as to no Purpose, so he was soon oblig'd
to give it over; and thus the Captivity being return'd, and the Temple
rebuilt, the People of the _Jews_ encreased and multiplied to an infinite
Number and Strength; and from this Time we may say, the Power of the
_Devil_ rather declin'd and decreas'd, than went on with Success, as it
had done before; It is true the _Jews_ fell into Sects and Errors, and
Divisions of many Kinds, after the Return from the Captivity, and no
doubt the _Devil_ had a great Hand in those Divisions; but he could
never bring them back to Idolatry, and his not being able to do that,
made him turn his Hand so many Ways to plague and oppress them; as
particularly by _Antiochus_ the Great, who brought the Abomination of
Desolation into the holy Place; and there the Devil triumph'd over them
for some Time; but they were deliver'd many Ways, till at last they came
peaceably under the Protection rather than the Dominion of the _Roman_
Empire: When _Herod_ the Great govern'd them as a King, and reedified,
nay almost rebuilt their Temple, with so great an Expence and
Magnificence, that he made it, as some say, greater and more glorious
than that of _Solomon_'s, tho' that I take to be a great ---- Fable, to
say no worse of it.

In this Condition the _Jewish_ Church stood, when the Fullness of Time,
as 'tis call'd in Scripture, was come; and the _Devil_ was kept at Bay,
tho' he had made some Encroachments upon them as above; for there was a
glorious Remnant of Saints among _them_, such as old _Zacharias_ the
Father of _John_ the Baptist, and old _Simeon_, who waited for the
Salvation of _Israel_; I say, in this Condition the _Jewish_ Church
stood when the _Messiah_ came into the World, which was such another
mortal Stab to the Thrones and Principalities infernal, as that of which
I have spoken already in Chap. III. at the Creation of Man; and
therefore with this I break off the Antiquities of the _Devil_'s
History, or the antient Part of his Kingdom; for from hence downward we
shall find his Empire has declin'd gradually; and tho' by his wonderful
Address, his prodigious Application, and the Vigilance and Fidelity of
his Instruments, as well human as infernal and diabolical, and of the
Human as well the Ecclesiastick as the Secular; he has many Times
retriev'd what he has lost, and sometimes bid fair for recovering the
universal Empire he once possess'd over Mankind; yet he has been still
defeated again, repulst an