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Battle-Hardened Conviction

“The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.” Revelation 19:10.

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The Power of the Mediatorial ChristThe Power of the Testimony of Jesus…The Non-Conformists…. William Penn’s Trail Wins Freedom of Conscience, Speech, the Press, Habeas Corpus…The High Treason of the King of England to Turn England Over to Rome…A Roman Catholic Judge Must Apply the Laws of His Church Upon the Citizens of the State…Rome’s Genocide of 1994-Five Times as Fast as the Holocaust… America turns over its Keys to Roman Catholic Judges… The Imperial Presidency…

 

Freedom Won and Lost

 

Britain. 1662. A great battle over conviction…and freedom of conscience begins. 2,000 ministers are ejected from their churches because they refuse to swear an oath supporting the Book of Common Prayer. Henry Havers, of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, is fleeing from pursuers. Enemies, intent upon his capture, are hot on his trail. Henry seeks refuge in a malt house, and crawled into a kiln, squeezing himself through the kiln door.

 

Hidden back in the darkness of the kiln, as he looked back toward the light of the opening, he sees a spider immediately ‘fixing the first line of a large and beautiful web across the entrance. The web being placed directly between him and the light, he was so much struck with the skill of the insect weaver, that for a while he forgot his own imminent danger, but by the time the network had crossed and recrossed the mouth of the kiln in every direction, the pursuers came to search for him. He listened as they approached, and distinctly overheard one of them say: ‘It is of no use to look in there; the old villain can never be there. Look at the spider’s web. He could never have got in there without breaking it.” –Baxendale’s Dictionary of Anecdotes, quoted in W.A. Spicer, The Hand That Intervenes. Washington D.C.: Review and Herald, Publishing Association, 1918, p. 146.

 

Hand-to-Hand Combat With Rome’s “Hidden Hand”

 

The English Civil War, a battle for the Rights and Conscience of Englishmen against the tyrannical power of Charles I and his Catholic wife, won by Cromwell and His Parliamentary Ironsides, was over. The nation, full of religious ferment and calls for religious freedom, had seen Levellers, Independents, and Russet coated captains, trained by Cromwell, defeat King Charles’ royal troops.

 

Battle Shifts to the Legal Realm

 

However, the battle for real freedom from tyranny would continue, now in the spiritual and legal realm. It would be long and hard-fought. The key to victory lay in maintaining and building powerful conviction born of the Holy Spirit and the Word with bulldog tenacity, in the face of every threat. After Cromwell died, Charles II returned from France to take the throne.

Charles II Determines to Enforce Religious Uniformity

 

Charles I had been executed by the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War for tyranny. His son, Charles II, after Cromwell’s death returned from exile in France to take the throne. His mother, the wife of Charles I, was devoutly Roman Catholic. She had put her stamp upon her son, and Charles II was ever a Catholic at heart, though he promised to maintain the Protestant religion as required by law.

 

One of the early acts of his reign was to endeavor to stamp out all the Independence of the Puritans, Independents, and Separatists. He appointed a commission, on October 25, 1660, of “several bishops and other divines to review the Book of Common Prayer.” (Acts of Uniformity).  The result was the Act of Uniformity.

 

The Act of Uniformity: “Universal Agreement in the Public Worship of Almighty God”

 

The Act of Uniformity was designed to create one uniform religion in England. It endorsed the Books of Common Prayer, and the “Form of Ordination and Consecration of Bishops, Priest and Deacons.” The Act called for ‘universal agreement in the public worship of Almighty God,” and required “that every person within this realm many certainly know the rule to which he is to conform in public worship and administration of England, and the manner how and by whom bishops, priests and deacons are and ought to be ordained and consecrated.”

 

All ministers were required to use the Book of Prayer. “All and singular ministers in any cathedral, collegiate or parish church, or chapel, or other place of public worship within the realm of England, dominion of Wales and town of Berwick upon Tweed shall be bound to say and use the morning prayer, evening prayer, celebration and administration of both the sacraments, and all other the public and common prayer…”

 

Every Minister Required to Swear Unfeigned Assent

 

Every minister was required to “openly and publicly before the congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned assent and consent to use of all the things in the said book…”

 

The minister was required to swear before his congregation:

 

“I, A.B., do here declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained and prescribed in and by the book entitled, “The Book of Common Prayer…”

 

“All and every such person, who shall (without some lawful impediment to be allowed and approved of by the ordinary of the place) neglect or refuse to do the same within the time aforesaid (or in the case of such impediment within one month after such impediment removed) shall, ipso facto, be deprived of all his spiritual promotions; and that from thenceforth it shall be lawful to and for all patrons and donors of all and singular the said spiritual promotions or of any of them, according to their respective rights and titles, to present or collate to the same, as though the person or persons so offending or neglecting were dead.”

 

This Last Act of Uniformity was passed on May 19, 1662, demanding unfeigned assent to everything in the Book of Common Prayer adopted by Parliament for the Church of England.

 

Two Thousand Ministers Refuse to Swear

 

Two Thousand ministers refused to subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer.

 

The poet Wordsworth wrote of them in “Ecclesiastes Sketches:”

 

“Nor shall the eternal roll of praise reject

Those nonconforming; whom one rigorous day

Drives from their cures, a voluntary prey

To poverty and grief, and disrespect,

And some to want-as if by tempests wrecked

On a wild coast…

Their altars they forgo, their homes they quit,

Field which they love, and paths they daily trod,

And cast the future upon Providence;

As men the dictates of whose inward sense

Outweighs the world; whom self-deceiving wit

Lures not from what they deem the cause of God.”

 

The Conventicle Act to Exterminate Independents and Home Churches

 

To prevent independent congregations from springing up and supporting the outcast thousands of ministers who were true to their consciences, the Conventicle Act was quickly passed on May 17, 1664. This Act forbade that more than five persons be at a religious meeting where the state church standard was not followed.

 

The First Conventicle Act was designed to enact “more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of seditious sectaries and other disloyal persons, who, under pretense of tender conscience, do at their meetings, contrive insurrections as later experience hath showed.” (First Conventicle Act)

 

Jail, Fines, Exile

 

Under the Conventicle Act any person 16 years old or older who attended a ‘conventicle, meeting or assembly [where] there shall be five persons or more assembled, together over and above those of the same household,” the said justices and chief magistrate respectively shall commit every such offender to the gaol [older English for “jail”], or house of correction…” unless the person paid a fine of up to five pounds.

A second offense meant that the person attending the meeting was to be committed ‘to the gaol or house of correction, there to remain without bail or mainprise, until the next general quarter sessions,” when they would be indicted and arraigned before the court. If the person was found guilty, or if the offender refused to plead the general issue or confess the indictment, then that “offender shall be transported beyond the seas to any of His Majesty’s foreign plantations (Virginia and New England only excepted), there to remain for seven years.”

 

Thus, the second offense meant exile beyond the sea, and the person could not go to Virginia or New England.

 

This legislation caused a great non-conformist or Free Church movement to spring up. Ministers and congregations met at midnight in the forest. Often they were detected and led away in chains.

 

A Warning From the Lord

 

The authorities often sought Matthew Warren, a scholar of Oxford, one of the nonconforming ministers. Silenced from being a regular minister, he educated youth for the ministry. “At one time he was very remarkably and providentially preserved. His wife had a strange impression upon her mind, that if he did not remove till such a time from the house to which he had retired [he being away from home], he would certainly be taken prisoner. Accordingly, she sent a messenger with a letter, earnestly begging him to be at home by such a time, or else he might never see her more. “He imagining it was her indisposition, and not the fear of his danger, that was the cause of her urgency, immediately took leave of his friends, and went homeward. However, he was not far from the house before, looking back from the ascent, he saw it surrounded by persons that were sent to search there for him.” –Edward Calamy, Nonconformists’ Memorial, [himself one of the ejected ministers], Vol. II, p. 359, quoted in Spicer, p. 69.

 

Sabbatarian Nonconformists

 

Some of the nonconformist ministers were Sabbatarians, among which was Joseph Stennett, who wrote the hymn,

 

“Another six days’ work is done,

Another Sabbath is begun;

Return my soul enjoy the rest,

Improve the day God has blessed.”

-Joseph Stennett quoted in Spicer, 75.

 

The Five Mile Act

 

October 31, 1665. In an effort to stamp out the spreading fire of the gospel, the Five Mile Act was enacted. It would be a great national struggle over home churching. No unauthorized minister, “all such person and persons as shall take upon them to preach in any unlawful assembly, conventicle or meeting under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion, contrary to the laws and statutes of this kingdom, shall not at any time…. unless only in passing upon the road, come or be within five miles of any city or town…” Furthermore, any such person was forbidden ‘to teach any public or private school, or take any boarders or tablers that are taught or instructed by him or herself, or any other…” The fine was forty pounds.

 

King Charles II’s Plot to Give the Nation to Rome

 

Meanwhile, May 22, 1670, King Charles II sold out to Louis XIV of France in the secret treaty of Dover, the stipulations of which were like to turn England into a French appendage. Charles agreed to declare himself for Rome when expedient, promised England would join France to attack the United Netherlands, would receive two million livres and six thousand French troops to suppress rebellion at home, and receive a morsel of Zealand if the war was successful. It was complete high treason by the king.

 

While the Church of England bore savagely on all non-conformists, King Charles, the official head of the Church, plotted treason, and unleashed his troopers to attack his political enemies. According to Knight’s History of England, it was all a plot to create such disorder in the kingdom that “the nation would accept stable authority from any quarter rather than risk continued disorder,” and thus steal the kingdom for Louis and Rome.  

 

William Penn Disregards the Conventicle Act

 

August 14, 1670. William Penn, son of the General of the Seas, the Admiral of the fleet of Britain, wholly disregarded the Conventical Act. Going to the meetinghouse for Quakers in Grace-church Street, he and the congregation found the door closed and guarded. Penn addressed the people outside, in the street. It was a conventicle. He was arrested. His trial would change world history.

 

The Trial of William Penn

 

Penn in the Tower: “I will weary out their malice”

 

On September 1, 1670, Penn and as associate were indicted at the Old Bailey for preaching and speaking to “the great disturbance of the King’s peace.” Penn was thrown into the Tower. It was not the first time he had been in the Tower for conviction. In a previous imprisonment in the Tower, the Bishop of London threatened to keep him there until he died. Penn responded: “They are mistaken in me; I value not their threats: I will weary out their malice.” In that eight month, sixteen day, imprisonment, forced to receive worldly ecclesiastics who advised him to submit, Penn produced an extraordinary treatise, No Cross, No Crown. 

 

September 3, 1670, Penn was brought to trial for violation of the Conventicle Act.

 

Penn Appeals to Magna Carta and Sir Edward Coke

 

Penn was ‘friendless in a packed court, facing as prejudiced a bench of magistrates as ever assembled for the prompt sentencing of an individual.” Penn conducted his own defense, appealing to Magna Carta and Sir Edward Coke’s interpretation of it. Penn won the jury to his cause, and “made of himself a public man whom no one henceforth could disregard… Edward Bushell, jury foreman and other jurors, staunchly decided the famous trial by jury, which soon resolved itself into a trial of the jury system”

 

Penn Argues That Conventicle Act Was Not Valid Under Magna Carta

 

Penn was, of course, guilty under the Conventicle Act. Penn’s defense was that “the Conventicle Act was not valid law under Magna Carta and the ancient liberties of England, as laid down in the Great Charter and Acts of the reigns of Henry III, Edward I, and Edward III; in short, that the Conventicle Act was unconstitutional.”

 

Penn challenges the Indictment and Definition of Common Law

 

Penn “began by challenging the indictment, and threw the judges into a fury by upsetting their definition of common law.” The judges shut Penn up in the bale-dock, “a well-like place at the farthest end of the court, in which he could neither see nor be seen by the bench, jury or public.’ However, Penn scrambled and clawed his way up, hung by his hands, poked his head over and shouted his protest to the jury before the twelve withdrew…casting dignity overboard, he fought to the tips of his fingers and at the top of his lungs.

 

The Fighting Spirit of England: “Not Guilty”

 

“They [the jury] refused to find it an unlawful assembly…they jointly and separately pronounced William Penn not guilty.

 

“Behold the fighting spirit of England rising in those twelve humble citizens.” In actual fact, eight jurors buckled, but four stood fast. Scolded, starved, and fined, they refused to buckle. Bushell said, “My liberty is not for sale.” He had great wealth and commanded an international shipping enterprise. One of the judges even declared his desire to have something like the Spanish Inquisition established in England to stamp out such as Penn. The jury, fearless in their battle-hardened conviction, returned a “not guilty” verdict in the teeth of the Court recorder who declared it no verdict.

 

Fining and Imprisoning Juries for Judicial Acts Comes to an End

 

They refused to pay the fines. They were imprisoned. They were forbidden food, water, or bathroom privileges. They appealed to the Court of Common pleas they were released. The Chief Justice reversed the decision of the recorder. As the result ‘the practice of fining and imprisoning the jury for judicial acts came to an end.”

 

Jury Finds Conventicle Act Illegal

 

Bushell’s jury had tried the Conventicle Act, and found it illegal. You do not have to go to the Supreme Court to find a law “unconstitutional.” Under the jury system, a jury can find a law to be illegal.

 

Penn’s Trail Gives Birth in Law to Freedom of Religion, Right to Peaceful Assembly, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Habeas Corpus

 

The first writ of habeas corpus ever issued by the Court of Common Pleas was used to free Edward Bushell.

 

Penn’s trail gave birth in law to Freedom of Religion, the Right of Peaceful Assembly, Freedom of Speech, Habeas Corpus, and Freedom of the Press. To this day, as a result of this trial, jurors have the right and duty to nullify bad laws by voting “not guilty.”

 

Penn Fought Like a Penn: England Took Courage

 

Penn had been fined for contempt of court, had been returned to prison, but his fine was paid without his knowledge by his father, the Admiral, who got him released just in time to come home just before the death of his father on September 17. “The one who had made a trade of fighting died happy on September 17 in the thought that his son, who had no trade at all, and scorned fighting in its usual forms, nevertheless could fight like a Penn when the cause seemed worthy of rage. England took courage…Penn’s jury, in effect, had served notice on government that the people still had something vital to do with the execution of the laws.” –Arthur Pound, The Penn’s of Pennsylvania and England. New York: Macmillan Co., 1932, pp. 128, 133-138.

 

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