hath Bones and sinews Ex loco Causarum effectorum from the Causes and their Effects betwixt which there must be some kinde of proportion and similitude which are not betwixt Ens summè bonum pecatum a Thing good in the chiesest manner and sin Because sin as such hath no goodness in it self neither hath it existence ut peccatum as sin sed ut Ens but as a Thing It would likewise follow that contradictory Propositions are both true these Assertions containing an implicite Contradiction to be God and not to be most excellently Good that is if we speak out and explicitely not to be God And as the Author of sin cannot be good so neither can he be holy just or the Judge of the World which are God's essential properties Saint Basil is the Author of a Homily beyond the ordinary level wherein he throws this thunderbolt Tantundem est S. Basil Hom. Quod Deus non sit Author peccati Deum asserere esse Authorem peccati negare esse Deum It is as much to assert God to be the Author of sin as to deny him to be God Yea He that consequentially makes God the Author of sin makes our most holy most pure and most blessed Lord God and gracious Father of mercies worse then then the Devil Because 2 Cor. 1. 3. the Devil tempteth onely and perswadeth to sin and all his motions may be resisted and cast off But God as the spurious Teachers and Carcasses of Divines teach willeth and procureth sin by a powerful effectual and irresistible Decree even as the degenerating and spurious Astrologer forceth our wills to it by an inviolable influence to the which he saith God hath necessarily obliged the Heavens And these all avouch against the Axiom the will to be compelled But it is most agreeable to the Secret of Symmetry That they who have sinned away all Christian Bowels and are the high and mighty Scandalizers of Men should highly scandalize the Almighty God also I prove again That Astrology is an able assistant to the most abstruse part of Divinity as being admirably proportioned to it in materiâ circa quam in the matter concerning which it in part discourseth As appears also in a matter depending upon the former We may avoid all sins potestate antecedenti by an antecedent power The antecedent power is a power having whatsoever is antecedently necessary to operation on our part if the will consenteth or if the Will will not consent whatsoever is necessary to forestall and prevent operation But we cannot avoid all sins potestate consequenti by a consequent and efficacious S. Aug. lib. 3. de lib. Arbitr c. 17. power It is the received Maxime of Saint Austin Nemo peccat in eo quod vitare non potest No man sins in that which he cannot avoid That is which he cannot avoid either at first or last either by precluding the way to sin or by not yielding and consenting when the temptation maketh its battery Neither doth the prescience of God impose a necessity upon the Things fore-known by him For God fore-knows his own Acts and yet he is a most free Agent And that the Things so fore-known cannot but happen in a manner as they are fore-known the reason is because God fore-knowing them doth not if we speak in rigour fore-know them but looks upon them as done and present all things being present to him in eternity which is Nunc stans a standing and immoveable Now. And when a Thing is now done and present it cannot but be yea although otherwise compared to its causes it is most contingent this being onely a hypothetical necessity not excluding contingency So that God is most pure and holy and acquitted from being entangled in our errors Students in Astrology have the Conclusion wherein all the vertue of the Premises lies couched render'd again to them in the way as they look up and also in the heavenly Bodies God is most pure and holy c. The supreme part of the Air which is neerest to the Heavens is far from troubles and disorders it is not drawn into the faction of the Clouds or middle Region it is not forced into a Tempest no Tumults or Commotions are there And if we ascend above the Moon the heavenly Bodies are all quiet and incorruptible Indeed they act upon us but they do not necessitate us In a word they act as their Maker acts who doth not irresistbly force our wills but onely they put us to the trial as God does that we may conquer A wise man repels their maligne influences and maintains the Calm of the Heavens in his minde and Heart even consonantly to the Sentence of a very Stoick Talis est Seneca Ep. 59. sapientis animus qualis Mundi status super Lunam sempèr illic ferenum est Such is the minde of a wise man as the state of the world above the Moon It is always serene there The Crest and Spire of all is these heavenly Bodies refer us to look above them and to call upon God for Grace which out-acts Nature the Stars and whatsoever else acts in Man and this also is God's course in his permissions of temptation The Old Testament begins There is none holy as the Lord. And the 1 Sam. 2. 2. New answers Every good gift and every perfect gift is Jam. 1. 17. from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variaebleness neither shadow of turning Lastly I prove it Because the Objections raised against this enquiry are meer bubbles and of no firmness First Many Texts of Scripture are set in Battalia which declare God's anger against Star-gazers and the like We must therefore enquire what was the practise of these unholy Star-gazers against which holy Scripture Isa 47. 13. inveigheth I am so far Berosus his Proselyte that I believe Zoroastres to have been Cham so he is called in the Latin Bible and that he was the Father of those who perverted the noble Science of Astrology the foundation of which together with some excellent kinde of superstructure were solid and clean as they were deliver'd by the Children of Seth. The new and wrong'd Astrology was in process of time most disseminated in Chaldea To this the Fathers and Civil Laws are diametrically opposite The professors of it differed from the true Astrologers allied to the Children of Seth first Because their Opinion was That the influences of the Stars were irresistible and irresistibly wrought even upon the Spirits and wills of Men. In which respect some Councils national and provincial have declared against the Priscillianists Pagans and certain Jews One defines in short and anathematizes all Gain-sayers Si quis animas corpora humana fatalibus Concil Bracarense cap. 9. vide etiam c. 10 Stellis credit astringi sicut Pagani Priscillianus dixerunt Anathema sit If any man believes that the souls and bodies of men are bound to
by the Name of Abram And Gen. 11. 26. this Name is extracted from Ab signifying Pater Father and Ram which is in Latine Excelsus High Euseb de Praeâ—â—a Evang. lib. 11. cap. 6. in Greek according to Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sublimis sublime Which Name saith Eusebius he obtained because he professed the Chaldaical Wisdom and expended much time upon the contemplation of the Stars and heavenly Bodies ascending by the knowledge of those high Creatures and of their Effects to the knowledge of the most high God who is the first Cause And hence was it that God revealed himself to him that he would not worship Fire at Vr of the Suid. in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chaldees and that he broke his Father's Images and departed from him The Writings of Philo the Jew are embellished with this very Observation concerning Abram and the Interpretation of his Name And Philo de Cherub above this Philo calleth Abrahams Father an Astronomer but such a one as deified the Stars Let the Reader set as a Seal upon his Heart Though God speaks thus to Abram in his Promise I will make Gen. 13. 16. Observat hoc R. Solomon Resert Abulensis in Gen. 13. 15. thy Seed as the Dust of the Earth with an intention to humble him and that his Seed might therewith be incited to keep God's Commandments lest they should be scattered as the Dust of the Earth yet quickly afterwards God raises his Promise to Abram's own Sphere and Science And he brought him forth abroad and said Look now towards Heaven and tell the Stars if thou Gen. 15. 5. be able to number them And he said unto him So shall thy Seed be Which weigh'd as much as if he had said Thou hast long and with diligence observed the Stars thou hast learned that they are bright glorious numberless and powerful in their influence and effects upon Earth and inferiour Things So shall thy Seed be if they keep my Commandments It may not be lost from this place That the study of Astrology was to Dionysius Areopagita a blessed means of his coming to Christ who beholding that the Eclipse of the Sun in our Saviour's passion exceeded the model of a natural Eclipse received into his Heart and Meditations Deum Naturae patientem The God of Nature made Man and suffering for us and afterwards wrote to his Master Apollophanes Sol in ipsius verae lucis S. Dionys Areop in Ep. ad Apolloph occubitu lucere non potuit The Sun could not shine in the setting of the true Light He was brought by that Eclipse of the Sun concurring with his knowledge of Eclipses to Joh. 1. 9. the knowledge of the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world Secondly I prove it by Reason The Doctrine of Aquinas is impregnable and stands like a Tower in the Fort of Reason Angeli illum gradum tenent in substantiis D. Tho. p. 1. q. 58. Art 3. in corp spiritualibus quem corpora coelestia in substaâ—â—â—is corporeis The Angels hold that degree in spiritual substances which the heavenly Bodies have and hold in the substances that are corporeal We may lawfully and without impeachment of our Duty enquire into the Nature Motions and Actions of the Angels therefore we may lawfully and without infringement of our obligations enquire into the Nature Motions and Actions of the Heavenly Bodies And as that enquiry is harmless useful and pious so likewise is this and the knowledge of the heavenly Bodies is more noble then the knowledge of Earthly Things and consequently the enquiry into those is more noble because those are in themselves more noble then these as being incorruptible immutable and permanent Aquinas in the same place adorns and evens this Truth Est autem haec differentia inter Coelestia terrena Corpora quòd corpora terrena per mutationem D. Tho. ubi supra motum adipiscuntur suam ultimam perfectionem corpora verò Coelestia statim ex ipsâ suâ Naturâ suam ultimam perfectionem habent The difference betwixt heavenly and terrene Bodies is that the terrene Bodies do obtain their last perfection by mutation and motion but the heavenly Bodies presently by their very Nature have and obtain their lost persection And that this Argument may not want its colours and adornment on my part The praises of God which are occasioned by the knowledge of the celestial Bodies as also his praises issuing occasionally from the knowledge of the Angels are more loud and sounding to praise God upon these Subjects being in a manner to praise him upon the loud cymbals upon the high-sounding Psal 150. 5. cymbals Beyond all this The Heavens follow the Angels even as they are distinguished in their Work or Office For as of the Angels some are ministrantes ministring Spirits some assistentes assisting who are not sent but attend alwayes upon God in Heaven so amongst the heavenly Bodies besides those which are determin'd ad ministerium Generationum to the ministery of inferiour Generations there is a Heaven appointed onely that the holy Spirits and men may therein for ever wait and attend upon God to wit the Empyreal Heaven which is immoveable and so called from its fiery splendor And therefore the likeness and agreement betwixt the Angels and heavenly Bodies though the things differ in their kindes is more then ordinary and as those being Spirits admit of a disquisition so do these much more being Bodies I prove it again by Reason As every Agent hath a most proper Act the most proper Act of Fire being an active Substance is to burn of Light being an active Quality is to illuminate or enlighten of God who is Actus purus a pure act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Synesius to Synes in Sententiis do good so every Agent Celestial especially hath a circumstance of time in the which its operation is most potent and vigorous and in the which it most shineth forth Now the Stars are powerful Agents yea glorious Monuments of God's power and yet neither the proper act of every one in its kinde or as compared with others nor the circumstance of time wherein their Operation is most predominant by all which God's Power and other divine Attributes offer themselves to be farther discovered can be known or discovered ad majorem Dei gloriam to the greater glory of God without a vigilant enquiry And why he should not enquire whom Plato rightly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heavenly Plato in Timaeo Plant and to whom therefore Philo the Jewish Plato assigns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavenly nourishment Reason cannot see a Reason I confirm it As there is no passive power which hath not an active power answering to it and bending towards it So there is nothing scibile cognoscible or able to be known to the which an intellective and cognoscitive
This egregious and most absurd act of Ignorance and Folly was committed because that part of the World was not so rich as to have an Astrologer Whose enquiry in this respect would have been harmless useful and pious Again I prove it from evils ensuing the relapse of this enquiry Amongst the many senseless errours wherewith Mahomet hath contaminated and polluted the World by the pestilential Air of his Alcoran those hold up the head which concern the Heavens Mahomet preacheth from his Alcoran That the Vide Alcoranum ubi haec hujúsmodi plura sparsa sunt per librum totum Heavens are sustained lest they should fall by the Mountain Caf and that by the repercussion of the colour of the Mountain they become Azure-coloured That the Stars are bound with golden Chains fastned to the Throne of God That the Moon fell to the ground in his dayes and was broken into parts with the fall and that he imbracing the parts rejoyned them into one and then repos'd the Moon in its heavenly Mansion and that therefore the Moon hath Maculas spots That in the beginning of the World the Moon enjoyed light equal with the Sun but the most glorious part of it was extinguished with the Wings of the Angel Gabriel imprudently flying in a full career through it and that therefore now it shines dimly The Thalmudists Talmudistae in Talmud have likewise trespassed in this kinde Truely Had there been knowing and prudent Astrologers in Arabia when Mahomet was now arising or ascending in his Horizon as there were at other times they might have happily withstood and suppress'd him and prevented this horrible inundation of error and blasphemy wherewith many gay parts of the World have been overwhelmed by him But Arabia Felix was not then so happy The Mahumetan Astrologers Alfarabius Albumazar Haly were engaged Averroes recoil'd The like proportionably may be said of the Thalmudists God complaineth and threatneth My people Hos 4. 6. are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will reject thee This is cleer other proofs will engage me longer Fourthly I prove it by Scripture The heavens declare Psal 19. 1. the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth vers 2. knowledge The Latine sanctifieth Opera manuum ejus annunciat Edit vulgata firmamentum The firmament wherein the fixed Stars are annunciates and tells the works of his hands to some that piously and seriously attend to such telling or annuntiation And afterwards Nox nocti indicat scientiam One night shews and reads a Science to another Sience here reflects upon such as are capable of it and acquire it by the multiplication of agreeable Acts who comparing night with night and the heavenly causes with their effects imbibe the Sience of Astrology and who the more they know of night and night and of the connexion betwixt the causes and their effects the more admire God in his Works and the more declare God and his Works to others adding to the thing done the very Judg. 5. 20. manner of its doing as how the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera The Platonists imagin'd the Heavens to have been animate and that the Sun Moon and Stars were fiery and were therefore nourished and fed with vapours fire wanting and requiring its food and nourishment The Aristotelians or Peripateticks allowed Intelligences of their own making to turn and whirl about the Celestial Orbs and to be one with them not by composition but by aggregation Others out of Zeno's Porch threw their judgements here and there He that will admire and declare God in conformity to the Truth of his Creation must consult with Scripture and Astrology In Christian earnest such a multitude of Heavens Stars Planets moving so swiftly so contrarily so neerly the one to the other and with such continual variery of Effects the Order Concord Subordination and Wonderfulness is notwithstanding such that in declaring the glory of God they very much out-strip all inferiour Things and therefore they whose employments it is to behold this Order Concord Subordination and effectual Operation more neerly are called to magnifie God in his Works more transcendently then others who do not Job admiring God in this Crder Concord Subordination and efficacy cries out without a loud voice Where is God my maker who giveth songs in the night The Job 35. 10. Latine prefers Ubi est Deus qui fecit me qui ded it carmina Edit vulg in nocte Where is God who hath made me who gave verses in the night He is more explicite in another place according to the vulgar Latine Quis enarrabat Coelorum Job 38. 37. Interp vulgat rationem concentum Hebr. Nabla Coeli quis dormire faciet Who will declare the state of the Heavens and who will make the melody of the Heaven to sleep He See Censorinus de die natali cap. 13. Cic. in somnio Scipionis S. Aug. Ep. 28. ad S. Hier. Leo Castr in Isaiae cap. 40. vers 26. Georg. Venet. in Harm seems to speak after a five-years silence as one of Pythagoras his Scholars who thought the Heavens to have been melodious in their motions and that men are deaf to the Musick by continual assuefaction as they who dwell ad Nili Catadupa where Nilus hath a terrible fall as is observed by Cicero In good truth Saint Austin receives with embraces the Doctrine of proper Musick in the Heavens So doth Leo Castrus and so Georgius Venetus And Reason is favourable Because a sound is caused not only by the confrication of the Air but also by the confrication of all resisting Bodies Philo the Jew Philo Jud. lib. de Somniis in his Book of Dreams dreams it out That the Musick and Harmony of the heavenly Bodies and Orbs serves in the place of Meat unto those who hear it and that Moses was fed therewith in his long-fasting But Aristotle and the Philosophers his Followers reject all this Doctrine as Arist lib. 2. de Calo. out of tune And it is most fashionable to Reason That Job by Musick and Melody understands the Concord and most ordinate motions and courses of the Heavens together with the sweet compliance betwixt the causes and their effects Wherefore Plato is opinionated Eyes were therefore chiefly given to us that seeing the most regular Plat. in Tim. co motions of the heavenly bodies we might traduce them to the discipline of our lives and to the correction of our wandring and erratical motions And infallibly the reasonable Soul returns and reduces all the Creatures to their first Principle God by her admiring God in them and her praising God for them and the more knowledge we have of the Things for which we praise God the more we praise him with understanding I prove it by Scripture the second time He appointed Psal 104. 19.
into Mysteries as into the mystery of the sacred Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ c. that Faith may have its perfect work with which Faith Saint Paul dignifies the end of the Verse according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of Faith But whereas Saint Paul had plainly taught in the qeginning of this Epistle That the Rom. 1. 20. invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made clear it is we may climbe up by the knowledge of all visible Things as the works of God proportionable to us unto more and more knowledge of the invisible God who is apprehended more and more in the knowledge of his works and in the conjunction of the effects of Things with the Things as with their Causes And our talent being encreased we may not bury it but are engaged to communicate it with all their power that God's heavenly power may be further known upon Earth We finde recorded that Aristotle ascended so far and so neer to the highest Heaven or Heaven of Heavens making his gradual progress from motion to motion that he found out him at the top of the Stairs who is primus motor the first Mover and that he called upon him in the sad hour of his death Aristoteles moriturus Weckerus de Secretis lib. 15. c. 1 exclamabat Ens Entium miserere mei ob hanc deprecationem eum aliqui salvum fore credunt Aristotle saith Weckarus being in the shadow of death I mean in some neerness to it cried out O thou Thing of Things which art above all Things have mercy on me and for this prayer some believed that he is saved I wave his salvation But I argue If heathenish Philosophers found out God by the heavenly Bodies and by the gradations of their motions Christian Astrologers having more illuminated understandings may thereby discover more and more of the outward diferences and perfections of his Attributes Fourthly It is objected That judicial Astrology reflects a dishonor upon God to whom onely pertains as one of his royal Dignities and Excellencies cognitio futurorum the knowledge of future things Now you have done your Arrant take your Answer There are two sorts of future things either such as depend upon natural necessary causes which always work ad ultimum potentiae to the utmost of their power and have their known courses and these may be foreseen by us in their causes or such as depend upon the Free-will of God or of Man before they come to be effectually willed by him or at length such as depend upon contingent causes either in themselves or in their concurrences with other causes These God alone foresees according to the holy Text Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods And he Isa 41. 23. onely foresees them for two Reasons The first is Because future things as I touched before are present to him and therefore the knowledge of future things in him is rather Cognition then Precognition or Prescience The second Reason is Because the Divine Will is the Cause of all Events and God throughly knows his own Will Hence the Divines assign five Actions to God as most proper to him Creation Conservation which is indeed a continued Creation Salvation and the helps in order to it as Grace and the Sacraments praecognition of future things which depend on the will or Event and to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to know the heart in the heart it self not by direction from external Signes Astrology therefore doth not in any kinde abstract or derogate from God's Dignity or Excellency But onely sticks close to this innocent Truth That as God hath imprinted certain Signs in humane Bodies which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affectionum internarum declarative of the inward affections and certain Signs also which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Morborum futurorum foretelling future diseases and by these the learned learnedly harmlesly usefully and piously judge of internal affections in their kindes and under the condition or supposition if they be not bridled and of diseases to come if not prevented so the Astrologers proceed in the Heavens having observed that such effects are if not always concomitant with certainly consequent always to such causes And as the common people of Physitians have their critical days from the Moon without much looking upwards by which they wisely judge how it will succeed with a man in respect of his disease and as they have arrived by tradition yet with no little benefit to the knowledge of the climacterical yeers so likewise the Astrologer making his Addresses neerer to the Fountain modestly judges of the Fountain by the Streams and of the Streams reciprocally by the Fountain Notwithstanding all this The knowledge of God doth infinitely excel surmount and transcend all created knowledge be it humane or angelical And this in many fundamental Respects As 1. Ratione Objecti by reason of the Object For God by his knowledge knows all things past present and to come yea all things possible and even himself as the vast and immense Ocean of all things 2. Ratione modi perfectionis in cognoscendo By reason of the manner and perfection in knowing For God knows all things most perfectly and all manner of wayes in the which they are cognoscible and therefore hath a comprehensive knowledge of all things 3. Ratione medii By reason of the means For God knows not by species nor by effects but sees and knows all things by his own essence as by a most cleer Glass 4. Ratione celeritatis by reason of the quickness For God knows all things simul semel together and at once that is in one view or intuition of himself 5. Ratione certitudinis By reason of the certainty For he knows all things even contingents which by themselves and compared to us are uncertain most certainly 6. Ratione Aeternitatis By reason of eternity For the knowledge of God never began nor shall ever end 7. Ratione uniformitatis By reason of the uniformity Because the knowledge of God is unvariable and the same alwayes and is neither proficient nor deficient 8. Ratione simplicitatis unitatis By reason of its simplicity and unity Because God understands himself and all other things with one most simple act of his understanding 9. Ratione entitatis By reason of its entity For the knowledge is not accidentary as the knowledge of Angels and of Men but is substantial to God and even God himself 10. Ratione causalitatis By reason of its causality Because the knowledge of God is the idea and cause of all things that are made Lastly Ratione foecunditatis communicationis By reason of its fecundity and communication Because the wisdom and knowledge of God as the greatest of Lights and as a Light exceeding all Lights assembled into one Light diffuseth it self to