d the solemn Pageantry, magnificent
Appearances, and other Frauds of his Priests and Votaries, in their
Temples and Shrines; but he set up a new Trade, and having, as I have
said, Agents and Instruments sufficient for any Business that he could
have to employ them in, he begins in Corners, as the learned and merry
Dr. _Brown_ says, and exercises his minor Trumperies by way of his own
contriving, lifting a great Number of new-found Operators, such as
Witches, Magicians, Diviners, Figure-casters, Astrologers, and such
inferior Seducers.

Now it is true, as that Doctor says, this was running into Corners, as
if he had been expell'd his more triumphant way of giving Audience in
Form, which for so many Ages had been allow'd him; yet I must add, that
as it seem'd to be the DEVIL's own doing, from a right Judgment of his
Affairs, which had taken a new Turn in the World, upon the shining of
new Lights from the Christian Doctrine, so it must be acknowledged the
_Devil_ made himself amends upon Mankind, by the various Methods he
took, and the Multitude of Instruments he employ'd, and perhaps deluded
Mankind in a more fatal and sensible manner than he did before, tho' not
so universally.

He had indeed before more Pomp and Figure put upon it, and he cheated
Mankind then in a Way of Magnificence and Splendor; but this was not in
above eight or ten principal Places, and not fifty Places in all, public
or private; whereas now fifty thousand of his Angels and Instruments,
visible and invisible, hardly may be said to suffice for one Town or
City; but in short, as his invisible Agents fill the Air, and are at
hand for Mischief on every Emergence, so his visible Fools swarm in
every Village, and you have scarce a Hamlet or a Town but his Emissaries
are at Hand for Business; and which is still worse, in all Places he
finds Business; nay even where Religion is planted and seems to
flourish; yet he keeps his Ground and pushes his Interest according to
what has been said elsewhere upon the same Subject, that wherever
Religion plants, the Devil plants close by it.

Nor, as I say, does he fail of Success, Delusion spreads like a Plague,
and the Devil is sure of Votaries; like a true Mountebank, he can always
bring a Croud about his Stage, and that some Times faster than other
People.

What I observe upon this Subject is this, that the World is at a strange
Loss for want of the Devil; if it was not so, what's the Reason, that
upon the sile