evil, that God gives him
leave to take it as his Due; _'tis no such thing_; the _Devil_ has
bought, what you had no Right to sell, and therefore, as an unlawful
Oath is to be repented of, and then broken; so your Business is to
repent of the Crime, and then tell the _Devil_, you have better
consider'd of it, and that you won't stand to your Bargain, for you had
no Power to sell; and if he pretends to Violence after that, I am
mistaken; I believe the _Devil_ knows better.

It is true, our old Mothers and Nurses have told us other Things, but
they only told us what their Mothers and Nurses told them, and so the
Tale has been handed down from one Generation of old Women to another;
but we have no Vouchers for the Fact other than Oral Tradition, the
Credit of which, I confess, goes but a very little Way with me; nor do I
believe it one Jot the more for all the frightful Addenda which they
generally join to the Tale, for it never wants a great Variety of that
Kind.

Thus they tell us the Devil carried away Dr. _Faustus_ and took a Piece
of the Wall of his Garden along with them: Thus at _Salisbury_ the
_Devil_ as it is said, and publickly printed, carried away two Fellows
that had given themselves up to him, and carried away the Roof of the
House with them, _and the like_; all which I believe my Share of;
besides, if these Stories were really true, they are all against the
Devil's true Interest, _Satan_ must be a Fool, which is indeed what I
never took him to be in the Main; this would be the Way not to encrease
the Number of Desperadoes, who should thus put themselves into his Hand,
but to make himself a Terror to them; and this is one of the most
powerful Objections I have against the Thing, for the Devil, I say, is
no Fool, that must be acknowledg'd; he knows his own Game, and generally
plays it sure.

I might, before I quit this Point, seriously reflect here upon our _Beau
mond_ (_viz._) the gay Part of Mankind, especially those of the Times we
live in, who walk about in a Composure and Tranquillity inexpressible,
and yet as we all know, must certainly have all sold themselves to the
Devil, for the Power of acting the foolishest Things with the greater
Applause; it is true, to be a Fool is the most pleasant Life in the
World, if the Fool has but the particular Felicity, which few Fools
want, (_viz._) to think themselves wise: The learned say, it is the
Dignity and Perfection of Fools, that they never fail trusting
th