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God’s Gift to Scotland in John Knox and the Reformation

James Begg

On Sabbath evening, November 24, 1872, being the Ter-centenary of the death of John Knox, the Rev Dr Begg preached in John Knox's Church, Edinburgh, a sermon on "God's Gift to Scotland in John Knox & the Reformation." The church was crowded to excess, and hundreds could not obtain admission. After the usual devotional exercises, Dr Begg chose for his text Psalm 44:1,

We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us,
what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.

There are several principles of much importance and of perpetual application indicated in this portion of the Divine Word. The following may be specified amongst others:

A Christian must have regard to the past in his devout contemplations as well as to the present and the future.

All the blessings of the past must be traced directly, moreover, to the hand of God.

Men and other means are employed as instruments, but God himself is the great worker, and to Him belongs all the glory.

All the blessings of the past, as well as of the present, ought to give rise, therefore, to songs of thankfulness.

When a great work is to be done God generally raises up powerful instruments to accomplish that work, and this was never more wonderfully illustrated than in the case of our great Reformer. "What went ye out for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?" If ye did ye must certainly have been disappointed. On the contrary, ye saw a man of the greatest firmness, with singular comprehension of mind, and the most remarkable mental power - a rare combination of strong faith, clear perception, undaunted courage, the most tender sensibility, and the most earnest patriotism. Christian principle of the most decided kind was the undoubted substratum of his whole character. You now see him from the ends of the earth towering head and shoulders above all his countrymen. Scotland has had many eminent and good men, but it is no disparagement to any of them to say that she has only had one John Knox. And as the loftiest mountains seem most remarkable at a distance, so this great man, raised up by God, is seen today across three centuries towering head and shoulders above the most eminent of Scotsmen. There was a rare combination of gifts and graces in our illustrious Reformer. Physical and moral courage are not always, are indeed rarely, combined. Some men can stand at the cannon's mouth who shrink from confronting their fellowmen in debate; and others can face the most stormy assembly who would shrink from the horrors of war. But in Knox both elements were combined, and in the highest degree. We see him first carrying the sword before Wishart. Amidst the hardships and prostration of the French galleys, and in the face of scowling foes he was brave and determined, and inspired with courage his desponding fellow-sufferers. He preached with determination in the face of armed men threatening his life. He was not afraid even when 'no man stood by him' to speak unwelcome truth to the Potentates of the earth. He gives us a most elevated conception of an ambassador of heaven.

The rare combination of the theologian and the statesman in Knox was equally remarkable. It laid the foundation of that elevated system of Christian ethics and social science which, when carried out, even partially, made Scotland illustrious. The combination of cheery humour and the utmost firmness, of immense power and thorough disinterestedness, stern determination in public life, with the most remarkable tenderness of domestic affection, and also a deep feeling of sympathy with the helpless and oppressed, constituted some more of the rare peculiarities of Knox. in a word, he was a many-sided and most remarkable man, and eminently qualified by God both by gifts and graces for the signal service to which he was called, and which has now stood the test of three centuries of trial.

That personal Christianity was the true basis of his character need not be repeated. Knox was a man of earnest piety. Such objects as he aimed at, and such unfaltering determination as he manifested could only spring from such a source. There were two features of his character, however, apart from all others, which were certainly pre-eminent, and which were specially required for his work, viz., unwavering firmness, determination, and constancy, and an entire submission of his mind and will to the authority of God in His Word. Experience of mankind demonstrates that there is nothing so rare as consistent firmness amidst difficulty. Talent is much more common than tenacity, and yet it is tenacity that, by the Divine blessing, carries the day. It is especially necessary in public enterprises, and in those raised up by God to work deliverances in the earth. There is a contagious power in determination. Feebleness and vacillation are incompatible with success. When 'a standard bearer fainteth' the troops are dispersed, and "if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?" Hence the old proclamation in the camp of Israel, "Whoso is fainthearted, let him go and return to his house, lest his neighbour's heart faint as well as his."

Knox was raised up by God as a mighty instrument in overthrowing the gigantic system of superstition and idolatry which at that time stood entrenched in Scotland, shutting out the light of Gospel truth, and subverting the foundations of human hope. The highest objects of our great Reformer was that the Word of the Lord might have free course and be glorified. Time would fail were we to enter into details, nor is it necessary to refer minutely to the nature of Popery. It is a formidable conspiracy, as Adam Smith has said, against the religion and liberties of mankind. It destroys true religion and lays the axe to the root of liberty and of social morality. In Scotland, before the days of Knox, it was extremely powerful, and manifested its most repulsive features. No doubt it had been weakened by the satires of Sir David Lindsay and others, and by its own bloody cruelty, especially in the murder of Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart. Still John Knox struck the first deadly blow at this gigantic fabric by taking up the ground that it was the foredoomed apostasy of Daniel, Paul, and John. "As for your Roman Church as it is now corrupted" said he, "wherein stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head thereof called the Pope to be the Man of Sin of whom the apostle speaks, than I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered by the procurement of the visible church of Jerusalem. Yea, I offer myself by word or writing to prove the Roman Church this day, farther degenerate from the purity which was in the days of the apostles, than was the church of the Jews from the ordinances given by Moses, when they consented to the innocent death of Jesus Christ."

By the firm maintenance of this doctrine the Scottish Reformation was secured, and therefore it was more thorough and complete than similar movements in any other part of Europe. It, however, was accomplished in the face of overwhelming difficulties, and especially in the face of Royal and courtly opposition. The determined firmness and plainness of speech of our great Reformer has been the occasion of much unfounded attack. To a mind rightly constituted the boldness of Knox in such circumstances approaches to absolute sublimity, and it is well for us and for all generations of Scotsmen that the slavish principles, which many now advocate, had no existence in his intrepid mind. The whole history of the world proves that liberty has only been secured by men under the influence of Christian principle. Knox was the true predecessor and example of the Puritans of England, whilst the Puritans of England were the true founders of British and American liberty, both civil and religious. His spirit was that of the Psalmist:

I'll speak thy word to kings, and I
with shame shall not be mov'd;
And will delight myself always
in thy laws, which I lov'd.

Psalm 119:46,47 (Scottish Metrical Version)

It is now admitted on all hands that the true principles of civil and religious liberty were, although with undoubted imperfections, first broached by Knox and his fellow-labourers, and that the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters were only their pupils. These principles at length became paramount, and were carried out so far into practical accomplishment at the Revolution of 1688. Our present Constitution stands upon them. Its great principles are a limited monarchy and the Protestant succession-government, not as an arbitrary and conventional arrangement for the gratification of individual caprice, but as a Divine ordinance established for the glory of God and the public good; and who can tell how many thousands of immortal souls will have cause to bless God through all eternity for this? When this great man, therefore, in circumstances of peculiar difficulties, and amidst the desertion of friends, was bringing strange things to the ears of Queen Mary, he was laying in the strongest manner the true foundations of civil and religious liberty, in connection with which alone the Word of God has had free course and been glorified. In his interview with the Queen, trained in Popish and arbitrary principles, at Lochleven, he declared that if the laws were executed the Protestants would be satisfied, but not otherwise. The Queen exclaimed, "Will ye allow that they shall take my sword in their hands?"  "The sword of justice is God's," calmly replied the Reformer, "and is given to princes and rulers for one end, which, if they transgress, sparing the wicked and oppressing the innocent - they who, in the fear of God, execute judgment where God has commanded, offend not God although kings no it not." Again, "It shall be profitable to your Majesty to consider what is the thing your Grace's subjects look to receive of your Majesty, and what it is that ye ought to do to them by mutual contract. They are bound to obey you, and that not but in God; ye are bound to keep laws to them. Ye crave of them service; they crave of you protection and defence against wicked doers. Now, Madam, if ye shall deny your duty unto them [which especially craves that ye punish malefactors] think ye to receive full obedience of them? I fear, Madam, ye shall not."

"What are ye in this commonwealth?" exclaimed Mary on another occasion. "A subject born within the same," said Knox; "and albeit, I be neither Earl, Lord, nor Baron in it, yet God has made me [how abject that ever I be in your eyes] a profitable member within the same. Yea, Madam, to me it appertains no less to forewarn of such things as may hurt it, if I foresee them, than it doth to any of the nobility, for both my vocation and conscience require plainness of me."

The work of John Knox in overthrowing the Romish system in Scotland was nearly perfect. To this great work he brought untiring energy, a deep insight into all the springs of human action, and a courage that never quailed. Now that the dust of battle is swept aside, our most distinguished historians fully recognise his singular power, and the great work which God enabled him to achieve amidst unspeakable difficulties. This work also he watched over with untiring faithfulness and amazing sagacity to the end of his days.

Speaking of Knox, Froude says:

“The object of the Scottish nobles was political, national, patriotic. For religion, it was no great matter either way; and as they had before acted with the Protestants, so now they were ready to turn about, and openly or tacitly act with the Catholics. Mary Stuart's friends in England and on the Continent were Catholics, and therefore it would not do to offend them. First, she was allowed to have mass at Holyrood; then there was a move for a broader toleration. That one mass, Knox said, was more terrible to him than 10,000 armed men landed in this country; and he had good reason for saying so. He thoroughly understood that it was the first step towards a counter-revolution, which in time would cover all Scotland and England, and carry them back to Popery. Yet he preached to deaf ears . . . . Even the ministers of the Kirk were fooled and flattered over. Maitland told Mary Stuart that he had gained them all except one. John Knox alone defied both his threats and his persuasions. Good reason has Scotland to be proud of Knox. He only in this wild crisis saved the Kirk which he had founded, and saved with it Scottish and English freedom . . . . She [Queen Elizabeth] would still say nothing, promise nothing, bind herself to nothing; and so far as she was concerned, the war would have been soon enough brought to a close. But away in St Andrews, John Knox, broken in body, and scarcely able to stagger up the pulpit stairs, still thundered in the parish church, and his voice, it was said, was like ten thousand trumpets braying in the ears of Scottish Protestantism. All the lowlands thrilled under his tones.”

What matter all clouds of reproach and misrepresentations to Knox now? They have been swept away forever, and the grandeur of his work and of the man himself as a signal instrument in the hand of God, have come into clear and noble development. "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance; the memory of the wicked shall rot."

The work of our great Reformer, however, did not consist merely in overturning arbitrary government and sweeping out of Scotland the mass of idolatry and superstition by which it had been previously encumbered, but in reconstructing the Church and civil society of the country on Scriptural foundations. The old Scots Confession, and the First Book of Discipline - chiefly his work - are noble monuments of his Christian sagacity and ripe judgment. The wide circulation of these books at present, as well as of his noble 'History of the Reformation', could not fail to be productive of the best results. The mass of the Scotch people, we suspect, have never seen these interesting documents, and without seeing them, it is impossible to understand the history of our country, or how much we owe under God to John Knox and the Reformation . . . .

His grand principles of Christian education, however, are of special importance at the present moment. It is outrageous to hear men quoting Knox in favour of systems of education which he would have emphatically disowned. Let them produce, if they can, any commonwealth of greatness reared by mere secular teaching, but never let them utter in that connection the name of our great Reformer. The truth is, the attempt to separate the moral and intellectual nature of children is simply preposterous and profane. It is an attempt to separate what God has united; and it must prove equally cruel to the children and disastrous to the commonwealth. I earnestly trust that the Scottish people, now that this immense interest is committed to their care, will discharge their trust in such a way as, by the Divine blessing, to confer unspeakable advantages on the generations yet to come. The words of Knox should be written equally above the senate and the school-house . . . .

“Seeing that God hath determined that his kirk here on earth shall be taught not by angels but by men, and seeing that men are born ignorant of God and of all godliness, and seeing also He ceases to illuminate men miraculously, suddenly changing them as he did the apostles and others in the primitive kirk; of necessity it is that your honours be most careful for the virtuous education and godly upbringing of the youth of this realm, if either we now thirst unfeignedly the advancement of Christ's glory, or yet desire the continuance of His benefits to the generation following.”

Our Reformer, however, had as elevated conceptions of the higher as of the common education. With a noble conception of the brotherhood of man, an earnest desire to diffuse the light of the highest knowledge universally - a determination, if possible, to place the ladder of learning at ever poor man's door, so that his sons, if talented, might climb to the highest positions in the Church and Commonwealth, Knox proclaimed that in addition to the Universities, colleges for learning should be found everywhere . . . .

The work of Knox, however, has greatly fallen into decay, and, indeed, is threatened with entire overthrow. Romanism is now more defiant than ever amidst its apparent weakness. With stealthy and wary steps it is finding its way back to Britain. It already has great influence in our legislation, and at present receives half a million of money annually from the British Government. It is seeking and obtaining power in the Church of England, and its emissaries are finding easy access to the lands of Cranmer and Knox. Protestants are asleep, divided, and inactive, and many who claim descent from Knox repudiate his principles. Professing to seek union and progress they are blindly disowning what was specially vital in the old Reformation struggle - the universal supremacy of Christ and the necessity for Bible teaching. They are also shaking the whole foundations of truth by the theory of open questions, which shifts the ground of faith from divine authority to human opinion, and in connection with which no spirit of martyrdom or mighty struggles for truth could ever have been possible. Knox would have repudiated all such theories. It is one thing to build the tombs of the prophets, and quite another to adhere steadfastly to their principles. No one can fail to observe the attempt made in some quarters to separate between Knox and his principles. To commemorate a man, apart from principles, is sheer idolatry. But the tendency referred to arises partly from ignorance, and partly from the fact that of late years, some who would fain claim a descent from Knox have entirely abandoned the ground on which he stood and conquered.

One of his leading principles was, that the nation in its corporate capacity was bound to honour and serve God, and that Church and State were inseparably connected. He says in the Scots Confession of 1560:

“Moreover, to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates we affirm that chiefly and most principally the conservation and purgation of the religion appertains, so that not only they are appointed for civil policy, but also for maintenance of the true religion, and for suppressing of idolatry and superstition whatsoever, as in David, Jehosaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, and others highly commended for their zeal, in that case may be espied.”

His theory of Scriptural education in the common schools was also utterly inconsistent with Voluntaryism. There can be little doubt that upon the principles now maintained by some we never could have had a Reformation, and that if such principles ever acquire supremacy, the days of our Reformation are numbered. Voluntaryism has manifested little zeal and no power against Rome. The theory of national indifferentism in regard to religion, is, manifestly, atheistical in spirit, and most ruinous in result. Nations cannot be neutral. Their pretended neutrality is treated by Christ as direct hostility. He declares that "The nation and kingdom that will not serve His church shall perish, those nations shall be utterly wasted." Nay, God may yet employ our very old enemy which many treat so lightly as the means of our punishment.

Can we not make the present a blessed opportunity of repenting and doing the first works? On the broad and Scriptural foundations of the old Reformation there is a noble meeting-place for all classes of patriotic Scotsmen, and amidst our distractions we may well hear the voice which still speaks to us from this honoured grave.

Knox, in one of his noble sermons, says:

“Would'st thou, O Scotland, have a king to reign over thee in justice, equity, and mercy? Subject thyself to the Lord thy God, obey his commandments, and magnify thou that word that calleth unto thee, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.' And if thou wilt not, flatter not thyself. The same justice remaineth this day in God to punish thee, Scotland, and thee, Edinburgh, in especial, that before punished the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Every realm and nation [saith the prophet IsaiahFor the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.
Isaiah 60:12] that likewise offendeth, shall be likewise punished. But if thou shalt see impiety placed in the seat of justice above thee, so that in the throne of God [as SolomonAnd moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
Ecclesiastes 3:16 doth complain] reigneth nothing but fraud and violence, accuse thy own ingratitude and rebellion, for that is the only cause why God taketh away [as the same prophet1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay of bread and the whole stay of water,
2  The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
3  The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the elegant orator.
4  And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
Isaiah 3:1-4 in another place doth speak] the strong man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, the prudent and the aged, the captain and the honourable, the counsellor and the cunning artificer. And I will appoint, saith the Lord, children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them . . . If these calamities, I say, apprehend us, so that we see nothing but the oppression of good men and of all godliness; and wicked men, without God reign above us, let us accuse ourselves as the only cause of our own miseries. For if we had heard the voice of the Lord our God and given obedience unto the same, God should have multiplied our peace, and should have rewarded our obedience before the eyes of the world.”

My dear friends, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Let us give all diligence to make our calling and election sure. Let us seek refuge under the covert of atoning blood; and in doing good to all as we have opportunity, let us desire to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises, implicitly trusting in our glorious heavenly King and Master. Let us seek to be enabled to obey His will, fully to confess Him before men, and to rejoice even to be counted worthy to suffer for His sake. The times are strange, and they threaten, in the language of one of old, to be times 'of much suffering or of much sinning.' But the great Master is ever the same. He can raise up new instruments to maintain his cause; he can, in answer to prayer, defeat the counsels of wicked or misguided men, arm His servants with the necessary wisdom, fortitude and patience, and dash His enemies to pieces like a potter's vessel. Blessed are all they and they only that trust in Him.

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