ainly, that the
_Devil_ would be no _Devil_ if he was not a Dissembler, a Deceiver, and
carried a _double Entendre_ in all he does or says; that he cannot but
say one Thing and mean another, promise one Thing and do another, engage
and not perform, declare and not intend, and act like a true _Devil_ as
he is, with a Countenance that is no Index of his Heart.

I might indeed go back to Originals, and derive this _Cloven-Foot_ from
Satan's primitive State as a Cherubim or a celestial Being, which
Cherubims, as _Moses_ is said to have seen them about the Throne of God
in Mount _Sinai_, and as the same _Moses_, from the Original represented
them afterwards covering the Ark, had the Head and Face of a Man, Wings
of an Eagle, Body of a Lion, and Legs and Feet of a Calf; but this is
not so much to our present Purpose, for as we are to allow that whatever
_Satan_ had of heavenly Beauty before the Fall, he lost it all when he
commenc'd _Devil_, so to fetch his Original so far up would be only to
say, that he retain'd nothing but the _Cloven-Foot_, and that all the
rest of him was alter'd and deform'd, become frightful and horrible as
the DEVIL; but his Cloven-Foot, as we now understand it, is rather
mystical and emblematick, and describes him only as the Fountain of
Mischief and Treason, and the Prince of Hypocrites, and as such we are
now to speak of him.

'Tis from this Original all the hypocritic World copy, he wears the Foot
on their Account, and from this Model they act: This made our blessed
Lord tell them, _the Works of your Father ye will do_, meaning the
_Devil_, as he had express'd it just before.

Nor does he deny the Use of the _Foot_ to the meaner Class of his
Disciples in the World, but decently equips them all upon every
Occasion with a needful Proportion of Hypocrisy and Deceit; that they
may hand on the Power of promiscuous Fraud thro' all his temporal
Dominions, and wear _the Foot_ always about them as a Badge of their
profess'd Share in whatever is done by that Means.

Thus every Dissembler, every false Friend, every secret Cheat, every
Bearskin-Jobber has a _Cloven-Foot_, and so far hands on the Devil's
Interest by the same powerful Agency of Art, as the _Devil_ himself uses
to act when he appears in Person, or would act if he was just now upon
the Spot; for this _Foot_ is a Machine which is to be wound up and wound
down, as the Cause it appears for requires; and there are Agents and
Engineers to act in i