more clearly in other places , so that there can remain no doubt but unto such as obstinately remain ignorant ." --David Laing , The Collected Works of John Knox , vol . 2 , pp . 281 , 284 . Such were the truths that the fearless Reformer , at the peril of his life , spoke in the ear of royalty . With the same undaunted courage he kept to his purpose , praying and fighting the battles of the Lord , until Scotland was free from popery .
In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national religion diminished , but did not wholly stop , persecution . While many of the doctrines of Rome had been renounced , not a few of its forms were retained . The supremacy of the pope was rejected , but in his place the monarch was enthroned as the head of the church . In the service of the church there was still a wide departure from the purity and simplicity of the gospel . The great principle of religious liberty was not yet understood . Though the horrible cruelties which Rome employed against heresy were resorted to but rarely by Protestant rulers , yet the right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience was not acknowledged . All were required to accept the doctrines and observe the forms of worship prescribed by the established church . Dissenters suffered persecution , to a greater or less extent , for hundreds of years .
In the seventeenth century thousands of pastors were expelled from their positions . The people were forbidden , on pain of heavy fines , imprisonment , and banishment , to attend any religious meetings except such as were sanctioned by the church . Those faithful souls who could not refrain from gathering to worship God were compelled to meet in dark alleys , in obscure garrets , and at some seasons in the woods at midnight . In the sheltering depths of the forest , a temple of God ' s own building , those scattered and persecuted children of the Lord assembled to pour out their souls in prayer and praise . But despite all their precautions , many suffered for their faith . The jails were crowded . Families were broken up . Many were banished to foreign lands . Yet God was with His people , and persecution could not prevail to silence their testimony . Many were driven across the ocean to America and here laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty which have been the bulwark and glory of this country .
Again , as in apostolic days , persecution turned out to the furtherance of the gospel . In a loathsome dungeon crowded with profligates and felons , John Bunyan breathed the very atmosphere of heaven ; and there he wrote his wonderful allegory of the pilgrim ' s journey from the land of destruction to the celestial city . For over two hundred years that voice from Bedford jail has spoken with thrilling power to the hearts of men . Bunyan ' s Pilgrim ' s Progress and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners have guided many feet into the path of life .
Baxter , Flavel , Alleine , and other men of talent , education , and deep Christian experience stood up in valiant defense of the faith which was once delivered to the saints . The work accomplished by these men , proscribed and outlawed by the rulers of this world , can never perish .
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