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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	vanity_n	young_a	youth_n	37	3	8.2292	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86055	Natura prodigiorum or, a discourse touching the nature of prodigies. Together with the kinds, causes and effects, of comets, eclipses, and earthquakes. With an appendix touching the imposturism of the commonly-received doctrine of prophecies, spirits, images, sigils, lamens, the christal, &c. and the propugners of such opinions. / By John Gadbury philomathēmatikos.	Gadbury, John, 1627-1704.	1660 (1660)	Wing G91; Thomason E2131_3; ESTC R202414	80,331	276

him if that were all the Devil he could shew He answered Yes the Knight replyed You Villain you deserve to be kick't down the stairs in recompence for your knavery I am of belief the application of this story will reach if not over-reach the consciences and practices of some among us that wear the golden name of Astrologers who very commonly under pretence thereof make use of a Christal and other pretended Cheats and Shifts to Gull the sillier sort of people Nay they are made use of sometimes to persons at very great rates viz. six pound a call as they knavishly call it even to their undoing and to the great scandal of Astrologie which as it is dealt with is the onely Cover-cheat of these times and indeed to the Shipwrack and Ruine of the Practitioners Conscience Honesty and good Name Nay this villany is grown so rife and common now among us that he is not worthy almost to be deemed an Astrologer that cannot stretch both his conscience and skill like unto these persons touched who by their practises should be of Cacus's Progeny because they so eminently pretend to make with him Candida de nigris de candentibus atra Black things look white and white to look like black No man in reason can be angry at this Discourse unless he be guilty of the error taxed Which if he be I wish his return to the truth for there is a secret justice that finds out persons of unjust practise before they be aware The wicked flourish for a moment or small season but their end is destructive I hope those whom this Aenigmatical touch concerns will take convenient warning by it I point at none though perhaps I might have done by name but have been guided by that known Law of civility Licuit semperque licebit Parcere personis dicere de vitiis It Lawful was of old and still the same To scourge the vice and friendly spare the name And now I return to Cornelius again As there are some persons born to believe lyes fictions and fables so there are others that are brought into the world to broach them And such was this learned persons fate and his Nativity doth excellently well demonstrate the same For 1. ☿ Mercury who is Lord of the Ascendant thereof is combust and in □ of ♃ and the ☽ is in ☍ Opposition of him and the Sun 2. The ☋ Dragons tail is upon the very Cuspe of the East Angle 3. Saturn and Mars who is the dispositor of ☽ and a great significator of inclination and manners in his Nativity by being in ⚹ of ☽ and in △ of ☿ Lord of the Ascendent are in opposition from Angles and the Ascendent is evilly beheld by both of them but chiefly by Saturn Now I ask the honest Astrologer whether the owner of such a Nativity were not a fit person to coyn and broach fables Behold the figure thereof as the learned Origanns hath it Nascitur Cornel. Agrippa 1486 Sept. 14 d. 15 h. 24 m. P.M. I the more willingly insert the figure of this Nativity 1. Because Origanus works are not very common and easie to be had 2. That every one versed in Astrologie may see by the figure that I do not impose upon him or any other ought else then what the Scheam presents But notwithstanding these notable Arguments in his Geniture for such a purpose this eminent Person retracted those his strange Opinions as may be seen in his Book of the vanity of Sciences And happy would it be for all others that are tainted with the same error so to do But a more remarkable recantation of his I find in the third book of his Occult Philosophy prope finem Of Magique saith he I wrote whilst I was very young three large books which I called Occult Philosophy In which what was then through the curiosity of my Youth Erroneous I now being more advised am willing to have RETRACTED by this RECANTATION I formerly spent much time and Cost in these vanities At last I grew so wise as to be able to disswade others from this destruction For whosoever doth not in the truth and power of God but in the deceits of Devils according to the operation of wicked spirits presume to Divine and Prophecy and practising through Magical vanities exorcisms incantations and other demoniacal works and deceits of Idolatry boasting of delusions and Phantasms presently ceasing brag that they can do Miracles I say saith he all these shall with Jannes and Jambres and Simon Magus be destinated to the torments of eternal fire Let now the Maintainers of these Fictions and reasonless Opinions retract by the president of their learned Author If not in publique as he hath done let it appear in their practises at least But if they are resolv'd to ride it through maugre all that can be said in opposition to it and will still hug and retain this their art of cozenage and deluding the world Let them shew so much of Honesty in the midst of their Villany that while they pick the Purses of the people they may spare their wits For it is a double loss for men to be cogg'd out of great sums of money and then to be cheated into a belief that they are Honestly and fairly used 3. Of Apollonius Tyaneus This Apollonius is the last of my Ternary and was a person that pretended much skill in the making of Telismes c. In whch art if we will believe all that is written or storyed of him he was so well versed that thereby he could work wonders and do things so far beyond the reach of mans reason that some of the people of those times in which he lived accounted him a petty God rather then a man Hierocles the Stoick had so high an Opinion and esteem of him that he deemed him a better man and one of more power then Christ the Saviour of the World Nay such was the dotage of many people in those dayes a spice of which we in ours still retain that they accounted him a man so much excelling the very best sort of men that they thought him too sacred to be lightly spoken of Yea so happy was the time in which he began his pranks For it is not to be denyed but much is to be attributed unto times and seasons or else his Geniture was remarkable and prodigious for such purposes why not as well as Cornelius Agrippa's that the most Orthodox themselves began to deem him vested with power sufficient for a Deity which occasioned that so strange a doubt from Justine Martyr as cited by the learned Gregory fol. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If God be the Creator and Lord of the world how comes it to pass that Apollonius his Telisms have so much over-ruled the course of things For we see that they also have stilled the waves of the Sea and the raging of the winds and prevailed against the noisom flyes and incursions of wild beasts

as a Horse in Smithfield But I matter not how-ere the world esteem it either for its own worth or Authors credit 't is like to come among them now And if any Erastion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or crooked Speaker shall cavil at it as their Patron of old did at the Physick of Paracelsus and the Divinity of Luther it will utterly contemn and slight their snarlings and defie their taunts But if on the other side any better-minded shall object that this Discourse is of divers sorts as Josephs Coat of Colours Gen. cap. 37. v. 32. in that it treats of several things I shall then answer for it with the learned Arnoldus de villa nova who said Nullum simplex medicamentum fine noxa There is no simple medicine without danger Yet let me tell the ingenious Readers the discourse is only seemingly divers for there is nothing touched on in the whole Book but hath some relation to or dependance on the subject of it viz. Prodigies I therefore presume that the ingenious objector will forbear to censure For it is a ruled case Causa rationabilis semper excusat transgressorem legis humanae i. e. A reasonable cause shewn always excuseth a man in cause he be found a transgressor of some humane Law Besides I know the world is filled with as many several fancies as faces according to that Antient and most true adage Tot mundi superstitiones quot coelo stellae There are as many vain conceits superstitions and opinions in the world as there are Stars in Heaven What if to please the different fancies in the world I have written diversly Here if some things displease others may make amends If thou art not delighted in the Philosophical part hereof turn to the Historical c. if that do not Palliate try the Astrological And if that hap to disaffect thee possibly the Meteorological part thereof may please thee read that and thou wilt there find the true Physical causes of all Meteors and Prodigies And Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Thrice happy he above the chiefest Kings That doth but truly know the cause of things All that I have to say now Reader before I dismiss thee is that there is a counterfeit Copy of this Nature published by a covetous and mercenary wretch and preferred under my Name it flees about like an infection in a Plague-time under the silly title Miraculum signum Coeleste● Or a discourse of Prodigies since Christ part whereof I confess I was at the pains of composing but never perfected it as may be seen by the method I laid down at the beginning This I thought good to advertise thee of and the world also to prevent thy being cheated by the counterfeit and to unmask the knavery of the Book-seller who hath done it and to acquaint thee that both the Book-seller and the imperfect copy as surreptitiously published are detested and dis-owned and none but this acknowledged by From my House near Strand-Bridge Jo. Gadbury ERRATA In pag. 87. col 2. l. 29. read 1659. p. 91. l. 21. r. divideth p. 125. l. 22. r. Marcley-Hill p. 158. l. 9. r. Spectrums p. 164. l. ult for Parcimeter r. Perimeter p. 181. l. 22. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 191. l. 31. r. only simple p. 190. l. 26. r. pretended Books printed and sold by Francis Cossinet at the Anchor and Mariner in Tower-street ADvice to a Daughter in opposition to the Advice to a Son by Eugenius Theodidactus Grace and Mercie to a sinner in time of affliction or the serious Meditations of Mr Thomas Ford. Geometrical Dyalling or Dyalling performed by the plain-scale or line of chords by John Collins The Mariners plain scale new plained wherein Navigation Triangles projection of the Sphere is excellently and easily performed by the plain scale or line or chords by John Collins Principles of Arithmetick by William Webster The young Sea-man's Guide by Tim. Gadbury The Nativity of the King of Denmark by J. Gadbury in which the Peace of the two Northern Crowns was Predicted Childs Book and Youths Book teaching children the most easie and delightful way to read true English by S.T. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Doctrine of Nativities comprehending the whole Art of Directions Revolutions and Transits whereby any man even of an ordinary capacitie may be enabled to discover the most Remarkable and Occult accidents of life be they either good or evil With Astronomical Tables for calculating the Planets Places for any time past present or to come more facile and compleat then any extant To be sold by Giles Calvert and Daniel White at their Shops at the seven Stars and Black-Spread-Eagle in St. Pauls Church-Yard The Idaea of the Law Government and Tyranny by J Heydon Esq to be sold by Tho. Basset in St. Dunstans Church-Yard The Rosie-Crucian infallible Axiomata a learned and excellent work written by the same Author and will shortly be made publique A Discourse Touching the NATURE and EFFECTS OF PRODIGIES DIfficile est judicium de quo caeremus exemplis multarum rerum in nostris temporibus saith one It is a very hard and difficult matter for any man to judge or treat of those things or subjects of which in our times we have few or no presidents or examples Notwithstanding the numerous and various Treatises that are daily penned and printed as well in Latine as English yet are there hardly any that treat particularly of Prodigies VVhich subject of it self is both lofty and considerable for as much as it treateth of the causes of Natures wonders and might therefore have become the paines of the sharpest and most extensive Mercurial fancie All other subjects have been conveniently handled and with much zeal and affection in this age of liberty promoted and exalted and this alone hath layen dormant in the ashes of oblivion as if there had been no such thing as a Prodigie in rerum Natura Now for to quicken or stir up some more able Pen and better composed judgment do I make this but mean Essay toward the discovery of some of the many golden Truths that lie imprisoned in this kind of Learning And that I may not anticipate my Readers hopes with too large a Preface I will give him to understand what I purpose to pursue in this Discourse by these following particulars 1. Some disquisitions touching Prodigies 2. A Catalogue of the most remarkable Prodigies since the birth of Christ with the Effects that concomitated them 3. Something touching Comets Eclipses and Earth-quakes 4. Of Meteors in general c. how caused And the method thus proposed I shall here prosecute but more briefly then I once intended because I would prevent the spreading of a surreptitious Copy of this kind that I hear hath lately by the meanes of a mercenary Book-seller invaded the world and the conscienceless promulger thereof is nor ashamed to report it a true one and owned by me But this obiter I shall come

great Monarchy pretty enthusiastical delusions the greatest and last that ever will be Vide Blag Ephem 1659. p. 1. Again if there were any verity or reason in this high-towring doctrine they pretend unto may we nor with much reason conclude both these Angel-mongers mistaken for according to the Principles of their Patron Trithemius neither Gabriel nor Hanael but Samael the Angel or Spirit of Mars to cope with them in their own canting dialect should have ruled this present Age of the world For he acquaints us that under Mars's rule or dominion wars were all over the world what peace have we in this age had I pray you infinite thousands of men perished Is our age behind hand with any age for that also Sundry Battels fought Doth not this age of ours by experience woful enough prove the same Kingdoms lost their former bounds How conspicuous is this truth to us also Now if Mercury had governed at this time the world had then been busi●d about novel fancies and opinions secret plottings and privy clandestine conspiracies and not apted or fitted for any such publick or notorious actions And had Venus by her Angel raigned as was urged we should then have been blessed with concord pleasure tranquillity peace and quietude Ergo it roundly follows that were we willing to suppose a truth in the doctrine neither Venus or Mercury or their Angels for them could at this time govern the world But when rash Assertors want arguments of reason to make good the things they so ignorantly obtrude upon mens understandings it is no wonder that they are found guilty of such gross absurdities I appeal to the whole world whether our scarlet Times have not more resembled Mars and his fury then either the changeable fancies or witty conceits of Mercury or the serenity and smiles of Venus Blood death and tragique stories Mars doth yeild A Golgotha of graves whose purple field Dy'd Crimson with his fatal Massacres Ant. Philos Sat. 5. Craves bloody Inke and scarlet Characters A pen that like a bullets force would reel A marble conscience By this short Annotation you may judge of what worth and excellency the whole is although so prodigiously boasted of For you see plainly Trithemius owns not the doctrine and it is plainly to be seen also that his disciples understand it not nor indeed do they know how to make use thereof except only to gild over their ignorance in honest and demonstrable Arts they pretend to the knowledg of It seemeth as cleer to me as the Sun in his Meridian glory that Trithemius his design and aim was to get himself fame and honor and to fix the Image of his ambition in the beliefs and understandings of the ignorant and credulous sort of people in the world so to perpetuate his name and memory for ever by such an undertaking For you must know that the world is not half so barren of persons ignorant as ingenious and really I account it a providence that God and Nature have given to wit and ingenuity wings that the Heavenly part of the ingeniously learned may bear them up above the dunstable resolutions of the rustick or unlearned otherwise they would be most sure to be voted out of their knowledge as reason it self too often is at a Grand-Jury It is not to be doubted but Trithemius knew the vanity and fictitiousness of this pretended Angel-skill But had not Trithemius done something above the ordinary level how should he have now been talked of among us he alas hath passed away and would have been remembred no more or at least but a little while among the sons of men but for such an undertaking Now the better to obtrude this his fancy upon the spirit of the world he dedicates the story to Caesar submitting to his judgment and the censure of the Church therein And hence it is come to pass that the learning of Trithemius and the authority and greatness of Caesar his Patron hath born down as well the reason and judgment of some persons very learned as the yeilding brains of the ignorant And thus much for Trithemius 2. Of Agrippa Henry Cornelius Agrippa is the second person in my triumvirate who beyond all thoughts of doubt was a most eminently learned man or else surely he had never been admitted Councellor to Charls the fifth Emperor of Germany nor yet judge of his Prerogative Court both which honors Cornelius was possessed of This learned person being strangely possessed with the vanity of what we have now under examination wrote three books De occulta Philosophia of occult Philosophy and therein to the skie as we use to speak magnified the Doctrine of Angels Spirits Characters Seals and Images c. and thereby set the fancies of divers persons at work expecting to be acquainted with their genius or at least so far with the vertue of a Sigil that thereby they might work wonders who have indeed after much pains and expence of money and time returned as wife from the search thereof as they came first to it Some it is true that I know will talk largely of their skill and cunning abilities and report with much confidence what they are able to do but alas they only act the part of Vangoose in the Play viz. pretend much when they can do nothing but talke Van Vill yow see somting Ick sall bring in de Turkschen met all Zin Bashawes Zin dirty towsand Yanitsaryes met all Zin whooren Eunuken all met an auder de Sofie van Persia de Tartar Cham met de groat king of Mogul and make deir men and deir horse deir Elephanten bee seen fight in de ayre and bee all killen and aliven noe such ting And all dis met d● Ars van de Catropricks by de refleshie van de glassen Such indeed is the skill that many pretenders have arrived at by their being credulous of things impossible to be performed and while they have twatled of raising spirits and of shewing faces in a Glass and other such like counterfeit cozening stories they have layd their reputations and honesty low enough in the esteem of all I remember to have heard a story of what hapned between that excellent Philosopher and great naturalist Sir K. Digbie and that Arch-pretender Dr. Lamb. This Dr. Lamb would needs be thought a person able to converse with Spirits command Devils and what not which the learned Sir K. hearing of and desirous to be confirmed of either the truth or falshood of the relation repaired to the Dr. who presently meeting the Knights request supposing him ignorant in his craft begins to shew him some shapes by the reflection of some Optical Glasses upon a wall which the Knight readily perceiving found him a cheat in his pretences for that there was nothing more in that knack of his of rarity then what an ordinary capacity might honestly arrive unto by the Optiques and took him by the collar of his doublet demanding of

this granted that it was his aim and intent so to do and will it not readily result that there was not so much of truth or reality as subtilty policy in the thing Another thing worthy of good consideration I meet with in the Publisher thereof That had Dr. d ee but lived in Turkie when he conversed with Angels and Spirits thus there is no doubt saith he but they would have spoke as much for the Mahome●an faith and profession as by his being in Europe they did for the Catholique or Christian And indeed if we seriously consider this Doctrine c. we shall finde that both Angels and Spirits c. always fitted their Answers and Oracles to the humors and customes of the times and place or places in which they were delivered Which very thing proclaims the whole business to consist of nothing b●t deceit and imposture And really it is a wonder to me that any person that is ingenious should esteem of it otherwise I have read the ●ook seriously over whereas the Pu●lishers desire is but to read a quarter thereof before a man pass his censure or opinion upon it and protest really I find nothing in it but a meer Romance Storie in a pretended Saint-like Scripture-language the stile Platonick and of so indifferent a vein for eloquence and fancie That I presume an ordinary wit might have flown a far higher pitch Ben. Johnsons Bartholomew Fair is far above it both for language and matter plot and contrivance and indeed in all other respects There is one thing in it above all the rest worthy to be noted and plainly proves the designers of this new-found Whimsey not so religious as they pretended It is this In the progress of these Stories Dr. d ee and Mr. Kelly could seldome agree At last they resolved to invocate an Angel or Spirit to acquaint them with the reason thereof they being of one and the same faith and professing and practising one and the same thing To be brief an Angel as saith the Book was called and the question being propounded The Angel returned this in answer The reason of their disagreeing so much was because they were not cross matched Upon the hearing of this answer from the Angel Dr. d ee and Kelly begin to interpret the same To their not having layen with each others wife And this was the best and only gloss they could put upon their Angels answer Now to put this blessed work into practise To tempting the women they go And sayes the Book the women cryed thereat deeming the action sinful And that which is the more intolerable To these Lecherous and filthy conceits they were not ashamed to abuse the holy and glorious name of God and of the Trinity Immediately after to render the cheat for no other can it be notwithstanding some account it of as good a stamp for truth as the Gospel of St. John the more plain and clear they subjoyn a question of Theft answered by Astrologie and the very text of Haly de judic Astr urged for the reason of their judgment Which had there been any thing of excellencie or certainty in their pretended Doctrine of Angels I suppose they would never have been beholden to poor Haly or have craved the assistance of an Aphorism from him in any case whatsoever In another place they fall to their trade of Exorcising again and an unmannerly shee-Angel appears and incontinently shews them her nakedness Such is the excellencie and Religion of such Hyperbolical fooleries What this Kelly was the Publisher tells you at large that he was a Philosopher undone by fire or by seeking after the Elixir a thing that hath befooled the wisest of men Afterwards he fell into some ill trade or course of living that as the Publisher saith he lost his ears in Lancashire and then fled beyond the Seas c. but for Dr. Dee's part I believe him much abused in the thing For it is impossible for reason to conclude a person of so great learning and parts a general scholar one that had the advantage of the best wits in his time which was of power sufficient to keep his reason from sinking or suffering shipwrak and himself so great a Proficient in all arts and sciences could be so strangely deluded If we should admit that this Kelly being as you have heard before a person reduced to a condition desperate might once by his subtiltie delude him Or that himself in some more then ordinary Melancholy Mood should willingly yeild to the tryal of some such project Yet I cannot conceive but he must easily have discovered the vanity and uncertainty to say no worse of the practise before it could possibly grow up unto so large a book in folio I leave the modest Reader to judge of the thing If it be falsly fathered upon Dr. Dee my estimate thereof is not then vain if it be truly really his own I then account it no miracle for vain and foolish things to confound and destroy the wisdom judgments and understanding of the wise Thus much for the substance and excellence of Dr. Dee and Mr. Kelly in their large folio Book of Spirits lately published 3. Of Pughs Prophecies The learned Frenchman James Gafferel fol. 285. tells us That the Astrologie of the Hebrewes had not as yet lost any of its lustre so long as it was practised by those of their own Nation only But so soon as the more Northern Nations began to have any knowledge of it they presently fell to venting of such strange wilde fancies and to increase the number of fables in such sort as that it is no marvel that the Science hath been so much cry●d down So while the Spirit of Prophecie remained in its proper Channel i. e. Among persons ab Aeternitate appointed for such an office it was most worthily honored as indeed it ought still to be but when once the seed of Baal began to abound and the whole race of Pseudo-Prophets overspread the world such lyes vanities forgeries and falsities have been vented under pretence of their being acted by the Spirit of Prophecie that it hath occasioned many to blaspheme the same and think lightly of the true Prophets sent of God In the number or retinue of which vanities I rank the Prophecies now in question Where in pag. 1. our Prophet tells us That Elphin son of Gwidduo Garranir having requested the benefit of fishing for one night which being granted him by his father he rises early the next morning and taking up his net finds no fish therein but instead thereof espyes entangled about the Net a close leather bag the which he took up and ripped open and found a child therein named I know not nor he neither by whom Taliesin Pag. 2. this wonderful childe declares it self for the Protestant Religion Albeit Luther the father thereof was not born some centuries of years after Elphin is grieved he hath missed his prize by fishing Taliesin pag. 3. promiseth to be better to him then 300. Salmons Pag 4. this Taliesin pretends to have been contemporary with Jonas from whom he received another name even Merddin Duplex Nomen Duplex Nebulo he was also with God before Lucifer fell he was also in the banner leading Alexander He knoweth the number of the Stars not better sure then A●atus from the North to the South He was in the Ark with Noah and Alpha. He saw the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrha He was at ●ff●ick before the Building of Rome Pag. 5. He was Protector to Elias and Enoch He was chief overseer at the building of Babels Tower perhaps he there l●arnt to broach this strange confusion He was at Dyon before there were Gyants born He has been at Jerusalem among the Prophets yet he sustained imprisonment at a King of Britaines Court in the Tower for a year and a day Pag. 6. He conducted Moses thorow the Sea of Jordan But that is no other then a River He was in the Air with Mary Magdalen He received the gift of Poetry from the boyling furnace of Caridwin a she-Gyant that lived in Northwales He will be upon the earth till the day of Judgment though no body know where his residence is but knows not really whether he be flesh o● fish Pag. 7. He determines the years of Christ Which indeed are like Solomons Virgins without number Pag. 8. he tells a story how Panton made humane body and rested 500. years upon the Sandy Valley of Hebron before he was made a living soul With divers other frivolous and impertinent and most incredible stories of Adam and Eve of Eve's cheating Adam by which means Rye came into the world They that can make head or tail truth or sence for Prophecies none but mad-men will accept them of such strange complexion'd stuff as this I envy not their happiness but I protest unfainedly it is no company for my reason or understanding By this you may discern to what a height of impudence and error men are grown by allowing reins to their fancies to believe any thing and by subjugating their reason and laying it in fetters that it shall not dare to peep up against such silly senseless and ridiculous trash Let men of reason halt no longer between two opinions but let truth be embraced and cherished and falshood and error in every thing but chiefly in these things by reason of their evil be discountenanced and rejected And thus much for this second Section and for a conclusion to the whole discourse Percurrent multi augebetur cognitio Dan. 12.4 FINIS