T hath also pleased GOD to informe our weake capacities, as it were by similitudes and examples, or rather by comparisons, to understand what manner of thing the divell is, by the verie names appropriated and attributed unto him in the scriptures: wherein sometimes he is called by one name, sometimes by another, by metaphors according to his conditions. aElephasa Job. 40.
Job. 3.
Isai. 27. is called in Job, Behemoth, which is, Bruta; whereby the greatnes and brutishnes of the divell is figured. Leviathan is not much different from Elephas; whereby the divels great subtiltie and power is shewed unto us. bMammonb Matth. 6.
Matt. 4. &c.
Marc. 16. is the covetous desire of monie, wherewith the divell overcommeth the reprobate. cDæmonc Jam. 2. signifieth one that is cunning or craftie. Cacodæmon is perverslie knowing. All those which in ancient times were worshipped as gods, were so called. dDiabolusd Matth. 4. John. 8. Apoc. 12. is Calumniator, an accuser, or a slanderer. Sathan is Adversarius, an adversarie, that troubleth and molesteth. eAbaddone Apoc. 9. a destroier. fLegio,f Marc. 5.
Luke. 8. bicause they are manie. gPrinceg Eph. 2. of the aire. hPrinceh John. 8. 12. 14. 16. of the world. iA kingi Job. 41. of the sonnes of pride. kA roringk 1. Pet. 5. lion. lAnl John. 8. homicide or manslear, a lier, and the father of lies. The mauthorm 1. John. 3. of sinne. nA spirit.n Acts. 16. Yea somtimes he is called the spirit of the Lord, as the executioner and minister of his displeasure, &c. Sometimes, the ospirito Ose. 4. of fornication, &c. And manie other like epithets or additions are given him for his name. He is also called pthep Psal. 34.
1. Chr. 21. angell of the Lord. qTheq Prov. 17. cruell angell. The rangellr 2. Cor. 12. of sathan. The sangells Apoc. 9. of hell. The tgreatt Apoc. 12. dragon, for his pride and force. The uredu Job. 41. dragon for his blouddines. A xserpent.x Gen. 3. An yowle,y Apoc. 12. a zkite,z Isai. 27.
Isai. 13. 34. a satyre, a crowe, a pellicane, a hedghog, a griph, a storke, &c./
[x should reach to Isai. 27. and y Mark Isai. 13. 34.]
The xxi. Chapter.521.
That the idols or gods of the Gentiles are divels, their diverse names, and in what affaires their labours and authorities are emploied, wherein also the blind superstition of the heathen people is discovered.
NDPsalm. 96. for so much as the idols of the gentiles are called divels, and are among the unlearned confounded and intermedled with the divels that are named in the scriptures; I thought it convenient here to give you a note of them, to whome the Gentiles gave names, according to the offices unto them assigned. PenatesJuno and Minerva. are the domesticall gods, or rather divels/374. that were said to make men live quietlie within doores. But some thinke these rather to be such, as the Gentiles thought to be set over kingdomes: and that Lares are such as trouble private houses, and are set to oversee crosse waies and cities. Larvæ are said to be spirits that walke onelie by night. Genii are the two angels, which they supposed were appointed to wait upon each man. Manes are the spirits which oppose themselves against men in the waie. Dæmones were feigned gods by poets, as Jupiter, Juno, &c. Virunculi terreiCousening gods or knaves. are such as was Robin good fellowe, that would supplie the office of servants, speciallie of maids; as to make a fier in the morning, sweepe the house, grind mustard and malt, drawe water, &c: these also rumble in houses, drawe latches, go up and downe staiers, &c. Dii genialesTerra, aqua, aer, ignis, sol, & Luna. are the gods that everie man did sacrifice unto at the daie of their birth. Tetrici be they that make folke afraid, and have such ouglie shape, which manie of our divines doo call Subterranei. Cobali are they that followe men, and delight to make them laugh, with tumbling, juggling, and such like toies. Virunculi are dwarfes about three handfulles long, and doo no hurt; but seeme to dig in mineralles, and to be verie busie, and yet doo nothing. Guteli or Trulli522. are spirits (they saie) in the likenes of women, shewing great kind/nesse to all men: & hereof it is that we call light women, truls. Dæmones montani are such as worke in the mineralles, and further the worke of the labourers woonderfullie, who are nothing afraid of them. Hudgin *Hudgin[* Hutgin, Wier.] of Germanie, and Rush of England. is a verie familiar divell, which will doo no bodie hurt, except he receive injurie: but he cannot abide that, nor yet be mocked: he talketh with men freendlie, sometimes visiblie, and sometimes invisiblie. There go as manie tales upon this Hudgin, in some parts of Germanie, as there did in England of Robin good fellowe. But this Hudgin was so called, bicause he alwaies ware a cap or a hood†;[† See note.] and therefore I thinke it was Robin hood. Frier Rush was for all the world such another fellow as this Hudgin, and brought up even in the same schoole; to wit, in a kitchen: in so much as the selfe-same tale is written of the one as of the other, concerning the skullian, which is said to have beene slaine, &c: for the reading whereof I referre you to Frier Rush his storie, or else to John Wierus De præstigiis dæmonum.J. Wier. lib. de præst. dæm. 1. cap. 23.
There were also Familiares dæmones, which we call familiars: such as Socrates and Cæsar were said to have; and such as Feats sold to doctor Burcot. Quintus Sertorius had Diana hir selfe for his familiar; and Numa Pompilius had Aegeria: but neither the one nor the other of all these could be preserved by their familiars from being destroied with untimelie death. Simon Samareus boasted, that he had gotten by conjuration, the soule of a little child that was slaine, to be his familiar, and that he told him all things that were to come, &c. I marvell what privilege soules have, which are departed from the bodie, to know things to come more than the soules within mans bodie. There were spirits, which they called Albæ mulieres, and Albæ Silyllæ, which were verie familiar, and did much harme (they saie) to women with child, and to sucking children. Deumus as a divell is worshipped among the Indians in Calecute, who (as they thinke) hath power given him of God to judge the earth, &c: his image is horriblie pictured in a most ouglie shape. Thevet saith, that a divell/375. in America, called Agnan, beareth swaie in that countrie. In Ginnie Bawdie preests in Ginnie. one Grigrie is accounted the great divell, and keepeth the woods: these have preests called Charoibes, which prophesie, after they have lien by the space of one houre prostrate upon a wench/523. of twelve yeares old, and all that while (saie they) he calleth upon a divell called Hovioulsira, and then commeth foorth and uttereth his prophesie. For the true successe whereof the people praie all the while that he lieth groveling like a lecherous knave. There are a thousand other names, which they saie are attributed unto divels; and such as they take to themselves are more ridiculous than the names that are given by others, which have more leasure to devise them.Looke in the word (Ob) lib. 7. cap. 3. pag. 132, 133. In litle bookes conteining the cousening possessed, at Maidstone, where such a woonder was wrought, as also in other places, you may see a number of counterfeit divels names, and other trish trash.
The xxii. Chapter.
Of the Romanes cheefe gods called Dii selecti, and of other heathen gods, their names and offices.
