Part 20

5. That they had no familiar Spirit is manifest, if we consider the manner how they carried themselves in these cheating actions and performances, for the Prophet tells us thus: _And when they shall say unto you, seek unto_ ‏הָאֹבוֹת‎ _ad Pythones_, unto Oraclers, and unto Wizards that peep, and mutter; If they had a familiar Spirit or Demon, what need they chirp, peep, or mutter? could it not speak loud and plain enough? Yea doubtless it could if they had any such, but it is to conceal their own deceit and knavery, lest it should be found forth and discovered: And without such chirping and muttering they could neither perform their Jugling delusions, nor keep them from being known, and derided. _Tremellius_ his note upon this place is very remarkable: “The Prophet (saith he) aggravateth the heinous crime of those Witches from the vanity of those Divinations, which the very manner of them betrayeth: those seducers have not so much wit, that they dare speak to the people the thing they pretend to speak in plain and open terms, with an audible clear voice, as they that are Gods Prophets, who speak the word of God as loud as may be, and as plain as they can to the people; but they chirp in their Bellies, and very low in their Throats, like Chickens half out of the shells in their hatching.” And this doth plainly declare their knavery and cheating Juglings. The same Prophet in another place speaking of the destruction, and bringing low of _Jerusalem_ he saith: _And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust. And thy voice shall be as of a_ Pythonist, _Ob_, or as of an Oracler, _out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper_, peep or chirp _out of the dust_. The word there, and in the former place used is from the root, ‏צַפְצֵף‎ _garrivit more avium_, he hath peeped or chirped like a Bird. Now this doth plainly allude to these kind of Pythonists, or Oraclers, who in giving their Oracles, or Divinations, did speak out of the ground, that was from hollow Vaults and Caves contrived on purpose for them to perform their tricks in, and such a place as this, called in the Hebrew _Ob_, did _Manasseh_ make and prepare, _And thy speech shall be low out of the dust_, like these deceivers who fall into Trances, and lie upon their faces the better to conceal and hide their Impostures, and so do change their voice, and mutter as it were out of the dust, thereby to make the people believe that it is the Demon’s or Spirit’s voice that speaketh in them, when it is nothing but their own counterfeiting. And thy voice shall be like one of these Oraclers, out of a low and hollow place, to whisper and chirp like a Chicken coming forth of the shell, the more to make them believe that it is the voice of a Spirit, and not their own, by craft and cunning altered and changed. Upon which place learned and judicious _Calvin_ saith thus much: “For the voice of them, who before were so lofty and cruel, he compareth to the speech of _Pythonists_, who when they did utter the Oracles, did give forth I know not what kind of murmur, from some low and dark place under the earth.”

8. The next word that followeth in this place of _Deuteronomy_ is ‏יִדְּעֹנִי‎ from the root ‏יָדַע‎ _novit, sivit, proprie est_ (_ut_ Avenarius _inquit_) _mentis & intellectus_. Which word our Translators (contrary to their usual custom) have kept a constancy in, and alwaies have rendered a Wizard, a name (as we conjecture) not improper, for we, in the North of _England_, call such as take upon them to foretel where things are that have been stoln, or to take upon them to help Men or Goods, that the vain credulity of the common people have thought to be bewitched, we (I say) call them Wise Men, or Wise Women, without regard had to the way or means by which they undertook to perform these things. Divers others do render it _sciolus_, which is proper and consonant to the former. The other Translations that we have either seen, or were able to understand, are so uncertain, various, wide and wilde, that it were lost labour to examine or recite them; and the word Wizard (though a general one) is the most proper that we can find. But we must conclude, that hitherto we find no such word as signifieth a Witch in that sense we have allowed, and endeavoured to confute.

9. The last word mentioned in this Text of _Deuteronomy_, is a Necromancer, or one that consulteth with the dead. Now whether this were some special kind of Divination, or but a comprehension of all the kinds, being but in all their several sorts, a leading of the people to inquire of dumb and dead Idols, may be a great and material question. And though no Interpreter or Commentator that we have seen, read, or do remember, do hint at any such, matter, but still strike upon the common string, that it should be some kind of Magick, whereby they could make the dead appear, and consult with them: yet notwithstanding all this we cannot but propose our doubts in these reasons following.

1. _Moses_ in this Text doubtlesly did not set down all the particular sorts of Divinations and Impostures used amongst the Heathen, for that had hardly been possible, but the chiefest kinds of them. And this is not rationally probable that he would do it by a Tautology, or repetition of the same thing twice. For inquiring of the dead, or consulting with them, was intended in the word _Ob_, and the Woman of _Endor_ said; _Whom shall I raise up_, or cause to ascend unto thee? Whereby it appeareth that she pretended (and also _Saul_ vainly believed, who said; Divine unto me in or by _Ob_) that she could cause the dead to ascend, and to have answers from them of things to come, as is manifest in the Story of the pretended apparition and prediction of _Samuel_. And so this thing should be twice repeated in this place, which is not probable that _Moses_ would have done.

[Sidenote: Isai. 44. 19.]

2. He doth not forbid these several sorts of Divination only because they were evil and unlawful in themselves (for some of them might be lawful, and performed by natural or artificial means) but because of the thing they all centred in, and the end they all tended to, which was to lead and draw the people to inquire of and to serve deaf, dumb and dead Idols. For though the Idols were Silver and Gold, the work of Mens hands, and had eyes and saw not, _ears and heard not, feet and walked not, mouths and spoke not_, neither was there breath in their Nostrils: And though the common people could not but know this, for as _Isaiah_ saith they were so blinded that, _None considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge or understanding to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire; yea also I have baked bread with the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?_ Yet notwithstanding were they so deluded by the crafty Impostures, and subtile Divinations of all the several sorts of these Jugling Priests, that they ran to ask counsel at these dead Idols, who (as they falsly perswaded the people) did inspire them, and gave them answers, when the Idols were all dead things, and gave no answers at all. And this is that consulting with the dead, that all these couzening Priests did draw the people unto, and therefore in general is here forbidden.

[Sidenote: Isai. 8. 19.]

3. The words of the Prophet, where he saith [_And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that are_ Ob or Oraclers, _and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?_] do fully prove as much; for the sense must be this: That the people of God ought to seek unto their own God, who was and is a true and a living God, and to his Law & Testimonies, and not to those peepers and mutterers that seek counsel of the dead Idols only; and doubtless this is the true meaning of consulting the dead.

4. This exposition includeth no absurdity, nor bringeth any inconvenience, and is genuine, and not wrested; whereas the other doth hurry in a whole heap of most absurd doubts, questions and opinions. But if in this exposition we be Heterodoxal, we crave pardon, and referr it to the judgment of those that are learned, of what perswasion soever they be.

[Sidenote: _In Dan._ _c._ 1. _v._ 20. _p._ 87.]

10. Another word that is used in divers places of Scripture is ‏חַרְטֻמִּים‎, which though _Avenarius_ doth derive from ‏חֶרֶט‎ _stilus &_ ‏אָטַם‎ _clausit_, yet the learned person _Masius_ saith, _Est autem aliarum nationum vocabulum, ab Hebræa lingua alienum & peregrinum, usurpatum tamen ab Hebræis_. And also the judicious _Polanus_ is of the same opinion, that it is a word strange and foreign from the Hebrew language. The Translators are all so various about the proper derivation and signification of it, that it were but lost time and labour to recite them: But it is manifest that it was a general word for one that was skilful in all, or divers sorts of these Divinations, and might best be constantly rendred _magos_, and that for these reasons.

[Sidenote: A Candle in the dark, p. 11.]

1. It is the opinion of _Masius_ and Mr. _Ady_ that it is a general word, and signifieth one that hath skill in many of these kind of arts, (if they may be so called) the latter of which saith thus: “It is taken in the general sense for _magus_ a Magician; that hath one, or all these crafts or Impostures.” And the former quoting the sentence of _Rabbi Isaac Natar_, saith: _Hoc nomine vocatos esse ab Hebræis quosvis, qui inter gentes singularem profitebantur sapientiam; præsertim cùm ea ad superstitionem pertineret_.

2. Because that in _Exodus_ 7. 13. those that there are called _Hachamim_ and _Mechassephim_, that is _sapientes & præstigiatores_, as _Tremellius_ renders it, which is most proper and genuine, are there called _Hartummim Mezeraim_, that is _Magos Ægypti_, the Magicians of _Ægypt_; by which it appeareth plainly that it is a general name, and may most properly be rendered a Magician.

3. It may most properly be taken for a Magician, because those that acted before _Pharaoh_ are called by that name, and excepting their opposing of _Moses_, and their superstition, it doth not appear that they dealt with unlawful Magick, as we shall prove undeniably hereafter.

[Sidenote: 2 Sam. 12. 19.]

[Sidenote: Psal. 41. 7.]

[Sidenote: Isai. 26. 16.]

11. There is also another word which is used in divers places, which is ‏לָחַשׁ‎ _mussitavit_, he hath muttered, or murmured, and is taken generally for any kind of murmuring for any cause whatsoever, as in this place, _But when David saw that his servants whispered_. And again, _All that hate me, whisper together against me_. And in another place: _Fuderunt submissam orationem_, a low whispering prayer. In which places it is taken for any kind of low speaking, whispering or muttering. Of this we may observe these things.

1. Sometimes by a Metonymie it is taken for a low and modest speech, the art of Oratory, or Eloquence, as _Isaiah_ 3. 3. _& intelligentem vel peritum eloquentiæ_, and sometime for an ear-ring _inauris_, as in the 20. verse of the same Chapter.

[Sidenote: Psal. 58. 6.]

2. It is also ascribed unto Charmers or Inchanters as in the Psalm, _That doth not hearken unto the voice of the charmers_: Where it is plain that all Charmers were whisperers and mutterers, but not on the contrary, that all whisperers or mutterers are Charmers.

[Sidenote: Eccles. 10. 11.]

3. And whereas our English translation readeth it, _Surely the serpent will bite without inchantment, and a babler is no better_; It may as well be read, as _Arias Montanus_ translates it, _Si mordeat serpens in non susurro, vel absq: susurro_, If the Serpent bite without hissing, or sibilation. And _Schindlerus_ to the same purpose: _Si mordebit serpens absq; incantatione, vel murmure, id est sibilo_. And so _Avenarius_: _Si mordeat serpens absq; susurratione, id est absq; sibilo_. And though _Tremellius_, and the whole troop of Translators do render it, as our English Translators do, yet that will not make sense: for it would inferr that as a Serpent will bite except it be charmed, so will a babler do also. But who ever heard of a bablers being charmed? So that truly considered that cannot be the sense of the place.

But if it be taken exactly according to the Hebrew, then the sense runs thus, If the Serpent bite without, or in not hissing, and excellency is not to him that hath a tongue; that is, The Serpent doth hurt with his biting, without making a noise with his tongue; but a babler doth make a noise, but effecteth nothing, or speaketh to no purpose.

[Sidenote: Jerem. 8. 17.]

4. There is another Text in _Jeremy_ which is commonly rendered thus: _For behold I will send serpents, cockatrices among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord_. But it may be as fitly read, To whom there is no hissing, and they shall bite you. And whether way soever it be read, the sense is good; that is, their enemies shall be so fierce and cruel, that no words can stay or appease their fury; or that they shall be so sly and cunning, that they shall destroy you, before they speak, or give you warning: And whether way soever it be, there is a pronoun in the Hebrew which is superfluous, a thing that is usual in that language.

5. But if in both places it be taken for charming, yet will it not prove the being and existence of such a kind of Witch, as we have denied and confuted; nor doth it shew any fit appellation for such a one.

[Sidenote: Psal. 104. 4.]

[Sidenote: Malach. 4. 1.]

12. Moreover there is another word as much mistaken, and as falsly translated as any of the rest, and that is ‏לָהַט‎, _Inflammatus est, flammescebat_, and is understood a shining brightness, as in the Psalm: _Who maketh his Angels spirits: his ministers flaming fire_. And in another place, _& inflammabit eos dies veniens_; The day cometh that shall burn as an oven. From whence we may note these things.

[Sidenote: Gen. 3. 24.]

[Sidenote: Nahum 3. 3.]

1. From this root doth come ‏לַהַט‎ _Flamma_, Metaphorically (as _Schindlerus_ saith) a polished and shining piece of Metal, as a Sword or the like. But _Avenarius_ tells us, it is, _Flamma rutilans, lamina fulgens & vibrans_; as, _And he placed at the East of the garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a flaming or bright shining sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life_. And in another place, _The horseman lifteth up the bright sword, and the glittering spear_. Both places plainly shewing that it signifieth Metal so polished, that when it is shaken in the light, or shining of the Sun, and moved quickly, it doth then glitter like a red and shining flame.

2. There is also the word ‏לאט‎ _Involvit, velavit, arcanum_, and the like which the vulgar Latin do attribute to _Pharaohs_ Magicians, when our translation saith, _And they did in like manner with their inchantments_: It is _& fecerunt similiter per sua arcana_, thinking the word there had been derived from ‏לאט‎ _arcanum_, when it is from ‏לַהַט‎, _Flamma, lamina_; a polisht and bright piece of Metal.

3. In all the places of Exodus where mention is made of the Magicians, _that they did in like manner with their inchantments_, the word is ‏בְּלַהֲטֵיהֶם‎ which if truly rendered, is this: And they did in like manner with their bright, glittering lamens, or plates of Metal. And how the Translators could hale it by head and shoulder to signifie Inchantment, cannot be conjectured; but because the Magicians are there called, _sapientes & præstigiatores_, Wise Men and Juglers, they vainly thought that they wrought by a secret compact with the Devil, and so all must be done by their imaginary Witchcraft and inchantment, when it is plain that what they did was by natural Magick, and sleight of hand, and not by Diabolical Magick at all. But let them shew us any one place in all the Old Testament, where any of the derivatives from this root, are translated Inchantments, but only in these places of _Exodus_, and we will yield the whole cause.

[Sidenote: Isai. 19. 3.]

13. There is also another Text which we have omitted of purpose until now, which our English Translators do, according to their usual manner, thus render: _And they shall seek to the Idols, and to the Charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the Wizards_: In which there is a word not used in that sense in all the Old Testament besides; of which place we may note these things.

1. The word there in doubt is ‏אָט‎, _Lenis, lenitas_, and it oft becometh an Adverb, _leniter, pedetentim_. The root ‏אָטַט‎, _leniter incessit_, _Avenarius_ saith it is not used in the plural number, and signifieth Inchanters or Diviners, and is ‏הָאִטִּים‎ which he rendereth _Incantatores_; because as some think they do easily and gentilely pronounce their charms.

2. But _Tremellius_ doth translate it thus: _Consulent sua Idola, & præstigiatores Pythonesq; & ariolos_: And giveth this note, Their Idols, that is to say Devils, that give them answers, especially the Idol of _Latona_ in the Town called _Butun_ over against the Sebenitick mouth of _Nilus_, of which _Herodotus_ speaketh: where he expoundeth also divers consultations of these Idols. But how or in what sense he holdeth that the Devils gave answers, except by the lying Impostures of the Priests, he doth not shew, nor _Herodotus_ his Author neither.

3. But this place according to _Arias Montanus_ is rendered thus: And they shall seek unto their vain things or Idols, and to their Diviners (that is this word _Haattim_) and to the Pythonists, or Oraclers, and to Wizards. But those we call the Septuagint do render this place very odly, as they seldom do elsewhere, which is this: Καὶ ἐπερωτήσουσι τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτων, καὶ τὰ ἀγάλματα αὐτῶν, καὶ τοὺς ἐκ τῆς γῆς φωνοῦντας, καὶ τοὺς ἐγγαστριμύθους, that is, _And they shall ask their gods, and their images, or painted statues, and those that give their voice forth of the earth, and those that speak in their breasts or bellies_.

[Sidenote: _Strab. Geograph._ _l._ 16.]

14. There is also another word which is ‏אַשָּׁף‎, and signifieth (as _Avenarius_ saith) _Sophus, sapiens in Astrologia & in auspiciis, augur, aruspex_. _Rabbi Abraham_ thinketh it signifieth a Physician, who knoweth the alteration of the body, by the pulse of the arm, or by the urine. And _Schindlerus_ translateth it, a Philosopher, an Astronomer and a Physician, and saith that such were Astronomers and Physicians amongst the _Chaldeans_, of whom _Strabo_ saith: “There was a certain habitation appointed in _Babylon_ for their home-bred Philosophers, who were much conversant about Philosophy, and were called _Chaldeans_.” And further, “that they were Physicians that could judge of the passions of the Body, which dreams did imitate, by the Pulse and urine.” And _Polanus_ tells us that it is a _Chaldee_ word because it is found no where else but in _Daniel_.

[Sidenote: 1 Kings 4. 30.]

15. Lastly there is one word we shall touch more, and that is ‏חָכְמָה‎, _sapientia_, the wisdom of Divine and Humane things, Magick or skil in naturall things; and cometh from the root ‏חָכַם‎, _sapuit mente, sapiens fuit, sapientia præditus est_. And this is that wisdom that is ascribed to Solomon, of whom it is said: _And Solomons wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East countrey, and all the wisdom of Ægypt_.

So have we run over all the words in the Old Testament, that can any way concern this subject, and yet amongst them all there is not one that properly and genuinely, without stretching, wresting or mistranslating, doth, or can signifie any such Witch or Diviner, that can kill or destroy Men or Beasts, or that maketh a visible compact with a Devil, or on whose Body he sucketh, or that they have Carnal Copulation together; or such a Witch as is or can be really changed into a Cat, Dog, or such like, which was the task we undertook in this Chapter. And for the words that are in the New Testament, we shall handle them when we answer the objections made from thence. And therefore we would admonish Mr. _Glanvil_, and all other candid, and sober persons to beware of false or mistranslations, and not to labour to establish dangerous and erroneous tenents upon such slippery and sandy foundations: For one falsity once supposed or taken for good, doth bring a numerous train of absurdities at the heels of it.

CHAP. VII.

_Of divers places in the Old Testament that are commonly wrested, and falsly expounded, thereby to prove apparitions, and the power of the Devil and Witches._

Thus far we conceive that we have sufficiently proved, that there is no word in the Old Testament, that in the original Hebrew, can genuinely and truly be translated, that doth signifie such a kind of Witch, whose existence we have denied. And now we shall proceed to answer those places in the Old Testament, that commonly are produced, to prove the Devils or the Witches power in those particulars that we have oppugned. And because the whole stress lyeth upon the true interpretation of those places pretended to prove such matters by, we think it convenient and much conducible to the business in hand, to lay down those rules of interpretation, that the most learned Divines have declared and assigned; and that in these particulars.

[Sidenote: James 1. 5, 17.]

[Sidenote: Luke 24. 45.]

1. That truly to understand the Scriptures according to the mind of the Holy Ghost that gave them forth, and by whose inspiration they were indited, it is most necessary that we implore the help of that blessed Spirit, that did reveal them to those that penned them; because, as S. _James_ saith: _If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. For every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom if no variableness, neither shadow of turning._ And it is said of the Disciples of Christ: _Then opened he their understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures_. So that all Men whether wise or unwise, learned or unlearned, have need of the teaching and spirit of Christ to open their understandings to understand the Scriptures; and therefore have all men need of faithful and fervent Prayers, that God may enlighten their minds in the understanding of them; otherwayes, they are but as blind Men, that go without a guide, and so must needs fall into the Ditch of ignorance and error.

2. That a most due and diligent collation and comparison be made of the several versions, with the Fountains and Originals themselves, that so the truth of the translations may be ascertained. For if an error in this point be committed, all the expositions and deductions drawn from thence, must needs be erroneous and vitious.

3. That there be a due comparing of the Antecedents and Consequents in the context, that the purpose, scope, theme, arguments, disposition and method, may be perfectly and maturely considered: otherwise the sleighting or omitting any one of these particular points, the whole place may be mistaken, and an error easily faln into.

4. There must a due and serious consideration be had of the Phrases and manner of speaking; especially in regard of that language it was first written in: For every several language hath its peculiar Phrases and forms of speaking, which may not be proper in another tongue, the not regarding of which may sooner lead into a great deviation from the genuine sense of the place.