Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
lord_n day_n great_a judgement_n 11,581 5 5.9316 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A35263 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. Crow, Francis, d. 1692. 1690 (1690) Wing C7366; ESTC R29289 8,654 37

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

THE VANITY AND IMPIETY OF Judicial Astrology WHEREBY Men Undertake to foretell future Contingencies especially the particula● Fates of Mankind by the Knowledge 〈◊〉 the Stars i. e. the Conjunctions Motion Positions and Influences of the Coelesti● Bodies on the Earthly By FRANCIS CROW M. A. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Iohn Dunton at th● Raven in the Poultrey MDCXC Price Sticht TO THE Gentlemen Merchants And other Inhabitants of PORT-ROYAL IN Iamaica That Attended on my Ministry in the Meeting there AS the Apostle found the Men of Athens too superstitious so did I the Island of Jamaica too much addicted to Judicial Astrology And several so fond of that foolish Art as seldom to set out to Sea without consulting their Oracle of a Star-gazing Astrologer for lucky Dayes and happy Stars And being well assured that there was nothing of what was pretended in that Art so called I was willing to undertake something while I was with you for undeceiving the deluded and repressing of that vain prevailing Humour of predicting by the Stars For which end I searched the best Authors I could meet with in your illiterate World and summ'd up in these few Papers the most convincing Arguments I could either find or think of to make appear its Vanity and Iniquity I had thought first to Preach a Sermon or two upon the Subject but judging it not so fit for the Pulpit I left at my coming away a Written Copy of it for any desirous to see it and now I send it you in Print Not that your Society is any way chargeable with a good Opinion of this Imposture but to enable the more Judicious to refute its Propugnators as they meet with them Neither may I be so injurious to you as to let this publick Occasion pass without the Testimony of my Thankfulness for all the Kindness and Respect you shewed me together with your generous Bounty in bestowing upon me And if you had not been more wanting to your selves I mean your Souls than to me we might have yet been happy together But I will not make the Causes of our Parting more publick than I made them in my Valedictory Discourse in the Congregation I must needs acknowledge the costly Kindness of many of you left me nothing to ask but what was of higher concern than any thing you had of your selves to give And if I should conceal this Goodness I might be found to Offend on the same score with him that took the Mans one Ewe-lamb from him And for the Blessing of Health I must needs commend your benign Climate in which I enjoyed a greater measure thereof than ever I am like to do in the European Regions Sed multa majora desiderantur Now being perswaded that even in your Sardis Christ hath a few Names and that thô they dwell where Satans seat is perhaps as eminently as in any Place where Christ is Named yet have not defiled their Garments with the Pollutions of the Place to such I say Watch and Pray hold fast and Repent abide in Christ and Christ in you and when you have secured well your own Souls spare not to Sigh and Cry for Abominations done in the midst of you and Weep over a perishing World about you lamenting daily what you cannot amend and so shall you be kept from other Mens sins And before I take leave I begg one thing for you all that the Lord of the Vineyard that sent me to labour among you may grant that the many Sermons I have Preached with you may never rise up in Judgment against you at the great Day but that the savour of the Knowledge of Christ you have had spread among you may still in its gracious effects abide upon you encreasing and blessing the Word yet with you for bringing forth Fruit unto Eternal Life So Prayeth The hearty Well-wisher of all your Souls Fra. Crow THE VANITY AND IMPIETY OF Judicial Astrology PRetenders to this Astromantick Art fortifie themselves from Gen. 1.14 And let them be for signs and for seasons As if the Stars were given for Signs whereby Astrological Diviners might by their Observation be able to know and foretell future Events of things Luther in loc Makes them to be signs of Eclipses and great Conjunctions of portentous things whereby God intimates either his Wrath or Mercy to the World as by Comets or some unusual Phoenomena Though they be for signs and seasons yet for no Prophets neither are they infallible but ordinary signs of the change of Weather Mat. 16.2 3. and of a fit time to manure the ground Gen. 8.22 The several seasons shall continually return accordng to the time of the Year measured by the Sun Moon and Stars Pareus in loc giveth as good satisfaction as any I meet with of the meaning of that place and how the Stars are set for signs and seasons thus The Lord hath set them to be Measures for numbering and distinguishing fleeting time into certain parts that one time may be called present another past and another to come That one time may be called a Year another a Quarter a Month a Day an Hour Without this kind of numbering and distinction by Coelestial Bodies we could not understand what Time is There would be no remembrance in Man of things done nor deliberation of things to be done no hope of things to come and scarcely a thought of things present But we should be like them who sleep who neither know that they sleep nor how long because they count not the time Or we should be like Infants who know not their Motion Life nor Age. Vid. plura in loc No Divine so much as Origen who followed Plotinus hath helped them in this their pretended Art refuted by Basil in an accurate Discourse on Gen. 1.14 And by many other Authors as Aulus Gellius Pererius Picus Mirandula who wrote twelve Books against them very learned and accurate Augustine likewise meets often with them in his Writings especially l. 14. de Civitate Dei dicit Daemonem invenire Astronomiam He makes the Devil Master and Author of this Black Art Vide Ludov. Viv. in loc And in his 63 Sermon de Tempore says The Power of Stars is nothing that the advancement of humane Affairs should depend upon them But all things are disposed of by the Will of the great King And in Psal 72. says 'T is an evil impious Doctrine that the Wills of Men are subject to the Stars And in his 42 Confess saith Who fall into the desire of curious Magical Visions are accounted worthy of being mocked THE VANITY OF THIS ART 1. THey know not the Stars nay not one of a thousand far less their Influences what is the Nature of the Heavens Order of the Orbs number of the Stars variety of their Power and Influence The greatest Philosophers have professed their Ignorance of these things even their Prince Aristotle l. 2. de Coelo Alas how far short are the most learned of
most profitable Study of the Stars I take to be 1. A serious consideration of their Magnitude that so many Stars should be more than an hundred times bigger than all the Earth What a vast Body must the Heaven be wherein they all are if one of them so far exceed the whole Earth yea What are the Heavens we see to the Heaven that is unseen to which these are but a Pavement 2. Let us consider their multitude which cannot be numbred more than the Sand of the Sea-shoar yet God telleth their Number Psal 147.4 3. Their swiftness that these mighty vast Bodies should be carried every Day so long a Journey and never tire or are weary 4. The exact Order of their Motion so great so many so different Motions and yet never one to move out of their course The Stars in their courses or proper Paths or ranks are spoken of in Judg. 5.20 Now these things considered what can we do less than adore the Divine Wisdom and Power that made them and with Galen compose Hymns of Praise to the Honour of the Creator and especially with David wonder at that Divine Goodness and Bounty that made such great and glorious Orbs and Stars for the use of poor little mean Man for having mentioned the Heavens and Stars Psal 8. he breaks out with What is Man O then what greater and more glorious Provisions hath our God made for us above Moon and Stars Let not the pretended Masters of such an Art any more delude the World or themselves to think that we disown or deny the Divine Philosophy in Scripture that asserts the Influence and efficacious Virtue of the Stars in Job 38.31 The sweet Influences of Pleiades or the Constellation of the seven Stars but only we deny Mans knowledge of their particular Influences to be such as that thereby he can predict the future Events of Mens Lives and Actions And we further assert that to subject unto the Influences of the Stars the things that depend upon Contingencies and the Will of Man so as to make Predictions from them is a meer Folly founded upon fond suppositions that have no Being in Nature but are the Chymerical Fancies of addle-brain'd Astrologers For if they cannot tell what Weather it will be every day by all their Skill who will believe them in other things And because the Lord foresaw Men would dote much upon second Causes and venture to Prognosticate by the Heavens the Fates of Men and the fruitfulness of the Earth therefore in his wise Providence made he the Earth fruitful in all its glory before he put the Stars in the Heavens that we might see that the Earths fruitfulness depends not so much on second Causes as many vainly suppose as on Divine Benediction Gen. 1.12 compared with v. 16. And let me beseech such as these lines belong most unto to read and consider well that Passage in Isa 44.24 25. I am the Lord that stretcheth out the Heavens alone and that frustrateth the tokens of the Liars and maketh the Diviners mad From which observe First The Title Jehovah taketh to himself Secondly That the Lord seems to take special Delight to befool the Wisdom of such who would resolve future Events by the Conjunction of Planets as if they could spell the secret Providences of God out of the Book of the Creatures an end whereunto he never appointed them Thirdly That the God of Truth brands these Diviners for Liars And Lastly That such as pretend to such a kind of Wisdom may fear the Almighty may smite them with Madness which God in his Mercy prevent by turning them in time to the Wisdom of the Just FINIS Advertisement THE Present State of Europe Or the Historical and Political Mercury giving an Account of all the publick and private Occurrences in every Court to the Month of August 1690. With Reflections upon every State to be continued Monthly from the Original published at the HAGUE by the Authority of the States-General Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1690.