The Muggletonians principles prevailing being an answer in full to a scandalous and malicious pamphlet, intituled A true representation of the absurd and mischevious principles of the sect called Muggletonians : herein the aforesaid principles are vindicated, and proved to be infallibly true : and the author of that libel, his scandalous title and subject proved as false to truth, as light is to darkness, and that he knows no more what the true God is, nor what the right devil is, nor any true principle or foundation of faith, for all his great learning he so much bosts of, then those Jews that put the Lord of life to death, for learned and taught reason is but natural, and so falls short of the glory of God, as will appear in the following discourse / by T.T.

CHAP. XIII. ANSWER.

1. HERE you wrest their Words, and frame a wrong Sense of them; for the Time when an Eclipse falls out is one thing, and the Time of the Ephects of Working is another: Of some of the E∣clipses, the Astrologers say, the Time of their E∣phects last for so many Months, others the Time of so many Years, before the Ephects will have done working.

Wherefore then it follows, that John Reeve doth not say, That none of the Figurative Marchants doth know when, or at what time an Eclipse will fall, but their Ephects, and time of them Ephects, how long they will be in working: These Things, said John Reeve, can no Man know, but by Inspiration; which is positively True.

And thus you, Church-Doctor, raise Slanders to blast their Reputation; and so Truth comes to be vi∣lified

as I shewed before, for Truth may be buried under Falsehood for a time.

Again, pag. 25, you charge them with another Er∣ror, saying, That they affirm that the Eclipse of the Moon is never but when it is near the Sun. When as, say you, it is manifest that its Eclipse is when it is opposite to the Sun, and that the Earth is between them, which doth occasion it by with-holding its bor∣rowed Light. But to this I answer.

2. Here again you have abused John Reeve, and in plain terms bely'd him; which one would think a Man of that seeming Purity would not have done: For John Reeve doth not deny its Eclips when oppo∣site to the Sun; but saith (for these are his Words) the Eclipse of the Moon is through her near conjunct∣ion with the Natural Light or Ruler of the Day, or a Planatary Fire, answerable to its nature that occasi∣ons the Eclipse.

Now this we do affirm, and your Astrologers do not deny it but that there are Stars of a fiery nature, and Experience shews it: For what is the reason that there is more heat when the Sun is in Leo, then there is when it enters Cancer, when as the Sun is nearest to us, when it enters that Sign, but only that the Heat is occasioned by the rising of some Fiery Stars, as that which they call the Dogg Star, and others of the like nature.

So likewise the occasion of the Moons Eclipse, it is not by the Sons not rendring its borrowed Light, by reason of the Earths interposing her self betwixt those Lumenaries; but it is through her being near to some of them Fiery Stars, as those which the Astrologers call the Dragons-Head, or Dragons-Tail; one of which being always near to the Moon when she suffers an Eclipse.

3. We do likewise affirm that the Moon borrows no Light from the Sun, but that it is a real created Light of it self; for Moses saith, That God made two great Lights; but your Astrologers and you say, That God made but one: Whether should we believe, Mo∣ses or you? for saith Moses, One of them is made to rule the Day, and the other is made to rule the Night.

4ly. The Sun and Moon are of contrary natures, one is fiery hot, the other is cold and watery; there∣fore it is contrary to Reason that the one should re∣ceive any Light from the other, and therefore there can be no agreement betwixt them, for Experience shews us that the Moon is cold and watery, being made out of the Water, and so is the Lady of the Water, and occasions the Ebbing and Flowing of the Seas, and the running of all Rivers, drawing the Wa∣ters after her, as the Loadstone doth Iron.

But on the other Hand, the Sun is hot and firy, be∣ing the Captain of all Fire, and so draws combusti∣ble Matter up to it self, which occasioneth Thunder, which is a War betwixt Fire and Water; and thus they appear in their contrariety of Natures, which we see further by Experience, that the clearer that the Sun doth shine, the hotter it is; but the clearer the Moon doth shine, the colder it is.

So that from what is said, may be seen who the Astrologers are most beholding to, whither to you, or John Reeve, let all Men judg; for John Reeve, in this Prinsiple, is as contrary to the Astrologers, as the Sun and Moon are contrary in Nature.

Furthermore, You object against John Reeve, for saying that the Sun, Moon, and Stars move all in one Firmament: And for saying, That they are not much bigger then they appear to us. To this you say,

That they are quite contrary, and that they move in seve∣ral Orbes, and that each Orbe at so much distance from each other, as the Astroligers affirm.

Notes

• Gen. 1.16.