Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
Ver. 5. Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers] Such there are, the devil's spellmen, Ecclesiastes 10:8, that can enchant some kind of serpents, and some they cannot, as Jeremiah 8:17. That the serpent here spoken of, when she beginneth to feel the charmer, clappeth one of her ears close to the ground, and stoppeth the other with her tail, is affirmed by Jerome, Austin, and Cassiodorus. Vide Plin. lib. 2, c. 7; l. 8, c. 3. Quum coeperit incantatorem suum pati, allidit unam aurem terrae et cauda obturat alteram (Aug. in loc.; Horat. Epist. 2). And that she doth this, although by hearkening to the charmer, provoking her to spit out her poison, she might renew her age, is affirmed by others; semblably, perverse people will not be persuaded to live happily, reign everlastingly.
- At Paris ut vivat regnetque beatus,
Cogi posse negat.