and Faith, would find it so disagreeing with their fances, that they would condemn that which future Ages shall find and know to be true; considering also the saying of our Saviour, _Nolite Sanctum dare canibus ne conculcent pedibus & conversi discumpant vos_, which hath been the cause that I have withdrawn my tongue from the Vulgar, and my Pen from Paper. But afterwards I was willing for the common good to enlarge my self in dark and abstruse Sentences, declaring the future Events, chiefly the most urgent, and those which I foresaw (what ever humane mutation happened) would not offend the hearers, all under dark figures more then Prophetical, for although, _Abscondisti hæc a sapientibus & prudensibus_, i. e. _potentibus & Regibus enucleasti ea exiguis & tennibus_, and the Prophets by means onely of the immortal God and good Angels, have received the Spirit of Vaticination, by which they foresee things, and foretel future events; for nothing is perfect without him, whose power and goodness is so great to his Creatures, that though they are but men, nevertheless by the likeness of our good Genius to the Angels, this heat and Prophetical power draws near us, as it happens by the Beams of the Sun, which cast their influence both on Elementary and not Elementary bodies; as for us who are men, we cannot attain any thing by our natural knowledge, of the secrets of God our Creator. _Quia non est nostrum nosse tempora nec momenta_, &c. Besides, although there is, or may come some persons, to whom God Almighty will reveal by impressions made on his understanding some secrets of the future, according to the Judicial Astrology, as it hath happened in former times, that a certain power and voluntary faculty possessed them as a flame of fire, so that by his inspiration, they were able to judge of Divine and Humane things: for the Divine works that are absolutely necessary, God will end. But my son, I speak to thee too obscurely; but as for the secrets that are received by the subtle Spirit of fire, by which the understanding being moved, doth contemplate the highest Celestial Bodies, as being active and vigilant to the very pronunciation without fear, or any shameful loquacity: all which proceeded from the Divine Power of the Eternal God, from whom all goodness floweth. Now my son, although I have inserted the name of Prophet here, I will not attribute to my self so sublime a Title, for _qui Propheta dicitur hodie olim vocabatur videns_, and Prophets are those properly (my Son) that see things remote from the natural knowledge of Men; but put the case, the Prophets by the means of the perfect light of Prophecy, may see as well Divine things as Humane, (which cannot be seeing the effects of future predictions) do extend a great way, for the secrets of God are incomprehensible, and the efficient power moveth afar off the natural knowledge, taking their beginning at the free will, cause those things to appear, which otherwise could not be known, neither by