_D._ Nay, if you are come to your penitentials I have done with you. _Gr._ And I think I must have done with my _Lord Duke_, for the same reason. _D._ _Ay, ay_, pray do, I'll go and enjoy my self; I won't throw away the pleasure of my life, I know the consequence of it. _Gr._ And I'll go and reform my self, else I know the consequence too. This short Dialogue happen'd between two men of quality, and both men of wit too; and the effect was, that the Lord brought the reality of _the Devil_ into the question, and the debate brought the profligate to be a penitent; so in short, _the Devil_ was made a preacher of repentance. The Truth is, _God_ and _the Devil_, however opposite in their nature, and remote from one another in their place of abiding, seem to stand pretty much upon a level in our faith: For as to our believing the reality of their existence, he that denies one, generally denies both; and he that believes one, necessarily believes both. Very few, if any of those who believe there is a GOD, and acknowledge the debt of homage which mankind owes to the supreme Governor of the World, doubt the existence of _the Devil_, except here and there one, whom we call practical Atheists; and 'tis the character of an Atheist, if there is such a creature on Earth, that like my _Lord Duke_, he believes neither GOD or _Devil_. As the belief of both these stands upon a level, and that GOD and the _Devil_ seem to have an equal share in our faith, so the evidence of their existence seems to stand upon a level too, in many things; and as they are known by their Works in the same particular cases, so they are discover'd after 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.