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,[93] 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 the time of 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 [14] 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 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 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;[94] 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 remembered, 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 Repition of Earth-quakes, 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 [15] 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 Mountaions, 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, Terræ motus causat. The Devil surely, was a party in the Earthquake,[95] whereby the Vengeance of God, in one black Night sunk Twelve considerable Cities of Asia, in the Reign of Tiberious.[96] 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 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.[97] 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 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 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![98] 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.[99] What shall I say? The Wilderness thro' which we are passing to the Pro-[16]mised 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 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;[100] 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 into 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.