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

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
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interest; and the more that he perceived the zeal of the
Protestant nobles to cool, and their jealousy to be laid
asleep, by the winning arts of the queen, the more fre¬
quently and loudly did he sound the alarm. Vehement
and harsh as his expressions often were; violent, sedi¬
tious, and insufferable, as his sermons and prayers have
been pronounced, I have little hesitation in saying, that
as the public peace was never disturbed by them, so they
were useful to the public safety, and even a principal
means of warding off those confusions in which the
country was involved, and which brought on the ulti¬
mate ruin of the infatuated queen. His uncourtly and
rough manner was not, indeed, calculated to gain upon
her mind, nor is there reason to think that an opposite
manner would have had this effect, and his admonitions
often irritated her; but they obliged her to act with
greater reserve and moderation; and they operated, to
an indescribable degree, in arousing and keeping awake
the zeal and the fears of the nation, which, at that
period, were the two great safeguards of the Protestant
religion in Scotland. We may form an idea of the effect
produced by his pulpit-orations, from the account of
the English ambassador, who was one of his constant
hearers. “ Where your honour,” says he, in a letter to
Cecil, “ exhorteth us to stoutness, I assure you the voice
of one man is able, in an hour, to put more life in us,
than six hundred trumpets continually blustering in our
ears.”
The Reformer was not ignorant that some of his
friends thought him too severe in his language, nor was
he always disposed to vindicate the expressions which
he 'employed. Still, hbwever, he was persuaded, that
the times required the utmost plainness; and he was
afraid that snares lurked under the smoothness which
was recommended and practised by courtiers. Cecil,
having given him an advice on this, head, in one of his
letters, we find him replying, “ Men deliting to swym
betwix two waters have often compleaned upon my