ascendant _ad_ [symbol: Gemini] [symbol: aspect "conjunction"], and
[symbol: Moon] _ad propriun_. The Presbyterians were, in their pulpits,
as merciless as the Cavaliers in their pamphlets.

About this time, the most famous mathematician of all Europe,[16] Mr.
William Oughtred, parson of Aldbury in Surry, was in danger of
sequestration by the Committee of or for plundered ministers;
(_Ambo-dexters_ they were;) several inconsiderable articles were deposed
and sworn against him, material enough to have sequestered him, but
that, upon his day of hearing, I applied myself to Sir Bolstrode
Whitlock, and all my own old friends, who in such numbers appeared in
his behalf, that though the chairman and many other Presbyterian members
were stiff against him, yet he was cleared by the major number. The
truth is, he had a considerable parsonage, and that only was enough to
sequester any moderate judgment: he was also well known to affect his
Majesty. In these times many worthy ministers lost their livings or
benefices, for not complying with the _Three-penny Directory_. Had you
seen (O noble Esquire) what pitiful ideots were prefered into
sequestrated church-benefices, you would have been grieved in your soul;
but when they came before the classis of divines, could those simpletons
but only say, they were converted by hearing such a sermon, such a
lecture, of that godly man Hugh Peters, Stephen Marshall, or any of that
gang, he was presently admitted.

[Footnote 16: This gentleman I was very well acquainted with,
having lived at the house over-against his, at Aldbury in
Surrey, three or four years. E.A.]

In 1647, I published the _World's Catastrophe_, the _Prophecies of
Ambrose Merlin_, with the _Key_ wherewith to unlock those obstruse