The kings of the earth have given their power to Antichrist, en- deavouring to the utmost to keep the kingdom of Christ out of the world. What, I pray, hath been their main business for seven hun- dred years and upwards, — even almost ever since the man of sin was enthroned? How have they earned the titles. Eldest Son of the Church, The Catholic and Most Christian King, Defender of the Faith, and the like? Hath it not been by the blood of saints? Are there not, in every one of these kingdoms, the slain and the banished ones of Christ to answer for? In particular, —
Hath not the blood of the saints of Jesus^ (eclipsed by Antichrist and his adherents), Wickliffites and Lollards, cried from the ground for vengeance upon the English " heaven and earth" for along season? Did not their bodies lie in the streets of France, under the names of Waldenses, Albigenses, and poor men of Lyons? Hath not Ger- many and the annexed territories her Huss and Hussites, Jerome, and Subutraquians,^ to answer for? Is not Spain's inc[uisition enough to
' Ps. ii. 4, 5, cxxxvii. 8, 9; Isa. xlvii. l-,3, xlix. 26; Jer. 1. 33, 34, li. 24, 25, 34, 35; Zech. xii. 2-4, xiv. 12; llev. xviii. 6, &c.
' Acts; and Mon. Histor. Pap.
" Utraquists ? — another name for the Calixtines, — adherents of IJuss and Jaco- bellus, who in 1421 exhibited their peculiar creed under four articles:- — 1. Tlio preaching of the word in the natural tongue; 2. The dispensation of the Lord's
264 THE SHAKING AND TRANSLATING
ruin a world, much more a kingdom? Have not all these, and all the kingdoms round about, washed their hands and garments in the blood of thousands of Protestants? and do not the kings of all these nations as yet stand up in the room of their progenitors with the same imj^lacable enmity to the power of the gospel ? Show me seven kings that ever yet laboured sincerely to enhance the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, and I dare boldly say, " Octavus quis fuerit, nondum constat." And is there not a cry for all this, — " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Rev. vi. 10. Doth not Zion cry, "The violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon;" and, My blood upon those heavens of the nations? And will not the Lord avenge his elect, that cry unto him day and night? will he not do it speedily? Will he not call the fowls of heaven to eat the flesh of kings, d,nd captains, and great men of the earth? Rev. xix. 18. Will he not make these heavens like the wood of the vine, — not a pin to be taken off them to hang a garment on in his whole tabernacle ? The time shall come wherein the earth shall disclose her slain, and not the simplest heretic (as they were counted) shall have his blood unrevenged : neither shall any atonement be made for this blood, or expiation be allowed, whilst a toe of the image or a bone of the beast is left unbroken.
(2.) A second reason is. That by his own wisdom he may frame such a power as may best conduce to the carrying on of his own king- dom among the sons of men.^
He hath promised his church that he Avill give unto it holy priests and Levites, Isa. Ixvi. 20, 21, which shall serve at the great feast of tabernacles, Zech. xiv. 16, — a sufficient demonstration that he will dwell still in his churches by his ordinances, whatsoever some con- ceive;— so also, that he will "make her civil officers peace, and her exactors righteousness," Isa. Ix. 17, 18. They shall be so established that the nations, as nations, may serv^e it, and the kingdoms of the Avorld shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, Rev. xi. 15.
For the present, the government of the nations (as many of them as are concerned therein) is purely framed for the interest of Anti- christ. No kind of government in Eurojie, or line of governors, so ancient but that the beast is as old as they, and had a great influence into their constitution or establishment, to provide that it might be for his own interest. I believe it will be found a difficult task to
Slipper to all Cliiistians, the private members of the church as veil as the clergy, siih utiA(]ite specie, in both kinds, — and hence tlie name " Utraipiists ;" 3. The re- nunciation of secular dignities by the clerf^y ; 4. The introduction of a stricter discipline in regard to the clergy — Gutricke, ii. 43!); Giescler on the reriod 140[)_1517.— Ki).
' I's. ii. !)-l-2 ; llev. xvii. 14 ; Matt, xxviii. 20; 1 Cor. xi. 26; Kpli. iv. 11-13; 1 Tim. vi. 13, 14; Ts. xlv. IC ; I^a. xlix. 7, 23.
OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 265
name any of the kingdoms of Europe (excepting only that remotest northward) in the setting up and estabhshment whereof, either as to persons or government, the pope hath not expressly bargained for his own interest, and provided that should have the cliiefest place in all the oaths and bonds that were between princes and people. Bel- lannine, to prove that the pope had a temporal power indirectly over all kings and nations (if he mean by indirectly, gotten by indirect means, it is actually true as to too many of tliem),^ gives sundry in- stances, in most of the most eminent nations in Europe, how he hath actually exercised such a power for his own interest.^