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 such a Cheat put upon him in _East-Smithfield_ once, where a Person pretended to converse with the _Devil_ Face to Face, and that in open Day too, and to cause him to tell Fortunes, foretel Good and Evil, _&c._ discover stollen Goods, tell where they were who stole them, and how to find them again, nay, and even to find out the Thieves; but _Satan_ was really sandered in the Case, the Fellow had no more to do with the _Devil_ than other People, and perhaps not so much neither: This was one of those they call'd CUNNING-MEN, or at least he endeavour'd to pass for such a one, but 'twas all a Cheat. Besides, what had the _Devil_ to do to detect Thieves, and restore stollen Goods? Thieving and Robbing, Trick and Cheat, are part of the Craft of his Agency, and of the Employments which it is his Business to encourage; they greatly mistake him, who think he will assist any Body in suppressing and detecting such laudable Arts and such diligent Servants.