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 He