66 66 cæteri imaodoùs, id est, incantatores interpretati sunt, videntur mihi esse qui verbis rem peragunt; magi, qui de singulis philosophantur; malefici, qui sanguine utuntur et victimis, et sæpe contingunt corpora mortuorum: porro in Chaldæis genethliacos significari puto, quos vulgo mathematicos vocant. Consuetudo autem communis magos pro maleficis accipit, qui aliter habentur apud gentem suam, eo quod sint philosophi Chaldæorum: et ad artis hujus scientiam reges quoque et principes ejusdem gentis omnia faciunt; unde et in nativitate Domini Salvatoris ipsi primum ortum ejus intellexerunt, et venientes in sanctam Bethlehem adoraverunt puerum, stella desuper ostendente. "They "whom we call sorcerers, and others interpret enchanters, seem to me such as perform things by words; magicians, "such as handle every thing philosophically; witches, that use blood and sacrifices, and often lay hands on the body "of the dead: further, among the Chaldeans I take them "to be signified by the name of conjecturers upon nativi"ties, whom the vulgar call mathematicians. But common "custom takes magicians for witches, who are otherwise re"puted in their own nation, for they are the philosophers " of the Chaldeans; yea, kings and princes of that nation "do all that they do according to the knowledge of this 66 art; whence at the nativity of the Lord our Saviour they “first of all understood his birth, and coming unto holy "Bethlehem did worship the child, the star from above "shewing him unto them." By this therefore it appeareth that there is great difference between the doctrine of a magician, and the abuse of the word. For though some writers affirm, that magus hodie dicitur, qui ex fœdere facto utitur Diaboli opera ad rem quamcunque; "that he is called "a magician nowadays, who having entered league with "the Devil, useth his help to any matter;" yet (as our Saviour said of divorce) it was not so from the beginning. For the art of magic is of the wisdom of nature; other arts which undergo that title were invented by the falsehood, subtilty, and envy of the Devil. In the latter there is no other doctrine, than the use of certain ceremonies, per ma 66 66 66 lam fidem, "by an evil faith;" in the former, no other ill, than the investigation of those virtues and hidden properties which God hath given to his creatures, and how fitly to apply things that work to things that suffer. And though by the Jews those excellent magicians, philosophers, and divines, which came to worship our Saviour Christ, were termed mechaschephim, or mecasphim; yet had they no other reason than common custom therein: Consuetudo autem communis magos pro maleficis accipit; " Common cus"tom," saith m St. Jerome, "understandeth witches under "the name of magicians;" and antiquity, saith n Peter Martyr, by the word magi, understood good and wise men: • Quid igitur expavescis magi nomen formidolose, nomen evangelio gratiosum, quod non maleficum et veneficum, sed sapientem sonat et sacerdotem? "O thou fearful one," saith Ficinus, "why doubtest thou to use the name of magus, a name gracious in the gospel, which doth not signify a witch or conjurer, but a wise man and a priest?" For what brought this slander to that study and profession but only idle ignorance, the parent of causeless admiration? PCausa fuit mirificentia quorundam operum, quæ revera opera naturalia sunt: veruntamen quia procuratione dæmonum naturas ipsas vel conjungentium, vel commiscentium, vel aliter ad operandum expedientium facta sunt, opera dæmonum credebantur ab ignorantibus hæc. De operibus hujusmodi est magia naturalis, quam necromantiam multi improprie vocant. "The marvellous66 ness of some works, which indeed are natural, hath been "the cause of this slander; but because these works have "been done by procurement of devils joining the natures "together, or mingling them, or howsoever fitting the na"tures to their working, they were thought the works of "the devils by the ignorant. Among these works is natu"ral magic, which men call very improperly necromancy." Mirandula in his Apology goeth further: "For by un"derstanding," saith he, "the uttermost activity of natuP Gul. Parisien. de Lege, c. 14, q Fol. 80. m Hieron. in Dan. n Pet. Mart. loc. • Mar. Ficin. part. prim. fol. 573. 66 66 "ral agents, we are assisted to know the divinity of Christ:" for otherwise, (to use his own words,) Ignoratis terminis potentiæ et virtutis rerum naturalium, stat nos dubitare illa eadem opera, quæ fecit Christus, posse fieri per media naturalia; "The terms or limits of natural power and vir"tue not understood, we must needs doubt whether those very works which Christ did, may not be done by natural "means:" after which he goeth on in this sort: Ideo non hæretice, non superstitiose dixi, sed verissime et catholice, per talem magiam adjuvari nos in cognoscenda divinitate Christi; "Therefore I said not heretically, not super“stitiously, but most truly and catholicly, that by such magic we are furthered in knowing the divinity of Christ.” And seeing the Jews and others, the enemies of Christian religion, do impudently and impiously object, that those miracles which Christ wrought were not above nature, but by the exquisite knowledge thereof performed; Mirandula, a man for his years fuller of knowledge than any that this latter age hath brought forth, might with good reason avow, that the uttermost of nature's works being known, the works which Christ did, and which (as himself witnesseth) no man could do, do manifestly testify of themselves, that they were performed by that hand which held nature therein but as a pencil, and by a power infinitely supreme and divine; and thereby those that were faithless were either converted or put to silence. SECT. III. That the good knowledge in the ancient magic is not to be condemned; though the Devil here, as in other kinds, hath sought to obtrude evil things under the name and colour of good things. SEEING therefore it is confessed by all of understanding, that a magician (according to the Persian word) is no other than divinorum cultor et interpres," a studious ob"server and expounder of divine things;" and the art itself (I mean the art of natural magic) no other, quam naturalis philosophiæ absoluta consummatio," than the ab❝solute perfection of natural philosophy." Certainly then it proceedeth from ignorance, and no way sorteth with wise and learned men promiscue, and without difference and distinction, to confound lawful and praiseworthy knowledge with that impious, and, to use St. Paul's words, with those beggarly rudiments, which the Devil hath shuffled in, and by them bewitcheth and befooleth graceless men. For if we condemn natural magic, or the wisdom of nature, because the Devil, who knoweth more than any man, doth also teach witches and poisoners the harmful parts of herbs, drugs, minerals, and excrements; then may we by the same rule condemn the physician, and the art of healing. For the Devil also, in the oracles of Amphiaraus, Amphilochus, Trophonius, and the like, taught men in dreams, what herbs and drugs were proper for such and such diseases. Now no man of judgment is ignorant, that the Devil from the beginning hath sought to thrust himself into the same employment among the ministers and servants of God, changing himself for that purpose into an angel of light. He hath led men to idolatry as a doctrine of religion; he hath thrust in his prophets among those of the true God; he hath corrupted the art of astrology, by giving a divine power to the stars, teaching men to esteem them as gods, and not as instruments. And, as 9 Bunting observeth, it is true that judicial astrology is corrupted with many superstitions; but the abuse of the thing takes not away the art, considering that heavenly bodies (as even general experience sheweth) have and exercise their operation upon the inferior. For the sun, and the star of Mars, do dry; the moon doth moisten, and govern the tides of the sea. Again, the planets, as they have several and proper names, so have they several and proper virtues; the stars do also differ in beauty and in magnitude, and to all the stars hath God given also their proper names, which (had they not influences and virtues different) needed not; He counteth the number of the stars, and calleth them by their names. But into the good and profitable knowledge of the celestial influences, the Devil ceaseth not to shuffle in his superstitions; and so to the knowledge of the secret virtues of nature hath he fasten ed his doctrine of characters, numbers, and incantations, and taught men to believe in the strength of words and letters; (which without faith in God are but ink or common breath ;) thereby either to equal his own with the all-powerful word of God, or to diminish the glory of God's creating word, by whom are all things. S Moreover, he was never ignorant, that both the wise and the simple observe, when the sea-birds forsake the shores, and fly into the land, that commonly some great storm followeth; that the high flying of the kite and the swallow betokeneth fair weather; that the crying of crows and bathing of ducks foreshew rain; for they feel the air moistened in their quills. And it is written in Jeremy the prophet, $ Even the stork in the air knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow. Hereupon this enemy of mankind working upon these, as upon the rest of God's creatures, long time abused the heathen, by teaching them to observe the flying of fowls, and thereby to judge of good or ill success in the war; and withal to look into their entrails for the same, as if God had written the secrets of unsearchable providence in the livers and bowels of birds and beasts. Again, because it pleased God sometimes by dreams, not only to warn and teach his prophets and apostles, but heathen princes also; as t Abimelech to restore Sarah to Abraham, because he admonished Joseph, and by dream informed Jacob, Laban, Pharaoh, Solomon, Paul, Ananias, the magi of the east, and others. For as it is remembered in Job; In dreams and visions of the night, when sleep falleth upon men, &c. then God openeth the ears, that he might cause man to return from his enterprise: therefore, I say, doth the Devil also practise his divinations by dreams, or, after Parisiensis, divinitatis imitationės, "his mock divinity." This in the end grew so common, as Aristides compiled an Ephemerides of his own dreams; Mithridates, of those of his concubines. Yea, the Romans finding the inconvenience hereof, because all dreams, without distinction of causes, were drawn to divination, forbade u Job xxxiii. 15, 16, 17. × G. Parisien. de Leg. cap. 24. s Jer. viii. 7. |