"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
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JULY
6, 1535 --England. Sir Thomas More, the noted Roman Catholic theologian
was committed to the Tower of London in April last year for refusing to
take an oath impugning the Pope’s authority. On January 12th this year
he was indicted on the charge of high treason for refusing to
acknowledge the king as head of the church. He has been found guilty and
sentenced to be hanged, but the sentence by Royal decree has been
altered that he be beheaded. Today he is executed.
6, 1553 --England. King Edward VI dies. He is sixteen years of age. A
little before he breathes his last, he prays, “0 God, take me out of
this most wretched and most troublesome life, and receive me into the
assembly of Thy elect; yet not what I will but Thy will be done. Lord, I
commend my spirit to Thee. 0 Thou, my Lord, how happy and blessed would
be my condition if I were with Thee. But for the sake of Thy elect
preserve my life and restore me to my former health that I may be able
faithfully to serve Thee. Oh, my Lord, be kind and gracious to Thy
people and save the kingdom of Thy inheritance! Oh, Lord God, preserve
Thy elect people of England! Oh, my Lord God defend this Thy realm and
protect it from Popery and maintain ...the pure worship of Thy name,
that I and my people may be exalted to praise and celebrate Thy Holy
name. Amen.” Again he prays, “Bring me into Thy Kingdom; free this
kingdom from Anti-Christ; and keep Thine elect in it.”
Last year the young king passed the Statute of 1552 that
prohibits all interest on loans. Under King Henry VIII, ten-percent
interest was permitted. Bishop John Hooper strongly opposed all such
interest.
But God in His infinite wisdom decides not to spare the young
king, and Mary Tudor ascends the throne. On account of her bloody
persecution she unleashes against the elect of God, she will come to be
known as “Bloody Mary.” The doctrines of Free Will and of Meritorious
works cannot be re-introduced without the suppression of the Truth of
God.
6, 1657 --New York. Johannes Gutwasser lands in New Amsterdam. A young
German, he has crossed the ocean to petition the burgomaster here to
allow Lutherans freedom to worship. Within six days, the clergymen of
the town, committed to the Reformed faith as evidenced in the Canons of
Dort, confront the same colonial authorities warning, “if Lutherans
should be indulged in the exercise of their public worship, the Papist,
Mennonites, and others would soon make similar claims. Thus we would
soon become a Babel of confusion . . ..”
On September 4th, Mr. Gutwasser will be ordered to
return to the “father land.”
6, 1685 --England. In the early morning hours, the Battle of Sedgemoor
takes place. Having endured much hard treatment under the Roman Catholic
kings, many of the Non-conformists eagerly respond to James Scott, the
Duke of Monmouth, the reputed illegitimate son of Charles II.
The Duke has mustered an army of five thousand
undisciplined, ill-armed men among whom are Presbyterians and
Dissenters. They have maneuvered for three weeks against the
well-trained Royalist army. Today the army of the Duke will be routed.
Within a few days, the Duke himself will be apprehended though he will
be disguised as a shepherd. He will be carried to London where he will
be beheaded despite his tears and pleadings even to change his religion.
6, 1762 --New Jersey. Ashbel Green is born. As a young man, he will lead
his classmates academically for which achievement, he will be asked to
address the Continental Congress, which will be occupying Princeton as
its headquarters. Princeton will be so used from 1783-1787. The next
day, he will address George Washington.
He will become the leading preacher in Philadelphia
teaching one thousand Sabbath school instructors each week. He will take
a decided stand in favor of the Old School Party in the Presbyterian
Church and will be largely responsible for the disruption of 1837.
The outbreak of smallpox in 1777 will lead to his
conversion. Ten ungodly British soldiers will be billeted in their home,
but in the militia at Hanover, he will meet a godly officer. Though his
father Jacob Green has ridden with George Whitefield from New England to
the Middle colonies, Ashbel will be skeptical of Christian truth, but
his inquiring mind will lead him to the New Testament, and upon
completing the Gospels, he will be convinced of their truth. To him it
will be a revelation that if the Bible were true, then he was lost.
7, 1115 --Belgium. Peter the Hermit dies in the Monastery of Neumoustier
at Huy. He preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in
1095, and in the spring of 1096, forty thousand crusaders insisted he
lead them to Palestine. Only seven thousand reached Constantinople, and
after merciless slaughters by the Bulgarians. The Turks slaughtered most
of the seven thousand when they reached Asia. But in 1099, Peter himself
led the remaining crusaders into Jerusalem.
7, 1647 --Connecticut. In Hartford, Thomas Hooker dies. He opened a
school at Essex in England with John Eliot as his assistant, but he fled
to Holland in 1630 when his stand for Puritanism made him unpopular.
There he met William Ames.
When his parishioners immigrated to Massachusetts, he
followed them in 1633 with government agents hotly pursuing him on
horseback. Mr. Hooker’s companion asked, “What if the winds are not
favorable?” “We will trust that to Him Who holds the winds in His hand,”
he replied. He sailed with John Cotton.
He has led his members from Newtown (Cambridge),
Massachusetts to Hartford, Connecticut. He has helped to frame the
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut that govern the colony. He has opposed
the religious toleration of Roger Williams and has fought the
Presbyterian tendencies among the Congregationalists.
7, 1787 --Switzerland. At Geneva, Caesar Malan is born. His grandfather,
Peter Malan, was expelled from France by the annulment of the Edict of
Nantes. He settled in Geneva in 1722. Mr. Caesar Malan will become
renown in the realm of hymnody writing some one thousand French hymns.