The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

When the word of the departing of so many Patrons of Papistry, and of the manner of their departing, came unto the Queen Regent, after astonishment and musing,¹ she said; What shall I say of such men? They left me as beasts, and as beasts they die: God is not with them, neither with that which they enterprise. While these things were in doing in Scotland and France, that perfect hypocrite, Master John Sinclair, then Dean of Lestarrige, and now Lord President, and Bishop of Brechin, began to Preach in his Church of Lestarrige, and at the beginning held himself so indifferent,² that many had opinion of him, That he was not far from the Kingdom of God. But his hypocrisy could not long be cloaked: for when he understood that such as feared God began to have a good opinion of him, and that the Friars and others of that sect began to whisper, That if he took not heed in time to himself and unto his Doctrine, he would be the destruction of the whole state of the Church. This by him understood, he appointed a Sermon, in the which he promised to give his judgement upon all such heads, as then were in controversy in the matters of Religion. The brute hereof made his audience great at the first: But that day he so handled himself, that after that no godly man did credit him: for he not only gainsaid the Doctrine of Justification and of Prayer, which before he had taught, but also he set up and maintained Papistry to the uttermost prick, yea, Holy-water, Pilgrimage, Purgatory, and Pardons were of such virtue in his conceit, That without them he looked not to be saved. In this mean time the Clergy made a brag, That they would dispute. But M. David Panter, ³which then lived and lay at Lestarrige, dissuaded them therefrom, affirming, That if ever they disputed, but where themselves were both Judge and party, and where that fire and sword should obey their decree, that then their cause was marred for ever: For their victory stood neither in God nor in his Word; but in their own wills, and in the things concluded by their own councils (together with sword and fire) whereto (said he) these new up-start fellows will give no place, but they will call you to your Count-book, and that is, to the Bible; and by it ye will no more be found the men that ye are called, then the Devil will be approved to be God.