N13864:723
A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…
A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of divinity, in a method entirely new. / By the late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards, president of the College of New Jersey[.]
Boston: printed by Draper & Folsom, 1782
A HISTORY Of the WORK of REDEMPTION. › Period 3 › Part 2 › Section 1
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thus a great part of the first 300 years after Christ was spent in violent and cruel persecutions of the church by the Roman powers. Satan was very unwilling to let go his hold of so great a part of the world, and every way the chief part of it, as the countries contained in the Roman empire were, of which he had had the quiet possession for so many ages: and therefore, when he saw it going so fast out of his hands, he bestirred himself to his utmost: and hell was, as it were, raised against it to oppose it with its utmost power.
Thus a great part of the first 300 years after Christ was spent in violent and cruel persecutions of the church by the Roman powers. Satan was very unwilling to let go his hold of so great a part of the world, and every way the chief part of it, as the countries contained in the R•man empire were, of which he had had the quiet possession for so many ages: and therefore, when he saw it going so fast out of his hands, he bestired himself to his utmost: and hell was, as it were, raised against it to oppose it with its utmost power.
Satan thus exerting himself by the power of the Heathen Roman empire, is called the great red dragon in scripture, having seven heads and ten horns, fighting against the woman clothed with the sun, as in the 12th of Revelation. And the terrible conflict there was between the church of Christ, and the powers of the Heathen empire before Constantine's time, is there, in vers. 7. represented by the war between Michael and his angels, and the dragon and his angels: "And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought, and the dragon fought and his angels."
2. I would take notice what success the gospel had in the world before the time of Constantine, notwithstanding all this opposition. —Though the learning and power of the Roman empire were-so great, and both were employed to the utmost against Christianity to put a stop to it, and to root it out for so long a time, and in so many repeated attempts; yet all was in vain; they could neither root it out, nor put a stop to it. But still, in spite all that they