and the Hebrew word in this place implyes no more than why hast thou mov'd me to come up So this phrase of dead bodies resting and being disturbed is usual with us though we know that they are not at all sensible of repose or disquiet But if it were not Samuel 't is very irrational to believe that it was either the Witch or any confederated person for two reasons first because it is said in the Scripture that Saul knew that it was Samuel and he bowed himself for it is not imaginable that any man could so change his face as that Saul who questionless was well enough acquainted with Samuels countenance could be deceiv'd by it and to think that Saul saw him not is as ridiculous for then why did he bow himself Secondly because he foretold Saul's Death for if as this Author supposes it had been said by the Woman at a venture the more cunning way had been to have told him that he should live for then if he had died who could have accused her of falshood If he had liv'd she had told the truth But to tell him positively that he should dye and not only himself but his Sons too and this with a limitation of time to morrow was something too much to be spoken at a venture The second difference between our Translation and the Authors is where he puts a seeker of an Oracle for a Consulter with familiar Spirits Here he tells you that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken in Scripture sometimes for the gift of Oracling sometimes for the person that has such a gift this is as much and no more than if he had told you that he is pleas'd to understand it so I confess as an Oracler may be understood that is for one that takes and gives answers from the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may have that signification for ob properly signifies a Daemon or an evil Spirit and so the best Hebricians expound it now this being the true sence of the word ob I see no reason for blaming our Translatours who have not at all erred from the Original in this place But he understands an Oracler otherwise to wit for one that gave answers at a venture and only followed the dictates of his own fancy counterfeiting strange voices thereby to deceive the people c. And so he interprets the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but how they came by that signification I cannot tell for I find it no where but in his Book And from the Scripture I think the contrary may be gather'd viz. That ob and Python are taken for an evil Spirit that possess'd the person Divining and not for the person himself we read in Leviticus the twentieth Chapter and the twenty seventh verse and a Man or a Woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when there is in them a Python which words in them seem to imply something of this Nature and that the ob was some distinct being from the person in whom it was for he could not be in himself And we find in some old Translations where mention is made of Saul's turning the Witches out of Israel 't is said Et qui Pythones habebant in ventre But whosoever reads the sixteenth Chapter of the Acts of the Holy Apostles will be fully confirm'd that this is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except he himself be possessed with a spirit of contradiction for he there shall find that as St. Paul was walking he met a Maid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having a Spirit of Divination as our Translation renders it and in the eighteenth verse Paul turning himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he said to the Spirit I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and it came out that same hour This methinks shews plainly to any body but our Author that this kind of Divining was done by the help of the Devil But it may be he will say for I know no other way that he can answer it that she did but deceive the people by counterfeiting strange voices and speaking in a bottle or some such Juggle and that where St. Paul bid the Spirit come out of her it is to be understood that he bid her Juggling tricks come out of her But to those that rightly consider this place it will plainly appear that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was no other than a Devil and this being true I see no reason to deny that the Witch of Endor was possessed with the same Spirit or that the Pythons of Manasses were Familiar Spirits Thus I have almost done with his first Chapter But I cannot pass by one argument which he uses without taking notice of it for I cannot tell sayes he how Witches come in here no not how Devils neither except you believe that the Devils made answer at Heathen Oracles which if you do I must crave leave to dissent truly no man can deny him this leave and he may dissent when he pleases but I do not conceive my self obliged to follow his example for if they were as he supposes onely Jugling tricks of the Priests I cannot imagine how it came to pass that they ceas'd so suddenly after our Saviours time beginning sensibly to fall away at the time of his Birth and since his Death being wholly extinguish'd For the first we find something considerable in Suidas who writes that Augustus who liv'd at the time of our Saviours Birth as he enquired of an Oracle concerning his Successour had this answer given him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English A Boy Of Hebrew race whom the blest Gods obey Bids me go hence to Hell without delay In silence from our Altars go thy way Hereupon Augustus at his return commanded that an Altar should be built in the Capitol with this inscription HAEC EST ara primogeniti Dei Now if this story may be credited it makes very much for the opinion of the Devils answering at the heathen Oracles and this answer is not at all like the fancy of a Juggling Priest it being neither for the Priests Interest nor the credit of the Oracle Thus we see how soon they began to decay upon our Saviours coming and we find another story to this purpose which happen'd at the time of his Crucifixion in Plutarchs Morals that part which is intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why Oracles are ceased where he sayes that a certain company sailing from Greece towards Italy were suddenly becalmed and heard a voice calling one Thamus who was an Egyptian and at that time in the Ship but he being called twice gave no answer but at the third time he said here am I whereupon the voice bid him when he came at the Shelves in the Ionian Seas which are called Palodes to publish that the great God Pan was dead then the Ship going
THE OPINION OF WITCHCRAFT Vindicated In an Answer to a Book Intituled the Question of WITCHCRAFT Debated Being a Letter to a Friend By R. T. Licensed November 20. 1669. Roger L' Estrange LONDON Printed by E. O. for Francis Haley and are to be sold at his Shop at the corner of Chancery-lane in Holborn 1670. THE Opinion of Witchcraft VINDICATED SIR I Received yours and with it that little treatise of Witchcraft which you were pleased to send me which when I had opened I found the Author in his Preface laying about him like a Hercules furens or an Ajax mastigophorus and charging his opposers with no less than Paganisme acknowledging a plurality of Gods and ascribing omnipotency to the Devil This he doubts not but he shall make good with the same ease as he asserts it and promises himself and his Reader to force a surrender at the first assault But his batteries are not of force enough to effect it his strongest arguments being little better than an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his whole Book standing upon no firmer ground than his own Supposals The vast confidence which he seems to have in the strength of his Arguments had made me arm my self with a more than ordinary care and circumspection for the sharp encounter I was like to receive from this great Goliah but I have since found that I may lay aside those heavy Arms and that a stone and a sling will serve the turn At the entrance of his Book he layes before you the necessity in which the Eastern Empire stood of Juggling tricks and Impostures to uphold it's greatness and that the heathen Priests were by continual practice arrived to that perfection in cheating that they stood not in need of the Devils assistance from hence he would infer that the answers given at Oracles were no other than cheats put upon the people and the Priests inventions But 't is very improbable that the Devil who had the liberty of possessing so many Bodies as we find he had by several undeniable instances of the New-Testament should be debarred that of a wicked Idolatrous Priest or the shrines of the heathen Gods or that if he had that freedom he would not make use of it for the establishing of his own Kingdom After this he tells you of the great variety of Impostures used by them all which he reduces to four heads viz. Juggling Inchanting Conjecturing and Divining Of these he gives you definitions ad arbitrium and you must take them on his word as if that were as uncontroulable as the Laws of the Medes and Persians he sayes that a Familiar was no Devil but a confederated person privy to the plot and assistant to the performance I do not deny but some cheats of this Nature have been and yet are in the World but he that from hence concludes that all are so is but a bad Logician For my part I cannot be convinc'd by such an Argument when I find as I shall endeavour to prove both the testimonies of Scripture and History against it Nor indeed is there any probability that the Heathen Priests could so readily give answers to all questions put to them or the sudden and ex improvise as to keep up the credit of their Oracles to that height they were at for many Ages together neither may we easily suppose that this miraculous Art of cheating could be conveyed from one Priest to another and not one of so many thousands discover the deceit to the World and that of so great a number all should be so ready witted as to give their answers at a venture and yet with so much cunning as that whatever happen'd the Oracles should not be taxed with falshood which I believe our Author if he were put to it would find something harder to perform than he seems to think it Yet all this he easily believes they did and by such tricks magnified their Idols and seduced the common people for which cause they were so great an abomination before God as that in the Law given by Moses he so strictly gave in charge to the Israelites the rooting them out from among them To this purpose he quotes the eighteenth Chapter of Deuteronomy the ninth tenth eleventh and twelfth verses And this he thinks to be as considerable a place as any can be brought from the whole Bible for the proof of Witches Here therefore he takes occasion to fall foul with our Translatours of the Bible for that sayes he they have falsly Translated the tenth and eleventh verses making them more significant to that purpose than they are in the Original Wherefore I think it will not be much amiss to compare the Authors Translation of those two Verses and ours with the Hebrew so far as they differ one from the other ours runs thus There shall not be found among you any that maketh his Son or his Daughter to pass through the fire or that useth Divinations or an observer of times or an Inchanter or a Witch Or a Charmer or a Consulter with familiar Spirits or Wizards or a Necromancer Now the main difference for I pass by those of less concernment is that instead of a Witch in the tenth verse this Author has put the word miracle-monger and for a Consulter with familiar Spirits a seeker of an Oracle Now in these places he seems much to blame for having so peremptorily charg'd the learned Translatours of the Bible with a false interpretation making himself the only Judge in the sense of the original and refusing any translation that suites not with his fancy meerly for that reason Now the original being rightly considered we shall find but little difference between it and our translation as in that of a Witch the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word if we may believe the best Hebricians signifies Witchcraft or fascination for so Buxtorfe and Xantes Pagninus understand it expounding it by these words fascinum maleficium and Praestigium and so Pagninus in his translation of the Bible in which he endeavour'd to come as near the sense of the original as was possible for him has in this very place expounded the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maleficus which is the same with our word Witch Iunius and Tremellius render it Praestigiator which has the same signification with the other though our Author takes it for no more than a meer Juggler or to use his word a miracle-monger But the word has more in it than so for though it be true that every Praestigiator is a miracle-monger a Juggler or a Coozner yet as we find it alwayes used in Authors it implyes a doing of those deceits by Witchcraft As for what he sayes of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint that it signifies an Impostor I cannot at all conceive why he should so positively assert it or at least why I should believe it except he
could prove from good Authors that the genuine signification of the word is so for I do not at all find it any otherwise than our word Witch has that signification for it is certain that Witches are the greatest Impostors of the World and he were extremely irrational that would believe that the Devil does really those things which many times he seems to do and that it is in his power to transform the bodies of men and women into those of Dogs or Cats or any other Creatures Yet as we cannot deny but the Devil having a greater insight into natural Phylosophy than ever yet any man has attain'd to may perform those things by natural means which will yet be beyond the reach of those who are in the highest rank among us and have gone farthest in the wayes of nature so we may easily believe that he is more cunning in his tricks whereby he deceives the senses and that many times he seems to change the outward forms of bodies when he only deceives the sight by the interposition of colours and condensation of air between the eyes of the beholders and the object or many other wayes which to us are altogether unknown But for us to deny that the Devil can do such things only because we cannot tell how they are done or to say that he must be omnipotent to deceive our weak senses is so far from a rational argument that nothing but the want of reason can produce such ridiculous fancies But to proceed the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes he in this place signifies an Impostour not a poysoner for it is ridiculous to think that King Manasseth and Queen Iezabel exercis'd the Art of poysoning Now I find it not at all necessary to say that they used the Art of poysoning though we deny that they were meer Jugglers yet I see nothing so ridiculous in that assertion as he does for it may with reason enough be supposed that Witches do by their confederated Devils infuse poysonous and noxious humours into those bodies which they desire to hurt and 't is likely that Manasseth and Iezabel being practitioners in that Art were not wanting in any thing that belong'd to their profession Now where he sayes that these miracle-mongers as he calls them were so severely prohibited in the Law of Moses because they acted strange things in the sight of the people to confirm them in a false Religion I can easily grant him that this was one cause but that it was the onely cause I cannot readily believe since the Art was in it self wicked and most detestable and by consequence so displeasing to God that he would not suffer it among his people and besides I do not think that it was the design of all those that professed this Art to establish a false Religion but rather that they did it for gain by fore-telling things to come as 't is likely the Witch of Endor did As for what he objects of their being coupled together with Sooth-sayers many times in those places of Scripture where mention is made of Idolatry it is not at all strange for where should we so reasonable expect to find those wicked Artists as with an Idolatrous and ungodly people And we may easily think that the Devil when he finds a people inclin'd to Idolatry will not be wanting to the farther deceiving of them so far as his false miracles and lying wonders can conduce to it But to conclude from hence he seems to do that they were prohibited meerly for upholding it I see no colour of reason But here I find my Author endeavouring to perswade the World that Pharaoh's Magicians were nothing else but Jugglers and brought Serpents in their sleeves or pockets to make a fool of Pharaoh by conveying them into the place of their sticks by some slye trick of Legerdemain But I find much difficulty in this cheat for first I cannot possibly believe that Moses and Aaron told the Magcians before hand what it was they intended to do and if not how it came to pass that they were provided of necessaries for such a cheat and were so ready at Pharaoh's call without so much as desiring time to catch the Serpents and to pull out their stings for fear of the worst for otherwise it had been a kind of jeasting with edged tools But to be so quick at it was I believe an Art beyond the reach of modern Jugglers But suppose they were furnished with all things requisite I cannot see how that could serve their turns for we read in the Text they did as Aaron had done for they cast down every man his Rod and it became a Serpent and in the Hebrew it is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et projacerunt unusquisque virgam suam and the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By these I think it plainly appears that the Magicians cast down Rods which afterwards became or at least seemed to be turn'd into Serpents Now I believe our Author will have enough to do to show by what means those miracle-mongers could make their Rods seem to the eyes of Pharaoh and the other Spectators after they had thrown them down to be chang'd into Serpents and to think that when they had once cast them out of their hands they could recover them again and lay Serpents in their places except they could have shown Pharaoh and his attendants some pretty thing upon the Wall to employ their eyes in the mean time is a whimsey beyond the reach of imagination And though we suppose that Pharaoh and his Nobles were such fools yet Moses and Aaron were wise men and one would think being concerned themselves might have so carefully observed them as to discover it But if we could possibly conceive that notwithstanding all those difficulties it might be a meer Juggle the Gordian knot is yet behind which I will present to our Author to unty if he can which is that he would be pleas'd to tell me by what kind of Legerdemain these men could turn the waters of the Rivers into blood or if by any pretty slight of hand they could make the Frogs come up from the Waters upon the Land of Egypt and if they could why they were to seek at the bringing of Lice for to humane reason this seems as easie as either of the other two Here methinks I find mine Author at a stand and because he has not his answer ready I would advise him in the mean time to say that certainly that these Magicians dealt with the Devil by whose assistance they 〈◊〉 thus far in opposition to Moses and Aaron but that here God without whose permission the Devil can do nothing thought good to set his bounds that he might go no farther And this 't is probable made them say that the finger of God was in it because they found that power by which they acted restrain'd by a greater for if they had done these things by slight of hand