A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

(4) Satan has opposed the Reformation with cruel persecutions. The persecutions with which the Protestants in one kingdom and another have been persecuted by the church of Rome, have in many respects been far beyond any of the Heathen persecutions which were before Constantine the Great, and beyond all that ever were before. So that Antichrist has proved the greatest and cruellest enemy to the church of Christ that ever was in the world, in this, a• well as in all other respects; agreeable to the description given of the church of Rome, Rev. xvii 6. "And I s•w a woman drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." And, chap. xviii.24. "And on her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and all of them that were slain upon the earth."

(4) Satan has opposed the Reformation with cruel persecutions. The persecutions with which the Protestants in one kingdom and another have been persecuted by the chu•ch of Rome, have in many respects been far beyond any of the Heathen persecutions which were before Constantine the Great, and beyond all that ever were before. So that Antichrist has proved the greatest and cruelest enemy to the church of Christ that ever was in the world, in this, a• well as in all other respects; agreeable to the •escription given of the church of Rome, Rev. xvii 6. "And I s•w a woman drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." And, chap. xviii.24. "And on her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and all of them that were slain upon the earth."

The Heathen persecutions had been very dreadful: but now persecution by the church of Rome was improved and studied, and cultivated, as an art or science. Such ways of afflicting and tormenting were found out, as are beyond the thought and invention of ordinary men, or men who are unstudied in those things, and beyond the invention of all former ages. That persecution might be managed the more effectually, there were certain societies of men established in various parts of the Popish dominions, whose business it should be to study, and improve, and practise persecution in its highest perfection, which are those societies called the courts of inquisition. A reading of the particular histories of the Rmish persecution, and their courts of inquisition, will give that idea which a few words cannot express.