only that they have the shape of a man, and such (he saith) were the sons of Adam, which were predecessors to Seth after Abel; of which the wise men of the Hebrews said, that Adam begat Tochot (
Hebrew characters) i.e. divels. But after that he had found favor in the eyes of God, he begot Seth after his own image, and likeness, i.e. who according to the image of God obtained a human perfection, which he that hath not, is not reckoned of the species of man, by reason of the pravities which are the cause of all evils and mischief. It is also (as saith Porphyry) the opinion of Magicians, that evill souls are turned into the nature of Divels, and become as pernicious as they; which Christ confirmed, when he spake concerning Judas Iscariot: Have not I chosen twelve, and one of you is a divel? which divels therefore they call adventitious, because of mens souls, they are become Divels. Whence the names of wicked men and divels are the same, whether by these we call their souls, or evil Genii, which have taken upon them the names of wicked men, as if it were their persons. Also Behemoth, and the Leviathan signifie beasts, and divels. By these examples he that is inquisitive shall finde out the names of good, as well as of evil spirits.
Chapter xxix. Of the Characters and Seals of spirits. We must now speak of the Characters and Seals of spirits. Characters therefore are nothing else then certain unknowable letters and writings, preserving the secrets of the Gods, and names of spirits from the use and reading of prophane men, which the Ancients called Hyeroglyphicall, or sacred letters, because devoted to the secrets of the Gods only. For they did account it unlawfull to write the mysteries of the God with those Characters with which profane and vulgar things were wrote. Whence Porphyry saith, that the
