Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	devil_n	father_n	lie_n	3,415	5	9.0726	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67813	Sidrophel vapulans, or, The quack-astrologer toss'd in a blanket by the author of Medicaster medicatus ; in an epistle to W---m S---n [i.e. William Salmon] ; with a postscript, reflecting briefly on his late scurilous libel against the Royal College of Physicians, entituled, A rebuke to the authors of the blue book, by the same hand.	Yonge, James, 1647-1721.	1699 (1699)	Wing Y42A; ESTC R32944	55,470	76

D. 1464. Arnoldus That Antichrist would appear 1345. and that A. D. 1174. the Arabian Jewish and Christian Astrologers all agreed that the utmost Desolation of the World by Tempest would happen A. D. 1186. How false these Predictions were time hath shewn the World Sextus ab Heminga collected thirty Eminent Nativities Calculated by the best Rules of this lying Art and they proved all false by Experience sad Events happening to those on whom the Heavens by the Rules of Astrology smiled and happiness to such as they frowned upon Cardan and Gaurichius both Calculated the Nativity of Hen. 2. who was slain in his fortieth Year Causin Holy Court p. 360. by a Splinter of Mongomery's Launce though one of them said He should live to an happy old age and the other that if he survived the great Climaterick Year he should live gloriously to 70. Both did the like with Luther and were both alike mistaken Cardan who as Gassendus saith was a Man of the best Wit Brains and Learning of any Astrologer spent an hundred hours on the Birth of our Edward 6th and after all that Industry was scandalously mistaken in his Fate Gassend p 748. lib. 1 de quad c. 2. Sect. 13. for He died in his 16th Year who by the Astrologer's Calculation should not be sick till his 25th and after that die of a Flux and a Fever Si vis divinare contrarium ei ad unguem dicito quod Astrologi aut pollicentur aut minitantur was the saying of Martianus not only commended but verified by Cardan Who after all his Skill confest that scarce one of their Predictions in forty proved true Lib. de Judic cap. 6. D● More Myst p. 356. So that the best of them can't forbear owning themselves no Wizards they all seem Infatuated and more under the Power of Witchcraft than above it J. R. Camerarius was as much out in his Judgment upon the Nativity of Henry 4th and Gassendus relates how much Nostradamus was mistaken in his Genethliacs on the Scheme of Suffredus his Nativity For to him all things happened quite contrary to the Lying Predictions of that famous Astrologer Now if such Masters in the Art had not Skill enough to avoid such gross Mistakes What can be expected from such half witted Astrologers as Merlinus Liberatus and Sidrophel who every Year expose themselves to this Censure And as for Friend John the humble Servant of Vrania all the many Calculations in his Collect. Genet are accused of Falshood by his Brother Partridge Opus Reformatum 7. Their not foreseeing the most remarkable Events sufficiently shows the Vanity of their Art and their own Ignorance This is manifest in the great Accidents of the last Thirty Years the Reslauration of King Charles II. the Plague and Fire of London the treble War 1666. Oates 's Plot the great Snow 1681. and the Frost 1683. the Death of King Charles and the Fate of his Brother the Stupendous Revolution 1688. the Death of Pope Innocent XI the Dukes of Newburgh and Lorrain who were the grand Pillars of the Confederacy and died in one Year the great and Marvellous turn of Affairs in Austria Hungaria and the Morea the many terrible Earthquakes in Jamaica Sicilia Naples Flanders and London and the Death of Queen Mary were things our Astrologers foreknew no more than Lilly could Divine who shit at his Door Think you that Sidrophel so cunning a Conjurer as he would be thought if he had foreseen the time of that great Ladies Death would have placed Lawrels on her Brow and told her of their being always green but the Year before they withered Against this Reflection I know but one Instance they have to object and that is the Hints Mene-Tekel gave of King James's Death a little before the Abdication Suppose but not granting that to be true too it doth not follow because once in an Age among a thousand false Prophecies one is fulfilled that they are true Prophets more than that the Devil is not a Lyer because he once spake truth The veracity of them both is the same in despight of a single Instance each have to the contrary One Swallow doth not make a Summer When Astrologers like the Father of Lyes commonly fail and err in their Predictions it 's to be supposed that Chance or some other Intelligence not the Stars put them so rarely into the right Children and Fools speak truth saith the Proverb And the Scriptures tell us that the Devil himself by the Miraculous Power of Christ had such a force put upon his Nature as to do it once when he acknowledged our Saviour to be the Son of God Astrologers may therefore be allowed to resemble them in this as they do in all things else though like common Lyers they are not to be believed till their Truth becomes apparent by experience and that God wot will be but seldom If it be a good Argument to prove the Truth of Astrology that some Predictions have been verified by the same sort of Logick it 's to be proved false because their Divinations are oftener so than otherwise as is confessed by Cardan and proved by Picus Heminga Gassendus Chambers and many others Mene-Tekel not only got the Author a great Name but patcht up the decayed Credit of Astrology among the Populace because they could not see the Spirit by which he Divin'd But wiser Men knew he Predicted by Intelligence with the Contrivers not the Planets The Stars that presignified it to him dwelt on Earth not in the Twelve Houses of Heaven And they perhaps did not err who lookt on the whole thing as a Political Device to dispose the Minds of People to that great Change We all know that he fail'd in the Death of King James the Employment of his Gallows and many other particulars And he that knew the great and universal discontent in the Nation at the Management of Affairs under that unfortunate Prince and how many were engaged to dethrone him might without Astrology foresee as much as he I know a Great Man who although no Conjurer told me as much and as soon as Mene-Tekel did of that business The Laplanders may easily foretel a Storm they are about to raise and he that is the Instrument of Mischief is best able to Predict the consequence of his Design Like those Skilful Poysoners Naturalists * Theophr Hist Plant. l. 9 c. 6. Boyl Nat. Phil. p. 264. Medela Medie p. 103. Ramsey of Poyson p. 10. and Travellers tell us of who contrive the fatal Dose so that the Victim shall not die in many Years after taking it and then not miss an hour Such a Pandora may easily turn Astrologer as well as Poysoner and foretel the time of the Patient's Exit more certainly than any Genethliac by the Nativity We are told that the Indians have and Caesar Borgia had this pernicious Skill and it 's suspected that there were in England some who without Astrology