12 January 1559 A.D. John Knox’s
Principles of Reformation
January 12: John
Knox on Principles of Reformation
He Saw God in His Power
In the passage that
follows, the Rev. Stuart Robinson [1814-1881] briefly discusses a letter
composed under the hand of John Knox on the date of January
12, 1559. In this letter, Knox sketched out the core principles, as he would
see them, of the reformation of the Church—a summary of all that he hoped to
accomplish and as Robinson puts it, “the key to all his subsequent conflicts in
Scotland.” Our passage today is drawn from Robinson’s article, “John Knox as the English and
the Scottish Reformer,” which appeared in THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN
REVIEW, 27.1 (January 1877): 11-12 of 26. [The spelling in Knox’s letter has
been modernized somewhat.]
In his letter of exhortation to England, January 12, 1559, Knox developes the germinal
principles of his scheme of Reformation. After declaring that Popish priests
should not be allowed to direct the flock, that a plurality of benefices to one
man should not be permitted, but the pastoral charges be given each to a single
minister who shall be required to discharge fully the office of preaching
Christ crucified, he proceeds to say—
“Let
none that be appointed to labour in Christ’s vineyard be entangled with civil
affairs, and as ye call them the affairs of the realm. . . . For, as touching
their yearly coming to Parliament for matters of religion, it shall be
superfluous and vain, if God’s true religion be once so established, that after
it never be called in controversy. . . . So that the ministers, albeit they
lack the glorious title of lords, and the devilish pomp which before appeared
in proud prelates yet must they be so stout and bold, in God’s cause, that if
the king himself would usurpe any other authority in God’s religion than
becometh a member of Christ’s body, that first he be admonished according to
God’s Word, and after, if he contemn the same, be subject to the yoke of
discipline. . . . Now last, for the preservatioun of religion, it is most expedient
that schools be universally erected in cities and all chief towns, the
oversight whereof to be committed to the magistrates and godly learned men,
that of the youth, godly instructed among them, a seed may be reserved and continued,
for the profit of Christ’s kirk in all ages.”—[*McCrie’s Life of Melville, Vol.
I., p. 213.]
Here,
then, we have the germinal ideas of Knox’s programme of reformation, which will
be found to be the key to all his subsequent conflicts in Scotland—an
unsecularised ministry of one order only preaching Christ crucified, a
spiritual free Church under Christ as its only Head, and education for not only
the masses of the people, but education of the higher order, to secure an
intelligent ministry. This last, if anything could be called such, may be
termed “John Knox’s hobby.” And to his brave struggles and labors in that
behalf, under God, has Scotland been indebted for the singular intelligence and
intellectual superiority both of her people and her ministry for three hundred
years past.
Words to Live By:
Our Lord Jesus Christ has promised that He will build His Church. (Matt.
16:18
). When we see the Church in decline or even seemingly in
ruins, the time for urgent prayer has long been at hand, for “unless the Lord
builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches
over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” (Psalm
127:1, ESV
). Our part is to pray and watch. Pray unceasingly, and
watch expectantly, for we have His sure promise.
And
from my favorite Anglican pastor, Richard Sibbes, this passage seems most appropriate
in application of the life of John Knox:
”
‘Though an host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.’ He puts the case
of the greatest danger that can be. Though an host of men should encompass me,
‘my heart shall not fear; though war rise against me, in this I will be
confident.’ Here is great courage for the time to come. Experience breeds
hope and confidence. David was not so courageous a man of himself; but upon
experience of God’s former comfort and assistance, his faith brake as fire out
of the smoke, or as the sun out of a cloud. Though I was in such and such
perplexities, yet for the time to come I have such confidence and experience of
God’s goodness, that I will not fear. He that seeth God by a spirit of faith in
his greatness and power, he sees all other things below as nothing. Therefore
he saith here, he cares not for the time to come for any opposition; no, not of
an army. ‘If God be with us, who can be against us?’ Rom. viii. 31. He saw God
in his power; and then, looking from God to the creature, alas! who was he? As
Micah, when he had seen God sitting upon his throne; what was Ahab to him, when
he had seen God once? So when the prophet David had seen God once, then ‘though
an host encamp against me, I will not fear,’ &c. Thus you have his comfort
in the double branch of it; his courage, also, and his confidence for the time
to come.
–“A
Breathing After God,” The Works of Richard Sibbes, (Banner of Truth,
1983), vol. 2, page 214.
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