The Magical-Astrological-Diviner Posed and Puzzled, Treatise · Chapter 27 · Section 15
15. Of thoſe that have retracted, recanted, repented of the ſtudy, practice, and conſult of Magick and Aſtrologie: and that either fruitfully, or unfruitfully, deſperately, or contritely.
MAnaſſeh was a Magician, for he obſerved times, and uſed inchauntments, & uſed witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar ſpirit, and with wizzards, 2 Chron. 33. 6. yet we believe that he truly and unfainedly repented, and although his prayer be Apocryphall, for he beſought the Lord his God, and humbled himſelfe greatly before the God of his father; and prayed unto him, and he was entreated of him, and heard his ſupplication.—Then Manaſſeh knew that the Lord he was God, Verſ. 12, 13. Neither doe we make any doubt of the hearty and effectuall repentance of thoſe Exorciſts, Acts 19. 17, 18. becauſe feare …ell on them all, and the name of the Lord Ieſus was magnified; and many that believed came and confeſſed, and ſhewed their deeds; many alſo of them which uſed curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men.—So mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed. The like we believe of the Damſell, Act. 16. 16, 17, 18. becauſe poſſeſſed with a ſpirit of divination (paſſive rather then active, the divel divining by her, rather then ſhe by the Divel.) The ſame followed Paul and us, and cried ſaying, theſe men are the ſervants of the moſt high God, which ſhew unto us the way of ſalvation. A good confeſſion in all reſpects, (take it to be the Damſels, and not the Divels ſpeech) giving God and his Miniſters their due, and yet claming their own intereſt withall. But as for Simon Magus his repenting (pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of theſe things which ye have ſpoken come upon me, Acts 8. 24.) who can judge it to be other then falſe and fruitleſſe? For he was terrified onelyonly with an apprehenſion of the puniſhment, not of the ſin: and put off that duty to others, which he ſhould have exerciſed himſelfe.
Tiberius importunate to know, who ſhould be his ſucceſſor in the Empire? it was anſwered, even he that ſhould firſt come to him the next morning. Hereupon he gave order to his Tutor, to bring his Nephew Tiberius to him, very early the next day: and the day appearing, commanded Euodus (ignorant of his intent and deſire) to goe out, and bring in to him the firſt youth that he met, which fell out to be Caius: which when Tiberius ſaw, he was infinitely troubled, exceedingly beſhrewing himſelfe, that he had ſought after any Augurie or preſage at all. For whereas he might have lived, and died a great deale more contentedly, had he been altogether ignorant of things future; their fore-knowledge now ſerved onelyonly to adde both to the miſeries of his life and death.
After the death of Caeſar, which was ſaid to follow the fatidicall prediction of Spurina the Mathematician; the people lamented, and wiſht that the curſed Diviner had rather loſt his skill; then that a father of his Countrey ſhould ſo have loſt his life.
Nero was himſelfe held to be a great Mag aſtro-mancer, and wanted neither wit nor will, nor wealth, nor Tutors, nor inſtruments, nor ſtudy, nor credulity; yet for all this confeſſed that he never found any argument of truth, nor experiment of reality in magicall operation; which made him at laſt abdicate and renounce it, reject and contemne it; and abhorre and condemne himſelfe for ever having to doe with it.
Origen is often cited by Magicians and Aſtrologers, as if he were their own: howbeit in his books (and eſpecially as Euſebius cites him) he plainly and abundantly refutes them. And therfore if he were more addicted to them, it is certaine enough that he converted from them.
St. Cyprian ſometimes addicted to the ſtudy of magick repented of it at his converſion. And if that booke de duplici Martyrio be his, we have there this his confeſſion: They that uſe Magicall art… have denied Chriſt, and made a compact with the Divell: from which evill the mercy of the Lord hath delivered us; as it hath alſo from all the reſt, in which we were held, while we ſometimes walked according to the old man.
St. Auguſtine confeſſed that he was very much enclined to the ſtudy of Magick and Aſtrology; but, after his converſion, he utterly abandoned, and condemned it. And to this purpoſe relates this ſtory of himſelfe. A friend of his (one Firminus) and he, walking together, both of them being addicted to the conſtellationall way: Firminus askes his opinion of his conſtellation, about a ſecular buſineſſe he had then in hand. St. Auguſtine, ſomewhat changed in his generall opinion of it, told him, that he conceived that way to be vaine and ridiculous. Firminus inſiſted, and told him a ſtory from his father, and his fathers friend, two genethliacall Aſtrologers, and ſo preciſe obſervatours, as that they calculated the births of the very bruit beaſts in their families. And it ſo fell out, that his mother bare him, and the others mayd brought forth a ſonne alſo in one day, houre, and minute, as neere as could be gueſt. But now theſe two (ſo born alike) proved to be of various and contrary both fortunes and manners, in every reſpect. Upon this relation of Firminus, Auguſtine abhorred the falſity of natalitiall prognoſtications more and more; and ſo reſolved to caſt it off without all ſcruple: and not onelyonly ſo, but was inſtant to convince the other of this vanity, from his own narration, and thus to revoke him from it too.
As St. Auguſtine was preaching to the people, there was preſented before him, in the Church, a Mathematician. Concerning whom he thus ſpake. This man, of race a Chriſtian, then relapſed, is now returned a penitent: and being terrified with the power of the Lord, he is now againe received to the mercy of the Lord. Seduced he was by the enemy, and long continued a Mathematician; not onelyonly ſeduced, but ſeducing; as wel deceiving as deceived. Many lies hath he ſpoken againſt God (who gave unto him a power to doe good, not to doe evill) ſaying, It is not a mans will, that makes him commit adultery, but Ʋenus; nor yet to commit murder, but Mars: neither doth God make a man juſt, but Iupiter. And many other were his ſacrilegious ſayings. How many Chriſtians hath he gulled of their money? How many have bought lying predictions of him at a deare rate? But now (as we believe of him) he abhors this lying trade. For having enticed others, he now perceives himſelf to be the moſt enſnared by the devil. And now penitent before God and men, he is become a true convert. For we perſwade our ſelves, it onelyonly proceeds from the awfull feare of his heart. Did we not rejoyce at that Mathematicians converſion, who converted from a pagan; although he ſeemed to doe it for ſome promotion in the Church? But this penitent ſeeks for mercy onelyonly; and therefore is the rather to be commended both to your eyes and hearts. Receive him, and love him, leſt Satan again may tempt him. Let your teſtimony and approbation confirm his converſion. He was loſt, but now is found. Long did he knock at the doores of the Church, ere he was ſuffered to enter: but he is now brought in, and hath brought with him his bookes to be burnt (by which himſelfe might have burned unquenchably) that they caſt into the fire, himſelfe might enter into that everlaſting refreſhing. We ſuffered him the longer to ſupplicate for the remedy from the ſchoole of Chriſt, becauſe the art wherein he hath been exerciſed, is to be ſuſpected, not onelyonly of falſity in it ſelfe, but of fallacy in good. And therefore we delayed him, that he might not delude and tempt us. But now we have admitted him, that he might not be tempted again, and deluded himſelfe. Pray ye therefore to Chriſt for him; for the prayer of his Church is available againſt all impoſtures and impieties.
Iulian greatly corrupted with magicall ſuperſtition, began a little (through preſent horrour of conſcience) to look back again to Chriſtianity: and lay a while at the Church doores, weeping and crying, Tread upon me unſauoury Salt. But Ecebolius, a Magician, hindred his true repentance, and thorough converſion; and brought him back again into that damnable ſuperſtition, worſe then at the firſt. The ſame Ecebolius (after Iulians death) fayned the like repentance, and is ſaid to uſe the ſame words, but to as little fruit. The ſame Iulian having received his deaths wound, roared and rayled at the Sunne, which the Aſtrologers had made him believe was the auſpicious dominator at his birth; accuſing it for ſhining ſo propitiouſly upon the Perſians, but not favouring him with any fortunate influence: and ſo died, impiouſly curſing God, and the Stars; but the Star-gazers and himſelfe for adhering to them, not undeſervedly.
Wenceſlaus ſent for a wagon full of Conjurers to play tricks, and make ſport: amongſt the reſt he called Zyto; who comming in with a wide mouth, cloven to both his eares, ſwallowed up the chiefe Conjurer, and voyds him again downward, &c. but was himſelfe carried away by the divel, which ſo moved Wenceſlaus that he thence forwards ſeriouſly applied himſelfe to the meditation of ſacred things.
Pope Sylveſter the ſecond, of a Monke became a Magician, infinuated himſelfe into the familiarity of a Necromanticall Saracene, and ſtole from him a Conjuring-book; and ſtudying or practiſing that art, obtained (by the divels meanes) the Popedome. Which dignity ſo ſoon as he had aſcended, he diſſembled his black art, under that holy veſtment: but kept a brazen head in a ſecret place, from which he ſought and received divining anſwers. And enquiring of the divell, how long he ſhould live in the Papall dignity? he anſwered aequivocatingly; that he ſhould live long, if he came not at Hieruſalem Now in the fourth yeere of his Pontificate, as he was ſacrificing in the Church of the holy Croſſe, in Hieruſalem, at Rome, he was ſuddenly ſtricken with a grievous feaver, and began to be convinced that thus the divell had deluded him, and now he muſt die. Whereupon he began to be penitent, and confeſſing before the people, deplored the wickedneſſe of his magicall errour. Exhorting all men, avoyding ambition, and diabolicall deceits, to live well, and holily; intreating them every one, that after his death, the trunke of his body, torne and diſmembred (as it juſtly deſerved) might be laid upon a Cart, and buried in that place whither the horſes carried it of their own accord. And in the extremity of his death, beſought that his hands and tongue might be cut out, by w…ich 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 onelyonly 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 …nlearned 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 T…eametargus: 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.