geniture As of Janus Jupiter Saturn Genius Mercury Apollo Mars Vulcan Neptune Sol Orcus Liber Pater Tellus Ceres Juno Lucina Fluona Luna Diana Minerva Venus Vesta Moreover Vitumnus Sentinus Mens Mena Iterduca Domiduca Abaona Adeona and Dea Fatua too not of the least ordination and operation either in the birth or life or death And no marvell that they make so many Consent-Gods goe to the fate of a Man when they will have so many to be busie about the fate of an herb As Seia fatally president of the sowing Segetia or Segesta at the comming up of the Corn Nodotus or Nodinus at the knitting or knotting Volutina at the involving of the leaves Patellina or Patellea at the opening of the blade Proserpina at the budding Hostilina at the equall shaping of the eare Flora at the flourishing Lasturtia at the nourishing Tutilina in the keeping Matuta or Matura at the ripening Messia at the mowing and Runcina not only at the weeding but at the plucking up by the roots 8. Whether Fate be one or many If it be one simply then what needs any reduction if it be many why is it not redueed to one And then in vain is that done by many which may be done by one and it is prophane to ascribe that to many which ought to be ascribed to one If it be one truly then is it undivided in it self and divided from all others which how can that which is a series or connexion of so many things be especially having its inherence in movables or mutables If it be but one by accident why should it imply all under a necessity If it be but one by aggregation collection connexion so are things fortuitous as well as fatall Besides such an unity is in the meanest degree of entity Wherefore then should it order and subordinate things of a more perfect degree than it self If it be many or a multiplicity then is it unequall indeterminate uncertain and next to a nullity If it be one why then do they make it so diverse according to divers conjunctions and constellations If it be many how can they make any certain and particular pronouncing upon it 9. Whether that they call Fate be in the first or among the second Causes If in the first that is as much as to make it equall unto God If among the second then is it inferiour unto man For among second causes and especially in involuntary actions and all such as fall under humane counsell and deliberation the intellectuall mind and rationall will hath no superiour And what more contrary to the order of nature and creatures than that the lesse noble should be disposing and governing those more noble than themselves 10. Whether there be a fatall necessity upon all acts or events If upon all acts where 's Liberty if upon all events where 's contingency And whether upon these both good and evill and that whether naturall civill or spirituall If upon naturall acts and events good or evill then what use of means either to preserve or to prevent If upon acts civill and good what merit what praise if upon acts civill and evill what laws what punishments If upon events civill and good what thanks if upon events civill and evill what hopes If upon acts spirituall and good what free grace if upon acts spirituall and evill what free will If upon events spirituall and good what free bounty If upon events spirituall and evill what free mercy 11. How can there or why should there be such a thing as Fate imposing a necessity upon actions and events when as divine providence it self doth it not so as to exclude liberty contingency or casualty from things But works with second causes according to their own motion and manner Permitting sometimes their exuberancy sometimes their deficiency preserving to them their sundry orders offices and degrees of efficiency Suffering the remoter causes or agents to be impedited by the more proximate that all effects might not be taken for naturall and necessary but that his own free disposing might appear Although nature and every naturall agent be of it self and ordinarily determinated to one effect and to the producing of it after the same way yet he suffers it to be impedited by one debility and indisposition or another either to come to pass otherwise or else to be altogether prevented that so he might preserve a contingency in all naturall causes to the intent nothing might be thought absolutely necessitating but his own will and pleasure above Much more doth he confirm a freedom to the rationall will not only that good may the more chearfully be done and accepted but the evill also that is done or suffered may not unjustly be imputed to providence because of a necessity imposed 12. If fate be as they define it the Series order nexure ligation complication constitution disposition of second causes c. what feeble things are all those seconds put together without the first what can their own motion work to without his speciall concurrence what if he work not with them what if without them what if against them Leave them to themselves and what knot in a rope of Sand Can there be a perpetuall series or indissoluble connexion betwixt causes so disparate yea so adverse as naturall internall necessary and arbitrary adventitious accidentall yet after this order is fate oftentimes finished A languishing man not only consumes away within himself but the ayr meats drinks poyson act the fatall consummation To an ordinated destiny of an unfortunate end comes in inordinately fire water a fall a gun a sword an unlucky hand c. and hath not this necessitating fate now the complement by accident and is there not a casuall intervention of more force to the fatall effect than all the causall connexion How many accidents fall out fatally that can have no second cause ordinatly assigned to them much less prospected in them but must be referred meerly to divine will and pleasure unless you will have accidentall instruments that interven inordinately to be such 13. The Physicall fate they will have to be a series of pure naturall causes c. viz. betwixt the stars the elements the temperament the inclination the manners the action and the issue or event now where are all these causes knit together in the efficient the form the matter or the end How are they worthy to be called causes or so proved How are they pure naturall and necessary causes when some of them are voluntary and contingent what connexion of them is that which carrys on prime and second causes naturall and voluntary necessary and contingent with one fatall force or inevitable agitation what series is that which as hath been said is so often interrupted what copulation betwixt the first and the last when as by their own confession the stars are not the causes of all events neither doe all those effects fall out necessarily whereof they are the cause How are they fatall
preserve to themselves Ought not therefore such a disposition to be referred solely to him that hath the ordination and gubernation of all things both in heaven and earth simply freely eternally and immutably in himself 21. How can the fatall series of causes be from the starres when as the starres themselves are not causes as in humane and arbitrary actions Not causes where they may be signes as of things already done and past Yea God himself may signifie many things whereof he is not the cause as in evill and sinfull actions Nay have not the fatidicall Vaticinators themselves made many fatall signes which could never be causes nor yet once come into any series or necessary connexion As in their aruspicies and auguries from the entrailes of beasts flight and noise of birds c. as also from lots dreams prodigies casualties yea and physiognomies c. 22. How can the starres be the first in the fatall series of second causes When as of all creatures the spirituall intellectuall or rationall are the supreme and the corporeall animate or inanimate their inferiours Now the starres are both corporeall and inanimate Spirits and souls as they have more similitude to so they participate more vertue of divine providence than all other creatures For they are both the cognoscitive and the operative instruments of providence which the other are not For these being but the executive only may either be directed or diverted by the iutellectuall and ordinative As acting of themselves with liberty deliberation discretion observation of right rules application of fit means and intention to a due end And therefore are the more eminent ministers of providence than all things else in heaven or earth 23. Whether any such cut as fatation may be properly sayd to be in or from the starres For fatation imports a primordiall law or decree not an influence only or effect what sacrilege is it then to ascribe that to the instrument which is only peculiar to the principall agent Since it is for instruments especially the inanimate not to ordain but execute only Yea it is a question whether there be any fatation even in fate it self it being accepted and discerned not for a seminall disposition but for an ultimate execution and that inherent in the moveable or mutable subject Wherefore seeing fatation is neither in the starres nor in fate it self whether can any thing be sayd to be fatall with respect to the starres For the starres are but second causes And with respect to all such some things may be sayd to be naturall some things arbitrary some things indifferent some things contingent some things uncertain some things casuall but few or none fatall 24. Whether it be in the power and validity of the celestiall bodyes to impose a fatall necessity either upon humane actions or yet upon naturall things For if the starres be any such causes then must they cause principally of themselves intentionally directly immutably Now how can they be principall causes when providence is above them how of themselves when they work not upon humane actions but by accident how intentionally since they want a mind or soul how directly when they operate upon humane actions but indirectly how immutably when their ordination or disposition may be impedited Again were they thus acting then should there be no contingents or accidents no libertie or free actions nor prevention of any events or issues no particular causes should be defective nor distance of place nor indisposition of the mean no neglect of the means no endeavour to the contrary or opposition should be available nay not only the understanding but the will should be tyed to corporall organs and matter yea and the starres should not only be of sufficient but of infinite power 25. How doe the celestiall bodyes work so fatally upon these inferiours when as they here operate not upon a necessity as to the producing of the effect For albeit their impressions be naturall yet are they not received but according to the manner of the receivers which are fluxible and not having themselves still after the same way Because of the matter that is in a potentiality to many yea and to contrary formes The matter also is movable and corruptable and may easily defect of it self may be intrinsecally indisposed and extrinsecally impedited And the staries themselves are but indefinite and remote causes to which the effect can never follow determinatly and necessarily unless the middle causes be necessary and then they follow them and not the other But in the foresaid series the middle causes are most of them contingent and from many contingent causes can come no effect of necessity because any one of them and all of them together may be defective and not attain unto their end 26. Seeing the heavenly bodyes act not upon these inferiours but by their light and motion and so communicate nothing to the matter they work upon but light motion and heat Now why may not all these flow from all the starres in generall And why then should such and such fatall inclinations be attributed to such or such positions or conjunctions And if there be any particular vertues of the light and motion of some stars contrary to the vertues of the light and motion of other flarres how is that demonstrated And how comes it to passe that they should be operative and effectuall one way in their simple natures or qualities and yet another way in their relative aspects and positions Is an imaginary relation or respect of more validity than a reall substance or propriety 27. They seem to define fate more acurately that make it to be the series or connext order of naturall causes Now till they can directly and successively deduce those naturall causes down from the starres to those fatall events what reason is there to credit their proposition much lesse their prognostication They likewise will have fate in the best sense they can take it to digest and distribute all things according to certain motions successions orders forms places times Now if their fate cannot be well understood or discerned without these same astrictions why are they so consounded at the inexplicableness of the circumstances Otherwise why doe they not predict usually the very times and places together with the fates themselves Moreover the first definers of fate held it to be not in the superiors but in the inferiors themselves Namely a disposition inherent in the moveable thing and that urging to an immoveable event If indeed it be such ought not every mans fate to be collected from himself rather than from his Stars 28. How should the things of fate and fortune be foretold when it is not yet with one consent told what things they are themselves Some have gone so high as to say that they are Deities or Gods others are fallen so low as to make them vanities and nothing Some confound these two together some set them so opposite as that they make them
then or their complement of fate 14. Whether in the series both of fate and of fortune although two contraries Astrologers have not delivered the same order and connexion of causes as the stars tempers manners actions events or else what difference doe they make between them Nay wherefore doe the same Authors speak of fate and fortune so promiscuously and indiscriminately especially in their prognosticating or predicting way Is it not because they are not able to distinguish them Or is it not because they are conscious of a fortuitousness of event even in their strictest fatality 15. Whether in the series of fatall causes the effect doth follow the universall indefinite equivocall and remote or else the univocall proximate specificall and particular cause And which of these is that which doth determine and distinguish the effect Does not a man generate a man and a Beast a Beast what ever the position of the stars be Those that have been borne in the same region at the same moment under the same position have they all been the same nay how divers have they been for all that in their ingenies their fortunes and fates And why so but because they have taken their severall affections and inclinations from their particular causes 16. As for second causes means agents instruments seeing God Almighty makes use of them to bring his own purposes to pass not out of any defect or necessity but to make his own efficiency the more perceptible Yee seeing he oft times renders the most noble and convenient means ineffectuall and uses the meanest and unaptest of them to the producing of very eminent effects Why then should we be bound to lurke at that order which God himself observes not why should our faith be taught to respect or rest upon the middle things in a prejudice to that providence which is the absolute beginning and end of all 17. Whether the second causes be not ordained as the remedies rather than as the means of fate or fortune providence it self that has determined such an accident or event has it not also ordained second means to help and relieve in such a case wherfore are the creatures and their offices created to such ends if they be not to be used to such ends for which they were created what ever the fate or fortune be is there not a naturall Law imprest in every creature to labour for the conservation of it self both in its being and well being To what end hath God given men a mind will reason affections counsell deliberation science art observation experiment means instruments c. but as well prudently and diligently to discern procure fortify prevent remedy as thankfully to accept or humbly to submit Hath not the Spirit of God secretly and sweetly suggested to his dearest children in their sudden and extraordinary perils and perplexities even present advices and succours besides the inward consolations and confirmations of his grace yea is not this one cause why men are kept so ignorant of future accidents and of their utmost issues after that they are already happened that men might not only prepare for them but make use of such means as God himself hath prepared against them Otherwise should they not tempt God in a neglect of them 18. Whether there be not in the whole course of nature in the universall world and especially throughout the whole Church of Christ farre more effectuall causes means orders connexions rules guides guards helpes of life of health peace libertie society c. for counsell actions passions accidents events than the coelestiall bodies can possibly be ought these then to be respected more than all they or yet in comparison to them 19. Who is able to bring into one series or can reconcile to truth the old Philosophicall opinions about the exercise or execution of Fate by second causes As whether by Angels Spirits Geniusses Demons Devills by the Soul of the world by the Souls of men by the totall subservience of Nature by the motions and influences of the Starres and caelestiall bodies by sensible agents by artificiall instruments yea and by very accidents and cafualties Christians know and acknowledge all these creatures to be the ministers or instruments of providence The Angells doing his will are the more eminent ministers both of his mercies and judgements administring not only in temporalls and in spiritualls but likewise to eternalls And if it be so as Philosophie sayes that they are the Intelligencies that move the caelestiall orbes then have they an ordination over the administration of the Starres The Devills are not only permitted but wisely and justly used in the execution of temptations tryalls judgements But how comes in Fate and Fortune who can tell unlesse they intrude among the Devills and be indeed of their foysting in As for the heavenly bodyes they are to be confest as of Gods ordination and employment in their order light motions and prodigious appearances But he makes speciall use of mens reason understanding wills affections memories counsells deliberations policies vocations societies arts artifices Lawes Customes actions and experiments in the government of the world and yet more especially their gifts graces duties offices fervices in the governing of his Church Last of all come in the whole hoste of creatures to act here as he hath ordained Now what fatation or fatall necessitation to man among all these Angels or Devills can but inject into the mind they cannot compell no nor yet incline the will That 's only for the infinite power of God himself to doo men as to naturall civill and morall acts are still actors in their own liberty As for bodyes Coelestiall or terrestriall they work directly but upon bodyes only and the terrestriall are held and found to be the more proximately particularly and sensibly disposing Besides the friendship and hatred the complyance and adversness of men is not the service or disservice of the brute creature the vertue or venome of an herb or minerall yea the defence or offence of a sword a knise a spear a gun a club c. are not all these more sensibly apprehended to be more neerly advantagious or prejudiciall to health or sicknesse riches or poverty honour or disgrace prosperity and adversity life or death than are all the joynt benevolences or malevolencies of the fatall Starres If therefore a fatidicall prognostication may be made from the Caelestiall why not rather from the terrestriall motions 20. Whether Fate be above the Starres as their governour or else under them as their minister If above them why make they the starres to be the causes of fate For so they must needs be superiour to it If under them how then are the starres themselves subject to fate for so they must needs be inferiour How then should the starres dispose of others fate that are not able to dispose of their own Is it for creatures terrestriall or caelestiall to perform that to others which they are not able to
upon a body to make it sign and signify things hidden lost absent future to make a dead body walk speak c. To make a living body walk invisible transform its proper shape c. And if by things spirituall then whether by spirits good or bad Not by the good neither of Angels nor men for where 's the true and good cause Minister means object and end of Magicall operation Nay which of all these is not evill 7. Is it not the known property of God to know things future absolutely and exactly Wherefore then did the Devill arrogate to himself divination but in an emulation of Divinity Now whether of these two doe the Diviners imitate God or the Devill It cannot be God because they have no command to imitate him in these his powerfull properties no promise upon the imitation It must be the Devill then and to imitate him must needs be maleficall And they may imitate him many ways for he hath used himself to divination by spirits by men by living men by dead men by the celestiall bodies by the elements by things naturall by things artificiall yea and by things sacred and religious and may not they then be like him in all these 8. How easy is it for the Devill to predict those things which he intends to act himself As suppose he intendeth by Gods permission to practise the sickness death destruction of man or Beast is it not easy for him to suggest such his intention to his instruments and Ministers and so make them to predict the same Yea though it be done from him is it not easy for him and them to pretend it from some other cause albeit abused besides the naturall end thereof Is it a matter of much artifice for veneficks or witches to forespeak their own purposed and laboured malefice How readily may he presage anothers death or ruin that hath him in his own power and so hath already determined that such a day it shall be done In like manner how many have perished according to wizzardly predictions and that only because of wizzardly purposes and perpetrations And therefore it may not unjustly be doubted whether many of those prognosticated evill fates and fortunes against Princes Magistrates Ministers and other Christians especialy such as opposed them in their fatidicall way were not besides the Astrologicall speculation practised by goeticall Magick as by charms curses poysons treachery violence or by making maleficall images pictures figures constellated under the ascension of that man whom they would maliciously destroy or prejudice And why may not this be justly suspected of them since it is a thing not only of their own practising but of their teaching And it being so how can they themselves deny and what understanding man would not pronounce upon them for the most arrant inchanters sorcerers veneficks maleficks wizzards and witches in the world 9. Whether there may not be an effascination or bewitching by inspecting the stars as by imagination by breathing on by looking on by touching by fabricating of images c. We know none of these acts are malevolent or maleficall in their own nature but that any one of these as well as another may be abused to sorcery and witchcraft through a Satanicall stipulation or suffrage who can deny 10. What practice of sorcery or malefice more superstitious than the fabricating of Astrologicall and of magicall images pictures statues figures c. For as a tacite compact hath been suspected as touching the Astrologicall so hath an express one been concluded and confessed as concerning the magicall configurations And what is the one on the other of these but the making of an image or figure either of man or beast in gold silver brass copper wax wood stone clay under such a conjunction or constellation For the inviting and alluring of Angels for the expelling and ejecting of Devils for the procuring of love for the provoking of hatred for the atchieving of victory for the effecting of death for the raising or allaying of storms or tempests for the causing or preventing of pestilencies for the driving away of Serpents and vermine c. Now in such a compact what vertue or efficacy besides that of a compact only what similitude or resemblance betwixt the figure of a round star or Planet and a monstruous many-shap't magicall configuration The vertue of the celestials are but universall and indeterminate as to the producing of this or that effect neither but by naturall and particular causes And who will say that any such particular figures are either causes or naturall what preparation can there be of such a matter for the receiving and retaining such constellatory influences And what such kind of efficacies can it have thereby for the admitting of such effects The heavenly bodies operate no way but naturally these figures or fabrications operate no way but artificially being the artifices of humane invention and used arbitrarily how then should these modify and determine those How come their vast influences to be restrained only to such a figure and that only for such operations How come the stars and Planets so to neglect the matter and its disposition and so to respect the figure and its composition as accordingly to dart in their influences for the figures sake let the matter be what it will what vertue can there be for all the celestiall influences more than the matter is disposed unto what efficacy or aptitude of an artificiall form more than accidentall and instrumentall what principles of life and action from artificiall forms Is not the vertue of the matter still the same although of divers forms or figures why should artificiall figures be more apt to receive the starry influences than are naturall figures In all such configurations must not the efficacy of the Stars rather attend or depend upon the imagination and fancy of the artist or artificer than either upon the matter or form it self why should the inscription of characters letters words numbers make the figure or image more efficacious why should not the constellated vertue last so long as the substantiall matter lasts but only so long as the accidentall form or figure lasts Seeing therefore there is neither vertue nor efficacy in such fabrications or figurations from God Angels nature art stars matter form or figure whence then if an effect follow must all the efficacy be but from the sign the sign of a diabolicall and maleficall contract Sacrament suggestion suffragation operation and delusion Who can think otherwise even of a materiall image or figure that cannot be operative or efficacious beyond its proper species and form how much more then of that which is only fantasticall painted or ingraven 11. Whether of such kinde of configuration were not the Jewish Teraphim especially according to the Rabbinical use and account likewise the Talismanical sculptures of the Persians together with these French toyes Gamalies which set this fabrication aside are but the Games of Nature
That long and lean toes signe rude and unwise short and thick toes rash and heady toes that clinch together signe covetous and luxurious toes that start asunder signe light and loquacious Oh! Is not this a rare and profound art fit for none but Gipsies and Juglers to professe that teaches to judge of men as men judge of horses by their shape and making or as country swayns estimate their cattle by their horn and hide and hoof 4. As Metoposcopie or the inspecting of the front or forehead together with other parts of Physiognomie boasts it self for the Scholler so whether Chiremancy or Palmestry the inspecting of the hand or palme may not be accounted for a mistresse in observating and ominating Magick and Astrologie Why distinguish they betwixt Chiromancy Physical and Astrological As it physical conjectures were not enough there must also be Astrological divination And to this purpose what fictitious appellations of Minuts and Lines to be reckoned according to the number and explained according to the nature of the Planets What a Chyroscopical horoscope or a Planetarian Manual of jugling legerdemain and superstitious imposture From the Magical characters of the heavens in the hand what Astrological prognostications or ominations not of corporal motions and temper and not onely of civil actions and events but even of spiritual affections and manners Is it by the help of art that they here probably conjecture Nay is it not by diabolical instinct that they here peremptorily vaticinate or ominate of long life short life marriage single life fortunity infortunity vertue and vice Yet for all that what 's here that is not as vainly observed and as ridiculously ominated and portended as in any other part of Physiognomie As a great thick hand signes one not onely strong but stout a little slender hand one not onely weak but timerous a long hand and long fingers betoken a man not onely apt for mechanical artifice but liberally ingenious but those short on the contrary note a foole and fit for not hing an hard brawny hand signes dull and rude a soft hand witty but effeminate an hairy hand luxurious long joynts signe generous yet if they be thick withal not so ingenious the often clapping and folding of the hands note covetous and their much moving in speech loquacious an ambidexter is noted for ireful crafty injurious short and fat fingers mark a man out for intemperate and silly but long and leane for witty if his fingers crook upward that shewes him liberal if downward niggardly the lines spreading at the bottom joynt of the thumb signe contentious the line above the middle of the thumbe if it meet round about portends a hanging destiny many lines transverse upon the last joynt of the forefinger note riches by heirdome and right lines there are a note of a jovial nature lines in the points of the middle finger like a gridiron note a melancholly wit and unhappy if the signe on the little finger be conspicuous they note a good wit and eloquent but the contrary if obscure equal lines upon the first joynt of the ring finger are marks of an happy wit long nayles and crooked signe one brutish ravenous unchaste very short nails pale and sharp shew him false subtile beguiling and so round nails libidinous but nails broad plain thin white and reddish are the tokens of a very good wit I say no more but could they respect the heart as well as the hand and not the substance but the qualities of it they might learn to speak the words of truth and sobernesse 5. Which way go the Physiognomists Metoposcopists and Chiromantists to work for all this observation and omination of theirs but either as they pretend from the cause to the effect And how is that but first judging and pronouncing the man or the member to be Saturnine Jovial Martial Solar Venereal Mercurial Lunar Or else from the effect to the cause as they say by collecting their horoscope from the habitude of the body And thus what do they but trifle and delude which way they please by inspections observations ominations predictions of manners and fortunes to the great dishonour of God and reproach of Nature were it not that their art is proved to be an absurd imposture both by reason experience vertue and Grace For what can they say but that passions and affections may break forth and shew themselves in the alterations of some outward parts What then Because they may do so in some parts will they therefore make all to be signifying and signing Nay and even in those parts where those eruptions or significations are it is but upon a present provocation will they then make such collections and presagitions by them as if they were habitually seated there But I am weary of these frivolous Artists I will therefore only turn them over to their own fautors who tell them plainly that it is not necessary nor of any rational consecution that the condition manners and studies and institutes of mans nature together with the propensions and agitations of his minde should be accommodated to external marks neither yet to be measured by any signal lineaments of his body Because a man may conceive and agitate many things inwardly in his minde whereof there is not the least shew or appearance outwardly in his body And because a man may be of an enormous body and distorted members and neverthelesse possesse a minde excellent in all good culture and on the contrary be of a decent and compleat frame or shape and yet of manners ugly and ill-favoured enough And that there is not the least reason nor any rule of truth for these their conjectures observations and ominations neither are they agreed among themselves about their own absurd figments And therefore it is to be suspected that these nugacious kinds of men do onely dote through the instinct of the devil drawing them from errour into superstition and from that into infidelity 6. Whether Augurizing auspicating and aruspicinating and all such heathenish observations and ominations were not founded upon Magick and Astrologie For not onely these descended from the Chaldeans to the Greeks and from them to the Hetrurians and from them to the Latines But there had never been very like neither faith in nor practise of any such had not the Artists taught that there are certain lights of praesagition descending from the coelestial bodies upon all inferiour creatures as certain signes in their motion site gesture flight voice colour meat c. So that omination or divination may well be made from the similitude and convenience betwixt them and the stars For beasts and birds their parts and entrails their flyings and cryings c. How can these considered onely in themselves be causes of future events Yea how can they be so much as signes Unlesse they be taken as effects of some other causes that may cause or signe future things And what can they be but the coelestial motions And
Prophecy and divination in all the names and kinds viz. 1. Prophecy is from God a gift inspired by the Holy Spirit Divination is from the Devil a delusion suggested by an evil spirit 2 Prophecy was never but according to Gods Covenant Divination is seldomwithout a pact or covenant with the Devil 3. Prophecy is Gods consulting with the creature Divination is the creature consulting with the creature or one is a consulting with God and not with the creature the other is a consulting with the creature and not with God 4. Prophecy is first motioned and freely offered by God Divination is temptingly and sorcerously sought for as was Balaams own way and not onely provoked but presumed also 5. Prophecy hath been concerning some special persons and their extraordinary actions Divination even the Magical and Astrological is ordinary for all men their manners and fortunes 6. Prophecy hath never been but of matters weighty and serious Divination hath often been of things vain and ludicrous 7. Prophecy is of those things that are necessary to be known Divination Magical and Astrological is of those things that are not necessary to be known 8. Prophecy is of those things that are onely known to God and cannot be known to others without Prophecy or Revelation Divination is either of those things that cannot be known by divination or else of those that may be known without it 9. Prophecy is of things true certain infallible because immediately from God the first cause Dvination is of things false and uncertain and but probable at most because either from the Devil or but from the creatures and second causes 10. Prophecy considers things in God and therefore is immovable Divination considers things in the creature and therefore must be mutable 11. No Prophet ever made himself the author of his own Prophecy but Thus saith the Lord c. But the Devil and Diviners arrogate their predictions to themselves and to the absolutenesse of their own Art 12. The gift of Prophecy ceased in the act But Divination they wil have to remain still in the Art 13. Prophecy is not a permanent habit but a transient act that the prophets themselves might know and confesse that they had it not but by gift and occasionally according to Gods good pleasure for the prophecy came not at any time by the will of man 2 Pet. 1.21 but Divination or Astrological prediction is a stated Art as they say and they may not onely study it but practise it at their own wills and pleasures 14. It is not for every Prophet to know every thing that is prophecyable But for so they pretend it is for any prognosticator to know any thing that is prognosticable 15. Prophets besides the Spirit of Prophecy may have the instincts of their own spirits which might sometimes deceive them But Diviners and Prognosticators besides the instinct of their own spirit are obnoxious to Satanical delusion whereby they often both are deceived and do deceive 16. Prophecy is true in the ground although it may fail in the effect because the principle thereof is the prime verity Divination though it take effect yet is it false both because of falsity in the author and ground and means and end 17. The prevention of things prophecyed argues no falshood or defect in Prophecy because God may reveal some things to his Prophets as in their second causes which may be impedited and some things might be prophesyed conditionally and with intent that they might be prevented however to be referred to Gods good and wise dispensation yea and the Prophets themselves were instructed and enabled to prophesie as well of their prevention as of their consecution But who can say so much of Divination 18. God may in mercy suffer a true Prophesie to be frustrated and in judgement may permit a false divination to take effect 19. The Prophets were sometimes prevented as touching their predictions of evils and judgements But the diviners and false prophets were frustrated in their predictions of blessings and good things 20. The Prophets foretold Gods judgements with grief and condoling wishing that they might rather be accounted for false Prophets then that such heavy things should befall Gods people transgressing the Diviners and Prognosticators glory to presage confusion to Nations Kingdomes Churches Christians and are very little touched with the destruction of all or any so their predictions may take place 21. That Prophecy hath been prevented or failed in effect was meerly because of the liberty of Gods will but Divination or Astrological prediction may be defeated even by the liberty of mans will alone 22. Prophecy enlightens the understanding and perfects it so does not Divination but onely after a confused manner alters the imagination 23. In Prophecy it is the intellect that moves the phantasie but in Divination it is the phantasie that moves the intellect For Prophecy illuminates immediately beginning at the mind and heart which divination cannot do because it begins at the senses and so to the phantasie to the imagination So that a Prophet understands his own Prophesie so doth not a diviner his own divination 24. Extasies of Prophets did not so abalienate their mindes as that they apprehended not what they did or said as indeed it is in the dementating furies of divination For theirs was onely but an abstraction of the minde from outward sensible and terrene things not a distraction of it within it self as in these 25. The Prophets mingled godly and wise instructions together with their Predictions that they might not seem to neglect the present by prying into the future both which are both the sloath and businesse of all prognosticating predictors 26. Prophesies serve to instruct all ages divinations instead of instructing have onely proved to distract present times and that 's all 27. The gift or grace of Prophecy was given for the things of Faith and true worship Divination hath onely been used to seduce from both 28. Prophecy was inspired by God for the prevention of Idolatry superstition sorcery Divination hath been suggested by the devil as an occasion and promotion of them all 29. All things are subject to prophetical illumination as things past present and to come things necessary contingent casual things natural supernatural spiritual things intellectual rational arbitrary things moral religious temporal and eternal so are they not to divination or Astrological prediction 30. Prophecy hath been of the very thoughts of the heart themselves because immediately from God who knoweth the heart but Divination can discern of no thoughts simply as they are in the intellect neither of affections as they are meerly in the will but onely guesses at them by certain external species signes or effects Yea though they be thoughts of the devils own injecting yet he discerns not their affirmation or negation sc their complacency or reluctancy in the immanent act of the understanding or the will save onely as transeunt or breaking forth externally by certain signes and
of the Spirit in them was not onely prophetical or historical but sapiential and dogmatical And so their prophesies were recorded not onely for a particular and certain prediction of truth but for an universal and perpetual instruction of Faith And therefore either there must be no end of adding to the Scriptures or else none such must now be raised There may be some prudential predictings of good men and suspicious presagings of evil men and shrewd conjecturings of common men but what are all these to the prophesyings of holy men of God in old time Yet we say Gods hand is not shortned but that he can still raise up such but who can say that he will do it Or that there is just cause why he should so do We conclude therefore in the general that Prophecy is ceast And that of an extraordinary gift at first it is become more extraordinary to after ages What reason then have we to be so blind of Faith as to admit of a stated art of divination in its stead CHAP. XXII From the rarity of Miracles 1 WHether every thing that is affected above besides or against the course and order faculty and power hope and expectation of nature may truly be said to be miraculous Not every thing 1. Because it is not a thing effected against particular nature but against whole nature that makes a Miracle 2. Because in particular nature there are antipolliges or occult qualities of actives and passives naturally acting or disposed to act one against another 3. Because it is neither nature acting contrary to some part of her self nor is it Art urging or tempting Nature but it is God totally exceeding the law vertue and order of Nature that makes it to be a Miracle 4. Because many things may be done against Nature or natural propensity which notwithstanding are but ordinary and trivial as the causing of heavy things to ascend upwards c. 5. Because there are many sins and vices that are against Natures law and vertue which who will say that they are miraculous Therefore we conclude against Magical Mirabilaries that although every Miracle be an act or effect above Nature yet every act or effect besides or against Nature is not a Miracle 2. Whether that may absolutely be said to be a Miracle whose effect is manifest and whose cause is occult or unknown to us No. Except it be acted simply by the first cause and for causes onely known to him 2. Except it exceeds all mans exact knowledge indifferently one as well as another 3. Except the cause be altogether past such finding out even to sober and prudential observation art industry Otherwise it should not be a Miracle so as it is in it self but so as it appears to us Our ignorance should necessarily come into the cause of Miracles That should be miraculous to one man which is not so to another And a prophane curiosity of Art would boast of more light and experiment in divine works then indeed is vouchsafed to the perswasion of a pious faith 3. Whether the power of working Miracles be not proper to God alone This must be affirmed and cannot be denyed 1. Because He onely can work a Miracle of himself to whom nothing is a Miracle 2. Because He onely can work against the order of Nature and second causes whose will is sufficient to institute Order alter all things 3. Because God is a transcendent and is not under nor yet within the predicament of any part of the whole order of Nature as the creature is and therefore he onely can act that against and besides above the order of Nature which the creature cannot 4. Because a divine power requires not a subject to work upon for it is able to create all things of nothing neither looks it at the possibility or propensity of that subject to the producing of the effect as every created power doth 5. Because the proper cause of a Miracle must not onely be uncreated infinite omnipotent indeterminate c. But it must also be occult unsearchable incomprehensible now no cause is simply so but the hidden God himself 6. Because it cannot be a Miracle unless it be absolutely and universally wonderful or to be equally admired of all creatures of the same kinde Now it is onely for God and neither for Angels or men to do such things as shall be admirable to their fellows and not so to themselves 7. Because if any other could work Miracles but God or but by God then Miracles could not be the indubitable signes and proofs of a God nor of Gods Word and Truth 4. Whether the good Angels can do Miracles Ministerially and instrumentally they may but not principally and authoritatively For Angels are finite both in their nature apprehension and power And divine Miracles absolutely considered are as strange and wonderful to them as they are to us men Yet Angels out of the vertue and perspicuity of their own nature may know how to do many things that may seem miraculous or be marveilous to us Because they are a superior power or vertue unknown to us and may have a particular power over inferiours not known to us and therefore may act above besides against the particular order of Nature that is known to us But being part of whole created nature themselves they cannot act against it the main reason of a Miracle for so they should act against themselves 5. Whether Devils can do Miracles If not Angels much lesse devils Neither doth the Lord make use of the devils to be instruments of his mighty works as he doth of the Angels For Miracles were never intended or effected immediately or mediately but for the confirmation of the truth to which the devils are no apt instruments because all that they do is with intent to seduce therefrom The devils indeed have a faculty and sagacity both much enabled by long experience in things above us men and so may work in many things to amaze as well as delude us But such stupendous and prodigious facts as they by divine permission busie themselves about are no true Miracles because false either as touching the reality of the effect or else the sincerity of the intent And for the reality of effect it is not so much thanks to their admirable power or manner of working as to the natural though secret disposition of the matter they work upon Neither are they permitted often to work any reality of effect but onely to delude with prestigious appearances because God seldom suffers Nature or the creature to be so blemished or abused And though they had a liberty to effect really in things to be admired yet so false is their disposition they would chuse and labour to be prestigious And where they are tempted or urged as they say by Art to do those things that are not within their power or permission there are they forced to be prestigious and delusory for the saving of their credit amongst
seasonably received together and through the spirit of the world 3. By artificiall mixtions of things such as agree with the heavens under a certaine constellation descends a vertue by a certaine likenesse and aptnesse that is in things amongst themselves towards their superiours So from a certaine composition of herbes vapours and such like made according to naturall Philosophy and Astronomy there results a certaine common forme endowed with many gifts of the stars When therefore any one makes a mixture of many matters under the coelestiall influences then the variety of coelestiall actions on one hand and of naturall powers on the other hand being joyned together doth indeed cause wonderfull things by oyntments by collyries by fumes and such like 4. Then the vertues of things do then become wonderfull viz. when they are put to matters that are mixed and prepa red in fit seasons to make them alive by procuring life for them from the stars as also a sensible soule as a more noble forme 5. Magicians teach that coelestiall gifts may through inferiours being conformable to superiours be drawne down by opportune influences of the heaven and so also by these coelestiall the coelestiall Angels as they are servants of the stars may be procured and conveyed to us That not onely coelestiall and vital but also certaine intellectuall angelicall and divine gifts may be received from above by some certain matters having a naturall power of divinity idest which have a naturall correspondency with the superiours being rightly received and opportunely gathered together according to the rules of naturall Philosophy and Astronomy That an Image rightly made of certain proper things appropriated to any one certain Angell will presently be animated by that Angel 6. A Magician doth make use of things manifest to draw forth things that are occult viz. through the voyce of the stars through fumes lights sounds and naturall things which are agreeable to coelesstiall in which besides corporall qualities there is a kinde of reason sense and harmony and incorporeall and divine measures and orders 7. No man is ignorant that supercelestiall Angels or Spirits may be gained by us through good workes a pure minde purest prayer devout humiliation and the like Let no man therefore doubt that in like manner by some certaine matters of the world the Gods of the world may be raised by us or at least the ministring spirits or servants of these Gods So we read that the ancient Priests made Statues and Images foretelling things to come and infused into them the spirits of the stars c. 8. Some suffumigations or perfumings that are proper to the stars are of great force for the opportune receiving of coelestiall gifts under the rayes of the stars in as much as they do strongly worke upon the aire and breath Wherefore suffumigations are wont to be used to them that are about to southsay for to affect their fancy which indeed being appropriated to any certain Deities do fit us to receive divine inspiration The most powerfull fume is that which is compounded of the seven Aromaticks according to the powers of the seven Planets Know also that according to the opinion of the Magicians in every good matter as love good will and the like there must be a good fume odoriferous and pretious and in every evill matter as hatred anger misery and the like there must be a stinking fume that is of no worth 9. By certain Alligations of certain things as also suspensions or by simple contract or the continuation of any thread we may be able to receive some vertues thereby It is necessary that we know the certain rule of Alligation and suspension and the manner which the Art requires viz. that they be done under a certain and sutable Constellation and that they be done with wyer or silken threads bair or sinewes of certain animals or fine cloaths and the like according to the sutableness of things 10. Rings also which were alwaies much esteemed of by the Antients when they were opportunely made do in like manner impresse their vertue upon us c. Now the manner of making these kind of Rings is this viz. When any star ascends fortunately with the fortunate aspect or conjunction of the Moon we must take a stone and herb that is under that star and make a Ring of the mettal that is sutable to this star and in it fasten the stone putting the herb or root under it not omitting the inscriptions of Images Names and Characters as also the proper Suffumigations c. 11. The countenance gesture the motion setting and figure of the body being accidental to us conduce to the receiving of the coelestial gifts and expose us to the superior bodies and produce certain effects in us Whosoever therefore doth the more exactly imitate the coelestial bodies either in nature study actions motion gesture countenance passions of the minde and opportunity of the season is so much the more like to the heavenly bodies and can receive larger gifts from them 12. It conduceth very much for the receiving the benefit of the heavens in any work if we shall by the Heaven make our selves sutable to it in our thoughts affections imaginations elections deliberations contemplations and the like For such like passions do vehemently stir up our spirit to their likenesse and suddainly expose us and ours to the superiour significators of such like passions and also by reason of their dignity and neernesse to the superiours do much more partake of the coelestials then any material things For our minde can through imaginations or reason by a kinde of imitation be so conformed to any star as suddainly to be filled with the vertues of that star as if it were a proper receptacle of the influence thereof We must therefore in every work and application of things affect vehemently imagine hope and believe strongly for that will be a great help Therefore he that works in Magick must be of a constant belief be credulous and not doubt at all of the obtaining the effect 13. The Arabians say that mans minde when it is most intent upon any work through its passion and effects is joyned with the mind of the stars and intelligences and being so joyned is the cause that some wonderful vertue be infused into our works and things And according to this is verifyed the Art of Characters Images Inchantments and some speeches and many other wonderful experiments to every thing which the minde affects For all those things which the minde acts and dictates by characters figures words speeches gestures and the like help the appetite of the soul and acquire certain wonderful vertues as from the soul of the Operator in that hour when such a like appetite doth invade it so from the opportunity and coelestial influence moving the mind in that manner And it is a general rule in them that every minde that is more excellent in its desire and affections makes such like things more fit
for it self as also more efficacious to that which it desires Every one therefore that is willing to work in Magick must know the vertue measure order and degree of his own soul in the power of the universe 14. Those words are of greater efficacy then other which represent greater things as intellectual coelestial supernatural as more expresly so more mysteriously Also those that come from a more worthy tongue or from any of a more holy order for these as it were certain signes and representations receive a power of coelestial and supercoelestial things as from the vertue of things explained of which they are the vebieula so from a power put into them by the vertue of the speaker 15. Proper Names of things are very necessary in magical operations Hence Magicians say that proper Names of things are certain rayes of things every where present at all times keeping the power of things as the essence of the thing signified rules and is discerned in them and know the things by them as by proper and living images According to the properties of the influences proper Names result to things Every voyce therefore that is significative first of all signifies by the influence of the coelestial harmony Secondly by the imposition of man although oftentimes otherwise by this then by that But when both significations meet in any voice or name which are put upon them by the said harmony or men then that name is with a double vertue viz. Natural and arbitrary made most efficacious to act as oft as it shall be uttered in due place and time and seriously with an intention exercised upon the matter rightly dispofed and that can naturally be acted upon by it 16. In composing of verses and orations for the attracting the vertue of any star or Deity you must diligently consider what vertues any star containes as also what effects and operations and to infer them in verses by praysing extolling amplifying and setting forth those things which such a kind of star is wont to cause by way of its influence and by vilifying and dispraising those things which it is wont to destroy and hinder And by supplicating and begging for that which we desire to get and by condemning and detesting that which we would have destroyed and hindred And after the same manner he make an elegant oration and duely distinct by Articles with competent numbers and proportions 17. Moreover Magicians command that we call upon and pray by the names of the same star or name to them to whom such a verse belongs by their wonderfull things or miracles by their courses and waies in their sphere by their light by the dignity of their kingdome by the beauty and brightness that is in it by their strong and powerfull vertues and by such like as these Besides with the divers sorts of the names of the stars they command us to call upon them by the names of the Intelligences ruling over the starres themselves 18. Magicians command that in every worke there be imprecations and inscriptions made by which the Operator may expresse his affection That if hee gather an herbe or a stone he declare for what use he doth it if he make a picture he say and write to what end he maketh it 19. When thou art working any thing which belongs to any planet thou must place it in its Dignities fortunate and powerfull and ruling in the day houre and in the figure of the Heaven Neither shalt thou expect the signification of the worke to be powerfull but also thou must observe the Moon opportunely directed to this for thou shalt doe nothing without the assistance of the Moon And if thou hast more patternes of thy work observe them all c. 20. Thou shalt observe that the Angles of the Ascendant and a tenth and Seventh be fortunate as also the Lord of the Ascendent and place of the Sunne and Moon and the place of part of the Fortune and the Lord thereof and the Lord of the foregoing conjunction and prevention c. 21. Magicians advise us that in casting or in graving Images we would write upon it the name of the effect and this upon the back when evill as destruction on the belly when good as love Moreover in the forehead of the Image let be written the name of the species or individuum which the Image represents or for whom or against whom it is made Also on the breast let the name of the signe or face ascending and the Lord thereof be written also the names and characters of its Angles Moreover in making the Image they advise that prayer for the effect for which it is made bee used Now they use the Images being made diversly according to the vertues thereof Sometimes they hang them or bind them to the body sometimes they bury them under the earth or a River sometimes they hang them in a chimney over the smoak or upon a tree that they may be moved by the wind sometimes with the head upward and sometimes downward sometimes they put them into hot water or into the sire For they say as the workers of the Images do affect the Image it selfe so doth it bring the like passions upon those to whom it was ascribed as the mind of the Operator hath dictated it 22. To make one fortunate we make an image in which these are fortunate viz. the significator of the life thereof the givers of the life the signes and planets Moreover to the Ascendant the middle of the heaven and the Lords thereof be fortunate also the place of the Sunne and place of the Moon part of Fortune and Lord of conjunction or prevention made before their nativity by depressing the malignant planets But if we will make an Image to procure misery we must doe contrarywise and those which wee place here fortunate must there be infortunate by raising malignant stars Also for the destroying or prejudicing any let there be made an Image under the ascension of that man whom thou wouldst destroy and prejudice and thou shalt make unfortunate the Lord of the House of his life the Lord of the ascending and the Moon and the Lord of the house of the Moon and the Lord of the house of the Lord ascending and the tenth house and the Lord thereof c. 23 The youth to be initiated to Diaination by magick spells ought to be chosen sound without sicknesse ingenious comely perfect in his members of a quick spirit eloquent in speech that in him the divine power might be conversant as in the good houses that the minde of the youth having quickly attained experience may be restored to its divinity If therefore thou shalt be a man perfect in the sound understanding of Religion and piously and most constantly meditatest on it and without doubting believest and art such an one on whom the authority of holy Rites and Nature hath conferred dignity above others and one whom the divine powers contemn not thou
of the world of nativities of questions of elections of intentions and cogitations of vertues or powers for the foretelling casting up eschuing or repelling the events of all things future even of the secret dispositions of divine providence it selfe Hereupon the Astrologers doe mart or vent the effects of the Heavens and the Stars from yeers most remote and before all memory of things or the times of Prometheus or as they say from the great conjunctions before the Flood And they affirm that the effects forces motions of all living creatures stones metals herbs and whatsoever things in these inferiours doe flow from these same Heavens and Starres and doe altogether depend upon them and may be searched out by them Verely these are incredulous men and not lesse impious in not acknowledging this one thing that God had already made the Herbs Plants and Trees even before the Heavens and Stars Moreover the most grave Philosophers as Pythagoras Democritus Bion Favorinus Panaetius Carneades Possidonius Timaeus Aristoteles Plato Plotinus Porphyrius Avicenna Averroes Hippocrates Galenus Alexander Aphrodisaeus Cicero Seneca Plutarch and many more who have searched the causes of things from every Art and Science yet never remit us to these Astrologicall causes which although they were causes yet because they plainly knew not the courses of the Stars and their forces which is a thing most known to all wise men they therefore cannot give a certain judgement of their effects Neither are there wanting among them as Eudoxus Archelaus Cassandrus Hoychilax Halicarnassaeus most skilfull Mathematicians and many other modern and most grave Authors which confesse that it is impossible that any thing certain should be found out concerning the science of such judgements both because of innumerable other causes cooperating together with the Heavens which must be attended together for so Ptolomy bids as also because very many occasions doe hinder them as namely customes manners education shame command place geniture blood meat liberty of mind and discipline seeing these influxes compell not as they say but incline Furthermore they who have prescribed the rules of judgements doe for the most part determine such diverse and repugnant things of the same matter that it is impossible for a prognosticator to pronounce any thing certaine from so many and so various and dissonant opinions unlesse there be in him some intrinsicall sense of things future and occult or some instinct of presage or rather occult and latent inspiration of the Devill by which among these he may be able to discerne or may be induced by some other way to adhere now to this now to that opinion which instinct whosoever wanteth he as Haly saith cannot be a Tel-troth in Astrologicall judgements Wherefore now Astrologicall prediction must consist not so much of Art as by a kind of obscure lot or chance of things And as in the books or games of Lottery sometimes such an one is drawn forth as speaks truth and hits right yet not by art but by chance so it is by chance and not by art that vaticinations come forth truely either from the mind or the mouth of an Astrologer To which Ptolomy attests saying the science of the Stars is from thee and from them meaning that the prediction of things future and occult is not so much from the observation of the Stars as from the affections of the mind Therefore is there no certainty of this Art but it is convertible to all things according to the opinion which is collected by conjectures or imagination or an imperceptible suggestion of Devils or some superstitious lot or chance This art therefore is no other then a fallacious conjecture of superstitious men who through the use of long time have made a science of uncertain things in which for the beguiling men of their money they may deceive the unskilfull and may also be deceived themselves And if the Art of these men be true and be understood by themselves whence then bubble out so many and so great errors in their prognostications But if it be not so doe they not vainly and foolishly and impiously to professe a science of things that are not or not understood But the more cautelous of them pronounce not upon futures save obscurely and such as may be applied to every thing and time and Prince and Nation Out of a versatile artifice doe they feyne ambiguous prognosticks and after that any of them shall happen then doe they gather the causes thereof and after the fact or effect then doe they establish old vaticinations with new reasons to the intent they may seem to have foreseen Just as the interpreters of dreames who when they have a dream understand nothing of it for certain but after that something is hapned unto them then doe they adopt the dream to that which hapned Furthermore seeing it is impossible in such a variety of Stars but to finde some of them well some of them ill posited hereupon they take occasion of speaking what they please and to whom they will they predict life health honours riches power victory soundnesse off-spring marriage Priesthood Magistracy and the like but if they be ill affected to any to them they denounce deaths hangings reproaches destructions banishments barrennesse desolation calamities c. not so much out of a wicked art as out of wicked affections drawing on to destruction those men that are credulous to these impious curiosities and oft times committing among themselves both Princes and people in deadly seditions and warres If that Fortune fall in with their prognosticks and among so many ambiguous things if that one or other of them happen to be true it is a wonder then to behold how they bristle being crest-swolne and how most insolently they predicate their own predictions But though they lie daily and be convinced of lying then they excuse it by blasphemy or cover one lie with another saying a wise man ruleth over the Stars when as in truth neither doth a wise man overrule the Stars nor the Stars a wise man but it is God that ruleth over them both or else they say that some ineptitude or incapacity of the receiver hindred the celestiall influxes And they are angry at them who require any further faith or proofe Notwithstanding these circulators finde Princes and Magistrates that believe them in all things and adorn them with publique stipends when as indeed there is no kind of men more pestilent to a Commonwealth then those that spread vaticinations and promise things future from the Stars and inspected Ghosts from dreams and such like artifices of divination Besides they are men alwaies offensive or abominable to Christ and to all that truly believe in him Of whom Cornelius Tacitus complaineth saying The Mathematicians for so they vulgarly named them are a kind of men trecherous to Princes and deceitfull to those that give credit to them they have alwaies been prohibited our City and yet we could never have them expelled thence Yea and
confound one another Some admit many things of both as they say at the fore-gate and exclude all again at the back door Some place them in the beginning in the middle in the end of a business Some make us to be in their power Some them in our power Some would have us believe both but inquire neither But if they would no inquiry after their nature and properties why make they such inquiry into their operations and effects 29. Whether fate be mutable or immutable If mutable how is it fate Is there not then a contingency of fate as well as a face of contingencies If immutable what hope what colour what means what remedy Nay if immoveable how moves it as they say according to the nature and order of all moveable things That is to say with naturall things naturally with necestary necessarily with voluntary voluntarily with contingent contingently with violent violently with remiss remissely And all this not as a prime and free but as a second and necessary cause Why may we not as well say with rationall things rationally with brute brutishly with sensuall sensually with vertuous vertuously with vitious vitiously with prosperous prosperously with adverse adversely with uncertain uncertainly c. And then what irrefragable law of fate is that which is fain to conform to and comply with every ones manners and manner of working 30. Whether fate be absolute in decree or conditionate If absolute then can it not be otherwise and what remedy Nay then is it infinite omnipotent eternall and with superiority If conditionate and that not from a liberall dispensation of its own but a naturall ordination from another what fatation is that then that comes upon condition that depends upon others actions not its own determination If it be absolute then is it cruell and unjust in many things if it be conditionate then is it variable and certain in nothing Set aside the first act which is the eternall decree and the last act which is death these indeed may be said to be both absolute and conditionate but Christians are not taught to call these fate But take it as they doe for the middle act then can they make it to be neither absolute nor conditionate 31. Whether fate and fatall events follow the body or the mind If the body what difference betwixt the fate of a man and of a beast In events good or evill who is worthy who is guilty And how follow they the mind seeing the stars necessarily and directly make no impression there Because it is superiour according to the order of nature and not subject to matter time or place but united to an intellectuall and spirituall substance and therefore cannot suffer from corporeall things although celestiall Nor can they so exceed their own sphear and species as to act directly upon it And if not upon the intellective faculty which acts necessarily much less upon the elective power which is free and never acts but freely nor is subject to fatality or fatall necessity For then should the election of the will be no more but a meer naturall instinct should be determined to one thing should act but one way should have the like motions in all upon the like representations should not have any thing in its own power to discern deliberate choose refuse c. but must be carryed on either naturally or violently as the Stars doe incline or enforce 32. Whether fate or fortune be either in good or evill actions If fate be in good actions are they not necessitated and inforced if fortune be there are they not fortuitous and accidentall And so what praise of them what reward The like may be affirmed of evill actions and if likewise thus inferred what shame what punishment In vitious actions either fate offers violence to a mans will or leaves to its own liberty If the first is not a mans will to be excused in evill and if the last is not every mans will the cause of his own fate yea and of the hardest and heaviest fates For they are such which follow sin and wickedness 33. Wherefore should man or his actions be made the subject yea the slave of sate when as indeed man as man is superiour thereto For fate being but a sydercall service of second causes must be reduced to the providence of the first cause and in that reduction man himself hath place or preferment before all the stars of heaven Because the divine providence receives to it self or extends it self in a more speciall way to intellectuall or rationall that it doth to all other creatures else In as much as they excell all others both in the perfection of nature and in the dignity of end In the perfection of nature Because the rationall creature hath the dominion over his own actions and operates voluntarily whereas the other act not so much as are acted In the dignity of the end because the intellectuall creature only by his operation reaches to the ultimate end of the universe sc to know and love God But the other creatures touch not that end by an inspired intention but only according to some participated similitude Furthermore God provides for the intellectuall nature principally and as it were for selfs sake and but for all other crtatures secondarily and in order to it The rationall creature is Gods agent the other are but his instrumens Now God cares more for his agents than he doth for his instruments Yea they are the instruments of this very agent and he makes use of them either in his practice or contemplation God hath more regard to the free and liberall than to the necessitated and servile acts of his creatures The rationall creatures are the more noble in themselves and of more neer accession to the divine similitude and therefore tendred by God before and above all others They are the more principall parts of the whole universe to which the less principall are but subserving as intended for their sakes and working for their ends Intellectuall natures have more assinity with the whole as apprehending all things else besides themselves whereas every other creature is but a part and capable of no more but a bare participation of its own particular entity Now it is not for the inapprehending part to have an ordaining power over the apprehensive whole By the course of nature the rationall creature uses all other things for it self as either for the perfection of its intellect the explication of its science the exercise of its vertue or else the sustentation of its body to which the intellectuall nature is united And therefore it is not for them to dispose tule govern impell necessitate him him but for him to observe rule govern dispence moderate and make use of them 34. Whether any thing can be sayd to be fatall with respect to us till it have taken effect For a fatality before it be is but a contingency to us and to us a contingency after it
is is a fatality Why then should we be bound to believe the prognosticated things of Fate or Fortune before hand yea though they may have some naturall cause remotely necessary or of some indefinite probability yet is not all this sufficient for our faith in particular because as concerning many such naturall causes there is in us nevertheless besides the supreme a liberty and power to prevent 35. Suppose the Fates have destinated one man to be hangd or kill'd by another why should not that be prognosticated from another mans nativity as well as his own seeing he also comes necessarily into the series of second causes Indeed some of the old genethliacks have boasted to foresee or foretell a mans fate or fortune from the nativity of his parents Brethren children c. But have not others of them held it for a foolish fancy that the fate or fortune of one man should lye involved not only in his own but in the constellations of so many mens nativities 36. Whether they that suffer the same fate have the same starres coupling or compacting thereunto Et è contra Suppose them suffring and suffring to death the last line of Fate for Christ the Gospell religion and conscience Is this fatall destiny also from the starry order and connexion who ever heard that the starres made Martyrs or necessitated unto martyrdome How then hath it come to passe that young old men women of severall ages sexes nations and therefore not of the same constellations have all agreed to undergoe the same event 37. Whether that be true Fate which they would mingle together with providence and how can divine providence and Pagan Fate agree For Providence is the beginning and continuation of all things Fate is the end or utter confusion of them Providence is in the ordering of casuals as well as fatals Fate is opposing all things fortuitous and therefore not disposing them Providence is an act in God their Fate is no more but an event upon the creature Providence is a disposition impendent or out of the thing Fate is a disposition inherent or in the thing Providence comprehends all things past present and to come so does not Fate in her connexion of Causes Providence is in and over all things from the greatest to the least good evill celestialls terrestrialls spiritualls corporealls universalls singulars naturalls rationalls voluntaries necessaries contingents so is not Fate Providence is more speciall to one than to another but Fate is a necessity to all alike Providence can work immediately without and against means Fate can operate nothing but according to her series or connexion Providence can act with every creature reserving to it its own motion as with free agents freely with contingents contingently c. whereas Fate hath no way to work but fatally that is necessarily forcibly inexorably immutably inevitably The rules order successe of divine providence are either written in his own book or in his own breast and not in the Starres and Planets as Fate is The wisedome justice power goodnesse of his providence all this is written in his own book the particular successes issues events thereof all these are written in his own breast Even wise Providence it self is not herein to be discerned or determined before-hand what satuous thing is Fate then that is so obvious and triviall as for the Faticanes to foretell Is not this difference enough between them and never to be reconciled Providence is a prudent counsellor and will have the particular issues kept secret Fate is a silly babbler and will have them commonly foretold 38. Whether had it not been for the fictions of Fate and Fortune there had ever been hatcht opinions and heresies so projudiciall to divine providence and that even amongst Pagans themselves that had experience sufficient to convince them of the truth and power of it and of the justice yea and goodnesse of it in great part Had the divine providence ever been denyed if Fate and fortune had not been held for Gods Had God himself been implanted under Fate or made subject to the decrees of it or slandered for a sloathfull careless spectator of humane things and terrene if they had not confined and limited God to content himself with the reiglement of the heavens as if it had veen beneath his dignitie and majestie to vouchsafe to look down to sinall things or once to take notice of of what was done here below but to commit the care and rule of all sublunary and inferiour things to the starres and celestiall bodyes as his substitutes and their superiours Had prophane and wicked men ever accused providence and excused their impieties had they not heard of fatall starres necessitating and inforcing both their wills and actions 39. Was not the constitution of Fate and Fortune first invented in a derogation to God and his divine providence and that through a paganish and infidelious scandall at good things happening to bad men here and evill things to good men which had never been excogitated or had soon vanished had they been thus Christianly instructed viz. That the all provident Creator dispenses these middle things with an indifferent hand as unto creatures That the best men upon earth are not worthy of the least of goods things may deserve to be involved in the utmost of evill things that can here befall them That the wise Disposer knows how to turn these outward good things to the evill of evill men and these outward evill things to the good of good men That this present world is no time of full punishing or rewarding but these two precisely pertain to the world that is to come 40. Admit that either Fate or fortune was so indeed as they presage or much more than they can imagine yet how is the best of them both sufficient to moderate all fond hopes and fears Or what is able to doe that but a lively faith voyd of these heathenish superstitions and assuredly believing That there is an all-provident God that only foresees all things necessarie and to whom nothing is contingent or casuall That can will and doth work for the best of his both with second causes and exteriour means as also without them yea and against them That binds not the world much lesse tyes his Church unto them That hath written his childrens names in the book of life and much more then they may be assured hath numbred the hairs of their heads as concerning all earthly accidents That shines and moves in the Sun and Moon and starres and makes their generall influxes more or lesse effectuall as he is pleased to adde or abstract his speciall motion or oppose his immediate administration or interpose the office of his more excellent Ministers Angells and reasonable Souls CHAP. XIX 19. From the affinity to Witch-craft 1. WHat difference betwixt Astromancy Magomancy or Magastromancy as touching a sorcerous both superstition and operation and all these after-named viz. Stareomancy or divining