SIDROPHEL VAPULANS: OR, THE Quack-Astrologer Tossed in a BLANKET.  
By the AUTHOR of Medicaster Medicatus.  
In an Epistle to W— m S— n.  
With a Postscript, Reflecting briefly on his late Scurrilous Libel against the Royal College of Physicians, Entitled, A Rebuke to the Authors of a Blue Book. By the same Hand.  
Astrologi! Genus hominum potentibus infidum, sperantibus fallax,  Tacit. Hist. lib. 1. 
By these Fables Astrologers Live, Cheat, and Get Money. Indeed no Generation of Men are more Pernicious to a Commonwealth, C. Agrippa.  
There are more Empirical Impostors, more Idiots, Illiterate Cheats, pretending to Astrology in this your Royal City, than of any other sort, not only Seducing, but Ruining many of your Majesty's poor Subjects. Dr. Ramsey 's Ded. of his Tract. de Ven. 1661.  
LONDON, Printed and Sold by John Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, 1699.   

To the Honourable and Learned COLLEGE of PHYSICIANS, and Worshipful SOCIETY of SURGEONS, London.  
Learned and Wortly Gentlemen,  
HEalth is not only the Felicity, and Interest of every individual Man in a Body Politic; but of the whole Community; because Diseases and Hurts (by disabling Private Persons from Public Service) do weaken and enfeeble the Commonwealth.  
It's therefore a great wonder, that in this Age of Regulation and Amendment, nothing is done to rectify the notorious Abuses, and secure us from the Mischief done by those Men; who (without Skill or Authority) under pretence of restoring and conserving, do destroy men's Lives and Estates; and more especially at such a time when the Nation is in need of both, for its Defence and Preservation.  
Reformation is a Name we are very fond of, and a Work we seem to be always doing: But when will it be done? We have lately gained a new Law to secure Apothecaries from being Scavengers; Is there not more need of one to keep Shoemakers from turning Doctors and Moon-Prophets? What else means the bleating of those Sheep in our Ears? If the Body Politic consist of many Natural ones, the Conservation of the one, is the Maintenance of the other; and that's beyond a Cobler's Last.  
Why then should Impudent, Ignorant Quacks and Empirics (Smiths, Weavers, 
3 Hen. 8. c. 11.  Cobblers, Draymen, Women) etc. boldly and accustomably take upon them great Cures, and Things of great Difficulty? In the which, thy partly use Sorcery and Witchcraft, partly apply such Medicines unto the Disease, as be very noyous and nothing meet therefore; to the high Displeasure of God, great Infamy to the Faculty, and the grievous Hurt, Damage and Destruction of many of the King's Liege People; most especially of them that cannot discern the uncunning from the cunning.  
And yet notwithstanding this Public Declaration by a Statute Law of this Nation, these Impostors, as if they were Paramount to all Law, Superior to the Supreme; or Tyrants cum Privilegio, do with Impunity Defraud Men, not only of Health and Wealth, but Limb and Life too: And this, not only in the Country, but in our Metropolis, in the Face of the Government, and of You, whose Province it is (if any Bodies) to Suppress such Pernicious and Destructive Vermin.  
Gentlemen, It plainly appears by Several Statute. Laws of the Kingdom, and the Royal Grants of Kings and Queens of England, that you do not want sufficient Authority for this Good Work; and I am sure you cannot want Skill and Learning enough to Alarm the Nation against them, to Baffle and Expose them to the World in their true Colours, that People may see in what Hands they trust their Lives.  
It's your Duty and your Interest so to do. It's a Noble Work to remove those Nuisances; though the Subject of your Censure be vile as the Person is, whom I have now in hand, yet the Undertaking is Generous, and worthy of You. Hercules thought it a befiting Labour to cleanse Augeas' Stables. Justice is not disparaged by Sentencing the vilest Malefactor to the Gallows. The Good achieved to the Public by any Act, hallows it. And thus may present Undertaking becomes worthy of your Patronage, and Imitation; and I presume to crave both.  
For, beside the Common Injury Empirics do to Mankind in general, they have a particular spite against you, which they spare not to discover on all occasions. Culpeper in one Breath Sentenced a whole College of your most Learned Predecessors, and King James their Patron, to the Devil. And this his Zany not only commends, but imitates him; affronting you to the Queen, in a Dedication of that Book wherein he abuseth me to the Reader, and in many other Rude Libels. I am therefore obliged to him, for giving me such good Company, and shall be quit with him anon.  
He hath indeed a peculiar Merit in him which ought to be regarded: he is an ginger, as well as an Empirick; and that's a Composition, which Poisons both Body and Soul; cheats Men not only of their Money and Health, but of their Loyalty too; whereby he becomes obnoxious to the Government more ways than one; and aught to be Chastised by them with a Whip in the House of Correction, as well as by us in the Press.  
These Astrological Quacks do not only Reproach, Libel and Rail at you, but Usurp your Office, contrary to Law; taking upon them to Reform the Settled Rules, Methods, and Medicaments, and give Encouragement to all sorts of Empirics, and Quacksalvers. So that the Faculty is in danger of being overthrown, and the Nation subjected to all those inconveniences, which the want of Able Physicians, and the multiplying Cheating Mountebanks, can introduce.  
I know what I am to expect from these Men for giving them this Disturbance; it's like stirring a Nest of Wasps; and accordingly I expect all the Mountebanks and Astrologers in the Nation will fall on me: for they, like Swine, if you take one by the Ears, the whole Herd will squeal, and gruntle at him who doth it. He that tosseth a Whelp in a Blanket, must expect much noise, and a filthy stink. And of this I am the more assured, because the fear of it only, hath made this Hocus extract the Quintessence, or Powers of Billingsgate, and Bedlam, and throw it in my Face.  
But these Foresights do not discourage, nor damp me at all. If I serve Truth and the Public, I gain my Point, let the Quacks and Astrological Impostors Rail on, and fling Dirt as fast as they can. If I but continue in the Favour and Reputation I am Honoured with by you, none of it will stick upon  
Your most Humble Servant, James Young.   

TO THE READER.  
YOU cannot but think me induced by some very extraordinary Motive, to so mean an Employment, as that of Censuring an Author so Futile; and a Book so Contemptible, as an ginger, and his Almanac. But no meanness of Person or Book, aught to exempt him or them from Chastisement, when faulty. And that he whom I have taken to task, is highly such, will appear in the following Examen; where, beside the Mischief this sort of Men do the Nation in general, you will see the wrong this Mopus hath done me in particular, and that is Provocation enough to Chastise him.  
Some Years ago, he told the Mobb (few else read or regard his Gallymawfry) that I stole my Notions of Ol. Tereb. from Crato, an Author who hath nothing in him which could colour so unjust and false a Reflection. And although he knew it to be so, yet refused either to confess it, or give satisfaction for the wrong he had done me: But fearing I would resent it, and expose him, he in his next Libel falls a Railing at me, in a sort most Rude and Senseless, without one Reason to support his ill Language; and repeats the same again in another Years Hodgepodge, where he hath the Forehead to Publish the same Falsehood of Crato and Me, which he had done so many Years before. These repeated Provocations conquered all the Reasons which restrained my Pen from taking Satisfaction, and let it lose upon him, with all its Resentments of the Man, and the Trade he Practiseth.  
Beside those particular Injuries this Lunatic hath done me, you will be far from thinking it an Idle or Impertinent Work, to Correct and Expose the whole Herd of those noxious Creatures; if you consider, that though they be Things hated by the Wise, and despised by the Learned, they are not seldom cherished and employed by those who Plot and Design to disturb the Common Respose; and by such have been made use of in all Ages, to seduce the Vulgar into Faction, and prejudice their Minds against Established Government. Instances of it are innumerable in the Story of all Times and Nations. And for it We are told by Tacitus, Pliny, Agrippa, and many others, they were often banished Rome and Italy by the Decrees of several Senates, and Laws of divers Emperors; and that Justinian the famous Legislator, made it a Crime Capital. To the Commonwealth and Public Peace (saith C. Agrippa, who was a great Lawyer, Statesman and ginger) they have been pernicious in all Ages. For beside their Frauds and Cozening Practices on the Common People, they are Authors of much Mischief to a State, drawing Credulous People to their Ruin, causing Wars and Sedition. No Sort or Generation of Men being more pernicious to a Commonwealth, than those who undertake to Prognosticate by the Stars, and scatter their Prophecies about.  
It's no new thing to have Faction and Rebellion promoted in this Nation by such Men; 
33 Hen. 8.8.14.5 Eliz. 15.23 Eliz. 2.  and for that Reason-many Laws were made against them by our Wise Ancestors.  
W. Lily and N. Culpeper are the last dead Instances of it: And there are a couple of the same Stamp left alive to carry on the same Design, by the same Method. 
Plin. l. 13. c. 1. P. Commines, l. 4. c. 126.  Our Nation was long since famous among Foreigners for being deluded by Prophecies and addicted to Magic. And I would fain take off the Scandal, by exposing those who continue to maintain that Trade among us.  
He whom I have singled out for that purpose, seems to be the fattest of the Herd; and to have many additional Aggravations above ordinary Astrologers. There's a peculiar danger in him to the Government, manifest every Year, by his fond inculcating a lewd Prophecy, like that which the Arch-Impostor W. Lily long since published against Monarchy, Predicting its final Down-fall, together with the Mitre and Coronet; and the establishing of Democracy in England. This is the plain meaning, and most manifest design of it, manger the shame Interpretation he hath lately put upon it, 
See Baker's Chron. p. 310 5 Eliz. 15.12 Car. 2.30.  for that's plainly forced and contrived, after I had threatened him with two Statutes, one against Publishing Prophecies, foretelling a Change of Government; another enjoining the Observation of January the 30th, of which till then he took no notice, although he forgot not to Calendar his own Nativity; as his Brother P— doth the Whipping of T. O. And both the Martyrdom of K. Charles, or else shun and affront it.  
These things do more Mischief among the Vulgar, than Milton, Cook, Goodwin, Ludlow, or all the odious Vindicators of Rebellion, Patricide, and Democracy, this last Age hath been plagued with. Almanacs are Oracles to the Vulgar, and when larded, or rather baited to hook in Customers with fine Receipts, to cure even incurable Diseases, become very Public, and regarded mostly by such as are least able to penetrate into the Delusion, or discern the Snare. Thus Lily and Culpeper poisoned the People formerly; 
Mon. or no Mon. Catast. Magn.  and thus their Successors carry on the same Design now. The laboured Discourses of the Grand Boutefeus' scarce reach the Hand, seldom the Understanding of the Populace; and are consequently unable to do that Mischief, by Seducing and Disaffecting them, as such obvious Hieroglyphics, and Prophetic Emblems of the Determination of Monarchy, Episcopacy, and Nobility, and setting up Democracy in these Kingdoms.  
For those Reasons I have taken upon me to Lash and Expose those Men, and the Art by which they poison the Minds of People, and Conjure them out of their Duty and Allegiance. And if those Incorrigible Figure-Casters persist in the Trade of Publishing such Pestilent Almanacs; I hope all good Subjects will be fortified against the Infection, Design, and Factious tendency of them.  
My Moon-Prophet so exactly resembles Sidrophel in Hudibrass, that I chose to treat him under that Character. How it fits, such as know him may judge by the following Description of his Prototype.  

He deals in Destinies dark Counsels, 
Part 2. Cant. 3.   
And Sage Opinions of the Moon Sells;  
To whom all People far and near,  
On deep importances repair;  
When Brass, or Pewter hap to stray,  
Or Linen slinks out of the way;  
When Cattle feel Indisposition,  
And need the help of a Physician;  
When Murren reigns in Hogs or Sheep,  
And Chicken languish of the Pip;  
To him with Questions, and with Urine,  
They for discovery flock, or curing.  
He had been versed in Astrology,  
And was Old Dog at Physiology:  
But though in Circle of the Arts,  
He did advance his Natural Parts,  
Like Dog in Wheel, did still retreat,  
And fall to Juggle, Cant, and Cheat;  
Or as those Fowl that live in Water,  
Are never wet, he did but smatter:  
Whate'er he laboured to appear,  
His Understanding still was clear;  
Yet none a deeper Knowledge boasted,  
Since Friar Bacon, or Old Grosted.   

He with the Moon was more familiar  
Than e'er was Almanac Well-willer;  
Her Secrets understood so clear,  
That some believed he had been there;  
Knew when She was in fittest Mood  
For cutting Corns, or letting Blood;  
When for anointing Scabs or Itches,  
Or to the Bum applying Leeches;  
Fright Agues into Dogs, and scare  
With Rhymes the Toothache and Catarrh;  
Cure Warts and Corns with application  
Of Medicines to th' Imagination.  
He knew the Medicine Paracelsus  
Can make a Man with, as he tells us;  
He knew whatever's to be known,  
But much more than he knew would own.   

Did not our great Reformers use  
This Sidrophel to foreboad News?  
And hath he not always foretold  
Whate'er the close Committee would?  
Made Mars and Saturn for the Cause,  
The Moon for Fundamental Laws, etc.    

ERRATA.  
PAge 4. line 38. for He read But, p. 7. Marg. for L. H. r. lib. 4. p. 8. l. 17. r. many degrees better, p. 9 l. 19 r. discoverer, p. 12. Marg. r. 1652. p. 19 l. 33. for professor r. possessor, p. 20. l. 2. r. 20. p. 29. l. 21.22. for Impostor r. Prophet, p. 41. Marg. r. Tom. 2. p. 46. Marg. r. de Peste. Some Literal Mistakes are left to the Readers Candour.   

To W— S— n.  
THERE is, Egregious Sir, a Quack ginger in your House, who some Years since Published 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 misspend 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 Acknowledgement of the Fault, or Mistake, if it were such; but instead of giving me any manner of Satisfaction, He, in the next Public Effort of his fertile 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 displeased to see myself treated in a manner, so much to his own Shame, and Opprobrium, more than mine; that I slighted the Bawling Brainsick, till I found him at me again: And for want of new Matter, giving the People twice Sodden Cabbage: the same fulsome Stuff in a second Almanac, which he had done in that, wherein he first put that Falsehood on Crato and me.  
The Repetition of this groundless Affront, (after I had charged him with the Falsehood thereof, and he had tacitly allowed it himself) made me steal a few Hours from other Avocations, to do myself right, and stop the Career 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 Public 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 mere 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 bend 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 talked 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 Lovis 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 paraphrased in Prose. Your Sword made the living dead, i. e. the Stupid feel, cujus Contrarium—  
The  fury vanished 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 Sense, 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 Wether made the Monsieurs cold, and the cool Wether heated them; for in September, he tells us they became brisk;  
Threatened 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 despite, and in sight of such Puissance as the Confederate Army, Headed by so great an Hero, 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 Travesteeed.  
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 Sense, Reason, Letters, or Truth: or make Intelligible to the most apprehensive Mortal; much less the Vulgar, whom he designed 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 senseless Stuff may be thus paraphrased. 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 Oil of Cloves being presently put into a Wound, causeth Pain to cease immediately, without Inflammation; and brings sordid Ulcers to a Cicatrice, and cleanseth them; and stops Blood so admirably, that nothing doth it more, or better. If Oil 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 Oil of Turpentine, or any other Chemical Oil: which is cheap, and wants some degrees of the heat of Oil of Cloves. And possibly from this it might be that Turpentine Yonge might receive his Notion of stopping Bleeding with Oil of Turpentine. Crato, it seems was the Author; though he is pleased to attribute the whole Invention to himself; which a Man of Candour 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 Falsehood 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 Virtues of Oil 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 contemned 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, Honourable Mr. boil, not only said to Dr. R. H. and myself, such kind things of it, as I am too Modest to repeat; but He was likewise pleased to honour it with Public Approbation, in his Book of Specifiques. 
p 160   
I found more Envy, or Carelessness, 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 Hypocrates; 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, etc. 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. Oil of Cloves makes Wounds, that if it be put in presently, their Pain immediately ceaseth without Inflammation: And it brings sordid Ulcers 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 dolour. si mox indatur, statim sedet & absque inflamm. ad cicatr. perducat sordida Vlc. 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 Oil 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 refers 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 Ʋander 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 Chemical Oil of an Aromatic 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 balsamic, viz. Beguinus, Weicker, Renodeus, Gluckstrad, Barthius, Ernestus, Hoffman, Woodal, etc. 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 Virtue, and of its faculty to restrain the Haemorrhages of Wounds too, which Sidrophel, had he known them, might have alleged 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, 
Antidote. l. 2 p. m. 655.  vulnerum sanguinem fluentem & aquam sistit.  
J. Barthius directs a way of distilling an Oil 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 Oil of Cloves pretend to those many adventitious Benefits, which accrue 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 Oil, because they have much of Sulphur and Salt in them, and that by reason of the Salt, the Oil 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 Chemical Oil 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 Ulcers to a Cicatrice, and cleanseth them.  
Here he puts the Cart before the Horse; for by the Rules of Surgery, sordid Ulcers 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 fretting; and consequently painful: Such are precipitate, Mercury, V●tri●l, Verdigrease, etc. and without doubt the Oil 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 stretched it, to make it tally with Oil of Turpentine: but that won't do! though to carry on the Metaphor, he commits a most horrid blunder in these words,  
If Oil of Cloves, which is so hot, doth this so absolutely? And so safely? Much more safely may it be supposed to be done with Oil of Turpentine, etc. which wants some degrees of the heat of Oil of Cloves.  
Here he seems sensible of the heat of Clove Oil. 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. Oil of Cloves stops Bleeding so wonderfully, that nothing doth it more, or better; it doth it absolutely, safely, etc. and yet after all that superlative Character, he supposeth it may be done a degree better by Oil of Turpentine; for that will stop Blood more safely, than what doth it absolutely, and safely. Oil of Cloves is not to be exceeded, but Oil of Turpentine is most excellent. If this be not Teague all over, I know not what is? What, Dear joy! Doth Oil 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 Rhetoric, 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 Oil of Turpentine. Crato it seems was the Author, though he is pleased to attribute the whole Invention to himself: which a Man of Candour would have abhorred to have done.  
In this senseless, and irrational Raillery, 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 Nonsense; 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 Logic; 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 Logic, and the Rules of Persuasion, but to Truth itself; 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 falsely 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 Achievements 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 flourished 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 astonished at the Forehead of this most notorious and most infamous Plagiary! Surely no Man without Opium, could accuse me publicly for arrogating the whole Invention, when the World knows not an Author less guilty of such Piracy than myself, or more than my Accuser, who concludes as he began, with Falsehood 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 despite of this invidious Gainsayer, who, fearing his fathering it on Crato would not deprive me, attempts by a second Lie 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 Chimaera 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 justify 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 lose 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 chastised for his Fault, and cunningly thought to prevent me by throwing Dust in my Eyes, and crying Murder! 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 fit Name for it;) but how much it blackens himself more than me, every Man of sober Sense 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 Physic, for imposing on the Public, 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 Murdering 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, confessed 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 myself 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' 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', cried out Fire! Murder! etc. 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 ginger, and a Rebel. He Libelled the learned King James, and that most Pious Prince, and Martyr, his Son, and damned them both to Hell, together with the whole College who Compiled the London Dispensatory. Among whom were our Immortal Harvey, Glisson, Jordan, Mayern, etc. 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, Unskilful, Dishonest, Impudent in Sin, Sodomites, Idolaters, Ranters, Men that Worshipped 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 paralleled 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 Usher. He tells us, That those two Jesuitical Prognosticators, Lily, 
True and perfect Narrative. etc. 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 Downfall 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 Crabtree 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 Empirics, 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 Villainies of those Execrable Traitors, 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 buy, 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, etc. 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 Fishwoman 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 satire; 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 satire, especially a little Glysterpipe Fellow, who lives within a mile of the Gallows, and is to die within a Rope's length on't.  (i. e. Cobbling) Physic Books, and Scribbling Almanacs, (his two chief Talents) yet beg him to desist from satire; 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 Satirist. He hath enough of the latter; but he wants even that Modicum of the former, to complete him. He is but an Infant satire, he hath Nails, but no Teeth. He can scratch but can't by't. In short he is a Scold, not a satire. 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 Polished 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. etc.  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 looked upon no better than a Bronchotomist or Cutthroat. 
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 Universal 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, etc.— Both of these do strangely larvate and disguise this puniteous Balsam, etc.  
Did they rightly understand how Blood like Mercury might be Polymorphised, 
p. 6.  etc. these Dogmatists would never be so forward to pierce poor Man's Skin, rashly let out, and throw away the substantial support of Life, etc.  
The efficient Cause or Agent of Blood is the innate Archaeus or Vital Spirit, 
p. 9  which chief 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 inferior 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 Archaeus becomes aculeated, extimulated, and becomes exorbitant, framing variety of Exotic, Morbific Ideas, 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 Archaeus, etc.  
Anger intoxicate, pourtraying the perfect Idea of Madness, which sometimes is so graduated, that no Poison 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 eucrasy, 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, etc.  
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 Archaeus 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 show the Nature of the Disease suitable to the part afflicted. Here the Latex and Vital Juice apostalize by degrees from their purity, the Ferments, etc.  
As the Soul inhabits the Archaeus, 
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 Cantharideses 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 Archaeus fabricated, being put into a fretting condition upon the apprehension of this virulent I laister.  
Nothing is more congenerous, symbolising with the Animal Gas of Life, than highly exalted Spirit of Wine, being forthwith embraced, 
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 urinous like the Spirit of the Animal, whereby it is enabled to profligate the Morbific Matter through all the Emunctories, Sluices, 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 : 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 publicly exposed, and charged with Ignorance in the Writings of Hypocrates, or Galen, and all the very Rudiments of Physic, without one word to say in his own behalf, which did not confirm the Imputation his Antagonist publicly laid on him.  
As to his surviving Friend G. H.— y, He, like himself, hath been many Years a busy Scribbler of Heterodox Opinions and Principles in Philosophy and Physic; prostituting the Noble Art of Healing, and Libelling the most Famous Practisers, 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 Pennyworth 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 anathemas and Censures of the Church against Heretics, and Heterodox Men. In our Statutes, instances of it often occur against Traitors, 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 Libelers 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 itself, have reproached 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, etc.  
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 inhuman, 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, etc. 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 Heresy, in a Moral Sense. 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 Friend 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 Physic? No, all the Learned Physicians in England are of my Mind, and can think no otherwise of so Ignorant, so Rude, so Pragmatical a Traitor, 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 Empirics do, pretend to more Sense 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 Sense 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 justify his accounting me Nothing. I have the Honour to be in the Friendship, Esteem, and Correspondence of the most Eminent of the College, and Surgeon's 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 public 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 Almanac 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 Public, as the former doth his Folly to me. He outdoth 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 Fool's Coat, and put on him that of W. Lily; 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 enjoined 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 lieth 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 Almanacs, and those Prophetic Emblems, were two faulty things I took notice of, He hath laboured to put a shame 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 Lily, and the rest of that Tribe used to word it, which is next to saying nothing, or worse.  
His Democratical Hieroglyphic pretends to contain the future State of England for an Hundred Years, beginning 1650. half of which being passed, and gone, his future Tense is become Preterimperfect; and he fatum post fata canebat, foretells 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 gins 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 Sceptre, Sword, and three Crowns; then comes a Crowned Dragon with a Sceptre in his right Claw— It's easy to unriddle the meaning of all this, being in plain Hieroglyphical English, the Murder 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, Maugre 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 turned out of White-Hall, and Murdered at its Gate, as King Charles was. Then appears an Assembly of Men sitting in an House like a Statehouse; 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 People's Minds in this Nation (so long famous for being deluded by Prophecies) with an Opinion that the Crown, Mitre, and Coronet, are by Heaven destined 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. IU. 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 Prophetic 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 order 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. Lily, 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 Gownsmen, 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 turned upside down; there are his Twins and Dragons, flaming Towns, Fleets, Graves, dead Corpse, lean Cattle, Streams of Blood, a red Sea of green Blood, and all the Scarecrow, 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 Murder 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 Almanac 1692. as a Prophecy to be performed 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, achieve so mighty a thing? But his Pen was like his Name, nothing but Lies; and so is Sidrophel's too. Their Hieroglyphics 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 ginger, or an Almanac-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 Practice, and Profess it; particularly Sidrophel, whom I will here expose as an ginger, 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 (fertile 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 laughed at, as the Whimsies of Men, who have given their Imagination's 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 ginger, because they have no certain Foundation at all: The Ephemerideses, 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 Frenchman, 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 falsehood; 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 Zodiac, Twelve Houses, and first Elements of their Art, they do not agree. So that all their Judgements are as false, and uncertain, as their Calculations; much more so, if there be no Zodiac in the Heaven, nor an Heaven for such a Zodiac; but that all their noise of Trigons, 
Merc. Vol. 1. n. 6.  Triplicities, etc. be as the Athenians call them, a fardel of Gibberish Nullities, invented on purpose to abuse the credulity of Children, and Fools. Their dividing the Heaven into 12 parts, 
Dr. More's Mist. of Iniquity p. 349.355. also his Answ. to Butler, 105. Gassend. c. 8. p. 722. Vol. 1.  is without Reason, or Mathematics: Their qualification of the Stars, without Philosophy: and both mere imagination, as vain as Vanity itself, 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 another's Ignorance, Error, and Knavery; even to the height 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, etc. 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, shows 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 Lily, 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 remarked 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  make Almanacs, that prove the truth of this Reflection every Year: But such Masters as Albumazer, Cardan, Gaurichius, Nostradamus', and Lily; they have convinced the World, that the Art is not able to help them to the Knowledge of any Accident before hand. They han't so much foresight of Wether as a Shepherd, or a Sinner that carrieth an Almanac 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 Battle fought, or a Town taken or besieged: That about next December, (as Merlinus Liberatus lately foretold) There will be business at the Old Bailie, 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 lily's Almanacs 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 Almanacs 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 Murder 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 Almanacs filled, till the Restauration, of which he foretold not one syllable.  
John Gadbury, deceived by Lily, or some such lying Spirit as led him, foretold also in an Almanac near 75. that about 80. the Turks would make a mighty inroad to Germany; That Vienna should be taken by them, and they push their Victory home to the Belgic 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 Messiah 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 shown 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 Lance; 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 ginger, 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, confessed that scarce one of their Predictions in forty proved true: 
Lib. de Judic. cap. 6. D●. More Mist. 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 Judgement 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 ginger.  
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 Urania, all the many Calculations in his Collect. Jennet. are accused of Falsehood 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 triple 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 Lorraine, 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 Lily 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 Lady's Death, would have placed Laurels 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' 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 Liar, because he once spoke truth. The veracity of them both is the same, in despite of a single Instance each have to the contrary. One Swallow doth not make a Summer. When Astrologers, like the Father of Lies, 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 Liars, they are not to be believed, till their Truth becomes apparent by experience, and that (God wots) 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 Logic 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 patched up the decayed Credit of Astrology among the Populace, because they could not see the Spirit by which he Divined. But wiser Men knew he Predicted by Intelligence with the Contrivers, not the Planets. The Stars that presignified it to him, dwelled on Earth, not in the Twelve Houses of Heaven. And they perhaps did not err, who looked on the whole thing as a Political Device to dispose the Minds of People to that great Change: We all know that he failed 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 foretell 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 Poisoners Naturalists 
* Theophr. Hist Plant. l. 9 c. 6. Boyl Nat. Phil. p. 264. Medela Medie p. 103. Ramsey of Poison 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 ginger, as well as Poisoner; and foretell 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 Usurper. 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 verify it; 
Magastrom. p. 173. Dr. More Mist. 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 stopped, and cried 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 proved 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 Murder 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 ginger, the Night before that Murder, said on the top of his House in Florence, That to morrow the greatest King in Europe would be killed: 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, etc. 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 Vxor 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 determine,  
You are my Prisoners, base Vermin.  
Can they not tell you that as well,  
As what I came to know, foretell?  
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 ginger, who did not foresee his own; for as soon as he made his Prognostic 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 always 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 ginger 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 ginger 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 ginger, 
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 Poisoning his Wife.  
I was personally acquainted with Dr. W. Ramsey, who publicly boasted of Skill enough in Astrology to foreknow a Man's Fate; particularly whether he were born to die rich, 
Chr. Astrology cap. 6. Sect. 6  be fortunate in Marriage, etc. 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 Married such a Wife as provoked him to write that satire against Matrimony, called Conjugium Conjurgium.  
That Beelzebub of Astrologers, W. Lily, was wholly Ignorant of the Restauration, when he wrote those Traitorous 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 embarked 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 ginger, (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 possessed 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 different 
* See many singular Instances of the different Fates and Dispositions of many famous Twins, in Mr. Chambers, p. 53. etc. Dr. More 's Mist. 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 men's 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 inquire of the ginger 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 Battle 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 passed the Hellespont, consisted of Seventeen Hundred Thousand Men, 
Idem l. 3. cap. 6.  the greater part of which fell in the Battles 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, etc. in the Wilderness; and of late in Jamaica, Sicilia, etc. or the Inundations of Deucalion, Holland, etc. 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 Myriad 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 Mist. 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 Celestial Constellations beget such Accidents as occur on Earth; How comes it, that when the like Horoscopes recur, as were at the Genesis of Alexander, Caesar, or Judas, Men most famous for Piety, Art, Valour, Poetry, etc. 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, , Religion, Marriages, Diseases, Languages, Laws, Tempers, Colours, Constitutions, etc. come to be peculiar, and constant to each Kingdom, when the Influence of Heaven on them, is so various? The Heaven's 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 Wether, 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 decried 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 banished 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 dependence 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, Nabuchadnezzar, Nero, Julian, Manasses, Maximinus the Tyrant, Jannes, and Jambres, Elymas the Sorcerer, Albumazer, Caracalla, Menander, Saturninus, Hildebrand, Carpocrates, Priscillianus, Porphyry, etc. 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 professed 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. Peter's. The humble Servant of Urania, depending upon the Direction of good Stars to a good Angel, went to the Choice hoodwinked; 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 joined to Jupiter, shall obtain whatever he asketh. He that's placed under Mars in the ninth House, etc. shall be able to cast out Devils. A Prophet must be born, if in Gemini, etc. In short, The Gift of Prophecy, Power of Religion, Secrets of Conscience, Command over Devils, Virtue of Miracles, Efficacy of Prayer, Future State, etc. are all made by these Men to depend on the Stars; Vouchsafed by them, and to be known from them. The Flood, Moses' 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's Mist. Godliness, p. 337.  because He was born while Saturn and Gemini, etc. That He Disputed with the Doctors so Young, because Jupiter, etc. 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. Mist Godliness 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 Magis to the place where he lay; and our Stargazers 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 Puppets, act and speak as Jupiter, or Mars please to constrain us: 
De Civit. De● lib. 5.  Or (as the ginger 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 helped, but Jupiter: And so Freeborn 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 encumber 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 verify? 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 Magic, 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 ginger, in the Preface to his Hagiastrologia, page 24. confesseth, That without the Heavenly and Supernatural Wisdom, Astrological Skill would become rank Poison to the ginger, 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 ware, even as are Witches and Conjurers. See more the like in the Book itself, 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 gratify 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 Carcases 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, forbidding 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 ripped up, etc. 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 foretell 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, Dependence on God, and all Christian Duties; leading Men to Atheism, Idolatry, Blasphemy, Witchcraft, Magic, Murder, and cruel Butchery; 
Picus Mir. p. 434. Against Dr Humes. cap. 31.  how great is the Impudence of those Men, who publicly 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, as 
* Preface 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 denied; we saw them but the other day in these miserable Nations: James Naylor, O. Sedgewick, Mary Cary, Hannab Tapnel, and other Enthusiastic, Hysterical Millennaries, who Prophesied, as Lily and Culpeper Prognosticated; as Goodwin, Bond, and H. Peter's Preached, or Scribbled; 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 administered; an Operation made, or a Judgement 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 nourished by a few Modern Lunatics— 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 ginger: He tells us, it's so far from being useful in Physic, that it renders useless all the endeavours of the Physician, and excuseth the mischievous do of Quacks, and Empirics, 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, etc. to Celestial Influences. In short, he calls it a ridiculous, and groundless figment: And its Professors Cheats, Knaves, Fools, Rebels, Doctors of Falsehood, Lying, etc.  
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 foretell any thing by the Stars. All of them decry its use in Physic. And Sidrophel himself (pardon me for naming him among such Worthies) in the Preface to his Translation of Dolaeus' 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 Practisers 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. etc. 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 called 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 muzzled 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, Physic, Law, etc. of great mischief to Mankind, destroys the use of Faith, lessens the Reverence of Miracles, destroys 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, etc.  

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, etc. C. Agrippa treats them with great Scorn and Derision, and exposeth their Art as a Delusion, and great Cheat. My Lord Bacon, Chancellor 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 itself as insignificant as a Dream.  
The Learned K. James saith, 
Daemonolog. l. 1. c. 5. Verit. Relig. l. 4.  Judicial Astrology is learned 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, etc. 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 Lie as often as they speak. Our Ingenious, Learned Feliham wonders Astrologers can for bear laughing when they meet, 
Resolve 96.  to think how they gull the People with such a Fallacy, and Delusion as is impossible to be true. And Mr. Freke the ginger, calls it Madness, Folly, Delusion, an Irrational, groundless Imposture, impossible to be true. 
Essay p. ●3. etc.  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 decried 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 hissed it off the Stage; to whom may be added Des Cartes, Rohault, and all the new French Philosophers, beside our Learned Athenians. I might tease them with Lucian Juvenal, Quevedo, Hudebrass, Poor Robin, Mr. Wilson's Witty Play called the Cheats, and others, who with sharp Wit and keen satire, expose them in their true Shapes and Colours. (●ee Sir Roger L'Strange's Fables, and the Turkish Spy.) 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 Scribbler, an Empty Physician, and an Ignorant Star-Cazer. This Man tells the King, That the Common Practisers of Astrology deceived his People of their Money, Lives, and Loyalty, and that London abounded with such Idiots, 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 mere 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 Ephemerideses 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 Public 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 Fanatic Enthusiastic 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 surprised them all. Plutarch, Tacitus, Suetonius, etc. say that Otho was induced to the Murder 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 Murdered 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 Traitorous 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 murdered. 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 murder 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 Marquis 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 Murder 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 Welsh 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 possessed Prince Leolin, that He should wear the Crown of Brutus; he first refused to attend the Coronation of Edward I. then Rebelled against him, and Invaded England, but was Vanquished and Slain, His whole Family extirpated, His Title annexed to the Crown of England, and the Welsh subjected to its Laws ever since.  
Afterward in the Days of Henry IU. 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 Britain's, by his Assistance, should recover their Ancient Freedom and Liberty; Rebelled, made War, and were overthrown, and kerbed 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 People's 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 expressed 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 Diu. 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 Almanacs and other Firebrand Libels, published and scattered about the Nation, by those two great Incendiaries, Lily 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, shows how much he was seduced by this wicked Art, and instigated to that Rebellion which ruined him, and endangered the welfare 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. Ulpian 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 Welfare, that as I have proved, they were often driven out of Rome and Italy, in the times of Tiberius, Vitellius, Constantine, Gratian, Theodosius, etc. 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 Felony to Practise that Hellish Art: And it's still punishable by Fine, and Imprisonment. See 33 Hen. VIII. c. 8.14. etc. 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 spite 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 Public Welfare, are the Authors of Heresy, and Rebellion, and as such have been not only proscribed by the wisest Governments, but forbidden by Scripture, exploded by Fathers, eminent Divines, Statesmen, 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 remembering 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 show 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 independent 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' 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 Almanac-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 one's, 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, etc.  when we are sensible that so piercing, and hot a Planet, as the Sun, cannot do it, seems the Opinion of a Lunatic, or an ginger, rather than a Philosopher, or Man of Sense.  
3. If the Moon, etc. How is it that the Spring-Tides happen, as at Plymouth, 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, etc. 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 increaseth, 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 Cape-verd 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 Wether. The Caspian Sea, which is an hundred and twenty Germane 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, etc. 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 Gulf of Florida, to the Latitude of forty degrees, it runs North-East many hundred of Leagues. In the straits of Gibraltar, it runs always 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.  etc. How is it that some very fierce ones are so irregular, variable, and uncertain? Like that of Euripus, which it's said so puzzled 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 Gulf, 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 Gulf 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 surprise 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, etc. how is it, that in contrary Positions the same Effect is produced, as in Plymouth, a N. N. E. and W. S. W. Moon, make High-Water, and Springtide 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 Cornwall; 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 dependence; 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 Earth's Motion, compounded of the Annual and Diurnal, etc.  
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. etc.  That the whole difference of Tides, viz. Diurnal, Menstrual, and Annual, and all the Motions of the Sea which concur with the Moon, depend on one Common Cause, viz. the Common Centre 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. Mist. 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. boil 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, etc.  
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 extinguished. 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 infer, 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 Logic.  
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 Tropic, in his return meeting this Star, the Old Astronomers falsely 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 asked 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 Celestial System, as not to know that those Millions of Stars visible to us, beside the many Millions more beyond our Ken, are Suns, Moons, Earth's, habitable, and without doubt inhabited Orbs, of vaster Magnitude than this Earth? Or will any but an ginger believe, or suppose those Myriads of vast Bodies were created to be the cause of men's 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, 
Almanac 1692.  that Stolen Baffled 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 refer Sidrophel, and without Astrology can foretell him, that so Ignorant and Unlearned as I am, I have said more against his Art, than he is able to Answer.  

CULPEPER REDIVIWS: Or, a Second Part of SIDROPHEL VAPULANS: Briefly containing some short Reflections on a late Scandalous Libel against the Royal College of Physicians, London; Entitled, A Rebuke, etc. 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 confessed, 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 inhuman and unchristian; and yet no Man has been more busy 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 Physic, Surgery, Pharmacy, Chemistry and Anatomy, etc. 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 overborne, 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, aught 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 Libeler, let's both fly at all Games, mounting his  Raillery 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 Academic 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 Almanacs 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 ruin 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 meddling 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 complete 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 denied, but that the most considerable Anatomical Improvements made in our Profession, are chief owing to the Learned Members of the College; such as Dr. Harvey, Tern, Scarburgh, Croon, etc. And so sensible the College hath been hereof, that they passed a Statute forbidding any of their Members to read any Public Lectures, even in Surgeons-Ha●, unless the Master and Wardens did first ask the President's leave; giving this Reason in their Statute, Quip aequum & ratio●i consentaneum arbitramur, ut qui per Collegam aliquem pr●s●iunt, two 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 Honourable Body: One a Fellows Lecture, whereby every Fellow, at his Admission, is obliged publicly to Dissect a Human Body at such time as the Precedent 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, etc. 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 Cursed 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 chief because it's not to be Learned 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, Apotheosize, and Chemists.  
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; mere showing 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 Railer; although he labours hard with all imaginable Affronts, to provoke and abuse them.  

Seplasium. Ars Chirurg. Rebuke.  Some times he charges them with Falsehood, Murder, 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 Physic, 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, Shoes, 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 Physic, 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 Physic, 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 Vainglorious Part of it, is no less palpable in the many occasions he takes to magnify 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. Goodas 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 Liars, Quacks, Empirics, Knaves, Villains, Fools, Thiefs, Robbers Scoundrels, 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 aught to be treated with Civility, who hath so Abdicated it, and like a Beast of Prey, forfeited all Right to Law.  
To conclude this loathsome Employment: I have read a great many Libels with which the Liberty of late Times hath Poisoned the Nation, but in none found such a mixture of Brutish Ignorance, Saucy 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 Clothed in an Eloquent Civil Style, with an Air or Semblance of Reason, etc. But in this we meet nothing like it. No Manners, Sense, Wit, Learning, Truth or Reason; but downright 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.