ASTROLOGY. 
creating in light: Cut eontrariwife when they are to take 
deep root, and to itrike downwards. And thus we may 
obferve dowers that are under the moon’s influence only 
open their blolfoms in the night p whilft thole which are 
peculiarly under the government of the fun open every 
morning when he begins to rife, and clofe in the evening 
when he links below the horizon. Thefe effects and in¬ 
fluences of the moon are fo common, and fo generally 
known, that it were almolt needlefs to repeat them here, 
but for the purpofe of drawing this conclufion, that, as 
one planet has a known and forcible attion upon lublunary 
things, it is natural to believe that all the others aFe en¬ 
dued in Come degree with a fimilar force and virtue. In¬ 
deed molt phyficians know that the planet Saturn rules till 
climacterical years, as the fun doth critical days, and the 
moon the crilis of all acute difeafes ; and that every feventh 
year Saturn comes to the fquare or oppolition of his place 
in the radix of every man’s nativity ; and that, after the 
revolution of the fun, he becomes the chief ruler of cri¬ 
tical days, and is often obferved, by his configurations 
with the moon, to fet alide the fatal crilis of thole defpe- 
rate diforders, over which the patient was not expedied 
to live. From thefe phylical reafohs, we may fafely con¬ 
clude that Satmn is by nature cold and melancholy, as 
the fun rs hot and cheerful; and, being thus oppofite to 
the fun in quality and etfedt, fo is he in relation to the 
figns and manlions of the heavens where he bears rule, 
and therefore inclines always to cold, as the fun does to 
heat. Hence it follows, that when the fun is in Aquaties, 
which is the proper fign of Saturn, and oppofite to his own 
iign Leo, the weather inclines more to cold than to heat; 
and, at every conjunction, fquare, or oppofition, of Saturn 
with the two great luminaries, we always find the weather 
cold, tnoift, and lowering, even in the midft of fumincr, 
unlefs the rays of Jupiter or Mars interpole, in which cafe 
thefe eifedts are fomewhat lefs vilible. Thus, we may 
prefume to affirm, that the influences of the fun, moon, 
and planets, and are eltablilhed beyond contradiction. 
“ But, belides thefe figniorities of the fun, moon, and 
planets, the fixed (tars have alfo their principalities in the 
heavens. The Lord, who gave the fun for a light by 
day, gave the ordinances of the moon and (tars alfo for a 
light by night; and to thefe (tars hath he committed a 
certain rule or dominion over the day and night, and that 
promifcuoufly. (Jer. xxxi. 35. and Gen. i. 18.) Now the 
liars have no vilible operation upon us, belides that little 
light they adminilter to our eyes in a dark and clear 
night; and that is fo very fntall, that all the Itars in hea¬ 
ven, belides the fun and moon, are not to be compared, 
in this refpedt, with the fmalleft wax-light; and this little 
light too is only to be had when the nights are ferene and 
unclouded. Can it then be fuppofed that God made thefe 
glorious bodies, many of which are bigger than the whole 
earth, and move in their orbs as lb many other worlds in 
the heavens, merely for a twinkle in the night, and that 
only when the weather permits? lo! every little daify 
that grows upon the cold ground has a fecret and infenfi- 
ble virtue wrapt in its leaves and flowers; and have thefe 
eeleltial bodies no influences but what we now and then 
catch with our eyes, as they occalionally fparkle their dim 
glances upon us ? Yes, they have each of them a fecret 
power and virtue, wherewith they abf upon all earthly 
things, as well by day as by night, and in cloudy as well 
as in clear weather. But, as their operations are not per¬ 
formed by lenfible and palpable means, it follows that 
they have a fecret and hidden way of rule, whereby the 
influences are imperceptibly infilled into every concern of 
this life. And, as have the liars, fo alfo have the fun 
and moon, a fecret and imperceptible adtion, peculiar to 
themlelves; for it is not the mere heat that gives life, nor 
the mere moifture that fullains it; for, if that were the 
cafe, then might man make living creatures artificially. 
It is true that heat may hatch the eggs, but all the inge¬ 
nuity of man cannot make an egg that can be hatched ; 
for there is a fecret operation of the fun and moon, inde. 
pendent of heat and moifture, necelfary to the produdtion 
of life, both in vegetive and fenfitivo animals. And in 
thefe fecret and infenfible operations, belides the light that 
they give, conlills that rule which the fun, moon, and 
liars, were ordained to exercife over all the fons of day 
and night; and herein are written all thole ordinances of 
the moon and liars, which are to be a law unto mankind, 
and to the whole body of nature, lo long as the world en¬ 
dures. (Jer. xxxi. 35, 36. J Thus the liars have their na¬ 
tural influences, alligned to them in the frame of nature, 
from the beginning of the world ; and thefe influences are 
difftifed upon all earthly things, as far as day and night 
extend their limits. And this God himfelf confirms, when 
he fays to Job, “ Canll thou bind the (weet influences of 
'Pleiades, or loofe the bands' of Orion ? Canll thou bring 
forth Mazzaroth in his feafon ; or canll thou guide -Are¬ 
turns with his fons?” (Job xxxviii.31, 32, 33.) Whence 
it is evident that the Itars called the Pleiades have their 
ordinances, that is, their lvveet influences, which no power 
of man is able to rellrain. And the liars of Orion have 
their ordinances, and binding faculty, by Ihowers in fum- 
mer, and frolt in winter, bringing fuch an hard and tough 
coat of armour upon the ground, as all the contrivances 
of man are not able to prevent. Thus Mazzaroth, and 
Ardturus with his fons, have alfo their ordinances, and 
the whole boll of heaven have their courfe, by which the 
purpofes of God, and all the events of this life, are uni¬ 
formly brought to pafs. (See Argol. Altr. ante Ephem. 
lib. ii. cap. 8. Stellae tempelfuofas hint Orion, Ardturus, 
&c. pluriofae Pleiades.) 
“ To this purpofe it is faid, by Deborah the prophetefs. 
That the Jlars of heaven fought in their coufes againjl Sifera, 
(Judges v. ao.) not by fword or fpear, nor by thunder or 
lightning; but by thofe fatal and malevolent influences,, 
wherewith Siffera and his hod were marked from their 
cradle, and drawn together, by the operation of time and 
chance, to partake in one common deftrudtion in the fame 
day. And to this effect the Almighty difeourfes with Job, 
concerning the treafures of the fnow and hail , which he has 
hid agaivfl the time of trouble, and the day of war and battle. 
(Job xxxviii. 22, 23, 24, 25, &c.) Now what can we fup- 
pofe the meaning of this hiding to be, but the order of 
thofe meteors, fo curioufly lodged within the arms of the 
liars, and withheld by their influences, that they may fall 
by due courfe of nature, at fuch exact periods, as to ef¬ 
fect the punifhment of the wicked, and of God’s declared 
enemies, fuch as was Sifera, at the precife time when their 
abominations call forth the judgments of an injured and 
incenfed Deity ? And after the fame manner the light and 
heat, the wind and rain, the thunder and lightning, the 
frolt and dew, are all of them fo admirably contrived in 
the polTtionof the heavens, that they come to pafs in their 
due and appointed feafons, and make the grafs to grow-even 
in the wilderntf, where no man dwells. (Job xxxviii. 26, 27.) 
Now it mull be obvious to the meanelt underltanding, 
that, if thefe things were regulated by a virtue immedi¬ 
ately ilfiiing from the bofom of the Deity, then would the 
light and heat, the wind and rain, and all the reft of them, 
fall only where men and bealls dwell, who may fee and 
enjoy the blellings of them, and adore and glorify Him 
who fends them ; but, lince they fall equally where nei¬ 
ther man nor living creature is to be found, it follows, 
that they fall by virtue of means, and that in a continued 
courfe, wherever thofe means lead them, making the earth 
fertile and productive where eaters are not to be found, 
as well as where they are. 
“ Thus far Scripture and Reafon unite, in confirming 
our belief of the (tarry influence; but, there are lo many 
other proofs of it, in the ordinary productions of nature, 
that it woidd be highly unpardonable were I to pafs them 
over in filence. The loadltone affords us one very (Ink¬ 
ing example, by its attractive and expullive faculty, and 
by the magnetic virtue it has a power of communicating 
to other diftinct bodies. Thus we fee a needle, only 
touched with the loadltone, and placed in the compafs, 
will 
