The Magical-Astrological-Diviner Posed and Puzzled, Treatise · Chapter 27 · Section 4
4. Of the diabolicall, originall, and obſcure, and ſpurious Inventers, Authors, and Tutors, to praeſtigious Magick, and divining Aſtrologie.
THe Delphian Oracle was firſt invented by a Goat; and thats the reaſon why a Goat is there immolated by the conſulters. For a goat looking into a great chink or cleft of the earth, began to inſult with ſtrange voyce, and geſture; which made the admiring ſhepheards peepe in too, and ſo were corrupted with fury to prediction. The fame of this made it to be adjudged an earthly oracle, and ſo a Tripode was built over it for divination. It was firſt aſcribed to Tellus, Tellus gave it to Thenus, and Thenus to Apollo.
Tages the nephew of Iupiter, the ſonne of a Genius, or a Divel, yea an evill Genius, or a Divel himſelfe, taught the Hetrurians the aruſpicinall diſcipline, or the art of divining. For, as a certaine Plowman was plowing in the Tarquinian field, there ſuddenly ſtarts up from under a clod, this Tages, in the forme of a little child, and ſpake to the Plowman: at which he aſtoniſhed, cried out; whereupon in came all the Hetrurians; and then he taught them this art or diſcipline for the ſpace of ſix houres together, and they wrote it from his mouth; and ſo he died, or diſappeared. Some ſay that this Tages was onelyonly a baſe obſcure fellow, and that he grew famous on a ſudden, from the art of divining.
Soſipatra a propheteſſe, the wife of Aedeſius the Sophiſter, had two Daemons in the form of old men, that taught her the ſecrets of Magick, for the ſpace of five yeeres together.
A ſtrange old woman came to Tarquin the proud, and offered him nine books to ſale (which ſhe ſaid were divine Oracles) and asking him a huge price for them, the King laught at her, for making ſo monſtrous a demand: whereupon ſhe burnt three of them before his face, and ſtill asked the ſame price for the reſt; at which the King laughed ſo much the more; then burning other three, and yet bating nothing of her former price, the King conceived there might be ſome rare thing contained in them, and bought the laſt three at the ſame rate: and ſo the woman went out, and was never ſeen after by any. Now theſe books they kept as divinatory Oracles, to be conſulted as occaſion ſerved.
One hath a pretty Apologue to this effect: A light giddy huſwife, Dame vanity, ſtole into the bed of a wilde youth called Sir Curioſity; and betwixt them both was begotten a manyfaced Elfe, called Magick: and fearing leſt the Lady Truth ſhould cauſe it to be ſtrangled as ſoon as it was born, for a monſter; the two ſureties of it, or guardians, Grandſire Impudence, and Grandame Superſtition, having wrapt it up in the mantle of an old crone, called Difficulty, and her waiting puzzle named Jill Hard-trifle attending upon it; they committed it to nurſe to a prodigious Hagge, that hight Praeſtigie: ſhe carried it up and down to the blind houſes of Gaffer Ignorance and Gammer Folly; in whoſe families it has lurkt ever ſince, entertained onelyonly by a fond Goſſip, called Credulity; where it ſtill keeps in (like an Owle) all the day time of Truth and Peace; and never dares to peep abroad, but in the twilight of Error and Diſtraction.
From the ſect of the Grecians have proceeded all theſe books of Darkneſſe, which Ʋlpianus the Lawyer calls books diſallowed to be read, and forthwith appointed them to be deſtroyed. Of which ſort the firſt is Zabulus reported to invent, who was given to unlawfull Arts: then Barnabas a certain Cyprian. And now in theſe daies, there are carried about books with feined titles; under the names of Adam, Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Solomon; alſo Paul, Honorius, Cyprianus, Albertus, Thomas, Hierome, and of a certain man of Yorke; whoſe toyes Alphonſus King of Caſtile, Robert an Engliſhman, Bacon, and Apponus, and many other men of deplored wit, have fooliſhly followed. Moreover they have not made Men onelyonly, and Saints and Patriarks, and the Angels of God, the Authours of ſuch execrable opinions, but they boaſt alſo that theſe books were delivered by Raziel and Raphael the angels of Adam and Tobias, which books openly betray themſelves, to him that looks narrowly into them, &c.
Peter (in …lement) deduces this art from the prevaricating Angels; proving, how they taught men, that the Divels doe obey mortall men, according to certaine arts, and may be compelled thereunto, that is, by magicall invocations.
Cham the ſonne of Noa…, delivered the ill found out diſcipline of Magick art, to a certaine ſonne of his, called Miſrai… (from whom is derived the race of the Aegyptians, Babylonians, and Perſians) him the Nations that then were, called Zoroaſter, the firſt author of the admired magicall art. His maſter in this vanity, was Ayovax or Azovax &c.
Methodius writeth, that in the 340 yeere of Jared there aroſe the inventors of the evil art, men full of all wickedneſs, of the ſonnes of Cain: as Iabeth, and Tholuſcoll, the ſonnes of Lamech, who was blind; in the time of whoſe dominion the divel perverted them to all kind of Magicall arts.
Zabulus and Zamolxis addicted to unlawfull arts, firſt invented, or rather propagated it, ſo as that without doubt it might be determined for iſſuing from their father the Divel. There followed their ſteps Almadal, Alchiudus, and Hipochus, from the root of the Arabians; Apuſ…herus, Za…atus, and Cobares, among the Medes; Marmaridius, among the Babylonians; Zarmoce…das among the Aſſyrians; Abbaris among the Hyperboreans; Theſpetion among the Aethiopians; Arunphis among the Aegyptians; Julian among the Chaldaeans, called the Thaurgiſts, &c.
Beſides the ſpurious, fictitious, and aſcriptitious books of Adam, Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Moſes, Aaron, Daniel, Solomon, Zacharias, Paul, &c. St. Auguſtine (oh horrour of blaſphemy!) reports certaine fooliſh, wretched Pagans, (affected themſelves to magicall art) to have boaſted that they had ſeen and read books of Magicall art written by Chriſt himſelfe; and by an epiſtolary title directed to Peter and Paul: affirming that by the arts therein contained, he did all thoſe miracles for which he was ſo famous. But the Father bids ſhew thoſe books they ſpake of; and askes if they by them can learn to doe as he did? and withall proves againſt them, That Chriſt himſelfe wrote no booke at all; that he need not write to Peter, becauſe he was alwaies with him; that he could not write to Paul, becauſe he was not called till after his paſſion; and that he would not write of Magick, becauſe it was contrary to his doctrine; and that even his enemies were thus convinc't how venerable and vertuous the name of Chriſt was; in that they thought and ſought to winne the waight of authority to ſuch their execrable arts, by commentitiouſly prefixing his moſt glorious name.
Caſſandra deſperately loved by Apollo, and importunately ſolicited by him, would not conſent, unleſſe he would firſt beſtow upon her the gift of Divination. Which the credulous lover ſoon granted; but ſhe having already obtained her deſire, refuſed to ſtand to her promiſe, for the ſatisfaction of his. This the divining God could not foreſee; yet indigning to finde himſelfe ſo deluded, becauſe he could not recall ſuch his fatall gift, he laid this curſe upon it, That whatſoever ſhe vaticinated, ſhe ſhould not be believed. Let it be a curſe to the predictors not to be believed: ſurely it is a bleſſing to Chriſtians not to believe them. And believe them who liſt, whoſe originall endowment was from a luſt.
The firſt man that themſelves confeſſe to have attained to the skill of a Prophet in Tharſus, was a ſilly Shepheard; having only ſo much wit, as taught him to take advantage of the follies of his Countreymen. Others ſay, the firſt Prophet of this kind was found by chance in an old vault, in Hetruria: without knowledge either of his name, his dwelling, or the mean that conveyed him thither.
When began the motions of the Starres, and accordingly the genethliacall way to be known? was it not after Theatis the Aegyptian? or elſe, as ſome ſay, after Atlas, the prop and ſupporter of the heavens?
The Originall and foundation of Magicall and Aſtrologicall arts, is yet more dubious and fabulous, from the falſe opinions and impoſſible, about the time of the worlds beginning, and computation of the yeeres thereof. Apuleius was of opinion, that the world, and men, and arts therein, were from eternity. And being deſtroyed by flouds and conflagrations, (in ſome parts, but not all) were repaired, but not created. The Indians boaſted of men living long before Adam; and that they could name who was Adams father and maſter. The Aegyptians fained, that they had a ſtory in letters comprehending thirteen thouſand yeeres. The Chaldaeans dotingly gloried, that they had monuments of Aſtrology, containing foure hundred and ſeventy thouſand yeeres. Plato accounts many thouſands of ages to have been paſt, ſince the exiſtence of the world; and induces an Aegyptian Prieſt talking with Solon, and affirming, that Athens of the Greekes, and Sais of the Aegyptians, were built, one nine, the other eight thouſand yeeres before their time. The Aegyptians fained that the Starres, from their firſt originall, had four times runne their courſes, (and the Stars doe not once abſolve their courſe but in 36000 yeeres) and that the Sunne had twice ſet where it now riſes: and that their Kings, to Ptolomy, had raigned there above ſeventy thouſand yeeres: and that for more then an hundred thouſand yeeres, Aegypt had been skilfull in comprehending the way of the Starres. The Indians bragd of their hiſtoricall monuments, that from the time of Liber Pater to Alexander the great, there were an hundred fifty and three Indian Kings; through▪ the ſpace of ſix thouſand foure hundred and two yeeres, and three moneths. The Chaldaeans, from their firſt obſervation of the Starres, to Alexanders time, number foure hundred thouſand yeeres. Pliny reports from Eudoxus, that Zoroaſter lived ſix thouſand yeeres before Platoes death. Hernippus ſaith the ſame man was five thouſand yeeres before the Trojane warre. Betwixt Ʋulcan the ſonne of Nilus the Aegyptian and Alexander of Macedon, were (they ſay) forty eight thouſand, eight hundred ſixty three yeeres: in which time there hapned three hundred ſeventy three Defects or Ecclipſes of the Sunne, and eight hundred thirty two of the Moon. The Aegyptians record in their annals above thirteen thouſand ages of yeeres, and three hundred and thirty Kings before Ameſis. Betwixt Oſiris, and Iſis, and Alexander of Macedon, ſome reckon ten thouſand, others twenty three thouſand yeers. Other fable the Gods, and Heroes to have raigned there no leſſe then eighteen thouſand, and men little leſſe then fifteen thouſand yeeres, unto the hundred and eighty olimpiad. Alexander in an Epiſtle to his mother Olympias, wrote the narration of a certaine Aegyptian Prieſt inſinuating the Kingdom of the Aſſyrians, to exceed five thouſand yeeres: the Empire of the Perſians and Macedonians unto Alexander, more then eight thouſand yeeres. The Aſſyrians, through the vaſtneſſe and plainneſſe of their Region, whence they might on all parts behold the trajections and motions of the Starres; theſe being noted they firſt committed to memory what was thereby ſignified to every one; in which Nation the Chaldaeans (ſo called not from their art, but their countrey) by continuall obſervation of the Stars, are thought to have made the ſcience, whereby it might be predicted what ſhould befall every one, and with what fate every one was born.