all things to pass in Nature in this inferior world except those immediate Acts in which all these Mediums are suspended and the first Cause works of himself and these Works are called by us Miracles because there is nothing of Nature found to co-operate in the work or in that the Creator of all things doth not work in and by these means mediating But when these Mediums have received those patterns of working then they shew forth the Intentions and Decrees of the first Cause either by the ordinary Motion Aspects and Position of the Celestial Bodies which is the common course of the first Cause in Nature or else in a more extraordinary way as by unusual Apperitions as of Comets or Blazing Star three Suns Men and Horses in armour in a hostile manner fighting Balls of Fire Swords Spears and other weapons of war forms of monstrous Men and Beasts and many other ways too tedious to be here denominated all which are the Works of the Intelligential Angels which are the fore-runners of some strange Accidents or Change to befall the World in general or some Kingdom State Cities Families or Persons who had their first beginnings under such or such a determinate Horoscope and Celestial Constellation who with their beginnings receive a wonderful virtue of working or suffering yea in such a manner that it becomes obediâ—nt to that power ruling it in the Heavens as our bodies are obedient to our Souls so that when the Celestial Bodies are moved to any Change or Variation then are those things which are subject to that or that Celestial Body or Constellation moved and changed answerable Now this intensive work or change which is determined in the first Cause is made manifest in the Heavens some space of time more or less before it is brought to pass upon these Inferiors here below so that those that are learned in the Liberary of Heaven sees before-hand what is like to come to pass upon such or such a Kingdom State Family or persons Now for him that is versed in the knowledg of their Effects to declare what the intention of the first Cause is in reference to any of these particular ones should be â—ccounted and termed a Conjurer Witch and the like what do they but as much as in them is to stigmatise the secondary Causes who are servants to the first Cause to wit God who hath made and framed them by his unspeakable Wisdom in such a series and order of correspondency that they answer to all things more or less here below as they agree with the Intelligences and Idea's of all things above so that they do necessarily work and so necessarily produce their proper effects upon those things that they govern in this inferior world either to love and concord or to strife and enmity which we call good and evil and the cause why they operate not so strongly and effectually is because of the unequality of the matter for in such things in which the superior hath not that Rule and Domination as in others in those they work more slowly and imperfect which is not because of the inability of their influence and virtue but because of the unsuitability of the Subject for they rule in some things more in others less yet they produce their effects in all suitable to the correspondency of the matter with them so that there is nothing in the inferior world which is not more or less agreeing with these Celestial Influences and Heavenly Virtues But now I shall descend to Particulars as to declare the particular Effects of the superior Influences upon particular ones But first That they have relation to the World in general take but that one Instance of Petrus de Aliaco concerning the Universal Flood who quoting Albumazer who did by Calculation of the Motions of the two superior Planets to wit Saturn and Jupiter did find that they did come to Conjunction in Cancer a watery Sign and in the fourth House of Heaven the which Sign was as the same Author doth affirm the Horoscope of the Heavens first motion viz. when the Creation was finished and all Celestial bodies had received their power of motion in the which they were to continue for the product of those determinate effects upon the world according to the intention of the first Cause In this particular Instance a curious eye may see much by the which Conjunction as some learned Authors doth aver that that just man Noah had the fore-knowledg of the general Deluge For as the said Aliaco confirmeth that although Noah did well know the Flood by divine Revelation yet this Conjunction being notorious he could not be ignorant of the second Causes from the first Cause for that was not only a Sign but a working Cause by its power received from the first Cause which is God himself and also that by the windows of Heaven Moses meant this watery Conjunction The Authors words are these It pleased God saith he to ordain by the course of the Heavens such a Constellation by the which all men might see therein their own destruction coming and so forsake those wicked ways wherein they walked and call upon God for mercy And of the same Judgment was the learned Parisiensis who understood that by the windows of Heaven were meant the great Conjunction of those two superior Planets or these watery Constellations Cancer Pisces Pleiades Hyades and Orion and of the Planets Venus and the Moon which are the forcible Causes of the greatest Inundations His own words are these I perceive not what the Prophet of the Hebrews meaneth by these words the windows of Heaven unless he meaneth thereby those Celestial Powers by whose influence are engendered the Rain and Inundations of Waters such as are the water Signs of Cancer c. The which Conjunction happened according to the opinion of Albumazur 279 years 248 days and 9 hours before that it did shew its effects upon the inferior world And thus it pleased God that in the Course of his unsearchable Wisdom that this Conjunction should be at such a time by which means there was vigour and faculty added for the operation of every virtue by which violent Eruptions of Springs and Fountains was caused from the abundance of the treasure of their waters taking retention from the Clouds and condensing ayr into water a change familiar in these Elements by the Ministry of his Angels the which is the ordinary way of the first Cause for the producing of his determinations upon the inferior world I mean by such secondary Causes as was the Conjunction of these two superior Planets viz. Saturn and Jupiter the effects of which resulted into that Universal Deluge or general overflowing of the whole Earth with the Element of Water But this shall suffice for the due proof of the first particular to wit That the Celestial Bodies have an Influence upon the World for the producing of strange effects as they are Instruments under the first
in them it is first conceived and so carried down by their Influence upon those Bodies that have a secret virtue of correspondency and a reciprocal property of embracing those Influences from whence I conceive that that part of Astrology hath its Ground which we call Horary Questions for it is found by large experience that when any person is moved really in his mind to any particular Act and is carried out to propose a question to an Artist that then the Heavens and those superior Bodies do contain a true and real description of the Act and its event answerable to that operation or moving of the inferior mind of the person for whatsoever is acted in and by man is at first conceived in the Heavens and so far a good experient Artist is not deceived but when there is no such moving in the Superiors then there is no perfect moving or operation upon or in the mind of a person but imperfect and such as it is doth sometimes produce a slight desire or will in the person to know something but what he knows not and in this respect the Heavens give no demonstration of the event which in many young Artists hath been the cause I fear of those many false Judgments which arise from a want of a true knowledg and understanding of the minds of the Superiors which Ignorance hath caused them to speak their own thoughts for the sence of the Heavens as if they had all the superior Bodies with their several Intelligences in the bridle of their Pocket gain but they ought to know that those Divine Powers are not ordained to serve men to such base ends whose fond presumption is as great as Phaetons folly who to declare himself of the linage of Heaven produced his own overthrow and others ruines If you be the true sons of Art undertake no such impossibilities as to rule the Heavenly Powers with the reins of your own fancies I speak this to those young Students who are I am afraid not well acquainted with the natural Motion of the Orbs much less with those excellent Powers that are Rulers of them under the first Cause And not only of them alone but of the Terrestial world in their due order for a certain limit of time appointed by the Wisdom of that chiâ—f Good who made all things in form and order and doth by his Power given forth to those his Celestial Ministers govern it in the like form and order to the shewing forth of his Majesty Glory Power and infinite Wisdom and every Age from the beginning is found by observation to have had some kind of respect in their actions to the nature of the Angel or Spirit then Ruling suitable to the capacity of those then governed and if I mistake not we in this present Age are under the Rule of Raphael which is the cause according to the determination of the first Cause of those abundant Sects Opinions Heresies Fancies of the brain Disputes Contentions Subtilty Falshood Vnstability cunning and witty Policy and the like of all which the former Ages knew not the like This is a great Mystery to most and a thing not perfect to any I mean the true knowledg of this Angelical Rule the which our Reasons are not able to ascend up unto but hath been found out by observation of some in former Ages and the experience of some of late learned in the most occult Powers of Nature And a Mystery not inferior to this is that secret virtue and admirable signification that is manifestly known by long experience to be in those twelve Divisions of the Heavens called the twelve Mansions or Houses of Heaven and have relation to all things appertaining to the life quality and condition of every one in what relation soever he may or can be the which secret virtue in the Heavens is hid from the eyes of our Reason though the virtue power and signification of them are dayly found by experience which is no strange thing that our Reason should not fathom the depth thereof to find the Cause and Ground For we see the manifestation of the virtue of the Loadstone in a visible attraction of Iron to it self but know not the secret Cause thereof And such virtues the Philosophers called hidden Qualities because the Causes of them are hid so that mans understanding cannot find them out no ways but long observation and experience hath found out many things of the like Nature which Search and Reason could not attain As for instance We see that in the stomack the meat that we eat is digested by heat which we truly know so it is transâ—ormed by a secret virtue which we know not but not by heat for then why not at the fire as well as in the stomack but that of a certain it is transform-into a due nourishment of the Body by what virtue we are not able to find So also it is reported that the Eastridg concocts cold and most hard Iron and digests it into a due nourishment of its body whose stomack as it is reported is not hurt with hot Iron So the Echenes stops the ship and the Salamander abides the fire without hurt and the Amber draws all things to it except Basil these are the works of hidden Virtues which we admire and are amazed at as unknown to us in respect of their Causes but our experience doth find the visible working and the effects of those secret and occult properties I hope gentle Reader by this that this excellent Art of Astrology is no such thing as the world thinks it to be nor as that ridiculous Pamphlet terms it thou seest it clear from the jealousie of a Diabolical Agent in it there is no workings by a combination with the power of the dark world but to be wholy celestial and divine And although some men have abused it to base ends by the instigation of the Devil and hath bewitched some fancies and and led them to Idolatry as a Doctrine of Religion and corrupted the word Astrology by giving a divine Power to the Stars which they have not that is an independing Power of themselves and so have been esteemed as gods and not as Instruments set up by the first Cause all which I contemn but the abuse of the thing takes not away the Art considering that the Heavenly Bodies have and do exercise their virtues upon the Inferiors For it is vulgarly known to those who have but the smallest knowledg of the Celestial Bodies That the Sun and Star of Mars doth dry the Moon doth moisten and govern the Tydes of the Sea that Jupiter and Mercury doth produce winds and Saturn dark and obscure weather and that the stars do differ in magnitude and to all the stars God hath given their proper names which had they hot influences and virtues different they need not And as it is Lawful in all the parts of it as I have spoken before So also it is most Ancient and was practised
by a wise man to the bringing forth of such or such effects as are wonderful to those that know not their Causes And this is that which hath layn under terms of Ignominy to this day Ignorance producing Admiration and Admiration Suspicion and then an undeserved Censure past upon the work or action terming it to be Diabolical and so attributing the secret workings which the divine Wisdom hath placed in the secret bosom of Nature to a Diabolical Power and Property when it is nothing else but a mutual application of Natural Vertues Agent and Suffering reciprocally And those that were conversant in this excellent Science in former times were otherwise thought of then now they are For as Pencer truly observeth that the Magi were the chief Ministers of the Persian Religion as the Levites were amongst Gods people and they were given to the studies of true Philosophy neither could any be Kings of the Persians who had not been first exercised in the mysteries and knowledg of the Magi. And this lawful Magick which I do here speak of was commended by Origen that learned man who doth most ingenuously declare That it doth appertain to the practick part of Natural Philosophy teaching to work admirable things by the mutual application of Natural Vertues And Jerom in his Commentaries upon Daniel useth these words But common custom saith he taketh Magicians for Witches who are otherwise reputed in their own Nation for they are the Philosophers of the Chaldeans yea Kings and Princes of that Nation do all that they do according to the knowledg of that Art whence at the Nativity of the Lord our Saviour they first of all understood his Birth and coming unto Bethlehem did worship the Childe the Star from above shewing him unto them So it is clear that there is a great deal of difference between the Doctrine of a Magician truly and the abuse of the word But if you will beleeve the Author of that Pamphlet he will tell you that he is a Magician in these our days who having entered a combination with the Prince of Darkness useth his help in any matter but the Art of Magick is of the wisdom of Nature But as for other Arts which have assumed the Title of Magick they were invented by the subtilty and falshood of the Devil and in this there is none other Doctrine then the use of certain Ceremonies by an evil and wicked faith in the other none evil but the investigation of those admirable Vertues and occult Properties which that infinite Wisdom hath bestowed and given to his Creatures and how fitly to apply those things that are to work to those things that are to suffer And those men that were studious in this Art were called the Magi which Peter Martyr saith the Ancients understood to be good and wise men And as Ficinus saith O thou fearful one why doubtest thou to use the name of Magus a name gracious in the Gospel which doth not signifie a Witch or a Conjurer but a wise man and a Priest And what hath brought so much slander upon this excellent knowledg but base and idle Ignorance which indeed is the mother of Admiration But give me leave to go yet further This Art doth not onely enable us in the true knowledg of those secret Vertues which are wrapped up in the bosom of Nature but it may in some measure bring us to the true knowledg of the Divinity of Christ and to use Mirandula's words For by understanding saith he the utmost activity of Natural Agents we are assisted to know the Divinity of Christ for otherwise the terms and limits of Natural Power and Vertue not rightly understood we must needs doubt whether those very works which Christ did may not be done by natural means and therefore I say not heretically nor superstitiously but most truly and catholiquely that by such Magick we are furthered in knowing the Divinity of Christ And seeing the Jews and other the Enemies of Christian Religion do impudently and impiously object that those Miracles which Christ wrought were not above Nature but by the exquisite knowledg thereof performed and as that learned Doctor Staughton saith in a small Treatise of his that the Jews have a blasphemous Fable that our Saviour found out the right pronunciation of the Name of God the Tetragrammaton and that wrought all his Miracles But Mirandula a man for his years fuller of the knowledg of Nature then any of these latter times might with Reason avow that the utmost limits of Natures works being known that the works which Christ did which no man could do do manifestly declare of themselves that they were wrought by a Hand which held Nature herein but as a pensil and by a Power infinitely Supreme and Divine But on the contrary there may be many wonderful effects brought to pass by the Magical operation of Natural Vertues such as may produce no small admiration in those that understand not the secret workings and products of those vertues for it is undoubtedly true that all Secondary Causes do necessarily work and necessarily produce their proper effects by vertue of that Connexion that they have with the first Cause and correspondency that they have to those divine Patterns and eternal Idea's whence every thing hath its determinate place in the Architype whence it lives and draws it original and the vertue of all things as of Stones Herbs Metals living Creatures and all which are from God are placed who although he works by the Intelligences and Heavens upon these inferior things yet sometimes those Media's being let alone or their Ministry suspended the first Cause doth then work of it self which works are then called Miracles For whereas by the command and order of the first Cause the secondary Causes which Plato and others calls servants do necessarily work and necessarily produce their proper effects yet sometimes according to the pleasure of the first Cause their Ministry is either suspended or finished that they wholly cease from that necessary command and order and these are the greatest Miracles of God So the Sun at the request of Josuah stood still for the space of a whole day So at the desire of Ezekias it went back ten hours So the fire in the Chaldean furnace did not consume the three Children So when that our Saviour Christ did suffer at a full Moon the Sun was eclipsed But if the Ministry of these secondary Causes be not suspended or finished then they shew forth their proper powers and vertues in their several effects according to that order in the which the Wisdom of the first Cause ordained them What the Secondary Causes are NOw if it be demanded what these Secondary Causes are I answer They are all those Ministring Powers which God the first Cause hath set up under himself for the regulating and governing of these inferior things for there is not any thing to be found which is not governed and ruled by these Ministring
but more especially that strange Apperition of three Suns in Decemb. 1648. which were seen visibly to divers in London and near adjacent which were the Messengers of a final Period to that House in respect of the Regal Power which were the Works of the Intelligencial Angels who were willing to communicate the Decree of the great Creator which was to be effected in a small space of time here below though conceived long before in the bosom of the first Cause as all things of the like nature are And shall God be so willing to suffer nothing to come to pass or be effected in this lower world but doth give unto us first Celestial Declarations of his Intentions and Determinations and shall we call such as are conversant in the contemplation of those Wonders and Mysteries Witches Conjurers and the like O ingratitude not to be parallel'd Which of you all who are so sottish as to abuse the Students in this lawful Art that would reject the counsel of the meanest man who adviseth you of an apparant danger which is ready for to seize upon you and declares the prevention by certain means If you reject it worse then mad men Will you reject and slight the Prognosticks of able Artists Look to it in time lest you be branded for your folly in future Ages For had his late Majesty and some great men really considered the Prophecies of some English Artists it had been otherwise with then it was I will give you the Paradoxial Prophecy of that able Artist Mr Lilly in Merlin pag. 110. Wo to a great Family of Europe that was is now but shall be no more it 's not old it 's not ancient like an untimely birth it 's cut off and shall never again flourish either in Branch or Root c. Lord God shall the number of fifty cut off more then five or shall less then ninety be alotted for four Shall the Virgin be barren and the Lyon have no issue Shall less then 36 end in two Shall the second end in a Cipher Shall seven come to be one and then none This is a Mystery to many yet true in its effects part of which is exactly fulfilled the rest makes haste and in its time must conclude the Prophecy I were able to produce other Presidents of the like nature but this shall serve to clear the Celestial Influences upon Families Now I shall speak briefly to the last particular viz. That the Heavenly Bodies have a respect in their Influence to particular ones to the Manifestation of those several Occurrences which are to befall them in this inferior world For every single man and woman when they begin to have Being under a determinate Asscendant and Heavenly Constellation they receive with that Being a wonderful virtue of working and suffering more then what it receives from its proper kind by the Influence of the Heavens from the obedience of the matter of the thing generable which contains in it self properties of the Elemental Virtues with a subtil ayral spirit which makes the siminal matter fruitful the which is apt to receive any impression from the Celestial Virtues and the Higher Powers disposing the Elemental Properties and doth instamp its virtue and form upon the generable matter suitable to its correspondency to the Celestial Souls from the which ground the matter thus formed and disposed it comes to be moed to obedience unto those Higher Powers so that according to the motions of the Superiors and their Influences divers effects inclinations and behaviors are wrought not only from the matter diversly disposed as the most think but from the diverse Influence of the Superiors and their different forms and the degrees of these are diversly distributed of God the first Cause of all who remains the same distributes to every one as he sees good to which the secondary Causes do co-operate Angelical and Celestial in their disposing of the corporal matter and other things committed to them So that from hence Astrologians say That some men are Solar and some men Mercurial and so of the rest because that they have received in their beginnings virtue and operation from those Bodies in the correspondency of their seminal matter with those Stars both in their bodies and inclinations which shew themselves more conspicuously and powerful when the internal faculty hath attained its proper power and strength which it received at its first Being So that inclinations and behaviors of all men do appear in their workings or sufferings more or less suitable to that virtue which they have received from the Superiors and correspond with them so far forth as they rule those properties for in some men the virtue of the Celestial Souls are less drowned and less incumbered with contrariety and in such that virtue is more conspicuous and perfect then in others which made the Platonicks to say That Celestial Virtues were infused according to the desert of the matter which we see verified in Christ who by reason of the purity and perfection of the corporal matter it was capable to receive the fulness of the Divinity in whom it dwelt as the Scripture saith bodily the excellency of whose Person was manifested to the Magi at his Birth by that new Star which led them to his presence to worship him which was a Celestial Demonstration of his Divine Descent Not unlike to that was the Star in the time of Augustus Cesar in the which Sybillia Tiburtina shewed to the said Augustus the Image of a beautiful Virgin holding a Boy in her bosom and saying This Child is more noble and greater then thou worship him And according to the verification of some learned Authors the Horoscope of our Saviours Nativity was in the first Decade of Virgo in the which before his Manifestation in the flesh was a Conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and Mercury which did fore-shew his Birth And according to the opinion of Albumazer that in the same Decade of Virgo ascendeth a beautiful Virgin of a comely Body pleasant Countenance modest Attire long Hair holding two Plums in her hand sitting upon a golden Throne and nourishing a Boy And of the same opinion was Abraham whose words are these There ascendeth in the first face of Virgo a very fair Virgin having long Hair holding two ears of Corn in her hand and she sitteth upon a seat and nourishing a little Boy by giving him suck and enciting him to eat All which were nothing else but Angelical Manifestations of that purity and perfection of Nature which was to be brought forth into the world in the Humanity of Christ the which I think no ingenuous man will deny But now I will proceed Now because of this inherent correspondent Property which the matter of the Body hath received from the superior Powers and Virtues in its beginning of Being it comes to be moved to those several actions of passion either of love or enmity by the movings of the Superiors to the like for