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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.
