| Tobit 6:8
| And the angel, answering, said to him: If thou put a little piece of its heart upon coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kind of devils, either from man or from woman, so that they come no more to them.
| Its heart, etc. The liver, (ver. 19.) God was pleased to give to these things a virtue against those proud spirits, to make them, who affected to be like the Most High, subject to such mean corporeal creatures, as instruments of his power. (Challoner) --- God sometimes makes use of things as remedies which have, naturally, a different effect; as when Christ put clay on the eyes of the blind man, John ix. The things which the angel ordered were salutary, by God's appointment. (Worthington) --- They could not act directly upon a spirit: but they might upon the person troubled by one, as Saul was relieved by music. (Calmet, Diss.) --- The smoke was a sign of the devil's expulsion, and of the efficacy of prayer; or rather, God subjected the proud spirits to such weak elements. (Serarius, q. 3.) (Menochius) --- Greek, "and he said to him, respecting the heart and liver, if any demon or wicked spirit be troublesome, make these smoke before a man or a woman, and the person shall be troubled no longer.
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