Chapter 6

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_.

_The first Conjecture._

The Devils _Eldest Son_ seems to be towards the _End_ of his last _Half-time_; and if it be so, the Devils _Whole-time_, cannot but be very near its _End_. It is a very scandalous thing that any _Protestant_, should be at a loss where to find _the Anti-Christ_. But, we have a sufficient assurance, that the Duration of _Anti-Christ_, is to be but for a _Time_, and for _Times_, and for _Half a time_; that is for _Twelve hundred and Sixty Years_. And indeed, those _Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years_, were the very Spott of _Time_ left for the _Devil_, and meant when 'tis here said, _He has but a short time._ Now, I should have an _easie time_ of it, if I were never put upon an _Harder Task_, than to produce what might render it extreamly probable, that Antichrist entred his last _Half-time_, or the last _Hundred_ and _Fourscore_ years of his Reign, _at_ or soon _after_ the celebrated _Reformation_ which began at the year 1517 in the former century. Indeed, it is very agreeable to see how Antichrist then lost _Half_ of his Empire; and how that _half_ which then became _Reformed_, have been upon many accounts little more than _Half-reformed_. But by this computation, we must needs be within a very few years of such a _Mortification_ to befal the See of _Rome_, as that Antichrist, who has lately been planting (what proves no more lasting than) a _Tabernacle in the Glorious Holy Mountain between the Seas_, must quickly, _Come to his End and none shall help him_. So then, within a very little while, we shall see the Devil stript of the grand, yea, the last, _Vehicle_, wherein he will be capable to abuse our World. The _Fires_, with which, _That Beast_ is to be consumed, will so singe the Wings of the _Devil_ too, that he shall no more set the Affairs of _this_ world on _Fire_. Yea, they shall both go into the same _Fire_, to be _tormented for ever and ever_.

_The Second Conjecture._

That which is, perhaps, the greatest Effect of the _Devils Wrath_, seems to be in a manner at an _end_: and this would make one hope that the _Devils time_ cannot be far from its _end_. It is in Persecution, that the _wrath_ of the Devil uses to break forth, with its greatest fury. Now there want not probabilities, that the _last Persecution_ intended for the Church of God, before the Advent of our Lord, has been upon it. When we see the _second Woe passing away_, we have a fair signal given unto us, _That the last slaughter of our Lord's Witnesses is over;_ and then what Quickly follows? The next thing is, _The Kingdoms of this World, are become the Kingdoms of Our Lord, and of His Christ:_ and then _down_ goes the Kingdom of the Devil, so that he cannot any more _come down_ upon us. Now, the Irrecoverable and Irretrievable Humiliations that have lately befallen the _Turkish Power_, are but so many Declarations of the _second Woe passing away_. And the dealings of God with the _European_ parts of the world, at this day, do further strengthen this our expectation. We _do_ see, _at this hour a great Earth-quake all Europe over_: and we _shall_ see, that this _great Earth-quake_, and these great Commotions, will but contribute unto the advancement of our Lords hitherto-depressed Interests. 'Tis also to be remark'd that, a disposition to recognize the _Empire_ of God over the _Conscience_ of man, does now prevail more in the world than formerly; and God from on High more touches the Hearts of Princes and Rulers with an averseness to Persecution. 'Tis particularly the unspeakable happiness of the English Nation, to be under the Influences of that excellent Queen, who could say, _In as much as a man cannot make himself believe what he will, why should we Persecute men for not believing as we do! I wish I could see all good men of one mind; but in the mean time I pray, let them however love one another._ Words worthy to be written in Letters of Gold! and by _us_ the more to be considered, because to one of _Ours_ did that royal Person express Her self so excellently, so obligingly. When the late King _James_ published his Declaration for _Liberty of Conscience_, a worthy Divine in the Church of _England_, then studying the _Revelation_, saw cause upon _Revelational_ Grounds, to declare himself in such words as these, _Whatsoever others may intend or design by this Liberty of Conscience, I cannot believe, that it will ever be recalled in +England+, as long as the World stands._ And you know how miraculously the _Earth-quake_ which then immediately came upon the Kingdom, has established that _Liberty_! But that which exceeds all the tendencies this way, is, the dispensation of God at this Day, towards the blessed _Vaudois_. Those renowned _Waldenses_, which were a sort of _Root_ unto all Protestant Churches, were never dissipated, by all the Persecutions of many Ages, till within these few years, the _French_ King and the Duke of _Savoy_ leagued for their dissipation. But just _Three years and a half after_ the _scattering_ of that holy people, to the surprise of all the World, _Spirit of life from God_ is come into them; and having with a thousand Miracles repossessed themselves of their antient Seats, their hot _Persecutor_ is become their great _Protector_. Whereupon the reflection of the worthy person, that writes the story is, _The Churches of +Piemont+, being the Root of the Protestant Churches, they have been the first established; the Churches of other places, being but the Branches, shall be established in due time, God will deliver them speedily, He has already delivered the Mother, and He will not long leave the Daughter behind: He will finish what he has gloriously begun!_

_The Third Conjecture._