptum est, si nominis solius crimen est ; so of the name of a Presbyterian; If the name argue no crime, it is a fond thing to object it as a crime unto any : if it import ought criminal, the crime is common to either party, that being so, that the title imports, as already hath ben shown.

But whatsoever the difference otherwise may be between these two Twins, sure it is, that they do both unanimously concur and accord in opposition to Mr. L. and his Complices, and in discovery and detestation of their diabolical practices. And it is a most ridiculous thing therefore for him to complain of Presbyterian Charity ; as if none but Presbyterians forsooth were out of Charity with them, and their devilish devices and hellish designs; and to refuse to be judged by any of the Presbyterie ; as if such alone were the persons that had past their verdict upon the courses professed and practiced by them: wherein albeit he may seem to deal somewhat wisely, not unlike Lucians Imposter, who would have no Christian present at the showing of his tricks, because he knew they would soon descry his Impostures ; yet hath he not dealt so warily as he, who required others also, though to Christians most opposite as well as Christians, to be excluded, because he misdoubted discovery as well by the one as by the other. For ar they Presbyterians alone that have past their censures upon the trade that Mr. L. followeth and professeth? Nothing les. To pas by all other, that have from time to time appeared in this qarel; Was Sixtus Senensis a Presbyterian ? who in plain terms affirms this their pretended Art of Judiciary Astrology, to be no Art, but a mere fallacy, and a detestable Imposture : and being by one Savarallius taxed for this his Censure, as myself am now by this Imposter, doth not only aver constantly what before he had delivered, but further at large confirms it against his selie and groundless eavils. Or was Benedictus Pererius a Presbyterian ? who in a long discourse of it, at large evidently proves, and at length peremptorily concludes, that this Astrological Divination is contrary to the Autoritie of Scripture to the grounds of Philosophy, to Theological Doctrine, and to Ecclesiastical Discipline. Or were the Fathers of the first Council of Carthage, and the first of Toledo all Presbyterians, who both anathematize all those, that give any credit to Astrologers. Or is the Pope himself, think We, with his whole train at Trent, all on a sudden turned Presbyterians ? that they have by general consent expressly prohibited all books written of Judiciary Astrology, enjoining all Bishops within their several precincts to suppres them.

But not to enter upon a list of such, either Ancient Fathers of high esteem in their times, or others of later ages, and modern Writers of note, as well Papists as Protestants, whose very names would fil up many whole Pages, and testimonies make up many large Volumes; among us in this Land of late, since this cours and practice of deluding selie people hath grown into reqest, not Presbyterians only, but more then one or two, no favorers sure of those, whom alone he is pleased under the Title of Presbyterians to reject, have in this busienes freely shown themselves, and with much variety of learning and strength of Argument laid open its nakedness to the view of the World, as himself well knows; whom yet I cannot much blame him, that he takes no notice of, because he cannot but be conscious to himself of his own inability by force of reason or Logical disceptation to answer their Arguments, remoov their exceptions, refel their objections and maintain his own broken cause. And indeed so gros and palpable, to the wiser sort at least, do their sory shifts and transparent devices appear, that they do without just cause, with that understanding Roman wonder, how they can without smiling look one another in the face, to think with what wind and smoke they entertain selie people, and cheat men of their moneys, by emptieng their purses, to fil their own cofers. Concerning which practices, I shall refer him and his Complices to Mr. John Miltons Figure-caster published by Mr. William Rowland in his Judicial Astrology Judicially condemned, and Defense of Dr. Homes his Demonologie : all which yet, I suppose, ar none of that Presbyterial party, whom Mr. L. would by no means have to be of his Judges or Jury, as seeming at least to deem himself safe enough, when he should be brought to trial, if such only were excluded.

Nor, I hope, will he have the face, though bold and shameless enough, to bring within that verge, those two whom himself names in his Preface, Dean Owen, and subtle Mr. Nie, as he is pleased to style him, and acknowledgeth to have condemned this his Art as Diabolical : who how far forth they have dealt in detection thereof, I know not: he telleth his reader, that the one of them hath but Ipse dixit ; but I am to well acquainted with his wonted slight turning of such discourses as he hath little list or courage to cope with, and as little regard therefore what in such cases he saith.

Howsoever it be, it hereby appears, that it stands him upon, if ever he come to trial, to enlarge his Exceptions against Judges and Jurers, and exclude Independents as well as Presbyterians, (that which doubtless also he would have done, had he thought he might have ben as bold with the one party as he is with the other) if he look or hope to be acqit. But give the good man leave to pack a Jury, and pick out Judges of his own choice, and then he is sure to speed well enough.

Yea but those of the Presbyterie, saith Mr. Lily, ar seditious, such as no premonition will incline to subjection: nor can a treason be managed without a Priest : and a Presbyterian also sure he must be: for, hoc certum & probatum est, saith he, per Kit Love, and his deer brethren and fellow petitioners.

To which I answer briefly. 1. If any of the party so styled, have gone beyond their limits, and moved out of their own orb, by any il-advised and unwarrantable cours, they ar to bear their own burden, and to answer for themselves; but that their delinqencie is not any justification of him▪ or abatement of the pleas and prescriptions of any of the party so termed against him.

2. I demand, Doth this judgment concerning such a Government in the Church, of itself and in it own nature, involv any such crime, or produce any such effect? if it should, the guilt of it would include either party of his two Twins, as he terms them, both of them beng eqally engaged therein, or, if any ineqality, the Independent the deeper.

3. For that his large and lavish assertion of No treason without a Priest ; and that it must be a Presbyterian to by his scope and instance may appear. To pas by his extreme malice and rancor, in endevoring to involv all petitioners for favor and mercy to be extended to a delinqent, as partakers with him in that crime wherewith he is charged, or whereof he stands convicted: a censure arguing a most savage spirit, and a right devilish disposition. I never heard before in all my Logic, of an Induction consisting of one particular, or singular member. He should have done well, according to the wonted manner of disputing by Induction, after an enumeration of sundry particular treasons and rebellions, to have added, nec in caeteris contrarium est videre, nor in any other doth it otherwise appear : which had he done, he might soon have ben convinced of a most notorious lie. For let him show, what Presbyterian Priest there was in managing that late insurrection in Bedfordshire and the Counties adjoining; or in that later rising in Essex and Kent: or what sedition and treason any Presbyterian Priest among us had a hand in during the Reign of Qeen Elisabeth? altho the Ministers that then stood for the Presbyterian Government against the Bishops, through the prevalent power of some of them in and with the State, endured much hard measure, some suspended, some deprived, some imprisoned, some exiled, some sentenced to death, and some put to death: or what part did any such bear with us, under King James and King Charles, though not a few of them were very harshly and unmercifully handled under either, in the plotting of any treason, or raising any rebellion against either? And here I cannot omit the speeches of two Bishops of London in Qeen Elisabeths time, concerning the Puritans, as they were then commonly termed, such as desired a reformation in some Church-affairs, and were for the Presbyterian Government. The one of them B. Elmor, though none of the best, when one preaching at Paul's Cros, had inveighed bitterlie against that party as a crew of seditious and turbulent persons, and had affirmed the Puritans to be worse then the Papists; No, qoth the Bishop, he said not therein aright: for the Puritans, if they had me among them, would cut my rotchet only, but the Papists would cut my throat : the other his successor B. Vaughan, a man more moderate then the former, when another in the same place was no les eager in the same argument, (for the manner in those days was with the Chaplins that there appeared to labor to bring that party into disgrace and disfavour with the Judges and great men, who in Term time especially used to repair thither as people prone to sedition) the Bishop to a Gentleman of his inward acqaintance, who dined that day with him, (as himself sometime related it to me) I wish, said he, I could have had the preachers tongue today for some space of time in my pocket: the way is not to convert or convince that party by invectives and untruths: it is true they affect not the present form of Government; they ar for another: but they seek it by petition, not by insurrection or sedition ▪ Thus these two Bishops themselves of that party in those times.

4. But the truth is, this man's malice, though he do not everywhere so openly manifest it, is as much against the one party of his two Twins as against the other, howsoever he be more cantelous in dealing with the one, as deeming them more acceptable to, and powrful with the State at present then the other▪ else why doth he complain more of Presbyterian, then of Independentian Charity, when as yet himself takes notice of those on that side, who in express terms condemn his practice as Diabolical ? Yea apparent enough it is, that his rancor is not so much against the persons of either party, (though he be the rather incensed and enraged against both, because some of either side have netteled him, by discrieng themselves and discovering to others, the wickedness of his wiles and impiety of his practices) but his spite is not so much at the men, as at their Ministry, the Clergy of England, as he there speaks, whom under the odious terms of Priests, and Praters, and Black-coats, and those of the Long Robe, he doth so freqently traduce. No treason can be managed without a Priest ▪ and, There is a people yet in being, pretending unto godliness and Religion, which men in our plain English cal Divines, Ministers, Preachers, Ecclesiastical men, or men conversant in holy things; in foreign parts they ar called Bishops, Cardinals, Abbots, Moncks, Friers, &c. men that step up sometime into Pulpits, and pretend to instruct our souls, with the doctrine of Christianity, but indeed obedience to their own Constitutions. And in his Preface to Astrolog. Predict. of 48. &c. Oh these Priests! this sinful people of Levi do hunger and thirst after the fat fleshpots of Episcopacy; if they were assured that Deans and Chapters Lands should not be settled on the Church, God knows what Religion they would be of. Woe unto you Priests. And to bring our Ministry in general, which you see with whom he here ranks, into hatred and jealousy with the State, he gathers forsooth from the former of the late Lunar Eclipses, that there is yet left a generation of such men, who ar now privately designing some future trouble unto our State, and those Common-wealths where otherwise they reside, which will again occasion drawing of blood, unto our State and other Nations, and destruction unto themselves, viz. Ministry and Munckerie, (for he would have them, you see, deemed both birds of the same feather, as witches and wizards ar deservedly esteemed with good ground from God's Word) and to as many of their abused disciples and proselytes, as shall suffer themselves to be overruled or deceived by their treasonable counsels, and herein, he saith, he errs not. But that you may the better understand, whom his intent was to strike at, he closeth all up with this scoffing jeer, that he hopeth the world will clear him, that he doth not abuse, or so much as once name or mention the Presbyterians or their Proselytes : and yet so great is his spleen against those poor Presbyterians and their Proselytes, that he could not forbear to vent it not long after in express terms against them; withal abusing most wickedly and wretchedly the name of as worthy an Instrument and venerable a servant of God as any that these later ages have produced, whose memory is to this day and still shall be blessed, and his renowm remain, as a precious odor of fragrant smell and sweet savor, in the minds of the godly; whereas the name of himself, and of such as he is, shall stink above ground in the nostrils of those that sincerely fear God, while they yet live, and their memory rot, as their carcases in the grave under ground, when they be ded. For, This Eclipse, saith this our Fortune-teller, finds all Sacerdotes, which because it ever did shall pas for Priests, in much sorrow and anguish of mind, the influence of it crossing their designs) now fearing the downfall of their tithes, and a general ••• giversation of the people against them in many places: the people, who begin to see without spectacles generally declining their spurious and seditious doctrines against Parliament and State, whether derived from John Calvin, or the babbling of a silly Scottish Presbyterie : and again anon after, Much trouble and affliction will arise unto the whole Hierarchy: this will generally fall upon them everywhere, wheresoever they reside. And for my part, I make no doubt indeed, but that he would be right glad, as well as his grand-Master the Devil, to see the Ministry rooted out, it so crosseth their designs, As Haman the whole Jewish race for Mordecai’s neglect of him, in all places, where in any power it yet abides, either with us, or elsewhere.

Mean while you may here observe, how the old Proverb is verified in our modern Prognosticators ;

they can tell us what will be, when the thing is done already. This no more now blind buzzard, as I sometime out of ignorance termed him, but, as herein he hath evinced himself to be, a marvelous sharpsighted Stargazer, and most skillful Fortuneteller, can from the posture of the Stars at one of the late Eclipses foretell us, what the people will do hereafter, when he seeth what they ar doing, and have in part done already. For when he perceivs apparently by Petitions and Proposals in print and other the like addresses unto the Parliament, divers of them long before this his Black Book came abroad, he can now, after long poring and staring upon the Stars, by the situation and aspects of the celestial bodies foretell us, that which no man living, without help of his skil, had ever ben able to make out, that People will have no mind to pay their tithes to their Ministers.

Again the understanding Reader may hence take notice, how cunningly this man can here comply with the people. For as those of the Levelling party, (for such I suppose they were, that were the chief Ringleaders in that Bedfordshire insurrection before-mentioned) to draw the multitude after them, promised a freedom from tithes and taxes to all that would join with them: so these cunning wizards, to insinuate themselves into the people's affections, can attemper their predictions unto their humors, and tell them such tales and stories, as they think will take most with them, and best please them, and they perceive them, by their innate disposition expressed and appeering in their practice, to be strongly bent unto▪ apparent enough it is, that it is not any spurious or seditious doctrine in their Teachers, by this foulmouthed Sycophant, so falsely fathered upon Calvin, (the splendent luster of whose repute the snarlings of such Helhounds can no more impair, then the yalpings by night of maungie whelps and mungrel curs, barking at the moon or the imaginary man in the Moon, can in any sort impeach or impair her light) but their own covetous disposition, and earthly-minded affection, (as falsely as frivolously ascribed to the celestial aspects,) that makes people to grutch God's Ministers the means of their maintenance to the foul shame and scandal of their Christian profession.

And this skillful Fortune-teller, had he pleased to speak out, and had ben disposed so to say, might from his own principles have concluded, that people would grumble as well at the payment of taxes, as at the payment of tithes, which himself also long since grievously complained of, as being much oppressed with taxes and assessements, as Bellantius was with fear of the approach of his enemies, when he was writing against Picus. For mark I beseech you, his argument, A Jove praelatura; Prelature is from Jove : (though the sacred Oracles tell us, from the true, not the fabulous, Jehovah and his Christ, Psal. 75.6, 7. Prov. 8.15, 16. but God belike hath resigned his right to their Jove, or to the Devil, whom they deal with, and who was adored in him, 1 Cor. 10.20. and laid claim thereunto sometime as of right now belonging to him, Luk. 4.6.) and sub Jove principes, Ecclesiastici, Politici, Sacerdotes, Under Jove, or Jupiter, ar Princes, Ecclesiastical, Political, Priests, &c. for so speaks the Autor whom he cites, and as in Latin he cites him: though that he may not offend the State, and yet might apply it to the poor Priests, whom he hates more then he does the Devil, (see what juggling here is) he thus renders it; Under Jupiter we signify Princes, Cardinals, all Ecclesiastical Potentates, Policy ▪ but S ^r , your Autor says, as Prelacie in general before, so here Princes, that is, chief Governors, and those as well Political, or Civil, as Ecclesiastical : and it may well be demanded, how the poor Priests come into the same rank with Princes, and such as have relation to Jupiter, of whom I have read, that he was sometime a civil Potentate, but never a Priest. And now make we up this wise man's subtle argument: The Ecclesiastical Potentates and their affairs ar under Jupiter: but in this Eclipse we find him out of all strength and dignity : Ergo the people will be loath to pay Ministers their Tithes, and would not the Argument follow as forcibly: Al Civil Governors ar under Jupiter: But he was out of all strength and dignity in the late Eclipse : Ergo the common people will be unwilling to pay the Taxes imposed upon them by their Superiors. And, I suppose, there can hardly be found any man so simple, altho he had but, as they use to say, his guts in his hed, and his brains in his belly, but could easily without help of M ^r . Lilies skil, or use of his spectacles, his curious calculations, and far fetched observations, both see, and foresee, that people ar and will be unwilling to pay as well taxes as tithes; save that they know they may be enforced to the one, which they hope they shall not be for the other, and they ar more regardful of their worldly gain and advantage, then they ar of a good conscience and of their spiritual behoof. But the Eclipse relateth, I dare say, as much to the one as to the other; that is, indeed (save in this man's adle brain, or in his idle, but malevolent and impious discourse at least) unto neither.

And here by the way, I shall crave leave to digress a little, in behalf of that never sufficiently commended servant of Christ Mr. Jo. Calvin, and this so much spurnd▪ at Presbyterie, to lay open a notorious piece of knaverie, intended as against the Profession of the Protestant Religion in general, so more especially against the Presbyterian party, the Reformed Churches in France and the Netherlands, and particularly M ^r . Calvin by name. One of my Congregation being taken at Sea, when Spain and we were in terms of hostility, and carried to Dunkirk, during his stay there, had some Popish Books bestowed on him to make him a good Catholik, which upon his return home he brought unto me. Among the rest, there was one of a Nameles Autor, entitled Monarchoma • hia, or, Jerusalem and Babel. Herein the Autor thereof labors to maintain, that the Protestant Religion, and the Presbyterian Discipline, were in all parts introduced and upheld by Sedition and Rebellion. To make this good he dealeth in part, as M ^r . Lily here doth; he chargeth Calvin with such seditious doctrine, as the Protestant Leaders built their rebellion upon ▪ but he dealeth not so warily as Mr. L. here hath done. For Mr. L. shoots at rovers, and talks in general of Calvin's seditious Doctrines, but tells us not, what they are, or where they ar to be found. Dolosus versatur in universalibus. Crafty men keep aloof of, soar aloaft in generals : ar shy of descending to particulars, lest they be taken with a lie in the manner. But this man, that you may not doubt of his sincerity, nor make question of his fidelity, deals obsignatis tabulis, gives you Calvin's own words, and those printed in a distinct character from his own; and that you may assure yourself, he qotes him aright, he directs you to the Book, and Chapter, and Paragraph, whence he hath them, that repairing thither, you may be sure not to miss of them. For to proov, that Calvin by his Doctrine discharged men of Oaths made to their Sovereigns; Calvin (saith he) Libro 4. c. 13. §. 21. saith, A man illuminate with the truth, simul vinculis omnibus obediendi Legibus & Ecclesiae solutus est: he that once hath perfect knowledge of the Gospel, is absolved from Oaths, and all such snares. It is true, by his translation of the latter part of the words, as himself gives them, not agreeing so well with the Latin, a wary man might well begin to suspect some falls play: otherwise, the place being so precisely pointed unto, a man (one would think) could not in reason expect or suspect ought but very fair and square dealing. But turn you to the place, and you shall soon descry palpable knavery. For Calvin in all that whole Chapter hath not one word of such Oaths of Allegiance as Subjects take to their Sovereigns : he entreateth only of Monastical or Monkish Vows ; Of these, not of those, his words only ar these; Nunc postquam veritatis notitiâ sunt illuminati, simul Christi gratiâ liberos esse di • o. Now they (to wit, who formerly had made such unwarrantable Vows, and out of error and ignorance held themselves obliged therewith) after they ar enlightened with notice of the truth, ar, I say, withal free by the grace of God. What a gros falsification, where nothing les would have ben looked for?

To this the same Autor addeth another as gros and palpable as the former, These seditious and popular Consistories (saith he; the Presbyteries he means) ar condemned by their half-brethren the Zwinglians. Hear the voice of Gualterus a Minister of Zürich, how bitter a sentence he pronounceth against them, in Comment. in 1 Cor. cap. 5. saith he, Galli habent sua Seniorum Consistoria, penes qos est omnis potestas & jurisdictio Ecclesiastica; & in qibus omnium bellorum contra Regem, & consilia acta, & subsidia collecta sunt. The French Ministers have their Consistories of Elders, in whom resteth the supremacy of jurisdiction in all causes Ecclesiastical; and by these all counsels and resolutions ar taken, and all impositions appointed to maintain the wars against the King. Thus this nameless Varlet. But let any man sedulously peruse (as myself have done) the whole Commentary of Gwalther upon that Chapter, consisting of and concluded in four Sermons ; and he shall find not one tittle there, either of the French King, or of the French Consitory, or of ought consulted, enacted, or acted in the one against the other. He speaks indeed in his second Sermon on that Chapter of the Popes Excommunications, wherewith (saith he) they cruelly vexed Kings and Emperors, and were Autors of Civil Wars and seditions ; deemeth the Presbyterian Government not so needful under a Christian Magistracy ; but leaveth every Church free to that cours of Discipline, that they shall find to be for themselves most commodious, without censuring of others who therein differ from them ; and that is all he hath there of this Argument. But this obscure fellow, for the further confirmation of these his fictions and falsehoods, sends us to Musculus in locis commun. cap. 10. tit. de Officiis Ministrorum. Where in likeliehood (for I have him not, and he gives us none of his words) we may meet with as much as in Gwalther we found: which since lighting on the book, I find to be most true. For Musculus in his Common Places, not Cap. 12. which entreateth of another subject, but loc. 22. titul. 2. de Officiis Ministrorum, hath much indeed of the pride, formalities, either no preaching at all, or unprofitable discoursings of the Popish Prelates and Priests ; of the Presbyterie not a word good or bad. At length this lieng Varlet in these words concludes; Thus you see, (such ar led by him blindfold) neither of them bow their knees to this Baal, nor magnify Calvin's Idol. This by the way I rather insert, to show whom these men concur with in traducing the Presbyterian Government, and by what manner of slights, to wit, notorious lies and slanders, their guise is to oppugn it. And for my part, it is so far from bringing me out of love with it; that it makes me rather the more inclinable to that opinion of the Jus Divinum & necessarium, which those of the Independent party pressed hard to have in the late Assemblie passed of it; wherein both the Dutch and French Reformed Churches seem to concur with them; for that these Merlins and Mercuries, (for herein they accord) shaking hands with such Romish railing and lieng Pamphleters, (whom yet they would seem to defy and detest) ar so embittered against it. As he said sometime of the Christian Profession; Non potest esse nisi grande aliqod bonum a Nerone damnatum. It must needs be some grand good, that such a one as Nero was, should condemn. So of the Presbyterian Discipline say I, It cannot be other then some very needful and useful thing, that such creatures as these do so eagerly oppose. And howsoever a man sometime of great note among us, in his Preface to his elaborate Treatise of Ecclesiastical Politie, having first transcendently extolled Mr. John Calvin, do afterward decipher him as a mere Politician devising a new Church Government of his own, and by cunning slights both introducing, establishing and continuating the same; and another of les note in a late Satyrical Libel (for no other it is) entitled Fur praedestinatus, do therein both grossly abuse Calvin, and jeer the Presbyterian, or Genevian Discipline, as such that any debauched person by an Hypocritical disguise of contrition and dejection for his loose and lewd courses might easily both delude and elude. Yet the Government of that City hath received good approbation and attestation even from some Popish Writers themselves. These ar the words of John Bodine a Papist indeed, but an ingenuous and judicious Writer, of great and good note, as well among Protestants as Papists, in his Methodus Historica, cap. 6. pag. 245. faithfully rendered, That of the Genevians is laudable, if ought in any Nation, and that which makes a Common-Weal to flourish, if not in riches and Majestical Empire, Yet certainly in piety and virtu; to wit, the Pontificial censure ; (so terms he in no ill meaning sense their Ecclesiastical or Presbyterial Discipline) then which nothing could be conceived greater or more divine, to restrain men's lusts and those vices, which by human Laws and Judicatories can in no wise be amended. Yet is this coertion directed according to Christ's rule; first privately and amicably; then somewhat more sharply: then unless one yield, an heavy and efficacious interdiction of sacred things followeth: after this interdiction the Magistrates animadversion. So comes it to pas, that those things which ar nowhere vindicated by Laws, ar there without force or tumult restrained by those Censors, who have gained themselves an high opinion of virtu, in that city therefore no harlotry, no drunkenness, no dancings, no beggars, no idle persons ar found. A Testimony and Verdict of one, against whom no exception can be taken as partial in this point. And sure it is that this Presbyterian Government backed by the Civil Magistrate among ours in New England, hath rid that Plantation of many Monsters that would have ben nesting and rousting among them, and kept them free from such prevailing disturbances as our Churches and Ministry ar over-much pestered with.

But to leave these by-matters, and bootles complaints, and return to Mr. Lily, whom we ar chiefly to deal with. Will ye know what the reason is of his spite against Jo. Calvin (for of the Romanists none need doubt it, its well enough known to all, how courageously and successfully he hath advanced against them) but Mr. L. and his Complices have a special grudge to him, because he hath in his Commentary on Jer. 10.2. as large a discourse against the cours of Judiciary Astrology which these men profess, as the Annotator hath in his Notes : wherein he terms our Astrologers, who maintain a judgment to be made of man's life by the Horoscope, as if either fortune good or bad did depend upon the Stars, and by the postures of them take upon them to determine what shall befall persons or people, in plain terms, improbos nebulones, qi praetexunt suis imposturis nomen Astrologiae Judiciaria, & qibus studium est qaestum facere ex meris fallaciis, that is in our plain English, arrant knaves, cloaking their Impostures under the Title of Judiciarie Astrology, their main study being to make a gain, or gainful trade, of mere fallacies, or cheating practices. Besides that, he hath apart written An Admonition to beware of them, printed among his Opuscula ; wherein he shows, that their predictions ar founded on no ground of reason or sound skil : and withal relates the severe, but just, Edicts of the ancient Christian Emperors for the utter suppressing of them. And do ye marvel then if Mr. L. cannot endure Mr. Calvin that cuts the throat of his gainful trade.

But leaving his spite in particular at John Calvin, lets rake a little further into the dirt and mire of his malignant ravings, in his rambling excursions, and ramping incursions upon the poor Presbyters, whom he ranked even now among the great Potentates of this world, which Joves office is to protect. The Scottish Nation, saith he; (that is, the silly Scottish Presbyterie, or, the Presbyterians and their Proselytes, as ye heard him before speak, for they were not surely the Roialists, or the Prelatical party) but this Scottish Nation raised an Army, and made for their pretence of War only an obtrusion upon their Nation of a Semipopish Book of Common-Prayer. But the sad conseqences which after that happened, ended not so soon as it began, but in a most woeful distemper of both England and Scotland in much bloodshed and most fierce Wars: both Nations having sensibly now ben made to understand, of how dangerous a conseqence it is, to embroil our selves into a war, upon the prating and pretended Glosses of those we cal Ministers, who never care for the welfare of any sort of people, but of their own Hierarchy, that so they might Lord it and domineer like petty Tyrants over the Commonalty and Gentry.

In which Passage the Mans malice against, not the Presbyterie alone, as he terms it, but the Ministry in general, doth notoriously discover itself. for he cares not (as hereby appears) whom with his foul pen he asperseth, so he may bedaub them.

The Scottish Nation, he saith, began first the late War, and that only upon pretence of a Semipopish Common-Prayer Book imposed upon them. Concerning which busienes, being neither Statesman, nor desirous to deal in State-affairs, I shall say nothing, but refer my Reader, if he desire to be acquainted therewith, unto the writings of those, who seem to have faithfully and accurately related the original, progress and issu of the affairs concerning that war with Scotland▪ which who so ist to read, may find at large recorded in the History of the late affairs in Scotland, set forth under the name of Irenaeus Philalethes.

As for the Original of the War here with us, by whom was it on the defensive part begun? was it by the Ministry, or the Magistracy ? by the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, or by the Civil Autoritie ? was it not by the joint Vote and concurrence of both Houses of Parliament ? or was it by them undertaken (as this vain pratler speaks) upon the prating and pretended Glosses of those we cal Ministers ? See what aspersions this fellow sticks not to cast upon the whole body of the State, so that some of his gall and venom may withal light upon the Ministry; as if in this late War, wherein so large an expense of blood hath ben spilled, they had taken up arms, upon the mere motion only of the Ministry by some prating and pretending Glosses inciting them thereunto. It is true indeed, that an Assembly of Divines was called to meet: but to what end? to debate of military matters? nothing les. but to consider of Ecclesiastical affairs, and the settling of matters concerning Doctrine and Discipline according to the rule of God's Word. Its true likewise, that while the Assembly sat, the War being now not begun only, but pursued with much heat, and grown on either side to a great height, some of the Ministry were with some other Commissioners sent into Scotland, to treat with the Scots, about conjoining with our State, and entering into a joint League for mutual defense with us: nor were they of the Presbyterian party alone (as they are commonly termed) that were employed in that busienes. But that the Parliament took up arms, and embroiled themselves in such a bloody war, upon the motion of the Ministry, by their prating and pretending glosses encited thereunto, as this hath proved, it is a notorious calumny in regard of the Ministry, and a foul imputation laid upon the State, as having raised a War of that importance on so weak and unwarrantable a ground, and a charging of the guilt of so much blood, as hath in that intestine and unnatural War ben shed, upon both.

Yea but what was it, that moved those prating Ministers to stir up the State to embroil itself in such a War? forsooth, saith this babbling makebate, that they might Lord it and domineer like petty Tyrants over the Commonalty and Gentry ▪ and why did he not add over the Nobility too? Its indeed not untru, that under the Episcopacy, some of their favorites supported and backed by some great ones among them so did as is here said. Yea they had begun by vertu of the High Commission Court and the power thereunto annexed, to be tampering with some of the Nobility, that complied not in all things with them. But what hope or likelihood was there, or could there be, for the Ministry so to domineer as this man tells you, that they intended to do, when that power and authority was taken away, by means whereof much abused some had formerly so done?

As for his most uncharitable and Satanical censure of God's Ministers in general, that they care not for the good of any people but themselves, it may well claim a place among the hideous croakings of those filthy frogs, that issued out of the mouth of the Dragon and the Beast, Rev. 16.13. the Devil himself could hardly have vented or invented a fouler or falser slander against them.

I am not ignorant that divers both with us and abroad, have not spared to tax the Presbyterian Government, as transcending its du bounds, and encroaching upon the Civil Power ; as appears by the writings of the Erastian party, whom the Arminians also in part seem to side with against the Contra Remonstrants, or Netherland Presbyterians. But that they ar justly so charged, will not easily be made good, so long as they keep within compass of Ecclesiastical Censures, which with good warrant from God's Word, were in those times also exercised, wherein no Civil Power embraced the Christian Profession. Whereunto may be added, that when some not long since among us, thinking thereby to ingratiate themselves with the State, had broached some things bending and tending to the Erastian way, its well known, that they were as eagerly opposed by the Independent party, as by any of those that go under the title of Presbyterians. But this man's main end, his malice being eqally against either, is, as plainly appears, to disgrace the whole body of the Ministry, and to bring them, as much as in him lies, into hatred with the people, as regarding nothing at all of their spiritual good, but aiming only at their own pride and profit, to make a gain of them, and to tyrannize over them at their pleasure. But let him take heed, lest by withstanding God's faithful Ministers, as Jannes and Jambres did Moses, 2 Tim. 3.8. and by opposing himself against them in this base scoffing manner, as Elymas the Sorcerer did to Paul's preaching, Act. 13.8. he procure to himself from God that heavy doom that Paul passed then upon Elymas, and that dismal judgment, or the like, if not a worse and more dreadful, that was thereupon presently inflicted on him, Vers. 10, 11.

But let us hear yet a little more, though it reqire some patience, of his raving and ranting rhetorik, that either he must be ever and anon venting, or else he shall burst with it, his heart and stomak is so full and over-fraught with gall and rancor against this so extremely hated Ministry. Having done with the Moon, he comes to the great Eclipse of the Sun, and here again he goes on to foretell, what without need of spectacles or prospective he saw full before his face already. How far forth, saith he, this Eclipse shall exasperate men's spirits against the Clergy of our own and other Nations, or how far it shall torment the poor Husbandman, to depart with the tenth part of his labor unto his insufficient or factious Minister, or prating Priest, I am not able clearly to determine. great affliction one way or other it doth generally manifest to happen unto all those of the long Robe. viz. Lawyers, Civilians, Clergy men, and unto those we falsely for the most part call Divines, when God knows many of them have as little knowledge of Divinity, as myself of Presbyter John, and as little affection for the Parliament▪ as myself zeal for Antichrist. I might here peradventure not without some just cause reqest Mr. Lily to show us, how we may reconcile him to himself, and make his sentences concerning this great Eclipse and the Effects of it agree the one with the other. For in this place he tells us, that this Eclipse being in the sign of Aries, hath dominion and operation on the state and condition of Laws, Preisthoods, Papacie, Prelacie; and, (to show where his spite was most) he saith, he may very well add, Presbyterie, &c. Independency, it may be, was within the verge of that, et caetera, and stuck between his teeth, but he was loath to spit it out. Now hence, as you have heard, he infers and concludes, that great affliction will happen generally, unto all those of the long Robe, Lawyers, Civilians, Clergy men and Divines. And yet afterward, where he is pleased further to expatiate his mind (for I give you his own terms: and where, think we, did ever any man read such either English or Latin before?) concerning the greatness of the Effects of this great Eclipse, he saith, it is in the last degree of the Decanate of Aries, which second Decanate, is Nobilitatis, Altitudinis, Regni, & magni Dominii imago, the image of Nobility, Greatness, Dominion, extraordinary Rule ; (for Kingdom, or Reign, he had no mind to express) the shape and form whereof the Ancients (some old Wizards he means) represented under the ensuing Image ▪ which Image is the portraiture of a man in a long Robe ; and presents (as he saith) the English Common-Wealth, as it will be for three years or thereabout (that is, for so long as the Effect of this Eclipse lasts, as we shall afterward hear) in great Majesty and Glory. Now how he can reconcile these two so cross Judgments drawn from one and the same aspect, and raised from one and the same ground as you see, though other Ignoramusses and dull pates ar too shalow to conceive; yet I doubt not but he is as well able to bring together, as to make the two members of a Contradiction to accord: for these wizards in cunning and juggling do far surpas your common Gypsies, and ar able at once to make one and the self same thing fast and loose, good and bad in the very same instant. Mean while you see, how he can make the Aspects represent what he pleases, and Images speak what he lists; when the long Robe represents the Common Wealth of England, to speak much Peace and Honor to it; when it denotes the Clergy and the Divines of England, to speak great Affliction and Trouble. Whereof further hereafter, when we arrive at his Pictures.

But one thing further is here worthy our Observation. Mr. Lily in all these dreadful Eclipses and malignant Aspects, finds much matter of bad, dismal and disastrous concernment, to Princes, Potentates, Priests, Lawyers, Husbandmen, Grasiers, &c. but none at all ever to Wizards, Witches, Conjurers, Fortune-tellers, Sorcerers, Stargazers, Astrologers, &c. No malignity of any Aspect belike is able to reach them: or as the knavish fellow in the Comedy, that to fright his Master returning home after long absence, from entering into his own house, told him, that his house in his absence was become haunted with Sprites ; and when he was asked, how he durst go in then himself, made answer, Pax mihi cum mortuis, that the Sprites and he were at one · So, it seems these men and their coined Aspects ar agreed; so that though they portend never so much mischief and misery to these prating Priests, or any other sort of men, high or low, great or small, whom these men disaffect, yet they will not so much as once touch them, nor do ever portend any evil at all to them.

Yea but, may some say, he professeth to write this of the Ministry with sorrow of heart rather then any joy or delight, to see the downfall of so many men, who had they improved their talents in learning and divinity conscientiously for the education of those flocks God had committed unto them, might have expected another manner of reward from heaven, and a more benign acceptance of their labors from men. The great God of Heaven (saith he) protect the pious and godly Divines of our Nation; for some we have; and let them never want encouragement, or a most bountiful allowance from this Common Wealth: but for the mere Prater, or State enemy, let it be with him as he doth merit: the ruin or impoverishing of many of them is at hand.

Where in the first place I might demand of him, whether the Effect of this Eclipse, according to his fancies and his Autors Principles, do not indifferently reach, and promiscuously include, as well those other few and pious ones, as those Praters and State enemies, as he terms them.

And in the next place, in whether rank he is pleased to range those, that have written against him, or condemned his practices as detestable and diabolical. for I doubt much, whether his Charity be boiled up to such an height, as to wish so well to them, or to afford them any part in his prayers, more then he hath in their Creed ; which I suppose yet they do not greatly affect, nor have much cause to desire, considering whom they deem him addicted unto. But whom he and such as he is esteem pious and godly Divines, is not much to be regarded. And howsoever those Ministers of God, that deal faithfully in discharge of their duty, might justly expect better and more loving acceptance from their people▪ then most such usually meet with, yet experience of all ages shows, that the faithful dispensers of God's truth, have usually found • es favor with the most, then such as have soothed them up in their sins.. The best is, they ar as Tailors that make apparel for children, who whether the suites they make them do either for stuf or fashion please the Children or no, expect their pay from the parents, having done their work faithfully according to their direction, and given them content therein. Nor is it in the power of any Imposter, or of any malevolent Aspect, (if those celestial creatures had any such, which is impious to aver) to debar or defraud them of that reward, which from heaven they are sure to receive, for that their work, which being performed by them in God's name, and for God, shall never pas unregarded or unrewarded with God: howsoever he do oft suffer them, as his Prophets oft and Apostles of old, for their trial and exercise of their patience, as also for the just punishment of people's unthankfulness, to meet with hard measure at the hands of those, from whom they have deserved far better, and who (worst enemies therein to themselves) do thereby attract much more evil to themselves, then they either do or can do unto those, whom so unworthily they reqite.

As for all his feigned profession of sorrow of heart and prayer for protection in behalf of the pious some, I esteem them no other then as Crocodiles tears commonly spoken of, if their guise be at least as the saying is, to weep over those, whom they desire to devour: Or not unlike those that that bloody-minded, but deep-dissembling traitor Ishmael shed over those poor pilgrims whom he intended to destroy. Jer. 41.6, 7.

For his little knowledge of Presbyter John, if there be a King so called in the world, or the King at least that is abusively so termed; he wants belike his fellow Figure-flingers glas in Finsbury fields, wherein he professed he could see what was done all the world over. But if he know nothing of Presbyter John and his Country, as he would seem here to intimate, how comes he to know what is done in the East Indies, in places far more remote then those parts of Africa, where his regiment and residence is said to be? Or if he be as ignorant of the one as of the other, doth he not apparently cheat people by taking their money to tell them in what condition their friends or husbands ar in some parts of the East Indies, and at what time they shall from thence return. No body belike repairs to him for inqirie concerning ought or any in Prester Jean, or Prestegians Country; and therefore he regards not to take notice of ought there: otherwise, I doubt not, but that the tender of a little yelow, some small pitance of that yolk of the egg, that the Diviner demanded of his Client; or not much of the White, would so clear his ey-sight, or his glas, or both▪ that he could soon come to know as well what were done in the inner parts of Ethiopia, as how matters went with men in the gulf of Bengala ; alike, without the Devils help, I believe, in either.

And for his zeal to Antichrist ; apparent enough it is, that he hath no small measure of that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that bitter zeal, the Apostle James speaks of, Chap. 3.14. against those, that have ben God's principal Instruments both among us and elsewhere, in helping to demolish the power and Kingdom of Antichrist. And if the Devil be the grand Antichrist, as there is no doubt but he is, and the other on earth but his Deputy, sure he and his Complices ar no les zealous for the support of Antichrists Kingdom, when they so eagerly band and bend themselves against those servants of God, that discover and lay open their diabolical practices, then was Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen for the worship of Diana, in stirring up, and striving to enrage the people against Paul Christ's Apostle, and that for the same cause, for which they set the multitude then in an uproar, because thereby comes in their gain, Act. 19.24, 27, 28.

Yea but the man reqires to be heard. Let me be heard, saith he, and not judged unheard ▪ and what more eqal? but hath he not ben heard? or ar not his own allegations for himself and in defense of his Art, related by the Annotater out of his own works, and delivered in his own words? and such Exceptions taken thereunto, and given in against him, as he hath no list to take notice of?

But how would the man be heard and tried? forsooth, according to his own principles. Let me be heard, saith he, according to mine own principles. a very fair cours indeed, and a very reasonable reqest; can ye blame him, if he desire so to be heard and tried? For what cheater, or imposter? what malefactor, felon, traitor, or murderer, would not right willingly be heard, tried and sentenced according to his own principles? And what, think we, would their principles be? such, no doubt, as were those of Brennus and his Galles, and their plea against the Romans, whose dominions they had invaded; as Plutarch relateth it, that they did nothing evil or unjust, but kept to the ancientest, and most generally received and allowed Law in the World, that gives the stronger right to what the weaker held : or, as Livy more succinctly, that their right consisted in their arms, and to hardy persons all things appertained. and such, I believe, would their principles be, that all was of right theirs, that either by fraud or force, slight or might, they could wrest from any other, that were either way, or in either kind weaker then themselves. By which their Tenets and Maxims might they but obtain to be tried and sentenced, they would be sure, they knew, to do well enough. And the like cours of Judicature doth this man plead for. Let me be heard, saith he, according to mine own principles. grant him but his own grounds (a most reasonable reqest) and he will soon be able sufficiently to clear himself, neither shall he need to except against any uncharitable either Presbyterian or Independent, from being of his Judges, or of his Jury.

But, Sir, your principles must first be proved, which by other then those of the Presbyterie have ben so razed, that it seems you despair of ever raising them again, and therefore refuse to meddle with their ruins. And this is that which the Annotater reqires of you, and puts you upon, to make good your Assertions concerning the ground of your Principles : that which you ar as unwilling to come to, being conscious to yourself of your utter inability of sound confirming what so confidently, but groundlessly you have thereof affirmed, as is any bear to be brought to the stake. else why take you no notice of it, when it is pressed upon you, but let it sleep, or slip away in silence, as a thing that nothing concerned you?

Yea but those stupid Annotations, are but an unseemly Commentary, consisting of criticisms and fruitless expositions on Texts of Scripture, against the whole current of antiqity, reason, and the very genuine sense of the words themselves; the fruits of a brain doting with age, and of one become a child again ; in a word no better then a puddle of envy and non-sense.

Good Sir, be pleased, I beseech you, to tell us, who told you all this▪ for, I believe, you never read any great part of the whole Commentary ; it may be scarce had the patience to run over the whole Annotation to an end: for you complain elsewhere of the length of it; and say as little to that concerns you in it, as if you had never read word of it. Besides, be it that you had turned over the whole Commentary from the first Note to the last; yet I suppose, you will hardly make many, if any at all, believe, that you ar so well acquainted with all Antiqitie, or so well versed and skilled in the Original Language and genuine sense of the Text, as to pas out of your own knowledge such a censure as this upon any man's work. and he were indeed a very selie man, and well worthy of much pity, that would deem your censures of much worth or weight in a business of this nature. As for the Annotater and his work such as it is: albeit he doubts not, but that many wants and weaknesses, defects and defaults may by a qick and piercing ey be descried in it, yet he dares be so bold, as (with that aged Tragedian sometime upon occasion of the like-accusation) to appeal and refer himself to the sentence of any ingenuous and judicious learned, whether his labors therein may deservedly be deemed the birth of one doting and so cracked-brained with age, that he is become a child again ; or his expositions therein delivered such as this man's verdict (if I may at least so term it) here passed upon them affirms them to be. And this yet I shall make bold to adjoin, that they have so far forth attained approbation both at home and abroad, that the Annotater hath ben importuned, both by divers of his reverend brethren here, and some also from foreign parts, to undertake the like pains on some other parts of Scripture: unto whom his answer hath ben, that neither his age or ability will bear it, nor is it so needful for him to undertake ought further therein, since that some of the other parts have ben more exqisitely, though with les prolixity, dealt in by others (it being not every ones faculty, not his he is sure, to write succinctlie, and comprise much matter in few words) by whom such an employment, having fewer years and larger abilities may much better be performed. But, Sir, whatsoever the Annotater may have done else-where, sure he is, that what he hath on Jerem. 10.2. concerning the vanity and impiety of your trade, is neither contrary to the current of Antiqitie, nor to reason, nor to the genuine sense of the words of the Text ; but consonant to the doctrine of the Ancient Fathers, the sounder and greater number of learned writers, both of former times and later days, as well Papists, as Protestants, the settled discipline in the Christian Churches, the Decrees and Sanctions of Christian Emperors, and the Canons and Constitutions of whole Councils not a few, even to that of Trent itself, as hath formerly ben shown. And for this puddle of non-sense, as you ar pleased to style it, (from whence you should have done well to have related some few at least particular passages or sentences of non-sense, picked out of the whole puddle ) it hath▪ it seems, so puzzeld you and disturbed all your senses, that you have not so much as one wise word to return in way of defense unto any piece of the Exceptions therein taken to your own Assertions related out of your own writings; only the very sight of it seems so to have troubled your stomach, that it hath made you bring up much gall, and spit out a great deal of venom, which being unaccustomed to such scurrilous language, I shall pas by, and leave to you, to resume, if you please, as dogs sometime do their vomit, and to reserv it by you, until you have further use of it. Mean while, that the Autor of that Annotation, which you ar pleased so to bespatter, is not ashamed of his work, but is willing to have it pas the more general trial, whether it be such a puddle of non-sense or no; in regard that the whole work, whereof his labors ar but a parcel, consists of two great volumes, and the price conseqently correspondent, not every man's money, and in fewer hands therefore; in consideration hereof he hath caused that Annotation, excerpted from the rest to be printed apart▪ together with this, that the more eyes of all sorts may readily see what it is, whether it, be such as you say, and how nothing (a few scurrilous terms only excepted) you have in your own defense returned thereunto.

One thing I had overpast, which I deem not amiss to give some touch of before I conclude. Besides the aspersions of non-sense, incapacity and ignorance, wherewith Mr. L. chargeth our English Priests, and the Annotater among the rest; there is another Imputation and charge of a more heinous nature, to wit, Envy, the Devils most peculiar sin▪ for of the Annotation on Jer. 10.2. he saith, it is a puddle of Envy and Non-sense. Of which former branch, I had said nothing, because I understood not the Mystery, wanting some Delian Diver to unfold it to me, that I might know what the Mans meaning should be; which now Mr. L. himself hath done for me. For in an Epistle prefixed to his Worlds Catastrophe, which came lately to my hands, he tells his Reader that the Fraternity of the Clergy ar an Envious generation, and this disease of envy is with them hereditary. And what is the ground, think we, of this grievous charge, which he enters upon with such a passionate Exclamation? Oh men of Envy! forsooth, they have for so many ages envied mankind the knowledge of learning, that have cloistered up books, and suffered them to perish in their closets unopened, because all should be ignorant but themselves. and had not some Gentlemen of divine Souls, and many worthy and gallant Physicians preserved Arts and published their admirable conceptions, he is confident to this very day, the Fraternity of Clergy-men would have kept us at a distance, and without the knowledge of many lernings we now know; for which at sometimes these malevolent churlish and envious Clergiemen snarl at the Autors. But what ar the Books, that these men made of envy, have thus mured up, of set purpose to keep men in ignorance? Is it God's Word, think we, and the Divine Oracles, or the Law and the Gospel, or the writings of the Prophets and Apostles? these indeed under the Papacie were locked up and sealed up: and men inhibited from looking into them. But these ar not the Books Mr. L. speaks of: these rather he could be content should be concealed: they speak no good of him and his trade; though the Planets and Aspects of them (as we have elsewhere observed) portend no ill at all to Wizards, whatsoever to others they do: yet these denounce much evil both to them, and to those that ar deluded by them. But what ar they then? such as treat of Mr. Ls. trade; such as the professors and practicers of such arts, when they turned true Christians, burnt at Ephesus, Act. 19.19. Ah what an envious man was Paul, that would suffer them so to do? But more particularly, that by some instances we may know what books he means, There ar books (saith he from the Lord of Marchistone writing on the Revelation) among the Jews, containing doctrines, as they allege, proceeding from the mouths of the Patriarchs, affirming every great Angel of seven to rule the world 490 years. and in particular, a Book of the Government of the World by Angels ; which M. L. himself hath Englished: whereof he purposes to write a special Treatise; wherein from the beginning of the World to these times, and some hundreds of years succeeding; he shall endeavor to manifest such Mysteries involved in this learning, as yet have not appeared; wherein he shall go near to give every Common Wealth of Europe a smart conjecture of the continuance or destruction of their State and Government. having gotten, forsooth, the true Key, or Ca • ala, as elsewhere he terms it, to unlock these Mysteries, which others for want thereof understand not. he should have done well to have added Mother Shiptons Prophesies, which he says were never qestioned for antiqitie and verity : And the rest of the rabble of old wives tales as the Apostle speaks, 1 Tim. 4.7. whereof he tells us, there ar many more in the North. And what is all this, but to do as Satan did with God to our first Parents, who charged him with envieng man divine knowledge, because he inhibited him the forbidden fruit? For therefore, saith. Mr. L. these Clergy men keep these Books out of men's sight; because out of envy they would keep people in ignorance, and withhold them from attaining such deep and profound knowledge as himself by reading of them hath attained unto. As for the Lord Napeir, and his Countryman Robert Ponts, their Calculations by Jubilees from the Worlds beginning to the Worlds end, the time whereof both of them, contrary to our Saviors avouchment take upon them to determine, the one Propos. 15. the other Cap. 19. they ar so groundless, that few or none that I have seen do accord with either. and for Tritemius his Treatise of the seven Planetary Angels that should in cours govern the whole World by those seven Planets, which Mr. L. to make our people wise unto such fancies and fooleries, hath done into English, Mr. L. himself grants that neither upon the order of their Courses, nor of the the term of their Regencies are our Wizards agreed among themselves; which is sufficient to show that they had it not by Revelation from any good Angels, as Mr. L. pretends, no more then the Teutonik Wizard, what was done so many ages before this World was▪ and those supposed books of the Patriarchs may well go among the rank of those Jewish Fables, that the Apostle forbids Christians to give heed unto, Tit. 1.14. Nor ar either the Apostle Paul or our Priests, as M ^r . L. styles them, more guilty of Envy in dissuading people from hearkening to such groundless and impious fopperies, then should any holy Angel of God have ben, in dissuading our first Parents from meddling with the forbidden fruit. Nor can any sound Wisdom be gained from any science falsely so termed, 1 Tim. 6.20. that neither from religion nor reason itself by necessary conseqence hath any good ground.

But for the Exposition of the place, Mr. L. tells Mr. G. that he shall ere long have the judgments of abler Divines then himself and to better purpose on that of Jerem. 10.2. and mean while telleth his Readers, they shall have the Exposition of a Reverend Minister on the place, eqal in years to Mr. G. and in true Divinity and Knowledge of the Oriental tongues far surmounting him.

What those Judgments ar of abler Divines, when we see, we shall know what to say to them. And for that others Exposition, whose words he relates, but names not the Autor, nor the Title of his work, leaving the Annotater as well as his Readers, to seek after a needle in a bottle of hay, it was long ere any of my friends could find out any of them, nor could I by their help hitherto attain the revew of more then one that hath lately published ought on that Scripture; which one indeed concurs with the party, whose words he relates for the Exposition of the place, though he have not the very same terms, and resolved I was not to meddle with M ^r . Lily, until I could see what some of these his Advocates had to say in his behalf; which we shall (God assisting) consider of, ere we finish this discourse. Mean while, not to make comparisons, which is generally deemed odious, and with one utterly unknown, would be, not over-presumptuous only, but even ridiculous: much skil in the Oriental tongues I never did, nor do profess; a little smattering only in the Hebrew of the Bible I acknowledge. neither needs there any great depth of skil in those Oriental languages, for the expounding of that Text of Jeremiah, that strikes at Mr. Lilies trade.

And if that his other Advocate, whom he qotes and so highly extols, do for years eqal the Annotater, why may not he so aged fall under his Clients censure of Senes bis pueri, as well as his Antagonist? for how Mr. L. should come to be inspired with such a faculty as whereby to judge of true Divinity, is a point, I confess, beyond my skil to conceive. But what ever the man be for skil in languages, or knowledge in Divinity, (for I know not who or what he is) I would fain know of M. Lily, supposing that this his Advocate had seen farther into the Text, being far more skillful in the Language, then the Annotater hath done; what is all that to the justifieng of Mr. Lilies Assertions in the Annotation related, and the Exceptions therein taken thereunto? which it concerned him to have answered, and not put it off to another, who in all that he relates out of him, speaks not a word at all for him, but leaves him in regard of defense therein, as naked and bare, as if he had never so much as once opened his mouth, or put pen to paper in his behalf.

But leaving his Advocates til we come to deal with them, we shall presume a little to cope with this grand Master in the matter of Eclipses, because they ar the main subject of this his Black Book. And here I might a little question the skil of Mr. L. himself, and some of his fellow Prognostics, in that part of the Sideral Science, which on all sides is acknowledged to be as warrantable and lawful as beneficial and useful. That which a man better versed in these things then myself, might the rather adventure to do; for that Kepler a great Mathematician sticks not to affirm, that Astrologi Astronomiam sinceriorem ut plurimum ignorant, our great Astrologers ar for the most part not so well skilled in the sincerer part of Astronomy.

Now here, in the first place▪ we have ben told by some of them, the more to amaze the selie multitude, that this late Eclipse of the Sun would be greater and more terrible then any that had ben many ages before, Yea Mr. L. himself tells us, that it is the greatest this age hath beheld; from whence therefore we may expect accidents or events to follow suitable to the greatness of it. And yet Leovitius a great Autor with him enforms us, as M ^r . L. himself relates, that in the year 1567. April. 9. (and there ar, I hope, yet living that might see that) there was such a terrible and horrid Eclipse of the Sun, as had not ben since 1544. nec etiam multis futuris seculis, nor for many ensuing ages should be. And yet there hath not one entire seculum, or age, as himself renders it, who yet thus saith, much les many, as some other, past over our heds between this and that: unless they will make shorter secula, or ages, as did the Emperor Claudius for his Ludi seculares, or Secular Interludes, but was laughed at for his labor, by many of those that had seen them, some that had acted in them, yet surviving, when the Common Crier proclaimd such Disports to be exhibited, qos nec qisqam spectasset, nec spectaturus esset, as no man then alive had seen, or should survive to see again : or as the Popes do their Jubilees, which they have drawn down from 50. years to 25. to draw the more money from poor people, whom they laugh at the whilst for their lightness of belief. But whether M ^r . Lily or Leovitius were here in the Error, let others decide, and let him for me lay it on whether of their two shoulders he lists.

Secondly, as concerning the site of the light continued during the conjunction of those two Luminaries in the late Eclipse ; M. L. with divers other of his fellow Prognostiks, were manifestly mistaken. for in his delineation thereof, as divers other also of them, he places the light part, such glimmerings at least of it, as he is pleased to afford us, below; whereas it was apparent to any ey sedulously observing the apparition, that the light part was above: which I hope, he himself will not have the face to deny.

Thirdly, for the summing up of the parts (as to us) obscured; calling in Captain George Wharton an excellent Calculator, he determines from him, who (he saith) had accurately and lernedly delivered it, that the body of the Sun would be eleven digits and fifty five minutes eclipsed. Where I wonder why Mr. Lily so great an Artist, as he professeth himself to be, should be so diffident of his own skil, that he should not dare to venture or hazard it upon any Calculation of his own, but refer himself to Capt. G. W. his calculation herein, whom howsoever he pronounces in his calculation exact ; and doth not les, I hope, conspire with in his Prognostiks for the effects or events of it, yet as misdoubting the success and issu of the busienes, he seems so cautelously to have thus delivered it, that if any error came to be discovered in it, it might rather reflect upon his friend the Calculator, from whom he had taken it upon trust, then be charged upon himself. But that the Calculations, whether the ones, or the others, or agreed upon by both, is not so exact, is by others not a few, deemed in these points very skillful, agreed, and by M. L. himself in part also, but covertly, confessed. For some here at London, as I am informed, do affirm, that the obscuration in some digits fell short of that their account; and that by the observation of those at Oxford, and of a prime man among the rest in M. L. his own account, it missed much at least in the minutes ; for by their Calculation it was but eleven digits, and one fourth, which I conceive to be fifteen minutes, the fourth part of a digit, consisting of sixty minutes ; which why M. L. is pleased to cal fifteen seconds, I wot not. but by that calculation, which M. L. himself in his late new Ephemeris would seem to accord with, it came as far short for minutes in the former account, as fifteen and fifty five ar asunder. But I will not take upon me to decide the difference between them; I content myself with M. L. his own grant here.

Only by the way, I should, if I might be so bold, demand of Mr. L. whether this excellent Calculator, Capt. G. Wharton, be not anagrammatised the same with Naworth of Oxford. I shrewdly gues them to be one and the same. and some friends assure me, that he himself in some of his writings hath acknowledged as much. Which if it so be; I should then further demand, (for I am in these matters but a Qestionist) how it is come about, that Naworth that ABC fellow of Oxford, (for so M. L. styles him in the very entry to his Ephemeris for the year 47.) is now so sodainlie become Capt. G. Wharton that excellent Calculator ? Surely there must needs be some grand mystery in it. Is the transposition of a few letters, think we, so efficacious in this their new Magik, that the change of the name should suddenly produce such a strange change in the man? Or may we not deem rather that his reconcilement to Mr. Lily hath effected the alteration, and made the Abce Scholar such an accurate calculator? and then the Annotater may not be wholly out of hope, but that if he would recant and claw Mr. Lily a little, M. L. as the Proverb is, would claw him again, and so he might of Thomas Wiseaker, that old doting Duns, become suddenly Mr. T. G. an excellent Divine, or, as Marcilius Ficinus, because he writes for those of his coat (for no other learning is M. L. privy to in him) an excellent learned Priest. Yea what might not those poor Snakes the silie sneaking Presbyterians, whether English or Scottish hope to prove, if they could be so happy, as to make their peace with M. L. and be admitted to kiss the hand of this Great Mogul ? But neither is the Annotater, nor ar the Presbyerians, he hopes, so base minded, to stoop so low, as to bear a taper before the Devil, to gain a degree in his Academie, and to attain a new Title in M. L. his books. Again, I should be glad to know how it came to pas, when time was, that Mr. N • . if not calculations, yet observations and judgments at Oxford, and M. Lilies here at London, were so divers one from another, or so adverse rather either to other; or whence it is, that they do now so exactly agree. Did so small a distance of place, think we, alter the face of the sky? or hath the variation of the Scene on the earth here below, produced a variation of the Scheme above in the heavens? But I make little doubt, had they then ben both together, when they wrote such different Prognostiks, eitheir M. L. with M. N. at Oxford, or M. N. with M. L. at London, but that their observations and predictions, whether they had laid their heds together, or had studied upon the matter apart in their several cels, as the tale goes of the secluded Septuagint's, they would have agreed well enough, well knowing either others mind to an hair, and what it behooved them to write. nor is it unlikely, but that, when they came to shake hands here, they laughed, as we use to say, in the sleev at least; bethinking themselves, how handsomely they had acted their parts on either scene, deluding not selie people alone, but whole States in a manner, by predictions and promises of good successes, the one to the King and the Roial party there, the other to the Parliament and their adherents here. But at these men's discrepances I mervail not at all, when I call to mind that, which I have heard reported of that reverend man of God, whom this miscreant above traduced▪ the Reader, I hope, will excuse me, if I be telling of stories now and then, when I shall have minded him of the old saying, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that it is the property, not of children only, but of old men too, especially when they grow children again, that they love to be telling of stories and tales. Mr. Calvin preaching in his Church at Geneva, when in the midst of his matter through the Sextons knavery he heard the Clock strike, and saw the people look back to the hand on the dial, as wondering that the hour should be so soon at an end, Ye need not look back or wonder at all, said he, at the shortness of the hour: for God makes the days; but Martin (the Clock-keeper) makes the hours, as he pleases, and the Day goeth not by his Clock. It is just so here. God hath assigned the Stars their site and their cours, which no power of man or Angel is able to alter: but man's fancy hath built us imaginary Houses in the Heavens, and assigned them such qalifications, affections and effections as the framers of them pleased to give them. and why should they not then dispose of their fanatical fabrics according to their own fancy that produced them at first?

[Since I wrote this, lighting upon another of M.L. his worthy works, I am now thereby fully confirmed in my former conjectures concerning Capt. G. Wharton, by Mr. L. here so much extolled: first that Naworth and Wharton ar one and the same man; and secondly, that it is not the change of his name, but his reconcilement to M. L. that hath procured him such a change in M. L. his repute. For I find him after the change of his name, before M. L. and he came to accord, to be styled by M. L. the silliest of all Astrologers, a vagabond Asinego, having the curs of Cain hanging upon him, a viperous Renegado, one that having two names, incurs the censure of Ignoramus, Duplex nomen, duplex Nebulo, a double Name, a double knave. and withal publishes a Discours (whether his own or no, I know not) but under the person of a third party, entitled, A Whip for Wharton. What the man is, I know not, nor did I ever see ought of his. But thus M. L. was pleased to decipher him: and that, it seems principally for his writing against M. Lily and M. Booker, and discovering some errors and mistakes in their calculations ; which because M.L. and his Advocate, (whoever he be) it seems, cannot deny, they both return in way of Answer such language, and M. L. seems to turn his error over to Regiomantanus, as here its likely he will the miscalculation to M. G. W. who is now, ye see, since the agreement made, a great man in his books.]

But in the last place, be the number of digits and minutes in the Suns late defection (as they term it) obscured more or les then these two great Calculators, in their Calculations and predictions now agreeing as good friends, whatsoever differences might have ben between them in times past, ar now jointly and unanimously agreed upon: M. Lily, howsoever he control those that possessed people's minds with fear concerning the darkness that this Eclipse should portend ▪ (you have his own wise terms) as if it threatened danger unto those, that should be about their labors, or other like affairs abroad : and there wanted not indeed of his fellow wizards, that advised people by any means to keep their families, young children especially within doors, and prescribed cordials to be given them, as preservatives against the harm and disasters, that from this dreadful occurrent might accrue to them. but M. L. assures us the contrary on his word; I say, saith he, it threatens no man or cattle with danger in that consideration, to wit, of their being abroad; nor will the darkness be of so great or long a continuance as many imagine. and yet what matter is it how long it last, if there be no danger at all in it? or what is the meaning of the darkness, that this Eclipse (what is that but the darkening itself of the light?) should portend? or if it threaten nothing to any that ar under it abroad, why should it threaten ought at all unto any? But leaving these qeries to his further consideration; and him and his fellow wizards to jar or agree among themselves, as they please, Mr. L. yet tells us upon his own account, and out of his own belief, that although the greatest obscurity will not last long, yet such and so great for the time it shall be, that if the air be serene and clear, which in some measure he misdoubted by the arising of Saturn at that time, and the Moon her application unto his qadratures, (which with us here at London proved but a false fear) we should behold the fixed Stars, as also Mars and Venus.

But though neither Melancholie Saturns malevolent aspect prevailed any whit to the darkening of the day, and the air was as serene and clear as could be desired in the place of mine abode; yet for want, it seems, of Mr. Lilies spectacles, none among us were able to discern any one Star fixed or free, those two great Luminaries then in conjunction, the Sun and the Moon only excepted; nor can I hear of any one, though having made enqiry of many in places remote, and far distant one from another, at that time residing, that had so piercing an ey as to attain any such sight. and yet had it ben no such great matter, had any such thing ben, had a Star or two ben seen, myself can remember twice to have seen a Star near about noontide; the former time in the Borough of Southwark, about one of the Clock after noon; the latter time in Cheapside London, about eleven in the forenoon; it being at neither time, either a very clear or dark day, which many at both times stood gazing upon, (besides such as came out of their shops and houses to behold it) as they passed along in the street.

Yea but our English Merline tells us in his late New Ephemeris for the year 1653, to salv his credit in this particular, that thousands in London did then behold the Planet of Venus and many fixed Stars as clearly as in the darkest night.

He told us awhile ago, that he doubted we might not see them for the darkness of the day, which Saturns melancholy and malevolent look might produce: now he tells us they were seen by many as clearly as in the darkest night ▪ the darkness of the day belike would hinder the sight of that, which the darkness of the night would help to improov. Or doth the man, trow we, mean, and so with an Eqivocation (such as the Wizards Oracles much abounded in of old) delude us? that as he who presenting one for a degree in the University, on his word averred him to be, tam doctrinâ, qam moribus idoneum, as well for learning as for life and carriage fit to have that degree conferred on him ; that is, as he after expounded himself, alike fit for either, in plain truth for neither. So our Merlines meaning may be, that those his thousands saw those Stars as clearly as in the darkest night, wherein there is no Star at all to be seen. and then we shall as easily believe him herein, as those did the Master presenting concerning the Scholar presented by him, who know well enough what he was. Otherwise how those thousands in London attained to such an eminent degree of perspicacitie above so many other thousands in and about the City, that could descry no such matter, the air and sky being alike affected unto either party in those parts, it is not easy to apprehend, unless they should all borrow and make use of Mr. Lilies spectacles, which he should be very free of to lend to so many. Yet, it may be some two or three of our Merlines clients, to cheer the man up, perceiving how he was in his dumps, upon notice taken that his predictions concerning this dreadful Eclipse had not in all points accordingly fallen out; and sore vexed, that the Mercuries and ballat-singers, whom he grievously complains of, had ben so bold with him; might come to him and tell him, that they had seen some such matter, (for, it seems, he dares not, does not at least, say, that he saw them himself) whom by the help of some multiplieng glas he might raise up to that hyperbolical number of thousands : unless it were rather, (as may not unjustly be suspected) by the figure of figmentum or mendacium, a couple of tropes too freqent with those of his trade.

But to let these unwonted sights pas; for the greatness of the obscurity, many thousands, I doubt not, will avow, and myself among the rest, that they have full oft known the sky, through the thickness of clouds overspreading the places of their abode, much darker, upon some approaching storm especially, then they found it at the highest or deepest degree (choose whether you please to term it) of this dreadful Eclipse.

Yea but, howsoever it was with the Eclipse here about London, our Merline enforms us, that by letters from Scotland and Ireland, and some of ours on ship-board, it appears, that the darkness was far more dreadful in those parts where they then were, so as they could not see to write or to barb without candle; and no man ever saw the like in those qarters : insomuch that in some places all the poor people cast themselves down on their backs (they might have done better to have lien groveling on their bellies) with their eyes towards heaven, most passionately praying, that Christ would let them see the Sun again. They were some belike of the progeny of that people, that were wont to howl hideously, and make grievous lamentation at the daily setting of the Sun, as misdoubting that he would never rise again with them. But, it seems, that spiteful Planet Saturn, whose malevolent aspect Mr. L. misdoubted might by clouding the day, hinder the sight of the Stars with us, did on the other side produce that hideous and dreadful darkness with them; and we may hope therefore, that those direful and disastrous effects, which this darkening of our day-light, either doth presage, or is to produce, will light upon those of Scotland and Ireland, or at the most and worst, on our shipping at Sea, where the darkness was so exceeding deep and dismal; not upon us in these parts, where it was nothing so dreadful. I might well add, that its to well known to be a common slight of our Mercuries (and why not of our Merlines? ) to date and divulge letters from foreign parts and remote regions, that have indeed ben as well coined and endited, as printed and published here at London.

But leaving these things, as by-matters to my main intendment at present (mentioned only to retund a little this man's insolent vauntings of his transcendent skil in the Sideral affairs) to be made out, and made good by him as he shall deem himself able; I shall proceed unto that, which I formerly propounded to deal in a while with him, concerning the nature of these Eclipses the main matter of his Book. And here in the first place, I would gladly know, for my better learning, from him and his Complices what reason in Nature they can give us (for in his late Ephemeris he tells us they go in a natural way ) of those dreadful effects or events, that to these Eclipses they ascribe. For to pres that Argument against them▪ that any the meanest capacity may be able to apprehend. The interception of the light of the Sun from our sight in these Eclipses, arises from the interposition of the body of the Moon between us and the Sun : now the like interception of the light of the Sun from our sight arises in the night time from the interposition of the body of the Earth between the Sun and us, and so makes every nght, not a partial of so many digits and minutes more or les, but a total Eclipse of the Sun to us and the whole hemisphere wherein we ar situate. I demand then of these men, what reason they can give, why these nightly Eclipses should not justly be deemed as dreadful and as dismal as those. why should not the total want of the Sun-light for divers hours together, having no Moon-light at all to supply the want of it, either the night next before this Eclipse, or the night next after it, portend as dreadful matter, or produce as direful Effects, as the greatest darkness that to us it sustained, lasting (Mr. L. himself saith it) not above a quarter of an hour ?

But that, which indeed surmounts all reason, and may not unjustly be termed the very qintessence of folly & vanity is, that, as this grand Master-Wizard from other his fore-runners informs us, those dreadful events and effects ensuing each Eclipse, must continue in the Lunar, or that of the Moon, for as many months, as the Moon in her obscuration passed hours ; in the Solar, or that of the Sun, for as many years as the Sun in his conjunction with the Moon ; (though, the truth is, far enough asunder either from other) from his first meeting with her to his utmost leaving of her; and that for the effects thereof, it may be eight or nine months ere they begin to take place, and will be most fierce about twenty months after their beginning to work ; but then begin to abate, and cannot last therefore above three years and an half. For what an absurd thing is it to imagine, that the palpable darkness of some present night, and of every night that passeth over our heds much more, should have some dismal effect on us, not while it is present with us, but some month or two, yea or some twelv month after? and as little reason have we to believe or conceive, that the withdrawing of the Sun-light in part this day from us, should many months after begin to do mischief, and cause many mischances to befall us for a year or two after. One would in reason rather imagine, that all the dismalnes of it (if any such matter were in it) should be over, as soon as the interruption of those radiant rays were removed, and the wonted light restored: as is all the dreadfulness of the nightly darkness, unto those that travel or wander in the dark by night, when the day-light once appears: and the man might justly be deemed not unworthy to be taken into Bedlem, who should imagine, that the darkness, which surprised him the night before in his way, would shrewdly endanger him, either sitting in his house, or being abroad without doors the day following, or do him some shrewd turn, if he were not very wary, about a fortnight or three weeks after. And I would fain hear what color of reason can be given for the one more then for the other.

It will, it may be, be said, the one comes every day, the other but rarely, scarce once in some years.

This is that indeed that some of Ancients have well observed, that Miracula assiduitate vilescunt ; such things, as were they duly considered, would justly be deemed to be as strange and admirable as any miracle whatsoever; yet in regard of the freqencie of them ar little regarded and lightly past over. It was not without just cause and good ground deemed a strange matter and a miracle, that the Sun at one time for some hours should stand still, Josh. 10.12, 13. and again that at another time for some degrees it should go back, Isaiah 38.8. yet if it be well weighed and duly considered, it is a far greater and much more admirable thing, that the same Sun should for so many thousand years together keep a constant cours and certain tenor of continued and unwaried motion, save when by a superior overruling power it was for some short space of time a piece of a day only, once or twice interrupted. Yea it is much more admirable, that within the space of twenty four hours it should every day make up its diurnal circuit, then that for a few hours it should sometime either go back or stand still : the one is in its own nature simply considered of more difficulty then the other, though the other seem the stranger, because it so seldom came to pas. It was in its own nature, as we said before of the Eclipse, a work admirable, that the Sun did rise and set, at his du set and wonted time, either the day before, or the day after his stay at the one time, his retrograde motion at the others, then that for so small an interval he stopped and stayed his usual progress in either. But the difference is between the case there and here, that there both the stay and the regres were contrary to the natural cours by God established in the creature, and required therefore an extraordinary power and work for the effecting of either, the daily circuit being according to the constant set cours by God in nature established: whereas in the present case, the interception of the Sun-light in whole by night, in part more or les by day in the Eclipse, as we usually term the one, and may as well and as truly term the other, though not so properly either, come both alike according to a constant cours by God in nature established, though the one more freqently the other more rarely, which makes us regard the one more then the other. And yet we read not, though the work there was at either time extraordinary and supernatural, that the Suns either standing still or going back, did produce any remarkable effect, either the year ensuing or the next after it. Only for the present, the one gave God's people opportunity for pursuit of their adversaries, the other sealed to Hezekiah the certainty of the performance of God's promise concerning his recovery; that which any other sign he had made choice of, and God had pleased to give way to, might as well as that have done. But here nothing comes to pas but by an ordinary cours in nature established: and it is therefore on all hands confessed and agreed, that by rules of art built upon natural grounds, it may as certainly be foreknown and foretold at what time or times such and such Eclipses will fall out for many years ensuing, as it may be known and told at what time the Sun will rise and set the next day: and why the one then being of the like nature with the other, should have any stranger effects then the other, we desire to hear or see some sound reason rendered.

Nor let this profound Artist think we will be put off here as ignorant animals, with telling us, that we blame Astrology, because it is beyond our capacity; whose error he therefore pitieth, because grounded rather on malice and ignorance, then on any sound enqirie. But we shall entreat him, though we come never so far short of him for matter of skil in this his profound Art, not to repute us mere bruits or irrational creatures. So much reason yet we have, as to reqire a reason of him and his Complices, before we engage our belief to his or their dictates.

And whereas he saith, it is out of mere malice and ignorance that men oppose him and his fellow-wizards herein; we shall, I hope, all things being well weighed, make it to appear, that it is out of mere ignorance of the true nature of these Eclipses, that makes people so much admire them, and give credit to their predictions of them, and that some of those men themselves that delude men with vain conceits and frighting fancies about them, have in effect themselves acknowledged as much. Some instances from ancient Story will sufficiently show that to be true which I say. About the time that Socrates lived at Athens was Archelaus King of Macedonie; who upon an Eclipse of the Sun, that fell out in his reign, caused his Courtgates to be shut, and his sons hed to be shaven ; as in great dangers and distresses, or greifs and calamities was wont to be done. and whence, saith Seneca, who relates it, proceeded all this dread, but from his gros ignorance of the nature of the creatures? for had he had Socrates with him, whom he invited to repair to him, but for some considerations refused so to do, he would, saith my Autor, have drawn him out of that corner or covert, wherein for fear he had hid himself, and bad him be of good cheer, informing him that it was no defection of the Sun, but a passage of the Moon, that keeping a lower way, came between it and the earth, and so hid the body of the Sun from our sight ; that those two celestial bodies would by the swifter motion of the one be soon severed again, and that light of the Sun restored to the Earth, which the intervention of the Moon, in manner of a cloud, had suspended for a time. Which last clause of his, doth well intimate that which is indeed most true; to wit, that as great darkness for sun-light is oft produced by thick clouds and misty fogs as by any Eclipse, and as much dismalnes and danger conseqently in the one as in the other.

But because some may moov question, whether Socrates his skill would have prevailed so far with Archelaus, as to reduce him so perplexed and amazed to a settled posture of mind again, though it be apparent that his ignorance had cast him into that fit of fear, we will pas on to another instance. Pericles that brave, both valiant and prudent, Commander at Athens, was a disciple of Anaxagoras, by those of his times styled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Mind-man ; and that, either (saith Plutarch) for his singular perspicacitie in enqirie into the secrets of Nature ; or for that he ascribed the disposition of the Univers, neither to fa • e, nor to fortune, as some others, but to a pure and sincere or single Mind, that is, to a Deity. Now by this his Teachers instruction, was Pericles his Scholar, thoroughly furnished (you hear Plutarch’s report still) with the Science of the sublime and celestial creatures. for being naturally of an excellent piercing wit, he improved it exceedingly in the study of natural Philosophy by the help of his Master Anaxagoras; whose Physical reasons, being as of a nimble wit, so of a qeint and ready tongue also, he was wont on every occasion to be opening unto others, to free them from such superstitious conceits, as concerning those celestial creatures they were usually possessed with. This Pericles then going out sometime upon a military expedition, just as he was setting foot into his Galley, the rest of the Fleet being also ready to set forth, there fell out a Solar Eclipse ; whereat when he perceived the Pilot of his Galley to be astonished, and the whole company frighted with the darkness ensuing, he cast his cloak over the Pilots face and eyes, and then demanded of him, Whether any hard matter had befallen him so muffled, or such as might presage some grievous disaster, that were like to betide him. Which the Pilot denying▪ And what difference, qoth he, is there between this and that, save that there that which intercepts the light and makes it so dark, is a body larger then my cloak? Thus the ignorance of the true natural cause of the Eclipse cast the Pilot and his company into that fear; from which the right understanding thereof kept Pericles free, and by him also freed them. Yet such is the fury and obstinacy of superstition backed with error and ignorance, that the rude multitude at Athens, being a popular State, would have had Anaxagoras condemned as an Atheist, for discovering the true nature of such occurrence unto them, and were like to have carried it against him, had not Pericles opposed it, and protected his Teacher.

To this of Pericles we shall add from the same Autor two other instances, in two likewise military Commanders, near about the same times, but men of divers dispositions, and accordingly of divers carriages, with no les divers event. The one of them was Nicias, who being sent from Athens with some Forces into Sicily to assist one party of the Ilanders (for the Island was divided into factions) against the other, at first prevailed much and was very successful in his designs; but after the access of some Spartan forces, those of the Island deserting him, and timely supplies failing, he and his were both by Sea and Land so beset, that there seemed no way to escape but by a clancular flight▪ this when they were now addressing themselves unto and had fitted all things for it, a Lunar Eclipse came in the way: Whereupon Nicias a man of himself timorous and superstitious, being misled by such wizards as he had then about him, who (contrary to the wonted opinion of others of that profession, that, as Autoclides reports of them, confined the dismal effects of such occurrence but to two or three days at most) enlarged the danger and disastrous events of them to a months time at least, would not be persuaded so much as to entertain any deliberation concerning stay or flight, until the full Moon came about again; but in a fond manner sat still so long idling and trifling out the time in superstitious rites, until the enemy having gotten further hed and strength by new supplies, had so closely environed and overpowered him and his forces, that no way or means were now left for escape, and proved the utter destruction both of him and them. all which mischief and misery had with no great difficulty (saith mine Autor) ben prevented, had Anaxagoras his doctrine of the nature of such Eclipses ben then commonly known, or had Stilbides an inward acqaintance of Nicias, and one well seen in those sciences, that died not long before that accident, ben then surviving, who by enforming him aright of the nature of the matter, might both have freed him from his superstitious fear, and advised him better then his fond Wizards did, to make use of the darkness by the Eclipse produced for a speedy and more advantageous departure by stelth, wherein (saith Philochorus) he might by that event have ben furthered.

The other Instance is of Dio, who setting out from Zant with forces against the Tyranne Dionysius, was nothing at all troubled, either he or his company with a like Lunar Eclipse that then fell out; but launched out undauntedly, put over into Sicily, there landed his forces, surprised Syracusa, and drave out the Tyranne. and what was it, think ye, that kept Dio and his followers from that terror and dread that surprised Nicias and his associates upon the self same occasion? Plutarch tells you. It was, saith he, Dices familiarity with Plato, who had aright informed him of the true cause of such occurrence, whose fame and note also, having received it from Socrates, gained generally more credit to his doctrine in such matters, then Anaxagoras before him could attain; who therefore durst not open his judgment therein save to some special friends, such as Pericles was. yet true it is withal, that to stay the minds of such among them as might not be wholly free from such frivolous superstitions, one Miltas, that took upon him to be no mean Wisard, calling the company together, told them, that that defection of the Moon did portend the deficiency of some great illustrious person, such an one as Dionysius.

Nor were either Cornelius Scipio created General of all the Roman Forces, or Aemylius Regillus made Commander of their Fleet, discouraged or disheartened at all by a Solar Eclipse, that fell out just at the time of their setting out against that great Antiochus the Asian King, but went on cheerfully, esteeming it as in truth it was, and had as good success against Antiochus, as had Dio against Dionysius: whereas the Galles entertained by Attalus King of Pergamos against Acheus, by a Lunar Eclipse, because they deemed it prodigious, were so frighted, when they were now on their way, that they would not stir a foot further, but would needs return home.

To these of Dio and Miltas, we shall subjoin another Story, that doth yet more fully lay open the wicked slight of these Wizards, against their own conscience concealing the truth, and devising fables and fictions to delude people withal at their pleasure, as in that Miltas in part appeared. The very night before Alexander was to join battle with Darius, about the first watch fell out a Lunar Eclipse ▪ this struck a great terror into Alexanders Soldiers. Hereupon he sends for those of his Egyptian Wizards, whom he deemed most skillful in the Sideral science. Now they, saith Curtius mine Autor, though they knew well enough, that the celestial orbs and bodies kept constantly their set courses, and that the Moon fails of her light, when she is surprised with the shadow of the Earth lightning full upon her from the Sun being in direct opposition unto her ; Yet the reason hereof so well known unto them, they would not have the common people made acquainted with ; that would make them, understanding that it came in a natural course only, to have their art in less repute of foretelling future events by it; but as the Persian Magicians had before told Xerxes marching against Greece upon a Solar Eclipse, that the Persians were under the Moon, the Greeks under the Sun ; and the Eclipse of the Sun therefore did foreshow the defection of the Greeks Cities and States to him ; so these Egyptian Wizards tell Alexander, that the Sun was the Greeks, and the Moon the Persians Star ; and the Moon eclipsed therefore did foreshow some great overthrow and slaughter of that Nation ; withal telling many Stories of great defeats that had befallen the Persian forces upon such Eclipses▪ and this being divulged abroad in the Camp, put a great deal of life and courage again into Alexanders Soldiers, that were before much damped and even ded on the nest. And though Alexander himself, as having learned it from his Master Aristotle, might understand as much concerning the general nature of Eclipses, as those Egyptian Wizards knew; yet was he as willing to entertain these their frivolous fancies so well fitted to his affairs, as the tale of Jupiter's companying with his mother Olympias in the similitude of a Serpent ; and the Sorceresses flatteries at the Libyan Oracle, whether by an unskillful slip or a willful mistake, styling him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Joves Son, and refusing to acknowledge Philip his Father, which though he knew right well to be no other then mere fictions, and among the Grecians a people of better apprehension, and his own countrymen, that were better acquainted with his breeding, he were more sparing of venting ought concerning his divine Off-spring, and made but a jest of it, when he shown his friends and favorites the blood that came from him in fight, and asked whether it were such as the God's shed ; and told them another time of two things that gave in evidence against his Deity ; yet with those barbarous Nations whom he desired to subdu, he was willing to have such frivolous fictions and groundless conceits go for current. But as these Gypsie Wizards fitted their presages of this Eclipse unto Alexanders designs and desires; so the Persian Magicians might as well with a wet finger, have framed the very self same accident to Darius his affairs, as those other to Xerxes his intentions and enterprises, and it may be that some of them so did, by telling him, that the Persians were under the tutelage of the Sun, whom they adored as their chief God, by the name of Mithras or Mitras; (for both come to one) and that the Greeks and Macedonians were under the Moon, on the face whereof coming in opposition to it the Sun darted the shadow of the Earth, that produced that darkness; whereby was portended, that the Persians should darken the luster of the Macedonians that came to invade them, by giving them some great and remarkable defeat, and as good ground might Darius and his forces have to believe the one, as Alexander and his followers, or Xerxes before him, to give credit to the other. But thus ye may see, that it is people's ignorance of the natural cause and course of such occurrence, (which those cunning Gypsies therefore were so careful to keep from them) that makes men entertain such fond conceits of these Eclipses, and to give heed to such tales as our Stargazers and Figure-casters tell them concerning the same.

That which Claudius the Roman Emperor, though a man otherwise of no deep reach, yet not unwisely foreseeing; having understood from some Mathematicians, that in the fifth year of his reign there would an Eclipse of the Sun fall out on the first of August, which was his birthday; lest the people prone to superstitious conceits should make some misconstruction of it, and persons il-affected take occasion thereby to raise some tumults, and cause some disturbance in the State, he caused the same by a public instrument to be foreshowed, together with a declaration of the natural cause of it, and by that means qieted the people's minds, and prevented such mischief as might otherwise have ensued. And this piece of policy, if not prompted and put upon by some other of better brains then his own, he might well have learned from the prudent and provident practice of Sulpitius Gallus; who being Captain of a troop under Paulus Aemylius in the Roman expedition against Perseus King of Macedonie, by the skill he had in Astronomy foreknowing, that the Moon would be eclipsed the night before the battle was to be fought, at such an hour, and for such a space of time, acquainted his General first with it, and by his appointment the whole army called together for that purpose, withal enforming them of the true cause of it, that they might not deem it as a prodigy, no more then the full, or the wane, or the change of the Moon, or the rising and setting, either of it or the Sun, coming in a constant cours of nature, as well the one as the other, and being such therefore as might no les certainly be both foreknown and foretold. This thus disclosed to them before hand, nothing troubled them, when it came, but made them much admire the man (as he justly deserved) for his skil▪ and he is noted indeed to have ben the first man, that divulged this mystery among the Romans; and as Pliny reports of him, afterward wrote a large volume, wherein he gave a just account of all the Eclipses, that should ensu for six hundred years, particularly and precisely designing in each year, the month, day and hour in which they should fall out; the occurrences of the several succeeding years and ages from time to time giving attestation thereunto. The Roman Soldiery therefore aright understanding the matter, were not moved at all with the sight of that which they had warning of before, but undauntedly and cheerfully addressed themselves to encounter with the enemy the day following; whereas the Macedonian Souldierie reputing it a prodigy of il-presage, filled their whole camp with scrichings and howlings all the while that the Moon was in her defection, until she recovered her light again. Perseus sure wanted some of Alexanders Magicians to tell his Soldiers, that the Macedonians were under the tutelage of the Sun, and the Romans of the Moon, because those of their Gentry did wear the figure of the Moon on their rich shoes ; and the Macedonian forces therefore should have the better of the Romans. But the event would have disproved them: for Perseus his forces were the next day totally routed, and the King himself captived.

Yea but, saith Mr. Lily, from Peucer, certain it is, that people in all ages have accounted these Eclipses very unluckie things, and men's minds have ben much therewith terrified ; that which by these very relations, may some say, doth also evidently appear.

I answer; No mervail. for inusitata perturbant ▪ any strange thing, though coming in a natural and ordinary way, yet to people ignorant thereof, because unusual and uncouth, is wont to occasion much trouble and misdoubt. these Eclipses more especially, in regard of a twofold Error, wherewith concerning such occurrence the minds of the multitude mostly were mightily prepossessed.

First they held, as our Wizards bear selie people in hand, that they were prodigious, and portended therefore much evil, as murders and massacres, and seditions and insurrections, and deaths of great Potentates, and the like mischiefs and miseries. Whereas it is apparent they ar nothing les, have nothing prodigious at all in them. For what is a prodigy, but something that comes to pass besides, beyond, above, or against the cours of nature ? as it was a prodigy, that the Sun was so darkened at our Savior Christ's passion, the Moon being then not in the change, but at the full, not in conjunction with the Sun, but in opposition to it: such a darkening of the Sun, as some deem that to have ben, that Herodote reports to have fallen out at Xerxes his passing over into Europe; since that the time, say they, will not admit such an obscuration by any ordinary Eclipse, as that seems to have ben; or such as the Egyptian loss of day-light was for three days together, Exod. 10.22, 23. neither is it likely, that that constant for three whole hours darkness or defection of Sun-light, extended any further then than the land of Judea, as that Egyptian three entire days deprivation of day-light, reached not unto Goshen where the Hebrews inhabited: and our last Version therefore well renders it, over the whole land, Math. 27.45. For as for that Story of Denise the Areopagites seeing it at Athens, the Autor hath ben branded long since for a counterfeit ; and Eusebius his relation of an Eclipse about that time out of one Phlegon that lived in the Emperor Adrian’s days, is ambiguous. But these were indeed prodigies, neither of them according to the ordinary cours of nature. Whereas these Eclipses, as Sulpitius well reasoned▪ cannot be prodigious, because they come just according to the natural and ordinary cours of those creatures. Yea it might very justly be deemed prodigious, should it fall out otherwise, that either those two Luminaries should not meet in their set times, or that the Sun-light should not at all be intercepted, when the opacous body of the Moon in its du cours should come between the Sun and us; or that the shadow of the Earth should not darken the Moon, when the Sun and it come in direct opposition, the main bulk of the Earth being then interposed between them.

Again Prodigies cannot without special Revelation by any grounds of Reason or rules of Art be certainly foretold▪ whereas these Eclipses, as ye heard before, even for hundreds of years may. It was therefore a gros, though a common, error, in ignorant people, to deem these things prodigies, when as indeed they an nothing less.

Moreover they were possessed with a most absurd and ridiculous, or stupendous conceit, that the Luminaries themselves were in pain, and with grievous pangs much vexed and troubled: and that either from evil spirits that haunted and held them for the time, or by the powrful spells of professed witches, and pretended wizards : and to help and releiv them therefore in their present disturbance and distress, they were wont all the time that the Eclipse lasted, to keep a whooping and halowing, howting and showting, and blowing of horns, and ringing of bells, tinkling of pans, and beating on basons, to scare away those evil sprites that did in such manner disturb and molest them. Whence that of the Satirist, concerning a talkative woman, full of tongue and loud language, that she alone without all that ado was able to succor the Moon in her laboring condition, as if she were in such cases as a woman, that had hard labor, in travel. And so far ar superstitious conceits prevalent, when they have once taken in this kind, and practices accordingly continued and confirmed by custom, that the Roman Souldierie under Paulus Aemylius, though by Sulpitius aright informed of the nature of the Eclipse, as was before related, did not now dread it, as ominous, yet saith Plutarch, after the wonted guise, they kept a tinkling with such bras as they had in their armor and utensils, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to fetch the Moon again, as if she had ben in a swoon. Yea there wanted not among the number of professed Christians those, of the weaker sex especially, that were taken and tainted with these fooleries. Whereas the truth is, to speak properly, in the one of these, to wit, the Solar, there is no Eclipse, that is, defection, or deficiency of light at all in the Sun itself; it is as full of light every whit then, as when it shines forth brightest without let at noon-day; the light is only restrained in part for a short time from our sight; as the Moon in the change, hath never a whit the less light, though it appear not to us, then when she is at the full ; or as a candle enclosed in a dark Lanthorn, hath as much light in itself, and burns as clear, as it doth, when it is shifted into one▪ that is every way▪ transparent : in the other, to wit, the Lunar, which may more truly and properly be termed an Eclipse, the light of the Moon indeed, which it receivs from the Sun, is either in part or whole for the time impaired: but the body of the Moon is no more the worse for that want of Light for a while, then is the one half of the Earth for the utter want of it all the night long. for there is the same reason and cause of either. the night is nothing else but the shadow of the Earth ; and the Lunar Eclipse nothing else but the same shadow lighting at length upon the body of the Moon. for whether it reach higher to the next Star above, may be some doubt; though that also have ben observed coming between the Sun and us to cause a seeming spot in it. And Ambrose therefore at Milain, when upon the hearing of such an hideous noise upon such an occasion by the women there made, and demanding what the matter was, it was told him, that by their showtings they eased the Moon being in labor, and helped to heal her with their outcries ; he returned them this censure, that the globe of the Moon was then troubled with sprites and spel's, when their brains were disturbed, and their eyes dazzled either with dotage or with drink. It is not out of ignorance therefore that men renounce and oppose these frivolous conceits concerning the dismal events and effects of such Eclipses. but it is rather out of ignorance and want of du consideration of the true causes and grounds of them, that men entertain such groundless, frivolous and superstitious conceits of them, and do hearken to and heed those that delude them with such fictions and fancies: which people therefore have the less regarded, the better they came to be acquainted with the du course of the creature, and attained a right understanding of the true state of those celestial bodies at such times, as they seemed to suffer such strange things, as they suffered, not in themselves, but in their adle brains only.

But I should desire to have mine ignorance a little yet further informed, how it should come to pas, that so dreadful and direful a prodigy as they make these Eclipses to be, should portend and presage much good unto any. For Mr. Lily tells us concerning the former Lunar Eclipse, that because the Moon and Mercury ar in aerie signs, and in a trine aspect, he hopes it will not displease the Presbyterie, (for at them he is still girding, and they ar the only enemies to the present State) if he say, that our State ar promised to be Victors against the Dutch, French, Swede, or Dane or any people of Germany, from whom we may have cause to fear any hostility or action of war by sea or land. and therefore saith he, Let no man's heart fail him: for so far as God doth manifest himself in this natural way of Judicature by his creatures the Stars, we need not to fear the Dutch. and again, We constitute Venus ruler of the place eclipsed (ye see what power these men have to constitute regiments and rulers in heaven: such presumptuous and blasphemous mouths God in his du time will stop, and that with fire and brimstone, if by timely repentance it be not prevented▪ but, We constitute (saith M. L.) Venus ruler, and Venus in Taurus (a fit place for her) applying to a trine of Jupiter; (another wanton deity like herself: and what of all this?) therefore were not the murder of our English cryeng unto God for vengeance, the Irish might begin to be happy: but thrice happy will all those English be, who shall adventure their estates and persons into Ireland ; (Oh, Sir, why do not you then so yourself, with all speed and without delay, that you may be thrice happy with one of the first? if you believe at least your own words to be true) this Eclipse promising the English all happiness, under so prudent and vigilant a Lord Deputy, and such provident Commissioners. these, it seems, he found in the Signs too; though in which of them he tells us not: but he can tell us what shall be done by the site of the Stars, in the heavens, when he sees but what is done with us here upon earth. Again, of the Solar Eclipse; The English Nation have Aries the Ascendent of England: and therefore as oft as any memorable Eclipse doth therein happen, God doth thereby acqaint us (for this holy man, ye may be sure, and the Magicians his Masters, as holy, I hope, as himself, ar men of God's privy Counsel) what he intendeth towards us near upon those times for good or for evil. and this assuredly, and grounded upon the experience of twenty generations of men. Oh but, Sir, this is a very slippery prediction; and such as leaves us in great ambiguity; since that by it as well much evil, as much good may betide us: as also it leaves yourself a very wide gap or starting hole, whereat you may easily wind yourself out as you list, as the matter shall fall out, either the one way or the other. no Delphik Oracle, or Delian Wizard, or Pythian demoniak, or Dodonean Sorceres, could ever have given a wiser and warier answer, or a more certain and undoubted resolution; it shall either go well or ill with the English Nation. Just like that of the Satyrists Tiresias, qicqid dicam avt erit, avt non. whatsoever I say, shall either be or not be ; shall proov either true, or false ; shall either fall out well or ill. and no mervail if such predictions as these have the undeniable, yea the unqestionable experience of not twen • y alone, but of twenty times twenty generations of men, yea of as many ages as have passed since Horace his days, or Tiresias his time, or Noah's flood, or from the beginning of the World.

But notwithstanding all this ambiguity, M. L. can resolv you, (by what other Art I know not: for the Signs by his own confession, which he confirms also afterward, by the dictate of Hermes, a very authentical counterfeit, Autor I should have said, are mutable and convertible either to good or evil ) that it shall fall out to our State, not for evil, but for good. For better bethinking himself, he tells us; He is confident (he hath consulted belike with some familiars since he wrote so unadvisedly in that ambiguous dialect) the Sun in this Eclipse being in the 19. degree and 15. of Aries, that our present Common Wealth of England shall have such honor and succes in all their agitations and undertakings of as great concernment for the utility, benefit and happiness of this Nation, at that sad accident of the Earl of Essex his routing, upon that Eclipse then, wherein Saturn was in the 19 degree 45. of Aries, was of sorrow unto them who then sat at the stern, and unto all the meaner people. It seems the Ram, who then with his horns pushed at us▪ now fights for us. But it may well be doubted, or rather justly deemed, that unless our State-affairs be managed by sage and prudent Counsels of those that should give direction at home, and by faithful and discreet courses of those that should follow their directions and put them in execution abroad, and both seconded and accompanied with God's blessing from above both at home and abroad, it is not all the imaginary Rams horns in the heavens, nor yet the Rams horns, that blew down the walls of Jericho, Judge. 6.4, 20. could the very same be now also had here upon earth, that will proov any whit more available to make our proceedings succesful and prosperous, then were the iron horns, that Zedekias made for Ahab to push the Aramites withal, 1 King. 22.11. I remember when I made abode sometime in Essex, in house with a religious Gentlewoman Mrs. Katharine Aylof, whose Husband had invited me over from Cambridge, to further him in his studies of the Hebrew tongue, while the College, whereof I was to be fellow, was in building, some wandering Gypsies came to the house, whom the servants, as the manner of young people is, were forward and busy about, to know from them their fortunes. which the pious Gentlewoman understanding, both rebuked them for so doing, and was very careful to have her children kept out of the sight of those vagrants, Not, said she, that I regard any whit what they say, whom I deem no other then cheaters and counterfaits; but lest what they, seeing them, should say of them, might run in my mind, and God should cause somewhat spoken by them, to befall them, thereby to punish me in my children, for giving so far forth heed unto them. So say I, if our State-Governers shall give heed to such Wizards as these, and upon their sandy grounds and il-botomed predictions, promise great matters to themselves, it may be just with God, to cross and blast their designs, thereby to chastise them for hearkening to and presuming upon the flattering fictions and fables of such as he hath forbidden his people to seek to, or to be advised by in cases of this kind.

Yet if it be so, as he tells us elsewhere, that the Sun is the significator of Princes, Emperors and men of great Authority, and from the Eclipses of it therefore we can expect no less then great changes in Kingdoms, Common Wealths and great Families ; what reason can it be, why the obscuring of this Stately Planet should stoop so low, as by Mr. Lilies reports it should, to vent all its malignity against the poor prattling Priests, affording mean while all honorable issu and glorious successes to our Common Wealth affairs, or why his deficiency should proov so prejudicial to those that have no reference to him, rather then to those that are signified by him. But as King James said sometime, the Laws were his, and who should expound his Laws but himself ? so the Text being their own, they deem, it seems, they may do with their own what they will, make explications of it, and raise observations from it, as they list, and form applications from either so framed, when they have so done, at their own pleasure. The best is, their Text and their Glosses being both of one stamp, we may justly credit as well the one as the other, and have as little cause to regard or fear, as to believe either.

Mean while we may observe, how as the Pythian Prophetess could comply with such Kings, States and Commanders, as repaired by her to the Devil under the Title of Apollo for Oracles, by returning them such answers, as she knew would well please them, and give them content; as to Philodemus a Commander, that her God gave him leave to do what he liked; and her returns to King Philip the Macedonians demands, were so palpably and constantly such, as might seem to conduce much to his designs, what ever they were, that it was grown to a common by-word in those times, that Pythia did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or Philippise ; and Zedekias with the whole troop of Baals Prophets could prophesy to Ahab, what he would have them to say, 1 King. 22. and those counterfaits, Ananias at Jerusalem, and Ahab the upstart, with another Zedekias of the same stamp with the former, and Semajas the dream-teller at Babylon, could sing such songs, as would please King Zedekias in the one place, and the Jewish Captives in the other, and the people, either bond or free, in either, Jer. 28.4. & 29.15, 21, 23, 31. so these men as apt Scholars of such Masters, have thoroughly learned and taken out the same lesson, to comply with State, and people, to tell what they suppose will be acceptable to either; and from Eclipses, which they affirm to be of so direful a nature and dismal conseqence, yet to extract matter of much felicity and succesful designation to such States, Peoples and Persons, as they please, and whom their desire and ambition is to please, and to work themselves into grace and favor with.

But to give further assurance, that the Effects of this Eclipse shall be very benign and favorable to the present State with us; howsoever he had told us before, that the Effects of the Eclipses falling in the midheaven are more vehement, as occupieng a great part of the Sphere; and those most wonderful, when they ar in a fiery and regal sign, as this also is; and therefore also the more vigorous, because its greatest obscurity is very near the heart and Center of the tenth house, of all the Houses (that these cunning Architects have erected in the Heavens) the most valide ; from whence also he infers for a certainty, that qestionles those people that are intended to be made most sensible of this Eclipses influence, are Magistrates of the highest rank and qalitie in every Nation of Europe, and the alterations therefore thence proceeding, shall be so great; so glorious, so conspicuous and apparent, that there is no Nation or people of Europe, Asia, or Africa, but they shall stand amazed, and wonder at the eminency of them. Yet to free us and our State from those fears, that he would affright the whole world with, (save that America was forgotten, and so scaped his Black Book ) as if England were no member of Europe, or any part of the world formerly known, as some anciently esteemed us, he doth by certain Magical Pictures and Symbolical Images ascertain us of the truth of that, which from the influence of this Eclipse, though so hideous to all other, yet to us very favorable, he had formerly promised. For in the next place he tells us, the Ancients did represent the shape and form of the effect of an Eclipse falling out as this did, under such an ensuing Image. and then further enforms us, that this Image presents (represents, I suppose he meant) the English Common-Wealth, as it will be for three years, or thereabouts (for so long and no longer, as you heard from him before, the Effects of the Eclipse last) in great Majesty and Glory.

But let us crave leave of him, to parlie a little with him about his Pictures. He saith, The Ancients ▪ but what Ancients he tells ut not. and I mervail not a little, in what Antiquity he stumbled upon that Long Robe, that he presents us with in this his Magical Imagerie. for it is observed by that learned Noble man the Lord Howard, who hath long since dealt elaborately and accurately in this Argument, that the pretended Antiqitie of such kind of Imagerie does oft bewray its Noveltie, by those garments and garnishments, wherewith it is set out. Nor can I find such a Vest, as we are here encountered with by Mr. L. in any of the Greek or Latin ancient Monuments, or mention thereof in the writings of any of our Critiks or Antiqaries, that have made diligent search into the wonted garb of either.

And I have, as I conceive, very just cause to doubt, whether such a Garment, as his picture here gives us, were in fashion among the old Britons in the time of his great grandfather Merlin, whose name he so much affects, and bears, by himself assumed, as one either of his natural or adopted sons (which honor and title, whither way of the two he lay claim to it, none, that I know, need or will envy him) or in the days before him of the Incubus, of whom they say he was begotten, and endued him, it seems, with such prophetical skill, as from the Satirist ye heard Tiresias of old had, and M. L. succeeds him in, as his rightful heir, and a genuine bird of that kind. But it may well be, as some other would have it, that that Incubus, of which his Ancester Merlin was bred, was no other then such an one, as our old Poet Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales saith in his days were so rise and ready at hand in most places, that for loose creatures, such as belike Merlins mother was, no other Incubus then such then needed. Whether of the two it were, our new Merlin, if he fetch his pedigree from him, in whose name, it seems, he glories, will thereby proov himself no better then a brat descended of a spurious issu and a bastardly brood. And howsoever these businesses were then carried concerning his Progeniters breeding or birth, Mr. L. will hardly induce any man to believe, that those British Ancients, used to go in our Lawyers or Judges gowns, such as this Long Robe comes nearest to, or did wear Roses upon their shoes. These his Ancients therefore must of necessity be of a lower date, of a later Edition, some old Magicians of some younger times. But we know the true, and truly ancient by-word of Poets and Painters, that they have always had the privilege and liberty, or leave and license at least, to pen and paint what themselves pleased. and herein we may well unto them adjoin Witches and Wizards, that take liberty to themselves, to tell people what tales and lies they list, and what they think will please and content them for the present▪

But methinks, Mr. L. here much forgot himself, and did not remember the old rule, that says, Oportet mendacem esse memorem. It behooves a liar to have a good memory ; that his relations may not jar. For not long before he told us, that this Eclipse doth manifest great affliction, that shall happen unto all those of the Long Robe. that which there also to make the more remarkable, he put, the Long Robe, in a different character from the rest, and to manifest his mind more fully and plainly, that no man might mistake him, he adds, viz. Lawyers, Civilians, Clergy men, or Divines. Whereas here he presents us with the picture of a Man in a Long Robe, in the posture or gesture of one that stands pleading at the bar: which he is pleased to make an Emblem of the great Majesty and Glory, that this Eclipse for this three years day hath entailed upon our State : at the expiration of which term of time it may chance to wait until such another Eclipse come again. But how Mr. Lilies fancies came thus to alter, unless it were that he took a nap between the one and the other, and in his second sleep had a new dream; or that his hed was so full of his imaginary rams horns, (for on the ram ascendent, or rampant, if you will, it is still that he runs) that it caused his wild notions, arietare, as the Latins speak, that is, to run full but, as rams, or tups, use to do, one against another in his brains.

But leaving him to part these his repugnant fancies, and to make them agree as he shall see good, let us pas to his next picture ; (for with pictures it is no new thing with him to plie us) of that he tells us, that Joannes Angelus (a Bavarian Wizard, of as good credit in this kind as himself) represents the tenth degree of Aries (the Ram, that so variously affects his thoughts) wherein this Eclipse falls out to be, by a Soldier riding a Bull, with its horn in his one hand, and his spur on its side, and a spare horse led by him with his other hand ▪ for so he deciphers it. And though his Wizard by his Motto added to express the meaning of his thus riding, say, Homo malitiosus erit. This man so riding will be a malicious man. which yet to mitigate, Mr. L. in his marginal Gloss expounds, Some will account him so. and may he not well be so accounted, that by fraud, deceit, war and what not? (ye have Mr. Lilies own words) attains Dominion and Sovereignty? for such an one himself acknowledges to be specified. Notwithstanding all this, M. L. tells us, (and ye may observe how he and his Autors agree like Harp and harow, as they say; or rather, how they can turn their Tables and their Tales which way they please) that this picture presents the State of England after a few years. (how many, think we, can it possibly be, when the force and efficacy of this ramming and ramping Eclipse cannot extend itself beyond the term of three years?) but in, or after those few, or very few years, what shall it be? viz. the Soldier tilling the ground, his arms laid aside: a peaceable time: yet the Soldier ever prepared.

I hope I may be so bold here, as to question Mr. L. his skill a little in Latin. I will not presume to tell Mr. L. as a Divine of good note sometime told a Bishops Chanceller, twiting him with want of skil in the Law, that he had in his time forgotten more Law then his Worship ever had. but this I shall say, that though I have lost much Latin through long disuse and short memory, yet I have so much of it still left, that I may make bold to tell M. L. that he understood not his own Autors Latin, when he translated those words, Homo coopertus capite galeâ, cum pennâ strutii, tavrum eqitans, &c. A Soldier have his hed covered with an helmet; riding a Bul, with the Pen or qil of an he-sparow. Should I, think ye, do amiss▪ if I should give Mr. L. here his own words, Qi Bavium non odit, let him read, or rake in, this puddle of non-sense? But letting pass his dismembering and dislocation of his fellow-Wizards words; I shall only demand of him in what Dictionarie he ever found Strutius to be Latin for a Cock-sparow, or an he-sparow, as he renders it. or where ever he saw the pen or qil of a sparow, he or she, cock or hen, on a Soldiers helmet, or in a Soldiers hat or hed. His Rider, or Thomas, had he consulted them, could have informed him, that not strutius indeed, as his Autor the Bavarian, after Isidore, barbarously writes it, but Struthius, or Struthio rather, in Latin was an Ostrich or an Ostridge. for I will not charge Mr. L. as guilty of so much learning, as to mind or understand, what passer marinus in Plautus means. and though he had advised with neither, yet the picture itself might have sufficiently informed him, that penna strutii was not by his Autor intended to signify an he Sparowes pen or qil, but an Estridges feather such as soldiers and Cavaliers use to furnish and garnish their Crests with.

But to let his Latin learning pass, till we come to compile some new Glossarie, and touch a little upon his Emblematical skil: I remember, when I was a School-boy, after the affront and defeat given Monsieur Francis Alanson the French Kings brother at Antwerp, which he attempted to surprise, that there was a Picture drawn by some shrewd unhappy head, wherein the Netherlands were represented as a Cow, because abounding in milk and butter, which King Philip rid and spurd, as the Cavalier doth here the Bul, the Prince of Orange milked, an old woman Qeen Elisabeth fed with a lock of hay, so much as might keep her in life, and the French Monsieur pulling by the tail, she all to bespattred with her filth. Now whether this Soldier, or Cavalier riding an ox or a bul, with his spur on its side, might not rather intimate, that the Cavalier or Trooper, the war continuing, should necessarily vex the poor husbandman, resembled by the Ox that helps to til the ground, by qartering upon him, and with his horse treading down his gras and his corn; fit as well, at least, with the type, as that far fetched explication and application that this our Wizard makes of it, so many miles wide of his Autors acknowledged exposition, I dare permit to the judgment of any one, that hath not captived his senses to assent unto and assert whatsoever our Wizard shall say.

But, that he may not wholly desert his fellow Wizard, and yet put us in hope of much good hereafter, I know not when, towards us, he tells us, that though according to the right intention of his Autor, this Malitious Man, or Malignant Cavalier, Man or State be it, shall acqire Dominion and Sovereignty by fraud and blood, as before▪ yet, because the third face of the Ram is Venus hers, which represents subtlety, mildness, plays, (a very comfortable prophecy for the poor Players, that they shall come to be in reqest again) joyfulness, clearness; therefore the government, albeit so gotten as before, shall be ordered with sweetness, by subtlety, mercy, affability, &c. and this, he saith, you may observe in the Type en • uing. whether one of his own framing, or fitted to his hand by some other, he says not. but it is of a Gentlewoman, sitting cross-legd, barefoot and barelegd, strumpet-wise, fingring a lute, as the manner is, they say, in some places, where such are allowed, to invite customers to them. now he tells us withal, that this picture seems to promise a cessation of all taxes, (as those of the levelling party promised, when they were up in arms) and all things governed by love. You see what a lucky presage it is, when Aries and Venus meet, when a beautiful harlot is lodged in the sign of the Ram. and from what manner of Deities we must expect the peace and prosperity of our present Government, by the doctrine of these figure-casters and figure-drawers. Oh but when, trow we, may some loose people say, will these Halcyon, or Venerean days rather appear? for there is good hope given us by the moral of the type, or the tale, that Stage-Plays and Stews may then come in again: for Venus sure is as well president and patronnesse of the one as of the other. Or others better affected; When shall all things be settled in peace and love with us? Herein he gives us but cold comfort, such as myself especially, that ar going out of the world, and cannot look or hope to live long in it. for he tells us, that this new Sovereignty or manner of Government (so gotten as ye heard before) shall continue in somewhat a rigid posture, but in much Majesty and austerity, until almost 1663. at which time all sharpness and bitterness will be laid aside, and matters ruled mildly. the Levellers with Mr. Lilies help, whereof more hereafter, will then have freed us from all payments, as well of Taxes as Tithes, and laid us all alike even, as corn cut down, and eqalised by the harvest man's hand.

He had told us, as you heard before, that the efficacy of no Eclipse could last above three years. and yet the harsh effects of this Eclipse are like to hold out thrice three year and upward, ten year at least. But to what end do we make wast of precious time in survey of this man's fantastical imagery, and discovery of his gross and palpable contradictions? As Augustine said sometime, that they deserved to be deceived, that sought to learn Christ, not by reading of written books, but by gazing on painted walls: so say I of Mr. Lilies images, they well deserve to be deluded, that think to find truth in such figments and fancies as these.

One question yet more I would propound to Mr. L. whether these Eclipses do foreshow only, or effect also such things as he is pleased to ascribe to them. For in this point he seems somewhat various. One while telling us, that when Astrolologers speak of the virtu and influence of the heavenly bodies, they rarely, I say, never, (saith he) affirm, they act or do such a thing, but freqently that they signify such or such a thing: and Ficinus that excellent learned Priest saith, that many things are foretold by means of the heavenly bodies, as signs, not as causes; whose opinion (he saith) he esteems more of then a thousand of our own Priests, who blame Astrology because it is above their capacity. and in his New come out Ephemeris; We say not, (as some ridiculous Divines affirm) the Configurations to be the only immediate causes (here is another manner of qalification then was in the former assertion: for an efficient may act or do, though neither immediately, nor alone) but we say, that they only in a natural way signify, or are the forerunners of such and such things: as by a distempered pulse, or irregular diet the Physician doth safely and infallibly conclude, that the party must needs be near to a sickness. And yet a little after, What tumults and seditions all over the world did the effects of this Eclipse stir up? how great qarrels did these Eclipses sow the seeds of? what horrid wars did they produce ? and again, The Eclipses of the Luminaries operate by their influences upon Cities, Provinces and Kingdoms : and, Those Eclipses do most terribly manifest their effects, which fall to be in the heart of heaven. and, The greatest Eclipses produce the greatest Effects.

And do we not need some Oedipus to arreed and assoil us these riddles? They do not act or do ought, but signify only, and yet they operate and effect. not unlike some old Wives verdict of pepper, that it is hot in the mouth, but cold in the stomach, hot in operation, but cold in working. Yea they signify only in a natural way, as irregular diet doth a disease at hand and is not that the procuring or producing cause of the disease ? whereas these he saith are signs and no causes. or as a distempered pulse argues an approaching sickness : so the distempers belike of the Stars in the sky, argu some distempers in men's minds here on earth: and all this they do in a natural way, and yet have no power to act or do ought at all: And whether of the two is now ridiculous, the Divines that relate what he and his complices avow, though not it may be in those very terms that he reports them, or this our Wizard, that being ashamed of, and loath to own his own tenets, because he is unable to defend them, shuffels and cuts, as you see, and lisps and jabbers, and says and unsays in a most selie, pitiful, ridiculous, stupide and self-contradicting manner.

But his Peucer, whom he citeth and relieth much upon, yea more (it seems) then upon his learned Priest, (for he insists much more upon him) is clear enough and downright in the point. Out of him I shall only allege one assertion, peremptory enough, profane and impious more then enough, whereby you may take a taste of the rest of his discourse. his words are these, de Astrolog. fol. 396. fac. 1. Tam certum est, Martis cum Venere congressum gignere natura • salaces, qam certum est ciere Venerem pharmaca 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 aut 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It is, saith he, as certain that Mars coupling with Venus doth beget lascivious or leacherous natures, as it is certain, that such medicines as either increase or provoke seed, do stir up lust. A most unsavourie and unworthy speech to come out of any professed Christian man's mouth. Mars and Venus, what are they? what were they? the one a lascivious, though warlike, gallant; the other, a beautiful, but most notorious, strumpet. and how crept, or climbed these two up into heaven; that they are come to have, or to be Stars there? Augustine shall tell you, as many other of the counterfeit Deities did. Historica Veritas falsorum Deorum sepulcra ostendit in terrâ; poetica vanitas sidera eorum non figit sed fingit in coelo. Historical verity, saith he, shows the sepulkers of their false God's here on earth; Poetical vanity fixeth not indeed, but feigneth their Stars in heaven. The Poets fictions coined them deities; and the Idolatrous Wizards to please the people that worshipped them, assigned them such Stars wherein they might be worshipped, as they pleased. Now because these Stars are by our Star-masters assigned to such worthy wanton Deities, therefore when they two meet, (though being many thousand miles asunder, and had they never come nearer the one to the other, while they lived here on earth, the lame Black-smith should not have needed to be jealous of his fair wife in regard of this lusty yonker, nor to beat his brains about contriving and forging of snares to entangle and take them together) but yet when they do now meet and couple, though at such a distance, they breed. though I do not remember to have read of any issu they had, albeit, it seems, they met full oft, and lived loosely together, while they abode here upon earth. but in heaven belike they breed. and whom or what do they breed? forsooth they breed those, that were before bred by their parents, but are then born, when they are in such a conjunction, so many miles asunder as was before said; and by that their new breeding of them, make them wanton creatures like themselves. And this, saith Peucer, they do as certainly as some medicines will make men lustful. But I demand here, who endued those Stars with this lascivious qalification, or gave them this lustful efficacy ? For I suppose no good Christian will say, that wicked paynims, people or poets, by assigning of a Star to any idolized creature, can impart any power or efficacy unto it. And I might well say here, with that Noble Lord; Would not the Heathen smile, might they suddenly revive, to see their Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury not only marshalled in Heaven, but also made Autors of health and sickness, wealth and poverty, with divers other such like accidents as it pleaseth God to send either for reward or punishment. But to say, that God at the creation conferred such faculties upon any Stars, that some of them should breed men and women lascivious, as this which they cal Venus, some other of them thievish, as that which they term Mercury, because Mercury was a cunning knave and a sly thief, is very impious and blasphemous, and is not far from making God the Autor of man's sin, by enduing the Stars with such an efficacious power, as cannot be avoided by them, to work them into a sinful disposition and strong inclination unto the perpetrating of such wickedness. for, as for such medicines, as he speaks of, that may so work upon the body as to provoke lust, no man need to take, unless he list himself; nor do men take them to that end, but such as are lasciviously minded and lustfully affected already; whereas here, according to these men's grounds, it being not in any man's choice under what Sign he will be bred or born, he is by that Planet necessitated by an unavoidable force unto such a sinful disposition of spirit. And I would gladly demand of Peucer, whether there be any such medicines, or simples, that will make a man thievish, as well as lascivious. For according to his principles there must be the like reason of the rest, that one Star should make men thievish, another women whorish, a third joined with that second make men and women lascivious and lecherous. and God of purpose must needs create them so to do, since that in the creating of them, he endowed them with a faculty thus to work necessarily and unavoidably upon the Sons and Daughters of Adam, that should be bred & born under them. that which, as it is most impious and blasphemous; so no les absurd and ridiculous is that which in the same discourse not far before he affirms, that there is no doubt (for he is very peremptory in what he asserts) but that which is said in Genesis, they shall be for Signs to you, doth principally belong to Eclipses. that is, according to these men's meaning, in a senseless and with itself inconsistent sense, God made those two great Lights, the Sun and the Moon by their Eclipses coming by a natural work in an ordinary set course, to be prodigies or signs above and beyond the natural and ordinary course of the creature; and created them on purpose, even in the time of man's innocence, for this end especially and principally to be presages of direful events. Nor is that of any other nature, which there he subjoins, that we have now a days far oftener and more direful Eclipses, then in ancient times were seen. as if the Heavens were in another course now, then they held in times past: like the tale that the Egyptian Priests told Herodote, that within the compass of time, whereof they had records, the Sun had altered his course, I remember not how oft, from West to East, and from East to West again.

But to leave Peucer, and return to Mr. Lily again, whether of the two he shall please to pitch upon, I shall demand of him, who told him, or whence he knows, that God hath appointed these Eclipses, being such occurrence as come in a constant natural course, to have such significations, or operations, as he would bear us in hand.

Neither let him think here to stop our mouths with the instance of the Rainbow, which yet in his margin he fathers on one Causinus a Jesuit, and in his context he makes way too with an Introduction of non-sense in these words; Shall we then say, or be so innocent of the heavenly ordinances, as to deny this great Luminarie some influence upon human and mundane affairs, or to be so stupid, as to think when this light is obscured from us, (if he mean, withdrawn from us, is it not so every night?) that there is nothing thereby signified unto mortal men? Sint in signa & tempora. God created the two Lights, or Sun and Moon for signs and seasons. And what is that at all to your purpose? But let us hear him out, though we know not well, nor he himself▪ it may be▪ neither, what it is that he would say, when he ch • rges us with innocence, a grievous either defect, or default ; unless his meaning be that we are no better then such selie creatures, as men commonly call Innocents. Who doubts (saith he, and Mr. Causine, it seems, with him) that the Rainbow is natural? and yet God hath appointed it the presage or forerunner of fair weather to be at hand. so an Eclipse, without question, (for it is these men's guise to be very peremptory) the world being troubled by the defect of the Luminaries, Sun or Moon, (how more then in every cloudy day, or every dark night?) is ever attended, as by experience we know, with diseases, sad accidents, as concomitants of it.

Sir, all this blustering wind shakes no corn at all with us: 'tis our stupidity, it may be, that makes us like stones.

1. Your Rainbow instance nothing avails you.

1. Its natural indeed, but comes not in any constant cours, as Eclipses do, and cannot therefore be certainly foretold, as they may.

2. That God hath appointed it to be a sign of fair weather at hand ; is most untru, in plain English, a gros lie, and a charging of God to have assigned it to be a sign of that which usually it is not. it is a sign rather of rain and storms not seldom at hand; which being sometime forewarned of by it, though I have put spurs to my hors, and mended my pace to prevent, I have not ben able to escape, but ben wet to the skin, ere I could get shelter. It is therefore reckoned up by Autors, who entreat of that subject, among such signs as usually give warning of rain and showers approaching, a double one especially. whence also the epithets given it of arcus pluvius, the rainy, and imbrifer▪ the showrie, or shower bringing bow. And you wrong your Author the Jesuit, as you did another of them before, him but for want of understanding his Latin, this to make him speak what you please. Your Author saith serenitatis rediturae, that serenity shall returm, but he tells you not when; much les doth he say, of fair weather at hand.

3. God made the Rain-bow a sign and a solemn one of the Promise or Covenant, that with Noa he made in behalf of the whole world, that he would never drown the whole world again. And yet, saith Pliny well, Arcus vocamus extra miraculum freq ••• s, & extra ostentum. nam ne pluvios qidem aut serenos dies, cum fide portendunt. Rainbows as we call them, ar freqent, without miracle, without presage, for they do not certainly foreshow so much as either serene or rainy days. But Sr. show the like record, where God assigned Eclipses to foreshow or effect such sad matters as you say, as we know and can show, that he hath designed the Rainbow to ascertain of no second Deluge, and we will lay our hands on our mouths, as having no ground herein to gainsay you: which unless you can do, your reason from the Rainbow is not worth a rotten Raisin.

Mean while, Sr. do not conceive us to be such selie animals, as to be born down with the bare names, of Hermes, Hali Rodoan▪ Baranzanus, Ptolemy, Plotinus, Proclus, Rigel, Origan, Cardan, &c. the whole rabble of them, that say thus and thus. their authority is in these matters with us of as much weight as your own, both as light as a feather, or a little dry thistle down. this is all but as we use to say, Ask my fellow, whether I be a thief. We expect other records to assure us of God's appointments and designments in matters of this nature. And here Sr. I shall be so bold as to mind you again of your former assertion, which you had no list to take notice of, when you were raking in that puddle (as you are pleased to entitle it) of nonsense; to wit, where to justify the warrantableness of your practice, you affirm, that The good Angels in former ages at first by personal conference acquainted the sons of Men with this learning of the Stars, which you profess and practice: which Holy men, living many years, in a purer air, where they curiously observed the Planets and their motions, brought this art (to wit, of fortune telling, such as in these your rapsodies and rabblements you maintain) to some maturity, without the least hint of superstition. These are your own words out of your own works which you cannot deny. And now I renew my challenge again. Either make these your words good out of some Authentic Record ; or let the World hereby know and take notice, that you are a manifest Imposter, a palpable Liar, a fraudulent coiner and broacher of fictions and fables, to procure credit to your cheating practices; one that fills people's heds with frivolous tales, to make them believe, that your fortune-telling by the Stars, was at first taught men by good Angels, when you are not able to produce any sound proof for what herein you assert, but put it off only (after your wonted manner of dealing with others, when they deal with your freehold, and touch you to the qick) that the Autor is a Wiseaker, and his Annotation a puddle of non-sense.

2. In the next place you appeal to Observation and Experience. We know, say you, by experience, that Eclipses are ever attended with diseases, sad accidents, as concomitants of them.

But, 1. What year almost passeth over our heds without someone Eclipse or other? Or what year goeth away without diseases and sad accidents? and must the Eclipses therefore bring them?

2. If these sad accidents be the concomitants of them, how is it that you tell us elsewhere, that this great Eclipse threatens no danger to men or cattle that be abroad in it ? yea that it may effect nothing at all til many months after ? directly contrary to what out of Peucer you before also told us, that they presage miseries to be near at hand, or to follow presently after these Eclipses. though it is true, that not Peucer, but yourself so speak; for you put in, as your manner is, more then he says.

3. If sad accidents ever attend Eclipses, how comes it to pass that this terrible Eclipse, the like whereunto hath not ben in this age, should portend so much honor and success to our present Common-wealth, in all their undertakings, as shall make them most glorious ; as this our Wizard ye heard before told us, and says he is confident of it. and again where he gives us in his Imagerie work of it, such as was before shown, he saith, If he shall further expatiate his mind concerning the greatness of this Eclipse, he believes he shall go very near to hit the mark aright in what he shall there deliver. And yet compare what concerning the present State in relation to this Eclipse, the man saith in these places, with what in his New Ephemeris for the next year, he speaks at large as confidently the other way, and that with threatening terms too; If after this opposition of Saturn and Jupiter (who, think we, Christened those two Stars thus?) this Autoritie, under which we groan, the body of its fabrik standing upon a very tottering foundation, shall enforce us to some new or illegal Assesment, or by way of raising money (the coherence of his context here is beyond my skill) upon any pretence whatsoever, except against the slovenly Dutch; I am confident, we of the Commonaltie, joining with the Souldierie, shall assume so much liberty to ourselves, as to choose and elect such Members hereafter, &c. and we shall endeavor so strictly to call unto account each Member of this Parliament, who have fingered out Treasure, that we shall leave many of them as naked as when they came out of their Mothers womb. If any, I say, shall collate these his former and latter predictions together, he will, I suppose, easily guess, though he be no Wizard, that the man, since he writ the former, is (for some cause, whatsoever it be) fallen out with the State ; and genus irritabile vatum ; these cole-Prophets are a very waspish generation, they have as well shrewd stings in their tails, to strike those that displease them, as honey of glossings and flatteries in their mouths, to sooth up and stroke those, whom they desire to fawn upon and to please: for, habent & vespae favos suos; wasps have their honey-combs as well as bees, saith Tertullian. But it may justly be suspected, there is a pad in the straw, there is some mystery in it, which shalow capacities, such as he saith our poor Priests are, are not able to understand, that this terra filius, this son of the earth, dare prate in so high a strain, like brag in the by-word, the little parlor puppie, that he and the hounds would pul down the deer. I will not stand to dispute with him, whether the Celestial Edicts, or the Oracles that he telleth us he reads in the Book of Heaven, go with such Ifs and Ands, or no. But suppose some poor Presbyterian, or some prick-eard Priest, as he scoffingly styles them, had writ ought in this manner; We the Presbyterie, or Ministry, calling into us the Communalty, and joining with the Souldierie will cal you Parliament men to an account, unless you take better courses then some of you have done : would not this man, think ye, have set up his bristles, and ben ready to cry out, that here these seditious Priests and Presbyterians show themselves in their colors, and seek to domineer, not over Gentry and Commonalty only, but over the Parliament itself ? But these Wizards it seems, are privileged persons: it is safer for them to lay all level before tnem, then for some poor Presbyter but to peep over the fence. In his Preface to his spik and span New Ephemeris, he makes his Entrance with a grievous complaint of a multitude of scandalous libels, two dozen of vinegar Pamphlets, and two dozen and an half, thirty at least of thumping Presbyterian Priests, that belcht out somewhat of non-sense against Anglicus and Astrology. (for they write and speak all non-sense, that offer to deal with him & his freehold) and to encite the Parliament to pass an Act for the suppressing of such irregular Libellers, he tells them, he holds it no dishonor for himself to be abused in print, having seen the worthy Members of Parliament served in the same kind. (the base cheater, that makes Fortune-telling his trade, would fain go in eqipage with those of the highest rank in the present State) and that unless they do so (that is, unless they stop men's mouths, and stay men's pens from further preaching or printing ought against him and his trade) if the State suffer more in this kind, they may thank themselves for it. Surely the Man accounts himself a privileged person; he hath belike gotten a patent; not ad imprimendum, but ad traducendum & conviciandum solum ; he may by virtu of his privilege, in the basest satyrical and sarcastical terms tax and traduce whom he list, the main body of Christ's Ministry among us, under the style of Prick-eard Priests, Pulpit-Praters, Black-coats, and the like, and yet no man may presume to give him a cross word, or to return him his own again. and the truth is, his Merlins are not so much Astrological predictions, as Satires and Pasqils, to play upon whom he pleaseth; the Ministry especially, which in the most of them he makes ever and anon the main burden of his song, because his hate and spite is most against them. But may not some other indifferent and well-minded make question, (though with such puzzeling qestions Mr. L. professeth that he desires not to be troubled) whether it may not be with as good ground said; M. L. with a full and foul mouth belcheth out much base language at large against the main body of Christ's Ministry among us, such as in no Christian State would be endured, and is so bold as to present his scurrilous and satyrical rabblements of this nature to the Body of the State; wherein to incite the people to refuse to pay Tithes to their Ministers, to which by the Laws of the Land unrepealed, they have as good right, as any in the State to any just debt or rents whatsoever; withal enforming them, that God himself tells them by the late Eclipse and other aspects, that it is his will, and he hath so disposed of it, that they be inclined thereunto: and this since that the State hath seemed to connive at, if he shall proceed in like manner to be as bold and saucy with them, and to encite people likewise to refuse to pay anymore taxes, and shall read them a lesson out of the same Book of God, that he hath in his providence so disposed it, and by Mr. L. one of his Prophets, who is well read in this Book, which few of those that are falsely called Divines, understand ought at all in, doth acqaint them with it, that if such taxes be continued, they shall join with the Souldierie, and make hed against those that do impose them; if, I say, he shall so deal also with them, or rather, for that he hath already so dealt with them, they may thank themselves, that have hitherto suffered him in this manner to rant and rail upon those, whom they ought by their power and place to protect against such professed enemies and traducers of those, whom God hath taken so near to himself.

But here Mr. L. forsooth thinks he can easily salve all that he hath said in his base and scurrilous language against the Ministry. for in his Preface to his late Merlin, he desires his Reader to be so civil (so sottish, he should have said) as when he finds his pen somewhat sharp against the Priests, to understand, that he oweth unto the modest and learned Divine, all love, all reverence ; (a debt indeed, that whether he will or no, he shall ever ow, though he never intend to pay) nor in the least measure intends the whole Ministry, (though he yoke Monkerie and Ministry in express terms together) but only such as rant daily against Astrology, (that is the noli me tangere, the subject that must not be dealt with) disturb our Parliament, (so they must all needs do, that discover the mysteries of his conie-catching trade) unjustly oppress the Countryman with Tithes, (as Landlords do by reqiring their rent) and molest all Parishes, where they come, with pride and Lordlinesse. (Lord Bishops belike all the poor Presbyters ar now become) A very fair and specious Gloss ; wherein yet this Merlins brat (for I hope he will not refuse to own him as his Ancester, whose name he bears) writes after a far more eminent Copy. King James a Prince of more policy then puissance, while he was yet King of Scotland, penned, or owned, at least, a Book entitled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; which whoso shall advisedly read, though of no very sharp eyesight or deep reach, yet may easily descry a Design carried all along in it, to ingratiate himself, with the Popish side, by commending the fidelity of his Mothers servants, as to her, so to himself, with the Prelatical party, by giving them hope of continuing that government that he should find here established, with the Common people, by allowing them their May-games and the like sports: only he had bitterly expressed himself in high terms against the poor Puritans, whom he least feared, and deemed generally disaffected by those other three parties. Howbeit, when the time drew near of Qeen Elisabeths departure, that his qiet coming in might not meet with any disturbance from that party, he prefixed a Preface to his Book then reprinted, wherein on his Honor he protesteth, that by the name of Puritans he meant, not all Preachers in general, or others, that misliked the Ceremonies as badges of Popery, and the Episcopacy as smelling of a Papal Supremacy, but did eqally love the learned and grave on either side; intended only such brainsick and heddy Preachers, that leaned too much to their own d • eams, contemned all authority, counted all profane that would not swear to all their fantasies, &c. but whether his carriage toward such of that side, who went under that name, when he came to the Crown here, argued such an eqal affection and love to them, I had rather any other should consider, then myself say. And this our Wizard may as well hope to walk abroad stark naked, or with a net only cast over him, unseen, as with such a sory disguise as this is, to cast such a mist before men's eyes, to keep them from taking notice, whom he intends and strikes at, his own expressions and professions, as hath formerly been manifested, making it to appear as clearly and conspicuously as the light at Noon day.

5. What he tells us so peremptorily, We know, I say, by experience▪ that Eclipses are ever so attended. by what experience I would fain know, can this man come to know, that they are ever so attended ? He tells us elsewhere indeed, that for any memorable Eclipse that falls out in the Ram, the event either for good or bad (of which clause before) is assuredly grounded upon the experience of twenty generations of men. which, though it come far short of his Ever here, yet is far more then he by his own knowledge and experience is able to reach unto. And doth not Pliny tell us, that the Heathen Wizards did as confidently avow the constant experience of 800 years and upward for their divinations by the flight of fowls, and bowels of beasts, and the efficacy of their magical spells and charms ? and we may well believe, that Mr. L. can as well proov the one, as they the other, and give as much credit therefore to the one as to the other. But his Ever here goeth far beyond either, and may well come home to that tempus immensum, that immensity of time, that time before all time, that reckoning of 472000 years before Alexanders days, that the Chaldee Wisards affirmed their observations of the course of the Stars to have ben continued; yea or that account, though falling far short of that, of 40000 years, that the pleader for the Chaldeans, that is the Astrologers, their judgment of genitures in Tully, would raise up their experience unto, affirming it to be reported, that the Babylonians had constantly made observation thereof in the birth of all children born with them for so many thousands of years, before any indeed were bred or born. Unto which vain and hyperbolical assertion Tully wisely makes answer, (though he had not that notice of the time of the worlds creation that we have) that that report was not possible to be justified and made good by any sound proof. and to the Argument in general concerning their Astrologers taken from the constant experience of Events, he returns them a flat denial. Perspicuum est multa vera evadere. qid qod multo plura falsa? qota enim qae{que} res evenit praedicta ab istis? It is apparent, saith he, you will say, that many of their predictions have proved true. but how many more false? for how small a number of things by these men foretold hath fallen out accordingly as they foretold ? And Favorine a great Philosopher is so bold as to say, Prae eis qae mentiuntur, pars ea non fit millesima ; that not one of a thousand things they foretell, proves true. That which also one Weidner a learned Physician saith of the Wisards of these times, that take upon them to foretell future events by the conjunctions of the Planets, as Kepler reports him, not dissenting therein from him,

that they light by hap-hazard upon a few truths now and then, amongst a thousand lies they tell. And as that Noble Earl of Mirandula hath left upon record, a particular Register of not a few of his near kindred, allies, and familiar acquaintance, in whom these predictions, though grounded upon such calculations and applications, had of his knowledge failed: So Tully likewise gives many instances hereof, out of his own observation in these words, Qid plura? qotidie refelluntur: What needs many words? they are by experience daily refuted. How many things do I remember to have ben told by them to Pompey? how many to Crassus? how many to Caesar? among other things, that no one of them, but should live til he were old; should die at home in his own house, and that with much honor. none of all which fell out accordingly. Ut mihi permirum videatur, qenqam extare, qi etiamnunc credat eis, qorum edicta videat re & eventis refelli. Insomuch, saith he, that to me it seems very wonderful, that there should any be extant, that would still believe those, whom by the things themselves and the events he may see daily refuted. Hence the Tragik He defines a Wizard, one that tells a few truths among many lies. and by Seneca it appears, that in his time it was grown to a common by-word, Patere Mathematicos aliqando verum dicere. Give Mathematicians leave sometime to tell true. Yea concerning this particular of Eclipses which directly crosseth Mr. Lilies ever, Alstedius observes, Experientiam testari, visis Eclipsibus, saepe fertilissimos, saluberrimos, & exoptatissimos subsecutos annos. that Experience testifies (and gives in evidence against him) that after such Eclipses seen, have ensued most fertile, most wholesome, most desirable years.

But will ye know the reason, why so many cross events, and such as these men have foretold, came to be upon record? Diodore the Sicilian Historiographer will tell you, as by Photios he is related, who speaking of one Eunus, deemed in his days a great Wizard, Among many things, saith he, that he gave out, some few fell out accordingly, and, dum vera qis{que} sedulo notat, falsa nemo coarguit, while everyone observed sedulously what proved true, no man regarded to convince him of those things that proved false, the man in short time grew into great credit. In fewer words take it from the Lord Verulame, Men mark how they hit, mark not how they miss. that which that judicious Statesman notes to be a principal cause, that hath procured to their predictions some grace and credit. but his Verdict of them he passeth in these terms, My judgment is, that they ought all to be despised, and to serv but for winter talk by the fire side. Tho, when I say despised, I mean it as for belief. for otherwise the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised. for they have done much mischief. (that which Agrippa a great Statesman also minded Augustus of) and I see many severe Laws made to suppress them, that which Mr. Calvin also hath observed.

Lastly when diseases and sad accidents come after Eclipses, must it needs follow that they are produced by them? That we have had after this last Solar Eclipse a scorching summer and a sickly Autumn, must this great Eclipse therefore needs be the cause of it? how many hot summers and sickly Autumns, yea pestilential both, without any such remarkable Eclipse ushering them in? have we not almost every year towards the fall of the leaf, new diseases, as they call them? yea, if as this our Wisard enformes us, the effect of an Eclipse may not begin to take place, or the Eclipse to produce its work until eight months after, how can it be certainly said, that ought which since that hitherto hath fallen out, (to wit) from March to November ) hath from this Eclipse proceeded, and yet we must believe him, that the Eclipse of the Sun, that was on the second of October 1605. did produce that hellish Powder plot, that had ben so long before in design, and should have ben put in execution the fifth of November next following. But these men are the drivers at the plough or harrow of their own contrivances, and can qicken or slacken the drift at their pleasure. Mean while their sophisms are very frequent for the most part in that fallacy of non caussa ut caussa. And their arguing from the events ensuing after Eclipses, to prove them to be effects of those Eclipses after which they ensued, and the Eclipses the Efficients or producers of them may well be paralleled with the Judgment of that grave snowie-white hayred and goodly long bearded Old man, who being demanded by Sir Thomas More sent down into Kent, and then sitting in Commission, to make inqirie concerning the Obstructions of Sandwich Haven, what he deemed might be the cause thereof, & whence he deemed the thing might proceed; as conceiving by his years, and long time of observation and experience, he might be able to say more in that matter then most of them then there present, did to that his demand very solemnly and seriously return this answer, that in his remembrance Tenderden parish Church had no Steeple, neither had it had any time out of mind before, and the passage into the haven at Sandwich was then very fair and clear; But after the building of Tenterden Church Steeple the Haven began to be obstructed and Choked; as then it was. Whence arose that by-word of Tenterden Steeple and goodwins sands : not unfitlie appliable to these terrible Eclipses and the pretended Effects of them. for the Argument, will be, as valide and vigorous in the one as in the other. Or we may well yoke our Wizards herein with our Empirik qacksalvers, who having a set number of medicines, when they come to a Patient, of whose malady they are ignorant, give him first one medicine, and after that another, and then it may be a third; and if it so come to pass, that by the strength of nature over-mastering the disease, or the matter that fed it being wasted and spent, or by some occurrent intervening, the party come to recover, the cure is by them ascribed to the medicine last given, and that is pricked down with a probatum est upon it, albeit it effected nothing at all in it. and howsoever by this course they kill more then they cure; and where any chance to be cured, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as he speaks, they are cured rather by hap hazard then by any their skil. Yet there is a register made of those that recover, but no record kept usually of such as miscarry, and the less regard had, or notice taken, of the one then of the other, because as one sometime said, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their lucky haps the Sun shows, their mishaps the grave covers. In like manner is it with these Wizards, whatsoever distemper in the air, or unseasonable weather, or bad harvest, or strange malady, or great mortality, or war, or seditions, or sad accident whatsoever falls out in a land, all is set upon the score of the Eclipse last past, though it cannot be shown to have had any hand in it, and by other courses it were both procured and produced▪ and when such things are by gues foretold of them, (according to the old saying,

though their predictions fail oftener, then fall out aright, and what falls out aright, doth in regard of them come to pass rather, by mere conjecture and casualty, then by any certain fore knowledge, or well-grounded rules of art ; yet being observed to have fallen out so in some Eclipses that have ben regarded, that is reckoned to have proceeded from the Eclipse, that was no more thereof guilty, then the Man in the Moon, or the thorns at his back; whereas though never so oft it fall out otherwise, there is little notice thereof taken, and a multitude of Eclipses pass away (as in this regard they all well may) without any regard at all. If after this or the like Eclipse therefore, any strange judgment should ensu, any unusual malady grow rife among us, or other dismal event befall us, a vain thing twere to ascribe it to the Eclipses or defections of the Lights in the sky, that cannot be shown in the nature thereof, to portend any such event, or to produce any such effect. Well may we do rather to call to mind and consider in such cases, what he sometime said, Morbos novos novi peperere mores: and, Morbos multos fercula multa fecerunt. that, New fangled devices bred many new diseases : and, Variety of diseases sprang from variety of dishes. implying, that the excess and riot of the times were the main cause of many unusual maladies, and strange diseases, that had not formerly ben so much known, or so rife in those parts. And surely if we shall in these days look into men's minds, or cast an ey upon men's lives and consider, what variety of new and strange conceits, tending to impiety and profaneness, to loosnes and licentiousness ar rife in the one, and what an height of rancknes those wicked weeds springing up amain from such cursed seeds are shot up unto in the other; and that accompanied with such a shameful degree of shamelesnes that they do no more now, as in former times, skulk in the dark, but dare open faced without mask or veil stalk in the streets, qasi pudeat non esse impudentes, as he sometime said, as if people were grown ashamed of nothing save to seem ashamed of anything : we may with much better ground both from Reason and Religion, then any these Wizards give for their assertions herein, deem the procuring and producing cause of such evils, to consist not in defectibus & deliquiis, as they term them, in the defect of the light in those glorious Luminaries above our heds in the heavens, as this Fortune-teller and his complices do, but in the abundance of defection from God and goodness in men's hearts, and the boundless deluge of delinqencie in all manner of impiety and impurity, and that joined with impunity, (matter of dreadful and direful presage indeed) overflowing in men's lives, that may justly seem to wrest and wring judgment out of God's hand, lest by his longer forbearance he should wrong himself, and give wicked wretches occasion to think, him to be like themselves, and to like well enugh of their detestable practices and abominable designs.

But to what purpose doth this man talk to us of Antiqitie, and of Hali, and Ptolemy, and Plotinus, and Proclus, and Albumazar, and Baranzanus, or of Rigel, Origan, Cardan, Leovitius, Dafypodius, &c. or of long experience of former ages, when as he vaunts of himself, as Lucretius sometime, with alteration of a word,

So he professeth and glorieth, that he walks in those uncouth paths, that no former Autor had trodden in. and makes his brags, that he hath begun a new manner of Astrology, either not known to the Ancients, or omitted in their writings.

And how can any of those Autors, be they of never so great Autoritie, either ancienter or of later times, attest unto him, or he receive any confirmation of his Assertions from them, that are wholly silent of, and not unjustly therefore hence deemed by him, if it be so, as he affirms it to be, utterly unacqainted with the way that he walks in? unless they should speak by way of Prophecy, of his new manner of Astrology, as Alabaster saith that Solomon did of that new manner of Exposition of Scripture, that should come to light in these latter days and was revealed unto him. Or how could there be observations taken, and experiments made by other before him of that which before him no man (that appears) was privy to, until either it was of late revealed unto him, or else he stumbled into unawares?

Howbeit to stop all our mouths as he thinks, and make us keep our wind and pens for other purposes hereafter, he tells us he hath Ficinus that excellent learned Priest (so he styles him; and so they must needs all be, that write ought in defense or favor of him or his art) on his side; one belike that had dreamed somewhat of his way before; and the opinion of this man (which what it is, and how far forth M. L. therein either closeth with him or swarves for him, hath already ben shown) he saith, he esteems more, then a thousand of our own Priests, who blame Astrology because it is above their capacity.

We will not stand to question Ficinus his excellent learning ; he was no doubt of much learning for the times he lived in. Howbeit the learned of these later times have esteemed his translations of Plato but barbarous pieces; and some of them have pronounced them to be no other then Plato turned out of his choice purple robes into course beggarly rags. Nor doth M. L. speak much out of him, which before ye heard: and I forbear to speak what by others he is reported to affirm of the uncertainty of their predictions, not having his books by me. But let Ficinus be what Mr. L. pleaseth. M. L. his Art, it seems, is a very profound Mystery, such an one, as our English Priests shalow capacity is not able to comprehend. and he closeth up therefore his Discourse, concerning the Effects of this Solar Eclipse and his predictions thereof, with this Motto, Qi potest capere, capiat. nor is it marvel, that his Astrology should so far transcend their scanty comprehension, when, as you have heard before, it consists of such new notions and strange conceptions, as the former Masters and Professers of this Mysterious Art were altogether unacqainted withal. And a Mystery be it. but sure enough not that Mysterium pietatis ; that Mystery of piety or godliness, that the Apostle speaks of, 1 Tim. 3.16. rather Mysterium impietatis, a Mystery of impiety or ungodliness ; or Mysterium iniqitatis; a Mystery of iniqitie and wickedness, as the same Apostle elsewhere, consisting of lying signs and wonders, tending to deceive and delude people, and by strong delusions to seduce them from the truth, and induce them to believe lies, 2 Thess. 2.7, 9—11. Such a Mystery, as the scarlet whore carried in her forehed, the Mother of fornications, and witcheries, wherewith she bewitched and infatuated the inhabitants of the earth, Rev. 17.5. Or such a Mystery, as those were, the Gentiles used in the sacrilegious services of their counterfeit God's▪ which Clemens of Alexandria in derision of them said, might well be termed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , qasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .i. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , muscipulae, moustraps, invented to take and hold fast selie people, like mice. nor indeed are these men's mysteries any other then mere decipulae, cheating gins, contrived and set on purpose, by cunning men, as people commonly cal them, thereby to coniecatch, selie souls, simple creatures, such as Solomon's harlot invites to her, Prov. 9.16. and by making their purses lighter to make their own pockets the heavier.

But, Sir, suppose that our English Priests were all of such shalow capacity ▪ were all of them such Wiseakers in regard of you Wizards, that not one of them were able to conceive or comprehend the abstruse secrets of your Science, is that the only reason why they blame Astrology ? Or were all those such blockheds and du • pated Dunces, who not blamed it only, but rejected, refuted, arraigned, and condemned it long before them? Or are they all such as in like manner condemn it at this day? Or was it their ignorance in the fideral science that induced them all so to do? To look back to Antiqity, another manner of Antiqitie then M. L. can show for his Magical Imagerie. And here not to repeat again what was before said of Anaxagoras: we shall ad of Socrates, in whose steps Plato precisely trod, only what Xenophon reporteth, that concerning Astrology or Astronomy (for he uses those terms promiscuously) being demanded his judgment, he gave his advice, that men should so far forth exercise themselves in the study of the Stars, as to attain thereby to an exact account of day and night, months and years ; and as use might be made thereof for journey by land, or voyage by Sea; but for further curiosities for men to spend much time therein, he deemed not so profitable, (albeit, saith Xenophon, he were in such things not unskillful himself) partly, because it might withdraw a man from the study of things more useful, and partly because it would not be pleasing to the God's, for men to be enqiring into those things, the knowledge whereof they had concealed, and reserv to themselves. And as for those that out of Plato's School succeeded him. Eudoxus, saith Tully, one of Plato's auditors, and one for his skil in Astrology by the judgment of the most learned without difficulty deemed the chief in those days, was of this opinion, which he left also in writing, that unto Chaldeans in their predictions and designments of men's lives from the time of their birth there is no credit to be given. Panetius also (saith he) a prime man among the Stoiks reporteth that Archelaus, and Cassander the chiefest Astrologers of the age wherein he lived, though in the other parts of Astrology they excelled; yet this kind of prediction or foretelling by the Stars they used not; and these Astrological Predictions he himself also rejecteth. Scylax also of Halicarnasse, a familiar friend of Panetius, an excellent Astrologer, and a chief man in the government of that City, repudiated all this Chaldaiacal kind of prediction. Was it out of mere ignorance then that these men gave in their verdict thus against such kind of predictions? or was it out of any inability and incapacity to attain unto any secrets in Nature, that these our late upstart Wizards, who profess to proceed in a natural way, have now attained, but were then beyond those men's reach? or is it since their times, that those good Angels, Mr. L. speaks of, have revealed these mysteries, to such holy men as Mr. L. and the like? of their rare skil in the genuine part of Astrology, you hear what ample testimony and by whom it is given them. and if there be any other Eleusinian rites, or Magician Mysteries, that these our Wizards exercise, dealing with the Devil in the dark, I suppose had they ben acquainted with them, being judicious men and genuine Artists, they would never a whit have liked the better of their concealed, covert, and counterfeit art.

But come we down to lower and later times. Was Joannes Picus, that Illustrious Count of Mirandula, such a dull pate? or was it out of mere ignorance of their profound mysteries, that he blamed Astrology? he was for his piercing wit and depth of judgment in most Sciences, styled in those times the Miracle of the age he lived in. and he wrote twelve books, yet extant, against this Judicial Astrology. of which Jerome Savanarola, (how acute and judicious a man, his works show) gives this censure; Qi Pici Mirandulani libros de Astrologiâ legerit & intellexerit, ne{que} Astrologiam irriserit, dignus ipse est, qi ab omnibus derideatur. He that having with understanding read Picus his books of Astrology, derides not Astrology, deserves of all men to be derided himself. Or is Claudius Salmasius, one who in these times, for his extraordinary variety of learning, as well deservs the Title given Picus, as either of the two Scaligers, Joseph his Predecessor, or Julius his Father, either of whom some learned men have so entitled, such another ignoramus in this Wizards esteem? who in his late elaborate discourse of the Critical Days, and his Preface thereunto prefixed, hath shrewdly shaken the main foundations of their Supposititious Science ; and it may justly be hoped, will so utterly raze them, as that not only no coin, but no rag will be left toward the raising and reedifying of it, when he shall go on with his promised work in that Argument.

Mean while he hath sufficiently discovered the vanity and looseness of their grounds and principles, and evidently shown, how deep he hath dived into these their so much vaunted of, and highly esteemed Mysteries. Or was John Kepler, the Emperor Rodolphs Mathematician, such a selie fellow, and of so shalow a capacity, that he could not reach their Mysteries? who charges them as ignorant and unskillful for the most part in regard of any exactness in the genuine part of Astronomy, lays open at large the deepest of their Mysteries, discovers their errors and mistakes in their own principles, that which Salmasius also oft doth; yea writes as bitterly and tartly against them, as any other whosoever, as hereafter shall be shown: and freely professeth, that being urged and importuned to write somewhat in that way, his mind enured to Geometrical Demonstrations, considering the unsoundness and qagginesse of their grounds, it fared with it as with a restive jade, or hed-strong horse, that coming to a slow, hangs back, and cannot by any beating or rating of his rider, be brought, to set foot into it. But to come home to ourselves; and here to pass by all other; nor to recall the Lord Verulame, whom some learned have conceived to be one specially raised up to help to bring Arts and Sciences on in this latter age towards their perfection: and what his judgment was of these fopperies and fooleries, ye heard before. That Noble Lord Henry Howard, after Earl of Northhampton, was he also a mere Wiseaker, as well as all our Priests are? He treading in the same steps which that renowned Italian Count before him had, though undertaking a larger subject, in his Defensative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies, grounded either upon the Warrant and Autoritie, of old painted Books, (one of Mr. Lilies engines, or gins) Expositions of Dreams, Oracles, Revelations, Invocation of damned spirits, Judicials of Astrology, or any pretended knowledge de futuris contingentibus, that have ben the causes of great disorder, and chiefly among the simple and unlerned people, &c. He, I say, in that worthy Work of his, for elegancy of phrase and fluencie of speech▪ mixed with great variety of learning and reading, very delightful to any learned reader, as he hath evidently manifested how well seen and versed he was in the writings of the grand-Masters of that Mystery, and how well acquainted with their abstrusest Doctrines, as also Picus before him was; so he hath with that eagerness and vehemency of spirit, together with such sinewie strength and force of reason, pursued this pretended Art of Judiciarie Astrology, that none of its Professors or Patrones that ever I could yet hear of, have had the heart, by any just Reply to turn face again upon him, or to make hed against him. And it is but a sory Exception, for Mr. L. to tell us, that the Gentleman was learned, but never made it less appear then in that discourse, intending to confute that subject, of which he knew very little, and his book therefore was never thought worthy of answer. a very handsome and easy put off. but any impartial learned, that shall read the discourse, will, I doubt not, conclude, that Mr. L. for this his censure deservs, as one of his Antagonists faith of him, to ride blind Bayard.

Hereby then it may appear, that it is not our dull English Priests or Presbyterians only, that out of mere ignorance and incapacity find fault with their Astrology ; but that other then they, such as for skil as well as for their rank otherwise would have scorned to have M L. one that lives by such cheating, and makes a trade of it, sit on the same form with them, have as vehementlie opposed it, and as deeply damned it as any of those do.

For myself, I profess not to have any great insight into these depths of darkness, nor do I desire to pry over far into them. Kepler assures me if I wast much precious time that way, I shall but bonas horas male collocare, spend good hours to ill purpose. and M. L. himself hath much discouraged me from attempting further in this kind, and made me utterly despair of doing ought therein with success, when in the very first of his worthy Astrological Aphorisms, he intimates, that a man shall not easily give any certain Judgment in these matters, unless he be naturally well affected to Astrology. which to this of theirs I confess I never was. Howbeit I was sometime an unprofitable hearer of M. Henry Brigges, when he was Mathematical Lecturer in St. Johns College Cambridge, and continued acquaintance there begun afterward with him, when I was Preacher at Lincolns Inn, and he Reader at Gresham College, during which time repairing now and then occasionally to him, among other discourse that passed between us, I desired him ingenuouslie to impart to me his judgment concerning this kind of judicial Astrology, whereunto he returned a very round and ready answer, that he conceived it to be a mere System of groundless conceits. and as M. L. saith of Ficinus, that excellent learned Priest in M. Ls. esteem, so shall I say of M. Brigges, that excellent learned Mathematician, not in mine alone, but in the unanimous repute and report of persons of Prime note for Skil in those Sciences both at home with us and abroad, I esteem the opinion of M. Brigges more then of a thousand Lilies, and Naworths, and Bookers, and the rest of that rank and rabble.

I shall conclude with the Verdict of M. Henry Bullinger; the rather to show that they ar not the Presbyterians only, that have an ill opinion of Astrology, or ar ill affected thereunto: He was a Minister of no small note in the Helveti •• Churches, who had not in his times admitted the Presbyterian Government, nor do, for ought I can hear or learn, to this day. His verdict, which you may find in his Commentary on Jer. 10.2. concerning this Kind of creatures is as sharp as short, this in plain down right terms.

Astrologos Impostorum omnium maximos; that these Astrologers ar of all Imposters the greatest: And we may indeed say well of the trade they profess and practice, as Tully of that of the Sortiaries, whom he yokes together with the Chaldees. Tota res est inventa fallaciis, aut ad qaestum, aut ad superstitionem, aut ad errorem. It consists all of fallacies, invented, either for gain, or for superstition, or for maintenance of some error. Nor can it choose but much sad the Spirits of those that truly love and Sincerelie fear God, to see the professed Practisers of such Impostures, who in former times had wont to lurk & skulk in corners, like Bats and owls, night birds, shunning the light, for fear of being called in question, and undergoing such public civil censures, as some of them sometime did, should in these pretended and professed times of reformation take that boldness to themselves, not only, as some of them, to past up papers upon posts, therein professing to help people to goods lost again, to tell if a servant be run away from his Master, which way he is gone, those that intend marriage, whether their matches will be succesful, such as are bound to Sea, whether their Voyage will be advantageous, those that have friends at Sea, or beyond Sea, where they are and in what condition, and when they will return, &c. and all this by the Stars (that which I since find M. L also to profess publickelie in print) but to dedicate to the State itself, as this man presumes to do, writings stuffed with the like stuf for the nature of them, but soaring aloaft in an higher strain, Fortelling the fortunes of whole Countries and Kingdoms, and endeavoring thereby to induce, if he may, those that have the rains of Government in their hands to Patronize these his impious impostures, and taking upon him to direct them what courses to take in the managing of State affairs. Whereunto he may be thought to have ben the rather encouraged, because he saw his elder Brother M. Booker, whom yet he hath now got the start of, so far forth countenanced by the State, as to be inserted into the list of the Licencers of somewhat the like books. and in some Verses therefore prefixed to this his Black Book he makes his Brags, that they have leave now nudis Verbis, in naked words, or plain terms, to say that which before save in dark riddles they durst not. and elsewhere that the Land doth now begin to abound with Astrologers, as Judea did with Soothsayers, Isaiah 2.6. which made God to forsake his people. He tells us in his late Merlin, that this is Vox populi all over the Nation, (hath he that also by the Stars ? if so. why is it not rather, Vox coeli? if not so, he is out of his element) that no good can be expected, while Priests meddle with State-affairs, or any of the Priesthood (ye see whom his gal is most against, the Priesthood as he terms it, that is, the Ministry, in general) are directing and counseling the Parliament or Council of State. But I suppose, it may much more truly be said, that it is rather the general sense of those that are truly religious throughout the whole land, and that this their sense is Vox Dei, being grounded upon his will revealed in his Word, that little good success can be expected in State-affairs, if the Governers thereof shall patronize such as these are, whose courses are so repugnant to the rules of God's Word, or shall advise with them, as Saul did with the she-wizard at Endor, making use of them as Pilots, to direct them what course to take in the steering of State affairs, in these stormy and turbulent times. I never heard, or found it before, either in Holy or Profane Story, unless it were in some professed enemies of Christianity, that any Prince or State were taxed for advising with God's Ministers, in the settling of affairs for the public good; but for refusing to hearken to them, and consulting with Witches and Wizards, and Stargazers, and Fortunetellers, and Magicians and Prognosticaters, I find divers both in Holy Writ and other Writings reproved and condemned, and their giving heed to such noted, both as an occasion of their misgovernment, and a main cause of their overthrow.

Now I make no doubt, if ever this Debate with him have the luck (good or bad, I say not) to light into his hands, whether he shall have the patience to read it or no, he will in someone of his next Rabblements tell his Reader, that it is nothing but another puddle of malice and non-sense, as the former was: or if his last breath be once breathed out that sits on his lips, when ought of his is got abroad, as he doth of Mr. Chambers, that the old worm-eaten Canon of Windsore was killed with very grief upon such a Lesson as was returned him in answer of his folly. for that is his usual manner of Refutation, in dealing with all that write ought against him; as ye may see in the Entrie of his late and last Birth. Wherein he saith indeed, that the good hand of God (so little regard hath he to take that dreadful name up in vain) hath vindicated him from all the calumnies and aspersions cast upon him. which how, or what way the Lord had done, when he wrote this, is such a mystery, as for my part I must acknowledge myself ignorant of, as well as many more beside myself. But when he shall make it appear unto us, that God hath so vindicated him from the charge of such things, as have ben objected against him and his cheating trade, as he vindicated his sincere servant Job sometime from the wrongful censures of his mistaken friends, and his renowned Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah against their adversaries and opposites, and will one day vindicate all his Elect, all his faithful followers, those his Ministers and Messengers among the rest, whom this wicked wretch hath so unworthily traduced, and so undeservedly calumniated; when, I say, he shall be able to make it appear unto us, that God in some such or the like manner hath vindicated and cleared him from the charges commenced against him, (which I believe he will then be able to do, when he shall be able to prove that some good Angel from God taught him and his great-great-grandfather Merlin, their pretended skil and professed trade) we shall then freely profess our selves guilty of impiety, unless we justify him whom God hath so acqited. but unless he shall so do, we shall justly take liberty to charge him with a further impiety, in presuming to father such an act without ground upon God, and therein abusing his dreadful name. Mean while, how he hath there vindicated himself, is as soon there seen, as by him roundly and readily, but frivolously and ridiculously done; to wit, to give you a taste of it, (though enough to turn a strong stomach) by telling his Reader only, that thirty thumping Presbyterian Priests did all in one day in so many several Sermons (belike he hard or read them all) belch out somewhat of Nonsense against him and his trade ; that the Ghoast of John Vicars, the Vicar of Fools came tumbling out in print for Tom dunghill: that in 104. Verses of a codled Elders, who so shall find half a line of sense, shall be to him great Apollo, &c. that one of his adversaries hath stolen almost all his book out of Agrippa de vanitate scientiarum: (almost, we say, saves many a lie ; but I much doubt it will not this) that another steals all he hath from one Melton : a most notorious untruth, only because he hath adjoined to his own work Mr. John Miltons Figure-caster, as he hath done also M. Perkins his Prognosticater. (and he might have done well to remember that that second fellow hath sufficiently confuted the main pith both of Sr. Chr. Heydons large discourse, and Will. Ramsies reply in defense of Dr. Holms, both which forsooth begin with Mr. L. to draw down their black Art, not from the good Angels alone, but in a farther fetched frivolous and groundless descent by Adam, Seth, Enoch, from God himself:) that a third is a Homely Sermon, (Dr. Homes is the man whom he is pleased thus to play upon) a worthless sheet or two of paper, fit to be patronized by my Lord Mayors horse. Perkins a peevish piece ; Chambers (as you heard before) an old worm-eaten Canon. the Lord Howards a work not worth an answer. And ar not these, think we, very sound Vindications and solid refutations? enough to stop any man's mouth from gaping anymore over an ovens mouth, or over an open grave rather, that contains nothing but filthy Carion, and sends out nothing but vile stench. But thus you see how like the vapouring Soldier in the Scene, as a second Pyrgopolinices, the man can with one blast of his noisome breath blow away a whole legion of Antagonists. Howbeit, tis a very sory and selie conceit for him to imagine, that a little such rifraf, or a few such scurrilous sqibs will serv to vindicate his credit, or wipe off any the least speck or spot of those foul aspersions, that have deservedly taken hold of him, and stick still fast by him, in the minds and dooms of any endued not with reason and religion only, but even with civility and common sense. As for mine own, either this or the former; howsoever he shall think good to deal with them otherwise; I shall advise him now as a friend, that he take heed how he make any mention, or have any word, of the good Angels he told us were the first Teachers of his Trade. For I can assure him, there ar not a few of the mind that he is as well able to eat a whole cart-load of logs, as to make his word good concerning those good Angels, by any sound proof or authentic record. But their shalow capacities, it may be, ar not able to reach the vast extent of Mr. L. his abilities, or to conceive, what great matters, especially by the help of such his good Angels, he is able to effect. And if he can do it, and will be pleased so far to condescend to their weakness, as to do us the favor, to make his power herein to appear, I do assure him on mine honest word, that when he shall have so done, I will both solemnly recant all that I have written against him, and by this my present hand-writing oblige myself, never to open my mouth anymore to speak an ill word of him. Mean while, if he shall find, that either by his own skil, or by any such assistance, in a work deemed so weighty, and in other men's eyes so difficult, he is of force sufficient, to make that his assertion good, mine instant reqest then is to him, that it may be one with the first of his next Herculean labors, to do it, for the maintaining of his own credit, that avers it, and the repute of his Art, which for want of better grounds, is by him founded upon it, and the gaining of a Proselyte, yea of many an one, I doubt not, to his Profession, if the thing be once atcheived.

Now if it shall by any be demanded, how it comes to pass, that this Vindication of mine Annotations came no sooner abroad, and why like Homers Litae it lags so long after M. Ls. Ate, that hath so blasted it?

To this I answer; First, as in the Entrance into it I formerly intimated, it was long, being confined and mured up, as I still am, ere I heard ought of Mr. Ls. snarlings at my Notes ; some space of time after that, ere the Book came to my hands; and when upon view of it, I found that for Answer to it, I was put off to some Nameles Autor, or Autors that were to come out: and yet a longer time, ere by enqiry of friends I could come to be informed of any of them that had appeared in print, much less to gain the sight of their works. Mean while those that know, what the state of my family then was, partly by a grievous and tedious malady, that having long afflicted my deer consort and faithful yoakfelow, was then grown to an height with her; and partly through her decease ensuing thereupon, that filled my heart with much grief, and my hed with many cares, wherewith in times past, while she enjoyed life with health and strength, and I her, I was altogether unacqainted, will easily guess, how little mind, so affected and distracted, I might have to mind ought of this nature. Besides that, I had other irons in the fire, that I was to look after. I had some Works of better use, I hope, in the Pres, both here in the City, and elsewhere, which are now abroad: the one whereof drawing then near to the birth, a new task unexpected, but by others much desired, that it might more completely came forth to the light, and be the more useful, when it came out, I cannot say, interrrupted me, in the midst of my work, but enforced me to lay it aside, having not as yet made any great progress in it, until that were dispatched. These remoraes either keeping off at first, or breaking off afterward, together with mine own weakness, slacking my pace, and the want of a Scribe that might have furthered the dispatch, as also the work itself growing under my hand, while one thing fetches in another have much retarded the finishing of it. And yet may it well come abroad timely enough, in regard of the Subject Matter that this man handles in this Book, wherein he falls foul on me and my Notes ; to free men's minds from such frivolous frights and groundless fears, as he seeks to possess them with, from the several Eclipses that have fallen out this year, and that especially of the Sun ; since that he withal informed us, that these Eclipses begin not usually to work these their dismal effects till eight months after, and then continue for a two or three years, or so long as these their designers list. So that the main matter of those falls fears, which he would affright people with, being as yet most of it come, according to his computation, the work comes seasonably enough, if it shall prevail with any, by the discovery of the vanity of the pretended causes thereof, either to preserve them from entertaining such fond conceits, or to purge them out, where they have ben entertained already. And so I shall pass from Mr. W. Lily, to Mr. John Swan, one, it seems, of his Advocates.

THis Sermon of Mr. John Swan (a man to me otherwise utterly unknown) on Jerem. 10.2. I had not so much as once looked after, much less meddled at all with; had I not ben advertised by Mr. Lily, in his Preface to his Black Book dedicated to the Common Wealth of England, dated March 10. from his Corner house over against Strand-bridge ; as some other formerly, from the three Flower deluces near Somerset house, in the Strand. (for it concerns those that drive his Trade, to make it known where they dwell to tice Customers to them) that the Annotater should have ere long the judgment of abler Divines then himself, and to better purpose on that Text. nor could I by help of friends, and their sedulous enqirie, gain the notice, or attain the sight of any, that had, since that time of Mr. L. his menacing prediction, published ought to that purpose upon that Scripture, save this of Mr. Swan, on which also it was long ere I lighted. Him therefore I deemed to be one at least, if anymore uncertain, foretold should be Mr. Ls. Advocates or Patrons, unto whom as having undertaken the defense of him and his cause committed to them by him, against mine Annotations on that portion of Scripture, I found myself by him there referred. That which the rather I had cause to believe, because I found his discourse concurring with a passage concerning the same Scripture by Mr. L. related out of a Nameles Autor much magnified of him, whose work yet, be it Sermon, or Commentary, or what ever else, whether it ever saw the public light, is to me as uncertain as what is at this day done at Rome. And if it be so, as may most probably be deemed, it may seem, that either M.L. about that time did by the Stars foresee, that such a Sermon on such a Text should be preached on the 28. of March, and should afterward come out in print; or else that Mr. Swan before that time having penned it, and destinated it to that day, did tender a Copy of it to M. L. his Client, (as Lysias did an Apology to Socrates penned for him, to make use, if he thought good at his Trial) with a purpose to dispose of it, as he should either like or mislike it. With this Sermon of Mr. Swans therefore, and that parcel of that other party, whom M.L. so highly extols I shall deal in this present Discourse, as with two of M.Ls. either Patrons or Advocates made choice of by him, to maintain him and his cause, against whatsoever in that fruitless and senseless Annotation (as Mr. L. styles it) which I yet am not ashamed to own, may concern either. wherein how they have either acquitted their Client, or acquighted themselves, the seqele shall show.

In Mr. Swans Frontispiece, he entertains his Reader with this Lemma, Multi reprehendunt, pavci intelligent. Many reprehend; few understand. Wherein he doth but sing over again his Clients old Cuckows song, so oft by him chaunted and cackled, in the self same tune, though in a divers tongue, that many blame Astrology for want of capacity ; and meddle with what they understand not. and in precise terms with Mr. S. an Art reproved by many; understood by few. Nor make I any doubt. but that both M. L. the Client, and M.S. his Advocate, do both hold the Annotator without the verge of those few, that understand their Art, and are capable of their profound Mysteries. Howbeit this scar-crow set up in the Entrie (which I deem no other then as the picture of a mastive that one is by Varro reported to have set up over the porch of his house, with a Cave Canem, Beware the Dog, under it, to fright folks from offering to open the door, or daring to enter, shall not a whit deter me from setting foot over the threshold, to see what is in the house. the rather for that this being a Sermon (as may seem) prepared for, and preached unto a popular Auditory, it contains (I presume) such matter as the Hearers might understand: otherwise to what end was it, to reqire their presence, trouble their ears, and tire out their patience, with treating of that to them, which they were unable to apprehend? and if it were such as they might understand, I hope I may, as well as some at least of his Auditors, be able to understand what he here saith.

Where first, letting pass all curious debate, about the several versions, and the more accurate Grammar Annalysis of the Text, whereof in the Annotation hereunto annexed enough; we shall take at present what M. Swan gives us, and we are both agreed upon. He saith aright, (for he renders a good reason for what he saith from the words of the Text ) that the Prophet in these words, Be not dismayed at the Signs of Heaven, doth speak, not of an active fear, as fear is put oft for Worship, or of the worshipping of the Stars ; whereof he entreateth at large in the words ensuing; but of such a passive fear and consternation, as might arise in, and seize on, men's minds, from the apprehension of such sad, disastrous and dismal events, as might be presaged from the motions, configurations, risings, settings, aspects, apparitions, occultations, Eclipses, conjunctions, and the like, of the Stars, and of such direful effects, as from their malignant influences are threatened▪ even unto the subversion of States and Kingdoms ; all which as the Chaldeans in those days took upon them thereby to foretell, so do our Wisards also at this day; that is, in plainer terms; of fears arising from the dictates and predictions given out by such; and conseqently, that the Prophet speaks here, not of Idolatry, but of Astronomy, or Judiciary Astrology.

So that by Mr. Swans grants, we have gained thus much ground against some other Patrons of this profession and practice, Sr. Christopher Heydon, and Caspar Sanctius a Jesuit, who to keep off the dint of this Text truly interpreted, which they were altogether unable otherwise to avoid, would fain turn it the other way; which M. S. hath well shown that the words will not admit.

Mr. L. therefore was not so well advised in making use of this Advocate, he might have done much better, to have consulted with his Brother Booker, who, he saith, hath for so many years maintained the reputation of his Art almost then utterly decayed by his own vertu and abilities. (sic mutuo muli.) he could have informed him, that the genuine sense of the place was, as in some company not long since with much confidence he is reported to have avowed, that by the Signs of the Heaven was here meant, such figures of the Stars, as the Heathen used to draw or carve upon trees, and did thereby Worship them ▪ that which would have stood Mr. L. in a little better stead, then ought that either of his two Advocates here say.

But to leave M. Booker with his novel Interpretation, to sleep a while longer upon it, if so be he may dream some second fancy a little more probable then this his frivolous conceit; and return to Mr. Swan. We deny not, but willingly embrace, what he further subjoins, that such passive fears here spoken of drive superstitious persons oft to an adoration of the creatures, from whom they fear and expect such dismal events and disastrous effects ▪ and so Nicias, as hath ben already before shown, trifled out his time in superstitious and idolatrous rites, upon an Eclipse of the Moon, to avert such dismal accidents as thereupon, by his Magicians their suggestions, he had fancied to himself▪ and Alexander, as M.S. also relates, upon the like occasion, sacrificed to the Sun, Moon, and Earth ; thereby to divert that evil, which the Eclipse might portend, or rather to satisfy thereby the superstitious minds of his people, from whom those cunning Gypsees, as Curtius observs, would by all means have concealed the true cause and nature of that occurrent. And from this observation of M. Swan it may well be further inferred, that such vain apprehensions of dismal effects by Eclipses and malignant aspects of the Stars portended, as they fil men's heds with dismaying fears ; so they lead them into superstitious conceptions that produce practices correspondent: and that consequently Judiciaarie Astrology (at least as it was then professed and practiced by the Chaldeans ; from whom by a lineal succession it hath ben derived unto our Wizards ) doth pave a plain and proclive path to Idolatry▪ and it is not therefore without cause that our Prophet here doth step immediately from the one to the other, passing the self-same verdict of Vanity upon either. Vers. 3.

And here, I hope, it will not be deemed amiss, or out of the way, to insert the judgment herein of a great and eminent Astronomer, or Astrologer, call him whether of the two you please. John Kepler the Emperors Mathematician, in his Treatise of a New Star discovered in the Foot of the Serpentarie, Chap. 14. hath this passage: Most kinds of Divination among the Heathen were botomed upon this foundation, that by Dreams, by the entrails of beasts slain for sacrifice, by the occurrences of some creatures, by monstrous births, by thunder and lightning, by tempestuous winds, by extraordinary inundations, by earthqakes, by celestial prodigies, comets, and the like, the God's were deemed to give men answers, and the power and direction therefore of these creatures or occurrences, whereby ought in that kind was signified, was transcribed to those God's, who thereby were deemed to discover their mind to men. But on the other side, if it were made to appear, that the motion or apparition of creature or occurrence supposed to portend ought, did proceed from a natural cause, so as there was no suspicion of a supernatural gubernation or direction, they were freed from any further solicitude of mind, and composed themselves to qietnes: unless peradventure some natural connection were found between the sign and the thing signified, for disposal whereof there were no need of any free and reason-using cause. From the neglect of this foundation sprung up a great part of Astrology, or superstitious divination from the Stars. For when many strange signs had br • d a belief, that the God's did by such speak unto men; unskillful persons began promiscuously to transcribe, whatsoever came to pas in the Heavens, unto the God's free disposal, and to make an omen of it; especially if by the novelty or rarity of it, it did much amaze their eye-sight, as the Eclipses of the Luminaries, and the Conjunctions of many Stares. Who if they had at first well weighed, or duly considered, that all these things ar brought about by a set Law, or course of Nature, then they would either have sought in Nature a connection of these celestial occurrences with those events that ar wont to follow thereupon, or if they could have found none, they would not have fallen into this lightness of belief. But others proceed • d to worse matters, from foolerie to impiety. For when they saw that the motions of the stars depended on a natural necessity, they brought in a new device; not that should freely conform and frame the motions of the celestial bodies; but that should in an ex • mplary way make use of their motions in framing and administering human affairs. Hence came those many thousands of Star-spr • tes, (far beyond the number of Mr. Lilies seven Planetarie Angels, which from Trithemius and Napeir he told us of: and indeed why should not the rest of the Stars have their Rulers as well as the 7. Planets ?) but m • re truly (saith Kepler) Legions of infernal Devils, unto whom this execrable Magike falsely termed celestial, taught men to offer certain sacrifices, pour out certain prayers, keep certain feasts, light Tapers on certain Planetarie days and hours, and wear garments of some peculiar color By this means came at length to be averred, the Devils themselves being their fellow workmen therein, those most foolish and ridiculous Decrees of the Astrologers concerning the Houses and Dominations of the Planets. It were expedient at length to grow wise again. The first inventers of these trifles w • re not so unskillful as we blamed those before▪ impiety brought in this skil. But you Christian Astrologers ar very children to them; when letting go the kernel, ye hang about the shell, when ye embrace the body, leaving the soul, when without Magik ye exercise this foolish trifling Astrology, that makes use of the Planets houses. (alone, I suppose, he means, without making use of those Inhabitants the Star-spirits: which error I hope, Mr. Lily in his Novel way hath reformed) well fare ye, that can so wash a lether pilch, that it shall ta • e in no moisture. Thus he; whom the rather I cite thus at large, partly because his works are not so obvious; and partly because he is one, against whom that Exception will not hold, that he blames and condemns Astrology, for want of capacity to understand it, or for ignorance therein: as also because in this passage of his we have divers points hinted, that may be of much use in our future discourse and debate, as:

1. That things deemed to come besides the cours of nature were usually deemed ominous.

2. That when known to come in a set cours, as eclipses and conjunctions of Stars do, they used not to trouble any understanding man's mind.

3. That through want of skil or regard to distinguish between the one and the other, men came to have promiscuously a like conceit of either, and to deem Eclipses and conjunctions of Stars ominous.

4. That some hence took occasion to draw people to impiety; by making them believe, that their were certain Spirits, or inferior Deities attending these Stars that did by them dispose and order human affairs; and t • ught them therefore to worship them; the study whereof was termed celestial Magike.

5. That hence sprang that foolish and ridiculous Astrology of telling men's Fortunes by the Planets and their houses.

And lastly, that it is as fond a thing to imagine that any man can practice this kind of Astrology without some Magical superstition, as it is to undertake to wash a lether pilch and not wet it: Yea that there can be no use of the one for such ends and purposes as by them it is applied unto, unless the other also be admitted, which is the very spirit and life of it.

But to return to Mr. Swan again: wherein he and we agree here, ye have heard: to wit, that they should not be afraid or dismayed at the signs of Heaven, that is, the Stars, in regard of such evil and dismal presages as the Chaldean Astrologers from the Conjunctions, Oppositions, Motions of them, &c. endeavored to posses their minds with.

Now the question is, what the reason should be, why the Prophet; or God rather by the Prophet, would not have his people to be affrighted and dismayed at the signs of Heaven ▪ And here Mr. Lilies two Advocates and we part: For passing by the reason expressed in the Text, they suggest us other reasons to • ustle that out. Not, saith the one of them, because they did not portend such sad matters, or produce such sad and dismal effects ; (Take that away, and the very ground of their Art is clean gone) that which they have from God, on whom his people are taught to have their trust so firmly fixed, that whatsoever disaster the Heavens in the cours of nature should at any time threaten unto them, they ought not to fear it. And saith the other, The scope and drift is, that they should not so stand in awe of them, as the Heathen that looked no higher then the Firmament, and not knowing the God of Israel that overrules all, so feared them, as if there were no way to escape them. To which purpose is also added, that the Chaldean Astrologers held, that such things came to pass by a kind of fatality, which ours do not : and Osiander therefore says, that Astrological Predictions are not to be condemned, if they be esteemed but as conjectures, not as certain Prophecies.

But, first, are these things the les to be feared of God's People, because God hath an hand in them, and they come by his appointment? for ar they not tokens then of his wrath? and doth he not then by them preach as much to the Sons of men, and more specially to his people?

It is most true, that Augustine well observes, that Signa verba visibilia, verba signa avdibilia. Signs ar as well visible words, as words audible signs ▪ and unto signs therefore is a Voice ascribed; Exod. 4.8. and by the rod is God said to speak as well as by the word to the understandings of those that are spiritually wise. Mic. 6.9. Jer. 9.12. When the Lion roars, who feors not? saith Amos c. 3.8. and shall God then roar from heaven, Amos. 1.2. and men not fear, yea not exceedingly fear end be dismayed here on earth? Psal. 76.8.

Yea, but God's people must not fear so much, though others so do.

And do we not find it in God's Book made a note of God's children, such as fear God, and even tremble at his word? Ezr. 10.3. Isaiah, 66 2. The difference is very observable noted in Jehoiakim’s time, between the Princes of Judah, that were not yet so obstinate in evil, and the King with his Courtiers wholly abandoned thereunto; upon the reading of those dreadful denunciations by Jeremiah delivered and compiled, by Baruch penned and published in the hearing of either; it is said of the former, they were afraid, as well the one as the other, as well the better as the worse sort of them; Jer. 36.16. but of the latter tis related that they were not afraid, nor did rent their garments, as was expected they should have done. verse. 24. And its true therefore that Bernard saith, Soli filii irae iram non timent. Its a note of a child of wrath, not to fear God's wrath ; not to stand in awe of his Fathers Rod, not to tremble when he hears his Father threaten, as by these signs these men say he doth, or when he seeth him about to take the rod in his hand, ready therewith to lay about him. Yea the truth is, when judgments ar by God or from God denounced and threatened, they usually fear most, that have least cause to fear. When God threatened by a deluge to drown the whole world, it is said. Noah feared, who was to be saved; Heb. 11.7. but likely it is, as one of the Ancients saith, that the wicked of the world, who were thereby to be destroyed, scoffed at him and his sons that labored with him in the building of the Ark, noted as an effect of his faith and fear, imagining▪ and it may be telling them to their faces, that they should sooner come to see them by toiling so drownd in their own sweat, then they to see them drownd in such a deluge as they feared. David, a man after God's own heart, 1. Sam. 13.14. says to God of himself; When thou takest away the wicked of the world, like dros; though I love thy testimonies ; yet my flesh trembles for dread of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments. Psal. 119.119.120. I might ad religious Josiah his vest rent and heart qailed at the hearing only of the menaces out of God's Book therein recorded by Moses. 2. King. 22.11, 19. But I shall with a lively representation of a dread accompanied with a strange consternation of spirit, as by the symptoms of it may appear, close up this passage. Upon a dreadful Vision of future events represented to the Prophet Habakkuk, when I heard it, saith he, My belly qaked, my lips qiverd, rottenness seized upon my bones, and I trembled as if the ground had shook under me. Hab. 3.16. Was not this think we, a dismaying fear ? or was it not such as might well have ben expressed by the word used here in the Text? Yet neither is the Prophet reproved for this his so great fear: nor can any man justly be condemned, if on the like occasion he be so affected as he was.

Nor is such a measure or manner of fear, inconsistent with a firm constant relieng upon God for a never failing stay and a gracious issu; nor doth necessarily imply or import a diffidence and distrust of God's providence, or promises concerning such succor and safety, or such protection and provision, as God hath by his Word engaged himself for, unto those that be his, as in Habakkuk by his own sincere and ample profession there subjoined, it doth evidently appear. Vers. 18.

Neither therefore doth the term here used infer any necessity of diffidence and distrust. Nor ar the places fitly produced, as parallel to this, so taken as themselves would expound it; wherein God's people are incited not to fear death, when they are called to give testimony to God's cause, and to seal the truth of it with their blood, Matth. 10.28. There is a vast difference between death threatened by man for our sticking close to God, and death denounced by God for our slipping aside from God, in whole or in part▪ there is matter of worth, valor, grace, honor, joy, and gloriation in the one, 2. Thes. 1.5. Rev. 12.11, Phil. 1.29. Act. 5.41. Phil. 2.17. Rom. 5.3. matter of wrath, disgrace, shame, grief, horror, and confusion of face and spirit in the other. 2. Sam. 24.1. 1. Sam. 2.30. Psal. 44.13. Ezr. 9.6. Jer. 9.1. and 4.29. Ezr. 9.15. Jer. 23.9. Dan. 9.7, 8. David was afraid of the sword of the destroying Angel, and it had ben an height of impiety far above the sin committed by him in numbering of the people, not to have ben sorely afraid of it, knowing whose sword it was, and for what cause it was unsheathed. 1. Chron. 21.16, 30.

Nor ar the signs foreshowing the near approach of the last day▪ Luk. 21.28. no more then such as gave assurance of the speedy ruin of Babylon, Jer. 51.46. (the full redemption of God's people depending upon the one, as their temporal deliverance out of captivity on the other) to be paralleled with such signs as give warning of God's wrath here to be executed upon people for their wicked carriages, whether in way of vengeance and judgment, or of correction and chastisement; and that upon God's people sometimes, as well as upon others; Amos. 3.2. yea even upon good and bad together. Ezek. 21.3. Its no reason therefore to imagine, that God should forbid his people to be affrighted with such signs of Heaven, as do from Heaven denounce such dismal judgments ready to be inflicted upon people for their sins. Yea tis rather to be expected, as a thing justly required, that if nations more remote from God, as well in heart, in regard of their ignorance of him as in distance of space from the place of his special residence, should be afraid of such tokens of his displeasure; Psal. 65.8. then surely they that are a people in either respect nearer unto him, much more. Psal. 147.19, 20. and 148.14. Jer. 5.22.

Again, for what they subjoin▪ of a conceit, that Heathen people should have, of the unavoidablenes of the Evils by these signs portended ; and of the fatalitie, whereby their Wizards held that they fell out.

I demand; do not our Wizards hold and profess as much? or do not such conceits flow and follow necessarily from the grounds that they maintain?

For, (to let pas that our Wizards themselves forbear not the term of Fate ) if we shall take the word Fate, or▪ Fatum, in a large sense, according to the Latin notation of the word. Fatum à fando; Qid aliud est Fatum, qam qod de unoqoqe nostrum fatus est Deus ? saith Minutius in Octavio. What is Fate else, but what God hath spoken concerning everyone of us ? whence one of our own Poets; Fatur, & est fatum. What God speaks, is Fate. And do not our Wizards hold, and these also their Patrons, that God by these Eclipses, Conjunctions and Aspects speaks to us, and foretells us such sad and dismal matters, as they affirm them to portend? So Mr. Lily, in his Black-Book; When any memorable Eclipse happens in Aries, God acqaints us with what good or evil he intends us near upon those times. And in his New Diurnal, such and such Conjunctions and Eclipses, are styled Messengers of God's wrath. Nor doth Mr. Swan herein desert his Client, where out of an unmamed Autor he tells us, that God speaks with men, not with tongues of men only, by Prophets and Apostles and Teachers; but sometimes also by the very Elements composed and wrought into divers forms and shapes : and thence infers; If by the Elements, then by the stars and lights. in such manner, ye must believe, as his Clients enform him; to wit, by their Motions, Configurations, Conjunctions, Aspects, Eclipser, &c. As ye heard him of late before, and this he proves from Psalm. 19.1, 3. of which also more hereafter. So that what these Wizards tell us, as his Client Mr. Lily of himself, that he reads all his predictions in the Book of the Heavens, is not Astrology as we commonly have taken it, a company of dulpated dunces, that is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a consideration or discourse, or doctrine concerning the stars ; but it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the speech or language of the stars ; of which the Psalmist speaks, or rather such as they have taught them to speak: for that God ever set them such lessons as they have learned them, we shall then believe, when they shall be able to prove, that he hath taught them to spel and construe thus in that goodly great Book as they do, Meanwhile we novices in the Greek tongue, hath gained a New Notation, that we never once dreamed of, nor had learned from any Grammar or Glossarie before: to wit that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Greek is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the stars language, or what the stars talk ; and so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or King James his Book of Demonologie, shall be a Book of the Devils language, or such language as the Devils talk. Mr. Swan should have done well to have acquainted Mr. Lily with this abstruse Mystery, and subtle Criticism ; it would have ben an excellent sqib, exceeding fit to have ben cast into Dr. Holmes his dish, enough by the very Title of Demonologie to have utterly dashed him out of countenance, and refelled his whole work, by telling him that his Book consists all of nothing but the Devils language, as the Title itself says: it might at least helped to salv that palpable untruth in his Preface to his last Diurnal, concerning those that have lately written against Judicial Astrology, that not one of them have defined it, nor understand anything of it. That is, that none of them have so defined it, as Mr. Swan hath done, nor did so much as understand, what the very word itself meant,; no more then for him, I suppose, yet they do any better then before they did▪ for my part, I should have deemed it not unfit or unworthy to be put into stuttering John of Genoaes Catholicon set there cheek by joll next to Astericus, ab aster qod est stella, & icon, qod est imago, but that I find Balbus herein the better. for, Astrologus, saith he, ab astron, qod est stella, & logos, qod est sermo, loqens de stellis. But thus then by Fate, if they understand what God speaks, designs or intends, it implies no more then the Clients and their Advocates do in the present case avow.

Or if by Fate in a stricter notion, they will have to be understood that which is by the Stoiks called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, according to rhe Greek notation of the word; a continued series, or concatenation of cavses by a necessary conseqence successively ensuing one upon another, as links of a chain, and depending upon that natural cours, whereinto by the first cause of all things they were entered at the first : neither so can they avoid the term of fatality. For as we all grant that the motions of the Celestial bodies do hold on constantly in an invariable cours according to that which they were entered into by God their Creator, when he created them at first; in regard whereof their risings and settings, oppositions and conjunctions, applications and separations, aspects and respects, may be undoubtedly foreknown and infallibly foretold: so withal these men maintain, that those virtues and powers by which they work, (they are Mr. Swans own words; and in such manner you must understand him to mean as they maintain; otherwise he saith nothing either to his Clients cause, or his own entendment) were at the first divinely stamped in them; and ar in Job called by the name of influences, which no man is able to restrain, Job 38.31. whereof further in its place. And yet the same man refuseth to acknowledge the old Chaldeans fatality, and would fain free his Clients from the admittance of it: which yet by his and their grounds cannot be avoided. For if these things be effected of them and produced by them through a natural power enstamped on them by God their Creator, the operation whereof neither is it in their power to intermit at their pleasure, being no voluntary but mere natural agents, neither can it by any other created power be restrained or suspended; no more then their motions, meetings or entercourses can by any such means be interrupted; then are they as sure to produce these their effects; and men may as undoubtedly before hand be assured-of them, as they may that the Sun will at such a certain time set at even, or rise the next day.

Or, if ye shall please to turn the word of Fate and Fatalitie into plain English, and call it Destinie ; if such a kind of power were conferred upon the stars, by virtue of such Conjunctions and Aspects, in relation to men's Nativities and Undertakings, to make them lucky or unluckie, to be necessarily well or ill affected, to design them to such disasters, and to come to such ends, which by no wit or might, power or Policy they are able to avoid, then why may not one say, as the knave told the Stoik his Master, when he whipt him for filching, it was my destiny to filch ; or, as his Master answered the knave again, and it is thy destiny to be whip • . So the thief, that it was his destiny to betake himself to that trade; and the strumpet, that it was her destiny to lead such a life, being bred and born under such a star; and that it was such an ones destiny to be hanged, and another's to be drowned, and an others to be torn in pieces with dogs; because by such and such constellations at the time of their Nativitie they were designed thereunto; and such things ar as sure to befall them, as they are sure, nay more sure, then they ar or can be, to go to bed at night, or to rise again the next day; since that the one by some human power or natural cours, or their own will and act, may be intercepted and altered; whereas the other save by a supernatural power, cannot be altered or avoided. So that constru Fate and Fatalitie which way you please, these men's own grants presumed, and grounds admitted, a fatality of necessity must be concluded. and what impiety will thence necessarily follow, we have in part formerly shown; and shall (by God's assistance) again further hereafter.

But here Mr. Lilies Advocates falter with him, as some of them also with themselves. For first Mr. Swan tells us, with good ground from God's Word, that certainly to foretell contingent events belongs to none but to God himself. Isaiah 41.23. and his other Advocate, whom he so much magnifies, concludes as himself relates him, with these words of Osiander concerning Astrology, Nihil habet de Magiâ▪ si modo qis Astrologicas praedictiones pro conjecturis, non av • em pro vaticiniis certis habeat. It hath nothing of Magike, (otherwise then it hath, and Astrologers ar Magicians, Wizards no other then he-witches) if so be one have, or account, Astrological predictions for conjectures, and not for certain Prophesies.

I Stand not now to discuss or debate, how these sayings will consist, which what from Mr. Swan we have above heard. We will consider only, what help Mr. Lily hath from them, and whether he have so wisely and advisedly dealt in referring himself and his cause to them. Hear we Mr. Lily what he saith of himself and his predictions; agreeably enough, I confess, to his own principles, as hinself speaks, in part; and to those grounds also, that these men, and other the like Patrons of his profession have laid, howsoever here they palter with him, and leave their Client in the lurch. But hear we him and his own confident Assertions and peremptory in his Black-Book. Assuredly the vengeance of Almighty God is ready to be poured forth upon the Dutch. and, Assuredly those actions, which will be agitated▪ will be acted with an high and mighty hand. and, certainly there is some eminent treason in or near these parts in agitation, in or near the time of this Eclipse, or during its influence to break forth. and, Qestionles those People who ar intended to be made most sensible of this Eclipses influence, ar Magistrates of the highest rank in every Nation of Europe, and those so great alterations in this Macrocosm shall be so glorious, and conspicuous, that there is no Nation or People of Europe, Asia, or Africa, but they shall stand amazed and wonder at the eminency of them. and, The influence of this Eclipse shall operate upon the common Laws of our Nation; but sure I am, not to its overthrow. and, Treasurers must account ▪ and, We affirm; there will be an appearance of some memorable actions, &c. And in his New Diurnal; I am confident we shall bring those proud people the Dutch upon their knees, by destroying their Naval forces, &c. And, I am confident, we of the Commonaltie joining with the Soldier, shall endeavor to call them to an account, &c. as in the premises ye had it. What Prophet sent immediately, and furnished with special commission from God, ever did speak, or could speak more confidently, or more peremptorily then this Wizard doth? Yea he tells us, He is sure his judgment on the effect of this Eclipse hath rather been Prophetical then Predictive ; albeit by his own grounds he could not be sure, that ought that had fallen out within those seven Moneths, were any effects at all of that Eclipse; it being affirmed by him, that it is not necessary, that any such Eclipse should begin to operate before eight months after it: and what ar they the most of them, but what he saw already either done, or in doing; or that any man but of ordinary sagacity, without help of Starlight, might as well foresee and foretell by probable conjecture? which is the most that his greatest Patrons will by his own relation and acknowledgement allow him; unless he will be deemed of them, and condemned by them, as no pure Astrologer, but a mere Magician ▪ in plain English, an He-witch. For such they imply them to be, that give out their Astrological Predictions for any other then conjectures; for certain Prophesies much more. And doth not this man so? what more common with him, then to entitle his annual Predictions, his Prophetical Merlin, for such a year and to cite them by such a Title ? Yea his great grandfather Ambrose Merlins Predictions, (whereof he professeth to have a Book of 28. sheets by himself written ; it may be many hundred years after the old Wizard was dead and buried, and past rotting in his grave) he pronounceth to be Prophesies, against which there can be no exception. of as undoubted authority belike as Scripture itself. Thus this earth-worm, having thrust his head out of some hole, and creeping below upon the ground, this Egyptian frog, crawling out of the mire and mud of some Nilotik mear, sticks not to arrogate that to himself which his own Autors affirm truly to be God's peculiar, to give out his own croakings and predictions for Prophesies, lessons taken out of the Book of Heaven; to speak as peremptorily of his own figments and fancies, as if he had received them from God's own mouth, and to entitle such base stuf, not his own rapsodies and rabblements only, bur the fond fopperies of the Son of an Incubus (if the stories of him be true) an harlots bastard at the best, as if they were both divine Oracles, Prophecies the one, and irrefragable Prophecies, such as no exception can be taken to, the other. And what an height of presumption, impiety and blasphemy this amounts unto, even by the verdict of those, whom by virtue of his Appeal to, he hath made his own Judges; I shall leave it to any understanding and religious Reader, having taken notice of the premisses, to consider and conclude.

Howbeit withal here for a farewell, I shall mind Mr. Lily, that whereas he is so bold, not only to style himself England's Prophetical Merlin, but in a Programme fixed over his dwelling house (as I am informed) publicly to proclaim himself by the Title of Merlinus Verax, the Truth-telling Merline, one of his own coat Mr. H. Johnson affirms that his predictions (and he instances in divers particulars of sundry years) are ridiculous pieces, so full of follies, fooleries, contradictions, and lies, that an Artist would blush to own them; and he doth in them out-lie, if it be possible, the Devil himself the Father of lies. And the like aspersions in effect doth Mr. L. and his friend the whipper cast upon Mr. Wharton, sometime Naworth, not anagrammatised, but stigmatised, as he speaks, who had piped so long to the Kingdom▪ and never hit a true note. Mr. L. urging also against him that axiom, and a very good one, saith Mr. J. wherewith he lashes Mr. W. for one only mistake, and that a small one, in regard of his own folio failings; He that lies commonly, and speaks or wri • es but now and then a truth, is neither to be trusted, nor to be believed. It hath b • en sometimes propounded in the Schools as a question of some difficult solution; Gorgias a Sophister himself, said that all Sophisters were liars; whether should he be believed ? And here the Astrologers say (as ye hear) one of another they are liars, and not to be credited. So speaks Mr. L. of Mr. W. and Mr. J. of Mr. L. But I suppose the question here is not so hard to assoil: we may herein well believe each of them. For as it was grown sometime to a by-word of Friers, and was deemed a good Argument holding in mood and figure. This man is a Frier; and therefore a Liar. So it may as truly be said of an Astrologer, or (to take away the ambiguity of the term, by restraining its latitude) An Astromancer; This man is an Astromancer, and therefore a liar. for Astromancers are liars, no les when what they foretell, falls out right, then when it fails. That is most true that the Tragedian of old said; (though the Stoik seemed to be of another mind.)

So here, he that shall tell a thing for a certain truth, which he hath no certain ground for, though the thing itself be never so certainly true in itself, yet is not thereby saved from being a liar. If I shall avow that at this instant the Pope at Rome is either singing Mass in S. Peters, or sitting in Consitory with his Cardinals, though the thing were never so true, yet were I a liar in averring what I had no notice of. Nor will it therefore help Mr. L. to free him from lying and cheating, when having taken men's money that repair to him, to help them to their lost linen pewter, plate and other goods again, he telleth them it is such a person that hath them, or they are in such and such a place, if it shall afterward fall out so as he told, since that he could not have certain notice of, or ground for any such thing, unless from the Devil, or by compact from some other third party. Nor will it proov him to be a true Prophet, or save him from being justly reputed a falls Prophet and a liar, because his judgment concerning the effects of some Eclipses have proved as he saith, rather Prophetical then then predictive, unless he could upon good and certain grounds assuredly know that Eclipses do necessarily produce such Effects, which doubtless he neither could, nor will ever be able to do, much les anywhere hath done. for it is but a poor shift, to tell us, as the whipper his worthy friend doth for him, that he conceals his reasons in Art for some of his judgments, (O envious creature, that charges the Clergy-men so deeply with the self same fault) that he may not make every man at wise as himself. The Prophet in Moses not sent by God; that had foretold a sign or a Prodigis, though it did come to pas, was not therefore to be deemed a true Prophet, when he came to be discovered, but to suffer as a counterf • it; God himself professing, that he causes such things sometime to fall out, to prove his people, whether they will warp aside unto such, or cleave close to the Lord their God, Deut. 13.1.3. Astromancers therefore ar, as the Prophet Isaiah termeth them, liars, Isaiah, 44.25. whether those things which by the Stars they profess to foretell, fall out accordingly or otherwise, because from the Stars they cannot have any certain notice of such things; and Astromancie itself no other then a lie; a lie in the tongue of the Astromancers, as the idol a lie in the hand of the idol-maker ; Isaiah, 44.20. both vanity, so Isaiah chap. 41.29. of the one, and so Jeremy also here verse 3. of the other, which we shall now come to show. and the Astromancer may well say of their fortune telling, as Lucian sometime of a prodigious Story that he writ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , This only tell I true, that I do nothing but lie.

Hitherto then we have examined the Reasons rendered by Mr. Lilies two Advocates, why God by his Prophet should forbid his People to be afraid of the Signs of Heaven, as the Heathen were. the one in regard of the qalitie of the fear; because it was a dismaying dread ; which yet we have shown it might justly have ben, were the Signs spoken of, Signs of God's heavy indignation : the other taken from the unavoidable fatalitie, ascribed by the Chaldee Wizards unto those dismal Events and Effects, that the Signs did presage and produce, wherein we have shown, that our Astrologers also go along in eqipage with them.

We shall now proceed to show▪ what the true ground and reason is of this Prohibition ; and why these Signs ought not at all to affright or trouble God's People, expressed in the Text; which these men were very shy of, loath to take notice of, or once to touch upon. And this had Mr. Swan and his associate easily apprehended, had they ben pleased seriously to have considered, either the first branch of this second Vers, or the sentence next ensuing, which the causal particle prefixed shows to belong unto this, though in way of transition, as a middle term, coming between the subject matter of Astrology here intimated, and that of Idolatry entered upon in the third verse, it be in distinction of verses fastened unto the latter.

For the former Branch; Learn not, saith God, the way of the Heathen, where by the way of the Heathen, what can be meant, but such courses as the Heathen held and took, either concerning the Signs of Heaven, which they superstitiously regarded, or concerning their idols, which having framed they adored, and we see the learning of their way, and the dreading of the signs, to be two distinct branches of the present Prohibition, the former whereof these Patrons of Astrology slightly pass over, or slily pass by, as a needless branch, or a luxuriant sprig, not worthy of regard, but such as might well be spared, and would therefore the more handsomely to conceal it and keep it out of sight, involv and wrap it up in the same sentence with the next: as if the meaning were no more then this, Learn not the way of the Heathen, nor be dismayed ; that is, Learn not to be dismayed. It is true indeed, that sometime two Verbs either standing loose, as Psal. 51.2. and 106.13. Hosh. 9 9. or knit together with a copulative, as Gen. 26.18. Dan. 9.21 may be combined into one sentence ; that which by many instances I show both in some part of my Cinnus, and in divers places of mine Annotations among those fruitless Criticisms, that Mr. Lily finds there. But that will not hold here for two causes. 1. It is not an Injunction, but an Inhibition. Its one thing to say, Learn, not to fear : another thing to say, Learn not, to fear ▪ the former is an injunction ; and the negative particle therefore adheres not to the imperative precedent, but to the infinitive subseqent, the latter is an inhibition, and the negative therefore must be joined to the imperative ; which being here done would produce a strange sense, inhibiting, not simply to be afraid, but to learn to be afraid; Do not learn to be afraid. But 2. the two Verbs here have two several subjects that they pass unto. the Heathens way is the subject not to be learned; the Signs of Heaven ar the Subject not to be dreaded. and if any shall ask what is meant by the way of the Heathen, the other branch in the frontispiece of the 3 verse will tell us; to wit, that this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or way, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the rules, the lessons, the dictates, the documents, the precepts, the prescripts (for the word will well admit any of these expressions) of the Heathen. and of what Heathen think we, but of the Heathen Astrologers? for of them it is agreed that the Prophet here speaks. and concerning what, but concerning the Signs of Heaven? the Prophets own express terms lead us to it. So that its clear enough to any the meanest capacity that, by way is here meant, such rules, documents, or lessons, as the Chaldean Wizards taught the Heathen people concerning the Signs of Heaven, and their dismal operations, which produced in them such trouble and consternation or amazement of mind. God would not have his people to learn or regard the one, that they might not be affrighted and dismayed with the other. And this Branch therefore would not have ben either slily slighted, or wholly overslipt by those, who had professedly undertaken the discussing of the Vers.

But there is another Branch, which though it be crowded into the next verse, yet, (as the rationative particle appearing in its front shows) hath reference unto this. If we shall demand then why God's people should not learn this Heathenish way, the reason is ready at hand, we need not go far to seek for it, the Prophet himself rendereth it; for the rules or lessons, that the Heathen are taught by and take out from their Wizards, ar vain or vanity, as the word is in the abstract, that is, very vain, as vain as vanity itself. So that if Mr. Swan had ben pleased to step but one step further, and no long stride had needed, or to have cast but his eye to the very next line to his Text, he had there lighted on the true cause, why neither this way of the Heathen is to be learned by God's people, they are not to take out such lessons as the Wizards would learn them; nor their minds conseqently to be possessed with such frights and fears, as by telling them of the direful effects of the celestial Signs they endeavored to work into them; to wit, because these things among other were mere Heathenish vanities ; and a most vain thing therefore to be affected therewith. For to the former way, must this vanity necessarily have reference, and that way to their conceits concerning the Stars, that produced such fears with them, unless we will say of the passages of God's Prophets, as Caligula sometime of Seneca's writings, that they are arena sine calce, or as Epiphanius of some Heretics rapsodies, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , like roaps of sand without lime to knit them together.

And if Mr. Swan had instead of all this long discourse concerning the dreadfulness of these Celestial Signs, and in what manner they were and were not to be feared, had but preached to his people Mr. Lilies dictates and documents (and he might as well have preached them to them as the groundless conceits of Sir Walter Ralegh and others, though of better note then he) to wit, that the horrible Eclipse that was to appear the next day could do no harm to any that were about their usual employments of ploughing and carting, or hedging and ditching abroad, as some of his fellow Wizards had unadvisedly affirmed it might, but that it portended much ill, that either would or might befall them some eight months after, or the year ensuing at that time twelmonth, or two year after: howsoever it may be doubtful what effect it might have had with them, for the time of the Eclipse present, for that the very sight of it, being a thing uncouth and unusual, might astonish them, as it did many other prepossessed with that fond conceit which Mr. Lily himself condemns, in regard whereof some hath related to me, that in some Country towns where they then resided, not two of forty or more would either do ought themselves, or suffer ought to be done by their servants abroad; and I remember that an ancient Doctor of Physik of prime note in the City coming over sometime to Clapham to visit a Patient, and being importuned to stay dinner with them, would by no means be persuaded to condescend thereunto, there was he said an Eclipse of the sun to fall out that forenoon, and he would be at home before that should come, and keep within till that was ever. Howsoever, I say therefore that for the time present it might affright them, yet for the latter part of the story, and the tale told them of evils that should thence flow and ensue so long after, they would have easily ben induced to believe, that all such tittle tattle were indeed no other then mere vanity, as the Prophet here pronounceth it. Mean while ye see by what hath ben before delivered, what verdict the Spirit of God hath past upon these Chaldee Wizards observations and dictates about the Celestial Signs : and yet Mr. Swans main scope throughout this whole Sermon is to disprove that which is here so peremptorily pronounced of them, to give the Holy Ghost the lie; to prove that they are not vanities, but divine Oracles, condemning the wiser sort of the Heathen that set light by them, esteeming of them what they ar here affirmed to be; and such Divines as are likewise minded concerning them, as no better both, then men out of their wits, such as have rather need of Elebore to cure their brains, then any reasoning with them to inform their judgments.

But howsoever he deem us persons that that have laesa principia ▪ a crew of cracked-braind coxcombs, fitter for a Bedlam cure, then for a Scholerlike dispute or debate; yet we shall (by God's assistance, having him and his holy Prophets, we hope, on our side) take the boldness to examine the validity of his Arguments produced to prove the truth of that, which diametrically opposeth the dictate of God's Spirit, and the verdict here passed upon their Judicial Astrology, which we conceive not without some ground from his own grants to be forbidden, and consequently condemned in his Text.

In the first place therefore, to begin the fight, he sends out as the manner is a forlorn hope, some velites, levis armaturae milites, a few soldiers of light furniture, not so much skirmishing with the adverse party, as falling foul upon their own, and fighting one against another. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 one or two snips or od ends of Poetry, masterless dictates of namles Poets ; but Poets at the best; and of what credit such men's sayings ar, that old said saw, a saying of their own, may show us; it saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . it tells us in plain terms, that they tell us many lies. But let us hear what they say. One of them tells us, Astra regunt homines, that the Stars rule men. and there is good cause indeed to fear those that rule over us, especially when we shall be taught, that they have very spiteful and malevolent affections and dispositions towards us, very malignant aspects and influences upon us. But how doth it appear that the Stars rule men ? or whence had they that power and office of regiment or regencie given them over mankind, thus to sway human affairs, as these men would have them? Hath God anywhere in his Word made it known to us, that he hath assigned them any such office of rule over us? It is said indeed, that God made the Sun to rule the day, and the Moon and the Stars to rule the night. Gen. 1.16. Psal. 136.8, 9. that is, by a certain and constant cours to make a distinction of day and night, and to exercise that lightsome qalitie or faculty that God hath endowed them with, whether peculiarly or immediately conferred upon each, or imparted from one or more of them to the rest, for he use of Mankind in either; but where he is said to have appointed them to rule men's persons, and their affairs or employments, civil or moral, counsels and casualties, genitures, states, terms of life, issues of death and the like, we nowhere read, save in the presumptuous writings of those who have assigned them such employments. Yea it hath ben usually deemed, that all the creatures mentioned in Moses, to have ben made before man, were for this end made to be serviceable unto man, who was made in the last place when all things were fitted for him before. Whence that common saying, Omnia propter hominem, homo propter Deum. All things for man, and man for God. Yea the Sun itself, the principal and most glorious of those celestial bodies hath his name 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from a Chaldee term, that signifies to minister or serve. which word also the Chaldee Paraphrast (as we term him) useth in that place of Moses, Gen. 1.18. in steed of that word which we render to rule. and it is not amiss observed by our Writers, that in those words of Moses Deut. 4.19. concerning the Sun, Moon and Stars which Jehovah thy God hath imparted unto all Nations under the whole Heavens : (which how the Jewish Rabbins have abused, we shall hereafter show) there seems to be closely intimated an argument to dissuade from adoring the celestial creatures, as being an absurd and preposterous course for God's people to serv them, whom God had appointed to do service, not to them alone, but to all the Nations of the World. But that God made them to be serviceable to mankind is out of question. The question is. Who hath made them Mans masters and governors; who made them Rulers over Mankind ? Nor shall we need to go far to seek the resolution of this doubt or question: Mr. Lily will inform us: We constitute Venus Ruler, &c. saith he, in his Dark year ▪ and they that constitute Rulers, are able I hope to furnish them with power, as well of ability, as authority, whereby to exercise and execute that rule or regiment, whereunto they have assigned them▪ And indeed herein they imitate those of the Papacie, that have assigned unto several Countries several Saints, and designed those Saints to rule and protect them; yea have deputed several Saints to be Patrons of several professions. For in the like manner have these men assigned unto several Stars and Constellations, the government of several Countries and Kingdoms, of several states, trades and professions, of the several parts of man's body, and the like. Yea herein they tread in the steps of the superstitious Jewish Masters, who because the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 used Deut. 4.19. doth usually signify to divide or distribute, (whereas it is freqently also taken more largely for to impart or assign, even where no such division or distribution is at all intended, as I have shown on Isaiah. 53.12.) do thence gather, that the Stars are by God designed to rule all the other Nations, who have therefore their several Stars assigned them, whereunto they ar obnoxious; but his own people the Jews he hath reserved to be ruled by himself: and that this is the right reason, why other Nations have cause to be afraid of the signs of Heaven, but the Jewish people have not. And so have we the true sense of this place, as Manasseh the Amsterdam great Rabbi from Abraham Esdrassonne informs us. which if it be true, I hope we Christians may in these days expect the like privilege that the Jewish people sometime enjoyed. But I suppose we have as little cause to believe them, as either the Papists or the Pagans, that herein agreed with them, as by their Wizards Dictates we have formerly shown.

But this piece of Poetry having thus dispatched, we shall proceed to the next▪ and that is so far from backing the former, whose second it should be, that as it oft coms to pass 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 with those that fieght in the dark, or with ships engaged in a storm, he falls foul on his fellow, and in steed of smiting his adversary, he lets sly at his friend, and so cuts his ham-strings, that he is not able to stand to it, or do his Commander any service. For whereas his precedent fellow- Poet sung us, Astra regunt homines, that the Stars rule Men, this his second sings us a new song, a divers, yea adverse dittie, Sapiens dominabitur Astris ; that Wise men shall rule the stars. Regit Astra Deus. God rules them ; saith he▪ no, men rule them ; saith this, and, They rule Men, saith he; no, Men rule them, saith this. unless Wise men be exempted from the race and rank of Mankind. But if God have assigned the Stars this office to rule us ; I would fain know by what might or slight we can be able to countermand and over-rule them, whom God hath set, and that so far above and out of our reach to rule us. For can, or could any man possibly by any skil or forecast avoid it, that he should not be bred or born under such a Constellation, as should make him a fool ? or avoid such casualties of hanging, drowning, or coming to some other evil end, as those Stars under which he was born, had designed him unto? How many Stories ar we told of men, that being foretold by Astrologers, of such and such ends they should come to, have by all the skil and caution they could possibly use endeavored to avert it, but were not able to avoid it? And surely if the Stars by such a power derived from God ar set over men here on earth, it is no more in the power of the wisest man in the world, to avoid any such evil, that by virtue of that power they portend him; then it is to alter their course in the sky, and to restrain them from rising at their constant set times, or from their meetings and conjunctions one with another, at such precise times as their respective motions and courses in nature must of undoubted necessity bring them together. And this forlorn Hope I should scarce have thought worthy to take notice of, but that I find these pieces in the Frontispiece of almost every trivial Prognostick, as if they were spells or charms of much efficacy, both to justify their fond Dictates concerning the power of the Stars ; and yet to free them from that imputation of impiety and unavoidable fatalitie, that from the same may justly be fastened upon them.

Let us now proceed to his reserve, or his main battle ; and see what arma decretoria, what weightier weapons, or armor of proof we may meet with there.

The first Weapon we find here darted against us, is from a word in rhe Text ; which to make strike home and pierce the deeper, is welded with the arm of Melanchthon, a great and famous Divine. The word in the Text is Signa, Signs ; that is, the steel head of the pile or the spear, which hence hedded Melanchthon, and Mr. Swan from him thus enforces upon us. Non ait nihil esse Signa Coeli; imo cum nominat Signa, portendi aliqid affirmat. So precisely Melanchthon, as Mr. Swan reports him; (for I have not the Book; and it is said to be in a Preface to one of their Autors) who also thus renders him, The Prophet doth not say, they signify nothing; (ar nothing, saith his Autor) Nay rather, in naming them Signs, doth declare that they sometimes signify, or threaten great and sad things. that is somewhat more and somewhat less too then his Autor saith. For his Autor saith indefinitely, in naming them signs he affirms, that (not sometimes, but) somewhat is portended by them ; that is, some sad matter is threatened, as Mr. Swan renders the word of portending not amiss. But I demand of Mr. Swan, or of Mr. Swartert either; (for that was his Dutch name, until Luther caused him to exchange it for a Greek one) and though Mr. Lily when he hath nothing else to oppose Calvin in defense of his trade, tell us only that Melanchthon, as grave a Divine, and more learned, as most hold (but who those be I know not; comparisons are odious; and it might well be a measuring cast between them) was a friend to it▪ and student in it, yet great names do not daunt us: I demand, I say, of either of them, is it of the very essence of a Sign, to portend or threaten somewhat? Some kind of language that Mr. Lily uses might a little help here; though one of his axioms would again hinder as much as the other had holpen. He told us that the darkness portended in the Solar Eclipse, would not be so great as some imagined. So that according to his language, somewhat present may be portended, as well as somewhat future. But that is of the same stamp with that other of expatiating himself, and his penna strutii, rendered a cock-sparrows qil. I was taught when I was a school-boy, from Servius on Virgil, that portendere was porro tendere, to tend or reach forward to some further or future thing; as also that expatiari was a neutral deponent. But withal he tells us in his Aphorisms, that The application of Planets shows what is to come, the separation what is past. So that there may be signs by Mr. Lilies grant, as well of things past or present, as to come. And indeed how many signs ar there so named and recorded in Scripture, that neither did, nor do portend ought, either good or evil to come.

The Rainbow was appointed by God to be a sign and seal of that Covenant which God made with Noa in behalf of the whole world, that it should never be universally drownd again. Gen. 9.11, 12. Yet what future good or evil doth the Rainbow portend, so oft as it appears, to ensue shortly thereupon? nor let any imagine that it will suffice to say, that in the nature of it, it may conjecturally forewarn this or that, a sudden shower, or the like; the question being, not what in the course of nature it did or might either before or after foreshow; but what by virtue of that use, that God then made of it, or power that he then imparted to it, to be a pledge of his promise and the performance thereof, which it yet retaineth unto this day, and in regard whereof it is said to be a sing, it is enabled to portend. In like manner God ordained Circumcision to be a sign and seal of the Covenant that he made with Abraham and his issue, either according to the flesh, or according to the faith, Gen. 17.11, 13. Rom. 4.11. Yet did not Circumcision therefore portend unto each one that was circumcised, what should betide or befall him either for good or evil, through the whole tenor of his life, either of itself, or in reference to the day of the week on which, or the hour of the day in which he received that rite. Of the Sabbath it is said by God himself, that it is a Sign between him and his people, that he hath sanctified them ; that is, separated them unto himself. Exod. 31.13, 17. Ezek. 20.22. Yet did not each Sabbath in that regard portend ought in particular to fall out the week following; it having rather relation to the week past, that it concluded, then to that ensuing, as being another, a new week. But pass we from these mysterious rites, to strange, stupendous, miraculous signs, Moses his rod turned into a snake, and that snake returned into a rod ; his hand suddenly overspread with a leprosy ; and as suddenly restored to its wonted plight; is called either of them a Sign : Exod. 4.8. and did either of them manifest God's power, and signed his mission of Moses: but did neither of them portend particularly or respectively ought either to him or any other. The like may be said of those other signs that God wrought in Egypt by the ministry of Moses, the Frogs, the Lice, the Locusts, the Flies, the Hail and the rest, Psal. 78.43. and I suppose men may strain the strings of their wits till they crack, before they will be able to show, what those several plagues did particularly portend; albeit some have fondly applied them to the ten precepts of the Law, and have foisted into Augustine's works a sapless discourse of that subject; and others as frivolously would have them prefigure the ten primitive persecutions ; which Augustine relates indeed, but withal rejects as vain and ridiculous. The Suns standing still in Joshuas days, Josh. 10.12, 13. was it not a sign, and a strange one too? it furthered God's people in pursuit of their adversaries: but what further matter did it portend ? The Miracles that our Savior wrought, of which more hereafter, were they not signs ? or ar they not so termed? Act. 2.22. And here by the way I shall make bold with my Reader to step aside a little, to remove a common error, by Mr. Junius in his Parallels before me observed. It is by the most conceived from those words of our Savior. Matth. 12.39.40. There shall be no sign given to this wicked and bastardly race▪ that ask a sign of me, save the sign of the Prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. It is, I say, hence by the most generally concluded, that Jonas his being for such a space of time in the Whales belly, was a type intended to prefigure Christ's abiding for the like time in the grave. But the context well weighed will show, that no such matter is therein intended. For look to the demand; and it will thence appear what the words of Christ's answer thereunto do import. It is a saying of Augustine, that the man, who after the Doctrine of the Gospel, so at first by miracles confirmed, and since that by such means, and in such manner spread over the whole world, the whole World now believing, doth yet reqire a miracle that he may believe, may justly go for a miracle himself. Yet after that our Savior had wrought so many and so great miraculous works, as that the Pharisees themselves could not but be convinced in Conscience, as one of them also ingenuously and freely confesseth, John 3.2. that he was no counterfeit, nor one that wrought by the Devil, as they bore the people in hand, Matth. 12.24. but was a Prophet at least sent from God ; yet some of them come to him, and crave a sign of him; by sign understanding as our Savior, where he said, John 4.48. Unless ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe ; not some type to be told them out of Moses, as that of the brazen Serpent, John 3.14, 15. but some miraculous work at their reqest wrought then in their sight, as Herod hoped to see some miracle done by him; Luk 23.8. But our Savior putteth them off with a negative answer, telling them withal what manner of people they were that asked such a sign, and that he would not at present show any such sign, but refer them only to one that hereafter should be shown, and that just such another as Jonas his was, such an one as was sometime wrought upon him. That which the Evangelist Luke delivers more clearly, Luke 11.29. For as Jonas (saith he) was a sign to the Ninevites ; not by typifying Christ, whom he preached not to them, out that which had befallen him, coming some way to their notice, & being thereby assured that the message he brought came from God,) so shall the Son of Man (Christ himself rising again from the dead, after part of three days spent in the grave) be a sign (no type, but such a miraculous evidence sufficient to testify what he was, as no other should need) unto this generation. Yea and to the ages ensuing also; it being a far greater matter for him, as some of the Ancients have well observed, De sepulcro resurgere, qam de patibulo descendere; to rise up from the grave, then to come down from the cross ; on which latter condition they engaged themselves to believe on him if he would do it. Matth. 27.42. but though more regarding his Fathers pleasure, and our welfare, then their scoffing reqiries, he did not that, yet he did in steed thereof▪ a work much more miraculous, which he here engaged himself to do.

Ye see how many signs here of either sort, and yet not one portending ought: and the weakness conseqently of this Argument, whither as Melanchthon himself delivers it; When he calls them signs, he affirms them to portend somewhat ; which reduced to a Syllogism, must thus be framed, All signs portend somewhat, but these are signs. Ergo they portend somewhat. or as Mr. Swan delivers it, In naming them signs, he declares they sometime signify or threaten great and sad things ; which syllogistically conceived, must run on this wise; All signs sometimes (for if ye give it only, signs sometimes the syllogism will consist all of particulars, and be of no force or worth) signify or threaten great and sad things, but these ar signs, ergo sometimes they so do. For whether way of the two we take it, the Proposition is manifestly untrue in either. It is not of the nature or property of a sign to portend ought; signs not a few do not, much less to threaten great and sad things : the contrary whereunto by the instances above given doth most evidently appear.

Yea but saith Melanchthon, the Prophet doth not say, they are nothing. Yes, he doth say, they are nothing, in the same sense wherein the Apostle saith, that an idol is nothing, 1 Cor. 8.4. that is, a thing of nothing, as good as nothing, of no use, no worth, no regard, no weight, for he saith, the signs, wherewith the Wizards affrighted them, ar mere vanity : and that is as much as nothing, Isaiah 41.29. I might ad, that it follows not, that they are signs indeed, because the Holy Ghost uses this term of them. For the Holy Ghosts usage is, to speak oft of things, not as they ar in truth, but as men vainly esteem of them, It were no good Argument to proov Epimenides a Prophet, because the Apostle saith of him, One of their own Prophets, Tit▪ 1.12. or the Devil to be a God, because the same Apostle calls him the god of this world, 2. Cor. 4.4. And again there are lying and falls, as well as true signs. 2. Thes. 2.9. Nor will it take off the edge of this instance, to say, that the signs here spoken of, are called the signs of Heaven. which name Moses also useth of them▪ Gen. 1.14. (of which more anon) and that they are somewhat therefore. For were not the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, the signs of Heaven, amongst those Idols the Apostle speaks of? and yet the Apostle saith of them, they ar nothing in the world. as they ar idolized they ar nothing; there is nothing worthy of any regard, much less of any divine worth in them, and in like manner the Prophet of the signs of Heaven, as they are by these Wizards abused to put people into falls fears, they are nothing but mere vanity; lying signs void of all truth; or the signs of the liars, as Isaiah termeth them, Isaiah 44.45. even like those whose signs they are.

And surely since that Mr. Swan himself grants that the Text speaks of Astrological Predictions, such as the Chaldee Wizards then used; and the Prophet pronounceth those he speaks of to be very vanities ; I see not by what art or flight he will be able to keep them from coming within the verge of those superstitious or lying vanities, as himself renders it; which the Psalmist professeth to abhor, together with all those that regard, or hold of them; Psal. 31.6, 7. more then salts falling towards one, or a Ravens croaking over one, or an hares crossing the way before one, and the like; which fond fancies, together with those that fear or regard them, he brings within compass of David's doom, as both deservedly worthy of detestation and hate. And I would gladly demand of Mr. Swan what difference there is between such old Wives tales concerning such fooleries, and all the long tittle tattle, that Mr. Lily his clients rabblements, and the like of those other of his Tribe, are full fraught with, of a Melancholy Saturn, and a jovial Jupiter, and a furious Mars, and a thievish Mercury, and a wanton Venus ; and fiery and ayerie and watery, and earthie Trigones ; and dismal houses of death and misfortune ; and a mad Bul, (for he can be no other) with an eye hot, violent, fierce, furious, and of evil influence ; (and what think we, ar his horns then, when his very ey is so fierce and furious?) and a mad dog, that makes dogs run mad ; and malignant aspects, that do a world of mischief in the world here below, that is ruled by them. But will ye see the difference between the one and the other? As Seneca, after Aristo the Stoik, sometime said, speaking of such vanities as many men spent much upon, and were much taken withal, whom he compared to children, qibus ludicrum omne in pretio est, that set much by any toy to play with, Qid inter hos & illos interest, nisi qod cariùs inepti sunt? What diffe • e • ce is the • e between the one and the other, but that children's toys are less costly then theirs ? So may we well say here, there is no more difference between these silly conceits that those poor women ar possessed with, and those fopperies of the other kind that the Wizards fill their heads with, then between a game at draughts, consisting of a few plain pins or pebbles, that may easily be managed, and a game at chesse, consisting of more variety of Figures, and reqiring more study and forecast, styled therefore by King James a more fashious game, or, if you please, between a Christmas show, or rude country May game, and one of Ben. Johnsons Comedies or Tragedies ; that there is more art and skil, or more state and solemnity in the one, then in the other; but both alike Ludicrous games or sports ; both at the best, no matter of truth, but fabulae, as the Latins termed them, fabulous figments and representations, as well the one as the other▪ there is in these Wizards fantastical conceits a great deal of art and skil to bring them about, and so they are nugae difficiliores, toys and trifles of more difficulty; but after all study about them, and pains taken in them, not unlike those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that Galen taxeth, the product of them is but vanity, as the Prophet here informeth us.

Yea but Mr. Swan tells us, that it is by consent of all ages granted, that great Eclipses and conjunctions have always had sad events.

I suppose I have said enough hereof before, dealing with Mr. Lily▪ yet a little further to Mr. S. here. First, he saith no more herein, then what others long since have averred of those observations and events, from the flight of Fowls, and bowels of Beasts ; concerning which they made boast of experiments of so many hundred, yea thousands of years. And will no • those old women use the same argument for those their unluckie presages, which yet Mr. S. rejects, that they were and had ben from time to time observed to fall out unluckilie before either he or they were born; and tell you Story upon Story, of one that after an hares crossing him as he rode on the high-way, with the fall of his hors, brake a Leg, and another an Arm, and another his Neck? And will they not bring you as solid proofs, for the rules, that from Erra Pater they hare learned, and do very constantly and seriously observe, concerning St. Paul's and Candlemas day ? And here, I hope I shall not much displease my Reader, unless he be over austere, if I shall fall sometime into a fit of that infirmity, that is so incident to men of my years, to entertain him with a tale. They say Herodote made his History somewhat the more delightful, by stepping aside to tell a tale or two now and then. Not long before my leaving of Lincolns Inn, in the reading time, one that had brought Mr. Reader venison, being an ancient man and one of some fashion, was entertained with some other at Mr. Readers board; where some table talk falling in about Candlemas day, & a word or 2 cast out by occasion thereof concerning the vanity of such observations, their old gvest very sagely told them, that he was a Keeper himself, as also had his Father ben before him, and he had constantly observed so far as he was able to remember ought, that on Candlemas day, if the Sun shone out, and it were afaire day, the Deer (contrary to their ordinary usage) would keep close in the covert; whereas if it were a close and gloomy day, they would come abroad and be frisking upon the lawn; as presaging that winter was in a manner gone, and little hard weather behind, and that this had also ben observed by his Father before him, as also by other Keepers as well as himself. Now when I perceived this his relation to take with some of the company, and one among the rest had past his verdict, that there might be somewhat in it : conceiving it no fit cours to debate any further by way of argumentation in the business, I thought better as Socrates sometime dealing with the Sophisters of his time, to move a question only to the Keeper (though Mr. Lily tax me for that cours, and would have puzzeling qestions debarred from these disputes.) I demanded therefore of him, which Candlemas it was, the Popish o • ours which are ten days asunder, on which the Deer were so disposed. and he answering ours; for he knew no other ; I inferred thereupon, that that would then afford a good argument, to prov not theirs, but ours, to be the right Candlemas day: for that the Deer went not by any Calendar, but by instinct. It was soon perceived what the Demand and Inference aimed at; and the business was instantly at an end▪ But what frivolous fopperies will not pass for currant, if tales and stories of occurrencies may be admitted for good proof? Again, neither is Mr. Swan able to make good what he here avows, and the contrary also to what he affirms, hath by others been averred, as formerly I have shown. Tho to shift off that, they have devised another trick, by telling us that those Events need not follow them close at the heels; they may come a year or two after ; when they shall please to assign them▪ that endued them with this faculty, and gave them this power: and so come they earlier or later from them they proceed.

But lastly, it followeth not, such and such things came after them, and therefore were either portended by them, or proceeded from them. When as by other causes they either might be, or apparently were produced: whereof more, when we shall come to Pericles, and the Solar Eclipse in his time. To conclude, as Tully saith of a Philosopher, so say I of a Divine; It is not a Divines part to ground a truth, especially in matter of faith, upon the testimony of such witnesses, as may by peradventure speak true, or through faltinesse fain and fail: by reasons and arguments matters must be proved, not by events; such especially, as anything almost may be made good by. and with that of the Lord Howard, in his Discours of Blind Prophesies, Until a man can as well produce a certain reason to make his guesses good, as score up a register of blind events, we may rather commend his luck then his learning.

But we shall have a Testimony beyond all exception, and that arguing not à posteriore, from the Events, but à priore, from the first cause and ground of this use and office of the Stars. for the Scripture, saith Mr. Swan doth not speak in vain, when it saith, concerning the Sun, Moon, and Stars, Let them be for signs as well as for seasons, days and years, Gen. 1.14.

I will not stand long to qarel with Mr. Swan about his rendering of the Text, thus, Let them be for signs as well as for seasons, days and years. The words are precisely, Let them be for signs and for set seasons, and for days and years. Nor will I pres the version of Junius and Tremellius, who render it, Sint in signa & tempestatibus & diebus & annis, Let them be for signs, both for seasons, and for days and years : though the version be not improbable: such use of the copulative that it reqires, being very freqent in Scripture; as Isaiah, 4.6. from storm and from rain, that is, from a storm of rain : on which place see more instances of the like. So Matth. 3.11. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire : that is as most Interpreters, with the Holy Ghost like unto fire, (of which yet more else where) not as Mr. Swan here as well with the H.G. as with fire : So certainly, John 3.5. Unless a man be bred of water and the Spirit, that is, of the Spirit in Baptism by water represented. nor dare I say, whatsoever Mr. Swan may, as well of water as of the Spirit. Now this their version admitted, and it may be doubted whether Mr. Swan can refel it; it will clearly sweep away all those his superstructures of such and such either Events or Effects, that are founded thereupon.

But we will admit Mr, Swans Version without further debate. Take we the Text as he renders it; will it thence follow that the Scripture should speak in vain, when it saith of the Sun, Moon and Stars, Let them be for signs, unless the great Eclipses and Conjunctions had always sad Events? for upon that account is this inferred by him. Pag. 19.

Yea but, saith Mr. Swan, they could not be signs to us here below, (and to whom else unless to us? ) If they signified foreshowed or spake nothing to us, by their motions, configurations, risings, settings, aspects, occultations, eclipses, conjunctions, and the like, And this he sets on, to put the more strength into it, by a qeint nicetie from Psal. 19.1, 3. wherein he so much pleased himself, that he repeateth it again, Pag. 23. For in the right consideration of that Psalm, (saith he) there is a double speaking to be observed; the one for God in the first Verse, the other to men, at the third V. that is, (as where in the second cours it is served us in again) to Astrologers. for this latter language is Astrology, not the former; as before you heard from him.

But first, is not this enough to make them signs, not in vain, but truly and deservedly so termed, if they signify and declare unto us the might, majesty, glory, wisdom and excellency of that God, that made them and settled them in that transcendently admirable constant state, order, course and intercourse for the benefit of the creature here beneath, wherein to this day they continue? but of this further also hereafter.

2. What reason can be rendered, why the Voice spoken of in the third Verse, should not be the same, that was generally propounded in the first Verse, illustrated more particularly by one special branch of it, in the second Verse, and the vast extent of it, in the third ?

3. As himself reasoneth, If they be signs, then they signify and speak somewhat, and to whom but to us? So here, if they speak for God, they speak to somebody for him; and if to any, to whom but to us; whom God (saith Mr. Swan) hath given a lofty countenance to look up unto them? And if to us, why not to mankind in general? or why to Astrologers only? Or lastly, ar there such Wizards as our Astrologers in all parts of the world? for they are the only men, that understand the Stars language, as Mr. Swan informs us.

4. That they should not be signs, unless they should foreshow somewhat ; and much more, unless they should portend some sad matter, is a very weak and sandy conseqence, as by instances not a few bath evidently ben shown already

5. If the Sun Moon and Stars be Signs, doth it thence follow, that all their particular motions, meetings, configurations, aspects, conjunctions, oppositions, risings, settings, &c. be significant, and portend some new matter? The Tabernacle was a sign, as was also the Temple, Heb. 10 1. but can it thence follow, that every loop, or tach, or pin, or stake, or socket, or cord, or curtain, and the length, and breadth, and depth, of each, or coupling of them one to another, or distance of them one from another, or situation of them one against another, or taking of each down, and folding of it up when they were to remov. or unfolding of each again, and setting it up, when they were to make some stay, were all therefore significant also and mysterious? that men should employ their wanton wits (as it were to be wished that some did not) in picking strange matters and deep mysteries out of each of them. Or because the Paschal Lamb was a sign, and represented Christ, 1 Cor. 5.7. doth it thence follow, that its fleece signified one thing, and its hoofs another, and its ears a third, and its eyes a fourth, and its purtenance a fifth, and its posture in the dish, a sixth, and so forward, with fore leg and him leg, and right and left eye, and ear, and nostril, and legs, and the like? What we find in Scripture noted as symbolical in it, that with good ground we deem significant. And what we find in God's Word noted as significant in these celestial creatures, that may we warrantably conclude to be such, and so far forth significant as it informs us, or strength of reason thereupon grounded shall lead us. As for configurations being mere contrivances of man's fancy, to what end soever at first framed, or to what other good purpose soever still retained, for the better observation of the motions rising and setting of each of them, and the distinguishing of them one from another, to mak mysterious signs of them, or attribute ought to them, in regard of such Figures as man's fancy hath framed them unto, what can it be les then mere superstition and a palpable abuse of them? Can not the Sun, Moon and Stars speak unto us, unless they speak unto us by all these particulars?

Lastly, do not the Stars speak at all unto us, unless they speak to us in the Wizards language ? This is just like to the Patrones of Popish superstitions, and of that monster more particularly of Transubstantiation ; who because they find the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood oft termed a Mystery, and a great Mystery in the writings of the Ancient Fathers, would thence conclude it to be a Miracle, or a miraculous Mystery, such a Mystery as they would have it to be. For so doth Mr. Swan reason, and Mr. Lily before him; The Sun, Moon and Stars ar signs: therefore Fortune-telling signs, foretelling the ruin of Kingdoms and States or such signs as we Wizards will have them to be. But this is to reason a genere praedicato ad speciem statuendam, A Mystery ; and therefore a miraculous Mystery? A sign; therefore a prodigious or portending sign : as if one should thus reason; A man is an animal; and therefore a brute : or, An asse is an animal: and therefore a reasonable creature. And as we therefore answer those Romish Factors, that the Sacrament of Baptism is a Mystery, and yet not a miracle; the Element of water in it is mysterious, yet no miraculous matter. no such essential change in the one, as from the word Mystery they would infer in the other. So may we justly return the like answer to these Wizards and their Factors, that the Rainbow, Circumcision, the Passover, the Sabbath, divers other were, and our Sacraments ar Signs ; and yet neither such prodigious or portending signs, as from this term given them, or office thereby assigned them, they would conclude these to be. But we will take Mr. Swans argument, and try what use we can make of it. The Stars were not signs, if they did not speak somewhat. To which I ad, that it is sufficient to proov them Signs if they do speak some what; as it is enough to make letters and words signs, if they signify somewhat. But the Psalmist saith, they speak somewhat, and telleth us withal what somewhat it is that they say. the stars therefore may be signs, though they speak no more then what the Psalmist saith they do; rho they speak not such a language as Mr. Swan and his Clients would have them to speak, and rack Moses most unreasonably to make him say that they say. Communi omnium idiomate (idiotismo, we may ad also) loquntur, saith Calvin speaking of this place▪ They speak in a language that all may understand. These men's Astrology therefore is not, as Mr. Swan before told us, the stars language: for Mr. Swan himself telleth us in the very Front of his Book, that few understand that: and yet hath the same man the boldness to say, thus they work and by their working they speak to all those who will but lend an ear to hear them.

But these men, though they be not able to make out from this Text, so much as they avow, and would thence conclude, concerning the Voice of these celestial Creatures, as portending and threatening such dismal matter as they would have them to foreshow; yet would they from hence infer and enforce upon us matters of an higher nature and greater concernment, to wit, that they do not only portend such things as events, but produce them as effects. And here Mr. Swan to ty us fast hand and tongue, that we may not once hiscere, open or stir against what he propounds, tells us; that It is an axiom so firmly grounded upon experience, that all the world will never be able to confute it, that the Lights of Heaven work upon the inferior world; and the virtues and powers by which they work were at first Divinely stamped in them, (where, if not here by this Word of God in the Creation of them?) and are elsewhere called by the name of influences ; (of which term in his du place) and that even to the subversion of States, change of Common-weals, Translations of Kingdoms, with change of Laws and Religion.

But, Sir, let your Axiom be never so undeniable, such as all the world cannot refute : yet (qid dignum tanto hiatu?) your Argument thence drawn to conclude what it should proov, is so silly, as that not some exqisite Sophister, but any punie Sophumer may at first sight discover the feebleness of it. For let your Argument be drawn into a syllogistical form, and what will it be but this? [The Lights of Heaven work upon this inferior world. But the Sun, and Moon, and Stars are the Lights of Heaven. Ergo the Sun, Moon and Stars work upon the inferior World, to the subversion of States, changes of Common-Weals, Laws and Religion, and Translations of Kingdoms, &c. ] For who seeth not, if he have but his eyes in his head, that there is much more in the Conclusion then is to be found in the Premises ? Or thus if you please; [The Lights of Heaven work upon this World by a power stamped at first upon them by God: But the Sun, Moon and Stars ar such Lights; Ergo they work by such a power, to subvert States, and translate Kingdoms, to make new Lord's and new Laws.] And is not this think we an irrefragable Argument? or were it not worthy rather to be hissed out of the Schools?

But thus we have at length the full latitude of these men's interpretation of Moses his words, or God's rather by Moses recorded; [Let the Lights of Heaven be Signs, not only to foreshow, what men bred and born under them shall be and shall do, and what evils shall betide them in life and in death, and to portend Rebellions and Ruines of Kingdoms, States and Churches; but efficacious Signs so to work upon men, as to make them thievish and lecherous, and disloyal, and furious; to make them subject to many miseries and disasters in their lives, and to bring them at length to such and such evil ends; and upon States to stir up people to sedition and Rebellion; and to subvert and utterly overthrow them, change their fundamental Laws, and to remov the Religion professed formerly among them.] All this and much more then this they ascribe to the Stars: and when we demand, where they find that God at first endued them with this power, they deem it answer sufficient to tell us, that God himself when he made them, said, Let them be for Signs. Is not this I say, non sanguinem elicere, but saniem exprimere ? to wring Scripture, not until they make it yield blood, but until they sqize out of it such rotten stuff, such purulent matter, as a man would wonder any Christian soul should not abhor?

Mr. Swan did forecast, what would here be objected; to wit▪ that the Word of God tells us, that its God, not the Stars, that disposes Kingdoms and States, Prov. 8.15, 16. that sets up and pulls down ; Psal. 75.7. that, as Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, rules the Kingdoms of men, not leaving them to the disposal of the Stars, but giving them to whom he pleaseth, Dan. 4.25.

To this Mr. Swan returns a long laci • ious answer, winding and turning to and fro, as a Hare in chase to elude the the Hunts-man and his Hounds. The sum of what he saith, in short is this; that Its one thing to so dispose of Kingdoms, as to translate them to another Nation; another thing so to dispose of of them, as they who live in them to be punished for their sins. Which distinction of his, what it makes for his purpose, a better head then mine must tell. For God, he grants doth the one as well as the other, and doth he not for man's sins as well the one as the other? See Deut. 9.4, 5. or do not our Astrologers ascribe the periods of Kingdoms to the Stars? or have the Stars any regard to the goodness or badness of a people, working as these Wizards, and their Patrons tell us, in a natural cours, not in a moral or arbitrary way, as well in the one as in the other?

2. To omit what he returns to an Objection of his own framing, that God works always extraordinarily in such cases: (which no wise man I think, will or did ever avow) that yet the signs of Heaven have their working also, and ar serviceable to God in these. Which what is it else but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , principium p • tere, to bring us back to that which was in question at first; and to prove what he would have, by that which is under debate?

Besides that the question is not, whether God by a miraculous way make use of any creature to effect thereby, what he pleaseth, but whether these celestial bodies have an innate power to effect such strange alterations in States, as our Wizards attribute to them.

I might demand of him where in any authentical Record, he he finds that God ever made such use of the Stars.

For who almost would not smile to read to this purpose alleged, that of Asaph, Psalm. 50.4. He shall cal to the Heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. that is, to hear the debates, and decide the con • roversie between him and them? For did not Isaiah, chap. 1.2. and Moses before him, Deut. 30.29. and 32.1. cal Heaven and Earth to hear the controversies between God and his people, and to bear witness what was to pass in way of plea and allegation on God's behalf against them; implying thereby what they might do and would do, were they apprehensive of such affairs? See the like, Jer. 2.12, 13. Mic. 6.1, 2. And might not that man deservedly be derided, who would thence conclude that the stars had ears to hear, what God or his Prophets there said; as well as the Jewish Masters, who with some great Heathen Writers, from Psalm. 19.1. assert them to be rational creatures? or that should from the places before designed out of Moses, Asaph, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, maintain as much concerning the mountains of the earth, and the earth itself, as these men would hence gather concerning the Stars and the Heavens ?

As little to any purpose for proof of the point in question is that other instance from Deboraes words, The stars in their courses fought against Sisera, Judge. 5.20.

For first, if Rhetorical flourishes be made matter of Faith, and Allegorical expressions strained up to the highest piteh of propriety, we shall soon frame a strange and monstrous Body of Divinity, and make Scripture story little better then a Popish Legend, or a Jewish Talmud, which by such means is grown up to a main mass of fabulous and ridiculous relations. Will any be so absurd, as because David one while complains that He stuck in the mire where he found no footing, Psal, 69.20. another while praises God for drawing him up out of the miry clay, Psal. 40.2. Therefore to imagine, that David sometime like to the Roman Marius, lay hid in a bog, from whence God in safety drew him out? Or because God threatens the Israelites by Amos, chap. 8.9. that he would cause the Sun to set with them at noon tide, and darken the earth in the clear day ; can it thence be concluded, that some great Eclipse of the Sun should fall out on that day, wherein the judgment then threatened should be inflicted? or as some groundlessly, that it should be a Prophecy of that obscuration of the Sun at the time of our Savior's suffering? Matth. 27.45. or when God saith of Babel, that at the time of her fall, Isaiah, 13.10. as if the Heavens should wear blacks for her, The stars of Heaven, and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the Moon shall not cause her light to shine out ; who understands not, that the meaning in both places is other then the propriety of the letter imports? to wit, in the one, that in the height of their prosperity and jollity they should suddenly be surprised with anxiety and distress, that should dash all their glory, and mar, yea utterly damp all their mirth: in the other, that they should have no more joy or comfort in ought, albeit they had Day-light, or Moon-light, or Star-light ; then as if the whole Heaven over their heads were totally darkened, and those glorious Luminaries all utterly extinct. Take one place for all, wherein most Interpreters agree, and against which there can be no exception. It is said, Rev. 6.12, 14. Upon the opening of the sixth seal, there was a great Earthqake, and the Sun became like a sackcloth of hair, and the Moon became as blood, and the Stars of Heaven fell down to the Earth, even as a Fig-tree casts its green Figs when its shaken with a mighty wind; and the Heavens went away like a scroll, when it is rolled up together; and every Mountain and Island were removed out of their place, &c. much whereof is borrowed from Isaiah, 34:4, and is all spoken as the most and best Interpreters unanimously agree of that great and strange change, that was wrought in the World, upon Constantine's conversion to the Christian Faith, the abolition of idolatry generally before professed, and the profession of Christianity settled in the room of it; together with the consternation of the Pagan party, that so possessed the minds of men great and small, high and low in all parts, as if the whole world had ben turned upside down, as the Cynik said it would be shortly after his decease, and willed them therefore to bury him with his face downward; and as well the Heavens above, as the earth beneath, had with a most violent concussion ben shaken and removed out of their wonted places: albeit not any of those particulars there recited were in likelihood literally then effected. For of the last day of the World the subseqent Prophecies will not permit it to be expounded.

Now to apply this and the former instances to our present purpose; when Deborah saith, The stars fought from Heaven, the stars from their ramparts, or terraces, or parapets, or higher works, fought against Sisera ; It is by Peter Martyr, Junius, Piscator, and who not? after Joseph the Jew, expounded of such storms and tempests, with gusts of wind, showers of hailstone and rain, cracks of thunder; flashes of Lightning or the like: such as that was in Egypt, Exod. 9.23, 24. that at Gibeon Josh. 10.11. and that described, in likelihood, at the destruction of Pharaoh and his troops, Exod. 14.24, and 15.6.7. Psal. 77.16.18. So vehement and violent, that all the powers of Heaven might seem to concur and join together in the encounter with, and the assaults of Sisera and his forces: though it be not therefore necessary to imagine, that the Stars had any particular employment in that Action; no more then the Sun or Moon, or Stars, in those other before described. That some such storm is there intended, is the more probable, in regard of that which is there subjoined that the river Kishon swept them away ; being raised up and swelling in likelihood by the abundance of rain, that then suddenly fell.

But let us grant Mr. Swan, which yet cannot be proved; no more then that there ar 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ramparts, or terraces, or parapets in Heaven; that the Stars had such a particular employment in this business; will this▪ think we, be a sound Argument? God did sometime extraordinarily, and for ought can be said, miraculously make use of the Stars to defeat some forces: Ergo Stars have an innate power from their original stamped on them by God to do much mischief, and to overthrow Countries and Kingdoms. Or may not one upon the same ground reason in this manner? Christ made use of clay tempered with spittle for the opening of the eyes of one that was born blind, John 9.6. Ergo clay tempered with fasting spittle hath a singular faculty and innate virtue given it by God, to cure such as are born blind, which Christ doubtless well knew, otherwise he would never have made use of it to any such purpose. The one Argument is sure enough every whit as good as the other, and it may evidently show, what pass they ar at, that ar fain to fly for want of sounder Arguments to such sory. shifts as these.

But Mr. Swan proceeds to demonstrate unto us, taking in Sr. W. Ralegh for his second, how Mars, that fierce and furious fellow is able to subvert any Kingdom or State. For after a long discourse, how the stars work upon elementarie bodies, and so mediately upon men's souls, their minds and their wills; (which you must remember, must be according to such faculties, as our Wizards have assigned them: for ye must of necessity, as Mr. Lily pleads, grant them their principles, though they be not able to prove them:) [Hence saith he, it comes to pass, that in places where the present state of things is apt to kindle into a combustion, there Mars being powerful in operation, doth sometime sow the seeds of War; or the Air being out of tune by bad influences of Planets, causes not only many sicknesses, but strange disorders of minds, which breaking out into act, do many times disturb States, translate Kingdoms, &c. For when the Air is distemperately heated, then it is for certain very apt so to disorder and dry up the blood, as to breed much choler red and adust; this stirs up to anger, with thoughts of furious and violent actions; whence War, from War Victory, from it change of Common-Weals, and translations of Kingdoms, change of Laws and Religion, New Lord's, new Laws.

Have we not an ocular demonstration of whar was before said, of the Power that the Stars have over Persons and Peoples, Kingdoms and States? But I suppose we shall not need to borrow great Alexanders whiniard to cut this Gordian knot asunder, any sory whittle will serve the turn. In a word Sir, you beg still the question, you presume what you should prov, that which you know is denied, and must still be denied until it be proved, that the Stars have such bad influences, that is, as before you explaind yourself, Powers and faculties stamped in them by God. Now this we deny, and for us to deny it, is enough. You that avow it, mvst prove it. And this Mr. Swan will as well be able to prove, as Mr. Lily his Client, that the good Angels told holy men so ; or Mr. Johnson his Antagonist, that God told it to Adam. Now this barely denied, cuts clean away the dependence and consecution of all that follows after and is inferred thereupon. Here therefore we might justly without more ado set down our rest, and ease ourselves of further labor: Howbeit to manifest the impiety of this groundless conceit, and the frivolousnesse of these specious pretences, we shall take a little pains to wade somewhat further in discussion of these their Assertions.

First therefore, whereas Moses tells us, and God himself by Moses, that God at the first made all things good, yea very good, Gen. 1.30. Yet Mr. Swan and his Clients tell us, it is not so. God created some stars and Planets with a malignant power stamped in them by their ascendencies, conjunctions, aspects, and eclipses, &c, coming as constantly and certainly at set times, as day and night, summer and winter, by that cours that God entered them into at first; and working as necessarily, as fire heats and burns, where it meets with combustible matter, to instill into Adams iss • that should be bred and born under them, yea or live under their pretended regiment, whether he stood or fell, a vehement inclination, and strong disposition in some to fury, in some to folly in some to thievery, in some to lecherie, and the like: as also to produce plagues, seditions, insurrections, changes of State and Government, and the like epidemical evils, in those Climates and Countries, unto which they have special relation, without respect to any notorious wickedness, or heinous delinqencies reigning in those regions. Now consider we seriously, and sadly withal, what an height of impiety this may raise up men's spirits, prone enough by nature to entertain and embrace any conceit though never so vain tending thereunto. For when any such judgment in an excess more then ordinary, of mortality, famine, war foreign or intestine, shall befall a people, and God's faithful Ministers shall enform them, as Paul those at Corinth, 1. Cor. 11.30. that such evils befall them for such and such sins, as they observe to be rife with them, and to reign among them; may not men trained up in these Schools, and drenched with these Principles tell their Teachers, that it is a fond and frivolous fancy, to tell them, that these evils befall men for their sins ; for that these things were in the cours of Nature necessarily produced by the Stars, and must needs therefore in their set times as certainly come, as the Sun keep his cours, whether men did well or ill? Ye see, what a prone and plain path to impiety and contempt of God's judgments, is paved out by these dreams and dotages, and made not slick and smooth only, but even steep and slippery, to work the downfall and breakneck of men's souls. What Engine more efficacious could the whole Court of Hell devise, to keep men from repentance for their sins, when God by his judgments calls upon them for it then this? Which we may therefore deservedly deem to have come out of the Devils Forge; for this end and purpose there contrived, by holding men in impenitence to help to fil Hel.

2. We might demand of Mr. Swan, who made that third Planet Mars, so powerful in operation, and of so bad influence, as well as of his Client Mr. Lily who hath made that fixed Star the Bulls-ey to be so hot fierce and furious. It was those in likelihood that so Christened him, and dedicated him thereby to that furious deity. God, we are sure of it, never so named him; nor, that can be proved, ever gave him such power.

3. Mars, saith Mr. Swan, works thus in such places, Where the state of things is apt to kindle into a combustion. and doth not Mars by his innate power, and powerful operation over men's genitures from their very birth design and dispose them thereunto? Or doth not your Client Mr. Lily tell us that the former Eclipse of the Moon that we had the last year, being in the beginning of Libra a turbulent and evil sign, and its greatest obscuration falling near or fully in the seventh House, is without doubt the forerunner of many tumults and desperate designs, that shall terminate in the blood of those that contrived them? and that without any such proviso, where a state is apt so to kindle? Yea may we not well say, that these men's predictions ar fit matter to kindle men into combustions ? Since that from a multitude of instances it may be made evident, that by such courses, people have ben incited and animated unto insurrections and rebellions, that which Agrippa sometime minded Augustus of.

4. If by such means, to wit, of overheating men's bodies, breeding abundance of Choler adust in them. Mars is wont to produce War and change of States, and the like; Why should we not have War and a change of State, so oft as we have any extraordinary scorching hot Summer? For from the same causes why should not the same effects flow? yea according to this deduction, the danger of change in States, should arise from none but such as ar choleric and hasty; whereas it proceeds rather oft times from close and reserved persons, men of a divers constitution: whence it was that Caesar said, He feared more: hose meager pale fellows Brutus and Cassius, then Antony and Dolobella.

5. If the Efficacy of the Stars hang upon such loos links, as the long chain, (the longer, and the more links, the weaker) of Mr. Swans sorites consists of; how uncertain must his Clients Predictions all of them proov? which yet with such confidence they are wont to give out, as hath formerly ben shown. Mars doth sometime sow seeds of War, (not ever belike then.) and, Disorders of mind breaking out into acts do many times (not at all times ; or necessarily then) either disturb States, or work some unlucky disaster ; (but not unless they break out into action ; nor then this or that disaster more then any other;) and again, Choler adust stirs up anger : (but not necessarily, unless it be stirred) and anger breeds War ; (and so oft as men ar once angry, must War needs ensu?) and, from war comes victory ; (not always neither: how oft do forces come off with eqal loss on either side?) & from Victory proceeds change of Common Weals and translations many times (not always belike then) of Kingdoms. But how many fights may there be, yea and victories too on either side, between State and State, (I spare instances) and yet no change of State with either? And what an heap of Inferences are here packed and patched up together to make up Mr. Swans Sorites ▪ no one whereof hath any necessary. connection with another? for men may have store of Choler, and yet not be angry; be angry, and not not fight; fight, and not overcome; overcome, and not change State, or translate Kingdom. Whereas in a Sorites, if any one link fail, the conclusion is of no force. So that we may well say here as Pliny in somewhat the like case, Solum inter ista certum est, nihil esse certi, there is no certainty of ought in these things, but that nothing is certain.

6. If the Planets work for the subversion of States by no other way then this, how is it that Mr. Swans Client tells us in his New Ephemeris, [That when Saturn is got into a Regal sign wherein he hath no right of Dominion, he stirs up in the minds of many men in the Regions subject unto that Sign a desire to rule like a company of Kings and Tyrants, and to back their crooked actions by force, power, impudency, and a kind of severe reverence of their Persons, while they mind only a continuation of War for maintenance of their present greatness; and they that govern regard more the fi •• ing and cramming their purses and coffers with gold and silver, then the business and common good of the Nation: at which time there will be much breach of trust; —the Air dark and dry, and much cold wether▪] and all this not from the constitution of men's bodies, but from the Regalitie of the Sign. Where, Sir, you see the Planets and the Signs, working another way, and in another manner on men's minds then you tell us; and causing disturbances as well in cold wether as in ho • . And again in his Dark year, pag. 8. [That Saturn and Jupiter do change and overturn many human affairs, and do work diversely therein when they change from one Triplicity to another, and that having ben for some 200. years in the Waterie Triplicity, they are now entered into the Fiery Triplicity, and will therein continue for almost 180 years; during which time, as Water and Fier ar contraries; so the Actions of these times to come will be qite avers to what was in those times past.] So that Mr. Swan must invent some new way to show, how those his imaginary Rulers of human affairs do subvert and change States, as well in their watery Regiment, as in their fiery Reign ; as well by rheumatik and phlegmatik humors, as by superabundance of choler adust.

Little pleasure therefore in fine hath Mr. Swan done his Clients by all this his long discourse, and the sandy chain of his sory sorites consisting of so many links, not one of any necessary coherence or connection with another. For suppose we should, to do Mr. Swan a pleasure, grant him over liberally, as much as he here presumes, and would either crave of us, or obtrude upon us, to wit, that the Planets by some malignant qalities do work upon men's bodies, and by this means also disturb their minds, and so make them to do such and such things. Yet would this be sufficient to justify that Art of judiciary Astrology or Astromancie rather, which he hath here undertaken to defend? How many courses ar there by these Wizards his Clients generally professed and practiced, which this his Argument drawn from the Celestial creatures working upon Elementary bodies, and by men's complexions or constitutions upon their souls and minds, will not reach?

And first here, how came it to pass, that Mr. Swan forgot the principal Occasion of his present Discours, the matter of Eclipses ? Why did he not as well undertake to demonstrate from the grounds of Nature, and those irrefragable, that these Eclipses have such an innate power in them to produce such terrible Effects, as his Clients ascribe to them; as that Mars, that unruly and turbulent Planet by disaffecting men's bodies to distemper their souls, and so disturb and subvert States? But the task belike was too difficult for him to undertake: or else he was loath, as Whartons whipper, of his friend Mr. Lily, by such dealings to make his people as wise in these matters as himself. The present Occasion of the next days Eclipse, for which the Sermon was prepared, one would have thought should have required this rather then that, concerning which his people's thoughts were then wholly taken up▪ without regard of Mars, a Planet it may be, that the most of them never heard word of before.

Besides, there is another matter of much concernment; for it is a principal pillar, on which the support of his Clients Trade mainly dependeth; to wit, the Cognisance of Qestions ; which though (saith Mr. Lily) Many have no conceit of, and suppose Ptolomey did not approve ; yet if the Centiloqium be his, the Qestion is ended : but whether he did approov or no; if Art since his time have found out more then he knew, (all Astrology was not buried with Ptolomey) it is not to be rejected. And indeed, what ever ground there be for it, as a young Attorney sometime that went very brave, above the most of his rank, being demanded how he could maintain such apparel, made answer; that He maintained not his apparel, but his apparel maintained him ; (what thereby he meant the Satirist will show) so this here must be maintained, because it maintains them. The business is this▪ their Clients repair to them when they have lost Linnen, Pewter, Plate or ought else, to know what is become of their goods; a Mans servant is run away from his Master, and his Master would fain know which way he is gone; a man hath a mind to a woman that may be his wife, and he would know, whether he be like to obtain her or no; a woman that hath a suitor, whether such a match will be succesful; one intending the Sea, whether the voyage will be advantageous; some that have friends or other relations abroad at Sea, or in foreign parts, for these and the like purposes repair for resolution to Mr. Lily, he acknowledgeth as much, he takes rheir money, and tells them somewhat what he pleases; and sometimes (he saith) he gives them satisfaction, and sometimes he errs. but their monies he hath, and that he is sure of, howsoever it fall out, or fare with the parties from whom he hath it: it is just with them, as it is usually with those that for stolen goods repair to your Newgate-Birds; and thereby for the most part they do but make some further addition to their former losses: and hereof therefore he may say, as the Parasite or cogging knave in the Comedy, Hinc qestus no • is est uberrimus, by this cheating course our greatest gain comes in. See Mr. Miltons Figure-caster. I forbear to relate what notorious pieces of knavery ar reported to have ben practiced under pretence of this Star-advice in contriving of matches, and bringing of them about by setters made use of for that purpose, money for advice being taken on both sides; because that will justly be deemed a gross abuse of the pretended Art; or to rip up such aspersions as by some Mercuries have herein been cast upon Master Lily, because I deem Mercuries and Merlines both of a like credit. I shall only enform you, in what form or manner Mr. Lily by his own confession is wont to proceed in entertainment of his Clients and Customers in these cases, and one head to shun prolixity, shall serv for all; which also, that we may not wrong him, you shall have in his own words. [Our manner of dealing is thus, one loses somewhat; and every man would willingly have his own again, or know which way or by whom it is gone. He comes to us and asks our advice, if we can help him to it again: this, I confess, is the ordinary question and manner of proposal. I think no man ever warranted the goods again; that cannot be done.] (That no man ever did warrant it, may justly be doubted; but unless you put them in good hope of it, your custom would soon fail) only thus much we do; we erect our Figure, and give answer, whether man or woman did the fact, their qalitie and shape, domestical or not, to what part of Heaven the things are carried, the probability of being obtained again or not. and the like you may conceive of the rest of the qestions or proposals before mentioned. and all these things in a Natural way from the Stars, for in all this he assures us that he makes no use of ought, but of Nature only. Now here if Master Swan can come in at a dead lift, and make it appear how by Natural courses all these matters may be effected, and from such irrefragable Principles as he talks of, or reasons thereupon built, and thence necessarily deduced, sound proof may be made, that by contemplation of the Stars and the situation of them. either at the time of the thing done, (which commonly is unknown) or of the question moved concerning it, Mr. Lily or any of his complices can frame such judgments, as he here confesseth they do, he shall do him and them Knight-service, and to make use of Mr. Lilies expressions, Erit illis magnus Apollo. Which until he, or some other of their Advocates shall do, both he and the rest of his consorts ar in danger justly to be deemed no other then a Crew of cheating companions, or such as work with damned Spirits. And this they have the more need of Mr. Swans help in, because it is the most advantageous branch of their trade. I remember, when during my employment at Lincolns Inn, I lodged in the vacation times with a friend and kinsman in the edge of North-hamptonshire, there abode not far from thence, but in Buckinghamshire, one Master Sandie a Minister, withal professing Physic, of the same kindred and family, it may be with that grave, reve • end, and profoundly learned Doctor Napier, for matter of Astrology incomparably beyond all the Scholars of other Nations that ever Master Lily was acquainted with: For I have heard, that he had a brother Merchant in London, that was called Master Sandie, as he was, but after King James his coming in, being Knighted by him, of Master Robert Sandie became Sir Robert Napier. This man, as I said, professing Physic, when any repaired to him for advice, or he was called out to visit a Patient, used to erect a Figure from the time of the question demanded concerning the party, and thence to conclude for recovery or death. & being on such an ocsion, the Lady where I then abode, lying very weak, reqested a visit, to join with Doctor Cotta of North-hampton, more to satisfy some of her near friends, then any misdoubt the other had of her recovery, at his access thither presently had recourse to his Ephemeris, and after Consultation with that sight, of the Patient, and a little conference with the Doctor, approved the courses he had taken, advised to continue them, and there might thereby be hope of recovery, hasted away, having taken his fee; after his return home told some of her friends, that she could not live a week to an end; which proved otherwise: for the Gentlewoman recovered, and lived many a year after. Now this man demanded by some of his neighbor Ministers, what ground or warrant he had for such a course of judicature ; all he had to say for it, was that He had received it from an ancient Physician of long experience, and had himself found it very succesful. and that is just as much as Master Swan hath said, for the matter of Eclipses.

Lastly, to pass by all other, is not the judgment of Genitures, whereof they are termed Genethliaei, a principal part of this pretended Art? and doth not the prediction of casual Events grounded upon the Constellations at the time of men's Nativities, which have no relation at all to the Constitutions of the body ; possess a large room, and fill either page usually in their judgments of Genitures? Nor were it a hard matter indeed to fil up not some few pages, but many large folioes with instances of this Nature. But I will content myself with a few, and those out of one Autor, Rodolph Goclein the younger, (in whose steps Master Swan treads much) a stout maintainer of, and sedulous practitioner in this pretended Art and Trade, as the like in other vanities of the same stamp with this. In his Uranoscopie, among many other, in the first place he presents us with the geniture of a young man a Dane, that suffered death for a murder: That, saith he, having erected a Figure of his Nativitie, who could not but see, to be portended by the Stars, from the combination of Mars with a violent Star called the head of Algol? For the Luminaries having Mars mingled with the head of Medusa (a Monster which they have given a room in the Heavens) doth signify according to our Astrological Aphorisms, (which must pass for Divine Dictates) such as ar to be beheaded : (not hanged then belike) and our jovial men could not prevail to save him, interceding for his life, because Jupiter was but weak in his geniture, and in an abject part of Heaven: nor could the Women, albeit they also assayed what they could, do him any good, because Saturn made the mischief the more, being retrograde in the ascendent, and Mars seated in his essential dignity, &c. An other geniture he gives us of another murderer. In this Mars, saith he, culminating in the West with the Stars of Cancer, did strongly signify bloodshed, and meeting his Horoscope, did besides murder to be committed by him, portend imprisonment for it, which for six Moneths he sustained: yet for this Trigon of the Moon, Mercury, and Saturn and Jupiter then Lord of the twelfth House, great Iovial men interceding for him, he was at length set at liberty. But to let all the rest pass, concerning his own geniture, whereof he hath drawn a Scheme, he tells us, that certain malignant Stars scituate in the Angle of the Earth, and afflicting the Moon in the qadrate Angle of the West, did portend him great danger by slips and falls from aloft : whereunto he adds, that accordingly he had had two grievous falls, whereby his feet were hurt ; (some such malignant Stars in likelihood had Mephibosheth in his Geniture. See 2. Sam. 4.4. and 9.13.) and withal admonishes men very sadly and seriously, not rashly to imagine, that they can escape and avoid dangers, when they have malignant Stars in their geniture so situated : and subjoins, that unless the one of them had ben seated in its dignities, and the Moon supported with the Trigon of Venus, he had hardly escaped with his life. But Mercury being in his principal essential dignities, conferred on him a Mercurial wit ; (It was well he made him not a thief) to which the sextile of Saturn added profound Cogitations, (such as you see these conceptions are) and the Sun fervor of spirit ; (gallant spirits, I hope then all that are born at Noon-tide, if no unluckie Planet cross it) Jupiter in the ninth, and Mercury in the third House, imported journeys as well long as short. the Signs were all prosperous and honorable, by reason of their beneficial Signicatours; Mars only excepted, (he might otherwise have proved a brave Warrior) who being Lord of the ninth House, imported at some time peril by water, which yet else where he imputes to the Moons being then in the sign of Aqarius, and wounded with another malignant aspect ; thus the Stars in the Heavens, it seems fight together, and wound one another) which he called to mind, when being wrecked on the Swedish Coast, he hardly escaped with his life; but the most lucky trine of Venus (well deserving therefore the title of a Deity) to the Moon, and the Moon withal hasting in his geniture to the Sextile of the Sun, did mitigate many calamities to him. And are not these such fopperies and fooleries as do justly deserve laughter? Or may we not well deem those given up to strong delusions to believe lies, that give heed to such frivolous fancies as these? or is all that Master Swan hath above delivered, of any force to warrant such significations and operations enstamped upon the Stars, as this Doctrine of Genitures extends unto? which out of this Autor I the rather relate, for that Master Swan in his Inference annexed unto his former discourse, takes up the same words and taunting terms used by him against those, that tax and deride these fond and bold fancies, or refuse to afford them credit.

For albeit all that he hath herein produced, be of no force or use to support the main tottering Fabric of this their groundless Art; yet as if he had done them a stout piece of service, and cleared all their never yet proved, nor ever to be proved, Principles, he breaks forth into an Exclamation and Declamation against all those that do not acknowledge the Truth of them, and that deride them much more. All which, saith he, is very plain; (and plain dallying and playing indeed; and yet neither plain dealing : for concealing much of what is by them averred; nor sound arguing and debating; for presuming what is to be proved) and yet there be some, saith he, so full of scruples, that they altogether oppose this manifest Doctrine : (to wit, that God endued the Stars with malignant properties, when at first he made them ; which must needs be manifest, because himself, his Clients, and some their Patrons so say,) others so full of self conceit, (because they relish not all that you and your Wizards say) and Epicurean security, (such as God by Jeremiah encouraged his People unto, not to dread such vanities) that they wickedly deride it, (deride it indeed deservedly; for it is worthy of derision; yet not wickedly, no more then Isaiah, and by Isaiah God himself did, Isaiah, 47.12, 13.) Whom we leave (saith he) to play the fools with their fond fancies, frivolous frumps, and affected derisions. We well understand your friend Gocleins Language, from whom you borrow all this, but Sir, be pleased to know, that those whom you speak of, some as good men, and as wise as either Goclein or yourself, do no more play the fool in deriding the fond and impious fancies of those whom you Patronize, then did Elias in deriding Baals Priests and Prophets ; 1. King. 18.27. Or Tertullian in dealing after the same manner with the Valentinians, whose fantastical conceits were just as these of your Clients, no less impious then ridiculous. But you conceive us to be such, as want rather a little Hellebore to cure our brains, then force of reason by Arguments and Demonstration to inform our judgments. And indeed by this discourse you have sufficiently, yea abundantly shown▪ that you so deem of us. For how little force of reason there is in any of your Arguments, to convince any man, that will not renouncing his own reason, swallow down your Principles, admitting them upon your bare word without proof, will (I hope) easily appear to any one, not forestalled with prejudice, by what hath ben here returned thereunto.

But such a one, Master Swan saith, he thinks was Pericles that great and famous Athenian. he should rather have said, that crackbraind fellow, one that wanted a little Hellebore to purge his brains, and that loved to play the fool with his own fond fancies and frumps. For such they are among whom he ranks Pericles. for which his censure of him, some it may be will deem that himself may need as much Hellebore as all Anticyra will yield. The Story of him he relateth in effect as I have before delivered it in dealing with Master Lily, the close whereof is, that when upon a Solar Eclipse falling out as he was setting foot on shipboard, the Master of the Ship was therewith much dismayed, he cast his cloke over his face a while, and then taking it away again, asked him [If he had ben ever a whit the worse for ir: or, as Master Swan renders it, whether it portended ought, which the Master denying, no more said he, doth this Eclipse; or rather, there is no difference between the darkness caused by the Eclipse, and that which was caused by his cloke, save that there was a greater body between the Sun and his sight in the one, then there was in the other.] Now howsoever Master Swan is pleased to tax this in Pericles that noble and intelligent Greek, as surely an over bold presumption ; yet doth not Master Swans Sentence so peremptorily pronounced so assure me of the eqitie and reasonableness of it, but that I dare undertake the justification of him therein, and profess myself to be therein of the same mind with him, especially had he put but some thick cloud, or the body of the Earth, in the room of his cloak. To which purpose, having some neighbors at Supper with me the evening before that expected Black Monday, when upon some speech of the Eclipse, that was to fall out the next day, I perceived some of them somewhat fondly affected therewith▪ I told them that there would be another Eclipse, within less then 24. hours after it, that would be far greater then it, and would last at least twice as long as it. Which when they wondered much at, I assured them it would so fall out, albeit that their Almanackes had took no notice, nor made mention at all of it. In fine, to put them out of their wonderment, I told them, [We were already then entered into such an Eclipse; yea had such an one every night in the year. the one being no other then a depriving of us of the Sun-light in part for a while by the intervention of the body of the, Moon passing between us and it; the other a depriving of us of the same Light totally, for a far longer space of time, by the interposition of the body of the Earth, between us and the Sun. And there was therefore no more matter of dread, or dismal presage in the one then in the other.]

Yea but, saith Master Swan, the effects of this Eclipse brought not only misery upon his own Countries and dishonor upon himself, but did put even all Greece under the sad calamities of a long lasting war. And Master Lily his Client begins his Dark year with the same observation. [It was (saith he) as wisely as truly observed by the learned Thucydides, that some years before those three and twenty years Peloponnesian wars of the miserable Greeks among themselves; wherein every City or Common-Weale of Greece, was in one kind or other engaged; that those things which in former times there went only a fame of, though rarely in fact confirmed, were then made credible, by the ensuing wars of the Grecians one with another. the forerunners of which qarels he says were these; Earthqakes generally to the greatest part of the World, and most violent withal, Eclipses of the Sun oftener then is reported of any former times, great droughts, &c. ]

Our first work here shall be, to rectify the relation, and deliver the truth of the Story. Thucydides therefore endeavoring to show, that the War, which he intended to write of, was in divers respects not matchable only unto, but even greater then any that had gone before it in Greece, whereof any record was extant, saith, that Poets by their Fictions used much to enhance the greatness of those Wars whereof they wrote; and Historians also themselves oft times related many things upon bare reports besides the truth of the things reported. But those strange occurrence before mentioned made this Story the more remarkable, not that were fore runners, as Master Lily renders him, or, as he saith, went some years before, that is but his own gloss; but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that did together with that War fall in or fall out, (for the Greek word will bear either, of Master Lilies notions neither) were not the forerunners, but the concomitants of it, or concurrent with it. But what do I talk to Master Lily of Thucydides his Greek, who understands not so much as one of his own fellow Wizards Latin, as hath formerly ben shown. Now among those things that fell out during the time of that War, or that fell in with it, ar reckoned up, Solar Eclipses more freqent then in former times: the more in likelihood then observed in regard of the present state & condition of the times wherein they fell out; whereof a only ar by Thucydides mentioned, the one in the first, the other in the eight year of that War; Earthqakes ; whereof one, thar did much mischief, in the sixth, & two other less considerable in the tenth year of that War: droughts ; and dearths following them, now and then lightly touched. But one of the most remarkable Occurrents of those times was a Pestilential disease ▪ which taking its rise in Ethiopia, fell down from thence into Egypt : then out of Africa struck over into Asia ; whence crossing the Midland Sea into Europe, it arrived at Athens in the second year of that War; where it continued for two years in great force; and in the fifth year breaking out again, continued about a twelve-month; yet not sweeping away so many as formerly it had done; the manner of it being by observation, better discovered, and means of remedy and recovery, accordingly devised and made use of with success.

These Occurrents therefore, as appears by Thucydides his express terms, seconded with his punctual Relations, were Comitants of that War; and fell within the limits of it, not forerunners of it, and that by some years forepast, as Master Lily, or the party from whom he had it, do misreport and belie that Noble Historian. But with the rest of those Accidents at present we have nothing to do, with the Eclipse only we now deal. The Effects whereof, saith Master Swan brought misery upon Pericles Country, dishonor upon him, and the Calamities of a long lasting War upon all Greece. Where I might ask Master Swan what dishonor it brought upon Pericles, who lived and died in high repute.

It is true, that after the War was begun between the two prime States in Greece, jealous either of others greatness, having now found occasions to pick Qarrels either with other, and the Spartanes having invaded the Attike Territories, Peticles persuaded the Athenians to sit qietly, fortify the City, send out only some to make light skirmishes, and intercept their stragglers, but to bend their main Forces by Sea to invade the Spartanes and their complices, which would make the Enemies Country the seat of War, and enforce them to call home their Forces. To which purpose himself in Person set out with a great Fleet: And howsoever Plutarch saith, that in that Expedition he performed nothing worthy of so great a Preparation, nor did answer the Peoples Expectation ; yet doth Thucydides a judicious Writer, approve of his Advice; and affirms that he did more damage and detriment to the adverse Partie, by wasting their Country, before he returned, then to his Country men they by their incursion had done. Howbeit the people indeed more sensible of present loss, then of future emolument, and of their private affairs then of the public concernment, the War still continuing, began to mutiny, and to exclaim against Pericles; the poorer sort, in regard of the damage they sustained, and the difficulties they were driven to in retiring to the City, the richer sort, because their Country Farms were spoiled, underhand inciting the rude multitude to cry out against Pericles, as if through his evil advice they sustained all that they suffered. Whereupon by the major number of Votes, (for it was a Popular State ) Pericles was at the present put beside his Command, and Fined in a great sum of money, which he instantly making no reckoning of it, did not unwillingly pay, but according to the mutable minds of the multitude, ready to turn to and fro as variably as either Wind or Tide is wont, at a second Court or meeting not long after was the same Pericles created the Commander in Chief, of all the Athenians Forces: in which Command he continued to his dying day; and so prudently managed the Affairs of that State, that Thucydides, though a prime Man of a contrary Faction, by Pericles prevailing exiled, and in that his Exilement writing his Story, this part of it at least, after Pericles his de • ase, and no partial Man conseqently in his behalf, sticks not to affirm, that the swerving from those courses that Pericles had set on foot while he lived, by those that succeeded him in place of Command, but not in Pollicie and prudent disposal of Affaires, brought not disgrace and dishonor only, but destruction upon divers of them, and utter ruin almost upon that State. Which the rather I observe, to show the gross partiality and malignity of these men, that regard not what they say, or write to the disgrace of those, that have in any kind descried, or discovered and opposed their Fancies. For why should the Effects of this Eclipse be said to have fallen foul upon Pericles, of whose valor and integrity, prudent and eqall carriage of State Affaires ; Thucydides himself, a Man as well judicious as ingenuous, though of another side sometime in the State, and by means of him and his friends for a certain number of years seqestred, yet affords a most ample Testimony, by evidence of Truth evinced; rather then on Cleo that base turbulent Fellow • , or Demosthenes (not the Orator, but another) that heady, rash and unadvised Commander, and others of the like stamp, who out of by-respects to their own private ends, fed the Peoples vain humors with specious pretences, and while none durst oppose their Proposals, for fear of being deemed Malignants, and Enemies to the honor of the State, put them upon such inconsiderate Designes, as brought not shame and dishonor alone, but ruin and destruction also upon some of them; Why, I say, should that Eclipses dismal Effects be said to have lighted on him rather, then on them, but because Pericles had manifested his contempt of those superstitious Conceits, which afterward in that very War proved fatal and destructive to Nicias and the forces under his Command, whereof mention is before.

Yea, but the Effects of this Eclipse, whether they lighted so upon Pericles or no, brought misery upon Athens, and calamity by a long and grievous War to all Greece.

Of the Original of that war we have said somewhat before; & shown that it was on foot before that Eclipse, having ben also some good space of time in brewing and breeding ere it brake out, as Thucydides declares at large throughout his whole first Book, the Preface introductory to it only excepted. Nor was Thucydides so selie as these men would make him, as to ascribe either the War itself, or the continuance thereof unto such occurrence as were but the concomitants thereof. Yea suppose we, that that violent earthqake, and that terrible Eclipse, had both fallen out before that war was begun. as it had ben absurd to say of such an Earthqake, or of any Earthqake whatsoever, that it had by an innate efficacy produced that War that then ensued; or that any earthqake hath an inbred faculty, by vertu whereof it is able to produce Wars, as drought doth dearth, yea and necessarily in the course of nature so doth: In like manner is it no less absurd for any man to attribute the like efficacy to that, or to any other Eclipse, unless he be able to render some reason as well for the one as for the other. And he that shall consider the occurrences of those times, as they concern the Athenian State, looking on them, not with an Astrological, but a Theological eye, as it behooved Mr. S. to have done; when he shall have read in Thucydides, an eye witness of what he wrote, how far that heavy visitation, that seized on them at Athens, and from thence overspread their whole Country, not much afflicting any other part of Greece, a strange contagious disease never known the like before, that weakened them more then the war itself had done; how far, I say, it had ben from working any good upon them, that the greatest part among them took occasion thereby to break forth into all manner of wickedness, looseness, and licentiousness, spoiling of others, and rioting with what they gat from others, without fear of divine vengeance or legal penalties: as also what horrible outrages were in the several States and Cities committed; no place of safety least to any, that was not as forward as others in acting of vilanies; no regard had of faith or oath, or of relations and tials natural, civil or sacred; honesty scorned as simplicity, fidelity as folly, clemency as cowardice; and on the other side fraud cried up as prudence, perfidiousness as policy, force as fortitude, cruelty as courage. This state of things, whoso shall seriously weigh, may with good ground and warrant from God's Word, yea led by the very light of nature itself alone, ascribe rather those calamities, that afterward during that war befell the main body of Greece, that State of Athens more specially (the pride and power thereof so impaired and pulled down by the Spartan, and they brought so low, that they were enforced to beg a peace in most submiss and base manner; and to accept it on most dishonorable and destructive conditions, of dismantling Athens their mother City, and Pyreum their haven town, delivering up their whole Fleet, twelv ships only excepted; and receiving a new government by thirty such as the Spartane then approved, who by them supported, ruled according to their own lust, without regard of Law or right, and exercised such extreme cruelty upon them, that as Cleocritus avowed, they murdered more of their own countrymen within eight months space, then their enemies the Spartans had in ten whole years. ) unto the just judgment of God and his wrath incensed against them, for their transcendent excess of ungodliness and wickedness, not restrained, much less reformed, but improved and enhaunced upon those forepast grievous judgments, then to an Eclipse or two coming in a certain fixed course naturally at a set time, without regard had to any superfluity of wickedness or ought of that nature in those times. And I desire any pious and judicious Reader to deem, whether of the two, either are guilty themselves, or make others guilty of Epicurean security, as M. Swan from Goclein is pleased to speak, those that teach men not to be afraid of a little loss of Sunlight for a quarter of an hour more then they are of the total want of it for many hours night after night, coming in a known natural way as well the one as the other; but to fear Sin, that may cloud the light of God's countenance towards them, and may cause him to withdraw the bright rays and gracious sunshine of his favor away from them; or those who would make them believe, that every great Eclipse, coming certainly in a set time, by such a course as God settled these heavenly creatures in at first, draws ever at its tail a long train of inevitable evils by a natural power stamped upon them by God, as sure to ensu, as night folowes the Sunset, and day the Sunrising, and to light upon such people and places and persons as these men have assigned them unto, without any regard of their doing well or ill. For it is observed by Thucydides, that in that strange infectious sickness, wicked wretches, when they saw that it surprised and swept away, as well good as bad, all sorts alike, they grew to this resolution, Let us get what we can by hook or by crook, by right or by wrong, and make merry with what we have got while we may. and will not men be prone to make the like inference from these Wizards principles? These evils attend Eclipses in as certain a course as the Eclipses themselves come; and there is no means to escape or avoid them by any religious course or change of life, no more then by any such course the coming of the Eclipse itself; and it is in vain therefore, whatsoever Mr. S. elsewhere tells us, to hope or assay by any such course to avoid them. and so he takes off the edge, and debilitates the force of all his pious exhortations.

But pity it was, that Pericles had not some of these Wizards, as had Xerxes and Alexander, to have informed him, which of the States, the Athenian, or Spartan, was under the Suns tutelage ▪ and which under the Moons, that he might thereby have ben better informed of the issu of that War ; which had his counsels ben followed, and those courses insisted on, which before his death he advised, might have proved more successful to his people, then for want and neglect thereof it did; who after his decease being encouraged by such miscreants as these, to engage themselves in a foreign war, when they had their hands full enough at home, wherein their forces miscarried, and their State was thereby exceedingly weakened, were then, when too late, extremely incensed and enraged against all those that had set them upon that design, and those more specially, that by their vain predictions had put them in hope of good success; some of whom also they might the rather curse, because by following their foolish, unadvised and unseasonable advices, their Forces (which though re infectâ, yet might have ben brought off with safety, as hath ben shown formerly) were utterly destroyed. And thus much for the clearing of Pericles from, M.S. his inconsiderate and groundless aspersions, and our selves from the like, who profess herein to concur with him; as also to free Thucydides from such false and frivolous relations as M. L. hath endeavored to fasten and father upon him, being in truth no other then bastardly brats of his own adle brain.

But let us at length, after this long digression, that Mr. S. by Pericles censured, and M. L. by Thucydides misreported have put us upon, return to consider of such further Scripture-proofs as Mr. S. hath produced for the justification of his Astromancie.

These virtues and powers, saith he, were at first divinely stamped on them; and are called in Job 38.31. by the name of influences. The Greek word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , super & fluo, that is, to flow into, or upon; which derivation implies thus much, that they must have some object to flow into, or work upon, it would else be nonsense, to use that name of influence.

But 1. Sir, you should do well to tell us, where you find the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , yea or influence in the Text. the Original, I am sure, hath none of it. nor hath the Greek version any such word at all there. that our English version hath, not influence barely, but sweet influences, I acknowledge. but the epithet rather then the substantive, is suggested by, and deduced from the Hebrew, which hath no more then delights or pleasances. the word is the same with that 1 Sam. 15.32. used there of Agag. howsoever the Jewish Doctors some of them▪ by a transposition of letters, a trick with them not unusual, do in either place render it bonds. Beside, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as yourself give the notation of it, should signify rather a flowing upon, then a flowing into: as in the Lord's Prayer, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 would rather be rendered, on, then in. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . as in heaven, so on earth also. Matth. 6.10. But this is not unlike, what you have elsewhere; where speaking of Arcturus, in English▪ the Bears tail, (for such unruly creatures as bears and bulls have they placed also in heaven) you tell us in your margin, it is a Star so called in Job, as if such a term were found in Jobs text, Job 38.33. wherein you follow also your Goclein to an hair, who tells us, that the names of Pleiades, Arcturus and Orion are found in Job, and may be retained therefore without impiety or superstition. What the Stars are there mentioned by the names of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or what Stars or Constellations are by those terms particularly designed, neither the Hebrew Masters, nor Christian Writers, do generally agree, nor, I suppose, any the Wisest man living is able certainly to determine. Not improbable is it, that by the delights or pleasances of Cimah (be the Star or Constellation what it will) are meant such delights, or delightful seasons, as the spring of the year making its entrance by the Suns nearer approach about the time at which that Star or Constellation (be it the Pleiades, or what other soever else) ariseth, is wont to produce. as on the other side by Cesil (whereof see on Isaiah 13.10.) seems to be understood some such Star or Constellation, at whose appearance Winter is wont to come on, that with stormy weather dasheth those foregoing delights, and by frost and ice closeth up the surface of the ground, which the spring had opened before. whence the Month Caslew seems to have had its name, being the first winter Month in those parts. And in like manner Mazzaroth, and Ash, or Aish, seem the names of some Stars or Constellations, the one whereof arose toward the beginning of summer, the other of Autumn. Not that these Stars did by their appearance above the Horizon through any innate qalitie or intrinsical faculty by God stamped upon them, produce those seasons, or those effects and symptoms of the same; which it is apparent that the access or recesse of the Sun, unto and from several parts of the world doth respectively produce: whence it comes to pass, that by reason of his approach or remooval it is summer to some parts, when it is winter to others, and spring to a third, and Autumn to a fourth; and so backward again; but those by their appeerances in Jobs time to those parts of the World wherein he lived, did signify and give warning of the near approach of such seasons; and admonish people conseqently to apply and address themselves unto such works and employments, as in such times were most seasonable and suitable thereunto. So the coming of the Swalow, Jer. 8.7. and the sprouting of the fig tree, Matth. 24.32. argu and signify the approach of spring and summer ; but neither of them effect either: and so the Sirius, or Dog-star, doth by his appearance and continuance with us denote the most unseasonable time of the year with us for distemper of heat, and infirmities in men's bodies proceeding from the same; whereas yet that affection ariseth not from any power of the Dog-star, of which that great Mathematician M. H. Brigges sometime occasionally in conference averred unto me, that in the ancientest times it had risen in the spring, and if the world should continue for a certain number of years, the Dog-days, as we term them, would be in the very heart of winter, as they also in some part of the world are at this day: but the excess of heat in those days, is from the continuance of the sun augmenting the heat of the air, though upon his recesse, at that time of the year; as in the same manner, and by the like proportion, enhancing the heat of the day, for some time an hour or two after noon, though then entered upon and having made some progress in his declination from the highest pitch of his exaltation with us. And I incline therefore to the Judgment of that learned Scholiast, who thus expoundeth those words in Moses concerning the Sun, Moon and Stars; Let them be for signs ; (to admonish men of the Seasons of of the year, and to direct them in their affairs and employments, concerning matter of voyage and tillage, yea and use of physic also) and for set times, (for so the word properly signifies, Gen. 21.2. 2 Sam. 24.15. Jer. 8.7. as are months) and for days and years. signifying or giving notice of those; but producing these, as the Moon by her proper motion doth the Months, the Sun by his diurnal and common course the day, by his annual and peculiar cours the year. So that M. Swans argument from the word influence is of no force, being not at all in the Text: nor were it there, would it be of any validity to infer such strange malignant influences, as he and his Clients for whom he pleads, would groundlessly fasten upon the Stars.

But if all this will not serve, which is all as light as a little thistle down or a feather, to infer or enforce ought that Mr. S. should proov and would have, you shall have a convincing place, that will hit the nail on the hed, and strike all ded, and that out of the same Book, Job 9.7. where God is said to seal up the Stars. And here indeed Mr. S. gives us the words of the Text aright: but with such an exposition, as neither he is able to prove, nor would at all avail him, albeit he could make it good. The sense of the place is, as plain and familiar, so as ready at hand, as is rain-water in a shower. Let the simplest man almost, of any the meanest understanding, read but the whole verse; To the Sun he saith, (to wit, arise not ) or, he speaketh, and it ariseth not: he also sealeth up the Stars ; and he will easily and readily at the very first sight see, that clouding and darkening, withholding or withdrawing of light, is intended as well concerning the Stars in the one branch, as concerning the Sun in the other: It is a plain parallel to those places, Isaiah 13.10. The Stars of Heaven, and its Cesilim (the brightest of them) shall not give their light: the Sun shall be darkened in his setting out: nor shall the Moon cause her light to shine forth. Ezek. 37.7, 8. I will cover the heavens, and make the Stars thereof dark: I will cover the Sun with a cloud; nor shall the Moon give her light: all the lightsome lights of Heaven will I darken over thee; that I may set darkness upon thy land. and Joel 3.11. The Sun and the Moon shall be darkened; and the Stars shall withdraw their shining. It was to the very letter so in Paul's voyage from Jewrie to Italy; wherein neither Sun, nor Stars, for so many days appeared. Act. 27.20. To cite for this Interpretation a multitude of writers (which otherwise were not difficult) would be but a great deal of lost labor, as much as to set up a torch or taper at clear noon-day light, and to cast some good store of water into the Sea.

But let us hear M. Swans exposition. God, saith he, seals up the Stars, when he keeps back the rain from the watering the earth.

I will not press Mr. S. to produce some Autors of note, that in this his exposition concur with him. which yet if either the course of the context did back, or other Parallel passages of Scripture did second, I should not in that regard refuse to admit and embrace. But I desire to be informed from Mr. S. where the giving of rain is attributed to the Stars, and the restraint thereof to the obsignation or cohibition of them. We read in this very Book of Job in Elihues discourse, Chap. 36.27, 28. Drops of water the clouds do dril, distil, and pour down abundantly. And Chap. 27.10, 11. God in watering the earth wearies the thick cloud, and scatters the lightsome, or lightning, cloud as also in God's own words to Job, Chap. 38.34. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of water may cover thee? So Psal. 77.17. The clouds poured down water. and Psal. 147.8. who covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth. and Eccles. 11.3. When the clouds be full of water, they empty themselves upon the earth. and Isaiah 5.6. I will command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it. But I nowhere find it said, that the Stars pour down rain ; or that the Stars are forbidden to give it, or said to be restrained from yielding of it.

This Interpretation therefore having no strength at all, either from the tenor of the context, or other passages of holy writ, cannot in reason be urged for ground of an argument. Nor again were it admitted, would it help Mr. S. or those whose Advocate he is. For what manner of argument will this be? God seals up the Stars, by keeping back the rain, from watering the earth: Ergo the Stars have a power to work upon the sons of men, to dispose them in their genitures, some to one vice, and some to another, to expose them to casualties of divers kinds, and to design them unto sundry sorts of ill ends. Would it not be, as they use to say, to reason a baculo ad angulum, from the cudgel to the corner ? What can from hence be averred of the Stars, that may not as well thence be concluded of the clouds?

And indeed this place of Job is just in the like manner abused, wronged and wrested by them to confirm their Astromancie, as is another in the same book to assert their Chiromancie or Palmestrie, which Mr. L. so much magnifies, and of which Goclein (the prints of whose footsteps are in Mr. S. freqent) tells us, it hath great consent with Astrology, and the predictions of it are more firm then those of Astrology are. I rather believe both alike. The place alleged in defense of it, is Job 37.7. which Goclein reading according to the vicious Vulgar Latin thus renders; Qi signat in manu omnium hominum, ut singuli noverint opera sua. Who signeth in the hand of all men, that each one may know his works. Now howsoever Gocl. acknowledgeth that the place is diversely expounded as well by ancient as later Divines, (and that by those of them also who admit the Vulgar Version) especially, saith he, by those that set light by Chiromancie, (as if any Divine of note, old or new, Jew or Christian, Papist or Protestant, commenting on the Text made it look that way) yet if we look to the Original in the Holy tongue, as divers very learned Hebrews, whom he had advised with, had informed him, it neither could, nor ought to be understood other wise then of the use and signification of the Chiromantical Art. Whereas on the contrary, unless we will tear the words away from the Context ; (which we ought not to do) and have no regard, either to the common use of the pauses, or the ordinary rules of Grammatical construction, they cannot at all imply, or hold out any such thing; but as all generally understand those first words, speak of restraint of men from work abroad, & confinement of them to their houses, by such stormy, snowie and showrie wether ; of which in the verse next before; as enforceth the beasts to betake themselves to their covert, and keep close there, as it is in the very next verse after this. And Mercer therefore a man singularly versed in the Hebrew tongue and Hebrew Writers, saith, that whereas your Chiromantiks would writhe and wrest it to their purpose, eo nihil facit & extra rem est; it makes nothing at all for them, but is clean beside the matter. And Cocceias, one whose writings generally proclaim him, a man eminently skilled in that language, sticks not to term them stark fools that dream ought of Palmestrie in that place. Stulti sunt, saith he, qi hîc de Chiromantia cogitant. But this obiter. the word of obsignation, or sealing up, hath in either place a manifest notion of restraint. nor doth the one any whit concern Astromancie ; no more then doth Chiromancie at all the other: which may as soon be found in the Book of Job; as the Philosophers stone in the Apocalypse of John, where one sometime told that learned Divine of Norimberg, he had found a promise of it in the term of a White stone, which could be no other then it, Rev. 2.17. So prone are men to wrest and writhe the words of God's sacred Oracles for the gaining of credit to any fancy, that they inordinately affect.

Yea but it is certainly true, that the time will one day come, when the whole world itself shall go to ruin; before which time there shall be signs in the Sun, and signs in the Moon, and signs in the Stars, Luk. 21.25.

I remember to have heard a Court Preacher in Qeen Elisabeths time, who having made choice of that Text to entreat of, began his Sermon with these word • ; It is no strange matter to have the Sun in the Sign; but it is a strange matter indeed to have Signs in the Sun. I do not approve such dallying with Scripture. Howbeit I suppose, it may seriously and soberly be said, that it is one thing to have the Sun in this or that Sign, which in regard of the Sign is a matter of no moment; and another thing to have Signs, that is, dreadful and extraordinary apparitions, coming besides or beyond the ordinary course and nature of the creature, in the Sun, or Moon, or Stars, conspicuous and obvious to every ones eye. Within which compass cannot be forced, either Eclipses, because coming in an ordinary set cours, and in a necessary natural way, nor conjunctions of malignant aspects (if any such were) because not apparent unto any but such, as apply themselves unto this vain study. But because Mr. S. frames no Argument from hence, we shall so let it pass. Suffice it shall, to have intimated, that the Signs there spoken of are much discrepant from those Signs of Heaven, which we have now under debate.

Yea but David saith, Psal. 111.2. The Works of the Lord are great, sought out of all those who have pleasure therein. And as was David's doctrine, so was Solomon's practice, 1 King 4.11, &c. For he was wiser then all men, then Ethan, and Heman, and Calcal, and Dardo; and he spake of trees, from the Cedar in Lebanon, to the Hyssop that springs out of the wall; as also of beasts, and fowl, and creeping things, and fishes,

But because all this will not help to make Solomon a member of the society of Astrologers, and a brother of their profession▪ for all this skil is without their verge, and far beneath the Sphere of their sublimated Science ; yet to fetch him in, that he may grace the Society and Brotherhood of them, they fly to the Apocrypha ▪ and from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, falsely so termed, the work of a Namelesse and unknown Autor, Chap. 7. v. 17, &c. in the person of Solomon, Mr. Swan sings us the same song, that M. L. his Client before sang in the very entry of his Preface unto his Dark year; I know how the World was made; and the operations of the Elements; the beginning and the end, and the midst of times; the alterations of the turning of the Sun, and the change of the seasons; the circuit of years, and the positions of Stars. (for which M. Swans Printer hath put in possessions ; he may mend it, if he please, in his next impression; the Composer, it may be, dreamed of their houses in heaven, that were not, he thought, fit to stand without tenants) But thus they both; and so far Mr. L. who tells us, that from the sense of these verses it may be inferred, that the Science of Astrology, or influences of Heaven, are clearly intended, and the Art lawful; else the wisest among mortal men would not so significantly have mentioned the Positions of Stars. for no man can know the operations and virtues of the Elements, except by Astrology: and a Position or figure of Heaven is needless, unless from thence a judgment be derived. So Mr. L.

But, Sir, you should proov that Solomon ever spake this. and unless you be able to make good the authentic Autoritie of your Autor, (which we well know you cannot do) who makes Solomon speak more, then he would ever have spoken, of himself; you may do well to keep him by you, to talk out of him to those, that will admit for substantial witnesser, against whom no exception lies, all such Autors as you cite, your Grandsire Merlin, and Mother Shipton among the rest; and not offer to obtrude them upon those, qi norunt qid distent aera lupinis, that know how to distinguish between gold and copper, or laton, between currant monie, and comical coin, between base counterfeit, and authentic records.

But suppose Solomon had spoken those very words, that your counterfeit Solomon (not unlike that counterfeit Samuel, 1 Sam. 28.) here gives him; yet is your inference thence of no force. for where is there mention of influences in the Text? So that as the common saying is, Plus habet rubrum qam nigrum. There is more oft in the Rubrik, then is in the Paragraph : so there is more here in the gloss, then is in the Text ; there is more in the Conclusion then is in the Premises, and your inference therefore is lame and feeble, vain and frivolous. Mr. S. his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and your influences, may both be well returned you with a nevter inventus est : and should it anywhere else be found, I shall for my answer thereunto, turn you over to what hath ben returned Mr. S. urging that term; for your arguings are both alike.

Yea but, the wisest of mortal men would not so significantly have mentioned, &c. what is that in English? think we. Some belike speak significantly, and some not significantly, as M. L. now and than; and Solomon himself also, it seems, sometime elsewhere, though not here: but be it what it will be, So wise a man as Solomon was, would not in such a significant manner have mentioned the Positions of Stars; if the Science of Astrology were not lawful. And who denies the Science of Astrology, so far as it considers the site of the Stars to be lawful ? But what is that to your Judiciary Astrology, or Astromancie rather? (not unlike to your Chiromancie, its harmonious Consort, Englished by C.G. Wharton, which you so highly extol) whereby you presume and profess to foretell certainly and undoubtedly (I give you your own words) future contingencies and casualties ; which Mr. S. confesseth to be God's peculiar. And in regard whereof you term your Grandsire Merlins magical and mystical Predictions, whether he took them from the Stars, or had them from the Incubus his Sire, Prophecies: though they may justly be deemed (as Erastus well in defense of Savanarola against Stathmi • one of your patrons) rather mendacinia then vaticinia. But without such Astrology the operations and virtues of the Elements cannot be known ; and Anaxagoras, and Plato and Aristotle therefore could not belike know or write ought to purpose of them, because either they were not acquainted with, or did not regard, this magical part of divinatorie Astrology: and to know the Positions of the Stars is needless, unless from thence a judgment be derived ▪ such a judgment you mean, I hope, as you and your complices are wont thence to deduce. and so all those observations of those famous Mathematicians, so sedulously versed in the Contemplation of those celestial bodies, and so deeply seen in the Sideral Science, such as were Eudoxus of old, and of late our Mr. Brigges, and other of the same mind with them concerning your Astromancie, are wholly superfluous and useless; because they receive not, but reject your groundless and fantastical judgments.

And here any simple Reader may easily descry the selinesse of your Arguments: The Stars had influences, which Solomon knew : (though you find no such word either in Solomon himself, or in your counterfeit of him) therefore such influences as we assign them ; to make men and women vicious and of a naughty disposition. and, King Solomon knew the Positions of the Stars: therefore King Solomon was acquainted with and approved of such a divinatorie Astrology as we profess and practice, in telling people their fortunes, and what misfortunes shall befall them in their life and at death. and, The knowledge of the Posture of the Stars is not useful unless some judgment be made by it, or derived from it: therefore unless some such judgment as we build upon it concerning casual events to befall people and persons, unto whom we have assigned them such and such special relations. What young novice, or punie freshman, that hath travelled in Logik no further then his Seton, would not be ashamed of such Arguments ? But I suppose Mr. Lilies Logik is much at one with his Greek and his Latin ; which latter is so mean, that he is not well able to English his own Autors aright, or to speak true English in Latin terms, as hath formerly ben shown. And yet (which may well be wondered at) M. Swans Arguments are most of them of the very same stamp, as if the one had taken them from the other. unto whom, leaving M. L. we shall now return. He supposing, it seems, that M. L. had not given us enough of his Alchemy stuff, presents us with some more of it. Wherein Solomon's Ape too palpably discovers himself, by vaunting in so high a strain, as Solomon's Wisdom would never have suffered him to aspire to, so long as it remained with him; to wit, inter alia, that he knew men's imaginations ; (which the Apostle saith, none can do but a man's own spirit, 1 Cor. 2.11. and Solomon himself, none but God only, 1 King. 8.39.) and all such things as are either manifest or secret. more I believe, am sure, then any man is able to prove, that ever Adam did.

But Mr. Swans inference from it let us hear too; as much to the purpose as M. Lilies before was. All this, saith he, Solomon knew. and how doth Mr. S. know, that Solomon knew all this, but that Solomon's counterfeit, one that never consulted with Solomon about it, unless it were as Saul with Samuel at Endor, hath so told him? whom we are not therefore bound to believe, nor Mr. S. conseqently speaking from him.

Yea but, saith Mr. S. further, God gave him this Wisdom: which had it ben diabolical and vain he should never have had; but because it was not, he prayed for it and had it.

But Sir, give me leave, I beseech you, to mind you of two old said saws; The former is, Debile fundamentum fallit opus. A faulty foundation will fail the fabrik built on it : and a qaggie ground will bear no weighty work. This is too sandy a foundation to bear up such a frame as you would build upon it: your bottom is unsound, it is but a mere qagmire; your autor is not authentic.

The other by-word that I would mind you of, is that which Nazianzen thus expresseth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . or as Simocat gives it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . as we would say, Keep the horse within the hedge. hold you close to the point; speak to the purpose. For Sir, you ramble too far from the point in question: which is not about the Sideral Science in general, concerning the motions and positions of the Stars ; which who among us affirms to be vain and diabolical ? and this therefore is but a figment of your own brain, which having vainly devised, you cunningly cast in, concealing that which you should defend, to divert your hearers and readers mind from eying that which is in present debate. For grant we your Witness, or Advocate, whom you have ben pleased to call in and produce, as much credit as you can desire, though he should stand rectus in curiâ, and were one beyond exception, yet he speaks not a tittle for you, unless this were a good Argument: God gave Solomon Wisdom to know the alterations of the turning of the Sun, and the change of the seasons; (which the Sun thereby produceth) and the circuits of years; and the Positions of Stars: Ergo, God taught him to erect Houses in the Heavens of good fortune and bad fortune; and to foretell men's fortunes by their nativity; and to help people by the Stars to their lost goods again ; and all those fopperies and fooleries that Mr. L. and those of his fraternity have devised and do practice to delude and cheat people with. the defense of whom Mr. S. hath here undertaken, and whom unless he can herein maintain, he doth but leave them in the lurch. It is undoubtedly a strong Argument of a weak and bad cause, that must be supported and born out with lies, with Solomon saith what he never said, and backed with counterfeit Testimonies; and those such also, as being admitted to speak, speak nothing to the purpose.

Yea but, Adam before he fell, knew the nature of everything; insomuch that he gave names to all the living creatures. and conseqently as much as ever Solomon did, and this Art of theirs among the rest. which must needs therefore be good (for this seems to be that, which Mr. S. drives to) and we may lawfully seek by all good means what Solomon prayed for, and had, for the making up of what was lost in Adam.

I might demand, how Mr. S. can prove, that Adam knew the nature of everything. his reason annexed will not necessarily evince it. his nomination of the creatures intimated rather his interest in them, and power over them, then an exact knowledge of the natures of them; of which we have discoursed more at large elsewhere. But if he knew the nature of everything that he named ; (for the reason subjoined will reach no further,) and the Stars come not within that compass; unless they be of the number of living creatures, as some both of the Jewish and Gentile Masters have held; and of those living creatures, that were convented before Adam, and presented to him, to be named by him, how is it hence proved that he knew the nature of the Stars ? Again, suppose he did know the nature of them: what then? why? then he must needs be very skillful in our Wizards Art : and the art must needs then be very good. But to omit, that they presume the nature of the Stars to be such, as they pretend it to be; and Adam therefore knowing the nature of them, must needs know them to be qalified so as they say; which is nothing else but to beg the main point in controversy. Might not Adam know it, and know it to be vain and frivolous? as God, who knew it undoubtedly, doth pronounce it here to be, Jer. 10.3. as he is said to know the thoughts of wicked men, and withal to know them to be very vain. Psal. 94.11. But if Adam knew this their Art of Astromancie, as he knew the nature of the creatures, whom he gave names unto, as Mr. S. seems to import, how doth Mr. Johnson, another Master of that Science, but M. L. his antagonist and of the royal party, say, that God taught it Adam ? for if he knew it before, what needed he be taught it? unless we shall say, that Adam by his fall forgot all that ever he knew before: as the Jews fable, that whosoever by stealth having gotten into the inmost recesse of the Temple under the second House, had read the Fower-lettred Name with its Vowel-points there engraven upon a stone, was so terrified at his coming out with that hideous noise that a couple of Dogs made of Brasse, then made, which the Jewish Masters having by Magical Art framed, had on the top of two columns at the door of the Sanctuary set for that purpose, that they clean forgot what they saw or read there. But not unlike to these fancies is that of Mr. Ramsey, another bird of the same feather, who making up a list of the Patriarchs of their profession, begins, as the Autor of the sacred Annals doth, with Adam, Seth, Enoch, and so on; as if all the Holy Patriarchs had ben such Wizards as they profess themselves to be. And the truth is, with as good reason as any that is by Mr. S. or M. L. with the rest of them, here alleged, a man might prove that Adam and Solomon had skill in Palmestrie, and Metoposcopie, and Geomancie, and Sorcerie, and Auspicie, and Aruspicie, and Inchantments, and Necromancie, and Witcherie, and approved all these superstitious and impious vanities, as that they did the like of their divinatorie Astrology. for the Argument will follow as firmly for any one of those as for this. So that to me it seems that these men write and reason, as if they intended, that none should read or scan them, but Solomon's simpletons ; such as will believe every word, Prov. 14.15. admit and take in anything upon their bare word, without any du proof or further enqirie, any tale whatsoever they shall list to tell them: they would never else stuff Sermons and Pamphlets with such frippery trash as this.

But if Adam and Solomon were not such Wizards as ours are; yet sure Thales and Solon, two of the Wise men of Greece were. for to what other end should Mr. S. hale them into his Sermon, save to justify such study of, and enqirie into the signs of heaven, as through the whole tenor of his discourse he persuades to, and pleads for?

As from Diogenes Laertius therefore, he tells us, that Thales was by the Greeks called a Wise man, because he was the first among them, that found out the secrets and mysteries of the heavenly bodies. But, what think we, were those secrets and mysteries? for these are not Mr. Swans Autors, but his own terms; whereby he would intimate to his hearers, when he preached it, to his readers, when he writ it, that Thales had discovered and delivered some of those our Wizards hidden mysteries of genitures, and aspects good and ill, and the like: Whereas all that his Autor reports of him is this, that Thales was the first of those seven, that were styled the Wise men of Greece : and afterward, that he seems 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to have ben the first that discoursed of the Stars in Greece, and to have foretold the Eclipses of the Sun, delivered the set time of the Suns course and recourse from tropik to tropik; of which latter and the Eqinoctials, some say he wrote only; supposing other points of that Science not difficult to attain, these being rightly understood. moreover that Callimachus saith of him, that he discovered to his countrymen the use of the Constellation called the lesser Bear, which the Phoenicians, of whom he was descended, were wont to observe in like manner before: Others that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he was the first that discoursed with them of Natural Philosophy; that from the Egyptians he learned Geometry, wherein he excelled; that he dealt also in Astronomy, and by help thereof took the magnitude of the Sun. And this is all of the secrets and mysteries, as Mr. S. terms them, and as they were indeed to those who were before ignorant of them, and for which he was deservedly among his Countrymen admired, as was Sulpitius among the Romans. All which I have the rather sedulously scraped together out of Laertius his chaos or confused heap, to show how little therein is to Mr. S. his purpose; or to infer, what he would have men to deem, or suspect at least, of Thales, to wit, that he was such another as our modern Wizards are. He might with as good probability raise and fasten the like aspersion or suspicion of and on our Mr. Brigges and other Mathematicians of the best note with us, who in likelihood have gone as far beyond Thales in all these, as he is reported to have exceeded Euphorbus in some of them; and yet so far from approving these Fortune-tellers figments, that they even detest and abhor them.

From Thales Mr. S. proceeds to Solon. and here, I hope, he will come nearer home to the mark he aims at. For Pliny, saith he, reports, that Solon the wise Law-maker among the Athenians, did by the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon foretell the defects and subversions of certain States and Kingdoms in Asia.

This were somewhat to the purpose indeed, if it could be made good, to prove that Solon had some smack of this Divinatory trade ; though not sufficient to justify the warrantablenes of it. But Mr. S. should have done well to have informed his Reader, in what place or part of Pliny's Natural History, this of Solon is reported. for Pliny's Natural History is a vast work, consisting of 37. large Books, divided each of them, into a multitude of Chapters. And though I have taken more pains in searching into Pliny, as well where he entreats purposely of Eclipses, as where he hath ought occasionally of the subversion of the Asian Empire, then I took in picking up of Laertius his scattered scraps concerning Thales ; yet can I meet with nothing in him concerning these predictions of Solon. This testimony therefore concerning Solon, is justly liable to suspicion. and that the rather, not only because Laertius hath not a word of it, but much more, because Plutarch a more diligent Autor, in the life of Solon written by him at large, reports of him, that he gave himself most to Ethik, or Moral Philosophy, and herein to the Politik or Civil part of it especially ; but that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in Physiks, or Natural Philosophy, he was very simple, and vulgar, or selie, rude and raw; for so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is oft used, and must needs be here, being joined with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as elsewhere with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Plato. This therefore is not likely of Solon, who was so meanly seen in Physiks, whereof Mr. S. from Melanchthon (if he also so say) tells us, this is a part, by the Stars to foretell the mutations of Common-Weals.

Neither doth this tend, as Mr. S. would seem to intimate, to deter or dissuade men, from enqirie into God's works; which are most worthy to be sought out, as David truly avows, Psal. 111.2. But to blame these men for presuming to be of God's privy council, further then he hath in his Word by his Spirit revealed it, and for arrogating that to themselves, which Mr. S. grants to be God's peculiar ; to frame particular judgments of a necessary certainty concerning future contingent events.

Mr. S. himself acknowledges, that the Devil hath always ben busy, to sow his tares among the Wheat, and into the profitable Knowledge of the celestial Influences.

And of these tares, or weeds rather, (as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 would be rendered, Matth. 13.25. whereof more elsewhere; for tares, or fitches are an useful grain) do we charge these Fortune-tellers predictions to be: since that the maintainers of them, being not able to make any good proof of them from the grounds of nature, principles of reason, or light of God's Word, are enforced with Mr. S. to have recourse to Revelation, and to tell us, that by Angels they were revealed at first to the Ancients : which seeing of good Angels they cannot make good, we have just cause to deem, with divers of the Ancient Fathers, that they were revealed by the Apostatized Angels, if by any; and to be of those Tares, or Weeds, that such have sown among the wheat of the lawful and laudable study and use of the true and genuine Sideral Science, which is surely and demonstratively grounded upon principles undeniable of nature and sound reason, having no need of Angels good or bad to attest what it asserts.

But what would Mr. S. have to be of these Tares of Satan's sowing ? forsooth, the doctrine of Characters, and Numbers, and Charms, and Images made under such and such Constellations.

And are not the maintainers of these and the like superstitions, able to say as much for their devices, as you, or any of your Clients for their devices of malignant Aspects, and unfortunate Houses, whereof one bears the name of Cacodaemon, (you may English it the Devil, if you please) to wit, that their figures, and numbers, and spells, and modules, have such a power enstamped upon them by God, and that some good sprites have revealed so much to them, and taught them the right use of them? Now tell us, Sir, what you will return in way of answer to them, and see if we cannot retort it upon you and yours.

Among other of the Tares of Satan's sowing, he saith, is such observation of times, as may bring any dishonor to God. and here to ward off and avoid that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Deut. 18.10. by some rendered, an observer of times : and to justify Astrological observations of times, of good and bad days, he produces that of Eccles. 3.1. There is a time for everything, and a season for every purpose under Heaven: which prudentially observed, and not superstitiously sought after, and doted on, may conduce to the benefit of mankind.

Where what he saith, is undoubtedly and undeniably true; according to what the Lyrik saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 seasonable performance is in everything a principal matter. and that worthy Philosophical Emperor, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that is good only that is seasonable. and as Nazianzen well, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Even a good thing is not good, when it comes out of season; when it is unseasonably done. But neither is that place at all to that purpose. howsoever by divers learned it be so understood and applied. the scope of it being, not to advise men to do all things seasonably, as may make most for their advantage; but to intimate the variety of God's over-ruling providence; in the various dispensations whereof, there ar times, and set times with him, though uncertain to us, for men to come into the world, and to go out of it again, (of which things in what man's power is it, concerning himself seasonably to dispose?) sometime to greiv and mourn, by occasion of cross occurrence, and sometime to be merry and cheerful in regard of prosperous successes. that which other learned have observed to be the genuine sense of the place, whereof I have entreated at large elsewhere, and have shown that the words would rather be rendered, For all there is a set time, (so is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 used, Neh. 10.34. & 13.31. and Est. 9.26, 31.) even a time (not, for every purpose ; for what purpose can any man have, at such a time to be born, or at such a time to die, but as the Greek well renders it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) for everything under Heaven. as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used in the very same Chapter, verse. 17. and in the self same book again Chap. 8.6. So that neither doth the Scripture concern that, for which it is alleged; though the thing itself be undeniable. Nor doth that for which it is produced being granted, concerning the observation of times seasonable in general for several occasions, proov the lawfulness of observing times as lucky or unluckie, out of respect had to the Aspects of the Stars, supposed to be benign or malignant, as these Wizards please to make them. as if one should thus reason; Some fish at some time, because not in season, is not wholesome to feed on: ergo sometimes of geniture are unseasonable, and it is an unluckie thing to be bred or born in them ; as under the Pisces or Fishes, and Aqarius or the Water-bearer, because watery Signs expose persons so bred and born to hazard by water.

To as little purpose is that of the Children of Issachar, spoken of as men of eminency, in regard that they had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 1 Chron. 12.30.

Whereof the Jewish Masters give two Interpretations, as David Kimchi reports them. Some, that they were men of great skil and experience in politik affairs, whose advice therefore the King made use of, for information in matter of Law and Judgment : alleging to this purpose that of Ahasuerus, who is said Est. 1.13. to have spoken to the wise men that knew the times : and in the next words; for so it was the Kings manner towards all that knew Law and Judgment ; to wit, to advise in all weighty affairs with such, as by reading or observation of their own, were well seen in such occurrences. and this way go Tremellius, Junius, Lavater, and most Christian Interpreters. Others of them, which may seem to come nearer home to Mr. S. expound it, men skillful in Intercalations, and fixing the New Moons. for being, say these, acquainted with the revolutions of the Signs of the Zodiak, or the Planets (for Mazzaloth is used by them for either) they were to determine the seasons of the world and the times of the year. And this Kimchi the rather inclines unto, because it is said, to know, not what the King, but, what Israel should do ; though withal he acknowledgeth, that according to Hezekiah appointment, the King was to fix the Intercalations and the set seasons. But what was the main end and principal use of this their skil, saith Kimchi? to let the people of Israel know the set times of their solemnities were they fasts or feasts. And what is all this to Mr. L. his Clients teaching men to observe some as lucky, some as unluckie days? some unluckie Planet may seem to have reigned, what time Mr. S. penned this discourse: for his Arguments are all very unluckily framed. Take them in the Enthymem, and they argu a genere indefinito ad speciem definitam. A dog; therefore a hound: A deer; therefore a stag. Men eminent for knowledge of times; Ergo of good and evil, lucky and unluckie days and hours. or à specie ad speciem, A lusorie Lot is lawful; therefore a Consultorie Lot is lawful. or, A divisorie Lot is warrantable; therefore a Divinatorie, So, There are some time • seasonable for sundry occasions, and it is a point of prudence to observe such opportunities. Ergo there are some days lucky and some unluckie, in regard of the aspects of the Planets good or bad, and it is no small point of wisdom to observe such And, Some men have ben eminent for their skil in fixing aright the seasons of the year, and set times of solemnities; therefore men ought to be had in repute, not and justified only, but magnified, for telling men by the Stars, what will befall them. as if the one were the same in effect with the other; or the one a necessary conseqent of the other. Or frame them into an entire Syllogism, either they will consist all of particulars, or crowd into the Conclusion more then is in the premisses. So that when I consider the levity and looseness of Mr. Swans Arguments in so weighty a business, I cannot but call to mind that of Seneca to Lucilius; Superest ex hesterno mihi cogitatio, qid sibi voluerint prudentissimi viri, qi rerum maximarum probationes levissimas & perplexas fecerunt. He saith he wonders what very wise men should mean, to bring so exceeding light proofs in matters of exceeding great weight.

But that you may perceive, that Mr. S. himself could not but see the inconseqence of his own Arguments ; consider we a little further, what other Tares there be, that he saith the Devil hath sown amids the good wheat of lawful and praise-worthy Divination.

1. To observe the flying of fowls, and thereby to judge of good or evil success in the wars; but not to observe the crying of crows against rain. And why not this as well as that? Because, saith Mr. S. hereof a reason or cause may be given; and it is not therefore superstitious. Observe ye not here, how Mr. S. can, when he lists, descry the invalidity of his own inferences? For upon what ground but this do we reject and condemn their Fortune-tellings of disastrous events from Eclipses and Genitures under such and such malignant Aspects, as superstitious, but because no true cause or sound reason can be given of them; and the maintainers of them therefore are forced for the justifying of them to flee to revelations?

2. Inspection into the entrails of beasts for the same purpose, as if God had written the secrets of his providence in the livers and bowels of such creatures.

And I desire Mr. S. to show me, why the Inspection into the Conjunction and Aspects of the Stars for the very self-same purpose, as if God had written the secrets of his providence in the Stars, should not be bound up in the same bundle of Tares or weeds with that former for the fire: unless its patrons be able to proov, (which they will never do, though they strain till their heartstrings break) that God hath written the secrets of his providence in these creatures. For as for the observation and experience of long times and numberless ages, the Patrones of that practice will prate and crake as loud for their heart-blood as they.

Lastly, to let pass the rest, that conceit that every day in the week hath a several Planet to govern it; and to assign a several Planet to every hour, called by the name of Planetarie hours. which in Mr. S. his judgment is no better then folly and superstition : and in this respect therefore to make choice of good or bad days, or lucky and unluckie hours deserves to be exploded, and not to be harboured under the harmless shelter of Astrology.

But I demand of Mr. S. whence had people these frivolous fancies and superstitious conceits? or from whom did they at first arise? was it not from the ancient Egyptian Wizards, the Patriarchs of our modern Astrologers, from whom this their Astromancie, or divinatorie Astrology, by idolatrous Pagans, and superstitious Paynims hath ben handed down to them and others unto this day? For did not they at first dedicate the seven days of the week to the seven deified Planets? assigning the first day of the Week to the Sun ; the second to the Moon ; the third to Mars, whom the Saxons our Ancestors, called Teuto, or Twisco ; the fourth to Mercury, whom they termed Woda, or Weden ; the fifth to Jove, whom they called the Thunderer ; the sixth to Venus, whom they called Frea, whence our English Frie ; (as Verstegan, if my memory fail not; for its long since I saw him) the seventh to Saturn. Of which order observed in the assignation of them Dio Cassius of Nice (relating withal, that not long before his time the Egyptians had so disposed them) renders a twofold reason; and Joseph Scaliger in his Thesaurus Temporum, or Treasury of Times hath exhibited a Scheme of it. And why might not those antiq Wizards as well assign the days of the week to the government of the seven Planets, as our modern Prognostiks the parts of man's body to the regiment of the twelve Signs ? framing a very maimed and mangled dismembration and deartuation rather then division and distribution of it into 12. unequal and disproportionable parts to fit it to the twelve Signs : not unlike the counterfeit Prochorus his tearing the Ancient Symbole or brief Sum and System of the Christian Faith into 12. pieces, to assign each Apostle his shot or share to contribute toward the making up of the whole mess ; mistaking, it seems, symbolum for symbola, and supposing the one to signify a supper-shot as well as the other. They may have as good ground for ought I see, or for ought you here allege, and as good authority from antiqitie, for their Planetarie days, yea and Planetarie hours too, as M. Ls. Trithemius hath for his Planetarie Angels, or Mr. L. himself for his Horarie qestions ; or your Astromancers in general, for their Planetarie genitures, and those lucky and unluckie hours, wherein persons are bred and born either to good fortune, or misfortune, or your Prognosticators, for such good or bad days, as in their trivial and trifling Almanaks, they are wont to warn people of.

For, Sir, why is this conceit of the Planetarie days and hours such as is to be exploded ? because, say you, there is no reason for it, seeing the Stars were made all on one and the same day. And may not we much better say, that this conceit of malignant aspects and mischievous efficacies, and bad influences into men's souls and minds, to incline and induce them to wantonness and wickedness, is to be exploded, and not to be harboured under the harmless shelter of genuine Astrology; because there is no reason for it, seeing that the Stars were, not only made all in one day, but were also all made alike, not good alone, but very good? Gen. 1.30.

And here I was about to lay down my pen, had not one passage more pulled me by the sleev; wherein Mr. S. first admonishes us to purge away the dross, and keep the gold, wash away the filth, and keep the cloth, fan out the chaff, and keep the corn. for, saith he, it proceeds either from ignorance, or from an overnice scrupulosity, such as no way sorts with wise and learned men, promiscuously and without difference or distinction to confound lawful and praise worthy knowledge with that which is impious and diabolical, and to condemn lawful Arts in the right use of them for such corruptios and superstitions as the Devil shuffles into them, wherewith wicked Knaves have done abomination. for if we confound Arts with the abuse of them, we shall in short time obscure and bury all kind of good learning, and drown the world in ignorance; and that is just as the Devil would have it, that he may lead men about which way he pleaseth.

But I would gladly demand a question or two of Mr. S.

1. Why he hath not followed this advice himself; and why he hath labored so eagerly throwout this whole Sermon, to dissuade men from disregarding, and checked them for rejecting and deriding that which the Prophet in the very next words to his Text pronounces to be mere vanity, and such chaff, dross and filth conseqently as himself saith, ought to be purged away and cast out? also why he hath not more distinctly expressed himself whether he deem the doctrine of genitures such as hath ben shown, and course of professing to tell by the Stars which way men's goods are gone, are of the chaff and dross, or of the solid grain and pure oar of that praise-worthy Astrology, which in a confused generality he seems to maintain.

2. What one sound Argument he hath brought to proov those practices which he pleads for, not to be chaff and trash, and droffe, and dirt, that being reduced to the form of a Syllogism, will not presently appear to be a mere Paralogism.

3. Who those be, that promiscuously, and without difference or distinction, out of ignorance or over-nice scrupulosity confound lawful and praise-worthy knowledge with that which is impious and diabolical, and condemn indifferently the one with the other. It is true indeed that a German Bishop sometime in the days of deep darkness by one of the Popes, is reported either out of ignorance or malice to have ben condemned of suspicion at least of Heresy, for the studying of Astronomy, and holding a very strange point, and dangerous error, that there were Antipodes, men living on the other side of the earth, and standing or walking with their heels against ours. But did any of those ancient Philosophers, Anaxagoras, Eudoxus, Panetius, Archelaus, Cassander, and others that rejected this Astromancie or Fortune-telling Astrology ; or do those Christian Writers, that have professedly handled this Argument either in former times, as Abulensis, Picus and Savanarola; or of later times, as Sixtus, Pererius, Calvin, Erastus, Kepler, Salmasius; or do any of our own Countrymen, that have dealt in the same subject, the Lord Howard, Fulk, Perkins, Abbots, Chambers, Willet, Gerey, Holmes, Rouland, any of them, whether ignorantly, or out of any overnice scrupulousity, without difference or distinction promiscuously confound and condemn all Astronomy or Astrology ? or do they not all approov of natural Astronomy or Astrology, as an useful Science and a laudable study? condemning only this Astromancie, or that Fortune-telling Astrology, that goes masked under the specious Title of Judicial Astrology, and with us nowadays more presumptuously, of Prophetical Predictions, whereby Mr. Swans Clients, for whom he pleads, and in defense of whom, it appears that he published this Sermon, (let him call them what he please, amd Mr. Calvin indeed in plain terms stiles them no otherwise then he here doth) do daily cheat and delude people, pick their purses, and either commit, or make way for many abominable designs. And indeed so palpable is the distinction between the one and the other, that even those blincking and blundering Grammarians Papias and Balbus, that lived in one of the obscurest ages, wherein all good literature almost was buried in oblivion, yet by that duskie twilight, that those times afforded, were able to descry a difference between those two above mentioned: whence that distribution in their vocabularia, as they termed them, annexed to their Grammars, Know, say they, that Astrology, is partly natural, and partly superstitious: natural and true, that handles the course of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the certain stations of the times: superstitious that which the Mathematicians follow, that divine by the Stars, disposing the 12. signs according to the several parts of soul or body, and by the course of the Stars foretelling men's nativity, and their manners. which, though somewhat rawly delivered by them, yet shows that they conceived a distinction of these things; which the learned in times of clearer light, did both much more distinctly apprehend, and ever evidently express. As for his imputation of ignorance, he sings but his own and Mr. Lilies old song, so oft chanted by them both over and over, again and again, and toward the close of his work in a higher strain and harsher tone then before, Thus then, saith he, I see, that as Dogs bark at them they know not, so some among men condemn and hate the things they thoroughly understand not. which satyrical snarling censure, I esteem no other then as such another picture of a Dog set over the Postern, as we before spake of, when we met with this Motto in the Frontispiece before; and so let it pass, yet presuming that some at least of the before mentioned who have opposed and condemned these practices, had as much skil and knowledge in the deep mysteries thereof as Mr. S. that doth maintain them. And for Scrupulosities, those that are any whit scrupulous concerning them, are like to find little ease of their scruples from Mr. S. who is so far from giving satisfaction therein, that he may rather improov them, by such reasons as he renders for the condemning and rejecting of some other superstitious conceits, which (as hath ben shown) will hold as well in the one as in the other, and conseqently with eqal strength conclude against either.

4. Whether it be not just as the Devil would have it, so to blend these things the one with the other, to induce men to admire and swallow down both together? as with the true worship of God, and doctrine of Christ, he mingles many superstitious rites, idolatrous practices and erroneous conceits, such as may eat out the very heart of sound piety, and make the profession of Christianity a mere matter of formality, a shel without kernel, a shadow without substance, a title without truth, that under pretence of the one he may draw on the other. Nor are men to be blamed, because they refuse to receive both promiscuously without distinction, as Mr. S. would here have us to do in the Doctrine of Star-Divinity. Will he needs enforce us, because we like well of the wine, to drink up the Dregs too?

For as for his fear of burying all good learning, and drowning the world in ignorance, by condemning of lawful Arts together with the abuse of them. (as Saravallius sometime charged Sixtus of Sene as an enemy to all good Arts, because he averred Astrology to be no Art, but a fallacy, and a detestable imposture ) there is no such matter intended, nor fear of danger thence to ensu, by discovery of abuses in Arts and in the practice of them, or of Arts and Sciences falsely pretended to be such, when as indeed they are no other then cheating tricks, having no matter of sound Art, or Science truly so termed in them. far was it from those good Christians their intention to bury, or burn, all good learning, that made a bonfire (we may well so term it) of those their books of such superstitions at Ephesus, Act. 19.19. And so far is it from that which Mr. S. would herein intimate, that the opposing and rejecting of these fanatical and superstitious fancies should either arise from ignorance, or endanger the bringing in of ignorance, much less drowning the world in it ; that such frivolous conceits and superstitious practices have ben never more rife, then in times of ignorance, and when the world was drownd in darkness; whence it is, that since the light of God's saving truth and knowledge hath shined more clearly among us then among most abroad, and the study of Arts and Sciences in these later times ben improved and flourished with us, this pretended Art, or cheating Trade rather, hath lien till of late, so neglected and disregarded among us, that Mr. Lily is enforced pitifully to complain, (would to God we were so happy, that he might still have cause so to do) that we English of all Nations make least use of this Art : insomuch that Mr. Booker, another Atlas to underprop all good literature with us, ready to fall to the ground, unless he bear it up, hath alone almost without help, until Mr. L. came in to ease him, by his own virtu and abilities (an admirable Scholar) for so many years maintained the reputation of the Art almost utterly decayed. and howsoever it have begun to thrive and spread abroad with us, in these loose and licentious days, yet it is the selie sort of ignorant and profane people that flock most after it, and are Mr. Lilies and his fellow practitioners most constant customers, and such as could well be content to have all Religion as well as learning abolished, whether drownd or burnt, so they might be freed from tithes and taxes they cared not with whom Mr. L. therefore labors to ingratiate himself, yet would have this Art upheld, and this Trade stand still; whereas those that plead for Lerning and Lerned Men, as I perceive by some that have lately taken good pains to that purpose, do justly and judiciously condemn it as pernicious and prejudicial both to Church and State, and wish it utterly abandoned.

Mr. Swans advice then of severing the dross from the gold, and filth from the cloth, and chaff from the wheat, (though he have not followed it himself, as we wish he had) yet we readily admit and willingly embrace, it is no other then what Solomon wills us to do, Prov. 25.4. And if it be demanded how we may here distinguish the one from the other. Mr. S. himself gives us a good rule, negative at least, though given for no great good end; where, to encite men to dive as far as they can into the depths of this study, he tells them, It is a thing well worth the noting, that by the understanding the uttermost activity of Natural Agents, we are assisted to know the Divinity of Christ; the works he did being thereby understood, to be beyond the terms and limits of Natural Power.

It is a good rule, I say, in the negative, though not in the Affirmative. It is not conseqent, that whatsoever a creature in his utmost activity of natural power is able to do, that he should do. For it is not necessary that a creature in working should always put itself out to the utmost of his natural power. else the Argument would be good, A lazy man doth no more then as if he were asleep : therefore he can do no more then he does. or, A faithless friend, though present, stands a man in no more steed, then if he were absent: therefore he can do no more then he doth. But in the Negative it holds well, for what the creature in its utmost activity cannot do, that without miracle cannot be done. And this very consideration furnishes us with a weapon of steel to dispatch that most frivolous and fabulous conceit of a Solar Eclipses working such dismal effects so long after it is over, as Mr. S. before informed us. for if it be beyond the uttermost activity of the total interception of the Sun-light for divers howrs from us, by any natural power to produce some dismal effect a sevennight, or fortnight, or a month after, then undoubtedly it is much more above and beyond the uttermost activity of the interception of the Sun-light for a far shorter space, by its natural power to produce the like dismal effects, a twelv-month or two after. No wise man, I think, will deny the truth of the Antecedent, and no reasonable man, I suppose, will deny the necessity of the Conseqence. If Mr. S. imagine he may, when he shall afford us his reason, if it appear to be sound, I shall begin to make doubt, whether I were in my right wits, or had any reason within my brain-pan, when I writ this.

But concerning what he addeth of helping us in the knowledge of Christ's Divinity by his Miracles. It shall be a thing worth the noting, as Mr. S. speaks, to consider, what good service our Astromancers have done God and Christ, in asscribing and entitling their strangest and most stupendous works of wonder to the Stars. For as some Heathen Writers have ascribed God's conduct of his people thorough the Red Sea, to Moses his skil, in observing the time of an unusual low ebb, and making use thereof for his people's passage: and the water that God by miracle gave them from the Rock in the Wilderness, to Moses his observation of an heard of Wild asses, that were repairing to a spring, by tracing whom he found out a watering place for the refreshment of himself and his people ready otherwise in that wast and wild desert to have perished with drought: and the Jewish Masters all the Miracles that our Lord and Savior Christ wrought here upon earth to the power of the Tetragrammaton : whereof they tell us a tale, how by stealth having gotten into the Inner Temple, and found it engraven there on a Stone, that he might not forget it again, as some other had done, by the hideous barkings of the brazen dogs, that stood at the door, he writ it in a piece of parchment, which having cut and raised the skin about the calf of his leg; he there enclosed, as did Jupiter Bacchus his Mother Semeles abortive in his thigh; which afterward opening he drew out again, and by vertu thereof did all that ever he did. In like manner do these our Wise Masters ascribe Christ's Incarnation, his miraculous Birth, his Offices, what betided him, and was done by him in his life, together with the manner of his death ▪ unto the Constellations, the conjunctions of the Stars, and the postures of them at the supposed time of his Nativity. To this purpose have they erected a Scheme or Figure of Christ's Nativitie, whereby they say the Wise men that came conducted by a Star, might well have foreknown Christ's Birth of a Virgin, the manner of his life, and the great alteration that he was to make in matter of Religion. and all this, as some of them indeed say, by presignification only, as the Stars might foreshow it; God having written in the Book of Heaven, whatsoever from eternity he had decreed should be done here on earth. that which one of the Ancients, a man of great learning, but mightily addicted to his own groundless fancies had long before him delivered, and endeavored to make good by an Apocryphal Writ, entitled Josephs Prayer, wherein Jacob should say, (which I cite the rather in the Autors words to amend a default in them) not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Legit, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Legi, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I have read in the Tables of Heaven, whatsoever things shall befall you and your children. for the words are said to be spoken, not as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of or concerning, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of, or by, Jacob, and related by Joseph, as his speech and in his person; as if Jacob by the Stars had ben informed of all that by the Spirit of Prophecy he foretold his Sons concerning what should befall either them or theirs. But such counterfeit stuff must be set out under some specious titles, that they may the better help to vend such braided wares as those are for which they are produced; unto which our Noble Countryman not undeservedly applies that of Lactantius concerning some qack-salvers, tituli habent remedia, pyxides vexena, that their boxes had the names of sovereign salvs and receipts painted on them, when as there is nothing but trash and venom or poison within them. Yet other of them go a step further, and stick not to assert, that the Stars by vertu of an innate efficacy in way of effection, not of signification only produced all these things that of our Savior have ben said. for that all those virtues and benign influences of the Stars wherewith Christ in their creation endowed them at first, did conspire and concur together to furnish Christ as largely as possibly they could at his birth, doing what service they were able then to him, from whom they had received them.

Yea Cardan, a great Autor with Mr. Lily, (as the L. Howard reports him; for that work of his I have not) albeit they be not certain what year, much less at what time of the year, or day of the month, and much less yet in what hour of the night his Mother was delivered of him; yet having fixed the time of his birth, to such a year, and time of the year, and day of the month, and hour of the night he pleased, following the groundless tradition of his Romish Rabbin's therein; doth from the Stars, as he conceives them disposed at that instant, very solemnly and seriously deliver his judgment thereupon, not only that our Savior was to be born of a Virgin, because the first face of Virgo was then ascending, whose proper image is a Virgin nursing a Child ; but that also he should be both a Priest and a Prophet, because Saturn was then in the ninth House, and in the Sign of Gemini : (whereas yet, saith the L. Howard, their great Bassa Abraham the Jew is of the mind, that whosoever finds Saturn at his birth so consorted, shall never proov a good Christian ) and that he was to suffer a violent and bloody death, because Mars was then in the house of death. In which both his calculations and observations upon them, although that Honorable Person control him, as mistaken in the one, nor following the principles of his own Patriarchs in the other: yet let them go for currant, be they right or wrong in either: it being nothing to the particular that we are now upon. Only thus much, that if these grounds be firm and solid, we may through Cardanes misreckoning miss of the assurance of our Savior: and whether his reckoning be right or no, we may come to have many Saviors, that is, many so peculiarly qalified, as he was, who was alone to be our Savior; since that it is scarce imaginable but that sundry should be born in divers places at or about the same instant in which the Virgin his Mother was delivered of him, and conseqently under the same situation of the Stars at his birth.

To this may be added that, whereas there are two universal and most miraculous destructions of the whole World, the one past by Water, the other future by Fier ; there want not those addicted to this pretended Star-divinity, that attribute either to the Stars. For so divers of them more then one or two have affirmed, that Noah might well have foreknown the flood a long time ere God revealed it unto him, from the conjunctions of those watery constellations and signs, whose concurrence then produced it, and whose influences are called the cataracts or flood-gates of Heaven. Gen. 7.11. And with us one sometime Felow of S. Johns in Cambridge, a man mightily possessed with these mysterious profundities, hath confidently delivered, as treading in their steps, that as certain watery signs and constellations meeting together brought in that general inundation and oecumenical deluge that drownd the whole world ; so a number of fiery ones in like manner conjoining should after a certain stint of time, (which whether it be past or no, I know not, having not his book written above threescore year ago now at hand) produce that universal conflagration that shall set the whole world on a light fire.

Thus contrary to that which Mr. S here tells us, this their supposed Art, and the received principles of it, are so far from confirming God's most strange and remarkable works as miraculous ; that they do rather directly infringe and remove the miraculosity of them; since that nothing is averred to have ben done in them, but what the Stars by vertu of an innate power were able to produce. And if it shall be replied, that yet they say, that God himself enstamped that virtu in them, and furnished them with that power at first; yet it will stand firm, that those acts, of a Virgin bearing a Child, the drowning of the world at one time, and burning all up at another, are no more miraculous, then the intercourse of night and day, and the vicisitudinary courses of the several seasons of the year : the one being produced by an innate power settled in and enstamped by God upon the creature at its first creation and constitution, as well as the other, and the creature working in a natural course, according to these men's principles in either.

But to draw to an end of this more prolix discourse then at first I intended, while as in a wild goose race, I have ben enforced to follow, first Mr. Lily, and then Mr. Swan: I shall only tell them what Lucilius an Epigrammatist, whom in the Greek Florilege they may find, saith of the Astrologers of his time that amused selie people by talking to them of a Ram, and a Dog, and a Bul, and a Bear, and a ramping Lion, and a shrewd stinging Scorpion, and a wry crawling Crab, and the like scare-bugs in the sky, by such discourse having wrought them into an amazement of them and their skil, to cheat and gull them, and pick their purses, under a pretence of reading them their destinies, and foretelling their fortunes, just as our Wizards do at this day,

which leaving to Mr. Lily to English, either himself, being so well acquainted with Thucydides, or else with the Assistance of Mr. S. or some other; I shall close up all with the Verdict of that Noble Lord so oft formerly mentioned, who (in that work whereof 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith, he never shown less learning then in that discourse, I mervail where he thinks he shown any) sticks not to aver it as a truth no less clear then the light itself, that (not Astrology simply, but) their Astrology (such Fortune-telling Astrology as these men profess) hath done, and is likely hereafter to do, more mischief to the Church of God, then all other rotten branches, which not conscience alone, but very shame enforceth them to lop and cast into the furnace. That which the Lord open the Eyes of those in Autoritie, to see, and take notice of, and take to heart, that some speedy course may be taken for preventing of such mischiefs, as from such abuses suffered, unless timely prevented, may accrue both to Church and State.

The Annotations on Jerem. Chap. 10. Verse 2. and part of Vers. 3.

Vers. 2. THus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the Heathen, ] Because the Jewish people, were a great party of them to go into captivity into Babylon, and other the regions adjacent, yea, many of them in likelihood were there in captivity already, (See ver. 11. Chap. 24.1. & 29.1, 2.) God by the Prophet endeavoreth to confirm and strengthen them, the pious especially among them, (for such also there were there of them, Chap. 24.5. Ezek. 11.16.) against those superstitions and vanities that were rife in those parts; and they might be in danger, being exiles and captives in a strange land, to be strongly tempted unto: Heb. Learn not to the way : where either the particle is superfluous, omitted therefore, Psal. 106.35. Chap. 12.16. or else it may be rendered, Accustome not yourselves to the way of the heathen ; and so some render it; do not imitate them, See Chap. 9.5. their way ; that is, their superstitious courses, Lev. 18.3. & 20.23.

and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven ] The first head of superstitions, which he beginneth with, is Astrology, a study and practice so rife among them in those parts, Isaiah 47.13. that the professors and practicers of it, not with them alone, Dan. 2.2. & 5.7. but among other nations also, are generally designed by the name of Chaldeans ; See Strabo l. 17. Cicero of divination, l. 2. Pliny l. 6. c. 26. Astrology, I say, not that which we commonly term Astronomy, whereby the true nature and motion of the celestial bodies are by grounds of reason, and rules of art thence taking their rise, enqired into, and discovered; but that Judiciary Astrology, as it is usually styled, whereby men take upon them, from the postures and aspects of them, to foretell the issu of human affairs, either public, or private, and what casual events, shall befall either persons or people: a practice grown of late with us into great esteem, being either countenanced or connived at, by those in authority with us, though having entered themselves, and caused others with them, to enter into a religious bond of a solemn oath and covenant, to endeavor the extirpation of all those things among us, that are contrary to sound doctrine, and the power of godliness, whereof this is none of the least. For the original whereof, (since it hath not, nor can be shown to have any ground from the light of nature, or natural reason) we shall not need to go far to find it out: We have a blind, but insolent, buzzard (I may well so term him) among us, one that professeth himself no small Doctor in these impostures, and dotages (wherewith he hath bewitched not a few with us, esteeming his predictions, as no other then divine oracles) and taketh upon him by the Stars, to steer the affairs of our State, pretending to read in the Book of Heaven, all that he writes▪ who will sufficiently inform us herein. Now this man, to justify the warrantablenes of this his practice, telleth us, that the good Angels of God in former ages, at first by personal conference, acquainted the sons of men with this learning of the Stars ; and those holy men, (saith he) so instructed, living many years, and in purer airs, where they curiously observed the Planets and their motion, brought this Art to some maturity, without the least hint of superstition. But as the sons of men fell from God in divine worship, so in flitting and shifting their habitations, they forgot the purer part of this art; and in some Countries added superstitious conceptions. The holy Angels then belike by this man's relation, did at first inform those holy men, which they could not otherwise have known, of the nature of the Planets; to wit, that Saturn was a melancholic malignant planet, Mars, a choleric and litigious one, Mercury, a thievish, Venus, a lascivious and wanton one: and that they do accordingly affect and dispose such people, or persons, as are either bred under them, or whom they have special relation unto. For these, and the like ridiculous fopperies, and impious calumniations of those glorious creatures, are with them, as the Popish Purgatory with the Papists, the main grounds and principles of their whole Art, which being taken away, the whole fabric and frame of their superstitious superstructures, will presently fail and fall flat to the ground; as with those other, all their masses, dirges, obites, pardons, and indulgences, if you deny them their Purgatory; which because they can produce no clear Scripture for, they run with these men to their forged revelations. But whence these frivolous conceits, and irreligious surmises concerning those celestial bodies, (which if you question, you shake the ground of all their conjectural skil,) had their original, may well be conjectured from the very names, the heathen imposed upon them, being borrowed from their counterfeit deities, whom they deemed so qualified: assure ourselves we may, that God's holy Angels never raised any such foul aspersions and groundless defamations, upon those pure and spotless creatures, far from, and wholly uncapable of any tincture of such vicious dispositions. But all that this man relateth, we may if we please, and be so selie as so to do, take upon his credit; for he telleth us not what times those were, wherein it was thus, or who those holy men were, unto whom the holy Angels at first revealed those things; or out of what records he hath these relations, concerning such pretended revelations. And as little reason have we, to engage our faith to his Antagonist, another fowl of the same feather, that flieth yet somewhat higher then he, and pretending his predictions, to be grounded on Art and Nature, telleth us (that we may not mis-doubt or question his Art) that this art was deduced from God to Adam, to Seth, to Abraham ; for proof whereof, he referreth us to a Knight of note, for his studies in this kind; who in favor indeed of this Art, which he was overmuch addicted to, and besotted with, affirmeth in part what he saith, but bringing no better proof of it, then a tale out of Joseph the Jew, who in his Antiquities l. 1. c. 3. telleth us, that those of Seth’s issue living long and without disturbance, gave themselves to the study of heavenly things, and the constitution or administration of them; and because Adam had foretold, a twofold destruction of the world that should come, the one by water, the other by fire; they left the sum of what they had, of that kind of learning observed, engraven on two pillars, of brick the one, of stone the other : but neither is any word in the Jew, of this their Judicial Astrology, nor of any skil in this kind or any other by God imparted unto Adam, which they yet father upon him: and the whole relation of the two pillars seems as true, as that which he addeth of the continuance of the latter of them in Syria unto his time. And indeed, if any sons of Adam ever had any such immediate communion, either with God himself, or his holy Angels, it must be those Ancient Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those Prophets of God among his people; unto whom God used sometime immediately, sometime by the Ministry of Angels, to impart his mind, concerning future events, as well public, as private: but nowhere in Scripture read we, that God did this, either by the natural course of the celestial signs, or, as from thence to be observed; nor undoubtedly had any such art and skil, been taught the godly ones among God's people, whether by God himself, or his Angels; would they either have concealed it from them, or much-less committed it unto Paynims, and Pagans, and by such, have transmitted it unto posterity, for from such in corrupt times, it crept in among Christians, being yet ever among them liable to censure; nor was any in the Ancient Church, that had professed such arts, admitted into the profession of Christianity, unless that first they renounced those damnable practices, and recanted such their superstitious conceits. But men may easily guess what Angels they were, that acquainted men at first with these things, and set them on work, to busy their brains about such matters, as neither light of nature, nor grounds of reason, were able to inform them of, but must have some revelation; either Divine, or Angelical, or Diabolical rather, for the finding of them out. So far are God himself and his Prophets, from taking notice hereof, as some such heavenly discovery, or giving any approbation thereunto, that God by them sometime derideth it, Isaiah 44.25. & 47.13. and sometime dissuadeth and condemneth it, as an heathenish practice, not befitting his people to heed; as here, so elsewhere, Deut. 18.10—14. From the Prince of the air therefore, it may justly by this man's own grounds and grants, be deemed to have proceeded; at first by him taught the heathen that were ruled and swaied by him; and from them, together with the worship of them in their dols, conveyed unto God's own people: For what of further observation he subjoineth; to omit, that those ridiculous principles must first be made good, ere any observation can be grounded upon them: the like did the Heathen Magicians report of their charms, and other superstitious divinations by the flight of fowls, and from the bowels of beasts; to wit, that observations had been made of them, for many hundreds of years. See Pliny l. 28. c. 2. and this and those may well go together, one with the other, unto him, that was the first founder of them, the father of lies, Joh. 8.44.

and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven ] As if the event of things, or the issue of your affairs depended upon them; which those fond star-gazers bare people in hand, and took upon them thereby to determine and foretell, what good or bad success men's designs should have, Isaiah 47.12, 13. Howbeit, signs there are of two sorts; first, natural, and ordinary, the Stars themselves being set in the sky, to distinguish the times and seasons of the year; to which may be added, the conjunctions of them one with another, or oppositions of them one to another, whence the Eclipses of some of them at some time do proceed; and these are those signs, which coming in a constant course, and continued tenor, (in regard whereof men skillful therein, are able either going backward, to tell how it hath been with them for thousands of years past, or looking forward how it will be for as many, if the world itself should so long continue:) God would not have his people to be affected or affrighted with, as if in regard of them, or from them, any evil in the success of their affairs could betide them: other signs there are extraordinary, in dreadful apparitions, besides the ordinary course of the creature, by which the Lord doth sometime give notice unto his people, of his displeasure, and warning of ensuing wrath; and these God doth not inhibit his people to be affected with, and taking of them unto heart. See Joel 2.30, 31. Luk. 21.11, 25.

for the heathen are di • maied at them ] Or, rather, though the heathen be dismayed at them. Though they be so selie or superstitious, as to be therewith thus affected, yet ought ye not so to be. So is the particle very freqently used, in our versions also not seldom expressed, Gen. 8.21. Josh. 17.18. Psal. 23.4. Isaiah 12.1. Dan. 9.9. Mic. 7.8. Hab.3.17▪

V. 3. For the customs of the people are vain ] Heb. The statutes, or, ordinances of the people ; (that is, those courses of this nature, which people of several Countries herein concurring do, as if it were some sacred or divine ordinance, very precisely and superstitiously observe) vanity it ; that is, are each of them exceeding vain, as vain as vanity itself; and a matter therefore very ill-beseeming such as profess themselves to be God's people, as did the Jews then, and as Christians at this day do, to be taken and carried away, with such frivolous and ridiculous fancies and fopperies: the pronoun, for the verb substantive, as Chap 6.16, 28. the abstract, for the concrete, as verse. 15. Eccl. 11.8, 10. and the singular distributively joined with the plural, as Chap. 5.8.

Places of Scripture in this whole Work discussed, cleared, or alleged.

Genes.
• Chap. 1.
  • Vers. 14. page 69. line 3. p. 123. l. 7. p. 126. l. 33. —p. 130. l. 19. p. 131. l. 18. p. 458. lin. 19.
  • Vers. 16. p. 115. l. 33.
  • V. 18. p. 116. l. 13.
  • V. 30. pag. 136. lin. 37. p. 176. l. 33.
• Chap. 2. ver. 19, 20. p. 166. l. 36. p. 167. l. 5.
• C. 7. v. 11. p. 184. l. 34.
• C. 8. v. 21. p. 192. l. 1.
• C. 9. v. 11.—16. p. 69.11.—p. 70. l. 16. p. 119. l. 29.
• C. 17. v. 11, 13. p. 120. l. 3.
• C. 21. v. 2. p. 158. l. 23.
• C. 26. v. 18. p. 112. l. 17.

Exod.
• Chap. 4. ver. 8. p. 101. l. 12. p. 120 l. 19.
• C. 9. v 23, 24. p. 135. l. 2.
• C. 10. v. 22, 23. p. 52. l. 11.
• C. 14. v. 24. & 15. v. 6, 7. p. 135. l. 4.
• C. 31. v. 13, 17. p. 120. l. 10.

Deut.
• Chap. 4. ver. 19. pag. 115. l. 16. p. 117. l. 1
• Chap. 9. verse. 4, 5. pag. 132. l. 14.
• Chap. 13. Vers. 1, 3. pag. 111. l. 9.
• Chap. 18. verse. 10. pag. 171. l. 26.
• C. 30. v. 29. &c. 32. l. 1. p. 132. l. 39.

Josh.
• Chap. 6. v 4. p. 56. l. 32.
• C. 10. v. 11. p. 135. l. 2.
  • V. 12, 13. p. 43. l. 13. p. 44. l. 7. p. 120. l. 32.
• C. 17. v. 18. p. 192. l. 1.

Judge.
• Chap. 5. verse. 20. pag. 133. l. 16. p. 134. l 36 — p. 135. l. 30.

1 Sam.
• Ch. 1. V. 30. p. 103. l. 6.
• C. 13. v. 14. p. 102. l. 7.
• C. 15. v. 32. p. 150. l. 24.

2 Sam.
• Chap. 4. v. 4. &c. 9. v. 13. p 145. l. 10.
• C. 24. v. 1. p. 103. l. 5.
  • V. 15. p. 158. l. 23.

1 Kings.
• C. 4. v. 11. p. 162. l 9.
• C. 8. v. 39. p. 165 l. 23.
• C. 18. v. 27, p. 147. l. 5.
• C. 22. v. 11. p. 56. l. 36. pag. 58. l. 15.

2 Kings.
• Ch. 22. v. 11, 19. p. 102. l. 13. 1 Chron.
• Chap. 12. v. 30. pag. 172. l. 35. p. 173. l. 19.
• C. 21. v. 16, 30. p. 103. l. 11.

Ezra.
• Ch. 9. v. 6.15. p. 103. l 6, 7.
• C 10. v. 4. p. 101. l. 20.

Nehem.
• Ch. 10. v. 34. &c. 13. v. 31. p. 172. l. 15.

Ester.
• Chap. 1. v. 13. p. 173. l, 2.
• C. 3. v. 5, 6. p. 12. l 10.
• C, 9. v. 20, 31. p. 172. l. 15.

Job.
• C. 9. v. 7 p. 158. l. 36,—p. 160. l. 21.
• C. 27. v. 10, 11. p. 159. l. 37.
• Chap. 36. verse. 27. pag. 159. l. 36.
• chap. 37. v. 7. pag. 160. l. 29. —p. 161. l. 21.
• chap. 38. v. 31. p. 106. l. 2. p. 156. l. 12. p. 157. l. 6.
  • V. 33. p. 156. l. 36—p. 157. l. 39.
  • V. 34. p. 159. l. 39.
• chap. 42. v. 7, 8. p. 90. l. 8.

Psalm.
• 19. v. 1, 3. p. 104. l. 21. p. 127. l. 28. — p. 130. l. 19. p. 133. l. 17.
• 23. v. 4. p. 192. l. 1.
• 31. v. 6, 7. p. 123. l. 26.
• 37. v. 6. p. 90. l. 11.
• 40. v. 2. p. 132. l. 24.
• 44. v. 13. p. 103. l. 6.
• 50. v. 4. p. 132. l. 35.—p. 133. l. 15.
  • V. 21. p. 81. l. 14.
• 51. v. 2. p. 112. l. 15.
• 65. v. 8. p. 103. l. 28.
• 69. v. 20. p. 133. l. 25.
• 75. v. 6, 7. p. 13. l. 26. pag. 132. l. 2.
• 76. v. 8. p. 101. l. 17.
• 77. v. 16, 18. p. 135. l. 4. p. 160. l. 2.
• 78. v. 43. p. 120. l. 24.
• 94. v. 11. p. 167. l. 27.
• 106. v. 13. p. 112. l. 16.
• 11 • . v. 2. p. 162. l. 17. pag. 170. l. 25.
• 119. ver. 119, 120. pag. 102. l. 10.
• 136. v. 8, 9. p. 115. l. 3 • .
• 147. v. 8. p. 160. l. 3.
  • V. 19, 20. p. 103. l. 29.
• 148. v. 14. ibid.

Prov.
• Chap. 8. v. 15, 16. p. 13. l. 27. p. 132. l. 1.
• chap. 9. v. 16. p. 83. l. 15.
• Chap. 14. verse. 15. pag. 168. l. 18.
• c. 25. v. 4. p. 181. l. 4.

Eccles.
• Chap. 3. v. 1. p. 171. l. 29—p. 172. l. 30.
  • V. 17. p. 172 l. 19.
• chap. 8. v. 6. p. 172. l. 20.
• ch. 11. v. 3. p. 161. l. 4. V. 8, 10. p. 192. l. 12.

Isaiah.
• Chap. 1. v. 2. p. 132. l. 38.
• chap. 2. v. 6. p. 88. l. 39.
• ch. 4. v. 6. p. 127. l. 5.
• ch. 5. v. 6. p. 160. l. 5.
• c. 12. v. 1. p. 192. l. 1.
• ch. 13. v. 10. p. 133. l. 36. p. 157. l. 12. p. 159. l. 10.
• C. 34. v 4. p. 134, l. 18.
• C. 38. v. 8. p. 43. l. 14. pag. 44. l. 8.
• C. 41. v. 20. p. 122. l. 36.
  • V. 23. p. 107. l. 7.
  • V. 29. p. 111. l 13.
• Chap. 44. verse. 20. pag. 111. l. 13.
  • V. 25. p. 111. l. 8. p 123. l. 17. p. 190. l. 33.
• Chap. 47. v. 12, 13. p. 146. l. 35. p. 187. l. 21. p. 190. l. 33. p. 191 l. 15.
• C. 50. v. 8, 9. p. 90. l. 9.
• C. 53. v. 12. p. 117. l. 4.
• C. 66. v. 2. p. 101. l. 21.

Jerem.
• C. 2. v. 12, 13. p. 133. l. 4.
• C. 4. v. 29. p. 103. l. 6.
• C. 5. v. 8. p. 192. l. 15. v. 22. p. 103. l. 29.
• Chap. 6. v. 16, 28. p. 192. l. 13.
• C. 8. v. 7. p. 157. l. 36. pag. 158. l. 23.
• C. 9. v. 1. p. 103. l. 6.
  • V. 5. p. 187. l. 17.
  • V. 12. p. 101. l. 14.
• C. 10. v. 2, 3. p. 18. l. 26. p. 29. l. 3. p. 87. l. 36. p. 95. l. 14—p. 96. l. 39. p. 100. l. 8—p. 109. l. 11. p. 111. l. 13—p. 115. l. 2. p. 117. l. 9. p. 118. l. 26—p. 123. l. 30 p. 146. l. 31. p. 167. l. 25. p. 187. l. 3.—p. 192. l. 15.
  • V. 11. p. 187. l. 7.
  • V. 15. p. 192. l. 12.
• C. 12. v. 16. p. 187. l. 15.
• C. 20 v. 11. p. 19. l. 9.
• C. 23. v. 9. p. 103. l. 7
• C. 24▪ v. 1 p. 187. l. 7. v. 5. ibid. l. 10.
• C. 28. v. 4. &c. 29. v. 15, 21, 23, 31. p. 58. l. 21.
• Chap. 29. verse. 1, 2. pag. 187. l. 7.
• Chap. 36. v. 16, 24. p. 101. l. 28, 30.
• C. 41. v. 6, 7. p. 25. l. 28.
• C. 51. v. 46. p. 103. l. 14.

Ezek.
• Chap. 11. verse. 16. pag. 187. l. 10.
• Chap. 20. verse. 22. pag. 120. l. 11.
• C. 21. v. 3. p. 103. l. 21.
• C. 37. v. 7, 8. p. 159. l. 13.

Dan.
• C. 2. v. 2. p. 187. l. 22.
• C. 4. v. 25. p. 132. l. 4.
• C. 5. v. 7. p. 178. l. 22.
• Chap. 9. verse. 7, 8. pag. 103. l. 7.
  • V. 9. p. 192. l. 2.
  • V. 21. p. 112. l. 17.

Hosh.
• Chap. 9. verse. 9. pag. 112. lin. 16.

Joel.
• C. 2. v. 10. p. 159. l 16.
  • V. 30, 31. p. 191. l. 35.

Amos.
• C. 1. v. 2. p. 101. l. 15.
• C. 3. v. 2. p. 103. l. 20.
  • V. 8. p. 101. l. 14.
• C. 8. v. 9. p. 133. l. 29.

Mic.
• Chap. 6. verse. 1, 2. pag. 133. l. 5.
  • V. 9. p. 101 l. 13.
• C. 7. v. 8. p. 192. l. 2.

Hab.
• C. 3. v. 16, 18. p. 102. l. 13— 31.
  • V. 17. p. 192. l. 2.

Mal.
• C. 3. v. 17. p. 81. l. 15.

Matth.
• Chap. 3. verse. 11. pag. 127. l. 6.
• Ch 5. v. 12. p. 25. l 14.
• Chap. 6. verse. 10. pag. 136 l. 31.
• Chap 10. verse. 28. pag. 102. l. 38.
• Chap. 12. verse. 24. pag. 121. l. 21.
  • V. 39, 40. p. 121. l. 1—p. 122. l. 12.
• Chap. 13. ver. 25. p. 170. l. 34. pag. 171. lin. 5. pag. 174. l. 11.
• Chap, 23. ver. 34—37. p. 25. l. 14.
• Chap. 24. verse. 38. pag. 157. l. 37.
• chap. 27. v. 45. p. 25. l. 17. p. 133. l. 34.
  • V. 47. p. 122. l. 9.

Luk.
• C. 4. v. 6. p. 13. l. 30.
• Chap. 11. verse. 29. pag. 121. l. 35.
• C. 21. v. 11, 25. p. 191, l. 35.
  • V. 25. pag. 161. l. 35—p. 162. l. 16.
  • V. 28. p. 103. l. 13.
• Chap. 23. verse. 8. page 112. l. 26.

John.
• Chap. 3. Verse 2. Page 121, l. 20.
  • V. 5. p. 127. l. 10.
  • Verse 13, 14. Page 121. lin. 26.
• Chap. 8. Verse 44. Page 191. l. 10.
  • V. 48. p. 121. l. 24.
• C. 9. v. 6. p. 135. l. 24.

Act.
• Chap. 2. Verse 22. Page 120 l. 36.
• C. 5. v. 41. p. 103. l. 3.
• C. 19. v. 19. p. 31. l. 1. p. 180 l. 4.
  • Verse 24, 27, 28. Page 26. l. 27.
• Chap. 27. verse 20. Page 159 line 20.

Rom.
• C. 4. v. 11. p. 120. l. 3.
• C. 5. v. 3. p. 103. l. 4.
• C. 8. v. 35. p. 90. l. 11.

1 Cor.
• C. 2. v. 10. p 4. l. 9.
  • V. 11. p. 165. l. 22
• Chap. 4. v. 9 — 13. Page 25. l. 14.
• C. 5. v. 7. p. 128. l 36.
• C. 8. v. 4. p. 122. l. 31.
• C. 10. v. 20. p 13. l. 29.
• Chap. 11. verse 30. Page 137 line 19.

2 Cor.
• C. 4. v. 4. p. 123. l. 4.
• Chap. 26. verse 4, 5: Page 25. line 15.

Philip.
• C. 1. v. 29. p. 103. l. 3.
• C. 2. v. 17. p. 103. l. 4·

2 Thess.
• C. 1. v. 5. p. 103. l. 3.
• C. 2. v. 9. p. 123. l. 5.

1 Tim▪
• C. 3. v. 16. p. 82. l. 36.
• C. 4. v. 7. p. 31. l. 21.

Tit.
• Chap. 1. verse 12. Page 123 line 2.

Hebr.
• C. 10. v. 1. p. 128. l. 25.
• C. 11. v. 7. p. 101. l. 39.

Jam.
• C. 3. v. 14. p. 26. l. 15.

Revel.
• C. 2. v. 14. p. 4. l. 7.
  • V. 17. p. 160. l. 28.
• Chap. 6. v. 12—14. pag. 134. l. 11.
• C. 12. v. 11. p. 103. l. 3.
• Chap. 16. verse 13. page 21 l. 16.
• C. 17. v. 5. p. 83. l. 6.