true and be followed up. He always forbids
their listening to any prophet or diviners who wished to mislead them
to impiety or idolatry.

Tertullian, speaking of the delusions performed by demons, and the
foresight they have of certain events, says,[262] that being spiritual
in their nature, they find themselves in a moment in any place they
may wish, and announce at a distance what they have seen and heard.
All this is attributed to the Divinity, because neither the cause nor
the manner is known; often, also, they boast of causing events, which
they do but announce; and it is true that often they are themselves
the authors of the evils they predict, but never of any good.
Sometimes they make use of the knowledge they have derived from the
predictions of the prophets respecting the designs of God, and they
utter them as coming from themselves. As they are spread abroad in the
air, they see in the clouds what must happen, and thus foretell the
rain which they were aware of before it had been felt upon earth. As
to maladies, if they cure them, it is because they have occasioned
them; they prescribe remedies which produce effect, and it is believed
that they have cured maladies simply because they have not continued
them. _Quia desinunt laedere, curasse credentur._

The demon can then foresee the future and what is hidden, and discover
them by means of his votaries; he can also doubtlessly do wonderful
things which surpass the usual and known powers of nature; but it is
never done except to deceive us, and lead us into disorder and
impiety. And even should he wear the semblance of leading to virtue
and practising those things which are praiseworthy and useful to
salvation, it would only be to win the confidence of such as would
listen to his suggestions, to make them afterward fall into
misfortune, and engage them in some sin of presumption or vanity: for
as he is a spirit of malice and lies, it little imports to him by what
means he surprises us, and establishes his reign among us.

But he is very far from always foreseeing the future, or succeeding
always in misleading us; God has set bounds to his malice. He often
deceives himself, and often makes use of disguise and perversion, that
he may not appear to be ignorant of what he is ignorant of, or he will
appear unwilling to do what God will not allow him to do; his power is
always bounded, and his knowledge limited. Often, also, he will
mislead and deceive through ma