of the stars Eclipses conjunctions c. But if they be not necessary although falling out for the most part but may have some other natural causes hindring them those he can foretel but probably and by conjecture as showers storms tempests c. He can certainly foretel those malefices which by Gods permission he intends to act either by himself or by his sworn instruments He can disclose such corrupt cogitations as himself hath injected especially so far forth as he observed them to take impression with complacency And for secret lusts manners and actions such as himself hath been an intimate witnesse of he can reveal them to his Magical instruments and make them if God will permit object them to mens faces and bewray them to the world He is continually so going to and fro in the earth that he can tel what is doing even in remotest places and such is his agility can suddenly convey it to his absent instruments or Artists and make them relate it as if they were present Hidden treasures lost goods thefts murders secretly committed these because done in his presence and kept in his remembrance he can disclose to and by his Agents if men will consult and God give leave Yea he can presage many things from the prophecies of the Word whose historicall part he understands better then men 5. Why God permits the devil and Diviners oft times to predict things future Is it not to distinguish betwixt his special spiritual and saving graces and his extraordinary temporary and transient gifts That none might presume of an inlightened minde or a conformed will because of such acts as may be without the least touch either of the one or the other Nor arrogate to themselves a likeness to Angels for such presagitions as wherein the beasts may surpass them Is it not that ungodly men and profane may thus so much the more be given over to their own superstitions and diabolical delusions And to teach the faithful and godly not to covet affect admire or undiscreetly approve of those gifts which are no perpetual and infallible tokens of Gods grace and favour Especially neither to be acting in nor attending to those vain curiosities which Satan may suggest and wicked men and infidels may attain unto 6. Whether the devil or divining predictors ought to be believed should they foretel truth The Devil abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it Joh. 8.44 Eve ought not to have believed him because he spake of his own Gen. 3. Ahab was not bound to be perswaded by him 1 King 22.20 21 22. Because though he had a Commission or permission from God yet he exceeded it and spake of his own But I make a question whether Saul ought not to have believed him 1 Sam. 28.19 Because he now spake not of his own God is to be believed even in the Devil himself But then it might be evident that he not onely speaks the things of God but from God that is both the truth and by a special warrant Otherwise there 's no accepting of his Testimony be it never so true if he take it up of his own Authority And therefore our Saviour Christ would neither assent to nor approve of the Devils although they spake the truth Mark 7.24 25. 3.11 12. No more did St. Paul to the truth that was spoken by the Spirit of Divination Act. 16.16 17 18. We are taught that Satan may transform himself into an Angel of light and so may his Ministers likewise And therefore we held our selves not obliged simply to believe either the one or the other even in the best they can say Because they may lye in telling truth may tell truth to deceive may prejudice a greater in uttering a lesser truth may usurp it of themselves may arrogate it to themselves When did God send the devil on a message to instruct his Church in the truth or to promise good unto his children If he be sent extraordinarily to pronuntiate to the wicked and reprobates their destinated judgements and deserts they may be so conscious within themselves as to have cause to believe them But as for holy men and elect if they be not tyed to believe their truth how much rather ought they to take heed of their strong delusions as not to believe their lyes 7. Whether a wicked man may prophesie or a godly man divine Although godly men are more subject to wicked mens sins then wicked men are capable of godly mens graces Yet godly men as godly men cannot be infected with wicked mens divining neither can wicked men as wicked men be endowed with godly mens prophecying Joseph is pretended to divine yet is it but a pretence of a pretence if it be taken in the worst sense as hath been said before Balaam took up his parable a dark saying which he himself understood not and God put a word in his mouth which never affected his heart But Balaam had no more the gift and spirit of prophesying then his Asse had the gift and spirit of speaking May we not then determine it thus God may be pleased so to dispense prophecying as sometimes to prompt a wicked man with the act sound or prolation of it but inspires or indues godly men alone with the gift sense and spirit of prophecy For the spirit of prophecy delights in sanctity and purity And to perfect prophecy is required not onely the illumination of the minde but the assent also of the will as to Gods revelation authority pleasure message truth glory which indeed cannot be in an ungodly man In Scripture a good man and a Prophet are Synonyma's and a man of God and a Prophet convertible terms And a bad man is never so called but with some epithete betokening the abusive appellation Goodness of manners though it necessarily prepares not of it self to the acquisition of prophecy because it is a free sudden extraordinary insult or illapse Yet badnesse of manners is alwayes of it self an utter impediment Onely God may be pleased in such singular acts so to abalienate or suspend corruptions for the present as sometimes to make good use of ill instruments for others sakes but not often or for their own as he hath been been pleased to act with those whose hearts he hath changed and renewed 8. How chance the Prophets that prophecyed not onely by words but by Facts and by Signes also and by so many and ordinary Signes yet none of them once prophecyed from the stars or their constellations Was not that vertue in them Or was it not observed in them in their time Were they fain to make use of terrestrial signes because the coelestials were out of their reach Nay was it not to let us understand That God and his Prophets could make the meanest signes upon earth to confirm their Prophecies whereas the devil and diviners
of the Spirit in them was not onely prophetical or historical but sapiential and dogmatical And so their prophesies were recorded not onely for a particular and certain prediction of truth but for an universal and perpetual instruction of Faith And therefore either there must be no end of adding to the Scriptures or else none such must now be raised There may be some prudential predictings of good men and suspicious presagings of evil men and shrewd conjecturings of common men but what are all these to the prophesyings of holy men of God in old time Yet we say Gods hand is not shortned but that he can still raise up such but who can say that he will do it Or that there is just cause why he should so do We conclude therefore in the general that Prophecy is ceast And that of an extraordinary gift at first it is become more extraordinary to after ages What reason then have we to be so blind of Faith as to admit of a stated art of divination in its stead CHAP. XXII From the rarity of Miracles 1 WHether every thing that is affected above besides or against the course and order faculty and power hope and expectation of nature may truly be said to be miraculous Not every thing 1. Because it is not a thing effected against particular nature but against whole nature that makes a Miracle 2. Because in particular nature there are antipolliges or occult qualities of actives and passives naturally acting or disposed to act one against another 3. Because it is neither nature acting contrary to some part of her self nor is it Art urging or tempting Nature but it is God totally exceeding the law vertue and order of Nature that makes it to be a Miracle 4. Because many things may be done against Nature or natural propensity which notwithstanding are but ordinary and trivial as the causing of heavy things to ascend upwards c. 5. Because there are many sins and vices that are against Natures law and vertue which who will say that they are miraculous Therefore we conclude against Magical Mirabilaries that although every Miracle be an act or effect above Nature yet every act or effect besides or against Nature is not a Miracle 2. Whether that may absolutely be said to be a Miracle whose effect is manifest and whose cause is occult or unknown to us No. Except it be acted simply by the first cause and for causes onely known to him 2. Except it exceeds all mans exact knowledge indifferently one as well as another 3. Except the cause be altogether past such finding out even to sober and prudential observation art industry Otherwise it should not be a Miracle so as it is in it self but so as it appears to us Our ignorance should necessarily come into the cause of Miracles That should be miraculous to one man which is not so to another And a prophane curiosity of Art would boast of more light and experiment in divine works then indeed is vouchsafed to the perswasion of a pious faith 3. Whether the power of working Miracles be not proper to God alone This must be affirmed and cannot be denyed 1. Because He onely can work a Miracle of himself to whom nothing is a Miracle 2. Because He onely can work against the order of Nature and second causes whose will is sufficient to institute Order alter all things 3. Because God is a transcendent and is not under nor yet within the predicament of any part of the whole order of Nature as the creature is and therefore he onely can act that against and besides above the order of Nature which the creature cannot 4. Because a divine power requires not a subject to work upon for it is able to create all things of nothing neither looks it at the possibility or propensity of that subject to the producing of the effect as every created power doth 5. Because the proper cause of a Miracle must not onely be uncreated infinite omnipotent indeterminate c. But it must also be occult unsearchable incomprehensible now no cause is simply so but the hidden God himself 6. Because it cannot be a Miracle unless it be absolutely and universally wonderful or to be equally admired of all creatures of the same kinde Now it is onely for God and neither for Angels or men to do such things as shall be admirable to their fellows and not so to themselves 7. Because if any other could work Miracles but God or but by God then Miracles could not be the indubitable signes and proofs of a God nor of Gods Word and Truth 4. Whether the good Angels can do Miracles Ministerially and instrumentally they may but not principally and authoritatively For Angels are finite both in their nature apprehension and power And divine Miracles absolutely considered are as strange and wonderful to them as they are to us men Yet Angels out of the vertue and perspicuity of their own nature may know how to do many things that may seem miraculous or be marveilous to us Because they are a superior power or vertue unknown to us and may have a particular power over inferiours not known to us and therefore may act above besides against the particular order of Nature that is known to us But being part of whole created nature themselves they cannot act against it the main reason of a Miracle for so they should act against themselves 5. Whether Devils can do Miracles If not Angels much lesse devils Neither doth the Lord make use of the devils to be instruments of his mighty works as he doth of the Angels For Miracles were never intended or effected immediately or mediately but for the confirmation of the truth to which the devils are no apt instruments because all that they do is with intent to seduce therefrom The devils indeed have a faculty and sagacity both much enabled by long experience in things above us men and so may work in many things to amaze as well as delude us But such stupendous and prodigious facts as they by divine permission busie themselves about are no true Miracles because false either as touching the reality of the effect or else the sincerity of the intent And for the reality of effect it is not so much thanks to their admirable power or manner of working as to the natural though secret disposition of the matter they work upon Neither are they permitted often to work any reality of effect but onely to delude with prestigious appearances because God seldom suffers Nature or the creature to be so blemished or abused And though they had a liberty to effect really in things to be admired yet so false is their disposition they would chuse and labour to be prestigious And where they are tempted or urged as they say by Art to do those things that are not within their power or permission there are they forced to be prestigious and delusory for the saving of their credit amongst
ordinary means Needful in the beginning of the Church to strengthen weak Faith They have had their main end already the sufficient confirmation of the truth and the end accomplished that which was destinated to the end might well cease Christ was not onely the most eminent in miracles but in him they had their perfection and completion His Disciples believed in him before ever they saw him do a miracle how much more then may his Church without them that together with the memory of them hath the ordinances and ordinary means The permanency of miracles would but have diminished the efficacy of Faith because it would have been an occasion not to have believed without them The truth of the Gospel would still be called in question and thought dubious and uncertain if it always needed such confirmation The promises and faith would thus be evacuated because the walking would be not by Faith but by sight There would be no end of seeking after sensible fignes and means and so prophane men would still be tempting unto them and weak Christians would be discouraged in their defect Not onely ordinary graces would so grow vile but even miracles themselves for they would be thought no miracles by being so commonly obvious and assiduous What need we to stand upon such when the greatest work of God and most profitable for man is not alwayes the greatest miracle Have we not perpetually Gods spiritual miracles in our vocation conversion justification regeneration sanctification c. And his ordinary miracles in our creation propagation conservation c. And what need we more To conclude was there no other cause our sinnes are sufficient to make divine miracles to cease shall we then look after Magical miracles signes and wonders such as are set up by the sins of men CHAP. XXIII From the fables of Miracles IS not the rarity of miracles already proved enough to prove the stories of Magical Mirables to be but meer fables We need not therefore their pardon to call them so nay they ought to gratifie us that we call them not worse then so Seeing the vertue of miracles and miraculous operation is in Gods word alone and neither in Nature nor Art nor Artifice What can we say lesse then that all such natural Mirables are onely for meere naturals to admire Whose Authors have been some of them spurious most of them obscure all of them in that particular vain and nugacious Who take up their authorities by tradition from paganish story poetical fiction and my thological relation of such wonderful things as were never in Nature or the world Who use to cite their mirables with such a they say as if they themselves were not onely ashamed to own them but afraid to report them Who stuffe up their legendary stories of magical mirables with tales of such strange things and they so incredible and under strange Names and they so unknown and in such strange places and they so remote as that they are not worth seeking after or if they were yet neither name nor thing nor place is to be found Who urge us onely with this that such their wonders are not to be proved by reason but referred to experiment and yet we are as far from seeing the one as from hearing the other Neverthelesse all these are impudently urged and imposing upon our Faith to admit and admire what wonderful effects of configurations constellations influences impressions seales characters upon Elements Minerals Stones Vegetables Animals yea and Rationals not excepted Nay and a many of these so imposed as tending effectually to Prophecy Divination Prediction Prognostication And therefore omitting the ridiculous rabble of magical mirabilaries for I have neither list nor leasure to meddle with them at large I shall onely instance in a few of them which they not onely report confidently but impudently prescribe to this very purpose Advising the Reader by the way that for all this they cannot be believed without superstition nor practised without sorcery 1. There is an herb among the Chaldeans called Ireos among the Greeks Mutuchiol among the Latins Elitropia this herb is of so admirable vertue that if it be gathered in August while the Sun is in Leo and wrapt in a Lawrel leaf adding thereunto the Tooth of a Wolf and so at night laid under a mans head if any thing be stoln from him he shall see the Thiefe and all his conditions 2. The herb called by the Chaldeans Aquilaris by the Greeks Valis by the Latines Chelidonia if it be taken with the heart of a Mole and be laid upon the head of a sick man it may so be discerned or divined whether he shall dye of that disease or recover ye or no for if he now sing out it is a signe he shall die but if he weep then shall he not dye at that time By the like the conquering of an Enemy and recovery of a Suite is to be foreknown 3. The herb which by the Chaldeans is called Luperax by the Greeks Esifena by the Latins Viscus querei this herb with another herb called Martegon if it be put into a mans mouth and he begin to forethink who is a coming be it friend or soe if he shall come it will fixe upon his heart if he shall not come it will leap from it nay will it not leap out of his mouth 4. The herb which the Chaldeans call Tsiphilon the Greeks Orlegenea the Latins Centaurea this herb the Magicians say hath admirable vertue for if with the blood of a female Lapwing and oyle it be put into a Lamp it makes all that stands by believe themselves to be Magicians and that their heads are in heaven and their feet upon the earth and if the same be cast into the fire the staâ—s shining the stars will seem to justle and skirmish one against another 5. The Stone called Sylonites bred in an Indian Snail confers the prescience and presence of certain things future while a man hath it under his tongue let him bethink him of any businesse whether it ought to be done or may cometo passe or not and if it may or ought it will cleave so fast to his heart as that it cannot be plucked thence if not the heart will leap back from it 6. If thou wouldst interpret dreams and Prophetize of things future take the stone which is called Esmundus or Asmadus and it will give Prophetization interpretation of all dreams and make to understand riddles 7. If thou wilt divine of things future take the stone called Celonytes of a purple and various colour and is found in the body of a Snayle if any man carry this stone under his tongue he shall Prophesie and foretell future things 8. By the stone called Elitropia or as the Nigromanticks the Babylonian Gemme with certain verses and Characters Princes have predicted by divining for which cause the Priests of the Temples made special use of this stone in the feasts of their Idols If thou
him that more acutely looks into them and into the canon of their precepts the custome of rites the kind of words and characters the order of extruction and the insulsate phrase doe openly bewray themselves to containe nothing else but mere toyes and impostures and to be pulcht up in latin Hims by the forlorne artificers of perdition ignorant of all ancient Magick out of certain profane observations mixt with the ceremonies of our religion many unknown names and seales inserted that they might terrifie the rude and simple and be an amazement to the sencelesse and such as know not good Letters But this is the reason why these Goeticks onely make use of evill spirits because good Angels will hardly appeare for they expect the command of God and assemble not but with men of clean heart and holy life but the evill ones easily exhibite themselves to be invoked falsly favouring and belying a divinity are alwaies at hand to deceive by their subtilty to the intent they may be worshipped and adored Many think that Theurgie is not unlawfull as if this were governed by good Angels and a divine power when as very often under the names of God and Angels it is obstringed with the fallacies of evill spirits Of this schoole are the art Almadel the art Noterie the Pauline art the art of Revelations and many more of the same superstition which are so much the more pernicious as to the unskilfull they seem the more divine The Cabalie is an art as is reported very ancient and yet the name hath not been known among Christians but of later times This art of Cabalie which the Hebrews so boast of I sometimes have searched with much labour and I finde and confesse it to be nothing else but a meer rapsodie of superstition a certain theurgicall magick but if proceeding from God as the Jews boast it any whit conduced to the perfection of life to the salvation of men to the worship of God to the understanding of the truth verily that Spirit of truth which the Synagogue rejected came unto us to teach us all truth would not have concealed it from his Church until these last times which truly knoweth all things that are of God But that we try and see that by the revolutions as they call them of this art wonderful sentences of great mysteries are wrested out of sacred Letters the whole is nothing else but a certain playing upon Allegories which idle men busied in every letter point and number which this tongue and the manner of writing easily suffer do feign refeigne at their pleasure Therefore this Cabalie of the Iewes is nothing else but a certaine pernicious superstition which collecteth divideth transferreth words and names and letters scatteringly placed in the Scripture and as they list making one thing of another they dissolve the parts of truth the speeches the inductions and making parables here and there of their own fictions they would adopt unto them the words of God defaming the Scriptures saying that their figments do consist of them they calumniate the Law of God by their impudently extorted supputations of dictions syllables letters numbers they attempt to inferre violent and blasphemous proofe of their perfidiousnesse Furthermore being puft up with these trifles they boast themselves to finde out and to know the ineffable mysteries of God and secrets that are above the Scriptures by which they are not ashamed to lie with great boldnesse and without blushing that they themselves can prophecy and work miracles and mighty works But let us return unto Magick parcell whereof is the artifice of prestigious things that is of illusions which are only done according to appearance by which Magicians shew phantasms play many miracles by circulatory frauds and cause dreams which is done not so much by Goeticall incantations imprecations and deceits of devils as also by certain vapors of perfumes lights phyltres collyries alligations and suspensions and besides by rings images glasses and such like drugs and instruments of magicall art and by a naturall and celestiall vertue Also many things are done by a prompt subtlety and industry of hand of which sort we see some are done daily by Stageplayers and juglers which therefore we call Chirosophists that is slight-handed And now by what hath been said it is plaine that Magick is nothing else but a collection or compact of idolatry Astrologie and superstitious Medicine And now also there is by Magicians a great company of Hereticks risen up in the Church who as Iannes and Iambres resisted Moses so have they resisted the Apostolicall truth All this is uttered against them by our Arch magician I mean Cornelius Agrippa not a little to the like affect might be collectâ—d out of another of them namely Johannes Trithemius yea undoubtedly he that had but the opportunity to peruse their Authors old and of late needs for their confutation to urge them with no more then their own confession Onely I would aske of them this one thing what doe they think of this one Magician for this one act of his Whether doe they conceive him in charity to have thus confessed retracted recanted repented returned c. or doe they uncharitably account him for it to be humorous cynicall satyricall invective distracted mad malecontent c And whether for this one undertaking of his will they have him called a Philosopher a Daemon an Heroe a God all things or nothing Does not he himselfe tell us what kind of censure he suspects from all kinds of Mag-astro-mancers Alas quoth he with how many of their machinations will they oppugne me with how many devices will they assaile me with what ignominies will they persecute me The impious Mathematician will prescribe me both earth and heaven The sortilegious Pythagorist will suppute for me unlucky numbers The pointing Geomantick will cast unhappy figures and project for me a prison and sorrow The Fatall Astrologers will threaten any hanging and by a slippery turning of the heavens inhibit my ascent to the Gods above The menacing Diviner will ominate all manner of evill to me The importunate Physiognomist will defame me for frigide and insufficient The doting Metoposcopist will pronounce me for a brainsick Asse The fatidicall Chiromantist will divine all things sinisterly of me The presaging Aruspex will exaugurate me with all manner of ill luck The portentous Speculator wil send revengefull flames of Iupiter and fires of presaging thunder The dusky Oniropolist or Dream-teller will affright me with nocturnall Ghosts and Goblins The furious Vaticinator wil deceive me with an ambiguous Oracle The prodigious Magicians wil transform me as another Apuleius or Lucian not into a golden but peradventure into a dirty Asse The black Goeticke wil persecute me with Spectres and Spirits The sacrilegious Theurgist wil consecrate my head to the Crows or perhaps to the Jakes The circumcised Cabalists wil imprecate their curse upon me The old doting praestigator will represent me as an headlesse Eunuch c. To conclude therefore in a word since this is the suspition of one of their own what then must another expect from them But God be blessed we are taugh to discover their madnesse and despise their malice by a better light and strength then all their own confessions can afford us
carried it of their own accord And in the extremity of his death besought that his hands and tongue might be cut out by which he had blasphemed God and sacrificed to divels Trithemius retracted his opinion concerning the seven spirits in the seven Planets governing the world in their course by 354 yeeres apiece and four moneths protesting after this manner in the conclusion that of all these he believed and admitted nothing but as the Catholick Church believed and for the rest he refuted and contemned all as vaine fained and superstitious And as he disclaimed this to Maximilian the Emperour so he exclaimed against the Artists to Another Away with these rash men vayne men lying Astrologers deceivers of minds and pratlers of frivolous things For the disposition of the Stars makes nothing to the immortall soule to naturall science to supercelestiall wisdome A body hath power onely over a body The mind is free and not subject to Stars and neither receives their influences nor follows their motions c. Cornelius Agrippa in his youth wrote a Magicall book of occult Philosophy but in his sager yeeres wrote another of the vanity of Sciences wherein he confutes and condemns Magick Astrology and all kind of divination and cals the latter his recantation of the former But if towards his death he said indeed to his black Dog Away wicked beast thou hast utterly undone me without all doubt and notwithstanding all apologie his recantation was truer then his repentance For that was sufficient to convince others whereas this was not sufficient to convert himselfe Rodaick of Toledo hoping to finde treasures caused a Palace to be opened that had been kept shut for many yeeres there he found nothing but a coffer and in it a sheet and in it written a prophecy that after the opening thereof men like those painted in the sheet should invade Spaine and subdue it The King was therefore sorry and caused the coffer and castle to be shut again Phanias an Hierosolymitane servant by the advice of certain Magicians had emancipated himselfe to the divel in his hand writing for the obtaining of his masters daughter by vertue of their art But at length repenting he was converted by the prayer of St. Basil and the divel casting in the chirograph he was publiquely received into the bosome of the Church Cyprian a Magician while he sought by Magicall arts to inchant and dementate Iustina the Virgin was by her means converted to Christ For whose truth they both suffered Martyrdome Socrates offended at the bold and blind vagations of men in their disputations about the measures of the Sunne and of the Moon and other Stars wherein they laboured more in babling words then solid arguments undertaking to comprehend the whole circuit of the world with all the events therein from the beginning to the end Hereupon he withdrew his mind from these unlearned errours and applyed it wholy to consider mans fraile condition and the vitiousnesse and vertuousnesse of affections and to teach such manners as most pertained to honest and happy life A Priest of an oraculous Temple who had perceived that his divining divell had receded at the presence of Gregory Theametargus at the first calumniating but afterwards admiring his power desired to learn of him that mystery of commanding divels He taught him therefore the mysterie of godlinesse and confirmed it by a miracle whereupon he was converted forsaking his praestigious Idolatry yea wife children goods and all to follow him and so became an excellent servant in the Church and a great opposer of satan himselfe Marcellus and Apuleius two martyrs who first adhering to Simon Magus but seeing the miracles that were wrought by the Apostles converted from the Magicians praestigiousnesse and gave themselves wholy to believe and follow the Apostolicall doctrine for which they were martyred afterwards Hermogenes a magician disliking his own art brought a many of his magicall books and offered them to Iames the Apostle to be burnt 16. Of Magicians and Astrologers idolatrous account and other vain confident and servile superstitions they wrought in simple and credulous men THere was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same City used Magick or sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying This man is the great power of God And to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries or magick Act. 8 9 10 11. To the same Simon a Statue was set up at Rome with this inscription To Simon the Holy God These Magicians and Astrologers in their generations were numbred among the Gods and had their Statues Images Oracles Temples Altars Sacrifices and Services viz. Zoroaster Trismegistus Mopsus Amphiaraus Apollonius Tyanaeus Amphilocus Accius Nanius Porphyrius Diodorus Thor Ollerus All these Mag-astro-mancers and many more arrogated a divinity to themselves from their divinations and had it attributed unto them by the superstitious people of several Nations Theagenes was so superstitious that he had in his house the Image of Hecate and durst at no time offer to stir out of doors till he had first consulted it For which his slavish superstition he grew into a Proverb among the very heathens themselves Archimedes the Geometrician by his art alone drawing out a massy ship which whole multitudes could not once move hereupon Hiero the King was so transported with admiration that he concluded Archimedes ought to be believed in whatsoever he said yea though he should say give him but footing and he would remove the whole earth Augustus together with Agrippa coming to the chamber of Theogenes the Mathematician and he predicting great and almost incredible things to Agrippa who first consulted him Augustus resolved to conceale his own geniture and would by no means have it calculated lest that lesse things might be prognosticated of him then were of Agrippa at last he yeilded to it by much importunity and Theogenes leaping at it and adoring him prognosticating his greatnesse because born under Capricorn for whosoever hath his horoscope in the first part of Capricorn shall be a King or an Emperour Augustus had forthwith such a confidence in this fatidical praesagitian that he divulged his natalitial Theme and caused the signe of the star Capricorn under which he was born to be impressed on his Coyn and placed in his Arms. Maximinus a great Tyrant and persecutor was so superstitiously fearful that he would do nothing without divination neither would by any means be drawn to transgresse an augurie or an Oracle no not a nayls breadth Frederick the second the Emperour having married Isabel sister to the King of England forbare her company till a certain hour that his Astrologers or wizzards had assigned for that purpose that so he might beget a son famous from the constellation But mark the fruits of this constellatory copulation poor Isabel dyed in
are not able to make the greatest signes in Heaven to confirm their Prognostications Why did Christ refuse to shew a signe from Heaven in proof of his Messiahship Matt. 16.1 4. Because they sought it and sought it temptingly and sought it for themselves They would have signes among signes and miracles among miracles and such signes and miracles as they themselves fancyed and such as might assimilate their own prognosticating superstition and vain observation and such a signe as was not prophecyed that the Messiah should do and such as had neither just cause necessity nor end for which they should desire it Besides that the Prophets revealed nothing from the stars and Christ denyed to make any such demonstration of himself his doctrine and miracles because it was not prophecyed of him and therefore he refers them onely to a prophecyed sign the signe of the prophet Jonas enough to signifie of how little necessity all sydereal observation or operation is to pure Prophecy But I demand further if there were any congruity or consistency betwixt Prophecy and mag-astro-mancy why then was the one a singular extraordinary and temporary gift to Gods people and the other made a common Art or Trade to Idolators Infidels and men prophane 9. Whether Prophecy be natural Or yet of any artificial preparation The Occult Philosophizers Magical Mirabilaries and astral Fabricators are for both yea besides the seed of the soul and the humours of the body they pretend the parts of beasts stones herbs and outward ceremonies all to be effectually disposing to Prophecie But the truth is for neither For Prophecy indeed is not natural but supernatural not artificial or acquisite but infused or inspired Prophecy is immediate sudden momentany the disposition at one instant infused together with the act yea and the very particular disposition ceasing when the particular act ceaseth It never finds it subject capable to receive it but makes it so neither leaves it in the least capacity to acquire or expect it presently again But if it please to return it still makes its own way oft times another a new way for it self What inclination of nature or preparation of Art doth it require when it can take the ignorant as well as the learned the Idiot as well as the Artist yea a corrupt heart and a false mouth and neverthelesse make it forespeak its own infallible truth No nature or essence is prophetical of it self but that which is incomprehensible and comprehending all things If our nature had any such inclination in it self why should we not all prophesie And alwayes prophesie And prophesie when we please And prophesie of one thing as well as another And one prophesie as well as another To whom then should we prophesie And how should our pronuntiating be of those things which are hidden to the common sense and ordinary apprehension of men among whom we are conversant How should Prophecy be said to exceed all natural cognition if it may proceed from any natural inclination And how shall we distinguish betwixt Prophecie which hath revealed and reveals things as they are in themselves and prognostication which at most can but predict some things as they are in their natural causes and dispositions What praevious disposition to prophesie either naturally or artificially was there in Ames when he said I was no prophet neither was I a prophets son but I was an heardman and a gatherer of sycomore fruit And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said unto me Go prophecy Amos 7.14 15. As for Elisha's calling for a Minstrel 2 King 3.15 This was not to procure or excite prophesie but to sedate passions and affections and so make himself fitter for contemplation and devotion Not as if according to the Rabbinical conceit the spirit of Prophecie had now made its recesse from him because of some perturbation of his in being so exasperated against Jehoram For that was a true zeal of God and that is never inordinate neither serves it to abate but promote Gods gifts But say he had been somewhat disquieted and distracted from the spirit of Prophecie how was it in the force and vertue of Musick to restore it Musick could do that neither naturally nor artificially if it did it at all it must do it miraculously The prophets very calling for Musick was a prophesie Signifying that the spirit of Prophecie rests not in turbulent distracted factious seditious minds but in harmonious unanimous appeased and peaceable hearts But let them contend Prophecie to be of natural disposition and artificial preparation that would so take off theirs from being thought diabolical what need we do so that hold Prophecie to be wholly divine Nature and Art cannot so much credit the Astrological as they prejudice the Theological prophesie 10. Whether Prophesie be not now ceast It was never intended to be perpetual Even while it was it was an act not an habit not permanent but transient The Spirit now in the illapse and again upon the recesse It was a gift or grace not so much personal as vocational pertaining not to ordinary duty so much as extraordinary occasion Nor was it so necessary that men should be taught to look after things future as how to use the present time aright The prophets were but types of that great Prophet and all prophesie had its main end and completion in Christ It was therefore meet that the shadow should recede now that the substance came in place Prophecy was necessary for the Church of the Old-Testament because Christ was not yet come but not so in this of the New because Christ is come already We have an Evangelical prophesie abundantly recompencing that lack of the legal being a gift or grace not extraordinary but ordinary not temporary but perpetual not singular but universal not vocational onely but personal not an act common to reprobates but an habit peculiar to the Saints Not of propounding things of future times but of expounding the future things of eternity Be it in heaven or earth Prophecies shall fail when that which is perfect is come 1 Cor. 13.8 In heaven they must needs fail because there 's no future to be contemplated or expected all is an eternal present And in the Church of Christ they must needs fail because there is no future truth not another Gospel to be expected the present truth is eternal Prophecie failed in the Church as did the other extraordinary and temporary gifts viz. Working of miracles and speaking with Tongues Neverthelesse I conceive God hath absolutely denyed his Church none of all these but that the Spirit may be pleased to stir up some men at some times and to some particulars to act in any of them if just cause and necessity be Yet though a man should be raised to prophesie now and that by the same Spirit I cannot think it to be by the same degree or authority of the Spirit as the former Prophets were Because the authority
the Sun a new Eclipse at his death Such a star and such an Eclipse as were miracles in their nature site motion portent to all other stars and Eclipses Such a star and such an Eclipse as were the mysteries of all other stars and Eclipses Set apart to signifie his power in Heaven at the greatest instants of his infirmity upon earth Thus they testified of him and yet was not among these Miracles nor mighty works that were wrought by him 10 Whether Miracles may be wrought out of the Church Although we make not the power of working miracles to be the perpetual note of Gods Church yet we determine the Church to be the proper seat of them And in determining we do thus distinguish That God may be pleased to work miracles all the world over and that by his Angles as his Ministers in the Government thereof but employs not men to that purpose save onely within his Church And do distinguish again that privative miracles or those of wrath and judgment may be wrought out of the Church but not positive or those of Grace and mercy And our reasons are 1. Because the main end of working Miracles is for the plantation and confirmation of the Gospel the truth of Gods word and that cannot be without the Church 2. The power of working Miracles is from a promise and that belongs to the Church alone 3. In a Miracle is considerable not so much the evident effect as the secret intent and this consideration is onely for the faithful in the Church 4. The truth of the word is not to be measured by miracles but the truth of miracles by the Word and where is that but in the Church 5. Miracles tend as to the glory of God so to the edification of the Godly and who looks for that or them out of Gods Church 6. Satans stupendous prodigies are mostly wrought out of the Church but Gods wonderful miracles within it 7. Though it hath been said that miracles were intended for Infidels yet were they not effected but by believers and by believers either to convince or to convert those Infidels 11. Whether wicked men and reprobates may be workers of miracles Not by Angelical assistance not by diabolical confederation not by the secret of Nature not by the study of Art but by divine dispensation they may 1. Because God may be pleased to employ them to this purpose and yet give them no more but a faith of miracles which is common to reprobates 2. Because that of miracles is a gift not simply making accepted but may be given onely for others sakes 3. God hath wrought miracles by dead instruments and why not by men of a dead faith and dead in trespasses and sinnes 4. Wicked men may be used in the working of miracles for a testimony of Gods truth yet not in a manifestation of their own graces 5. Bad men have been imployed in working of miracles that good men might not be proud or overweening of common gifts 6. The working of miracles is not appropriated to godly men lest ordinary Graces might be undervalued and weak Christians might take scandal and despair in their defect of the extraordinary gift 12. Wherein differ true and false miracles or divine and diabolical Theological and magical 1. The one kind are wrought by God by Angels Prophets Apostles and sometimes by the Saints the other not but by devils magicians Juglers ungodly men 2. The one are solid and real in effect the other are phantasmatical and praestigiously deceiveing the sense 3. The one God freely calls to do the other are not done but by tempting both God and the Devil 4. The one are serious and upon occasions of importance the other are ludicrous and serve to make vain men sport 5. The one tend to confirm the Church the other to seduce from it 6. The one are liberal the other mercenary 7. The one profitable the other pernicious 8. The one make humble and modest the other arrogant and full of ostentation 9. The one serves to instruct the other onely to astonish 10. The one are wrought with devout Prayer Supplication Thanksgiving the other by superstitious imprecation adjuration incantation with many ridiculous signes and execrable ceremonies nothing pertaining to the producing of the effect And thus they differ in their Authors instruments dignity quality duration utility end and effect 13. Whether Magicians Conjurers Inchanters Witches c work not their miracles or rather signes wonders prodigies portents by the devils means It is affirmed that they do so for these reasons 1. Because they do them not by God Angels Nature or Art as appears sufficiently by what hath been said already and therefore they must needs do them by the devil 2. Because they operate upon a compact which is evident in that invocation adoration sacrifice immolation c. is hereunto required 3. Because they operate by idolatrous superstitious sorcerous execrable ridiculous signes rites and ceremonies 4. Because they secretly invoke although they outwardly would seem to command which imploration and imperiousnesse yea and dissimulation between both these is to God and good Angels abominable 5. Because their Prayers and preparations are blaspheming railing execrating threatning prophane superstitious absurd ridiculous which neither God nor good Angel can indure 6. Because they seek either to allure or compel their operating power by things sensible 7. Because the fact exceeding Natures order and Arts efficacy yet there can be no reasonable cause why such an effect should be ascribed either to God or good Angels 8. Because the effect is by them ascribed to times places figures characters rites ceremonies c. 9. Because there are used hereunto words besides names of God and Angels barbarous unknown insignificant incoherent apocryphal superstitious sorcerous detorted absurd ridiculous c. 10. Because they make use of means unlawful unapt and not ordained to such a purpose 11. Because they do their feats upon vain and light occasions 12. Because they effect that or seem so to do at a distance which the causes themselves could not naturally do were they proximately applyed 13. Because their miracles or wonders are not wrought but at certain times in certain places and by certain means as under such constellations by such configurations by such animal parts stones herbs preparations confections c. 14. Because they seem to make many cautions in the preparation which they violate in the execution As they caution to cleannesse chastity temperance sobriety justice charity c. yet the exercise is wholly of and to the contrary 15. Because they are not onely ungodly men that do them but they do them for wicked ends As idolatry murder theft covetousnesse lusts pride ambition vain-glory c. 16. Because if there be any truth or reality of extraordinary effect either through natures secret disposition or Arts studious operation yet diabolical suggestion intervenes and prompts the instruments to mingle many vanities and fallacies of signes and ceremonies