Satan for their crimes,[653] suffer nothing bodily?
Those who took the communion unworthily, and were struck with
sickness, or even with death, did they not undergo these chastisements
by the operation of the demon?[654] The apostle warns the Corinthians
not to suffer themselves to be surprised by Satan, who sometimes
transforms himself into an angel of light.[655] The same apostle,
speaking to the Thessalonians, says to them, that before the last day
antichrist will appear,[656] according to the working of Satan, with
extraordinary power, with wonders and deceitful signs. In the
Apocalypse the demon is the instrument made use of by God, to punish
mortals and make them drink of the cup of his wrath. Does not St.
Peter[657] tell us that "the devil prowls about us like a roaring
lion, always ready to devour us?" And St. Paul to the Ephesians,[658]
"that we have to fight not against men of flesh and blood, but against
principalities and powers, against the princes of this world," that is
to say, of this age of darkness, "against the spirits of malice spread
about in the air?"

The fathers of the first ages speak often of the power that the
Christians exercised against the demons, against those who called
themselves diviners, against magicians and other subalterns of the
devil; principally against those who were possessed, who were then
frequently seen, and are so still from time to time, both in the
church and out of the church. Exorcisms and other prayers of the
church have always been employed against these, and with success.
Emperors and kings have employed their authority and the rigor of the
laws against those who have devoted themselves to the service of the
demon, and used spells, charms, and other methods which the demon
employs, to entice and destroy both men and animals, or the fruits of
the country.

We might add to the remarks of the reverend Dominican father divers
other propositions drawn from the same work; for instance, when the
author says that "the angels know everything here below; for if it is
by means of specialties, which God communicates to them every day, as
St. Augustine thinks, there is no reason to believe that they do not
know all the wants of mankind, and that they cannot console and
strengthen them, render themselves visible to them by the permission
of God, without always receiving from him an express order so to do."

This proposition is rather rash: it is not certain that the angels
kn