MUSCID.E — FLIES. 293 



Pilgrims: "At Accaron was worshipped Baalzebub, that 

 is, the Lord of the Flies, either of contempt of his idolatrie, 

 so called; or rather of the multitude of Flies, which at- 

 tended the multitude of his sacrifices, when from the sacri- 

 fices at the Temple of Jerusalem, as some say, they were 

 wholly free : or for that hce was their Larder-god (as the 

 Roman Hercule8) to drive away flies: or for that from a 

 forme of a Flie, in which he was worshipped. ... But for 

 Beelzebub, he was their J^sculapius or Physicke god, as 

 appeareth by Ahaziah who sent to consult with him in his 

 sickness. And perhaps from this cause the blaspheming 

 Pharisies, rather applyed the name of this then any other 

 Idoll to our blessed Saviour (Math. x. 25) whom they saw 

 indeed to performe miraculous cures, which superstition 

 had conceived of Baalzebub: and if any thing were done 

 by that Idoll, it could by no other cause bee effected but by 

 the Devill, as tending (like the popish miracles) to the con- 

 firmation of Idolatrie. "^ 



This god of the Flies was so called, thinks Whiston, as 

 was Jove among the Greeks, from his supposed power over 

 Flies, in driving them away from the flesh of their sacrifices, 

 which otherwise would have been very troublesome to 

 them.^ 



It has been conjectured that the Fly, under which Baal- 

 zebub was represented, was the Tumble-bug, Scarabaeus 

 pilluarius; in which case, says Dr. Smith, Baalzebub and 

 Beelzebub might be used indifferently.^ 



''Urspergensis saith that the Devil did very frequently 

 appear in the form of a Fly ; whence it was that some of 

 the heathens called their famihar spirit Musca or Fly : per- 

 chance alluding to that of Plautus : 



Hie pol niusca est, mi pater, 



Sive profanum, sive publicum, nil clam 



ilium haberi }iotest : 

 Quin adsit ibi illico, et rem omnem tenet, — 



This man, my father, is a Fly, nothing can be concealed 

 from him, be it secret or publick, he is presently there, and 

 knowes all the matter. "* 



1 Pilg., V. 81. Fol. 1626. 



2 Whiston's Trans, of Josephus, p. 274, note. 



3 Diet, of Bible. 



* Moufet, Theatr. Ins., p. 79. Topsel's Transl., p. 951. 



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