Knox's personal revelations are always interesting;
and, in the case of the "First Blast," as I have said, there
is no exception to the rule. He begins by stating the solemn
responsibility of all who are watchmen over God's flock; and
all are watchmen (he goes on to explain, with that fine
breadth of spirit that characterises him even when, as here,
he shows himself most narrow), all are watchmen "whose eyes
God doth open, and whose conscience he pricketh to admonish
the ungodly." And with the full consciousness of this great
duty before him, he sets himself to answer the scruples of
timorous or worldly-minded people. How can a man repent, he
asks, unless the nature of his transgression is made plain to
him? "And therefore I say," he continues, "that of necessity
it is that this monstriferous empire of women (which among
all enormities that this day do abound upon the face of the
whole earth, is most detestable and damnable) be openly and
plainly declared to the world, to the end that some may
repent and be saved." To those who think the doctrine
useless, because it cannot be expected to amend those princes
whom it would dispossess if once accepted, he makes answer in
a strain that shows him at his greatest. After having
instanced how the rumour of Christ's censures found its way
to Herod in his own court, "even so," he continues, "may the
sound of our weak trumpet, by the support of some wind (blow
it from the south, or blow it from the north, it is of no
matter), come to the ears of the chief offenders.
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