... Jn ExPOSITION ~Heatheni!h Perfecution, (for they loved not their Lives unto the Death)_; and, L;~ as a Woman, all that whtle labounng m fore Travail, under ten fore 1 brows of Perfecution, yet labouring with God, Day and Night, in Hopes and P"yers in the end to bring forth, and obtain Chriflian Emperors that fhould ft:t Chrift in the Throne to Rule with them, and throw down Heathenifm from the Imperial Throne, in which .the Devil ruled ; the Empire being all that while under the Heathenifh Throne of Satan, and is therefore rcprefented un– der a Dragott having Jevcn Heads and ten Horns, w"hich are ever in this Book the Charal:rer of the Roman Empire. And it is now called the Dragon, becaufe Sa– tan did openly and vifibly act it. Now the throwing down the Dragon from the Throne, (which was his Heaven, and where he was worfhipp'd as God) doth this Woman in the end obtain, and prevails through the help of Michacl (namely Jefus Chrift) and hi< .Angc!t, (the Apo!lles and Preachers of their Gofpel.) And then, fecondly, The State of the True Church, when the Roman World was now turned Chriftian, for the firft hundred Years after Conftantinc ; which Church was alfo perfecuted by .Arrian Emperors, though Chriftians, and was like to have been ruined by the multitude of Carnal Profe!Tors; in fo much as fhe is prefented, as h<ifhng to fly in:o a Wildcrncf; that is, into an hidden re– tired Condition; and in her flight, bath a Flood of .Arrian Perfecution fent after her, to drown her, but that the Earth, the Goths and V,mdals (whom you heard of under the firft Trumpet) came in accidentally, by God's Providence, and helped her, by breaking the .Arrian Fal:rion; which is the jwallowi11g 11p the Flood. (The .Arria11s, though they profels'd Chrifl, yet they denied him to be God; into which Herefy the whole Empire fell, and perfecuted the Church for profcffing the contrary, as much as ever the Heathen Emperors had done.) And this State of the Church you have dcCcribed from the 131/J Verfe, to the end of the 12thChapter. CHAP~
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