travell toyl plow sow obey submit c 32. Whether the prediction or prenotion of things future makes not men more careless and slothfull both in publick affairs and in the works of private callings For if they be evill does not the fear of them make men saint and if they be good does not the presumption of them make men secure How many have let goe the present substance with looking after the future shadow 33. Whether Physick or Medicine the ordinary means of health being applyed according to art hath not been greatly dishonoured yea and infected by the charming cures of words syllables sounds numbers characters configurations ligatures suspensions c And whether these have not provoked God to suspend his blessing and the naturall vertues of vegetables and minerals And what Magicall practitioner in Physick but tempted God tyred nature deluded minds bewitched bodies and endangered souls 34. What Husbandmen that regarded the Astrologicall Ephemerides in his rurall occupation of plowing sowing c. ever reapt the inward satisfaction of his conscience or an outward harvest answerable to his expectation but in stead of filling either his hand or his bosome sat down empty of them both 35. Whether the Magicall Astrologicall Daemoniacall Atheisticall abuse of the stars against nature and providence be not the most fearfull sign and prognostication that divâ—ne providence is putting an end even to the naturall use of the stars And that he is near about to shake the powers of heaven to make the stars fall from heaven to cause the Sun to be darkned and the Moon no more to give her light and to shorten these dayes and to bring to appearance the sign of the Son of man that the elect may not be deceived as the world hath been with the lying signs of the Sons of men CHAP. XVII 17. From the propension to manners 1. IF this be the order of Astrologicall judgement to proceed from the Planets to the temper from the temper to manners from manners to actions from actions to events Now say that this calculatory chain be not only crackt in every linck but quite broken in the midst must not then the way of genethliacall conjectation needs be totally interrupted 2. Is not the Probleme in Physicks become a sophism in Astrologie sc Whether the manners of the mind doe follow the temper of the body Which way doe they determine it in the most moderate science Naturally necessarily principally immediatly directly particularly effectually or else accidentally occasionally mediatly indirectly generally instrumentally potentially dispositively or how else Though something might be admitted as concerning rude sensuall appetites meer animal affections and inconsult or passions in their prime motions relishing altogether of the inferiour part and not yet brought within the power of reason But as for manners properly and exactly which are the elections habits customs acts operations of the rationall soul may not the morose judiciaries be thus urged If manners proceed from or depend upon the elementary temper or constitution Then are they not naturall principles both good and bad In things innate have we not the faculty before the function but in manners is not the act before the habit Doe not manners by their severall actions oppose their severall kinds Who sees not that the good actions correct the bad manners and the bad actions corrupt the good manners Now things that are generated and corrupted by extrinsecall actions how can they be intrinsecall and naturall Should not nature thus work to confound it self Should not men have innate and inâ—ite causes of vertues and vices which Grace institution education assuefaction c. could not alter till the naturall temper be altered A mans manners may oft times be contrary in the very extreams is his temper so too His manners may change with his age condition private preferment publick state of times in a day in an hour is his temper changed withall or else must not his morall disposition be contrary to his naturall constitution Must not the body consisting of an influentiall and elementary mixtion be the principall subject of ethicks or morality and not the soul that consists of an Understanding and a will Must not a man now be made and said capable of and prone to manners one or other more or less from sensible constitution not reasonable institution What need or use of exhortation dehortation praise dispraise reward punishment If manners grow wild and out of the nature of the soyl and be of no good culture what hope or credit can there be of such What labour of vertuous manners what struggle against the vitious Are not manners then most laudable and illustrious when they are clean contrary to a mans naturall temper or humour Are not the worst of manners thus made necessary violent involuntary ignorantly acted and so excusable Nay is not the principall cause of nature and naturall disposition thus accused And hath not the soul of man been thus thought materiall corporeall drawn out of the power of the matter living in and dâ—ing together with the body yea have not the souls of beasts been thus concluded for iâ—dewed with manners as well as the souls of men In a word have not the Physiognomists hereupon been bold to make their morall judgement not only from tempers but of statures figures features colours c. 3. If the elementary temperature were admitted for one of the generall remote imperfect and infirm causes of manners yet are there not many much more potent to correct and prevent both it and them As God Grace Religion conscience natures Law reason will Parents nutrition education institution care exercise custome company example humane Laws ayr climate soyl Physick some adde Musick and make it prevalent for the exciting or remitting of affections and manners above the modulation or harmony of the sphears to their efficacy upon blood choler plague melancholy and the like 4. Although there might be some generall operation of the heavenly bodies upon elementary tempers and humours and so some hability to passions and affections and so some proclivity to manners and actions yet how know they particularly and wherefore so pronounce they that it is Saturne that makes men sullen c. Jupiter merry c. Mars angry c. Mercury subtle c. Venus wanton c. 5. If there be a temperamentall consecution of inordinate passions and affections and so a naturall disposition or proness to bad manners that flow mainly from the sensuall appetite yet how can that be said of good manners which proceed from a rectitude of reason Neither doe bad manners arise properly from the appetite of the animal but from the assent of the rationall part So that good or bad what ever they be from the body or sense manners they are not but from the will and mind 6. Whether the naturall semination or insition of a propensity or inclination to manners good or evill be with a subordination unto mans liberty or freewill either
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 then or their complement of fate 14. Whether in the series both of fate and of fortune although two contraries Astrologers have not delivered the same order and connexion of causes as the stars tempers manners actions events or else what difference doe they make between them Nay wherefore doe the same Authors speak of fate and fortune so promiscuously and indiscriminately especially in their prognosticating or predicting way Is it not because they are not able to distinguish them Or is it not because they are conscious of a fortuitousness of event even in their strictest fatality 15. Whether in the series of fatall causes the effect doth follow the universall indefinite equivocall and remote or else the univocall proximate specificall and particular cause And which of these is that which doth determine and distinguish the effect Does not a man generate a man and a Beast a Beast what ever the position of the stars be Those that have been borne in the same region at the same moment under the same position have they all been the same nay how divers have they been for all that in their ingenies their fortunes and fates And why so but because they have taken their severall affections and inclinations from their particular causes 16. As for second causes means agents instruments seeing God Almighty makes use of them to bring his own purposes to pass not out of any defect or necessity but to make his own efficiency the more perceptible Yee seeing he oft-times renders the most noble and convenient means ineffectuall and uses the meanest and unaptest of them to the producing of very eminent effects Why then should we be bound to lurke at that order which God himself observes not why should our faith be taught to respect or rest upon the middle things in a prejudice to that providence which is the absolute beginning and end of all 17. Whether the second causes be not ordained as the remedies rather than as the means of fate or fortune providence it self that has determined such an accident or event has it not also ordained second means to help and relieve in such a case wherfore are the creatures and their offices created to such ends if they be not to be used to such ends for which they were created what ever the fate or fortune be is there not a naturall Law imprest in every creature to labour for the conservation of it self both in its being and well being To what end hath God given men a mind will reason affections counsell deliberation science art observation experiment means instruments c. but as well prudently and diligently to discern procure fortify prevent remedy as thankfully to accept or humbly to submit Hath not the Spirit of God secretly and sweetly suggested to his dearest children in their sudden and extraordinary perils and perplexities even present advices and succours besides the inward consolations and confirmations of his grace yea is not this one cause why men are kept so ignorant of future accidents and of their utmost issues after that they are already happened that men might not only prepare for them but make use of such means as God himself hath prepared against them Otherwise should they not tempt God in a neglect of them 18. Whether there be not in the whole course of nature in the universall world and especially throughout the whole Church of Christ farre more effectuall causes means orders connexions rules guides guards helpes of life of health peace libertie society c. for counsell actions passions accidents events than the coelestiall bodies can possibly be ought these then to be respected more than all they or yet in comparison to them 19. Who is able to bring into one series or can reconcile to truth the old Philosophicall opinions about the exercise or execution of Fate by second causes As whether by Angels Spirits Geniusses Demons Devills by the Soul of the world by the Souls of men by the totall subservience of Nature by the motions and influences of the Starres and caelestiall bodies by sensible agents by artificiall instruments yea and by very accidents and casualties Christians know and acknowledge all these creatures to be the ministers or instruments of providence The Angells doing his will are the more eminent ministers both of his mercies and judgements administring not only in temporalls and in spiritualls but likewise to eternalls And if it be so as Philosophie sayes that they are the Intelligencies that move the caelestiall orbes then have they an ordination over the administration of the Starres The Devills are not only permitted but wisely and justly used in the execution of temptations tryalls judgements But how comes in Fate and Fortune who can tell unlesse they intrude among the Devills and be indeed of their foysting in As for the heavenly bodyes they are to be confest as of Gods ordination and employment in their order light motions and prodigious appearances But he makes speciall use of mens reason understanding wills affections memories counsells deliberations policies vocations societies arts artifices Lawes Customes actions and experiments in the government of the world and yet more especially their gifts graces duties offices services in the governing of his Church Last of all come in the whole hoste of creatures to act here as he hath ordained Now what fatation or fatall necessitation to man among all these Angels or Devills can but inject into the mind they cannot compell no nor yet incline the will That 's only for the infinite power of God himself to doe men as to naturall civill and morall acts are still actors in their own liberty As for bodyes Coelestiall or terrestriall they work directly but upon bodyes only and the terrestriall are held and found to be the more proximately particularly and sensibly disposing Besides
head of the child that is born another upon the neck and so of the shoulders the breast the belly the thighs the legs the feet and they all as different in themselves so also in their significations 21. How comes it to pass that Twins as Jacob and Esau Proclus and Euristhenes are of different natures or constitutions conditions fortunes fates or ends although born under one constellation or conjunction If they have got Nigidius Figulus his device and so can allege that the swift motion of the heavenly bobies may alter the constellation and cause the variation May not the birth of one oft-times be as slow as the birth of twain and why not then the like variation also If it be from the delay that is between the birth of the Twins then whether is that delay alwayes alike and the difference accordingly or if it be sometimes in their birth whether is it likewise in their conception Nay how can there be any exact observation although it be but in the birth of one if the swiftnesse on the one part and the slowness on the other be well examined If they say the difference betwixt the Twins may be by reason of the difference in their conception why then doe they never bring that into their calculation Is not the moment of the conception more considerable for naturall impressions than the birth But how shall they know that since she that bears knows it not Or how pretend they to ghesse at it from the Nativity since that may fall out from the conception seven eight nine moneths more or less 22 Whether Astrologie be of any naturall use so much as to Physick especially according to the Magicall application of it by Periapts Amulets Charms Characters Words Figures Alligations suspensions c Likewise to cure the diseases of old or young by choosing a Planet convenient to their age As for the old men Saturn for young men Mercurie c. Likewise in choosing Signs convenient to the part affected As for the diseases in the head Aries for those in the feet Pisces c. As also in the superstitious observation of Criticall dayes in which such a Planet governs as may be most apt to repell the disease c. Concerning all which let them see to the refutations of learned Physicians CHAP. VIII 8. From the order of Causes 1. VVHether because Astronomicall observations and Predictions may be true and lawfull being Physicall and having their naturall causes therefore the Astrologicall must be so too Being as is their own word anaitiologicall or not having any naturall cause at all 2. Of all the causes of humane actions and accidents God Angells Devills the will of mans mind the temperature of his body externall violences accidentall occurrences and the starres influences whether these last of all the rest be not the most remote and feeble in their operation 3. Whether the Artists in their Predictions ought not to moderate themselves if the Art may admit of moderation according to this known order and received distinction of causes 1. Some Causes produce their effects necessarily and alwayes and those Causes being understood and discerned the effect may certainly be pronounced and prenuntiated as in Eclipses 2. Some Causes again produce their effects though not necessarily and alwayes yet for the most part and seldome faill and such may be Prognosticated only conjecturally but not peremptorily as the changes or alterations of Weather 3. Some Causes are only generall remote indefinite indeterminate partiall accidentall whose effects follow neither necessarily nor alwayes nor for the most part nor indeed scare at all as in tempers and manners and such as they cannot be foreknown so they are not to be foretold But as for more rationall and arbitrary actions and future contingents meerly fortuitous these can have no Causes all but in the secret and hidden will of God or else in the indiscernable will of man and therefore are in Gods power alone and not in mans art either to forknow or foresee 4. Whether the starres be not only Signes but Causes or whether Signes where they are ordinarily no Causes or Causes where they are no Signes or as they ask of Comets whether they be either causing or signing from their matter or from their form Especially to our purpose whethrr they be both Causes and Signes of things future and fortuitous Causes they cannot be but of naturall things and they generall only and indefinite And therefore cannot be Signes of determinate and particular effects For if they signe not the causes in particular how can they sign the effects in particular Again Signes naturall they cannot be but either as Causes or effects or else as proceeding from the same common cause and superiour to both And that common cause cannot bee corporeall because there is no bodily thing superiour to the heavenly bodyes That superiour Cause therefore upon which they both depend must needs be incorporeall even God not Angells because Angels have no such transient action common to them both If therefore they be so much as Signes they are only so according to divine ordinance and institution and not according to any humane art or invention 5. How the Stars can signifie such an effect whereof they are not the cause And especially whose speciall causes they signifie not at all And for as much as such astrall effects as have their naturall causes can be forecold but conjecturally and indefinitely upon what grounds then doe they particularly define and determine upon casualties and voluntaries whose events are not so much as probable as not having any such causes as aforesaid 6. Whether the Causes namely the second and particular causes of meer accidents and contingents are to be foreseen and foreknown by mortall men For how can things by accident be foreseen in their naturall causes when as Philosophie concludes there can be no naturall causes of things by accident 7. Whether the Starres are the causes or signes of any kind of Contingent as well those that follow from arbitrarious actions as those that depend upon more stated matters Nay whether those that have their ordinate cauâ—es and revealed signes can properly be called Contingents 8. Upon what grounds doe the Astrologers undertake to predict or foretell of future Contingents since they can no way fore-see them neither in themselves nor yet in their causes Not in themselves because they yet are not Nor in their causes for they are either God or the heavens or mans free will And first how are they able to foreknow those things that depend upon the prime cause Gods secret will and absolute pleasure without his speciall revelation Next how can they see any such things in the heavens which are but generall and remote causes and so neiâ—her cause nor signe any thing determinatly and particularly Yea are but materiall causes at most and therefore betoken or effect nothing of the actions of the mind or Soul Then for the will of Man which
is the proximate cause in all arbitrary actions how can they prejudge of that Unless they take upon them to know the heart with its intentions and affections And if they could know it for the present yet how can they doe so for the future And indeed how is it possible for them to determine upon that which is indifferent and indeterminate in it self 9. Whether the causes of meer accidents and contingents be internall or externall If internall then either in a mans rationall will or in his naturall temper If in his will how come the Stars to necessitate that free faculty If in his temper such a disposition is easie to be foreseen without a Planetary Prognostication If externall it is either God or the Creature If God he is free to work both without the starres and against them If the creature how comes it to be comprehended in a particular constellation and so as prognostication may be made thereby 10. Whether the Stars work upon mans body mediatly or immediatly If immediatly how doe they that without a divine and infinite power If mediatly or by means sc of the ayr c. then whether the affections of the Stars be not varyed through the various affection of the ayr or means and whether the dis-affection or indisposition of the ayr or means may not hinder and prevent both the operation of the Stars and the discerning thereof 11. Whether the Planets be imperiall or ministeriall operators and effectors If they command necessitate enforce us absolutely universally what is become of our naturall liberty and free-will in all humane actions what praise have we for our well-doing and deserving among men what excuses have we not for our errors and offences both against God and men If they serve us why go they about to proclame us destinated to their fatall slavery 12. Whether there be any kind of necessity as touching the astrologicall predictions of sydereall effects If an absolute necessity how can a divine power prevent them If a Physicall necessity how are they so the naturall and ordinate causes of voluntary and free actions If a necessity of consequence By what certain causes and reasons doe they argue demonstrate and conclude it to follow 13. Whether the Planetary influences doe cause and rule nature and temper or else doe they only work upon it as they find it and so follow it If the first how can they be exempted or excused from being the Authors of their spoken-of Malefices and malignities Or how can they put off these to the disposition of the matter they work upon 14. Whether any thing can be determinatly prognosticated or predicted from the Stars being but universall causes at most the particular causes not considered Nay may not a truer and safer prediction be made from the particular causes the universall not considered Doe not severall creatures and severall seeds bring forth severall things for all the same conjunction or constellation 15. Whether the remote causes the most that the celestiall bodies can be may not in naturall generation constitutions complexions tempers humours both be directed and succoured and also corrected and prevented by the proximate causes yea and in other matters by externall and adventitiall causes by rationall and voluntary causes how much more by the prime cause of all 16. Whether the Planets have either actually and formally in themselves or virtually and effectively upon others those prime elementary qualities of hot cold dry moyst especially in such different measures and unequall degrees as to make some of them benign others of them malign in their influences and operations For all the Planets are but of one kind of substance and one kind of light all of them as they say themselves borrowing their light from the Sun why therefore should they not all be of one kind of influence and one kind of operation Since they have the same light in which is their main efficacy albeit in severall degrees why should they not have the same effects albeit in severall degrees 17. What are those influences of the Stars motion light or elementary qualities or else some occult insensible vertues sympathies antipathies c. And how operate they upon these inferior bodyes Generally or particularly simply or mixtly solitarily or conjunctly actually or potentially formally or virtually mediatly or immediatly instantly or successively partially or totally who can directly tell 18. Whether such Influences as Astrologers ascribe to the Stars be not contrary to the nature and understanding of causes viz. Such influences as proceed not from their naturall substance nor inherent quality but from their imagined aspects and supposed if not feigned conjunctions Such virtuall influences as must be made to operate clean contrary to their formall qualities Such influences as they make to be efficacious from the fictitious figure of the Planets Such influences as the antient pure Philsophers and Astronomers once dream't not of but are the dreams of later Planetarians or Magicall Astrologians Such influences as wherby they would pretend to deep insight and profound learning but in truth make no other advantage of them than as a painted plea of blind and lazy ignorance I say ignorance as indeed inhibiting the strict inquiry of all proper causes For aske them how come the Stars to work thus and thus upon inferiour bodies why say they by their influences And what are these influences Nay if you cannot conceive them in the grosse they cannot precisely discover them Unlesse you will be contented to have an obscure thing described by a thing more obscure Are not the true causes in occult qualities and in natures mirables all put off to more occult influences Why doth the load-stone draw the Iron why by reason of some Starry influence Why doth the little Remora stay the massy Ship Why by reason of some Starry influence Why are there such antipathies betwixt creatures such vertues of minerals and herbs plants stones such colours figures resemblances c Why all is by reason of some Starry influence And if you aske after any other cause or reason for these and many the like you may for them go seek it out your self 19. Whether the Magicall Astrologer make not himself to be the chief cause of the Stars influencies and their efficacies For if he hath not a power to compose them so as they may bee most suitable to his own purpose why then both practises and teaches he to make such a Sign or Image under such a Constellation to such intents To make choice of such a Star Sign Ascendant Aspect c. and then the Figure thus disposed the Stars impress streight-way and operate by resemblance to the desired end How shall we beleive it now that the Stars have a power over our wils when thus they make their own wils to have a power over the Stars 20. What certain effects or Prognosticks of those effects are to be made from the Stars in as much as their strengths and validities depend
the friendship and hatred the complyance and adversness of men is not the service or disservice of the brute creature the vertue or venome of an herb or minerall yea the defence or offence of a sword a knife a spear a gun a club c. are not all these more sensibly apprehended to be more neerly advantagious or prejudiciall to health or sicknesse riches or poverty honour or disgrace prosperity and adversity life or death than are all the joynt benevolences or malevolencies of the fatall Starres If therefore a fatidicall prognostication may be made from the Caelestiall why not rather from the terrestriall motions 20. Whether Fate be above the Starres as their governour or else under them as their minister If above them why make they the starres to be the causes of fate For so they must needs be superiour to it If under them how then are the starres themselves subject to fate for so they must needs be inferiour How then should the starres dispose of others fate that are not able to dispose of their own Is it for creatures terrestriall or caelestiall to perform that to others which they are not able to 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 anguries 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 themselâ—es 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 starres 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 starres 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 â—eries 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
deny they that brought in Star-divining did they not also bring in Star-worshipping together with it 21. Whether the obscurity and baseness of Originall in Magick and Astrologie argue not sufficiently the vileness and abhomination thereof as well touching the doctrine as the practice in as much as the heavenly and holy truths either of nature in her integrity or of the Law in its morallity or of the Gospell in its spirituality are all of them of so eminent and evident originall or descent CHAP. VII 7. From the Law of Nature 1. WHether there be by nature imprest in the Soul of man a faculty proper for the presaging of things future or a naturall inclination tending to Divination Is not the prescience or praevision of future things convertible to the nature and essence of God and therefore incompatible to the nature of any creature in heaven or earth Can there be the species of things future comprehended in or by a mind that is not divine and infinite Since therefore the Soul is not of such infinite vertue but that nature hath limited her to her own Law of apprehending things either by speciall revelation common illumination of reason or sensible collection how then hath the Ideaes species or Images of all things especially things future lodg'd in her Those imperfect Ideaes species or images that are in the mind are they there properly and not rather accidentally sc from the apprehension either of some things present or else past we know there are in men senses to observe things present and memory to recollect many things past and understanding to preconceive some things that may come of certain causes or may peradventure fall out according to probable conjectures yea and Faith likewise to believe what shall be by divine revelation and promise But what naturall abstract faculty call they that that can foresee and foretell things future from imprest Ideaes species images c. What though there be in the Soul a naturall faculty called memory to record or recall things past is there therefore an opposite faculty called who can tell what whereby to divine of things to come If there were such a faculty or power opposite to memory why should it presage or predict one future thing and not another since the memory is able to recollect one past thing as well as another What tell they us of the naturall pretensions of Beasts and frequent predictions of Fools mad men Infants of men sleeping dreaming distracted dying will they make ordinaries of extraordinaries and universals of singulars and common motions of heroicall or else subtilties of phrenzies sagacities of imbecillities and direct presages of occult and confused instincts What if brutes have a naturall instinct or pretension of some future effects whose causes notwithstanding they understand not must a reasonable Soul therefore naturally divine of those things whose naturall causes it knows not But admit there were such a naturall imprest faculty of the Soul or mind as species abstracted or collected within it self to divine predict or prognosticate by we then urge their own argument against themselves what need it to look out to the Stars or to any other creature in heaven or earth to that end and purpose One thing indeed both we and they are convinced of that there is in all our Souls a naturall faculty called Conscience greatly addicted to presaging which if it be justly judging and not erroneously opining will presage more directly and certainly of effects and consequents temporall spirituall eternall good bad happy unhappy of hopes and fears than can all the Planets although they conspired to prognosticate in one conjunction Let our Planetarians therefore both actors and consulters see to it that they suppress not within themselves nor slight that true presaging power 2. Whether that humane Art can be lawfull and laudable as having the least part of Gods gift in it whose principles practices and profitable uses are not according to the Law and orders of nature For all things in nature as they are from a certain beginning so are they destinated by proper means to a profitable end Now though some such things may be yeelded to simple Astronomie yet who can make any of all these plainly appear in sophisticated Astrologie As nature in it self intends the conservation of every creature so all that it can intend in any Art is the usefulness and benefit to humane Society For it askes more than natures aym to make it advantagious to Christian commâ—nion But let them prove the first otherwise why may we not conclude the Art to be as well unnaturall as irreligious 3. If from natures first beginning they of the least life among the lower creatures had their perfect being and flourishing without any influence of the Stars why then are they of the nobler life made so mightily both for their substance and quality to depend upon them Now who that is Christian or but read in Gods book of nature dares deny but that all the vegetables Grasse Herbs Plants Gen. 1. were and flourished in their naturall vigor and vicacity ere that the Sun Moon or Stars was created Now must the most excellent creature upon earth be made to consist by the Stars and his body to thrive or dwindle away according to the benefice or malefice of their influences Nay must his very will and affections thence take their inclination 4. Whether it be not according to natures law and order that the inanimate and irrationall creatures be subject and subservient to the animate and rationall and whether the contrary be not contrary thereunto Now if they had not been put to this plunge of natures irregularity peradventure we had never heard of those erronious nay and hereticall devices of the Stars being animate rationall divine But if they think to elude us with urging the naturall subjection or subordination of the Inferior creatures to the Superior we doe them to wit that the superiority and inferiority of the creature as pertaining to this point is to be reckoned not from the externall place or positure but from the internall gift or endowment The creature of Gods Image although walking here below upon the foot-stool is superiour to all those works of his singers although fixt in the firmament or wandring above Neither doth nature prefer any creature for its adventitials or accidentals but for its substantials or essentials By the Law of nature the lesse noble creatures are intended for subordinate to the more noble How came the Stars then to usurpe a jurisdiction over Man over the Soul of that Man nay over the arbitrary yea and religious actions of that Soul Who but a blind man would make the Master of the family to be subservient to the lights of his house Seeing the Law of nature is the dictate of reason how came the Stars that have no reason to give magisteriall and fatall dictates even to reason it self 5. Whether Nature be not as much abused in her occult
these then to impress and impose upon one another All power is from action all action is from forms all forms are either naturall or artificiall now by what third kind of form doe the stars and the Art worke one upon another And how agree their proper forms to act upon a third subject How can the stars or the Art in introducing forms and producing effects work either naturally by art or artificially by nature Can a naturall form give principles of life and motion to an artificiall matter or an artificiall to a naturall matter which way then will they have these two to conspire or consent either for the operating between themselves or upon a third 4 Whether that power which Magicians Necromancers conjurers inchanters insultingly boast of against Devils and evill spirits by way of coaction and compulsion be not indeed by way of invocation and subjection For though Christ and his Apostles subdued Devils and ejected them by a divine and extraordinary power but as for meer men and the vilest of men since God hath denyed them the singular gift who hath taught them the triviall arr of acting over or commanding evill spirits Or have they taken it upon themselves as did the Jewish Exorcists Acts 19. 3. and is not indeed all their power and authority of the same force as was theirs But instead of preaching to such let me first reason with them Is it credible that a mortall man should be able to bind an immortall Spirit and bind him by a word a sound a syllable a character and these insignificant and no vertue of Gods promise in them Can these men doe that to the Devill which he cannot doe to them compell him to doe good or evill If they can compell him to doe the thing that good is then are they able to doe as much as God himself doth and to compell him to doe evill that they need not he is alwaies as ready to doe that as they Devils are above the order and power of sensible things how then should they be sufficient to move them either by way of allurement or constraint If the Devill doe at any time work with man he will not doe it gratis or freely unless it be upon his own errands and to his own ends for he hates mankind and their indifferent commerce And therefore since he will not doe it voluntarily and cannot be compelled if he acts at all it must either be upon a temptation of his own or else upon a confederation of theirs And if he be enjoyned to obey by covenant or compact then is not the malefice as much as confest Reason and experience prove that the Devil cannot be forced to stand to his own promises how much less then to any mans precept or command And therefore if the Devill appear at the provocation recede at the commination answer at the call and obey at the command of a Necromancer what dissimulation of obedience is there on both sides One secretly imploring and outwardly injoyning the other outwardly observing but inwardly inslaving For it is not they that bind the Devill but the Devill that binds them to obedience Only he seems to be enforced to doe theirs that so he may make them willing to do his will Or that his seigned constraint might either the more excuse him or else set them the more without excuse both before God and men what command or inforcement is that which is done not only to others injury but oft-times to the actors own hurt especially if he be doubting and have not a strong faith and observe not all the circumstances of adjuring which shews all the force on one part or other to be only in a pactionall artifice The main thing that the Astrologicall Magicians Necromancers conjurers and inchanters pretend is that they can stand without his chain and yet bring him will he nill he within their circle and all by vertue of the celestiall orbes only calling and urging him under certain aspects conjunctions constellations But alas these cannot impress or impose upon him neither of themselves nor by accident neither directly nor indirectly he being a meer spirituall substance and formally united to no body If therefore he be observant upon such tearms it is to indulge a superstitious faith and perswasion of the vertue of such things and esficacy of such an art besides above against the word of God And he obeys now not as necessitated thereby as by causes but yeelding thereto as unto Signs Signs indeed of a compact or confederation And in that regard seems very observantially to submit not only to stars and Planetary constellations but to plants herbs stones metals circles odes verses words sounds characters figures fabrications confections and indeed to any rites or ceremonies whatsoever used as seals to such an intent Otherwise was it not for the covenant on the one part there would notwithstanding all the art and authority be but little performance on the tother Having thus disputed with now let me preach to my magicall Dominator who by vertue of the spirit of the world not of the Lord and by vertue of the spirits in the Planets not of him that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars Revel 3. 1. presumeth that he hath thus got the Devill in a string and can make him bow at a beck Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down Canst thou put an hook into his nose and bore his jaw thorow with a thorn Will he make many supplications unto thee will he speak soft words unto thee Will he make a covenant with thee wilt thou take him for a servant for ever Wilt thou play with him as with a bird wilt thou bind him for thy maidens Shall thy companions make a banquet of him shall they part him among the Merchants Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons or his head with fish-spears Lay thine hand upon him remember the battell doe no more I hope he is not ignorant that the allegory is very apt for his own application 5. Whether Magicians and Astrologers be not only obnoxious or lyable to but noxious or guilty of a diabolicall compact and commerce not only implicite but explicite As pretending to false science propounding false grounds urging false causes using false means exhibiting false circumstances practising false arts provoking false affections and intending false ends and especially seeking and teaching to supply the defect or fayling of all these by a false and superstitious faith A faith that is not in the things of faith and therefore cannot be divine A faith that in the things of reason denys and exclaims against the demonstration of reason and therefore cannot be humane Must not the effect of such a faith be superstitious and the event prestigious Moreover what proneness hath here been confest what properties of a diabolicall covenant have been found Besides a vanity and superstition of faith
likewise of observation imagination affectation investigation invocation adjuration temptation Signs empty and delusory Feats jugling and prestigious wonders wrought without the command and approof of God creatures abused contrary to their nature and institution art pretended without any true principles words invented and muttered and they barbarous insignificant false absurd apocryphall yea though Canonicall and sacred yet applyed to such acts ends for which they were never ordained admirable efficacy attributed to syllables sounds numbers rites solemnities ceremonies circumstances of time place and person Fabrications of images statues figures characters circles rings seals c. Confections of herbs minerals waters oyls juyces spirits c. acting and effecting at an improportionate distance and without convenient means spectrous Phantasmes or apparitions to affright men into a credulity ludibrious pranks only to make sport and so feed mans curiosity and divining predictions of things lost absent future without either calling or cause 6. Whether Magicall feats be wrought by things corporeall or spiritual Not by things corporeal because of improportionate matter form cause effect means instruments distance c. How can a body work upon a body to make it sign and signify things hidden lost absent future to make a dead body walk speak c. To make a living body walk invisible transform its proper shape c. And if by things spirituall then whether by spirits good or bad Not by the good neither of Angels nor men for where 's the true and good cause Minister means object and end of Magicall operation Nay which of all these is not evill 7. Is it not the known property of God to know things future absolutely and exactly Wherefore then did the Devill arrogate to himself divination but in an emulation of Divinity Now whether of these two doe the Diviners imitate God or the Devill It cannot be God because they have no command to imitate him in these his powerfull properties no promise upon the imitation It must be the Devill then and to imitate him must needs be maleficall And they may imitate him many ways for he hath used himself to divination by spirits by men by living men by dead men by the celestiall bodies by the elements by things naturall by things artificiall yea and by things sacred and religious and may not they then be like him in all these 8. How easy is it for the Devill to predict those things which he intends to act himself As suppose he intendeth by Gods permission to practise the sickness death destruction of man or Beast is it not easy for him to suggest such his intention to his instruments and Ministers and so make them to predict the same Yea though it be done from him is it not easy for him and them to pretend it from some other cause albeit abused besides the naturall end thereof Is it a matter of much artifice for veâ—eficks or witches to forespeak their own purposed and laboured malefice How readily may he presage anothers death or ruin that hath him in his own power and so hath already determined that such a day it shall be done In like manner how many have perished according to wizzardly predictions and that only because of wizzardly purposes and perpetrations And therefore it may not unjustly be doubted whether many of those prognosticated evill fates and fortunes against Princes Magistrates Ministers and other Christians especialy such as opposed them in their fatidicall way were not besides the Astrologicall speculation practised by goeticall Magick as by charms curses poysons treachery violence or by making maleficall images pictures figures constellated under the ascension of that man whom they would maliciously destroy or prejudice And why may not this be justly suspected of them since it is a thing not only of their own practising but of their teaching And it being so how can they themselves deny and what understanding man would not pronounce upon them for the most arrant inchanters sorcerers veneficks maleficks wizzards and witches in the world 9. Whether there may not be an effascination or bewitching by inspecting the stars as by imagination by breathing on by looking on by touching by fabricating of images c. We know none of these acts are malevolent or maleficall in their own nature but that any one of these as well as another may be abused to sorcery and witchcraft through a Satanicall stipulation or suffrage who can deny 10. What practice of sorcery or malefice more superstitious than the fabricating of Astrologicall and of magicall images pictures statues figures c. For as a tacite compact hath been suspected as touching the Astrologicall so hath an express one been concluded and confessed as concerning the magicall configurations And what is the one or the other of these but the making of an image or figure either of man or beast in gold silver brass copper wax wood stone clay under such a conjunction or constellation For the inviting and alluring of Angels for the expelling and ejecting of Devils for the procuring of love for the provoking of hatred for the atchieving of victory for the effecting of death for the raising or allaying of storms or tempests for the causing or preventing of pestilencies for the driving away of Serpents and vermine c. Now in such a compact what vertue or efficacy besides that of a compact only what similitude or resemblance betwixt the figure of a round star or Planet and a monstruous many-shap't magicall configuration The vertue of the celestials are but universall and indeterminate as to the producing of this or that effect neither but by naturall and particular causes And who will say that any such particular figures are either causes or naturall what preparation can there be of such a matter for the receiving and retaining such constellatory influences And what such kind of efficacies can it have thereby for the admitting of such effects The heavenly bodies operate no way but naturally these figures or fabrications operate no way but artificially being the artifices of humane invention and used arbitrarily how then should these modify and determine those How come their vast influences to be restrained only to such a figure and that only for such operations How come the stars and Planets so to neglect the matter and its disposition and so to respect the figure and its composition as accordingly to dart in their influences for the figures sake let the matter be what it will what vertue can there be for all the celestiall influences more than the matter is disposed unto what efficacy or aptitude of an artificiall form more than accidentall and instrumentall what principles of life and action from artificiall forms Is not the vertue of the matter still the same although of divers forms or figures why should artificiall figures be more apt to receive the starry influences than are naturall figures In all such configurations must not the efficacy of the Stars rather attend or depend upon
the stars will seem to justle and skirmish one against another 5. The Stone called Sylonites bred in an Indian Snail confers the prescience and presence of certain things future while a man hath it under his tongue let him bethink him of any businesse whether it ought to be done or may come to passe or not and if it may or ought it will cleave so fast to his heart as that it cannot be plucked thence if not the heart will leap back from it 6. If thou wouldst interpret dreams and Prophetize of things future take the stone which is called Esmundus or Asmadus and it will give Prophetization interpretation of all dreams and make to understand riddles 7. If thou wilt divine of things future take the stone called Celonytes of a purple and various colour and is found in the body of a Snayle if any man carry this stone under his tongue he shall Prophesie and foretell future things 8. By the stone called Elitropia or as the Nigromanticks the Babylonian Gemme with certain verses and Characters Princes have predicted by divining for which cause the Priests of the Temples made special use of this stone in the feasts of their Idols If thou wouldst foreknow any thing future take the stone called Bena and put it under thy tongue and so long as thou so holdest it thou shalt continually predict by divining things future and shalt not in any wise erre in divining 10. If thou wouldst judge of or declare the opinions and cogitations of others take the stone which is called Gerarides and is of a black colour and hold it in thy mouth 11. If thou wouldst whet the wit of any one or increase his wrath or foretel future things take the stone which is called Smaragdus c. For it carried about him makes a man to understand well confers a good memory increases the wealth of him that carries it about him and if any man hold it under his tongue he shall Prophecie forthwith 12. A Weasel is a creature sufficiently known if the heart of this creature be eaten while it is yet panting it maketh to know things to come 13. If thou wouldst as the great diviners have done understand the voices of Birds take with thee two companions on the first of the Kalends of November and go into the wood with dogs as if thou wentst an hunting and that beast thou first sindest carry it home with thee and prepare it with the heart of a Foxe and thou shalt straight understand the voices of Birds and Beasts and if thou wouldst that another should understand them do but kisse him and he shall understand them likewise 14. A Suffumigation made with the congealed blood of an Asse and the fat of a Wolfe and Storax c. will cause to foresee things future in sleep whether good or evil 15. If any one swallow the heart of a Lapwing or a Swallow or a Weasel or a Mole whilst it is yet warm with natural heat it shall be helpful to him for remembring understanding and foretelling 16. The stone that is bred in the apple of the eye of a Civet Cat held under the tongue of a man is said to make him to divine or prophecy The same is Selenites the Moon-stone reported to do Also there is an herb called Rheangelida which Magicians drinking of can Prophecy 17. They say also that a Tyke if it be pulled out of the left ear of a Dog and if it be altogether black hath great vertue in the Prognostick of life For if the sick party shall answer him that brought it in who standeth at his feet and shall ask of him concerning his disease there is certain hope of life and that he shall dye if he make no answer 18. They say that fumes made of Linseed and Fleabane seed and roots of Violets and Parsly doth make one to foresee things to come and doth conduce to prophecying They say also that if any one shall hold a Viper over a vapour with a staffe he shall prophecy So it is said that the stone Selenites id est the Moon-stone and the stone of the Civet Cat cause divination also vervaine and the herb Theangelis cause soothsaying 19. Melancholly men by reason of their earnestness do far better conjecture and fitly conceive a habit and most easily receive an impression of the celestials The Sybills and the Bacchides and Niceratus the Syracusan and Ancon were by their natural melancholy complexion Prophets Poets For this when it is stirred up burns and stirs up a madnesse conducing to knowledge and divination especially if it be helped by any celestial influxe especially of Saturn who seeing he is cold and dry as is a melancholy humour hath its influence upon it increaseth and preserveth it 20. The Rabbines say there is an Animal called Jedua having a humane shape in the middle of whose Navel comes forth a string by which it is fastned to the ground like a Gourd and as far as the length of that string reacheth it devoures all that is greene about it and deceiving the sight cannot be taken unlesse that string be cut off with the stroke of a dart which being cut off it presently dyes Now the bones of this Animal being after a certain manner laid upon the mouth presently he whose mouth they are laid upon is taken with a frenzie and soothsaying Now what a rare Mirable of Art is Magical Divination yea and Astrological Prediction that hath all these and many more if one would take the paines to collect them Mirables of Nature peculiarly subserving thereunto I say even Astrological Prediction For without a constellated fabrication or confection all these presaging Mirables and the like signifie nothing in effect And therefore for the manner of acting in and by such as these they caution straitly to observe the Planet benevolous or malevolous as they wolud presage upon the effect good or ill And not onely so but the dominion of the Planet and the day of that dominion and the houre of that day as they would have the predicted effect to be now or then So that to what end serve the feigned Mirables of Nature but to feigne the Mag-astro-mantick Art for the greatest Mirable CHAP. XXIV From the Ceremonies of preparation WHether these and the like rites and ceremonies taught and practised by themselves as preparing and conducing to magicall and astrologicall constellation configuration fabrication operation divination prediction omination presagition conjectation prognostication c. bee not the most blasphemous idolatrous superstitious heathenish hereticall hypocriticall atheisticall forcerous prestigious impostorous prophane and impious not onely to pure minds and consciences but even to common reason and sense viz. 1. He which knowes how to compare the divisions of Provinces according to the divisions of the stars with the ministry of the ruling Intelligences and blessings of the Tribes of Israel the lots of the Apostles and typicall seales of the sacred Scripture shall be able to
gain Physiognomy Metoposcopy Chiromancy Aruspicy the Speculatory the Onirocritical whichis the interpretation of dreams and the Oracles of the furious here challenge their seat Now all these artifices are of no solid doctrine neither do consist of any certain reasons but inquire of occult things either by fortuitous lot or agnition of spirit or certain appearing conjectures which are taken up from quotidian observations of long time For all these prodigious arts of divination are wont to defend themselves no other way but by the title of experience and to extricate themselves out of the bonds of objections so often as they teach or promise any thing above faith and beside reason Of all which it is thus commanded in the Law There shall not he found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to passe through the fire or that useth divination or an observer of times or an inchanter or a witch or a charmer or a consulter with familiar spirits or a wizzard or a Necromancer For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. Physiognomy following from the inspection of the whole body presumeth it can by probable signs attain to know what are the affections of body and mind and what a mans fortune shall be so far forth as it pronounceth him Saturnial or Jovial and him Martial or Solar another Venereal Mercurial or Lunar and collecting their horoscopes from the habitude of the body and from affections transcending as they say by little and little unto causes namely Astrological out of which they afterward trifle as they list Metoposcopy out of a sagacious ingenie and learned experience boasts her self to foresent all the beginnings the progresses and the ends of men out of the sole inspection of the forehead making her self also to be the pupil of Astrologie Chiromancie feigns seven mounts in the palm of the hand according to the number of the seven Planets and supposes it can know from the lines there to be seen what a mans complexion is what his affections and what his fortune c. But we need no other reason to impugn the error of all these Arts then this self-same namely that they are void of all reason Yet very many of the Antients have written of these c. But they all can deliver nothing beyond conjectures and observations of experience Yet that there is not any rule of truth to these conjectures and observations is manifest from this because they are voluntary figments and upon which their teachers even of equal learning and authority are not agreed But this trifling kind of men is wont so to doat through the instinct of devils drawing them from error into superstition and from this by degrees into infidelity To the art of Augury they make faith who teach that certain lights of presagition do descend from the coelestials upon all those inferior living creatures as certain signes constituted in their motion site gesture going flight voice meat colour work event by which as by a certain ingraffed hidden force and firm consent they so agree with the coelestial bodies with whose powers they are affected that they can presage all things whatsoever that the coelestial bodies intend to do whereupon it is manifest that this divination followes not but from conjectures partly taken from the influences of the stars as they say and partly from certain parabolical similitudes then which nothing can be more fallacious Wherefore Panaetius Carneades Cicero Chrysippus Diogenes Antipater Josephus and Philo have derided it the Law and the Church hath condemned it They who endeavour to perswade that nothing is dream't in vain say that like as the coelestial influxes do produce divers forms in corporal matter so from the same influxes in the phantastical faculty which is organical there are phantasms impressed by the coelestial disposition consentaneous to the producing any kind of effect especially in Dreams because the mind is then more freed from the body and external cares and so receives those divine influxes more freely whence it comes to passe that many things are made known in dreams to men sleeping which are concealed from them waking By this reason chiefly they labour to reconcile an opinion of truth to dreams and yet of the causes of dreams both intrinsical and extrinsical they do not all of them agree in one opinion c. Of dreams nothing is delivered but meer dreams c. To these dreameâ—s we may number those who give a faith of divinity to the vaticinations of madmen and think they have attained to a divine prescience of things to come who have lost all knowledge of things present all memory of things past together with all humane sense and that mad men and sleepers see those things which wise men and waking are ignorant of as if God were neerer to them then to the sound watchâ—ul intelligent and premeditating In truth they are unhappy men who believe these vanities and obey these impostures who cherish these kind of artificers and submit their wits and faith to these their vain delusions All these artifices of divination have their rooting and foundation in Astrologie For whether the body the face or the hand be inspected whether a dream or a prodigie be seen whether an auspicie or a Fury be inspired they consult to erect a figure of Heaven out of whose tokens together with conjectures of similitudes signs they hunt for opinions of things signified and so all Divinations challenge to themselves the Art and use of Astrologie and confesse this to be as it were the key to the necessary knowledge of all secret things Wherefore all those arts of divination how far they are from truth they plainly discover themselves in this in that they use principles so manifestly false and feigned by a poeticall temerity which neither are nor have been nor ever shall be yet are they made the causes and signes to which all events of things are to be referred contrary to all evident truth Magick is so neer joyned to and of affinity with Astrologie so that he who professeth Magick without Astrologie doth nothing but erreth altogether There is an Art given to mortal men whereby they might generate certain latter things not partaking of truth and divinity but might deduce certain images like unto themselves and Magicians most audacious men have gone so farre to perpetrate all things that old and strong Serpent the promiser of Sciences especially favouring them that they like to him Apes have endeavoured to emulate both God and nature To such a height of madnesse some of the Magicians are grown that from diverse constellations of the Stars through internals of times and by a certain reason of proportions being rightly observed they think that a fabricated image of the heavenly creatures may with a becke receive the spirit of life and understanding whereby it may answer those that consult it and reveale the secrets of hidden truth Hence it is plain that this