The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

Ye, dear brethren (as before is said) are the creatures of God created to his own Image and similitude;¹ to whom it is commanded, To hear the voice of your heavenly Father, To embrace his Son Christ Jesus, To fly from all doctrine and Religion which he hath not approved by his own Will, revealed to us in his most blessed Word. To which Precepts and Charges if ye be found inobedient, ye shall perish in your iniquity as rebels and stubborn servants, that have no pleasure to obey the good Will of their Sovereign Lord, who most lovingly doth call for your obedience: And therefore, brethren, in this behalf, it is your part to be careful and diligent:² For the question is not of things temporal, which although they be endangered, yet by diligence and process of time may after be redressed; but it is of the damnation of your bodies and souls, and of the loss of life everlasting; which once lost, can never be recovered. And therefore I say, That it behoveth you to be careful and diligent in this so weighty a matter, lest that ye, contemning this occasion which God now offereth, find not the like, although that after with groaning and sobs ye languish for the same. And that ye be not ignorant of what occasion I mean, in few words I shall express it.

Yee, dear brethren (as before is said) are the creatures of God created to his own Image and similitude;¹ to whom it is commanded, To hear the voice of your heavenly Father, To embrace his Son Christ Jesus, To flie from all doctrine and Religion which he hath not approved by his own Will, revealed to us in his most blessed Word. To which Precepts and Charges if yee be found inobedient, ye shall perish in your iniquity as rebells and stubborn servants, that have no pleasure to obey the good Will of their Soveraign Lord, who most lovingly doth call for your obedience: And therefore, brethren, in this behalf, it is your part to be carefull and diligent:² For the question is not of things temporall, which although they be endangered, yet by diligence and processe of time may after be redressed; but it is of the damnation of your bodies and souls, and of the losse of life everlasting; which once lost, can never be recovered. And therefore I say, That it behoveth you to be carefull and diligent in this so weighty a matter, lest that ye, contemning this occasion which God now offereth, finde not the like, although that after with groaning and sobs ye languish for the same. And that ye be not ignorant of what occasion I mean, in few words I shall expresse it.