A42469:155
Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words,…
Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words, Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them, Jer. 10. 2 against the scurrilous aspersions of that grand impostor Mr. William Lillie : as also against the various expositions of two of his advocates, Mr. John Swan, and another by him cited, but not named : together with the annotations themselves : wherein the pretended grounds of judiciary astrology, and the Scripture-proofs produced for it are discussed and refuted.Thomas Gataker B.D. his vindication of the annotations by him published upon these words, Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signes of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them, Jer. 10. 2 against the scurrilous aspersions of that grand imposter Mr. William Lillie : as also against the various expositions of two of his advocates, Mr. John Swan, and another by him cited, but not named : together with the annotations themselvs : wherein the pretended grounds of judiciary astrologie, and the Scripture-proofes produced for it are discussed and refuted.
London: printed by J.L. for Richard Thrayle, 1653
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1Lastly 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 Wizard informs us,2 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,3 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 quicken or slacken the drift at their pleasure. Mean while their sophisms are very frequent for the most part in that fallacie 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 snowy-white haired and goodly long bearded Old man, who being demanded by Sir Thomas More sent down into Kent, and then ⟨p. 78⟩sitting in Commission, to make inquiry 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: