The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland. John Armoy Knox
"What differ I from a dead man, except that I eat and drink? Unto this time, God has used my labours for the instruction of others, and for the disclosing of darkness; and now I lurk as a man that is ashamed, and dare not show himself before men." From these and like words, they that heard him understood that his desire was to preach; and therefore said they, "Most comfortable it were unto us to hear you; but, because we know the danger wherein ye stand, we dare not desire you." "Only dare ye and others hear," said he, "and then let my God provide for me, as best pleaseth Him." Finally, it was concluded that he should preach in Leith on the next Sunday. This he did, taking the text, "The parable of the sower that went forth to sow seed." (Matthew xiii.) This was fifteen days before Yule.
For Safety he is removed to the Lothians; preaches at Inveresk.
The sermon ended, the gentlemen of Lothian, who then were earnest professors of Christ Jesus, thought it not expedient that Master George should remain in Leith, as the Governor and Cardinal were shortly to come to Edinburgh. Therefore they took him with them, and kept him sometimes in Brunstone, sometimes in Longniddry, and sometimes in Ormiston; for those three Lairds diligently waited upon him. On the Sunday following, he preached in the kirk of Inveresk, beside Musselburgh, both before and after noon. There was a great congregation of people, amongst them being Sir George Douglas, who said publicly after the sermon, "I know that my Lord Governor and my Lord Cardinal shall hear that I have been at this preaching. Say unto them that I will avow it, and will not only maintain the doctrine that I have heard, but also the person of the teacher, to the uttermost of my power." These words greatly rejoiced the people and the gentlemen then present.
We cannot pass by one notable thing in that sermon. Amongst others, there came two Grey Friars, who, standing in the entry of the kirk door, made some whispering to such as came in. This perceived, the preacher said to the people that stood nigh them, "I heartily pray you to make room for those two men. It may be that they be come to learn." Unto them he said, "Come near,"—they stood in the very entry of the door—"for I assure you ye shall hear the Word of truth, which shall this same day seal unto you your salvation, or your condemnation." He then proceeded with his sermon, supposing that they would have been quiet. But, when he perceived that they still troubled the people that stood nigh them (for vehement was he against the false worshipping of God), he turned unto them the second time, and with an awful countenance said, "O sergeants of Satan and deceivers of the souls of men, will ye neither hear God's truth, nor suffer others to hear it? Depart, and take this for your portion—God shall shortly confound and disclose your hypocrisy. Within this realm ye shall be abominable unto men, and your places and habitations shall be desolate." This sentence he pronounced with great vehemence, in the midst of the sermon; and, turning to the people, he said, "Yon wicked men have provoked the Spirit of God to anger." Then he returned to his matter, and proceeded to the end.
That day's travail ended, he came to Longniddry; and on the two next Sundays he preached in Tranent, with the like grace and like confluence of people. In all his sermons, after his departure from Angus, he forespake the shortness of the time that he had to travail, and of his death, the day whereof, he said, approached nigher than any would believe.
Master George goes to Haddington.
Towards the close of those days that are called the holy days of Yule, he passed, by the consent of the gentlemen, to Haddington, where it was supposed the greatest confluence of people might be found, both by reason of the town and of the country adjacent. On the first day, before noon, the audience was reasonable, and yet nothing in comparison with that which used to be in that kirk. But, in the afternoon and on the next forenoon, the audience was so slender that many wondered. The reason was thought to have been that the Earl Bothwell, who in these bounds had great credit and obedience, had, by procurement of the Cardinal, given inhibition to the town, as well as to the country, that they should not hear Master George, under the pain of his displeasure. On the first night he lay within the town with David Forrest, now called the general, a man that long has professed the truth, and upon whom many in that time depended. On the second night he lay in Lethington, the Laird whereof was ever civil, albeit not persuaded in religion.
John Knox's first Appearance.
On the day following, before the said Master George passed to the sermon, a boy came to him with a letter from the west land. This read, he called for John Knox, who had waited upon him carefully from the time he came to Lothian. With him he began to enter into purpose,[70] saying that he wearied of the world, for he perceived that men began to weary of God. The cause of his complaint was that the gentlemen of the west had written to him that they could not keep diet at Edinburgh. The said John Knox, wondering that he desired to keep any purpose before sermon, for that was never his custom, said, "Sir, the time of sermon approaches: I will leave you for the present to your meditation;" and so left him. The said Master George paced up and down behind the high altar for more than half an hour; his very countenance and visage declared the grief and alteration of his mind. At last he passed to the pulpit, but the audience was small.
The last Sermon of Master George Wishart: his Arrest.
Master George should have begun to have treated of the second table of the Law; but thereof in that sermon he spake very little, and began in this manner: "O Lord, how long shall it be that Thy holy Word shall be despised, and men shall not regard their own salvation. I have heard of thee, Haddington, that in thee two or three thousand people would have been at a vain clerk play;[71] and now, to hear the messenger of the Eternal God, of all thy town or parish there cannot be numbered a hundred persons. Sore and fearful shall the plague be that shall ensue this thy contempt: with fire and sword thou shalt be plagued; yea, thou Haddington, in special, strangers shall possess thee, and you, the present inhabitants, shall either in bondage serve your enemies, or else ye shall be chased from your own habitations; and that because ye have not known, and will not know, the time of God's merciful visitation." That servant of God continued for nearly an hour and a half in such vehemency and threatening, and during this he foretold all the plagues that ensued, as plainly as afterwards our eyes saw them performed. In the end he said, "I have forgotten myself and the matter that I should have entreated; but let these my last words as concerning public preaching remain in your minds, until God send you new comfort." Thereafter he made a short paraphrase upon the second table, with an exhortation to patience, to the fear of God, and unto His works of mercy; and so ended, as it were making his last testament that the spirit of truth and of true judgment was both in his heart and mouth. Before midnight he was apprehended in the house of Ormiston, by the Earl Bothwell, who for money was become butcher to the Cardinal. …
Master George is betrayed into the Hands of the Cardinal.
The servant of God, Master George Wishart, was carried first to Edinburgh; thereafter brought back to the House of Hailes, which was the principal place that then the Earl of Bothwell had in Lothian. As gold and women have corrupted all worldly and fleshly men from the beginning, so did they him. For the Cardinal gave gold, and that largely; and the Queen, with whom the said Earl was then in the glondours,[72] promised favours in all his lawful suits to women, if he would deliver the said Master George to be kept in the Castle of Edinburgh. He made some resistance at the first, by reason of his promise:[73] but an effeminate man cannot long withstand the assaults of a gracious Queen. And so the servant of God was transported to Edinburgh Castle, where he remained not many days. For that bloody wolf, the Cardinal, ever thirsting for the blood of the servant of God, so travailed with the abused Governor, that he was content that God's servant should be delivered to the power of that tyrant.
Thus, small inversion being made, Pilate obeyed the petition of Caiaphas and of his fellows, and adjudged Christ to be crucified. The servant of God being delivered into the hand of that proud and merciless tyrant, triumph was made by the priests. The godly lamented, and accused the foolishness of the Governor; for, by retaining the said Master George, he might have caused Protestants and Papists to have served: the one to the end that the life of their preacher might have been saved; the other, for fear that he should have set him at liberty again, to the confusion of the bishops. But, where God is forsaken, what can counsel or judgment avail?
The Bishops and Clergy are convoked to the Trial of Wishart.
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