of his cross.
Thus the Devil was disappointed and exposed in every step he took; and as he now plainly saw his kingdom declining, and even the temporal kingdom of Christ rising up upon the ruins of his (Satan’s) power, he seemed to retreat into his own region the air, and to consult there with his fellow devils, what measures he should take next to preserve his dominion among men. Here it was that he resolved upon that truly hellish thing called persecution; by which, though he proved a foolish devil in that too, he flattered himself he should be able to destroy God’s church, and root out its professors from the earth, even almost as soon as it was established; whereas, on the contrary, Heaven counteracted him there too; and though he armed the whole Roman empire against the Christians, that is to say, the whole world, and they were fallen upon everywhere, with all the fury and rage of some of the most flaming tyrants that the world ever saw. of whom Nero was the first; yet, in spite of hell, God made all the blood, which the Devil caused to be spilt, to be semen ecclesia;; and the Devil had the mortification to see, that the number of Christians increased, even under the very means he made use of to root them out, and destroy them. This was the case through the reign of all the Roman emperors, for the first three hundred years after Christ.
Having thus tried all the methods that best suited his inclination, I mean those of blood and death, complicated with tortures, and all kinds of cruelty, and that for so long a space of time as above; “the Devil all on a sudden, as if glutted with blood, and satiated with destruction, sits still, and becomes a peaceable spectator for a good while; as if he either found himself unable, or had no disposition, to hinder the progress of Christianity, in the first ages of its settlement in the world. In this interval the Christian church was established under Constantine, religion flourished in peace, and under the most perfect tranquillity. The Devil seemed to be at a loss what he should do next, and things began to look as if Satan’s kingdom was at an end. But he soon let them see, that he was the same indefatigable Devil that ever he was; and the prosperity of the church gave him a large field of action; for knowing the disposition of mankind to quarrel and dispute, the universal passion rooted in nature, especially among the Churchmen, for precedency and dominion, he fell to work with them immediately; so that, turning the tables, and reassuming the subtlety and craft, which, I say, he seemed to have lost in the former four hundred years, he gained more ground in the next ages of the church, and went farther towards restoring his power and empire in the world, and towards overthrowing that very church which was so lately established, than all he had done by fire and blood before.
His policy now seemed to be edged with resentment, for the mistakes he had made; as if the Devil, looking back with anger at himself, to see what a fool he had been, to expect to crush religion by persecution, rejoiced for having discovered, that liberty and dominion was the only way to ruin the church, not fire and faggot; and that he had nothing to do, but to give the zealous people their utmost liberty in religion, only sowing error and variety of opinion among them, and they would bring fire and faggot in fast enough among themselves.
It must be confessed these were devilish politics; and so sure was the aim. and so certain was the Devil to hit his mark by them, that we find he not only did not fail then, but the same hellish methods have prevailed still, and will do so to the end of the world. Nor had the Devil ever a better game to play than this, for the ruin of religion, as we shall have room to show in many examples, besides that of the dissenters in England, who are evidently weakened by the late toleration. Whether the Devil had any hand in baiting his hook with an a of parliament or no, history is silent; but it is too evident he has catched the fish by it,: and if the honest church of England does not in pity, and Christian charity to the dissenters, straiten her hand a little, I cannot but fear the Devil will gain his point, and the dissenter will be undone by it.
Upon this new foot of politics the Devil began with the emperors themselves. Arius, the father of the heretics of that age, having broached his opinions; and Athanasius, the orthodox bishop of the east, opposing him; the Devil no sooner saw the door open to strife and imposition, but he thrust himself in, and raising the quarrel up to a suited degree of rage and spleen, he involved the good emperor himself in it first; and Athanasius was banished and recalled, and banished and recalled again, several times, as error ran high, and as the Devil either got or lost ground. After Constantine, the next emperor was a child of his own, (Arian;) and then the court came all into the quarrel, as courts often do; and then the Arians and the orthodox persecuted one another as furiously as the Pagans persecuted them all before. To such an height the Devil brought his conquest, in the very infancy of the question; and so much did he prevail over the true Christianity of the primitive church, even before they had enjoyed the liberty of the pure worship twenty years.
Flushed with this success, the Devil made one push for the restoring Paganism, and bringing on the old worship of the heathen idols and temples; but, like our H King James II. he drove too hard, and Julian had so provoked the whole Roman empire, which was generally, at that time, become Christian, that had the apostate lived, he would not have been able to have held the throne; and, as he was cut off in his beginning, Paganism expired with him, and the Devil himself might have cried out. as Julian did, and with much more propriety, Vicisti, Galilcee.
Jovian, the next emperor, being a glorious Christian, and a very good and great man, the Devil abdicated for a while, and left the Christian armies to reestablish the orthodox faith; nor could he bring the Christians to a breach again among themselves agreat while after.
However, time, and a diligent Devil, did the work at last; and when the emperors’ concerning themsejves one way or other did not appear sufficient to answer his end, he changed hands again, and went to work with the clergy. To set the doctors effectually together by the ears, he threw in the new notion of primacy among them, for a bone of contention; the bait took, the priests swallowed it eagerly down; and the Devil, a cunninger fisherman than ever St. Peter was, struck them (as the anglers call it) with a quick hand, and hung them fast upon the hook.
Having them thus in his clutches, and they being now, as we may say, his own, they took their measures afterwards from him, and most obediently followed his directions; nay, I will not say but he may have had pretty much the management of the whole society ever since, of what profession or party soever they may have been, with exception only to the reverend and right reverend among ourselves.
The sacred, as above, being thus hooked in, and the Devil being at the head of their affairs, matters went on most gloriously his own way; first, the bishops fell to bandying and party-making for the superiority, as heartily as ever temporal tyrants did for dominion; and took as black and devilish methods to carry it on, as the worst of those tyrants ever had done before them.
At last Satan declared for the Roman pontiff, and that upon excellent conditions, in the reign of the Emperor Mauritius; for Boniface, who had long contended for the title of supreme, fell into a treaty with Phocas, captain of the emperor’s guards; whether the hargain was from hell or not, let any one judge; the conditions absolutely entitle the Devil to the honor of making the contract; namely, that Phocas first murdering his master (the emperor,) and his sons, Boniface should countenance the treason, and declare him em peror; and, in return, Phocas should, acknowledge the primacy of the church of Rome, and declare Boniface universal bishop. A blessed compact! which at once set the Devil at the head of affairs in the Christian world, as well spiritual as temporal, ecclesiastic as civil. Since the conquest over Eve in Paradise, by which death and the Devil, hand in hand, established their first empire upon earth, the Devil never gained a more important point than he gained at this time.
He had indeed prospered in his affairs tolerably well for some time before this, and his interest among the clergy had got ground for some ages; but that was indeed a secret management, was carried on privately, and with difficulty; as in sowing discord and faction among the people, perplexing the councils of their princes, and secretly wheedling in with the dignified clergy.
Also he had raised abundance of little church-rebellions, by setting up heretics of several kinds, and raising them favorers among the clergy,
