Categories: Sermons

Jonathan French (1740-1809) preached this sermon in Massachusetts on May 25, 1796.

S E R M O N

PREACHED BEFORE

His Excellency SAMUEL ADAMS, Esq.

GOVERNOUR;

His Honor MOSES GILL, Esq.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOUR;

THE HONOURABLE THE

COUNCIL, SENATE, AND HOUSE OF

REPRESENTATIVES,

OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,

May 25, 1796.

BEING THE DAY OF

GENERAL ELECTION.

By Jonathan French, A. M.
Pastor of a CHURCH in ANDOVER.

Extract from the Journal.
Attest.
HENRY WARREN, C. H. R.

WHEREFORE YE MUST NEEDS BE SUBJECT,
NOT ONLY FOR WRATH, BUT FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE

The Apostle Paul appears to have been an adept in philosophy, ethics and politics. In his acquaintance with human nature he was equaled by few. Knowing the will of his divine Teacher, and having imbibed his spirit, with irresistible arguments, enforced by a captivating address, and all the power of rhetoric, he inculcated the interesting doctrines and sacred maxims of Christianity. Well versed in the principles of civil government, and knowing the importance of the influence of Christianity upon the minds and conduct of men to the happiness of civil society, as well as to their preparation for another and more glorious state, with the authority of an Apostle inspired by the Holy Ghost; and commissioned from the King of Kings, he solemnly exhorts, “let every soul be subject to the higher powers that be, are ordained of God.” The meaning undoubtedly is, that civil government, through the instrumentality of men, was instituted by the providence of God, for the benefit of mankind, On this principle, civil magistrates are appointed, not for their own honor, emolument or aggrandizement, but to promote private and public peace and happiness, by discountenancing vice, and encouraging virtue and religion. To such a government, well administered, Christianity requires peaceable and quiet subjection; and enforces it with this solemn denunciation against those, who resist such a government; they resist the ordinance of God, and shall receive to themselves damnation.—Such subjection is required not from a principle of feat only, but for conscience sake. The Apostle means a conscience enlightened by the principles of Christianity, and sanctified by the spirit of grace. We must therefore be subject, not for wrath only, but from a still higher motive, a sense of obligation to Deity and the indissoluble bonds of conscience.

The words of the text may therefore properly stand as the head of the following discourse; in which a few thoughts may be suggested upon the necessity and importance of virtue and religion to the support and success of civil government.

The Apostle does not prescribe any particular form of government: This is left to the wisdom and discretion of men; with which Christianity never intermeddles. It is evident from the Apostle however; that government ought to be founded upon the just rights of mankind, and to be administered for the best interests of society. They greatly mistake the Apostle therefore, who suppose him to favor the horrid doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance. Such language is fit only for a despot to an untaught, barbarous people. If this were the Apostle’s meaning, no opposition ought to be made to the greatest tyranny on earth. No revolution might then take place; but men, like brutes, must submit to still more brutish men; patiently wear the galling yoke, and drag out the burden of life in miserable servitude without resistance.

The Apostle teaches no such doctrine. Christianity is by no means adapted to encourage oppression and tyranny. No form of government yet constructed, ever was so congenial to Christianity, as a well regulated Republic. No religion, ever yet known, is so conformable to the genius of a free government, as Christianity.

Whoever critically attends to human nature, the design of civil government, and the influence of religious principles on the minds and conduct of men, will easily perceive how essential morality and religion are to the peace and happiness of civil society. There are in mankind a variety of desires and passions, whence all their actions proceed. In the present state of human depravity, unhappily for us, these desires and passions are frequently at variance with each other.—This circumstance, in spite of philosophy and natural religion, will create a clashing of interest, that will produce those different opinions and opposing actions, whence distressing evils may ensue. To prevent such mischiefs, the invention of civil government undoubtedly took its rise. If the desires and passions of men were duly regulated, civil government and penal laws would be unnecessary. Men would then never err, except through misapprehension, which information and the benevolent affections would always rectify.—But human nature is possessed of the passions of selfishness and ambition, envy and jealousy, which unrestrained would produce discord, strife, and every evil work.

Civil government is a kind of machine, which the necessities of mankind have compelled them to erect for the restraint of such desires and passions as, if let alone, would be ruinous to the public peace and happiness of society. These machines ought to be so constructed and managed, as in their operations to effect that public peace and happiness, which may be sensibly felt, and realized by the people. But these machines require something more, than the power and influence of penal laws, to preserve them in order, and promote their great and important uses. The great art of managing government well consists in laying the desires, the passions and lusts of men under proper restraint.—But how can this be done? The experience of ages decides that penal laws alone are inadequate to the purpose. Though in many instances they may be efficacious, yet in general they do not reform the depraved minds of the lawless, nor correct the vicious habits of the licentious. Fear of punishment may prevent many crimes; but, as it does not destroy the desires and passions which originate them, whenever this fear, through the hope or prospect of impunity, subsides, the same passions will again urge on to licentiousness and criminality. Human reason and philosophy are not of themselves sufficient to secure the permanent peace and happiness of society from the depredations of licentious desires and passions. Further aid beyond anything civil government abstractedly considered embraces, is necessary to support it, and to secure the liberties and happiness of the people. Religion proffers this aid. The very design of Christianity is to reform mankind, to meliorate their tempers, to bring them to discharge their duty to God, and one another, and through the merits of the Redeemer to fit them for happiness in the world to come. The spirit of the religion of Jesus, thoroughly imbibed, would check all dangerous aspiring ambition, and those restless jealousies, which so often disturb the peace of mankind. Christianity embraces the true principles of free governments, as founded, not in usurpation, tyranny, or oppression, but in the true freedom and happiness of mankind. Divine revelation describes the character of good rulers, as men of wisdom and understanding; and requires that they be able men, such as fear God, and hate covetousness. Thus said David, the spirit of the Lord spake by me, the God of Israel said, He, that ruleth over men, must be just, ruling in the fear of God. Such rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. They are Ministers of God for the good of the people. The sacred Oracles teach us, that, though they live, as God upon the earth, they must die like men, and be accountable to him, by whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice; who taketh not bribes, and is no respecter of persons.

If a government usurp an authority, and claim the exercise of a power, with which they never were invested; or if one branch of government should leap its own prescribed limits, and invade the prerogative of another; or if the people should claim the exercise of that authority, which they have delegated to their rulers; in all such cases the order and harmony of government will be necessarily interrupted, the public felicity suffer, and the liberties of the people be endangered. Hence such contests may arise between peace and faction, government and anarchy, as will shake, if not destroy, the very foundation of public happiness. To prevent these fatal evils, Christianity requires that nothing be done through strife and vain glory. But that each in lowliness of mind esteem others better, than himself. That everyone study to be quiet, and to do his own business; not going beyond, nor defrauding others in any matter. Christianity teaches to render to all their dues; tribute, to whom tribute; custom to whom custom; fear, to whom fear; honor, to whom honor. We are not to speak evil of dignities; nor use our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. We are to lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty; and in all things, whatsoever we would that men should do unto us, even so to do unto them. All this is to be done from love to God and our neighbor, and from a religious regard to duty.

No substitute was ever yet found equal to virtue and religion for the support of order and good government. They, who reject these, may boast of their constitutions, their laws and administration; but neither the wisest constitutions, most rigid laws, nor strong nerved officers, dreary prisons, nor severest punishments without aid of virtue and religion can secure the permanent felicity of civil society. The boasted powers of philosophy, of natural reason, and national honor are all too feeble or capricious to be depended on to effect that manly, that regular, and uniform mode of conduct, which is the natural offspring of virtue and religion. Natural religion is of high importance, and its inducements to righteousness and truth, peace and good order are numerous and weighty; but they fall far short of the motives of Christianity and give less security to the liberty and happiness of civil society. The influence of the former terminates with this life; but the latter embraces motives drawn from the consideration of a future state; that the actions of men as moral agents will be rewarded or punished in the world to come. These are motives the strongest and most influential, that can apply to the consciences of men. Without these the public, in many cases, can have no security. The conscientious man, in full belief of the existence of God, and the truth of Christianity, as an honest man and sincere Christian, acts as under the eye of the all seeing and heart searching Deity, who will bring every secret thing into judgment, punish the guilty, and beautify the meek with salvation.

But what has the infidel to do with conscience, whose mind is contaminated with unbelief? Whose principles are destructive both of religion and morality; and whose conscience is feared as with an hot iron by deeply rooted vicious habits? What dependence can society place on such characters? A foe to God is not a friend to man. Restraining laws, necessary as they are for the prevention of crimes can never reach the evil of abandoned principles and vicious habits, so as to effect a remedy. Such characters may sometimes act for the public good; but this is only, when such a line of conduct coincides with some favorite passion—They always change with the current of their passions and interests. Such men are unstable in all their ways.

In connection with the power of conscience, we may instance the importance of the influence of religion, in the use of lawful oaths. An oath is a solemn appeal to God, for the truth of what is affirmed or promised: It implies an imprecation of the just and righteous judgment of God, if what the person declares, be not true; or if, in what he promises, he should not be faithful. An oath is therefore a solemn religious act, implying the imprecation of the wrath of God upon a person, if he be guilty of perjury. Dreadful is the punishment threatened in such cases. A curse shall enter into the house of him that sweareth falsely by the name of the Lord!

The utility and necessity of oaths in cases of evidence and in laying a person under solemn obligation to fidelity, in the discharge of the duties of his office, have been known and acknowledged among most nations. An oath of confirmation, says the Apostle, is an end of strife. As a kind of sanction to the lawfulness and utility of oaths in important cases, the Deity himself, graciously an oath. Oaths of evidence and of office are of so much importance, that civil government would be unsafe without them. It would be difficult, if not impossible to invent a substitute, that would answer the purpose. “Because, as one observes, the obligation of an oath reacheth to the most secret and hidden practices of men, and takes hold of them in many cases, where the penalty of human laws can have no awe or force upon them.” But what is the oath of an infidel, or of a man void of religion? What security can the public have from the oath of a person, who does not believe there will e a future state of rewards and punishments? What obligations of conscience can such a person feel? His taking the form of an oath while he is regardless of that being, by whom he swears, is no better, than solemn mockery. The public, it may be repeated, have no security from such oaths. The utility and necessity of oaths therefore, to the public safety and happiness evince the necessity of religious principles and virtuous habits. IN the days of Polybius such, we are told, was the corruption of the principles and morals of the people of Athens, that, “no Greek could be trusted on the security of his oath.” But in the republic of Rome, antecedently to their abounding licentiousness, such was the impression of their religious principles and virtuous habits on young minds, “that no Roman was ever known to violate his oath.”

The passions of men, unawed by religion and conscience, are dangerous, and ruinous to the freedom and happiness of civil society.

When loose principles, ungovernable passions, and vicious habits take place of morality and religion; ambition and avarice, revenge and thirst for dominion in the disappointed, or envy against those, who rise above them in wealth and honor, united with dishonesty and intrigue, sow the seeds of discord among the people, excite jealousies, raise factions, and disturb the public tranquility; and, if unrestrained, would throw government, yea even the world itself into confusion.

The evil effects of irreligion and immorality may be exemplified from the universal history of mankind. A few instances may be sufficient to confirm the subject.

Whoever attends to the history of that ancient nation, the Jews, will find these observations verified. When Balaam found that every other expedient to bring destruction upon Israel failed, he laid a diabolical scheme to corrupt and debauch the morals of the people, and by this mean effected their ruin. To the same cause, the corruption of principles and morals, may be traced the final destruction of the Jewish policy, church, and state.

The ancient republic of Sparta through the extraordinary policy and rigid laws of Lycurgus, aided by principles and habits impressed upon the young mind by a singular mode of education, existed for almost seven hundred years. While it remained cemented by the force of principles and manners, it bore down all opposition, and bid defiance to the world. But it finally fell a sacrifice to dissolute manners and lawless faction.

To similar causes may be ascribed the ruin of the famous, though short lived republic of Athens. Solon lived to see the fabric of freedom, which he had erected, fall to destruction. He gave them laws, which he acknowledged were not the best that might have been given, but the best they could bear. On his departure from Athens political storms arose; aided by an unprincipled licentious populace, demagogues took the lead, deluded the people, seized the stronghold, and established a system of tyranny. The freedom of Athens was never recovered. That once famed republic, overrun with ignorance and barbarism, now groans under Turkish tyranny, and Mahometan imposture.

The feuds and factions, which eventually proved the overthrow of the freedom, and the republic of Rome, may be traced up to the same destructive fountain of bad principles and dissolute morals of the people. “They adopted the luxury, the immoralities, and irreligion of other nations.” These in coincidence with their own passions effected their complete ruin. Thus that renowned republic, which nothing else could conquer, was conquered by its own vices. “A corruption of manners and numerous crimes, says a distinguished writer, made greater havoc in the city, than the mightiest armies could have done; and in that manner avenged the conquered globe.”

As human nature in all ages of the world is the same, like causes, under similar circumstances, in whatever period or part of the globe, will produce like effects. Happy will it be for America, if we avoid the rocks, against which so many others have been dashed in pieces.

Many important inferences and reflections, apposite to the present occasion suggest themselves from the subject.

If the influence of virtue and religion are so essential in preserving the freedom and securing the permanent felicity of civil society; the cultivation of good principles and virtuous morals among the people may be considered, as an object highly meriting the regard of our Legislative, Judicial, and Executive branches of government. What encouragement then should be given by our civil Rulers, by all influential men, and every class of citizens, to morality, religion and piety; and to all Christian institutions, as calculated to promote such happy effects.

If civil government thus needs the aid of good principles and virtuous habits, to render its operations happy and permanent, it must be a hazardous experiment for any nation under Heaven to reject that aid, on supposition that constitutions and human laws are sufficient without it, to secure peace and good order, and the rights and privileges of the people. Men may form constitutions, enact laws, display their philosophy, and exert all their eloquence in conjunction with coercion, but all will be insufficient for the permanent security of freedom and good government, without the aid of religion.

Reasoning from human nature and past events, we might venture to predict, if any nation should have the temerity to cast off morality and religion, as unnecessary to the happiness of civil society, it would in the event pay dearly for the experiment; and find, perhaps too late, that their own folly was their ruin.

From the foregoing observations we may infer the high importance of a virtuous education.

In countries, where religion is only the tool of states and of tyrants, the more ignorant the people are, the more easily they may be imposed upon and enslaved. It is the interest of such governments therefore, to keep the great mass of the people in ignorance. But, as mankind were not made for slavery, an enlightened virtuous people will never suffer themselves to be long enslaved. If, through supiness and inattention, tyranny should slip on the galling yoke, and fasten upon them the chain of slavery, they would soon feel their misery, and with a manly, virtuous resentment raise the all conquering arm of liberty, and break the yoke, as a with of straw, and snap the chain, as a spiders web.

A virtuous education is essential to the permanent felicity of all free governments. “The infant mind, says a writer of note, left to its own untutored dictates, inevitably wanders into such follies and vices, as tend to the destruction of itself and others.” “The early and continued culture of the heart can alone produce such upright manners and principles, as are necessary to check and subdue the passions of the soul; and liberty can only arise from a general subordination of these to the public welfare.”

Education in general forms the characters of men. Principles instilled into the mind, and habits formed in early life, lay a foundation, for the happiness or misery of the world. They verify the sacred maxim, train up a child in the way, he should go; and, when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Impressed with these ideas, our pious ancestors made the earliest exertion for the diffusion of knowledge, and the promotion of morality and religion among the people. Their design has been happily aided by many Christian Patriots, whose numerous charitable donations for the promotion of knowledge and religion, while they have so greatly served to advance private and public happiness, have at the same time laid up for the pious and charitable donors a rich inheritance in heaven!

We are happy in living under a government, where the great object of promoting learning and religion has arrested the attention of our wise and patriotic Legislators, who from time to time have enacted such laws, as, if carried into execution, would prove the grand palladium of our republic. Our Legislators have declared that “a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue is necessary to the prosperity of every state, and to the very existence of a Commonwealth.”

To promote the great design of a virtuous education, a present existing law of this Commonwealth, makes it the “duty of the President, Professors, and Tutors of the University in Cambridge, Preceptors of Academies, and all other Instructors of youth, to take diligent care, and to exert their best endeavours, so impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles of piety, justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love to their country, humanity and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry, and frugality, chastity, moderation, and temperance, and those other virtues, which are the ornament of human society, and the basis, upon which the republican constitution is structured; and it shall be the duty of such Instructors; to endeavor to lead those under their care (as their ages and capacities will admit) into a particular understanding of the tendency of the before mentioned virtues, to preserve, and perfect a republican constitution, and to secure the blessings of liberty as well, as to promote their future happiness; and the tendency of the opposite vices to slavery.”

May this monument of the wisdom and patriotism of the Legislature, who framed it, be as lasting, as the world.

This leads us to reflect upon the importance of entrusting the instruction of youth to those only, who are persons of religion and good morals; who will teach by example as well, as precept.

Happy will it be for these rising States, if our Legislative and Executive branches of government be impressed with the idea, that without close attention to the virtuous education of youth, republicanism, freedom, and public happiness can never be preserved.

From a regard to the happiness of the people, private and public, present and future, our civil fathers, we may hope, will give every encouragement to literary and religious institutions. Parsimony in the support of education and religion is a kind of sacrilege, in which we cheat ourselves and the rising generation, injure the public, and rob God of his due.

If morality and religion be thus essential to public happiness and the support of free governments, it must then be of high importance, that our rulers be virtuous and good men.

I believe it may be considered, as an unfailing maxim, that no man can in heart be a true republican, who is not a person of piety and good morals. An infidel, immoral true republican is a solecism in language. Consequently no man, who is unfriendly to religion in profession or practice, ought to be entrusted with any important concerns in government. If it be pleaded, that bad men in many instances have done great good to the public; it may be replied, this happens only, when the selfish principles and passions chance to coincide with the public good. Such cannot be confided in. Special caution ought to be used against all those, who treat Christianity with contempt. Whatever such men may pretend, I appeal to the serious part of the community, whether an enemy to the cross of Christ can be a friend to mankind? The liberties of the people can never be safe in the hands of unprincipled men. While the following maxim remains an eternal truth, “That can never be politically right, which is immorally wrong;” an unprincipled man can never be a good politician, and ought never to be confided in by the people.

The example of wise and religious rulers, if justly esteemed, will have great influence upon the people.—For, in a general way, we may say with the wise son of Sirach, “As is the judge of the people himself, so are his officers; and what manner of man the ruler of the city is, such are they, that dwell therein.” From the imitative nature of man, the power of example lays an indispensible obligation upon rulers, and upon all influential men, to exhibit an example of virtue and piety in all their words and actions.

Happy must it be for that people, whose rulers feel the weight of this obligation. Bad examples are always contagious. The higher men are called in life, the greater in general is the influence of their example. If legislators disregard the laws, they have framed, they practically declare such laws are of no consequence.—One of the most effectual methods, to induce men to obey the laws, is for those, who prescribe them, to set the example. Highly favored is that people, whose legislators may each, with an honest heart say, as a great and wise ruler in Israel said to the people, “look on me, as I do, so do ye.”

In every view it must be the highest wisdom in all elections to have an eye to the religious character of men as well, as to the other qualifications. What can have a greater influence upon the minds and consciences of Rulers, to excite them to fidelity in discharge of their duties of their office, than an habitual sense of the all seeing eye of Deity, joined to a firm persuasion, that the most exalted, who live, as Gods on earth, must die like men, and appear at the awful tribunal of God, who is no respecter of persons, and be adjuged and rewarded according to their works.

If the influence of religion be so essential to public happiness; then the encouraging of virtue and piety, and discountenancing of all profanity, intemperance, profanation of the Lord’s day; all public shows, and plays, and everything, which tends to dissipate the minds, and corrupt the morals of youth, or the people at large, claim the attention of our wise and virtuous Rulers, the guardians of our laws and liberties. On some of these vices, particularly on profanity, intemperance, and profanation of the holy Sabbath, with their baneful influence upon society, I might expatiate, were it not that I should intrude too much upon your patience. One vice however I cannot forbear to mention. I mean slander or detraction. This, whether it proceed from the tongue, the pen, or the press, is an evil of the meanest, blackest die, and of the most mischievous tendency. Its envenomed shafts often aim a deadly blow at the fairest and most important characters, to wound and destroy that good name, which is better, than great riches; yea, that is next to life itself. When long tried virtue, distinguished merit, and signal services are repaid with ingratitude and abuse, an it be expected, that men of integrity will be willing to continue in the service of their country? If men of this character be driven from office, and others succeed them, who prefer private emolument to the public welfare, we shall, when too late, rue the folly and wickedness of that conduct, which produced the change. Slander is an evil of such magnitude, that no bounds can be set to its mischievous consequence. Well might the wise preacher call the defamer a madman, who casteth fire-brands, arrows, and death. With infinite reason did the inspired Apostle represent the defaming tongue, as a fire, a world of iniquity, that setteth on fire the course of nature; and as set on fire of hell.

There is nothing however, to be feared from an open, manly, honest, and decent investigation of public men and measures. The right of free discussion and private judgment is the glory of every free American. But, when this degenerates into falsehood, sourility, and personal abuse; no indignation nor contempt can be too great to be expressed against it.—Happy, thrice happy will it be for America, when the principles of Christianity, and the energy of good morals shall influence every heart, dictate every tongue, and guide in every action. Then will harmony of opinion, peace, and truth pervade every part of the United States. Then will wrath and bitterness cease, faction hide its monstrous head, iniquity be done away, and, the kingdom of the Redeemer flourish.

We must pass over many other inferences and reflections, which naturally suggest themselves from this fruitful subject.

This day recalls to our grateful remembrance, what we have heard with our ears, and our Fathers have told us concerning the great things our all gracious God hath done for this land. Our pious ancestors, on account of the dissoluteness of manners and licentiousness of the youth, among whom they resided, “and fearing their posterity through these temptations and vicious examples would degenerate, and religion die among them; for the sake of purity of worship, and liberty of conscience, and from a hope of laying a foundation for the propagation of the kingdom of Christ,” left all that was dear in their native country, and planted themselves in this then barbarous land.—From small beginnings, by a series of almost miraculous events, the United States have arisen into an extensive, flourishing nation.

And now, with respect to our constitutions, laws, and administration, civil and religious privileges, and with respect to our commercial and agricultural interests, may it not be affirmed, without an hyperbole, that we are the happiest nation, that has existed, since the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy at the creation of the world.

What gratitude is due to Heaven on this occasion, for our State and Federal governments, and for the precious privileges and blessings, we enjoy under them? With what grateful sensations should we remember that wise and valiant band of statesmen, warriors, and other patriots, whose great exertions have been employed in pulling down the strong holds of tyranny and oppression, and in rearing up the pillars of liberty, peace, and public happiness? To do full justice to whose characters, would beggar the power of language. May their memories remain indelibly engraven on the heart of every American! But who, O who can render adequate thanks to God for WASHINGTON—whose wisdom and integrity, firmness and magnanimity, have excited the astonishment of the nations of the earth, and added a new wonder to the political world!

What is wanting, to render our national happiness as complete, as the present state of things will permit, but a just estimate of the numerous public blessings, whereby we are distinguished from other nations, due gratitude to Heaven, and an expression of this gratitude by a correspondent behavior. We ought however, to remember that a state of prosperity is a state of danger. It excites envy abroad, and lulls to security at home. It presents us a mark for the wiles of those, who are well versed in intrigue; while our youth and inexperience render us unsuspicious of their stratagems, and poorly qualify us to detect and defeat them. While we are just and faithful in the fulfillment of our engagements to all, as free and independent States, may we be proof against foreign arts, and foreign influence from every quarter.

On this auspicious anniversary, while many nations are sitting in darkness, others are involved in the horrors of war, struggling for the blessings we enjoy, and are groaning to be delivered from calamity, to behold our civil fathers, the heads of our tribes, here peaceably assembled to transact the great affairs of state, what heart does not swell with gratitude to Heaven? What tongue is not ready to break forth into a song of praise.

His Excellency the Governor, his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, the honorable the Council, and the honorable the Members of Legislature, will please to accept my warmest and most respectful congratulations on this important, joyful occasion. May Almighty God take your Excellency and Honors into his most holy protection! Influenced by the best of principles, the peaceable religion of the Prince of Peace, may wisdom and unanimity attend your counsels and decisions; that the people may rejoice and say, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath set such wise and good men to rule over us. Wherefore let us be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake.

May the various branches of the State and Federal governments, under the influence of the religion of Jesus, each in its proper sphere, like the various orbs above, keep their proper places and balances, the one never encroaching upon, or interfering with the other, move on in harmonious rounds till time shall be no more!

If such be the importance of morality and religion to the support of the freedom and happiness of society; my much respected fathers and brethren in the ministry will never be wanting in their exertions to promote religious principles, and the Christian virtues among the people. I am happy in believing the great body of the Clergy, with a very few exceptions, are firm friends to our State and Federal governments, to our constituted authorities, to virtue and religion, peace and good order among the people. And, if their united exertions and patient sufferings in effecting the American revolution are marks of patriotism, may they not justly lay claim to the title of Christian patriots? When the divine Saviour commands us to render to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s—When the inspired Paul solemnly charges Titus to put his hearers in mind to obey magistrates, and to be ready to every good work—When the inspired Peter solemnly exhorts his hearers to submit themselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake—When we hear the inspired Jude denouncing his anathemas against those, who despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities; with such divine commands, and enforcing examples before us, on any great emergency, should the Clergy show indifference, and not exert their influence to save their country; might not our divine Lord and Master say, as in another case, I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.—In every serious danger, on every important crisis, for Zion’s sake they will not hold their peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake, they will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth, as brightness, and the salvation thereof, as a lamp that burneth. They will plead that God will spare his people, that none among the nations of the earth may say of America, where is now their God?

In a word, may the consideration of the great importance of virtue and religion to our public and private happiness, both present and future, engage every class of citizens to cultivate the Christian temper, and to promote sobriety, peace, and good order in every sphere of action; that our peace may be as a river, and our righteousness, as the waves of the sea! May the holy Spirit of the Lord be poured out upon all the nations of the earth; and that kingdom, which consisteth in righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Ghost, universally prevail! That instead of wars and bloodshed, Kings may become nursing Fathers, and Queens nursing Mothers to the people of God. Then will that ancient prophecy be fulfilled, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

FINIS.

Nathanael Emmons (1745-1840) graduated from Yale in 1767. He was pastor of a church in Franklin, Mass. from 1773 until his retirement in 1827. He received his D.D. from Dartmouth in 1798. He helped found and served as the first president of the Massachusetts Missionary Society. This election sermon was preached by Dr. Bassett in Boston on May 30, 1798.

SERMON,

PREACHED BEFORE

His Excellency INCREASE SUMNER, Esq.

Governor;

His Honor MOSES GILL, Esq.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR;

The Honorable the COUNCIL, SENATE,

AND

HOUSE OF REPRESENTTIVES,

OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,

MAY 30, 1798.

BEING THE DAY OF

GENERAL ELECTION.

By NATHANAEL EMMONS, A. M.

Pastor of the Church in Franklin.

BOSTON;

Printed for the State.

1798.

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

ORDERED, That Mr. Fisher, of W. Mr. Coffin, Mr. Williams, of P. Mr. Slocum and Mr. Phelps, be a Committee to wait on the Rev. Mr. EMMONS, and in the name of the House to thank him for his Sermon, this day delivered before His Excellency the Governor, the Honorable Council, and the two Branches of the Legislature, and to request a copy thereof for the press.

Attest, HENRY WARREN, Clerk.

The prosperity of this noble ruler, clearly appears from the whole history of his life. Though, in his youth, he was carried away captive from Judea to Babylon; yet that dark and distressing scene soon opened the way to a brighter prospect. His high descent, his graceful appearance, and his shining talents, secured the royal favor, and the peculiar privilege of a public education. Having finished his academical course, he was presented, in usual form, before the reigning monarch; who, strictly inquiring into his proficiency in learning, found him not only superior to all his companions, but ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in all his realm. Pleased with this promising youth, he took him into his own presence, and employed him in his own service. This was only a short and easy step to higher preferment. Being called to tell, and to interpret the king’s dream, which no other man was able to do, he was immediately advanced above all the governors in the province of Babylon. Though he had now scarcely reached the years of manhood, yet he faithfully and honorably discharged the duties of his office, during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, during the reign of Evil-Merodach, and until the close of the reign of Belshazzar. At that portentous period, he was sent for, to read, and to explain the hand-writing on the wall, which contained the awful doom of that vile and impious prince; for which he was raised to higher dignity, and made the third ruler in the kingdom. The following night, Babylon was taken, Belshazzar was slain, and all his dominions thrown into the hands of Darius the Mede, by the victorious arms of Cyrus the Persian. Upon this large accession to his empire, Darius found it necessary to make a new arrangement in the departments of state. And in this new arrangement, he took particular notice of the celebrated Daniel, and placed him at the head of an hundred and twenty princes. Here, in spite of all his enemies, he continued to prosper, until Cyrus took the full possession of the Persian monarchy. That auspicious event gave him a free and easy access to Cyrus, and a happy opportunity of gaining a just and honorable influence over that great and amiable prince. In a word, it was the peculiar lot of Daniel to enjoy the favor and confidence of four of the greatest monarchs of the East; and to sustain, with dignity and success, some of the highest offices of state, for more than sixty years, in a constant, uninterrupted succession. Such another instance of long and increasing prosperity, in public life, we presume to say, cannot be found in the whole history of man.

Successful men have always been revered as well as admired. The Greeks and Romans held those in high estimation, who appeared to enjoy the peculiar smiles of the invisible powers. The same sentiment universally prevails in the minds of men. They spontaneously conclude, that those possess some extraordinary excellence, who are uncommonly successful in any important station of life. And if the Supreme Being governs the natural and moral world, according to a previous connexion between causes and effects; there seems to be a just foundation to suppose, that peculiar prosperity is a mark of peculiar merit. Under the impression of this sentiment, it is very natural to inquire what extraordinary qualities Daniel possessed, which mutually conspired to promote his prosperity, in the management of public affairs. Here it may be proper to observe,

First, That this excellent and prosperous ruler possessed superior powers of mind. The Father of Spirits has been pleased to display the same sovereignty in the bestowment of intellectual faculties, as in the bestowment of inferior favors. To some he has given ten talents; to some five; and to some fewer. The minds of different men are differently constructed. In one man, the memory is the superior power; in another, the imagination is the most brilliant talent; in a third, a clear and penetrating judgment is the most prominent faculty; but in Daniel, all these natural powers were equally strong and well proportioned. His quick apprehension and retentive memory were happily united with a strong and penetrating judgment, which formed him a great and noble genius. This appears from the account which we have of his mental improvements. He acquired knowledge with the greatest ease and rapidity; which discovered a sprightly and retentive mind. And he was able to excel in every branch of science, to which he turned his attention; which equally displayed the strength and symmetry of all his intellectual powers. These, perhaps, some may choose to ascribe to the plastic power of education: but taking education in the most extensive latitude, in which Helvetius, or any other author uses the term, it will not account for every mental distinction. It is readily admitted, that all the objects with which a man is surrounded, and all the connexions and circumstances in which he is placed, will either strengthen, or weaken his original powers. But to ascribe these powers to anything exterior to the mind itself, is no less absurd, than to ascribe the attractive power of the magnet to the needle, which only serves to discover that peculiar property. Daniel, like every other man in the morning of life, was unacquainted with the native strength of his own mind; but by repeated mental exertions, in the course of his education, he discovered those superior talents, which qualified him to manage the affairs of government, with great reputation and success. A party spirit, or the favor of friends, or a peculiar concurrence of circumstances, may chance to raise a man to a public station; but if his natural abilities are unequal to his office, he will most certainly fall, to rise no more. But Daniel began to rise, by the dint of merit, and therefore, he continued to rise from office to office, until he reached the next step to imperial power. Like Julius Cesar, he was born to govern, whether he lived in Judea, in Babylon, in Persia, or in any other quarter of the globe.

Secondly. Daniel possessed a large share of general information, which contributed to form him a great and successful politician. Civil government is extremely complicated and extensive, both in theory and in practice. It embraces all the objects in this world, and all the interests and concerns of men, in this life. No species of human knowledge is foreign to the business of a statesman, who needs to be universally acquainted with men and things. This idea was early and deeply impressed on the mind of Daniel. He was born a prince, and received a princely education. Providence directed his first and supreme view to the affairs of state. To be an able and successful politician, was the single object, which engrossed his whole attention, and which guided all his exertions. And no person, perhaps, ever enjoyed more ample means and opportunities of attaining this object. His great capacity; his refined taste; his studious habit; his early acquaintance with the solid branches of learning; and more especially his peculiar situation, prepared him to acquire the largest stock of general knowledge.

Babylon stood on the plains of Shinar, which was the most venerable and most enlightened spot on the face of the earth. There the residue of men first settled after the flood; and there they continued and increased, until their absurd and impious attempt to build the tower of Babel, proved the occasion of a general dispersion. Though this gave a universal shock to human affairs, and naturally checked the progress of knowledge; yet the feeds of science were happily preserved by the children of Ham, who still remained on the plains of Babylon. That city, therefore, was the fountain-head of information. There all the knowledge of both the old and of the new world concentred. There the arts and sciences were first cultivated. And there a literary society was first formed. The Chaldeans, who composed that society, devoted themselves wholly to the improvements of the mind, and made it their whole business to acquire and disseminate every species of rare and useful knowledge. And for this purpose, we may presume, they not only made deep researches into the works of nature, but also collected from every quarter, the most ancient and most valuable discoveries on every important subject. In such a circle of learned men, and in possession of so many means of information, such a man as Daniel, who had a peculiar capacity and taste for learning, must have amassed as large a stock of human literature, as could be derived from all the labors and researches of antiquity.

But I must further observe, that Daniel had the best sources of information in his own hands; I mean the sacred books of divine Inspiration. These acquainted him with the creation and fall of man, and the universal corruption of human nature. These exhibited the Church of God, as the great object, to which all human governments ought to be subservient. These placed before him a form of government, which was absolutely perfect. These presented him with the lives and characters of the greatest and best statesmen, for his constant imitation and encouragement. These reminded him of the awful fate of wicked nations and of wicked rulers. And these inculcated upon his own conscience his solemn obligations to live and act, like a dying and accountable creature. By reading and devoutly studying these sacred volumes, he obtained the best political as well as religious knowledge. Such a variety of books, however, would have been more injurious than beneficial to him, had he read without reflection, or thought without decision. But his strong, capacious, discerning mind could not be overloaded with learning. Like Pericles, he was able “to turn and wind everything to his own purpose,” and to apply every species of knowledge to a political use. The state physician needs an immense fund of political information, in order to prescribe on all occasions, a proper remedy for every political disorder. Such a source of political information Daniel possessed. He carried in his mind the history of the world, and the experience of ages. This enabled him to act with propriety, in every situation, and always to succeed in all his public measures. But,

Thirdly. Daniel’s extraordinary wisdom was no less beneficial, than his great information. Nebuchadnezzar pronounced him, even in his youth, to be ten times better “in all matters of wisdom,” than all the wise men in Babylon. And before he was thirty, his eminent wisdom was universally known and celebrated, not only through the empire, but through all the neighboring nations.

The haughty king of Tyrus had heard of the fame of his wisdom, otherwise he could not have felt the force of that severe reproof of the inspired prophet: “Thou art wiser than Daniel.”

Wisdom is a term of various and extensive meaning. It includes not only invention, but foresight and sagacity. Wisdom certainly implies the power of invention. It enables a man to take a clear and comprehensive view of things; and, under that view, to form the noblest designs, and to adopt the best means to accomplish the best purposes. But after a man has devised a great and complicated scheme, and made choice of the proper measures to carry it into execution, there is still occasion for what is commonly called foresight. This is that part of wisdom, which looks forward to, and provides against, unforeseen contingencies, which may possibly defeat a great and good design. But foresight is founded in sagacity, which is the power of discerning the near and remote connexion of things; of discovering the peculiar dispositions of mankind; and of penetrating their most dark and deep designs.

A large measure of wisdom, in all its branches, is indispensably necessary to form a great and good politician. Civil rulers are obliged, by the nature of their office, to be intimately concerned with every description of men. And unless they are “as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves,” they are in the utmost danger of being betrayed into measures, which will be injurious to themselves as well as to the public. Rehoboam lost the greatest part of his kingdom, by hearkening to the evil advice of young and conceited counselors. Political storms and tempests often rise, in which the ablest statesmen find occasion to exert all their wisdom, to devise the best measures, to prevent the political ship from foundering. Daniel frequently employed his wisdom to great advantage. By his wise and prudent conduct, he secured the favor and assistance of Cyrus, in restoring the Jews to their native land. By his great sagacity, he obtained the liberty of living according to the laws of his own religion. When he preferred his request to the superintendant of the captives, he replied, that he could not grant it, without endangering his head to the king. But Daniel was so perfectly acquainted with every avenue to the human heart, that he brought his benefactor to a cheerful compliance, even at the risk of his life. So, when the king had signed a rash and cruel decree, to destroy all the wise men of Babylon, he had the “wisdom and counsel” to stop the executioner in the discharge of his office, to appease the wrath of the king, and to preserve the lives of many of his most valuable subjects. By virtue of such extraordinary wisdom, he was able to promote his own and the public good; and to succeed in the administration of the most despotic government, that ever existed.

Fourthly. Daniel was a man of invincible firmness. This was but the natural effect of his wisdom. He was able to think for himself; to form his own opinions; and to comprehend the nature and tendency of his own designs. Having, therefore, once deliberately and wisely concerted a measure, he expected to succeed, and eventually to gain the approbation of the public. This well-founded confidence inspired him, with irresistible vigor and fortitude, in the prosecution of all his public measures. If he met with difficulty, or opposition, he steadily pursued his object, and appealed to the end, to justify the propriety of the means. He entreated Melzar to try his proposed expedient, and promised to renounce it, if it did not eventually answer a wise and valuable purpose. So, he besought the king to suspend the execution of his hasty decree, only upon the condition, that his dream should be interpreted, and his wishes completely gratified. Being ever fully persuaded of the wisdom and rectitude of his public conduct, he was always willing to suffer the opposition and clamor of the multitude, until his wisdom and rectitude should have a fair opportunity to triumph over all their prejudice and folly. Such a firmness of mind is the reverse of a vain and foolish obstinancy, which consists in a wilful opposition to the dictates of wisdom. This was the fault of Pharaoh, who ruined himself and his kingdom, by rejecting the advice of Moses. This was the fault of Saul, who disobeyed the voice of Samuel, and forfeited his title to the throne of Israel. And this was the fault of Ahab, who despised the admonition of the prophet, and died as a fool dieth, at Ramoth-Gilead. But Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, displayed a wise and noble firmness, in conducting the children of Israel to the land of promise, notwithstanding all their unreasonable opposition and complaints. If we consult the history of rulers, we shall find firmness of mind to be one of the distinguishing features of every great and prosperous statesman. And how often did God enjoin it upon the rulers of Israel, “to be strong and of a good courage,” in the discharge of their difficult and dangerous duties? There is no one thing, perhaps, more conducive to success in any important and difficult undertaking, than a firm, steady, unremitting spirit. And we have abundant reason to conclude, that this noble spirit had a large share of influence, in promoting the success and prosperity of Daniel, in some of the most critical and hazardous situations of his public life.

Fifthly. This same Daniel, who prospered so much under the most arbitrary princes, was a perfect pattern of inviolable integrity. By this is meant, that he always aimed to do justice, and to treat every man according to the eternal rule of right. As a ruler, he acted upon principle, in guarding the lives, the properties, and the characters of his subjects. Of this, we have incontestable evidence, even the united testimony of his most malicious enemies. “Then the presidents and princes fought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful.” It is very remarkable, that the most critical and malignant eyes could discover no blemish in the integrity of Daniel, through the whole course of his public conduct. But we are to remember, that he had derived his moral sentiments from the pure source of divine Inspiration. He had read, with serious attention, the solemn charge, which Moses delivered to the judges of Israel. “Hear the causes between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great: ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; the judgment is God’s.” He had felt the force of that divine admonition to every civil officer in every civil department: “That which is altogether just shalt thou follow.” But, perhaps, no text in the Bible had a more steady, powerful, and practical influence upon his mind, than the last words which God put into the mouth of a dying statesman. “The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spoke to me, He that ruleth over men must be just.”

The promotion of justice is the ultimate object of every branch of civil government. This is clearly and forcibly expressed, by an eminent British writer. “We are,” says he, “to look upon all the vast apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object or purpose but the distribution of justice, or in other words, the support of the twelve judges. Kings and parliaments, fleets and armies, officers of the court and revenue, ambassadors, ministers, and privy-counselors, are all subordinate in their end to this part of administration.” If the support of justice be the ultimate design of all civil governments, then the exercise of justice must be the indispensable duty of all civil rulers. They are appointed, not so much to promote, as to defend the public interest. Though they have the power of enacting laws; yet they have no right to dissolve the solemn obligation of mutual contracts, nor to require any man to do a single act, which is repugnant to that immutable justice, which is founded in the nature of things. And though they do, in a sense, hold the purse-strings of the people; yet they have no right to dispose of the public property for any other purpose, than the promotion of public justice. If they grant donations to particular corporations, or to particular persons, they ought to do it, not for the sake of those particular corporations, or particular persons, but simply to promote the public good. Indeed, their whole public conduct ought to be regulated, by the infallible standard of immutable justice. It is required of all stewards, whether sacred or civil, that a man be found faithful. Fidelity in civil rulers is, of all other virtues, the most acceptable to the people, who universally feel its happy influence, in every condition of life. Hence mankind have always manifested an uncommon attachment to, and veneration for, those eminent rulers who have given uniform and unequivocal proofs of their moral rectitude. Aristides among the Greeks, Cato among the Romans, and Daniel among the Jews, will be forever celebrated for their incorruptible integrity. This is that sterling excellence in a statesman, which needs no inscription, nor crowned head, to give it a universal currency among all nations of the earth. It was this rare, shining, captivating virtue of integrity, that recommended Daniel to Jews and Babylonians; to Medes and Persians; to Darius and Cyrus; and to every other prince, who employed him in public affairs. But,

Finally, The prosperity of Daniel, amidst all the burdens and dangers of public life, must be principally ascribed to his eminent piety and devotion. Like other men, who stood upon the pinnacle of power, he was continually exposed to the severest strokes of adversity. He came into administration in troublous times; and had a clear prophetic view of the dreadful convulsions, which were just ready to seize an expiring empire. And whilst he sat in the king’s gate, he was a spectator of many of those awful scenes, which were a fulfillment of his own predictions. He saw the haughty king of Babylon shook from his throne, driven from men, and degraded below the beasts that perish. He attended monarch after monarch to the silent mansions of the dead; and felt those heavy shocks, which falling princes never fail to give. And he was personally involved in the horrors of that memorable night, which sunk a mighty empire in perpetual ruin. But none of these things moved him, because his heart was fixed, trusting in the Lord. Those national convulsions and revolutions, which proved so fatal to others, all conspired to promote his personal prosperity and success. He secured the favor and protection of Heaven, by his sincere and exemplary piety. He carried conviction to all around him, that he possessed a truly “divine and excellent spirit.” His religion was neither a glowing enthusiasm, nor a gloomy superstition; but a pure and steady principle of universal benevolence. He gave God the supreme affection of his heart; and was neither afraid nor ashamed to profess the true religion, in the midst of a country and a court, that were involved in the grossest idolatry. He extended his benevolent regards to all the children of men, whether Jews, or Gentiles. He zealously promoted the cause of religion; and spent days and weeks, in humble, fervent, effectual prayers for the prosperity of Zion. He walked within his house with a perfect heart, and every day called upon God, at the head of his family. This he did; not because it was a common and reputable practice; but because it was a plain and important duty, which he owed to God, and to those whom God had committed to his care and instruction. His family devotion was known to his enemies as well as to his friends; and because there was nothing else to take hold of, his enemies took hold of this, as the only possible engine to work his ruin. Accordingly, they conspired together and obtained a royal decree, that “if any person should ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, except of the king, he should be case into the den of lions.” As soon as he knew the writing was signed, he went to his house, opened his windows, fell upon his knees, and three times a day prayed and gave thanks to God. This threw him into the hands of his enemies, and out of the protection of his prince, who was constrained to expose him to the furious beasts of prey. But his heroic faith and fervent prayers stopped the mouths of lions, defeated the designs of his enemies, and smoothed the path of declining life with signal prosperity. For it is in immediate reference to this astonishing event, that it is emphatically said in the words of our text—“So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

I have now delineated the most prominent features of this great and amiable statesman. His life is a bright assemblage of all the human virtues. And it is a just and beautiful remark, that “the collected virtues of one man, strike the mind much more forcibly and advantageously, that the scattered virtues of many.” Permit me then to hold up the character of Daniel as a mirror, in which all persons, and especially those in places of power and trust, may clearly and sensibly discover both what they are and what they ought to be.

The first thing suggested by this excellent character is, that great and good rulers are worthy of the highest respect. Who can contemplate the pious, virtuous, and useful life of Daniel, without paying him the sincere homage of the heart? Whilst he was acting his noble part on the stage of life, the happy influence of his public and private virtues commanded universal admiration and esteem. The greatest men in his day, honored him beyond the bounds of duty, or even propriety. Nebuchadnezzar prostrated himself at his feet, and payed him the excess of Eastern compliance. Darius gave him the strongest marks of sincere and ardent affection. Nor was he less esteemed in the court of heaven. The supreme Ruler dispatched an envoy extraordinary to assure him, “he was greatly beloved” by his Maker, and by all the principalities and powers above. This was no unmeaning compliment, but a divine testimony to his just desert of universal love and respect. All civil rulers of the same character, are equally objects of the highest veneration and regard. They are ministers of God for good to the people, and the principal instruments of all their temporal prosperity. Though the inventors of arts and sciences, and the promoters of agriculture and commerce, deserve the public esteem; yet wise and faithful rulers have a better claim to universal gratitude and respect. For it is ultimately owing to their exertions, that mankind derive any real benefit from their labors, their studies, or any of their natural advantages. A people may flourish in all the arts of Italy, or abound in all the wealth of the Indies; and yet drag out a poor, miserable life, under the power and oppression of a cruel and rapacious tyrant. But just men, ruling in the fear of God, give a people the full enjoyment of all the blessings of Providence. Those rulers, therefore, who direct all their views to the public good, and exert all their power and influence to promote it, are great benefactors to the world, and de4serve to be universally respected and revered. For this cause, therefore, God expressly commands every soul to be subject to the higher powers, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake; rendering to all in authority their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.

The pious and devout life of Daniel, in the next place, loudly admonishes civil rulers how much they are capable of doing, to promote the religious as well as civil interests of the people. The children of Israel were extremely addicted to the worship of idols, from the time they made the golden calf, to the time of their captivity in Babylon. But in that land of idols, the parent of idolatry, they were effectually and finally cured of their national sin. This great and extraordinary reformation, we must conclude, was brought about by the instrumentality of Daniel. The captive tribes were struck with his pious and exemplary conduct, in the midst of the worshippers of idols. They saw him pay a strict and sacred regard to those divine rites and ceremonies, which were designed to separate them, from all the idolatrous nations. They saw him daily and devoutly worship the true God, in his own family. They saw his faith and piety stop the lions’ mouths. They heard, with deep conviction, proclamation after proclamation, published by the great monarchs of Babylon, giving honor to the God of Daniel, and pouring contempt upon every false and inferior deity. They were acquainted with his days of mourning, fasting, and prayer, for the revival of religion, and the prosperity of the Church. In a word, they saw the purest piety constantly displayed in the life of a man, who was seated in the king’s gate, and universally loved and revered. And is it a thing incredible, that the pious example and influence of such a great and renowned ruler should awe the minds of a whole nation, and constrain them to cast all their idols to the moles and to the bats forever? The living example of other religious rulers has had the same transforming influence upon the minds of their subjects. We read, “The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the Elders that outlived Joshua.”

Among the pious kings of Judah, do we find one, who ever failed to bring about a visible reformation in piety and virtue? And is it not equally true, that pious rulers, by their personal example and influence, have actually formed the moral and religions character of the people in this land? We know, that so long as all the governors, senators, and representatives of this Commonwealth, were public professors and zealous promoters of religion, the Sabbaths were sanctified; the houses of God were filled; divine institutions were attended; family religion and parental authority were maintained; cards, and balls, and theatres were unknown, and all open vice and infidelity were treated with general and just contempt. Whether this was pure superstition, or pure religion, it was certainly owing, in a great measure, to the example of civil rulers, who meant to form the people to virtue and piety. It is to be expected, that rulers should form the character of the people, and not that the people should form the character of rulers. It was never known, that the house of Israel reformed one of their loose, irreligious kings; but it was often known, that one pious, exemplary king reformed the whole nation. If Daniel had fallen into the corruptions of Babylon, there is not the least probability, that his people could have prevented his ruin. But when they had forsaken the paths of virtue and piety, he was able, by his personal example and influence, to bring them back to the worship and service of the God of their fathers. Civil rulers would find no occasion of promoting religion, by their laws, if they would only heartily and unitedly promote it, by their lives. Let them only live religion, and they will do enough to discharge their duty; and I will venture to add, they will do enough to form this people to a virtuous and religious character. For if this effect should not flow from the example of their virtue and piety, it would be a singular instance, and such an one as cannot be found in the history of any nation, from the beginning of the world to this day. If civil rulers carry the power of reformation in their own hands, then their obligation to reform the people, must be equal to that power. Let me, therefore, entreat the man of office, the man of honor, the man of influence, seriously to consider, that “to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

It further appears from the character and conduct of Daniel, that those who sit in the highest seats of government, have no excuse to neglect the profession and practice of vital piety. Real religion is necessary on their own account, as well as on account of those, who live under the influence of their powerful example. It is hard to say, whether the most dignified characters deserve our veneration, more than our tender compassion. They are certainly surrounded with peculiar temptations to forget their Creator, and to neglect the one thing needful. But Daniel has told them by his example, that they are under a great delusion, if they once imagine, their high stations and public employments, will afford them the least excuse for neglecting the duties of piety and devotion. They cannot seriously believe, that they have greater temptations to resist, than Daniel resisted; nor greater difficulties and embarrassments to surmount, than Daniel surmounted. He was born a prince, and spent his whole life in the presence of princes. But whilst he lived with the princes of Judah; whilst he marched with the army of the Chaldeans; and whilst he resided with the gay and dissolute youth, in Babylon, he remembered and obeyed his Creator. When his office seated him in the king’s gate, surrounded by profligate and infidel courtiers, he supported and adorned his religious profession. When an hundred and twenty princes sat at his feet, and the affairs of an hundred and twenty princes lay upon his hands, he found time and opportunity for the performance of every religious duty. And when propriety required him to submit to the most public and pompous parade; to be clothed in the silks of Persia, and adorned with the gold of Ophir; and to receive the incense of public honors; he could silently retire in the close of the day, and humbly prostrate himself, as a poor, guilty worm, before the supreme Majesty of heaven and earth, and devoutly implore his mercy. He very well knew, that though ornaments and honors might dazzle the eyes of unthinking multitudes, and conceal his imperfections from the view of men; yet they could by no means hide his heart, or conceal his criminal defects from the omniscient eye of God, to whom he stood accountable for all his internal feelings and external conduct. If young politicians, if aged statesmen, if the most dignified characters on earth, would seriously survey the pious and devout life of Daniel, they would be fully convinced, that neither the cares, nor honors, nor temptations of public life, can dissolve their obligations to call upon God; to read his word to reverence his sanctuary; and to attend all his holy and sacred institutions. Dignity and devotion have been, and may be united. Rulers over men have been, and may be, the most humble and faithful servants of God. “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” Moreover,

The faith and piety of Daniel reprove the ignorance and presumption of those politicians, who profess and propagate the principles of infidelity. The infidels, in our Savior’s day, were men of superior rank and figure. And it is well known, that infidelity has commonly been first imbibed and propagated, by professed philosophers and politicians. Men of this exalted character have lately spread atheism and infidelity through a great nation; and attempted to diffuse the poison of their irreligious and disorganizing sentiments among the people of America. Such champions of infidelity endeavor to shake our faith in natural and revealed religion, by carrying us back into the dark regions of antiquity. Hume, Voltaire, and Condorcet, represent mankind as being originally involved in ignorance and barbarism. And they pretend to trace the progress of the human mind, in emerging from that primitive savage state, and gradually rising to a nobler state of civilization, learning, and infidelity. But were they better acquainted with the dark regions of antiquity, and with the rise and progress of human improvements, than the pious and learned Daniel? Did they ever live with him on the plains of Shinar? Did they ever search the same records and traditions of antiquity, which he searched? Did they ever converse with the Chaldeans, with whom he conversed? Were they ever personally acquainted, as he was, with the learned Amonians, who, as an incomparable writer has clearly proved, ¹ spread every species of civil, political, and religious knowledge, through Egypt, through Greece, and through every part of the inhabited world? The most learned infidels of the present age, who have ransacked the bowels of the earth, and the dark corners of the globe, to pick up arguments against revealed religion, are but minute philosophers, in comparison with Daniel. Whilst he stood on the plains of Babylon, with the Bible in one hand, and all antiquity in the other, he saw, as clearly as the sun at noonday, the truth and divinity of that holy religion, which came down from heaven, through the medium of divine Inspiration. All his knowledge of the natural, moral, and political world, instead of weakening, confirmed his faith in the scriptures of truth. His strong and cordial belief of divine revelation, therefore, completely demonstrates, what has often been justly asserted, that infidelity is not seated in the head, but in the heart; and flows not from profound knowledge, but from a meaner and more criminal cause. Is it not sufficient to strike any modern infidel entirely dumb, to ask him this plain, pertinent, pointed question, “Art thou wiser than Daniel?”

Another important reflection, naturally suggested by the conduct of this able statesman, is, that civil rulers have no occasion for the use of art or intrigue, in any of their public measures. Those who conduct the intricate affairs of government ought to be wise and prudent; but yet they should never be artful, or designing. There are, however, professed politicians, who recommend this mode of conduct, by precept as well as example. They insinuate, that no man can succeed in political affairs without taking advantage of the weakness, folly, and caprice of human nature, and making use of measures, which are diametrically opposite to every idea of integrity. Some grave writers on moral and political philosophy, plainly inculcate the first principles of injustice and duplicity. They lay it down as a maxim, that politicians may and ought to make utility, or what they conceive to be the general good, the supreme rule of their conduct. But a great and good ruler will adopt and act upon a far more honest and noble principle: “Let justice be done, though the universe should sink.” Daniel found wisdom and integrity abundantly sufficient to answer all his political purposes, without ever stooping to the low arts of intrigue. These he was able to describe, and these he was able to defeat. In drawing the characters of the king of the North and of the king of the South, he gave a lively and striking picture of two profoundly artful and intriguing politicians. “And both these kings’ hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper.” Whilst he presided over an hundred and twenty princes, he clearly and sensibly perceived the nature and tendency of that diabolical policy, which they employed to take away his life. But he opposed honesty to dishonesty; justice to injustice; wisdom to cunning; and open integrity to all their dark and deep designs. Nor did he fail of confounding their counsels; and of turning their own artful and malicious devices to their own destruction. Truly wise and upright politicians will never find occasion to employ any other weapon than perfect integrity, in order to defeat the pernicious purposes of their most subtile and malignant enemies, whether at home or abroad. Be it so, that our present connexion with distant nations may expose us to the arts and intrigues of foreign courts; yet those, who have the direction of our national concerns, may rely upon it, that a fair, open, upright conduct will be the best method, to frustrate the art, the duplicity, and unjust policy of five, or of five hundred unprincipled politicians.

This naturally leads me to observe, in the last place, that civil rulers have sufficient encouragement to be faithful, in the discharge of all their public duties. These, I shall not go out of my province to prescribe, nor even to suggest. If public men are but only faithful; there is no ground of anxiety about the wisdom or propriety of their public measures. Faithfulness, however, cannot be too often nor too forcibly inculcated upon those who have many opportunities, and of course many temptations to betray their trusts. But it is happy to reflect, that their encouragement to fidelity, is abundantly sufficient to balance all their unfavorable circumstances. The favor of God, and the esteem of men, are the most animating motives to duty. These had a commanding influence over the views and conduct of one of the most able and upright rulers. Daniel found by happy experience, that honesty was the best policy. For, his faithfulness to the Deity, secured his favor and assistance; and his fidelity to men, secured their sincere and warm attachment to his person and interest. As he constantly persevered and increased in integrity; so he constantly increased in wealth, in honor and outward prosperity. Let who would fall, Daniel stood. Let who would sink, Daniel rose. Let who would be in power, Daniel was their favorite. Let who would combine against him, Daniel always succeeded and prospered.

Is not this example worthy of the notice and imitation of all who sit in the seats of government? And may I not, with great propriety, take 0ccasion from it, to press the duty of fidelity upon the Honorable Legislature of this Commonwealth, which holds the first rank in the United States, for piety and virtue, as well as political importance? This large and religious community, are devoutly wishing and praying for a faithful administration of government. They would shudder at the thought, that their rulers should lift their hands to Heaven, and solemnly engage to administer a government, which they meant to undermine; and to protect a people, whom they meant to destroy. Their minds are alarmed at threatening dangers; and nothing can give them ease, but an unshaken confidence in the fidelity of their rulers. They do not distrust their abilities; but they may entertain some apprehensions respecting their integrity, since their enemies boast of corrupting it. But if those who direct our public affairs, would only display the piety, the integrity, and firmness of Daniel, they would undoubtedly possess the entire affection and confidence of this great and intelligent people. Indeed, some of the first characters in this Legislature, have already merited and secured the esteem and attachment of an enlightened part, and were it not invidious, I would add, of the most enlightened part of this Commonwealth. Notwithstanding the weakness and prejudice of some, we esteem it a favorable circumstance, that his Excellency has heretofore filled a dignified station; in which he had a peculiar opportunity of discovering his uprightness, and at the same time of forgetting the subtilties, and of imbibing the genuine spirit of the laws. This, and all the States in the Union, are much indebted to many eminent civilians, for the knowledge, the wisdom, and the integrity, which they displayed, in framing the Federal Constitution; which is not, and perhaps never will be, inferior to any one of mere human invention. This excellent constitution is the basis of all our national safety and happiness. And it is extremely difficult to conceive, that a single American, who is friendly to any good government, should be unfriendly to his own; and wish to alienate the affections of the people from it. But it is very natural to conclude, that the framers of the Constitution and those who were personally concerned in adopting it, should cherish an uncommon attachment to it, and labor to support it, with distinguished ardor and zeal. Upon this ground, the people have a just right to expect, that His Excellency will never mar the production of his own hands; nor renounce those political principles, which he has publickly and solemnly sanctioned, and which have had their proper influence in raising him to the head of this Commonwealth.

His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, and the principal members of the Council, of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives, have not only gained the suffrages, but what is far more honorable and desirable, the confidence of the people, who sincerely esteem them for their able and faithful services. May this operate as a powerful and endearing motive to future fidelity and zeal, in the discharge of their important trusts. The greatest of all the men of the East, was highly gratified and animated, by the sincere affection of his grateful and dutiful subjects. “When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose, and stood up. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: My judgment was as a robe and diadem. I broke the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.”

Such, sincerely respected rulers, are the consoling reflections, which naturally flow from fidelity in public life. If, therefore, you have begun to be faithful in your various departments, be not weary in well-doing; but be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the service of God, and of your generation. Cherish a warm attachment to the government, which you are called to administer, and do all the public good, which both the State and Federal Constitutions require and enable you to do. Guide this people in the integrity of your hearts, and by the skillfulness of your hands. Exhibit before them a shining example of piety and virtue; and employ all your honor and influence to promote their spiritual as well as temporal good. This wise and faithful discharge of your public trusts, will finally put you into the full possession of that transporting promise, which is emphatically yours—“They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.” But, if any of you should be conscious to yourselves, that you have been unfaithful, unjust, and unholy; let Daniel’s counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor, that it may be a lengthening out of your tranquility. For, it is most certainly true, that, if you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God, and despise all his warnings and admonitions, the day is coming, when that invisible hand, which is now recording all your deeds, will write on the table of your hearts, in a language which will need no interpreter, this final and fearful sentence: “You are weighed in the balances, and are found WANTING.”

¹.Bryant on Ancient Mythology.

Azel Backus (1765-1817) became a Christian after graduating from Yale (1787) and entered the ministry. He was pastor a church in Bethlehem, Connecticut (1791-1812) where he also ran a school. Backus was the first president of Hamilton College in New York in 1812. This sermon was preached in Connecticut on May 10, 1798.

A

S E R M O N,

PREACHED AT THE

GENERAL ELECTION,

AT HARTFORD IN THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT,

May 10th, 1798.

By AZEL BACKUS, A. M.
PASTOR OF A CHURCH IN BETHLEM.

At a General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, holden at Hartford, on the second Thursday of May, A. D. 1798.

ORDERED, That the Honorable Heman Swift and Mr. David Leavit, jun. present the Thanks of this Assembly to the Reverend Azel Backus, for his Sermon delivered before the General Assembly of the State at the Anniversary Election, on the second Thursday of May, instant, and desire a Copy thereof that it may be printed.

A true Copy of Record,
Examined,
By Samuel Wyllys, Sec’ry.

II SAMUEL XV. 4.

–Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!

THE perfection of a government will not save it from the evils of faction and party spirit. The divine government itself has long had its opposers. Immediately after its introduction on earth, as we learn from the book of Genesis, the chief of those rebellious spirits, who by a restless ambition had raised a war in heaven, visited the new creation, to sow sedition, and divide its happy inhabitants from their allegiance. He chose the serpent for his craftiness and subtlety, as the fittest instrument to scatter the poison of seduction, and to thwart the designs of wisdom. A temptation, most dangerous and alluring to man in his exalted and happy state, was propounded to the most susceptible of the family of paradise. To artful intimations that they were unreasonably abridged in happiness, and held in ignorance by the tyranny of their Creator, were added the enticing promises of increased freedom, the enlargement of knowledge, and sensitive pleasure. The temptation was fatally successful, and a rebellion hence arose against God on earth, that has raged with awful virulence for almost six thousand years. It called forth the strong arm of power in the flood; on Sodom and its neighbouring cities; in Egypt and at the Red Sea, on a leader that arrogantly questioned, “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice;” and against Korah and his accomplices, who dared to say to Moses and Aaron, the accredited ministers of a polity ordained by God himself. “Ye take too much upon yourselves, and wherefore lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord.” The same restless and ungovernable spirit, raised the Jews against the prophets, to put them to death; it brought the Saviour of men to the cross, and persecuted his followers, until the divine government, in justice to itself, sent an army to sack Jerusalem, and to disperse a wicked, a stiff-necked, and a gainsaying people to all the winds of heaven. What it has done in later ages, may be learned from the encrimsoned page of history, and seen in every apartment of the mighty Bedlam, the great Lazar-house of man: Of man naturally anarchical, disorganized, and seduced by the promise of the father of lies, “Ye shall be as gods.”

As one object will be kept in viewing the following discourse, it will not be necessary to descant on the excellency of one form of government above another; it is enough for our present purpose, that this truth be acknowledged, that faction is, and has been, the lot of every government. The government of kings and nobles has its evils and dangers, which I need not repeat, as they have been the theme of the friends and foes of real liberty. And enthusiastic theorists alone will assert, that elective governments can be so pure in their principles, and so perfect in their administration, as to be perfectly secure from turbulence and insurrection. “As heaven’s blest beams turn vinegar more sour,” we must acknowledge, however degrading it may be to the human character, that faction has thriven most in the mildest governments; and that republics in particular, have been proverbially stormy and tempestuous.

If it is asserted by respectable authority, that, “It is yet in experiment whether human nature can bear so free a government as our own;” he is not the enemy of liberty and of the people who would meet its difficulties, but he who would sedulously conceal and keep them out of sight.

This is my apology for selecting a passage of holy writ, that may lead to matter so unusual on this anniversary occasion. It is a religious duty that we owe to our good government, to be armed against these wiles of faction, these “depths of Satan;” wiles, grown common by frequent repetition; but so slow of heart are men to understand, that they are until this day little considered by the great body of mankind.

Divine inspiration informs us, that the Jewish nation, during the reign of David, were prosperous and happy. When he died it is recorded of him, “that he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honors.” The same truth is also apparent from many passages of the Psalms, in which the glories of Christ’s future kingdom are undoubtedly shadowed forth, in the real prosperity of Israel, under the wise administration of the son of Jesse: “Out of Zion the perfection of beauty hath shone.” It pleased God, however, for a particular sin of David, to send into his family the scourge of domestic discord. An unhappy event took place that awoke, and called into action, the worst of passions, in Absalom the king’s son, the passion of revenge. With a temper soured by an incident, well known to all who read the word of God, he was soon the cause of serious trouble to his father, and the people he governed. When the viler passions are once roused in the human heart, it is with difficulty they are laid. Chagrin, and disappointment, easily agree to acts of desperation. Possessed of personal accomplishments, and the arts of address, young Absalom aspired at no less than dethroning his father, and usurping the government. To obtain these, he went through the usual process of every demagogue, and insinuated himself into the favour of the people. As parade and novelty are pleasing to the great body of mankind, “he prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him:” An essay at show, borrowed from the wicked heathen nations, as unusual as it was unlawful in Israel. But a custom being unusual and unlawful, is often alone sufficient to recommend it to a race of creatures, whose “hearts are continually set in them to do evil.” To administer justice between man and man, in a great nation, is an Herculean task. It seems at this time that the judiciary department of his father’s government, was unusually crowded with business, and as it is easier to fault, than to mend the measures of our rulers, this furnished a favorable opportunity to an unprincipled and aspiring young man.—“He rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate, and it was so, that when any man had a controversy, came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him and said, of what city art thou? And he said thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice! And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” The avenues to the human heart are numerous, with which designing men most commonly are pretty thoroughly acquainted. As men have refined in manners, they have refined in villainy. The state of manners with the Jews in this age, was comparatively rude; such open solicitation might now give offence. So bare a hook might now be unsuccessful in the popular stream. But the essentials of matter and manner in this business have ever been similar, and have rarely failed, when adapted to the taste and biases of a people. By “the way of the gate,” we are to understand, either the entrance of the city, or the door of the court where justice was wont to be administered: Here he harangued the litigious, the choicest materials of a demagogue. Told them that his father had become a child and incapable of managing his kingdom; that the judges whom he had appointed were either negligent of their duty or corrupt, and that bribery, and not justice, ruled in their decisions. And, that he might cover his ambition under apparent humanity, he was indiscriminately familiar with all his father’s subjects. If any man had a controversy, let it be just or unjust, he showed himself his patron and friend. On condition they would raise him to office, he not only promised them more liberty, with a regular and impartial administration of justice, and decried the neglects, wickedness, and tyranny of their lawful prince; he could descend farther, when any of the multitude did him obeisance as the king’s son, he proclaimed his equality, and gave them the fraternal kiss. Thus he stole the hearts of the men of Israel, and a more proper metaphor than theft, cannot be applied to those who seek to weaken public confidence in legitimate government, to answer their own vile purposes. For the people were bound to David his father by the constitution, by oaths of allegiance, and by his divine election and anointing as king.—When God in his providence is about to scourge a nation with such characters as Absalom, a train of incidents seems to be laid, to ensure the accomplishment of their purposes. It appears astonishing that a youth should stir up so great a portion of the people, against a king distinguished for religion, the love of his subjects, and the well earned fame of many victories. But it must be considered, that many of the partisans and favorites of Saul his predecessor, were still living, and out of place at court, who had been in the interests of Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, and who either were fearful of their personal safety, or certainly despaired of being benefited by the present administration.

The haughtiness of Joab, the captain of the king’s hosts, his impunity in atrocious wickedness, and his being suffered to march against his fellow citizens, had lessened the character of David in the eyes of the people. Other public officers probably did not excel in prudence, as a long continuance of power and prosperity, is rarely supported with dignity by the greatest characters. And what was more than all the rest; the sin of the king in the matter of Uriah, was fresh in the minds of his subjects, and had a tendency to make them anxious for their dearest possessions, and their lies. The name and infamy of Bath-sheba, was the topic of her sex, and her power was dreaded.

As an avenging God had laid all these circumstances in a train, the way was prepared for an explosion of the same passions, as were awoke by the conduct of Pisistratus in Athens, and Tarquinius in Rome.

The seeds of rebellion being thus sown in Jerusalem, Absalom, to conceal his designs from his father, could appear religious if occasion required. With apparent filial submission he requested the liberty of going to Hebron, a place about sixteen miles distant from the seat of government, to pay a vow. Meanwhile, his creatures were dispatched to every part of the kingdom, who, upon an agreed signal, were to proclaim him king.

The conspiracy soon grew so strong, that even Ahithophel, the king’s counselor, made “precious confessions” and joined it. When the intelligence arrived, that “the hearts of the men of Israel were after Absalom,” the court and family of the king were filled with consternation. It was resolved to leave the city of Jerusalem, and take refuge in the wilderness. An aged monarch flying with a remnant of his tried friends, before an unprincipled parricide [killer of parents] must have afforded a moving spectacle. As they passed the brook Kidron, it is recorded, “that all the country wept with a loud voice. David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went up barefoot, and all the people that were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.” The good king in his troubles did not give vent to passionate language, or attempt suicide, like an unsuccessful philosopher in modern revolutions. Feeling that this scourge was soft and penitent. He pitied and forgave his enemies, and with the enlarged views of a Christian, looked up through second causes, to God the first cause. When the priests, from attachment to their aged prince, were bearing the Ark of God in his fugitive train, that it might prove his defense, he bid them carry it back into the city, with these dignified sentiments. “If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and shew me both it, and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee: behold here am I, let him do to me a seemeth good unto him.” On being informed that his friend Ahithophel had joined the conspirators, no terms of reproach escaped from his mouth, but a modest and humble ejaculation, that “the Lord would turn the counsel of Athithophel into foolishness.” The same amiable temper also marked the character of the suffering and afflicted king on his arrival at Bahurim, a village in the tribe of Benjamin. Shimei a descendant of Saul, David’s predecessor, took this occasion to express his family antipathy, by publicly cursing the king, and casting stones and dirt. Those who stood round his royal person, felt as all natural men would feel on such an occasion: they begged the liberty to go and take off his head; “no,” replied the king, “let him curse. Behold my son which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him.” During these transactions, Absalom and his accomplices had entered Jerusalem, with the shouts of his accomplices had entered Jerusalem, with the shouts of “God save the King.” But an unprincipled man who is base enough to pay obsequious address to the people, that he may in this way raise himself to places of power and trust, rarely fails either to betray them, or to become licentious in his prosperity. With Ahithophel as his oracle, he immediately did an act, that rendered him despicable in the eyes of all those whose favorite he had been. This counselor, whose wisdom was literally turned into foolishness, told the young usurper, that it was important to establish it in the minds of the people, that the ancient regimen was never to return, and that he and his father were never to be reconciled, and that to accomplish this end, it was politic to maintain a public incestuous intercourse with his father’s wives, and choose a select number of assassins, who might pursue, overtake, and dispatch his father and associates. The first part of the counsel pleased, and was put into execution in the sight of all Israel; and although the latter met his approbation, Absalom was over-persuaded by another designing counselor not to adopt it, but to gather the people, en masse, and pursue his opposers, and wipe them from the face of the earth.

Ahithophel, seeing that his counsel was not taken, with all the factitious dignity of a modern philosopher, who cannot brook contradiction, “arose, saddled his ass, got home to his house, and hanged himself.” As the crisis approached, in which the fate of the kingdom was to be decided in battle, we find our young demagogue rash, precipitate, and parricidal. But on the other hand, the king was cool, deliberate, and affectionate. With all the father in his eye and voice, he bid the commanders of his forces, to “deal gently for his sake with the young man, even with Absalom.” The armies encountered in the wood of Ephraim, and twenty thousand men fell by the sword on the spot, and a still greater number was slaughtered in the retreat of the insurgents. While Absalom on a mule was fleeing from his pursuers, the hair of his head, of which he had a remarkable quantity, caught in the thick boughs of an oak, “And he was taken up between the heavens and the earth, and the mule that was under him went away.”

Intelligence of his situation was brought to Joab, the king’s commander in chief, who took three spears and thrust them through his heart, “while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.” The trumpet was blown, and the people ceased pursuing. Absolom’s body was taken down from the tree and thrown into a pit, and covered with an huge pile of stones. “And all Israel fled everyone to his tent.” Thus ended the life of an unprincipled and aspiring young man, who stole the hearts of a great people. Similar causes ever have, and ever will, produce similar effects.

The doctrine of human depravity can be proved by the history of every nation, without the aid of the holy scriptures. “A dispassionate view of human events, affords demonstration, that the fiery and destructive passions of enmity and contention, are more congenial to the natural human heart, than the mild and benevolent sentiments of peace and love.” ¹ All are by nature greater lovers of their own dear selves, than of their neighbors, and the public good. And as with this temper, there cannot fail to be different interests, and different tastes and faculties, the latent causes of faction, are the hereditary, and perpetual inheritance of mankind. That a human government should ever be so constructed, as to obtain universal support and suffrage, until God has radically and universally changed the human heart, may be a pleasant dream to a philosopher, but it cannot be a reality. I hope, therefore, that I shall not be severely censured, as trespassing on ground which does not belong to my profession, while I attempt to throw in my mite, to check a spirit of disorder and indiscipline, that like a giant, seems to be bestriding the nations, and laying prostrate their government, religion, and happiness. In doing this, I wish not to be thought an enemy of necessary reform, or as unfriendly to the principles of rational liberty. “There is a time to break down, and a time to build up.” As the former, as it relates to government and religion, is more pleasing to human nature, and the latter more applicable to this country; I have, on mature deliberation, determined to risk the popularity of the following sentiments.

The sacred story to which we have been attending, may naturally lead us to consider the materials, of which factions and conspiracies have usually been composed in free governments—By what methods these materials have been brought into action—And what has been the general issue; With the practical inferences thence arising.

I. The materials of all conspiracies against good government, have always been composed of ignorant, or wicked, subjects or citizens. “It is easy and natural for weak, and uninformed minds, to construe zeal for an efficient government; as evidential of a heart fond of despotic power and hostile to the principles of civil liberty.” ²—Hence, much opposition has made its appearance from the honest errors of minds led astray by preconceiving jealousies and fears. But there would be little danger from the ignorant, were they not spurred to action by the ambitious, aspiring, and abandoned. An ignorant man can only be pitied, who is the mere puppet of a fly intriguer, that, like a mountebank, fits behind the screen, and manages him before the spectators for his own emolument.—The wicked, and unprincipled, are much the most formidable class of citizens, which all good governments are in danger of having arrayed against them. While the ignorant may be enlightened and reformed, the unprincipled rarely yield to the force of truth, but are obstinate in error, and will not be persuaded “although one rose from the dead.” The desperate characters, always increase in proportion to the ease with which the means of wealth and luxury, can be obtained, and are the same in all ages and countries. Perhaps a more perfect description cannot be given of them, than that of the Roman Orator, when informing the Roman Senate, what characters had joined Cataline’s conspiracy. Although the description is familiar to the school-boy, it may not be improper to repeat it.

“The first class, consists of those, who having great debts, but still greater possessions, are so passionately fond of the latter, that they cannot bear the thoughts of infringing them. This, in appearance is the most honorable class, for they are rich: but their intention and aim are infamous. The next consists of those, who though oppressed with debt, yet hope for power, and aspire at the chief management of public affairs; imagining they shall obtain those honors by throwing the state into convulsions which they despair of during its tranquility. The third; those who coming to the sudden and unexpected possession of great wealth, have run into all the excesses of luxury and profusion. These, by building find houses, by affluent living, splendid equipages, numerous attendants, and sumptuous entertainments, have plunged themselves so deeply in debt, hat in order to retrieve their affairs, they must recall Sylla from his tomb. The fourth; a mixed, motley, mutinous tribe, who have been long ruined beyond hopes of recovery, and partly through ill management, and extravagance, are persecuted with arrests, judgments, and confiscations. The fifth are parricides, assassins, and ruffians. The last are debauched with city extravagance, such as you see with curled locks, neatly dressed, whose whole labor of life, and industry in watching, are exhausted upon midnight entertainments. Under this class we rank all gamesters, and the lewd and lustful of every denomination. These slim delicate youths, practiced in all the arts of hollow-hearted politeness, not only know to sing and dance, but on occasion can aim the murderous dagger, and administer the poisonous draught.” ³ Such characters, with few exceptions, are the natural enemies of all governments, and readily embrace revolutionary principles. In short—every government that has for its object, “the punishment of evil doers, and the praise of those that do well;” to parody the sentiments of the same author, is a contest of integrity with treachery, of piety with profaneness, of honor with baseness, of moderation with unbridled licentiousness, of sound reason with depraved understanding and frenzy. In a word, it is a struggle of equity, temperance, prudence, and magnanimity, with iniquity, luxury, idleness, and rashness. In a wicked world, the materials are always at hand, to revolutionize for the worse, and with a few frantic or theoretic philosophers, as pioneers, are easily brought to attack the fortresses of public tranquility, of national happiness and security.

II. In the second place as proposed, let us spend a moment in showing how the materials of faction and conspiracy, are, and have been marshaled, against order, and the empire of the laws. And here I would premise, that where the great body of a people are vicious, and there is a weak executive, it is no great achievement to overturn, or check the progress of the best civil constitution. A foolish Greek could burn a spacious temple, in which the highest skill of architecture was displayed, and the wealth and labor of many nations was collected. A very weak hand may throw down that which it requires wisdom and strength to rear, and a very boy, by casting a stick or stone, can stop a piece of mechanism, which it required ages to invent and mature. A French writer boasted that one Voltaire was sufficient to overthrow a system, which it required twelve apostles, and a host of martyrs to establish. To wish bishop Horne replies in the following striking similitude. “When a candle burns, and gives light to a house, many wonderful things contribute to the phenomenon. The fat of an animal is the work of the Creator, or the wax of a bee is made by his teaching, the wick is from the vegetable wool of a singular exotic tree, much labor of man is concerned in the composition, and the elements that inflame it are those by which the world is governed. But after all this apparatus, a child or a fool may put it out, and then boast that the family are left in darkness, and are running one against another. Such is the mighty achievement of Mr. Voltaire; but with this difference that what is real darkness, he would call illumination.” ⁴ The same may be applied to government. In the history of republics in particular, how often have conceit, the ambition, and obstinacy of individuals, who have had credit enough to make their passions and caprices, interesting to mankind. While we peruse their annals, we are ready to exclaim with the Apostle, “behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”

The materials of faction and conspiracy, have usually been marshaled against order and the empire of the laws, in one or all of these three ways. By addressing men’s passions, and flattering their prejudices—By misstating and discoloring facts—And by humoring the taste of the age.

1. Ambitious and designing men commonly address men’s passions and flatter their prejudices. This was abundantly the case with the aspiring young man, to whose history we have been attending. In his exile with the king of Geshur, he had learned the stile of a vicious court, and the pomp of royal magnificence. And as the Jews passionately desired a king, like other nations, his first appearance, as heir apparent, was with profusion of chariots and footmen, and his first addresses to the prejudices of the soured, discontented, and litigious. Error always addresses the passions and prejudices; truth scorns such mean intrigue, and only addresses the understanding and the heart. The worst enemies of free governments are scarce discernable, they dip in the same dish, and like a distinguished member of an ancient and innocent family, talk much of the poor, but have their own vile purposes to serve, by this shew of benevolence and humanity. So long as the world exists, there will be an inequality in personal talents, and property, which will be a source of continual envy and jealousy to those who do not possess them. He who on every occasion, seeks to increase this envy, and spread this natural jealousy of the great body of mankind, against talents and wealth, will rarely fail to meet with success. To defend, on every occasion, the supposed privileges of such characters, as were marked by the Roman Orator, to embrace, not only their interests, but adopt their capricious passions, cherish their presumption, indulge their rapacity, gratify their taste for pleasure without expense, and feed their antipathy to all governmental restraints, is one of the grand secrets of revolutionizing. The specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, is a favorite dress of lurking and dangerous ambition, and the turbulent, and aspiring, always reproach their government. “Such as walk after the flesh,” faith the Apostle, “despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” “With a shew of humility,” faith the Psalmist, “they lie in wait secretly as a lion in his den; they lie in wait to catch the poor; they crouch and humble themselves, that the poor may fall by their strong ones.”

There are but few recorded in the annals of mankind, who have destroyed liberty, and prostrated free governments, who did not begin their career, in these obsequious arts of demagogy [gaining power by arousing emotions and prejudices], and end in tyranny. The exact point between power and liberty, never was, and perhaps never will be found, in this imperfect state; this is a precious circumstance to the unprincipled, as it affords a plausible pretence for perpetual change.

From the disorders hence arising, that have disgraced republics, the advocates of despotic power, have drawn arguments, not only against republicanism itself, but against the very principles of civil liberty. As instability, injustice, confusion, and foreign influence, introduced into public councils, have been the mortal diseases, under which popular governments have everywhere perished: tyrants have taken heart; and nations, to be more safe, have often been willing to be less free. Such general joy, perhaps, never pervaded Great-Britain, as at the restoration. Charles II. with all his vices, was esteemed a blessing, compared to the tyranny of an unstable parliament, and the lordliness of the Protector.

But, says a writer whose words I have already used, “If liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an ailment, without which it expires, it would be as foolish to wish to destroy liberty, because it nourishes faction, as it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is necessary to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.” ⁵ Although that liberty, which at present is contended for in Europe, would be better resembled by a tiger, than a goddess, there is yet such a thing as rational liberty, which it is hoped the nations will not be discouraged from attempting, by the madness of the present times; and, that oceans of blood will not be shed in vain. It is one of the curses of the apostasy, that men can never rest satisfied with the mean of all extremes. The most popular writers on government, in this age, have taken almost the directly opposite ground, from those in former ages. Instead of attempting to define the portion of power, necessary for the very existence of government, their whole genius is spent, in inquiring into the possible consequences of power. It is easier to discolor, and disfigure, and by the dexterous arts of political legerdemain, to transform real existences, into hydras and gorgons, than to traverse the wide field of experiment. And, as obscurity, is much oftener in the passions and prejudices of the reasoned, than in the subject, many, through their untoward biases, have become so entangled by words, and names, that, “while they promise liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.”

2. Ambitious and designing men, accomplish many of their purposes, by misstating, and discoloring facts. As the government of Israel, was established by God himself, there is little reason to suppose, that the vile suggestions of Absalom, had any more foundation, than those of the first great disorganizer, “the liar from the beginning.” Aspiring men, of all sinners, have the greatest antipathy to light. Their counsels, like those of pandemonium, must be held in that light, which in scripture is called great darkness, to be successful. In the terrible convulsions, that have happened in ancient republics, and kingdoms, the true causes were rarely apparent to the great mass of the people, till after their effects were produced. As a harpooner more easily draws the heart’s blood of the monarch of the deep, by setting him a flouncing at a cork, or buoy, than by an open and direct attack; there have been few instances of successful demagogy, where some cork, or buoy, has not been thrown out, on which the populace might flounce, and spend their rage and strength until they might be taken at pleasure. When Pausanias, of Lacedemon, thought himself too great to remain a subject to his government, he flattered the Helots and the Missinians—slaves that were ever ready to rebel against their masters—and secretly corresponded with the enemies of his country. While he was inviting the assistance of the Persian monarch, to help him enslave his fellow citizens, he was visibly the poor man’s friend, and wept over the evils of aristocracy. The same methods of self-aggrandizement, with little variation, were pursued by Pericles and Alcibiades of Athens; by the Gracchi, Sylla, Marius, Cataline, and Caesar, in Rome; by Oliver Cromwell, in England; by Marat, and that succession of decapitated villains, who, of late, rode on the whirlwind, and directed the storm of a national mob. Some cunningly devised pretence of public good, or some imaginary monster of despotic power, has always been the standard, to rally men from their ordinary occupations, to butcher one another, and wallow in blood.

Taught to view with awe, or admiration, those in public stations; the merit or odium of measures, to which numerous unforeseen causes may have contributed, has ever been imputed to men, and not to circumstances.—“Party spirit,” says an anonymous writer, “rarely rushes to the front of the stage, brandishing his bloody arm over the affrighted crowd, but he wanders behind the scenes, presents his dark lantern, aims the assassinating dagger, cuts the sinews of public confidence, and poisons the fountain of social life.” Under this head may be ranged the forging of private correspondences, the fabricating of offensive anecdotes, and obnoxious innuendoes, mutilating and distorting the measures of the men in authority. Like the cry of Fire! Or, Stop thief! Set up by felons in populous cities, private plunder and emolument, has been the object of those who found an alarm, “that your liberty is menaced,” in countries constitutionally free and happy.

3. Demagogues always humor the taste of the age. The love of pre-eminence is one of the strongest principles in man. And it is curious to trace this love in all its effects. Though the tastes and pursuits of different ages, may be different, we shall always find the original principles in man, the same, and designing men, like bubbles, ever riding on the top of the popular stream. In the ruder ages of the world, the darling pursuit of mankind, was war, military glory, and conquest, and the most successful madman was the idol of the people. When heathenism was swept away by the power of the Christian religion, even the innocent, and meek religion of Jesus, became the instrument to obtain popular applause. The love of pre-eminence, led some to climb mountains, and build towers, on which they might stand, and show their extraordinary devotion. Others shut themselves up in monasteries, and nunneries, to evince their deadness to the world, and the nighness [nearness], in which they lived to God, or went to drive infidels from the holy land. In another age, the same spirit sought a reform, and really altered many abuses, but hastened into the opposite extreme, until even reformation itself wanted reforming. The singular revival of religion, in this country, half a century since, in which, no doubt, the spirit of God was remarkably poured out, and much good accomplished, is also illustrative of the same idea. Men, for pre-eminence sake, were effected in their bodies, as well as their minds, saw extraordinary appearances, cried out in high transports, preached, prayed, and exhorted loud and earnestly, sang through the streets, and were indiscreetly and hastily zealous. But, because the taste and manners of the times, are altered, we are not to suppose, that the spirit, which led in the extravagances of those days, is now asleep. The same love of pre-eminence, that once made zealots, and crusaders, now makes skeptics. Decent irreligion, now assumes to itself, the same airs, and indulges the same rancorous censure. When Absalom would go to Hebron, to pay a vow, religion was made the stalking horse, and sacrifice, the shouting horn, of sedition and usurpation.

But, demagogues are not now to be looked for, in the seats of religion; for this has not now the chief seat in the synagogue. The tide of the world, is not setting this way; and, men whom the sin of Diotrephes, easily besets, always follow the tide. It is not in fashion to kneel before crucifixes, but to worship, and adore human reason, falsely so called; and, the age of relics, is now spending itself on testacia [shelled invertebrate animals], in search of Mammoth bones, making experiments on air, or casting the age of the world from the lava of burning mountains. “Where the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered together.” The paraphernalia of the naturalist and chemist, is now substituted for the cowl, by the modern disciples of Ignatus Loyola. Were the scales of prejudice taken from our eyes, we should see, that this reading of human nature, is just; and that he who once believed in legends, and he who now doubts of self-evident propositions, are the same characters. The taste, and favorite pursuits of every age, have had their uses, but their extremes have been highly vicious. The desire to have our thoughts our own, and to be independent in sentiment, is commendable. But when we carry this desire of independence too far, it is as salacious, as it is dangerous and criminal. There is no such commanding dignity of mind, in a man’s trying to differ from his progenitors, as to government and religion, as some suspect. The unnatural productions of a hard and stupid heart, often lead a man to mistake his own restlessness for activity of genius, and his own capriciousness for sagacity of understanding. The world probably progresses in knowledge; but the analogy between the natural and intellectual systems, evinces that new thoughts are as rare as comets, and other new appearances in nature. A little acquaintance with antiquity may convince us, “that there is no new thing under the sun.” From the days of the school-men, to the present time, a great portion of enthusiasm has mixed itself with science, as well as with religion. Every age has been overstocked with imagined original geniuses, who have scourged mankind with their theories, and blinded them with new discovered light. Had the philosophers amused themselves with their categories, and predicaments, they might have been innocent and harmless lunatics. But now, unfortunately for mankind, they have turned their whole attention to the fabricating of new theories in government, and religion. Being unwilling to learn wisdom from what is past, and like anatomists make experiments on the dead, they seem to demand the world for a museum, and the living for dissection, and like “the restless iron tongue of death, to call for millions at a meal.” Nay more, they seem to be waging the war of the Titan’s, and piling the earth in heaps, to climb to heaven. They will undoubtedly meet with the same success as their fabled predecessors, and be buried by the mountains they have set in motion. In these monstrous efforts, the world has already found that “the little finger” of philosophy, “is thicker than the loins” of superstition; and that the “tender mercies” of modern liberality in religion “are cruelty”.

If Cromwell had to affect experimental religion to accomplish the toils of his ambition, by the imperious taste and manners of his day; from the prevailing taste of this age, we must expect similar characters to boast of their philosophic Christianity, of their deism and atheism; as these are the most prevalent sentiments of the once Christian world. It is not said now, “Stand by thyself and come not near to me, for I am holier than thou;’ but “stand by thyself and come not near to me,” for I know more “than thou.” The infallibility of the Pope, and the divine right of Kings, seems to have translated themselves from the conclave of superstition, to the stoa [Greek covered walkways for public use] of philosophy—From the courts of intriguing despots, to the secret, seif-created societies of modern illuminati.

Having considered the materials of which factions and conspiracies have usually been composed, and the methods by which they have been brought into action: we are guided by the passage of sacred history, to which we have been attending, to inquire the general issue.

III. When Absalom, to human appearance, had nigh accomplished his purpose, a nation afflicted with his daring ambition, and unnatural crimes, roused to oppose him. He was defeated in battle, and in the confusion of his retreat, his hair caught in the branches of an oak, and his mule went from under him, leaving him between the heavens and the earth. He died by the hand of violence, was thrown into pit, and covered with a pile of stones, and his followers, in the true stile of a mob, noisy and turbulent when successful, but mean-spirited and cowardly in defeat, “fled everyone to his tent.” In like manner the great deceiver and disorganizer, who, “from the beginning, abode not in the truth, is to be cast into the bottomless pit, that he may deceive the nations no more.” Although “he hath now great wrath, because he knoweth that his time is short,” blessed be God, his chain hath an end. Those whom he now “leads captive at his will,” shall turn against him, and aggravate his future condemnation. The pride of Korah, and his accomplices, set up the holiness of the congregation of Israel, against its priesthood, and the power of the people against the civil magistrate, although supported by a well authenticated divine commission. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up. The Jews refusing to submit to legitimate government, and wasted of the partisans of faction, have ceased to be a nation, are dispersed through the world, and are hated and despised of all men. The history of the Grecian, Roman, and French republics, those Vesuviuses of impassioned man, to which allusions have already been made, might here be read. It is distressing to a benevolent mind, to survey the struggles of parties, the proscriptions, the massacres, and assassinations, that have been guided by popular villains, ever issuing in their own, and their country’s ruin. Not an instance can be found, of one, who flattered and misled the people, but either he perished in the storm he had raised, or ended in the salacious glory of a Caesar. Indeed,

“’Tis in common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face:
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks into the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.” ⁶

When Absalom got into precarious power, we find him no more the fawning sycophant of the majesty of the people. We hear no more of his kissing and bowing, or tender wishes to redress the wrongs of his injured fellow citizens. He forgot his ladder, grew giddy with its height, and fell. And an instance is challenged, where the leaders of factions and conspiracies, under mild governments, or those simple ones that are led by the magic sounds of visionary liberty, have ever gained anything by change. Both have always lost. Even where a nation has been considerably oppressed, when they have attempted to break their shackles at the instance of popular courtiers, they have ever resembled the man, who took “seven other spirits more wicked than himself;” their last state, has ever been worse than their first. In a word—of demagogues it may be said universally, with Mr. Pope, as of man whose self-love has lost reason’s comparing balance,

They’ve “meteor like,” flam’d “lawless thro’ the void,
“Destroying others; by” themselves “destroy’d.”

Having considered the materials, of which factions and conspiracies have usually been composed, in free governments; by what methods they have been brought to act; and what has been the general issue. Your patience is craved, while a few practical inferences are made from the subject.

1. Personal accomplishments, ad brilliant talents, are no infallible evidences, that a man will make a good ruler. We read nothing of Absalom’s wisdom, virtue, or learning, in the laws of his country, or of any distinguished, disinterested, and patriotic achievement. His first introduction in the sacred memoirs is on this wise; “In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot, even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him.” Personal accomplishments, and brilliant talents, have in a few solitary instances, made an happy assemblage with distinguished virtues. But more generally, they have been the scourge of their possessors, and of the world. The moment a man is conscious of them, he is undone; for he immediately thinks himself born to command; walks with fastidious contempt over the ashes of his ancestors; and growing delirious with his own supposed originality, he sees “luminous periods,” and the “splendors of a bright and glorious day,” marching before him.

But, after all, brilliant talents have imposing charms, and will command respect, and this is not one of the lesser evils of elective governments. In giving our suffrages, we insensibly forget, that a sound mind stored by industry and fortified by religious principles, is always the most useful in church and state.

It does not occur that belles-lettres and legislation have little connection, and that popular assemblies have ever suffered more for the want of candid, and dispassionate hearers, than dashing, and imposing speakers. The former, commonly bear the heat and burden of the day, while the latter are rarely seen in their seats, but on subjects, in which they can pronounce their own eulogiums to the gallery, or flatter the prejudices, and humor the taste of the age.

2. And, with equal certainty, we may infer, that those who are most ambitious of preferment, are the least fitted for it; as the best qualified, are the most modest, and self-dissident. The love of honor and preferment, when kept within due bounds, may animate the patriot, and fire the hero. Still, however, more sacred and venerable principles, than the praise of men, claim the chief direction of human conduct. When the respect we pay to the opinions of men, encroaches on that reverence, which we owe to the Deity, to the voice of conscience, and the sense of duty, it becomes criminal, and highly dangerous. The Jewish rulers were charged, not with loving the praise of men; but, that they loved it “more than the praise of God.” When vain glory, usurps the throne of a man’s heart, the eye of his mind is turned from the ends, which it ought, chiefly, to keep in view, and there is no crime which he will not commit, to ensure his own aggrandizement. While such a character, will set himself up for sale, to do evil, virtue and worth will never cry themselves, like courtesans, in market; they blush at the thought of soliciting notice. If the splendor of office, dazzles the unthinking and unprincipled, it has, in itself, few charms to the upright and contemplative. The freedom of retirement, was long sighed for by that faithful servant of the public, who has justly been denominated, “the father of his country.” The pious, and humble, are more anxious to improve the talents they have, than to be credited with more; they connect the retributions of eternity, with the use or abuse of a post of honor. Hence they are ever modest, and dissident, and go into place from a sense of duty, rather than from the thirst of distinction. And, while aspiring thistles are trode down of every wild beast, those choice cedars, cleave to their native soil, and either gloriously keep their station in the storm, or fall with all the leafy honors of the forest at their side.

3. Those who speak of great reforms in governments, already free and happy, are dangerous characters. “While we set under the shade of our own laws,” says a nervous writer,” ⁷ “and feel all the cherishing benignity of our own government, it is fair almost to look with distrust and prejudice, on all prospects of change whatever.” When the caprice of innovation, and the indefinite love of political novelty, gets broad, it always ends in blood. The mildest professions and projects of reform, are, at this time, only the first steps of the scale of destruction, the initiative forms of that towering fabric of mischief, of which they meditate in their hearts. That liberty, which has been the stale pretence of change in free governments, has been subversive of all freedom: as it affords to factious leaders, a language unintelligibly imposing, and rich in the un-ideal terms of raving philosophy. In ties of seditious machinations, let us cleave to our religion, and our constitution, as the refuge of our hopes, as the haven and anchorage of freedom. The present moment calls rather restraints on licentiousness, than control of power. If we are virtuous and firm, little is to be feared from those knots of speculating politicians, who would open the flood-gates of foreign intrigue, and whelm us in the billows of tempestuous liberty.

4. From the striking resemblance between the first author of faction, and his subordinates, among men; we learn that the objections against good human governments and the divine government, are the same, of course, that the interests of pure Christianity, and real civil liberty are intimately blended. The grand object of the seducer is to weaker the confidence of creatures, in the Divine Executive. To make them believe, that “he is an hard and austere master, reaping where he has not sowed, and gathering where he has not strawed.” That he has no right, to do so absolutely, “as he will with his own.”

That, his governing by plan or “fore-ordaining whatsoever comes to pass,” his taking the praise to himself, of their formation to good subjects, and citizens, and not leaving it to the strength of their own natural principles, abridges human liberty. They think they cannot be free, while the head of government, by an exertion of power gives complexion to their habits, and keeps them through confidence in his rectitude unto salvation.

That he errs as to what ought to be supremely loved and worshipped. God declares that as he is the sum of public good, he has the sole and unalienable right to the supreme affection of his creatures, and that it is highly sinful in them to bestow it on themselves. But creatures, mistaking the habits of rebellion, for nature and reason, lay claim to an equal prerogative, and affirm, that “the potter hath” not “power over the lay, to make a vessel” to anything but “honor.” And that they have a natural right, to say “What dost thou? And, Why dost thou thus?” It seems a stretch of power in God, to “give none account of any of his matters.” And it is the united decree of all his discontented subjects; “We will not have” God “to rule over us,” in this imperious and sovereign manner. ⁸ Nay, it is carried without a dissenting voice, by all the partisans of the father of lies, that there shall be “No God:’ ⁹ No supremely perfect, and unalterable law; no penalties of perpetual imprisonment for men’s dong as they please; Hell, like a Bastile of despotism, has public consent to be demolished, or be converted into a penitentiary, and all the lusts are to be manumitted by the majesty of the people. I should not dare treat these grave truths in this manner, did I not feel it to be of importance, to impress this audience with the striking resemblance there is between the objections that are made, against that system of divine government revealed in the scriptures, and good human governments. The popular notions of opposing human governments, although in many instances just, need not pass for anything new, or originally pure in the heart of man. However, I hope none will construe this, as evidencing a heart unfriendly to civil liberty. No, let every tyrant, whatever name or garb he may assume, be brought to the dust, and the oppressed of every nation, hew the chains unnecessarily imposed, “link from link.” But let them take heed how they strike at the prerogative of the Most High. Contending with the Almighty will not “instruct him.” And he that reproveth God, must answer it. That which has been done by wicked men, ever since the apostasy, against the king of heaven, is now doing against good government. Satan, in every shape, still appears “an angel of light,” and would, if it were possible, deceive the very elect. The grand object of that fungous growth of mock patriotism, which is generated and nourished by the sunshine of real liberty, has been to destroy systems of human good, and to arm vice against virtue, confusion against order, and licentiousness against law. To cut the nerves of wholesome restraint, to bring into contempt those, who are “ministers of God for good,” to the righteous, and lead “all the world a wondering after some beast” of human imagination. The materials of opposition, the manner in which they have been brought to act, and the general issue in both instances, as it respects God, and the good ruler, always have, and always will be the same—And although “order will eventually spring out of confusion, and light out of darkness;” these addresses to men’s passions, this flattery of their prejudices, this misstating and discoloring of fact, this humoring the taste of the age, are exclusively those engines of Appollyon, which “brought death into the world and all our woe.” These have made the earth, an Aceldema, and a Golgatha, and portend the torments of the factious and seditious, in a world, where mad, ferocious, and unchecked democracy, will forever reign in all its fiery horrors.

5. If the divine government, and free, benevolent, human institutions, are so connected in principle and practice, if they have the same objects, and the same enemies, infidels in religion, to be consistent with themselves, should they become the enemies of good government; and those who profess Christianity, and oppose such government, ought justly to be numbered with infidels. For, “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or, What part hath he that believeth, with an infidel?” and vice versa. Those who oppose governments of energy, ground their theories on the innocence, and perfectability of human nature, on the sufficiency of man’s natural light, for the purposes of attaining virtue and happiness, without external aid; and attribute all the ills, that have befallen men, to government and religion. If this be true, government, that has power, is an evil, and religion, that aids such power, is a scourge.

To uphold government, while infidels at heart, and revere religion, only as an engine of civil policy, is a severer censure of human nature, than is given in the scriptures. Although men, in the sacred canon, are called fools in a moral sense, they are never called so in a natural sense. But the infidel, upholding energetic government, and praising religion, only, as its convenient beast of burden, brands the whole race as idiots, of course, saps his own favorite dignity of human nature, and the sufficiency of human light. Indeed, whatever way we turn, there will be a palpable absurdity, between the love of strength in government, and the hatred of religion; and the love of religion, and the hatred of religion; and the love of religion, and the hatred of strength in government. As a sense of moral obligation, must be greatly impaired before men are fitted to oppose such a government of their own making, we hence find all zealous disorganizers, somewhere on that climax of error, that begins, in what is called, modern liberality in religious sentiment, and ends in atheism. And, with very few exceptions, we find all those who understand, and embrace the religion of the fathers, or what have been called the leading doctrines of the Christian church, “obedient to the powers that are,” reverencing good magistrates, loving, and cleaving to their country, “for conscience sake.” Why every infidel does not oppose a government of restraints, must be, that he either does not know its tendency, or is ignorant of his own heart, and what manner of spirit it is that actuates him. He is bewildered, and has lost the company congenial to his soul; or he is a living argument in favor of the worth, and truth of Christianity, by wishing to live under the mild influence of its habits, and principles.

I am called to speak, on this occasion, at an eventful period, and at an eventful crisis, with this country. Although I glory in the character of the state which gave me birth, admire the diffusion of her knowledge, her habits of order, and her blessed institutions, I dare not defy the fascinating charms of innovation. Vice, and irreligion, have earth and hell on their side, and are the mortal foes of that symmetrical edifice, which was reared by the painful labors, and has continued, hitherto, by the prayers of our ancestors. Infidelity, with a zeal that would become a better cause, and with the rigor of St. Dominic, is encompassing sea, and land, to make its proselytes; of whom when made, it may be truly said, as of those converted to a proud and haughty Jewish sect, they are “two fold more the children of hell.”

If the mountains, and uninviting soil of Switzerland, have not been sufficient “walls and bulwarks,” to save her from the rapacity of marauding strangers, let us not boast of safety from an intervening ocean. Satan, intent on mischief, could spread a bridge on chaos, to mar the happiness of paradise, and sow sedition. Were we virtuous, and united, we should, under providence, have nothing to fear. But the shameful secret, that our country has its parricides, is out, and our enemies cast it in our teeth.—A military despotism, under the vile pretence of giving freedom to mankind, has once plundered the world, and may again. If our most intelligent divines, have understood the prophecies, little is to be expected for a century, or more, than “the distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea, and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear; as the Lord, in his glory, and majesty, has arisen to shake terribly the earth.” After looking to God, the eyes of good men are next turned to virtuous rulers, the genuine, tried, and approved friends of the government, religion, and happiness of their country.

No lover of his country’s true glory, can turn his eye to yonder empty feat, without exclaiming, “Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth: for the faithful fail from among the children of men.” While every breeze from Atlantic, bears on its wings the increased rumor of war, and trouble, this state have had to lament, in quick succession, the death of a worthy Governor, an able Chief Justice, and a venerable Father in the gospel ministry.

“Those suns are set; O! rise some other such,
Or all that we have left, is empty talk
Of old achievements, and despair of new.”

But, I trust in God, that he has still left us some faithful helmsmen, who, for a time at least, will steer us from the shores, whitened with human bones, and guide us through the rocks of Syren liberty. Of modern Liberty; that harpy, who, like the fabled daughters of Oceanus and Terra, has hooked claws, and looks pale for plunder; that prophetess of evil, who takes her seat on desolation, tints the viands of social life with her defiling touch; than which, no monster is more fell, no plague, or scourge of gods more cruel, ever issued from the Stygian waves. ¹⁰ But hold! “Michael disputing with the devil, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee.” While all the horrors of faction and conspiracy, are developed by the sacred story to which we have been attending, we have a counterpart in the conduct of David and his friends. They submitted to the hand, which, in such an awful manner, chastised a nation’s, and its ruler’s sins. They wept aloud, not for fear of man, but through reverence and fear of that God who was visibly punishing them. Their hearts were soft and penitent. They pitied and forgave their enemies, and, with the enlarged views of Christians, looked up to God, “who makes the wrath of man to praise him,” and will suffer it to proceed no farther, than is compatible with his wise and holy counsels. Instead of humoring the thirst of innovation, they clung to their ancient institutions, for political order, and safety.

Submitting to the stones, and dirt, the railing, and slanderous curses of apostate and discontented Shimeis, it behoves both rulers, and ruled, with all modesty, to inquire, wherefore it is, that “the Lord hath bidden” them. Have we not reason to fear, that these are the fruits of secret infidelity, in the desk? And of secret, and open infidelity in the senate? Is it now owing to breaches, plausibly made in our ancient habits, and customs, those walls of our sheepfold, that these wolves are entering? Have we no Joabs, grown haughty, and negligent, by long continuance in office, no negligent, subordinate ministers of justice? I pray God, that the proposed day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, may be devoutly kept. And that all good citizens, for once, with godly sorrow for sin, will bend their knees around the altar of prayer, for their country. If “God is for us who can be against us?”—And if he is against us who can be for us? His protection alone, is a nation’s strength. He is “the God of wisdom,” and the God of battles. Let our honorable Legislators remember, that it is emphatically true of men in high stations, that “one sinner destroyeth much good,” and much depends on them, whether dignity, and influence, are to be given to vice, and irreligion. Although the mouth of discontented ambition can never be stopped and the querulous tongue of licentiousness will never rest, until the grandeur of government shall be unveiled, which will impose silence on all lips, it is important, that you “let not your good be evil spoken of,” and give none “occasion to the enemies of the Lord, to blaspheme.” The cause of Christianity has been more ably argued by recent events in Europe, than it can be by the pen, or tongue of man. While infidelity has been writing its inferences in blood, we must view it as an happy omen, to this and the neighboring States, that so many young rising characters, have been driven from the open and exposed fields of skepticism, to the fastnesses of moral institutions. May their speculative conversion, be followed by a change of heart, and they experience those consolations in the religion of Jesus, which have ever proved a support, a light and a shield to pious rulers, under the honor and dignity, as well as the sufferings and reproaches of office. As the Christian religion is the genius, the life, and spirit of real liberty, and the true foundation of national happiness and greatness, let its ministers glory in their profession. If many of us are straightened in temporalities, and yet reproached as hirelings by the licentious, let us not be discouraged. Patriotism, as well as love to God and men, call us to fidelity in our noble employment. Liberty, exiled from Europe, crossed the Atlantic with our predecessors in office, and under their tutelage, she here erected her standard. Our rulers can frame free constitutions, and enact mild and wholesome laws, but they must apply to us, as instruments in the hands of providence, to make wholesome inhabitants, and form a free people. Sin stains the glory, darkens the luster, and degrades the rank of rational creatures. All men, who know not the glorious “liberty of the sons of God,” are by nature slavish, and will have a master. A knight-errant may strike from the hands and feet of our body, the shackles of despotic power, or the conqueror of Italy can say a nation is free; and yet, they may be bound in chains, which defy the steel of valor to fever, and the united “wisdom of this world” to unloose. The chains of the soul, the fetters of the mind and heart, do not melt at human touch; the Lord hath anointed us alone, to proclaim liberty to such captives, and the opening of the doors to these vassals imprisoned of their sins. “Seeing that many glory after the flesh,” I trust that good men will “bear with us a little in our folly, if we glory also.” ¹¹

Finally, and to close—The whole subject may with propriety be addressed to those who “despise government, and are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” And of these, I hope, there are few in this numerous assembly. It is to be acknowledged that many plausible things can be said in favor of error, and that man is, by nature, fonder of darkness than light. Still, can you suppose, granting that you can inflate the world with the temporary frenzy of infidel fanaticism, that it will be lasting; or that human nature, will of itself, lay aside a character it has uniformly maintained for six thousand years, of finally “turning and rending,” those who impose on its credulity. There may be countries where nothing would be lost, and everything gained by subverting and palsying the government. But no man whose conscience is not “feared as with a hot iron,” can apply this to our own. If the first great enemy of government, and all who have followed his steps, have lost themselves, and all who have followed his steps, have lost themselves in the mists of enchantment they have raised, it is worthwhile to count the cost, before that, with industrious malignancy, you attempt to raise one in this enlightened State. Should you, as Vreede and Hooffe, those exclusive Dutch patriots, fawn like spaniels at the feet of our oppressors, for troops to strangle your country with liberty: ¹² we are neither a nation vitiated by long continued commerce, nor effeminate Italians. It would be attended with not a little difficulty, to make us, like wretched Venice, the mere cents and Milles of partitioning powers. If you have any possessions that are dear to you, can you expect them to be inviolate, amidst the jarring elements of universal uproar? As you may yet fail, to spring up Tetrarchs and Proconsuls, from the ashes of your humbled and divided country, and the blood of her citizens, leave that low and base thirst of fame, that craves those honors from foreigners, which you are too vicious and too indolent to merit from your own fellow-citizens. Pray be as honorable as ambitious Caesar, who had rather be first in a village, than second in the city of Rome—cast away the bitter leaven of party spirit. “Repent of this thy wickedness” towards thy mother country, on whose lap thou hast been dandled, and from whose breasts thou hast drawn the stamina of lite; “and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.”—“Now to the God of peace;”—“to the God of order, and not of confusion”—Be glory forever.

A M E N.