there was no Devil nor familiar but a couzening Knave or a Quean, more crafty than the Demons themselves. [Sidenote: Isai. 8. 19.] [Sidenote: _Id._ 29. 4.] [Sidenote: Calvin _in loc._] 5. That they had no familiar Spirit is manifest, if we consider the manner how they carried themselves in these cheating actions and performances, for the Prophet tells us thus: _And when they shall say unto you, seek unto_ ‏הָאֹבוֹת‎ _ad Pythones_, unto Oraclers, and unto Wizards that peep, and mutter; If they had a familiar Spirit or Demon, what need they chirp, peep, or mutter? could it not speak loud and plain enough? Yea doubtless it could if they had any such, but it is to conceal their own deceit and knavery, lest it should be found forth and discovered: And without such chirping and muttering they could neither perform their Jugling delusions, nor keep them from being known, and derided. _Tremellius_ his note upon this place is very remarkable: “The Prophet (saith he) aggravateth the heinous crime of those Witches from the vanity of those Divinations, which the very manner of them betrayeth: those seducers have not so much wit, that they dare speak to the people the thing they pretend to speak in plain and open terms, with an audible clear voice, as they that are Gods Prophets, who speak the word of God as loud as may be, and as plain as they can to the people; but they chirp in their Bellies, and very low in their Throats, like Chickens half out of the shells in their hatching.” And this doth plainly declare their knavery and cheating Juglings. The same Prophet in another place speaking of the destruction, and bringing low of _Jerusalem_ he saith: _And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust. And thy voice shall be as of a_ Pythonist, _Ob_, or as of an Oracler, _out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper_, peep or chirp _out of the dust_. The word there, and in the former place used is from the root, ‏צַפְצֵף‎ _garrivit more avium_, he hath peeped or chirped like a Bird. Now this doth plainly allude to these kind of Pythonists, or Oraclers, who in giving their Oracles, or Divinations, did speak out of the ground, that was from hollow Vaults and Caves contrived on purpose for them to perform their tricks in, and such a place as this, called in the Hebrew _Ob_, did _Manasseh_ make and prepare, _And thy speech shall be low out of the dust_, like these deceivers who fall into Trances, and lie upon their faces the better to conceal and hide their Impostures, and so do change their voice, and mutter as it were out of the dust, thereby to make the people believe that it is the Demon’s or Spirit’s voice that speaketh in them, when it is nothing but their own counterfeiting. And thy voice shall be like one of these Oraclers, out of a low and hollow place, to whisper and chirp like a Chicken coming forth of the shell, the more to make them believe that it is the voice