he cry'd out Wo be to you that build up the Sepulchres of the Prophets like to those that shew them Like to the Heathen to every Saint they allot his proper charge to one with Neptune they share the Command of the Seas and power of Deliverance from the dangers thereof to another with Jupiter to have the Dominion of Thunder to another with Vulcan to controul the Fire to another they pray with Ceres for seasonable and plentiful Harvests to another with Bacchus they give the Charge of their Vintages and Vines The Women also have their Deities from whom as from Lucina they beg for Children and the cure of Barrenness and another by whose Power they either Appease or Revenge themselves upon their Angry Husbands Others there are to whom they give the priviledge of recovering and finding Lost Goods Neither is there any Disease which has not its peculiar Physitian among the Saints Which is the reason that Physitians do not get so much as Lawyers there being no sort of Action though never so just that ever could boast of a Saint for its Patron 'T is true the Papists aver That as the Soul in every Member Displayes a several Act and every Act as it is variously dispos'd receives a distinct Power as the Eye to see the Ears to hear So Christ in his Mystical Body of which he is the Soul by his several Saints as Members accommodated to the same Body doth Administer and Distribute the several gifts of his Grace to the Inferiour Creatures and that to every Saint is allotted a particular operation for the dispersing of several Graces according to the variety of Graces given to each Man But this Conjecture as being one of Agrippa's Vanities for which there is no ground in Scripture we cannot reckon among the Vanities of Science but as a peculiar Invention of his own CHAP. LVIII Of Temples NOW as concerning Temples there was nothing wherein the Superstition of the Gentiles was more eminent who to every Deity were very curious in Building particular Temples after whose Example the Christians afterwards Dedicated their Temples to particular Saints Yet there were many Nations that never made use of any Temples and Xerxes is reported to have burnt all the Temples throughout Asia at the perswasion of his Magicians believing it to be an Impious thing to enclose the Gods in Walls But of these Temples Zeno Citicus Disputed formerly in these Words To build Churches and Temples saith he it is no way necessary for nothing ought to be accompted Sacred by Right nothing to be esteemed Holy which men themselves Build Among the Persians of old there were no Temples Neither was there among the Hebrews from their first beginning but only one Temple Dedicated to Divine use which was Built by Solomon of which however it is thus written in Isaias Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my seat the Earth the footstool for my feet what is this house which thou buildest for me And Stephen the Protomartyr adds Salomon built a House but the most High Inhabits not in places made with Hands And Paul the Apostle saith to the Athenians God dwells not in Temples made with hands for being the Lord of Heaven and Earth he is not serv'd by mens hands who wants not their help However he teaches that Humane Nature even Men themselves Holy Pious Religious Devout to God are the most acceptable Temples to God as he Asserts writing to the Corinthians Ye are the Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you the Temple of God is holy so ought you to be Moreover Origen writing against Celsus confesses That at the first beginning of Christian Religion and long after Christs Suffering there were no Churches Built Confirming by many Arguments that among Christians they avail neither to the right Worship of God nor to the Honour of true Religion Therefore faith Lactantius Temples are not to be made to God of Stones piled up to an immense height but there is a place to be reserv'd in the Heart of every Man where his Thoughts ought to retire when they are taken up in Religious Exercise Not Temples made with hands th' Almighty hold Just men are the true Temples made of Gold And Christ sends his Adorers not into the Temple not into the Synagogues but into their private Closets to Pray And we read that he himself did many times appear with the Multitude in the Cities in the Temple in the Synagogue when he made his Sermons but he went into the Mountain to Pray where he spent the Night in Prayer However the Church that does nothing but by the Inspiration of the Spirit of God when the Christian Religion began to increase and that Sinners entred into the Temple with the Godly the weak with the strong in Faith and as they entred the Ark of Noe the Clean with the Unclean did then Ordain certain Temples Chappels Churches and separated Places free from Prophane business wherein the Word of God might be Publickly Preached to the Multitude and the Sacraments might be more decently and orderly Administred which have since been held by the Christians in most Venerable Esteem and being guarded with the Immunities of several Princes have encreased to such a vast Number augmented with the Addition of Monasteries Abbies and the like that it is very necessary that many of them should be cut off as superfluous and unnecessary Members And here we cannot be unmindful of another Enormity which is the superbity of Building wherein vast sums of Alms and sacred Money is expended which as we have observ'd before would be more fitly and honestly employ'd in the maintenance of the true poor of Christ the true Temples and resemblances of God many times ready to perish for hunger thirst cold labour sickness and want CHAP. LIX Of Holy-days HOly-days both among the Gentiles as among the Jews were always in great estimation who did all at certain times of the year and upon certain days set apart several Holy-days for Divine worship upon several occasions as if it were lawful to be more religious or more ungodly at one time than another or that it were the pleasure of God to be worshipped more at one time than another which St. Paul objects to the Galatians as a shame writing to them afthis manner Ye observe days and months and times and years I fear I have labour'd for you in vain and without a cause Concerning which when he admonishes the Colossians he commands them in these words Let no man judge you for meat or drink upon a Holy-day or of the New-moon or of the Sabbath which are members of future things For to true and perfect Christians there is no difference of days who are always feasling and pleasing themselves in God always keeping a perpetual Sabbath as Isaiah prophesi'd to the Fathers of the Jews The time shall come that their Sabbath shall be taken away and when the Saviour comes there shall be a
Epistle of Jude and many other places and Chapters of the New Testament by many call'd in question even to an endeavour of subverting the Evangiles themselves But now to the Poets CHAP. 4. Of Poesie POeste in the Judgment of Quintilian is another part of Grammar for this reason not a little proud that heretofore Theaters and Amphitheaters the most stately Fabricks of the time were with great cost and magnificence erected not for Philosophers Lawyers Physicians not for Rhetoricians Mathematicians or Divines but to represent the Fables of the Poets An Art invented to no other purpose but with lascivious Rhythmes measure of Sillables and the gingling noise of fine words to allure and charm the Ears of men addicted to folly and furthermore with the pleasing inticements of Fables and mistakes of feigned Stories to insnare and deceive the mind Therefore hath she deserv'd no other title than to be the female Architect of falshood and the preserver of idle and fond opinions And though we may pardon so much of her as counâ—enances Madness Drunkenness Impudence and Boldness yet who can bear with Patience her undaunted Confidence in maintaining Lyes For what corner of the Earth hath she not fill'd with her hairbrain'd Trifles and idle Fables Taking the first rise of her fabulous Stories from the very Chaos she relates the divisions of Heaven the birth of Venus the fight of the Titans the infancy of Jove the deceits of Rhea and cheat of the Stone Saturnus Bonds the Rebellion of the Gyants the Thievery and Punishment of Prometheâ— the wandrings of Delos the travail of Latona the slaughter of Pytho the Treachery of Tyrus Deauâ—aleâ—â—s Flood Stones turn'd into Men the Butcheries of Iacchus the Fraud of Juno Semelâ—s Conflagration the double Progâ—ny of Bacchus and whatever is reported of Minerva Vulcan Erichthonius Boreas 〈◊〉 Theseus Aegeus Castor Pollux the Rape of Helen the death of Hippolytus To these may be added the absconding of Ceres the Rape of Proserpina together with the storâ—s of Minos Cadmus Niobe Peâ—theus Attaeus Oedipus the Labours of Hercules the Fight of the Sun and Neptune Athamas madness â—o turn'd into a Hâ—â—fer and Argos her keeper kill'd by Mercury with those other Dreams of the Golden Fleece Peleus Jason Medaea the death of Agamemnon and punishment of Clytemnestra Danaë Perseus Gorgon Cassiopea Andromeda Orpheus Orestes the Travels of Aeneas and Vlysses Circe Thelagon Aeolus Palamedes Nauplius Ajax Daphne Ariadne Europa Phaedra Pasiphaë Daedalus Icarus Glaucus Atlas Geryon Tantalus Pan Centaurs Satyrs Syrens and whatever else has been delivered to memory concerning these notorious untruths Neither hath she been contented only with Mankind but also she hath made the Gods themselves Parties to her delusive Stories relating in pleasing measures and in the mischievous charms of Verse their Birth their Deceases Strifes Quarrels Animosities Battles Wounds Lamentations Bonds Loves Lusts Fornications Adulteries not only deceiving and infecting the present Age but having neatly preserv'd and pickled up these beâ—â—ialities of the Gods in neat Verse and Meter communicates the same to posterity like the Venome of Mad Doggs compelling all that are Bit to be in the same condition And with so much Art are her Lyes woven that they are often prejudicial to true History as appears by the feigned Adultery of Dido with Aeneas and the taking of â—rey by the Greeks Some there are arrived at such a height of madness that they ascribe some share of Divinity to her because the Devils formerly return'd their Answers in Poetical Anagrams Hence Poets are in some sence said to be Prophets and inspired from above their trifling Verses being us'd as Oracles and Answers of Divination which is the reason that Spartianus in the Life of Trajan makes mention of Sortes Homericae so called from the Verse of Homer and of the Vergilianae sortes so nam'd from the Poems of Vergil which superstition is now transferr'd and apply'd to sacred Text and the Poetry of the Psalms not without the connivance of some of the greatest Masters of our Religion But to return to Poesie St. Austin hath commanded it to be exil'd from the City of God Heathen Plato expels it out of his Common-wealth and Cicero forbids it to be admitted Socrates admonishes the person that desires to keep the Virgin-purity of his good name undefiled to beware of the acquaintance of Poets for that their power to praise is not so great as the force that lies in their slander and dispraise Thus we see Minos celebrated by Homer and Hesiod for the justest of Kings because he made War upon the Athenians rais'd all the Tragick Poets about his Ears who immediately sent him packing to Hell Penelope so famous in Homer for her Chastity yet Licophron reproaches as one that lay with many Adulterers Dido a most vertuous and continent Widow Foundress of Carthage Ennius the Poet in his Poem upon Scipio's Life feigns to have unchastly lov'd Aeneas whom by computation of time it was impossible for her to have seen And Vergil confirms the same so plausibly that the Story hath almost gain'd belief At length this Liberty of lying and slandering was advanced to that height that the Censors thought fit to enact a Law whereby the falshoods and reproaches of Poets might be suppressed Among the Ancient Romans Poesie was held in great disrepute so that whoever gave his mind to the Study thereof was as Gellius and Cato witness accounted as a publick Enemy And Q. Fulvius was accused by M. Cato for that he going Pro-Consul into Asia had taken Ennius the Poet along with him to bear him company Neither doth that great Justiciary the Emperor Justinian give any freedom or immunity to the Professors thereof Homer was call'd the Philosopher of all Poets and the Poet of all Philosophers yet the Athenians laid a Fine upon him as a Mad-man of fifty Drachma's and they laught at and derided Tiâ—hteus the Poet as one beside his Wits The Lacedaemonians also commanded the Books of Archilochus the Poet to be carried out of their City And thus the best and wisest of Men have always despised Poesie as the Parent of Lies finding Poets to be such monstrous Lyers as being such who never made it their Study to speak or deliver in Writing any thing of sound knowledge only to tickle the Ears and Fancies of vain Persons with idle Stories always building Castles in the Air as Campanus hath truly said of them Mad Poets only on their Verses feed Reject their Fables they will starve for need Their Lyes their Riches are and all their Gold They faign and think that they enjoy so bold To think the Palm grows only the reward To Crown the Brows of every lying Bard. Furthermore there are most desperate contentions not only about the Forms and Figures of Verses and also concerning the Feet Accents and quantity of Syllables long and short for these are the Trisles of Grammarians but also about their own Toys Figments and Lyes for example the
a large Treatise Entituled De Machinis Metallicis Though how out of the Metallick Oar to consolidate and purifie the true Metal by fire or if mixt how to separate them few or none have hitherto taken the pains to teach perhaps because that being an Art too Mechanick and Servile learned and ingenious Men have thought it beneath their Studies However being my self some years since made Overseer of some certain Mines by his Imperial Majesty searching diligently into the Nature of all those things I began to write a special Treatise thereof which I have yet in my hands continually adding and correcting the same as my Experience and Knowledge encreased intending to omit nothing that may serve to further the Invention and Knowledge thereof whether in relation to the searching and discerning of the Vein melting the Oar under-propping of Mines framing all manner oâ— Engines and whatever else belongs thereto Mysteries hitherto altogether hidden before By means of this Art we come to be Possessors of all Humane Wealth the eager desire whereof hath so invaded Mortals that they make their approaches to Hell and seek Riches in the very mansions of the Infernal Ghosts as Ovid elegantly describes it Deep in the Bowels of the Earth they toyl There what she strove neer Stygian shades to hide They dig up Wealth the baneful Root of Pride Now fatal Steel but far more fatal Gold With gain bewitch'd did Mortals first behold Desire of gain that Truth and Vertue chas'd And in their room Deceit and Treason plac'd Or as another Poet doth express himself Now Truth is driven out by Gold By Gold our Laws are bought and sold. Certainly therefore he first found out the greatest plague of Humane life that first found out Mynes of Gold and other Veins of Metal These men have made the very ground the more hurtful and pestiferous by how much they are mâ—re rash and venturous than they that hazard themselves in the deep to dive for Pearl Concerning the places where these Metals are found Authors do very much vary Lead they say was first found in the Islands called Cassiterides not far from Spain Brass in Cyprus Iron in Crete Gold and Silver in Pangaeus a Mountain of Thracia At length they infected the whole world onely the Scythians as Soline relates condemn'd the use of Gold and Silver resolving to keep themselves eternally free from publick avarice There was an antient Law among the Romans against the superfluity of Gold And indeed it were to be wish'd that mâ—n would aspire with the same eagerness to Heaven that they descend into the Bowels of the Earth allur'd with that vein of Riches which are so far from making a man happy that many repent too often of their time and labour so ill bestow'd CHAP. XXX Of Astronomy IN the next place Astrology offers it self otherwise called Astronomy an Art altogether fallacious and more to be derided than the Fables of the Poets whose Professors are a sort of confident persons Authors of Prodigies who with an impious Confidence and Curiosity at their own peasures beyond humane ability undertake to erect Celestial Orbs and to describe the measures motions figures shapes number and reciprocal harmony of the Stars as if they had long convers'd in Heaven and were but newly descended thence however among themselves of most different and dissenting Opinions even concerning those things by which they say all things are kept up and subsist that I may well say with Pliny that the incertainty and inconstancy of this Art plainly argues it to be no Art at all of whose very Fundamentals the Indians think one thing the Egyptians another the Moors another the Caldeans another the Jews another the Arabians another the Latins another the Antients another the Moderns another For Plato Proclus Aristotle Averroes and almost all the Astrologers before Alphonsus treating of the number of the Spheres reckon up but onely eight Spheres though Averroes and Rabbi Isaac aver that one Hermes and some Babylonians did adde a ninth to which Opinion Azarcheles the Moore adheres with whom Albertus Teutonicus agreed in his time for what notorious fact I know not called the Great and all those that approve the accesses and recesses of the Spherical Motions But the later Astrologers have constituted and appointed ten Orbs which Opinion the same Albertus believes that Ptolomy also held But Alphonsus following the judgment of Rabbi Isaac sirnamed Bazam held onely nine Spheres but four years after in an Edition of his Tables adhering to the Opinions of Albuhassen the Moore and Albategnus he reduc'd them to the number of eight Rabbi Abraham Avenezra Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Abraham Zacutus believe no moveable Orb above the eighth Sphere But they differ very much about the motion of the eighth Orb and of the fixed Stars For the Caldeans and Egyptians are of opinion that it is mov'd by onely one motion with whom Alpetragus and among the Modern Writers Alexander Aquilinus agree but all the other Astronomers from Hipparchus even unto these times affirm the same to be turn'd with various motions The Jewish Talmudists assigne thereunto a double motion Azarcheles Tebeth and Johannes Regiomontanus added the motion of Trepidation which they call approachings and recedings upon two little Circles about the heads of Aries and Libra but in this differing one from another for that Azarcheles affirms that the moveable head is distant from the fix'd not more than ten parts Tebith asserts them to be distant one from the other not above four parts with some minutes Johannes Regiomontanus makes them distant more than eight parts which is the reason given that the fixed Stars do not always incline to the same part of the Sky but sometimes they return to the place where they began But Ptolomy Albategni Rabbi Levi Avenezra Zacutus and among the later Authors Paul the Florentine and Austin Ritius my familiar Acquaintance in Italy affirm that the Stars do always move according to the successions of the Signes The later Astrologers make a threefold motion of the eighth Sphere the one which is most proper and is the motion of Trepidation which is finished once in seven thousand years the second they call the motion of Circumvolution being the motion of the ninth Sphere and is finished in forty nine years The last is made by the tenth Orb and is called the motion of the Primum mobile or the rapid and diurnal motion which turns round in the Compass of one natural day However among them that give a double motion to the eighth Sphere there is great diversity of Opinions for all the Modern Authors and they who admit the motion of Trepidation say that the Sphere is carried about by a superior Sphere But Albategni Albuhassen Alfraganus Averroes Rabbi Levi Abraham Zacutus and Austin Ritius say that the Diurnal motion which they call the Rapid motion is not proper to any Sphere but that it is made by the whole Heaven Averroes also confirms it that
both toward Religion toward Men and God himself affirming That the secrets of Conscience may be discovered from such a part of the Sun being in the ninth third eleventh houses of the Heaven and many have prescrib'd Rules whereby they pretend to disclose the very thoughts and intentions of Men. Exalting the Coelestial Constellations above the Miraculous Works of God as the superintendant Causes of the Universal Flood the Law given by Moses and the Child-bearing of a Virgin and vainly attributing to Mars the occasion and necessary cause of Christs All-redeeming death Yea they do affirm That Christ himself did make choice of his hours wherein to work his Miracles and when he rode in Triumph into Jerusalem what times he knew the Jews could have no power to hurt him which was the reason he chid his Disciples in these words Are there not Twelve hours of the day They say moreover That if any one were happily placed under Mars being in the Ninth House such a one shall be able to cast out Devils with his presence only But he that shall Pray to God Luna and Jupiter being in Conjunction in the Mid-Heaven with the Dragons-head shall obtain all his desires and that Saturn and Jupiter do promise future prosperity of Life Moreover that he who hath Saturn happily constituted with Leo at his Nativity shall when he departs this Life immediately return to Heaven again Now who could think it as silly and as idle as these Heresies are yet want they not abettors Petrus Aponensis Roger Bacon Guido Bonatus Arnoldus de Villa Nova Philosophers Alyacensis Cardinal and Divine and many other famous Christian Doctors who have not without great Infamy given their Assent to the same and more than that have been so bold as to testifie and defend the truth thereof Against these Astrologers of later years Johannes Picus Mirandula wrote Twelve Books so fully that he hath scarce omitted one Argument but with such a force of Eloquence that neither Lucius Balantius a most strenuous Champion of Astrology nor any other Hector of this Art could ever defend it from the ruine of those Arguments that Mirandula hath brought against it For he makes it out by most strong Arguments That Astrology is an Invention not of Men but of the Devil which Firmianus confirms by which he endeavours to exterminate and abolish all Philosophy Physick Law and Religion to the general mischief of Mankind for first it takes away the use of Faith in Religion lessens the reverence of Miracles takes away Divine Providence while it teaches That all things happen by force and vertue of the Stars and from the Influences of the Constellations by a kind of fatal Necessity It patronizes Sin excusing Vice as descending from Heaven it defiles and subverts all good Arts in the first place Philosophy translating the Causes of things from right Reason to Fables translating the practice of Physick from the application of Natural and Efficacious Remedies to vain Observations and idle Superstitions deadly both to Body and Soul Abrogating all Laws Customes and Rules of humane Prudence when Astrology must be only consulted at what time how and by what means to Act as if she only held the Scepter that governs humane Life and Manners together with all Affairs publick and private deriving an uncontrolable Authority from Heaven and accompting all things else vain and ridiculous that will not submit to her jurisdiction A most worthy Art which the Devils heretofore Professed in contempt of God and to the deceipt of Men. Neither can we think that the Heresie of the Manicheans which takes away all liberty of Free-will had any other Original than the false Opinions and Doctrines of Astrology From the same Fountain sprang that Heresie of Basilides who believed that there were Three hundred sixty five Heavens all made successively and in the same likeness according to the number of the days of the year and assigning to every one of them certain Qualities Principles and Angels and also giving them names he calls the supreme Ruler of them all Abraxas which name according to the Greek Letters contains the Numerals of Three hundred sixty five to answer the Number of Heavens which he had invented These things I have therefore set forth that ye may understand Astrology to be the Mother of Heresie Besides this same Fortune-telling Astrology not only the best of Moral Philosophers explode but also Moses Isaias Job Jeremiah and all the other Prophets of the Ancient Law and among the Catholick Writers St. Austin condemns it to be utterly expell'd and banish'd out of the Territories of Christianity St. Hierome argues the same to be a kind of of Idolatry Basil and Cyprian laught at it as most contemptible Chrysostome Eusebius and Lactantius utterly condemn it Gregory Ambrose and Severianus inveigh against it The Council of Toledo utterly abandon and prohibit it In the Synod of Martinus and by Gregory the younger and Alexander the third it was Anathematiz'd and punish'd by the Civil Laws of the Emperours Among the Ancient Romans it was prohibited by Tiberius Vitellius Dioclesian Constantine Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius Ejected also and Punish'd by Justinian made a Capital Crime as may appear in his Codex CHAP. XXXII Of Divinination in general IT willnot be amiss here to bring in those other sorts of Divination drawing predictions not so much from the observation of heavenly bodies but of inferiour things that retain a kinde of shadow and resemblance of heavenly things that those things being understood ye may the better understand this Astrological Tree that yields such trashie Fruit and from whence as from a Lernaean Hydra the Beast of so many Heads is generated Among the Arts therefore of Fortune-telling Vulgarly professed in hope of gain are Physiognomy Metoposcopie Chiromancy Soothsaying Speculatory and Interpretation of Dreams to which we may adde the mad Oracles of former times All which have not the least of solid Learning in them nor have any ground of Reason to fix on but depend upon Chance familiarity with Spirits or some apparent Conjectures which are gathered from ancient Traditions or long Observations For all these prodigious Arts of Divination defend themselves with the Buckler of Experience and to dis-entangle themselves out of the bonds of hampring Objections by suggesting to work beyond Faith and Reason of all which the Law takes notice thus Commanding Let none be found among you that maketh his Son go through the fiâ—e or that useth Witchcraft or a regarder of times or a marker of the flying of fowls or a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that councelleth with Spirits or a Soothsayer for all that do those things are an abomination unto the Lord. CHAP. XXXIII Of Physiognomy PHysiognomy taking Nature for her Guide upon an inspection and well observing the outward parts of the Body presumes to conjecture by probable tokens at the qualities of the Mind and Fortune of the Person making one Man to be Saturnal another a
and Prince of this World in Leviticus nam'd the Prince of the Deserts to whom it was said in Genesis Thou shalt eat the dust all the days of thy life And in Isaiah The Dust is thy bread that is our Corporeal Body Created out of the dust of the Earth so long as it remains unsanctifi'd and not chang'd for the better to be no longer then at the disposal of the Serpent but of God according to the word of St. Paul It is sow'd corporal but shall rise spiritual And in another place All shall rise but all shall not be chang'd for that many shall remain perpetual food for the Serpent This foul and detestable matter of the Flesh the food of the Serpent lies in the Grave in hopes of a better Lot and spiritual Transmutation which is already come to pass in those that have already tasted the first-Fruits of Redemption and some have attain'd it by vertue of the Deifick Spirit as Elias and Enoch and as some are of opinion Moses whose bodies being chang'd into the nature of Spirits never saw corruption nor as other Carcasses were left to the power of the Serpent And something to this purpose it was thought was the great dispute of Michael with the Devil about the body of Moses which St. Jude mentions in his Epistle Thus much concerning Conjuring and Necromancy CHAP. XLVI Of Theurgy MAny there are that believe Theurgy not to be unlawful which pretends to have to do with none but good Angels and the Divine Numen himself though under the names of God and Angels it proves to be onely the delusion and mockery of evil Spirits It pretends no natural Power but to make use of Celestial Ceremonies by which they think to attract and reconcile the Divine Natures Concerning which the antient Magi have deliver'd several Rules in several Volumes But the chiefest part of their Ceremonies is in observing Cleanliness first of the Soul then of the Body then of those things about the Body as in the Skin the Garments the Dwelling Vessels Utensils Immolations and Sacrifices which cleanliness renders them capable of being the receptacles and fit for the entertainment of Divine Spirits and is very much encourag'd and commended in Sacred Scripture according to the words of Esay Be glad and be clean and take away the evil of your thoughts But uncleanness which often corrupts and defiles and infects man disturbs the most clean and pure Society of Celestial Beings and chases away the spotless Spirits and Angels of God It is true that many times unclean and delusive powers to the end they may be ador'd and worship'd for Gods do counterfeit this Purity and therefore great diligence and care is to be us'd for the avoiding thereof and therefore we have abundantly discours'd thereof in our Books of Occult Philosophy Now of this Theurgy or Divine Magick Porphyrius having delivered many things at length concludes that by Theurgick Operations the soul may be made fit to receive Spirits and Angels and to see and converse with them but that there can be any access to the Deity thereby he altogether denies His Rules and Directions are contain'd in his Art Almabel his Notorious Art his Art Pauline his Art of Revelations where are abundance of Superstitions to be found which are so much the more pernicious by how much they seem more Losty and Divine to the unskilful CHAP. XLVII Of the Cabalists HEre the words of Pliny come into my minde There is saith he another Sect of Magicians of which Moses and Latopea Jews were the first Authors which words bring to my remembrance the Cabala of the Jews which as the constant opinion among the Hebrews goes was delivered by God to Moses and thence through succession of Ages even to the times of Ezra preserv'd by Tradition onely without the help of writing As of old the Doctrine of Pythagoras was delivered by Archippus and Lysiades who kept School at Thebes in Greece where the Scholars learning all their Masters Precepts by heart made use onely of their Memories instead of Books So certain Jews despising Letters plac'd all their Learning in Memory Observation and verbal Tradition whence it was call'd by the Hebrews Cabala that is to say a receiving from one to another by the Ear An Art by report very antient though the name be but of later times known among the Christians Now this Cabala they divide into three parts the first contains the knowledge of Bresith which they call also Cosmology explaining and teaching the force and efficacie of things created Natural or Celestial expounding also the Laws and Mysteries of the Bible according to Philosophical reasons which for that cause differs little from Natural Magick wherein they say K. Solomon excell'd Therefore we finde in the Sacred Histories of the Jews that he was wont to discourse from the Cedar of Libanon to the low Hyssop as also of Cattle Birds Reptiles and Fish all which contain within themselves a certain kinde of Magical vertue Moses also the Egyptian in his Expositions upon the Pentateuch and most of the Talmudists have followed the Rules of this Art The other part thereof contains the knowledge of more sublime things as of Divine and Angelical Powers the contemplation of Sacred Names and Characters being a certain kinde of Symbolical Theology wherein the Letters Figures Numbers Names Points Lines Accents are esteemed to contain the significations of most profound things and great Mysteries This part again is twofold Arithmantick handling the nature of Angels the Powers Names Characters of Spirits and Souls departed and Theomantick which searches into the mysteries of the Divine Majesty his Emanations his Names and Pentacula which he that attains to they account endu'd with most admirable power By vertue of this Art they say Moses wrought so many Miracles changing his Rod into a Serpent the Water into Blood and plagu'd Egypt with Frogs Flyes Lice Locusts Emrodes and Pestilence slaying the first-born of Man and Beast By this Art he divided the Red-sea caus'd Water to flow out of the Rock brought the Qualls into the Wilderness sweeten'd the bitter Waters made Lightning by day and a Pillar of Fire by night to lead the March of his people call'd down the Voice of God among the people By this Art he punish'd the Arrogant with Fire the Murmurers with Leprosie Mutiners with sudden Destruction causing the Earth to swallow them up preserv'd the Clothes of the Israelites from wearing out and gave them Victory over their Enemies Lastly by means of this Art Josua commanded the Sun to stand still Elias call'd down Fire from Heaven and rais'd the dead Youth to life Daniel muzzled the Lions mouths and the three Children sang in the middle of the fiery Furnace Nay the perfidious and unbelieving Jews stick not to aver that Christ himself wrought all his Miracles by vertue of this Art Solomon as they say did excel in this Art and that he discovered several secrets thereof
according to the Services which they presum'd themselves to have done in War had urg'd 'um to take up Arms against their Country Examples whereof we find in Coriolanus the Gracchi Sylla Marius Sertorius Catiline and Caesar. Therefore is we do but Examine the Foundations and first Beginnings of Nobility we shall find it acquir'd by Perfidiousness and Cruelty if the growth thereof we shall find it increased by Mercenary War and Robbery If we look into the Original of Kingdoms and Empires we shall meet with most Impious Murthers of Parents and Brothers Tragical Matches Fathers expell'd from their Kingdoms by their Sons and therefore let us view a little the Infancy of Nobility and we shall find it to be nothing but a sturdy Power and robustious Dignity a Happiness got by Wickedness and the Inheritance of the worst of Children And that this is apparent is evident out of Scripture and no less manifest out of the Ancient and Modern Histories of the Gentiles For no sooner had Adam at the first Creation of the World begot his First-born Cain the Husbandman and his other son Abel the Shepherd but there began a distinction of Power Abel seem'd to resemble the Commonalty Cain the Nobility who being according to the Flesh proud and cruel and a Persecutor of him that was according to the Spirit meek and gentle slew his Brother But the Commonalty was again restor'd in the Birth of Seth the third Son of Adam so that Cain was the first Author of Parricide and Nobility together who contemning the Laws of God and Nature yet trusting in his own strength and Usurping Dominion to himself he built Cities instituted Empire and by Law began to curb Men Created free by God the sons also of the Holy Generation and to bring them into servitude and subjection till they themselves contemning the Command of God all Flesh soon growing Corrupt by promiscuous Copulation begat Giants which the Scripture seems to Interpret men Powerful in their Time and famous for their Deeds And this is the most apt and real definition of Nobility for these were they that first oppress'd the Weak advancing themselves by Robbery and Spoil and glorying in their great Riches spread the greatness of their Fame by calling Regions Rivers Mountains Cities and Seas by their own names of whom Cain the first Parent by nature Wicked enviously and inwardly malitious of God incorrigible a treacherous dissembler of his Anger slew his own brother adding Blasphemy to Parricide And thus we see the Primitive and most Ancient Ornaments the chief Vertues and Embellishments which continue to this very day whose first Author was the Father of the Gyants whom God destroyed in the Deluge reserving only Noah a Just Man of the Generation of Seth. This Noah had three sons Sem Japhet and Ham who restoring the World after the Flood according to the Custome of the Ancient Gyants began to build Towns and Cities which is the Reason that from Noah till Abraham the Scripture makes no mention of Just Men wherefore we are to believe That all from Noah to Abraham were the Architects of Nobility that is of powerful Impiety Confusion Power Warfare Violence Oppression Hunting Luxury Pomp Vanity and such other marks of Nobility with which the sons of Noah were stamp'd Among others Cham because he was wickeder than the rest and the first that was disobedient to his Father therefore he was thought fittest to be the sole Monarch of the World at that time he begat Nimrod whom the Scripture describes to be a mighty Potentate upon the Earth a mighty Hunter before the Lord some read it against the Lord. He built Babylon the Great and gave the first occasion of the Confusion of Languages set down Rules how to Govern distinguishing the degrees of Honour Dignity Offices and Arms. After that Laws being made to curb the Commonalty then was slavery and subjection introduc'd Taxes laid upon the People Armies were rais'd and cruel Wars were first carried on From the same Cham proceeded Chus from whom the Aethiopians Misraim from whom the Egyptians and Canaan from whom the Canaanites The most noble and populous Nations but the wickedest most reprobate and accursed of God At length after some process of time again God Elected a Just Man even the Patriarch Abraham from whose Loyns he might raise to himself a Holy Seed and People whom he distinguished by the Mark of Circumcision from the Multitude of all other Nations he begat two sons one of his Maid-servant Natural the other of his Wife Legitimate Ishmael became a fierce Hunter a Potentate Prince of the Ishmaelites giving from his own a lasting Name to his Nation and God blessed him and established his Grandeur and Nobility upon the foundations of War Rapine saying And he shall be a wild man his hand shall be against every man and every mans hand against him and he shall dwell in the midst of all his Brethren But Isaac observing the Religion of his Father kept his Flock and had at length by his Wife Rebecca two sons Jacob and Esau Esau a man whom God belov'd not red and hairy a Hunter a Bowman and a Glutton insomuch that for one mess of Pottage he sold his Birthright he became a Potent Man and Prince of the Idumeans receiving for his blessing the fat of the Earth and the dew of Heaven but to live by his Sword and in servitude Jacob being a Just Man an Exile with his Uncle Laban fed his Uncles Sheep whose Daughters when he had both earn'd by an Apprentiship of Fourteeen years for his Wives he begat of their bodies Twelve Children and his Name was called Israel which Name he left to his Posterity the people of Israel By the names of his Twelve Sons Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulon Joseph Benjamin Dan Naphtali Gad and Ashur were the Twelve Tribes of the whole Nation called But Joseph was sold by his Brethren into Egypt where he was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians made a most skilful Interpreter of Dreams which he made use of in Prison So skilful in Oeconomicks that by his Ingenuity he found out new ways of increasing the Publick Revenue and heaping up Riches to himself whereupon he became a great Favorite of Pharaoh's being constituted by him Lord and Governour over all Egypt and of a Slave was created Noble after the solemn Custome of Egypt for the King put his Ring upon his finger and a Chain of Gold about his neck clad him with Purple made him to ride in his Chariot the Crier proclaiming That all men reverence and esteem him as one of the chief Nobility The like manner of ennobling of men we finde the Persians to have used of which Mordecai the Hebrew ennobled by Artaxerxes in Esther was an Example from whence the Custome of creating Noblemen has continued to this day among the following Races of Emperours and Kings of which some of 'um purchase their Nobility with Money