the Question and makes the Judgement voyd the good Angels using for good the planetary Influence to Gods as the evill Angels for evill to his he sayes the beginning and the end of the houses is not agreed on I desire this above all to be looked on that whereas the conjunctions of the Starres to naturall men may stirre up an inclination to this or that yet what use Satan will make use of the influence in this man what on that is above all the art in the world to which the Starres say nothing and must produce an Impossibility in all men of giving Judgement by the Starres even to natural men then how farre God by a speciall providence shall order their influence restraining or over-powring Satan and the Starres as in the case of Pharaoh is another means to prove the vanity of Astrologie And to say that any of the Starres as the first planetary Starre or the third called Mars-starre or that they are misfortunes is a dishonor to God who made all good onely by sinne that that was good is by a Judgement of God become evill the evill is in us not the Starres to make one a whores starre others a theeves or murtherers is abomination Lactantius de Orig. Erroris cap. 17. de daemonibus inventa sunt Astrologia aruspicina oracula necromantia c. Idem ibid hi sunt qui fingere Imagines simulacra docuerunt qui ut hominum mentes a cultu veri Dei avertent fictos mortuorum regum vultus ornatus exquisita pulchritudine statui c. As Picus Mirandul lib. 3. cap. 7. makes it an argument against Astrologie in their falsly asserting ♄ to be cold Mars hot sure to me the seeming difference in the colour is not sufficient to prove the variety of their nature onely by an instinct God hath infused into them a power to act on the inferior bodyes without such mixt qualities as in mixt bodyes as of the Sunne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} illic ignis so all the other with the Sunne are of a pure Elementary nature who by the Creators will by its heat cherisheth all things in the earth as in the womb of nature helping her to bring out and perfect her fruit by the helpe of the Moone The Moone with her influence no lesse effects its operation on the sea then the Sunne on earth which depends not on the watrinesse or moystnesse of her nature but the Institution of God God impowering her as a power of the ayre so the winter cold from Saturn winds and raine by the celim c. are not to be applyed to their mixt qualities which cannot according to nature be found in simple bodyes But the ordinance of God who did by a decree appoynt summer and winter to fulfill whose will these by his providence are directed though in the fulfilling whereof he useth Satans power and malice as his servant therein My intent is not to write more of that truly noble Picus Mirand. but refer you to his 12 learned books Againe in that a great part of Astrologie pertains to Elections of houres and dayes to begin and doe businesses in its vanity appeares 1. Time is Gods Times and seasons are in the Fathers hands 2. To observe times not onely holy as feasts c. but as that one time is better then another to doe a businesse in it selfe without relating to other adjuncts and concomitants and in particular cases onely is indeed a thing the Scripture condemns as a superstitious vaine and evill thing 2. God says a man should doe things while it is in the power of his hand that is opportunitie for who knows what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 The Astrologer puts a man on deferring many dayes to doe his businesse as pretending a knowledge what dayes times and years will bring out and say it is not in the power of their hand to doe it as yet such and such will oppose and hinder but at such a time it will be good 3. Things are appointed to time in which they are to be so that time is not a thing to be disposed of by Election for that a man may thinke he hath time indeed he hath none Time in a speciall manner being reserved in Gods own hand as a peculiar means to dispence his providence and therefore James hints at such like presumptions in men saying to morrow we will goe as if one time were better then another to such a Citie as our direction guids us to and continue there a yeare the time of a promising revolution and get gaine After all which he says James 4.13 14. Whereas ye know not what shall be to morrow What is your life it is but a vapour on which depends all the purposes and actions of man if he fayle his very thoughts cease and dye with him Ambrose Austin Tertullian Bazill Chrysostome and others condemned it According to the Doctrine of Demons in the 9 spheare are 48 Asterisms or bodyes placed in heaven by the gods sonne Heroes and Heraes and other creatures and Instrumente who for some especiall good done or found in them were as by a reward placed there who have their Starres placed in them by which they act as soules by their bodyes on things below 1. Who are sayd to participate of the nature of two Demons oft-times are said to be of the nature of ♂ and ☿ ♂ and ♄ ♀ and ☿ ☿ and ♃ 2. When the Planets are in Conjunction with any of their own nature they are as men of one minde agreed on the worke intended good or evill and so act the more vigorously the Demons helped by the Heroes 1. Merach is in the Asterisme of Andromeda in whom she acts and is of the nature of Venus that is inciting to neatnesse lust and pleasure she was the wife of Perseus placed in heaven by Minerva now ♀ in ♂ with Mirach it is as if Venus Mirach bestowed their wits and time to make the native neat and incline him inwardly to love and adorne him with beautie 2. Regulus sayd to be of the nature of ♃ and ♂ signifies indeed the true nature of a Lions heart which they say is the Lion Hercules shewed in the Nemean forrest 3. He that is borne the 24 of ♉ ascending is inclinable to wantonnesse because of the Pleiades who are said to be the 7 daughters of Atlas now he that hath the spirits of 7 wenches working in him or upon him cannot choose but be a wanton especially if ♀ be with them in Conjunction If the head of Medusa ascend the Native is addicted to evill and subject to violent death which is but Medusa's story revived againe in the Native 4. Orion in the 17. ♊ is sayd to sharpen the wit if according to the fable Orion was the sonne of Jupiter Mercury and Neptune three of the Gods and pertakes of all their natures and makes the Native pertaker of his who
moveable signe in △ to the Sunne or Moone in his owne termes at the question it s a signe the man will quickly recover e contrario 1. Note let the Starre of ♄ be where it will yet Saturn if the ascendant be Aquary is sayd to be Lord in which is proved that by Saturn is meant the Demon not the Starre the Starre being in his Orb as in his Center cannot be sayd to delight in Aquary more then in ☊ and its usuall to say by the ♀ lady of ♉ is the first in a scheam R in the 10th they sayd the Lady of the first is in the 10 which is not to be answered by the figure of Metanomia subjecti but that where the Starre is the Lord is also In opposition to these Demon Lords the Scriptures say to us There is but one Lord if so Jupiter is none nor Mars c. 2. When they say Venus delights in mirth feasts musick dauncing neatness is any so simple as to thinke the starre is addicted thereto or are they not according to the doctrine say that Venus was so when alive and being in the starre as a soule in the body by its influence effects the like in the Natives borne under her dominion so that were the men deliver'd this doctrine alive they would admire to see their meaning so corrupted and Demons so deluded They say in the firmament are degrees light darke pitted deep increasers of fortune c. In the course of the Sunne appeares no such matter it onely tends to exalt the Cabal of Astrologie the Scripture tells us the heaven is stretched out like a Curtaine or a line that implyes plainnesse and in that it is a body not of differing substances there is no cause of inequalitie If they say they are not really deep or pitted or darke but are supposed so it proves the doctrine fictious and uncertaine in the very grounds what then must the doctrine thence deduced be The chiefe of the Planets fortitudes his exaltation is the greatest which gives him foure essentiall dignities 1. The Sunnes exaltation is in the 19 of Aries say they 2. The reason why that is his exaltation they say is because he was in the Creation placed in that degree of heaven 1. For which they have no more but a meer conjecture to prove it which is too weak a ground to carry foure dignities in a Judgement and sets out the uncertainty of its foundations 2. Why the first day it enters the Equinox should not be the degree of its exaltation or why it should not be exalted in Libra as soone as in Aries 3. Or why it should not be in that part of heaven they assigne him for his house viz. Leo since that in the Creation every herbe had his seed as in summer time and not as in spring time 4. Whereas they say in ♈ the Sunne increaseth the dayes therefore his ascention must be there true in the North Latitude it doth but shortens them in the South They in the South plead that in Libra it lengthens their dayes and therefore its ascention by the same reason to them must be in Libra as to us in Aries Here by the by I thinke good to shew how the Demons are made tutelary gods every City his Demon Angel and Starre and signe to rule it from the first laying its foundation and the Planet then reigned as ♊ for London c. whose Lord is ☿ so that as our Cities are our gods are As for the Tearms faces and peregrinations of the Planets they are meerly of the Cabal of Astrologie Say they a Native borne under the first of Aries ♃ directs the first 6 years of his life the next 8 ♀ the 7 following ☿ and then ♂ the 5 after and ♄ the last 4. in which to increase the esteeme of the Demons they are beholding to them all for bringing up of a childe onely the ☉ and ☽ excepted who are mentioned in the faces onely which makes the ☽ so often peregrine in which he is as a man therefore to be turned out of doore and not cared for then as the other Demons when indeed they are more beholding to them then to all the other Demons and Starres Albumazes cites five opinions of the Tearms the ground of which is that the Philosophers Magi or Flammins by experience found a Planet was of more force then out of a weak ground to give dignities by Bonatus says there were two opinions of them one of the Aegyptians the other of the Chaldes and that Ptolomy followed neither but the sayings of some Auncients he found in an old Booke Quest Which of these 9 opinions was best had most experience which men commit to Ptolomy's Judgement alone and follow him who left the practice of the Aegyptians and Chaldeans who were the first Inventors of it vid. Picus Mirand. lib. 6. cap. 17. From these tearms arose the ground of the Planetary government of the world 354 yeares in which I wonder at 3 things 1. That the order of their succession in reigne is not observed but inverted 2. That the Planets not having equall tearms should reign equall yeares 3. That the ☉ and ☽ not having tearms should governe the world as those have them is a hanging over of the building of Astrologie Heare what a Florentine Predicant says of the doctrine Super planetam veneris venus ipsa erecta appareat crine subtili sparso effigie pulcherrima cultu mulieri miro ornato modo vestibus talibus circumamicta qualibus Nymphae circumamicuuntur A latere planetae Martis Mars armatus ardenti insideat equo Juxta planetam Jovis sedes eburnea posita sit super quam Jovem deorum maximum ut falso apud Gentiles locato qui Jupiter planetam suum pedibus tangat ipsoque pro scabello utatur And in the like manner he says of the other Planets which clearely proves the doctrine distinguisht between the Demon and his Starre among the old Astrologers and the new doe the like in their saying when the Planet is in a figure in the house of another Planet they say the Lord of the 5 is in the 6th or the like which is more then the Planet indeed the Lord and the planet also by the new doctrine though not so clearly confest by them As for the difference among Astrologers about the number of the Sphears their motions the motions of the fixed Starres who say the eccentricks concentricks epicicles retrogradations trepidations are fables of the Poets and not of God nor nature and by his owne experience he saw it built onely on Imaginations as Agrippa of the vanity of sciences on Astronomy He observes on Judicial Astrologie the ground of its uncertainty in that the planetary influence as is confest doth not constrain but incline but Satan by these powers of the Starres rules in the sonnes of unbeliefe as the Prince of the powers of the ayre But who are and who not believers is
conversation that the ayrie power nor Satans cannot act in him 8. The Starres and the powers of the ayre are in themselves good and doe not stirre up to warre lust or other evill but as they meet with corruptions in mixt bodyes and as they are directed by Satan managed to further his designs in the world on all occasions which is unpossible for man to know but by Satan 9. And the reason is because Satan as he is a power himselfe and the chiefe of the powers of the ayre by his power he doth direct over-rule the other naturall powers to serve his temptation as every occasion requires and as every individual natural person is to be wrought upon 10. Christ prayed the Father to keepe those are his Joh. 17.15 I pray not that thou wouldest take them out of the world but keepe them from the evill 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may be understood from the evill one 2. By Evill of the world if it be understood in a larger sence it then comprehends finne and the meanes of it whether it be by Starres or else 3. In that he sayd I pray not that thou take them out of the world it shews that they are under the Influence of the heavenly powers as well as others they only are kept from the evill of them others are not 4. That these powers may occasion corruption in the bodyes of Saints and ordinarily by their influence as the meanes thereof bring forth death in or on them I see no reason to denie they having mortall and corruptible bodyes Yet so as 1. It is not mixt with any power of Satan 2. This acting of these powers is free from evill it is not the evill of the world to Saints but it is gaine to them as all other things in the world are theirs so death in this kinde is theirs also 5. God himselfe undertakes in the new world to give every good thing to the Inhabitants thereof and against and above the ayery powers to make a mans enemies to be at peace with him as in the case of Jacob and Esau Jacob and Laban Yea God himselfe Hosea 2.20 God will make a Covenant with beasts fowles creepings things for them and warre shall cease let the starry powers meet and oppose and square againe it will be nothing 6. Then the heavens will speake for the Saints not against them the earth the corne the wine and oyle will heare Jezrael as if Jezrael should then be beloved of them and as if in nature since the fall men were beloved of them Hos. 2.23 24. This is excellently set out in that the Starres are said in their order to fight against Sicera as it were God directing those heavenly powers to worke feare in the one and at that time God wrought valour in his peoples hearts Judges 5.20 Which I would rather read the Starres in their way fought c. That is in the way they fight and signifies that they have a way of fighting against such as God imploys them or from their influence or powers And that they fought for Israel God by his Angel directing them as ver. 23. Curse ye bitterly sayth the Angel of the Lord c. The Angel helped them by the Starry powers and declares a curse on the Inhabitants for not helping them 7. The ground of this appeares because Satan being bound a thousand yeares Rev. 20.2 3. the world will be free from his power and malicious actuating the ayery powers they then acting in their owne way and nature as in the Creation and directed by Gods immediate providence to his and the Ministry of his Angels to others who will no more be esteemed as fortunes and infortunes to men 8. In this binding the doctrine of Demons shall cease and Astrologie shall be laid aside for Satan hath not deceived the Nations more then by the Demon doctrine and the doctrine of Antichrist by Astrologers and Antichrist Ministers both which in the binding of Satan cease together with the Human teaching of Aristotle in the Academies by which the world hath been much seduced 9. Whereas before the binding Gods Elect were delivered from him but after that the very world in generall shall be delivered from these wayes of deceit a thousand yeares after which he is to be loosed a little all which proves the binding hath not been as yet for Satan did never deceive the world more then since the dayes of Constantine when they say he was bound these being the dayes of the Reigne of Antichrist after whom the whole world followed Note As the Kingdome of Satan and Christ differ and Christ and Satan so the powers differ one is a power acts by darknesse the other is a power acts by light one to deceive the other to direct 1. Between these powers is an enmity as it is sayd The wisdome of the world is Enmity with God James 3.15 Says it is earthly sensuall Devilish but that from above vers. 16. is pure peaceable gentle easie to be intreated c. 2. These powers shew themselves in the men acted by them so that God says Genes 3.15 I will put enmity between her seed and thy seed Gal. 4.29 He that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit 3. The greatest power is in the world to come that destroys the worke of the Devill Greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world 1 John Rom. 16.20 God shall tread downe Satan under your feete Satans power is a created power and so limited the power of a servant onely to doe what he is appointed and no more 4. All these are set out excellently in him Mark 6.2 What is there to me and thee thou Jesus c. As if he should say I am not of this world under thy power I am Satans thou hast nothing to doe with me nor I with thee so that though he worshipt Christ whiles he was under Satans power he had no desire to be under Christs that seemed a torment to him but when he was under Christs he would not againe be under Satans 5. Hence though the number of Satans subjects are more and the nature of his power more agreeable to the world yet the vertue of his power being weake it cannot prevaile no not so much as against the weaknesse of God or the weake ones of the Lord Jesus who are mighty through Christ the poore fishers cast downe Devils out of their holds take away their captives discover his deceipts 6. The conceipt was too high that Eusebius cites of the Starres that they are for signes and so are as a booke in which are set forth the natures and state of things below with the revolution of the times thereof which is expresly against the Scripture who says That the times and seasons are in the Fathers hands that is knowne onely by him so as that Christ himselfe as man had many things hid from him of that nature and therefore not revealed in the booke of the Starres Act. 1.7 Matth. 24.36 FINIS These Angels or Spirits are said to perside 354 yeares 4 moneths