on, a prophet like myself." The name of angel is
given to the prophet Nathan, who reproved David for his sin. I do not
pretend, by these testimonies, to deny that the angels have often
appeared to men; but I infer from them that sometimes these angels
were only prophets or other persons, raised up and sent by God to his
people.

As to apparitions of the demon, it is well to observe that in
Scripture the greater part of public calamities and maladies are
attributed to evil spirits; for example, it is said that Satan
inspired David[426] with the idea of numbering his people; but in
another place it is simply said that the anger of the Lord was
inflamed[427] against Israel, and led David to cause his subjects to
be numbered. There are several other passages in the Holy Books, where
they relate what the demon said and what he did, in a popular manner,
by the figure termed prosopopoeia; for instance, the conversation
between Satan and the first woman,[428] and the discourse which the
demon holds in company with the good angels before the Lord, when he
talks to him of Job,[429] and obtains permission to tempt and afflict
him. In the New Testament, it appears that the Jews attributed to the
malice of the demon and to his possession almost all the maladies with
which they were afflicted. In St. Luke,[430] the woman who was bent
and could not raise herself up, and had suffered this for eighteen
years, "had," says the evangelist, "a spirit of infirmity;" and Jesus
Christ, after having healed her, says "that Satan held her bound for
eighteen years;" and in another place, it is said that a lunatic or
epileptic person was possessed by the demon. It is clear, from what is
said by St. Matthew and St. Luke,[431] that he was attacked by
epilepsy. The Saviour cured him of this evil malady, and by that means
took from the demon the opportunity of tormenting him still more; as
David, by dissipating with the sound of his harp the sombre melancholy
of Saul, delivered him from the evil spirit, who abused the power of
those inclinations which he found in him, to awaken his jealousy
against David. All this means, that we often ascribed to the demon
things of which he is not guilty, and that we must not lightly adopt
all the prejudices of the people, nor take literally all that is
related of the works of Satan.

Footnotes:

[417] Gen. xviii. 10.

[418] Heb. xiii. 2.

[419] Acts vii. 30, 33.

[420] Gal. iii.

[421] Judges ii. 1.

[