could not avoid it.

Ladies! _said I_, I thought you call'd them _Devils_ just now.

Ay, ay, _Devils_, _said he_, little charming Devils, but I must not be
rude to them however.

Very well, _said I_, then you would be rude to _God a Mighty_, because
you could not be rude to the Devil?

Why that's true, _said he_, but what can we do? there's no going to
Church as the Case stands now, if we must not worship the _Devil_ a
little between whiles.

This is the Case indeed, and Satan carries his Point on every Hand; for
if the fair speaking World, and the fair looking World are generally
_Devils_, that is to say, are in his Management, we are sure the foul
speaking and the foul doing World are all on his Side, and you have then
only the fair-doing Part of the World that are out of his Class, and
when we speak of them, _O how few!_

But I return to the _Devil_'s managing our wicked Part, for this he does
with most exquisite Subtilty; and this is one Part of it, (_viz._) he
thrusts our Vices into our Virtues, by which he mixes the Clean and the
Unclean, and thus by the Corruption of the one, poisons and debauches
the other, so that the Slave he governs cannot account for his own
common Actions, and is fain to be oblig'd to his Maker to accept of the
Heart without the Hands and Feet; to take, as we vulgarly express it,
_the Will_ for the _Deed_, and if Heaven was not so good to come into
that half in half Service, I don't see but the _Devil_ would carry away
all his Servants: Here indeed I should enter into a long Detail of
involuntary Wickedness, which in short, is neither more or less than the
_Devil_ in every Body, ay, in every one of you, (our Governors excepted)
take it as you please.

What is our Language when we look back with Reflection and Reproach on
past Follies? _I think I was bewitch'd_, I was _posses'd_, _certainly
the Devil was in me, or else I had never been such a Sot_: _Devil_ in
you, Sir! Ay, who doubts it; you may be sure the _Devil_ was in you, and
there he is still, and next Time he can catch you in the same Snare,
you'll be just the same SOT that you say you were before.

In short, the _Devil_ is too cunning for us, and manages us his own Way;
he governs the Vices of Men by his own Methods; tho' every Crime will
not make a Man a _Devil_, yet it must be owned that every Crime puts the
Criminal in some Measure into the Devil's Power, gives him a Title to
the Man, and he treats him magisterially ever