Part 15

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 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 Europeans hither of late 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 Hæmisphere 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 Europeans 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.

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,

FOOTNOTES:

This was printed at the Time (1692) in a Separate Tract.

Whoever has the Inclination to turn over the Pages of the Martyrology may perhaps find who this "Renowned Person" was.

To this elaborate Definition of the Devil and his Attributes it will hardly be necessary to add or diminish. But taking what Tillotson says of God, not quite so much need be said of the Devil. The Archbishop says, in his happy Manner: "We attribute nothing to God that hath any repugnancy or contradiction in it." It naturally follows then, that all else comes from the Devil.

The famous Isaac Ambros says, "The first Period wherein Satan first begins to Assault the Elect, it is from their quickening in the Womb."--War with Devils, P. 29, 2d Ed. 1738. "So may we say of every Child, as soon as it is quickened in the Womb, that the Great Red Dragon, the Devil, stands ready to devour it."--Ibid. Our Author was not alone in remarkable Ideas.

It does not appear how the Devil-in-chief came by his Appointment; whether his Office was by Election, or in what Manner he attained his high Station. It is not very material however.

A very different Decision will be found elsewhere in our Pages.

"The Devil of Mascon" was one of the Productions following the "Glorious Restoration," as Carlyle ironically calls it. Full Title in Bohn's Lowndes, ART. DEVIL.

AMEN will doubtless be the Response of every one; but do not flatter yourself, Reader, that you are thus soon delivered from the Devil.

Perhaps it may not be irrational to conclude that the Abode of the Devil, in those supernal Parts is at least as far from the Earth as the fixed Stars; the nearest of these, our Author informs us, in his Christian Philosopher, Page 18, is 2,404,520,928,000 Miles from the Earth. Now, allowing Lucifer to be able to fly with the Velocity of Sound, he could not reach this Planet short of 50,000 Years! Hence he must have set out on his Journey thousands of Years before the World was created. But the Arabians believe that Mahomet performed that Journey several Times in the space of a few Years. That Mahomet should beat the Devil is not extraordinary.

The Author doubtless viewed the Stories in the Arabian Nights as Realities and actual Occurrences.

"Nay, though wee make Profession to seeke GOD alone in our Troubles; yet when it comes to the Pinch, doe wee not runne vnto the Deuill?"--Cooper, Mystery of Witchcraft, 18-19.

If Spectacles were invented as far back as 1269, "a little while ago" would hardly have applied to the Fact; but the Author probably had Reference to Z. Jansen, a Maker of Spectacles, living in Middleburgh, in 1590. The Inventor was a Monk of Pisa, named Spina.

A great Plague in London was not then (1692) a very remote Event. That which raged in 1665 carried off 68,000 People, according to the best Estimate which could be made at the Time.

This fabulous Monster was considered a Reality among a large Portion of the human Family. A satisfactory Account of what a Dragon is or is not, may be seen in that useful little Work entitled The Home Cyclopedia, compiled by Messrs. George Ripley and Bayard Taylor.

A very considerable Part of the learned John Scheffer's History of Lapland is taken up in Details of Witchcraft, as observed in that Country. He was a Native of Germany, born 1621, resided some Time in Sweden, died 1679. For later Transactions of the same Kind, and in the same Country, the Reader may consult Dr. Horneck's Account, before referred to, "Done from the High-Dutch."