Last Will and Testament - 1681
Obadiah Holmes braves a flogging for his faith.
Introduction
Rev. Obadiah Holmes was a Baptist minister at a time when Baptists were barred from worshipping in the colony of Massachusetts. He entered Massachusetts anyway in 1651 to visit a friend and hold evangelistic services. For this he was held in prison several months and given thirty-nine lashes on Boston Common (a testimony that deeply affected Harvard’s President, Henry Dunster). Thirty years later, on this day April 9, 1681, he prepared his will, which opened with a brief testimony of faith.
Quote
“These are to signify that I, Obadiah Holmes of Newport on Rhode Island, being at present through the goodness and mercy of my God of sound memory; and, being by daily intimations put in mind of the frailty and uncertainty of this present life, do therefore—for settling my estate in this world which it has pleased the Lord to bestow upon me—make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament in manner following, committing my spirit unto the Lord that gave it to me and my body to the earth from whence it was taken, in hope and expectation that it shall thence be raised at the resurrection of the just.”
Last Will and Testament of Rev. Obadiah Holmes.