know well that this Latine word is not alwayes a Note of Similitude Facti sumus Sicut Consolati was the song of the People returning out of Captivity as Men that are Comforted shall we conclude hence that they were not Really so No But this word Sicut AS is Redundant in this place and might as well have been away So likewise in this passage Transivimus Sicut per Ignem and in many more the like Therefore Complicabuntur Coeli Quia LIBER sunt But if it be still Objected that for as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caph signifies sometimes sicut in the Originall there is no more reason why it should be rendered Quia then Sicut and Consequently it will still hold true that the Heavens are not a Booke but are onely as a Booke To this it may be answered that the Holy Scripture doth else-where fully decide this Controversie seeing that speaking of the Heavens it makes mention of Lines and Letters which are words that are most properly and Essentially spoken of a Booke and maketh no use of the word Sicut As at all which is an Infallible Argument that these words in the passage before cited Complicabuntur SICUT Liber Caeli are not expressions of Similitude Now that the Scripture speaking of the Heavens nameth expresly the word LETTER will appeare out of the very First Verse of the Bible where the Hebrew Text runnes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bereshith bara Elohim ET haschamaim that is to say In the Beginning God created the LETTER or CHARACTER of the Heavens For this is the meaning of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ET or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aot which signifieth a LETTER And as for the word LINE wee finde it much more plainely set downe in the 19. Psalme Vers 4. In Omnem terram exivit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kavam LINEA corum I shall not here enter into any tedious Dispute Whether it be to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kolam Sonus eorum rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kavam Linea eorum and so consequently whether the Passage cited by St. Paul out of the Interpretation of the Seventy be corrupted or else the Hebrew Text. In my Advis sur les langues Orientales I shew with Titelmanns Bredembachius Malvenda Mercerus Genebrard that the Places are not at all Corrupted neither in the one nor in the other but that the Septuagint and St. Paul had regard to the Sense of the Words rather then to the Letter saying Sonus eorum to make it suite more aptly with the following Words Et in fines Orbis terrae verba eorum because that the Sound the Voyce and the Words doe very handsomely accord and suite together We may adde also that they made use of a Sublime and Allegoricall sense of these words applying them to the Preaching of the Apostles And thus St. Paul and the Septuagint being fully reconciled to the Hebrew Text we may the more boldly sticke to the Letter and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kavam Linea eorum understanding it spoken of the Starres which are ranged in the Heavens after the manner of Letters in a Booke or upon a Sheet of Parchment For which reason also God is said in the Holy Scriptures to have stretched out the Heavens as a Skinne calling this Extension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rachia from whence perhaps the Greekes might take their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Skinne or Hide it being most proper to a Skin to be Extended or Stretched forth Now upon this Extension as upon a Skinne hath God disposed and ranged the Starres in the manner of Characters whereby as by a Sacred Book the wonderfull Workes of God are set forth to all those that know how to read them Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei saith the Psalmist And here peradventure some may say that the Wonderfull Workes of God are set forth by the Heavens in their Prodigious Extent Harmony Brightnesse Order and admirable Motion and not by way of any Writing But R. Moses a very learned Jew assureth us that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saphar to Declare or Set forth is never attributed to Things Inanimate so that from hence He concludes that the Heavens are not without some Soule which is no other then that of those Blessed Intelligences who have the Conduct of the Starres and dispose them into such Letters as God hath ordained declaring unto us Men by meanes of This Writing what Events we are to expect And for this cause this same Writing is called by all the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chetab hamelachim that is to say The Writing of the Angels And that this passage Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei is clearly meant of this Celestiall Writing appeares by the words immediately following In omnem terram exivit Linea eorum I know very well that according to St. Paul and the Septuagint a man may understand by the Heavens the Apostles or as some others will have it the Prophets But if pursuing the Allegory a man should take occasion to deny the Literall Sense this would be no small Crime in in the Judgement of the Fathers Scripturae Verba saies the Whole Schoole propriè accipienda sunt quando nihil inde Absurdi fequitur So that if we sticke to the Letter of the Text not onely this Passage alleaged but many others also which I omit that I may come to the Maine Matter in hand doe very much confirme this Writing 3. Now as the Prophets have done before so have all the Learned among the Ancients also after their Example called the Heavens SACRED BOOKES as among the Jewes R. Simeon Ben-Jochay in the Zohar on the Section Temourah which is the 25. Chapter of Exodus Cifr 305. where he speakes very largely of this Celestiall Writing Lib. Moreh Seps Kab Beres Theâ—il Maguid Misnah In Misn Milchamot Adonai Galg Hass in Beres though very Obscurely R. Abraham also in his Jetsira or Booke of the Creation delivers many Mysteries of it and after them R. Moses Aegyptius Moses Ben-Nachman Abraham the Sonne of Dior his Contemporary Aben-Esra David Chimchi Jom Tof Ben-Abraham Joseph the Sonne of Meir Levi Ben-Gerson Chomer Abarbanel and many others which I shall here omit that I may come to the Greekes and Latines who will peradventure be better received The Learned Origen interpreting after his manner that is to say Subtilly and Quaintly this Passage in Genesis Et erunt in Signa Praep. Evang. lib. 6.9 affirmes as he is reported by Eusebius that the Starres were placed in this Order in the Heavens for no other end but to shew by their diverse Aspects Conjunctions and Figures what ever is to happen while the World indures as well in Generall as in Particular yet not so as if they were the Cause of all these things never any such thing came into the Thought much lesse into the Writings of this Learned man For
from the use of which they did alsoreape much benefit But that it was either by way of Enchantments or Witch-craft there is no man will ever be able to prove These are his very words translated So that it now remaines that wee set downe how or in what manner the Vertue of these Images could be Naturall which I shall endeavour to doe after I have first shewed how our Moderne Philosophers have erred in this Particular CHAP. IV. That for want of understanding Aristotle aright men have condemned the Power of Figures and concluded very many things both against this Philosopher and against all sound Philosophy THE CONTENTS 1. ERrors in Learning caused by the Ignorance of the Languages 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Specimen and not Species 3. The reading of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 provel to be false 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill translated and hence the Question of Universals not understood 5. The improper translating of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. The Errors committed in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The correcting of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejected against Cicero 7. It is falsly concluded out of Aristotle that Fire is moist agaiust du Villon 8. That Aristotle is abused by Interpreters by reason of their not understanding the force of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. The false Interpretation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by Stapulensis 10. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly understood condemneth those that deny the power of Figures The proofe of This at large 1. THe Ignorance of the Languages hath been the Occasion of so many Errors not only in Learning but even in Religion too that it is not without cause that Learned men complaine hereof For what can be imagined more ridiculous then for a man not knowing the force of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rachaiah which signifies no more but the Aire or the Extent of any thing to fancy a Christalline Heaven From this passage Divisit aquas quae subter Firmamention ab ijs quae super Firmamen â—um sunt aquae omnes quae super Caelos suut it hath been concluded either that there were waters above the Heavens or else that there were certaine Christalline Heavens What Grosser Conceit can there be then for want of understanding the Equivocall meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keren which signifies both a Horne and Light or Brightnesse to paint Moses with Hornes which hath beene the cause of great astonishment among many Christians and of Laughter to the Jewes and Arabians But my purpose here is not to shew what Abuses are crept into our Religion meerly for want of the knowledge of the Hebrew or the Holy Tongue as we usually call it I have discoursed at large elsewhere upon this Particular and those that desire more full satisfaction herein may have recourse to my Book intitled Advis aux Doctes touchant la necessitè des langues Orientales I shall only at present shew some of those severall Errors with which our Books are full only for want of understanding the Text of Aristotle aright 2. And of these I have heretofore observed above a Thousand but because I would avoid Tediousnesse I shall bring in only some few and that only to make it appeare that Figures are condemned without cause and that many Conclusions are deduced which Sound Argumentation could not beare In Isag Porph. Thus to begin our Enumeration all Interpreters have rendred the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Species whereas it ought to be rendered Specimen For it cannot be denied but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Species or Sampler and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Copy or Extract unlesse we should give Plato the lye who alwayes takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this sense as if we should interpret it in our Language The Copy of the Great Patterne or Sampler 3. Next it is a manner of speaking very frequent with Plato that when he speaks of the Idea of a Man or of a Horse he saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which almost all Interpreters have corrected though very falsly and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For the Idea of a Man is properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the contrary every particular man may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Latine every Particular man may be called Ipse homo but when we would expresse the Idea we cannot doe it but in these Termes Ipsi Homo ipsi Equus ipsi Coelum c. If I wrote to all sorts of men indifferently I should explaine my selfe more fully in this particular but seeing I write not but to the Learned only I may presume of their understanding me sufficiently in two words 4. Another Error that is committed in t the Interpreting of Aristotle is in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sense whereof is usually expressed thus Utrùm Universalia cadant in rerum naturam Namely Whether there be any Universals in the World or not whereas they should rather say Utrùm realiter subsistant or else Utrùm sint realia that is to say whether they have an existence reall and of themselves or not There being no small difference betwixt these two Propositions Utrum universalia existant and Vtrum subsistant per se which was the Opinion of Plato And upon the same subject there is likewise another Error committed in these words Vtrum Vniversalia in nudis tantum conceptionibus posita sint â— Vtrumsint secundum intentionaliter sive per solam cogitationèmentis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendered whether Universals have their being onely in Little thoughts Whereas in sound Philosophy and according to the Text it should have been proposed in these words whether Universals exist only by the Reflection of the understanding Which is said to be a Fine Small Thought and so the question is An sint realiter aut per Intellectum And we are to note that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very properly rendred Small Thoughts or Conceptions because the second Thoughts are Lesser and Finer then the First 5. Interpreters have likewise rendered the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avulsa et distracta as if we were not to seek after the Propriety of language in all things and discoursing of a Philosophicall point were not to handle it in Philosophicall Termes Who can then imagine otherwise but that this Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be rendered in Latine Abstracta and that so much the more happily too in that it is a Terme so frequent both among Philosophers and Divines Adde to the Former this other Error also that the Common sort of Philosophers say that Accidens dicitur in Quale whereas Porphyrius affirmes that it is not onely spoken in
were in use among the Egyptians But with all Respect to so great a Scholler be it spoken I must take leave to say that he was never so farre wide of the Truth as Here and if any be so Curious as to desire to be satisfied in this Particular he may be pleased to take notice that Scaliger hath transcribed them word for word out of a Second Book of a Worke entituled Astrolabium Planum where they are all represented by Figures cut in Wood and are the Invention of Petrus Aponensis otherwise called the Conciliator being the very same which he caused to be painted in the Great Hall of the Palace of Padua where they are yet to be seen The Truth of this may be proved by the fore-named Booke of Aponensis whose very words he hath also made use of but contenting himselfe with the bare Names of these Figures he would not trouble himselfe with the Graving of them I shall only adde for the greater Confirmation of what I have said that this Astrolabium Planum where these Figures of Aponensis his Devising are to be seen was printed at Venice by Emery de Spir An. 1494. I should not have here made this Observation but only that I might be the better able hereafter to make knowne the Vertue of the Astrology of the Ancient Hebrewes which was in a manner the same with that of the Aegyptians and the more Learned among the Arabians out of whose Bookes Scaliger vainely saies that he hath bestowed much paines in collecting the said Figures For there hath long since been such a World of Strange things which never had Being foisted upon this Science that people generally now adaies sticke not to say to the great Disadvantage of Antiquity that there is no Truth or Certainty in these kind of Studies I thinke it necessary therefore for the better Informing of those who are thus abused to declare what it was that moved Aponensis to represent these different Postures of Men Women and diverse kinds of Living Creatures This Learned Astrologer having observed that those that are borne under certaine Conjunctions of the Planets with the Signes of the Zodiack were alwayes inclined to one and the same thing as for example the Planet of Mars being the Ascendent in the First Degree of Aries those that are then borne are commonly Laborious and lovers of War he figured a Man as we have said holding in one hand a Sickle which signifies Labour and in the other a Bow the Hieroglyphicke of War In like manner those that are borne when the same Planet is in the Second Degree of the same Signe are Quarresome and Envious as Dogs and this made him represent a Man with a Dog's head holding a Cudgell in his hand The Figure of the third Degree shews that the Child will be a lover of Peace The Fourth that hee will hardly be Rich scattering about what hee shall have gotten which is signified by the Flail and the Hawk When Mercury is found in the First Degree of Taurus the Child will be addicted to Blood and Butchery and therefore he sigured a Man with a Cudgel driving an Oxe to the Slaughter-house If in the Second Degree he will be given to Idlenesse as the Woman that holds a Hors-taile in her hand If in the Third a Woman will desire to marry in her Old Age and endeavour to be thought young according to the Figure of the Old Woman that is covered with a Vaile or else wearing a Paire of Breeches If in the Fourth the Child will be Quarrelsome which is signified by a Woman figured with a Whip in her hand And so of all the rest as you may see in the Author himselfe We may conclude then that these Astrologicall Devises are no more of the Hebrewes and Egyptians inventing then the Brazen Horse is of mine CHAP. XI VVhat in Truth was the Course the Patriarkes and Ancient Hebrewes tooke in their Observations at the Erecting of a Nativity THE CONTENTS 1. THe Celestial Constellations were anciently marked with Hebrew Characters 2. How the Celestiall Signes are figured in the Spheares and Globes of the Arabians That of Virgo hath a Mystery in it 3. A new Observation on the Hebrew Names of the Planets 4. A Table by which the Jewes erected their Nativities The use of it 5. Demonstrative Reasons why the Daies follow not the Order of the Planets A Genethliacall Table of the Ancient Hebrews 6. The Difference betwixt the Ancient's manner of giving Judgement upon a Nativity and that of the Astrologers of our times The Fable of Lucina laid open 7. The Moon why called Lunus and Luna and the Heavens Coelus and Coelum 8. A new and Certaine Reason why the Poets report that Saturne eat up his Children 9. What Qualities the Ancients acknowledged to be in the Celestiall Signes 10. The Authors Judgement upon the Astrologicall Writings of R. Abraham Aben-Are translated into Latine by the Conciliator 11. What Planets were accounted Benigne by the Ancient Hebrews What Ceremony the New-married Man used toward his Bride 12. This Astrology of the Ancients is proved out of the Holy Scriptures Reasons which prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God which was the name of one of the sonnes of Jacob is the Planet Jupiter 13. The Aegyptians the First that corrupted this Astrology It is False notwithstanding that they were the Inventers of the Characters of the Planets Fables introduced into Astrology by the Greeks 14. Athlon a word in Nativities used by Manilius rightly interpreted contrary to Scaliger NOw that we have seen what is Falsly attributed to the Astrology of the Ancients it remains that we in the next place shew what we have discovered of the Purity and Truth of it in the Writings of those who have handled this Subject and which are such as have been esteemed the most Free from Trifling by the Learnedst Men of Our Own Nation I shall then make my Collection of these Secrets which the world hath hitherto had little knowledge of partly out of Rabbi Moses to whom Scaliger hath given this Testimony †In lib. Horaiot passim in li. Mis Thorab Mor. Neb. lib. Taamin Astag Haâ—izr Lib. Milbanâ—t haschem tract 4 5 6. contr Aver In Chocmet bacoc In Thor. Jessod laghol In aghmouq In Thecum Primus inter Hebraeos nugari desivit and partly out of R. Aben-Esra whom the same Scaliger calls Magistrum Judaeum Et hominem supra captum Judaeorum Out of R. Eli whom Augustinus Riccius cals Virum utique Scientiarum omnium plenum Out of R. Isaac Hazan whom the Jewes conceive to have been the Author of the Astronomicall Tables of Alphonsus Out of R. Abarbanel R. Isaac IsraeÌ„lita R. Jacob Kapol ben Samuel Aben-Aré R. Chomer and some others of the most Learned and Knowing men of This Nation as their VVritings testifie of them First then the Ancient Hebrewes represented the Stars of Heaven either All Together or severally by the Letters
Universe THE CONTENTS 1. THe Celestiall Configurations devised by the Greeks permitted by the Church though Dangerous This New Doctrine of the Reading of the Stars no whit repugnant to the Christian Faith 2. This Reading proved out of the Scripture Diverse passages of Scripture tending to this purpose interpreted 3. The Opinions of the Ancient Hebrews Greekes and Latines in this Particular 4. The reason why so few Authors of these Later times have medled herein What our Modern Writers as Reuchlin Picus Mirandula Agrippa Kunrath Banelli and Flud have delivered of this Subject 5. Postell's Intention of bringing it into Europe 6. The Stars ranged not in the forme of Arabicke nor Samaritane but of Hebrew Characters The Superstition of the Arabians in reading some kind of words Their Letters borrowed from the Hebrews 7. The Hieroglyphicall Living Creatures of the Aegyptians placed in the Heavens are not to serve for Letters The Constellations Imperfect 8. What things are to observed that one may be able to reade the Heavens What the reason is that New Stars often appeare according to the Rabbins 9. A Continued Enumeration of the severall Meanes that must be used for the rendering a Man Capable of this Reading The Star in the Taile of Ursa Major the fore-shewer of the Change of Empires and how 10. On which side we are to begin this Reading of the Heavens and how we must Interpret the words we find there 11. Of those Celestiall Letters that have foreshown all the Great Mutations in States The Fall of two Potent Kingdomes in the East read in the Heavens by R. Chomer 12. The Authors Judgement concerning this Reading of the Heavens THose who have diligently examined the Choycest parts of the Learning of the Ancients have observed that there is nothing that is more Absurd in Appearance then the Figures of the Celestiall Constellations For what a Confused thing is it say They that in those places which are destined to be the place of abode for the Blessed Spirits only there should be lodged such numbers of Beasts and some of them so dreadfull as that we cannot thinke of them but with Horrour If they had placed only Men there and had allotted a Castor and a Pollux Dominion there this might have been interpreted an Error of Love which suffers us not to be content in wishing small Honours to those we Love This Consideration might also have satisfied those who complained that the Celestiall Figures were nothing else but the Representations of the severall Scapes of Jupiter that the whole Face of the Heavens was filled with the Notes of his Incestuous Prankes so that if any one should undertake to excuse these Amorous Signes he would be the lesse blame-worthy in that hee did it only in Defence of the most sweet and Powerfull of all our Passions The Excuse of those who imposed upon these Incorruptible Bodies the Figures of Brute Beasts that are most subject to Corruption and even of Things Inanimate also was most just seeing that in so doing they had no other Designe but what was Religious Thus we see Fishes there Censers and Eares of Corn in a Virgins hand And those who are skilled in the Secrets of the Ancient Theology know well enough that it was not without some Mysticall reason that they placed one Crowne in the South part of Heaven consisting of Thirteen Bright Stars and another in the Northern part containing eight stars in it But to place Dragons there and Serpents and Hydra's Reason can never endure And yet see the Strangenesse of the thing For Though the Ancienes had thus filled the Heavens with Brute Beasts and that according to this their Doctrine one would have imagined this Celestiall Paradise to have been an Habitation of Monsters and a Dreadfull Wilderness rather then the Seat of the Blessed a Place abounding with all manner of Pleasures yet notwithstanding neither hath the Church ever reproved it nor any of the Ancient Fathers disavowed it Now the Subject we treat of is much lesse Scandalous and by Consequence more Tolerable For what danger can there be in affirming that the diverse Figures of the Starres represent and make up the different Characters of the Hebrew Alphabet And that as These Letters have some Signification when they are Single as well as when they are joyned with others in like manner the Stars either alone or joyned with other Stars doe note unto us some Mysteries Yea rather this Doctrine of ours is so farre from being such as men should beware of and hold it Suspected as that on the Contrary it teacheth the Manifold Wonders of God and proveth that all these Stars have not their Order bestowed on them in vaine and that their Motions and different Aspects are not utterly uselesse and without any Designe Insomuch that in my Opinion it would be no lesse then Blasphemy in any man to affirme the Contrary or to say that they are placed there only for Ornament and to beautifie the Heavens and to give Light and for no other cause at all But what Madnesse is it to confine these Wonderful Lights to One only Operation seeing that besides that Experience teacheth us that the Moone is the Governesse of all Humours the Sun the Principle of Life Saturn a Malignant Star Jupiter a Benign the Signe of Taurus cold and dry that of Gemini Hot and moist Aries Hot and dry and so of the rest we do also see daily that one and the same Simple here below serveth to diverse and sundry Operations and therefore if the Properties of Hearbs are not restrained to the narrow limits of One Sole Effect why should we thinke so unworthily of the Stars as not to believe the same of them Wee conclude therefore that beside those Wonderfull Qualities which wee acknowledge to be in them they may also represent by their Diversity of Aspects certaine Figures or Characters by which we may have some Apprehension of the Greatest Changes that happen here below And this Truth we will now endeavour to prove out of the Holy Scriptures 2. If then we can any where find in these Holy Scriptures that the Heavens have been called by the Holy Ghost A BOOK then doubtlesse we may conclude that there are in this Booke Letters and Characters which may be Understood by some or other Now that it is called a BOOKE appeares out of the Prophet Isaiah who speaking of the Last Day wherein all things shall Cease Isa 34.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith Complicabuntur sicut Liber Coeli where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caph in Hebrew which the Latine translateth Sicut signifieth in the Originall Quia So that as Isaiah hath said that the Heavens shall be rolled together so hath he at the same time given the Reason of it also Because they are a Booke If it be Objected that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie Sicut as well I answer that those that are but meanely versed in the Holy Scriptures
as the Prophecies that are written in Bookes are not the Cause of those Events which they foretell shall happen but onely the Signe in like manner saith he may the Heavens very justly be called a Booke wherein God hath written all that is hath been and hereafter shall be And for confirmation of this he citeth a passage out of a Booke the Title whereof is Narratio Joseph a Book in his time highly esteemed by all men wherein the Patriarch Jacob giving his Blessing to all his Children tels them that he had read in the Tables of Heaven all that ever was to befall Them and their Posterity Legi saith He in tabulis Caeli quaecunque contingent Vobis et filijs vestris Whence the same Origen concludes as well in his Tract on this Question Vtrùm stellae aliquid agant as in his Booke De Fato Cap. 6. that some Mysteries may assuredly be read in the Heavens by reason that the Starres are disposed and ordered there in the forme of Characters The Conclusion of this Learned Father is so much the stronger in that where the Vulgar Translation reades Sintin Signa the Originall Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vehaio◠leototh that is to say word for word Et sint in Literas Lib. 9. de Fato cap. 35. This Doctrine is of so great Importance as that Julius Sirenus hath undertaken the Defence of it and maintaines that it is a most True and Safe Opinion and such as hath been Entertained by most Religious Men. Neque in illis corporibus Coelestibus saith St. Augustine hic latere posse cogitationes credendum est Lib. 2. contra Manich. c. 2. quemadmodum in his corporibus latent sed sicut nonnulli motus animorum apparent in vultu et maximè in oculis sic in illa perspicuitate ac simplicitate coelestium corporum omnes omninò motus animi latere non arbitror In Gen. l. 2. de Astron c. 4. I am not Ignorant that Pererius endeavours to finde out another Sense in these words of St. Augustine but it is an easie matter to say what one pleaseth in interpreting the words of a man that is Dead Now this Coelestiall Reading may the more easily be beleived to have been the Reall Meaning of This Learned Father seeing that many others of the Fathers have strongly confirmed it as St. Ambrose and Prosper who call the Heavens Ep. 8. ad Demetr De vera Rel. 3. in Ps 41. De Mirab De Fid. Orthod lib. 3. c. 1. by the Epithets of PAGES and WONDER FULL INSTRUCTIONS Albertus Magnus stiles them an UNIVERSAL BOOK And John Damascene goes yet farther and saies that they are CLEARE MIRROURS intimating that we may see distinctly There even as farre as to the most Secret and Weightiest Motions of our Soul which gave occasion to St. Augustine to utter those words which we have before cited All the Platonists in a manner were likewise of the same Perswasion and this is the reason that Porphyrie assures us that when he had resolved to have killed himselfe Plotinus having read his Intention in the Starres hindered him from doing it Orpheus also had knowledge of these Secrets as appeares by these Verses of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certus tuus Ordo Immutabilibus mandatis currit in Astris 4. As for our Modern Writers it would even amaze a man to consider that among such infinite numbers of Books wherewith our Libraries are stuffed there is hardly Five or Six to be found that have taken any Notice at all of this Curious Piece of Antiquity concerning this Celestiall Writing I know very well that Ignorance will be presently ready with this Answer that the Vanitie of the Subject is the reason of this Their Silence But why then have such an infinite number of other Fooleries been taken into Consideration and thought a fit Subject for their Learned Pens which are a thousand times more Ridiculous in Appearance then This is whereas on the Contrary there is no Astrologer to whom this Science is not Necessary nor any Searcher into the Choiser Pieces of Theologicall Antiquity to whom in like manner it may not be usefull if at least it be True I am therefore apt to believe that the true reason is the Neglect rather of the Orientall Languages whereon these Curiosities do so necessarily depend as that without the knowledge of them they cannot possibly be explained or understood insomuch that we had no notice at all of these Mysteries till such time as they were brought into Europe by those men that addicted themselves to the study of the Eastern Languages Capnio was the First that De Art Cab. in an Age when Barbarisme reigned adventured to make some of these Choise Discoveries Picus Mirandula likewise who was the Phoenix of the Age he lived in took some pains in searching into these Secrets and also proposed the Question in hand in these terms Utrùm in Coelo sint descripta significata omnia cuilibet scienti legere Quest 74 Cornelius Agrippa also hath delivered His opinion herein Pierius Valerianus in his Hieroglyphicks Occult. Philos Lib. 44. fol. 366. c. hath these words Illa Extensio in modum pellis tanquam literis inscriptae luminaribus stellis dicitur Rakia c. Blaise de Vigenere in his Book Des Chifres makes a long Discourse on this Particular Banelli an Italian hath said more to this purpose then all the others upon those Words of S. Luke Gandete quòd nomina vestra scripta sint in Coelis Kunrath according to his usuall manner of Fooling makes a Riddle of it In Amphith In quo sunt pueri quotquot in Orbe Viri It seems that these kind of Authors write to no other end but that they may not be understood by this means seeming to make war against Nature which hath given us a Tongue and the use of Speech that we might be able to expresse our Conceptions whereas these men on the contrary Endeavour to be Obscure and Dark Robert Elud in his Apology for the Brethren of the Rosy Crosse hath gone on very far with this Celestiall Writing the Characters whereof he affirmes to be made in the same manner that Others are In Coelo saith He inserti impressi hujusmodi Characteres Apeloget Ed. Lug. Bar. An. 1617. qui non aliter ex stellarum ordinibus conflantur quam lineae Geometricae Literae Vulgares ex punctis Superficies ex lineis corpus ex superficiebus at length concluding that who so is able to read these Characters shall know not only what ever is to come but also all the Secrets of Philosophy Fol. 62. Quibus hujusmodi linguae Scripturae Arcanae Characterumque abditorum cognitio à Deo concessa est his etiam datum erit veras rerum naturas mutationes alerationes proprietates siderum omnesque alias operationes executiones oculis quaasi
was good yet neverthelesse there were among the People that worshipped them and this is the reason they are reproved by God Now that hee had no intention at all to set up Idolatry by this Act appeares clearly in this that the Kings his Successors who all were of the same Beliefe are not any where reproved for this crime untill the Reigne of wicked Achab who was seduced by his wife Jezabell the most Imperious woman that ever was Thus we read in the History of Kings that Jehu did that which was right in the sight of the Lord Yet neverthelesse Non reliquit vitulos aureos qui erant in Bethel 4. Reg. 10.30 in Dan. And I would faine know if this King should have worshipped these Calves how he could have done that which was right in the sight of God who never punished his people so severely as when they had given themselves up to worship Idols And how Asa in like manner King of Samaria could have walked in the wayes of David if he had beene tainted with this horrible Crime Et fecit Asa rectum ante conspectum Domini sicut David pater ejus and yet notwithstanding Excelsa non abstulit He took not away the High places that is to say Vitulos the Calves As if the Author of the holy Scriptureshad purposed to prevent the Objection which is usually made concerning the erecting of these Calves to an evill End for these words seeme to have been set downe so expresly meerly for the confutation of those men that are wedded to their owne wills and for the clearing of the truth of that which I have here delivered Cor Asa perfectum fuit cum Domino etsi Excelsa non abstulerit Which is an Infallible Argument that they acknowledged in these Calves or Cherubins the same which they of Jerusalem did in those of the Arke namely the presence of the Invisible God sitting there as on his Throne notwithstanding that many out of simplicity worshipped the bare figure of this Work of Mens hands And this is that which God so often complaines of As if this were the Literall meaning of this Passage to wit that the Kings of Israel had indeed done that which was right in the sight of God and had lived according to his Lawes yet that they might have done better if they had taken away these Cherubins which were the cause of the destruction of many who made other use of them then that for which they were intended I remember to have read somewhere to this purpose of a Bishop of Marseille who seeing that many of his people behaved themselves toward the Images that are usually placed in Churches with so great respect as that one day he observed some of their actions that came within the compasse of Idolatry he caused them all to be broken to pieces leaving only a very few in some certain places of his Diocess So true it is that we often abuse those things which were instituted only to good ends I shall only adde one word more for the defending of the Innocence of the Samaritans which is that when Salmonazar had ransacked their Country he sent into it Colonies out of Persia who falling to commit Idolatry as they had used to doe in their own Country God sent Lions among them to destroy them For remedy of which calamity 4 Reg. 17 they could finde out no better expedient then to send for one of the Jewish Priests whom they had lead away captives for to instruct these Idolaters in the Worship of the true God which being done they were freed from that calamity which is a certaine Argument saith Abiudan that all the Samaritans were not Idolaters This observation of Abiudan Moncaeus takes no notice of yet He hath also an Observation which Abiudan passes by out of the hate I conceave that he bare to the True Messias and because that the Testimony made against himselfe namely that when our Saviour Christ uttered the Story or Parable of the Travailer that fell among Theeves the Samaritan is there said to have had more pity on him then the Priest of Jerusalem I shall adde here that the same God being become Man did not at all deny himselfe to be a Samaritan when he was called so by way of reproach which doubtlesse he would have done if he had knowne this people to be wholy Idolatrous 9. But now in the progresse of this Discourse the Curious Critick who uses to leave nothing unsifted may happily propose this Question to me If the Cherubins of the Arke were made in the forme of Calves what should move almost all Writers to maintaine that they were in shape like young Boyes I confesse I could willingly have put off the answering this Question which neither Abiudan nor Moncaeus have taken any notice of or else have purposely passed it by to some other time But seeing that I write to the Learned it concernes me willingly to omit nothing that makes for my subject that so I be not ranked in the number of those men that when they write of any argument doe voluntarily slip over the choycest things in it I say then in two words and without making any long discourse on it since that I handle this very Question in another place that all the Authors both Greek and Latine and the greatest part of the Jewish too as Aben-Ezra Scelomoh and the Talmudists who have attributed the forme of young Boyes to these Cherubins have done it upon such weake grounds that we need but onely to rehearse them to shew their insufficiency There is nothing say many of these last named Authors cited by Kimchi which more confirmes the opinion of the Cherubins being made in the figure of Young Men or Lads then the Etymology of their name For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherub is compounded of the servile Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caph which signifies sicut and of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabeia which signifies in Chaldee a Young Boy or Youth and in the plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherabaia that is to say sicut Adolescentes or Pueri Very good but Moses spoke not Chaldee but Hebrew and therefore if this controversie must be decided by the Etymology of the name why cannot I say with much more reason out of the Hebrew Etymology of the word that these two Cherubins were made in the form of Saddles seeing that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherub is said to be derived by transposing the letters into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherab which signifies equitare Cap. 15. v. 9. Cap. 22. v. 35. is in Hebrew a Saddle as you may see in Leviticus and in the first book of the Kings Or else we may say that these Cherubins were made in the form of Raine seeing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherabib a word that cometh very near Cherubin signifies sicut pluvia Let us now examine the Reasons
stately Building 1 Reg. 6. and also in the Commentary that Ben Maimon hath made expressely of this Insect The Eighth the writing of the Tables of the Law the Ninth Moses his Tomb and the Tenth the Ram that was sacrificed instead of Isaack Some adde to these the Devills and Evill spirits Now all these things seeme very ridiculous at the first sight which yet are in effect very Curious necessary and usefull as I shall in another place make it more plainly appear In nostro Cribro Cabbalistico it being too long a discourse to insert here In the meane time let us rely upon the judgment of Paulus Fagius in this particular who sayes In Pirke Auoth Haec quidem aliquo modo in speciem ridicula stulta esse videntur sed quae certè non carent suis mysterijs 6. I will next shew you a point of Doctrine of the Rabbins that is accounted a very ridiculous if not a very rash one These knowing men having considered the Order that God observed in the Creation of the world and how that having in sixe daies perfected all his workes he rested on the seventh they have peremptorily concluded from hence that according to this Mysterious Order Talmud tract Sanhedr in C. Helec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cseeset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alaphim csanah bagholam sceue alaphim tohou csene alâ—phim Thorah csene alaphim jemot Hamâ—sciach the world should last but six Thousand yeares and in the beginning of the seventh and things should rest Six Thousand yeares say they is the Age of the world Two Thousand Voyd Two Thousand under the Law and Two Thousand under the dayes of the Messias So that according to this account there being One Thousand six hundred forty nine yeares passed since the Nativity of Christ till this present there should remain to the end of the World but three hundred fifty one yeares more Quod furor est cogitare saith Malvenda and Genebrard also finds this opinion to be so strange a one as that he cannot acquit it of Folly But see now how carefull it concerns a man to be in throughly examining all things when hee intends to accuse any one I say then that if the Iewes are to be accused as guilty of Folly for having prefixed a time for the end of the World we must also then in like manner accuse the most Learned of our Christians Vid. Hieronnym Wielmium in cap. 1. Genes lect 6. and even some too that shine like Suns in the Church I shall not here say any thing of Joachimus Abbas S. Brigitta Ubertinus de Casali Telesphorus Heremita Petrus de Aliaco Nicolas Cusanus Jo. Picus Mirandula Franeu Melet Ep. ad Bened. c. nor of those of whom Vincent Ferrier speaks who held that he number of yeares from the death of our Saviour Christ to the end of the World was to be just so many as there be Verses in Davids Psalter Neither shall I here speak of the ancient Philosophers as of Aristarchus Apud Consorin de die Notati cap. 15. who affirmed that the world should last but Two Thousand foure hundred eighty foure yeares of Aretes Dyrrachinus who assigned for it's Duration five thousand five hundred fifty two of Herodotus and Linus who allowed it ten thousand eight hundred of Dion who said it should continue Thirteen Thousand nine hundred eighty four yeares of Orpheus who believed it should last a hundred and twenty Thousand yeares as Cassander did eighteen hundred Thousand I shall only shew what the opinion was of the Learned Fathers of the Church whose lives are irreprovable as namely of Irenaeus who according to the opinion of the Jewes Lib. 5. advers Haeres c. 28. saies that Quotquot diebus hic factus est mundus tot et Millenis annu consummatur et propter hoc ait scriptura Geneseos et consummata sunt Coelum et Terra et Omnis ornatus eorum c. and afterwards hee concludes In sex autem diebus consummatâ— sunt quae facta sunt manifestum est quoniam consummatio istorum sextus millesimus annus est So St. Hilary who expounding those words of the Evangelist Et post sex dies transfiguratus est saith cùm post sex dies gloriae Dominicae habitus oftenditur namely in his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor sex millium scilicet annorum evolutis regnicaelestis honor praefiguratur So St. Ambrose likewise who having the same conceit with St. Hilary In 17. Math. expresseth himselfe almost in the very same words This was the Opinion also of Saint Augustine in his booke de Civitate Dei lib. In Epist expos Ps 89. ad Cypr. 20. cap. 7. of St. Hierome on those words of David Quoniam mille anni ante oculos tuos sicut dies hesterna quae praeterist who saies Ego arbitror ex hoc loco et ex Epistola quae nomine Petri inscribitur mille annos pro una die solitos appellari ut scilicet quia Mundus in sex diebus fabricatus est sex millibus tantum annorum credatur subsistere et postea venire septenarium numerum Octonarium in quâ— verus exercetur Sabbatismus et Circumcisionis puritas redditur In a word it would aske it selfe a particular Volume but to set downe all that the rest of the Fathers have written concerning the end of the World conformable to what the Rabbins had said before them The Curious Reader that would be more fully satisfied in this particular may have recourse to Georgius Venetus Galatinus Harm Mund. Crnt. 3. ton 7. cap. 7. Lib. 4. cap. 20. Flag contra Iud. 9. c. 11. Lib. 5. Annot. 190. Lib. de oct Sph. In l. 20. de Civ dei Lib. de Exust mund de praed c. 11 De fine mundi Adr. Finus Sixtus Senensis Paulus Riccius Lud. Vives Hieronymus Magius Aegidius Columnus and Fridericus Emstius 7. The Objection that might be made in this Point would fall heavy as well upon the Rabbins as upon the Fathers who have followed them but that wee shall be able to make it appear to be of no weight at all For say they if the World be to last but sixe Thousand yeares then by consequence the Day of Judgment may be foreknowne which contradicts the Holy Scriptures I answer that those Learned men have not at all defined the dayes but only the yeares Now the number of the yeares that are passed since the Creation to this present is uncertain therefore are the Dayes also uncertaine Now that the number of yeares is uncertaine will appeare evidently by comparing the diverse Opinions of these following Authors who have with all possible Diligence computed the yeares from the Creation untill Christ and yet there is in their Computations above a hundred years difference Judg you then what the Consequence must be Those of the Jewes that have turned Christians as Hieronymus à Sancta Fide Paulus à Sancta Maris
Lyranus Brugensis and others which are followed by Georgius Venetus Galatinus Franciscus Georgius and Steuchus account from the Creation of the World to the Nativity of our Saviour Christ  3760 Paulus Forosemproniensis 5201 Arnaldus Pontacus 4088 Pererius Bellarmine and Baronius 4022 Genebrard 4090 Suarez 4000 Ribera 4095 Onuphrius Panvinius 6310 Carolus Bovillus 3989 Malvenda 4133 Joseph Scaliger 3948 Sixtus Senensis Massaeus and many others 3962 Jo. Picus Mirandula 3958 Peter Gallisard 3964 Joannes Lucidus and many others 3960 Garardus Mercator 3928 Jansenius 3970 Paulus Palatius 4000 Hence we may safely conclude that neither the number of daies nor yet of yeare passed since the Creation can be exactly knowne without some speciall Revelation notwithstanding the endeavours of the Learned Pererius to prove the contrary who In Gon. lib. 1. taking occasion from these words of the Wise man dies seculi quis dinumerat affirmeth that he speaketh not here of the Yeares but of the Daies and that though the number of These cannot be knowne yet the Other may Ergo sayes he after a long Discourse Numerus annorum Munditeneri potest dierum autem non potest But he ought first to have reconciled these Authors among themselves and to shew how they have erred in their Computations And when all is done the nearest that a man shall be able to come to the Truth will perhaps be about Twenty five or Thirty yeares over or under and no otherwise 8. The 3. Object The third Objection brought by those that will not admit the Jewes bookes to be read seemes to have more Reason in it then all the rest For if they be indeed full of scoffings against the Life of Him who hath given Us Ours if they accuse his Actions detest his Doctrine and condemne his Memory as ignominious in a word if they are full of nothing but Blasphemies against Jesus Christ who is he that could endure to read them And here Sixtus Senensis triumphs over his Enemies and reckons up all the Impieties the Israelites were ever guilty of and there is scarcely any one kind of wickednesse or villany that he layes not to their charge In a word he numbers up as well all the erroneous points of their Beliefe as their Reproachfull speeches which they vomit up against the Sonne of God so that one that had not read their bookes and knowne the Truth of the businesse would judge them to have been written rather by Divels then by Men. But this Author The Answer who had not written against this Nation but as almost all others have done meerely out of the hatred is generally borne toward these Deicides thought peradventure that after the burning so many Jewish Libraries in Italy and after that himselfe had beene an Eye-witnesse of Twelve Thousand Volumes burnt to Ashes at Cremona he thought I say that after so rigorous an Inquisition there could have been no more books left by which wee might have been able to satisfie our selves in the Truth of those things that are objected against the Jewes But he had forgot to burne the writings of Galatinus too or rather of Sebondus for I shall make it appeare in another place that Galatine was never the Author of that Learned Booke intituled de Arcanis Catholicae sidei He had I say forgot to burne these Learned writings too which doe make it clearely appeare that the greatest part of those things that are written in this Particular is false and prove that the Blasphemies which the Ancient Rabbins uttered against Jesus Christ were not meant at all of Christ our Redeemer but of another Jesus very far different from Ours And this is so known a Truth that the most furious among the Iewes dare not deny it unlesse they deny their Talmud So that this Confession being so much the more forcible because it proceeds from the mouth of our Adversaries it quite overthrowes all that Senensis and those of his Perswasion have brought to the contrary I will not say but that the Later Rabbins doe more perversely handle the Controversy which is betwixt Them and Us namely Whether Jesus Christ be the true Messias or not and that among the Heats of so weighty a Dispute they doe sometimes speake irreverently of our sacred Mysteries But which is a very wonderfull thing and which ought to convince all the enemies to the writings of these men among so great a number of Arguments that are brought against us by R. David Kimchi and R. Joseph Alboni two Iewish Rabbins which were both very learned and very zealous for their owne Religion you shall not find one Opprobrious speech uttered against Jesus Christ as that he was a seditious person as he was called in his life time or a Magician or an Impostor or a Malefactor or any other the like Blasphemous termes notwithstanding there is scarcely any of our Christian Writers that have written against the Iewes which give them not very hard language They dispute indeed Whether the Gospel be a Law or not but not Whether the Author of it were a Wicked Man or no. Nay on the contrary they rather confesse him to have religiously kept all the Commandements of the Decalogue They say indeed that he was but meere Man and not God being blinded by the Confession which this God of Love made of himselfe Ego sum vermis non homo but they doe not say that he was a Wicked Perfidious Person They accuse his Apostles indeed of Ignorance but not of Falsehood as when S. Paul saith that the Israelites demanded a King of Samuel who gave them the sonne of Cis being about the age of forty years whereas the Scripture seemes to say otherwise As also when Saint Stephen said that those that went downe with Jacob into Aegypt were seventy five soules in number whereas in Genesis it is said they were but seventy in all And so likewise in diverse other Passages which have been long since often reconciled and cleared of Errour They deny indeed that in the Eucharist a Great Body with all its parts can possibly be in so small a Morsell but they doe not say that the Institution and use of it in the Christian Church is Diabolicall as the Hereticks say In a word they deny indeed that Jesus Christ is the true Messias but the doe not say that his Doctrine is against God Those that desire to be more fully satisfied in this Controversie may have recourse to a Tract written by Genebrard against those two Learned Jewes above named To conclude then both against Senensis and all of his Opinion I affirme that the Ancient Rabbins are so farre from reproaching our Saviour Jesus Christ as that on the contrary they allow of his Doctrine and confirme the History which is delivered us as I doe clearly prove in my Advertissement aux Doctes touchant la necessite des langues Orientales which I shall God willing put forth very shortly 9. The 4. Object I come
now to the last objection which is that the Bookes of the Rabbines erre in the Interpretation of the Law and that being full of Vaine and ridiculous Traditions and some that are dangerous too they ought not to be read by Christians who are to seeke after nothing but the true Traditions of Jesus Christ and his Church I shall not take upon me to answer fully and in every particular to this Objection since that it cannot be denied but that the Rabbins doe erre sometimes and that their Interpretations are sometimes wide enough of the matrer But that therefore they must presently be burnt or not read at all is against all Sence or Reason for otherwise we were to proceed in the same manner against our selves and must condemne our owne bookes also which are scarcely to be found any of them without their Errors I speake even of those very bookes that are of highest esteeme and use among us So that if these must all be committed to the Flame we should speedily see-oâ—r Libraries Empty and those which shall come after us to be left to a most profound ignorance For who knowes not that the works of Tertullian favour the Sect of the Montanists where he speaks of a new Paraclet and a new Prophesie as also where he condemnes Second Marriages If we but diligently peruse the Writings of all the rest of the Fathers we shall find that those of St. Cyprian maintain the Rebaptizing of such as having abjured their Heresie had been formerly baptized by Hereticks What Error is it that the writings of the Learned Origen are not polluted with If any man out of Curiosity desire to see a Catalogue of them he may have recourse to the Learned Epistle of St. Jerome ad Avitum Doth not St. Hilary seem to detract much from the merits of our Saviour Christ when he maintaines that his Sacred Body was not at all capable of Suffering and that Hunger Thirst Wearinesse and the rest of Humane Infirmities were not Naturall in him but as the Schoole speaks Absumptae Neither did Epiphanius fall into less Errors then these when he writes upon those words of Christ Pater Major me est that it was true also of his Divine Nature and that in the garden of Olives he spake not these words seriously Pater si fieri potest transeat à me Calix iste but onely by way of Dissimulation to deceive the Devill I passe by many things delivered by him touching the death of our Saviour Christ which the purity of Divinity cannot allow of as also when in his disputation against Aerius he affirmes that one of the Precepts left by the Apostles was that during the six daies immediately before the Passeoyer we must eat nothing but Bread with Salt St. Ambrose also in his Allegories in which he exceeds is not alwayes blamelesse for sometimes he lets fall such things as are quite contradicting the sense of the Holy Scriptures As for example speaking of St. Peter's sinne he holds that this Apostle denied not Jesus Christ as God but onely as Man as likewise when he makes it Lawfull for a man that hath put away his Wife by Divorce to marry another woman provided she also had not been divorced St. Jerome runs as farre into the other Extreame for pleading for Virginity against Jovinian he doth so cry out against Marriage that he makes it almost a sinne to marry and goes on so far as to account Second Marriages to be no other then meere Fornication and a Trade of Bawdery St. Augustine hath also had his many Errours As when he maintaines that the Eucharist ought to be administred to little Children and that if they dye without Baptisme they are Damned You may find many other Errors in the Writings of this Learned Father But they are such as we may truly call Happy ones since that they gave occasion to the writing of that Excellent Book of his Retractations without which a great part of the Learning of this most Knowing Father had been concealed from us I could proceed to reckon up some Errors of each of the rest of the Fathers both Greek and Latine for the proving of my Assertion namely that we have the same reason to forbeare the reading of them that we have against the books of the Rabbins so that we should at length be reduced to this extremity of having no other books but only the Holy Scriptures And yet neither could these passe if we should rest only on the Bare Letter since there are some things found there that seem contrary to Truth Thus Cajetan hath observed 2. Reg. C. 21. 1. Reg. C. 12. that in Kings 2. we read Michol instead of Merob as you may perceive by comparing it with the First Book of the same History And the Learned have observed that in the New Testament Math. 27. St. Matthew forgetting himself hath written Zachary for Jeremy and St. Mark likewise upon the same mistake cites a passage out of Isaiah Marc. 1. which is written in Malachi and so likewise when he sayes our Saviour Christ was Crucified on the Third houre seeing that St. John saith that he was but only condemned by Pilat the Sixth houre Ioan. 19. So likewise where St. Luke saith that Cainan was the Sonne of Arphaxad Gen. 23. and Salec the Sonne of Cainan he contradicts the place in Genesis where it is said that Salec was not Arphaxad's Grandsonne but his Sonne no other Generation intervening betwixt these two And when he sayes also that the Cave which Abraham bought was in Sichem which was indeed in Hebron Gee 11. and that he bought it of the Sons of Emor the Sonne of Sichem whereas Moses sayes it was of Ephron the Hittite And so likewise when he sayes that Emor was Sichem's Sonne when as it is said in Genesis Gen. 33. quite contrary that Emor was Sichem's Father and not his Sonne I shall not here undertake to justifie all these Passages many great Personages of former Ages have already done it very happily so that we cannot any longer without manifest Injury say that there is any Errour at all in them As for the Errors of the Fathers I should rather think charitably of them and say that as St. Jerome complained in his Time Ep. ad Pammac Ocean that the Writings of Origen had been corrupted by some Impostor as St. Augustine likewise complaines in those of St. Cyprian so possibly those of the other Fathers may have beene corrupted too But this Excuse which my Charity hath suggested to me hinders not but that we are to reject Their workes such as now we have them if we are not to read any of those that have erred PART II. Of the TAlismanicall Sculpture of the Persians or the manner of making Figures and Images under certaine Constellations CHAP. III. That the Persians are unjustly blamed concerning the Curiosities of their Magick Sculpture and Astrology THE CONTENTS THe Evill Custome
of blaming the Ancients is noted 2. The Reasons brought against the Persians and their Magick examined and found of no force The errors of the Counterfeit Berosus Dinon Comestor Genebrard Pierius and Venetus concerning Zoroaster 3. His Magick what it was 4. The strange Statues of Laban and Micah called Teraphim perhaps allowed by God 5. The Errors of Elias Levita Aben-Esra R. Eliezer R. D. Chimchi Cajetan Sainctes Vatablus Clarius Mercerus Marinus and Mr. Selden concerning these Teraphim The grosse conceit of Philo Judaeus touching this Particular 6. A Conjecture touching these Statues what they were and an Answer to what may be objected against it 7. Of certaine strange Prodigious things which have foretold Disasters which have beene seen to come to passe and which doe yet forctell the same 8. The Conclusion of all before delivered 1. THere is nothing in the whole businesse of Learning which astonishes mee more then to see how many of the most Excellent Wits of this our Age make it their businesse to find fault with the Ancients and to load them with injurious speeches as if this evill custom had now grown into a Maxime with them that one can never passe for an Able man nor appeare to be Any Body without reprehending those which have gone before us and from whose Learned writings we have derived the most Curious and Choyse Points of Knowledge that we have The Persians or if you please the Babylonians that bordered upon the River Euphrates were the First as Rabbins report that found out the secret power of Figures The wonders that have been effected by them have been acknowledged by all the Ancients and approved of throughout all Aegypt in so much that those who were the first that have written of them have maintained that there was not any thing of more Excellency and Admiration within the compasse of the whole Universe These first Writers have been seconded by all those that have come after them even down to Our owne Daies and the Daies of our Fathers wherein we have at length seen this Secret condemned and the Persians accused of Sorcery so that to the end I may free from suspicion whatsoever I shall borrow from Themm it will concern me to shew Their Innocence here as I have already done for the Jewes their Neighbours and shall ground my Defence of them upon what I have found written in the Preface of a certaine Persian Astrologer translated into Hebrew by Rabbi Chomer a Modern Author and I shall adde to his Reasons what other I shall be able to find among the Writings of both Greeks and Latines to render them the more powerfull 2. The Curiosities therefore of the Persians that is to say their Figures and Magicke are usually condemned for foure Reasons The first is because they are said to have been derived from the most Wicked person next to Cain that ever was that is from Cham otherwie called Zoroaster The second is because the Learned men of this Nation acknowledged no other Deity save that of the Heavens and the Stars and by consequence their Doctrine must therefore necessarily be very Dangerous The third is that they teach the worshipping of Spirits or Divels that convey themselves into Statues The fourth is that they made certain Figures and Images from whence they received Benefits of all sorts by the use of Witchcrafts and Inchantments To the First of These Hamahalzel the Author of the Astrology above-named answers in one word and saies that the constant and unanimous tradition in Persia is that Zoroaster was so Good a Man that the most Religious sort of people of that Country are daily conversant in the reading of a Pious Tract that is said to have been of his Composing the Title whereof is Memlecheti Halaal that is to say The Kingdome of God But suppose he was not the Author of this Book it is very false however Vid. Bosium de hist Grae. saith R. Chomer that he was Cham the sonne of Noah and it is very Probable which he sayes for if we inquire but after the Originall of this Fable we shall find it to have had no other Author but even the Counterfeit Berosus that Annius hath foisted in upon the world And that this is not the True Berosus and therefore not to be believed besides many other reasons that are brought to confirme it this following is none of he worst namely that he makes Mention as well of the Libyans Almans and Italians as of the Chaldeans Lib. 1. contr Appion Apolog 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 19. c. 19. Lib 7. c. 37. Lib. 1. Chron. p. 51. Hist Scholast Gen. 39. Harm mūd cāt 1. ton 1. c. 8. Hierogl 49. fol 354. Lib. 7.16 30.1 or Babylonians whereas the True Berosus delivers the history only of these Last in three bookes as you may observe out of Josephus Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus and Vitruvius In a word for a fuller satisfaction that this is not that Berosus to whom Ob divinas praedictiones saith Pliny Athenienses publicè in Gymnasio statuam inauratâ linguâ posuêre you need but read the Censure that Gaspar Vazerius hath given of This Booke This Forgery of Annius hath also lead Genebrard and Comestor into the same errour of believing Zoroaster to be the same that Cham. Georgius Venetus likewise and Pierius wrong themselves very much in maintaining that he was no other then the son of Cham and Grand-sonne to Noah and the same that is called in the holy Scriptures Misraim And indeed if it were so how comes it to passe that Pliny speaking so often of him makes no mention of it at all Hee saies indeed that the same day he came into the world he laughed and that his Braines beate so strongly that if any laid their hand upon his head this motion struck it back againe at the same instant which was saith he a sign that he would be a very Knowing man but that he was either Cham or the sonne of Cham is more then Pliny had ever met with and with him concurre-in opinion the two Justins St. Augustine Epiphanius and in a manner all the Fathers that have made any mention of him But suppose him may some one say to have been neither Cham nor the sonne of Cham yet it cannot be denied but that hee was a Magician and a Sorcerer If Naudaeus had not already Learnedly answered this Objection I should in this place have examined it but I shall now desire the Reader to see the Reasons he hath set downe Cap. 8. in his Learned and exquisite Apology which may hereafter serve for a Pattern to all Demonographers I confesse that Wise Persian addicted himselfe to the Contemplation of the Starres but worship them he did not although Dinon in Diogenes Laertius endeavours to prove it after a ridiculous manner Dinon saith he in quinto Historiarum libro Zoroastrem ex interpretatione nominis sui Astrorum asserit fuisse cultorem I have turned
re figurata praeparationem quae caelestem actionem sine difficultate varijs modis accipiat And afterwards explaining how it comes to passe that among the diverse kinds of Figures that are under the Heavens some are more Naturally Apt to receive the Influences then Others are he brings in the Instance of Looking-glasses amongst which those that are hollow receive the beames of the Sunne in so full a measure as that they burne and others receive them scarcely at all So the diversity of Hils and Vallies is the Cause of a greater either Heat or Coldnesse We may also here adde an Instance in pieces of Ice which the Sun cannot so easily melt and dissolve if they be Plaine and smooth but very easily if they be Uneven and Rough. Which hath given occasion to some to say that Painted Figures are nothing so Proper to the Subject we treat of as Graven and Carved are which is most True As for Gold although the Figure change not the Species of it yet notwithstanding it renders it more Apt and Proper for such an Action as Water Cold and Hot though it be still the same Species yet the one will boyle our Meat when the other will not Which makes Galeottus to conclude in these termes Requiritur ergo in unius ejusdem speciei rebus certum culturae temperamentum ut variet ur effectus 12. It hath also been Objected against Franciscus Ruëus who undertooke the Defence of This Kind of Sculpture after Galeottus that if it be indued with such Wonderful Vertues Man's workmanship should then have more Power then God's seeing that the Graved Figure of a Lion should be able to cure the Paine of the Reines which a Living Lion could not doe To this he answers and that very Pertinently that That which Man does is as wel the Work of God as that which God himselfe does seeing that We are but His Instruments and that all our Actions according to the Apostle are in Him and depend on Him Besides we sometimes see that That which hath been composed by man proves to be of Greater Vertue then that which God hath simply Created as for Example Treacle is of more Soveraigne Vertue against Poyson then any Simple that the Naturalists have yet found out 13. I thought that I had now answered All the Objections that had been made against these Figures but I have lately met with Another which is a more Confident one then any of all the rest and it is Naâ—daeus his in his Apology which we have heretofore cited where defending the honour of Virgil who is branded with the name of a Necromancer because that he sometimes applied himselfe to the making of these Talismanicall Images he boldly affirms that all the stories which are reported of this Poët are False and Ridiculous He denies then Consequently those Images which He made as the Brazen Fly which he set up upon one of the gates of the City Naples which for the space of Eight yeares kept all manner of Flies from comming into the City He denies also that other Talisman of a Horseleech graved on a Plate of Gold which he cast into a Well for to drive away the vast multitudes of Horsleeches that annoyed the same City In a word he stands not to dispute whether the Operations of these Images are Natural or not but hee plainly denies in Termes that there was ever any such thing in the world as if he could not by any meanes have defended Virgil's Innocence without easting himselfe upon this Extreame and giving the Lye to all the Authors that have reported these stories That which he sayes in the Progresse of his Discourse by way of confirmation of his Assertion is after the same Rate For by reason of the great number of Places from whence these beasts are reported by Historians to have been driven away one may saith he very well doubt whether because they are said to have been driven from so many they were ever driven from any or no. As if because of the great number of Battails that Hannibal is reported by Historians to have fought with the Romans we might not by the same Reason doubt whether hee fought any with them or no. He saies moreover that Scaliger had good reason to make himself merry with one of these Fly-drivers who having made a Talismanicall Plate for This Very Purpose he had no sooner set it up upon one of his Windowes but a Fly comes presently and shites upon it for Handsell But he must not thinke that these Reasons of his are able to derogate any thing from the Power which we have acknowledged these Figures to have For that we may give him his Answer if such a Physician is not able to Cure a Sicke man or if such an Arithmetician be not able to bring to an end some Operation which he hath begun shall we therefore conclude that Physicke and Arithmetick are False and Ridiculous An Able man can do that which an Ignorant man cannot and if he also sometimes faile it must be imputed to some default either on his part or on the Matter and not in the Science which is Infallible In which notwithstanding there are so Many Things to be observed that I cannot wonder much if many men find not the Effect answer their Expectation Another reason which renders the Endeavours of men herein often Fruitlesse is the little Certainty that we have of Celestiall Affaires as being so farre removed from us And this is that which Roger Bacon saith Lib. cit Quia difficile est in his certitudinem Coelestium percipere ideò in his multus est error apud multos et pauci sunt qui sciant aliquid utiliter et veraciter ordinare And this is the Only Reason why so many great Personages have passed by both this Science that of Erecting Horoscopes and also the so much Famed Philosophers Stone being taken up with Imployments of more Importance and which required not either so much Time or Paines Not but that they acknowledged the Truth bth of the one and of the Other and Especially of Talismans as may appear out of severall Epistles of Joseph Scaliger to the S rs de la Vau Vazet and Bagarris So that I am of opinion that if his Father Julius Scaliger did make himselfe merry to see that a Mathematician should not be able with a Figure made to drive away Flies to keep a Fly-from comming and abusing it it was rather to laugh at the Ignorance of the Artist then at the Art he professed seeing he hath acknowledged the Power of it in diverse places As concerning the Author called Gervais who attributes to Virgil these Talismanicall Images as namely a Brazen Fly a Golden Horseleech and some others the high Imployments which he was taken into by the Emperour Otho to whom he was Chancellour and the booke which he presented him with the Title whereof was Ocia Imperialia ought in my Opinion to render
Hanni-bal by leaving out one Letter for the more smooth Pronunciation and so in Hasdru-bal and many others This Conjecture may give some light to that Passage of Heurnius in his Philosoph Barbar where speaking of the Philosophy of this People hee saith Ille apud Principes Babylonicos mos vigebat Tract 2. cap. 4. ut aut Dei alicujus nomen sibi assumerent aut plurium Divorum Heroumque et fortitudine Excellentium virorum nomina aliquot combinata 6. This Opinion though it seeme to carry very much Probability with it yet doth it no way satisfy R. Moses who is of this Perswasion that Idolatry took it's Beginning from the too much honouring of Those Statues that were permitted in the Ancient Law as we have formerly said of those of Laban and of the Golden Calves of Jeroboam The Author of the Book of Wisdome is of another Opinion affirming that the Worshipping of I dols tooke beginning from hence that a Father being very much grieved for the death of his sonne caused his Image to be made to the end that by seeing his Resemblance his griefe might be somewhat asswaged But he honouring this Image too passionately hee began at length to worship it as a God Sa. 14. v. 15. c. so great is the power of Love Acerbo enim luctu saith this Excellent Author dolens pater cirò sihi rapti silij fecit imaginem Et illum qui tunc quasi homo mortuus fuerat nunc tanquam Deum colere coepit et constituit inter servos suos sacra sacrificia You may see the rest in the Booke it selfe which the Liberunisme of these times hath expunged out of the Canon The Observation which Mr. Selder hath made upon the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aghtsabim seemes to confirme this Later Opinion for this word saith He signifieth both Idola and Dolores Quòd quotannis statuis et monumentis mortuorum dolore afficerentur Notwithstanding he is in an Errour afterwards in the prosecution of this Truth when he saies that Terah Abraham's Father was the First that ever worshipped Idols But this is to adventure to say more then the History of Moses gives warrant for and to be so Uncharitable that I say not Insolent and Rash as to accuse the Ancients without Witness For as for the Testimony of Cedrē who saies that Abraham threw his Fathers Idols into the Fire and that his brother Aram endeavouring to preserve them was burnt I find no such thing in any of the Hebrew Historians so that one may say of this Opinion as S. Gregory did of another as gross as this Eadem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur In a word we must even be content to satisfie our selves with Justin Martyr S. Cyprian S. Hilary R. Moses Advers Gent. De Idol van De Trin. l. 1. Moreh Neboch l. 2. Divin Instit Colat. 8. Lactantius and the Abbot Serenus in Cassian and Conclude that as the Black Art is certainly known to be though it's Beginning is not no more is that of Idolatry And indeed these same Authors now mentioned that we may look after no other Witnesses are of Opinion that this Abomination was on foot before the Floud and many others thinke that it was not till after while the Wonderfull Works of God were yet fresh in the Memories of Men. And this in the Opinion of Alexander Halensis was the reason of Idolatry Part. 11. quaest 138. Propter recentem memoriam ejus qui fecit Coelum terram quam ex disciplina Patrum habuerunt And when all is done an Argument to prove the Uncertainty of the Spring whence Idolatry is derived might very well be raised from the Uncertainty and Diversity of the Opinions here delivered concerning this Particular were not That out of the Book of Wisedome to be received as the truest by reason of the Sanctity of the Book However we doe not yet see any thing to the Contrary but that Astrology is Innocent and cleare from the Crime that it is charged with We will now by the way set downe that we may leave no doubt behind us that which no Author either of the Greeks or Latines hath yet discovered and which Reason must needs allow as most true 7. Bechai then saith that the Ancient Chaldeans are very falsly accused to have been such wicked men as people would make them and to have worshipped the Starres For saith he if the First Nazarenes he meanes the Christians were so good men as they have been reported to have been in the first Ages of their Belief why may we not aswell believe the same of the First Men who were created with a thousand times more Simplicity then ever hath been found in any of their Posterity since And who can believe that they should so give themselves over to those Vile Abominations wherewith they now stand charged This Argument is not much different from that of Alexander Halensis Neverthelesse Bodine is quite of another Opinion and scoffes at those Authors who will have the First Ages to have beene such Golden and Silver ones But if he had weighed the businesse rightly he would have found that those Vices which the Ancients are accused of are so small in comparison of those that the Corruption of the Times hath since brought forth that they deserved rather to have passed for Merry Pranks only and to have been ranked among Veniall sins But to return to Bechai That which he observes of these First Men and which I say hath been observed by no man else is that those Fires which they made in honour of the Sun and Moon were Lawfull and Kindled to a good End For saith He they testified the same thing to God which God testified to them by the Sun and by the Moon which is nothing else but a Great Light They kindled these Fires then by way of returning Him thanks for His and looking up to the Stars they prayed to the Angels which God had there placed for to move them about to the End they might be Favourable unto them But as the best things come at length to be corrupted Cham or his Posterity looking no higher then to this Fire began to worship it and so terminating their Adoration in the Sun and Moon they paid them those Honours which the First Chaldeans meant to None but to the Author of these Stars alone 8. This Opinion of the Learned Jew may be proved by two or three Conclusions The First is that the Wise men of the Former Ages had knowledge of the Invisible God by the Things that are Visible Now of the things that are Visible there is none that more powerfully proves that there is a God then the wonderfull Effects of the Sun and Moon and the rest of the Stars They had knowledge of God therefore by the Stars And whereas the Apostle saith that though they knew him yet they glorified him not afterwards he speaks of those Philosophers
of the Alphabet in the same manner expressing and distinguishing them as we do by the names of Aries Taurus c. And when all the Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet or what other soever they were for I shall cleare this Doubt some other time were ended they then went onto expresse the rest of the Stars by Two Letters together by this means making up a Word to which also they added a Third Letter the more perfectly to expresse the nature of the Star or Constellation And perhaps a man may be able by this Doctrine to put an end to that Long Dispute that hath been raised concerning the Signification of those names of Stars which we meet with in the Bible as for Example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ahs in Amos which is Interpreted Arcturus or as Aben-Esra will have it Isa 11.6 Thren 2.3.9 Dan. 7.5 Vrsa Now we know very well that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ahs signifies not Vrsa neither in the Holy Scriptures nor in any other Author but the name of this Beast in Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dob as you may see in Isaiah Jeremiah and Daniel These two Letters therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned together might perhaps be only the bare Characters of the Constellation of Vrsa Major 2. And by this we may see that the Ancient Hebrewes fancied not the Figures of any Living Creatures in the Heavens as we do The Ancient Arabians imitated the Hebrewes in their Astrologicall Practises as Abarbanel testifieth till at length the Example of the Greekes made them make use of Living Creatures Yet notwithstanding they forbare to expresse any Humane Figures as having an Eye to the Zeale of the Hebrewes Thus they represented the Signe of Aquarius instead of the Figure of a Man pouring out of water by a Mule with a Pannell on it and laden with too Vessels or Barrels of Gemini by two Peacocks of Virgo by a Sheafe of Corne of the Centaure by a Horse of Ophiucus by a Crane or a Storke as is to be seen in some Arabicke Globes of Sagittarius by a Quiver of Andromeda by a Sea-Calfe and of Cepheus by a Dog and so of the rest The Egyptians also and Persians following herein the steps of the Hebrewes represented the Stars only by certaine Characters till that the Example of their Neighbours drew them also at length to set downe the Figures of Living Creatures as the same Author testifieth who saies that the Persians Chiefly and after them the Indians and Egyptians expressed by Figures not only the forty eight Constellations which are represented on the Globe but also all other Figures that they could imagine at the Beginning of every Principall Signe and in each Degree of it as appears out of Zadchir In Astr Ind. The Figure by which they expressed the Signe of Virgo is one of the most Remarkable and which hath also moved some of the More Learned Arabians to speak well of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of his Blessed Mother And indeed it is not without some Mystery that the Tradition of the East representeth this Constellation in the form of a Faire Damsell with a Comely long head of Haire which seems to adde much Grace to her while she reacheth forth two Ears of Corn to a young Child to whom she seemeth to give Suck Intentio est saith Alboazar who is falsly called Albumazar and is translated into Latine by Hermanus Dalmat quòd Beata Virgo habeat figuram imaginem infra decem primos gradus Virginis et quòd nat a fuit quando Sol est in Virgine et ita habetur signatum in Kalendario et quòd nutriet filium suum Christum Jesum in terra Hebraeorum Whence the Author of the Book which is intitled Vetula took occasion to say O Virgo foelix O Virgo significata Per Stellas ubi Spica nitet 3. The Indians then the Egytians Persians and Arabians having all thus introduced the Figures of Living Creatures into their Astrology the Hebrewes were necessitated to imitate them in some sort and to take up though not their Figures yet the Names of them at least Yet did they neverthelesse abstain from the very Names also of those Figures of Men which the Arabians made use of Thus they call Aquarius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deli which signifies not a Man but a Vessell to take up water with Sagittarius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keshet which signifies only a Bow Saturnē 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scautai Rest Mars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maadim Red which is the Colour of this Star Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nogah Brightnesse a name very suitable to this Planet Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsedek Just because it makes them so that are born under its Influence Mercury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cocab signifying only a Star or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catab to Write or Writing because this Planet is very Favourable to Learning And there is but one only Signe of all those that have any Humane Figure that hath retained the Humane Name save only that of the Virgin which is called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bethola not without some Designe in it although it is often called by the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shiboleth the Eare of Corne. So true it is that those of This Nation are not only very free from Idolatry but even from the Name also of what ever they conceive to be an Idol which hath not been hitherto observed by any man Let us now return to their Fore-fathers who knew nothing of any of these Names in their Astrology 4. This way of Expressing the Celestiall all Constellations by Letters and Characters being presupposed the Ancient Hebrewes when they went about to erect a Nativity observed on what Day and under what Signe the Child came into the world and what Planet ruled at the houre of its Birth and which Particulars they afterwards set down in Twelve Places which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Machataloth that is to say Ligaturae Ben David saith that these were the same which the Astrologers now call Houses Now these Ancients had perfect knowledge of all the Particulars above specified by looking on the Table hereafter described which R. Kapol Ben-Samuel hath rescued from Oblivion in his Book intitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ahmouk ahmoukim vecol devar kaschah Profunditas Profunditatum omnium rerum difficilium which was Printed at Cracovia An. 358. according to the Jewes Later way of Computation which answereth to the Year of our Lord 1498. I borrow of this Learned Jew a great part of these Astrologicall Curiosities and I do it with so much the more Confidence in that he was accounted one of the best Astrologers of his Nation having diligently examined all that the most Learned men had ever written of these kinds of Antiquities The 24 Hours of the Night and Day The Signes for the Beginning of the Night The Signes for
certaine Tracts added which are not found at all in the Hebrew Those Peices that are Legitimate are these that follow First a Tract entitled Initium Sapientiae which is called by the Conciliator Introductorium which is indeed a very Choyce Peice and containes in it what ever is necessary to be observed in the Nativity of a Child Another called Liber Rationum where he discourseth of the Natures of the Signes the Revolution of Daies and Ages and of those Angels which have the Government of the world in their severall Turnes which is a Position maintained by Robert Flud also in his Apology for the Brethren of the Rosy Crosse as we have observed in our Notes upon R. Elcha Then follow in order these other Books Liber Interrogationum Liber Luminarium et Cognitio dici Critici seu de Cognitione cause Crisis De Mundo vel seculo which the Translator calls Liber Conjunctionum Planetarum Revolutionum annorum Mundi where he makes a Repetition of many things which are set down only in the Second Book by the Author It appeares then by this Catalogue that those two Tracts which the Conciliator makes to follow these and intitles Liber Nativitatum Revolutionum earum and Liber Electionum are not found in the Hebrew neither could I ever meet with any such Tracts in any one of all those Copies that I have seen of this Rabbins Works nor yet with diverse other things which are handled in That Collection which the Translator calls Tractatus insuper Particulares ejusdem Abrahae in quibus tractatur de Significationibus Planetarum in duodecim domibus However the Learned are very much obliged unto him seeing that before this Translation of his came abroad into the World the Astrology of the Hebrewes was wholy Unknowne to the Latines But to returne 11. We have shewed what Stars these Ancient Astrologers accounted Malignant in the Nativities of Children Let us now see which were those they accounted Benigne and Favourable and from whose Aspects they Presaged all Good Fortune to the New-born Child Abarbanel then saith that Sol was the Chiefest from whom they took their Omens of Good and this was the reason saith the same Author that when God caused King Hezekiah to be borne again as it were the second time he made choise of the Sun to be the Sign by which this Miracle should be wrought Next after the Sun they accounted Venus to be most Propitious and perhaps from this Observation of the Ancients it was that next to the Sun and the Moon This Planet was most especially Worshipped throughout the whole East as it is affirmed by R. Kapol Ben-Samuel These Ancient Hebrews acknowledged also the Planet Jupiter which they sometimes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad and sometimes also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mazal Tob and those that came after them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cocheb tsedek to be a very Favourable Star For which reason it was that the New-married Man was wont to give his Bride a Ring whereon was ingraved the fore-named words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mazal tob that is to say in the Natural signification of the Words A Good Star or Good Fortune desiring by this Ceremony that She might be delivered of all her Children under this Favourable Starre as it hath been observed both by Munster Aben-Ezra and Chomer Insomuch that the Later of these Authors affirmes that even in His time there were some that were so Curious as he calls them in these Observations or rather as we may justly say so Melancholick and Foolish as that they would not lye with their Wives but at some certain houres to the end that if they should prove with Child they might be brought to bed under this Starre whose Revolutions they were most diligent in Calculating But these Strange Fancies are found only among the Later Jewes and never entred so much as into the Thoughts of their Fore-fathers the Ancient Hebrewes as the same Chomer affirmes who observed only That which a certain Pure Innocence dictated unto them attributing no other Effect to the Stars then what were meerly Naturall and whose causes were imprinted on these Celestiall Bodies by Him who created all things in their Perfection 12. But it is now time that we answer this Weighty Objection that is made against us namely that seeing that the Holy Scriptures make not any mention of any of these Astrologicall Curipsities in the Lives of the Patriarks whom we affirm to have been Calculaters of Nativities a man may very well account them to be False if not Dangerous seeing they are grounded only upon the Fantasticall Conceits of the Rabbins who are known to have been of the Faction of the Judiciary Astrologers If I had not already elsewhere defended the Innocence of the Learned Jewes See my Advertisement to the Learned touching the Orientall Languages in this Particular I should in this place have taken an occasion to shew how much our Christian Writers have injured them by charging them unjustly with such things as they were never guilty of But now I shall only here make it appear that these Astrologicall Curiosities may be proved out of the Holy Scriptures For confirmation then of what we have here proposed we read in Genesis that Leah Jacobs Wife Gen. 30.11 called one of her Sons by the name of the Planet Jupiter which is called Gad under which no doubt he was born et peperit Zilpah saith the Latine following the Originall ancilla Leah ipsi Jacob filium et ait Leah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bagad et vocavit nomen ejus Gad. The Vulgar Translation and S. Hierome instead of Bagad translate Foclicitér which is the same with Cum Bona Fortuna as it is proved by S. Angustine who reprehendeth those that collected from this Text that the Ancients worshipped Fortune Vnde videtur Occasio saith he non benè intelligentibus dari tanquam illi homines Fortunam coluerint c. And that it may clearly and evidently appear that the Vulgar Translation understands by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad Fortuna Bona which is one of the Epithets that is given to the Planet Jupiter as is acknowledged on all hands we need but turn to the 65. Chapter of Isaiah ver 11. where the same word is rendered by Fortuna Vos qui dereliquist is Dominum qui obliti estis montem Sanctum meum qui ponitis Fortunae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Legad mensam et libatis super eam The Sepuagint also had long before given the same Interpretation of this word rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bagad in Fortuna Now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad is the Planet Jupiter Aben-Esra testifieth expresly In Sphaet Iud. part 3. sec 5. col 2. where he saies that the Targum purposely retained this word as being the most proper for the expressing of this Star And Abarbanel upon the same Text of Genesis expounds this Passage without any Scruple
and of Sad Omen I shall adde my Conjecture here that possibly they might point out these Two Names Cecrops and Codrus which are the names of those Two Kings under whom this Powerfull Monarchy had its Rise and Fall The Romane Consulate could not maintain Its Power beyond the Term of 500. years because that these Bounds were determinately prefixed to it in this Celestiall Booke by Eight Verticall Stars which composed this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raasch which bare this Sense Number Cacumen 501. The Monarchy of Julius Coesar which was built upon the Ruine of the Consulate as This also was upon the Ejection of the Kings was very neer of the same Continuance and the End of it was in like manner prefixed by Six Sars which made up these Three Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scavar which signifies To Break the Number whereof is 502. But that we may produce something concerning Things Yet to Come R. Chomer assures us that it is now a good while since that this Celestiall Writing hath pointed out the Declining of Two great Empires of the East The First is that of the Turkes over which there are observed seven Verticall Stars which being read from the West to the East for it would be a great Blessing to see the Ruine of this Empire make up this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caah which signifieth to be Battered Feeble Languishing and Drawing to an End But now Aleph which in humbers signifieth 1. standeth also for 1000. as the rest of the letters also doe as may be observed out of Hebrew Grammars seeing it may be doubted at what time this Empire shall be reduced to this Extremity the same Letters doe clearly resolve this Doubt For the Middle Letter which is Aleph being made up of Brighter and more Sparkling Stars then the Others are sheweth saith Chomer that Its Number is the Greater so that in This place it standeth for 1000. and the First letter signifieth 20. and the Last 5. So that when this Kingdome shall have accomplished the number of 1025. years it shall then be overthrowne and brought to Ruine Now if we reckon from the year of our Lord 630. which was the year according to our Vulgar Compution wherein the Foundation of this Empire was laid we shall find that it is to last till the year of our Lord 1655. for the compleating of the aforesaid number 1025. so that reckoning from this present yeare 1650. this Kingdome is to last but Five years longer The Other Eastern Kingdome whose Declining is pointed out by the Stars according to K. Chomer is that of China but this Rabbin delivers himself in such an Obscure manner in discoursing of this last piece of Celestiall Writing as that till I understand it better I shall forbeare to set it downe Hee produceth also diverse Others which doe define the Particular Durations of most of the Kingdomes of Europe all which I may happily communicate to the World hereafter when I have first seene how these Curiosities are received 12. Now that I may freely deliver my owne Judgment concerning this Celestiall Writing I must take Liberty to propose some few Objections which I have found may be brought against it The First is that if so be by this Writing all the Great Mutations in the World may be known it is possible then that the End of the World may in like manner be found out by It as being the Greatest and most Important of all the rest so that Men may by a naturall Meanes attain to the knowledge of This Great Secret which is Contrary to the Holy Scriptures The Second is that Astrologers have been able to foretel many of these Mutations which have afterwards come to passe accordingly and yet have never had any knowledge of This strange Kind of Writing It is therefore Uselesse and Imaginary The Third is that the Position of the Stars is not so Essentiall to the Letter which it is brought to make up but that the same Star may as well make for Example a Resch as a Daleth and so of all the rest and Consequently Severall Men forming several Characters of the same Starres may draw from them Contrary senses the one to the other But to all these Objections I answer briefly thus To the First I say that it is not Necessary that this Celestiall Writing should foreshew the end of the World because that God may have reserved this Secret to Himselfe Or else Math. 24.29 Mar. 13.24 Luc. 21.25 that It will Really foretel This hereafter when those Other Signes set downe by the Evangelists shall shew it also it being all one to say that the Starres shall fore-shew it by some certaine Writing as to say that the Sun and the Moone shall foretell it by their being Darkned To the Second I answer that the Foure Grand Causes Card. 1. Aph. which according to the Opinion of Astrologers produce the greatest Mutations the First whereof is the Changing of the Apogaeum and Perigaeum of the Planets the Second the Changing of the Excentricity of the Sun of Venus of Mercury of Saturne of Jupiter and of Mars the Third the diverse Figure of the Obliquity of the Zodiacke and the Fourth the Conjunction cheifly the Great one of the Superiour Planets I say that all these Foure Causes may for the most part be comprized within this Celestiall Writing that is to say that it hath happened very often that at what time this Celestiall Writing did point out some great Change there was at the same time also a Conjunction of the Superiour Planets or else some one of the Three other forenamed Causes So that They not understanding any thing of this Celestiall Writing imputed those changes which they observed to come to passe to those Foure Reasons only But that it may clearly appeare unto us that These have not been the True Causes of all these Changes we need but have recourse to the Chronologies and Particular Annals of each severall Kingdome and compare them with the Astrologicall Observations and wee shall finde that the greatest part of all the Grand Mutations have happened without any Conjunction of the Greater Planets or any of the other Causes before specified So that we must necessarily flye to some other more Certain Means by which we may be able to foreknow by the Aspects and Motions of the Stars all these Events Now this Means can be no Other as it seemeth but this Celestiall Writing To the Third Objection which seemeth to have the most Weight in it it may be answered that it is true indeed that a Man may make a Resch of the same Star that another man perhaps will make a Daleth of but in This as in many other things wee are to follow the Tradition of the Ancients and to rest satisfied with what They have delivered unto us Otherwise there will not be any Certainty at all in any One of the rest of the Sciences especially in Astrology which requireth that those Stars which compose for Example the Constellation of Aries or the Ramme should be described rather in the Figure of this Beast then in that of an Oxe or a Horse and so in all the rest So that who ever should represent the Figure of a Bull among the Stars that belong to the Ramme and the Figure of a Ramme among those of the Bull he would destroy the very Principles of Astrology notwithstanding that the Stars of Taurus would as well bear the Figure of a Ramme as of a Bull. In like manner he that should make a Resch of such a Star as he should have made a Daleth of notwithstanding that the Star would beare it yet would he overthrow the Principles of this Celestiall Writing If it be now demanded who it is that is to judge of the vast number of New Letters that are made daily by the Diverse Aspects of the Planets I answer that it appertaineth to those Men who are Piously and Religiously versed in this Heavenly Writing and not to all kind of Persons indifferently But I shall as yet suspend my own Judgment as wel in This as in all the rest of these Curiosities which I have here delivered till such time as I shall have found either Weaker or Stronger Reasons THE END The First Table of the Celestial Constellations expressed by Hebrew Characters THe Characters of these two Tables are something different from those which Bonavent ure Hepburn a Scot hath out in Wood and from those 〈◊〉 other also which Duret hath set down in his History of Languages For I have made choice to follow those delivered by R. Chomer a man more skilâ—â—â— in this Particular then either of the former as being one of the most Learned amongst the Jewes of our times And yet I confesse some of the â—haracters are not right through the Gravers fault yet the difference is so little as that it cannot be of any great consequence or importance The two â—ables are divided by the Equator and the Stars are ranged here in the same order that they are in the Globe only those Stars which are under the Aspects of any of the Planets cannot be supposed to make up the same Letters now which you here find represented and which they made before because that these Planets which by reason of their Wanderings cannot be here set down do daily by their various Motions create New and Different 〈…〉 THE CELESTIAL HEBREW ALPHABET 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IERSEY Aetatis suae 10. From thy afflicted Vaile that Cypresse Bower still Watere'd fresh by thy Celestiall shower Come forth come forth Bright Captive Declare With a Full Orb the Innocent and Faire