she burnt three of them before his face and still asked the same price for the rest at which the King laughed so much the more then burning other three and yet bating nothing of her former price the King conceived there might be some rare thing contained in them and bought the last three at the same rate and so the woman went out and was never seen after by any Now these books they kept as divinatory Oracles to be consulted as occasion served One hath a pretty Apologue to this effect A light giddy huswife Dame vanity stole into the bed of a wilde youth called Sir Curiosity and betwixt them both was begotten a many-faced Elfe called Magick and fearing lest the Lady Truth should cause it to be strangled as soon as it was born for a monster the two sureties of it or guardians Grandsire Impudence and Grandame Superstition having wrapt it up in the mantle of an old crone called Difficulty and her waiting puzzle named Jill Hard-trifle attending upon it they committed it to nurse to a prodigious Hagge that hight Praestigie she carried it up and down to the blind houses of Gaffer Ignorance and Gammer Folly in whose families it has lurkt ever since entertained onely by a fond Gossip called Credulity where it still keeps in like an Owle all the day time of Truth and Peace and never dares to peep abroad but in the twilight of Error and Distraction From the sect of the Grecians have proceeded all these books of Darknesse which Vlpianus the Lawyer calls books disallowed to be read and forthwith appointed them to be destroyed Of which sort the first is Zabulus reported to invent who was given to unlawfull Arts then Barnabas a certain Cyprian And now in these daies there are carried about books with feined titles under the names of Adam Abel Enoch Abraham Solomon also Paul Honorius Cyprianus Albertus Thomas Hierome and of a certain man of Yorke whose toyes Alphonsus King of Castile Robert an Englishman Bacon and Apponus and many other men of deplored wit have foolishly followed Moreover they have not made Men onely and Saints and Patriarks and the Angels of God the Authours of such execrable opinions but they boast also that these books were delivered by Raziel and Raphael the angels of Adam and Tobias which books openly betray themselves to him that looks narrowly into them c. Peter in â—lement deduces this art from the prevaricating Angels proving how they taught men that the Divels doe obey mortall men according to certaine arts and may be compelled thereunto that is by magicall invocations C ham the sonne of Noaâ— delivered the ill found out discipline of Magick art to a certaine sonne of his called Misraiâ— from whom is derived the race of the Aegyptians Babylonians and Persians him the Nations that then were called Zoroaster the first author of the admired magicall art His master in this vanity was Ayovax or Azovax c. Methodius writeth that in the 340 yeere of Jared there arose the inventors of the evil art men full of all wickedness of the sonnes of Cain as Iabeth and Tholuscoll the sonnes of Lamech who was blind in the time of whose dominion the divel perverted them to all kind of Magicall arts Zabulus and Zamolxis addicted to unlawfull arts first invented or rather propagated it so as that without doubt it might be determined for issuing from their father the Divel There followed their steps Almadal Alchiudus and Hipochus from the root of the Arabians Apusâ—herus Zaâ—atus and Cobares among the Medes Marmaridius among the Babylonians Zarmoceâ—das among the Assyrians Abbaris among the Hyperboreans Thespetion among the Aethiopians Arunphis among the Aegyptians Julian among the Chaldaeans called the Thaurgists c. Besides the spurious fictitious and ascriptitious books of Adam Abel Enoch Abraham Moses Aaron Daniel Solomon Zacharias Paul c. St. Augustine oh horrour of blasphemy reports certaine foolish wretched Pagans affected themselves to magicall art to have boasted that they had seen and read books of Magicall art written by Christ himselfe and by an epistolary title directed to Peter and Paul affirming that by the arts therein contained he did all those miracles for which he was so famous But the Father bids shew those books they spake of and askes if they by them can learn to doe as he did and withall proves against them That Christ himselfe wrote no booke at all that he need not write to Peter because he was alwaies with him that he could not write to Paul because he was not called till after his passion and that he would not write of Magick because it was contrary to his doctrine and that even his enemies were thus convinc't how venerable and vertuous the name of Christ was in that they thought and sought to winne the waight of authority to such their execrable arts by commentitiously prefixing his most glorious name Cassandra desperately loved by Apollo and importunately solicited by him would not consent unlesse he would first bestow upon her the gift of Divination Which the credulous lover soon granted but she having already obtained her desire refused to stand to her promise for the satisfaction of his This the divining God could not foresee yet indigning to finde himselfe so deluded because he could not recall such his fatall gift he laid this curse upon it That whatsoever she vaticinated she should not be believed Let it be a curse to the predictors not to be believed surely it is a blessing to Christians not to believe them And believe them who list whose originall endowment was from a lust The first man that themselves confesse to have attained to the skill of a Prophet in Tharsus was a silly Shepheard having only so much wit as taught him to take advantage of the follies of his Countreymen Others say the first Prophet of this kind was found by chance in an old vault in Hetruria without knowledge either of his name his dwelling or the mean that conveyed him thither When began the motions of the Starres and accordingly the genethliacall way to be known was it not after Theatis the Aegyptian or else as some say after Atlas the prop and supporter of the heavens The Originall and foundation of Magicall and Astrologicall arts is yet more dubious and fabulous from the false opinions and impossible about the time of the worlds beginning and computation of the yeeres thereof Apuleius was of opinion that the world and men and arts therein were from eternity And being destroyed by flouds and conflagrations in some parts but not all were repaired but not created The Indians boasted of men living long before Adam and that they could name who was Adams father and master The Aegyptians fained that they had a story in letters comprehending thirteen thousand yeeres The Chaldaeans dotingly gloried that they had monuments of Astrology containing foure hundred and seventy thousand yeeres Plato accounts many thousands of ages to have been past since the
his gracious promises confesse their sins in generall shew their deeds declare their magicall and sorcerous practises in speciall and magnifie the name of the Lord Jesus admire and adore the wisedome power and goodness of God in that excellent mysterie of mans redemption Now the persons thus converted what 's to be done for the reformation of the Art but after their example Many of them which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men Many of them for all the converts now were not exorcists or Magicians And therefore what starting hole is here to surmise that some of them did not so They brought their books together one as well as another with a common consent that none of them might escape of what kind authority or edition soever And burned them before all men voluntarily and not by compulsion of the Law evidently and not under a pretext and that to the testimony and satisfaction as well of the world as of the Church And what books were they that were thus served Books of curious arts Unheard-of curiosities and well-worthy to be unseen But what would the Holy Ghost thus exrenuate the malefice and malignity of their contents or would he thus if not elevate yet alieniate their fludies or rather Practices Oh no but to inform us that the books were worthy to be burnt not only for the abstruse curiosity but for the triviall impertinency that was in them And so much the originall word imports properly and so instructs further that magicall astrologicall and chymicall books and all such works upon which a man bestowes superfluous pains as being unnecessary useless unprofitable impertinent besides a mans own calling and to no edification of others are good for nothing else but to be burned But herein is the example the more admirable in that theâ— accounted the price of them and found it fifty pieces of silver Belike they counted all dung now that they had wonne Christ and determined hence forward not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified Ah! who shall perswade our Magicians Astrologers and Chymists to doe so Prize they not their old misty fragments and fresh two penny Pamphlets more than so Nay will they not hazzard the burning of their souls rather than the burning of their books And if they will not bestow the burning of them who will save them the labour and doe it for them Ah shame and woe of superstition and prophanesse what books now of late are grown into request with many more than these Is not the Book the book of books layd aside while these are taken up Here is Divinity set after Divination and Prophecies undervalued to presages and promises to Promisers and the Gospell to their Goetie How are the Planetarian elections preferred to the election of grace and men more inquisitive now after their fatall destiny than eternall predestination If this be not a just complaining let the Time speak If this be not a right arguing let the Text speak They burnt their books so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed The growth and prevalency of Gods word was the cause of burning their books and so was this a signe of that Now God grant that his word may grow in mens hearts and consciences and prevail against mens errours and opinions and then we may easily ghesse what will soon become of all these ghessing books and the like SECT III. 3. Whether ever any depravations corruptions adulterations or wresting applications of Scripture-places and passages was more hereticall blasphemous superstitious impious prophane impertinent grosse absurd and ridiculous than those that are so notorious in Magicall and Astrologicall Authors old and new And whether the bare recitall of them be not a sufficient refutation in the judgement not only of speciall faith but common reason ADam that gave the first names to things knowing the influences of the heavens and properties of all things gave them names according to their natures as it is written in Genesis Gen. 2. 20. According to the properties of the influences proper names result to things and are put upon them by Him who numbers the multitude of the Stars calling them all by their names of which names Christ speaks in another place saying Your names are written in heaven Luk. 10. 20. There is nothing more effectuall to drive away evill Spirits than musicall harmony for they being fallen from that coelestiall harmony cannot indure any true consort as being an enemy to them but fly from it As David by his Harp appeased Saul being troubled by an evill Spirit 1 Sam. 16. 23. As the Sun doth by its light drive away all the darkness of the night so also all power of darknesse which we read of in Job As soon as the morning appears they think of the shadow of death Job 24. 17. And the Psalmist speaking of the Lions whelps seeking leave of God to devour sayth The Sun is risen and they are gathered together and shall be placed in their dens which being put to flight it follows man shall goe forth to his labour Christ himself while he lived on earth spoke after that manner and fashion that only the more intimate Disciples should understand the mystery of the word of God but the other should perceive the Parables only Commanding moreover that holy things should not be given to doggs nor Pearls cast to Swine Therefore the Prophet saith I have hid thy words in my heart that I might not sin against thee Therefore it is not fit that these secrets which are among a few wise men and are communicated by mouth only should be publickly written Wherefore you will pardon me if I passe over in silence many and the chiefest secret mysteries of ceremoniall magick Hence for the naturall dignifying of a person fit to be a true perfect Magician so great care is taken in the Law of Moses concerning the Priest that he be not polluted by a dead carcasse or by a woman a widow or menstruous that he be free from leprosie flux of blood burstnes and be perfect in all his members not blind not lame not crook-backt or with an ill-favoured nose Not only the knees of earthly heavenly and hellish creatures are bowed but also insensible things doe reverence it and all tremble at his beck when from a faithfull heart and true mouth the name Jeâ—us is pronounced and pure hands imprint the salutiferous signe of the Crosse Neither truly doth Christ say in vain unto his Disciples In my name they shall cast out Devills c. unlesse there were a certain vertue expressed in that name over devills and sick folk serpents and poisons and tongues c. Seeing the power which this name hath is both from the vertue of God the institutor and also from the vertue of him who is expressed by this name and from a power implanted in the very word Of this sort were the Gods of the Nations which did rule and govern
his Magick But shall I shew you his library and that in this threefold Philosophie Observe then first and censure afterwards Have salt in your selves and again you are the salt of the earth and in a third place salt is good This is his minerall doctrine Will you know his vegetable It is in two little books a Mustard-seed and a Lilly Lastly he hath his animal Magick and truly that is a scrowl sealed up I know not who may open it Hee needed not that any should bear witnesse of man for he knew what was in man And what of all this blasphemy sayes some splenatick Sophâ—ster No more but this its easie to observe and censure at once I have ever admired that discipline of Eliezer the steward of Abraham who when he prayed at the well in Mesopotamia could make his Camels also kneel I must not believe there was any Hocas in this or that the spirit of Banks may be the spirit of prayer Why believe you any Magick to be in it then Jacob makes a Covenant with â—…n that all the spotted and brown cattell in his flocks should be assigned to him for wages The bargain is no sooner made but he finds an art to multiply his own colours and sends his Father-in law almost a wooll gathering And Iacob took him rods of green poplar c. As for this practice of Iacob namely the propagation of his speckled flocks it is an effect so purely magicall that our most obstinate Adversaries dare not question it Good words here pray threatned men live and may bee permitted to speak truth Ioseph being 17 years old an age of some discretion propounds a vision to his Father not loosely and to no purpose as we tell one another of our dreams but expecting I believe an interpretation as knowing that his Father had skill to expound it The wise Patriark being not ignorant of the secrets of the two Luminaries attributes Males to the Sun and Females to the Moon then allows a third signification to the miâ—or Stars and lastly answers his Son with a question What is this that thou hast dreamed c. Now I think no man will deny but the interpretation of dreams belongs to Magick c. I speak of a Physicall exposition as this was c. I have said ye are Gods a name communicated to them because they had the power to doe wonders For in this Magical sense the true God speaks to Moses See I have made thee a God to Pharaoh c. Lest any man should deny that which we take for granted namely the Philosophie of Moses I shall demonstrate out of his own books both by reason as also by his practâ—ce that he was a naturall Magician In Genesis he hath discovered many particulars and especially those secrets which have most Relation to this Art For instance he hath discovered the Miâ—erâ— of man or that substance out of which man and all his fellow creatures was made This is the first matter of the Philosophers stone Moses calls it sometimes water sometimes earth Gen. 1. 20. and 2 19 c. But this is not all that Moses hath written to this purpose I could cite many more magicall and mysticall places but in so doing I shall be too open Wherefore I must forbear I shall now speak of his practice And Moses took the Calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and grinded it to powder and strewed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it Certainly here was a strange kind of Spice and an Art as strange c. Gen. 28. 12. As for the Angels of whom it is said that they ascended and descended by the ladder their motion prooves that they were not of the superiour Hierarchie but some other secret essences for they ascended first and descended afterwards but if they had been from above they had descended fiâ—st which is contrary to the text And here Reader I would have thee studie upon what upon a frivolous obâ—ervation from the bare order or position of the words which without other grounds and helps either in the same place or other plainer places is alone insufficient for any genuine and orthodox deduction and hath been is and may be the occasion of infinite incongruous erronious false and hereticall collections Such as this Not that I would interpret but request the sense of the Illuminated I desire to know what my Saviour means by the Key of Knowledge Luke 11. 52. Who can forbear to reply being so insolently and scornfully provoked What ever it be that you desire to know it is not that which you desire to teach Not the Key of doctorall and Magisteriall Rabbinismes and Cablalismes Not the Key or rather pick-lock of nature Magicall Chymistry whereby you think to unlock the Chaos Not the Key of death for Necromancers to goe in and consult with the dead Not the Key of the bottomless pit to bind or loose Spirits and Daemons and Devils These are no Keys of knowledge neither would Christ have reprooved the takiâ—g away of these nay it is a woe that they are not taken away But the Key of the house of David the Key of the Kingdom of Heaven understand either of Grace or Glory Had your desire been sincere it had been but consideâ—ing the rest of the verse and comparing it with Mat. 2â— 3. and ye might soon have been satisfied The door is open others are going in before you who forbids you to be entring but you are stumbling at the threshold their taking it away Why know ye not that the Lawiers Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites had usurped a power authority jurisdiction an office calling ministry to expound and teach the Law and the Prophets and this was a taking it to themselves And now they taught Rabbinismes Caballismes traditions doctrines of men and thus they took it away from others What should I speak of those many books cited in the old Testament but no where to be found which if they were extant no doubt but they would proove so many reverend invincible Patrons of Magick Every Christian man doubts of that saving your self And so of the 27. books mentioned by your Kim Cim since you dare to reject those your self is convicted to number up This fine virgin water or Chaos was the second nature from God himself and if I may so say the child of the blessed Trinity What Doctor then is he whose hands are fit to touch that subject upon which God himself when he works lays his own Spirit for namely so we read The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water And can it be expected that I should prostitute this mystery to all hands whatsoever that I should proclame it and cry it as they cry Oysters What doe you else when you cry the egge of nature Sperme spermatick moysture salt slimy unclean viscuous humidity virgin water milk Mercury Hyanthes tears water of the Moon water and no water
the validitie of their art by the vertue of a vehement and strong imagination For will not a strong imagination and a superstitious faith work as well without a magicall fibrication or Astrologicall configuration as with them Nay are they not in themselves such a kind of art and can they not invent or erect to themselves such a kind of operation and that every whit as effectuall as those already invented and erected 23. Is it not one and the same kind of Faith in a magicall Operator and Astrologicall or genethliacall Calculator a maleficall Sorcerer a prestigious Juggler and a superstitious Consulter or Assentor If not it s their part who would discriminate themselves to shew us the differences that are between them 24. Whether Astrologers as touching their way of Predicting and Presaging ought to be believed although they speak true and it come to passe accordingly In regard that truth is spoken ignorantly unwittingly conjecturally out of uncertain grounds out of multiplicity of words out of ambiguous equivocation by accident and not only by a divine permission but by a Satanicall suggestion and all this with purpose to delude with greater untruths Doe we not use to mistrust many truths in others for the telling of one lye why then should we believe many lyes in These for the telling of one truth 25. If this be a thing credible that there is an ordinary and perpetuall sufficiency and efficiency whereby to foretell of future events generall and particular in Starrs and Planets wherefore then did God still raise up his own Prophets to foretell what should befall and them extraordinary called and but temporally inlightened to that purpose 26. How can Christians have a faith in Magick or Astrologie which since the time of Christ have occasioned so many idolatrous superstitious sacrilegious atheisticall prophane and dissolute Heresies and all of them so utterly repugnant to the faith 27. Whether the magisteriall Dictates of a Jewish Rabbine or a Pagan Philosopher or a Christianizer compact of them both be sufficient either to ground or move a rationall credence much lesse a religious Creed or belief 28. Whether a faith in the contrary hath not prevailed to evacuate the vertue and annihilate the efficacy of a magicall operation and Astrologicall Prediction And what reason else is there why their arts and abilities have so often failed them and they failed in them before the face and presence of faithfull and pious men 29. What faithfull Christian professor sometimes peradventure addicted to the study and practice of Magick and Astrologie whose very Faith upon his conversion moved him not to repent recant reprove reject both his presaging arts books and Societie 30. Whether Magicians and Astrologers have verely and indeed a faith in their own arts and artifices If so wherefore then use they so manifold ambiguities amphibologies equivocations obscurities insignificancies reticencies restrictions cautions fallacies and evasions CHAP. III. 3. From the temptings of Curiosity 1. HAth not the Scripture sufficiently forbidden to tempt God by a curious scrutinie after all such things as pertain to his secret Will Deut. 29. 29. Prov. 25. 27. Eccles 3. 22. Psal 131. 1. Eccles 7. 16. Job 21. 21 22. Act. 1. 7. 19. 19. Coloss 1. 18. 1 Thess 5. 1. 2 Tim. 1. 4. Deut. 6. 16. Psal 78. 8. 19. Mat 16. 1. Luk. 1â— 16. 2. Are there not many naturall things imperscrutable to humane curiosity and therefore not to be attempted without a tempting of God Psal 139. 6. Eccles 11. 6. Prov. 304. Job 38. per tot â—9 per tot 41. 1 2 c. Joh. 3. 8. 3. If it behoves a Christian man to be wise according to sobrietie even in divine things how much more then in things humane Exod. 19. 21 Exod. 33. 23. Job 11. 7 8 9. Iob 26. 13 14. Psal 131. 1. Eccles 7. 16. 23 24 25. Rom. 12. 3. 4. Whether a curious indagation of things hidden absent future be not a strong argument of an ignorant mind an impatient spirit and a discontented heart a guilty conscience a sensuall concupiscence and an idle life As not capable of what he inquires not submitting to his own condition not satisfied with the present not pacified as concerning his own deserts and feares not leaving his own soul but his body only and not occupyed in any true vocation 5. Whether all such curious inquisitions and supervacaneous investigations as are above tearmed toyes obstruse vanities difficult follies studious impertinencies unquiet sloaths or lazy businesses pertain any whit to the perfection of the understanding and be not rather the distemper and disease of the fansie and the very phrenzy and madness of the mind 6. To what end is a curious prying into or interrogating after future accidents Of whose ignorance there 's no unhappinesse punishment reproach and of whose knowledge there 's no glory reward comfort That makes a man neglect the present certain in looking after the uncertain future and so lose the substance in gaping after the shadow Whose Prediction or precognition if of good and true forestalls a man so in his expectation that it wholly takes off the edge of the fruition if of good and false it nourishes only with vain hopes and makes but more unhappy in their frustration if of bad and true it makes a man miserable in his own apprehension before he be so in the event if of bad and false it makes him make himself miserable whereas otherwise he needed not 7. What arguments are these so old so oft repeated to urge or invite men to a curious investigation of things future and fortuitous Because it likens men to the Gods it argues the diviness of the Soul it prefers men to Beasts And doth it so indeed Nay rather hath not his curiosity brought men to be like the Devill What was the first depravation of the divine Image in the soul but that And have not beasts by their own confession a more perfect presagition by their senses than men with all their reason can attain unto 8. Wherefore are Astrologers and especially the Genethliacks so curious in inquiring into others fates and fortunes and yet of all men most incurious in looking into their own 9. Whether the speculation and whole practice of Magick and Astrologie besides the superstition and sorcery be not a very tempting of God at least through vain curiosity 10. Whether the curious Artists doe not indeed tempt God in his present power perfection truth wisedome goodnesse holinesse mercy justice prescience and providence and that according to one or other or many or most if not all of these ensuing particulars 1. In presuming of or pretending to Gods knowledge approbation power and assistance without nay and against his word and will 2. In prescribing and circumscribing him to circumstances and especially such as are their own superstitious ceremonies 3. In labouring to allure God unto their own wils rather than submitting theirs to his 4. In searching not only
or translaslated into the English tongue consider all these and therewithall compare those circulatory and joculatory Pamphlets and volumns and they may plainly perceive how much of them may easily be brought in by way of instance upon these severall particulars of tempting God through vain curiosity CHAP. IIII. 4. From the testimony of Authority 1. WHether besides the Divine the testimony of all humane Authority hath not agreed wisely to condemn Magick and Astrologie and so the power of it justly to punish Magicians and Astrologers 2. Whether the Artists themselves are so unread as not to observe that any cursory Reader might with no great business make a voluminous collection of testimonies and authorities profesly against their Arts 3. How many generall free Councils and Ecclesiasticall Synods have devoutly and severely anathematized not only those that profess or practise such kind of arts and sciences but all those like-wise that consult with them or give credence to them 4. How many antient Orthodox Fathers have given their unanimous judgment against the judiciary Astrologie And which of them Greek or Latine if sometimes addicted but to the study or curiosity of it hath not retracted it Or which of them that peradventure hath erred in admitting some slender part of it notwithstanding hath not vehemently inveighed against it in the main and zealously maintained the truth to the utter exploding of the whole errour 5. How many Sects of Philosophers Stoicall Epicurean Academicall Platonicall Peripateticall have rejected it especially in the sortilegious and soothsaying way of it 6. How many Historians of all nations and ages have infamously branded both their persons and their practices 7. How many Poets have been smartly satyrizing and facetiously deriding both their vice and vanity 8. How many School-men Casuists and other Christian Writers Papists and Protestants have sufficiently refuted and reproved it 9. How many wholsome Lawes of Christians and Heathens Imperiall Ecclesiasticall Civill Municipall Oâ—conomicall have been enacted against Magicians Mathematicians Chaldaeans Astrologers Diviners Ariolists Necromancers Sortiaries Soothsayers Prophesiers Predictors Circulatours Joculators or Iugglers And although it may be in the fate or fortune of some of them to escape the penalty of those Lawes yet whether it be in all their Art to elude them as concerning the obnoxiousness of guilt crime offence or malefacture 10. How many Emperours Kings Princes States Magistrates have decreed to banish or otherwise punish them in all their kinds as the very pest of the Common-wealth 11. Whether all those arts and artifices ought not justly to be adjudged as evill unlawfull incommodious pernicious intolerable which all kinds and degrees of authority have agreed to reprove condemn and punish 12. Why doe not only the Divine but all humane Authours ecclesiasticall and prophane use to speak of divining arts offices and operations so indiscriminatly and promiscuously yea although they touch upon them but briefly and occasionally Is it not because there is much of the vileness and vanity of any one kind in every kind and of every kind in any one kind And so is it not to refell or prevent the evasions of any one kind of Divination that it should not presume to set up it self in an absolute distinction and perfect exemption from the superstitious errours and enormities of all the rest 13. Whether their Aegyptian Arabian Aethiopian Chaldean Jewish or Heathenish Authors have any jot adorned good learning and not rather conspurcated and depraved besides all other learning even their own art 14. How many are the spurious Authors of these Arts that have usurped to themselves the names and titles of holy men and of men more famous in their own way on purpose to vend their nugacious fables and prestigious impostures with more esteem 15. How many Magicall books have been devoted to the fire and burnt not only by Christians but Pagans also 16. Of what account are the Mathematicall Masters among themselves when they are either swearing upon one anothers words or else prejudicating one anothers opinions And which of these two extremes does most disparage a true Authority 17. Whether the saying or sentence if not hallucination and errour of any Egyptian Chaldaean Arabian Aethiopian Syrian Phoenician Judean Persian Barbarian Graecian Roman Jewish Rabine or Heathenish Philosopher for such they account of as their Authors be authentique or of sufficient authority to be received and cited as an universall well known and undeniable principle 18. How many ridiculous Fables absurd Paradoxes sleight contradictions fanatick opinions and detestable heresies have been temerariously broached and pertinaciously maintained by Astro-magicall Authors old and new 19. Whether it be the vain pride and arrogance of the Author or the naturall defect and obliquity of the Art that among Magicians and Astrologians scarce ever stept forth or crept up a Writer or yet a Translator but held it to be his part to refell and reject some former and to broach and boast some new fancie or opinion of his own 20. Whether Magicall and Astrologicall Authors need any more confuting and confounding than is to be observed among themselves by him that hath their books by him and time to read and compare them each with other CHAP. V. 5. From the vanity of Science 1. HAth not the Word of God concluded both the Artists and their Arts for vain and false Isa 44. 25. Ier. 14. 14. and 27. 9 10. Mich. 3. 7. Zach 1. 2. Ezek. 3. 6 7 8. 21. 21 22 23. Eccles 34. 5. 2. Is not the Word of God sufficient to instruct as touching any thing future necessary to be known for this or the life to come without any other predicting arts Deut. 8. 14 15. 2 King 23. 24. Isa 8. 19 20. and 44. 25 26. Jer. 23. 28. Act. 19. 19. 20. 3. Whether the distinction or difference used by so many Authors and partly conceded by some of themselves ought not to be strictly observed betwixt Astronomie and Astrologie The one being a speculative Science the other a practicall art The one signifying the Rule and Law of the Starres among themselves the other a wording or talking of the Stars what Lawes they give and rule they have over others The one soberly considering the naturall motions of the Stars the other curiously inquiring and peremptorily pronouncing upon their supernaturall preternaturall unnaturall effects 4. Whether those principles that may be true in Astronomie be of a right applicature in Astrologie Or why should this borrow the Canons or so much as the Tearms of that since it abuses them to another end 5. Whether Astrologie doth not more disgrace Astronomie than Astronomie is able to countenance Astrologie And who but the Mathematicall practitioner is he that hath dishonoured the Professour 6. Whether Astrologie the magicall divining Astrologer be a liberall Science and not rather a servile Art or Artifice If it were a liberall Science how chance not well founded and flourishing Common-wealths Christian or Pagan ever allowed the publick profession of
viz. If you would drive away any venemous serpent or noysom beast make the figure thereof in some certain matter under some convenient constellation and inscribe thereupon the name of the signe ascending and the name of the thing you would expell c. And for the contrary effect do it after a contrary constellation c. And observe the like in alluring to love or in provoking to hatred in curing of diseases and procuring of health c. But by no means so conscientious or cautious they are ascribe the effect to the Image for that 's say they idolatry superstition witchcraft but to the constellation and I pray what 's that But I am weary with reckoning up in part things of so great folly and of greater impiety Onely I ask not them but the sound and sober if indeed they be not so I mean if the businesse and folly of the world brought and sought to be directed by the businesse and folly of an Art be not very much repugnant to humane prudence and to divine providence much more CHAP. XXVI From the conviction of Confession WHether Magicians and Astrologers themselves have not plainly and plentifully discovered and acknowledged the vanity and impiety of Magick and Astrology And whether it be not an Argument irrefragable against an Art or operation whenas the Arch-Artists are so far convinc't as to confesse the pravity and obliquity thereof themselves For who can more truly and fully set them forth then they that have given themselves over to study and practise them How many things of old and of late have been spoken either through a spirit of recantation a conscience of conviction or a fury of exclamation by magicians against Magick and by Astrologers against Astrology Hear what one of them saith both against himself and all the rest of what kind or sort soever Whatsoever things have here already and shall afterward be said by me I would not have any one assent to them nor shal I my self any further then they shall be approved of by the universal Church and the Congregation of the faithful Magicians and those who were the authors of this Art amongst the Antients have been Chaldeans Aegyptians Assyrians Persians and Arabians all whose Religion was perverse and polluted idolatry We must very much take heed lest we should permit their errors to war against the grounds of the Catholike Religion For this was blasphenious and subject to the curse and I also should be a blasphemer if I should not admonish you of these things in this science Wheresoever therefore you shall find these things written by us know that these things are onely related out of other Authors and not put down by us for truth but for a probable conjecture which is allyed to truth and an instruction for imitation in those things that are true Of Magick I wrote whilst I was very young three large books which I called Of Occult Philosophie in which what was then through the curiosity of my youth erroneous I now being more advised am willing to have retracted by this Reeantation For I have heretofore spent very much time and cost in these vanities At length I grew so wise as to understand how and by what reasons I was bound to dehort others from this destruction For whosoever do not in the truth nor in the power of God but in the delusions of Devils according to the operation of the evil spirits presume to divine and prophecy and by magical vanities exorcisms inchantments love potions allurements and other devilish works and deceits of Idolatry exorcising prestigious things and making ostentation of phantasms boasting themselves to work miracles presently vanishing all these with Jannes and Iambres and Simon Magus shall be destinated to the torments of eternal fire The antient Philosophers teach us to know the nature of the genius of every man by stars their influx and aspects which are potent in the nativity of any one but with instructions so diverse and differing amongst themselves that it is much difficult to understand the mysteries of the Heavens by their directions c. Cicero following the stoicks affirms that the foreknowing of future things belongs onely to the Gods And Ptolomie the Astrologer saith that they onely that are inspired with a deity foretel particular things To them Peter the Apostle consents saying Prophesying is not made according to the will of man but holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Take heed that you be not deceived by them that are deceived Neither can the great reading of books direct you here since they are but as riddles How great writings are there made of the irresistible power of magical Art of the Prodigious Images of Astrologers of the monstrous transmutations of Alchimists of the blessed stone by which Mydas like all mettals that were touched were presently transmuted into Gold or Silver All which are found vain fictitious and false c. Whatsoever the monstrous Mathematicians the prodigious Magicians the envious Alchymists and bewitching Necromancers can do by spirits See where their Faith is placed where their hope is reposed who endeavour to subject the Elements Heavens Fate Nature Providence God and all things to the command of one Magician and seek for the preservation of a kingdom from Devils the enemies of publike preservation Saying in their heart with Ochoziâ—s there is not a God in Israel let us go and consult Beelzebub the God of Acbron c. Are they not delivered over to a reprobate sense who desire the certainty of secret counsels from the Devil the father of lies and hope for victory elsewhere them from the Lord of Hosts All these ungodly follies are wont to bring destruction to the admirers thereof to which truly they who especially confide are made the most unfortunate of all men Surely it is unknown to these Fools and Slaves of the Devil for to finde out things to come and to pronounce truth concerning those things which hang over our heads and are occult and from heaven portended unto men and to effect things which exceed the common course of Nature c. O Fools and wicked Who by these Arts would establish a kingdom by which formerly most potent Empires have fallen and have been utterly overthrown It is now time to speak of the Mathematical disciplines which are reputed to be the most certain of all other and yet they all consist not but in the opinions of their own Doctors to whom much faith is given who also have erred in them not a little Which Albumasar one of them attests to us saying that the Antients even since Aristotles time have not plainly known the Mathematicks For seeing all these Arts are chiefly conversant about the spherical or round whether figure or number or motion they are forced at length to confesse that a perfect round or spherical is no where to be found neither according to Art nor according to Nature And these disciplines although they have
Moon and Mercury But Archimedes and the Chaldaeans place the Sunne the fourth in order Anaximander Metrodâ—rus Chius and Crates say that the Sunne is the supreame of all after which the Moon and beneath these the rest errant and inerrant Xenocrates thinks that all the Stars are moved in one and the same superficies and they discord no lesse about the magnitude and distance of the Sunne the Moon and the rest of the Stars Neither is there any constancy of opinion amongst them about the Celestials nor yet truth neither is that any marvell seeing the Heaven it selfe which they search is of all other most inconstant and most replenished with trifles and fables for the very Twelve signes and the rest of the Boreall and Australl images had never ascended up to heaven but by Fables And yet the Astrologers live by these Fables and impose them upon others and make a gain thereby But the Poats in the mean while the egregious inventors of them grow poore and hungry There remaines yet another species of Astrologie which they call the Divinatory or the Judiciary which treats of the revolutions of the yeers of the world of nativities of questions of elections of intentions and cogitations of vertues or powers for the foretelling casting up eschuing or repelling the events of all things future even of the secret dispositions of divine providence it selfe Hereupon the Astrologers doe mart or vent the effects of the Heavens and the Stars from yeers most remote and before all memory of things or the times of Prometheus or as they say from the great conjunctions before the Flood And they affirm that the effects forces motions of all living creatures stones metals herbs and whatsoever things in these inferiours doe flow from these same Heavens and Starres and doe altogether depend upon them and may be searched out by them Verely these are incredulous men and not lesse impious in not acknowledging this one thing that God had already made the Herbs Plants and Trees even before the Heavens and Stars Moreover the most grave Philosophers as Pythagoras Democritus Bion Favorinus Panaetius Carneades Possidonius Timaeus Aristoteles Plato Plotinus Porphyrius Avicenna Averroes Hippocrates Galenus Alexander Aphrodisaeus Cicero Seneca Plutarch and many more who have searched the causes of things from every Art and Science yet never remit us to these Astrologicall causes which although they were causes yet because they plainly knew not the courses of the Stars and their forces which is a thing most known to all wise men they therefore cannot give a certain judgement of their effects Neither are there wanting among them as Eudoxus Archelaus Cassandrus Hoychilax Halicarnassaeus most skilfull Mathematicians and many other modern and most grave Authors which confesse that it is impossible that any thing certain should be found out concerning the science of such judgements both because of innumerable other causes cooperating together with the Heavens which must be attended together for so Ptolomy bids as also because very many occasions doe hinder them as namely customes manners education shame command place geniture blood meat liberty of mind and discipline seeing these influxes compell not as they say but incline Furthermore they who have prescribed the rules of judgements doe for the most part determine such diverse and repugnant things of the same matter that it is impossible for a prognosticator to pronounce any thing certaine from so many and so various and dissonant opinions unlesse there be in him some intrinsicall sense of things future and occult or some instinct of presage or rather occult and latent inspiration of the Devill by which among these he may be able to discerne or may be induced by some other way to adhere now to this now to that opinion which instinct whosoever wanteth he as Haly saith cannot be a Tel-troth in Astrologicall judgements Wherefore now Astrologicall prediction must consist not so much of Art as by a kind of obscure lot or chance of things And as in the books or games of Lottery sometimes such an one is drawn forth as speaks truth and hits right yet not by art but by chance so it is by chance and not by art that vaticinations come forth truely either from the mind or the mouth of an Astrologer To which Ptolomy attests saying the science of the Stars is from thee and from them meaning that the prediction of things future and occult is not so much from the observation of the Stars as from the affections of the mind Therefore is there no certainty of this Art but it is convertible to all things according to the opinion which is collected by conjectures or imagination or an imperceptible suggestion of Devils or some superstitious lot or chance This art therefore is no other then a fallacious conjecture of superstitious men who through the use of long time have made a science of uncertain things in which for the beguiling men of their money they may deceive the unskilfull and may also be deceived themselves And if the Art of these men be true and be understood by themselves whence then bubble out so many and so great errors in their prognostications But if it be not so doe they not vainly and foolishly and impiously to professe a science of things that are not or not understood But the more cautelous of them pronounce not upon futures save obscurely and such as may be applied to everything and time and Prince and Nation Out of a versatile artifice doe they feyne ambiguous prognosticks and after that any of them shall happen then doe they gather the causes thereof and after the fact or effect then doe they establish old vaticinations with new reasons to the intent they may seem to have foreseen Just as the interpreters of dreames who when they have a dream understand nothing of it for certain but after that something is hapned unto them then doe they adopt the dream to that which hapned Furthermore seeing it is impossible in such a variety of Stars but to finde some of them well some of them ill posited hereupon they take occasion of speaking what they please and to whom they will they predict life health honours riches power victory soundnesse off-spring marriage Priesthood Magistracy and the like but if they be ill affected to any to them they denounce deaths hangings reproaches destructions banishments barrennesse desolation calamities c. not so much out of a wicked art as out of wicked affections drawing on to destruction those men that are credulous to these impious curiosities and oft times committing among themselves both Princes and people in deadly seditions and warres Iâ— that Fortune fall in with their prognosticks and among so many ambiguous things if that one or other of them happen to be true it is a wonder then to behold how they bristle being crest-swolne and how most insolently they predicate their own predictions But though they lie daily and be convinced of lying then they excuse
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
come upon me Acts 8. 24. who can judge it to be other then false and fruitlesse For he was terrified onely with an apprehension of the punishment not of the sin and put off that duty to others which he should have exercised himselfe Tiberius importunate to know who should be his successor in the Empire it was answered even he that should first come to him the next morning Hereupon he gave order to his Tutor to bring his Nephew Tiberius to him very early the next day and the day appearing commanded Euodus ignorant of his intent and desire to goe out and bring in to him the first youth that he met which fell out to be Caius which when Tiberius saw he was infinitely troubled exceedingly beshrewing himselfe that he had sought after any Augurie or presage at all For whereas he might have lived and died a great deale more contentedly had he been altogether ignorant of things future their fore-knowledge now served onely to adde both to the miseries of his life and death After the death of Caesar which was said to follow the fatidicall prediction of Spurina the Mathematician the people lamented and wisht that the cursed Diviner had rather lost his skill then that a father of his Countrey should so have lost his life Nero was himselfe held to be a great Mag astro-mancer and wanted neither wit nor will nor wealth nor Tutors nor instruments nor study nor credulity yet for all this confessed that he never found any argument of truth nor experiment of reality in magicall operation which made him at last abdicate and renounce it reject and contemne it and abhorre and condemne himselfe for ever having to doe with it Origen is often cited by Magicians and Astrologers as if he were their own howbeit in his books and especially as Eusebius cites him he plainly and abundantly refutes them And therfore if he were more addicted to them it is certaine enough that he converted from them St. Cyprian sometimes addicted to the study of magick repented of it at his conversion And if that booke de duplici Martyrio be his we have there this his confession They that use Magicall artâ— have denied Christ and made a compact with the Divell from which evill the mercy of the Lord hath delivered us as it hath also from all the rest in which we were held while we sometimes walked according to the old man St. Augustine confessed that he was very much enclined to the study of Magick and Astrology but after his conversion he utterly abandoned and condemned it And to this purpose relates this story of himselfe A friend of his one Firminus and he walking together both of them being addicted to the constellationall way Firminus askes his opinion of his constellation about a secular businesse he had then in hand St. Augustine somewhat changed in his generall opinion of it told him that he conceived that way to be vaine and ridiculous Firminus insisted and told him a story from his father and his fathers friend two genethliacall Astrologers and so precise observatours as that they calculated the births of the very bruit beasts in their families And it so fell out that his mother bare him and the others mayd brought forth a sonne also in one day houre and minute as neere as could be guest But now these two so born alike proved to be of various and contrary both fortunes and manners in every respect Upon this relation of Firminus Augustine abhorred the falsity of natalitiall prognostications more and more and so resolved to cast it off without all scruple and not onely so but was instant to convince the other of this vanity from his own narration and thus to revoke him from it too As St. Augustine was preaching to the people there was presented before him in the Church a Mathematician Concerning whom he thus spake This man of race a Christian then relapsed is now returned a penitent and being terrified with the power of the Lord he is now againe received to the mercy of the Lord. Seduced he was by the enemy and long continued a Mathematician not onely seduced but seducing as wel deceiving as deceived Many lies hath he spoken against God who gave unto him a power to doe good not to doe evill saying It is not a mans will that makes him commit adultery but Venus nor yet to commit murder but Mars neither doth God make a man just but Iupiter And many other were his sacrilegious sayings How many Christians hath he gulled of their money How many have bought lying predictions of him at a deare rate But now as we believe of him he abhors this lying trade For having enticed others he now perceives himself to be the most ensnared by the devil And now penitent before God and men he is become a true convert For we perswade our selves it onely proceeds from the awfull feare of his heart Did we not rejoyce at that Mathematicians conversion who converted from a pagan although he seemed to doe it for some promotion in the Church But this penitent seeks for mercy onely and therefore is the rather to be commended both to your eyes and hearts Receive him and love him lest Satan again may tempt him Let your testimony and approbation confirm his conversion He was lost but now is found Long did he knock at the doores of the Church ere he was suffered to enter but he is now brought in and hath brought with him his bookes to be burnt by which himselfe might have burned unquenchably that they cast into the fire himselfe might enter into that everlasting refreshing We suffered him the longer to supplicate for the remedy from the schoole of Christ because the art wherein he hath been exercised is to be suspected not onely of falsity in it selfe but of fallacy in good And therefore we delayed him that he might not delude and tempt us But now we have admitted him that he might not be tempted again and deluded himselfe Pray ye therefore to Christ for him for the prayer of his Church is available against all impostures and impieties Iulian greatly corrupted with magicall superstition began a little through present horrour of conscience to look back again to Christianity and lay a while at the Church doores weeping and crying Tread upon me unsauoury Salt But Ecebolius a Magician hindred his true repentance and thorough conversion and brought him back again into that damnable superstition worse then at the first The same Ecebolius after Iulians death fayned the like repentance and is said to use the same words but to as little fruit The same Iulian having received his deaths wound roared and rayled at the Sunne which the Astrologers had made him believe was the auspicious dominator at his birth accusing it for shining so propitiously upon the Persians but not favouring him with any fortunate influence and so died impiously cursing God and the Stars but the Star-gazers and himselfe for adhering to them
not undeservedly Wenceslaus sent for a wagon full of Conjurers to play tricks and make sport amongst the rest he called Zyto who comming in with a wide mouth cloven to both his eares swallowed up the chiefe Conjurer and voyds him again downward c. but was himselfe carried away by the divel which so moved Wenceslaus that he thence forwards seriously applied himselfe to the meditation of sacred things Pope Sylvester the second of a Monke became a Magician infinuated himselfe into the familiarity of a Necromanticall Saracene and stole from him a conjuring-Conjuring-book and studying or practising that art obtained by the divels meanes the Popedome Which dignity so soon as he had ascended he dissembled his black art under that holy vestment but kept a brazen head in a secret place from which he sought and received divining answers And enquiring of the divell how long he should live in the Papall dignity he answered aequivocatingly that he should live long if he came not at Hierusalem Now in the fourth yeere of his Pontificate as he was sacrificing in the Church of the holy Crosse in Hierusalem at Rome he was suddenly stricken with a grievous feaver and began to be convinced that thus the divell had deluded him and now he must die Whereupon he began to be penitent and confessing before the people deplored the wickednesse of his magicall errour Exhorting all men avoyding ambition and diabolicall deceits to live well and holily intreating them every one that after his death the trunke of his body torne and dismembred as it justly deserved might be laid upon a Cart and buried in that place whither the horses carried it of their own accord And in the extremity of his death besought that his hands and tongue might be cut out by wâ—ich he had blasphemed God and sacrificed to divels Trithemius retracted his opinion concerning the seven spirits in the seven Planets governing the world in their course by 354 yeeres apiece and four moneths protesting after this manner in the conclusion that of all these he believed and admitted nothing but as the Catholick Church believed and for the rest he refuted and contemned all as vaine fained and superstitious And as he disclaimed this to Maximilian the Emperour so he exclaimed against the Artists to Another Away with these rash men vayne men lying Astrologers deceivers of minds and pratlers of frivolous things For the disposition of the Stars makes nothing to the immortall soule to naturall science to supercelestiall wisdome A body hath power onely over a body The mind is free and not subject to Stars and neither receives their influences nor follows their motions c. Cornelius Agrippa in his youth wrote a Magicall book of occult Philosophy but in his sager yeeres wrote another of the vanity of Sciences wherein he confutes and condemns Magick Astrology and all kind of divination and cals the latter his recantation of the former But if towards his death he said indeed to his black Dog Away wicked beast thou hast utterly undone me without all doubt and notwithstanding all apologie his recantation was truer then his repentance For that was sufficient to convince others whereas this was not sufficient to convert himselfe Rodaick of Toledo hoping to finde treasures caused a Palace to be opened that had been kept shut for many yeeres there he found nothing but a coffer and in it a sheet and in it written a prophecy that after the opening thereof men like those painted in the sheet should invade Spaine and subdue it The King was therefore sorry and caused the coffer and castle to be shut again Phanias an Hierosolymitane servant by the advice of certain Magicians had emancipated himselfe to the divel in his hand writing for the obtaining of his masters daughter by vertue of their art But at length repenting he was converted by the prayer of St. Basil and the divel casting in the chirograph he was publiquely received into the bosome of the Church Cyprian a Magician while he sought by Magicall arts to inchant and dementate Iustina the Virgin was by her means converted to Christ For whose truth they both suffered Martyrdome Socrates offended at the bold and blind vagations of men in their disputations about the measures of the Sunne and of the Moon and other Stars wherein they laboured more in babling words then solid arguments undertaking to comprehend the whole circuit of the world with all the events therein from the beginning to the end Hereupon he withdrew his mind from these â—nlearned errours and applyed it wholy to consider mans fraile condition and the vitiousnesse and vertuousnesse of affections and to teach such manners as most pertained to honest and happy life A Priest of an oraculous Temple who had perceived that his divining divell had receded at the presence of Gregory Tâ—eametargus at the first calumniating but afterwards admiring his power desired to learn of him that mystery of commanding divels He taught him therefore the mysterie of godlinesse and confirmed it by a miracle whereupon he was converted forsaking his praestigious Idolatry yea wife children goods and all to follow him and so became an excellent servant in the Church and a great opposer of satan himselfe Marcellus and Apuleius two martyrs who first adhering to Simon Magus but seeing the miracles that were wrought by the Apostles converted from the Magicians praestigiousnesse and gave themselves wholy to believe and follow the Apostolicall doctrine for which they were martyred afterwards Hermogenes a magician disliking his own art brought a many of his magicall books and offered them to Iames the Apostle to be burnt 16. Of Magicians and Astrologers idolatrous account and other vain confident and servile superstitions they wrought in simple and credulous men THere was a câ—rtain man called Simon which before time in the same City used Magick or sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was sâ—me great one To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying This man is the great power of God And to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries or magick Act. 8 9 10 11. To the same Simon a Statue was set up at Rome with this inscription To Simon the Holy God These Magicians and Astrologers in their generations were numbred among the Gods and had their Statues Images Oracles Temples Altars Sacrifices and Services viz. Zoroaster Trismegistus Mopsus Amphiaraus Apollonius Tyanaeus Amphilocus Accius Nanius Porphyrius Diodorus Thor Ollerus All these Mag-astro-mancers and many more arrogated a divinity to themselves from their divinations and had it attributed unto them by the superstitious people of several Nations Theagenes was so superstitious that he had in his house the Image of Hecate and durst at no time offer to stir out of doors till he had first consulted it For which his slavish su-perstition he grew into a Proverb among the very heathens themselves Archimedes the
that was a Conjurer to be his mate to shew him his skill the circle is made the imprecation uttered the spirit hideously appears is asked about the successe at Gouleâ—ta confesses his ignorance and takes time to resolve disappeares and leaves such a terrour and stink behind that they had like to have been poysoned with the noysomenesse and died for feare Examples of the Magastromancers fatall miseries and unfortunate ends are too many to be instanc't in at large Zoroaster the first father of them was vanquisht by Ninus who burnt his books some say that he himselfe was burnt by the divell as he was provoking him by his magicall experiments Simon Magus as he would needs goe fly in the ayre had his magicall wings so clipt that he fell down and broke his neck Cynops as he went about to raise the dead out of the sea was himselfe swallowed up of the waves and died Zaroes and Arphaxat both burnt by lightning Chalchas died for envy Tullus Hostilius provoking to thunder was himselfe stricken to death therewith Nectanebus killed by his own sonne Ascletarion eaten up of dogs as he went to execution Onomacritus expelled Athens by Hipparchus Messinius put to the sword by Valentinian Sempronius Rufus banished by Severus Heliogabalus an thropomantist slain and cast into a Jakes Nigidius Figulus died in exile Apoleius accused and condemned before Claudius Maximus proconsul of Africa Amphiaraus swallowed up of the earth Romulus rapt up in a black stormy thundring cloud Aristaeus snatcht away by an evill spirit Zito fetcht away quick by the divel A Count of Matscon as he was making merry with his friends there came one to the doore with a horse and made him come forth and get up and so carried him up into the ayre invisibly and he audibly crying out as he was carried up and down Another was seized on by the divell while he was presenting the praestigious pageantry of Hector and Achilles Another the divel came into his closet and left him there dead sitting in a chaire with his heart in his hand Pope Benedict the ninth strangled by the divel in a wood Iohn Faustus the divell entring his chamber with a terrible commotion was found dragd out of his bed and his face wrung quite behind him Bladad who not onely practised magicall arts but taught them to the Britaines in confirmation hereof would needs goe fly but fell headlong and was dasht in pieces against the Temple of Apollo in Troynovant Odo Bishop of Baia perished in prison Galeaceus caused a bold peremptory Astrologer to be hanged up Charles the seventh of France hang'd Aegidius the Marshall for his magicall exploits Simon the blind exorcist slain by his own wife possessed with a divell Stupbius taken by Radulph of Habspurge and burnt Methotin slain by the people and his body stak't Reatius killed by one whom he had deluded Hollerus slaine by his own aemulators Oddo drowned for all that he often sailed without a ship Ericus driven to hang himselfe Oluph desperately drowning himselfe Diodorus after all his prestigious evasions at length caught and burnt Iunctin an Italian prognosticating of himselfe as Astrologers rarely can be drawn to doe on the day he feared to be most dismall was knockt on the head by his books in his own study Peter of Pomfret executed for an imposterous traytor A Priest of Norimberge would needs goe conjure for treasure and digging found a hollow cave and therein spyed a chest and a black dogge lying by it which he was no sooner entred but the cave shut its mouth upon him and there he perished At Saltsburg a charmer undertook to enchant all the Serpents within a miles space which while he was effecting a great old serpent among the rest leapt upon him wrapt his taile about him and so drew him into the ditch and there he was drowned Gobrias that assisted Darius in freeing Persia from the Magicians cruell tyranny and execrable treachery a base massie Magician hard and close prest upon him so that one of his fellows durst not smite the villaine for feare of wounding his friend that had buckled with him But he bad not spare to use his sword though it were to the hazzard of himselfe which he rather chose to suffer then that such a miscreant should escape unavenged Alexander a pseudomantist as Lucian was preparing an accusation against him rotted lothsomely and so died miserably eaten up of worms Manes that magicall heretick or hereticall magician was in such favour with the King of Persia that he wrote all his portents for true miacles and his madnesse for divine fury His sonne falling sick he committed him to Manes his art for his cure Who confidently undertook it but faignedly performed it and therefore perceiving him to be worse and worse he fled into Mesopotamia Whence the King caused him to be fetcht back and flead off his skin alive and filled it with chaffe and gave his carcase to the dogs At the taking of Constantinople the Greeks superstitiously bewitched with a prophecy that a mighty enemy should be possessed of the greatest part of the City but should be defeated in the market-place called the Brazen Bull were both carelesse and dastardly in suffering the Turkes to make breaches upon the walls enter the City and arrive at the very place where they were cruelly slain themselves Bellantius the great Astrologer which is said to have given warning to Savanorola to beware of burning was neither able to foretell nor to prevent his own great perill in so plain a manner by the Stars but that he was most beastly murdered 35. Of the reformation of Magick and Astrology as well in Pagan States as Christian Churches with a Caveat in conclusion to English-men for to beware of Astrologicall Magicians or Magicall Astrologers as to redeem the old scandall and prevent the new calumny of their superstitious addiction to Soothsaying Prophecies and predictions NInus vanquished Zoroaster and in a contempt to his Magick and Astrology caused his books to be burnt Numa Pompilius and Dardanus would needs have their Magical books to be buried with them This might be their diabolicall envy or rather the divels own policy to have them thought and sought as things prizeable but it was indeed Gods providence to have them abolished as things detestable Hermogenes his books were burned by St. Iames the Apostle The Emperours Honorius and Theodosius ordained that such kind of books should be burned in the sight of the Bishops Athanasius speaks of whole volumes that were burnt even by the consent of the Arts greatest admirers Iodocus de Rosa his conjuring books were burnt by a common Councell Belike such a consumption hath alwaies been thought and found to be the best way of reformation and most conformable to that great example Acts 19. 19. The Chaldaeans indigning the many oraculous and divining gods that were set up in severall countries and presuming to reform all to their own god Vr or Fire they proposed to divers
Provinces that that God which prevailed to confound all the other should be accounted as the only God To this purpose they carry their Idol Fire in a Censer up and down with them and commit it to conflict with the other Idols of Gold Silver Wood Stone c. and it consumes them all The fame of the Chaldaean Fire devouring all where it came coming to the eares of the Priest of Canopus an Aegyptian god in whose Temple was taught Magick by Aegyptian letters and not unlike Astrologie too or divining by the Stars since they have a Star also of that name this put him upon a crafty device to save the credit of his god He took a great earthen water pot full of holes and stopped them with Wax and filled it with water and painted it over and set it up instead of his God or rather this water pot was the belly of Canopus himselfe so fashioned In come the Chaldaeans and as the two gods are put to the bickering the Wax melts and the water runs out and so the Fire is quenched and now is Canopus accounted for the victor After this comes Theophilus a Christian Priest to contest with him and he by the power and providence of God makes the very creature Fire to consume all in despight of all magicall force or fraud and so works the reformation The Alexandrians not well knowing how to prohibit the Astrologers directly did it subtilly They exacted a yeerly tribute not onely of the Astrologers but of all those that consulted them And this exaction they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fooles tribute thinking that either the charge or the shame of it would thus restrain if not reform it Augustus gathered up here and there all the fatidicall books he could and those that were spread abroad under none or no apt authors he caused them to be all burnt to the number of two thousand and onely retained the Sibylline books and them too with choice commanding that even they should not be lookt into by any others but the Quindecemvirs onely In the too long protraction of the second Punick warre their religion became so distracted by the turbulencies of the times that all sexes ages and degrees of people turned sacrificers and vaticinators Complaint hereof was brought to the Senate and they laid the blame on the inferior Magistrates for not inhibiting them At length the businesse was committed by the Senate to M. Aemilius the Vrbane Praetor who made proclamation that whosoever had any books of vaticination or written Orisons or arts of sacrificing letters c. that they should bring them all to him within such a day And thus he freed them from such confusions as were crept into their religion As they were plowing in the field of L. Petilius the Scribe certain books of Numa were there found in a chest of stone Which Q. Petilius the Vrbane Praetor hearing of sent for them and reading onely the summe or contents of them and observing that they tended to the utter dissolving of religion told L. Petilius that he intended to burn them The Scribe appealed to the Tribunes of the people they referred it to the Senate where it was decreed that the Pretor should keep his vow or resolution and so they were burned by the victimaries or sacrificers themselves in the sight of all the people It being related to the Fathers by Quintilian a Tribune of the people concerning a book of the Sybils which Caninius Gallus a Quindecemvir would have received among the rest of the prophecies Tiberius hereupon sent letters to the Senate severely checking at Caninius who being versed in the ceremonies would admit of an ode or a charm whose authour was uncertain which the masters had not read nor the Colledge approved putting the Fathers in mind of Augustus his edict to carry all such to the Vrbane Praetor and that the Sibylline verses belonged to the care of the Priests to discern which were true and which false And that they should especially acquaint the Quindecemvirs therewith and not transact any thing rashly in a cause of religion Under Valentinian one Hilarius a Car-man was brought before Apronius the praefect of the City because he had committed his sonne to a venefick necromancer or sorcerer to be brought up or traded in such arts as were interdicted by the laws and was therefore condemned Amantius an aruspick was solicited by Hymetius to sacrifice for depraved and maleficall intents which being proved by papers found in his house the consulter was banished and the practitioner condemned Lollianus a very young magician being accused that he had written a book of pernicious arts for feare that Maximinus would banish him appealed to Valentinian who more grievously punished him Palladius a veneficke and Heliodorus a genethliacke or one that interpreted fate by genitures were therefore accused before Modestus the praetorian praefect Palladius impeached Fidustius Praesidatis Irenaeus and Pergamius for their abhominable charms Fidustius confesses his vaticinating malefice and joyns with him Hilarius and Patricius Pergamius accuses many thousands as conscious of the same arts Hilarius and Patricius confesse the sortilegious fact with all the circumstances Wherefore all these and many other Philosophers are punished with fire and sword as Pasiphilus Diogenes Alypius Simonides and others And last of all that no mention might be found of these unlawfull arts innumerable books and volumes are all heaped together and burnt in the Judges sight Under Manuel Commenus one Araon was accused in that there was found in his house the image of a Tortoise and within it the picture of a man chained and pierced through the breast and that he carried about him the old conjuring book that was called Solomons which while he read it legions of divels would appeare and ask him wherefore he called them and would quickly execute his commands Of which being convicted he had his eyes put out the usual punishment of those times Sicidites about the same time was impeached for casting prestigious mists before mens eyes and for sending out his devils to terrifie and torment men The same man sitting by the water side with some of his companions askt them what they would give him and he would make the Boatman that then passed by with a load of earthen vessels to break all his own wares with his own Oare Something they promised him and he muttered a few words and it came to passe accordingly The man being askt after that why he was so mad as to break his wares answered he thought he saw before him an ugly great Serpent ready to devour◠him which still crept neerer to him the more he struck at it and when all his pots were broken in pieces then it vanished For this and other ridiculous pernicious tricks he was served as Araon was sc had his eyes put out an apt punishment for all peepers and Star-gazers In vain was all the Pagan reformation of Magick and Astrologie For they put the