Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
book_n author_n great_a time_n 2,069 5 3.0647 3 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A52801 An astrological and theologigal [sic] discourse upon this great conjunction (the like whereof hath not (likely) been in some ages) ushered in by a great comet and so far upon the heavens, the planets and fixed stars as is a necessary introduction into a distinct and full knowledg of the principal subject herein handled. Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705. 1682 (1682) Wing N441A; ESTC R28721 40,837 46

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Jovis Martis and Veneris c. Desiring to shun all Semblances of Idolatry and fearing to countenance those Heathenish Dunghil Deities Reverend Beza saith he had rather still Retain the Hebrew Names Has Chesil and Chimah than call them Arcturus Orion and the Pleiades which have beenn so much Abused with the obsceen Fables of profane Poets I am Constrained to call those Planets by their common Heathenish Names for Distinction sake and by way of Recital as Baal Rom. 11 4. and Castor and Pollux Acts 28 11. are mentioned by the Apostle non Honoris gratia sed tantum Recitative not to pay them any Honor but in the way of an History only it being there an Historical Relation Gualtherus hath an Excellent Note upon Zeph. 1 5. c. them that Worship the Host of Heaven upon the House-top saying let those that profess Judiciary Astrology observe this they worship the Stars no less than did the Heathens of old and do openly bring in Heathenism again while first they call the Stars by the Names of those Heathenish Deityes which ought to be Abolish'd as above 2dly they put the Event of all things in subjection to those Stars yea even of Man himself as touching all his Manners and Fortunes which as the Scriptures Affirm do Depend upon the Eternal Providence of God Alone I add a 3d to Gualter their putting the Government of the World under 7 Planetary Angels giving names and Times of Government to them Unscripturally This is Intolerable Impiety and they that fall into it shall not escape the Just Judgment of God Great Augustine calls this no better than the Doctrine of Devils saying this kind of Divination was of the Devils Teaching De Civit. Dei lib. 5. cap. 1. pag. 70. par 2dae Yet in propriety of Speech that is not Divination which speaks from Signs and Causes but from Impulses and Inspiration Beza Ep. 29. now to propose the Planets as both Signs and Causes not only of Natural but also of Voluntary things without any Respect either to the Free-Will of Man or to the Free-Grace of God Reducing All under a Fatal Necessity and Determinations of Planets This must needs be both great Folly and gross Idolatry No Doubt but the Planets have a mighty power over the Bodies of Men yet 't is wicked to say that the Soul also is subject to Stars and though they may have some Influence upon the passions and Affections of the Soul which do naturally Arise from the Temper of the Body yet can they not Incline much less Inforce the Will of Man but least of all the Will of God and therefore cannot afford any Certain Divination Besides the Planets are but Universal and Remote Causes at the most and there be other more near and more particular causes Intervening which may having a power of their own either Resist or Remit that force descending down from the Stars This probably may be the True Reason why the very Conjecturers themselves do so much disagree among themselves in their own Conjectures Suppose Pythagoras and Plato's Notion hold True that the Motion of the Celestial Spheres call'd Motus Trepidationis a Trembling Motion makes a most Melodious Musick and suppose that Musick being Celestial should make a greater Impression upon the minds of Men though they hear it not by a Virtual Contact than any Terrestrial Musick as is aforesaid can do yet this occult Quality as to the matter of its effects as well as to the manner of its Operation cannot Afford any better than an occult or obscure Divination from the obscurity both of the Causa and of the Causatum which have the same Quality Now if the Devil himself can foretel nothing but such as are in causis cognitis operantibus in their Causes both known and in their very working too much less can any Mortal Man far short of his Subtlety sagacity and experience Declare moral matters long before there is any working in their natural Causes by Astrological Rules such predictions must needs be Uncertain Vain if not false yea sometime Blasphemous There be some such predictions we would have gladly prove true quod Volumus facile credimus as this That Mars never leaves Leo and goes into Virgo but then the Enemies of the Protestants go down c. on the contrary that of Cambden that Saturn never passes through Leo but he leaves a plague upon this City of London God forbid it To conclude then with not peremptory Conclusions but some probable Conjectures partly Astrolog and partly Theolog 1 give me leave to say with Nuntius propheticus Page 35 my Nature hath hitherto abhorr'd predicting Events by the Stars yet seeing the Congress or Conjunction of the 2 Superior Planets have an I had of Evils mostly attending them to fall some where so must portend great Matters yet it is beyond the Knowledge of Man to make any positive Prediction from them upon whom it will fall or precisely when that Great Sabbath or Time of Rest shall come upon the Earth He reckons many Reverend men some that lived while the Bloud of Christ was yet warm who taught freely and fully of this Golden Age or great Sabbath to come with the Applause of all and contradiction of none c. Which future Felicity of Gods Servants upon Earth may well be portended by this 7th Sabbatical and Climacterical Conjunction 2 concerning the precise point of Time when this Day of Refreshing Acts 3 19. and of the Restitution of all things v. 21 shall be no mortal Man can determine indeed so many Men so many Minds One Author assigns this Year Another that a third differs in his Account from both And in truth such is the Vncertainty of Chronology that it is impracticable if not impossible to fix any Certainty herein The Computation of Time from the Creation to Christ is made in that Variety that Alsted reckons up about 24 several Accounts and Conjectures thereof in his Encuclopaedia Page 2993. Now if there were so much Vncertainty in that Chronology before Christ wherein the Records of the Old Testament run all along as a Thread for Guidance in that Labyrinth how much more since Christ which hath not a Scripture-Chronicle to direct us beyond the first Hundred years And in the very first Century there must be much Obscurity for the Pagans who were so Cruel as to Kill the Authors would not be so Kind as to Keep their Books See my Discovery of Antichrists Rise Reign and Ruine pag. 147 148 149. c. 3 Notwistanding the Variety of Minds in stating this great Matter as to Time yet all do agree vnanimously and there is a Concurrence of Sentiments on all Hands that this thrice happy and golden Age is now at hand the Nearer we may well suppose it because the 7th Conjunction must be attended as all the former 6 have been with Great Revolutions The great Champion of this Sabbatical Doctrine Alsted doth confidently enough determine the