§ Wisemen.
That is, Sorcerers, or Magicians, and so might it not unfitly be translated. For first, though Magus and Magia, admit of a gentle construction, and be often taken, not only in an harmless, but in a laudable sense in prophane Authors, yet are they never so in Scrip∣ture; and by the Idiom and propriety of that, must the word be expounded; and not by Forreign and Heathen Language and acceptation. It is true indeed, that among the Persians the Magi have been renowned for men of excellent wisdom and skill in natural, and in other things, and that none were admitted to reign among them, unless he were well versed in the learning of the Magi; and that Plato, Tully, Philo, Pliny and others, do extol Magia, or Magick, to be the very height and perfection of Philosophy: But the Scripture, who is ever the sure Expositor of it self, doth never take the word, but in the worse sense, for the Devilish and damnable practice and practicers of sorcery and unlaw∣ful arts, as Acts 8. 9. Simon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: Acts 13. 8. Elymas 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
And the Babylonian 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Wizards, are so called by the Greek of Daniel, who∣soever traslated it, whether the LXX, or Theodotion, or who else soever, Dan. 1. 20. & 2. 2. &c. Now it is against sense and reason to refuse the sense of Scripture, for a Scrip∣ture word, and to fetch the intepretation of it from Persia, Plato, Pliny, and I know not whence.
2. It doth the more set forth the lustre and glory of the birth of Christ, and the power of himself and kingdom, by supposing that these men that had been hitherto devoted to the arts, service, and converse of the Devil, should now forsake them, and him, and their own delight, and their old profession, and dedicate themselves, travailes and gifts, to a child unknown, far off, and but poorly born.
3. Nor is this opinion but newly minted, but it carrieth with it the passeport and pri∣viledge of antiquity. For Ignatius Martyr in his Epistle to the Ephesians, speaking concer∣ning the Wisemens Star, saith thus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Then the wesdom of this world grew foolish, Sorcery a toy, and Magick a derision: persona∣ting the men in both their contrary professions and devotedness, Devilish and Divine, to Satan and Christ. So likewise Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho, speaking of these same men, and how they were qualified and affected before they came to Christ, he saith, they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, captived or led away as a prey by the Devil to all evill actions. And so Theophylact the mouth of Chrysostome, They were, saith he, adversaries or enemies to God, and devoted to Devils in a more special manner: And to this sense doth the Gospel of Mathew in Hebrew render the word, whosoever translated it. But to spare more, those fathers confess their opinion to be the same with these; [and those neither mean ones, nor a few] which hold, some of them, that these Magi had obtained their knowledge concerning the King of the Jews, from Sybilla Ery∣thraeae, and others from Balaam, to whom they hold that they stood in relation not only of Nation and kindred, but also of the same profession and art of Wizardy and Magick.