"
"I have led hither," said he, "many a soul since Satan was in the Garden
of Eden, and I ought to understand my business, better than this upstart
accuser." "Blood of infernal firebrands," cried Lucifer, "did I not bid
thee answer clearly and readily?" "By your leave," said the demon, "I
have preached a hundred times, and have denounced many of the various
ways that lead to your confines, and yet at the same breath, have quietly
brought them hither safe and sound by some other delusive path, just as I
did while preaching recently in the German States, in one of the Faro
Isles, and in several other places. In this manner, through my preaching
have many Papist beliefs, and old traditions come first into the world,
and all in the guise of goodness. For who ever would swallow a baitless
hook? Who ever gained credence for a tale which had not some truth
mingled with the false, or some little good overshadowing the bad? So,
if whilst preaching I can instil one counsel of mine own among a hundred
that are good and true, by means of that one, through heedlessness or
superstition, will more weal betide your kingdom than woe through all the
others ever.
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