Hello and welcome to Baptist Perspective with Jimmy Barber. Whether you're listening while driving home from work, sitting with a hot cup of coffee, or making dinner, we hope this podcast will be thought-provoking and edifying. Now, here with today's episode is Jimmy Barber, In the previous podcast, we endeavored to set the stage somewhat in Virginia and show the lack of religious freedom in that colony prior to and during the time of John Leland. We saw that even some Congregationalists, that is, Puritan ministers from New England, that believed much the same thing that the Church of England, that is, the Anglican Episcopal Church did, came to Virginia to preach the gospel and were, quote, compelled to leave the colony. Not only was religion required to be practiced in Virginia, but the required religion was that of the Church of England. This reminds us of what we saw in a previous study regarding the pagan laws of Plato, where he stated that civil government should not only establish what religion was to be practiced, but also where it could be performed. After all, as Plato taught, the common people were not educated enough to know what or how to worship the gods. This should ever remind us that the idea of Christian government being connected with religion, especially being a nursing father to Christianity, is not only a Catholic or Reformed ideology, but a pagan one as well. In other words, it is the product of the natural man and not of God. The Kingdom of God and of Christ is not of this world. and Caesar, that is, civil government, has no authority over it." John 19, 36, Matthew 22, 21. It is true that Israel, under the Old Testament economy, was a theocracy, and it was under the laws established by God. However, that system of government and religious worship was not forced on other nations or citizens outside their realm. On the other hand, the New Testament economy is under a better covenant established upon better promises, Hebrews 8.6. This new covenant is, quote, not according to the covenant, end of quote, that God made with Israel under the Old Testament. When Christ established the congregation of God while here on earth, He plainly declared that he was separate and apart from the kingdoms of this world. As we saw in the previous lesson, Virginia taxed the people to support their system of religion. The taxes went toward not only the salary and support of the ministry, but to provide for the place in which worship was to be practiced. This was opposed by all the different branches of religion outside the Church of England. To give further insight to John Leland, we will give the following from The History of the Baptist in Virginia by Robert Baylor Semple, pages 207 through 209. Mr. Leland was a native of Worchester in Massachusetts, was baptized in 1774, and in the fall of 1776 he married and moved to Virginia and settled in the county of Orange in the neighborhood of those churches. He continued in Virginia about fourteen years, in which time he traveled and preached very extensively and very successfully. He baptized between six and seven hundred persons while in the state, and in January 1791 he removed to Massachusetts and settled in Cheshire. Mr. Leland, as a preacher, was probably the most popular of any who ever resided in this state. He is unquestionably a man of fertile genius. His opportunities for school learning were not great, but the energetic vigor of his mind quickly surmounted his deficiency. His memory was so retentive that by a single reading he stored up more of the contents of a book than many would by a dozen careful perusals. It is probable that his knowledge derived from books at this day, taken into aggregate, is surpassed by few. His preaching, though immethodical and eccentric, is generally warm, wise, and evangelical. There are not many preachers who have so great command of the attention and of the feelings of their auditory. In effecting this, his manner has been thought by some to approach too near the theatrical. Cowper, or Cooper, as different people pronounce it, that is, the poet William Cowper, the one who wrote God Moves in Mysterious Ways and many other poems, says, He that negotiates between God and man, as God's ambassador, the grand concerns of judgment and of mercy should beware of likeness in his speech. Here Mr. Leland and the poet are at variance. He does sometimes, and indeed not unfrequently, court the skidded fancy with fatidious tales. If Cowper says, so did not Paul. Leland can say so did George Whitefield, Roland Hill, and others, and they have been the most successful of modern preachers. Mr. Leland's free and jocular manners have excited the suspicion of some that he wanted serious piety. His intimate friends are confident that these are groundless suspicions. They believe that among his others singularities, he is singularly pious. While in Virginia he wrote several treaties, and was certainly very instrumental in effecting the just and sagittary regulations concerning religion in this state. He has been similarly employed since his removal to New England. He has always been a zealous advocate for republic government. When Mr. Jefferson was raised to the presidential chair, the ladies of Mr. Leland's congregation made a cheese of imminent size and sent it by Mr. Leland as a present to Mr. Jefferson. This affair made little noise in the United States. In a footnote regarding the size of the cheese, the author said, it was said to have been in it fifteen hundred pounds of curd, and to have weighed nine hundred weight when taken from the press. The enemies of Jefferson called it the mammoth cheese. They also wrote poems and vented much wit upon the occasion. It was, however, received by the President with pleasure and viewed by the impartial as a singular pledge of patriotism. That's the end of the quote from Simple. Not only was suffering by taxation, but there were other forms of persecution in Virginia prior to religious freedom being established. Louis Peyton Little documents in his book entitled Imprisoned Preachers and Religious Liberty in Virginia gives a list of men and their punishment for worshipping according to their conscience. Allow me to supply some of the punishments, which are as follows. Cruelly beaten, jailed, pelted, pelted with apples and stones, ducked and nearly drowned, ordered to leave the county or go to jail, commanded to take a dram of liquor or be whipped, Pursued by a man with a gun. Meeting broke up by a mob. Knocked down while preaching. Arrested as a vagabond and schismatic. Pulled down and hauled by hair. Almost pulled to pieces. Shot with a shotgun. And many other such-like treatments. Little also gives an account of James Ireland by supplying a quote from William Fristow's book entitled A Concise History of the Catoctin Baptist Association. Little's quote is found on pages 176-177 of his book. It is as follows. Another incident of cruelty we have to remind the reader of a minister that was apprehended, torn from the stand, that is, the pulpit, by violence, and in the time of prayer, and imprisoned. And such was the rage and malice of his persecutors, that a close prison was thought too good. In addition to confinement, those of the vulgar sort took occasion to collect disagreeable and ill-favored trash nauseous combustibles, and burned them in the prison window, which filled the closed dungeon with smoke and made it difficult for him to breathe or support life. And in the event so impaired his health, though he lived many years after, he had to drag through life loaded with infirmity distressing pains, disordered vows, and a constitution throughout so affected and broken down that made life often a burden. James Ireland, in his autobiographical sketch, says that the nauseous material that was burned was Indian pepper, and he further stated that before this incident that some tried to blow up the jail. In fact, he said of this event, quote, they had fixed it for explosion, expecting I was sitting perpendicular over it. But in this they made a little mistake. Fire was put to it, and it went off with a considerable noise, forcing up a small plank, from which I received no damage. I was singing a hymn at the time the explosion went off, and continued singing until I finished it." That's taken from the life of the Reverend James Ireland, pages 141-142. Hopefully, this small vignette of the history of Virginia, up to and during the time of John Leland, will give you some idea of the persecution that took place in our country prior to the establishing religious freedom. The Lord willing, we plan to supply more of the history to show the struggles that were endeared to provide for this freedom, but our time is up for today. Farewell until the next study. Thank you for listening to today's edition of Baptist Perspective. We archive our episodes so you can go back anytime and listen again. Do you have a question about something you've heard? Or just want to let us know you're listening? Visit us at baptistperspective.wordpress.com. 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