one who practises magic; or hath the power of doing wonderful feats by the agency of spirits.

Among the Eastern nations it seems to have been formerly common for the princes to have magicians about their court to confer with upon extraordinary occasions. And concerning these there hath been much disputation: some supposing that their power was only feigned, and that they were no other than impostors who imposed on the credulity of their sovereigns; while others have thought that they really had some unknown connection or correspondence with evil spirits, and could by their means accomplish what otherwise would have been impossible for men. The greatest difficulty is with regard to the magicians of Egypt, by St Paul called Janus and Jambres, who opposed Moses and Aaron. From the account given of them in Scripture, it would seem that they had the art either of performing or counterfeiting certain miraculous actions, while others, seemingly as easy, they could neither perform nor counterfeit.

A very learned author tells us, that the original of these magicians seems to have been this, That as God admitted the holy patriarchs to a familiar intercourse with him, so the devil kept men in obedience to him by pretending to discover secret things to them: and when God was pleased to work miracles to confirm the truth, the devil directed the latter how to invoke him for the performance of strange things, which confirmed them in their error.

With regard to the enchantments which they are said to make use of, if the Hebrew word came from labat, a "flame," (Gen. iii. 24.), it shows that they dazzled men's eyes, and imposed upon them by false appearances. But it may be derived from laat, "hidden, or secret;" and so intimate to us, that they used secret whisperers or murmurs, as enchanters did who were familiar with demons; and thus it is explained in Ge- mara sanhedrim.

A late learned and ingenious writer has obliged the public with several very curious remarks upon this subject, of the Egyptian magicians succeeding in several of their attempts to work miracles. He is not of the opinion that these wonders could possibly be done by any or all the powers of nature; nor does he agree with some authors, who imagine there was not any real transmutation, but that they played their parts as jugglers, pretending to do what they did not, or that some demons assisted them to deceive the sight of the beholders. For with regard to their imposing upon Pharaoh by artifice and pretence, this must inevitably have given Moses and Aaron an opportunity of detecting their imposture. And as to their being able to exhibit the appearances of serpents, frogs, and blood, when no such things were really in being, either by themselves or by the assistance of demons; this supposes them to have performed wonders, of which we can give as little account as of a miracle. But the question will recur, If they had no mythical arts to perform these things, how came they to succeed in the attempts which they made in opposition to Moses? To this our author replies, 1. That we have no reason to think that the king knew that the works which he employed them to perform were within the reach of their art; but rather, on the contrary, he ordered them to try to perform them, that he might know whether art could effect them or not, or whether they were true miracles. 2. That it does not appear from the magicians here trying the experiments, and succeeding in them, that they thought at first their arts would be effectual; but, they would try all experiments in order to judge further of the matter; and, upon their attempting, God was pleased in some cases to give an unexpected success to their endeavours, in order to serve his purposes by it. For, 3. Their success was certainly unexpected, as evidently appears by their not being able to follow Moses in all his miracles. When they attempted to produce the lice, they could not do it. It is here evident the magicians did not know the extent of their powers, if they can be conceived to have had any: for they attempted to equal Moses in all his performances; but upon trial they found they could do some, whereas in others, though not a whit more difficult, they could not obtain any success at all. Had they had any effectual rules of art or science to work by, they would at first, without trial, have known what to attempt, and what not; but, in truth, they had no arts to perform any thing of this sort. In some instances, God was pleased to give a success, which they little expected, to their endeavours, and which they were so far from being satisfied with, that they took the first opportunity which was given them, when their attempts failed, to acknowledge that Moses was certainly afflicted by the divine power.