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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	live_v	time_n	13,446	5	4.0318	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29517	A discovery of the impostures of witches and astrologers by John Brinley.	Brinley, John.	1680 (1680)	Wing B4698; ESTC R24764	37,372	135

Life Let us now examine their Reasons and see how they will stand Trial. Their first Reason is grounded upon a false Supposition that there can be no other use for the Stars than to be Characters wherein men may Read their own Fortunes The second likewise viz. that we know no other reason for the several Motions and Aspects is not good Reasoning for 't will not hold to Argue from the Negation of our knowledge to the Negation of the thing we cannot apprehend so that if we cannot find what a thing is for we cannot justly cut it out a piece of Service and infer a necessity of its being design'd for that use we have devised to apply it to The third reason from the Cohaerence betwixt Caelestial and Sublunary things is no better Logick for although they may sway the Elements yet there is no reason they should do so in things meerly Contingent and depending upon the Will and slippery Appetites of Man though Iupiter or Mars or any of the rest meeting in such an Aspect and Position one with another may produce a Tempest in the Air yet I cannot perceive a necessity that they must Dart a Disorder into my Affections with their Malevolent Rays And supposing the time of a Nativity can be exactly gathered yet what reason can they shew for Confirmation of their Rules they are only such as men have devised and that without any ground or Warrant from Scripture what reason can they give that any Aspect should portend that which they say it does but only some Observation of a thing happening in that time which they cannot averr to proceed from that Aspect but that it had been so without it And though Enoch and Ioseph were given to Studies of this Nature and that Moses was skill'd in the Learning of the Aegyptians and Daniel of the Chaldaeans yet it cannot be proved that they ever favoured this way of Divining at things to come their knowledge proceeded from another Cause to wit immediate Revelation or else was gathered from certain and Solid Principles It must be confessed that the Chiefest Bulwarks wherewith Astrologers defend themselves are Experiments yet are they not so strong but they may be Battered For some particular Praediction proving true does not make the Rules Infallible one amongst an hundred perhaps made at the same time Hitting the rest proving False why then should all those that Fail be slip'd by and not spoken of or not be brought in judgment against the Art as those few which are True are made so stifly to plead for it Many very Eminent and Learned men have Discussed the vanity of Judicial Astrology as Picus Mirandula Cornelius Agrippa Franciscus Vallesius and divers others to whose Writings I refer my Reader Galeatius Prince of Millain gave a notable Check to one of these men who was arrived at that height of impudence as to tell the Prince he was shortly to Die a sudden and unusual Death and that himself was to Live a long time after him But mark how prettily Galeatius Confuted the Astrologer he caused him to be forthwith lead to Execution the Prince surviving him many years and indeed 't is observable that most of them are ignorant of what shall happen to themselves and whilst they foretel great Success and promise Golden Mountains to others cannot Enrich themselves Nor ought we to be Seduced by the Experiments they Brag of since they are most of them only Collected by little and pretending Sciolists men of no Faith nor Reputation most of them too being Feigned and Falling out no body knows where nor when Again in those few which truly happen according to their Praedictions 't is not certain whether the Artist might Consult with something else besides the Stars since many who Deal with Familiar Spirits Mask their Impieties under the Vizor of Astrology So St. Augustine lib. 5. de Civitate Dei Non immerito creditur cum Astrologi mirabiliter multa vera respondent occulto instinctu fieri spirituum non bonorum quorum cura est has falsas noxias opiniones de Astralibus fatis inserere humanis mentibus atque firmare non Horoscopi notati inspecti arte quae nulla est FINIS

produce real and positive Effects But if they be only Signs they must be either Natural or Supernatural Natural they cannot be since they can upon that Score have no agreement with the things signified nor proceed from the same Cause nor can they be Supernatural for then we ought to suppose an Infallibility in the Event Now as Chymists and Mountebanks use to flourish in Oratory and tell the Credulous Vulgar many fine Stories of the Temperature of the Elements of the proportion of Qualities and such like puzling Terms to wheedle an opinion of their Skill into their Auditors so do Astrologers lash out into large and extravagant Encomiums of the Heavenly Bodies urge the Coherence betwixt Caelestial and sublunary things and tell fine Stories that so many Orbs Stars and Motions were not made by God Almighty to no end and after much proving of that which none denies they descend to their particulars their little Casualties and Tie every mans Fortune to some Star or other What say they shall we think that the most glorious part of the Creation in which as in a large expanded Volume may be Read the wonderful power and Wisdom of God was made to serve to no use or shall we set at nought those things which have so abundantly shewn forth their power upon the Earth Let us now descend to their Master-piece that is Nativities and see what semblance of truth there is in it They pretend to observe the very point of their Nativity and the places of the Stars which are Fixed which are Erratick in what Houses they arise which Planets are in their Exaltation which not whether in a right Triplicity whether in a Masculine or Faeminine Sign what Aspects whether Trine or Quartile or Sextile or Opposition or Conjunction and several other hard and Conjuring Terms From hence say they it is easie either by the Planets considered particularly or altogether or with the Signs of the Zodiack to Collect the Events of humane Affairs to Describe a mans Inclinations and give an account of his good or bad Fortune Now let us allow them this which is indeed more than they can prove that the Fortunes of men are Guided by the Stars yet what Midwife or Astrologer either can be so exact as to know the very Minute of a Nativity which is necessary to be known forasmuch as in the space of one Minute there is a vast and unalterable Celerity in the Motion of the Heavens so that before the Infant be wholly Born the Constellation will be changed and the Head will be Born under one and the Feet under another which will if it was significant prove but Cross Fortune to the Party But supposing that this small moment of time do not Disturb the signification of the Horoscope how comes it to pass that Twins are oftentimes observed to have such different Fortunes the one of them Dying in their Infancy the other Living to Decrepit Age or one of them perhaps exalted to Honours and Dignities and continually Courted with opportunities of Advancement the other not able to get out of a mean and abject Condition the one is inclined to Peace the other to Quarrelling and Disorder the one is strong of Constitution the other weak and sickly A greater difference arises if the Twins be one of them Male and the other Female is it possible in such a Case that they should both have the same Genius and Inclinations which ought according to these men necessarily to follow I hope there is no man but may be convinced of the vanity of this Science if he take Notice of those that die in the Field men of different Ages Born under different Constellations yet all Perishing by one common Fate Were all the First-born of Aegypt slain at the Departure of the Children of Israel The Aegyptians Drowned in the Red-sea The Philistins Slain by Sampson The Children put to Death by Herods Officers Born under the same Stars I think none will Affirm it If not Why did they Die by the same Death Are all that are Born under Saturn Melancholick Under Iupiter or the Sun Princes and Potentates Under Mars Souldiers or Highway-men Under Venus Whoremasters Under Mercury Merchants I shall now come to Answer those Arguments which Astrologers bring out of Scripture from Reason or Experiments First for Scriptures to that out of Genesis 1. 14. I answer that they assume more than the Sence of the words will permit for though it be there said that God set the Caelestial Lights for signs of things necessarily depending upon their Course and Nature yet it cannot thence be infer'd that they are also signs of things meerly Contingent and proceeding from the different Motions of mans Will and Appetite To that of the Stars fighting against Sisera in their Courses I answer That by Stars in that place according to some Interpreters is meant Angels which is plausible enough forasmuch as both are promiscuously called the Host of Heaven or it may be said that at that time they did not Operate by a Natural Influence but a Supernatural and extraordinary Power God raising up an unusual Effect in the Stars of causing Tempests to the Annoyance of those Enemies of his people In that place of Iob so much by them insisted on is nothing at all to their purpose since it may with ease be Turned against them that it is to be understood that no man can understand the Statutes of Heaven but that God has reserved the Knowledge of such things to himself besides there is nothing said of the Influence and Rule of the Stars over mens Minds or Actions nothing of the knowledge of Future Events but only Arguments of the Divine Wisdom to convince Iob of his weakness and Frailty And though it be said The Heavens shew forth the glory of God and the Stars declare his Handy-work that makes not for them neither the meaning of the place being partly the same with that last mentioned viz. that Casting up our Eyes to those glorious Luminaries we may remember the power of God who has made them all and continues them in so wonderful and unerring Courses As for the Star which appeared to the Magi coming to Christ it was no Natural but a Supernatural Star having a Motion contrary to that of other Stars few will I suppose be so impudent as to affirm our Saviour was Governed by the Stars that he who Created should be in Subjection to his Creatures And though it appear'd at his Birth and usher'd him into the world yet as St. Augustine says Non dominabatur Christo ad decretum sed famulabatur ad Testimonium nec enim subjiciebat imperio sed judicabat obsequio To make this an Argument for their Art would be an absurdity for if it had force and signification in his Nativity why had it not over all those Born at the same time with him I hope they will not say that they were all to share in the same Circumstances of