His Religious Convictions

Having enumerated the works of the Reformer, we proceed to sketch the religious and political principles embodied in them.

Much of the work he had to do was destructive. He had to sweep out of the minds of men a whole world of superstitions, and out of the country masses of superstitious usages, founded on these false opinions. This part of his task Knox performed with zest, employing all the powers of sarcasm and invective, of which he was a master, in turning the old Church into ridicule. Of ecclesiastical lore he cannot be claimed to have possessed very much; but his stores were ample to overwhelm the feeble opponents who entered the field against him. In his very first sermon at St. Andrews he boldly maintained that the Pope was Antichrist.” And then began he to decipher the lives of diverse popes and the lives of all the shavelings for the most mS IDEAS 123

part; their doctrine and laws he plainly proved to repugn directly to the doctrine and laws of God the Father and of Christ Jesus His Son.” And, in a petition to Parliament in 1560, which he drew up in the name of the barons, gentlemen, burgesses, and others, professing the Lord Jesus Christ within the realm of Scotland, he thus sketched in brief but pregnant terms the evils of the time:

“And, first, seeing that God, of His great mercy by the light of His Word, has manifested to no small number of this realm, that the doctrine of the Roman Kirk, received by the said clergy and maintained through their tyranny by fire and sword, contained in itself many pestiferous errors, 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 Christ’s body under the form of bread as they term it; of the merits of works, and justification that they allege comes thereby; together with the doctrine of papistical indulgences, purgatory, pilgrimage, and praying to departed saints; which are all either repugnant to the plain Scriptures or else have no ground in the doctrine of our Master Jesus Christ, His prophets nor apostles — we humbly, therefore, crave of your honours, that such doctrine and idolatry as by God’s Word are condemned, so may

124 jOHM KNOX

they be abolished by act of this present parliament, and punishment appointed for the transgressors.

“Secondly, seeing that the sacraments of Jesus Christ are most shamefully abused and profaned by that Roman harlot and her sworn vassals; and also because the true discipline of the ancient Kirk is now utterly extinguished among that sect: for who within the realm are more corrupt in life and manners than are they that are called the clergy, doing all abomination without fear of punishment? we humbly, therefore, desire your Honours to find remedy against the one and the other.

“Thirdly, because that Man of Sin often most falsely claims to himself the titles of * the vicar of Christ ‘; ’ the successor of Peter ‘; * the head of the Kirk’; ’ that he cannot err’; ’ that all power is granted unto him,’ etc., by the which usurped authority he takes upon him the distribution and possession of the whole patrimony of the Kirk, whereby the true ministers of the Word of God long time have been utterly neglected, godly learning despised, schools not provided, and the poor not only defrauded of their portion, but also tyrannously oppressed; we likewise hereof desire remedy.”

The superstition of the age culminated in the doctrine and practice of the Mass, against which * Works, ii. 90.

accordingly Knox directed the whole force of his artillery. Early in his career, in a discourse already mentioned, in the presence of the clergy of the North of England, he maintained the thesis that the Mass is idolatry; and, throughout his subsequent activity, he never hesitated to apply to this practice all the fulminations against idolatry to be found in the Scriptures. Thus, in the preface to his report of his disputation with the Abbot of Crossraguel, he paraphrases the ironical description of the making of an idol found in the prophecy of Isaiah, in the following terms: —

“The prophet, in description of their vanities, saith, ‘The earth bringeth forth the tree, it groweth by moisture and natural humidity,^ it is cut down by the hand of the hewer. A part thereof is burnt, a part spent in uses necessary to man, another part chosen to be made an idol. This is formed to the likeness of man or woman, and then set up and worshipped as a god.’ All these and some more shall we find to assist and concur in the making of this great god of bread. The wheat is sown and nourished in the earth; rain, dew and heat bring it to maturity; the reaper or shearer cutteth it down; the cart or sledge, drawn by horse or some other beast, draweth it to the barn ‘• vvacknes.”

or to the barnyard; the tasker or the foot of the ox treadeth it out; the fan delivereth it from the chaff; the miller and the millstones, by the help of wind or water, make it to be meal; the smith maketh the irons that give to that god his length and breadth, likeness and form; the fine substance of that god is neither wood, gold nor silver, but water and meal made in manner of a bannock ^; and then must the workmen take good heed to their hand, for, if the fire be too hot, that god’s skin must be burnt; if the irons be ill cleaned,” his face will be blacked; if, in making the roundness, the ring be broken, then must another of his fellows receive that honour to be made a god; and the creased or cracked miserable cake, that once was in hope to be made a god, must be given to a baby to play him withal. And yet is not all the danger past; for, if there be not an anointed priest to play his part aright, all the former artificers have lost their labour, for without him that god cannot be made: yea, if he have not intention to consecrate, the fashioned god remaineth bread, and so the blind people commit idolatry.

“These are the artificers and workmen that travail in making of this god: I think as many

“drammock.”
“evil dight.”

in number as the prophet reciteth to have travailed in the making of the idols; and, if the power of both shall be compared, I think they shall be found in all things equal, except that the god of bread is subject unto more dangers than were the idols of the Gentiles. Men made them: men make it They were deaf and dumb: it cannot speak, hear nor see. Briefly, in infirmity they wholly agree, except that, as I have said, the poor god of bread is most miserable of all other idols; for, according to their matter whereof they are made, they will remain without corruption many years; but within one year that god will putrify, and then he must be burnt. They can abide the vehemency of the wind, frost, rain or snow; but the wind will blow that god to the sea, the rain or the snow will make it dough again; yea, which is most of all to be feared, that god is a prey, if he be not well kept, to rats and mice; for they will desire no better dinner than white round gods enough. But oh then, what becometh of Christ’s natural body? By miracle it flies to the heaven again, if the papists teach truly; for, how soon soever the mouse takes hold, so soon flieth Christ away and letteth her gnaw the bread. A bold and puissant mouse, but a feeble and miserable god! Yet would I ask a question: Whether hath the priest or the mouse greater power? By his words it is made a god; by her teeth it ceaseth to be a g-od: let them advise and then answer.

“If any think that I ought not to mock that which the world so long hath holden, and great princes yet hold in so great veneration, I answer, that not only I, but also all godly ought not only to mock but also to curse and detest whatsoever is not God and yet usurpeth the name, power and honour of God; and also that we ought both to mock, gainsay and abhor all religion obtruded on the people without assurance of God and His Word, having neither respect to antiquity, to multitude, to authority, nor estimation of them that maintain the same.”

The language of Knox in controversy sounds in our ears rude and exaggerated; as, indeed, the relics of bygone polemics are usually the reverse of admirable to posterity. But the defence of Luther is worth recalling: “Do not think,” he wrote to Spalatin, “that the Gospel can be advanced without tumult, trouble and uproar. You cannot make a pen of a sword; and the Word of God is, a sword. It is war, overthrow, trouble, destruction, poison. It meets the children of Ephraim, as Amos says, like a bear on the road or like a lioness in the wood.” The state of Europe with which the * Works, vi. 171 ff.

Reformers had to contend is sheltered from modern criticism by the very excess of its own corruption; and, even in the foregoing extracts, words and clauses have had to be suppressed. Those who know best what the moral condition of Scotland was before the Reformation, as this is revealed in her literature — for example, in the writings of the poets Dunbar and Lindsay — are the most likely to be thankful to Knox for the changes he introduced into the country. Had he done nothing more than what he did to promote decency, he would have deserved the eternal gratitude of Scotsmen.

The weapon with which Knox fought this battle was the Word of God. This was the fan with which he “throughly purged” the floor of the Church. In his first sermon at St. Andrews he showed that the Church is the pillar of the eternal verity only because it hears the voice of its own pastor, Jesus Christ, and will not listen to a stranger. And, from this point onwards to the very close of his career, he kept on repeating, in every form in which it could be expressed, that nothing is [ lawful in the Church which is not found in the Word of God. This may be called his master principle; and he is never tired of repeating it. Others were content with holding that nothing I could be admitted into the Church which was forbidden in the Bible; but Knox went much farther, demanding a positive sanction out of Scripture for everything which he would admit. Not only did this work havoc with the ecclesiastical system of Rome, but it led him to attribute to the Church of England a considerable share of what he called “the dregs of papistry.”. “Man,” he remarks, “always thinks he can devise a more perfect honouring of God than that which Himself hath commanded. Witness the Israelites in the desert, the Ten Tribes under Jeroboam, the Pharisees and the rest of the sects in Christ’s time; and the papists before and in our own time. For, let any of them be demanded, How know ye that these your works, rites and ceremonies please God, seeing ye have not His commandment to do the same? straight they shall answer, * They are laudable, they are honest and decent, they have good significations, they pleased our fathers, and the most part of the world has used the same.’ And thus into idolatry the corrupt children follow the footsteps of their fathers.”

None of the other Reformers went so far in confining the arrangements of the Church to what is actually prescribed in the Scriptures. Even Calvin was appealed to, on one occasion, against Knox’s severity; and the Swiss Reformer wrote to him: “In regard to ceremonies, I trust that your strictness, although it may displease many, will be regulated by discretion. We should, indeed, do our endeavour that the Church may be purged of all the defilements which flowed from error and superstition. We should also earnestly strive that the mysteries of God be not polluted by absurd and unmeaning mixtures. With this exception, you know well that certain things, though not positively approved, must be tolerated.” The Westminster Confession of Faith, while frequently laying stress on the principle that the Bible is the sole authority in the Church, yet acknowledges that “there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed “; and this could be converted into a pretty wide door for the admission of innovations. The principle laid down by Knox, although upon the whole a wholesome one, is not easy to carry through; and it may be doubted if even he was invariably true to it. Let anyone read the Order of the General Fast,^ appointed by the General Assembly in 1565, Works, vi. 391. and he will probably acknowledge that, in spite of the appeals in it to Scripture, the ceremony there so minutely prescribed had not only no direct Scriptural warrant, but was contrary to the spirit of the New Testament.

But the Bible was to Knox not only thus a law to regulate ceremonies and a fan with which to purge out the excesses of the Roman superstition: he wielded it, besides, as a tool for building up the spiritual Jerusalem; and it was obviously from the heart that he said,” I delight in nothing so much

V as in the simple and native meaning of the Scriptures, as they be alleged in their own places by the Holy Ghost.” It is much to be regretted that more of his sermons have not come down to us; because in them we should in all probability have discovered the secret of the sway he exerted over his countrymen, and especially over the citizens of Edinburgh, who loved him because, like a good shepherd, he led them week by week into the green pastures and beside the still waters of the Word of God. As far as the evidence available goes, J he seems to have been specially a preacher of the

^•’ Old Testament. We do not find him, like Luther, wandering often among the flowery and fragrant meadows of the Gospels, expounding the miracles Works, V. 262.

and the parables of our Lord; nor does he display the exegetical precision of Calvin, who habitually makes the historical and grammatical meaning of a text the basis of the practical application. For this Knox has not patience. He hurries quickly from the exposition to the application; the text being only a point of departure for an expatiation of his own; and it does not seem to matter much which text he chooses. Still, he possesses a marvellous faculty for taking a book of the Old Testament, or a portion of the Old Testament history, and laying it alongside of the contemporary history of his own country in such a way as to bring out comparisons and contrasts, which illuminate the situation and reveal the path of duty. He indulges little in apologies for the authority of the Bible. The business of his life was to break down the authority of Rome; but those against whom his polemic was directed acknowledged as well as he the authority of Scripture; so that there was no need to waste time on the proof of that which was conceded. It was later in the history of the Church before theologians found it necessary to buttress the authority of the Bible with elaborate evidences. Even for Calvin, a much more systematic thinker, the necessity for proving the authority of the Scriptures hardly exists; at least, he is satisfied with the witness of the Spirit in the Scriptures speaking to the spirit in the minds of the godly.

There is every reason to believe that the attachment of Knox to the Word of God was personal and not merely professional. In the account of his death-bed it comes out that he was in the habit of reading the Book of Psalms once a month; and there breathes a heartfelt sincerity through his allusions to the Word of God in general. Nowhere is this more fully expressed than in a letter which he left behind him to the friends of reform in Scotland, when closing his momentous visit in 1556; and this document throws so much light on the primitive conditions in which Christianity then existed in Scotland that I shall quote the whole, which might almost be an extract from the Acts of the Apostles: —

“A most wholesome counsel how to behave ourselves in the midst of this wicked generation, touching the daily exercise of God’s most Holy and Sacred Word.

“The Comfort of the Holy Ghost, etc., for salutation.

“Not so much to instruct you as to leave with you, dearly beloved brethren, some testimony of my love, I have thought good to communicate with you, in these few lines, my weak counsel, how I would ye should behave yourselves, in the midst of this wicked generation, touching the exercise of God’s most sacred and holy Word, without which neither shall knowledge increase, godliness appear, nor fervency continue amongst you. For, as the Word of God is the beginning of life spiritual, without which all flesh is dead in God’s presence, and the lantern to our feet, without the brightness whereof all the posterity of Adam doth walk in darkness, and as it is the foundation of faith, without which no man understandeth the goodwill of God, so it is also the only organ and instrument which God useth to strengthen the weak, to comfort the afflicted, to reduce to mercy by repentance such as have erred, and, finally, to preserve and keep the very life of the soul in all assaults and temptations. And thereof, if that ye desire your knowledge to be increased, your faith to be confirmed, your conscience to be quieted and comforted or, finally, your soul to be preserved in life, let your exercise be frequent in the law of your Lord God. Despise not that precept which Moses, who by his own experience had learned what comfort lieth hid within the Word of God, gave to the Israelites in these words: ‘These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart: and thou shalt exercise thy children in them. Thou shalt talk of them when thou art at home in thy house, and as thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up; and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be papers of remembrance between thine eyes; and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and upon thy gates.’ And Moses in another place commandeth them to ’ remember the law of the Lord God, to do it, that it may be well with them and with their children in the land which the Lord their God should give them,’ meaning, that, like as frequent memory and repetition of God’s precepts is the means whereby the fear of God, which is the beginning of all wisdom and felicity, is kept recent in mind, so is negligence and oblivion of God’s benefits received the first degree of defection from God.

“Now, if the Law, which by reason of our weakness can work nothing but wrath and anger, was so effectual that, remembered and rehearsed of purpose to do it, it brought to the people a corporal benediction, what shall we say that the glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus doth work, so that with reverence it be entreated? St. Paul calleth it the sweet odour of life to those that shall receive life, borrowing his similitude of odoriferous herbs or precious ointments, whose nature is, the more that they be touched or moved, to send forth their odour more pleasant and delectable. Even such, dear brethren, is the blessed Evangel of our Lord Jesus; for, the more that it be entreated, the more comfortable and puissant it is to such as do hear, read or exercise the same. I am not ignorant, that, as the Israelites loathed the manna, because that every day they saw and ate but one thing, so some there be now-a-days (who will not be held of the worst sort) that, after once reading some parcels of the Scriptures, do commit themselves altogether to profane authors and human lectures, because that the variety of matters therein contained doth bring with it daily delectation, where contrariwise within the simple Scriptures of God the perpetual repetition of one thing is troublesome and wearisome. This temptation, I confess, may enter in God’s very elect for a time; but impossible it is that therein they continue to the end; for God’s election, besides other evident signs, hath this ever joined with it, that God’s elect are called from ignorance (I speak of those that are come to the years of knowledge) to some taste and feeling of God’s mercy, of the which they are never so satisfied in this life but from time to time they hunger and they thirst to eat the bread that descended from heaven and to drink the water that springeth to life everlasting; which they cannot do but by the means of faith, and faith looketh ever to the will of God revealed by the Word, so that faith hath both her beginning and continuance by the Word of God. And so I say, that impossible it is that God’s chosen children can despise or reject the word of their salvation of any long continuance, neither yet loathe it to the end.

“Often it is that God’s elect are held in such bondage and thraldom, that they cannot have the bread of life broken unto them, neither yet free liberty to exercise themselves in God’s holy Word; but then God’s dear children do not loathe, but most gladly do they covet the food of their souls; then do they accuse their former negligence, then lament they the miserable affliction of their brethren, and then cry and call they in their hearts (and openly where they dare) for free passage of the Gospel. This hunger and thirst doth prove the life of their souls. But, if such men as having liberty to read and exercise themselves in God’s holy Scriptures yet begin to weary, because from time to time they read but one thing, I ask, Why weary they not also every day to eat bread? every day to drink wine? every day to behold the brightness of the sun? and to use the rest of God’s creatures, which every day do keep their own substance, course and nature? They shall answer, I trust.

Because such creatures have a strength, as oft as they are used, to expel hunger, to quench thirst, to restore strength, and to preserve the life. O miserable creatures! who dare attribute more power and strength to the corruptible creatures in nourishing and preserving the mortal carcase than to the eternal Word of God in nourishment of the soul, which is immortal! To reason with their damnable unthankfulness at this present it is not my purpose: but to you, dear brethren, I write my knowledge and do speak my conscience, that, so necessary as the use of meat and drink is to the preservation of life corporal, and so necessary as the heat and brightness of the sun is to the quickening of herbs, and to expel darkness, so necessary is also to the life everlasting, and to the illumination and light of the soul, the perpetual meditation, exercise and use of God’s holy Word.

“And therefore, dear brethren, if that ye look for a life to come, of necessity it is that ye exercise yourselves in the book of the Lord your God. Let no day slip over without some comfort received from the mouth of God. Open your ears, and He will speak even pleasant things to your heart. Close not your eyes, but diligently let them behold what portion of substance is left to you within your Father’s testament. Let your tongues learn to praise the gracious goodness of Him whose mere mercy hath called you from darkness to light, and from death to life. Neither yet may ye do this so quietly that ye will admit no witness. No, brethren, ye are ordained of God to rule your own houses in His true fear and according to His Word. Within your own houses, I say, in some cases, ye are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants and family are your bishopric and charge; of you it shall be required how carefully and diligently ye have always instructed them in God’s true knowledge, how that ye have studied in them to plant virtue and repress vice. And therefore, I say, ye must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least. But above all things, dear brethren, study to practise in life that which the Word of God commandeth, and then be assured that ye shall never hear nor read the same without fruit. And thus much for the exercises within your house.

“Considering that St. Paul calleth the congregation * the body of Christ,’ whereof every one of us is a member, teaching us thereby that no member is of sufficiency to sustain and feed itself without the help and support of another, I think it necessary, for the conference of Scriptures, assemblies of brethren to be had. The order therein to be observed is expressed by St. Paul, and therefore need not I to use many words in that behalf; only expressing my wish, that, when ye convene or come tosrether — which I would were once a week — that your beginning should be from confession of your offences and invocation of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus to assist you in all your godly enterprises. And then let some place of Scripture be plainly and distinctly read, so much as shall be thought sufficient for one day or time; which ended, if any brother have exhortation, question or doubt, let him not fear to speak or move the same, so that he do it with moderation, either to edify or to be edified. And hereof I doubt not great profit shall shortly ensue; for, first, by hearing, reading and conferring the Scriptures in the assembly, the whole body of the Scriptures of God shall become familiar, the judgments and spirits of men shall be tried, their patience and modesty shall be known, and, finally, their gifts and utterance shall appear. Multiplication of words, prolix interpretations, and wilfulness in reasoning are to be avoided at all times and in all places, but chiefly in the congregation, where nothing ought to be respected except the glory of God and comfort or edification of brethren.

“If anything occur within the text, or else arise in reasoning, which your judgments cannot resolve or your capacities apprehend, let the same be noted and put in writing, before ye dismiss the congregation, that, when God shall offer unto you any interpreter, your doubts, being noted and known, may have the more expedient resolution; or else that, when ye shall have occasion to write to such as with whom ye would communicate your judgments, your letters may signify and declare your unceasing desire that ye have of God and of His true religion; and they, I doubt not, according to their talents, will endeavour and bestow their faithful labours to satisfy your godly petitions. Of myself I will speak as I think: I will more gladly spend fifteen hours in communicating my judgment with you, in explaining as God pleases to open to me any place of Scripture, than half an hour in any other matter.

“Further, I would, in reading the Scripture ye should join some books of the Old and some of the New Testament together, as Genesis and one of the Evangelists, Exodus with another, and so forth; ever ending such books as ye begin (as the time will suffer), for it will greatly comfort you to hear that harmony and well-tuned song of the Holy Spirit speaking to our fathers from the beginning.

It shall confirm you in these dangerous and perilous days to behold the face of Christ’s loving Spouse and Church, from Abel to Himself and from Himself to this day, in all ages to be one. Be frequent in the Prophets and in the Epistles of St. Paul, for the multitude of matters, most comfortable therein contained, requireth exercise and good memory. Like as your assemblies ought to begin with confession and invocation of God’s Holy Spirit, so would I that they were finished with thanksgiving and common prayers for princes, rulers and magistrates; for the liberty and free passage of Christ’s Evangel; for the comfort and deliverance of our afflicted brethren in all places now persecuted, but most cruelly within the realms of France and England; and for such other things as the Spirit of the Lord Jesus shall teach unto you to be profitable either to yourselves or to your brethren, wheresover they be.

“If thus (or better) I shall hear that ye exercise yourselves, dear brethren, then will I praise God for your great obedience, as for them that have not only received the Word of grace with gladness but that also, with care and diligence, do keep the same as a treasure and jewel most precious. And, because that I cannot suspect that ye will do the contrary at this present, I will use no threatenings; for my good hope is, that ye shall walk as the sons of light in the midst of this wicked generation; that ye shall be as stars in the night season, who yet are not changed into darkness; that ye shall be as wheat among the cockle, and yet that ye shall not change your nature, which ye have received by grace through the fellowship and participation which we have with the Lord Jesus in His body and blood; and, finally, that ye shall be of the number of the prudent virgins, daily renewing your lamps with oil, as they that patiently do abide the glorious apparition and coming of the Lord Jesus; whose omnipotent Spirit rule and instruct, illuminate and comfort your hearts and minds in all assaults now and ever. Amen.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus rest with you.

“Remember my weakness in your daily prayers. The 7th of July, 1556.

“Your Brother unfeigned, While the authority of the Word of God is one of the pillars of the Reformation, it is usually stated that the doctrine of Justification by Faith is the other. And it is worthy of note that Knox’s very first publication was a treatise on this important Works, iv. 129ff.

subject, penned, however, not by himself, but by a fellow-exile, during the period of his imprisonment in France. Knox appears to consider it a commendation of this production that it came from the pen of “no speculative theologue,” but from that of a simple layman; and at any rate the clearness and force of the exposition are now interesting evidences of the grip with which at that time this doctrine had laid hold of the general mind. At the request of the author, Henry Balnaves, Knox digested it into chapters, to which he appended summaries, together with a table of contents. This was a friendly action, thoroughly well done; although even these additions of Knox fail to give the work much distinction; and we cannot help regretting that he did not write on the subject himself

One qualification for so doing he possessed in a remarkable degree. It is the poignant and intolerable sense of sin that makes the soul cling to the cross of Christ. It was by this experience that both St. Paul and Luther were prepared for appreciating the righteousness of God, after they had realised that their guilt was too great to be atoned-for by anything that they could do themselves. The conscience of Knox was preternaturally tender. How this peculiarity was originally produced in him we do not know; but the probabihty is, that it was due to experiences of conviction of sin and of hopeless struggle after righteousness, similar to those of St. Paul and Luther, belonging to the early period of which we possess no record; and in his subsequent life it can have been developed only by a careful walk with God and a constant comparison of his own conduct and character with the perfect model of the Bible.

Often he accuses himself, in most touching terms, of shortcomings in the discharge of his ministry, and even of fear in the face of danger — the last thing which any other person would have thought of laying to his charge. Here is a searching review of his ministry in England, which will be read by everyone engaged in work of the same kind with sympathy: —

“The ministers who were the distributers of this bread, the true Word of God, wherewith the multitude within England was fed, lacked not their offences, which also moved God to send us to the sea. And, because the offences of no man are so ll manifest unto me as are mine own, only of myself I will be the accuser.

“It is not unknown unto many, that I (the most wretched) was one of that number whom God appointed to receive that bread, as it was broken by Christ Jesus, to distribute and give the same to such as He had called to this banquet, in that part of His table where He appointed me to serve. It is not in my knowledge nor judgment to define nor determine what portion or quantity every man received of this bread, neither yet how that which they received agreed with their stomachs. But of this I am assured, that the benediction of Christ Jesus so multiplied the portion that I received of His hands, that during that banquet (this I write to the praise of His name and to the accusation of mine own unthankfulness) the bread never failed when the hungry soul craved or cried for food; and at the end of the banquet, mine own conscience beareth witness, that my hands gathered up the crumbs that were left in such abundance, that my basket was full among the rest.

“To be plain, mine own conscience beareth record to myself, how small was my learning, and how weak I was of judgment, when Christ Jesus called me to be His steward; and how mightily, day by day and time by time. He multiplied His graces with me, if I should conceal, I were most wicked and unthankful.

“But alas! how blinded was my heart, and how little I did consider the dignity of that office, and the power of God that then multiplied and blessed the bread which the people received of my hands, this day mine own conscience beareth witness to myself. God I take to record in my conscience, that I delivered the same bread that I received of Christ’s hands, and that I mixed no poison with the same; that is, I taught Christ’s Gospel without any mixture of men’s dreams, devices or fantasies. But alas! I did not with such fervency, with such indifferency, and with such diligence, as this day I know my duty was to have done.

“Some complained in those days, that the preachers were indiscreet persons; yea, and some called them railers, and worse, because they spake against the manifest iniquity of men, and especially of those that were then placed in authority as well in the court as in other offices universally throughout the realm, both in cities, towns and villages. And among other, peradventure, my rude plainness displeased some, who did complain that rashly I did speak of men’s faults; so that all men might know and perceive of whom I meant. But alas! this day my conscience accuseth me, that I spake not so plainly as my duty was to have done; for I ought to have said to the wicked man expressly by his name, * Thou shalt die the death.’ For I find Jeremy the prophet to have done so to

Pashur the high priest and to Zedekiah the king; and not only him, but also Elijah, Elisha, Micah, Amos, Daniel, Christ Jesus Himself, and after Him His Apostles, expressly to have named the bloodthirsty tyrants, abominable idolaters and dissembling hypocrites of their days. If that we the preachers within the realm of England were appointed by God to be the salt of the earth, as His other messengers were before us, alas! why held we back the salt where manifest corruption did appear? (I accuse none but myself) The blind love that I did bear to this my wicked carcase was the chief cause that I was not fervent and faithful enough in that behalf; for I had no will to provoke the hatred of all men against me, and therefore so touched I the vices of men in the presence of the greatest, that they might see themselves to be offenders. I dare not say that I was the greatest *, flatterer, but yet, nevertheless, I would not be seen to proclaim manifest war against the manifest ’ wicked: whereof unfeignedly I ask my God mercy.” As I was not so fervent in rebuking manifest iniquity as it became me to have been, so was I not so indifferent a feeder as is required of Christ’s steward. For in preaching Christ’s Gospel, albeit mine eye (as knoweth God) was not much upon * Without respect of persons.

worldly promotion, yet the love of friends and carnal affection of some men with whom I was most familiar allured me to make more residence in one place than in another, having more respect to the pleasure of a few than to the necessity of many. That day I thought I had not sinned, if I had not been idle; but this day I know it was my duty to have had consideration how long I had remained in one place, and how many hungry souls were in other places to whom, alas! none took pain to break and distribute the bread of life.

“Moreover, remaining in one place, I was not so diligent as mine office required; but some time, by counsel of carnal friends, I spared the body; some time I spent in worldly business of particular friends; and some time in taking recreation and pastime by exercise of the body.

“And, albeit men may judge these to be light and small offences, yet I know and confess, that, unless pardon should to me be granted in Christ’s blood, every one of these three offences aforenamed — that is to say, the lack of fervency in reproving sin, the lack of indifferency in feeding those that were hungry, and the lack of diligence in the execution of mine office — deserved damnation.

“And, beside these, I was assaulted, yea, infected and corrupted with more gross sins; that is, my wicked nature desired the favours, the estimation and praise of men; against which, albeit that sometime the Spirit of God did move me to fight, and earnestly did stir me (God knoweth I lie not) to sob and lament for those imperfections, yet never ceased they to trouble me, when any occasion was offered. And so privily and craftily did they enter into my breast, that I could not perceive myself to be wounded, till vainglory had almost got the upperhand.

“O Lord! be merciful to my great offence, and deal not with me according to my great iniquity, but, according to the multitude of Thy mercies, remove from me the burden of my sin; for, of purpose and mind to have avoided the vain displeasure of man, I spared little to offend Thy Godly Majesty.”

But the most pathetic of all such utterances is contained in the last of his publications, his Answer to a Letter of James Tyrie, a Scottish Jesuit, written the year in which he died. It appears, indeed, to have been penned at an earlier date; but we cannot do wrong in looking upon it as expressing the habitual attitude of his spirit to God all through his life: —

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and put an end 1 Works, iii. 268 ff.

at Thy good pleasure to this my miserable life; for justice and truth are not to be found among the sons of men.

“John Knox with deliberate mind to his God.

“Be merciful unto me, O Lord, and call not into judgment my manifold sins, and chiefly those of which the world is not able to accuse me. In youth, mid-age, and now after many battles, I find nothing in me but vanity and corruption. For in quietness I am negligent, in trouble impatient, tending to desperation; and in the mean state I am so carried away with vain fantasies that, alas! O Lord, they withdraw me from the presence of Thy Majesty. Pride and ambition assault me on the one part, covetousness and malice trouble me on the other; briefly, O Lord, the affections of the flesh do almost suppress the operation of Thy Spirit. I take Thee, O Lord, who only knowest the secrets of hearts, to record, that in none of the foresaid I do delight; but that with them am I troubled, and that sore against the desire of my inward man, which sobs for my corruption, and would repose in Thy mercy alone; to the which I claim, and that in the promise that Thou hast made to all penitent sinners, of whose number I profess myself to be one, in the obedience and death of my only Saviour, our Lord

Jesus Christ; in whom by Thy mere grace I doubt not myself to be elected to eternal salvation, whereof Thou hast given unto me, O Lord, most wretched and unthankful creature, most assured signs. For, being drowned in ignorance, Thou hast given unto me knowledge above the common sort of my brethren; my tongue hast Thou used to set forth Thy glory, to oppugn idolatry, error and false doctrine. Thou hast compelled me to forespeak as well deliverance to the afflicted as destruction to certain inobedient; the performance whereof not I alone, but the very blind world has already seen. But above all, O Lord, Thou, by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, hast sealed into my heart remission of sins, which I acknowledge and confess myself to have received by the precious blood of Jesus Christ once shed; by whose perfect obedience, I am assured, my manifold rebellions are defaced, my grievous sins purged, and my soul made the tabernacle of Thy Godly Majesty; Thou, O Father of mercies. Thy Son our Lord Jesus my only Saviour, Mediator and Advocate, and Thy Holy Spirit, remaining in the same by true faith; which is the only victory that overcometh the world.

“To Thee, therefore, O Lord, I commend my spirit; for I thirst to be resolved from this body of sin, and am assured that I shall rise again in glory, howsoever it be that the wicked for a time shall tread me and others Thy servants under their feet. Be merciful, O Lord, unto the Kirk within this realm; continue with it the light of Thy Evangel; augment the number of true preachers; and let Thy merciful providence look upon my desolate bedfellow, the fruit of her bosom, and my two dear children, Nathaniel and Eleazar. Now, Lord, put end to my miseries!”

In this extract it will be noted how, in spite the depth and solemnity of the confession of sin, the author nevertheless attains to the full assurance of forgiveness; and this truly evangelical note rings out ever and anon in his writings, as it did no doubt in his preaching. Yet justification by faith does not sing and dance in the very blood of Knox as it did in Luther’s. In the German Reformer’s company we breathe an atmosphere of abounding freedom and spiritual joy, to which the Scottish one only occasionally attains; and what held the latter down was a conscience imperfectly emancipated.

The part of Balnaves’ book which will probably be most relished by the modern reader is the account it gives of the life of justification, comprising plain and sensible rules for the walk and conversation of a Christian man. In the debt which the world owes to Works vi. 483.

the heroes of the religious revolution of the sixteenth century there is no item which would be paid with more gratitude, if it were thoroughly understood, than the new conception of good works with which they familiarised the mind of Europe. In preceding centuries good works had come to be understood more and more in an artificial sense. To go on pilgrimage, to endow a religious house, to become a monk, to fast or otherwise torture the body — these and the like were good works; and the very name “religious “was restricted, as it still is where the Romish system prevails, to persons who had left the world, with its every-day duties, and given themselves up to a life of contemplation. But Balnaves shows with quiet force that the good works with which God is well pleased are such as these: to be a good father, a good son, a good citizen, to be diligent in business, and to be in all respects a good specimen of manhood. This alteration of the point of view may be said to lie at the bottom of all the progress of the modern world. It is a mistake to suppose that the Reformation was mainly occupied with theological doctrines: it was even more a revolution in morals; and Knox is excelled by none in honest zeal to enlighten the public conscience.” It is not enough,” he says,” to justify us before God that civil laws cannot accuse

I us. Nay, brethren, the eye of our God pierceth deeper than man’s law can stretch. The law of man cannot convict the earl, the lord, the baron or gentleman for oppressing the poor labourers of the ground; for his defence is ready, ‘I may do with my own as best pleaseth me. ‘The merchant is just enough in his own conceit, if before men he cannot be convicted of theft. The artificer and craftsman thinketh himself free before God, albeit that he neither work sufficient stuff nor yet sell for reasonable price. ‘The world is evil,’ saith he, * and how can men live if they do not as others do? ‘And thus doth every man lean on the iniquity of another, and thinketh himself sufficiently excused when that he meeteth craft with craft, and repulseth back violence either with deceit or else with open injury. Let us be assured, dear brethren, that these be the sins which heretofore have provoked God not only to plague, but also to destroy and utterly overthrow strong realms and flourishing commonwealths.”

It was by the lowly pathway of the conviction

of sin that Knox, like the other Reformers, reached

the position that salvation must come from the

mercy of God, and not from his own works; but

1 Works, vi. 413, there was also another path — a more imperial one — by which, again in common with the other Reformers, he came to the same point. This was the belief in Election. All the Reformers of the sixteenth century were diligent students of Augustine, from whom they learned more than from any other source, with the exception of the Bible. From him they imbibed their faith in the doctrine of predestination. But, indeed, the predestinarian system suits well the exigencies of a time of change and struggle; because it supports the protagonists with a sense that they are the instruments of a divine purpose, and that they are immortal till their work is done. It falls in, besides, with the experience of men who have been awakened to a sense of true religion in a catastrophic manner, as had been the case with the Reformers. Such men are intensely conscious of an immediate divine efficiency in their conversion; they think with amazement of the grace which has made the difference between their former and their present selves; and with equal awe they think of the difference between themselves and the rest of the world. It seems to them that a special act of divine discrimination has lifted them up out of the horrible pit and the miry clay.

To persons theologizing in this mood salvation seems all of God from first to last He has planned it from eternity; He has worked it out in the incarnation and passion of His Son and in the institution and the ordinances of the Church; and He will see to it that in the receivers also all the experiences shall come to pass which are necessary to ensure that His own redeeming purpose is not in vain. Thus arises a system like Calvinism, in which the sovereign but glorious and loving will of God holds sway from eternity to eternity, and the drama of creation ends in the redemption of a multitude which no man can number. But there is a cooler religious mood in which facts and truths come into prominence of which this fervid theology takes little reckoning. To the latter it matters little what difference there is between man and man; for all are condemned and all may equally be saved; but undoubtedly there are great differences between one sinner and another, and for certain purposes even in religion it is essential to bear this in mind. To a system like Calvinism the difference between one saint and another appears of very minor importance; indeed, the better saint of the two may be the more conscious of his own shortcomings, and in the end both will equally be saved. But, from other points of view, the differences between those who bear respectively thirty, forty and an hundredfold are enormous, and to overlook these is to lose some of the most pathetic motives of morality. In this cooler atmosphere a system like Arminianism has its birth; and undoubtedly such a system has its own share of truth; although Calvinism is the purer expression of the religious sentiment at its warmest — when it is lost in God and acknowledges that He must be all in all.

It was on this subject that Knox wrote his longest theological work — An Answer to the Cavillatio7is of an Adversary respecting the Doctrine of Predestination. The adversary was the author of a book entitled Careless by Necessity; but no copy of this work has been found, and the author is only doubtfully identified with a certain Robert Cooke, known to have been in those days a disseminator of the opinions here assailed. These included not only anti-Calvinism, but perfectionism, toleration, and the miscellaneous heresies embraced within the comprehensive name of Anabaptism. Knox had known the author at an earlier stage of his career, when he was a person of promise; and he frequently bewails his backsliding, once going so far as to say that he would be willing to give his own soul for his reclamation. It would appear that he was a person of indifferent learning; and Knox occasionally talks down to him from the platform of a thoroughly educated man, acquainted with the l6o JOHN KNOX

tongues; but, for all that, he must have been a thinker of no little acuteness; his book had obviously created something of a panic in the circles for whose benefit Knox wrote this refutation; and Knox has sometimes enough to do when attempting to invalidate his arguments.

These he quotes in his antagonist’s own words, often at great length, and then subjoins a refutation. This plan gives the book a clumsy appearance, occasioning innumerable repetitions; and the work must be confessed to be more a collection of fragments than a comprehensive or masterly treatment of a great subject. Indeed, at the commencement, the author writes in a singularly helpless manner, as if he were engaged in handling tools which he had not learned how to use. There is an extraordinary contrast between the dulness of this work and the piquancy of The History of the Reformation. Obviously the one was written invita Minerva and to order, the other straight from the heart. Yet the book improves as it proceeds; and the author naively betrays his own consciousness of getting on better; saying, about the middle, “Behold how smoothly God conducteth our tossed boat through the raging waves of your furious arguments “; and, somewhat later,” Behold your spider-webs with less labour dissolved and burst

HIS IDEAS I6t

than, I am assured, you and your great captain Castellio did spin, knit and weave the same.” He kindles into true warmth and eloquence when refuting the slander, which has been so often launched against Calvinism, that it encourages its adherents to live as they please; and he anticipates Froude in repelling this argument by pointing to the moral condition of the cities or countries where Calvinism has been embraced. The instance chosen by him is naturally Geneva; and here is his flattering description of that city: —

“What maketh the poor city of Geneva — poor, I say, in man’s eyes, but rich before God, by the plentiful abundance of His heavenly graces — what maketh it, I say, so odious to the carnal men of this world? Assuredly not this doctrine wherewith ye charge us; for that could well please the carnal man, to let him live at his pleasure without all punishment. Is it not the right rigour of justice and the severity of discipline executed therein, in such sort that no manifest offender, wheresoever he hath committed his offence, doth there escape punishment? Is not this it that so doth offend not only the licentious of the world, but even you dissembling hypocrites cannot abide that the sword of God’s vengeance shall strike the murderer, the blasphemer, and such others as God by His Word commandeth to die? Not so by your judgments: he must live: he may repent. And those commonwealths do ye highly praise where men may live as they wish, be subject to no law nor order; yea, where the drunkard and such other abominable persons are permitted to live quietly and find favour to escape punishment and shame. But, because in the streets of Geneva dare no notable malefactor shew his face (all praise and glory be unto God) any more than dare the owl in the bright sun, therefore is it hated.”

All the usual arguments against Calvinism are adduced in the words of the adversary, and then refuted one by one. There is much quoting of Scripture on both sides, with somewhat desperate shifts occasionally to escape the force of texts which seem to be hostile, and not infrequently the use of texts as proofs which stand themselves in need of explaining. The contention mainly turns on the question whether human responsibility is compatible with divine foreordination; the adversary holding that those who perish are not responsible for being lost, if they were doomed to perish before their birth, while Knox insists that they perish justly for their sins; for he is perfectly clear that this is the correct statement of the case:” Most 1 Works, V. 211.

J unjustly you accuse us, laying to our charge that we burden God to be the cause of condemnation, the which we all with one consent impute to man, to sin, and to the Devil, the first solicitor to sin.” He refuses to be charged with holding that the greater part of the human race are foredoomed to perdition, as Calvinists do not profess to know the numbers of the saved or the lost; and he rejects with holy abhorrence the reproach that God, according to his teaching, is the author of sin. Towards the close he carries the war into the enemy’s country by an account of the origin and tenets of the Anabaptists, and especially of the vagaries of Peter Miinzer and the fanatics of Miinster.

It is curious how in our own day this mysterious subject should have been brought again to the front through the decision pronounced in the House of Lords on i August 1904, in the case between the United Free Church of Scotland and the body of its former members who did not enter the Union, the Lord Chancellor declaring the Calvinism of the Confession of Faith to be irreconcilable with the free offer of the Gospel, as this is vindicated in the Declaratory Act of 1892. This is an objection to Calvinism of similar character with many brought against it in this book; but it can scarcely be said to be specifically dealt with by Knox; and I am not certain if he would have come well out of an argument on such a theme; for the adversary did bring against him such texts as the one which states that God delighteth not in the death of the wicked, and the other which asserts that He will have all men to be saved; and his manner of dealing with these is not very satisfactory. He limits and minimises their significance, instead of glorying in the magnanimity of God, which they reveal. The truth is, the Church has learned since Knox’s time to welcome more gladly and to preach more emphatically this side of Scriptural truth. In the days of Knox there were no foreign missions, and these have done much to open the mind and heart of Christendom to many aspects of divine revelation, and this one among the rest.

Calvinists believe in election not only because it is revealed in Scripture, but because it is confirmed by experience. Every redeemed man knows that he would never have thought of God unless God had first thought of him. God can say to all Christians, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you “; and these answer, in their turn, “We love Him because He first loved us.” But, on the other hand, even clearer and ampler is the testimony of Scripture that God is calling all, and that the Saviour is offered to all without distinction. This also is not onlyrevealed by Scripture, but confirmed by experience; because, the more anyone is occupied in seeking and saving the lost, the more sensible does he become of entering into the very mind and heart of God; and, the more the Church carries out the Saviour’s command to preach the Gospel to every creature, the more does it know itself to be in harmony with the divine will. There is, it must be confessed, a mystery in this subject which we cannot now penetrate and which may be too deep for the human faculties. But election and the free offer of the Gospel are both manifestations of the one redeeming love of God: they are portions of one shining arc, the curve of which shows that they are destined to meet, although the meeting-point is shrouded in the clouds and thick darkness of Deity.