Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	image_n	worship_n	worship_v	2,495	5	9.2639	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07418	Astrologaster, or, The figure-caster Rather the arraignment of artlesse astrologers, and fortune-tellers, that cheat many ignorant people vnder the pretence of foretelling things to come, of telling things that are past, finding out things that are lost, expounding dreames, calculating deaths and natiuities, once againe brought to the barre. By Iohn Melton.	Melton, John, Sir, d. 1640.	1620 (1620)	STC 17804; ESTC S112560	60,603	93

walke let them but reade the Scriptures and they shall find it to be most false for that affirmes that the Soules of the good instantly goe to Heauen and of the bad instantly to Hell therefore their Spirits cannot wander Againe the Soule that is in Heauen minds no earthly matter and it was neuer knowne that any Soule euer returned out of Hell for the Poets themselues say Nullus redditurus ab Orco But these Images and Tricks of the Fryers do but resemble the Statues of Negromancers made with great toyle and labour Fryer Bacon Albertus Magnus For Fryer Bacon was many yeeres before hee could make his Head speake And the Image of Albertus Magnus was to be wondred at which hee made in the full and perfect shape of a Man who with the Wheeles and other Engines that he had cunningly artificially wrought in it made it speake and pronounce words as distinctly as if they did proceed from a man indued with sence and reason This Statue Thomas Aquinas when Thomas Aquinas was sent into his Chamber where it lay hid heard it speake very articulately which when he heard then looking for it and finding it and viewing it very seriously at last strucke it with a Club and brake it all to pieces Which when Albertus heard and saw he cryed out and said Thomas thou hast destroyed the worke of thirtie yeeres labour and paines Now can any man iudge that either Bacon or Albertus made these vnder any Constellation or that it spake by the influence of any Starre if they doe they are wretchedly deceiued for it was either by a materiall Engine or the Deuill that spake within them brought into them by their Art Therefore wee may perswade our selues that all these Images made by the Art either of a Fryer or Negromancer are vnlawfull to be made of them or vsed of any other These Images lawfull But if we must allow any Statue or Image they must be those of Pasquil and Morphirius on whose brests were written no Lie-Bills as the Popes called them but True-Bills of their villanies These Statues were of stone and the verses carued on their brests were bitter and Satyricall sharply reuiling the Sorcery Sodomitry Symony Incest Phil. Can. p. Medita c●n● Murther Witchcraft Poysoning and Sacriledge of the Popes and Cardinals whereupon the Gentlemen of Rome wittily sayd That it was not lawful for men to speake there vices the stones did proclaym them But pope Adrian would haue taken an order and haue them flung into Tyber Pope Adrian Suessanus if Suessanus the Legate of Charles the Emperour who fauored them had not preuented him who sayd to his Holinesse that if they were flung into Tyber the Crocodiles and Rats and other monstrous Serpents would catch them and sing them to which answer some report the holy Father stood as mute as one of his Cardinals Mules but some report that he began to be angry at Suessanus answer and in a rage suddenly sayde that he would haue them burnt to whom the Legate wittily replyed againe saying If you burne these Images their ashes will not be blowne through the citie but into other countreys so that the people will take occasion to celebrate and reuerence those Ashes for the writing sake and so it will come to passe that they being dispersed throgh the world the sinnes of Rome will generally be knowne to all nations At this second answer his Holinesse wae more perplexed then before and seeing he could doe no good either by drowning or burning hee bid them stand in the Deuills name But I haue made too long a digression therfore I will returne againe to our Negromancers and now I haue spoken of their Images I will briefly and plainely lay open the viperous generation of Negromancy which are Idolatry Diuination and vaine obseruasion with all the hellish brood that proceeds from them The damnable ofspring of Negromancy IDolatry is a Diuine Worship attributted to Idols which Idolls are Statues or Images which the Gentiles worshipped with Diuine Honour Idolatry the daughter of Negromancy beleeuing there was some diuinitie in them by reason of their answers and wonderfull effects the Deuill wrought in them Such were the Images of Hermes Tresmegistus otherwise called Mercurie in which they did beleeue that by a kinde of Art the soules of Deuills and Angels were encluded vnder a certaine Constellation which Diuinitie and Naturall Phylosophy doth reprehend for they hold that a Spirit cannot possibly bee vegitable Notae Aristotle de Anima or can substantially informe artificiall bodyes For the Soule as Aristotle saith is an Act of a naturall body not artificiall for a man cannot by any matter as Herbs Wood Stone Words or Constellation expell a good or bad Spirit or being cald that it can come presently and dwell in an Idoll because corporall things cannot by any naturall order haue any operation in incorporall things There haue beene some of the Gentiles that haue not onely attributed Diuine honour to Statues and Images but beleeued them to be Gods for some vertue or magnitude of their Acts these Statues represented as to Iupiter Hercules Venus and the rest and other monsters of this kinde Also they did not onely honour corporall but incorporall things as Intelligences Angels and the Soules of heauenly Bodyes which they call Aeria Animalia and they did not separate the soules of men from Diuine honour which is most diuellish This kinde of Idolatrie at these dayes is vsed among our Antagonists the Papists for they pray to Iron Papists Wood Gold Siluer and woodden Images that haue neither sight feeling sence life or operation in them and haue as small influence in them after are made either by the Caruer or Goldsmiths hand as they had when they first were in a massie lumpe either in the Tree or Mine Diuination the 2. daughter of Negromancie Isidor lib. octa Etymologia The second daughter of superstition is Diuination by which our Astrologers miserably labour to know of future things either good or bad These are they Isidorus saith report themselues to be full of diuination who by craft and deuice foretell of things to come by the effects which proceed vpon necessitie from causes vnlesse they are especially hindered of God certainly proceeding from the cause of nature as the eclipse of the Sunne and the Moone and the effects which proceed from these causes may bee foretold of by as probable coniecture as well as a Mariner may foretell of a storme that will arise by a darke cloude that is either before or behinde him Haue not many olde women told by the vnhappy conditions of a boy that he would be hangd and hath it not falne out right Haue not many graue Matrons foretold that young wanton Lasses would proue Wagtails hath it not come to passe Haue not many men by the damnable tricks they haue seene in Catchpoles foretold that they would proue knaues and

giue Fooles Flyes to win if they can at Ordinaries and more of the like which I will not nominate because it will be troublesome to my selfe and tedious to your Doctorship whom I perceiue to be as full of Frets as a Musician all which I will proue to be vnlawfull to the disgrace of all the damnable and diabolicall Students in that Art and if I doe not artificially confute and confound all those that can rayse a Spirit and cast a Figure and all other Mountebankes Emperickes and Impostors such as you are that pretend to doe it then let them boldly and confidently say I am but a meere Fresh-man and no true Master in my Art Some Principles conducing to the perfect Science and Knowledge of Astrologie handle the Natures and the Parts of the Zodiake others the Qualities of the Planets some the Dimensions and abstruse significations of the Houses The Astrologers themselues diuide the Zodiake into twelue Parts or Signes hauing euery part consisting of thirtie degrees of Longitude and twelue of Latitude In these prettie Inuentions they shew themselues Poets as well as Astrologers in fayning so neatly for can any of them make me beleeue there are Twelue Signes to bee seene in Heauen as visibly as those on the Earth Astrologers make a Wildernesse in Heauen or that there are any such Creatures in Heauen as the crookehorn'd Ram the goring Bull the poyson-spitting Scorpion any lecherous Crab-fish vnconscionable Scales Lege Margaritam Philosophi● cam de princ●p●●● A●tr●n cap. 23 cap. 24. roaring Lyon or hot-rayned Go●t Can any of you make me beleeue there is such a Wildernesse of wild Beasts as these it may be indeede there is Virgo because shee is seldome seene on the Earth V●sa maior nanor Canis ma●or Cani●ula Drago Vultur Anguis L●pus Ca. but for the angry Beare snarling Dogge venomous Dragon greedie Vultur hissing Snake horrible Hydra fearefull Haire or Man-louing Dolphin to be in Heauen I neuer will beleeue it howsoeuer I haue heard a plaine Countrey fellow stand in defence of it that if there were no such things in Heauen such Wise-men as Almanack-Makers would neuer put them forth in Print But I will laugh at their ignorance and scoffe at all Weather-wise Wizards with Bion the Philosopher Bion. that held those Astronomers and Astrologers ridiculous that cannot see Fishes swim in the Sea yet affirme they haue seene them in Heauen Diogenes Or deride them as Diogenes did who seeing an Astrologer offer a Table to sell whereon was painted the Errant Starres Lege Lucia said to him Sure thou art deceiued good fellow they are not the Starres that erre but thou that sellest them biting at the folly of these Calculators that most commonly erre in their Opinions The same Philosopher hearing a Starre-catcher make a long and as hee thought a learned discourse about the Celestiall Signes askt him if he euer were there hee knew them so well or euer had any hope to come thither he did lye so much for is it possible saith he that you can truly know what is in Heauen or what is done there when in your absence you cannot see or know what is done at home But these are onely Iests put vpon them not Arguments to confute them but I will proue there are no such things in Heauen as these they talke and shew the reason why they faine such things to be in Heauen As the diuersities of the Circles described in the Spheres are meerely imaginarie Note The diuision of the Zodiake meerely imaginatie not naturall so the diuision of the Zodiake is not materiall or of the first Creation but onely fayned by the will and arbitrement of the Astrologers that thereby they may know the Beginnings and the End of the Heauens Motion And the reason that they diuide the Zodiake into Twelue Signes neither more or lesse and that euery Signe is diuided into thirtie Degrees and euery Degree into sixtie Minutes is because this Number is most fit for Calculations as the Astrologers themselues do witnesse as Hales Auenradon on the exposition of Ptolomy and Abrabam Auenozra in his Booke of Astrologicall Reasons plce = marg Hales Auenradon so that they might if it had pleased them haue diuided the Zodiacke into more or fewer parts but they would not which diuision is cleane contrary to the Doctrine of the Caldeans for they teach Caldeans that there are not Twelue Signes but Eleuen Images so couple Libra and Scorpio tegether A man cannot alledge a stronger reason not to beleeue these Astrologers and Artlesse Empericks then the strange opinions they hold and to heare how stoutly most of them will defend the grosse absurdities of many Philosophers and Astronomers For doe you not thinke Eudoxus and and Aratus were mad when they would boldly affirme Aug. de Guitate Dei that they knew how many starres were in Heauen and the Names and Operation of them all Were not the auncient Astronomers out of their wits that held the starres were stucke on the roofe of Heauen no otherwise then Artificiall starres on the top of some sumptuous building Was it not a fondnesse in that Epieure that did certainely beleeue that when the starres did shine in the night that then they were but kindled of God and when they did vanish away by the approch of the day that then they were quencht by him as if we should say when wee see a man then he is borne but when he is out of our sight then he is dead Origen lib. 1● What an Absurditie was it in Origen to affirme that the Sunne and the Moone and the rest of the starres were liuing creatures Lactant confu●● hanc opinionem in lib. 1. Inst c. 5 being capable both of our Vices and Vertues grounding his weake argument vpon the words of Iob who sayde That the Starres were not Pure in the sight of God which was not meant or spoken as they were Rationable Creatures but as they were glorious starres and of a most excellent and full brightnesse who although they were neuer so tralucent and bright yet they were but dim in the sight of their Maker Therefore in my mind what Astrologers or Astronomers soeuer they be that thinkes Starres rationable Creatures are worthy to be accounted most vnreasonable and senselesse themselues What a Vanitie was it in that Astronomer that held that Starres had their Motion from themselues which is most absurd for if a Starre is moued by it selfe then Nature is defectiue which neuer gaue any Figure or Organ to any Starre for such a Motion But Nature neuer was defectiue in any thing Motas Stellarum doth not abound in superfluous things or doth any thing in vaine Therefore we must conclude no Starre hath the Motion from it selfe but hath it from God that is the true Prime Moter all the wise and learned Philosophers haue so much talked of What an

which are called Aegyptiaci or the Calends of Ianuarie or any Moneth or Day or Time or Yeere eyther to trauell marry or to doe any thing in for whosoeuer he be that beleeues these things hath erred from the Christian Faith and Baptisme Saint Augustine in his Enchiridion sayth That it is a great offence for any man to obserue the time and course of the Moone when they plant any Trees or sowe any Corne for he sayth none puts any trust in them but they that worship them beleeuing there is some diuine power in them thinking that the position of some Star thought to haue an influence in them according to those things they beleeue concerning the Natiuities of men This me thinkes is most simple and ridiculous for thus I will argue against them If this be true which they hold that it is good to sowe Corne vnder such a luckie Constellation what is the reason then that after the Corne that is scattered on the Earth by the laborious hands of the Husbandman that after so much Graine is come vp together looke greene together ripen together and fit for the Sickle that some of it is blasted some quite choakt vp some deuoured by Birds some by Beasts some trodden downe and some of the eares pluckt from their stalkes by men that come by that field they grow in how comes it to passe then I say that some of this should goe safely into the Barne and some of it againe be deuoured and spoyled which mee thinkes should not be if the same Constellation vnder which it was sowne had but one Influence which should be good and not a second which was bad But I will now let these things passe because I make no doubt but I haue strongly confuted them and come to the last but the wicked part of Astrologie which concernes the making of Astrologicall Images and to what purpose they are made where I will shew they haue no force or vertue from any Starre or Constellation but that the Deuill worketh about them and in them causing them to be made vnder a Constellation that the impietie of their Idolatry may the more secretly be hid The vanitie of Astrologers about their Images THe Fabricke of Astrologicall Images are made vnder a certaine Constellation eyther to auoid hurtfull things or to intice profitable things for to diuers vses they are made Some are made for the destruction of some things as if you would remoue a Scorpion from a place you must carue the figure of some Scorpion either in Stone Wood or Iron vnder some conuenient Constellation and inscribe on it an effectuall Name signifying the Name of the thing that is to be auoided and the Name of the Signe ascending and of the like in diuers parts of the Image with many other obseruations which for breuity sake I will now let passe For a contrary effect you must haue a contrary Constellation and a contrary Operation as in the like Images pertayning to Loue Enmitie Health or the like And although there are many effects caused by these Images Non virtus imaginis sed operatio damonis producit effectum as experience teacheth vs yet they are miserably deceiued that thinke it done by the vertue of any Constellation when it is done by the meere operation of the Deuill For not the vertue of the Image but the operation of the Deuill worketh the effect And learned Auerroi● writing against Algazel the Astrologer sayth That these Images haue no vertue from the Starres because artificiall things are not capable of any influence neyther are they any cause of a naturall operation For Qualitie is in the Predicament of Actio An Image therefore made of any earthly substance is nothing but a massie Effigies and capable of no Action A great vanitie And in like manner those Images that are buried in the midst of the place where their operations are expected are contrary to naturall reason And other things that are obserued in them shew as great vanitie as when some mens Names must be written with the left hand some with the right some Images must be buried with their faces vpwards some with their feet vpwards which are all signes rather of a Compact with the Deuill then any other naturall cause as in the Negromanticke Images of Angels or rather of their inscription of Deuills and other vnknowne Names and Characters A Compact with the Deuill Also the vse of their Suffumigations and Inuocations are signes of a Compact and League with the Deuill The prodigious impietie of the Dominicke Fryers in the Fabricke of these Images would make a Historie bigger then the Iliads for they haue made by their Magicall tricks weeping Statues by which they wrought many Miracles which they learnt of the Priests of the Idols of the Gentiles who haue deceiued many as may appeare by the Alexandrian Statues destroyed by the Christians for when they ouerthrew the Phane of Syrapis there were Images found both of Wood and Brasse whose inward parts were made hollow and with instruments were fastened to the Roofes of their Churches and Temples from whence they spake And since the time of Poperie there haue beene found in Churches Images that haue had eyes put in by Art that would weepe and let drops of bloud trickle downe their faces sweat bloud and would twinckle with their eyes to the people by the helpe of instruments and would wrythe their heads and neckes backward and forward according to the will of the Priests that inuented them to beguile the people and to enrich themselues These Puppets had no Tongues but onely moued and stirred making signes to the people many of which the Cardinalls erected and adorned and commended to instruct the people which were nothing but deceits and tricks of these holy and religious Fathers still to detaine the people in ignorance and that they should not smell out their knauerie Also many of these Scab-shin Fryers when any rich man died that had left their Abbeyes and Monasteries nothing to feed their fat guts with would place some of their Accomplices in a Vault they had made of purpose vnder the dead Mans Tombe so that when any of his sonnes or kindred came as the custome in those times was to pray for the Soule of their deceased father or kinsman they should heare a dreadfull voyce vnder the Sepulchre telling him it was the Spirit of him that was but lately buryed there and that his Soule could neuer be at rest while such the Fryers had most minde to were giuen to the Monasterie so that the blind people beleeuing this to be the Spirit of their father or kinsman would instantly goe home and confirme those Lands on their Monasterie Thus poore soules they were often deluded by such counterfeit voyces of some subtill Fryer or as knauish a companion of their Fraternitie Therefore if there be any in these dayes especially old Men and Women that beleeue the Soules or Spirits of the dead