At length she said, "Well, then, I perceive that my subjects shall obey you, and not me; and shall do what they list, and not what I command: and so must I be subject to them, and not they to me."
John Knox. God forbid, that ever I take upon me to command any to obey me, or yet to set subjects at liberty to do what pleaseth them. But my travail is that both princes and subjects obey God. And think not, Madam, that wrong is done to you when ye are willed to be subject to God. It is He that subjects people under princes, and causes obedience to be given to them; yea, God craves of kings that they be, as it were, foster-fathers to His Church, and commands queens to be nurses to His people. And, Madam, this subjection to God and to His troubled Church is the greatest dignity that flesh can get upon the face of the earth, for it shall carry them to everlasting glory.
Queen Mary. Yea, but ye are not the Kirk that I will nurse. I will defend the Kirk of Rome, for I think it is the true Kirk of God.
John Knox. Your will, Madam, is no reason; neither doth your thought make of that Roman harlot the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ. Wonder not, Madam, that I call Rome a harlot; for that Church is altogether polluted with all kind of spiritual fornication, as well in doctrine as in manners. Yea, Madam, I offer myself further to prove that the Church of the Jews that crucified Christ Jesus, when it manifestly denied the Son of God, was not so far degenerated from the ordinances and statutes which God gave by Moses and Aaron unto His people, as the Church of Rome is declined, and for more than five hundred years hath declined from the purity of that religion which the Apostles taught and planted.
Queen Mary. My conscience is not so.
John Knox. Conscience, Madam, requires knowledge; and I fear that right knowledge ye have none.
Queen Mary. But I have both heard and read.
John Knox. So, Madam, did the Jews that crucified Christ Jesus read both the Law and the Prophets, and heard the same interpreted after their manner. Have ye heard any teach, but such as the Pope and his Cardinals have allowed? Ye may be assured that such will speak nothing to offend their own estate.
Queen Mary. Ye interpret the Scriptures in one manner, and they interpret in another; whom shall I believe? And who shall be judge?
John Knox. Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His Word: and, farther than the Word teaches you, ye shall believe neither the one nor the other. The Word of God is plain in itself; and, if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, who is never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places: so that there can remain no doubt, but to such as obstinately remain ignorant. And now, Madam, take one of the chief points this day in controversy betwixt the Papists and us. For example, the Papists allege and boldly have affirmed that the Mass is the ordinance of God, and the institution of Jesus Christ, and a sacrifice for the sins of the quick and the dead. We deny both the one and the other, and affirm that the Mass, as it is now used, is nothing but the invention of man; and, therefore, is an abomination before God, and no sacrifice that ever God commanded. Now, Madam, who shall judge betwixt us two thus contending? There is no reason that either of the parties be believed farther than they are able to prove by insuspect witnessing. Let them lay down the Book of God and, by the plain words thereof, prove their affirmation, and we shall give them the plea granted. But so long as they are bold to affirm, and yet do prove nothing, we must say that, albeit all the world believe them, yet they believe not God, but receive the lies of men for the truth of God. What our Master Jesus Christ did, we know from His Evangelists: what the priest doeth at his Mass, the world seeth. Now, doth not the Word of God plainly assure us that Christ Jesus neither said, nor yet commanded Mass to be said at His Last Supper, seeing that no such thing as their Mass is made mention of within the whole Scriptures?