all things to pass in Nature in this inferior world except those immediate Acts in which all these Mediums are suspended and the first Cause works of himself and these Works are called by us Miracles because there is nothing of Nature found to co-operate in the work or in that the Creator of all things doth not work in and by these means mediating But when these Mediums have received those patterns of working then they shew forth the Intentions and Decrees of the first Cause either by the ordinary Motion Aspects and Position of the Celestial Bodies which is the common course of the first Cause in Nature or else in a more extraordinary way as by unusual Apperitions as of Comets or Blazing Star three Suns Men and Horses in armour in a hostile manner fighting Balls of Fire Swords Spears and other weapons of war forms of monstrous Men and Beasts and many other ways too tedious to be here denominated all which are the Works of the Intelligential Angels which are the fore-runners of some strange Accidents or Change to befall the World in general or some Kingdom State Cities Families or Persons who had their first beginnings under such or such a determinate Horoscope and Celestial Constellation who with their beginnings receive a wonderful virtue of working or suffering yea in such a manner that it becomes obediâ—nt to that power ruling it in the Heavens as our bodies are obedient to our Souls so that when the Celestial Bodies are moved to any Change or Variation then are those things which are subject to that or that Celestial Body or Constellation moved and changed answerable Now this intensive work or change which is determined in the first Cause is made manifest in the Heavens some space of time more or less before it is brought to pass upon these Inferiors here below so that those that are learned in the Liberary of Heaven sees before-hand what is like to come to pass upon such or such a Kingdom State Family or persons Now for him that is versed in the knowledg of their Effects to declare what the intention of the first Cause is in reference to any of these particular ones should be â—ccounted and termed a Conjurer Witch and the like what do they but as much as in them is to stigmatise the secondary Causes who are servants to the first Cause to wit God who hath made and framed them by his unspeakable Wisdom in such a series and order of correspondency that they answer to all things more or less here below as they agree with the Intelligences and Idea's of all things above so that they do necessarily work and so necessarily produce their proper effects upon those things that they govern in this inferior world either to love and concord or to strife and enmity which we call good and evil and the cause why they operate not so strongly and effectually is because of the unequality of the matter for in such things in which the superior hath not that Rule and Domination as in others in those they work more slowly and imperfect which is not because of the inability of their influence and virtue but because of the unsuitability of the Subject for they rule in some things more in others less yet they produce their effects in all suitable to the correspondency of the matter with them so that there is nothing in the inferior world which is not more or less agreeing with these Celestial Influences and Heavenly Virtues But now I shall descend to Particulars as to declare the particular Effects of the superior Influences upon particular ones But first That they have relation to the World in general take but that one Instance of Petrus de Aliaco concerning the Universal Flood who quoting Albumazer who did by Calculation of the Motions of the two superior Planets to wit Saturn and Jupiter did find that they did come to Conjunction in Cancer a watery Sign and in the fourth House of Heaven the which Sign was as the same Author doth affirm the Horoscope of the Heavens first motion viz. when the Creation was finished and all Celestial bodies had received their power of motion in the which they were to continue for the product of those determinate effects upon the world according to the intention of the first Cause In this particular Instance a curious eye may see much by the which Conjunction as some learned Authors doth aver that that just man Noah had the fore-knowledg of the general Deluge For as the said Aliaco confirmeth that although Noah did well know the Flood by divine Revelation yet this Conjunction being notorious he could not be ignorant of the second Causes from the first Cause for that was not only a Sign but a working Cause by its power received from the first Cause which is God himself and also that by the windows of Heaven Moses meant this watery Conjunction The Authors words are these It pleased God saith he to ordain by the course of the Heavens such a Constellation by the which all men might see therein their own destruction coming and so forsake those wicked ways wherein they walked and call upon God for mercy And of the same Judgment was the learned Parisiensis who understood that by the windows of Heaven were meant the great Conjunction of those two superior Planets or these watery Constellations Cancer Pisces Pleiades Hyades and Orion and of the Planets Venus and the Moon which are the forcible Causes of the greatest Inundations His own words are these I perceive not what the Prophet of the Hebrews meaneth by these words the windows of Heaven unless he meaneth thereby those Celestial Powers by whose influence are engendered the Rain and Inundations of Waters such as are the water Signs of Cancer c. The which Conjunction happened according to the opinion of Albumazur 279 years 248 days and 9 hours before that it did shew its effects upon the inferior world And thus it pleased God that in the Course of his unsearchable Wisdom that this Conjunction should be at such a time by which means there was vigour and faculty added for the operation of every virtue by which violent Eruptions of Springs and Fountains was caused from the abundance of the treasure of their waters taking retention from the Clouds and condensing ayr into water a change familiar in these Elements by the Ministry of his Angels the which is the ordinary way of the first Cause for the producing of his determinations upon the inferior world I mean by such secondary Causes as was the Conjunction of these two superior Planets viz. Saturn and Jupiter the effects of which resulted into that Universal Deluge or general overflowing of the whole Earth with the Element of Water But this shall suffice for the due proof of the first particular to wit That the Celestial Bodies have an Influence upon the World for the producing of strange effects as they are Instruments under the first
by a wise man to the bringing forth of such or such effects as are wonderful to those that know not their Causes And this is that which hath layn under terms of Ignominy to this day Ignorance producing Admiration and Admiration Suspicion and then an undeserved Censure past upon the work or action terming it to be Diabolical and so attributing the secret workings which the divine Wisdom hath placed in the secret bosom of Nature to a Diabolical Power and Property when it is nothing else but a mutual application of Natural Vertues Agent and Suffering reciprocally And those that were conversant in this excellent Science in former times were otherwise thought of then now they are For as Pencer truly observeth that the Magi were the chief Ministers of the Persian Religion as the Levites were amongst Gods people and they were given to the studies of true Philosophy neither could any be Kings of the Persians who had not been first exercised in the mysteries and knowledg of the Magi. And this lawful Magick which I do here speak of was commended by Origen that learned man who doth most ingenuously declare That it doth appertain to the practick part of Natural Philosophy teaching to work admirable things by the mutual application of Natural Vertues And Jerom in his Commentaries upon Daniel useth these words But common custom saith he taketh Magicians for Witches who are otherwise reputed in their own Nation for they are the Philosophers of the Chaldeans yea Kings and Princes of that Nation do all that they do according to the knowledg of that Art whence at the Nativity of the Lord our Saviour they first of all understood his Birth and coming unto Bethlehem did worship the Childe the Star from above shewing him unto them So it is clear that there is a great deal of difference between the Doctrine of a Magician truly and the abuse of the word But if you will beleeve the Author of that Pamphlet he will tell you that he is a Magician in these our days who having entered a combination with the Prince of Darkness useth his help in any matter but the Art of Magick is of the wisdom of Nature But as for other Arts which have assumed the Title of Magick they were invented by the subtilty and falshood of the Devil and in this there is none other Doctrine then the use of certain Ceremonies by an evil and wicked faith in the other none evil but the investigation of those admirable Vertues and occult Properties which that infinite Wisdom hath bestowed and given to his Creatures and how fitly to apply those things that are to work to those things that are to suffer And those men that were studious in this Art were called the Magi which Peter Martyr saith the Ancients understood to be good and wise men And as Ficinus saith O thou fearful one why doubtest thou to use the name of Magus a name gracious in the Gospel which doth not signifie a Witch or a Conjurer but a wise man and a Priest And what hath brought so much slander upon this excellent knowledg but base and idle Ignorance which indeed is the mother of Admiration But give me leave to go yet further This Art doth not onely enable us in the true knowledg of those secret Vertues which are wrapped up in the bosom of Nature but it may in some measure bring us to the true knowledg of the Divinity of Christ and to use Mirandula's words For by understanding saith he the utmost activity of Natural Agents we are assisted to know the Divinity of Christ for otherwise the terms and limits of Natural Power and Vertue not rightly understood we must needs doubt whether those very works which Christ did may not be done by natural means and therefore I say not heretically nor superstitiously but most truly and catholiquely that by such Magick we are furthered in knowing the Divinity of Christ And seeing the Jews and other the Enemies of Christian Religion do impudently and impiously object that those Miracles which Christ wrought were not above Nature but by the exquisite knowledg thereof performed and as that learned Doctor Staughton saith in a small Treatise of his that the Jews have a blasphemous Fable that our Saviour found out the right pronunciation of the Name of God the Tetragrammaton and that wrought all his Miracles But Mirandula a man for his years fuller of the knowledg of Nature then any of these latter times might with Reason avow that the utmost limits of Natures works being known that the works which Christ did which no man could do do manifestly declare of themselves that they were wrought by a Hand which held Nature herein but as a pensil and by a Power infinitely Supreme and Divine But on the contrary there may be many wonderful effects brought to pass by the Magical operation of Natural Vertues such as may produce no small admiration in those that understand not the secret workings and products of those vertues for it is undoubtedly true that all Secondary Causes do necessarily work and necessarily produce their proper effects by vertue of that Connexion that they have with the first Cause and correspondency that they have to those divine Patterns and eternal Idea's whence every thing hath its determinate place in the Architype whence it lives and draws it original and the vertue of all things as of Stones Herbs Metals living Creatures and all which are from God are placed who although he works by the Intelligences and Heavens upon these inferior things yet sometimes those Media's being let alone or their Ministry suspended the first Cause doth then work of it self which works are then called Miracles For whereas by the command and order of the first Cause the secondary Causes which Plato and others calls servants do necessarily work and necessarily produce their proper effects yet sometimes according to the pleasure of the first Cause their Ministry is either suspended or finished that they wholly cease from that necessary command and order and these are the greatest Miracles of God So the Sun at the request of Josuah stood still for the space of a whole day So at the desire of Ezekias it went back ten hours So the fire in the Chaldean furnace did not consume the three Children So when that our Saviour Christ did suffer at a full Moon the Sun was eclipsed But if the Ministry of these secondary Causes be not suspended or finished then they shew forth their proper powers and vertues in their several effects according to that order in the which the Wisdom of the first Cause ordained them What the Secondary Causes are NOw if it be demanded what these Secondary Causes are I answer They are all those Ministring Powers which God the first Cause hath set up under himself for the regulating and governing of these inferior things for there is not any thing to be found which is not governed and ruled by these Ministring
Magick Astrology VINDICATED From those False Aspersions and Calumnies which the Ignorance of some hath cast upon them In which is contained true Definitions of the said Arts and the Justification of their Practise proved by the Authority of Scripture and the Experience of Ancient and Modern Authors With Observations from several remarkable Conjunctions and Apparitions As those Three Suns that appeared before the Kings Death c. Impartially communicated for the Publique Good By HARDICK WARREN A Well-wisher to the most secret Occult Arts and Learning LONDON Printed J. M. for N. Brook at the Angel in Cornhill 1651. To the Author Mr H. W. WHen Reason Fancy Wit and Grace In tender years take each their place These make the man all these I see Coneur in this thy Book and thee Dear Friend I 'le vow thy Book I must call Not Sublunary but Celestial For sure th' Intelligences mov'd thy Brain And were the Primum Mobile of thy strain Thy Star a glorious Sun and gives more light Then can b' obscur'd by foulest Envies spight And for thy Book the praise it gets of mine Is only this it 's excellent good and thine By W. A. COme Carping Momus spend thy spleen in vain Pour out thy Envy like the Ocean main And see if thou canst crown the Hystery Of this small Piece with its Divinity And Natures purest Workings which I own With the first Cause all which is clearly shown In this same Book all which appears to me In the pure Art of Magick and Astrologie So it shall have my serious approbation I have the Book but it my admiration By J. R. To the Reader Courteous Reader THou art in this following Treatise though but small informed with the substantial Grounds of those almost infinite Arts to wit of Magick and Astrology both which by reason of a fatal deprivation of these latter times and the most of men have fallen under the most detestable Notions that it were possible to brand them withall the which did arise by reason of those many wicked and abominable Practises of some men whose whole Soul hath been let forth to its Liberty to converse with the Reprobate Powers of Darkness whose Diabolical Practises have been by them shrouded under the Name of Magick and Astrology when as indeed they have not in the least measure been acquainted with the true knowledg either of the Creator or of those most glorious results of his wisdom and power in those many excellent Creatures which are the Images of his Glory and in the which more then the most of men are acquainted with he takes pleasure to be conversant for his delight is in the inhabitable parts of the Earth and his chief Recreation if I may so speak without offence amongst the poor degenerate Sons of men whose love is such that he hath in a most condescending way wrapped himself about with the whole Creation that none might be ignorant of his Excellency and in this way many of those Hermitick Spirits who renounced the vain beauty of the meanest of the Appearances of the World came to have those most excellent and admirable Manifestations which produce admiration in me when I consider that we who profess our selves to know and to converse with our God in a more immediate way yet come short of some of those holy Souls who were ignorant of all but this indwelling of the first Cause in the creature But I must expect and that from those that are not a little learned in their own Opinion and no lesse knowing in the Mysteries of God in their conceits to be all to be Devil'd for my labour in this work but to such I say that their gross Ignorance shall be punished with Tantalus torment and their Sisypus Robberies of us the Commonalty under their specious pretence of a divine Right with an endless toyl Reader these are the Arts and especially that of Magick which as to our English Nation hath worn the Ring of Gyges and walked invisible but now thou hearest it speaking in thy own Dialect not tyed in a Gardian knot of impossibilities but may be experimented by thee if thy secret Genus can but soar so high but sure I am with polluted hands and a fond conceit of thy self in respect of thy knowledg thou art not able to do any thing in it there is more divine correspondency required then thou art aware of or may be then thou art capable to receive Thou must not expect with a swinish affection to draw celestial Virtues with thy earthly gruntlings no if thou canst attain a divine Rapture and bring thy Soul and its Attendants from that dark Dungeon of Earth and loosened from those cursed Fetters of sin thou art the man which art fit to receive power from those blessed Intelligences and mayst do wonders in thy generation I have in the Magical part of this Treatise followed the method of that most admirable Agrippa whose learned Works I do profess I honor above all the Books in the world except the Sacred Writ What I have writ is not agreeable to those fond and foolish Doctrines of many old doting women who that they might be thought to have a divine Power that as Apuleius saith they can throw down the Heavens lift up the Earth harden Fountains wash away Mountains raise up infernal Spirits command Ghosts cast down the Gods extinguish the Stars and enlighten even Hell it self whereof many I confess are as well of a falacious opinion as superstitious diligence and pernicious and deadly endeavor for when that they cannot appear in publique under the practise of a wicked and Diabolical Art yet they are so audacious as to presume to think that they are capable to cloke themselves under the honorable Name of Magick the which hath caused amongst the most of men an inveterate hate to the very name which is exceeding good and commendable I wish that those who are but slenderly acquainted in the Principals thereof may not bring a dishonor upon it by their boasting of abilities to produce Wonders and are not able to operate any thing but what is common to every Nature it is such a Mystery that it is found out and attained but by a very few but grosly abused almost of all Therefore I commend this small Treatise only to the true Sons of Minerva who are alone able to judg of it and whose Censure I only value if any imperfection be in it let this take off the blot of my dishonor to wit my tender years which indeed are not many and the shortness of time that I have been conversant in the Study of this worthy Mystery and not only so but my being unacquainted with the way of publique Writing it being the first that ever I attempted to publish not being born to such an end but for a private Contemplation for which end I composed it but by reason of the exceeding importunity of a loving Friend and a Well-wisher with my self
Nature in as admirable a way as did the Magicians of Egypt before Pharaoh for I conceive that he was as knowing in the secret and occult workings of Nature as they And whereas it is a received Opinion of many That those Frogs which the Magicians of Egypt did produce were but false Semblences my opinion is otherwise for I am really convinced that Moses that man sent and impowered of God for so eminent a work could not be deceived with such false Appearances But I shall adhere to the Judgment of that learned Parisienses who saith That in such works the sudden generation of Frogs Lice and Worms and some other creatures in all which Nature alone worketh but by means strengthening the seeds of Naturâ— and quickning them in such wise that they so hasten the work of genâ—ration that it seemeth not to be the work of nature to the ignorant which usually worketh more slowly but they think it to be done by the power of Devils but they who are learned in 〈…〉 marvel not at such workings but glorifie the Creator Many the like things may and have been done by no unjust way or means but wholy by the more secret and occult workings of Nature which to those that apprehend not the way of operation have had a surmise of a Diabolical Agent but their ignorance hath misled them as it doth many at this day And I were able to deliver the Precepts of some learned men for Instances but it may suffice that I have cleared the substantial Grounds of Magick and have vindicated that excellent Art from those gross Calumnies and Aspersions that have been laid upon it either by men wholy ignorant in it or such who have received a prejudice against it to both I say that they may as well asperse the Magical Policy of Jacob in causing the strongest Cattel of Laban to bring forth spotted young ones by his laying of spotted Rods in the watering-troughs and gutters where the female Cattel coming to drink at what time they had coupled with the male that they then seeing the Rods might conceive spotted young ones the which sight wrought secretly upon and powerfully affected the conceiving and forming faculty of the Cattel and so did enstamp the like colours upon the thing conceived for that part of the seed which maketh it fruitful to wit the spirits which wander all over the body these containing the Idea or form of the particular parts to be formed being ayr and moist are ready to receive any impression which is conveyed in at the eye and doth frame the thing answerable in some sort to the thing received As I have read of a Negor woman that conceived a beautiful white child by the help of her Imagination it being fixed upon a beautiful picture in the Act of Generation which is wrought by nothing else but that reciprocal quality and tender property of those ayral and moist spirits which are in every seed in conception My request therefore is that all ingenuous men would seriously study and contemplate the creature and those excellencies that God the first Cause and Original of all things hath put into Nature which doth very much speak out the infinite Wisdom Power Goodness Love and Kindness of him who doth all in all by these ministring Powers that he in his Wisdom hath set up over all these inferior things for the shewing forth of these received virtues which doth flow down from the first and chief Good into all creatures more or less answerable to the good pleasure of the first Cause or Giver and according to the fitness of the Receiver for there is not any thing to be found which hath not something of this good infused into it which Virgil had a sight of when he uttered these words There is saith he a Fire force and a Celestial Originial to these seeds as far as the Noxious Bodies do not hinder And this is all that I shall speak concerning the Art of Magick more I could have said but this shall suffice as an Answer to that Book in reference to that secret Mystery which I hope will satisfie the Ingenuous Reader I shall now speak briefly to the other Art viz. that of Astrology which the Author of that Pamplet is pleased to stigmatise with the like ignominious Terms as he hath done that most profound Art of Magick before spoken of and I hope to any ingenuous and impartial man cleared and vindicated by the foregoing Discourse It remaineth now for me to clear this of Astrology which I shall so far as I have received the knowledg thereof from the first Cause who is the Giver of every good knowledg Astrology Defined AS for Astrology I conceive it to be an Art by the which the influence and virtual operations of the superior Bodies with their effects and significations are brought to light and knowledg I say it is an Art by the which we come to know what the signification and effects of the several Motions Aspects and Positions of the Heavenly Bodies do hint out unto us in reference to the World in general and to Kingdoms States Cities Families and the particular fate if I may so call it of every man and woman with their several relations conditions dependance and ends whatsoever and that by the Heavens and Celestial Bodies Now that the Celestial Bodies have an influence upon these Inferior Bodies here below is already cleared in the foregoing Discourse the which I think no ingenuous man will deny but that they have a relation to the Manifestation of the particular fare of every particular Kingdom State Cities Families and Persons is the thing to be cleared which I shall do according to that knowledg that I have which is not so perfect as I could desire or as I covet after But that they have an Influence and Power over Kingdoms and States in reference to their particular fates and changes with the Manifestation thereof it is most clear and that from those many and several Experiments that we have seen of late years in those strange and unexpected Catastrophe's of this Island and they all or most made out conspicuously before they did come to pass by that worthy Gentleman Mr Lilly one whom I much honour for his love to his Country-men in restoring of this Art which was almost lost not only here but almost all Europe over whose learned Works I must freely acknowledg were the first grounds and cause of my present attainments and others who was and are conversant in the study of this excellent Art witness those several Books of theirs now extent which contains nothing else but Prognosticks or Prophecies of future events that were to be brought to pass in their fit seasons by means of the Superiors who are nothing else but ministring Powers appointed to disperse or carry down those determinations of the first Cause committed unto them by the Intelligences ruling and this is that orderly way by which the chief Good brings
Cause and also they are as to us Manifestations before-had of their Events But now I shall proceed to the second particular viz. That the Heavenly Bodies have an Influence upon Kingdoms and States and that to the manifestation of their particular fates or changes the which we have found by Experience of late years in this Island verified to the purpose and not only this but that of Ireland all or most of them made out before by M. Lilly and others and by none other way or means but by the Art of Astrology by the which they have to the purpose declared the Events and Effects of the Heavenly Bodies in their Influence and in what particulars they would manifest themselves But for the better clearing of this particular I shall give you one or two ancient Presidents long ago brought to pass As for instance That Star which suddenly appeared in the time of Hipparchus which signified the transferring of the Greekish Empire into the hands of the Romans which was not effected till 63 years after which begun about 42 years before Christ Did not the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the year 1425. which were in Scorpio a treacherous and false Sign find us in England engaged in a War with France Spain at the same time in division about a Successor in the Royal Power and under the effects of the same Conjunction Henry the sixth was crowned at Paris Also under the Conjunction of the two Superiors in the year 1603. in the Sign of Sagitarius did not James King of Scotland come to be King of England And as Mr Lilly saith in that unparalled Piece viz. Englands Prophetical Merlin speaking of this Conjunction useth these words Could a more memorable thing be in this world then for a Scottish King to become Monarch of the English and that without blows considering the former Antipathy betwixt both Nations Was not this in effect a new Monarchy yea and a great one to be King of England Scotland and Ireland And hath not Ireland suffered to the purpose under the effects of these two Lunar Eclipses which was total which happened the last year in the Constellations of Taurus and Scorpio the one being Conjunction with that kingly Star of the first Magnitude called Aldeberion or the Bulls eye of the nature of Mars the other in the Constellation of Scorpio a most viporous Sign with fixed stars of the nature of Mars and Saturn whose effects did and doth still shew themselves powerfully upon that deplorable Island to the great destruction of her Natives all which might have been fore-seen by those that are conversant in contemplating of the Heavens and yet by no combination with the Powers that rule in the dark World And was not that Comet which appeared in the year 1618. a fore-runner of many Changes and Mutations almost all Europe over And I believe that Scotland hath no cause to boast of the Effects of the Conjunction of the two malevolent Planets viz. Saturn and Mars in July last They who are desirous to view things of this nature if their own prejudice doth not detain them they may read those two Books of Mr Lilly's viz. Englands Prophetical Merlin and The Worlds Catastrophe the first published in 1644. the other in 1647. the which will produce variety of Presidents of this nature the which are things of that excellency and worth that to an ingenuous man never the like were extent in Europe I could be more large in this particular but this I hope will satisfie the wise for others I matter not whose stupidity all the Presidents in the world is not able to convince But now I shall descend to the third particular viz. That the Heavenly Bodies have an Influence upon particular Cities and do shew forth some strange Change or Mutation in their Governments Laws Customs Liberties Loss and Profit which are all made out before conspicuously by the superior Bodies according to the determination of the first Cause by whose goodness all Cities flourish and by whose will they again decline in their glory and pomp and then fall into slavery and destruction so it is no wonder if Monarchies Kingdoms and Cities do change their manner of Government and as it were a thing forsaken of its presidential Angel flying to another nature of other power and so always Kingdoms and Cities when they have attained to the height of their glory they then decline and become worse and worse both in their Government and Customs and by that means the conditions of men become contrary so that a spirit of hatred and sedition is generated which produces ruine and destruction or a transferring of the Government thereof unto strangers as was that most magnificent and glorious City of Constantinople from under the Government of Christians now become the Seat Royal of the Paganish Mahomitan which was effected under the Influence of the Conjunction of the two Superiors in Cancer in the year 1444. whose Ascendant is Cancer the Sign of the Conjunction whose Christian Beauty then declined into a Paganish Deformity And did not the same Conjunction produce a vast loss to the Venicians by an Inundation of the Sea to the value of a Million of money whose Ascendant is that watery Sign of Cancer And I believe that London hath no cause to boast of its benefit that it hath received from the effects of the last Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the year 1642. which was in Pisces which beholds the Ascendant of London with a hateful Square and was not Mercury the Lord thereof under the Sun beams and aspected by the Moon with a Square Arguments of no good to redound to it Neither will the slow motion of malicious Saturn through the Constellation of the Twins with the Conjunction of angry Mars which was in July last produce any cause of boasting to the Inhabitants of London either in their Civil Power or Commerce the which some space of time may and will make manifest though not to the conviction of their selfish Opinions yet will prove fatal I fear to their Trade and Commerce the which the declination of their Estates will testifie And I wish O London that thou mayst not feel the effects thereof also in thy Government whose Glory exceeds almost all the Cities in Europe May not the time be and that shortly that thy pomp and beauty in thy Societies may be eclipsed I wish it may not yet I profess I fear it But no more of that Have we not had a clear demonstration of the fading glory of the Royal Power in this Kingdom of late which was hinted nay clearly manifested before-hand in the last Conjunction of the Superiors in Pisces which beheld the Ascendant of our English Monarchy with a hateful opposition and what the product thereof hath been and is like to be let the impartial judg and not only that Conjunction of the Superiors but all those eminent Configurations of late years have manifested the same
but more especially that strange Apperition of three Suns in Decemb. 1648. which were seen visibly to divers in London and near adjacent which were the Messengers of a final Period to that House in respect of the Regal Power which were the Works of the Intelligencial Angels who were willing to communicate the Decree of the great Creator which was to be effected in a small space of time here below though conceived long before in the bosom of the first Cause as all things of the like nature are And shall God be so willing to suffer nothing to come to pass or be effected in this lower world but doth give unto us first Celestial Declarations of his Intentions and Determinations and shall we call such as are conversant in the contemplation of those Wonders and Mysteries Witches Conjurers and the like O ingratitude not to be parallel'd Which of you all who are so sottish as to abuse the Students in this lawful Art that would reject the counsel of the meanest man who adviseth you of an apparant danger which is ready for to seize upon you and declares the prevention by certain means If you reject it worse then mad men Will you reject and slight the Prognosticks of able Artists Look to it in time lest you be branded for your folly in future Ages For had his late Majesty and some great men really considered the Prophecies of some English Artists it had been otherwise with then it was I will give you the Paradoxial Prophecy of that able Artist Mr Lilly in Merlin pag. 110. Wo to a great Family of Europe that was is now but shall be no more it 's not old it 's not ancient like an untimely birth it 's cut off and shall never again flourish either in Branch or Root c. Lord God shall the number of fifty cut off more then five or shall less then ninety be alotted for four Shall the Virgin be barren and the Lyon have no issue Shall less then 36 end in two Shall the second end in a Cipher Shall seven come to be one and then none This is a Mystery to many yet true in its effects part of which is exactly fulfilled the rest makes haste and in its time must conclude the Prophecy I were able to produce other Presidents of the like nature but this shall serve to clear the Celestial Influences upon Families Now I shall speak briefly to the last particular viz. That the Heavenly Bodies have a respect in their Influence to particular ones to the Manifestation of those several Occurrences which are to befall them in this inferior world For every single man and woman when they begin to have Being under a determinate Asscendant and Heavenly Constellation they receive with that Being a wonderful virtue of working and suffering more then what it receives from its proper kind by the Influence of the Heavens from the obedience of the matter of the thing generable which contains in it self properties of the Elemental Virtues with a subtil ayral spirit which makes the siminal matter fruitful the which is apt to receive any impression from the Celestial Virtues and the Higher Powers disposing the Elemental Properties and doth instamp its virtue and form upon the generable matter suitable to its correspondency to the Celestial Souls from the which ground the matter thus formed and disposed it comes to be moed to obedience unto those Higher Powers so that according to the motions of the Superiors and their Influences divers effects inclinations and behaviors are wrought not only from the matter diversly disposed as the most think but from the diverse Influence of the Superiors and their different forms and the degrees of these are diversly distributed of God the first Cause of all who remains the same distributes to every one as he sees good to which the secondary Causes do co-operate Angelical and Celestial in their disposing of the corporal matter and other things committed to them So that from hence Astrologians say That some men are Solar and some men Mercurial and so of the rest because that they have received in their beginnings virtue and operation from those Bodies in the correspondency of their seminal matter with those Stars both in their bodies and inclinations which shew themselves more conspicuously and powerful when the internal faculty hath attained its proper power and strength which it received at its first Being So that inclinations and behaviors of all men do appear in their workings or sufferings more or less suitable to that virtue which they have received from the Superiors and correspond with them so far forth as they rule those properties for in some men the virtue of the Celestial Souls are less drowned and less incumbered with contrariety and in such that virtue is more conspicuous and perfect then in others which made the Platonicks to say That Celestial Virtues were infused according to the desert of the matter which we see verified in Christ who by reason of the purity and perfection of the corporal matter it was capable to receive the fulness of the Divinity in whom it dwelt as the Scripture saith bodily the excellency of whose Person was manifested to the Magi at his Birth by that new Star which led them to his presence to worship him which was a Celestial Demonstration of his Divine Descent Not unlike to that was the Star in the time of Augustus Cesar in the which Sybillia Tiburtina shewed to the said Augustus the Image of a beautiful Virgin holding a Boy in her bosom and saying This Child is more noble and greater then thou worship him And according to the verification of some learned Authors the Horoscope of our Saviours Nativity was in the first Decade of Virgo in the which before his Manifestation in the flesh was a Conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and Mercury which did fore-shew his Birth And according to the opinion of Albumazer that in the same Decade of Virgo ascendeth a beautiful Virgin of a comely Body pleasant Countenance modest Attire long Hair holding two Plums in her hand sitting upon a golden Throne and nourishing a Boy And of the same opinion was Abraham whose words are these There ascendeth in the first face of Virgo a very fair Virgin having long Hair holding two ears of Corn in her hand and she sitteth upon a seat and nourishing a little Boy by giving him suck and enciting him to eat All which were nothing else but Angelical Manifestations of that purity and perfection of Nature which was to be brought forth into the world in the Humanity of Christ the which I think no ingenuous man will deny But now I will proceed Now because of this inherent correspondent Property which the matter of the Body hath received from the superior Powers and Virtues in its beginning of Being it comes to be moved to those several actions of passion either of love or enmity by the movings of the Superiors to the like for