s furiously as the Pagans persecuted them all
before. To such a Height the _Devil_ brought his Conquest in the very
Infancy of the Question, and so much did he prevail over the true
Christianity of the Primitive Church, even before they had enjoy'd the
Liberty of the pure Worship twenty Years.

Flush'd with this Success, the _Devil_ made one Push for the restoring
_Paganism_, and bringing on the old Worship of the Heathen Idols and
Temples; but like our King _James_ II. he drove too hard, and _Julian_
had so provok'd the whole _Roman_ Empire, which was generally at that
time become Christian, that had the Apostate liv'd, he would not have
been able to have held the Throne; and as he was cut off in his
Beginning, Paganism expir'd with him, and the _Devil_ himself might have
cry'd out, as _Julian_ did, and with much more Propriety, _Vicisti
Galileane_.

_Jovian_, the next Emperor, being a glorious Christian, and a very good
and great Man, the _Devil_ abdicated for a while, and left the Christian
Armies to re-establish the Orthodox Faith; nor could he bring the
Christians to a Breach again among themselves a great while after.

However, Time and a diligent _Devil_ did the Work at last, and when the
Emperors concerning themselves one way or other, did not appear
sufficient to answer his End, he chang'd Hands again, and went to work
with the Clergy: To set the Doctors effectually together by the Ears,
he threw in the new Notion of _Primacy_ among them, for a Bone of
Contention; the Bait took, the Priests swallow'd it eagerly down, and
the _Devil_, a cunninger Fisherman than ever St. _Peter_ was, _struck
them_ (as the Anglers call it) with a quick Hand, and hung them fast
upon the Hook.

Having them thus in his Clutches, and they being now, as we may say, his
own, they took their Measures afterwards from him, and most obediently
follow'd his Directions; nay, I will not say but he may have had pretty
much the Management of the whole Society ever since, of what Profession
or Party soever they may have been, with Exception only to the Reverend
and Right Reverend among our selves.

The Sacred, as above, being thus hook'd in, and the DEVIL being at the
Head of their Affairs, Matters went on most gloriously his own way;
first, the Bishops fell to bandying and Party-making for the
Superiority, as heartily as ever Temporal Tyrants did for Dominion, and
took as black and devilish Methods to carry it on, as the worst of those
Tyr