A42469:326
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.
1But if Adam and Solomon were not such Wizards as ours are; yet sure Thales and Solon, two of the Wise men of Greece were. for to what other end should Mr. S. hale them into his Sermon, save to justify such study of, and enquiry into the signs of heaven, as through the whole tenor of his discourse he persuades to, and pleads for?
1But if Adam and Salomon were not such VVizards as ours are; yet sure Thales and Solon, two of the Wise men of Greece were. for to what other end should Mr. S. hale them into his Sermon, save to justifie such study of, and enqirie into the signes of heaven, as through the whole tenor of his discours he perswades to, and pleads for?
- 1Pag. 18.
As from Diogenes Laertius therefore, he tells us, that Thales was by the Greeks called a Wise man, because he was the first among them, that found out the secrets and mysteries of the heavenly bodies. But, what think we, were those secrets and mysteries? for these are not Mr. Swans Authors, but his own terms; whereby he would intimate to his hearers, when he preached it, to his readers, when he writ it, that Thales had discovered and delivered some of those our Wizards hidden mysteries of genitures, and aspects good and ill, and the like: Whereas all that his Author reports of him is this, that Thales was the first of those seven, that were styled the Wise men of Greece: and afterward, ⟨p. 169⟩that he seems [Greek or Hebrew], to have ben the first that discoursed of the Stars in Greece, and to have foretold the Eclipses of the Sun, delivered the set time of the Suns course and recourse from tropic to tropic; of which latter and the Equinoctials, some say he wrote only; supposing other points of that Science not difficult to attain, these being rightly understood. moreover that Callimachus saith of him, that he discovered to his countrymen the use of the Constellation called the lesser Bear, which the Phoenicians, of whom he was descended, were wont to observe in like manner before: Others that [Greek or Hebrew], he was the first that discoursed with them of Natural Philosophy; that from the Egyptians he learned Geometry, wherein he excelled; that he dealt also in Astronomy, and by help thereof took the magnitude of the Sun. And this is all of the secrets and mysteries, as Mr. S. terms them, and as they were indeed to those who were before ignorant of them, and for which he was deservedly among his Countrymen admired, as was Sulpitius among the Romans. All which I have the rather sedulously scraped together out of Laertius his chaos or confused heap, to show how little therein is to Mr. S. his purpose; or to infer, what he would have men to deem, or suspect at least, of Thales, to wit, that he was such another as our modern Wizards are. He might with as good probability raise and fasten the like aspersion or suspicion of and on our Mr. Brigs and other Mathematicians of the best note with us, who in likelihood have gone as far beyond Thales in all these, as he is reported to have exceeded Euphorbus in some of them;