diversity in Conception and not in the Nativity The vanity of Astrologers in applying their Art not onely to Men but also to walled Towns and Cities BEhold courteous Reader how great and shameless is the audacity and impudence of those fellows who will not onely divine the fortunes of Mortals but Cities and Castles also and tell you that if you observe the Constellation when any City or the like hath its foundation laid or is erected you shall if you will believe them calculate and divine the casualties destinies and events which hereafter shall befall and happen unto that place Plutarch tells us in the life of Romulus that Tarutius a certain Mathematician at the entreaty of Varro made such a Calculation concerning the City of Rome This story Cicero in the second book of his Divination renders in these words A certain man called L. Tarutius Firmanus a familiar friend of mine exquisitely fuâ—nisht and instructed in the Art and Discipline of the Chaldeans dived into the foundation or as I may call it birth time of our City from these Configurations and Constellations of the Stars under which he conceived it founded by Romulus and finding it incohated in the wane of the Moon made no scruple to prognosticate the fate and destiny thereof O strange madness and powerful force of errour and blindenss can possibly the foundation of Cities have any relation and dependency upon the force and power of the Moon and Stars Suppose it possible to foretell events by Constellation of the Stars at the birth of a childe will you thence infer that it is easie and possible to declare and predict what will become of stone brick and mortar with other materials with which a City is constructed and built Thus Cicero Why Astrological Observation may not be as prevalent in Herbs and Animals as in mankinde I Would gladly learn of those all-divining Masters whether or no their Art have as much power over herbs and animals as over man If they answer negatively they betray their own ignorance the weakness folly and fallaciousness of their Art and Profession For why should it not be as prevalent in such things as in men nay far more for herbs and plants by a naturall necessity have greater dependance upon the power and efficience of the celestial bodies and seeing that fewer and those not so various and differing Contingents happen to plants then men by consequence it must be far more easie to predict their future events then those of mankinde If they grant that the stars have equivolent dominion over plants and mortals I ask them calmly and in a friendly way if they observe the position of the Heavens and constellation in that very moment and season when plums cherries or pears are grafted or inoculated or in seed-time when wheat or other grain is cast into the ground and out of that prognostick observation they can foreshew what encrease and multiplication all these trees and grain will produce how many cherries on every tree how many ears of wheat in every acre or couer and how many wheat corns in every ear if they grant me that their skill cannot arrive at such a height or perfection let them leave their babling to perswade me that they can foretell the future events of mortals Concerning the Antiquity of Astrology amongst the Egyptians and Chaldeans THe third basis and foundation of Astrologers is that their Art is backt and bolstered up with most certain experimentals of I know not how many even almost innumerable ages and that the quintessence and marrow of that divine Art had its origin from the Chaldeans and the Inhabitants of Babylon and Egypt the very first and ancient possessors of this Universe and Aristotle himself in his book concerning the Heavens and in another wherein he treats of Meteors affirms that the Egyptians are the most ancient Planters in the terrestrial Globe and in the beginning of his Metaphysicks he saith The Egyptians the most ancient amongst mortals first invented and digested the Mathematicall Art and Science And the former and ancient Astrologers were wont to boast that the Chaldeans successively employed their time and endeavours for the space of 470. thousand years in calculating the Nativities and carefully keeping and reserving the experimentals and observations of the children in that so long a time born But this is so manifest an untruth a lye so palpable that it may almost be felt and therefore not worth mentioning or confutation for since the very first Creation of the world there have elapsed not much more then 6000. years and from the first originall of that Nation of the the Chaldeans viz. from the confusion of tongues at the subversion of Babels Tower not more then 4000. years Picus Mirand in the second Chapter of his second Book against Astrologers brings Hypparchus and Ptolomy grand masters in this Mystery to confute this imaginary and Chimerical Antiquity of Astrology for these very Grandees when they labour any conclusion or dogmaticall precept from the long and prolix observations of their Predecessors they can ascend no higher then the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar that potent Monarch amongst the Egyptians and Babylonians and since the first inauguration of that Prince and beginning of his Empire to this present year of our blessed Saviours Incarnation saith mine Author when he writ this Treatise 1588. there cannot be computed above 2232. years And St. Augustine that grave and learned Doctor in chap. 4. book 18. of the City of God checks and scoffs at this fantastick vanity saying Foolishly do these men babble and prate who go about to make the world believe that it is above an hundred thousand years since first the Egyptians found out the power and influences of the Stars from whom I pray did they extract such collections it being not above 2000. years since first of all that Nation learnt the art of Letters from their first Mistris Isis This Varro who is no mean Author delivers unto us And thus we conclude the eight reasons by which it is demonstrated this kinde of Astrology or Divination to be opposite and contrary to the true and solid grounds of Philosophy CHAP. 4. The Stars are so far from being the Causes that they are not as much as Signs of future things SAint Augustine in his fifth book of the City of God saith That there were some men and those of esteem for their learning and knowledge who although they did not allow the stars to be the causes of humane affairs yet granted them to be certain and infallible signs thereof Whether or no if the Stars be not causes they may be certain signs of future events ORigen in his Treatise upon Genesis as Eusebius tells us in his sixth book of Evangelical Preparation explaining these words And they shall be for signs in the first Chapter of Genesis which words beget the argument of this present discourse delivers unto us that God placed the stars in the firmament that by their
spurious may be stiled the issue of so holy a Mother Read the ninth and tenth Chapter of the Council called Bracarense cast your eyes upon the Toletane Council in the Assertion of Faith against the Priscillianists and you shall finde how much that fantastick seeming Science is exploded and detested Did not Pope Alexander the Fourth of that name as the rest of his Successors I suppose would do suspend a certain Priest a whole year from the exercise of his Function for the onely going to an Astrologer to ask his advice concerning a Robbery committed in his Church And do we not finde variety of disputations in the writings of ancient and learned Fathers against those Astrologers whom sometimes they call Ironically Chaldaeans or Nativity-Casters other while Mathematicians and Planetarians this is as I suppose men Planet-struck or in plain English mad men by which it most plainly appears how odious and detestable these kinde of Fellows was to our vertuous and godly Fore-fathers Basilius in his sixth Homily upon Genesis disputeth admirably against these people so doth St. Chrysostome and Gregory the Great on the second Chapter of St. Matthew but above all St. Augustine lib. 2. upon Genesis cap. 17. as also in his second book of Christian Doctrine cap. 21. and some Chapters following and in his learned Treatise of the City of God in some of the Chapters of the first book he most copiously and quaintly handles this subject unto the very same purpose tend those most excellent discussions and arguments against Mathematicians and in the the same nature disputeth Eusebius in his 6. Book Chap. 9. concerning Evangelical preparation And most absurd and ridiculous or rather infatuated and mad was that grand Apostata Julianus the Emperour who would needs in his Pamphlets which he scribbled out against Christians prove even out of Scripture Gen. 15. that Abraham was addicted to and honoured Divination and Astrology which he will needs inferr out of these words And he brought him forth abroad and said to him look up to heaven and number the stars if thou canst and he said to him so shall thy seed be And as for his skill and practice in Divination he thinks he hath hit the nail on the head to prove it out of these words Take me a Cow of three years old and a she-goat of three years and a ram of three years a Turtle also and a Pigeon who taking all these divided them by the midst and laid each two pieces arow one against the other but the Birds he divided not and the Fowls lighted upon the carcases and Abraham drove them away Then the foreshewing of his travels and the captivity of his posterity for forty years space is added but this errour or rather madnesse of Julianus is sufficiently and excellently confuted by Cycillus in the end of the tenth book of that Treatise which he set forth against that Apostata Others and as foolishly will ground the faith and credit of Astrology upon that miraculous Star which appeared at the Nativity of our most blessed Saviour whose aspect incited the three wise Men and whose conduct guided them to finde out and adore the worlds Redeemer God and Man Christ Jesus But these sopperies and dreams are to the full evicted and convinc't by the undeniable arguments of the two learned Fathers St. Chrysostome and St. Gregory in their pithy Homilies upon that part of the Gospel It is also no great matter to confute the grand errour of Astrologers by reasons and arguments assumed even from Theological Doctrine it self for first of all St. Paul 1 Cor. 2. But man knows not what himself shall do after certain be they more or lesse years nay even dayes For as the Scripture tells us Prov. 27. Boast not for to morrow being ignorant what the day to come may bring forth the way of man is not in his own hand man proposeth God disposeth For not onely the heart of every private man but even of Kings and greatest Potentates themselves is in the hand of God who inclines bends and directs it which way he best pleaseth if therefore man be ignorant what is to befall him for the future much lesse can the babling Astrologer know it In conclusion it is most certain that the Devil himself certain or infallibly if at all knows not things to come or future contingents for if he had known what would have followed he would never have egged on or pricked forward the Jews to have crucified and put to death our blessed Lord and Saviour for certain he was that by the death of the worlds Redeemer Christ Jesus the vaste Empire and Power which he had over mankinde was to be quasht shaken and quite overthrown Neither would that inveterate and malicious enemy of mankinde knew he what would happen so vehemently assault the Saints and Servants of God with his strong temptations and allurements to sin well knowing that their victory in overcoming his suggestions and illusions are his utter confusion and highest check that may be to his unlimited pride and malice Of the vanity of Apollo's Oracles THis truth may very well be asserted and made most apparent from the very Oracles which the Devils gave and uttered such as were the Oracles and answers so highly celebrated and most famous amongst the Grecians of the Delphian Deity Apollo which Porphirius a copious Author and sufficient witness in his book concerning Oracles averreth had their whole reflection upon Astrologicall Divination where he saith That whatsoever the Gods foretell as decreed and defined by fate that they imagined would come to pass by the very motion and influence of the stars This Eusebius tells us in the sixth book of Evangelicall Preparation and the same Porphirius avoucheth that Apollo in these his Oracles oft-times proves a liar for that the punctual and exquisite knowledge of future things is not onely incomprehensible to mankinde but even unto many of the Gods themselves insomuch that when they are implored to answer requests they sometimes lye though not willingly and ofttimes they do pre-admonish their suppliants not to ask questions for that they cannot answer truly yet such is the madness of men that they insist and as it were urge and compel them to speak The Delphine God seeing that by the position of the Heavens and inferiour Bodies he could not give a positive and satisfactory answer cries out to his Priest to bridle that fury which had possest him and not to use such charming and enforcing language but if thou compel me to speak quoth the Oracle I will tell thee nothing but lies and in another Oracle the same Apollo said The Stars afford me nothing to speak this day In conclusion Porphyrius tells us we have now discovered from whence the falsity and leasings of the Oracles of our Gods proceed Eusebius in sixth Book of Evang. Prep takes this out of Porphyrius his Book concerning Oracles and thus delivers it to the publick view There was saith
hate fear hope and the like making the impetuousness and violence of our passions a rule to guide our actions so should we in a most high degree undervalue our selves if we should propose the motion and influences celestial to ourselves as a rule to order and regulate our actions by for they are bodies and incline us according to the sway and inclination of our own passions St Luke in the Acts of the Apostles chap. 19 tells us that many who were converted at Ephesus by the preaching and Sermons of St. Paul and formerly had followed curious Arts brought their books and burnt them in publick St. Augustine a profound and grave Authour averres that those books treated of Astrology and matters belonging to Divination Neither did St. Paul reconcile a certain Mathematician that is one who addicted himself to the study of this kinde of Astrology nor receive him into the bosome of the Church although repenting himself of his former profession till first he had performed most solemn penance For as much as concerns this matter I will set down compendiously and succinctly the words of St. Augustine therefore after the enarration or explanation of the sixty Psalm when that Mathematician publickly desiring pardon was brought before the publick assembly thus writes that holy Doctor This man became a good Christian and a zealous Penitent affrighted at the power of our Lord humbly threw himself prostrate before his mercies for being seduced by the Enemy during the time of his seducement he seduced others being himself deceived he deceived others inticed and cunningly drew them on speaking many falsities and untruths against God giving power to men to do good but not power of not doing evil he affirmed that to commit adultery was not done by mans own proper will but by the power of Venus that our own proper will committed not murther but Mars that Jupiter made man just and not God these besides many other detestable and sacrilegious Tenets by this means from how many Christians think you did he worm and screw forth money how many simple fools bought lies and forgeries of him of whom it is said Ye sons of men how long are you of heavy heart and seek after lies and love vanity We may now believe that this man abhorred lying and the ruine and destruction of so many and perceiving him seduced misled and couzened by the Fiend being humbly penitent and contrite is ingratiated and reconciled unto Almighty God You are not ignorant that it is written in the Acts of the Apostles Chap. 19. that many lost and forlorn persons viz. men confiding in such vain Arts and followers of that pestiferous Doctrine brought all their books unto the Apostles and so many were burnt before the open assembly and they cast up the accompts of them and found the price to be fifty thousand pieces of silver and was all done for the greateâ—â— glory of God lest such men esteeming themselveâ— lost and cast away should despair of his mercy who knows how to reduce and bring back what soever is gone astray This man had as it were perished was sought after was found was reclaimed was reduc'd he brings with him now his Books whose doctrine if he had followed would have cast him into the flames of eternal destruction these he casts into the devouring flames obtaining himself a most sweet refreshment of grace and mercy Before the high and solemn Feast oâ— the Pasche which we commonly call Easter thiâ— penitent sought a remedy for his wounded soul from the indulgent Spouse and Church of Christ but because the Art in which he was so delighted and lulled up was fallacious lying and destructive he was put off and remitted to another time but at length after trial he was reconciled lest he might be more dangerously tempted How severe the Church hath been in former times in her censure against this kinde of Astrologers IN the Primitive Church this kinde of Astrology was reproved forbidden and condemned as much as Art-Magick or Necromancy it self Epiphanius in his Book of Weights and Measures tells us that Aquilla Ponticus an expositer of Scripture was rejected and cast out of the Church for that he spent great part of his time in casting and observation of Nativities and other like Astrological observations It is not to be passed over in silence in this discourse it being worthy our notice what Euseb in his sixth Book of Evangelical Preperation Chap. 9. relates out of Origen in his Commentaries upon Genesis of this kinde of Astrology The Gentiles from the Aspects and Conjunction of the Stars believe all things upon earth by urgent necessity to chance and fall out which strange force and power they stile Fate yea and many among the faithful stagger hereat thinking it almost impossible that things should otherwayes happen then as decreed by the constellations of the Planets from whence it followeth that there is no liberty or freedom in us no act of ours can either merit praise or dispraise and consequently the just judgement of Almighty God foretold in the Scripture whereby some are predestinated to everlasting and endless torments others to eternal and perpetual felicity and beatitude should be predicated as false what needs more faith it self the coming of our Saviour all the travel and labour of the Prophets the Apostles preaching and laying the foundation of the Church should all be vain unless we should say that Christ himself by the constellation of the Planets was necessitated and impell'd by their power and force to do those thing which he did far be it from any Christian to harbour such a thought much more to utter such blasphemy and that what he suffered was not by the potency and power of his deity or divinity but by the force and vertue of the Stars and out of this impious ground and fundamental it also must be concluded that the faithful are forced by fate to believe in Christ that no distinction can be made betwixt good and bad that God must be the authour of sin that no reward is due to men for what they have done whether good or evil to conclude by this unsavory Doctrine there is no need of prayers obsecrations or vows to implore the aid and assistance of Almighty God Thus Origen Let Peter Destliaco hug himself in his conceit of the by him so admired Astrology let him Idolize it and defend it tooth and nail let him beat his working brain to yoke it and make it walk hand in hand with Philosophy and yea forsooth which Theology also all which he shall never bring to pass unless he can familiarize and make a league betwixt Falsity and Truth Light and Darkness God and the Devil and his impudency blusheth not to assert that the Deluge or as we call it Noahs Flood the Incarnation and Birth of our Saviour and other high and admirable mysteries and miracles might have been prognosticated and foretold by the constellations and conjunctions of the Stars and
little and little will wither away In no case therefore have recourse unto those men to be satisfied in the curiosity of knowing future Contingents How vain a thing it is to believe that Astrologers can tell any man that he shall be chose chief Bishop or Pontifex THis thing amongst many others discovers the vanity of this Art Astrologers for example will perswade some one that he shall be elected chief Bishop but the promotion of any one to this high degree of honour depends not upon the will and power of the party himself or any other particular person but upon the decree and suffrages of the whole Conclave whose charge it is to elect the chief Bishop and therefore it is not onely necessary suppose I affirme Peter to be the man to know the constellation of his Nativity but I must also know exactly the Constellations and Position of the Stars in the several births of all those whose joynt suffrages vote and elect Peter to that high preferment If it be true which Swetonius relates concerning Augustus that Nigidius Figulus a man eminent amongst the Romans for his rare knowedge in Astrology having taken the hour of his Nativity and rightly considered the stars predominant at his birth cry'd out aloud The Lord of the whole world is now born We must conclude that this was not spoken by Art and grounded upon Reason but casually and rashly and that it was meer chance that it came to pass as he had foretold For the advancement of Augustus to that height of Command and Monarchy was effected by rising unto several degrees of honour and depended upon the favour study and procurement of many men so that to know and pronounce the advancement of Augustus to so eminent a degree of Sovereignty and Empire it was not sufficient to Calculate the Nativity of him alone for the stars which were prevalent at his birth could not have power upon the nativities of others who were his Abettors Sticklers and Coadjutors to obtain the Imperiall Diadem and Dignity of whom many were born before and many severall years after Augustus That the Art and Science of Astrology is none or not considerable The sixth Reason EVery Art and Science is versant in things which alwayes or for the most part fall out as that Art teacheth and yet it is manifest that things shewed by Astrology very seldom rarely come to pass as she foretelleth as having no stable or grounded foundation and therefore cannot constitute a formal Art or Science Being therefore as it is most certainly true that Astrological Predictions are most commonly false and very seldom true and veridical it is most clear that they proceed not from any Art or certain observations but are spoken temerariously and at randome For which cause Phavorinus gives us a Caveat not to be over confiding in Chaldeans though at some times by great chance they stumble upon a truth and verity and his reason is because they speak not things certain defined and known but fallible and grounded onely upon ambiguous conjectures and so betwixt truth and falshood they steal hood-winkt along poco poco in a mist of obscurity and so trying many conclusions by hap hazzard and before they be aware they unknowingly stumble upon a truth and sometimes also by the credulity and informations of those who come foolishly to ask their counsel they seem to meet with a verity and this presently cries them up to have knowledge in things both past and future but such truths as they discover either hab nab or covered with the cloak of subtle knavery compared with their lyes and falsities amount not to the thousand pan thereof Cicero in his 2. book of Divination hath these words what need we desire more The Chaldeans are daily confuted how many things have these Chaldeans told Pompey Crassus and Cesar himself as that they should die in their own habitations aged and full of years and in the very height and top of honour and renown It seems strange to me that any man will follow and give credit to these Fellows whose Predictions and Prognostications which daily experience make manifest to be meer leasings and fopperies Seneca in a small Pamphlet which he entitles Ludus in mortem Claudii Caesaris brings Mercury upon the stage negotiating with the fatal sisters the procurement of Claudius his death and by the way to put a jear and frump upon the Chaldeans amongst other his Patheticall and Rhetoricall Arguments that Astrologers may not alwayes be taxt with lying Be pleased quoth Mercury most dread and powerful Ladies that Fortune-tellers may sometime speak the truth who have so often told us that this or that year this or the next moneth Claudius should be taken out of this world And is not the like done in these our present times do not our Astrologers prognosticate the death of Potentates as they finde the Peoples affections to wish their lives prosperities and preservation or death overthrow and utter confusion St. Ambrose in his fourth book in Hexem ch 7. hath these words Some few dayes since when we fell into discourse how welcome and grateful rain would be one in the company made answer fear not Neomenia will send some truly though we wish for rain yet wish we not such affections verified for my part I am much pleased that no rain fall till we obtain it by the prayers and supplications of the Church Whereby it is manifest that an hope and confidence is not to confide in Changes and Moons but to depend upon the providence and mercy of our most gracious and Omnipotent Creator By which the vanity of Astrology is confuted the efficacy of Christian Piety and power of religious and godly prayers made manifest The vanity and falsity of Astrological Predictions ALbumazar a prime Ring-leader of Superstitious Astrology or Astrological Superstition through the observation and precepts of this Art divined that Christian Religion should continue onely 1460. years but the years which have elapsed-since that prediction prove the Predictor a liar Abraham a Jew out of his Astrologicall observation calculated that the Messias should be born 1464. after our Saviouâ—s Nativity because I know not what the same Constellation and Position of the stars should then happen and be as when Moses brought the Hebrew People out of Egypt but how true this Prediction was time hath discovered Petrus de Aliaco hath left recorded that the Astrologers of that time when the general Council of Constance was call'd to extirpate and root out Heresie and Schism which so much troubled and disquieted the Church fore-told that the Church should enjoy no tranquility but the Heavens threatned dissention and discord even to the ruine and overthrow of Christian Religion and yet notwithstanding by that very Council that long continued and pernicious Scisme was extinguished and a settled peace and quietnesse established in the Church And this happy event so contrary to their vain Predictions might have moved honest Peter
that all things must be referred to an incorporeal cause that is either to God himself or Angels who moves the Heavens so that whilst Angels move the Heavens in the very state habit position and conformation of those Heavens as it were by certain nods and becks of theirs like notes and signs described therein they should point out and predict the events and contingents of humane affairs but this in many respects is not credible for whosoever grounds upon this foundation must needs grant and say that Angels induce mortals unto all and whatsoever even the greatest and most horrid fins and villanies In this point Philosophy doth inform us and also Theology doth the like that there is no action of Angels as they call it transeant which immediately proceeds from them other then local motion and that the Angels who do circumvolve and wheel about the Celestial Orbes these I say those great masters averre to have no other operation concerning humane affairs then what proceeds from motion and the light of the Heavens For those I know not what insluences distinct from light I have formerly sufficiently made null and there is no man so brain-sick who will affirm if he will speak things probable and likely that motion and the light of heaven can infallibly clearly and distinctly premonstrate all future effects of sublunary things and again when two effects of the same cause necessarily shew one the other as they must proceed from the same cause so must they also proceed after one and the same manner otherwise it cannot be that they should indicate one another Such things as are broughâ— to pass by God and his Angels in Celestial bodies must have their beings necessarily and invariably whereas those which are beneath the Moon have their contingency very mutably and I may say defectively In like manner other arguments may be framed if the stars who are confined to a set and certain number and of a like condition can be signs of future things which are almost infinite both in number and variety and in themselves discrepant and differing How can the same positure and conformity of stars under which Twins and many others are born in in the same moment of time be a certain sign properly and distinctly to presignifie so many several and distinct dispositions casualties and events as we daily discover in them therefore if we grant the stars to be signs of future things we must also affirm them to be their causes and if we deny them to be Causes we must also deny them to be Signs Whether Comets or Blazing Stars be signs of humane affairs THou wilt perhaps avouch that Comets which are generated in the high and sublime air are signs which predict strange and wonderfull events to ensue and of those Contingents the Comets are neither the causes nor effects and therefore probable it is that the stars are in the like condition in respect of sublunary affairs for my part I shall never grant Comets to be signs of humane chances and events though this is as much believed amongst the vulgar as exploded by wise men Should I walk hand in hand with the vulgar in this errour and say that the Stars produced the Comets as Poasts or Curriours to go before them to foretell future events if I should I say grant this yet concerning the stars another account is to be given for that they have no corporeal cause superiour unto them Whether those men who make the Stars signs of future things do thereby upon necessity establish that thing call'd Fate WE will make no great business of this the Authors of this opinion although unwillingly engage themselves in a necessity of Fate far more then those who will have the stars to be the causes of sublunary effects for grant that the stars should be the causes of all things which are produced beneath the moon yet for all this there is no necessity of bugg-bear fate for what is to be done and effected upon earth by the influences and defluxions of the stars that may be impeded and crost by contrary affections of the matter or by the intervening of particular causes as obstructions thereunto But if stars be naturally the signs of future Contingents then upon necessity whatsoever they signifie must come to pass otherwise they are signs fallacious and deceitfull and seeing that our great God hath ordained and instituted them to signifie and give notice of things and hath engraven them in heaven as in some voluminous Tome to point out and be as it were Indexes of things to come to pass if the event of these things which they signifie should not prove answerable you must either make God their author ignorant or a great impostor and deceiver If you say the starres presignific what is to be done in some particular causes and onely in some and not in all this is extreamly improbable and fable like for why should the stars foretell the future chances and effects of some particular effects rather then of others and not rather of all alike the reason being indifferent and like in all or else you must say that the stars are the future effects of all particular causes If this be so it must needs follow that there will be no causes left remaining to impede obstruct or hinder whatsoever is by the stars predicted and it will necessarily come to pass that whatsoever is sublunary must be tied to an absolute fate and necessity which the defenders of this opinion will not allow of or should they it were most wicked and impious As concerning that Text of Isaiah 54. The Heavens like a book shall be folded up which amongst all the places of Scripture formerly set down seems to have the most of difficulty in it I finde it diversly and by divers and severall Expositors glossed and interpreted yet no exposition if it be of an approved Authour or at least probable which makes for or sides with that opinion Justinus Martyr answering to the forty ninth interrogatory of the Orthodoxes wherein the Querie was how that place of Isaias was to be understood when he saith That the Heavens like a book shall be folded up saith as the divine word sometimes by a similitude compares heaven to a skin extended saying who extends the heaven like a skin other times to smoak other times to a chamber and so on the contrary speaking of the dissolution of the heavens it is compared to a book and other things and by David in his Psalms to a garment waxing old St. Hierom upon the same words saith we must observe that he saith not the heavens to perish but to be wrapped up like a book that after all sins were detected and made manifest and read they should no more be opened never more to have the sins of men written in them In the Scripture the Heavens are said to shew the justice of God to reveal his anger to prove and give testimony of mans wickedness St.