THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 345 



most ancient authors of respe<5lability for what he asserts, 

 confirms the same thing, and further informs us, that 

 Adam before his death, instru6led his son Seth in this 

 science, who afterwards engraved the rudiments of it 

 upon permanent pillars of stone which endured through 

 manj generations, and were not entirely effaced till some 

 time after the deluge. See Jos, Ant. lib. 1. cap. 4, 8, 

 12, &c. We have it from the same authority that this 

 art was taught by Enos and Noah, who preserved it to 

 the days of Abraham, and he increased the knowledge o£ 

 it by divine aids, teaching it to the Chaldeans and 

 Egyptians, Joseph is also said to have patronized and 

 taught it in Egypt, and is supposed by Origen, Diodorus 

 Siculus, and other ancient historians, to have been the 

 author of an astrological work called. The Aphorisms of 

 Hermes the Egyptian.* Moses afterwards taught and 

 professed it, independent of the gift of prophecy, which 

 always came by divine inspiration, and consequently was 

 only exercised upon certain extraordinary occasions. 

 From Moses we are told the Prophets and Seers had it, 

 and that it was afterwards particularly taught amongst 

 the tribe of Issachar, who are on that account stiled ia 

 the sacred writings, tnen who had understanding in the 

 times^\ and were expert at resolving alj questions con- 

 cerning futurity, and as this tribe were neither priests nor 

 Levites, nor endued with the spirit of prophecy, it fol. 

 lows that their understanding in the times, and their ability 

 in foretelling future events, arose entirely from an acquired 

 Jtnowledge of the signs and influences of the heavenly 

 bodies. For the same reason the Persian astrologers were 

 called magi, or wise men, who were skilled in the times ; 

 and the Chaldeans termed their young students in astro, 

 logy, men skilled in wisdom, and cunning science to learn 

 the learning of the Chaldeans. + And after the Chaldean 

 piethod of studying this science of astrology, Daniel, 

 Shadrach, Mesech and Abednego, were instructed by their 



*Ortg. torn, in Gen. Died. Sic. lib. 1. cap.2, f IChron. xii. 32.. 

 i Esther, i. 13. Daa. i, 4. 



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