The PREFACE.

Corrupt Magic

...do indeed use the help of the devil himself to do mischief; practicing the mixing of the powder of dead bodies with other things prepared by the help of the devil; and at other times making pictures of wax, clay, or otherwise—acting as if through a sacrament original: Sacramentaliter—to effect those things which the devil brings to pass by other means. Such were, and to this day partly (if not altogether) are the corruptions that have made the very name of Magic hateful. These practitioners have chiefly sought, as is the manner of all impostors, to counterfeit the highest and most noble part of it.

Astrology

A second kind of Magic is Astrology, which judges the events of things to come—both natural and human—by the motions and influences of the stars upon these lower elements, as observed and understood by the practitioners.

Philo Judaeus A Hellenistic Jewish philosopher from Alexandria. affirms that by this part of Magic or Astrology, together with the motions of the stars and other heavenly bodies, Abraham found out the knowledge of the true God while he lived in Chaldea. As Damascene John of Damascus, a Syrian monk and scholar. says, "He knew the Creator through the contemplation of the creature" original: Qui Contemplatione Creaturarum, cognovit Creatorem. Josephus reports of Abraham that he instructed the Egyptians in Arithmetic and Astronomy; before Abraham's coming to them, they knew none of these Sciences.

"Abraham, the most excellent of all men in holiness and wisdom, taught first the Chaldeans, then the Phoenicians, and finally the Egyptian Priests, Astrology and divine matters" original: Abraham sanctitate & sapientia omnium præ-stantissimus, primum Caldæos, deinde Phœnices, demum Egyptios Sacerdotes, Astrologia & Divina docuerit..

Without doubt, Hermes Trismegistus A legendary Hellenistic figure associated with the syncretism of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, credited with writing the Hermetic corpus., that divine Magician and Philosopher, who (as some say) lived long before Noah, attained to much divine knowledge of the Creator...