Page:History of the Devil, ancient and modern (2).pdf/14

 It would be tedious and deſultory to trace Satan

through all his indefatigable working to ſeduce

mankind to devil worſhip; and how completely

he ſucceeded. God called Abraham out from

among his idol-worſhipping friends, and in his

ſeed erected a church, in which, in fulneſs of

time, the Meſſiah, who before had expelled Sa-

tan from heaven, was to appear and give his

kingdom a mortal wound. Nor ſhall we ſhow

the many defections in the brighteſt luminaries of

the church, to the coming of our Saviour, and

it was, no doubt, then at a low ebb, though there

was a glorious remnant of ſaints who waited the

ſalvation of Iſrael, and kept Satan at bay. And

this was a more mortal ſtab to the thrones prin-

cipalities infernal, than the creation of man; and

therefore with this I break off the antiquities of

the Devil's history, or the ancient part of his

kingdom: for from hence downward, we ſhall find

his empire had declined gradually; and though

by his wonderful addreſs, his prodigious applica-

tion, and the vigilance and fidelity of his inſtru-

ments, as well human as infernal and diabolical;

and of the human, as well the eccleſiaſtic as the

ſecular, he had many times retrieved what he had

loſt, and ſometimes bid fair for recovering the

univerſal empire he once poſſeſſed over mankind;

yet he has been ſtill defeated again, repulſed and

beaten back and his kingdom has declined in many

parts of the world, and eſpecially in the northern

parts. And we ſhall conſider how he has politi-

cally maintained his intereſt, and increaſed his

dominion among the wiſe and righteous genera-

tion that we cohabit with, and among which is in

ſo far, the ſubject of the modern purt of Satan's

hiſtory, and of which we are next to give an ac-

count.