That it may be judged by the stars of a mans conscience of the most secret scruples and inward feelings of it 42. That by the stars it may be judged of mans love towards God and of Gods again towards him 43. That Astrologicall predictions may be made infallibly as concerning life everlasting 44. That every kind of Divination is to be received and honoured as a token of Gods benign providence 45. That Magicall and Astrologicall prediction is a gift of that nature as was the gift of healing and speaking with tongues 46. That prophecy the divine inspired prophecy is to be attributed to the influences of the stars 47. That that which in nature first exerciseth Magicall efficacy is the voice of God 48. That the Hebrew Letters are the most efficacious of all to Magicall and Astrologicall operation because they have the greatest similitude with celestials and the world and because of the vertues of their numbers which he that shall know shall be able in every language to draw forth wonderfull misterys by their Letters as also to tell what things have been past and foretell things to come 49. That the sign of the Cross hath very great power and that is the most firm receptacle of all the celestiall powers and intelligences and is inspired with the fortitude of the celestials 50. That the stars are most potent when they make a cross by the projection of their rayes mutually 51. That God ordained it so that men should live so long in the beginning of the world on purpose that they might perfect their Astrologicall observations and transmit them to posterity 52. That the Heavens are a Book wherein is written in legible Characters all things that shall happen in the world from the beginning to the end and not only so but that the names of good children and elect are there and thus written 53. That in the seaven Planets there are seaven Spirits governing the world by turns 354 years and four months a piece from the first creation to the last dissolution And those seven Spirits in those seven Planets working all changes and chances in the world 54. That mens sins and iniquities doe proceed necessarily from the stars for they not only signify but cause the same 55. That it is not mans will that commits adultery but Venus nor that commits murder but Mars nor that commits theft but Mercury 56. That all mens actions good or bad and the events of either doe by an indissoluble bond depend necessarily upon the motions of the stars as the Lords of fate and are therefore to be worshipped 57. That there are Angels or Spirits which have their residence in the stars and may not amiss be prayed unto 58. That the stars being prayed unto doe hear our prayers and bestow celestiall gifts not so much by any naturall agreement as of their own free will 59. That he who shall make any prayer the Moon conjoyned with Jupiter in Leo shall be sure to obtain of God whatsoever he askes 60. That the direfull and malignant Planets are to be appeased and made propitious by Sacrifices 61. That it is lawfull to conjure up Devils seeing they are ordained to be ministring spirits for the service of the Faithfull 62. That Mars being happily constituted in the ninth heaven gives power to expell Devils 63. That a man who hath Mars happily posited in a new Housâ—â— may by his sole presence expell the Devill out of the obsessed 64. That a man cannot overcome the Devils temptations but by Magicall experiments 65. That conjunctions and influxes of the stars are potent not only to raise dead bodies but to make their souls appear visible 66. That by Magicall and Mathematicall vertue the same body and the same soul are united together again in 440. years 67. That there be two Planets the authors of all humane felicity Venus of this present life and Jupiter of the life to come 68. That Saturn placed in Leo frees mens souls from afflictions here on earth and brings them to Heaven where they had their first beginning Now what naturall truth of a divining art that hath begotten and broached such Heresies and Blasphemies against the supernaturall and divine truth it self CHAP. XVI 16. From the Cursedness of Consequents 1. WHo dares deny but that as all manner of impieties and iniquities are the vile adjuncts and attendants so all manner of Plagues and judgments are the just consequents and issues not only upon those that profess and practise Divination but those also that assent and attend thereto Levit. 19. 31. Deut. 13. 12 〈◊〉 18. 12. Levit. 20. 6. Isa 19. 34. Jer. 27 15. 50. 35 36. Ezek. 13. 8. 9. 2. Whether through Magick and Astrologie the stars became not the first objects of Idolatry and consequently whether Idolatrous worship came not to be terminated upon other inferior creatures at first by the means of their constellated fabrication Nay whether Astrologicall Divination and Magicall Fabrication be not guilty of causing a double Idolatry both in making stars Idols and making Idols stars 3. Whether it was not the main end upon often record in profane Authors that the vaticinators and Soothsayers took upon them as it were a Religious office of interpreting prodigies and portents found or feigned in heaven or earth on purpose to injoyn and promote Idolatrous Sacrifices and Supplications 4. Whether the Mythologie or fabulous fictions of Poets the Paganish Theologie arose not meerly by the means of Magick and Astrologie and mens fanaticall opinions and commentations thereupon As of Saturn devouring his own children c. Of Atlas bearing the heavens with his shoulders c. It were long to instance particularly in all the fables of Saturn Jupiter Mars Apollo Mercury Venus Diana Orion Orpheus Tyresias Atreus Thyestes Daedalus Icarus Phaeton Endymion Pasiphae Castor Pollux Calisto Arcas Andromeda Aquila Ganymedes c. How numberless are the Poeticall fables that have risen from Astrologie or else Astrologie from those fables yea and the Astrologers stars themselves Else besides those of Aries Taurus Scorpio Aquarius c. Let them say if those be not most egregious ones of Orion Cassiope the Pleiades Hyades the Dolphin Eagle Swan the Goat that nourisht Jupiter Aridne's Crown Orpheus his harp Phrixus his fleece the Argonautes ship Silenus Ass and the Asses Crib all taken up to be stars 5. Whether more and greater superstitions have been begotten in mens minds by any things else than by Magick and Astrologie Making men so superstitious in marrying eating drinking buying selling sleeping rising riding giving comming besides believing assenting hoping presuming consulting fearing distrusting desparing c. 6. Whether Magâ—ck and Astrologie tend not utterly to rob and spoyl men of all Christian Liberty Rendring their very consciences scrupulous in the free and moderate use of the creature perplexed in naturall morall civill prudentiall and artificiall actions and timorous of fate destiny fortune casualty and the like 7. Whether fatidicall Astrologie work
them which Moses himself in Deuteronomie calleth Gods of the earth To the which all Nations were attributed not signifying others than the heavenly starrs and their souls That the heavens and the heavenly bodies are animated with certain divine souls is not only the opinion of Poets and Philosophers but also the assertion of the Sacred Scriptures and of the Catholicks For Ecclesiastes also describeth the soul of heaven Coelestiall bodies are animated because they are said to receive commands from God which is only agreeable to a reasonable nature for it is written I have injoyned a command on all the stars Moreover Job seemeth to have fully granted that the starâ—s are not free from the stain of sin for there we read The stars also are not clean in his sight Which cannot verily be referred to the brightnesse of their bodyes The Masters of the Hebrews think that the names of Angells were imposed on them by Adam according to that which is written he Lord brought all things which he had made unto Adam that he should name them and as he called any thing so the name of it was Hence the Hebrew Meculiabs think together with the Magicians that it is in the power of man to impose names upon Spirits Many prophecying Spirits were wont to shew themselves and be associats with the souls of them that were purified examples whereof there are many in sacred writ As in Abraham and his bond-mayd Hagar in Jacob Gedâ—on Elias Tobias Daniel and many more So Adam had familiarity with the Angell Raziel Shem the Son of Noah with Tophiel Abraham with Zadkiel Isaac and Iacob with Peliel Ioseph Joshua and Daniel with Gabrâ—el Moses with Metattron Elias with Malhiel Tobias the younger with Raphael David with Cerniel Mannoah with Phadaâ—l Cenez with Cerrel Ezekiel with Hasmael Esaras with Uriel Solomon with Michael There is a kind of frenzy which proceeds from the mind of the world This doth by certain sacred mysteries vows sacrifices adorations innovations and certain sacred arts or certain secret confections by which the Spirit of their God did infuse vertue make the soul rise above the mind by joyning it with deities and Daemons So we read concerning the Ephod which being applyed they did presently prophesy Rabbi Levi affirmeth that no propheticall dream can be kept back from his effect longer than twenty two years So Joseph dreamed in the seventeenth year of his age and it was accomplished in the 39. year of his age A humane soul when it shall be rightly purged and expiated doth then being loosed from all impurity break forth with a liberall motion ascends upwards receives divine things instructs it self when happily it seems to be instructed elsewhere neither doth it then need any remembrance or demonstration by reason of the industry of it self as by its mind which is the head and Pilot of the Soul it doth imitating by its own nature the Angels attain to what it desires not by succession or time but in a moment For David when he had not learning was of a Sheepheard made a Prophet and most expert of divine things Salomon in the dream of one night was filled with the knowledge of all things above and below So Isaiah Ezekiel Daniel and the other Prophets and Apostles were taught If there be a deprecation a magicall deprecation made for the destruction of enemies let it be commemorated that God destroyed the Gyants in the Deluge of waters and the builders of Babel in the confusion of tongues Sodome and Gomorah in the rayning of fire the hoste of Pharaoh in the Red Sea and the like adding to these some maledictions out of the Psalms or such as may be gathered out of other places of Scripture In like manner when we are to deprecate still magically deprecate against dangers of waters let us commemorate the saving of Noah in the flood the passing of the children of Israel thorough the Red Sea and Christ walking dry shod upon the waters and saving a Ship from shipwrack commanding the winds and waves and lifting up Peter sinking in the waters of the Sea and such like But if a prayer be necessary for obtaining oracles or dreams whether it be to God Angels or Hero's there are many places offer themselves out of the old Testament where God is said to talk with men promising in very many places presages and revelations besides the propheticall dreams of Jacob Joseph Pharoah Daniel Nebuchadnezzar in the old Testament and the Revelation of John and Paul in the new In consecrations magicall consecrations of Fire Water Oyl Books Swords c. Read holy Writ and thence apply such attributes names words phrases examples as are suitable c. We call Daemonâ— holy because in them God dwels whose name they are often said to bear whence it is read in Exodus I will send my Angell who shall goe before thee observe him neither think that he is to be despised for my name is in him In like manner certain confections magicall confections are called holy into which God hath put the speciall beam of his vertue as we read in Exodus of the sweet perfume and Oyl of annointing We reverence the image of a Lamb because it representeth Christ and the picture of a Dove because it signifieth the Holy Ghost and the forms of a Lynn Oxe Eagle and a Man signifying the Evangelists and such things which we find expressed in the Revelations of the Prophets and in divers places of the holy Scripture Moreover these things confer to the like Revelations and dreams and therefore are called sacred pictures Amongst the Jews black dayes are the 17. day of June because on that day Moses brake the â—ables Manasses erected an Idoll in the Sanctum Sanctorum and the walls of Jerusalem are supposed to have been pulled down by their enemies Likewise the 9. of July is a black day with them because on that day the destruction of both the Temples happened And every nation by this way may easily make the like calculation of dayes fortunate or unfortunate to them And the Magicians command that these holy and religious dayes be observed no less than the Planetary dayes and the celestiall dispositions c. Whosoever rhou art who desirest to operate in this faculâ—y in the first place implore God the Father being one that thou mayst be one worthy of his favour be clean within and without in a clean place because it is written in Leviticus Every man which shall approach those things which are consecrated in whom there is uncleanness shall perish before the Lord. God accepteth for a most sweet odour those things which are offered to him by a man purified and well disposed and together with that perfume condescendeth to your prayer and oblation as the Psalmist singeth Let my prayer O Lord be directed to thee as incense in thy sight Moreover the soul being the off-spring and image of God himself is delighted in these perfumes and odours receiving them by
those nostrils by the which it self also entred into this corporeall man And by the which as Job testifieth the most lively spirits are sometimes sent forth which cannot be retained in mans heart A fortunate place conduceth much to favour Neither without cause did the Lord speak to Abraham that he should come into the land which he would shew him and Abraham arose and journyed towards the South In like manner Isaac went to Gerarah where he sowed and gathered an hundred fold and waxed very rich Make elections also of hours and dayes for thy operations magicall operations for not without cause our Saviour spake are there not twelve hours in the day Concerning that Phiolsophie which you require to know I would have you know that it is to know God himself the worker of all things and to passe into him by a whole image of likeness as by an essentiall contract and bond whereby thou mayst bee transformed and made as God as the Lord spake concerning Moses saying Behold I have made thee the God of Pharaoh This is that true high occult Philosophie of wonderfull vertues We must dye I say dye to the world and to the flesh and all senses and to the whole man animal who would enter into these closets of secrets occult Philosophicall Magicall secrets not because the body is separated from the soul but because the soul leaves the body Of which death Paul wrote to the Colossians Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ And elsewhere he speaks more clearly of himself I knew a man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knows caught up into the third Heaven By this their theomancy they suppose that Moses did shew so many Signs and turned the rod into a Serpent and the waters into blood and that he sent Frogs Flys Lice Locusts Caterpillers fire with Hail botches and boyles on the Egyptians c. By this art of miracles Joshua commanded the Sun to stand still Elisah called down fire from Heaven upon his enemies restored a dead child to life Daniel stopt the mouths of the Lyons the three children sang songs in the fiery furnace Moreover by this art the incredulous Jews affirm that even Christ did so many miracles Salomon also very well knew this art and delivered charms against Devils and their bonds and the manner of conjurations and against diseases This is that Alphabetary and Arithmeticall Theologie which Christ in private manifested to his Apostles and which Paul speaketh to the perfect only 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. John 37. 7. He sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his work This place the Chirosophers or Câ—iromancers abuse to proove their Palmistry and their jugling Prognostications by the fictitious lines and mounts in the hand Isa 1. 16. Wash ye make you clean all this they apply to the ceremoniall emundations or purifactions which they prescribe as requisite to the operations of Theurgicall Magick 1 Kings 4. 33. Hereupon they believe that King Salomon exceeded in Magicall skill and that all those things here spoken of doe bear before them certain powers of naturall Magick Dan 4. 33. Nebuchadnezzar being driven from among men and eating grasse as Oxen c. This they urge as a proof of the possibillity of veneficall and metamorphosing or transforming Magick That the Brazen Serpent set up by Moses in the wildernesse was but a meer Talisman which drove away Serpents and healed the bitings of them And that the Iews made the Golden Calf to no other end than to serve as a â—alisman as their Astrologers think to aucupate the favour of Venus and the Moon against the influences of Scorpio and Mars which are adverse unto them I know not whether or no by the very same vertue of Resemblance which is found betwixt God and man Let us make man in our image after our likenesse it hath not rightly been affirmed by some Divines that the Son of God would nevertheless have become man yet without suffering death though Adam had not fallen The art of Divination of Dreams is grounded upon resemblance as may appear out of the holy Bible where Joseph foretold the Cup-bearer that within three dayes he should be restored to his office because he had dreamed that he pressed three clusters of Grapes into Pharaohs Cup c. So at the seven years of plenty and dearth by the seven fat and lean kine Eccles 1. 16 17. 7. 25. By the words spoken in the good sense sayes R. Salomon we understand Sciences divine under which he comprehends Astrologie and by the other words in the bad sense those that are unlawfull in which number he reckons the Magick of the Aegyptians to which some will also intitle Moses They the later Rabines say that Moses who was a learned Astrologer making use of his knowledge in these secrets gave the Jewes those Lawes which he grounded upon the harmony of the Planetary Zepheros As for example he instituted the fourth Commandement Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day because this day was governed by Saturn who might cause those works that were undertaken on this day to be unprosperous and that Moses therefore thought it fit that the people should rest on this day The fifth Commandement Honour thy father and thy mother hath reference to the Sphere of Jupiter which is benign The sixth thou halt not kill to Mars who hath the government of Wars and Murders The seventh thou shalt not commit adultery to Venus who rules over concupiscentiall motions and so of all the rest That our Saviour Christ Saturn having part in his Nativity and so rendring him sad and pensive seemed to be older than he was Whereupon the Jewes took occasion to say unto him Thou art not yet fifty years old c. Abarbanel saith that Sol was the chiefest from whom they the Rabbinicall Astrologers took their Omens of good and this was the reason saith the same Authour that when God caused King Hezekiah to be born again as it were the second time hee made choyse of the Sun to be the sign by which this miracle should be wrought Psal 19. 4. Their line is gone out through all the earth We may understand it spoken of the starrs which are ranged in the heavens after the manner of letters in a book or upon a sheet of Parchment Ier. 1. 14. Out of the North an evill shall break forth c. or shall be opened We may render this Prophecie in these words all evills shall be described or written from the northward And if written then certainly to be read from this side Most properly therefore doe wee in this coelestiall writing begin to read disasters and misfortunes from the Northern part Iesus Christ when he was on earth with the dust of that earth he made the blind to see and of meer water he made wâ—ne These were the visible elemenrs of his Physick or rather so the notion offend you not of
in like manner obnoxious to vices 44. That the Stars are numerable and the number of them is 1600. saith one 1022. saith another 800. saith another more and less say others 44. That the least Star in the Heavens or the least visible is eighteen times bigger than the earth 45. That the Stars of the first honour and magnitude are bigger than the earth 107. times of the second 86. or 90. times of the third 72. times of the fourth 54. times of the fift 31. or 36. times of the sixt 18. times Have not they judged these old dimensions to be errors that have since altered them and whether theirs be not errors too let others judge or let them judge one another by their various opinions in this kind 46. That the Planets when they are lowest or are nearest the earth yet are they so many Semidameters distant from it viz. the moon 53. Mercury 65. Venus 167. The Sun 1122. or as some say 1124. Mars 1216. Jupiter 8854. Saturn 14378. 47. That when they are highest or most remote then are they thus distant viz. the Moon 64. Mercury 167. Venus 1070. the Sun 1210. Mars 8022. Jupiter 14369. Saturne 18500. 48. That the sphear of the fixed Stars is 14000. Semidameters distant from the earth others say 19000. others say 20081½ 49. That a Semidameter is 913. German miles 50. That the Moon is distant from the center of the earth 33. Semidameters or 30129. German miles so that the singular regions of the ayr have 11. Semidameters or 10043. German miles if the distance be computed from the center of the earth Likewise Mercury 64. Semidiameters or 58584. Germane miles Venus 167. semidiameters 152471. German miles the Sun 1120. semidameters 1022560. German miles Mars 1220. semidameters 1113860. German miles Jupiter 6678. semidameters 8103788. German miles Saturn 20100. semidameters or 18360430. German miles The eighth sphear 40220. semimidameters 36720860. German miles 51. That Saturn is 22. times bigger then the whole earth Jupiter 14. Mars lesser 13. The Sun greater 139 2 8. Venus lesse 6 1 â— Mercury 19. the moon 42. And again Saturn greater 91 1 â— Jupiter 95½ Mars 1â…“ The Sun 162. and 166 Venus lesse 37. Mercury 22. the Moon 1900. 52. That it is from the earth to the Moon 15150. miles From the Moon to Mercury 12812. miles From Mercury to Venus as many From Venus to the Sun 23438. miles From the Sun to Mars 15425. miles From Mars to Jupiter 68721. miles From Jupiter to Saturn as many From Saturn to the firmament 120485. miles 53. That for the order and placing of the Stars and Planets the Sun is in the midst of the Seaven and above that Mars and above that Jupiter and above that Saturn but beneath the Sun Venus and beneath that Mercury and beneath that the Moon 54. That Mercury follows next to Mars and next it Venus and next it the Sun and next it the Moon 55. That the Sun is in the last place but one or two and Venus above it and next after Mars 56. That Mercury is next to the Sun and under that Venus 56. That both Sun and Moon are above the fixed Stars 57. That the Sun is the Center of the world 58. That the Light of the Stars is materiall is a body is void of matter is a spirituall substance 59. That the Light of the Stars is of a middle nature betwixt corporeall and incorporeall 60. Is a substantiall form 61. Is a manifestation of colour 62. Is a fire 63. Is an accident reall or intentionall either or both 64. That the Light of the Stars is proper is mutuatitious is partly one partly another 65. That the Heavens are unmoveable 66. That the lower world turns round 67. That the moving Intelligences or Angles are the assisting forms of Stars 68. That the Stars fly like Birds in the ayr 69. That the Stars make a melodious harmony in their motion or revolution 70. That the celestiall bodies not only move with an insensible Musick but are moved by a sensible musick 71. That there is in sounds a vertue to receive the heavenly gifts and that the Heavens doe consist by an harmonicall composition and doe rule and cause all things by harmonicall tones and motions 72. That there are two half Orbes carryed about the earth the one all fire the other most ayr and they two as they wheel about make the day and the night 73. That the Stars erratile are some male some female yea sometimes male and sometimes female 74. That the Heavens and celestiall bodies are animated and have souls and souls properly so called 75 That the world the Heavens the Stars and the elements have a soul with which they cause a soul in these inferior and mixed bodies 76. That they have also a spirit which by the mediating of the soul is united to the body 78. That the souls of the Stars are not created together with their bodies but are extrinsecally added to them 79. That the world lives hath a soul and sense 80. That the above named souls have reason 81. That the soul of the world is placed chiefly in the Sun 8â— That the â—oul of the earth is not to be thought as it were the soul of some contemptible body but to be rationall and also intelligent yea and to be a 〈◊〉 83 That the souls of creatures and men are infuâ—ed into their bodies by the Stars 84 That Comets are the souls of famous 〈◊〉 triumphing in heaven 85. That Comets be fiery animals walking upon the superficies of the Elements 80. That the first principle of all things is water from which all things proceed and into which all are resolved 87. That all things are generated through the condensation and rarefaction of the ayr 88. That the Sun Moon and Stars have their originall from the earth 89. That the Sun and the Stars are begotten of clouds 90. That the whole body of nature hath the originall from the Sun and the Moon That the Sun makes Stars out of clean Chrystalline water 91. That the Heavens are a book in which the manners actions fortunes and fates of all are singularly written 92. That by the Mathematicall we receive the caelestiall vertues as motion sense life speech c. 93. That amongst all Mathematicall things Numbers as they have more of forme in them so also are more efficacious by which the next access to prophecying is had 94. That in Gestures there lyes the reason of numbers and great vertues c. 95. That the very elements of Letters have some divine numbers by which collected from the proper names of things we may draw conjectures concerning occult things to come 96. That by the number of Letters we may find out the ruling Stars of any one that is born and whether the husband or wife shall dye first and know the prosperous or unlucky events of the rest of our works 97. That the child cannot be long-lived that is born under the horned moon
and all such singular events as are contingent to humane state and affairs Are not the whole words a plain reproof of all such arrogance and a proof not so much of the Stars as of Gods own incomparable and incomprehensible power and providence as also of mans wretched ignorance and ignorant wretchedness while in this and divers other following Chapters he teaches Job to consider and that not only as touching the heavens but the earth the Sea and all that in them is Psal 8. 3. When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast created What difference betwixt a divine contemplation and a Diviners speculation of the Heavens Are not these the main differences and most of them to be here observed 1. One reads them with the pure glass of Gods word the other by his own false and fallacious perspicils And must not he be blear eyed and weak sighted that undertakes to read the Heavens and Heavenly bodyes not with the eyes of his soul nor yet with his eyes in his head but with his eyes in or through a case 2. One beholds them as Gods Heavens the other as dame Natures Heavens 3. One sees and considers the other neither sees nor considers but gazes only and so conjectures 4. One looks upon them as a work an ordinary work the other pores upon them as working and extraordinarily working 5. One contemplates them devoutly and constantly at any time or all times whensoever the other speculates them superstitiously at stated planetary hours and moments 6. One considers them as the work of Gods fingers the other conceives them as working by his own figures 7. One doth it to meditate within himself the other doth it to presage and predict upon others 8. One regards them as Gods ordinance the other respects them as giving laws and ordinances to men 9. One takes occasion hereby to meditate both of mans frailty and his dignity as in some respects inferior yet in some respect superior to the heavenly bodyes the other feigns and muses upon the Stars superiority and domination and mans inferiority and subjection altogether 10. One admires the mercy of God in exalting man above the Stars the other at most but vaunts of his judgements in depressing him under them 11. One hereupon argues mans state to be little lower than that of Angels the other hereupon would make mans condition to be far worse than that of beasts 12. One so directs his meditation as that it is not without an expresse invocation of the Lord the other so directs his speculation as that very often it is not without some implicite invocation of the Devill 13. One magnifies God for so visiting man in mercy as to crown him with the glory and honour of a reasonable and a gracious soul the other dishonours him even in the visitations of his judgments in that he would rob man of this his crown and set it upon the Stars head making them to be rationall creatures nay and little less than God and man to be awed wholly under their irrationall and fatall necessity 14 One nevertheless concludes that God hath so made man as to have the dominion over the works of his hands the other concludes that the work of his fingers have nevertheless the inevitable and ineluctable dominion over him But it would not be unmentioned why no mention is here made of the Sun as is of the Moon and of the Stars was it because David composed this Psalme in the night time and is he therefore silent of it because it was now set Surely spirituall meditations require not the presence or appearance of sensible objects If he did compose it in the night season yet undoubtedly it was done in his Chamber and not on the top of a Tower This nightly meditation was clean another thing to their nightly speculation He could as they cannot perfect his consideration without any relation of or to the Sun Or therefore speaks he not of the Sun but of the Moon and the Stars only because these shine together Well then it is evident that he lookt not at such Aspects and Conjunctions as are fain to refer all chiefly to the Sun Or calls he the Sun his Heavens inclusively Why that in a peculiar manner is no more his creature than are all the other obscurer and inferior Stars they are all but the same work of his fingers But if he speak of the Sun thus involvedly it is not to countenance their involutions but reprove their involved praedictions who study to be ambiguons because they prognosticate from such things they plainly perceive not Or speaks he not of the Sun Because he speaks of seeing and that 's a thing cannot suffer it self to be over broadly gazed on Goe to if it doe indeed dazle the sensible eyes for whose naturall use it was intended how then will it dazle those curious eyes that are prying and searching into it not only for the supernaturall but preternaturall abuse of it and of all under it But to let pass these levities of conjecture save only that they have their weight against their lighter conjectures doth not the Psalmist in very deed therefore here passes over the Sun in silence because he is not now prognosticating but prophesying of the Sun of righteousness to whose brightness and glory the Sun in the firmament is but obscure darkness prophesying of his Birth and Death for which the Prince of the Planets hand no motion and hath therefore here no mention What sorcerous prophaness and wizzardly blasphemy then is that for Star-gazers to conclude our Saviour Christs Nativity Passion Resurrection and consequently the whole mysterie and work of our Redemption within the revolutions positions conjunctions aspects calculations configurations and prognostications of the Stars Psal 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work How doe the heavens declare the glory of God Shall we believe the Rabbines or any magicall Reciter that the heavens declare the glory of God not as other inanimate creatures doe but that they doe it as things that have souls and prognosticating souls too Since they have no reason for their assertion but this because say they the word which here signifies to declare is never attributed in all the Scripture to things inanimate Say it were not so elsewhere is it not enough that it is so here Must we for the more common usage of the phrase change the proper nature of the thing In Job 12 7 8. that very word with others as rationall is attributed to the irrationall creatures shall we therefore say they are rationall creatures and so make a metamorphosis for a metaphors sake But wee believe the heavens do so declare the glory of God as the firmament sheweth his handy-work viz. after their own kind and way and not after ours In the simplicity of their nature not in the curiositie of an Art In their naturall end and
it as of other Sciences but that it did still muscitate in dark corners and durst never proclame it self but in darkened distracted times But doe not true Artists themselves call it Mechanicall And is not the highest speculation of it percepted and perfected by manuall instruments and those fallacious too as themselves complain So that it is a question whether is likeliest to be the greatest proficient the Student or the Apprentice in Astrologie 7. Can that indeed be a true laudable art or profession Many of those principles and most of whose practices abuse and overthrow the very principles and practices of other laudable and liberall arts and Sciences 8. What certainty or credit of such an art whose principles are Hypotheses or meer suppositions the conclusions but conjecturall and hardly probable at best the Authours obscure and of dubious saith the opinions contrary and oft-times contradictory and the practices imposturous nay prestigious 9. How can Astrologie be accounted as a liberall distinct and usefull art When as take away from it what it begs or rather steals to cover and colour it self withall from Physicks Opticks Geometry Arithmetick Astronomie and nothing is left of its own or peculiar to it self but a bare goeticall Genethliacism a fantasticall figure-flinging and a collusive calculating or casting of Nativities 10. Whether it be a clear and receptable distinction of Magick Theurgicall and Goeticall divine and Diabolicall white and black Magick and Astrologie good and evill 11. Seeing all the kinds of Magicall and Astrologicall Divination tend to one undue end the inordinate precognition and prediction of things future whether the object matter or signall means of Divining by things in heaven or on earth be sufficient to distinguish the art or act unto lawfull or unlawfull good and bad 12. Whether those Magicall and Astrologicall Writers that would seem so nicely busie in distinguishing doe not confound themselves ere they are aware and while they would pretend to sift from their art and reject so many opinions and practices as vain fabulous superstitions idolatrous imposturous prestigious diabolicall doe not themselves nevertheless retain and seek to establish too many of the same branne 13. Whether the Divination of things future especially such as concern the Soul mind will affections be a Science naturall spirituall artificiall or diabolicall If naturall where are the innate principles primely seminated common to all men perspicuous to perceive and profitable to life and actions If spirituall where 's the extraordinary revelation speciall illumination universall edification If artificiall where are the true and certain rules reasons demonstrations all opposite to vanity chance delusion 14. May not an art be justly suspected nay censured for diabolicall not only because of a compact either explicite or implicite or of an invocation adjuration imprecation c. but also because of a superstitious assent proud curiosity presumptuous temptation inordinate means and incommodious nay pernicious end and use 15. If Magicall divining or Astrologicall predicting had any thing of a lawfull and laudable Art or Science would God have forbidden it Nay would he not have taught it his own People If it had been usefull to his Church why suffred he none of his Servants to professe or practise it why permitted he it to begin and proceed amongst Pagans Idolaters Atheists but that the Devill had a hand in it and mens corruptions led them to it 16. Whether Magick and meer Astrologie was more simple and innocent of old than of late If so what glory of Pagans what shame of Christians Wherefore vaunts one of the Arts growing to perfection and complains another of its falling into degenerateness Alas what perfection of a thing not proved to be good and what degeneratness of a thing too evidently evill from the very first 17. How can such an art or science be true and certain which teaches no right end for the most part reaches not its own end and uses means ordained to no such end 18. Wherefore have the Artists pickt or rather patcht their words of art out of all languages orientall and occidentall Is it on purpose to impose upon mens admiration and upbraid ignorance to those that understand them not as they would themselves I cannot think as they doe themselves For then why are they so various in accepting translating paraphrasing and explaining a many of them Why conclude they the most barbarous insignificant words to be most efficacious in operating Is not this strange that words which operate nay signify nothing to the apprehension should be made the great significators and operators of things both in heaven and earth while their words or tearms are worse than secoud notions exotick barbarous non-significant non sensuall is not there the vanity of their art but when they once grow to be blasphemous execrable profane diabolicall what vileness and abhomination must that of necessity be 19. For as much as every true science abhors equivocall tearms and voyces what may we call that art that besides them uses equivocall sentences and conclusions And indeed knows not well how to use any else and therefore wholly rejoyces in them Of the two which is more ambiguous the Oracles of Apollo or the divining predictions of Magicall Astrologers But what marvell is it that the Scholars should speak altogether after their own Schools dialect only on would think they should hate themselves in their own precocity 20. Whether the very principles and rules of Astrologie or any proposition or prognostication as well touching weatherly events as arbitrary contingents may not be directly proved among them both pro and con 21. Whether Astrologers old and new have alwaies used the same names figures characters instruments calculations computations hieroglyphicks houses suppositions significations distinctions order c. And wherefore were they altered and with what concent yet remaining between them 22. How many new inventions and devices in Astrologie so that almost every later writer accounts it his only glory in the art to have found out that himself which he confidently avers the learned before him never once observed 23. Whether the sundry ways of calculating computing inventing or finding out of altitudes longitudes latitudes amplitudes magnitudes multitudes c. be all demonstrable and doe not rather enervate and impede the certainty and facility of one another 24. Who of them is able to reconcile and salve all the anomalies irregularities obliquities epicicles fictitious circles retrogradations intercalations intervals contrary motions inequalities of appearance peregrinations corrections suppositions oppositions c. that they usually talk of in their art 25. When will the Genethliacks compose the differences among themselves about the best way of calculating about the constituting of the natalitiall theame about some significations of the Stars about the choice of significators which they say are so hard to be judged of because of the equall reasons and authorities on both parts Now must not such variousness of their science beget erroneousness of their
upon so many and contrary causes and considerations Namely of Stars erratick and fixt and they more efficacious than these of rayes manifest and occult of influxes simple and mixt of light cognate and mutuatitious of motions proper and common and the proper more active than the common of Planets amicall bâ—nevolous auspicious fortunate and â—nimicall maleficall unfortunate exitiall as also ancipitous and indifferent to both and all these sometimes roborated and holpen sometimes infirmed and hindred one by another of Planets masculine feminine androgynous and these again now strengthning now weakning one another of Stars auc't and dimiâ—ute diurnall nocturnall and ambiguous ascending and descending slow swift and â—ean direct Stationary and retrograde Of the Signs of the Zodiack their Quadrants and Trigons and how they are masculine or feminine imperant or obedient right or crooked humane brute reptile vocall and without voyce fruitfull or barren beautifull or deformed happy-witted or unhappy conjunct or distinct of the essentiall dignities of the Planets or increments with their contrary dejections or detriments their houses exaltations triplicities tearms thrones decurions faces joys of the accidentall dignities of Planets in respect of motion positure aspect sc combust peregrine captive afflicted oppressed c. sextile quadrate triangular c. partile platick solitary ferall applicate defluent c. of the celestiall houses their number opposition representation and in every house the order nomenclature signification joy consignificator colour condition and temperament of the severall wayes of erecting Theams Scheams Figures c. All these generals considered besides infinite more particulars to be added what a wild wood or imaginary mist is here to find out a future contingent or fortuitous event For so clearly doe even the exactest of them make their grounds and means whereby to passe with great peremptoriness their prognosticating judgements upon all accidents Nay for as much as some of them say there are 120. divers conjunctions of the 7. Planets and moreover of them generally 13092. Considerations besides innumerable myriads of them in particular are not these direct to use their own word directions not only to ghesse at but conclude upon things future and fortuitous 21. Whether this order of arguing be with probability much lesse infer any causall necessity viz. From the constellation of the Nativity of a child to the naturall constitution from the naturall temperament to the humours of vegetation and growth from the humours of the body to the manners of the mind from the manners or naturall dispositions to the politick morall yea and religious actions and from the manners and actions to such and such determinate fortunes and events Seeing all these may bee quite otherwise altered by the constitution of the Parents by natures work different to both their constitutions by the complexion of the Nurse by adventitious nutriments by education by Art by Discipline by freewill and reason by grace and conscience by the wisdome power and goodness of Gods providence yea and by externall accidents or occurrents 22. If this way of argument were admitted in some part and probability that the Starres may have their vertue and efficacy upon this sublunary orb and so upon the inferior Elements and so upon Bodyes compounded of those elements and so upon the humours in those bodyes and so upon certain passions and affections of the mind that follow those humours or tempers would it therefore follow that they have the like though not as efficients yet but as instruments upon the Soul Spirit Understanding Will Conscience not only not to compell or enforce but so much as to incline or dispose them to actions rationall voluntary politick morall or religious and so bring them to reach the end or runne into the events of all those actions good or evill What rationall man can be perswaded that it is in the influences of the Starres to beget in a propension either to vertues or to vices and that it is in those vertues or vices as so begotten to hasten or prevent the hoped or feared effect However what Christian man will be brought to believe that wicked men and godly men their temporall prosperity or adversity is from their auspicious or their unfortunate starres how much lesse then their spirituall endowments or defects together with their eternall rewards or punishments 23. Whether in all Planetary Constellations Aspects Cojunctions there be a necessary conjunction betwixt all causes and all effects Though we may grant much of these in the Eclipses themselves yet what necessity of all these may move us to admit so much as touching the portents of those Eclipses And therefore I demand further of Eclipses as I doe of Comets also if they have no more but naturall causes and common apparitions whether have they then more than naturall significations and common effects If the significations and effects be to be thus doubted of in the eminent and visible what may we doubt of concerning the invisible or else but imaginable conjunctions 24. Why are the daily effects of the same starres as touching the weather so different in divers Horizons And why are the prognosticks of them so different although within the same Horizon Now if Prognosticators have so often hallucinated or deceiving been deceived about naturall effects or consequences of heat cold fair weather rain wind snow haâ—l thunder c. how can they be credited in their Predictions upon arbitrary actions and fortuitous events 25. Whether there be not a sufficient end and use of the starres substance and motion in the ornament of the Universe the beauty of the heavens their rising and setting in their own order their light and heat upon inferiors their distinctions of times and seasons with other their unknown motions actions services all tending to the glory of the Creator and benefit of the creature although their Astrologicall and Genethliacall yea and magicall benevolences and malevolencies had never been excogitated or invented CHAP. IX 9. From the strength of Reason 1. ALthough some certain demonstrations or demonstrative reasons borrowed from Arithmetick Geometry and Opticks may be conceded to Astronomie because it is a Science that keeps it self to naturall motions and measures ends and uses yet whether all they ought to be usurped by or allowed to Astrologie in as much as it transgresses all these 2. Whether besides the exaction of a blind and implicite Faith the rejection and derision of sound and explicite reason and demonstration done by Magicians and Astrologers be not a necessary demonstration of the vacuity or want of reason to the Artists or their Art 3. Whether Reason be not superiour and predominant to the power of the Starres For say after their own order the starres may have their influences upon tempers and humours and so upon passions and affections and so upon manners and actions and so upon issues and events yet Reason is not destitute of such means and succours as may temper those humours moderate those passions prevent those
travell toyl plow sow obey submit c 32. Whether the prediction or prenotion of things future makes not men more careless and slothfull both in publick affairs and in the works of private callings For if they be evill does not the fear of them make men saint and if they be good does not the presumption of them make men secure How many have let goe the present substance with looking after the future shadow 33. Whether Physick or Medicine the ordinary means of health being applyed according to art hath not been greatly dishonoured yea and infected by the charming cures of words syllables sounds numbers characters configurations ligatures suspensions c And whether these have not provoked God to suspend his blessing and the naturall vertues of vegetables and minerals And what Magicall practitioner in Physick but tempted God tyred nature deluded minds bewitched bodies and endangered souls 34. What Husbandmen that regarded the Astrologicall Ephemerides in his rurall occupation of plowing sowing c. ever reapt the inward satisfaction of his conscience or an outward harvest answerable to his expectation but in stead of filling either his hand or his bosome sat down empty of them both 35. Whether the Magicall Astrologicall Daemoniacall Atheisticall abuse of the stars against nature and providence be not the most fearfull sign and prognostication that divâ—ne providence is putting an end even to the naturall use of the stars And that he is near about to shake the powers of heaven to make the stars fall from heaven to cause the Sun to be darkned and the Moon no more to give her light and to shorten these dayes and to bring to appearance the sign of the Son of man that the elect may not be deceived as the world hath been with the lying signs of the Sons of men CHAP. XVII 17. From the propension to manners 1. IF this be the order of Astrologicall judgement to proceed from the Planets to the temper from the temper to manners from manners to actions from actions to events Now say that this calculatory chain be not only crackt in every linck but quite broken in the midst must not then the way of genethliacall conjectation needs be totally interrupted 2. Is not the Probleme in Physicks become a sophism in Astrologie sc Whether the manners of the mind doe follow the temper of the body Which way doe they determine it in the most moderate science Naturally necessarily principally immediatly directly particularly effectually or else accidentally occasionally mediatly indirectly generally instrumentally potentially dispositively or how else Though something might be admitted as concerning rude sensuall appetites meer animal affections and inconsult or passions in their prime motions relishing altogether of the inferiour part and not yet brought within the power of reason But as for manners properly and exactly which are the elections habits customs acts operations of the rationall soul may not the morose judiciaries be thus urged If manners proceed from or depend upon the elementary temper or constitution Then are they not naturall principles both good and bad In things innate have we not the faculty before the function but in manners is not the act before the habit Doe not manners by their severall actions oppose their severall kinds Who sees not that the good actions correct the bad manners and the bad actions corrupt the good manners Now things that are generated and corrupted by extrinsecall actions how can they be intrinsecall and naturall Should not nature thus work to confound it self Should not men have innate and inâ—ite causes of vertues and vices which Grace institution education assuefaction c. could not alter till the naturall temper be altered A mans manners may oft times be contrary in the very extreams is his temper so too His manners may change with his age condition private preferment publick state of times in a day in an hour is his temper changed withall or else must not his morall disposition be contrary to his naturall constitution Must not the body consisting of an influentiall and elementary mixtion be the principall subject of ethicks or morality and not the soul that consists of an Understanding and a will Must not a man now be made and said capable of and prone to manners one or other more or less from sensible constitution not reasonable institution What need or use of exhortation dehortation praise dispraise reward punishment If manners grow wild and out of the nature of the soyl and be of no good culture what hope or credit can there be of such What labour of vertuous manners what struggle against the vitious Are not manners then most laudable and illustrious when they are clean contrary to a mans naturall temper or humour Are not the worst of manners thus made necessary violent involuntary ignorantly acted and so excusable Nay is not the principall cause of nature and naturall disposition thus accused And hath not the soul of man been thus thought materiall corporeall drawn out of the power of the matter living in and dâ—ing together with the body yea have not the souls of beasts been thus concluded for iâ—dewed with manners as well as the souls of men In a word have not the Physiognomists hereupon been bold to make their morall judgement not only from tempers but of statures figures features colours c. 3. If the elementary temperature were admitted for one of the generall remote imperfect and infirm causes of manners yet are there not many much more potent to correct and prevent both it and them As God Grace Religion conscience natures Law reason will Parents nutrition education institution care exercise custome company example humane Laws ayr climate soyl Physick some adde Musick and make it prevalent for the exciting or remitting of affections and manners above the modulation or harmony of the sphears to their efficacy upon blood choler plague melancholy and the like 4. Although there might be some generall operation of the heavenly bodies upon elementary tempers and humours and so some hability to passions and affections and so some proclivity to manners and actions yet how know they particularly and wherefore so pronounce they that it is Saturne that makes men sullen c. Jupiter merry c. Mars angry c. Mercury subtle c. Venus wanton c. 5. If there be a temperamentall consecution of inordinate passions and affections and so a naturall disposition or proness to bad manners that flow mainly from the sensuall appetite yet how can that be said of good manners which proceed from a rectitude of reason Neither doe bad manners arise properly from the appetite of the animal but from the assent of the rationall part So that good or bad what ever they be from the body or sense manners they are not but from the will and mind 6. Whether the naturall semination or insition of a propensity or inclination to manners good or evill be with a subordination unto mans liberty or freewill either
their nature substance magnitude number position motion influences and effects whether upon Elements stones metalls trees herbs living creatures or especially reasonable Souls How often I would I could say ingenuouâ—ly have the skilfullest of their Artists complained of their fellows ignorance and confessed their own And therefore let no man lay to heart the audacious and scurrilous calumnies and exprobrations of the ignorance of Peripetaticks naturall Philosophers Moralists Fathers Councills Schoolmen Casuists Divines Lawyers Physicians since it is their proper garb and gift to be so bitterly invective and not without cause one against another for the very same 32. Where is the Man in the Moon modified or qualified with manners fit for magicall operation I mean such an one as the pretenders to it pretend to require Even the man that is dignified to this so sublime vertue and power Not overwhelmed by too much commerce with the flesh not busied aboâ—â— the sensible soul of the body But leaving carnall affections frail sense and materiall passions and ascending to an intellect pure and conjoyned with the powers of the Gods What are those dignifications of his which nature desert and a certain religious art doe make up Where is his naturall dignity in the best disposition of the body and its organs not obscuring the Soul with any grossnesse and being without all distemper c. But in defect of that who so is such an one that recompences the defect of nature by education and the best ordering and prosperous use of naturall things untill he become compleat in all intrinsecall and extrinsecall perfections Where is his dignity in learning and practice and how is that meritorious who of them applies his soul to contemplation and to convert it self into it self and is not prohibited by passions opposing him from his birth and vain imaginations and immoderate affections And who among them all is a man perfect in the sacred understanding of religion in piously and most constantly meditating on it and believing without doubting or such an one on whom the authority of holy Rites and nature hath conferred dignity above others and one whom the divine powers contemn not Such an one peradventure may work wonders But is not such an one a wonder himself And will they blame us if we credit not the Art till they produce us such an Artist as themselves would seem to require when should magicall operation be adventured on if it were let alone till this black Swan be found out 'T is their own task and till they absolve it they must give us leave to tell them in their own words Whosoever beyond the authority of his office without the merit of sanctity and learning beyond the dignity of nature and education shall presume to work any thing in Magick shall work in vain and deceive both himself and those that believe in him and with danger incurre the displeasure of the divine powers And we take leave to tell them according to our own truth that if a man be indeed so dignified or qualified and those qualities properties or manners be soundly true and rightly good it is hard for such an one to be a Contemplator but impossible as such an one to be an operator in Magick CHAP. XVIII 18. From the fatuity of Fate 1. WHether the very word tearm or name of Fate and Fortune be not of Paganish origination and withall of superstitious derivation and acception As Fate or fatation from praefation or fore speaking And I pray whose speaking not Gods but the starres nay not the starres but the constellated Oracles For these were the first Faticanes and their hills or cells the first Vaticanes that ere were heard of Although I rejoyce not much in etimologizing neither do account an argument from the Notation to be very strong especially in names of humane imposition Yet something may not amisse be affirmed or denyed from the notation of the name though it be not so exquisite but allusive only keeping the principall letters and comming neer to the nature of the thing Let them therefore give me leave a little to play upon the word and if they will undertake to doe otherwise let others judge if they be not more ridiculous Fatum à fando vates quasi fates à fando vel à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fatuus à fando Fate and Fatories and Fatiloquists and Fooles all taken from talking they know not what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why any of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not all rather of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in as much as fatidicall men and Fooles both fore-speak many things but fore-see nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of making furious and phantasticall both connexions and Predictions vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposing the hand or power of the Moon or coelestiall bodyes to be therein vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doubting whether the coelestialls doe signifie or presage any such thing yea or no vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether moneths or dayes or years doe indeed distribute such things as they prognosticate vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether there be any such part or lot indeed vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether there be any such thing asFate in destiny remaining vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thing not coherent congruous convenient necessary But why not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than of all the rest save that there is nothing in this their fatall Destinie to be loved or desired Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quare non à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aeque ac à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take them one as well as another and then they note all together that Fate may as easily be occurred and prevented as that it must necessarily have its fact or finishing And that it may as well be passed by as passe upon Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happening any way vel a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of every one 's own fabricating or making vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a thing at best but in a mans vowes wishes or desires rather than in any reality Sic Fortuna quasi vortuna à vertendo of turning every way Vel quasi forte una peradventure something peradventure something peradventure nothing But to cease from descanting upon names the very nature of both these hath alwaies caused the learnd to call them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most vain and foolish things of themselves that a man could either fear or confide in 2. Whether Fate or Fortune ought once to be named among Christians And how many eminent Saints of Gods Church have retracted and repented that ever they have so done And how ma-many of them have and do daily warn men to be wary how they rake
the body is there not a medicine and meat to cure it but if it could intend any evill upon the soul or mind yet is there not education and discipline to prevent it Many things may be effected besides nature may they not much more then besides Fate If every man may fabricate his own Fortune why not also contrive his own Fate If Fate had never had name or nature or power would things have fallen out otherwise than they doe fall out why then should Fate be inculcated since without Fate there is Nature and Fortune to which all things necessary or casuall may be aptly referred In this old Philosophicall dispute what easie Moderator would not give this censure That either side hath said sufficient to overthrow his Adversaries opinion but neither of them enough to establish his own 7. Hath not the constellatory Fatation introduced so many starry Gods into the world Yea made so many providentiall and tutelary Gods and Goddesses some Select others Ascriptitious to have a hand in the whole administration of the Universe But particularly so many Geniall or Genitall Gods and Goddesses and their sundry ordinations and offices at every mans geniture As of Janus Jupiter Saturn Genius Mercury Apollo Mars Vulcan Neptune Sol Orcus Liber Pater Tellus Ceres Juno Lucina Fluona Luna Diana Minerva Venus Vesta Moreover Vitumnus Sentinus Mens Mena Iterduca Domiduca Abaona Adeona and Dea Fatua too not of the least ordination and operation either in the birth or life or death And no marvell that they make so many Consent-Gods goe to the fate of a Man when they will have so many to be busie about the fate of an herb As Seia fatally president of the sowing Segetia or Segesta at the comming up of the Corn Nodotus or Nodinus at the knitting or knotting Volutina at the involving of the leaves Batellina or Datellea at the opening of the blade Proserpina at the budding Hostilina at the equall shaping of the eare Flora at the flourishing Lasturtia at the nourishing Tutilina in the keeping Matuta or Matura at the ripening Messia at the mowing and Runcina not only at the weeding but at the plucking up by the roots 8. Whether Fate be one or many If it be one simply then what needs any reduction if it many why is it not reduced to one And then in vain is that done by many which may be done by one and it is prophane l to ascribe that to many which ought to be a scribed to one If it be one truly then is it undivided in it self and divided from all others which how can that which is a series or connexion of so many things be especially having its inherence in movables or mutables If it be but one accident why should it imply all under a necessity If it be but one by aggregation collection connexion so are things fortuitous as well as fatall Besides such an unity is in the meanest degree of entity Wherefore then should it order and subordinate things of a more perfect degree then it self If it be many or a multiplicity then is it unequall indeterminate uncertain and next to a nullity If it be one why then so they make it do diverse according to divers conjuctions and constellations If it be many how can they make any certain and particular pronouncing upon it 9. Whether that they call Fate be in the first or among the second Causes If in the first that is as much as to make it equall unto God If among the second then is it inferiour unto man For among second causes and especially in involuntary actions and all such as fall under humane counsell and deliberation the intellectuall mind and rationall will hath no superiour And what more contrary to the order of nature and creatures than that the lesse noble should be disposing and governing those more noble than themselves 10. Whether there be a fatall necessity upon all acts or events If upon all acts where 's Liberty if upon all events where 's contingency And whether upon these both good and evill and that whether naturall civill or spirituall If upon naturall acts and events good or evill then what use of means either to preserve or to prevent If upon acts civill and good what merit what praise if upon acts civill and evill what laws what punishments If upon events civill and good what thanks if upon events civill and evill what hopes If upon acts spirituall and good what free grace if upon acts spirituall and evill what free will If upon events spirituall and good what free bounty If upon events spirituall and evill what free mercy 11. How can there or why should there be such a thing as Fate imposing a necessity upon actions and events when as divine providence it self doth it not so as to exclude liberty contingency or casualty from things But works with second causes according to their own motion and manner Permitting sometimes their exuberancy sometimes their deficiency preserving to them their sundry orders offices and degrees of efficiency Suffering the remoter causes or agents to be impedited by the more proximate that all effects might not be taken for naturall and necessary but that his own free disposing might appear Although nature and every naturall agent be of it self and ordinarily determinated to one effect and to the producing of it after the same way yet he suffers it to be impedited by one debility and indisposition or another either to come to pass otherwise or else to be altogether prevented that so he might preserve a contingency in all naturall causes to the intent nothing might be thought absolutely necessitating but his own will and pleasure above Much more doth he confirm a freedom to the rationall will not only that good may the more chearfully be done and accepted but the evill also that is done or suffered may not unjustly be imputed to providence because of a necessity imposed 12. If fate be as they define it the Series order nexure ligation complication constitution disposition of second causes c. what feeble things are all those seconds put together without the first what can their own motion work to without his speciall concurrence what if he work not with them what if without them what if against them Leave them to themselves and what knot in a rope of Sand Can there be a perpetuall series or indissoluble connexion betwixt causes so disparate yea so adverse as naturall internall necessary and arbitrary adventitious accidentall yet after this order is fate oftentimes finished A languishing man not only consumes away within himself but the ayr meats drinks poyson act the fatall consummation To an ordinated destiny of an unfortunate end comes in inordinately fire water a fall a gun a sword an unlucky hand c. and hath not this necessitating fate now the complement by accident and is there not a casuall intervention of more force to the fatall effect than all the causall connexion How
we must doe contrarywise and those which wee place here fortunate must there be infortunate by raising malignant stars Also for the destroying or prejudicing any let there be made an Image under the ascension of that man whom thou wouldst destroy and prejudice and thou shalt make unfortunate the Lord of the House of his life the Lord of the ascending and the Moon and the Lord of the house of the Moon and the Lord of the house of the Lord ascending and the tenth house and the Lord thereof c. 23 The youth to be initiated to Diaination by magick spells ought to be chosen sound without sicknesse ingenious comely perfect in his members of a quick spirit eloquent in speech that in him the divine power might be conversant as in the good houses that the minde of the youth having quickly attained experience may be restored to its divinity If therefore thou shalt be a man perfect in the sound understanding of Religion and piously and most constantly meditatest on it and without doubting believest and art such an one on whom the authority of holy Rites and Nature hath conferred dignity above others and one whom the divine powers contemn not thou 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 inâ—briaâ—â— let him have a clean and neat ehamber also exâ—rcized 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 pleasre 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
the gift of Prophecy the power of Religion the secrets of Conscience the command over devils the vertue of miracles the efficacy of supplications and the state of the life to come do all depend upon the stars are vouchsafed by them and may be known from them For they say that the star of the Twins ascending with Saturn and Mercury joyned under Aquarius in the ninth coast of heaven a Prophet must be born and that therfore the LordChrist was excellent in so many mighty works because in the same place he had Saturn in Gemini Also the sects of Religion over which they place Jupiter as chief patron they distribute by commixtion of other stars so as Jupiter with Saturn should make the Religion of the Jews with Mars of the Chaldeans with Sol of the Egyptians with Venus of the Saracens with Mercury of the Christians with Luna that of Antichrist which they say is yet to come And that Moses from Astrological rules and reasons instituted the Sabbath of the Jews to be observed as a Religious day and that the Christians therefore do erre in not resting from 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 constituâ—ed 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 ostension of these to be the number of the dayes of the yeer or the number of the days of the yeer to be the ostension 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 Cypâ—ian 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 falâ— 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
certaine supplications and fumes being made the event of the thing did appeare in the glasse There was also not farre from Epidaurus a City of Licaonia a deep Fume which was called the water of Iuno into which cakes of Corn being cast answers were given fortunate if the waters did quietly retaine what was cast in but unhappy if they did as it were scorning of them cast them back We read that Hermes Socrates Xenocrates Plato Plotine Heraclitus Pythagoras and Zoroastes were wont to abstract them selves by rapture and so to learne the knowledge of many things Also there was in Proconnesus a Philosopher of wonderfull knowledge called Atheus whose soule sometimes went out of the body and after the visitation of places farre remote returned again into the body more learned Also the soule of Harman Clezomenius was wont to wander abroad his body being left and to bring true tidings of things very farre off And there are even to this day in Norway and Lapland very many who can abstract themselves three whole daies from their body and being returned declare many things which are afar off Amphiarus the Prophet commanded those who would receive Oracles to abstaine one whole day from meat and three daies from wine that the soule could not rightly prophecy unlesse it were free from wine It was a custom amongst the Antients that they who should receive Answers certaine sacred expiations and sacrifices being first celebrated and divine worship ended did religiously lie down even in a consecrated chamber or at least in the skinnes of the sacrifices The Rulers of the Lacedaemonians were wont to lie down in the Temple at Pasiphae that they might dreame The same was done in the Temple of Aesculapius from whom true dreames were thought to be sent forth And the Calabrians consulting Podalyrius the sonne of Aesculapius did sleep neere his Sepulchre in Lamb skinnes for so doing they were told in their dreames whatsoeuer they desired to know There was formerly at Bura a town in Achaia an Oracle of Hercules constituted by a Chest board where he that went to consult of any thing after he had prayed cast foure Dice the cast of which the Prophet observing did finde written in the Chest board what should come to passe There was once at Pharis a City of Achaia in the middle of the Market a statue of Mercury where he that went to receive omen did Frankincense being fumed and candles being lighted which was set before it and that Countrey Coyne being offered on the right hand of the statue whisper into the right eare of the statue whatsoever he would demand and presently his eares being stopped with both his hands did make haste away from the Market place which when he was past did presently his eares being opened observe the first voyce he did heare from any man for a certaine Oracle given unto him The Pythagorean Philosophers being taken with desire of Oracles divine praises being celebrated did wash themselves in a river as in a bathe and did put on white rayment and linnen c. In like manner the Brachmanni the wise men of the Indians were wont to wash themselves naked in a fountain which is called Dirce in Boeotia their heads being first annointed with amber drops and odors fit for that purpose then after they were according to custome sufficiently cleane they were to goe forth about noon cloathed in white linnen with a white attire having rings on their fingers and staves in their hands In like manner among the Gymnosophists it was a custom to wash themselves thrice a day and twice in the night in cold water before they entred into the holy place c. The Brachmani did admit none to their Colledge but those that were abstinent from wine from flesh and vices saying that none could understand God but they that emulate him by a divine conversation which also Phraortes in Philostratus taught the lower Indians The Priests of the Athenians who are called in Greek Hierophantae as Hierome reports that they might live the more chastly in their sacred employments and might follow their divine affaires without lust were wont to castrate themselves by drinking of Hemlock Zoroastes the father and Prince of the Magicians is said to attain to the knowledge of all naturall and divine things by the solitude of twenty yeeres when he wrote and did very strange things concerning all the art of divining and sooth-saying The like things doe the writings of Orpheus to Musaeus declare him to have done in the desart of Thracia So we read that Epimenides of Crete because learned by a very long sleep for they say that he slept fifty yeeres idest to have laine hid so long Pythagoras also in like manner to have laine hid ten yeeres and Heraclitus and Democritus for the same cause were delighted with solitarinesse The Brachmanni of the Indians the Magicians of the Parsians the Gymnosophists of the Aegyptians the Divines of the Greekes and Chaldeans which did excell in divine secrets did apply themselves to divine vowes and prayers and thereby did effect many wonderfull things Abbot Ioachim proceeded no other way in his prophecies but by formall numbers 4. Of the diabolicall originall and obscure and spurious Inventers Authors and Tutors to praestigious Magick and divining Astrologie THe Delphian Oracle was first invented by a Goat and that 's the reason why a Goat is there immolated by the consulters For a goat looking into a great chink or cleft of the earth began to insult with strange voyce and gesture which made the admiring shepheards peepe in too and so were corrupted with fury to prediction The fame of this made it to be adjudged an earthly oracle and so a Tripode was built over it for divination It was first ascribed to Tellus Tellus gave it to Thenus and Thenus to Apollo Tages the nephew of Iupiter the sonne of a Genius or a Divel yea an evill Genius or a Divel himselfe taught the Hetrurians the aruspicinall discipline or the art of divining For as a certaine Plowman was plowing in the Tarquinian field there suddenly starts up from under a clod this Tages in the forme of a little child and spake to the Plowman at which he astonished cried out whereupon in came all the Hetrurians and then he taught them this art or discipline for the space of six houres together and they wrote it from his mouth and so he died or disappeared Some say that this Tages was onely a base obscure fellow and that he grew famous on a sudden from the art of divining Sosipatra a prophetesse the wife of Aedesius the Sophister had two Daemons in the form of old men that taught her the secrets of Magick for the space of five yeeres together A strange old woman came to Tarquin the proud and offered him nine books to sale which she said were divine Oracles and asking him a huge price for them the King laught at her for making so monstrous a demand whereupon