grieving of heart which we
felt when they in their blind fury pursued us. And therefore hath
God justly permitted both them and us to fall in this confusion at
once; us for that we put our trust and confidence in man, and them
because that they should feel in their own hearts how bitter was the
cup which they had made others to drink before them. Rests that both
they and we turn to the Eternal, our God (who beats down to death to
the intent that He may raise up again, to leave the remembrance of
His wondrous deliverance to the praise of His own name), which if we
do unfeignedly, I no more doubt that this our dolour, confusion, and
fear, shall be turned into joy, honour, and boldness, than that I
doubt that God gave the victory to the Israelites over the
Benjaminites after that twice with ignominy they were repulsed and
dang back. Yea, whatsoever shall come of us and our mortal
carcasses, I doubt not but this cause in despite of Satan shall
prevail in the realm of Scotland. For as it is the eternal truth of
the eternal God, so shall it once prevail, however for a time it may
be hindered. It may be that God shall plague some, for that they
delight not in the truth, albeit for worldly respects they seem to
favour it. Yea, God may take some of His devout children away before
their eyes see greater troubles. But neither shall the one or the
other so hinder this action but in the end it shall triumph."

When the sermon was ended, Knox adds, "The minds of men began
wonderfully to be erected." "The voice of one man," as Randolph
afterwards said, was "able in an hour to put more life in us than six
hundred trumpets continually blustering in our ears." The boldness with
which Knox thus exposed that elation in their own temporary success, and
in the adhesion of the Duke of Hamilton, which had led the leaders of
the Congregation into self-confidence and slackened their watchfulness,
was made solemn and authoritative by the force with which he pressed his
personal responsibility into every man's bosom. No turn of fortune, no
evil fate, but God's check upon an army enlisted in His name yet not
serving Him with a true heart, was this momentary downfall; the cause of
which was one that every man could remove in his degree; not inherent
weakness or hopeless fate, but a matter remediable, nay, which must be
remedied and cast from among them--a matter which