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THE AWFUL TALE OF MR. GILES COREY

Perhaps the darkest stain upon the American colonial conscience was the witch trials of Salem Massachusetts in 1692. Based on “spectral evidence” from a few hallucinated girls, 142 persons were “legally” accused of being a witch at that time, some were executed, and many lost everything they owned by seizure of their property. Once a person was accused, the offending party would undergo an impossible ultimatum. They would either have to admit to being a witch, confess their allegiance to Satan, and repent in order to be released. Or, cling to their fidelity and die. Either way, the state would take their property in a shameful sort of state sponsored land grab. 

In 1692, you were considered guilty the moment you were accused. Your only hope of staying alive was to participate in fraud and accept the lie. This is where we meet the man, Giles Corey. 

At first, Corey and his wife were captivated by the trials, in much the same way a person cannot turn away from a train wreck. They, like many others in the village, were swept up into the kind of brain numbing frenzy a spectacle like this would produce. That is, until Martha Corey was also accused of being a witch, followed by Giles himself on April 18th 1692. 

It was claimed that Giles was a great and terrifying wizard, leaving his own body at various times to beat and molest the delirious and afflicted women, who now fell wildly upon the courtroom floor in fits of terror and insanity. Giles, not only denied the claims, he also refused to enter a plea before the court, knowing what that entailed. 

It seems Corey spotted the carefully set kafka trap they had laid for him. He couldn’t lie to the court and enter a plea of guilty that would save his own life. That would be to perpetrate a lie and sin against his God. He also could not participate in a fraudulent trial, or go along with the charade, because truth was of no concern to this kangaroo court. Giles Corey understood that participating in a fraud, even trying to defend his own honor, was still wrong and he would not be privy to it. Any denial of  these horrendous actuations on his part would only strengthen their resolve that he was a witch on theirs.

So he did the only thing that could satisfy his conscience in that moment. Instead of perpetrating a lie, or participating in a lie, he simply refused to participate altogether. Giles Corey did the unthinkable, and refused to enter his plea, forcing the sheriff and town to respond accordingly. Respond they did. 

It was well known at this point that criminals would attempt to delay or completely avoid a trial by refusing to enter a plea. The court had no mechanism to proceed without one, so many used this to their advantage. To prevent criminals from doing this, it became a fairly well known practice in the colonies to press the truth right out of them. Literally. The poor soul would be stripped naked, placed between two large boards, and put under the crushing weight of massive rocks until they made a confession or were pressed to death. 

As a result of Mr. Corey’s ongoing refusal to plead in his case, he was placed between the boards on September the 17th, 1692 in the public square. To elicit a plea from Giles, the sheriff and townsmen placed larger and larger stones upon the board that now pressed into his chest, collapsing his diaphragm. Each time Giles Corey was called upon to enter a plea, thus ending the torture, his only reply to his assailants was “More weight”. 

This horrific scene continued unabated for the better part of three days in plain sight of all the townfolk to see. On the third day, Corey was under such awful pressure that he could barely prevent his swollen tongue from hanging limply outside his mouth. The pain was intensifying. 

Mr. Corey’s final hour sounded something like this: 

The sheriff stood up, almost in exasperation, and cried out: “Giles Corey, will you now enter your plea?”, the only response coming back to him in whispered tones, was: “More weight”. Another boulder was added and another line of questioning began: “Giles, all you have to do is pronounce the plea and all of this will be over.”. Still again the fading voice screeched, “More weight”. In near madness the sheriff hurled another large boulder on top of the board, pressing his body to near collapse, screaming now: “Mr. Giles Corey, I adjure you before the living God, to enter your plea! Do you hear me? Mr. Corey, I am speaking to you. What will you say?” 

Just then, breaking through the silence, the final words Giles Corey ever spoke, as clear as the morning sun came through: “More weight”. 

The next rock cracked Mr. Corey’s fragile ribs. That day, he succumbed under the weight and pressure of the board and laid there dead. Yet, in all of this he did not perpetrate a lie to save his own life and he did not participate in a lie by undergoing the fraudulent proceedings. For that, the tale of Mr. Corey survives until this day and he has become a wonderful example for us to learn from. 

PERPETRATING LIES

While our culture seems to have moved beyond the arcane mechanisms of torture found in Salem, its facination with applying pressure to truth tellers hasn’t faded. Instead of shrieking demoniacs in a small New England town, today’s power brokers wear lab coats, work in the media, are social influencers, trust “the science”, and think everything is racism. Like those New England girls, their accusations are always “right”. 

Today, a Christian won’t be forced to admit they are a witch, societies have become far too sophisticated for those old tricks. But, we should not be surprised when cultural pressure is ratcheted up against us to affirm equally ridiculous and untrue things. For instance, if you are a man, be proud of your God-given masculinity. Reject the lie that you - just by nature of your y chromosome - are inherently some sort of brutish neanderthalian womanizer that needs to become an effeminate dress wearing sissy to have value. Or at least clap for men who do. Stand against that! Stand up and be a man to the glory of God, embrace your manliness and submit it to King Jesus for refinement. If they pressure you to conform to their castrated vision of you, look them square in the eye and tell them “More weight”! 

If you are a woman, be proud of your godly femininity and let Scripture define your value. The world is going to try and suppress your desire for a family, children, and a home and pressure you to define your value based on your looks, your career, and your autonomy from man. When those rocks are thrown on you, look them right in the face and say with Mr. Corey, “More weight!”

If your child has fallen into sin, and become pregnant in her late teens, do not go along with the pagan satanic death cult and believe that her life is over, or that this situation is iredeemable, and that the only option left for her is to sanction her innocent child’s murder. Defy your flesh, rebuke the devil, and look right in the Dr’s face, the one who is trying to convince you this baby is just a clump of cells, and you say as defiantly as you possibly can: “More weight”. 

If your job is forcing you, threatening you, mandating you, or pressuring you into taking a vaccine that you are not yet comfortable with, let them fire you and tell them: “More weight” as you walk right out the door. Better to leave with your dignity and conscience intact than to keep your paycheck under false pretenses. 

And just so I am clear, I am not saying that getting the vaccine is a sin. You must settle that matter in your own conscience and make the decision that you feel best honors God. What I am saying is that a modern day witch hunt to force men and women to take it or lose their job is a situation worth resisting and saying “More weight” to. 

Society today would love nothing more than for Christians to begin caving on the truth and perpetrating their lies. They want us to champion their satanic delusions that men can have a period, women can develop testicular cancer, or that men with penises should have access to girls' bathrooms and locker rooms. They will want us to suspend God’s revealed truth and accept that homosexuality is normal, that paedophila is minor attracted love, and that a baby is just a clump of cells. They will want us to deny the basic fundamentals of the Scripture that all have sinned, that all have fallen short of the glory of God, we are all sick, and there is only one cure named Jesus Christ! The world will writhe in a kind of moral epilepsy if you say these things, but as a Christian you must embrace the truth! 

They will pressure you to recant the truth, perpetrate the lies, and to the world under a demonic spell you must resolutely say: “More weight”! Let them try and crush you with whatever pressure they can throw at you. Let them ostracize you, let them speak all manner of evil against you, let them treat you like a leper if that is what seems right in their eyes; but do not let them make you cave! With all love in your heart for God and for your neighbor, let your lips sweetly sing the bountiful joys of knowing Christ, let them speak the truth without fear, and let the world either hear that Gospel and repent or lay on you “more weight”. 

AN EXAMPLE

Let me share an example with you. My friend Joe was doing some last minute packing before heading out on a camping trip with his family. He stepped away from the house for just a moment to grab some supplies for the trip. When he returned, he found his wife lying on the floor unable to come out of a very long and powerful seizure that changed the course of their entire life. That seizure so completely punished her body that the Dr’s were telling him to pull the plug and to let her go. They assured him that she would always be a vegetable and that there was nothing they could do. They called him selfish when he refused. They put pressure on him to do what they had decided needed to be done. 

My friend walked through one of the darkest seasons, with so many people turning their opinions like weapons upon him, telling him that he should end her suffering, to start thinking about the boys instead of himself, that this was God’s will to let her go, and on and on and on. But with every rock of offense and oppression they laid on top of him, my friend simply said: “More weight”. Not literally, but He knew who God is! He knew that God could bring her back! He knew that He did not have the power over life or death and these arrogant Dr’s did not either. He waited on God, prayed to God, worked insane hours to provide for his family and provide his wife with ongoing care, and today he posted a picture of her, standing, walking, smiling, and proving everyone else wrong! 

My point in sharing this story is that many people will put pressure on you to cave. But if you know the right thing to do, then do it. If you know the path that will honor the Lord, take it. Do not cower, do not cave, do not capitulate and go back on your convictions, if you must do something, then open your mouth and say it loud and proud: “More weight!” 

PARTICIPATING IN THE LIES

Giles Corey correctly understood that he could not tell a lie and honor God. That was obvious. But what is even more impressive is that he saw right through the farce they wanted him to participate in. He knew that if he defended himself, he would only appear more guilty in front of his accusers. He knew that if they found him guilty, an inevitability in Salem, that they would seize all of his assets, execute him, and his children would get nothing. For this reason, he refused to play their game. He refused to participate in a false reality where they dictated the consequences. 

In the end, he died without entering a plea. He died in tragedy. And he died senselessly before his captors. Yet, because the law forbade the sheriff or anyone else from grabbing his property without a proper trial, his children did end up receiving his inheritance. And due to the gruesome nature of his death, the town woke up to their depravity and the Salem witch trials shortly came to an end. Because of his bravery, his legacy lives on and has come down to us today. 

Like Corey, clever traps have been set for us that we must avoid falling in. Our goal is not to defend ourselves before a world who has already decided in their hearts that we are guilty. That is pointless. Our goal is to just be a Christian and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of the outcome. The world will believe whatever it wants about us, and knowing our sin nature, they do not even know the half of how wretched we truly are. 

We must remember that our passion in this life is not about shaping their opinions of us so that we will fit in with the world. Our all-consuming conviction is that the world would hear the Gospel, and repent on how they feel about Him, so that they would be fit for heaven! Who knows, the pressure that we face today, may be used by God to end certain evils in this life as God used Giles Corey in 1692. 

Either way, when the world calls us to compromise on Gospel truth, we must love the world enough to simply reply: “More weight”