Compiled By the Publisher.
The Devil’s Legacy.
[Illustration:P]erhaps the title of this Book―“The Devil’s Legacy
to Earth Mortals” may at first seem somewhat strange; they will
pause as they do at a Witches Prayer, and wonder whether they had
best look into it or no, lest they should really raise the Devil
by reading what he has bequeathed to mankind.
It is a question, not yet determined by the learned, whether the word
Devil be singular, that is to say, the name of a person standing by
himself, or a noun of multitude; if it be a singular, and so must be
used personally only as a proper name, it consequently implies one
imperial devil, monarch, or god of the whole clan of Hell; justly
distinguished by term, The Devil, or as the Scots call him, The
muckle-horned Dee’l, or as others in a wilder dialect, The Devil of
Hell, that is to say, The Devil of a devil; or (better still) as the
Scriptures expresses it, by way of emphasis, the great red dragon, the
Devil, and Satan.
But if we take this word to be, as above, a noun of multitude, and so
to be used ambidexter, as occasion presents, singular or plural, then
the Devil signifies Satan by himself, or Satan with all his legions
at his heels, as you please, more or less. It is thus expressed in
Scripture, where the person possessed (Matt. iv. 24.) is first said
to be possessed of the Devil, singular; and our Saviour asks him, as
speaking to a single person, WHAT IS THY NAME? and is answered in the
plural and singular together, MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY.
Nor will it be any wrong to the Devil, supposing him a single person,
seeing entitling him to the conduct of all his inferior agents, is
what he will take rather for an addition to his infernal glory, than a
diminution or lessening of him in the extent of his fame.
Very few, if any, of those who believe there is a God, and acknowledge
the debt of homage which mankind owes to the supreme Governor of the
world, doubt the existence of the Devil, except here and there one,
whom we call practical atheists; and it is the character of an atheist,
if there is such a creature on earth, that he believes neither God nor
Devil.
As the belief of both these stands upon a level, and that God and the
Devil seems to have an equal share in our faith, so the evidence of
their existence seems to stand upon a level too, in many things; and as
they are known by their works in the same particular cases, so they are
discovered after the same manner of demonstration.
Nay, in some respects, it is equally criminal to deny the reality of
them both, only with this difference, that to believe the existence of
a God is a debt to nature, and to believe the existence of the Devil
is a like debt to reason; one is a demonstration from the reality of
visible causes, and the other a deduction from the like reality of
their effects.
One demonstration of the existence of God is from the universal
well-guided consent of all nations to worship and adore a supreme
power; one demonstration of the existence of the Devil, is from the
avowed ill-guided consent of some nations, who, knowing no other god,
make a god of the Devil for want of a better.
Taking it, then, as the generality of mankind do, that there is a grand
Devil, a superior of the whole black race; that they all fell, together
with their general Satan at the head of them; that though he, Satan,
could not maintain his high station in heaven, yet that he did continue
his dignity among the rest who are called his servants, in Scripture,
his angels; that he has a kind of dominion of or authority over the
rest, and that they were all, how many millions soever in number, at
his command; employed by him in all his hellish designs, and in all his
wicked contrivances for the destruction of man, and for the setting
up his own kingdom in the world. All the infernal things we converse
with in the world, are fathered upon the Devil, as one undivided simple
essence, by how many agents soever working; everything evil, frightful
in appearance, wicked in its actings, horrible in its manner, monstrous
in its effects, is called the Devil; in a word, Devil is the common
name for all devils, that is to say, for all evil spirits, all evil
powers, all evil works, and even all evil things; yet it is remarkable
the Devil is no Old Testament word, and we never find it used in all
the Old Testament but four times, and then not once [in] the singular
number, and not once to signify Satan, as it is now understood.
That the Devil is not yet a close prisoner, we have evidence enough to
confirm; he is let out by connivance, and has some little latitudes and
advantages for mischief, by that means; returning at certain seasons
to his confinement again. This might hold, were it not, that the
comparison must suggest, that the power which has cast him down could
be deluded, and the under-keepers or jailers, under whose charge he was
in custody, could wink at his excursions, and the lord of the place
know nothing of the matter.
It is our firm belief that the Devil still runs riot over all
Christendom, and will do so until the coming of that period yet hidden
in the womb of time.
We have ample evidence to justify us in this belief, as every Age of
the world has felt his blighting hand and suffered from his accursed
work. Everything about us that is evil bears his footprints, and as
each succeeding generation appears, some new phase of the Devil’s
cunning hand looms up to our sight. As man bequeaths his earthly
possessions to those that follow him, so has the Devil left behind him
his dark footprints over the entire face of the earth, and each step
that we take we see the reflection of the Devil in thousands of forms.
First among the long black Catalogue is