The Wonders of the Invisible World, Proposition 4
Proposition IV.
Most Horrible Woes come to be inflicted upon Mankind, when the Divel do's in Great Wrath, make a Descent upon them. The Divel, 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 … 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 Divel! What a Woful plight, Mankind would by the Descent of the Divel, be brought into, may be gathered from the Woful pains, and wounds, and hideous desolations, which the Divel b…ings upon them, of whom he has with a Bodily Possession made a Siezure. You may both in Sacred and Profane History, read many a direful Account of the Woes, which they, that are possessed by the Divel, do undergo: And from thence conclude, What must the Children of Men, hope from such a Divel! Moreover the Tyrannical Ceremonies, whereto the Divel uses to subjugate such VVoful Nations or Orders of men, as are more Entirely under his Dominion, do declare what VVoful Work, the Divel would make where he comes. The very Devotions of those forlorn Pagans, to whom the Divel is a Leader, are most bloody Penances: and what VVoes indeed must we expect from such a Divel of a M…loch, as relishes no Sacrifices like those of Humane Heart-Blood, and unto whom there is no musick like the bitter, dying, doleful Groans, ejulated by the Roasting Children of men.
Furthermore, the Servile, Abject, Needy Circumstances wherein the Devil keeps the Slaves, that are under his more sensible Vassallage, do suggest unto us, How woful the Devil would render all of 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 dayes. 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 VVitches are; if the Devils 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 upon 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 knowledge 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 Divel do's begrutch us all manner of Good, so he do's Annoy us with all manner of VVo, as often as he finds himself capable of doing it. But shall vve mention some of the special woes with which the Divel do's usually infest the World! Breefly then; Plagues are some of those woes, with which the Divel 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 Divel, that scatters Plagues about the World: Pestilential and Contagious Diseases, 'tis the Divel, who do's oftentimes Invade us with them. 'Tis no uneasy thing, for the Divel, to impregnate the Air about us, with such Malignant Salts, as meeting with the Salt of our Microcosin, 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 Siezes upon. And when the Divel has raised those Arsenical Fumes, which become Venemous Quivers full of Terrible Arrows, how easily can he shoot the delete…ious M…sms into those Juices or Bowels of Mens Bodies, which will, soon Enflame them with a MortalFire! Hence come such Plagues, as that Beesome of Destruction which within our memory swept away such a Throng of people from One English City in one Visitation: and hence those Infectious Feavers, which are but so many Disguised Plagues among us, Causing Epidemical Desolations. Again, Wars are also some of those VVoes, with which the Divel causes our Trouble. It is said in Rev. 12. 17. The Dragon was wroth, and went to make war: And there is in Truth, scarce any VVar, but what is of the Dragons kindling. The Divel is that V…lcan, out of whose Forge come the instruments of our VVars, 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. VVars 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 VVars as he can.
Once more, why may not Storms be rekoned among those VVoes, with which the Devil do's 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 Iob, upon the Heads of them that were feasting in it. Paracelsus could have informed the Devil, if he had not been informed, as be sure he was before, That if much Aluminious matter, with Salt-Peter 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 VVinds 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 ha's been permitted from above to make an Horrible tempest. However that the Divel 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 … you into Prison. The Devil was he that at first … Cain upon Abel, to butcher him, as the Apo… seems to suggest, for his Faith in God, as a Rewarder. And, in how many Persecutions, as well as Haeresies, has the Devil been ever since Engaging all the Children of Cain! That Serpent the Devil ha's 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 … 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 outcries, upon, The miseries preparing for the poor Hugonots! thus it ha's 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 W…es; 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 laid 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 Revengful 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 fetch't 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 Terrify'd Cain, and Saul, and Iudas, 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.