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they should remain under the power of the idolatry and superstition of the nations by which they had been conquered and enslaved . Michael in this contest , who espoused the cause of Judaism and fought in the defence of the Jews and of Judaism , was Cyrus ,
a Pagan jyrince , raised up of God for that very purpose . The combatants on the other side , called the Devil , were the powers who were engaged in supporting the reigning superstition and idolatry . In this contest Michael , i . e ., Cyrus , obtains the victory , the adversaries of the Jews and of their
religion are defeated , and Judaism is triumphant . The other instance to which we now refer , is that of the war between Michael and the dragon . This
dragon having seven heads , and ten horns , and seven crowns upon his heads , and who is called " The old Serpent , the Devil and Satan , " we are expressly told represents the old Roman Empire under its Pagan form , and so it is generally interpreted . The matter of
dispute then in this war was , whether that empire should continue in its present ecclesiastical form , or whether it should cease to be Pagan and become Christian . The Roman Empire was founded in Paganism ; and to destroy that , was to overturn the empire itself . The conversion of Constantine
to the Christian faith , represented by the woman clothed with the sun , bringing forth a man child who was to rule all nations ; that is , all the nations which composed the Roman empire ; his profession and open avowal of Christianity , would naturally rouse
the Pagan princes of the empire and the interested priests of the temples of idolatry to defend the reigning superstition , the religion of their forefathers and of the empire . This
produced a < c war ia heaven / ' as it is called , that is , among the higher powers of the state . In this war , Constantine , a Heathen prince , the Michael of the prophecy , the first , the chuf ' the head of the princes of the empire , erects the standard of the cros 3 , to an appearance of which in
the clouds he ascribed his conversion to Christianity , and under this standard he comes forward as its champion against all the Pagan powers of the empire . " There was war in heaven ;
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Michael and his angels fought against the dragon : and the dragon fought and his angels . " The result of this war , we are told , was , that " the dragon prevailed not , neither was their place found any more in heaven /'—cast out of the heaven of power and
dominion , and cast into the earth , among the common people , where the ancient idolatry continued to prevail , till by the successors of Constantine it was finally abolished , and Christianity became firmly established , and which has continued to be the professed religion of the ten kingdoms into which the
Western Roman Empire was divided , unto this day . The casting out of the dragon removed the obstacle to the appearance of the man of sin , the son of perdition , of which Paul speaks , representing an
enormous corrupting power in the Church of God . This appeared to John under the figure of a beast rising out of the sea , and to shew that
it means the same empire prefigured by the dragon under another form , that of Christian , it is also " described , like the dragon , as having seven heads and ten horns , " and as having crowns , not upon his heads
like the dragon , but upon his horns , because under the beast the empire was divided into ten kingdoms . " And upon his heads the name of blasphemy . " The alliance between the Church and the State , formed by Constantine , led to the corruption , debasement and
prostitution of Christianity to the vilest of purposes ; so that her appearance is described as that of a woman
sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast , full of names of blasphemy , arrayed in purple and scarlet colour , and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls , having a golden cup in her
hand full of abomination and filthiness of her fornication , and upon her forehead a name written , Mystery , Baby-Ion the Great , the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth : and drunken with the blood of the saints ,
and with the blood of the martyrs oj Jesus . * The war between Michael and the Devil , predicted by Zechariah , and that between Michael and the dragon
* Rev . xvii . 3—6 * .
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, 7 42 Attempt to illuMftme Jude , ver . 9 . Letter IH .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1822, page 742, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2519/page/22/
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