t every Part of our Life, and all this, because we are not privy
to all his Motions, as he is to ours.

But now for his Visibility and his real Appearance in the World, and
particularly among his Disciples and Emissaries, such as Witches and
Wizards, Demonaists, and the like: Here, I think Satan has a great deal
of Loss, suffers manifest Injury, and has great Injustice done him; and,
that therefore I ought to clear this Matter up a little, if it be
possible, to do Justice to Satan, and set Matters right in the World
about him, according to that useful old Maxim of setting the Saddle upon
the right Horse, or _giving the_ Devil _his due_.

First, _as I have said_, we are not to believe every idle Head, who
pretends even to converse Face to Face with the _Devil_, and who tells
us, they have thus seen him, and been acquainted with him every Day:
Many of these Pretenders are manifest Cheats; and, however, they would
have the Honour of a private Interest in him, and boast how they have
him at their Beck, can call him this Way, and send him that, as they
please, raise him and lay him when and how, and as often as they find
for their Purpose; I say, whatever Boasts they make of this Kind, they
really have nothing of Truth in them.

Now the Injuries and Injustice done to the _Devil_, in these Cases, are
manifest; namely, that they entitle the _Devil_ to all the Mischief they
are pleased to do in the World; and if they commit a Murther or a
Robbery, fire a House, or do any Act of Violence in the World, they
presently are said to do it by the Agency of the _Devil_, and the
_Devil_ helps them; so Satan bears the Reproach, and they have all the
Guilt; this is, (1.) a grand Cheat upon the World, and (2.) a notorious
Slander upon the _Devil_; and it would be a public Benefit to Mankind,
to have such would-be-Devils as these turn'd inside out, that we might
know when the _Devil_ was really at work among us, and when not; what
Mischiefs were of his doing, and which were not; and that these Fellows
might not slip their Necks out of the Halter, by continually laying the
Blame of their Wickedness upon the _Devil_.

Not that the _Devil_ is not very willing to have his Hand in any
Mischief, or in all the Mischief that is done in the World; but there
are some low priz'd Rogueries that are too little for him, beneath the
Dignity of his Operation, and which 'tis really a Scandal to the _Devil_
to charge upon him. I remember the _Devil_ had s