Lethington. That was not cried out before the people to make them odious to their subjects.
Knox. That Elijah said, "Dogs shall lick the blood of Ahab, and eat the flesh of Jezebel," the Scriptures assure me; but I read not that it was whispered in their own ear, or in a corner. The plain contrary appears to me. That is, both the people and the Court understood well enough what the Prophet had promised; for so witnessed Jehu, after God's vengeance had stricken Jezebel.
Lethington. They were singular motions of the Spirit of God, and appertain nothing to this our age.
Knox. Then the Scripture has far deceived me, for St. Paul teaches me that, "Whatsoever is written within the Holy Scriptures, is written for our instruction." And my Master said that "Every learned and wise scribe brings forth his treasure, both things old and things new." And the Prophet Jeremiah affirms that "Every realm and every city that likewise offends, as then did Jerusalem, should likewise be punished." Why then, I neither see nor yet can understand that the acts of the ancient Prophets, and the fearful judgments of God executed before us upon the disobedient, appertain not unto this our age. But now, to put an end to this head, my Lord, the Prophets of God have not spared to rebuke wicked kings, as well to their face as before the people and subjects. Elisha feared not to say to King Jehoram, "What have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother; for as the Lord of Hosts lives, in whose sight I stand, if it were not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, I would not have looked toward thee nor seen thee." It is plain that the Prophet was a subject in the kingdom of Israel, and yet how little reverence he gives to the King. Jeremiah the Prophet was commanded to cry to the King and to the Queen, and to say, "Behave yourselves lawfully; execute justice and judgment; or else your carcases shall be cast to the heat of the day, and unto the frost of the night." Unto Coniah, Shallum, and Zedekiah, he speaks in special, and shows to them, in his public sermons, their miserable ends; and therefore ye ought not to think it strange, my Lord, that the servants of God mark the vice of kings and queens, as well as of other offenders, and that because their sins are more noisome to the commonwealth than are the sins of inferior persons.
For the most part of this reasoning, Secretary Lethington leaned upon the Master of Maxwell's breast, who said, "I am almost weary: I would that some other would reason in the chief head, which is not touched."
The Earl of Morton, Chancellor, commanded Mr. George Hay to reason against John Knox, in the head of obedience due unto magistrates; and he began so to do.
Knox. Brother, I am well content that ye reason with me, because I know you to be both a man of learning and of modesty: but that ye shall oppose yourself to a truth of which, I suppose, your own conscience is no less persuaded than is mine, I cannot well approve. I would be sorry that you and I should be reputed to reason as two scholars of Pythagoras, to show the quickness of our imagination. I protest here, before God, that, whatsoever I sustain, I do the same of conscience; yea, I dare no more sustain a proposition known unto myself untrue, than dare I teach false doctrine in the public place. Therefore, Brother, if conscience move you to oppose yourself to that doctrine which ye have heard from my mouth in that matter, do it boldly: it shall never offend me. But it pleases me not that ye be found to oppose yourself to me, if ye are persuaded in the same truth. In that there may be greater inconvenience than either ye or I do consider for the present.
Hay. Far be it from me to prove myself willing to impugn or confute that head of doctrine, which not only ye, but many others, yea, and I myself have affirmed; for so should I be found contrarious to myself. My Lord Secretary knows my judgment in that head.
Lethington. Marry; ye are well the worse of the two. I remember well your reasoning when the Queen was in Carrick.
Knox. Well, seeing, Brother, that God has made you occupy the chair of truth, in which, I am sure, we will agree in all principal heads of doctrine, let it never be said that we disagree in disputation.