geniture As of Janus Jupiter Saturn Genius Mercury Apollo Mars Vulcan Neptune Sol Orcus Liber Pater Tellus Ceres Juno Lucina Fluona Luna Diana Minerva Venus Vesta Moreover Vitumnus Sentinus Mens Mena Iterduca Domiduca Abaona Adeona and Dea Fatua too not of the least ordination and operation either in the birth or life or death And no marvell that they make so many Consent-Gods goe to the fate of a Man when they will have so many to be busie about the fate of an herb As Seia fatally president of the sowing Segetia or Segesta at the comming up of the Corn Nodotus or Nodinus at the knitting or knotting Volutina at the involving of the leaves Patellina or Patellea at the opening of the blade Proserpina at the budding Hostilina at the equall shaping of the eare Flora at the flourishing Lasturtia at the nourishing Tutilina in the keeping Matuta or Matura at the ripening Messia at the mowing and Runcina not only at the weeding but at the plucking up by the roots 8. Whether Fate be one or many If it be one simply then what needs any reduction if it be many why is it not redueed to one And then in vain is that done by many which may be done by one and it is prophane to ascribe that to many which ought to be ascribed to one If it be one truly then is it undivided in it self and divided from all others which how can that which is a series or connexion of so many things be especially having its inherence in movables or mutables If it be but one by accident why should it imply all under a necessity If it be but one by aggregation collection connexion so are things fortuitous as well as fatall Besides such an unity is in the meanest degree of entity Wherefore then should it order and subordinate things of a more perfect degree than it self If it be many or a multiplicity then is it unequall indeterminate uncertain and next to a nullity If it be one why then do they make it so diverse according to divers conjunctions and constellations If it be many how can they make any certain and particular pronouncing upon it 9. Whether that they call Fate be in the first or among the second Causes If in the first that is as much as to make it equall unto God If among the second then is it inferiour unto man For among second causes and especially in involuntary actions and all such as fall under humane counsell and deliberation the intellectuall mind and rationall will hath no superiour And what more contrary to the order of nature and creatures than that the lesse noble should be disposing and governing those more noble than themselves 10. Whether there be a fatall necessity upon all acts or events If upon all acts where 's Liberty if upon all events where 's contingency And whether upon these both good and evill and that whether naturall civill or spirituall If upon naturall acts and events good or evill then what use of means either to preserve or to prevent If upon acts civill and good what merit what praise if upon acts civill and evill what laws what punishments If upon events civill and good what thanks if upon events civill and evill what hopes If upon acts spirituall and good what free grace if upon acts spirituall and evill what free will If upon events spirituall and good what free bounty If upon events spirituall and evill what free mercy 11. How can there or why should there be such a thing as Fate imposing a necessity upon actions and events when as divine providence it self doth it not so as to exclude liberty contingency or casualty from things But works with second causes according to their own motion and manner Permitting sometimes their exuberancy sometimes their deficiency preserving to them their sundry orders offices and degrees of efficiency Suffering the remoter causes or agents to be impedited by the more proximate that all effects might not be taken for naturall and necessary but that his own free disposing might appear Although nature and every naturall agent be of it self and ordinarily determinated to one effect and to the producing of it after the same way yet he suffers it to be impedited by one debility and indisposition or another either to come to pass otherwise or else to be altogether prevented that so he might preserve a contingency in all naturall causes to the intent nothing might be thought absolutely necessitating but his own will and pleasure above Much more doth he confirm a freedom to the rationall will not only that good may the more chearfully be done and accepted but the evill also that is done or suffered may not unjustly be imputed to providence because of a necessity imposed 12. If fate be as they define it the Series order nexure ligation complication constitution disposition of second causes c. what feeble things are all those seconds put together without the first what can their own motion work to without his speciall concurrence what if he work not with them what if without them what if against them Leave them to themselves and what knot in a rope of Sand Can there be a perpetuall series or indissoluble connexion betwixt causes so disparate yea so adverse as naturall internall necessary and arbitrary adventitious accidentall yet after this order is fate oftentimes finished A languishing man not only consumes away within himself but the ayr meats drinks poyson act the fatall consummation To an ordinated destiny of an unfortunate end comes in inordinately fire water a fall a gun a sword an unlucky hand c. and hath not this necessitating fate now the complement by accident and is there not a casuall intervention of more force to the fatall effect than all the causall connexion How many accidents fall out fatally that can have no second cause ordinatly assigned to them much less prospected in them but must be referred meerly to divine will and pleasure unless you will have accidentall instruments that interven inordinately to be such 13. The Physicall fate they will have to be a series of pure naturall causes c. viz. betwixt the stars the elements the temperament the inclination the manners the action and the issue or event now where are all these causes knit together in the efficient the form the matter or the end How are they worthy to be called causes or so proved How are they pure naturall and necessary causes when some of them are voluntary and contingent what connexion of them is that which carrys on prime and second causes naturall and voluntary necessary and contingent with one fatall force or inevitable agitation what series is that which as hath been said is so often interrupted what copulation betwixt the first and the last when as by their own confession the stars are not the causes of all events neither doe all those effects fall out necessarily whereof they are the cause How are they fatall
preserve to themselves Ought not therefore such a disposition to be referred solely to him that hath the ordination and gubernation of all things both in heaven and earth simply freely eternally and immutably in himself 21. How can the fatall series of causes be from the starres when as the starres themselves are not causes as in humane and arbitrary actions Not causes where they may be signes as of things already done and past Yea God himself may signifie many things whereof he is not the cause as in evill and sinfull actions Nay have not the fatidicall Vaticinators themselves made many fatall signes which could never be causes nor yet once come into any series or necessary connexion As in their aruspicies and auguries from the entrailes of beasts flight and noise of birds c. as also from lots dreams prodigies casualties yea and physiognomies c. 22. How can the starres be the first in the fatall series of second causes When as of all creatures the spirituall intellectuall or rationall are the supreme and the corporeall animate or inanimate their inferiours Now the starres are both corporeall and inanimate Spirits and souls as they have more similitude to so they participate more vertue of divine providence than all other creatures For they are both the cognoscitive and the operative instruments of providence which the other are not For these being but the executive only may either be directed or diverted by the iutellectuall and ordinative As acting of themselves with liberty deliberation discretion observation of right rules application of fit means and intention to a due end And therefore are the more eminent ministers of providence than all things else in heaven or earth 23. Whether any such cut as fatation may be properly sayd to be in or from the starres For fatation imports a primordiall law or decree not an influence only or effect what sacrilege is it then to ascribe that to the instrument which is only peculiar to the principall agent Since it is for instruments especially the inanimate not to ordain but execute only Yea it is a question whether there be any fatation even in fate it self it being accepted and discerned not for a seminall disposition but for an ultimate execution and that inherent in the moveable or mutable subject Wherefore seeing fatation is neither in the starres nor in fate it self whether can any thing be sayd to be fatall with respect to the starres For the starres are but second causes And with respect to all such some things may be sayd to be naturall some things arbitrary some things indifferent some things contingent some things uncertain some things casuall but few or none fatall 24. Whether it be in the power and validity of the celestiall bodyes to impose a fatall necessity either upon humane actions or yet upon naturall things For if the starres be any such causes then must they cause principally of themselves intentionally directly immutably Now how can they be principall causes when providence is above them how of themselves when they work not upon humane actions but by accident how intentionally since they want a mind or soul how directly when they operate upon humane actions but indirectly how immutably when their ordination or disposition may be impedited Again were they thus acting then should there be no contingents or accidents no libertie or free actions nor prevention of any events or issues no particular causes should be defective nor distance of place nor indisposition of the mean no neglect of the means no endeavour to the contrary or opposition should be available nay not only the understanding but the will should be tyed to corporall organs and matter yea and the starres should not only be of sufficient but of infinite power 25. How doe the celestiall bodyes work so fatally upon these inferiours when as they here operate not upon a necessity as to the producing of the effect For albeit their impressions be naturall yet are they not received but according to the manner of the receivers which are fluxible and not having themselves still after the same way Because of the matter that is in a potentiality to many yea and to contrary formes The matter also is movable and corruptable and may easily defect of it self may be intrinsecally indisposed and extrinsecally impedited And the staries themselves are but indefinite and remote causes to which the effect can never follow determinatly and necessarily unless the middle causes be necessary and then they follow them and not the other But in the foresaid series the middle causes are most of them contingent and from many contingent causes can come no effect of necessity because any one of them and all of them together may be defective and not attain unto their end 26. Seeing the heavenly bodyes act not upon these inferiours but by their light and motion and so communicate nothing to the matter they work upon but light motion and heat Now why may not all these flow from all the starres in generall And why then should such and such fatall inclinations be attributed to such or such positions or conjunctions And if there be any particular vertues of the light and motion of some stars contrary to the vertues of the light and motion of other flarres how is that demonstrated And how comes it to passe that they should be operative and effectuall one way in their simple natures or qualities and yet another way in their relative aspects and positions Is an imaginary relation or respect of more validity than a reall substance or propriety 27. They seem to define fate more acurately that make it to be the series or connext order of naturall causes Now till they can directly and successively deduce those naturall causes down from the starres to those fatall events what reason is there to credit their proposition much lesse their prognostication They likewise will have fate in the best sense they can take it to digest and distribute all things according to certain motions successions orders forms places times Now if their fate cannot be well understood or discerned without these same astrictions why are they so consounded at the inexplicableness of the circumstances Otherwise why doe they not predict usually the very times and places together with the fates themselves Moreover the first definers of fate held it to be not in the superiors but in the inferiors themselves Namely a disposition inherent in the moveable thing and that urging to an immoveable event If indeed it be such ought not every mans fate to be collected from himself rather than from his Stars 28. How should the things of fate and fortune be foretold when it is not yet with one consent told what things they are themselves Some have gone so high as to say that they are Deities or Gods others are fallen so low as to make them vanities and nothing Some confound these two together some set them so opposite as that they make them
confound one another Some admit many things of both as they say at the fore-gate and exclude all again at the back door Some place them in the beginning in the middle in the end of a business Some make us to be in their power Some them in our power Some would have us believe both but inquire neither But if they would no inquiry after their nature and properties why make they such inquiry into their operations and effects 29. Whether fate be mutable or immutable If mutable how is it fate Is there not then a contingency of fate as well as a face of contingencies If immutable what hope what colour what means what remedy Nay if immoveable how moves it as they say according to the nature and order of all moveable things That is to say with naturall things naturally with necestary necessarily with voluntary voluntarily with contingent contingently with violent violently with remiss remissely And all this not as a prime and free but as a second and necessary cause Why may we not as well say with rationall things rationally with brute brutishly with sensuall sensually with vertuous vertuously with vitious vitiously with prosperous prosperously with adverse adversely with uncertain uncertainly c. And then what irrefragable law of fate is that which is fain to conform to and comply with every ones manners and manner of working 30. Whether fate be absolute in decree or conditionate If absolute then can it not be otherwise and what remedy Nay then is it infinite omnipotent eternall and with superiority If conditionate and that not from a liberall dispensation of its own but a naturall ordination from another what fatation is that then that comes upon condition that depends upon others actions not its own determination If it be absolute then is it cruell and unjust in many things if it be conditionate then is it variable and certain in nothing Set aside the first act which is the eternall decree and the last act which is death these indeed may be said to be both absolute and conditionate but Christians are not taught to call these fate But take it as they doe for the middle act then can they make it to be neither absolute nor conditionate 31. Whether fate and fatall events follow the body or the mind If the body what difference betwixt the fate of a man and of a beast In events good or evill who is worthy who is guilty And how follow they the mind seeing the stars necessarily and directly make no impression there Because it is superiour according to the order of nature and not subject to matter time or place but united to an intellectuall and spirituall substance and therefore cannot suffer from corporeall things although celestiall Nor can they so exceed their own sphear and species as to act directly upon it And if not upon the intellective faculty which acts necessarily much less upon the elective power which is free and never acts but freely nor is subject to fatality or fatall necessity For then should the election of the will be no more but a meer naturall instinct should be determined to one thing should act but one way should have the like motions in all upon the like representations should not have any thing in its own power to discern deliberate choose refuse c. but must be carryed on either naturally or violently as the Stars doe incline or enforce 32. Whether fate or fortune be either in good or evill actions If fate be in good actions are they not necessitated and inforced if fortune be there are they not fortuitous and accidentall And so what praise of them what reward The like may be affirmed of evill actions and if likewise thus inferred what shame what punishment In vitious actions either fate offers violence to a mans will or leaves to its own liberty If the first is not a mans will to be excused in evill and if the last is not every mans will the cause of his own fate yea and of the hardest and heaviest fates For they are such which follow sin and wickedness 33. Wherefore should man or his actions be made the subject yea the slave of sate when as indeed man as man is superiour thereto For fate being but a sydercall service of second causes must be reduced to the providence of the first cause and in that reduction man himself hath place or preferment before all the stars of heaven Because the divine providence receives to it self or extends it self in a more speciall way to intellectuall or rationall that it doth to all other creatures else In as much as they excell all others both in the perfection of nature and in the dignity of end In the perfection of nature Because the rationall creature hath the dominion over his own actions and operates voluntarily whereas the other act not so much as are acted In the dignity of the end because the intellectuall creature only by his operation reaches to the ultimate end of the universe sc to know and love God But the other creatures touch not that end by an inspired intention but only according to some participated similitude Furthermore God provides for the intellectuall nature principally and as it were for selfs sake and but for all other crtatures secondarily and in order to it The rationall creature is Gods agent the other are but his instrumens Now God cares more for his agents than he doth for his instruments Yea they are the instruments of this very agent and he makes use of them either in his practice or contemplation God hath more regard to the free and liberall than to the necessitated and servile acts of his creatures The rationall creatures are the more noble in themselves and of more neer accession to the divine similitude and therefore tendred by God before and above all others They are the more principall parts of the whole universe to which the less principall are but subserving as intended for their sakes and working for their ends Intellectuall natures have more assinity with the whole as apprehending all things else besides themselves whereas every other creature is but a part and capable of no more but a bare participation of its own particular entity Now it is not for the inapprehending part to have an ordaining power over the apprehensive whole By the course of nature the rationall creature uses all other things for it self as either for the perfection of its intellect the explication of its science the exercise of its vertue or else the sustentation of its body to which the intellectuall nature is united And therefore it is not for them to dispose tule govern impell necessitate him him but for him to observe rule govern dispence moderate and make use of them 34. Whether any thing can be sayd to be fatall with respect to us till it have taken effect For a fatality before it be is but a contingency to us and to us a contingency after it
or assented to by any either ignorantly or affectedly without great danger of being seduced and infected if not with the Sorcery yet with the superstition of the Art Let a man but well examine himself and observe others and he needs no Oedipus his own observation and experiment will soon teach him to resolve the case CHAP. XX. From the Ominatings of vain observation 1. WHether the superstition of vain observation and the more superstitious ominations thereupon have not been occasioned and increased by the prognostications predictions and divinations of Magick and Astrologie For besides the suggestions of Satan himself where is the source and root of all such vanity and superstition at least the imitation and example to be found save in those Arts and speculations that teach to observe creatures images figures signes and accidents for constellational and as they call them second stars and so to ominate and presage upon them either as touching themselves or others As namely to observe dayes for lucky or unlucky either to travail sail fight build marry plant sow buy sell or begin any businesse in to bode good or bad luck fortune successe from the rising up on the right or left side from lifting the left leg over the threshold at first going out of doors From putting on the hose uneven or a crosse and the shooe upon the wrong foot Item The Band standing awry the going abroad without his girdle on the bursting of the shooe latchet the tingling of the ear the itching of the eye the glowing of the cheek the bleeding of the nose the stammering in the beginning of a speech the stumbling as first going about an enterprise the meeting a begger or a Priest the first in a morning the meeting of a Virgin or a Harlot first the running in of a child betwixt two friends the justling one another at unawares one treading upon anothers toes to meet one fasting that is lame or defective in any member to wash in the same water after another to be over merry on a suddain to be given to sighing and know no cause why from the dreaming of gold silver eggs gardens weddings dead men dung c. From the snorting in sleep from the sneezing at meat the spilling of the wine the overturning of the salt the dogs howling the cats licking themselves the swine grunting the cocks crowing unseasonably the pyes chattering about the house the owles scritching the swallows falling down the chymney the crickets chirping behind the chimney stock or creeping upon the foot-pace A hare crossing the way a crow lighting on the right hand or on the left To collect or predict mens manners and fortunes by their names or the Anagram upon the name or the allusion to the name or the numbers in the name c. Who can reckon up all the vain observations and superstitious ominations of several Nations persons sexes ages conditions and occupations of men And what hope is there it should be otherwise while such artifices and practises are tolerated which teach to observe them from signal constellations and Magical operations 2. Whether the vain observation of vain dreams proceed not from the vain dream and phantastical of the coelestial influences upon the phantastick spirit For do they not say That as the coelestial influxes upon corporal matter produce diverse forms so from the same influxes upon the phantastical power which is organical phantasms are impressed by a coelestial disposition consentaneous to the producing of any effect especially in dreams because the minde is then more freed from corporeal and external cares or troubles and so more freely receives those divine influxes Whence it comes to passe that many things are made known to sleeping men in dreams which are hid to the waking And if this be their chief reason whereby they would reconcile an opinion of truth to Dreams why are they not agreed among themselves of the causes yea of the sydereal causes of them One will have the Intelligence that moves the Moon to cause them by the means of its light whereby mens phantasies are irradiated while they sleep Others refer them to the influxes of the superiors yet by the means of certain species whereby they continually flow from Heaven Another will have them to depend upon the powers of the soule the influxes of the Heavens together with certain images or resemblances whether of fantasie or configuration Others will have them wholly caused by their constellations And if they would bring in the Devil among the rest as some of them have confest he is not to be kept out they should finde him to be the greatest cause of all especially of the vain observation of them and superstitious omination upon them Who will deny that there may be some observation of some dreams and some interpretation made upon them as touching either the health or sicknesse of the body the vertuous or vitious inclinations and affections of the minde yea and though rarely and extraordinarily for the caution and encouragement as touching some special actions and events But I demand of Magical and Astrological men not so much whether there be one common rule to all for the interpretation of dreams As whether this taught by themselves be either a second cause of dreams or a safe rule to interpret them viz. That dreams are more efficacious when the Moon over-runs that signe which was in the ninth number of the Nativity or revolution of that yeer or in the ninth signe from the signe of perfection For it is a most true and certain divination neither doth it proceed from nature or humane arts but from purified minds by divine inspiration They shall do well not onely by true reason to resolve us fully of the truth they speak but also in good sense of the terms they speak withal 3. Whether the vain observations and superstitious nay ridiculous ominations of Physiognomie had ever been so vulgarly taken up but by reason of Magick and Astrologie For without Physiognomy coelestial to what purpose is Physiognomy terrestrial Do they not gather the Physiognomie of Elements from stars and starry influences or dispositions And the physiognomy of Minerals Gemmes and Stones from starry signatures and figures The Physiognomie of Herbs and Plants from the stars and Planets And from their natures and influences yea from their signatures and figure and so conclude their vertues of sympathie and antipathie to be accordingly The Physiognomie of Beasts Birds Fishes still from starry signatures and dispositions Yea and the Physiognomie of Man his powers and parts from starry temperaments and planetary inclinations Nay do they not call these kinds of impression second stars and so prefer them in their Physiognomical ominating or divining and thus not conjecturing onely upon mens manners and fortunes but defining Herereupon that I may proceed in their own order are subtilly obtruded upon the simple world these particular observations and ominations so vain superstitious ridiculous even to the judgement of the
symptomes of passions and affections 31. Prophecy is then most high and admirable when it exceeds all humane reason Divination or any such kinde of prediction is then most vile and abominable when it is not subject to it 32. The devil can neither prophesie nor make prophets but the devil can both predict and make predictors 33. Prophecy as it is not hereditary by nature so neither is it propagatory by art but Magical divination is the one and Astrological is the other 34. Prophecy in obscurest things is sincere Divination in plainest things is equivocal 35. Prophecy is not venal or to be bought and hired with mony and preferments as Magical divinations and Astrological predictions are Neither were the true Prophets mercenary covetous ambitious as the false Prophets and Diviners were 36. Holy men were alwayes humble in the gift of Prophecy prophane men have been proud of the Art of divination or prediction 37. True Prophets never prophesyed things formally false much lesse those wittingly and willingly as false Prophets and Diviners have done 38. True Prophets never hunted the favors of man in place and power by flatring predictions even to evil men and sad presages even against good men as Magical and Astrological Diviners have alwayes used to do 39. Prophesies were then most rigorous and the Prophets most zealous when they themselves were most persecuted and despised but let Magicians Necromancers Diviners Soothsayers fortunetellers Gipsies Juglers Prognosticators and Predictors c. be severely examined according to Lawes and then the sortilegious spirit straightway leavs them And now they are able to forespeak no mans fate or destiny they are so distracted in suspecting their own Thus the Art perishes in the peril of the Artificer as the malefice is prevented or cured in the execution of the Witch 40. It was a curse and expresly threatned as a curse for the Church of the Old Testament to want her Prophets but it was a blessing and expressely promised as a blessing that Diviners Soothsayers and all such like should be expelled out of her And what faithful man and wise would not think it a like blessing to a Christian Church and Commonwealth Now if any man will take the pains to order this accumulation of differences how easiâ—ly might he observe through various particulars Prophecy and Divination to be two things utterly different in Author means matter form subject object end and effect 3. Whether these true signes of false prophesyings serve not sufficiently to discern falseness or superstitiousness of Magical and Astrological predictings As 1. If the prophesying or predicting be of such things as humane reason or prudence might justly suspect or easily finde out without it 2. If it serve to set open such presumptions as are not according to the eternal Law of the written Word 3. If it pretend to put extraordinarily upon such actions to which the ordinary rules of the word are a plain guide and the exhortations a sufficient spur without it 4. If it intends falshood under a pretext of truth or evil under a colour of good 5. If it directly tend to a discouraging of vertue and vertuous men or an encouraging of vice and vitious man 6. If it be of some lesser good to hinder a greater good 7. If it be for the use of unlawful means although to seeming good ends 8. If it tend to heresie errour innovation schism and faction in the Church of Christ 9. If to the subversion or obstruction of good Lawes in a Christian Commonwealth 10. If to set civil States in a combustion especially such as are Christian 11. If it be to the advancement of a few and to the disadvantage of a Many and those as dear children of God as eminent in parts and piety and every way as hopeful as useful for Gods glory and the publike good 12. If the prophesyer or predictor shall presume himself for singularly and extraordinarily chosen out and stirred up to reveale secrets amongst a hundred both of more eminent places and graces then himself 13. If he shall pride himself in a singular gift or prefer it to the favour and comfort of a saving grace 14. If vain or corrupt imaginations immediately forego or follow the revelation 15. If erroneous inordinate passionate affected words and phrases accompany the delivery or pronuntiation thereof 16. If the person of the prophecyer or predictor be noted for idolatry infidelity superstition heresie schism athiesm hypocrisie prophaneness carnality insobriety covetousness ambition sedition curiosity vanity levity sorcery envy flattery c. Oh that we did but observe these and the like to examine upon them Doubtless we might with sounder judgements and safer Consciences pronounce upon our predictors and their predictions then either of them could do upon us 4. Whether the Devil can Prophecy and Predict Prophecie he cannot for that 's to speak from the Holy Spirit which the devil cannot will not do Yea it is to speak so as moved by the Holy Ghost Now though the Holy Ghost may move or command the devil to speak whether he will or no yet for him to do it as moved that was not onely to be inspired but to receive the inspiration with approbation or some conformity of affection and intention which to a devil is incompatible Nevertheless predict he may in some things through the divine both permission and injunction And but in some things For the devil cannot foreknow or foretel such things as depends absolutely upon Gods wil. Nor yet those things which depend arbitrarily upon mans own will Nor the thoughts and immaginations of mans heart Nor what entertainments his own suggestions have there at their first motion Nor what the good Angels intend Nor what they are sent to effect in the world or the Church Nor can he foresee any thing in it self nor any thing that hath not a natural and particular cause Nor yet what particular impediment may hinder that natural cause from effecting Now I would ask of Magicians and Astrologers whether they can foresee or foretel more then the devil himself can do Yet I would ask again whether the Magical and Astrological prescience and presagition be not much after the same manner as the diabolical is For the devil acquires his by long observation and often experience of things He knows well natural causes and can see their following effects as present in them He understands mens bodily temperaments and to what passions or affections they usual dispose and which way mens sensitive appetites may ordinarily prevail to incline their wills He can recollect the wickedness of Times and Nations and can guess by the multitude lawlesness and impunity of their iniquities among men how neâ—r they are to the judgements of God And accordingly can conjecture and predict the punishment of a people by war famine pestilence c. He can certainly foretel these things that depend upon necessary causes and have no other natural cause to hinder them as the motions
of the Spirit in them was not onely prophetical or historical but sapiential and dogmatical And so their prophesies were recorded not onely for a particular and certain prediction of truth but for an universal and perpetual instruction of Faith And therefore either there must be no end of adding to the Scriptures or else none such must now be raised There may be some prudential predictings of good men and suspicious presagings of evil men and shrewd conjecturings of common men but what are all these to the prophesyings of holy men of God in old time Yet we say Gods hand is not shortned but that he can still raise up such but who can say that he will do it Or that there is just cause why he should so do We conclude therefore in the general that Prophecy is ceast And that of an extraordinary gift at first it is become more extraordinary to after ages What reason then have we to be so blind of Faith as to admit of a stated art of divination in its stead CHAP. XXII From the rarity of Miracles 1 WHether every thing that is affected above besides or against the course and order faculty and power hope and expectation of nature may truly be said to be miraculous Not every thing 1. Because it is not a thing effected against particular nature but against whole nature that makes a Miracle 2. Because in particular nature there are antipolliges or occult qualities of actives and passives naturally acting or disposed to act one against another 3. Because it is neither nature acting contrary to some part of her self nor is it Art urging or tempting Nature but it is God totally exceeding the law vertue and order of Nature that makes it to be a Miracle 4. Because many things may be done against Nature or natural propensity which notwithstanding are but ordinary and trivial as the causing of heavy things to ascend upwards c. 5. Because there are many sins and vices that are against Natures law and vertue which who will say that they are miraculous Therefore we conclude against Magical Mirabilaries that although every Miracle be an act or effect above Nature yet every act or effect besides or against Nature is not a Miracle 2. Whether that may absolutely be said to be a Miracle whose effect is manifest and whose cause is occult or unknown to us No. Except it be acted simply by the first cause and for causes onely known to him 2. Except it exceeds all mans exact knowledge indifferently one as well as another 3. Except the cause be altogether past such finding out even to sober and prudential observation art industry Otherwise it should not be a Miracle so as it is in it self but so as it appears to us Our ignorance should necessarily come into the cause of Miracles That should be miraculous to one man which is not so to another And a prophane curiosity of Art would boast of more light and experiment in divine works then indeed is vouchsafed to the perswasion of a pious faith 3. Whether the power of working Miracles be not proper to God alone This must be affirmed and cannot be denyed 1. Because He onely can work a Miracle of himself to whom nothing is a Miracle 2. Because He onely can work against the order of Nature and second causes whose will is sufficient to institute Order alter all things 3. Because God is a transcendent and is not under nor yet within the predicament of any part of the whole order of Nature as the creature is and therefore he onely can act that against and besides above the order of Nature which the creature cannot 4. Because a divine power requires not a subject to work upon for it is able to create all things of nothing neither looks it at the possibility or propensity of that subject to the producing of the effect as every created power doth 5. Because the proper cause of a Miracle must not onely be uncreated infinite omnipotent indeterminate c. But it must also be occult unsearchable incomprehensible now no cause is simply so but the hidden God himself 6. Because it cannot be a Miracle unless it be absolutely and universally wonderful or to be equally admired of all creatures of the same kinde Now it is onely for God and neither for Angels or men to do such things as shall be admirable to their fellows and not so to themselves 7. Because if any other could work Miracles but God or but by God then Miracles could not be the indubitable signes and proofs of a God nor of Gods Word and Truth 4. Whether the good Angels can do Miracles Ministerially and instrumentally they may but not principally and authoritatively For Angels are finite both in their nature apprehension and power And divine Miracles absolutely considered are as strange and wonderful to them as they are to us men Yet Angels out of the vertue and perspicuity of their own nature may know how to do many things that may seem miraculous or be marveilous to us Because they are a superior power or vertue unknown to us and may have a particular power over inferiours not known to us and therefore may act above besides against the particular order of Nature that is known to us But being part of whole created nature themselves they cannot act against it the main reason of a Miracle for so they should act against themselves 5. Whether Devils can do Miracles If not Angels much lesse devils Neither doth the Lord make use of the devils to be instruments of his mighty works as he doth of the Angels For Miracles were never intended or effected immediately or mediately but for the confirmation of the truth to which the devils are no apt instruments because all that they do is with intent to seduce therefrom The devils indeed have a faculty and sagacity both much enabled by long experience in things above us men and so may work in many things to amaze as well as delude us But such stupendous and prodigious facts as they by divine permission busie themselves about are no true Miracles because false either as touching the reality of the effect or else the sincerity of the intent And for the reality of effect it is not so much thanks to their admirable power or manner of working as to the natural though secret disposition of the matter they work upon Neither are they permitted often to work any reality of effect but onely to delude with prestigious appearances because God seldom suffers Nature or the creature to be so blemished or abused And though they had a liberty to effect really in things to be admired yet so false is their disposition they would chuse and labour to be prestigious And where they are tempted or urged as they say by Art to do those things that are not within their power or permission there are they forced to be prestigious and delusory for the saving of their credit amongst
their own Now this prestigiousnesse or illusion whether freely from themselves or as it were forced by others is a signe of their impotency as well as their fallacy and either of them are a sufficient argument to exclude them utterly from a power of working Miracles And therefore if they will needs be contending for the devils power in and by Magicians Astrologers Necromancers Conjurers Witches c. We leave both them theirs to their lyingwonders 6. Whether there be any such secrets in Nature as whereby to work Miracles Although it be confest that there are sundry admirable secrets hidden in Natures bosome yet we must professe that her hand is here shortned Because it is the nature of a Miracle to exceed Natures power It must be above besides against Nature and not particular onely but universal or whole created Nature Though a Miracle be wrought in Nature yet it must be quite beyond Natures principles law order Nature of it self must not so much as incline or dispose to it Yea it must be in the very nature of the thing to be otherwise then the Miracle hath made it Alwayes the more alien the effect is to Nature and the more remore from Natures order the greater is the Miracle and the more to be admired Wherefore we conclude against those Mirions who would make themselves to be Natures Apes that not onely any particular nature is not able to worke a Miracle besides or against the order of whole Nature but the vertue even of whole Nature is not able to worke a Miracle upon any particular nature whatsoever 7. Whether Miracles may be wrought by Art The flat Negative is to be concluded upon these Arguments 1. Art cannot exceed Nature Now Nature in all her mirables is but Miracles Ape and Art is but Natures Ape what then are the Magical Mirabilaries at most but Apes of Art 2. The strength of Art is acquisite the vertue of Miracles is infused 3. An Art operates onely according to reason and knowledge but a Miracle altogether above them 4. Art effects nothing but according to ordinary rules observations experiments customs but a Miracle is so extraordinary that it were no Miracle except it were effected contrary to all these 5. Art for the most part is of necessaries a Miracle for the most part is of contingents 6. If Art served to worke Miracles then were the power of them acquisite arbitrary of mans will and industry yea one man might do Miracles as well as another 7. None of Gods servants ever wrought Miracles by Art 8. If it were in the Artists power it should be a Miracle to one man and not to another 9. Prophane men and the greatest tempters of God the Devil and Nature should so do most Miracles 10. Art rather serves to prevent many things for seeming Miraculous because it helps to finde out the suddain cause For either it lets to understand the cause or not if it doth not then it is no Art if it doth then it is no Miracle 8. Whether it be lawful necessary convenient not onely for the working of Miracles but for the finding out of Mirables to operate either by Art or violence against the order plac't in Nature Doubtlesse it is no further lawful then it may be either necessary or convenient That is probably and directly tending to some publike or private use or benefit Nature may have many pretty mirables which they title Admired Auditions Natural history Mirables of the world Occult Miracles of Nature Occult Philosophie subtilities and varieties of things secrets mysteries memorables unheard of curiosities c. Yet for all that are they not such as Magicians fain or fable in animals plants herbs stones c. Nor are they a many of them so mirable in themselves as either to mens fancies or ignorances Her actives and passives simpathies and antipathies are so occult and profound as who can tell where to finde them or how to apply them so as to urge Nature by the help of Art to worke wonders Who can do such a thing especially make it his trade profession ostentation so to do and not be subject to or guilty of tempting God provoking the Devil tormenting Nature abusing the creature losing time disparaging himself and deluding the world It is for none but God to worke absolutely against the order of whole created Nature because he could have instituted another order of Nature And all things are subject to him not so much from a necessity of Nature and second causes as according to the absolutenesse of his own power and liberty of his own will And it is for none to undertake to alter the order of particular Nature but in by under and for God yea I may say according to God and not otherwise As. 1. God acteth not against the order of nature in any particular of it save onely upon just and weighty causes how then dare prophane men offer to do such a thing joculatorily jugglingly to make sport and pastime or yet for no other end or use but vain and idle experiments sake or onely to feed or satisfie vain and presumptuous curiosity 2. God though he may act against that order which one creature hath to another yet acts he not against that order which the creature hath to himself For should he act against the order of nature as it depends upon himself he should so act against himself in like manner neither ought man to act against the order of nature or of the creature so far forth as it depends upon God nor yet so far forth as it is not intended by God to be serviceable and useful unto men 3. God acts not against the law and course of nature so as to violate his own great Law so that of his wisdome goodnesse justice in disposing the creature neither ought men so to do beyond the great Law of using the creature aright and to those very ends for which God ordained it For it can never be lawful or warrantable so to transgresse natures order as to abuse the creature in any kinde Now do they not know that the creature may as well be spiritually and speculatively abused by superstition and curiosity as practically and carnally by violence or sensuality 9. Why amongst all the Miracles that Christ wrought against the Devils among men and in the other creatures he did work none at all from or by the heavenly bodies the stars Besides the reason above mentioned why he refused to shew a signe from heaven this may now be added above all the rest It was because there now was a greater Miracle wrought upon the earth then ever was wrought in the Heavens Even the mysterious Miracle or miraculous Mystery of God and Man Doing such works upon earth as whereat the Angels and whole powers of heaven might well stand amazed with admiration Indeed there was a wonder in Heaven a star a new star at his birth and another wonder in Heaven an Eclipse of