The astrologer anatomiz'd, or, The vanity of star-gazing art discovered by Benedictus Pererius ; and rendered into English by Percy Enderbie, Gent.

Chap. 2. Judiciary Astrology Arraigned and Convinc't by Philosophy, and the Professors proved altogether igno∣rant of Celestial Things. (Book 2)

CRave and learned Philosophers, to demon∣strate Astrological Divination, to be ridiculous and grounded upon no firm and solid basis or foundation, assert their Theses and Conclusions after this manner: Astro∣logers cannot certainly know, the vigour, power, defluxions, or effects of the Stars; nay, had they that knowledge which they have not, yet were it not sufficient, for a full and certain foretelling of things hereafter to be contingent; and there∣fore it follows by necessary consequence, and evi∣dently, that Astrological predictions are frivolous, vain, and fallacious. Two things are included in this argument, which are to be more at large elu∣cidated and explained, before further progress herein: The first is, that Astrologers are igno∣rant of Celestial things: The other, that although they were really and undeniably most expert and skilful, yet were not that sufficient, to divine in∣fallibly

of future events; we will speak of the first in this ensuing Paragraph.

Judiciary Astrologers ignorant of Celestial things.

Out of this which I shall now produce before your eyes, I will plainly make it manifest, that Judiciary Astrologers are ignornt of heaven∣ly things and causes; first therefore, it is very in∣tricate, hard, and laborious, to know those things perfectly concerning the Heavens, which to us seem more obvious and facile: as for instance; The Nature of the Heavens, the Magnitude, the Number of the Orbs, the order within them∣selves; the difference of dignity, the variety of motions; and to proceed a little further, the num∣ber of the Stars, the comparison of them a∣mongst themselves, concerning their greatnesse, brightnesse, power, and effects. The grand dis∣crepance and variety of opinions of the best Phi∣losophers herein, which we finde gives a most clear and perfect notion of this difficulty. Aristotle, whom the world acknowledgeth the Prince of Philosophers, candidly and ingenuously confessed, that concerning many Celestial things he had no certain or exquisite knowledge, but onely an ima∣ginary and conjectural skill, and being destitute of real and manifest reasons, he was compelled to make use of probable arguments and conjectures;

peruse and read over Aristotle himself in his se∣cond Book de Coelo, Text 17. 34. 60, & 61. which if it be so, who will give credit unto Astrologers, (who as all must grant, being as perspicuous as the fun at noon-day) are not to be compared with those great Masters in Philosophy) that those things in the Heavens by the judgement of Philo∣sophers are most obstruse, and to mortals, incom∣prehensible; I say, the vertue and foretelling cer∣tainly of things to come, should be so clear, and experimentally known.

Let us now a little make bold with these all-di∣vining Astrologers, and something entrench upon their patience, that they will be pleased, out of their profound knowledge to enucleate and enode unto us some of the more easie questions and doubts concerning the Heavens: As first, whe∣ther the Heavens be of a simple and uncompound∣ed, or a compounded matter and form? and then whether the matter of the Heavens be such as is that of sublunary things, or different, and divers from it? whether Heaven be animate or inanimate? whether it be moved by its own proper strength, and by it self, or extrinsically by an Angel? by what means the dignity and excellency of the Heavens one from another shall be estimated, judged, and made manifest? What the reason may be, why all the Orbes are not circumagitated and wheeled about by one onely motion; but that some are

forced by one, some by more, and others by fewer motions? Let these Grandees discover unto us what force and power properly belonging unto it each star hath upon Mettals, Vegitables, and such as have fruition of vital spirits and life. Put these Questions and Interrogatories unto them, or such like, and we shall finde these Astrologers igno∣rant, weak, and altogether unskilful to return an answer; how then can any man with reason think it possible, or worthy belief, that men who know not such things as are more obvious and triviall, should give an account or judgement of things more remote and hidden from the knowledge of mortals. After this let them instruct and teach us the defluxions and effects which flow, and have Influence over the several and dissipated Regions of the world, and then perchance we may believe them, when they sooth us up with the future ef∣fects of the stars; for who knows not that it is far more easie to apprehend and know things pre∣sent, then those which are to come and future, especially things subject to mutability, where the Contingents are various, and therefore uncertain. Let them likewise make manifest and express unto us the occult properties and power which subluna∣ry things have (which we rather admire then un∣derstand) in Stones, Herbs, and Animals; for these seeing they are in a manner obvious and conjunct unto us, and subjected almost to all our senses,

and which by daily experiments may be found out and discovered, certainly must have a more ex∣press motion and plain discovery: But the intelli∣gence of heavenly things must needs be of a far greater difficulty and labour, Heaven being so far remote and distant from us, and onely discoverable by the sole sense of the eye, which ofttimes is de∣ceived, and brought into errour through the lon∣ginquity of Intervals, or the violent and swift whirling about of the Heavens, the depraved and indisposed affection of the medium, or of the sight; the fault and imperfection of the Astro∣labe, Tables, or other Astronomical Instruments; and this we finde attested in the sacred Scripture, Wisdom, Chap. 9. For the body that is corrupted burtheneth the soul, and the earthly habitation pres∣seth down the understanding that thinketh many things; and we do hardly conjecture the things that are in the earth; and the things that are in sight we finde with labour; but the things that are in the Heavens who shall search out, and thy sense who shall know, unless thou give wisdom, and send thine holy Spirit from on high? This sufficiently confutes Astrologers, who pretend to discover all humane events, of which most have their depen∣dency upon the most inscrutible will and councel of the most High and Mighty God.

Against the fictitious Antiquity which these men vainly boast to have concerning observations.

ABove all, our Astrologers boast and brag, that they have observations attested and confirm∣ed by their events of I know not how many, yea innumerable years, beyond the limits of compu∣tation almost, out of which their art hath its ra∣dix, original, and perfection; for seeing that in the revolution of time elapsed, divers things have been produced and come to pass, the same signs preceding, by the due minding and observation whereof, their Art was conflate and compleated, and therefore they endeavour to perswade us, that the Chaldeans through their diligent Astrological observations, during the space of four hundred and seventy thousand years, have brought forth this admirable birth, I mean the profound Art of Divination, to its full maturity and perfection: But how childish, fictitious, and improbable this is, is thus easily discovered. Astrologers (let them brag what they please) could not so many thou∣sand times collect and gather, no not twice or thrice, those observations and experiments; for the face and aspect of the Heavens, and the posi∣tion of all the Celestial Signs, which was once, shall scarcely or never, or at least not till immense revolutions of years, return and be the same: For

the eighth Orbe, in which the wandering Stars have their being, compleats and finisheth not its course before the expiration of thirty and six thou∣sand years; and the most learned Mathematicians demonstrate by convincing arguments, that the motions of the Heavens are incommensurable; and therefore the same Aspect of the Heavens, and po∣sition of the Stars cannot frequently happen.

The Philosopher Phavorinus in his fourteenth Book, Apud Gellium, and first Chapter, confirms this reason with admirable perspicuity, elo∣quence, and clearness: If (saith this learned Au∣thour) the Chaldeans observations were grounded after this manner, to wit, to make a strict observa∣tion, under what habit, form, and posture of Stars a childe should be born, and then from his non-age and very cradle, even to the Catastrophe and last period of his life, to register and record his fortunes, condi∣tion, qualities, and inclinations, together with the circumstances of his affairs and transactions, and then (as they suppose the manner was) put all those col∣lections upon a File, and enrol them upon Record; and afterwards when the same Stars should meet in the same manner, and have the same position, que∣stionless they must needs tell the same fortune to any one born under such a constellation. If this was the way, and out of this principle they grounded the foun∣dation of that Discipline, it is altogether weak and slippery; for let them tell me in how many years, nay

ages, this Orbe or Circle of Observation may be per∣fected; there is no Astrologer but must know, that those Stars which are called erratical, or wandering, and the fatal efficients of all those things, do not, unless in an innumerable and almost infinite number of years, return to the same posture, and with the same habit from whence they wheeled and wandered; so that, no order or tenor of observation, no memory whatsoever, no nor the very character of such Letters and Monuments could be preserved or endure so long a time: Thus Phavorinus.

And if it should be granted that Astrologers should dive into the secret force and defluxion of every Star seperately, and alone by it self; what force and power Stars have when they meet, and conjoyn, and are mingled, either in the Heaven, Air, Earth, in sublunary things or their actions; this is not to be discovered. Reader observe what Origen writes upon Genesis, cited by Eusebius, to∣wards the end of his sixth Book of Evang. Prep. Such things as they affirm (Astrologers) to come to pass by the commixture, composition, and temperature of several Aspects, this very thing shews their igno∣rance; for who can tell the harm pretended by a ma∣lign Aspect, the Constellation of the benign and pro∣pitious concurring; and whether the malign detards that which the benign bestows, because it points at the others location; and whether it change or re∣change, or what commixture is made, what man can

judge or perceive; he whosoever shall seriously pe∣netrate into those mysteries, shall finde that they are not to be comprehended by humane wit and capacity, whosoever shall make experiment o•• these things, shall finde Fortune-tellers and Na∣tivity-casters, oftner to erre then speak the truth wherefore Isaiah, as if these things were totally impossible, hath this saying to the daughter of the Chaldeans, the grand professors of this mystery▪ Let the Astrologers come and make thee whole, let the Southsayers tell what is to betide thee; by which we are admonished, that even the most expert Cal∣dean in this Art, cannot foretell what will alot un∣to every Nation.

Again there are many Stars, which are either not clearly or not at all to be seen; and if those Astrologers confess there are many not known to them, and more not perfectly discovered; where∣fore then presume they so confidently to predict events to ensue out of those few Stars, whose pow∣er they know, since through the influxions of the other Stars, which they know not, the effects may be either hindred or become various: unless they will impudently and absurdly say, that the Stars which they know not have no power or influence at all: It is manifest amongst the Astrologers themselves, that in the eighth Heaven there are 1022 Stars, of which each exceeds the earth in bigness, and therefore must needs have great force

and power; but of all these, Astrologers have little or no knowledge for that their prognostica∣ting skill consists chiefly in the observation of the Planets; in which they altogether trifle away their time and spend their dayes. Seneca, a man of a perspicacious judgement well perceived this, when in his second Book of Natur. Quest. Cap. 32. he expresseth himself both eloquently and learned∣ly in these words. What other thing is it (saith he) which leadeth Nativity-casters into error, but that they content themselves with the notion of a few Stars in calculating of Nativities, when all which are above us, arrogate and challenge a power and in∣fluence over us; those which are lower and nearer have power over us, and those which are more fre∣quently moved reflect otherwayes upon us and other animals: Furthermore those Stars which are im∣moveable or by their inperceptible volocity seem so to be, challenge a right and dominion over us.

Of the strange Star which some years past appeared.

CErtain years past we beheld a new and strange Star, never before that time conspicious in the Heavens; which Astrologers affirm had its po∣sition in the same place where the fixed Stars have their being. This Star (whereas for a time it ap∣peared visible to our view) on a sudden disappeared totally and vanished from our sight; this was ei∣ther

generated in the Heavens, and afterwards corrupted (and 'tis like the same may happen to other through long intervals of time) or else it had its being above the Planets and wandering Stars, which have their proper passages although unknown to us; or above in conclusion in the eighth Heaven, which we esteem wandering and un∣fixed, which also hath its proper motions and operations; of which Hypparchus famous for his knowledge in Astrology seems to doubt, as Pliny in the 27. Chap. Book 2. testifieth: Hypparchus, saith he, a man never sufficiently praised, disco∣vered in his time that a strange Star was produced, by the motion whereof, upon the day of its appea∣rance, he made a great doubt whether this might be usual, or whether those Stars which we deem fixed, were moveable: Great Astrologers think it much to concern their Art, to understand cer∣tainly the concordance and discrepancy betwixt the two Zodiacs, the one of the eighth, the other of the ninth Heaven; which nevertheless they shall never finde out, for that the ninth Heaven hath nei∣ther Star nor light▪ neither can any thing concern∣ing it be discovered, except motion, and that one∣ly from the motion of the eighth Heaven: And certain it is, that Astrologers can give no account of what condition these two Zodiacs were at the creation of the world; because a certain and exact account of the time of the worlds creation,

to this day cannot be acquired; some account and number of years since that time may be had and aimed at, but of dayes and hours very difficile, if not impossible; and yet notwithstanding such a computation is very necessary and requisite to the doctrine of Astrology.

What a difficult thing it is punctually to observe what force the Aspects of the Stars have in every mans Nativity.

THe position of the Stars in the very moment in which one is born, without a manner of errour or mistake can scarcely be attained unto: It is a matter of difficulty to discover the very point of time in which any one is born, and rightly to observe the Aspect of the Sars which then reign and have influence in that very moment, or as I may say Attome, for ofttimes vapours and clouds being interposed, do either quite take away, obfus∣cate, or shut from us the sight and aspect both of Heaven and Stars: and above all, the most rapid and swift wheeling of the Heavens brings it so about, that it is fleeted and flown away before we can take perfect cognizance thereof; for in almost every moment the face of the Heavens, and a di∣verse posture of the Stars is existant. Astrolo∣gers confidently profess that they will exactly tell you the fortunes and events of any man, so that

he may but know the certain time of his birth; but such an exact, subtil, and punctual knowledge (as is necessary for an Astrologer) is very hard to be come by; let us suppose for example, that Oliver was born the 56 year from this time, the 7 of September, at ten of the clock, either at the beginning, middle, or end thereof: but that mo∣ment, or almost nothing, or little something of time, wherein Oliver fell from his Mothers womb, and came into this world, neither the Midwife, Parents, or Assistants can directly and exactly as∣sure you of, as it is necessarily requisite for the Astrologer if he intend to divine aright.

I cannot by any means in this place pass away without setting down the words of Saint Basil, who treated of this subject accurately and pres∣sing, which I onely have glanced at by the way, and slightly touched: his words are these, which he left written in an Homily upon a part of Genesis. The inventors of calculating Nativities, perceiving that in a long interval of time many Figures and Aspects slipt by and escaped the reach of their Sci∣ence, contracted their measures intoa very com∣pendious and strait limit of time, and as the Apo∣stle calls it, a moment of time, or twinkling of an eye; and in this very moment of time, there is very great difference and desparity betwixt nativity and nativity; for he that is even now born, shall be invested with regal dignity, wear the Diadem per∣adventure

of an Empire, give Laws to several Na∣tions, and abound in all worldly prosperity; when he that comes into the world, even imme∣diately after, shall be poor, despicable, a Va∣gabond, Jugler, Hocus Pocus, and it may be, beg his bread from door to door: that Orb therefore which is called the Signifer, being divided into twelve parts when the Sun in the space of thirty dayes hath past the twelfth part thereof, which is stiled by Astrologers, inerrans, or wandering; every of these twelve parts they divided into thirty par∣cels, and then those parcels, each being divided into sixty minutes; these minutes again they sub∣divided after the same manner into sixty more. The birth therefore of one newly come into the world being determined, let us observe whether these skilful masters with all their Art, can keep this so exact division of time. The woman is de∣livered of her burthen, the Midwife looks whether it be male or female, next she hearkens to hear it cry, as a presage of the life and strength of the childe; after she brings the infant to the Astrolo∣ger, and when she prattles with him as gossips use to do, during all these petty transactions since the little one was an inhabitant of this world, how many minutes as we may conjecture have past away; especially if the Artist were not in the Chamber, but in some other remote place expect∣ing the news? Again, whilst he is accommodating

his Instruments of Art, to investigate the exact and precise time, whether nocturnal or diurnal, how many minutes fly away: and here again when the Star is discovered which denotes the time and minute, then comes the twelve parts, the thirty parcels, into which each of those is to be divided; then the subdivision of those parcels into sixty mi∣nutes to be examined and canvased over; and al∣though they can never attain to so precise and punctual a finding out of the exact time, yet they affirm this must necessarily be done in the wander∣ing and unfixed Stars to know what disposition and habitude they have with those which are fixed, and what like figure is amongst them, when the infant was born; things standing in this sort, that by reason of the variation of that most short time a certain knowledge without errour is impossible to be had, not by the vain and foolish students of this Art, who gape after a thing impossible to be attainded; but also thus silly creatures who run after them as Prophets, and Wise men, deserve the fools coat, cap, bauble and all.