er-plot had failed by the defection of
Darnley. Knox had now before him certain exile and possible death, and
on the eve of leaving Edinburgh he sat down and wrote privately the
following personal confession. Five years later, when publishing his
last book, after the national victory but amid great public troubles, he
prefixed a preface explaining that he had already 'taken good-night at
the world and at all the fasherie of the same,' and henceforward wished
his brethren only to pray that God would 'put an end to my long and
painful battle.' And with this preface he now printed the old meditation
or confession of 1566. It is therefore autobiographical by a double
title. And it is made even more interesting by the striking rubric with
which the writer heads it.

JOHN KNOX, WITH DELIBERATE MIND, TO HIS GOD.

'Be merciful unto me, O Lord, and call not into judgment my
manifold sins; and chiefly those whereof the world is not able
to accuse me. In youth, mid age, and now after many battles, I
find nothing in me but vanity and corruption. For, in quietness
I am negligent; in trouble impatient, tending to desperation;
and in the mean [middle] state I am so carried away with vain
fantasies, that alas! O Lord, they withdraw me from the presence
of thy Majesty. Pride and ambition assault me on the one part,
covetousness and malice trouble me on the other; briefly, O
Lord, the affections of the flesh do almost suppress the
operation of Thy Spirit. I take Thee, O Lord, who only knowest
the secrets of hearts, to record, that in none of the foresaid
do I delight; but that with them I am troubled, and that sore
against the desire of my inward man, which sobs for my
corruption, and would repose in Thy mercy alone. To the which I
clame [cry] in the promise that Thou hast made to all penitent
sinners (of whose number I profess myself to be one), in the
obedience and death of my only Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.
In whom, by Thy mere grace, I doubt not myself to be elected to
eternal salvation, whereof Thou hast given unto me (unto me, O
Lord, most wretched and unthankful creature) most assured signs.
For being drowned in ignorance Thou hast given to me knowledge
above the common sort of my brethren; my tongue hast Thou used
to set forth Thy glory, to oppugne idolatry, errors, and false
doctrine. Thou hast compelled me to forespe