_O Lord our Lord,
other lords, beside thee, have had the dominion over us_, &c. In his
sermon he took occasion to speak of wicked princes, who, for the sins of
a people, were sent as scourges upon them, and also said, "That God set
in that room boys and women; and that God justly punished Ahab and his
posterity, because he would not take order with the harlot Jezebel."
These things enraged the king to a very high degree. Mr. Knox was
immediately ordered before the council, who went thither attended by
some of the most respectable citizens; when called in, the secretary
signified that the king was much offended with some words in his
sermons, (as above-mentioned), and ordered him to abstain from preaching
for fifteen or twenty days; to which Mr. Knox answered, That he had
spoken nothing but according to his text, and if the church would
command him either to speak or refrain from speaking, he would obey so
far as the word of God would permit him. Nevertheless, for this and
another sermon which he preached before the lords, in which he shewed
the bad consequences that would follow upon the queen's being married to
a papist, he must be, by the queen's order, prohibited from preaching
for a considerable time.

It cannot be expected, that we should enumerate all the indefatigable
labours, and pertinent speeches which, on sundry occasions, he made to
the queen, nor the opposition which he met with in promoting the work of
reformation; these will be found at large in the histories of these
times.

The popish faction now found, that it would be impossible to get their
idolatry re-established, while the reformation was making such progress,
and while Mr. Knox and his associates had such credit with the
people.--They therefore set other engines to work, than these they had
hitherto used; they spared no pains to blast his reputation by malicious
calumnies, and even by making attempts upon his life; for, one night as
he was sitting at the head of a table in his own house, with his back to
the window, (as was his custom), he was fired at from the other side of
the street, on purpose to kill him; the shot entered at the window, but
he being near to the other side of the table, the assassin missed his
mark; the bullet struck the candlestick before him, and made a hole in
the foot of it: Thus was _he that was with him, stronger than they that
were against him_.

Mr. Knox was an eminent wrestler with God in prayer, and like a prince