Here they read us learn'd Lectures upon the sovereign Operations which the Devil is at present Master of, in the Government of human Affairs; and how the Cloven-Foot is an Emblem of the true _double Entendre_ or divided Aspect, which the great Men of the World generally act with, and by which all their Affairs are directed; from whence it comes to pass that there is no such Thing as a single hearted Integrity, or an upright Meaning to be found in the World; that Mankind, worse than the ravenous Brutes, preys upon his own Kind, and devours them by all the laudable Methods of Flattery, Whyne, Cheat and Treachery; _Crocodile like_, weeping over those it will devour, destroying those it smiles upon, and, in a Word, devours its own Kind, which the very Beasts refuse, and that by all the Ways of Fraud and Allurement that _Hell_ can invent; holding out a cloven divided Hoof, or Hand, pretending to save, when the very Pretence is made use of to ensnare and destroy. Thus the divided Hoof is the Representative of a divided double Tongue, and Heart, an Emblem of the most exquisite Hypocrisy, the most fawning and fatally deceiving Flattery; and here they give us very diverting Histories, tho' tragical in themselves, of the manner which some of the _Devil_'s inspired Agents have manag'd themselves under the especial Influence of the _Cloven-Foot_; how they have made War under the Pretence of Peace, murther'd Garrisons under the most sacred Capitulations, massacred innocent Multitudes after Surrenders to Mercy. Again, they tell us the _Cloven-Foot_ has been made use of in all Treasons, Plots, Assassinations, and secret as well as open Murthers and Rebellions. Thus _Joab_ under the Treason of an Embrace, shew'd how dexterously he could manage the _Cloven-Foot_, and struck _Abner_ under the fifth Rib: Thus _David_ play'd the Cloven-Foot upon poor _Uriah_, when he had a Mind to lie with his Wife: Thus _Brutus_ play'd it upon _Caesar_; and to come nearer home, we have had a great many retrograde Motions in this Country by this magical Implement the _Foot_; Such as that of the Earl of _Essex_'s Fate, beheading the Queen of _Scots_, and diverse others in Queen _Elizabeth_'s Time: That of the Earl of _Shrewsbury_ and Sir _Thomas Overbury_, _Gondamor_ and Sir _Walter Raleigh_, and many others in King _James_ the I.'s Time; in all which, if the Cloven-Foot had not been dexterously manag'd, those Murthers had not been so dexterously manag'd, or the Murtherers have so well been skreen'd from Justice; for which and the imprecated Justice of Heaven unappeased, some have thought the innocent Branches of the Royal House of _Stuart_ did not fare the better in the Ages which follow'd.