The law of God condemns inchantments and inchanters.
Several terms are used in Scripture to denote inchantments: 1. לחש,
which signifies _to mutter_, _to speak with a low voice_, like magicians
in their evocations and magical operations, Psalm lviii, 6. 2. לטים,
_secrets_, whence Moses speaks of the inchantments wrought by Pharaoh’s
magicians. 3. כשף, meaning those who practise juggling, legerdemain,
tricks, and witchery, deluding people’s eyes and senses, 2 Chron.
xxxiii, 6. 4. חבר, which signifies, properly, _to bind_, _assemble_,
_associate_, _reunite_: this occurs principally among those who charm
serpents, who tame them, and make them gentle and sociable, which before
were fierce, dangerous, and untractable, Deut. xviii, 11. We have
examples of each of these ways of inchanting. It was common for
magicians, sorcerers, and inchanters, to speak in a low voice, to
whisper: they are called _ventriloqui_, because they spake, as one would
suppose, from the bottom of their stomachs. They affected secrecy and
mysterious ways, to conceal the vanity, folly, or infamy of their
pernicious art. Their pretended magic often consisted in cunning tricks
only, in sleight of hand, or some natural secrets, unknown to the
ignorant. They affected obscurity and night, or would show their skill
only before the uninformed or mean persons, and feared nothing so much
as serious examinations, broad day-light, and the inspection of the
intelligent. Respecting the inchantments practised by Pharaoh’s
magicians, (see Exod. viii, 18, 19,) in order to imitate the miracles
which were wrought by Moses, it must be said either that they were mere
illusions, whereby they imposed on the spectators; or that, if they
performed such miracles, and produced real changes of their rods, and
the other things said to be performed by them, it must have been by a
supernatural power which God had permitted Satan to give them, but the
farther operation of which he afterward thought proper to prevent.
Several terms are used in Scripture to denote inchantments: 1. לחש,
which signifies _to mutter_, _to speak with a low voice_, like magicians
in their evocations and magical operations, Psalm lviii, 6. 2. לטים,
_secrets_, whence Moses speaks of the inchantments wrought by Pharaoh’s
magicians. 3. כשף, meaning those who practise juggling, legerdemain,
tricks, and witchery, deluding people’s eyes and senses, 2 Chron.
xxxiii, 6. 4. חבר, which signifies, properly, _to bind_, _assemble_,
_associate_, _reunite_: this occurs principally among those who charm
serpents, who tame them, and make them gentle and sociable, which before
were fierce, dangerous, and untractable, Deut. xviii, 11. We have
examples of each of these ways of inchanting. It was common for
magicians, sorcerers, and inchanters, to speak in a low voice, to
whisper: they are called _ventriloqui_, because they spake, as one would
suppose, from the bottom of their stomachs. They affected secrecy and
mysterious ways, to conceal the vanity, folly, or infamy of their
pernicious art. Their pretended magic often consisted in cunning tricks
only, in sleight of hand, or some natural secrets, unknown to the
ignorant. They affected obscurity and night, or would show their skill
only before the uninformed or mean persons, and feared nothing so much
as serious examinations, broad day-light, and the inspection of the
intelligent. Respecting the inchantments practised by Pharaoh’s
magicians, (see Exod. viii, 18, 19,) in order to imitate the miracles
which were wrought by Moses, it must be said either that they were mere
illusions, whereby they imposed on the spectators; or that, if they
performed such miracles, and produced real changes of their rods, and
the other things said to be performed by them, it must have been by a
supernatural power which God had permitted Satan to give them, but the
farther operation of which he afterward thought proper to prevent.