more subtile and aethereall Matter,
which is, then, when they will be seen, condensed. But Both of them
agree on one generall appellation of them, DAEMONS. As if the Dead of
whom they Dreamed, were not Inhabitants of their own Brain, but of the
Air, or of Heaven, or Hell; not Phantasmes, but Ghosts; with just
as much reason, as if one should say, he saw his own Ghost in a
Looking-Glasse, or the Ghosts of the Stars in a River; or call the
ordinary apparition of the Sun, of the quantity of about a foot, the
Daemon, or Ghost of that great Sun that enlighteneth the whole visible
world: And by that means have feared them, as things of an unknown, that
is, of an unlimited power to doe them good, or harme; and consequently,
given occasion to the Governours of the Heathen Common-wealths to
regulate this their fear, by establishing that DAEMONOLOGY (in which
the Poets, as Principal Priests of the Heathen Religion, were specially
employed, or reverenced) to the Publique Peace, and to the Obedience of
Subjects necessary thereunto; and to make some of them Good Daemons,
and others Evill; the one as a Spurre to the Observance, the other, as
Reines to withhold them from Violation of the Laws.

What Were The Daemons Of The Ancients

What kind of things they were, to whom they attributed the name of
Daemons, appeareth partly in the Genealogie of their Gods, written by
Hesiod, one of the most ancient Poets of the Graecians; and partly in
other Histories; of which I have observed some few before, in the 12.
Chapter of this discourse.

How That Doctrine Was Spread

The Graecians, by their Colonies and Conquests, communicated their
Language and Writings into Asia, Egypt, and Italy; and therein, by
necessary consequence their Daemonology, or (as St. Paul calles it)
"their Doctrines of Devils;" And by that meanes, the contagion was
derived also to the Jewes, both of Judaea, and Alexandria, and other
parts, whereinto they were dispersed. But the name of Daemon they did
not (as the Graecians) attribute to Spirits both Good, and Evill; but
to the Evill onely: And to the Good Daemons they gave the name of the
Spirit of God; and esteemed those into whose bodies they entred to be
Prophets. In summe, all singularity if Good, they attributed to the
Spirit of God; and if Evill, to some Daemon, but a kakodaimen, an Evill
Daemon, that is, a Devill. And therefore, they called Daemoniaques, that
is, possessed by the Devill, such as we ca