O thou accursed, thou execrable one! If then you know that it is His way of salvation that they show, why do you not come out freely? But just what Simon wished, when he said, Give me, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost Acts 8:19, the same did this demon: since he saw them becoming famous, here also he plays the hypocrite: by this means he thought to be allowed to remain in the body, if he should preach the same things. But if Christ receive not testimony from man, John 5:34, meaning John, much less from a demon. Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner Sirach 15:9, much less from a demon. For that they preach is not of men, but of the Holy Ghost. Because they did not act in a spirit of boasting. And Paul being grieved, etc. By their clamor and shouting they thought to alarm them (the magistrates): saying, These men do exceedingly trouble our city.
What may be the reason that both the demon spoke these words, and Paul forbade him? Both the one acted maliciously, and the other wisely: the demon wished in fact to make himself credible. For if Paul had admitted his testimony, he would have deceived many of the believers, as being received by him: therefore he endures to speak what made against himself, that he may establish what made for himself: and so the demon himself uses accommodation (συγκαταβάσει) in order to destruction. At first then, Paul would not admit it, but scorned it, not wishing to cast himself all at once upon miracles; but when it continued to do this, and pointed to their work (καὶ τὸ ἔργον ἐδείκνυ) who preach unto us the way of salvation, then he commanded it to come out. For it says, Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. (a) And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains had gone, they caught Paul an...
