But do not mistake me.

I disapprove, in the utmost degree, of the action in which this rising seems to have originated; and no arguments should induce me to join it, if it is to be carried on by such measures as that with which it has commenced." Burley's blood rushed to his face, giving a ruddy and dark glow to his swarthy brow.
"You mean," he said, in a voice which he designed should not betray any emotion--"You mean the death of James Sharpe ?" "Frankly," answered Morton, "such is my meaning." "You imagine, then," said Burley, "that the Almighty, in times of difficulty, does not raise up instruments to deliver his church from her oppressors?
You are of opinion that the justice of an execution consists, not in the extent of the sufferer's crime, or in his having merited punishment, or in the wholesome and salutary effect which that example is likely to produce upon other evil-doers, but hold that it rests solely in the robe of the judge, the height of the bench, and the voice of the doomster?
Is not just punishment justly inflicted, whether on the scaffold or the moor?
And where constituted judges, from cowardice, or from having cast in their lot with transgressors, suffer them not only to pass at liberty through the land, but to sit in the high places, and dye their garments in the blood of the saints, is it not well done in any brave spirits who shall draw their private swords in the public cause ?" "I have no wish to judge this individual action," replied Morton, "further than is necessary to make you fully aware of my principles.

I therefore repeat, that the case you have supposed does not satisfy my judgment.

That the Almighty, in his mysterious providence, may bring a bloody man to an end deservedly bloody, does not vindicate those who, without authority of any kind, take upon themselves to be the instruments of execution, and presume to call them the executors of divine vengeance." "And were we not so ?" said Burley, in a tone of fierce enthusiasm.

"Were not we--was not every one who owned the interest of the Covenanted Church of Scotland, bound by that covenant to cut off the Judas who had sold the cause of God for fifty thousand merks a-year?
Had we met him by the way as he came down from London, and there smitten him with the edge of the sword, we had done but the duty of men faithful to our cause, and to our oaths recorded in heaven.