The Conclusion.

Thus have we, in these few heads, offered unto your honours our judgments, according as we were commanded, touching the reformation of things which heretofore have altogether been abused in this cursed Papistry. We doubt not but some of our petitions shall appear strange unto you at the first sight. But if your wisdoms deeply consider that we must answer not only unto men, but also before the throne of the Eternal God and of His Son, Christ Jesus, for the counsel which we give in this so grave matter, your honours shall easily consider that it is much safer for us to fall into the displeasure of all men on earth, than to offend the Majesty of God, whose justice cannot sutler flatterers and deceitful counsellors to go unpunished.

That we require the Church to be set at such liberty, that she neither be compelled to feed idle bellies, nor to sustain the tyranny which heretofore by violence hath been maintained, we know will offend many. But if we should keep silence, we are most certain to offend the just and righteous God, who by the mouth of His Apostle hath pronounced this sentence: "He that laboureth not, let him not eat." If we, in this behalf or in any other, require to ask anything, other than by God's expressed commandment, by equity and by good conscience ye are bound to grant, let it be noted, and after repudiated; but if we require nothing which God requireth not also, let your honours take heed how ye gainstand the charge of Him whose hand and punishment ye cannot escape.

420

If blind affection leads you to have respect to the sustentation of those carnal friends of yours, who tyrannously have empired above the poor flock of Christ Jesus, rather than the zeal of God's glory provoke and move you to set His oppressed Church at freedom and liberty, we fear sharp and sudden punishment for you, and that the glory and honour of this enterprise will be reserved unto others.

Yet shall this our judgment abide to the generations following for a monument, and witness how lovingly God called you and this realm to repentance, what counsellors God sent unto you, and how ye have used the same. If obediently ye hear God now calling, we doubt not but He shall hear you in your greatest necessity. But if, following your own corrupt judgments, ye contemn His voice and vocation, we are assured that your former iniquity, and present ingratitude, shall together crave just punishment from God, who cannot long delay to execute His most just judgments, when, after many offences and long blindness, grace and mercy offered is contemptuously refused.

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit, so illuminate your hearts, that ye may clearly see what is pleasing and acceptable in His presence; so bow the same to His obedience, that ye may prefer His revealed will to your own affections; and so strengthen you by the spirit of fortitude, that boldly ye may punish vice, and maintain virtue within this realm, to the praise and glory of His holy name, to the comfort and assurance of your own consciences, and to the consolation and good example of the posterities following. Amen. So be it.

By your Honours'
Most humble servitors, etc.

From Edinburgh, The twentieth of May 1560.