Baptist Historian John Mason Peck recorded the case of American patriot and founding father Patrick Henry defending three Baptist preachers in Virginia who were arrested for preaching without a license.
He wrote,
“About the year 1770, when three Baptist ministers were to be tried at Fredericksburg, Virginia, Patrick Henry, the great orator, rode some sixty miles to attend the trial, and unexpectedly entered the court room as the indictment was being read. He listened as they were accused ‘of preaching the gospel of the Son of God,’ contrary to Virginia law.
When the indictment had been read, and the prosecuting attorney opened the case, Patrick Henry, having glanced over the in-dictment, arose and addressed the court: ‘May it please your worships, I think I heard read by the prosecutor, as I entered this house, the paper I hold in my hand. If I have rightly understood, the king’s attorney of this colony has framed an indictment for the purpose of arraigning and punishing by imprisonment three inoffensive men, before the bar of this court, for a crime of great magnitude, as disturbers of the peace. May it please the court, what did I hear read? Did I hear it distinctly, or was it a mistake of my own? Did I hear an expression as if a crime, that these men are charged with? What! For preaching the gospel of the Son of God.’
Swinging the indictment three times around his head, he exclaimed: ‘Great God! May it please your worships, in a day like this, when truth is about to burst its fetters, when mankind are about to be aroused to claim their natural and inalienable rights; when the yoke of oppression that has reached the wilderness of America, and the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and civil power are about to be dissolved, at such a period, when liberty, liberty of conscience is about to awake from her slumberings and inquire into the reason of such charges as I find exhibited here today in this indictment! If I am not deceived, ac cording to the contents of this paper I now hold in my hand these men are accused of preaching the gospel of the Son of God! GREAT GOD!!’ And with similar words, thrice repeated, he inquired: ‘What law have they violated?’ The judge could endure it no longer, and bade the sheriff dismiss those men.”
This historic event was painted by the renowned artist Ron Adair, and prints are now available. Size 24x 30.75 Price$175 (includes shipping)
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