THE SECRETS
OF
BLACK ARTS!
A KEY NOTE TO
WITCHCRAFT,
DEVINATION, OMENS, FOREWARNINGS, APPARITIONS.SORCERY, DÆMONOLOGY, DREAMS, PREDICTIONS,VISIONS, AND
THE
DEVIL’S LEGACY
TO EARTH MORTALS
COMPACTS WITH THE DEVIL!
WITH THE MOST AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF
SALEM WITCHCRAFT
Compiled By the Publisher.
7
The Devil’s Legacy.
erhaps the title of this Book—“The Devil’sLegacy to Earth Mortals” may at first seem somewhatstrange; they will pause as they do at aWitches Prayer, and wonder whether they hadbest look into it or no, lest they should reallyraise the Devil by reading what he has bequeathedto mankind.
It is a question, not yet determined by the learned,whether the word Devil be singular, that is to say, thename of a person standing by himself, or a noun of multitude;if it be a singular, and so must be used personallyonly as a proper name, it consequently implies one imperialdevil, monarch, or god of the whole clan of Hell;justly distinguished by term, The Devil, or as the Scotscall him, The muckle-horned Dee’l, or as others in a wilderdialect, The Devil of Hell, that is to say, The Devil of adevil; or (better still) as the Scriptures expresses it, by wayof emphasis, the great red dragon, the Devil, and Satan.
But if we take this word to be, as above, a noun ofmultitude, and so to be used ambidexter, as occasionpresents, singular or plural, then the Devil signifies Satanby himself, or Satan with all his legions at his heels, asyou please, more or less. It is thus expressed in Scripture,where the person possessed (Matt. iv. 24.) is first said tobe possessed of the Devil, singular; and our Saviour askshim, as speaking to a single person, What is thy name?and is answered in the plural and singular together, Myname is Legion, for we are many.
Nor will it be any wrong to the Devil, supposing him a8single person, seeing entitling him to the conduct of allhis inferior agents, is what he will take rather for an additionto his infernal glory, than a diminution or lesseningof 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 mankindowes to the supreme Governor of the world, doubt theexistence of the Devil, except here and there one, whomwe call practical atheists; and it is the character of anatheist, if there is such a creature on earth, that he believesneither God nor Devil.
As the belief of both these stands upon a level, and thatGod and the Devil seems to have an equal share in ourfaith, so the evidence of their existence seems to stand upona level too, in many things; and as they are known bytheir works in the same particular cases, so they are discoveredafter the same manner of demonstration.
Nay, in some respects, it is equally crimina