Knox. One sufficeth. But, God be praised, we do not lack others. The whole people conspired against Amaziah, king of Judah, after he had turned away from the Lord, followed him to Lachish and slew him, and took Uzziah and anointed him king instead of his father. The people had not altogether forgotten the league and covenant made betwixt their king and them, at the inauguration of Joash, his father, that the king and the people should be the people of the Lord, and then should they be his faithful subjects. When first the father, and afterwards the son, declined from that covenant, they were both punished to the death, Joash by his own servants, and Amaziah by the whole people.
Lethington. I doubt whether they did well or not.
Knox. It shall be free for you to doubt as ye please; but where I find execution according to God's laws, and God Himself does not accuse the doers, I dare not doubt of the equity of the cause. Further, it appears to me that God gave sufficient approbation and allowance to their act; for He blessed them with victory, peace, and prosperity, for the space of fifty-two years thereafter.
Lethington. But prosperity does not always prove that God approves the acts of men.
Knox. Yes; when the acts of men agree with the law of God, and are rewarded according to God's own promise, expressed in His law, I say that the prosperity succeeding the act is most infallible assurance that God has approved that act. God has promised in His law that, when His people shall exterminate and destroy such as decline from Him, He will bless them, and multiply them, as He has promised to their fathers. Amaziah turned from God; for so the text doth witness; and it is plain that the people slew their king; and it is as plain that God blessed them. Therefore, yet again I conclude that God approved their act, and it, in so far as it was done according to His commandment, was blessed according to His promise.
Lethington. Well, I think the ground is not so sure that I durst build my conscience thereupon.
Knox. I pray God that your conscience have no worse ground than this, whenever ye shall begin work like that which God, before your own eyes, has already blessed. And now, my Lord, I have but one example to produce, and then I will put an end to my reasoning, because I weary of standing. (Commandment was given that he should sit down; but he refused it, and said, "Melancholious reasons would have some mirth intermixed.") My last example, my Lord, is this, Uzziah the king, not content of his royal estate, malapertly took upon him to enter within the temple of the Lord, to burn incense upon the altar of incense; and Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, valiant men. These withstood Uzziah the king, and said to him, "It pertaineth thee not, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to offer incense. Go forth of the sanctuary, for thou hast transgressed, and you shall have no honour of the Lord God." From this, my Lord, I conclude that subjects not only may, but ought to withstand and resist their princes, whenever they do anything that expressly repugns to God's law or holy ordinance.
Lethington. They that withstood the king were not simple subjects. They were the priests of the Lord, and figures of Christ. We have none such priests this day, to withstand kings if they do wrong.
Knox. I grant that the High Priest was the figure of Christ, but I deny that he was not a subject. I am assured that he, in his priesthood, had no prerogative above those that had gone before him. Now, Aaron was subject unto Moses, and called him his lord. Samuel, being both prophet and priest, subjected himself to Saul, after he was inaugurated by the people. Zadok bowed before David; and Abiathar was deposed from the priesthood by Solomon. These all confessed themselves subjects to the kings, albeit therewith they ceased not to be figures of Christ. Ye say that we have no such priests this day, but I might answer that neither have we such kings this day as then were anointed at God's commandment, and sat upon the seat of David, and were no less the figure of Christ Jesus in their just administration, than were the priests in their appointed office. Such kings, I am assured, we have not now, more than have we such priests. Christ Jesus, being anointed in our nature by God, His Father, as King, Priest, and Prophet, has put an end to all external unction. And yet, I think, ye will not say that God has now diminished His graces for those whom He appoints ambassadors betwixt Him and His people, more than He does from kings and princes. Therefore, I see not why the servants of Jesus Christ may not also justly withstand kings and princes that this day no less offend God's Majesty than Uzziah did, unless ye will say that we, in the brightness of the Evangel, are not straitly bound to regard God's glory or His commandments, as were the fathers that lived under the dark shadows of the law.