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The Sermon on the Mount Carl Bloch, 1890

Sermon – Prayer – 1799

Thomas Baldwin (1753-1825), an influential pastor and well-known author, was born and raised in Connecticut until the age of 16 when he moved to New Hampshire, where he later became a member of the State Legislature. As a young man, he was many times called upon to read sermons before his church when the minister was absent. In 1783, he became an ordained evangelist and for 7 years traveled on horseback among the state’s towns, preaching the Gospel until 1790, when he became the pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Boston. In 1803, Baldwin began publication of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, later renamed the American Baptist Magazine (the only Baptist publication in America for years), of which he was the only editor until 1817 and the senior editor until his death in 1825. During his lifetime, Baldwin published 34 separate works, including several books and numerous sermons (published at the special request of his hearers). Baldwin died in Maine at the age of 72, having the day before his death preached two sermons in Massachusetts.

S E R M O N,

DELIVERED AT BOSTON,

On TUESDAY, April 2, 1799;

AT A

Quarterly Meeting of several Churches

FOR

SPECIAL PRAYER.

By THOMAS BALDWIN, A. M.
Pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Boston.

S E R M O N.

Isaiah xliii. 12, 13.

—Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am be, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who shall let it?

A firm belief in the existence, perfections, and providence of God, is always to be considered as a first principle in religion. Where this belief is wanting, there is no rational ground to expect either virtue or morality. Every violation of the moral law, every secret or open sin, is a practical denial of the divine authority. And the most prominent features in the character of the bold transgressor, are his disbelief of the omnisciency of God, and of his own future accountability. Concealed from the observation of man, he is ready to ask, “How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? Can I be amenable at his dread tribunal?”

But however the practice of mankind may argue against their religious principles, (for the mind often assents to what the practice denies) we have been unwilling to believe that there were any, or at most but very few, who were so shockingly impious and absurd, as professedly to deny the being and providence of God. In this country, until very lately, an absolute, professed atheist, was almost as rare, and would perhaps have excited as much astonishment, as the transit of a comet. But infidelity and atheism are now throwing off the mask, and are daring to appear with impious, brazen front, even at noon-day. Many others there are, as we have reason to suppose, who, notwithstanding their professions of friendship, are secretly abetting the same wretched cause. These disguise the malignity of their hearts, under a base insidious smile, and, Judas-like, are endeavouring to betray the dearest interests of religion with a deceitful kiss.

It is truly affecting to a pious mind, to see with what avidity, deistical, and even some atheistical publications, have been received of late among us. Is it not seriously to be feared, that many of our thoughtless, unsuspecting youth, have already caught the impious contagion? A contagion, in my opinion, much more to be dreaded than the most fatal epidemic: for, while the latter destroys the body, and hath no more that it can do, the former dissolves the bonds of social union, corrupts morality, debauches virtue, and ruins the soul forever!

These things may seem to lower with gloomy aspect upon the cause of religion. But amidst this darkness, “light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright.” For “when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” “In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious.” Around this sacred standard, like the ancient Hebrews around the tabernacle in the wilderness, will every true Israelite pitch his tent. Here will they set up their banners in the name of the Lord, and in the strength of the great Jehovah they will put to flight the whole camp of infidelity.

But should dark clouds gather round us; should we see iniquity abounding, and the love of many waxing cold; should Zion’s ways still mourn because so few come to her solemn feasts; should some depart from the Faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; yet let us not think the cause lost. This, perhaps this is the very time for God to work. He has a set time to favour Zion, and the text assures us that he will do it. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.—I will work, and who shall let it?”

In order to strengthen your faith in the certain accomplishment of the declaration in the text, and to encourage one and all to become workers together with God, I propose,

I. To offer a few thoughts upon the character of Him who has said, “I will work, and who shall let it?”

II. Shall attempt to illustrate and distinguish the particular “work” intended in the text.

III. Shall consider the general, but ineffectual, opposition contemplated to this glorious work.

The first part of our subject contains an appeal, to the sentiments and feelings of all the friends of truth—“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.” But what are the facts to which we bear witness? We testify that He is, and that He is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek him. That from everlasting to everlasting he is God. That he is the self-existent, the independent, the immutable Jehovah. That all the divine perfections centre and harmonize in his character. That he upholds and governs all worlds and all beings; and that his tender mercies are over all the works of his hands. That his providential care extends to all, even the meanest of his creatures.

These are facts of which we have the greatest moral certainty. Yet, should some bold skeptic demand proof of his existence, we might perhaps be at a loss how to undertake it; not from the want of evidence, but from its exuberance. Should a man shut his eyes, and deny the existence of light, or demand evidence that the sun shines, how should we proceed in order to convince him? Should we appeal to the senses of all mankind, who are daily blessed with his beams? Should we attempt in detail, all that rich variety of infinitely multiplied favours daily derived from this fountain of created goodness? No; we should cut the work short, and tell him to open his eyes, and he would find an immediate cure for his skepticism. May not the same be said to the atheist? Let him become impartial but a single moment, and he shall find all nature rising in proof of the existence of a God. Can we believe that man to be honestly inquiring after truth, who can find no evidence through the universe of a supreme, intelligent First Cause? We certainly cannot: nor does reason or Christian charity demand it of us.

Men frequently embrace error, in order to get rid of the difficulties they meet with in vindicating the truth. On this ground, many have given up some of the peculiar doctrines of the gospel: OTHERS HAVE REJECTED Christianity altogether; and some there are, who have given up natural as well as revealed religion, and denied the existence of a God upon the same principle. But has atheism no difficulties in it? The material system of the universe must either be considered as eternal, and consequently self-existent, or it must have been created. But is there less difficulty in conceiving of the eternity of matter, than of the existence and eternity of God? Is there no difficulty in accounting for the motion, order, and harmony of the heavenly bodies, without admitting the idea of a Supreme Intelligence? Surely there is; for matter of itself is inert, and incapable of originating the smallest motion. Deny the existence of God, and you behold every where effects without a cause! Order and harmony without design! Of all systems that were ever originated in the wild fancy of man, atheism is the most blasphemous and absurd.

There is evidently a strong bias in mankind to novelty of opinion and sentiment, as well as in other things. Hence many look back upon the pious sentiments and godly zeal of their ancient fires, and view them in the same whimsical light as they do their old-fashioned pictures, and at once congratulate themselves that they live in an age of much greater taste and improvement. But, however modern times may boast of having improved in liberality of sentiment, in science and the fine arts—they certainly have very little to boast of, on account of religion and morality. I am at the same time sensible, that to some, this is looked upon as the golden age so long foretold by Grecian Bards. Those halcyon days which were to bless the world, in their view, are fast approaching! Reason’s millennium has already commenced! They glory to think they have liberated the human mind from the restraints of religion, and from the fears of futurity. But this fatal liberty only permits the mind to fly like an unbalanced system from its centre; to roam, in eternal uncertainty, through the wilderness of depraved reason; to be forever tormented in trying to believe what it is always afraid will finally prove true; to violate the sacred principles of justice, of reason, and religion; to trample the gospel under foot, and blaspheme the name of God; to set at defiance all laws, human and divine; and, in a word, to proclaim open war with both heaven and earth! O Liberty! How is thy sacred name prostituted and profaned!

That there have been, in every age, a few solitary individuals who have denied the existence of God, will be admitted; but tat atheism should be the professed creed of any considerable number of the ruling party of any civilized nation, it is presumed cannot be found in the history of the world, till near the close of the eighteenth century. It is not to be concluded, however, that even in that nation every individual is an atheist, any more than we may conclude every man a Christian who belongs to a Christian country. There may be many there still, who fear God and reverence his Son. Yet the wild project of those made philosophists, to dethrone the Deity and reign themselves, must be looked upon as the most bold and impious attack upon the throne of God, that has ever been made since the days of Nimrod. And even the attempt to build Babel is not, in my opinion, to be considered as an absolute denial of the existence of God; but rather as a distrust of his providential goodness, and an ignorant, slavish fear of his almighty power.

Soon after the confusion of tongues, we find idolatry introduced, or revived in the world: for some are of opinion that it existed before the floor; others suppose that it was first introduced by the Phenicians, and from them communicated to the Egyptians and the other neighbouring nations. But in that degenerated state of the world, notwithstanding the heathens worshipped a multiplicity of inferior deities, yet in general they acknowledged a supreme God, in distinction from them. This is evident from profane history, ¹ as well as from those instances mentioned in the sacred scriptures. It is clear that Laban the Syrian acknowledged another God, beside those whom he charged Jacob with having stolen. “The God of your father,” said he, “appeared to me yesternight.” The same is true concerning the calves set up at Bethel and Dan by Jeroboam. The people, indeed, paid their immediate devotions to these images, much in the same manner as the Papists do to the crucifix; but still they acknowledged a supreme God, in distinction from them. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, does not charge them with atheism, but with idolatry. “Because,” saith he, “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” That is, as I conceive, they worshipped their images and subordinate deities more than the supreme God, who is over all, blessed for evermore. The altar which St. Paul found at Athens, inscribed to the unknown God, although they had lost the knowledge of his true character.

Will you indulge me, my brethren to relate the reflections of one of the rude inhabitants of the North, a wild Greenlander? “It is true, (said he to a missionary) we were ignorant heathens, and knew nothing of God, or a Saviour; and indeed who should tell us of him until you come. But thou must not imagine that no Greenlander thinks about these things. I myself have often thought that a kajak, (a boat) with all its tackle and implements does not grow into existence of itself; but must be made by the ingenuity of man. Now the meanest bird has far more skill displayed in its structure than the best kajak, and no man can make a bird. But there is still far greater art shewn in the formation of man, than of any other creature. Who was it that made him? I bethought me he proceeded from his parents, and they from their parents: but some must have been the first parents—Whence did they come? Common report informs me, they grew out of the earth; but if so, why does it not still happen that men grow out of the earth? And from whence did this same earth itself, the sea, the sun, the moon, and stars, arise into existence? Certainly there must be some Being who made all these things—a Being that always was, and can never cease to be. He must be inexpressibly more mighty, knowing, and wise, than the wisest man. He must be very good, too; because that every thing which he has made is good, useful, and necessary for us. Ah! Did I but know him? None of us poor men. Yet there may be men, too, that know something of him. O that I speak with such!—Therefore,” said he, “as soon as I heard you speak of this great Being, I believed it directly with all my heart, because I had so long desired to hear it.” ²

The savages of America, who roam in our western forests, in general acknowledge the existence of the Great Spirit; although they are said to worship the devil, to keep him from hurting them. Hence it appears, that in every country, in every age and nation, a Supreme Being has generally been acknowledged. This has justly been considered as the great principle of national confidence. And indeed, what confidence can be put in engagements, oaths, and treaties, where the existence of God and future accountability are not acknowledged, is, at best, quite problematical.

But in addition to what has already been mentioned, the people of God in every age have been living witnesses for him. They have testified of his power and goodness, of his truth and faithfulness, to the children of men. Those who have borne witness to the Divine Character, are not a few. We are compassed about on every side with a cloud of witnesses. They rise to our view numerous as the multitude which John saw in heaven, that no man could number. I have only time to select a few.

What a noble testimony did Enoch bear to the character of God, by his living obedience to the precepts of truth; by his holy life in walking with God; by his foretelling the coming of the Lord; by the witness which he obtained that he pleased God; and by his being translated to glory without seeing death!

How convincing the testimony of Noah, the father of the new world. He witnessed to the holiness, the justice, and the faithfulness of God, in preaching the necessity of righteousness to that ungodly generation, and in persevering in building the ark an hundred and twenty years before the flood. By that awful catastrophe, God set a seal to his testimony. The windows of heaven were at length opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up. The astonished world now saw, that what Noah had told them about his God was true. The warnings which they had treated as idle tales, now began to assume a more serious aspect. All appeared reality. The flood was rising on every side. “In vain did man think of flying for safety to the lofty mountains. Thousands of torrents rushed down their sides, and mingled the confused noise of their waters with the howling of the winds and the roaring of the thunder. Black tempests gathered round their summits, and diffused a night of horror in the very midst of day. In vain does he turn an eager eye towards heaven; he perceives nothing in the whole circuit of the horizon, but piles of dark clouds heaped upon each other; a pale glare here and there furrows their gloomy and endless battalions; and the orb of day, veiled by their lurid coruscations [flash of light], emits scarcely light sufficient to afford a glimpse in the firmament of his blood disk wading through new constellations.” ³ The waters increase on every side. The flood swells, and bears down every thing before it. “Cities, palaces, majestic pyramids, triumphal arches,” all the labour of ages, and all the monuments of art, are buried in undistinguished ruin. But when the proud waves lift themselves up, Noah’s God sits in awful majesty upon the circle of the universe, directing the wild uproar of the mad elements. He again gathers the waters in the hollow of his hand, and pours them into the bosom of the ocean. He commands, and the stormy winds forget their fury, and cease to howl. All again is quiet. The sun once more sheds his cheering rays upon the drowned earth; the resplendent bow appears in the heavens, as a peaceful sign to sinful man, that the waters should no more go over the earth; but a still more interesting sign to the believer, that “God will no more be wroth with him, nor rebuke him.”

What an illustrious testimony did Abraham bear to the true character of God, in every country where he sojourned! The fear of the Lord fell upon the people, and the surrounding neighbourhood was often blessed for his sake. The affecting scene upon Mount Moriah, abundantly manifested the truth and faithfulness of God, and Abraham’s unshaken confidence in the divine faithfulness. Nor did his heroic conduct on the plains of Sodom give a less convincing evidence of his trust in the great Jehovah. Here we behold him with a little band, composed of only three hundred and eighteen of his household servants, and three volunteers, pursuing, and entirely defeating the combined army of four victorious kings, and rescuing five more, together with his nephew Lot. With what true greatness of soul does he appear, when refusing to accept the spoil which was generously offered to him—testifying to his astonished neighbours, that he had a portion in God far superior to all the treasures of this world! Give me the persons, said the king of Sodom, and take the goods to thyself. “No,” said Abraham, “I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread to a shoe-latchet.” But he did not go unrewarded; for “after these things, the word of the Lord came to him in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, for I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.”

But whom do we see yonder, appearing in such princely style, polished after the similitude of a palace? It is Moses!—Behold him despising the splendours of a royal court, and “refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.” “He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” After forty years’ exile in Midian, we behold him returning with the rod of God in his hand, asserting his commission from the great I AM, to deliver Israel, before the atheistical tyrant of Egypt; and, by conviction addressed to his senses, obliging him at last to acknowledge that God, whose character he had held in the utmost contempt.

With what awful solemnity do we hear Moses appealing to the invisible God, to decide a dangerous controversy between him, and Korah and his coadjutors! “To-morrow,” said Moses, “God shall decide the matter.” The day arrives; the tribes assemble at the door of the tabernacle; the glory of the Lord appears; terror and anxiety sit silent on every countenance;—at length God speaks!—Moses and Aaron fall prostrate to the earth, and supplicate. “Go,” said God to Moses, “command the congregation to separate themselves from these bold transgressors”—(awful emblem of the last day!) “Hereby,” said Moses, “shall ye know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works. If these men die he common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not spoken by me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.” The alarmed congregation had no sooner retired, than the earth give way under the tents of these wicked men, “and they went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them!” How glorious does the God of Israel appear, in punishing as well as pardoning!

Was it possible to exhibit more clear and convincing proof of the presence and power of an invisible God, than what Elijah gave to the idolatrous Hebrews? With what dignity do we behold him at Mount Carmel, surrounded by a host of false prophets, who were patronized by royal favour; and there proposing to put the matter upon an issue, which involved, not only his own personal reputation and safety, but, what was infinitely dearer to him, the cause of God and truth. “Choose you one bullock,” said he, “and I will choose another, and we will dress them and lay them upon wood, but put no fire under; and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.” The proposal was accepted; and Baal’s prophets, that they might, if possible, succeed, took the day before them, and called upon their sleeping, senseless god, from morning until evening, but there was no answer. At the time of the offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah “took twelve stones, and built an altar in the name of the Lord.” He prepared his bullock, and laid it in order upon the wood; and after having the altar thrice drenched in water, so as to prevent the possibility of fraud, we behold the adoring Tishbite drawing near to his God! Let us mark the manner of his address.—“Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me; that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.”

I will add only one instance more.

What conviction was offered to an impious monarch, by the three captives in Babylon, who testified that the God in whom they trusted was able to deliver them out of his hands! They nobly dared to despise the wrath of a king, and were unappalled by his raging furnace. Believing in God, they “quenched the violence of fire;” and triumphing over their blind persecutors, left a decided testimony for God.

But I should much sooner fatigue your patience than exhaust the subject; therefore can only say, that all the friends of truth and righteousness, in every age, have borne witness for God, both by their lives and by their deaths, that he is a God of covenant love and faithfulness. The word that has gone out of his mouth shall not return void. And do we hear him saying, “I will work?” It is settled in heaven—it shall be accomplished. I proceed,

II. To illustrate and distinguish the particular work intended in the text.

I conceive, by the expression in the text, we are to understand either the work of providence or grace. In both of these the hand of God is manifest; and the former is generally, if not always, carried on with reference to the latter. All the great events which are taking place at the present day, however dark and distressing, we have reason to believe, will be finally overruled for the advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom. The wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will wisely restrain.

From the whole context it appears evident, that the work of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of the children of men, is specially intended in the text. This is with great propriety called God’s work. It is he that begins it and carries it on; so that in its rise and progress, it is entirely dependent on the influences of his Holy Spirit.

Some are of opinion, however, that this work is a mere mechanical operation, produced by the address of the preacher, either by his boisterous airs, or by his canting tone of voice. That such an address may asset the passions will be granted; but the work we are speaking of, is quite a distinct thing from a mere operation upon the passions. The latter may take place without any connection with religion; but the former implants a principle of divine love in the soul. The passions may be greatly moved by the representation of a tragedy; but these impressions are only transient; they are excited by the circumstances of the moment, and as soon subside. We are willing to acknowledge, that if this “counsel or work be of men, it will come to naught; but if it be of God, it cannot be overthrown.”

That there is a natural disinclination in mankind to the doctrines of the cross, is too evident to be denied. This appears in their putting off the concerns of their souls, like Felix, for a more convenient season. The most persuasive arguments made use of by the ministers of Christ will prove ineffectual, unless accompanied by a divine influence. It remains still true, that Paul may plant, and Apollos water; but if there be any increase, it is God who gives it. It is one part of the office work of the Holy Spirit, to convince men of sin. And wherever we find a deep and affecting sense, wrought in the heart, of the infinite evil of sin, as committed against a God of spotless purity and rectitude, we may say to such, as the apostle did to the Philippians, We are “confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” The believer is directed to “work out his own salvation with fear and trembling;” but not in his own strength; for it is added, “It is God who worketh in you, both to will and do of his good pleasure.” I conceive that those who apply this passage to sinners, whose hearts are at enmity with God, and exhort them to work out their own salvation, and especially without telling them that it is God who must work in them, both to will and to do—entirely mistake the meaning of the apostle. The words were at first addressed to obedient believers at Philippi, importing, that all the good that was found in them, either in willing or doing, was of God, who wrought it in them.

This work of which we have been speaking, is not a mere change of opinion and sentiment, but of temper and disposition. It gives a new direction to all the desires of the heart. It detaches the soul from its love of sinful objects, and kindles in it the most ardent desire after the knowledge of spiritual and divine things. It places morality upon a sure foundation. It inspires the soul with proper sentiments of devotion towards God. It gives energy to all the benevolent propensities of the heart. In fine, it has a commanding influence upon the heart and life, and by its sanctifying operations upon the mind, prepares it for the everlasting enjoyment of God in heaven. We come,

III. To consider the opposition, implied in the text, to this work—“Who shall let it?” By this expression I think it evidently implied, that there would be opposition.

But who are so base as to oppose so good a work? I answer, 1st. He who first opposed the happiness of man in the garden of Eden. We must either deny the existence of this malicious spirit, or acknowledge with the apostle, that he “now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Christ compared the human heart to a fortress, and Satan to a strong man armed, who keeps it as his palace, until a stronger than he dispossesses him.

2d. The lusts and corruptions of our own wicked hearts stand in direct opposition to this work of grace. It is the grand design of this work, to overcome and destroy them: But they never expire without a struggle. The law in the members will war against the law of the mind. If there were no opposition in our hearts, we should resign to the first call of the gospel. It would be only necessary to set the truth before us, and we should with the utmost readiness embrace it. But melancholy experience demonstrates, that we are “slow of heart to believe.” Christ comes to his own, and his own receive him not. But,

3d. There is opposition from without as well as within. Infidels, and all the open enemies of religion will oppose this work. They attack the Christian system in different directions, and with different weapons. Sometimes they bring forward what they call arguments, and attempt either to disprove the existence or necessity of this work. But their most common and most successful weapon is ridicule. They have found by experience, that it is much easier to laugh at our sentiments, than to confute them—to deny a proposition, than to disprove it.

Some who may be reckoned in this class, have gone still further. They not only deny the Christian revelation, but the most important sentiments of natural religion. “To them, a Supreme Being is a chimera; immortality is unconscious sleep; and future responsibility the frightful offspring of superstition.” ⁴ These are exulting in what they madly call the reign of Reason! But, instead of presenting that fair goddess, extending her mild sway over the savage passions of man, we behold “the hydra of despotism riding in her iron car,” her wheels rolling in blood, spreading desolation and death through the world! But the consideration that “God reigns, and that he will work,” still every fear, and calms the mind. But,

4th. This work will be opposed by some of the professed friends of Christ, who yet, in reality, are secret enemies. These disguise the hypocrisy of their hearts under a fair profession. St. Paul long since complained of false brethren, who came in privily to spy out their liberty, in order to bring them into bondage. And among the perils to which he had been exposed, he mentions, as none of the least, false brethren. These may show much zeal in contending for the form of godliness, and perhaps as much in opposing the power. A false-hearted, pretended friend, is capable of doing much greater injury to the interests of religion, than an open enemy. The deepest wounds which Christ feels in his cause, are often given in the house of his professed friends.

But should all the secret and open enemies of Christ, like the briers and thorns, set themselves in battle against God, he would go through them, he would burn them up together. It removes every mountain, and dissipates every cloud, only to hear him say, “I will work.”

Two or three reflections shall close the subject.

1st. Are not all who regard the character and cause of God, the salvation of their own souls, and the happiness of the rising generation, called upon, in this day of prevailing infidelity, to become living, active witnesses for God?

And can you, my brethren, remain indifferent and unconcerned, while the enemies of religion are making every exertion to disseminate their demoralizing sentiments, and insultingly saying, Where is your God? Can you sleep on and take your rest, while the cause of the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of his enemies? Surely you cannot. Considerations of infinite moment call upon you to take a decided part, and fling your whole weight into the scale of truth. But you will not mistake me. I am not calling upon you to engage in a crusade to the Holy Land, nor endeavouring to stimulate you to propagate the gospel by fire and sword, as it was carried among the northern nations of Europe in the eleventh century; but would fain persuade you to manifest a zeal worthy of the cause you profess to own. You will give the best evidence of your religion to those around you, when you exemplify its doctrines in your lives. “If you love me,” said the blessed Jesus to his disciples, “keep my commandments.” Let your zeal for God be always according to knowledge, tempered with humility; and let justice and benevolence adorn your characters. Witness your love to your heavenly Father, by a sacred regard to the Lord’s-day, and the public institutions of religion. Add to a good profession, the influence of a good example; and above all things, have servant charity among yourselves, even that charity which is the bond of perfectness.

2dly. What great encouragement there is for the people of God to be instant in prayer, that he would “revive his work” among us! He knows, indeed, our every want; yet he will be fought unto by his people, to do those things for them which they stand in need of. We have not only reason to believe that God will yet work, but to rejoice that he has already begun it. From the best observation which I have been able to make, it appears that there have been more revivals of religion in these northern States, within a few months past, than for several years before. I have information, which I believe may be relied upon, from about thirty towns in this and the adjoining States, where God has been of late, or is now, pouring out of his blessed Spirit. In some towns the work has been nearly general. Persons of almost all ages and descriptions have been the subjects of it; nor has it been confined to any one denomination of Christians.⁵ The majority, however, in most places where these showers of heavenly influence have fallen, has been composed of youth and children! Yet many there are in advanced life, who have been called at the eleventh hour, who can give a very clear and rational account of what Nicodemus, though a master in Israel, could form no idea of, i.e. “how a man, when he is old, can be born again.”

I have lately received a very interesting account from a place at the Westward, of a most rapid and astonishing work. No less than a hundred and fifty have been added to one church within a few months past; seventy to another, and a considerable number to another, in a small town ⁶ of only six miles square. This is the Lord’s doing, and marvelous in the eyes of all who beheld it. Here God has literally ordained praise out of the mouth of babes! A number of children, from nine to fifteen years of age, have been brought to shout their young hosannas to the great Redeemer! And a number of bold infidels have bowed the knee to King Jesus, and owned him Lord, to the glory of the Father!

Have we not reason to believe, that a prayer-hearing God has granted these wonderful displays of his grace, in answer to the humble, united cries of his people, who on this day are offering up their servant supplications, with one accord, for the interests of religion? In several places, the reformation has been evidently traced, in its beginning, to these seasons of special prayer. And, my brethren, shall we not take courage, and pray without ceasing? For Zion’s sake, hold not your peace. Let us not be weary in well doing; for we shall reap in due season, if we faint not. Though we sow in tears, we may reap in joy. God will hear his own children, who cry day and night to him; yea, in some instances, “before they call he will answer, and while they are yet speaking he will hear.” ⁶ And is it not the ardent desire of our souls, that we may see such a glorious work among us—that the Lord would pour his “Spirit upon our seed, and his blessing upon our offspring?” Could we possible have greater joy than to see our dear children walking in the truth? O that we may soon have occasion to say, “Lo! This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will come and save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation.”

3dly. Let me caution all who hear me this day, not to oppose this work, lest they be found fighting against God. Are there any here present, who are under the power and dominion of sin? Permit me to tell you, that you must either bow to the mild sceptre of mercy, or to the iron rod of justice. Remember, that if you oppose this work, it is Omnipotence you have to contend with! “Have you an arm like God, or can you thunder with a voice like him?” It is the voice of God which saith, “I will work, and who shall let it?” “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also, that you receive not the grace of God in vain.” “Be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong.” “Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you, spoken of in the prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish; for I work a work in your days; a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.”

To conclude. May the Lord, of his infinite mercy, subdue the unbelief and opposition of all our hearts, and work in us, both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure, a work of faith with almighty power. Then, indeed, will Christ be precious to us. His very name will be like ointment poured forth. We shall rejoice in the enlargement of the empire of grace; and shall join the pleasing exclamation of the psalmist, with whose words I close. “His name shall endure forever—and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wonderous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory.

Amen, and Amen.”

Endnotes

¹. Vide Banier’s Mythology of the Ancients.

². Crantz’s History of Greenland, in Gill.

³. Studies of Nature.

⁴. President Maxcy’s Address, &c.

⁵. In Connecticut, this work has been principally among Congregationalists, (or Presbyterians, as they are there called). In this State, perhaps nearly divided between Congregationalists and Baptists. In New-Hampshire, much the same. In Vermont, principally among the Baptists: yet, both in Vermont, and in Connecticut, there are some of other denominations. This statement may not be very correct.

⁶. Shaftsbury, in Vermont.

⁷. Isaiah lxv. 24.

Sermon – Fasting – 1805, Massachusetts

John Foster (1771-1839) preached this sermon in Massachusetts on the state’s annual fast day of April 4, 1805.

S E R M O N

DELIVERED

TO THE FIRST AND THIRD SOCIETIES

CAMBRIDGE,

ON THE ANNIVERSARY FAST IN MASSACHUSETTS,

4 April, 1805;

BY JOHN FOSTER A. M.
PASTOR OF THE THIRD CHURCH AND CONGREGATION
IN THAT TOWN.

SERMON.

EZEKIEL, vii. 23.

Make a chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes—

The Jewish scriptures, beside their primary design to prepare the way for the advent of the promised Messiah, and illustrate the nature and divinity of his mission, disclose to our view the invariable process of divine providence in the government of nations. The various incidents, in the history of this chosen people, “happened unto them for ensamples, and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” ¹ Even the messages of the prophets, which relate originally to them, in conjunction with their appropriate sense, admit of a secondary and more general application: For “no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.” ² It was the common, if not the constant practice of those “holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” ³ with a principal, to connect a subordinate object; and at once to foretell the fate of their countrymen, and admonish the rest of mankind. By this mean, “the benefit of their predictions, instead of being confined to “one occasion, or to one people, is extended to every “subsequent period of time,” ⁴ and to all parts of the habitable earth. Hence, when Ezekiel denounces the judgments of heaven against the Jews, on account of their aggravated offences, the spirit of the denunciation may be transferred to all other political bodies, which have imitated their impiety and rebellion. America, therefore, in common with every other section of the globe, may be instructed and warned by the solemn words, to which our attention is directed.

The prophecy, of which these words are a part, was delivered in the fourteenth year of the Babylonish captivity; and was designed to apprize the Jews, whom Nebuchadnezzer had already brought into Chaldea, of the dreadful calamities which still impended their devoted country. These calamities he exhibits under the bold and impressive metaphor of a chain; a metaphor often employed in modern as well, as ancient times, to signify a state of abject dependence and servitude. Without descending to detail, it gives to slavery a kind of visible form; and fills, and overwhelms the imagination with an indistinct and gloomy view of the countless miseries, resulting from the loss of rational liberty, and a consequent subjection to the capricious cruelty of arbitrary and lawless power. It invites the tyrants and oppressors of the age to feed their ambition to the full, upon the spoils of those, who had criminally exposed themselves to their arts or arms.

To this awful catastrophe the Jews had been hastening for many years. Ever since the defection of Jeroboam and the ten tribes, both Judah and Israel had degenerated with a rapidity, unknown to former times. The idolatrous institutions, and the impious example of this aspiring chief incurably corrupted the public morals. The apostacy of the ten tribes had already produced its penal effects, and subjected them to the Assyrian yoke; ⁵ and the sins of Judah had received a partial punishment in the successful invasions of the king of Babylon and other neighbouring enemies. ⁶ Still however she repented not; nor was it, afterward, in the power of her most pious and patriotic princes to close the floodgates of iniquity, and accomplish her effectual amendment. From the account of what Josiah, the last good king of Judah attempted, ⁷ with a view to stop the progress of idolatry, and put an end to every other abomination, it clearly appears that the most atrocious and execrable vices had been introduced under the former reigns, and openly practiced ever since. Menassah, in particular, the grandfather of Josiah, had set all the obligations of religion and morality at defiance, and committed unexampled outrages upon his subjects. “He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon.” ⁸ His wickedness diffused its baneful influence among all ranks of the people, who, making it their own by adoption, at once increased their guilt and accelerated their ruin. On this ground it is, that the prophet threatens them with the severest tokens of divine displeasure. “Make a chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. Wherefore, saith the Lord,” as he proceeds to explain and enforce the threatening, “wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled. Destruction cometh, and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor; hen shall they seek a vision from the prophet: but the law shall perish from the priests, and counsel from the ancients. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them.” All this was literally accomplished in the course of a few years; when Nebuchadnezzer again besieged and took Jerusalem, and having seized king Zedekiah and his household, slew his sons before his face, barbarously deprived him of sight, loaded him with fetters of brass, carried him away captive, and sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of his guards to plunder and burn the temple and city, to demolish its walls, and to transplant the remaining inhabitants of the land to Babylon. Here they remained in degrading bondage, till Babylon itself was conquered by Cyrus, and annexed to the Persian empire. ⁹

With this signal instance of divine justice in view, need I adduce arguments to prove that the general prevalence of profligate opinions and manners tends, both in the nature of things, and by the decree of heaven, to the total destruction of national independence, and individual freedom?

This is the awakening truth, which our subject inculcates; a truth attested by the history of all generations of men, from the beginning of the world to this day. Did time permit, it would be no less instructive, than curious to observe the alternate rise and fall of the mighty empires, kingdoms, and states which once shone in the Eastern Hemisphere; and to trace the wonderful conduct of providence, in overruling and employing the passions of men, who in their hearts “meant not so,” ¹⁰ for the chastisement, or extirpation of licentious communities. At one period, we behold the Egyptians, unrivalled in science and power, stretching forth the iron rod of oppression over the children of Israel, while as yet they were few in number. Anon this despised handful of bondmen are, by a series of extraordinary events, emancipated from the cruel tyranny of their masters; conducted to “a land flowing with milk and honey;” ¹¹ and, in their turn, made the scourge of the idolatrous Canaanites. In process of time they become a great and prosperous people; but “forgetting the God that made and established them,” ¹² and claiming the fatal liberty of “doing what was right in their own eyes,” ¹³ they split into factions among themselves, and the kingdom is rent asunder. At once demoralized and weakened by this separation, Israel falls an easy prey to the Assyrians, and Judah to the Babylonians. Nor is the pride of Assyria, or the superstition of Egypt suffered to go unpunished. The same Babylonians, who had subjugated the Jews, carry their victorious arms into both these countries, and humble their inhabitants in the dust. Elated by success, great Babylon herself at length fills up the measure of her sins, and the Medes and Persians are ready to execute deserved vengeance upon her. The Medes and Persians, blended into one extensive and potent empire, become effeminate, luxurious, and haughty; till they tempt and provoke the Greeks to invade their dominions, and are overrun and vanquished by that warlike people. Enervated and subdued by the vices of their Asiatic conquests; and rendered factious and faithless by licentious and visionary theories of liberty, the Greeks are next compelled to relinquish their proud distinction; bow submissive to the more practical policy and persevering courage of the Romans; and descend to the degraded condition of a dependant and tributary province. The Romans, after rising to the highest summit of human grandeur; commanding the respect and homage of remotest climes; and destroying nations not a few, fall victims to their own vices, and are overcome and dispossessed by hordes or barbarians, who once trembled and fled at the approach of their legions.

Such was the tragic end of these ancient nations! “And surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon them, to remove them out of his sight for their sins;” ¹⁴ not however by any immediate or miraculous interposition of providence, a few instances relating to the Jews excepted, but by the natural operation and connection of events. Their sins were the visible cause of their destruction. Read the prophecies which describe their character, and denounce their doom; or the histories which detail their sufferings and trace them to their origin, and you cannot be ignorant that the crimes and errors which prevailed among them, were obviously calculated to produce the identical effects, in which they finally resulted. “They ate the fruit of their own way, and were filled with their own devices.” ¹⁵

But why should we recur to antiquity, when examples in point are exhibited in modern times? Among these examples, France holds a conspicuous rank, and speaks instruction and warning to the whole civilized world. In the progress of her late revolution, countless numbers have fallen by the cruel hands of political fanatics, who, with vociferous pretensions to ardent patriotism, bade open defiance to the laws, both of God and man, and commenced indiscriminate warfare with every established institution, whether civil or sacred, which was calculated to restrain and regulate the licentious propensities of the human heart. Infatuated and deceived by high sounding professions of regard to their rights, and specious promises of a kind of liberty and equality, which can have no existence, but in the disordered brain of the visionary philosophist, the multitude madly joined in the work of destruction. By the incessant flattery of their vanity and vices, they were rapidly wrought up to a degree of insolence and ferocity, which prepared them, at the nod of those leaders, who exceeded the rest in noise, tumult, and malignity, to prostrate every rival in the dust, and exterminate his family, connections, and friends! Thus encouraged and supported, new clans of tyrants, still more unprincipled and abandoned than the last, constantly aspired to dominion, and murdered and succeeded their predecessors. “The land was fully of bloody crimes,” and the chains of slavery were inevitable.

At this awful crisis, a Corsican adventurer, educated in a military school, and early taught and accustomed to anticipate distinction and fame from the discomfiture and wretchedness of his fellow men, seized he reins, and subjected the nation to a more despotic and arbitrary control than their fathers had known, under the worst of their hereditary kings. In this deplorable condition they must probably remain for ages to come! At least, there is no prospect of their emancipation, but by suffering the tremendous reaction of their revolutionary atrocities, and submitting to bleed afresh at every pore!

“That which has been, is now; and that, which is to be, has already been.” ¹⁶ The causes, which, in former ages, approved destructive to civil liberty, are alike injurious in their aspect and tendency at the present day; and will forever continue to produce the same disastrous effects. The great law of gravitation is not more uniform, nor more irresistible in its agency.

Impressed therefore with the solemn truth, that our destiny, like that of the Jews and other nations, to which we have alluded, must be determined by our practice; that if we forsake the God of our fathers, and “walk in the way of our hearts, and in the sight of our eyes,” ¹⁷ our envied freedom will gradually disappear, and give place to misrule, anarchy, and despotism, let us bring our character to the test. If found wanting, when weighed in that balance, the infallible correctness of which is asserted by the Spirit of God, and proved by the experience of all the world, let us not, like wicked Ahab, hate and persecute those, who conscientiously “prophesy evil concerning us;” ¹⁸ but, like good Josiah, “when we hear the words of the law,” ¹⁹ let us “make a covenant before the Lord to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes with all our hearts.” ²⁰

Time was, when America could claim preeminence in piety and good morals; when the things, that are pure and honest, were almost universally approved; when the profligate votaries of licentiousness and irreligion were constrained to hide themselves from the observation and censure of a virtuous community. But “how is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed!” ²¹ No sooner was our independence achieved and recognized, than the jealousy which had been hitherto directed against the British cabinet, was unreasonably transferred to our own government. The public mind, still impassioned, and indignant at the recollection of injuries received from the exactions of arbitrary power, was predisposed to anticipate encroachment, and to magnify even the necessary restraints of law and justice into acts of oppression. Availing themselves of this prevalent weakness, the dissolute, designing, and desperate, who can never rise to eminence but by turning the world upside down, industriously circulated suspicions and complaints among the people, till many believed themselves ruled with a rod of iron, and daringly resorted to arms for relief, at the very moment when the true cause of their grievances was the want of a more energetic system of policy. A temporary check was given to this destructive infatuation, and its insidious abettors, by the adoption of the federal constitution, and the wise administration of our beloved Washington; which at once conciliated the confidence and respect of surrounding nations, and inspired the pleasing hope of domestic prosperity and peace. But the distracting commotions of Europe soon extended their baneful influence to these western regions, interrupted our growing harmony, and clouded our fairest prospects. These commotions furnished a new, and imposing pretence to those restless beings, who had found it necessary to suspend their labors, not for want of inclination, but for want of means and opportunities to continue them. France, it was proclaimed and echoed, had delivered us from colonial oppression; and was therefore entitled, not only to our gratitude, but to our assistance and imitation. ²² As if we also were engaged in the work of revolution, societies were organized in these States, who claimed fraternity with the Jacobin clubs of the French republic; and openly adopted the same principles, if not the same appellation. ²³ In the mean time, increasing swarms of fugitives from the old world were disgorged upon our shores, who, joining in the current clamor for reform, extended and prolonged the reign of licentiousness and innovation. The doctrines of disorganization were repeated, till they became too familiar to excite just alarm. Inured to scenes of political intrigue, and infested by a rancorous spirit of party, we imperceptibly lost that veneration for the gospel and its institutions, and relinquished that purity and simplicity of manners, by which our fathers rose to honor and greatness.

No longer impressed or awed by the solemn truths of revelation, “the wicked walk on every side.” ²⁴ Numbers are found, who professedly “cast off fear and restrain prayer;” ²⁵ represent the bible, as an artful fabrication, calculated by ambitious priests and statesmen to terrify and enslave a credulous world; and recommend, as real and important discoveries, those absurd and impious sophisms, which tend alike to the destruction of social order, and the subversion of all the moral distinctions of right and wrong! Others, who have not the hardihood to avow their apostacy from the Christian faith, have learned, nevertheless, to treat many a clear dictate of reason, and injunction of scripture, as the mere prejudices of ignorance, transmitted from a superstitious ancestry! By exaggerating the enthusiasm and intolerance of former times, and extolling the enlightened liberality of the present, they give a kind of sanction to prevailing dissipation, and are emboldened to “speak peace to themselves, though they walk in the imagination of their hearts!” ²⁶

The frequent exemplification of impious and immortal practice naturally tends to diminish and destroy that aversion, which it necessarily excites in every mind, not habituated to behold it. Hence excesses, which would once have subjected their authors to a universal burst of public indignation and censure, are witnessed without a frown; and, either for want of inclination, or from a persuasion of its impracticability, to fix the merited stigma of disgrace upon unprincipled and abandoned characters is seldom attempted. Such characters, of course, appear with boldness, and spread the contagion of their example far and wide. Beside the alarming prevalence of infidelity, profaneness, luxury, sensuality, and the long catalogue of transgressions, which flow from an undue attachment to sublunary possessions and pleasures, perpetration portending the most insupportable evils to society, and putting everything dear to humanity at immediate hazard, abound among us. Nor are these perpetrations confined to the desperate and shameless votaries of vulgar profligacy. They are displayed, with all their horrors, in the more elevated walks of life; and by men, whose talents and stations give them a most extensive and pernicious influence. Duels have been repeatedly fought by members of our national legislature! And the constituted guardians of our rights disclaiming all jurisdiction over transactions of this nature; and neglecting in any form to bear testimony against them, ²⁷ the horrid practice has rapidly increased, both among rulers and citizens, till a spectacle is presented to our astonished minds, for which history has no parallel, and language no description! The second magistrate of the nation imbrues his hands in the blood of a fellow citizen, whom the dictates of humanity, the obligations of religion, and the oath of office required him to protect from violence and outrage. ²⁸ With these polluted hands he flees from the demands of justice; and, proceeding in a circuitous route to the Capitol, resumes his seat, as PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, and VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Nor is it once made a question, in either house of Congress, whether he shall continue to retain and exercise the prerogatives of this exalted station! Say not, that the constitution makes no provision for the punishment of such offenders; and therefore, that the discussion and decision of this question would have exceeded the limits of their authority. Does not the constitution provide, that the most dignified officers in the administration shall be impeached and removed for “high crimes and misdemeanors?” ²⁹ If a justice of the Supreme Court of the Union is to be arraigned, as an evil doer, on the unsupported charge of partiality in the conviction and punishment of men, who had confessedly “made insurrection,” and exerted all their talents to bring the government into disrepute and contempt, ought the Vice President, who had notoriously usurped the prerogatives of judge, jury, and executioner in his own cause, not only to escape with impunity, but to preside at the trial? Is this to render “equal justice to men of all opinions, political and religious?” What could more directly tend to multiply those “bloody crimes,” with which the land, if not yet full, is apparently and deeply stained; and which, separate from such other atrocious acts of wickedness, as prevail among us, and in the language of scripture are figuratively said to “defile with blood,” give the dreadful charge in the text a direct and literal application to our guilty country? What, in future, is to set bounds to that virulence of party zeal, which has pervaded the public mind; and what is to prevent “every man from slaying his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor?” ³⁰ If the passions of the wicked are to be uncontrolled; if neither disgrace nor inconvenience is to be attached to the murder of a rival; if both the government and the people are to connive at deeds of horror, and admit the principle of personal revenge and political persecution, the reign of terror will commence in reality; and a perpetual collision of contending factions ensue, till some aspiring demagogue, more bold and successful than the rest, shall usurp supreme command; and “make a chain,” too strong for us, or our children to sever! This, to say the least, is the natural tendency of “violent disorders and implacable discord in free States; they lead to anarchy and end in despotism. There may be much diversity in the process, but the result is nearly the same.

When political disputes are conducted with moderation and candor, they are innocent, and may be useful. But when parties become eager and vehement; when in the heat of contention they loose sight of the public interest, and endeavor to mislead the citizens by false representations, they corrupt the public morals, and tend directly to licentiousness and confusion. In such cases, there would be danger that the most unprincipled would be the most successful. They might resort to measures, which their opponents might be unwilling to adopt; for honest men would disdain to deceive the people, and would never deviate from right conduct to promote any cause, or produce any change in opinions or measures. But if men of corrupt principles should predominate, they might choose rather to submit to a despot of their own selection, than hazard the loss of their ill acquired influence.” ³¹

Men of corrupt principles and ambitious designs are “the rod of God’s anger,” ³² and employed by his righteous providence to chastise prevailing iniquity. Nor are such men ever wanting in a degenerate and backsliding community. With us, their numbers are increased, and their machinations aided by the continued influx of discontented foreigners; the pernicious effects of which have been remarkably portrayed by an active statesman of our own country. “It is,” says he, “for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much as possible in matters which they must of necessity transact together. Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. Every species of government has its specific principles. Our perhaps are more peculiar than any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute monarchies. Yet, from such, we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness; passing as is usual from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its directions, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass.”

Time has proved the truth of this prediction. The evils it anticipates and describes are believed by many to exist among us. Yet no measures are adopted to arrest their progress, or prevent their continuance! On the contrary, the emigration of foreigners is encouraged, and their naturalization facilitated, under the administration, and at the official request of the same active statesman, ³³ from whose “NOTES ON VIRGINIA,” ³⁴ the preceding remarks are quoted!

Thus allured to our shores, and admitted to our councils, is it not more than possible that foreigners may ultimately gain an ascendency over us, which open hostility could never insure them? For a time, they may condescend to act in the subordinate capacity of auxiliaries; and aid the party, whose views and wishes are most congenial to their own, to counteract and crush their rivals. Caressed and rewarded for these exertions, will it be miraculous, if their numbers and influence increase, till they become formidable to every description of native Americans, and elevate some daring chieftain of their own, on the ruins of our republican freedom? In any event, will they not transplant the ices and intrigues of the old world into our once united and happy country, and expose us to the awful destiny of being “devoured one of another?” ³⁵ Here, perhaps, our greatest danger lies. Placed at a desirable distance from the more ancient and corrupt regions of the earth, we have little to fear from their arms: and, if we can surmount their arts, may long be exempt from their crimes and miseries. But if their outcast adventurers are to participate with us the rights of suffrage; to take upon themselves the direction of our public prints; ³⁶ and to sustain various and important offices in the national government, ³⁷ our altars, both of liberty and religion are in jeopardy. Security from the invasion of foreign foes can afford little consolation to the reflecting mind, while thus exposed to the insidious machinations of designing men; “carried about by every wind of doctrine;” ³⁸ and apparently hastening into the fatal vortex of those domestic feuds, which admit of no remedy, but the unlimited authority of a master! These are “signs of the times,” ³⁹ which by the attentive observer are as easily discerned, as “the face of the sky.” Reason, revelation, and history conspire to render them obvious, and to point out and prescribe the only effectual antidote. “Now, therefore, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders; let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.” ⁴⁰

It is impossible to escape the ills, which threaten us, but by combined and individual exertions for the commonweal. If we “mock the messengers of God and despise his words, the anger of the Lord will rise against us, till there is no remedy.” ⁴¹ But if we humble ourselves under his mighty hand, and seasonably “ask for the old paths, the good way, and walk therein,” ⁴² we may yet find rest and safety.

Let us, then, recur to first principles, and test our practice by the long tried maxims of wisdom and virtue. Our fathers esteemed it all important that “they who rule over men, should rule in the fear of God.” ⁴³ In our day, this inspired aphorism has been much contested. Because the national compact requires no particular profession of faith, as a qualification for office, it has been argued, that the citizen has not even a right to prefer the Christian to the infidel candidate; but is bound by the supreme law of the land totally to disregard religious character, in the bestowment of his suffrage. Nothing can be more sophistical and absurd than such reasoning. The proper inference from he fact is directly the reverse. An additional obligation is hence inferred upon us, uniformly to fix our eyes upon the “faithful of the land,” ⁴⁴ and elevate none to posts of power, but those, whose piety and virtue are unquestionable; those, who have no need to inform us or the world, that they are Christians. Our constitution leaves the ultimate decision of this question, not with those, whose ambition may impel them to falsehood and perjury; but with the community at large, whose interest and duty jointly require circumspection and integrity, in the exercise of the electoral prerogative. It is well known, that infidels have seldom, if ever been deterred from seeking or accepting places of honor and emolument by religious tests.

Collins, and Shaftsbury, two of the most artful, unwearied, and notorious adversaries of Christianity, who have disgraced the English nation, shrunk not from the solemn and impious mockery of receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, as a prerequisite to their investiture with office! ⁴⁵ Nor can it be expected, that the disciples of such masters will, in any age or country, scruple to adopt means, equally hypocritical and base, for the sake of aggrandizing themselves.

Nothing, I am bold to affirm, nothing short of a decided predilection for evangelical purity, in the source of power, can save the world from the chastisement of wicked rulers. And since in the United States all power emanates from the people, every citizen has the public morals and the public happiness entrusted to his care.

He, who invariably discountenances the unprincipled and dissolute courtiers of popularity, and exclusively supports the friends of religion and virtue, contributes his share to banish guilt and misery from the land, and to multiply the years of our tranquility. He presents a constant and powerful inducement to all, who aim at distinction, to cultivate and exemplify the things that are excellent; and, instead of the obsequious imitator of fashionable iniquity, appears in the dignified attitude of a guardian and guide to his country. But woe to him, who deliberately throws his weight into the scale of impiety and licentiousness, by favoring the promotion of their pestilent votaries. Not to insist on the ruinous effects of evil example in exalted stations, by the encouragement of which he becomes a “partaker of other men’s sins;” ⁴⁶ and, far beyond the extent of his personal influence, spreads corruption and wretchedness around him; he exposes himself to “make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.” ⁴⁷ For in proportion as he contemplates the enemies of the cross with affection, esteem, and confidence, he necessarily looses his former reverence for the doctrines, and precepts of the gospel, which they counteract and despise; suspects its professors, and teachers of arbitrary and tyrannical designs; and proceeds by imperceptible, yet swift degrees, from the dupe to the partisan and advocate of irreligion. Beheld in this light, an awful solemnity, importance, and responsibility are annexed to the obligation in debate. It is no longer a matter of mere political expediency, unconnected with our moral character and destiny, and affecting only our temporal convenience and safety. It is a Christian duty, with which we cannot dispense, but at the risk of our eternal salvation.

Under this impression, be it our ardent desire and endeavor, whenever we are called to the interesting and honorable task, to “provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over us to be rulers.” ⁴⁸ Let no coincidence of opinion on subjects of less moment, no regard to personal advantage, no partiality to friends induce us to aid the advancement of “bloody or deceitful men,” ⁴⁹ who “turn the grace of God into lasciviousness; deny the Lord that bought them;” ⁵⁰ and, “while they promise us liberty, are themselves the servants of corruption.” ⁵¹ Having done our utmost to vest integrity and talents with legal authority, let us “lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.” ⁵²

Sensible that human laws extend only to the outward behavior, and that even this is, in many instances, beyond their reach; that conscience is the only tribunal on earth, at which we can be arraigned for many of our actions, and for all our designs; and that it is only by the purity of this internal arbiter of right and wrong, that a great variety of injurious purposes and perpetrations can be prevented, let us cultivate habitual devotion to God, and practice the social, as well, as the personal and divine virtues, in obedience to his holy will. This alone can give worth and stability to our exertions of patriotism, and reconcile us to the frequent sacrifices of private interest and ambition, which the national prosperity and independence may demand.

How desirable, in this view, is the revival of a primitive regard to the Christian Sabbath and worship. The neglect and contempt of these have given rise to a much greater proportion of the immorality and unbelief of our times, than we may imagine. So fascinating are the pleasures, and so engrossing the cares and labors of life, that without the recurrence of stated periods of retirement and meditation; without being often reminded of their relation to a future world, and the obligations it imposes, the best informed, much more the ignorant and unreflecting are soon absorbed by the selfish gratifications and pursuits of time, and loose the main spring of every nobler acquisition and achievement.

Instead therefore of floating with the tide of popular dissipation and excess, let us take a resolute and active part. Let us resist “the overflowing scourge” ⁵³ of foreign influence and foreign vice, and while we stem the torrent of modern innovation, let us revere and recommend those ancient institutions, usages, and manners, which are so obviously adapted to the preservation of social order, and individual enjoyment. For the sake, both of ourselves and others, let us pay an exemplary attention to every mean of moral improvement, which reason and scripture prescribe. In this way, let us imbibe the spirit of the gospel, and prepare ourselves to “serve our generation by the will of God.” ⁵⁴ While in our closets and families as well, as in the house of prayer, we bewail our own, and the sins of the land; deprecate the righteous displeasure of heaven, and implore divine forgiveness and protection, let us exert our respective influence to excite a general attention to “the things, which belong to our peace, before they are hidden from our eyes.” ⁵⁵ “For behold the Lord cometh out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.” ⁵⁶ Europe, deluged in blood, and deprived of every alternative but slavery or war, calls aloud to America, to know and improve “the day of her visitation.” ⁵⁷ Beside the powerful motives, which always result from a due regard to our present and future welfare, the peculiar situation of our country, and I may add of all Christendom urges the fitness and necessity of decision. “Never,” to conclude in the words of a late impressive writer, ⁵⁸ “never were times more eventful and critical; never were appearances more singular and interesting, in the political, or in the religious world. You behold, on the one hand, infidelity with dreadful irruption, extending its ravages far and wide; and on the other, an amassing accession of zeal and activity to the cause of Christianity. Error, in all its forms, is assiduously and successfully propagated; but the progress of evangelical truth is also great. The number of the apparently neutral party daily diminishes, and men are now, either becoming worshippers of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or receding fast through the mists of skepticism into the dreary regions of speculative and practical atheism. It seems as if Christianity and infidelity were mustering each the host of the battle, and preparing for some great day of God. The enemy is come in like a flood; but the spirit of the Lord hath lift up a standard against him. Who then is on the Lord’s side? Let him come forth to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”

Endnotes

1. I Cor. X XI.

2. I Pet. i. 20.

3. Ibid. 2I.

4. Bishop Porteus’ Lectures. New Haven edit. 1803. Page 302.

5. 2 Kings, chap. xvii.

6. Ibid. xxiv. I, 2.

7. Ibid. chap. xxiii.

8. Ibid. xxiv. 4.

9. 2 Kings, chap. xxvi. – Also 2 Chron. xzxvi. 17, ad fin.

10. Isaiah, x 7.

11. Exod. Xiii. 5.

12. Deut. Xxxii. 6.

13. Judges, xxi. 25.

14. 2 Kings, xxiv.3.

15. Prov. i. 3I.

16. Eccles. Iii. 15.

17. Ibid. xi. 9.

18. 2 Kings, xxii. 8.

19. 2 Kings xxii. 2.

20. 2 Kings, xxiii. 3.

21. Lam. Iv 3.

22. If the reader will be at the pains of reviewing the public prints of that period, he will readily ascertain the truth of this remark. In the mean time, he is presented with two short extracts, in point, from a “SERMON” published at the Chronicle press, Boston in the year 1795, and addressed to a respectable Clergyman in the county of Middlesex. “PAR CITOYEN DE NOVION;” a native American, (as he has been reputed, and a man too of high pretensions to patriotism; but not a preacher of the Gospel) whose love for France absorbed his proper name, and country; and constrained him, in the person and style of a Frenchman, to say; “You have grossly insulted and abused our nation, which saved years in a very generous and unexpected manner from impending ruin. America would not have become a nation; and your Washington, your Jefferson, your Hancock, and Adams would have now been numbered with traitors and felons, if it had not have been for us. And the returns of gratitude which we receive, are slanders and calumnies.” Page 7. “We, Sir, shall succeed, and shall establish our liberties, and AGAIN give aid in saving those of United America from foreign despotism.” Page 24.

23. Here again “De Novion” speaks to the purpose. After tracing the word Jacobin, to the name of a convent in Paris, where the sittings of the Club were first held, he adds: “But it was their system, not their house, which rendered them so odious in the eye of European despots, and in that of some Anglo American politicians.” Page 21.

24. Psalm xii.8.

25. Job, xv. 4.

26. Deut. Xxix. 19.

27. A motion was brought forward in congress during the session of 1802, (if I mistake not) designed to punish, or at least to discountenance this barbarous custom. This motion, however, was rejected, as beyond the power, vested in the representatives and guardians of the people. And yet the Constitution expressly provides, (Article II, Sect. 5.) that “each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member.”

28. “No person,” says the 7 article of amendments to the Constitution, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment, or indictment of a grand jury; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself; not be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” As Vice President of the United States, Col. Burr had solemely sworn “to support this Constitution.” Did he then, or did he not perjure himself, when he took the life of General Hamilton, without indictment or process of law?

29. The words of the Constitution are, “The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, OR OTHER HIGH CRIME AND MISDEMEANORS.” Article II. Sec. 4.

30. Exodus, xxxii, 27.

31. See Gov. Strong’s excellent speech to the legislature of Massachusetts, published in the Repertory of January 22, 1805.

32. Isaiah, x. 5.

33. Thomas Jefferson Esq. now President of the United States; who, in his first message to Congress, after his induction to office, holds the following language. “I cannot omit to recommend a revisal of the law, on the subject of naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of citizenship under fourteen years, is a denial to a great proportion of those who ask it; and controls a policy, pursued from their first settlement, by many of these States, and still believed of consequence to their prosperity. And shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality, which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers, arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? The Constitution has wisely provided that for admission to certain offices of important trust, a residence shall be required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the general character, and capabilities of a citizen b safely communicated to everyone, manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes permanently with us?”

34. Pages 119, 120 of H. Sprague’s Boston Edition, 1802.

35. Galatians, v. I5.

36. Already are a very considerable proportion of the leading newspapers in the United States edited by foreigners. Whether these imported editors, who have undertaken the philanthropic task of teaching Americans how to be free, “have brought with them the principles of the governments, they have left;” or whether they have “thrown them off in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness;” or whether they have wrought “a miracle, and stopped at the precise point of rational liberty,” is worthy the serious inquiry both of their patrons and opposers.

37. The number of native Europeans, who represent the people of the United States in both houses of Congress, and hold places of trust and influence in other departments of the administration, has long been a subject of regret and alarm to many honest, patriotic, and intelligent citizens.

38. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16.

39. Matth. xvi. 3.

40. Joel, ii. 12-17.

41. Ephes. Iv. 14.

42. Jeremiah, vi. 16.

43. 2 Sam. xxiii. 3.

44. Psalm, ci. 6.

45. See Fuller’s “Gospel its own witness” p. 75. New York edit. 1802.

46. I Tim. v. 22.

47. I Tim. i. 19.

48. Exod. xviii. 21.

49. Psal. v. 6.

50. Jude, ver. 4.

51. 2 Pet. ii. 19.

52. I. Tim. ii. 2.

53. Isaiah, xxviii. 12.

54. Acts, xiii. 36.

55. Luke, xix 42.

56. Isaiah, xxvi. 21.

57. Luke, xix. 45.

58. Ferrier’s discourses delivered at Paisly (Eng.) June 1798.

Sermon – Fasting – 1805, New Hampshire

Seth Payson (1758-1820) graduated from Harvard in 1777. He was the pastor of the Congregational church in Rindge, NH (1782-1820). This sermon was preached by Payson in New Hampshire on the state’s annual fast day of April 11, 1805.

AN ABRIDGMENT

OF TWO

DISCOURSES,

PREACHED AT RINDGE,

AT THE

ANNUAL FAST,

APRIL 11TH, 1805.

BY SETH PAYSON, A. M.
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN RINDGE.

A
FAST SERMON.

DANIEL IV. 17.

TO THE INTENT THAT THE LIVING MAY KNOW, THAT THE MOST HIGH RULETH IN THE KINGDOM OF MEN, AND GIVETH IT TO WHOMSOEVER HE WILL, AND SETTETH UP OVER IT THE BASEST OF MEN.

Right views of the Divine Government are strongly connected with practical religion. The various exercises of submission, gratitude, trust in God, and prayer to him, evidently much depend upon our ideas of a superintending providence. A large proportion, both of the doctrinal and historical parts of the sacred writings are, therefore, calculated to enforce right sentiments upon this subject; and especially to teach us that wicked men, and wicked spirits, are under the entire control of the Supreme Ruler. The Providence of God is no less to be acknowledged in the evils we suffer from wicked agents, than in natural and accidental calamities, although less regarded in the former case, than in the latter.

To teach us that wicked men are instruments in the hands of God, to execute his holy purposes, is declared in the test to be the design of the memorable event to which this passage relates. It was signified to the king of Babylon in a dream that, as a punishment of his crimes, he should be seized with such a peculiar delirium, as should not only deprive him of the understanding of a man, but reduce him to the feelings and the life of a brute; so that, quitting the society and food of men, he should for seven years, dwell with the beasts of the field, and eat grass as oxen. And that the design of this uncommon judgment was to teach him, and other vain mortals, that there is a righteous God who sees, and will punish their pride and wickedness.

In our meditations on this passage, our attention is particularly led to consider – the character here given of Jehovah as Most High – that the fate of kingdoms, and the rise and fall of empires are determined by his will – and the special act of his providence, in setting over the nations of the earth the basest of men.

First. The character here given of Jehovah, as the Most High, affords a subject for devotional meditations. It is a title expressive of the infinite and incomparable perfections of the divine nature. With what propriety is it given to him whose power is Almighty – who by one omnipotent word gave being to the universe, and in comparison with whom “all the nations of the earth are but as the drop of the bucket, and the small dust of the balance”? Because creatures acquire more force, with respect to their fellow-creatures, by uniting their strength and numbers; hence, judging of their Maker by themselves, sinners feel a security arising from the numbers combined with them in rebellion. But the atheism of the heart is the only foundation of this delusive hope. What did numbers avail the sinners of the old world – or what the multitude of Pharaoh’s host, when justice decreed their destruction? The joint force of men and angels forms no obstacle to the process of omnipotent wrath.

Nor is Jehovah less exalted above creatures in wisdom and understanding than in power. The enemies of God have much confidence in the subtlety of their machinations. They fancy themselves able at least to embarrass the measures of the divine administration. The partial success he is pleased at times to grant them encourages this vain confidence; but when almost at the pinnacle of their hopes, they are ready to shout that the victory is their own, how oft by a sudden turn of the wheels of his providence does he crush all their counsels, and plunge them into the pit which they have digged. The Wisdom of God is able not only to defeat the most subtle craft of his enemies, but to render their attempts subservient to that very purpose they were intended to defeat. The wrath of man, and the rage of devils shall promote his praise.

Secondly. The fate of kingdoms, and the rise and fall of empires are determined by his sovereign will. The events of human life impress the mind very differently, accordingly as they are viewed either by faith, or an eye of sense. The natural eye discovers nothing in the events of human life, but a series of causes and effects, in which the visible means only are regarded. But the believer sees all events subjected to the disposing mind of God, pursuing, by a steady and invariable progress, its own designs – overturning all opposition, and converting the efforts of its enemies into means of effecting its high and holy purposes.

Indeed, second causes have their place. God operates by means and instruments; but natural, no less than miraculous events, are minutely fulfilling the purposes of his will.

We have no grounds to suppose that any thing out of the ordinary course of providence appeared in the advancement of Pharaoh to the throne of Egypt, yet the hand of God in this event is expressly asserted. The rise and downfall of the four distinguished monarchies of Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome, were effected by natural causes, yet in those events we see the fulfillment of divine predictions. Before men were blessed with the instructions of a complete revelation, to make his hand more visible, God often miraculously interposed both in acts of mercy and judgment. There needs not the supernatural interposition of a divine power to overturn the walls of a devoted nation; nor that the “stars in their courses” should be armed, as against Sisera of old. Were other means wanting, the blindness of man’s minds, and the strong corruptions of their hearts, afford abundant means of inflicting the heaviest calamities upon a guilty nation.

The hand of God is asserted in the judgments which Abimelech, and the Sechemites inflicted on each other, as the punishment of their mutual crime, while their own wicked tempers, were the instruments of this punishment. And in the predicted destruction of Jerusalem, it was notorious, and acknowledged by Titus the Roman general, that a divine vengeance gave into his hand fortresses, impregnable to every human effort; yet the only visible mean by which this end was effected, was the madness of party rage.

“Heaven first infatuates whom it would destroy.”

Thirdly, – The subject offers to our consideration a particular act of his providence, viz. in raising to power and dominion the basest of men. Whether we consider this phrase, as descriptive of persons low in birth, and the rank they sustain in society, or of those, who are vile in a moral and religious view, facts are not wanting to confirm its truth.

He raises to rank and power those, whose former conditions gave no prospect of such advancement. “The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich; he bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.” ¹ Joseph who was raised from a prison, to be the Lord of Pharaoh’s house; and David, exalted from the sheepfold to the kingdom of Israel, are instances, which illustrate this explanation of the text.

But as a low rank in society, unless the result of wicked practices, does not render men really base, the term applies to such, merely in a figurative sense. In strict propriety it belongs only to those who are base in a religious view. All wicked men are base. They are strangers to those principles of action which adorn human nature, and which constitute the glory and dignity of rational beings. Wicked men have a conviction of their own vileness; and where their judgments are not under the influence of self love, they reprobate those very principles, by which, they themselves are actuated. Whenever they attempt to paint an excellent character, unless lost to all moral feelings, they never take the portrait from themselves. Instead of describing their hero as proud, selfish, ambitious of power, hypocritical in religion, or as pursuing his own private interest under a pretended concern for the public weal, they present us with the picture of a virtuous and good man – a friend of mankind – rising above selfish views, and possessing the soul of genuine benevolence. Conscious of their own baseness, wicked men carefully conceal their real characters, under the garb of virtue, fidelity, zeal for the public good, and the welfare of mankind.

The phraseology of the text likewise reminds us, that, among this base part of society, there are degrees of deformity. All who are destitute of fixed principles of goodness, have not arrived to that hardiness and impudence in sin – that unfeeling stupidity of conscience – that entire depravation of moral sense, which renders them deserving the infamous distinction, of the basest of men.

That persons to whom this epithet is applicable in its full extent, are raised to places of dignity and power — and that this takes place by the disposing, righteous providence of Jehovah, are two distinct branches of the general doctrine now under consideration.

1. That the basest of men in the sense above explained, have been raised to places of dignity and power — is a truth, however reproachful to those who have been instrumental in their exaltation, conspicuous in the history of every nation. Never was a term more properly applied, than this in our text, to many who have been invested with imperial crowns, and raised to stations of the highest responsibility.

They are fitly characterized, the basest of men, for hey have risen to power by the basest means. Some wading to empire through torrents of blood—the blood of innocents. Others have gained by bribery, by flattery, and the basest collusion, what they wanted the means of effecting by coercion. The garb of flaming patriotism has been assumed—the vices and follies of mankind have been addressed—the weak and uninformed, misled, and all the arts of popular deception put in practice, to gain an influence promotive of their aspiring views. The wise and good, in every society, form a barrier to the ambitious designs of these men. To crush his opposition, to destroy the confidence which their virtues have inspired, and to excite in the public mind, a jealousy which shall annihilate the influence of their counsels, their measures and their characters, the aid of slander and defamation has been invoked.

Power, thus basely acquired, has been no less basely used, for confirming this usurped dominion—for subjecting their fellow citizens more entirely to their will—for suppressing all who justly merit the public confidence, and for promoting those whose tempers and feelings are congenial with their own. Thus have the best interests of a nation been sacrificed, to the pride and ambition, or revenge of the basest of men.

Instances illustrative of these truths, both in sacred and profane history, are innumerable. In he sacred volume, the story of the vile Abimelech, is replete with pertinent instruction. By his soothing flatteries, and misrepresentations, he persuaded the Sechemites to forget Gideon, his father, and their deliverer from the apprehensions of Midian – to slay the seventy legal sons of their benefactor, and to chose this base wretch for their king.

Another vile character in sacred story, distinguished for its baseness, is that of Absalom. By pretending an uncommon regard to justice, and concern for the interests of the people, intermixed with such reflections on his father’s administration as he found the public mind would bear, he allured the fickle, changeable multitude of ancient Israel, to forget the many virtues, and military achievements of David, and the glory to which he had raised the nation; and to chose for their king a murderer, a vile parricide, who had proved himself the enemy of all goodness.

Among the many base men who gained the throne of ancient Israel, Jeroboam also stands distinguished as one of the basest. It was peculiar mark of infamy affixed to his name, by the sacred writers, that he was the man who made Israel to sin. In his subtle machinations to establish himself in the throne which he had acquired, his first effort was, to seduce the ten tribes from the religion of their fathers, and the worship of the true God, to that of the calves which he had set up in Dan and Bethel: The origin of this detestable policy was this. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin, together with the most pious men of the nation, still adhered to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and the temple worship. Upon these circumstances, Jeroboam, like a genuine Machiavelian, reasoned thus: “If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam King of Judah.”² Regardless of the glory of his Maker, and destitute of all concern for the spiritual interests of his people, whose eternal salvation he would have sacrificed to his own ambition, he set himself with design, and yet with a pretended regard to religion, to draw off their attention from the instituted worship of God at the temple. For this end we are told “the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought the up out of the land of Egypt.”³At the same time that he acknowledges the obligations of religion, we find him introducing two gods, instead of that one true God, who is the only rational object of worship; and thereby intimating that it was of no consequence who or what they worshipped. O how lost to all goodness must those be, who can thus trifle with the most awful concerns of religion and duty!

Nor less replete is profane, than sacred history, with glaring instances of the truth before us. Ambition’s object is still the same—the same, the pernicious, falsely soothing arts, by which she pursues her hateful designs. We can scarcely avoid recollecting in this connection the fate of a neighboring empire, which we have seen, within the period of a few years past, by the like insidious practices, reduced from the boasted privileges of a republic, to a state of the most absolute despotism.

But it is needless to multiply instances which occur in the history of every nation. The restless attempts of ambitious men grasping at power, are continually embroiling society, and prove a fruitful source of misery to mankind. But our text teaches us to raise our thoughts above these instruments of mischief, to him who rules above; and piously to acknowledge with the Poet,

“They are the sword, the hand is thine.”

We accordingly proceed to remark,

2dly. That it is by the disposing righteous providence of Jehovah, that such men acquire power and dominion. If further evidence, than has already been exhibited of this truth be necessary, we may find it in the history of those vile characters alluded to above. The prophet Nathan, years before the event, predicted the usurpation of the vile Absalom. In reference to Jeroboam’s gaining the ten tribes, it is said, “For the cause was from the Lord, that he might perform his word.”⁴ Nebuchadnezzar’s advancement to the throne, is, in like manner attributed to the same governing providence. “For the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength, and glory.” ⁵ To all these pests of society, the divine declaration is as applicable as to Pilate, to whom it was primarily made, “Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” ⁶

Nor does this doctrine imply any impeachment of the wisdom, and holiness of providence.

1. In this way the just judgment of God is executed against those who are thus prospered in their wicked designs. As afflictions are not unusually the messengers of divine mercies; so, oft does God punish the wickedness of men, by permitting them to prosper in their proud ambitious designs. Prosperity in wickedness is the surest road to destruction. The respite given to Pharaoh was the evident means of completing his ruin!

2. The providence of God in raising wicked men to power, is to be considered as one of those heavy judgments by which he punishes the transgressions of an offending people; and it is worthy to be reckoned among the greatest calamities of human life.

When men regardless of duty and conscience, and who are pursuing their own aggrandizement, are invested with the supreme powers of a nation, consequences of the most pernicious nature, even to the temporal prosperity of such a society, cannot but ensue. These base men will either rule with the iron rod of despotic power; or aiming by secret craft to curtail the rights of the subject, and demolish one after another, those regulations which constitute the only security of privilege, and of property. Not to benefit mankind, but to extend, or establish their own authority, will be the governing objects of their policy. Could this evil be confined to an individual, although one raised to the highest national dignity, some check might be given to its pernicious operation; but continual experience verifies the observation of the Psalmist, “The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.” ⁷ Such men, while they fly from the virtuous and the good cordially unite with those whose feelings and designs harmonize with their own; and who, are ever ready to combine with them in undermining the firmest bulwarks of national glory.

Represent to your own minds, my hearers, a nation, whose rulers are of this description—who are bandied together for crushing all, whose principles and practices are a reproach to their own—who support their influence by flattery, by falsehood, and a continued misrepresentation of facts, and proportionably endeavor to suppress all useful information, and whose exertions are systematically directed to enervate all patriotic sentiments and the energies of the constitution; thereby to extend their own influence, and perpetuate their authority. This will ever be the effect when such vile persons are invested with power; and what of strength, of soundness, or safety can remain in a nation subjected to such misrule—what can ensue but inevitable ruin.

But far more deplorable will this calamity appear, if we view its aspect on the moral and religious interests of society. How demoralizing must the examples of wicked rulers prove, when recommended by the pomp and glare of that power and wealth, which have such a fascinating influence on the minds of the thoughtless multitude?

But not from their examples alone is evil to be apprehended. All their feelings are at war with piety and goodness. These are “the rulers who take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed.” ⁸ If a regard to public opinion, should induce them to pay a pretended respect to religion, their religion, like the idolatrous practices of Jeroboam, will tend, by corrupting, to exterminate the true worship of God. Rulers of this description know, that good men must be in opposition to them, for the same reason that they are the friends of righteousness and truth; their feelings towards such men, will therefore be similar to those, which Ahab expressed towards the prophet of the Lord. “I hate him; for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil.” ⁹

The pernicious tendency of such rulers, as it respects the interests of religion, is very visible in the history of God’s ancient people. There it appears, that the advancement of a wicked prince to the throne, was like opening the flood-gates of ungodliness. And had they not been blessed with some pious princes, who reclaimed the people from idolatry, and restored the temple worship, it appears, that the interests of true religion would have sunk, and the very form of it have been lost among them. What heavier judgment then, does the righteous Governor of the universe ordinarily, inflict upon a guilty nation, than by setting over them the basest of men?

Let us now apply these truths to their instructive, and practical uses: —

1. It appears, that the providence of God suffers no stain, in the use it makes of the unlawful practices of creatures, for promoting the holy objects of the divine government. The gratification of their own lust, covetousness, pride and ambition, is the sole consideration which puts men upon the commission of crimes. Neither, are they impelled by a divine decree, to act contrary to their own inclinations, nor, is it any part of their aim to fulfill the counsels of the Almighty. Is it a reflection on his providence to assert, that he renders subservient to the good of his universal empire, the wicked designs and practices of men? An instance, may perhaps exhibit this truth in a more convincing light, than any reasonings upon the subject.

The avarice of Judas, and the insatiable malice of the Pharisees against the Savior, had long prepared them for perpetrating the enormous crime they afterwards committed; but for a time, insuperable obstacles were thrown in the way of their designs; for “his hour was not yet come.” It would not have comported with the divine plan, to have permitted them, then, to execute, what they had long meditated. At length these preventing obstacles were removed, and an opportunity given for perpetrating the horrid deed; and it was done – not, you will observe, by the influence of a foreign power, but by the strong instigation of their own hearts. A bare statement of these facts, carries conviction to the mind, that neither the avarice of that vile traitor, nor the malice of the Jews, were, in any degree, imputable to that providence, which used them for promoting the most gracious designs.

2. If God makes use of the wickedness of creatures, to serve his purposes, and in particular to punish the guilty, we are hence taught the propriety of resignation under those evils which we suffer from the injustice of men. The Christian duty of submission, under the evils of life, has its foundation in the perfect rectitude of a governing providence. But no less is the providence of God concerned in the evils we suffer from the wicked dispositions of men, than in those, which we attribute to other causes. It may be doubted indeed, whether every evil we suffer is not effected by the instrumentality of creatures. This at least is plain, that right views of the divine government, will lead us to acknowledge God, in whatever we wrongfully suffer from men. Job, we find piously noticing the hand of God under the loss of those possessions, of which he was deprived by the Chaldean and Sabean banditti. ¹⁰ And with a like pious sense of divine providence, as extended over the wrath of man, David endured the curses of Shemei, sensible that however undeserving of such treatment from this madman, it was perfectly just, as inflicted by a righteous God, for his deeper humiliation.¹¹

3. The truth under consideration affords a pleasing view of the safety of those, who have fled to the Almighty for protection. As a needful chastisement, and as means of driving them nearer to God, his people may, for a time, be given up to the buffetings of Satan, and the persecutions of the ungodly; but not long “shall the rod of the wicked rest upon the lot of the righteous.”¹² Waves dashing and breaking upon the rocks of the shore, exhibit a just emblem of the vain designs of the enemies of God, and his people. Perfectly known to him who rules above, are all their mischievous counsels; nor further than he permits, can they afflict his saints. At his pleasure “He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.” While therefore, the friends of God humbly submit to the evils they suffer from the injustice of men, both the glory of God, and their own peace call them to “rejoice that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

4. As the high providence of God, and the absolute dependence of nations, as well as individuals, on his sovereign will, is the leading sentiment of the test, so is it that which I wish, my hearers, to have strongly impressed upon your minds. One great cause of the prevailing security of mankind, is undoubtedly, a vain dependence on present circumstances of prosperity , and apparent safety. Is not this to be numbered among the causes of that impenitent hardness of heart, so unhappily prevalent among us? We please ourselves with the idea, that intervening oceans secure us from the convulsions of the European world—that our happy climate is a defense against the general spread of pestilential diseases, and that our fruitful land has never withheld a supply of the necessaries of life. Eminently favored indeed, of him who rules above is our lot; and to him be all the praise. But even were we secure from these calamities, has God no other arrows in his quiver? Are we, therefore, beyond the reach of omnipotence? However absurd the idea, it well accords with the atheistical feelings of the heart.

But let it be remembered, that he who rules in the kingdoms of men, extends his empire over our land, and that, when the measure of our iniquities calls for vengeance, it will be found, that the strongest asylum of our secure abode, affords no shelter from the arrows of his wrath.

Our free and popular government particularly exposes us to those base men, who, to gratify their own ambition, are prepared to put in practice every engine of mischief. Whose utmost efforts will be exerted by every flattering insidious art to draw us into anarchy and licentiousness—to render us dissatisfied with the restraints of duty—to undermine our national constitution, the palladium of our liberties, and to demolish those wise, and pious institutions, which form the glory and defense of our nation.

It may be thought, that by retaining the election of our own rulers, we are effectually secured against this evil; but he who has profitably attended to the history of man, has been taught the weakness of this defense. If the Sechemites could so soon forget the deliverer of their country, if the multitude of Israel could be led, by the insinuations of the deceitful Absalom, to overlook the virtues of David, and chuse this vile wretch for their king; if the ten tribes could be induced to give up their religion, and their temple, so lately their glory and their boast, what dependence can be made on the wavering multitude, who, without any reason for change of opinion, cry hosanna to-day, and to-morrow crucify, crucify him.

Greece once was free. Rome was free. Our ears have been filled with shouts from France, in favor of liberty and equality; but in all these nations, licentiousness came to be mistaken for temperate liberty—anarchy ensued, and vile ambitious men seized the fair occasion, and lulled the people with songs of freedom, until they had fast riveted upon their necks the yokes of despotism.

By the power of delusion, the mind may become as really enslaved, as a body loaded with chains and fetters. When a flatterer has stole the hearts of the multitude, he leads them at his pleasure. They see nothing in their idol but perfection. Their eyes are shut against every interesting truth; and their ears are open only to the glozing falsehoods of the demagogue, who has thus enslaved their minds.

Our government, as has been observed, does, from its nature, tend to this evil: and the danger will appear more threatening if we consider the many circumstances which are leading to such an issue; and in particular the prevailing current of party zeal, which often carries men who aim right, wide from their object; and also the large emigrations of foreigners to our country, many of whom, we cannot doubt, are destitute, not only of every virtuous principle, but of all the feelings of Americans—of that attachment to our interest, which strongly binds most men to the land of their nativity. But means of punishing sin, can never be wanting to him, who can convert our food into poison, and impregnate the vital air with pestilence and death—who can cause “the heavens to be as brass, the earth as iron, and the rain of our land as powder and dust.”

Abundant are the privileges, with which we are invested, by the great Author of good; but upon a right use of them depends their continuance. Genuine liberty will not long dwell where she is not protected by a firm, and equitable government; nor where religion and virtue are not her companions. Remember that liberty and licentiousness, are not only different, but opposite; they cannot exist together. Turn away from those who flatter, that they may rule you, and render you the dupes of their ambition. Listen to the voice of truth; and especially to the instructions of your Maker, and the warnings of his word. Forget not your entire constant dependence on him, and let no circumstances of prosperity delude you into the idea “that peace can be the portion of the wicked;” or, that safety can be found but in the favor and protection of the Most High. “Break off your sins then, by working righteousness.” Bow to the extended scepter of his mercy. By sincere humility and unfeigned penitence, may we be prepared to receive the abundant pardons of our offended God. AMEN.

Endnotes

¹. I Samuel, ii 7, 8.

². I Kings, xii. 27.

³. I Kings, xii. 28.

⁴. I Kings, xii. 15.

⁵. Dan. ii, 37.

⁶. John xix, 11.

⁷. Psalms xii, 8.

⁸. Psalms ii, 2.

⁹. I Kings xxii, 8.

¹⁰. Job i. 21.

¹¹. II Sam. Xvi, 10-12.

¹². Job. v. 2.

Sermon – Fasting – 1808, Massachusetts

Thomas Thacher (1756-1812) graduated from Harvard in 1775. He was the minister of the 3rd Church in Dedham, MA beginning in 1780. Thacher was a member of the Massachusetts convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution. This sermon was preached on the annual fast day of Massachusetts on April 7, 1808.

S E R M O N

PREACHED AT THE THIRD PARISH IN DEDHAM,

APRIL 7, 1808.

THE DAY APPOINTED BY HIS EXCELLENCY

THE GOVERNOUR, FOR A DAY OF HU-

MILIATION AND PRAYER, THROUGH-

OUT THE COMMONWEALTH OF

MASSACHUSETTS.

By THOMAS THACHER, A. M.
MINISTER OF THE 3D PARISH IN DEDHAM.

S E R M O N.

PSALM LXXXI. VERSE 11, 12.

But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lust, and they walked in their own counsels.

This language of the Almighty to his ancient people may with pertinence be applied to any nation, once eminent for piety, and dignified for the severity and correctness of their virtue, but degenerated into the extreme of impiety and licentiousness. Abandoned by their protector, and the influence of his wisdom being withdrawn, they will be exposed to the ruinous consequences of their passions, and will walk in their own counsel.

This melancholy case was exemplified in the history of the Jews, of whom the sacred records have given us many particulars. The spiritual and temporal benefits, conferred on them by the Supreme Being, the ungrateful returns on their part, the apostacy and declension of their national character, are facts delivered to posterity by the authority of inspiration, for the purpose of conveying instruction and reproof to mankind. From these we are informed that when they had filled up the measure of their iniquity, there were left to follow their own hearts’ lust, and end was made of their political existence; their country, the very soil of which had been sacred by the visits of the Deity and the exhibition of his supernatural power, became a theatre, as remarkable for extraordinary judgment and correction, as before for those mercies, which for a series of ages this nation had both received and abused.

Would to God, my fellow citizens, there were not a “fatal pertinence” in the words of the text to the people of the United States! Can we examine closely into their import without finding our traits and features of national character moral and religious so nearly delineated, that they are a natural picture, rather than a general resemblance? Have we not revolted in principle, as well as practice, against Religion and Morality? Do we not already feel from the effect of our national wickedness, that we are left to follow our own counsel? Are there not those omens of public death to be discerned at this day, which have been the precursor of destruction to other communities, once famous for religion and civil liberty, for arts and arms? Is it not feared, by the most wise and sagacious contemplating the wars and convulsions, which have recently changed the face of all civilized Europe, and reflecting on the danger and ruin, to which we are exposed, that the angel of fate, by command of the Eternal, is now winding up the last threads of our political duration? Doth not the pious and devout mind, observing the history of God’s moral providence, and comparing the same with the profaneness, licentiousness and almost total absence of moral principle, so obvious at this day, behold the handwriting on the wall, shewing how soon our destinies will be completed? Doth not he perceive from the signs of the times, the great and terrible voice of an angry Deity proclaiming through the land “Your end is come, and your days shall not be prolonged?”

A short explanation of the text, an application of its sense and spirit to ourselves, inferred from existing facts, will furnish us with such considerations, as are proper and necessary for the solemnities of the day.

This Psalm was composed in the time of David, and it is very probable from several passages, that it was occasioned by some public festival, prescribed in their law, in which their ¹ liberation from Egypt was celebrated. The divine goodness is particularly related in that event, in order to contrast it with their ingratitude and obstinacy. The charges made against them seem to be divided into two distinct articles; the first is, My People would not hearken to my voice; the second, though it seems synonymous in common language, yet implies a far higher grade of depravity, Israel would none of me.

The first related to the charge of idolatry, as you will see by the 9th and 10th verses. There shall be no strange God in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. We may also conceive that it refers to their neglect of the moral, positive and municipal laws of Moses, or in a word, to their violating every condition, on which their national happiness and prosperity was promised.

The second charge, uttered against them is, that Israel would none of me. From the very climax of the sentiment, we think that it implies, not merely coldness, neglect and practical disobedience, but it carries in its sense the very extreme of aversion and malignity. In the Greek translation, this clause may be thus rendered; Israel would give me no manner of attention. The sentiment in our common bible is however still stronger; it implies not only contempt but open hostility. Should the expression be used respecting an individual, it would indicate, that he has not only ceased to pay any respect to religion; but that he had a fixed and rooted hatred to it, and wished to expel it from the earth. So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lust, that they should follow or walk in their own counsels. A brief representation this of the final catastrophe of vice and impiety. Such men were left to suffer the natural and necessary consequence of individual and national crimes; this is a punishment as great, as in this state of things can possibly be inflicted. The Supreme Being has determined in the very laws of nature, that natural calamity shall be the result of moral evil, that an incorrigibly wicked man has an avenging fury in his own heart, awarding him, as the consequence of his sin and folly, evils more terrible than can be produced by any external enemy, however formidable, malignant or persevering.

An awful and affecting lesson is here presented to every member of the community, whether in his collective or individual capacity. While men pride themselves in their imaginary independence of all restraint and discipline, and while they trample under foot religion, virtue and decorum, they are but the executioners of divine vengeance on themselves, they are industriously procuring the wrath of heaven, so often expressed against the profligacy of mankind. In their corrupt and contaminated heart, the seeds of ruin and desperation are first of all originated and sown; the soil is fertile and the harvest will be abundant.

In the further consideration of the subject we shall,

1. Inquire, what duties are so plainly pointed out and enjoined by Heaven on nations, or rather on man in his collective capacity, that they may be properly called the voice of God.

II. Exhibit those marks of national disobedience and depravity, which demonstrate that the divine commands are totally neglected.

Under each of these, we shall intersperse such moral and practical reflections, as may arise on the subject.

1. We shall inquire, what national duties are so plainly pointed out by Heaven, that they may properly be called the voice of God.

1. The great and general obligations of religion are as binding on society, as on individuals. We do not intend by national religion, a system either of rituals or doctrine, prescribed by law, admitting persecution, and embracing intolerance. Nothing is more opposite to real piety, to the rights of conscience, and to the general happiness of man in society, than either pomp and ostentation in the manner of worshipping God, or a connection of religion and its external forms with the honors and the interests of this present world. Still, however we affirm, that the belief of the doctrines of religion is a necessary qualification for the practice of social duties. Associations ought to exist among men for the purpose of united worship; the external institutions of social worship, which men by long use and habit have made a medium for instruction, and for the cultivation of truth and moral duty, should be treated with reverence, and affectionately cultivated and protected. By their violation, the foundations of civil government are shaken, the mutual confidence of individuals weakened, and mankind, stripped of the greatest restraint on their passions, are prepared for the most atrocious crimes. I am aware that objections may be brought against the last named opinion; it will be said – that religion is a contract between God and the soul of every man, – that of this covenant, and fidelity in observing it, every man’s conscience is the sole and sovereign judge. –Men are to give an account of themselves hereafter personally to the Supreme Being for the actions performed in this life-Nations and communities exist only, as such, in the present world, and therefore man, in his collective relations, has nothing to do with religion-Therefore as civil government is confined entirely to objects relating to this present world, it can have no manner of right to enjoin religious duty, or to prescribe any rituals for national worship.

To these objections we briefly reply, that no religion ever did, or ever will exist in the world, but what has in some of its circumstances, required the union of several persons. It is equally certain without external religion, or some symbols of devotion of a corporal nature, that internal worship cannot exist. If then there be an obligation on man to worship God, and he be unable to perform this duty, without union and association; it will necessarily follow that an obligation on man exists as well in his social, as in his individual capacity.

The obligations to national religion are still greater, when we consider, 1st, its beneficent effects on the community; and, 2d, that it is the strongest chain, by which individuals are connected. No credit would be paid to an oath, were the existence of a God entirely disbelieved. Were we to eradicate the idea of rewards and punishments from the minds of men, crimes and enormities of the blackest dye would soon commence, which no human law could describe, nor any human power be able either to punish or detect. Destroy those two grand principles of religion, and neither faith nor honor will be left among mankind sufficient to admit of organized society. For it is not possible to conceive, that even a band of robbers, or a ferocious horde of savages could exist in any social connection, were all ideas of a future state, or of invisible powers controlling human actions entirely annihilated.

2d. To a people professing Christianity, not only the general institutions, but the positive precepts it enjoins, are a subject of such moment, as to be considered the voice of God. The essence of Religion is, we grant, superior to all external circumstances; but it is equally true that, where every form or ritual is abolished, every vestige of religion will be lost. If a tree with a good and deep root were constantly lopped of all its branches, as fast as they grew, it would as certainly perish, as if it were torn up by the roots. Man compounded of soul and body must worship God with each. And if he discard every aid to piety arising from his senses, he will find that none will finally exist in his understanding. The Almighty has told us he will be glorified not only with our spirit, but with our body; for both arise from the same cause, and are the property of the same original.

3d. The cultivation of private and public virtue, particularly those branches of it, which are of the utmost moment to society, is to be considered as an obligation of the first importance, and is therefore to be treated as the voice of God; and the same obligation exists, derived from the same source, that they should repel and discourage vice whether affecting individuals or society. Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is the reproach of any people. And it may here be observed, that every man, just, generous, temperate, industrious, brave and honorable is an important pillar of the community; on the other hand, every man, intemperate and lewd, corrupt and unprincipled, profligate and impious, is an enemy to his country, let his pretensions to patriotism be ever so great, and supposing his political principles are theoretically correct. Taking these last classes of men in the aggregate, they are a moth and a canker, which will greatly deface and injure, and eventually will destroy any free and happy government, in which they reside; more especially will they be able to effect this, if they, by their influence, consideration and example, induce the greater part of society to adopt their own depravity and corruption, and can cause the restraints of law, fear, shame and decorum to loose all their efficacy and moment.

Under the list of public virtues originating from divine authority is the duty of loving our country, commonly denominated patriotism. This consists in a manly, just, and independent spirit, exciting us to place the peace, honor, and prosperity of our proper nation on a level with that of our private fortunes, or should any rivalship or collision of interest exist between private and public good, a real patriot will sacrifice the former to the latter. This noble and benevolent affection, by no means consists in outrageous zeal for party, or intemperate and intolerant attachment to popular opinion; but is displayed by the patriot in a genuine, and constant regard to the best interests of public liberty, order, and a free constitution of government. He has no ambition to promote foreign conquest, nor that his country should rise to opulence and grandeur, by the tears and misery of the rest of mankind; but when his native soil is exposed to war and invasion from any foreign power, he has a head to conceive for the common good, a heart undaunted, and a stranger to fear, and a life to devote for the liberty and sovereignty of the whole.

4thly. Public manners are a care worthy a divine Lawgiver; the preservation of these in a pure and correct state is of such moment, that we find a great part of the political and municipal laws of Moses consisted in prescribing minutely private manners to the people of Israel as the voice of God. That sacred code so blended manners with religious ceremonies, that they can scarcely be separated. The same method and attention has been paid by every wise Legislator acting only by human authority; and it is evident from the history of all civilized nations, that all wise rulers place the importance of public manners on the same grade, with that of their morals and religion. Chastity and simplicity have held the first rank in social duties; pomp and luxury have been discouraged, next to prohibition, in every free Government. Age, fortified by dignity and character, in such societies demands reverence and attention from the young. Youth ought ever to be decorated with the graceful blush of modesty, nor ever to appear audacious and obstreperous, unless acting in the field against the enemies of their country. Private fortunes, obtained by bad arts, should be viewed with disgrace; poverty, contracted by beneficence and patriotism, should ever be an object of affectionate veneration. Monuments of gratitude to public benefactors ought to be erected, nor should the popular influence of envy and worthlessness ever be permitted to defame their memory. That fame and honor offered to those, who, by the sacrifice of life and fortune for their country, have merited permanent applause, is a great incitement to virtue, and is the parent of noble deeds and splendid patriotism in posterity. These are maxims sanctified by the wisdom, and confirmed in a very direct manner by the voice of the Deity. We see from contemplating this part of the subject, that manners are of a more importance than laws, because that the former have a more imperious influence in society.

We shall proceed now to the

II. General head of discourse; to exhibit those marks of national depravity and disobedience, which demonstrate, that the divine commands are both neglected and resisted. Here I take the liberty to premise, that in applying the remarks in the test to our own country, that I wish not to be considered, as designing any party of personal reflections. It has been my constant aim and care to avoid political acrimony; the maxims about to be introduced are of high weight and moment; they existed and have been promulgated to mankind many years before our country existed, and carry with them those marks of truth, which demonstrate their divine original.

I shall not, in attempting to support this proposition, draw a contrast between the present generation and former periods, of our national history, nor occupy your time in inveighing against innocent amusements and recreation, as is customary with some public teachers of religion on this occasion; though I think that in regard to piety, pure morals, simple and industrious virtues we should suffer very much by a comparison with our forefathers; yet they, it must be owned, were disposed to be unnecessarily severe and uncharitable in minute affairs. No rational benevolent man could wish to see that spirit and principle revived, which banisheth innocent, social delights, and places insignificant pastimes in the same grade of moral turpitude, as the vilest crimes committed by man. There is superior evidence of serious and alarming vice, of profligacy, infidelity and irreligion to engage our attention; we shall therefore proceed.

1. To examine the state of religion among us, as it relates to society. Let me then ask if a coldness and indifference to religion, both in its form and essence, be not so plain and obvious a characteristic of our nation, that no man of sense and observation would hesitate to affirm the fact? Has not the same progressed to open contempt and disgust at sacred rituals and institutions? Is it not evident the churches are thinly attended, and the Sabbath treated as an ordinary part of time, I add not unfrequently devoted to labour or amusement? Have not days, set apart for public humiliation or gratitude been openly and ostentatiously perverted to purposes foreign from their design? Have not associations of men for promoting religion and morality been treated both with severe acrimonious opposition, and with scurrilous malignity? We do not assert, but that in such a debilitated state of religion its forms and ceremonies may exist for a small space of time; but, like the names of men inscribed on tombs and monuments, those few and feeble traits will every day be less perceptible, till, to the next generation, they will be known only by history and report.

To all those last named signs of declension and apostacy, should we add, there is a prevailing spirit of profanes and infidelity exciting men to deride the divine authority of revealed religion, and to assault, with virulent abuse and rancorous defamation, the sacred characters, whose lives and actions are recorded in the scripture, what is to be expected will be the fate of religion among us? Are not these subjects treated with indecorous levity on many occasions both by age and youth? Doth not assuming ignorance feel competent to decide on them, without so much as affecting either cool reasoning or an appeal to common sense? Cannot instances be produced, in which religion itself is the song of the drunkard, and the mirth of those obstreperous fools, who make a mock at sin? Will not religion itself, both in form and essence, be soon eradicated, and the community retain no more of it, than their Christian name?

2. From the state of religion, let us next proceed to contemplate our moral character as a nation.

That we may condense and abbreviate, this subject, as much as possible, we shall omit the enumeration of smaller faults, more especially those of a private nature, and examine into our deficiency, in respect to public virtues, and into those crimes and follies, too well known to exist among us, which in their very nature bring confusion and ruin on society. And here we observe first of all, that truth and justice are cardinal virtues, and the exercise of them essential to the existence of society in a happy and civilized condition. We here limit our ideas of truth to that branch of it, in which a nation is most importantly interested, i.e. in relating facts as they really exist; that the same principle be equally observed toward an enemy as a friend; that from no sinister motive should we allow ourselves to violate truth for the sake of degrading a rival or an opponent, nor yet for establishing one, whom we consider as a useful partisan. We define justice, or as it is more commonly called honor (in the restricted sense we here use the word) as consisting in exhibiting candour towards a political adversary; we go further and affirm that the same principle is to be observed towards national enemies, except in cases, where direct self preservation may suspend its exercise. Not only ought all falsehoods to be discountenanced; but in common instances there ought to be fair opportunity given an opponent that he may disavow principles and conduct injustly ascribed to him, nor should we give our assent until facts are proved against him, either by clear testimony, or by such probabilities and inferences, as render the charge supported beyond question.

It will at once be admitted, that in no country on earth has this branch of truth been more grossly and shamefully violated, than in the United States; more especially do I refer to the abominable desperate falsehoods uttered by party in the intrigues of an election. I do not wish to have this applied to one party in particular, but to all. In exercising our highest acts of sovereignty, we are not uncommonly influenced by those, who from sinister motives and party rage, propagate, at the time of election, not only wicked misrepresentation and deception, but bare faced lies, without a shadow of foundation. By these not the political character, but the private morality of an obnoxious candidate is outrageously attacked. When the turn is served and a good man removed from office, the wretch, who was the author, has no other apology to make, than that the end sanctifies the means, that the lie was successful and custom and the depravity of public opinion have ceased to censure the crime, and eventually it becomes a subject not of compunction, but of triumph. May we not expect, that when conduct like this is countenanced, that it will totally destroy the oral sense in all political transactions, that it will eventually excite such ferocious passions in the heart, as will be the parent of civil war, and its concomitant calamities? However men may contaminate their own character, and justify wickedness, from necessity; yet the nature and fitness of things remain the same, the command of God is, that we never should do evil that good may come. Thus saith the Lord, trust ye not in lying words; but speak ye truth every man of his neighbor.

If, in the next place we examine into the state of justice or honesty as relating to individuals, a disgusting picture of our public morals will be presented. How often are debts of justice, honor and gratitude neglected, when no human law compels their payment? How often, from a base mercenary love of pelf, will men take every advantage of their neighbor? Every day we live develops some new base unprincipled wretch, who has lost all shame at vice, as well as all fear of God. Men of this description are at present far worse, than formerly—They then were corrupt and fraudulent in practice, they are now so in principle. The abandoned, after successful villainy, skulked in the corners of our streets, they now walk abroad at noon-day. The number of the guilty, not only prevent them from being excluded from the civilities of life, but even render them a horde too formidable for solitary virtue to oppose.

From the last mentioned evil, i.e. the defect of moral honesty, others have arisen as a necessary consequence; we here refer to the prevalence of luxury, false taste, and expensive amusements; these have pervaded every corner of our country. From whence it has happened, that there is little of moderation visible in private families and common life; the demand of fashion and example obliges every man to such expense, as his private circumstances can very ill admit. Hence it is, that many are clothed in purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously every day at the expense of their creditors, and of truth and honor-that palaces have every day arisen in our populous towns on the site of the humble dwellings of our fathers; from the same source we may trace the ruin and infamy of many individuals as well as families. From the same affection to grandeur and equipage we may place the numerous calamities and infamy occurring both to the old and to the young-to the debtor and to the creditor. How frequent is it that when the head of a family is taken away by death in the midst of life and business, we see so many widows and orphans shedding tears of despair! They once lived elegantly and deliciously, but in one hour are stripped of all comfort and consideration, and pass to the extreme of poverty and dependence. It is from the same madness for acquiring sudden wealth, that the slow and moderate gains of humble industry are despised, that recourse is so often had to swindling and fraud, and that so many young men, possessed of enterprising energetic minds, devote their talents to pursuits, highly infamous, and flagrantly dishonest. We may place to the same account the small estimation, in which good men are held, who have sacrificed their time, happiness and fortune to the public good, and are obliged to recur to some humble condition in society for support. They are despised because they would not become rich by crimes; and their honorable poverty is ascribed to a want of energy and of a knowledge of the world.

Let us next attend for a moment to the circumstances of domestic life, from whence a picture may be drawn of our national manners, dark and deformed. The want of family government and the impetuous temper and manners of the young augur sad and dreary events to our country. The character of many of them at the present day seems to exemplify the last clauses in the text, so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust, that they should follow their own counsel. At how early life do we see children usurping the privileges and assuming the manners of men? Not merely despising, but treading into the dust their aged and venerable parents? Instead of submitting with reverence and fear to their commands, they not uncommonly, by their boisterous passion and manners, force them to many things against their own inclination and judgment. What numbers are there, who appear neither to fear God nor regard man, who very plainly show the connection existing between bad principles and corrupt morals! Of these how many have ruined themselves and their families by intemperance, fraud and dishonorable profligacy! Some of this abandoned class of citizens have brought down the grey hairs of their aged parents with sorrow to the grave. How many do we see young in years, yet old in constitution, who, given up to their own hearts lust, have early progressed to decrepitude and decay!

The spirit of discord and party rage existing at the present day affords to the pious mind another argument, that we are left to follow our own counsel. What a spirit of jealousy, censure and malignity have pervaded every order and grade in society! This furious ungoverned temper has insinuated itself into all the transactions of private life. It has long ago entered the walls of our senate house, and has advanced to all the primary assemblies of the people. Wherever it has been introduced it shuts men’s ears against hearing truth, and blinds, by falsehood and unconquerable obstinacy, their understanding when light and conviction are presented. By this pestilential fiend all benevolence and candour are erased from the minds of good men towards each other when they hold different opinions, she breaks into the recesses of private life, poisons the very source and fountain of domestic happiness, and overturns decorum as well as all the charities of life. These seeds of animosity thus sown, and the plentiful crop already produced are, and ought to be a subject of infinite regret to every true patriot. But when he considers how near our country is approaching to a foreign war, how much are his painful apprehensions increased! I tremble even to contemplate what such an event would produce. What little confidence have the parties in each other, and how many virulent head strong men would prefer the standard of the enemy to that of fighting under an opposite faction? To expose the weakness and divisions of our country would be highly criminal in one of our own citizens, did not the facts appear clear as the noon day sun. If these facts were not confirmed by every diurnal gazette, by every public meeting of the citizens; yet still there are enough hardened, abandoned wretches, who from revenge, from corruption, and the most criminal malignity against their native land, would announce the same to foreign nations. In the language of inspiration, every good man ought to wish that we were wise, that we properly estimated these evils, and would consider our latter end.

The above named evils existing among us, have originated more properly from our own misconduct, than any misfortunes from any foreign cause; but to these may be enumerated the external depredations on our trade, by which all commerce is at an end. We do not mean here to implicate or impeach the conduct of our national rulers. Respect and honor for those, who guide our affairs oblige us to suppose they were driven to the measure by imperious necessity. Still however it must be considered, as a great and terrible calamity. Never, since the Boston post bill in 1774, have our public affairs worn a darker aspect. The transition from the highest degree of national prosperity and private opulence to a total stagnation of business, the sources of wealth excluded from the rich, that of employment from the poor, are circumstances so painful to the benevolent mind, hat it cannot wish to dwell long on the subject. The only consolation of the good man is, that while convulsions shake the natural and moral world, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; the wrath of man will praise him, and the remainder of that wrath will he restrain. We hope that the foundations of liberty, of religion, of order and human happiness, though convulsed, will never be rooted up from this land either by the rude hand of a tyrant, or by the licentiousness of the people. We cannot suffer ourselves to believe that a country so highly favored of heaven, so protected in various examples, is reserved to glut the wealth, and satisfy the ambition of a despotism encircling the rest of the world. Should it be however the will of the Eternal, that our country must fall, that the knell will be sounded to summon us to the funeral of its liberty and independence, let it be our care, that in addition to the portion of common calamity we receive, we may not have the burden of a guilty conscience; but that each of us may be able to lay his hand on his heart and protest, in the presence of Almighty God, that he has omitted no known public duty, and that he never has, by avarice, ambition, negligence or party zeal, contributed to the debasement and ruin of his country.

While therefore,

On bended knees we invoke the forgiveness of that Deity we have offended, while we ask his blessing on our soil, and a continuance of his former kindness; let us humble ourselves before him for our national sins, and resolve on public reformation; let this day dismiss from our hearts every passion inconsistent with the common good. May a spirit of sagacity direct our public councils; may a sublime patriotism succeed that ferocious zeal for party, which, in this threatening aspect of affairs, is more fatal to our existence, as an independent nation, than a foreign enemy, brave and well armed, consisting of one hundred thousand men. May every member of the community after satisfying his conscience what his duty to his country is, perform it without regard to the fear of man. May our country be the first object of our earthly affection; at its sacred call, may every valuable enjoyment, as well as life itself, be devoted. We will not cease therefore to pray, that God will spare his people, and not give his heritage to reproach; that he will rebuke the Devourer for our sake, nor suffer any impious hand to overturn the beautiful fabric of civil liberty and human happiness erected in this land. For Zion’s sake we will not hold our peace, nor for Jerusalem’s sake we will not be silent, till her light go forth as brightness, and her salvation, as a lamp that burneth.

Sermon – Fasting – 1808, New York

Alexander Proudfit (1770-1843) graduated from Columbia in 1792. He served as minister at a congregation in Salem, NY (1795-1802), and was a Professor at the Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church (1819-1820). The following fasting sermons were preached by Proudfit in November, 1808 in Salem, NY.

OUR DANGER AND DUTY:

TWO SERMONS

DELIVERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 30TH DAY
OF NOVEMBER, 1808.

BEING A DAY APPOINTED BY THE

PRESBYTERY OF WASHINGTON

FOR THE EXERCISES OF

FASTING, HUMILIATION, AND PRAYER,

ON ACCOUNT OF THE ALARMING ASPECT OF DIVINE
PROVIDENCE TO OUR COUNTRY.

BY ALEXANDER PROUDFIT, A. M.
MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL SALEM.

OUR
DANGER, &c.

JEREMIAH v. 29.

SHALL NOT MY SOUL BE AVENGED ON SUCH A NATION AS THIS.

This prophet appeared in a very degenerate period of the Jewish church. Every order of that people, from the humble peasant to the prince on the throne, had apostatized from the true God, and had lost that simplicity in his worship, and that zeal for his name which were their former characteristic and glory. The mass of the people, forsaking the Lord God of their fathers, had mingled in all the absurdities of the idolatry of the nations around them: their princes did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and no longer ruled for his glory, or the good of their subjects: even those who were called to minister at the altar degraded both themselves and their office by servile, corrupt, mercenary spirit: The sun had also gone down upon their prophets; these lights of Israel were now darkened through error of principle, and licentiousness of practice; instead of stemming the torrent of general defection by exposing with a holy heroism the iniquities of all classes, they rolled along with the stream, and rather tended to swell and infuriate it by prophecying a false vision, and the deceit of their own hearts. There is not a more awful presage of speedy destruction to a nation than when, as the prophet expresses it, there is like people, like priest; when corruption of manners generally prevails, and the messengers of the Lord of hosts have neither firmness nor fidelity to make an open opposition.

The Lord God, grieved and provoked with these abominations, gently, yet severely reminds Israel of her former zeal for his glory, and his delight in her as his peculiar people. I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, and the love of thine espousals: Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase. He then appeals to heaven and earth, whether an example of such ingratitude and obstinacy could be found in any other nation. Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done: She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot: and I said after she had done all these things, turn thou unto me, but she returned not: their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased, how shall I pardon thee for this? At last worn out with their iniquities, and resolved to make a full end of them as a people altogether incorrigible, Jehovah calls upon Jeremiah to arise and at the peril of his own soul not to refuse denouncing their doom; Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee; be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. Shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord; “Is not my wrath revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of man? Can I consistently with the purity and rectitude of my nature; can I consistently with my character as the moral governor of the world pass by with impunity these wanton, these repeated, these gross violations of my law? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

You will readily notice that the expression, shall not my soul be avenged, is rather uncommon; it is used after the manner of men and represents the great God as earnestly and unalterably bent on his purpose; it is designed to express both the certainty and the severity of the judgments to be executed on infatuated Israel.

This day was set apart for the solemn exercises of fasting, humiliation and prayer on account of the alarming aspect of providence to our country. We are not called merely to deprecate that wrath which apparently hangs over our nation; they are greatly mistaken who imagine that this should be our only, or even our principal exercise: we ought to be deeply impressed that our national offences are the cause of our national calamities; we ought impartially to examine what transgression on our part has kindled this hot displeasure; to acknowledge the righteousness of Jehovah in all the judgments with which we are threatened; to improve by faith the atonement of his Eternal Son as the only mean of our reconciliation; to return to him in the exercise of unfeigned repentance, and then earnestly to plead with an offended God that in the midst of wrath he would remember mercy.

In order to assist you in these important exercises it may be proper,

I. To consider those crimes with which as a nation we are obviously chargeable – and

II. Those evidences of divine vengeance which we have occasionally felt and under which we now suffer.

1. As a nation, we are chargeable with shameful ingratitude for privileges enjoyed. It must be fresh in your own recollection when the spot where we now worship was ravaged by the incursions of a formidable, unpitying foe; when the murderous savage with his tomahawk and scalping knife prowled around your dwellings, often piercing your souls with his terrific yells; when the doors of your sanctuary were shut up; when your habitations ¹ were left desolate; when the son, torn from the arms of his mother, and the husband from the embraces of his wife, were exposed to the toils and dangers of the field; and you were driven to strangers for a miserable shelter from the inclemency of the season. In that hour of peril and panic, the avenger of wrongs interposed in your behalf; disconcerted the adversary; crowned with victory equally unexpected and signal ² your feeble exertions, and restored you to the peaceful possession of your own habitations. Since the revolutionary war, which terminated in the independence of our country, we have enjoyed a degree of prosperity without a parallel in the history of any nation; We are favored with a constitution probably the most mile, the most equitable, and, while supported by public virtue, the most diffusive of general happiness that was ever framed by man. While our ears have often heard the thunder of distant war; while almost every arrival upon our coasts has brought the intelligence of the murderous battle fought; of other wives made widows, and other children fatherless; of old kingdoms convulsed, and new empires erected on their ruins, our peace has been uninterrupted: We have eat every man, of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drank every one of the waters of his cistern, without any to annoy or alarm: While famine has waved her scourge over other countries and driven thousands of the inhabitants to the necessity of begging their bread, we have literally rolled in worldly affluence; our soil, under the husbandman’s cultivation, has yielded a rich profusion of fruits, and our commerce has wasted upon our shores the productions of every foreign clime. These outward privileges have been crowned with the infinitely more precious means of salvation. We have enjoyed the oracles of the living God in our own language, and the various ordinances of his worship in their native simplicity and purity. When privileges so pre-eminent are bestowed on a person or a people, returns of thanksgiving, and obedience are expected in proportion; but the blessings heaped upon us as a nation have been equaled only by our ingratitude and impiety. Have we as individuals, been walking in the fear of the Lord, regulating ourselves by his word as the rule, and consulting his glory as the highest end of our lives? As families have we been offering up the tribute of praise to the common Author of our mercies; has each been encouraging the other to the performance of every civil, and social, and religious duty; have we been thus teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs? Have we as a nation exceeded all others in gratitude, as we have been elevated above them in privilege? As citizens, as ministers, as magistrates have we advanced hand in hand, each aiming at the good of the whole; and all promoting the glory of Him who raised us to a rank so exalted among the nations of the earth? How reverse have been our character, and conduct? More ungrateful, more infatuated than Jeshurun we have waxed fat; we have forgotten the God that made us, who redeemed us in the hour of jeopardy, and lightly esteemed the rock of our salvation. The distinguishing goodness of God instead of leading us to repentance, to reformation of life has produced pride, presumptuousness, licentiousness of principle, and profligacy of manners. Our affluence, which ought to have flowed in supplying the wants of the indigent; in supporting the ordinances of religion; in propagating the gospel through the frontier settlements; and in conveying to the perishing heathen the means of salvation, has been prostituted to luxury of living; to extravagance of dress; to the aggrandizement of our families; or in adding house to house and farm to farm. Our language has corresponded with that of the presumptuous monarch of Egypt, Who is the Lord that we should obey him? “Our gold, our silver, our possessions are our own, and for the gratification of our own appetites they shall be employed.” Our gratitude is thus a sin of high aggravation, and is one cause why the Lord God is pleading his controversy with our land. Hear O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. They have forsaken the Lord; they have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger, they have gone away backward. Might he not in righteous indignation have added, Ah, I will ease me of mind adversaries; I will avenge me of mine enemies?

2. Our daring impiety manifested by a contempt of God, and his ordinances, is another cause of his controversy; one for which we ought this day to exercise humiliation in his fight. How is his infinitely venerable name profaned in the unnecessary, irreverent use of it by some, and in the impious oaths and imprecations of others? Are not his ordinances neglected and despised by many, who live within reach of the sanctuary, and who, by their parents, were early devoted to his service in baptism? Is not that precious volume the Bible; that volume which affords the most reviving expressions of Jehovah’s love, and constitutes the broad charter of all our privileges and prospects; is not that volume regarded by some with neglect and indifference; by others has it not been derided as the offspring of superstition, or priestcraft? Does not a licentious infidelity obviously pervade the higher orders of society in our country? Was not that man who has appeared as one of the most open, bold, unblushing champions in this cause; who has exhausted his talents in the derision of everything sacred; who has uttered the foulest blasphemies, which a polluted imagination could conceive, against the Son of God, against his Person, against the mysteries of his gospel, and the ministers of his religion; has not that man been invited to this country by the leading men of our nation; has he not been corresponded with, and caressed since his arrival? If this circumstance does not avow their real enmity to the Saviour’s cross, it at least betrays an alarming indifference to its interests: And I am bold to assert that those who are hostile to our religion cannot be the real friends of our liberty, whatever be their political pretensions. Divine revelation is the great charter of our rights as men, no less than of our privileges and prospects as Christians; it proclaims to man his dignified origin, as created after the image of God; it inspires the individual with the most exalted sense of his own importance, by declaring that the Lord God hath made of one blood all men to dwell upon the earth, and consequently that all are naturally possessed of certain, equal, unalienable rights: This constitutes the greatest possible security for social order among men by enjoining us to live soberly, righteously and Godly; to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. These are not the sentiments merely of the divine; they are maxims firmly believed and openly avowed by the most accomplished legislators that ever adorned the world. – Suffice it to mention the observations ³ of Him whom all revered as equally the Statesman, the Hero, the Patriot; on whom the eyes of every American citizen were fastened as the brightest ornament of our country; our pride in peace; our shield in war; and, under God, the instrument of incalculable blessings to our nation. “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensible supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness; these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens: The mere politician equally with the pious man ought to respect, and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity.”

Again, is not the holy Sabbath, that rest which is ordained for the people of God; that institution which is calculated to secure health to the body, no less than happiness to the soul; tht institution which is a lively memorial of the resurrection of our crucified Lord, and furnishes a constant pledge of our own resurrection, is not this day openly prostituted without a blush, and without remorse? Is it not profaned by some in idleness and amusements; by others in unnecessary visits, and by many in the deliberate prosecution of their secular employments? Is not the peaceful worshiper often interrupted and insulted as he repairs to, or retires from the temple of his God, by the wanton transgressors of that sacred institution? And does it not render our guilt more aggravated, and expose us to severer vengeance, that this profanation of the Sabbath is permitted in part by public authority? Our Legislature ⁴ has explicitly provided that no man “removing his family, or household furniture” shall be detained on that day. Does not this toleration virtually make void the command of Jehovah who had enjoined, TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES, AND BEAR NO BURDEN ON THE SABBATH DAY, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathersi. Have we not reason to fear that the Lord God, provoked by our impiety, will execute upon us the vengeance denounced against the nation of Israel, I will draw out a sword after you, and make your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye shall be in your enemies country; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths.

3. The general, and very gross corruption of public morals is another cause of the divine displeasure with us as a nation. May not the records of our courts of justice testify how common are the crimes of false swearing, and forgery; crimes peculiarly offensive to Jehovah; and which tend to sap the very foundation of social order among men? Do not our daily prints announce the very alarming increase of bankruptcies in our country? Probably one thousand instances of private failure occur now, where not one occurred twenty years ago. This fact evinces the corruption of public morals, as these failures must ordinarily proceed either from a concealment of property with a view to defraud the creditor, or from a mode of living utterly beyond our ability. Is not that most unnatural, most horrid of all crimes, self-murder, become mournfully prevalent among us? Is it not also a fashionable thing; is it not considered the test of real heroism, the characteristic of the man of honor to take, or to aim at taking the life of another in dueling? And is not this murderous ⁵ practice publicly sanctioned by the advancement of such offenders to stations of emolument and honor? Have we not this moment some standing high in office in our own state, and in the United States, whose consciences are stained with the guilt, and whose hands are encrimsoned with the blood of their fellow-men? Can we expect that our country, in over-looking with impunity this daring offence, will escape the vengeance of him who has solemnly ordained that, WHOSO SHEDETH MAN’S BLOOD BY MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED, FOR IN THE IMAGE OF GOD MADE HE HIM.

How common among us are the vices of intemperate drinking, of rioting, of gambling and swearing? Are these not some men presiding on the bench of civil justice who are grossly profane in their conversation; who have lived in repeated acts of uncleanness; who are devoted to gambling, and by whom the Lord’s day is often spent in their worldly occupations? This dissipation of conduct is offensive in any man but accompanied with peculiar aggravations in the magistrate who explicitly is pronounced a MINISTER OF GOD FOR GOOD to others: it is a direct prostitution of his sacred function, and renders him a terror not to evil works, but to the good. Civil government is as really an ordinance of Jehovah, as ecclesiastical government; he, therefore, who sustains an office in the state ought to aim at purity of conversation, no less than he who sustains an office in the church; and when they who rule in either capacity lose sight of the solemnity of their station, they degrade both themselves and their office. It is the uniform, the upright, the dignified deportment of the man which gives majesty to the minister: it is no less the uniform, the upright, the dignified deportment of the man which gives majesty to the magistrate. Besides, a wanton dissipated conduct in those who sustain the office of the civil magistracy has a tendency to demoralize society at large. When the root of a tree is rotten, the branches cannot remain verdant, and flourishing; if the fountain itself be polluted, we cannot expect the stream to be pure, and when the head of the body politic becomes disordered the deadly contagion necessarily spreads through all parts of the system.

There is another evidence of public corruption which I dare not pass over unnoticed: I mean the obvious prostitution of the right of suffrage. In our free government the choice of all rulers either immediately or remotely depends on the people. This right of electing our own representation is the great privilege for which our fathers fought, and which is bequeathed to us, sealed with the blood of thousands; this is a privilege for which many of you fought, and for the purchase of which some of you bled: It is the full enjoyment of this right which distinguishes the citizen from the subject; which exalts the freeman in one country above the abject insulted, degraded slave in another country: But is not this right criminally prostituted among us? What is the primary qualification which is ordinarily fought in the candidate for public office? Do we attend to the admonition prescribed by Eternal truth, He that RULETH over men must be JUST, RULING in the FEAR of Jehovah? Have we pursued the maxim delivered by the wisest of men, and the most magnificent, prosperous of Princes, RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION, and offered our suffrages for those who in private life were patterns of righteousness, and as rulers would probably use their influence for promoting it among others? Have we not more generally enquired, “where is the decided, ardent partisan; the man who will most zealously adhere to that political section to which we belong,” without regard to moral, or religious, or even intellectual qualifications? In the warmth of party-spirit have we not contributed to the advancement of those who were the known enemies of religion, and have allowed themselves in falsely slandering its ministers? On this day of humiliation as the messenger of the Lord of hosts, and as I desire to be found faithful to my trust when the storm is blackening over us, I bear my testimony against the promotion of unprincipled, immoral, impious men as a most aggravated iniquity in our land; and I believe, as firmly as I believe my existence, that without speedy and special repentance on our part, this insult to the Lord of hosts will bring wrath upon our nation, until both our ears will tingle. Has he not most solemnly forewarned us that, when righteous men are in authority the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule the land mourneth? Besides, the election of men to public office who are destitute of moral rectitude, is impolitic in the extreme, and puts in jeopardy our most important interests as citizens. Hear the sentiment of a reverend member who adorned our counsels during the struggle with Great-Britain; one in whom were united the eminent divine, the enlightened statesman, and the uncorrupted, ardent patriot. “Those who wish well to the state ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation. It is reasonable to expect wisdom from the ignorant; fidelity from the profligate; or application to public business from men of dissipated life? Is it reasonable to commit the public revenue to one who has wasted his own patrimony? Those therefore who pay no respect to religion and sobriety in those whom they send to the Legislature of any state, are guilty of the greatest absurdity, and will soon pay dear for their folly. Let a man’s zeal, professions, or even principles as to political measures be what they may, if he is without personal integrity and private virtue, he is not to be trusted. I think we have had some instances of men who have roared in taverns for liberty, and been most noisy in public meetings, who have become traitors in a little time. Suffer me on this subject to make another remark. With what judgment will laws against immorality be made, or with what vigor will they be executed by those who are profane and immoral in their own practice. Let us suppose a magistrate on the bench of justice, administering an oath to a witness or passing sentence of death upon a criminal and putting him in mind of a judgment to come. With what propriety, dignity, or force can any of these be done by the one who is known to be a blasphemer, an infidel, or by whom in his convivial hours everything serious or sacred is treated with scorn. ⁶

Permit me to notice as another cause of the divine displeasure those bitter contentions, those mutual reproaches which abound among us. What are our seasons of election but seasons of detraction, and defamation, by which the passions of each other are inflamed? What liberties are frequently taken in reproaching public men, and misrepresenting public measures. Does not the living God explicitly forbid the indulgence of hatred, variance, emulations, wrath and heresies? An untender, unforbearing spirit between man and man is always inexcusable, but it is peculiarly offensive when cherished by those who are citizens of the same commonwealth; whose civil and social interests are immediately blended together. In republican forms of government, where public virtue is the great pillar on which the government rests, a degree of party spirit may be profitable; one portion of the community thus proves a “watch-tower” to the other; but when this spirit becomes outrageous and infuriated, when jealousy pervades every class of society, and extinguishes almost every spark of mutual confidence, it proves equally reproachful, and ruinous.

These are a few of those provocations with which we are chargeable as a people, and for which we are chargeable as a people, and for which without sincere repentance on our part, the scourge of a righteous God will unavoidably overtake us. For such provocations were his judgments for merely denounced against even his favorite Israel, and owing to their obstinate impenitence were finally executed in their utter destruction. If ye will not hearken unto me, saith Jehovah, and do all my commandments: and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments; I also will do this unto you; I will appoint unto you terror, consumption, and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart; and ye shall sow your seed, and your enemies shall eat it; and I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuary into desolation. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths. Again, if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched.

Brethren, when we read these fearful denunciations, and then contemplate our own conduct, who must not tremble for his country? Was the holy Sabbath more generally, or wantonly profaned in Judea, than in America? Were the streets of Jerusalem more frequently polluted by the unhallowed buyer and seller on that day, than are the streets of our own settlements and villages and cities? Must we not rationally expect that the foul of our offended sovereign will be avenged on such a nation as ours? Is the violation of his law less aggravated among us whose light is more clear, whose privileges are more exalted than among them; or is the Lord God less righteous to avenge the quarrel of his covenant? Nay, have not our judgments already commenced?

To consider the evidences of divine wrath which we have occasionally experienced, and under which we now suffer, was the second part of our subject, and demands our attention.

1. Has not a Holy God often plead his controversy with our land by a fearful pestilence? Receiving its commission from on high, has not this scourge gone abroad through our country, and visited in their turn our cities from the northern to the southern extremities of the union? In its hostile career has it not desolated for a season the sanctuaries of God; driven from their abodes thousands of our citizens, and mingled in sudden promiscuous ruin the babe, the youth and the hoary head?

As another mark of his indignation, and another mean of reclaiming an ungrateful apostatizing people, has he not commissioned the fire to become the avenger of his quarrel? Has not this devouring element laid waste in some degree many of our cities, and reduced from affluence to poverty hundreds of their inhabitants? The messengers of Jehovah’s wrath have not been confined to our cities, but have occasionally visited all parts of the country. The insect, an army small, imperceptible, yet irresistible, has marched through the land, and cut down in its progress, the staff of life. Before it our fields were cloathed with verdure, and flourishing as the garden of Eden, but behind it a desolate wilderness. Did he not in one year shut up the windows of heaven, refusing to us the early and latter rain in their season; and by intemperate rains in another year did he not destroy the fruits of the earth, blast the hopes of the husbandman, and alarm with apprehensions of cleanness of teeth? Such are the scourges which we have occasionally felt in years that are past; such the expressions of divine indignation under which our land has often trembled: Natural causes have been ingeniously assigned for all these calamities: Presumptuous, impious mortals would fondly exclude Jehovah from all agency in the world, as they extinguish every generous impulse of his fear and love in their own hearts: Every occurrence, whether prosperous or adverse, is ascribed by them to secondary means; but the man of wisdom will consider them as coming forth from the Lord of hosts, and as visitations either of his mercy or wrath. Is there evil in the city; is there evil in the country, and the Lord hath not done it? Does the pestilence consume the persons of our citizens, or the fire devour their property? Does the rain prove our scourge in one year, or the draught in another, or the mildew in another without his permission and appointment. They are alike the ministers of almighty God; they come only at his call, and they continue to fulfill the high commission received from his hand. Thus he declared to Israel formerly, and thus he may declare to America now, I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest: I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: I have sent among thee pestilence after the manner of Egypt. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

For all these his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Is not our nation trembling at this moment under awful appearances of the divine displeasure? Has not the cloud collected, and spread, and darkened every part of our horizon, and is seemingly ready to burst forth in our destruction? Are we not now assembled in this sanctuary for the very purpose of deprecating the displeasure of our God; of confessing and mourning over our national guilt as the procuring cause, and to implore his return in loving kindness to our land? The anger of the Lord hath divided us as a people; he no longer regards us. Does not a diversity of sentiment; does not alienation of affection almost universally prevail? Has not mutual confidence departed from our fellow-citizens, and the fell demon of discord succeeded in its room? Is not the brother alienated from his brother; the son from his father; the neighbor from his neighbor; the citizen from the magistrate? Nay, has not mutual confidence departed in some instances from the spiritual pastor and the people of his charge? Is it not a notorious fact that if the servants of the cross remain faithful to their trust; if they expose without partiality and without hypocrisy the corruption of men and magistrates, they are immediately slandered in public houses and public prints; they are represented as rallying under the standard of party, and as converting their pulpits into political engines. Have not these jealousies, these contentions diffused their deadly influence through every part of the community? Do they not tend to distract the proceedings of every assembly, from the petit-jury up to the highest deliberative counsel in the nation? Has it not become a matter of course that a measure proposed by one class of the community will be opposed and reprobated by the other? Although we are citizens of the same commonwealth, and united by the dearest social connections; although we have all that is interesting to us in time, our property, our liberty, our religion, our lives embarked on the same bottom, yet we mark the movements of each other with all the suspicion of the avowed, irreconcilable enemy. This alienation of heart; those bitter reviling I formerly mentioned as our sin; I would now mention them as a most deplorable calamity, and as an evident, very awful proof of the Lord’s controversy with us. It is an old proverb, uttered by an infallible teacher, that a house divided against itself cannot stand. When we see a particular family split up into factions; each member torturing the feelings, crucifying the character, and opposing the interests of the other, we conclude without hesitancy that the Lord has departed from that house, and that its desolation is near. It is not less true of nations than of particular families, united and you establish; divide and you destroy. – When Jehovah denounced the overthrow of Egypt for their contempt of his name, and the cruelties which they had perpetrated upon his people, he declares, I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight every man against his brother, and every man against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. May we not therefore consider our internal dissensions and distractions as coming forth from the Lord of hosts, and as his righteous judgment upon our guilty land? Are we not constrained to deplore in the plaintive language of the prophet, The anger of Jehovah hath divided us; Manasseh against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh, and they together shall be against Judah.

For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. We are now pressed down under a general and heavy calamity: our commerce, the chief source of wealth to the individual, and of revenue to the government is in a great measure destroyed, and even our peace is endangered by the hostile appearance of foreign nations. More than a year have we suffered under these complicated evils, and their effects have produced embarrassment among all classes of society. No longer is employment offered as formerly to the laborer; no longer is the toil of the husbandman rewarded by an equal compensation for his produce, no longer is the merchant animated to enterprise by success in his trade; no longer are our harbors enlivened by a race of hardy, generous seamen; no longer does our canvass whiten the ocean; no longer do our ships return wasting upon our shores the wealth, and the luxuries of every clime: Different causes are assigned for this sudden, calamitous reverse of our situation: by some it is attributed to the want of wisdom and energy in our administration; by others to the intolerant, oppressive measures of Britain; by others to the ambition, intrigues, and corrupting influence of France, but this also must be considered as coming forth from the Lord of hosts, and by this he is avenging his quarrel with our country. It is his blessing which maketh rich; that crowns with prosperity the individual, or the community, and it is his displeasure which blasts their enterprise; his displeasure causes citizen to become alienated from citizen; wisdom to depart from our rulers; commerce to quit our shores, and that is threatening to muster the hosts to the battle. Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws; changed the ordinance and broken the everlasting covenant: The new wine mourneth; the vine languisheth; all the merry hearted do sigh: He stretched out his hands against the sea; the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

I must trespass on your patience by noticing another evidence of the divine displeasure with our country; it is one which must peculiarly interest and alarm the hearts of all who realize our dependence on the God of nations, that our attention has never been directed to the real source either of our miseries, or relief. A spirit of lethargy, of slumber when the great God is shaking his rod over a nation is not merely their sin, but a fearful presage of a more dreadful visitation. Because they consider not the works of the Lord, nor regard the operations of his hand; therefore the Lord will destroy them and not build them up. There is probably not a more awful evidence that an individual, or a nation is abandoned of God, and marked as victims for his wrath than to be given up to themselves; to be permitted to remain unawakened and unconcerned amidst the alarming dispensations of his providence. When the cup of iniquity of Israel was nearly full, and the decree for their destruction had irreversibly passed, how awful is the commission given to the prophet, Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, see my judgments which are already gathered and lowering over their heads; and hear with their ears, hear my voice of warning in my word, by my messengers, in the movements of my providence; and understand with their heart, be really affected with their own abominations as the meritorious cause of their miseries, and be healed. The prophet melted at hearing the doom of his deluded country affectionately replies, Lord, how long? He is answered by the oracle, Until the cities be waste without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate.

Brethren, does not our situation as a nation obviously and awfully correspond with that of deluded Israel? Can we imagine that they were more stupid, more infatuated amidst the terrors of the Almighty than are we in America? Much time has been occupied in devising the means of safety; much treasure has been expended in fortifying our harbors: message after message has been transmitted to foreign courts representing our grievances and demanding redress; but during all our alarms, all these exertions for maintaining our rights has the Lord of hosts been acknowledged by us as a nation; have we been called by our civil Rulers to ask the interposition of him by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice; by whom princes rule, and nobles even all the judges of the earth? Nay, I mention it with the most profound emotions of regret, and of trembling; of humiliation for the past and apprehensions for the future, that during eight years we have not been recommended in a national capacity to acknowledge the Ruler of nations: no tribute of thanksgiving has ascended to his throne in the season of prosperity; neither have we in adversity been directed to the confession of guilt, nor to ask the interference of that arm which works salvation. Was such the example exhibited by our illustrious patriots of 1776; by those who then directed our counsels, marshaled our armies in the field, and were, under God, the instruments of our national glory? On the 17th of May in that year, a day that must remain memorable while the love of liberty is cherished in our country, the oppressed millions of America at the call of their rulers approached the mercy-seat, laid a history of their grievances before the avenger of wrongs; implored his interposition in their behalf, and his ear was graciously open to their cry.

From this doctrine, thus explained, it is obviously suggested,

1. That verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth. Vain, impious mortals frequently ask, Who is Jehovah that we should obey him? In the infatuation and madness of their hearts, they often challenge, How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the most high? In the enthusiasm of their impiety, they are resolving, Let us break his bands asunder and cast his cords from us. But notwithstanding all their presumption and self-confidence, their judgment lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at them; the Lord shall hold them in derision: Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and vex them in his fore displeasure. Though hand join in hand his soul will be avenged sooner or later on the wanton, incorrigible person or people. – What is the history of the world, but a history of Jehovah’s judgments in the overthrow of haughty, licenscious nations? Where are now the once mighty, magnificent empires of Egypt, of Assyria, of Greece, of Rome? Where are now their splendid cities, their adamantine walls towering towards heaven; their disciplined armies; their gates of brass, their chariots of iron which promised an invincible defense against every assault from without? We behold them in their turn receding from the earth, and their memorial has nearly perished with them: there remains nothing but their name feebly written on the historian’s page. – How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished? What crashing of thrones and kingdoms have we witnessed with our own eyes? Where is now the antient, august monarchy of France; that which stood for ages, and apparently defied even the hand of time? Have we not seen it and many others totter to their foundations, and hundreds and thousands of the inhabitants lost in the general wreck? Is it argued “that these kingdoms, having grown old, decayed and mouldered away of course, as everything created naturally tends to dissolution;” or is it argued, “that internal causes may be assigned for all these effects; that violent insurrections convulsed the empire of Rome, and that Babylon was taken during the licenscious rioting of her princes and nobles? These objections do not in the least militate against the argument. The sovereign ruler of nations accomplishes his purposes by secondary causes; by means he protects the righteous, and by means he executes vengeance on the deluded, insolent opposers of his government. – As a proof, for instance, that the conquest of Babylon and the destruction of the empire was of God, this event was foretold ages before its accomplishment; the instrument of its overthrow was mentioned by name; the very manner in which he should execute his purpose was minutely expressed; and yet all was represented as the effect of divine vengeance against the Assyrians. Come down, saith Jehovah by his prophet to that impious city, come down and sit on the ground; For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness; thou hast said, none seeth me: Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth; and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off; and destruction shall come upon thee suddenly which thou knowest not. Through the anger of almighty God these fearful desolations are spread among the nations of the earth: A flood of impiety, of licensciousness on their part is succeeded by a flood of wrath on his part.

2. We learn from this doctrine who are the enemies of a country; who disturb her peace, who interrupt her prosperity and endanger her very existence; they are those who live in the contempt of God, and the violation of his righteous law. These are the Achans in the camp who bring wrath upon the nation of Israel. The immoral, impious man; the swearer, the Sabbath-breaker, the insolent scoffer of religion and its institutions; the parent who is undutiful in his station, who is not diligent in educating his offspring for God and his service; the magistrate who does not rule in the fear of Jehovah, but pollutes the land by a loose, licenscious deportment and conversation: These are the persons, by whatever political name they are known, or under whatever mask they appear among their fellow-citizens, who bring down the judgments of heaven on settlements, and cities and nations: These are the persons who occasionally shut up the windows of heaven, suspending the early and later rain in their season; who dry up the streams of commerce; who give commission to the pestilence wasting its thousands in our streets; who unsheathe the sword of war, and drench a land in the blood of its inhabitants. Hear the word of the Lord ye children of Israel: hear his word, ye citizens of America, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God. By swearing and lying, and killing, and committing adultery they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven. They, on the other hand, are the true patriots who fear God; who work righteousness; who render to all their due, giving unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s; who keep holy the Sabbath by “spending it in the public and private exercises of divine worship;” who visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction, and preserve themselves unspotted from the world: parents who are devout in their habitations; who early infuse into the hearts of their children the principles of religion and virtue; magistrates who feel the solemnity and responsibility of their station, being ministers of God for the good of society; who assume the important office, not from motives of interest, or honor, but that they may rule for the glory of him by whose authority they act, and to whose bar they are accountable; who by the blamelessness of their conversation, and by the impartial discharge of every official duty become a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do well; ministers who abound in the work of the Lord; who are not lured from their sacred function by considerations of worldly ease, or emolument, but actuated by the same spirit with their divine master, go about doing good: such persons, such magistrates, such ministers are the genuine patriots and friends of their country. Contemplating such I may freely exclaim in the language of a Jewish king to the prophet of Jehovah, my Father, my Father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. They are the massy pillars which gives stability to a nation within; they are the broad shield which render her invincible and impenetrable by any opposition without. Their prayers, their intercessions, their alms are of more importance towards her defense than all the speculations of the vain philosopher; than all the schemes of the self-confident statesman; than all the martial prowess of either the soldiery or navy. For the sake of these, judgments are often averted and days of calamity are shortened. The waters never gushed up on the old world until Noah was secured in the ark; the arm of the destroying angel was stayed from the destruction of Sodom until Lot had escaped to the mountains, and when Phineas arose, and, as a faithful magistrate, executed righteousness the plague was instantly arrested in the camp of Israel. Run, faith Jehovah to the prophet his messenger, run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and seek ye in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man; if there be any that executeth judgment; that seeketh truth, and I will pardon it.

3. We learn from this doctrine the suitable exercises of a people in the season of impending judgments; they ought diligently to enquire into the cause of the Lord’s controversy; they should aim at discovering those national sins which are the procuring cause of national calamities. We hear the prophet complaining with respect to the people of Israel, O Lord, thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: When thy hand is lifted up they will not see, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. This complaint is mournfully applicable to us amidst the present alarming appearances of divine providence. Our attention is chiefly confined to the instruments, one party is disposed to throw the censure upon the other; the citizen reprobates the ruler, and one portion of the rulers reproach the other as the cause of our evils. But whatever sinful instrumentality men have in involving our country in the present state of embarrassment and alarm, the Lord God has a sovereign, righteous agency; he is avenging his quarrel with an ungrateful, disobedient nation: and until we become sensible of his displeasure as manifested in our judgments; until we discover our own iniquities as justly provoking this displeasure; until we are sincerely humbled on account of our iniquities, and led to the blood of reconciliation as our only remission, I shall entertain little hopes that the rod will be removed. Let all, on this day of humiliation, turn their eyes upon their own hearts and impartially examine their particular exercises; are they cordially melted for their own iniquities and for the abominations that prevail in the land? Are they sincerely humbled before the Lord that ordinances are so generally neglected; that Jesus and his great salvation are despised, that the holy Sabbath is wantonly prostituted by all classes in our nation? Such were the exercises of the church formerly in the season of her calamity, and such, if we have received an unction of the same spirit, will be our exercises this day. O Lord, to us belong confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers because we have sinned against thee; yea, all Israel have transgressed thy laws; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written. With confession of former sins let us connect earnest resolutions of amendment in the time to come. Would to God that henceforth all classes of our citizens were going hand in hand, and weeping as they go; saying, with penitent Israel, let us return to the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal; he hath smitten and he will bind us up: come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Such exercises would be the surest presage of future peace and felicity and glory to our nation: They might be considered an infallible pledge that the cloud which now darkens our horizon will shortly evanish, and that the fun of prosperity will revisit with his cheering beams our long favored land.

O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years make known: in wrath remember mercy. Amen and Amen.

OUR DUTY, &c.
SERMON II.

AMOS iv. 12.

AND BECAUSE I WILL DO THIS UNTO THEE; PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD, O ISRAEL.

The holy scriptures are admirably adapted to man in his present, imperfect, militant state. They forewarn him of approaching calamities; they afford direction in every perplexity; they inspire with confidence in the hour of surrounding peril, and impart consolation amidst the various adversities of life. – The admonition contained in our text must appear peculiarly seasonable to Israel, when we realize her awful and interesting situation at the time of its delivery. It was uttered by the inspired messenger in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. The visitation of the Jewish nation by an earthquake is noticed only in this place, and by the prophet Zechariah. The latter as the messenger of divine wrath declares, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled: and ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled before the earthquake ⁷ in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. The Lord God never wants instruments for avenging his quarrel with the enemies of his government: All elements are subject to his sovereign control, and all agents, visible and invisible, rational and irrational, from the least insect which moves on the earth to the loftiest angel who walks the streets of heaven are at his disposal, and stand ready to perform his pleasure either of mercy or wrath: Yet HE is infinitely slow to anger, and displays his exceeding, abundant compassion in giving previous intimations of approaching calamities. The cloud usually makes its first appearance small as a man’s hand; it gradually rises higher and becomes darker, before it bursts forth upon the object devoted to destruction. The great God warns the wicked by his word, raising up messenger after messenger; by his providence, inflicting lesser judgments as a mean of reclaiming and saving them from more awful visitations. He thus proves to the satisfaction of every rational spectator, that he is merciful, and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; that he has no pleasure in temporal destruction of nations, or in the everlasting ruin of individuals, but would rather that both should repent, and return and live. Before he opened the fountains of the deep, and brought the flood upon the old ungodly world, he raised up Noah a preacher of righteousness, and warned them year after year; previous to the overthrow of Ninevah, that great city, he commissioned Jonah to go forth and proclaim in the streets, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed; and before he pours out the fury of his anger upon Israel, his once favorite people, the offspring of Abraham his servant, he addresses them in the admonition which you have heard, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

In the preceding verses of this chapter, the prophet, in the name of his God, recapitulates to this deluded, obstinate nation the various methods which had been employed for their reformation. And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all our places, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord: And I have also withholden from you the rain, when there were yet three months to the harvest, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord: I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord: I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord: I have overthrown some of you, as the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a fire-brand plucked out of the burning, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Who that has noticed, in the most superficial manner, the dispensations of Jehovah toward us as a people, must not read in our punishments a counterpart of the punishments formerly inflicted on Israel? Did not a righteous God, year after year, withhold from us the rain of heaven, causing the pastures to fail in the field, and the corn to languish in the valley? Has he not occasionally smitten us with blasting ⁸ and mildew? Has he not sent among us again and again the pestilence ⁹ after the manner of Egypt? And is not the accusation, which was brought against Israel, at least as applicable to us, Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord? Where is there any evidence that either our mercies or our judgments have proved effectual for reclaiming or reforming us? Are the living oracles more generally read, or more deeply revered? Is the sanctuary attended now by those who formerly lived in the neglect of its ordinances? Are the praises of God resounding now in houses, where that celestial melody was formerly unheard? Is the holy Sabbath more consciensciously sanctified through our land, or does the power of Godliness shine more illustrious in the lives of those who possess the form? Is the charge of pride, extravagance, injustice between man and man, and ingratitude to the God of our mercies less applicable now than in years that are past? Nay, has not the tide of our impiety and profligacy risen with the tide of our prosperity, and when the divine hand has been stretched out for our correction we have not seen it, neither have we trembled under these displays of the majesty of Jehovah. Is such the fact, beloved brethren, then I cannot address you in language more appropriate than the admonition of the prophet to his nation, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

The people to whom the warning is directed are Israel, the visible church of God. The fire of divine jealousy burns peculiarly awful around his altar: There the light shines most clear; there the voice of admonition is most frequently heard; there the privileges are most exalted, and consequently there the consumption determined usually commences its career. – Those who rank first in point of privilege are ordinarily made the first and most fearful monuments of divine indignation. Judgment must begin at the house of God. Rebellion in a son is both more unnatural and inexcusable, than in a servant: Our abhorrence is much more excited by an act of treachery in a pretended friend, than in the open, avowed enemy; upon the same principle the crimes of a professing people are most offensive to God, and expose to the severest marks of his displeasure. You only have I known of all the families of the earth; I will therefore punish you for your iniquities. The history of the world fully confirms the truth of these denunciations. – Those very parts of the earth which were long, and singularly favored with a pure dispensation of the gospel, have been afterwards as singularly the feat of judgments, both temporal and spiritual. Turn your eyes for a moment to Jerusalem, once the most distinguished spot of the earth; that city where the temple was erected; where the living oracles were proclaimed; where the morning and evening sacrifice, this lively pledge of our Great Propitiation, was offered up; where the incense arose in sacred columns from the censer of Aaron the type of the high priest of our profession; where the ministry of our Lord was chiefly accomplished; where miracles the most sublime were frequently wrought by his hands, and celestial truth flowed from his lips: Behold also Corinth, ¹⁰ Sardis, Smyrna, and Thyatira, cities where flourishing churches were early planted by the Evangelists and Apostles of our Lord. How has their external importance sunk, and their spiritual glory departed? Just in proportion as evangelic light formerly shone clear around, a cloud dark and impenetrable envelopes them, and the wretched inhabitants are debased by ignorance, by superstition, by every species of abomination.

This verse, thus explained, presents to our consideration,

1. A solemn event, a meeting with our God; and

2. Our duty in the prospect of this event, prepare to meet thy God.

Each individual of the human kind must meet Jehovah at death: The immortal spirit, immediately after its separation from the body, is summoned to the tribunal of its judge; then it is called to render a solemn account of its stewardship, and afterwards, according to its works, is adjudged to an unchanging destiny, either of glory or shame. It is appointed unto all men once to die, and after death the judgment: Again, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive according to the things done in his body, whether they be good or evil.

All mankind collectively must meet Jehovah in the hour of general retribution. The Lord God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained. The trump of the archangel shall found; the great white throne shall be erected; the sign of the son of man shall appear; the judge shall descend; all the living shall be instantly changed, and all the dead arise: then the kindreds of the nations shall flock to the judgment seat of their common Lord, and receive one general irreversible sentence, When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them the one from the other: the deeds done in the present life must then undergo a review the most minute, the most impartial, and the countless myriads of the human family be awarded to everlasting life, or everlasting perdition.

But the meeting with God to which the prophet alludes, and for which he admonishes Israel to prepare, is an event materially different; it belongs to particular communities, or nations, in their public, social capacity. There are periods of national retribution, no less than of personal retribution; periods when the adorable Ruler of the universe rises from his throne, and comes forth to reckon with the inhabitants of a country; when he takes a review of all the privileges bestowed upon them; of all the deliverances wrought from time to time in their behalf; of the duration of their national peace; of the degree of their national prosperity, and then chastises them for the abuse of their privileges. Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth and all that therein is: For behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come and tread on the high places of the earth: For the transgressors of Jacc is all this, and for the iniquity of the house of Israel.

The dealings of a sovereign God toward individuals and nations obviously correspond. He spares the particular person notwithstanding numerous provocations; he affords him the means of repentance, and the offers of life; he alternately alarms and allures; he tries him now with mercies, then with judgments, before he gives commission to cut him off as utterly incorrigible: And such also is his conduct toward nations in general. He admonishes them for their impiety; he forewarns them now by his messengers, again by the movements of his providence of calamities that are approaching; he executes one threatening as a mean of awakening them to repentance, and saving them from other and severer scourges: He thus entreated with the old world one hundred and twenty years by the ministry of Noah; he thus reproved the cities of the plain by Lot as his messenger, before it turned them into ashes, making them public monuments of his vengeance. With what long-suffering did he expostulate with the nation of the Jews before he finally marked them out as the people of his wrath? How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me: my repenting are kindled together. And upon their partial reformation in the days of Samuel, of Asa, of Josiah he immediately suspended the execution of his judgments, and wrought salvation in their behalf.

When an individual willfully closes his eyes against the light of the Gospel; when he shuts his ears against its pointed and repeated admonitions; when he tramples with deliberate hardihood on mercies and judgments Jehovah in awful sovereignty leaves him to his own delusions; he ceases to reprove him either by his word, or spirit, or providence; and pronounces him a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction: His condition then becomes utterly and everlastingly desperate: All his prayers, all his tears, all his remorse for past transgressions, or resolutions of amendment in future are unavailing. He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. As it is with individuals, it is also with nations. They have their accepted time, and, if the expression be allowed, their day of political Salvation: But if this be misimproved; if they fill up their cup of iniquity, by ingratitude for national mercies, and by a spirit of slumber and impenitence amidst the scourges of his providence, the Lord God abandons them as altogether incorrigible, and irreversibly decrees their consumption: All the intercessions of righteous individuals, and even a general reformation will be unavailing for the removal of divine vengeance: Though Noah, and Daniel, and Job should interpose and supplicate, spare thy people, their prayers may rest in blessings upon their own heads, but will not stay the hand that is stretched out for correcting the nation. The sovereign Ruler of the world either pours upon them a spirit of discord and confusion, making one part of the community the instrument of destruction to the other, or he surrenders them up an easy prey to some foreign foe. What an example of his vengeance against the disobedient, incorrigible nation do we behold in the final overthrow of the Jews and their city. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not: Behold your house is left unto you desolate. If thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.

Is there not reason to apprehend that such a meeting with our God is awaiting us as a nation; that it is near at hand? The signs of the times are peculiarly ominous and deserve the attention of all: The Lord God has come out of his place, and in a manner unusually awful is punishing the inhabitants of the earth. With our own eyes we have beheld him shaking all nations; we have seen the sword of war unsheathed in almost every part of the globe; we have seen her crimson flag unfurled by land, and on the ocean; the earth has been reddened, and the very waters of the deep have been tinged with blood ¹¹ of the slain; we have seen the most ancient and stately empires shook to their center; crowns tottering on the heads of princes; princes hurled from their thrones and princes and peasants mingled in promiscuous ruin. Nation has been rising up against nation, and the Lord of hosts has mustered the hosts of the battle. Hitherto, through his tender mercies, we have escaped the all devouring vortex; our peace, with a few inconsiderable exceptions, has been uninterrupted, and our immunities as an independent nation have been uninfringed. But the period of our public tranquility, we have reason to apprehend, has nearly expired. Are not our natural rights at present wantonly violated, and our commerce invaded; has not the property of our citizens been violently wrested from their possession on the high seas, and fold at foreign markets, and their persons laid in chains, and doomed to languish in cheerless dungeons: Every effort used for the restoration of our neutral rights, and the redress of our grievances has hitherto failed, and the cloud is daily spreading and blackening over our heads.

Amidst these dangers from abroad, how humiliating is our situation at home? Instead of harmony in concerting measures for our national defense, is there not universal distrust and distraction? No longer rallying around one center, and blending ourselves in the common name of AMERICANS, are we not assuming different names, and flocking to different standards, as if we neither regarded each other as children of the same family, nor members of the same community? Does not a spirit of discord pervade from New-Hampshire to Georgia? Have not the different parties become so intolerant, so infuriated, that seemingly they want only an opportunity to rise up in open hostilities? And remember, of all wars, that of citizen against citizen is the most to be deplored: This flame when once kindled, is the most inextinguishable in its nature, and the most wasteful in its progress: It is like a torch in a sheaf, and usually consumes a nation both root and branch. O my country! Unless the Lord of hosts speedily interpose in thy behalf; unless he restore mutual confidence among thy sons, and harmony to thy public counsels, AN END, THINE END MUST COME: The sword without, and terror and confusion within must destroy thee.

Is such our situation; are such our apprehensions, then the enquiry must appear equally appropriate and important, how shall we prepare for meeting with our God?

This was our second proposition, and to it your attention is now invited.

1. All should prepare for this event, by fleeing without delay to Jesus-Jehovah as their city of refuge. He is a hiding place from every storm, and a covert from the tempest; sheltered beneath this rock by a living faith; having our consciences sprinkled with his atoning blood, and our souls adorned with his immaculate righteousness, we may sit secure when the cloud has actually bursted, and the storm is exhausting its fury. The believer, with the lively exercise of all his graces, is like a rock in the midst of the ocean, unmoved, immoveable by all the dashing of either wind or wave: But, where, ah, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear, when the wrath of Almighty God has gone forth; when it consumes the earth with her increase; when it sets on fire the foundations of the mountains, and burns to the lowest hell? Where, ah, where will appear the empty professor; the man who possesses merely the mask of Christianity, and is an utter stranger to its power, where will he appear when Jehovah in his jealousy will search Jerusalem as with lighted candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees; that say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. Where, ah, where will then appear the gay, the thoughtless, wanton youth; those who put far away the evil day; “who crown themselves with rose buds,” who chant to the found of the viol, and remain deaf to all the entreaties of friends, and parents, and ministers, where will they flee for help, where will they leave their glory, when the whirlwind of divine wrath shall sweep terribly the earth; when the fierce anger of the Lord shall come upon them, when the day of the Lord’s anger shall come upon them? To all such every temporal scourge is only a pledge of that hour when the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the world and the things that are therein shall be dissolved. But they who are reconciled to God by the blood of the Infinite Surety, are secured, infallibly secured from avenging wrath: here the thunders of a broken law cannot reach to alarm, no lightnings pour their terrors, and therefore they may sit unruffled amidst all the agitations of the world. – Being justified by faith they have peace with God, and if God be for them who can be against them? With his wisdom to direct; his omnipotence to defend; his all-sufficiency to supply, and his mercy to sympathize, they enjoy a peace which passeth understanding amidst every outward storm.

2. We ought to prepare for meeting our God by walking circumspectly and keeping our garments unspotted from every pollution. Upon all occasions it is our duty to be sober and vigilant; to keep our hearts with all diligence; to walk worthy of him who is calling us to glory and virtue, but this is pre-eminently our duty and our interest in the hour of impending judgment. True it is, there is nothing meritorious in the services of the creature; our most perfect performances fall infinitely short of the pure law of Jehovah; yet the reflection that we have walked circumspectly before him; that we have not willingly deviated from the paths of righteousness to the right hand or to the left, inspires with confidence and joy when his rod is stretched out to scourge a nation and we must participate in the common calamity. While conscious guilt then stands appalled; while it startles at the shaking of every leaf, the righteous is bold as a lion; looking for protection to that God whom he has served; to whose glory his life has been honestly devoted, he bids defiance to all external danger; he considers that all the afflictions of time are short and inconsiderable when compared with the glories of eternity; he contemplates death itself as stripped of every terror, and no more than a dark entry to the regions of unclouded, everlasting day. With what consolation in the depth of distress; with what holy heroism in danger, did a consciousness of their integrity inspire the three Israelites in Babylon; it extinguished in their bosoms every impulse of fear, it enabled them to behold undismayed the majesty of the princely throne, and the horrors of the fiery furnace; O, Nebuchadnezar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter: If it be so, “if we must resist even unto blood in adhering to our religion and our God; if our tortures are even aggravated by a furnace sevenfold hotter than usual, we are not alarmed at the prospect, nor anxious about the issue;” our God whom we serve is able to deliver from this burning, fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King.

3. We ought to prepare for meeting our God by awakening to greater diligence in the discharge of every duty, and abounding more eminently in the work of the Lord. When the tumult of war is heard, and the enemy appears in view, the prudent soldier instantly arises; he collects his armor; he fastens every part of it in its proper place; he arranges himself in order for battle, and thus stands ready every moment for the arduous onset: When a storm is expected on the ocean; when the clouds collect and blacken; when the distant thunder is heard and the lightnings begin to blaze around, the vigilant mariner takes the alarm, and makes the requisite preparation. Such should be the christian’s conduct when the judgments of Almighty God are commissioned to pass through a nation. Of whatever kind the calamity be, whether war or famine, or pestilence; on whatever that he esteems precious the assault may be made, whether on his liberty, or religion, or life, he should aim at standing prepared; at shaking off his spiritual sloth; at having his lamp carefully trimmed and replenished with oil, from Jesus Jehovah the anointed one, burning with the purest flame; he ought to become more fervent in prayer; more edifying in his conversation; more sincere in repentance for his own iniquities, and the iniquities of the nation with which he is connected; more abundant in all the duties which are incumbent upon him as a man and a Christian. This is the best possible preparation for all the calamities of life. To all such the Lord God will become a little sanctuary when the sword of his vengeance is drawn, and his wrath consumes a guilty land. The angel spreads his pavilion around the pious Lot, when the cities of the plain are turned into ashes; the houses of the Israelites were passed over without injury, when the first born was slain in every family of the Egyptians, and the minister of justice never disclosed his commission against Jerusalem, until a mark was set upon the forehead of the men that sighed and cried for all the abominations that were done in the midst of the land. The providence of God has even miraculously interposed for the protection of his faithful followers; he has proved a wall of fire around the individual, the families, the settlements that have cleaved to him in the hour of general apostacy.

The application suitable for this subject will be readily suggested by your own minds.

1. Let all be exhorted to improve their distinguishing privileges while they are yet enjoyed. You have long sat undisturbed under the means of salvation; the heavenly manna has been descending in showers around your tents and you have been entreated again and again to partake this divine provision; the river of life has been rolling plenteously around you its refreshing waters, and you have been urged again and again to draw near and drink and live forever. – Whether these golden opportunities will be long continued, is altogether uncertain; it depends on the mere sovereignty of Jehovah: I would therefore most solemnly admonish you to walk in the light while you have it: Give glory to the Lord your God, lest he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains: Let the drunkard abandon his cups; let the swearer cease from his impious oaths; let him that stole steal no more, but render to all their due; let those who have indulged themselves in sensual gratifications crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts; let the covetous remember that neither their gold nor their silver will deliver them in the day of the Lord’s anger; let every prayerless person awake from his unconcern, and arise calling upon his God; let those who have wasted the precious Sabbath in idleness, or worldly employments, hereafter keep holy that day to the Lord our God by not finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words, let the secure, impenitent hearers break off their sins by righteousness, and their iniquities by turning to the Lord. Are their any present who, through the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, or the influence of ungodly associates, have departed from the holy commandment, and thrown off their Christian profession, let them be impressed with the danger of their situation, and return in the exercise of repentance to the Living God: let the vain and the thoughtless youth remember their Creator, lest they mourn at the last when their flesh and their body are consumed, saying, how have we hated instruction and our hearts despised reproof? By all that is dreadful in the wrath of Almighty God, by all that is desirable in his loving kindness I exhort sinners of every age, of every condition to turn this day to the strongholds while they are prisoners of hope. The door of the city of refuge is now open, and all the redeemed on earth, and all the redeemed in heaven, and all the angels of light will hail with transports of joy your entrance and your escape from the avenger of blood. Hasten, hasten to Jesus Christ, to his sacrifice, to his righteousness as your only security from the wrath that is to come. The Lord God of gods in whose presence I now stand, whom I serve in the gospel of his Son bears me witness that I have aimed on this day of humiliation at espousing you all to one husband, and thus preparing you to meet your God; to met him now as he is coming forth to avenge his quarrel with our country; to meet him hereafter in the hour of final, irreversible retribution. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep fore and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.

2. Be exhorted to live at peace among yourselves, and whatsoever ye do, whether in word or in deed, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the Saviour’s cross be the only point around which you rally in all your deliberations, whether civil or religious; let it never be mentioned to the reproach of the Christian name; let it not be told in Gath, let it not be heard in the streets of Askelon that an avowed enemy of the dear Redeemer, who coincides with you in political sentiment, should lie nearer your hearts; should possess a greater, or an equal share in your confidence and affection with a Brother in grace, whose political views may be different from your own: And I am bold to affirm that while you live habitually on the Son of God; while you derive from him daily that wisdom which is pure, and peaceable, and gentle, and easy to be entreated, all your diversity of sentiment respecting public measures will not alienate your hearts from each other. This sacred unction will excite to the exercise of mutual forbearance wherein you differ. A variety of political opinions must be expected. In this state of imperfection where we see but in part, and know but in part; where we are actuated by different motives, and look through different mediums, it is rare that our views fully harmonize on any subject: This very diversity of sentiment affords a greater opportunity for exercising the most illustrious graces, charity, patience and forbearance. At a moment so critical to our own country, so eventful to the world in general, I cannot therefore address you more suitably than in the language of Joseph to his brethren, see that ye fall not out by the way. Every citizen possesses an equal right to the enjoyment of his own sentiments, and in this free government he has liberty to communicate his views on public men, and public measures: but let this freedom be always exercised with moderation and prudence. Liberty of speech, when used with discretion, proves a public blessing, but when indulged in a manner intemperate and indiscreet, it becomes a political curse. Finally, brethren, be perfect; be of good comfort; be of one mind; live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Should those speaks of dissention, which are already kindled in every part of the community, burst into an open flame, it will be a consolation to reflect, in the general calamity, that I never added fuel to the fire by irritating the passions of my fellow-citizens.

I should feel chargeable with the omission of a very important duty did I conclude these solemn exercises without directing our attention to signs of the times. A cloud is seemingly collecting over the church and the nations more gloomy than has been witnessed for ages. It is the general opinion of commentators, ¹² who have made prophecy the subject of particular investigation, that the two witnesses, mentioned in scripture, are yet to be slain, and that the religion of papal Rome will obtain a universal diffusion through the earth. The remarks of a learned expositor, ¹³ who appeared in the last century, are so interesting that you must readily excuse me in quoting them at large. – “The light of the gospel will be wholly withdrawn for a while; the slaying of the witnesses is yet to come; it will make a dismal night, and be accompanied with the universal spread of popery.” A late and most profound divine, ¹⁴ in the church of Scotland, was so deeply impressed with the same sentiment, that he is said to have collected every fragment which has been written in opposition to that heresy, and circulated it to his correspondents in different countries. Do not the present appearances of the world obviously correspond with the opinions of these commentators? Probably in no period of time did the anti-Christian religion extend its influence more rapidly than in the present. It is now the established worship of France. There is a decree of that government, that “no church-book, no psalm book, nor catechism shall be published without the permission of the bishop of the diocese.” It is virtually established in Holland and Switzerland, as the regulation of all ecclesiastical concerns is committed to their sovereigns who are papists: This religion has recently obtained a rapid spread through Germany, and other countries adjacent: Bills, at different times have been brought before the parliament of Great-Britain for securing to the votaries of Antichrist privileges in common with the protestants. If we turn our eyes from Europe to our own country, how very alarming is the prospect? In several of our capital cities the churches, professing the religion of Rome, are more flourishing than those of any other communion; and three Bishops ¹⁵ have lately been consecrated to super-intend the papal interests in the United States. When we add to these things the open infidelity of some, the abject ignorance and utter indifference of others, there is little, humanly speaking, to prevent the general spread of that abomination through our country.

Amidst these realities and apprehensions our duty if obvious. Let every man look to his own interest, by making his calling and election sure: Let every parent look to the dearest interests of his children, by bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; let him consider a profound education in the doctrines of Christianity as the most impenetrable shield against the assaults of either superstition or error: Let every master look to the dearest interests of those committed to his charge, by recommending Jesus and his salvation as, beyond comparison, their most enriching portion: Let every magistrate, as he regards his peace in the hour of peril, execute with unremitting vigilance and unshaken fidelity, the duties of his office. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, awake to double diligence in their vocations; let them weep between the porch and the altar, saying, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, what shall I say more? To you it is the call of Jehovah in his word; it is his call by the very awful movements of his providence, Come, my people; enter thou into thy chambers; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over past. For, behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain.

O Lord, thou sittest upon the floods, thou sittest king forever, look with a compassionate eye, on our guilty miserable world, and shorten these days of calamity; proclaim to every scourge that has desolated our earth, it is enough, stay thine hand; may the thunder of war expire; may the sword of slaughter return to its scabbard, no more to be bathed in the blood of man; let not nation any longer rise up as the destroyer of nation, but may the peaceful banner of Messiah wave in triumph around the globe; hasten the period when creation shall become one sanctuary, and men of all kindreds one assembly, in doing homage to the God of Israel. Amen, even so come LORD JESUS.

Endnotes

1 The British army under the command of General Burguoyne, in their descent from Canada, marched along the Hudson river about sixteen miles to the west of Salem; but small detachments of the enemy penetrated that and the neighboring towns, plundering the inhabitants: Parties of Indians also sallied out through these settlements, and murdered a whole family in the vicinity of Salem; and the town was almost entirely evacuated in August of 1777, when the inhabitants, through apprehension of the enemy, fled for shelter into the interior of the country.

2. The memorable defeat and capture of General Burguoyne took place about the 17th of October, when the inhabitants returned to their own possessions.

3. His Excellency George Washington, in his last address to the citizens of the United States. “Christianity,” says Montesque, a celebrated French writer, “has prevented the establishment of despotism in Ethiopia, notwithstanding its situation in the midst of African despotic states.” And Hume, although a malignant enemy to religion, has acknowledged that “the previous sparks of liberty were kindled by the puritans in England, and to them the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution.” I cannot help remarking that the observations of these authors are literally exemplified in New-England. There is no part of the Christian world where pure religion more eminently flourished than in those states for generations after their first settlement; and there is perhaps no part of the globe, where the principles of rational liberty are better understood, or more zealously vindicated. On the other hand, what probably paved the way for the easy introduction of despotism in France than the general infidelity and licensciousness of the people.

4. During the discussion of a bill relating to the Sabbath, which was brought before the Legislature some years since, a member was heard in the street to “damn the Sabbath and all its advocates.” I mention this circumstance merely, to shew that in the election of the unprincipled, indecent man to public office, we not merely evince a want of zeal for God, a want of concern for the interests of morality, but a great want of respect to ourselves. Petitions in support of that bill were poured in from various parts of the state, and a single copy of the petitions from the city of New-York, as was stated in a public paper, had eighteen hundred names annexed to it. As citizens of a free government we possess the right in a respectful manner to petition our legislative bodies, and our petitions, especially when presented by a large and respectable part of the state, are entitled to respectful attention. But in the instance of the member above mentioned, the maxim holds true, that he who does not fear God will not regard man, not even his constituents from whom all his little importance is derived.

5. Is this epithet pronounced harsh; it is supported by the judicial testimony of an honorable gentleman of our own age and country; by one whose benevolence of heart must excite the affection, and whose integrity and capacity in his office command the esteem of all who know him. “As murder in contemplation of law essentially consists in deliberately killing a fellow creature, it is obvious where death ensues in a duel, that it is generally speaking the most aggravated species of murder, because it is accompanied with every species of cool premeditation that a spirit of envy could dictate.” – Charge to the Grand Jury of Reading, by the Honorable Jacob Rush, Esq.

6. Dr. Witherspoon, in his sermons, delivered on a general fast at the commencement, and a general thanksgiving, at the conclusion of the late revolution.

7. This event is particularly mentioned by Josephus in his “Antiquities of the Jews;” he relates that “Jereboam the son of Joash was a prince most dissolute and licentious in his practices, by which he brought almost innumerable calamities upon the people of Israel;” that “in his days there was a terrible earthquake;” that “the roof of the temple opened with the shocks of it, and one half of the mountain Eoge was torn from the other.” – Jos. Ant. 145. 6. N. Y. ed. 1792.

8. In the summer of 1802, just as the fields began to whiten for the harvest, a mildew pervaded the northern and western parts of this state, and blasted in its course two thirds, perhaps three fourths of the wheat, the staple commodity of this country.

9. Not to mention those malignant, mortal epidemics, which have fearfully scourged our principal cities, the influenza, a species of the pestilence, has repeatedly taken its course through almost every state in the Union. So generally did it prevail in the autumn of 1807 that scarcely a family in this town escaped it; and on a particular Sabbath, through the almost universal indisposition of ministers and people, various churches were laid desolate.

10. A modern traveler represents, in a most affecting light, these once distinguished parts of the world. Sardis, according to his account, “was overthrown by a most terrible earthquake, and is now only a poor habitation of sherherds, living in low and humble cottages: howsoever,” he elegantly adds, “the antient pillars and ruins lift up their heads, as unwilling to lose the memory of their former glory:” and Corinth which the Roman orator pronounced “lumen totius Grecie,” the light of all Greece, was burnt to ashes for its insolence to the legates of Rome. – See Calmet’s Dic. On Jer. And Well’s Geog. Of the Old and New Test. Vii. 259, 60. 2756.

11. The battles of Marengo and Jena by land, and the naval engagements at the Nile, in the Channel and at Trasalgar, whether we regard the obstinacy with which they were fought or the numbers that were slain, probably stand without a parallel either in ancient or modern history.

12. The calculations of expositors, both antient and modern, relative to the slaying of the witnesses, have been lately exhibited by the author, at considerable length, in two lectures, which he designs to offer to the public.

13. Dr. Gill in a sermon delivered in 1750.

14. Dr. John Erskine.

15. This fact was stated in a public print during the last summer, and was sine confirmed to the author in a letter from a respectable correspondent.

Sermon – Fasting – 1809, Massachusetts

Samuel Spring (1746-1819) graduated from Princeton in 1771. He served as a chaplain during the Revolutionary War (1775-1776) and carried a wounded Aaron Burr from the field during the Battle of Quebec. Spring was the pastor of a congregation in Newburyport, MA (1777-1819). This sermon was preached on the annual fast day of Massachusetts on April 6, 1809.

TWO

SERMONS

ADDRESSED

TO THE

SECOND

CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY

NEWBURYPORT,

Fast Day, April 6, 1809.

By Samuel Spring, D. D.

SERMONS.

Ezekiel XXVII. 26.

Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: The east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.

THE Prophet was not the subject of passive obedience and non-resistance. For God gave him his commission in these words; “Now, thou Son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus”; and he faithfully executed it, by openly blaming and condemning her rulers for their wrong and destructive measures. “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.”

The sentiments of the text are expressed in language highly metaphorical. The great waters, into which Tyre was carried by her pilots or rowers, were great public difficulties and perplexities, in which she was involved by the folly and baseness of her rulers. The term rowers and the phrase great waters were accommodated to the navigation of early times, when the vessels, which were managed by oars, resembled our shallow craft, and not modern ships of war, which whiten the sea with their canvas and glide over great and deep waters with majesty and safety. As Tyre was an Island, which commanded the most extensive and profitable commerce, she is compared in her sad state with a rich vessel, wrecked by the eastern gales, which in those seas proved the most destructive to navigation.

Having now before us the contents of the Prophet’s message, stripped of metaphorical dress, I shall enquire whether our rulers have not too much resembled the rulers of Tyre. For, though we are not yet destroyed as a nation, it will, we presume, appear upon careful review and enquiry, that we have been brought near the margin of destruction; and notwithstanding any national measures, which have been adopted, yet stand trembling upon it. The event is future and we hope it will not be distressing.

A simple, solemn state of facts, will, we think, best answer the reasonable demand of the occasion before a mixed assembly. For the field has been amply explored, and the curtain of the national cabinet has been partly drawn, and some of the hidden motives of administration developed, and exposed by our able statesmen, who have merited the thanks of the nation. They have on the left hand been hated and bitterly cursed by their political opposers, because they have told the truth, and of course exposed a system of deep intrigue and black deceit.

There are so many wheels within the modern wheel of the nation; so many ultimate and subordinate motives attached to the chief motive of administration, that it is not easy to give a clear, decided view of their system. But it is manifest, that ever since the late President returned from the French court with his head and heart full of the philosophy of “The enlightened nation,” that he has been devoted to France and hostile to England. To account for this, we cannot but remark that he is destitute of martial skill and prowess, that he expected France would soon rule the world, and that it would be more safe and compatible with the feelings of southern men, who must rule with the eastern states, and retain their slaves, and cannot easily endure much religious connection, to take seasonable shelter under the spreading wing of the French Eagle. And to effect all this, France must have money, must rise and extend her influence far and wide; England must fall or bow, and the commerce of the eastern states, and the consequent strength of New-England must be greatly reduced. For so long as Old England and New-England mutually support the interest of religion and commerce, France and her American adherents cannot prevail. There was a time, not far distant, when the duped influence of the eastern states was on the point of going blindly into this awful vortex. Blessed be God, our eyes are partly opened. We begin to see men as trees walking – we must now take care that our vision be not obscured, and that our hands be not palsied, nor our minds discouraged, by the loss of our commerce. For our energy and national influence will go with our morals, commerce and opulence. “Money is a defense;” but “the destruction of the poor is their poverty.”

Leaving the motives of administration to be unfolded by time, we will now notice some of the adverse consequences of their late measures. The reduced state of our flourishing commerce may take the lead of the shrouded procession. For it is a productive cause of much public affliction and adversity. The partial repeal of the oppressive Embargo, in connection with its substitute, is considered by wise men, who ponder the place of their steps, as a mere snare to commerce. For, though that empty chest of the nation may derive some needful supply by the measure, it is to be feared that young adventurous merchants will unhappily lost their property, and the nation be more reduced than ever. If our merchants, by the legal deception, lose more than the public chest gains, they will have reason to complain of being overreached and gulled by administration; and what upright man must not blush in such a case for our Legislators? To plead that merchants need not expose their interest in the waters of Holland and other waters equally dubious and dangerous, will not excuse those who make danger by law; and tempt men by the vain hope of interest to run full sail into it. Till we have ample evidence that our rulers have quitted the servile project of aiding France by oppressing our commerce, we cannot consider any of their measures friendly to it, and consequently entertain more fear than hope relative to the partial repeal of the Embargo. If they have not suppressed commerce to aid France, and if they now desire the prosperity of eastern commerce upon friendly, patriotic principles, they would openly encourage it, and not embarrass it by any legal snare.

Making then no abatement of our calamity by the partial repeal of the Embargo, since we are embarrassed with its substitute, let me say, when we attend to the vast extent of our sea-coast in connection with the depth of the adjacent country, which God manifestly made to employ a commercial, active people; when we also review the dismantled, decaying state of our shipping; the wasting produce of our fertile lands lying in the barns of farmers and stores of merchants, without any prospect of market, we cannot but feel deeply affected with the depressed state of our commerce. For if our rulers had not been wedded to France and hostile to England, without reason, we might have been constantly employed in exporting and importing the riches of the world to great advantage. The original design of the British orders of Council, as well as other public documents sufficiently authorize this position. Our commerce received a mortal wound, because the great Emperor does not wish it to live. He approves the Embargo acts, because he or his handy agent dictated them, and expects national advantage. The present wretched state of New-England’s interest is the very object at which our rulers aimed. They have thus far hit the mark. We were dormant long enough; and suffered them to advance very far in the devious course.

Another, though a mere consequence of the former evil, is national poverty, which begins to stare us in the face, and enter many of our habitations. What, alas! Is the present state of our national Treasure – what are its prospects compared with what they were at the close of the federal administration? We have been told in a flattering specious manner, by a great man, that there was a surplus of money in the treasury, which might be expended in repairing roads and educating youth – not we presume in religion. But the fact is this, that without a dry tax, which the people will not endure, the government cannot long be supported with national dignity. We are still much in debt as a nation, and as things are now managed, must plunge deeper and deeper into debt to discharge debt. Surely our rowers have bought us into deep waters indeed, where we must soon founder without the aid of able pilots. The French Legions have not yet crossed the ocean: though I believe the late President expected to realize their assistance before the expiration of his eight years residence in the capital. We have one of their Generals only with us: but no Prefect, as yet, in official form.

Passing the impoverished state of the nation, what is the condition of thousands of families and millions of individuals, who but lately were in comfortable circumstances! The hand of poverty has, I am informed, struck off one hundred men from this town’s list who were legal voters last year. How afflictive to them and their dear depressed families! This is but the beginning of the new and gloomy series. Many who owe money cannot pay it at any rate: and others are so pressed, that they discharge their debts under every disadvantage to their scanty property. Amid the multitude of creditors but few can get their property and many are obliged to lose it wholly. This however is but a mere specimen of our declining state. The total amount of our loss in incalculable. There is another class of man, who in prosperous times, by their labor, were able to obtain a comfortable support, but are now the real objects of charity. I need not mention the number of this description in our sea-port and other sea-ports in the vicinity, nor the various beneficent measures, truly affecting, which have been devised in different places to repel hunger and afford daily relief and support. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Let their benefactors then continue to reap the superior advantage of their needful and wisely appropriated liberality. For affluence is of no value except in use. The rust of riches will not answer at death and the great day, except as irresistible evidence against unfaithful stewards of God’s property. While God supplies us, let us supply his poor, who have the memorial from his mercy. Added to the public expense, which has been necessary to prevent the pressing distress of thousands and thousands of the reduced inhabitants; who among us can estimate the real loss which we sustain, by the numerous legal meetings and conventions of the people, which have proved absolutely requisite to put a check, at least to the daring strides of administration in coincidence with the dominant views of France? For, though our Federal Representatives on the floor of Congress have done all that men could do by argument and address, we know, that if the people were not active and resolute, with great loss of time and interest, that we should now be awed, broken down and crushed by those troops of administration which were designed to enforce the embargo acts to the extent. It was the seasonable exertion of the people, which presented the raising and organization of those armies, which were intended to still us by the sword and the loss of blood. Blessed be God, we do not see them and were they now organized they could not be quartered in New England. We have no room for their tents. The land will not hold them. I review the debility of administration to execute that enslaving merciless purpose by the dread of arms, with thanks to God for rousing the spirit of the people, by the necessary though expensive measures, which were accepted by the people. If we had slept much longer France and administration would now smile and triumph over us in a haughty style. For we must believe that they intended to take away our strength by depriving us of our interest and depressing our spirits. But they are sadly disappointed for the present; because there is not, in consequence of the spirit of the people, who begin to open their eyes, sufficient national influence to execute those numerous, unfeeling, arbitrary acts. These petty armed vessels must go into the dignified retirement of the dry dock: for they never were calculated for national defense, and we fear were originally designed to embarrass our commerce and compel our submission, among other measures, to the will of France.

Further, the naked defenseless state of the nation is considered by wise men another instance of adversity which calls for lamentation. Those little shallow vessels, though built at great expense, we do not need any more than the distressing embargo; for they cannot even defend our rivers and harbours against a foreign enemy. But we need ships of war, and able, manly frigates. If we do not respect and arm ourselves like a nation of honor, how can we expect to be respected by potent nations? If we strip ourselves of influence, what nation will stop to clothe us? We have a small land army; but under the command of a General that the people will not trust a moment. We have a militia of great strength, but if this President, though I will yet hope better things, embrace the motives of his predecessor in the appointment of officers, the patriotic soldiers of New-England and the other states, will not follow them, and cannot be compelled. They love their wives and children and parents. Public confidence in administration is on the wing; and what can be harmoniously effected without it against our enemies?

We have no naval force which does honor to the nation. Upon the water we are defenseless. But if a small portion of the interest we have lost, by the saving embargo, could be appropriated to the construction of a navy, we should be safe in our own waters, strong at sea, and respected by the nations. But now, for aught any provisions made for us by administration, we must, instead of that dignified retirement so much celebrated and anticipated, be compelled to remain, we cannot tell how long, in a state of national indignity, sheer disgrace and intolerable contempt. Britain pities us, because she is too elevated and condescending to blame us. For she knows while we deprive ourselves of rich commerce, to gratify Napolean, by rejecting her offers, that a few battle ships might easily batter down and demolish our sea-ports and oblige us to fly to the mountains and back woods for safety. But she will not do it: It is not for her interest; nor is it for our interest to provoke her much more, unless it be best to destroy ourselves by becoming tributary to France, like the nations of Europe, who must drag out their days in slavery and sorrow and oppression. How lamentable, how pitiful and disgraceful our national prostration! If the departed spirit of Washington be permitted to visit us, he laments the hard calamity of Federalists, and returns hoping that in the revolving state of sublunary things, we shall see better times. He knew Virginia, and gave us needful counsel, in what manner to escape approaching danger and national ruin. Our adverse condition, in being destitute of naval force, seeing we are designed by providence for z commercial people, is attended with peculiar aggravations. For previously to the embargo – I choose rather to say, previously to the impoverishing effects of the measures of administration, we were able to furnish and man a navy with facility. But public measures in the course of eight years, have deprived us of a vast portion of our interest, probably, if good judges who have impartially attended to the subject, are correct, to the amount of two hundred millions of dollars. ¹ We have also lost many able seamen, who to prevent begging and starving, have shipped themselves on board foreign vessels and left the country. This is a heavy loss, whether they were naturalized, or Americans by birth. I am sensible that this instance of our adversity, like all others occasioned by the embargo, affects the hearts of mad Democrats like the adversity of the Spanish patriots. For the embargo was designed to prove a distressing rather than a saving, salutary measure. Those who put it on meant to keep it on, and without pity in their hearts or a tear in their eyes, did all they could to make the yoke more and more heavy and grievous by additional weights, till they were absolutely forced to desist; and even then devised a different mode of operation to effect their original purpose, as we have much reason to fear. For the wisdom of the British Cabinet does not invest every master of a ship. Some commanders are rash men, who will offend. The temptation put in the way of indiscreet captains to kindle the flame of war between us and England, is greater than many people apprehend, if not too subtle to be administered by our administration. To avoid it, I hope our active men will not venture very far in the dark.

Though the national and political evils produced by the late measures of administration are great and oppressive, yet there is another evil more to be dreaded and deprecated than all the rest we have mentioned, or can be mentioned by men whose minds are better informed. It is infinitely more dangerous. I mean that demoralizing, deranging influence, which so much prevails, and like quick poison, pervades and seizes he vitals of the community. We need not be at great pains to support this position. The evidence presses upon us like the light of mid day. We know, that there is no rational motive to sin, and that no reason can be assigned for it in any circumstances whatever; yet one person is capable of leading another into that scene of temptation, which will prove fatal to his morals and his soul. Napolean, no more than Balak in the instance of Israel, was able to subdue America by his first measures, though the promised reward was flattering; yet by a method not very diverse from what was practiced by Balaam, the servile instrument of the king of Moab, the Emperor has been strangely successful. We notice it on this day of humiliation, for a lamentation, that the morals of the people have been corrupted by public measures. The embargo laws have neither met the correct, enlightened dictates of conscience nor the constitution of the land. They interfere and shamefully clash with the general bond of union and with the guaranteed rights of individual states, and been in some sacred instances with common law. To adduce evidence of this, after the able address, remonstrance and memorial of our Legislature, is needless. Lamentable and obvious facts are these, that the termination of commerce with foreign nations, so unjust in its nature, so impolitic and distressing in its effects and operation, considering our circumstances and the embarrassed condition of necessary trade between one state and another, disaffected and enraged the merchants, put a period to industry in our sea-ports, and reduced former labourers to a state of inevitable inactivity. Idleness was the consequence. Vices of various complexions succeeded of course to the great disadvantage of individuals, families and the community. For idleness is the fruitful mother of wicked customs and habits, which are so destructive to the best interest of men. Satan always takes his stand in the midst of the circle of human displeasure and idleness, and manages it to the injury of souls. It is his field of action.

There is another humiliating attitude of much iniquity occasioned by the system under review. We mean that deceit and dishonesty which are induced and indulged under unconstitutional acts and arbitrary laws, relating to toll, customs and revenue. For by the habit of evading arbitrary laws to save excise money, it becomes easy for many persons to qualify their consciences to evade righteous laws, who before such poisonous habits, would have trembled at the thought of defrauding the public chest. Arbitrary, unconstitutional acts we mark with emphasis, because they are direct temptations to iniquity. Men are naturally prone to sin, when there is no direct motive of advantage before them: but when they can blindly believe, as Adam did before he eat the apple, that there is interest to be secured without pains or by the least pains, they will attend. Righteous laws are in danger of being violated by the side of unrighteous ones, which men will disregard. To multiply even just rules beyond necessity is not wise, lest some of them be neglected, and a habit be formed to neglect others. Wise parents and wise rulers are, therefore, careful not to make even too many good rules. Surely, then, it must be unsafe indeed for rulers to multiply unjust laws, lest they induce their subjects to violate laws which ought to be obeyed, in consequence of being in the habit of disregarding those that ought not to be obeyed. It is dangerous even to pass the Rubicon of injustice established by law: for by doing this men learn to pass the Rubicon of justice. The way to ruin is broad and easy and full of the temptations of the moment. We should leave temptation at first sight, before we touch it, and it will never injure us any more than it did Joseph, Daniel and his three brethren at Babylon. In a word, while our rulers evidently mean to deprive Federalists, who are certainly the most valuable members of society, on many accounts, of any leading influence in national government, while they mean to deprive the eastern states of energy by destroying their commerce, without which they cannot subsist, with a common share of comfort; while they make laws which are hostile to the Federal constitution and the constitution of individual states, to gender idleness, dishonesty, slander and falsehood without limits; while they do not expel duelists from the floor of Congress; while they approve horse-racing and other dissipated practices injurious to the cause of religion; and while they pay little or no proper respect to the Sabbath, or the divine inspiration of the scriptures, have we not much reason to make a deep lamentation for the moral state of the land? Alas! Alas! America, what is thy moral state compared with what it was before the revolution? What compared with the religious state introduced and supported by our forefathers? How art thou fallen!

To make subjects moral, honest and upright, rulers must impress their consciences by righteous laws and exemplary conduct. For as is the fountain so will be the streams. As is the tree, so will be the branches and the fruit. In vain do we look for union and harmony, either of a civil or moral nature, while our rulers are fired with ambition and swayed by base partiality. The moral father of his subjects is the ruler approved by God, and admired by all good men. Their love is his authority. Their delight in his excellent qualities is his scepter. They obey because they cannot endure the thought of offending him. “O Telemachus,” said Mentor the sage, who was teaching him to be a good ruler, “Fear God; this fear is the greatest treasure of the human heart; it comes attended by wisdom, justice, peace, joy, unmixed pleasures, real liberty, delightful abundance3 and spotless glory.”

Lord, if national sins and abominations do not exceed the limits of thy gracious determination respecting the United States, let our administration be ever under the guidance of such a spirit. “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain.” Rulers of this description “are not a terror to good works but to the evil; not a curse but a rich blessing to the people. Their memory will be embalmed by immortality.

THE DIVISION OF SERVICE.IN the morning discourse, we attended to the gloomy state of our country, both in a political and moral view, produced directly by the partial, incorrect measures of administration. But since our rulers and their political associates are not the only offending members of the community, we must impartially view both Federalists and Democrats, in one collected mass, and ascertain in what attitude we stand as a nation before God the author of our past prosperity and present adversity. “For thus saith the Lord, I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it?” The nation is manifestly in circumstances of adversity, and we are sure that the Lord is the author of it because we have sinned against him as a nation. For God is as just in afflicting public bodies as individuals. But he is as merciful as he is just. And “therefore now also saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments, and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and leave a blessing behind him–? Gather the people, sanctify the congregation—Let the priests the ministers of the Lord, meet between the porch and the altar; and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them? Wherefore should they say among the people where is their God? But from this general review of the duties of the day we must attend to several particulars. And

1. Is it not manifest from our present condition as a nation, what we were while under a Federal administration, a most prosperous nation as to our agricultural and commercial interest? We ought not to infer this unless we have evidence to support it. But we ask, when did we as a nation obtain the opulence, the vast share of opulence, which we now possess, and the millions we have lost by our ruling attachment to France and hostility to England? The answer is this, the currents of wealth, which have flowed so plentifully in our favor, begun while the government was administered by Washington and Adams, notwithstanding they labored under many embarrassments to open them and keep them open. For no sooner were we crowned with independence, than the potent, envious nations, knowing our advantages to rise, attempted to take away the luster of our crown and to leave it naked and bare. But by the unremitting exertions of those political Fathers of our Country, while supported by able statesmen, in opposition to a growing faction, the numerous avenues of commerce were kept open and our opulence increased in a surprising manner, till the late administration took the advantage and disposal of it into their own hands. When the late President came into office, the revenue was ample and the avenues opened by his predecessors were calculated to continue and increase it. Washington and Adams were the planters and sowers: but President Jefferson was the reaper. Administration have gathered the rich harvest. And where is it? Millions have gone one way and millions have gone another way and thousands another and hundreds another, if the sum be not too inconsiderable to be distinctly named, till we are like a naked tree stripped of her leaves and fruit by the frost; and are left destitute of national defense and now lie at the mercy of the potent nations. What they will do with us we cannot tell. For while we ought to be rich and powerful on the land and water, we are defenseless. And added to this complicated evil, we are like a contentious house divided against itself, which cannot stand. But why all this national evil? Has the Jeffersonian faction alone done all this? Have France and her American adherents effected this great evil, exclusively of the conduct of the other part of the nation? By no means: For God is just. And though this is not a state of strict and final retribution, yet it is according to the analogy of his dispensations to afflict and punish nations for national sins. The sacred history contains numerous instances of the nature. The Jews, to mention no other nation, who have long smarted for admonition to others, under the divine displeasure, are now in their present dispersion over the face of the earth, God’s living witnesses. Hence

2. We remark that the Americans for years past have manifestly been a nation of sinners with but few exceptions. For if our peerless prosperity had been noticed by national gratitude and humility, instead of having elated us in an extravagant manner, and been prostituted to the destructive purpose of dissipation, we could not in so short a time have been plunged, by a few factious, partial men, into the gulf of danger. Individuals in the midst of a nation, can affect no revolution, unless they avail themselves of the influence of the public by some concurrent means put into their hands. Great national changes cannot be effected without great national influence. And if this nation had not been devoted to riches, and intoxicated with prosperity, if we had not fostered the spirit of shew and parade, the sad monuments of which are now seen all over the country; if we had not been asleep as to the rectitude and abilities of men deputed to act as national legislators; if we had not, both directly and indirectly, concurred as towns and districts with the southern spirit, what could that faction have effected which has taken the lead of the nation? The rowers, who have brought us into these great waters of national adversity, are the very men we as a nation have chosen to be our pilots. It requires no stretch of thought and reflection to see by what means or by what neglect of means we are now in this reduced state as a nation. We have sinned against God by misimproving our invaluable advantages of a civil nature. A great price has been put into our hands, but we have had no heart to improve it. We have lost our advantages by neglect. If we had seasonably taken care of our political ground and sowed it with proper seed, with wheat instead of tares and thistles, we might now be blessed with the prospect of a rich harvest. We are then now called to reflect on our wicked course of conduct as a nation, which has been the productive source of our adversity. For if we had been correct in a civil, political view only, if we had externally used and not abused our precious, inestimable favors, the rectitude of providence must have prevented these evils, which we now bitterly experience. For means and ends are connected. Providence is correct; God is just and righteous. It is the diligent hand that maketh rich, while idleness will originate want and distress. We ourselves have been the effective instruments of our trouble. For who is he that will harm us if we be followers of that which is good? But alas! We have not only been political sinners, without whom the federal government could not be pulled down, but we have been great sinners against God, the author of all our mercies. We have disregarded his precepts, we have violated his laws, we have slighted his Sabbath and ordinances, we have as a nation forsaken God who made us, and lightly esteemed the rock of our salvation. Self-gratification has been the object, and the degradation of the nation. I am no advocate, you know, for the late oppressive and destructive measures of administration; and surely we can none of us advocate the conduct of the nation which has formed and so long supported such an administration. While we impeach those political offenders at the head of the nation, let us not pass silently by the body of the nation, which supports the head, nor pass by any of the members. For in vain do we suppose that the rulers of the people have brought these intolerable evils upon us without the concurring influence of their constituents. And in vain do we try to forget that God, the righteous governor of the universe, is not so ordering things in his providence, that the nation shall drink of the bitter national cup, which she has mingled. We are now reaping the real fruits of our national folly and wickedness. God, who holds the balance of universal rectitude, in his hand, is now looking down upon us with displeasure and giving us in judgment a specimen of his wrath for our national sins. I will not say that some men do not deserve more than others; they undoubtedly do; and they, without seasonable repentance, will have their dreadful portion. But we none of us suffer so much as we deserve: nay, if the individuals, who compose the nation, were now to be treated according to desert, each one of us must be instantly separated from all natural, civil and moral advantages, and plunged into the pit of endless destruction. Our being so ripe for national ruin, as must be confessed according to the stubborn facts of the day, is full evidence that our national abominations have been very great indeed. But a few months since, administration expected, that by this time the people must be in a state of entire submission to their oppressive laws. –And it is wonderful, seeing their measures had been so long dominant and successful, that they have not finally succeeded. How sinful then must have been the people, for God to suffer the nation to stand tottering on the verge of destruction! And how merciful to give us a little respite? How inexpressibly gracious to spare us longer and give us a space for repentance! What would be our condition, were we now at war with Britain and subjected to France! O children and posterity! We cannot but weep when we remember that we had almost left you slaves and ruined you by our sins. Think of it a moment, what would be the state of the church, if the nation were now actually under the direction of that butchering Emperor, who is ready to soak the earth with the blood of half the human race, rather than not subdue and rule the rest. His ambition has no limits under the sun. Men are of no value in his view, while thirsting for empire, but to be ruled by his arm, or to be cut off by millions and millions to give him the palm of universal victory. Do you believe it, my hearers, that our administration have pledged their love, their confidence and exertions to such a bloody monster? Do you believe, whatever be the case now, that the nation was lately on the point of going directly into his hands, whose tender mercies are cruel? Do you also believe that God has been so angry with the nation, that he was about to make that emissary of darkness the dreadful instrument in his hand to punish the rulers and the people for their sins committed against his sacred majesty? You need not disbelieve. An affirmative answer we presume must be correct, however humiliating. Hence

3. Nothing less than our deep humiliation genuine sorrow and repentance of sin, will correspond with the obligation of the day. The spiritual and temporal benefits and mercies, which God has conferred upon us, are innumerable like the sands, and they are great beyond our estimation. They are precious, because nothing less precious than the blood of Jesus which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel, procured them. Considering our national blessings, we especially ought to be that people whose God is the Lord. For no nation under heaven, since the revolution, has been so peculiarly favoured as this nation. But we are guilty, very guilty for the misimprovement of God’s mercies. No one has leave to say, I am not the guilty person. Not one is excepted. The sin of the nation in this connection is not divisible: it cannot be divided. The whole, collective weight of guilt lies, as it were, upon each individual. It is enough to sink us down to the lowest pit. But the mercy of God continues. We have still liberty to make our peace with him.—What shall be done? We must be humble. We must feel our own littleness as creatures; and entertain just, though they will be inadequate, views of God’s greatness and goodness. We must like worms of the earth lie prostrate before him and love to see him upon the throne of universal dominion. For angels and men, heaven and earth, and the whole universe, are safe in his hand. No place better becomes man than the dust. There he may shine and there he does shine, if humble, like a jewel of peculiar brightness. Let me repeat it; there he must lie this day.

We must also mourn our sins, we must feel that sorrow on account of our transgressions, which is answerable to their destructive nature and consequences. But how shall we obtain just views of the malignity of our sins except by seeing the evil state of the nation and the dreadful destruction, which awaits us here and beyond the grave, if God were to punish us as we deserve? The sorrow we ought to feel in the view of the sins we have committed is enough to make hearts of stone melt and bleed. Except the blood of Christ no atonement can remove such deeply dyed guilt. Let us mourn and lament and beg; for this is all we can do. Let us feel as well as see that we deserve the curse which Christ bore on the tree. If Christ died to honor the law we have violated, surely we ought to feel, that it would be right for God to leave us to die for ourselves without the advantage of a substitute. Real, godly sorrow for sin, actually holds communion with a suffering Saviour on the cross. And he, who rejects this, loves Christ only on selfish, mercenary principles to be saved from deserved punishment. But if we love Christ merely to render us happy, what do we more than thousands of other, who have no religion? What do we more than any other sinners, who love those that love them? All sinners desire private happiness and they strive to escape pain. But all godly mourners desire to be delivered from selfish hearts. They are the subjects of self-denial; and without this they are destitute of the spirit of Christ and are none of his. Thousands like Judas have been sorry indeed that their sins have made them painful, and have with violent hands put an end to their lives to get rid of pain, for the moment. But all sorrow of this nature is but the sorrow of the world which worketh death. But godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of. Therefore the Apostle says to those whom, by his reproof, he had made truly sorrowful for their sin: “Behold this self same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort; what carefulness it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, what vehement desire, yea what zeal, yea what revenge!” The sorrow, which effects such exercises as these, is always attended with true repentance. That is, it produces reformation. It causes the subjects of it to hate sin, to avoid sin, to abhor themselves on account of their sins and to keep at the greatest remove from temptation. This is the nature of real repentance, which is the genuine fruit of godly sorrow. And as there is no true repentance, which does not flow from real, godly sorrow; so there is no godly sorrow, which does not produce this repentance. They are inseparably connected. He, who is really sorry that he has sinned against God, will be careful to sin no more, and will be on his guard against every temptation. He will fly from it.

This we think applies to the object of the day. We have carefully, as our scanty limits would allow, considering the extent of the field, attended to the sins of the nation which have reduced us to the present state of adversity; we have also considered our political, national sins as committed against God. Now, let us remember ht reformation, if we act wisely, will be the result of the whole. Without this, instead of deriving any advantage from the Fast, we shall but add to the weight of our aggravated iniquity and expose ourselves to the increased indignation of God, whose spirit will not long strive with sinners. The word of God to us this day, in our present state, is peculiarly significant and worthy of notice: “At what instant, saith the Lord, I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.”

This, to-day, is the declaration of God to this people, to this nation. And if I had the voice of God’s messenger, which could be distinctly heard by all the inhabitants of the United States, I would repeat this message: “Thus saith the Lord, Behold as the clay is in the hand of the potter so are ye in my hand, O house of America. Behold I frame evil against you and devise a deice against you; return ye now every one from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord. For I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But if ye will not return, I will pluck you up and leave you desolate. And because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O land. Finally,

Your sins and your danger, the mercy of God if you repent, and the vengeance of God if you will not repent, are now before you. Take which you please, God will be glorified. For his justice is as dear to him as his mercy.

AMEN.

Endnotes

1. Those who are alarmed at the sum, are desired to take a candid review of facts, and calculate for their own satisfaction, and excuse us if we have either exceeded or not reached the correct mark of loss without gain.

Sermon – Fasting – 1832, MA

Orville Dewey (1794-1882) graduated from Andover theological seminary in 1819. He held jobs as a teacher, a clerk, and an agent for the American education society. Dewey was pastor for the Unitarian Church in New Bedford (1823-1833), the 2nd Unitarian Church of New York (1835-1848), a church in Albany for a year, a church in Washington for two years, and for the “New South” society (1858-1862). This sermon was preached by Dewey on the 1832 Massachusetts fast day.

SERMON

ON THE

MORAL USES OF THE PESTILENCE,

DENOMINATED

ASIATIC CHOLERA.

DELIVERED ON

FAST-DAY, AUGUST 9, 1832.

By Rev. ORVILLE DEWEY,
PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN NEW-BEDFORD

SERMON.

Isaiah XXVI. 9.

WHEN THY JUDGMENTS ARE IN THE EARTH, THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD WILL LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

The visitation of a calamity in some respects of an unprecedented character, has awakened the world to an unusual degree of consideration. It is most desirable that this consideration should be rightly directed; that it should be guarded from all resorts to superstitious reliance’s, and from an absorption in mere worldly fears; and that it should yield some results adequate to the greatness of the occasion. If the world after this calamity shall have passed over it, is to be no wiser than it was before, such a failure must, to every sober mind, believing in the providence, be a deep cause of regret. The end is more important than the means. It more concerns every being to improve God’s discipline, than to escape it. To fail of that end, to fail of the improvement of the discipline, would be a greater calamity than it is to endure the visitation of the pestilence itself. For surely we are not, as Christians, to forget, that there are worse evils than the pestilence—worse evils than all outward calamities—evils so much worse, that all outward calamities are designed to be their antidote and cure.

This consideration, too, of the moral uses of the prevailing pestilence, would tend, more than any thing else, to allay the fears it inspires. To caution the people against being alarmed, to reiterate and multiply admonitions on this point, to warn the timid and terror-stricken, that this very panic is among the surest harbingers of the dreaded disease, to tell them continually that the more alarmed, the more exposed they are, to exhort and urge them, as they value their lives, to be calm, to recommend to them, in fine, by such constant implication, to try not to be afraid—this seems to be very ill adapted to answer the purpose. It is as if we would frighten people out of their fears, or hurry them into moderation and calmness. Besides, it is not easy, unless we look at the moral aspects of this calamity, to prevent some natural tremors, some agitations, perhaps, of unmanly fear. If the elements are left to work their will upon us, if they are working to no end, but to show their awful and destructive power, if the scourge is borne upon the uncommissioned winds, and its pavilion is darkness, and its way is mystery, and its end is death; and no explanation, and nothing for the mind to deal with, but elements, and powers, but inevitable fate, and dire necessity,—how can mortal hearts sustain themselves in the dread encounter with agents so blind, inexorable, and awful! But if there is a Power, beneficent as it is mighty, that stays, at its pleasure, the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noon-day; if it suffers the prevalence of disease to answer wise purposes; if this calamity, however singular, is, nevertheless, a part of the universal providence; if it is, like all other means for the reform and improvement of the world, to do more good than evil; then surely may we learn to look upon it with calmness and acquiescence. Then indeed shall we look seriously upon it, and we shall look upon it with fear, too, but with a fear that is rational and religious; with a fear that will turn very much, indeed, upon the state of our own minds. We shall think much of ourselves, and so much the less of the outward and physical forms of this evil; we shall think much of the good it is to do to millions of our fellow-men, and so much the less of the mere bills of mortality, dreadful as they are. In fine, we shall have our fears, but they will mingle much of devout and grave consideration with them—a trust and satisfaction in the wisdom of God’s providence; an apprehension lest we, and others, shall not reap the good designed to be communicated; and these moral considerations will assuage and moderate those panic sensations which are now occupied with nothing but danger, and rumors of danger.

There is another argument for attention, and for universal attention. The visitation of this calamity is a voice to the world. Other calamities have been partial in their extent. Other forms of pestilence have been confined to particular countries, or districts of country. No famine ever devastated a whole continent. No war ever raged from ocean to ocean. But to the ravages of this fearful destroyer, neither oceans nor continents have set bounds. It has compassed the habitable globe. From the plains of India, from the mountains of central Asia, its march has been steady and irresistible; it has traversed deserts and seas; it has broken through all the defences which the power and vigilance of governments could set up against it; till that which, for years, has been the rumor of far off evils, is suddenly become terrific reality; and the despoiler of two continents knocks at the door of our American homes.

At such a visitation, it is meet that the world should pause. It is meet that days of fasting and humiliation and prayer should suspend the ordinary pursuits and cares of life, and give an opportunity to meditate upon the ‘ways of God to man.’

I have thus far urged the propriety and advantage of a sober and attentive consideration of this extraordinary calamity. But is there any thing to consider? Is there any meaning in this visitation which can, without presumption, be fixed upon, by us, as the subject of attention?

I. I ask in reply: Is there not a providence in it? Permitted, or produced, does it not come within the range of the Almighty power and agency? Who will say that it is without the sphere of God’s government? Who will tell us where those dread regions are, over which God has no control, in which he does not his pleasure? Has not the whole course of events which take place in the world, a design? Did they receive their original, do they receive their present, impulses, from the tendencies of matter, or the ordinations of fate? But if there re ends to be accomplished by all things, will there not be a relation, an intentional relation, between the means and the ends? Why then—so far as the agency of any event is specific—why shall we not say, that the object, the design, the meaning, is specific?

And now, let me ask, was there ever a calamity in the world, not miraculous, which apparently possessed such a high and solemn moral significance as this pestilence? Was any design of earthly events ever more clear, specific or solemn? We saw an evil, the most insidious and deadly, entering the world by a thousand avenues, and gaining a strength unknown to former ages, by the modern improvements, if improvements we must call them, in the processes of distillation. We saw the produce of the ten thousand harvest-fields wrought, from all wholesome uses, into an intoxicating and destroying poison. We heard the voice of wailing, and lamentation and despair, from ten times ten thousand dwellings; and we asked, with many others, what can stay the progress of this horrible evil? What is to save the world? What is to leave in the world, any innocent father, mother, sister, friend, not utterly broken-hearted? And now, at this very crisis, when good men had begun to be alarmed, indeed, but when the good were more alarmed than the bad were reformed—at this very crisis, there appears in the world, a disease unknown to former times, and it appears as the grand antagonist power to the monster. Intemperance. It strikes as its foremost victims the votaries of strong drink; and to them, its blow, though all others, or nearly all, with prudence may escape—to them its blow is almost inevitable death!

If this be not providence, what is a providence? If this be not a voice from heaven, by what tokens shall we know such a voice? If all the pains and penalties that follow vice, are held, in all creeds but that of the atheist, to be the remedial and disciplinary processes of the Supreme wisdom; if those specific diseases, which set their mark and brand upon particular vices, are justly to be regarded as possessing, in a more striking degree, the same admonitory character, what less shall we think of a visitation like this unprecedented pestilence? If a new species of brain-fever were to appear in the world, and if it made gamesters its principal victims, what more specific and solemn moral would it hold out, than is to be found in this plague of the cholera?

It is true, indeed, that the desire, natural to the reflecting mind, of finding reasons for things, and of finding reasonableness, intelligence and wisdom, in the whole surrounding scene of life, may have carried us too far. It is true, too, that this is one of the subjects that comes not within the range of demonstrative, but only of moral evidence. I do not say that I know that this is a special visitation, designed to check a particular vice; and, on the other hand, no man can say that he knows, it is not. I can only say, that my mind leans to this view of the subject. I firmly believe that if there had been no intemperance in the world, this pestilence would not have been in the world. But what do I say? I had thought that I was arguing, and I find that I am stating a simple fact. Certainly there would have been no such pestilence in the world; there might have been such a disease, and it might have prevailed like other diseases—but there would have been no such pestilence in the world, if it had not been for intemperance. Intemperance is its very haunt, its resort, its prey—that without which, it would have no place on earth—that without which it could not live. Intemperance has occasioned it, created it, called it into being. Has it not? What means, then, the language of every medical report and opinion on the subject? What is to be made of the sense and experience of the whole world upon this point? Why do the intemperate every where feel that it is they who are exposed, that it is they who are meant? And why are so many moderate drinkers, as the disease approaches nearer and nearer to them, setting down the untasted cup? Is it too much to say, that it was designed for the check and destruction of the vice in question?

But it may be said, that the intemperate are not its only victims. It is true, that they are only its chief, its most conspicuous victims; other suffer. But this only comports with the general order of God’s providence. The innocent are every where suffering with, and for, and through, the guilty. It may possibly be said, also, that this pestilence does not, after all, and will not, altogether, reform the world, and so will fail of the alleged end, and therefore could not have been designed for that end. The general answer to both these objections, is the same. God’s providence over the mind, is adapted to the mind; does not compel it, or overwhelm it with flagrant and instantaneous results, but appears to its reason, elicits its powers, respects its freedom, deals with it by influences that are gentle and persuasive, and not coercive and irresistible. Whether the world will be reformed or not—it is warned—and this is the material point for us to establish. It is all the less likely to be reformed, till it feels that it is warned.

It is for this reason that I am concerned to urge the doctrine of a providence, in relation to this stupendous and wide-spreading calamity: for indeed the facts without the doctrine, are sufficient for my main purpose. And so eminently providential does it appear, that it might not be difficult for us to persuade ourselves, that it was designed to teach and explain this great doctrine of a providence to the generation of the thoughtless, the negligent, and skeptical. Let us, then, dwell a moment longer upon this point, to illustrate this use, if not design, of the affliction that is sent upon us.

The difficulty sometimes found with the doctrine of a providence, is, that it is held to be special, that it recognizes the efficacy of prayer, that it is believed to interpose at the call of human weakness, and distress, and penitence. It is the interposition of providence that is by some doubted.

But let it be supposed that the world were to be reformed from the vice of intemperance, and then, the cholera—that peculiar disease which is now prevailing—would cease. It would cease, because it would no longer find victims. The very element which supports it, would be taken away. On what condition, then, would it cease? The answer is, on the very condition of repentance. It would cease at the voice of humiliation and prayer; at the voice of a sorrowing and reformed people. Here, then, in a general view, is the efficacy of prayer, and here is the doctrine of a providence.

And why may we not go farther? Why may we not go beyond the general view? Why should it be thought “a thing incredible” with us, that he who inflicts the blow, should, with an interposing hand, suspend it, when its purpose is answered? It is here, perhaps, that the difficulty about a providence presses hardest. Are not the operations of nature, it may be said—are not the laws that govern the elements, uniform? I answer, we do not know that they are. What saith the visitation of this calamity? It reminds us how wide a theatre there is, for the operations of the overruling hand—how vast a region, before which the vail is lifted up, that none can penetrate. Where is the origin of this dread pestilence? Where are its dark magazines, out of which swift destruction cometh? Where is the secret of its presence, and the hiding of its power? Wisdom is baffled in the iniquity, and experience is but a blind guide. Whether it is in the heaven, or in the earth, or in the waters under the earth, it is questioned, and it is questioned in vain. Whether it is in the atmosphere, or in the human system—whether it is contagious, or infectious, or epidemic, or local, the understanding of the learned has not found out, and the wisdom of the wise has not decided. It has travelled through the world: the eyes of millions have been eagerly bent upon it; the voices of every language, have invoked from it, its dark secret; the seers of every healing art, from the Ganges to the Atlantic shore, have sought for the interpretation of its fearful signs—and still it is shrouded in impenetrable mystery. The object is clear; it is proclaimed as with the voice of a trumpet; all else is darkness and silence. Where the bolt strikes, we can see; we see who are its foremost victims; but the bosom of the black cloud, as it rolls onward, no eye has penetrated.

Let no man tell me, that in the bosom of that black cloud, there is no might, or mystery, beyond the reach and measure of his understanding,—no space for the secret work of God,—for the operations of an inscrutable and interposing providence. Let no man tell me, that he who rides on the whirlwind, and directs the storm, is bound by the chains of any fate or necessity. He doth his pleasure amidst the armies of heaven, amidst the thrones and powers of the firmament, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can say unto him, what doest thou? None can know what he doeth, or may dare to say what he doeth not; what is interposition, or what is not interposition; how far the overruling hand is stretched out, or where it is stayed; what chord in the mighty system of things it toucheth, or what hidden spring it doth unlock; what it bindeth that shall not be loosed, or looses, that shall not be bound.

But the skeptic will perhaps say, in fine, that man is a creature too insignificant to be the object of such attention and care, as we allege; that the Being who sits enthroned above the heavens, and governs millions of worlds, will not stoop to regard a thing so inconsiderable and indifferent as this dweller in the dust. But look at this being, when struggling as a victim in the grasp of the fell destroyer. If it were the lot of man, to drop from the course of life like an animal, a mere inert lump of clay, we might think differently. But what is the death of a man? What is it when it comes in the form of this disease, held to be so terrible? It is not any frightful paroxysm of pain, which makes that hour so awful; it is not the gathering mist that settles upon the closing eye-lids, that makes it so dark; it is not convulsion, and gasping for breath, and the mortal strife, that gives such intensity to every thought and feeling; but it is parting from the thousand ties that bind the heart to life; it is the solemn vision of eternity opening upon the soul; it is that intense spiritual consciousness that seems to concentrate all that is solemn and sublime in the universe, upon that dread moment; it is an element mightier than any earthly power, that imparts such grandeur to the death-bed scene; it is a portion of the Divinity, that is holding conflict with disease, and pain, and sorrow, and death. Will not God regard it, in its great and perilous hour? Can he hold that which was made in his own image, as too mean for his interposition or disposal? Can we believe that thousands and millions in the world, are dying under the stroke of this one peculiar and extraordinary infliction, and that there is no providence and no meaning in all this?

II. But if there is a meaning in this, what is it? If there is a providence, what does it teach? What do facts teach, let the doctrine be what it may? ¹

The answer to this question, has been necessarily implied in the previous discussion; but we should be totally wanting to the occasion that has assembled us together, if we did not give it our direct and separate attention. I say, then, that that which providence teaches, that which facts teach the world in this great calamity, is a lesson of temperance. The calamity itself, as I think, naturally leads us to recognize a providence, and a special and interposing providence. But providence, if there be any in this matter, has an end. That end, if there be an end, must be, I repeat, to teach the world a lesson of temperance.

Will it not teach this? Will not increased temperance be the effect? And if it will, why should we not say, that it was intended to be the effect? But will it not, I repeat? Suppose the cholera were to remain ten years in this country, or in Europe: there is no reason to expect its speedy disappearance—it has already returned to some of the cities in Europe—it has been a long period in Asia: if, I say, the cholera were to remain ten years among us; if for that length of time it should hover in the air, ready to stoop with its deadly talons upon any dissolute city, or village, or individual, can it be doubted that by such an agency, the work of reform would be carried on with a success and effect, beyond all former example? Can it be doubted, that ten years, with the sword hanging over every man’s head, would make us comparatively a temperate people? How many is this single Summer’s experience showing, that they can live without spirituous drinks, and that they are altogether better without them! “When thy judgments are in the earth,” saith the Prophet, and surely when such judgments are in the earth, “the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”

And if they are to learn righteousness, or if this going forth of the pestilence is fitted to teach them, then I am prepared to take another step, and to say, that it is a beneficent visitation. If you doubt whether your ears hear me rightly, I repeat it, and say it is a beneficent visitation. I confess that I do no not partake of the unmixed and supreme horror, which many feel at this disease. There is another calamity, another curse, which, as I believe, it is designed to remove, and which impresses me with greater horror. The Cholera, I am firmly persuaded, will prevent more suffering than it will occasion. The woes of unrestricted intemperance in this country for ten years would be far greater than the woes of a ten years’ plague. I cannot pray, therefore, without the most careful qualification, and the most guarded submission, that this pestilence should depart from our borders. I dare not say, it is best for us that it should depart. I dare not absolutely pray for the removal of this disease, any more than for the removal of many other diseases. I see clearly that the world would sink at once into the ruins of sensual indulgence, if no pain or sickness followed excess. I see that to indulgence, disease, of some kind or other, is the antagonist power. I now see indulgence of one particular species, rising to a most alarming height; and I see a disease breaking out at the same time to counteract it. This, to my apprehension, is the method which Providence has adopted for teaching the lesson of temperance. Say that this pestilence is developed by intemperance itself, or say that its causes, not of any new creation, have always lain hidden in the bosom of the elements; or say that it is the result of general laws; still it is none the less the teaching of Providence. And I dare not absolutely ask that the teaching should be suspended till the lesson is learnt. Though the discipline be costly and dear, I dare not ask it. I know that it is taking from us the lives of some valuable and beloved citizens, but I do not esteem even their lives too precious a sacrifice for the salvation of the land. I see the innocent, indeed, dying for the guilty; but I see in this, only the usual order of God’s providence; I see, indeed, the order of his grace; I see, as it were, Jesus again in his members, dying for the world.

The horrors of the Cholera, I must be allowed to repeat, are not the greatest horrors that are to be found in the abodes of the civilized world. The convulsions of this disease are not, in my eyes, so horrible as the paroxysm of drunkenness—the rioting of its merriment, or the writhing’s of its fury. The delirium of sickness is not so dreadful as the madness of the inebriate man. The dreaded “collapse” presents not a picture so dreadful as the poor wretch who lies by the wayside; no waiting friends or sympathizing kindred around him; senseless to the passing jest or buffet; no longer a human being, but the ghastly ruins of what was once human. And a brief sickness and a speedy death carry no such agony to the bosom of a family as ten, or twenty, or thirty years of dissoluteness in it; no, nor as one year’s woe and shame of intemperance, in one of its before cherished and beloved members. Nor doth the land mourn, nor ever can it mourn for a pestilence, nor is its substance wasted, nor are all its laws and safeguards sapped and undermined, though all the plagues of Egypt fall upon it—no, there is no such peril to any people in all this, as there is in the poisoned fountains of intoxication that are now deluging the world—there is no such sorrow, as the sorrow of millions by their desolate hearths, made desolate by this accursed indulgence; there is no such “cup of trembling” and of “wrath poured out without mixture,” as the horrible cup of excess!

It is impossible not to observe in this connection, that this judgment of Providence on the people at large, is especially a voice of admonition, a call for reform, to cities and populous places. It has always been found that in proportion as men congregate together, and wealth increases in the hands of some, and poverty presses hard upon others, that the vices shoot up into monstrous and fearful luxuriance. The most splendid advantages, the brightest gifts of heaven as they seem at least to most men, are here set in glaring and mournful contrast with the most awful abuses of them. It is here too perhaps, that the noblest virtues are developed and formed; but the powers of good in these circumstances have hitherto held but a feeble and doubtful conflict with the powers of evil; they have not, indeed, been put forth; and Christian men and women in our cities, are yet, perhaps, to learn the measure and the methods of their duty.

It would be dullness, worse than ingratitude, and more inexcusable, not to refer in this view to the noble efforts for teaching the poor and rescuing the vicious, which are now making by a Christian ministry devoted to those objects, in the metropolis of our own State—efforts, which it is hoped will in process of time, present to the world, the model of a Christian City. ² This Ministry for the poor in cities, like the Sunday School, and the improved Prison Discipline, and the Bethel Churches, I regard as one of the great moral discoveries of the age. Physical causes, I trust, are also to lend their aid. It seems to me, not an extravagant anticipation, that the astonishing improvements about to be introduced in the facilities for carriage and passage,—the railroads, I mean—will have the effect to prevent the enormous growth of cities, to send their inhabitants abroad to build beautiful and delightful abodes in the country, and will thus tend to break up those hot beds of vice, those congregated masses of filth and misery which are now found in them. Meanwhile this pestilence is doing its work—its work of mercy as well as of judgment—its work of physical as well as moral purification. It would be scarcely too much to say, that the cleansing of our cities and villages, especially if it may be a precedent for future years, will save more lives, than the cholera will destroy.

Will there not be a moral cleansing, also? Will not this judgment of the Most High, strike a salutary dread into the scenes of drunkenness, debauchery, and Sabbath-breaking—and of that horrible filthiness which is itself a heinous sin? Is not that very point—the mass of evil in cities—that wickedness in high places, to which, all of the earth, the philanthropist and Christian have looked with the greatest despondency,—is it not to have light poured in upon it—the light of inquiry and of hope? Are not the miseries of those ten thousand thronged abodes, which it makes the heart ache to think of—are they not to be relieved? Is not that pestilential atmosphere of contagious vice, forever hanging over the cities and crowded villages of the world, and every year drawing millions from the healthful airs of a simple and rural life, to breathe it and die—is it not, at length, to be purified? Is not this fearful stroke of the lightning from heaven, to break the heavy and thick and settled cloud, beneath which such iniquities and abominations have been done for ages? When, ye children of darkness and vice and vileness! Will ye hear? Hath not trembling and death come into your habitations? Hath not horror taken hold of your hearts? When, till the judgment-hour break upon you, will ye listen to the voice of God?

I feel, too, that this visitation ought to speak to men in power, to the rulers of the earth, and to those, who, by their influence, reign in society. Why are those masses of vice, and filth, and famine, and bodily prostration, where the cholera finds its haunt, suffered to exist? It is, in part, because great men, aye, and good men, have failed to do their duty.—Much of this prostration, physical and moral, is to be referred, ultimately, to political oppression, to arbitrary distinctions in society, to cruel and unjust laws, and to proud self-complacency and selfishness, “passing by, on the other side.” In Asia, helpless millions have been swept away, the victims of grinding tyranny and of unparalleled social abuses. Such victims are to be found in Europe, too; nor are they wanting in America! When, let me ask then—ye great ones of the earth, and ye good men! When will ye hear? When will the whole power of the world, political and moral, arise to do good, and to heal the wounds of society, and to build up the fallen fortunes of afflicted humanity!

No, I am not indifferent to the fate of the unhappy victims of this visitation, hurried as they are by thousands to an untimely grave, and to a sudden and unlooked-for judgment. Who, with a Christian’s heart, will not mourn for them, as well as for the evil that they have inflicted upon the world? And yet, what can I say to them, or to the partakers of their guilt—what can I say, more or less than this? “You have been reasoned with, pleaded with, besought, warned, by every voice of tenderness and by every voice of terror, that God has given to man, or to woman, to utter, and it has been all in vain. You have resisted the outstretched hands of affection, and the pleading eye, and the breaking heart. You have trampled upon the dearest interests of society, as if it were without remorse. You have trampled upon all the admonitions of God’s word and providence, as if it were, without fear. You have trodden under foot all the agonizing remonstrances of your own hearts and consciences, as if they were but fit to pave your way to the resorts and haunts of indulgence. Would to God, that all this land not been in vain; but it has been in vain. It has been all in vain! You would not hear. You would not relent. You would not give up the deadly draught that bereaved you of every thing to respect, and of every thing to love. The child, the wife, the friend, have asked permission but to respect, but to love you; and you have hardened yourself against appeals, that might have broken—Oh! They might have broken, a heart of stone.” What they shall we say? Must we say and think, that it is hard, very hard that this additional, this last dread infliction, has come upon the victims of excess,—that this bolt has fallen, as it were, direct from heaven, to dash the guilty cup from their hands? God Almighty give them grace to be wise in the day of his rebuke! We dare not prescribe the term of this, to the vicious, tremendous day. May it be shortened, we are ready to say; yet we dare not ask that it may be shortened, but through the intervention of repentance, at the instance of a humbled and reformed people!

This, my friends, is the only escape, of which we can feel any assurance, or ought to feel any very strong desire. This pestilence has a moral mission to fulfill; its fulfillment is the only pledge for its termination. No services, no offerings to God, coming short of this, can promise us any relief. No wall of prayers is to be built up, to keep out this dreaded disease; no mere solemnities of fasting and humiliation, will disinfect the atmosphere; nothing, within our knowledge, but removing the cause, will remove the curse.

One more word, and I will relieve your attention from the unusual task, which I have ventured, at this time, to lay upon it.

What is it, then, I ask, which imparts to the pestilence, whose ravages have been the occasion of setting apart this day of solemn prayer and humiliation,—what imparts to this pestilence, I say, its peculiar horror? And, I answer, it is the terrible speed with which it does its work. It is not that its victims, according to present appearances, are likely to be more numerous than sometimes are the victims of a prevailing influenza, or of a malignant fever; not more numerous, than are, every year, the victims of consumption. It is, that death has been brought near to many minds, as it never was before. The impression has been made upon them, in a character and with an emphasis altogether new, that they might, indeed, die suddenly; that their moral account with this life, might be made up, and settled, and sealed forever, in a few brief hours; that although to-day in the midst of life, to-day walking in the same negligent course as for years before, to-day unprepared to die,—yet that to-morrow’s rising sun might behold them dead, and its parting ray might shine around the grave, that had closed upon them forever.

It is, my brethren, a most solemn and monitory conviction. This pestilence has created an era, I believe, in many of our minds, from which a new spiritual life ought to be dated. We have erred in this matter; we have erred in regard to the strict account, which we have to give, of life. We have been misled, with the negligent world, into the irrational, the absurd idea, that we may lie in sin, and yet die in safety; that we may live without religion, and yet die with it; that we may at last find some gracious dispensation from the law that is to “render to every man according to his living deeds.” We have vaguely and vainly imagined, with multitudes in the same delusion, that our sickness may, at length, do, what our health will not; that the last feeble pulses of life, may be strong enough to turn back the mighty current of tastes, and affections, and habits, that for years has been flowing on with accumulated power.

This is one of the grand ruining delusions of the world. “It is not this day,” men are perpetually saying, and still with every successive period of life they are saying, forever saying, “it is not this day, it is not this year, on which I can venture the decision of the great question for eternity; by and bye,” is the secret thought of thousands of hearts, “by and bye, amidst the days of sickness and sorrow, or of old age, I will prepare for heaven.” Let this solemn visitation of God, let this voice of the pestilence, break up forever that tremendous delusion. It speaks not only to the heinous transgressor, but scarcely less awfully to the careless neglector of his duty. It is in his heart, a voice of weighty admonition. What meaneth,—if it means not this—what meaneth that fear, curdling the very heart’s blood,—the fear of smiting disease and sudden death? Yes, its meaning is moral. It is not a mere dread of pain, or of parting with life. It is a fear, breathed in the deeper recesses of the soul. It is a voice, that speaks of duties neglected, of sins indulged; of the soul, unprepared for death. That very fear, that very voice, believe me, shall yet give witness at the bar of judgment: for us, or against us,—to proclaim our fidelity, or our neglect,—to declare that we have listened to the voice of God’s judgments, or have hardened ourselves in the day of his rebuke. But let me not close with the words of this last dreadful alternative upon my lips. Let us hope better things, and things that pertain to salvation. Let us give all earnestness, to meditation, and watchfulness, and humble prayer, that we may be found faithful to all the teachings of God’s wisdom, and all the tokens of God’s will!

Endnotes

1. Our doctrine does not, and that for obvious reasons, contradict the text, Luke xiii. 1-5.

2. Rev. Dr. Tuckerman’s Reports, Boston.

* Originally posted: December 24, 2016.

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