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devil, if he was not a diffembler, a deceiver, and carried a double entendre in all he does or fays that he cannot but say one thing, and mean another; promise one thing, and do another; engage, and not perform; declare, and not intend; and act like a true devil as he is, with a countenance that is no index of his heart.

I might indeed go back to originals, and derive this cloven foot from Satan's primitive ftate, as a cherubim or a celeftial being; which cherubims, as Mofes is faid to have seen them about the throne of God in mount Sinai, and as the fame Mofes, from the original, reprefented them afterwards covering the ark, had the head and face of a man, wings of an eagle, body of a lion, and legs and feet of a calf: But this is not fo much to our prefent purpofe; for as we are to allow, that whatever Satan had of heavenly beauty before he fell, he loft it all when he commenced Devil; fo to fetch his original fo far up, would be only to fay, that he retained nothing but the cloven foot; and that all the rest of him was altered and deformed, become horrible and frightful as the Devil; but this cloven foot, as we now understand it, is rather myftical and emblematic, and defcribes him only as the fountain of mischief and treason, and the prince of hypocrites, and as fuch we are now to speak of him.

It is from this original all the hypocritic world copy. He wears the foot on their account, and from this módel they act. This made our blessed Saviour tell them, "The works of your father ye will do ;" meaning the Devil, as he had expreffed it just before.

Nor does he deny the use of the foot to the meaner clafs of his difciples in the world, but decently equips them all, upon every occafion, with a reedful proportion of hypocrify and deceit, that they may hand on the power of promifcuous fraud through all his temporal dominions, and wear the foot always about them, as a badge of their profeffed fhare in whatever is done by that means.

Thus every diffembler, every falfe friend, every fecre

cheat, every bear-fkin jobber, has a cloven foot, and fo far hands on the Devil's interest by the fame powerful agency of art, as the Devil himself uses to act when he appears in perfon, or would act if he was juft now upon the fpot; for this foot is a machine which is to be wound up or wound down, as the cause it appears for requires and there are agents and engineers to act in it by directions of Satan, (the grand engineer) who lyes till in his retirement, only ifsuing out his orders as he fees convenient.

Again: Every clafs, every trade, every shopkeeper, every pedlar, nay, that meaneft of tradesmen, the churchpedlar the Pope, has a cloven foot, with which he pawwaws upon the world; wishes them all well, and at the fame time cheats them; wishes them all fed, and at the fame time ftarves them; wishes them all in heaven, and at the fame time marches before them directly to the Devil, a-la-mode de cloven foot.

Nay, the very bench, the ever-living foundation of juftice in the world, how often has it been made the tool of violence, the refuge of oppreffion, the feat of bribery and corruption, by this monfter in masquerade, and that every where, (our own country always excepted)! They had much better wipe out the picture of Juftice blinded, having the fwore and fcales in her hand, which, in foreign countries, is generally painted over the feat of those who fit to do justice, and place, instead thereof, a naked unarmed cloven foot, a proper emblem of that spirit that influences the world, and of the juftice we often fee administered among them. Human imagination cannot form an idea more suitable, nor the Devil propose an engine more or better quali fied for an operation of juftice, by the influence of bribery and corruption. It is this magnipotent inftrument in the hands of the Devil, which, under the closest disguife, agitates every paffion, bribes every affection, blackens every virtue, gives a double face to words and actions, and to all perfons who have any concern in them, and, in a word, makes us all devils to one amother.

Indeed the Devil has taken but a dark emblem to be diftinguished by; for this of a goat was faid to be a creature hated by mankind from the beginning, and that there is a natural antipathy in mankind against them hence the fcape-goat was to bear the fins of the people, and to go into the wilderness with all that burden upon him.

But we have a faying among us, in defence of which we must enquire into the proper fphere of action which may be affigned to this cloven foot, as hitherto defcribed: the proverb is this, Every Devil has not a cloven foot. This proverb, inftead of giving us fome more favourable thoughts of the Devil, confirms what I have faid already, that the Devil raised this scandal upon himfelf; I mean, the report that he cannot conceal or disguise his Devil's foot, or hoof, but that it muft appear, under whatever habit he fhews himself; and the reafon I gave holds good ftill; namely, that he may be more effectually concealed when he goes abroad without it: for if the people were fully perfuaded that the Devil could not appear without this badge of his honour, or mark of his infamy, take it as you will; and that he was bound also to fhew it upon all occafions; it would be natural to conclude, that whatever frightful appearances might be feen in the world, if the cloven foot did not alfo appear, we had no occafion to look for the Devil, or fo much as to think of him, much lefs to apprehend he was so near us; and as this might be a mistake, and that the Devil might be there while we thought ourselves fecure, it might on many occafions be a mistake of very bad confequence; and in particular, it would give the Devil room to act in the dark, and not to be discovered, where it might be moft needful to know him.

From this fhort hint, thus repeated, I draw a new thefis; namely, that that devil is moft dangerous that has no cloven foot; or, if you will have it in words more to the common understanding, the Devil feems to be

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moft dangerous when he goes without his cloven foot.

And here a learned fpeculation offers itself to our debate, and which indeed I ought to call a council of cafuifts, and men learned in the Devil's politics, to de termine:

Whether is most hurtful to the world, the Devil walking about without this cloven foot, or the cloven foot walking about without the Devil?

It is indeed a nice and difficult queftion, and merits to be well enquired into: for which reason, and divers others, I have referred it to be treated with fome decency, and as a difpute of dignity, fufficient to take up a chapter by itself.

CHA P. VII.

Whether is most hurtful to the world, the Devil walking about without his cloven foot, or the cloven foot walking about without the Devil?

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private motions, I muft, as the pulpit-gentlemen direct us, explain the text, and let you know what I mean by feveral dark expreffions in it, that I may not be understood to talk (as the Devil walks) in the dark.

1. As to the Devil's walking about,

2.

His walking without his cloven foot.

3. The cloven foot walking about without the Devil.

Now, as I ftudy brevity, and yet would be underflood too, you may please to understand me as I underftand myfelf; thus:

1. That I must be allowed to fuppofe the Devil really has an intercourfe in. and through, and about this globe, with egrefs and regrefs, for the carrying onhis fpecial affairs, when, how, and where, to his majelty, in his great wifdom, it fhall feem meet;

that fometimes he appears and becomes vifible, and that, like a mattiff without his clog, he does not always carry his cloven foot with him. This will neceffarily bring me to fome debate upon the most important question of apparitions, hauntings, walkings, &c. whether of Satan in human fhape, or of human creatures in the Devil's fhape, or in any other manner whatsoever.

2. I must also be allowed to tell you, that Satan has a great deal of wrong done him by the general embracing of vulgar errors, and that there is a cloven foot oftentimes without a Devil; or, in fhort, that Satan is not guilty of all the fimple things, no, nor of all the wicked things we charge him with.

These two heads, well fettled, will fully explain the title of this chapter, answer the query mentioned in it, and at the fame time correfpond very well with, and give us a farther profpect into the main and original defign of this work; namely, the hiftory of the Devil. We are fo fond of, and pleafed with the general notion of feeing the Devil, that I am loth to difoblige my readers fo much as the calling in queftion his vifibility would do. Nor is it my bufinefs, any more than it is his, to undeceive them, where the belief is fo agreeable to them; efpecially fince, upon the whole, it is not one farthing matter, either on one fide or on the other, whether it be fo or not, or whether the truth of the fact be ever difcovered or not.

Certain it is, whether we fee him or not, here he is, and I make no doubt but he is looking on while I am writing this part of his ftory, whether behind me, or at my elbow, or over my shoulder, is not material to me, nor have I once turned my head about to see whether he is there or not; for if he be not in the inside, I have fo mean an opinion of all his extravafated powers, that it feems of very little confequence to me what fhape he takes up, or in what pofture he appears; nor indeed can I find, in all my enquiry, that ever the De

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