Book 16, Chapter 19: That such divels as are mentioned in the scriptures, have in their names their nature and qualities expressed, with instancies thereof
1 Such divels as are mentioned in the scriptures by name, have in their names their nature and qualities expressed, being for the most part the idols of certeine nations idolatrouslie erected, in steed, or rather in spight of God. For Beelzebub, which signifieth the lord of the flies, bicause he taketh everie simple thing in his web, was an idol or oracle erected at Ekron, to whom Ahaziah sent to know whether he should recover his disease: as though there had beene no God in Israell. This divell Beelzebub was among the Jewes reputed the principall divell. The Græcians called him Pluto, the Latines Sumanus, quasi summum deorum manium, the cheefe ghost or spirit of the dead whom they supposed to walke by night: although they absurdlie beleeved also that the soule died with the bodie. So as they did put a difference betweene the ghost of a man and the soule of a man: and so doo our papists; howbeit, none otherwise, but that the soule is a ghost, when it walketh on the earth, after the dissolution of the bodie, or appeareth to anie man, either out of heaven, hell, or purgatorie, and not otherwise. Nisroch signifieth a delicate tentation, and was worshipped by Senacherib in Assyria. Tarcat is in English, fettered, and was the divell or idoll of the Hevites.
2 Beelphegor, otherwise called Priapus, the gaping or naked god was worshipped among the Moabits. Adramelech, that is, the cloke or power of the king, was an idoll at Sepharvais, which was a citie of the Assyrians. Chamos, that is feeling, or departing, was worshipped among the Moabits. Dagon, that is, corne or greefe, was the idoll of the Philistines. Astarte, that is, a fold or flocke, is the name of a shee idoll at Sydonia, whom Salomon worshipped: some thinke it was Venus. Melchom, that is, a king, was an idoll or divell, which the sonnes of Ammon worshipped.
3 Sometimes also we find in the scriptures, that divels and spirits take their names of wicked men, or of the houses or stats of abhominable persons: as Astaroth, which (as Josephus saith) was the idoll of the Philistines, whome the Jewes tooke from them at Salomons commandement, and was also worshipped of Salomon. Which though it signifie riches, flocks, &c: yet it was once a citie belonging to Og the king of Basan, where they saie the giants dwelt. In these respects Astaroth is one of the speciall divels named in Salomons conjuration, and greatlie emploied by the conjurors. I have sufficientlie prooved in these quotations, that these idols are Dii gentium, the gods of the Gentiles: and then the prophet David may satisfie you, that they are divels, who saith Dii gentium dæmonia sunt, The gods of the Gentiles are divels. What a divell was the rood of grace to be thought, but such a one as before is mentioned and described, who tooke his name of his courteous and gratious behaviour towards his worshippers, or rather those that offered unto him? The idolatrous knaverie wherof being now bewraied, it is among the godlie reputed a divell rather than a god: and so are diverse others of the same stampe.
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