Part 5

_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._

_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._