Page:History of the devil, ancient and modern (3).pdf/17

 (17) power, to contract the limits of his kingdom, and in a horrible manner, whenever Chriſt met with him; or elſe very humble and ſubmiſſive, as when he begged leave to go into the herd of ſwine, a thing he has often done ſince. Defeated here, the firſt ſtratagem I find him con- cerned in after it, was his entering into Judas, and putting him upon betraying Chriſt to the chief prieſt: but here again he was entirely miſtaken; for he did not ſee, as much a Devil as he was, what the event would be ; but, when he came to know, that if Chriſt was put to death he would become a propitiatory, and be the great ſacrifice of mankind, ſo to reſcue the fal- len race from that death they had incurred the pen- alty of by the fall; that this was the fulfilling of all Scripture prophecy; and that thus it was that Chriſt was to be the end of the law : I ſay, as ſoon as he perceived this, he ſtrove all he could to prevent it, and diſturbed Pilate's wife in her ſleep, in order to ſet her upon her huſband to hinder his delivering him up to the Jews: for thou, and not till then, he knew how Chriſt was to vanquiſh hell by the power of his croſs. Thus baffled and thwarted, the Devil reſolved on that truly heliſh thing called perſecution, and armed the whole Roman empire againſt God's Church? but though for a long time he was glutted with blood and ſatiated with deſtruction, yet under Conſtantine, the Chriſlian Church was eſtabliſhed and religion flouriſh- ed in peace, which continued till the days of Arius, who was ſo zealouſly oppoſed by the orthodox biſhop of the Eaſt, Athanatius, whom they baniſhed and recalled ſeveral times, as error ran high, and as the Devil either loſt or got ground. The emperor Arian, a child of the Devil, eſpouſing the Diabolic tenets of Arius, a violent perſecution aroſe betwixt the Arians and the orthodox so virulently did they carry on this per- ſecution, that the Devil by means of the emperor Julian made one puſh for eſtabliſhing Paganiſm again;