THE ASTROLOGER ANATOMIZ'D Or the Vanity of Star-Gazing Art DISCOVERED BY Benedictus Pererius And rendered into English by Percy Enderbie Gent. London Printed by Ralph Wood and are to be sold by M. Wright at the Kings Head in the Old Bailey 1661. To the Honourably Extracted and truly Noble Sir FRANCIS PETRE Baronet SIR SVch hath been the sad Distractions of these our unfortunate times that Learning hath in a manner been trodden under foot Arts and Liberal Sciences contemned and villified amongst the rest Astrology hath had a grand Ecclipse many Scioli and illiterate persons like mushroms have sprung up and arm'd with Ignorance and Impudence mistake themselves for great Rabbies in that most profound Science And this scum of the many undertakes to tell Fortunes predict future Contingents inform silly Girles who shall be their Husbands with thousands of such like fopperies This Grave Judicious and Learned Author Benedictus Pererius comming by accident into my hands after I had seriously perused him I esteemed it not amiss to dress him in English habit and teach him to speak our Language to undeceive such as have been inveigled and misled by pernicious Star gazers I know there will not be wanting those who will carp at my Labours and therefore Noble Sir knowing your Education to be above the ordinary strain even of Persons of Quality your Judgement excellent your Skill in Mathematicall Conclusions transcendent your knowledge in Tongues and Sciences admirable and your Extraction Honourable I humbly beseech you to patronize these my weak Endeavours and give them leave to appear in Publick under the Wings of your auspicious Protection which if you vouchsafe I shall neither fear Momus nor Aristarchus but rest secure and subscribe my self SIR Your most Humble and Faithful Servant Percy Enderbie The Preface SO great is the impudency and madness of those whom fools call Judgement-giving or Judiciary Astrologers that they will needs perswade the vulgar and illiterate that the most holy and sacred Scripture as they boast and brag it not onely winks at but gives full power and authority to their Art of Astronomy and therefore forsooth God created the great Lights and Luminaries of the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars and said to them Let them be for signs c. Which words they will needs wrest to speak thus that by Astrological divination and observing the motion of the Stars they can prognosticate things to come and future events This grand error hath caused St. Ambrose St. Basil and divers other Fathers upon the true exposition of those words to enlarge themselves and upon sound Fundamentals not onely to impugne and disprove but also to lay open the vanities and fopperies of Astrological Predictions By the example of which Fathers but more especially by the heavy and several Sentences in holy Scripture against those kinde of Astrologers being moved and also by a just hatred against them by reason of their fraudulent cheating and pernicious lyes and couzenage this Book is undertaken to confute and refell those fantastick Divinations which is hoped will be accepted by all as being for the utility and good of all Johannes Picus Mirandulanus hath written very largely and learnedly upon this subject but his prolixity retards his Readers from perusing his whole works therefore in this Tract though the field be large and spacious such method shall be used that nothing shall be brought upon the stage yet many curious Questions offer themselves but onely such as shall be succinct and most conducing to the purpose In this Treatise against the vanity of this sort of Astrologers I will reduce all into five Chapters In the first shall be demonstrated that Divination is opposite and contrary to Sacred and Ecclesiasticall Doctrine Secondly That Astrologers are totally ignorant of Celestiall and Heavenly things Thirdly That this Divining and Fore-telling Art is contrary to Reason and Philosophy Fourthly That the Stars are so far from being the Efficient Causes of things to come that they are not so much as evident Signs Lastly Reason shall make it appear that no Predictions of Astrologers can be infallible and true The Astrologer Anatomiz'd OR The vanity of Star-gazing c. Chap. 1. Astrologicall Divination contrary to Divine Scripture Ecclesiasticall Discipline and Theologicall Doctrine Astrologers confuted by Sentences and Texts of holy Scripture Examples and Institutions of the Church and Theological Reasons THe most holy and sacred Scripture cryes out and tells us that the certain prescience and prediction of things to come and happen belongs neither to Man nor Devils themselves but is onely and solely to Almighty God himself read the Prophet Isaiah chap. 41. and you shall hear him say Shew what things are to come hereafter and we shall know that ye are gods and in the 44. chap. I am the Lord that make the signs of Diviners void and turn the Southsayers into fury And in chap. 47. God deriding the Babylonians and Chaldaeans confiding in their Siderial and Astrological Predictions thus speaketh unto them Stand with thine Inchanters and with the multitude of thy Sorceries in which thou hast travelled from thy youth if perhaps it may profit thee any thing or if thou mayest become stronger thou hast failed in the multiude of thy councels let the Astrologers of Heaven stand and save thee which contemplate the stars and count the moneths that by them they might tell things that shall come to thee Isa 47. 12. And a little before he had said thy wisdom and thy science this hath deceived thee and Jeremiah in his tenth Chapter admonisheth the Jews to contemn and set light by Astrological Predictions and Observations for that by no influence of stars any thing was either to be feared or hoped for these are his words According to the wayes of the Gentiles learn not and the signs of the Heavens which the Heathen fear be not afraid because the laws of the people are vain And Solomon in Eccles 10. denieth man to have the knowledge and foresight of things to come or contingent A man is ignorant what hath been before him and what shall be after him who can tell c. A man is ignorant of things past and things to come he can know by no messenger Thus we may plainly perceive the vain Astrological Predictions in holy Writ to be contemned derided and opposed And with the sacred Text in this as in all things else the Judgement of the holy Church walks hand in hand for ever from the very infancy and first beginning she cryes out against detests and condemns Judicial Astrology and the vain fooleries thereof how many and several yea and those most severe and checking Decrees and Fulminations hath she enacted to that purpose against those brain-sick Fortune tellers and Calculators of future events read in thé second part of her Decrees throughout the first five Questions and you shall easily discover her just anger against her perverse if so I may call them children or if such
demonstrate this in a wheel circumagitated with all possible celerity who with ink or some other material apt to make impression perspicable twice endeavoured to hit the same mark and at the stopping of the wheel found the two several impressions not far remote one from another This signifies nothing and gives as little shelter to the Astrologer as an uncovered Barn to a weary Passenger in a great showre of rain for although in the nativity of twins their might be some demurr or interval yet in their conception there was not any and if the condition of the constellation under which a man is born be so immediately variated the proper and exact time of any nativity must needs be to Astrologers incomprehensible To conclude we will produce St. Gregories argument to make this good If saith he Jacob and Esau are not to be thought born under the same constellation because not born together but the one after the other by the same reason we may infer that no individual man is born under the same constellation because he is not totally produced together but piecemeal and joynt after joynt as first the head theâ— shoulders next back and so till he come to the feet and Jacob was so near to his Brother that he held his foot in his hand Phavorinus disputing against the Chaldeans upon this point handles the matter exactly and with singular accuteness I would have them quoth he to answer me in this If the moment of time in which man at his birth hath his fate alotted be so exiguous and fleeting that in the same instant and under the same Circle of Heaven many cannot have their being after the same competency and that therefore Twins have not the same fortune because not produced at the same moment of time let them make it I say appear by what means they themselves can discover or attain unto the exact knowledge of the course of that swift flying and vanishing time which by the cognition of our intellectual part can scarce be comprehended and yet notwithstanding they averr that in the headlong tumbling and wheeling about of dayes and nights even the least moments produce immense and admirable changes Hitherto Phavorinus St. Aug. also gives great light to this discourse of Twins and handles it learnedly in his fifth Book of the City of God in some of his first Chapters and in the second Book of Christ Doct. where he puts Astrologers to their wits end if not to a non-plus for if in so short a moment of time all things admit a change that not onely several but for the most part contrary things may happen who can predict or foretel in the nativity of a childe any certainty since it is most certain that the very moment of time in which he was conceived and born is impossible to be exactly known by any suppose it granted that the Stars have great power influence and vertue over mankinde in general yet mans capacity to this very hour could never reach unto what vigour and force they have in the individuals because the aspect of Heaven and position of the Stars in every particular nativity cannot be attained unto and this by reason of the incomprehensible swift motion of the Heavens and Stars out-strips and prevents the dull slowness of our apprehension and observation The third Reason Let us lay aside the discourse of Twins whose interrupt birth may well puzzle Star gazers and behold and take into consideration thousands of nativities at the very same time and in the same Kingdome under the same aspect and position of Heaven and Stars and the Children begot by divers Parents Astrologers must needs give the same judgement and pronounce the same fortune to all those being born under the same constellation and daily experience shews the contrary for how many throughout the whole world are conceived in the same moment and at the same time born and yet in their capacities wits manners yea religion life and death there is a vaste dissimilitude and disproportion In the great Battle which Hannibal fought against the Romans how many both great Commanden and ordinary Souldiers perisht and lost their lives and yet no man is so destitute of reason or destitute of judgement as to think all those men born under the same constellation and aspect of the Stars and in that admirable Sea fight and glorious Victory obtained against the Turks in these latter times to the immortal glory of Christians will any man be so foolish as to think and affirm that all those miscreants who perished there and were swallowed up by the merciless Waves of the all-devouring Ocean were born under the same aspect of Heaven and constellation When Homer Hippocrates Aristotle and Alexander the Great were born were not also many others born in the very same times and moments yet in the several excellencies proved equal to them Phavorinus tells us yet further saying How many of both sexes of all ages born under several constellations either by earthquakes falling of houses taking of Towns shipwrack or the like have come to the same sad end and in the same moment of time which could never have come to pass if the same fortune and destiny attributed to every one at his nativity and the power of that moment had had its proper force and vertue or laws prescribed and if some things and events concerning the life and death of men born at several times by a likeness of constellations hapning after may seem to acquire a near or like success and contingency why cannot the parity bring it to pass that many Socrates Antisthenes and Plato's shall have their existence and being in form feature wit qualities through their whole life and death all alike and semblable which yet is impossible and therefore Star-gazers have but a silly shift by this argumentation to make us believe that men born under several and distinct constellations may have the same final end and Catastrophe The exquisite Argumentation of Bardesanes against Astrologers The Fourth Reason BArdesanes a Syrian exquisitely skilful in Celestial Doctrine in a Dialogue which by the intreaty of some friends he writ against the Chaldeans concerning Fate demonstrates the observations of the Astrologers to be vain and childish and their predictions to be full of leasings and falsities Euseb in his sixth Book of Evang. Prep Ch. 9. writes his words thus Amongst the Seres was a law which prohibited to commit murder fornication or to adore Idols from whence it was effected that in all that Region there was no prophane Temple to be seen no woman laciviously addicted or whorish no adultress thief or homicide neither had that scorching Star of Mars though in its full vigour or placed in the midst of Heaven power to enforce the will of any man to perpetrate a murder neither had wanton Venus though never so conjoyned with Mars power to induce any man to attempt his neighbours bed or violate his consorts chastity and
cold or a certain vertue of some other Influence but it is most evident that the Celestial Light is far more noble then any other Celestial Quality and the faculty of producing heat far excells that of producing cold furthermore in every thing there are two faculties or proprieties naturall to that thing the one universal the other particular in themselves contrary as in Saturn the production of heat by light cold by influence But reason and nature it self saith this cannot be done For as in a multiform body which the Greeks call Hetrogeneal according to the severall parts there may be several qualities and faculties as it happens in the body of man in the head and heart but it cannot happen in the star of Saturn being for as much as concerns its parts of the same form and nature the one part thereof is not beautified with light the other with influence but as the whole is replenished with light so also should it be with influence It is needless to make any other dispute against Astrologers concerning Influences for this one argument is sufficient to take away the influence of all things which are produced in nature seem they never so singular and wonderful The true proper and natural causes of all things have their dependency from two Celestial Principles Motion and Light which is most manifest by daily experience and all things most probably to be produced from them Astrologers imagine and dream that the figures and position of the stars with the signs in the Zodizck resembling the similitude of men or animals to have a great power and vertue in each mans nativity when by themselves and their own nature they are no such thing but have onely their existence and being in the Astrologers noddle which represents such and such for they may as well resemble them to Creatures Houses Castles Towers Tables or the like and therefore it is ridiculous to think that in such like figures there is any thing of consequence to divine or foretell future events Whether the Birth-stars of any man can be the certain causes of things which shall befall him THe second Fundemental of Astrologers is that the birth-stars of every man are to be observed for that from them all casualties and events of his life may be foreseen and prognosticated but who sees not this principle to be weak and infirm For why do not Astrologers rather observe the time and condition of the stars when man is conceived in the womb formed and animated for then by all probability there are more things considerable and of moment to predict good or bad fortune by reason that then man hath his first existence and then is the first celestiall force and power received and imprinted in him and throughout the whole nine moneths that his mother goeth with him inclosed in her womb all this while he is subject to the power and action of the Heavens And why do not Astrologers consider other Defluxions and Constellations which are contingent to man after his Nativity in regard that they are far more prevalent and powerful and more conspicuous in their effects then those which happened at his birth for the effect and defluxion of the stars which happened at the birth is often changed and varied the temperature of mans body being variated or by reason of some power of Constellations by education a several habit and custom of living or by reason of some certain lawes to the compliance whereunto man is forced to regulate and square his life manners studies and all other his actions and above all peradventure there is nothing of that first matter which School-men call Materia prima left in old and declining age which was at the first entrance into this universe This is the opinion of many and great learned Philosophers Neither doth St. Tho. Aquinas that illustrious School-man seem to deny it in 1. Part. Quest ult Art 1. which being granted the force of that first defluxion and celestial effect which was stamped and imprinted in man at his first being must at last of necessity totally vanish and fade away unless you will have it that the same celestial vertue and power can pass from one subject to another as it were flitting from house to house by changing its habitation or at least be so kinde that when it perceives its own decay and feebleness it will provide some neighbouring vertue of like condition and quality to supply its place and officiate in its room Whether the Conception or Nativity of man be more considerable to foretell Fortunes PTolomy the grand master of this Art affirms that there is as much if not more matter of weight and moment to be considered in the conception of man as in his Nativity these are his words When the temporal beginning of man is set down according to nature or as Schollars say per se or by its self that will be the beginning when the sperma or seed is ejected and ejaculated into the genital and apt place of conception but in potency or accidentally when the infant falleth from his mothers womb may be called his beginning also he therefore that either by chance or observation obtains the knowledge when the fit matter is aptly and duly received and inclosed in the vessel of conception ought by all means to follow that exact time to discover the proprieties of the minde and body of the then conceived Embrion by observing the configurations constellations at that very instant c. By which words he manifestly demonstrates that the most efficacious natural and even the first beginning of man is when the seed is first received in the time of conception upon which consideration the Astrologer ought principally to insist and reflect upon that moment and the then Constellation to divine and foretell the future events contingents and affections as well belonging to the body as the minde But to give a salve to this sore seeing it is almost impossible to know exactly the moment before mentioned either of conception or the other Ptolomy lest their Art may seem to be eclipsed who onely prognosticate from the nativity of man addes these words But he that cannot atttain to the knowledge of the seminal beginning must of necessity content himself and make use of and follow the time of the Nativity to predict future events and fortunes Haly that so much admired and followed Astrologer in his book which he writ concerning Elections candidly confesseth that the efficacy and exactness of fore-telling the fate and fortune of any man hath its greatest dependance upon the hour of conception But because Astrologers cannot arrive at this height of knowledge they are forced to flye for refuge to the hour of the nativity and when this kinde of professors are put to 't and prest with the argument of Twins all that they have to say for themselves and save their credit is that the diversity of contingents and events in Twins happens by the
that all things must be referred to an incorporeal cause that is either to God himself or Angels who moves the Heavens so that whilst Angels move the Heavens in the very state habit position and conformation of those Heavens as it were by certain nods and becks of theirs like notes and signs described therein they should point out and predict the events and contingents of humane affairs but this in many respects is not credible for whosoever grounds upon this foundation must needs grant and say that Angels induce mortals unto all and whatsoever even the greatest and most horrid fins and villanies In this point Philosophy doth inform us and also Theology doth the like that there is no action of Angels as they call it transeant which immediately proceeds from them other then local motion and that the Angels who do circumvolve and wheel about the Celestial Orbes these I say those great masters averre to have no other operation concerning humane affairs then what proceeds from motion and the light of the Heavens For those I know not what insluences distinct from light I have formerly sufficiently made null and there is no man so brain-sick who will affirm if he will speak things probable and likely that motion and the light of heaven can infallibly clearly and distinctly premonstrate all future effects of sublunary things and again when two effects of the same cause necessarily shew one the other as they must proceed from the same cause so must they also proceed after one and the same manner otherwise it cannot be that they should indicate one another Such things as are broughâ— to pass by God and his Angels in Celestial bodies must have their beings necessarily and invariably whereas those which are beneath the Moon have their contingency very mutably and I may say defectively In like manner other arguments may be framed if the stars who are confined to a set and certain number and of a like condition can be signs of future things which are almost infinite both in number and variety and in themselves discrepant and differing How can the same positure and conformity of stars under which Twins and many others are born in in the same moment of time be a certain sign properly and distinctly to presignifie so many several and distinct dispositions casualties and events as we daily discover in them therefore if we grant the stars to be signs of future things we must also affirm them to be their causes and if we deny them to be Causes we must also deny them to be Signs Whether Comets or Blazing Stars be signs of humane affairs THou wilt perhaps avouch that Comets which are generated in the high and sublime air are signs which predict strange and wonderfull events to ensue and of those Contingents the Comets are neither the causes nor effects and therefore probable it is that the stars are in the like condition in respect of sublunary affairs for my part I shall never grant Comets to be signs of humane chances and events though this is as much believed amongst the vulgar as exploded by wise men Should I walk hand in hand with the vulgar in this errour and say that the Stars produced the Comets as Poasts or Curriours to go before them to foretell future events if I should I say grant this yet concerning the stars another account is to be given for that they have no corporeal cause superiour unto them Whether those men who make the Stars signs of future things do thereby upon necessity establish that thing call'd Fate WE will make no great business of this the Authors of this opinion although unwillingly engage themselves in a necessity of Fate far more then those who will have the stars to be the causes of sublunary effects for grant that the stars should be the causes of all things which are produced beneath the moon yet for all this there is no necessity of bugg-bear fate for what is to be done and effected upon earth by the influences and defluxions of the stars that may be impeded and crost by contrary affections of the matter or by the intervening of particular causes as obstructions thereunto But if stars be naturally the signs of future Contingents then upon necessity whatsoever they signifie must come to pass otherwise they are signs fallacious and deceitfull and seeing that our great God hath ordained and instituted them to signifie and give notice of things and hath engraven them in heaven as in some voluminous Tome to point out and be as it were Indexes of things to come to pass if the event of these things which they signifie should not prove answerable you must either make God their author ignorant or a great impostor and deceiver If you say the starres presignific what is to be done in some particular causes and onely in some and not in all this is extreamly improbable and fable like for why should the stars foretell the future chances and effects of some particular effects rather then of others and not rather of all alike the reason being indifferent and like in all or else you must say that the stars are the future effects of all particular causes If this be so it must needs follow that there will be no causes left remaining to impede obstruct or hinder whatsoever is by the stars predicted and it will necessarily come to pass that whatsoever is sublunary must be tied to an absolute fate and necessity which the defenders of this opinion will not allow of or should they it were most wicked and impious As concerning that Text of Isaiah 54. The Heavens like a book shall be folded up which amongst all the places of Scripture formerly set down seems to have the most of difficulty in it I finde it diversly and by divers and severall Expositors glossed and interpreted yet no exposition if it be of an approved Authour or at least probable which makes for or sides with that opinion Justinus Martyr answering to the forty ninth interrogatory of the Orthodoxes wherein the Querie was how that place of Isaias was to be understood when he saith That the Heavens like a book shall be folded up saith as the divine word sometimes by a similitude compares heaven to a skin extended saying who extends the heaven like a skin other times to smoak other times to a chamber and so on the contrary speaking of the dissolution of the heavens it is compared to a book and other things and by David in his Psalms to a garment waxing old St. Hierom upon the same words saith we must observe that he saith not the heavens to perish but to be wrapped up like a book that after all sins were detected and made manifest and read they should no more be opened never more to have the sins of men written in them In the Scripture the Heavens are said to shew the justice of God to reveal his anger to prove and give testimony of mans wickedness St.
Thomas and Nicholas de Lyra expound these words after another manner the Heavens according to them like a book shall be shut up that is henceforth Ethnicks shall make no use of their Astronomancy nor dare to foretell the future events of mankinde as if they were able to read from the stars future fortunes and contingents Others interpret these words thus there shall be no further entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven from henceforth the gates thereof shall be shut up Others expound these words in this sense the help use and ministery of the Heavens and Stars which is bestowed upon mankinde before the day of judgement after shall cease and have no more being for although the Heavens shall not utterly perish and be anihilated yet those good offices and favours which now they perform on the behalf of mortals and their sakes shall after that day of dread and terrour cease and shall have a long vacation which by Isaiah is excellently exprest in the similitude of a book which when we have made what use we can of it and fully perus'd it we clasp and shut it up and lay it aside Another interpretation of this place is not to be rejected some are of opinion that in that terrible day by this similitude is meant the high indignation wrath and just anger of the supream Judge against those Nations of whom the Prophet speaketh such a hurly-burly confusion and consternation such horrour fear and trembling amongst the reprobate such remorse grief and anguish of minde that through the very vehemency thereof the very celestial luminaries will seem as it were to be extinguished the starres to drop from the firmament the motions of the Orbs to be in rebellion and heaven it self to be wrapped up and foulded and vanish away and what is here said by the Prophet to be foulded up by St. John in the Apocalyps is said to recede and depart away But to make this more plain if such as are not acquainted with Antiquities startle at this word folded up speaking of the book in the similitude they must know that the Pebrews as also the Romans and all civiliz'd people had not their books bound up in Folio Quarto or Octavo as the now mode and form is but in a different manner for they had skins of velome or parchment or else the thin rindes of trees tatched and fixed together of one and the same breadth in length and being fastned at the one end to a Cylineer or round piece of wood they resembled much our Pedegrees which are drawn by Heralds or a web of cloth wrapt about a weavers beam so that when they had a minde to peruse any parcel or passage they did fold and unfold as occasion required and this the Prophet used as a similitude for as the Membranes encircle the round piece of wood so do the Heavens environ and compass the Terrestrial Globe one above another and wheeling round about it as it were their Axle-tree Thus have you heard many expositions of this seeming hard place of Esaias and I am confident your own judgements will tell you that not any one of them favours these grave masters of Astrology Southsayers Fortune-tellers Star-gazers Quacks or what you will call them CHAP. 5. How it comes to pass that Astrologers foretells many things true IT now remaineth that we make an end of this disputation and draw to an period that we lay open the reason why so many Astrologicall predictions prove true and congruent with the events and contingents Of this subject we spoke something formerly but that it might be the more clearly handled and for the better understanding of the Reader it is principally reserved to this its proper place Although it be most certain uncontroulably true that Astrologicall predictions are most false as we have already sufficiently demonstrated but because in former ages yea and in our present all-knowing times it is almost believed and that by grave and learned persons as a granted fundamental that in a manner all predictions of skilful Astrologers have proved true and attested by their events and issue thereof and that very few or none have fallen out contrary to what they have divined Well let us also follow this torrent lest we should be thought to swimme against the stream and seem to be Joannes è contrario in opposing that which by publick saith and authority is cryed up and embraced the verity of those predictions being granted let us examine and look into the causes thereof viz. by what means Astrologers can infallibly fore-tell future things which seeing of themselves they are uncertain they fall not within the power and notion of humane intellect I will avoid prolixity and therefore do peremptorily affirm that if any predictions of Astrologers have proved true that truth proceeded not from the verity and firmity of that art of Astronomancy but from other causes and what these causes be I will tell you succinctly Four causes there are by reason whereof Astrologers sometimes speak truth Sometimes by the very instinct of the Devil men are prick forwards to divine future things The first Cause SOmetimes the verity of those predictions proceeds from a clandestine contract betwixt the Devil and the Astrologer otherwhiles by an implicite instinct or contract and unperceptible instigation of the grand Impostor the generall enemy of mankinde men though ignorant in themselves of the devils delusion are impelled and egg'd on to divine and prophesie This St. Augustine confirms in the fifth book of the City of God chap. 7. saying Not without cause do men believe that when Astrologers miraculously almost or at least strangely foretell many things which prove true that is done by the instinct and help of wicked spirits whose sollicitous care it is to imprint and ingraft in the mindes of men the noxious and soul destroying doctrine and opinion concerning syderial Fate which possibly cannot be discovered by the Art of inspecting or observing the Horoscope which Art indeed is none at all Thus St. Augustine By how many wayes the Devil by himself can foretell or teach others to do the like in future things THe Devil first perswades man and buzzeth in his ear that he will teach him how to foretell future contingents and accidents either by presenting himself unto him in a visible form and shape making large promises or else articulating and frame voices in the air fore-shewing succeeding events without the assumption of any aerial body or by dropping down some scroll or character which shall contain such like divinations otherwhiles by dreams when we sleep at other times to men perfectly awake by working upon their fancy by poisoning and possessing it with strange chymericall imaginations thereby to move the phantasie to apprehend strange phantasmaes whilst by this deceit he moulds the party into an apt and fit disposition to predict and prophesie that which the phantasma represented unto him The devil may know some future things which he imparteth by
Valentines and to draw them out of boxes hats or aprons by which it often happened that men drew verses which contained that which was agreeable either to their present fortune or future condition as it happened in Alexander Severus being then but a youth or stripling and far from any hopes of aspiring to a Monarchal Diadem who being amongst divers of his associates at this interlude and pastime extracted out of the box or scrutiny some Verses of that illustrious Poet Publius Virgilius Maro contained in the sixth book of his Aeneids which predicted the Command of the whole Romane Empire Be carfull how to rule the Romane State 'T will be thy charge allotted out by Fate The humble cherish and the proud cast down Cut Traytors off and thou shalt keep thy Crown And it is no wonder that such things now and then come to passe through the permission of God moving the mindes moderating the tongue and sorting and mingling the lots according as he will have things to evene and fall out for not onely Balaam the South-sayer and false Prophet but his Asse also foretold most certain veracities and future events By the permission of God those who so earnestly gape after the knowledge of future things are catcht in Satans nets and toyles and intangled in many pernicious errours WE must not in this place omit the grave good and Christian admonition of St. Augustine in his book of Christian Doctrine chap. 22 23. wherein he averts That now and then even by the permission of our heavenly Creator it is so brought about that the devils by the help of man forelleth many things which prove true whereby many seduced by a various superstition destructive perswasion and impious curiosity in believing those vain Divinations being left to themselves or as it were by God forsaken through the demerit of their fore past sins and transgressions run head-long into most dangerous and execrable villanies and enormities let us take St. Augustine along with us Hence it is saith he that through a hidden and occult divine judgement men thirsting after the knowledge of unlawful things are delivered over as their want on voluptuousness hath deserved to be deluded and deceived by the fraud and deceit of the prevaricating Angels unto whom the lowest part of the world according to the admirable order of things by Institute of Divine Providence is subjected by which deceptions and delusions it falls out that through the most damnable and superstitious divinations many as well future as present contingents are discovered and happen accordingly as by them predicted and many things fall out through their observations of the adorers of this art that being intangled they become daily more and more curious and so ensnare and involve themselves in the traps and tacklings of most pernicious errour this kinde of soul-fornication the sacred Scripture discovers and also addes if they fore-tell you things which really so fall out yet give no faith or belief unto them for though the Image of dead Samuel foretold unto Saul veracities yet was the sacriledge by which that Image was effected the more to be execrated and detested The woman in the Acts of the Apostles told things which were true and certain did St. Paul therefore connive at that wicked spirit no he chastized him and dispossessing and casting him forth delivered and freed the poor creature from that vexation and thraldom then needs must all these Apotelesmatical Arts and obnoxious superstitions begotten and brought forth by pestiferous combination betwixt man and the devill be odious and hateful to knowing mortals and to be avoided and abhorted by all good Christians Thus this great light of Gods Church To these may be added two causes more and although not so probable yet as much in use and practice Many foretell future Events rather out of a prudence and experience in humane things then by Astrological Art The third Cause MAny there are who foretell future things not so much by their skill in Astrology and Apotelesmaticals as by a deep and searching reach of a pregnant intellect and by a long knowledge in the practice of humane affaires from whence they divine strange things to their Clients from the observation and insight in their affairs and negotiations employments studies and conditions for some there are who taking a survey of the temper affections and inclinations of other mens bodies and constitutions and observing what kinde of course of life they lead whether vertuously or viciously inclined what company they frequent what exercises they delight in they imagine and intimate what is likely to befall them and from hence with a great deal of audacity and impudent confidence predict what ensuing events shall befall them And according to this rule and score when they see a Prince to tyrannize over his Subjects and rack them with Contributions Excize Free quarter and such like other extortions presently they divine that this Potentate shall be murthered or unking'd If any man spend his time in robbing by the high way breaking up of houses or the like Oh he shall be hang'd a blasphemer of God and Religion a broacher of damnable Heresies a murderesse of her Husband questionlesse you shall be told such an one must be bound at a stake and round about it fire and fagots and so be burnt to death This kinde of divining crafty Hannibal made use of who perceiving the temerity rashnesse and ignorance in the Martial Discipline of the Romane Consuls and General Terentius Varro and C. Flaminius foretold and prophesied unto his Africans a glorious victory and to the Romans an ignominious overthrow and dismal slaughter which confident assertion of Hannibal the immediate overthrow of the Romane Army and destruction of the souldiers made current and good The too much confidence and credulity of such as run after Astrologers oft times is the cause of their speaking truth The fourth Cause OFt times the predictions of Astrologers prove true through the foolish and light credulity of their Clients for men for the most part give credit and belief unto such things as are foretold them either concerning the results they most vehemently desire and thirst after or such as they most extreamly fear and abhor for this vain and sottish credulity of persons gaping after that preknowledge of their fortunes doth distill and infuse into their thoughts either a grand hope of the good which the Star-gazers promise or contrariwise an inavoidable fear and sadnesse abhorring the deplorable and fatall events which they are made believe shall shortly fall upon them These two passions of the minde Hope and Fear have such dominion and power over man that they work strangely upon him and oft are the efficients that Contingents come so to passe as predicted by Astrologers for a vehement and ardent hope and desire of the promised good fortunes doth ofttimes so stir up and induce man to make himself fit to receive them that he employeth all his endeavours and useth his