Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A35263
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The vanity and impiety of judicial astrology whereby men undertake to foretell future contingencies, especially the particular fates of mankind, by the knowledge of the stars, i.e. the conjunctions, motions, positions and influences of the cœlestial bodies on the earthly / by Francis Crow.
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Crow, Francis, d. 1692.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing C7366; ESTC R29289
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8,654
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37
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most profitable Study of the Stars I take to be 1. A serious consideration of their Magnitude that so many Stars should be more than an hundred times bigger than all the Earth What a vast Body must the Heaven be wherein they all are if one of them so far exceed the whole Earth yea What are the Heavens we see to the Heaven that is unseen to which these are but a Pavement 2. Let us consider their multitude which cannot be numbred more than the Sand of the Sea-shoar yet God telleth their Number Psal 147.4 3. Their swiftness that these mighty vast Bodies should be carried every Day so long a Journey and never tire or are weary 4. The exact Order of their Motion so great so many so different Motions and yet never one to move out of their course The Stars in their courses or proper Paths or ranks are spoken of in Judg. 5.20 Now these things considered what can we do less than adore the Divine Wisdom and Power that made them and with Galen compose Hymns of Praise to the Honour of the Creator and especially with David wonder at that Divine Goodness and Bounty that made such great and glorious Orbs and Stars for the use of poor little mean Man for having mentioned the Heavens and Stars Psal 8. he breaks out with What is Man O then what greater and more glorious Provisions hath our God made for us above Moon and Stars Let not the pretended Masters of such an Art any more delude the World or themselves to think that we disown or deny the Divine Philosophy in Scripture that asserts the Influence and efficacious Virtue of the Stars in Job 38.31 The sweet Influences of Pleiades or the Constellation of the seven Stars but only we deny Mans knowledge of their particular Influences to be such as that thereby he can predict the future Events of Mens Lives and Actions And we further assert that to subject unto the Influences of the Stars the things that depend upon Contingencies and the Will of Man so as to make Predictions from them is a meer Folly founded upon fond suppositions that have no Being in Nature but are the Chymerical Fancies of addle-brain'd Astrologers For if they cannot tell what Weather it will be every day by all their Skill who will believe them in other things And because the Lord foresaw Men would dote much upon second Causes and venture to Prognosticate by the Heavens the Fates of Men and the fruitfulness of the Earth therefore in his wise Providence made he the Earth fruitful in all its glory before he put the Stars in the Heavens that we might see that the Earths fruitfulness depends not so much on second Causes as many vainly suppose as on Divine Benediction Gen. 1.12 compared with v. 16. And let me beseech such as these lines belong most unto to read and consider well that Passage in Isa 44.24 25. I am the Lord that stretcheth out the Heavens alone and that frustrateth the tokens of the Liars and maketh the Diviners mad From which observe First The Title Jehovah taketh to himself Secondly That the Lord seems to take special Delight to befool the Wisdom of such who would resolve future Events by the Conjunction of Planets as if they could spell the secret Providences of God out of the Book of the Creatures an end whereunto he never appointed them Thirdly That the God of Truth brands these Diviners for Liars And Lastly That such as pretend to such a kind of Wisdom may fear the Almighty may smite them with Madness which God in his Mercy prevent by turning them in time to the Wisdom of the Just FINIS Advertisement THE Present State of Europe Or the Historical and Political Mercury giving an Account of all the publick and private Occurrences in every Court to the Month of August 1690. With Reflections upon every State to be continued Monthly from the Original published at the HAGUE by the Authority of the States-General Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1690.
understanding the present things of Creatures here below as Stones Plants and Animals that are just before us and lye exposed to our Senses daily How much less can be known of those excellent Bodies above us at such a distance as the Book of Wisdom in Apocrypha teacheth us Ch. 9. v. 16. And hardly do we guess at things that are upon Earth and with labour do we find things that are before us but the things that are in Heaven who hath searched out Nay out of Canonical Scripture Humane Knowledge of this is denied Job 38.33 Knowest thou the Ordinances of Heaven canst thou set the Dominion thereof in the Earth Even where the Influences of these Heavenly Constellations is plainly asserted in the two foregoing Verses yet is our Knowledge hereof clearly denied as to their particular Influences 2. If some Stars may have so favourable and benign an Influence so may others for any thing they know have as inauspicious an Effect at the same time 3. There can be no Certainty in their Art because of the swift Motion of the Heavens that so suddenly alters the Face thereof that it is not the same one Moment And then the wandring Stars that they make most Judgment by of Humane Fate are so uncertain that the same posture it may be returns not once in a hundred or a thousand Years 4. You shall see Twins conceived and born together to be of as different Tempers Spirits Parts and Lot in Life and Death as any Instance Jacob and Esau 5. If there be a necessity and fatality upon Men born under such Stars and Position of the Heavens proper and peculiar to themselves then how comes the Death of so many to be the same in time and manner that are born and bred so different as in Earthquakes Fights and Shipwracks 6. Let any Man shew why these Heavenly Bodies being Universal Causes should not have the same effects upon Brute Animals as well as on Men and if they fail in the lesser we may well suspect them in the greater 7. What is to be said of Jews all the World over Whatever Clymat or Regiment of Heavenly Bodies they are born in yet have they the same solemn Observation of Sabbath and Circumcision And so Christians scattered through the whole World before they heard the Gospel in all Nations were obedient to their Countrey Laws and Customs but when Christ was revealed in them and turned quite to another Mind and Life was it by some peculiar Star that prevailed in the sudden Universal change of Faith and Life all the World over 8. It must needs be vain and uncertain because it so frequently fails These things that they either say rashly or cunningly which prove true bear not proportion of one to a hundred of what they say false witness Almanacks Now all Science or Art is of these things that either always or for most part fall out true according to the Rules thereof Wherefore Luther on Gen. 1.14 says Astrology can be no Science because it hath no Demonstration but uncertain Conjectures Wherefore Cicero l. 2. de Divinatione wonders how any should believe the Sooth-sayers who foretold generally such Untruths to Pompey Crassus and Caesar that they should all die in their Beds in a good Old Age and in Honour And Cato said he wondred how they that deceived the People so could look on one another without laughing 9. If they can by their Astrology tell of things that are lost why could not the Chaldean Astrologers tell the King his Dream that was lost Daniel 2. 10. If the same Stars whereby they contend all Humane and Divine things are carried produce various Effects of Heat and Cold Mild and Tempestuous Weather in different Countries at the same time why not also different Events of things and business in these Countries 11. If nothing be done by the Will of Man and Conduct of Reason but all things come to pass by the influence of the Stars then little things as well as great are governed by them And if they can by their Art do the greatest why cannot they do the lesser viz. tell who shall get the Game at Cards or Dice as well as who shall have the Victory Caesar or Pompey Alexander or Darius 12. If the same Conjunction of the Stars returning produce the same Effects why see we not many Socrates's and Plato's brought forth with the same Spirit Form manner of Life and Death and all things in the World falling out just as they did under the same Position of the Heavens sometimes 13. If there had been any Certainty in Astrological Predictions of Futurities certainly the greatest Philosophers and Wisest Men would have embraced and practised it But the greatest Scholars have still derided it as Socrates Cicero Cato Aristotle Plato Pythagoras Democritus and Seneca We read of their long Journeys to Persia Chaldea and Egypt to learn Wisdom and encrease Knowledge Where they encreased their Skill in Mathematicks Policy and of worshipping their Gods But for the Divination of Astrology either they learned none of it or concealed it from the World their Writings manifesting nothing thereof 14. If it had been indeed a true Art and indeed usefull it had been less ingrateful to Wise States and the best Governours For these Chaldean Astrologers were banish'd Rome not only in Tiberius and Dioclesians Time but in Constantines Theodosians and chiefly Justinians not only as Vain and void of all Truth but as hurtful and pestilent to Cities and Societies And to this may be added the utter Aversion and Detestation all serious Christians and Lovers of Divine Truth have to it It 's to be observed that Haters of necessary Truths are most curious about knowing unnecessary forbidden things Augustine calls Astrologers Veritatis Inimici Enemies of the Truth Tom. 4. c. 742. 15. The Vanity and Vileness of this Art appears by the little Advantage the greatest Practitioners of it reap to themselves most of them being but poor despicable and utterly ignorant of their own Fate and greatest Concerns many of them dying dismally without foreseeing it As Balaam that Notorious Soothsayer could not presage the Evil that befell him in that wicked Expedition to Balak to curse Israel Qui sibi nequam cui bonus 16. If Astrology be an Art or Science why is it not studied as the Liberal Sciences are as freely and openly but it goes into by-places and hides it self in secret Corners And Pretenders to it are for the most shy of discoursing the Principles of it with Learned Persons THE IMPIETY OF Judicial ASTROLOGY THe Impiety as well as the Vanity of Judicial Astrology may be made appear many ways 1. In that it is by many made a Cloak for Witchcraft and Consulting with the Devil And no doubt some begin with no other Purpose but useing the supposed Art but finding it so foolish and unsatisfying stay not there but labour to eke out the scantness of their Understanding of the Stars with the