short discourse of the four Empires The Babylonian The Persian That of the Greekes And the fourth of the Romanes in the destruction whereof rose up that last Beast which he affirmed to be the Romane Church for to none other power that ever hath yet beene do all the notes that God hath shewed to the Prophet appertain except to it alone And unto it they do so properly appertaine that such as are not more then blinde may cleerly see them But before he began to open the corruptions of Papistrie he defined the true Church shewed the true notes of it whereupon it was built why it was the Pillar of Verity and why it could not erre to wit Because it heard the voyce of the onely Pastor JESUS CHRIST would not heare a stranger neither would be carried with every winde of Doctrine Every one of these heads sufficiently declared he entred to the contrary and upon the notes given in his Text he shewed that the Spirit of God in the new Testament gave to this King other new names to wit The man of sin The Antichrist The Whore of Babilon He shewed That this man of sin or Antichrist was not to be restrained to the person of any one man onely no more then by the fourth Beast was to be understood the person of any one Emperour But by such names the Spirit of God would forewarne his chosen of a body and a multitude having a wicked head which should not onely be sinfull himself but also should be occasion of sin to all that should be subject unto him as Christ Jesus is the cause of Justice to all the Members of his Body and is called the Antichrist that is to say One contrary to Christ because that he is contrary to him in Life Doctrine Lawes and Subjects And there began to decipher the lives of divers Popes and the lives of all the Shavelings for the most part Their Doctrine and Lawes he plainly proved to repugne directly to the Doctrine and Lawes of God the Father and of Christ Jesus his Son This he proved by conferring the Doctrine of Justification expressed in the Scriptures which teach that man is justified by Faith onely That the blood of Iesus Christ purgeth us from all our sinnes And the Doctrine of the Papists which attribute Justification to the works of the Law yea to the works of mens inventions as Pilgrimage Pardons and other such baggage That the Papisticall lawes repugned to the Lawes of the Gospel he proved by the Lawes made of observation of dayes abstaining from meats and from Marriage which Christ Jesus made free and the forbidding whereof Saint Paul calleth the doctrine of devils In handling the notes of that Beast given in the Text he willed men to consider if these notes There shall another rise unlike to the other having a mouth speaking great things and blasphemous could be applyed unto any other but to the Pope and his kingdome For if these said he be not great words and blasphemous The Head of the Church most holy most blessed that cannot erre That can make right of wrong and wrong of right That of nothing can make somewhat And that had all verity in the Shrine of his brest yea That had power of all and none power of him Nay not to say That he doth wrong although he draw ten thousand Millions of souls with himself to hell If these said he and many other easie to be showne in his own Cannon-Law be not great and blasphemous words and such as never mortall men spake before let the world judge And yet said he is there one most evident of all to wit Iohn in his Revelation sayes That the Merchandise of that Babylonian Harlot among other things shall be the bodies and souls of men Now let very Papists themselves judge If any before them took upon them power to relax the pains of them that were in Purgatory as they affirme to the people that daily they do by the merits of their Masse and of their other trifles In the end he said If any here and there were present Master Iohn Maire the University the Sub-Prior and many Cannons with some Friers of both the Orders that will say That I have alleadged Scripture Doctor or History otherwise then it is written let them come unto me with sufficient witnesse and by conference I shall let them see not onely the Originall where my Testimonies are written but I shall prove That the Writers meant as I have spoken Of this Sermon which was the first that ever Iohn Knox made in publike was divers brutes Some said He not onely hewes the branches of Papistry but he strikes at the root also to destroy the whole Others said If the Doctors and Magistri nostri defend not now the Pope and his Authority which in their own presence is so manifestly impugned the devill may have my part of him and of his Lawes both Others said Master George Wischarde spake never so plainly and yet he was burnt even so will he be In the end others said The Tyranny of the Cardinall made not his cause the better neither yet the suffering of Gods servant made his cause the worse And therefore we would counsell you and them to provide better defences then fire and sword for it may be that else ye will be disappointed men now have other eyes then they had then This answer gave the Laird of Nydrie a man fervent and upright in Religion The bastard Bishop who yet was not execrated consecrated the Sub-Prior of S. Andrews who Sede vacante was Vicar Generall That he wondered that he suffered such Hereticall and Schismaticall Doctrine to be taught and not to oppose himselfe to the same Upon this rebuke was a convention of gray-Friers and black-Fiends appointed with the said Sub-Prior Deane Iohn Winrame in S. Leonards Yard whereunto was first called Iohn Rough and certain Articles read to him And thereafter was Iohn Knox called for The cause of their convention and why that they were called is expounded And the Articles were read which were these 1. No mortall man can be the head of the Church 2. The Pope is an Antichrist and so is no member of Christs mysticall body 3. Man may neither make nor devise a Religion that is acceptable to God but man is bound to observe and keep the Religion that from God is received without chopping or changing thereof 4. The Sacraments of the New Testament ought to be ministred as they were instituted by Christ Iesus and practised by his Apostles nothing ought to be added unto them nothing ought to be diminished from them 5. The Masse is abominable Idolatry blasphemous to the death of Christ and a prophanation of the Lords Supper 6. There is no Purgatory in the which the soules of men can either be pined or purged after this life But heaven resteth to the faithfull and hell to the reprobate and unfaithfull 7. Praying for the dead
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
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
Monsieur d'Osell who then was a secretis mulierum in the Court comforted them and willed them to be quiet for they should see remedy or it were long And so it proved indeed For upon the nine and twentieth day of Iune appeared in the sight of the Castle of Saint Andrewes one and twenty French Galleys with a great Army the like whereof was never seen in that Haven before This treasonable means had the Governour the Bishop the Queen and Monsieur d'Osell under their appointment drawne But to excuse their Treason eight dayes before they had presented an Absolution unto them as sent from Rome containing after the aggravation of the crime this clause remittimê° irremissibile that is We remit the crime that cannot be remitted Which considered by the worst of the company that was in the Castle answer was given That the Governour and Councell of the Realme had promised unto them a sufficient and assured absolution which that appeareth not to be and therefore they could not deliver the House neither thought they that any reasonable man would require them so to do considering that promise was not kept unto them The next day after that the Gallies were arrived they summoned the House Which being denied because they knew then no Magistrates in Scotland they prepared for Siege and first they began to assault by Sea and shot two days but thereof they neither got advantage nor honour for they threw down the Slates of houses but neither slue man nor did harme to any wall But the Castle handled them so that Sancta Barbara the Gunners goddesse helped them nothing for they lost many of their Rowers men chained in the Gallies and some Souldiers both by Sea and Land And farther a Galley that approached neerer then the rest was so beaten with the Cannon and other Ordinance that she was striken under water and almost drowned and so she had been had not the rest given her succour in time and drawn her to the west Sands without the shoâ— of the Castle and afterward to Dundie where they remained till that the Governour who then was at the Siege of Langhope came unto them with the rest of the French Faction The Siege by Sea and Land was laid about the Castle of S. Andrews the three and twentieth day of Iuly The Trenches were cast Ordnance was planted upon the Abbey Church and upon Saint Salvators Colledge and yet was the Steeple thereof burnt and some upon the street that leads to the Castle which so annoyed the Castle that neither could they keep their Block-house the Sea Tower head nor the west wall for in all those places men were slain by great Ordnance yea they mounted the Ordnance so high upon the Abbey Church that they might discover the ground of the court of the Castle in divers places Moreover within the Castle was the plague and divers therein died which more affrayed some that were therein then did the externall force without But Io. Knox was of another judgement for he ever said That their corrupt life having fallen into all kinde of licentiousnesse puft up with pride of their successe and relying upon England for help in case of need could not escape the punishment of God and that was his continuall advertisement from the time that he was called to Preach When they triumphed of their Victory the first twenty dayes they had many prosperous chances he lamented and ever said They saw not what he saw when they bragged of the force and thicknesse of their walls he said they should be but egge-shells When they vaunted England will rescue us he said Ye shall not see them but ye shall be delivered into your enemies hands and shall be carried into a strange Countrey Upon the nine and twentieth of Iuly at night was the Ordnance planted for the Battery thirteen Cannons whereof four were Cannons Royall called double Cannons besides other Pieces The Battery began at four of the clock in the morning and before ten hours of the day the whole South quarter betwixt the fore Tower and the East Block-house was made faltable The lower Gallery was stopped divers slain in it and the East Block-house was shot off from the place Betwixt ten of the clock and eleven there fell a shower of rain that continued neer an hour the like whereof had seldome been seen it was so vehement that no man might abide without a house The Cannons were left alone Some within the Castle were of judgement that men should have issued and put all in the hands of God But because that William Kirkcaldie was coming with the Prior of Cappua who had the Commission of that Journey from the King of France nothing was enterprised And so appointment made and the Castle rendered upon Saturday the last of Iuly The Heads of the Appointment were That the lives of all within the Castle should be saved as well English as Scots that they should be safely transported to France And in case that upon conditions which by the King of France should offered unto them they could not be content to remaine in service and freedome there they should upon the King of France his expences be safely conveyed to what Countrey they would other then Scotland With the Governour they would have nothing ado neither with any Scottish-man for they had all trayterously betrayed them which said the Laird of Grange elder a man simple and of most stout courage I am assured God shall revenge it or it be long The Galleys well furnished with the spoile of the Castle aforesaid after certain dayes returned to France and escaped a great danger for upon the back of the Sands they all chocked they arrived at Felcam in November and thereafter passed up the water of Sequane and lay before Roan where the principall Gentlemen who looked for freedome were dispersed and put in sundry prisons the rest were left in the Galleyes and there miserably use Amongst whom the foresaid Master Iames Balfour was with his two brethren David and Gilbert which we write because that we heare that the said Master Iames principall misguider now of Scotland denies that he had any thing to do with the Castle of Saint Andrewes or yet that ever he was in the Galleys among others Iohn Knox was in the Galleys all the Winter Then was the joy of the Papists both of Scotland and of France even in full perfection for this was their song of triumph Priests content you now Priests content you now For Norman and his company have fill'd the Gallies fow The Pope wrote Letters to the King of France and so did he to the Governour of Scotland thanking him heartily for taking pains to revenge the death of his kinde creature the Cardinall of Scotland desiring them to continue in their begun severity that such things thereafter should not be attempted So were all those that were deprehended in the Castle condemned to
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
such firmitie as we desire it were And albeit some mocked yet others were godly moved who did assemble themselves together to consult what things were to be proposed to that present Parliament And after deliberation was this subsequent supplication offered The Barons Gentlemen Burgesses and other true Subjects of this Realm professing the Lord Iesus within the same To the Nobilitie and States of Parliament presently assembled within the said Realm desire Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ with the increase of his holy Spirit PLease your Honours to call to remembrance how divers and sundry times we with some of your selves most humbly Petitioned at the feet of the late Queen Regent for freedom and liberty of Conscience with a godly Reformation of abuses which by the malice of Satan and negligence of men are crept into the Religion of God and are maintained by such as take upon them the name of Clergie And albeit that our godly and most reasonable suit was then disdainfully rejected whereof no small troubles have ensued as your Honours well know yet seeing that the same necessity yet remaineth that then moved us And moreover that God of his mercy hath now put into your hands to take such order As God thereby may be glorified This Common-wealth quieted And the Policy thereof established We cannot cease to crave of your Honours the redresse of such enormities as manifestly are and of long time have been committed by the place-holders of the Ministerie and others of the Clergie within this Realm And first seeing that God of his great mercy hath by the light of his Word manifested to no small number of this Realme That the Doctrine of the Romane Church received by the said Clergie and maintained through their tyrannie by fire and sword contained in it selfe many pestiferous errours which cannot but bring damnation to the souls of such as therewith shall be infected such as are the Doctrine of Transubstantiation of the Adoration of Christs Body under the form of Bread as they terme it of the Merits of Works and Justification that they alleadge commeth thereby together with the Doctrine of the Papisticall Indulgences Purgatory Pilgrimage and Praying to Saints departed which all either repugne to the plain Scriptures or else have no ground in the Doctrine of our Master Jesus Christ his Prophets and Apostles 1. We humbly therefore crave of your Honours That such doctrine and Idolatry as by Gods Word are both condemned so may they be abolished by Act of this present Parliament and punishment appointed for the transgressors Secondarily seeing that the Sacraments of Jesus Christ are most shamefully abused and profaned by that Romane Harlot and her sworne vassals and also because that the true Discipline of the ancient Church is utterly now amongst that Sect extinguished For who within the Realme are more corrupt in life and manners then are they that are called the Clergie living in whoredom adultery deflouring Virgins corrupting Matrons and doing all abomination without fear of punishment We humbly therefore desire your Honors to finde remedy against the one and the other 3. Thirdly Because that man of sin falsly claimeth to himselfe the titles of The Vicar of Christ The Successor of Peter The Head of the Church That he cannot erre That all power is granted unto him c. By the which usurped Authority he taketh upon him the distribution and possession of the whole Patrimony of the Church whereby the true Ministry of the Word of God long time hath been altogether neglected the godly learning despised the Schools not provided and the poor not only frauded of their portion but also most tyrannously oppressed we likewise hereof desire remedy And lest that your Honors should doubt in any of these premises we offer our selves evidently to prove That in all the rabble of the Clergie there is not one lawfull Minister if Gods Word the practices of the Apostles the sincerity of the Primitive Church and their own ancient Laws shall judge of lawfull Election We further offer to prove them all thieves and murtherers yea rebels and traytors to the lawfull Authority of Emperors Kings and Princes and therfore unworthy to be suffred in any reformed Common-wealth How maliciously they murthered our brethren for no other cause but for that they offred to us the light of Gods Word your Honours cannot be ignorant and into what hazard their tyranny hath brought this whole Realm the Ages after will consider If ye look for other fruit in times to come then ye have seen in them whom we accuse we are assured ye shall be deceived Now hath God beyond all expectation of man made you who somtimes were suppliants with us for Reformation Judges as it were in the Cause of God At least he hath so subdued your enemies unto you that by violence they are not able to suppresse the Verity as heretofore they have done We therefore in the bowels of Jesus Christ crave of your Honors That either they may be compelled to answer to our former accusations and unto such others as justly we have to lay to their charges or else that all affection laid aside ye pronounce them such by censure of this Parliament and cause them to be so reputed as by us most justly they are accused Especially that they may be discerned unworthy of honour authority charge or cure in the Church of God and so from henceforth never to enjoy voice in Parliament Which if ye do not then in the fear of God and by assurance of his Word we forewarn you That as ye leave a grievous yoke a burden intolerable upon the Church of God in this realm so shall they be thorns in your eyes and pricks in your sides whom after when ye would ye shall have no power to remove God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give you upright hearts seeking his glory and true understanding what this day he who hath delivered you from Bondage both Spirituall and Temporall craveth of you by his servants and your Honours answer most humbly require This our Supplication being read in audience of the whole Assembly divers men were of divers judgements for as some there were that uprightly favoured the Cause of God so were there many that for worldly respects abhorred a perfect Reformation for how many within Scotland who have the name of Nobility and are unjust possessors of the Patrimony of the Church and yet were the Barons and Ministers called and commandment given unto them to draw into plain and severall Heads the sum of that Doctrine which they would maintain and would desire the present Parliament to establish as wholesome true and onely necessary to be beleeved and to be received within the Realm Which they willingly accepted and within four dayes presented this Confession as it followeth without alteration of any one sentence The Confession of Faith professed and believed by the Protestants within the Realme of
please him And evill works we affirme not onely those that are expresly done against Gods Commandment but those also that in matters of Religion and worshipping of God have no assurance but the invention and opinion of man which God from the beginning hath ever rejected as by the Prophet Isaiah and by our Master Christ Jesus we are taught in these words In vaine do they worship me teaching doctrines which are the Precepts of men XV. The perfection of the Law and the imperfection of man THe Law of God we confesse and acknowledge most just most equall most holy and most perfect commanding those things which being wrought in perfection were able to give life and to bring man to eternall felicity But our Nature is so corrupt so weak and imperfect that we are never able to fulfill the works of the Law in perfection yea if we say we have no sin even after we are regenerate we deceive our selves and the Verity of God is not in us And therefore it behoveth us to apprehend Christ Jesus with Justice and Satisfaction who is the End and Accomplishment of the Law to all that believe by whom we are set at this liberty that the curse and malediction of the Law fall not upon us albeit we fulfill not the same in all points For God the Father beholding us in the Body of his Son Christ Jesus accepteth our unperfect obedience as were perfect and covered our works which are defiled with many spots with the Justice of his Son We do not mean that we are set so at liberty that we owe no obedience to the Law for that before we have plainly confessed but this we affirm That no man in earth Christ Jesus onely accepted hath given giveth or shall give in work that obedience to the Law which the Law requireth But when we have done all things we must fall down and unfainedly confesse That we are unprofitable servants And therefore whosoever boast themselves of the merits of their own works or put their trust in the works of Supererogation they boast themselves of that which is not and put their trust in damnable Idolatry XVI Of the Church AS we believe in God the Father Son and holy Ghost so do we most earnestly believe That from the beginning there hath beene now is and to the end of the world shall be A Church that is to say A Company and Multitude of men chosen of God who rightly worship and embrace him by true faith in Christ Jesus who is the onely Head of the same Church which also is the Body Spouse of Christ Jesus which Church is catholike that is Universal because it containeth the elect of all Ages all Realms Nations and Tongues be they of the Jews or be they of the Gentiles who have Communion or Society with God the Father and with his Son Christ Jesus through the Sanctification of his holy Spirit and therefore it is called Communion not of profane persons but of Saints who are Citizens of the heavenly Ierusalem have the fruition of the most inestimable benefits to wit of one God one Lord Jesus one Faith and one Baptisme without the which Church there is neither life nor eternall felicity And therefore we utterly abhorre the blasphemy of those that affirm That men that live according to equity and justice shall be saved what Religion soever they have professed For as without Christ Jesus there is neither life nor salvation so shall there none bee participant thereof but such as the Father hath given unto his Sonne Christ Jesus and those in time to come to him avow his doctrine and beleeve in him we comprehend the Children with the faithfull Parents This Church is invisibly known onely to God who alone knoweth it whom hee hath chosen and comprehendeth as well as is said the Elect that be departed commonly called the Church triumphant as those that yet live and fight against sin and Sathan as shall live hereafter XVII The immortalitie of the Soules THe Elect departed are in peace and rest from their labours not that they sleep and come to a certain oblivion as some fantanstick heads do affirme but that they are delivered from all fear all torment and all temptation the which we and all Gods Elect are subject unto in this life and therefore doe bear the name of the Church militant As contrary alwayes the reprobate and unfaithfull departed have anguish torment and paine that cannot be expressed so that neither are the one nor the other in such sleepe that they feele not joy or torment as the Parable of Christ Jesus in the sixteenth of Luke his words to the Theefe and these words of the souls crying under the Altar O Lord thou that art righteous and just how long shalt thou not revenge our blood upon them that dwell upon the earth doth plainly testifie XVIII Of the Notes by the which the true Church is discerned from the false and who shall be Iudge of the Doctrine BEcause that Sathan from the beginnig hath laboured to deck his pestilent Synagogue with the Title of the Church of God and hath inflamed the hearts of cruell murtherers to persecute trouble and molest the true Church and Members thereof as Cain did Abel Ishmael Isaac Esau Iacob and the whole Priesthood of the Iewes Jesus Christ himself and his Apostles after him It is a thing most requisite that the true Church be discerned from the filthy Synagogue by cleere and perfect Notes lest we being deceived receive and embrace to our own condemnation the one for the other The Notes Signes and assured Tokens whereby the Immaculate Spouse of Christ Jesus is knowne from the horrible Harlot the Church malignant we affirm are neither antiquity title usurped lineall descents place appointed nor multitude of men approving any errour For Cain in age and title was preferred to Abel and Seth. Ierusalem had prerogative above all places of the earth where also were the Priests lineally descended from Aaron and greater multitude followed the Scribes Pharisees and Priests then unfainedly believed and approved Christ Jesus and his Doctrine and yet as we suppose no man of whole judgement will grant that any of the forenamed were the Church of God The Notes therefore of the true Church of God we beleeve confesse and avow to be first the true preaching of the Word of God in which God hath revealed himself to us as the writings of the Prophets and Apostles doe declare Secondly the right administration of the Sacraments of Christ Jesus which may be annexed to the word and promise of God to seale and confirme the same in our hearts Lastly Ecclesiasticall discipline uprightly ministred as Gods Word prescribeth whereby vice is repressed and vertue nourished wheresoever then these former Notes are seen and of any time continuall be the number never so few above two or three there
avoyding of Inconveniences This Summer there came an Embassadour from the King of Sweden requiring marriage of our Soveraigne to his Master the King His entertainment was Honourable but his Petitions liked not our Queene one whit for as yet she could not resolve to be Wife to the King of Sweden having been lately Queen of France And yet she refused not one much inferiour to a Soveraigne King The Earle of Lennox and his Wife were committed to the Tower of London for traffiquing with Papists the young Laird of Barre was a stickler in that businesse and was apprehended with some Letters which was the cause of his and their trouble The Earle of Murray made a private journey to Hawicke upon the Fayre day thereof and apprehended fifty Theeves of which number were seventeen drowned others were executed in Iâ—dburgh the principall were brought to Edinburgh and there suffered according to their merits upon the Burrow Mure. The Queene was no whit content of the prosperitie and good successe that God gave to the Earle of Murray in all his enterprises for she hated his upright dealing and the Image of God that evidently did appear in him but at that time she could not well have been served without him The assembly of the Church at Midsommer the four and twentieth day of Iune 1562. approached in the which were many notable heads handled concerning good Order to be kept in the Church and for the Papists and for the Idolatry of the Queen which troubleth the former good order Some Ministers such as Master Iohn Sharpe had left their charges and entered into other Vocations more profitable for the belly against whom were Acts made although this day they have not put them in execution The tenour of the Supplication read in open audience and approved by the whole Assembly to be presented to the Queens Majesty was this To the Queens Majesty and her most honorable Privy Councell The Superintendents and Ministers of the Evangell of Christ Iesus within this Realme together with the Commissioners of the whole Churches desire Grace and Peace from the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ with the Spirit of righteous Iudgement HAving in minde that the fearfull sentence pronounced against the Watch-men that see the Sword of Gods punishment approach and do not in plain words forewarn the people yea the Princes and Rulers that they repent we cannot but signifie unto your Highnesse and to your Councell That the state of this Realme is such for this present that unlesse redresse and remedy be shortly provided Gods hands cannot long spare in his anger to strike the Head and the Tayle the inobedient Prince and sinfull People For as God is unchangeable and true so must he punish in these our dayes the grievous sins which before we reade he hath punished in all Ages after that he hath long called for repentance and none is showne And that your Majesty and Councell may understand what are the things we desire to be reformed we will begin at that which we know assuredly to be the Fountain and Spring of all other evils that now abound in this Realme To wit That Idoll and base service of God the Masse the fountain we call of all Impiety not onely because many take boldnesse to sin by reason of that opinion which they have conceived of that Idoll to wit That by vertue of it they get remission of their sins But also because that under this colour of the Masse are Whores Adulterers Drunkards Blasphemers of God of his holy Sacraments and such other manifest Malefactors maintained and defended For let any Masse-sayer or earnest maintainer thereof be deprehended in any of the fore-named crimes no execution can be had for all is done in hatred of his Religion And so are wicked men permitted to live wickedly cloked and defended by that wicked Idoll But supposing that the Masse was occasion of no such evils yet in it self it is so odious in Gods presence that we cannot cease with all instance to desire the removing of the same as well from your selfe as from all others within this Realm Taking Heaven and earth yea your own Consciences to record That the obstinate maintenance of that Idol shall in the end be to you destruction of soul and body if you do not repent If your Majesty demand Why that now we are more earnest then we have been heretofore We answer our former silence no wayes excused Because we finde our selves frustrate of our hope and expectation which was That in processe of time your Majesties heart should have been mollified so farre as ye would have heard the publike Doctrine taught within this Realme by the which our further hope was That Gods holy Spirit should so have moved your heart that you would have suffered your Religion which before God is nothing but abomination and vanity to be tryed by the true Touch-stone the written Word of God And that your Majesty finding it to have no ground nor foundation in the same should have given that glory unto God that you would have preferred his Truth to your own preconceived vain opinion of what antiquity that ever it hath been whereof we in part now discharged can no longer keep silence unlesse we would make our selves criminall before God of your blood perishing in your own iniquity for we plainly admonish you of the danger to come The second thing that we require is Punishment of horrible vices such as are Adultery Fornication open Whoredome Blasphemy Contempt of God of his Word and Sacraments Which in this Realme do even so abound that sin is reputed to be no sin And therefore as we see the present signes of Gods wrath now manifestly appear so do we forewarn that he will strike ere it be long if his Law without punishment be permitted thus manifestly to be contemned If any object That punishment cannot be commanded to be executed without a Parliament we answer That the Eternall God in his Parliament hath pronounced death to be the punishment of Adultery and for Blaspheming whose Act if we put not in execution seeing that Kings are but his Lievtenants having no power to give life where he commands death as that he will repute you and all others that foster vice patrons of Impiety so will he not fail to punish you for neglecting the execution of his judgements Our third request concerning the poor who be of three sorts The poor labourers of the ground the poor desolate Beggers Orphans Widows and Strangers and the poor Ministers of Christ Jesus his holy Evangel which are so cruelly used by this last pretended Order taken for sustentation of Ministers that their latter misery farre surmounteth the former for now the poore labourers of the ground are so oppressed by the cruelty of those that pay their hire that they for the most part encroach upon the poore in whatsoever they pay unto the Qâ—een or to any other As for the
in the sight of the most jealous God and still continues in the same yet she despises all threatnings and refuseth all godly admonitions Why say ye That she refuseth admonition said Lethington she will gladly hear any man But what obedience said the other to God or to his word ensues of all that is spoken unto her or when shall she be seen to give her presence to the publike Preaching I think never said Lethington so long as she is thus used And so long said the other yee and all others must be content that I pray so as I may be assured to be heard of my God that is That his good will may be done either in making her comfortable to his Church or if that he hath appointed her to be a scourge to the same That we may have patience and she may be bridled Well said Lethington Let us come to the second head Where finde ye that the Scriptures calls any the bond slaves of Satan or that the Prophets of God spake of Kings and Princes so irreverently The Scripture said Iohn Knox saith That by nature wee are all the sonnes of wrath Our Master Christ affirmes That such as doe sinne are servants to sinne and that it is the onely Sonne of God that sets men at freedome now what difference there is betwixt the sonnes of wrath the servants of sinne c. And the slaves of Satan I understand not except I be taught And if the sharpnesse of the terme offend you I have not invented that phrase of speech but have learned it out of Gods Scriptures for these words I finde spoken unto Paul Behold I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their eyes that they may turne from darknesse unto light and from the power of Sathan unto God Mark the words my Lord and stirre not at the speaking of the holy Ghost And the same Apostle writing to his Scholler Timothius sayes Instruct with meeknesse those that are contrary minded if that God at any time will give them repentance that they may know the truth and come to amendment out of the snare of the Devill which are taken of him at his will If your Lordship do rightly consider these sentences you shall not onely finde my words to be the words of the holy Ghost but also the condition which I use to adde to have the assurance of Gods Scriptures But they speak nothing against Kings in Scripture in speciall said Lethington and your continuall crying is The Queens Idolatry The Queens Masse will provoke Gods vengeance In the former sentence said the other I hear not Kings and Queens excepted but all unfaithfull are pronounced to stand in one rank and to be in bondage to one Tyrant the Devill But beleeve me my Lord you little regard the state wherein they stand when you would have them so flattered that the danger thereof should neither be knowne neither yet declared to the people Where will you finde said Lethington that any of the Prophets did so use Kings Queens Rulers or Magistrates In more places then one said the other Ahab was a King and Iezabel a Queen and yet what the Prophet Elias said to the one and to the other I suppose you are not ignorant That was not cried out before the people said Lethington to make them odious unto their subjects That Elias said Doggs shall lick the blood of Ahab said Iohn Knox and eate the flesh of Iezabell the Scriptures assures me but that it was whispered in their Eares or in a Corner I read not but the plain contrary appears to me which is that both the people and the Court understood well enough what the Prophet had promised for so witnessed Iehu after that Gods vengeance had stricken Iezabell These were singular motions of the Spirit of God said Lethington and appertaineth nothing to our age Then hath the Scripture said the other deceived me for Saint Paul teacheth me that whatsoever is written within the holy Scriptures the same is written for our instruction And my Master saith That every learned Scribe brings forth of his Treasure both things old and things new and the Prophet Ieremy affirmes That every Realme or Citie that likewise offends as then did Ierusalem should likewise be punished Why then that the facts of ancient Prophets and the fearfull judgements of God executed before us upon the disobedient appertain not unto our age I neither see nor yet can understand But now to put an end to this Head my Lord saith he the Prophets of God have not spared to rebuke Kings as well to their faces as before the people and subjects Elizeus feared not to say to King Iehoram What have I to doe with thee get thee to the other Prophets of thy Mother for as the Lord of Hostes liveth in whose sight I stand if it were not that I regard the presence of Iehosaphat the King of Iudah I would not have looked toward thee nor seene thee Plaine it is that the Prophet was a Subject in the Kingdome of Israel and yet how little reverence he giveth to the King we heare Ieremy the Prophet was commanded to Cry to the King and Queene and to say Behave your selves lowly execute justice and judgement c. or else your Carcasses shall be casten to the heate of the day and unto the frost of the night Unto Conias Sullim and Zedekias he speaketh in speciall and shewes to them in his publike Sermons their miserable ends and therefore yee ought not to thinke strange my Lord said he albeit the servants of God taxe the vices of Kings and Queenes even as well as of other offenders and that because their sinnes be more noysome to the Common-wealth then are the sinnes of inferiour persons The most part of this reasoning Secretary Lethington leaned upon the Master of Maxwells Breast who said I am almost weary I would some other would reason in the chief head which is yet untouched Then the Earle of Mortoune Chancellor commanded Master George Hay to reason against Iohn Knox in the head of obedience due to Magistrates who began so to doe Unto whom Iohn Knox said Brother that ye shall reason in my contrary I am well content because I know you to be both a man of learning and of modesty but that you shall oppose your selfe unto the Trueth whereof I suppose your owne conscience is no lesse perswaded then is mine I cannot well approve for I would be sorry that yee and I should be reputed to reason as two Schollers of Pythagoras to shew the quickenesse of our wit as it were to reason on both parts I protest here before God That whatsoever I sustaine I doe the same in conscience yea I dare no more sustaine a proposition knowne to my selfe untrue then I dare teach false Doctrine in the publike place And therefore Brother if Conscience move you to oppose your selfe to that Doctrine which yee have heard out of my mouth in that
Iohnston to Edinburgh where the generall Assembly of the whole Church of Scotland was held the four and twentieth day of Iuly The Earls of Argyle and Glencarne assisted the Church with a great company of Lords Barons and others It was there ordered and concluded That certain Gentlemen as Commissioners from the Church National should passe to the Queens Majesty with certain Articles to the number of six desiring her most humbly to ratifie and approve the same in Parliament And because the said Articles are of great weight and worthy of memory I thought good to insert the same word by word IMprimis That the Papisticall and Blaspemous Masse with all Papisticall Idolatry and Papall Iurisdiction be universally supprest and abolisht thorowout this Realme not onely in the Subjects but also in the Queens own Person with punishment against all persons that should be deprehended to transgresse and offend in the same And that the sincere Word of God and Christs true Religion now at this present received be published approved and ratified thorowout the whole Realm as well in the Queens owne Person as in the subjects And that the people be to resort upon the Sundayes at the least to the Prayers and Preaching of Gods Word even as they were before to the Idolatrous Masse And these Heads to be provided by Act of Parliament and ratified by the Queens Majesty Secondly That provision be made for sustentation of the Ministry as well for the time present as the time to come And that such persons as are presently admitted to the Ministery may have their Livings assigned unto them in places where they travell in their Calling or at least next adjacent thereto And that the Benefices now vacant or hath been vacant since the Moneth of March 1558. or that hereafter shall happen to be vacant be disposed to qualified and learned persons able to preach Gods Word and discharge the Vocation concerning the Ministery by Tryall and Admission of the Superintendents and Overseers And that no Benefice or Living having many Churches annexed thereunto be disposed altogether in any time to come to any man but at the least the Churches thereof be severally disposed and that to severall persons So that every man having Charge may serve at his owne Church according to his Vocation And to that effect likewise the Gleebs and the Manses be given to the Ministers that they may make residency at their Churches whereby they may discharge their consciences according to their Vocation and also that the Kirks may be repaired accordingly And that a Law be made and established hereupon by Act of Parliament as said is Thirdly That none be permitted to have charge of Souls Colledges or Universities neither privately or publikely teach instruct the youth but such as shall be tried by the Superintendents or Visitors of Churches and found sound and able in Doctrine and admitted by them to their Charges Fourthly For the sustentation of the poor That all Lands founded for Hospitality of old be restored again to the same use And that all Lands Annals Rents or any other Emoluments pertaining any wayes sometimes to the Friers of whatsoever Order they had been of As likewise the Annuities Alterages Obits and the other Duties pertaining to Priests to be applied to the sustentation of the poor and uphold of the Town-Schools in Towns and other places where they be Fifthly That such horrible crimes as now abound within this Realme without any correction To the great contempt of God and his Word such as Idolatry Blasphemie of Gods Name manifest breaking of the Sabbath day Witchcraft Sorcery Inchantment Adultery manifest Whoredome maintenance of Bordals Murther Slaughter Oppression with many other detestable Crimes may be severely punished and Iudges appointed in every Province and Diocesse for execution thereof with power to do the same and that by Act of Parliament Lastly That some order be devised and established for ease of the poor Labourers of the Ground concerning the reasonable payment of the Tythes who are oppressed by the Leasers of the Tythes set over their heads without their own con-consent and advise The persons who were appointed by the Church to carry these Articles and present them to the Queens Majestie were the Lairds of â—unningham-â—unningham-Head Lundie Spot and Grange of Angus and Iames Baron for the Broughs These five past from Edinburgh to Saint Iohnston where they presented the said Articles to the Queens Majestie desiring and requiring her Highnesse most humbly to advise therewith and to give them answer The next day ere they were aware the Queen departed to Dunkeld and immediately they followed And after they had gotten audience they desired the Queens Majestie most humbly to give their dispatch She answered That her Councell was not there present but she intended to be in Edinburgh within eight dayes and there they should receive their answer At the same time as the generall Assembly was holden in Edinburgh the Brethren perceiving the Papists to brag and trouble like to be they assembled themselves at Saint Leonard Cragg where they concluded they would defend themselves and for the same purpose elected eight persons of the most able two of every Quarter to see that the Brethren should be ready armed And when the five Commissioners above named had waited upon the Court four or five dayes after her Majesties coming to Edinburgh there the matter was proposed in Councell And after long and earnest reasoning upon these Articles at length it was answered to the Commissioners by the Secretary That the Queens Majesties command was That the matter should be reasoned in her presence which for the gravity of the same there could nothing be concluded at that time albeit the Queens Majestie had heard more in that matter then ever she did before But within eight dayes thereafter she understood that a great part of the Nobility should be present in Edinburgh where they should have a finall answer At length the one and twentieth of August they received the answer in Writing in her presence according to the Tenour hereof as followeth The Queens Majesties Answer to the Articles presented to Her Highnesse by certain Gentlemen in the Name of the whole Assemblie of the Church TO the first Desiring the Masse to be suppressed and abolished as well in the Head as in the Members with punishment against the Contraveners As also the Religion professed to be established by Act of Parliament it was answered first for her Majesties part That her Highnesse is no way yet perswaded in the said Religion nor yet that any impiety is in the Masse and therefore believeth That her loving subjects will not presse her to receive any Religion against her conscience which should be unto her a continuall trouble by remorse of conscience and therewith a perpetuall unquietnesse And to deale plainly with her Subjects her Majesty neither will nor may leave the Religion wherein she hath been nourished and brought up and believeth the same to be
So served Darius giving into the power of Daniel the Idol to be broken and his enemies to be cast to the Lions So served Nebuchad-nezzar by a terrible Law forbidding all that were in his Realme to blaspheme God Herein therefore do Kings serve the Lord in so farre as they are Kings when they do those things to serve him which none except Kings be able to doe He further proceedeth and concludeth That as when wicked Kings do raigne impiety cannot be bridled by Laws but rather is tyranny exercised under the title of the same So is it a thing without all reasons That Kings professing the knowledge and honour of God should not regard nor care who did defend nor who did oppugne the Church of God in their Dominions By these words of this ancient and godly Writer your Honours may perceive what I require of you to wit To represse the tyranny of your Bishops and to defend the innocents professing the Truth He did require of the Emperour and Kings in his dayes professing Christ and manifestly concludeth That they cannot serve Christ except that so they doe Let not your Bishops think that Augustine speaketh for them because he nameth the Church Let them reade and understand That Augustine writeth for that Church which professeth the Truth and doth suffer persecution for the defence of the same which your Bishops do not but rather with the Donatists and Arrians do cruelly persecute all such as boldly speak Christs Eternall Verity to manifest their impiety and abomination But thus much we have of Augustine That it appertaineth to the obedience and service which Kings owe to God as well now in the time of the Gospel as before under the Law to defend the afflicted for matters of Religion and to represse the fury of the persecuters by the rigour and severity of godly Laws For which cause no doubt Isaiah the Prophet saith That Kings should be nourishers of the Church of God that they should abase their heads and lovingly embrace the children of God And thus I say your Honours may evidently see That the same Obedience doth God require of Rulers and Princes in the time of the Gospel that he required in the time of the Law If you do think that the Reformation of Religion and defence of the afflicted doth not appertain to you because you are no Kings but Nobles and States of a Realme in two things you are deceived First In that you do not advert That David requireth as well that the Princes and Judges of the earth to be learned and that they serve and fear God as that he requireth that Kings repent If you therefore be Judges and Princes as no man can deny you to be then by the plain words of David you are charged to be learned to serve and fear God which ye cannot do if ye despise the Reformation of his Religion And this is your first errour The second is That ye neither know your duty which ye owe to God neither yet your Authority which of him ye have received if ye for pleasure or fear of any earthly man despise Gods true Religion and contemn your brethren that in his Name call for your support Your duty is to hear the voyce of the Eternall your God and unfainedly to studie to follow his Precepts who as is before said of speciall mercy hath promoted you to Honours and Dignity His chief and principall Precept is That with reverence ye receive and embrace his onely beloved Son Jesus That ye promote to the uttermost of your powers his true Religion and That ye defend your brethren and subjects whom he hath put under your charge and care Now if your King be a man ignorant of God enemy to his true Religion blinded by Superstition and a persecuter of Christs members Shall ye be execused if with silence ye passe over his iniquity Be not deceived my Lords ye are placed in Authority for another purpose then to flatter your King in his folly and blinde rage to wit That as with your bodies strength riches and wisedom ye are bound to assist and defend him in all things which by your advice he shall take in hand for Gods glory and for the preservation of his Common-wealth and subjects so by your authorities counsell and admonition ye are bound to correct and represse whatsoever ye know him to attempt expressely repugning to Gods Word Honour and glory or what ye shall espie him to do be it by ignorance or be it by malice against his subjects great or small Of which last part of your obedience if you defraud your King ye commit against him no lesse Treason then if ye did extract from him your due and promised support when by his enemies unjustly he were pursued But this part of their duty I fear do a small number of the Nobility of this age rightly consider neither yet will they understand that for that purpose hath God promoted them For now the common song of all men is We must obey our Kings be they good or bad For God hath commanded it But horrible shall the vengeance be that shall be poured forth upon such blasphemers of God his holy Name and Ordinance For it is no lesse blasphemy to say That God hath commanded Kings to be obeyed when they command impiety then to say That God by his Precept is author and maintainer of all iniquity True it is God hath commanded Kings to be obeyed but like true it is That in things which they commit against his glory or when cruelly without cause they rage against their brethren the members of Christs body he hath commanded no obedience but rather he hath approved yea and greatly rewarded such as have opposed themselves to their ungodly commandments and blinde rage as in the examples of the three Children of Daniel and Abdemelech it is evident The three Children would neither bow nor stoup before the golden Image at the commandment of the great King Nebuchadnezar Daniel did openly pray his windows being open against the established Law of Darius and of his Councell And Abdemelech feared not to enter in before the presence of Zedechias and boldly to defend the cause and innocency of Ieremy the Prophet whom the King and his Councell had condemned to death Every one of these facts should this day be judged foolish by such as will not understand what God doth require of his children when his Verity is oppugned or his glory called in doubt such men I say as prefer man to God and things present to the heavenly inheritance should have judged every one of these stubborn inobedience foolish presumption and singularity or else bold controlling of the King and his wise Councell But how acceptable in Gods presence was this resistance to the ungodly commandments and determinations of their King the end did witnesse for the three children were delivered from the Furnace of fire and Daniel
Realms Nations yea certain great revelations of mutations and changes when no such things were feared nor yet was appearing a portion whereof cannot the world deny be it never so blinde to be fulfilled and the rest alas I fear shall follow with greater haste and in more full perfection then my sorrowfull heart desireth Nothwithstanding these revelations and assurances I did ever abstain to commit any thing to writing contented onely to have obeyed the charge of him who commanded me to crie If any then will ask to what purpose this onely Sermon is set forth and greater matters omitted I answer to let such as Sathan hath not altogether blinded so upon how small occasions great offence is now conceived This Sermon is it for the which from my Bed I was called before the Councell and after long reasoning I was by some forbidden to Preach in Edinburgh so long as the King and Queen were in Town This Sermon is it that so offendeth such as would please Court and will not appear to be enemies to the Truth yet they dare affirm That I exceeded the bounds of Gods Messenger I have therefore faithfully committed unto writing whatsoever I could remember might have been offensive in that Sermon to the end That as well the enemies of Gods truth as the professors of the same may either note unto me wherein I have offended or at the least cease to condemn me before they have convinced me by Gods manifest Word If any man think it easie unto me to mitigate by my pen the inconsiderate sharpnesse of my Tongue and so cannot men freely judge of that my Sermon I answer That I am neither so impudent that I will studie to abuse the world in this great light neither yet so void of the fear of my God that I will avow a lie in his own presence and no lesse do I esteem it to be a lie To deny or conceale that which in his Name I have once pronounced then to affirm That God hath spoken when his Word assures me not of the same for in the publike place I consult not with flesh and blood wha◠I shall propose to the people but as the Spirit of my God who hath sent me and unto whom I must answer moveth me so I speak and when I have once pronounced threatnings in his Name how unpleasant soever they be to the World I dare no more deny them then I dare deny that God hath made me his Messenger to forewarn the inobedient of their assured destruction At that Sermon were auditors unto me not onely professors of the truth and such as favour me but rank Papists dissembling Hypocrites and no small number of covetous Clawbacks of the new Court now I will appeal to the conscience of them all as they will answer in the presence of the Eternall God that either they bear me record now writing the truth or else note unto me the sentences offensive then by me pronounced and now omitted in writing for in Gods presence I protest That so far as memory would serve me I have written more vehemently then in the action I spake and pronounced but of purpose I have omitted perswasions and exhortations which then were made Quaedam hîc desunt A SERMON Preached By John Knox. Esay 26.13 14 15 16 c. O Lord our God other lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy Name They are dead they shall not live they are deceased they shall not rise therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish Thou hast increased the Nation O Lord thou hast increased the Nation thou art glorified thou hast removed it farre unto the ends of the earth Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them c. AS the cunning Marriner being Master having his Ship tossed with a vehement tempest and contrary windes is compelled oft to traverse lest that either by too much resisting to the violence of the Waves his Vessell might be over whelmed or by too much libertie granted to be carried whither the fury of the tempest would his Ship should be driven upon the shore and so make shipwrack even so doth our Prophet Isaiah in this Text which now you have heard read for he foreseeing the great desolation that was decreed in the Councell of the Eternall against Hierusalem and Iudah to wit That the whole people that bare the Name of God should be dispersed that the holy Citie should be destroyed the Temple wherein was the Ark of the Covenant and where God had promised to give his own presence should be burnt with fire the King taken his sons in his own presence murthered his own eyes immediatly after to be put out the Nobilitie some cruelly murdered some shamefully led away captives and finally the whose seed of Abraham razed as it were from the face of the earth The Prophet I say fearing these horrible calamities doth as it were sometimes suffer himself and the people committed to his Charge to be carryed away with the violence of the tempest without further resistance then by pouring forth his and their dolorous complaints before the Majestie of God as in the 13 17 and 18 verse of this present Text we may reade At other times he valiantly resisteth the desperate tempest and pronounceth the fearfull destruction of all such as trouble the Church of God which he pronounceth that God will multiply even in such time as when it appeareth utterly to be exterminate But because there is no small rest to the whole Body till that the Head returne to judgement he calleth the afflicted to patience and promiseth such a Visitation as whereby the wickednesse of the wicked shall be disclosed and finally recompenced in their own bosoms These are the chiefest Points of which by the grace of God we intend more largely at this present to speak First the Prophet saith O Lord our God other lords besides thee have ruled us This no doubt is the beginning of the dolorous complaint in the which he complaineth of the unjust tyranny that the poor afflicted Israelites sustained during the time of their Captivity True it is That the Prophet was gathered to his fathers in peace before that this apprehended the people For a hundred yeers after his decease was not the people led away captive Yet he fore-seeing the assurance of the calamity did before-hand endite and dictate unto them the complaint that after they should make But at the first sight it appeareth That the complaint hath but small weight For what new thing was it that other lords then God in his own person ruled them seeing that such had been their Regiment from the beginning For who knoweth not that Moses Aaron and Ioshua the Judges Samuel David and other godly Rulers were men and not God And so other lords then God ruled them in