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A35263
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The vanity and impiety of judicial astrology whereby men undertake to foretell future contingencies, especially the particular fates of mankind, by the knowledge of the stars, i.e. the conjunctions, motions, positions and influences of the cœlestial bodies on the earthly / by Francis Crow.
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Crow, Francis, d. 1692.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing C7366; ESTC R29289
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8,654
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37
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Black Art of Hells help and Divination And it is often God's righteous Judgment on curious Wits that set themselves to the Study of things concealed and forbidden to leave them unto sinful and yet unsatisfying ways of ending the Tragedy Augustine in Tom. 5. c. 291. saith Astrologorum responsa ex malis esse Spiritibus The Answers Astrologers have are of the Evil Spirits 2. It 's the Hereditary and so the more dangerous Disease of our first Parents derived to us to know more than we need and to slight the needful revealed Points of Knowledge Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things that are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever that we may do all the things of this Law Man â—y affecting Wisdom out of God's way saith a Learned Person got 〈◊〉 crack in his Head which hath conâ—inued above 5000 Years and ever â—ince our own Wisdom and Knowâ—edge hath perverted us Bernard â—aith it 's better Apca quam alta sapere 3. It 's an ungrateful derogating from Scripture sufficiency of imparting all things needful for Man to know especially having so great 〈◊〉 Prophet as Jesus Christ sent from the Bosom of his Father with all the Counsels of Heaven which greatly aggravates the Guilt of running into that Extravagancy of curious searching into concealed Trifles nay to take the Devil for our Teacher when the Tabernacle of God is with Men as appeareth clearly from Deut. 18 14 15. For these Nations hearkened to Observers of Times and unto Diviners but as for thee the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet in the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him ye shaâ— hearken which passage being interpreted of Christ Acts 3.22 From alâ— which it's most clear that hearkening unto these Diviners is opposed to our hearkening unto Christ And having so excellent a Prophet raised up excludes all Applications unto â—uch pretended Prophets that the Heathens were seduced by and deâ—oted unto You shall likewise see â—sa 44.25 26. that the Word of the Lords Servants is put in opposition to the Lying Diviners That frustrateth the Tokens of the Liars and maketh Diviners mad That confirmeth the word of his Servants And Sooth-saying in Israel is not only opposed to a walking by the Light of God's Word but recorded as the Cause of his forsaking of them Isa 2.5 6. O House of Jacob come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy People the House of Jacob because they are soothsayers like the Philistines 4. It takes Men off from Divine Providence attributing nothing to God and all to Fate and Destiny as if they would ease God of governing the World and ascribe all to the Government of the Stars Gualâ—her in Zeph. 1.5 saith Observent â—sta qui hodiè Astrologiam judiciariam profitentur subjecting Events to Stars that belong to the Eternal Providence alone 5. It taketh off from the Exercise of almost all Religious Duties and Performances For if the Stars and Constellations put us under a necessity of believing such Events of Good or Evil Life or Death will such a Person call on God and commend his Life to him or will he praise under prosperous Gales or impute any thing that falls cross to his sins that God is hereby calling him to Account in Judgment Jer. 10.2 Learn not the way of the Heathen and be not dismaâ—ed at the Signs of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayed at them Upon which Calvin saith this Divination oâ— Judicial Astrology extinguisheth all Godliness in that it brings all Daties of Piety to nothing as Prayer Praise and Repentance c. 6. It takes away one of the Flowers of God's Crown viz. to know things to come even the most contingent secret uncertainties which are denyed to Man to know as in Eccl 8.7 For he knoweth not that which shall be for who can tell him when it shall be And Ch. 10.14 again saith the Wise Man A Man cannot tell what shall be and what shall be after him who can tell yea the knowledge of these secret things to come is so inherent a Priviledge in the Crown of Heaven that if any of the Heathenish gods can claim it he is content they be owned for true Deities Isa 41.23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may keow that ye are Gods Now Astrologers pretend to know a Mans Thoughts long before he can know them himself which is proper to God alone 1 Cor. 2.11 Psal 139.2 7. God sets himself against such and glories in defeating and infatuating their Devices making the Diviners mad by making their presumptuous Predictions false Isa 44.25.47.13 8. When the Gospel Converted Astrologers they penitently and openly disclaimed their Art by burning their Books Act. 19.19 An excellent Pattern for such unlucky Students who would burn their Books of Magick that they might not hurt others and of their own accord did they bring them and burn them publickly to testifie their sincere Repentance to the World that they had so dangerously deluded And thô the Books were of great Price esteemed to be worth 5000 Crowns yet the Power of Grace and Truth prevailed over the Love of Money 9. This Coelestial Fate and Power of the Stars either can be hindered and so is uncertain or not and then takes away all Free-will in humane Actions and involves into many absurdities First Arguing the Soul of Man to be material and mortal that is so subject to created Bodies Secondly The Will of Man is hereby excused from doing evil by a fatal Necessity the Conjunction of the Planets layes on Men not to be avoided Thirdly It makes God the Author of Sin that sets the Stars in such Positions and gives them such Influence on Mens Actions that hath no Remedy or possible prevention on Mans part Wherefore Augustine brings in an Astrologer lying against God thus That Adultery was not committed by the Man 's own Will but Venus and Murder not by Mans Will but by Mars that angry Planet and that God did not do Righteousness and Justice but Jupiter the Planet 10. And a last may be added from Cicero that pretended Astrological Predictions for most part are evil and so their Ignorance is much better than their Knowledge And Seneca de Astris says Whether the Stars cause or signifie Events what profiteth it to see what cannot be evited Luther of the same says It is much better to be always in the Fear of God and Prayer than to be tortured with the fear of future Events by lying Astrologers EPILOGUE AND yet I would not make light of the superiour Coelestial Bodies of these heavenly Phoenomena so celebrated in Scripture and so beneficial to the World there being so much of God's Power and Wisdom attributed to his great and wonderful work of making the Stars of Heaven The
understanding the present things of Creatures here below as Stones Plants and Animals that are just before us and lye exposed to our Senses daily How much less can be known of those excellent Bodies above us at such a distance as the Book of Wisdom in Apocrypha teacheth us Ch. 9. v. 16. And hardly do we guess at things that are upon Earth and with labour do we find things that are before us but the things that are in Heaven who hath searched out Nay out of Canonical Scripture Humane Knowledge of this is denied Job 38.33 Knowest thou the Ordinances of Heaven canst thou set the Dominion thereof in the Earth Even where the Influences of these Heavenly Constellations is plainly asserted in the two foregoing Verses yet is our Knowledge hereof clearly denied as to their particular Influences 2. If some Stars may have so favourable and benign an Influence so may others for any thing they know have as inauspicious an Effect at the same time 3. There can be no Certainty in their Art because of the swift Motion of the Heavens that so suddenly alters the Face thereof that it is not the same one Moment And then the wandring Stars that they make most Judgment by of Humane Fate are so uncertain that the same posture it may be returns not once in a hundred or a thousand Years 4. You shall see Twins conceived and born together to be of as different Tempers Spirits Parts and Lot in Life and Death as any Instance Jacob and Esau 5. If there be a necessity and fatality upon Men born under such Stars and Position of the Heavens proper and peculiar to themselves then how comes the Death of so many to be the same in time and manner that are born and bred so different as in Earthquakes Fights and Shipwracks 6. Let any Man shew why these Heavenly Bodies being Universal Causes should not have the same effects upon Brute Animals as well as on Men and if they fail in the lesser we may well suspect them in the greater 7. What is to be said of Jews all the World over Whatever Clymat or Regiment of Heavenly Bodies they are born in yet have they the same solemn Observation of Sabbath and Circumcision And so Christians scattered through the whole World before they heard the Gospel in all Nations were obedient to their Countrey Laws and Customs but when Christ was revealed in them and turned quite to another Mind and Life was it by some peculiar Star that prevailed in the sudden Universal change of Faith and Life all the World over 8. It must needs be vain and uncertain because it so frequently fails These things that they either say rashly or cunningly which prove true bear not proportion of one to a hundred of what they say false witness Almanacks Now all Science or Art is of these things that either always or for most part fall out true according to the Rules thereof Wherefore Luther on Gen. 1.14 says Astrology can be no Science because it hath no Demonstration but uncertain Conjectures Wherefore Cicero l. 2. de Divinatione wonders how any should believe the Sooth-sayers who foretold generally such Untruths to Pompey Crassus and Caesar that they should all die in their Beds in a good Old Age and in Honour And Cato said he wondred how they that deceived the People so could look on one another without laughing 9. If they can by their Astrology tell of things that are lost why could not the Chaldean Astrologers tell the King his Dream that was lost Daniel 2. 10. If the same Stars whereby they contend all Humane and Divine things are carried produce various Effects of Heat and Cold Mild and Tempestuous Weather in different Countries at the same time why not also different Events of things and business in these Countries 11. If nothing be done by the Will of Man and Conduct of Reason but all things come to pass by the influence of the Stars then little things as well as great are governed by them And if they can by their Art do the greatest why cannot they do the lesser viz. tell who shall get the Game at Cards or Dice as well as who shall have the Victory Caesar or Pompey Alexander or Darius 12. If the same Conjunction of the Stars returning produce the same Effects why see we not many Socrates's and Plato's brought forth with the same Spirit Form manner of Life and Death and all things in the World falling out just as they did under the same Position of the Heavens sometimes 13. If there had been any Certainty in Astrological Predictions of Futurities certainly the greatest Philosophers and Wisest Men would have embraced and practised it But the greatest Scholars have still derided it as Socrates Cicero Cato Aristotle Plato Pythagoras Democritus and Seneca We read of their long Journeys to Persia Chaldea and Egypt to learn Wisdom and encrease Knowledge Where they encreased their Skill in Mathematicks Policy and of worshipping their Gods But for the Divination of Astrology either they learned none of it or concealed it from the World their Writings manifesting nothing thereof 14. If it had been indeed a true Art and indeed usefull it had been less ingrateful to Wise States and the best Governours For these Chaldean Astrologers were banish'd Rome not only in Tiberius and Dioclesians Time but in Constantines Theodosians and chiefly Justinians not only as Vain and void of all Truth but as hurtful and pestilent to Cities and Societies And to this may be added the utter Aversion and Detestation all serious Christians and Lovers of Divine Truth have to it It 's to be observed that Haters of necessary Truths are most curious about knowing unnecessary forbidden things Augustine calls Astrologers Veritatis Inimici Enemies of the Truth Tom. 4. c. 742. 15. The Vanity and Vileness of this Art appears by the little Advantage the greatest Practitioners of it reap to themselves most of them being but poor despicable and utterly ignorant of their own Fate and greatest Concerns many of them dying dismally without foreseeing it As Balaam that Notorious Soothsayer could not presage the Evil that befell him in that wicked Expedition to Balak to curse Israel Qui sibi nequam cui bonus 16. If Astrology be an Art or Science why is it not studied as the Liberal Sciences are as freely and openly but it goes into by-places and hides it self in secret Corners And Pretenders to it are for the most shy of discoursing the Principles of it with Learned Persons THE IMPIETY OF Judicial ASTROLOGY THe Impiety as well as the Vanity of Judicial Astrology may be made appear many ways 1. In that it is by many made a Cloak for Witchcraft and Consulting with the Devil And no doubt some begin with no other Purpose but useing the supposed Art but finding it so foolish and unsatisfying stay not there but labour to eke out the scantness of their Understanding of the Stars with the