fter the same manner of demonstration.

Nay, in some respects 'tis 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 avow'd
ill-guided consent of some nations, who knowing no other GOD, make a GOD
of the _Devil_, for want of a better.

It may be true, that those nations have no other Ideas of the Devil than
as of a superior Power; if they thought him a supreme Power it would
have other effects on them, and they would submit to and worship him
with a different kind of fear.

But 'tis plain they have right notions of him as a Devil or evil Spirit,
because the best reason, and in some places the only reason they give
for worshiping him is, that he may do them no hurt; having no notions at
all of his having any power, much less any inclination to do them good;
so that indeed they make a meer _Devil_ of him, at the same time that
they bow to him as to a GOD.

All the ages of Paganism in the World have had this notion of _the
Devil_: indeed in some parts of the World they had also some Deities
which they honour'd above him, as being supposed to be beneficent, kind
and inclined, as well as capable to give them good things; for this
reason the more polite Heathens, such as the _Grecians_ and the
_Romans_, had their _Lares_ or houshold Gods, whom they paid a
particular respect to; as being their Protectors from Hobgoblins, Ghosts
of the Dead, evil Spirits, frightful Appearances, evil Genius's and
other noxious Beings from the invisible World; or to put it into the
language of the day we live in, from _the Devil_, in whatever shape or
appearance he might come to them, and from whatever might hurt them: and
what was all this but setting up _Devils_ against _Devils_, supplicating
one _Devil_ under the notion of a good Spirit, to drive out and protect
them from another, whom they call'd a bad Spirit, the white _Devil_
against the black _Devil_?

This proceeds from the natural notions mankind necessarily entertain of
things to come; _superior_ or _inf