The history of the Chaldaick philosophy by Thomas Stanley.

CHAP. VIII.

Material Daemons how to be repuls'd.

AS it is one property of Theurgy to evocate and procure a con∣versation with good Daemons, so is it another, to repulse and chase away the Material Daemons, which as they conceive may be effected several wayes; either by words, or actions.

By Words: For (asa 1.1 Marcus delivers the Chaldaick opinion) these Material Daemons fearing to be sent to Abysses and Subterraneal places, and standing in awe of the Angels who send them thither, If a Man threaten to send them thither, and pronounce the names of those Angels whose office that is, it is hardly to be expressed how much they will be affrighted and troubled; so great will their asto∣nishment be, as that they are not able to discern the person that menaces them, and though it be some old Woman, or a little old Man that threatens them, yet so great is their fear, that commonly they de∣part as if he that menaces were able to kill them.

By actions: For the Bodies of Daemons (saith the sameb 1.2 Author) are capable of being struck, and are pained thereby; Sense is not the property of Compounds, but of Spirits; That thing in a Man which feel∣eth, is neither the Bone, nor the Nerve, but the Spirit which is in them: whence if the Nerve be press'd or seized with cold or the like, there ariseth pain from the Emission of one Spirit into another Spirit; for it is impossible that a compound Body should in it self be sensible of pain, but in as much as it partaketh of Spirit, and therfore being cut into pieces, or dead, it is absolutely insensible; because it hath no

Spirit. In like manner a Daemon being all Spirit is of his own Nature sensible in every part; hee immediately seeth and he heareth; he is ob∣noxious to suffering by touch; being cut assunder he is pained like Solid Bodies; only herein differing from them, that other things being cut assunder can by no meanes or very hardly be made whole again, whereas the Daemon immediately commeth together again, as Air or Water parted by some more solid Body. But though this Spirit joyns again in a moment, neverthelesse at the very time in which the dissection is made it is pained; for this reason they are much affraid of swords, which they who chase them away knowing, stick up pointed Irons or swords in those places where they would not have them come, chasing them away by things Antipathe∣tical to them, as they allure them by things Sympathetical.

From these Material Daemons,* 1.3 upon those that worship them, descend certain Fiery irradiations, like those we call falling Stars, gliding up and down; which those mad persons term apparitions of God; but there is nothing true, firm or certain in them, but cheats, like those of Iuglers, which the common people term wonders, because they deceive the eye;* 1.4 for being removed far from the beatitude of Divine life, and destitute of In∣tellectual contemplation, they cannot praesignify futures, but all that they say or shew is false and not solid, for they know beings 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by their outsides, but that which knoweth futures particularly, useth Notions indi∣visible and not figured.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Psel. de. daemon.
• b 1.2

  de. daemon.
• * 1.3

  Psel. de. daemon.
• * 1.4

  Psel. in orac. 23.