Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Galatians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 3:17.
Bernard Palissy, a famous enameller at the time of the renaissance, was imprisoned by the parliament of the time because of his faith.
The king, Henry III, was personally interested in preserving this man’s life, for he was the only one capable of making vessels of such beauty and value.
When neither threats nor promises had any effect on the prisoner, who utterly refused to deny the faith, the king travelled to the prison in person to demand that he should recant.
“If you do not do so,” Henry added, “I shall see myself forced to condemn you to death.” “Your majesty, “ replied Palissy, “did I hear the king of France state: ‘I shall be forced to do something’? I am merely a poor artist, one of your majesty’s most humble subjects. And now I am a prisoner. Yet no power in the whole world could force me to act against my conscience. You are one of the most powerful rulers on earth, and yet you speak of being forced. Your majesty, which of us is really free?”
Mankind wants to be free and imagines himself to be so. In fact, however, the extent of his liberty is limited, no matter whatever authority he may be invested with. And how does he make use of it? He has become the slave of his impulses and desires. But Jesus, the Son of God, reminds us that “if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).