world being determined let us observe whether these skilful masters with all their Art can keep this so exact division of time The woman is delivered of her burthen the Midwife looks whether it be male or female next she hearkens to hear it cry as a presage of the life and strength of the childe after she brings the infant to the Astrologer and when she prattles with him as gossips use to do during all these petty transactions since the little one was an inhabitant of this world how many minutes as we may conjecture have past away especially if the Artist were not in the Chamber but in some other remote place expecting the news Again whilst he is accommodating his Instruments of Art to investigate the exact and precise time whether nocturnal or diurnal how many minutes fly away and here again when the Star is discovered which denotes the time and minute then comes the twelve parts the thirty parcels into which each of those is to be divided then the subdivision of those parcels into sixty minutes to be examined and canvased over and although they can never attain to so precise and punctual a finding out of the exact time yet they affirm this must necessarily be done in the wandering and unfixed Stars to know what disposition and habitude they have with those which are fixed and what like figure is amongst them when the infant was born things standing in this sort that by reason of the variation of that most short time a certain knowledge without errour is impossible to be had not by the vain and foolish students of this Art who gape after a thing impossible to be attainded but also thus silly creatures who run after them as Prophets and Wise men deserve the fools coat cap bauble and all Chap. 3. Supposing Astrologers to know the very Depth and Cognition of Heavenly Matters yet by eight Reasons it shall be made manifest that they are not able to tell future Events LEt it pass with a Transeat as School-men say that Astrologers as they impudently and foolishly arrogate unto themselves have the perfect knowledge and science of the Heavens and Stars yet all this notwithstanding I will make good that they cannot divine and fortel future contingents and that by undeniable and convincing reasons and thus by many and valid arguments I confirm it Eight Reasons by which it is proved that even out of a perfect cognition of the Stars future events cannot be foretold The first Reason IT is a vulgate and well known principle in the Schools of Philosophers as every thing is concerning its esse or being so it is concerning its cognition viz. by reason of the causes for which every thing is made and hath its being by the same it ought to be known if we intend to have a perfect knowledge thereof but to the generation and production of future particular events not onely heaven concurreth but also a particular cause heaven is an universal cause by which it is manifest that this vigour and efficience must also be universal and indeterminate to produce particular effects but the power and force of Heaven is determinated by particular causes in which respect Aristotles saying is most true The Sun and Moon generate man particular effects although forasmuch as belongeth to the effection and conservation they have their dependance on causes universal yet for what belongeth to their proper nature and natural proprieties as well specifical as individual they rather emulate and imitate a particular then an universal cause Besides Celestial Causes the knowledge of particular Causes is most requisite to know their effects IF therefore over and above Celestial Causes for the producing of future effects it be necessary to have a particular efficient cause and matter aptly prepared of which if the one be wanting no effect can be produced from which we must of necessity conclude that for the prenotion of future effects the knowledge of Celestial Causes is not sufficient and this is in daily experimentals manifested unto us we behold the painful Husbandman at the same time and under the same aspect of the Stars to sowe several sorts of Grain from which also several and distinct succreases accrew which diversity cannot proceed from the Stars but from the several seeds themselves with which St. Augustine agrees saying When many bodies of several kindes whether animate herbs or shrubs are seminated in the same punctilio of time and at the same instant afterwards innumerable increase is produced and not in several but in the same regions and places of the earth and of such admirable variety in the springing growth flourishing vertues and fassions and will not men as the old adage is laugh at their own folly if they consider these things and what I pray can be more foolish and sottish then being convinced by these daily experiments to say that man and onely man is subjected to the fatal decree and influence of the Stars These last words of St. Aug. Phavorinus the Philosopher expresseth more amply saying If the period time destiny and cause of mans life had its dependance upon Heaven and the Stars what will they say of flyes worms and many other animal culums as well volant and ceptible as najant are these tyed to the same laws of production and expiration as man have Frogs and Flies their production being and fate from the influence and motions of the Stars if you Astrologers will not grant this why affirm you that the power of the Stars hath such prevalent power over mankinde and yet prove defective in other creatures Of the equal Birth and unequal Fortune and Events of Twins The second Reason WEre it true as Astrologers would perswade us it must necessarily follow that twins who are conceived and born about the same time must needs in all things sympathize and be alike yet daily experience shews the contrary but to wave all other dissimilitudes it often happens that the one twin proves a male the other a female 'T is true Cicero in his Book of Divination tells us of Proclus and Euristhenes Lacedemonian Kings and twins yet their ends were unlike and the glory of their actions much discrepant but above all that which we read in the sacred Text is an all satisfying example Jacob and Esau proceeded from the same Concubitus as Paul Rom. 9. sufficiently tells us and at the same time born were notwithstanding severally inclined disagreeing in conditions unlike in manners dissenting in judgement and differing in other habits and qualities neither availeth that lurking hole or after game which Astrologers keep as a reserve to recruit them when the day is almost lost saying that that small parcel of time which interceded betwixt the nativity of the two twins though it appear little or nothing to us yet in the Heavens by reason of the vastness thereof and the inconceptible wheeling and most quick motion maketh a wonderful difference and variation Nigidius Figulus goes about to
which tickles their fancy men credulous and itching to hear novelties are much taken with these chymera's and give confident belief to such fopperies and many shallow and giddy brain'd fools are taken with this vanity rather for lucre sake then truth Amongst Schollars there is a self-conceited Pack who like nothing be it never so profitable and commodious that is familiarly known to all men they commonly are haunted with the spirit of contradiction and rather then not be contentious and in opposition with the greatest masters of wisdom they beat their brains to be delivered of strange Novelties and Incomprehensibilities the height of the ambition of these Opinionists is not so much to know verity as to seem to the vulgar to know that which the ablest of Philosophers confess they could never attain unto I will put a period to this discourse with a notable saying of St. Ambrose in his fourth book of Hexam c. 4. The wisdom of the Chaldeans is rightly compared to the spiders web in which if a flye chance to be entrapped there is no evasion or enlargement but if a Creature of validity and limbs pass that way it dissipateth and beareth away all those slender machins and infirm and feeble gins Such are the nets and tacklings of Astrologers in which fools and weak judgements are entangled and captived but men of strong sense and reason pass by them without any retention or impediment Thou therefore whosoever thou art when thou beholdest these feignments of Astrologers tell them their frail gins and spiders webs have no power to ensnare thee unlesse like a feeble and silly flye through thy own imbecillity thou suffer thy self to be entangled therein whereas a strong judgement like a Sparrow or swift flying Dove breaketh through and carrieth all before it An Argument against three Fundamentals of Astrology Judiciary THe basis and foundation of this Art is either very weak and infirm or none at all then by necessary consequence so is the fabrick raised and constructed thereupon and therefore ought not to gain any repute and credit amongst men of reason and capacity There first principle would make us believe that the Stars have all the same proprieties and qualities of the Elements they are partly cold and partly humid and dry if not formally at least virtually that is not in act but in effect if not by having the qualities themselves yet by having the efficient faculties of those qualities Saturn by their opinion is too frigid the Moon humid Mars dry But this both reason and experience confutes Reason thus if all the stars be lucid and cast forth light they must be all hot and produce heat let us grant their Adage that the Moon and the rest of the Stars shine by a light borrowed from the Sun if then the reason and origin of the light and brightness of all the stars be one and the same how then can the reason of acting and operating by them be so discrepant unlike and different Experience gives this a check for when it is full Moon and that Planet most resplendent and replenished with light and lustre Aristotle and experience tells us that the nights are warmer then either before or after Our Star-gazers besides this luminosity or light have discovered in the Heavens and Stars strange power and vertue differing both from the light and jarring among themselves yet causes of strange and wonderous effects and these to the great credit of the business they stile Influences an invention so modern and modish that the Ancient and learned Philosophers were never acquainted with any such nomenclation nay the Astrologers as much as may be gathered out of their writings in ancient time were altogether unacquainted with these niceties But this Monster-influences begotten by Fortune-tellers of a later brood nurst by their Abettors and defended by their followers have at all times been hist out of the Schools and Academies of Learning as spurious and abortive and one amongst the more accurate sort of Philosophers calls them the Sanctuary and refuge of ignorance and fools Paradice And to these prodigious Influences the baffled Astrologer betakes himself as to his last lurking hole being an Ambuscado to entrap Simpletons and cast a mist before their eyes who are not grounded in the true principles of Philosophy and this they do when and as oft as they cannot shew the proper and natural causes of the wonderous effects of those things call'd Influences which if they be admitted farewell all Philosophy her glory is eclipst authority anihilated and her high esteem quite abolished What need great Wits and eminent Philosophers puzzle and trouble themselves to finde out and discover the occult and hidden causes of things if in a trice and as it were twinkling of an eye by means of the Omnipotent Influences the obstruse and hidden secrets of nature may so easily be attained unto ask by what undiscovered power the Load-stone attracts Iron you shall not stay long for an answer for you shall quickly hear an Oracle tell you that its proper Celestiall Influence hath invested it with that vertue from whence hath the little Fish call'd Remora such singular power as for to retard and stop a ship under sail in her full career and height of speed Oh the proper Celestial influence of that poor and silly fish hath given it that power What needs more to be said no probleme nothing so reserv'd by nature from mans knowledge nothing so full of the difficulty which Philosophers have laboured to discover but these ignorant Pedants and vagabond Gipsies will quickly resolve and enode by telling you of the Celestiall Influences But to come a little closer to these youngsters if Saturn because he is lucid by his light produceth heat how can the same by his Influence produce cold is it not absurd that in the same star there should be two contrary faculties the one of producing heat the other cold not onely divers but opposite and contrary We see that nature hath so provided that in all things where there are two differencies and proprieties as Philosophers say the one general which is common to one thing with many others The other special which is proper to a thing as in man to be knowing and rational so that the specificall and proper difference and propriety is more noble and perfect then the general as being that which doth contract and determine it giving it a reason and degree of new perfection as in the example of man it is more noble to be rational then to be knowing but this happens quite contrary in this strange Doctrine of the Astrologers for they teach for instance sake that in Saturn there are two proprieties or faculties of operating the one general and common to him with the rest of the stars which is a power of Illuminating and by that Illumination to produce heat another special and proper to Saturn in respect of which he differs from other starres which is a faculty of producing
several aspects and conjunctions they might presignifie unto us what things in future times whether universal or particular shall happen but not be the causes thereof and therefore he compares the Heavens unto a book in which the great God as with a pencil hath delineated and drawn forth all the contingents which shall happen in future ages so long as this fading world shall last and to strengthen this assertion he citeth a certain book entituled Josephs Narration formerly highly esteemed where the Patriarch Jacob is brought upon the stage thus speaking to his sons I have read in the tables of heaven whatsoever shall befall to you and your sons Plotinus a Coetanean and School-fellow of Origen was of the same opinion and asserts it in a Book which he entitles Whether or no the Stars have any power and in another book concerning Fate in the sixth chapter he saith that this is the use and benefit of the stars that whosoever beholds them and contemplates as books and letters and is skilful in this kind of literature shall know future things from those figures if with a kind of anologicall comparison he diligently search out their mysteries and signification and Porphirius affirms that being fully bent to kill and make away himself he was diverted from that wicked resolution by the means of Plotinus who fore-saw the danger by the vertue of the stars This opinion Julius Severus in his ninth book of Fate will not have to be exploded or condemned and that he may make it appear probable and plausible he bringeth some sentences out of holy Writ to trim and deck it up withall for saith he to grace the matter Isaiah chap. 34. not obscurely tells us And the heavens shall be folded together like a book by which it is meant that after the day of judgement the heavens like a book shall be claspt and fast shut up which now are laid open and exposed for us to read and meditate and to the same effect and purpose that of Psalm 21. The Heavens shall declare his justice and in Psalm 18. The Heavens shew forth the glory of God and in the first book of Genesis speaking of the stars And they shall be for signs and in Psalm 88. The Heavens shall confesse thy marvellous works O Lord. Neither quoth Origin doth this opinion take away free-will in man no more then formerly did the Prophesies of the ancient Prophets or the prescience of all future things which is in Almighty God and resteth in his divine bosome Plotinus opinionates that this power and skill to predict future things by vertue of the stars is given to man either by the singular favour of Almighty God or through the excellent knowledge in Astrology for the obtaining whereof we use all possible diligence and acurate study And Julius Severus perswades himself that St. Augustine was not much averse or alienated from this opinion by reason that in his second book against the Manicheans cap. 21. speaking of man who whilst he is invested with mortallity hath these words Neither is it to be thought that in the Celestial Bodies our thoughts are so concealed as in these our bodies but as certain motions of the minde appear in the countenance especially in the eyes so in the perspicuity and pureness of the Celestial Bodies our motions of the minde cannot be concealed as I imagine Whether according to St. Augustine the Stars are Signs of all humane affairs IF any man peruse attentively this place of St. Augustine by these words Gelestial Bodies he shall finde him not to understand the Celestiall Orbes but the bodies of the blessed who after the Resurrection shall be invested with celestiall glory and immortality making a grand distinction betwixt men encaged in this fragile and perishing body and the beautified who enjoy the fruition of Almighty God and live a life Angelical and whereas here on earth we can palliate and cloak our thoughts and cunning dissemblings and thereby make our neighbours believe that which we never intend in Heaven all thoughts are mutually discovered all glossing couzening and dissembling utterly laid aside and cast off And that this is the meaning of that great Doctor these his ensuing words demonstrate These therefore deserve that blessed habitation and happy change into Angelical forms and brightness who when they had power in this mortal pilgrimage under homely habits to palliate leasings and untruths detested it and onely with a most flagrant and ardent zeal of truth and verity shunned whatsoever might scandalize the hearer abhorring upon what account soever to tell a lye for the time will come when nothing will be hid and whatsoever is hid shall be made manifest So that we see St. Augustine speaketh clearly and perspicuously of glorified bodies and not of Celestial Orbes Heavens or Stars so that I am in admiration that Julius Severus should so inconsiderately and rashly read over this place and through misunderstanding brand so eminent a man with an opinion which he is so far from maintaining that in the fifth book of the City of God he utterly opposeth and confuteth Of the nature and variety of Signs THat the stars are signs of future events I conceive not onely contradictory to solid Philosophy but also opposite and repugnant to holy Scripture and although the reasons which I have alledged in the premises be sufficient to convince this infirm doctrine yet in this place I will produce other forcible arguments to corroborate what formerly I have maintained First therefore whatsoever is a natural sign of another thing that upon necessity must be either its cause or effect or both and proceed from the superior and common cause for besides these what fourth member can be imagined to have the sign upon necessity joyned with the cause by it signified this is no way distinct from the third Member for such a connexion and conjunction can no other wayes have a being then that the cause should produce that out of it self which is the Sign and then that which is the thing signified as the same thing which moves the cause to action and excites it must also applicate and apply that which is presignified but each of these must necessarily be referred to the common cause from whence this argument may be framed If the Heavens and Stars be signs of all sublunary things they are either their causes which this opinion allows not or the effects which no man in his wits will grant or presume to affirm or else which is all that can be said as well celestial as sublunary things proceed from the common cause as the Rain-bow is sign of fair weather not that it is the cause or effect thereof but one and the same is the common cause of both upon necessity the common cause of celestiall and sublunary bodies must either be corporeal or incorporeal I do not think they will say it is corporeal for above the Heavens there is no body at all therefore they must grant
Planets Concerning many most false and evidently impious Assertions BUt that it may the more manifestly appear how impious and execrable this doctrine is I will here set before your eyes some Assertions and Decrees of those men whereby the impiety and wickedness of that Art may the more easily be discovered Some of those subtil Doctors affirm that Mars being seated benignly and prosperously in the ninth Region of the Heavens he is of such power that by his very presence there we may cast out devils from bodies possessed others as wise or rather prophane as the former make their boasts and brags that by this their adored Art they can infallibly lay open the most obstruse and hidden secrets of the conscience of any mortal creature breathing but this is a vulgate and common assertion I do not say a Mathematical conclusion that there are two Planets which are the authours and procurers of all humane felicity Venus of what is here present Jupiter of what is to follow in the life future or world to come Maternus a man higly confident and curious and a great Patron of those lies and feignments after he had disgorged himself of many things which happen to mortals when Saturn is constitute in Leo he addes what follows Men born under such a constellation shall be long-liv'd and after their passage out of this sublunary universe by the application and additional help of wings shall soar and mount aloft to the highest heaven And his reason is for that Saturn being placed in Leo reduceth souls from the bodies of persons so born uncaged from innumerable cares and troubles in this mortal being to the very Empyrium the fountain of their origen Albumazar will needs perswade us that he whosoever shall ask any thing of Almighty God the Essence of all goodness when the Moon is conjoyned with Jupiter in the Dragons head questionless his Orations and Supplications obtain not onely audience but a full and plenary grant and confirmation of whatsoever he imploreth and this honest Petrus Aponensis averreth that he found experimentally true in himself because that he when that conjunction was in its full power and vigour had humbly supplicated to the highest for the gift and spirit of science and knowledge of things and from that very moment if you will believe him he felt an incredible exuberance and superabundant accession of knowledge By these and many such like fopperies wicked detestable and pernicious to Christian Religion which although they would gladly seem to elevate and extol yet do they absolutely take away the faith and belief of those things which the holy Scripture teacheth to be done supernaturally immediately and miraculously by God himself There is no man so very much a blocus or stupid in his intellectual part but may very well undeceive himself if his judgement have gone astray and erred herein He that desires more accurate satisfaction in this point let him read Picus Mirandulanus who largely and learnedly handleth this subject in several places especially Lib. 2. Cap. 5. and in the fifth Book Chap. the 11. and so to the end thereof Chap. 2. Judiciary Astrology Arraigned and Convinc't by Philosophy and the Professors proved altogether ignorant of Celestial Things CRave and learned Philosophers to demonstrate Astrological Divination to be ridiculous and grounded upon no firm and solid basis or foundation assert their Theses and Conclusions after this manner Astrologers cannot certainly know the vigour power defluxions or effects of the Stars nay had they that knowledge which they have not yet were it not sufficient for a full and certain foretelling of things hereafter to be contingent and therefore it follows by necessary consequence and evidently that Astrological predictions are frivolous vain and fallacious Two things are included in this argument which are to be more at large elucidated and explained before further progress herein The first is that Astrologers are ignorant of Celestial things The other that although they were really and undeniably most expert and skilful yet were not that sufficient to divine infallibly of future events we will speak of the first in this ensuing Paragraph Judiciary Astrologers ignorant of Celestial things Out of this which I shall now produce before your eyes I will plainly make it manifest that Judiciary Astrologers are ignornt of heavenly things and causes first therefore it is very intricate hard and laborious to know those things perfectly concerning the Heavens which to us seem more obvious and facile as for instance The Nature of the Heavens the Magnitude the Number of the Orbs the order within themselves the difference of dignity the variety of motions and to proceed a little further the number of the Stars the comparison of them amongst themselves concerning their greatnesse brightnesse power and effects The grand discrepance and variety of opinions of the best Philosophers herein which we finde gives a most clear and perfect notion of this difficulty Aristotle whom the world acknowledgeth the Prince of Philosophers candidly and ingenuously confessed that concerning many Celestial things he had no certain or exquisite knowledge but onely an imaginary and conjectural skill and being destitute of real and manifest reasons he was compelled to make use of probable arguments and conjectures peruse and read over Aristotle himself in his second Book de Coelo Text 17. 34. 60 61. which if it be so who will give credit unto Astrologers who as all must grant being as perspicuous as the fun at noon-day are not to be compared with those great Masters in Philosophy that those things in the Heavens by the judgement of Philosophers are most obstruse and to mortals incomprehensible I say the vertue and foretelling certainly of things to come should be so clear and experimentally known Let us now a little make bold with these all-divining Astrologers and something entrench upon their patience that they will be pleased out of their profound knowledge to enucleate and enode unto us some of the more easie questions and doubts concerning the Heavens As first whether the Heavens be of a simple and uncompounded or a compounded matter and form and then whether the matter of the Heavens be such as is that of sublunary things or different and divers from it whether Heaven be animate or inanimate whether it be moved by its own proper strength and by it self or extrinsically by an Angel by what means the dignity and excellency of the Heavens one from another shall be estimated judged and made manifest What the reason may be why all the Orbes are not circumagitated and wheeled about by one onely motion but that some are forced by one some by more and others by fewer motions Let these Grandees discover unto us what force and power properly belonging unto it each star hath upon Mettals Vegitables and such as have fruition of vital spirits and life Put these Questions and Interrogatories unto them or such like and we shall finde these Astrologers ignorant weak and
most set by and wisht for by mankinde first by reason of the worthy and excellency of the subject which it treats of to wit the Heavens and Stars and then especially for the knowledge of the events and casualties of mans life and death beginning and ending which all sorts of people are most curious to know but seeing that that Doctrine in all ages hath been contemned and rejected by the most eminent Philosophers and many Astrologers themselves it must needs be a convincing argument that the Art of Divining was accounted frivolous impertinent and void of all probability Xenophon in his book de Sectis Socrat. as Eusebius relates lib. 4. of Evangelical Preparation hath these words The cognition and knowledge of future things which are in the power of God cannot be obtained by mortal industry neither is it pleasing to the Divine Majesty nor possible to screw into those secrets which his heavenly pleasure will have occult and mortals must not dive into Pithagoras Democritus and Plato after long and wearisome journeys came unto the Persian Magicans the Sages amongst the Chaldeans and Priests of the Egyptians from whom they suckt some things more occult and obstruse concerning Mathematicall Discipline the Religion and Worship of the Gods but the Art of Divining they either altogether neglected or if they brought any smattering or fragments thereof they made no use of it as it may appear through the whole context of their writings Aristotle a man cry'd up in all Universities and Schools of Literature a man most copious in the Doctrine of heavenly things which he expresseth in several of his books maketh no mention or speaketh the least word concerning this kinde of Astrology when in his books of Meteors and concerning the parts and generation of Animals but especially in his books of Problems he investigates the causes of many admirable and obscure things to unriddle or enode any of the curious queries he troubles not his brain or makes any use at all of the help and assistance of Astrology nay there are many parcels in his Works which do altogether oppose and contradict this Art of Astrology as this for example Of future contingents there is no certain or definite verity things which chance and happen by accident cannot be comprehended by any knowledge to judge of the fortunes and casualties of humane affairs which are not in mans capacity the immediate proper particular and corruptible causes of particular and corruptible effects to have a perfect and exact knowledge of these is is not sufficient to contemplate celestiall and universal causes the Heavens operate no otherwise upon those things which are sublunary then by motion and light neither doth he approve the force or efficiency of any other Stars besides the Sun and Moon quite contray to Astrological Decretalls and the Influences of Celestiall Signs and corporeall and sensible effects may be prevented and hindered by other causes Cicero in his second book of Divination highly commends Eudoxus the most eminent man amongst the Astrologers in the time of Plato and Aristotle as also Pinetius the Stoick Archilaus Cassandra and Saleyces Halicar men applauded and renowned amongst the Astrologers for that they abandon and cast off the vain Science of Astrology Avicenna who next after Galen and Hipocrates bears away the bell amongst Physicians adviseth to give no credit to Astrologers in divination of future things because they neither know the Celestial Points nor the nature of inferior things which not withstanding are exactly necessary to give a judgement of future events neither do they ground upon Demonstration either Probable Rhetoricall or Poeticall Ptolomy whom these men profess to follow as a grand Master in their Art in his first book de Judiciis tells us It is not to be imagined that all things are upon necessity derived from supernatuall causes that no other power can impede or hinder their operation And in his Treatise which is vulgarly called Centiloquium a book of an hundred Sentences the first sentence is this Men onely inspired by God can foretell future particulars And his fifth sentence is A knowing man may prevent many effects of the Stars if he be versed in the notion of them and dispose of himself before the event fall upon him from whence comes the Proverb A wise man shall command the stars Porphirius in his book concerning Oracles confesseth that the exquisite knowledge of future things by gazing upon the stars is not onely incomprehensible to mortals but even to the Gods themselves And again in the life of Plotinus he saith That after he had spent and consumed much time in the study of Astrology he discovered at last that no faith or credit was to be given to the judgement and divinations of Astrologers concerning things to come and therefore afterward both by word and writing he confuted this vain Art of Divination as may appear to those who will read his book de Fato Providentiâ but especially in that book where he disputes whether the stars have any power or influence to produce such effects What sort of men delight in these Astrologicall Predictions whom St. Ambrose compares to a Spiders web WEre this kinde of Astrology veridicall and infallible the conveniences and commodities arising from thence would be held in high esteem for by the fore-knowledge of future things what advantage would it be to Monarchs and Potentates for the well regulating and governing their Territories and Principalities and so consequently the professors and masters of this Art would deserve immortal Laurels and be advanced to sit at the Helm of the best governed Republicks But experience shews the quite contrary For we see that by most strict and severe Edicts by Decrees and Proclamations this unnecessary and vain Art hath been exploded condemned and exiled by many well deserving Princes How oft was it banisht Rome with the Astrologers and Chaldeans professors thereof by Tiberius Vitellius Dioclesian Constantine Theodosius Valentinian but especially by Justinian by all whom the study practice and exercise of this Art was not onely adjudged vain false and lying but also obnoxious and ruinous to Cities and Societies of men and in it self pestilent and detestable But to what purpose were it to conglomerate a cloud of witnesses or to use Rhetorical circumlocutions in a case so manifest I dare be bold to say that in the memory of man nay in all ages sift them never so purely you shall not name a man the acumen of whose wit surpast vulgar capacities whose doctrine was admired whose prudence in civil affairs excelled or who was conspicuous and eminent for integrity of life and manners or admirable in any noble quality of the intellectual part but he vilified derided and accounted all the Calculations of Nativities and the vain Predictions of Astrologers as false ridiculous and to be exploded from amongst Christians and well ordered Communities True the vulgar who have ordinarily dull and gross intellects apt to believe any thing
that all things must be referred to an incorporeal cause that is either to God himself or Angels who moves the Heavens so that whilst Angels move the Heavens in the very state habit position and conformation of those Heavens as it were by certain nods and becks of theirs like notes and signs described therein they should point out and predict the events and contingents of humane affairs but this in many respects is not credible for whosoever grounds upon this foundation must needs grant and say that Angels induce mortals unto all and whatsoever even the greatest and most horrid fins and villanies In this point Philosophy doth inform us and also Theology doth the like that there is no action of Angels as they call it transeant which immediately proceeds from them other then local motion and that the Angels who do circumvolve and wheel about the Celestial Orbes these I say those great masters averre to have no other operation concerning humane affairs then what proceeds from motion and the light of the Heavens For those I know not what insluences distinct from light I have formerly sufficiently made null and there is no man so brain-sick who will affirm if he will speak things probable and likely that motion and the light of heaven can infallibly clearly and distinctly premonstrate all future effects of sublunary things and again when two effects of the same cause necessarily shew one the other as they must proceed from the same cause so must they also proceed after one and the same manner otherwise it cannot be that they should indicate one another Such things as are broughâ— to pass by God and his Angels in Celestial bodies must have their beings necessarily and invariably whereas those which are beneath the Moon have their contingency very mutably and I may say defectively In like manner other arguments may be framed if the stars who are confined to a set and certain number and of a like condition can be signs of future things which are almost infinite both in number and variety and in themselves discrepant and differing How can the same positure and conformity of stars under which Twins and many others are born in in the same moment of time be a certain sign properly and distinctly to presignifie so many several and distinct dispositions casualties and events as we daily discover in them therefore if we grant the stars to be signs of future things we must also affirm them to be their causes and if we deny them to be Causes we must also deny them to be Signs Whether Comets or Blazing Stars be signs of humane affairs THou wilt perhaps avouch that Comets which are generated in the high and sublime air are signs which predict strange and wonderfull events to ensue and of those Contingents the Comets are neither the causes nor effects and therefore probable it is that the stars are in the like condition in respect of sublunary affairs for my part I shall never grant Comets to be signs of humane chances and events though this is as much believed amongst the vulgar as exploded by wise men Should I walk hand in hand with the vulgar in this errour and say that the Stars produced the Comets as Poasts or Curriours to go before them to foretell future events if I should I say grant this yet concerning the stars another account is to be given for that they have no corporeal cause superiour unto them Whether those men who make the Stars signs of future things do thereby upon necessity establish that thing call'd Fate WE will make no great business of this the Authors of this opinion although unwillingly engage themselves in a necessity of Fate far more then those who will have the stars to be the causes of sublunary effects for grant that the stars should be the causes of all things which are produced beneath the moon yet for all this there is no necessity of bugg-bear fate for what is to be done and effected upon earth by the influences and defluxions of the stars that may be impeded and crost by contrary affections of the matter or by the intervening of particular causes as obstructions thereunto But if stars be naturally the signs of future Contingents then upon necessity whatsoever they signifie must come to pass otherwise they are signs fallacious and deceitfull and seeing that our great God hath ordained and instituted them to signifie and give notice of things and hath engraven them in heaven as in some voluminous Tome to point out and be as it were Indexes of things to come to pass if the event of these things which they signifie should not prove answerable you must either make God their author ignorant or a great impostor and deceiver If you say the starres presignific what is to be done in some particular causes and onely in some and not in all this is extreamly improbable and fable like for why should the stars foretell the future chances and effects of some particular effects rather then of others and not rather of all alike the reason being indifferent and like in all or else you must say that the stars are the future effects of all particular causes If this be so it must needs follow that there will be no causes left remaining to impede obstruct or hinder whatsoever is by the stars predicted and it will necessarily come to pass that whatsoever is sublunary must be tied to an absolute fate and necessity which the defenders of this opinion will not allow of or should they it were most wicked and impious As concerning that Text of Isaiah 54. The Heavens like a book shall be folded up which amongst all the places of Scripture formerly set down seems to have the most of difficulty in it I finde it diversly and by divers and severall Expositors glossed and interpreted yet no exposition if it be of an approved Authour or at least probable which makes for or sides with that opinion Justinus Martyr answering to the forty ninth interrogatory of the Orthodoxes wherein the Querie was how that place of Isaias was to be understood when he saith That the Heavens like a book shall be folded up saith as the divine word sometimes by a similitude compares heaven to a skin extended saying who extends the heaven like a skin other times to smoak other times to a chamber and so on the contrary speaking of the dissolution of the heavens it is compared to a book and other things and by David in his Psalms to a garment waxing old St. Hierom upon the same words saith we must observe that he saith not the heavens to perish but to be wrapped up like a book that after all sins were detected and made manifest and read they should no more be opened never more to have the sins of men written in them In the Scripture the Heavens are said to shew the justice of God to reveal his anger to prove and give testimony of mans wickedness St.
utmost sedulity to make himself a worthy subject fit to receive and entertain so great and wisht for fortunes and preferments and by this careful disposition of man in himself it often comes to pass that he hits the mark and arrives at the port and haven of his so longingly lookt after promist happinesse and good fortunes and on the other side the terror fear and horrour of calamities and evils foretold so work upon mens thoughts and imaginations that when they are to undertake any matter of concernment they hang in suspence afflict themselves fear doubt and cast a thousand stumbling blocks and scare-crows before their apprehensions and thereby leave the business unattempted or at least not brought to perfection and so fall through their own folly into those miseries sad catastrophe's which were predicted unto them Of this we have an excellent and convincing example which happened in a Romane Army as Lucius writes being ready to fight the enemy The Commanders and Southsaying Priests as the then custom was beheld the Intrails of a sacrificed Victim thereby to conjecture of the future event of the battle but alas they found all the Omens inauspicious prefiguring nothing but ruine and destruction yet wisely consulting among themselves they laid a fair varnish on a rotten inside and by an officious or rather necessary and profitable Lye made the Army believe that the Omens pretended Laurells Victories and Triumphs The souldiers by this encouraging prognostication though onely a time-service Lye heartned and animated with courage and undaunted bravery joyn battle and boldly engage the enemy put to flight and rout those Squadrons Files and Troops which the Augurs and Diviners through their superstitious observations denounced Victors Contrarily Misias High Admirall of a great Armado of the Athenians beholding a sudden Eclipse of the Moon vainly imagined with himself that if he weighed anchor that night and set sail some disaster or storm would scatter and confound his Navy through foolish fear he stayes still in his supposed safe harbour but before morning to chastise his folly he together with his whole Fleet is surprized by the Syracusans And here to make good my promise made in the beginning to avoid prolixity I conclude this Discourse concerning Astrologicall Divination To the Eternal Father Creator of all things To our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To the Holy Spirit to whom onely things present past and future are perfectly known and manifest be all Glory Honour and Praise for ever and ever AMEN FINIS The Index of the Discourses contained in this short Treatise CHAP. 1. 1. AStrological Divination contrary to Divine Scripture Ecclesiastical Discipline and Theological Doctrine and by it confuted Fol. 1 2. Of the vanity of Apollo's Oracles 7 3. Why the Devils in foretelling future things so often erre 9 4. The Truth and Verity of Christian Religion cannot cohere with the Truth of Judicial Astrology 10 5. How severe the Church hath been in former times in her censure against this kinde of Astrologers 17 6. Concerning many most false and evidently impious Assertions 19 CHAP. 2. 7. Judiciary Astrology arraigned and convinc't by Philosophy and the Professors proved altogether ignorant of Celestial Things 22 8. Against the fictitious Antiquity which these men vainly boast to have concerning observations 27 9. Of the strange star which some years since appeared 31 10. What a difficult thing it is punctually to observe what force the Aspects of the Stars have in every mans Nativity 33 CHAP. 3. 11. Supposing Astrologers to know the very depth and cognition of heavenly matters yet by eight reasons it shall be made manifest that they are not able to tell future Events 37 12. Besides Celestial Causes the knowledge of particular Causes is most requisite to know their effects 38 13. Of the equal birth and unequall fortune and events of Twins 40 14. The equisite Argumentation of Bardesanes against Astrologers 45 15. Whether it be easier to Prognosticate what a good or a bad man shall do 53 16. How vain a thing it is to believe that Astrologers can tell any man that he shall be chosen chief Bishop or Pontifex 57 17. That the Art and Science of Astrology is none or not considerable 59 18. The vanity and falsity of Astrological Predictions 61 19. Errors of Astrologers in Chronology 63 20. Astronomancy in all ages hath been exploded and condemned by prudent and knowing men 68 21. What sort of men delight in these Astrological Predictions whom St. Ambrose compares to a Spiders Web. 72 22. An argument against three Fundamentals of Astrology Judiciary 75 23. Whether the birth-stars of any man can be the certain causes of things which shall befall him 80 24. Whether the Conception or Nativity of man be more considerable to foretell fortunes 82 25. The vanity of Astrologers in applying their Art not onely to men but also to walled Towns and Cities 84 26. Why Astrological observations may not be as prevalent in Hearbs and Animals as in mankinde 85 27. Concerning the Antiquity of Astrology amongst the Egyptians and Chaldeans 86 CHAP. 4. 28. Whether or no if the Stars be not causes they may be certain signs of future events 89 29. Whether or no according to St. Augustine the Stars are Signs of all humane affairs 9 30. Of the nature and variety of Signs 9 31. Whether Comets or Blazing Stars be signs oâ— humane affairs 9â— 32. Whether those men who make the Stars signs of future things do thereby upon necessity establist that thing call'd Fate Ibid CHAP. 5. 33. How it comes to pass that Astrologers foretell many things true 103 34. Sometimes by the very instinct of the Devil men are prickt forwards to divine future things 104 35. By how many wayes the Devil by himself can foretell or teach others to do the like in future things 105 36. How many severall wayes and how grievously men sin who either make use of the devil or help of his Servants the Fortune-tellers to know future things 108 37. These kinde of Astrologers are for most part of a wicked life and conversation 110 38. Of the use of casting Lots amongst the Ancients to discover future things 111 39. By the permission of God those who so earnestly gape after the knowledge of future things are catcht in Satans nets and toyles and intangled in many pernicious errours 112 40. Many foretell future events rather out of prudence and experience in humane affairs then by Art Astrological 115 41. The too much confidence and credulity of such as run after Astrologers oft times is the cause of their speaking truth 116 FINIS