which our selves sow and set, and which grow under our feet, we are in effect ignorant; much more in the powers and working of celestial bodies. . . . But in this question of fate, the middle course is to be followed, that as with the heathen we do not bind God to his creatures, in this supposed necessity of destiny; and so on the contrary we do not rob those beautiful creatures of their powers and offices. . . . And that they wholly direct the reasonless mind, I am resolved: for all those which were created mortal, as birds, beasts, and the like, are left to their natural appetites; over all which, celestial bodies (as instruments and executioners of God's providence) have absolute dominion. . . . And Saint Augustine says, Deus regit inferiora corpora per superiora; God ruleth the bodies below by those above.' . . . It was therefore truly affirmed, Sapiens adiuvabit opus astrorum, quemadmodum agrlcola terrae naturam; 'A wise man assisteth the work of the stars, as the husbandman helpeth the nature of the soil.'((...|4}} Lastly, we ought all to know, that God created the stars as he did the rest of the universal; whose in-
[ 61 ]
