Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	body_n	earthly_a	soul_n	2,499	5	5.3816	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54321	The astrologer anatomiz'd, or, The vanity of star-gazing art discovered by Benedictus Pererius ; and rendered into English by Percy Enderbie, Gent.; Adversus fallaces et superstitiosas artes. English	Pererius, Benedictus, 1535-1610.; Enderbie, Percy, d. 1670.	1661 (1661)	Wing P1465A; ESTC R40059	54,756	134

altogether unskilful to return an answer how then can any man with reason think it possible or worthy belief that men who know not such things as are more obvious and triviall should give an account or judgement of things more remote and hidden from the knowledge of mortals After this let them instruct and teach us the defluxions and effects which flow and have Influence over the several and dissipated Regions of the world and then perchance we may believe them when they sooth us up with the future effects of the stars for who knows not that it is far more easie to apprehend and know things present then those which are to come and future especially things subject to mutability where the Contingents are various and therefore uncertain Let them likewise make manifest and express unto us the occult properties and power which sublunary things have which we rather admire then understand in Stones Herbs and Animals for these seeing they are in a manner obvious and conjunct unto us and subjected almost to all our senses and which by daily experiments may be found out and discovered certainly must have a more express motion and plain discovery But the intelligence of heavenly things must needs be of a far greater difficulty and labour Heaven being so far remote and distant from us and onely discoverable by the sole sense of the eye which ofttimes is deceived and brought into errour through the longinquity of Intervals or the violent and swift whirling about of the Heavens the depraved and indisposed affection of the medium or of the sight the fault and imperfection of the Astrolabe Tables or other Astronomical Instruments and this we finde attested in the sacred Scripture Wisdom Chap. 9. For the body that is corrupted burtheneth the soul and the earthly habitation presseth down the understanding that thinketh many things and we do hardly conjecture the things that are in the earth and the things that are in sight we finde with labour but the things that are in the Heavens who shall search out and thy sense who shall know unless thou give wisdom and send thine holy Spirit from on high This sufficiently confutes Astrologers who pretend to discover all humane events of which most have their dependency upon the most inscrutible will and councel of the most High and Mighty God Against the fictitious Antiquity which these men vainly boast to have concerning observations ABove all our Astrologers boast and brag that they have observations attested and confirmed by their events of I know not how many yea innumerable years beyond the limits of computation almost out of which their art hath its radix original and perfection for seeing that in the revolution of time elapsed divers things have been produced and come to pass the same signs preceding by the due minding and observation whereof their Art was conflate and compleated and therefore they endeavour to perswade us that the Chaldeans through their diligent Astrological observations during the space of four hundred and seventy thousand years have brought forth this admirable birth I mean the profound Art of Divination to its full maturity and perfection But how childish fictitious and improbable this is is thus easily discovered Astrologers let them brag what they please could not so many thousand times collect and gather no not twice or thrice those observations and experiments for the face and aspect of the Heavens and the position of all the Celestial Signs which was once shall scarcely or never or at least not till immense revolutions of years return and be the same For the eighth Orbe in which the wandering Stars have their being compleats and finisheth not its course before the expiration of thirty and six thousand years and the most learned Mathematicians demonstrate by convincing arguments that the motions of the Heavens are incommensurable and therefore the same Aspect of the Heavens and position of the Stars cannot frequently happen The Philosopher Phavorinus in his fourteenth Book Apud Gellium and first Chapter confirms this reason with admirable perspicuity eloquence and clearness If saith this learned Authour the Chaldeans observations were grounded after this manner to wit to make a strict observation under what habit form and posture of Stars a childe should be born and then from his non-age and very cradle even to the Catastrophe and last period of his life to register and record his fortunes condition qualities and inclinations together with the circumstances of his affairs and transactions and then as they suppose the manner was put all those collections upon a File and enrol them upon Record and afterwards when the same Stars should meet in the same manner and have the same position questionless they must needs tell the same fortune to any one born under such a constellation If this was the way and out of this principle they grounded the foundation of that Discipline it is altogether weak and slippery for let them tell me in how many years nay ages this Orbe or Circle of Observation may be perfected there is no Astrologer but must know that those Stars which are called erratical or wandering and the fatal efficients of all those things do not unless in an innumerable and almost infinite number of years return to the same posture and with the same habit from whence they wheeled and wandered so that no order or tenor of observation no memory whatsoever no nor the very character of such Letters and Monuments could be preserved or endure so long a time Thus Phavorinus And if it should be granted that Astrologers should dive into the secret force and defluxion of every Star seperately and alone by it self what force and power Stars have when they meet and conjoyn and are mingled either in the Heaven Air Earth in sublunary things or their actions this is not to be discovered Reader observe what Origen writes upon Genesis cited by Eusebius towards the end of his sixth Book of Evang. Prep Such things as they affirm Astrologers to come to pass by the commixture composition and temperature of several Aspects this very thing shews their ignorance for who can tell the harm pretended by a malign Aspect the Constellation of the benign and propitious concurring and whether the malign detards that which the benign bestows because it points at the others location and whether it change or rechange or what commixture is made what man can judge or perceive he whosoever shall seriously penetrate into those mysteries shall finde that they are not to be comprehended by humane wit and capacity whosoever shall make experiment o● these things shall finde Fortune-tellers and Nativity-casters oftner to erre then speak the truth wherefore Isaiah as if these things were totally impossible hath this saying to the daughter of the Chaldeans the grand professors of this mystery Let the Astrologers come and make thee whole let the Southsayers tell what is to betide thee by which we are admonished that even the most

world being determined let us observe whether these skilful masters with all their Art can keep this so exact division of time The woman is delivered of her burthen the Midwife looks whether it be male or female next she hearkens to hear it cry as a presage of the life and strength of the childe after she brings the infant to the Astrologer and when she prattles with him as gossips use to do during all these petty transactions since the little one was an inhabitant of this world how many minutes as we may conjecture have past away especially if the Artist were not in the Chamber but in some other remote place expecting the news Again whilst he is accommodating his Instruments of Art to investigate the exact and precise time whether nocturnal or diurnal how many minutes fly away and here again when the Star is discovered which denotes the time and minute then comes the twelve parts the thirty parcels into which each of those is to be divided then the subdivision of those parcels into sixty minutes to be examined and canvased over and although they can never attain to so precise and punctual a finding out of the exact time yet they affirm this must necessarily be done in the wandering and unfixed Stars to know what disposition and habitude they have with those which are fixed and what like figure is amongst them when the infant was born things standing in this sort that by reason of the variation of that most short time a certain knowledge without errour is impossible to be had not by the vain and foolish students of this Art who gape after a thing impossible to be attainded but also thus silly creatures who run after them as Prophets and Wise men deserve the fools coat cap bauble and all Chap. 3. Supposing Astrologers to know the very Depth and Cognition of Heavenly Matters yet by eight Reasons it shall be made manifest that they are not able to tell future Events LEt it pass with a Transeat as School-men say that Astrologers as they impudently and foolishly arrogate unto themselves have the perfect knowledge and science of the Heavens and Stars yet all this notwithstanding I will make good that they cannot divine and fortel future contingents and that by undeniable and convincing reasons and thus by many and valid arguments I confirm it Eight Reasons by which it is proved that even out of a perfect cognition of the Stars future events cannot be foretold The first Reason IT is a vulgate and well known principle in the Schools of Philosophers as every thing is concerning its esse or being so it is concerning its cognition viz. by reason of the causes for which every thing is made and hath its being by the same it ought to be known if we intend to have a perfect knowledge thereof but to the generation and production of future particular events not onely heaven concurreth but also a particular cause heaven is an universal cause by which it is manifest that this vigour and efficience must also be universal and indeterminate to produce particular effects but the power and force of Heaven is determinated by particular causes in which respect Aristotles saying is most true The Sun and Moon generate man particular effects although forasmuch as belongeth to the effection and conservation they have their dependance on causes universal yet for what belongeth to their proper nature and natural proprieties as well specifical as individual they rather emulate and imitate a particular then an universal cause Besides Celestial Causes the knowledge of particular Causes is most requisite to know their effects IF therefore over and above Celestial Causes for the producing of future effects it be necessary to have a particular efficient cause and matter aptly prepared of which if the one be wanting no effect can be produced from which we must of necessity conclude that for the prenotion of future effects the knowledge of Celestial Causes is not sufficient and this is in daily experimentals manifested unto us we behold the painful Husbandman at the same time and under the same aspect of the Stars to sowe several sorts of Grain from which also several and distinct succreases accrew which diversity cannot proceed from the Stars but from the several seeds themselves with which St. Augustine agrees saying When many bodies of several kindes whether animate herbs or shrubs are seminated in the same punctilio of time and at the same instant afterwards innumerable increase is produced and not in several but in the same regions and places of the earth and of such admirable variety in the springing growth flourishing vertues and fassions and will not men as the old adage is laugh at their own folly if they consider these things and what I pray can be more foolish and sottish then being convinced by these daily experiments to say that man and onely man is subjected to the fatal decree and influence of the Stars These last words of St. Aug. Phavorinus the Philosopher expresseth more amply saying If the period time destiny and cause of mans life had its dependance upon Heaven and the Stars what will they say of flyes worms and many other animal culums as well volant and ceptible as najant are these tyed to the same laws of production and expiration as man have Frogs and Flies their production being and fate from the influence and motions of the Stars if you Astrologers will not grant this why affirm you that the power of the Stars hath such prevalent power over mankinde and yet prove defective in other creatures Of the equal Birth and unequal Fortune and Events of Twins The second Reason WEre it true as Astrologers would perswade us it must necessarily follow that twins who are conceived and born about the same time must needs in all things sympathize and be alike yet daily experience shews the contrary but to wave all other dissimilitudes it often happens that the one twin proves a male the other a female 'T is true Cicero in his Book of Divination tells us of Proclus and Euristhenes Lacedemonian Kings and twins yet their ends were unlike and the glory of their actions much discrepant but above all that which we read in the sacred Text is an all satisfying example Jacob and Esau proceeded from the same Concubitus as Paul Rom. 9. sufficiently tells us and at the same time born were notwithstanding severally inclined disagreeing in conditions unlike in manners dissenting in judgement and differing in other habits and qualities neither availeth that lurking hole or after game which Astrologers keep as a reserve to recruit them when the day is almost lost saying that that small parcel of time which interceded betwixt the nativity of the two twins though it appear little or nothing to us yet in the Heavens by reason of the vastness thereof and the inconceptible wheeling and most quick motion maketh a wonderful difference and variation Nigidius Figulus goes about to

several aspects and conjunctions they might presignifie unto us what things in future times whether universal or particular shall happen but not be the causes thereof and therefore he compares the Heavens unto a book in which the great God as with a pencil hath delineated and drawn forth all the contingents which shall happen in future ages so long as this fading world shall last and to strengthen this assertion he citeth a certain book entituled Josephs Narration formerly highly esteemed where the Patriarch Jacob is brought upon the stage thus speaking to his sons I have read in the tables of heaven whatsoever shall befall to you and your sons Plotinus a Coetanean and School-fellow of Origen was of the same opinion and asserts it in a Book which he entitles Whether or no the Stars have any power and in another book concerning Fate in the sixth chapter he saith that this is the use and benefit of the stars that whosoever beholds them and contemplates as books and letters and is skilful in this kind of literature shall know future things from those figures if with a kind of anologicall comparison he diligently search out their mysteries and signification and Porphirius affirms that being fully bent to kill and make away himself he was diverted from that wicked resolution by the means of Plotinus who fore-saw the danger by the vertue of the stars This opinion Julius Severus in his ninth book of Fate will not have to be exploded or condemned and that he may make it appear probable and plausible he bringeth some sentences out of holy Writ to trim and deck it up withall for saith he to grace the matter Isaiah chap. 34. not obscurely tells us And the heavens shall be folded together like a book by which it is meant that after the day of judgement the heavens like a book shall be claspt and fast shut up which now are laid open and exposed for us to read and meditate and to the same effect and purpose that of Psalm 21. The Heavens shall declare his justice and in Psalm 18. The Heavens shew forth the glory of God and in the first book of Genesis speaking of the stars And they shall be for signs and in Psalm 88. The Heavens shall confesse thy marvellous works O Lord. Neither quoth Origin doth this opinion take away free-will in man no more then formerly did the Prophesies of the ancient Prophets or the prescience of all future things which is in Almighty God and resteth in his divine bosome Plotinus opinionates that this power and skill to predict future things by vertue of the stars is given to man either by the singular favour of Almighty God or through the excellent knowledge in Astrology for the obtaining whereof we use all possible diligence and acurate study And Julius Severus perswades himself that St. Augustine was not much averse or alienated from this opinion by reason that in his second book against the Manicheans cap. 21. speaking of man who whilst he is invested with mortallity hath these words Neither is it to be thought that in the Celestial Bodies our thoughts are so concealed as in these our bodies but as certain motions of the minde appear in the countenance especially in the eyes so in the perspicuity and pureness of the Celestial Bodies our motions of the minde cannot be concealed as I imagine Whether according to St. Augustine the Stars are Signs of all humane affairs IF any man peruse attentively this place of St. Augustine by these words Gelestial Bodies he shall finde him not to understand the Celestiall Orbes but the bodies of the blessed who after the Resurrection shall be invested with celestiall glory and immortality making a grand distinction betwixt men encaged in this fragile and perishing body and the beautified who enjoy the fruition of Almighty God and live a life Angelical and whereas here on earth we can palliate and cloak our thoughts and cunning dissemblings and thereby make our neighbours believe that which we never intend in Heaven all thoughts are mutually discovered all glossing couzening and dissembling utterly laid aside and cast off And that this is the meaning of that great Doctor these his ensuing words demonstrate These therefore deserve that blessed habitation and happy change into Angelical forms and brightness who when they had power in this mortal pilgrimage under homely habits to palliate leasings and untruths detested it and onely with a most flagrant and ardent zeal of truth and verity shunned whatsoever might scandalize the hearer abhorring upon what account soever to tell a lye for the time will come when nothing will be hid and whatsoever is hid shall be made manifest So that we see St. Augustine speaketh clearly and perspicuously of glorified bodies and not of Celestial Orbes Heavens or Stars so that I am in admiration that Julius Severus should so inconsiderately and rashly read over this place and through misunderstanding brand so eminent a man with an opinion which he is so far from maintaining that in the fifth book of the City of God he utterly opposeth and confuteth Of the nature and variety of Signs THat the stars are signs of future events I conceive not onely contradictory to solid Philosophy but also opposite and repugnant to holy Scripture and although the reasons which I have alledged in the premises be sufficient to convince this infirm doctrine yet in this place I will produce other forcible arguments to corroborate what formerly I have maintained First therefore whatsoever is a natural sign of another thing that upon necessity must be either its cause or effect or both and proceed from the superior and common cause for besides these what fourth member can be imagined to have the sign upon necessity joyned with the cause by it signified this is no way distinct from the third Member for such a connexion and conjunction can no other wayes have a being then that the cause should produce that out of it self which is the Sign and then that which is the thing signified as the same thing which moves the cause to action and excites it must also applicate and apply that which is presignified but each of these must necessarily be referred to the common cause from whence this argument may be framed If the Heavens and Stars be signs of all sublunary things they are either their causes which this opinion allows not or the effects which no man in his wits will grant or presume to affirm or else which is all that can be said as well celestial as sublunary things proceed from the common cause as the Rain-bow is sign of fair weather not that it is the cause or effect thereof but one and the same is the common cause of both upon necessity the common cause of celestiall and sublunary bodies must either be corporeal or incorporeal I do not think they will say it is corporeal for above the Heavens there is no body at all therefore they must grant