We are in the first place to apprehend, that there is a time fixed and stated by God for the Devil to enjoy a dominion over our sinful and therefore woful World. The _Devil_ once exclaimed in _Mat._ 8. 29. _Jesus, thou Son of God, art thou come hither to Torment us before our Time?_ It is plain, that until the second coming of our Lord the _Devil_ must have a time of plagueing the World, which he was afraid would have Expired at his first. The _Devil_ is _by the wrath of God the Prince of this World;_ and the time of his Reign is to continue until the time when our Lord himself shall _take to himself his great Power and Reign_. Then 'tis that the _Devil_ shall hear the Son of God swearing with loud Thunders against him, _Thy time shall now be no more!_ Then shall the _Devil_ with his Angels receive their doom, which will be, _depart into the everlasting Fire prepared for you_. We are also to apprehend, that in the _mean time_, the Devil can give a shrewd guess, when he draws near to the _End of his Time_. When he saw Christianity enthron'd among the _Romans_, it is here said, in our _Rev._ 12. 12. _He knows he hath but a short time._ And how does he _know it?_ Why _Reason_ will make the Devil to _know_ that God won't suffer him to have the _Everlasting Dominion;_ and that when God has once begun to rescue the World out of his hands, he'll go through with it, until the _Captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered_. But the Devil will have _Scripture_ also, to make him _know_, that when his Antichristian _Vicar_, the _seven-headed Beast_ on the _seven-hilled_ City,[93] shall have spent his determined years, he with his _Vicar_ must unavoidably go down into the _bottomless Pit_. It is not improbable, that the Devil often hears the _Scripture_ expounded in our Congregations; yea that we never assemble without a _Satan_ among us. As there are some Divines, who do with more uncertainty conjecture, from a certain place in the Epistle to the _Ephesians_, That the Angels do sometimes come into our Churches, to gain some advantage from our Ministry. But be sure our _Demonstrable Interpretations_ may give Repeated Notices to the Devil, _That his time is almost out;_ and what the Preacher says unto the _Young Man, Know thou, that God will bring thee into Judgment!_ THAT may our Sermons tell unto the _Old Wretch, Know thou, that the time of thy Judgment is at hand_.