Part 13

1. Because the word sometimes signifieth the persons pretending to be skilful in this sort of Divinations; for so the Woman saith unto Saul: Behold thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off ‏הָאבוֹת‎ Pythones, that is, the persons that pretended, and practised that kind of Divination. And so again in that of Isaiah: And thy voice shall be ‏כְּאוֹב‎ sicut Pythonis as the voice of one that useth this kind of Divination. So that it is clear that the act is ascribed unto, and was performed by the persons practising this couzening craft, and not unto a familiar or Devil.

2. Sometimes it is taken for the means that they pretended they performed it by, as in Sauls deluded and despairing sense; for he saith, Divina quæso mihi ‏כְּאוֹב‎ in Pythone, vel per Pythonem, and cause to ascend whom I shall name unto thee. So that he vainly thought that she could call up, and make to ascend whomsoever he should name, so blind and deluded was he when the spirit of the Lord was departed from him, and was justly delivered up to believe lies, because he had not received the love of the truth.

3. It doth not appear that she had any familiar spirit, or called up any; for the name that is there given her is ‏בַּעֲלַת אוֹב‎ Dominam Pythonis vel utris; the Mistriss of the Bottle, or of the Oracle, for Saul saith, seek me a Woman that is Mistriss of the Bottle, or of the Oracle, for so it must signifie, if it be genuinely and fitly translated; and his servants tell him, that at Endor there is a Woman that was Mistriss of Ob, the Bottle or Oracle. For though some translate it mulier habens Pythonem, or as Tremellius, mulier prædita Pythone, it will but reach thus much, that she was possessed of or had in her power, this Ob, Bottle, or Oracle, that could be nothing but the fit contrived place to give answers, as they did at the Oracle. For if they meant that she had a familiar spirit in her Belly, then it was possest of her, more than she could be said to be possest of it. But there is another Text that doth fully agree with this, and will help to explicate it, and is this, speaking of the destruction of Nineveh or the Jewish Nation, and the causes of it: Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the welfavoured harlot, the Mistriss of Witchcrafts, ‏בַּעֲלַת כְּשָׁפִים‎, Domina vel patrona, the Mistriss, or Patroness of Juglings and delusions. So that in propriety of language she of Endor is called the Mistriss of Python or Oracle, because she could play the couzening feats that belonged unto it.

4. Amongst all the several ways of Idolatry that Manasseh set up, or caused to be set up, this is one ‏וְעָשָׂה אוֹב‎, & fecit Pythonem, or fecissetq; Pythonem, he made Ob, or Pytho; and though Translators have been much perplexed, and hard put to it, to give a signification agreeable to their preconceived opinion, yet have they, were it right or wrong, brought it to their minds, though it be utterly false and erroneous; for Tremellius renders it, instituitq; Pythonem, which though pretty near, yet is altogether short of the propriety, and the most of the rest have run quite Counter; but our English Translators the worst of all others, who give it, and dealt with a familiar spirit. When it is plain that this word must be taken in this place, as it is in the third verse of this Chapter, he made groves, fecitq; lucos, because the words are both from the same root which is ‏עָשָׂה‎ fecit, confecit, perfecit, and so it is, and must be taken in other places; and is especially manifest in these. God said to Noah, make thee an Ark of Gopher wood, and after, a window shalt thou make to the Ark. The Psalmist saith: But our God is in heaven, he hath done whatsoever he pleased, and again, To him who alone doth great wonders. We might add forty places more, where the word is used that cometh from this root and hath the same punctual signification; so that from hence we may conclude, 1. That Manasseh could not make a Devil nor a Spirit, and therefore that the word Ob doth not intend nor bear forth any such matter in true and genuine signification. 2. That he could not make a Man or Woman, and therefore the word properly doth signifie neither. 3. That he only could make, and cause to be contrived the Groves, in such an order, as the Idol-Priests might direct, as most fit for them to play their couzening and Jugling feats and delusions in. So he might make or cause to be contrived the μαντείον or place for the Oracle, and prepare those knacks and implements, wherewith and in which place the Diviner might either by him, or her self, or with the help of confederates bring to pass strange things, which they made the blind and ignorant people believe were performed by the God worshipped in and by those Idols, or by Demons and Spirits, or the calling up of the dead. When in truth there was nothing at all performed, but either in raptures, feigned and forced Furies, Trances; and thereby lying predictions and ambiguous equivocations were uttered, whereby the people were deluded and drawn unto Idolatry: or by giving dark and obscure responsions by Ventriloquy, speaking in Bottles, or through hollow Pipes and cavities, whereby they did peep and mutter; or lastly by having knavish confederates hidden in secret, and cunningly contrived places, and suitably habited to personate those that were desired to be raised up, as is most probable in this Woman of Endor and the forged and pretended Samuel: So that there was no Devil nor familiar but a couzening Knave or a Quean, more crafty than the Demons themselves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.