this alone shall destroy him for being their naturall rightfull born King for such Jewes will never serve and obey any but either a Conquerour who holds them to it by dint of Sword or some tame Creature who will serve their turnes and obey their wills But the fifth cause comes nearer home to the root of all and that is exprest John 11.48 If we let him alone suffer him to live and not kill him some Forreigners Romans will come and take away our place we have now a toleration for our Religion any Sect is free in Gods service and worship to chuse and professe what he will be he Pharisee Sadducee or other and we have yet an Anarchy no Government but that of the Conquerour who so long as we honour humour and feed him and his leaves us to wallow in all sinnes as we lust whereas if this Ch the Anointed live and get the power be we Scribe Pharisee Presbyter yea the whole Councell he will not suffer or endure this but will take away our places our usurpt power and authorities and therefore in the next vers 49. Ye know nothing at all and ver 50. nor doe ye consider that it is expedient he the one man idie their feare of losse is the first immediate reall cause of their killing Ch the King The second last immediate fundamental cause of his death is their desire and hope to get and hold all the Power Authority which is the Kings and so we find it Mat. 21.8 This is the Heire let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Saint Luke hath it that the inheritance fiat may become ours which S. Marke expresseth by erit and then certainly it shall and will be ours none when he is dead can keep us from it so long as we hold in which we will alwaies doe with Caesar the Conquerour and now believe this to be as true as Gospel it selfe is that pretend the Jewes change of Religion destruction of Lawes losse of Liberty or what else to be the cause of killing the King all are but forged feigned and held out to deceive the people and blind the world for this habebimus is the cause when all is done We will kill Ch the King and so seize on his inheritance For this habebimus we will have is the largest Commander and the greatest Sinner in the world the intention plot and action of every mans ends in having his pleasure his profit and his will is the Devils first seed-plot and is the commotion or confusion of all for what is the Rulers study but to have his power enlarged what the Inferiours plea but to hold or encrease his liberty whereas could any Generall Councell determine and make it durable what every man should have all would soone be at peace whereas so long as this one Verbe we will have raignes in the Superiour and rageth in the Inferiour say what we will we can expect no better then Kill kill that we may have And as by inheritance in this Gospel Mat. 21. was primarily and principally meant the inheritance of the Vineyard which Vineyard Isa 5. Cant. 2. is expounded to be the Church so having the Church inheritance first brought the doctrine of killing into the Church quid vultis dare is the Jewes question in this case omnia haec is the Devils answer and such a dialogue betwixt the Devil and a Jew for the Church inheritance is enough to bring Ch the King to his death that the Jew by the Devils help may have the inheritance of the Church which rather then Ch the King would surrender up unto them it being his rightfull inheritance and committed to his trust by God himself he would rather suffer this ignominious death and for this he deserves to be everlastingly Chronicled as the Churches nursing Father Patron Protector and Martyr in that he was killed in defence of the Church But these Jewes and Conquerours betwixt them even while they speake this let us kill that we may have have that inheritance in their power and possession already what need they then kill the King that they may have what they have but having oftentimes as here now begets more then a bare having and therefore the Greek word in S. Matth. c. 21. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is that we may hold it as we have got it by force the Sword and bloud for sinne and this sinne especially of forcible entrance will not easily be led out of its old track the Whore in the Apoc. c. 17. having tasted and delighted her self with bloud will not cease from swilling more till she be drunke with the bloud and that bloud not of the coursest or most common but the purest the holiest the bloud the Saints in the Church unjust Purchasers be it of Christs inheritance never think of restitution but retention how to hold it as they got it by the sword by bloud yea by the bloud of the rightfull Heire Ch the King So much the word in the originall will easily beare without much force and I conceiue somewhat more that is Let us kill him that we may have and hold more then what we yet have or more then ever he had let us never leave killing till we have all as much as our eyes can see or our hearts desire for ambition and usurpation are violent and greedy which like the Daughters of the Horse-leech are still gaping and crying Give give and more more yea of bloud and never think themselves full till they breake with fulnesse of bloud I shall end this point with this one short observation Ch the King like a Monarch whose institution was from Heaven heavenly held his inheritance Church and all in one single Person but these Husbandmen the Jewes liked not this though they thrived best under it but they will have it among themselves no more Monarchy by a King and Princes of the People but a pure Democracy though that the worst and the basest of all Governments it is like the Acephali which have faces of men in their brests but without an head such a Monster it is and yet this for the present pleaseth us and therefore we wil kill him the onely true Heire and rightfull King that we the people may have the inheritance but I must and cannot but tell these men that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more antient then these Jewes and the Scepter in the hand of one is more steady and upright then in the hands of many and as we find one soule to governe one body and when it leaves to be one the body is dissolved so we may observe that the greatest Empires that ever were grew great by Monarchy which soone crumbled away when shared among the many in Gods name let all that love peace and unity crie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us have one King and away with habebimus we the many will have the inheritance and governe for
People 3. There were Women and these as by Sex and as Mothers of Children the most tender-hearted so of these among his Wel-wishers were the most 4. Of all his Apostles and Disciples I find but one who John 19.26 was the Disciple whom he loved 5. This most glorious King had no Funerall Sermon at his Buriall that would not be permitted by his malitious Persecutors who held any Enlogie of him an Obloquie to them and yet one of his Apostles Acts 4. preached one to the Jewes which was after enlarged by the Evangelists and since commended to all Ages as an everlasting stain to their bloudy murder an everlasting Trophee to his never-dying name 6. I cannot omit what I may justly conceive is recorded as an extraordinary mercy of God that among all the Soldiers who in the last acts of the condemnation and execution of Ch were the chiefe Rulers and Commanders yet one even among them was Ch his Convert for one was so inlightned by the true Spirit of God that Mat. 27.54 he with others said truly this was the Son of God Which certainly was sent by inspiration and revealed from heaven to be ingraven as an everlasting Epitaph which God did sooner in his providence furnish him with then with a Tombe which now when all things else were finished was only wanting and so still might have been for these wretched covetous accursed Jewes had he not been beholden to an honourable Counsellour Mat. 27.57 who found him out one of which Sepulchre though S. Mat. ch 27.60 names the owner yet S. Marke 15.46 S. Luke 23.53 say he was laid in a Sepulchre without naming whose it was But methinks these Jewes who pretended so much to Scripture and themselves to be such holy Saints should in such a case have set before their eyes the demeanour of that Saint indeed David and his demeanour towards Saul the King which King though he were rejected by God and that David by Gods appointment was Anointed King in his stead yet when Saul was put into Davids hands and that Davids Servants perswaded him to doe justice upon him 1 Sam. 24. David stayed his Servants and would not let them rise against Saul Nay further though Saul did daily pursue David to take away his life 1 Sam. 26. and Abishai told David that God had delivered SAUL his Enemy into his hands and therefore desired that he might smite him No saith David for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltlesse vers 10. Nay David goes further vers 11. the Lord shall smite him but God forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lords Anointed But may we not wonder that these Jewes given much to read the Scriptures would never consider what holy Job had said in ch 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or that Ps 105 Touch not mine Anointed or that Eccles 8.4 Who may say unto the King what doest thou or that they should not consider what severe judgements God shewed upon those who rose up against Moses their Ruler Numb 16. or against Jehu in his posterity Hos 1.4 for destroying King Ahab and his Family and against the men 2 Kings 21. who slew Amon their King I say it may be wondred that they had not remembred or cast their eyes at some time or other upon these or the like Scriptures No God hath so blinded them that they either could not or would not see any Old light but instead of all such they are now altogether for New lights and therefore welfare that which never failed such Jewes Revelation forsooth and this shall doe the feate for all for Caiaphas their chiefe Ruler by the Spirit in an abominable measure poured out upon him sees that with a paire of Spectacles set upon his fiery shining Nose that none else could discerne viz John 18.14 Expedit it is expedient saith he that one and therefore this one Ch the King must be he who must die for the People and this expedient thus delivered to the Guild or Fraternity of Spirited Men makes them as extatically mad crie out as it were with one voice Crucifie kill and murder him And yet after this expedient thus declared I would they had listned to Pilat who though an Heathen and a corrupt Judge yet hearing them so fiercely crying out to crucifie their King astonished as it were at such an unheard-of execrable voice askes what is it possible that you would I should crucifie your King as if he had said O ye Jewes doe ye believe or acknowledge a God or nature or reason or have you any Law or Religion and will ye contrary to all these put your King to death why your God your Religion your Law your owne reason yea and all People be they never so heathenish will condemne you for this but in despight as it were of all reason Law Religion nature or God himselfe they will kill him their King And yet Pilat will not leave them so therefore as hoping to bring them to heare some reason and to be moved to some compassion he brings Ch forth unto them and bespeaks them thus Ecce homo John 19.5 behold he is a man destitute of help shamefully and unjustly used man hath bowels O ye Jewes therefore for humanity sake pity him as a man Againe when he askes Shall I crucifie your King John 19.15 he sets him now before them as a King and from hence seems to reason thus You hold in your Religion that your God ordaines Kings for Gods sake therefore behold and pity him as a King Nay yet more he is your King yours diverse waies by descent of the line of K. David yours for you and your good for he lived and dies in defence of your Lawes for your owne sake therefore if not for Gods or humanity pity him as your King but that which might have moved Devils for they rage not against their owne Prince be he never so great a Devil yet prevailes not with these who are worse then Devils and therefore by how much the more his virtue and goodnesse plead for him by so much the more they are incensed against Him so that nothing will satisfie these ravenous Beasts but his bloud and therefore they will kill him Once more give me leave to plead for him the King from his own words passes they crie out to the Judge fiercely against him Crucifie crucifie him Mat. 27. and he cries more heartily to God his Father for them Pater ignosce Father forgive them Luke 23.24 they cursed themselves with his bloud saying Sanguis ejus super nos His bloud be upon us and our posterity Mat. 27.25 he blessed them with the same bloud saying sanguis meus propter vos behold my bloud that is shed for you and all my people Luke 22.20 never King shewed more tender love and regard to Subjects yet never did Subjects returne worse respect or requitall to their
to dale not suffering him to rest and not leaving him a safe hold wherein to lay his head for so Ch the King complaines that they had cast him into a condition worse then that of Birds or four footed Beasts when he saith Matth. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the aire have nests but the Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head 3. And was it not a spightfull usage of a King to be led into the common judgment Hall by a Band of rude Soldiers who not long before had been attended by the Best crying as he went Hosanna blessed be or God save the King 4. And was it not a spightfull usage of a King when he was in this common Hall to countenance set on and to hire the scumme of the People or rascallity of the Soldiers to call out for Justice and Execution when they cried Crucifie crucifie him Luke 23.31 5. Was it not a spightfull usage of a King when as he the King speaks to them in mild and civill language as to Judas Mat. 26.50 Friend or Sir but they to him as Mat. 26.61 this Fellow the Prisoner 6. Was it not a spightfull usage of a King to carry him out to Golgotha there to suffer in an open place which was more fit for the baiting of Beasts than the decolling of a King 7. Lastly was it not a spightfull usage of a King not to afford him a Sepulcher or place of Buriall but he must be beholding even for this to another man and yet thus spightfully was Ch the King used My heart bleeds to thinke of their mockings and spightfull usage of their most blessed King and will leave them to be inlarged by our owne Meditations and for a brief close of this scene shall onely say that as a King may so this King was killed by these Jewes before he was slain or put to death and K. David shewes how when be saith Psal 55.21 Psal 59.7 their tongues are swords Psal 140.3 they are poyson of Serpents Killers all these so that calumny slander if it be not the first degree it is a step I am sure to kill a King and here with these weapons they first set upon Ch the King calling him Samaritan John 4. Perverter of the Lawes Deceiver c. And spit on A man may be said figuratively to be spit on when by Declarations Remonstrances Pamphlets or scurrilous terms he is reproachfully and uncivilly entertained and so Ch the King was shamefully most unjustly spit upon when they proclaimed him a Deceiver of a trust John 19.29 a Traytour by perverting the People and drawing them to destruction and in this sense they might truly be said to spit upon Ch the King But not onely this they did which was too much and more dangerous then what was after done by the Soldiers who did vomit out their excrementitious froth upon him of whom I may repeat a passionate expostulation or holy indignation once used by a Preacher on this occasion What rheumatick Raskals said he were these Soldiers for had they or could they find no place to disgorge the scumme of their ulcerous lungs but on the Anointed of the Lord All that I can say for these is they were not onely Soldiers but barbarous Heathens that did this and yet if report be true there hath not wanted even among such as professe themselves Christians such a Soldier who hath done the like to his King and if any such were let him repent in time lest God in justice spew him out of his mouth as it is said Apoc. 3.16 or that he spit not poure out to the dregs the full vialls of his wrath and indignation upon him and all such as have mocked spightfully entreated and spit on Ch the King In the 20 of S. John v. 5. we read that when Pilat a Stranger an Heathen and an Idolater had seen and presented the King thus spightfully entreated he said to the bloud-thirsty-miscreant Jewes Behold the Man as if he had said See how disgracefully and wickedly you have used him already and therefore if you have any sparke of manhood left in you for humanity sake proceed no further but behold him as an object of all pity a deserted afflicted scorned spitefully-used man but the sight of this man which would have melted the eyes of a savage Tiger into water hardens them as rocks and prompts them on to the increase of his misery and their owne vilany for seeing him even then and so miserable then they say as Mat. 21. Come let us without delay not granting time or reprieve let us kill him for so it followes in the story in the Text for they shall kill him But before we enter upon this bloudy act it will be proper and pertinent to the whole to set downe the severall grounds and causes moving these Traytours thereunto which we shall clearly collect and expresse as we find them storied in the Gospels And these were either pretended such as themselves fained and held forth as causes or such as were really and truly the motives and causes of this their killing Ch the King Now the causes pretended we find to be First that which is generally used in raising the People into a Rebellion the Innovation Alteration or Destruction of Religion and with this the Jewes closely charged him Mat. 5.17 where Christ himself by way of Answer saith Thinke or say not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill and in that Chap. he instanceth and proves that they by their owne Expositions and Traditions were the Innovators and himself the keeper of the Law of Moses and of the Prophets And after this when they thought him too strict in the point of reverence in the Temple in that he drove out the Prophaners thereof Mat. 21.12 which they conceived was lawfull for them to doe No saith he for God himselfe saith of this materiall Temple or Church My house shall be called an house of prayer but You you have made it a den of Thieves or a Stable and place for theft and prophanation 2. They charge him often and with loud out-cries that in the matter of Sabbath-keeping he is too loose and a Prophaner thereof to which he Answers that themselves are in this Jewishly superititious and not he the Prophaner for saith he Marke 2.27 The Sabbath is made for man that is for the preservation of man by necessary actions and recreations conducing to his life and health on that day 3. They closely charge him with abridging them the liberty of Divorces upon any cause which they said was granted them by Moses Mat. 5. Mat. 19. No saith he it is not I but you that alter the Law in this for Mat. 5.32 Whosoever shall put away his Wife saving for the cause of Fornication causeth her to cōmit Adultery but to this whole charge he gives one general answer
wherein he shewes that they were Innovators for saith he Mat. 19.8 What ye now teach and professe was not from the beginning but ye by forsaking the old good way prescribed and by following the traditions and expositions taken up from your latter Rabbins you Mat. 15.3 6. have made the commandement of God of none effect and thereby v. 9. you teach for doctrines the commandements of men John 7.19 Moses did give you the auncient good Law which you would wrest and force against me yet none of you keepeth the Law A second generall pretended charge upon which they proceed to his condemnation is exprest John 11.48 If we let him alone all men will believe on him and adhere to him against us and so we may lose our place and Nation where we see plainly that salus Populi the safety and liberty of the People is their maine pretended cause which cause hath no other ground or bottome but that which themselves created for their owne wicked ends to wit some feares and jealousies that if we let Him alone the Nation will be destroyed and hereupon from this charge grounded upon their own disguised and counterfeit fears the whole Councell gives sentence it is expedient that he the one Man die for the People v. 50. To which I may reply as M. W. Sedgwicke one of the Armies Prophets in his Justice upon the Army p. 5. O ye Jewes ye miserably abuse this Maxime and the People too like a company of Deceivers and Mountebanks who talke of curing saving delivering while that they doe but waste spoyle and destroy the People and therefore all your swelling words are but as the attire of an Harlot whereby as you make your selves more vendible so you make your selves more abominable A third generall pretended charge against him we find Mark 15.2 He calls himselfe King and he that is so can be no friend to Caesar that is to the Conquerour and we John 19. are resolved and professe that we will have no other King hereafter but the Conquerour Caesar Will you now that I summe up the whole charge of these Jews against Ch the King Why the first part is That he is a Tyrant in that he hath endeavoured to change and destroy our Lawes thereby robbing us of our liberty which he traversed and denied Mat. 5.19 The second charge is He is a Traytour and an Enemy to the State for Luke the 23.2 he perverteth the Nation and that two waies 1. By forbidding tribute and power of Governing to the Conquerour 2. By calling himselfe their King The third charge is that his course tends to the destruction murder of the People which is implied in those words Joh. 11. We must not let him live but kill him lest the Nation perish Pardon I pray this one short digression while I become a Rehearser of what the Armies Remembrancer hath borrowed from Master Sedgwicke whom he calls the Armies justice These men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devils exquisite Accusers and such wicked Spirits are now abroad like those Ezek. 21.32 brutish men skilfull to destroy Brutish not sparing the holiest nor honourablest things Kings Lords Ministers Scripture Ordinances Oathes they lay all wast and yet in the greatest bruitishnesse And yet though there be the most sensuall and beastly confusion yet they will doe it artificially skilfully saying all is for God justice Religion and that they doe it by the power of Christ and the power of God in Religion And see saith he how old studied Professours of Religion when once their consciences are defiled and they begin to trade in the world with a pretence that it is for God they are so cunning that no bonds of honesty or faith can hold them and there can be no such compleat and very Knaves as a Jesuite and a Pharisee and how close these words come home to these Layers of this charge judge ye for they who are the onely Breakers of the Law accuse Him for destroying the Law and thereupon his charge is to be a Tyrant they have perverted the Nation and slaughtered the People whereby they incurre the name and guilt of Traytours and Murderers Matth. 22. Luke 7.52 and yet they charge him to be the Traytour Enemy to the State and Murderer but let this be remembred what there falls from them John 11.50 He must die for the People that is for our Laws and Liberties and so is become by his death your Martyr your Sacrifice and your Saviour Hitherto you have heard the Jewes feigned false unjust charge against Ch the King with a short vindication of him and a recrimination to them which that it may more plainly appeare be content I pray with a little more pleasing patience to be rightly informed what the reall true causes were which moved these accursed Jewes to so horrid an act as to kill Ch the King And the generall leading cause is in one word that they are Hypocrites a Generation of Vipers Sonnes of Belial Children indeed of the Devil for so Ch told them John 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devill he was a Murderer from the beginning and the lusts and the works of your Father ye will doe and therefore from such a viperous generation and Devilish brood what can be expected lesse then murder And from this source see another cause bubling as it were for when they perceived and found that he spake as never man did John 7.46 2ly That he did all things well Marke 7.37 yea wonderfully well John 11.45 and that by these meanes the People loved believed and adhered to him John 11.48 which they by no means would have had the People perceived or done these rare endowments and virtues like the glorious rayes of the Sunne upon putrified matter worke and beget the poysonous Brats of envie hatred and malice and thereupon and therefore as it is Mat. 27.18 Marke 15.10 for envie they delivered or betrayed him to death A third reall cause that although they knew by experience that Ch the King in his life was so tender and meek that he studied the saving of all that would not wilfully perish and so patient and mercifull at his death that he forgave and prayed even for his Murderers yet the guilt of their hate malice and murder against him was of so deep a staine that they could not that they would not believe either and therefore as their elder Brother Cain they crying out Our sins are greater than he can forgive us can find no other way to save or secure themselves but by his death and this is a reall maine cause why these bloudy Jewes did kill Ch the King A fourth reall cause may be conceived that he was their King not by their election and free will but by the Title of an Heire for so Mat. 21. before they resolved to kill him they premised this is the Heire so that though his other graces and virtues might have preserved him as a Man yet
as killing got you this so the keeping of it must continue and hold in killing And this is the last bloudy act presented by the Jewes in this Tragedy that they kill him him Ch the King what but a word and a blow no not so S. Luke 20.14 saith before they did this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they tooke it into serious consideration and reasoned or argued the case and upon the debate their first Resolve is as Luke 19.14 nolumus hunc regnare we will have no more addresses to him as to King or we will have no more King And upon this a second Resolve followes as is expressed John 11.50 Expedit it is expedient that one that one the King should die and yet though from the first they plotted this if he yeilded not up his inheritance as is evident through the whole context of the story yet John 7.20 they deny it that they have any such intention for then the people would not have joyned with them and therefore they give out as Luke 20.19 that he must be brought to the Great Councel but we know ab Inferis nulla redemptio from that lower House or their hellish Councell there is no redemption Object But Caiphas our Chieftaine hath a Revelation from heaven to doe this To this the Armies Prophet M. Will Sedgwicke shall Answer saying p. 4. When we tell them of the Lawes of God and Man they flie to an extraordinary call as Phinehas and thus they halt betwixt two opinions being neither true to God or Man but are like the Beasts in the Revelation whose heads are crowned with the most glorious Titles of the presence of God the people of God the cause of God while their hearts are absurd cruell beastly monstrous I have before spoken of the severall Actors and therefore shall adde but little more then one Question and a short Answer thereunto For it being so that the Nation is said John 18.35 to deliver or betray him and in this Nation of every place Sect or condition of men the most had some way or other acted first or last to the taking the King The Question will be Whether all these were Traytours as guilty of his death though in this last act they had no hand in killing him For resolution whereof I must remember you with a generall received Maxime in our Law Quicquid movet ad mortem what ever though un inanimate thing as a Cart much more the Beast but undeniably the man that moves or acts that which led to or drew on the death of any man is guilty of his death 2. But if you shall adde to this that in the act of Treason not onely they who directly kill the King or who were privy or assenting thereunto but all who any way did assent assist or contribute to the unjust taking him whereby and whereupon his life was taken away are all guilty of Treason and of his death then the Question is resolved affirmatively Which and much more you will find proved by Gods censure and judgment to be just in this very act for Mat. 21.41 Christ saith the Lord will miserably destroy those Husbandmen and for what was it for killing the Heire the King for that was yet but in consultation but say that it was for that conspiracy and as acted yet it was not onely for that but for that they consulted and acted how to take away his inheritance which unjust end or designe of theirs drew on this unlawfull act to kill him and therefore not onely they who killed him but who plotted the taking away of his inheritance whereupon his death followed were punished as Traytours and Murderers for so it is vers 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord will as it after came to passe destroy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that is those who not onely killed him but who consulted to rob him of his just rights and inheritance yea more those who beat and wounded his Servants sent to require and defend his right those also the Lord in justice wil miserably destroy for in that they were as they are called Acts 7.52 Traytours and Murderers I could and I thinke I should adde one note more that not onely these who any way from first to last contributed in any kind were guilty of this barbarous murder but they who had power and meanes and used them not in the defence of the Heire and resistance to this bloudy act were no lesse though not in so high a degree Traytours and Murderers Our generall axiome Qui non vetat quum potest will beare out that position And I pray consider whether Christs owne words John 18.36 will not without any great straining imply thus much where he said If my Kingdome were of this world my Servants and Subjects would that is they would as of right bound and should they would fight for and defend me from death which if they doe not in suffering me to be killed when they might and should have resisted and defended they have killed me And I desire all those who so often and with such vehemency have squeezed that Text to bloud Jud. 5.23 to consider whether Gods word there may not have its due weight to the maintenance of this position where it is said Curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty It hath been a long and a great dispute whether Antichrist be come and who it is and if I be not much mistaken this and some other Texts in the Gospel will easily and plainly resolve this Question for where it is said they Apostates Pharisees Sadduces c. they the man of sin the Nation of the Jewes they oppose themselves against Christ they sit in the Temple and set themselves above all deposing murdering Kings are not these the first great Antichrist who make themselves what Christ alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Apoc. 19.16 Qui Christi sunt crucifixerunt carnem the Tyrant flesh Gal. 5.24 qui Antichristi Regem the Anointed of the Lord so that by this Text you have one step to the discovery of Antichrist But enough of these and too much unlesse they were better and yet from such wicked persons Actors I must now according to the Text sead you on to that most damnable act of theirs the murdering their King But in after-times the Devil growne wiser hath furnished his Schollars Regicides with Arguments to prove the killing of Kings which neither the Jewes nor any Religions ever found out save onely some corrupted Christians 1. And the ground of their first Argument is taken from 1 Pet. 2.13 for the Devil is as good a Scripturist as these Saints and as good an Interpreter and both alike where the Apostle saith that the Kingly Office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore though the King be singulis major and though par in parem non habet potestatem yet the