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JULY

    
15, 1644 --England. Roger Williams writes and publishes The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause of Conscience. In it he defends his views for religious liberty arguing that persecution for religion has no sanction in the teachings of Christ.
      In 1647, Mr. John Cotton will reply in a work entitled, The Bloody Tenet, Washed and Made White In The Blood of The Lamb. Mr. Williams will retort with yet another reply in 1652 entitled,   The Bloody Tenet The More Bloody By Mr. Cotton’s Endeavor To Wash It White In The Blood Of The Lamb.
      Mr. John Cotton has acted openly against Mr. Williams in his trial and subsequent banishment from the Bay colony. “It is no wonder to find Master Cotton so entangled both in his answers and replies as touching this parable (the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares), for men of all sorts in former ages have been so entangled before him”, answers Mr. Williams. “To which purpose I will relate a notable passage recorded by that excellent witness of God, Master Fox, in his book of Acts and Monuments (Book of Martyrs). It is this: In the story of Mr. George Wisehart in the days of King Henry VIII, there preached at the arraignment of said Wisehart one John Winryme, sub-Prior of the Abbey of St. Andrews; he discoursed on the parable of the Tares; he interpreted the Tares to be heretics; and yet contrary to this Scripture, (as Mr. Fox observeth, though elsewhere himself maintains it the duty of the civil magistrate to suppress heretics) I say the said Winryme concludeth that heretics ought not to be left alone until the harvest, but to be suppressed by the power of the civil magistrate. So that both the Popish prior and the truly Christian Fox were entangled in contradictions to their own writings about this Heavenly Scripture.
     Fourteen years later, in 1658, Mr. Wenlock Christison, a Quaker, will be banished on pain of death. To the utter surprise of the Court of Massachusetts, he will enter the courtroom.
     “By what law,” he demands, “will ye put me to death?”
     “We have a law,” they answer, “and by it you are to die.”
    “So said the Jews to Christ,” responds Mr. Christison. “But who empowered you to make that law?”
     “We have a patent, and my make our own laws,” they argue.
     “Can you make laws repugnant to those of England?”
     “No,” they reply.
     “Then you are gone beyond your bounds. Your heart is as rotten towards the king as towards God. I demand to be tried by the laws of England, and there is no law there to hang Quakers.”
     “The English banish Jesuits on pain of death and with equal justice we may banish Quakers.”
When the jury returns a verdict of guilty, Mr. Christison will answer, “I deny all guilt, my conscience is clear before God.”

      The magistrates are divided in pronouncing the sentence. When the vote is put forth a second time, a majority appears to favor his death, yet he continues, “What do you gain by taking Quakers’ lives? For the last man that ye put to death, here are five come in his room. If you have power to take my life, God can raise up ten of His servants in my stead.”
      The voice of the people having always been averse to blood, the magistrates become infatuated for a season and appear convinced of their error. Mr. Christison with twenty-seven of his friends are discharged from prison.

15, 1952 --Scotland. Mr. Arthur Pink dies in Storroway leaving behind a rich series of Bible expositions made over a period of thirty years. They first appeared in his monthly magazine, Studies in the Scriptures.

16, 1054 --Turkey. Roman delegates place a decree of excommunication on the altar of the Church of St. Sophia. As they do so, they shake off the dust from their feet. Thus the separation of the Roman Church from the Greek Church is consummated.

16, 1623 --Massachusetts. A prolonged drought at Plymouth has evoked a general concern among the people here. The governor has appointed today as a day of humiliation and prayer. Refreshing showers are the immediate response from Heaven.

(Note: The old style of dating regarded March 25th as New Years Day. January 1st began in England about 1580, but in legal documents and common usage, the old form persisted until 1752. To change from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar add ten days to dates between October 5, 1582 -February 28, 1700; February 28, 1700 -February 28, 1800 add eleven days; February 28, 1800 -February 28, 1900 add twelve days; and from February 28, 1900 -February 28, 2100 add thirteen days. Therefore July 16, 1623 is July 26, according to our calendar.)

 

 

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