the productions of nature for bad purposes, and the evil in these is due to demons and not to God.(1) None of the demons have bodies; they are spiritual, like fire or air, and can only be seen by those in whom the Spirit of God dwells. They attack men by means of lower forms of matter, and come to them whenever they are diseased, and sometimes they cause disorders of the body, but when they are struck by the power of the word of God, they flee in terror, and the sick person is healed.(2) Various kinds of roots, and the relations of bones and sinews, are the material elements through which demons work.(3) Some of those who are called gods by the Greeks, but are in reality demons, possess the bodies of certain men, and then by publicly leaving them they destroy the disease they themselves had created, and the sick are restored to health.(4) Demons, says Cyprian of Carthage, lurk under consecrated statues, and inspire false oracles, and control the lots and omens.(5) They enter into human bodies and feign various maladies in order to induce men to offer sacrifices for their recovery that they may gorge themselves with the fumes, and then they heal them. They are really the authors of the miracles attributed to heathen deities.(6) Tertullian enters into minute details regarding angels and demons. Demons are the offspring of the fallen angels, and their work is the destruction of the human race. They inflict diseases and other painful calamities upon our bodies, and lead astray our souls. From their {125}