Part 2 (1/2)
But if you will have a trial of your faith, then do this-Examine yourself concerning your enemy; he does you harm, he slanders you, or takes away your living from you. How shall you conduct yourself towards such a man?
If you can find in your heart to pray for him, to love him with all your heart, and forgive him with a good-will all that he has sinned against you-if you can find this readiness in your heart, then you are one of those who have faith, if you would have him to be saved as well as yourself. And if you can do this you may argue that your sin is forgiven, and that you are none of those that shall be cast out, but shall be received and placed among the number of the G.o.dly, and shall enjoy with them everlasting life. For St. Paul saith, ”Those that are just,” that is, those that are justified by faith, and exercise faith in their living and conversation, ”they shall s.h.i.+ne like unto the sun in the kingdom of G.o.d;”
that is to say, they shall be in exceeding great honour and glory. For like as the sun exceeds in brightness all other works of G.o.d, and is beautiful in the eyes of every man; so shall all the faithful be beautiful and endued with honour and glory: although in this world they are but outcasts, and accounted as ”The dross and filth of the world;” but in the other world, when the angels shall gather together the wicked, and cast them into the fire, then shall the elect s.h.i.+ne as the sun in the kingdom of G.o.d. For no man can express the honour and glory that they shall have, who will be content to suffer all things for G.o.d's sake, and reform themselves after his will; or are content to be told of their faults, and glad to amend the same, and humble themselves under the mighty hand of G.o.d.
Also the householder said unto his servants, ”Let them alone until harvest.” Here you may learn that the preachers and ministers of the word of G.o.d, have not authority to compel the people with violence to goodness, although they are wicked. But they should admonish them only with the word of G.o.d, not pull the wicked out by the throat; for that is not their duty.
All things must be done according as G.o.d has appointed. G.o.d has appointed the magistrates to punish the wicked; for so he saith, ”Thou shalt take away the evil from amongst the people, thou shalt have no pity of him.” If he be a thief, an adulterer, or a wh.o.r.e-monger, away with him. But when our Saviour saith, ”Let them grow;” he speaks not of the civil magistrates, for it is their duty to pull them out; but he signifies that there will be such wickedness in spite of the magistrates, and teaches that the ecclesiastical power is ordained, not to pull out the wicked with the sword, but only to admonish them with the word of G.o.d, which is called ”The sword of the Spirit.” So did John Baptist, saying, ”Who hath taught you to flee from the wrath of G.o.d that is at hand?”
So did Peter in the Acts of the Apostles; ”Whom you have crucified,” he said unto the Jews. What follows? ”They were p.r.i.c.ked in their hearts;”
contrition and repentance followed as soon as the word was preached unto them. Therefore they said, ”Brethren, what shall we do? How shall we be made clean from our sins, that we may be saved?” Then he sends them to Christ. So that it appears in this gospel, and by these examples, that the preacher has no other sword, but the sword of the word of G.o.d: with that sword he may strike them. He may rebuke their wicked living, and further he ought not to go. But kings and magistrates have power to punish with the sword the obstinate and vicious livers, and to put them to due punishment.
Now to make an end, with this one lesson, which is, If you dwell in a town where are some wicked men that will not be reformed, nor in anywise amend their lives, as there are commonly some in every town; run not therefore out of the town, but tarry there still, and exercise patience amongst them, exhort them, whensoever occasion serves, to amendment. And do not as the fondness of the monkery first did, for they at the first made so great account of the holiness of their good life, that they could not be content to live and abide in cities and towns where sinners and wicked doers were, but thought to amend the matter; and therefore ran out into the wilderness, where they fell into great inconveniences. For some despised the communion of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ, and so fell into other errors, so G.o.d punished them for their foolishness and uncharitableness. We are born into this world, not for our own sakes only, but for every Christian's sake. They forgetting this commandment of love and charity, ran away from their neighbours, like beasts and wild horses, that cannot abide the company of men. So there have been some in our time who follow their example, separating themselves from the company of other men, and therefore G.o.d gave them a perverted judgment. Therefore when you dwell in any evil town or parish, follow not these examples; but remember that Lot, dwelling in the midst of Sodom, was nevertheless preserved from the wrath of G.o.d, and such will be preserved in the midst of the wicked.
But for all that, you must not flatter them in their evil doings and naughty livings, but rebuke their sins and wickedness, and in nowise consent unto them. Then it will be well with you here in this world, and in the world to come you shall have life everlasting: which grant both to you and me, G.o.d the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.-Amen.
A SERMON ON ISAIAH XXVI.
BY JOHN KNOX.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the ill.u.s.trious name of its author, it will prove generally acceptable to our readers. For the information of those who may not be acquainted with the circ.u.mstances attending its delivery, we subjoin the following extract from a late edition of the select works of Knox:-
”Henry Darnley (king of Scotland by his marriage with queen Mary,) went sometimes to ma.s.s with the queen, and sometimes attended the protestant sermons. To silence the rumours then circulated of his having forsaken the reformed religion, he, on the 19th of August, 1565, attended service at St. Giles's church, sitting on a throne which had been prepared for him.
Knox preached that day on Isaiah xxvi. 13, 14, and happened to prolong the service beyond the usual time. In one part of the sermon, he quoted these words of scripture, 'I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them: children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.' In another part he referred to G.o.d's displeasure against Ahab, because he did not correct his idolatrous wife Jezebel. No particular application of these pa.s.sages was made by Knox, but the king considered them as reflecting upon the queen and himself, and returned to the palace in great wrath. He refused to dine, and went out to hawking.
That same afternoon Knox was summoned from his bed to appear before the council. He went accompanied by several respectable inhabitants of the city. The secretary informed him of the king's displeasure at his sermon, and desired that he would abstain from preaching for fifteen or twenty days. Knox answered, that he had spoken nothing but according to his text, and if the church would command him either to preach or abstain, he would obey so far as the word of G.o.d would permit him. The king and queen left Edinburgh during the week following, and it does not appear that Knox was actually suspended from preaching.”
The following are Knox's reasons for the publication of this Sermon, extracted from his preface to the first edition.
”If any will ask, To what purpose this sermon is set forth? I answer, To let such as satan has not altogether blinded, see upon how small occasions great offence is now conceived. This sermon is it, for which, from my bed, I was called before the council; and after long reasoning, I was by some forbidden to preach in Edinburgh, so long as the king and queen were in town. This sermon is it, that so offends such as would please the court, and will not appear to be enemies to the truth; yet they dare affirm, that I exceeded the bounds of G.o.d's messenger. I have therefore faithfully committed unto writing whatsoever I could remember might have been offensive in that sermon; to the end, that the enemies of G.o.d's truth, as well as the professors of the same, may either note unto me wherein I have offended, or at the least cease to condemn me before they have convinced me by G.o.d's manifest word.”]
A SERMON ON ISAIAH XXVI.
ISAIAH x.x.xVI. 13, 14, 15, 16, &c.-_O Lord our G.o.d, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name._
_They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish._
_Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation, thou art glorified; thou hast removed it far unto the ends of the earth._
_Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them, &c._
As the skilful mariner (being master,) having his s.h.i.+p tossed with a vehement tempest, and contrary winds, 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, might be carried whither the fury of the tempest would, so that his s.h.i.+p should be driven upon the sh.o.r.e, and make s.h.i.+pwreck; even so doth our prophet Isaiah in this text, which now you have heard read. For he, foreseeing the great desolation that was decreed in the council of the Eternal, against Jerusalem and Judah, namely, that the whole people, that bare the name of G.o.d, should be dispersed; that the holy city should be destroyed; the temple wherein was the ark of the covenant, and where G.o.d had promised to give his own presence, should be burnt with fire; and the king taken, his sons in his own presence murdered, his own eyes immediately after be put out; the n.o.bility, some cruelly murdered, some shamefully led away captives; and finally, the whole seed of Abraham rased, as it were, from the fate of the earth. 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 G.o.d, as in the 13th, 17th, and 18th verses of this present text we may read. At other times he valiantly resists the desperate tempest, and p.r.o.nounces the fearful destruction of all such as trouble the church of G.o.d; which he p.r.o.nounces that G.o.d will multiply, even when it appears utterly to be exterminated. But because there is no final rest to the whole body till the Head return to judgment, he exhorts the afflicted to patience, and promises a visitation whereby the wickedness of the wicked shall be disclosed, and finally recompensed in their own bosoms.
These are the chief points of which, by the grace of G.o.d, we intend more largely at this present to speak;
_First_, The prophet saith, ”O Lord our G.o.d, other lords besides thee have ruled us.”
This, no doubt, is the beginning of the dolorous complaint, in which he complains of the unjust tyranny that the poor afflicted Israelites sustained during the time of their captivity. True it is, that the prophet was gathered to his fathers in peace, before this came upon the people: for a hundred years after his decease the people were not led away captive; yet he, foreseeing the a.s.surance of the calamity, did before-hand indite and dictate unto them the complaint, which afterward they should make. But at the first sight it appears, that the complaint has but small weight; for what new thing was it, that other lords than G.o.d in his own person ruled them, seeing that such had been their government from the beginning? For who knows not, that Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, the judges, Samuel, David, and other G.o.dly rulers, were men, and not G.o.d; and so other lords than G.o.d ruled them in their greatest prosperity.
For the better understanding of this complaint, and of the mind of the prophet, we must, _first_, observe from whence all authority flows; and, _secondly_, to what end powers are appointed by G.o.d: which two points being discussed, we shall better understand, what lords and what authority rule beside G.o.d, and who they are in whom G.o.d and his merciful presence rules.