The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

But let ever that sentence of the Apostle remain in thine heart; What hast thou which thou hast not received? If thou have received, why gloriest thou? Comfort the afflicted, support the poor, and exhort others to support them. Be not careful for things of this life, but be fervent in prayer to God for the increase of his holy Spirit. And finally, behave thy self in this holy vocation, with such sobriety as God may be glorified in thy Ministry. And so shalt thou shortly obtain the Victory, and shalt receive the Crown promised, when the Lord Jesus shall appear in his glory, whose omnipotent Spirit assist thee and us to the end. Sing 23. Psalm.

But let ever that sentence of the Apostle remain in thine heart; What hast thou which thou hast not received? If thou have received, why gloriest thou? Comfort the afflicted, support the poore, and exhort others to support them. Be not carefull for things of this life, but be fervent in prayer to God for the increase of his holy Spirit. And finally, behave thy selfe in this holy vocation, with such sobriety as God may be glorified in thy Ministery. And so shalt thou shortly obtaine the Victory, and shalt receive the Crowne promised, when the Lord Jesus shall appeare in his glory, whose omnipotent Spirit assist thee and us to the end. Sing 23. Psalme.

As the servants of God uprightly travelled to have vice punished, and virtue planted; so did the devil ever stir up some in the contrary of both. There was a Law made against fornicators and adulterers, that the one and the other should be Carted through the Towns, and so banished, till that their repentance was offered and received. And albeit this was not the severity of Gods Law, especially against adulterers, yet was it a great bridle to the malefactors, whereat the wicked did wondrously storm. It chanced that one Sanderson a Fletcher or Butcher, was deprehended to have put away his lawful wife (under colour that he was lawfully parted after the manner of the Papistical Religion) and had taken to him another in his house. The complaint and slander proposed to the Church, and trial taken, That he was not married with the second woman, neither that he was able to prove that he was divorced by any order of the Law from the first, he was committed to the hands of the Magistrates, who according to the Laws commanded him to be Carted. But the rascal multitude inflamed by some ungodly Crafts-men, made insurrection, brake the Cart, boasted and threatened the Officers, and took away the malefactor. This was the beginning of farther evils, as we shall after hear. In this mean time, while Lord James (we say) was in France, there came an Ambassador from France,