SECT. 16.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 257
eminent exaltation ensued thereon, it is not improbable but that they bore a peculiar malice towards all the Israelites, being, more- over, instigated and provoked by the knowledge and worship of the true God that was among them. This made them vigorously engage in an opposition unto Moses, not only in compliance with the king, but, as our apostle speaks, dvréorjcuv,— they set themselves against him;” which includes more than a mere production of magical effects upon the command of Pharaoh, whereby they attempted to obscure the lustre of his miracles,—even a sedulous, active, indus- trious opposition to his whole design. And besides, whereas they knew that Moses was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, and not perceiving at first any peculiar presence of divine power with him, they thought themselves sufficient for the contest, until they were forced, by the evidence of his miraculous operations, to acknowledge the energy of a divine power above what they could imitate or counterfeit. The name, as was said, is Egyptian, as was the art they professed. And it is not unlikely but that those which Moses calls 5275, “cohanim,” were in the Egyptian language called D'32WN, “chashmannim,” who are mentioned Ps. Ixviii. 32, which we render “ princes,” who are said to come out of Egypt in the profession of subjection unto the kingdom of Christ; for the word is Egyptian, and nowhere else used.
16. Unto these Egyptian artists two other sorts were added among the Babylonians, Dan. ui. 2. Besides the “ chartummim” and “ me- eashshephim,” which managed these arts in Egypt, whence their skill and names were traduced unto the Chaldeans, there were among their wise men D'2¥8, “ashshaphim,” and O23, “ casdim” also. How these two sorts were distinguished between themselves, or from the others named with them, is altogether unknown. Strabo tells us that the astrologers, magicians, and philosophers, among the Chaldeans, were called by various names: Kai yap ’ Opxnvoi ries rpos- ayopelovras, xa) Bopoimrnvol, xai GAAor wAsious, lib, xvi. cap. 1. ;—“ Some were called Orcheni, and some Borsippeni; as also there were other sorts of them.” “ Ashshaphim” are rendered “ philosophers, astro- nomers, astrologers, physicians,” merely on conjecture, and not from any signification of the name, which is unknown. The “ casdim,” or Chaldeans, seem to have been’a sort of people that claimed their pedigree in an especial manner from the first inhabitants of those parts, being the posterity of Chesed, the son of Nahor. These, pro-
_ bably, being overpowered by a confluence of other sects of men, be-
¥ i
Fr
took themselves unto those curious arts which afterwards were famous,
_ or [rather] infamous, throughout the world under their name; for the _ prognostication of future events, which they pretended unto, is a thing
that the world always despised and yet inquired after. So Strabo VOL. XIX. 17
258 PREFIGURATIONS OF THE PRIESTHOOD [EXERC. XXXIV.
describes them: ’Agapioro 0 év rj BalurAwvig xaroinha Trois emrywplors prro- ob 0015, ro%s Xaddulors xpooayopsvozévorc, [ubi supra ; | —“'There is in Baby- lonia a peculiar place of habitation assigned unto philosophers born in or deriving their race from the country, called Chaldeans.” We may take a brief view of them all in their order, expressed in Dan.ii. 2. The first are the “chartummim.” They were they to whom all the magi- cal operations in Egypt are ascribed; and the name itself is Egyptian, though some would have it of a Hebrew extract. R. Saadias would derive it from 3n, “a hole;” and 048, “shut,” or “closed;” sup- posing they gave their answers from a hole in the earth, as the oracle at Dodona out of an oak. Some deduce it from ®1), as Avenarius and Manasseh Ben Israel, judging them a sort of persons who used a style or graving tool to cut characters and pictures to work their enchantments by. See Fuller. Miscellan., lib. v. cap. xi. Hottinger, with most probability, conjectures the name to be taken from 77n, which in the Persian language still signifies “to know,” 5 being changed into 8, as is usual. For all such impostors do always represent themselves as persons endued with excellent skill and knowledge ; and as such are they by the common people esteemed. A sort of people they were pretending to supernatural operations by virtue of a hidden power present with them,—that is, diabolical. The next mentioned are the “ashshaphim,” distinguished from the “ chartummim,” as another sort and sect, by vau copulative. Aben Ezra renders them by oxy, “ physicians.’ Some would have the name the same with the Greek ocgo/, and soa general name for all professors of secret knowledge, and of the causes of things natural. In the Concordance of Rabbi Nathan, }Ws is nnn, “a seer, a prophet, a prognosticator.” The third sort are the “mecashshephim,” from }¥2, “to divine.” See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6; Deut. xviii. 10; Exod. xxil. 17. Maimonides, and many that follow him among the Jews, suppose these to have been such as, framing images and pictures of things above, included such powers in them by incantation as could intercept the influences of the heavenly bodies, and thereby pro- duce rare and wonderful effects, but always hurtful and noxious. Of the “casdim” we have spoken before. He that would further satisfy himself in the nature of the arts they professed may consult Maimonides in More Nebuchim, lib. iii. cap. xxxvii.; Polydor. Virgil, de Rerum Incantor. p. 85; Rhodigni. Var. Lec., lib. ix. cap. xxiii, ; Sixtus Senensis, Biblioth. Tit. Curio Sacrarum Artium libri; Daneeus de Prestigiatoribus; Kircher. Cid. tom. ii. part. ii, fol. 456; Bangius Colum Orientale; Pictures of Witchcraft; Delrio, Disquisit. Rerum Magicarum, lib. i. cap. ii, lib. ii; Pelan. in Dan. ii 2; Geierus in. Daniel; Agrippa de Occulta Philosophia, etc. Strabo informs us that in his time they had lost all their skill and arts, and that the