SECT. XIII.
That what the Magicians of Egypt did perform, was at least by an Implicit Confederacy with Evil Spirits.
Well! If there be any truth in the History the Magicians were not only Couzeners and Hocus-Pocus Men; there was something done that was extraordinary beyond Mans Art and Contrivance, or the effects of ordinary Nature. And therefore must have either God or some Spirit or Dæmon, one or more for the Author. The former no one saith; the Hand of God in this was only permissive. Therefore it is plain the Magicians did this by Spirits, Creatures of the Invisible World. The Text saith, by their Enchantments, per arcana, the vulgar Latin reads Which because it is a general word, Mr. Wagstaffe takes hold of it of it, and determines it to secret and sly Trick, those of Legerdemain and Couzenage, when as it is as applicable to any kind of secret (and so to the Diabolical Art and Confederacy) as to his sense. And that it is so to be understood here, is plain from the matter of the History. By those arcana (others read, incantationes, veneficia) they did those strange, things, viz. by secret Confederacy with Spirits, they obliged them to perform the wonders.
But what did the Spirits do, were the Serpents Blood and Frogs real or apparent only? I am not obliged to say, who is of one Opinion, and who of another in this, it matters not. The reality of the performance is most easie, and most suitable to the sacred Story, and there is no difficulty in conceiving that Spirits might suddenly convey Serpents, with which Ægypt abounded into the place of the Rods, which they might unperceivably snatch away after they were thrown down; This they could do, though the Magicians of themselves could not. And they might be provided for the performances by knowing the Command God had given Moses and Aaron, concerning the things he would have them do; which the Magicians could not know, at least but by them.
And for the Blood and the Frogs, they might by Infusion, or a Thousand ways that we cannot tell, make the Water to all appearance Bloody, or perhaps really transmute some (we
