pestilent Generation of Antichrist And that they be removed from judgement in our Cause seeing that our accusation is not intended against any one particular person but against that whole kingdom which we doubt not to prove to be a power usurped against God against his Commandment and against the Ordinance of Christ Jesus established in his Church by his chief Apostles Yea we doubt not to prove the kingdom of the Pope to be the kingdom and power of Antichrist And therefore my Lords I cannot cease in the Name of Christ Jesus to require of you That the matter may come to examination and that ye the States of the Realme by your Authority compell such as will be called Bishops not onely to desist from their cruell murthering of such as do study to promote Gods glory in detecting and disclosing the damnable impiety of that Man of Sin the Romane Antichrist but also that ye compell them to answer to such crimes as shall be laid to their charge for not righteously instructing the Flock committed to their cares But here I know two things shall be doubted The former Whether that my Appellation is lawfull and to be admitted seeing that I am condemned as an heretick And secondly Whether your Honours are bound to defend such as call for your support in that case seeing that your Bishops who in matters of Religion claim all Authority to appertain to them have by their sentence already condemned me The one and the other I nothing doubt most cleerly to prove First That my Appellation is most lawfull and just And secondly That your Honours cannot refuse to defend me thus calling for your ayd for in refusing ye declare your selves rebellious to God maintainers of murtherers and shedders of innocent blood How just cause I have by the Civill Law as for their Canon it is accursed of God to appeal from their unjust sentence my purpose is not to make long discourse Onely I will touch the points which all men confesse to be the just causes of Appellation first Lawfully could I not be summoned by them being for that time absent from their Jurisdiction charged with the Preaching of Christs Evangell in a free City not subject to their Tyranny Secondly To me was no intimation made of their summons but so secret was their surmised malice that the Copie of summons being required was denyed Thirdly To the Realme of Scotland could I have had no free nor sure accesse being before compelled to quit the same by their unjust Tyranny And lastly To me they neither could nor can be competent and indifferent Judges for that before any summons were raised against me I had accused them by Letters published to the Queen Dowager and had intended against them all crimes offering my self with hazard of life to prove the same for the which they are not onely unworthy of Ecclesiasticall Authority but also of any sufferance within a Common-wealth professing Christ. This my accusation preceding their summons neither by the Law of God neither yet by the law of man can they be to me competent Judges till place be granted unto me openly to prove my accusation intended against them and they be compelled to make answer as criminalls For I will plainly prove That not onely Bishops but also Popes have been removed from all Authority and pronouncing of judgment till they have purged themselves of accusations laid against them Yea further I will prove That Bishops and Popes have most justly been deprived from all Honours and administration for smaller crimes then I have to charge the whole rabble of your Bishops But because this is not my chief ground I will stand content for this present to shew That it is lawfull to Gods Prophets and to Preachers of Christ Jesus to appeal from the sentence and judgement of the visible Church to the knowledge of the Temporall Magistrate who by Gods Law is bound to hear their causes and to defend them from Tyranny The Prophet Ieremy was commanded by God to stand in the court of the House of the Lord and to preach this Sermon in effect That Ierusalem should be destroyed and be exposed in opprobrie to all Nations of the earth And that also that famous Temple of God should be made desolate like unto Sylo because the Priests the Prophets and the people did not walk in the Law which God hath proposed unto them neither would they obey the voyces of the Prophets whom God sent to call them to repentance For this Sermon was Ieremy apprehended and a sentence of death pronounced against him and that by the Priests by the Prophets and by the People which things being bruted in the ears of the Princes of Iuda they passed up from the Kings House to the Temple of the Lord and sate downe in Judgement for further knowledge of the cause But the Priests and Prophets continued in their cruell sentence which before they had pronounced saying This man is worthy of death for he hath prophesied against this City as your ears have heard But Ieremy so moved by the holy Ghost began his defence against that their tyrannous sentence in these words The Lord saith he hath sent me to prophesie against this House and against this City all the words which you have read Now therefore make good your wayes and hear the voyce of the Lord your God and then shall he repent of the evil which he hath spoken against you And as for me behold I am in your hands so doth he speak to the Princes do to me as you think good and right Neverthelesse know you this most assuredly That if ye murther or slay me ye shall make your selves this City and the inhabitants of the same criminall and guilty of innocent blood for of a truth the Lord hath sent me to speak in your ears all these words Then the Princes and the people saith the Text said This man is not worthy of death for he hath spoken to us in the Name of the Lord our God And so after some contention was the Prophet delivered from that danger This fact and history manifestly proveth whatsoever before I have affirmed to wit That it is lawfull for the servants of God to call for the help of the Civill Magistrate against the sentence of death if it be unjust by whomsoever it is pronounced And also that the Civill Sword hath power to represse the fury of the Priests and to absolve whom they have condemned For the Prophet of God was condemned by those who then onely in earth were known to be the visible Church to wit the Priests and Prophets who were in Ierusalem the successors of Aaron to whom was given a charge to speak to the people in the Name of God and a Precept given to the people to hear the Law from their mouthes to the which if any should be rebellious or inobedient he should die the death without mercy These men
whole Sermons he had taught before the whole Lent past adding That within Scotland there were no true Bishops if that Bishops should be known by such notes and vertues as S. Paul requires in Bishops This delation flew with wings to the Bishops ears who without further delay sent for the said Friar Alexander who began sharply to accuse that he had so â—landerously spoken of the dignitie of Bishops as to say That it behoved a Bishop to be a Preacher or else he were but a dumb dog and fed not the flock but fed his own bellie The man being witty and minding that which was his most assured defence said My Lord The reporters of such things are manifest liars Whereat the Bishop rejoyced and said Your answer pleaseth me well I never could think of you that ye would be so foolish as to affirm such things Where are the knaves that have brought me this tale Who comparing and affirming the same that they did before he still replyed That they were liers But while the witnesses were multiplied and men were brought to attention he turned him to the Bishop and said My Lord ye may hear and consider what ears these Asses have who cannot discern betwixt Paul Esay Zachary and Malachy and Frier Alexander Seton In very deed My Lord I said That Paul saith It behoveth a Bishop to be a Teacher Esay said That they that fed not the flock are dumb dogs and Zachary saith They are idle Pastors I of mine own head affirmed nothing but declared what the Spirit of God before pronounced At whom my Lord if ye be not offended justly ye cannot be offended at me And so yet again my Lord I say That they are manifest liars that reported unto you that I said That ye and others that preach not are no Bishops but belly-gods Albeit after that the Bishop was highly offended as well at the scoffe and bitter mock as at the bold liberty of that learned man yet durst he not hazard for that present to execute his malice conceived For nought only feareth he the learning and bold spirit of the man but also the favour that he had as well of the people as of the Prince King Iames the fifth with whom he had good credite for he was at that time his Confessor and had exhorted him to the fear of God to the meditation of Gods Law and unto purity of life But the said Bishop with his complices foreseeing what danger might come to their estate if such familiarity should continue betwixt the Prince and a man so learned and so repugning to their affections laboureth by all means to make the said Frier Alexander odious unto the King and easily found the means by the gray Friers who by their hypocrisie deceived many to traduce the innocent as an Heretick This accusation was easily believed of the young Prince who being much given to the lusts of the flesh abhorred all counsell that repugned thereto And because he did remember what a terrour the admonitions of the said Alexander was unto his blinded conscience without resistance he subscribed to their accusation affirming that he knew more then they did in that matter For he understood well enough that he smelled of the new Doctrine by such things as he had shewed to him under Confession And therefore he promised that he should follow the counsell of the Bishops in punishing of him and of all others of that Sect. These things understood by the said Alexander as well by the information of his friends and familiars as by the strange countenance of the King unto him provideth the next way to avoid the fury of a misled Prince and so in his habit he departeth the Realme and coming to Berwicke wrote back again to the King his Complaint and Admonition The very Tenour and Copy whereof followeth and is this MOst gracious Soveraigne Lord under the Lord and King of all of whom onely thy Highnesse and Majestie hast power and authority to exercise Justice within this thy Realme under God who is King and Lord of all Realms and thy Majestie and all mortall kings are but onely servants unto that onely immortall Prince Christ Jesus c. It is not I wot unknowne to thy gracious Highnesse how that thy Majesties sometime servant and Orator and ever shall be to my lives end is departed out of thy Realm unto the next adjacent of England neverthelesse I believe the cause of my departing is unknown to thy gracious Majesty Which onely is Because the Bishops and Church-men of thy Realm have had heretofore such authority upon thy subjects that apparently they were rather King and thou the subject which unjust Regiment is of it self false and contrary to holy Scripture and Gods Law Then thou art the King and Master and they thy subjects which is very true and testified expresly by the Word of God And also because they will give no man of any degree or state whom they often call Hereticks audience time nor place to speak and have defence which is against all Law both the old Law called the Law of Moses and the new Law of the Gospel So that if I might have had audience and place to speak and have shewed my just defence conformable to the Law of God I should never have fled to any other Realm suppose it should have cost me my life But because I believed that I should have no audience nor place to answer they are so great with thy Majestie I departed not doubting but moved of God unto a better time that God illuminate thy Majestie even to give every man audience is thou shouldst and mayst and is bound by the Law of God who are accused to the death And to certifie thy Highnesse that these are no vain words but of deed and effect here I offer me to thy Majestie to come in thy Realme again so that thy Majestie will give me audience and hear what I have for me of the Law of God and cause any Bishop or Abbot Friar or Secular which is most cunning some of them cannot reade their Mattins who are made Judges of Heresie to impugne me by the Law of God and if my part be found wrong thy Majestie being present and Judge I refuse no pain worthy or condigne for my fault And if that I convince them by the Law of God and that they have nothing to lay to my charge but the law of man and their own inventions to uphold their own glory and pridefull life and daily scourging of thy poor subjects I refer my self to thy Majestie as Judge Whether he hath the victory that holds him at the Law of God which cannot fail or be false or they that holds them at the Law of man which is very oft plain contrary and against the Law of God and therefore of necessity false and full of lies For all things that is contrary to the veritie which is Christ and his Law is of
And albeit he was not the most learned yet was his doctrine without corruption and therefore well liked of the people At the Easter after Anno 1547. came to the Castle of S. Andrews Iohn Knox who wearied of removing from place to place by reason of the persecution that came upon him by the Bishop of S. Andrews was determined to have left Scotland and to have visited the Schools of Germany of England then he had no pleasure by reason that although the Popes name was suppressed yet his laws corruptions remained in full vigor But because he had the care of some Gentlemens children whom certain yeers he had nourished in godlinesse Their father 's solicited him to go to S. Andrews that himselfe might have the benefit of the Castle and their children the benefit of his Doctrine And so we say came he the time aforesaid to the said place and having in his company Francis Dowglas of Langnidrie George his brother and Alexander Cokburne eldest son then to the Laird of Ormeston began to exercise them after his accustomed manner Besides the Grammar and other books of humane Learning he read unto them a Catechisme account whereof he caused them give publikely in the Parish Church of S. Andrews He read moreover unto them the Gospel of Iohn proceeding where he left at his departure from Langnidrie where before his residence was and that Lecture he read in the Chappell within the Castle at a certain houre They of the place but specially M. Hen. Balnaves Iohn Rough Preacher perceiving the manner of his Doctrine began earnestly to travell with him that he would take the Function of Preacher upon him but he refused alleadging that he would not run where God had not called him meaning that he would do nothing without a lawfull vocation Whereupon they privily amongst themselves advising having with them in counsel Sir David Lindsay of the Mount they concluded that they would give a charge to the said Iohn and that publikely by the mouth of the Preacher And so upon a certain day a Sermon of the Eelection of Ministers what power the Congregation how small soever that it was passing the number of two or three had above any man namely in the time of need as that was in whom they supposed and espied the gifts of God to be and how dangerous it was to refuse and not to heare the voyce of such as desire to be instructed These other heads we say declared the said Iohn Rough Preacher directed by his words to the said Iohn Knox saying Brother ye shall not be offended albeit that I speak unto you that which I have in charge even from all those that are here present which is this In the Name of God and of his Son Iesus Christ and in the name of these that presently call you by my mouth I charge you that ye refuse not this holy Vocation but as ye tender the glory of God the encrease of Christs Kingdom The edification of your Brethren and the comfort of me whom ye understand well enough to be oppressed by the multitude of labours That ye take upon you the publike office and Charge of Preaching even as ye looke to avoyd Gods heavy displeasure and desire that he shall multiply his Graces upon you And in the end he said to those that were present Was not this your Charge to me And do ye not approve this Vocation They answered It is and we approve it Whereat the said M. Iohn abashed burst forth in most abundant tears and withdrew himself to his Chamber His countenance and behaviour from that day till the day that he was compelled to present himself to the publike place of Preaching did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his heart for no man saw any signe of mirth of him neither yet had he pleasure to accompany any man for many dayes together The necessity that caused him to enter in the publike Place besides the Vocation aforesaid was Dean Iohn Annan a rotten Papist had long troubled Iohn Rough in his Preaching The said Iohn Knox had fortified the Doctrine of the Preacher by his Pen and had beaten the said Dean Iohn from all defences that he was compelled to flie to his last refuge that is To the authority of the Church which Authority said he damned all Lutherans and Heretickes and therefore he needed no further disputation Iohn Knox answered Before we hold our selves or that ye can prove us sufficiently convinced we must define the Church by the right notes given to us in Gods Scripture of the true Church we must discerne the Immaculate Spouse of Iesus Christ from the mother of Confusion Spirituall Babilon lest that imprudently we embrace a Harlot instead of the chaste Spouse yea to speake it in plain words Lest that we submit our selves to Sathan thinking that we submit our selves to Iesus Christ For as for your Romane Church as it is now corrupted and the Authority thereof wherein stands the hope of your Victory I no more doubt but that it is the Synagogue of Sathan and the Head thereof called the Pope to be that man of Sin of whom the Apostle speaketh then that I doubt that JESUS CHRIST suffered by the procurement of the visible Church of Jerusalem Yea I offer my self by word or writing to prove the Romane Church this day farther to degenerate from the purity which was in the dayes of the Apostles then was the Church of the Iewes from the Ordinance given by Moses when they consented to the innocent death of JESUS CHRIST These words were spoken in the open audience of the Parish Church of Saint Andrewes after the said Dean Iohn had spoken what it pleased him and had refused to dispute The people hearing the offer cryed with one consent We cannot all reade your writings but we can all hear your Preaching Therefore we require you in the Name of God That ye let us heare the approbation of that which ye have affirmed For if it be true we have beene miserably deceived And so the next Sunday was appointed to the said Iohn to expresse his minde in the publike Preaching place Which day approaching the said Iohn took the Text written in Daniel the seventh Chapter beginning thus And another King shall rise after them and he shall be unlike unto the first and he shall subdue three Kings and shall speak words against the most High and shall consume the Saints of the most High and thinke that he can change Times and Lawes And they shall be given unto his hands untill a time and times and dividing of times c. In the beginning of his Sermon he shewed the great love of God towards his Church whom he pleased to forewarne of dangers to come so many yeers before they come to passe He briefly treated of the state of the Israelites who then were in bondage in Babylon for the most part and made a
to the feet of those that by nature walk in darknesse the life to those that by sinne are dead a comfort to such as be in tribulation the tower of defence to such as be most feeble the wisedom and great felicity of such as delighteth in the same and to be short You know Gods Word to be of such efficacy and strength that thereby is sin purged death vanquished tyrants suppressed and finally the devill the author of all mischief overthrown and confounded This I say I write that ye knowing this of the holy Word and most blessed Gospel and voyce of God which once you have heard I trust to your comfort may now in this hour of darknesse and most raging tempest thirst and pray That ye may hear yet once again this amiable voyce of your Saviour Christ Be of good comfort it is I fear not And also that ye may receive some consolation by that blessed Gospel which before you have professed assuredly knowing That God shall be no lesse mercifull unto you then he hath been to other afflicted for his Names sake before you And albeit that God speedily removeth not this horrible darknesse neither suddenly pacifieth this tempest yet shall he not suffer his tossed Ship to be drowned Remember brethren That Gods vengeance plagued not Pharaoh the first yeer of his tyranny Neither did the dogges devour and consume both the flesh and bones of wicked Iezabel when she first erected and set up her Idolatry And yet as none of them escaped due punishment so did God preserve his afflicted Church in despight of Sathan and of his blinde and most wretched servants as he shall not fail to do in this great tempest and darknesse within the Realme of England And therefore yet again beloved in the Lord let the comfort of Gods promises somewhat quicken your dulled spirits exercise your selves now secretly in revolving that which sometimes you have heard openly proclaimed in your ears and be every man now a faithfull Preacher unto his brother If your communication be of Christ assuredly he will come before you be aware His Word is like unto sweet smelling Oyntment or fragrant flowers which never can be moved nor handled but forth goeth the odour to the comfort of those that stand by which is nothing so delectable if the Oyntment remain within the Box and the flowers stand or lie without touching or motion Mark well dear brethren before that Christ spake his disciples judged him to have been some wicked spirit which was to them no delectable savour But when he speaketh the sweet sound of his voyce pierceth their hearts For what comfort was in the hearts of the disciples when they heard these words Be of good comfort it is I that is Judge not that I am a spirit come to your destruction no even I am come for your deliverance It is I your Master yea your Master most familiar It is I whose Voyce and Doctrine you know for ye are my sheep It is I whose works you have seen although perfectly ye considered not the same It is I who commanded you to enter into this journey and therefore am I come to you now in the hour of your trouble and therefore be not afraid this storm shall cease and you shall be delivered What comfort I say dear brethren was in the hearts of the disciples hearing Christs voyce and knowing him by the same can neither the tongue or pen of man expresse but onely such as after long conflict and strife which is betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit in the time of extreme troubles when Christ appeareth to be absent feeleth at last the consolation of the holy Ghost witnesse and declare And Peter giveth some externall signe what Christs words wrought inwardly in his heart For immediately after he heard his Masters voice he saith Lord if it be thou command me to come unto thee upon the waters Here it may be seen what Christs voyce had wrought in Peters heart truely not onely a forgetting and contempt of the great tempest but also such boldnesse and love that he could fear no danger following but assuredly did believe That his Master Christs puissance power and might was such that nothing might resist his Word and Commandment and therefore he saith Command me to come As though he should say I desire no more but the assurance of thy Commandment If thou wilt command I am determined to obey For assuredly I know That the waters cannot prevail against me if thou speake the word So that whatsoever is possible unto thee by thy Will and Word may be possible unto me Thus Christ to instruct Peter further and us by his example condescended to his Petition and commanded him to come and Peter quickly leaving the Ship came down from it and walked upon the waters to come to Christ. Thus far of Peters fact in which lieth great abundance of Doctrine but I will passe over all that especially appertaineth not to the quality of this time within the Realm of England Before it is said welbeloved Brethren That sometimes the messengers of life are judged to be the very messengers of death and that not onely with the reprobate but also with Gods elect as was Moses with the Israelites Ieremiah with the City of Ierusalem and Christ himself with his Apostles But that is not a sin permanent and that abideth for ever with Gods elect but it vanisheth away in such sort that not onely they know the voyce of their Pastor but also they earnestly study to obey and follow it with the danger of their own lives For this is the speciall difference betwixt the children of God and the reprobate The one obeyeth God speaking by his Messengers whom they embrace with unfained love and that they do sometimes not onely against all worldly appearance but also against Civill Statutes and Ordinances of men And therefore in their greatest extremity receive they comfort beyond expectation The other alwayes resisteth Gods Messengers and hateth his Word And therefore in their great adversity God either taketh from them the presence of his Word or else they fall into so deadly despair that although Gods Messengers be sent unto them yet neither can they receive comfort by Gods promises neither follow the counsell of Gods true Messengers be it never so perfect and fruitfull Hereof have we many evident Testimonies within the Scriptures of God Of Saul it is plain That God so left him that neither would he give him answer by Prophet Dream nor Vision To Ahaz King of Iudah in his great anguish and fear which he had conceived by the multitude of those that were conjured against him was sent Isaiah the Prophet to assure him by Gods promise That his enemies should not prevail against him and to confirm him in the same the Prophet required him to desire a signe of God either from the heaven or beneath in the
Bowe-men as our Poet expresseth it Roma sagitti feris praetendit maenia Scotis And Claudian many hundred yeers before this our Poet speaking of the Legion which then was called from its Garrison on the aforesaid walls saith thus The Legion came which was placed before the utmost Britans and which bridled the fierce Scot. Lucius Florus many yeers before Claudian who wrote towards the later end of the fourth Age to wit in the beginning of the second Age and Spartianus who alleadgeth Florus writ towards the later end of the third Age. Lucius Florus the Poet is the same with the Historian who writ the short History of the Romans as judgeth Salmasius is brought in by Aelius Spartianus in the History of the Life of Adrian the Emperor saying these words I would not be Caesar to walk among the Britans and suffer the Scots morning hoar Frosts The word pruina which the Author useth doth signifie so much for it is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 morning What Florus in these words here alleadged calleth in his Language Scoticas pruinas Claudian calleth Caledonias pruinas speaking of another Roman in these words And he placed his Camp in the middle of the Caledonian morning â—oar Frosts I know that commonly in Spartian of whom we have these Verses of Florus it is read Scythicas for Scoticas but wrong notwithstanding that the great Criticks have not corrected it For how I pray you can Adrian be said to suffer Scythicas pruinas who never was in the Countrie which then went under the name of Scythia yea the Romans had never any War with the Scythes for albeit the Scythes heard of the Romans Arms yet they never felt them Besides what sense had it been in Florus to say unto Adrian That he would not be Caesar to walk in Britany and endure the morning hoary Frosts of Scythia For although the Romans heard say That Scythia was a cold Countrey yet they more perfectly knew Scotland to be cold having been upon the place Now it was very easie to those who copied Books of old and hardly understood what they writ to change one letter for another namely when two letters are so like one to another as these two Vowels O O for O not being Initiall or Capitall was written formerly without the draught under it which hath been written for distinction sake as we see it commonly now thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This change of these two Vowels hath been found elsewhere then in this place of Florus by the Criticks in the same words who seeing the name of the Sea upon the Coast of Scotland written Scythicum presently mended it and made it Scoticum Then Erasmus smelled out the same fault in Ierome his Epistle to Ctesiphon against Palladius and his disciple Caelestius in these words Britannie and the Scots Nations had not then known Moses and the Prophets Erasmus finding Scythicae he changed it into Scoticae Lucius Seneca about an hundred yeers before Florus that is about fourty yeers after Christ now 1600 yeers since in his Satyre upon the death of Claudius makes mention of the Scots in the composed word Scoto-Brigantes as thus followeth He i. e. Claudius commanded the Britans beyond the known Seas and the blue Scoto-Brigantes to submit their necks to the Roman Chains This word above named hath puzzled many of the Criticks how to reade it so that a right meaning or sense might be had of these lines with the true measure of the Verse some reading it one way some another way till at last the learned Ioseph Scaliger corrected it as you have it here giving to the words a plain and easie sense and keeping the law of the Verses against which all others did faile And to this Correction of Scaliger hath submitted many learned men yet some partly for envie against the Nation of whom is here spoken partly for vanity will stand out against the truth because of the authority of this Correction at whose great and most rare Learning they are offended as the former are at any advantage that the Nation whom these words doth concern may have The Scots are called Cerulaei or blue because they used much blue in their Garments and so doth the old Scots to this day witnesse their Plaids whereof the best sort ordinarily hath the ground blue as also their blue Caps Mamertin in his Panegyrick to Maximinian tells us That the Britans had War with the Scots and Picts before Iulius Caesar entered into the Island So by these Testimonies ye see how injurious they are unto the Scots that will not have their name known till many yeers yea some hundred yeers after the entry of the Romans into the Island The Romans having setled themselves in the Island they divided the whole into two parts Their part or the South part they called Britannia major and superiour and their Provincialls went most commonly under the name of Britones although sometimes under the name of Britanni but not so oft and they were sub-divided into severall Peoples The other part of the Island without the Roman Province that is the northern part was called Britannia minor and inferiour Now all the inhabitants of this northern part who were in continuall Bickerings and Warre with the Romans and their Provincialls were called Scoti sometime Transmarins sometime Forreigners and they did consist of two chief Peoples to wit Brigantes and Picti which both were sub-divided into severall lesser Peoples of which we forbear to speak at this time So the name of Scoti was at first appellative and given to more then to one People but in successe of time appropriated to one And this is not singular in this name for the proper names of divers Peoples at first hath been appellative and thereafter appropriate to one alone I will instance onely in one for brevity sake which is this The name Franck or French at first was common to all those that stood out together for Franchise and Liberty against the Romans about the Rhyne and other parts of Germany But at length it became peculiar unto one people as we see it is at this day Moreover that the name of Scoti was appellative and given to more then one people you may cleerly see by the ordinary expression of ancient Writers in the plurall number thus Scotorum gentes Scoticae gentes when otherwise all men ordinarily both by word and writing have ever used and to this day use the singular number speaking of one people as gens not gentes populus not populi nation not nations As all the northern people of the main Land or Continent both in Europe and Asia went anciently under the name of Scythae witnesse Strabo in these words The ancients commonly called the northern people Scythes And in another place he saith The ancients did call by one name of Scythes all the known places towards the North. He means in the Continent or main Land So the northern
of the Church had been as forward as he was willing there had been a better Reformation then was in his time witnesse this instance The People desired freedome to read the Scripture the then Bishops refused this unto the People Whereupon the King was petitioned in the name of the People the King grants their Petition the Bishops hearing of the Kings grant thus limit it not daring to deny it flatly That all Gentlemen should have liberty to read the Scripture since it was the Kings pleasure but for others the permission was stopped As if Yeomen and Tradesmen had not as much interest in Gods Word as Gentlemen Then remarke all those that were put to death for the testimony of the Truth in Henry the eighth his dayes were persecuted by the Bishops of the time although the blame lieth upon the Prince for albeit they had in compliance to the King renounced the Pope by word of mouth yet in effect they kept up his tyranny by his doctrine with small alteration changed his Rites and Ceremonies Canons and Laws Prelacie or Hierarchie maintained And seeing the King so opposite to the Pope they condescended that the King should bear the blasphemous Title of the Pope Head of the Church although with reluctancy and so it proved for notwithstanding all the Statutes that were made in favour of this Title taken from the Pope and attributed to the King the Bishops with cunning and subtill proceedings kept a foot the power of the Pope and so soon as they saw the occasion of Queen Marie her Reigne they freely and easily brought all back again to Rome without Maske or Limitation and ever since their successors although by the course of affairs they have been obliged to disclaim the Pope his authority yea and his doctrine in some measure yet they ever since to this day have expressed their inclinations and done their endeavours to return thither again as we all know by dolefull experience But here it may be demanded What drift or policie can it be in the Bishops to desire to be subject to Rome rather then to their Prince and Laws of the Countrey The answer is The propensitie of us all to follow evill rather then good is known namely When the evill hath the mask of worldly dignitie pomp power and pleasure which hinders it to be seen in its own colours Now the Bishops and all the rabble of that corrupt Clergy are given to Temporall howsoever unlawfull advantages as their ambition avarice and lust from the very beginning hath shewn which exorbitant passions lead men headlong without measure when once way is given unto them unlesse they meet with some lett or stop which is both lesser and slower when it is a farre off namely when it cometh from one who is possessed with the same distempers and himself of the same order of men with the Delinquent and so the Bishops of this Island had rather have to do with the Pope then with the Prince First Because of mutuall infirmity the Pope proveth more indulgent then any Prince Next The Prince is too neer them and so it is best for them to be so free of the Prince his Jurisdiction that they may be able not onely to neglect him but also to oppose him For all let that example of the Canterbury-prelat serve who made the King for the time to hold the Stirrup when he gat up upon his horse The Story is known I called a little before the Title of Head of the Church used by the Pope and then given to Henry blasphemous To lay aside all other things that may be alleadged against this Title I shall onely say this The Church is the Spouse of Christ No Spouse can be said to have any other Head but him whose Spouse she is Now if the Church should acknowledge her self to be the Spouse of any other but of Christ she were a professed Whore and Adulteresse By no means then a Prince is to be called The Head of the Church For although the civill Magistrate is obliged according to his rank and place to see the Ministers of the Church do the work of the Lord truely diligently and carefully and to make them do it according to the Will of God declared in his Word yet for all this he is nothing but a servant overseer or grass and not the Head which is a Title belonging onely to Christ wherefore Princes or Magistrates that by slavish flatterers had this Title given unto them at the first had done well to reject it as their Successors who have followed had done well likewise according to God his Will if they had not suffered this Title to have been continued unto them namely in the publike prayers where the time-serving inconsiderate Minister prayeth in the name of the Church for her Head if the Head of the Church needs to be prayed for then the influences of the Head upon the Church will be but poor and weak c. But of this enough for this place Moreover The flattering Preachers unrequired in the publike prayers in the name of the Church call the Prince forsooth The Breath of our Nostrils taking for his ground the words of Ieremy in his Lamentations Chap. 4. vers 20. Which words by the Current of the Ancients and Septuagint are to be understood of Christ Jesus True it is The Rabbins have interpreted the words of one of the Kings of Iudah to wit Iosias or Zedekias and hence some of the later Expositors have explained these words That first and literally they may be applyed to one of the Kings of Judah who were all figures of Christ to come but principally and mainly the words are to be understood of Christ Iesus by the consent of all So to attribute these words to any Prince earthly cannot be without offense to Christ For who can be said properly and well To be the Breath of our Nostrils but he who inspireth into us life that is God In like manner the inconsiderate Ministers of the Gospel abusing the Text of the eightieth Psalm which by the consent of all is understood of Christ truely and of David as a figure of Christ to come call the King The man of thy right hand this in no wayes without Blasphemie can be attributed unto any earthly Prince for none is to be said a figure of Christ as David and his Successors were by a particular dispensation But if misapplying and mistaking of Texts of Scripture will do businesse since Magistrates are said to be gods you may as well call the Prince god as the Roman Emperour was of old by some so called and now the Pope by his Court-parasites which Titile of god no Prince will suffer to be given unto him Surely as it is a very great crime not to give due respect reverence and obedience unto him whom God hath set over us for our good according to his wise Ordinance so on the other side it is a huge sin to Idolize the Prince
That Auricular Confession seeing that it hath no promise of the Gospel truely it cannot be a Sacrament Of the Confession to be made to God there are many testimonies in Scripture as when David saith I thought that I would acknowledge mine iniquity against my self unto the Lord and he forgave the trespasses of my sins Here confessing signifieth the secret knowledge of our sins before God When I exhorted the people on this manner I reproved no manner of Confession And farther Saint Iames saith Acknowledge your sins one to another and so let you have peace among your selves Here the Apostle meaneth nothing of Auricular Confession but that we should acknowledge and confesse our selves to be sinners before our brethren and before the world and not to esteeme our selves as the Gray Friers do thinking themselves already purged When that he had said these words the horned Bishops and their complices cryed and gyrned with their teeth saying See ye not what colours he hath in his speech that he may beguile us and seduce us to his opinion The fifth Article Thou false heretick didst say openly That it was necessary for every man to know and understand his Baptisme which is contrary to Generall Councels and the Estates of holy Church The Answer My Lords I believe there be none so unwise here that will make Merchandise with any French-men or any other unknowne stranger except he know and understand first the condition or promise made by the French-man or stranger So likewise I would that we understood what thing we promise in the name of the Infant unto God in Baptisme Then said M. Peter Chaplin That he had the devill within him and the spirit of terrour Then answered him a childe saying The devil cannot speak such words as yonder man doth speake The sixth Article Thou false Hereticke Traytor and Thiefe thou said That the Sacrament of the Altar was but a piece of bread baken upon the ashes and no other thing else and all that is there done is but a superstitious Rite against the Commandment of God The Answer Oh Lord God! so manifest lyes and blasphemies the Scripture doth not teach you As concerning the Sacrament of the Altar my Lords I never taught any thing against the Scripture the which I shall by Gods grace make manifest this day I being ready therefore to suffer death The lawfull use of the Sacrament is most acceptable unto God But the great abuse of it is very detestable unto him But what occasion they have to say such words of me I shall shortly shew your Lordships I once chanced to meet with a Iew when I was sayling upon the water of Rhene I did enquire of him What was the cause of his pertinacie that he did not believe that the true Messias was come considering that they had seen all the Prophesies which were spoken of him to be fulfilled Moreover the Prophesies taken away and the Scepter of Iuda By many other testimonies of the Scripture I witnessed to him and proved that the Messias was come the which they called Iesus of Nazareth This Iew answered again unto me When Messias cometh he shall restore all things and he shall not abrogate the Law which was given unto our Fathers as ye do for why We see the poor almost perish through hunger amongst you yet you are not moved with pity towards them But amongst us Iewes though we be poor there are no beggers found Secondarily It is forbidden by the Law to fain any kinde of Imagery of things in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the Sea under the earth but one God onely to honour But your Sanctuaries and Churches are full of Idolls Thirdly a piece of bread baked upon the ashes ye adore and worship and say that it is your God I have rehearsed here but the sayings of a Iew which I never affirmed to be true Then the Bishops shook their heads and spitted on the ground and what he meaned in this matter further they would not hear The seventh Article Thou false hereticke didst say That extreme Unction was not a Sacrament The Answer My Lords forsooth I never taught of extreme Unction in my Doctrine whether it was a Sacrament or no. The eighth Article Thou false hereticke didst say That holy water is not so good as Wash and such like Thou contemnest conjuring and sayest That holy Churches cursing availeth not The Answer My Lords as for holy water what strength it is of I taught never in my Doctrine Conjurings and Exorcisms if they were conformable to the Word of God I would commend them but in as much as they are not conformable to the Commandment and Word of God I reprove them The ninth Article Thou false Hereticke and runagate hast said That every man is a Priest and likewise thou sayest That the Pope hath no more power then another man The Answer My Lords I taught nothing but the Word of God I remember that I have read in some places of S. Iohn and S. Peter of the which one saith He hath made us kings and priests The other saith He hath made us the kingly Priesthood Wherefore I have affirmed Any man understanding and perfit in the Word of God and the true faith of Jesus Christ to have his power given him from God and not by the power or violence of men but by the vertue of the Word of God the which word is called The power of God as witnesseth S. Paul evidently enough And againe I say Any unlearned man and not exercised in the Word of God nor yet constant in his Faith whatsoever estate or order he be of I say he hath no power to binde or to loose seeing he wanteth the instrument by the which he bindeth and looseth that is to say The Word of God After that he had said these words all the Bishops laughed and mocked him When that he beheld their laughing Laugh ye said he my Lords Though that these my sayings do seem scornfull and worthy of derision to your Lordships neverthelesse they are very weighty to me and of a great value because that they stand not onely upon my life but also upon the honour and glory of God In the meane time many godly men beholding the woodnesse and great cruelty of the Bishops and the invincible patience of the said M. George did greatly mourne and lament The tenth Article Thou false Hereticke saidst That a man had no free-will but is like to the Stoicks which say That it is not in mans will to do anything but that all desire and concupiscence cometh of God of whatsoever kinde it be of The Answer My Lords I said not so truely I say That as many as beleeve in Christ firmely unto them is given liberty conformable to the saying of S. Iohn If the Sonne make you free then shall you verily be free Of the contrary as many as beleeve not in Christ Jesus they are bond-servants of sin
sat downe upon his knees and rose againe And thrice he said these words O thou Saviour of the world have mercy on me Father of heaven I commend my spirit into thy holy hands When he had made this Prayer he turned him to the people and said these words having obtained leave to speak a little I beseech you Christian brethren and sisters that ye be not offended at the Word of God for the affliction and torments which ye see already prepared for me But I exhort you that ye love the Word of God for your salvation and suffer patiently and with a comfortable heart for the Words sake which is your undoubted salvation and everlasting comfort Moreover I pray you shew my brethren and sisters which have heard me oft before that they cease not nor leave off to learne the word of God which I taught them after the grace given unto me for no persecutions nor troubles in this world which last not And shew unto them that my Doctrine was no wives fables after the constitutions made by men And if I had taught mens doctrine I had gotten greater thanks by men But for the Words sake and true Gospel which was given to me by the grace of God I suffer this day by men not sorrowfully but with a glad heart and minde For this cause I was sent That I should suffer this fire for Christs sake Consider and behold my visage ye shall not see me change my colour This grim fire I fear not and so I pray you for to do if that any persecution come unto you for the Words â—ake and not to fear them that slay the body and have no power afterward to slay the soul. Some have said of me That I taught that the soul of man should sleep untill the last day But I know surely and my faith is such That my soul shall sup with my Saviour this night ere it be six hours for whom I suffer this Then he prayed for them which accused him saying I beseech the Father of heaven to forgive them that have of any ignorance or else of any evil minde forged lies upon me I forgive them with all my heart I beseech Christ forgive them that have condemned me to death this day ignorantly And last of all he said to the people on this manner I beseech you brethren and sisters to exhort your Prelats to the learning of the Word of God that they may be ashamed to do evil and learn to do good And if they will not convert themselves from their wicked errour there shall hastily come upon them the wrath of God which they shall not eschew Many faithfull words said he in the meane time taking no heed or care of the cruell torments which were then prepared for him Then the Executioner that was his tormentor sate down upon his knees and said Sir I pray you forgive me for I am not guilty of your death To whom he answered Come hither to me When he was come to him he kissed his cheek and said Lo here is a token that I forgive thee my heart do thy Office And then by and by the Trumpet sounding he was tyed to the stake and the fire kindled The Captain of the Castle for the love he bore to M. Wischarde drew so neer to the fire that the flame thereof did him harme he wished M. Wischarde to be of good courage and to beg from God the forgivenesse of his sins to whom M. Wischarde answered thus This fire torments my body but no wayes abates my spirit Then M. Wischarde looking towards the Cardinall said He who in such state from that high place feedeth his eyes with my torments within few dayes shall be hanged out at the same window to be seen with us much ignominy as he now leaneth there in pride Then with this the Executioner drawing the Cord stopt his breath presently after the fire being great he was consumed to powder The Prelats would not suffer any prayers to be made for him according to their Custome After the death of Master Wischarde the Cardinall was cryed up by his flatterers and all the rabble of the corrupt Clergie as the onely Defender of the Catholike Church and punisher of hereticks neglecting the authority of the sluggish Governour And it was said by them That if the great Prelates of latter dayes both at home and abroad had been so stout and zealous of the credit of the Catholike Church they had not onely suppressed all hereticks but also kept under the Lay-men who were so froward and stubborne On the other side when that the people beheld the great tormenting of that innocent they could not withhold from piteous mourning and complaining of the innocent lambs slaughter After the death of this blessed Martyr of God began the people in plaine speaking to damne and detest the cruelty that was used yea men of great birth and estimation and honour at open tables avowed That the blood of the said Master George should be revenged or else it should cost life for life and that in a short time they should be like hogs kept for slaughter by this vitious Priest and wicked Monster which neither minded God nor cared for man Amongst those that spake against the Cardinalls cruelty Iohn Lesley brother to the Earle of Rothes was chief with his Cozen Norman Lesley who had been a great follower of the Cardinall and very active for him but a little before fell so foule with him that they came to high reproaches one with another The occasion of their falling out was a private businesse wherein Norman Lesley said he was wronged by the Cardinall On the other side the Cardinall said he was not with respect used by Norman Lesley his inferiour The said Iohn Lesley in all companies spared not to say That that same dagger shewing forth his dagger and that same hand should be put in the Cardinalls brest These brutes came to the Cardinalls ears but he thought himselfe stout enough for all Scotland For in Babylon that is in his new Block-House he was sure as he thought and upon the fields he was able to match all his enemies And to speak the truth the most part of the Nobility of Scotland had either given unto him their Bands of Manred or else were in confederacy and promised amity with him and so he gave his bastard eldest daughter in Marriage to the Earl of Crawford his eldest son and heir and caused the Wedding to be celebrate with such State as if she had been a Princes lawfull daughter He onely feared them in whose hands God did deliver him and for them he laid his nets so secretly as that he made a full compt that their feet could not escape as we shall after hear And something of his former practices we may recompt After Easter he came to Edinburgh to hold the Seingnye as the Papists termed then their unhappy Assembly of Baals shaven sort It was bruted that
deprehended For the brethren assembled themselves in such sort in companies singing Psalmes and praising God that the proudest of the enemies were astonished This Tragedie of Saint Gyles was so terrible to some Papists that Durie sometimes called for his filthinesse Abbot Stottikin and then intituled Bishop of Galloway left his Riming wherewith he was accustomed and departed this life even as he had lived For the Articles of his beleefe were I referre Decarte you Ha ha the foure Kings and all made The devil go with it It is but a varlet From France we thought to have gotten a Rubie And yet is he nothing but a Cahoobie With such Faith and such Prayers departed out of this life that enemy of God who had vowed and plainly said That in despight of God so long as they that then were Prelates lived should that Word called the Gospel never be Preached within this Realme After him followed that belly-God Master David Panter called Bishop of Rosse even with the like documents except that he departed eating and drinking which together with the rest that thereupon depended was the pastime of his life The most part of the Lords that were in France at the Queens Marriage although that they got their leave from the Court yet they forgot to return to Scotland For whether it was by an Italian Posset or French Feggs or by the Pottage of their Apothecary he was a French-man there departed from this life the Earl of Cassiles the Earl of Rothesse Lord Fleming and the Bishop of Orknay whose end was even according to his life For after that he was driven back by a contratious winde and forced to land again at Deep perceiving his sicknesse to increase he caused to make his bed betwixt his two coffers some said upon them such was his God the gold that therein was inclosed that he could not depart therefrom so long as memory would serve him The Lord Iames then Prior of S. Andrews had by all appearance licked of the same broath that dispatched the rest for thereof to his death his stomacke doth testifie But God preserved for a better purpose This same Lord Iames after Earle of Murray and the said Bishop were commonly at debate in matters of Religion and therefore the said Lord hearing of the Bishops disease came to visit him and finding him not so well at a point as he thought he should have been and as the honour of the countrey required said unto him Fie my Lord how lie you so will you not go to your Chamber and not lie heere in this utter Roome His answer was I am well where I am my Lord so long as I can tarry for I am neer unto my friends meaning his coffers and the gold therein But my Lord said he how long have you and I been in plea for Purgatorie I thinke that I shall know ere it be long whether there be such a place or not While the other did exhort him to call to minde the promises of God and the vertue of Christs death He answered Nay my Lord let me alone for you and I never agreed in our life and I thinke we shall not agree now at my death I pray you therefore let me alone The said Lord Iames departed to his Lodging and the other shortly after departed this life whither the great day of the Lord will declare When the word of the departing of so many Patrons of Papistry and of the manner of their departing came unto the Queene Regent after astonishment and musing she said What shall I say of such men They left me as beasts and as beasts they die God is not with them neither with that which they enterprise While these things were in doing in Scotland and France that perfect hypocrite Master Iohn Synclare then Deane of Lestarrige and now Lord President and Bishop of Brechin began to Preach in his Church of Lestarrige and at the beginning held himselfe so indifferent that many had opinion of him That he was not far from the Kingdom of God But his hypocrisie could not long be cloaked for when he understood that such as feared God began to have a good opinion of him and that the Friers and others of that sect began to whisper That if he took not heed in time to himself and unto his Doctrine he would be the destruction of the whole state of the Church This by him understood he appointed a Sermon in the which he promised to give his judgement upon all such heads as then were in controversie in the matters of Religion The bruit hereof made his audience great at the first But that day he so handled himself that after that no godly man did credit him for he not onely gainsaid the Doctrine of Justification and of Prayer which before he had taught but also he set up and maintained Papistry to the uttermost prick yea Holy-water Pilgrimage Purgatory and Pardons were of such vertue in his conceit That without them he looked not to be saved In this mean time the Clergy made a brag That they would dispute But M. David Panter which then lived and lay at Lestarrige disswaded them therefrom affirming That if ever they disputed but where themselves were both Judge and partie and where that fire and sword should obey their decree that then their cause was marred for ever For their victory stood neither in God nor in his Word but in their own wills and in the things concluded by their own counsells together with sword and fire whereto said he these new up-start fellows will give no place but they will call you to your Count-book and that is to the Bible and by it ye will no more be found the men that ye are called then the Devil will be approved to be God And therefore if ye love your selves enter never into disputation neither yet call ye the matter into question but defend your possession or else all is lost Caiaphas could not give any better counsell to his companions but yet God disappointed both them and him as after we shall heare At this same time some of the Nobility directed their Letters to call Iohn Knox from Geneva for their comfort and for the comfort of their brethren the Preachers and others that then couragiously fought against the enemies of Gods Trueth The Tenour of their Letter is this Grace Mercy and Peace for Salvation DEarly Beloved in the Lord the faithfull that are of your acquaintance in these parts thanks be unto God are stedfast in the beliefe wherein yee left them and have a godly thirst and desire day by day of your presence againe Now if the Spirit of God will so move you and grant time unto you we all heartily desire you in the Name of the Lord That ye would returne again into these parts where you shall finde all the faithfull that ye left behinde you not onely glad to heare your
prudent and circumspect did compell the Captains as is alleadged to bring their men so nigh that either they must needs have hazarded battell with the whole French-men and that under the mercy of their Cannons also or else they must needs retire in a very narrow corner For our men were approached neer to Lestarrig The one part of the French were upon the North toward the Sea the other part marched from Leith to Edinburgh and yet they marched so that we could have foughten with neither Company before that they should have joyned We took purpose therefore to retire towards the Towne and that in haste left that the former Company of the French should either have invaded the Towne before that we could have come to the rescue thereof or else have cut us off from the entry of the Abbey of Halyrud-house as apparantly they had done if that the Laird of Grange and Alexander Whitlaw with a few Horse-men had not stayed both their Horse-men and Foot-men The Company which was next us perceiving that we retired with speed sent forth their skirmishers to the number of three or four hundred who took us at a disadvantage before us having the mire of Lestarrig betwixt us and them and we were enclosed by the Park ditch so that in no wise we could avoid their shot The Horse-men followed upon our heels and slue divers Our own Horse-men over-rode our Foot-men and so by reason of the narrownesse of the place there was no resistance made The Earle of Arran the Lord Iames in great danger lighted amongst the Foot-men exhorting them to have some respect to order and to the safety of their brethren whom by their flying they exposed to murther and so were criminall of their death Captain Alexander Halyburnetoun a man that feared God tarried with certain of his Souldiers behinde and made resistance till that he was first shot and then taken but being known those cruell murtherers wounded him in divers parts to the death and yet as it were by the power of God he was brought in to the Towne where in few but yet most plaine words he gave Confession of his Faith testifying That he doubted nothing of Gods mercy purchased to him by the Blood of Christ Jesus neither yet that he repented that it pleased God to make him worthy to shed his blood and spend his life in defence of so just a Cause And thus with the dolour of many he ended his dolour and did enter we doubt not into that blessed Immortality within two hours after our departure There were slain to the number of twenty four or thirty men the most part poor There was taken the Laird of Pitmillie the Laird of Pharnie younger the Master of Bowchane George Cuwell of Dundie and some others of lower rank Iohn Dumbar Lieutenant to Captain Movet Captain David Murray had his horse slain and himselfe hurt in the legge Few dayes before our first departure which was upon Alhallow Even William Maitland of Lethington younger Secretary to the Queen perceiving himself not onely to be suspected as one that favoured our part but also to stand in danger of his life if he should remain amongst so ungodly a company for whensoever matters came in question he spared not to speak his conscience which liberty of tongue and gravity of judgement the French did highly disdain Which perceived by him he conveyed himself away in the morning and tendred himself to M. Kirkcaldie Laird of Grange who coming to us did exhort us to constancy assuring us That in the Queen there was nothing but craft and deceit He travelled exceedingly to have retained the Lords together and most prudently laid before their eyes the dangers that might ensue their departing from the Towne but fear and dolour had so seized the hearts of all that they could admit no consolation The Earle of Arran and the Lord Iames offered to abide if any reasonable company would abide with them but men did so steal away that the wit of man could not stay them yea some of the greatest determined plainly That they would not abide The Captain of the Castle then Lord Erskin would promise unto us no favour but said He must needs declare himself friend to those that were able to support and defend him Which answer given to the Lord Iames discouraged those that before determined to have abidden the uttermost rather then to have abandoned the Towne so that the Castle would have stood their friend but the contrary declared every man took purpose for himself The complaints of the brethren within the Towne of Edinburgh was lamentable and sore the wicked then began to spue forth the venome which then lurked in their cankred hearts The godly as well those that were departed as the inhabitants of the Town were so troubled that some of them would have preferred death to life at Gods pleasure For avoiding of danger it was concluded That they should depart at midnight The Duke made provision for his Ordnance and caused it to be sent before but the rest was left to the care of the Captain of the Castle who received it as well that which appertained to the Lord Iames as that of Dundie The despightfull tongues of the wicked rayled upon us calling us Traytors and Hereticks every one provoked other to cast stones at us One cryed Alas if I might see another defie given Give advertisement to the French-men that they may come and we shall help them now to cut the throats of these hereticks And thus as the sword of dolour passed thorow our hearts so were the cogitations and former determinations of many hearts then revealed For we would never have believed that our naturall Countrey-men and women could have wished our destruction so unmercifully and have so rejoyced in our adversity God move their hearts to repentance for else we fear that he whose Cause we sustain shall let them feel the weight of the yoke of cruell strangers into whose hands they wished us to have been betrayed We stayed not till we came to Sterlin which we did the day after that we departed from Edinburgh for it was concluded that there consultation should be taken What was the next remedy in so desperate a matter The next Wednesday which was the 7 of November Iohn Knox preached Iohn Willock was gone into England as before he appointed and treated of the 5 6 7 and 8 Verses of the 80 Psalm where David in the person of the afflicted people of God speaketh this in the fourth Verse The Sermon of Iohn Knox in Sterlin in the greatest of our trouble O thou the eternall the God of Hosts how long shalt thou be against the prayer of thy people 5 Thou hast fed us with the bread of tears and hast given to us tears to drinke in great measure 6. Thou hast made us a strife unto our neighbours and our enemies laught us to scorne amongst themselves 7. O God
Blood of Christ Jesus which was once broken and shed for us which now is in the heaven and appeareth in the presence of his Father for us And yet notwithstanding the far distance of place which is betwixt his Body now glorified in the heaven and us now mortall in this earth Yet we most assuredly beleeve That the Bread that we break is the Communion of Christs Body and The Cup which we blesse is The Communion of his Blood So that we confesse and undoubtedly beleeve That the faithfull in the right use of the Lords Table so do eat the Body and drink the Blood of the Lord Jesus That he remaineth in them and they in him Yea That they are so made flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones That as the eternall God-head hath given to the flesh of Christ Jesus which of the owne condition and nature was mortall and corruptible life and immortalitie so doth Christ Jesus Flesh and Blood eaten and drunken by us give to us the same prerogatives which albeit we confesse are neither given unto us at that onely time neither yet by the proper power and vertue of the Sacraments onely yet we affirme That the faithfull in the right use of the Lords Table hath such conjunction with Christ Jesus as the naturall man cannot comprehend yea and further we affirme That albeit the faithfull oppressed by negligence and manly infirmity doth not profit so much as they would at the very instant action of the Supper yet shall it after bring forth fruit as lively seed sowne in good ground for the holy Spirit which can never be divided from the right institution of the Lord Jesus wil not frustrate the faithfull of the fruit of that mysticall action but all this we say cometh by true Faith which apprehendeth Christ Jesus who onely maketh his Sacraments effectuall unto us and therefore whosoever slandereth us as though we affirmed or beleeved Sacraments to be openly naked and bare signes do injurie unto us and speak against a manifest truth But this liberally and frankly we must confesse That we make a distinction betwixt Christ Jesus in his naturall substance and betwixt the elements in the Sacramentall signes So that we will neither worship the signes in place of that which is signified by them neither yet do we despise and interpret them as unprofitable and vain but do use them with all reverence examining our selves diligently before that so we do because we are assured by the mouth of the Apostle that such as eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup unworthily are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus XXII Of the right administration of the Sacraments THat Sacraments be rightly ministred we judge two things requisite The one that they be ministred by lawfull Ministers whom we affirme to be onely they that are appointed to the Preaching of the Word or unto whose mouthes God hath put some Sermon of Exhortation they being men of lawfull choosing thereto by some Church The other That they be ministred in such elements and in such sort as God hath appointed Else we affirme That they cease to be right Sacraments of Christ Jesus And therefore it is that we flee the societie with the Papisticall Church in participation of their Sacraments First because their Ministers are no Ministers of Jesus Christ yea which is more horrible they suffer women whom the holy Ghost will not suffer to teach in the Congregation to Baptize And secondly because they have so adulterate both the one Sacrament and the other with their own inventions that no part of Christs action abideth in the originall purity for Oyl Salt Spittle and such like in Baptisme are but mens inventions Adoration Veneration bearing through Streets and Townes and keeping of bread in Boxes are prophanation of Christs Sacraments and no use of the same For Christ Jesus said Take and eat c. Do ye this in remembrance of me By which words and charge he sanctified Bread and Wine to be the Sacrament of his Body and Blood to the end that one should be eaten and that all should drink of the other and not that they should be kept to be worshipped and honoured as God as the blinde Papists have done heretofore who also have committed Sacriledge stealing from the people one part of the Sacrament to wit The blessed Cup. Moreover that the Sacraments be rightly used it is required That the end and cause why the Sacraments were instituted be understood and observed as well of the Minister as the Receivers for if the opinion be changed in the Receiver the right use ceaseth which is most evident by the rejection of the sacrifices as also if the teacher teach false Doctrine which were odious and abhominable unto God albeit they were his own ordinances because that wicked men used them to another end then God hath ordained The same affirm we of the Sacraments in the Papisticall Church in which we affirm the whole action of the Lord Jesus to be adulterate as well in the externall form as in the end and opinion What Christ Jesus did and commanded to be done is evident by the three Evangelists who speak of the Sacrament by S. Paul what the Priest doth at his Altar we need not to rehearse The end and cause of Christs institution and why the self-same should be used is expressed in these words Do ye this in remembrance of me as oft as ye shall eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup ye shall shew forth that is extoll Preach and magnifie the Lords death till he come But to what end and in what opinion the Priests say their Masses let the words of the same their own Doctours and Writings witnesse to wit That they are Mediatours betwixt Christ and his Church to offer unto God the Father a Sacrifice propitiatorie for the sinnes of the quick and the dead Which Doctrine as blasphemous to Christ Jesus and making derogation to the sufficiencie of his onely Sacrifice once offered for purgation of all those that shall be sanctified we utterly abhorre detest and renounce XXIII To whom Sacraments appertaine VVE confesse and acknowledge That Baptisme appertaineth as well to the infants of the faithfull as unto those that be of age and discretion And so we condemne the errour of the Anabaptists who deny Baptisme to appertaine to children before that they have Faith and understanding But the Supper of the Lord we confesse to appertaine onely to such as have been of the houshold of Faith can try and examine themselves as well in their Faith as in their duties towards their neighbours Such as eat at that holy Table without Faith or being at dissension and division with their brethren do eat unworthily And therefore it is that in our Churches Ministers take publike and particular examination of the knowledge and conversation of such as are to be admitted to the Table
was troubled in his understanding The certainty of the death foresaid was signified unto us both by Sea and Land By Sea received Iohn Knox who then had great intelligence both with the Churches abroad and some of the Court of France That the King was mortally sick and could not well escape death Which Letters received that same day at afternoon he passed to the Duke to his own lodging at the Church of Field with whom he found the Lord Iames in conference alone The Earle of Arrane was in Iedburgh to whom he opened such news as he had received and willed them to be of good comfort for said he the advertiser hath never deceived me It is the same Gentleman that first gave us knowledge of the slaughter of Henry King of France and shewed unto them the Letter but would not expresse the mans name While they were reasoning in divers purposes and he comforting them For while we say they three were familiarly communing together there came a messenger from the Lord Gray forth of Barwick assuring him of the death of the K. of France Which noysed abroad a generall Convention of the Nobility was appointed to be holden at Edinburgh the fifteenth day of Ianuary following in the which the Book of discipline was perused newly over againe for some pretended ignorance by reason that they had not heard it In that assembly was Master Alexander Anderson Subprincipall and Under-Master of one of the Schools of Aberdein a man more subtill and craftie than either learned or godly called who refused to dispute anent his faith abusing a place of Tertullian to cloak his ignorance It was answered unto him That Tertullian should not prejudge the Authoritie of the Holy Ghost who by the mouth of Peter commandeth us to give reason of our faith to every one that requireth the same of us It was farther answered that we neither required him neither yet any man to dispute in any point concerning our faith which was grounded upon Gods Word and fully expressed in his holy Scriptures for all that we beleeved without controversie But we required of him as of the rest of Papists that they would suffer their Doctrine Constitutions and Ceremonies to come to triall And principally that the Masse and the opinion thereof by them taught unto the people might be laid to the square rule of Gods Word and unto the right Institution of Jesus Christ That they might understand whether that their Preachers offended or not in that that they affirmed The Action of the Masse to be expresly repugning unto the last Supper of the Lord Jesus The sayer of it to commit horrible blasphemie in usurping up-him the Office of Christ The hearers to commit damnable Idolatry and the opinion of it conceived to be a derogation and as it were a disanulling of Christs death While the said Master Alexander denied that the Priest took upon him Christs office to offer for sin as he alleaged a Masse book was produced and in the beginning of the Canon were these words read Suscipe Sancta Trinitas hanc oblationem quam ego indignus peccator offero tibi vivo Deo vero pro peccatis meis pro peccatis totius Ecclesiae vivorum mortuum Now said the reasoner if to offâ—r for the sinnes of the whole Church was not the Office of Christ Jesus yea that Office that to him onely might and may appertaine let the Scripture judge And if a vile Knave whom ye call Priest proudly taketh the same upon him let your own Books witnesse The said Mr. Alexander answered Christ offered the propitiatory and that could none do but he but we offer the remembrance Whereto it was answered We praise God that ye have denyed a sacrifice propitiatorie to be in the Masse and yet we offer to prove that in moe than a hundreth places of your Papisticall Doctors this proposition is affirmed The Masse is said to be a Sacrifice propitiatory But the second part where ye alleage that ye offer Christ in remembrance we ask first Unto whom do ye offer him and next by what authority are ye assured of well-doing In God the Father there falleth no Oblivion And if ye will shift and say that ye offer it not as God were forgetfull but as willing to apply Christs merits to his Church We demand of you What power commandment have ye so to do We know that our Master Christ Jesus commanded his Apostles to do that which he did in remembrance of him But plain it is that Christ took bread gave thanks brake bread and gave it to his disciples saying Take ye eate ye this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me c. Here we finde a commandment to take to eat to take and to drinke but to offer Christs Body either for remembrance or application we finde not And therefore we say To take upon you an Office which is not given unto you is unjust usurpation and no lawfull power The said Master Alexander being more then astonished would have shifted but then the Lords willed him to answer directly whereto he answered That he was better seen in Philosophie then in Theologie Then was commanded M. Iohn Leslie who then was Parson of Une and now Abbot of Londors and after was made Bishop of Rosse to answer to the former Argument and he with great gravity began to answer If our Master have nothing to say to it I have nothing for I know nothing but the Cannon Law And the greatest reason that ever I could finde there is Nolumus and Volumus and yet we understand that now he is the onely Patron of the Masse But it is no marvell for we understand that he is a Priests get and Bastard and therefore we should not wonder albeit that the old truan Verse be true Patrem sequitur sua proles The Nobility hearing that neither the one nor the other would answer directly said We have been miserably deceived heretofore for if the Masse may not obtaine remission of sins to the quick and to the dead Wherefore were all the Abbies so richly doted and endowed with our Temporall lands Thus much we thought good to insert here because that some Papists are not ashamed now to affirm That they with their reasons could never be heard but that all we did we did by meer force when that the whole Realme knoweth That we ever required them to speak their judgements freely not onely promising unto them protection and defence but also that we should subscribe with them if they by Gods Scriptures could confute us and by the same Word establish their assertions But who can correct the leasings of such as in all things shew them the sons of the Father of all lies Preserve us Lord from that perverse and malicious Generation Amen At this same Assembly was the Lord Iames appointed to go to France to the Queen our Soveraigne and a Parliament was
carryed about in a Boat and laid without Buriall in the Abbey of Halyrud-house till the day of his Forefaltor as after shall be declared The Duke apprehended the Lord Gordon his son in Law because that the Queen had straitly commanded him so to do if that he repaired within his bounds Before that he delivered him the Earle of Murray laboured at the Queens hands for the safety of his life which hardly was granted and so was he delivered within the Castle of Edinburgh the eight and twentieth day of November 1562. where he remained till the eighth day of February when he was put to an Assise accused and convinced of Treason but was restored againe first to the Castle aforesaid and thereafter was transported to Dumbar where he remained prisoner till the moneth of August in the yeer of God 1565. as we will after hear In the mean time the troubles were hot in France and the intelligence and outward familiarity betwixt the two Queens was great Lethington was directed with large Commission both to the Queene of England and to the Guisians The Marriage of our Queen was in all mens mouthes some would have the Infant of Spaine some the Emperours Brother some Duke Denemours and some truely guessed at the Lord Darley What Lethingtons Credit was we know not but shortly after there began much to be talked of the Earle of Lenox and of his son the Lord Darley It was said that Lethington spake to the Lady Margaret Dowglas And that Robert Melvill received a horse to the Secretaries use from the Earle of Lenox or from his wife Howsoever it was Master Fouller servant to the said Earle came with Letters to the Queene by which License was permitted to the Earle of Lenox to come to Scotland to travell in his lawfull businesse That same day the Queens License was granted the Secretary said This day I have taken upon me the deadly hatred of all the Hamiltons within Scotland and have done unto them no lesse displeasure then if I had cut their throats The Earle Bothwell who before had broken Ward fearing apprehension or taking prepared to passe to France but by storm of Weather was driven into England where he was stayed and was offered to have been rendred by the Queen of England But our Queens answer was That he was no Rebell and therefore she requested that he should have liberty to passe whither he pleased And thereto Lethington helped not a little for he travelled to have friends in every faction of the Court. And so obtained the said Earle Lincense to passe to France The Winter after the death of the Earle of Huntley the Court remained for the most part at Edinburgh The Preachers were wondrous vehement in reprehension of all manner of Vice which then began to abound and especially Avarice Oppression of the poore Excesse Ryotous Cheer Banquetting immoderate Dancing and Whoredome that thereof ensues Whereat the Courtiers began to storme and to pick quarrells against the Preachers alleadging that all their Preaching was turned to Rayling whereunto one of them gave answer as followeth It comes to our eares that we are called Raylers whereof albeit we wonder yet we are not ashamed seeing that the most worthy servants of God that before us have travelled in this Vocation have so been stiled But unto you do I say That the same God who from the beginning hath punished the Contempt of his Word and hath poured forth his Vengeance upon such proud mockers shall not spare you yea he shall not spare you before the eyes of this same wicked Generation for the pleasure whereof ye despise all wholesome Admonitions Have you not seen greater then any of you sitting where presently ye sit pick his nayles and pull down his Bonnet over his eyes when Idolatry Witchcraft Murther Oppression and such Vices were rebuked Was not this his common talke When these Knaves have rayled their fill then will they hold their peace Have ye not heard it affirmed to his owne face That God should revenge that his Blasphemie even in the eyes of such as were witnesse to his iniquity Then was the Earle of Huntley accused by you as the maintainer of Idolatry and onely hinderer of all good Orders him hath God punished even according to the threatnings that his and your ears heard and by your hands hath God executed his Judgements But what amendment can be espied in you Idolatry was never in greater quiet Vertue and vertuous men were never in more contempt Vice was never more bold nor punishment lesse feared And yet who guides the Queene and Court who but the Protestants O horrible slanderers of God and of his holy Evangell Better it were unto you plainely to renounce Christ Jesus then thus to expose his blessed Evangell to Mockage if God punisheth not you That this same age shall see and behold your punishment the spirit of righteous judgement guides me not This vehemency provoked the hatred not onely of the Courtiers but also of divers others against the Speaker which was Iohn Knox for such as be in credit never lack flatterers Their Brethren of the Court were irreverendly handled What was that but to raise the hearts of the people against them They did what they could Such speaking would cause them to do lesse And this was the fruit that the Preachers gathered of their just reprehensions The generall Assembly of the Church held on the 25 of December 1562. approached In the which great complaints were made That Churches lacked Ministers That Ministers lacked their Stipends That wicked men were permitted to be Schoole-Masters and so to infect the youth amongst them whom one Master Robert Cunning Schoole-master in Aberbrothoke was complained upon by the Laird of Dun and sentence pronounced against him It was further complained That Idolatry was erected in divers parts of the Realm For redresse hereof some thought best That a new supplication should be presented to the Queen others demanded what answer was received of the former The superintendent of Lowthian confessed the delivery of it but said he I received no answer It was answered for the part of the Queene for her supposts were ever there that it was well known to the whole Realm what troubles had occurred since the last Assembly and therefore That they should not wonder albeit that the Queen had not answered but betwixt that and the Parliament which was appointed to be in May they doubted not but such order should be taken as all men should have occasion to stand content This satisfied for that time the whole Assembly And this was the practice of the Queene and of her Councell with faire words to drive time as before we have said The Assembly notwithstanding proceeded forward in establishing of such orders as whereby vice might be punished and vertue might be maintained And because there was a great slander risen upon Paul Meffane of whom mention is made in the
trouve en lien trop suspect that is Because I was found in a place too much suspected At the place of Execution when he saw that there was no remedie but death he made a godly confession and granted that his declining from the truth of God and following of vanitie and impietie was justly repayed unto him But in the end he concluded looking unto the Heavens with these words O cruelle Dame What that complaint imported I leave it to conjecture and so received Chattelet the reward of his dancing for he lost his Head that his Tongue should not utter the secrets of our Queen deliver us O Lord from the rage of so inordinate a Court. The year of God 1563. there was a universall death in all Scotland but in the North where the Harvest before the Queene had been there was a great Famine of which may died in that Countrey the dearth was great over all but the Famine in the Wheat the Beare or Barley the Meale the Oates Beefe Mutton c were exceeding dear and scant yea all things appertaining to the sustentation of man in triple and more exceeded their accustomed prices And so did God according to the threatning of the Law punish the Idolatry of our wicked Rulers and our ingratitude that suffered them to defile the Land with that abomination again that God so potently had purged by the power of his Word for the riotous Feasting and excessive Banquetting used in City and Countrey wheresoever that the prophane Court repaired provoked God to strike the Staffe of Bread and to give his maledictions upon the fruits of the earth But alas who looked or yet looks to the true cause of our Calamitie Lethington was absent as before we have heard in the Queens affairs the Papists at that Pasch. Ann. 1563. in divers parts of the Realm had erected that Idoll the Masse amongst whom the Bish. of S. Andrews the Prior of Quihithorn with divers others of that faction would avow it Besides the first Proclamation there had Letters past in the contrary with certification of death to the contraveiner The Brethren universally offended and espying that the Queene by Proclamation did but delude them determined to put to their own hands and to punish for example of others and so some Priests in the West-Land were apprehended Intimation made unto others as to the Abbot of Cosragnell the Parson of Sangohar and such that they should neither complaine to the Queene nor Counsell but should execute the punishment that God has appointed to Idolaters in his Law by such means as they might where ever they should be apprehended The Queen stormed at such freedom of speaking but she could not amend it for the Spirit of God of boldnesse and of wisdome had not left the most part of such as God had made Instruments in the beginning they were of one minde to maintaine the truth and to suppresse Idolatry particularities had not divided them and therefore could not the Devill working in the Court and in Papists do then what they would and therefore the Court began to invent a new craft The Queen advised to send for Iohn Knox to come to her where she lay at Lochlevin She dealt with him earnestly two houres before supper that he would be the Instrument to perswade the people and principally the Gentlemen of the West not to put hand to punish any man for the using of themselves in their religions as pleased them The other perceiving her craft willed her Majestie to punish Malefactors according to the Laws and he durst promise quietnesse upon the parâ— of all them that professed the Lord Jesus within Scotland But if her Majestie thought to delude the Laws he said he feared some would let the Papists understand that without punishment they should no be suffered so manifestly to offend Gods Majestie Will ye quoth she allow that they shall take my Sword in their hand The Sword of Justice quoth he Madame is Gods and is given to Princes and Rulers for one end which if they transgresse sparing the wicked and oppressing the Innocents They that in the fear of God execute Judgement where God hath commanded offend not God although Kings do it not neither yet sin they that bridle Kings to strike innocent men in their rage The examples are evident for Samuel spared not to slay Agag the fat and delicate King of Amelek whom King Saul had saved Neither spared Elias Iezabels false Prophets and Baals Priests albeit that King Achab was present Phineas was no Magistrate and yet feared he not to strike Zimri and Cozbi in the very act of filthy Fornication And so Madame your Majesty may see that others then chief Magistrates may lawfully punish and have punished the vice and crimes that God commands to be punished For Power by Act of Parliament is given to all Judges within their own bounds to search the Masse-mongers or hearers of the same and to punish them according to the Law And therefore it shall be profitable to your Majesty to consider what is the thing your Majesties subjects look to receive of your Majesty and what it is you ought to do unto them by mutuall Contract They are bound to obey you and that not but in God ye are bound to keep Laws unto them Ye crave of them service They crave of you Protection and Defence against wicked doers Now Madame if ye shall deny your Duty unto them who especially crave that ye punish Malefactors Think ye to receive full Obedience of them I fear Madame ye shall not Herewith she being somewhat offended past to her Supper The said Iohn left her and informed the Earle of Murray of the whole reasoning and so departed of finall purpose to have returned to Edinburgh without any further communication with the Queen But before the Sun rising on the morne were two directed Wat Melvill was the one to him commanding him not to depart whilst he had spoken with the Queens Majesty which he did and met her at the Hawking by West Kinros Whether it was the nights sleepe or a deep dissimulation locked in her brest that made her to forget the former anger wise men may doubt But thereof she never moved word but began divers other purposes such as the offering of a Ring to her by the Lord Ruthuen whom said she I cannot love for I know him to use Enchantment and yet he is one of my Privy Councell Whom blameth your Majesty said the other thereof Lethington said she was the whole cause That man is absent for this present said he Madame and therefore I will speak nothing in that behalfe I understand said the Queen That ye are appointed to go to Dumfreis for the Election of a Superintendent to be established in those Countreyes Yes said he those Quarters have great need and some of the Gentlemen so require But I heare said she That the Bishop of Caithnes would be Superintendent He is one
me and yet suffered me to perish that in so doing ye should be criminall and guilty of my blood Prove that and win the play said Lethington Well my Lord said the other remember your promise and I will be short in my probation The Prophet Ieremy was apprehended by the Priests and Prophets who were a part of the Authority within Ierusalem and by the multitude of the people and this sentence was pronounced against him Thou shalt die the death for thou hast said This house shall be like Siloh and this City shall be desolate without any Inhabitant c. The Princes hearing the uprore came from the Kings house and sate down in Judgement in the entry of the new Gate of the Lords House And there the Priests and Prophets before the Princes and before all the people intented their Accusation in these words This man is worthy to die for he hath prophesied against this City and your eares have heard Ieremiah answered That whatsoever he had spoken proceeded from God and therefore said he As for me behold I am in your hands do with me as ye thinke good and right But know ye for certaine That if ye put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon your soules and upon this Citie and upon the inhabitants thereof For of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speake all these words Now my Lord if the Princes and the whole people should have been guilty of the Prophets blood How shall ye or others be judged innocent before God if ye shall suffer the blood of such as have not deserved their blood to be shed when ye may save it The causes were nothing alike said Lethington And I would learn said the other wherein the dissimilitude stands First said Lethington the King had not condemned him to death And next The false Prophets the Priests and the People accused him without a cause and therefore they could not be guilty of his blood Neither of these said Iohn Knox fights against my argument For albeit the King was neither present nor yet had condemned him yet were the Princes and chiefe Councellors there sitting in Judgement who represented the Kings Authority hearing the accusation laid unto the charge of the Prophet And therefore he forewarns them of the danger as before is said to wit That in case he should be condemned and so put to death That the King the Councell and the whole City of Ierusalem should be guilty of his blood because that he had committed no crime worthy of death And if ye thinke that they all should have been criminall onely because that they all accused him the plain Text witnesseth the contrary for the Princes defended him and so no doubt did a great part of the People and yet he boldly affirmed That they should be all guilty of his blood if he should be put to death And the Prophet Ezekiel gives a reason Why all are guilty of common corruption Because saith he I sought a man amongst them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it but I found none Therefore have I poured forth my indignation upon them Hereof my Lord said he it is plain That God craves not onely that man should do no iniquity in his owne person but also that he oppose himself to all iniquity so farre as in him lieth Then will ye said Lethington make subjects to controll their Princes and Rulers And what harme said the other should the Common-wealth receive if the corrupt affections of ignorant Rulers were moderated and so bridled by the wisedome and discretion of godly subjects that they should do no wrong nor no violence to any man All this reasoning said Lethington is out of the purpose For we reason as if the Queen should become such an enemy to our Religion that she should persecute it and put innocent men to death while I am assured she never thought nor never will do For if I should see her begin at that end yea if I should suspect any such thing in her I should be as farre forward in that argument as ye or any other within the Realme But there is no such thing Our Question is Whether that ye may suppresse the Queens Masse or Whether that her Idolatry shall be laid to our charge What ye may said Iohn Knox by force I dispute not But what ye may and ought to do by Gods expresse Commandment that I can tell Idolatry ought not onely to be suppressed but the Idolater also ought to die the death But by whom By the people of God said the other for the Commandment was given to Israel as ye may reade Heare Israel sayes the Lord the Statutes and the Ordinances of the Lord thy God c. Yea a Commandment is given that if it be heard that Idolatry is committed in any one City inquisition shall be taken and if it be found true That then the whole Body of the People arise and destroy that City sparing in it neither man woman nor childe But there is no Commandment said the Secretary given to punish their King If he be an Idolater I finde no priviledge granted unto Kings said the other by God more then unto the people to offend Gods Majestie I grant said Lethington but yet the people may not be judges to their King to punish him albeit he be an Idoter God said the other is the Universall Judge as well unto the King as to the People So that what his Word commands to be punished in the one is not to be absolved in the other We agree in that said Lethington But the people may not execute Gods Judgements but mst leave it unto himselfe who will either punish it by Death by Warre by Imprisonment or by some other kinde of his Plagues I know said Iohn Knox the last part of the reason to be true But for the first That the people yea or a part of the people may not execute Gods Judgements against their King being an offendor I am assured ye have no other Warrant except your own imaginations and the opinion of such as more fear to offend their Princes then God Why say ye so said Lethington I have the judgement of the most famous men in Europe and of such as ye your selfe will confesse both godly and learned And with that he called for his Papers which produced by Master Maitland he bagan to reade with great gravity the Judgements of Luther Melancthon the mindes of Bucer Musculus and Calvin how Christians should behave themselves in time of Persecution yea the Book of Baruc was not omitted with this conclusion The gathering of those things said he hath cost me more travell then I thinke this seven yeers in reading Commentaries The more pity said the other and yet what you have profited your own cause let others judge But as for my argument I am assured you have infirmed
protection and defence that by you assured I may have accesse to my native Countrey which I never offended to the end that freely and openly in the presence of the whole Realm I may give my confession of all such Points as this day be in controversie And also that you by your authority which ye have of God compell such as of long time have blinded and deceived both your selves and the people to answer to such things as shall be laid to their charge But lest that some doubt remain That I require more of you then you of conscience are bound to grant in few words I hope my Petition to be such as without Gods heavy displeasure ye cannot deny My Petition is That ye whom God hath appointed Heads in your Common-wealth with single eye do study to promote the glory of God To provide that your subjects be rightly instructed in his true Religion That they be defended from all oppression and tyranny That true Preachers may be maintained and such as blinde and deceive the people together also with all idle bellies which do rob and oppresse the Flock may be removed and punished as Gods Law prescribeth And to the performance of every one of these do your Offices and Names the Honours and Benefits which ye receive the Law of God universally given to all men and the examples of most godly Princes binde and oblige you My purpose is not to labour greatly to prove That your whole studie ought to be To promote the glory of God Neither yet will I studie to alleadge all reasons that justly may be brought to prove That ye are not exalted to raign above your brethren as men without care and solicitude for these be principles so grafted in Nature that very Ethnicks have confessed the same For seeing that God onely hath placed you in his Chayr hath appointed you to be his Lieutenants and by his own Seal hath marked you to be Magistrates and to rule above your brethren to whom Nature neverthelesse hath made you like in all points for in conception birth life and death ye differ nothing from the common sort of men but God onely as said is hath promoted you and of his speciall favour hath given you this Prerogative to be called Gods How horrible ingratitude were it then that you should be found unfaithfull to him that hath thus honoured you And further What a monster were it that you should be proved unmercifull to them above whom ye are appointed to raigne as fathers above their children Because I say that the very Ethnicks have granted That the chief and first care of Princes and of such as be appointed to rule above others ought to be To promote the glory and honour of their Gods and to maintain that Religion which they supposed to have been true And that their second care was To maintain and defend the subjects committed to their charge in all equity and justice I will not labour to shew unto you what ought to be your studie in maintaining Gods true honour left that in so doing I should seem to make you lesse carefull to Gods true Religion then were the Ethnicks over their Idolatry But because other Petitions may appear more hard and difficile to be granted I purpose briefly but yet freely to speak what God by his Word doth assure me to be true to wit first That in conscience you are bound to punish malefactors and to defend innocents imploring your help Secondly That God requireth of you to provide that your subjects be rightly instructed in his true Religion and that the same be by you reformed whensoever abuses do creep in by the malice of Satan and negligence of men And lastly That ye are bonnd to remove from Honour and to punish with death if the crime so require such as deceive the people or defraud them of that food of their souls I mean Gods lively Word The first and second are most plain by the words of S. Paul thus speaking of lawfull powers Let every soul saith he submit himself unto the higher Powers for there is no power but of God Whosoever resisteth therefore the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation For Rulers are not to be feared of those that do well but of those that do evil Wilt thou then be without fear of the Power Do that which is good and so shalt thou be praised of the same For he is the Minister of God for thy weal But if thou do that which is evil fear for he beareth not the Sword for nought for he is the Minister of God to take vengeance on them that do evil As the Apostle in these words most straitly commandeth Obedience to be given to lawfull powers pronouncing Gods wrath and vengeance against such as shall resist the Ordinance of God so doth he assigne to the powers their Offices which be To take vengeance upon evil doers To maintain the well doers and so to minister and rule in their Office that the subjects by them may have a Benefit and be praised in well doing Now if you be powers ordained by God and that I hope all men will grant then by the plain words of the Apostle is the Sword given unto you by God for maintenance of the innocent and for punishment of malefactors But I and my brethren with me accused do offer not onely to prove our selves innocents in all things laid to our charge but also we offer most evidently to prove your Bishops to be the very pestilence who have infected all Christianity And therefore by the plain Doctrine of the Apostle you are bound to maintain us and punish the other being evidently convinced and proved criminall Moreover the former words of the Apostle do teach How far high powers are bound to their subjects to wit That because they be Gods Ministers by him ordained for the profit and utility of others most diligently ought they to attend upon the same For that cause assigneth the holy Ghost commanding subjects to obey and to pay Tribute saying For this do you pay Tribute and Toll that is Because they are Gods Ministers bearing the Sword for your utility Whereof it is plain That there is no honour without a charge annexed And this one point I wish your wisedoms deeply to consider That God hath not placed you above your Brethren to raigne as Tyrants without respect of either profit or commodity You hear the holy Ghost witnesse the contrary affirming That all powers be Gods Ministers ordained for the weal profit and salvation of their subjects and not for their destruction Could it be said I beseech you That Magistrates inclosing their subjects in a City without all victualls or giving unto them no other victualls but such as were poysoned did rule for the profit of their subjects I trust that none would be so foolish as so to affirm but that
from the Den of Lions To the confusion of their enemies To the better instruction of the ignorant Kings and To the perpetuall comfort of Gods afflicted children And Abdemelech in the day of the Lords Visitation when the King and his Councell did drink the bitter cup of Gods Vengeance did finde his life for a prey and did not fall by the edge of the sword when many thousands did perish And this was signified unto them by the Prophet himself at the commandment of God before that Ierusalem was destroyed This promise and cause were recited unto him in these words I will bring my words upon this City unto evil and not unto good but most assuredly I shall deliver thee because thou hast trusted in me saith the Lord. The trust and hope which Abdemelech had in God made himself bold to oppose himself being but one to the King and to his whole Councell who had condemned to death the Prophet whom his conscience did acknowledge to be innocent for thus did he speak in presence of the King sitting in the Port of Benjamin My Lord the King saith Abdemelech these men do wickedly in all things that they have done to Jeremy the Prophet Advert and take heed my Lords that the men who had condemned the Prophet were the King his Princes and Councell and yet did one man accuse them all of iniquity and did boldly speak in the defence of him of whose innocency he was perswaded And the same I say is the duty of every man in his Vocation but chiefly of the Nobility which is joyned with their kings to bridle and represse their folly and blinde rage Which thing if the Nobility do not neither yet labour to doe as they are Traitours to their Kings so do they provoke the wrath of God against themselves and against the Realme in which they abuse the Authoritie which they have received of God to maintaine Vertue and to suppresse Vice And hereof I would your Honours were most certainly perswaded That God will neither excuse Nobilitie nor people but the Nobility least of all that obey and follow their Kings in manifest iniquity but with the same vengeance will God punish the Prince People and Nobility conspiring together against him and his Holy Ordinances as in the punishment upon Pharaoh Israel Iuda and Babylon is evidently to be seene for Pharaoh was not drowned alone but his Captains Charets and great Army drank the same Cup with him The Kings of Israel and Iudah were not punished without company but with them were murthered the Counsellors their Princes imprisoned and their people led Captive And why because none was found so faithfull to God that he durst enterprise to resist nor gainstand the manifest impietie of their Princes And therefore was Gods wrath powred forth upon the one and the other But the more ample discourse of this argument I deferre to better opportunity onely at this time I thought expedient to admonish you That before God it shall not excuse you to alleadge We are no Kings and therefore neither can we reforme Religion nor yet defend such as be persecuted Consider my Lords that ye are powers ordained of God as before is declared and therefore doth the Reformation of Religion and the defence of such as unjustly are oppressed appertaine to your charge and care which thing shall the Law of God universally given to be kept of all men most evidently declare which is my last and most assured reason why I say ye ought to remove from your Honours and to punish with death such as God hath condemned by his own mouth After that Moses had declared what was true Religion to wit To honour God as he commanded adding nothing to his Word neither yet diminishing any thing from it and after also that vehemently he had exhort-the same Law to be observed he denounced the punishment against the Transgressors in these words If thy brother sonne daughter wife or neighbour whom thou lovest as thine own life solicitate thee secretly saying Let us go serve other gods whom neither thou nor thy fathers have knowne consent not to him hear him not let not thine eye spare him shew him no indulgency or favour hide him not but utterly kill him let thy hand be the first upon him that he may be slaine and after the hand of the whole people Of these words of Moses are two things appertaining to our purpose to be noted The first is that such as solicitate only to Idolatry ought to be punished to death without favour or respect of person For he that will not suffer man to spare his sonne his daughter nor his wife but straitly commandeth punishment to be taken upon the idolatours have they never so nigh conjunction with us will not wink at the Idolatry of others of what state or condition soever they be It is not unknown That the Prophets had Revelations of God which were not common to the people as Samuel had the Revelation that Eli and his posterity should be destroyed That Saul should first be King and thereafter That he should be rejected That David should raign for him Michaiah understood by Vision That Achab should be killed in the Battell against the Syrians Elias saw that dogs should eat Iezabel in the Forts of Iezreel Elisha did see hunger come upon Israel by the space of seven yeers Ieremiah did foresee the destruction of Ierusalem and the time of their Captivity And so divers other Prophets had divers Revelations of God which the people did not otherwise understand but by their affirmation and therefore in those dayes were the Prophets named Seers because that God did open unto them that which was hid from the multitude Now if any man might have claimed any priviledge from the rigour of the Law or might have justified his fact it should have been the Prophet For he might have alleadged for himself his singular Prerogative that he had above other men to have Gods Will revealed unto him by Vision or by Dream or That God had declared particularly unto him that his pleasure was To be honoured in that manner in such a place and by such means But all such excuses doth God remove commanding That the Prophet that shall so solicitate the people to serve strange Gods shall die the death notwithstanding that he alleadge for himself Dream Vision or Revelation yea although he promise miracles and although that such things as he promised should come to passe yet I say commandeth God that no credit be given to him but that he die the death because he teacheth apostasie and defection from God Hereby your Honours may easily see That none provoking the people to Idolatry ought to be exempted from the punishment of death For if neither that inseparable Conjunction which God himself hath sanctified betwixt man and wife neither that unspeakable love grafted in nature which is betwixt the father and the son neither yet that
reverence which Gods people ought to bear to the Prophets can excuse any man to spare the offender or to conceal his offence What excuse can man pretend which God will accept Evident it is That no state condition nor honour can exempt the Idolater from the hands of God when he shall call him to account or shall inflict punishment upon him for his offence How shall it then excuse the people that they according to Gods Commandment punish not to death such as shall solicitate or violently draw the people to Idolatry And this is the first which I would your Honours should note of the former words to wit That no person is exempted from punishment if he can be manifestly convinced to have provoked or led the people to Idolatry And this is most evidently declared in that solemn Oath and Covenant which Asa made with the people To serve God and to maintain his Religion adding this penalty to the transgressors of it to wit That whosoever should not seek the God of Israel should be killed were he great or were he small were it man or were it woman And of this Oath was the Lord well pleased he was found of them and gave them rest on every part because they sought him with their whole heart and did swear to punish the offenders according to the Precept of his Law without respect of persons And this is it which I say I would your Honours should note for the first That no Idolater can be exempted from punishment by Gods Law The second is That the punishment of such crimes as are Idolatry Blasphemy and others that touch the Majesty of God doth not appertain to the Kings and chief Rulers onely but also to the whole Body of the people and to every member of the same according to the Vocation of every man and according to that possibility and occasion which God doth minister to revenge the injury done against his glory when that impiety is manifestly known And that doth Moses more plainly speak in these words If in any Cities saith he which the Lord thy God giveth to thee to dwell in them thou shalt hear this brute There are some men the sons of Belial passed from thee and have solicited the Citizens out of their Cities by these words Let us go and serve strange gods which you have not known search and enquire diligently and if it be true that such abomination is done in the midst of thee thou shalt utterly strike the Inhabitants of that City with the Sword thou shalt destroy it and whatsoever is within it thou shalt gather the spoyl of it into the midst of the Market-place thou shalt burn that City with fire and the spoyl of it to the Lord thy God that it may be a heap of stones for ever neither shall it be any more builded Let nothing of that execration cleave to thy hand that the Lord may turn from thee the fury of his wrath and be moved towards thee with inward affection Plain it is That Moses speaketh not nor giveth charge to Kings Rulers and Judges onely but he commandeth the whole Body of the people yea and every member of the same according to their possibility And who dare be so impudent as to deny this to be most reasonablâ— and just For seeing that God had delivered the whole Body from Bondage and to the whole multitude had given his Law and to the twelve Tribes had he so distributed the inheritance of the Land of Canaan that no family could complain that it was neglected Was not the whole and every member addebted to confesse and acknowledge the benefits of God yea had it not been the part of every man to have studied to keep the possession which he had received Which thing God did plainly pronounce they should not do except that in their hearts they did sanctifie the Lord God That they embraced and inviolably kept his Religion established and finally except they did cut out iniquity from amongst them declaring themselves earnest enemies to those abominations which God declared himself so vehemently to hate that first he commanded the whole inhabitants of that Countrey to be destroyed and all Monuments of ther Idolatry to be broken down And thereafter he also straitly commandeth That a City declining to Idolatry should fall by the edge of the sword and that the whole spoyl of the â—ame should be burned no portion of it reserved To the carnall man this may appear a rigorous and severe judgement yea it may rather seem to be pronounced in a rage then in wisedom For what City was ever yet in which to mans judgement were not to be found many innocent persons as infants children and some simple and ignorant souls who neither did nor could consent to such impiety And yet we finde no exception but all are appointed to the cruell death And as concerning the City and the spoyl of the same mans reason cannot think but that it might have been better bestowed then to be consumed with fire and so to profit no man But in such cases Gods will is That all creatures stoup cover their faces desist from reasoning when commandment is given to execute his judgement Albeit I could adduce divers causes of such severity yet will I search none other then the holy Ghost hath assigned First That all Israel hearing the judgement should fear to commit the like abomination And secondly That the Lord might turn from the fury of his anger might be moved towards the people with inward affection be mercifull unto them and multiply them according to his Oath made unto their fathers Which reasons as they are sufficient in Gods children to correct the murmuring of the grudging flesh so ought they to provoke every man as before I have said to declare himself enemy to that which so highly provoketh the wrath of God against the whole people For where Moses saith Let the City be burned and let no part of the spoyl cleave to thy hand that the Lord may return from the fury of his wrath c. he plainly doth signifie That by the defection and Idolatry of a few Gods wrath is kindled against the whole which is never quenched till such punishment be taken upon the offenders that whatsoever served them in their Idolatry be brought to destruction because that it is execrable and accursed before God and therefore he will not that it be reserved for any use of his people I am not ignorant that this Law was not put in execution as God commanded But what did thereof ensue and follow histories declare to wit Plague after plague till Israel and Iuda were led in Captivity as the Books of the Kings do witnesse The consideration whereof maketh me more boâ—d to affirm That it is the duty of every man who desireth to escape the plague and punishment of God To declare himself enemy to Idolatry not onely in heart hating the
That ye and your posterity shall by that means receive most singular comfort edification and profit For when ye shall hear the matter debated ye shall easily perceive and understand upon what ground and foundation is builded that Religion which amongst you is this day defended by fire and sword As for mine owne conscience I am most assuredly perswaded That whatsoever is used in the Papisticall Church is altogether repugning to Christs blessed Ordinance and is nothing but mortall venome of which whosoever drinketh I am assuredly perswaded that therewith he drinketh death and damnation except by true conversion unto God he be purged from the same But because that long silence of Gods Word hath begotten ignorance almost in all sorts of men and ignorance joyned with long custome hath confirmed superstition in the hearts of many I therefore in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ desire audience as well of you the Commonalty my brethren as of the States and Nobility of the Realm that in publike Preaching I may have place amongst you at large to utter my minde in all matters of controversie this day in Religion And further I desire That ye concurring with your Nobility would competl your Bishops and Clergie to cease their tyranny And also That for the better assurance and instruction of your conscience ye would compell your said Bishops and false Teachers to answer by the Scriptures of God to such Objections and crimes as shall be laid against their vain Religion false Doctrine wicked life and slanderous conversation Here I know that it shall be objected That I require of you a thing most unreasonable to wit That ye should call your Religion in doubt which hath been approved and established by so long continuance and by the consent of so many men before you But I shortly answer That neither is the long continuance of time neither yet the multitude of men a sufficient approbation which God will allow for our Religion For as some of the ancient Writers do witnesse neither can long processe of time justifie an errour neither can the multitude of such as follow it change the nature of the same But if it was an errour in the beginning so is it in the end and the longer that it be followed and the mo that do receive it it is more pestilent and more to be avoided For if antiquity or multitude of men could justifie any Religion then was the Idolatry of the Gentiles and now is the abomination of the Turks good Religion For antiquity approved the one and a multitude hath received and doth defend the other But otherwise to answer godly men may wonder from what Fountain such a sentence doth flow that no man ought to trie his faith and Religion by Gods Word but that he safely may beleeve and follow every thing which antiquity and multitude have approved the Spirit of God doth otherwise teach us for the wisdome of God Christ Jesus himself remitted his adversaries to Moses and the Scriptures to trie by them whether his Doctrine were of God or not The Apostles Paul and Peter command men to trie the Religion which they professe by Gods plaine Scriptures and doe praise men for so doing Saint Iohn straightly commandeth That we beleeve not every spirit but to trie the spirits whether they be of God or not Now seeing that these evident testimonies of the holy Ghost will us to trie our faith and Religion by the plain Word of God wonder it is that the Papists will not be content that their Religion and Doctrine come under the triall of the same If this sentence of Christ be true as it is most true seeing it springeth from the verity it self Who so doth evill hateth the Light neither will he come to the Light lest that his works be manifested and rebuked then do our Papists by their own sentence condemne themselves and their Religion for in so farre as they refuse examination and triall they declare that they know some fault which the Light will utter which is a cause of their fear and why they claim that priviledge that no man dispute of their Religion the Verity and Truth being of the nature of fine purified Gold doth not fear the triall of the Fornace but the stubble and Chaffe of mans inventions such is their Religion may not abide the the flame of fire True it is that Mahomet pronounced this sentence That no man should in pain of death dispute or reason of the ground of his Religion which Law to this day by the art of Sathan is observed amongst the Turkes to their mortall blindnesse and horrible blaspheming of the Gospell of Christ Jesus and of his true Religion And from Mahomet or rather from Sathan the father of all lies hath the Pope and his rabble learned this former lesson to wit Their Religion should not be disputed upon but what the fathers have beleeved that ought and must the Children approve and in so divising Satan lacked not his foresight for no one thing hath more established the kingdome of that Romane Antichrist then this most wicked decree to wit That no man was permitted to reason of his power or to call his Laws in doubt This is most assured that whensoever the Papisticall Religion shall come to examination it shall be found to have no other ground then hath the religion of Mahomet to wit mans invention device and dreams overshaddowed with some colour of Gods Word And therefore Brethren seeing that the Religion is to man as the stomack to the body which if it be corrupted doth infect the whole Members it is necessary that the same be examined and if it be found replenished with pestilent humours I mean with the fantasies of men then of necessitie it is that those be purged else shall your bodies and souls perish for ever For of this I would ye were most certainly perswaded that a corrupt Religion defileth the whole life of man appear it never so holy Neither would I that ye should esteem the Reformation and care of Religion lesse to appertain to you because ye are no Kings Rulers Judges Nobles nor in Authoritie beloved Brethren ye are Gods Creatures created and formed to his own Image and similitude for whose redemption was shed the most precious blood of the onely beloved Sonne of God to whom he hath commanded his Gospell and glad-tydings to be preached and for whom he hath prepared the heavenly Inheritance so that ye will not obstinatly refuse and disdainfully contemne the means which he hath appointed to obtain the same to wit his blessed Evangell which now he offereth unto you to the end that ye may be saved For the Gospell and glad Tydings of the Kingdome truly preached is the power of God to the salvation of every Beleever which to credite and receive your the Communalty are no lesse addebted then be your Rulers and Princes for albeit God
hearts but their whole minde was upon their bellies for sufficing whereof they devised and imagined that they would appoint Christ Jesus to be their worldly King for he had power to multiply bread at his pleasure Which vain opinion and imagination perceived by Christ Jesus he withdrew himselfe from their company to avoid all such suspition and to let them understand That no such honours did agree with his Vocation who came to serve and not to be served And when this same people sought him againe he sharply rebuked them because they sought him more to have their Bellies fed with corruptible meat then to have their souls nourished with lively Bread that came down from Heaven And thus in the people there was just cause why Christ should withdraw himself from them for a time Why the Disciples should suffer that great danger feare and anguish Saint Marke in his Gospel plainly sheweth saying That their hearts were blinded and therefore did neither remember nor consider the miracle of the Loaves That is Albeit with their hands they had touched that bread by which so great a multitude was fed and albeit also they had gathered up twelve Baskets full of that which remained of a few Loaves which before the Miracle a Boy was able to have borne yet did they not rightly consider the infinite power of Christs Jesus by this wonderfull Miracle And therefore of necessity it was that in their owne Bodies they should suffer trouble for their better instruction When I deeply consider dearly beloved in our Saviour Christ how abundantly and how miraculously the poor and small flock of Christ Jesus was fed within the Realm of England under that elect and chosen Vessell of God to glory and honour Edward the sixt and now again behold not onely the dispersion and scattering abroad but also the appearing destruction of the same under these cursed cruell and abominable Idolaters me thinke I see the same causes to have moved God not onely to withdraw his presence from the multitude but also to have sent his welbeloved servants to the travels of the Seas wherein they were sore tossed and turmoyled and apparently most like to perish What were the affections of the greatest multitude that followed the Gospel in this former rest and abundance is easie to be judged if the life and conversation of every man should have beene thorowly examined For who lived in that rest as that he had refused himself Who lived in that rest as that he had been crucified with Christ Who lived in that rest as that he had certainly looked for trouble to come upon him Yea who lived not rather in delicacy and joy and seeking the world and pleasures thereof caring for the flesh and carnall appetites as though death and sin had clean been devoured And what was this else then to make of Christ an earthly King The Word that we professed daily cryed in our ears that our Kingdome our joy our rest and felicitie neither was is nor should be upon the earth neither in any transitory thing thereof but in heaven into which we must enter by many tiibulations But alas we sleeped in such securitie that the sound of the Trumpet could of many never be perfectly understood but alwayes we perswaded our selves of a certaine tranquility as though the troubles whereof mention is made within the Scriptures of God appertained nothing at all to this age but unto such as of long time are passed before us and therfore was our heavenly Father compelled to withdraw from us the presence of his veritie whose voyce in those dayes we could not beleeve to the end that more earnestly we may thirst for the same and with more obedience embrace and receive it if ever it shall please his infinite goodnesse in such abundance to restore the same againe I mean nothing of those that followed Christ only for their bellies for such perceiving that they could not obtain their hearts desire of Christ have grudged and left him in body and heart which thing their blasphemous voices spake against his eternall verity doth witnesse and declare For such brethren be ye not moved for in the time of their profession they were not of us but were very dissemblers and Hypocrites and therefore God justly permitteth that they blaspheme the Truth which they never loved I mean not that ever such dissembling Hypocrites shall embrace the verity but I meane such as by infirmitie of the flesh and by naturall blindnesse which in this life is never altogether expelled then could not give the very obedience which Gods Word required neither now by weaknesse of faith dare openly and boldly confesse that which their hearts know to be most true and yet lamenteth mourneth both for the imperfection by passed and present from such shall not the amiable presence of Christ for ever be withdrawn but yet again shall the eyes of their soretroubled hearts behold and see that light of Christs Gospell wherein they most delight We the Ministers who were the distributers of this bread the true Word of God wherewith the multitude within England was fed lacked not our offences which also moved God to send us to the Sea And because the offences of no man are so manifest unto me as mine own I will onely censure my self It is not unknown unto many that I the most wretched was one of that number whom God appointed to receive that Bread as it was broken by Christ Jesus to distribute and give the same to such as he had called to this banquet in that part of his table where he appointed me to serve It is not in my knowledge nor judgement to define nor determine what portion or quantity every man received of this bread neither yet how that which they received agreed with their stomacks but of this I am assured That the benediction of Christ Jesus so multiplyed the portion which I received of his hands that during the banquet this I write to the praise of his Name and to the accusation of mine owne unthankfulnesse the bread never failed when the hungry soule craved or cried for food and at the end of the banquet mine own conscience beareth witnesse that mine hands gathered up the crummes that were left in such abundance that the banquet was full among the rest To be plain mine own conscience beareth record to my self how small was my learning and how weak I was of judgement when Christ Jesus called me to be his steward and how mightily day by day and time by time he multiplied his graces with me if I should conceale I were most wicked and unthankfull But alas how blinded was my heart and how little I did consider the dignity of that Office and the power of God that then multiplied and blessed the bread which the people received of my hands this day mine own conscience beareth witnesse to my selfe God I take
passe over the Tyrants of old time whom God hath plagued let us come to the Tyrants which now are within the Realm of England whom God will not long spare If Steven Gardener Cuthbert Tunstal and Butcherly Bonnar false Bishops of Winchester Duresme and of London had for their false Doctrine and Traiterous acts suffered death when they justly deserved the same then would arrant Papists have alleadged as I and others have heard them do that they were men reformable That they were meet Instruments for a Common-wealth That they were not so obstinate and malicious as they were judged neither that they thirsted for the blood of any man And of Lady Mary who hath not heard That she was not sober mercifull and one that loved the Common-wealth of England Had she I say and such as now be of her pestilent Councell been dead before these dayes then should not their iniquity and cruelty so manifestly have appeared to the world for who could have thought that such cruelty could have entred into the heart of a woman and into the heart of her that is called a Virgine that she would thirst for the blood of innocents and of such as by just Laws and faithfull witnesses can never be proved to have offended by themselves I finde that Athalia through appetite to Reign murthered the Seed of the Kings of Iudah and that Herodias daughter at the desire of a whorish Mother obtained the head of Iohn the Baptist but yet that ever a woman suffered her self to be called the most blessed Virgin caused so much blood to be spilt for establishing of the usurped Authoritie of the Pope I think the like is rare to be found in Scripture or other History I finde that Iezabel that cursed Idolatresse caused the blood of the Prophets of God to be shed and Naboth to be murthered unjustly for his own Vineyard but yet I think she never erected halfe so many Gallows in all Israel as mischievous Mary hath done within London alone But you Papists will excuse your Mary the Virgine Well let her be your Virgine and a Goddesse meet to entertain such Idolaters yet shall I rightly lay to her charge that which I think no Papist within England will justifie nor defend And therefore O ye Papists here I will a little turn my Pen unto you Answer unto this Question O ye Seed of the Serpent Would any of you have confessed two years ago that Mary your mirrour had been false dissembling unconstant proud and a breaker of promises except such promises as she made to your god the Pope to the great shame and dishonour of her noble Father I am sure you would hardly have thought it of her And now doth she not manifestly shew her self to be an open Traitoresse to the Imperiall Crown of England contrary to the just Laws of the Realme to bring in a stranger and make a proud Spanyard King to the shame dishonour and destruction of the Nobilitie to the spoile of their Honours Lands Possessions chief Offices and promotions of them and theirs To the utter decay of the Treasures Commodities Navie and Fortifications of the Realm to the abasing of the Yeomandry to the slavery of the Commonalty to the overthrow of Christianity and Gods true Religion and finally to the utter subversion of the whole publike estate and Common-wealth of England Let Norfolk and Suffolke let her own Promise and Proclamation let her fathers Testament let the Citie of London let the ancient Laws and Acts of Parliaments before established in England be judges betwixt mine accusation and her most tyrannous iniquity First her Promise and Proclamation did signifie and declare That neither she would bring in neither yet Marry any stranger Northfolk Suffolk and the Citie of London do testifie and witnesse the same The ancient Laws and Acts of Parliament pronounceth it Treason to transferre the Crown of England into the hands of a forraigne Nation and the Oath made to observe the said Statutes cryeth out That all they are perjured that consent to that her traiterous fact Speak now O ye Papists and defend your monstrous Masters and deny if ye can for shame that she hath not uttered her self to be borne alas therefore to the ruine and destruction of noble England Oh who would ever have beleeved I write now in bitternesse of heart that such unnaturall crueltie should have had dominion over any reasonable creature But the saying to be true That the usurped Government of an affectionate woman is a rage without reason Who would ever have thought that the love of that Realme which hath brought forth which hath nourished and so nobly maintained that wicked woman should not have moved her heart with pitie Who seeth not now that she in all her doings declareth most manifestly that under an English name she beareth a Spaniards heart If God I say had not for our scourge suffered her and her cruell Councell to have come to Authority then could never these their abominations cruelty and treason against God against his Saints and against the Realm whose liberties they are sworn to defend so manifestly have been declared And who ever could have beleeved That proud Gardener and treacherous Tunstall whom all Papists praised for the love they bare to their Countrey could have become so manifestly Traiterous not onely against their solemne Oathes that they should never consent nor agree unto that a forraigne Stranger should reigne over England but also that they would adjudge the Imperiall Crown of the same to appertain to a Spanyard by inheritance Lineall discent O Traiterous Traitours how can you for shame shew your faces It cometh to my minde that upon Christmas day Anno 1552. preaching in New-Castle upon Tine and speaking against the obstinacie of the Papists I made this affirmation That whosoever in his heart was enemy to Christs Gospel and Doctrine which then was preached within the Realm of England was enemy also to God and secret traitours to the Crown and Common-wealth of England for as they thirsted nothing more then the Kings death which their iniquity could procure so they regarded not who should reign over them so that their Idolatry might be erected again How these my words at that time pleased men the crimes and action intended against me did declare But let my very enemies now say their conscience if those may words have not proved true What is the cause that Winchester and the rest of his pestilent sect so greedily would have a Spanyard to reign over England The cause is mafest for as that Hellish Nation surmounteth all other in pride and Whoredome so for Idolatry and vaine Papisticall and devillish Ceremonies they may rightly be called the very sons of superstition And therefore are they found and judged by the Progeny of Antichrist most apt Instruments to maintain establish and defend the Kingdom of that cruell Beast whose head and wound is lately
the Prophets to defend the wicked deceit fraud and violence in the common people and finally an universall silence of all men none being found to reprehend these enormities Would to God that I might with safetie of conscience excuse you your Counsell and the Idolaters of that Realm from any of these crimes aforenamed The Idolatry which is committed is more evident then that it can be denyed the avarice and crueltie as well of your self as of such as be in authority may be known by the facts For fame carrieth the voices of the poor oppressed by intolerable taxes not onely to us here in a strange Country but I am assured to the ears of the God of hostes The conspiracy and conjuration of your false Prophets is known to the world and yet is none found so faithfull to God nor mercifull to your Majestie that freely will and dare admonish you to repent before that God rise himself in judgement When I name repentance I mean no outward shew of holinesse which commonly is found in Hypocrites but I mean a true conversion to the Lord God from your whole heart with a damning of all superstition and idolatry In which ye have been nourished which with your presence ye have decored and to your power maintained and defended Unlesse I say that this poyson be purged from your heart be your outward life never so glistering before the world yet in the presence of God it is but abominable Yea further I say that where this venome of the Serpent idolatry I mean lurketh in the heart it is impossible but that at one time or other it shall produce pestilent fruits albeit peradventure not openly before men yet before God no lesse odious then the facts of Murtherers Publicanes and Harlots and therefore in my former Letter I said that superfluous it was to require Reformation of manners where the Religion is corrupted Which yet again I repeat to the end that your Majestie more deeply may weigh the matter But now to the rest of the same my former Letter Letter I Am not ignorant how dangerous a thing it appeareth to the naturall man to innovate any thing in matters of Religion and partly I consider That your power Madam is not so free as a publike Reformation perchance would require But if your Majestie shall consider the danger and damnation perpetuall which inevitable hangeth upon all maintainers of a false Religion then shall the greatest danger easily devour and swallow up the smaller If you shall consider That either ye must serve God to life everlasting or else serve the World to death and damnation then albeit that man and angel should disswade you ye will chose life and refuse death And if further ye shall consider that the very life consisteth in the knowledge of the onely true God and of his Son Christ Iesus and that true knowledge hath annexed with it Gods true worship and honour which requireth a testimony of his own Will expressed by his Word That such honour doth please him if you do earnestly meditate these things aforesaid then albeit ye cannot do saddenly what ye would yet shall ye not cease to do what ye may Your Majestie cannot hastily abolish Superstition and remove from offices unprofitable Pastours of whom speaketh Ezekiel the Prophet which to a publike Reformation is requisite and necessary But if the zeal of Gods glory be fervent in your Majesties heart ye will not by wicked Laws maintain Idolatry neither will ye suffer the fury of Bishops to murther and devour the poor Members of Christs body as in times past they have been accustomed which thing if either by blind ignorance ye do or yet for pleasure of others within this Realm permit to be done then except you speedily repent ye and your posteritie shall suddenly feel the depressing hand of him who hath exalted you Ye shall be compelled will ye or not to know that he is eternall against whom ye addresse the Battell and that it is he that moderateth the times and disposeth Kingdoms ejecting from authoritie such as be inobedient and placing others according to his good pleasure That it is he that glorifieth them that do glorifie him and powreth forth contempt upon Princes that rebell against his graces offered Addition IN writing of this parcell as I remembred the impediments which might call you back from God and from his true obedience so did I consider what occasion you had to tremble and to fear before his Majestie and to undergo the losse of all the worldly glory for the promoting of the glory of God I do consider that your power is but borrowed extraordinary and unstable for you have it but by permission of others And seldom it is that women do long raign with felicitie and joy Your most especiall friends moreover blinded by the vanitie of this World yea being drunken with the Cup of that Roman Harlot are mortall enemies to Christ Jesus and to his true Religion These things may easily abash the minde of a Woman not confirmed by grace But yet if you will a little consider with me the causes why that ye ought to hazard all for the glory of God in this behalf the former terrours shall suddenly vanish I do not esteem that thing greatest which peradventure some others do to wit That if ye shall enterprise to innovate any thing in matters of Religion that then ye shall lose your Authoritie and also the favours of your carnall friends I look further to wit To the judgements of God who hath begun already to declare himself angry with you with your Seed and Posteritie yea with the whole Realm above which it should have ruled Impute not to fortune that first your two sons were suddenly taken from you within the space of six houres and after your Husband raft as it were by violence from life and honour the memoriall of his name succession and royall dignitie perishing with himself For albeit the usurped abuse or rather tyranny of some REALMS have permitted Women to succeed to the honour of their Fathers yet must their glory be transferred to the house of a stranger And so I say That with himself was buried his name succession and royall dignitie as he himself did apprehend in dying And in this If ye espy not the anger and hot displeasure of GOD threatning you and the rest of your Posteritie with the same plague ye are more obstinate then I would wish you to be I would ye should ponder and consider deeply with your self That God useth not to punish Realms and Nations with such rare plagues without great cause neither useth he to restore to honours and glory the house which he beginneth once to deject till repentance of the former crimes be found you may perchance doubt what crimes should have been in your Husband you or the Realm for the which God should so grievously have punished you I answer The
unfainedly cry to him when he correcteth us And so shall we know in experience that our cryes and complaints were not in vain But let us hear what the Prophet saith further Like as a woman saith he with child that draweth neer the travell is in sorrow and cryeth in her pains so have we been in thy sight O Lord we have conceivâ—d we have born in vain as though we should have brought forth the wind Salvations were not made to the earth neither did the inhabitants of the earth fall This is the second part of the Prophets complaint in the which he in the person of Gods people complaineth that of their great affliction there appeared not end This same similitude is used by our Master Jesus Christ for when he speaketh of the troubles of his Church he compareth them to the pains of a woman travelling in her child-birth But it is to another end For there he promiseth exceeding and permanent joy after a sort though it appear trouble But here is the trouble long vehement albeit the fruit of it was not suddenly espied He speaketh no doubt of that long and dolorous time of their captivity in the which they continually travelled for deliverance but obtained it not before the compleat end of 70 yeres during the which time the earth that is the land of Iuda which somtimes was sanctified unto God but was then given to be prophaned by wicked people got no help nor perceiving any deliverance For the Inhabitants of the world fell not that is the tyrants and oppressors of Gods people were not taken away but stil remained and continued blasphemers of God and troublers of his Church But because I perceive the houres to passe more swiftly then they have done at other times I mind to contract that which resteth of this Text into certain points The Prophet first fighteth against the present despair After he introduceth God himselfe calling upon his people And last of all he assureth his afflicted that God will come and require account of all the blood thirsty Tyrants of the earth First fighting against the present despair he saith Thy dead shall live even my Body or with my body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust For thy dew is as the dew of herbes The Prophet here pierceth through all impediments that nature could object And by the victory of faith he overcommeth not only the common enemies but the great and last enemy of all to wit death it selfe For this would he say Lord I see nothing to thy chosen but misery to follow misery one affliction to succeed another yea in the end I see that death shall devour thy dearest children But yet O Lord I see thy promise to be true thy love to remain towards thy chosen even when death appeared to have devoured them For thy dead shal live yea not only shal they live but my very dead Carcase shall arise And so I see honour and glory to succeed this temporall shame I see joy permanent to come after trouble order to spring out of this terrible confusion and finally I see that life shall devour death so that death shall be destroyed and so thy servants shall have life This I say is the victory of faith when in the midst of death through the light of Gods Word the afflicted see life Hypocrites in the time of quietnesse and prosperitie can generally confesse That God is true in his promises but bring them to the extremitie and there ceaseth the Hypocrite further to trust in God then he seeth naturall means whereby God useth to work But the true faithfull when all hope of naturall means faileth then flie they to God himself and to the truth of his Promise who is above nature yea whose works are not so subject to the ordinary course of nature that when Nature faileth his Power and Promise fail also therewith Let us further observe That the Prophet here speaketh not of all dead in generall but saith Thy dead O Lord shall live In which words he maketh difference betwixt those that die in the Lord and those that die in their naturall corruption and in the old Adam Dye in the Lord can none except those that live in him I mean those that attain to the yeers of discretion and none live in him but those that with the Apostle can say I live and yet not I but Christ Iesus that dwelleth in me The life that I now live I have by the faith of the Sonne of God Not that I mean That the faithfull have at all hours such sense of the life everlasting that they fear not the death and the troubles of this life no not so for the faith of Gods Children is weak yea and in many things imperfect But I mean That such as in death and after death shall live must communicate in this life with Jesus Christ and must be regenerate by the seed of life that is by the Word of the everliving God which whosoever despiseth refuseth life and joy everlasting The Prophet transferreth all the promises of God to himselfe saying Even my dead body shall arise and immediately after giveth commandement and charge to the dwellers in the dust that is To the dead Carcases of those that were departed for the spirit and soul of man dwelleth not in the dust That they should awake that they should sing and rejoyce for they should arise and spring up from the earth even as the Herbs do after they have received the dew from above Time will not suffer that these particulars be so largely treated as they ought to be and as I gladly would therefore let us consider That the Prophet in transferring the Power and Promise of God to himself doth not vindicate to himself any particular prerogative above the people of God as that he alone should live and arise and not they also But he doth it to let them understand That he taught a Doctrine whereof he was certain yea and whereof they should have experience after his death As if he should say My words appear to you now to be incredible but the day shall come that I shall be taken from you my Carcase shall be inclosed in the bosome of the earth and therefore shall ye be led away Captives to Babylon where ye shall remain many dayes and yeers as it were buryed in your Sepulchres But then call to minde that I said unto you before hand that my body shall arise Even so shall ye rise from your graves out of Babylon and be restored to your own Countrey and City of Ierusalem This I doubt not is the true meaning of the Prophets The charge that he giveth to the dwellers in the dust is to expresse the power of Gods Word whereby he not onely giveth life where death apparantly had prevailed but also by it he calleth things that are not even as if they were True it is
that the Prophet Isaiah saw not the destruction of Ierusalem much lesse could he see the restitution of it with his corporall eyes but he leaveth this as it were in testament with them That when they were in the extremity of all bondage they should call to minde what the Prophet of God had before spoken And lest that his doctrine and this promise of God made unto them by his mouth should have been forgotten as we are ever prone and ready to forget Gods promises when we are pressed with any sorrow God raised up unto them in the midst of their calamity his Prophet Ezekiel unto whom among many other visions he gave this The hand of the Lord first led him in a place which was full of dry and dispersed bones The question was demanded of the Prophet if these bones being wondrous dry should live The Prophet answered The knowledge thereof appertained unto God Charge was given unto him that he should speak unto the dry bones and say Thus saith the Lord God to these bones Behold I shall give you breath and you shall live I shall give unto you sinews flesh and skin and you shall live And while the Prophet spake as he was commanded he heard a voyce and he saw every bone joyn in his Marrow he saw them covered with flesh and skin albeit there was no spirit of life in them He was commanded again to speak and to say Thus saith the Lord God Come O spirit from the four quarters and blow in these that are slain that they may live And as he prophesied the spirit of life came They lived and stood upon their feet Now doth the Lord interpret what this vision meant saying O Son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say our bones are dryed our hope is perished we are plainly cut off But behold saith the Lord I will open your graves I will bring you forth of them ye shall live and come unto the Land of Israel and ye shall know that I am the Lord. This vision I say given to the Prophet and by the Prophet preached to the people when they thought that God had utterly forgotten them compelled them more diligently to advert what the former Prophets had spoken It is no doubt but they carryed with them both the prophesie of Isaiah and Ieremy so that the Prophet Ezekiel is a Commentary to these words of Isaiah where he saith Thy dead O Lord shall live with my body they shall arise The Prophet bringeth in this similitude of the dew to answer unto that part of their fidelity who can believe no further of Gods promises then they are able to apprehend by naturall judgement As he would say Think ye this impossible that God shall give life unto you and bring you to an estate of a Common-wealth again after that ye be dead and as it were raced from the face of the earth But why do ye not consider what God worketh from yeer to yeer in the order of nature sometimes ye see the face of the earth decked and beautified with herbs flowers grasse and fruits Again ye see the same utterly taken away by storms and vehemency of the Winter What doth God to replenish the earth again and to restore the beauty thereof He sendeth down his small and soft dew the drops whereof in their descending are neither great nor visible and yet thereby are the pores and secret veins of the earth which before by vehemency of frost and cold were shut up opened again and so doth the earth produce again the like herbs flowers and fruits Shall ye then think that the dew of Gods heavenly grace shall not be as effectuall in you to whom he hath made his promise as that it is in the herbes and fruits that from year to year buddeth forth and decayeth If ye do so the Prophet would say your incredibility is inexcusable because ye do neither rightly weigh the power nor the promise of your God The like similitude useth the Apostle Paul against such as called the resurrection in doubt because that by naturall judgement they could not apprehend that flesh once putrified and resolved as it were in other substance should arise again and return again to the same substance and nature O fool saith he that which thou sowest is not quickned except it dye and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare corn as it falleth of wheat or some other but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him even to every seed his own body In which words and sentence the Apostle sharply rebuketh the grosse ignorance of the Corinthians who began to call in doubt the chiefe article of our faith the resurrection of the flesh after that it was once resolved because that naturall judgement as said he reclaimed thereto He reproveth I say their grosse ignorance because they might have seen and considered some proofe and document thereof in the very order of nature For albeit the wheat or other corn cast in the earth appeareth to die or putrifie and so to be lost yet we see that it is not perished but that it fructifieth according to Gods will and ordinance Now if the power of God be so manifest in raising up of the fruits of the earth unto the which no particular promise is made by God what shall be his power and vertue in raising up of our bodies seeing that thereto he is bound by the solemne promise of Jesus Christ his eternall wisdom And the verity it self that can not lie yea seeing that the members must once communicate with the glory of the head How shall our bodies which are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones lie still for ever in corruption seeing that our head Jesus Christ is now exalted in his glory Neither yet is this power and good will of God to be restrained unto the last and generall resurrection onely but we ought to consider it in the marvellous preservation of his Church and in the raising up of the same from the very bottome of death when by Tyrants it hath been oppressed from age to age Now of the former words of the Prophet we have to gather this comfort That if at any time we see the face of the Church within this Realm so defaced as I think it shall be sooner then we look for when we shall see I say vertue to be despised vice to be maintained the verity of God to be impugned lies and mens inventions holden in authoritie and finally when we shall see the true Religion of our God and the zealous observers of the same to be trodden under the feet of such as in their heart say That there is no God Let us then call to mind what have been the wonderous works of our God from the beginning that it is his proper Office to bring forth light out of darknesse order out of confusion life out of death and
Chron. 34 35. chap. Mat. 13.24 25 26 c. Mat. 13 20 21 Rom. 10.9 13. Rom. 7 c. 2 Cor. 5.21 John 5.28 29. Apoc 20.28 Heb 19 25 26 27. Mat 25 31. Apoc. 14.10 Rom. 26.7 8 9 10. Phil. 3 21. 1 Cor 15.28 This we confirmed 1567. in the first Parliament of Iames 6 held by the Earle Murray and all Acts in any Parliament before whatsoever against the truth abolished The Lord of the Articles are a Committee of 24. whereof in former times there was eight Lords eight Church-men who were called Lords and eight Commons So from the greater part they were named Lords and of the Articles Because all Articles and Heads that are to passe in Parliament are first brought to them who having discussed them sends them to the House of Parlâ—ament The latin Histories calls their Lords of the Articles Apolecti The Earle Marshall his pious voyce in Parliament This Act is particularly confirmed 1567. in the Parliament under Iames 6. holden by the Earl Murrâ—y This also was confirmed by one particular Act 1567. by the Parliament holden by the Earle Murray Note this diligently Quest. Answ. Note this I pray you for these dayes sake See how this agreeâ— with the worldlings now adayes What blessings hath been since in the house of Erskin they know best Note how although the Prelats being convinced of the truth did subscribe unto it yet it was with this Proâ—iso That they should enjoy their rents for their lives Note men to their owne countrey Note this for our dayes Let this teach us to seek God The death of the yong King of France husband to our Queen 15. December 1560. Note this well Note Note Lesley his answer * That is An. 1566 when this book was written Note the liberality of the Earle Murray Note this diligently Where then are Pluralities and fatnesse of Livings in our dayes Let the Church-men now adayes look to this Wâ—at can the Pâ—elats say to this Ambassadour from France and his demands See the study of France to divide the two Kingdoms newly bound for mantenance of Religion against the common enemies Note The Protestants faithfulnesse ill rewarded A foolish play used in time of darknes Hence we say any foolish thing to be like a play of Robin-Hood Some say his name is Killone Of the Queen Regents death Note Note Note diligently Let this also be considered and referred to our times Note Note Reader remark the advantages that Scotland hath from France A good Character of Bishops Let us stick to God and he will not leave us Faire words to no purpose That was a secret Lardon She meant she would seek a safe conduct * Ever till that she may shew her evill will If France would have sustained rhem they had not yet departed The second secret Lardon The Arms of England were usurped Your Papists and ours have practised and still practise division So that she might have England to the Popes Religion I think she said not amisse The feare of God in the heart of Elias 〈◊〉 disobediâ—â—â— to cursed 〈◊〉 Nâ—te 〈…〉 his 〈…〉 well to 〈…〉 as 〈◊〉 the subjects Note The third Lardon of accusing England of inconstancy in Religion Notwithstanding his own disorder Note this false lye and see how it answers to the calumnies of these dayes The Peace and Contract at Leith Many Princes little regarded that All power is not then in the Prince if the States have any as they have Note this Note Note the Scots acknowledgement Isaiah 40 31. A true acknowledgment oâ— mans weaknesse to the glory of God and as it was then so hath it been in this last Reformation As it was then so it is now by Gods mercies â—o that Nation The first Petition of the Protestants of Scotland Let this be noted for example The cause of the trouble within Scotland flowed from the Courtiers who seemed to professe the Evangell He means the Loâ—d Iames Earle Murray The corruption that entred the Queens Court. The Theologie of the Court and their reasonâ— Wicked Councellors â—athers all thâ—ir mischievâ—us plots upon misled Princes and causeth them to take all things upon them This was written when the secoâ—d rank of the Lordâ— was banished Anno 1560 after Danâ—â—s sâ—aughter The Queens Arrivaâ—l from France 156â— Tâ—â—â—le lugubre Coelum The Queens first â—â—ace in despight of Religion The Queens first Masse Lord Iames notwithstanding his sonner zeal to tâ—e Truth complying with Court favoureth Idolatry â— godly resoâ—â—â—â—on The end is not yet seen The perswâ—sâ—ons of the Courtiers The Lord Arrans stout and godly Protestatiâ—n against the Quâ—ens Masse Good resolution if followed Robert Campbell to the Lord Vchiltrie The Queens practise at the first The iudgment of Iohn Knox upon the suffering of the Masse The Courtier making Note diligently how wise and godly mâ—n are so mistaken oft as to play after games And this M. Knox doth acknowledge here The first reasoning betwixt the Queen and Iohn Knox. Note how that Princâ—s are informed against Godâ— servant Let this be noted diligently Let the Prince note this Let this wiâ—e reply be noted Note this undertaking The Queens second Objection Answer Note this comparison Blinde zeal what it is When this was written there was no appearance of Maries imprisonment The Queens Church Strong Imagination called conscience Question Note this Iohn Knox his judgement of the Queen at the first and ever since The Queens first Progresse Note the disposition of a misled soul. Boâ—fours doctrine Note this diligently Yet in the Parliament holden 1563. there is an expresse Act for punishing of Adultery by death It is the Act 74. The devil getting entry to his little finger will screw in his whole arm Note this The Queenes first fray in Hallyrud-house Division between the Lords and the Ministers The Queen fain would have had all Assemblies discharged Note this diliâ—gently Note this dilâ—gently Note this passage Iohn Knox his judgement of the thirds Let this be noted * That is five old pieces A proverb upon Pittaro Controller The right that Princes have to the Patrimony of the Church Note The marriage of the Earl of Murray Note this diligently Note this diligently The Mask of Orleance The Hamiltons against Bothwell and the Marquesse The Earle of Bothwells communication with Iohn Knox 1562. Note the complement Note diligently Reconciliation betwixt the Earle of Arrane and Earle of Bothwell Note diligently Psal. 2. The second communing of Iohn Knox with the Queen Note diligently Note Note Note diligently Note Let Princes note this Let Court-Chaplains and unthrifts of the time note this The Earle of Lennox and his Lady imprisoned in the Tower of London for traffiquing with Papists Sharp left preaching and took him to the Laws Note This causeth the Quâ—ens Râ—ligion to have many â—avourers Note Note Note dâ—ligently Note Note this for our times Note this for our times An answer to Lethington Note this diligently Iohn Gordonne and Ogilvie Bothwell
brake the ward or prison Note another wavering of the Hamiltons A new Covenant 1562. Note So was the Duke the Earls of Argyle Murray and Glencarne with all their Company after ter served The day of Correthie field Octob. 22. 1562 The Earle of Huntlies prayer Note Corriethieburne or Farabank Secretary Lethingtons Oration The Lady Forbesse her words Let others that yet live mark this Mens judgement of the Queens Marriage Note this The Preachers railed upon the Courtiers The Preachers Admonition after the Earle of Huntlies death Meaning of Huntley The end declared their words to be true The defence of the Courtiers The Queens practise The tryall of Pauls Meffanes fact Chattelet and the Queen The Queens desire concerning Chattelet The punishment of God for maintaining and erecting of the Masse death and famine Iohn Knox sent for by the Queen Reasoning between I. Knox and the Queen Note diligently The Queens judgement of the Bishop of Cathaes The Lady Argile was naturall Sister to the Queen as the Earle Murray was naturall Brother The Clergie did pretend to be free from all Jurisdiction save the Popes The judgment of some Huntley forfeited The pride of Women at that Parliament Note diligently And so was Religion and the Common-wealth both neglected Occasion painted with a bald Hind-head Variance betwixt the Earle of Murray and Iohn Knox. Iohn Knox discharge to the Earl of Murray God knowes if our times be better The Speaker was the Dean of Restaruk Iohn Knox his affirmation Let this serve for our times Let the Papists judge this day 1567. Note Women Lethingtons practice Note diligently The last commendation of Lord Iohn to the Queen M. Rob. Font stricken in the head with a weapon by Cap. Lawder Bond to a mutuall defence in the cause of Religion Note Pastors The Master of Maxwells discharge to Iohn Knox and their reasoning together Before they disdained not to come to his own house Iohn Knox his answer Note a wise Reply This was the first time the Earle Murray spake with Iohn Knox after the Parliament Iohn Knox called before the Queen and Counsell in Decemb. 156â— Note this diligently Note As the Irish Papists have done to Protestants in Ireland Let this be noted for this day Let the world judge what ensued Note Pastors Note diligently Note the craft of the Court. Note I. Knox falsly reported of his answer Remark false brethren Murther and Whoredome in the Court. Maries Regiment Great Wet and Frost in Ian. 1563. The Sea stood still neither ebbed â—or flowed for 24 houres Cucullus Note how this agrees with our time Lethingtons counteâ—â—nce at the threatnings of the preacher Let the world judge whether this hath come to passe or not what hath fallen since that time Lethington his Harangue at the Assembly Anno 1564. Iohn Knox his answer Note diligently â—nd see how the Bishops did forbid to pray for the conversion of the Queen that now is in Britain M. Maxwells words in the Assembly Iohn Knox his prayer for the Queen Note 2 Tim. 2. Note Note Let this be noâ—ed diligently Psal. 82. Note this 1 Sam. 22. Note this Discourse diligently God craves of us That we should oppose our selves to iniquity Let this be noted for our times Whether this hath come to passe or not let the world judge Note this diligently Noâ—â— â— Paral 25. When the Prince does serve God sincerely in private and publike and hath a care that the people do the same then assuredly they are faithfull to him but if he faile in these or in either of them he findes disobedience in his people beâ—ause he is not carefull to obey God and to see him obeyed Deut. 13. 2 Paral. 26. Let this be applyed to the late affairs of Scotland 2 Paral. 26. Note M. Iohn Dowglâ—s Rector his Vote Master Iohn Craig his Vote Note dilâ—gently Note deligently There be two Epigrams extant written by George Buchanan of a rich Diamond sent from Qu. Mary to Queen Elizabeth At this time an Italian named Davie entred in great familiarity with the Queen so that there was nothing done without him The Earl of Murray seeing the other Nobles consent gave his which before he refused The Dispensation being come from Rome for the Marriage Before which according to the Romish Law it was unlawful to marry being Cousin Germans brother and sisters children and so the degree of Consanguinity forbidden Note this for our time The King to make himself more popular and to take from the Lords of the Congregation the preteâ—t of Religion he went to the Kirk to hear Iohn Knox preach In answering he said more then he had preached for he added That as the King had to pleasure the Queen gone to Masse and dishonoured the Lord God so should God in his justice make her an Instrument of his ruine and so it fell out in a very short time but the Queen being incensed with these words fell out in Tears and to please her Iohn Knox must abstain from preaching for a time Note how this agrees with our times Let this be conferred with our times Note diligenly So was the Citie of London for warre against Scotland vexed for the leavie of mony Note diligently Note diligently Qâ— Elizabeth Here mark either deep dissimulation or a great inconstancy At the end of this Book you shall finde this See in what sense proud ambitious men takes the name of Bishop As is said before This inconstant yongman sometimes declared himself for the Protestant witnesse his last Band And now for the Papist And as he left God so he was left by him The Queen intending vengeance upon the poor King and being in love with the Earle Bothwell grants to the Protestants their Petitions that they may be quiet and not trouble her Plots As she had lately gratified the Protestants by granting their Petition so at this time she yeelds unto the Papists their demands also that she might be stopped by neither of them in her designe of vengeance and new love Note Note how God changeth things in a moment Heb. 10. 1 Cor. 3. Mat. 25. John 3. Rom 58. 2 Cor. 5. Rom. 6. Ephes. 4.5 Ephes. 2. Matth. 10. Vain Religion or Idolatry A Sentence pronounced Appellation from the same The request of Iohn Knox. The Petition of Protestants Deut. 17. The Pâ—tition of Iohn Knox. Note well Answer 1. To Objections Note The Appellation is just and lawfull Gods Messengers may appeal from unjust sentences and Civill powers are bound to admit them Jer. 26. Advert The Princes did absolve the Prophet whom the Priests had condemned Deut. 17. The meaning of these words I am in your hands c. Deut 17. Jerem 1. Deut 1 10. The causes of his Appellation and why he ought to have been defended Jerem. 38. Just cause of Appellation Act. 22 23 24 25. Act. 25. Why Paul would admit none of the Leuiticall order to judge in his cause Upon what reasons the Appellation of Paul was grounded
I say thus authorized by God first did excommunicate Ieremy for that he did Preach otherwise then did the common sort of Prophets in Ierusalem And last apprehended him as you have heard pronouncing against him this sentence afore-written from the which neverthelesse the Prophet appealed that is Sought helpe and defence against the same and that most earnestly did he crave of the Princes For albeit he saith I am in your hands do with me as ye think righteous he doth not contemne or neglect his life as though he regarded not what should become of him but in those his words most vehemently did he admonish the Princes and Rulers of the people giving them to understand what God should require of them as if he should say Ye Princes of Iuda and Rulers of the people to whom appertaineth indifferently to judge betwixt party and party to justifie the just man and to condemne the malefactor you have heard a sentence of death pronounced against me by those whose lips ought not to speak deceit because they are sanctified and appointed by God himself to speak his Law and to pronounce judgement with equity but as they have left the living God and have taught the people vanity so are they become mortall enemies to all Gods true servants of whom I am one rebuking their iniquity apostasie and defection from God which is the onely cause they seek my life But a thing most contrary to all equity law and justice it is that I a man sent of God to call them his people and you again to the true service of God from the which you are all declined shall suffer the death because that my enemies do so pronounce sentence I stand in your presence whom God hath made Princes your power is above their Tyranny before you do I expose my cause I am in your hands and cannot resist to suffer what ye think just But lest that my lenity and patience should either make you negligent in the defence of me in my just cause appealing to your judgement either yet encourage my enemies in seeking my blood this one thing I dare not conceal That if you murther me which thing ye do if ye defend me not ye make not onely my enemies guilty of my blood but also your selves and this whole City By these words I say it is evident That the Prophet of God being condemned by the Priests and by the Prophets of the visible Church did seek ayd support and defence at the Princes and temporall Magistrates threatning his blood to be required at their hands if they by their Authority did not defend him from the fury of his enemies alleadging also just causes of his Appellation and why he ought to have been defended to wit That he was sent of God to rebuke their vices and defection from God That he taught no Doctrine which God before had not pronounced in his Law That he desired their conversion to God continually calling upon them to walke in the wayes which God had approved and therefore doth he boldly crave of the Princes as of Gods Lievtenants to be defended from the blinde rage and tyranny of the Priests notwithstanding that they claimed to themselves Authority to judge all matters of Religion And the same did he when he was cast in prison and thereafter was brought to the presence of King Zedechias After I say he had defended his innocency affirming That he neither had offended against the King against his servants nor against the people at last he made intercession to the King for his life saying But now my Lord the King take heed I beseech thee let my prayer fall into thy presence command me not to be carried again into the house of Jonathan the Scribe that I die not there And the Text witnesseth That the King commanded the place of his imprisonment to be changed Whereof it is evident That the Prophet did ofter then once seek help at the Civill power and that first the Princes and thereafter the King did acknowledge That it appertained to their Office to deliver him from the unjust sentence which was pronounced against him If any man think that Ieremy did not appeal because he onely declared the wrong done unto him and did but crave defence according to his innocency let the same man understand That none otherwise do I appeal from that false and cruell sentence which your Bishops pronounced against me Neither yet can there be any just cause of Appellation but innocency or suspition to be hurt whether it be by ignorance of a Judge or by malice and corruption of those who under the title of Justice do exercise Tyranny If I were a thief murtherer blasphemer open adulterer or any offender whom Gods Word commandeth to suffer for a crime committed my Appellation were vain and to be rejected But I being innocent yea the Doctrine which your Bishops have condemned in me being Gods Eternall Verity have no lesse liberty to crave your defence against that cruelty then had the Prophet Ieremy to seek ayd of the Princes and King of Iuda But this shall more plainly appear in the fact of Saint Paul who after that he was apprehended in Ierusalem did first claim the liberty of the Romane Citizens for avoyding torment when the Captain would have examined him by questions Thereafter in the Councell where no righteous judgement was to be hoped for he affirmed that he was a Pharisee and that he was accused of the Resurrection of the dead and last in the presence of Festus he appealed from all knowledge and judgement of the Priests at Ierusalem to the Emperour Of which last Point because it doth chiefly appertain to this my cause I will somewhat speak After that Paul had divers times been accused as in the Acts of the Apostles is manifest at the last the chief Priests and their faction came to Cesarea with Festus the President who presented uuto them Paul in Judgement whom they accused of horrible crimes which neverthelesse they could not prove the Apostle maintaining That he had offended neither against the Law neither against the Temple neither yet against the Emperour But Festus willing to gratifie the Iews said to Paul Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem and there be judged of these things in my presence But Paul said I stand at the Iustice Seat of the Emperour where it behoveth me to be judged I have done no wrong to the Iews as thou better knowest If I have done any thing unjustly or yet committed crime worthy of death I refuse not to die But if there be nothing of these things true whereof they accuse me no man may give me to them I appeal to Caesar. It may appear at the first sight That Paul did great injury to Festus the Judge and to the whole Order of the Priesthood who did hope greater equity in a cruell tyrant then in all that Session and learned company which thing no