The next place of Scripture that is commonly brought and urged thereby to prove the great power of Devils and Witches, is that of _Pharaohs_ Magicians, from whence they argue thus: If the Magicians of _Pharaoh_ were able by the power and assistance of the Devil to change their Rods into Serpents, the Water into Blood, and to produce Frogs; Why may not Witches, by the power and assistance of the Devil, change themselves and other things into strange and several shapes, and do the rest of the feats that are ascribed unto them? But though this be but _petitio principii_, a begging of the question, that by the assistance of the Devil they did these things, which is neither supposed nor granted, but ought first to have been proved; And though in the case of hardening _Pharaohs_ heart, there might be (and was) a peculiar dispensation from God at that time: yet it will not follow that God doth always dispense with, and give the Devil leave to operate the like things; and so nothing firmly can be concluded from hence. Yet (I say) though these be so, we shall pretermit them, and come to the full opening and discussion of the matter; and that in these two particulars. 1. How far the Devils power and assistance did concurr with the actions and performances. 2. And wherein he did not concurr nor act at all. [Sidenote: Ephes. 2. 2.] [Sidenote: 2 Tim. 3. 8.] 1. We shall grant that _Pharaoh_ and the Magicians being Idolaters, and worshippers of false gods, their ends were principally to magnifie the power of their Idols, and to manifest that their supposed gods could work, and bring to pass as strange miracles or wonders as _Moses_ and _Aaron_ could perform by the assistance of the God of the Hebrews; and in respect of this end they had all the assistance that Satan and his dark kingdom of Angels could afford them in a spiritual and hellish way; _for he is the Prince of the power of the air that worketh in the children of disobedience_, for such were both _Pharaoh_ and his Magicians. And to this purpose doth the Apostle tell us, speaking of false and seducing teachers: _That they were like Jannes, and Jambres that withstood Moses, in their resisting of the truth_: so that the Magicians of _Pharaoh_ were condemned for resisting the truth of that message that _Moses_ and _Aaron_ brought, and of those real miracles that they performed; and so in respect of the wicked end they aimed at, they were assisted with the power and concurrence of the Devil, and in that respect only were his servants and instruments. But as for the second particular, namely, the efficient causes and means of the producing of those things that the Magicians did, we affirm they were performed by the power of nature and art, and that the Devil was no efficient cause of their production, and that by these irrefragable arguments. [Sidenote: _Argum. 1._]