Categories: Historical Documents

John Allyn preached this election in Boston on May 29, 1805.

SERMON,

PREACHED IN THE AUDIENCE OF HIS EXCELLENCY

CALEB STRONG, Esq.

GOVERNOR,

The other MEMBERS of the EXECUTIVE,

AND

The Honorable LEGISLATURE

OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,

ON THE

ANNIVERSARY ELECTION,

MAY 29, 1805.

BY JOHN ALLYN,

CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER OF DUXBOROUGH.

BOSTON:

PRINTED FOR YOUNG & MINNS, PRINTERS TO THE STATE.

1805.

IN SENATE, MAY 29, 1805.

ORDERED, That the Hon. Thomas Hale, William Brown, and John Phillips, (Essex) Esqrs. Be a Committee to wait on the Rev. John Allyn, and in the name of the Senate to thank him for the Sermon he this day delivered before His Excellency the Governor, His Honor the Lieutenant Governor, the Honorable Council and the Two Branches of the Legislature, and request a copy thereof for the press.

ELECTION SERMON.

ROM. X. 1. & IX 1, 2, 3.

BRETHREN, MY HEART’S DESIRE AND PRAYER TO GOD FOR ISRAEL IS, THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED. I SAY THE TRUTH IN CHRIST, I LIE NOT, MY CONSCIENCE ALSO BEARING ME WITNESS IN THE HOLY GHOST, THAT I HAVE GREAT HEAVINESS AND CONTINUAL SORROW IN MY HEART. FOR I COULD WISH THAT MYSELF WERE ACCURSED FROM CHRIST, FOR MY BRETHREN, MY KINSMEN ACCORDING TO THE FLESH.

The most eminent personages of sacred history have expressed a peculiar attachment to the welfare of their own nation. That first divinely enlightened lawgiver, Moses, though nursed at the court of Pharaoh, and having a prospect of being advanced to the head of Egypt, yet, preferred affliction with his own people, the people of God, to the crown and treasures of Egypt. He chose to wander with his countrymen in a desert, where sustenance could not be had without a miracle, rather than to feast with a foreign monarch. The first impulse of resentment which agitated his breast was toward an Egyptian, who did wrong to one of his brethren, oppressing him with a burthen. When his people had “sinned a great sin,” in making the golden calf, whereby their title to the promised blessings of Canaan was forfeited, Moses intercedes, ¹ “if thou wilt not forgive their sin, blot me I pray out of thy book which thou hast written.” He chose death rather than to see the miseries of his people, or would willingly submit to it, if their pardon could be purchased by this sacrifice. This natural affection to his own race, invigorated by religious faith, afterward unfolded itself in the most patient and laborious services of patriotism.

The great Author and Finisher of the Christian faith, in this respect, was like unto Moses. While he exercised the most self-denying and disinterested benevolence, productive of the most substantial blessings to mankind, his personal ministry was restricted to the Jews. Jesus the true light came to his own; ² he did this from affection as well as by divine appointment. Being partaker of flesh and blood, he took not on him angels but men, and the seed of Abraham in particular. ³ Anticipating the unexampled tribulation, which awaited the unbelief and sins of his countrymen, he uttered that pathetic apostrophe, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem—how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” ⁴ Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God, ⁵ and an exemplar spotless and undeviating, manifested the whole series of limited affections. He cherished the ordinary sensibilities of domestic life, ⁶ the more generous emotions of private friendship, and to these, added the display of the most fervent love to his country, with tokens of unparalleled grace and compassion towards mankind.

After the evidence of such a witness, it is not necessary to vindicate any sentiment by the subordinate authority of prophets and apostles. Indulge me, however, in two instances relating to the present subject.

The prophet Jeremiah, when Israel was carried away captive, and Jerusalem became desolate, sat weeping, and bewailed with this lamentation: “How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! ⁷ O that mind head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” ⁸ The pathos of the prophet’s lamentation, on account of judgments already executed, is equaled only by the ardent language of the apostle in the text, in which he deprecates impending calamities. “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, ⁹ FOR MY BRETHREN, MY KINSMEN ACCORDING TO THE FLESH” Oppressed with the presentiment of that unparalleled tribulation, which awaited his countrymen, his bowels yearned with compassion, and his most affectionate prayers ascended to God in behalf of his kinsmen and brethren according to the flesh.

But why such a limitation of benevolence? Why such deep regret on account of the destruction which impended the Jews, when the spirit of prophecy might have taught the apostle that like miseries awaited the crimes of other nations? Why not from the prime minister of the gospel of peace on earth expressions of more extended sympathy? Why not an imitation of the Father’s love, who is no respecter of persons, and whose blessings flow, at times appointed, on Jews and Gentiles?

It is replied, that as “man was made for his species by the Christian duties of universal charity, so he was made for his country by the obligations of the social compact.” ¹⁰ Patriotism is no more incompatible with general benevolence, than the more partial affections of domestic life are with patriotism. General benevolence implies particular; it includes the limited affections; it is a seminal principle in the heart, producing, in just measure and at proper seasons, the fruits of beneficence to our family, friends, fellow-citizens and fellow-men. While it propels to every useful exertion as opportunity is presented, conscious of imbecility and obedient to the emotions of nature, its beneficent hand is most frequently opened to comfort and supply the household. Indeed, as the domestic affections may be cherished and expressed, without any infraction of the maxims of justice and mercy to our neighbours, or encroachment upon the rights of the commonwealth, so these rights may be respected and the duties of patriotism be performed, without any infringement on the obligations of humanity.—It is then no proof that the apostle Paul was destitute of general benevolence, that he had an ardent love to Israel, his brethren and kindred according to the flesh.

While the patriotism of St. Paul operated according to the dictates of nature and the necessities of man in a state of society, it received an accession of strength from his reflections on the invaluable privileges which had been long participated by the chosen people of God. He seems to assign a reason for his love to Israel in the words subjoined to the text: “I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren—to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants and the giving of the law, the service of God and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came.” Why this particular enumeration of national honours and privileges, unless because a grateful participation in them was intimately associated with deep solicitude for the future welfare of his fellow participants? He is himself an illustration of his own description of charity, when he says, “if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it; and if one suffer, the rest suffer also.”

Were it necessary, in explaining and vindicating the patriotic character of St. Paul, it might be further urged that his love to his brethren was exercised in due subordination to the will of God, and the highest demands of philanthropy. Obedient to the voice from heaven he resisted his tender desires after his brethren, and pursued his mission to the Gentiles. He preferred compliance with the invitations of general benevolence and the will of God to the gratification of his limited affections. Though willing to be accursed from Christ for his brethren, without hesitancy, he acquiesces in the designation, “I will send thee far hence to the Gentiles.” ¹¹

When we consider the order and progress of our social feelings, and weigh the authority of so great an exemplar as the apostle Paul, can there be any room doubtingly to inquire whether patriotism be compatible with the spirit of Christianity? And why does a celebrated modern writer ¹² consider patriotism as excluded from the Christian system of moral duties? If indeed this term, when strictly defined, import a “disposition to oppress all other countries to advance the imaginary prosperity of our own; and to copy the mean partiality of a parish officer, who thinks injustice and cruelty are meritorious, when they promote the interest of his own inconsiderable village; if patriotism has ever been the favourite virtue with mankind, because it conceals self-love under the mask of public spirit,” Christianity, indeed, condemns it. Such patriotism does not approach, in degree or extent, the benevolence of the religion of Christ. But why degrade the term by such an exposition? Have there been no examples of a generous and laudable love of country? Will not fact justify the assertion, that those who are affectionate in limited circles, are seldom deficient in philanthropy? The kindest husband is probably the most helpful neighbour; this neighbour the most peaceable citizen; this citizen the most effective soldier; and such a soldier, educated in the different grades of social life, will the most readily weep over the ruins of war, cordially bewail the calamities of mankind, and conscientiously respect the obligations of humanity. It is, therefore, no proof that St. Paul was, or that any other person is destitute of general benevolence, that they manifest a kind affection towards brethren and kindred, according to the flesh.

But since the name patriot has been often usurped by wicked men, and historians have sometimes sanctioned the usurpation, and the nations aggrandized have acquiesced in the bestowment of unmerited honours upon unprincipled generals and statesmen; it is proper to discriminate more minutely on this subject, and thus to remove from the idea of patriotism, any disgrace into which it may have fallen by its alliance either with the weaknesses or vices of the human character.

No pretences of patriotism extenuate, much less justify the least violation of the maxims of justice and humanity. That greatness, which is invariably attached to vital benevolence, spurns at that policy which is merciless and dishonest. This benevolence, whether exercised towards family, fellow-citizens, or mankind, renounces every advantage, which cannot be secured without encroaching on the rights, or disturbing the happiness of individuals. It is indeed the greatest absurdity to attempt to build up any limited interest, by means which, if universally adopted, would prove subversive of all society.

It is scarcely necessary to add, that all illiberal partialities towards our own country, and unfounded antipathies toward other countries, are excluded from the idea of Christian patriotism. Neither is there anything commendable in the puerile attachment of some to their native soil and climate; though innocent, it ranks no higher than a fondness for one’s nurse. We may, however, view these natural feelings with a favourable eye, when they appear to be associated with moral feelings, and to limit and to strengthen them.

But severe censure is the just demerit of those hypocritical pretences to patriotism, which are designed for the concealment of personal ambition. Every age and country produces political sycophants, who flatter, that they may rule or plunder their fellow-creatures. The numerous instances of this deception should make us slow in giving credit to the appearances of patriotism. The popular opinion is frequently ungrounded. To-day we hear, Hosanna to the Son of David; tomorrow, Crucify, crucify him. Many excellent men sleep in the grave of obscurity, and others have a name to life, who deserve oblivion. Discrimination dictates an eulogy upon the poor man, whose wisdom saved the city, but who was never after remembered, ¹³ and assigns him a much more conspicuous niche in the temple of fame, than more celebrated characters, who have the credit of loving the nation and building a synagogue. It is but just to distinguish the unalloyed gold of patriotism from deceitful imitations, and the meteors of a moment from the stars of the first, second and third magnitude, which shine through successive generations.

Excluding then from the idea of patriotism whatever is unjust, frivolous, selfish or hypocritical, it is then only commended, when defined to express an honest solicitude for the welfare of the community to which we belong, and a glowing joy at the just gains and improvement of our kindred according to the flesh; a deep and anxious anticipation of our country’s dangers, and affectionate prayers for its prosperity:–Or in fewer words, patriotism is to be commended when the profession is sincere, the means just, and the objects important.

The favourable hearing of this intelligent audience is solicited, while the speaker dispatches the practical part of his subject, and applies it to the occasion in our view; to the characters here assembled, and the times in which we live.

The most arduous duty of patriotism is to die in its cause, when required. Many names in Greek and Roman history, as also in the history of other nations, have been transmitted with veneration, for this reason, that they counted not their own lives dear to them, if they might but work some great deliverance to their country. Indeed, a greater oblation than that of life cannot be made for the common safety. But the call to embrace certain death is made but seldom, and but to few individuals of any nation. And if called, many worthy citizens might shrink from so expensive an offering for the public good. The spirit might be willing, but the flesh might be weak. With more frequency, we are called to hazard our lives; and when the justice of our country’s cause is clearly established in the mind, and the obtrusions upon our personal safety and possessions are violent and continued, whoever can ardently pray for his brethren and kindred according to the flesh will seek no dispensation from the ordinary casualties of war; but cheerfully obey a summons to the field. The state of peace, in which we live at present, renders any persuasive on this head unreasonable. By favour of Divine Providence, we are not required at present to decide on such trying demands of patriotism. More pleasant themes invite attention. The ordinary course of things in our times and country affords many opportunities of rendering patriotic services, and everyone may daily find some work of love to his brethren. Beside what may be exacted in the defence of our country against a foreign enemy, there are a multitude of other expressions of patriotism important in their nature, practicable by all, and especially by such, as occupy stations of influence and authority.

It is consoling to reflect that every individual, in whatever station, may reap the honour of patriotism and enjoy the complacency which springs from useful actions, by cherishing in himself and others benevolent opinions and feelings, by setting an example of ready obedience to the laws, by giving support to institutions of public utility, by aiding in the establishment of such new regulations as the common good requires, by occasional acts of charity, and above all, by exhibiting an undefiled pattern of Christian virtue and godliness.

But perhaps these objects seem distant and general, and the effects produced by individual exertion almost imperceptible. We may, however, find a new spring of animation and diligence in considering how much good may be done to our country by only pursuing with zeal and fidelity the business of our respective vocations. It falls but to few to die for the nation, and an opportunity may seldom be afforded of contributing to the erection of some great edifice; yet everyone, in all times, by well discharging the duties of his sphere and station, may build up the interests and increase the happiness of his country.

The social body is composed of various members, mutually connected and dependent. Though some be deemed less honourable, they may not be less necessary than others. As the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot of the human body, cannot say one to the other, I have no need of you, but all in their respective places have indispensable uses; so, in the commonwealth, each citizen has dome gift or function, by which he may become a contributor to the support and pleasure of the whole body. In every society there is much mutual dependence. “The king himself is served by the field.” ¹⁴ All the various classes of men derive subsistence from each others’ power or favour. The most essential labours are those of the field. The different fabrications of the artist are either useful or convenient. The rich would be less happy without the poor to administer to their leisure and ease; and the poor, in turn, are profited by the stewardship of the rich, whose enterprise, providence and economy enable them to reward their labour, and relieve that indigence, which springs from indolence, wastefulness, and vice, or from sickness and misfortune. The young sustain an important relation to the aged, whose infirmities and sorrows it is their province to bear and mitigate, as well as perform the manual service, and endure the hardships of life; and the young may reap a full reward from the counsel of ancient men, matured by experience and rendered impressive by grey hairs. We need not therefore every despond with the idea that we are unable to serve the community; for keeping in the line, that nature and providence have marked out for us, we may effect a multitude of purposes useful to society. By assiduity in our professional labours, without any uncommon exertions and sacrifices, we may reap the praise of serving our country and generation.

But the subject of patriotic duties more properly embraces the consideration of certain weighty interests of society, in the advancement of which it is necessary we should all unite, be our particular vocations what they may. There are some burdens, which may be lifted by individual strength; others require the united force of the whole community to raise and support them. The opinions of all parties must be embraced, when it is said, that patriotism requires the watchful preservation of our constitution and liberties—the cultivation of agriculture arts—the diffusion of knowledge—and, above all, the promotion of a religious spirit, fruitful of good works.

I. The first duty of patriotism (especially in our country) is to PRESERVE OUR CONSTITUTION AND LIBERTIES. Mankind have entertained different ideas on the subject of civil constitutions, and have adopted different forms, “according to the different habits, genius and circumstances of the people.” With us there ought to be but one opinion; and, as the result of this opinion, the most decided support given to our republican institutions, as best adapted to promote the happiness of all ranks in society. Some parts of the superstructure may with propriety admit of occasional alterations; but the elective base, and those constitutional pillars of freedom, upon which we are compacted together, require vigilant protection. There is danger of innovation without improvement, of annihilating one point after another, to facilitate the designs of party, and serve the purposes of personal ambition.

Our fathers, in the most serious exercise of their understandings, and influenced by the most disinterested motives, adopted and established those civil constitutions, by which we have been protected, and to which we still look for protection. We have reason of full confidence both in their judgment and patriotism, from the experience of safety and prosperity. The lover of his country will watch against every encroachment on established rights and liberties, and especially such as have for their object the perpetuation of civil power in the hands of a few. But what are the means to this end? To what expedients must we have recourse in securing tour present privileges? No mean, no expedient is of more certain operation than the appointment of wise and good men to manage our common interests. Let all classes of citizens unite in this point, viz. To place honest and able men in their public councils. Can we be so infatuated as to think our constitutions and liberties ever safe, when we entrust civil power to men whom we discredit in private transactions? The governing part of a nation ought to be men of unimpeachable justice, prudence, temperance, and exemplary goodness. For if men have lost the moral government of themselves, how shall they direct the affairs of the public with reason and equity, and how can we suppose they will respect the rights of the whole people, who do not respect individual claims.

It may be added, that the corrupt example of men in station is peculiarly contagious and destructive. The pagans imitated the supposed practices of their gods. Gods on earth equally propagate their vices. And as it was formerly in vain for the philosophers to arraign the vices of heathen deities, so now it is equally fruitless for the preacher and moralist to inveigh against vices made reputable by official eminence. There is special reason to fear that our rights and liberties will be impaired and lost, and our national manners corrupted by unprincipled and immoral rulers.

So much evil is to be apprehended from this source, that it may be established as a prime duty of patriotism in every citizen to exercise his elective power with caution, and entrust the administration of public affairs only to men of sound minds and virtuous habits. Without this preventive, that treasure of independence and freedom, which our country so long and so nobly bled to acquire, will be dissipated and irrecoverably lost. We often look to political expedients for the preservation of political blessings; but they will all prove deficient, if the general course of our public affairs be not directed by wisdom and uprightness. To this point then, let all collect, and commit the custody of our political tables to men of unostentatious wisdom and experienced fidelity. Thus shall we preserve and perpetuate our constitutions and liberties.

II. But the attainment of this object is intimately connected with another branch of patriotic duty, the GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. We have a text on this subject, the writer of which, and the chapter containing it must be recollected by every individual in this audience. “In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion be enlightened.” ¹⁵ Whoever loves liberty and the government of laws will cultivate seminaries of learning. He will manure and weed every plot where seeds of instructions have been sown, and hedge in new enclosures, that “children’s children may go in and find pasture” to satisfy the hunger of their minds. It may be a fact, that ignorant subjects are most peaceable and submissive, and that learning, beyond the sphere of one’s own occupation, has sometimes a tendency to beget uneasy and aspiring sensations. Under despotic governments, sound policy may forbid the dissemination of knowledge; but we profess to value liberty, as conducive to the safety, peace and improvement of man. Let us then provide against both its abuses and its loss. The preservation of it can be insured by no means of more infallible operation than that of enlightening the public mind. The wise sometimes, the ignorant always are led by their passions. By mental cultivation these passions are subdued in part, and the remainder restrained. The uninformed are easily excited to rebellion by coarse and noisy eloquence; and there are no establishments or measures, however wise and salutary, but must yield to the vandal rage of an ignorant populace. The light of knowledge also tends to harmonize the feelings of men, to prevent the unhappiness arising from a collision of manners, and dispose them to endure that heterogeneous quality of each other’s habits, which, to a certain degree, is incurable. Beside these considerations, showing the importance of diffused information, how unqualified are the ignorant to designate wise and honest agents from the general mass for the purpose of government. Blind electors will not probably choose seeing guides. The issue is still less problematical, when the blind are leaders of the blind. The grossly ignorant and immoral cannot subsist under a free government. Among such, civil power must be concentrated in the hands of one or a few, and profound submission to its most arbitrary exercise be the only means of preserving any order and justice.

Impressed with these convictions, the patriot will render every support and encouragement to teaching and learning, and the diffusion of useful information through all ranks in society. Though smatterings of knowledge may often produce pedantry, and though the poet has said, “A little learning is a dangerous thing,” yet boorish ignorance is both more unpleasant and dangerous.

But in devising methods for effecting this object, it must be recollected, that knowledge is not to be gained, after arriving to adult age. Some improvement may made on the stock acquired, but few additions to it can be expected. The nurture of the mind must be commenced early. It is then flexible, active, and partakes of a higher degree of susceptibility, than belongs to riper years. It is a most ingenious and instructive figure, which someone has adopted, to illustrate the necessity of early instruction in morals, who says, speaking of the young, “they must be died in the wool.” This idea applies as well to the principles of knowledge, as to those of morality. . The colours communicated after the cloth is made will soon fade, if not entirely wear out. It is hence easy to perceive that the diffusion of knowledge imports something more than circulating party pamphlets, newspapers, and sectarian theological tracts, ¹⁶ which, like some of our political schoolmasters, are not always the better for being of imported origin. The Christian patriot, in his efforts to spread knowledge, will first light the taper at home: he will teach his children and dependants, morning and night, in the house and by the way. And since few have both the ability and leisure to do this, it is necessary to patronize young men of respectable character and suitable talents, and give them ample encouragement to enter upon the laborious duties of common schools, that the profession of teaching may be pleasant and reputable, if not lucrative, to the teacher. In producing these teachers, and thus advancing the interests of early education, there must be primary schools for their instruction. The institution of colleges, where the higher branches of knowledge are taught and learnt, is indispensable for this as well as other purposes. Though they may be complained of as aristocratic, since the advantages of education they furnish are necessarily limited to a few, yet great is their influence upon political freedom and public improvement. Beside affording the community qualified teachers of youth, their effect is discovered in the debates of our public assemblies, in the weekly services of religious teachers, and the general style of reasoning throughout the whole community. Admit that they discharge their streams with partiality, watering here and there a favoured spot, yet providence has opened numberless channels, by which their salutary waters are diffused over the whole face of the commonwealth. We have not much to fear from literary aristocracy. Though knowledge be power, and superior intelligence as well as property extends the influence of the possessor; yet science, truly so called, has no corrupting effect on the heart. The pursuit of it tranquilizes the mind and reforms the manners. We may be assured, that if the larger windows of light be shut, the whole mansion will be soon involved in barbarian darkness, with which despotism is inseparably connected.

The Christian patriot will therefore cherish in his own and in the minds of others a veneration for the larger seminaries of instruction, and their founders, and daily pray that “healing salt may be cast into these fountains of knowledge.”

III. Although the defence of liberty and the spreading of knowledge are objects of high concernment in the view of patriotic minds; yet the article on which we are about to enter must be magnified in its importance. “Of all dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, RELIGION and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician equally with the pious man ought to respect and cherish them.” Thus spake one, “by whom many worthy deeds were done to our nation,” at a time too when no personal motive could possibly bias his counsel.

The opinion of some that RELIGION is not to be associated in any degree with political affairs, that society may flourish without its aid and influence, it may not be needful to confute in this assembly; if it were, we would demand an instance of a people, altogether profane, regardless of an oath, destitute of religious fear, who have subsisted in peace and order, and found growing prosperity and happiness.

What part of nature is supported without God? Do the planets keep in their spheres? Does the earth revolve? Does the soil shoot forth the blade of grass? Does health nerve the limbs and cheerfulness expand the soul, without the all pervading spirit of the Most High? Nay. How then shall the social virtues bud and grow independently of the same cause? How shall order, strength and manhood accrue to the social body without any portion of divine influence? And through what channels can this influence flow, but through the mind and heart?

Religion may be considered as to its theory, its spirit, and

practice. Its theory involves the consideration of things infinite, eternal, and transcendently excellent, viz. God, immortality, and the immutable discriminations of holiness and sin. Its spirit implies such emotions towards God as are associated with everything mild, joyful and sublime. The practice of religion, or the sensible forms of it, conduce to the two first mentioned ends, viz. the knowledge of its theory and the exercise of its spirit. Religion doubtless subsists in different persons and communities, and at different periods of time, in various degrees of purity. But without some respect for a Supreme Lawgiver, there is no basis of obedience to the laws of morality. Even a weak sense of religion, clouded by ignorance and intermingled with the vanities and weaknesses of human nature, secures the practice of many duties, which can never be successfully enforced by civil laws.

It is necessary, however, to distinguish the religion, which is useful in the preservation of social order and happiness, from certain corrupt and unlawful establishments which have been made in many countries. Correct ideas of religion are not obtained by reading the debates of the council of Nice, the minutes of a Romish conclave or Protestant synod. Most, if not all ecclesiastic, academic, as well as legislative disquisitions on this subject have shed darkness rather than light, and unfolded the character of the man of sin, rather than that of the prince of peace.

Useful religion is also to be discriminated from the wild enthusiasm, excited by field oratory, and the anti-social gloom of the cloister. Religion has often been defiled and rendered unprofitable and unamiable; and is always tinctured, by the education, constitution, and moral habits of men; yet even in its most imperfect forms, it is accompanied with some meliorating effects. In this recommendation of religion as useful in a state, we are not so much concerned to make any casuistical statement of its metes and bounds, as to illustrate its general influence on the conduct and happiness of mankind. A scantier portion of religious knowledge and sentiment may answer useful purposes in society, than will be necessary to our obtaining a part in the future inheritance of saints.

In these remarks on the effect of religion, the epithet Christian, though omitted, is understood. For to us there can be no middle way between embracing the doctrines of the gospel, and resorting to skepticism and irreligion. We can have no motives and feel no impulse to adopt pagan idolatry or Mahometan imposture. And it is a thesis, from the defence of which no believer need shrink, that every person who experiences the smallest excitements of a religious nature, will eagerly read and hear the report of Jesus Christ. Is anyone alarmed by anticipations of the punishment of his sins? Is anyone conscious of inability to keep the law? In the gospel are promises of pardon and aid. Does anyone hunger for the bread of life? From this source it may be procured. The neglect or rejection of Christianity, when fairly proposed, in most cases indicates religious unsusceptibility, and we may add, an equal deficiency of moral feelings.

We are sensible there are many sects among Christians, some of which claim an exclusive patent right to the keys, which unlock the door of divine truth and the gate of heaven. Some incorporate the logic of the school with their Christian divinity; their liturgy does seldom comprise the Lord’s prayer, and their confession of faith is such as might be framed by men, who forget that the Sermon on the Mount was ever preached.

Others are disposed to monastic life, and think they never serve God, but when in the act of praying. There are, too, lordly Christians, who would bring over again the mischievous farces of national and ecumenical councils. Some, of unfeigned piety, but illiberal minds, deem nothing religion unless it be measured by their line, and its fervor be excited to a given point, which is also to be ascertained by their thermometer. In this collision of sentiment, the Christian patriot may hesitate what course to pursue, what tenets to defend, and to what establishment to adhere. Shall he embrace the church, whose articles of faith are multiplied and circumstantially defined? Possibly he may neither get any good himself or do any to the commonwealth. Shall he make the matter of rites and ceremonies a turning point? He will be fed, neither with “milk nor meat.” Let every man examine his faith, his feelings, and his practice by the word of God, permitting no inferior authority to warp his decisions. In promoting the interests of religion among his fellow-men, let him propagate those truths which are plain and important; nor feel obliged to satisfy the inquisitiveness of bigots by avowing the party of Paul, Apollos, or Cephas; contented if it do but appear that he hath been with Christ. So far at least as the welfare of society is concerned, there is but one essential point, viz. to convince those who believe in God that they ought carefully to maintain such good works as are profitable to men. Whilst these are indispensable to the character of the disciple, they form the sum of the religion of the patriot. As to those, who act a contrary part, and endeavour by their sophistry or their ridicule to extirpate that little respect for Christianity, which at present subsists, the most favourable remark which we can make was made by our Saviour on those, who were active in his crucifixion, “they know not what they do.” ¹⁷ The Christian patriot will cherish the vital sentiment, the inward operation of religion, and judge in all cases of its strength and purity by the fruits. “How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God,” is an exclamation, which, when dictated by the heart, and verified by the conduct, ascertains with sufficient clearness the power of religion in any man’s breast to entitle him to our confidence, respect and love.

Beside the influence of religion upon morality in general, it merits consideration, that whatever be the means or objects of patriotism, its spirit is purified and its zeal quickened by this principle. No virtuous emotion can long subsist, much less be excited to a high degree, in an unsanctified heart. Love to man, whether more or less limited as to its objects, must be frequently invigorated by the stimulations of piety. It will wax cold, and the number of its labours be diminished, unless its fire be renewed by a spark from the altar. ¹⁸

Beside the cardinal interests of LIBERTY, KNOWLEDGE and RELIGION, there are other objects of subordinate value soliciting the attention of him who loves his country.

Agricultural improvements, rural and domestic economy, the introduction of useful plants, roots and grains, rank high among SECONDARY TOPICS. He, who should discover one grain of wheat so much earlier than the common kind, as to be exempt from blast; and who should propagate it with effect, will in the result have done more good to his country, than he, who, by conquest or purchase, should add the mines of Mexico to our national domain. We ought to know who first introduced and encouraged the cultivation of that vegetable, which is next in value to bread. If the plough, in its present improved state, had been the invention of one man, a colossal statue, larger than that of Rhodes, would be too little to perpetuate the remembrance of the inventor. As the ancients contended about the place which gave birth to Homer, we, as philanthropists, have much more reason to respect the character of Rumford, ¹⁹ and honor ourselves by some indelible register of his name. The happiness of the human kind is an aggregate made up of particulars, some of which escape the observation of little and great minds. The vision of the former does not extend far enough, and that of the latter extends too far, to make discovery of the truth. Whoever surveys the map of our country, and considers the variety of its soil and climate, will see how much our interest and comfort are involved in the improvements of husbandry, compared with which, the mechanic arts and commerce are of secondary importance. The number of people, who subsist by these, must ever be comparatively small. Commerce indeed is a handmaid of agriculture, by opening a market for the surplus produce of the earth. But of what other value are the returns? In a moral view, the commodities of the East and West Indies are of little service. Ought it not to diminish our relish for some of them, that they are the produce of slavery? Such was the sensibility of David, that he would not, though thirsty, drink of water brought from the well of Bethlehem by three brave men at the hazard of their lives. He called it the blood of those who went in jeopardy of their lives. And yet we, Christians, advocates for liberty and the rights of men, stimulate our appetites and feast our palates, daily, and without remorse, upon luxuries produced—but I stop, lest something unwelcome should obtrude itself in regard to the social condition of some of our sister states. To revert to our subject. Many imported commodities encourage idleness, and engender corruption and effeminacy. By establishing two great interests, commercial and agricultural, unhappy alienations among citizens are excited, while the merchandize exposed on the ocean allures the cupidity of foreign pirates.

Provision for the subsistence and morals of the poor is a duty of patriotism. In every country this class is numerous; more especially where population increases and the means of subsistence are unequally divided. In our country, poverty arises from idleness, want of economy, and moral debasement. The patriot will deem it no trifling object to infuse into the poor a “spirit of decency, a love of economy, a desire of knowledge, and a regard to character.” In ordinary times, few services can be rendered to our country of greater magnitude than the promotion of the above objects. Abjectness and vice in the character of the poor are disgraceful to the laws and manners of every country. In some countries this subject is truly awful, and invites the most active services of benevolence. The prevention of this evil invites the most serious consideration of active patriotism in our own.

When we reflect the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES in which we live, it will appear evidently to be the duty of every patriot to set an example of sobriety and temperance, to promote peace and mutual confidence, to dissipate, by honest and prudent means, those pestilential vapours which hover in our political atmosphere, and to breathe out, in conversation and behavior, the spirit of meekness and urbanity. What we experience at this day is not new in the world. In navigating the sea of popular liberty, it has always been found tempestuous. The rich and the poor, the north and the south, form into parties to injure and destroy each other; and under the specious cover of preserving liberty, liberty is at length annihilated. To this danger we stand exposed. A part of the time we contend about principles and measures, but the whole time about men. Our restlessness and folly render imminent that demolition of freedom, which other free states have experienced. All lovers of their country, not putting far away the evil day, will labour to avert its calamitous issues.

With a view to this end, we naturally ask, are there not some untried expedients of peace, harmony and mutual confidence? Instead of debating any longer on the points of difference, let it be inquired coolly in how many things men are agreed. Instead of using harsh and scornful language, and wantonly shooting arrows dipt in poison, let men consider that a steady hand, a tender heart and gentle tongue are qualities most useful to the patriotic surgeon, who would heal the festering wounds of division. The “tongue of the righteous is health, his mouth is a well of life; his lips disperse knowledge; his communications are good to the use of edifying, and minister grace to the hearer.” Let also every man shew more solicitude that his fellow-creatures be well informed and governed, than that his particular opinions be adopted, or he himself allowed to share in the administration of public affairs. And above all, as a fundamental recipe in healing divisions, let every man govern himself, not serving his own interest at the expence of justice, or seeking revenge at the expence of charity. Self-government is striking the ax at the root of the tree; it is like drying up the sharp humours and cooling the feverish fluids of a diseased body. “Could men but be persuaded to prefer the public peace and welfare to their own private advantage; to seek fame, honour, authority or wealth in subordination to things of greater moment; in claiming their own rights to allow others theirs; to smooth the rugged waves of each other’s passions with the oil of kindness; soon would the tumults and strifes, which now exist, be hushed, and a happy calm spread itself over the face of the earth.” Should we continue to suffer our judgments to be perverted in the plainest cases; to invade the peace of individual breasts; to dissolve the tender charities of blood and kindred on the pretext of difference in political opinions, more baleful ills must be expected than we now experience; public order will be interrupted, the foundations of society endangered, and the effusion of blood and the establishment of despotism close the tragic drama.

The offices and objects of patriotism, which have been particularized, interest exclusively no one class of men. The powers and opportunities of individuals are indeed dissimilar; but everyone, the peasant, the prince, the villager, the citizen, the husbandman, mechanic and scholar, may all, in their respective places, do good to their country. And even the most inferior labours of beneficence, when stimulated by honesty and benevolence, are to be praised, and the Supreme Rewarder above will not forget them. Remember the widow’s mite: though small, compared with the gifts of rich men, yet the piety and penury of the donor made it a respectable offering. Let it console the obscurest individual, that though he is able to throw but a mite into the mass of common improvement and happiness, yet he shall in no wise lose his reward. Be it so, that his circumstances are straitened and his capacities small, yet there is some one good thing which he may do. Let him plant a tree; meliorate one acre of soil; diffuse love in his family and neighbourhood; give impression to one moral truth upon the tender and the real effect of his patriotism shall outweigh that of many statesmen, philosophers, and conquerors, who have had the name of serving their country. We are apt to be weary of well-doing, more especially if the benefaction seem like a drop in the ocean; but how are we sure this figure is just? With respect to moral influences, it certainly is not just. If “one sinner destroyeth much good,” ²⁰ one righteous man may be the instrument in Divine Providence of repairing the ruin. Good men are the salt of the earth. Let them awake and come to their work of love and labours of patriotism, not disheartened by the fewness of either their powers or means. The feeblest man may remove a small stone from the traveler’s path, and perhaps save his life. The most obscure and indigent man in society may apply a healing medicine to one moral disease, stop the progress of one infectious particle, close the avenue of one crime, and the effect of such exertion shall extend to future generations. It is in the aggregate of such labours, that the commonwealth shall experience growing prosperity and happiness.

But THIS OCCASION and THE RESPECTABLE AUDIENCE here convened remind us of that extensive field of usefulness, which is occupied by men in PUBLIC STATIONS. Legislators, Magistrates and Ministers of the Gospel possess many ways and means of contributing to the public welfare. To them especially we look for an example of patriotism. A tendency must exist in their vocation to sequester their thoughts from private and local interests, and to expand their social feelings. Though they live by others, yet in a peculiar sense they live for others. Strictly speaking, there is no honour in station. “It is more glorious to be a good subject than a bad ruler; to be a good disciple than a bad teacher.” ²¹ There is neither any debasement or exaltation, absolutely such, but that which adheres to the moral character. Yet there are certain posts of eminence, those placed in which are highly responsible for the result of their example and administrations. These posts are occupied by the Civil Ruler and the Christian Minister.

Consider yourselves, O YE RULERS IN THE EARTH, as vested with eminent powers of doing good. It is yours, to facilitate the acquisition of right; to protect the hedge which separates individual property; to patronize improvement, and thus to meliorate man’s condition. Great are these objects of your appointment and authority. Think not merely of engrossing the honours and emoluments of station; but scrutinize with eagerness the means of rendering mankind more happy. Ye are the agents of God to punish evil doers, and to bestow praise on those who do well. The lives, the estates, the reputations of men are, in a qualified sense, committed to your keeping. Offices of such trust as yours will never be sought after, except by the vain and ambitious. The solicitude of a patriot, excited by a lively sense of responsibility, more than outweighs all the honours and profits of his station. An awful account must be rendered at the final day of retribution, if, through avarice and ambition, absorbing every feeling of justice and humanity, ye have desolated other countries or divided and plundered your own.

And consider also, ye MINISTERS OF THE SANCTUARY, the extensive influence of your functions and example. “Ye are an epistle, read of all men.” Evince your piety and patriotism by abounding “in faith, utterance, knowledge, diligence and love.” Instead of triumphing at the spread of those particular tenets, which ignorance, education or bigotry may have infixed on your minds, rejoice rather when you see the truths and comforts of the gospel exciting to resignation and benevolence, and the practice of those virtues, which dignified and adorned the character of your divine master. While with serious simplicity, ye illustrate the truth and maxims of Christianity, let your most concealed actions be as disinterested and upright as your public professions imply. Preach as often on purity of heart as on purity of faith. Be not eager to thrust yourselves into the chair of Moses. He who is the best servant to the church is the greatest. To shine in life and manners is a more suitable object of Christian ambition, than to shine in word and influence. Be not among the number of those who commend themselves; who encroach on other men’s labours. Feed the hunger, watch the wanderings of your own flock, nor seek to establish any intermediate guide between yourselves individually and the great shepherd of the sheep.

May God by his Holy Spirit assist and quicken all his ministering servants in Church and State, who now act on the theatre of public life; and may he sanctify others from the womb, to succeed in their stations, and even to display marks of superior excellence. May America produce a Fenelon to instruct the princes of our tribes how to exercise their power in the most beneficial manner; another Newton to unfold some hidden laws of nature, and fill the astonished mind with new transports at the sight of God’s power and majesty; another Locke to anatomize in some new and instructive manner the complicated operations of the human understanding; another Butler to destroy the fabric of infidelity, and raze it to the very foundation. May God, in the number of his heavenly gifts, supply all our churches with Doddridges and Wattses, who shall nourish and defend, with a well balanced zeal, the interests of orthodoxy, devotion, and charity. May he always provide and designate for the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, to rule and to judge in every public department with equity and wisdom.

Let an affectionate regard for posterity stimulate us to the present discharge of patriotic duties. Whether high or low, private or public be our station, let this sentiment invigorate our exertions, that the improvement, virtue and happiness of the succeeding generation are inseparably linked with the diligence and fidelity of the present. Here parental and patriotic affections unite to encourage the same efforts. We are zealous to exhibit marks of elegance in our public buildings, and we devote the superfluity of our wealth to the purposes of many important improvements in the whole face of our country. But is there not infinitely more elegance and improvement in a body of youth, trained up in the holy nurture and admonition of the Lord? The Roman and Greek orders in architecture have infinitely less grace that the spiritual pillars of the Christian virtues. These virtues grace indeed the social building. To erect them on a stable foundation, and add some finishing strokes of moral beauty equally becomes the character of the Christian and the patriot. We rejoice in growing prosperity and wealth; but what wealth can a people boast, equal to the treasure of sons and daughters, walking in the truth, growing in stature, and by wisdom and virtue increasing in favour with God and man?

To dignify the acts of Government and give importance to this occasion, we have joined in a solemn procession to the house of God. How interesting is that procession of one generation after another, which the Author of Nature has ordained, and how desirable that we may have reason to believe, that in following our steps, our ancestors will not err. Sparta gloried in the military talents and achievements of her youth. But patriots and Christians will glory more in the knowledge and virtue of their children, in whom they had rather see an air of respect to the aged, than the stern visage of the warrior—the healthful complexion of charity, than the rough features produced by early toil and hardship. The military displays of a Spartan band excite not half so much interest in the peaceful and patriotic, as the youthful trains of our schools and academies, displaying at once the harmlessness of their purpose and the fervor of bloodless emulation.

While we leave to posterity improved roads, ceiled houses, literary institutions, salutary laws; let the higher ambition pervade our hearts of transmitting to them unsophisticated principles of religion and government, with the purest maxims of Christian morality. God forbid that we should encumber the opening minds of youth with our errors and follies—that they should inherit our factious dispositions, and have a pretence impiously to complain hereafter, “The Fathers have eaten sour grapes and our teeth are set on edge.” ²² May they rather have cause to eulogize us, as we have to eulogize our predecessors.

It may serve to inspire all with an affectionate regard for the common welfare to consider the examples of a patriotic spirit, which are exhibited in the annals of our country. At the glorious era of the American revolution, men of the purest and most active patriotism came forward into the public service; many of them sleep in the dust of the earth, and the few, who survive, have either retired or must soon retire from the field of public usefulness. We shall reap more instruction and be fired with warmer solicitude for the good of our country, by weighing the spirits and pondering the paths of some deceased patriots and others, now in the decline of life, than can be derived from all the empty harangues and fruitless diligence of the whole tribe of mushroom declaimers about the public good.

Those, who in the prime and vigour of life, at the epocha of our revolution, conducted the arduous struggle for independence—who planned and matured those constitutions of government, under which we live; who wrought in the vineyard from the earliest period of difficulty and danger, deserve gratitude and confidence, prior to those, who, stepping in at the eleventh hour of public labours, presumptuously claim the honour and recompence of doing the whole work. From these early patriots we may select many models deserving imitation. There is one model of preeminent beauty and proportion, which we trust may be mentioned without exciting any jealousy even in the hearts of the most envious and proud.—The name of Washington should be pronounced on this anniversary throughout all generations. Let all remember with what dissidence he received power, with what anxious solicitude for the public welfare he exercised it; and how willingly he resigned it when its destination was accomplished. His benevolence was not a transient sensibility, producing a flood of tears, not a spasmodic convulsion, now opening, then shutting the heart more close than ever; but it was a strong vibration, propelling to one uniform series of patriotic deeds from the morning to the evening of his precious life. The leaves of his patriotic professions were few; but the fruits, those signs by which a good tree is known, were large and sound. May not that Goth, who shall ever presume to deface that monument of admiration and gratitude, which his patriotic virtues have raised in the American breast, share the fate of Miriam when she spake evil of Moses, and become “leprous, white as snow.”

In surveying this respectable assembly, our thoughts have been for some time directed to a CHARACTER, in addressing to whom the respectful congratulations of the Commonwealth, private inclination concurs with a sense of propriety. Both prompt us to express a satisfaction in seeing the chair of supreme executive authority occupied by one, whose life illustrates the subject of patriotism. May that divine promise be fulfilled upon him: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he shall make even his enemies to be at peace with him.” ²³ May the Governor of this Commonwealth ever be a man, on whom the viperous tongue of malice and envy cannot fix for a moment the imputation of injustice, ambition, hypocrisy, or impiety. And may the citizens of the State never banish from their public councils an Aristides, because vexed with continually hearing him called the Just. ²⁴

We tender our political homage to the Second Magistrate in the administration of Government, to the Council, to the Two Branches of the Legislature, who, we expect, will teach their constituents by all their deliberations to look more at principles than persons,–at measures than men. The state of things among us is not to be disguised. Such disguise indicates a contemptible timidity, unbecoming the free spirit of patriotism and religion. We beseech you all, by the manes of departed patriots and the hoary locks of the living, no longer to sever us in two, but by example, excite us to rise up and build the wall of common safety and defence. Deny yourselves the pleasure of petty conquests, and command our respect by seeking the things which make for peace and the edification of the whole body. You have received the suffrages of your constituents. It will be far more honourable for you, if by wise and patriotic services you gain and keep the confidence of the worthy. Then the ear which hears you shall bless you, and the eye which sees you shall witness favourably.

Every vice receives a currency from your example. With the image and superscription of a ruler, it passes, if not with the deserving and good, yet with the mass of mankind, who do not examine with care any coin, if it only satisfy the lust of present gratification. In men in your station and of your character, we expect to see an exemption from both the follies of childhood and the faults of old age. In you we expect a happy union of wisdom and patriotism, and hope to find you never departing from beneficent purposes—never unsettled by casual praise or dispraise, but founding a reputation with the people only by the sanction of self-approbation.

While as citizens of the commonwealth and members of the American union, we mutually embrace and provoke one another to love, let our practice be honourable and our feelings kind towards all men. The cultivation of a public spirit and the enforcement of patriotic duties have no necessary tendency to foster a contracted and exclusive spirit. The liberal genius of Christianity is to break down every partition wall created by the vanity, prejudices, or selfishness of mankind. And he who is our peace suffered on the cross, that he might reconcile us to God and to one another. The gospel is announced to those afar off, as well as to those who are nigh. While we express “our hearts’ desire and prayer to God for our brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh,” let no supplication be concluded without fervent intercession “for the stranger who is not of this people; ²⁵ for such as groan under oppression, “who sow and reap not, who tread the olive but are not anointed with the oil.” ²⁶ For such as are wasted by war, by pestilence, by famine; and especially for them, who sit in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death. Such expressions of benevolence become our highly favoured condition, and such devout sacrifices are acceptable with God.

It is not to be doubted but that united America has yet to exhibit an interesting character, and act an important part on the theatre of the world. The womb of futurity conceals the secret, whether she shall imitate the vices and experience the catastrophe of other nations, or whether her manhood and old age shall be as singular and unique, as her birth and youth. We may be ready to wish that Providence would permit us to become a great nation; but the spirit of Christian patriotism rather dictates another petition, that we may be a good nation, and that happy people whose God is the Lord. May not united America ever vie in magnificence and splendor ancient Rome, and after stretching the arms of her power from one end of the world to the other, pillaging mankind and becoming rich with spoil, suffer the distress and ruin, which she shall have inflicted, bow to the hardy courage of some barbarous Alaric, and sink under the dissolving influences of effeminacy and corruption. But may we be that virtuous people against which there is “no enchantment,” against which the heathen may rage and the kings of the earth set themselves in vain.

“Blessed is the nation which walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, whose delight is in the law of the Lord. It shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, its leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever it doth shall prosper.”

Note. A few paragraphs of the preceding discourse were omitted in the delivery, through want of time.

1.Exod. xxxii. 32.

2.St. John’s Gospel i. 11.

3. Heb. ii. 14, 16.

4.Mat. Xxiii. 37.

5.Col. i. 15.

6.John xix. 26.

7.Lam. Jer. i. 1.

8.Jer. ix. 1.

9.I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ.—This passage has been variously interpreted. By some the most literal construction is preferred, and the writer is understood to say, that he was willing even to postpone his own salvation, if it could be the means of saving his countrymen, by atoning for their sins. By others, he is supposed to describe his own former character, (I did wish myself accursed) the recollection of which made him more solicitous for the conversion and safety of his kinsmen, as it created a more lively feeling of their error and danger.—Another interpretation may be grounded on the ambiguity of the original term, rendered accursed, which may properly be used to express an honourable oblation. The meaning then is, that the apostle wished to have been deputed from Christ an apostle to the Jews, rather than to the Gentiles. From patriotic feelings, he would prefer to exercise the functions of his apostleship with his kinsmen and brethren. Whichever construction be adopted, the idea of love to country in the doubtful sentence under consideration concurs with the whole passage vigorously to express the sentiment of patriotism.

10.Mr. J. Q. Adams’ Ann. Ora. Plymouth.

11.Acts xxii. 21.

12.Soame Jenyns.

13.Eccl. ix. 15.

14.Ecclesiastes v. 9.

15.President Washington’s Address on retiring from public life.

16.Nothing is intended by this remark unfavourable or disrespectful to those individuals or associations, whose object is the dissemination of useful tracts. It is believed their designs are pure, and that their liberal exertions in this way have produced many good effects. It is however to be wished, that the books circulated should not contain dogmatic decisions on points of doctrine of a doubtful nature. The prefaces or appendixes subjoined should not be designed to make the common reader lay a stress upon particular controverted ideas and phrases, which many serious and judicious ministers decline introducing into their course of weekly instructions. We may also ask, is it not time that our country should produce authors upon common subjects, who can treat them with more conformity to the feelings and language of the place and time?

17.Luke, xxiii, 34.

18.The following general observations in Neeker’s work on the Influence of Religious Opinions, with many others in the same volume, deserve to be universally known and considered. “I cannot, I avow, without disgust, and even horror, conceive the absurd notion of a political society, destitute of that governing motive afforded by religion, and restrained only by a pretended connexion of their private interest with the general.” “It is at the tribunal of his own conscience, that a man can be interrogated about a number of actions and intentions, which escape the inspection of government. Let us beware of overturning the authority of a judge so active and enlightened. Let us beware of weakening it voluntarily; and let us not be so imprudent as to repose only on social discipline. I will even venture to say, that the power of conscience is perhaps still more necessary in the age we live in, than in any of the preceding. Though society no longer presents us with a view of those vices and crimes, which shock us by their deformity; yet licentiousness of morals and refinement of manners have almost imperceptibly blended good and evil, vice and decency, falsehood and truth, selfishness and magnanimity. It is more important than ever to oppose to this secret depravity an interior authority, which pries into the mysterious windings of disguise, and whose action may be as penetrating, as our dissimulation seems artful and well contrived.”

19. In this respectful mention of Benjamin Thompson, we have particularly in view his meritorious services to the poor of Munich.

20.Ecclesiastes ix. 18.

21.Saurin.

22.Exek. xviii. 2.

23.Prov. xvi. 7.

24. “It is said of Aristides, that he would never consent to any injustice to oblige his friends. He declared that a good citizen should place his whole strength and security in advising and doing what is just and right. In the changes and fluctuations of the government his firmness was wonderful. Neither elated with honours, nor discomposed with ill success, he went on in a moderate and steady manner, not looking so much to the reward either of honour or profit, as persuaded that his country had a claim to his services. When the following verses were repeated on the stage, “To be and not to seem in this man’s maxim; His mind reposes on its proper wisdom, And wants no other praise—the eyes of the people were fixed on Aristides as the man to whom this encomium was most applicable.”

25.I Kings viii. 40.

26.Micah vi. 15.

Leonard Woods (1774-1854) graduated from Harvard in 1796. He was a pastor in Newbury, Massachusetts (1798-1808), and a professor of Christian theology at the Andover theological seminary (1808-1846). Woods was active in establishing the American tract society, the Temperance society, and the board of commissioners of foreign missions. This sermon was preached in Boston on June 6, 1808 by Woods.

SERMON,

DELIVERED BEFORE

THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE

ARTILLERY COMPANY

IN BOSTON, JUNE 6, 1808

THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTIETH ANNIVERSARY

OF THEIR

ELECTION OF OFFICERS.

By LEONARD WOODS, A. M.

Monday, 6th. June, 1808.

AT a meeting of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, Voted unanimously, that Captain Edmund Bowman, Lieutenant Jonathan Loring, and Ensign Whitney, be a committee to wait on Reverend Mr. Woods, to thank him for the eloquent and appropriate discourse this day delivered before the Company, and request a copy for the press.

Attest, T. CLARK, Clerk.

Mr. Edmund Bowman, Captain.
Mr. Jonathan Loring, Lieutenant.
Mr. Jonathan Whitney, Ensign.
General John Winslow, Treasurer.
Captain Thomas Clark, Clerk.

OFFICERS, 1808….1809.

Captain Melzar Holmes, Captain.
Mr. Benjamin Coates, Lieutenant.
Mr. Dexter Dana, Ensign.

Sergeants
Captain Thomas Dean, 1st.
Mr. William Bowman, 2nd.
Mr. David Forsaith, 3d.
Mr. Samuel Waldron, 4th.

General John Winslow, Treasurer.
Captain Thomas Clark, Clerk.

HEB. ii. 10.

THE CAPTAIN OF THEIR SALVATION.

To men of every profession the Son of God is a finished pattern of true virtue. Every man, whatever his department in life, who diligently and devoutly imitates his example, will attain the most amiable and useful character; while he, who disregards it, whatever other qualities he may possess, and whatever honors he may receive, falls far short of real excellence.

I know not therefore, how I can render a more acceptable service to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, at whose request I now speak, or more properly express that pious respect, which on this occasion we ought to feel for the author of our holy religion, than to exhibit him, as the great pattern of military virtue. Such a design is evidently authorized by the scriptures. “Behold,” says God by a prophet, “behold, I have given him—a leader and commander to the people;” and the apostle in our text represents him, as the Captain of our salvation.

Let us then devoutly contemplate the Son of God in this character; and may the contemplation inspire that martial virtue, which harmonizes with the benign spirit of the gospel.

The primary and most distinguishing characteristic of Christ, as the Captain of our salvation, is benevolence. The end, he pursues, is the good of intelligent beings. His love is not restricted to family, nation, or world; but is infinitely diffusive, extending to all beings capable of enjoyment, and apportioned to all according to justice and truth. His love is perfectly free from every kind and degree of selfishness. He did nothing to promote his own private honor; he came not to do his own will; he pleased not himself. His heart embraced no interest, but that of the universe.

This divine affection has a direct and commanding influence in every part of his mediatorial work. By love he was prompted to undertake the salvation of sinners. It was love, which induced him, who was rich, to become poor for our sake. In this astonishing act, the endless felicity of those, whom sin had expelled from Paradise, was the object of his benevolent heart.

It is a common expression, that men rise to office. But in becoming the Captain of our salvation the Son of God descended. The Lord of angels became a servant of men. His entering into office was an unparalleled exercise of condescending love. By the same motive was the author of our salvation guided through his whole work on earth. He went about doing good. The deaf blessed with hearing, and the blind with sight, the sick restored to health, and the dead to life, the hungry fed, the ignorant instructed, mourners comforted, the penitent pardoned, and profligates reclaimed, all bear testimony to the benignity of his character, and evince that his name is love.

It is said in scripture, he came to send fire, division, and a sword. For a just comment on these words we must look, not to the pure, peaceful nature of his gospel, but to those fiery passions and hostile exertions of his enemies, which contravene the benevolent and pacific design of his coming. The warfare, which the Captain of our salvation carried on, was wholly in subservience to the cause of love. The sword, which he used, was meekness and truth. The enemies, he opposed, were the enemies of God and man; the enemies of virtue, peace, and happiness. If his enemies prevailed, he well knew the divine government would be prostrated, and no trace of moral beauty or joy remain. The victory, which he sought and obtained, was the victory of wisdom over folly, of benevolence over malice, of truth and order over falsehood and confusion; the victory of righteous government over universal anarchy. In the holy war, which he waged, he showed himself a consummate, a divine commander. He had a perfect discernment of the power, designs, and motions of the enemy; and skill to make his arrangements in such manner, as to ensure success.

In pursuing his great object, the Captain of our salvation displayed the highest degree of courage. Confident of the goodness of his cause, and resolved on victory, he was not to be overborne or dismayed. He was carried on to his object by the force of equal, persevering benevolence. He showed no vehemence, no impetuosity; but calm, deliberate, invariable determination, the sure sign of a great and good mind. Difficulties, however numerous and constant; dangers, however alarming; opposition, however subtle, malignant, and formidable, had no discouraging influence. His sublimely benevolent soul was not subdued even by desertion. When betrayed by one of his followers, forsaken by the rest, and left alone in the hands of false accusers and bloodthirsty, triumphant foes; he was fixed, as the throne of heaven. Clamorous insult, a crown of thorns, cruel mocking and scourging, could not disturb the serenity, nor sink the resolution of his exalted spirit. Upon fortitude, like his, even the pains and infamy of crucifixion produced no effect. Nailed to the accursed tree, enfeebled by bleeding and torture, surrounded and insulted by enemies, deserted by his friends, and forsaken of his God, he was still unsubdued; still displayed the unyielding energy of his love. Yea, he there displayed the glory of his power; there he fought successfully for his people, conquered principalities and powers, and triumphed over them on the cross.

Now in all the sufferings, which the Captain of our salvation endured, he was influenced by the most enlarged benevolence. He voluntarily submitted to torture and death, in order to repair the injury, which human transgression had occasioned; in order to honor and support the divine government, so that we might be made the heirs of eternal life, without encouraging rebellion, or degrading the authority of Jehovah. Immanuel’s love to men was not a partial affection, aiming at their separate interest. It was an extensive, unbounded affection, aiming to promote the happiness of men in consistence with the good of the intelligent universe, and to augment the good of the universe by the happiness of men. To render these two objects compatible with each other, Messiah patiently suffered, and gloriously died.

Our divine Leader, now seated at the right hand of the Father, and honored by the praises of angels, is as much influenced by benevolence, as when he abode on earth. He is highly exalted, and hath received a name, that is above every name, not for personal aggrandizement, but for the good of the world. As the Captain of our salvation, he is entrusted with all power in heaven and earth, for this purpose, that he may give eternal life to his people. For their security he ascended to his celestial throne. For their benefit he wields the scepter of unlimited empire. His honor is the honor of infinite goodness. The glory of his character and the happiness of his kingdom are inseparably and eternally one. What was the joy, which was set before the Saviour, for which he endured the cross, despising the shame? Was it such a joy, as excites the desire, and gratifies the taste of proud, selfish mortals? God forbid! The joy, which he sought, and which was his full reward for the travail of his soul, was the joy of infinite benevolence in beholding the purity and felicity of those, whom he had redeemed by his blood.

This, it is conceived, is a true, though very imperfect description of the Captain of our salvation. To do good upon the most extensive scale is his sole object. He seeks no glory but the glory of doing good. For all his labors, he desires no recompense, but to see and enjoy the perfect holiness and happiness of his kingdom. According to reason and truth, he has a supreme regard to his own honor and blessedness. But his honor and blessedness always stand in connection with the interest of creation. To the cause of general good he is united by indissoluble ties. To that cause his whole being is devoted. For that cause he became incarnate, suffered, died, and now reigns in glory. All he has done in creation, providence, and redemption; all he has done in heaven and on earth, has been a correct expression of pure, perfect, divine benevolence.

To exhibit the Captain of our salvation, as a pattern of true virtue to men in military life, was the design of this discourse. But here it must be remarked, that, in some parts of his character, he is not an object of imitation. What man or angel shall aspire to resemble him, who is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the Almighty? Him, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God? What man or angel shall admit the presumptuous thought of resembling him, by whom, and for whom all things were created, that are in heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, and by whom all things consist? Who among God’s creatures can imitate him, who, by the sacrifice of himself, made atonement for the sins of the world, and is the eternal rock of confidence to the kingdom of the redeemed? Who shall entertain the impious desire of holding, like him, the scepter of the universe; or of receiving, like him, the profound worship of angels and men? In these sublime attributes of his character, the Captain of our salvation is too high for imitation. Compared with him, the most renowned generals, the wisest politicians, and the most powerful kings and emperors are, as nothing and vanity.

If we would exhibit Christ, as the object of imitation, we must exhibit his pure benevolence, his fervent zeal for the cause of virtue, his devotion to the honor of God and the welfare of man. In these respects he is to be considered, as an example to all military men. If they would attain the true excellence of martial character, and deserve the lasting esteem and confidence of mankind, they must be good soldiers of Jesus Christ; they must govern their actions by Christian benevolence and piety.

That wisdom of the world, which is foolishness with God, has often urged, that the obligation of Christian benevolence and piety is not so extensive, as we have represented; that these qualities, though useful and necessary in public worship, in the domestic circle, in the chamber of sickness, and in other retired scenes of human life, have no necessary connection with political or military virtue.

In reply, it might be sufficient to ask;—do men, by being engaged in political or military concerns, cease to be subjects of God’s moral government? Does their obligation to obey the divine commands terminate, when they leave retirement, and enter on public life? Are they not always under equal obligation to observe God’s law? The spirit of Christian benevolence and piety ought then to pervade every portion, and to prompt every action of their lives. The divine law is as much directed to the legislator, the judge, and the military commander, as to the believer at the sacred table, or the preacher proclaiming God’s mercy to sinners.

In this view of the subject, we are constrained to remark, that it is highly important to inculcate the Christian spirit on those, who are in military life; because in that department men are apt to consider themselves, as freed from the obligations of religion, and at liberty to deviate from the rules of Christian duty. In that sphere of action the Christian spirit is peculiarly necessary, as in it men are liable to peculiar temptations. Such are the nature and objet of military life, that those, who are engaged in it, are exposed to angry and violent passions; in consequence of which, is there not manifest danger of their losing every remnant of humanity, and becoming ferocious and cruel? Against this danger there is no effectual safeguard, but that benevolence and piety, which constitute the essence and beauty of religion. Where the Christian spirit predominates, it prevents the growth of the unfriendly passions, and gives a cast of mildness and beneficence even to those, whose profession is war and fighting.

How important to such men does the spirit of religion appear, when we consider, that their character is so generally respected, and their influence so extensive; and that, if actuated by wrong motive, they are likely to increase the corruption of public morals, and to be highly injurious to the best interests of society.

What principle can be safely substituted for Christian goodness? There is no principle, which has obtained so great influence over generals and soldiers, as love of military glory; and it may be added, there is none, which seems so well calculated to take the place and produce the effects of true virtue. But it is easy to see, that ambition, or love of honor and promotion, as a principle of action, is radically defective and corrupt, exceedingly inconstant in its operations, and fatal in its tendency. It is radically defective and corrupt, because it implies an overrating of one’s self, and of the vain applause of mortals, and an impious encroachment on the rights of God. It is exceedingly inconsistent in its operations. Depending on the capricious humors of mankind, and changing its course with them, it is fickle as the wind. Its tendency is fatal. Though in some circumstances it may lead to great and useful achievements; in others, it leads to the basest and most pernicious crimes. But what more is necessary to stigmatize this principle of action, than to say, it lives, and flourishes, and yields its natural and abundant harvest in characters, the most depraved and abandoned, that have disgraced human nature. The greatest scourges, that ever afflicted the world, have been formed and guided by love of military glory. The moment we have evidence, that men are governed by this passion, we may consider them, as prepared for every species of crime. The Caesars and the Alexanders of both ancient and modern times clearly prove, that plunder, carnage, desolation, and tyranny spring, as genuine fruits, from the love of fame. If this principle rule, the power of conscience and every moral principle are prostrated, and the door is opened for the reign of terror and destruction.

Ambition, or love of fame, has been called a splendid and noble vice. But it is neither a virtue, nor a noble vice. There is not on earth a greater moral pestilence. Though its features, at first view, may appear kind and lovely; it is deformity itself, and carries everlasting enmity in its bosom. If it could be successful, and execute all its wishes; there would be no bounds to the mischief and ruin, it would occasion. Scorning reproof and restraint, it would suppress conscience, and nullify God’s holy law. Brooking no rival, and no resistance, and disregarding every idea of justice and right, it would excite each individual to seek superiority over all others, and all others over him. The consequence would be the most violent interference and strife. And he, who in the issue should have no superior on earth, would still be uneasy at the thought of a POWER SUPREME in heaven;—uneasy indeed, if he should view that heavenly POWER, as the unchangeable and almighty enemy of human pride and human glory.

Not so the excellent Gardiner, celebrated by the pious friendship of Doddridge. Not so the man, who was once the hope and confidence, and will ever be the honor, of America. Those heroes fought, not for their own fame, but for their country, and their God. They proved that religion has as much to do in the field of battle, as in the house of prayer. It is religion, that must teach commanders when to engage in the bloody fight, and when to sheath the sword; how to bear defeat, and how to enjoy success; how to treat their bleeding enemies, their captives, and their victors; how to conquer, and how to die. Oh, had all the great generals and rulers of former and latter times possessed the spirit of Washington; nay, rather, the spirit of him, who was Washington’s Pattern and Savior; how different would have been the state of the world! What boundless evils would have been prevented! To the love of military fame and civil power we must ascribe a great part of the dissentions and wars, which have distressed and wasted mankind. This has kept, and still keeps the nations of the earth in a state of discord and misery.

No consideration, perhaps, deserves more particular notice on this occasion, or more directly exposes the love of personal honor, than its influence in originating and perpetuating the practice of single combat. What can be conceived more unreasonable, more vicious, more hurtful, or more detestable, than a principle, which gives rise to such a practice? A principle, which leads men openly to set at nought the righteous law of God, and to violate every social and civil obligation; a principle, which hardens the heart against the earnest cries and melting entreaties of domestic affection and distress, and against the still more solemn warnings, and more melting expostulations of divine mercy? Can it be thought necessary to prove that dueling is totally contrary to Christian virtue? Look at the Captain of our salvation. Was he quick to resent the insults and injuries he received? Did he return evil for evil? Did he aim at the life of others, and expose his own, to revenge every trifling offence? Was not he meek and lowly in heart, compassionate and forgiving? When he was reviled, did he revile again? When he suffered, did he load his enemies with angry threats? Did not he say, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that despitefully use you? We must either renounce the fashionable maxims of personal honor and revenge, and decidedly discountenance the practice of dueling; or give up all pretensions to the name and privileges of Christians.

Can it be apprehended, that a character, formed and actuated by Christian benevolence, would be less dignified and sublime, than one, formed upon the principle of ambition? What constitutes sublimity of character? Does it arise from the sublimity and excellence of the object pursued? The object of an ambitious hero is, that his splendid victories may be celebrated through the world, and that he may rise in fame and power above all other mortals. The object of the Christian hero is the virtue and happiness of mankind. Which, I ask, is the more sublime and excellent, the high sounding honor of a weak, blind, selfish individuals, or the solid, durable happiness of unnumbered millions? The object of an ambitious commander is so narrow, groveling, and base, as to deserve no notice, but contempt. The object of the Christian commander is so sublime and excellent, as to engage the diligent exertion of angels, and the benevolent attention of God. What excellence and sublimity does such an object impart to his character? A sublimity, which will forever mock the aspiring views of proud ambition.

Will it be said, that love of glory creates the highest activity and energy of character? Is not the love of God and man a more powerful stimulus? Are mankind,—are all so lost to reason and virtue, as to be more strongly excited and more completely governed by the breath of flattery and applause, than by the honor of their Maker, and the welfare of the world? Are there no military, no civil characters, who display as much activity and energy under the uniform and salutary influence of Christian goodness, as others, under the influence of ambition? Through the favor of God, there are some. For the sake of our country and the world, we devoutly wish them multiplied a hundred fold.

The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company will accept our congratulations on the return of this joyful anniversary. Heaven grant, that you may continue to make the most valuable improvements in military science, and be a school of Christian heroes, till wars and rumors of wars shall cease. Wishing, Gentlemen, that you may attain the highest dignity and usefulness of character, we have directed your attention to the great Captain of salvation, and inculcated the importance of imbibing his benevolent spirit. Without this spirit, mankind, pursuing ten thousand separate, clashing interests, will be in a state of perpetual variance and confusion. But this spirit, by uniting mankind in one interest and one cause, will make what can never be made without it, a perfect society.

In training up young men for war, you will consider, Gentlemen, that it is indispensable to impress on their minds Christian truth and piety. If this be neglected, their discerning fellow citizens will look upon them with distrust and alarm. If this be neglected, their influence may be so baleful to society, and their conduct so extensively mischievous, that their death will be hailed, as the relief and joy of their injured country.

How great is the evil of setting up for examples men, whose characters were formed upon the principle of military glory. These, alas, are the men, whom poets and historians have celebrated. These are the men, whose crimes are ingeniously varnished, and whose names are transmitted to posterity, surrounded with the most captivating splendor. Ambitious young minds are imposed upon by the deceitful light, in which they are seen; and attracted, by the false honors which decorate their characters, to a studious imitation of their vices. Turn away with abhorrence from these contagious, destructive characters, which have so long been exhibited, as patterns of virtue; but which, in fact, have no recommendation, except to a proud, inhuman heart. Look unto him, whom the mercy of God has presented, as a perfect example; and lose not this distinguishing advantage of that holy religion, which you now publicly recognize and honor in this house of God. If all, who are invested with military and civil authority, will sacrifice the lust of power and every unhallowed principle, cherish the humble, self denying, and heavenly temper of Jesus, and regulate their measures, and employ their influence according to Christian wisdom and goodness; there is still hope for our country, even in this day of darkness, rebuke, and peril. The King of Zion deserves our entire, unwavering confidence. His throne is our refuge, our strength, and our safety. Without his friendship, fleets and armies are of no use. Let his gospel prevail; by faith, obedience, and prayer let his favor be secured; and America will yet triumph in peace and prosperity. Or, if we be called forth in righteous war, the Captain of our salvation will go with us, as he did with our fathers; will conduct our armies, and crown us with victory. Amen.

The following are the names of the gentlemen who have commanded the Honorable Artillery Company.

1638 Robert Keyne
39 Edward Gibbon
40 Robert Sedgwick
41 Edward Gibbons
42 Israel Stoughton
43 Elisha Cook
44 Thomas Hawkins
45 Maj. Robert Sedgwick
46 Maj. Edward Gibbons
47 Robert Keyne
48 Maj. Robert Sedgwick
49 Maj. Edward Gibbons
50 Humphrey Atherton
51 Thomas Savage
52 John Leverett
53 Thomas Clark
54 Maj. Gen. Ed. Gibbons
55 Francis Norton
56 James Oliver
57 Edward Hutchinson
58 Maj. Humph. Atherton
59 Thomas Savage
60 Maj. Gen. D. Dennison
61 William Hudson

1662 Thomas Lake
63 Major John Leverett
64 William Davis
65 Thomas Clark
66 James Oliver
67 Isaac Johnson
68 Thomas Savage
69 Peter Oliver
70 Maj. Gen. J. Leverett
71 John Hull
72 William Davis
73 Thomas Clark
74 Thomas Lake
75 Thomas Savage
76 Elisha Hutchinson
77 Richard Woodde
78 John Hull
79 John Walley
80 Major Thomas Savage
81 Penn Townsend
82 Theophilus Frary
83 Ephraim Savage
84 Elisha Hutchinson
85 John Phillips

In 1686, Sir Edmund Andross, upon his arrival, turned out all the Magistrates, Judges and Officers of the Militia chosen by the people, and appointed others in their room, and overturned by degrees the whole Constitution, so that this Company did not publicly meet till after his departure for England.

Ap. 1691 Maj. E. Hutchinson
91 Penn Townsend
92 M. Gen. Wait Winthrop
93 John Wing
94 Col. Samuel Shrimpton
95 Col. Nicholas Page
96 Bazoon Allen
97 Lt. Col. E. Hutchinson
98 Major Penn Townsend
99 Major John Walley

1700 Samuel Checkley

1701 Samuel Sewall
2 Major Charles Hobby
3 John Ballentine
4 Thomas Hutchinson
5 Thomas Savage
6 Major Adam Winthrop
7 John Walley
8 Thomas Fitch
9 Col. Penn Townsend
10 Lt. Col. John Ballentine
11 Habijah Savage

1712 Hon. William Taylor
13 Sir Charles Hobby
14 Edward Winslow
15 Edward Martyn
16 Samuel Keeling
17 Edward Hutchinson
18 Thomas Hutchinson
19 Hon. William Dummer
20 Col. Thomas Fitch
21 Major Habijah Savage
22 Thomas Smith
23 Col. Penn Townsend
24 Lt. Col. Ed. Hutchinson
25 Col. Thomas Fitch

1726 John Greenough
27 Major Habijah Savage
28 Col. Samuel Thaxter
29 Major Edward Winslow
30 Col. Ed. Hutchinson
31 Nathaniel Cunningham
32 William Downe
33 Major William Brattle
34 Major Samuel Sewall
35 Lt. Col. Jacob Wendell
36 Col. John Chandler
37 Col. Richard Saltonstall
38 Daniel Henchman
39 Caleb Lyman

The following are the names of the gentlemen who have commanded the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

1740 John Wendell
41 Joshua Cheever
42 Hon. Samuel Watts
43 Hon. Joseph Dwight
44 Lt. Col. William Downe
45 Col. Jacob Wendell
46 Maj. Daniel Henchman
47 John Phillips
48 John Carnes
49 Ebenezer Storer
50 Hugh McDaniel
51 Jonathan Williams
52 Joseph Jackson
53 Thomas Edwards
54 Ralph Hart
55 John Symmes
56 John Welsh
57 Thomas Savage

1758 Newman Greenough
59 Col. John Phillips
60 William Taylor
61 Major John Symmes
62 Onesiphorus Tilestone
63 Thomas Marshall
64 Maj. Gen. J. Winslow
65 William Homes
66 Thomas Dawes
67 Lt. Col. Tho. Marshall
68 Maj. Jam. Cunningham
69 Josiah Waters
70 Capt. William Heath
71 Capt. Samuel Barret
72 Capt. Martin Gay
73 Major Thomas Dawes
74 William Bell

The company performed the duty enjoined by their charter on the first Monday in April, 1775, commanded by Capt. Bell.

The revolutionary war commenced April 19, 1775, when the members of the company were dispersed, and did not meet again until July, 1786, when the company recommenced military duty under the command of the surviving officers elected in June, 1774.

1798 Col. John Winslow
99 Capt. Robert Gardner

1800 Jonas S. Bass
1 Maj. Benjamin Russell
2 James Phillips
3 Capt. Lemuel Gardner
4 Capt. Daniel Messenger
5 Maj. George Blanchard
6 William Alexander
7 Edmund Bowman
8 Capt. Melzar Holmes.

Rev. Asa McFarland (1769-1827) preached this election sermon in New Hampshire on June 2, 1808.

SERMON,

PREACHED AT CONCORD,

BEFORE

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR,

THE HONORABLE COUNCIL,

SENATE,

AND

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

OF THE

STATE OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE,

June 2, 1808.

BY THE REV. ASA M’FARLAND, A. M.
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN CONCORD.

II PETER, I. 19.

But we have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.

MANKIND have, in all ages, been disposed to associate religion with the most important transactions and events of life. The Grecian states committed the guardianship of the great oracle at Delphos, to the general council of the whole nation, that they might the more certainly secure the favor of the deity, who was supposed, through the medium of that oracle, to communicate his will. Lycurgus, who instituted laws for the government of the Lacedemonians, consulted the same oracle, that he might commend the laws which he made, to the regard of his countrymen, by suggesting that they had the approbation of the divinity. For a similar reason, Numa Pompilius pretended to have had intercourse with the goddess Egeria, who dictated those laws to him by which Rome was to become the mistress of the world.

These men, though not favored with the advantages which we derive from divine revelation, were well versed in the feelings which govern mankind. The reasons which influenced them to consult the oracle, and publish laws under t pretence that they were communicated from heaven, have their foundation in one of the most powerful and operative principles of human nature, a principle of religion. The necessities to which men are subjected in this life, impel them to seek aid from above. Their hopes and their fears lead them to adopt some form of religious worship. Whether the object of their worship be the sun and moon, the stars and the elements, or the great Jehovah himself, who formed the light, and who createth darkness, they must seek relief from their distresses, dispel their fears, and cherish their hopes, by some supposed, if not real, intercourse with the Deity.

As mankind must have some religion, it becomes of course necessary to inspire them with confidence in the laws, and engage their conscience on the side of obedience, that they should believe them to have the sanction of divine authority. This principle is so interwoven with all their feelings, and it is so readily excited on every new occasion of alarm, that no change of manners, nor different mode of education, nor the lapse of ages, can prevent its operation. If improvements are made in philosophy, or in the science of civil government, they can modify, but not extirpate, this principle. In this respect man is ever the same. He cannot find means to quiet his mind in the moment of alarm, nor any prospect to keep his hopes alive, unless he have recourse to some principles of religion.

While legislators of antiquity consulted a pagan oracle to know what institutions they should adopt, or rather to give them efficacy when adopted, we, my hearers, have a more sure word of prophecy. In the Christian dispensation we have more infallible indications of the divine will, and more certain principles to guide us, as well in those transactions which are of public moment, as in the private walks of life. As men must have some religion to regulate their conduct, attach them to society, and enforce upon their conscience respect and obedience to civil institutions, wise men will choose and cherish that which most effectually answers these purposes. They will encourage that system which most effectually controls those passions which tend to the subversion of government, that which fixes on the mind of men the deepest and the most durable impressions of their accountability to God for their conduct in society, and binds them one to another by a common interest.—We have a religion in the Holy Scriptures which answers these purposes.

Hence I shall endeavor to illustrate this general truth: The Christian dispensation, more than any other system of religion, is favorable to the true end of civil government.

Those whose professional employments have led them to contemplate government in all its branches, are better qualified than I am to explain its nature and end; and it does not become me to discuss subjects of this nature; but as I have proposed to prove, that the influence of the Gospel is favorable to the end of civil government, let it suffice on this occasion to say, that the true end of government is the common safety; and to secure this end, there are dispositions in mankind which need to be corrected, and passions which need to be controlled; and they must be controlled y restraints of powerful efficacy, or the safety of a community must inevitably be endangered.

I am now to prove, that the Christian dispensation has the happiest influence to secure this end.

1. Because its restraints reach the temper of the heart, where only they can rectify or wholly prevent the evil. It is in the hearts of men that all the mischief is conceived, arranged, and matured, which interrupts the public peace, and converts the world, at times, into a melancholy scene of oppression and violence.

The heart of the ambitious usurper is that secret asylum where he first conceives the design to overturn lawful authority, and exalt himself upon its ruins. Here it is matured, and his future operations are marked out. Here the oppressor fixes upon the man whom he intends to ruin; and arranges the plan by which the fraud is to be managed. In this asylum, which is fertile in every species of iniquity, the adulterer designates the family which he intends to involve in disgrace and wretchedness, singles out the unfortunate object of his criminal passions, and securely exults in the prospect of success.

Murder also begins here. It has its origin in that malice, or lust for plunder, which being indulged in the heart, become too riotous for restraint. Into this asylum of iniquity no human eye can penetrate. NO human remedies can reach the disorders which rankle here, so as to heal them. Whatever mischief is conceived in the heart, human laws cannot rectify, until it is manifested in overt acts. The officer of justice cannot enter and seize the lurking enemy, before he has begun the work of destruction.

It is however desirable and necessary for personal and public safety, that some effectual restraint should be laid on the intensions of men: for when the criminal design is brought to maturity, and the man has already begun to commit deeds of violence, the evil, at best, can be rectified but in part. The religion of the Bible furnishes this desirable restraint. The word of the Lord is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It arrests the guilty purpose before it is ripened for execution. Here men are taught, that though they may avoid disgrace, and escape punishment in this life, on account of criminal intentions, yet there is another tribunal. They must appear in the judgment before God, who now looketh at the heart, and requireth purity in the inward part, and who will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. At that awful tribunal, the intention to commit a crime will be found criminal, even though the crime had not been perpetrated.

Where the Scriptures have their effect on the mind, they already create some anticipations of the judgment in those self-reproaches which men experience when they harbor iniquity in their hearts. This religion begins its salutary work at the foundation. It rectifies the motives and the intentions of the heart; and when the heart is restored to order, it is easy to regulate the conduct of men. With the powerful aid of such principles deeply impressed on the mind, civil government can, with great ease, accomplish its object—the safety and happiness of a community.

As all these principles are denied, so these salutary restraints are removed, at one stroke, by infidelity. The man who believes and who acts on the principle that he shall not be called to account, in the future world, for his temper and designs and conduct in this, may allow himself great latitude. He can, and probably will, do much mischief in ways where it would be impossible for human laws to detect and punish him. He can deceive; he can oppress and defraud, and perhaps destroy the comfort of families, by his impurities; and if men of this description have conducted with decency and sobriety, it must be imputed to the remaining influences of a Christian education.

If we would contemplate the full effect of infidelity, we must conceive at least a new generation, on whose mind there is no trace of religious truth, and no principles of conduct which have their origin in revealed religion. Among such a people, it would be difficult indeed to secure the public safety. Fines, imprisonments, and corporal punishment, would be feeble restraints; too feeble to control the violence of cupidity: and as to maintaining a reputation, and avoiding public disgrace, they would not be under a necessity of restraining their passions for this purpose; because, in such a state of things as that which I have supposed, it would not be disreputable to commit any enormity which men choose to sanction by custom.

The religions of the pagan world, in their moral tendency, were but little preferable to infidelity. It seems their principles never reached the heart, at least not so as to correct its vicious propensity. In every form of pagan religion, there were encouragements held out to men to practice those immoralities which must inevitably interrupt the public peace. If the principles of their religion reached the heart, they could not produce any useful effect; for it could not be supposed that the morals of men would be pure, when they worshipped deities who were supposed to indulge in all the excesses of wrath, revenge, lust, or intemperance. Men, who have had the best means of knowing the moral state of the pagan world, have testified that St. Paul exhibited a true representation in the first chapter of Romans, when he said they were “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.”

The religion of Mahomet, it is well known, does not better secure the morals of the people: for that portion, which is not evidently taken from the Gospel, encourages them in the most abominable licentiousness. It is enough to say, they are taught to expect sensual enjoyments in Paradise, to reward them for spreading slaughter and destruction over the earth.

2. The Christian dispensation is favorable to the true design of civil government, not only because it lays effectual restraints upon the criminal intentions of men, but likewise because it distinctly specifies the whole system of their public and social duty in detail.

That mankind may be trained up in those habits which will make them good subjects in a community, it is necessary, not only that they be governed by pure motives, but they should also be well informed in the nature of their obligations. It is impossible but that a man should fail in many instances, however honest his intentions may be, if he be ignorant of his duties. The Gospel is commended to the regard of every wise man, on account of the universality of its principles; for they embrace every possible relation, and they are applicable to every case. If a man, with an honest and good heart, take his direction from the Scriptures, he will find how he ought to conduct in every relation, to his Maker, to civil rulers, to his family, and neighbors, and to mankind at large. In every case of doubt, he may find here some salutary direction. If he commit his ways to the Lord, his thoughts will be established. If he have committed mistakes, here he may learn how to rectify them: and if his hopes be disappointed, and his prospects cut off, he will find those consolations which will save him from total despondence.

The Gospel has made the best provision for the education and the government of youth, by guarding the marriage covenant with the most awful penalties. Are you placed at the head of a family, you are taught that God has put a governing authority into your hands, and made the future character and condition of your children to depend, in some respect, on your faithfulness. He also teaches you, that you are responsible to him for the examples which you exhibit before your household, and for the habits which your children form under your instructions. Are you a subordinate member of a family, your obligations to honor and obey your superiors is made exceedingly plain; and your correspondent duties are enforced by the promise of long life and prosperity here, with the favor of God beyond the grave, and the fear of incurring his everlasting displeasure.

That this provision, which the Gospel makes, for the early education and government of youth, has a happy influence to aid civil government, will obviously appear when we consider, that it is in the family circle where the youth receive those impressions which will remain and characterize them through life. Here they imbibe their most permanent principles of action. If care be used in their early instruction and government, there is a probability of their being peaceable members of the community; but if they are not habituated to subordination in their minority, they will not patiently endure it when they shall act for themselves. The strong arm of civil government must be exerted to control habits which have been fixed by age, and deepened by repetitions of sinful indulgence; and notwithstanding what the civil authority can do, the public safety will be endangered by such unsubdued spirits.

If infidelity does not go to the utter dissolution of the marriage covenant, it certainly removes from the mind a sense of its sacred nature, and therefore in effect it destroys those relations which alone can insure the proper care and management of youth. When men no longer believe that they are accountable to a divine tribunal for their conduct in their families, whatever care they may use to furnish their children with exterior accomplishments, or leave estates to them, it cannot be expected that they will be in any degree solicitous in forming their moral character. Such men will generally be either insupportable tyrants in their families, and vent their spleen upon those whom they should govern with a steady hand; or, neglecting all rule, they will suffer their children to form their own habits, and govern themselves.

Nor are the various forms of Pagan and the Mahometan religions much better in this respect than infidelity. They do not guard those domestic relations of husbands and wives, parents and children, from which only the public may hope that the morals of youth will be secured. When we find that polygamy, and an almost unlimited concubinage, were not incompatible with the principles of their religion; and when such abominable practices are encouraged by the example of persons in the highest stations; we may easily conceive, that as St. Paul says, they are without natural affection, covenant-breakers, and given over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. All those bonds which attach husbands and wives, parents and children, are loosened, if not wholly dissolved, with them; and, therefore, their religion furnishes no principle that may be relied on for the proper government of youth.

3. The influence of the Gospel affords the best aid to the civil government, because its principles are unchangeable. They are the same to men of all conditions, and to every age of the world.

Most of the prevailing religions, except the Christian, have been variable. They have been adapted to the policy of particular nations, and to the exigencies of times. The pagan nations, as either their fancy or their fears might dictate, joined new deities to their catalogue. This necessarily laid a foundation for new principles, and the institution of new rights. They had no system which embraced men of all conditions, and which was suited to every form of government. They had mysteries interwoven in their system, in which the learned pretended to receive degrees of light and knowledge in divine things, which were not to be exposed to the great mass of mankind. But the probability is, that their mysteries were only a pretext to evade those moral obligations which were enjoined upon the vulgar, and indulge the criminal propensities of the heart.

It must be obvious, that government is most secure and permanent when the members of the community embrace a religion which is always the same; for at every new turn which the religious system experiences, the form of the government would be exposed to change. If the religion did not bind all men by the same obligations, there would be danger that one portion of the community would exempt themselves from burden, and indulge in liberties which would be hurtful to the state.

The Christian dispensation embraces men of all ranks and conditions. It does not bend to times and circumstances, or to the purposes of men. Amid the fluctuation of sentiments, the changes in men, views of morality, this is an invariable standard to recall them from their wanderings in a corrupt age. Here are no mysteries that are not to be exposed to the vulgar, where the learned or powerful may shelter themselves, and evade those moral obligations which are binding upon the common people. It is not one thing to the rich and honorable, and another to persons of humble rank. One man is not justified by the Gospel in laying burdens upon others, without bearing his own part. No change in a man’s outward condition can make void his obligations to God and his fellow creatures. It is, in short, the religion of all conditions and times, and forms of civil government.

If it be a principle of human nature, that man must have some religion, the government will unquestionably be most secure and efficient when the members of the community feel the influence of a system which binds every man, of whatever condition, to duties which he owes to God and to his fellow creatures.

4. As the Gospel is the same to the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, it affords at once the best security to rulers and to subjects.

Government will receive great support from a religion which adds weight to the authority of the magistrate, and which at the same time guards that authority so that it shall not be abused. Such is the light in which the Gospel places civil rulers, that their authority has a commanding influence over the minds of good men, an influence which infidelity denies, and infidels cannot feel.

In view of infidelity, the magistrate is but a creature of men, clothed with no other than human power. The authority by which he acts, is no more than that which men have delegated to him, if he be an elected ruler; or if an usurper, it is no more than a power which he has assumed. With such views, it is not possible that men should feel any great respect for the office of him who bears rule; or that they should consider it to be very criminal to oppose even the necessary exercise of authority.

In the light of divine revelation, the case is different. Here civil rulers are represented as deriving their power from a higher source than the suffrage of the community. They have a power which is calculated to command respect, and overawe the disobedient. According to the Gospel, the magistrate is not a creature of men; for though he came into office by the election of men, yet when executing the proper power of his office, he is a minister of God. He is appointed to execute the divine will, to correct and reclaim offenders, and encourage and protect them that do well. Viewing him as a minister of the Most High, conscientious men have other reasons to respect his office and obey the laws, than the fear of those corporal pains and penalties which the laws inflict on offenders. If they oppose the civil power, they have reason to fear, that they must answer to their Almighty Judge for having trampled his authority under foot.

These are the powerful enforcements to obedience, which the Gospel furnishes. “Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? For he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is a minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake.”

Although Christianity throws its weight into the scale of civil authority, and engages the conscience of virtuous men on the side of obedience, it effectually guards this authority that it be not abused. It recognizes the rights of the subject, and affords the best means of his security; for though it represents the magistrate as a minister of God, it reminds him that he is clothed with this high authority for good.—Such power is not committed to him of God to be an instrument of oppression, or to be subservient to pride, or selfishness, or a worldly mind; but that he may be extensively beneficial to his fellow creatures. The very consideration that he receives his authority from heaven, lays an awful responsibility upon him; and if good men are afraid of resisting power which is derived from so high a source, the Christian ruler will be no less afraid of abusing such power.

Thus those who are appointed to rule, are endued with a power, in some respect, divine, to carry into effect God’s designs of justice and benevolence towards men, to restrain offenders, and protect the upright and inoffensive; but not to subserve a private interest. The Gospel directs the magistrate to that dread tribunal, where he must stand upon a level with the most obscure subject, to give an account of his stewardship; and assures him, that as he acts in a higher station than others, and has it in his power to perform greater service to his Maker, so more will be required of him. Having authority to bear down iniquity, and encourage virtue, to protect the innocent, and punish the guilty; if, disregarding the rights of the subjects, he has aimed to enrich or aggrandize himself, he abuses not only a power which men have committed to him, but that which he has received from above. He stands amenable not only to the public opinion, but to the more awful tribunal of the great God.

The ruler who acts under the influence of these solemn Scripture truths, must be sensible that his eternal interest requires that he should rule in the fear of God. Such effectual security, both rulers and subjects derive from the influence of the Gospel. The former have need to beware, that they do not pervert a power to selfish purposes, which was committed to them to promote the general good. The latter have need to be no less cautious, that they do not resist an ordinance of God, by opposing the necessary exercise of civil authority.

5. When the Gospel, in any good measure, produces its effect on the minds of men, it begets the purest patriotism. It is a happy medium, between that selfish love of country which influences a man to desire the extirpation of all who do not belong to his own community, and the spurious philanthropy of some modern theorists which seems intended to dissolve the relations of kindred and country.

The pagan nations had each their tutelary deities; and these guardian gods of one people were supposed to be hostile to those of another. It were easy to calculate the effects which such a religion would produce on the temper and conduct of men. It would inspire them with surprising courage when fighting in the defense of their country, under the protection and with the aid of their chosen deity. Accordingly, the history of heathen nations furnishes astonishing instances of personal valor.—But at the same time it inspired them with a savage cruelty towards their enemies, at which humanity is shocked. It was an exterminating principle. This is an extreme of patriotism, if it may be called by that name, which, though it might produce some brilliant actions, is, nevertheless, baneful in its effects.

Another extreme no less pernicious in reality, though more plausible in appearance, is that of some modern infidels. They consider man in the abstract as the object of benevolence, without regarding the relations of family or of country; and that those who are the most remote, and beyond the region of our influence, have an equal claim to our affection and care, with our countrymen, or neighbors, or relatives. The fallacy of this principle will appear, when we consider that the sphere of man’s influence is circumscribed. He can be beneficial to but few. By being dispersed over an infinite surface, benevolence becomes wholly ineffectual. It is lost in the immensity of its object. This imaginary philanthropy tends to the subversion of society. It seems to be a chosen pretext to evade all the social and relative duties, and it terminates in unqualified selfishness.

The Gospel begets a patriotism which is adapted to the real state of mankind. It teaches them, that the God whom they worship is also the Guardian of other nations; and as his providence embraces all creatures so they are bound to embrace all in their good will; and that it would be criminal to desire the ruin of others, though not of the same community. But this benevolence is necessarily bounded in its operation.

As a man can actually benefit the members of his own family, his neighbors, or perhaps his countrymen, the Gospel recognizes these relations, and enjoins correspondent duties. It requires him to do good within the circle of his influence, rather than seek for remote objects which he cannot benefit. It begets the principle of patriotism in the heart, by teaching that none of us are to live to ourselves. Our calculations are not to terminate in our own interest or pleasure; that is, we must not make these our ultimate object; for if we take the example of the great Author of this religion for our model, we shall always be ready to sacrifice personal ease and emolument to the good of the community.

There are considerations to attach a pious man to his country, which can have no influence upon the mind of an unbeliever. His country contains not only the sepulchers of his forefathers, but also the institutions of their religion, the sacred temples where they sought the Lord, sang his praise, obtained relief in their distresses, and spiritual comfort to their souls. It protects not only his person and property, but the privilege of worshipping God according to the convictions of his own mind, and of enjoying those religious ordinances which to some are more precious than property, or kindred, or life itself. Nothing can animate him with equal zeal to repel an enemy who threatens to profane the sanctuary which his ancestors consecrated to God.

The truly patriotic sentiment of the Psalmist is exemplified in every good man, and his country’s peace is a constant subject of his prayer. “Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. Because of the house of the Lord my God, I will seek thy good.”

The pagan nations contended with desperate courage in the defence of the temples and shrines of their gods; but their patriotism, as we have seen, was destructive in its effects. It had no mixture of that benevolence to the human race in general, which has softened the asperity and lessened the evils of war.

In short, where the Gospel has been published with success, it has produced an astonishing change in the views and manners of mankind; and this change is altogether for the better. Men of moderate capacity, who have received their principles from the sacred oracles, have more correct moral sentiments, and they are better instructed in the nature and extent of their relative and social duties, than heathen philosophers of elevated genius.

The Gospel presents enforcements to virtue inconceivably more efficacious than any other religion has furnished.—I have said, it has lessened the evils of war. It has also nearly abolished slavery; and God grant that it may perfect this good work. Where it has not wholly abolished this inhuman practice, it has certainly abated its severity; for the slaves of Christian masters are privileged beings in comparison with those who were so unfortunate as to be enslaved in pagan countries.

The time, and I fear your patience also, would fail, if I were to be more particular in stating the advantages which civil government derives from the influence of the Gospel.

I will now offer a few remarks on the conclusion which the Apostle draws in my text. Since we have a religion so completely adapted to the condition of mankind, a religion which furnishes such effectual aid to government, and which brings eternal life to individuals, ye do well that ye take heed to this sure word of prophecy, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.

Perhaps I need not take a moment of the time in cautioning this respectable audience, that they do not conclude, from what has been said, that the principal excellence of this religion consists in its subserviency to the end of government.—Its great Author did not come down from heaven solely, or principally, to regulate the affairs of society; but for a more important purpose—to seek and to save that which was lost.

The Gospel is to be prized, chiefly because God has here given us all things which pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, who hath called us to glory and virtue. It is commended to our first attention as accountable creatures, because it contains those principles and discoveries which are able to make us wise unto salvation. Still it is a dispensation which embraces all the interests of mankind, in relation both to time and eternity: and since the aid which civil government derives from its influence is at once the most salutary and effectual, it is worthy of our regard in this respect.

If the positions which have been laid down in this discourse be true; and their truth may be ascertained and made evident by comparing the moral state of mankind in Christian and heathen countries; if mankind, under the influence of the Gospel, are made more discreet and conscientious rulers, or quiet and peaceable subjects, better parents, and more obedient children, benevolent masters, and faithful servants: If, I say, the Gospel produces such effects, it claims the regard of political men. Nay more, that man who would weaken or counteract this influence, immediately forfeits the character of a true patriot, and wise politician. He who aims, I will not say to promote the eternal interests of mankind, but the peace and happiness of the community, would not knowingly weaken the influence of one Gospel institution. He would carefully avoid every measure, whether he acts in a public or private capacity, which might lead others to disregard its institutions or doctrines.

I have already observed, that mankind must have religion; and I have the experience of all ages to justify me in the observation. I do not mean to say, that they are born with a holy disposition; that they are willingly subject to the law of their Maker; or that it is their pleasure to honor and serve him. But there are principles wrought into the very frame of their minds, which impel them to seek a refuge in some form of religious worship.

We admit, that there are times when all men do not feel the necessity of divine aid and consolation. This is the case with worldly minds in seasons of outward prosperity and inward quiet. If any, at such times, should suppose it would be as well with them if every principle of religion were extirpated, yet in the moment of impending danger they have other feelings. When the elements around them are thrown into confusion, and threaten destruction, something within impels them to consent to the truth that there is a God who ruleth over all; that it is infinitely desirable to possess his favor, and dreadful to meet his displeasure.

If then mankind have in all ages sought for some medium of intercourse with the Deity, the conclusion is unavoidable that wise men will choose and encourage that system which is best adapted to the condition of the human race, and which meets all their wants and difficulties.

The pious man will cordially approve of the Christian dispensation, as it clearly reveals his duty and supreme interest, and exhibits the desirable medium by which he may secure the divine favor. It administers those friendly warnings which are calculated to awaken him from his slumbers. At the same time promises are exhibited to allay his fears, lest they should drive him to a destructive issue. Here he finds safe ground for a humble hope and trust in the mercy of God. These are discoveries and aids which he cannot find in any other system of religion. When he finds such friendly warnings and instructions in the Gospel, that it contains a remedy for every moral disease, healing for every wound, duties prescribed for all the relations and conditions of life, and safe directions for every case of difficulty and doubt, he sees indications on every page of revealed truth, that it is the will of God, and bestowed, in mercy, on mankind.

But let a man even forget that he is a candidate for eternity; let him lose sight of all his relations, except his relation to society here; and in that case, if he be a friend to the peace and the true interest of the community, he will encourage the institutions of the Gospel; for surely such a man will encourage a religion which has the best tendency to secure the public safety, which opposes the most effectual restraints to the passions, and rectifies the disorders of the heart. He will be influenced, by these considerations, to pay a tribute of outward respect at least, to the institutions of religion, and encourage others also to respect and observe them.

To persuade mankind to abandon all religious principles, would be a fruitless attempt; it would be fatal, if not fruitless. Hence we see, that it is bad policy to counteract and weaken the influence of Christianity; for if mankind could be persuaded to believe that this is not important and essential to their peace, they are not persuaded to live without religion. They have only exchanged that which controls their criminal desires and intentions, for one perhaps more agreeable to their feelings, but inconceivably less safe. If they should be disengaged from the Gospel, they will feel at liberty to choose a system which will encourage them in immoralities, that will prove ruinous to themselves and to the community.—From these considerations, the Apostle’s conclusion in my text has a peculiar force.

We have a system of religion which afforded a refuge to our forefathers in seasons of the greatest peril and distress; a system which we have proved, and we have experienced its beneficial effects. It is to be imputed to the habits which have been formed under the influence of this religion, that we have been favored with civil freedom; and the state of society is more happy in this than in any other portion of the world. It is our interest to take heed to this system, until we can find a better, or at least one as good. It will be our wisdom to encourage the institutions of the Gospel, humbly receive its holy doctrines, and draw from this fountain of unerring wisdom, the principles of our conduct, whether we act in a public or private capacity.

Reflections of this nature must, at all times and under every circumstance, operate powerfully on every considerate mind; but they receive tenfold weight from the peculiar complexion of the present period. The political and the moral state of the world seems rapidly approaching to some momentous issue. The sudden changes which take place among nations astonish and alarm us, although we have hitherto been so happy as to remain distant spectators of the convulsions and distresses which other nations have experienced.

In the sudden vicissitude of human affairs, God is teaching mankind the uncertainty of worldly power. It seems that he will soon make it more manifest than ever, that he ruleth in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and that he giveth it to whomsoever he will. He is giving us sensible proof of the truth of Scripture prophecy, by visiting the nations with terrible judgments for their iniquities, as he has threatened.

We know not how soon we may share in the awful calamities which others have suffered. It will be remarkable indeed if we wholly escape. Should the wars and revolutions, which have convulsed Europe, reach this hitherto favored land, the civil government will need the aid of our holy religion, and individuals will need its consolations.

Whatever will be the result of those sudden and astonishing changes which take place in this age, we know it will be happy for those who have God for their friend. He will fix a mark upon his own people, that they shall not be involved in the destruction of the wicked. It will be safe for that nation where God has many true friends. Their prayers shall ascend for a memorial before him. It will, in short, be happy for that community whose members honor the institutions which Jehovah has ordained. He will be to them a covert from the tempest and the storm; for he never raised any expectations in the minds of his creatures which he will not fulfill.

I would not excite any unnecessary alarm, much less would I speak the language of despondence. That same kind providence, which has protected our country in ages past, will still protect us, if we have not forfeited the divine favor by ingratitude and disobedience. The Lord’s hand is not shortened that he cannot save. It has been our privilege to have descended from a race of men who were precious in his eyes; men who took early care to have the Gospel established among them, and made honorable provision for the education of youth.

It is doubtless to be imputed to the effect of institutions, that were so precious in the infancy of our country, that we have had so large experience of divine protection; that knowledge has been so generally diffused; and that there remains so great a degree of social order and happiness. We have been reaping the precious fruit of principles and habits which were planted and nurtured by the pious care of our forefathers.—Let us walk in their steps, and prove ourselves to be sons who are worthy of such fathers.

In these perilous times, let us take heed to that sure word which a gracious God has, in infinite mercy, spoken to us. Let us derive at once our principles and our hopes from the sacred volume. Let us honor its institutions, and be governed by its doctrines and precepts. Then may we hope that God will be our God, as he was the God of our fathers.

I proceed to such an improvement of this important subject, as the present occasion suggests.

We have assembled today, to seek the divine protection for those who are appointed to guard the rights and manage the public interests of the State. It is with pleasure that we see our rulers disposed to call in the aids of religion to the important object of legislation. It gives us confidence that they commence the business of the political year with suitable impressions of the insufficiency of human reason, and the necessity of direction from the Fountain of Wisdom.

We have endeavored to investigate some of the effects of the Christian dispensation on the habits and conduct of mankind; and to point out the degree of assistance which civil government derives from its influence. The general inference which results from this view of the moral tendency of the Gospel, is that which the apostle has exhibited. In whatever situation God in his providence has called us to act, whether rulers or subjects, ministers of religion, or people, it is our interest, as well as duty, to take heed to this holy dispensation as the ark of our temporal and eternal salvation.

When addressing myself to those whom I have represented as ministers of the Most High, I should be indeed inexcusable were I to betray any want of respect. But while I forbear to dictate to the rulers of the people on those topics which appertain to their office, and not to mine, I must not forget that I am set for the defense of the Gospel, and that it belongs to me, on this occasion, to vindicate this dispensation, the richest and the most desirable gift which a merciful God has bestowed on our world, and to recommend it to the regard of all men, whatever may be their rank and condition in life.

I will now apply the subject to the different branches of the government; and first to His Excellency the Chief Magistrate.

Your Excellency will be pleased to accept our cordial congratulations on this new proof of the public confidence and esteem. The providence of God has placed you in that elevated station, where your influence and example will have great weight in recommending to the regard to others that religion from which we have the happiness to believe you derive your own principles and hopes. It could not escape your observation, that the light in which the Gospel exhibits a Christian magistrate, ruling over a Christian and free people, is such as reflects great dignity on his office. His authority is derived from the highest source of power, and it will have a commanding influence over the reason and conscience of every good man. He is a minister of God for good, and therefore he holdeth not the sword in vain. But while this gives great weight to his office, his responsibility to the Supreme Ruler of the universe is proportionably great. The abuse of a power which is so sacred, and derived from such a source, will be followed by consequences greatly to be dreaded.

While an exalted station, like that which you fill, is always attended with trials, and especially in this convulsed age; and while the responsibility of such an office is great; you will feel that it is the more important that you take heed to that sure word of prophecy which the Christian Scriptures furnish; and that you take the principles of your conduct, as well in public as in private life, from the word of God.

Allow me to assure your Excellency, that, taking this unerring word for your rule, it will be a lamp to your feet, and a light to your paths. You will find support, equal to every trial, and safe directions in every difficult case: for though Jesus Christ did not undertake to legislate for mankind, yet he established those principles which are profitable to direct in all the relations of life.

We pray, Sir, that you may be favored with the divine direction, and experience divine support; and that, closing a long life, devoted to public employments, you may be approved as a faithful steward in the household of God, and be established in a state of everlasting rest.

Those who compose the Honorable Council, Senate, and House of Representatives, will permit me respectfully to recommend the religion of the Gospel to their regard, not only as men, but as rulers. I trust, that in the course of this exercise, it has been made evident, that where the principles of the Gospel have been understood and felt, they have given stability and effect to the government; though I will not pretend to have offered anything new.

If this truth, however, has been established; and we wish that everyone would satisfy himself on a subject of such moment, for it does not avoid, but invite, investigation; then the conclusion, which has been already suggested, is unavoidable.

It would be destructive policy, to counteract or weaken the influence of the doctrines and institutions of our holy religion. It would enfeeble the hands of rulers, and paralyze the nerves of government. It would disengage mankind from restraints which alone can reach the source of those evils that government was designed to recify, and leave them at liberty to adopt such system, for themselves, as would encourage them to commit every kind and degree of iniquity. It would, in short, set open the gates through which an overwhelming deluge of fraud, deceit, oppression, violence, profaneness, intemperance, and impurity, would pour in upon us, and lay waste this goodly heritage which our fathers left us.

We feel confident, Legislators, that none of you are disposed to try the desperate experiment. For should you weaken the influence of the Christian dispensation, or persuade mankind to abandon it, you have not persuaded them to abandon all religious principles. Such an attempt would be fruitless. It would be opposed by those hopes and fears which are wrought into the frame of every man’s mind. You only leave them to adopt such principles as will be infinitely less favorable to correct morality, and to the designs of civil government.

It is, then, far more safe, that we cherish the system which made our forefathers a respectable and happy people, and which has maintained among us, even to this day, a good degree of social order and happiness.—What then is the conclusion from these principles? It is obviously this—As men, and accountable creatures, we are all bound to respect the Sabbath, and keep it, and encourage the institution of preaching.

But you are called to act in another relation. An enlightened people have committed to your trust their most valuable temporal interests. In the discharge of this important trust, you will feel bound to take your principles from the oracles of unerring truth.—But this is not all. As political men, you will feel an additional enforcement to give all the efficacy in your power, by your personal example and official influence, to that religion which will strengthen your own hands as rulers, and which begets in the minds of people a confidence in government, and the principle and habit of obedience.

The recollection that you are called to legislate for one section of a community, the most happy and enlightened in the world, will naturally lead you to inquire by what means so much knowledge has been diffused, and so great a degree of social order and happiness has been maintained among us. If, in the result of such an inquiry, you find, as I am persuaded you will, that the happy state of society here, is in a great measure to be imputed to the divine blessing on the means of religious improvement, this will be a powerful inducement to regard and encourage these truths and institutions as the most effectual means to perpetuate our tranquility.

It is our prayer, that you may commence and proceed in the important business for which you are convened, under the divine guidance; that you may enjoy health and happiness; and when every earthly distinction shall be leveled in the dust, may you partake of the final rewards of good and faithful servants, in that Kingdom which will endure forever.

I conclude, with a few words to this numerous assembly.

This day, fellow citizens, exhibits to our eyes a sensible proof that our civil liberties are not yet wrested from us; and that the storm which has overwhelmed nations, and involved millions of our fellow creatures in want and wretchedness, has not yet reached us. The favors by which we are distinguished, demand our unfeigned gratitude to that Almighty Being, who holds in his hands the destiny of nations. Especially it becomes us to be the more thankful, that we are favored with a religion which reveals the whole system of our duty, and which is able to make us wise unto salvation.

I would devoutly hope, that in this assembly of people, who inherit the spirit of freedom, and many peculiar privileges, from pious ancestors, there are but few, if any, who wish that the principles of the Gospel were extirpated. If I were to address a congregation of this description, I would inquire, What advantage can you promise yourselves, should you succeed in your wishes? Would it make one soul more happy, or would it better the moral condition of mankind? Alas! if the Christian system should fall, the only remaining comfort of many would fall with it. I mean, those who are pinched with penury and want, and groaning under oppression, have nothing to make their condition tolerable, but those prospects of rest and peace beyond the grave, which they derive from the provisions and promises of the Gospel.

As to the moral state of mankind, as you weaken the influence of the Gospel, you will give a freedom and momentum to vice, that it will burst through every human restraint, and eventually dissolve the bonds of society.

In this age, infidels themselves begin to tremble at the result of their own work, and acknowledge that mankind must have religion. Public order and personal security require it. They find, that infidelity is an unnatural monster that threatens to devour its own children.

The present age has furnished melancholy proof, that when mankind are disengaged from the restraints of religion, they will go to greater excesses of violence than was expected. It is therefore generally conceded, that personal safety and public order absolutely require that some kind of religious institutions should be maintained. When we obtain such a concession that mankind must have religion, we ask, is it wise, is it consistent with prudence and correct policy, to reject that system which our forefathers received, or withdraw your support from those institutions whose salutary effects have been proved, until you have found some other system which you are sure will be at least equally beneficial and safe? It cannot be wise to hazard the experiment which promises no certain good, but much probable evil.

As you regard your personal happiness, and as you wish that your civil privileges may be perpetuated, let your choice always fall on those men to rule over you, who give evidence that they fear God, and regard his word and ordinances: and having chosen such men, give them your confidence and support.

Especially cultivate an acquaintance with the principles of our holy religion. Honor and observe its institutions. Such public calamities may come upon us, and we may experience such vicissitudes even in the present life, that we shall need all its consolations. In this we shall find a covert from the tempest and the storm. It will be our support under trials, our relief from distress, our hope in death, and our defense and joy in the eternal world.