uncontrolled authority in the church and even in the civil
affairs of the nation, and who triumphed in the contumelious usage of
his sovereign. His usual appellation for the queen was Jezebel; and
though she endeavored by the most gracious condescension to win his
favor, all her insinuations could gain nothing on his obdurate heart.
She promised him access to her whenever he demanded it; and she even
desired him, if he found her blamable in any thing, to reprehend her
freely in private, rather than vilify her in the pulpit before the whole
people: but he plainly told her, that he had a public ministry intrusted
to him; that if she would come to church, she should there hear the
gospel of truth, and that it was not his business to apply to every
individual, nor had he leisure for that occupation.[**] The political
principles of the man, which he communicated to his brethren, were as
full of sedition, as his theological were of rage and bigotry. Though
he once condescended so far as to tell the queen that he would submit to
her, in the same manner as Paul did to Nero,[***] he remained not long
in this dutiful strain. He said to her, that "Samuel feared not to slay
Agag the fat and delicate king of Amalek, whom King Saul had saved;
neither spared Elias Jezebel's false prophets, and Baal's priests,
though King Ahab was present. Phineas," added he, "was no magistrate;
yet feared he not to strike Cosbi and Zimri in the very act of filthy
fornication. And so, madam, your grace may see that others than chief
magistrates may lawfully inflict punishment on such crimes as are
condemned by the law of God."[****] Knox had formerly, during the reign
of Mary of England, written a book against female succession to the
crown: the title of it is, "The first blast of the trumpet against
the monstrous regimen of women." He was too proud either to recant the
tenets of this book, or even to apologize for them; and his conduct
showed that he thought no more civility than loyalty due to any of the
female sex.

* Knox, p. 311, 312.

** Knox, p. 310.

*** Knox, p. 288.

**** Knox, p. 326.

The whole life of Mary was, from the demeanor of these men, filled with
bitterness and sorrow. This rustic apostle scruples not, in his history,
to inform us, that he once treated her with such severity, that she lost
all command of temper, and dissolved in tears before him: yet so far
from being moved with youth, and beauty, and roya