For the first three hundred years after Christ, the church was for the most part in a state of great affliction, the object of reproach and persecution▪ first by the Jews, and then by the Heathen. After this, from the beginning of Constantine's time, the church had r•st and prosperity for a little while; which is represented in Rev. v•i. at the beginning, by the angel's holding the four winds for a little while. But presently after, the church again suffered persecution from the Arians; and after that, Antichrist rose, and the church was driven away into the wilderness, and was kept down in obscurity, and contempt, and suffering, for a long time, under Antichrist, before the reformation by Luther and others. And since the reformation, the church's persecutions have been beyond all that ever were before. Though some parts of God's church some times have had rest, yet to this day, for the most part, the true church is very much kept under by its enemies, and some parts of it under ⟨p. 191⟩grievous persecution; and so we may expect it will continue till the fall of Antichrist; and then will come the appointed day of the church's prosperity on earth, the set time in which God will favour Zion, the time when the saints shall not be kept under by wicked men, as it has been hitherto; but wherein they shall be uppermost, and shall reign on earth, as it is said, Rev. v.10. "And the kingdom shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High," Dan. vii.27.
For the first three hundred years after Christ, the church was for the most part in a state of great affliction, the object of reproach and persecution▪ first by the Jews, and then by the Heathen. After this, from the beginning of Constantine's time, the church had r•st and prosperity for a little while; which is represented in Rev. v•i. at the beginning, by the angel's holding the four winds for a little while. But presently after, the church again suffered persecution from the Arians; and after that, Antichrist rose, and the church was driven away into the wilderness, and was kept down in obscurity, and contempt, and suffering, for a long time, under Antichrist, before the reformation by Luther and others. And since the reformation, the church's persecutions have been beyond all that ever were before. Though some parts of God's church some times have had rest, yet to this day, for the most part, the true church is very much kept under by its enemies, and some parts of it under ⟨p. 191⟩grevious persecution; and so we may expect it will continue till the fall of Antichrist; and then will come the appointed day of the church's prosperity on earth, the set time in which God will favour Zion, the time when the saints shall not be kept under by wicked men, as it has been hitherto; but wherein they shall be uppermost, and shall reign on earth, as it is said, Rev. v.10. "And the kingdom shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High," Dan. vii.27.
