James Walker writes concerning Knox's influence:
"Far from being the mere iconoclast, he was also the great teacher of his countrymen. The first Confession of Faith, the First Book of Discipline (in its magnificent comprehensiveness, one of the most remarkable compositions of a great time); both of them chiefly the work of Knox. [His] long and elaborate treatise on Predestination, in which the doctrines of grace and of the divine sovereignty are so vigorously...[and] so wisely asserted and maintained. [This gives] Knox a high place among theologians; and at any rate, they have been greatly influential in giving direction to the theological thinking of our country" (James Walker, 1821-1891; The theology and theologians of Scotland: chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries).
Regarding Knox, Dr. Curt Daniel writes:
[On the 1560 Scots Confession] "…mainly the work of John Knox. The popular story is that he wrote it in only 4 days. It is a lovely and powerful confession, full of beauty and strength. It is second only to the Westminster Standards in influence in Scottish theology" (Curt Daniel, History and Theology of Calvinism, p. 34).
Daniel further notes:
“John Knox (1514-1572). Scotland. Former [Roman Catholic] priest, became the leader of the Scottish Reformation. A fiery preacher and courageous opponent of Romanist apostacy and tyranny. Spent [1.5] years as galley slave. Studied under Calvin (1553-1559). Main author of the Scots Confession (1560). Wrote History of the Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland and A Treatise on Predestination” (Curt Daniel, History and theology of Calvinism in the appendices section titled: Heroes of the reformation).
In the first quote of this post, James Walker noted the remarkable nature of John Knox's First Book of Discipline. Gordon J. Wenham and William E. Heth's Jesus And Divorce contains a massive bibliography that lists David L. Smith’s "Divorce and Remarriage: From the Early Church To John Wesley." Smith writes concerning Knox:
“John Knox, the founder of Scottish Presbyterianism, was very much like his mentor, John Calvin, in his stance on divorce. In his First Book of Discipline (1560), he noted that marriage, once lawfully contracted, could not be terminated unless adultery had occurred. Like Calvin, he deplored the failure of civil authorities to execute adulterers. The church was to excommunicate such people and set the innocent party free to marry again. Upon the repentance of the guilty party, however, forgiveness was to be granted and, ‘if they cannot remain continent, … we cannot forbid them to use the remedy ordained by God (i.e. marriage).'[56] Knox realized that such a position was far from perfect but, with his colleagues, he offered it ‘as the best counsel God giveth unto us in so doubtsome a case.'[57]”
[56] John Knox’s History of the Reformation in Scotland (ed. William Croft Dickinson; London: Thos. Nelson, 1949) 2:318.
[57] Ibid., 2:319.
Apparently the failure of the civil authorities to put adulterers to death justifies a fanciful, creative, cavalier, and contemptuous treatment of Romans 7:1-3.
Evidently the members of this Reformed brotherhood are the servants of corruption, strengthening the hands of adulterers, inventing facinorous fictions in order to retain their serpentine hold (2 Peter 2:18-19; cf. see The Wicked Westminster Confession, Of Marriage and Divorce, 24.5).
"I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah" (Jeremiah 23:14).
