such a day they cast out a Paper or Libel wherein they desired him not to trouble himself with their going out of Italy on that day for he should then go out of the world which according to their Praedictions proved true Xiphilinus in vitâ Neronis Relates that when Nero was Born the Astrologers foretold that he should be Emperor and slay his Mother which also came to pass Many other Experiments may be brought for the Credit of Astrologers which I shall not set down to avoid Prolixity who has a mind to know them may Consult Latin Authors and find to their Content these being of most Validity I have taken Notice of partly engaged thereunto by my proposed Method and partly to avoid the Censure of the adverse party who might else have complained of Foul-play That we may in short lay down what is to be thought of this Art in general and its Fundamentals we must make a distinction between certainties and uncertainties distinguishing them both from what is manifestly False and examine what power the Stars have over inferior sublunary Bodies how far this Art extends it self and what is beyond the Reach both of the Stars and Astrologers and so we may come to know what Praedictions may be certainly had from the Heavens what only probably and what cannot be known at all From the Stars especially from the Sun and Moon may be known the Succession of Day and Night the Four-fold Distinction of the year Remarkable Alterations and Changes of Weather as Winds Rain Tempests c. Also it cannot be denied that the Caelestial Bodies have their Influence and Operation upon the Elements especially upon the Air so as to make it sometimes Healthful and Sweet sometimes Noxious and Destructive Also that there several things which have a particular dependance upon the Moon and those not only Vegetatives but also Men as may be observed from those we call Lunaticks which is thus effected The Devil who is of great Experience and Subtlety Chooses those times for the Disturbance of such persons when the humours flow abundantly in the Body occasioned by the Course of the Moon and so insinuating himself into the humour easily Disturbs the Imagination Astrologers may also give certain information of the Periods and Motions of the Caelestial Orbs the distances Rising and Setting of the Stars the Conjunctions Oppositions and other Aspects of the Eclypses of the Sun and Moon because those things depend upon the Regular and necessary Course of Nature Amongst those things which are only probable and Contingent or to be Guest at are particular alterations in the Air Collected from the observation of certain Changes usually attending such an Aspect of the Planets as also Epidemical Diseases all which are only Contingent because there may besides those general and remote Causes I mean the positure of the Stars occur several more immedate Causes which may disturb the iotherwise-iotherwise-natural Effects Such are the Interposition of some Star in the Aspect observed of a contrary Nature not known of by the Astrologer the different Qualities of Countreys and the diverse Temperatures of the Air which may abate the Influence and perhaps change the Nature of the Effect If Astrologers Err so frequently in their Praedictions of the Weather and other things which depend upon Natural Causes we may-confidently affirm that those things which depend meerly at the will and pleasure of man are such as Astrologers cannot at all judge of To shew the vanity and idleness of this Science I shall make use of Authority both Divine and Humane 2. Reason and 3 dly their own False Observations and Praedictions As for Divine Authority no greater Argument can be brought against it than that it is so often spoken against in Holy Scriptures as in Numb 23. 22. where all manner of Divination is forbidden inquiring after that which is to come is forbidden Prov. 27. Eccles. 8. 6. God by his Prophet Esaiah Taxes the vanity of this Art and of those that are Deluded by them Esai 47. 12. 13. Stand now says he with thy Enchantments and with the multitude of thy Sorceries wherein thou hast laboured from thy Youth if thou shalt be able to profit if so be thou maist prevail Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy Counsels let now the Astrologers the Star-gazers the monthly Prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee God likewise commands the Israelites that they Learn not the ways of the Gentiles and that they be not afraid of the Signs of heaven which the Gentiles fear God threatens Confusion Folly and Destruction to such like Esai 44. 20. Next come the Ancient Fathers who subscribe to the Authority of the Scriptures and vote down this way of Divination out of whose Writings many things tending to this purpose may be gathered Nay so unreasonable and Prophane has this Science always been accounted that except a few Brainsick persons who have practised it it has been condemned by most Grave and Judicious men and by the Edicts of several Heathen aswell as Christian Emperours as also by General-Councils see the Acts of the first General-Council of Toledo in which the Priscillianists as I said before great Favourers of this Art were Condemned and Excommunicated Nor did this sort of men fare better with the Emperors they were Banished the City by Augustus Expelled out of Italy first by Tiberius afterwards by Claudius afterwards by Vitellius they were Sentenced to Death twice by Domitian were they Banish'd out of Italy as being a sort of men Treacherous to Princes and Faithless to those that Trusted in them There is also which ought to have been named first a Law made by Caesar to this purpose If any Magician or Conjurer or Soothsayer or Mathematician or Interpreter of Dreams be taken within my Iurisdiction let him suffer Punishment but if he be Convict and continue obstinate let him be Wrackt and Lanced according to his Desert Likewise 't was Decreed by Honorius and Theodosius the Emperours that the Books of the Mathematicians should be Burnt in the presence of the Bishops Thus much for Authority of Scripture and Fathers now I come to the second particular that is Reason Whereupon I thus Argue Forasmuch as Natural things and such as depend meerly upon Natural Causes cannot be positively affirm'd but only go under the Notion of probabilities 't is not to be thought that Contingencies and things depending upon mans will and such are most wherein Astrologers have to do should be hit of by their doubtful and Fantastical Rules of Art 2. If the Stars have such Praedominancy as is pretended it must either be as Causes or Signs but they cannot be Causes for that would infer a necessity of similar Effects which no man will either pretend to or Demonstrate nor can it be a Causality or to speak plainer an inclining but not a compelling Power that being of as bad consequence for then how should Partial and Remote Causes
likewise of another man in Arabia that was restored to Life by the Efficacy of Herbs It is to be observed that it is not my Design to ascribe every thing that happens praeter vulgaria to the working of the Devil and his Ministers since Nature is so prevalent as to shew Miracles but to inculcate to my Reader that since Nature is so strong of it self the Votaries of Satan may play such Feats as makes them both admired and feared being aided by him who has for many Thousand years made Remarks and Collected the Experiments of this so Self-powerful Nature Hence have Witches power to hurt not only in outward Goods or in our Bodies but they can work alterations in the Mind too by Spells Medicines and Fumigations stir up to Love Hatred Mirth Sorrow vex to Madness it self Many instances might be brought to confirm what I say but I think it needless to produce Examples I shall therefore only endeavour to speak something of the manner how the Devil at the Instigation of Witches enters into the Bodies of men or women and of the Symptoms usually attending the Possest First then for the manner The Devil is wont before he enter into a man to appear to him in some Frightful Deformed Shape uttering some strange and uncouth Noises whereby he Discomposes the mind of the man to whom he appears and disturbs his reason working a Confusion and Disorder in his Intellectuals and after having so done enters into the Soul now made a Chaos fit for the Reception of him who is the grand Author of Irregularity This he most what does in the Night or in Dark Shady places frightful by reason of their horrid solitariness He enters into the Possest thorough the Nose or Mouth or Ears like a thin subtle Wind or a Mouse or some such little Animal sometimes in their sleep producing in their Imagination terrible Dreams and so continuing those Devilish Phansies in them when the Vitals are Disentangled from the Bonds of sleep sometimes his Entrance is accompanied with a Chilness and stupifying Cold through the whole Body The effects which unclean Spirits produce in these Demoniacks are noted unto us by Holy Writ which are as follows They sometimes make them Obstinate and Disobedient backward to all that is good and very desirous of doing Mischief to them whom the Devil stirs them up to hate as appears by Saul in the First Book of Kings Chap. 18. who continued obstinate in persecuting innocent David all the days of his life Sometimes they make them Lunatick as in Matthew 17. he did his son who came and prostrated himself to our Blessed Saviour saying Lord have mercy on my Son for he is Lunatick Some are made Dumb as appears from the 8 th Chap. of St. Matthews Gospel where 't is mentioned how one spoke to our Saviour saying Master I have brought my Son unto thee who is possest with a Dumb Spirit as likewise from St. Luke Chap. 11. others they deprive of Sight as Mat. Chap. 12. others are Torn and Tortured in their Bodies and Pine away are brought into Fury so as to fall violently upon any they can come to some are struck with Infirmities uncurable by any Natural means and of this sort was that Woman held with a Spirit of Infirmity Eighteen years healed by the Great Physician of our Souls Christ Iesus Luke Chap. 13. Thus may be observed both from Sacred and Profane Authors the frequent and lamentable Mischiefs inflicted upon poor Man by the Devil both in entring into and possessing their Bodies as these before alledged and in the external Assaults made upon their Temporal goods of which the History of Iob is a sufficient Testimony as also by his mediate practices performed by his Vassals the Votaries afore-mentioned whom indeed he more frequently imploys to execute his fierce Wrath upon Men. What power these have to do Mischief Isidore tells us in lib. 8. Etymologiarum Cap. 9. where he says Malefici dicuntur ob Facinorum magnitudinem Hi Elementa concutiunt mentes hominum turbant sine ullo veneni haustu violentiâ tantum Carminis animas interimunt CHAP. X. The Signs whereby one may Discover whether a Party be Possest or Bewitched THat wicked Spirits have power to vex and disturb men we have proved before by divers Examples as also Cursorily shown the manner and most notable effects of such Practices I now intend to say something of the Symptoms whereby it may be known whether the distresses wherewith a person is Afflicted ought or can be ascribed to Natural Causes or proceed from the Supernatural Operations of the Devil and his Ministers These Supernatural Operations are reducible to two Heads either to the immediate working of Satan or to the mediate of Witches For the first as it is unusually so is it the more discernable when it happens the Parties thus effected being Tormented with such Paroxysms and violent motions in their Bodies as cannot but give us to understand what is the Lord of that Misrule of those stupendous Gambols As to the Second Those Perturbations and Mischiefs occasioned by Witchcraft are not so pernicious as being more twisted and assimulated to natural effects Hence many Diseases and Calamities which do owe their Original really and truly to the Impiety and Revengeful Dispositions of Witches are mistaken to be nothing but the Disorder of the Natural humours of the Body or the Casualties of Fortune or rather Crosses designed to befall by foreseeing Fate But to go on with our intended Discourse when Learned Physicians can find no probable reason or Natural Cause of such Grief Pangs and violent Vexations as the Patient does endure it may lawfully be Concluded that the Devils Finger is there Persons Bewitched have sometimes a great swelling and heaving in the Belly thence passing to the Throat ready to stop their Breath set their Teeth together shake sometimes the Leg sometimes the Arm sometimes their Head will hold their Arms or Legs so stiff that they cannot be bowed As also when no Rules of Art or Experience can do good but that the Disease grows worse thereby When the Distressed Vomit up Crooked Pins Iron Coales Brimstone Nails Needles Wax lumps of Hair Knives and such like which are Noted to come from several persons as Witnesseth one Doctor Cotta and produces Witnesses for the same so Delrio lib. 3. par 1. quest 4. Sect. 6 pag. 410. Other Symptoms I find set down by Hieronymus Mengus in a Treatise called Fustis Daemonum lib. 1. cap. 12. Potissima inquit signa demonstrantia hominem esse maleficiatum sunt cordis oris Stomachalis constrictio Aliqui puncturas in corde sentiunt acsi acubus pungerentur quibusdam cor eis corrodi videtur alij in collo renibus magnum dolorem sentiunt aliquibus ligata est vena generationis Quidam ex indispositione stomachi quicquid ad sustentationem comedunt vel bibunt per vomitum emittunt Aliquibus ventus frigidissimus tanquam
produce real and positive Effects But if they be only Signs they must be either Natural or Supernatural Natural they cannot be since they can upon that Score have no agreement with the things signified nor proceed from the same Cause nor can they be Supernatural for then we ought to suppose an Infallibility in the Event Now as Chymists and Mountebanks use to flourish in Oratory and tell the Credulous Vulgar many fine Stories of the Temperature of the Elements of the proportion of Qualities and such like puzling Terms to wheedle an opinion of their Skill into their Auditors so do Astrologers lash out into large and extravagant Encomiums of the Heavenly Bodies urge the Coherence betwixt Caelestial and sublunary things and tell fine Stories that so many Orbs Stars and Motions were not made by God Almighty to no end and after much proving of that which none denies they descend to their particulars their little Casualties and Tie every mans Fortune to some Star or other What say they shall we think that the most glorious part of the Creation in which as in a large expanded Volume may be Read the wonderful power and Wisdom of God was made to serve to no use or shall we set at nought those things which have so abundantly shewn forth their power upon the Earth Let us now descend to their Master-piece that is Nativities and see what semblance of truth there is in it They pretend to observe the very point of their Nativity and the places of the Stars which are Fixed which are Erratick in what Houses they arise which Planets are in their Exaltation which not whether in a right Triplicity whether in a Masculine or Faeminine Sign what Aspects whether Trine or Quartile or Sextile or Opposition or Conjunction and several other hard and Conjuring Terms From hence say they it is easie either by the Planets considered particularly or altogether or with the Signs of the Zodiack to Collect the Events of humane Affairs to Describe a mans Inclinations and give an account of his good or bad Fortune Now let us allow them this which is indeed more than they can prove that the Fortunes of men are Guided by the Stars yet what Midwife or Astrologer either can be so exact as to know the very Minute of a Nativity which is necessary to be known forasmuch as in the space of one Minute there is a vast and unalterable Celerity in the Motion of the Heavens so that before the Infant be wholly Born the Constellation will be changed and the Head will be Born under one and the Feet under another which will if it was significant prove but Cross Fortune to the Party But supposing that this small moment of time do not Disturb the signification of the Horoscope how comes it to pass that Twins are oftentimes observed to have such different Fortunes the one of them Dying in their Infancy the other Living to Decrepit Age or one of them perhaps exalted to Honours and Dignities and continually Courted with opportunities of Advancement the other not able to get out of a mean and abject Condition the one is inclined to Peace the other to Quarrelling and Disorder the one is strong of Constitution the other weak and sickly A greater difference arises if the Twins be one of them Male and the other Female is it possible in such a Case that they should both have the same Genius and Inclinations which ought according to these men necessarily to follow I hope there is no man but may be convinced of the vanity of this Science if he take Notice of those that die in the Field men of different Ages Born under different Constellations yet all Perishing by one common Fate Were all the First-born of Aegypt slain at the Departure of the Children of Israel The Aegyptians Drowned in the Red-sea The Philistins Slain by Sampson The Children put to Death by Herods Officers Born under the same Stars I think none will Affirm it If not Why did they Die by the same Death Are all that are Born under Saturn Melancholick Under Iupiter or the Sun Princes and Potentates Under Mars Souldiers or Highway-men Under Venus Whoremasters Under Mercury Merchants I shall now come to Answer those Arguments which Astrologers bring out of Scripture from Reason or Experiments First for Scriptures to that out of Genesis 1. 14. I answer that they assume more than the Sence of the words will permit for though it be there said that God set the Caelestial Lights for signs of things necessarily depending upon their Course and Nature yet it cannot thence be infer'd that they are also signs of things meerly Contingent and proceeding from the different Motions of mans Will and Appetite To that of the Stars fighting against Sisera in their Courses I answer That by Stars in that place according to some Interpreters is meant Angels which is plausible enough forasmuch as both are promiscuously called the Host of Heaven or it may be said that at that time they did not Operate by a Natural Influence but a Supernatural and extraordinary Power God raising up an unusual Effect in the Stars of causing Tempests to the Annoyance of those Enemies of his people In that place of Iob so much by them insisted on is nothing at all to their purpose since it may with ease be Turned against them that it is to be understood that no man can understand the Statutes of Heaven but that God has reserved the Knowledge of such things to himself besides there is nothing said of the Influence and Rule of the Stars over mens Minds or Actions nothing of the knowledge of Future Events but only Arguments of the Divine Wisdom to convince Iob of his weakness and Frailty And though it be said The Heavens shew forth the glory of God and the Stars declare his Handy-work that makes not for them neither the meaning of the place being partly the same with that last mentioned viz. that Casting up our Eyes to those glorious Luminaries we may remember the power of God who has made them all and continues them in so wonderful and unerring Courses As for the Star which appeared to the Magi coming to Christ it was no Natural but a Supernatural Star having a Motion contrary to that of other Stars few will I suppose be so impudent as to affirm our Saviour was Governed by the Stars that he who Created should be in Subjection to his Creatures And though it appear'd at his Birth and usher'd him into the world yet as St. Augustine says Non dominabatur Christo ad decretum sed famulabatur ad Testimonium nec enim subjiciebat imperio sed judicabat obsequio To make this an Argument for their Art would be an absurdity for if it had force and signification in his Nativity why had it not over all those Born at the same time with him I hope they will not say that they were all to share in the same Circumstances of
A DISCOVERY OF THE IMPOSTURES OF WITCHES AND ASTROLOGERS Quicquid Dixerit Astrologus credunt à fonte relatum Ammonis quoniam Delphis Oracula cessant Et genus humanum damnat caligo futuri Juv. By IOHN BRINLEY Gent. LONDON Printed for Iohn Wright at the Crown on Ludgate-Hill and Sold by Edward Milward Book-Seller in Leitchfield 1680. To the Honorable Sir Brian Broughton of Broughton Knight and Baronet SIR THose Infinite Obligations you have been pleas'd to lay upon me have emboldened me to present you with this Discourse not by way of Retaliation for what proportion can this hold with your so many and so great favors but by way of protection that what is weak in it self being Cherished by the Rays of your kind Aspect may be able to pass through all those Affronts which works of this nature usually meet with It had been easie to have varnisht this Work over with the finer Colours of Rhetoric but I well knew that you who are so great a Lover of Truth and Sincerity scorn all that Fucus with which men commonly daub over their Works The occasion which drew me on to undertake a work of this nature was those frequent Cheats put upon honest and well-meaning people by these false pretenders to Arts. If therefore I have contributed any thing in order to undeceive the world which is too fond of such Trifles I have my end you Patronizing my endeavours May Heaven ever prosper you and all those Hopefull Branches of your Family and may I rejoyce in your Patronage who am Honoured Sir Your most humble and most obliged Servant John Brinley Brockton in the County of Stafford Novemb. 7 th 1679. THE PREFACE CErtainly if the enjoyment of Truth be the beginning of our happiness in this Life as it is the perfection of it in the Life to come there can be no greater Charity than to reduce the Wanderers into the way and to undeceive a multitude which is always greedy of its own ruin and fond of every thing that carries in it any show or appearance of goodness For I sadly observe that the common people are exposed to the deceipts of all Professions They are the Issachars of the world They bear the burthens of all sorts of people and few of them have the Prerogative or the Abilities of Balaam's Beast to reply Am not I thine Ass Even in the concerns of Religion where we expect not only the most innocent but most infallible Truths are strange Deceptions and Pious Frauds and besides the little talking Schismaticks which fill our ears with the noise of Sermons there are greater heads and more advanced understandings who make it there business to abuse us The Lawyers are grown delusive even to a Proverb of which the narrowness of some men's and the entangled condition of others Estates is too great an Evidence Physicians have their Arts also not only of gaining our Coin but even of deceiving us into Death it self from hard and unintelligible names pretending as strange effects Astrologers cheat our unwary and too forward beliefs into a conceit of things of which they even doubt themselves and impose upon us a belief that arbitrary events and accidental proceedings of things below have necessary causes above and the weakness of common judgments which are ever more greedy of things to come than inquisitive of things past or carefull of those present are ready to swallow the Predictions of the most ignorant men which considering the independency of their Causes and uncertainty of their Events are only in the foreknowledge of him to whom all things are as present Hence proceed those swarms of Fortune-Tellers Geomancers Diviners Interpreters of Dreams who possess the Common people with apprehensions that they know all their Fate the number of their Days the Casualties of their Life and even their natural inclinations and thoughts of their hearts by this means Cheating the poor innocent Souls into the grossest Superstition imaginable The consideration of these things was the great motive that stirr'd me up to these undertakings in which I design nothing but the good of my poor illeterate Country-men whom I dayly see imposed upon by such Deluders who being generally persons of broken Fortunes have no other way to defend themselves from the miseries of poverty and therefore are forced to fall upon the honest plainness of the common people and by unnecessary and unlawful Arts patch up the breaches of their Fortune And herein I hope I shall not in the least disoblige any wise or good men of what Profession soever CHAP. I. That most men are naturally inclin'd to Superstition especially the ignorant sort AN Owl an Hare and an Old-woman was Anciently the Emblem of Superstition and truly if we shall diligently search into the Causes of this Error we shall find that Ignorance and Dotage vain hopes and foolish fears groundless expectations and casual events have been the Springs from whence this folly proceeds which is the Mother of all these Omens and Prognostications It is an Ancient observation Primus in orbe Deos timor fecit that fear Deified the first gods and without doubt there is much truth in the Assertion For though the Idea of one true God and first Principle of all things was at first Imprinted upon the Soul of man yet the fears of after Ages Canonized the multitude of false gods It was a Storm and an Eclips that Consecrated Romulus and Iove himself had not been Master of heaven or worshipped upon earth had not the terrors of his Thunders advanced the conceit of his Divinity amongst the ignorant and fearful multitude Hence Aulus Gellius observes in Noct. Att. l. 5. c. 12. That he was not only worshipped as a Iuvans Pater a friend and helper of Mankind but as a Vejovis and hurtful Deity and therefore his image was placed in a Temple near the Capitol-with darts in his hand to signifie his hurtful power and therefore for this reason Virgil in his Georgics is thought to deprecate these unlucky gods In tenui labor at tenuis non gloria si quem Numina laeva sinunt auditque vocatus Apollo Upon the like grounds the rest of the Stars and Planets came to be reckoned amongst the gods For the ignorance of vulgar apprehensions conceiting that it lay in their own powers to disperse what influences they themselves pleased were not only fearful to offend these new Deities which themselves had created but also took great care to win and please lest they should send forth such Malevolent Emissions of their fury as might be to the prejudice of Mankind or at least the ruin of those who neglected their worship Hence also has it come to pass that the Devil himself has had his Votaries and hath still his devoutest worshippers and the cause of this has not only been envy or desire of Revenge which prompts men sometimes to the most wicked and unlawful practises but even cowardly and melancholly apprehensions And this is evident