The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

¹To write my mind plainly unto you, beloved brethren: This wind that always hath blown against the Church of God, is the malice and hatred of the devil, which rightly in this case is compared to the wind: For as the wind is invisible, and yet the poor disciples feel that it troubleth and lettereth their Ship;² So is the pestilent envy of the devil working always in the hearts of the reprobate so subtle and crafty, that it cannot be espied by Gods Elect, nor by his Messengers, till first they feel the blasts thereof to blow their Ship backward: And as the vehement wind causeth the waves of the Sea to rage,³ and yet the dead water neither knoweth what it doth, neither yet can it cease nor refrain; so that both it is troubled by the wind, and also it self doth trouble Christs disciples in their poor Ship: So by the envy and malice of the devil, are wicked and cruel, as well subjects as Princes (whose hearts are like the raging Sea) compelled to persecute and trouble the true Church of Christ; and yet so blinded are they, and so enthralled under the bondage of the devil, that neither can they see their manifest iniquity, neither yet can they cease to run to their own destruction. And hereof, England, hast thou manifest experience: For in the time of King Henry the eighth,⁴ how the wolf, that wicked Winchester, and others, by the vehement wind of six bloody Articles (by the devil devised) intended to have overthrown the poor Ship and Christs disciples, is evidently known already. But then had we Christ Jesus with us sleeping in the Ship, who did not despise the faithful crying of such as then were in trouble: But by his mighty power, gracious goodness, and invincible force of his holy Word, he compelled those wicked winds to cease, and the raging of those Seas to be stilled and calm:⁵ So that all the hearts of Gods Elect within the Realm of England did wonder at that sudden change, while that under a lamb the fearful edge of that devouring sword was taken from the necks ⟨p. 51⟩of the faithful; and the tyranny of those ravening and blood-thirsty Wolves (I mean of wily Winchester, and of some other his Brethren, the sons of Belial) was repressed for a time: