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Answer to the opinion of some that thinke the beginning and decay of Religions depend upon the efficacy of the starres.
THere were some Philoso∣phers that did ascribe the be∣ginning and decay of every Reli∣gion unto the starres: But that which they professe themselves to know there in is taught with such variety and diversity in their Star-gazing science, that a man can collect nothing from thence for certainty, but onely this that there is no certainty at all therein.
I doe not here speake of such effects as have a necessary depen∣dance upon naturall causes, but of those that proceed from the will of man, which of it selfe hath such liberty and freedome that no necessity or violence can be incident thereunto from with∣out. For if the assent or consent of the will did necessarily follow a∣ny outward impression, then the power in our soule which wee may perceive it hath to consult and deliberate, were given in vain: Also the equity of all lawes, of all rewards and punishments would be abolished, seeing there can bee neither fault nor merit in that which is altogether necessa∣ry and inevitable.
Againe, there are divers evill acts or effects of the will, which if they proceeded of any necessity from the heavens, then the same heavens and celestiall bodies must needs receive such efficacy
from God, & so it would follow, that God, who is most perfectly good, were the prime cause of that which is morally evill; And seeing that in his law he prosesseth him∣selfe to abhor wickednesse, which if hee implanted in the things themselves by such inevi••able power, then hee might bee said to will two contraries, to wit, that the same thing should bee done and not bee done: also a man should offend in any action hee did, by divine instigation.
They speake more probably that say the influences of the stars doe first affect the ayre, then our bodies, with such qualities as of∣ten times doe excite and stirre up in the minde some desires or af∣fections answerable thereunto: and the will being allured or inti∣ced by these motions doth often∣times yeeld thereunto: which though it be granted, as it is cre∣dible, for truth, yet it makes no∣thing
for the question wee havein hand. For seeing that Christian Religion most of all with drawes men from those things which are pleasing unto the body, it cannot therfore have its beginning from the assections of the body, and consequently not from the in∣fluence of the starres; which (as but now we said) have no power over the minde, otherwise than by the med••ation of those affecti∣ons. The most prudent among A∣strologers doe grant that wi••e and upright men are not under the do∣minion of the starres: And such verily were they that first profes∣sed Christianity, as their lives doe shew. Or if there be any efficacy in learning and knowledge a∣gainst the infection of the body, even among Christians there were ever some that were excel∣lent in this particular.
Besides, as the most learned do confesse, the effects of the S••arres
appertaine to certaine Climates of the world, and are onely for a season, but this Religion hath now continued above the space of one thousand six hundred yeares, and that not in one part onely, but in the most remote places of the whole world, such as are of a far different situation in respect of the starres.