_Peter_ and _John_ came into _Asia_, and _Peter_ went thence by
_Corinth_ to _Rome_; but _John_ staying in _Asia_, was banished by the
_Romans_ into _Patmos_, as the head of a party of the _Jews_, whose nation
was in war with the _Romans_. By this dispersion of the _Christian Jews_,
the _Christian_ religion, which was already propagated westward as far as
_Rome_, spred fast into all the _Roman_ Empire, and suffered many
persecutions under it till the days of _Constantine_ the great and his
sons: all which is thus described by _Daniel_. [11] _And such as do
wickedly against the covenant, shall he_, who places the abomination,
_cause to dissemble_, and worship the heathen Gods; _but the people_ among
them _who do know their God, shall be strong and act. And they that
understand among the people, shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by
the sword, and by flame, and by captivity, and by spoil many days. Now when
they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help, viz._ in the
reign of _Constantine_ the great; _and_ at that time by reason of their
prosperity, _many shall_ come over to them from among the heathen, and
_cleave to them with dissimulation. But of those of understanding there
shall_ still _fall to try_ God's people _by them and to purge_ them from
the dissemblers, _and to make them white even to the time of the end:
because it is yet for a time appointed.
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