The Cabalists Draw Forth The Sacred Names Of Angels From Sacred Writ...

CHAP. XII.

THE CABALISTS DRAW FORTH THE SACRED NAMES OF ANGELS FROM SACRED WRIT, AND OF THE SEVENTY-TWO ANGELS, WHO BEAR THE NAMES OF GOD; WITH THE TABLES OF ZIRUPH AND THE COMMUTATIONS OF NAMES AND NUMBERS.

THERE are also other sacred names of good and evil spirits deputed to each office of much greater efficacy than the former, which the Cabalists draw from sacred writ, according to that art which we teach concerning them; as also certain names of God are drawn forth out of certain places: the general rule of these is, that wheresoever any thing of divine essence is expressed in the Scripture, from that place the name of God may be gathered; but in what place soever in the Scripture the name of God is found expressed, then mark what office lies under that name; wheresoever therefore the Scripture speaks of the office or work of any spirit, good or bad, from thence the name of that spirit, whether good or bad, may be gathered; this unalterable rule being observed, that of good spirits we receive the names of good spirits, of evil the names of evil: and let us not confound black with white, nor day with night, nor light with darkness, which, by these verses as by an example, is manifest:

"Let them be as dust before the face of the wind; and let the angel of the Lord scatter them: let their ways be darkness and slippery and let the angel of the Lord pursue them."

יהיו במוץ ינפל דות ומאלאף יהוהדהה
יהידרכם הטף והלק לקות יהוה דרפם

in the xxxvth Psalm with the Hebrews, but with us, the xxxivth; of which the names of those angels are drawn, מידאל Midael, and מיראל Miriael,

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of the order of warriors; so of that verse, "thou shall set over him the wicked, and Satan shall stand at his right-hand," out of Psalm cix. with the Hebrews, but with the Latins, cviii.

חפקר עליו רשמן יאמלאל ימינו

is extracted the name of the evil spirit Schii, שיעי which signifies a spirit that is a worker of engines. There is a certain text in Exodus contained in three verses, whereof every one is written with seventy-two letters, beginning thus; the first Vajisa, ויסע, the second Vajabo, ויבא the third Vajot, ויט which are extended into one line, viz. the first and the third from the left-hand to the right, but the middle in a contrary order, beginning from the right to the left, is terminated on the left-hand; then each of the three letters being subordinate the one to the other, make one name, which are seventy-two names, which the Hebrews called Schemhamphoræ, to which if the divine name El אל or Jah יהה be added, they produce seventy-two trisyllable names of angels, whereof every one carries the great name of God, as it is written, "my angel shall go before thee; observe him, for my name is in him." And these are those that are set over the seventy-two celestial quinaries, and so many nations and tongues, and joints of man's body, and cooperate with the seventy-two seniors of the synagogue, and so many disciples of Christ: and their names, according to the extraction which the Cabalists make, are manifest in the following table, according to the manner which we have mentioned.

Now there are many other ways of making Schemhamphoræ out of those verses; as when all three are written in a right order, one after the other, from the right to the left, besides those which are extracted by the tables of Ziruph, and the tables of commutations, of which we made mention of before. Because these tables serve for all names, as divine, so angelical, we shall therefore subjoin them to this chapter.

These are the seventy-two angels, bearing the name of God, Schemhamphoræ.

For the tables, &c. see the annexed Plates, No. 1, 2, 3, 4.