Page images
PDF
EPUB

sufficient to prove that the professors of this art have never conducted their calculations upon uniform principles; and the ancients, being destitute of good instruments for observation, and having no correct lunar tables, so essential to an astrologer, were incapable of transmitting to us any certain conclusions, which should furnish a basis for the calculation of nativities. It was my intention, Mr. Editor, with this letter to close my remarks upon astrology, but finding that you cannot afford me sufficient space for this, on account of your report of parliamentary intelligence, I postpone till next week, the consideration of the remainder of the subject, with the promised facts, together with some remarks on the committal of an astrologer, mentioned in a London paper, as a rogue and a vagabond.

I am, Sir, &c.

T. H. MOODY.

LETTER VII.

SIR,

REASON is that great and glorious faculty, which God has imparted to man, as a responsible being, to enable him to distinguish truth from error, that he may pursue the one, and avoid the other. Before the Fall, its exercise was perfect; but since that awful catastrophe, the clouds which have gathered over the human mind, forbid us to trust implicitly to its guidance. Infallibility is for ever departed from the human species, so that it is truly said “ Humanum est errare." It is only in GoD's LIGHT that we can now see light; (Ps. xxxvi. 9.) and consequently it is written "Through thy precepts, I get understanding, therefore, I hate every false way." (Ps. cxix. 104.) It is further declared that "He that trusteth in his own heart is a FOOL." (Prov. xxviii. 26.)

"Declare

ye sages, if ye find
'Midst animals of every kind,
Of each condition, sort, and size,
From whales and elephants to flies,
A creature that mistakes his plan,
And errs so constantly as man."

WILKIE.

"Is reason then from human weakness free,

Partakes she not of our infirmity!

POPE.

Reason, therefore, unassisted by heaven, will never preserve a man from the labyrinths of error, or extricate him from them, when entangled: but though "Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward" (Prov. xxii. 5.) there is a special promise of deliverance to the people of God, if unwarily caught in them:-"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler." (Psalm xci. 3.) Man, being "born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward" (Job v. 7.) often needs the delivering arm of Jehovah, but woe be to him, if he seek counsel of an astrologer :-" Woe to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsel but not of me." xxx. 1.) That Astrology is a dangerous snare to the human intellect, is generally allowed; and if we desire fully to investigate its principles, and expose their absurdity, we must not only bring to the subject the exercise of our reason, but that word which "is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path." (Ps. cxix. 105.) This I have endeavoured to do in the review I have taken of this

66

(Isa.

Mystery of Iniquity." In the Horoscope (p. 138) is an extract from Godwin's Lives of the Necromancers and Zadkiel has here poured upon the author all the lava of astrological rage, for having

denominated the subject which swallows up all his thoughts and feelings "a supposed science," and for having charged it with upholding fatality. Poor Mr. Godwin is reviled because he has not "got rid of his nursery notions," and Zadkiel, foaming with astrological ire, says, "We dare engage for all that we are worth in the world, that he never tried an experiment to see whether it be true or not." That is,-Mr. Godwin never made an experiment to ascertain whether God governs the world according to the maxims of astrology-whether George IV. derived "a fondness for dissipation," from the planet Venus which ascended at his birth (Gram. p. 11.) Let no man dare for a moment to question the holiness and purity of God; for he who will venture upon such an experiment as this he who will have the temerity to MAKE IT A PROBLEM whether God can "deny himself" (2 Tim. ii. 13) and depart from his attributes, deserves to perish in his folly and presumption. Happy is the man that feareth alway." (Pro. xxviii. 14.) When Mr. John Wesley was asked, if he had read Paine's Age of Reason, he replied, No: and added, that he had no desire to make an experiment, to see how much poison his constitution would bear. Zadkiel, however, misapplying the words of Bacon, says, "Fiat experimentum." But the Christian says, "Fear the Lord and depart from evil.”

66

(Prov. iii. 7.) It is an essential part of Christian watchfulness to avoid temptation, and to remove the foot from evil." (Prov. iv. 27.) His prayer is "Remove far from me vanity and lies;" (Prov. xxx. 8.) for "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." (Prov. xiii. 14.) Dr. Owen has forcibly remarked that "He who does not fear temptation, does not fear sin."-This subject may be illustrated by some considerations connected with the ancient Temple of Delphi. We are informed by Justin (241. 6. c.) that it was built on Mount Parnassus, over a cavern, from which issued a vapour so strong that it threw such as breathed it into convulsions. The frenzy which was thus produced, was represented as the effect of prophetic enthusiasm; and the incoherent expressions which escaped from the Pythia or Priestess, who was placed over the opening of the cavern on a circular tripod, pierced with holes, were supposed to contain infallible predictions respecting future events. Now it is against inhaling any of the Astrological vapour, that I would caution the reader: for "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Eph. vi. 12.) When a wise man perceives BLASPHEMY inscribed on the portals of a

« PreviousContinue »