_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._
There is a _little room_ for hope, that the _great wrath_ of the Devil,
will not prove the present ruine of our poor _New-England_ in
particular. I believe, there never was a poor Plantation, more pursued
by the _wrath_ of the _Devil_, than our poor _New-England_; and that
which makes our condition very much the more deplorable is, that the
_wrath_ of the _great God_ Himself, at the same time also presses hard
upon us. It was a rousing _alarm_ to the Devil, when a great Company of
English _Protestants_ and _Puritans_, came to erect Evangelical
Churches, in a corner of the World, where he had reign'd without any
controul for many Ages; and it is a vexing _Eye-sore_ to the Devil, that
our Lord Christ should be known, and own'd, and preached in this
_howling Wilderness_. Wherefor he has left no _Stone unturned_, that so
he might undermine his Plantation, and force us out of our Country.
First, The Indian _Powawes_, used all their Sorceries to molest the
first Planters here; but God said unto them, _Touch them not!_ Then,
_Seducing Spirits_ came to _root_ in this Vineyard, but God so rated
them off, that they have not prevail'd much farther than the Edges of
our Land. After this, we have had a continual _blast_ upon some of our
principal Grain, annually diminishing a vast part of our _ordinary
Food_. Herewithal, wasting _Sicknesses_, especially Burning and Mortal
Agues, have Shot the Arrows of Death in at our Windows. Next, we have
had many Adversaries of our own Language, who have been perpetually
assaying to deprive us of those _English Liberties_, in the
encouragement whereof these Territories have been settled. As if this
had not been enough; The _Tawnies_ among whom we came, have watered our
Soil with the Blood of many Hundreds of our Inhabitants. Desolating
_Fires_ also have many times laid the chief Treasure of the whole
Province in Ashes. As for _Losses_ by Sea, _they_ have been multiply'd
upon us: and particularly in the present _French War_, the whole English
Nation have observ'd that no part of the Nation has proportionably had
so many Vessels taken, as our poor _New-England_. Besides all which, now
at last the Devils are (if I may so speak) _in Person_ come down upon us
with such a _Wrath_, as is justly _much_, and will quickly be _more_,
the Astonishment of the World. Alas, I may sigh over _this_ Wilderness,
as _Moses_ did over _his_, in _Psal. 90.7, 9._ _We are consumed by thine
Anger, and by thy Wrath we are troubled: All our days are passed away in
thy Wrath._ And I may add this unto it, _The Wrath of the Devil too has
been troubling and spending of us, all our days._
But what will become of this poor _New-England_ after all? Shall we
sink, expire, perish, before the _short time_ of the Devil shall be
finished? I must confess, That when I consider the lamentable
_Unfruitfulness_ of men, among us, under as powerful and perspicuous
Dispensations of the Gospel, as are in the World; and when I consider
the declining state of the _Power of Godliness_ in our Churches, with
the most horrible Indisposition that perhaps ever was, to recover out of
this declension; I cannot but _Fear_ lest it comes to this, and lest an
_Asiatic_ Removal of Candlesticks come upon us. But upon some other
Accounts, I would fain _hope_ otherwise; and I will give _you_
therefore the opportunity to try what Inferences may be drawn from these
probable Prognostications.
I say, _First_, That surely, _America's_ Fate, must at the long run
include _New-Englands_ in it. What was the design of our God, in
bringing over so many _Europaeans_ hither of later years? Of what use or
state will _America_ be, when the _Kingdom of God_ shall come? If it
must all be the Devils propriety, while the _saved Nations_ of the other
Haemisphere shall be _Walking in the Light of the New Jerusalem_, Our
_New-England_ has then, 'tis likely, done all that it was erected for.
But if God have a purpose to make here a seat for any of _those glorious
things which are spoken of thee, O thou City of God_; then even thou, _O
New-England_, art within a very little while of better days than ever
yet have dawn'd upon thee.
I say, _Secondly_, That tho' there be very _Threatning_ Symptoms on
_America_, yet there are some _hopeful_ ones. I confess, when one thinks
upon the crying Barbarities with which the most of those _Europaeans_
that have Peopled this New world, became the Masters of it; it looks but
_Ominously_. When one also thinks how much the way of living in many
parts of _America_, is utterly inconsistent with the very Essentials of
_Christianity_; yea, how much Injury and Violence is therein done to
_Humanity_ it self; it is enough to damp the Hopes of the most Sanguine
Complexion. And the _Frown_ of Heaven which has hitherto been upon
Attempts of better Gospellizing the Plantations, considered, will but
increase the _Damp_. Nevertheless, on the other side, what shall be said
of all the _Promises_, That _our Lord Jesus Christ shall have the
uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession?_ and of all the
_Prophecies_, That _All the ends of the Earth shall remember and turn
unto the Lord?_ Or does it look _agreeably_, That such a rich quarter of
the World, equal in some regards to all the rest, should never be out of
the _Devils_ hands, from the first Inhabitation unto the last
Dissolution of it? No sure; why may not the _last_ be the _first_? and
the _Sun of Righteousness_ come to shine _brightest_, in Climates which
it rose _latest_ upon!
I say, _Thirdly_, That _as_ it fares with _Old England_, so it will be
most likely to fare with _New-England_. For which cause, by the way,
there may be more of the Divine Favour in the present Circumstances of
our dependence on _England_, than we are well aware of. This is very
sure, if matters _go ill_ with our _Mother_, her poor American
_Daughter_ here, must feel it; nor could our former Happy Settlement
have hindred our sympathy in that Unhappiness. But if matters _go Well_
in the Three Kingdoms; as long as God shall bless the English Nation,
with Rulers that shall encourage _Piety_, _Honesty_, _Industry_, in
their Subjects, and that shall cast a Benign Aspect upon the Interests
of our Glorious Gospel, _Abroad_ as well as at _Home_; so long,
_New-England_ will at least keep its head above water: and so much the
more, for our comfortable Settlement in such a Form as we are now cast
into. Unless there should be any singular, destroying, _Topical
Plagues_, whereby an offended God should at last make us _Rise_; But,
_Alas, O Lord, what other Hive hast thou provided for us!_
I say, _Fourthly_, That the _Elder England_ will certainly and speedily
be Visited with the _ancient loving kindness_ of God. When one sees, how
strangely the Curse of our _Joshua_, has fallen upon the Persons and
Houses of them that have attempted the Rebuilding of the _Old_ Romish
_Jericho_, which has there been so far demolished, they cannot but say,
That the _Reformation_ there, shall not only be maintained, but also
pursued, proceeded, perfected; and that God will shortly there have a
_New Jerusalem_. Or, Let a Man in his thoughts run over but the series
of amazing Providences towards the English Nation for the last _Thirty
Years_: Let him reflect, how many _Plots_ for the ruine of the Nation,
have been strangely discovered? yea, how very unaccountably those very
_Persons_, yea, I may also say, and those very _Methods_ which were
intended for the tools of that ruine, have become the instruments or
occasions of Deliverances? A man cannot but say upon these Reflections,
as the Wife of _Manoah_ once prudently expressed her self, _If the Lord
were pleased to have Destroyed us, He would not have shew'd us all these
things._ Indeed, It is not unlikely, that the Enemies of the English
Nation, may yet provoke such a _Shake_ unto it, as may perhaps exceed
any that has hitherto been undergone: the Lord prevent the Machinations
of his Adversaries! But that _shake_ will usher in the most _glorious
Times_ that ever arose upon the English _Horizon_. As for the _French_
Cloud which hangs over _England_, tho' it be like to Rain showers of
_Blood_ upon a Nation, where the _Blood_ of the Blessed Jesus has been
too much treated as an _Unholy Thing_; yet I believe God will shortly
scatter it: and my belief is grounded upon a bottom that will bear it.
If that overgrown _French Leviathan_ should accomplish any thing like a
Conquest of _England_, what could there be to hinder him from the
Universal Empire of the _West_? But the _Visions_ of the Western World,
in the _Views_ both of _Daniel_ and of _John_, do assure us, that
whatever Monarch, shall while the _Papacy_ continues go to swallow up
the _Ten Kings_ which received _their Power_ upon the Fall of the
Western Empire, he must miscarry in the Attempt. The _French Phaetons_
Epitaph seems written in that, _Sure Word of Prophecy_.
[Since the making of this Conjecture, there are arriv'd unto us, the
News of a Victory obtain'd by the _English_ over the _French_, which
further confirms our Conjecture; and causes us to sing, _Pharaohs
Chariots, and his Hosts, has the Lord cast down into the Sea; Thy
right-hand has dashed in pieces the Enemy!_]
Now, _In the Salvation of_ England, the Plantations cannot but
_Rejoyce_, and _New-England_ also will _be Glad_.
But so much for our _Corollaries_, I hasten to the main thing designed
for your entertainment. And that is,
AN HORTATORY AND NECESSARY ADDRESS,
TO A COUNTRY NOW EXTRAORDINARILY ALARUM'D
BY THE WRATH OF THE DEVIL.
TIS THIS,
Let us now make a good and a right use of the prodigious _descent_ which
the _Devil_ in _Great Wrath_ is at this day making upon our Land. Upon
the Death of a Great Man once, an Orator call'd the Town together,
crying out, _Concurrite Cives, Dilapsa sunt vestra Moenia!_ that is,
_Come together, Neighbours, your Town-Walls are fallen down!_ But such
is the descent of the Devil at this day upon our selves, that I may
truly tell you, _The Walls of the whole World are broken down!_ The
usual _Walls_ of defence about mankind have such a Gap made in them,
that the very _Devils_ are broke in upon us, to seduce the _Souls_,
torment the _Bodies_, sully the _Credits_, and consume the _Estates_ of
our Neighbours, with Impressions both as _real_ and as _furious_, as if
the _Invisible_ World were becoming _Incarnate_, on purpose for the
vexing of us. And what use ought now to be made of so tremendous a
dispensation? We are engaged in a _Fast_ this day; but shall we try to
fetch _Meat out of the Eater_, and make the _Lion_ to afford some _Hony_
for our _Souls_?