1. The Lord had promised his People to raise them up a Prophet from amongst their Brethren like unto _Moses_, and that therefore they should hear him, and not go after other Gods or Idols. And therefore he sent them many and divers Prophets, of whom they were to inquire: so likewise they gave the Priest order to inquire by _Urim_ and _Thummim_, by which he gave answers, and therefore they were to hearken to his Ordinances, and not to follow after other strange Gods: For the Nations that he cast out had hearkened unto Observers of times and Diviners, but they were not to do so. And though these that caused their children to pass through the fire unto _Moloch_, used not Divinations, yet it was a wicked and abominable Ceremony, and the use and end of it to lead the people to Idolatry, and therefore is reckoned amongst the rest. [Sidenote: _Reas. 2._] [Sidenote: Prov. 16. 10.] [Sidenote: Isa. 3. 2.] [Sidenote: Exod. 22. 20.] 2. They are solely condemned, because the end of all their Divinations and their other Feats, were only to draw and lead the people to Idolatry, and to serve other Gods. For it is manifest, that all ways and sorts of Divination were not in themselves evil and unlawful, for else Astronomy it self, that foretels the Entrance of the Sun and Moon into such Signs, and when Eclipses will happen, and the like, should be forbidden too, but they were not: so that the chief reason why they were condemned, was _sub ratione finis, non medii_, in regard of the end, and not of the means used, because all their Divinations, and other Arts, Crafts, or Feats, whether performed by natural or artificial means, or otherwise, had still for their chief and principal end the leading of the people unto Idolatry, and the serving of other Gods, which was above all things abominable and hateful unto God, who is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to graven Images. And therefore all Idol-Priests, or those that lead the people to Idolatry, are in the Scripture-sense Witches, Diviners, and the like. And that all Divinations were not forbidden, is most clear from that of _Solomon_, as _Arias Montanus_ translates it: _Divinatio super labiis regis_: and that of _Isaiah_, where the Lord threateneth to take away the staff and stay of _Jerusalem_, that is, the mighty man, and the man of war, the Judge, the Prophet, and the prudent, _Divinum, sive Sagacem_. For it is the same word, and from the same root ‏קָסַם‎ _Divinavit_: For as _Avenarius_, _Schindler_, and others say, _Est verbum medium, nam modò in bonam, modò in malam partem accipitur_, of which _Tremellius_ saith this: _Sagacitas, id est, consultissima prudentia in rebus dijudicandis, præcavendis, & veluti addivinandis: nam vox Hebræa media est sive anceps, quæ non tantùm in malam partem accipitur, sed etiam in bonam_. Therefore was the Law so strict, that if any sacrificed unto any other God, save unto the Lord only, he was utterly to be destroyed, much more