Sidrophel vapulans, or, The quack-astrologer toss'd in a blanket by the author of Medicaster medicatus ; in an epistle to W---m S---n [i.e. William Salmon] ; with a postscript, reflecting briefly on his late scurilous libel against the Royal College of Physicians, entituled, A rebuke to the authors of the blue book, by the same hand.

To W— S—n.

THERE is, Egregious Sir, a Quack Aſtrologer in your Houſe, who ſome Years ſince Publiſh'd a Scandalous Reflection on me, without either Reaſon, or Provocation, ſo to do; which a Friend of mine imparting to me, (for I uſed not to miſpend Time, or Money, in ſuch empty Stuff, with which his Pen hath ſurfeited the World.) I expoſtulated the Matter with him, by Letter; and demanded his Authority, or Reaſon for the Reproach; or an Acknowledgment of the Fault, or Miſtake, if it were ſuch; but inſtead of giving me any manner of Satisfaction, He, in the next Publick Effort of his fertil Pen, falls a railing, and chattering, like an obnoxious Criminal; and attempted, by dint of Scolding, to Huff me out of thoſe Reſentments, which he had great reaſon to fear, would be ſevere upon him.

— Nihil eſt audacius illis Reprehenſis; iram, atque animos, à crimine ſumunt.

Indeed, at firſt, I was ſo little diſpleas'd to ſee my ſelf treated in a manner, ſo much to his own Shame, and Opprobrium, more than mine; that I ſlighted the Bawling Brain-ſick, till I found him at me again: And for want of new Matter, giving the People twice Sodden Cabbage: the ſame fulſom Stuff in a ſecond Almanack, which he had done in that, wherein he firſt put that Falſhood on Crato and me.

The Repetition of this groundleſs Affront, (after I had charged him with the Falſhood thereof, and he had tacitly allowed it himſelf) made me ſteal a few Hours from other Avocations, to do my ſelf right, and ſtop the Carreer of his Scurrilous Pen. But ſince he denied to take notice of my Private Challenge, I could not readily think of a better way to gain that Point, that by this Publick Addreſs, and Appeal to you, who are ſo much alike and ſo near of kin to him.

But before we engage in ſo rough and unpleaſant a way, as a cloſe and ſerious Diſcourſe of this Matter will carry us to, It may not be amiſs to ſweeten our Humours by ſome divertive Entertainment, in the beginning of our Courſe; and becauſe ſome of his Quack Poſtures afforded me ſuch Pleaſure, that I felt little of the pinching part of his Bum-fodder; I will make you merry with a Specimen of his Worſhip's Wit, both in Verſe and Proſe.

I begin with the former, not only becauſe the Pamphlet abounds therewith, but for the excellency of it; being the very quinteſſence of Helicon, and Heart Blood and Guts of the Muſes. Homer, Pindar, Virgil, or Cowley were meer Fools to Sidrophel, or Watchum, his Journeyman Poetaſter; not one of them ever made ſuch bold ſtrokes, or can ſhow ſuch Flowers, as I can, out of his doggrel and faſtidious Rhyme.

Renowned Prince! Prevail and Proſper ſtill: And make like God's Decrees your Royal Will!

There's a Bird for the King, againſt whoſe Father's Tyranny and Arbitrary Actions, he had juſt before bent his doughty Song: and now He comes to admoniſh his Majeſty to the ſame Practice. Where is the Liberty and Property of Subjects, ſo much talk'd of? If they be governed by a Prince, whoſe Will, like the Decrees of Heaven, is Abſolute and Irreſiſtible? For ſo the Aſſembly in their Confeſſion and Catechiſms define Predeſtination, or God's Decrees to be, viz. deſtining, or determining from all Eternity, ſuch to Heaven, ſuch to Hell, (L. Du Moulin allows ſcarce One in a Million to the former) without foreſight, or reſpect had, to Good, or Evil in them; but merely to ſhow his Power, and for his Glory. To imitate this, muſt be very Arbitrary, and Tyrannical! And like the Grand Louis his declared Reaſons for making his laſt War on the Netherlands, and ſpilling the Blood of ſo many Thouſands, not for their Fault, but his Glory. Thus in a roaring Song againſt Arbitrary Power, which had tumbled King James out of his Throne, He recommends to King William a Walk on the ſame dangerous Precipice.

—You by your lightning Steel, Give to the ſtupid Foe a ſenſe to feel.

This is a whole Noſegay for his Majeſty, made up of as much Nonſenſe, as ever was in ſo little Meeter. He had reaſon to ſcorn aſſiſtance from the Muſes in his firſt Poetical Sally in January; he hath a Furnaſſus in his own Breaſt.

—Excludit ſanos Helicone Poetas Democritus.—

He hath a peculiar ſort of Poetry; a Specimen of which may be thus Paraphras'd in Proſe. Your Sword made the living dead, i. e. the Stupid feel, cujus Contrarium—

The Gallick fury vaniſh'd like a Ghoſt, And trembling ſtood before your Mighty Hoſt.

I know not whether he intended this for Prophecy, or Hiſtory; I am ſure it's neither Sence, nor Truth. The French have not ſhown themſelves ſuch Cowards of late, as to loſe their Courage at the ſight of an Enemy. But the Jeſt is, their fury vaniſhed, and yet ſtood trembling: There is a ſort of a Contradiction in that; vaniſhing, and ſtanding; fury, and trembling, are different things. — This was in June. It ſeems the hot Weather made the Monſieurs cold, and the cool Weather heated them; for in September, he tells us they became brisk;

Threatned Revenge, and boldly ſwore. They valiant are when that no Foe is near; But always ſneak, when Enemies appear.

This was verified at the Siege of Namur; where our new Obſervator affirms, That, the Confederates, in ſeeing the Town loſt before their Faces, won more Glory,1692. than the ſneaking French, who took it in deſpight, and in ſight of ſuch Puiſſance as the Confederate Army, Headed by ſo great an Heroe, and Renowned Prince.

But his choiceſt Flowers are at the end of this Gallymawfry, where he ingeniouſly mingles Poetry and Prophecy, and both of ſo true a ſtamp, as if Apollo had made him an Oracle, as well as a Poet. For my part, I don't know which to admire moſt, the Prediction, or the Rhyme.

Deceit's the Line which ſome great Men do tread, Death reigns among the Living, not the Dead.

Both theſe are for Rhyme, neither of them for Senſe, and may be thus Traveſtee'd.

There dwells no ſenſe within the Poet's head, For Death can't reign, where't hath not conquered; No more than Life can do't among the Dead.

With this ſcrap of my Muſe, we will paſs by his Poetry, and taſte a bit of his Proſe; of which he gives us a moſt delightful Morſel, in the third Paragraph of that Nonſenſe, his Genethliacal Conſiderations; the whole of it is a ſort of Cant and Banter, which no Man can reconcile to Sence, Reaſon, Letters, or Truth: or make Intelligible to the moſt apprehenſive Mortal; much leſs the Vulgar, whom he deſign'd to captivate and amuſe by them. Pray take it.

This Propoſition (quoth he) is to be conſidered, and by Experience to be obſerved, whether it be true, or falſe; and if true! how near it comes to truth: or wherein, or in what parts it may vary from it. This ſenſleſs Stuff may be thus Paraphras'd. Is W. S—n in Bedlam, or not? If he be there, pray tell me how near he is to it, or how far from it? Riſum teneatis—

With a whole Gorge full of the like Stuff, he crams his Reader, in his Phyſical Advertiſement for Auguſt.

Crato ſaith, That Oyl of Cloves being preſently put into a Wound, cauſeth Pain to ceaſe immediately, without Inflammation; and brings ſordid Ʋlcers to a Cicatrice, and cleanſeth them; and ſtops Blood ſo admirably, that nothing doth it more, or better. If Oyl of Cloves which is ſo hot, doth this ſo abſolutely, and ſo ſafely? (Mark him, good Sir!) much more ſafely may it be ſuppoſed to be done with Oyl of Turpentine, or any other Chymical Oyl: which is cheap, and wants ſome degrees of the heat of Oyl of Cloves. And poſſibly from this it might be that Turpentine Yonge might receive his Notion of ſtopping Bleeding with Oyl of Turpentine. Crato, it ſeems was the Author; though he is pleaſed to attribute the whole Invention to himſelf; which a Man of Candor would have abhorred to have done. Yet it is ſaid, the French, and others uſed it in the ſame caſe before him.

Before I expoſe the Falſhood of this ſenſeleſs Reflection, I muſt inform you that Seventeen Years ſince, I was prevailed on by ſuch as I could not refuſe, to Publiſh ſome Notions concerning the Vertues of Oyl of Turpentine: Particularly, its wonderful Power to reſtrain the Bleeding of Wounds.

This Diſcovery met with various Fortunes, ſome diſparaged it as a fallible and uncertain Remedy; others contemn'd it as an Old one; but many Ingenious Men honoured me with thankful Letters, together with Obſervations, confirming what I had writ concerning it; and which is Invaluable, the Famous, Honorable Mr. Boyle, not only ſaid to Dr. R. H. and my ſelf, ſuch kind things of it, as I am too Modeſt to repeat; but He was likewiſe pleaſed to honour it with Publick Approbation, in his Book of Specifiques. p 160

I found more Envy, or Careleſneſs, than Truth, in ſuch as charged it with uncertainty, and failure; and from any of the few, who pretended they knew it before me, I could never wreſt any proof; and I do here profeſs, That in all my Reading, Converſation, and Travels, (which are not the leaſt) I never met it directly, or indirectly in any Circumſtance; nor had other Direction to it, than what I frankly owned, and avowed in my Preface to that Diſcourſe.

I am not the only Man, whoſe Labours have met ſuch diverſity of Fate. The Great Harvey's Diſcovery of the Circulation, was at firſt decried as a falſe Novelty by ſome; other invidious Men ſaid, the Glory of the Invention was due to Caeſalpinus; ſome, to Hippocrates; and one more Retroſpective than the reſt, eſpied it in the Writings of Solomon.

How unjuſtly Sidrophel hath charged me with ſtealing away the Honour due to Crato, I will now evince; and leave you to wonder, as much as I do, at the Impudence and Folly of the Reproacher.

Crato ſaith, &c. This is like thoſe Preachers, who quote St. Auſtin, and never read a Father. I have peruſed all Crato's Works, without being able to diſcover ſuch a Paſſage: nor could I reaſonably hope to find it there, knowing him to be a Man wiſer than to write ſuch Stuff. And ſurely, if Sidrophel had known where to find it, I had not been to ſeek it, and yet I muſt do him the right to confeſs, that he wanted not an Author for what he ſaid; but it's ſuch a Third-hand one; as he will be aſhamed of, if he hath any Modeſty in him? The Author I mean, is the Anonymous Tranſlator of Bonetus his Index, who ſaith, Page 660. Oyl of Cloves makes Wounds, that if it be put in preſently, their Pain immediately ceaſeth without Inflammation: And it brings ſordid Ʋlcers to a Cicatrice; and cleanſeth them. It ſtops Bleeding nothing more.— And for this he quotes Crato in the Margin, without naming Book, Chapter or Page.

There is nothing of this originally in Bonetus; but added with many other things by the Tranſlator, taken, as he declares in his Preface, out of J. G. Waltherus his Sylva Medica. Walther Sylva Med. p. 1601. To him I had recourſe, and in page 1601. of that laboured Work, I found theſe words, Joh. Crato l. ſing. Obſ. Med. in Ep. Ep. 97. Ol. Caryoph. praeſtat vuln. ut illorum dolor. ſi mox indatur, ſtatim ſedet & abſ que inflamm. ad cicatr. perducat ſordida Ʋlc. mund. flux. & vir. ſiſtet adeo ut nih. ſupr.— I have put them down to a Letter, pointed, and abbreviated exactly as it's in the Book; that you may ſee the Inſincerity and Wickedneſs of my Antagoniſt, how little ground he had for quoting Crato, or affirming that Oyl of Cloves ſtops Bleeding, and at ſo wonderful a rate; ſo abſolutely, that nothing doth it more or better; when Crato, Waltherus, or whoever were the Author of theſe words, mean nothing of it. They ſpeak of the flux of Humours to ſordid Ulcers, not one word of the Haemorrhages from Wounds.

Moreover, I am well aſſured, Crato hath no ſuch Epiſtles extant as thoſe Waltherus referrs to; becauſe in three ſeveral Editions of that Work, which I have examined, they are not to be found: nor is there any mention made of them by Vander Linden, or in G. Merklin's Account of the Labours of that Author, nor is there reaſon to think ſo good a Phyſician, ſo well Skilled in Natural Philoſophy, and the Materia Medica, as Crato was, could fall into ſo groſs an Error, as to think that the Chymical Oyl of an Aromatick Vegetative, hot in the third degree, as Cloves are; could cauſe ſuch ſudden, prodigious Ceſſation of Pain, in recent Wounds, and not inflame them.

I know many famous Authors account it very balſamick, viz. Beguinus, Weicker, Renodeus, Gluckſtrad, Barthius, Erneſtus, Hoffman, Woodal, &c. Some of them equal it with natural Balm, and there are three or four Writers of good Reputation among us, who ſpeak highly of its healing Vertue, and of its faculty to reſtrain the Haemorrhages of Wounds too, which Sidrophel, had he known them, might have alledged more to his purpoſe and credit, than this Third-hand Quotation, as from Crato.

J. Erneſtus much admires it,De ol. Chym. p. m. 410. Exterius omnia recentia vulnera, punctim vel caeſim inflicta, ſanat, humiditates nervorum in iis & haemorrhagias compeſcit.

J. J. Weickerus, writes thus of it—Omnes virtutes habet balſami. Extrinſecus vulnera recentia ſanat, Antidot. l. 2 p. m. 655. vulnerum ſanguinem fluentem & aquam ſiſtit.

J. Barthius directs a way of diſtilling an Oyl from Cloves,In Tyroc. Beguini. l. 2. c. 6. to drops of which being mingled with 4 grains of Sacchar. Saturni, ulcera, & vulnera mirabiliter conſolidat.

And A. Libavius ſaith,Prax. Chym. 136. Balſamus eſt praeſtantiſſimus, vulnera omnia fundentia, ſanguinem & ſerum, quod ſupprimit.

The truth of all which, I readily credit; declaring at the ſame time, that I derived not my Notion from Crato, or either of them; nor obtained it any other way, than what I declared in my Preface: Nor can Oyl of Cloves pretend to thoſe many adventitious Benefits, which accrew to Wounds, by the uſe of Oleum Terebinthinae; much leſs will it allay Pain in recent ones, and not heat them. To affirm that, is ſo ſenſeleſs, Diſpenſ. l. 1. Cap. 3. Sect. 7. p. 145. and void of all reaſon, that Sidrophel himſelf, methinks, ſhould not have been guilty of it, after you had told him ſo learnedly, That Cloves yield much Oyl, becauſe they have much of Sulphur and Salt in them, and that by reaſon of the Salt, the Oyl is ſharp, cauſtick, and biting. Very much ſo, ſaith M. Thybaut, from whom you ſtole the whole.

If Cloves be hot in the third degree, as is by all hands allowed,Theat. Bot. I. H. p 429. Hiſt. Plant. Tom. 2. l. 26. cap. 2. the Chymical Oyl muſt be more ſo; as J. Bauhinus, and our excellent Mr. Ray do alike obſerve.— E caryophyllis qu • que diſtillatur oleum.— Eſt preculdubiò calidius multo. And conſequently muſt accend, and inflame newly divided Fleſh; unleſs we are ſuch Children to believe, that a very hot oily Sulphur will cool: and a very hot, Corroſive ſharp Salt eaſe Pain in tender Wounds. That would make us as ridiculous Naturaliſts as the old Woman, who ſaid, Pepper was hot in Operation, but cold in Working. And ſuch a one is Sidrophel, if he believe ſuch Paradoxes; as he will find to his Pain, if ever he be ſo ſilly when he hath occaſion to experiment it on himſelf.

It brings ſordid Ʋlcers to a Cicatrice, and cleanſeth them.

Here he puts the Cart before the Horſe; for by the Rules of Surgery, ſordid Ʋlcers muſt be cleanſed before they be cicatriced. But I perceive he is a Stranger to thoſe things: elſe he would neither have written ſo prepoſterouſly, nor believed (though he had had an Author for it) ſo erroneouſly as he hath done by aſſerting, •• at an anodyne Medicine is detergent. We know that all Mundifiers, eſpecially ſuch as are po • ent enough to cleanſe ſordid Ulcers, are ſharp, and frettin • ; and conſequently painful: Such are precipitate, Mercury, V • tri • l, Verdigreaſe, &c. and without doubt the Oyl now in diſpute, will appear ſenſibly ſo, when applied to Ulcers, much more to Wound • that are not ſenſeleſs.

It ſtops Bleeding, ſo admirably, that nothing •• th i • more, or better,

Here he tranſcends his Authors, for they do not make its Operation ſuch an admirable thing. But I know • e ſtretcht it, to make it tally with Oyl of Turpentine: but that won't do! though to carry on the Metaphor, he commits a moſt horrid blunder in theſe words,

If Oyl of Cloves, which is ſo hot, doth this ſo abſolutely? And ſo ſafely? Much more ſafely may it be ſuppoſed to be done with Oyl of Turpentine, &c. which wants ſome degrees of the heat of Oyl of Cloves.

Here he ſeems ſenſible of the heat of Clove Oyl. It's ſtrange therefore, that Crato, or any Man, ſhould perſuade him, that its Anodyne to recent Wounds, and won't heat them. But who can be ſurpriſed at the Inconſiſtencies and Incongruities of a Man, who hath ſo little regard to Senſe, Truth, Coherence, or good Manners? And commits ſuch blunders in one breath, as he hath done in this ſingle Period. Oyl of Cloves ſtops Bleeding ſo wonderfully, that nothing doth it more, or better; it doth it abſolutely, ſafely, &c. and yet after all that ſuperlative Character, he ſuppoſeth it may be done a degree better by Oyl of Turpentine; for that will ſtop Blood more ſafely, than what doth it abſolutely, and ſafely. Oyl of Cloves is not to be exceeded, but Oyl of Turpentine is moſt excellent. If this be not Teague all over, I know not what is? What, Dear Joye! Doth Oyl of Turpentine exceed an abſolute, ſafe, incomparable Remedy? Will it ſtop Blood better than what doth it beſt of all? Can it excel that, which is not to be excelled? This is pure Mountebank Rhetorick, common with Sidrophel, who hath recommended to the World above an hundred Remedies, every one of which is the beſt.

And poſſibly from this it might be, that Turpentine Yonge, might receive his Notion of ſtopping Bleeding with Oyl of Turpentine. Crato it ſeems was the Author, though he is pleaſed to attribute the whole Invention to himſelf: which a Man of Candor would have abhorred to have done.

In this ſenſeleſs, and irrational Rallery, I ſhall paſs over his Nick-naming me, and his moſt Illiterate way of expreſſing himſelf, as no ſtrange thing from one over Head and Ears in the Bogs of Blunder, and Nonſence; and proceed to ſhow you the Iniquity, and ill Conſequence of his way of Inference, or concluding à Poſſe ad Eſſe, for that's his Logick; and by the ſame Rule I will undertake to prove Sidrophel to be the Son of a Whore: for it's poſſible: Ergo He is ſo. By this way of arguing, he accuſeth me of being Plagiary from Crato: But how Abſurdly and Illogically is too apparent; for by it, any thing may be made good: Concluſions may be made not only repugnant to Logick, and the Rules of Perſuaſion, but to Truth it ſelf; and all things that can exiſt, are actually now in being, if his Rule be good.

Beſide, the inartificial Deduction, the Inference is very untrue: It was impoſſible I could ſteal that from Crato, which was never in him. If it were, why doth he not ſhow it me, when demanded? Though if he could produce it in him, it would not prove that I ſtole it thence; becauſe I never knew or heard it was there, till Waltherus, the Engliſher of Bonetus, and Sidrophel have falſly told me ſo, long ſince my Book was Publiſhed.

But if I had been led by Crato to thoſe Thoughts I had of Ol. Tereb. Sidrophel confeſſeth mine exceeds his in divers particulars; and conſequently, all that advantage is owing to me; and Crato no more the Author of my Notions than the Inventor of Proſpective Glaſſes was the Author of Telleſcopes; The Pilot at Helvia, the Diſcover of America: Or he that enquired of Dr. Harvey what became of all the Blood yelpt from the left Ventricle of the Heart into the great Artery, was the Diſcoverer of Circulation.

Ita res accendunt lumina rebus. Lucret lib. 1.

Hints may lead to Diſcoveries, but do not make them; one thing gives light to another; and the Glory of thoſe Achievments attempted from thoſe leſſer Intimations, remain to Galileo, Columbus, and Harvey, while the Names of thoſe firſt Luminaries, are ſunk and loſt.

Furthermore! If any ſuch thing was in Crato? Why muſt I ſteal it from him, rather than Erneſtus, Wickerus, or Libavius? How comes he to be the Author of the Invention, more than they, who had ſaid it before him: And from whom, if ever he ſaid any ſuch thing, he probably took it? There is an Edition of Erneſtus Printed, when Crato was but 23 Years old, and R. Moreau ſaith that Wicker flouriſh'd in Baſil 1562. which was 23 Years before Crato died, about which time alſo Libavius was Profeſſor of Hiſtory, and Poetry, as Merklin tell us.

But after all; It's manifeſt, that I was ſo far from arrogating the Invention, or aſſuming more than belonged to me, that in my Preface to that Book, I not only inveighed warmly againſt ſuch, as Plume themſelves with others Feathers; but renounced any Claim to that particular Invention; and not only ſo, but told my Reader how the firſt Diſcoverer found it, and named the Perſon who handed it from him to me. This is ſo plain, and clear in the four firſt Pages of that Preface, that I am aſtoniſht at the Forehead of this moſt notorious and moſt infamous Plagiary! Surely no Man without Opium, could accuſe me publickly for arrogating the whole Invention, when the World knows not an Author leſs guilty of ſuch Piracy than my ſelf, or more than my Accuſer, who concludes as he began, with Falſhood and Slander.

It's ſaid the French, and others uſed it in the ſame Caſe before him.

If he hath any Author for this Report, it's juſt ſuch another as he had for Crato: Such as he is aſhamed to own; for I am ſure, the French mention it not in any of their Writings, nor ever uſed it in their Practice, till they had it from me: Nor have any other ever pretended to it, that I know. There are many Men apt to arrogate more to themſelves than belongs to them, witneſs Sidrophel; but where's he, who will ſuffer another to carry away his Laurels? I will therefore preſume (after ſo many Years enjoyment of the Honour which I won, by Publiſhing, and Improving this Diſcovery) to claim it by Preſcription, as my due; in deſpight of this invidious Gainſayer, who, fearing his fathering it on Crato would not deprive me, attempts by a ſecond Lye to give it the French. I have demanded his ground for this Suggeſtion alſo, but his guilt ſtill keeps him ſilent: ſo that I conclude this alſo to be a Chimera of his own Brain, as all the reſt of his Affirmations are.

Now, if there be nothing in Crato, which could beget in me, ſuch an Opinion of Ol. Tereb. as I Publiſhed; or if there were, and I ignorant of it, and conſequently not led by it; if I not only exclaimed againſt Plagiaries in general, but diſclaimed any Title to that Exploration in particular, All which are moſt certain; What an injury hath he done me, thus to Libel and Expoſe my Name, and Reputation, without any manner of Cauſe to juſtifie it, or Foundation to ſupport it.

But alas! All this is nothing compared with what the next Sally of his Pen beſtows on me. Here his Choler is only moved, there his Gall overflows with ſo much rancour, and bitterneſs, as if one of Billingſgate, broke looſe from Bedlam, had raked Holbourn-Ditch, or the filthieſt Shore of the Town, for Dirt to caſt upon me. He reſolved, if falſe Reflections, and groundleſs Calumnies would not blacken me, to try what Smutty ſcolding would do. Tranſported he was with fear of being Chaſtized for his Fault, and cunningly thought to prevent me by throwing Duſt in my Eyes, and crying Murther! like a Thief purſued by the Conſtable.

This he attempts in a rude, and ſavage Epiſtle, to the Reader of Seplaſium, (Forica, or Sterquilinum had been a fitter Name for it;) but how much it blackens himſelf more than me, every Man of ſober Sence ſhall judge.

I muſt own, that he honoured me with very good Company, by railing in the ſame Libel againſt the College of Phyſicians, and Men of the greateſt Reputation in Phyſick, for impoſing on the Publick, by not providing ſuch Phyſicians, and Remedies for Service of the Army, as he could have done; whereby great numbers in the Iriſh Expedition might have been ſaved. As much as to ſay, Why had not your Majeſty made Sidrophel Phyſician, and Apothecary-General to your Forces? He by his Skill, and Fidelity, would have ſaved the lives of many thouſands of your poor Subjects, who died for want of both, in the hands of ſuch ignorant Knaves, as the Murthering College appointed for that Service.

It was my turn next, and accordingly Sect. 11. of his Preface to the ſame Libel, he falls on me; but after another manner. He doth not lay ſpilling the Blood of Men to my charge, but the Credit of Quacks, and Mountebanks. I had not been guilty of the death of thouſands (thank my Stars) as the College were: but my fault was, That I had reflected on the Ignorance of ſuch Fools, and Knaves as would be thought Phyſicians too, and ſo engroſs to themſelves only, what the Proverb divides among all Mankind; and for that he falls heavily on me after this manner.

It may be (quoth he) ſuch an ignorant Fellow as the Naſty Author of an Impertinent Pamphlet called Medicaſter, may bedaub me, as he hath done honeſt Culpeper, who hath been at reſt theſe Forty Years.

All Men are Ignorant,Socrates. though not all alike ſo. He was no ſmall Philoſopher, who after long Study, confeſt that he was come to know that he knew nothing. If the Book which ſo Scared, and Provoked Sidrophel, or what elſe I have written, will not convince him that I am not the moſt Ignorant Man in Nature, I hope this will: and if that fail, I dare Appeal to the moſt competent Judges in the Nation, the College of Phyſicians, and Society of Surgeons, who are the great Tribunals of our Faculty, and to whom, I have Dedicated my ſelf and This.

But to call that Book a worthleſs Scribble, and its Author an Impertinent, was much out of the way: Nothing being more valuable, more proper, or more noble than to reſcue Men from Errors, and Miſtakes; and to ſcourge ſuch out of Apollo's or Aeſculapius's Temple, as attempt to put Falſities on Mankind, that are of ſuch danger to their lives, and the uſeful Art of Healing. This, This was the whole drift of that Book, and ſo effectually done, that I knew none it diſpleaſed; except the Quacks, who, alarmed by the deſign, I ſeemed to have, of expoſing the whole Herd of Scribbling Medicaſters, cryed out Fire! Murther! &c. before they were hurt. Indeed I pointed at Sidrophel, and his Father Culpeper; at Thompſon, Harvey, and others of that Tribe; but that was all the harm I did theſe honeſt Men; and perhaps, if he had not given me this Provocation, I had ſaid no more of them. In the Liſt I hinted of that ſort of Cattle, he could pick out but three to vindicate, by which he allows my Cenſure of the reſt: And I'll prove that theſe ſelect Friends of his, are not the beſt in the Pack: Or as bad as the worſt of them, whom he left to themſelves.

Culpeper was an Impudent Quack Aſtrologer, and a Rebel. He Libelled the learned King James, and that moſt Pious Prince, and Martyr, his Son, and damn'd them both to Hell, together with the whole College who Compiled the London Diſpenſatory. Among whom were our Immortal Harvey, Gliſſon, Jordan, Mayern, &c. Men of more Worth and Learning, than all the Quack Aſtrologers in Europe. Theſe famous Worthies are by Sidrophel's Honeſt Culpeper, treated as if they were (like them) Scounderils, Diſpenſatory, Ed. 1652. on Man. Chriſti. and pernicious Vermin. In one Page he calls them Lubbers, Blaſphemous, Ʋnskilful, Diſhoneſt, Impudent in Sin, Sodomites, Idolaters, Ranters, Men that Worſhip'd Old Jemmy for God, and his Son for Chriſt: But their Tutelar Gods (quoth he) being apud inferos, gives me ſome hope they will follow them quickly, and ſo all the Tyrants go together. Thus inhumanly, and in a faſhion as far from Honeſty, and Chriſtianity, as it was from Charity, or good Manners, doth this Wretch (celebrated by Sidrophel) treat the Sacred and Pious Memories of the moſt Learned and beſt of Men, and moſt uncharitably and wickedly Sentence their Souls to no leſs than Eternal Flames, a piece of Impudence never to be parallell'd but by Sidrophel himſelf.

But you ſhall have another Evidence of Culpeper's Honeſty, given to the World by W. Prynne, who was one of the moſt active Inſtruments to promote the Rebellion againſt King Charles the Martyr, and a violent Enemy to the Proteſtant Epiſcopal Fathers, not ſparing the Pious, and Learned Biſhop Ʋſher. He tells us, That thoſe two Jeſuitical Prognoſticators, Lilly,True and perfect Narrative. &c. p. 60. and Culpeper, were ſo confident, A. D. 1652. of the total Subverſion of the Law, and Goſpel Miniſtry, That in their Scurrilous Prognoſtications, they Predicted the Downfal of both. And in January 1654. They Foretold that the Law ſhould be pulled down to the ground, the great Charter, and all our Liberties deſtroyed, as not ſuiting with Engliſh Men in theſe Bleſſed Times. That the Crab-Tree of the Law ſhould be pulled up by the Roots, and grow no more: There being no reaſon we ſhould now be governed by them.

A. D. 1652. Sidrophel's Honeſt Culpeper Publiſhed a Libel called, Cataſtrophe Magnatum containing Treaſon enough to hang all the Empiricks, and Aſtrologers in the three Kingdoms, Railing at the Crown, Mitre, and Long Robe; inveighing againſt the Law, and Lawful Government of England; predicting the utter Subverſion of it, both in Church and State; Praiſing, and Extolling the Villanies of thoſe Execrable Traytors, and Barbarous Regicides, who ſtand proſcribed in our Statutes, and in our Laws declared to be Sons of Belial,12 Car. 2.30. Men hardened in Impiety; neither true Subjects, nor true Chriſtians. And ſo much for the honeſty of Sidrophel's admired Culpeper. As to his other two Brethren whom he defends, and applauds, you ſhall have their Character too by and bye, as they come in my way.

My Name he thinks not worthy to live in his Work; and I thank him for it. I had rather have it in an Houſe of Office, than his Confectioners Shop. Had he uſed it any other way than he doth, he had injured me; it being better to be reviled with the College, than praiſed among ſuch infamous Fellows as Culpeper, Thomſon, &c. And more Reputation to be ill ſpoken of, than commended by ſuch a Scandalous Plagiary; whoſe good word can be no Credit to any Man on whom he beſtows it.

I am alive (quoth angry Sidrophel) to caſtigate his Inſolence, at leaſt to trample upon his Contumelies; which I ſhall do by ſlighting his Ignorance and Malice, and not reſenting the Injury.

Here's another touch at Iriſh! And ſuch a Teague-land Blunder-buſs as the former.— What, Dear Joy! Caſtigate his Inſolence, and trample upon his Contumelies, without reſenting the Injury? What! Slight his Contumelies, and yet all the while ſcold like any Fiſh-woman at Bilingſgate at the Author of them? Theſe things don't conſiſt; unleſs he wiſely thinks a Man may be in a Rage without Anger: Beat an Enemy without taking any notice of him: Revile, and Quarrel in pure Love: Or, to uſe his own Words, Caſtigate Inſolence, and trample on Contumelies, by ſlighting them.

He hath no luck at all at Satyr; Therefore, good Sir, if you can't perſuade him to leave off Tranſlating,This I deſire may be obſerved by ſuch as miſtake his Rant for good Satyr, eſpecially a little Glyſterpipe Fellow, who lives within a mile of the Gallows, and is to die within a Ropes length on't. (i. e. Cobling) Phyſick Books, and Scribling Almanacks, (his two chief Talents) yet beg him to deſiſt from Satyr; for he can make none but on himſelf. He hath here attempted to be Satyrical on me, but you ſee he is like one who ſpits into the Sky; it rebounds on his own Face. They ſay a little Wit, and a great deal of ill Nature make a good Satyriſt. He hath enough of the latter; but he wants even that Modicum of the former, to compleat him. He is but an Infant Satyr, he hath Nails, but no Teeth. He can ſcratch but can't bite. In ſhort he is a Scold, not a Satyr. A Zoilus, or a Momus, not a Juvenal, or a Perſius.

I, but beſides himſelf, and his dear Father Culpeper, the Silly Wretch, and Impertinent Fool that wrote Medicaſter Medicatus, hath aſſaulted the Reputation of the Learned Dr. Thomſon, and Worthy Ingenious Dr. G. Harvey: Both which had more Learning in their Little Fingers, than that Conceited Impertinent hath in his whole naſty Body, and that provoketh him to piſs upon the Puppy.

Pray take notice, Sir, how he ſcorns to reſent the Injury my Book did his Party. Obſerve with what Civility, Calmneſs, and Poliſht Manners, he acts the Philoſopher, or the Chriſtian, under all the Affronts I put upon him and his Friends. See how Meekly he turns the other Cheek, and gives me his Cloak alſo. Poor Saint! I pity him, that he ſo ſoon diſcovers himſelf to be quite contrary to his Pretenſions, and after all his Meekneſs, Patience, and Paſſive Valour, rails, and throws about him like a Thraſher, or Kettle-Drummer.

Ay, but his two Darling Friends were affronted by me, and that tranſported him; nothing elſe would have moved his Ire, and ſtirred up his Wrath againſt me. I confeſs I do not wonder at his fond Concern for his two learned Friends, becauſe I know them caſt in one Mold, They are Birds of a Feather.

Thomſon I ſhall ſay the leſs of, becauſe he is dead: And becauſe while living, he was ſufficiently proved to be no Doctor, but an Illiterate Dunce; by one of the moſt Learned Phyſicians of the Age. And indeed he was obviouſly ſo to all Underſtanding Readers of his Pamphlets: Stubbs againſt Thompſon. &c. For excepting a few hard words, the Cant and Jargon of Helmont, and an Arcanum or two, that he boaſts of, more famous for the Death, than Cure of his Patients, there is nothing at all in them: His Notions are untintelligible: His Opinions, as far as they can be underſtood, very Erroneous: his Language Bombaſt, Affected, and very Silly: And his Aſſertions Heterodox, and Wrong. Take a few Specimens. The time is at hand (quoth he) that a Phlebotomiſt will be look'd upon no better than a Bronchotomiſt or Cut-throat. Preface. Blood is the immediate Inſtrument of the Soul, in which it ſhines, Thompſon's true way of preſerving the Blood, p. 2. p. 4. diſplaying its Radiant Beams every way; that Senſation, Motion, Nutrition, and all other Functions may be performed.

The Blood of Man is graduated to the higheſt Perfection, fitting to be a Receptacle of ſo Divine a Gueſt, the Immortal Soul, which as long as it is here incarcerated, lying couched in the Senſitive, being bound to act by Corporeal Organs, ſuffers many Obſcurations, Defections, and Eclipſes, through variety of Meteors ariſing in the Horizon of this Microcoſm, from the Blood degenerate and depraved.

Blood is an Ʋniverſal Subſtance diviſible only by ſome external, p. 6. accidental means, as the Air or Fire, which cauſes a various Texture and different Poſition of its Atoms, &c.—Both of theſe do ſtrangely larvate and diſguiſe this puniteous Balſom, &c.

Did they rightly underſtand how Blood like Mercury might be Polymorphiſed, p. 6. &c. theſe Dogmatiſts would never be ſo forward to pierce poor Mans Skin, raſhly let out, and throw away the ſubſtantial ſupport of Life, &c.

The efficient Cauſe or Agent of Blood is the innate Archeus or Vital Spirit, p. 9. which chiefly makes this formal tranſmutation of whatever is nouriſhable. This works by his principal Inſtrument, the Ferments in the Duumvirate, and in the reſt of the Digeſtions. For this Primum Mobile, moving ſine Motore alieno, ſets all the other Wheels in Motion, till being exantlated, and its Vital Power exhauſted, all the inferiour Orbs forthwith ſubſiſt, are at a ſtand and fail. This Autokineton is the Seat or Subject of the Senſitive Soul, where it is emicant and tranſlucent in the ſame manner as the Beams of the Sun received in by the Air in a ſerene, clear Sky, are effulgent and bright; but in a cloudy dusky Heaven are offuſcated and opacous.

If timely prevention be not made, either by potent ſtrength of Body,p. 12. or a prevalent Art, the Man decays in his Faculties, the Archeus becomes aculeated, extimulated, and becomes exorbitant, framing variety of Exotick, Morbifick Idaeas, cauſing a Syndrom of Heteroclite Symptoms.

The next notable Cauſe that makes great alteration for the worſe in this Vital Juice, p. 14. are the extravagant Perturbations, Storms and Tempeſts that ariſe in this Microcoſin, raiſed through miſapprehenſions, miſapplications, and miſinterpretations of things obvious to our Senſe, contrived by a luxated or diſlocated imagination.

This feral Brat of Hell, Melancholy, doth diſturb the Oeconomy of the Soul's reſidence, p. 15. and is the Original of a black fuliginous Archeus, &c.

Anger intoxicates, pourtraying the perfect Idea of Madneſs, which ſometimes is ſo graduated, that no Poyſon in this part of the World ſeems to be more active, for a few Atoms of this venomous Gore penetrating the cutaneous Membrane, hath infected the whole ruddy Maſs, introducing moſt truculent Symptoms.

If we be not Maſter of our unruly Paſſions, it is impoſſible there ſhould be an Eutomie, an Eucraſie, and Eumetry in this Solar Juice.

Diſeaſes are firſt embryonated and characterized in the Vital Spirit, p.27. reſiding in the Hypocondries, Stomach, and Spleen, &c.

An inveterate pain of the Head takes its firſt beginning from the enormon of the Duumvirate, where the ſeminal Rudiments and Idea of this Diſeaſe were abumbrated or ſhadowed forth by the ſenſitive Soul, excited to Paſſion upon the apprehenſion of ſomething diſagreeing and injurious to Vitality. Afterward the ſame is perfectly delineated in the Archeus of the Brain in which the Scene laid below is now brought to light above. Now is to be ſeen a Syndrom of many Symptoms, which plainly ſhew the Nature of the Diſeaſe ſuitable to the part afflicted. Here the Latex and Vital Juice apoſtalize by degrees from their purity, the Ferments, &c.

As the Soul inhabits the Archeus, p. 28. ſo this is permanent in the Blood, and all three take up for their Metropolitan or chief place of Reſidence, the Stomach and Spleen, in which the Soul by means of the Duumvirate, acts freely.

An Epiſpaſtick of Cantharides being laid on, p. 39. where there is Vitality, the Skin in a ſhort ſpace is ſeparated from the Fleſh by an acrimonious Ichor, which the Archeus fabricated, being put into a fretting condition upon the apprehenſion of this virulent I laiſter.

Nothing is more congenerous, ſymbolizing with the Animal Gas of Life, than highly exalted Spirit of Wine, being forthwith imbraced, p. 44. united, and identified one with another, by reaſon of their Affinity and Congruity.

Phyſicians do not truly underſtand the energy of Zymoſis, what a powerful alterity is made by it, and how the ſulphureous Particles of the Vegetables becomes Ʋrinous like the Spirit of the Animal, whereby it is enabled to profligate the Morbifick Matter through all the Emunctories, Sluces, and ſecret Paſſages of the Body; This is the direct way of curing Fevers fundamentally, though they conclude the Fate of ſuch muſt needs be ſad, when ſuch Preſumptuous Phaeton-like Pyrotechniſts, drive the Mettleſom Horſes of the Sun of this Microcoſm ſo furiouſly.

And yet with all this Ignorance, he had ſuch a ſtock of Confidence, as to encounter that Prodigy of Learning abovenamed: But his Heart was too big for his Head. It was ſuch an Impar congreſſus, that I pitied to ſee the poor forward Creature ſo overmatcht, and baffled; ſo publickly expoſed, and charged with Ignorance in the Writings of Hippocrates, or Galen, and all the very Rudiments of Phyſick, without one word to ſay in his own behalf, which did not confirm the Imputation his Antagoniſt publickly laid on him.

As to his ſurviving Friend G. H. — y, He, like himſelf, hath been many Years a buſie Scribbler of Heterodox Opinions and Principles in Philoſophy and Phyſick; proſtituting the Noble Art of Healing, and Libelling the moſt Famous Practicers, and Eminent Profeſſors of it, in this Age and Nation; viz. Such as Sir Th. Brown, Dr. Charlton, Cox, Willis, Lower, Short; not ſparing the moſt Learned College of Phyſicians, London. Men, whoſe Books he was not worthy to carry after them: If you would ſee the Philoſophy and Learning that was in the Head of him (I meddle not with that in his little Finger, becauſe Sidrophel writtily ſaith, there is too much for me) read his Archiologia Philoſophica nova: If his Manners, Civility, and good Breeding, you need not go ſo far, as he did for it, it's abundantly expreſſed in his Caſus Med. Chir. and his Conclaves: If his Skill, you may have a lumping Penniworth in the reſt of his Faſtidious Scribbles; and if in all of them put together, you do not ſee the true ſhapes of a Scholar, a Gentleman, and a Phyſician drawn by his own hand, (Painters ſeldom hit their own Faces, nor Aſtrologers their Fates) behold him done to the Life by another in a Dialogue between Philiater and Momus, printed in 12o Anno 1687.

De mortuis nil niſi bonum, is a Rule, quoth he, our little Proſligate is unacquainted with: And why? Becauſe I ſaid Culpeper was one of the Scribbling Medicaſters of the Age. Was he not ſo? Did he deſerve to be well ſpoken of when dead, who had done ſo much miſchief when alive; and was ſo uncharitable to the Souls of his deceaſed Sovereigns, as to place them in Hell? Beſides reproaching Their Names, and blackening Their Reputations without Truth, or Humanity, after they were laid in their Sepulchers? It ſeems, he was not acquainted with this Rule, nor Sidrophel with the other part of it, Nil niſi verum de vivis.

I have been told that a Scholar once complaining to the Butler, that his Drink was dead, had the ſame Reprimand from the cunning Ale-tap, which I had from Sidrophel: Nil niſi bonum de mortuis. Now either the Wag was in the right, or I not in the wrong: Take your choice.

But to be more cloſe and ſerious with him in this matter, I muſt tell him, his Rule is not general; it's in many caſes a fault to follow it, and our Duty to ſay evil of ſuch dead, as were notorious for committing it when alive. For this we have many Examples in Scripture, the Writings of the Fathers, the Anathema's and Cenſures of the Church againſt Hereticks, and Heterodox Men. In our Statutes, inſtances of it often occur againſt Traytors, Rebels, and pernicious Men, ſuch as Cromwell, Bradſhaw, and Ireton, who ſtand branded with very evil Characters, after they had been long dead, and their Heads on Weſtminſter-Hall, as you may ſee 12. Car. 2.30.

Had he minded Ludlow, and other late Libellers of King Charles the Martyr, of this Adage, it had been pertinent. For they, contrary to all the Rules of Chriſtianity, Humanity, good Manners, and Truth it ſelf, have reproacht the Reputation of that moſt Pious Proteſtant Prince, who ſtands celebrated in many of our Statute Laws, and is Yearly by our Parliaments, and biggeſt part of the Nation, recognized, and ſolemnly declared to be a Righteous, Pious, Innocent Prince, and Martyr; whom yet their venomous Pens call, Tyrant, Pharaoh, Nimrod, Nero, &c.

But I cannot forbear wondering with what Face Sidrophel could affirm, in the midſt of all this horrid Billingſgate, and ſuch a ſtorm of Fury and Scolding, That it was unchriſtian, and unmanlike, to ſling Dirt upon any one. Doth he not by an ore tenus confeſs himſelf inhumane, and unchriſtian? Or doth he think that to call a Man in the Face of the whole World, Ignorant, Malicious, Naſty, Impertinent, Scurrilous, Inſolent, Senſeleſs, Fool, Dog, Wretch, Whiffling Cur, Snarling Puppy, Profligate, Delinquent, &c. and to crowd all this stuff into one Page of an Octavo Book, was not flinging Dirt on a Man, but giving him Sugar Plumbs? One of them muſt be his Belief, and I don't much care which it is.

To caſt Dirt upon the Dead, is an Incivility not to be forgiven, quoth he; and he is the firſt that ever made expoſing Quacks to be the ſin againſt the Holy Ghoſt. If what he ſaith be true, every Grave-maker is daily guilty of it in a literal, and every Controvertiſt, and Oppoſer of Hereſie, in a Moral Sence. And nothing is more common in the scribbles of thoſe Chymiaſters, and Star Doctors themſelves, than to rail at all the Phyſicians, except a few Maggoty Helmontians, and Aſtrological Quacks, that have been in the World theſe Sixteen hundred Years; as Men who have acted by miſchievous Rules, and killed their Patients by ill Methods, and Medicaments. Cap. 3. His Freind Thomſon in particular ſpeaks it in plain Engliſh. And his Father Culpeper in Latin.

But did I abuſe the dead by placing Culpeper (Thompſon was then alive) among the empty Scribblers in Phyſick? No, all the Learned Phyſicians in England are of my Mind, and can think no otherwiſe of ſo Ignorant, ſo Rude, ſo Pragmatical a Traytor, as he was.

Sidrophel concludes this huffing Paragraph, with pronouncing me Senſeleſs, and Nothing.

As to the firſt, I do not, as he and ſome other vaunting Empiricks do, pretend to more Sence than comes to my dividend; nor will I own him ſo much in the right, as to think that I am wholly deſtitute of any at all: That Scandal is notorious to all that know me, or have ſeen what I have written: And even by this Reproof, it will appear, that I am Profeſſor of Sence enough, to ſhow that he hath leſs than he pretends to: and that all he hath, amounts to little more than none at all. And as to the Subject of our Conteſt, I have referred the Matter to a Tribunal, at whoſe Bar he dares not Appear, nor Appeal.

Nor am I ſo little, as to juſtifie his accounting me Nothing. I have the Honour to be in the Friendſhip, Eſteem, and Correſpondence of the moſt Eminent of the College, and Surgeons Hall; and had a Freedom in the Latter conferred on me Gratis, without Examination, or any way of Purchaſe. I have been Phyſician, and Surgeon to a publick Hoſpital near 21 Years; and much longer ſerved my King, and Country, in all the Military Offices my Profeſſion could Capacitate me. I have ſerved in the Navy, in the Army, in a great Garriſon, and Dock-Yard. And beſides all this, I preſide in the Civil Government of one of the biggeſt Corporations in England. And if notwithſtanding all this, I am Nothing, Sidrophel is much leſs than nothing: That is, an Almanack maker, and one who Scribbles for Bread, or to a worſe purpoſe.

What that is, will appear in the Remarks I am next to make: Which will as fully detect his Knavery to the Publick, as the former doth his Folly to me. He out-doth the Proverb, and is both Fool, Knave, and Phyſician too. And that you may be ſure to ſee him all over, and know him in which of thoſe ſhapes ſoever he appears, I will take off his Fools Coat, and put on him that of W. Lilly; which fits him ſo exactly, that it's hard to know the one from the other. Their Reſemblance in Art, and the uſe they make of it, is the ſame: Their Contempt, and Affront of King Charles the Martyr, is alike: One affirms him juſtly Executed; the other thought the Anniverſary enjoyned by Law for that Excerable Murder, not worth a place in his Calendar; nor his Name fit to ſtand in the noble Liſt of Saints and Martyrs; •• ne 7. while yet he obtrudes ill Company on that Glorious Army, and thruſts among them ſuch odious, and deſpicable Celebrations, as that of a Quack's Nativity.

But their greateſt ſimilitude lyeth in a Hieroglyphical Prophecy againſt the Throne and Church of England, publiſhed many Years ſince by the one, and now inculcated to the World by the other. It's true that ſince he heard how his contempt of the Royal Martyr in his former Almanacks, and thoſe Prophetick Emblems, were two faulty things I took notice of, He hath laboured to put a ſham Interpretation upon the one, and amend the other, by noting on the 30th of January K. Ch. I. Dec. that is, beheaded, or Executed, as Lilly, and the reſt of that Tribe uſed to word it, which is next to ſaying nothing, or worſe.

His Democratical Hieroglyphick pretends to contain the future State of England for an Hundred Years, beginning 1650. half of which being paſt, and gone, his future Tenſe is become Preterimperfect; and he fatum poſt fata canebat, foretels things already come to paſs, which every Fool can do. But Folly apart! Let us examine the Knavery of this Emblematical Withcraft; and I think the expired part, will make a Key to that which is yet unfulfilled. Mark then!

It begins with an Executioner, and his Sword bloody; others cutting down Royal Oak Trees, and a Crown over (not on) a Man's Head, another lying dead, as in State; and upon him a Scepter, Sword, and three Crowns; then comes a Crowned Draggon with a Scepter in his right Claw— It's eaſie to unriddle the meaning of all this, being in plain Hieroglyphical Engliſh, the Murther of King Charles, and Cromwell the Dragon aſſuming the Government— What follows reſembles the Tranſactions, and Accidents of thoſe Times. But the Sting is in the Tail, and doth not yet appear; although a Man with half an Eye may ſee the meaning of it, Mauger the Varniſh he would gloſs it, and delude us withal.

The Cataſtrophe, or part to come of this Tragical Buſineſs, is a Magnificent Palace, before whoſe Gates lie ſeveral dead Dogs, Wolves, and other Beaſts of Prey, with their Heads ſeparated from their Bodies. Theſe I take to be Courtiers turn'd out of White-Hall, and Murthered at its Gate, as King Charles was. Then appears an Aſſembly of Men ſitting in an Houſe like a State-Houſe; three of them in long Robes; over the Head of one written PAX; of another LEX; and of the third GREX; not a word of REX. Then appear Men undermining the Foundations of many Famous Churches; ſome of which fall, others are falling: Then appears a Man pulling a Surplice over a Biſhop's Ears. There's Epiſcopacy, and the Church gone at a daſh. Then you ſee a great Imperial Crown broken into pieces, and with it many other little Crowns and Coronets; there's Monarchy, and Nobility mumbled. Then the Swords are beaten into Plow-Shears, and the Spears into Pruning-Hooks, and all ends with Victory, and Triumph over Monarchy, Epiſcopacy, and Nobility: And then Hey Boys up go we!

For to what purpoſe elſe can it be, that this is ſo Yearly publiſhed, and repeated, but to Influence Peoples Minds in this Nation (ſo long famous for being deluded by Prophecies) with an Opinion that the Crown, Mitre, and Coronet, are by Heaven deſtin'd to Deſtruction; and conſequently muſt be ſubmitted to, if not promoted? That the People of this Nation have been often drawn into Rebellion by ſuch bantering Devices, and Dreams of Aſtrologers, is abundantly reported by our Hiſtorians; out of whom anon you ſhall have numerous Inſtances. It was to theſe Deluders, that Wales owed that Lamentable Ruin it ſuffered in the days of Hen. IV. and to them we are not a little indebted for the Miſeries this Kingdom hath ſuffered within few Years before the Date, or Commencement of this Prophetick Emblem, by which Sidrophel ſeems to be carrying on the Tragedy his Predeceſſors began. The fall of Churches, the diveſting of Biſhops, and breaking in pieces the Imperial Crown of England (for there's the Scene), too plainly tell us what he would be at. And to make the unfulfilled part the more credible, he cunningly orders it ſo, that the firſt is already verified, and come to paſs. This Device, or Banter he borrowed from, or wrote in imitation of that Arch-Impoſtor and falſe Fortune-teller, W. Lilly, who at the end of a Peſtilent Pamphlet, which he calls, Monarchy or no Monarchy in England, written 1651. gives ſuch Prognoſticating Pictures as thoſe publiſhed by Sidrophel. There's the Mob Aſſaſſinating Gown-Men, ſome Biſhops, and Epiſcopal Clergy tumbling down Pulpits and all. Others of them lying proſtrate on the ground; there are three Crowus and a Coronet turn'd upſide down; there are his Twins and Dragons, flaming Towns, Fleets, Graves, dead Corps, lean Cattle, Streams of Blood, a red Sea of green Blood, and all the Scare-crow, Bugbear Emblems of future Vengeance on the Church, Throne, and Nobility; which he had Predicted in that lying Book, after the thing had come to paſs.

I call it a lying Book, on many accounts: One of which is very notorious, and remarkable, for though it were written to Predict the final Extirpation of Monarchy, from the Murther of King Charles the Martyr; P. 62. there is a Prophecy in it, that within Fifty Years of that time, a King Henry of this Nation, ſhould Conquer France, and that he ſhould be twice Crowned. This Merlinus Liberatus takes notice of in his Almanack 1692. as a Prophecy to be perform'd by K. William. Be that true, I am ſure the Prophet was falſe. For how could there be no more Kings in England? and yet a King of this Nation, within Fifty Years after the fatal Period of Monarchy among us, atchieve ſo mighty a thing? But his Pen was like his Name, nothing but Lyes; and ſo is Sidrophel's too. Their Hieroglyphicks are alike, their Deſigns ſeem to have the like Tendency, Date, Commencement, and Cataſtrophe. And the Authors alike, a couple of Canting Deluders, and falſe Prophets; who I hope and pray may be alike miſtaken, and confounded, and our Government in Church, and State, abide for ever. Amen.

Although an Aſtrologer, or an Almanack-maker be a thing odious enough to the wiſe part of the Nation, by the Falſities and Deluſions they yearly put upon them; yet foraſmuch as all Men are not enough ſenſible thereof, and many that are ſo, do yet encourage the Cheat to wicked purpoſes, I will undertake to undeceive the one, and expoſe the other, by a brief Cenſure of Aſtrology, and ſetting it in ſuch a Light, as any Man with half an Eye may ſee through it, and diſcern the Vanity, and Falſeneſs thereof, and the Wickedneſs of thoſe who Practiſe, and Profeſs it; particularly Sidrophel, whom I will here expoſe as an Aſtrologer, and hereafter as a Quack, in a ſecond part of Medicaſter Medicatus.

In doing which, I ſhall not meddle with all the trifling, and ſottiſh Fancies, which the Brains of Aſtrologers (fertil in Fiction) have conceived of the Stars, and thoſe Spacious Nothings, the 12 Houſes, or Caſtles in the Air; being things, which ought rather to be laught at, as the Whimſies of Men, who have given their Imaginations liberty to commit the greateſt Extravagancies in Bedlam; or the Crotchets of ſuch Crafty Pates, as laugh at all thoſe who do not laugh at them: But offer againſt it theſe weighty unanſwerable Objections.

1. If Aſtrology were true, there is yet no true Aſtrologer, becauſe they have no certain Foundation at all: The Ephemerides, and Aſtronomical Tables by which they Calculate, being by their own Confeſſion falſe, and conſequently there Schemes no better than Poor Robins. Morinus, Agrippa, P. Cavino, Gaſſendus, Aſtrol. Gal. Cherubin, Hevelius, Ricciolus, and many other learned Aſtronomers do affirm this. And beſides, the better ſort of Aſtrologers themſelves, ſuch as Morinus the French-Man, who pretends to have made all new Rules of Aſtrology, becauſe the former were all of them falſe, and fooliſh; the moſt Illiterate of thoſe Impoſtors ſay the ſame thing. Partridge chargeth all the Tables before his own, with falſhood; and you, ſweet Sir, ſenſible that all extant are uncertain, and erroneous, promiſe to publiſh New and Correct ones.Rob. Godſon writes Altrologia Reformata A.D. 1696.

2. In the Nature, Property, and Influence of the Stars, Diviſion of the Zodiack, Twelve Houſes, and firſt Elements of their Art, they do not agree. So that all their Judgments are as falſe, and uncertain, as their Calculations; much more ſo, if there be no Zodiack in the Heaven, nor an Heaven for ſuch a Zodiack; but that all their noiſe of Trigons, Merc. Vol. 1. n. 6. Triplicities, &c. be as the Athenians call them, a fardle of Gibberiſh Nullities, invented on purpoſe to abuſe the credulity of Children, and Fools. Their dividing the Heaven into 12 parts,Dr. More's Myſt. of Iniquity p. 349.355. alſo his Anſw. to Butler, 105. Gaſſend. c. 8. p. 722. Vol. 1. is without Reaſon, or Mathematicks: Their qualification of the Stars, without Philoſophy: and both mere imagination, as vain as Vanity it ſelf, ſaith the greateſt Mathematician of this Age.

3. The new, and approved Syſtem of Copernicus, the Myriads of Stars unknown to former Ages, quite confound all the old Aſtrology.

4. Their Mutual Railing at one anothers Ignorance, Error, and Knavery; even to the heighth of Billingſgate, like Gadbury and Partridge, yearly, if we muſt believe them all, proves them all ſuch. Augur ridet Augurem.

Gaſſendus tells us, That their Art contains no one Fundamental, Op. Refor. Praef. which is not oppugned by ſome one or more of its Profeſſors. And Partridge himſelf ſpeaks out pat to the point, He that would laugh at Aſtrology (quoth he) need not read Heminga, &c. but our own Authors; our Rules are ſo deficient, that they are not to be relied on, they thwart one another; our Aphoriſms are falſe, and involve us into a Labyrinth, which makes us Ridiculous.

5. Their different Opinions, in Prognoſticating and Predicting counter to one another, according to the Times, or the Intereſt they are of, ſhews their Ignorance, or Knavery, and the Vanity of their Art. The Inſtances of their contradictory Preſagings, are very numerous. The moſt famous of late are to be found in Wharton, and Lilly, Gadbury, and Partridge.

6. Nor are they more divided among themſelves than they are from Truth. The falſeneſs of their Prognoſtications in former Ages, are remarkt by Cicero, Pliny, St. Auguſtine, and others: Thoſe ſince, by the noble Picus, Heminga, Angelis, Gaſſendus, and many more. For it's not only thoſe little mean Fellows, who now-a-days make Almanacks, that prove the truth of this Reflection every Year: But ſuch Maſters as Albumazer, Cardan, Gaurichius, Noſtradamus, and Lilly; they have convinced the World, that the Art is not able to help them to the Knowledge of any Accident before hand. They ha'n't ſo much foreſight of Weather as a Shepherd, or a Sinner that carrieth an Almanack in his Bones; or an old Woman with Corns on her Toes. Perhaps they'll tell you (as they do every Year) at ſuch a time as this; That great Preparations for War, and Conſultations will be made next Winter; That Fleets, and Armies will be abroad next Summer, and ſome Battel fought, or a Town taken or beſieged: That about next December, (as Merlinus Liberatus lately foretold) There will be buſineſs at the Old Baily, and that ſeveral aged People will die, in and about London. At ſuch a ridiculons rate, who may not turn Prognoſticator?

Fatidicus non eſt qui manifeſta canit.

I have read all Lilly's Almanacks from 40 to 60, in the Holy time of that great Rebellion, to which he was acceſſary; and find him always the whole breadth of Heaven wide from Truth. Scarce one of his Predictions verified, but a Thouſand contrariwiſe. It's hard that a Man ſhooting at Rovers ſo many Years together, ſhould never hit the right Mark. In one of his Almanacks Dedicated to the Long Parliament, a very few Months before the Army (thoſe Legions of their own raiſing) tore them in pieces to the very Rump, He told them their Duration would be long, in Settlement and Peace, and that they ſhould do much good to the Kingdom, and accord with the King; Who was then cloſely confined by the Votes of Non-Addreſſes to Carisbrook-Caſtle. And but four Months before the Execrable Murther of that Pious Prince, He wrote, That the King ſhould be reſtored to his former Dignity: That the Parliament, full of Honourable, and Loyal Intentions, would end all things in a general Agreement, and Reconciliation. But no ſooner was that Black Tragedy acted, and the Sword aſſumed the Crown, but he changed his Tune. Then we were to have no more Kings in England, and Charles the Second ſhould die before he was 38 Years old: That the Ottoman ſhould ruin the Emperor, and Venetians, about the Year 70. With abundance more of ſuch Lying Stuff were his Almanacks filled, till the Reſtauration, of which he foretold not one ſyllable.

John Gadbury, deceived by Lilly, or ſome ſuch lying Spirit as led him, foretold alſo in an Almanack near 75. that about 80. the Turks would make a mighty inrode to Germany; That Vienna ſhould be taken by them, and they puſh their Victory home to the Belgick Shore. When contrariwiſe, about that time, the Germans and Venetians made ſuch Monſtrous, and incredible Impreſſions on the Turks, as recovered all the Morea, Hungary, and a great part of Greece.

In former Ages, when Aſtrology was more uſed, and better underſtood, they were guilty of the ſame Miſtakes, and Falſities. Caeſar, Pompey, and Craſſus, whoſe Fates were Violent, Immature, and Tragical, were promiſed by thoſe Diviners, that they ſhould die aged, at their own Houſes, in Peace and Honour.

J. Picus Mirandula ſaith he examined many of their Calculations, and found ſcarce one in twenty prove true. Praefac. Molin. Joſeph Scaliger tells us that Albumazer predicted that Chriſtianity would laſt but 1460 Years. Ab. Judaeus foretold the coming of the Meſſias ſhould be A. D. 1464. Arnoldus, That Antichriſt would appear 1345. and that A. D. 1174. the Arabian, Jewiſh, and Chriſtian Aſtrologers all agreed, that the utmoſt Deſolation of the World by Tempeſt, would happen A. D. 1186. How falſe theſe Predictions were, time hath ſhewn the World.

Sextus ab Heminga collected thirty Eminent Nativities, Calculated by the beſt Rules of this lying Art, and they proved all falſe by Experience, ſad Events happening to thoſe on whom the Heavens by the Rules of Aſtrology ſmiled; and happineſs to ſuch as they frowned upon.

Cardan and Gaurichius both Calculated the Nativity of Hen. 2. who was ſlain in his fortieth Year, Cauſin Holy Court, p. 360. by a Splinter of Mongomery's Launce; though one of them ſaid, He ſhould live to an happy old age: and the other, that if he ſurvived the great Climaterick Year, he ſhould live gloriouſly to 70.

Both did the like with Luther, and were both alike miſtaken.

Cardan, who (as Gaſſendus ſaith) was a Man of the beſt Wit, Brains, and Learning of any Aſtrologer, ſpent an hundred hours on the Birth of our Edward 6th; and after all that Induſtry, was ſcandalouſly miſtaken in his Fate; Gaſſend. p 748. lib. 1 de quad. c. 2. Sect. 13. for He died in his 16th Year, who by the Aſtrologer's Calculation, ſhould not be ſick till his 25th, and after that die of a Flux, and a Fever. Si vis divinare, contrarium ei ad unguem dicito, quod Aſtrologi aut pollicentur, aut minitantur, was the ſaying of Martianus, not only commended, but verified by Cardan: Who after all his Skill, confeſt that ſcarce one of their Predictions in forty proved true:Lib. de Judic. cap. 6. D • . More Myſt. p. 356. So that the beſt of them can't forbear owning themſelves no Wizards; they all ſeem Infatuated, and more under the Power of Witchcraft than above it.

J. R. Camerarius, was as much out in his Judgment upon the Nativity of Henry 4th; and Gaſſendus relates how much Noſtradamus was miſtaken in his Genethliacs on the Scheme of Suffredus his Nativity. For to him all things happened quite contrary to the Lying Predictions of that famous Aſtrologer.

Now if ſuch Maſters in the Art, had not Skill enough to avoid ſuch groſs Miſtakes, What can be expected from ſuch half witted Aſtrologers as Merlinus Liberatus, and Sidrophel who every Year expoſe themſelves to this Cenſure? And as for Friend John, the humble Servant of Ʋrania, all the many Calculations in his Collect. Genet. are accuſed of Falſhood by his Brother Partridge. Opus Reformatum.

7. Their not foreſeeing the moſt remarkable Events, ſufficiently ſhows the Vanity of their Art, and their own Ignorance. This is manifeſt in the great Accidents of the laſt Thirty Years; the Reſlauration of King Charles II. the Plague and Fire of London; the treble War 1666. Oates's Plot; the great Snow 1681. and the Froſt 1683. the Death of King Charles, and the Fate of his Brother; the Stupendous Revolution 1688. the Death of Pope Innocent XI. the Dukes of Newburgh, and Lorrain, who were the grand Pillars of the Confederacy, and died in one Year; the great, and Marvellous turn of Affairs in Auſtria, Hungaria, and the Morea; the many terrible Earthquakes in Jamaica, Sicilia, Naples, Flanders, and London, and the Death of Queen Mary, were things our Aſtrologers foreknew no more, than Lilly could Divine who ſhit at his Door. Think you that Sidrophel, ſo cunning a Conjurer as he would be thought, if he had foreſeen the time of that great Ladies Death, would have placed Lawrels on her Brow, and told her of their being always green, but the Year before they withered?

Againſt this Reflection, I know but one Inſtance they have to object: and that is the Hints Mene-Tekel gave of King James's Death, a little before the Abdication.

Suppoſe, but not granting that to be true too, it doth not follow, becauſe once in an Age, among a thouſand falſe Prophecies, one is fulfilled, that they are true Prophets; more than that the Devil is not a Lyer, becauſe he once ſpake truth. The veracity of them both is the ſame, in deſpight of a ſingle Inſtance each have to the contrary. One Swallow doth not make a Summer. When Aſtrologers, like the Father of Lyes, commonly fail, and err in their Predictions, it's to be ſuppoſed that Chance, or ſome other Intelligence, not the Stars, put them ſo rarely into the right. Children, and Fools ſpeak truth, ſaith the Proverb: And the Scriptures tell us, that the Devil himſelf, by the Miraculous Power of Chriſt, had ſuch a force put upon his Nature, as to do it once, when he acknowledged our Saviour to be the Son of God. Aſtrologers may therefore be allowed to reſemble them in this, as they do in all things elſe; though like common Lyers, they are not to be believed, till their Truth becomes apparent by experience, and that (God wot) will be but ſeldom. If it be a good Argument to prove the Truth of Aſtrology, that ſome Predictions have been verified, by the ſame ſort of Logick it's to be proved falſe, becauſe their Divinations are oftener ſo than otherwiſe; as is confeſſed by Cardan, and proved by Picus, Heminga, Gaſſendus, Chambers, and many others.

Mene-Tekel not only got the Author a great Name, but patcht up the decayed Credit of Aſtrology among the Populace, becauſe they could not ſee the Spirit by which he Divin'd. But wiſer Men knew he Predicted by Intelligence with the Contrivers, not the Planets. The Stars that preſignified it to him, dwelt on Earth, not in the Twelve Houſes of Heaven. And they perhaps did not err, who lookt on the whole thing as a Political Device to diſpoſe the Minds of People to that great Change: We all know that he fail'd in the Death of King James, the Employment of his Gallows, and many other particulars: And he that knew the great, and univerſal diſcontent in the Nation, at the Management of Affairs under that unfortunate Prince, and how many were engaged to dethrone him, might without Aſtrology foreſee as much as he. I know a Great Man who (although no Conjurer) told me as much, and as ſoon, as Mene-Tekel did, of that buſineſs.

The Laplanders may eaſily foretel a Storm they are about to raiſe, and he that is the Inſtrument of Miſchief, is beſt able to Predict the conſequence of his Deſign: Like thoſe Skilful Poyſoners Naturaliſts Theophr. Hiſt Plant. l. 9 c. 6. Boyl Nat. Phil. p. 264. Medela Medie p. 103. Ramſey of Poyſon p. 10. and Travellers tell us of, who contrive the fatal Doſe ſo, that the Victim ſhall not die in many Years after taking it, and then not miſs an hour. Such a Pandora may eaſily turn Aſtrologer, as well as Poyſoner; and foretel the time of the Patient's Exit, more certainly than any Genethliac by the Nativity.

We are told that the Indians have, and Caeſar Borgia had this pernicious Skill: and it's ſuſpected that there were in England ſome, who, without Aſtrology, knew, many days before King Charles was ſick, when he ſhould die. By the ſame way Dr. Bates, Cromwell's Phyſician, became a truer Prophet than Thomas Goodwin his Chaplain; the Doſe the one gave being too hard for the Prayers the other made for that Ʋſurper. Though they were alike confident, the one of his Death, the other of his Recovery; yet the former went on the ſureſt grounds, as appeared in the Event.

Thuanus, Scaliger, and Gaſſendus ſay that Cardan loſt his Life to ſave his Credit; for having Predicted the time of his own Death, he ſtarved himſelf to verifie it; Magaſtrom. p. 173. Dr. More Myſt. p. 358. or elſe being ſure of his Art, He took that to be his fatal day, and by thoſe apprehenſions made it ſo. And I do not want a learned Author to back my belief, that great men have untimely died by ſome Artifice of the Aſtrologers, for the ſame reaſon.

Domitian having Decreed to baniſh all the Aſtrologers, they conſpired his Death; and one of them, Aſcletarion, Sueton. lib. 12. Sect. 15. told him when it ſhould be. The time appointed happening while Apollonius Tyanaeus was Diſputing in the Schools at Epheſus, he ſuddenly ſtopt, and cryed out, well done Stephanus! Kill the Tyrant! And then told the Audience that the Emperor was wounded. This contributed highly to the Fame of that Impoſtor, although it prov'd him ſuch no more than the Duke of Braganza, or one of the Prieſts who contrived and managed the Revolt of Portugal, if they had foretold it.

A Son of Noſtradamus told the Men of Friuli, that he was ſent by his Father to premoniſh them of the ruin of their City by Fire ſuch a Night: They believing the Oracle, and watching narrowly to prevent the Conflagration, found him, and his Accomplices, ſcattering Fire-Balls in divers parts of the Town.

Pope Hildebrand was one who Studied, and Practiſed this Art: and yet had ſo little Skill, or Confidence in it, that he hired ſeveral Ruffians to Murther the Emperor Hen. 4. at the time he Predicted his Death. Acts and Mon. Vol. 1. p. 199. Vol. 2. p. 170. This we are told by Cardinal Beno, of his own Religion. Beſide Fox and others of ours, Ollerius Barcinonenſis, foretold the Aſſaſſination of Hen. 4. of France by Ravaillac, from a ſecret Intimation of the Deſign, known to ſome Grandees of Spain, and others of the Court of Rome who were no Aſtrologers. The Author of the Turkiſh Spy tells us, that Fr. Corvinus the famous Italian Aſtrologer, the Night before that Murther, ſaid on the top of his Houſe in Florence, That to morrow the greateſt King in Europe would be kill'd: But ſays, the Intelligence he had was from Earth, not Heaven, or the Stars. And Merlinus Liberatus will not allow his Friend John to have any other foreſight of the Prince of Wales his Birth, than by the Tranſactors of that Myſterious Affair, that is by the ſame way and means himſelf knew what he Publiſhed in his Mene-Tekel: For without the help of Satan, or the Stars, any one may Predict Events, if they are in the Contrivance, or have Intelligence with thoſe that are ſo.

8. Their Ignorance of their own Affairs, Misfortunes, and Fates before they happen, proves them unable to foretell that of other Men. Aſtrologers, ſaith Agrippa, while they gaze on the Stars for direction, &c. fall into Ditches, Wells, and Gaols, and like Thales, become the Sport, and Deriſion of ſilly Women, and Slaves. Aſtra tibi Aethereo pandunt ſeſe omnia Vati, Omnibus & quae ſunt fata futura monent. Omnibus aſt Ʋxor quòd ſe tua publicat, id te Aſtra (licet videant omnia) nulla monent. was an Epigram made by Sir Tho. More; R. Caſtro Med. Polit. l. 2. c. 2. and I fancy our witty Hudibras was as ſharp upon Sidrophel, and Wachum in Engliſh, as the other was in Latin.

Quoth Hudibras, the Stars determin, You are my Priſoners, baſe Vermin. Could they not tell you that as well, As what I came to know, foretel? By this what Cheats you are we find: Who in your own Concerns are blind.

The Learned Mr. Purchas tells us that the Death of Hagag a Sarazen King, Pilgrim, p. 226. was foretold by an Aſtrologer, who did not foreſee his own; for as ſoon as he made his Prognoſtick of the King, his own Head was ſtruck off.

Sir John Chardin in the Hiſtory of his Perſian Voyage,Page 40. 131. 132. Appen. 25. tells us, That Aſtrologers are in very great eſteem among that People: And that they alway crown their Kings in the minute they direct. And if after that the King be unhappy, he is crowned again on a new choſen time, Cauſin Holy Court. as Solyman the Third was ſo crowned while he was in that Country. But the Aſtrologers often miſtake, and are as often put to Death.

King Hen. 7. underſtanding, that an Aſtrologer had foretold the punctual time of his Death, ſent for him, and enquired where he, the Conjurer, ſhould keep his next Chriſtmas? He anſwered, that he knew not. Then quoth the King I do without Aſtrology tell you, it ſhall be in Gaol. And thither he ſent, and kept him long enough to ſee by Experience, that the King was a truer Prognoſticator than himſelf.

J. Galeazus, Duke of Milan, treated another Impudent Aſtrologer with more ſeverity; for having Predicted that he ſhould long ſurvive that Prince, he Ordered the Wretch to be immediately hanged. Such another Story is in the Anthologia of Diophantes the great Aſtrologer,Gaſſend. done in Verſe.

Gaurichius did not foreſee by the Stars, that he was to ſuffer on the Rack; nor Cardan that his Son was to be hanged for Poyſoning his Wife.

I was perſonally acquainted with Dr. W. Ramſey, who publickly boaſted of Skill enough in Aſtrology to foreknow a Mans Fate; particularly whether he were born to die rich, Chr. Aſtrology cap. 6. Sect. 6 be fortunate in Marriage, &c. and depended ſo much on it, as to aſſure himſelf of great Wealth, and happy Nuptials; who yet died poor, in a Gaol, after he had Marry'd ſuch a Wife as provoked him to write that Satyr againſt Matrimony, called Conjugium Conjurgium.

That Beelzebub of Aſtrologers, W. Lilly, was wholly Ignorant of the Reſtauration, when he wrote thoſe Trayterous Libels, which forfeited his Neck to the Gallows.

Friend John was ſo certain that Popery would prevail, Opus Reform. p. 85. and eradicate the Northern Hereſy, and ſo Ignorant of the late Revolution, that he not only perſuaded a Gentleman to turn Papiſt for theſe Reaſons, but embarkt himſelf in that Intereſt; and thereby drew ſuch a Storm on his Head, as he would have avoided, if his Art had given him the leaſt Proſpect of the right way, or had not led him into the wrong.

Would Sidrophel, think you, have undergone the hazard, and trouble of a Voyage to America, to repair a broken Fortune, if the Stars had let him ſee, that he ſhould have returned no wiſer, nor richer than he went out? Pray ask that Lying Aſtrologer, (who ſo often writes as if Conſcience, and Religion, not Debt and Beggary drove him thither) whether it was not he that raiſed ſo many Devils, as during his abode there, and ſince, have poſſeſt the choiceſt Saints in New-England? To conclude, All that pack of Fools, and Knaves, who pretend by Judicial Aſtrology, to foreſee good and bad fortune, to hit opportunities, and nick lucky minutes, for making things happy, confute themſelves; being, for the moſt part, hated, ſcandalous, little, needy fellows; the very abjects of that fortune, whoſe favours they pretend to foreſee, and manage.

9. Aſtrology cannot be true, becauſe Men born at one time, and in one Horoſcope, and Conſtellation, meet divers, often contrary Fates: Kings and Slaves, Lords and Beggars have been born in one minute; Twins begotten at one Coition, and yet of differentSee many ſingular Inſtances of the different Fates and Diſpoſitions of many famous Twins, in Mr. Chambers, p. 53. &c. Dr. More's Myſt. Iniq. p. 357. Heyden, p. 252. Sexes, Humours and Fortunes. Of Seed thrown into the Ground in one moment, ſome have taken root, ſome been eaten by Birds and Worms, and ſome proved fruitleſs. A Man born at once, by the Rules of Aſtrology, ſhould die all together: But contrariwiſe, ſome Men ſurvive their Ears, Noſes, Hands, Feet, Legs, and Arms, many Years. Nor is it ſo in Genethliacs only, but in Judicial, and Horary Aſtrology alſo. Ships commencing Voyages in one minute, and Mens Journeys in one moment, have had different ſucceſs. If two Men, or more, about to fight a Duel, or run a Race, come in one moment to enquire of the Aſtrologer their ſucceſs; by the Rules of that Art, both muſt win, or loſe; conquer, or be conquered; becauſe they both put the Queſtion together. So if two, or three Men ride, or run a Race, and in one moment ſtart forth, if Aſtrology were true, they muſt both win, or both loſe; which cannot be.

10. The death of Multitudes of Men, in one minute, ſome in one moment, in one place, by one cauſe, cannot happen by the Rules of Aſtrology: Becauſe the Stars never concur to ſuch an Identical Fate in ſo many thouſand Nativities,Sir W. Raleigh p. 153. as theirs who fell in the Battel between Semiramis, and Stourobates, where Four Millions were ſlain on one ſide, beſides the many Thouſands which fell on the other. The Army of Xerxes, when they paſs'd the Helleſpont, conſiſted of Seventeen Hundred Thouſand Men, Idem l. 3. cap. 6. the greater part of which fell in the Battels of Platea, and Mycale.

In the Scripture we read of 320000 ſlain at one time, Joſhua cap. 11. Chron. 2.16. on one ſide; and 500000 at another; beſide the many who periſhed on the ſide of the Vanquiſhers: 180000 Aſſyrians died by the hand of an Angel, at one time, in the days of Hezekiah. Are theſe things accountable by the Rules of Genethliacal Aſtrology? If the ſmall diſtance that might be between their Fates, be an Evaſion, What think you of vaſter numbers, who have periſhed together in a moment, by one accident? The Hundreds blown up with Opdam; the Thouſands ſwallowed by the Earth with Corah, &c. in the Wilderneſs; and of late in Jamaica, Sicilia, &c. or the Inundations of Deucalion, Holland, &c. or the Flood of Noah? Can their Fates be found Predicted by ſo long a Conſpiracy of the Stars, as muſt be in the many days, in which thoſe Multitudes of Nations were born? Can the different Births of ſo many Myriads of Men, have in the compaſs of an Hundred Years, ſuch conſpiring Horoſcopes, as ſhall determine them all to one ſort of Death, and puncto of dying? Can the Heaven for ſo many millions of minutes, as theſe Multitudes were Born in, have ſo conſtant and agreeable an Aſpect,Dr. More's Myſt. p. 357. as there muſt be, if Aſtrology be true, to determine the Fate of ſuch infinite Numbers, to the ſame Numerical time, and Identical manner of Death? I call them infinite Numbers, believing, with Sir Tho. Brown, Pſeud. Ep. l. 6. c 6. that the World was then as full of People as now.

11. If the Stars Influence, or Coeleſtial Conſtellations beget ſuch Accidents as occur on Earth; How comes it, that when the like Horoſcopes recurr, as were at the Geneſis of Alexander, Caeſar, or Judas, Men moſt famous for Piety, Art, Valour, Poetry, &c. or infamous for Wickedneſs, have not been again produced?

12. If Human Actions be directed by the Stars, Whence is it that National Cuſtoms of Food, Cloathes, Religion, Marriages, Diſeaſes, Languages, Laws, Tempers, Colours, Conſtitutions, &c. come to be peculiar, and conſtant to each Kingdom, when the Influence of Heaven on them, is ſo various? The Heavens change, but the People do not. The People of the greateſt part of the Earth are black, the Wind blows conſtantly one way for Eleven Months of the Year; and the Weather, during that time, Serene, without Rain, or Storms: And in that Month varieth, with Tempeſts, and great Showers, or Floods from the Sky. This cannot be from the Stars.

13. The Aſtronomancers talk much of the untimely death of Picus, and other Writers againſt their Art, as if it were a Revenge the Stars took on ſuch as derogated from their Dominion: But have they not as much Power to Prevent, as to Revenge ſuch Injuries done their Sovereignties? If all our Actions, or thoſe only of Importance be directed by the Stars; Is it not abſurd to ſuppoſe they ſhould inſpire ſo many great Fathers, Philoſophers, Divines, and the moſt Learned Men the World hath owned, with Diſpoſition, or Ability to write againſt them; and ſingle out one or two of them to puniſh; and ſuffer ſo many others, who have as much, or more, affronted their Deities, to eſcape, and proſper?

14. The Exclamations made by Men Great, Learned, and Good, ſome of which have ſtudied your Art to the bottom, gives great reaſon to think it Fallacious, and Wicked. St. Auguſtin, Calvin, Perkins, Briggs, Heminga, Dr. Humes, Angelis, and other Divines: Picus Mirandula, J. Scaliger, C. Agrippa, Mr. Freke, and many Philoſophers, who were Famous Aſtrologers, call it Fallacious, Fabulous, Ridiculous, and Vain; and its Profeſſors Cheats, Impious, Factious, and Dangerous in a Commonwealth; Beſide, Multitudes of the moſt Famous Men of all Learned Profeſſions, who have decryed it as a Deluſion, and expoſed the Vanity, Falſity, and Wickedneſs of ſuch as pretend to Prognoſticate by it.

Among the Fathers not one of them was for it, but Origen. Tertullian ſaid that it was invented by the Devil, and he baniſh'd Heaven for it. St. Ambroſe calls it wicked, and vain. St. Baſil, St. Jerom, and Epiphanius call it fooliſh Madneſs, invented by Satan. So doth St. Cyprian, St. Chryſoſtom, Euſebius, Lactantius, St. Gregory; and almoſt all the Fathers wrote againſt it. Aquinas calls it a Deviliſh Art. Luther, Junius, Melancton, P. Martyr, Gualterus, Willit, Cauſin, B. Charlton, M. Chambers, Mr. Purchas, Biſhop Taylor, Stillingfleet, Dr. More, Mr. Giree, Rowland, Gattaker, Gale, Crow, have all exploded it, as contrary to Truth, Religion, and the Commonwealth.

15. Being invented by the Devil, and practiſed by his Diſciples, in oppoſition to Religion, and Godlineſs, it diſpoſeth the Minds of Men to Idolatry, and Atheiſm; attributing to the Creature, the Power of the Creator; or believing them really Gods, as the Heathens did. It takes off our dependance on God; renders Prayer uſeleſs; deſtroyeth Free Will; makes us of free Agents, paſſive Patients.

Tertullian ſaith more than once, that it came from Heaven, but was brought from thence by the Fallen Angels; and we all know what the greateſt Aſſertors of it in former Ages were: Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Nero, Julian, Manaſſes, Maximinus the Tyrant, Jannes, and Jambres, Elymas the Sorcerer, Albumazer, Caracalla, Menander, Saturninus, Hildebrand, Carpocrates, Priſcillianus, Porphyry, &c. who were all of them Diſciples of Hell, and Lovers of Aſtrology. It muſt needs be ſo; Vaninus, the great Advocate for Aſtrology, died a profeſs'd Atheiſt. Vide Parker, Tent. de deo Diſp. 1. Sect. 26. for the Devil is the Guardian Angel of their Art; and I'll tell you how they came by him. In the Pontificate of ſome ſuch Holy Father as Gregory 7. a Lover of this Black Art, one of the Tribe craved of his Holineſs a Protector or Patron Saint for Aſtrologers, like as other Arts had. The Good Pontiff willing to oblige a Faculty he loved well, gave him the Choice of all in St. Peters. The humble Servant of Ʋrania, depending upon the Direction of good Stars to a good Angel, went to the Choice hoodwinkt; and groping among the Images, the firſt he laid hand on, was that of the Devil in Combat with St. Michael. Had he choſen with open Eyes he could not have met a ſitter Protector for ſo Diabolical an Art.

It's aſſerted by Mr. Calvin, that it leads Chriſtians to Idolatry,On Iſaiah 47. and Jerem. 10. by attributing Divine Power to Planets, making them not only the occaſion of Good, and Evil in general, but extenuates, and ſubjects the Power of Religion, Miracles, Efficacy of Prayer, all Piety, and the ſtate of future Life, to depend on the Stars.

Venus, they ſay, gives the Felicities of this Life, and Jupiter, of that to come: for when he reigns, the Native ſhall be eternally happy. When Saturn is placed in Leo, Lex Judaica eſt à Saturno; Chriſtiana à Jove & Mercurio; Mahometica à Sole & Marte, & Idololatria, à Luna & Marte. Card. the Body ſhall live long, and the Soul for ever. He that prayeth to God when the Moon with the Head of the Dragon is joyned to Jupiter, ſhall obtain whatever he asketh. He that's placed under Mars in the ninth Houſe, &c. ſhall be able to caſt out Devils. A Prophet muſt be born, if in Gemini, &c. In ſhort, The Gift of Prophecy, Power of Religion, Secrets of Conſcience, Command over Devils, Vertue of Miracles, Efficacy of Prayer, Future State, &c. are all made by theſe Men to depend on the Stars; Vouchſafed by them, and to be known from them. The Flood, Moſes's Law, Chriſt's Birth and Death are ſaid to be the Effects of their Influences, by thoſe Blaſphemous Aſtrologers, ſaith that Great Proteſtant Father. Theſe, and ſuch horrible Opinions do they hold, who pretend to Chriſtianity: But how unworthy of that Name, let all ſober Men of that Religion judge.

Some of them have been ſo daringly Blaſphemous, as to write, That Chriſt was famous for ſo many Miracles, Dr. More's Myſt. Godlyneſs, p. 337. becauſe He was born while Saturn and Gemini, &c. That He Diſputed with the Doctors ſo Young, becauſe Jupiter, &c. His many Travels, often Weeping, never Laughing, the prevalency of his Goſpel, are all attributed to the Poſition of the Planets at his Birth,Dr. More. againſt J. B. p 158 Notes c. 34. p. 148. Myſt Godlyneſs p. 338. Page 49. by ſuch pretended Chriſtian Aſtrologers, as Maternus, Cardan, R. Bacon, A. Villa Nova, Vaninus, Card. Alliacenſis, Priſcillianus, and many others. But Mr. Gregory and Dr. More ſhow, that they cannot agree in what Sign he was born: It's true, that an extraordinary Star led the Magi to the place where he lay; and our Star-gazers don't ſpare to tell us of it; and endeavour to perſuade us, that thoſe Wiſe Men were Aſtrologers: But that's confuted over, and over, by Mr. Gregory, who hath publiſhed a Scheme of that Great Nativity.

But beſides thoſe Powers which they ſo Blaſphemouſly attribute to the Stars, over the Actions, and Paſſion of Chriſt himſelf, they ruin the true Notion of God's Providence, wholly deſtroy Free Will, in the moſt minute things; and leave us not ſo much liberty of Choice, as the moſt rigid Predeſtinators have done; but ſix us under ſuch a fatal Neceſſity, as the Hobbiſts and Atheiſts do.

Sir Chr. Heyden, the Great Advocate of Aſtrology, affirms, That the Efficacy of the Stars cannot be fruſtrate without a Miracle: Row and againſt W. R. p. 136. Where is then the Providence of God, and Free Will? To what end is Prayer, and ſecond means, if there be ſuch an abſolute Deſtiny, and irreſiſtible Influence? We are not free Agents, but, like Bartholomew Puppits, act and ſpeak as Jupiter, or Mars pleaſe to conſtrain us:De Civit. De • lib. 5. Or (as the Aſtrologer ſpoken of by St. Auguſtin) It's not we that Luſted, but Venus: Not we that Slew, but Mars: Not we that Stole, but Mercury: Not God that helpt, but Jupiter: And ſo Free-born Man is made a Star-born Slave.

In excuſe of theſe Conſequences, the Aſtrologers, when put to it, are ſometimes ſo ſenſeleſs, J. B. againſt Dr. More, p. 93. More's Reply, p. 122, 123. as to confound Fortune, which is Chance; and Fate, which is determined, and inevitable. And to help their Cauſe from thoſe preſſing Difficulties, which incumber it, with worſe: For to avoid the foreſaid Imputations, they deny the Stars Neceſſitate, and allow them only to Diſpoſe. They Incline, but do not Force: Therefore Wiſe Men rule the Stars.Sapiens dominabitur Aſtris. But what is Aſtrology, if that be true? How can he Predict that, which every Wiſe Man may defeat, and none but Fools are ſure to verifie? Can he tell what will come to paſs, if every Wiſe Man hath Power to fruſtrate the Prediction?

Beſide all this miſchief Aſtrology doth to Religion and Chriſtianity, it's an Art not only near of Kin to Witchcraft, Auguſt. Civit. Dei lib. 5. c. 7. Dr. More ubi ſup. p 358. Vind. againſt Chambers cap. 19. and Magick, but leads Men into it, as divers, who have eſcaped the Snare, acknowledge. Sir Ch. Heyden (their Zealous Advocate) confeſſeth that Necromancy is often palliated under the pretence of Aſtrology. And Mr. Butler the Aſtrologer, in the Preface to his Hagiaſtrologia, page 24. confeſſeth, That without the Heavenly and Supernatural Wiſdom, Aſtrological Skill would become rank Poyſon to the Aſtrologer, as being ſuch a thing as would lead him to the Devil, ſooner than to God; and draw him into Sorcery, and other evil Arts, whereby they would be entangled with Diabolical Familiarities ere they are aware, even as are Witches and Conjurers. See more the like in the Book it ſelf, p. 35. and 38.

When Men become greedy of knowing things before hand, they bind themſelves Apprentices to the Devil's Black Art: For he, who is never wanting to gratifie wicked deſires, helps them to foreſee by a worſe Art than Aſtrology, though that be bad enough, what they deſire to know. Thus Julian, Hildebrand, and many more, proceeded from Aſtrology to Necromancy, and ſuch abominable Diabolical Practices, as would make a Man tremble to read. After the death of the Apoſtate, there were found in Antioch ſundry Heads, and Carcaſſes of Men, Women, and Children, barbarouſly ſlain for Divination, and Sacrificed to the informing Daemon. In one Temple he acted ſuch execrable things, as he ſtrove to conceal, forbiding any one to open it beſide himſelf: But after his death, they found among many other cruel Effects of his helliſh Curioſity, a Woman hanging by the Hair of her Head, her Hands cut off, her Belly ript up, &c. to vaticinate his Perſian Victory. This not only ſhows the danger of thoſe unreaſonable Deſires, which put Men on uſe of Aſtrology; but the defect of it: For if the Stars could foretel Men things to come, they would not go to the Devil for more Skill.

Now this Art being of ſo Deviliſh an Original, ſo hurtful to Religion, Providence, Dependance on God, and all Chriſtian Duties; leading Men to Atheiſm, Idolatry, Blaſphemy, Witchcraft, Magick, Murther, and cruel Butchery; Picus Mir. p. 434. Againſt Dr Humes. cap. 31. how great is the Impudence of thoſe Men, who publickly call it an Art uſeful to Religion? As R. Bacon, Cardinal Alliacenſis, and others have done. A Divine Study, as Ramſey calls it; the only Way, and Path that leads to God, as others ſay; an Art near of Kin to Divinity, asPreface to Sir G. W. Works, and in his Excellency of Aſtrology, p. 15. J. Butler againſt Dr. More. J. Gadbury hath the confidence more than once to affirm; and a moſt Sacred and Divine Study, as one who calls himſelf a Miniſter of the Goſpel ſaith; when nothing is more deſtructive thereof, and different from it, leſs like it, leſs a Friend, or of leſs Affinity to it than that? To falſe Prophets, and lying Spirits, the Relation and Reſemblance of thoſe Deluders cannot be deny'd; we ſaw them but the other day in theſe miſerable Nations: James Naylor, O. Sedgewick, Mary Cary, Hannab Tapnel, and other Enthuſiaſtick, Hyſterical Millennaries, who Propheſy'd, as Lilly and Culpeper Prognoſticated; as Goodwin, Bond, and H. Peters Preacht, or Scribled; and all as far from Truth, as the Infernal Author of the Black Art is from an Angel of Light.

16. They have the boldneſs to affirm, that their Art is of ſuch abſolute neceſſity in curing Diſeaſes, that not a Plant can be gathered; a Medicine compounded, or adminiſtred; an Operation made, or a Judgment given without it. But this pretence is alſo vain, like all the reſt, being an old Maggot, bred in ſome ancient Phyſicians Brains, and would have long ſince died, if it had not been nouriſh'd by a few Modern Lunaticks — A Purge, ſay they, is not to be given while the Moon is in Aries, or Taurus, becauſe they being Signs of ſuch Creatures as chew the Cudd, the Patient will therefore Nauſeate, and Vomit it up again. Such ſottiſh, and ridiculous Reaſons do they give for the uſe of Aſtrology in the Art of Healing.

But all the moſt Famous, and Learned Phyſicians of later Ages, from ſounder Principles of Philoſophy, underſtand better; and either explode this vain Art, and reject it, or take no notice of it in their approved Writings, nor in their Practice.

Vanit. cap. 30, 31. Cornelius Agrippa was a Phyſician, and had been an Aſtrologer: He tells us, it's ſo far from being uſeful in Phyſick, that it renders uſeleſs all the endeavours of the Phyſician, and excuſeth the miſchievous doings of Quacks, and Empiricks, which probably is the chief Reaſon why it's ſo much in eſteem among them. It depriveth an able Doctor of the Credit due to his ſucceſsful Skill, by attributing the fate of the Sick, &c. to Coeleſtial Influences. In ſhort, he calls it a ridiculous, and groundleſs figment: And its Profeſſors Cheats, Knaves, Fools, Rebels, Doctors of Falſhood, Lying, &c.

G. Falloſius, Eraſtus, Lemnius, Geſner, Ficinius, Valleriolus, Fuchſius, Monardus, Fr. Valeſius, R. à Caſtro. Helmont, Diemerbroek, Dr. Brown, Witty, Sydenham, Trew, have written againſt it Some of them ſay, That neither Men nor Devils can foretel any thing by the Stars. All of them decry its uſe in Phyſick. And Sidrophel himſelf (pardon me for naming him among ſuch Worthies) in the Preface to his Tranſlation of Dolaeus's Syſtem, not only leaves it out from among the needful Qualifications of a Phyſician, but hath lately put a French Author of the Pox into Engliſh, Page 123. Probl. 8. who explodes, and ridicules it as much as any Man.

In Practice, the moſt Eminent for Skill, buſineſs and ſucceſs, ſlight and diſregard it. And they who have obſerved its Rules, have been convinced by Experience that it ſignifieth nothing. We find no notice of it in the Methods of Sennertus, Riverius, Willis, Sydenham, or the moſt Celebrated Practicers now alive. And were there nothing to ſhow it a Nullity in the Art of Curing; the Infamy, Poverty, unſucceſsful attempts of ſuch as pretend to act by it, is demonſtration enough.

17. Aſtrology, and Prognoſticating by the Stars, is condemned in Scripture, and forbidden by the Mouth of God. See Deuteron. XVIII. 10, 14, 15. &c. Iſaiah XLIV. 25. XLVII. 13, 14. Jeremiah X. 2. Acts XIX. 19. Add to them Pſalm CXXXIV. Iſaiah XLI. 23. Eccleſiaſtes VIII. 7. X. 14. 1. Corinth. II. 11. and conſider the II. IV. and V. Chapters of Daniel, how the King of Babylon relying on theſe cheating Aſtrologers, had been deluded by them, and upbraids their Ignorance and Frauds.

Sir Chr. Heyden, Ramſey, and others endeavour to elude the force of theſe Scriptures; but beſide current Commentators, Dr. Holmes, Mr. Rowland, Mr. Gattaker, and many particular Divines, have proved them fully to the purpoſe.

18. Beſides the Holy Oracles of God, the Venerable Writings of the Fathers, and the Learned Arguments of Phyſicians againſt Aſtrology; the moſt Eminent Politicians, Stateſmen, Hiſtorians, Lawyers, and Philoſophers have writ of it with great Contempt and Deteſtation: Tacitus in his Annals and Hiſtory, often ſpeaks of the Miſchiefs they did; and for which they were ſeveral times baniſhed Italy, and Rome. They are, ſaith he, a ſort of Men falſe to Government, and all that truſt them. Seneca derides them, Plutarch cenſures them, Cicero wrote largely againſt them. Alſo Pliny in many places relates the Treachery of their Practices, and falſity of their Art. Nat. Hiſt. lib. 7. c. 49. lib. 18. c. 23. lib 30. c. 1, 2. Picus Lord of Mirandula, a Man of high Birth, and great Learning, whom Scaliger call'd the Monſter of his Age; and Naudaeus the Phoenix of all great Wits, wrote 200 Years ſince 12 ſuch Invincible Books againſt Aſtrology, as not only purchaſed him the Name of Flagellum Aſtrologorum, but ſo muzled them all, that not one hath appeared able to Anſwer him.

He proves Aſtrology to be an Art invented by the Devil, aboliſheth all Religion, Philoſophy, Phyſick, Law, &c. of great miſchief to Mankind, deſtroys the uſe of Faith, leſſens the Reverence of Miracles, deſtroyes Divine Providence, Patronizeth Sin, excuſeth Vice as coming from Heaven, defiles and ſubverts all good Arts; tranſlating the cauſes of things from Reaſon, to Fables; abrogating all Rules of Human Providence, &c.

Page 183.Sir Tho. More makes his Eutopians deſpiſe and laugh at them. R. à Caſtro tells us he was the Author of that Lampoon againſt them, Aſtratibi AEthereo pandunt, &c. C. Agrippa treats them with great Scorn and Deriſion, and expoſeth their Art as a Deluſion, and great Cheat. My Lord Bacon, Chancellour of England, not inferior to the beſt of theſe for Learning, ſaith, That Aſtrology hath no grounds, Inſlaur. Mag. lib. 3. c. 4. page 3. and Eſſay. 35.; Eſſay l. 1. c. 4. nor ſoundneſs, and ſuch as Practiſe it, no Honeſty, or Senſe. Their Perſons are deſpicable (ſaith he) but their Practices dangerous. They are Impoſtors, who have done great Miſchief; and therefore ſo many Laws have been made to ſuppreſs them. M. Montaigne, that Noble French Author, tells us, The Art ought to be abhorred by all good Chriſtians, having done much Miſchief, though in it ſelf as inſignificant as a Dream.

The Learned K. James ſaith,Daemonolog. l. 1. c. 5. Verit. Relig. l. 4. Judicial Aſtrology is learnt in the Devil's School. An Art not lawful to Practiſe or be truſted in by Chriſtians, having no ground of Natural Reaſon.

Both the Scaligers (Prodigies of Learning) writ againſt it. The Father againſt Cardan, and the Son calls it a Practice without Foundation, contrary to Religion, and Philoſophy, &c. Praef. Molin. Argenis l. 2. So ſaith the Famous J. Barclay.

H. Grotius (whoſe greateſt Enemies Mr. Baxter, and Dr. Owen) allowed to be Wiſe above the pitch of Human Nature, and incomparable in all Human Learning, derides Aſtrology as an Art without agreeing Rules, having nothing in it certain, but uncertainty.

Ludovicus Vives on St. Auguſt. Civit. Dei, our Learned Savil in his Notes on Tacitus, and others call it, an Art that teacheth Knaves to cheat Honeſt Men. And J. Milton in his Figure-Caſter Ridicules it with much Wit, and Confutes it with no leſs Reaſon. Aſtrology, ſaith he, is an Art that teacheth Aſtrologers to Lye as often as they ſpeak. Our Ingenious, Learned Feliham wonders Aſtrologers can for bear laughing when they meet, Reſo • ve 96. to think how they gull the People with ſuch a Fallacy, and Deluſion as is impoſſible to be true. And Mr. Freke the Aſtrologer, calls it Madneſs, Folly, Deluſion, an Irrational, groundleſs Impoſture, impoſſible to be true. Eſſay p. • 3. &c. And by Experience found to be the Devil's Lure, to draw Men into Neoromancy. What ſhall I ſay more! The Noble Picus in his two firſt Books againſt them, hath ſhown at large how much the Learned Writers to his time decryed and wrote againſt this Wicked, Senſeleſs Art. And I have proved that the moſt Eminent Authors ſince, of all ſorts, have done the ſame, and hiſs'd it off the Stage; to whom may be added Des Cartes, Rohault, and all the new French Philoſophers, beſide our Learned Athenians. I might teaze them with Lucian Juvenal, Quevedo, Hudebraſs, Poor Robin, Mr. Wilſon's Witty Play called the Cheats, and others, who with ſharp Wit and keen Satyr, expoſe them in their true Shapes and Colours. ( • ee Sir Roger L'Strange's Fables, and the Turkiſh Spye.) But I muſt haſten the Matter off my Hands, and will ſhut up my Evidence againſt them with one of their own Advocates, Ramſey, who was, like Sidrophel, a buſy Scribler, an Empty Phyſician, and an Ignorant Star-Cazer. This Man tells the King, That the Common Practicers of Aſtrology deceived his People of their Money, Lives, and Loyalty, and that London abounded with ſuch Ideots, Cheats, and Illiterate Impoſtors, as himſelf was, and Sidrophel continueth to be.

There is much more to be ſaid againſt this vain Art, to prove it falſe and built on nothing: As the want of knowing the exact Longitude of the Place, which is both neceſſary and impoſis;ible: So is the moment of the Geneſis, Queſtion, or Action to be judged of, and conſequently leave their Erections to meer Chance; and then it's 10000 to one, as Dr. More ſaith, but that it prove falſe. Gaſſendus affirms, That if there be any thing to be judged by Aſtrology, the Artiſt muſt know the preciſe moment of the Sun's being in a Cardinal Sign; Tom. 1. p. 728. Yet ſure I am, ſaith he, that there are no Tables, or Ephemerides extant that can teach the Time by ſix hours. Thoſe of Tycho come neareſt Truth, and yet are wide from it.

My laſt Argument againſt Aſtrologers, and their pretended Art is, That in all Ages, and moſt Governments, they have been pernicious to the Commonwealth, and Enemies to the Publick Peace. And for that Reaſon ſo many Laws have been made againſt them, not only abroad, as Hiſtorians tell us, but in our own Nation, Hen. 8.14 33.5 Eliz. 15.23. Eliz. 2.3.4. Edw. 6.15. as may be ſeen in the Statute Book, Beſide their Frauds, and Cozening Practices (ſaith Aggrippa, Montaigne, and Bacon) on the Common People, they are Authors of much miſchief to the State, drawing Credulous People to their ruin, and cauſing among Nations moſt cruel Wars and Sedition: No ſort of Men being more pernicious to a Commonwealth, than thoſe who undertake to Prognoſticate by the Stars, or any other way of Divination, and ſcatter their Prophecies about.

I urge this laſt of all, becauſe it's ſo pat to the great Objection I have againſt Sidrophel. For he ſeems to verify this Cenſure, and to be deſigning by his falſe Art, to ſubvert the preſent Frame of our Engliſh Government in Church and State, by making the People believe Heaven hath decreed it ſhall be changed into that of a Neighbouring Country.

That ſuch effects have been the conſequents of ſuch Fanatick Enthuſiaſtick Dreams, I will prove by a few, out of many, Inſtances.

Socrat. lib. 7. Sozom. lib. 8. Niceph. lib. 13. Iſdegerdes the Perſian King was ſo diſturbed by the Contrivances of Aſtrologers, that he decimated them. Valerius Maximinus being overthrown by Licinius, contrary to the Predictions of the Star-Diviners, who had betrayed him with falſe aſſurances of Succeſs, He put them all to death. Thus they deluded Pompey, Caeſar, and Craſſus.

Thucydides Plutarc • . Nicias the Athenian, was perſuaded by them to keep his Fleet in the Haven; the ſame Night the Syracuſians ſurprized them all. Plutarch, Tacitus, Suetonius, &c. ſay that Otho was induced to the Murther of Galba by the Aſtrologers, Magoma ••• . 346. who told him he was to ſucceed him in the Imperial Throne. And by the ſame way Stephanus was prompted to Aſſaſſinate Domitian. Cambyſis was Murthered by two Aſtrologers. Plutarch. Alcibiades, to obtain his Ambitious aim, ſuborned them to encourage the Athenians to a fatal War with Sicily. Many Aſtrologers combined to dethrone Valens, and ſet up Theodorus a Pagan, Wieri praeſtig, c. 10. p. 2 • . by pretending they found his Name prenoted by the Stars; but the Emperor not only ſlew thoſe Trayterous Diviners, but, as the Hiſtorians ſay, all thoſe whoſe Names began with Theod. that he might be ſure to baffle their Prediction. By ſuch Men, and encouragement from the Stars, it was that Valentinian the Younger was murthered. Libo Denſius, encouraged by Firmius Catus, to make Inſurrection againſt Tiberius, in confidence of ſucceſs by Aſtrological Prediction, was defeated, and then ſlew himſelf; and ſuch was the Foundation of Catiline's Conſpiracy.

The Story of Caracalla is very famous. He, while in Meſopotamia, being Jealous of a Plot againſt him, ſent to the Roman Aſtrologers to be informed. They accuſed Macrinus, his faithful Praefect, of a Conſpiracy, which nothing but his Death could fruſtrate. This Anſwer coming while the Emperor was intent on ſome ſport, 〈◊〉 gave it Macrinus to read; and he finding his innocent Life in danger, by this trick of the Aſtrologers, ſecured it by the murther of Caracalla, of which he had not thought before.

Such Diviners had aſſured the Wife of Pheroras, that the Line of Herod would extinguiſh, Joſeph. Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 3. and her Husband ſucceed to the Crown. They, to aſſiſt their Stars, and work out their own good Fortune, conſpired againſt the King's Life, and loſt all their own by the ſtroke of Juſtice.

Mahomet the III. had a Rebellion raiſed againſt him by the Aſtrologers, Purchas Pilgr. p. 276. Predicting that his Son ſhould overcome and ſucceed him: But all proved falſe, and the Son, Aſtrologers, and Rebels were ſlain.

The D. of Viſco was by the Aſtrologers aſſured of his having the Crown of Portugal after the Death of Don Juan el Grandes: But impatient of gaining it, he Rebelled againſt him a firſt time, and was both Defeated, and Pardoned. Upon a ſecond Attempt, he fell by the Hand he would have untimely ruined. Eſſay 11. lib. 1, M. Montaigne tells us, that the Marqueſs of Saluza, the French General in Piedmont, in the Days of Francis the Firſt, having all imaginable Advantage againſt the Enemy, was, notwithſtanding ſo terrified by the Aſtrologers, who had Predicted the Succeſs of Charles the Fifth, and the Ruin of France, that he baſely Revolted, to his own perpetual Infamy and Ruin.

We will leave Foreign Inſtances of the miſchief done by Aſtrologers to Princes, and Kingdoms; and now take a view of what hath been wrought by them in our own Country, ſo long famous for giving Credit to ſuch Heatheniſh falſe Prophets, as will appear by the following Hiſtory.

The Scots have been often thus betrayed into Rebellion, Speed p. 672. and the Murther of Kings. The Earl of Athol was prompted to Conſpire againſt James I. by their aſſuring him, that he ſhould be Crowned in that Kingdom: and true it was, for the King underſtanding what inſtigated him to Rebel, he cauſed a Crown of red hot Iron to be put on his Head, by which, and ſome other Tortures, he ended his wretched Life.

Fuller's Worthies of Wales, p. 19.The Welch have a Saying publiſhed by one of them, that beſide God, there is no Diviner; and yet ſo far purſued their hard Fate, that by the Inſtigations of thoſe Aſtrological Boutefeaus, who had poſſeſs'd Prince Leolin, that He ſhould wear the Crown of Brutus; he firſt refuſed to attend the Coronation of Edward I. then Rebell'd againſt him, and Invaded England, but was Vanquiſh'd and Slain, His whole Family extirpated, His Title annexed to the Crown of England, and the Welch ſubjected to its Laws ever ſince.

Afterward in the Days of Henry IV. Owen Glyn Dower Dwy became inveigled by a Prophecy of Merlin's,Dr. Powel's Hiſt. p. 386. (whoſe Name Lilly and Partridge affect) that the time was come, wherein the Britains, by his Aſſiſtance, ſhould recover their Ancient Freedom and Liberty; Rebelled, made War, and were overthrown, and curbed by ſuch Laws, as Dr. Fuller compares to thoſe of Draco, written in Blood.

In our part of this Iſle, we find Peter Pomfret attempted to raiſe a Commotion againſt King John, by buzzing into the Peoples Ears certain Prophecies from the Stars: And in the Reign of Edward VI. by the ſame Device, Fox's Acts and Monuments in • d. 6. the People were made believe, That there ſhould no more Kings Reign in England; That all the Nobility ſhould be deſtroyed, and the Government fall into the Hands of four Commoners. A Prophecy much like that of Sidrophel's, but expreſs'd in plainer Engliſh: Upon which they Rebelled in Devonſhire, Oxford, Buckingham, Norfolk, and York, to the great hazard of the unſettled Kingdom and Proteſtant Religion, then as young and weak as the Prince, who was Head of both.

In the Reign of his Famous Siſter, and Succeſſor,Sir W▪ Churchill's Div. Brit. p. 313. Q. Elizabeth, they played the ſame Part with her; for the Papiſts, deluded by Aſtrological Predictions of her ſhort Reign, were eaſily drawn into many deſperate Conſpiracies againſt Her, to the great Peril of that Renowned Life and Government.

How acceſſary they were to that grand Rebellion againſt Charles the Martyr, to the great Detriment and eternal Scandal of the Proteſtant Religion, as the Statue 12 Car. 2.30. moſt ſenſibly expreſſeth it, appeared by the Almanacks and other Fire-brand Libels, publiſhed and ſcattered about the Nation, by thoſe two great Incendiaries, Lilly and Culpeper.

After the Reſtauration of his Son, they continued to Plot againſt the Government upon the ſame bottom: For if we may believe the Narratives of Dugdale and Smith, Page 26. the Aſtrologers having told the Jeſuits that King Charles would outlive his Brother, they reſolved to croſs the Stars, and cut him off, that the Duke might Succeed to effect their long projected Deſign, of introducing Popery; and hence ſprang that Plot, which cauſed ſo much noiſe and fear to this divided Kingdom.

The Hiſtory of the late unhappy Duke of Monmouth, ſhews how much he was ſeduced by this wicked Art, and inſtigated to that Rebellion which ruined him, and endangered the wellfare of us all.

How much the like Deſign hath been agitated ſince by the like Men, I have ſufficiently ſhown.Tacit Ann. 12. lib. 2. Dion. in vit. Dom. Ʋlpian de Offic. Proc. lib. 7. Sueton, lib. 9. C. Agrip. van. c. 31. Dr. Cave Eccl. Introd. p. 22. Indeed in all Ages and moſt Nations they have been ſo pernicious to the common Wellfare, that as I have proved, they were often driven out of Rome and Italy, in the times of Tiberius, Vitellius, Conſtantine, Gratian, Theodoſius, &c. Juſtinian (as appears in his Code) made it a Crime Capital to Practiſe it. And Conſtantius (another Chriſtian Emperor of great Fame) as ſoon as He came to the Throne, made it loſs of Life to Conſult Aſtrologers.

By our own Laws it hath been Fellony to Practiſe that Helliſh Art: And it's ſtill puniſhable by Fine, and Impriſonment. See 33 Hen. VIII. c. 8.14. &c. 5 Eliz. 15. And indeed conſidering the fatal Experience we have had of thoſe vile Men, and their wicked Practices, the Tools they have been to the Factions, their notorious Cheats, how they have been forbidden by God himſelf, and exploded by Men of all Ages, Nations, and Faculties, it's a wonder they are permitted to live among us.

To conclude: If Aſtrologers err in their Fundamentals, and are miſtaken in the firſt Elements of their Art: If the late diſcovery in Aſtronomy have given the Heavens a new Face, hid to the Inventors of Aſtrology, and to all before this Age: If they differ among themſelves, have no Accord; but contradict and Prognoſticate contrary to one another, and to Truth: If the Preſages of the moſt Famous among them, commonly▪ prove falſe, and contrary to Event: If they are ignorant of the moſt remarkable Occurrences in the World before they happen; and of their own Fates, till they come to paſs: If Men of one Geneſis and Commencement, have various Fortunes, and multitudes of different Horoſcopes, one punctual Period: If the recurrence of Conſtellations do not again produce the ſame Men or Effects: If Cuſtoms and Circumſtances of whole Regions, continue unvaried under daily Changes in the Heavens: If multitudes of Men, learned even in Aſtrology, exclaim againſt it, as vain and wicked; and affront the Stars in ſpight of their Power; or rather in conformity to their Influence: If it be an Enemy to Providence and Free Will: If it advance Principles deſtructive of Religion, and promoting Idolatry, deſtroy Philoſophy, and the force of natural Remedies: If Aſtrologers and their Art be no leſs pernicious to the Publick Welfare, are the Authors of Hereſie, and Rebellion, and as ſuch have been not only proſcrib'd by the wiſeſt Governments, but forbidden by Scripture, exploded by Fathers, eminent Divines, States-men, Politicians, Philoſophers, and the moſt learned Wiſe Men which have been in the World; and by them all accounted a Cheat, and dangerous Impoſtors, we have cauſe enough to renounce it.

I thought to have ended with this Summary,See Diemerbroek de pect. cap. 8. but remembring that among the many trifling Arguments urged in behalf of Aſtrology, and to prove the Influence of Heavenly, on Sublunary Bodies, they urge one which they call manifeſt, and demonſtrative, viz. the Power of the Moon on the Sea, cauſing the Flux and Reflux thereof by its preſſure, Tr. Phyſ. page 4. as M. Rohault expreſſeth it. I will ſhew this infallible Argument to be a Vulgar Error, and that the Moon hath no more force to move the Waters, than the Waters have to move the Moon, or make it into a green Cheeſe; but that both are independant from each other. Their Motions indeed are concurrent in ſome few places of the World: But without relation, as Cauſe to Effect; or any Influence,See Mr. Philips's Letter to Dr. Wallis, P • il. Tr. 34. or Operation at all one on the other.

1. This ſeems manifeſt by all Tide Tables publiſhed Yearly by thoſe Almanack-Makers themſelves: For they tell you, That different degrees of Tides happen in places of this Nation, and parts adjacent at the ſame time: Now if the Moon move the Water, let them tell us how a Full Moon makes high Water at one place, and half Tide at another, not far diſtant. If the Moon move the Water, ſurely it would make the Tides alike, or near ſo, at all places, eſpecially neighbouring ones, when it's in the ſame Age and Station: But the contrary is told us by themſelves: And there are others aſſure us, that in ſome places of the World, the higheſt Tides are at the Quadratures of the Moon, when it's loweſt with us.

2. If the Moon cauſe the ebbing and flowing, how comes the Sea to keep ſo regular and exact to the Laws of its Motion, when the Moon is in the other Hemiſphere, as when in this? To think that the Moon, which they ſay is cold, can operate through ſo remote, opaque, and bulky a Body as the Earth,Dr. More ubi ſupra, p. 339. 340, 345, 349, 353, &c. when we are ſenſible that ſo piercing, and hot a Planet, as the Sun, cannot do it, ſeems the Opinion of a Lunatick, or an Aſtrologer, rather than a Philoſopher, or Man of Sence.

3. If the Moon, &c. How is it that the Spring-Tides happen, as at Plimouth, two days after the New Moon, and as many after the Full? The Refraction of the Sun's Rays, which is ſuppoſed, cannot be the Cauſe; nor is it conſiſtent with any other of the many Hypotheſis by which the Phaenomena have been formerly ſolved.

4. If the Moon be the Cauſe, &c. How comes it, that there are not Tides (at leaſt regular ones) all the World over? For ſince the Cauſe is univerſal, one would expect the Effect ſhould be ſo too. But that failing gives us cauſe to ſuſpect we are miſtaken in imputing it to the Moon.

In the Mediterranean, and thoſe Parts of America of our own Latitude, where the Moon encreaſeth, and wanes, riſeth, ſhines, and ſets exactly as with us, there is no regular motion of the Sea. What little ebbing and flowing there is, is moſt manifeſtly occaſioned by Winds, and Land-floods. So in Denmark and the Soundt, there are no Tides, Molſworth's Account. p. 14. but a ſmall Current of the Waters made by the Winds blowing in or out, as we are told by an obſerving Man, lately Reſident at Copenhagen. At the Capeverd Iſlands, W. India Seas, and many other Places of the World, where Cynthia is as powerful as here,P. 148. E • . ult. ſhe hath no ſuch Operation, or Influence at all: Nor is there any diſcernible change in the Sea, Wind, or Weather. The Caſpian Sea, which is an hundred and twenty German Leagues long, and ninety broad, is ſalt as the Ocean, and hath multitudes of Rivers falling into it, but neither Ebbs nor Flows, as the Holſtein Ambaſſadors obſerved in their Travels, p. 148.

5. If the Moon, &c. Whence is it that in ſo many Places of the World, the Current of the Sea runs always one way, and that ſo ſwiftly, as is ſcarce credible? From the Gulph of Florida, to the Latitude of forty degrees, it runs North-Eaſt many hundred of Leagues. In the Streights of Gibralter, it runs alway ſo ſtrongly Eaſtward, as to force a Ship in againſt a fierce Levant-wind. In the Fr • tum Magellanicum, its force is ſuch, that no wind is ſtrong enough to carry a Ship againſt it.

6. If the Moon, Heylin. Coſ. lib. 2. p. 615. &c. How is it that ſome very fierce ones are ſo irregular, variable, and uncertain? Like that of Euripus, which it's ſaid ſo puzled Ariſtotle to comprehend, that He threw himſelf into it.Journal into Greece, p. 458. Si quidem ego non capio te, tu capias me.

Sir George Wheeler tells us, that its prodigious ebbing and flowing, hath been juſtly admired in all Ages for one of the greateſt Wonders in the World. He, Father Jaques, Paul Babin, and Ignatius Bradi, Phil. Tr. 71. who viſited this wonderful Gulph, ſ • y, that it commonly flows 7, or 9 times in a day; ſome 〈…〉 changeth its courſe 14 times in 24 hours. The 〈…〉 in an hour and half change its Motion 3 times. 〈…〉 of a Month it moves ſo regularly, as to be red 〈…〉 But in the other part of the Month, it's not 〈…〉 , and changeth Motions from 7 to 14 times a day, 〈…〉 all that motion, riſeth not above a Foot, ebbs toward the shore, and flows when its Motion ſeems ebbing towards the Sea.

Theſe are the ſtrange, and ſurpriſing Appearances in this miraculous Gulph of Negropont, Pſeudod. Ep. lib. 7. c. 14. which Sir Tho. Bro •• , to ſave Ariſtotle's Credit, endeavours to diminiſh: But my Authors who examined things on the Spot, relate with great ſurprize the amazing Phaenomena they ſaw there. And if there were nothing prodigious in it, it's notwithſtanding ſufficient to my purpoſe, to prove that ſome Motions of the Sea are Anomalous, and therefore not governed by ſuch a regular Cauſe, or Guide, as the Moon is; ſhe is conſtant to her Motions, the Sea is not, but in the compaſs of one Year, is in one, or other of its different Circumſtances, at every hour of the Moon's Age. Be ſhe full, or new, increaſing or waning, the Sea of Euripus obſerves her not; but be full, or low, on this, or the contrary Motion, when the Moon is in every, or any of her Figures.

7. If the Moon, &c. how is it, that in contrary Poſitions the ſame Effect is produced, as in Plimouth, a N. N. E. and W. S. W. Moon, make High-Water, and Spring-Tide alike, when at each time ſcarce above the Horizon?

8. If the Moon be the Cauſe of the Seas Flux and Reflux, by its Preſſure, Reflection, or Refraction; How is it poſſible that the Motion of the Sea ſhall run counter to that of the Moon? As it is on the Coaſt of Devon, and Cornwal; the ſtrongeſt Flood runs oppoſite to, and againſt the Face of the Moon.

How abſurd is it to affirm, that a bright and dark Moon ſhall have the ſame Effect? That a Body fourteen times leſs than the Earth, and at ſuch a great diſtance from it, ſhall preſs the Ocean to ſuch an aſcent, and while it's in the like Situation, force it to retire; and this Influence to be in ſome Places only of the ſame Latitude, no more liable to it, than thoſe where it begets no ſuch Effect? That it ſhall move the Sea in this Hemiſphere, when it's in the other? That the motion of the Sea in ſome places ſhall be ever one way, in others irregular, in others conſtant to Rules of Flux and Reflux, and in ſome have no motion at all, in ſome move contrary to the motion of the Moon, and in others to all the degrees of Ebbing and Flowing at all times of the Moon's Age? Theſe things plainly ſhow that Planet hath no Operation on that Element; and gives us reaſon to think that in thoſe few parts of the World, where their Motions conform to each other, it's from Concomitancy, Concurrence, or, as Iſaac Voſſius believes, De Mot. Ma • . cap. 16, 18. from an accidental Synchroniſm, without Phyſical dependance; or according to ſome other of thoſe ways, by which Learned Moderns have ſuppoſed it to be done.

Galileo, and after him Gaſſendus, De Aeſtu Mar. aſcribe it to the great Acceleration and Retardation of the Earths Motion, compounded of the Annual and Diurnal, &c.

Dr. More ſaith,notes on Pſychathanaſia p. 391. Dial. Phyſ. p. 406. The Flux and Reflux of the Sea depends on the Motion of the Earth, and attempts to demonſtrate it by divers Schemes of his own, Galileo's, and des Chartes.

The Learned H. Fabri endeavours to ſolve it by the Preſſure of the Atmoſphere, and that the Tides vary according to the inequality, or the different Circles of the Air's Preſſure, and the ſeveral Tracts of thoſe Preſſures, in reſpect of their Situation and Extent.

Our Famous Dr. Wallis ſaith,Phil. Tr. 16.34.64. &c. That the whole difference of Tides, viz. Diurnal, Menſtrual, and Annual, and all the Motions of the Sea which concurr with the Moon, depend on one Common Cauſe, viz. the Common Center of the Earth and Moon's gravity. This he endeavours to explain and prove, and anſwers all the Objections, and difficulties in, and againſt it. But as our Athenians ſay, If that were true, the many great Ponds of Water in England being thinner than the Sea, would have Tides in them.

R. Des Cartes aſcribes it to the greater Preſſure made upon the Air by the Moon, Princip. Phil. Part 4. Myſt. p. 346. Phyſ. Mechan. Exp. p. 65. and the intercurrent Aethereal Subſtances at certain times of the day, and Lunary Month, more than at others: But although Dr. More calls it a plain Solution of the Matter, Mr. Boyle and Sir Chr. Wren ſuppoſe, if that were true, it would have the ſame effect on the Quickſilver in a long Tube.

So that the Cauſe of this Motion ſeems as hidden, as that of the Heart, known only to him who made it. And the Athenians Opinion of it is the trueſt; Mere. Vol. 1.3. Vol. 8. c. 14.20 Vol. 9 c 8. That the Sea moveth not by the Moon, but the neceſſary Law of the Creation, or the firſt eſtabliſhed Order of Nature, no more to be accounted for, than the Motion of the Sun, &c.

And after all, if their Hypotheſis were true, and the Moon did move the Waters, it would not help them to prove the Influence of the Stars on other Earthly Bodies, ſo many times farther from us, more than the Light given by a Candle in my Chamber, would prove that it did Illuminate the whole Hemiſphere.

The only ſenſible Operation any Heavenly Body hath on us, is light and heat, and both from the Sun; and yet we ſee how gloomy and frigid the Air is, when he is removed but ſo far as beyond the Aequator, and how the Life of Vegetables, and ſome Animals ſeem then wholly dampt and extinguiſh'd. How much more would it be ſo, if he were ſo remote as Saturn, and Jupiter? Now if becauſe the Sun and Moon Operate ſenlibly on us, you will inferr, that thoſe remote and undiſcernible Planets and Stars have Influence, of which we are not ſenſible; it is arguing from certainty, in behalf of uncertainty, which is no good Logick.

Another Inſtance which Aſtrologers give to prove the influence of Stars on Sublunary Bodies, Gaſſend. c. 4. is the Dog Star, which they ſay is known to cauſe great heat; but I ſay it's no ſuch matter. It's true, that the time of his appearance happening in the fervour of the Summer Solſtice, in the Days of Ariſtotle (when it was firſt obſerved) gave occaſion to the Miſtake. But as now it appears a Month later than it did then, without any change in the Seaſon; ſo when Ten Thouſand Years hence (if the World laſt ſo long) it will riſe Five Months later, and by the Anticipation of the Equinoxes, his Kennel be as low as Capricorn; it will make no more alteration in it, but become then to us on this ſide the Aequator, what it is now to them ſo far on the other, viz. a Significator of Cold.

Add to this, That if the Canicular Star cauſed the Heat of the Dog-Days, why do we not feel it in February, and in the Night, the Star being then above our Horizon?

All this, and much more which I might urge, proves that the ſuppoſed heat of it comes from the Sun, who having accended the Air in his way to our Tropick, in his return meeting this Star, the Old Aſtronomers falſly attributed that fervour to the Dog-Star, which is wholly owing to the Sun, and would be, if no ſuch Star appeared.

For a third Argument in behalf of Aſtrology, we are ask'd a Queſtion ſit only for the Mouth of thoſe Men. What are the Stars made for, if not for Influence? By which they ſuggeſt that they are made for nothing elſe. But I will Anſwer them with another Queſtion; Is any Man now ſo Ignorant of the Coeleſtial Syſtem, as not to know that thoſe Millions of Stars viſible to us, beſide the many Millions more beyond our Ken, are Suns, Moons, Earths, habitable, and without doubt inhabited Orbs, of vaſter Magnitude than this Earth? Or will any but an Aſtrologer believe, or ſuppoſe thoſe Myriads of vaſt Bodies were created to be the cauſe of Mens Vices, Miſeries, and Ruin; to force, or incline them to all their deteſtible Villainies; to be the Inſtruments of fatal neceſſity, and force poor Mortals to thoſe Actions, they would not otherwiſe be guilty of? Are Aſtrologers themſelves ignorant, that they give Light and Direction in the Night, and in Navigation tell the Mariner his Latitude, when the Sun is obſcured on the Meridian? Are they not reaſonable grounds to admire the Power of the Great Creator, and the Beauty of Heaven? Is not the wonderful Regularity of their amazing Motions a great Conviction of Atheiſm, and a proof of the Deity?

John Gadbury, Almanack 1692. that Stale Bafled Advocate for Aſtrology, hath lately offered ſeveral other Ridiculous Things in defence of it, which the Athenian Philoſophers have ſufficiently Confuted and Expoſed, to which I referr Sidrophel, and without Aſtrology can foretel him, that ſo Ignorant and Unlearned as I am, I have ſaid more againſt his Art, than he is able to Anſwer.

CƲLPEPER REDIVIVƲS: Or, a Second Part of SIDROPHEL VAPULANS: Briefly containing ſome ſhort Reflections on a late Scandalous Libel againſt the Royal College of Phyſicians, London; Entituled, A Rebuke, &c. Written by William Salmon.

Ecce iterum Criſpinus.

Juven.

TO prevent Amuſement, Sir, and help you to underſtand rightly (if it be poſſible) ſome Paſſages in the foregoing Epiſtle, it's needful to tell you, That it was written four Years ſince, and hath lain ſo long in Lavender, by Advice of ſome Friends, who thought Sidrophel ſo Contemptible a Blockhead, as not to be worth the Notice even of the meaneſt Artiſt; That his Railing was no more to be regarded than the barking of a Dog; That to oppoſe him would give him Reputation, and be apt to make People think him Conſiderable, who is indeed a Contemptible Adverſary; That to meddle with him, would foul a Man's Fingers, raiſe Duſt in his Eyes, and Noiſe in his Ears; That Reaſon and Argument were loſt on ſuch an Incorrigible, and Conceited Opiniator; and would be ſo far from Silencing, or Amending, that it would Animate and Provoke him to greater Clamour and more noiſy Scolding.

Theſe Diſſ •• ſives have hitherto reſtrained me from taking the Satisfaction which hath been ſo long my due, and giving him the Chaſtiſement he hath ſo long deſerved: But when I ſaw in his laſt Scandalous Libel againſt the College, the unbridled Impudence with which he Affronts thoſe Worthies, and in what a Senſeleſs, Rude manner he Reproacheth ſo many Great and Learned Men, and that upon no other occaſion, but a moſt Pious and Charitable Deſign to relieve the Poor, when neglected and refuſed by others, who were Requeſted and Encouraged by the College of Phyſicians and City, to engage in that Charitable Undertaking, I laid aſide all diverting Conſiderations, to purſue that of a juſt Reſentment againſt ſo Shameleſs, and Scurrilous a Reviler: And accordingly reſolved that his Ignorance and ill Manners ſhould no longer be a Sanctuary to him, but that I would Expoſe and Puniſh him by the Pen, who hath ſo much offended with it.

How Culpable and deſerving Chaſtiſement he is, his own Pen confeſs'd, while he was Railing in the midſt of his Dung-Boat againſt the College and the Author of Medicaſter Medicatus, and beſpattering us with his naſty Cargo; even then under that ſtinking Diſpenſation, Rage and Malice ſo blinded and tranſported him,Seplaſium Pref Sect 11. that he forgot what he was doing, and declared, That to fling Dirt on any Man, was inhumane and unchriſtian; and yet no Man has been more buſie in that filthy Practice than he; and even againſt ſuch, to whom more Reſpect and Deference was due, than to an hundred ſuch as I am.

In his laſt Libel againſt the College and its Worthy Members (which hath thus provoked me) he doth in moſt opprobrious Language (with great Impudence, and little Senſe) Revile their Perſons, Diſparage their Skill, Undervalue their Learning derogate, from that Power and Authority which divers Acts of Parliament and Royal Charters have given them; Reproaches and Cenſures their late Generous Project, to ſerve the Poor with Advice and Medicines without Profit; arrogate a Power, and pretend an Ability to Reform Phyſick, Surgery, Pharmacy, Chymiſtry and Anatomy, &c. and to make his new Houſe an Academy, and himſelf an Oracle, Greater, and Wiſer than Apollo. Wherefore, Not to Expoſe and Chaſtiſe ſuch an Inſolent and Vain glorious Aſſumer, were a fault equal to his own: I have therefore taken in Hand the Rod which hath ſo long lain in Pickle for him, and put it in ure, that this Noiſy Spark may better know himſelf, and the World ſee how Empty a Creature he is, who thus would Affront and Impoſe upon his Fooliſh and Ignorant Admirers.

I ſuppoſe that Honourable and Learned Body, to which this ignorant Empirick is ſuch an Enemy, will not be wanting to Vindicate themſelves, and Puniſh him according to his Deſerts: Power and Ability I am ſure they want not; and I doubt not, but they will exerciſe both on ſo provoking an occaſion, and not ſuffer their Reputations and Intereſt to be ſo overborn, and trampled on by ſuch a Swiniſh Adverſary, but ſtop the Career of his Brutiſh Pen, by ſuch means as Law and Learning have put into their Hands, in aſſurance of which, my Remarks on his Libel ſhall be the ſhorter.

There is lately Publiſhed by a free thinking Republican a Book, wherein, one whole Chapter is employed to prove,Theol. and Polit. Diſc. cap. ult. That Men under ſuch a Free Government as ours, ought to have the liberty of thinking as they pleaſe, and writing what they think. Sidrophel ſeems by his Practice, to be of his Opinion, for he ſets no bounds to his Thoughts, nor limits to his Pen; but, like a true Libertine Libeller, lets both fly at all Games, mounting his filly Railery at the moſt Eminent for Art and Learning in the Three Kingdoms, if not in the whole World.

What it is that exaſperates him to this Barbarous Outrage againſt them, beſides the common Antipathy and natural Enmity of Ignorance to Art, and Empiriciſm to an Academick Education, I am to ſeek; unleſs his Soul be that of Culpeper Tranſmigrated. I find he Wheedles and Cajoles the Apothecaries, but that's like the Algerines putting out Chriſtian Colours to Delude and Captivate. His Compaſſion is feigned, and his Alarm falſe. He endeavours to make them believe the College deſign to ruin the greateſt part of the Apothecaries in London, while he above any Man (except his Learned Friend G. H.) hath made it his buſineſs to deſtroy all that are in England. What the College did was in their Favour, to eaſe them of unprofitable Patients, and too many poor, miſerable and diſtreſſed Complainants, and gave good Reaſon for it. But his endeavours have been conſtant to deprive them of the Rich as well as Poor Cuſtomers, by teaching their Art to all, who can read Engliſh; directing and encouraging the People to make their own Medicines, Publiſhing Swarms of Receipts in Almanacks and Popular Pamphlets, magnifying Noſtrums, Arcanums; recommending Medicines, and crying up to Sale Remedies of his own ſilly Invention, Compoſition, and Preparation, which is the utmoſt any Man can do, to ruin their Trade. So that Maugre all his Soothing and Clawing, he is ſo far from being their Friend and Advocate (as he pretends) that he really is the moſt notorious, and moſt miſchievous Enemy they have in the World, next to Health.

How much then like a Crocodile is he, to lament the Chimerical ruine of ſo many Families, to whom his own devouring Practice is deſtructive? And what a Sycophant is he, thus to upbraid the College, and accuſe them of a Wickedneſs he ſo notoriouſly commits, and hath ſo long Practiſed? If his Deſign be to engroſs that Pious Work of ruining ſo neceſſary a Trade, he had cauſe to be angry with them for medling in his Buſineſs, and taking Work out of his Hands; but then he ought in good Manners to have told them ſo.

To the Surgeons, he likewiſe pays great Compliments, and makes high Court. The Maſter of the Hall he Dubs Honourable, and makes them all better Men than the Doctors; gives their art the Preference both for Worth and Antiquity; and accounts a Surgeon ſo neceſſary to compleat a Phyſician, that he pronounces all ſuch as are not excellent in that Art, to be ignorant of the other.

If this be the Only and True Character of a Phyſician, pray what is Sidrophel, who is neither Surgeon nor Apothecary, much leſs a Phyſician, but a Railing Fool, who is notoriouſly ignorant how mu • h the Company of Surgeons have been obliged to the College of Phyſicians for their Improvement, even in their own Art; nor yet the Advantages which all the Members of the College of Phyſicians do happily enjoy for their Improvement in Surgery: For it cannot be deny'd, but that the moſt conſiderable Anatomical Improvements made in our Profeſſion, are chiefly owing to the Learned Members of the College; ſuch as Dr. Harvey, Tern, Scarburgh, Croon, &c. And ſo ſenſible the College hath been hereof, that they paſſed a Statute forbidding any of their Members to read any Publick Lectures, even in Surgeons-Ha • , unleſs the Maſter and Wardens did firſt ask the Preſident's leave; giving this Reaſon in their Statute, Quippe aequum & ratio • i conſentaneum arbitramur, ut qui per Collegam aliquem pr • ſ • iunt, ii Collegio ipſi aliquod grati animi Officium praeſtant.

And I may be bold to ſay, That the College have ſo great. Advantages both as to Anatomical and Chirurgical Improvements, that no Society in Europe hath the like; there being no leſs than Three different Lectures founded in that Honorable Body: One a Fellows Lecture, whereby every Fellow, at his Admiſſion, is obliged publickly to Diſſect a Human Body at ſuch time as the Preſident ſhall appoint. A Second is a Lecture Founded by the Learned Dr. Coniſton, Anno 1635. which is to be read Yearly by one of the Four Youngeſt Doctors of the College, upon two, three, or more ſuch Diſeaſes • as the Cenſors of the College ſhall Appoint or Direct. A Third (and the moſt conſiderable of all, both for Antiquity and Uſefulneſs) is a Chirurgical Lecture founded in the 24th of Q. Eliz. by the Right Honourable John Lord Lumley and Dr. Caldwall, to reſtore Surgery to her Perfection, by procuring an Excellent Reader, who ſhall read openly in the Houſe of the College of the Phyſicians in London, in good Order, all the whole Courſe of the Art and Science of Surgery, which hath been moſt Learnedly performed, not only as to the Anatomical, but Chirurgical Part of our Art, by thoſe Great and Learned Men, Dr. Foſter, Dun, Harvey, Scarburgh, &c. ſo that Sidrophel hath little Reaſon to charge them with Ignorance in our Profeſſion.

And yet after all this Deference and Ceremony to the Surgeons, he doth them alſo all the Miſchief he can, and ſtrives to Ruin them by the ſame Method he doth the Apothecaries; Teaching, as well as he is able, every Body to cure themſelves; but the Curſt Cow hath ſhort Horns: His Deſign of Proſtituting and Expoſing our Art to the Vulgar, doth us little harm; partly becauſe he is unable to teach it, but chiefly becauſe it's not to be Learnt by Words or Writing. Experience is our Maſter: And to that he is a Stranger, and ſo we become ſecure and ſafe from the Damage his Pen doth the Doctors, Apothe ••••• , and Chy • iſts.

To the Phyſicians, eſpecially thoſe of the College, he behaves himſelf with the ſame Rudeneſs, and abominable Scurrility, Culpeper did before him. Some Paſſages I have Collected and Expoſed, which is Refutation enough; meer ſhewing ſuch a Monſter, being ſufficient to render him odious. I know none of his Dirt can ſtick upon Men ſo much above the reach of ſuch a Virulent, Malicious Rayler; although he labours hard with all imaginable Affronts, to provoke and abuſe them.

Seplaſium. Ars Chirurg. Rebuke.Some times he charges them with Falſhood, Murther, and the Death of Thouſands; and makes the late Queen a Victim of their Ignorance and Male-Practice. Sometimes he prefers the Apothecaries, as Men more uſeful, and having more Skill in Phyſick, and Advantages of learning it than they: And affirms, No Man can be a good Doctor, till he hath ſerved Fifteen Years with an Apothecary; as if cleaning Shops, Shooes, Streets, Skillets, and Glyſter-Bags, running of Errands, beating Diapente, and ringing Quevedo's Paſſing-Bell, were of more uſe in Learning the Art of Phyſick, than Studying Books, Hearing Lectures, Viſiting Hoſpitals, and Converſing with Learned and Skilful. Men in the Univerſities.

If ſo, I would ask this Pretender to the Skill and Title of a Doctor, with what Apothecary he ſerved his two Apprenticeſhips? If with any one of that Trade, he can pretend to no other Character by Law than his Maſter had. If with none, then by his own Confeſſion he hath not been duly Educated in Phyſick, and is unfit for the Practice of it.

The Billingſgate Language, the Bedlam Senſe of his Libel, is obvious to every Man of Manners and Underſtanding; the Vain-glorious Part of it, is no leſs palpable in the many occaſions he takes to magnifie himſelf and vilify others: Boaſting of Great Practice, Great Succeſs, Great Skill, Great Charity, a Great Houſe, and a Great Library; and all but a Great Nothing.

As to the Law Part, his Ignorance and Error are no leſs manifeſt, Dr. Ch. Gooda's Vind • e. cap 1. And his R. Coliege Founded by Law. as a Learned Member of the College hath long ſince demonſtrated, and he will ſpeedily find to his Coſt, all his Objections againſt their Authority, and the Acts Eſtabliſhing it, are by that Worthy Perſon fully Anticipated and Confuted.

If any Man of Puncto be ſo over n • ce to think I Treat this Rude Adverſary two ſeverely, or uncivilly, and not like a Man of Breeding; I beg the Favour of him to conſider the Provocation which he hath given, not to me only, but likewiſe to the Royal College and other his Superiors, whom he Ridicules, and Banters, Affronts and Reviles without any Regard to their Degree and Character. How much like an abandoned Clown he Beſpatters them in divers of his Libels, and in one little Pamphlet, he doth over and over call them Lyars, Quacks, Empiricks, Knaves, Villains, Fools, Thieves, Robbers Scounderels, Pitiful Mean Fellows, Sneaking, Envious, Malicious' Ignorant, Iroud, Freſumptous, no Doctors— and then let him tell me, whether he Deſerves better uſage than I give him; or ought to be treated with Civility, who hath ſo Abdicated it, and like a Beaſt of Prey, forfeited all Right to Law.

To conclude this loathſom Employment: I have read a great many Libels with which the Liberty of late Times hath Poyſon'd the Nation, but in none found ſuch a mixture of Brutiſh Ignorance, Sawcy Rudeneſs, and a want of Senſe, or Truth as in this; many Falſe and Dangerous Things have been ſet off with a good Grace, and Cloathed in an Eloquent Civil Stile, with an Air or Semblance of Reaſon, &c. But in this we meet nothing like it. No Manners, Senſe, Wit, Learning, Truth or Reaſon; but down-right Ribaldry, Slander, Falſhood, Folly, and Rudeneſs, as I will ſhortly make evident, if not prevented by ſome more Concerned, and better able to Vindicate the Learned College, and Expoſe this Odious, Clamorous Witling, than

J.Y. December 2. 1698.

FINIS.