Psalms 58:5

This similitude doth neither justify the practice of charming, which, in the very word here used, is condemned, Deuteronomy 18:11, no more than those which are drawn from the unjust steward, Luke 16:1, &c.; Luke 18:2, &c., and from a thief, Revelation 16:15; nor yet affirm the truth of what is reported concerning the asps or adders, which are said to lay one ear close to the ground, and to cover the other with their tail, that so they may avoid the danger of enchantment; but only was taken from the common opinion, which he poetically mentions to this purpose: As they commonly say of the asps or adders, &c., such really are these men; deaf to all my counsels, and to the dictates of their own consciences, and to the voice of God's law. And yet of the charming or enchanting of serpents, mention is made both in other places of Scripture, as Ecclesiastes 10:11 Jeremiah 8:17, and in all sorts of authors, ancient and modern, Hebrew, and Arabic, and Greek, and Latin of which see my Latin Synopsis. And particularly the Arabic writers (to whom these creatures were best known) name some sorts of serpents, among which the adder is one, which they call deaf, not because they are dull of hearing, but, as one of them expressly saith, because they will not be charmed.