Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	grace_n	see_v	soul_n	5,449	5	4.8754	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85938	Astrologo-mastix, or A discovery of the vanity and iniquity of judiciall astrology, or Divining by the starres the successe, or miscarriage of humane affaires. / By John Geree Master of Arts, and preacher of the word at St. Albanes. Published according to order.	Geree, John, 1601?-1649.	1646 (1646)	Wing G586; Thomason E344_13; ESTC R200963	16,037	26

there the same certainty of it But to restraine prayer to direct calamities is impiety against Scripture therefore calamities depend not on the Heavens by any necessary casuality Secondly I argue thus The knowledge of that which if it be acause is but a generall apartiall a remote cause cannot yield us any certaine knowledge of the effects to follow But the knowledge of the Constellations of the Heavens is the knowledge of that which if it be a cause is but a generall apartiall a remote cause of events in States or affaires of men Ergo. The Major will be easily cleared for ther 's no certaine connexion between causes generall partiall and remote and their effects The Aniome positâ causâ ponitur effectus is onely understood as Logicians shew of that which is the next particular and adaquate cause of such an effect and the knowledge of such a cause onely can lead us to the knowledge of the effect to follow Tune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cognoscere unumquodque cum causas primas principia prima usque ad elementa dognoscimus Now the heavens are but remote generall and partiall causes of events among men We use to say Sol homo generat hominem All Logicians know that the Sun in this axiome is noted onely to be a generall cause The Heavens also are but remote and partiall causes of humane events there be other causes neerer to produce them yea and such as the Heavens have no influence on whence I may argue Thirdly that the Heavens can give no certaine grounds for prediction in humane events 3. Those effects that depend on other causes on which the Heavens have none or no direct power cannot be knowne certainly by the Positions of the Heavens But so it is with humane affaires Ergo. The affaires of men depend principally on the providence of God and under him on the wills and minds of men The providence of God ordereth things concerning men and States Ephes 1.11 and that not alwayes according to the ordinary disposition of second causes But turning and over-ruling things in a secret way beyond the intentions of men and the ordinary vertue of second causes so in Rehoboams folly 2 Chron. 10.15 and Amaziah's frowardnesse 2 Chron. 25.10 Hence that of Salomon Eccles 9.11 Therace is not to the swift c. And that of the Psalmist Promotion cometh neither from the East c. Psal 75.4 5 6 7. Now on the providence of God the Stars can have no influence that were blasphemy to imagine neither can these work on naturall causes to carry them beyond their natures or Sphere to effect morall ends that 's an irrationall fancy Secondly next under the providence of God the spirits of men beare the sway in their actions their mindes in counselling their wills in moving this way or that way according to which as their next causes their actions in an ordinary way prosper or miscarry now the Starres have no influence on the soule Coelum non agit in animam nisi indirecté Sapiens dominabitur astris At the most the Starres doe but worke on the temper and on the soule but by way of inclination which grace education civill wisdome a world of things may oversway 3. Adde to these that the affaires of men and Nations are prospered and blasted not according to their use of naturall meanes but according to their morall carryage to God as they are sinfull or obedient hardned or impenitent as they seeke or as they neglect God and men act in these morall performances as they are assisted by the grace of God or deserted and hardened see Isa 6.9 10 11 12. Ezek. 36.25 26.33 34. Now are the Heavens any causes to move God to harden a people or give them Repentance or poure out a Spirit of grace and prayer upon them no man will affirme it you see their prosperity and ruine depend on things on which the Heavens have no influence Therefore the study of the Stars cannot give us any certaine fore-knowledge of humane affaires as things are knowne in their causes Object But if they be not certaine causes may they not be certaine signes of things to come Sol. I answer no. For if they be signes foreshewing events they must either signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature as smoake is a signe of fire or by institution as an Ivybush is a signe of Wine to be sold but they are notifying signe● in neither of these wayes Ergo. The Major is evident The Minor may be thus cleared First naturall signes they cannot be because we have shewed that there is no naturall connexion between the Constellations and humane events And if any will say they are signes discovering things to be by institution he must prove it And here indeed is produced Gen. 1.14 And let them be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares But I answer Signes there doth import naturall signes they are signes of the things which they cause as the seasons of the yeare which they doe both make and signifie so the Moone of the courses of the tides in the Sea and rivers c. But ther 's no institution of them for signes to presignifie contingent events in humane affaires which flow from morall or supernaturall Causes Yet if we should grant them in generall to be signes we were never the neare certainly in prognosticating by them unlesse we had a particular Comment on them to declare what they signifie either by Divine revelation or by solid experience but no such Comment is extant therefore we can have no certaine fore knowledge by them Divine revelation to informe what such and such conjuncture of Starres portend is not pretended And any certaine Rule from experience in this case we cannot have This may be cleared First from the nature of experience true experience ariseth from often observing the same thing As a Physitian knowes by experience that Rubarbe will purge choler because he hath often tryed it and alwayes findes it doth so ever but now we can have no such experience of the effects of the Starres First because the Heavens doe not often nay scarce ever returne to the same positure If some great Conjunctions be many times the same yet the positure of infinite other Starres which all have their influences being other wayes may alter the force of the other augmenting it or increasing it to vary the effects that follow it Besides when any events follow after these Conjunctions they cannot certainly know that these successes or calamities were effects of such Constellations Many things fall out together accidently without connexion or dependance one of another the staffe stands in the corner to day and it raines to morrow it will not follow when the staffe stands in the corner againe the next day will be raine so though some dismall effect follow an Eclipse or other conjunction this may be an extraordinary hand of God without any

by the Starres take upon them to divine what shall be the successe of particular enterprizers in this kind they are famous or to speake truly infamous that take upon them then to divine what will be the monethly changes or events in this present warre those also by erecting of figures and their issues and to finde out things lost c. Lastly all those that in their Almanacks besides those things that depend on the motions of the Heavens which are certaine and knowne as the seasons of the yeare Eclipses and such like take upon them to foretell future contingents as what w●●ther will be every moueth and every day of the moneth 2. To the second they countenance Astrologicall Diviners first that goe to them to have their nativities calculated to know their fortunes as they call it or to heare of things lost c. Secondly that buy or read their books unlesse it be with an intent to confute them These books may be read or bought from divers grounds or ends first out of curiosity so some goe to masse this is a wanton vanity a playing with a temptation whereby we may be insnared Secondly out of respect as supposing there is something in them and to make use of them this is bad as the practise itselfe it 's called going owhoring after them Lev. 20.6 3. with a purpose to finde matter against them and confute them Those that applaud them will hold forth the best side of them and onely talke of that wherein they seeme to guesse right but an intelligent man by looking into them shall see their defects and be able to lay them open to undeceive the simple if we buy or read them in the two former kinds we countenance them and are accessories to them not in the latter Thirdly those countenance them that beleeve them and are stirred with secret or open joy as they prognosticate good or evill Beleeving is a giving glory to God and so beleeving fearing and the words of any other must needs reflect honour on them Fourthly by talking of their predictions as things that have something in them and not to be contemned Fifthly by applying with applause their predictions to events this is just as such an one prognosticated this is to doe that honour to them which was used to be done to the Prophesies that came from God To the third Astrologers are then tolerated first when their books are licensed or not prohibited when their books are let out and left out and not cald in then are they tolerated for overseers of Presses being appointed for prohibition of unfit Bookes if these bookes were esteemed as they are false and noxious they should they would be prohibited or if they steale out be cald in againe Secondly when the Astrologers themselves passe without represse or without restraint when the Minister holds his tongue and the Magistrate his hand when there is no Law against them no penalty for them or none executed Conclusio Paraenetica Having cleered the unlawfulnesse of practising countenancing and tolerating Astrologicall predictions I may now be bold to speak a word of exhortation to all that they have nothing to doe in any of these particulars Exhort 1 And first let all be perswaded to fly the study to abandon the practise of this Art you may see the Scripture condemning it and that as an abomination Reason witnessing against it as that which is irrationall and uncertaine There 's vanity in it danger by it Satan is a subtle adversary an insinuating Serpent and winds into many in this way avoyde his snares Finde you pleasure in it so may you in many poysons as they goe downe but their fruit is bitternesse so will the fruite of Astrology be found for the wages of sinne is death Doe yee think it an honour to you What is it to be applauded of men and disallowed of God neither will it indeed get you any true honour among men for Honos est consentiens fama bonorum Honour is the agreeing good report of good men but the applauders of Astrology are the most of them of the worst and lightest sort of men the best and gravest sort have disallowed it yea branded it Perkins reckons it up amongst the kinds of Witch-craft Augustine counted it but impious dotage and inconsistent with Christianity And in this straine the best and the weightiest judgements run 2 Pet. 2.15 Doth profit intise any Remember what ever comes this way it 's but the wages of Balaam the wages of iniquity money that will perish with you and be the cankour of your soules Be perswaded therefore to renounce this evill spread not a net before the feet of your brethren to entangle their soules in your vaine speculations to hinder them from looking to or making use of Gods hand in their calamities you want not glorious examples Perkins Aug●stine and those famous beleevers Acts 19. who confest their sinne instudying such curious Arts and burnt their bookes goe you and doe likewise and save Authority a labour Exhort 2 Secondly if Astrologers persist in this condemned Art let all take heed of countenancing them lest pertaking of their sin they partake of their plagues Remember Timothie's charge not to partake of other mens sinnes 1 Tim 5.22 and that of the Apostle to the Ephesians to have no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darkenesse but rather reprove them Ephes 5.11 Shall we countenance what God abominates and strengthen men in that which makes both them and the Land lyable to wrath Let them not then have the countenance of thy cost to buy them of thy time to read them of thy tongue to mention or applaud them of thy soule to feare or hope because of their babling good or bad This Jeremy expressely forbids Jer. 10.2 3. Perkins wrote a Treatise against it Devout beleevers Acts 19. burnt their owne curious bookes which they had bought will you buy and keep such as they would burne we use to say receivers make theeves and so the Law makes them accessory to the theft and so are the buyers of Astrologicall Prognosticks that buy them for curiosity or to listen to them If there were no buyers there could be no sellers If there were no sellers there would be no makers at least no publishers of these sinfull vanities therefore if the Astrologer be guilty the buyer and Reader cannot be innocent Thou helpest to make this grievous sinne Nationall who ever thou art that countenancest it for thou thereby art accessory to it and guilty of it God hath forbidden the using as well as acting these evill Arts and that under an hideous expression and under a dismall doome Lev. 20.6 And the soule that turneth after such as have familiar Spirits and after Wizards to goe a whoring after them I will even set my face against that soule and cut him off from among my people Lev. 20.6 I conclude this exhortation with that home passage of the Apostle Rom. 1. ult wherein he seemes to make approvers or applauders of sinne in some sense worse then the Actours who knowing the judgement of God that they that doe such things are worthy of death not onely doe the same but have pleasure in those that doe them Exhort 3 Thirdly sith Astrologers should not be suffered amongst us Let me be bold to beseech those that are in authority First that their bookes be not suffered to passe the presse If devout beleevers burnt their owne bookes sure devout Governours should not suffer bookes of the same kinde to injoy the light unlesse it be of the fire to consume them It were then much to be wisht that Licensers for the Presse had a charge and care that no bookes of this kind should any more appeare and that what have of late stollen forth should be recal'd and runne the same hazard with those mentioned Acts 19. Sure if those bookes deserve the fire that derogate from man As Constantius Cod. lib. 9. tit 18. leg 5.7 then doe those much more that withdraw the mindes and hearts of men from God Yea it is to be wisht that our Lawes in this case defective might now be supplyed And that our Astrologicall Diviners might be put into the Catalogue with other Sorcerers in the Statute primo Jacobi cap. 12. to suffer the same penalty for their presumption which is imposed on the other for the Scripture makes them birds of a feather Cod. lib. 9. tit 18. leg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. This divers of the Christian Emperours are said to have done and they deserve imitation when sinne is not onely committed but permitted the guilt is not onely personall but Nationoll It 's punishment of offences that puts away sinne from Israel both the guilt of it by expiation 2 Sam. 21. and the practise of it too while others heare and feare and doe no more so wickedly Deut. 13.5.11 Though not onely the Ancient Popes but their sounder Divines and Historians are against it See Baron Annals Anno. 556. Sect. 12. Anno. var. 1.9.115 art 41. And certainly connivance at this sinne can neither want danger from God nor dishonour among men we are now for Reformation and chiefly of Popery And shall we suffer such Popish Practises Popish I call them because under Popery such practises had allowance and countenance Tindall informes us that Cardinall Murton had a License from the Pope for a time to study Magick whereof himselfe was one And that Cardinall Woolsey calked the Kings Nativity which is sayes he then a common practise among Bishops in all Lands Tind practise of Popish Prelates pag. 367. 368. And was it not one of the blackest staines of our corrupt times that that infamous Wizard Doctor Lamb was countenanced and protected by some And can we avoid aspersion if we countenance or suffer Divining Astrologers casting a favourable aspect towards us sith the holy Ghost hath put them in the same Catalogue oftentimes If any desire to see more Testimonies of Fathers Councells c. let him see Job Picus Mirand lib. adv Astrologos and so doth Learned Perkins and he hath many grave abettours let then our worthy Senatours up and be doing to remove this blemish and guilt from us and deliver us out of the hand of the Lord and we will rise up and call them blessed Soli Deo Gloria FINIS