A42469:169
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.
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 skill 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 vehemently opposed it, and as deeply damned it as any of those do.
Hereby then it may appeer, that it is not our dul English Preists or Presbyterians onely, that out of meer ignorance and incapacity find fault with their Astrologie; but that other then they, such as for skil as wel 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 deeplie damned it as anie of those do.
For my self, I proofs not to have any great insight into these depths of darkness, nor do I desire to pry over far into them.1 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,2 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 Brigs, 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 ingenuously 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. Brigs, that excellent learned Mathematician, not in mine alone, but in the unanimous repute and report of persons of Prime note for Skill in those Sciences both at home with us and abroad, I esteem the opinion of M. Brigs more then of a thousand Lilies, and Naworth's, and Booker's, and the rest of that rank and rabble.