John Knox
Hamilton and Wishart, with a long line of humbler disciples, yielded up their lives at the stake. But from the burning pile of Wishart there came one whom the flames were not to silence, one who under God was to strike the death knell of popery in Scotland.HF 157.1
John Knox turned away from the traditions of the church to feed upon the truths of God's Word. The teaching of Wishart confirmed his determination to forsake Rome and join himself to the persecuted Reformers.HF 157.2
Urged by his companions to preach, he shrank with trembling from its responsibility. It was only after days of painful conflict with himself that he consented. But having once accepted, he pressed forward with undaunted courage. This truehearted Reformer feared not the face of man. When brought face to face with the queen of Scotland, John Knox was not to be won by caresses; he quailed not before threats. He had taught the people to receive a religion prohibited by the state, she declared, and had thus transgressed God's command enjoining subjects to obey their princes. Knox answered firmly: “If all the seed of Abraham had been of the religion of Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what religion would there have been in the world? Or if all men in the days of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors, what religion would there have been upon the face of the earth?”HF 157.3
Said Mary: “Ye interpret the Scriptures in one manner, and they [Roman Catholics] interpret in another; whom shall I believe, and who shall be judge?”HF 157.4
“Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word,” answered the Reformer. ... “The word of God is plain in itself; and if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, which is never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places.”HF 157.5
With undaunted courage the fearless Reformer, at the peril of his life, kept to his purpose, until Scotland was free from popery.HF 158.1
In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national religion diminished, but did not wholly stop, persecution. Not a few of Rome's forms were retained. The supremacy of the pope was rejected, but in his place the monarch was enthroned as head of the church. There was still a wide departure from the purity of the gospel. Religious liberty was not yet understood. Though the horrible cruelties which Rome employed were resorted to but rarely by Protestant rulers, yet the right of every man to worship God according to his own conscience was not acknowledged. Dissenters suffered persecution for hundreds of years.HF 158.2