you having great Wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time THE Text is like the Cloudy and Fiery Pillar vouchsafed unto Israel in the Wilderness of old there is a very dark side of it in the Intimation that The Devil is come down having great Wrath but it has also a bright side when it assures us that He has but a short timâ—… Unto the Contemplation of both I do this Day Invite you We have in our Hands a Letter from our Ascended Lord in Heaven to Advise us of his being still alive and of his Purpose e're long to give us a Visit wherein we shall see our Living Redeemer stand at the latter day upon the Earth 'T is the last Advice that we have had from Heaven for now sixteen Hundred years and the scope of it is to represent how the Lord Jesus Christ having begun to set up his Kingdom in the World by the Preaching of the Gospel he would from time to time utterly break to pieces all Powers that should make Head against it until The Kingdomes of this World are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall Reign for ever and ever 'T is a Commentary on what had been written by Daniel about The Fourth Monarchy with some Touches upon The Fifth wherein The greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High And altho' it have as 't is expressed by one of the Ancients Tot Sacramenta quot verba a Mystery in every Syllable yet it is not altogether to be neglected with such a Despair as that I cannot Read for the Book is Sealed it is a REVELATION and a singular and notable Blessing is pronounc'd upon them that humbly study it The Divine Oracles have with a most admirable Artifice and Carefulness drawn as the very pious Beverley has laboriously Evinced an exact LINE OF TIME from the First Sabbath at the Creation of the World unto the great Sabbatism at the Restitution of all Things In that famous Line of Time from the Decree for the Restoring of Ierusalem after the Babylonish Captivity there seem to remain a matter of Two Thousand and Three Hundred Years unto that New Ierusalem whereto the Church is to be advanced when the Mystical Babylon shall be fallen At the Resurrection of our Lord there were seventeen or eighteen Hundred of those Years yet upon the Line to Run unto The Rest which Remains for the People of God and this Remnant in the Line of Time is here in our Apocalypse variously Embossed Adorned and Signalized with such Distinguished Events if we mind them will help us escape that Censure Can ye not Discern the Signs of the Times The Apostle Iohn for the View of these Things had laid before him as I conceive a Book with leaves or folds which Vâ—…lumn was written both on the Backside on the Inside Roll'd up in a Cylindriacal Form under seven Labels fastned with so many Seals The First Seal being opened and the First Label removed under the first Label the Apostle saw what he saw of a first Rider Pourtray'd and so on till the last Seal was broken up each of the Sculptures being enlarged with Agreeable Visions and Voices to Illustrate it The Book being now Unrolled there were Trumpets with wonderful Concomitants Exhibited successively on the Expanding Backside of it Whereupon the Book was Eaten as it were to be Hidden from Interpretations till afterwards in the Inside of it the Kingdom of Antichrist came to be Exposed Thus the Judgments of God on the Roman Empire first unto the Downfal of Paganism and then unto the Downfal of Popery which is but Revived Paganism are in these Displayes with Lively Colours and Features made sensible unto us Accordingly in the Twelfth Chapter of this Book we have an August Preface to the Description of that Horrid Kingdom which our Lord Christ refused but Antichrist accepted from the Devils Hands a Kingdom which for Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years together was to be a continual oppression upon the People of God and opposition unto his Interests until the Arrival of that Illustrious Day wherein The Kingdom shall be the Lords and he shall be Governour among the Nations The Chapter is as an Excellent Person calls it an Extravasated Account of the Circumstances which befel the Primitive Church during the first Four of Five Hundred Years of Christianity it shows us the Face of the Church first in Rome Heathenish and then in Rome Converted before the Man of Sin was yet come to Mans Estate Our Text contains the Acclamations made upon the most Glorious Revolution that ever yet happened upon the Roman Empire namely That wherein the Travailing Church brought forth a Christian Emperour This was a most Eminent Victory over the Devil and Resemblance of the State wherein the World ere long shall see The Kingdom of our God and the Power of His Christ. It is here noted First As a matter of Triumph 'T is said Rejoice ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them The Saints in both Worlds took the Comfort of this Revolution the Devout Ones that had out-lived the late Persecutions were filled with Transporting Joyes when they saw the Christian become the Imperial Religion and when they saw Good Men come to give Law unto the rest of Mankind the Deceas'd Ones also whose Blood had been Sacrificed in the Ten Persecutions doubtless made the Light Regions to ring with Hallelujahs unto God when there were brought unto them the Tidings of the Advances now given to the Christian Religion for which they had suffered Martyrdom Secondly As a matter of Horror 'T is said Wo to the Inhabiters of the Earth and of the Sea The Earth still means the False Church the Sea means the Wide World in Prophetical Phrasaeology There was yet left a vast party of men that were Enemies to the Christian Religion in the power of it a vast party left for the Devil to work upon unto these is a Wo denounced and why so 't is added For the Devil is come down unto you having great Wrath because he knows that he has but a short time These were it seems to have some desperate and peculiar Attempts of the Devil made upon them In the mean time we may Entertain this for our DOCTRINE Great WO proceeds from the Great WRATH with which the DEVIL towards the End of his TIME will make a DESCENT upon a miserable World I have now Published a most awful and solemn Warning for our selves at this day which has four Propositions comprehended in it Proposition I. That there is a Devil is a Thing Doubted by none but such as are under the Influence of the Devil For any to Deny the Being of a Devil must be from an Ignorance or Profaneness worse than Diabolical A Devil What is that We have a Definition of the Monster in Eph. 6. 12. A Spiritual Wickedness
Infernal Enemy that hath been Coming in like a Flood upon us I do therefore make it my particular and Earnest Request unto you that as soon as may be you will Commit the same unto the PRESS accordingly I am Your Assured Friend William Stoughton I Live by Neighbours that force me to produce these Undeserved Lines But now as when Mr. Wilson beholding a great Muster of Souldiers had it by a Gentleman then present said unto him Sir I 'l tell you a great Thing here is a mighty Body of People and there is not SEVEN of them all but what Loves Mr. Wilson that Gracious Man presently pleasantly Reply'd Sir I 'll tell you as good a thing as that here is a mighty Body of People and there is not so much as ONE among them all but Mr. Wilson Loves him Somewhat so 'T is possible that among this Body of People there may be few that Love the Writer of this Book but give me leave to boast so far there is not one among all this Body of People whom this Mather would not Study to Serve as well as to Love With such a Spirit of Love is the Book now before us written I appeal to all this World and if this World will deny me the Right of acknowlèdging so much I Appeal to the Other that it is Not written with an Evil Spirit for which cause I shall not wonder if Evil Spirits be Exasperated by what is Written as the Sadducees doubtless were with what was Discoursed in the Days of our Saviour I only Demand the Iustice that others Read it with the same Spirit wherewith I writ it Enchantments Encountred S 1. IT was as long ago as the year 1637. that a Faithful Minister of the Church of England whose Name was Mr. Edward Symons did in a Sermon afterwards Printed thus Express himselfe At New-England now the Sun of Comfort begins to appear and the Glorious Day-Star to show it self Sed Venient Annis Saecula Seris there will come Times in after-ages when the Clouds will over-shadow and darken the Sky there Many now promise to themselves nothing but successive Happiness there which for a Time through Gods Mercy they may Enjoy and I Pray God they may a Long Time but in this World there is no Happiness perpetual An Observation Or I had almost said an Inspiration very dismally now verify'd upon us It has been affirm'd by some who best knew New-England That the World will do New-England a great piece of Injustice if it acknowledge not a measure of Religion Loyalty Honesty and Industry in the people there beyond what is to be found with any other people for the Number of them When I did a few years ago publish a Book which mentioned a few Memorable Witchcrafts committed in this Country the Excellent Baxter graced the Second Edition of that Book with a kind Preface wherein he sees cause to say If any are Scandalized that New-England a place of as serious Piety as any I can hear of under Heaven should be Troubled so much with Witches I think t is no Wonder Where will the Devil show most Malice but where he is Hated and Hateth most And I hope the Country will still deserve and answer the Charity so Expressed by that Reverend man of God! Whosoever travels over this Wilderness will see it richly bespangled with Evangelical Churches whose Pastors are Holy Able Painful Overseers of their Flocks Lively Preachers and Vertuous Livers and such as in their Several Neighbourly Associations have had their Meetings whereat Ecclesiastical matters of common Concernment are Considered Churches whose Communicants have been seriously Examined about their Experiences of Regeneration as well as about their Knowledge and Beleef and Blameless Conversation before their Admission to the Sacred Communion although others of less but Hopeful Attainments in Christianity are not ordinarily deny'd Baptism for themselves and theirs Churches which are Shy of using any thing in the Worship of God for which they cannot see a Warrant of God but with whom yet the Names of Congregational Presbyterian Episcopalian or Antipaedobaptist are swallowed up in that of Christian Persons of all those Perswasions being actually taken into our Fellowship when Visible Godliness has Recommended them Churches which usually do within themselves manage their own Discipline under the Conduct of their Elders but yet call in the help of Synods upon Emergencies or Aggrievances Churches Lastly wherein Multitudes are growing Ripe for Heaven every Day and as fast as these are taken off others are daily Rising up And by the presence and power of the Divine Institutions thus mentained in the Country we are still so Happy that I suppose there is no Land in the Universe more free from the Debauching and the Debasing Vices of Ungodliness The Body of the People are hitherto so disposed that Swearing Sabbath-breaking Whoring Drunkenness and the like do not make a Gentleman but a Monster or a Goblin in the Vulgar Estimation All this notwithstanding we must humbly Confess to our God that we are miserably Degenerated from the First Love of our Predecessors however we boast our selves a litile when Men would go to trample upon us and we venture to say Whereinsoever any is bold we speak foolishly we are bold also The first Planters of these Colonies were a Chosen Generation of men who were first so Pure as to disrelish many things which they thought wanted Reformation else where and yet withal so Peaceable that they Embraced a Voluntary Exile in a Squalid horrid American Desart rather than to Live in Contentions with their Brethren Those Good men imagined that they should Leave their Posterity in a place where they should never see the Inroads of Profanity or Superstition and a famous Person returning hence could in a Sermon before the Parliament profess I have now been seven years in a Country where I never saw one man drunk or heard one Oath sworn or beheld one Beggar in the Streets all the while Such great persons as Budaeus and others who mistook Sir Thomas Mores UTOPIA for a Country really Existent and stirr'd up some Divines Charitably to undertake a Voyage thither might now have certainly found a Truth in their Mistake New-England was a true Utopia But alas the Children and Servants of those Old Planters must needs afford many Degenerate Plants and there is now Risen up a Number of people otherwise Inclined than our Ioshua's and the Elders that out-lived them Those two things our Holy Progenitors and our Happy Advantages make Omissions of Duty and such Spiritual Disorders as the whole World abroad is overwhelmed with to be as Provoking in us as the most flagitious wickednesses Committed in other places and the Ministers of God are accordingly severe in their Testimonies But in Short Those Interests of the Gospel which were the Errand of our Fathers into these Ends of the Earth have been too much Neglected and Postponed and the Attainments of an hand-some
the Divel are swoâ—…n Enemiâ—…s to each other the Terms between them are those in Zech. 11. 18. My Soul 〈◊〉 them and their Soul also Abbâ—…rred me And from this Furious Wrath or Displeasure and Prejudice at God proceeds the Divels Wrath at us the poor Children of Men. Our doing the Service of God is one thing that Exposes us to the Wrath of the Divel We are the High-Priests of the World when all Creatures are call'd upon Praise ye the Lord they bring to us those demanded Praises of God saying Do you Offer them for us Hence 't is that the Divel has a a Quarrel with us as he had with the High-Priest in the Vision of Old Our bearing the Image of God is another thing that brings the Wrath of the Divel upon us As a Tygre thro' his Hatred at a man will tear the very Picture of him if it come in his way such a Tygre the Devil is because God said of old Let us make Man in our Image the Devil is ever saying Let us pâ—…ll this man to pieces But the envious Pride of the Devil is one thing more that gives an Edge unto his Furious Wrath against us The Apostle has given us an hint as if Pride had been the Condemnation of the Devil 'T is not unlikely that the Devils Affectation to be above that Condition which he might learn that Mankind was to be preferr'd unto might be the occasion of his taking up Arms against the Immortal King However the Devil now sees Man lying in the Bosome of God but Himself damned in the Bottom of Hell and this Enrages him exceedingly O says he I cannot bear it that man should not be as miserable as myself Proposition III. The Devil in the prosecution for the execution of His wrath upon them often getts a Liberty to make a Descent upon the Children of men When the Devil does Hurt unto us he Comes Down unto us for the Randezvouze of the Infernal Troops is indeed in the Supernal Parts of our Air. But as t is said A. sparrow of the Air does not fall down without the will of God so I may say Not a Devil in the Air can come down without the leave of God Of this we have a famous Instance in that Arabian Prince of whom the Devil was unable so much as to Touch any thing till the most High God gave him a permission to go down The Divel stands with all the Instruments of Death aiming at us and begging of the Lord as that King ask'd for the Hood-winck'd Syrians of old Shall I Smite 'em shall I Smite ' em He cannot strike a Blow till the Lord say Go down and smite but sometimes He does obtain from the High Possessor of Heaven and Earth a License for the doing of it The Divel sometimes does make most rueful Havock among us but still we may say to him as our Lord said unto a great servant of his Thou couldest have no power against me except it were given thee from above The Divel is called in 1 pet 5. 8. your Adversary T is a Law-term and it notes An Adversary at Law The Divel cannot come at us except in some sence according to Law but sometimes he does procure sad things to be inflicted according to that Law of the eternal King upon us The Divel First Goes up as an Accuser against us He is therefore styled The Accuser and it is on this account that his proper Name does belong unto him There is a Court somewhere kept a Court of Spirits where the Divel enters all sorts of Complaints against us all he charges us with manifold sins against the Lord our God There he loads us with heavy Imputations of Hypocrisy Iniquity Disobedience where upon he uâ—…ges Lord Let 'em now have the Death which is their Wages paid unto ' em If our Advocate in the Heavens do not now take off his Libels the Devil then with a Concession of God Comes down as a Destroyer upon us Having first been an Attorney to bespeak that the Judgments of Heaven may be Ordered for us he then also pleads that he may be the Executioner of those Judgments and the God of Heaven sometimes after a sort signs a Warrant for this Destroying Angel to do what has bin desired to be done for the Destroying of men But such a Permission from God for the Divel to Come down and Break in upon mankind oftentimes must be Accompanyed with a Commission from some wretches of mankind it 〈◊〉 Every man is as 't is hinted in Gen. 4 9. His Brothers Keeâ—…per We are to keep one another from the 〈◊〉 of the Divel by mutual and Cordiâ—…l wiâ—…hes of prosperity to one another When ungodly people give their Consents in witchcrafts diabolically performed for the Divell to annoy their Neighbours he â—…nds a Breach made in the Hedge about us whereat he Rushes in upon us with gâ—…ievous molestations Yea when Impious people that never saw the Divel do but utter their Curses against their Neighbours those are so many Watch words whereby the Maâ—…ives of Hell are animated presently to fall upon us ' Tiâ—… thus that the Devil gets Leave to worry us 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 bâ—…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 Mâ—…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
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 Viâ—…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 â—…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 moâ—…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 â—…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 â—…o to us for