and ashes Hamilear the Carthaginian Captaine led on by the Ariolists sacrificed all the while he was in fight in hope of better successe but finding it in the discomfiture of his party to fall out on the contrary he cast himselfe as a desperate sacrifice into the fire to quench it with his blood that had put him in so great hopes and stood him in so little stead Rhadagusus a King of the Gothes in warring against the Romans did nothing almost but immolate or sacrifice for auspication or divinations sake so that they began boastingly to spread abroad Rhadagusus who had reconciled to himselfe the protection and assistance of such Gods was sure to overcome But nevertheless he was taken and slain with above 100000. of his army Papyrius Cursor oppugning Aquilonia the Pullarian Auspicator would needs be presaging clean contrary to his tokens whose fallacie being found out the Consul praesumed a good omen notwithstanding and beginning the fight caused the lying Augur to be placed in the front and the first dart that was cast by the enemy struck him stark dead Eudemus being foretold by a cunning dream-speller that although he was now in exile yet he should return to his own Land within five yeares within which space he notwithstanding dyed in â—â—racusa but to make his prediction good he said he meant his grave which is every mans own land Constantia an honourable dame of Rome having received assurance from Astrologers of a long healthfull and most happy life fell sick within sive daies after of a burning feaver and finding that there was no way but death she strained her husbands hand and concluded both her speech and life with these complaining words Behold what truth is in the vain pregnosticates of fond Astrologers Ninus who detested all Astrologers with their deceipts suppressed Zoroastes who would deale in nothing without their encouragement Pompey with his guard of prophets lost his head and Caesar by contempt of Oracles subdued his enemies Iustinian exiling all sorts of false Prophets with their bag and baggage did flourish as a Conquerour whereas Iulian admitting them with all their packs of falshoods and blasphemous lies did perish as a castaway At such time as Brittanicus waited for the great lot of the Roman Empire by the comfort and encouragement of a vaine Astrologer he lost both life and all by the rigour of a bloody Tyrant Thrasillus the Mathematician whom Tiberius had taken into familiarity presaging good things upon the sight of a ship but things falling out contrary to what he predicted Tiberius was purposed as they walked together to cast him down a praecipice for a falsary and an intruder into his secrets Seneca by a pretty fancy bringeth in Mercury perswading with the Gods that they would abridge the life of Claudius if not for any other cause yet even for pitty and compassion of the poore Astrologers who had already been taken with so many lies from yeare to yeere about this point as if the destinies were not more favourable then their grounds were sure the credit of Astrology would decay for ever St. Ambrose telleth of one that prognosticated great store of raine to fall after an exceeding drought but none was seen till it was obtained by the prayers of the Church Galen writeth that none of all those Prophets and Astrologers whose skill was commended and their depth admired in his time at Rome gave any perfect judgement either as touching the disease the continuance or cure thereof Manfredus a rare Doctor of Astrology assured Ordelaphius a Prince in Italy that that very yeere wherein he died if there were any certain knowledge by his art he should not end his life before extremity of age had made him lame and unweldy Paulus Florentinus lived till 85 yeeres of age and yet he would assure his friends in private that he never found one comfort that might promise long life in the figure of his birth but sudden death with many tragicall and most lamentable accidents The great dearth of Cattle which was so certainly expected by the Calculators Anno 1558. turned to a wonderfull encrease of all kinds of sustenance At the same time that the fond Bohemians were affraid to be consumed with sudden sire that should come down from Heaven as some preachers gave warning they were almost drowned with a second Flood by means of excessive showres spring-tides and store of land-waters that ranne down with immoderate abundance as if God had resolved to descry the falshood of their jugling At another time the people were so scared with an universall feare of waters scattered aboad by prophets of this kind as a certain Abbot seeking to prevent the worst built him a Tabernacle upon the top of Harrow on the Hill but the conclusion is that before Summer was halfe spent all the ditches were drawn dry and the castle perished for lack of water Paul Flerent noting two constellations under which the State of Florence was refreshed after long and bloudy warres findeth them so crosse and opposite one to another as himselfe is forced to confesse that small light of assurance may be taken from the blaze of this Beacon Pencer prognosticated upon the last Comet that our bodies should be parched and burned up with heat but how fell it out Forsooth we had not a more unkindly Summer for many yeeres in respect of extraordinary cold 25. Of the Heavens calculating their own purport without the helpe of an Artist and the suspition of Magastromancers predicting rather by diabolicall instinct or the suggestion of their own Familiars then from any vertue of the starres THe day before Iulian died one and he an heathen watching over night saw a conjunction or compact of the Stars expressing thus much in legible characters To day is Julian slain in Persia Also Didymus Alexandrinus had a vision of white horses running in the ayre and they that rode upon them said tell Didymus in this very houre Iulian is slain and bid him tell it to Athanasius the Bishop Constantine in his holy meditations calling up his eyes Eastward towards Heaven saw the similitude of a Crosse wherein were stars as letters so placed that visibly might be read this sentence in Greek In this thou shalt overcome At what time Caesar was in the battell of Pharsalia one Caius Cornelius a notable prognosticator in Padua beholding the flying of Birds cryed out Now they give the onset on both sides and a little after as a man possessed with some spirit cryed out again O Caesar the victory is thine Such was that of Apollonius concerning Domitian of which before Numa Pompilius a Magician or Sortiary not inferior to any had frequent and familiar company confabulation and congression with Aegeria a Nymphish devill Simon Magus had a dogge they say could speak and doe many prodigious pranks Quintus Sertorius had an Hart which he consulted withall Pope Sylvester the second had a dogge which he held more deare then the Kingdom of Naples
as our English word founds aptest or her apish and accidental sports by confusedly shadowing one kinde of creature in another And causing them to rise and fall in their own mud like the imperfect animals in Nilus without any further hurt or help to the whole universe save that men may consider that He who made all things of nothing can make any thing resemble every thing and that Christians might learn to blesse their Creator for their more perfect formation But idle-witted and fantastical men have fancied figures and faces in stones and roots like as we have done of late on Tobacco-box lids and therewith have fraught their studies as Papists have done their Sacraries with Reliques or as women have deckt their closets with shells Neither is the vanity all but they have superstitiously nay and forcerously made these umbrages of creatures to be the tutilaries of Kingdoms Nations Countries Cities persons from devils thunders tempests shipwracks pestilences poysons serpents vermine and who knows what 12. Whether a diabolical compact and familiarity may not justly be there suspected where praestigious things are apparent and yet miracles are denyed the Law affords no precept the Gospel hath made no promise Nature hath no power Art hath no principles the means have no warrant and the end hath no profit no profit neither to Church nor Common-wealth 13. What is the difference betwixt those that call themselves Magicians Mathematicians Astrologers Prognosticators Diviners and those that are called Soothsayers Necromancers Conjurers Inchanters Sorcerers Wizzards and Witches Is this all the difference that the one is guilty of a compact or covenant the other not Why there is an implicite covenant as well as an explicite and one leading to the other and by how many of both parties hath even an explicite covenant been confessed Or that one is arted the other unlearned What good of an art without a gift the more learned in an evil art the more to be abhorred Let them both see to it whether the main of their learning be not of a delusive suggestion rather then of a diligent acquisition Or that one is imperious over the Devil wheras the other is his supplyant The Devil smiles alike at the pride and at the humility of a superstition And can no more be enjoyned then he can be entreated And will yield that either of them shall openly command so they will but secretly implore Or that the one operates by the celestial the other by terrestrial imps Hath not idolatry and superstition and why not witchcraft been committed by things in Heaven as well as things on earth Me thinks a Magician operates by the baser imp of the two For a Witch works by a living dog cat mouse rat c. But he by a dead one configured constellated written painted ingraven Or that Witches are for the most part female but they male Oh! the nobler sexe abusing it self is alwayes the viler Or that Witches are poor and envious to the infesting of women children cattel c How proud are they then that dare do the like to Nations Kingdoms Princes Magistrates c. Or that Witches are violent and revengeful in their practices but Magicians are pleasant and merry in their pranks Certainly it is good neither to play with Saints nor Devils such their sports are Satans earnest Doth not the one thus act with more reluctancy and the other with more complacency For such passions may have more of enforcement and such pleasures more of assent 14. Whether the appellations of Magicians Mathematicians Astrologers Genethliaks Planetarians to say nothing of the old Chaldeans Aegyptians Gazarens Samanaeans Hierophants Beachmans Gymnosophists Thessalians Hetrurians the Cabalistical Rabbins the Greek Arithmeticks the Roman Augurizers the French Druids the English Bards c. as also Necromancers Conjurers Inchanters Charmers Wizzards Witches Sorcerers Soothsayers Sophisters Impostors Circulators loculators Juglers Gipsies Physiognomists Fortune-tellers Prognosticators Praedictors Diviners c. be not terms of a promiscuous usage And whether the community of words argue not some community of things Nay have not the holy Scriptures condemned them under these tearms or names indifferently Do not the Fathers Councells Schoolemen Casuists Divines Historians and Poets thus speak of them indiscriminately Have not the Ecclesiastical Imperial Provincial Municipal Lawes under these mixt notions and nominations decreed and doomed them alike to penalty 15. Why the Devil chuseth to have both his most solemn confederation as also the most stupendious operations that follow thereupon to be made and done under certain constellations Is it not because he would have the Starres worshipped for Gods who himself is worshipped in any thing that is not God Or that he would thus have all the malefice devolved upon heavenly bodies For what mischief he is permitted to do upon earth he would make men believe it comes from Heaven Or indeed that he would thus delude the Sorcerers themselves in perswading them that what they do they do not by fraud but by an innocent nay an exquisite Planetary Art For how many rank wharsicks have laboured to excuse their execrable Arts by accusing the malefick Stars 16. How many Magicians Astrologers and Planetary Prognosticators have had their Paredrials their Assessors and Obsessors their Consiliaries and Auxiliaries their Martinists Maisterels and Ministrels their Imps and Familiars as well as other Witches And whether have not they made the same use and employment of them as the other have done 17. Whether the Artists in Magick and Astrology denying exclaiming and cautioning against Idolatry Superstition Sorcery Witchcraft be sufficient to purge their Art and quit themselves of the same When as their very speculations are expressely coinquinated with much in all these and their practises palpably guilty of much more and that to all mens judgements but theirs that use them Therefore rather whether are not their intermingled negations and affirmations disclaimings and acclaimings vowings and disavowings cautions and concessions distinctions and confusions an Argument of a consciousnesse or conviction of something in this kinde to be greatly suspected and censured 18. How many of them that have pretended nothing but nature and natural causes and boasted Art altogether and principles of mysterious Art yet when the mystery of delusion and iniquity hath been discovered and themselves straightly examined by prudent and careful Magistrates or the day of their disastrous and unfortunate ends or execution approaching I say how many of them have then confest and cryed out upon compacts confederacies Devils delusions perdition damnation 19. Whether the superstitions of Sorcery and Witchcraft be not taught and promoted countenanced and encouraged by the Printing and permitting such multitudes of Magical books Especially the translating of them by way of Vindication and Apologie into the vulgar tongue 20. Whether such books may be read unlesse with an inimical Science not a social Conscience not with an invitatory operation but an expugnatory refutation And whether their signes and ceremonies may be used
their own Now this prestigiousnesse or illusion whether freely from themselves or as it were forced by others is a signe of their impotency as well as their fallacy and either of them are a sufficient argument to exclude them utterly from a power of working Miracles And therefore if they will needs be contending for the devils power in and by Magicians Astrologers Necromancers Conjurers Witches c. We leave both them theirs to their lyingwonders 6. Whether there be any such secrets in Nature as whereby to work Miracles Although it be confest that there are sundry admirable secrets hidden in Natures bosome yet we must professe that her hand is here shortned Because it is the nature of a Miracle to exceed Natures power It must be above besides against Nature and not particular onely but universal or whole created Nature Though a Miracle be wrought in Nature yet it must be quite beyond Natures principles law order Nature of it self must not so much as incline or dispose to it Yea it must be in the very nature of the thing to be otherwise then the Miracle hath made it Alwayes the more alien the effect is to Nature and the more remore from Natures order the greater is the Miracle and the more to be admired Wherefore we conclude against those Mirions who would make themselves to be Natures Apes that not onely any particular nature is not able to worke a Miracle besides or against the order of whole Nature but the vertue even of whole Nature is not able to worke a Miracle upon any particular nature whatsoever 7. Whether Miracles may be wrought by Art The flat Negative is to be concluded upon these Arguments 1. Art cannot exceed Nature Now Nature in all her mirables is but Miracles Ape and Art is but Natures Ape what then are the Magical Mirabilaries at most but Apes of Art 2. The strength of Art is acquisite the vertue of Miracles is infused 3. An Art operates onely according to reason and knowledge but a Miracle altogether above them 4. Art effects nothing but according to ordinary rules observations experiments customs but a Miracle is so extraordinary that it were no Miracle except it were effected contrary to all these 5. Art for the most part is of necessaries a Miracle for the most part is of contingents 6. If Art served to worke Miracles then were the power of them acquisite arbitrary of mans will and industry yea one man might do Miracles as well as another 7. None of Gods servants ever wrought Miracles by Art 8. If it were in the Artists power it should be a Miracle to one man and not to another 9. Prophane men and the greatest tempters of God the Devil and Nature should so do most Miracles 10. Art rather serves to prevent many things for seeming Miraculous because it helps to finde out the suddain cause For either it lets to understand the cause or not if it doth not then it is no Art if it doth then it is no Miracle 8. Whether it be lawful necessary convenient not onely for the working of Miracles but for the finding out of Mirables to operate either by Art or violence against the order plac't in Nature Doubtlesse it is no further lawful then it may be either necessary or convenient That is probably and directly tending to some publike or private use or benefit Nature may have many pretty mirables which they title Admired Auditions Natural history Mirables of the world Occult Miracles of Nature Occult Philosophie subtilities and varieties of things secrets mysteries memorables unheard of curiosities c. Yet for all that are they not such as Magicians fain or fable in animals plants herbs stones c. Nor are they a many of them so mirable in themselves as either to mens fancies or ignorances Her actives and passives simpathies and antipathies are so occult and profound as who can tell where to finde them or how to apply them so as to urge Nature by the help of Art to worke wonders Who can do such a thing especially make it his trade profession ostentation so to do and not be subject to or guilty of tempting God provoking the Devil tormenting Nature abusing the creature losing time disparaging himself and deluding the world It is for none but God to worke absolutely against the order of whole created Nature because he could have instituted another order of Nature And all things are subject to him not so much from a necessity of Nature and second causes as according to the absolutenesse of his own power and liberty of his own will And it is for none to undertake to alter the order of particular Nature but in by under and for God yea I may say according to God and not otherwise As. 1. God acteth not against the order of nature in any particular of it save onely upon just and weighty causes how then dare prophane men offer to do such a thing joculatorily jugglingly to make sport and pastime or yet for no other end or use but vain and idle experiments sake or onely to feed or satisfie vain and presumptuous curiosity 2. God though he may act against that order which one creature hath to another yet acts he not against that order which the creature hath to himself For should he act against the order of nature as it depends upon himself he should so act against himself in like manner neither ought man to act against the order of nature or of the creature so far forth as it depends upon God nor yet so far forth as it is not intended by God to be serviceable and useful unto men 3. God acts not against the law and course of nature so as to violate his own great Law so that of his wisdome goodnesse justice in disposing the creature neither ought men so to do beyond the great Law of using the creature aright and to those very ends for which God ordained it For it can never be lawful or warrantable so to transgresse natures order as to abuse the creature in any kinde Now do they not know that the creature may as well be spiritually and speculatively abused by superstition and curiosity as practically and carnally by violence or sensuality 9. Why amongst all the Miracles that Christ wrought against the Devils among men and in the other creatures he did work none at all from or by the heavenly bodies the stars Besides the reason above mentioned why he refused to shew a signe from heaven this may now be added above all the rest It was because there now was a greater Miracle wrought upon the earth then ever was wrought in the Heavens Even the mysterious Miracle or miraculous Mystery of God and Man Doing such works upon earth as whereat the Angels and whole powers of heaven might well stand amazed with admiration Indeed there was a wonder in Heaven a star a new star at his birth and another wonder in Heaven an Eclipse of
their Art But have they not read that Cicero derided Spurina as well as Caesar did And if they compare Authors they shall read that Caesar himselfe had noted that the Ides of March would be ferall to him because of Scorpio's declining So then it is easie to be observed that the effect followed because of his superstition rather then his derision It is well noted of the same Caesar that for no religion that is fatidicall superstition he could be deterred or retarded from any enterprize When the hoste escaped from the Immolator a direfull omen for the sacrifice to avoid the Altar he notwithstanding would not deferre his expedition against Scipio and Iuba In his profection into Africa as he went out of the ship he chanced to fall slat upon the ground an ill omen yet he presumed it for the best sign and said I now hold thee fast O Africa Yea he carried a Baffoon Jester along with him on purpose to elude the invincible name of the Scipio's in that province and though he went on against the admonitions of the greatest Augurs yet he the rather prospered for his own resolution Pyrrhus was wont to say merrily that he conceived himselfe to be born under Hercules his Star because the more victories he had gotten against the Romans the more sharply they still rose up against him Cato used to say he wondred how one Astrologicall diviner could look upon another and not laugh sc that they had so neatly agreed together to delude all others But the world is turn'd since Catos time and they must now give it leave to laugh at them and their delusions A certaine Astrologer telling it in or to an Assembly that he had there drawn in a Table the erratulae or wandring Stars Lie not friend quoth Diogenes for the Starres erre not nor wander at all but they that sit or stand here to no purpose I adde but they that study and practise an art to as little The same Cynick askt another talking familiarly of the Stars when the came from Heaven Thales as he went on looking up to the Starres fell into a ditch of water whereupon besides the jest his mayd made of him at the present others said of him afterwards that if he had lookt down into the water he might have seen the Stars but looking up to the Stars he could not see the water Bion said the Astrologers were very ridiculous who boasted they could see the Fish afarre off in the Heavens and yet could not see the Fishes hard by swimming in the River Dion one of Plato's Scholars and friends an Ecclipse of the Moon chancing at the same time that he was waighing up his Anchors to saile from Zacynthe to make warre with the Tyrant Dionysius disregarded the vaticinall portent set to saile notwithstanding came to Syracuse and prevailed to drive out the Tyrant One shewed Vespasian a strange hayry Comet thinking to put him in some feare of the portent whereat he merrily replie plyed that prodigie betokened nothing contrary to him but the King of the Parthians his enemy who wore a bushy head of haire After the death of Iulian the Autiochenians even in their sports thus derided Maximus the greatest Magician and chiefe of those that had seduced him by their predictions and praestigious operations where are now thy divinations O foolish Maximus God and his Church have now overcome viz. the Divell and Magicians St. Augustine confesses his Nebridius would often deride his study of Judiciary Astrologie and he was ready to deride him again for ignorant in that art till at length convinced of his own ignorance he prevented the others smiling by his own bewayling Nearchus admirall to Alexander arriving neere the Isle of Nosala consecrated to the Sunne was told of a prophecy that no mortall man might land there but at the instant he should vanish away and be no more seen This made the Marriners refuse butthe Admirall forced them to goe ashore and landed there himselfe to let them see how vaine and contemptible were all such predictions Cato observing one to have consulted a Soothsayer upon a Rat gnawing his hose what an ominous portent said he would the man have suspected if his hose had gnawne the Rat When one wondred at the Snakes winding about his doore bar what a wonder said another would it have been if the bar had twisted about the snake Polydamus conjecturing an ill omen to the Trojanes from the flight of an Eagle holding a Serpent in his talons Tush quoth Hercules the best augurizing is to fight valiantly for our Countrey Prusias refusing to fight because the Diviners had signified to him that the inspected intrailes forbad it as unlucky What said an Athenian Captaine wilt thou give more credit to a piece of calses flesh then to an old Commander Cicero reciting the Diviners prediction of some dreadfull portent from the Mice gnawing the Souldiers Targets or Belts then quoth he may I feare the decay of the Common-wealth because the Mice gnaw'd Plato's politie in my study And if they should likewise gnaw Epicures book of riot and voluptuousnesse might we not thence dread a presage of dearth and famine At Pericles his setting out to the Peloponnesian war the master of the ship being somewhat dismayed because of an ecclipse of the Sun at that instant Pericles cast his cloak over his eyes and askt him what hurt that did him save onely hinder his sight for a little space Alphonsus King of Arragon honouring all learned men and making liberall provision for the masters of all good arts onely ha past by or sleighted the Astrologers The reason of it being asked it was answered by a pleasant wit That the Stars rule fooles but wise men govern the Stars It was therefore for foolish princes to respect and entertain such and not for the wise such as Alphonsus was Scaliger makes himselfe merry with a Fly-driving Configurator who having made a Talismannicall plate for this very purpose he had no sooner set it up but a Fly comes presently and as saith my Translator shites upon it for handsell or in contempt of all such figures Alarielus having besieged Rome some heathenish people had sent for certaine Tusoane Magicians who confidently promised by their art to make him raise his siege and so free the City But Innocentius then Bishop there drave them out thence judging it better and safer for the City to be taken then to be delivered by such divellish means Frederick of Austria being imprisoned by Lewis of Bavaria a Magician promised Leopoldus his brother if he would reward him well for his paines that he would by his art set Frederick at liberty and bring him safe out of Bavaria home to Austria within an houres space And upon a liberall promise his divell hyed to the prison and appeared to Frederick in the shape of a stranger presenting there a horse before him and bad him get upon him and he should presently carry him home into
seasonably received together and through the spirit of the world 3. By artificiall mixtions of things such as agree with the heavens under a certaine constellation descends a vertue by a certaine likenesse and aptnesse that is in things amongst themselves towards their superiours So from a certaine composition of herbes vapours and such like made according to naturall Philosophy and Astronomy there results a certaine common forme endowed with many gifts of the stars When therefore any one makes a mixture of many matters under the coelestiall influences then the variety of coelestiall actions on one hand and of naturall powers on the other hand being joyned together doth indeed cause wonderfull things by oyntments by collyries by fumes and such like 4. Then the vertues of things do then become wonderfull viz. when they are put to matters that are mixed and prepa red in fit seasons to make them alive by procuring life for them from the stars as also a sensible soule as a more noble forme 5. Magicians teach that coelestiall gifts may through inferiours being conformable to superiours be drawne down by opportune influences of the heaven and so also by these coelestiall the coelestiall Angels as they are servants of the stars may be procured and conveyed to us That not onely coelestiall and vital but also certaine intellectuall angelicall and divine gifts may be received from above by some certain matters having a naturall power of divinity idest which have a naturall correspondency with the superiours being rightly received and opportunely gathered together according to the rules of naturall Philosophy and Astronomy That an Image rightly made of certain proper things appropriated to any one certain Angell will presently be animated by that Angel 6. A Magician doth make use of things manifest to draw forth things that are occult viz. through the voyce of the stars through fumes lights sounds and naturall things which are agreeable to coelesstiall in which besides corporall qualities there is a kinde of reason sense and harmony and incorporeall and divine measures and orders 7. No man is ignorant that supercelestiall Angels or Spirits may be gained by us through good workes a pure minde purest prayer devout humiliation and the like Let no man therefore doubt that in like manner by some certaine matters of the world the Gods of the world may be raised by us or at least the ministring spirits or servants of these Gods So we read that the ancient Priests made Statues and Images foretelling things to come and infused into them the spirits of the stars c. 8. Some suffumigations or perfumings that are proper to the stars are of great force for the opportune receiving of coelestiall gifts under the rayes of the stars in as much as they do strongly worke upon the aire and breath Wherefore suffumigations are wont to be used to them that are about to southsay for to affect their fancy which indeed being appropriated to any certain Deities do fit us to receive divine inspiration The most powerfull fume is that which is compounded of the seven Aromaticks according to the powers of the seven Planets Know also that according to the opinion of the Magicians in every good matter as love good will and the like there must be a good fume odoriferous and pretious and in every evill matter as hatred anger misery and the like there must be a stinking fume that is of no worth 9. By certain Alligations of certain things as also suspensions or by simple contract or the continuation of any thread we may be able to receive some vertues thereby It is necessary that we know the certain rule of Alligation and suspension and the manner which the Art requires viz. that they be done under a certain and sutable Constellation and that they be done with wyer or silken threads bair or sinewes of certain animals or fine cloaths and the like according to the sutableness of things 10. Rings also which were alwaies much esteemed of by the Antients when they were opportunely made do in like manner impresse their vertue upon us c. Now the manner of making these kind of Rings is this viz. When any star ascends fortunately with the fortunate aspect or conjunction of the Moon we must take a stone and herb that is under that star and make a Ring of the mettal that is sutable to this star and in it fasten the stone putting the herb or root under it not omitting the inscriptions of Images Names and Characters as also the proper Suffumigations c. 11. The countenance gesture the motion setting and figure of the body being accidental to us conduce to the receiving of the coelestial gifts and expose us to the superior bodies and produce certain effects in us Whosoever therefore doth the more exactly imitate the coelestial bodies either in nature study actions motion gesture countenance passions of the minde and opportunity of the season is so much the more like to the heavenly bodies and can receive larger gifts from them 12. It conduceth very much for the receiving the benefit of the heavens in any work if we shall by the Heaven make our selves sutable to it in our thoughts affections imaginations elections deliberations contemplations and the like For such like passions do vehemently stir up our spirit to their likenesse and suddainly expose us and ours to the superiour significators of such like passions and also by reason of their dignity and neernesse to the superiours do much more partake of the coelestials then any material things For our minde can through imaginations or reason by a kinde of imitation be so conformed to any star as suddainly to be filled with the vertues of that star as if it were a proper receptacle of the influence thereof We must therefore in every work and application of things affect vehemently imagine hope and believe strongly for that will be a great help Therefore he that works in Magick must be of a constant belief be credulous and not doubt at all of the obtaining the effect 13. The Arabians say that mans minde when it is most intent upon any work through its passion and effects is joyned with the mind of the stars and intelligences and being so joyned is the cause that some wonderful vertue be infused into our works and things And according to this is verifyed the Art of Characters Images Inchantments and some speeches and many other wonderful experiments to every thing which the minde affects For all those things which the minde acts and dictates by characters figures words speeches gestures and the like help the appetite of the soul and acquire certain wonderful vertues as from the soul of the Operator in that hour when such a like appetite doth invade it so from the opportunity and coelestial influence moving the mind in that manner And it is a general rule in them that every minde that is more excellent in its desire and affections makes such like things more fit
shalt be able by praying consecrating sacrificing invocating to attract spiritual and coelestial Poems and to imprint them on those things thou pleasest and by it to vivifie every magical work 24. Sacred words have not their power in Magical operations from themselves as they are words but from the occult divine powers working by them in the mindes of those who by faith adhere to them by which words the secret power of God as it were through Conduit pipes is transmitted into them who have eares purged by Faith and by most pure conversation and invocation of the divine Names are made the habitation of God and capable of these divine influences whosoever therefore useth rightly these words or Names of God with that purity of minde in that manner and order as they were delivered shall both obtain and do many wonderful things 25. To work Miracles by divine names words seales characters all must be done in most pure gold or virgin parchment pure clean and unspotted also with Inke made for this purpose of the smoak of consecrated waxe lights or incense and holy water The actor also must be purifyed and cleansed by sacrifice and have an infallible hope a constant Faith and his minde lifted up to the most high God if he would surely obtain this divine power 26. There are four kinds of divine phrenzy proceeding from several Deities viz. from the Muses from Dyonisius from Apollo and from Venus The first phrenzy therefore proceeding from the Muses stirs up and tempers the minde and makes it divine by drawing superiour things to inferiour things by things natural Of which there are nine degrees c. The second phrenzie proceeds from Dionysius this doth by expiations exteriour and interiour and by conjurations by mysteries by solemnities rites temples and observations divert the soul into the minde the supreme part of it self and makes it a fit and pure temple of the Gods in which the divine spirits may dwell which the soul then possessing as the associate of life is filled by them with felicity wisdome and oracles not in signes and marks and in conjectures but in a certain concitation of the minde and free motion c. The third kinde of phrenzy proceeds from Apollo viz From the minde of the world this doth by certain sacred mysteries vowes sacrifices adorations invocations and certain sacred Arts or certain secret confections by which the spirit of their God did infuse vertue make the soul rise above the minde by joyning it with Deities and Daemons c. The fourth kind of phrenzie proceeds from Venus and it doth by a fervent love convert and trans-unite the minde to God and makes it altogether like to God as it were the proper image of God The soul therefore being converted and made like to God is so formed of God that it doth above all intellect know all things by a certain essential contract of divinity Doth besides that it hath by its integrity obtained the spirit of prophecy sometimes work wonderful things and greater then the nature of the world can do which works are called Miracles 27. It was a custome amongst the Ancients that they who should receive Answers certain expiations and sacrifices being first celebrated and divine worship ended did religiously lye down even in a consecrated chamber or at least on the shrines of sacrifices c. 28. Whosoever would receive divine Dreams let him be well disposed in body his brain free from vapours and his mind from perturbations and let him that day abstain from supper neither let him drink that which will inebriate let him have a clean and neat chamber also exorcized or consecrated in the which a perfume being made his temples annointed things causing dreams being put on his fingers and the representation of the heavens being put under his head and paper being consecrated his Prayers being said let him go to bed earnestly meditating on that thing which he desireth to know so shall he see most true and certain dreams with the true illumination of his intellect c. 29. Every one that works by Lots must go about it with a minde well disposed not troubled not distracted and with a strong desire firm deliberation and constant intention of knowing that which shall be desired Moreover he must being qualified with purity chastity and holinesse towards God and the coelestials with an undoubted hope firm faith and sacred Orations invocate them that he may be made worthy of receiving the divine spirits and knowing the divine pleasure For if thou shalt be qualified they will discover to thee most great secrets by vertue of Lots and thou shalt become a true Prophet and able to speak truth concerning things past present and to come of which thou shalt be demanded 30. Whosoever being desirous to come to the supreme state of the soul goeth to receive Oracles must go to them being chastely and devoutly disposed being pure and clean to go to them so that his soul be polluted with no filthinesse and free from all guilt He must also so purifie his Minde and Body as much as he may from all diseases and passions and all irrational conditions which adhere to it as rust to iron by rightly composing and disposing those things which belong to the tranquility of the minde for by this means he shall receive the truer and more efficacious Oracles 31 We must therefore first observe cleanness in food in works in affections and to put away all filthinesse and perturbations of the minde and whatsoever sense or spirit that offends and whatsoever things are in the mind unlike to the heavens not only if they be in minde and spirit but also if they be in the body or about the body for such an external cleannesse is believed not to help a little to the purity of the minde c. 32 They that desire to have this spirit pure and potent let them use dryer meats and extenuate this grosse body with fastings and they make it easily penetrable and lest by the weight thereof the spirit should either become thick or be suffocated let them preserve the body clean by Lotions Frictions exercises and cloathings and corroborate their spirits by lights and fumes and bring it to be a pure and thin finenesse 33. We must acquit and avert our mindes from all multitudes and such like passions that we may attain to the simple truth which indeed many Philosophers are said to have attained to in the solitude of a long time For the minde by solitude being loosed from all care of humane affairs is at leasure and prepared to receive the gifts of the coelestial deities 34. It is believed and it is delivered by them that are skilful in sacred things that the minde also may be expiated with certain institutions and sacraments ministred outwardly as by Sacrifices Baptisms and Adjurations Benedictions Consecrations sprinklings of Holy water by annointings and fumes not so much consecrated to this as having a natural power
thus to do 35. Moreover the Magicians when they made any confection either natural or artificial belonging to any star this did they afterward religiously offer and sacrifice to the same star receiving not so much a natural vertue from the influence thereof being opportunely received as by that religious oblation receiving it divinely confirmed and stronger c. Moreover to the coelestial and aetherical Gods white sacrifices were offered but to the terrestrial or infernal black c. 36. Moreover we must petition for and to the effectors of the thing desired viz. Such an Angel Star or Heror on whom the office lies but observing that our invocation on them must be made with due number weight and measure and according to the rules delivered concerning inchantments 37. Consecration is a lifting up of experiments by which a spiritual soul being drawn by proportion and conformity is infused into the matter of our works according to the tradition of Magical Art rightly and lawfully prepared and our work is vivified by the spirit of understanding So in the consecration of water fire oyle places paper swords c. Let there be commemoration made c. 38. Whosoever therefore thou art who desirest to operate in this faculty in the first place implore God the Father being one that thou also maiest be one worthy of his favour bee cleane within and without in a cleane place Wash your selves oft and at the daies appointed according to the mysteries of number put on cleane cloaths and abstaine from all uncleannesse pollution and lust Be not thou coupled to a polluted or menstruous woman neither to her who hath the Hemachoides touch not an uncleane thing nor a carkase Thou shalt wash and annoint and perfume thy selfe and shalt offer sacrifices Further perfumes sacrifice and unction penetrate all things and open the gates of the elements and of the heavens that through them a man may see the secrets of God heavenly things and those things which are above the heavens and also those which descend from the heavens as Angels and Spirits of deep pits and profound places apparitions of desert places and doth make them to come to you to appeare visibly and obey you 39. Moreover whatsoever thou operatest do it with an earnest affection and hearty desire that the goodnesse of the heavens and heavenly bodies may favour thee whose favour that thou mayest the more easily obtaine the fitnesse of the place time profession or custome diet habit exercise and name also do wonderfully conduce for by these the power of nature is not onely changed but also overcome For a fortunate place conduceth much to favour What place is congruous to each one must be found out by his nativity c. 40. Make election also of houres daies for thy operations For not without cause our Saviour spake Are there not twelve houres in the day and so forth For the Astrologers teach that times can give a certaine fortune to our businesses The Magicians likewise have observed and to conclude all the antient verse men consent in this that it is of very great concernment that in what moment of time and disposition of the heavens every thing whether naturall or artificiall hath received its being in this world for they have delivered that the first moment hath so great power that all the course of fortune dependeth thereon and may be foretold thereby All these are not ashamed to shew themselves in English ere this I have onely now collected them here and there with a running hand to the intent that at one view it might be discerned at least by comparison examined whether these dignifications qualifications dispositions preparations of Magick and Astrologie be not onely so superstitious as of Magick and Astrologie be not onely so superstitious as for conscience and religion to abhor them but so ridiculous as for reason and sense to deride them And whether these their preparations be not meer pollutions in themselves and these their dignifications very vilisications to natural and moral men and these their consecrations be not utter abominations to God and all good men Nay and whether the most damnable witches have not been initiated by such kind of preparative solemnities and their most execrable witchcrafts operated by such effectual ceremonies as these yea and they more fair seeming then the fairest of them CHAP. XXV From the folly of Interrogations and Elections WHether besides the superstition and vain curiosity it be not extreme folly and madnesse to make observation inquisition election of dayes and hours from a mans geniture and the disposition of the stars wherein to auspicate a businesse be it greater or lesse Especially seeing the directing Art it self is not onely depraved commentitiously as themselves confesse by the arrogance ambition vainglory covetousnesse and deceitfulnesse of the Artists but how are they able to vindicate it from a more commentitious invention and idle speculation or inspection according to such numbers additions substractions such days hours minutes scruples c. of such a star or planet in such a positure or aspect such a conjunction constellation configuration such a house such a Lord of the Ascendant such a Lord of the Horoscope such a significator such a Promissor such a Peregrinator such an ambulator such a prerogator such a dispositor such an Emissary c. with such motions congressions profections fortifications oppositions corrections rectifications directions elections c. And how do they prove that such fictions not onely of things but of names at least such disorderly confusions of both should not onely be the Rulers ordaining and ordering but the rules of foreknowing and foretelling mens fates and fortunes manners actions businesses successes fortunate or unfortunate c. Is it not great imprudence then for any to be here onquiring And as great impudence for them to undertake to be here resolving 1. As concerning Fortune in general If you would know whether your fortunatenesse or infortunity prosperity or adversity shall be more or lesse in the beginning middle or end of your life in body minde name goods relations c. 2. As concerning Religion If you would know whether you shall be of any Religion or none whether of a true or of a false Religion whether heretical schismatical hypocritical whether constant or wavering in Religion c. 3. As concerning marriage If you would know whether you shall ever marry or not when or about what age you shal marry how many wives or husbands you shall have whether you shall get a wise easily or after long and hard suit which shall love first or most sc the husband the wife or the wife the husband whether you two shall live long together and love mutually equally and constantly whether your wife shall be a virgin a widdow or an harlot be noble or base beautiful or deformed rich or poor faithful or disloyal vertuous or vitious wise or foolish sullen or cheerful frugal or lavish subject or imperious modest and
of the world of nativities of questions of elections of intentions and cogitations of vertues or powers for the foretelling casting up eschuing or repelling the events of all things future even of the secret dispositions of divine providence it selfe Hereupon the Astrologers doe mart or vent the effects of the Heavens and the Stars from yeers most remote and before all memory of things or the times of Prometheus or as they say from the great conjunctions before the Flood And they affirm that the effects forces motions of all living creatures stones metals herbs and whatsoever things in these inferiours doe flow from these same Heavens and Starres and doe altogether depend upon them and may be searched out by them Verely these are incredulous men and not lesse impious in not acknowledging this one thing that God had already made the Herbs Plants and Trees even before the Heavens and Stars Moreover the most grave Philosophers as Pythagoras Democritus Bion Favorinus Panaetius Carneades Possidonius Timaeus Aristoteles Plato Plotinus Porphyrius Avicenna Averroes Hippocrates Galenus Alexander Aphrodisaeus Cicero Seneca Plutarch and many more who have searched the causes of things from every Art and Science yet never remit us to these Astrologicall causes which although they were causes yet because they plainly knew not the courses of the Stars and their forces which is a thing most known to all wise men they therefore cannot give a certain judgement of their effects Neither are there wanting among them as Eudoxus Archelaus Cassandrus Hoychilax Halicarnassaeus most skilfull Mathematicians and many other modern and most grave Authors which confesse that it is impossible that any thing certain should be found out concerning the science of such judgements both because of innumerable other causes cooperating together with the Heavens which must be attended together for so Ptolomy bids as also because very many occasions doe hinder them as namely customes manners education shame command place geniture blood meat liberty of mind and discipline seeing these influxes compell not as they say but incline Furthermore they who have prescribed the rules of judgements doe for the most part determine such diverse and repugnant things of the same matter that it is impossible for a prognosticator to pronounce any thing certaine from so many and so various and dissonant opinions unlesse there be in him some intrinsicall sense of things future and occult or some instinct of presage or rather occult and latent inspiration of the Devill by which among these he may be able to discerne or may be induced by some other way to adhere now to this now to that opinion which instinct whosoever wanteth he as Haly saith cannot be a Tel-troth in Astrologicall judgements Wherefore now Astrologicall prediction must consist not so much of Art as by a kind of obscure lot or chance of things And as in the books or games of Lottery sometimes such an one is drawn forth as speaks truth and hits right yet not by art but by chance so it is by chance and not by art that vaticinations come forth truely either from the mind or the mouth of an Astrologer To which Ptolomy attests saying the science of the Stars is from thee and from them meaning that the prediction of things future and occult is not so much from the observation of the Stars as from the affections of the mind Therefore is there no certainty of this Art but it is convertible to all things according to the opinion which is collected by conjectures or imagination or an imperceptible suggestion of Devils or some superstitious lot or chance This art therefore is no other then a fallacious conjecture of superstitious men who through the use of long time have made a science of uncertain things in which for the beguiling men of their money they may deceive the unskilfull and may also be deceived themselves And if the Art of these men be true and be understood by themselves whence then bubble out so many and so great errors in their prognostications But if it be not so doe they not vainly and foolishly and impiously to professe a science of things that are not or not understood But the more cautelous of them pronounce not upon futures save obscurely and such as may be applied to every thing and time and Prince and Nation Out of a versatile artifice doe they feyne ambiguous prognosticks and after that any of them shall happen then doe they gather the causes thereof and after the fact or effect then doe they establish old vaticinations with new reasons to the intent they may seem to have foreseen Just as the interpreters of dreames who when they have a dream understand nothing of it for certain but after that something is hapned unto them then doe they adopt the dream to that which hapned Furthermore seeing it is impossible in such a variety of Stars but to finde some of them well some of them ill posited hereupon they take occasion of speaking what they please and to whom they will they predict life health honours riches power victory soundnesse off-spring marriage Priesthood Magistracy and the like but if they be ill affected to any to them they denounce deaths hangings reproaches destructions banishments barrennesse desolation calamities c. not so much out of a wicked art as out of wicked affections drawing on to destruction those men that are credulous to these impious curiosities and oft times committing among themselves both Princes and people in deadly seditions and warres If that Fortune fall in with their prognosticks and among so many ambiguous things if that one or other of them happen to be true it is a wonder then to behold how they bristle being crest-swolne and how most insolently they predicate their own predictions But though they lie daily and be convinced of lying then they excuse it by blasphemy or cover one lie with another saying a wise man ruleth over the Stars when as in truth neither doth a wise man overrule the Stars nor the Stars a wise man but it is God that ruleth over them both or else they say that some ineptitude or incapacity of the receiver hindred the celestiall influxes And they are angry at them who require any further faith or proofe Notwithstanding these circulators finde Princes and Magistrates that believe them in all things and adorn them with publique stipends when as indeed there is no kind of men more pestilent to a Commonwealth then those that spread vaticinations and promise things future from the Stars and inspected Ghosts from dreams and such like artifices of divination Besides they are men alwaies offensive or abominable to Christ and to all that truly believe in him Of whom Cornelius Tacitus complaineth saying The Mathematicians for so they vulgarly named them are a kind of men trecherous to Princes and deceitfull to those that give credit to them they have alwaies been prohibited our City and yet we could never have them expelled thence Yea and
labour and keeping holy day on the Jewish Sabbath seeing it is Saturns day Also they think that the fidelity of every one towards men or towards God and profest Religion and secrets of Conscience may be deprehended from part of the Sun and from the third ninth and eleventh houses of heaven and they delivering many rules of foreknowing the thoughts and as they say the intentions of men And they set up the coelestial configurations as the causes of the very miraculous works of divine omnipotence as namely of the universal flood of the Law given by Moses and of the virgins child-birth and they fable that the death of Christ the Redeemer of man-kind was the work of Mars and that Christ himself in his miracles used the election of hours in which the Jews could not hurt him while he went up to Jerusalem and therefore he said to his Disciples diswading him are there not twelve hours of the day They say moreover that whosoever hath Mars happily placed in a new house of heaven he shall by his sole presence expel devils out of the possessed And he that shall make supplication to God the Moon and Jupiter with the Dragons head being conjoyned in the middle heaven shall obtain all things whatsoever he shall ask And further that the felicity of the life to come is bestowed by Jupiter and Saturn And that if any man in his geniture hath Saturn happily constituted in Leo his soul after this life being freed from innumerable miseries shall passe to heaven the first beginning of its original and be applyed to the Gods But for all this to these execrable fopperies and pernicious heresies Petrus Apponensis Roger Bacon Guido Bonatus Arnoldus de nova villa Philosophers and Alyanensis a Cardinal and a Theologue and divers other Doctors of a Christian name not without an infamy of heresie do subscribe yea and dare testifie and defend that they have experienced these for truth But Johannes Picus Mirandula of late yeers hath written against Astrologers in twelve Books and that in so great copiousnesse that scarce any argument hath escaped him as also with so great efficacy so that hitherto neither Lucius Balnutius an eager propugnator of Astrologie nor yet any other defender of this Art could save it from those reasons that Picus hath brought against it For he proveth by most strong arguments it to have been the invention not of men but of Devils Which self-same thing Firmianus saith by which they have endeavoured to abolish all Philosophie Medicine Laws and Religion to the utter extermination of man-kind For first it detracts from the faith of Religion it extenuates miracles it takes away providence while it teaches that all things come to passe by the force of constellations and that they doe depend by a fatal necessity upon the stars Moreover it patronizes vices excusing them as descending from heaven upon us It defiles and overthrows all good Arts especially Philosophie traducing causes from true reasons to fables and Medicine in like manner turning from natural and effectual remedies to vain observations and perverse superstitions destructive both to body and minde Further it utterly undoes Laws manners and whatsoever Arts of humane prudence while it would have Astrologie onely consulted at what time after what maner and by what means any thing is to be done as if it alone drawing its authority over all down from heaven did hold the scepter over life manners and all both publike and private matters and as if all other things were to be reputed vain that did not acknowledge it for patron Indeed an Art most worthy for devils to professe from the first to the deceit of man and dishonour of God Moreover the heresie of the Manichees wholly taking away all liberty of will flowed not elswhere then from the Astrologers false opinion and doctrine of Fate From the same fountain also sprung the heresie of Basilides who pronounced 365. heavens made of one another by succession and similitude and the oftension of these to be the number of the dayes of the yeer or the number of the days of the yeer to be the oftension of these assigning to every one of them certain principles and vertues and Angels and feigning names for them but the chief of them all is Abraxas which name according to the Greek letters containeth in it 365. which namely are the local positions of those heavens commentitiously divised by it These things are therefore shown that ye may know that Astrology is the begetter of hereticks Furthermore as all the most eminent Philosophers do explode this divinatory Astrologie so Moses Esaias Job Jeremias and all the other Prophets of the old Law do detest it And of the Catholike Doctors Augustin censures it as meet to be expelled Christian Religion Hierome disputes it to be a kinde of Idolatry Basil and Cyprian do deride it Chrysostome Eusebius and Lactantius do refute it Gregory Ambrose and Severianus inveigh against it the holy Toletane Councel forbids and damns it also it was anathematized in the Synod of Martin and by Gregory the younger and by Alexander the third Popes and was punished by the civil Laws of the Emperours Among the antient Romans under Tiberius Vitellius Dioclesian Constantine Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius the Emperours it was prohibited the City ejected and punished and by Justinian himself condemned capitally as is manifest in his Code This place admonishes me to speak of the other Arts of divination which yield vaticinations not so much by observation of the coelestials as of inferiour things having a certain shadow or imitation of the coelestials that they being understood ye may the better know this Astrological Tree from which do fall such fruit and from which as a Lernaean Hydra a beast of many heads is generated Amongst the arts therefore that are hasty to divine for their own gain Physiognomy Metoposcopy Chiromancy Aruspicy the Speculatory the Onirocritical which is the interpretation of dreams and the Oracles of the furious here challenge their seat Now all these artifices are of no solid doctrine neither do consist of any certain reasons but inquire of occult things either by fortuitous lot or agnition of spirit or certain appearing conjectures which are taken up from quotidian observations of long time For all these prodigious arts of divination are wont to defend themselves no other way but by the title of experience and to extricate themselves out of the bonds of objections so often as they teach or promise any thing above faith and beside reason Of all which it is thus commanded in the Law There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to passe through the fire or that useth divination or an observer of times or an inchanter or a witch or a charmer or a consulter with familiar spirits or a wizzard or a Necromancer For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. Physiognomy following from the
inspection of the whole body presumeth it can by probable signs attain to know what are the affections of body and mind and what a mans fortune shall be so far forth as it pronounceth him Saturnial or Jovial and him Martial or Solar another Venereal Mercurial or Lunar and collecting their horoscopes from the habitude of the body and from affections transcending as they say by little and little unto causes namely Astrological out of which they afterward trifle as they list Metoposcopy out of a sagacious ingenie and learned experience boasts her self to foresent all the beginnings the progresses and the ends of men out of the sole inspection of the forehead making her self also to be the pupil of Astrologie Chiromancie feigns seven mounts in the palm of the hand according to the number of the seven Planets and supposes it can know from the lines there to be seen what a mans complexion is what his affections and what his fortune c. But we need no other reason to impugn the error of all these Arts then this self-same namely that they are void of all reason Yet very many of the Antients have written of these c. But they all can deliver nothing beyond conjectures and observations of experience Yet that there is not any rule of truth to these conjectures and observations is manifest from this because they are voluntary figments and upon which their teachers even of equal learning and authority are not agreed But this trifling kind of men is wont so to doat through the instinct of devils drawing them from error into superstition and from this by degrees into infidelity To the art of Augury they make faith who teach that certain lights of presagition do descend from the coelestials upon all those inferior living creatures as certain signes constituted in their motion site gesture going flight voice meat colour work event by which as by a certain ingraffed hidden force and firm consent they so agree with the coelestial bodies with whose powers they are affected that they can presage all things whatsoever that the coelestial bodies intend to do whereupon it is manifest that this divination followes not but from conjectures partly taken from the influences of the stars as they say and partly from certain parabolical fimilitudes then which nothing can be more fallacious Wherefore Panaetius Carneades Cicero Chrysippus Diogenes Antipater Josephus and Philo have derided it the Law and the Church hath condemned it They who endeavour to perswade that nothing is dream't in vain say that like as the coelestial influxes do produce divers forms in corporal matter so from the same influxes in the phantastical faculty which is organical there are phantasms impressed by the coelestial disposition consentaneous to the producing any kind of effect especially in Dreams because the mind is then more freed from the body and external cares and so receives those divine influxes more freely whence it comes to passe that many things are made known in dreams to men sleeping which are concealed from them waking By this reason chiefly they labour to reconcile an opinion of truth to dreams and yet of the causes of dreams both intrinsical and extrinsical they do not all of them agree in one opinion c. Of dreams nothing is delivered but meer dreams c. To these dreamers we may number those who give a faith of divinity to the vaticinations of madmen and think they have attained to a divine prescience of things to come who have lost all knowledge of things present all memory of things past together with all humane sense and that mad men and sleepers see those things which wise men and waking are ignorant of as if God were neerer to them then to the sound watchful intelligent and premeditating In truth they are unhappy men who believe these vanities and obey these impostures who cherish these kind of artificers and submit their wits and faith to these their vain delusions All these artifices of divination have their rooting and foundation in Astrologie For whether the body the face or the hand be inspected whether a dream or a prodigie be seen whether an auspicie or a Fury be inspired they consult to erect a figure of Heaven out of whose tokens together with conjectures of similitudes signs they hunt for opinions of things signified and so all Divinations challenge to themselves the Art and use of Astrologie and confesse this to be as it were the key to the necessary knowledge of all secret things Wherefore all those arts of divination how far they are from truth they plainly discover themselves in this in that they use principles so manifestly false and feigned by a poeticall temerity which neither are nor have been nor ever shall be yet are they made the causes and signes to which all events of things are to be referred contrary to all evident truth Magick is so neer joyned to and of affinity with Astrologie so that he who professeth Magick without Astrologie doth nothing but erreth altogether There is an Art given to mortal men whereby they might generate certain latter things not partaking of truth and divinity but might deduce certain images like unto themselves and Magicians most audacious men have gone so farre to perpetrate all things that old and strong Serpent the promiser of Sciences especially favouring them that they like to him Apes have endeavoured to emulate both God and nature To such a height of madnesse some of the Magicians are grown that from diverse constellations of the Stars through internals of times and by a certain reason of proportions being rightly observed they think that a fabricated image of the heavenly creatures may with a becke receive the spirit of life and understanding whereby it may answer those that consult it and reveale the secrets of hidden truth Hence it is plain that this naturall Magick sometimes enclined towards Goetie and Theurgie is insnared very often in the wiles and errours of evill spirits Of ceremoniall Magick there are two parts Goetie and Theurgie Goetie unfortunately began by the commerce with unclean spirits compacted of the rites of wicked curiosity unlawfull charms and deprecations is exerated banished by the verdicts of all Lawes These are they who carry about them familiar spirits doe feigne themselves to prophecy Some of them study to call and compell evill spirits adjured by some certain powers especially of divine names c. Others most wicked and by mischiefe detestable and to be punished with all fires submit themselves to devils sacrifice to them and adore them and are become guilty of idolatry and the vilest abasements to which crimes if the former be not obnoxious yet they expose themselves to manifest dangers For even compelled divels doe watch to the intent they may alwaies deceive us in our errours From this Sect or rather sinke of the Goeticks have issued all these books of darknesse c. excogitated by men of deplored wits Which books to