A42469:172
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.
Astrologos Impostorum omnium maximos; that these Astrologers are of all Imposters the greatest: And we may indeed say ⟨p. 88⟩well of the trade they profess and practise, as Tully of that of the Sortiaries, whom he yokes together with the Chaldees. Tota res est inventa fallaciis, 1aut 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 Sincerely 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 successful, 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.2 L also to profess publicly in print) but to dedicate to the State it self, as this man presumes to do, writings stuffed with the like stuff for the nature of them, but soaring aloft in an higher strain, Foretelling the fortunes of whole Countries and Kingdoms, and endeavouring 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 Licensers 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.