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 seem'd 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 resolv'd upon that truly hellish Thing call'd Persecution, by which, _tho' he prov'd a foolish Devil in that too_, he flatter'd 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 establish'd; whereas on the contrary, Heaven counter-acted him there too, and tho' he arm'd the whole _Roman_ Empire against the Christians, _that is say_, the whole World, and they were fallen upon every where, 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 spight of Hell, GOD made all the Blood, which the Devil caus'd to be spilt, to be _semen Ecclesiae_, and the DEVIL had the Mortification to see, that the Number of Christians encreased even under the very Means he made use of to root them out and destroy them: This was the Case thro' 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 Stage of Time as above; the _Devil_ all on a suddain, 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 establish'd under _Constantine_, Religion flourished in Peace, and under the most perfect Tranquillity: The _Devil_ seem'd 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 Church-Men for Precedency and Dominion, he fell to work with them immediately; so that turning the Tables, and reassuming the Subtilty and Craft, which, I say, he seem'd to have lost in the former four hundred Years, he gain'd 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 establish'd, than all he had done by Fire and Blood before.