Answer to a Jesuit, Prayer
THE PRAYER.
¶Lord Iesus receaue my spirite, and put an end at thy gude pleasure, to this my miserable lyfe: for Iusti…e and treuth ar not to be found amo…ges the sonnes of men.
Iohne Knox with deliberat mynd to his God.
BE mercyfull vntounto me. ô Lord, and call not into Iudgement my manyfold finnis: and cheiflie those, whereof the warld is not able to accuse me. In youth, …yd age, & now after many battelles, I find nothing into me, bot vanitie and corruption. For in quyetnes I am negligent, in trouble impatient, tending to disperation, and in the meane state, I am so caryed away with vane fantaseis, y• (allace) o Lord, they withdraw me from the presence of thy Maiestie. Pryde and ambitioun assault me on the ane part, couetous…es and malice trouble me on the o…her: breifly, o Lord, the aff…ctionis of the fleshe do almoste suppres the operatioun of thy spir…te. I tak the, o Lord (who only knowes the secreitis of hearts) to record, that in nane of ye foirsaid I do delyte: bot that with them I am troubled, and that foir aganis the desyre of my in ward man, which sobbis for my corruptioun and wold repose in thy mercy alone. To the which I clame: and that in the promise that thow hes maid to all penitent sinneris, (of whose number I profes my self to be one) in the obedience and death of my only Sauiour our Lord Iesus Christ. In whome be thy meare grace, I dout not my self to be electit to eternall saluatioun: whereof thow hes geuin vntounto me (vntounto me, o Lord, most wretched and vnthan… full creature) most assured signes. For being drowned in ignorāce, thow hes geuin to me knawledge aboue the cōmoun sort of my brethren: my toung hes thow vsit to set furth thy glorie, to oppoung Idolatrie, errouris and fals doctrine: Thow hes cō pelled me to foirspeak, asweil delyuerance to y• afflicted, as distructioun to certane inobedient: the performance whereof, not I alone, bot the verray blind world hes alreddy s…ne. But aboue all, o Lord, thow, be the power of thy holy spirite, hes sealed into my heart remissiō of my sinnes, which I acknawledge and cōfes my self to hauehave receaued be the precious bloode of Iesus Christ ones shed. Be whose perfyte obedience, I am assured, my manyfould rebellionis ar defaced: my greuous sinnes purged, and my …aule maid the tabernackle of thy godlie maiestie: Thow, o father of mercyes, thy Sone our Lord Iesus, my only Sauiour, Mediator, and Aduocate, and thy holy spirite remaning in y• same be tr…w faith: which is the only victorie that ouercūmeth the world. To the there…oir, o Lord, I cōmend my spirite. For I thrist to be resolued frō this body of sin; & am assured that I …all rise agane in glorie: howsoeuer it be that the wicked, for a …yme, …all trode me & others thy seruandes vnderunder their feit. Be mercyfull, o Lord, vntounto the Kirk within this Realme: continew with it the light of thy Euangell: augment the nūber of trew preicheris: and let thy mercyfull prouydence luik vponupon my desolate bedfellow, the frute of hir bosome, and my two deir Children Nathanael and Ele…zer. Now Lord put end to my miserie,
At Edinburgh the 12. of Marche. 1565.
AN ANSWER TO A LETTER OF A IEsuit named Tyrie, be Iohne Knox.
OF leat dayis, there came to our hands a Letter, direct vntounto yow, right worshipfull, from Iames Tyrie, who styleth him self your hūble seruitour & brother: The beginning wherof, shaweth the care that he beiri… of your saluatioun, his cheritie, that hes moued him so oft to wryte vntounto yow, and thairwith couertly he accuses yow, yt he hes receaued no answerof his former: and yet that the same cheritie moueth him, stil to cōtinew in his former sute. In the progres of the said letter, he planely furthshawis, what is his scope & purpois: to wit, to alien at your mynd frō the treuth of God, now of Goddis greit mercy, …fter long darknes, offered to this Realme. The purpois, as we suppone, wherefore ye send ye same letter vntounto vsus, is, y• we may giuegive solutiōis to thay thingis that he obiectis aganis the treuth. Which to do, wer not verray hard, prouydit that his dytement wer sensible, and his argumentis formall and propir, to that which he wald perswade. But becaus, in wryting he appeareth to vsus, rather scabrushly to hauehave translatit that which he wrytis furth of latine, or of sum other forane toung, thē frely to haif expressit his a win mynd: And becaus that his argumētis, ar not onlie impertinent, but also, sa generall, that in na wyse they conclude that which h… wold proue: Our answeres must exc…id y• measure of a missiue: & yet, we sall auoid… sa far as we can, all vnprofitabil prolixitie. But leist that any suld thinke, that we depraue, either his dytement, or argumētis, we shal insert his hole letter, from parcel, to parcell: and giuegive answer, to sic headis, as either ar blaspheamous aganis ye treuth of God, or yet, may be offēsiue to y• wa…k conscience of men. In other thingis, … …all not be curious: his letter thus beginis:
¶TYREIS LETTER.
SCHIR, efter hartly cōmendatioun, of seruice, and prayeris: That I hauehave writtin sa oft afoir (we keip his a win wordis and ortographie) It come of my cheritie, that I aucht to zow, for sindrie ressounis: and of the solicitude, that cheriti… causit me to hauehave, of the eternal saluatio… ̄ of zour saule: desyrād, be zour answer to hauehave knawin zour mynd, in that behalf: quhilk sen I hauehave not obtenit, as zit, I ha…e thocht, haifand opportunitie of yis beirer, to wryte this wryting amangis the rest: and to exhort zow thairby: that ze wald, ernistly (as it becūmis ane man, to quhome God hes geuin sa mony giftis & talentis) and rypely considder be quhat way ze mon cū to that end, to the quhilk God hes creatit and redemit zow.
¶ANSWER.
TO this long preface, we only answer this: that if the Scribes and Pharesies, who cōpassed sea & land, to mak a proselyt, gat a curse be ye mouth of our maister Iesus Christ,Math. 23. notwithstanding all their appeirand zeale, and panefull trauell: who cā dout, bot that sic as studie, to draw back agane to superstitioun and Idolatrie, sic as God hes called frō the same, shall receaue … dowble maled…ctioun, vnderunder what pretence that euer they do it. For if thay who broght Ethnickis, and manifest Idolatouris, to sum Religioun, wer accursed? How muche moir ar they detestable that trauell to bring men frō a trew Religioū, to the deapest Idolatrie that euer yet was vponupon the face of the earth? Which long hes bene manteyned in ye papistical Kirk, wherto we persaue the wryter of the letter wold entyse yow, as his subsequēt perswasionis manifestly declaireth. For thus he wryteth.
TYRIES LETTER.
QVhilk appeiris to me, to be the only Faith and Religioun, keipit in the Catholick Kirk of Christ, sen the beginning thairof. Quhilk appeiris cleirly, be the maist plane wordis of the Propheit Isai, quhair he speikis of ye Kirk. Gens & regnum quod non seruierit tibi, peribit.
Quhilk words gif ony wald apply to yair new found Kirkis & specially to zour inuisibil Kirk of Scotlād (bot zit aucht zeir auld) he is cōuictit. For it is manifest yat befoir a thousand zeiris in all the warld was yair pepill yat trow it as yai do quha defendis the contrarie quhilk na mā bot he that wald schaw his impudence & his ignorance togidder dar deny, and of the Kirk, quhairof the Propheit speikis. It is said be him in the secund Cha. that it sal be manifest & visibil throw all ye warld. Quhairfoir gif ze can not schaw quhat place of the warld afoir thre hundreth zeir zour Kirk was into, it follow is of neces…itie that it is na Kirk. &c. Thus far of his letter.