Inchantments

INCHANTMENTS. The law of God condemns Inchantments and Inchanters. It makes use of several terms to denote Inchantments. 1. Lackash, which signifies properly to speak with a low voice, like Magicians in their evocations, and magical operations. Moses uses the word Latim, secrets, when he speaks of the Inchantments wrought by Pharaoh’s Magicians. The name of Caschap¹ is likewise imployed, whereby they are meant who practice Jugling, Legerdemain, Tricks and Witchery, in order to cheat peoples eyes and senses. The term Chabar, is also made use of, which signifies properly, to bind, assemble, associate, reunite; which takes place principally in those who charm Serpents, who tame them, and make them Sociare, adunare.gentle and sociable, which before were fierce, dangerous, and untractable.

We have examples of all these several ways of Inchanting. In the Scripture it is common for Magicians, Sorcerers, and Inchanters to speak in a low voice, and as it were whispering: they are called Ventriloqui, because they spoke as one would think from the bottom of their Stomachs; they affected secrecy, and mysterious ways, to conceal the vanity, ridiculous folly, or infamy of their pernicious art. Their pretended Magick consisted often in their cunning tricks only, in their nimbleness, or in some natural secrets, which ignorant people were not acquainted with; for this reason they affected obscurity and night, or would shew their skill only before the ignorant, or in the presence of mean persons, and were apprehensive of nothing so much as serious examination, broad daylight, and the presence of understanding people.

As to the Inchantments practised by Pharaoh’s Magicians, in order to imitate all the miracles which were wrought by Moses, it must be said, either that they were mere witchcraft, and illusion, whereby they cheated the eyes of the spectators²; or that if they performed such miracles, and produced real changes of their rods, of the waters of the Nile, and every thing besides, they did this by the application of second causes to the production of effects, Exod. viii. 18, 19. Deut. xiii. 12, &c.which depend originally and essentially on the power of God, and by giving certain forms to, or impressing certain motions on a created substance a; and as these impressions, changes, and motions were above the known power of nature, they were thought to be miraculous. But God never permits miracles produced by evil spirits to be such as might necessarily induce us to fall into errors; for either he will set limits to their power, as he did to Pharaoh’s Magicians, who being unable to produce Flies, were obliged to acknowledge the finger of God to be concerned in what Moses did; or they will discover Pindar Pyth. Ode 4.themselves by their bad doctrine, their impiety, or the irregularity of their conduct, which are the marks described by Moses for discerning a false from a true Prophet: If there ariseth among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee saying, let us go after other gods and serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, Ps. lviii. 5.&c.

The Inchantments of serpents, the cure of wounds by charms, the metamorphoses mentioned by St. Austin and Apuleius, of a man into an ass, a camel, or any other creature, were common among the ancients. The Psalmist speaks of the serpent or deaf asp that stoppeth her ears, lest she should hear the voice of the charmers, charming wisely, with art, industry and cunning; the Hebrew literally runs thus, The voice of those who speak low, and of those who make use of charms with skill; or the voice of him who tameth, who softneth the serpents. Jeremiah, on the Jer. viii. 17. Eccl. x. 11.part of God, threatneth the Jews, and says to them, Behold, I will send serpents among you, which will not be charmed: And Ecclesiastes, A babbler is like those serpents against Job xl. 25.which charms have no power. Job likewise speaks of Inchanters by whose power serpents were burst asunder, Shall the Inchanter cause the Leviathan to burst? And Ecclesiasticus, Who will pity a charmer that Ecclus. xii. 13.is bitten with a serpent?

Aug. de Genesi ad litter. l. xix. 28.St. Austin confesses that the Marsians, or people of Italy, had formerly the secret of inchanting serpents: Any one would say, that serpents understood the language of this people, so obedient do we see them to their orders: as soon as the Marsian has done speaking they come out of their holes. The charmers are often satisfied with driving serpents from some certain Canton.

Primum quas valli spatium comprendit Lucan. Pharsal. l. 9. ver. 913.arenas, Expurgat cantu, verbisq; fugacibus angues.

Sometimes they made them burst:

Vipereas rumpo verbis & carmine fauces.

Ovid Metamorph. fab. 2. de Medea.At other times they benumb’d them, lulled them asleep, lamed them, and took away their fierceness:

Virg. Æneid. 7. Nearch. apud Strabon. l. 15.Spargere qui somnos cantuq; manuq; solebat.

Origen³ and Eusebius⁴ speak of the charming serpents, as a thing in their time very common in Palestine. Nearchus, who followed Alexander the Great in his expeditions, says, that the Indians scarce make use of any other remedies against the biting of serpents besides Inchantments, and that there are some who travel up and down the country professing this art, and making a livelihood of it. The Psylli and the Marsi not only cured the wounds by sucking them, but sold magical plates, which were to serve as preservatives against the biting of serpents.

Arnob. l. 2.To charm diseases, to stop the blood by Inchantments, to cure the bitings of serpents, to charm the gout, and sprains, are things very common in antiquity. Pindar affirms, that Chiron the Centaur cured all sorts of diseases by his charms; and that Æsculapius cured all sorts of fevers, ulcers, wounds and pains, by gentle charms, by potions, topical remedies, or incisions. Homer Homer. Odyss. T.assures us, that the blood which issued out of Ulysses’s wound was stopp’d by using Inchantments. Cato produces certain verses Cato de Re Rust. c. 160.which were pronounced in order to heal a limb that was put out of joint.

Musick likewise and singing, which is a kind of charm and Inchantment, were sometimes made use of to cure certain diseases of the mind, or at least caused by the disorder of the mind, or the emotion of the passions. Galen says, that he had a great Galen. de sanitate tuenda, l. 1. c. 8.deal of experience in this particular, and that he could farther produce the authority of Æsculapius his countryman, who by the help of melody and musick relieved those whose constitutions were impaired by too great heat: and Plato says, that the midwives Plato Theætet. p. 145.of Athens had the secret of making the delivery of women more easy by certain charms and Inchantments.

The Hebrews, a people extremely superstitious, did not indeed carry so far the⁵ use of charms and Inchantments in the cure of diseases, because they were restrained by their law which prohibited Magick and Inchantments, and because their Kings and Priests were equally vigilant in preventing these disorders, and stopping the course of them. Notwithstanding all this, we see some footsteps among them of this superstitious manner of curing diseases. Nay, there are some who pretend even to authorize it by the example of Moses, who ordered a brazen Serpent with wings to be set upon a pole, that they who had been bitten by Serpents, Numb. xxi. 8.called Saraph, might be healed by looking at it. We have already observed that the custom of inchanting serpents, and charming their bitings, was common among the Israelites, since Jeremiah threatens Jer. viii. 17.them in the name of God with sending Serpents among them, against whose biting the Inchanter should have no virtue; and in Ecclesiasticus it is said, that no one will pity a charmer bitten with a Serpent. Saul imployed musick and the sound of David’s harp, to procure relief in his fits of melancholy, and while the Devil who tormented him had possession of him.

Joseph. Antiq. l. 8. 6. 11.Josephus assures us, that Solomon received from God the art of healing diseases, and the power of expelling Devils; that he composed charms or Inchantments against diseases, and exorcisms against Devils. He adds, that this way of healing was still in his time very much in use among the Jews; that there was a Jew whose name was Eleazer, master of this secret, who, with the help of a ring, wherein was set a certain root shewn by Solomon, had delivered several possessed persons in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian and his sons. King Hezekiah observing how much the brazen Serpent composed by Moses was abused, commanded it to be broke in pieces. He 2 Kings xviii. 4.burnt likewise, as they say, the books of medicine whereof Solomon was thought to be the Author.

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