Fault In the mean time We have no Bowels in us if we do not Compassionate the Distressed County of Essex now crying to all these Colonies Have pitty on me O ye my Friends Have pitty on me for the Hand of the Lord has Touched me and the Wrath of the Devil has been therewithal turned upon me But indeed if an hearty pitty be due to any I am sure the Difficulties which attend our Honourable Iudges doe demand no Inconsiderable share in that Pitty What a Difficult what an Arduous Task have those Worthy Personages now upon their Hands To carry the Knife so exactly that on the one side there may be no Innocent Blood Shed by too unseeing a Zeal for the Children of Israel and that on the other side there may be no Shelter given to those Diabolical Works of Darkness without the Removal whereof we never shall have Peace or fo those Furies whereof several have kill'd more people perhaps than would serve to make a Village Hic Labor Hoc Opus est O what need have we to â—…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 Reproching 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 Pitty to forget such Accused ones as call for indeed our most Compassionate Pitty 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 shown 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 alwayes 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 Iudgment 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 Theway to come under the Saving Influences of the New Coveâ—…ant is to close with the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Allsufficient Mediator of it Let us therefore do that by Resigning up ourselves unto the Saving Teaching and Ruling Hands of this Blessed Mediator Then we shall be what we read in Jude 1. Preserved in Christ Iesus 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 Clocqing 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 ourselves to a Particular Church walking in the Order of the Gospel at the doing whereof according to that Covenant of God We give up Ourselves 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 Ierusalem 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 t is 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 ourselves 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 Pour traiture 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 Devillish 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 Miseriae Remedium the Devil will soon be Scourg'd out of the Lords 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 Mat. 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
Duny's told the Deponent that her Aunt was all grievously scorch'd with the Fire and the Deponent going to her House found her in such a Condition Duny told her she might thank her for it but she should live to see some of her Children Dead and her self upon Crutches But after the Burning of the Toad this Child Recovered This Deponent further Testify'd That Her Daughter Elizabeth being about the Age of Ten Years was taken in like manner as her first Child was and in her Fitts complained much of Amy Duny and said that she did appear to Her and afflict her in such manner as the former One Day she found Amy Duny in her House and thrusting her out of Doors Duny said You need not be so Angry your Child won't live long And within three Days the Child Dyed The Deponent added that the was Her self not long after taken with such a Lameness in both her Leggs that she was forced to go upon Crutches and she was now in Court upon them It was Remarkable that immediately upon the Juries bringing in Duny Guilty Durent was restored unto the use of her Limbs and went Home without Her Crutches III. As for Elizabeth and Deborah Pacy one Aged Eleven years the other Nine the elder being in Court was made utterly senseless during all the time of the Triall or at least speechless By the direction of the Judge Duny was privately brought to Elizabeth Pacy and she touched her Hand whereupon the child without so much as seeing her suddenly leap'd up and flew upon the prisoner the younger was too ill to be brought unto the Assizes But Samuel Pacy their Father testify'd that his Daughter Deborah was taken with a sudden lameness and upon the grumbling of Amy Duny for being denyed something where this child was then sitting the child was taken with an extreeme pain in her stomach like the pricking of pins and shrieking at a dreadful manner like a Whelp rather then a Rational creature The Physicians could not conjecture the cause of the Distemper but Amy Duny being a woman of Ill Fame and the child in fitts crying out of Amy Duny as affrighting her with the Apparition of her person the deponent suspected her and procured her to be set in the stocks While she was there she said in the hearing of two Witnesses Mr Pacy keeps a great stir about his child but let him stay till he has done as much by his Children as I have done by mine and being asked What she had done to her Children she answered She had been fain to open her Childs mouth with a Tap to give it Victuals The Deponent added that within two Days the Fits of his Daughters were such that they could not preserve either Life or Breath without the help of a Tap. And that the Children cry'd out of Amy Duny and of Rose Cullender as afflicting them with their Apparitions IV. The Fits of the Children were various They would sometimes be Lame on one side sometimes on t' other Sometimes very sore sometimes restored unto their Limbs and then Deaf or Blind or Dumb for a long while together Upon the Recovery of their Speech they would Cough extreamly and with much Flegm they would bring up Crooked Pins one time a Two-penny Nail with a very broad Head Commonly at the end of every Fit they would cast up a Pin. When the Children Read they could not pronounce the Name of Lord or Iesus or Christ but would fall into Fitts and say Amy Duny says I must not use that Nami When they came to the Name of Satan or Devil they would clap their Fingers on the Book crying out This bites but it makes me speak right well The Children in their Fitts would often cry out There stands Amy Duny or Rose Cullender and they would afterwards relate That these Witches appearing before them threatned them that if they told what they saw or heard they would Torment them ten times more than ever they did before V. Margaret Arnold the Sister of Mr. Pacy testify'd unto the like Sufferings being upon the Children at her House whither her Brother had Removed them And that sometimes the Children only would see things like Mice run about the House and one of them suddenly snap't one with the Tongs and threw it into the Fire where it screeched out like a Rat. At another time a thing like a Bee flew at the Face of the younger Child the Child fell into a Fitt and at last Vomited up a Two-penny Nail with a Broad Head affirming That the Bee brought this Nail and forced it into her mouth The Child would in like manner be assaulted with Flies which brought Crooked Pins unto her and made her first swallow them and then Vomit them She one Day caught an Invisible Mouse and throwing it into the Fire it Flash'd like to Gun-Powder None besides the Child saw the Mouse but every one saw the Flash She also declared out of her Fitts that in them Amy Duny much tempted her to Destroy Her self VI. As for Ann Durent her Father Testifyed That upon a Discontent of Rose Cullender His Daughter was taken with much Illness in her Stomach and great and sore Pains like the pricking of pins and then Swooning Fitts from which Recovering she declared She had seen the Apparition of Rose Cullender Threatning to Torment her She likewise Vomited up diverse Pins The Maid was Present at Court but when Cullender look'd upon her she fell into such Fitts as made her utterly unable to declare any thing Ann Baldwin deposed the same VII Iane Bocking was too weak to be at the Assizes But her Mother Testify'd that Her Daughter having formerly been Afflicted with Swooning Fitts and Recovered of them was now taken with a great Pain in her Stomach and New Swooning Fitts That she took little Food but every Day Vomited Crooked Pins In her first Fitts she would Extend her Arms and use Postures as if she catched at something and when her Clutched Hands were forced open they would find several Pins diversely Crooked unaccountably lodged there She would also maintain a Discourse with some that were Invisibly present when casting abroad her Arms she would often say I will not have it but at last say Then I will have itâ—… and closing her Hand which when they presently after opened a Lath-Nail was found in it But Her great complaints were of being Visited by the shapes of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender VIII As for Susan Chandler Her Mother Testifyed That being at the search of Rose Cullender they found on her Belly a thing like a Teat of an Inch long which the said Rose ascribed to a strain But near her Privy parts they found Threâ—… more that were smaller than the former At the end of the long Teat there was a little Hole which appeared as if newly Sucked and upon straining it a white milky matter issued out The Deponent further said That her Daughter being one day
The Wonders of the Invisible World OBSERVATIONS As well Historical as Theological upon the NATURE the NUMBER and the OPERATIONS of the DEVILS Accompany'd with I. Some Accounts of the Grievous Molestations by DAEMONS and WITCHCRAFTS which have lately annoy'd the Countrey and the Trials of some eminent Malefactors Executed upon occasion thereof with several Remarkable Curiosities therein occurring II. Some Counsils Directing a due Improvement of the terrible things lately done by the Unusual Amazing Range of EVIL SPIRITS in Our Neighbourhood the methods to prevent the Wrongs which those Evil Angels may intend against all sorts of people among us especially in Accusations of the Innocent III. Some Conjectures upon the great EVENTS likely to befall the WORLD in General and NEW-ENGLAND in Particular as also upon the Advances of the TIME when we shall see BETTER DAYES IV A short Narrative of a late Outrage committed by a knot of WITCHES in Swedeland very much Resembling and so far Explaining That under which our parts of America have laboured V. THE DEVIL DISCOVERED In a Brief Discourse upon those TEMPTATIONS which are the more Ordinary Devices of the Wicked One By Cotton Mather Boston Printed and Sold by Benjamin Harris 1693. PUblished by the Special Command of His EXCELLENCY the Governour of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England The Authors Defence 'T Is as I Remember the Learned Scribonius who Reports that One of his Acquaintance devoutly making his Prayers on the behalf of a Person molested by Evil Spirits received from those Evil Spirits an horrible Blow over the Face And I may my self Expect not few or small Buffetings from Evil Spirits for the Endeavours wherewith I am now going to Encounter them I am far from Insensible That at this Extraordinary Time of the Devils Coming down in Great Wrath upon us there are too many Tongues and Hearts thereby Set on Fire of Hell that the various Opinions about the Witchcrafts which of Later Time have Troubled us are maintained by some with so much Cloudy Fury as if they could never be sufficiently Stated unless written in the Liquor wherewith Witches use to write their Covenants and that he who becomes an Author at such a Time had need be Fenced with Iron and the Stuff of a Spear The unaccountable Frowardness Asperity Untreatableness and Inconsistency of many persons every Day gives a Visible Exposition of that passage An Evil Spirit from the Lord came upon Saul and Illustration of that Story There met him two Possessed with Devils exceeding Fierce so that no man might pass by that way To send abroad a Book among such Readers were a very unadvised Thing if a man had not such Reasons to give as I can bring for such an Undertaking Briefly I hope it cannot be said They are all so No I hope the Body of this People are yet in such a Temper as to be capable of Applying their Thoughts to make a Right Use of the Stupendous and prodigious Things that are happening among us and because I was concern'd when I saw that no Abler Hand Emitted any Essayes to Engage the Minds of this People in such Holy Pious Fruitful Improvements as God would have to be made of His Amazing Dispensations now upon us THEREFORE it is that One of the Least among the Children of New-England has here done what is done None but The Father who sees in Secret knows the Heart-breaking Exercises wherewith I have Composed what is now going to be Exposed Lest I should in any One Thing miss of Doing my Designed Service for His Glory and for His People But I am now somewhat comfortably Assured of His favourable Acceptance and I will not Fear what can a Satan do unto me Having Performed Something of what God Required in labouring to suit His Words unto His Works at this Day among us and therewithal handled a Theme that has been sometimes counted not unworthy the Pen even of a King it will easily be perceived that some subordinate Ends have been considered in these Endeavours I have indeed set my self to Countermine the whole PLOT of the Devil against New-England in every Branch of it as far as one of my Darkness can comprehend such a Work of Darkness I may add that I have herein also aimed at the Information and Satisfaction of Good men in another Countrey a Thousand Leagues off where I have it may be More or however more Considerable Friends than in My Own And I do what I can to have that Countrey now as well as alwayes in the best Terms with My Own But while I am doing these things I have been driven a little to do something likewise for My self I mean by taking off the false Reports and hard Censures about my Opinion in these matters the Parters Portion which my pursuit of Peace has procured me among the Keen My hitherto Unvaried Thoughts are here Published and I believe they will be owned by most of the Ministers of God in these Colonies nor can amends be well made me for the wrong done me by other sorts of Representations In fine For the Dogmatical part of my Discourse I want no Defence for the Historical part of it I have a very Great One. The Lievtenant Governour of New-England having perused it has done me the Honour of giving me a Shield under the Umbrage whereof I now dare to walk Abroad Reverend and Dear Sir YOU Very much Gratify'd me as well as put a kind Respect upon me when you put into my hands Your Elaborate and most seasonable Discourse entituled The Wonders of The Invisible World And having now Perused so fruitful and happy a Composure upon such a Subject at this Juncture of Time and considering the Place that I Hold in the Court of Oyer and Terminer still Labouring and proceeding in the Trial of the persons Accused and Convicted for Witchcraft I find that I am more nearly and highly concerned than as a meer Ordinary Reader to Express my Obligation and Thankfulness to you for so great pains and cannot but hold my self many ways bound even to the utmost of what is proper for me in my present Publick Capacity to declare my Singular Approbation thereof Such is Your Design most plainly expressed throughout the whole such Your Zeal for God Your Enmity to Satan and his Kingdom Your Faithfulness and Compassion to this poor people Such the Vigour but yet great Temper of your Spirit Such your Instruction and Counsel your CARE Of TRUTH Your Wisdom and Dexterity in allaying and moderating that among us which needs it Such Your clear Discerning of Divine Providences and Periods now running on apace towards their Glorious Issues in the World and finally Such your Good News of The Shortness of the Devils Time That all Good Men must needs Desire the making of this your Discourse Publick to the World and will greatly Rejoyce that the Spirit of the Lord has thus Enabled you to Lift up a Standard against the
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
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