Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words,…

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 qualification, 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;¹ 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 Authors 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 call 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 Author of mans 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 mens grounds, it being not in any mans 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 ⟨p. 68⟩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.

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 themselvs. And this, saith Peucer, they do as certainly as some medicines wil make men lustful. But I demand here, who indued those Stars with this lascivious qalification, or gave them this lustful efficacie? For I suppose no good Christian wil say, that wicked paynims, people or poets, by assigning of a Star to any idolized creature, can impart any power or efficacie unto it. And I might wel say here, with that Noble Lord;