History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland, Floating text – Quotation 2
Complaint.
Isai. 78.O God, the heathen are entred into thine Inheritance, they have defiled thy holy Temple, and have prophaned thy blessed Ordinance: In place of thy joyfull signes,Psal. 74. they have erected their abominable Idolatry: The deadly cup of all blasphemie is restored againe to their harlots hand: Thy Prophets are persecuted, and none are permitted to speak thy Word freely:Apocal. 17. The poor sheep of thy pasture are commanded to drink the venomous waters of mens Traditions. But, O Lord, thou knowest how sore they grieve us. But such is the tyranny of these most cruell beasts, that plainly they say, They shall root us out at once, so that no remembrance shall remain of us on earth.Psal 74, & 87.
O Lord, thou knowest that we are but flesh, and that we have no power of our selves to withstand their tyranny; And therefore, O Father, open the eyes of thy mercy upon us,Prayer and Confession. and confirm thou in us the Work which thine own mercy hath begun. We acknowledge and confesse, O Lord, That we are punished most justly, because we lightly regarded the tyranny of our mercifull Visitation. Thy blessed Gospel was in our ears like a lovers song; it pleased us for a time, but alas, our lives did nothing agree with thy Statutes and holy Commandments: And thus we acknowledge that our iniquity hath compelled thy justice to take the light of thy Word from the whole Realme of England. Appealing to mercy.But be thou mindefull O Lord, that it is thy Truth which we have professed, and that thy enemies blasphemeth thy holy Name, and our Profession, without Cause: Thy holy Gospel is called heresie, and we are accused as traytors, for professing the same. Be mercifull therefore,Isai. 33. O Lord, and be salvation unto us in this time of our anguish: Albeit our sins accuse and condemne us, yet do thou according to thine own Name. We have offended against thee; Our sins and iniquities are without number, and yet art thou in the midst of us, O Lord, albeit that tyrants bear rule over our bodies,Jerem. 4. yet thirsteth our souls for the comfort of thy Word: Correct us therefore, but not in thy hot displeasure; spare thy people, and permit not thine inheritance to b… in rebuke for ever. Let such, O Lord, as now are most afflicted, yet once againe praise thy holy Name before thy Congregation:Psal. 74. Represse the pride of those blood-thirsty Tyrants; consume them in thine anger, according to the reproach which they have laid against thy holy Name.Psal. 59. Pour forth thy vengeance upon them,Psal. 79. and let our eyes behold the blood of thy Saints required of their hands: Delay not thy vengeance,Jerem. 10, 11, 12. O Lord, but let death devour them in haste: Let the earth swallow them up, and let them go downe quick to the hells: For there is no hope of their amendment;Psal. 95. the feare and reverence of thy holy Name is quite banished from their hearts,Against the enemies of God. and therefore yet again, O Lord, consume them; consume them in thine anger, and let them never bring their wicked counsells to effect; but according to the godly powers, let them be taken in the snare which they have prepared for thine elect: Look upon us, O Lord, with the eyes of thy mercy, and shew pity upon us thy weak and sore oppressed Flock: Gather us yet once again to the wholesome treasures of thy most holy Word, that openly we may confesse thy blessed Name within the Realme of England. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Christ Iesus thy sons sake. Amen.
If on this manner or otherwise (as God shall put in our hearts) without hypocrisie in the presence of our God (respecting more his glory then our private wealth) continually we poure forth our complaint, confession and prayers. Then so assuredly as our God liveth, and as we feel these present troubles, shall our God himself rise to our defence, he shall confound the counsels of our enemies, and trouble the wits of such as most wrongfully troubleth us. He shall send Jesu to execute his just judgments against Idolators, and against such as obstinately defendeth them. Yea, the chiefe men of our times shall not escape the vengeance and plagues that are prepared for their portion. The flatterers and maintainers of her abominations shall drink the cup of Gods wrath. And in despite of the Devill shall yet the glory of Christ Jesus, and the brightnesse of his countenance so shine in our hearts by the presence of his grace, and before our eyes by the true preaching of his Gospel, that altogether we shall fall before him and say: O Lord thou art our God, we shall extoll thee,Esay 25. and shall confesse thy Name, for thou …ast brought wonderous things to passe according to thy counsels, which albeit appear to be farre off, yet are they true and most assured. Thou hast brought to ruine the palaces of tyrants, and therefore shall the afflicted magnifie thee, and the City of tyrannicall Nations shall fear thee. Thou hast been, O Lord, a strong defence to the poor, a sure place of refuge to the afflicted in the time of his anguish.
This no doubt, Of Gods Electdear Brethren, shall one day be the song of Gods Elect within the Realm of England, after that God hath poured forth his vengeance upon these disobedient, and blood-thirsty tyrants: which now triumpheth in all abominations, and therefore yet again beloved in the Lord, Exhortation.Abide patiently the Lords deliverance, avoyding and flying such offences as may separate and divide you from the blessed fello…ship of the Lord Jesus at his second comming. Watch and pray, resist the …ivell, and row against this vehement tempest, and shortly shall the Lord come, to the comfort of your hearts, which now are oppressed with anguish and care, but then shall ye so rejoyce, that through gladnesse you shall say: Behold this our God,Esa 26. we have waited upon him, and he hath saved us. This is our Lord, we have long thirsted for his comming, now shall we rejoyce and be glad in his salvation, Amen. The great Bishop of our souls▪ Jesus our Lord so strengthen and assist your troubled hearts with the mighty comfort of his Holy Ghost, that earthly tyrants, nor worldly torments have no power to drive you from the hope and expectation of that Kingdom, which for the Elect was prepared from the beginning by our heavenly Father, to whom be all praise and honour, now and ever, Amen.
Remember me (dear Brethren) in your daily prayers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Yours with sorrowfull heart, JOHN KNOX.
The Copie of A LETTER Delivered To Queen Mary, Regent OF SCOTLAND, FROM IOHN KNOX Minister of Gods Word, in the yeer of our Lord, 1556. and thereafter augmented and explained by the Author, in the yeer of our Lord, 1558.
To the most Excellent Princesse MARY, DOVVAGER Regent of Scotland. MADAME,
THE cause which moved me to present this my Supplication unto your Majestie, enlarged, and in some places explained (being in the Realm of Scotland in the MonethMonth of May, 1556. I caused to be presented to your Majesty) is the incredible rage of such as beare the Title of Bishops, who, against all justice and equitie, have pronounced against me a most cruell sentence, condemning my Bodie to Fire, my Soul to Damnation, and all Doctrine taught by me, to be false, deceivable, and Hereticall: If this injury did tend to me alone, having the testimony of a good conscience, with silence I could passe the matter, being assured, that such as they curse and expell their Synagogues for such causes, shall God blesse, and Christ Jesus receive in his eternall societie: But considering that this their blasphemy is vomited forth against the eternall Truth of Christs Evangell, (whereof it hath pleased the great mercy of God to make me a Minister) I cannot cease to notifie, as well to your Majestie, as to them, That so little am I afraid of their Tyrannicall and surmised sentence, that in place of the Picture (if God impede not my purpose) they shall have the Body to justice that Doctrine, which they (Members of Satan) blasphemously do condemne. Advertising your Majestie in the mean time, That from them, their sentence and tyrannie, and from all those that lift to maintain them in the same, I do appeal to a lawfull and generall Councel; beseeching your Majesty to take in good part, that I call you for witnesse, that I have required the libertie of tongue, and my Cause to be heard before your Majestie and the Body of the Realm, before that any such Processe was laid against me; as this my Letter directed to your Majesty doth testifie.
The beginning of the Letter.
THE Eternall Providence of the same God,Gen. 3. Matt…. 10. Act. 4. who hath appointed his chosen Children to fight in this transistory and wretched life, a battell strong and difficile, hath also appointed their finall victory by a marvellous fashion, and the manner of their preservation in their battell more marvellous; their victory standeth not in resisting,Matth. 5. Joh. 14 16. Esay. 9. but in suffering; as our Soveraign Master pronounceth to his Disciples, that in patience they should possesse their soules: And the same foresaw the Prophet, Esay, when that he painteth forth all other battell to be with violence, tumult, and blood-shedding, but the victory of Gods people to be in quietnesse, silence and hope; meaning that all others that obtain victorie, do enforce themselves to resist their adversaries, to shed bloood, and to murther: But so do not the Elect of God, but all things they sustain at the commandment of him who hath appointed them to suffer; being most assuredly perswaded, that then onelyonly they triumph,In the Crosse of Christ i… victory hid. when all wen judge them oppressed: For in the Crosse of Christ alwayes is included a secret and hid victory, never well known till the sufferer appear all together to be (as it were) exterminate; for then onelyonly did the blood of Abel crie to God, when proud Cain judged all memory of his brother to have been extinguished; and so (I say) their victory is marvellous, and how that they can be preserved and not brought to utter confusion, the eye of man perceiveth not:Esay 40.41.51. But he, whose power is infinite, by secret and hid motions, toucheth the hearts of such as to mans judgment hath power to destroy them, with very pietie and compassion to save his people, as (in times past) he did the hearts of the Egyptian Midwives, to preserve the men-children of the Israelites, when command was given of Pharoah for their destruction.Exod. 2. The heart of Pharaohs daughter likewise, to pitty Moses in his young infancy, exposed to the danger of the waters. The heart of Nabuchadnezzar to preserve the Captives alive,4 Reg. 25. Jerem 52. Esd. 1. and liberally to nourish the Children that were found apt to Letters: And finally, The heart of Cyrus, to set at liberty the people of God, after long bondage and thraldome. And thus doth the invisible power and love of God, manifest it self towards his Elect from time to time, for two causes specially.Note. First, to comfort his weake warriers in their manifold temptations, letting them understand, That he is able to compell such as sometimes were enemies to his people, to fight their Cause, and to promote their deliverance. And secondarily, to give a testimony of his favour to them, that by all appearance did l…ve before (as Saint Paul speaketh) wanting God in the world,…phes 2. as strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel, and without the league of his mercifull promise and free grace m…de to his Church: For who would have affirmed, That any of these persons aforenamed, had been of that nature and clemency, before occasions were offered unto them? But the works of merciemercy shewed to the afflicted, have left to as assurance, That God used them as vessels of his honour. For pitie and merciemercy shewed to Christs afflicted flock, as they never lacked reward temporall, so if they be continued, and be not changed into crueltie, are assured signes and seales of everlasting mercy to be received from God, who by his Holy Spirit moveth their heats to shew mercy to the people of God oppressed and afflicted.
Addition.
THis Preface I used to give your Majestie occasion more deeply to consider what hath been the condition of Christs Members from the beginning, that in so doing, ye might see▪ That it is no new thing that the Saints of God be oppressed in the word; that ye, moved by earnest contemplation of the same, might also study rather to save them from murder, (although by the wicked councels of many ye were provoked to the contrary) then to engage your self to the corrupt Clergie, who are servants to sinne and Sathan; whose fury is bent against God and his verity: But this after followeth in our Let-which thus proceedeth.
Letter.
YOur Majestie perchance doth wonder to what purpose these things be recited, and I in very deed cannot wonder enough, that occasion is offered to me (a worme most wretched) to recite the same at this present, for I have looked rather for the sentence of death, then to have written to your Majestie in these last and most wicked dayes, in which Sathan so blindeth the hearts of many, that innocents are condemned, their Cause never tried.