this to be the Spirit of their father or Kinsman would instantly go home and confirm those Lands on their Monastery Thus poor Souls they were often deluded by such counterfeit Voices of some subtle Frier or as knavish a Companion of their Fraternity Therefore if there be any in these Days especially old Men and Women that believe the Souls or Spirits of the Dead walk let them but reade the Scriptures and they shall finde it to be most false for that affirms that the Souls of the Good instantly go to Heaven and of the Bad to Hell therefore their Spirits cannot wander Again the Soul that is in Heaven mindes no earthly matter and it was never known that any Soul ever returned out of Hell for the Poets themselves say Nullus reditnrus ab Orco But these images and Tricks of the Friers do but resemble the statues of Negromancers made with great toil and labour For Frier Bacon was many years before he could make his Head speak And the image of Albertus Magnus was to be wondered at which he made in the full and perfect shape of a Man who with the wheels and other Engines that he had cunningly and artificially wrought in it made it speak and pronounce words as distinctly as if they did proceed from a Man indued with Sense and Reason This Statue when Thomas Aquinas was sent into his Chamber where it lay hid heard it speak very articulately which when he heard then looking for it and finding it and viewing it very seriously at last struck it with a Club and brake it all to pieces Which when Albertus heard and saw he cried out and said Thomas thou hast destroyed the Work of thirty years labour and pains Now can any man judge that either Bacon or Albertus made these under any Constellation or that it spake by the influence of any Star if they do they are wretchedly deceived for it was either by a material Engine or the Devil that spake within them brought into them by their Art Therefore we may perswade our selves that all these images made by the Art either of a Frier or Negromancer are unlawfull to be made of them or used of any other But if we must allow any statue or image they must be those of Pasquil and Morphirius on whose breasts were no Lie-Bills as the Popes called them Phil. Camp Medita Cent. but True-Bills of their Villanies statues were of stone and the Verses carved on their breasts were bitter and Satyrical sharply reviling the Sorcery Sodomitry Simony Incest Murther Witchcraft Poysoning and Sacriledge of the Popes and Cardinals whereupon the Gentlemen of Rome wittily said that it was not lawfull for men to speak there vices the stones did proclaim them But Pope Adrian would have taken an order and have them flung into Tyber if Suessanus the Legate of Charles the Emperour who favoured them had not prevented him who said to his Holiness 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 said that he would have them burnt to whom the Legate wittily replied again saying If you burn these images their Ashes will not be blown through the City but into other Countries so that the people will take occasion to celebrate and reverence those Ashes for the writing sake and so it will come to pass that they being dispersed through the world the sins of Rome will generally be known to all Nations At this second Answer his Holiness was more perplexed then before and seeing he could do no good either by Drowning or Burning he bid them stand in the Devils Name But I have made too long a Digression therefore I will return again to our Negromancers and now I have spoken of their images I will breifly and plainly lay open the viperous Generation of Negromancy which are Idolatry Divination and vain observation with all the hellish brood that proceeds from them The damnable Offspring of Negromancy I Dolatry is a divine worship attributed to idols which idols are statues or images which the Gentiles worshipped with divine honour believing there was some Divinity in them by reason of their Answers and wonderfull Effects the Devil wrought in them Such were the images of Hermes Tresmegistus otherwise called Mercury in which they did believe that by a kinde of Art the Souls of Devils and Angels were included under a certain Constellation which Divinity and Natural Philosophy doth reprehend for they hold that a Spirit cannot possibly be vegitable or can substantially inform artificial Bodies For the Soul as Aristotle saith De Anima is an Act of a natural Body not artificial for a man cannot by any matter as Herbs Wood Stone Words or Constellation expell a good or bad Spirit or being call'd that it can come presently and dwell in an idol because corporal things cannot by any natural order have any operation in incorporal things There have been some of the Gentiles that have not onely attributed divine honour to statues and images but believed them to be Gods for some virtue or magnitude of their Acts these statues represented as to Jupiter Hercules Venus and the rest and other Monsters of this kinde Also they did not onely honour corporal but incorporal things as intelligences Angels and the souls of heavenly bodies which they call Aeria Animalia and they did not separate the Souls of men from divine honour which is most devilish This kinde of idolatry at these daies is used among our Antagomsis the Papists for they pray to Iron Wood Gold Silver and wooden images that have neither sight feeling sense life or operation in them have as small influence in them after they are made either by the Carver or Gold-smiths hand as they had when they first were in a massie lump either in the Tree or Mine The second Daughter of Superstition is Divination by which our Astrologers miserably labour to know of future things Lib. 8. Eâ—ym either good or bad These are they I sidorus saith report themselves to be full of Divination who by craft and device foretell of things to come by the effects which proceed upon necessity from Causes unless they are especially hindred of God certainly proceeding from the cause of Nature as the Eclipse of the Sun and the Moon and the Effects which proceed from these Causes may be foretold of by as probable conjecture as well as a Mariner may foretell of a Storm that will arise by a dark Cloud that is either before or behinde him Have not many old women told by the unhappy conditions of a Boy that he would be hang'd and hath it not fallen out right Have not many grave Matrons foretold that young wanton Lasses would prowe Wag tails and hath
Nature know what influences shall be predominant in their Effects Fifthly they have more time to alter the Complexions of young People from the Cradle to Manhood carried and walking abroad I say to alter their Complexion by radiation and influence then to stamp an unchangeable impression upon them in the secret Chamber of their Birth as we see many natural Men and Women not differenced by grace much altered from Melancholly to chearfulness c. So that if some Stars in one Position in an instant at Birth have a power to imprint other Stars and perhaps more prevalent have likewise a power to blot out that in many years and to instill a new one Sixthly there are many Causes below between us and the Stars to alter the influence of the Stars or interrupt their native operation as the various Complexion of the Air diversity of Windes the different postures and situations of men as sometimes under a direct sometimes under an oblique radiation c. Seventhly Astrologers depend on Clocks and Dials to know the posture of the Heavens at the hour of their prognosticating which Dials and Clocks often are false which may make a wide difference in a minute in which as we heard some motions of the Heavens run sixty Miles Eighthly the Astrologer cannot be able to allow exactly for the exaltation in the Apoge and descension in the Perige of the Planets with their swifter motion in the one then in the other so as â—o determine justly how much power of prevalence they may be in their influences at such changes Ninthly man can never certainly conclude of a particular Event from a Cause that is most universal most remote and â—o but a partial Cause of the thing predicted But the Stars are no other but such a kinde of cause of mens Complexions and Actions and theresore are no sure Grounds of Prediction concerning the future affairs of men The Parents Complexion divine Dispensations occasions and opportunities among men and a mans own obedience or disobedience to God have far more influence into man to dispose him to be or do this or that then all the myriads of Stars Tenthly Astrology contending for such a power of Stars over the Soul of man which is the Principle of all Actions infers as if the Soul of Man were ex traduce generated by the Parents First contrary to many Scriptures Psal 102.18 The people that shall be Created shall praise the Lord. Eccles 12.7 The spirit returns to God that gave it whiles the Body returns to Earth Hebr. 12.9 VVe have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits Secondly contrary to the Rules of Art Reason and Experience Coelum non agit in animam c. The Heavens cannot act directly upon the Soul nor can a mans Body complexionate alter or master his natural spirit So that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligere and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle the Acts of Reason and Will do not depend on Sense For in sleep we have strong Actings of Reason and when awake in the time of deepest rational meditations the Senses are useless and their Acts suspended as if we did neither see nor hear 2. Will. Ram. his juggling in his Figures It is well worth our observation to see VVill. Ramsey juggling in these his Schemes or Figures compared with his Epistle to the Reader and some Passages in his Book In that Epistle he hath these particulars 1. That Astrology doth not meddle with Contingences 2. Mans will is not subject to the influence of Stars 3. Neither doth Astrology meddle with the providence of God In his first Chapter Section he defines Astrology to be that which teacheth to prognosticate by the Stars of Natural Effects c. But here by his Figures in this Section he undertakes to tell of Events purely humane and altogether depending on God's providence in the acting of Man's will viz. whether the Gentleman should receive his Money from his Vncle the Gentlewoman receive hers from the Parliament the other woman know where her Husband was and when she should see him again Now let all the World judge whether Astrologers do not juggle with us professing one thing but practising another in the way of their pretended Art 3. Proofs of the concurrence of wicked Magick or Inchantment and of mans confidence or desire and consequently of the Devils assistance with and in Judicial Astrological predictions H.C. Agrippa an Astrologer in his second Book of Occult Philosophy cap. 60. hath these words Non ab aliâ causâ quà m à coelesti terrem orbis virtutes provemunt Hinc Magus c. that is The virtues of the terrene Orb. proceed from no other cause then celestial Hence the Magician that will work by them useth a cunning Invocation of the Superiours with mysterious words and a certain kinde of witty Expression drawing the one to the other c. Hence saith Aristotle in the sixth Book of his Mistical Philosophy that when any one by binding or bewitching doth call upon the Sun or other Stars praying them to be helpfull to the thing desired the Sun and other Stars do not hear his words but are moved after a certain manner by a certain Conjunction and mutual series whereby the parts of the World are mutually subordinate the one to the other c. And though the said Agrippa did in some shew retract some of his devilish Inchamments or Superstitions yet in that Retraction he retracteth not this but there affirmeth it viz. Magna cum Astrologia sic conjuncta atque cognita est c. that is That Magick and Astrology are so conjoyned and of near kin that he that professeth Magick without Astrology doth nothing but wholly errs from the way The Book named the Centiloquy asserteth that No Astrologer is able by meer Art without the help of a familiar Spirit to foretell any particular Event Ficinus proveth that Judicial Astrological predictions are managed not by Art but by instinct Jamblicus boldly affirmeth Lib. de Myst Est impossibile judicare certos c. that is It is impossible to judge of certain Events when as we cannot comprehend the concurrence of all Causes unless we attain it by inspiration c. and disputing against Porphyry saith that The Lord of the Figure is a Devil Philostratus writing the life of Apollonius lib. 3. c. 13. the most famous Magician and Astrologer saith that Arcanas libationes per quas Astrologicam facultatem c. that is Jarchas the chief of the Indian Wizards called Brachmanae did privately communicate to Apollonius the secret sacrificings by which they did finde out the Astrological faculty and skill of divining Touching elevation of minde either in confidence or desire hear Cornelius Agrippa in his second Book of Occult Philosophy and his 22. Chapter Nihil materiales c. that is Material Numbers and Figures can do
let us hear what those predictions are that Will. Ramsey is pleased in his Epistle to the Reader to disavow or grant Which are the very same that the Doctour denyes or grants and William speaks them in higher words then the Doctour I will give them unto you in his own words His heads upon a just particular account are six 1. Saith he the rules of Astrologie doth so W. Ramsey is pleased to joyn a Nown plurall and Verb singular together but this is a small matter with him who after is miserably out in his Latine Greek and Hebrew But for present I was forced to touch his English upon whose score it lyes because I promised to give you his mind in his own words I say Will. Ramsey saith in the first place that the rules of Astrology doth not meddle with vain contingencies or such as have an indifferent respect to the opposites as depending upon unknown or indeterminate causes which may happen one way or other 2. Will. Ramsey saith Mans will is not subject to the influence of the stars neither hath Astrology to do with it but accidentally so farre as the soul with the faculties thereof follow the temperature of the body which the friends of Astrology themselves acknowledge is impeded and altered so many wayes as that Astrologicall predictions of man come to nothing See the Doctours Demonologie chap. 10. § 4. 3. Neither doth Astrologie meddle with the Providence of God 4. Or shew cause of miracles 5. Or meddles with the secrets of God for they are past finding out Astrologers are but men that contemplate naturall causes 6. Astrologie or the influence of stars have no fatall necessity except some contingency be mixt therewith for this were to deny the providence of God Thus W. Ramsey whereof the last is delivered with that wonderfull contradiction of fatall necessity and contingency But you have them as he gives them Now let the Reader that hath a mind to understand the right compare the Doctours and W. R. his stateing of the Question together and he shall find those six things afore said set down by William in that his Epistle to the Reader fully to agree with the Doctours Tenet in the main Therefore W. R. in his great warfare in his ensuing Pamphlet against the Doctours Demonologie either as a distracted man departs from his own principles or else plainly fights against himself let William take his choyse And if he be like some of his brethren he will choose the former For however they state the question in words I am sure they practise in deeds quite contrary undertaking to know by the starres who and where are the Theeves and stollen goods of such and such a robbery the cattle and Drovers that carried them away from such and such a ground at such a time and the like feits and these they practise for money Yea they are bold to predict the events of warres the successes of marriages and thousands of such meer humane events which the Scripture pronounceth uncertain to us The battle is not to the strong nor the race to the swift Promotion cometh not from the East starres nor the VVest starres c. but all fall out as Gods providence disposeth Yet those Astrologers will boldly undertake to predict such things as their Almanacks and Astrologicall Predictions c. do testifie By which writings they gain credit and custome of miserable seduced souls to fee them and feed them with money for meer impostures as many of their Clients do daily complain saying the Astrologers had their money not forbearing to name the men and the money but they were never the neerer to find that they promised them But if this were all that Astrologers did do it were not so intolerable But they have practised some things that are not to be indured in any Common-wealth viz. to disswade men of quality from marrying worthy Gentlewomen using lies for their arguments An intolerable practise of Astrologers forgeing those things of the Gentlewomen to disinable their persons and to reproch them in their repute as are not fit here to be named but at due time and place shall be made good before any Court of Justice by undenyable proof And at the rate of Will. Ramsey's sounding the Trumpet the battle is likely speedily to begin And William Ramsey himself for all his stateing of the question aforesaid undertakes to predict many humane events quite without the sphere of the state of his question in his discourse of the Eclipse of the Sun at the end of his rayling reply to D. Homes his Demonologie Amongst the rest he predicts In the last page save one that before that Eclipse hath finished its effects Ministers shall be in lesse esteem then they would fain perswade the vulgar concerning the students in Astrology Whatever the Epithets be he gives to Ministers there he intends not them for distinction but for agnomination to them all good as well as bad or else he would not lay the cause of that prediction to be the Ministers opposing Astrologers and upbraid Doctour Homes And let me tell thee William a prophesie out of the Word of God against Judiciall Astrologers A Prophecy against Astrologers that as Aarons rod swallowed up the Enchanters rods Exod. 7.12 Balaam was killed when the Priests and Levites of the Lord were preserved Numb 13.22 Daniel the Prophet is preserved and honoured when sentence of death was pronounced against the Astrologers Dan. 2. vers 2.14.27.28 c. to the end of the chapter and the persons having familiar spirits and the Diviners and Exorcists c. fell before the Apostles Acts chap. 8. chap. 19. c. So these last and greatest sort of wicked men that lead poor souls from God to the Devill from his word to their circles and figures shall without repentance according to all the prophecies of the old Testament against Astrologers Magicians Enchanters Sorcerers c. quoted in the Doctours Demonologie perish with Antichrist and all Christs enemies at the great destruction of the wicked near approching for making way for the Saints Triumph a while on earth over all their enemies Revel 21.8 22.15 Now William and thy brethren runne your course in Judiciall Astrology according to your wonted manner of practise at your perill and venture it whither your Eclipse or the light of our Sun the word of God will prophesie more truly I wonder in what starre or constellation or their postures William could reade this goodly change that godly Ministers must be discountenanced and lying Astrologers as the Scripture calls them shall be advanced His telling me there of ☽ to a □ of ♄ c. with many the like anticks figures gibberish and cantings is lesse is worse then nothing unlesse he could demonstrate to me for that 's the honour of a true Mathematician to demonstrate most potently by reason why such postures and features of starres and constellations must needs pre-signifie such and such
truch and reason on their side Will. Ramsey being JVDGE For that 's the Genuine result of his speech And by consequence if all the Learned men in the world beside Astrologers should condemn Astrology Will. would slight them as he doth in his Book because he judgeth them not to speak according to truth and reason To W. R. his first Section of his second Chapter a word will serve viz. onely to intreat Will. that so calls on others for consideration that he himself would consider that Tostatus or Doctour Willet doth not educe those words at A out of the text Levit. 19. But are his liberty of expatiating upon unlawfull Arts in generall and therein to declare his judgement concerning unlawfull predictions Tostatus and Doctour Willet had more wit then to take a text of Familiar Spirits to confute Astrology Though some Astrologers are not free from Familiarity with such And B. C. proves an implicite complyance Thus much onely hath given such a blow to Will. Ramseys first Section that the whole Fabrick of it falls to the ground in the eyes of them that will understand To his second Section and first to that Will. saith and so labours to prove that Stars are Causes the Doctour denies it not though that man of vast learning Mars Ficinus a famous Platonick Philosopher in his works hath a Tract against it 2. To Williams catching at the word CONJECTV RING of and concerning things which are naturall causes as of alteration of weather c. experience daily and evidently doth tell all men that have eyes to read Almanacks and to see the weather that how naturall and necessary soever the causes may be the Astrologers predictions of it are but conjecturing and daily prove false Yet neither Doctour Willet nor Doctour Homes do move the question touching the thing which commonly is called Naturall Aftrology And therefore as they do not justifie Judiciall so they do not condemn naturall touching weather c. and therefore Will. is at the Labour-in-vain uttering nothing against the Doctour for me to take cognizance of till he mentions S. Austins referring us as Will. saith to the study of Astrology in his Annotations on Job chapter 38. v. 31. But how untruly W. R. reports Saint Austine let S. Austines words testifie which are Intellexisti nexus Pleiades c. Num Astrologia perscrutenda est ad cognoscendum proprietates istorum Syderum ut hunc locum intelligere possimus Miror et si hoc congruit sermoni nostro c. Where S. Austine asks the question whether we need search Astrology to understand that place And wonders if that should agree to his speech elsewhere And in the conclusion interprets the place of morall not naturall things Omnium saith S. Austine it a syderum nomine omnes in ecclesia tales intelligend sunt qui conversationem habent in coelis c. But the Doctour is not against the thing of naturall Astrology but 't is judiciall Astrology and the calling of predicting of naturall effects by naturall causes by the name of Astrology that the Doctour is against and therefore Will. Ramsey in his discourse of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea of thunder rain snow c. is again at the Labour-in-vain or at a combat with his own shadow and so goes on to the end of the second Section For Will. Ramsey miserably mistakes to say Doctour VVillet denyed the Stars to be signs or causes as to naturall effects which the Doctour expresly granted a little afore and as meanly doth VVill. Viz. Ex varierate causae c. and Ex unitate causae c. go off of Doctour VVillets Two mighty reasons against signs of humane events and speaks not one pertinent word to them Let the Reader compare and judge in the thing Quem penes arbitrium est et vis et norma loquendi To VVill. R. third Section being a great body with little soul in it as was Doctour Ames his Character of Bellarmines works Moles absque nervis I need not add much to the substance of what D. Homes hath sayed For let me but tell VVill. Ramsey that he hath not fairly repeated Doctour Homes touching Keckerman and he must needs be non-plus't in his quibble It was the fault of the Devil he quoted not the whole period of the Scripture he alleadged And certainly the Astrologer is not blamelesse in his curt quoting the Doctour whose words you may see afore are That Keckerman a most learned Philosopher and a Christian although he favours some things which men now a dayes call Astrolology did not in all his two great volumes in folio of the Arts and Sciences set forth any Astrology BVT IN HIS VVORKS HATH THESE PASSAGES AGAINST IT c. Now this last clause here in capitall letters are left out by VVilliam Ramsey to the immediate ruine of all he saith till he come to MANENT TAMEN a fresh matter Yea if that Capitall clause had not been in it had been good Logick and reason to say what the Doctour concludes That Keckerman handling of purpose of the main body of Arts and Sciences and among them all the reall Mathematicks and leaving out Astrology doth shew that Keckerman was rather against then for Astrology Or that Keckerman did think there was no such lawfull Science Even as if Moses of purpose had set himself to handle all Pneumatology i.e. a System of Spirits and Souls and handling of the Souls of Animals and of the Souls or Spirits of men and of the Holy spirit had quite left out the doctrine of Angels it would well have inferred there were no Angels But the whole Bible is not a System but a graduall discovery of truths according to the growth of the Church with explications and repetitions And though Moses included the creation of the Angels in the creation of the Heavens as Will. Cousin Philosopher acutely well observes in his Enchiridion Physicae restitutae but expresseth them not that as Divines observe the sons of men might not dream the concurrence of Angels in the Creation till Gen. 18. and afterwards much that was enough to clear it Moses owned the being and Doctrine of Angels But Keckerman from first to last doth not approve of the thing and doctrine of Judiciall Astrology Now for VVil. answer to Keckerman's MANENT TAMEN c. i.e. The Stars abide c. unto Cometis in genere which you have here inserted out of the Doctours Demologie word for word let the understanding Reader judge 1. Whether VVill. Ramsey hath confuted it 2. Whether the Doctour by the rule of reason or Art was bound to argue out Keckermans assertions seeing he alledgeth him onely as a particular example of one learned man among others that was against Astrology 3. Whether VVill. doth not evidently contradict himself in saying That the words of Keckerman are as much as comes to nothing and yet presently labours but in vain to confute them For Keckerman doth not say That
under some Constellation These sure are no Christians because faithfull men ought not to doubt that Divine Providence from any part of the World or from any time whatsoever is absent Canonica inhibitio 26. q. c. 7. Divina Providentia Therefore we should not impute any secular business to the power of the Stars but to know that all things are disposed by the arbitrement of the King of Kings The Christian Faith is violated when so like a Pagan and Apostata any man doth observe those Days which are called Aegyptiaci or the Calends of January or any Moneth or Day or Time or Year either to travell marry or to do any thing in for whosoever he be that believes these things hath erred from the Christian Faith and Baptisme S. Augustine in his Enchiridion saith that it is a great offence for any man to observe the time and course of the Moon when they plant any Trees or sow any Corn for he saith None puts any trust in them but they that worship them thinking that the position of some Star ought to have an influence in them according to those things they believe concerning the Nativities of men This me thinks is most simple and ridiculous for thus I will argue against them If this be true which they hold that it is good to sow Corn under such a tuckie Constellation what is the reason then that after the Corn that is scattered on the Earth by the laborious hands of the Husbandman that after so much Grain is come up together look green together ripen together and fit for the Sickle that some of it is blasted some quite choak'd up some devoured by Birds some by Beasts some trodden down and some of the Ears pluck from their stalks by men that come by that Field they grow in How comes it to pass then I say that some of this should go safely into Barn and some of it again be devoured and spoiled which me thinks should not be if the same Constellation under which it was sown had but one influence which should be good and not a second which was bad But I will now let these things pass because I make no doubt but I have strongly confuted them and come to the last but the wicked part of Astrology which concerns the making of Astrological Images and to what purpose they are made where I will shew they have no force or virtue from any Star or Constellation but that the Devil worketh about them and in them causing them to be made under a Constellation that the impiety of their Idolatry may the more secretly be hid The vanity of Astrologers about their Images THe Fabrick of Astrological images are made under a certain Constellation either to avoid hurtfull things or to intice profitable things for to divers uses they are made Some are made for the destruction of some things as if you would remove a Scorpion from a place you must carve the Figure of some Scorpion either in Stone Wood or Iron under some convenient Constellation and inscribe on it an effectual Name signifying the Name of the thing that is to be avoided and the Name of the Sign ascending and of the like in divers parts of the image with many other Observations which for brevity sake I will now let pass For a contrary effect you must have a contrary Constellation and a contrary Operation as in the like images pertaining to Love Enmity Health or the like And although there are many Effects caused by these images as experience teacheth us Non virius imaginis sed operatio daemonis producit effectum yet they are miserably deceived that think it done by the virtue of any Constellation when it is done by the meer operation of the Devil For not the virtue of the image but the operation of the Devil worketh the Effect And learned Averrois writing against Algazel the Astrologer saith that these images have no virtue from the Stars because artificial things are not capable of any influence neither are they any cause of a natural operation for Quality 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 And in like manner those images that are buried in the midst of the place where their Operations are expected are contrary to natural Reason And other things that are observed in them shew as great vanity as when some mens Names must be with the left hand some with the right some images must be buried with their faces upwards some with their feet upwards which are all signes rather of a Compact with the Devil then any other natural cause as in the Negromantick images of Angels or rather of their inscription of Devils and other unknown Names and Characters Also the use of their Suffumigations and invocations are signes of a Compact and League with the Devil The prodigious impiety of the Dominick Friers in the Fabrick of these images would make a History bigger then the Iliads for they have made by their Magical tricks weeping Statues by which they wrought many Miracles which they learnt of the Priests of the Idols of the Gentiles who have deceived many as may appear by the Alexandrian Statues destroyed by the Christians for when they overthrew the Phane of Syrapis there were images found both of Wood and Brass whose inward parts were made hollow and with instruments were fastened to the Roofs of their Churches and Temples from whence they spake And since the time of Popery there have been found in Churches images that have had Eyes put in by Art that would weep and let Drops of Bloud trickle down their faces sweat bloud and would twinckle with their Eyes to the People by the help of instruments and would wrythe their heads and Necks backward and forward according to the will of the Priests that invented them to beguile the People and inrich themselves These Puppets had no Tongues but onely moved and stirred making signes to the People many of which the Cardinals erected adorned and commended to instruct the People which were nothing but Deceits and Tricks of these holy and religious Fathers still to detain the people in ignorance and that they should not smell out their Knavery Also many of these Scab-shin Friers when any rich man died that had left their Abbies and Monasteries nothing to feed their fat Guts with would place some of their Accomplices in a Vault they had made of purpose under the dead mans Tomb so that when any of his Sons or Kindred came as the Custome in those Times was to pray for the soul of their deceased Father or Kinsman they should hear a dreadfull voice under the Sepulcher telling him it was the Spirit of him that was but lately buried there and that his Soul could never be at rest while such the Friers had most minde to were given to the Monastery so that the blinde people believing
body which cannot be for the name of God cannot do it But God must be invocated by true Faith whereby he is often pleased to grant our requests But Conjurers and Astrologers use the name of God in another kind and other Ceremonies which rather drive away divine Grace and Virtue then procure it and so much the more they sin by how much the more they take the name of God in vain and to the worship of the Devill Therefore to conclude this Treatise of Divination I will prove both by the Divine Imperiall and Canon Law that it is not lawfull to be used The Divine Law saith Thou shalt not suffer such Malefactours to live A man or a woman in whom the Spirit of Divination is found let them dye the death Let them be stoned to death and let their bloods be upon their own heads Also the Holy Ghost in another place saith Let that Soul that is inclined to Southsayers be slain in the midst of the people The Imperiall Law commands that they should be beheaded or be put to any kind of punishment the Judge shall think most convenient and fitting The third daughter of Superstition is vain Observatition which teacheth to know future things either good or bad as to tell whether a man condemned to be hanged shall dye that death or no which is but a meer roguery and cheating For this notorious Art is nothing but a vain superstition Canen exira de sortilegiis partosum Ars notoria nay indeed a most notorious piece of Roguery working by Figures Characters and unknown names also containing many speeches concluding in them strange and unknown significations which a man must learn and repeate alwayes observing a continency in his Diet and sometimes to punish and macerate himself would not do amisse if he mean to attain to the perfect knowledge of this science Quest 96. Art 1. which Thomas Aquinas quaest 96. art I doth utterly deny For he saith he that doth use this can attain to no such kind of knowledge and that the Devil invoked by it cannot infuse any knowledge or illuminate the intellect although he is able to deliver the rudiments of some kind of Art for the devil doth onely work to infatuate and befoole them that exercise or study it Nor is it available for any Doctour in this Art to produce the Examples of Daniel and his fellows who abstaining from meat and drink came to such a perfect knowledge for they did not abstain from those meats by the vain observation of this notorious Art but least that they should be defiled with the meat of the Gentiles which was forbidden them by God therefore not without desert they were indued with knowledge above the rest And Solomon begging knowledge of God to govern his people did obtain it of the Holy Ghost Other vain Observations of this Art divine Augustine hath learnedly confuted Lib. 2. de Doctrina Christiana Thus farr Milton W. R. his SECT II. of CHAP. IV. wherein he saith the Doctours Objection touching the diversity of Twins is refelled As also some other quirks against Astrology examined and convinced HIs second Argument or Reason against Astrology is saith he from clear experience in Twins conceived at the same instant and born in the same hour or less Now M. Homes had done well to have made this his clear experience as clear to his Reader by demonstration or example and not to content himself with his bare word this is but one Doctours opinion but will he say that all Twins are conceived at the very same instant of time Sure he will not but admit some are yet will he not affirm they are therefore born in the same instant of time I will appeal to any one of discretion and understanding in such matters if it hold with reason that two Children should be born both together and to make it more clear that all Twins are not conceived at one and the same instant of time I refer him to the perusal of Aristotle Pliny Cardanus Dodoneus c. But let me ask him what he thinketh of the Story of Proconesia who as the story goes lying with her Master and his Man her Fellow-servant both in one day conceived by both and brought forth one Childe like the Master and the other like the Man Wherefore the first part of his Argument is not available neither upon good consideration will his following words for he confesses himself that the nearest time of their Birth is in the same hour or less when all that knows any thing in Astrology knows that four minutes of time in the Birth gives near upon a years time in directions wherefore certainly when he made such clear experience in the Birth of Twins they were not born in the same instant but at least four and four and four minutes difference for the nearest time he confesses may be somewhat less then an hour which certainly must breed very much difference indeed wherefore except he could have proved that they were born both at an instant or give us an example of any such that he hath made clear experience of his Argument and Reason is a meer sophistical Cavil And whereas he alleadgeth that Pharez and Zara did put forth themselves interchangeably in one hour but how he can prove it was in one hour is I believe too hard a Task for him to do he having no Warrant therefore from the Word of God But all this is nothing to the point for though Zarah put forth his hand first and for distinction had a red Thread tied about it yet he plucked it back again and Pharez was born before him Gen. 38. v. 29. He brings the Example of Jacob and Esau to condemn Astrology which is far weaker For all that is acquainted with that story in the Scripture knows that Esau was born first and after him came his Brother Jacob and that this is clear the Scripture further saith The Younger shall serve the Elder Ergo they were not born at one instant of time and therefore I may very well conclude that this Cavil serveth no whit to the condemnation of Astrology since for ought he can prove to the contrary or any one can tell they were born many hours distant and so consequently they must needs have severall Significatours at their Birth which will cause very much diversity of manners fortunes form and shape c. But if he will tell me there was so small difference in the time as that Jacob had hold on his Brothers heel I say that yet notwithstanding doth this prove them to be born at one and the same time but that there was so much time betwixt their Births as may cause much difference in most matters of their Lives but admit this Objection any understanding man knows it could no wise stand either with the safety of the Mother or Childe that he should be thus born with one hand before all the body And again since it is
nothing in the Mysteries of hid things but representatively by formal Numbers and Figures as they are governed and informed by Intelligences and divine Numerations which unite the extremes of the matter and spirit to the will of the Elevated Soul receiving through great affection by the celestial power of the Operatour a Power from God applied through the Soul of the Universe and observation of celestial Constellations to a matter fit for a Form the mediums being disposed by the skill and industry of Magicians And in the same Book Chapter 54. the same Agrippa hath these words Now that there is in Man's Soul a sufficient power and virtue to direct such kindes of Lots of Divination it is hence manifest because there is in our Soul a divine virtue and similitude and apprehension and power of all things and all things have a natural obedience to it and of necessity have a motion and efficacy to that which the Soul desires with a strong desire and all the virtues and operations of the natural and artificial things obey it when it is carried forth into the Excess of Desire and then all Lots of what kinde soever are assisting to the appetite of such a minde and acquire to themselves wonderfull virtues of passages as from that so from the Celestial Opportunity in that hour in which the excess of such a like Appetite doth most of all exceed in it And this is that ground and foundation of all Astrological Questions wherefore the minde being elevated into the excess of any desire taketh of it self an hour and opportunity most convenient and efficacious on which the figure of Heaven being made the Astrologer may then judge in it and plainly know concerning that which any one desires and is inquisitive to know Thus you see how the Mathematicians themselves cast great Blots and Blurrs upon Judicial Astrology and that in relation to the particulars afore mentioned viz. of the concurrence of Magick of the desires and confidence of Clients and Actours and of the Devil himself And therefore well may all ingenious men for ever be ashamed to speak in the behalf of Judicial Astrology 4. Hear what Master Perkins saith concerning the unlawfulness of Astrology in his Book intituled his Resolution to the Countryman A Resolution to the Countrey-man proving it unlawfull for him to buy or use our yearly Prognostications by W.P. Not convenient to have Prognostications Reasons 1. Concerning the buyer 1. Immoderate care joyned with distrust in God 2. Contempt of the providence of God in not reverently regarding it 2. Concerning the maker 1. His unability in Prognosticating proved 1. By the true end of the heavens 2. By want of good experience 3. By ignorance of particular causes 2. His manifold untruths 3. His impieties and profane speeches and actions not seeming a Christian 4. His tricks of deceit GOod Reader I have thought it convenient for some speciall causes in this short Treatise to disclose a part of my mind unto thee concerning the making of Prognostications and if it might be to perswade thee not to spend thy money in buying any of them I have long studied this Art and was never quiet untill I had seen all the secrets of the same but at the length it pleased God to lay before me the profanenesse of it nay I dare boldly say Idolatry although it be covered with fair and golden shews Wherefore that which I will speak with grief the same I would desire thee to mark with some attention My reason shall partly concern thee partly the Prognosticatour himself 1. First on thy behalf I reason thus 1. As a man doth see the blessings of God upon him so he must also labour with a carefull diligence to maintain the store of this life But because the affection of man is caryed headlong unto a greedy covetousnesse this defire of overmuch carping and careing must be bridled with two strong bitts First all our care must extend it self no further then the present day Secondly in careing we must not trust unto our selves but six all our confidence in the mercy and providence of God who blesseth all and without whose goodnesse nothing can come to passe do what we will 1. As touching the first we have the direction of our Saviour Christ who teacheth us to pray on this wise Matth. 6.11 Give us this day our daily bread whereby we are given to understand that we are onely to seek for the present time resting with this perswasion that he which hath blessed us this day will also to morrow and the next day shew his like goodnesse unto us Again in the same place our Saviour Christ speaketh on this wise Matth. chap. 6. v. 34. Care not then for the morrow for the morrow shall care for it self the day hath enough with his own grief By this welearn that God will provide for every day all things necessary though we do not encrease the present grief with caring and casting in our heads how we shall live in the time to come Now tell me what is the cause that thou yearly dost buy a Prognostication and one of those which tell the strangest things Is it because thou hast a delight to reade the style of Prognostications Or because thou wouldest learn to Prognosticate Or because the pictures and Characters which they make delight thy mind it were folly to be perswaded of this seeing the very cause it self is manifest Thy whole desire is to fill thy coffers and to heap up wealth thou art afraid lest thou shalt become poor therefore thou greedily buyest thee Prognostications and continually searchest all the corners of them to see the state of the year to come even thus in mind reasoning with thy self I can never be quiet nor take my sleep untill such time as I have known the state of the year ensuing that I may frame my businesse accordingly This next year there will be much rain it will rot corn upon the ground it will be spoiled I will keep my corn untill the next year following I find that corn will be dear about half a year hence I will not sell my corn now but keep it that I may have plenty of money for it and sufficient beside to maintain my house the sea and land is calm and quiet this year the next year many shipwracks and troubles in many countreys will fall now I will fraught my ships that then I may be quiet These imaginations are lively arguments of thy diffidence and despair in the goodnesse and loving kindnesse of God If thou fear God love God put thy whole trust in God thou art content to refer thy whole preservation unto the hands of God now these proling and ranging conceits of the time to come argue that either thou never thinkest on God or at the least perswadest thy self that either he will not or cannot help thee Wherefore seeing the having of Prognostications cometh of so wicked causes as is the greedy desire of
night moneth year which are both measured and described by the course of the Sun and Moon and other Stars Gen. 1.14 And so the feast of the Israelites and the computation of the yeare in our Church dependeth thereupon and without them there would be great confusion both in the common wealth and Church 4. Fourthly they serve to be signs that is to foretell things to come And they are signs either of extraordinary things or things which be ordinary When they are signs of extraordinary things then there is and appeareth in them some extraordinary work of God as appeareth in these examples which follow At the suffering of Christ not onely the vail of the temple rent and the dead rose forth of their graves Matth. 27. but also the Sun was wholly eclipsed the Moon being in the full At which sight Dyonisius Areopagita a good Astronomer spake these words Either the frame of the world is destroyed or the God of nature suffereth The Prophet Ezek. cha 32. v. 78. being commanded to prophecy the destruction of Egypt he first putteth down such extraordinary signs Before the second coming of our Saviour Christ there shall be signs in the Sun and Moon and in the Stars Lastly the extraordinary going back of the Sun signified the lengthning of the life of King Ezekias Secondly the Stars are signs of generall things which happen ordinarily every year in nature among us As of 1. Approching and declining of 1. The Spring 2. Summer 3. Harvest 4. Winter 2. Ordinary weather in these quarters 3. Ebbing and flowing of the Sea 4. Seasons of 5. Plowing 6. Sowing 7. Setting 8. Planting 9. Cutting 10. Felling 11. Reaping I say generall because the particular estate and affairs of men can in no wise be fore-signified by the stars I say ordinary because the things which fall out seldome and are besides the common course of nature as plenty of all things famine plague war eversions of Kingdomes c. Do not depend upon the Stars For the confirming of this I have three reasons First in the 1. of Genesis v. 14 15. God saith that he made the lights to be signs and yet the same God in the 47. of Esay v. 13.14 saith he will destroy the signs of them which divine flatly forbidding us to use Stars as means to judge of any thing to come saving onely of those of which they are expresly made signs of God in the creation all which are put down before Secondly this is manifest by the order of the creation Gen. 1.12.14 The third day God created upon the earth hearbs and trees and the earth brought forth fruits and was fertile the fourth day God commanded lights to be made in the firmament of heaven to separate the day and the night and to be for signs and for seasons and dayes and moneths and then it was so and then God saw it was good Out of which I gather that it cannot be a sign causing famine or plenty and fertilenesse because fertility went before the creation of the host of heaven Also of warres and plagues and the particular estates of men they can be no signs because man was not yet created and yet even then they were signs Some will say they were no signs of those matters in the creation but now they may be and are No for the works which God created he now preserveth neither increasing nor diminishing any thing in them Philo Judaeus in his book de opificio mundi saith he was perswaded that God foreseeing the minds of men given to search strange matters to come did in this order create the heavens to confute and disprove their imaginations Thirdly the Heavens and Stars were made for the use of man and man is their end so that it is absurd to imagine they have any force in the affairs of man Now then Prognosticatours if they will foreshew of strange things to come they must undo the work of their Creatour and give unto it new uses otherwise they shall not be able to Prognosticate as they yearly do The providence of God is his decree by which he appointeth how every thing shall come to pass The continuall execution of this decree is ordinarily by meanes but often without meanes The means which God useth are either generall or speciall Generall are these by which he governeth all the whole world and every particular thing which concerneth this life unto this kind are referred spirituall creatures called Angels by whom the Philosophers say the heavens are governed and we see that whole Kingdomes Provinces and Citties have been kept and defended by them as also consumed and destroyed Again the starrs and heavenly bodies are used of God to govern and order things here below as it is the 19. Psal Nothing is hid from the beat of the sunne And by the Prophet Hosea the Lord speaketh thus I will hear the heavens the heavens shall hear the earth the earth shall hear the corn the corn shall hear Israel But this instrument is onely a generall instrument and hath his work in ordinary matters of nature Beside these means there be many other by which God ruleth the world In the beginning he set man over the whole world that he might have rule over fishes fouls and beasts and al things els He apointed husbands to govern their wives he set the first-born before their brethren as Cain before Abel Princes over Cities Kingdomes Common-wealths and therefore by reason of their dignity calleth them Gods There be Governours of Families Fathers over their Children Masters over their Servants Yet God hath more near care in preserving and governing his chosen as appeareth in the 43. of Esay Thus saith the Lord God that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by my name thou art mine when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the flouds that they do not overflow thee When thou walkest thorough the very fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee for I am the Lord thy God the holy one of I srael thy Saviour This is also manifest by that Sympathy which is in the Lord when his children are afflicted as appeareth by the 11. of Zechariah He which toucheth you toucheth the appleof mine eye And in the 9. of the Acts Saul Saul why persecutest thou me that is my elect Wherefore therebe also speciall means by which he more carefully governeth the elact As be Angels whom Paul to the Hebrews calleth Ministring spirits it is certain they defend every one of the elect particularly Hitherto may be referred the preaching of the Word of God the ministring of the Sacraments All these means God's provid ence useth first that he might shew his goodnesse towards us secondly that he might be known to be the Lord over all thirdly that we might be thankfull because he not onely himself governeth us but also