CANTICLE READING FOR EPIPHANY FROM THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
Psalm 72:1-7
1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
5 May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
7 In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
A BAPTIST LEADER’S PROPOSAL TO KING JAMES I OF ENGLAND
"If the King's people be obedient and true subjects, obeying all humane lawes made by the King, our Lord the King can require no more: for men’s religion to God is betwixt God and themselves; the King shall not answer for it, neither may the King be judge between God and man."
Thomas Helwys. A Short Declaration on the Mystery of Iniquity. 1612
OBSERVATIONS
Thomas Helwys, one of the founders of the Baptist movement in England, upon returning from exile in Holland sought to persuade King James of the benefits of religious tolerance. His gift to James of his freshly publish book A Short Declaration on the Mystery of Iniquity did not amuse the Keeper of the Faith. James answered by having Helwys imprisoned at Newgate, where he died four years later. Helwys no doubt understood the risk he undertook. In April of 1612, the year of Helwys’s return from Holland, English religious Separatist Edward Wightman had been burned at the stake for heresy. Apparently his example stirred popular sympathy, putting an end to the the Crown's use of such harsh measures for dealing with religions dissent.
The King James Version or Authorized Version of the Holy Bible was first published in 1611 and remains in use as the standard biblical text among many Christians, including many Baptists.
CS
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Showing posts with label Baptist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baptist. Show all posts
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Jefferson, Danbury Baptist Association
SOURCE TEXT
‘Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.’
—Thomas Jefferson. Letter to Messrs. Nehemiah Dodge and others, a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, in the State of Connecticut. (1802)
COMMENT
The General Baptists and other denominations springing from the tradition begun by the radical reformers of middle Europe--a movement whose members held, on theological and practical grounds, a special aversion to political involvement—brought their axiomatic understanding of the elements of Christian life with them to the English Colonies in the New World. For these heirs of Manz, Hus, Simmons, et al, seeking favor from the state, whether represented by king, duke, Holy Roman Emperor, or even an elected body, would have violated fundamental tenets. That other denominations of Anglican, Calvinist, and Roman origins had no such historical aversion to formal establishment or political favor gave minority religionists cause for considerable concern in the early days of the republic. Indeed, the individual colonies themselves were not above granting special status to one denomination or another. Under Jefferson’s leadership, first Virginia and then the US, through the Establishment Clause found in the First Amendment to the Constitution, erected the “wall of separation” to which Jefferson refers in the above excerpt. Ironic that this wall has been under mounting attack from some members of the sectarian quarter whose paths were made safer by Jefferson’s Constitutional Wall.
CS
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‘Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.’
—Thomas Jefferson. Letter to Messrs. Nehemiah Dodge and others, a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, in the State of Connecticut. (1802)
COMMENT
The General Baptists and other denominations springing from the tradition begun by the radical reformers of middle Europe--a movement whose members held, on theological and practical grounds, a special aversion to political involvement—brought their axiomatic understanding of the elements of Christian life with them to the English Colonies in the New World. For these heirs of Manz, Hus, Simmons, et al, seeking favor from the state, whether represented by king, duke, Holy Roman Emperor, or even an elected body, would have violated fundamental tenets. That other denominations of Anglican, Calvinist, and Roman origins had no such historical aversion to formal establishment or political favor gave minority religionists cause for considerable concern in the early days of the republic. Indeed, the individual colonies themselves were not above granting special status to one denomination or another. Under Jefferson’s leadership, first Virginia and then the US, through the Establishment Clause found in the First Amendment to the Constitution, erected the “wall of separation” to which Jefferson refers in the above excerpt. Ironic that this wall has been under mounting attack from some members of the sectarian quarter whose paths were made safer by Jefferson’s Constitutional Wall.
CS
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