etorted by accusing him, among other
things, of prejudging her and 'entering into God's secret counsel.' Knox
roused himself to answer the charges in detail. But there remained, he
adds,

'One thing that is most bitter to me, and most fearful, if that
my accusers were able to prove their accusation, to wit, that I
proudly and arrogantly entered into God's secret counsel, as if
I were called thereto. God be merciful to my accusators, of
their rash and ungodly judgment! If they understood how fearful
my conscience is, and ever has been, to exceed the bounds of my
vocation, they would not so boldly have accused me. I am not
ignorant that the secrets of God appertain to Himself alone: but
things revealed in His law appertain to us and our children for
ever. What I have spoken against the adultery, against the
murder, against the pride, and against the idolatry of that
wicked woman, I spake not as one that entered into God's secret
counsel, but being one (of God's great mercy) called to preach
according to His blessed will, revealed in His most holy
word.'[27]

The old man's irritation was most natural. For, on the one hand, his
accusers had hit a blot. He was sometimes extremely dogmatic, imperious,
and rash in his application of 'God's revealed will' both to persons and
things. But the form in which they put it--that he posed as a prophet,
as one having a special message from God's secret counsel, instead of a
general commission to proclaim that revealed will--was not only false,
but struck at the roots of his whole life and work. It is demonstrable
that from Knox's first teaching in East Lothian and first preaching in
St Andrews onwards, the meaning of both teaching and preaching was a
call to the common Scottish man, and to every man, to go to God direct
without any intermediation except God's open word.[28] And I think it
plain that this direct and divine call _to all_ was not only the meaning
but the strength of the message in Scotland as elsewhere. It seems to us
now as if the burden which it laid on the individual--on frail and
feeble women, for example, in that time of persecution--was
overwhelming. It is most pathetic to find Knox, when sitting down to
write tender and consoling messages to those in such circumstances,
pre-occupied with urging the obligation of each one of them individually
to hold fast, against possible torture or death, that which each