remota est eorum natura a nostra, quapropter daemonibus:
and so belike that we have so many battles fought
in all ages, countries, is to make them a feast, and
their sole delight: but to return to that I said
before, if displeased they fret and chafe, (for they
feed belike on the souls of beasts, as we do on their
bodies) and send many plagues amongst us; but if pleased,
then they do much good; is as vain as the rest and
confuted by Austin, l. 9. c. 8. de Civ. Dei.
Euseb. l. 4. praepar. Evang. c. 6. and
others. Yet thus much I find, that our schoolmen
and other [1160]divines make nine kinds of bad spirits,
as Dionysius hath done of angels. In the first
rank are those false gods of the gentiles, which were
adored heretofore in several idols, and gave oracles
at Delphos, and elsewhere; whose prince is Beelzebub.
The second rank is of liars and equivocators, as Apollo,
Pythius, and the like. The third are those vessels
of anger, inventors of all mischief; as that Theutus
in Plato; Esay calls them [1161]vessels of fury; their
prince is Belial. The fourth are malicious revenging
devils; and their prince is Asmodaeus. The fifth
kind are cozeners, such as belong to magicians and
witches; their prince is Satan. The sixth are
those aerial devils that [1162]corrupt the air and
cause plagues, thunders, fires, &c.; spoken of in
the Apocalypse, and Paul to the Ephesians names them
the princes of the air; Meresin is their prince.
The seventh is a destroyer, captain of the furies,
causing wars, tumults, combustions, uproars, mentioned
in the Apocalypse; and called Abaddon. The eighth
is that accusing or calumniating devil, whom the Greeks
call [Greek: Diabolos], that drives men to despair.
The ninth are those tempters in several kinds, and
their prince is Mammon. Psellus makes six kinds,
yet none above the Moon: Wierus in his Pseudo-monarchia
Daemonis, out of an old book, makes many more
divisions and subordinations, with their several names,
numbers, offices, &c., but Gazaeus cited by [1163]Lipsius
will have all places full of angels, spirits, and
devils, above and beneath the Moon, [1164]ethereal
and aerial, which Austin cites out of Varro l. 7.
de Civ. Dei, c. 6. “The celestial devils
above, and aerial beneath,” or, as some will,
gods above, Semi-dei or half gods beneath, Lares, Heroes,
Genii, which climb higher, if they lived well, as
the Stoics held; but grovel on the ground as they
were baser in their lives, nearer to the earth:
and are Manes, Lemures, Lamiae, &c. [1165]They will
have no place but all full of spirits, devils, or
some other inhabitants; Plenum Caelum, aer, aqua
terra, et omnia sub terra, saith [1166]Gazaeus;
though Anthony Rusca in his book de Inferno, lib.
v. cap. 7. would confine them to the middle region,
yet they will have them everywhere. “Not
so much as a hair-breadth empty in heaven, earth,
or waters, above or under the earth.” The
air is not so full of flies in summer, as it is at
all times of invisible devils: this [1167]Paracelsus
stiffly maintains, and that they have every one their
several chaos, others will have infinite worlds, and
each world his peculiar spirits, gods, angels, and
devils to govern and punish it.