ce and answer. When he reported this to Mr. Knox, he
said, "Well, I have been earnest with my God anent that man, I am sorry
that it should so befal his body, yet God assureth me, there is mercy
for his soul. But for the other (meaning Lethington), I have no warrant
to say that it shall be well with him." The truth of this seemed to
appear in a short time thereafter; for it was thought that Lethington
poisoned himself to escape public punishment; he lay unburied in the
steeple of Leith until his body was quite corrupted; but Sir William
Kirkaldie of Grange was, on the third of August next, executed at the
cross of Edinburgh; he caused Mr. Lindsay to repeat Mr. Knox's words
concerning him a little before his execution, and was much comforted by
them; he said to Mr. Lindsay, (who accompanied him to the scaffold) "I
hope, when men shall think I am gone, I shall give a token of the
assurance of God's mercy to my soul, according to the speech of that man
of God." Accordingly, when he was cast over the ladder, with his face
towards the east, when all present thought he was dead, he lifted up his
hands, which were bound, and let them fall softly down again, as if
praising God for his great mercy towards him. See Spotswood's history,
page 266, 272. and Calderwood's history, page 62, 63.

Another of Mr. Knox's visitors desired him to praise God for the good he
had done. He answered, "Flesh of itself is too proud, and needs nothing
to puff it up," and protested that he only laid claim to the free mercy
of God in Christ among others. To the earl of Morton (who was then about
to receive the regency, the earl of Moray being dead) he was heard to
say, "My lord, God hath given you many blessings; he hath given you high
honour, birth, great riches, many good friends, and is now to prefer you
to the government of the realm: In his name, I charge you, that you will
use these blessings better in time to come, than you have done in time
past: in all your actions seek first the glory of God, the furtherance
of his gospel, the maintenance of his church and ministry, and then be
careful of the king, to procure his good and the welfare of the kingdom.
If you act thus, God will be with you; if otherwise, he shall deprive
you of all these benefits, and your end shall be shameful and
ignominious." This threatening, Morton, to his melancholy experience,
confessed was literally accomplished. At his execution in June 1581, he
called to mind Mr. Knox'