_Proposition III._ The _Devil_, in the prosecution, and the execution of his _wrath_ upon them, often gets 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 Rendezvouze of the _Infernal Troops_, is indeed in the _supernal parts_ of our Air.[83] But as 'tis 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 not able so much as to _Touch_ any thing, till the most high God gave him a permission, to _go down_.[84] The Devil stands with all the Instruments of death, aiming at us, and begging of the Lord, as that King ask'd for the Hood-wink'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 Devil 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 couldst have no power against me, except it were given thee from above_.[85] The Devil is called in 1 _Pet._ 5. 8. _Your Adversary._ This is a Law-term; and it notes _An Adversary at Law_. The Devil cannot come at us, except in some sence according to _Law;_ but sometimes he does procure sad things to be inflicted, according to the _Law of_ the eternal King upon us. The Devil 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 Devil enters all sorts of Complaints [9] against us all; he charges us with manifold _sins_ against the Lord our God: _There_ he loads us with heavy _Imputations_ of Hypocrysie, Iniquity, Disobedience; whereupon he urges, _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 Libel; 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 been _desired_ to be done for the _destroying of men_. But such a _permission_ from God, for the Devil to _come down_, and _break in_ upon mankind, oftentimes must be accompany'd with a _Commission_ from some wretches of mankind it self. Every man is, as 'tis hinted in _Gen._ 4. 9. _His brother's keeper_. We are to _keep_ one another from the Inroads of the Devil, by mutual and cordial Wishes of prosperity to one another. When ungodly people give their _Consents_