Thirdly, The number of devils adds to their power. What lighter than the sand ? yet number makes it weighty. What creatures less than lice ? yet what plague greater to the Egyptians ? How foi-midable then must devils be, who are both for nature so mighty, and for number such a multitude ! There are devils enough to besiege the whole earth ; not a place under heaven where Satan hath not his troops ; not a person without some of these cursed spirits haunting and watching him wherever he goes ; yea, for some special service he can send a legion to keep garrison in one single person ; as Mark v. ; and if so many can be spared to attend one, to what a number would the muster-roll of Satan's whole army amount, if known ! And now tell me, if we are not like to find our march difficult to heaven, (if ever we mean to go thither,) that are to pass through the very quarters of this multitude, who are scattered over the face of all the earth ? When armies are disbanded, and the roads full of debauched soldiers, wandering up and down, it is dangerous travelling : we hear then of murders and robberies from all quarters. These powers of hell are that party of angels, who, for their mutiny and disobedience, were cashiered heaven, and thrust out of that glorious host ; and ever since they have straggled here below, endeavouring to do mischief to the children of men, especially travelling in heaven's road.
Fourthly, Their unity and order makes their number formidable. We cannot say there is love among them, that heavenly fire cannot live in the devil's bosom ; yet there is unity and order as to this, they are all agreed in their designs against God and man ; so their unity and consent is knit together by the ligaments, not of love, but of hatred and policy; hatred against God and his children, which they are filled with ; and policy, which tells them, that if they agree not in their design, their kingdom cannot stand. And how true they are to this wicked brotherhood, our Saviour gives a fair testimony, when he saith, ' Satan fights not against Satan.' Did you ever hear of any mutiny in the devil's army? or that any of those apostate angels did freely yield up one soul to Christ? They are many, and yet but one spirit of wickedness among them all. ' My name,' said the devils, (not our name,) 'is legion.' The devil is called the Leviathan, Isa. xxvii. 1, 'The Lord with his strong sword shall pimish Leviathan,' from their cleaving together, being of close compact, ov joined together, a phrase used for the whale. Job iv., whose strength lies in his scales, which are so knit, that he is, as it were, covered with armour. Thus these cursed spirits do accord in their machinations, and labour to bring their instruments into the same league with them, not contented with their bare obedience, but, where they can obtain it, do require an express oath of their servants to be true to them, as in witches.
Fifthly, The mighty works that are attributed to these evil spirits, in Scripture, declare their power, and these either respect the elementary, sensible, or intellectual part of the world. The elementary, what dreadful effects this prince of the power of the air is able to produce on that, see in the word ; he cannot indeed make the least breath of air, drop of water, or spark of fire, but he can, if let loose, as reverend master Caryl saith on Job i., go to God's store- house, and make use of these in such a sort, as no man can stand before him ; he can hurl the sea into such a commotion, that the depths shall boil like a pot, and disturb the air into storms and tempests, as if heaven and earth would meet. Job's children were buried in the ruins of their house by a puff of his mouth ; yea, he can go to God's magazine, as the former author saith, and let off the great ordinance of heaven, causing such dreadful thunder and lightning, as shall not only affright, but do real execution, and that in a more dreadful way than in the ordinary course of nature. If man's art can so sublimate nature, as we see in the invention of powder, that hath such a strange force.
AGAINST POWERS. 99