Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

64
LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
God had made him a messenger. Notwithstanding this
state of his mind, he promised, if providence. prepared
the way, to “ obey the voices of his brethren, and give
place to the fury and rage of Satan for a time.”
Having ascertained that the apprehensions of his friends
were too well founded, and that he could not elude the
pursuit of his enemies, if he remained in England, he
procured a vessel, which, on the 28th of January 1554,
landed him safely at Dieppe, a port of Normandy, in
France.
PERIOD IV.
OUT OF ENGLAND, ANNO 1551, TO BIS INVITATION INTO
, BY THE PROTESTANT NOBILITY, ANNO 1557.
Providence, which had more important services in re¬
serve for Knox, made use of the urgent importunities of
his friends to hurry him away from the danger to
which, had he been left to the determination of his own
mind, his zeal and fearlessness would have prompted him
to expose himself. No sooner did he reach a foreign
shore than he began to regret the course which he had
been induced to take. When he thought upon his
fellow-preachers, whom he had left behind him immured
in dungeons, and the people lately under his charge,
now scattered abroad as sheep without a shepherd, and a
prey to ravening wolves, he felt an indescribable pang,
and an almost irresistible desire to return and share in
the hazardous but honourable conflict. Although he
had only complied with the divine direction, “ when they
persecute you in one city, flee ye unto another,” and in
his own breast stood acquitted of cowardice, he found it
difficult to divest his conduct of the appearance of that
weakness, and was afraid it might operate as a discour-