Though My Flesh Should Fail, God Will Not Fail The trial judge agreed with the prosecutor, John Cotton, that John Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandall deserved to be put to death, but he would let them off with a fine. If they did not pay the fine and immediately leave the territory of the colony, they should be well whipped. While Clarke, Holmes, and Crandall were confined once again to jail, friends in Newport raised the money for the fines of all three men. Crandall was released from the fine. John Clarke and Obadiah Holmes refused permission for their fines to be paid, believing it would be an admission of guilt. As Clarke was led to the whipping post, a friend pressed money into the hands of the Puritan official accompanying the party, and Clarke was released. “Agreeing to the payment of my fine would constitute admission of wrong-doing,” Holmes continued to maintain. As he was being stripped to the waist, Holmes preached a brief sermon to the dense crowd of men, women, and children that formed a circle about the whipping post, exhorting them to remain faithful to their beliefs. According to Holmes’s own testimony, the flogger used a whip with three hard leather lashes, stopped three times to spit on his hands, and applied the whip with all his might. Each of the thirty strokes cut three gashes through the skin. Several voices were heard encouraging and praising him in spite of the hostility of the civil officers against such. In Holmes’s own account, he said, As the man began to lay the strokes upon my back, I said to the people, though my flesh should fail, yet God will not fail: so it pleased the Lord to come in, and fill my heart and tongue as a vessel full, and with audible voice I break forth, praying the Lord not to lay this sin to their charge, and telling the people I found He did not fail me, and therefore now I should trust Him forever Who failed me not: for in truth, as the strokes fell upon me, I had such a spiritual manifestation of God’s presence as I never had before, and the outward pain was so removed from me, that I could well bear it, yea, and in a manner felt it not, although it was grievous. 1 After this scourging on September 5, 1651, Holmes was welcomed back to the peace and freedom of Newport. For twenty days and nights he could sleep only by lying on his stomach, or propped upon his knees and elbows. Not only was our religious liberty purchased through the sufferings of men like Obadiah Holmes, but such incidents prompted the discussion of the right of civil authorities to enter a home without a warrant, just on suspicion that a crime was committed. The framers of our Constitution took note and provided Americans protection from such invasions of our homes. God help us to maintain such liberty by righteous living.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:47:02 +0000
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