The kings of the earth have given their power to Antichrist, endeavouring to the utmost to keep the kingdom of Christ out of the world. What, I pray, hath been their main business for seven hundred 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 Cathohc 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 a long season? Did not their bodies lie in the streets of France, under the names of Waldenses, Albigenses, and poor men of Lyons? Hath not Germany and the annexed territories her Huss and Hussites, Jerome, and Subutraquians, to answer for? Is not Spain’s inquisition enough to 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 implacable enmity to the power of the gospel?
– John Owen –
from a sermon entitled The Shaking and Translating of Heaven and Earth, volume 8 of Works, pages 263-264
The Essential Owen 