Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches — 10. A Discourse on the Wonders . . .; Propositions I -IV

A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF

THE INVISIBLE WORLD.

UTTERED (IN PART) ON AUG.

4, 1692. Ecclesiastical History has Reported it unto us, That a Renowned Martyr at the Stake, seeing the Book of the REVELATION thrown by his no less Profane than Bloody Persecutors, to be Burn'd in the same Fire with himself, he cryed out, _O Beata Apocalypsis;

quam bene mecum agitur, qui tecum Comburar!

_ BLESSED REVELATION!

said he, _How Blessed am I in this Fire, while I have Thee to bear me Company.

_ As for our selves this Day, 'tis a Fire of sore Affliction and Confusion, wherein we are Embroiled; but it is no inconsiderable Advantage unto us, that we have the Company of this Glorious and Sacred Book the REVELATION to assist us in our Exercises.

From that Book there is one Text, which I would single out at this time to lay before you; 'tis that in REVEL.

XII.

12. _Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth, and of the Sea; for the Devil is come down unto you, having great Wrath; because he knoweth, that he hath but a short time.

_ The Text is Like the Cloudy and Fiery Pillar, vouchsafed unto _Israel_, in the Wilderness of old; there is a very _dark side_ of it in the Intimation, that, _The Devil is come down having great Wrath;_ but it has also a _bright side_, when it assures us, that, _He has but a short time;_ Unto the Contemplation of _both_, I do this Day Invite you.

We have in our Hands a Letter from our Ascended Lord in Heaven, to Advise us of his being still alive, and of his Purpose e're long, to give us a Visit, wherein we shall see our Living _Redeemer_, _stand at the latter day upon the Earth_.

'Tis the last Advice that we have had from Heaven, for now sixteen Hundred years; and the scope of it, is, to represent how the Lord Jesus Christ having begun to set up his Kingdom in the World, by the preaching of the Gospel, he would from time to time utterly break to pieces all Powers that should make Head against it, until, _The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdomes of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall Reign for ever and ever.

_ 'Tis a Commentary on what had been written by _Daniel_, about, _The fourth Monarchy_; with some Touches upon, _The Fifth_; wherein, _The greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High:_ And altho' it have, as 'tis expressed by one of the Ancients, _Tot Sacramenta quot verba_, a Mystery in every Syllable, yet it is not altogether to be neglected with such a Despair, as that, _I cannot Read, for the Book is Sealed.

_ It is a REVELATION, and a singular, and notable _Blessing_ is pronounc'd upon them that humbly study it.

The Divine Oracles, have with a most admirable Artifice and Carefulness, drawn, as the very pious _Beverley_, has laboriously Evinced, an exact LINE OF TIME, from the first Sabbath at the _Creation_ of the World, unto the great Sabbatism at the _Restitution_ of all Things.

In that famous _Line of Time_, from the Decree for the Restoring of _Jerusalem_, after the _Babylonish_ Captivity, there seem to remain a matter of _Two Thousand and Three Hundred Years_, unto that _New Jerusalem_, whereto the Church is to be advanced, when the Mystical _Babylon_ shall be _fallen_.

At the Resurrection of our Lord, there were seventeen or eighteen Hundred of those Years, yet upon the Line, to run unto, _The rest which remains for the People of God_; and this Remnant in the _Line of Time_, is here in our _Apocalypse_, variously Embossed, Adorned, and Signalized with such Distinguishing Events, if we mind them, will help us escape that Censure, _Can ye not Discern the Signs of the Times?

_ The Apostle _John_, for the View of these Things, had laid before him, as I conceive, a _Book_, with leaves, or folds; which _Volumn_ was written both on the _Backside_, and on the _Inside_, and Roll'd up in a Cylindriacal Form, under seven _Labels_, fastned with so many _Seals_.

The first _Seal_ being opened, and the first _Label_ removed, under the first _Label_ the Apostle saw what he saw, of a first _Rider_ Pourtray'd, and so on, till the last _Seal_ was broken up; each of the Sculptures being enlarged with agreeable _Visions_ and _Voices_, to illustrate it.

The Book being now Unrolled, there were _Trumpets_, with wonderful Concomitants, Exhibited successively on the Expanding _Backside_ of it.

Whereupon the Book was _Eaten_, as it were to be Hidden, from Interpretations; till afterwards, in the _Inside_ of it, the Kingdom of Anti-christ came to be Exposed.

Thus, the Judgments of God on the _Roman Empire_, first unto the Downfal of _Paganism_, and then, unto the Downfal of _Popery_, which is but Revived _Paganism_, are in these Displayes, with Lively Colours and Features made sensible unto us.

Accordingly, in the Twelfth Chapter of this Book, we have an August Preface, to the Description of that Horrid _Kingdom_, which our Lord Christ refused, but Antichrist accepted, from the Devils Hands; a Kingdom, which for _Twelve Hundred and Sixty_ Years together, was to be a continual oppression upon the People of God, and opposition unto his Interests; until the Arrival of that Illustrious Day, wherein, _The Kingdom shall be the Lords, and he shall be Governour among the Nations.

_ The Chapter is (as an Excellent Person calls it) an _Extravasated Account_ of the Circumstances, which befell the _Primitive Church_, during the first Four or Five Hundred Years of Christianity: It shows us the Face of the Church, first in _Rome_ Heathenish, and then in _Rome_ Converted, before the _Man of Sin_ was yet come to _Mans Estate_.

Our Text contains the Acclamations made upon the most Glorious Revolution that ever yet happened upon the Roman Empire; namely, That wherein the Travailing Church brought forth a Christian Emperour.

This was a most Eminent _Victory_ over the Devil, and _Resemblance_ of the State, wherein the World, ere long shall see, _The Kingdom of our God, and the Power of his Christ_.

It is here noted, First, As a matter of _Triumph_.

'Tis said, _Rejoyce, ye Heavens, and ye that dwell in them.

_ The Saints in both Worlds, took the Comfort of this Revolution; the Devout Ones that had outlived the late Persecutions, were filled with Transporting Joys, when they saw the _Christian_ become the _Imperial_ Religion, and when they saw Good Men come to give Law unto the rest of Mankind; the Deceased Ones also, whose Blood had been Sacrificed in the Ten Persecutions, doubtless made the Light Regions to ring with _Hallelujahs_ unto God, when there were brought unto them, the Tidings of the Advances now given to the _Christian_ Religion, for which they had suffered _Martyrdom_.

Secondly, As a matter of _Horror_.

'Tis said, _Wo to the Inhabiters of the Earth and of the Sea.

_ The _Earth_ still means the _False Church_, the _Sea_ means the _Wide World_, in Prophetical Phrasaeology.

There was yet left a vast party of Men that were Enemies to the Christian Religion, in the power of it; a vast party left for the Devil to work upon: Unto these is a _Wo_ denounced; and why so?

'Tis added, _For the Devil is come down unto you, having great Wrath, because he knows, that he has but a short time.

_ These were, it seems, to have some desperate and peculiar Attempts of the Devil made upon them.

In the mean time, we may Entertain this for our Doctrine, _Great Wo proceeds from the Great WRATH, with which the DEVIL, towards the end of his TIME, will make a DESCENT upon a miserable World.

_ I have now Published a most awful and solemn Warning for our selves at this day; which has four _Propositions_, comprehended in it.

_Proposition I. _ That there is a _Devil_, is a thing Doubted by none but such as are under the Influences of the _Devil_.

For any to deny the Being of a _Devil_ must be from an Ignorance or Profaneness, worse than _Diabolical_.

_A Devil.

_ What is _that_?

We have a Definition of the Monster, in _Eph.

6. 12. _ _A Spiritual Wickedness_, that is, _A wicked Spirit_.

A Devil is a _Fallen Angel_, an Angel _Fallen_ from the Fear and Love of God, and from all Celestial Glories; but _Fallen_ to all manner of Wretchedness and Cursedness.

He was once in that Order of Heavenly Creatures, which God in the Beginning made _Ministering Spirits_, for his own peculiar Service and Honour, in the management of the Universe; but we may now write that Epitaph upon him, _How art thou fallen from Heaven!

thou hast said in thine Heart, I will Exalt my Throne above the Stars of God; but thou art brought down to Hell!

_ A

Devil is a _Spiritual_ and _Rational_ Substance, by his _Apostacy_ from God, inclined unto all that is Vicious, and for that _Apostacy_ confined unto the Atmosphere of this Earth, _in Chains under Darkness, unto the Judgment of the Great Day_.

This is a _Devil_; and the _Experience_ of Mankind as well as the _Testimony_ of Scripture, does abundantly prove the Existence of such a Devil.

About this _Devil_, there are many things, whereof we may reasonably and profitably be Inquisitive; such things, I mean, as are in our Bibles Reveal'd unto us; according to which if we do not speak, on so _dark_ a Subject, but according to our own uncertain, and perhaps humoursome Conjectures, _There is no Light in us.

_ I will carry you with me, but unto one Paragraph of the Bible, to be informed of three Things, relating to the _Devil_; 'tis the Story of the _Gadaren Energumen_, in the fifth Chapter of _Mark_.

First, then, 'Tis to be granted; the _Devils_ are so many, that some Thousands, can sometimes at once apply themselves to vex one Child of Man.

It is said, in _Mark 5. 15. _ _He that was Possessed with the Devil, had the Legion.

_ Dreadful to be spoken!

A _Legion_ consisted of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred People: And we see that in one Man or two, so many _Devils_ can be spared for a Garrison.

As the Prophet cryed out, _Multitudes, Multitudes, in the Valley of Decision!

_ So I say, _There are multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of Destruction, where the Devils are!

_ When we speak of, _The Devil_, 'tis, _A name of Multitude_;

it means not _One_ Individual Devil, so Potent and Scient, as perhaps a _Manichee_ would imagine; but it means a _Kind_, which a _Multitude_ belongs unto.

Alas, the _Devils_, they swarm about us, like the _Frogs of Egypt_, in the most Retired of our Chambers.

Are we at our _Boards_?

There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Sensuality: Are we in our _Beds_?

There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Carnality; Are we in our _Shops_?

There will be Devils to Tempt us into Dishonesty.

Yea, Tho' we get into the Church of God, there will be Devils to Haunt us in the very _Temple_ it self, and there tempt us to manifold Misbehaviours.

I am verily perswaded, That there are very few Humane Affairs whereinto some Devils are not Insinuated; There is not so much as a _Journey_ intended, but _Satan_ will have an hand in _hindering_ or _furthering_ of it.

Secondly, 'Tis to be supposed, That there is a sort of Arbitrary, even Military _Government_, among the _Devils_.

This is intimated, when in _Mar.

5. 9. _ _The unclean Spirit said, My Name is Legion:_ they are such a Discipline as _Legions_ use to be.

Hence we read about, _The Prince of the power of the Air_: Our _Air_ has a _power_?

or an Army of Devils in the _High Places_ of it; and these Devils have a _Prince_ over them, who is _King over the Children of Pride_.

'Tis probable, That the Devil, who was the Ringleader of that mutinous and rebellious Crew, which first shook off the Authority of God, is now the General of those Hellish Armies; Our Lord, that Conquered him, has told us the Name of him; 'tis _Belzebub_; 'tis he that is _the Devil_, and the rest are _his Angels_, or his Souldiers.

Think on vast Regiments of cruel and bloody _French Dragoons_, with an _Intendant_ over them, overrunning a pillaged Neighbourhood, and you will think a little, what the Constitution among the _Devils_ is.

Thirdly, 'tis to be supposed, that some _Devils_ are more peculiarly _Commission'd_, and perhaps _Qualify'd_, for some Countries, while others are for others.

This is intimated when in _Mar.

5. 10. _ The Devils _besought_ our Lord much, _that he would not send them away out of the Countrey_.

Why was that?

But in all probability, because _these Devils_ were more able to _do the works of the Devil_, in such a Countrey, than in another.

It is not likely that every Devil does know every _Language_; or that every Devil can do every _Mischief_.

'Tis possible, that the _Experience_, or, if I may call it so, the _Education_ of all Devils is not alike, and that there may be some difference in their _Abilities_.

If one might make an Inference from what the Devils _do_, to what they _are_, One cannot forbear dreaming, that there are _degrees_ of Devils.

Who can allow, that such Trifling _Daemons_, as that of _Mascon_, or those that once infested our _New berry_, are of so much Grandeur, as those _Daemons_, whose Games are mighty Kingdoms?

Yea, 'tis certain, that all Devils do not make a like Figure in the _Invisible World_.

Nor does it look agreeably, That the _Daemons_, which were the Familiars of such a Man as the old _Apollonius_, differ not from those baser Goblins that chuse to Nest in the filthy and loathsom Rags of a beastly Sorceress.

Accordingly, why may not some Devils be more accomplished for what is to be done in such and such places, when others must be _detach'd_ for other Territories?

Each Devil, as he sees his advantage, cries out, _Let me be in this Countrey, rather than another.

_ But _Enough_, if not _too much_, of these things.

_Proposition II.

_ There is a Devilish _Wrath_ against _Mankind_, with which the _Devil_ is for _God's sake_ Inspired.

The Devil is himself broiling under the intollerable and interminable _Wrath_ of God; and a fiery _Wrath_ at God, is, that which the Devil is for that cause Enflamed.

Methinks I see the posture of the Devils in _Isa.

8. 21. _ _They fret themselves, and Curse their God, and look upward.

_ The first and chief _Wrath_ of the Devil, is at the Almighty God himself; he knows, _The God that made him, will not have mercy on him, and the God that formed him, will shew him no favour;_ and so he can have no _Kindness_ for that God, who has no _Mercy_, nor _Favour_ for him.

Hence 'tis, that he cannot bear the _Name_ of God should be acknowledged in the World: Every Acknowledgement paid unto _God_, is a fresh drop of the burning Brimstone falling upon the Devil; he does make his Insolent, tho Impotent Batteries, even upon the _Throne_ of God himself: and foolishly affects to have himself exalted unto that _Glorious High Throne_, by all people, as he sometimes is, by Execrable _Witches_.

This horrible Dragon does not only with his Tayl strike at the _Stars of God_, but at the God himself, who made the _Stars_, being desirous to out-shine them all.

God and the Devil are sworn Enemies to each other; the Terms between them, are those, in _Zech.

11. 18. _ _My Soul loathed them, and their Soul also abhorred me.

_ And from this Furious _wrath_, or Displeasure and Prejudice at God, proceeds the Devils _wrath_ at us, the poor Children of Men.

Our doing the _Service_ of God, is one thing that exposes us to the _wrath_ of the Devil.

We are the _High Priests_ of the World; when all Creatures are called upon, _Praise ye the Lord_, they bring to us those demanded _Praises_ of God, saying, _do you offer them for us.

_ Hence 'tis, that the Devil has a Quarrel with us, as he had with the _High-Priest_ in the Vision of Old.

Our bearing the Image of God is another thing that brings the _wrath_ of the Devil upon us.

As a _Tyger_, thro his Hatred at man will tear the very Picture of him, if it come in his way; such a _Tyger_ the Devil is; because God said of old, _Let us make Man in our Image_, the Devil is ever saying, _Let us pull this man to pieces_.

But the envious _Pride_ of the Devil, is one thing more that gives an Edge unto his Furious _Wrath_ against us.

The Apostle has given us an hint, as if _Pride_ had been the _Condemnation of the Devil_.

'Tis not unlikely, that the Devil's _Affectation_ to be above that Condition which he might learn that Mankind was to be preferr'd unto, might be the occasion of his taking up Arms against the _Immortal King_.

However, the Devil now sees _Man_ lying in the Bosom of God, but _himself_ damned in the bottom of Hell; and this enrages him exceedingly; _O_, says he, _I cannot bear it, that man should not be as miserable as my self.

_ _Proposition III.

_ The _Devil_, in the prosecution, and the execution of his _wrath_ upon them, often gets a _Liberty_ to make a _Descent_ upon the Children of men.

When the Devil _does hurt_ unto us, he _comes down_ unto us; for the Rendezvouze of the _Infernal Troops_, is indeed in the _supernal parts_ of our Air.

But as 'tis said, _A sparrow of the Air does not fall down without the will of God;_ so I may say, _Not a Devil in the Air, can come down without the leave of God.

_ Of this we have a famous Instance in that Arabian Prince, of whom the Devil was not able so much as to _Touch_ any thing, till the most high God gave him a permission, to _go down_.

The Devil stands with all the Instruments of death, aiming at us, and begging of the Lord, as that King ask'd for the Hood-wink'd _Syrians_ of old, _Shall I smite 'em, shall I smite 'em?

_ He cannot strike a blow, till the Lord say, _Go down and smite_, but sometimes he _does_ obtain from the _high possessor of Heaven and Earth_, a License for the doing of it.

The Devil sometimes does make most rueful Havock among us; but still we may say to him, as our Lord said unto a great Servant of his, _Thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above.

_ The Devil is called in _1 Pet.

5. 8. _ _Your Adversary_.

This is a Law-term; and it notes _An Adversary at Law_.

The Devil cannot come at us, except in some sence according to _Law_; but sometimes he does procure sad things to be inflicted, according to the _Law_ of the eternal King upon us.

The Devil first _goes up_ as an _Accuser_ against us.

He is therefore styled _The Accuser_; and it is on this account, that his proper Name does belong unto him.

There is a Court somewhere kept; a Court of Spirits, where the Devil enters all sorts of Complaints against us all; he charges us with manifold _sins_ against the Lord our God: _There_ he loads us with heavy _Imputations_ of Hypocrysie, Iniquity, Disobedience; whereupon he urges, _Lord, let 'em now have the death, which is their wages, paid unto 'em!

_ If our _Advocate_ in the Heavens do not now take off his Libels; the Devil, then, with a Concession of God, _comes down_, as a _destroyer_ upon us.

Having first been an _Attorney_, to bespeak that the Judgments of Heaven may be ordered for us, he then also pleads, that he may be the _Executioner_ of those Judgments; and the God of Heaven sometimes after a sort, signs a Warrant, for this _destroying Angel_, to do what has been _desired_ to be done for the _destroying of men_.

But such a _permission_ from God, for the Devil to _come down_, and _break in_ upon mankind, oftentimes must be accompany'd with a _Commission_ from some wretches of mankind it self.

Every man is, as 'tis hinted in _Gen.

4. 9. _ _His brother's keeper_.

We are to _keep_ one another from the Inroads of the Devil, by mutual and cordial Wishes of prosperity to one another.

When ungodly people give their _Consents_ in _witchcrafts_ diabolically performed, for the Devil to annoy their Neighbours, he finds a breach made in the Hedge about us, whereat he Rushes in upon us, with grievous molestations.

Yea, when the impious people, that never saw the Devil, do but utter their _Curses_ against their Neighbours, those are so many _watch words_, whereby the Mastives of Hell are animated presently to fall upon us.

'Tis thus, that the Devil gets _leave_ to worry us.

_Proposition IV.

_ Most horrible _woes_ come to be inflicted upon Mankind, when the _Devil_ does in _great wrath_, make a _descent_ upon them.

The _Devil_ is a _Do-Evil_, and wholly set upon mischief.

When our Lord once was going to _Muzzel_ him, that he might not mischief others, he cry'd out, _Art thou come to torment me?

_ He is, it seems, himself _Tormented_, if he be but _Restrained_ from the tormenting of Men.

If upon the sounding of the Three last _Apocalyptical Angels_, it was an outcry made in Heaven, _Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabitants of the Earth by reason of the voice of the Trumpet.

_ I am sure, a _descent_ made by the Angel of _death_, would give cause for the like Exclamation: _Wo to the world, by reason of the wrath of the Devil!

_ what a _woful_ plight, mankind would by the descent of the Devil be brought into, may be gathered from the _woful_ pains, and wounds, and hideous desolations which the Devil brings upon them, with whom he has with a _bodily Possession_ made a Seisure.

You may both in Sacred and Profane History, read many a direful Account of the _woes_, which they that are possessed by the Devil, do undergo: And from thence conclude, _What must the Children of Men hope from such a Devil!

_ Moreover, the _Tyrannical Ceremonies_, whereto the Devil uses to subjugate such _Woful_ Nations or Orders of Men, as are more Entirely under his Dominion, do declare what _woful_ Work the Devil would make where he comes.

The very Devotions of those forlorn _Pagans_, to whom the Devil is a Leader, are most bloody _Penances_; and what _Woes_ indeed must we expect from such a Devil of a _Moloch_, as relishes no Sacrifices like those of Humane Heart-blood, and unto whom there is no Musick like the bitter, dying, doleful Groans, ejaculated by the Roasting Children of Men.

Furthermore, the servile, abject, needy circumstances wherein the Devil keeps the Slaves, that are under his more sensible Vassalage, do suggest unto us, how _woful_ the Devil would render all our Lives.

We that live in a Province, which affords unto us all that may be necessary or comfortable for us, found the Province fill'd with vast Herds of Salvages, that never saw so much as a _Knife_, or a _Nail_, or a _Board_, or a Grain of _Salt_, in all their Days.

No better would the Devil have the World provided for.

Nor should we, or any else, have one convenient thing about us, but be as indigent as _usually_ our most _Ragged Witches_ are; if _the Devil's Malice_ were not over-ruled by a _compassionate God_, who _preserves Man and Beast_.

Hence 'tis, that _the Devil_, even like a _Dragon_, keeping a Guard upon such _Fruits_ as would _refresh_ a languishing World, has hindred Mankind for many Ages, from hitting those _useful Inventions_, which yet _were so obvious_ and _facil_, that it is every bodies wonder, they were no sooner hit upon.

The _bemisted World_, must jog on for thousands of Years, without the knowledg of _the Loadstone_, till a _Neapolitan_ stumbled upon it, about _three hundred years_ ago.

Nor must the World be _blest_ with such a _matchless Engine_ of _Learning_ and _Vertue_, as that of _Printing_, till about _the middle of the Fifteenth Century_.

Nor could _One Old Man, all over the Face of the whole Earth_, have the _benefit_ of such a _Little_, tho most _needful_ thing, as a pair of _Spectacles_, till a _Dutch-Man_, a _little while_ ago accommodated us.

Indeed, as the Devil does begrutch us all manner of _Good_, so he does annoy us with all manner of _Wo_, as often as he finds himself capable of doing it.

But shall we mention some of the _special woes_ with which the Devil does usually infest the World!

Briefly then; _Plagues_ are some of those _woes_ with which the Devil troubles us.

It is said of the _Israelites_, in _1 Cor.

10. 10. _ _They were destroyed of the destroyer.

_ That is, they had the _Plague_ among them.

'Tis the _Destroyer_, or _the Devil_, that scatters _Plagues_ about the World.

Pestilential and Contagious Diseases, 'tis the Devil who does oftentimes invade us with them.

'Tis no uneasy thing for the Devil to impregnate the Air about us, with such Malignant _Salts_, as meeting with _the Salt_ of our _Microcosm_, shall immediately cast us into that Fermentation and Putrefaction, which will utterly dissolve all the Vital Tyes within us;

Ev'n as an _Aqua-Fortis_, made with a conjunction of _Nitre_ and _Vitriol_, Corrodes what it Seizes upon.

And when the Devil has raised those _Arsenical Fumes_, which become _Venemous Quivers_ full of _Terrible Arrows_, how easily can he shoot the deleterious _Miasms_ into those Juices or Bowels of Mens Bodies, which will soon Enflame them with a Mortal Fire!

Hence come such _Plagues_, as that _Beesom of Destruction_, which within our memory swept away such a Throng of People from one _English_ City in one Visitation; And hence those Infectious Fevers, which are but so many _Disguised Plagues_ among us, causing Epidemical Desolations.

Again, _Wars_ are also some of those _Woes_, with which the Devil causes our Trouble.

It is said in _Rev.

12. 17. _ _The Dragon was Wrath, and he went to make War;_ and there is in truth scarce any _War_, but what is of the _Dragon's_ kindling.

The Devil is that _Vulcan_, out of whose Forge come the instruments of our _Wars_, and it is he that finds us Employments for those Instruments.

We read concerning _Daemoniacks_, or People in whom the Devil was, that they would cut and wound themselves; and so, when the Devil is in Men, he puts 'em upon dealing in that barbarous fashion with one another.

_Wars_ do often furnish him with some Thousands of Souls in one Morning from one Acre of Ground; and for the sake of such _Thyestaean_ Banquets, he will push us upon as many _Wars_ as he can.

Once more, why may not _Storms_ be reckoned among those _Woes_, with which the Devil does disturb us?

It is not improbable that _Natural Storms_ on the World are often of the Devils raising.

We are told in _Job 1. 11, 12, 19. _ that the Devil made a _Storm_, which hurricano'd the House of _Job_, upon the Heads of them that were Feasting in it.

_Paracelsus_ could have informed the Devil, if he had not been informed, as besure he was before, That if much _Aluminious_ matter, with _Salt Petre_ not throughly prepared, be mixed, they will send up a cloud of Smoke, which _will_ come down in Rain.

But undoubtedly the _Devil_ understands as _well_ the way to make a _Tempest_ as to turn the _Winds_ at the _Solicitation_ of a _Laplander_; whence perhaps it is, that Thunders are observed oftner to break upon _Churches_ than upon any other _Buildings_; and besides many a Man, yea many a Ship, yea, many a Town has miscarried, when the Devil has been permitted from above to make an horrible Tempest.

However that the Devil has raised many _Metaphorical Storms_ upon the Church, is a thing, than which there is nothing more notorious.

It was said unto Believers in _Rev.

2. 10. _ _The Devil shall cast some of you into Prison.

_ The Devil was he that at first set _Cain upon Abel_ to butcher him, as the Apostle seems to suggest, for his Faith in God, as a _Rewarder_.

And in how many _Persecutions_, as well as _Heresies_ has the Devil been ever since Engaging all the Children of _Cain_!

That Serpent the Devil has acted his cursed Seed in unwearied endeavours to have them, _Of whom the World is not worthy_, treated as those who are _not worthy to live in the World_.

By the impulse of the Devil, 'tis that first the old _Heathens_, and then the mad _Arians_ were _pricking Briars_ to the true Servants of God; and that the _Papists_ that came after them, have out done them all for Slaughters, upon those that have been _accounted as the Sheep for the Slaughters_.

The late _French_ Persecution is perhaps the horriblest that ever was in the World: And as the Devil of _Mascon_ seems before to have meant it in his out-cries upon _the Miseries preparing for the poor Hugonots_!

Thus it has been all acted by a singular Fury of the old Dragon inspiring of his Emissaries.

But in reality, _Spiritual Woes_ are the _principal Woes_ among all those that the Devil would have us undone withal.

_Sins_ are the worst of _Woes_, and the Devil seeks nothing so much as to plunge us into Sins.

When men do commit a Crime for which they are to be Indicted, they are usually _mov'd by the Instigation of the Devil_.

The Devil will put _ill men upon being worse_.

Was it not he that said in _1 King.

22. 22. _ _I will go forth, and be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of all the Prophets?

_ Even so the Devil becomes an _Unclean Spirit_, _a Drinking Spirit_, _a Swearing Spirit_, _a Worldly Spirit_, _a Passionate Spirit_, _a Revengeful Spirit_, and the like in the Hearts of those that are already too much of such a Spirit; and thus they become improv'd in Sinfulness.

Yea, the Devil will put _good men upon doing ill_.

Thus we read in _1 Chron.

21. 1. _ _Satan provoked David to number Israel.

_ And so the _Devil provokes_ men that are Eminent in Holiness unto such things as may become eminently Pernicious; he _provokes_ them especially unto _Pride_, and unto many unsuitable Emulations.

There are likewise most lamentable Impressions which the _Devil_ makes upon the _Souls of Men_ by way of punishment upon them for their _Sins_.

'Tis thus when an Offended God puts the Souls of Men over into the Hands of that Officer _who has the power of Death, that is, the Devil_.

It is the woful Misery of Unbelievers in _2 Cor.

4. 4. _ _The god of this World has blinded their minds.

_ And thus it may be said of those woful Wretches whom the _Devil_ is a God unto, _the Devil so muffles them that they cannot see the things of their peace.

_ And _the Devil so hardens them, that nothing will awaken their cares about their Souls:_ How come so many to be _Seared_ in their Sins?

'Tis the Devil that with a red hot Iron fetcht from his Hell does _cauterise_ them.

Thus 'tis, till perhaps at last they come to have a _Wounded Conscience_ in them, and the Devil has often a share in their Torturing and confounding Anguishes.

The _Devil_ who Terrified _Cain_, and _Saul_, and _Judas_ into Desperation, still becomes a _King of Terrors_ to many Sinners, and frights them from laying hold on the Mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In these regards, _Wo to us, when the Devil comes down upon us.

_