influence of the popular histories of those transactions written
by two distinguished individuals of our own country. The political
prejudices and sceptical opinions of Mr Hume are well known, and
appear prominently in every part of his History of England. Regarding
the various systems of religious belief and worship as distinguished
from one another merely by different shades of falsehood and
superstition, he has been led, by a strange but not inexplicable bias,
almost uniformly to show the most marked partiality to the grosser and
more corrupt forms of religion; has spoken with greater contempt of
the protestants than of the Roman catholics, and treated the Scottish
with greater severity than the English reformers. Forgetting what was
due to the character of a philosopher, which he was so ambitious {248}
to maintain in his other writings, he has acted as the partisan and
advocate of a particular family; and, in vindicating some of the worst
measures of the Stuarts, has done signal injustice to the memory of
the most illustrious patriots of both kingdoms. Though convinced that
the queen of Scotland was guilty of the crimes laid to her charge,
he has laboured to screen her from the infamy to which a fair and
unvarnished statement of facts must have exposed her character, by
fixing the attention of his readers on an untrue and exaggerated
representation of the rudeness of Knox and the other reformers by whom
she was surrounded, and by absurdly imputing to their treatment of her
the faults into which she was betrayed. No person who is acquainted
with the writings of Dr Robertson will accuse him of being actuated
by such improper motives. But the warmest admirers of his History of
Scotland cannot deny, that he has been misled by the temptation of
making Mary the heroine of his story, and of thus interesting his
readers deeply in his narrative, by blending the tender and romantic
with the more dry and uninteresting detail of public transactions. By
a studious exhibition of the personal charms and accomplishments of
the queen, by representing her faults as arising from the unfortunate
circumstances in which she was placed, by touching gently on the
errors of her conduct, while he dwells on the cruelty and the
dissimulation of her rival, and by describing her sufferings as
exceeding the tragical distresses which fancy has feigned to excite
sorrow and commiseration, {249} he throws a veil over those vices
which he could not deny; while the sympathy which his pathetic account
of her death naturally awakens in the minds of his readers, effaces
the impressions of her guilt which his preceding narrative had
produced. However amiable the feelings of the author might be, the
tendency of such a representation is evident. The Dissertation on the
murder of king Henry has, no doubt, convinced many of Mary’s accession
to the perpetration of that deed; but the History of Scotland has
done more to prepossess the public mind in favour of that princess,
than all the defences of her most zealous and ingenious advocates,
and consequently to excite prejudice against her opponents, who,
on the supposition of her guilt, acted a most meritorious part, and
are entitled, in other respects, to the gratitude and veneration of
posterity.
The increase of infidelity and indifference to religion in modern
times, especially among the learned, has contributed, in no small
degree, to swell the tide of prejudice against our Reformer. Whatever
satisfaction persons of this description may express or feel at the
reformation from popery, as the means of emancipating the world from
superstition and priestcraft, they naturally despise and dislike
men who were inspired with the love of religion, and in whose plans
of reform the acquisition of civil liberty, and the advancement of
literature, held a subordinate place to the revival of primitive
Christianity.
Nor can it escape observation, that prejudices against the characters
and proceedings of our reformers {250} are now far more general than
they formerly were among those who still profess to adhere to their
doctrine and system of church government. Impressed with a high
idea of the illumination of the present age, and entertaining a low
estimate of the attainments of those which preceded it; imperfectly
acquainted with the enormity and extent of the corrupt system of
religion which existed in this country at the era of the reformation;
inattentive to the spirit and principles of the adversaries with
whom our reformers were obliged to contend, and to the dangers and
difficulties with which they had to struggle,――they have too easily
lent an ear to the calumnies which have been circulated to their
prejudice, and rashly condemned measures which will be found, on
examination, to have been necessary to secure and to transmit the
invaluable blessings which we now enjoy.
Having given this account of the opinions entertained respecting our
Reformer, I shall endeavour to sketch, with as much truth as I can,
the leading features of his character.
That he possessed strong natural talents is unquestionable.
Inquisitive, ardent, acute; vigorous and bold in his conceptions,
he entered into all the subtilties of the scholastic science then
in vogue; yet, disgusted with its barren results, sought out a new
course of study, which gradually led to a complete revolution in his
sentiments. In his early years he had not access to that finished
education which many of his contemporaries obtained in foreign {251}
universities, and he was afterwards prevented, by his unsettled
and active mode of life, from prosecuting his studies with leisure;
but his abilities and application enabled him in a great measure to
surmount these disadvantages, and he remained a stranger to none of
the branches of learning which in that age were cultivated by persons
of his profession. He united in a high degree the love of study with
a disposition to active employment. The truths which he discovered,
he felt an irresistible impulse to impart to others, for which he
was qualified by a bold, fervid, and impetuous eloquence, singularly
adapted to arrest the attention, and govern the passions, of a fierce
and unpolished people.
From the time that he embraced the reformed doctrine, the desire of
propagating it, and of delivering his countrymen from the delusions
and thraldom of popery, became his ruling passion, to which he was
always ready to sacrifice his ease, his interest, his reputation, and
his life. An ardent attachment to civil liberty held the next place in
his breast to love of the reformed religion. That the zeal with which
he laboured to advance these objects, was of the most disinterested
kind, no candid person who has paid attention to his life can doubt
for a moment, whatever opinion may be entertained of some of the means
which he employed for that purpose. He thought only of advancing the
glory of God, and promoting the welfare of his country. Intrepidity,
independence and elevation of mind, indefatigable activity, and
constancy which no disappointments {252} could shake, eminently
qualified him for the hazardous and difficult post which he occupied.
His integrity was above the suspicion of corruption; his firmness
proof equally against the solicitations of friends and the threats
of enemies. Though his impetuosity and courage led him frequently
to expose himself to danger, we never find him neglecting to take
prudent precautions for his safety. The confidence reposed in him by
his countrymen, shows the high opinion which they entertained of his
sagacity as well as of his honesty. The measures taken for advancing
the Reformation, were either adopted at his suggestion, or sanctioned
by his advice; and we must pronounce them to have been as wisely
planned as they were boldly executed.
His ministerial functions were discharged with the greatest
assiduity, fidelity, and fervour. No avocation or infirmity prevented
him from appearing in the pulpit. Preaching was an employment in
which he delighted, and for which he was qualified, by an extensive
acquaintance with the scriptures, and by the happy art of applying
them, in the most striking manner, to the existing circumstances of
the church and of his hearers. His powers of alarming the conscience,
and arousing the passions, have been frequently celebrated; but
he excelled also in unfolding the consolations of the gospel, and
in calming the breasts of those who were agitated by a sense of
guilt, or suffering under the ordinary afflictions of life. When he
discoursed of the griefs and joys, the conflicts and triumphs, of
genuine christians, he described {253} what he had himself known and
experienced. The letters which he wrote to his familiar acquaintances
breathe the most ardent piety. The religious meditations in which
he spent his last sickness, were not confined to that period of his
life; they had been his habitual employment from the time that he was
brought to the knowledge of the truth, and his solace amidst all the
hardships and perils through which he had passed.
With his brethren in the ministry he lived in the utmost cordiality.
We never read of the slightest variance between him and any of his
colleagues. While he was dreaded and hated by the licentious and
profane, whose vices he never spared, the religious and sober part
of his countrymen felt a veneration for him, which was founded on his
unblemished reputation, as well as his popular talents as a preacher.
In private life, he was beloved and revered by his friends and
domestics. He was subject to the illapses of melancholy and depression
of spirits, arising partly from natural constitution, and partly from
the maladies which had long preyed upon his health; which made him
(to use his own expression) churlish, and less capable of pleasing
and gratifying his friends than he was otherwise disposed to be. This
he confessed, and requested them to excuse;[319] but his friendship
was sincere, affectionate, and steady. When free from this morose
affection, he relished the pleasures {254} of society, and, among
his acquaintances, was accustomed to unbend his mind, by indulging in
innocent recreation, and in the sallies of wit and humour, to which he
had a strong propensity, notwithstanding the graveness of his general
deportment. In the course of his public life, the severer virtues of
his character were more frequently called into action; but we have met
with repeated instances of his acute sensibility; and the unaffected
tenderness which occasionally breaks forth in his private letters,
shows that he was no stranger to any of the charities of human life,
and that he could “rejoice with them that rejoiced, and weep with them
that wept.”
Most of his faults may be traced to his natural temperament, and to
the character of the age and country in which he lived. His passions
were strong; he felt with the utmost keenness on every subject which
interested him; and as he felt he expressed himself, without disguise
and without affectation. The warmth of his zeal was apt to betray him
into intemperate language; his inflexible adherence to his opinions
inclined to obstinacy; and his independence of mind occasionally
assumed the appearance of haughtiness and disdain. In one solitary
instance, the anxiety which he felt for the preservation of the
great cause in which he was so deeply interested, betrayed him
into an advice which was not more inconsistent with the laws of
strict morality, than it was contrary to the stern uprightness, and
undisguised sincerity, which characterised the rest of his conduct. A
stranger to complimentary or smooth {255} language, little concerned
about the manner in which his reproofs were received, provided they
were merited, too much impressed with the evil of the offence to
think of the rank or character of the offender, he often “uttered
his admonitions with an acrimony and vehemence more apt to irritate
than to reclaim.” But he protested, at a time when persons are least
in danger of deception, and in a manner which should banish every
suspicion of the purity of his motives, that, in his sharpest rebukes,
he was influenced by hatred of vice, not of the vicious; that his
great aim was to reclaim the guilty, and that in using those means
which were necessary for this end, he frequently did violence to his
own feelings.
Those who have charged him with insensibility and inhumanity, have
fallen into a mistake very common with superficial thinkers, who, in
judging of the character of persons who lived in a state of society
very different from their own, have pronounced upon their moral
qualities from the mere aspect of their exterior manners. He was
austere, not unfeeling; stern, not savage; vehement, not vindictive.
There is not an instance of his employing his influence to revenge any
personal injury which he had received. Rigid as his maxims respecting
the execution of justice were, there are numerous instances on record
of his interceding for the pardon of criminals; and, unless when
crimes were atrocious, or when the welfare of the state was in the
most imminent danger, he never exhorted the executive government
to the exercise of severity. The boldness {256} and ardour of his
mind, called forth by the peculiar circumstances of the times, led
him to push his sentiments on some subjects to an extreme, and no
consideration could induce him to retract an opinion of which he
continued to be persuaded; but his behaviour after his publication
against female government, proves that he satisfied himself with
declaring his own views, without seeking to disturb the public
peace by urging their adoption. His conduct at Frankfort evinced his
moderation in religious differences among brethren of the same faith,
and his disposition to make all reasonable allowances for those
who could not go the same length with him in reformation, provided
they abstained from imposing upon the consciences of others. The
liberties which he took in censuring from the pulpit the actions of
individuals of the highest rank and station, appear the more strange
and intolerable to us, when contrasted with the reserve and timidity
of modern times; but we should recollect that they were then common,
and that they were not without their utility, in an age when the
licentiousness and oppression of the great and powerful often set at
defiance the ordinary restraints of law.
In contemplating such a character as that of Knox, it is not the _man_
so much as the _reformer_, that ought to engage our attention. The
talents which are suited to one age and station would be altogether
unsuitable to another; and the wisdom displayed by Providence, in
raising up persons endowed with qualities singularly adapted to the
work which they {257} have to perform for the benefit of mankind,
demands our particular consideration. We must admire the austere and
rough reformer, whose voice once cried in the wilderness, who was
clothed with camel’s hair, and girt about the loins with a leathern
girdle, who came neither eating nor drinking, but laying the axe to
the root of every tree, warned a generation of vipers to flee from the
wrath to come, saying even to the tyrant upon the throne, “It is not
lawful for thee.” And we must consider him as fitted for “serving the
will of God in his generation,” according to his rank and place, as
well as his Divine Master, whose advent he announced, who “did not
strive, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets, nor
break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax.” To those who
complain, that they are disappointed at not finding, in our national
Reformer, courteous manners, and a winning address, we may say, in the
language of our Lord to the Jews concerning the Baptist: “What went ye
out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? What
went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they
which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’
courts. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto
you, and more than a prophet.” To the men of this generation, as well
as to the Jews of old, may be applied the parable of the children
sitting in the market‑place, and calling one to another, and saying,
“We have piped unto you, and ye {258} have not danced; we have mourned
unto you, and ye have not wept.” Disaffection to the work often lurks
under cavils against the instruments by which it is carried on; and
had Knox been softer and more yielding in his temper, he would have
been pronounced unfit for his office by the very persons who now
censure his harshness and severity. “But wisdom is justified of all
her children.” Before the Reformation, superstition, shielded by
ignorance, and armed with power, governed with gigantic sway. Men
of mild spirits, and of gentle manners, would have been as unfit
for taking the field against this enemy, as a dwarf or a child for
encountering a giant. What did Erasmus in the days of Luther? What
would Lowth have done in the days of Wickliffe, or Blair in those of
Knox? It has been justly observed concerning our Reformer, that “those
very qualities which now render his character less amiable, fitted
him to be the instrument of providence for advancing the Reformation
among a fierce people, and enabled him to face danger, and surmount
opposition, from which a person of a more gentle spirit would have
been apt to shrink back.”[320] Viewing his character in this light,
those who cannot regard him as an amiable man, may, without hesitation,
pronounce him a Great Reformer.
The most disinterested of the nobility, who were embarked with him
in the same cause, sacrificed on some occasions the public good to
their private interests, {259} and disappointed the hopes which he
had formed of them. The most upright of his associates in the ministry
relaxed their exertions, or suffered themselves at times to be drawn
into measures that were unsuitable to their station, and hurtful to
the reformed religion. Goodman, after being adopted by the church of
Scotland, and ranked among her reformers, yielded so far to the love
of country as to desert a people who were warmly attached to him, and
return to the bosom of a less pure church, which received him with
coldness and distrust. Willock, after acquitting himself honourably
from the commencement of the interesting conflict, withdrew before the
victory was completely secured, and, wearied out with the successive
troubles in which his native country was involved, sought a retreat
for himself in England. Craig, being left without the assistance of
his colleague, and placed between two conflicting parties, betrayed
his fears by having recourse to temporizing measures. Douglas, in his
old age, became the dupe of persons whose rapacity impoverished the
protestant church. And each of the superintendents was, at one time or
another, complained of for neglect or for partiality, in the discharge
of his functions. But from the time that the standard of truth was
first raised by him in his native country, till it dropped from his
hands at death, Knox never shrunk from danger――never consulted his
own ease or advantage――never entered into any compromise with the
enemy――never was bribed or frightened into cowardly silence; but
keeping {260} his eye singly and steadily fixed on the advancement
of religion and of liberty, supported throughout the character of the
Reformer of Scotland.
Knox bore a striking resemblance to Luther in personal intrepidity
and in popular eloquence. He approached nearest to Calvin in his
religious sentiments, in the severity of his manners, and in a
certain impressive air of melancholy which pervaded his character.
And he resembled Zuinglius in his ardent attachment to the principles
of civil liberty, and in combining his exertions for the reformation
of the church with uniform endeavours to improve the political state
of the people. Not that I would place our Reformer on a level with
this illustrious triumvirate. There is a splendour which surrounds
the great German reformer, partly arising from the intrinsic heroism
of his character, and partly reflected from the interesting situation
in which his long and doubtful struggle with the court of Rome placed
him in the eyes of Europe, which removes him at a distance from
all who started in the same glorious career. The Genevese reformer
surpassed Knox in the extent of his theological learning, and in the
unrivalled solidity and clearness of his judgment. And the reformer
of Switzerland, though inferior to him in masculine elocution, and in
daring courage, excelled him in self‑command, in prudence, and in that
species of eloquence which steals into the heart, convinces without
irritating, and governs without assuming the tone of authority. But
although “he attained not to the first three,” I know not, among {261}
all the eminent men who appeared at that period, any name which is
so well entitled to be placed next to theirs as that of Knox, whether
we consider the talents with which he was endowed, or the important
services which he performed.
There are perhaps few who have attended to the active and laborious
exertions of our Reformer, who have not been insensibly led to form
the opinion that he was of a robust constitution. This is however a
mistake. He was of small stature, and of a weakly habit of body;[321]
a circumstance which serves to give us a higher idea of the vigour of
his mind. His portrait seems to have been taken more than once during
his life, and has been frequently engraved.[322] It continues still
to frown in the antechamber of queen Mary, to whom he was often an
ungracious visitor. We discern in it the traits of his characteristic
intrepidity, austerity, and keen penetration. Nor can we overlook his
beard, which, according to the custom of the times, he wore long, and
reaching to his middle; a circumstance which I mention the rather,
because some writers have gravely assured us, that it was the chief
thing which procured him reverence among his countrymen.[323] A popish
author {262} has informed us, that he was gratified with having his
picture drawn, and has expressed much horror at this, seeing he had
caused all the images of the saints to be broken.[324]
One charge against him has not yet been noticed. He has been accused
of setting up himself for a prophet, of presuming to intrude into
the secret counsel of God, and of enthusiastically confounding the
suggestions of his own imagination, and the effusions of his own
spirit, with the dictates of inspiration, and immediate communications
from heaven. Let us examine this accusation a little. It is proper,
in the first place, to hear his own statement of the grounds on which
he proceeded in many of those warnings which have been denominated
predictions. Having, in one of his treatises, denounced the judgments
to which the inhabitants of England exposed themselves, by renouncing
the gospel, and returning to idolatry, he gives the following
explication of the {263} warrant which he had for his threatenings.
“Ye would know the groundis of my certitude. God grant that, hearing
thame, ye may understand, and stedfastlie believe the same. My
assurances are not the mervalles of Merlin, nor yit the dark sentences
of prophane prophesies; but the plane treuth of Godis word, the
invincibill justice of the everlasting God, and the ordinarie course
of his punismentis and plagis frome the beginning, are my assurance
and groundis. Godis word threatneth destructioun to all inobedient;
his immutabill justice must requyre the same; the ordinarie
punishments and plaguis schaw exempillis. What man then can ceise to
prophesie?”[325] We find him expressing himself in a similar way, in
his defence of the threatenings which he uttered against those who
had been guilty of the murder of king Henry, and the regent Murray.
He denies that he had spoken “as one that entered into the secret
counsel of God,” and insists that he had merely declared the judgment
which was pronounced in the divine law against murderers, and which
had often been exemplified in the vengeance which overtook them, even
in this life.[326] In so far then his threatenings, or predictions,
(for so he repeatedly calls them,) do not stand in need of an apology.
Though sometimes expressed in absolute or indefinite language, it
is but fair and reasonable to understand {264} them, like similar
declarations in scripture, as implying a tacit condition.
There are, however, several of his sayings which, perhaps, cannot be
vindicated upon these principles, and which he himself seems to have
rested upon different grounds.[327] Of this kind are the assurances
which he expressed, from the beginning of the Scottish troubles, that
the cause of the congregation would ultimately prevail; his confident
hope of again preaching in his native country and at St Andrews,
avowed by him during his imprisonment on board the French galleys,
and frequently repeated during his exile; with the intimations which
he gave respecting the death of Thomas Maitland, and Kircaldy of
Grange. It cannot be denied that his contemporaries considered these
as proceeding from a prophetic spirit, and have attested that they
received an exact accomplishment. Without entering on a particular
examination of these instances, or venturing to give a decisive
opinion respecting any of them, I shall confine myself to a few
general observations.