Gale endeavours to shew, that the origin and intitution of demons was an imitation of the Messiah. The Phœnicians called them בעלים Baalim. For they had one supreme being, whom they called Baal, (and Moloch, and various inferior deities called Baalim,) whereof we find frequent mention in the Old Testament. The first demon of the Egyptians was Mercury, or Thuet. The same author finds some resemblance between the several offices ascribed to the demons and those of the Messiah.
Demoniac, is applied to a person possessed with a spirit, or demon. In the Roman church, there is a particular office for the exorcism of demoniacs.
Demoniacs are also a party or branch of the Anabaptists, whose distinguishing tenet it is, that the devil shall be saved at the end of the world.—See Demonology.
DEMONOLOGY.
——“Spirits, when they please,
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their essence pure,
Not ty’d or manacled with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they chuse,