eparate Traders, and who act under the Skreen and Protection of Satan's
Power, but without his License or Authority; no doubt these carry away a
great deal of his Trade, that is to say, the Trade which otherwise the
_Devil_ might have carried on by Agents or his own; I cannot but say,
that while these People would fain be thought _Devils_, tho' they really
are not, it is but just they should be really made as much _Devils_ as
they pretended to be, or that _Satan_ should do himself Justice upon
them, as he threaten'd to do upon old _Parsons_ of _Clithroe_
abovemention'd, and let the World know them.

CHAP. XI.

_Of Divination, Sorcery, the Black-Art, Pawawing, and such like Pretenders
to Devilism, and how far the_ Devil _is or is not concern'd in them._

Tho' I am writing the History of the _Devil_, I have not undertaken to
do the like of all the Kinds of People, Male or Female, who set up for
_Devils_ in the World: This would be a Task for the _Devil_ indeed, and
fit only for him to undertake, for their Number is and has been
prodigious great, and may, with his other Legions be rank'd among the
Innumerable.

What a World do we inhabit! where there is not only with us a great
_Roaring-Lyon-Devil_ daily seeking whom of us he may devour, and
innumerable Millions of lesser Devils hovering in the whole Atmosphere
over us, nay, and for ought we know, other Millions always invisibly
moving about us, and perhaps in us, or at least in many of us; but that
have, besides all these, a vast many counterfeit _Hocus Pocus Devils_;
human _Devils_, who are visible among us, of our own Species and
Fraternity, conversing with us upon all Occasions; who like Mountebanks
set up their Stages in every Town, chat with us at every Tea-Table,
converse with us in every Coffee-House, and impudently tell us to our
Faces that they are Devils, boast of it, and use a thousand Tricks and
Arts to make us believe it too, and that too often with Success.

It must be confess'd there is a strong Propensity in Man's Nature,
especially the more ignorant part of Mankind, to resolve every strange
Thing, or whether really strange or no, if it be but strange to us, into
Devilism, and to say every Thing is the Devil, that they can give no
Account of.

Thus the famous Doctors of the Faculty at _Paris_, when _John Faustus_
brought the first printed Books that had then been seen in the World, or
at least seen there, into the City, and sold them for