The Wonders of the Invisible World, Proposition 5 – Corollary 3
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, & sting more bloodily than ever he did before: The …th-pangs of the Devil will make him to be more of a Devil than ever he was; and the Furnace of this Nebuchadnezaear 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 D…vil once Exclaimed, in Mat. 8. 29. Iesus, 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 plaguing 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 Divel can give a shrowd guess, when he drawes 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 Divel to know that God won't suffer him to have, the Everlasting Dominion; & that when God has once begun to rescue the world out of his hands Hee'l 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 Divel 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 Pitt.. It is not Improbable, that the Divel 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 …eartain P…ace in the Epistle to the Ephesians, That the Angels do some times come into our Churches, to gain some Advantage from our Ministry. But be sure our Demonstra ble Interpretations, may give Repeated Notices to the-Divel, That his time is almost out: and what the preacher says unto the Young Man, Know thou, that God will bring thee into Iudgment! THAT may our Sermons tell unto that Old Wretch, Know thou, that the time of thy Iudgment 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 ti's, 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 Divel knows, that he is got into his Last days, he will make Perillous Times for us; the times will grow more full of Divels, and therefore more full of Perils, than everthey were before. Of this if we would Know, what cause is to be assigned; It is not only, because the Divel growes more Able and more Eager to Vex the world; but also, and cheefly, Because the world is more worthy to be Vexed by the Divel, 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 & Exquisite, & 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 & 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 Math. 23. 36. All these things shall come upon this generation; so, the men of the Last generation, will find themselves involved in the guilt 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 sin in all Former Ages going up to God, That the Divel 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 Dista…t 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 Cost 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 the Vials in the Apocalyptic Schemes of these things, to come upon the world, were the woes to come from the wrath of the Divel, 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 Vi…eness which then came upon mankind, and the Monstrous … which thereupon carried the Roman world by the 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 Divel is come down in Great wrath, having but a short Time.
But besides all these things, and besides the Increase of Plagues & 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 Divel in the Earth. The Divel will be clap't up, as a Prisoner in or near the Bowels of the earth, when once that Conflagration shall be dispatch'd, 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; inasmuch 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 e're 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, Terraemotus 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 Tiberius. But there will be more such Catastrophe's 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 Iamaica: an horrible Earthquake, whereby the Tyrus of the English America, was at once pull'd into the Jawes 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; & perhaps in Possessions & 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 this 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'l be like to see the Devil, more sensibly 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 Iews were to be finished, a man then …an 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 ourselves 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 call'd the Devils VVorld! 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 Siezed, 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 VVilderness 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 … of Lions, and the Mounts of Leopards; there are incredible Droves of Divels 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 Distroyer!
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, & 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 mo…e 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 Ioab here? Sure, There is the wrath of the Devll 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! I pray, let us learn some good, even from the Wicked One himself. It has been advised, Be Wise as Serpents: why, there is a peece of Wisdom, whereto that old Serpent, the Divel himself, may be our Monitor. When the Divel 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 Divel 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 shortened: even as Israel went further the two last years of their Journey Canaan ward, than they did in Thirty eight years before. The Apostle brings this, as a spur to the Devotions of Christians, in. 1. Cor. 7. 29. This I say, Bretheren, the time is short. Even so, I say this day; 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: Syrs, 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 Ieremiah Burrows would sometimes to Visitants: You'l excuse me if I ask you …o 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 Dy'd. 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, …o to us, for the great wrath of God will send us down from whence there is no Redemption.