A42469:271
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.
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 ascendancies, conjunctions, aspects, and eclipses, &c, ⟨p. 137⟩coming as constantly and certainly at set times, as day and night, summer and winter, by that course that God entered them into at first; and working as necessarily, as fire heats and burns, where it meets with combustible matter, to instil 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 lechery, 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 delinquencies reigning in those regions. Now consider we seriously, and sadly withal, what an height of impiety this may raise up mens spirits, prone enough by nature to entertain and embrace any conceit tho never so vain tending thereunto. For when any such judgement in an excess more then ordinary, of mortality, famine, war foreign or intestine, shall befall a people, and Gods faithful Ministers shall inform them, as Paul those at Corinth, 1. Cor. 11.30. that such evils befall them for such and such sins, as they observ 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 course of Nature necessarily produced by the Stars, and must needs therefore in their set times as certainly come, as the Sun keep his course, whether men did well or ill? Ye see, what a prone and plain path to impiety and contempt of Gods judgements, 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 mens souls.