perhaps than would serve to make a Village: Hic Labor, Hoc Opus est! O what need have we, to be concerned, that the Sins of our Israel, may not provoke the God of Heaven to leave his Davids, unto a wrong Step, in a matter of such Consequence, as is now before them! Our Disingenuous, Uncharitable, Unchristian Reproaching of such Faithful Men, after all, The Prayers and Supplications, with strong Crying and Tears, with which we are daily plying the Throne of Grace, that they may be kept, from what They Fear, is none of the way for our preventing of what We Fear. Nor all this while, ought our Pity to forget such Accused ones, as call for indeed our most Compassionate Pity, till there be fuller Evidences that they are less worthy of it. If Satan have any where maliciously brought upon the Stage, those that have hitherto had a just and good stock of Reputation, for their just and good Living, among us; If the Evil One have obtained a permission to Appear, in the Figure of such as we have cause to think, have hitherto Abstained, even from the Appearance of Evil: It is in Truth, such an Invasion upon Mankind, as may well Raise an Horror in us all: But, O what Compassions are due to such as may come under such Misrepresentations, of the Great Accuser! Who of us can say, what may be shewn in the Glasses of the Great Lying Spirit? Altho' the Usual Providence of God (we praise Him!) keeps us from such a Mishap; yet where have we an Absolute Promise, that we shall every one always be kept from it? As long as Charity is bound to Think no Evil, it will not Hurt us that are Private Persons, to forbear the Judgment which belongs not unto us. Let it rather be our Wish, May the Lord help them to Learn the Lessons, for which they are now put unto so hard a School.
VI. With a Great Zeal, we should lay hold on the Covenant of God, that we may secure Us and Ours, from the Great Wrath, with which the Devil Rages. Let us come into the Covenant of Grace, and then we shall not be hook'd into a Covenant with the Devil, nor be altogether unfurnished with Armour, against the Wretches that are in that Covenant. The way to come under the Saving Influences of the New Covenant, is, to close with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the All-sufficient Mediator of it: Let us therefore do, that, by Resigning up our selves unto the Saving, Teaching, and Ruling Hands of this Blessed Mediator. Then we shall be, what we read in Jude 1. Preserved in Christ Jesus: That is, as the Destroying Angel, could not meddle with such as had been distinguished, by the Blood of the Passeover on their Houses: Thus the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Sprinkled on our Souls, will Preserve us from the Devil. The Birds of prey (and indeed the Devils most literally in the shape of great Birds!) are flying about. Would we find a Covert from these Vultures? Let us then Hear our Lord Jesus from Heaven Clocquing unto us, O that you would be gathered under my wings! Well; When this is done, Then let us own the Covenant, which we are now come into, by joining our selves to a Particular Church, walking in the Order of the Gospel; at the doing whereof, according to that Covenant of God, We give up Our selves unto the Lord, and in Him unto One Another. While others have had their Names Entred in the Devils Book; let our Names be found in the Church Book, and let us be Written among the Living in Jerusalem. By no means let, Church work sink and fail in the midst of us; but let the Tragical Accidents which now happen, exceedingly Quicken that work. So many of the Rising Generation, utterly forgetting the Errand of our Fathers to build Churches in this Wilderness, and so many of our Cottages being allow'd to Live, where they do not, and perhaps cannot, wait upon God with the Churches of His People; 'tis as likely as any one thing to procure the swarmings of Witch crafts among us. But it becomes us, with a like Ardour, to bring our poor Children with us, as we shall do, when we come our selves, into the Covenant of God. It would break an heart of Stone, to have seen, what I have lately seen; Even poor Children of several Ages, even from seven to twenty, more or less, Confessing their Familiarity with Devils; but at the same time, in Doleful bitter Lamentations, that made a little Pourtraiture of Hell it self, Expostulating with their execrable Parents, for Devoting them to the Devil in their Infancy, and so Entailing of Devillism upon them! Now, as the Psalmist could say, My Zeal hath consumed me, because my Enemies have forgotten thy words: Even so, let the Nefarious wickedness of those that have Explicitly dedicated their Children to the Devil, even with Devilish Symbols, of such a Dedication, Provoke our Zeal to have our Children, Sincerely, Signally, and openly Consecrated unto God; with an Education afterwards assuring and confirming that Consecration.
VII. Let our Prayer go up with great Faith, against the Devil, that comes down in great Wrath. Such is the Antipathy of the Devil to our Prayer, that he cannot bear to stay long where much of it is: Indeed it is Diaboli Flagellum, as well as, Miseriæ Remedium; the Devil will soon be Scourg'd out of the Lord's Temple, by a Whip, made and used, with the effectual fervent Prayer of Righteous Men. When the Devil by Afflicting of us, drives us to our Prayers, he is The Fool making a Whip for his own Back. Our Lord said of the Devil in Matt. 17.21. This Kind goes not out, but by Prayer and Fasting. But, Prayer and Fasting will soon make the Devil be gone. Here are Charms indeed! Sacred and Blessed Charms, which the Devil cannot stand before. A Promise of God, being well managed in the Hands of them that are much upon their Knees, will so resist the Devil, that he will Flee from us. At every other Weapon the Devils will be too hard for us; the Spiritual Wickednesses in High Places, have manifestly the Upper hand of us; that Old Serpent will be too old for us, too cunning, too subtil; they will soon out wit us, if we think to Encounter them with any Wit of our own. But when we come to Prayers, Incessant and Vehement Prayers before the Lord, there we shall be too hard for them. When well-directed Prayers, that great Artillery of Heaven, are brought into the Field, There methinks I see, There are these workers of Iniquity fallen, all of them! And who can tell, how much the most Obscure Christian among you all, may do towards the Deliverance of our Land from the Molestations which the Devil is now giving to us. I have Read, That on a day of Prayer kept by some good People for and with a Possessed Person, the Devil at last flew out of the Window, and referring to a Devout, plain, mean Woman then in the Room, he cry'd out, O the Woman behind the Door! 'Tis that Woman that forces me away! Thus the Devil that now troubles us, may be forced within a while to forsake us; and it shall be said, He was driven away by the Prayers of some Obscure and Retired Souls, which the World has taken but little notice of! The Great God is about a Great Work at this day among us: Now, there is extream Hazard, lest the Devil by Compulsion must submit to that Great Work, may also by Permission, come to Confound that Work; both in the Detections of some, and in the Confessions of others, whose Ungodly deeds may be brought forth, by a Great Work of God; there is great Hazard lest the Devil intertwist some of his Delusions. 'Tis Prayer, I say, 'tis Prayer, that must carry us well through the strange things that are now upon us. Only that Prayer must then be the Prayer of Faith: O where is our Faith in him, Who hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers, on his Cross, Triumphing over them!
VIII. Lastly, Shake off, every Soul, shake off the hard Yoak of the Devil. Where 'tis said, The whole World lyes in Wickedness; 'tis by some of the Ancients rendred, The whole World lyes in the Devil. The Devil is a Prince, yea, the Devil is a God unto all the Unregenerate; and alas, there is A whole World of them. Desolate Sinners, consider what an horrid Lord it is that you are Enslav'd unto; and Oh shake off your Slavery to such a Lord. Instead of him, now make your Choice of the Eternal God in Jesus Christ; Chuse him with a most unalterable Resolution, and unto him say, with Thomas, My Lord, and my God! Say with the Church, Lord, other Lords have had the Dominion over us, but now thou alone shalt be our Lord for ever. Then instead of your Perishing under the wrath of the Devils, God will fetch you to a place among those that fill up the Room of the Devils, left by their Fall from the Ethereal Regions. It was a most awful Speech made by the Devil, Possessing a young Woman, at a Village in Germany, By the command of God, I am come to Torment the Body of this young Woman, tho I cannot hurt her Soul; and it is that I may warn Men, to take heed of sinning against God. Indeed (said he) 'tis very sore against my will that I do it; but the command of God forces me to declare
