he in former time a man whose name was Oenomaus famous amongst the Grecians both for his singular Eloquence and prosound Philosophy who often deceived and abused by the Delphine Oracle with great curiosity gathered together all the Oracles he could gleane and lay hands on and with exquisite knowledge and skill confuted them as falacious ridiculous and vain Why the Devils in foretelling future things so often erre THere are four reasons why the Devils in foretelling future events so often and much mistake First they positively and peremptorily affirm things which have their sole dependance upon mans free will which being both mutable and flexible unto all things as really free doth sometimes operate after a certain extraordinary manner and again being other while divinely inspired we do and act things contrary to what we formerly had intended and by our own judgement and imagination thought expedient Nay ofttimes it falls out that what the Devil had foretold and determined to bring to pass Almighty God forbidding and hindering it he cannot make it his desired Catastrophe To conclude the supreme Deity not unfrequently useth to effect things in a way different from the common course and ordinary providence and by this means the Devil is very many times deceived and mistaken And pray then what rational soul will believe Astrologers infallibly to speak truth when we see the Devil himself cannot do it what do I thus trouble my self with this infernal fiend when the most learned Divines and School-men affirm that the Beatified Spirits and Celestial Intelligences who clearly and face to face behold the Divine Essence know the nature of the Stars and Heaven and all other Natural causes yet cannot prophesie of things to come which have their dependency upon mans free-will unless it shall please the Heavenly Majesty to give unto them a particular revelation thereof if it be not ridiculous to give more power to Star-gazing Astrologers then Beatified Spirits and Celestial Intelligences I know not what we shall call madness The Truth and Verity of Christian Religion cannot cohere with the Truth of Judicial Astrology THis discourse and argumentation questionless is most valid and convincing if Christian Discipline and Religion be exact perfect and true as no doubt but it is then of necessity must that vain and impertinent Astrological Science or Prognostication be false and erroneous as having been several times taxed censured and condemned of vanity and falsity by that Religion but if Christian Faith be false and deceitful which is spread in a manner over the superficies of the whole universe and hath brought almost all Nations under its sweet yoke and obedience and hath now flourished and been resplendent these 1661 years compleat if all the actions of mortal and humane creatures proceed from the motions of the heavens then must it undeniably follow that the great study and propension which men have to imbrace maintain and defend the Law and Faith of Christ must have its dependency upon some unresistible and most powerfull constellation and therefore the heavens should encline and induce men to evil for if the Faith of Christ should be false questionless it would be more false and detestable then any other sect or opinion whatsoever for it teacheth informeth and illuminateth our souls concerning God and Divine Affairs which should they be false would palliate and contain of necessity most damnable superstition and execrable impiety but seeing that that life which is squared directed and guided by the modal frame and rule of Christian Faith deserveth all praise and admiration hence it would necessarily follow that from the self-same Constellation both good and bad should be produced bad in respect of Christian Doctrine its falsity and good for the admirableness and excellent perfection of that life which is directed and conformable to the rule and dictamen in that Doctrine Adde also that the greatest proof of our Chrian Faith is and the most perspicuous and clear argument of Divine Providence that whatsoever hath hapned either concerning our Lord and Saviour or his Church all that I say whatsoever hath many ages since been predicted and foretold by the holy Prophets uniformly exactly distinctly and most clearly but if such a prediction could possibly be made by Astrology that most sound and firm foundation of our Religion would utterly be shaken totally ruined and brought to nothing and infallibly this Doctrine of Astrolological divination is not onely destructive to moral Philosophy but verily even strikes at the root of sacred Scripture and all Theology as much as lieth in its power for he who holds all the acts and transactions of men to depend on the Heavens the events chances and the like to be foreseen foretold and made manifest by the observation of the Stars or Heaven this man must also without question think mans soul to be mortal and material and that there is neither free will nor any such providence in Almighty God as our Faith teacheth us and also that the mysteries of our Christian Faith have their dependence and being from the Heavens and that all the miracles as well in the old as new Testament although they have been ever esteemed as indeed really they are supernatural must notwithstanding be reduced to Celestial causes vertues and influences This dangerous opinion begets a more dangerous effect viz. neglect and pretermission of good works a freedom and liberty to all lusts appetites and sensuality an excusing and palliating of all vices whatsoever taxing both humane and divine Laws of severity and cruelty Cajetan in his Summula where he treats of the observation of Stars though not altogether in so eloquent and polite a phrase yet most pithily and truly thus writes The observation of Stars concerning nativities of men and humane occurances may three wayes come into the compass of sin First if we reduce such things as are mysteries of Christian Faith to that pass as to be subject to Celestial causes and constellations Secondly if we look after future contingents as things certain by reason of Celestial causes Thirdly if any one tye his elections or intentions so to the law and guidance of Celestial influences that he regulate and conform his life and actions according to the position of the heavens or influences thereof each of these three is a mortal sin First because it is against the spiritualness or spirituality of Christian Religion which mounts above the Heavens and is of power to change the course and motions thereof according as it is written in the 148. Psalm The confession of him above heaven and earth which is manifest by experience Secondly because it is against the verity of Christian Religion and free will whereby we become controlers and masters over all our actions Thirdly it is against the dignity of Grace and divine Law and humane Understanding whereby we are elevated and placed above things corporeal and as we should much mistake and erre to make our selves subject to the passion of
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
divine revelation disclosed unto him by a good Angel for sometimes Almighty God to bring things to their allotted end useth the ministery of the devil Other times the same Chapman will discover to man that which he himself is resolved to put in execution and by reason of the incomparable celerity of his motion he informs his friends in a trice and moment of the transactions of the most remote Regions in the world yet more this cunning enemy of our hop't for felicity from cabinet councells private conferences letters writ in never so concealed and unknown cyphers and characters from private marks which are either interiorly inherent or exteriorly in mans body By a too too vigilant and sollicitous investigation will shrewdly guesse at and discover mans occult and hidden cogitations and inclinings and those discover to his best beloved favourites Another way he goes to work which is by the causes which necessarily must concurr to produce such an effect and lastly by reason of the extream subtlety and diligence of his understanding his long experience of so many thousand years his great and exact knowledge in all naturall things he must needs have a strong advantage to search out and manifest future events The very thing of which we have now discoursed is by St. Augustine in his book upon Gen. chap. 7. most exactly and candily demonstrated and therefore I judge it not amisse to set down his words Concerning fates and subtil quirks of the stars and documental experiments drawn as it were from the art of demonstrating or Mathesis her self which they call Apotelesmes we utterly reject as being incoherent and opposite to Catholick and Christian Faith for by such like disputations the force and necessity of prayer is taken away Sin which ought to be corrected bolster'd up the fault is rather laid upon God the authour and creatour of the Stars then upon sinful mans wickedness and therefore we must confess and say that when any truth or veracities are predicted it is done by an occult and inperceptible Instinct which our weak capacities unwittingly entertain which since it is done to deceive and seduce poor man into errour questionless it is no other then the work and operation of seducing spirits unto whom it is permitted to know some certain truth concerning temporal affairs partly by reason of the strong acumen of their most subtle intellect and partly by reason of their long and cunning experience proceeding from the vaste longitude and time of their being and continuance and lastly revelation from the holy Angels being appointed so to do by their Almighty Creator who distributes and disposeth humane merits according to the sincerity of his most secret and hidden justice and sometimes those wicked spirits ' predict some things which they themselves are resolved to bring to pass by the way of prophesie or divination and good Christians ought to avoid and flye this sort of Mathematicians or any other whosoever professing to tell Fortunes although sometimes they tell the truth lest they entangle and ensuare their deceived souls by some clandestine and implicite contract with this grand enemy the devill Thus St. Augustine 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 MAn plungeth himself in a gulf of sin whosoever he is that hath recourse to the Devil or Astrologers the Devils Instruments or Trapanners to dive into future contingents in this case many and several are the wayes of falling into sin first when he addresses himself to the devil or the Astrologer his decoy to know future events confiding that the devil for certain knows whatsoever shall happen for seeing that it is onely proper and peculiar to the highest and divine Majesty to know future contingents he who so impiously attributes that knowledge to the devil falls into the horrid sin of Impiety and Idolatry and if it be accounted a sin to consociate and keep company with one excommunicated by the holy Church how much more will it be to enter into league drive bargain and make contracts with the most malignant enemy of Gods Church a blasphemer of the Deity and most envious and implacable enemy of mankinde who God himself hath banished from the society both of men and Angels unto the dark and hideous shades and infernall cloisters and hath inflicted upon him eternall and everlasting plagues and torments and will man be so mad as to take and make use of such an accursed feind for his master friend and guide And whosoever he be that enters into this devillish familiarity and combination runs the extream hazzard of losing his soul being lull'd asleep with the sweet incantations and syrenicall allurements of these divining Prognostications which the devill layeth as an ambuscado to entrap and circumvent poor man He again highly offends the divine Majesty who consults with Astrologers to know the secret and hidden sins of his neighbour and lastly he is inexcusably to be blamed who runs after those Miscreants the Devil and Astronomancers his Disciples whereby to enable himself to perpetrate some horrid villany and mischief These kinde of Astrologers are for most part of a wicked life and conversation THese Quacks are Imps of the devil Familiars and Comrades of Satan for no better are our Fortune-tellers as may easily be demonstrated First by the impurity of their lives and brutishness of their conversation secondly by the contempt they have of Christian Religion and the true exercise of piety and practice of devotion thirdly as Owls they hate the light and shun the society of good and vertuous men seldom appear in publick but lurk in holes and private corners avoiding as much as in them lies any over-seer of their exorbitant and unlawfull proceedings of whose faith and religion and not without cause the wiser sort of men make a groat scruple and question And to conclude in Spain and where the Inquisition is in force many of this sort of fellows having been secured and put in durance and duly examined by the learned Judges of that Court and Tribunal have openly confest their unchristian-like commerce and familiarity with the Devil The second Cause THe second Cause why Astrologers sometimes divine truly happens through the occult and hidden disposing of Divine Providence which as St. Augustine in his fourth and seventh book of Confessions saith doth so agitate by a private and unperceptible instinct the blinde and wicked mindes of these Diviners that though they themselves be ignorant thereof yet they tell to their Clients and Customers such things as either through their own demerit or out of the inscrutible abysse of the just judgement of the Highest are most fit for them to hear Of the use of casting Lots amongst the Ancients to discover future things AMongst the Ancients was a solemn custom to select certain verses out of Poets and roll them up as we see in Lotteries of our age or chusing of
Valentines and to draw them out of boxes hats or aprons by which it often happened that men drew verses which contained that which was agreeable either to their present fortune or future condition as it happened in Alexander Severus being then but a youth or stripling and far from any hopes of aspiring to a Monarchal Diadem who being amongst divers of his associates at this interlude and pastime extracted out of the box or scrutiny some Verses of that illustrious Poet Publius Virgilius Maro contained in the sixth book of his Aeneids which predicted the Command of the whole Romane Empire Be carfull how to rule the Romane State 'T will be thy charge allotted out by Fate The humble cherish and the proud cast down Cut Traytors off and thou shalt keep thy Crown And it is no wonder that such things now and then come to passe through the permission of God moving the mindes moderating the tongue and sorting and mingling the lots according as he will have things to evene and fall out for not onely Balaam the South-sayer and false Prophet but his Asse also foretold most certain veracities and future events 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 WE must not in this place omit the grave good and Christian admonition of St. Augustine in his book of Christian Doctrine chap. 22 23. wherein he averts That now and then even by the permission of our heavenly Creator it is so brought about that the devils by the help of man forelleth many things which prove true whereby many seduced by a various superstition destructive perswasion and impious curiosity in believing those vain Divinations being left to themselves or as it were by God forsaken through the demerit of their fore past sins and transgressions run head-long into most dangerous and execrable villanies and enormities let us take St. Augustine along with us Hence it is saith he that through a hidden and occult divine judgement men thirsting after the knowledge of unlawful things are delivered over as their want on voluptuousness hath deserved to be deluded and deceived by the fraud and deceit of the prevaricating Angels unto whom the lowest part of the world according to the admirable order of things by Institute of Divine Providence is subjected by which deceptions and delusions it falls out that through the most damnable and superstitious divinations many as well future as present contingents are discovered and happen accordingly as by them predicted and many things fall out through their observations of the adorers of this art that being intangled they become daily more and more curious and so ensnare and involve themselves in the traps and tacklings of most pernicious errour this kinde of soul-fornication the sacred Scripture discovers and also addes if they fore-tell you things which really so fall out yet give no faith or belief unto them for though the Image of dead Samuel foretold unto Saul veracities yet was the sacriledge by which that Image was effected the more to be execrated and detested The woman in the Acts of the Apostles told things which were true and certain did St. Paul therefore connive at that wicked spirit no he chastized him and dispossessing and casting him forth delivered and freed the poor creature from that vexation and thraldom then needs must all these Apotelesmatical Arts and obnoxious superstitions begotten and brought forth by pestiferous combination betwixt man and the devill be odious and hateful to knowing mortals and to be avoided and abhorted by all good Christians Thus this great light of Gods Church To these may be added two causes more and although not so probable yet as much in use and practice Many foretell future Events rather out of a prudence and experience in humane things then by Astrological Art The third Cause MAny there are who foretell future things not so much by their skill in Astrology and Apotelesmaticals as by a deep and searching reach of a pregnant intellect and by a long knowledge in the practice of humane affaires from whence they divine strange things to their Clients from the observation and insight in their affairs and negotiations employments studies and conditions for some there are who taking a survey of the temper affections and inclinations of other mens bodies and constitutions and observing what kinde of course of life they lead whether vertuously or viciously inclined what company they frequent what exercises they delight in they imagine and intimate what is likely to befall them and from hence with a great deal of audacity and impudent confidence predict what ensuing events shall befall them And according to this rule and score when they see a Prince to tyrannize over his Subjects and rack them with Contributions Excize Free quarter and such like other extortions presently they divine that this Potentate shall be murthered or unking'd If any man spend his time in robbing by the high way breaking up of houses or the like Oh he shall be hang'd a blasphemer of God and Religion a broacher of damnable Heresies a murderesse of her Husband questionlesse you shall be told such an one must be bound at a stake and round about it fire and fagots and so be burnt to death This kinde of divining crafty Hannibal made use of who perceiving the temerity rashnesse and ignorance in the Martial Discipline of the Romane Consuls and General Terentius Varro and C. Flaminius foretold and prophesied unto his Africans a glorious victory and to the Romans an ignominious overthrow and dismal slaughter which confident assertion of Hannibal the immediate overthrow of the Romane Army and destruction of the souldiers made current and good The too much confidence and credulity of such as run after Astrologers oft times is the cause of their speaking truth The fourth Cause OFt times the predictions of Astrologers prove true through the foolish and light credulity of their Clients for men for the most part give credit and belief unto such things as are foretold them either concerning the results they most vehemently desire and thirst after or such as they most extreamly fear and abhor for this vain and sottish credulity of persons gaping after that preknowledge of their fortunes doth distill and infuse into their thoughts either a grand hope of the good which the Star-gazers promise or contrariwise an inavoidable fear and sadnesse abhorring the deplorable and fatall events which they are made believe shall shortly fall upon them These two passions of the minde Hope and Fear have such dominion and power over man that they work strangely upon him and oft are the efficients that Contingents come so to passe as predicted by Astrologers for a vehement and ardent hope and desire of the promised good fortunes doth ofttimes so stir up and induce man to make himself fit to receive them that he employeth all his endeavours and useth his