Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches — 11. Proposition V; Corollaries I-V
_Proposition V. _ Toward the _End_ of his _Time_ the _Descent_ of the Devil in _Wrath_ upon the World will produce more _woful Effects_, than what have been _in former Ages_.
The dying Dragon, will bite more cruelly and sting more bloodily than ever he did before: The Death-pangs of the Devil will make him to be more of a _Devil_ than ever he was; and the Furnace of this _Nebuchadnezzar_ will be heated _seven times_ hotter, just before its putting out.
We are in the first place to apprehend that there is a time fixed and stated by God for the Devil to enjoy a dominion over our sinful and therefore woful World.
The _Devil_ once exclaimed in _Mat.
8. 29. _ _Jesus, thou Son of God, art thou come hither to Torment us before our Time?
_ It is plain, that until the second coming of our Lord the _Devil_ must have a time of plagueing the World, which he was afraid would have Expired at his first.
The _Devil_ is _by the wrath of God the Prince of this World_; and the time of his Reign is to continue until the time when our Lord himself shall _take to himself his great Power and Reign_.
Then 'tis that the _Devil_ shall hear the Son of God swearing with loud Thunders against him, _Thy time shall now be no more!
_ Then shall the _Devil_ with his Angels receive their doom, which will be, _depart into the everlasting Fire prepared for you.
_ We are also to apprehend, that in the _mean time_, the Devil can give a shrewd guess, when he draws near to the _End of his Time_.
When he saw Christianity enthron'd among the _Romans_, it is here said, in our _Rev.
12. 12. _ _He knows he hath but a short time.
_ And how does he _know_ it?
Why _Reason_ will make the Devil to _know_ that God won't suffer him to have _the Everlasting Dominion_; and that when God has once begun to rescue the World out of his hands, he'll go through with it, until _the Captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered.
_ But the Devil will have _Scripture_ also, to make him _know_, that when his Antichristian _Vicar_, the _seven-headed Beast_ on the _seven-hilled_ City, shall have spent his determined years, he with his _Vicar_ must unavoidably go down into the _bottomless Pit_.
It is not improbable, that the Devil often hears the _Scripture_ expounded in our Congregations; yea that we never assemble without a _Satan_ among us.
As there are some Divines, who do with more uncertainty conjecture, from a certain place in the Epistle to the _Ephesians_, That the Angels do sometimes come into our Churches, to gain some advantage from our Ministry.
But be sure our _Demonstrable Interpretations_ may give Repeated Notices to the Devil, _That his time is almost out;_ and what the Preacher says unto the _Young Man_, _Know thou, that God will bring thee into Judgment!
_ THAT may our Sermons tell unto the _Old Wretch_, _Know thou, that thy Judgment is at hand.
_ But we must now, likewise, apprehend, that in _such a time_, the _woes_ of the World will be heightened, beyond what they were at _any time_ yet from the foundation of the World.
Hence 'tis, that the Apostle has forewarned us, in _2 Tim.
3. 1. _ _this know, that in the last days, perillous times shall come.
_ Truly, when the Devil _knows_, that he is got into his _Last days_, he will make _perillous times_ for us; the times will grow more full of _Devils_, and therefore more full of _Perils_, than ever they were before.
Of this, if we would _know_, what cause is to be assigned; It is not only, because the Devil grows more _able_, and more _eager_ to vex the World; but also, and chiefly, because the World is more _worthy_ to be vexed by the Devil, than ever heretofore.
The _Sins_ of men in this Generation, will be more _mighty Sins_, than those of the former Ages; men will be more Accurate and Exquisite and Refined in the arts of _Sinning_, than they use to be.
And besides, their own sins, the sins of all the former Ages will also lie upon the sinners of this generation.
Do we ask why the _mischievous powers of darkness_ are to prevail more in our days, than they did in those that are past and gone!
'Tis because that men by sinning over again the sins of the former days, have a _Fellowship with all those unfruitful works of darkness_.
As 'twas said in _Matth.
23. 36. _ _All these things shall come upon this generation;_ so, the men of the last Generation, will find themselves involved in the gulf of all that went before them.
Of Sinners 'tis said, _They heap up wrath;_ and the sinners of the Last Generations do not only add unto the _heap_ of sin that has been pileing up ever since the Fall of man, but they Interest themselves in every sin of that enormous heap.
There has been a _Cry_ of all former ages going up to God, _That the Devil may come down!
_ and the sinners of the Last Generations, do sharpen and louden that _cry_, till the thing do come to pass, as Destructively as Irremediably.
From whence it follows, that the Thrice Holy God, with his Holy Angels, will now after a sort more _abandon_ the World, than in the former ages.
The roaring Impieties of _the old World_, at last gave mankind such a distast in the Heart of the Just God, that he came to say, _It Repents me that I have made such a Creature!
_ And however, it may be but a witty Fancy, in a late Learned Writer, that the _Earth_ before the Flood was nearer to the Sun, than it is at this Day; and that Gods Hurling down the _Earth_ to a further distance from the _Sun_, were the cause of that Flood; yet we may fitly enough say, that men perished by a _Rejection_ from the God of Heaven.
Thus the enhanc'd Impieties of this _our World_, will Exasperate the Displeasure of God, at such a rate, as that he will more _cast us off_, than heretofore; until at last, he do with a more than ordinary Indignation say, _Go Devils; do you take them, and make them beyond all former measures miserable!
_ If Lastly, We are inquisitive after Instances of those aggravated _woes_, with which the Devil will towards the _End_ of his _Time_ assault us; let it be remembred, That all the Extremities which were foretold by the _Trumpets_ and _Vials_ in the Apocalyptick Schemes of these things, to come upon the World, were the _woes_ to come from the _wrath_ of the Devil, upon the _shortning_ of his _Time_.
The horrendous desolations that have come upon mankind, by the Irruptions of the old _Barbarians_ upon the _Roman_ World, and then of the _Saracens_, and since, of the _Turks_, were such _woes_ as men had never seen before.
The Infandous _Blindness_ and _Vileness_ which then came upon mankind, and the Monstrous _Croisadoes_ which thereupon carried the _Roman_ World by Millions together unto the Shambles; were also such _woes_ as had never yet had a Parallel.
And yet these were some of the things here intended, when it was said, _Wo!
For the Devil is come down in great Wrath, having but a short time.
_ But besides all these things, and besides the increase of _Plagues_ and _Wars_, and _Storms_, and _Internal Maladies_ now in our days, there are especially two most extraordinary _Woes_, one would fear, will in these days become very ordinary.
One _Woe_ that may be look'd for is, A frequent Repetition of _Earthquakes_, and this perhaps by the energy of the Devil in the _Earth_.
The Devil will be clap't up, as a Prisoner in or near the Bowels of the earth, when once that _Conflagration_ shall be dispatched, which will make, _The New Earth wherein shall dwell Righteousness;_ and that _Conflagration_ will doubtless be much promoted, by the Subterraneous _Fires_, which are a cause of the _Earthquakes_ in our Dayes.
Accordingly, we read, _Great Earthquakes in divers places_, enumerated among the Tokens of the _Time_ approaching, when the Devil shall have no longer _Time_.
I suspect, That we shall now be visited with more Usual and yet more Fatal _Earthquakes_, than were our Ancestors; in asmuch as the _Fires_ that are shortly to _Burn unto the Lowest Hell, and set on Fire the Foundations of the Mountains_, will now get more Head than they use to do; and it is not impossible, that the Devil, who is ere long to be punished in those _Fires_, may aforehand augment his Desert of it, by having an hand in using some of those _Fires_, for our Detriment.
Learned Men have made no scruple to charge the Devil with it; _Deo permittente, Terrae motus causat.
_ The Devil surely, was a party in the _Earthquake_, whereby the Vengeance of God, in one black Night sunk Twelve considerable Cities of _Asia_, in the Reign of _Tiberious_.
But there will be more such _Catastrophes_ in our Dayes; _Italy_ has lately been _Shaking_, till its _Earthquakes_ have brought Ruines at once upon more than thirty Towns; but it will within a little while, _shake_ again, and _shake_ till the Fire of God have made an Entire _Etna_ of it.
And behold, This very Morning, when I was intending to utter among you such Things as these, we are cast into an _Heartquake_ by Tidings of an _Earthquake_ that has lately happened at _Jamaica_: an horrible _Earthquake_, whereby the _Tyrus_ of the English _America_, was at once pull'd into the Jaws of the Gaping and Groaning Earth, and many Hundreds of the Inhabitants buried alive.
The Lord sanctifie so dismal a Dispensation of his Providence, unto all the _American_ Plantations!
But be assured, my Neighbours, the _Earthquakes_ are not over yet!
We have not yet seen _the last_.
And then, Another _Wo_ that may be Look'd for is, The Devils being now let Loose in _preternatural Operations_ more than formerly; and perhaps in _Possessions_ and _Obsessions_ that shall be very marvellous.
You are not Ignorant, That just before our Lords _First Coming_, there were most observable Outrages committed by the Devil upon the Children of Men: And I am suspicious, That there will again be an unusual Range of the Devil among us, a little before the _Second Coming_ of our Lord, which will be, to give the last stroke, in _Destroying the works of the Devil_.
The _Evening Wolves_ will be much abroad, when we are near the _Evening_ of the World.
The Devil is going to be Dislodged of the _Air_, where his present Quarters are; God will with flashes of hot _Lightning_ upon him, cause him to _fall as Lightning_ from his Ancient Habitations: And the _Raised Saints_ will there have a _New Heaven_, which We _expect according to the Promise of God_.
Now a little before this thing, you be like to see the Devil more _sensible_ and _visibly_ Busy upon _Earth_ perhaps, than ever he was before.
You shall oftner hear about _Apparitions_ of the Devil, and about poor people strangely Bewitched, _Possessed_ and _Obsessed_, by Infernal Fiends.
When our Lord is going to set up His Kingdom, in the most _sensible_ and _visible_ manner, that ever was, and in a manner answering _the Transfiguration_ in _the Mount_, it is a Thousand to One, but _the Devil_ will in sundry _parts of the world_, assay _the like_ for Himself, with a most Apish Imitation: and Men, at least in _some_ Corners of the World, and perhaps in _such_ as God may have some special Designs upon, will to their Cost, be more Familiarized _with the World of Spirits_, than they had been formerly.
So that, in fine, if just before _the End_, when _the times of the Jews_ were to be finished, a man then ran about every where, crying, _Wo to the Nation!
Wo to the City!
Wo to the Temple!
Wo!
Wo!
Wo!
_ Much more may the descent of the Devil, just before his _End_, when also _the times of the Gentiles_ will be finished, cause us to cry out, _Wo!
Wo!
Wo!
because of the black things that threaten us!
_ But it is now Time to make our Improvement of what has been said.
And, first, we shall entertain our selves with a few _Corollaries_, deduced from what has been thus asserted.
_Corollary I. _ What cause have we to bless God, for our preservation from the _Devils wrath_, in this which may too reasonably be called the _Devils World_!
While we are in _this present evil world_, We are continually surrounded with swarms of those Devils, who make this _present world_, become so _evil_.
What a wonder of Mercy is it, that no _Devil_ could ever yet make a prey of us!
We can set our foot no where but we shall tread in the midst of most Hellish _Rattle-Snakes_; and one of those _Rattle-Snakes_ once thro' the mouth of a Man, on whom he had Seized, hissed out such a Truth as this, _If God would let me loose upon you, I should find enough in the Best of you all, to make you all mine.
_ What shall I say?
The _Wilderness_ thro' which we are passing to the _Promised Land_, is all over fill'd with _Fiery flying serpents_.
But, blessed be God; None of them have hitherto so fastned upon us, as to confound us utterly!
All our way to Heaven, lies by the _Dens of Lions_, and the _Mounts of Leopards_; there are incredible Droves of Devils in our way.
But have we safely got on our way thus far?
O let us be thankful to our Eternal preserver for it.
It is said in _Psal.
76. 10. _ _Surely the wrath of Man shall praise thee, and the Remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain;_ But _surely_ it becomes us to praise God, in that we have yet sustain'd no more Damage by the _wrath of the Devil_, and in that he has restrain'd that Overwhelming _wrath_.
We are poor, Travellers in a World, which is as well the Devils _Field_, as the Devils _Gaol_; a World in every Nook whereof, the Devil is encamped, with _Bands of Robbers_, to pester all that have their _Face looking Zion-ward_: And are we all this while preserved from the undoing Snares of the _Devil_?
it is, _Thou, O keeper of Israel, that hast hitherto been our Keeper!
_ And therefore, _Bless the Lord, O my soul, Bless his Holy Name, who has redeemed thy Life from the Destroyer!
_ _Corollary II.
_ We may see the rise of those multiply'd, magnify'd, and Singularly-stinged Afflictions, with which _aged_, or _dying_ Saints frequently have their _Death_ Prefaced, and their _Age_ embittered.
When the Saints of God are going to leave the World, it is usually a more _Stormy World_ with them, than ever it was; and they find more _Vanity_, and more _Vexation_ in the world than ever they did before.
It is true, _That many are the afflictions of the Righteous;_ but a little before they bid adieu to all those many _Afflictions_, they often have greater, harder, Sorer, Loads thereof laid upon them, than they had yet endured.
It is true, _That thro' much Tribulation we must enter in the Kingdom of God;_ but a little before our _Entrance_ thereinto, our _Tribulation_ may have some sharper accents of Sorrow, than ever were yet upon it.
And what is the cause of this?
It is indeed the _Faithfulness of our God unto us_, that we should find the _Earth_ more full of _Thorns_ and _Briars_ than ever, just before he fetches us from _Earth_ to _Heaven_;
that so we may go away the more willingly, the more easily, and with less Convulsion, at his calling for us.
O there are _ugly Ties_, by which we are fastned unto this world; but God will by _Thorns and Briars_ tear those _Ties_ asunder.
But, _is not the Hand of Joab here?
_ Sure, There is the _wrath_ of the _Devil_ also in it.
A little before we step into Heaven, the _Devil_ thinks with himself, _My time to abuse that Saint is now but short; what Mischief I am to do that Saint, must be done quickly, if at all; he'l shortly be out of my Reach for ever.
_ And for this cause he will now fly upon us with the Fiercest Efforts and Furies of his _Wrath_.
It was allowed unto the _Serpent_, in _Gen.
2. 15. _ _To Bruise the Heel_.
Why, at the _Heel_, or at the _Close_, of our Lives, the _Serpent_ will be nibbling, more than ever in our Lives before: and it is, _Because now he has but a short time.
_ He knows, That we shall very shortly be, _Where the wicked cease from Troubling, and where the Weary are at Rest;_ wherefore that _Wicked_ one will now _Trouble_ us, more than ever he did, and we shall have so much _Disrest_, as will make us more _weary_ than ever we were, of things here below.
_Corollary III.
_ What a Reasonable Thing then is it, that they whose _Time_ is but _short_, should make as great _Use_ of their _Time_, as ever they can!
pray, let us learn some _good_, even from the _wicked One_ himself.
It has been advised, _Be wise as Serpents:_ why, there is a piece of _Wisdom_, whereto that old _Serpent_, the Devil himself, may be our Moniter.
When the Devil perceives his _Time_ is but _short_, it puts him upon _Great Wrath_.
But how should it be with _us_, when we perceive that our _Time_ is but _short_?
why, it should put us upon _Great Work_.
The motive which makes the Devil to be more full of _wrath_; should make us more full of _warmth_, more full of _watch_, and more full of _All Diligence to make our Vocation, and Election sure_.
Our _Pace_ in our Journey _Heaven-ward_, must be Quickened, if our _space_ for that Journey be shortned, even as _Israel_ went further the _two last_ years of their Journey _Canaan-ward_, than they did in 38 years before.
The Apostle brings this, as a _spur_ to the Devotions of Christians, in _1 Cor.
7. 29. _ _This I say, Brethren, the time is short.
_ Even so, I _say_ this; some things I lay before you, which I do only _think_, or _guess_, but here is a thing which I venture to _say_ with all the freedom imaginable.
You have now a _Time_ to _Get_ good, even a _Time_ to make sure of _Grace and Glory, and every good thing_, by true Repentance: But, _This I say, the time is but short.
_ You have now _Time_ to _Do_ good, even to _serve out your generation_, as by the _Will_, so for the _Praise_ of God; but, _This I say, the time is but short.
_ And what I say thus to _All_ People, I say to _Old_ People, with a peculiar Vehemency: Sirs, It cannot be long before your _Time_ is out; there are but a few sands left in the glass of your _Time_: And it is of all things the saddest, for a man to say, _My Time is done, but my work undone!
_ O then, _To work_ as fast as you can; and of Soul-work, and Church-work, dispatch as much as ever you can.
Say to all _Hindrances_, as the gracious _Jeremiah Burrows_ would sometimes to _Visitants_: _You'll excuse me if I ask you to be short with me, for my work is great, and my time is but short.
_ Methinks every _time_ we hear a Clock, or see a Watch, we have an admonition given us, that our _Time_ is upon the _wing_, and it will all be gone within a little while.
I remember I have read of a famous man, who having a _Clock-watch_ long lying by him, out of Kilture in his Trunk, it unaccountably struck Eleven just before he died.
Why, there are many of you, for whom I am to do that office this day: I am to tell you _You are come to your +Eleventh+ hour;_ there is no more than a _twelfth part_ at most, of your life yet behind.
But if we neglect our business, till our _short Time_ shall be reduced into _none_, then, _woe to us, for the great wrath of God will send us down from whence there is no Redemption.
_ _Corollary IV.
_ How welcome should a _Death in the Lord_ be unto them that belong not unto the Devil, but unto the Lord!
While we are sojourning in this World, we are in what may upon too many accounts be called _The Devils Country_: We are where the Devil may come upon us in _great wrath_ continually.
The day when God shall take us out of this World, will be, _The day when the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our Enemies, and from the hand of Satan_.
In such a day, why should not our song be that of the Psalmist, _Blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my Salvation be exalted!
_ While we are here, we are in _the valley of the shadow of death_; and what is it that makes it so?
'Tis because the _wild Beasts of Hell_ are lurking on every side of us, and every minute ready to salley forth upon us.
But our _Death_ will fetch us out of that _Valley_, and carry us where we shall be _for ever with the Lord_.
We are now under the daily _Buffetings_ of the Devil, and he does molest us with such _Fiery Darts_, as cause us even to cry out, _I am weary of my Life.
_ Yea, but are we as _willing to die_, as, _weary of Life_?
Our Death will then soon set us where we cannot be reach'd by the _Fist of Wickedness_; and where the _Perfect cannot be shotten at_.
It is said in _Rev.
14. 13. _ _Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord, they rest from their labours.
_ But we may say, _Blessed are the Dead in the Lord, inasmuch as they rest from the Devils!
_ Our _dying_ will be but our _taking wing_: When attended with a Convoy of winged Angels, we shall be convey'd into that Heaven, from whence the Devil having been thrown he shall never more come thither after us.
What if God should now say to us, as to _Moses_, _Go up and die!
_ As long as we _go up_, when we _die_, let us receive the Message with a joyful Soul; we shall soon be there, where the Devil can't _come down_ upon us.
If the _God of our Life_ should now send that Order to us, which he gave to _Hezekiah_, _Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live;_ we need not be cast into such deadly Agonies thereupon, as _Hezekiah_ was: We are but going to that _House_, the Golden Doors whereof, cannot be entred by the Devil that here did use to persecute us.
Methinks I see the Departed _Spirit_ of a Believer, triumphantly carried thro' the Devils _Territories_, in such a stately and Fiery Chariot, as the _Spiritualizing Body of Elias_ had; methink I see the Devil, with whole Flocks of _Harpies_, grinning at this Child of God, but unable to fasten any of their griping Talons upon him: And then, upon the utmost edge of our _Atmosphaere_, methinks I overhear the holy Soul, with a most heavenly Gallantry, deriding the defeated Fiend, and saying, _Ah!
Satan!
Return to thy Dungeons again; I am going where thou canst not come for ever!
_ O 'tis a brave thing so to die!
and especially so to die, _in our time_.
For, tho' when we call to mind, _That the Devils time is now but short_, it may almost make us wish to _live_ unto the _end_ of it; and to say with the Psalmist, _Because the Lord will shortly appear in his Glory, to build up Zion.
O my God!
Take me not away in the midst of my days.
_ Yet when we bear in mind, _that the Devils Wrath is now most great_, it would make one willing to be _out of the way_.
Inasmuch as now is the time for the doing of those things in the prospect whereof _Balaam_ long ago cry'd out _Who shall live when such things are done!
_ We should not be inordinately loth to _die_ at such a time.
In a word, the _Times_ are so _bad_, that we may well count it, as _good_ a _time_ to die in, as ever we saw.
_Corollary V. _ Good News for the _Israel_ of God, and particularly for his _New-English Israel_.
If the Devils _Time_ were above a _thousand years ago_, pronounced _short_, what may we suppose it now in _our_ Time?
Surely we are not a _thousand years_ distant from those happy _thousand years_ of rest and peace, and [which is better] _Holiness_ reserved for the People of God in the latter days; and if we are not a _thousand years_ yet short of that Golden Age, there is cause to think, that we are not an _hundred_.
That the blessed _Thousand years_ are not yet begun, is abundantly clear from this, _We do not see the Devil bound;_ No, the Devil was never more let _loose_ than in our Days; and it is very much that any should imagine otherwise: But the same thing that proves the _Thousand Years_ of prosperity for the Church of God, under the whole Heaven, to be not yet _begun_, does also prove, that it is not very _far off_; and that is the prodigious _wrath_ with which the Devil does in our days Persecute, yea, desolate the World.
Let us cast our Eyes almost where we will, and we shall see the _Devils_ domineering at such a rate as may justly fill us with astonishment; it is questionable whether _Iniquity_ ever were so rampant, or whether _Calamity_ were ever so pungent, as in this Lamentable _time_; We may truly say, _'Tis the Hour and the Power of Darkness.
_ But, tho the _wrath_ be so _great_, the _time_ is but _short_: when we are perplexed with the _wrath_ of the Devil, the _Word_ of our God at the same time unto us, is that in _Rom.
16. 20. _ _The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet Shortly.
_ Shortly, didst thou say, dearest Lord!
O gladsome word!
Amen, _Even so, come Lord!
Lord Jesus, come quickly!
We shall never be rid of this troublesome Devil, till thou do come to Chain him up!
_ But because the people of God, would willingly be told _whereabouts_ we are, with reference to the _wrath and the time_ of the Devil, you shall give me leave humbly to set before you a few _Conjectures_.
