Book I.

A
INTRO-
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
STUDY 'OF NATURAL MAGIC,
OF THE INFLUENCES OF THE STARS.
It has been a fubjeH of ancient difpute whether or not the liars, as fecond caufes, do fo rule and influence man as to ingraft in his nature certain pailions, virtues, propenfities, &c., and this to take root in him at the very critical moment of his being born into this vale of mifery and wretchednefs 5 likewife, if their fite and configuration at this time do fhew forth his future paffions and purfuijts ; and by their revolutions, tranfits, and direfted afpefts, they point out the particular accidents of the body, marriage, ficknefs, preferments, and fuch like ; the which I have often revolved in my mind for many years paft, having been at all times in all places a warm advocate for ftellary divination or altrology : therefore in this place it is highly neceflary that we examine how far this influence extends to man, feeing that I fully admit that man is endowed with a free-will from God, which the liars can in no wile counteraft. And as there is in man the power and apprehenfion of all divination, and wonderful things, feeing that we have a complete fyllem in ourfelves, therefore are we called the microcofm, or little world ; for we carry
A 2 a heaven
4 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NATURAL MAGIC,
a heaven in ourfelves from our beginning, for God hath fealed in us the image of himfelf ; and of all created beings we are the epitome, therefore we muft be careful, left we confound and mix one thing with another. Neverthelefs, man, as a pattern of the great world, fympathizes with it according to the ftars, which, agreeably to the Holy Scriptures, are fet for times and feafons, and not as caufes of this or that evil, which may pervade kingdoms or private families, although they do in fome meafure forefliew them, yet they are in no wife the caufe ; therefore I conceive in a wide different fenfe to what is gene- rally underftood that “ Stars rule men, but a wife man rules the ftars to which I anfwer, that the ftars do not rule men, according to the vulgar and received opinion ; as if the ftars fhould ftir up men to murders, feditions, broils, lulls, fornications, adulteries, drunkennefs, &c. which the common aftrologers hold forth as found and true doCtrine ; becaufe, they fay, Mars and Saturn, being conjun6f, do this and much more, and many other configurations and afflic- tions of the two great infortunes, ( as ihey are termed ) when the benevolent planets Jupiter, Venus, and Sol, happen to be detrimented or afflicted ; there- fore, then, they fay men influenced by them are molt furely excited to the commiflion of the vices before named yet a wife man may, by the liberty of his own free-will, make thofe affections and inclinations void, and this they call “ To rule the ftars but let them know, according to the fenfe here un- derftood, firft, it is not in a wife man to refill evil inclinations, but of the grace of God, and we call none wife but luch as are endued with grace ; for, as we have faid before, all natural wifdom from the hands of man is foolilhnefs in the fiffht of God ; which was not before underftood to be a wife man fenced with grace ; for why fhould he rule the ftars, who has not any occafion to fear con- quered inclinations ? — therefore a natural wife man is as fubjeCt to the flavery of fin as others more ignorant than himfelf, yet the ftars do not incline him to fin. God created the heavens without fpot, and pronounced them good, there- fore it is the greateft abfurdity to fuppofe the ftars, by a continual inclining of us to this or that mifdeed, fhould be our tempters, which we eventually make them, if we admit they caufe inclinations ; but know that it is not from with- out, but within, by fin, that evil inclinations do arife : according to the Scrip- tures,
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OP NATURAL MAGIC. h
tures, “ Out of the heart of man proceeds evil cogitations, murmurs, adulteries, thefts, murders, &c.” Becaufe, as the heavens and apprehension of all celef- tial virtues are fealed by God in the foul and fpirit of man ; fo when man becomes depraved by fin and the indulgence of his grofs and carnal appetite, he then be- comes the feat of the Infernal Powers, which may be juftly deemed a hell ; for then the bodily and flelhly fenfe obfcures the bright purity and thinnefs of the fpirit, and he becomes the inftrument of our fpiritual enemy in the exercife of all infernal lulls and paffions.
Therefore it is moft neceffary for us to know that we are to beware of grant- ing or believing any effedts from the influences of the ftars more than they have naturally ; becaufe there are many whom I have lately converfed with, and great men, too, in this nation, who readily affirm that the Jlars are the eaufes of any kinds of difeafes, inclinations, and fortunes ; likewife that they blame the liars for all their mifcondu6l and misfortunes.
Neverthelefs, we do not by thefe difcourfes prohibit or deny all influence to the liars ; on the contrary, we affirm there is a natural fympathy and antipathy amonglt all things throughout the whole univerfe, and this we lhall Ihew to be difplayed through a variety of effects ; and likewife that the liars, as figns, do forelhew great mutations, revolutions, deaths of great men, governors of pro- vinces, kings, and emperors ; likewife the weather, tempells, earthquakes, deluges, &c. ; and this according to the law of Providence. The lots of all men do Hand in the hands of the Lord, for he is the end and beginning of all things ; he can remove crowns and fceptres, and difplace the moll cautious arrangements and councils of man, who, when he thinks himfelf moll fecure, tumbles headlong from the feat of power, and lies grovelling in the dull.
Therefore our altrologers in moll of their fpeculations feek without a light, for they conceive every thing may be known or read in the liars : if an odd filver fpoon is but loll, the innocent liars are obliged to give an account of it ; if an old maiden lofes a favourite puppy, away Hie goes to an oracle of divi- nation for information of the whelp. Oh ! vile credulity, to think that thofe celef- tial bodies take cognizance of, and give in their configurations and afpe6ts, continual information of the lowelt and vilelt tranfa6lions of dotards, the moll
trivial
6 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NATURAL MAGIC,
trivial and frivolous quedions that are pretended to be refolved by an infpec- tion into the figure of the heavens. Well does our legiflature juftly condemn as juggling impoltors all thofe idle vagabonds who infeft various parts of this metropolis, and impofe upon the fimple and unfufpefting, by anfwering, for a (hilling or half-crown fee, whatever thing or circum (lance may be propofed to them, as if they were God’s vicegerents on earth, and his deputed privy counfellors.
They do not even fcruple ever to perfuade poor mortals of the lower clafs, that they (hew images in glades, as if they a6tually confederated with evil fpirits : a notable indance I will here recite, that happened very lately in this city. Two penurious Frenchmen, taking advantage of the credulity of the common people, who are continually gaping after fuch toys, had fo contrived a telefcope or optic glafs as that various letters and figures (hould be refle61ed in an obfcure manner, (hewing the images of men and women, &c. ; fo that when any one came to confult thefe jugglers, after paying the ufual fee, they, according to the urgency of the query, produced anfwers by thofe figures or let- ters 5 the which affrights the infpe61or into the glafs fo much, that he or fhe fup- pofes they have got fome devildh thing or other in hand, by which they remain under the full conviftion of having actually beheld the parties they wiflied to fee, though perhaps they may at the fame time be refiding many hundreds of miles didance therefrom : they, having received this impredion from a pre-con- eeived idea of feeing the image of their friend in this optical machine, go away, and anon report, with an addition of ten hundred lies, that they have been witnefs of a miracle. I fay this kind of deception is only to be a6fed with the vulgar, who, rather than have their imaginations balked, would fwallow the mod abominable lies and conceits. For indance, who would fuppofe that any rational being could be perfuaded that a fellow-creature of proper fize and ftature (hould be able by any means to thrud his body into a quart bottle ? — the which thing was advertifed to the public by a merry knave (not thinking there were fuch fools in exidence), to be done by him in a public theatre. Upwards of 600 perfons were affembled to behold the tranfa61ion, never dcabting but the fellow meant to keep his word, when, to the great mortification
and
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NATURAL MAGIC. 7
and difgrace of this long-headed audience, the conjuror came forth amidft a general ftir and buz, of “ Ay, now ! fee ! now ! fee ! he is juft going to jump in.” — “ Indeed,” fays the conjuror, “ ladies and gentlemen, I am not ; for if you
were fuch fools as to believe fuch an abfurdity, I am not wife enough to do it : ’ ’
therefore, making his bow, he difappeared, to the great difcomfort of thefe wife- heads, who flraightway withdrew in the bell manner they could.
As for the telefcope magicians, they were taken into cuftody by the gentle- men of the police office, in Bow Street ; nor would their familiar do them the kind- nefs to attempt their refcue.
But to have done with thefe things that are unworthy our notice as philofo- phers, and to proceed to matters of a higher nature : it is to be noted what we have before faid, inrefpedt of the influences of the liars, that Ptolemy, in his qua- drapartite, in fpeaking of generals , comes pretty near our ideas on the fubjedl of planetary influence, of which we did not at any time doubt, but do not admit (nay, it is not neceflary, feeing there is an aftrology in Nature), — that each action, of our life, our affli6iions, fortunes, accidents, are deducible to the influential effects of the planets : they proceed from ourfelves ; but I admit that our thoughts, actions, cogitations, fympathize with the ftars upon the principle of general fympathy. Again, there is a much ftronger fympathy between perfons of like confiitution and temperament, for each mortal creature poffeffes a Sun and fyftem within himfelf ; therefore, according to univerfal fympathy, we are affected by the general influence or univerfal fpiritof the world, as the vital princi- ple throughout the univerfe : therefore we are not to look into the configurations of the ftars for the caufe or incitement of men’s beftial inclinations, for brutes have their fpecifical inclinations from the propagation of their principle by feed, not by the fign of the horofcope ; therefore as man is oftentimes capable of the actions and excefles of brutes, they cannot happen to a man' naturally from any other fource than the feminal being infufed in his compofition ; for, feeing likewife that the foul is immortal, and endued with free-will, which a6ts upon the body, the foul cannot be inclined by any configuration of the ftars either to good or evil ; but from its own immortal power of willingly being feduced by fin, it prompts to evil ; but enlightened by God, it fprings to good, on
either
8 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OP NATURAL MAGIC,
either principle, according to its tendency, the foul feeds while in this frail body $ but what further concerns the foul of man in this, and after this, we fhall fully inveftigate the natural magic of the foul, in which we have fully treated every point of enquiry that has been fuggefted to us by our own imagination, and by fcientific experiments have proved its divine virtue originally fealed therein by the Author of its being.
Sufficient it is to return to our fubje£t relative to aftrology, efpecially to know what part of it is necelfary for our ufe, of which we will feleft that which is pure and to our purpofe, for the underftanding and effecting of various experiments in the courfe of our works, leaving the tedious calculation of nativities, the never-ceafing controverfies and cavillations of its profelfors, the dilfenfions which arife from the various modes of pradtice ; all which we leave to the figure- cafting plodder, telling him, by-the-by, that whatever he thinks he can fore- fhew by infpefting the horofcope of a nativity, by long, tedious, and night- wearied ftudies and contemplations ; I fay, whatever he can ffiew refpediing perfonal or national mutations, changes, accidents, &c. &c. all this we know by a much eafier and readier method ; and can more comprehenfively, clearly, and intelligibly, fliew and point out, to the very letter, by our Cabal, which we know to be true, without deviation, juggling, fallacy, or collufion, or any kind of deceit or impoflure whatfoever ; which Cabal or fpiritual aftrology we draw from the Fountain of Knowledge, in all fimplicity, humility, and truth ; and we boaft not of ourfelves, but of Him who teaches us through his divine mercy, by the light of whofe favour we fee into things fpiritual and divine : in the pofleffion of which we are fecure amidft the fevereft ftorms of hatred, malice, pride, envy, hypocrify, levity, bonds, poverty, imprifonment, or any other outward circumftance ; we ffiould ftill be rich, want nothing, be fed with delicious meats, and enjoy plentifully all good things necelfary for our fupport : all this we do not vainly boaft of, as figurative, ideal, or chimerical ; but real, folid, and everlafting, in the which we exult and delight, apd praife his name for ever and ever : Amen.
All which we publicly declare to the world for the honour of our God, being at all times ready to do every kindnefs we can to our poor neighbour, and,
P*
INTRODUCTION TO'THE STUDY OF NATURAL MAGIC. 9
as far as in us lies, to comfort him, fick or affliHed ; in doing- which we afk no reward : it is fufficient to us that we can do it, and that we may be acceptable to Him who fays — “ I am the lig-ht of the world ; to whom with the Father, and Holy Spirit, be afcribe.d all power, might, majefty, and dominion : Amen.”
To the faithful and difcreet Student of hVifdom.
Greeting :
Take our inftruHions ; in all things afk counfel of God, and he will give it ; offer up the following prayer daily for the illumi- nation of thy underftanding : depend for all things bn God, the firft caufe ; with whom, by whom, and in whom, are all things : fee thy firft care be to know thyfelf ; and then in humility direbt thy prayer as follows.
A Prayer or Oration to God.
Almighty and moft merciful God, we thy fervants approach with fear and trembling before thee, and in all humility do moft heartily befeech thee to pardon our manifold and blind tranfgreftions, by us committed at any time ; and grant, O, moft merciful Father, for his fake who died upon the crofs, that our minds may be enlightened with the divine radiance of thy holy wifdom ; for feeing, O, Lord of might, power, majefty, and dominion, that, by reafon of our grofs and material bodies, we are fcarce apt to receive thofe fpiritual inftrufifions that we fo earneftly and heartily defire. Open, O, bleffed Spirit, the fpiritual eye of our foul, that we may be releafed from this darknefs overfpreading us by the delufions of the outward fenfes, and may perceive and underftand thofe things which are fpiritual. We pray thee, oh, Lord, above all to ftrengthen our fouls and bodies againft our fpiritual