No XVI. [Cald. II. 270.]
John Knox to Mr Goodman.
Written about the same time with the preceding.
Beloved brother, I can not praise God of your trouble; but that of his mercie he hath made you one against whom Satan bendeth all his engines, therof unfainedlie I praise my God, beseeching him to strengthen you to fight your battell lawfully to the end. That we shall meet in this life there is no hope; for to my bodie it is impossible to be carried from countrie to countrie, and of your comfortable presence where I am I have small, yea no esperance. The name of God be praised, who of his mercie hath left me so great comfort of you in this life. That ye may understand that my heart is pierced with the present troubles, from the castle of Edinburgh hath sprung all the murthers first and last committed in this realme, yea, and all the troubles and treasons conspired in England, God confound the wicked devisers with their wicked devises. So long as it pleased God to continue unto me any strength, I ceasednot to forwarn these dayes publickly, as Edinburgh can witness, and secretlie, as Mr Randolph and others of that nation with whom I secretlie conferred, can testifie. Remedy now on earth resteth none, but onlie that both England and Scotland humbly submit themselves to the correcting hand of God, with humble confession of their former inobedience, that blood was not punished, when he be his servants publicly craved justice according to his law; in which head your realme is no less guilty than we, who now drink the bitter part of the cup, which God of his mercie avert from you. And thus weary of the world, with my hearty commendations to all faithful acquaintance, Mr Bodlih and his bedfellow especially remembered, I commit you to the protection of the omnipotent. Off Sanct Andrews.
No XVII. [Calderwood’s MS. ad an. 1570. Advocates’ Library.]
Prayer used by John Knox after the Regent’s death.
O Lord, what shall we add to the former petitions we know not; yea, alace, O Lord, our owne consciences bear us record that we are unworthie that thou should either encreass or yet continue thy graces with us, be reason of our horrible ingratitude. In our extreme miseries we called, and thou in the multitude of thy mercies heard us; and first thou delivered us from the tyrannie of mercieless strangers, next from the bondage of idolatry, and last from the yoak of that wretched woman, the mother of all mischief, and in her place thou didst erect her sonne, and to supply his infancie thou didst appoynt a regent endued with such graces as the divell himself cannot accuse or justly convict him, this only excepted that foolish pity did so farre prevaill in him, concerning execution and punishment which thou commanded to have been executed upon her, and upon her complices, the murtherers of her husband. O Lord, in what miserie and confusion found he this realme! To what rest and quietnesse now be his labours suddanlie he brought the same, all estates, but speciallie the poor commons, can witness. Thy image, Lord, did so clearlie shyne in that personage, that thedivell, and the wicked to whom he is prince, could not abyde it. And so to punish our sinnes and ingratitude, who did not ryghtlie esteem so pretious a gift, thou hes permitted him to fall, to our great griefe, in the hands of cruell and traterous murtherers. He is at rest, O Lord, and we are left in extreme miserie! Be mercifull to us, and suffer not Satan to prevaill against thy little flocke within this realme, neither yet, O Lord, let bloode thirsty men come to the end of their wicked enterprises. Preserve, O Lord, our young king, although he be ane infant; give unto him the spirit of sanctification, with encreasse of the same as he groweth in yeares. Let his raigne, O Lord, be such as thou may be glorified, and thy little flock comforted by it. Seeing that we are now left as a flock without a pastor in civill policie, and as a shippe without a rudder in the midst of the storm, let thy providence watch, Lord, and defend us in these dangerous dayes, that the wicked of the world may see that as weill without the help of man, as with it, thou art able to rule, maintain, and defend the little flock that dependeth upon thee. And because, O Lord, the shedding of innocent bloode hes ever been, and yet is odious in thy presence, yea, that it defyleth the whole land where it is shed and not punished, we crave of thee, for Christ thy sonnes sake, that thou wilt so try and punish the two treasonable and cruell murthers latelie committed, that the inventars, devysers, authors, and maintainers of treasonable crueltie, may be either thoroughlie converted or confounded. O Lord, if thy mercie prevent us not, we cannot escape just condemnation, for that Scotland hath spared, and England hath maintained, the lyfe of that most wicked woman. Oppose thy power, O Lord, to the pryde of that cruell murtherer of her owne husband; confound her faction and their subtile enterprises of what estate and condition soever they be; and let them and the world know, that thou art a God that can deprehend the wise in their own wisdome, and the proud in the imagination of their wicked hearts, to their everlasting confusioun. Lord, retain us that call upon thee in thy true fear. Let us grow in the same. Give thou strength to us to fight our battell, yea, Lord, to fight it lawfullie, and to end our lives in the sanctification of thy holy name.
No XVIII. [Buik of the Universall Kirk, p. 45. Advocates’ Library.]