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The permission of that odious idol, the Mass, by such as have professed themselves enemies to the same, does hourly threaten a sudden plague. I thirst to change this earthly tabernacle; before that my wretched heart should be assaulted with such new dolours...if you, or any other think that I, or any other preacher within this realm may amend such enormities, you are deceived; for we have discharged our consciences, but remedy there appears none...Our nobility (I write with dolour of heart) begin to ease good service for God...I have finished in open preaching the Gospel of Saint John, saving only one chapter. Oft I have craved the miseries of my days to end with the same.
September 14th 2007
Prayer of John Knox
Now O Lord, thou hast revealed thyself and thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, clearly to the world again, by the true preaching of his blessed evangel, which also of thy mercy is offered unto us within this realm of Scotland...Give unto us, O Lord, that presently are assembled in thy Name, such abundance of thy holy Spirit, that we may wee those things that shall be expedient for the advancement of thy glory, in the midst of this perverse and stubborn generation. Give us grace, O Lord, that universally among our selves, we may agree in the unity of true doctrine. bless thou so our weak labours, that the fruits of the same may redound to the praise of thy holy Name, to the profit of this present generation, and to the posterity to come, through Jesus Christ; to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and praise, now and ever. So be it.
September 08th 2007
The Lord shall put an end to all troubles
TO HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW.
The Lord shall put an end to all troubles.
DEARLY BELOVED SISTER in our Savior Jesus Christ, ¾ The manifold and
general assaults of the devil raging against you, and troubling your rest,
while you thirst and most earnestly desire to remain in Christ, doth certify
unto me your very election, which the devil envies in all the chosen of God.
And albeit his arts be subtle, and tormenting painfully, yet thereof
followeth great commodity ¾ a hatred of yourself, who may not nor
cannot resist as you would his temptations, and a continual desire of God’s
support; which two are most acceptable sacrifices in God’s sight. Where
the Adversary would persuade, that it maketh nothing what you think,
because it shall not be imputed, there he is compelled to bear witness to the
truth, but not of a true intent. Truly, neither thought nor deed shall be
imputed unto you, for they are remitted in Christ’s blood. But therefore do
you not rejoice in thoughts and works repugning to God’s express
commandment; but do lament and mourn, that any such motion should
remain in you; and desire to be made free from that corruption, by your
champion, Christ. And so you shall be, as he has promised. Other things, as
time will permit, I will most gladly fulfill. I laud and praise my God, asking
from my heart, that such as have professed his Son Jesus, contemn not his
admonitions to the end. Amen. ¾ Your brother in Christ Jesus,
JOHN KNOX.
From Carlisle, this Friday Afternoon, 1553.
September 2nd 2007
Tis a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.
It appeareth that David after his offense, fell into some great and
dangerous sickness, in which he was sore tormented, not so much by
corporal infirmities, as by sustaining and drinking some large portion of the
cup of God’s wrath. And albeit that he was delivered as then from the
corporal death, yet it appeareth, that long after, (yea, and I verily believe,
that all his life,) he had some sense and remembrance of the horrible fear
which before he suffered in the time of his sickness. And therefore, the
Holy Ghost speaking in him, showeth unto us what be the complaints of
God’s elect under such cross; how diversely they are tormented; how that
they appear to have no sure hold of God, but to be abject from him; and
yet what are the signs that they are God’s elect. And so doth the Holy
Ghost teach us to seek help of God, even when he is punishing, and
appeareth to be angry with us.
“O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, nor chasten me in thy hot
displeasure.” — David, sore troubled in body and spirit, lamentably
prayeth unto God; which that you may more surely understand, I will
attempt to express it in more words. David speaketh unto God, as he
would speak unto a man, in this manner: O Lord, I feel what is the weight
and strength of thy displeasure. I have experience how intolerable is theheaviness of thy hand, which I, most wretched man, have provoked against
myself by my horrible sins. Thou whippest me, and scourgest me bitterly;
yea, so thou vexest me, that unless thou withdraw thy hand, and remit thy
displeasure, there resteth nothing unto me but utterly to be confounded. I
beseech thee, O Lord, rage not, neither be commoved against me above
measure: f19 remit and take away thy heavy displeasure, which by my
iniquity I have provoked against myself.
This appeareth to have been the meaning of David in his first words,
whereby he declareth himself to have felt the grievous wrath of God before
acknowledgeth all trouble that he sustained as well in body as in spirit, t
be sent of God, and not to happen unto him by chance. For herein
peculiarly differ the sons of God from the reprobate, that the sons of God
know both prosperity and adversity to be the gifts of God only, as Job
witnesseth; and therefore in prosperity commonly they are not insolent nor
proud, but even in the day of joy and rest they look for trouble and sorrow:
neither yet, in the time of adversity, are they altogether left without
comfort; but by one mean or other, God showeth to them that trouble shall
have end. While contrariwise the reprobate, either taking all things of
chance, or else, making an idol of their own wisdom, in prosperity are so
puffed up that they forget God, without any care that trouble should
follow; and in adversity they are so dejected, that they look for nothing but
hell.
September 1st 2007
God will recompense for standing firm.
Verse 13. “O Lord, our God, other lords besides thee have ruled us,”
etc. ¾ As the cunning mariner, being master, having his ship tossed with
vehement tempest :red winds contrarious, is compelled oft to traverse, lest
that either by too much resisting to the violence of the waves, his vessel
might be overwhelmed; or by too much liberty granted to be carried
whither the fury of the tempest would, his ship should be driven upon the
shore, and so make shipwreck ¾ even so doth our prophet Isaiah, in this
text which presently ye have heard read. For lie, foreseeing the great
desolation that was decreed in the council of the Eternal against Jerusalem
and Judah; to wit, that the whole people that bare the name of God should
be dispersed; that the holy city should be destroyed; the temple, wherein
was the ark of the covenant, and where God had promised to give his own
presence, should be burnt with fire; the king taken, his sons in his own
presence murdered, his own eyes immediately after to be put out; the
nobility, some cruelly murdered, some shamefully led away captives; and
finally, the whole seed of Abraham razed, as it were, from the face of the
earth, ¾ the prophet, I say, fearing these horrible calamities, doth as it
were sometimes suffer himself, and the people committed to his charge, to
be carried away with the violence of the tempest, without further
resistance, than by pouring forth his and their dolorous complaints before
the majesty of God; as in the 13th, 17th, and 18th verses of this present
text we may read. At other times he valiantly resisteth the desperate
tempest, and pronounceth the fearful destruction of all such as trouble the
church of God; which he pronounceth that God will multiply, even in such
time as when it appeareth to be utterly exterminate. But because there is no
final rest to the whole body, till the Head return to judgment, he calleth the
afflicted to patience, and promiseth such a visitation, as whereby the
wickedness of the wicked shall be disclosed, and finally recompensed in
their own bosoms.
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