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or'1'Dorr.ton's Puluit of the UevoLution".
PREFACE.
THE true alliance between Politics and Eeligion is the
lesson inculcated in this volume of Sermons, and apparent in
its title, " THE PULPIT OF THE REVOLUTION." It is the voice
of the Fathers of the Republic, enforced by their example.
They invoked God in their civil assemblies, called upon their
chosen teachers of religion for counsel from the Bible, and
recognized its precepts as the law of their public conduct.
The Fathers did not divorce politics and religion, but they
denounced the separation as ungodly. They prepared for the
struggle, and went into battle, not as soldiers of fortune, but,
like Cromwell and the soldiers of the Commonwealth, with the
Word of God in their hearts, and trusting in him. This was
the secret of that moral energy which sustained the Republic
in its material weakness against superior numbers, and disci
pline, and all the power of England. To these Sermons — the
responses from the Pulpit — the State affixed its imprimatur,
and thus they were handed down to future generations with
a two-fold claim to respect.
The Union of the colonies was a condition precedent to
American Nationality. One nationality, and that of a Pro
testant people, was essential to constitutional liberty in Ame
rica. If the colonies had become separate independencies at
different times, America would have but repeated the history
IV PREFACE.
of European divisions and wars. The combination and balance
of forces necessary to the grand result seems to have been cal
culated with the nicety of a formula. France, the champion of
the Papal system of intellectual and political slavery and des
potism, and England, the assertor of enlightened freedom, com
peted for the dominion of America. The red cross of St.
George shielded the brotherhood of English Protestants from
the extermination meditated by Papal France, whose military
cordon reached along our northern and western frontiers, and
thus insured to England the fealty of her Atlantic colonies, till,
" in the fulness of time," France, by the treaty of 1763, relin
quished Canada. Then the colonies, relieved from the hostile
pressure, became restless under the restraints of dependency,
and England was the only power whose strength and common
relation to them could at once endanger the liberty of all, impel
them to a league of domestic amity, and bind them in fraternal
resistance to a common enemy. But a brief contest would have
left danger of colonial disintegration ; and the stupid obstinacy
of George III. was necessary to prolong the war in order to
blend the colonists, by communion under a national flag, in
national feeling, and by general intercourse, common inter
ests, and common sufferings. So God formed the fair Temple
of American Liberty.
In his Election Sermon of 1783, republished in this volume,
President Stiles says, with sublime eloquence, that Jefferson
"POURED THE SOUL OF THE CONTINENT INTO THE MONU
MENTAL ACT OF INDEPENDENCE." The SOUL of the Revolu
tion is embodied in documents like these, rather than in the
statistics of sieges and battles, which were the fruits of their
inspiration, and, under God, the vindication of their truth.
The second Discourse in this volume is on the Repeal of the
PREFACE. V
Stamp Act. The colonists, sheltered under the flag of Eng
land, permitted her to regulate their foreign commerce ; but the
Stamp Act violated their domestic independence ; and they
showed, by custom, by equity, and by their charters from the
king, that Parliament had no jurisdiction within their terri
tories, and they refused to submit. England sent her armies
to compel submission, and the colonists appealed to Heaven.
The Stamp Act1 involved the principle in dispute for the next
eighteen years.
In his Sermon of 1750, Jonathan Mayhew declared the
Christian principles of government in the faith of which
Washington, ordained of God, won liberty for America, not
less for England, and ultimately for the world ; so that the en
graving of Mayhew and that of the Stamp fitly introduce these
Sermons of the Revolution. By the conflict with her children,
England herself was rescued from the slough of unlimited
power into which she was fast drifting under George III.
The reaction roused her from political apathy, and revived the
ancient principles of freedom. By defeating P^ngland, Amer
ica saved the liberty of both. Both governments rest upon
1 A stamp duty was a familiar tax in England. It had existed as far
back as 4th William and Mary, 1694; and the act of 1765 was simply to
"extend"2 this mode of taxing to the colonies. The engraving upon
the title-page was taken from a veritable stamp, issued under that act, and
loaned to the publishers by Mr. Samuel Foster Haven, of the American An
tiquarian Society, through Mr. Charles Emery Stevens, of Worcester,
whose valuable suggestions in the preparation of the work are also grate
fully acknowledged. The impression is on a blue, spongy paper, capable of
receiving a sharp, distinct outline, in which was imbedded a slip of lead, or
soft white metal, as indicated in the engraving. The paper is pasted on
parchment, and on the reverse is the royal cipher, " G. R." The wbrd
"America "was the only difference between the English and American
stamps. They were issued in sheets, like our postage stamps.
2 Bancroft's U. S., iv. ch. viii; Knight's England, vi. 271.
1*
VI PREFACE.
the right of revolution, and the will of the people is the con
stitutional basis of each.
On presenting his credentials as American ambassador, June
1, 1785, Mr. Adams, in his address to King George III., said :
" I shall esteem myself the happiest of men if I can be instru
mental in restoring an entire esteem, confidence, and affection ;
or, in better words, the old good-nature and the old good-hu
mor between people, who, although separated by ocean, and
under different governments, have the same language, a similar
religion, and kindred blood."1 God grant that this benign spirit
of generous brotherhood, this blessed unity of which he was
the Author, may never be imperilled by malign counsels. Now,
after three-quarters of a century, these ties of nature, stronger
than treaties, reassert their genial sway ; and the heir of the
Throne of England — the guest of the Nation — and the
President of the Republic stand reverently at the Tomb of
WASHINGTON.
i See Index, " America and England, Unity of."
BOSTON, Nov. 21, 1860.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, ........ ix
DISCOURSE I.
DR. MAYHEW'S SERMON OF JAN. 30, 1750.
UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS
— THE MYSTERY OF KING CHARLES'S SAINTSHIP AND MARTYRDOM
UNRIDDLED, 39
DISCOURSE II.
DR. CHAUNCY'S THANKSGIVING SERMON ON THE REPEAL OF
THE STAMP ACT, 1766.
THE NEWS OF THE REPEAL — REASONS FOR REJOICING AND THANKSGIV
ING — THE PROPER USE TO BE MADE OF THE "GOOD NEWS," . . 105
DISCOURSE III.
MR. COOKE'S ELECTION SERMON, 1770.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT IS FOR THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE — THE CHARACTER
OF GOOD RULERS, AND THE DUTIES OF CITIZENS, 147
DISCOURSE IV.
MR. GORDON'S THANKSGIVING SERMON, 1774.
THE CHRISTIAN DUTY OF RESISTANCE TO TYRANTS — PREPARE FOR WAR
— APPEAL TO HEAVEN, , .187
VIII CONTENTS.
DISCOURSE V.
PAGE
DR. LANGDON'S ELECTION SERMON AT WATERTOWN, 1775.
THE RIGHT OP SELF-GOVERNMENT IS FROM GOD — THE DIVINE RIGHT OF
KINGS EXPLODED, 227
DISCOURSE VI.
MR, WEST'S ELECTION SERMON, 1776.
THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT — THE MAGISTRATE'S AUTHORITY
— ARBITRARY POWER SUBVERSIVE OF THE DESIGN OF CIVIL POLITY —
OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL OF GOD, . .259
DISCOURSE VII.
MR. PAYSON'S ELECTION SERMON, 1778.
POPULAR GOVERNMENT — THE TRUE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY — REQUISITES TO
A FREE GOVERNMENT — ITS DANGERS — THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF RUL
ERS AND OF CITIZENS, . . . .' . .
DISCOURSE VIII.
MR. HOWARD'S ELECTION SERMON, 1780.
THE NECESSITY OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT TO THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND
— THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN RULERS — THE
DUTIES AND QUALIFICATIONS OF CHRISTIAN RULERS, ....
DISCOURSE IX.
DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
"THE UNITED STATES EXALTED TO GLORY AND HONOR," . . . 899
INDEX, 621
INTRODUCTION.
THIS collection of Sermons presents examples of the politico-
theological phase of the conflict for American Independence, —
a phase not peculiar to that period. Its origin was coeval
with the colonization of New England ; and a brief review of
some leading points in our history will afford the best expla
nation of its rise and development.
There is a natural and just union of religious and civil
counsels, — not that external alliance of the crosier and sword
called " Church and State," — but the philosophical and deeper
union which recognizes GOD as Supreme Ruler, and which is
illustrated in this volume of occasional Discourses and " Election
Sermons," — a title equivalent, in the right intent of the term,
to " political preaching."
There is also a historical connection, which is to be found
rather in the general current of history than in particular
instances. In this we may trace the principle, or vital cord,
which runs through our own separate annals since our fathers
came to the New World, and also marks the progress of liberty
and individual rights in England. " New England has the proud
distinction of tracing her origin to causes purely moral and
intellectual, — a fact which fixes the character of her founders
and planters as elevated and refined, — not the destroyers of
X INTRODUCTION.
cities, provinces, and empires, but the founders of civilization
in America."
The word clergie is in itself historical, meaning, in the Norman
tongue, literature. In early times, when learning was almost
exclusively with the clergy, they, by this monopoly, held almost
the whole power of church and state. We may see an illus
tration of this union of civil and ecclesiastical functions in the
Annals of the See of Bath and Wells, which yielded from its
diocesan list to the civil state of England six Lord Chancel
lors, eight Lord High Treasurers, two Lords Privy Seal, one
Master of the Rolls, one Lord President of Wales, one prin
cipal Secretary of State ; and to higher Episcopal office, five
Archbishops of Canterbury, three Archbishops of York, and,
says the annalist of the diocese, " to the Protestant Episcopal
Church, the cause of Monarchy, and of Orthodoxy, one MARTYR,
William Laud."
But, of all the names in that priestly catalogue, to ARTHUR
LAKE belongs the transcendent honor, the highest distinction ;
for it was his missionary spirit that originated the movement
which led to the colonization of Massachusetts, — an enterprise
greatly indebted for its success to the unhappy zeal of his im
mediate successor in the office of bishop, the " martyr " Laud.
As this execrable l prelate embodied the principles and spirit
of the hierarchy ; as he had a controlling agency in the settle
ment of New England, by " harrying " the Puritans out of Old
England ; and as he has ever been remembered with abhorrence
by their descendants, some of whose early Puritan "prejudices,"
not yet eradicated, may very possibly reach future generations,
mention of a characteristic act in his official life may be per-
1 For an opposite view of Archbishop Laud's character, and the principles
involved in it, read his " Life and Times," by John Lawson Parker. 2 vols. 8vo.
London : 1829.
INTRODUCTION. XI
tinent to our inquiry. It was this : Mr. Leighton, a Scotch divine,
being convicted of writing a book denouncing the severities of the
hierarchy, Bishop Laud pulled off his hat when sentence was
pronounced on the offender, and gave God thanks for the victory.
This was in the Star Chamber, and in keeping with the general
tone of proceedings which prevailed in this court, in the council,
and in the government generally, during Laud's time.
Mr. Leighton "was severely whipped; then, being set in the
pillory, his ear was cut off, his nose slit, and his cheek was branded,
with a red-hot iron, S. S., as a Sower of Sedition. On that day
week — the sores on his back, ears, nose, and face not being cured —
he was whipped again at the pillory, in Cheapside, and the remain
der of his sentence executed by cutting off his other ear, slitting
the other side of his nose, and branding his other cheek."
This man, Laud, who conceived, perpetrated, revelled in, and
recorded in his private diary these disgusting details, was by Charles
I. promoted step by step in Episcopal office, till, in 1633, three
years after the outrage on Leighton, and the next after his brutality
on Prynne, — this man was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury,
the primate of the Episcopal Church, the representative man of
the hierarchy. The New Englanders always spoke of him as " our
great enemy."
Early in the next year — 1634 — this primate, " with my Lord
Privy Seal," after an examination in council of Governor Cradock1
l Governor Mathewe Cradock, though prominent in early Massachusetts
annals, never set foot in New England. The house built on his plantation, in
what is Medford. in 1634, is yet standing, — one of the precious memorials of
early times. Brooks' History of Medford honors him as " the founder '" of the
town, and contains a picture of the house. After the removal of the colony from
Cape Ann to Salem, in 1626, under Governor Conant, some of the persevering
members of " the Dorchester Company," which had originated the enterprise
of colonizing Massachusetts, effected, with new associates, a new organization, for
continuing and expanding the colonization of New England, which was at a later
period — March 4, 1628-9— "confirmed " by charter from Charles I. Of this new
"company" Cradock was appointed the first governor, and John Endecott was
XII INTRODUCTION.
and other friends of the colonists, and of" all their correspondence"
with u the brethren "in New England, called them all " imposturous
knaves," promised u the cropping of Mr. Winthrop's ears," the loss
of the colonial charter, and a " general governor " over all the colo
nies, to do his bloody behests. "If Jove vouchsafe to thunder,
the charter and the kingdom of the separatists will fall asunder,"
and so end "King Winthrop, with all his inventions, and his
Amsterdam and fantastical ordinances, his preachings, marriages,
and other abusive ceremonies, which exemplify his detestation of
the Church of England, and contempt of his Majesty's authority
and wholesome laws"! Winthrop's ears were not cropped, and
Laud became a — "martyr"!
From such a gospel the New England Puritans fled; and in
the celebrated pulpit at Saint Paul's Cross, in London, its clergy
preached often and bitterly against the New England colonies
and planters, especially Massachusetts, who, by limiting their
franchise to members of their own communion, kept out of political
power those enemies1 who followed them hither, and who would
have overturned the Commonwealth, — which some attempted,
as in the case of Child, Vassal, the infamous Maverick, and others.
When the Colony became a State, with an educated people, the
bars were let down, and suffrage was extended.
the first, if not the only, governor of the colony under this charter. — Massachu
setts Col. Ilec., "The Landing at Cape Ann," and authorities there cited. See
note 1, p. xxiii.
l In the admirable state paper from Massachusetts Bay to the Parliament, in
1651, they say: " We, . . being men able enough to live in England with our
neighbours, and being helpfull to others, and not needing the help of any for
outward thinges, about three or four and twenty years since, seeing.just cause to
feare the persecution of the then bishops and high commission, for not conform
ing to the ceremonies then pressed upon the consciences of those under their
power, we thought it our safest course to get outside of the world, out of their
view, and beyond their reach, .... coming hither at our proper charges
without the help of the State, . . . having expended, first and last, . . . .
divers hundreds of thousands pounds."
INTRODUCTION. XIII
It was well said in Stoughton's Election Sermon, preached in
1668, that " God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice
grain over into this wilderness." ..." They were men of great
renown in the nation from whence the Laudian persecution exiled
them ; their learning, their holiness, their gravity, struck all men
that knew them with admiration. They were Timothies in their
houses, Chrysostoms in their pulpits, Augustines in their disputa
tions." Indeed, this exodus of so many of the choicest of England's
educated and Christian sons, consequent upon this fanaticism for the
church, — not religion, — alarmed the sober-minded. We find an
expression of this in the anecdote of the vice-chancellor's strenuous
exception to printing the two lines in Herbert's " Temple," —
" Religion stands a-tiptoe in our land,
Heady to pass to the American strand," —
when they requested his imprimatur for that poem ; and his reluctant
assent was given with the " hope that the world would not take
Herbert for an inspired prophet." This was in 1633. Towards
the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the judicious Hooker defined
the " clergy as a state" — or order of men — " whereunto the rest
of God's people must be subject, as touching" — only — "things
that appertain to their soul's health." This was a great advance in
the right ; but the leaven of Puritanism had then been some time
fermenting in England, and many of the churchmen now chal
lenged this claim of the priesthood.
A late able writer x sums up clearly " the points upon which the
Puritan clergy and their lords were at issue. In substance the pre
lates claimed that every word, ceremony, and article, written in the
Book of Common Prayer, and in the Book of Ordination, was as
faultless and as binding as the Book of God, and must be acknowl-
1 Hopkins, " Puritanism and Queen Elizabeth," vol. ii. p. 369.
2
XIV INTRODUCTION.
edged as such. The Puritans dared not say it. The prelates
claimed to themselves — or, more modestly, to the church which
they personified — an infallibility of judgment in all things pertain
ing to religion. The Puritans denied the claim. The prelates
claimed obedience; the Puritans, manhood; the prelates, spiritual
lordship ; the Puritans, Christian liberty." And these preposter
ous claims of the prelates rested upon acts of Parliament !
The quarrel was in the church. Some of these Puritans fled to
New England. They came hither protesting against these prelatical
assumptions, and were really a church rather than a state. Separa
tion from the Church of England was at first viewed by those of
Massachusetts with repugnance; but it was facilitated by a quasi
adoption of a very mild type of the Genevan or Presbyterian
polity, the validity of whose ordination had been repeatedly recog
nized by the hierarchy, and also declared by Act of Parliament,
13th Elizabeth ; the very same authority which created the " Estab
lished" Church, and tinkered its " infallibility" to suit the changing
times. But soon " they read this clearly," as did Oliver Cromwell,
John Milton, and John Cotton, that
" New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ large."
As they were already imbued with the spirit, they gradually adopted
the principles of Independency, — absolute democracy, — essen
tially as held and taught by their Plymouth brethren. This was the
legitimate result of the Reformation, and it was distinctly conceded
to be such by one of Hooker's ablest scholars, George Cranmer.
In a letter to his teacher, he said : " If the positions of the Reform
ers be true, I cannot see how the main and general conclusions of
Brownism " — Independency — " should be false." * That great man,
Sir James Mackintosh, incidentally renders them a noble tribute, in
1 In the Appendix to Izaak Walton's Life of Mr. Richard Hooker.
INTRODUCTION. XV
his admirable article on the philosophical genius of Bacon and
Locke. Mr. Locke was admitted to Christ Church College in 1651,
when Dr. Owen, the Independent, was Dean, — the same who was
thought of for the presidency of Harvard College. " Educated,"
says Sir James, " among the English Dissenters, during the short
period of their political ascendency, he early imbibed the deep
piety and ardent spirit of liberty wliicli actuated that body of men ;
and he probably imbibed also, in their schools, the disposition to
metaphysical inquiries which has everywhere accompanied the Cal-
vinistic theology. Sects, founded on the right of private judgment,
naturally tend to purify themselves from intolerance, and in time
to learn to respect in others the freedom of thought to the exercise
of which they owe their own existence. By the Independent di
vines, who were his instructors, our philosopher was taught those
principles of religious liberty which they were the first to disclose to the
world."
Such was the origin of New England ; such the men who founded
it. Religion, the church, was the great thought, and civil interests
were only incidental. This is not only evident in our history, as
already narrated, but it is distinctly avowed and reiterated in the
writings of the fathers of New England from the very beginning.
Thus Rojrer Con ant, the first Governor of Massachusetts Colony,
suggested to the Rev. John White, of Dorchester, that it might be a
refuge from the coming storm " on account of religion." l Protes
tantism seemed to be in great danger on the Continent and in Eng
land, where the king, court, and many of the hierarchy -were more
than suspected of sympathy with Popery. Mr. White conferred
with Bishop Lake, who favored the suggestion, especially as an
opportunity for Christian missions among the Indians, and entered
l History of New England, Edit. 1848, p. 107, by Hubbard, who, no doubt, had
the facts from Governor Couant himself, who lived at Beverly, near Ipswich,
Hubbard's residence.
XVI INTRODUCTION.
into it with such zeal as to say to Mr. AVhite that " he would go
himself but for his age."1
This most Christian bishop availed himself of an early and prov
idential opportunity to speak, with apostolic earnestness, on the
national neglect and duty in this matter. On the second of July,
1625, he " preached in Westminster, before his Majestic, the Lords,
and others of the Upper House of Parliament, at the opening of
the Fast,"2 which had been ordered throughout the kingdom, on
petition of the Puritan Parliament. It was on account of the pub
lic calamities, civil and religious. He spoke with great plainness.
" There is," he said, " a kind of metaphysical locusts and caterpillars,
— locusts that come out of the bottomless pit, — I mean popish priests
and Jesuits, — and caterpillars of the Commonwealth, projectors and
inventors of new tricks" — well known to the king and others who
listened to these words — "• how to exhaust the purses of the sub
jects, covering private ends with public pretences ; ... in
well-governed states they were wont to be called Pestes Reipublicce,
Plagues of the Commonwealth." Near the close of his sermon, the
preacher said : " Neither is it enough for us to make much of God's
truth for our own good, but also we should propagate it to others.
And here let me tell you, that there lieth a great guilt upon
Christian states, and England among the rest, that they have not
been careful to bring them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death to the knowledge of Christ and participation of the gos-
1 The anecdote seems to come direct from the lips of Mr. White to Mr. Hugh
Peter,- who records it in his autobiography, — " Last Legacy to his Daugh
ter," Boston, Ed. 1717, p. 77, — and says, "That good man, my dear firm friend,
Mr. White, of Dorchester, and Bishop Lake, occasioned, yea, founded that
work;" i. e., Massachusetts Colony. It is a curious fact, that part of Archbishop
Laud's library came into the possession of Mr. Peter, who intended to send it
to New England. There is an interesting reference to Mr. White and Mr. Peter
in Governor Ciadock's letter to Governor Endecott. Mass. Records, i. 384.
2 " Svndrie Sermons de tempore, by Arthur Lake, D. of Diuinitie, Lord Bishop
of Bath and Welles," London, 1629: folios 200—220.
INTRODUCTION. XVII
pel. Much travelling to the Indies, East and West, but wherefor ?
Some go to possess themselves of the lands of the infidels, but
most, by commerce, to grow richer by their goods. But where
is the prince or state that pitieth their souls, and, without any
worldly respects, endeavours the gaining of them unto God ? Some
show we make, but it is a poor one ; for it is but an accessorie to
our worldly desire ; it is not our primary intention ; whereas Christ's
method is, first seek ye the kingdom of God, and then all other things
shall be added unto yon ; you shall fare the better for it in your
worldly estate. If the apostles and apostolic men had affected our
salvation no more, we might have continued to this day such as
sometimes we were, barbarous subjects of the Prince of Darkness."
In exact accordance with these teachings, the king and colonists
declared " the principal ende of this plantation" of Massachusetts
to be, " to win and incite the natives of the country to the knowl
edge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind,
and the Christian faith ; " and to complete the moral unity of the
bishop's missionary sermon, and the designs of our fathers, we par
allel with his anathema against the Papacy the first of their " gen
eral considerations for the plantation in New England," which was
in these words : " It will be a service to the church, of great conse
quence, to carry the gospell into those parts of the world, and to
raise a bulwarke against the kingdom of antichrist, which the Jesuits1
labor to rear up in all places of the world."
When the "governor and companie" — that branch of the
Massachusetts government which, under the charter, had its legal
residence in England — were about emigrating to the colony, they
issued a manifesto, April 7, 1630, declaring themselves to be a
1 " The Jesuits," wrote John Cotton, in 1647, " have professed to some of our
merchants and marriners, they look at our plantations (and at some of us by
name) as dangerous supplanters of the Catholick cause " in America, especially in
Canada.
2*
XVIII INTRODUCTION.
CHURCH, " a weake colonie from their brethren in and of the Cliurcli
of England," as " the Church of Philippi was a colony of the
church at Rome." The Rev. John Norton, in the Election Sermon
of 1661, said that they came "into this wilderness to live under the
order of the gospel ; " " that our polity may be a gospel polity, and
may be compleat according to the Scriptures, answering fully the
Word of God: this is the work of our generation, and the very
work we engaged for into this wilderness ; this is the scope and
end of it, that which is written upon the forehead of New England,
viz., the compleat walking in the faith of the gospel, according to
the order of the gospel."
The venerable Higginson, of Salem, in his Election Sermon of
1663, stated the point with great fulness, as follows : u It concerneth
New England always to remember that they are originally a
plantation religious, not a plantation of trade. The profession of
the purity of doctrine, worship, and discipline, is written upon
her forehead. Let merchants, and such as are increasing cent,
per cent., remember this : that worldly gain was not the end and
design of the people of New England, but religion. And if any
man among us make religion as twelve, and the world as thirteen,
such an one hath not the spirit of a true New England man."
In the Election Sermon of 1677, the Rev. Dr. Increase Mather
uttered these words : " It was love to God and to Jesus Christ
which brought our fathers into this wilderness. . . . They
did not, in their coming hither, propound any great matters to
themselves respecting this world ; only that they should have
liberty to serve God, and to walk with him in all the waves of his
worship. . . . There never was a generation that did so per
fectly shake off the dust of Babylon, both as to ecclesiastical and
civil constitution, as the first generation of Christians that came
into this land for the gospel's sake."
The Rev. William Hubbard, the historian, in a Fast-day sermon,
INTRODUCTION. XIX
preached June 24, 1682, declared that the fathers "came not
hither for the world, or for land, or for traffic ; but for religion,
and for liberty of conscience in the worship of God, which was
their only design."
The historical fact was stated by President Stiles, of Yale College,
in 1 783 : u It is certain that civil dominion was but the second
motive, religion the primary one, with our ancestors, in coming
hither and settling this land. It was not so much their design to es
tablish religion for the benefit of the state, as civil government for the
benefit of religion, and as subservient, and even necessary, towards
the peaceable enjoyment and unmolested exercise of religion — of
that religion for which they fled to these ends of the earth." l
The result of all this was, a new community, voluntarily gathered
in New England, primarily for religion, organized into many
"independent" churches, each of them a petty democracy, electing
its oflicers and ministers, making its own laws, and regulating its
own affairs, so far as possible, by the system of polity indicated
with more or less distinctness in holy Scripture. Out of this
condition of things the state was gradually developed. Here was
individualism, — an admirable system for making good full-blooded
Puritan citizens, but very poor and unmanageable subjects. So
George III. and George Grenville, " The Gentle Shepherd," found
it in 1763 and afterward.
By the change, the clergy could retain no authority, but their
influence was probably increased. They had " great power in
the people's hearts," says Winthrop. Religion predominated over
all other interests.
" As near the law of God as. they can " be, was the instruction
of the General Court to their committee of laity and ministry, ap-
l This very exact statement of fact explains the exclusive policy of the early
legislation. It was at that time absolutely necessary to sell-preservation against
the plottings of the hierarchy, to confine the privilege of franchise to their
known friends.
XX INTRODUCTION.
pointed to frame laws for the Commonwealth. Their first l written
code, under the charter of 1629, was drawn by a minister. Rev.
Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, Hugh Peter, and Thomas Welde, min
isters, were the colonial agents from Massachusetts to the mother
country in 1641, to aid "m furthering the work of the reformation
of the churches there" and in relation to our colonial affairs ; but
"some reasons were alleged" — though ineffectually — "that offi
cers should not be taken from their churches for civil occasions."
This was coincident, in time and spirit, with the exclusion of
the bishops from Parliament, which, says Hallam, was the latest
concession that the king made before his final appeal to arms at
the battle of Edgehill, October 23, 1642. Sir Edward Verney, who
was there killed, declared his reluctance to fight for the bishops,
ichose cause he took it to be.
The name of Hugh Peter reminds us that New England shared
in the English revolution of 1640; sent preachers and soldiers,
aid and comfort, to Cromwell; gave an asylum to the tyrannicides,
Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell; reaffirmed the same maxims of
liberty in the revolution of 1688, and so stood right on the record
for the third revolution of 1776.
Hutchinson says that the Rev. John Cotton was supposed to have
been more instrumental in the settlement of their civil as well as
ecclesiastical polity than any other man. He too, the representa
tive man of New England, was, as could not be otherwise expected,
remembering his life, a sound " Commonwealth's " man. To him,
"Pastor of the Church at Boston, in New England," Cromwell
wrote,2 in a letter from London, 2d October, 1651: . . . "I
received yours a few days since. It was welcome to me because
1 Rev. Dr. Felt (Ecclesiastical History, vol. i p 166) shows that laws had been
enacted, under Governor Endecott's administration, prior to the transfer of the
" companie " to the colon}' in 1629.
2 Carlyle's Cromwell, Letter cxxv., and Harris's Lives, iii. 518, where the letter
was first published. Cotton's letter is in Hutchinson's Coll. 233.
INTRODUCTION. XXI
signed by you, whom I love and honor in the Lord; but more
to see some of the same grounds of our acting stirring in you that
are in us, to quiet us in our work, and support us therein"
Here we cannot but stop for a moment by the way to notice a
beautiful and significant incident, of recent date, which must
excite delight, if not exultation. It is this : The very Episcopal au
thorities which silenced the voice of Cotton within the venerable walls
of Boston Church, in Lincolnshire, in England, and banished him and
his Puritan brethren, after the lapse of two centuries invited us, the
descendants of those exiles, to join with them in brotherly union
to render distinguished honors to his memory. The u Founder's
Chapel " of the noble church, beautifully renovated, was reopened
as " Cotton Chapel," and in the eastern arch was set a large, highly
ornamented memorial tablet of brass, bearing an inscription in
Latin, from the classical pen of Mr. Everett ; in English, as follows :
In perpetual remembrance of
JOHN COTTON,
Who, during the reigns of James and Charles,
Was for many years a grave, skilful, learned, and
laborious Vicar of this Church.
Afterwards, on account of the miserable commotion
amongst sacred affairs
In his own country,
He sought a new settlement in a New World,
And remained even to the end of his life
A pastor and teacher
Of the greatest reputation and of the greatest authority
In the first church of Boston, in New England,
Which receives this venerable name
In honor of Cotton.
Ccxxv years having passed away since his migration,
His descendants and the American citizens of Boston were incited
to this pious work by their English
brethren,
In order that the name of an illustrious man,
The love and honor of both worlds,
Might not any longer be banished from that noble
temple,
In which he diligently, learnedly, and sacredly
Expounded the divine oracles for so many years;
And willingly and gratuitously caused this shrine to be restored
and this tablet to be erected,
In the year of our recovered salvation 1857.
XXII INTRODUCTION.
The American flag and the British color floated majestically from
St. Botolph's tower.1
The Bishop of Lincoln, the Bishop of London (Laud's successor),
and other clergy, took part in the proceedings of the day. The
Bishop of Lincoln preached, taking for his text the fourth chapter
of Ezra, fourth verse : "Let us build with you, for we seek your God
as ye do ; " and this reopening of St. Botolph's, as if to give more
emphasis to the occasion and the words, was his first official act
as diocesan of Lincoln.
The significance of this celebration can be best appreciated,
perhaps, by conjecturing the amazement of Archbishop Laud, and
his victim, the Rev. John Cotton, could they have witnessed the
occasion ! Each of them will be judged according to his works ;
and the world has learned wisdom by them.
To resume our point: In 1662, at the earnest solicitation of
the General Court and of the ministry, Mr. Simon Bradstreet
and Rev. John Norton went to England, as colonial agents, to se
cure the charter against their ancient foes, who had distinguished
their restoration to power by the cruel Act of Uniformity ; and
twenty-five years later, in a most important crisis, we find Massa
chusetts again represented by a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Increase
Mather, who procured the provincial charter of 1694. Indeed,
the clergy were generally consulted by the civil authorities ;
and not infrequently the suggestions from the pulpit, on election
days and other special occasions,2 were enacted into laws. The
1 Boston, Lincolnshire, England, derives its name from Mr. Botolph, or St.
Botolph, who there built a monastery in 654; and in Botolph's town the present
magnificent church, 245 by 98 feet within its walls, was built in 1309; and its
lofty tower, 300 feet in height, is named in honor of St. Botolph. Mr. Pishey
Thompson's History of Boston contains an elegant engraving and a minute
account of this venerable pile.
2 Among the causes for "fasting and humiliation," or "thanksgiving," as
they appeared upon the records, are, " to seek the Lord for his direction " —
"•' to intreat the help of God " — " for humiliation to seek the face of God " —
INTRODUCTION. XXIII
statute-book, the reflex of the age, shows this influence. The State
ivas developed out of the Church.
The annual " ELECTION SERMON " — a perpetual memorial, con
tinued down through the generations from century to century —
still bears witness that our fathers ever oegan their civil year
and its responsibilities with an appeal to Heaven, and recognized
Christian morality as the only basis of good laws.
The origin of this anniversary is to be found in the charter of
"the governor and COMPANIE of the Massachusetts Bay in New
England," which provided that " one governor, one deputy-gov
ernor, and eighteen assistants, and all other officers of the said
companie," — not of the colony1, — should be chosen in their
" novelties, oppression, atheism, excess, superfluity, idleness, contempt of author
ity, and troubles in other parts" of the world "to be remembered " — " for
the want of rain, and help of brethren in distress " — " in regard of our wants,
and the dangers of our native country" — "for God's great mercy to the
churches in Germany and the Palatinate" — " for a bountiful harvest, and for
the arrival of persons of special use and quality " — " for success and safe return
of the Pequot expedition, success of the conference at Newton, and good news
from Germany " — "sad condition of our native country." These occurred
before the year 1644. May 29th, of that year, it was " ordered, the printer shall
have leave to print the Election Sermon, with Mr. Mather's consent, and the
Artillery Sermon, with Mr. Norton's consent."
1 These were the officers of the " COMPANIE " in England ; but the charter also
provided for another government in New England — " for the formes and cere
monies of government and magistracie h'tt and necessary" in and for the " plan
tation," or colony. Thus the charter ordained two governments, — one for the
" COMPANIE " iii England, and resident there, and one in and for the COLONY in
New England, — and two such governments existed, Mathewe Cradock being
governor of the '• companie," and Endecott governor of the colony. The illegal
transfer of the government of the "companie" to New England invalidated
both governments, and rendered the colonial government, as provided for by
the charter, practically impossible. As we have seen, Eudecott was the legally
elected governor of the " plantation," and he was never legally displaced. On
the 20th of October, 1629, Cradock resigning, Winthrop succeeded him as gover
nor of the " companie," but not of the colony, for one year; and as the records
show no election after, till May 18, 1631, there was an interregnum of about seven
months, till \Vinthrop became dc facto, but not dejure, governor, — the charter
distinction between the " companie " and the " plantation " being winked out of
sight, and the two made one in fact. " The whole structure of the charter pre-
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
" general court, or assemblie," on " the last Wednesday in Easter
Terme, yearely, for the yeare ensuing."
About the year 1633, the governor and assistants began to
appoint one to preach on the day of election, and this was the first
of our " Election Sermons." In a few years, the deputies, or repre
sentatives, jealous of the power of the magistrates, challenged the
appointment as theirs ; and the magistrates, unwilling " to have any
fresh occasion of contestation with the deputies," yielded, though
some judged it " a betraying, or, at least, weakening, the power of
the magistrates, and a countenancing of an unjust usurpation.
For," says Winthrop, " the deputies could do no such act, as an act
of court, without the concurrence of the magistrates ; and out of
court they had no power at all, but only for regulating their own
body ; and it was resolved and voted at last court, according to the
elders'" — ministers' — "advice, that all occurrents" — orders —
" out of court belong to the magistrates to take care of, being the
standing council of the Commonwealth." Such were the trifles which
involved the popular character of our institutions. The occasion was
simple ; the principle was momentous. So it was when Hampden
refused to pay twenty shillings, and when our grandfathers resisted
the Stamp Act and tea duty. Governor Winthrop's critical notice
of the discourse by the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, in June
1641, is, perhaps, the earliest sketch of an " Election Sermon" now
to be found. It appears that " some of the freemen, without the
consent of the magistrates or governor, had chosen Mr. Nathaniel
Ward to preach at this court, pretending that it was a part of their
liberty. The governor (whose right, indeed, it is, — for, till the
court be assembled, the freemen are but private persons) would
supposes the residence of the company in England, and the transaction of all its
business there." The removal was an "usurpation of authority; " but of its
expediency and wisdom there can be no doubt. — Story on the Constitution, 1.
§§ 64, 65. Winthrop was not, de jure, governor, as were Conant and Endecott.
See note 1, p. xi.
INTRODUCTION. XXV
not strive about it ; for, though it did not belong to them, yet, if they
would have it, there was reason " — since it could not be helped —
" to yield it to them. Yet they had no great reason to choose him,
- though otherwise very able, — seeing he had cast off his pastor's
place at Ipswich, and was now no minister by. the received deter
mination of our churches. In his sermon he delivered many useful
things, but in a moral and political discourse, grounding his propo
sitions much upon the old Roman and Grecian governments, which
sure is an error ; for, if religion and the word of God make men
wiser than their neighbors, and these men have the advantage of all
that have gone before us in experience and observation, it is proba
ble that, by all these helps, we may better frame rules of government
for ourselves than to receive others upon the bare authority of the
wisdom, justice, etc., of those heathen commonwealths. Among
other things, he advised (he people to keep all their magistrates in an
equal rank, and not give more honor or power to one than to another,
which is easier to advise than to prove, seeing it is against the prac
tice of Israel (where some were rulers of thousands, and some but
of tens), and of all nations known or recorded. Another advice
he gave, that magistrates should not give private advice, and take
knowledge of any man's cause before it came to public hearing.
This was delated after in the general court, where some of the deputies
moved to have it ordered " and enacted into a law.
By the charter of William and Mary, October 7th, 1691, the last
Wednesday of May was established as election-day, and it remained
so till the Revolution. The important part which this institution of
the Election Sermon played at that period, and an account of its
observance, are minutely and accurately presented by the Rev.
William Gordon, of Roxbury, the contemporary historian of the
Revolution, and in a manner so pertinent to our purpose that we
give it entire.
He says that the " ministers of New England, being mostly Con-
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
gregationalists, are, from that circumstance, in a professional way,
more attached and habituated to the principles of liberty than if
they had spiritual superiors to lord it over them, and were in hopes
of possessing, in their turn, through the gift of government, the seat
of power. They oppose arbitrary rule in civil concerns from the
love of freedom, as well as from a desire of guarding against its
introduction into religious matters. The patriots, for years back,
have availed themselves greatly of their assistance. Two sermons
have been preached annually for a length of time, the one on gen
eral election-day, the last Wednesday in May, when the new general
court have been used to meet, according to charter, and elect coun
sellors for the ensuing year ; the other, some little while after, on the
artillery election-day, when the officers are reelected, or new officers
chosen. On these occasions political subjects are deemed very
proper ; but it is expected that they be treated in a decent, serious,
and instructive manner. The general election preacher has been
elected alternately by the council and House of Assembly. The
sermon is styled the Election Sermon, and is printed. Every repre
sentative has a copy for himself, and generally one or more for the
minister or ministers of his town. As the patriots have prevailed,
the preachers of each sermon have been the zealous friends of lib
erty ; and the passages most adapted to promote the spread and
love of it have been selected and circulated far and wide by means
of newspapers, and read with avidity and a degree of veneration
on account of the preacher and his election to the service of the
day. Commendations, both public and private, have not been
wanting to help on the design. Thus, by their labors in the pulpit,
and by furnishing the prints with occasional essays, the ministers
have forwarded and strengthened, and that not a little, the oppo
sition to the exercise of that parliamentary claim of right to bind
the colonies in all cases whatever."
Protestantism exchanged the altar for the pulpit, the missal for
INTRODUCTION. XXVII
the Bible ; the " priest" gave way to the " preacher," and the gos
pel was " preached." The ministers were now to instruct the people,
to reason before them and with them, to appeal to them ; and so,
by their very position and relation, the people were constituted the
judges. They were called upon to decide ; they also reasoned ; and
in this way — as the conflicts in the church respected polity rather
than doctrine — the Puritans, and especially the New Englanders,
had, from the very beginning, been educated in the consideration of
its elementary principles. In this we discover how it was, as Gov
ernor Hutchinson remarked, that " men took sides in New England
upon mere speculative points in government, when there was noth
ing in practice which could give any grounds for forming parties."
This was a remarkable feature in the opening of the Revolutionary
war. It was recognized by Edmund Burke, in his speech of March
22d, 1775, "on conciliation with the colonies." "Permit me, sir,"
he said, " to add another circumstance in our colonies, which contrib
utes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable
spirit, — / mean their education. In no country in the world, per
haps, is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numer
ous and powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The
greater number of the deputies sent to the congress" — at Philadel
phia — "were lawyers. But all who read — and most do read —
endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science. I have been
told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business,
after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on
the law exported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen
into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they
have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America
as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition very par
ticularly in a letter on your table. He states that all the people in
his government are lawyers, or smatterers in law ; and that in Boston
they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade
XXVIII INTRODUCTION.
many parts of your capital penal constitutions. . . . Aleunt
studia in mores. This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexter
ous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources. In other
countries, the people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast,
judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance ;
here," — in the colonies — "they anticipate the evil, and judge of the
pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They
augur misgovermnent at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyr
anny in every tainted breeze "
Mr. Webster studied this phase of our history. He says our
fathers " went to war against a preamble ; they fought seven years
against a declaration ; " that " we are not to wait till great public
mischiefs come, till the government is overthrown, or liberty itself
put in extreme jeopardy. We should not be worthy sons of our
fathers were we so to regard great questions affecting the general
freedom. Those fathers accomplished the Revolution on a strict ques
tion of principle. The Parliament of Great Britain asserted a right
to tax the colonies in all cases whatsoever ; and it was precisely on
this question that they made the Revolution turn. The amount of
taxation was trifling, but the claim itself was inconsistent with lib
erty ; and that was, in their eyes, enough. It was against the recital
of an act of Parliament, rather than against any suffering under its
enactments, that they took up arms They poured out
their treasures and their blood like water, in a contest in opposition
to an assertion, which those less sagacious, and not so well schooled
in the principles of civil liberty, would have regarded as barren
phraseology, or mere parade of words.
" They saw in the claim of the British Parliament a seminal
principle of mischief, the germ of unjust power ; they detected it,
dragged it forth from underneath its plausible disguises, struck at
it; nor did it elude either their steady eye or their well-directed
blow till they had extirpated and destroyed it to the smallest
INTRODUCTION. XXIX
fibre. On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet
afar off, they raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes
of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her
glory, is not to be compared ; a power which has dotted over the
surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts ;
whose morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company
with the hours, circles the earth daily with one continuous and
unbroken strain 6f the martial airs of England." It is in this habit
ual study of political ethics, of " the liberty of the gospel," — perhaps
the principal feature in New England history, — that we discern the
source of that earnestness which consciousness of right begets, and
of those appeals to principle which distinguished the colonies, and
which they were ever ready to vindicate with life and fortune. It
is an interesting fact, in this connection, that the very able and
learned defence of the ecclesiastical polity of New England, written
by the Rev. John Wise, of Ipswich, one of the victims of the des
potism of the infamous Andros, in 1687, was republished in the
year 1772, as a sound political document for the times, teaching
that " Democracy is Christ's government in Church and in State."
Thus the church polity of New England begat like principles in
the state. The pew and the pulpit had been educated to self-gov
ernment. They were accustomed " to CONSIDER." The highest
glory of the American Revolution, said John Quincy Adams, was
this : it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil gov
ernment with the principles of Christianity.
With these antecedents of history and principle, it is apparent
that nothing could be more revolting to the heart and head of
New England than the idea of a bishopric within her borders ;
and the rumor of such a project excited general alarm, and
deepened the old loathing. Lord Chatham, in his celebrated letter
to the king, wrote : " They left their native land in search of
freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they are into a
3*
XXX INTRODUCTION.
thousand forms of policy and religion, there is one point in which
they all agree : they equally detest the pageantry of a king, and
the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop." Mr. Thomas Hollis, of
London, wrote to Rev. Doctor Mayhew, of Boston, in the year
1763: "You are in no real danger at present in respect to the
creation of bishops in America, if I am rightly informed, though a
matter extremely desired by our clergy and prelates, and even
talked of greatly at this time among themselves. You cannot,
however, be too much on your guard on this so very important an
affair." Seeker, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had connived at
the sending of a popish bishop to Quebec; and this exposed to full
view the dishonesty, the utter recklessness of principle, and the
popish sympathies, which then distinguished the government of
England.
The pulpit and the press were alive to the danger, and this alarm
was but initiatory to the coining contest against civil wrong. They
detected the same foe under the mitre and the gown. " If Parlia
ment could tax us, they could establish the Church of England,
with all its creeds, articles, tests, ceremonies, and tithes, and pro
hibit all other churches, as conventicles and schism-shops." l
A contemporary print, entitled " An Attempt to land a Bishop in
America," gives the pressure of the times. The scene is at the
wharf. Exclamations from the colonists, " No lords, spiritual or
temporal, in New England!" "Shall they be obliged to maintain
bishops who cannot maintain themselves !" salute the bishop's ears.
On a banner, surmounted by a liberty-cap, is " Liberty and Free
dom of Conscience ; " and " Locke," " Sydney on Government,"
" Calvin's Works," and " Barclay's Apology," bless his eyes ! The
ship is shoved off shore ; on the deck is the bishop's carriage, the
wheels off; the crosier and mitre hang in the rigging; and the
" saint in lawn," with his gown floating in the breeze, has mounted
1 John Adams's Works, x. 287, 288.
XXXII INTRODUCTION.
. . . Although liberty was the ostensible object, ... it
is now past all doubt that an abolition of the Church of England
was one of the principal springs of the dissenting leaders' conduct,
and hence the unanimity of the dissenters. . . . Nor have I
been able, after strict inquiry, to hear of any who did not, by
preaching, and every effort in their power, promote all the measures
of the Congress, however extravagant. . . . I have not a doubt
but . . . his Majesty's arms will be successful. ... In
that case, if the steps are taken which reason, prudence, and
common sense dictate," — lords spiritual, tithes, etc., — " the
church will indubitably increase. . . . The dissenters will
ever clamor against anything that will tend to benefit or increase
the church " — hierarchy — " here. The present rebellion is cer
tainly one of the most causeless, unprovoked, and unnatural, that
ever disgraced any country ; a rebellion with peculiarly aggravated
circumstances of guilt and ingratitude." l
The religious character and views of the founders of New
England also appear in bold relief in the foundation of the
venerable seat of learning at Cambridge. " CHRISTO ET ECCLE-
SLiE" heads the ancient seal of Harvard College, and the church
was the colony. On the long roll of the benefactors of Harvard,
the name of HoLLis2 must ever stand preeminent in the regard
of the whole country. In the year 1766, Thomas Hollis 3 wrote
to the Rev. Dr. Mayhew, " More books, especially on government,
are going for New England. Should those go safe, it is hoped that
no principal books on that FIRST subject will be wanting in Har-
1 Copied from " Hawkins's Missions" into the Congregational Quarterly, 1860,
p. 311.
2 For an account of this distinguished Baptist family, see President Quincy's
History of Harvard College, index.
3 He caused the reprint and circulation in England of James Otis's " Rights
of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved," John Adams's "Dissertation on
the Canon and Feudal Law," and Dr. Mayhew's writings. Allibone's "Dic
tionary of Authors " has an ample notice of him.
INTRODUCTION. XXXIII
vard College, from the days of Moses to these times. Men of New
England, brethren, use them for yourselves, and for others ; and
God bless you ! " And again : " I confess to bear propensity, affec
tion, towards the people of North America, those of Massachusetts
and Boston in particular, believing them to be a good and brave
people. Long may they continue such ! and the spirit of luxury,
now consuming us to the very marrow here at home, kept out
from them! One likeliest means to that end will be, to watch
well over their youth, by bestowing on them a reasonable, manly
education ; and selecting thereto the wisest, ablest, most accom
plished of men that art or wealth can obtain ; for nations rise and
fall by individuals, not numbers, as I think all history proveth.
With ideas of this kind have I worked for the public library at
Cambridge, in New England."
An eloquent writer, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of those
days, remarks, that " this truly ingenuous Englishman, in the range
and direction of his literary beneficence, effectually refuted the
seeming paradox, that a loyal subject of the monarchy in Britain
might be an ardent and intelligent friend of the cause of free
dom in America. The books he sent were often political, and
of a republican stamp. And it remains for the perspicacity of our
historians to ascertain what influence his benefactions and cor
respondence had in kindling that spirit which emancipated these
States from the shackles of colonial subserviency, by forming ' high-
minded men,' who, under Providence, achieved our independence.
" Doubtless at the favored Seminary her sons drank deeply of
the writings of MILTON, HARRINGTON, SYDNEY, LUDLOW, MAR-
VELL, and LocKE.1 These were there, by Mr. Hollis's exer-
l In 1775, Dr. Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, announced as "preparing for the
press, An expostulatory Letter, addressed to the Ministers of the several De
nominations of Protestants in North America, occasioned by their preierring and
inculcating principles of Mr. Lock, instead of those of the Gospel, relative to the
original titles of civil governors."
XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
tions, political text-books. And the eminent men of that day
were —
' By antient learning to the enlightened love
Of antient freedom warmed.' "l
President Stiles, of Yale College, said, in 1 783 : " The colleges
have been of singular advantage in the present day. When
Britain withdrew all of her wisdom from America, this Revolution
found above two thousand in New England only, who had been
educated in the colonies, intermixed among the people, and com
municating knowledge among them."
In Dr. Franklin's library were Locke, Hoadley, Sydney, Montes
quieu, Priestley, Milton, Price, Gordon's Tacitus ; and in a picture
of John Hancock, published in 1 780, are introduced portraits of
Hampden, Cromwell, and Sydney. There are extant American
reprints of these authors, or of portions of their works, issued prior
to and during the Revolution, in a cheap form, for popular circu
lation, addressing, not passion, but reason, diffusing sound principles,
and begetting right feeling. There could hardly be found a more
impressive, though silent, proof of the exalted nature of the contest
on the part of the Americans, than a complete collection of their
publications of that period.
Who can limit the influences exerted over the common mind
by these volumes of silent thought, eloquent for the rights of man
and the blessings of liberty, fervid against wrong, the miseries of
oppression and slavery, — teaching that resistance to tyrants is
obedience to God ? Who can doubt from what fountains he drank
who dedicated " to all the patrons of real, perfect, and unpolluted
liberty, civil and religious, throughout the world," his history of
Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell, " three of its most illustrious and
heroic, but unfortunate defenders"? These books and libraries
l Rev. Dr. William Jenks's Eulogy on Bowdoin, Sept. 2d, 1812.
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
were the nurseries of " sedition ; " they were as secret emissaries
propagating in every household, in every breast, at morning, in the
noonday rest, by the evening light, in the pulpit, the forum, and the
shop, principles, convictions, resolves, which sophistry could not
overthrow, nor force extinguish. This was the secret of the strength
of our fathers. Let us cherish it as worthy sons of noble sires. One
yet among us. whose first inspiration was of the air breathed by the
sons of liberty, whose patriot father's laurels are green around his
own brow,1 has given a lively picture of the reverential regard for
the clergy at the period of the Revolution.
" The whole space before the meeting-house was filled with a
waiting, respectful, and expecting multitude. At the moment of
service, the pastor issued from his mansion, with Bible and man
uscript sermon under his arm, with his wife leaning on one arm,
flanked by his negro man on his side, as his wife was by her negro
woman, the little negroes being distributed, according to their sex,
by the side of their respective parents. Then followed every other
member of the family, according to age and rank, making often,
with family visitants, somewhat of a formidable procession. As soon
as it appeared, the congregation, as if moved by one spirit, began to
move towards the door of the church ; and, before the procession
reached it, all were in their places. As soon as the pastor entered
l Hon. Josiah Quincy's sketch of Rev. Jonathan French, of Andover, in
Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 48. It is of singular inter
est to refer to the following affectionate tribute to the memory of one of the
noblest patriots, coupled as it is with a prayer for his only son, whose living
presence among us is its answer. The passage is in a letter from the Rev. Wil
liam Gordon, of Roxbury, dated April 26th, 1775. He says: " My friend Quincy
has sacrificed his life for the sake of his country. The ship in which he sailed
arrived at Cape Anne within these two days; but he lived not to get on shore, or
to hear and triumph at the account of the success of the Lexington engagement.
His remains will be honorably interred by his relations. Let him be numbered
with the patriotic heroes who fall in the cause of liberty; and let his memory
be dear to posterity. Let his only surviving child, a son of about three years,
live to Assess his noble virtues, and to transmit his name down to future gener
ations.'1'
XXXVI INTRODUCTION.
the church the whole congregation rose, and stood until the pastor
was in the pulpit and his family were seated, — until which was
done, the whole assembly continued standing. At the close of the
service, the congregation stood until he and his family had left the
church, before any one moved towards the door. Forenoon and
afternoon the same course of proceeding was had, expressive of the
reverential relation in which the people acknowledged that they
stood towards their clergymen." But this was not " obedience ; " for
there was no " authority," and no wish for it. -The idea was foreign
to New England ; for resistance to it was the proximate cause of
her colonization. It was a nobler, voluntary offering of respect,
— the decorum of the times. Such are the history, principles,
education, position, and influence of the clergy, except the few, of
foreign sympathy, and alien to the Commonwealth, who, at the open
ing of the war,
" Left their country for their country's good ; "
and with what spirit, with what wisdom, with what learning and
power they preached the liberty of the gospel, let these pages —
their own words — bear witness. The story of their passive endur
ance, their personal bravery and manly participation in their
country's service in the years of her deepest misery, belongs not
here ; they yet wait for justice from the historian. We have room
for only one or two illustrations. In Danvers, the deacon of the
parish was elected captain of the minute-men, and the minister his
lieutenant. The company, after its field exercise, would sometimes
repair to the meeting-house to hear a patriotic sermon, or partake
of an entertainment at the town-house, where the zealous sons of
liberty would exhort them to fight bravely for God and their coun
try. At Lunenburg, the minute company, after going through sev
eral military manoeuvres, marched to a public house, where the
officers had provided an elegant entertainment for the company,
INTRODUCTION. XXXVII
a number of the respectable inhabitants of the town, and patriotic
ministers of the towns adjacent. They then marched in military
procession to the meeting-house, where the Rev. Mr. Adams deliv
ered an excellent sermon, suitable to the occasion, from Psalm
xxvii. 3. Mr. Frothingham, from whose excellent history of the
siege of Boston these instances are taken, says that the journals of
the period abound in paragraphs of similar interest.
In 1774, when the whole country was in misery, in the travail
which preceded the birth of the nation, the First Provincial Con
gress of Massachusetts acknowledged with profound gratitude the
public obligation to the ministry, as friends of civil and religious
liberty, and invoked their aid, in the following address :
" REVEREND SIRS : — When we contemplate the friendship and
assistance our ancestors, the first settlers of this province (while
overwhelmed with distress), received from the pious pastors of the
churches of Christ, who, to enjoy the rights of conscience, fled with
them into this land, then a savage wilderness, we find ourselves
filled with the most grateful sensations. And we cannot but ac
knowledge the goodness of Heaven in constantly supplying us with
preachers of the gospel, whose concern has been the temporal and
spiritual happiness of this people.
" In a day like this, when all the friends of civil and religious
liberty are exerting themselves to deliver this country from its pres
ent calamities, we cannot but place great hopes in an order of men
who have ever distinguished themselves in their country's cause ;
and do, therefore, recommend to the ministers of the gospel in the
several towns and other places in the colony, that they assist us in
avoiding that dreadful slavery with which we are now threatened,
by advising the people of their several congregations, as they wish
their prosperity, to abide by, and strictly adhere to, the resolutions
of the Continental Congress," at Philadelphia, in October, 1774, " as
the most peaceable and probable method of preventing confusion
XXXVIII INTRODUCTION.
and bloodshed, and of restoring that harmony between Great Britain
and these colonies, on which we wish might be established not only
the rights and liberties of America, but the opulence and lasting
happiness of the whole British empire.
" Resolved, That the foregoing address be presented to all the
ministers of the gospel in the province."
Thus it is manifest, in the spirit of our history, in our annals, and
by the general voice of the fathers of the republic, that, in a very
great degree, —
To THE PULPIT, THE PURITAN PULPIT, WE OWE THE
MORAL FORCE WHICH WON OUR INDEPENDENCE.
J. W. T.
BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1860.
DISCOURSE
CONCERNING
Unlimited Submiffion
AND
Non-Reliftance
TO THE
HIGHER POWERS:
With fome REFLECTIONS on the RESISTANCE made to
King CHARLES I.
AND ON THE'
Anniversary of his Death:
In which the MYSTERIOUS Doctrine of that Prince's
Saintfhip and Martyrdom is UNRIDDLED :
The Subftance of which was delivered in a SERMON preached in
the Weft Meeting- Houfe in Bofton the LORD'S-DAY after the
3oth of January, 1749 | 50.
Publijbed at the Requeft of the Hearers.
By JONATHAN MAYHEW, A. M.
Paftor of the Weft Church in Bofton.
Fear GOD, honour the King. Saint PAUL.
He that ruleth over Men, muft be juft, ruling in the Fear of GOD.
Prophet SAMUEL.
/ ha--ve faid, ye are Gods — but ye fhall die like Men, and fall like
one of the PRINCES. King DAVID.
Qmd memorem infandas csedes ? quid facia TYRANNI
EfFera ? Dii CAPITI ipfius GENERIQUE refervent—
Necnon Threicius longa cum 'vefte S ACER DOS
Obloquitur Rom. Vat. Prin.
BOSTON, Printed and Sold by D. FOWLE in Queen-ftreet ;
and by D. GOOKIN over againft the South Meeting-Houfe. 1750.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
THIS celebrated discourse was delivered on the anniversary of the
death of the tyrant Charles I. of England, which, at the suggestion
of the courtiers, on the restoration of the monarchy, was, by the
" Supreme Governor of the Church," made a national fast, and the
tyrant canonized as one of "the noble army of martyrs." After enjoy
ing the nobility of martyrdom for about two centuries, the tyrant's
name has, by Act of Parliament, 1859, been quietly expunged from the
prayer-book, this holy-day of "The Christian Year" abolished; and
thus the " martyr," and whole reams of partisan rhetoric, rhapsodies,
and poetry, are left among the other follies of the past. The church
could no longer bear the reproach. " Let his memory, 0 Lord, be
ever blessed among us," could no longer be uttered with solemn mockery
at the altar.
The anniversary has been observed in a manner worthy of its hero
and his admirers. By authority, the minister was compelled on that
day to read the Oxford homily " against disobedience and wilful
rebellion, or preach a sermon of his own composing upon the same
argument"! One example of their impious utterances will suffice.
It is the title of one of their sermons : ' " A true Parallel betwixt the
Sufferings of our Saviour and our Sovereign in divers particulars."
Another of these reverend blasphemers, preaching before a convocation
of the church in 1701, said: " One would imagine that they were resolved
to take St. Paul's expression in the most literal sense the words will
bear, and crucify to themselves the Lord afresh, and, in the nearest
likeness that could be, put him to an open shame. If, with respect
to the dignity of the person, to have been born King of the Jews
was what ought to have screened our Saviour from violence, here is
also one not only born to a crown, but actually possessed of it;
4*
42
he was not just dressed up for an hour or two in
purple robes, and saluted with a 'Hail, king.' In
respect only of their being heated to the degree of frenzy and madness,
the plea in my text may seem to have some hold of them. ' Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.' " Such were the usual
" church " oracles on this Fast-day. " Among his own partisans,"
says Godwin, "the death of Charles was treated, and Avas spoken of,
as a sort of deicide." Clarendon gave the key-note : " The most execrable
murder ever committed since that of our blessed Saviour"!' The servile
and degrading tenet of absolute obedience was taught; and why should
it not be, since the University of Oxford declared "submission and obedi
ence, -clear, absolute, and without exception, to be the badge and character
of the Church of England." Hallam says that the high tory principles
of the Anglican clergy, of absolute non-resistance, had nearly proved
destructive of the whole constitution. " It was the tenet of their homilies,
their canons, their most distinguished divines and casuists. . . . We
can frame no adequate conception of the jeopardy in which our liberties
stood under the Stuarts, especially in this particular period, without
attending to this spirit of servility which had been so sedulously
excited."
It was ever a darling project with these worthies to establish American
bishoprics. The " Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts,"
established in 1701, as it was administered by its clerical managers,
seemed to be rather a society for propagating the hierarchy, especially
in New England. Archbishop Tenison, its first president, dying in 1715,
bequeathed to it £1000 towards maintaining the first bishop who should
be settled in America, and Archbishop Seeker left another £1000 for
the same purpose.
The " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts "
seemed, to intelligent men in New England, to be a mere disguise for
introducing prelacy 1 — " lords spiritual " — into the land, and it was
1 We find a notice of the society, at this day, by an English correspondent
of The Independent, May 24, 1860, who says that it " enjoys the patronage
of the High-Church dignitaries, and has a large income, say $600,000, annu
ally. It has three hundred missionaries, supplemented by schoolmasters,
catechists, and Scripture-readers. It is an affecting fact, that this old and strong
society for the ' propagation of the gospel ' propagates another gospel which is
not another, and is inimical to the cross of Christ. Its gospel is prelacy and
clerical authority. It insists that men shall be called master, and that rites and
43
Mr. Mayhew's " desire to contribute a mite towards carrying on a war
against this common enemy " that produced the following discourse.
By its bold inquisition into the slavish teachings veiled in "the mys
terious doctrine of the saintship and martyrdom" of Charles I., and
its eloquent exposition of the principles of good government and of
Christian manhood in the state, maddening the corrupt, frightening
the timid, rousing the apathetic, and bracing the patriot heart, this
celebrated sermon may be considered as the MORNING GUN OF THE
REVOLUTION, the punctum temporis when that period of history began.1
Of the several English editions, one was published in Barrow's " Pillars
of Priestcraft Shaken," 1752, in a copy of which Thomas Hollis, of
London, wrote: "This very curious dissertation on government . . .
is the first on that subject that has been produced" — in later times
— "from the American world." It was the medium of Mr. Hollis's
friendship to Mayhew and Harvard College; and so, incidentally,
operated wonderfully in favor of the cause of liberty, civil and religious,
in America. Its effect on the public mind was decided and permanent.
From this moment — the dawn of independence — the spirit of the
people was aroused, ever gathering force and intensity, ever narrowing
and concentrating in the idea of resistance, more and more distinctly
as the spirit of arbitrary power expressed itself in acts more and more
offensive, until RESISTANCE culminated in bloodshed in 1775, and
triumphed in peace in 1783. Robert Treat Paine called Dr. Mayhew
"The Father of Civil and Religious Liberty in Massachusetts and
America."
The preacher was then in the thirtieth year of his age. The manner
observances, taught and practised by the proper masters of ceremonies, avail
everything. The essential spirit of Popery pervades the society, and its secre
tary, the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, was one of the earliest adherents to the new" —
revived — " Oxford apostasy."
1 The total change of political relation and ideas, of manners and prejudices,
— the fading of the old feeling of deference for rank, the last "tinge of feudality,
— effected in the changes and passages of a century, renders it difficult now to
realize the severity of the tests of temper, of courage, manliness, faithfulness,
amid which these words were spoken from Dr. May hew 's pulpit; — words so
bold, so decided ; allusions so direct and pointed that none could mistake, none
could evade; principles so fatal to despotic polity in church or state as to wear
the very garb of rebellion. Though now familiar to the public mind, and of
the essence of our institutions, they then required a courage of the highest
quality, the truest temper.
44 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
in which the discourse was received by the Tories and Churchmen may
be inferred from the manly and characteristic " advertisement " prefixed
to the first edition. It was as follows : " The author of this discourse
has been credibly informed, that some persons, both formerly and
lately, have wrote either at or about him — or something (he cannot
well tell what) in the common newspapers, which he does not often read.
He, therefore, takes this opportunity to assure the writers of that rank,
and in that form, once for all, that they may slander him as much as
they please, without his notice, and, very probably, without his knowl
edge. But if any person of common sense and common honesty shall
condescend to animadvert, in a different way, upon anything which he
has published, he may depend upon having all proper regard shown
to him. J. M."
The authorship, and of course the nature, of this " slander," is more
than hinted at by the elder President Adams, who exclaims, after
speaking of Dr. Mayhew as " a whig of the first magnitude, — a clergy
man equalled by very few of any denomination in piety, virtue, genius,
or learning; whose works will maintain his character as long as New
England shall be free, integrity esteemed, or wit, spirit, humor, reason,
and knowledge admired;" yet "how was he treated from the press?
Did not the reverend tories who were pleased to write against him, the
missionaries of defamation as well as bigotry and passive obedience, in
their pamphlets and newspapers, bespatter him all over with their filth?
Did they not, with equal falsehood and malice, charge him with every
evil thing?"
It was Dr. Mayhew who suggested to James Otis the idea -of com
mittees of correspondence, a measure of the greatest efficiency in
producing concert of action between the colonies — a thing of vital
importance. Dr. Mayhew died soon after this, and the letter to Otis
is interesting as his last word for the liberty of his country :
"LoRD's-DAY MORNING, June 8th, 1766.
*' SIR : — To a good man all time is holy enough ; and none is too
holy to do good, or to think upon it. Cultivating a good understanding
and hearty friendship between these colonies appears to me so necessary
a part of prudence and good policy, that no favorable opportunity for
that purpose should be omitted. I think such an one now presents.
" Would it not be proper and decorous for our assembly to send
circulars to all the rest, on the late repeal of the Stamp Act and the
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 45
present favorable aspect of affairs ? — letters conceived at once in terras
of friendship and regard, of loyalty to the king, filial affection towards
the parent country, and expressing a desire to cement and perpetuate
union among ourselves, by all laudable methods Pursuing
this course, or never losing sight of it, may be of the greatest importance
to the colonies, perhaps the only means of perpetuating their liberties.
You have heard of the communion of churches; and I am to
set out to-morrow morning for Rutland, to assist at an ecclesiastical
council. Not expecting to return this week, while I was thinking of
this in my bed, the great use and importance of a communion of colonies
appeared to me in a strong light; which led me immediately to set down
these hints to transmit to you. Not knowing but the General Court
may be prorogued or dissolved before my return, or my having an
opportunity to speak with you, I now give them, that you may make
such use of them as you think proper, or none at all."
A very comprehensive notice of Dr. Mayhew's character and writings
is among the elder Adams's papers. He says: "This divine had repu
tation both in Europe and America, by the publication of a volume of
seven sermons, in the reign of King George the Second, 1749, and by
many other writings, particularly a sermon, in 1750, on the 30th of
January, on the subject of passive obedience and non-resistance, in
which the saintship and martyrdom of King Charles the First are
considered, seasoned with wit and satire superior to any in Swift or
Franklin. It was read by everybody ; — celebrated by friends, and
abused by enemies. During the reigns of King George the First and
King George the Second, the reigns of the Stuarts, the two Jameses
and the two Charleses, were in general disgrace in England. In America
they had always been held in abhorrence. The persecutions and cruelties
suffered by their ancestors under those reigns had been transmitted by
history and tradition, and May hew seemed to be raised up to revive
all the animosities against tyranny, in church and state, and at the
same time to destroy their bigotry, fanaticism, and inconsistency.
David Hume's plausible, elegant, fascinating, and fallacious apology,
in which he varnished over the crimes of the Stuarts, had not then
appeared. To draw the character of Mayhew would be to transcribe
a dozen volumes. This transcendent genius threw all the weight of
his great fame into the scale of his country in 1761, and maintained
it there with zeal and ardor till his death, in 1766."
46 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
Dr. Mayhew was born, of an honorable family, at Martha's Vineyard,
on the 8th of October, 1720. On the 17th of June, 1747, three years
after his graduation at Harvard College with great reputation, he was
ordained pastor of the West Church in Boston, of which the venerable
Dr. Lowell is now pastor. The charge on the occasion came from the
lips of his father, the Rev. Experience Mayhew, the distinguished
missionary to the Indians. In his sermon on the repeal of the Stamp
Act, 17G6, there is this passage of autobiography: "Having been initiated
in youth in the doctrines of civil liberty, as they were taught by such
men as Plato, Demosthenes, Cicero, and other renowned persons, among
the ancients; and such as Sydney and Milton, Locke and Hoadley,
among the moderns, I liked them; they seemed rational. And having
learnt from the holy Scriptures that wise, brave, and virtuous men
were always friends to liberty, — that God gave the Israelites a king in
his anger, because they had not sense and virtue enough to like a free
commonwealth, — and that where * the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty/ — this made me conclude that freedom was a great blessing."
His degree of Doctor of Divinity was presented to him, by the Uni
versity of Aberdeen, in 1751, the year after his sermon of January
30th.
Critical notices of his numerous publications may be found in Dr.
Eliot's admirable sketch of his life and character, one of the best of
Dr. Eliot's biographical delineations.
Beloved for his pastoral fidelity and generous deeds, distinguished
for his genius and intellectual strength, eminent in both Englands as
a scholar and divine, revered as a true lover of liberty and ardent
Christian patriot, this noble man died, at Boston, July 19th, 1766, .aged
forty-five years, mourned by the great and the good.
The likeness of Dr. Mayhew in this volume is copied from a print in the
Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, Esq., 1780. The original was a crayon, taken
in Boston, probably by Smibert. Mr. Hollis paid Cypriani thirty guineas
for the allegorical designs and engraving, which, being in quarto, could
not be all reproduced in this smaller picture.
PREFACE.
THE ensuing Discourse is the last of three upon the same
subject, with some little alterations and additions. It is hoped
that but few will think the subject of it an improper one to
be discoursed on in the pulpit, under a notion that this is
preaching politics, instead of Christ. However, to remove
all prejudices of this sort, I beg it may be remembered that
" all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor
rection, for instruction in righteousness." a * Why, then, should
not those parts of Scripture which relate to civil government
be examined and explained from the desk, as well as others ?
Obedience to the civil magistrate is a Christian duty ; and
if so, why should not the nature, grounds, and extent of it
be considered in a Christian assembly ? Besides, if it be said
that it is out of character for a Christian minister to meddle
with such a subject, this censure will at last fall upon the
holy apostles. They write upon it in their epistles to Chris-
a 2 Peter iii. 16.
l The author's notes are designated by letters; the editor's by figures, and
signed — ED.
48 PREFACE.
tian churches ; and surely it cannot be deemed either criminal
or impertinent to attempt an explanation of their doctrine.
It was the near approach of the thirtieth of January that
*
turned my thoughts to this subject : on which solemnity the
slavish doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance is
often warmly asserted,1 and the dissenters from the Established
1 For example: On the day of the execution of Lord William Russell, 1683,
the University of Oxford declared " submission and obedience, clear, absolute,
and without exception, to be the badge and character of the Church of England."
The Rev. John Clerke, in a sermon at Rochester Cathedral, May 29, 1684, said :
" Whosoever shall compare the trial of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, before
Pontius Pilate's first high court of justice, with the arraignment of our late most
barbarously murdered king before John Bradshaw's second, shall find them to
differ no more than a faithful copy from its original, with conditions exactly
parallel, and, I had almost said, alike in sufferings, alike in innocence; . . .
the Breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord, . . . the only true Vice
gerent of Jesus Christ, that supreme Bishop of our souls."
The Rev. Henry Sacheverell, D. D., preached at the cathedral in London, No
vember 5, 1709, " the subject's obligation to absolute and unconditional obedience
to the supreme power in all things lawful, and the utter illegality of resistance,
upon any pretence whatsoever. The Englishman is born with an innate, sullen
principle of discontent, which directly interferes with that inward quiet, that
sedate serenity of mind, which is alone able to yield true peace and satisfaction,
. . . and he will forsake the true Fountain of living ivater, the Church of
England. ... He sends his children, in their tender years, to suck in those
deadly envenomed principles that are but too commonly prated up in conventi
cles, — those seminaries of murmuring and nurseries of rebellion ; . . . and
actually engage their unstable minds . . . against the king's sacred person,
his serene and happy government."
"It may be hoped," said the philosopher Locke, " the ages to come, redeemed
from the impositions of these Egyptian under-task-masters, will abhor the mem
ory of such servile flatterers, who, whilst it seemed to serve their turn, rested all
government into absolute tyranny, and would have all men born to, what their
mean souls fitted them for, slavery. " Yet in New England, and in our own times,
these " Egyptian " monstrosities are eulogized as '•'sentiments of the highest sublim
ity" u the badge and character of the Church of England." — Oliver's Puritan
Commonwealth, 1856, pp. 482-3. Indeed, Lord King says, ''As for toleration, or
any true notion of religious liberty, or any general freedom of conscience, we
owe them not in the least degree to what is called the Church of England. On
the contrary, we owe all these to the Independents in the time of the Common
wealth, and to Locke, their most illustrious and enlightened disciple." — ED.
PREFACE. 49
Church represented not only as schismatics (with more of
triumph than of truth, and of choler than Christianity), but
also as persons of seditious, traitorous, and rebellious princi
ples.1 God be thanked ! one may, in any part of the British
dominions, speak freely — if a decent regard be paid to those
in authority — both of government and religion, and even
give some broad hints that he is engaged on the side of lib
erty, the Bible, and common sense, in opposition to tyranny,
priestcraft, and nonsense,* without being in danger either of
the Bastile or the Inquisition, — though there will always be
some interested politicians, contracted bigots, and hypocritical
zealots for a party, to take offence at such freedoms. Their
censure is praise ; their praise is infamy. A spirit of domi
nation is always to be guarded against, both in church and
state, even in times of the greatest security, — such as the
1 The author wrote to Benjamin Avery, LL. D , of Grey's Hospital, London:
" I have ventured to send you a discourse which I published last winter, about
the time that the Episcopal clergy here are often seized with a strange sort of
frenzy, which I know not how to describe, unless it be by one or two of its most
remarkable symptoms. These are, preaching passive obedience, worshipping
King Charles I., and cursing the Dissenters and Puritans for murdering him.
You possibly have seen persons in this melancholy condition, as you have so
much concern with a hospital, but especially if your humanity — as is very
likely — has ever led you to Bedlam, to relieve the pitiable objects there." Thir
teen years afterward, Dr. Mayhew, referring to this passage, wrote: "Some
of the Episcopal Clergy here used, on the same occasion, to assert the divine,
hereditary, and indefeasible right of kings, in direct, manifest opposition to the
principles of the Revolution; almost deifying Archbishop LAUD, as well as
Charles I.; calumniating Nonconformists as schismatics, fanatics, persons of
republican, rebellious principles, and imitating, as far as they were able, the
manner and style of the keenest, severest sermons ever published in England on
the same occasion " — January 30th. — ED.
5
50 PREFACE.
present is among us, at least as to the latter. Those nations
who are now groaning under the iron sceptre of tyranny
were once free ; so they might probably have remained, by
a seasonable precaution against despotic measures. Civil
tyranny is usually small in its beginning, like " the drop of a
bucket," a till at length, like a mighty torrent, or the raging
waves of the sea, it bears down all before it, and deluges
whole countries and empires. Thus it is as to ecclesiastical
tyranny also — the most cruel, intolerable, and impious of
any. From small beginnings, " it exalts 4tself above all that
is called God and that is worshipped." b People have no
security against being unmercifully priest-ridden but by keep
ing all imperious bishops, and other clergymen who love to
" lord it over God's heritage," from getting their foot into the
stirrup at all.1 Let them be once fairly mounted, and their
"beasts, the laity," c may prance and flounce about to no
purpose ; and they will at length be so jaded and hacked by
these reverend jockeys, that they will not even have spirits
enough to complain that their backs are galled, or, like
Balaam's ass, to " rebuke the madness of the prophet." d
"The mystery of iniquity began to work"6 even in the
days of some of the apostles. But the kingdom of Antichrist
was then, in one respect, like the kingdom of heaven, how-
a Isaiah xi. 15. c Mr. Leslie. e 2 Thess. ii. 7.
b 2 Thess. ii. 4 (12 1'eter ii. 16.
1 Especially in America, toward which they did cast longing eyes. — ED.
PREFACE. 51
over different in all others ; — it was " as a grain of mustard-
seed." a This grain was sown in Italy, that fruitful field,
and, though it were " the least of all seeds," it soon became a
mighty tree. It has long since overspread and darkened the
greatest part of Christendom, so that we may apply to it what
is said of the tree which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his vision :
— " The height thereof reacheth unto heaven, and the sight
thereof to the end of all the earth ; and the beasts of the field
have shadow under it." Tyranny brings ignorance and bru
tality along with it. It degrades men from their just .rank
into the class of brutes ; it damps their spirits ; it suppresses
arts ; it extinguishes every spark of noble ardor and gener
osity in the breasts of those who are enslaved by it ; it makes
naturally strong and great minds feeble and little, and tri
umphs over the ruins of virtue and humanity. This is true
of tyranny in every shape : there can be nothing great and
good where its influence reaches. For which reason it be
comes every friend to truth and human kind, every lover of
God and the Christian religion, to bear a part in opposing
this hateful monster. It was a desire to contribute a mite
towards carrying on a war with this common enemy l that
a Matt. xiii. 21.
l To Dr. George Benson he wrote: " I was, about this time, much provoked
by the senseless clamors of some tory-spirited Churchmen ; this being the
strange spirit which seems to prevail among the Episcopal clergy here even to
this day." — ED.
52 PREFACE.
produced the following Discourse; and if it serve in any
measure to keep up a spirit of civil and religious liberty
amongst us, my end is answered. There are virtuous and
candid men in all sects ; all such are to be esteemed. There
are also vicious men and bigots in all sects, and all such
ought to be despised.
"To Virtue only and her friends a friend;
The world beside may murmur or commend:
Know, all the distant din that world can keep
Rolls o'er my grotto, and but soothes my sleep." — POPE.
JONATHAN MAYHEW.
DISCOURSE I.
UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND NON-RESISTANCE TO THE
HIGHER POWERS.
LET EVERY SOUL BE SUBJECT UNTO THE HIGHER POWERS. FOR THERE IS
NO POWER BUT OF GOD : THE POWERS THAT BE ARE ORDAINED OF GOD.
WHOSOEVER THEREFORE RESISTETH THE POWER, RESISTETH THE ORDI
NANCE OF GOD: AND THEY THAT RESIST SHALL RECEIVE TO THEMSELVES
DAMNATION. FOR RULERS ARE NOT A TERROR TO GOOD WORKS, BUT TO
THE EVIL. WILT THOU THEN NOT BE AFRAID OF THE POWER? DO THAT
WHICH IS GOOD, AND THOU SHALT HAVE PRAISE OF THE SAME ; FOR HE
IS THE MINISTER OF GOD TO THEE FOR GOOD. BUT IF THOU DO THAT
WHICH IS EVIL, BE AFRAID; FOR HE BEARETH NOT THE SWORD IN VAIN:
FOR HE IS THE MINISTER OF GOD, A REVENGER TO EXECUTE WRATH UPON
HIM THAT DOETH EVIL. WHEREFORE YE MUST NEEDS BE SUBJECT, NOT
ONLY FOR WRATH, BUT ALSO FOR CONSCIENCE' SAKE. FOR, FOR THIS CAUSE
PAY YOU TRIBUTE ALSO: FOR THEY ARE GOD'S MINISTERS, ATTENDING
CONTINUALLY UPON THIS VERY THING. RENDER THEREFORE TO ALL THEIR
DUES: TRIBUTE TO WHOM TRIBUTE IS DUE; CUSTOM TO WHOM CUSTOM;
FEAR TO WHOM FEAR ; HONOR TO WHOM HONOR. — Romans xiii. 1 — 8.
IT is evident that the affairs of civil government may
properly fall under a moral and religious consideration, at
least so far forth as it relates to the general nature and
end of magistracy, and to the grounds and extent of that
submission which persons of a private character ought to
yield to those who are vested with authority. This must
be allowed by all who acknowledge the divine original of
Christianity. For, although there be a sense, and a very
plain and important sense, in which Christ's kingdom is
not of this world,* his inspired apostles have, nevertheless,
laid down some general principles concerning the office
a John xviii. 36.
5*
54 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
of civil rulers, and the duty of subjects, together with the
reason and obligation of that duty. And from hence it
follows, that it is proper for all who acknowledge the au
thority of Jesus Christ, and the inspiration of his apostles,
to endeavor to understand what is in fact the doctrine
which they have delivered concerning this matter. It is
the duty of Christian magistrates to inform themselves
what it is which their religion teaches concerning the na
ture and design of their office. And it is equally the duty
of all Christian people to inform themselves what it is
which their religion teaches concerning that subjection
which they owe to the higher powers. It is for these rea
sons that I have attempted to examine into the Scripture
account of this matter, in order to lay it before you with
the same freedom which I constantly use with relation to
other doctrines and precepts of Christianity ; not doubting
but you will judge upon everything offered to your con
sideration with the same spirit of freedom and liberty with
which it is spoken.
The passage read is the most full and express of any in
the New Testament relating to rulers and subjects; and
therefore I thought it proper to ground upon it what I had
to propose to you with reference to the authority of the
civil magistrate, and the subjection which is due to him.
But, before I enter upon an explanation of the several
parts of this passage, it will be proper to observe one
thing, which may serve as a key to the whole of it.
It is to be observed, then, that there were some persons
amongst the Christians of the apostolic age, and particu
larly those at Rome, to whom St. Paul is here writing, who
seditiously disclaimed all subjection to civil authority;
refusing to pay taxes, and the duties laid upon their traffic
and merchandise ; and who scrupled not to speak of their
rulers without any due regard to their office and character.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 55
Some of these turbulent Christians were converts from
Judaism, and others from Paganism. The Jews in general
had, long before this time, taken up a strange conceit, that,
being the peculiar and elect people of God, they were
therefore exempted from the jurisdiction of any heathen
princes or governors. Upon this ground it was that some
of them, during the public ministry of our blessed Sav
iour, came to him with that question, " Is it lawful to give
tribute unto Cresar, ornot?"a And this notion many of
them retained after they were proselyted to the Christian
faith. As to the Gentile converts, some of them grossly
mistook the nature of that liberty which the gospel prom
ised, and thought that by virtue of their subjection to
Christ, the only king and head of his church, they were
wholly freed from subjection to any other prince; as though
Christ's kingdom had been of this world in such a sense
as to interfere with the civil powers of the earth, and to
deliver their subjects from that allegiance and duty which
they before owed to them. Of these visionary Christians
in general, who disowned subjection to the civil powers in
being where they respectively lived, there is mention made
in several places in the New Testament. The apostle
Peter, in particular, characterizes them in this manner:
them that "despise government, presumptuous are they ;
self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." b
Now, it is with reference to these doting Christians that
the apostle speaks in the passage before us. And I shall
now give you the sense of it in a paraphrase upon each
verse in its order ; desiring you to keep in mind the char
acter of the persons for whom it is designed, that so, as I
go along, you may see how just and natural this address
is, and how well suited to the circumstances of those
against whom it is levelled.
a Matt. xxii. 17. b 2 Pet. ii. 10.
56 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
The apostle begins thus: "Let every soul a be subject
unto the higher powers ;b for there is no power c but of
God; the powers that bed are ordained of God;c"f q. d.,
" Whereas some professed Christians vainly imagine that
they are wholly excused from all manner of duty and sub
jection to civil authority, refusing to honor their rulers
and to pay taxes; which opinion is not only unreasonable
in itself, but also tends to fix a lasting reproach upon the
Christian name and profession — I now, as an apostle and
ambassador of Christ, exhort every one of you, be he who
he will, to pay all dutiful submission to those who are
vested with any civil office ; for there is, properly speak
ing, no authority but what is derived from God, as it is
only by his permission and providence that any possess
it. Yea, I may add, that all civil magistrates, as such,
although they may be heathens, are appointed and ordained
of God. For it is certainly God's will that so useful an
a "Every soul." This is a Hebraism, which signifies every man; so that the
apostle does not exempt the clergy, such as were endowed with the gift of
prophecy or any other miraculous powers which subsisted in the church at that
day. And by his using the Hebrew idiom, it seems that he had the Jewish con
verts principally in his eye.
b " The higher powers;'' more literally, the over-ruling powers ; which term
extends to all civil rulers in common.
c J3y " power' the apostle intends, not lawless strength and brutal force, with
out regulation and proper direction, but just authority; for so the word here
used properly signifies. There may be power where there is no authority. No
man has any authority to do what is wrong and injurious, though he may have
the power to do it.
(1 '' The powers that be/' Those persons who are in fact vested with authority;
those who are in possession. And who those are, the apostle leaves Christians to
determine for themselves; but whoever they are, they are to be obeyed.
c " Ordained of God." As it is not without God's providence and permission
that any are clothed with authority; and as it is agreeable to the positive will
and purpose of God that there should be some persons vested with authority for
the good of society; — not that any rulers have their commission from God, the
supreme Lord of the universe. If any assert that kings, or any other rulers, are
ordained of God in the latter sense, it is incumbent upon them to show the com
mission which they speak of under the broad seal of heaven. And when they do
this, they will, no doubt, be believed.
f Rom. xiii. 1.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 57
institution as that of magistracy should take place in the
world for the good of civil society." The apostle pro
ceeds: "Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth
the ordinance of God ; and they that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation." a q. d., "Think not, therefore, that
ye are guiltless of any crime or sin against God, when
ye factiously disobey and resist the civil authority. For
magistracy and government being, as I have said, the
ordinance and appointment of God, it follows, that to
resist magistrates in the execution of their offices, is really
to resist the will and ordinance of God himself; and they
who thus resist will accordingly be punished by God for this
sin, in common with others." The apostle goes on : " For
rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.b
Wilt thou, then, not be afraid of the power? Do that
which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same ;
for he is the minister of God to thee for good." c q. cl,
"That you may see the truth and justness of what I
assert (viz., that magistracy is the ordinance of God, and
that you sin against him in opposing it), consider that
even pagan rulers are not, by the nature and design of
their office, enemies and a terror to the good and virtuous
actions of men, but only to the injurious and mischievous
to society. Will ye not, then, reverence and honor magis
tracy, when ye see the good end and intention of it?
How can ye be so unreasonable ? Only mind to do your
duty as members of society, and this will gain you the
a Rom. xiii. 2.
b "• For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil." It cannot be
supposed that the apostle designs here, or in any of the succeeding verses, to give
the true character of Nero, or any other civil powers then in being, as if they
were in fact such persons as he describes, a terror to evil works only, and not to
the good. For such a character did not belong to them; and the apostle was no
sycophant, or parasite of power, whatever some of his pretended successors have
been, lie only tells what rulers would be, provided they acted up to their char
acter and office.
c Rom. xiii. 3, 4.
58 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
applause and favor of all good rulers. For, while you do
thus, they are by their office, as ministers of God, obliged
to encourage and protect you : it is for this very purpose
that they are clothed with power." The apostle subjoins :
" But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he bear-
eth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God,
a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.a"b
q. d., " But, upon the other hand, if ye refuse to do your
duty as members of society ; if ye refuse to bear your
part in the support of government; if ye are disorderly,
and do things which merit civil chastisement, — then,
indeed, ye have reason to be afraid. For it is not in
vain that rulers are vested with the power of inflicting
punishment. They are, by their office, not only the minis
ters of God for good to those that do well, but also his
ministers to revenge, to discountenance, and punish those
that are unruly, and injurious to their neighbors." The
apostle proceeds: "Wherefore ye must needs be subject
not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake." c q. d.,
"Since, therefore, magistracy is the ordinance of God, and
since rulers are by their office benefactors to society, by
discouraging what is bad and encouraging what is good,
a It is manifest that when the apostle speaks of it as the office of civil rulers to
encourage what is good and to punish what is evil, he speaks only of civil good
and evil. They are to consult the good of society, as such; not to dictate in reli
gious concerns; not to make laws for the government of men's consciences, and
to inflict civil penalties for religious crimes. It is sufficient to overthrow the
doctrine of the authority of the civil magistrate in affairs of a spiritual nature (so
far as it is built upon anything which is here said by St. Paul, or upon anything
else in the New Testament) only to observe that all the magistrates then in the
world were heathen, implacable enemies to Christianity; so that, to give them
authority in religious matters, would have been, in effect, to give them authority
to extirpate theChristian religion, and to establish the idolatries and supersti
tions of paganism. And can any one reasonably suppose that the apostle had
any intention to extend the authority of rulers beyond concerns merely civil and
political, to the overthrowing of that religion which he himself was so zealous in
propagating? But it is natural for those whose religion cannot be supported
upon the footing of reason and argument, to have recourse to power and force,
which will serve a bad cause as well as a good one, and, indeed, much better.
b Kom. xiii. 4. c Rom xiii. 5.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 59
and so preserving peace and order amongst men, it is
evident that ye ought to pay a willing subjection to them;
not to obey merely for fear of exposing yourselves to their
wrath and displeasure, but also in point of reason, duty,
and conscience. Ye are under an indispensable obligation,
as Christians, to honor their office, and to submit to them
in the execution of it." The apostle goes on : " For, for
this cause pay you tribute also ; for they are God's minis
ters, attending continually upon this very thing:" a q. d.,
" And here is a plain reason also why ye should pay
tribute to them, — for they are God's ministers, exalted
above the common level of mankind, — not that they may
indulge themselves in softness and ^luxury, and be entitled
to the servile homage of their fellow-men, but that they
may execute an office no less laborious than honorable, and
attend continually upon the public welfare. This being
their business and duty, it is but reasonable that they
should be requited for their care and diligence in perform
ing it ; and enabled, by taxes levied upon the subject,
effectually to prosecute the great end of their institution,
the good of society." The apostle sums all up in the follow
ing words : " Render, therefore, to all their dues ; tributeb
to whom tribute is due ; customb to whom custom ; fear
to whom fear; honor to whom honor."0 q. d., "Let it
not therefore be said of any of you hereafter, that you
contemn government, to the reproach of yourselves and
of the Christian religion. Neither your being Jews by
nation, nor your becoming the subjects of Christ's king
dom, gives you any dispensation for making disturbances
a Rom. xiii. 6.
b Grotius observes^ that the Greek words here used answer to the tributum and
vectiyal of the Romans: the former was the money paid lor the soil and poll,
the latter the dues laid upon some sorts of merchandise. And what the apostle
here says deserves to be seriously considered by all Christians concerned in that
common practice of carrying on an illicit trade and running of goods.
c Rom. xiii. 7.
60 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
in the government under which you live. Approve your
selves, therefore, as peaceable and dutiful subjects. Be
ready to pay to your rulers all that they may, in respect of
their office, justly demand of you. Render tribute and
custom to those of your governors to whom tribute and
custom belong; and cheerfully honor and reverence all
who are vested with civil authority, according to their
deserts."
The apostle's doctrine, in the passage thus explained,
concerning the office of civil rulers, and the duty of sub
jects, may be summed up in the following observations,11
viz. :
That the end of magistracy is the good of civil society,
as such.
That civil rulers, as such, are the ordinance and minis
ters of God ; it being by his permission and providence
that any bear rule, and agreeable to his will that there
should be some persons vested with authority in society,
for the well-being of it.
That which is here said concerning civil rulers extends
to all of them in common. It relates indifferently to mon
archical, republican, and aristocratical government, and to
all other forms which truly answer the sole end of govern
ment — the happiness of society ; and to all the different
degrees of authority in any particular state ; to inferior
officers no less than to the supreme.
That disobedience to civil rulers in the due exercise of
their authority is not merely a political sin, but a heinous
offence against God and religion.
That the true ground and reason b of our obligation to be
a The several observations here only mentioned were handled at large in two
preceding discourses upon this subject.
b Some suppose the apostle, in this passage, enforces the duty of submission
with two arguments quite distinct from each other; one taken from this consid
eration, that rulers are the ordinance and the ministers of God (vs. 1, 2, 4), and
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE JHGHER POWERS. 61
subject to the higher powers is, the usefulness of magis
tracy (when properly exercised) to human society, and its
subserviency to the general welfare.
That obedience to civil rulers is here equally required
under all forms of government which answer the sole end
of all government — the good of society ; and to every
degree of authority, in any state, whether supreme or
subordinate. From whence it follows —
That if unlimited obedience and non-resistance be here
required as a duty under any one form of government, it
is also required as a duty under all other forms, and as a
duty to subordinate rulers as well as to the supreme.
And, lastly, that those civil rulers to whom the apostle
enjoins subjection are the persons in possession ; the
powers that be / those who are actually vested with au
thority.'1
the other from the benefits that accrue to society from civil government (vs. 3, 4,
6). And, indeed, these may be distinct motives and arguments for submission,
as they may be separately viewed and contemplated. But when we consider that
rulers are not the ordinance and the ministers of God but only so far forth as
they perform God's will by acting up to their office and character, and so by
being benefactors to society, this makes these arguments coincide, and run up
into one at last; at least so far that the former of them cannot hold good for
submission where the latter fails. Put the suppositiop, that any man bearing the
title of a magistrate should exercise his power in such a manner as to have no
claim to obedience by virtue of that argument which is founded upon the useful
ness of magistracy, and you equally take off the force of the other argument
also, which is founded upon his being the ordinance and the minister of God;
for he is no longer God's ordinance and minister than he acts up to his office and
character by exercising his power for the good of society. This is, in brief, the
reason why it is said above, in the singular number, that the true ground and
reason, etc. The use and propriety of this remark may possibly be more appar
ent in the progress of the argument concerning resistance.
a This must be understood writh this proviso, that they do not grossly abuse
their power and trust, but exercise it for the good of those that are governed.
Who these persons were — whether Nero, etc., or not — the apostle does not say,
but leaves it to be determined by those to whom he writes. God does not inter
pose in a miraculous way to point out the persons who shall bear rule, and to
whom subjection is due. And as to the unalienable, indefeasible right of primo
geniture, the Scriptures are entirely silent, or, rather, plainly contradict it,—
Saul being the tirst king among the Israelites, and appointed to the royal dignity
during his own father's lifetime; and he was succeeded, or rather superseded, by
" David, the last born among many brethren." Now, if God has not invariably
6
62 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
There is one very important and interesting point which
remains to be inquired into, namely, the extent of that
subjection to the higher powers which is here enjoined as
a duty upon all Christians. Some have thought it warrant
able and glorious to disobey the civil powers in certain
circumstances, and in cases of very great and general op
pression, when humble remonstrances fail of having any
effect ; and, when the public welfare cannot be otherwise
provided for and secured, to rise unanimously even against
the sovereign himself, in order to redress their grievances ;
to vindicate their natural and legal rights; to break the
yoke of tyranny, and free themselves and posterity from
inglorious servitude and ruin.1 It is upon this principle
that many royal oppressors have been driven from their
thrones into banishment, and many slain by the hands of
their subjects. It was upon this principle that Tarquin
determined this matter, it must, of course, be determined by men. And if it be
determined by men, it must be determined either in the way of force or of com
pact; and which of these is the most equitable can be no question.
1 Milton was of the same mind. "It is not," said* he, "neither ought
to be, the glory of a Protestant state never to have put their king to
death; it is the glory of a Protestant king never to have deserved death.
And if the Parliament and military council do what they do without prece
dent, if it appear their duty, it argues the more wisdom, virtue, and
magnanimity, that they know themselves able to be a precedent to others,
who perhaps in future ages, if they prove not too degenerate, will look
up with honor, and aspire towards these exemplary and matchless deeds
of their ancestors, as to the highest top of their civil glory and emula
tion; which heretofore, in the pursuance of fame and foreign dominion,
spent itself vaingloriously abroad; but henceforth may learn a better for
titude, to dare execute highest justice on them that shall by force of arms
endeavor the oppressing and bereaving of religion and their liberty at
home. That no unbridled potentate or tyrant, but to his sorrow, for the
future may presume such high and irrepressible license over mankind, to
havoc and turn upside down whole kingdoms of men, as though they
were no more in respect of his perverse will than a nation of pismires."—
The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 63
was expelled from Rome, and Julius Cajsnr, the conqueror
of the world and the tyrant of his country, cut off in the
senate-house. It was upon this principle that King
Charles I. was beheaded before his own banqueting-house.1
It was upon this principle that King James II. was made
to fly that country which he aimed at enslaving ; and
upon this principle was that revolution brought about
which has been so fruitful of happy consequences to Great
Britain. But, in opposition to this principle, it has often
been asserted 2 that the Scripture in general, and the pas
sage under consideration in particular, makes all resistance
to princes a crime, in any case whatever. If they turn
tyrants, and become the common oppressors of those
whose welfare they ought to regard with a paternal af
fection, we must not pretend to right ourselves, unless it
be by prayers, and tears, and humble entreaties. And if
these methods fail of procuring redress, we must not have
recourse to any other, but all suffer ourselves to be robbed
and butchered at the pleasure of the "Lord's anointed," lest
we should incur the sin of rebellion and the punishment
of damnation! — for he has God's authority and commis
sion to bear him out in the worst of crimes so far that he
may not be withstood or controlled. Now, whether we
are obliged to yield such an absolute submission to our
prince, or whether disobedience and resistance may not be
justifiable in some cases, notwithstanding anything in the
passage before us, is an inquiry in which we all are con
cerned ; and this is the inquiry which is the main design
of the present discourse.
1 Charles emplovcd Inigo Jones to prepare the plans for a magnificent
Whitehall, — now Whitehall Chapel, — from the centre window of which
the unhappy tyrant passed to his scaffold. — ED.
2 By Filmer, Brady. Mackenzie, Sherlock, and generally by the Church
of England writers, with few exceptions. — ED.
64 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
Now, there does not seem to be any necessity of suppos
ing that an absolute, unlimited obedience, whether active
or passive, is here enjoined, merely for this reason — that the
precept is delivered in absolute terms, without any excep
tion or limitation expressly mentioned. We are enjoined
to be " subject to the higher powers ; " a and to be " subject
for conscience' sake." b And because these expressions are
absolute and unlimited, or, more properly, general, some
have inferred that the subjection required in them must
be absolute and unlimited also, — at least so far forth as to
make passive obedience and non-resistance a duty in all
cases whatever, if not active obedience likewise; — though,
by the way, there is here no distinction made betwixt
active and passive obedience ; and if either of them be
required in an unlimited sense, the other must be required
in the same sense also, by virtue of the present argument,
because the expressions are equally absolute with respect
to both. But that unlimited obedience of any sort can
not be argued merely from the indefinite expressions in
which obedience is enjoined, appears from hence, that ex
pressions of the same nature frequently occur in Scripture,
upon which it is confessed on all hands that no such abso
lute and unlimited sense ought to be put. For example :
" Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world,"0 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth," d " Take therefore no thought for the morrow," e
are precepts expressed in at least equally absolute and un
limited terms; but it is generally allowed that they are
to be understood with certain restrictions and limitations ;
some degree of love to the world and the things of it
being allowable. Nor, indeed, do the Right Reverend
Fathers in God, and other dignified clergymen of the
a Rom. xiii. 1. c 1 John ii. 15. e Matt. vi. 34.
b Eorn. xiii. 5. d Matt. vi. 19.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 65
Established Church, seem to be altogether averse to admit
ting of restrictions in the latter case, how warm soever
any of them may be against restrictions and limitations in
the case of submission to authority, whether civil or eccle
siastical. It is worth remarking, also, that patience and
submission under private injuries are enjoined in much
more peremptory and absolute terms than any that are
used with regard to submission to the injustice and op
pression of civil rulers. Thus : " I say unto you, that ye
resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will
sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have
thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a
mile with him, go with him twain."a Any man may be
defied to produce such strong expressions in favor of a
passive and tame submission to unjust, tyrannical rulers,
as are here used to enforce submission to private injuries.
But how few are there that understand those expressions
literally ! And the reason why they do not, is because
(with submission to the Quakers) common sense shows
that they were not intended to be so understood.
But, to instance in some Scripture precepts which are
more directly to the point in hand : Children are com
manded to obey their parents, and servants their masters,
in as absolute and unlimited terms as subjects are here
commanded to obey their civil rulers. Thus this same
apostle: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for
this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the
first commandment with promise. Servants, be obedient
to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with
fear and trembling, with singleness of your heart, as unto
Christ." b Thus, also, wives are commanded to be obedient
a Matt. v. 39, 40, 41. b Eph, vi. 1, etc.
6*
66 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
to their husbands: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your
own husbands, as unto the Lord ; for the husband is head
of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the
wives be to their own husbands in everything." ft In all
these cases, submission is required in terms at least as
absolute and universal as are ever used with respect to
rulers and subjects. But who supposes that the apostle
ever -intended to teach that children, servants, and wives,
should, in all cases whatever, obey their parents, masters,
and husbands respectively, never making any opposition to
their will, even although they should require them to break
the commandments of God, or should causelessly make an
attempt upon their lives ? No one puts such a sense upon
these expressions, however absolute and unlimited. Why,
then, should it be supposed that the apostle designed to
teach universal obedience, whether active or passive, to
the higher powers, merely because his precepts are deliv
ered in absolute and unlimited terms ? And if this be a
good argument in one case, why is it not in others also ?
If it be said that resistance and disobedience to the higher
powers is here said positively to be a sin, so also is the
disobedience of children to parents, servants to masters,
and wives to husbands, in other places of Scripture. But
the question still remains, whether, in all these cases, there
be not some exceptions. In the three latter it is allowed
there are ; and from hence it follows, that barely the use
of absolute expressions is no proof that obedience to
civil rulers is in all cases a duty, or resistance in all cases
a sin. I should not have thought it worth while to take
any notice at all of this argument, had it not been much
insisted upon by some of the advocates for passive obedi
ence and non-resistance ; for it is in itself perfectly trifling,
a Eph. v. 22-24.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 67
and rendered considerable only by the stress that has been
laid upon it for want of better.
There is, indeed, one passage in the New Testament
where it may seem, at first view, that an unlimited sub
mission to civil rulers is enjoined: "Submit yourselves to
every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." a To every or
dinance of man. However, this expression is no stronger
than that before taken notice of with relation to the duty
of wives : " So let the wives be subject to their own hus
bands in everything" But the true solution of this diffi
culty (if it be one) is this : By " every ordinance of man" b
is not meant every command of the civil, magistrate with
out exception, but every order of magistrates appointed
by man, whether superior or inferior ; for so the apostle
explains himself in the very next words : " Whether it
be to the king as supreme, or to governors, as unto them
that are sent," etc. But although the apostle had not sub
joined any such explanation, the reason of the thing itself
would have obliged us to limit the expression " every or
dinance of man" to such human ordinances and commands
as are not inconsistent with the ordinances and commands
of God, the Supreme Lawgiver, or with any other higher
and antecedent obligations.1
It is to be observed, in the next place, that as the duty
a 1 Peter ii. 13.
b Literally, every human institution, or appointment. By which manner of
expression the apostle plainly intimates that rulers derive their authority im
mediately, not from God, but from men.
1 Milton considers this text, in his " Defence of the People of England,"
much at length. He says : " It being very certain that the doctrine of the
gospel is neither contrary to reason nor the law of nations, that man is
truly subject to the higher powers who obeys the laws and the magistrates
so far as they govern according to law. So that St. Paul does not only
command the people, but princes themselves, to be in subjection; who are
not above the laws, but bound by them ; . . . but whatever power en
ables a man, or whatsoever magistrate takes upon him, to act contrary to
68 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
of universal obedience and non-resistance to the higher
powers cannot be argued from the absolute, unlimited ex
pressions which the apostle here uses, so neither can it be
argued from the scope and drift of his reasoning, considered
with relation to the persons he was here opposing. As
was observed above, there were some professed Christians
in the apostolic age who disclaimed all magistracy and
civil authority in general, despising government, and speak
ing evil of dignities ; some, under a notion that Jews ought
not to be under the jurisdiction of Gentile rulers, and
others that they were set free from the temporal powers
by Christ. Nowv it is with persons of this licentious opin
ion and character that the apostle is concerned; and all
that was directly to his point was to show that they were
bound to submit to magistracy in general. This is a cir
cumstance very material to be taken notice of, in order to
ascertain the sense of the apostle ; for, this being con
sidered, it is sufficient to account for all that he says con
cerning the duty of subjection and the sin of resistance to
the higher powers, without having recourse to the doctrine
of unlimited submission and passive obedience in all cases
whatever. Were it known that those in opposition to
whom the apostle wrote allowed of civil authority in
general, and only asserted that there were some cases in
which obedience and non-resistance were not a duty, there
would then indeed be reason for interpreting this passage
as containing the doctrine of unlimited obedience and
non-resistance, as it must, in this case, be supposed to have
what St. Paul makes the duty of those that are in authority, neither is
that power nor that magistrate ordained of God. And consequently to
such a magistrate no subjection is commanded, nor is any due, nor are
the people forbidden to resist such authority; for in so doing they do not
resist the power nor the magistracy, as they are here excellently well
described, but they resist a robber, a tyrant, an enemy."— ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 69
been levelled against such as denied that doctrine. But
since it is certain that there were persons who vainly im
agined that civil government in general was not to be
regarded by them, it is most reasonable to suppose that
the apostle designed his discourse only against them ; and,
agreeably to this supposition, we find that he argues the
usefulness of civil magistracy in general, its agreeableness
to the will and purpose of God, who is over all, and so
deduces from hence the obligation of submission to it.
But it will not follow that because civil government is,
in general, a good institution, and necessary to the peace
and happiness of human society, therefore there are no
supposable cases in which resistance to it can be innocent.
So that the duty of unlimited obedience, whether active
or passive, can be argued neither from the manner of ex
pression here used, nor from the general scope and design
of the passage.
And if we attend to the nature of the argument with
which the apostle here enforces the duty of submission to
the higher powers, we shall find it to be such a one as
concludes not in favor of submission to all who bear the
title of rulers in common, but only to those who actually
perform the duty of rulers by exercising a reasonable and
just authority for the good of human society. This is a
point which it will be proper to enlarge upon, because the
question before us turns very much upon the truth or
falsehood of this position. It is obvious, then, in general,
that the civil rulers whom the apostle here speaks of, and
obedience to whom he presses upon Christians as a duty,
are good rulers,* such as are, in the exercise of their office
a By " good rulers" arc not intended such as are good in a moral or religious,
but only in a political, sense; those who perform their duty so far as their office
extends, and so far as civil society, as such, is concerned in their actions. 1
1 Dr. Mayhew may have had in mind the apologies often made for
70 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
and power, benefactors to society. Such they are described
to be throughout this passage. Thus, it is said that they
are not a terror to good works, but to the evil; that they
are God's ministers for good ; revengers to execute wrath
upon him that doeth evil ; and that they attend continu
ally upon this very thing. St. Peter gives the same
account of rulers : They are " for a praise to them that
do well, and the punishment of evil doers." a It is manifest
that this character and description of rulers agrees only to
such as are rulers in fact, as well as in name ; to such as gov
ern well, and act agreeably to their office. And the apostle's
argument for submission to rulers is wholly built and
grounded upon a presumption that they do in fact answer
this character, and is of no force at all upon supposition
of the contrary. If rulers are a terror to good works, and
not to the evil ; if they are not ministers for good to
society, but for evil and distress, by violence and oppres
sion ; if they execute wrath upon sober, peaceable persons,
who do their duty as members of society, and suffer rich
a See notes, pp. 57, 58.
Charles the First and other tyrants — their good lives as private men ; but
certainly he did not mean that it is a thing of indifference that bad men
should be rulers. In his Election Sermon of 1754, he says that morals
and religion " ought doubtless to be encouraged by the civil magistrate
by his own pious life and good example." What is the security, or prob
ability, that the weak or the bad, in private life, will be able and good
men in public life, especially if it be, as Hume says, " that men are gener
ally more honest in a private than in a public capacity, and will go greater
lengths to serve a party than when their own private interest is alone con
cerned"? " Nations rise and fall by individuals, not numbers, as I think
all history proveth," said Hollis. It was the virtue of Washington only
that saved the republic, when, in 1782, the suffering army suggested to
their leader the "title of king." Had his been a "low ambition," what
then would have been our history? The political motto, " Principles, not
men," is a dangerous doctrine. The monument to Pitt, in the Guildhall,
London, was raised to show "that the means by which Providence raises
a nation to greatness are the virtues infused into great men." — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 71
and honorable knaves to escape with impunity; if, instead
of attending continually upon the good work of advanc
ing the public welfare, they attend continually upon the
gratification of their own lust and pride and ambition, to
the destruction of the public welfare ; — if this be the case,
it is plain that the apostle's argument for submission does
not reach them ; they are not the same, but different
persons from those whom he characterizes, and who must
be obeyed, according to his reasoning. Let me illustrate
the apostle's argument by the following similitude (it is
no matter how far it is from anything which has, in fact,
happened in the world) : Suppose, then, it was allowed,
in general, that the clergy1 were a useful order of men ;
that they ought to be " esteemed very highly in love for
their works' sake,a and to be decently supported by those
they serve, " the laborer being worthy of his reward." b
Suppose, further, that a number of reverend and right
reverend drones, who worked, not; who preached, per
haps, but once a year, and then not the gospel of Jesus
Christ, but the divine right of tithes, the dignity of their
office as ambassadors of Christ, the equity of sinecures
and a plurality of benefices, the excellency of the devo
tions in that prayer-book which some of them hired chap
lains to use for them, or some favorite point of church-
tyranny and anti-Christian usurpation ; — suppose such
men as these, spending their lives in effeminacy, luxury, and
idleness, — or, when they were not idle, doing that which is
worse than idleness; — suppose such men should, merely
by the merit of ordination and consecration, and a peculiar,
a 1 Thess. v. 13. b 1 Tim. v. 18.
1 The Church of England docs not recognize as " clergy" any but its
own ministry, unless that of the papal church ; but at one time it Avas less
exclusive, and recognized Presbyterian ordination. — Hopkins's Puritans
and Queen Elizabeth, vol. ii. ch. 4. — ED.
72 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
odd habit, claim great respect and reverence from those
whom they civilly called the beasts of the laity,a and de
mand thousands per annum for that service which they
never performed, and for which, if they had performed it,
this would be more than a quantum meruit; — suppose this
should be the case (it is only by way of simile, and surely
it will give no offence), would not everybody be astonished
at such insolence, injustice, and impiety?1 And ought
not such men to be told plainly that they could not rea
sonably expect the esteem and reward due to the ministers
of the gospel unless they did the duties of their office ?
Should they not be told that their title and habit claimed
no regard, reverence, or pay, separate from the care and
work and various duties of their function ? — and that,
while they neglected the latter, the former served only
to render them the more ridiculous and contemptible?2
The application of this similitude to the case in hand is
very easy. If those who bear the title of civil rulers do
not perform the duty of civil rulers, but act directly
counter to the sole end and design of their office ; if they
injure and oppress their subjects, instead of defending
their rights and doing them good, they have not the least
pretence to be honored, obeyed, and rewarded, according
a Mr. Leslie.
1 Charles Leslie, whose works were republished at Oxford, in 1832, in
seven volumes, lived from 1050 to 1722. He was an eminent controver
sialist. His expression " their beasts, the laity," twice quoted by Dr. May-
hew, indicates his principles. He resigned his preferments on the flight
of James II., and was ever a firm adherent to the Stuarts. He contended
for absolute power, despotism — denying all right in the people either to
confer or coerce government. — ED.
2 This was the American view of the Church of England, and they
loathed the idea of its establishment in America, — a scheme assiduously
prosecuted under pretence of " propagating the gospel in foreign parts,"
etc. — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 73
to the apostle's argument. For his reasoning, in order to
show the duty of subjection to the higher powers, is, as
was before observed, built wholly upon the supposition
that they do, in fact, perform the duty of rulers.
If it be said that the apostle here uses another argument
for submission to the higher powers besides that which is
taken from the usefulness of their office to civil society
when properly discharged and executed, namely, that their
power is from God, that they are ordained of God, and
that they are God's ministers ; and if it be said that this
argument for submission to them will hold good, although
they do not exercise their power for the benefit, but for
the ruin and destruction of human society, — this objection
was obviated, in part, before.a Rulers have no authority
from God to do mischief. They are not God's ordinance,
or God's ministers, in any other sense than as it is by his
permission and providence that they are exalted to bear
rule; and as magistracy duly exercised, and authority
rightly applied, in the enacting and executing good laws,
— laws attempered and accommodated to the common
welfare of the subjects, — must be supposed to be agree
able to the will of the beneficent Author and supreme
Lord of the universe, whose "kingdom ruleth over all,"b
and whose "tender mercies are over all his works."6 It is
blasphemy to call tyrants and oppressors God's ministers.
They are more properly "the messengers of Satan to
buffet us."d ]Sro rulers are properly God's ministers but
such as are "just, ruling in the fear of God."e When
once magistrates act contrary to their office, and the end
of their institution, — when they rob and ruin the public,
instead of being guardians of its peace and welfare, — they
a See notes, pp. 60, 61. c Ts. cxlv. 19. e 2 Sara, xxiii. 3.
b Ps. ciii. 19. d 2 Cor. xii. 7.
7
74 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
immediately cease to be the ordinance and ministers of
God, and no more deserve that glorious character than
common pirates and highwaymen.1 So that, whenever
that argument for submission fails which is grounded
upon the usefulness of magistracy to civil society, — as it
always does when magistrates do hurt to society instead
of good, — the other argument, which is taken from their
being the ordinance of God, must necessarily fail also; no
person of a civil character being God's minister, in the
sense of the apostle, any further than he performs God's
will by exercising a just and reasonable authority, and
ruling for the good of the subject.
This in general. Let us now trace the apostle's reason
ing in favor of submission to the higher powers a little
more particularly and exactly ; for by this it will appear,
on one hand, how good and conclusive it is for submission
to those rulers who exercise their power in a proper man
ner, and, on the other, how weak and trifling and incon-
nected it is if it be supposed to be meant by the apostle
to show the obligation and duty of obedience to tyranni
cal, oppressive rulers, in common with others of a different
character.
The apostle enters upon his subject thus : " Let every
soul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is no
power but of God : the powers that be are ordained of
1 Parallel with this is Milton's distinction, where he says : " If I inveigh
against tyrants, what is this to kings? whom I am far from associating
with tyrants. As much as an honest man differs from a rogue, so much I
contend that a king differs from a tyrant. Whence it is clear that a tyrant
is so far from being a king, that he is always in direct opposition to a
king." — yiie Second Defence. James I., in 1603 and 1009, in his speeches
to parliament, said : " A king ceases to be a king, and degenerates into a
tyrant, as soon as he leaves off to rule according to his laws." And Locke,
of "Civil Government," sa3*s: "Wheresoever the authority ceases, the king
ceases too, and becomes like other men who have no authority." — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 75
God." a Here he urges the duty of obedience from this
topic of argument : that civil rulers, as they are supposed
to fulfil the pleasure of God, are the ordinance of God.
But how is this an argument for obedience to such rulers
as do not perform the pleasure of God by doing good, but
the pleasure of the devil by doing evil ; and such as are
not, therefore,' God's ministers, but the devil's? "Whoso
ever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance
of God ; and they that resist shall receive to themselves
damnation." b Here the apostle argues that those who
resist a reasonable and just authority, which is agreeable to
the will of God, do really resist the will of God himself,
and will, therefore, be punished by him. But how does
this prove that those who resist a lawless, unreasonable
power, which is contrary to the will of God,1 do therein
resist the will and ordinance of God ? Is resisting those
who resist God's will the same thing with resisting God ?
Or shall those who do so " receive to themselves damna
tion ? For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to
the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the
same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good." c
Here the apostle argues, more explicitly than he had
before done, for revering and submitting to magistracy,
from this consideration, that such as really performed the
a Rom. xiii. 1. b Rom. xiii. 2. c Rom. xiii. 3, 4
1 This lesson was well conned : hear one of Dr. Mayhcw's disciples, John
Adams, twenty-five years afterward, in 1775, in defence of resistance to the
despotism of the British Parliament : " We are not exciting rebellion. Op
position, nay, open, avowed resistance by arms against usurpation and law
less violence, is not rebellion by the law of God or the land. Resistance to
lawful authority makes rebellion. Hampden, Russell, Sydney, Somers,
Holt, Tillotson, Burnet, Hoadley, etc., were no tyrants nor rebels, although
some of them were in arms, and the others undoubtedly excited resistance
against the tories." — ED.
76 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
duty of magistrates would be enemies only to the evil
actions of men, and would befriend and encourage the
good, and so be a common blessing to society. But how
is this an argument that we must honor and submit to such
magistrates as are not enemies to the evil actions of men,
but to the good, and such as are not a common blessing,
but a common curse to society ? " But if thou do that
which is evil, be afraid : for he is the minister of God, a
revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doth evil.""
Here the apostle argues, from the nature and end of
magistracy, that such as did evil, and such only, had rea
son to be afraid of the higher powers ; it being part of
their office to punish evil-doers, no less than to defend and
encourage such as do well. But if magistrates are un
righteous, — if they are respecters of persons, — if they are
partial in their administration of justice, — then those who
do well have as much reason to be afraid as those that do
evil : there can be no safety for the good, nor any peculiar
ground of terror to the unruly and injurious ; so that, in
this case, the main end of civil government will be frus
trated. And what reason is there for submitting to that
government which does by no means answer the design
of government ? "Wherefore ye must needs be subject
not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake." b Here
the apostle argues the duty of a cheerful and conscientious
submission to civil government from the nature and end
of magistracy, as he had before laid it down ; i. <?., as the
design of it was to punish evil-doers, and to support and
encourage such as do well ; and as it must, if so exercised,
be agreeable to the will of God. But how does what he
here says prove the duty of a cheerful and conscientious
subjection to those who forfeit the character of rulers ? — to
a Rom. xiii. 4. b Rom. xiii. 5.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 77
those who encourage the bad and discourage the good ?
The argument here used no more proves it to be a sin
to resist such rulers than it does to resist the devil,
that he may flee from us.a For one is as truly the min
ister of God as the other. "For, for this cause pay
you tribute also; for they are God's ministers, attend
ing continually upon this very thing." b Plere the apos
tle argues the duty of paying taxes from this consid
eration, that those who perform the duty of rulers are
continually attending upon the public welfare. But how
does this argument conclude for paying taxes to such
princes as are continually endeavoring to ruin the public ;
and especially when such payment would facilitate and
promote this wicked design? "Render therefore to all
their dues ; tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to
whom custom ; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor."0
Here the apostle sums up what he has been saying con
cerning the duty of subjects to rulers ; and his argument
stands thus : " Since magistrates who execute their office
well are common benefactors to society, and may in that
respect properly be called the ministers and ordinance
of God, and since they are constantly employed in the
service of the public, it becomes you to pay them tribute
and custom, and to reverence, honor, and submit to them
in the execution of their respective offices." This is
apparently good reasoning. But does this argument con
clude for the duty of paying tribute, custom, reverence,
honor, and obedience to such persons as, although they
bear the title of rulers, use all their power to hurt and
injure the public? — such as are not God's ministers, but
Satan's ? such as do not take care of and attend upon the
public interest, but their own, to the ruin of the public?
— that is, in short, to such as have no just claim at all to
a James iv. 7. b Kom. xiii. 6. c Rom. xiii. 7.
7* •
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tribute, custom, reverence, honor, and obedience ? It is to
be hoped that those who have any regard to the apostle's
character as an inspired writer, or even as a man of com
mon understanding, will not represent him as reasoning in
such a loose, incoherent manner, and drawing conclusions
which have not the least relation to his premises. For
what can be more absurd than an argument thus framed :
" Rulers are, by their office, bound to consult the public
welfare and the good of society ; therefore, you are bound
to pay them tribute, to honor, and to submit to them, even
when they destroy the public welfare, and are a common
pest to society by acting in direct contradiction to the
nature and end of their office"?
Thus, upon a careful review of the apostle's reasoning
in this passage, it appears that his arguments to enforce
submission are of such a nature as to conclude only in
favor of submission to such rulers as he himself describes ;
i. e., such as rule for the good of society, which is the only
end of their institution. Common tyrants and public
oppressors are not entitled to obedience from their sub
jects by virtue of anything here laid down by the inspired
apostle.
I now add, further, that the apostle's argument is so
far from proving it to be the duty of people to obey and
submit to such rulers as act in contradiction to the public
good,a and so to the design of their office, that it proves
the direct contrary. For, please to observe, that if the
end of all civil government be the good of society ; if this
be the thing that is aimed at in constituting civil rulers ;
and if the motive and argument for submission to gov
ernment be taken from the apparent usefulness of civil
a This does not intend their acting so in a few particular instances, which the
best of rulers may do through mistake, etc., but their acting so habitually, and
in a manner which plainly shows that they aim atjnaking themselves great by the
ruiu of their subjects.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 79
authority, — it follows, that when no such good end can
be answered by submission, there remains no argument or
motive to enforce it ; and if, instead of this good end's
being brought about by submission, a contrary end is
brought about, and the ruin and misery of society effected
by it, here is a plain and positive reason against submis
sion in all such cases, should they ever happen. And
therefore, in such cases, a regard to the public welfare
ouo;ht to make us withhold from our rulers that obedience
O
and submission which it would otherwise be our duty to
render to them. If it be our duty, for example, to obey
our king merely for this reason, that he rules for the public
welfare (which is the only argument the apostle makes use
of), it follows, by a parity of reason, that when he turns
tyrant, and makes his subjects his prey to devour and
destroy, instead of his charge to defend and cherish, we
are bound to throw off our allegiance to him, and to resist;
and that according to the tenor of the apostle's argument
in this passage. Not to discontinue our allegiance in this
case would be to join with the sovereign in promoting the
slavery and misery of that society, the welfare of which
we ourselves, as well as our sovereign, are indispensably
obliged to secure and promote, as far as in us lies. It is
true the apostle puts no case of such a tyrannical prince ;
but, by his grounding his argument for submission wholly
upon the good of civil society, it is plain he implicitly
authorizes, and even requires us to make resistance, when
ever this shall be necessary to the public safety and happi
ness. Let me make use of this easy and familiar similitude
to illustrate the point in hand : Suppose God requires a
family of children to obey their father and not to resist
him, and enforces his command with this argument, that
the superintendence and care and authority of a just and
kind parent will contribute to the happiness of the whole
80 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
family, so that they ought to obey him for their own sakes
more than for his; suppose this parent at length runs
distracted, and attempts in his mad fit to cut all his chil
dren's throats. Now, in this case, is not the reason before
assigned why these children should obey their parent
while he continued of a sound mind — namely, their com
mon good — a reason equally conclusive for disobeying and
resisting him, since he is become delirious and attempts
their ruin ? It makes no alteration in the argument
whether this parent, properly speaking, loses his reason,
or does, while he retains his understanding, that which is
as fatal in its consequences as anything he could do were
he really deprived of it. This similitude needs no formal
application.
But it ought to be remembered that if the duty of uni
versal obedience and non-resistance to our king or prince
can be argued from this passage, the same unlimited sub
mission, under a republican or any other form of govern
ment, and even to all the subordinate powers in any
particular state, can be proved by it as well, which is more
than those who allege it for the mentioned purpose would
be willing should be inferred from it ; so that this passage
does not answer their purpose, but really overthrows and
confutes it. This matter deserves to be more particularly
considered. The advocates for unlimited submission and
passive obedience do, if I mistake not, always speak with
reference to kingly and monarchical government as distin
guished from all other forms, and with reference to sub
mitting to the will of the king in distinction from all
subordinate officers acting beyond their commission and
the authority which they have received from the crown.
It is not pretended that any persons besides kings have a
divine right to do what they please, so that no one may
resist them -without incurring the guilt of factiousness and
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 81
rebellion. If any other powers oppress the people, it is
generally allowed that the people may get redress by
resistance, if other methods prove ineffectual. And if any
officers in a kingly government go beyond the limits of
that power which they have derived from the crown (the
supposed original source of all power and authority in the
state), and attempt illegally to take away the properties
and lives of their fellow-subjects, they may be forcibly
resisted, at least till application can be made to the crown.
But as to the sovereign himself, he may not be resisted in
any case, nor any of his officers, while they confine them
selves within the bounds which he has prescribed to them.
This is, I think, a true sketch of the principles of those who
defend the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resist
ance. Now, there is nothing in Scripture which supports
this scheme of political principles. As to the passage
under consideration, the apostle here speaks of civil rulers
in general, — of all persons in common vested with au
thority for the good of society, without any particular
reference to one form of government more than to another,
or to the supreme power in any particular state more than
to subordinate powers. The apostle does not concern
himself with the different forms of government.81 This he
a The essence of government (I mean good government, and this is the only
government which the apostle treats of in this passage) consists in the making
and executing of good laws — laws attempered to the common felicity of the
governed. And if this be, in fact, done, it is evidently in itself a thing of no
consequence at all what the particular form of government is;— whether the
legislative and executive power be lodged in one and the same person, or in dif
ferent persons; whether in one person, whom we call an absolute monarch;
whether in a few, so as to constitute an aristocracy ; whether in many, so as to
constitute a republic; or whether in three coordinate branches, in such manner
as to make the government partake something of each of these forms, and to be,
at the same time, essentially different from them all. If the end be attained, it
is enough. But no form of government seems so unlikely to accomplish this
end as absolute monarchy. Nor is there any one that has so little pretence to a
divine original, unless it be in this sense, that God first introduced it into, and
thereby overturned, the commonwealth ol Israel, as a curse upon that people for
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supposes left entirely to human prudence and discretion.
Now, the consequence of this is, that unlimited and passive
obedience is no more enjoined in this passage under mon
archical government, or to the supreme power in any state,
than under all other species of government which answer
the end of government, or to all the subordinate degrees
of civil authority, from the highest to the lowest. Those,
therefore, who would from this passage infer the guilt of
resisting kings in all cases whatever, though acting ever
so contrary to the design of their office, must, if they will
be consistent, go much further, and infer from it the guilt
of resistance under all other forms of government, and of
resisting any petty officer in the state, though acting
beyond his commission in the most arbitrary, illegal
manner possible. The argument holds equally strong in
both cases. All civil rulers, as such, are the ordinance
and ministers of God, and they are all, by the nature of
their office, and in their respective spheres and stations,
bound to consult the public welfare. With the same rea
son, therefore, that any deny unlimited and passive obedi
ence to be here enjoined under a republic or aristocracy, or
any other established form of civil government, or to sub
ordinate powers acting in an illegal and oppressive manner;
with the same reason others may deny that such obedi
ence is enjoined to a king or. monarch, or any civil power
whatever. For the apostle says nothing that is peculiar to
kings ; what he says extends equally to all other persons
whatever vested with any civil office. They are all, in
exactly the same sense, the ordinance of God arid the
ministers of God, and obedience is equally enjoined to be
paid to them all. For, as the apostle expresses it, there is
their folly and wickedness, particularly in desiring such a government. (See
1 Sam. ch. viii.) Just so God before sent quails amongst them, as a plague and a
curse, and not as a blessing. Numb. ch. xi.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 83
no power but of God; and wo arc required to render to all
their dues, and not 'more than their dues. And what these
dues are, and to whom they are to be rendered, the apostle
saith not, but leaves to the reason and consciences of men
to determine.
Thus it appears that the common argument grounded
upon this passage in favor of universal and passive obedi
ence really overthrows itself, by proving too much, if it
proves anything at all, — namely, that no civil officer is, in
any case whatever, to be resisted, though acting in express
contradiction to the design of his office, — which no man in
his senses ever did or can assert.
If we 'calmly consider the nature of the thing itself,
nothing can well be imagined more directly contrary to
common sense than to suppose that millions of people
should be subjected to the arbitrary, precarious pleasure
of one single man, — who has naturally no superiority over
them in point of authority, — so that their estates, and
everything that is valuable in life, and even their lives
also, shall be absolutely at his disposal, if he happens to be
wanton and capricious enough to demand them. What
unprejudiced man can think that God made all to be thils
subservient to the lawless pleasure and frenzy of on-e,1 so
1 This will suggest to many readers Milton's noble passage : " Our liberty
is not Caesar's; it is a blessing we have received from God himself; it
is what we are born to; to lay down this at Caesar's feet, which we derive
not from him, which we are not beholden to him for, were an unworthy
action, and a degrading of our very nature. If one should consider
attentively the countenance of a man, and inquire after whose image so
noble a creature were framed, would not any one that heard him presently
make answer, that he was made after the image of God himself? Being,
therefore, peculiarly God's own, and consequently things that are to be
given to him, we arc entirely free by nature, and cannot without the great
est sacrilege imaginable be reduced into a condition of slavery to any man,
especially to a wicked, unjust, cruel tyrant."— Defence of the People of
England. — ED.
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that it shall always be a sin to resist him ? Nothing but
the most plain and express revelation from heaven could
make a sober, impartial man believe such a monstrous,
unaccountable doctrine ; and, indeed, the thing itself ap
pears so shocking, so out of all proportion, that it may be
questioned whether all the miracles that ever were wrought
could make it credible that this doctrine really came from
God. At present there is not the least syllable in Scripture
which gives any countenance to it. The hereditary, inde
feasible, divine right of kings, and the doctrine of non-
resistance, which is built upon the supposition of such a
right, are altogether as fabulous and chimerical as tran-
substantiation, or any of the most absurd reveries of an
cient or modern visionaries. These notions are fetched
neither from divine revelation nor human reason ; and, if
they are derived from neither of those sources, it is not
much matter from whence they come or whither they go.
Only it is a pity that such doctrines should be propagated
in society, to raise factions and rebellions,1 as we see they
have, in fact, been, both in the last and in the present
reign.
But, then, if unlimited submission and passive obedience
to the higher powers, in all possible cases, be not a duty,
it will be asked, " How far are we obliged to submit ? If
we may innocently disobey and resist in some cases, why
not in all ? Where shall we stop ? What is the measure
of our duty? This doctrine tends to the total dissolution
i As, for instance, those of the high-church, divine-right party, in 1714,
1715, which occasioned the Riot Act, the law of the land to this day.
"Down with the Roundheads! God bless Dr. Sacheverell! " was their cry
when they destroyed the meeting-houses of the dissenters ; and their vio
lences were unprecedented. They sought to replace the Stuarts, as at
Preston, Nov. 13, 1715, and at Culloden Moor, April 16, 1746. These will
call to mind Campbell's celebrated poem, "Lochiel's Warning," and
Scott's romance, " Waverley."— ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 85
of civil government, and to introduce such scenes of wild
anarchy and confusion as are more fatal to society than
the worst of tyranny."
After this manner some men object ; and, indeed, this is
the most plausible thing that can be said in favor of such
an absolute submission as they plead for. But the worst,
or, rather, the best of it is, that there is very little strength
or solidity in it ; for similar difficulties may be raised with
respect to almost every duty of natural and revealed reli
gion. To instance only in two, both of which are near
akin, and indeed exactly parallel to the case before us : It
is unquestionably the duty of children to submit to their
parents, and of servants to their masters; but no one as
serts that it is their duty to obey and submit to them in
all supposable cases, or universally a sin to resist them.
Now, does this tend to subvert the just authority of pa
rents and masters, or to introduce confusion and anarchy
into private families? No. How, then, does the same
principle tend to unhinge the government of that larger
family the body politic? We know, in general, that chil
dren and servants are obliged to obey their parents and
masters respectively; we know also, with equal certainty,
that they are not obliged to submit to them in all things
without exception, but may, in some cases, reasonably, and
therefore innocently, resist them. These principles are
acknowledged upon all hands, whatever difficulty there
may be in fixing the exact limits of submission. Now,
there is at least as much difficulty in stating the measure
of duty in these two cases as in the case of rulers and
subjects ; so that this is really no objection — at least, no
reasonable one — against resistance to the higher powers.
Or, if it is one, it will hold equally against resistance in the
other cases mentioned. It is indeed true, that turbulent,
vicious-minded men may take occasion, from this princi-
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83 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
pie that their rulers may in some cases be lawfully resisted,
to raise factions and disturbances in the state, and to make
resistance where resistance is needless, and therefore sin
ful. But is it not equally true that children and servants,
of turbulent, vicious minds, may take occasion, from this
principle that parents and masters may in some cases be
lawfully resisted, to resist when resistance is unnecessary,
and therefore criminal? Is the principle, in either case,
false in itself merely because it may be abused, and applied
to legitimate disobedience and resistance in those instances
to which it ought not to be applied ? According to this
way of arguing, there will be no true principles in the
world ; for there are none but what may be wrested and
perverted to serve bad purposes, either through the weak
ness or wickedness of men.a
a We may very safely assert these two things in general, without undermining
government: One is, that no civil rulers are to be obeyed when they enjoin
things that are inconsistent with the commands of God. All such disobedience
is lawful and glorious; particularly if persons refuse to comply with any legal
establishment of religion, because it is a gross perversion and corruption — as to
doctrine, worship, and discipline — of a pure and divine religion, brought from
heaven to earth by the Son of God, — the only King and Head of the Christian
church, — and propagated through the world by his inspired apostles. All com
mands running counter to the declared will of the Supreme Legislator of heaven
and earth are null and void, and therefore disobedience to them is a duty, not
a crime. (See note a, p. 58.) Another thing that may be asserted with equal
truth and safety is, that no government is to be submitted to at the expense
of that which is the sole end of all government — the common good and safety
of society. Because, to submit in this case, if it should ever happen, would evi
dently be to set up the means as more valuable and above the end, than which
there cannot be a greater solecism and contradiction. The only reason of the in
stitution of civil government, and the only rational ground of submission to it.
is the common safety and utility. If, therefore, in any case, the common safety
and utility would not be promoted by submission to government, but the con
trary, there is no ground or motive for obedience and submission, but for the
contrary.
Whoever considers the nature of civil government, must indeed be sensible
that a great degree of implicit confidence must unavoidably be placed in those
that bear rule : this is implied in the very notion of authority's being originally
a trust committed by the people to those who are vested with it, — as all just and
righteous authority is. All besides is mere lawless force and usurpation ; neither
God nor nature having given any man a right of dominion over any society
independently of that society's approbation and consent to be governed by him.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 87
A people, really oppressed in a great degree by their
sovereign, cannot well be insensible when they are so op
pressed ; and such a people — if I may allude to an ancient
fable — have, like the hesperian fruit, a dragon for their
Now, as all men are fallible, it cannot be supposed that the public affairs of any
state should be always administered in the best manner possible, even by persons
of the greatest wisdom and integrity. Nor is it sufficient to legitimate disobe
dience to the higher powers that they are not so administered, or that they are in
some instances very ill-managed; for, upon this principle, it is scarcely suppos-
able that any government at all could be supported, or subsist. Such a princi
ple manifestly tends to the dissolution of government, and to throw all things
into confusion and anarchy. But it is equally evident, upon the other hand,
that those in authority may abuse their trust and power to such a degree, that
neither the law of reason nor of religion requires that any obedience or submis
sion should be paid to them; but, on the contrary, that they should be totally
discarded, and the authority which they were before vested with transferred to
others, who may exercise it more to those good purposes for which it is given.
Nor is this principle, that resistance to the higher powers is in some extraordi
nary cases justifiable, so liable to abuse as many persons seem to apprehend it.
For, although there will be always some petulant, querulous men in every state,
— men of factious, turbulent, and carping dispositions, glad to lay hold of any
trifle to justify and legitimate their caballing against their rulers, and other se
ditious practices, — yet there are, comparatively speaking, but few men of this
contemptible character. It does not appear but that mankind in general have a
disposition to be as submissive and passive and tame under government as they
ought to be. Witness a great, if not the greatest, part of the known world, who
are now groaning, but not murmuring, under the heavy yoke of tyranny 1
While those who govern do it with any tolerable degree of moderation and jus
tice, and in any good measure act up to their office and character by being
public benefactors, the people will generally be easy and peaceable, and be
rather inclined to flatter and adore than to insult and resist them. Nor was
there ever any general complaint against any administration, which lasted long,
but what there was good reason for. Till people find themselves greatly abused
and oppressed by their governors, they are not apt to complain ; and whenever
they do, in fact, find themselves thus abused and oppressed, they must be stupid
not to complain. To say that subjects in general are not proper judges when
their governors oppress them and play the tyrant, and when they defend their
rights, administer justice impartially, and promote the public welfare, is as great
treason as ever man uttered. 'T is treason, not against one single man, but the
state — against the whole body politic; 'tis treason against mankind, 'tis treason
against common sense, 'tis treason against God. And this impious principle
lays the foundation for justifying all the tyranny and oppression that ever any
prince was guilty of. The people know for what end they set up and maintain
their governors, and they are the proper judges when they execute their trust as
they ought to do it; — when their prince exercises an equitable and paternal
authority over them; when from a prince and common father he exalts himself
into a tyrant ; when from subjects and children he degrades them into the class
of slaves, plunders them, makes them his prey, and unnaturally sports himself
with their lives and fortunes.
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protector and guardian. Nor would they have any reason
to mourn if some Hercules should appear to dispatch him.
For a nation thus abused to arise unanimously and resist
their prince, even to the dethroning him, is not criminal,
but a reasonable way of vindicating their liberties and
just rights: it is making use of the means, and the only
means, which God has put into their power for mutual and
self defence. And it would be highly criminal in them not
to make use of this means. It would be stupid tameness
and unaccountable folly for whole nations to suffer one
unreasonable, ambitious, and cruel man to wanton and
riot in their misery. And in such a case, it would, of the
two, be more rational to suppose that they that did not
resist, than that they who did, would receive to them
selves damnation.
And this naturally brings us to make some reflections
upon the resistance which was made, about a century since,
to that unhappy prince King Charles I., and upon the an
niversary of his death. This is a point which I should not
have concerned myself about, were it not that some men
continue to speak of it, even to this day,1 with a great
deal of warmth and zeal, and in such a manner as to un
dermine all the principles of liberty, whether civil or reli
gious, and to introduce the most abject slavery both in
church and state — so that it is become a matter of univer
sal concern. "What I have to offer upon this subject will
be comprised in a short answer to the following queries,
i " The Episcopalians in New England, as well as the parent kingdom,
regarded this anniversary as a sacred day, and observed it as a FAST.
They took occasion not only to dwell on the great injustice done to the
king in person, and the outrage, as they called it, committed against the
crown, but to exalt and glorify Episcopacy and monarchy, and to abuse
both Republicans and Puritans." — Dr. Bradford's Life of Mayhew, 103,
117. See note to the Preface. — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 89
For what reason the resistance to King Charles the First
was made.
By whom it was made.
Whether this resistance was rebellion,11 or not.
How the anniversary of King Charles's death came at
first to be solemnized as a day of fasting and humiliation.
And, lastly,
Why those of the Episcopal clergy who are very high in
the principles of ecclesiastical authority continue to speak
of this unhappy man as a great saint and a martyr.
For what reason, then, was the resistance to King
Charles made ? The general answer to this inquiry is,
that it was on account of the tyranny and oppression of
his reign. Not a great while after his accession to the
throne, he married a French Catholic,1 and with her
seemed to have wedded the politics, if not the religion
of France, also. For afterwards, during a reign, or, rather,
a tyranny of many years, he governed in a perfectly wild
and arbitrary manner, paying no regard to the constitution
and the laws of the kingdom, by which the power of the
crown was limited, or to the solemn oath which he had
taken at his coronation. It would be endless, as well as
needless, to give a particular account of all the illegal and
despotic measures which he took in his administration, —
partly from his own natural lust of power, and partly from
the influence of wicked counsellors and ministers. He
committed many illustrious members of both Houses of
Parliament to the Tower for opposing his arbitrary
schemes. He levied many taxes upon the people without
consent of Parliament, and then imprisoned great numbers
a N. B. — I speak of rebellion, treason, saintship, martyrdom, etc., throughout
this discourse, only in the scriptural and theological sense. 1 know not how
the laiv defines them — the study of that not being my employment.
1 Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France. — ED.
8*
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of the principal merchants and gentry for not paying
them. He erected, or at least revived, several arbitrary
courts, in which the most unheard-of barbarities were
committed with his knowledge and approbation. He
supported that more than fiend, Archbishop Laud, and
the clergy of his stamp, in all their church-tyranny1 and
hellish cruelties. He authorized a book in favor of sports
upon the Lord's day; and several clergymen were perse
cuted by him and the mentioned pious bishop for not read
ing it to the people after divine service.2 When the Par
liament complained to him of the arbitrary proceedings of
his corrupt ministers, he told that august body, in a rough,
domineering, unprincely manner, that he wondered any one
should be so foolish and insolent as to think that he would
part with the meanest of his servants upon their account.
He refused to call any Parliament at all for the space of
twelve years together, during all which time he governed
in an absolute, lawless, and despotic manner. He took
all opportunities to encourage the Papists, and to promote
them to the highest offices of honor and trust. He (proba
bly) abetted the horrid massacre in Ireland, in which two
hundred thousand Protestants were butchered by the
Roman Catholics. He sent a large sum of money, which
he had raised by his arbitrary taxes, into Germany, to raise
foreign troops,3 in order to force more arbitrary taxes upon
1 The intimate connection of this with New England history is touched
upon in the Introduction to this volume. — ED.
2 " One Dr. Dawson read it," — in church, as commanded, — " and pres
ently after read the Ten Commandments; then said : ' Dearly beloved, you
have heard now the commandments of God and man : obey which you
please.' " — Knight's History of England, iii. 415. — ED.
3 " Foreign troops." In 1027 Charles sent funds to Germany for mercenary
German troops, to repel any insurrection consequent on the collection of the
excise without grant by the Parliament. In 1028 the Commons " remon
strated" against this " bringing in of strangers for aid, as pernicious to most
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 91
his subjects. He not only, by a long series of actions, but
also in plain terms, asserted an absolute, uncontrollable
power, — saying, even, in one of his speeches to Parlia
ment, that, as it was blasphemy to dispute what God
might do, so it was sedition in subjects to dispute what
the king might do! Towards the end of his tyranny he
came to the House of Commons, with an armed force," and
demanded five of its principal members to be delivered up
to him ; and this was a prelude to that unnatural war
which he soon after levied against his own dutiful subjects,
whom he was bound, by all the laws of honor, humanity,
piety, and, I might add, of interest also, to defend and
cherish .with a paternal affection. I have only time to
hint at these facts1 in a general way, all which, and many
a Historians are not agreed what number of soldiers attended him in this
monstrous invasion of the privileges of Parliament. Some say three hundred,
some four hundred ; and the author of " The History of the Kings of Scotland "
says five hundred.
states, but to England fatal," and " we are bold to declare to your Majesty
and the whole world, that we hold it far beneath the heart of any English
man to think that this victorious nation should now stand in need of Ger
man soldiers to defend their now king and kingdom." The king's insolent
reply was, " I owe the account of my actions to God alone ! " and so prorogued
the Parliament. In the year before he had said to them, at the opening of
the session, " I mean not to spend much time in words. . . . I need
but point out to you Avhat to do. I will use but few persuasions. . . .
Take not this as a threatening, for I scorn to threaten any but my equals."
When George II. brought German troops into England in 1750, " That
state alone," exclaimed Pitt, "is a sovereign state which stands by its
own strength, not by the help of another country." George III. bought
with British money " the hireling sword of German boors and vassals" to
reduce the American colonies, and this was one of the wrongs set forth in
the Declaration of July 4, 1776 : " transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries." — Kr>.
i This summary, by Dr. Mayhew, in 1750, of the crimes of Charles I.
which led to the Revolution of 1040, bears to Mr. Jefferson's " declaration"
of the complaints against George III. — the " causes" which led to the Rev
olution of 1775 — a resemblance so remarkable, both in form and spirit,
92 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
more of the same tenor, may be proved by good authori
ties. So that the figurative language which St. John uses
concerning the just and beneficent deeds of our blessed
Saviour may be applied to the unrighteous and execrable
deeds of this prince, viz. : " And there are also many other
things which" King Charles " did, the which, if they should
be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself
could not contain the books that should be written." a
Now, it was on account of King Charles's thus assuming a
power above the laws, in direct contradiction to his coro
nation oath, and governing, the greatest part of his time,
in the most arbitrary, oppressive manner — it was upon
this account that resistance was made to him, which at
length issued in the loss of his crown, and of that head
which was unworthy to wear it.
But by whom was this resistance made ? Not by a
private junto, not by a small seditious party, not by a few
desperadoes, who to mend their fortunes would embroil
the state ; but by the Lords and Commons of England.
It was they that almost unanimously opposed the king's
measures for overturning the constitution, and changing
that free and happy government into a wretched, absolute
monarchy. It was they that, when the king was about
levying forces against his subjects in order to make him
self absolute, commissioned officers, and raised an army to
defend themselves and the public ; and it was they that
maintained the war against him all along, till he was made
a prisoner. This is indisputable ; though it was not, prop
erly speaking, the Parliament, but the army, which put
a John xxi.25.
that a careful parallel of the two would not discredit a tradition, were there
one, that Dr. Mayhew's was the model for that of a quarter of a century
later. It is certain that Dr. Mayhew's sermon was circulated and read
everywhere. — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 93
him to death afterwards. And it ought to be freely
acknowledged that most of their proceeding, in order to
get this matter effected,1 and particularly the court by
which the king was at last tried and condemned, was little
better than a mere mockery of justice.
The next question which naturally arises is, whether this
resistance which was made to the king by the Parliament
was properly rebellion or not ? The answer to which is
1 " It is much to be doubted whether his trial and execution have not,
as much as any other circumstance, served to raise the character of the
English nation in the opinion of Europe in general." — CHARLES JAMES
Fox.
"Having share in the government, sirs, that is nothing pertaining to
the people. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things." — KING
CHARLES I. on the scaffold.
" Now Charles, to a degree which can scarcely be exceeded, conspired
against the liberty of his country. To assert his own authority without
limitation was the object of all his desires and all his actions, so far as the
public was concerned For that purpose he commenced war
against the English Parliament, and continued it by every expedient in
his power for four years. ... He could never be reconciled ; he could
never be disarmed ; he could never be convinced. His was a war to the
death, and there had the utmost aggravation that can belong to a war
against the liberty of a nation It is not easy to imagine a
greater criminal than the individual against whom the sentence was
awarded." — WILLIAM GODWIN.
"They were men sufficiently provided with daring; men, we are bound
to see, who sat there as in the presence of the Maker of all men, as exe
cuting the judgment of Heaven above, and had not the fear of any man or
thing on the earth below. ... I reckon it perhaps the most daring
action any body of men to be met with in. history ever, with clear con
sciousness, deliberately set themselves to do." — THOMAS CARLYLE.
" God has endued you with greatness of mind to be the first of man
kind, who, after having conquered their own king, and having had him
delivered into their hands, have not scrupled to condemn him judicially,
and, pursuant to that sentence of condemnation, to put him to death." —
JOHN MILTON.
" Illustrious and heroic defenders of real, perfect, and unpolluted lib
erty, civil and religious, throughout the world." — EZRA STILES. — ED.
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plain, — that it was not, but a most righteous and glorious
stand, made in defence of the natural and legal rights of
the people, against the unnatural and illegal encroach
ments of arbitrary power. Xor was this a rash and too
sudden opposition. The nation had been patient under
the oppressions of the crown, even to long-suffering, for a
course of many years, and there was no rational hope of re
dress in any other way. Resistance was absolutely neces
sary,1 in order to preserve the nation from slavery, misery,
and ruin. And who so proper to make this resistance as
the Lords and Commons, — the whole representative body
of the people, — guardians of the public welfare ; and
each of which was, in point of legislation, vested with an
equal, coordinate power with that of the crown ?a Here
a The English constitution is originally and essentially free. The character
which Julius Ctesar and Tacitus both give of the ancient Britains so long ago is,
that they were extremely jealous of their liberties, as well as a people of a mar
tial spirit. Xor have there been wanting frequent instances and proofs of the
same glorious spirit, in both respects, remaining in their posterity ever since, in
the struggles they have made for liberty, both against foreign and domestic ty
rants. Their kings hold their title to the throne solely by grant of Parliament;
— i. e., in other words, by the voluntary consent of the people; — and, agreeably
hereto, the prerogative and rights of the crown are stated, defined, and limited
by law; and that as truly and strictly as the rights of any inferior officer in the
state, or, indeed, of any private subject. And it is only in this respect that it can
be said that " the king can do no wrong." Being restrained by the law, he can
not, while he confines himself within those just limits which the law prescribes
to him as the measure of his authority, injure and oppress the subject. The
king, in his coronation oath, swears to exercise only such a power as the consti
tution gives him; and the subject, in the oath of allegiance, swears only to obey
him in the exercise of such a power. The king is as much bound by his oath not
to infringe the legal rights of the people as the people are bound to yield subjec
tion to him From whence it follows, that as soon as the prince sets himself up
above law, he loses the king in the tyrant. He does, to all intents and purposes,
i Lord Caraden relates that somebody asked the great Mr. Selden, whom
Grotius called the glory of England, in what law-book, in what records
or archives of the state, might be found the law for resisting tyranny. " I
don't know," said Selden, " whether it would be worth your while to look
deeply into books on this matter; but I will tell you what is most certain,
that it has always been the CUSTOM of England, and the custom of Eng
land is the law of the land." — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 95
were two branches of the legislature against one ; two,
which had law and equity and the constitution on their
side, against one which was impiously attempting to over
turn law and equity and the constitution, and to exercise
a wanton, licentious sovereignty over the properties, con
sciences, and lives of all the people ; — such a sovereignty
as some inconsiderately ascribe to the Supreme Governor
of the world. I say, inconsiderately, because God himself
does not govern in an absolutely arbitrary and despotic
manner. The power of this almighty King — I speak it
not without caution and reverence — the power of this
almighty King is limited by law ; not indeed by acts of
Parliament, but by the eternal laws of truth, wisdom, and
equity, and the everlasting tables of right reason, — tables
that cannot be repealed, or thrown down and broken like
those of Moses. But King Charles set himself up above
all these,1 as much as he did above the written laws of the
realm, and made mere humor and caprice, which are no
rule at all, the only rule and measure of his administration.
And now is it not perfectly ridiculous to call resistance to
such a tyrant by the name of rebellion? — the grand rebel-
unking himself by acting out of and beyond that sphere which the constitution
allows him to move in; and in such cases he has no more right to be obeyed than
any inferior officer who acts beyond his commission. The subject's obligation to
allegiance then ceases, of course; and to resist him is no more rebellion than to
resist any foreign invader. There is an essential difference betwixt government
and tyranny, at least under such a constitution as the English. The former con
sists in ruling according to law and equity; the latter, in ruling contrary to law
and equity. So, also, there is an essential difference betwixt resisting a tyrant,
and rebellion. The former is a just and reasonable s-elf-defence; the latter con
sists in resisting a prince whose administration is just and legal; and this is
what denominates it a crime. Now, it is evident that King Charles's government
was illegal, and very oppressive, through the greatest part of his reign; and,
therefore, to resist him was no more rebellion than to oppose any foreign in
vader, or any other domestic oppressor.
1 Veiy distinctly he did so. He began his reasons for dissolving the Par
liament (March 10, 1028) with this : " Howsoever , princes are not bound to give
account of their actions but to God alone." — Rushworth, i., Appendix. — ED.
96 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
lion ? Even that Parliament which brought King
Charles II. to the throne, and which run loyally mad,
severely reproved one of their own members for condemn
ing the proceedings of that Parliament which first took
up arms against the former king. And upon the same
principles that the proceeding of this Parliament may be
censured as wicked and rebellious, the proceedings of those
who, since, opposed King James II., and brought the
Prince of Orange to the throne, may be censured as
wicked and rebellious also. The cases are parallel. But,
whatever some men may think, it is to be hoped that, for
their own sakes, they will not dare to speak against the
Revolution, upon the justice and legality of w^hich de
pends,1 in part, his present majesty's right to the throne.
If it be said that although the Parliament which first
opposed King Charles's measures, and at length took up
arms against him, were not guilty of rebellion, yet cer
tainly those persons were who condemned and put him to
death, — even this, perhaps, is not true ; for he had, in
fact, unkinged himself long before, and had forfeited his
title to the allegiance of the people. So that those who
put him to death were, at most, only guilty of murder, —
which indeed is bad enough, if they were really guilty of
that, — which is, at least, disputable.2 Cromwell, and
those who were principally concerned in the (nominal)
king's death, might possibly have been very wicked and
designing men. Nor shall I say anything in vindication
of the reigning hypocrisy of those times, or of Cromwell's 3
1 This point was used, and with great power, during the next thirty
years. We shall find it frequently made in the sermons in this collec
tion. — ED.
2 See note 1, p. 02. — ED.
3 Carlyle says : " It is beautiful ... to see how the memory of
Cromwell . . . has been steadily growing clearer and clearer in the
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS, 97
maladministration during the interregnum ; for it is truth,
and not a party, that I am speaking for. But still, it may
be said that Cromwell and his adherents were not, properly
speaking, guilty of rebellion, because he whom they be
headed was not, properly speaking, their king, but a law
less tyrant ; much less are the whole body of the nation
at that time to be charged with rebellion on that account :
for it was no national act ; it was not done by a free Par
liament. And much less still is the nation at present to be
charged with the great sin of rebellion for what their an
cestors did, or, rather, did not, a century ago.
But how came the anniversary of King Charles's death
to be solomnized1 as a day of fasting and humiliation?
•
popular English mind; onwards to this day, the progress does not stop »
He declares Cromwell the « English hero; - « the soul and life of Puritan
ism;" "the most English of Englishmen; » "a great man, denizen of
all centuries, or he could not have been, as he was, the pattern one of the
- Letters and Speeches of Cromwell. — ED.
1 The diary of Evelyn, recently published, contains interesting notices of
this « Fast." « January 30th, 1601, was the first solemn fast and day of hu
miliation to deplore the sins which so long had provoked God against this
afflicted church and people, ordered by Parliament to be annually cele
brated to expiate the guilt of the execrable murder of the late king.
" This day (0 the stupendous and inscrutable judgments of God°!) were
the carcasses of those arch-rebels, Cromwell, Bradshaw (the judge who
condemned his Majesty), and Ireton (son-in-law to the usurper) draped
out of their superb tombs in Westminster, among the kings, to Tyburn
and hanged on the gallows there from nine in the mornin- till 'six at
night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument in a
leep p,t; thousands of people who had seen them in all their pride beino-
spectators. Look back at October 22, 1658,"- Oliver's funeral - '< and be
astonished, and fear God and honor the king; but meddle not with them
who are given to change." But times change, and we change with them
Not thirty years had passed before the « martyr's " family was banished
from the throne and nation. "And now," says Evelyn, « the clergy began
to change their note, both in pulpit and discourse, on their old passive
todience, so as people begin to talk of the bishops being cast out of the
House; and on the 30th of January, 1C89, he writes : " The anniversary of
9
98 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
The true answer in brief to which inquiry is, that this fast
was instituted by way of court and compliment to King
Charles II. upon the restoration. All were desirous of
making their court to him, of ingratiating themselves, and
of making him forget what had been done in opposition
to his father, so as not to revenge it. To effect this ihey
ran into the most extravagant professions of affection and
loyalty to him, insomuch that he himself said that it was a
rnad and hair-brained royalty which they professed. And,
amongst other strange things which his first Parliament did,
they ordered the thirtieth of January — the day on which
his father was beheaded — to be kept as a day of solemn
humiliation, to deprecate the judgments of Heaven for the
rebellion which the nation had been guilty of, in that
which was no national thing, and which was not rebellion
in them that did it. Thus they soothed and flattered their
new king at the expense of their liberties, and were ready
to yield up freely to Charles II. all that enormous power
which they had justly resisted Charles I. for usurping to
himself.
The last query mentioned was, Why those of the Epis
copal clergy who are very high in the principles of ecclesi
astical authority continue to speak of this unhappy man as
a great saint and a martyr. This we know is what they
constantly do, especially upon the thirtieth of January — a
day sacred to the extolling of him, and to the reproaching
of those who are not of the Established Church^. " Out
of the same mouth," on this day, " proceedeth blessing and
cursing ;"a therewith bless they their God, even Charles,
and therewith curse they the dissenters. And their
" tongue can no man tame ; it is an unruly evil, full of
a James iii. 8, 9, 10.
King Charles the First's martyrdom; but in all the public offices and
pulpit prayers the collects and litany for the king and queen were cur
tailed and mutilated." — ED.
I
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 99
deadly poison." King Charles is upon this solemnity
frequently compared to our Lord Jesus Christ, both in
respect of the holiness of his life and the greatness and
injustice of his sufferings; and it is a wonder they do not
add something concerning the merits of his death also:
but "blessed saint" and "royal martyr" are as humble
titles as any that are thought worthy of him.
Now this may, at first view, well appear to be a very
strange phenomenon ; for King Charles was really a man
black with guilt, and " laden with iniquity," a as appears
by his crimes before mentioned. He lived a tyrant ; and
it was the oppression and violence of his reign that
brought him to his untimely and violent end at last.
Now, what of saintship or martyrdom is there in all this ?
What of saintship is there in encouraging people to pro
fane the Lord's day? What of saintship in falsehood and
perjury? What of saintship in repeated robberies and
depredations? What of saintship in throwing real saints
and glorious patriots into jails? What of saintship in
overturning an excellent civil constitution, and proudly
grasping at an illegal and monstrous power? Wrhat of
saintshipr in the murder of thousands of innocent people,
and involving a nation in all the calamities of civil war?
And what of martyrdom is there in a man's bringing an
immature and violent death upon himself by "being
wicked overmuch" ?b Is there any such thing as grace
without goodness; as being a follower of Christ without
following him ; as being his disciple without learning of
him to be just and beneficent; or as saintship without
sanctity ?c If not, I fear it will be hard to prove this
a Isa; *• 4- b Eccles. vii. 17.
c Is it any wonder that even persons who do not walk after their own lust
should scoff at such saints as this, both in the first and in the last days, even
from everlasting to everlasting? (2 l'et. iii. 3, 4.) But perhaps it will be said that
these things are mysteries, which, although very true in themselves, lay under
standings cannot comprehend; or, indeed, any other persons amongst us besides
100 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
man a saint. And verily one would be apt to suspect that
that church must be but poorly stocked with saints and
martyrs which is forced to adopt such enormous sinners
into her calendar in order to swell the number.
But, to unravel this mystery of (nonsense as well as
of) iniquity, which has already worked for a long time
amongst us,a or, at least, to give the most probable solu
tion of it, it is to be remembered that King Charles, — this
burlesque upon saintship and martyrdom, — though so great
an oppressor, was a true friend to the church, — so true a
friend to her that he was very well affected towards the
Roman Catholics, and would probably have been very
willing to unite Lambeth and Rome. This appears by
his marrying a true daughter of that true "mother of
harlots," b which he did with a dispensation from the Pope,
that supreme bishop, to whom, when he wrote, he gave the
title of Most Holy Father. His queen was extremely
bigoted to all the follies and superstitions, and to the
hierarchy, of Rome, and had a prodigious ascendency over
him all his life. It was in part owing to this that he
(probably) abetted the massacre of the Protestants in
Ireland, — that he assisted in extirpating the French Protes-
those who, being inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, have taken a trip across
the Atlantic to obtain episcopal ordination and the indelible character.1 How
ever, if these consecrated gentlemen do not quite despair of us, it is hoped that,
in the abundance of their charity, they will endeavor to elucidate these dark
points, and at the same time explain the creed of another of their eminent saints,
which we are told that unless we believe faithfully, i. e., believingly, we cannot
be saved ; — which creed, or rather riddle, notwithstanding all the labors of the
pious and metaphysical Dr. Waterland, remains somewhat enigmatical still,
a 2 Thess. ii. 7. b Rev. xvii. 5.
1 Among these were Rev. Samuel Johnson, D. D., first President of
King's College, and Rev. Timothy Cutler, D. D., President of Yale Col
lege; Rev. Samuel A. Peters, LL. D., author of the remarkable " History
of Connecticut;" the Rev. East Apthorp, missionary "in foreign parts,"
at Cambridge, Massachusetts; and, of later date, the Rev. Jacob Bailey,
A. M., happily commemorated as " The Frontier Missionary " by the
Rev. William S. Bartlett,' A. M. — ED.
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 101
tants1 at Rochelle, — that he all along encouraged Papists
and popishly affected clergymen, in preference to all other
persons, — and that he upheld that monster of wickedness,
Archbishop Laud, and the bishops of his stamp, in all
their church tyranny and diabolical cruelties. In return
to his kindness and indulgence in which respects they
caused many of the pulpits throughout the nation to ring
with the divine, absolute, indefeasible right of kings — with
the praises of Charles and his reign, and with the damna
ble sin of resisting the "Lord's anointed," let him do what
he would ; so that not Christ, but Charles, was commonly
preached to the people. In plain English, there seems
to have been an impious bargain struck up betwixt the
sceptre and the surplice for enslaving both the bodies and
souls of men. The king appeared to be willing that the
clergy should do what they would, — set up a monstrous
hierarchy like that of Rome, a monstrous Inquisition like
that of Spain or Portugal, or anything else which their
own pride and the devil's malice could prompt them to,
— provided always that the clergy would be tools to the
crown ; that they would make the people believe that
kings had God's authority for breaking God's law, — that
they had a commission from Heaven to seize the estates
and lives of their subjects at pleasure, — and that it was a
damnable sin to resist them, even when they did such
1 Many of the French Protestants found refuge in New England. They
settled the town of Oxford, in Massachusetts, in 1080. Some of them
settled in Boston, and their church in School Street must have been
familiar to Dr. Mayhew, who would have peculiar sympathy with them as
refugees. Many of their names are familiar to us: FANEUIL Hall, in
Boston; BOWDOIX College, in Maine; LEGARE, of the bar; DEIIOX, of the
clergy; SIGOURNEY (by marriage), among the poets. Interesting particu
lars in Drake's History of Boston, Rev. Dr. Holmes's Memoir of the French
Protestants who settled at Oxford, Massachusetts, A. D. 1080, and in Mr.
Joseph Willard's tract on Naturalization in the American Colonies. — ED.
9*
102 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND
things as deserved more than damnation. This appears
to be the true key for explaining the mysterious doctrine
of King Charles's saintship and martyrdom. He was a
saint, not because he was in his life a good man, but a
good Churchman ; not because he was a lover of holiness,
but the hierarchy; not because he was a friend to Christ,
but the craft. And he was a martyr in his death, not
because he bravely suffered death in the cause of truth
and righteousness, but because he died an enemy to liberty
and the rights of conscience ; i. e., not because he died an
enemy to sin, but dissenters. For these reasons it is that
•all bigoted clergymen and friends to church power paint
this man as a saint in his life, though he was such a
mighty, such a royal sinner; and as a martyr in his death,
though he fell a sacrifice only to his own ambition, avarice,
and unbounded lust of power. And, from prostituting
their praise upon King Charles, and offering him that
incense which is not his due, it is natural for them to
make a transition to the dissenters, — as they commonly
do, — and to load them with that reproach which they do
not deserve, — they being generally professed enemies
both to civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. We are com
monly charged, upon the thirtieth of January, with the
guilt of putting the king to death, under a notion that it
was our ancestors that did it ; and so we are represented
in the blackest colors, not only as schismatics, but also as
traitors and rebels, and all that is bad. And these lofty
gentlemen usually rail upon this head in such a manner as
plainly shows that they are either grossly ignorant of the
history of those times which they speak of, or — which is
worse — that they are guilty of the most shameful prevari
cation, slander, and falsehood. But every petty priest with
a roll and a gown thinks he must do something in imitation
of his betters in lawn, and show himself a true son of the
NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS. 103
church: and thus, through a foolish ambition to appeal-
considerable, they only render themselves contemptible.1
But, suppose our forefathers did kill their mock saint
and martyr a century ago, what is that to us now ? If I
mistake not, these gentlemen generally preach down the
doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity
as absurd and unreasonable, notwithstanding they have
solemnly subscribed what is equivalent to it in their own
articles of religion ; and therefore one would hardly expect
that they would lay the guilt of the king's death upon us,
although our forefathers had been the only authors of it :
but this conduct is much more surprising when it does not
appear that our ancestors had any more hand in it than
their own. However, bigotry is sufficient to account for
this and many other phenomena which cannot be accounted
for in any other way.
Although the observation of this anniversary seems to
have been at least superstitious in its original; and al
though it is often abused to very bad purposes by the
established clergy, as they serve themselves of it to per-
1 Dr. Bradford, the biographer of Dr. 'Mayhew, says: "It should be
recollected that the governors in Massachusetts were then appointed by
the king, and were Episcopalians, sent over from England. Their partic
ular patronage and favor were bestowed on the few Episcopal clergy;
which served to render them overbearing, and unwilling to allow the Con
gregational clergy to be ministers of the gospel. So haughty and censo
rious were most of them, that one was led to say of them, ' They know
not what they are of.' Great efforts were then making to settle Episcopal
clergy in New England, who were most anxious to increase the members
of the English Episcopal church, and to interfere with the other clergy.
These Episcopal ministers were supported by the English hierarchy; and
the civil administration of the British government particularly favored and
encouraged this plan, for the purpose of supporting the political meas
ures and views of the ministers, then strongly leaning to tory doctrines.
It was considered important to increase and extend Episcopacy in the colo
nies, with a view to secure obedience to all political measures and plans.
' No bishops, no kings/ was the opinion and party-cry of many." — ED.
104 UNLIMITED SUBMISSION.
petuate strife, a, party spirit, and divisions in the Christian
church ; yet it is to be hoped that one good end will be
answered by it, quite contrary to their intention : It is
to be hoped that it will prove a standing memento that
Britons will not be slaves, and a warning to all corrupt
counsellors and ministers not to go too far in advising to
arbitrary, despotic measures.
To conclude : Let us all learn to be free and to be loyal ;
let us not profess ourselves vassals to the lawless pleasure
of any man on earth ; but let us remember, at the same
time, government is sacred, and not to be trifled with.
It is our happiness to live under a prince who is satisfied
with ruling according to law, as every other good prince
will. We enjoy under his administration all the liberty
that is proper and expedient for us. It becomes us, there
fore, to be contented and dutiful subjects. Let us prize
our freedom, but not " use our liberty for a cloak of ma
liciousness." a There are men who strike at liberty under
the term licentiousness ; there are others who aim at pop
ularity under the disguise of patriotism. Be aware of
both. Extremes are dangerous. There is at present
amongst us, perhaps, more danger of the latter than of the
former ; for which reason I would exhort you to pay all
due regard to the government over us, to the king, and
all in authority, and to "lead a quiet and peaceable life."b
And, while I am speaking of loyalty to our earthly
prince, suffer me just to put you in mind to be loyal also
to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, " by whom kings
reign and princes decree justice;"0 — to which King,
eternal, immortal, invisible, even to "the only wise God,"d
be all honor and praise, dominion and thanksgiving, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
a 1 Peter ii. 16. b l Tim. ii. 2. c Prov. viii. 15. d 1 Tim. i. 17.
A
DISCOURSE
On "the good News from
a far Country."
Delivered July
A Day of Thanks-giving to Almighty GOD,
throughout the Province of the Maffachufetts-
Bay in New-England, on Occafion of the
REPEAL of the STAMP-ACT ; appointed
by his Excellency, the GOVERNOR of faid
Province, at the Defire of it's Houfe of RE
PRESENTATIVES, with the Advice of his
MAJESTY'S COUNCIL.
By CHARLES CHAUNCY, D.D.
A Paftor of the firft Church in Eoflon.
BOSTON: N. E.
Printed by KNEELAND and ADAMS, in Milk-ftreet,
for THOMAS LEVERETT, in Corn-hill.
MDCCLXVI.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
THE origin of the Stamp Act can be best understood by a glance at the
previous political relations of the colonies to the mother land.
England, " a shop-keeping nation," J gained her riches by the commer
cial monopoly under the " Navigation Acts," — a system invented by Sir
George Downing, the one whose name stands second on Harvard College
catalogue. These acts were modified as the changes of commerce re
quired, and the " Stamp Act," but one of the series, was intended to
retain the old monopoly of American trade, which was greatly endan
gered by the conquest of Canada. This was its origin and motive.
The dispute resolved itself into this naked question, whether " the king
in Parliament 2 had full power to bind the colonies and people of America
in all cases whatsoever," or in none.
The colonists argued that, by the feudal system, the king, lord para
mount of lands in America, as in England, as such, had disposed of them,
on certain conditions. James I., in 1621, informed Parliament that
" America was not annexed to the realm, and that it was not fitting that
Parliament should make laws for those countries;" and Charles I. told
them " that the colonies were without the realm and jurisdiction of Parlia-
1 This phrase is from a tract, 1766, by Tucker, Dean of Gloucester. At that
date he advocated " a separation, parting with the colonies entirely, and then
making leagues of friendship with them, as with so many independent states;"
but, said he, '* it was too enlarged an idea for a mind wholly occupied within the
narrow circle of trade,7' and a ib stranger to the revolutions of states and empires,
thoroughly to comprehend, much less to digest."
2 The answers of the Massachusetts Council, January 25th, and House of Rep
resentatives, January 26th, to Governor Hutchinson's speech, January 6th, 1775,
are rich in historical illustrations of this point, presented with great force of
reason, and are decisive.
108 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
merit." The colonists showed that the American charters were compacts
between the king and his subjects who " transported themselves out of this
kingdom of England into America," by which they owed allegiance to
him personally as sovereign, but were to make their own laws and taxes :
for instance, a revenue was raised in Virginia by a law " enacted by the
King's most excellent Majesty, by and ivith the consent of the Gewral Assembly
of the Colony of Virginia." They denied the authority of the legislature of
Great Britain over them, but acknowledged his Majesty as a part of the
several colonial legislatures.
But the colonies, while jealous of their internal self-control, had per
mitted the British Parliament to " regulate" their foreign trade, and, upon
precedent, the latter now claimed authority to bind the colonies " in all
cases whatsoever." Relying upon the royal compact in their charters,
the spirit of the British constitution, and " their rights as Englishmen,"
the Americans denied the jurisdiction of their " brethren" in England.
" Nil Desperandum, Christo Duce," was the motto on the flag of New
England in 1745, when her Puritan sons conquered Louisburg, the
stronghold of Papal France in the New World, and thus gave peace to
Europe. This enterprise, in its spirit, was little less a crusade than was
that to redeem Palestine from the thraldom of the Mussulman, and the
sepulchre of Jesus from the infidels. One of the chaplains carried upon
his shoulder a hatchet to destroy the images in the Romish churches.
" O," exclaimed a good old deacon, to Pepperell, " 0 that I could be
with you and dear Parson Moody in that church, to destroy the images
there set up, and hear the true gospel of our Lord and Saviour there
preached ! My wife, who is ill and confined to her bed, yet is so spirited
in the affair that she is very willing all her sons should
wait on you, though it is outwardly greatly to our damage. One of them
has already enlisted, and I know not but there will be more." 1 " Christo
Duce! " The extinction of French dominion was quickly completed by
the conquest of Canada in 1759-00, and at the same moment ceased the
colonial need of the red-cross flag of St. George, whose nationality had
been their protection against the aggressions of the French. The French
being driven from Canada, New England could stand alone. This was
the point " in the course of human events" when the sovereignty of
England over the colonies was ended, though their formal " Declaration
of American Independence," and of the dissolution of " the political
1 Life of Pepperell, by Usher Parsons, M. D. 3d ed., 1856, p. 52.
109
bands" with the mother country, was not issued till several years later.
The conquest of Canada was the emancipation of the colonies, as the
opponents of the war predicted. British parliaments, though backed by
British guns, and all the canons of the English church, were powerless
against "the laws of nature and nature's God;" and the Stamp Act was
merely a touchstone for certain " self-evident truths" — not mere " sound
ing and glittering generalities"— enunciated on the Fourth of July, 1776.
This attempt at despotism resulted in the alienation of the colonists from
their brethren in England, the Union, the War of the Revolution, and the
birth of a Nation. By it England lost her American dominion, won defeat
and dishonor, and added to the national debt one hundred and four
million pounds sterling, on which she is now paying interest, — the work
of George III. and his servile ministers, his " domestics," as they were
called. But America saved not only her own liberty, but the liberty
of England; the policy of George III. and his government, which the
colonies defeated, if attempted at this day, would not only sever every
colony, but overthrow the throne itself. In January, 1766, Mr. Pitt
himself declared the American controversy to be " a great common
cause," and that "America, if she fell, would fall like a strong man.
She would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitu
tion along with her." Hcai4 Lord Camden, also : " I will say, not only as
a statesman, politician, and philosopher, but as a common lawyer, you
have no right to tax America. The natural rights of man and the
immutable laws of nature are all with that people." And General Bur-
goyne declared in Parliament, in 1781, that he "was now convinced the
principle of the American war was wrong, . . . only one part of a sys
tem levelled against the constitution and the general rights of mankind."
It was equally for the sake of England as of America that Mr. Pitt and
the high-minded men of that day "rejoiced" in our resistance to tyranny.
"Passive obedience" then became an obsolete gospel.
One of the most efficient causes of the Revolution in the minds and
hearts of the people — an accomplished fact before the war commenced —
was the controversy begun in 1763 by the Rev. Dr. Mayhew in his attack
on the conduct of the " Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign
Parts." The most insidious scheme for reducing the colonies to slavery
was that of this society, which was known to be only an association for
propagating " lords spiritual " in America,! who should inculcate, in the
1 Mr. Arthur Lee, of Virginia, wrote from London, Sept. 22, 1771 : " The com-
10
110 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
name of religion, the Church of England principles of "submission and
obedience, clear, absolute, and without exception."' Dr. Mayhew exposed
this pious fraud. The Bishop of Landaff, in his sermon of 1706, before
this society, ingenuously declared, that when Episcopacy should b6 es
tablished in America, " then this society will be brought to the happy issue
intended "!
This excited general alarm. The hierarchy could be established only by
Parliament; and if, they reasoned, Parliament can authorize bishops,
tithes, ceremonies, and tests in America, they can tax us; and what can
they not do? The question was, really, Does the British Parliament, three
thousand miles off, in which we have neither voice nor vote, own us, three
million people, souls and bodies? The people considered the matter,
and gradually got ready to fight about it, seeing no more " divine right"
of parliaments than of kings, which last had been "unriddled" by Dr.
Mayhew in 1750.
The plot was to annul the charters, reduce the popular assemblies to a
manageable size, arid increase the royal appointments; revise all the
colonial acts, in order to set aside those which provided for the support
of the ministers. "But, if the temper of the people makes it necessary,
let a new bill for the purpose of supporting them pass the House, and the
Council refuse their concurrence; if that will 'be improper, then the gover
nor to negative it. If that cannot be done in good policy, then the bill to
go home," — that is, to England, — "and let the king disallow it. Let
bishops be introduced, and provision be made for the support of the Epis
copal clergy. Let the Congregational and Presbyterian clergy who will
receive ordination be supported, and the leading ministers among them be
bought off by large salaries. Let the liturgy be revised and altered. Let
Episcopacy be accommodated as much as possible to the cast of the
people. Let places of power, trust, and honor be conferred only upon
Episcopalians, or those that will conform. When Episcopacy is once
established, increase its resemblance to the English hierarchy at pleasure "I l
missary of Virginia is now here, with a view of prosecuting the scheme of an
American Episcopate. He is an artful, though not an able man. You will con
sider, sir, in your wisdom, whether any measures on your side may contribute to
counteract this dangerous innovation. Regarding it as threatening the subver
sion of both our civil and religious liberties, it shall meet with all the opposition
in my power." To the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Massachusetts.
l Dr. Stiles, iu Gordon's History of the American Revolution, i. 102, 103. ed.
1794.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. Ill
The wealth of England had been created by the " commercial servi
tude " i of her American colonies ; and not only this monopoly of the
colonial trade, but the commerce itself, was endangered by the aggressions
of France, which had surrounded the English colonies by a chain of forts
and settlements which reached from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to
the mouth of the Mississippi. To save her commerce, her wealth, and
her revenue, England drove " the haughty and insolent Gallic " out of
Canada; not without ruinous drafts of men and money, especially from
the northern colonies, which thereby contracted enormous debts and
oppressive taxes. But England represented her own debt as a bill in
curred for the benefit of the colonies, and so " the Commons of Great
Britain in Parliament, ... for the purpose of raising a further REVE
NUE within his Majesty's dominions of America," assumed " to give and
grant" to his Majesty "a stamp duty" of pounds, shillings, and pence,
upon all sorts of documents used by merchants, lawyers, in courts and
custom-houses, or in any of the transactions of daily life. No farmer or
tradesman could hang an "almanac" in the chimney-corner without
paying the " stamp duty of twopence " or " fourpencc " if this hated act
was enforced. But, long before the " first day of November, one thousand
seven hundred and sixty-five," — the day when it was to take effect, —
there burst forth in the colonies such a universal storm of wrath, that it
was suddenly manifest that the Church of England gospel of implicit
obedience did not prevail in America.
" Your Majesty's Commons in Britian," said Mr. Burke, " undertake
absolutely to dispose of the property of their fellow-subjects in America, with
out their consent, . . . for they are not represented in Parliament; and
indeed we think it impracticable ; it is not reconcilable to any ideas of
liberty. ... I only say, that a great people, who have their property,
without any reserve, in all cases, disposed of by another people at an im
mense distance from them, will not think themselves in the enjoyment of
freedom. It will be hard to show to those who are in such a state which
of the usual parts of the definition or description of a free people are
applicable to them. . . . Tell me what one character of liberty the
Americans have, and what one brand of slavery they are free from, if
they are bound in their property and industry by all the restraints you can
imagine on commerce, and at the same time are made pack-horses of
every tax you choose to impose, without the least share in granting them ?
When they bear the burdens of unlimited monopoly, will you bring them
1 Burke.
112 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
to bear the burdens of unlimited revenue too? The Englishman in
America will feel that this is slavery; that it is legal slavery, will be no
compensation either to his feelings or understanding. . . . The feel
ings of the colonies were formerly the feelings of Great Britian; theirs
were formerly the feelings of Mr. Hampden when called upon for the
payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr.
Hampden's fortune ? No ; but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the
principle upon which it was demanded, would have made him a SLAVE."
Among the " Navigation Acts " was one of 6th George II., "An Act for
the better securing and encouraging the Trade of his Majesty's Colonies in
America," which was commonly called the " Molasses Act." The articles
of molasses and sugar, it was demonstrated by Mr. Otis, entered into
every branch of our commerce, fisheries, manufactures, and agriculture.
The duty of sixpence on molasses was full one-half of its value, and its
enforcement would have ruined commerce. Mr. Otis roundly declared that
if the King of Great Britain in person were encamped on Boston Com
mon, at the head of twenty thousand men, with all his navy on our coast,
he would not be able to execute these laws; for " taxation without repre
sentation was tyranny." This was in 1702, when the tyrannical writs of
assistance1 were applied for, to search for and seize smuggled goods, and
under which the sanctuary of no home, no dwelling, no treasure would be
sacred from the pollution and violence of any catchpole ready for the
odious service, backed by the forms of law.
John Adams said: " Wits may laugh at our fondness for molasses, and
we ought all to join in the laugh with as much good humor as General
Lincoln did. General Washington, however, always asserted and proved
that Virginians loved molasses as well as New England men did. I know
not why we should blush to confess that molasses was an essential ingredient
in American independence. Many great events have proceeded from much
smaller causes."
These acts were repealed while America was in open resistance. "See
what firmness and resolution will do," said the Sons of Liberty, when a copy
of the act of repeal was received in Boston. With this act of repeal was
another, simply declaratory of the authority of Parliament to bind the
1 Just as the above is going to press, there is brought to light, by Mr. David
Roberts, an original volume of the Salem custom-house records, May 22, 1761—
1775. which fills an important gap in the documentary history of the writs of
assistance —Hist. Collect. Essex Inst, August, 1860. 169.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 113
colonies " in all cases whatsoever." " But," said JUNIUS, " it is truly
astonishing that . . . they should have conceived that a compliance
which acknowledged the. rod to be in the hands of the Americans, could ever
induce them to surrender it." Mr. Grenville desired Mr. Knox's opinion of
the effects which the repeal would produce in America. The answer was,
"Addresses of thanks and measures of rebellion"
The contemporary accounts from every part of the colonies show that
never before had there been such rejoicings in America. It is a source of
supreme satisfaction to reflect that Dr. May hew lived to share in this
triumph of liberty.
We naturally feel a certain curiosity as to the places which arc associ
ated with great names and memorable scenes. Fortunately we have a
lively description of the Council Chamber as it was when James Otis so elo
quently opposed the writs of assistance, written by one who then heard the
great patriot lawyer, and Avas familiar with its aspect, adornment, and fit
tings. " Whenever," said the venerable Adams, " you shall find a painter,
male or female, I pray you to suggest a scene and subject : The scene is
the Council Chamber of the Old Town House in Boston ; the date is the month
of February, 1701. That Council Chamber was as respectable an apart
ment, and more so too, in proportion, than the House of Lords or House
of Commons in Great Britain, or that in Philadelphia in which the Decla
ration of Independence was signed in 1776. In this chamber, near the
fire, were seated five judges, with Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson at
their head as Chief Justice, all in their new, fresh robes of scarlet English
cloth, in their broad bands, and immense judicial wigs. In this chamber
was seated, at a long table, all the barristers of Boston and its neighboring
county of Middlesex, in their gowns, bands, and rye-wigs. They were
not seated on ivory chairs, but their dress was more solemn and more
pompous than that of the Roman senate when the Gauls broke in upon
them. In a corner of the room must be placed wit, sense, imagination,
genius, pathos, reason, prudence, eloquence, learning, science, and im
mense reading, hung by the shoulders on two crutches, covered with a
cloth great-coat, in the person of Mr. Pratt, who had been solicited on
both sides, but would engage on neither, being about to leave Boston for
ever, as Chief Justice of New York. Two portraits, at more than full
length, of King Charles the Second and King James the Second, in
splendid golden frames, were hung up on the most conspicuous side of
the apartment. If my young eyes or old memory have not deceived me,
these were the finest pictures I have seen. The colors of their long flow-
10*
114 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
ing robes and their royal ermines were the most glowing, the figures the
most noble and graceful, the features the most distinct and characteristic :
far superior to those of the King and Queen of France in the Senate
Chamber of Congress. I believe they were Vandyke's. Sure I am there
was no painter in England capable of them at that time. They had been
sent over, without frames, in Governor Pownall's time; but, as he was no
admirer of Charleses or Jameses, they were stowed away in a garret among
rubbish till Governor Bernard came, had them cleaned, superbly framed,
and placed in council for the admiration and imitation of all men, no
doubt with the concurrence of Hutchinson and all the junto." . . .
" Now for the actors and performers. Mr. Gridlcy argued with his
characteristic learning, ingenuity, and dignity, and said everything that
could be said in favor of Cockle's petition; all depending, however, on
the — ' If the Parliament of Great Britain is the sovereign legislator of
all the British empire.' Mr. Thatcher followed him, on the other side, and
argued with the softness of manners, the ingenuity, the cool reasoning
which were peculiar to his amiable character. But Otis was a flame of
fire. With a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a
rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal author
ities, a prophetic glare of his eyes into futurity, and a rapid torrent of
impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him. American Inde
pendence was then and there born. The seeds of patriots and heroes, to
defend the Non Sine Diis Animosus Infans, to defend the vigorous youth,
were then and there sown. Every man of an immense crowded audience
appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of
assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposi
tion to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then arid there the child
Independence was born. In fifteen years — that is, in 1776 — he grew up
to manhood, and declared himself free."
Dr. Chauncy, the preacher, was one of the greatest divines in New
England, and no one except President Edwards and Dr. Jonathan May-
hew had been so mtich known among the literati of Europe. He was
zealous for liberty, and, on the death of Dr. Mnyhcw, continued the war
against its most specious enemy with great power and learning. He was
born January 1, 1705, graduated at Harvard College in 1721, and was
pastor of the first church in Boston from 1727 till his death in 1787.
This sermon — an admirable historical picture, drawn by a master,
himself a leader of the hosts — abounds in facts, discusses the great princi-
EDITOR S PREFATORY NOTE.
115
pies involved with energy and power, and with the calmness and precision
of the statesman.
The following witty lines, from the London " Craftsman "> newspaper
of March 29th, 1766, give a lively and just idea of the effect of the Stamp
Act on British industry, temper, and politics.
CHAPTER IV. OF THE BOOK OF AMERICA.
1. Tlie men of the cities assemble. 3. Their discourse to each other. 11. They
petition the Grand Sanhedrim. 14. The lamentation of George the Treas
urer. 19. Newspapers. 22. And hireling Scribes. 25. These Scribes write
against taking off the tribute. 26. The subject of their letters. 32. They pre
vail not. 34. But are answered. 38. The tribute taken off. 39. Great rejoic
ings thereat. 41. The song of the people.
. 11T A FTER these things the men
+~ of London, and the men of
Birmingham, and the men of the great
cities and strong towns; even all who
made cloth, and worked in iron and in
steel, and in sundry metals, communed
together.
2 And they met in the gates of their
cities, and of their towns;
3 H And they said unto each other,
Behold now the children of America
are waxed strong; and they have not
only opposed the men who were sent
by George the Treasurer to collect the
tribute on the marks which are called
stamps ;
4 But they make unto themselves the
wares wherewith we were wont to fur
nish them;
5 And they will buy no more of us
unless tliis tribute is taken off:
6 And, moreover, they cannot pay
unto us the monies which they owe;
and the loss is great unto us, and the
burthen thereof exceeding grievous:
7 Neither can we give bread unto
those who labored for us; and behold!
they, and their wives, and their little
ones, have not bread to eat.
8 What then shall we do ? and
wherewithal shall we be comforted?
9 Shall we not petition our Lord the
King, and his Princes, and the wise
men of the nation, even the Grand
Sanhedrim of the nation?
10 For we know that they are good
and gracious, and will hearken to the
voice of the people, who open their
mouths and cry unto them for bread.
11 U Then the men of London, and
the men of the great cities, sat them
down and wrote petitions.
12 And they sent men from amongst
them, that were goodly men to look
at ; and they stood before the Grand
Sanhedrim :
13 And they presented their peti
tions, and they were read, and days
were appointed to consider them.
14 IT Now it came to pass, that while
these things were doing, that George
the late Treasurer, and those who had
joined in laying the tribute on the
stamps, were wroth, and their coun
tenances fell;
15 And they said in themselves, If
this tribute is taken off, then William
the late Scribe, and those who are now
in authority, and who have taken our
places, will be had in remembrance of
men.
16 And we also shall be had in re
membrance, but it will be with evil
remembrance indeed.
17 For behold the people will say,
It is we that \\avecursed the land; and
it is they who have blessed it.
18 Therefore we must bestir ourselves
like men, to oppose the taking off the
tribute, let whatsoever hap besides.
116
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
19 IT And in those days there were
papers sold daily among the men of
Britain, which declared those which
were joined in marriage, those which
were gathered unto their fathers, and
those who had found favour in the eyes
of the King and his rulers, and were
exalted above their brethren,
20 And also of whatsoever was done
in the land.
21 And these papers were called
newspapers; and all men read them.
22 IT And there were certain also
Scribes who let themselves out unto
hire.
23 And one of the chief of these was
a Levite, and his name was Anti Se-
janus.
24 And these Scribes were hired to
poison the minds of the people, and to
cause them to set their faces against
the men of America their brethren.
25 IT Then came Anti Sejanus, and
Pacificus, and Pro Patria, and sun
dry other children of Belial, and they
wrote letters which were put into the
newspapers.
26 IT And they said in those letters,
Men and brethren! Behold, the men of
America are rich, and they are grown
insolent, being full of bread;
27 And they are not mindful of the
days of old when they were poor, but
they would withdraw themselves from
under the wings of their mother Brit
ain.
28 And they would establish them
selves as a people, and suffer us to have
no power over them.
29 Behold, they have opposed the
edict, and they are become as rebels.
30 Wherefore then go we not forth
with a strong hand, and force them
unto obedience to us?
31 And if they are still murmuring,
and shall still oppose our authority,
why do we not send fire and sword
into their land, and cut them off from
the face of the earth?
32 If And these children of Belial
who dipped their pens for hire, and
would scatter plagues in wantonness,
and say, This is sport;
33 Even these men wrote still more.
Yet they prevailed not.
34 IT For they were answered, So the
men of America are our brethren ; they
are the children of our forefathers;
and shall we seek their blood? If they
are mistaken shall we not pity them,
and keep them obedient unto us
through love?
35 For behold, it is a wise saying of
old, That many flies may be cauglit
with a little honey ; but ivith much
vinegar ye can catch not one.
36 Neither are they inclined to be a
people of themselves, but wish yet to
be under our wing.
37 And.the counsel of these men pre
vailed; for the counsel of the hireling
Scribes was defeated ; even as was the
counsel of Achitophel in the days of
David, King of Israel.
38 IT For behold, the Grand Sanhe
drim took off the tribute from the peo
ple; and George THE GRACIOUS King
of Britain assented thereto.
39 If Then were great rejoicings made
throughout the land; and flres were
lighted up in the streets, and the people
eat, drank, and were merry.
40 And they sang a new song, saying,
41 IT Long live the King; let his name
be glorious, and may his rule over us be
happy.
42 And may the princes and the rul
ers of the land, and the wise men of
the Lord the King, and all those who
joined to take off this tribute, be blessed.
43 For they have listened unto the
cries of the people, and have given ear
unto the voice of calamity ; they have
procured the payment of Ihe debts of
the merchants of this land, ease to the
children of America, and labor and
bread to the poor.
44 And the women shall sing their
praises; and the little children shall
lisp out, Bless the King and his San
hedrim.
45 For we were desolate and dis
tressed; our hammers and our shuttles
were useless; for we got no work; nei
ther had we bread to eat for ourselves,
nor our little ones.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 117
46 But now can we work, rejoice, of the hirelings there was shame, and
and be exceeding glad. the scorn of all good men fell upon
47 And there was peace in the land. them, and their employers, so that their
48 But to Anti Sejanus and the rest names were had in abomination.
BY HIS EXCELLENCY
FRANCIS BERNARD, ESQ.,
Captain- General and Governor-in- Chief in and over His Majesty's Province
of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and Vice- Admiral of the same.
A PROCLAMATION
FOR A DAY OP PUBLIC THANKSGIVING.
Whereas the House of Representatives of this Province having in the
last session taken into their consideration the kind interposition of Prov
idence in disposing our most gracious Sovereign and both Houses of
Parliament to hearken to the united supplications of his dutiful and loyal
Subjects in America, and to remove the great difficulties which the Colo
nies in general, and this Province in particular, labored under, occasioned
by the Stamp Act, did resolve that the Governor be desired to appoint a
Day of General Thanksgiving to be observed throughout this Province,
that the good People thereof may have an opportunity in a public man
ner to express their Gratitude to Almighty GOD for his great Goodness
in thus delivering them from their Anxiety and Distress and restoring the
Province to its former Peace and Tranquillity: which Resolution was con
curred in by the Council, and has since been laid before me :
In pursuance of such Desire, so signified unto me, I have thought fit to
appoint, and I do, by and ,with the advice of his Majesty's Council, ap
point Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of this instant July, to be a Day
of Prayer and Thanksgiving; that the ministers of GOD'S holy word may
thereupon assemble to return Thanks to Almighty GOD for his Mercies
aforesaid, and to desire that he would be pleased to give his People Grace
to make a right improvement of them, by observing and promoting a
dutiful Submission to the Sovereign Power to which they are subordinate,
and a brotherly Love and Affection to that People from whom they are
derived, and to whom they are nearly related by civil Policy and mutual
interests.
And I command and enjoin all Magistrates and Civil Officers to see
118 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
that said Day be observed as a Day set apart for Religious Worship, and
that no servile Labor be permitted therein.
GIVEN at the Council Chamber in BOSTON, the fourth day of July, 1766,
in the Sixth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the
Third, by the Grace of GOD, of GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, and IRELAND,
KING, Defender of the Faith, etc.
FEA. BERNARD.
By His Excellency's Command.
JOHN COTTON, Dept. Sec'y.
safre tfyt 31 i rig.
DISCOURSE II
A THANKSGIVING SERMON.
AS COLD WATERS TO A THIRSTY SOUL, SO IS GOOD NEWS FROM A FAR
COUNTRY. — Proverbs xxv. 25.
WE are so formed by the God of nature, doubtless for
wise and good ends, that the uneasy sensation to which
we give the name of thirst is an inseparable attendant on
the want of some proper liquid ; and as this want is in
creased, such proportionably will be the increase of un
easiness ; and the uneasiness may gradually heighten, till
it throws one into a state that is truly tormenting. The
application of cooling drink is fitted, by an established law
of heaven, not only to remove away this uneasiness, but
to give pleasure in the doing of it, by its manner of acting
upon the organs of taste. There is scarce a keener per
ception of pleasure than that which is felt by one that is
athirst upon being satisfied with agreeable drink. Hence
the desire of spiritual good things, in those who have had
excited in them a serious sense of God and religion, is
represented, in the sacred books, by the "cravings of a
thirsty man after drink." Hence the devout David, when
he would express the longing of his soul to "appear be
fore God in his sanctuary," resembles it to the "panting
of a hart after the water-brooks." In like manner, " cold
water to a thirsty soul" is the image under which the wise
man would signify, in my text, the gratefulness of "good
120 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
news." 'T is refreshing to the soul, as cold waters to the
tongue when parched with thirst. Especially is good
news adapted to affect the heart with pleasure when it
comes "from a far country," and is big with important
blessings, not to a few individuals only, but to communi
ties, and numbers of them scattered over a largely ex
tended continent.
Such is the "good news" lately brought us1 from the
other side the great waters. No news handed to us from
Great Britain ever gave us a quicker sense, or higher de
gree, of pleasure. It rapidly spread through the colonies,
and, as it passed along, opened in all hearts the springs of
1 The Massachusetts Gazette Extraordinary, Thursday, April 3, 1766,
contains an account of the earliest rumor in Boston of the repeal, and of
the public enthusiasm : — " Upon a Report from Philadelphia of the Re
peal of the Stamp Act, on Tuesday last, a great Number of Persons assem
bled under Liberty Tree," — near the corner of Essex and Washington
streets, — " where two Field Pieces were carried, a Royal Salute fired,
and three Huzzas given on such a joyful Piece of Intelligence. A con
siderable Number of the Inhabitants of this Town assembled at Faneuil-
Hall on Tuesday last, when they made choice of the Hon. James Otis,
Esq., as Moderator of the Meeting. The Moderator then acquainted the
Assembly that the Probability of very soon receiving authentic Accounts
of the absolute Repeal of the Stamp Act had occasioned the present Meet
ing; and as this would be an Event in which the Inhabitants of this Me
tropolis, as well as North America, would have the greatest Occasion of
Joy, it was thought expedient by many that this Meeting should come
into Measures for fixing the Time when those Rejoicings should be made,
and the Manner in which they should be conducted; — whereupon it was
" Voted, That the Selectmen be desired, when they shall hear the certain
News of the Repeal of the STAMP ACT, to fix upon a Time for general
Rejoicings; and that they give the Inhabitants seasonable Notice in such
Manner as they shall think best." The expressions of joy were as ex
travagant throughout England as they were in the colonies. " There
were upwards of twenty men, booted and spurred, in the lobby of the
Hon. House of Commons, ready to be dispatched express, by the mer
chants, to the different parts of Great Britain and Ireland, upon this
important affair." — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 121
joy. The emotion of a soul just famished with thirst
upon taking down a full draught of cold water is but a
faint emblem of the superior gladness with which we were
universally filled upon this great occasion. That was the
language of our mouths, signifying the pleasurable state
of our minds, " As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is this
good news from a far country."
What I have in view is, to take occasion, from these
words, to call your attention to some of the important ar
ticles contained in the good news we have heard, which
so powerfully fit it to excite a pungent sense of pleasure
in the breasts of all that inhabit these American lands.
The way will then be prepared to point out to you the
wisest and best use we can make of these glad tidings
"from a far country."
The first article in this "good news," obviously present
ing itself to consideration, is the kind and righteous re
gard the supreme authority1 in England, to which we
inviolably owe submission, has paid to the " commercial
good" of the nation at home, and its dependent provinces
and islands. One of the expressly assigned reasons for
the repeal of the Stamp Act is declared in these words :
"Whereas the continuance of said act may be productive
of consequences greatly detrimental to the commercial
interests of these kingdoms, may it therefore please" —
The English colonies and islands are certainly included in
1 Tliis doctrine was expressed by Mr. James Otis, early in 1704, that we
" ought to yield obedience to an Act of Parliament, though erroneous, till
repealed." And by the Council and House of Representatives, Nov. 3d,
1764 : " We acknowledge it to be our duty to yield obedience to it while
it continues unrepealed." But want of representation, and, next, that the
colonies were not within the realm, soon led to a denial of the authority
of Parliament, for a submission to a tax of a farthing would have aban
doned the great principle. It was riot the amount of the tax, but the
right to tax, that was in issue. " In for a penny, in for a pound." — ED.
11
122 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
the words "these kingdoms,"1 for they are as truly parts
of them as either Scotland, Ireland, or even England
itself. It was therefore with a professed view to the com
mercial good, not only of the nation at home, but of the
plantations also abroad, that the authority of the British
King and Parliament interposed to render null and void
that act, which, had it been continued in force, might in
its consequences have tended to the hurt of this grand in
terest, inseparably connected with the welfare of both.
From what more noble source could a repeal of this act
have proceeded ? Not merely the repeal, but that benev
olent, righteous regard to the public good which gave it
birth, is an important ingredient in the news that has
made us glad. And wherein could this "good news"
have been better adapted to soften our hearts, soothe our
passions, and excite in us the sensations of unmingled joy?
What that is conducive to our real happiness may we not
expect from a King and Parliament whose regard to " the
commercial interest"2 of the British kingdoms has over-
1 That " the colonies were without the realm and jurisdiction of Parlia
ment," was demonstrated in the learned and able answers of the Council
and House of Representatives to Governor Hutchinson's speech of Janu
ary 6, 1773 : " Your Excellency tells us, ' you know of no line that can be
drawn between the supreme authority of Parliament and the total inde
pendence of the colonies.' If there be no such line, the consequence is,
either that the colonies are the vassals of the Parliament, or that they are
totally independent." In his gratitude, Dr. Chauncy took quite too gen
erous a view of the " repeal." The interests of the colonies were always
subordinate. The Navigation Act, 12th Chas. II. ch. 19, and the colonial
policy of England, as of all nations, considered only the interests of the
realm. — ED.
2 Mr. Burke, in his speech on " American taxation," years afterward,
1774, said the laws were repealed "because they .raised a flame in Amer
ica, for reasons political, not commercial: as Lord Hillsborough's letter
well expresses it, to regain ' the confidence and affection of the colonies,
on which the glory and safety of the British empire depend.' " — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 123
powered all opposition from resentment, the display of
sovereign pleasure, or whatever other cause, and influ
enced them to give up even a crown revenue for the sake
of a greater national good ! With what confidence may
we rely upon such a supreme legislature for the redress of
all grievances, especially in the article of trade, and the
devising every wise and fit method to put and keep it in a
flourishing state ! Should anything, in time to come, un
happily be brought into event detrimental in its operation
to the commerce between the mother country and these
colonies, through misrepresentations from "lovers of them
selves more than lovers " of their king and country, may
we not encourage ourselves to hope that the like generous
public spirit that has relieved us now will again interpose
itself on our behalf? Happy are we in being under the
government of a King and Parliament who can repeal as
well as enact a law, upon a view of it as tending to the
public happiness. How preferable is our condition to
theirs who have nothing to expect but from the arbitrary
will of those to whom they are slaves1 rather than sub
jects!
Another thing, giving us singular pleasure, contained in
this " good news," is, the total removal of a grievous bur
den we must have sunk under had it been continued.
Had the real state of the colonies been as well known at
home as it is here, it is not easily supposable any there
would have thought the tax imposed on us by the Stamp
Act was suitably adjusted to our circumstances and abili
ties. There is scarce a man2 in any of e colonies, cer-
1 " If we arc not represented, we are slaves." — Letter to Massachusetts
agent, June 13, 1764. — ED.
2 Mr. Burke, in 1763, showing the difficulties of American representation
in Parliament, said : " Some of the most considerable provinces of Amer
ica — such, for instance, as Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay — have not
124 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
tainly there is not in the New England ones, that would
be deemed worthy of the name of a rich man in Great
Britain. There may be here and there a rare instance of
one that may have acquired twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty
thousand pounds sterling, — and this is the most that can
be made of what they may be thought worth, — but for
the rest, they are, generally speaking, in a low condition,
or, at best, not greatly rising above it ; though in different
degrees, variously placing them in the enjoyment of the
necessities and comforts of life. And such it might natu
rally be expected would be the true state of the colonists ;
as the lands they possess in this new country could not
have been subdued and fitted for profitable use but by
labor too expensive to allow of their being, at present,
much increased in wealth. This labor, indeed, may prop
erly be considered as a natural tax, which, though it has
made way for an astonishing increase of subjects to the
British empire, greatly adding to its dignity and strength,
has yet been the occasion of keeping us poor and low. It
ought also to be remembered the occasions, in a new
country, for the grant or purchase of property, with the
obligations arising therefrom, and in instances of compara
tively small value, are unavoidably more numerous than
in those that have been long settled. The occasions, also,
for recourse to the law are in like manner vastly multi
plied ; for which reason the same tax by stamped paper
would take vastly more, in proportion, from the people
in each of them two men who can afford, at a distance from their estates,
to spend a thousand pounds a year. How can these provinces be repre
sented at Westminster?" Governor Pownall, at Boston, Sept. 6th, 1757,
wrote to Admiral Holbourn : " I am here at the head and lead of what is
called a rich, flourishing, powerful, enterprising country. 'Tis all puff,
'tis all false; they are ruined and undone in their circumstances. The
first act I passed was an Act for the Relief of Bankrupts." — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 125
here than in England. And what would have rendered
this duty the more hard and severe is, that it must have
been paid in addition to the government tax here,1 which
i Massachusetts, of about two hundred and forty thousand inhabitants,
expended in the war eight hundred and eighteen thousand pounds ster
ling, for four hundred and ninety thousand pounds of which she had no
compensation. Connecticut, with only one hundred and forty-six thou
sand inhabitants, expended, exclusive of Parliament grants, upwards of
four hundred thousand pounds sterling. Dr. Belknap's pertinent inquiry,
in view of the parliamentary pretence for their revenue acts " to defray
the expenses of protecting, defending, and securing " the colonies, was,
" If we had not done our part toward the protection and defence of our
country, why were our expenditures reimbursed by Parliament," even in
part? Dr. Trumbull says that Massachusetts annually sent into the field
five thousand five hundred men, and one year seven thousand. Connecti
cut had about three thousand men in the field, and for some time six thou
sand, and for some years these two colonies alone furnished ten thousand
men in actual service. Pennsylvania disbursed about five hundred thou
sand pounds, and was reimbursed only about sixty thousand pounds.
New Hampshire, New York, and especially Rhode Island in her naval en
terprise, displayed like zeal. Probably twenty thousand of these men
were lost, — " the most firm and hardy young men, the flower of their
country." Many others were maimed and enervated. The population
and settlement of the country was retarded, husbandry and commerce
were injured. " At the same time, the war was unfriendly to literature,
destructive of domestic happiness, and injurious to piety and the social
virtues."
In 1762 Mr. Otis said : "This province " — Massachusetts — " has, since
the year 1754, levied for his Majesty's service, as soldiers and seamen, near
thirty thousand men, besides what have been otherwise employed. One
year in particular it was said that every fifth man was engaged, in one
shape or another. We have raised sums for the support of this war that
the last generation could have hardly formed any idea of. We are now
deeply in debt."
Mr. Burke, in 1775, cited from their records " the repeated acknowledg
ment of Parliament that the colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety.
This nation has formally acknowledged two things : first, that the colonies
had gone beyond their abilities — Parliament having thought it necessary
to reimburse them; secondly, that they had acted legally and laudably in
their grants of money and their maintenance of troops, since the compen
sation is expressly given as a reward and encouragement." Indeed, the
11*
126 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
was, I have good reason to think, more heavy on us in the
late war, and is so still, on account of the great debt then
contracted, at least in this province, in proportion to our
numbers and abilities, than that which, in every way, was
laid on the people either of Scotland, Ireland, or England.41
This, if mentioned cursorily, was never, that I remember,
enlarged upon and set in a striking light in any of the
papers written in the late times, as it might easily have
been done, and to good purpose. Besides all which, it is
a I have been assured, by a gentleman of reputation and fortune in this town,
that in the late time of war he sent one of his rate-bills to a correspondent of
note in London for his judgment upon it, and had this answer in return from
his friend : " That he did not believe there was a man in all England who paid
so much, in proportion, towards the support of the government." It will render
the above account the more easily credible if I inform the reader that I have
lately and purposely conversed with one of the assessors of this town, who has
been annually chosen by them into this office for a great number of years, for
which reason he may be thought a person of integrity, and one that may be de
pended on, and he declares to me that the assessment upon this town, particularly
in one of the years when the tax on account of the war was great, was as fol
lows : On personal estate, thirteen shillings and fourpence on the pound; that is
to say, if a man's income from money at interest, or in any other way, was sixty
pounds per annum, he was assessed sixty times thirteen shillings and fourpence,
and in this proportion, whether the sum was more or less. On real estate the
assessment was at the rate of six years' income; that is to say, if a man's house
or land was valued at two hundred pounds per annum income, this two hundred
pounds was multiplied by six, amounting to twelve hundred pounds, and the
interest of this twelve hundred pounds — that is, seventy-two pounds — was the
sum he was obliged to pay. Besides this, the rate upon every man's poll, and
the polls of all the males in his house upwards of sixteen years of age, was about
nineteen shillings lawful money, which is only one quarter part short of sterling.
Over and above all this, they paid their part of an excise that was laid upon tea,
coffee, rum, and wine, amounting to a very considerable sum.
How it. was in the other provinces, or in the other towns of this, I know not;
but it may be relied on as fact, that this was the tax levied upon the town of
Boston ; and it has been great ever since, though not so enormously so as at that
time. Every one may now judge whether we had not abundant reason for
mournful complaint when, in addition to the vast sums — considering our
numbers and abilities — we were obliged to pay, we were loaded with the stamp
duty, which would in a few years have taken away all our money, and rendered
us absolutely incapable either of supporting the government here or of carrying
on any sort of commerce, unless by an exchange of commodities.
" Albany Plan of Union," a scheme by which America could protect her
self against France, had been sent "home" for government approbation;
but it was not sanctioned. — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 127
undoubtedly true that the circulating money in all the
colonies would not have been sufficient to have paid the
stamp duty only for two years;1 and an effectual bar was
put in the way of the introduction of more2 by the re
straints that were laid upon our trade in those instances
wherein it might in some measure have been procured.
It was this grievance that occasioned the bitter com
plaint all over these lands: "We are denied straw, and
yet the full tale of bricks is required of us ! " Or, as it
was otherwise uttered, We must soon be obliged "to
borrow money for the king's tribute, and that upon our
lands. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren,
our children as their children : and lo ! we must bring
into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants."
We should have been stupid had not a spirit been excited
in us to apply, in all reasonable ways, for the removal
1 Dr. Franklin testified, in 17GG: "In my opinion there is not gold and
silver enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year." — ED,
2 " Most of our silver and gold, . . . great part of the revenue of
these kingdoms, . . . great part of the wealth we see," says an Eng
lish statistical writer of 1755, we "have from the northern colonies."
This silver and gold was obtained by the colonial trade with the West
Indies, and other markets, where fish, rice, and other colonial products
and British manufactures were sold or bartered. This coin, or bullion,
was remitted to English merchants, monopolists, who always held a
balance against the colonists. "The northern provinces import from
Great Britain ten times more than they send in return to us." — BURKE.
This left very little " circulating money" in their hands, and much of their
trade had to be done by barter. The act of April 5, 1704, for raising a
revenue in America, exacted the duties in specie, and at the same time
the "regulations" for restricting their trade with the West Indies, enforced
by armed vessels and custom officers, cruising on our coasts, suddenly
destroyed this best portion of their commerce, and the flow of gold and
silver through New England hands as quickly ceased. This spread a
universal consternation throughout the colonies, and they likened the
threatened slavery under George III. and the Parliament to the Hebrew
bondage to Pharaoh. — ED.
128 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
of so insupportable a burden. And such a union in spirit
was never before seen in the colonies, nor was there ever
such universal joy, as upon the news of our deliverance
from that which might have proved a yoke the most
grievous that was ever laid upon our necks. It affected
in all hearts the lively perceptions of-pleasure, filling our
mouths with laughter. No man appeared without a smile
in his countenance. No one met his friend but he bid
him joy. That was our united song of praise, " Thou hast
turned for us our mourning into dancing ; thou hast put
off our sackcloth, and girded us with gladness. Our
glory [our tongue] shall sing praise to thee, and not be
silent : O Lord our God ! we will give thanks to thee
forever."
Another thing in this "news," making it "good," is, the
hopeful prospect it gives us of being continued in the
enjoyment of certain liberties and privileges, valued by us
next to life itself. Such are those of being "tried by our
equals," and of " making grants for the support of govern
ment of that which is our own, either in person or by
representatives we have chosen for the purpose." Whether
the colonists were invested with a right to these liberties
and privileges which ought not to be wrested from them,
or whether they were not, 't is the truth of 'fact that they
really thought they were; all of them, as natural heirs to
it by being born subjects to the British crown, and some
of them by additional charter-grants, the legality of which,
instead of being contested, have all along, from the days
of our fathers, been assented to and allowed of by the
supreme authority at home. And they imagined, whether
justly or not I dispute not, that their right to the full and
free enjoyment of these privileges was their righteous due,
in consequence of what they and their forefathers had done
suffered in subduing and defending these American
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 129
lands, not only for their own support, but to add. extent,
strength, and glory to the British crown. And as it had
been early and deeply impressed on their minds that their
charter privileges were rights that had been dearly paid
for by a vast expense of blood, treasure, and labor,1 with
out which this continent must have still remained in a
wilderness state and the property of savages only, it could
not but strongly put in motion their passion of grief when
they were laid under a parliamentary restraint as to the
exercise of that liberty they esteemed their greatest glory.
It was eminently this that filled their minds with jealousy,
and at length a settled fear, lest they should gradually be
brought into a state of the most abject slavery. This it was
that gave rise to the cry, which became general throughout
the colonies, " We shall be made to serve as bond-ser
vants ; our lives will be bitter with hard bondage." Nor
were the Jews more pleased with the royal provision in
their day, which, under God, delivered them from their
bondage in Egypt, than were the colonists with the repeal
of that act which had so greatly alarmed their fears and
troubled their hearts. It was to them as "life from the
dead." They "rejoiced and were glad." And it gave
strength and vigor to their joy, while they looked upon
this repeal not merely as taking off the grievous restraint
that had been laid upon their liberties and privileges, but
as containing in it an intention of continued indulgence2
1 These various considerations were set forth at length in statements of
the services and expenses of the colonies, which were sent to England to
furnish the colonial agents with arguments why the colonies should not
be taxed. — ED.
2 The colonists claimed the repeal as matter of right, and not of favor.
The English merchants urged it as a commercial necessity, and the politi
cians dared not do less. Hutchinson says : " The act which accompanied
it, with the title of ' Securing the Dependency of the Colonies/ caused
no alloy of the joy, and was considered as mere naked form." — ED.
130 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
in the free exercise of them. 'T is in this view of it that
they exult as those who are " glad in heart," esteeming
themselves happy beyond almost any people now living
on the face of the earth. May they ever be this happy
people, and ever have "God for their Lord"!
This news is yet further welcome to us, as it lias made
way for the return of our love, in all its genuine exercises,
towards those on the other side of the Atlantic who, in
common with ourselves, profess subjection to the same
most gracious sovereign. The affectionate regard of the
American inhabitants for their mother country1 was neVer
exceeded by any colonists in any part or age of the world.
We esteemed ourselves parts of one whole, members of
the same collective body. What affected the people
of England, affected us. We partook of their joys and
sorrows — "rejoicing when they rejoiced, and weeping
when they wept." Adverse things in the conduct of
Providence towards them alarmed our fears and gave
us pain, while prosperous events dilated our hearts, and
in proportion to their number and greatness. This tender
sympathy with our brethren at home, it is acknowledged,
began to languish from the commencement of a late par
liamentary act. There arose hereupon a general suspicion
whether they esteemed us brethren and treated us with
ihat kindness we might justly expect from them. This
jealousy, working in our breasts, cooled the fervor of our
love ; and had that act been continued in force, it might
have gradually brought on an alienation of heart that
would have been greatly detrimental to them, as it would
also have been to ourselves. But the repeal, of which
we have had authentic accounts, has opened the channels
1 This sentiment was ever appealed to in all our difficulties. Burke and
Pitt made frequent use of it. — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 131
for a full flow of our former affection towards our brethren
in Great Britain. Unhappy jealousies, uncomfortable sur-
misings and heart-burnings, are now removed ; and we
perceive the motion of an affection for the country from
whence our forefathers came, which would influence us to
the most vigorous exertions, as we might be called, to
promote their welfare, looking upon it, in a sense, our
own. We again feel with them and for them, and are
happy or unhappy as they are either in prosperous or
adverse circumstances. We can, and do, with all sincerity,
"pray for the peace of Great Britain, and that they may
prosper that love her;" adopting those words of the
devout Psalmist, "Peace be within thy walls, and pros
perity within thy palaces. For our brethren's sake we will
say, peace be within thee."
In fine, this news is refreshing to us " as cold waters to
a thirsty soul," as it has effected an alteration in the state
of things among us unspeakably to our advantage. There
is no way in which we can so strikingly be made sensible
of this as by contrasting the state we were lately in, and
the much worse one we should soon have been in had the
Stamp Act been enforced, with that happy one we are put
into by its repeal.
Upon its being made certain to the colonies that the
Stamp Act had passed both Houses of Parliament, and
received the. king's fiat, a general spirit of uneasiness at
once took place, which, gradually increasing, soon discov
ered itself, by the wiser sons of liberty,1 in laudable en-
i This name, "SONS OP LIBERTY," was used by Colonel Isaac Barre',
in his ofF-hand reply to Charles Townshend, Wednesday, February 6, 1765,
when George Grenville proposed the Stamp Act in Parliament. Jared
Ingersoll heard Colonel Barre', and sent a sketch of his remarks to Gover
nor Fitch, of Connecticut, Avho published it in the New London papers;
and, says Bancroft, " May had not shed its blossoms before the words of
132 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
deavors to obtain relief; though by others, in murmurings
and complaints, in anger and clamor, in bitterness, wrath,
and strife ; and by some evil-minded persons, taking occa
sion herefor from the general ferment1 of men's minds, in
those A'iolent outrages upon the property of others, which,
by being represented, in an undue light, may have reflected
dishonor upon a country which has an abhorrence of such
injurious conduct. The colonies were never before in a
Barre were as household words in every New England town. Midsum
mer saw it distributed through Canada, in French; and the continent
rung from end to end with the cheering name SONS OF LIBERTY." Mr.
Ingersoll, in a note to his pamphlet (New Haven, 1766), p. 16, says: "JT
believe I may claim the honor of having been the author of this title (Sons of
Liberty), however little personal good I may have got by it, having been
the only person, by what I can discover, who transmitted Mr. Barre's
speech to America."
Boston voted that pictures of Colonel Barre and General Conway " be
placed in Faneuil Hall, as a standing monument to all posterity of the
virtue and justice of our benefactors, and a lasting proof of our grati
tude." But the pictures are not there; and Mr. Drake (History of Boston,
p. 705) aptly suggests that the city " would lose none of its honor by re
placing them." The town of Barre, in Massachusetts, perpetuates the
memory of this statesman, and of the public indignation toward Hutchin-
son, whose name it had borne from 1774 to 1777. Towns in Vermont,
New York, and Wilkesbarre in Pennsylvania, also bear the honored name.
— ED.
1 In August, 1765, when Lieut. Governor Hutchinson's house, Andrew
Oliver's, William Storey's, and the stamp-office in Kilby Street, were ran
sacked or demolished. A minute account of places and names, and de
tails in these riots, fill several interesting pages in Drake's History of
Boston, chap. Ixix.; Bancroft's United States, chap, xvi., 1765.
President Adarns said, "None were indicted for pulling down the
stamp-office, because this was thought an honorable and glorious action,
not a riot." And in 1775 he said : " I will take upon me to say, there is
not another province on this continent, nor in his Majesty's dominions,
where the people, under the same indignities, would not have gone to
greater lengths."
" I pardon something to the spirit of liberty," said Burke.
The Bishop of St. Asaph said : " I consider these violences as the natu
ral effects of such measures as ours on the minds of freemen." — ED.
ON" THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 133
state of such discontent, anxiety, and perplexing solici
tude ; some despairing of a redress, some hoping for it, and
all fearing what would be the event. And, had it been
the determination of the King and Parliament to have car
ried the Stamp Act into effect by ships of war and an
embarkation of troops, their condition, however unhappy
before, would have been inconceivably more so. They
must either have submitted to what they thought an in
supportable burden, and have parted with their property
without any will of their own, or have stood upon their
defence ; in either of which cases their situation must have
been deplorably sad. So far as I arn able to judge from
that firmness of mind and resolution of spirit which ap
peared among all sorts of persons, as grounded upon this
principle, deeply rooted in their minds, that they had a
constitutional right a to grant their own moneys and to be
tried by their peers, 't is more than probable they would
not have submitted2 unless they had been obliged to it by
a The colonists may reasonably be excused for their mistake (if it was one) in
thinking that they were vested with this constitutional right, as it was the
opinion of Lord Camden, declared in the House of Lords, and of Mr. Pitt, sig
nified in the House of Commons, that the Stamp Act was unconstitutional. This
is said upon the authority of the public prints.1
1 Lord Camden said: "The British Parliament have no right to tax the
Americans Taxation and representation are coeval with and
essential to this constitution." Mr. Pitt said: " The Commons of Amer
ica, represented in their several assemblies, have ever been in possession
of the exercise of this, their constitutional right, of giving and granting
their own money. They would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed
it."— ED.
2 An examination of the newspapers and legislative proceedings of the
period admits of no doubt of this. From the passage of the Stamp Act till
certain news of its repeal, April, 1766, the newspaper, " The Boston Post
Boy," displayed for its heading, in large letters, these words : " The
united voice of all His Majesty's free and loyal subjects in AMERICA, —
LIBERTY and PROPERTY, and no STAMPS."
Dr. Gordon says the Stamp Act was treated with the most indignant
12
134 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
superior power. Not that they had a thought in their
hearts, as may have been represented, of being an inde
pendent people.1 They esteemed it both their happiness
and their glory to be, in common with the inhabitants of
contempt, by being printed and cried about the streets under the title of
The folly of ENGLAND and ruin of AMERICA.
It was now— May, 1765 — that Patrick Henry, in bringing forward his
resolutions against the act, exclaimed, " Caesar had his Brutus; Charles
the First had his Cromwell; and George the Third "—"Treason! " cried
the Speaker; " Treason ! " cried many of the members — " may profit by
their example," was the conclusion of the sentence. "If this be trea
son," said Henry, "make the most of it! "
President John Adams, referring to this sermon in 1815, said : " It has
been a question, whether, if the ministry had persevered in support of the
Stamp Act, and sent a military force of ships and troops to force its exe
cution, the people of the colonies would then have resisted. Dr. Chauncy
and Dr. Mayhew, in sermons which they preached and printed after the
repeal of the Stamp Act, have left to posterity their opinions upon this
question. If my more extensive familiarity with the sentiments and feel
ings of the people in the Eastern, Western, and Southern counties of Mas
sachusetts may apologize for my presumption, I subscribe without a doubt
to the opinions of Chauncy and Mayhew. What would have been the
consequence of resistance in arms?" (See note to page 136.) Dr. Frank
lin, before the House of Commons in 1766, said : " Suppose a military
force sent into America, they will find nobody in arms; what are they
then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to do
without them. They will not find a rebellion, but they can make one. "
— ED.
1 Not one of the English colonies, or provinces, would now submit for a
moment to the control which the American colonies would then have cheer
fully accepted. The royal governors are accepted as pageants on which to
hang the local governments, which are essentially independent, but enjoy
a nationality by this nominal connection with the crown; and it maybe
doubted if any of them have that degree of loyalty which once animated
the " rebellious " colonies of 1776. Happily time has destroyed the ani
mosities engendered by a vicious policy, and there is now that nobler unity
(for we be brethren) which is cultivated by commerce and the amenities of
literature and science. In this view, the cordial reception, at this time, of
England's royal representative in our chief cities, and by our National
Executive, is an event of great interest. See p. 143 and note. — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 135
England, Scotland, and Ireland, the subjects of King
George the Third, whom they heartily love and honor,
and in defence of whose person and crown they would
cheerfully expend their treasure, and lose even their blood.
But it was a sentiment they had imbibed, that they should
be wanting neither in loyalty to their king, or a due re
gard to the British Parliament, if they should defend those
rights which they imagined were inalienable, upon the foot
of justice, by any power on earth.* And had they, upon
this principle, whether ill or well founded, stood upon
their defence, what must have been the effect? There
would have been opened on this American continent a
most doleful scene of outrage, violence, desolation, slaugh
ter, and, in a word, all those terrible evils that may be
expected as the attendants on a state of civil war. ]STo
language can describe the distresses, in all their various
kinds and degrees, which would have made us miserable.
God only knows how long they might have continued,
and whether they would have ended in anything short of
our total ruin. Nor would the mother country, whatever
a The great Mr. IMtt would not have said, in a certain august assembly, speak
ing of the Americans, " I rejoice that they have resisted," if, in liis judgment,
they might not, in consistency with their duty to government, have made a
stand against the Stamp Act. 'Tis certainly true there may be such exercise of
power, and in instances of such a nature, as to render non-submission warrant
able upon the foot of reason and righteousness; otherwise it will be difficult, if
possible, to justify the Revolution, and that establishment in consequence of it
upon which his present Majesty sits upon the British throne. That non-subrnis-
sion would have been justifiable, had it been determined that the Stamp Act
should be enforced, I presume not to say: though none, I believe, who are the
friends of liberty, will deny that it would have been justifiable should it be first
supposed that this act essentially broke in upon our constitutional rights as
Englishmen. Whether it did or not, is a question it would be impertinent in me
to meddle with. It is the truth of the fact that the colonists generally and really
thought it did, and that it might be opposed without their incurring the guilt of
disloyalty or rebellion ; and they were led into this way of thinking upon what
they imagined were the principles which, in their operation, gave King William
and Queen Mary, of blessed memory, the crown of England. 1
1 See Dr. Mayhew's Sermon of 1750, p. 39. — ED.
136 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
some might imagine, have been untouched with what was
doing in the colonies. Those millions that were due from
this continent to Great Britain could not have been paid ;
a stop, a total stop, would have been put to the importa
tion of those manufactures which are the support of thou
sands at home, often repeated. And would the British
merchants and manufacturers have sat easy in such a state
of things? There would, it may be, hare been as much
clamor, wrath, and strife in the very bowels of the nation
as in these distant lands; nor could our destruction have
been unconnected with consequences at home infinitely to
be dreaded.1
But the longed-for repeal has scattered our fears, re
moved our difficulties, enlivened our hearts, and laid the
foundation for future prosperity, equal to the adverse state
we should have been in had the act been continued and
enforced.
1 Dr. Chauncy's speculations upon the probable consequences of the
enforcement of the Stamp Act,both in the colonies and " at home," as the
colonists affectionately called England, the mother country, are singularly
coincident with Edmund Burke's" Observations" — published three years
later, 17C9 — on Grenville's " Present State of the Nation." He said : " We
might, I think, without much difficulty, have destroyed our colonies; . .
. . but four millions of debt due to our merchants, the total cessation of
a trade worth four millions more, a large foreign traffic, much home manu
facture, a very capital immediate revenue arising from colony imports, —
indeed the produce of every one of our revenues greatly depending on this
trade, — all these were very weighty, accumulated considerations; at least
well to be weighed before that sword was drawn which, even by its victo
ries, must produce all the evil effects of the greatest national defeat."
Really it was a question of life or death, not only to the colonies, but to the
commerce of England, — whose dealings with European nations had in
creased very little since 1700, — which had risen from colony intercourse;
" a new world of commerce, in a manner created," says Burke, " grown up
to this magnitude and importance within the memory of man; nothing in
history is parallel to it." The repeal of the Stamp Act was a commercial
necessity; to enforce it would have been like killing the goose that laid
the golden egg. — ED.
ON THE EEPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 137
We may now be easy in our minds — contented with
our condition. We may be at peace and quiet among
ourselves, every one minding his own business. All
ground of complaint that we are "sold for bond-men and
bond-women" is removed away, and, instead of being
slaves to those who treat us with rigor, we are indulged
the full exercise of those liberties which have been trans
mitted to us as the richest inheritance from our forefathers.
We have now greater reason than ever to love, honor,
and obey our gracious king, and pay all becoming rever
ence and respect to his two Houses of Parliament ; and
may with entire confidence rely on their wisdom, lenity,
kindness, and power to promote our welfare. We have
now, in a word, nothing to " make us afraid," but may " sit
every man under his vine and under his fig-tree," in the
full enjoyment of the many good tilings we are favored
with in the providence of God.
Upon such a change in the state of our circumstan
ces, we should be lost to all sense of duty and gratitude,
and act as though we had no understanding, if our hearts
did not expand with joy. And, in truth, the danger is lest
we should exceed in the expressions of it. It may be said
of these colonies, as of the Jewish people upon the repeal
of the decree of Ahasuerus, which devoted them to destruc
tion, they " had light and gladness, joy and honor; and
in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the
king's commandment and his decree came, they had joy
and gladness, a feast day, and a good day ; " saying within
themselves, "the Lord hath done great things for us,
whereof we are glad." May the remembrance of this
memorable repeal be preserved and handed down to future
generations, in every province, in every city, and in every
family, so as never to be forgotten.
We now proceed — the way being thus prepared for it
12*
138 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
— to point out the proper use we should make of this
"good news from a far country," which is grateful to us
" as cold waters to a thirsty soul."
We have already had our rejoicings, in the civil sense,
upon the "glad tidings" from our mother country; and
'tis to our honor that they were carried on so universally
within the bounds of a decent, warrantable regularity.
There was never, among us, such a collection of all sorts
of people upon any public occasion. Nor were the meth
ods in which they signified their joy ever so beautifully
varied and multiplied ; and yet, none had reason to com
plain of disorderly conduct. The show was seasonably
ended, and we had afterwards a perfectly quiet night.1
There has indeed been no public disturbance since the
outrage at Lieut. Governor Hutchinson's house. That
was so detested by town and country, and such a spirit at
once so generally stirred up, particularly among the peo
ple, to oppose such villanous conduct, as has preserved us
ever since in a state of as great freedom from mobbish
actions as has been known in the country. Our friends at
home, it should seem, have entertained fears lest upon the
lenity and condescension of the King and Parliament we
1 The repeal was celebrated throughout the colonies by all possible
expressions of joy, — by ringing of bells, firing of guns, processions, bon
fires, illuminations, thanksgivings. Prisoners for debt were released; Pitt,
Camden, and Barre were eulogized; and in Boston "Liberty Tree itself
was decorated with lanterns till its boughs could hold no more
Never was there a more rapid transition of a people from gloom to joy."
— BANCROFT. The Sons of Liberty triumphed.
" It has at once," said Mayhew, in his Thanksgiving Sermon, May 23,
" in a good measure restored things to order, and composed our minds.
Commerce lifts up her head, adorned with golden tresses, pearls, and
precious stones; almost every person you meet wears the smile of con
tentment and joy; and even our slaves rejoice, as though they had
received their manumission." See Drake's History of Boston, ch. Ixxi.,
for an account of the celebration in Boston. — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 139
should prove ourselves a factious, turbulent people ; and
our enemies hope we shall. But 't is not easy to conceive
on what the fears of the one or the hopes of the other
should be grounded, unless they have received injurious
representations of the spirit that lately prevailed in this as
well as the other colonies, which was not a spirit to raise
needless disturbances, or to commit outrages upon the
persons or property of any, though some of those sons of
wickedness which are to be found in all places a might take
occasion, from the stand that was made for liberty, to com
mit violence with a high hand. There has not been, since
the repeal, the appearance of a spirit tending to public
disorder, nor is there any danger such a spirit should be
encouraged or discovered, unless the people should be
needlessly and unreasonably irritated by those who, to
serve themselves, might be willing we should gratify such
as are our enemies, and make those so who have been our
good friends. But, to leave this digression :
a It has been said, and in the public prints, that there have been mobbish, riot
ous doings in London, and other parts of England, at one time and another, and
that great men at such times — men far superior to any among us in dignity and
power — suffered in their persons by insulting, threatening words and actions,
and in their property by the injurious violence that destroyed their substance.
Would it be just to characterize London, much more England itself, from the
conduct of these disturbers of its peace? It would as reasonably, as certainly,
be esteemed a vile reproach, should they on this account be represented as, in
general, a turbulent, seditious people, disposed to throw off their subjection
to government, and bring things into a state of anarchy and confusion. If this
has been the representation that has been made of the colonists, on account of
what any may have suffered in their persons or effects by the ungoverned, dis
orderly behavior of some mobbishly disposed persons, it is really nothing better
than a base slander, and no more applicable to them than to the people of Eng
land. The colonists in general, the inhabitants of this province in particular,
are as great enemies to all irregular, turbulent proceedings, and as good friends
to government, and as peaceable, loyal subjects, as any that call King George the
Third their rightful and lawful sovereign.l
1 The sacking of Lord Mansfield's house, the destruction of his library
and manuscripts in 1780, and of Dr. Priestley's mansion, books, manu
scripts, and philosophical apparatus, in 1791, greatly exceeded the outrages
in Boston. — ED.
140 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
Though our civil joy has been expressed in a decent,
orderly way, it would be but a poor, pitiful thing should
we rest here, and not make our religious, grateful acknowl
edgments to the Supreme Ruler1 of the world, to whose
superintending providence it is principally to be ascribed
that we have had "given us so great deliverance." What
ever were the means or instruments in order to this, that
glorious Being, whose throne is in the heavens, and whose
kingdom ruleth over all, had the chief hand herein. He
1 If there be in our early historical literature any one feature more
strongly marked than the rest, it is this universal recognition of God in
all our affairs; and Washington was not more true to himself than to the
spirit of his country, which, of all men, he best understood, when, in his
inaugural address as President of the United States, April 30, 1789, he
said :
" It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my
fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe,
who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids
can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to
the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a govern
ment instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may
enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with
success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage
to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself
that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my
fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to
acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of
man more than the people of the United States. Every step by which
they have been advanced to the character of an independent nation seems
to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in
the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united
government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many
distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be com
pared with the means by which most governments have been established,
without some return of pious gratitude, along with a humble anticipation
of the blessings which the past seems to presage. These reflections,
arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on
my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking
that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a
new and free government can more auspiciously commence." — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 141
sat at the helm, and so governed all things relative to it
as to bring it to this happy issue. It was under his all-
wise, overruling influence that a spirit was raised in all the
colonies nobly to assert their freedom as men and English-
born subjects — a spirit which, in the course of its operation,
was highly serviceable, not by any irregularities it might
be the occasion of (in this imperfect state they will, more
or less, mix themselves with everything great and good),
but by its manly efforts, setting forth the reasons they
had for complaint in a fair, just, and strongly convincing
light, hereby awakening the attention of Great Britain,
opening the eyes of the merchants and manufacturers
there, and engaging them, for their own interest as well
as that of America, to exert themselves in all reasonable
ways to help us. It was under the same all-governing
influence that the late ministry, full of projections1 tending
to the hurt of these colonies, was so seasonably changed
into the present patriotic one,2 which is happily disposed,
in all the methods of wisdom, to promote our welfare. It
was under the same influence still that so many friends
of eminent character were raised up and spirited to appeal-
advocates on our behalf, and plead our cause with irresist
ible force. It was under this same influence, also, that
the heart of our king and the British Parliament were
so turned in favor to us as to reverse that decree which,
had it been established, would have thrown this whole
continent, if not the nation itself, into a state of the
utmost confusion. In short, it was ultimately owing to
1 Ecclesiastical and civil. — ED.
2 "The Rockino-ham Administration" (July 10, 1705— July 30, 1766),
in October, had had " letters from all parts of America that a conflagra
tion blazed out at once in North America — a universal disobedience and
open resistance to the Stamp Act;" and because it "raised a flame in
America," says Burke, " for reasons political, not commercial," it was
repealed. Thus the Grenville policy was abandoned for the time. — ED.
142 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
tins influence of the God of Heaven that the thoughts, the
views, the purposes, the speeches, the writings, and the
whole conduct of all who were engaged in this great
affair were so overruled to bring into effect the desired
happy event.1
And shall we not make all due acknowledgments to
the great Sovereign of the world on this joyful occasion?
Let us, my brethren, take care that our hearts be suitably
touched with a sense of the bonds we are under to the
Lord of the universe ; and let us express the joy and grat
itude of our hearts by greatly praising him for the great
ness of his goodness in thus scattering our fears, removing
away our burdens, and continuing us in the enjoyment of
our most highly valued liberties and privileges. And let
us not only praise him with our lips, rendering thanks to
his holy name, but let us honor him by a well-ordered
conversation. " Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice ; "
and "to love the Lord our God with all pur heart, and
mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves,"
1 " I remember, sir/' said Mr. Burke, in 1774, " with a melancholy
pleasure, the situation of the honorable gentleman" — General Conway —
"who made the motion for the repeal; in that crisis, when the whole
trading interest of this empire, crammed into your lobbies, with a trem
bling and anxious expectation, waited almost to a winter's return of
light their fate from your resolution. When, at length, you had deter
mined in their favor, and your doors, thrown open, showed them the
figure of their deliverer in the well-earned triumphs of his important
victory, from the whole of that grave multitude there arose an involuntary
burst of gratitude and transport. They jumped upon him, like children
on a long-absent father. They clung about him, as captives about their
redeemer. AIT England, all America joined to his applause
I stood near him ; and his face — to use the expression of the Scriptures
of the first martyr — ' his face was as if it had been the face of an angel.'
I do not know how others feel; but if I had stood in that situation, I
never would have exchanged it for all that kings, in their profusion,
could bestow." — ED.
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 143
is better than whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices." Ac
tions speak much louder than words. In vain shall we
pretend that we are joyful in God, or thankful to him, if it
is not our endeavor, as we have been taught by the grace
of God, which has appeared to us by Jesus Christ, to
" deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live so
berly, righteously, and godly in the world ; " doing all
things whatsoever it has pleased God to command us.
And as he has particularly enjoined it on us to be
"subject to the higher powers, ordained by him to be his
ministers for good," we cannot, upon this occasion, more
properly express our gratitude to him than by approving
ourselves dutiful and loyal to the gracious king w hern* he has
placed over us. Not that we can be justly taxed with the
want of love or subjection to the British throne. We may
have been abused by false and injurious representations
upon this head ; but King George the Third has no sub
jects — not within the realm of England itself — that are
more strongly attached to his person and family, that bear
a more sincere and ardent affection towards him, or that
would exert themselves with more life and spirit in de
fence of his crown and dignity. But it may, notwithstand
ing, at this time,1 be seasonable to stir up your minds by
1 In his examination before the House of Commons, in 1766, Dr. Frank
lin answered to the question, " What was the temper of America towards
Great Britain before the year 1703 ? "— " The best in the world. They sub
mitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in all their
courts, obedience to acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in
the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garri
sons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this
country at the expense of only a little pen, ink, and paper. They were
led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great
Britain, — for its laws, its customs, and manners, — and even a fondness
for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain
were always treated with particular regard; to be an Old England m&u
144 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
putting you in remembrance of your duty to " pray for
kings, and all that are in subordinate authority under
them," and to " honor and obey them in the Lord." And
if we should take occasion, from the great lenity and con
descending goodness of those who are supreme in author
ity over us, not to " despise government," not to " speak
evil of dignities," not to go into any method of unseemly,
disorderly conduct, but to " lead quiet and peaceable lives
in all godliness and honesty," — every man moving in his
own proper sphere, and taking due care to "render unto
Caesar the things that are Cassar's, and to God the things
that are God's," — we should honor ourselves, answer the
expectations of those who have dealt thus favorably with
us, and, what is more, we should express a becoming regard
to the governing pleasure of Almighty God.
It would also be a suitable return of gratitude to God
if we entertained in our mindsj and were ready to express
in all proper ways, a just sense of the obligations we are
under to those patrons of liberty and righteousness who
were the instruments employed by him, and whose wise
and powerful endeavors, under his blessing, were effectual
to promote at once the interest of the nation at home, and
of these distant colonies. Their names will, I hope, be ever
dear to us, and handed down as such to the latest poster
ity. That illustrious name in special, PiTT,1 will, I trust,
was of itself a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank
among us."
Q. "And what is their temper now? "
A. " O, very much altered." — See note 1, p. 134. — ED.
1 No name was more venerated in America than that of William Pitt. He
was born in London, in 1708, grandson of Thomas Pitt, Governor of Ma
dras, and made his first speech in Parliament in 1736. In December, 1756,
when " our armies were beaten, our navy inactive, our trade exposed to
the enemy, our credit — as if we expected to become bankrupts — sunk to
the lowest pitch, so that there was nothing to be found but despondency at
ON THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 145
be never mentioned but with honor, as the saviour, under
God, and the two kings who made him their prime minis
ter, both of the nation and these colonies, not only from
the power of France, but from that which is much worse,
a state of slavery, under the appellation of Englishmen.
May his memory be blessed ! May his great services for
his king, the nation, and these colonies, be had in everlast
ing: remembrance !
home and contempt abroad " (Address of City of London), the great Whig
statesman graciously accepted the seals of government, and his adminis
tration was the most glorious period of English history since the days
of the Commonwealth and of the Revolution of 1088. America rejoiced,
and her blood and her treasure flowed freely. She saw the French navy
annihilated, and the British flag wave at Louisburg, Niagara, Ticon-
deroga, Crown Point, Quebec, and all Canada. " Mr. Pitt left the thirteen
British colonies in North America in perfect security and happiness, every
inhabitant there glowing with the warmest affection to the parent country.
At home all was animation and industry. Riches and glory flowed in
from every quarter." — Almon. George II. died, in extreme age, October
25, 1700; succeeded by his grandson, George III., with not a drop of Eng
lish blood in his veins; a very Stuart in principle. He was a youth of
twenty-two years, and the crown was placed on his head by the primate
Seeker, who aspired to be his counsellor as well as his spiritual director.
Seeker was the very one who suffered at the hands of Dr. Mayhew in the
controversy about the society for propagating the hierarchy " in foreign
parts;" "and," said the pious Dean Swift, "whoever has a true value
for church and state, should avoid " Whigism. Pitt resigned the seals of
Secretary of State on the 5th of October, 1701. He opposed with his
might the proceedings against America. The peculiarly impressive cir
cumstances of his death, May llth, 1778, hastened, if not caused, by his
zeal and energy in our behalf, are familiar to all by the celebrated picture
of the "Death of Chatham," — the piece which established the fame of
the eminent Bostonian, Copley, whose son, Lord Lyndhurst, yet lives,
one of the most venerable and eloquent members of the House of Peers.
Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, Pittsfield in Massachusetts, and many other
towns, perpetuate the memory of the national gratitude, which was ex
pressed by legislative addresses, by monuments, and by every mode of
public and private regard. He died poor — " stained by no vice, sullied by
no meanness." — ED.
13
146 A THANKSGIVING SERMON.
To conclude : Let us be ambitious to make it evident,
by the manner of our conduct, that we are good subjects
and good Christians. So shall we in the best way express
the grateful sense we have of our obligations to that glo
rious Being, to the wisdom and goodness of whose presi
dency over all human affairs it is principally owing that
the great object of our fear and anxious concern has been
so happily removed. And may it ever be our care to
behave towards him so as that he may appear on our be
half in every time of danger and difficulty, guard us
against evil, and continue to us all our enjoyments, both
civil and religious. And may they be transmitted from us
to our children, and to children's children, as long as the
sun and the moon shall endure. AMEN.
A
SERMON
PREACHED AT CAMBRIDGE,
IN THE
AUDIENCE OF HIS HONOR
THOMAS HUTCHINSON, ESCL;
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF;
THE HONORABLE
His MAJESTY'S COUNCIL,
AND THE HONORABLE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
OF THE PROVINCE OF THE
Maflachufetts-Bay in New-England,
MAY 30th, 1770.
BEING THE ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ELECTION OF His
MAJESTY'S COUNCIL FOR THE SAID PROVINCE.
BY SAMUEL COOKE, A. M.
Paftor of the Second Church in CAMBRIDGE.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY EDES AND GILL, PRINTERS TO THE
HONORABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
MDCCLXX.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, May 30, 1770.
Resolved, That Mr. Gardner of Cambridge, Mr. Remington, and Mr. Gardner
of Stow, be a Committee to return the thanks of this House to the Rev. Mr.
Samuel Cooke for his Sermon preached yesterday before the General Court,
being the day of the election of Councillors; and to desire of him a copy thereof
for the press.
Attest,
SAMUEL ADAMS, Clerk.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
A GLANCE AT THE CURRENT OF EVENTS FROM THE DATE OF DR.
CHAUNCY'S SERMON TO THAT OF MR. COOKE, 1770.
THE happiness of America, on the repeal of the Stamp Act, was as
transient as the existence of the ministry which effected it; and the out
burst of joy, of which Dr. Chauncy's sermon was but a single note, by
the contrast, presents in deeper gloom the succeeding woe. Excessive
jealousy of ministerial control — a desire of personal " influence" — was
a source of misery to George III., and of calamity to the nation. He set
tled questions of state on personal, not on national grounds. Thus, in
the midst of the American war, he declared respecting Mr. Pitt, whose
administration had been the glory of the reign of his grandfather, George
II., "No advantage to my country, nor personal danger to myself, can make
me address myself to Lord Chatham, or to any other branch of opposi
tion. Honestly, I would rather lose the crown I now wear than bear the
ignominy of possessing it under their shackles." His letters to Lord
North show that the war was his war; and he said to Mr. Adams, on his
presentation as first minister plenipotentiary from the United States, " I
have done nothing in the late contest but what I thought myself bound
to do."
He never could forget his mother's early precept: " George, be king! "
and so capricious was he, that " the question at last was," said Burke,
" not who could do the public business best, but who would undertake to
do it at all." During the first nine years of his reign there were six succes
sive administrations. The Rockingham Administration, which repealed
the Stamp Act, March 18th, 1766, lasted only one year and twenty days.
When Chatham, the great friend of America, consented to form a new
ministry, he had to frame it of such discordant materials, that during his
absence, by reason of ill health, " as if it were to insult him," says Mr.
Knight, " as well as to betray him, and even long before the close of the
13*
150 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
first session of his administration, when everything was publicly trans
acted, and with great parade, in his name, they made an act declaring it
highly just and expedient to raise a revenue in America." " He made an
administration so checkered and speckled; he put together a piece of
joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed; a cabinet so vari
ously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tessellated pave
ment without cement, — here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white ;
patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans, Whigs and Tories,
treacherous friends and open enemies, — that it was indeed a very curious
show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on. . . . When
his face was hid but for a moment, his whole system was on a wide sea,
without chart or compass/' 1
The Act of June 29th, 17G7, imposing duties to be paid by the colonists
on paper, glass, painters' colors, and teas, and authorizing the appoint
ment of an indefinite number of irresponsible officers, with unlimited
salaries, to be paid by the colonies, again put America in an uproar.
During the period to March, 1770, every proceeding of the British govern
ment, in Council or in Parliament, served only to exasperate the Amer
icans, and to strengthen them in a common bond of resistance. On the
llth of February, 1708, the House of Representatives of Massachusetts
issued a circular letter to the speakers of the legislative assemblies of the
other colonies, in which they expressed " a disposition freely to commu
nicate their mind to sister colonies, upon a common concern, in the same
manner as they would be glad to receive the sentiments of any other
House of Assembly on the continent." They say in the letter that " the
House have humbly represented to the ministry their own sentiments ;
. . . that it is an essential, unalterable right in nature, engrafted into
the British constitution as a fundamental law, and ever held sacred and
irrevocable by the subjects within the realm, that what a man has hon
estly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot
be taken from him without his consent; that the American subjects may,
therefore, exclusive of any consideration of charter rights, with a decent
firmness adapted to the character of free men and subjects, assert this
natural and constitutional right. It is, moreover, their humble opinion,
which they express with the greatest deference to the wisdom of the Par
liament, that the acts made there, imposing duties on the people of this
province with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, are
infringements of their natural and constitutional rights; because, as they
1 Burke.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 151
are not represented in the British Parliament, his Majesty's Commons in
Britain, by those acts, grant their property without their consent. . . .
" They have also submitted to consideration, whether any people can be
said to enjoy any decree of freedom, if the crown, in addition to its un
doubted authority of constituting a governor, should appoint him such a
stipend as it may judge proper, without the consent of the people, and at
their expense; and whether, while the judges of the land, and other civil
officers, hold not their commissions during good behavior, their having
salaries appointed for them by the crown, independent of the people,
hath not a tendency to subvert the principles of equity, and endanger the
happiness and security of the subject.
" They take notice of the hardships of the act for preventing mutiny
and desertion," — passed at the same session with the repealed Stamp Act,
— " which i-equires the Governor and Council to provide for the king's
marching troops, and the people to pay the expenses ; and also the com
mission of the gentlemen appointed commissioners of the customs, to
reside in America, which authorizes them to make as many appointments
as they think fit, and to pay the appointees what sum they please, for
whose mal-conduct they are not accountable; from whence it may hap
pen that officers of the crown may be multiplied to such a degree as to
become dangerous to the liberty of the people." l
Lord Hillsborough thought this circular " unfair," and, on the 22d of
April, wrote to Governor Bernard " to require the House of Representa
tives in his Majesty's name to rescind . . . that rash and hasty
proceeding." In June, Governor Bernard delivered this message, and the
House absolutely declined the proposal; for " we should stand self-con
demned as unworthy the name of British subjects, descended from British
ancestors, intimately allied and connected in interest and inclination with
our fellow-subjects, the Commons of Great Britain. . . . We take it
to be the native, inherent, and indefeasible right of the subject, jointly or
severally, to petition the king for the redress of grievances ; . . . and
if the votes of the House are to be controlled by the direction of a minis
ter, we have left us but a vain resemblance of liberty. We have now only
1 Mr. Knight, " Popular History of England," vol. vi. 310, quotes an author
ity, that "In 1758 America had been called 'the hospital of England;' the
places in the gift of the crown being filled ' with broken members of Parliament,
of bad, if any, principles; valets de chambre, electioneering scoundrels, and
even livery servants.' "
152
to inform you that this House has voted not to rescind, and that on a
division on the question there were ninety-two nays and seventeen yeas; "
and we shall petition the king to remove Mr. Bernard from the govern
ment of this province. The governor dissolved the Legislature the next
day, according to the royal instructions. Several other colonial assem
blies were dissolved for the same reason.
Four thousand British troops were sent to Boston this year — 1768 — to
aid in the collection of the duties ; but the custom-house officers fled to the
castle for safety, and the collector's boat was dragged through the town
and burnt on the common. Now were breathed into life resolves, peti
tions, protests, state-papers, political treatises, that, for vigor of thought
and strength and elegance of expression, for profound inquiry into
governmental principles and learning, accurate and cogent reasoning,
and the noblest love of liberty, must forever remain unsurpassed, and
which drove the British government to the last, if not the only argument
of despotism — force. These — among the richest legacies ever left by
"Sons of Liberty" to their children — demonstrate the intensity of the
struggle, their high and holy principles, the fervor of soul, the indomitable
will, with which, consecrated by an unceasing recognition of GOD over
all, the great stake, LIBERTY, was won. It is only by a diligent and
sympathizing study of these writings, and of the lineage and lives of
their great authors, that the spirit of the Revolution can be understood.
As the Legislature was dissolved, a " convention " was held, at Boston,
September 22d, where the public will expressed itself, without the' legal
forms of authority, but decisively. Non-importation agreements were
entered into, and a commercial policy of " masterly inactivity" prevailed,
very annoying to the " friends of government," and not comforting to
the "swarms" of hungry vampires of the customs. This "insolence"
disturbed Parliament, and Governor Bernard was directed to transmit
to England the names of the principal offenders, who were to be dragged
thither for trial.
On election-day, May 31, 1769, the House sent a message to the gov
ernor, "that an armament by sea and land, investing this metropolis,
and a military guard, with cannon pointed at the very door of the State
House," — yet standing at the head of State Street, — " where this
Assembly is held, is inconsistent with that dignity, as well as that
freedom, with which we have a right to deliberate, consult, and deter
mine," and " we have a right to expect that your Excellency will, as his
Majesty's representative, give the necessary and effectual orders for the
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 153
removal of the above-mentioned forces by sea and land out of this port
and the gates of this city, during the session of said Assembly." The
governor's answer was: "I have no authority over his Majesty's ships
in this port, or his troops in this town; nor can I give any orders for
the removal of the same."
On the 15th of July, in answer to two petulant messages from Governor
Bernard, whether they would provide, according to act of Parliament,
for the king's troops, the House " evinced to the whole world and to
all posterity" their idea "of the indefatigable pains of his Excellency,
and a few interested persons, to procure and keep up a standing force
here, by sea and land, in a time of profound peace, under the mere
pretence of the necessity of such a force to aid the civil authority. . . .
The whole continent has, for some years past, been distressed with
what are called acts for imposing taxes on the colonists, for the express
purpose of raising a revenue; and that without their consent, in person
or by representative In strictness, all those acts may be rather
called acts for raising a tribute in America, for the further purposes of
dissipation among placemen and pensioners. . . . But of all the new
regulations, the Stamp Act not excepted, this under consideration is
the most excessively unreasonable. For, in effect, the yet free repre
sentatives of the free assemblies of North America are called upon
to repay, of their own and their constituents' money, such sum or sums
as persons, over whom they can have no check or control, may be
pleased to expend! . . . therefore, . ... we shall never make
provision for the purposes in your several messages above mentioned."
Governor Bernard was rewarded, March 20th, by a royal bauble, — a
baronetcy, — and, having prorogued the General Court, July 15th, to
January 10th, at Boston, he sailed, August 1st, for England, leaving the
government in the hands of Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, AV!IO was
no less obsequious to the crown, and faithless and ungrateful to his native
land.
The unanimity of the colonies gained strength; for the cause of one was
the cause of all. On the fifth of March, 1770, there was a collision of the
soldiers and citizens, — " the horrid massacre," — the anniversary of which
was made very serviceable to the patriot cause. Hutchinson, alarmed by
the intense public excitement, convened the Council;1 at the same time
1 The elder Adams, in his account of this scene, has left to us a picture of the
Council Chamber, which remained as it was when Otis there argued against the
154
the people thronged to Faneuil Hall, and, through a committee, declared
to the Governor and Council that " nothing can rationally be expected
to restore the peace of the town, and prevent blood and carnage, but the
immediate removal of the troops." Governor Hutchinson said : " Nothing
shall ever induce me to order the troops out of town;" but Mr. Secretary
Oliver whispered: "You must either comply or determine to leave the
province." This would have been an end to " his Honor's" advancement.
The troops were removed to the castle.
In compliance with the mandate of the minister, Governor Hutchinson
further prorogued the General Court, to meet at Cambridge, March 15th,
instead of at its ancient seat at Boston. They remonstrated, and Hutch
inson answered : " I must consider myself, as a servant of the king, to be
governed" — solely — " by what appears to be his Majesty's pleasure."
Many messages and speeches were exchanged; and on May 30th the
House, before electing the Council, entered on its journal a protest against
its session at Cambridge being drawn into precedent.
Boston, in the instructions to her representatives in this court, de
nounces the doctrines of the ministry as " political solecisms, which may
take root and spring up under the meridian of modern Rome; but we
trust in GOD they will not flourish in the soil and climate of British
America . We, therefore, enjoin you, at all hazards, to
deport yourselves (as we rely your own hearts will stimulate) like, the
faithful representatives of a free-born, awakened, and determined people,
who, being impregnated with the spirit of liberty in conception, and
nurtured in principles of freedom from their infancy, are resolved to
breathe the same celestial ether till summoned to resign the heavenly
flame by that omnipotent God who gave it."
writs of assistance: "The same glorious portraits of King Charles the Second
and King James the Second, to which might be added little, miserable likenesses
of Governor Winthrop, Governor Bradstreet, Governor Endecott, and Gover
nor Belcher, hung up in obscure corners of the room." The latter are now in
the Senate Chamber. "Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, Commander-in-chief
in the absence of the governor, is at the head of the council table. Lieutenant-
Colonel Dalrymple, Commander-in-chief of his Majesty's military forces, taking
rank of all his Majesty's counsellors, must be seated by the side of the Lieutenant-
Governor and Commander-in-chief of the province. Eight and twenty counsel
lors must be painted, all seated at the council board. Let me see!— what cos
tume? What was the fashion of that day? Large white wigs, English scarlet
cloth cloaks; some of them with gold-laced hats, not on their heads indeed, in.
so august a presence, but on a table before them." — See pp. 113-14.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 155
Such were some of the leading events after Dr. Chauncy's sermon in
1766, and such the condition and spirit of the times when Dr. Cook
preached the " Election Sermon" of 1770, — a discourse that must have
" come home to men's business and bosoms."
The preacher, a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1735, then
in the sixty-second year of his age, was " a man of science, of a social
disposition, distinguished by his good sense and prudence, and a faithful
servant of the Lord Jesus." 1 He died June 4, 1783, aged 74.
The spirit and formula of legislative action on " election-day," in the
revolutionary period, appear in the following contemporary account :
" BOSTON, May 31, 1770. Wednesday being the Anniversary of the
Day appointed by the Royal Charter for the Election of Councillors for
this Province, the Great and General Court or Assembly met at Harvard
College, in Cambridge, at Nine o'clock in the Morning; when the usual
Oaths were administered to the Gentlemen, who were returned to serve as
Members of the Honorable House of Representatives, who also subscribed
to the Declaration: — The House then made Choice of Mr. SAMUEL
ADAMS for their Clerk ; after which they chose the Hon. THOMAS
GUSHING, Esq., their Speaker.
"About Ten o'clock His Honor the Lieutcnant-Governor, being escorted
by the Troop of Guards from his Seat at Milton, arrived at Harvard
College, and being in the Chair, a Committee of the House presented the
Speaker elect to His Honor, who afterwards sent a Message in Writing,
agreeable to the Royal Explanatory Charter, that he approved of their
Choice. The House then chose a Committee to remonstrate to His Honor
the Calling of the Assembly at that Place.
" At Eleven o'clock His Honor the Lieutenant-Govcrnor, accompanied by
the Honorable His Majesty's Council, the Honorable House of Represen
tatives, and a Number of other Gentlemen, preceded by the first Company
in Cambridge of the Regiment of Militia, commanded by the Honorable
Brigadier Brattle, went in Procession to the Meeting-House, where a
Sermon suitable to the Occasion was preached by the Rcv'd Mr. SAMUEL
COOKE, of Cambridge, from these words: 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4. The God
of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over man must
be just, ruling in the fear of God, etc. After Divine Service the Procession
returned to Harvard-Hall, where an Entertainment was provided.
" Previous to the choice of Councillors, — in the afternoon, — Letters
i Allen.
156
were read from the Hon. BENJAMIN LINCOLN, Esq.; the Hon. JOHN
HILL, Esq.; the Hon. GAMALIEL BRADFORD, Esq.; resigning their Seats
at the Council Board, on account of their Age and Bodily Indisposition.
"The following gentlemen were elected Councillors for the ensuing
year, viz. :
For the late Colony of MASSACHUSETTS BAT.
The HONORABLE
SAMUEL DANFORTH, Esq.; JAMES PITTS, Esq.;
ISAAC ROYALL, Esq. ; SAMUEL DEXTER, Esq. ;
JOHN ERVING, Esq.; t JOSEPH GERRISH, Esq.;
t WILLIAM BRATTLE, Esq.; t THOMAS SANDERS, Esq.;
t JAMES BOWDOIN, Esq.; t JOHN HANCOCK, Esq.;
THOMAS HUBBARD, Esq.; t ARTEMAS WARD, Esq.;
HARRISON GRAY, Esq.; t BENJA. GREENLEAF, Esq.;
JAMES RUSSELL, Esq. ; t JOSHUA HENSHAW, Esq. ;
ROYALL TYLER, Esq.; t STEPHEN HALL, Esq.
For the late Colony of PLYMOUTH.
t JAMES OTIS, Esq.; t JERATHMEEL BOWERS, Esq.;
WILLIAM SEVER, Esq.; t WALTER SPOONER, Esq.
For the late Province of MAINE.
NATHANIEL SPARHAWK, Esq.; JEREMIAH POWELL, Esq.;
JOHN BRADBURY, Esq.
For SAGADAHOCK.
t JAMES GOWEN, Esq.
AT LARGE.
t JAMES HUMPHREY, Esq. ; t GEORGE LEONARD, JR., Esq.
[Those marked t were not of the Council last year.]
" The list of Councillors chosen Yesterday being this day, agreeable to
the Direction of the Royal Charter, presented to the Lieutenant Governor,
His Honor was pleased to consent to the Election of the Gentlemen
before-mentioned, except the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq., and JERATH
MEEL BOWERS, Esq. JOSEPH GERRISH, Esq., declined going to the
Board." — The Massachusetts Gazette, Monday, June 4, 1770.
DISCOURSE III
AN ELECTION SERMON.
HE THAT RULETH OVER MEN MUST BE JUST, RULING IN THE FEAR OP 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. — 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4.
THE solemn introduction to the words now read, re
spectable hearers, is manifestly designed to engage your
attention and regard, as given by inspiration from God,
and as containing the last, the dying words of one of the
greatest and best of earthly rulers, who, by ruling in the
fear of God, had served his generation according to the
divine will. Transporting reflection ! when his flesh and
his heart failed, and his glory was consigned to dust.
From this and many other passages in the sacred ora
cles, it is evident that the Supreme Ruler, though he has
directed to no particular mode of civil government, yet
allows and approves of the establishment of it among
men.
The ends of civil government, in divine revelation, are
clearly pointed out, the character of rulers described, and
the duty of subjects asserted and explained ; and in this
view civil government may be considered as an ordinance
of God, and, when justly exercised, greatly subservient to
the glorious purposes of divine providence and grace:
but the particular form is left to the choice and determi
nation of mankind.
14
158 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
In a pure state of nature, government is in a great
measure unnecessary. Private property in that state is
inconsiderable. Men need no arbiter to determine their
rights; they covet only a bare support; their stock is but
the subsistence of a day; the uncultivated deserts are their
habitations, and they carry their all with them in their
frequent removes. They are each one a law to himself,
which, in general, is of force sufficient for their security in
that course of life.
It is far otherwise when mankind are formed into col
lective bodies, or a social state of life. Here, their fre
quent mutual intercourse, in a degree, necessarily leads
them to different apprehensions respecting their several
rights, even where their intentions are upright. Tempta
tions to injustice and violence increase, and the occasions
of them multiply in proportion to the increase and opu
lence of the society. The laws of nature, though enforced
by divine revelation, which bind the conscience of the
upright, prove insufficient to restrain the sons of violence,
who have not the fear of God before their eyes.
A society cannot long subsist in such a state; their
safety, their social being, depends upon the establishment
of determinate rules or laws, with proper penalties to en
force them, to which individuals shall be subjected. The
laws, however wisely adapted, cannot operate to the public
security unless they are properly executed. The execu
tion of them remaining in the hands of the whole com
munity, leaves individuals to determine their own rights,
and, in effect, in the same circumstances as in a state of
nature. The remedy in this case is solely in the hands of
the community.
A society emerging from a state of nature, in respect to
authority, are all upon a level ; no individual can justly
challenge a right to make or execute the laws by which it
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 159
is to be governed, but only by the choice or general con
sent of the community. The people, the collective body
only, have a right, under God, to determine who shall ex
ercise this trust for the common interest, and to fix the
bounds of their authority; and, consequently, unless we
admit the most evident inconsistence, those in authority,
in the whole of their public conduct, are accountable to
the society which gave them their political existence.
This is evidently the natural origin and state of all civil
government, the sole end and design of which is, not to
ennoble a few and enslave the multitude, but the public
benefit, the good of the people ; that they may be protected
in their persons, and secured in the enjoyment of all their
rights, and be enabled to lead quiet and peaceable lives in
all godliness and honesty. While this manifest design of
civil government, under whatever form, is kept in full
view, the reciprocal obligations of rulers and subjects are
obvious, and the extent of prerogative and liberty will be
indisputable.
In a civil state, that form is most eligible which is best
adapted to promote the ends of government — the benefit
of the community. Reason and experience teach that a
mixed government is most conducive to this end. In the
present imperfect state, the whole power cannot with
safety be entrusted with a single person ; nor with many,
acting jointly in the same public capacity. Various
branches of power, concentring in the community from
which they originally derive their authority, are a mutual
check to each other in their several departments, and
jointly secure the common interest. This may indeed, in
some instances, retard the operations of government, but
will add dignity to its deliberate counsels and weight to
its dictates.
This, after many dangerous§ conflicts with arbitrary
160 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
power, is now the happy constitution of our parent state.
We rejoice in the gladness of our nation. May no weapon
formed against it prosper ; may it be preserved inviolate
till time shall be no more. This, under God, has caused
Great Britain to exalt her head above the nations, restored
the dignity of royal authority, and rendered our kings
truly benefactors. The prince upon the British throne
can have no real interest distinct from his subjects; his
crown is his inheritance, his kingdom his patrimony, which
he must be disposed to improve for his own and his fam
ily's interest ; his highest glory is to rule over a free peo
ple and reign in the hearts of his subjects. The Peers,
who are lords of Parliament, are his hereditary council.
The Commons, elected by the people, are considered as
the grand inquest of the kingdom, and, while incorrupt,
are a check upon the highest offices in the state. A con
stitution thus happily formed and supported, as a late
writer has observed, cannot easily be subverted but by the
prevalence of venality in the representatives of the people.
How far septennial parliaments1 conduce to this, time may
further show; or whether this is not an infraction upon
the national constitution, is not for me to determine. But
the best constitution, separately considered, is only as a
1 The Septennial Bill of George I., extending the duration of Par
liaments to seven years, was passed to defeat the intrigues of the Popish
faction, whose " conspiracy against the House of Hanover continued," Sir-
James Mackintosh says, " till the last years of the reign of George II., .
. . . . and whose hostility to the Protestant succession was not extin
guished till the appearance of their leaders at the court of George III.
proclaimed to the world their hope that Jacobite principles might re-
ascend the throne of England with a monarch of the House of Bruns
wick." It was the effrontery of their propaganda in New England that
roused Dr. Mayhew in 1750. See his Sermon on the " Martyrdom " of
Charles I., p. 102. — ED.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 161
line which marks out the enclosure, or as a fitly organized
body without spirit or animal life.1
The advantages of civil government, even under the
British form, greatly depend upon the character and con
duct of those to whom the administration is committed.
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. The
Most High,. therefore, who is just in all his ways, good to
all, and whose commands strike dread, has strictly enjoined
faithfulness upon all those who are advanced to any place
of public trust. Rulers of this character cooperate with
God in his gracious dispensations of providence, and under
him are diffusive blessings to the people, and are com
pared to the light of morning, when the sun riseth, even a
morning without clouds.
O
By the ruler in the text is intended not only the king as
supreme, but also every one in subordinate place of power
and trust, whether they act in legislative or executive
capacity, or both. In whatever station men act for the
public, they are included in this general term, and must
direct their conduct by the same upright principle. Jus
tice, as here expressed, is not to be taken in a limited
sense, but as a general term, including every quality neces
sary to be exercised for the public good by those who
1 Pope's explanation of his two celebrated lines, —
" For forms of government let fools contest:
Whate'er is best administered is best," —
was, " that no form of gorernment, however excellent in itself, can be
sufficient to make a people happy unless it be administered with integrity.
On the contrary, the best sort of government, when the form of it is pre
served and the administration corrupt, is most dangerous." When the
political institutions of our fathers cease to be animated by their spirit
and virtues, the forms only will remain, monuments of their wisdom, and
not less of our folly. — ED.
14*
162 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
accept the charge of it. Justice must be tempered with
wisdom, prudence, and clemency, otherwise it will degen
erate into rigor and oppression.
This solemn charge given to rulers is not an arbitrary
injunction imposed by God, but is founded in the most
obvious laws of nature and reason. Rulers are appointed
for this very end — to be ministers of God for good. The
people have a right to expect this from them, and to require
it, not as an act of grace, but as their unquestionable due.
It is the express or implicit condition upon which they were
chosen and continued in public office, that they attend
continually upon this very thing. Their time, their abil
ities, their authority — by their acceptance of the public
trust — are consecrated to the community, and cannot, in
justice, be withheld ; they are obliged to seek the welfare
of the people, and exert all their powers to promote the
common interest. This continual solicitude for the com
mon good, however depressing it may appear, is what
rulers of every degree have taken upon themselves ; and,
in justice to the people, in faithfulness to God, they must
either sustain it with fidelity, or resign their office.
The first attention of the faithful ruler will be to the sub
jects of government in their specific nature. He will not
forget that he ruleth over men, — men who are of the
same species with himself, and by nature equal, — men
who are the offspring of God, and alike formed after his
glorious image, — men of like passions and feelings with
himself, and, as men, in the sight of their common Creator
of equal importance, — men who have raised him to power,
and support him in the exercise of it, — men who are
reasonable beings, and can be subjected to no human
restrictions which are not founded in reason, and of the
fitness of which they may be convinced, — men who are
moral agents, and under the absolute control of the High
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 163
Possessor of heaven and earth, and cannot, without the
greatest impropriety and disloyalty to the King of kings,
yield unlimited subjection1 to any inferior power, — men
whom the Son of God hath condescended to ransom, and
dignified their nature by becoming the son of man, — men
who have the most evident right, in every decent way, to
represent to rulers their grievances, and seek redress. The
people forfeit the rank they hold in God's creation when
they silently yield this important point, and sordidly, like
Issachar, crouch under every burden wantonly laid iipon
them. And rulers greatly tarnish their dignity when they
attempt to treat their subjects otherwise than as their
fellow-men, — men 2 who have reposed the highest confi
dence in their fidelity, and to whom they are accountable
for their public conduct, — and, in a word, men among
whom they must, without distinction, stand before the
dread tribunal of Heaven. Just rulers, therefore, in making
and executing the laws of society, will consider who ffliey
are to oblige, and accommodate them to the state and con
dition of men.
Fidelity to the public requires that the laws be as plain
and explicit as possible, that the less knowing may under
stand, and not be ensnared by them, while the artful evade
their force. Mysteries of law and government may be
made a cloak of unrighteousness. The benefits of the
constitution and of the laws must extend to every branch
and each individual in society, of whatever degree, that
1 " Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as
voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to
make slaves of the rest "of the nation. — Pitt. "We have counted the
cost of th'is contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery."—
Dec. of Congress, July 6, 1775. — ED.
2 Perhaps the preacher here caught the eye of a Hutchinson or an
Oliver. — ED.
164 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
every man may enjoy his property, and pursue his honest
course of life with security. The just ruler, sensible he is
in trust for the public, with an impartial hand will supply
the various offices in society ; his eye will be upon the
faithful ; merit only in the candidate will attract his atten
tion. He will not, without sufficient reason, multiply
lucrative offices in the community, which naturally tends
to introduce idleness and oppression. Justice requires
that the emoluments of every office, constituted for the
common interest, be proportioned to their dignity and the
service performed for the public ; parsimony, in this case,
enervates the force of government, and frustrates the most
patriotic measures. A people, therefore, for their own
security, must be supposed willing to pay tribute to whom
it is due, and freely support the dignity of those under
whose protection they confide.1 On the other hand, the
people may apprehend that they have just reason to com
plain of oppression and wrong, and to be jealous of their
liberties, when subordinate public offices are made the
surest step to wealth and ease.2 This not only increases
the expenses of government, but is naturally productive
of dissipation and luxury, of the severest animosities among
candidates for public posts, and of venality and corruption
— the most fatal to a free state.
1 The preacher alludes to the standing controversy with the crown about
fixed salaries to the crown appointees, which the colony persistently re
fused, but voted such sums from year to year as seemed expedient, thus
holding the officers to a certain dependence on the people. Beside, if
they were freemen, their property was their own, and riot the king's; and
they quoted John Hampden's case. " If the votes of the House are to be
controlled by the direction of a minister, we have left us but a faint sem
blance of liberty." — ED.
2 The reference is to the custom house and revenue officers, whose num
bers and whose salaries were limited only by the " commissioners," who
were as irresponsible to the people as is a slave-trader to his victim. — ED.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 165
Rulers are appointed guardians of the constitution in
their respective stations, and must confine themselves
within the limits by which their authority is circumscribed.
A free state will no longer continue so than while the con
stitution is maintained entire in all its branches and con
nections. If the several members of the legislative power
become entirely independent of each other, it procluceth a
schism in the body politic; and the effect is the same when
the executive is in no degree under the control of the
legislative power,1 — the balance is destroyed, and the exe
cution of the laws left to arbitrary will. The several
branches of civil power, as joint pillars, each bearing its
due proportion, are the support, and the only proper sup
port, of a political structure regularly formed. A consti
tution which cannot support its own w eight must fall; it
must be supposed essentially defective in its form or admin
istration.
Military aid2 has ever been deemed dangerous to a free
civil state, and often has been used as an effectual engine
O
to subvert it. Those who, in the camp and in the field of
battle, are our glory and defence, from the experience of
other nations, will be thought, in time of peace, a very
improper safeguard to a constitution which has liberty,
British liberty, for its basis. When a people are in sub
jection to those who are detached from their fellow-citi
zens, under distinct laws and rules, supported in idleness
and luxury, armed with the terrors of death, under the
most absolute command, ready and obliged to execute the
1 The royal governors declared themselves absolutely bound by their
ministerial instructions. — ED.
2 The partisans of despotism — Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, and others
— had induced the crown to send troops, foreign troops, to enforce foreign
laws, to dragoon the " subjects " into obedience, in violation of the charter
and of the English constitution. — ED.
166 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
most daring orders — what must, what has been the con-
Inter arma silent leges.
sequence ?
Justice also requires of rulers, in their legislative ca
pacity, that they attend to the operation of their own acts,
and repeal1 whatever laws, upon an impartial review, they
find to be inconsistent with the laws of God, the rights of
men, and the general benefit of society. This the commu
nity hath a right to expect. And they must have mis
taken apprehensions of true dignity who imagine they can
acquire or support it by persisting in wrong measures, and
thereby counteracting the sole end of government. It
belongs to the all-seeing God alone absolutely to be of one
mind. It is the glory of man, in whatever station, to per
ceive and correct his mistakes. Arrogant pretences to
'infallibility, in matters of state or religion, represent human
nature in the most contemptible light. We have a view
of our nature in its most abject state when we read the
senseless laws of the Medes and Persians, or hear the im
potent thunders of the Vatican. Stability in promoting
the public good, which justice demands, leads to a change
of measures when the interest of the community requires
it, which must often be the case in this mutable, imperfect
state.
The just ruler will not fear to have his public conduct
critically inspected, but will choose to recommend himself
to the approbation of every man. As he expects to be
obeyed for conscience' sake, he will require nothing incon
sistent with its dictates, and be desirous that the most
scrupulous mind may acquiesce in the justice of his rule.
As in his whole administration, so in this, he will be am
bitious to imitate the Supreme Ruler, who appeals to his
1 As they had done in the case of the Stamp Act, for instance. — ED.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 167
people — "Are not my ways equal ? " Knowing, therefore,
that his conduct will bear the light,1 and his public char
acter be established by being fully known, he will rather
encourage than discountenance a decent freedom of speech,
not only in public assemblies, but among the people. This
liberty is essential to a free constitution, and the ruler's
surest guide. As in nature we best judge of causes by
their effects, so rulers hereby will receive the surest in
formation of the fitness of their laws 2 and the exactness
of their execution, the success of their measures, and
whether they are chargeable with any mistakes from par
tial evidence or human frailty, and whether all acting
under them, in any subordinate place, express the fidelity
becoming their office. This decent liberty the just ruler
will consider not as his grant, but a right inherent in the
people, without which their obedience is rendered merely
passive; and though, possibly, under a just administra
tion, it may degenerate into licentiousness, which in its
extreme is subversive of all government, yet the history
of past, ages and of our nation shows that the greatest
dangers have arisen from lawless power. The body of a
people are disposed to lead quiet and peaceable lives, and
it is their highest interest to support the government
under which their quietness is ensured. They retain a
reverence for their superiors, and seldom foresee or suspect
danger till they feel their burdens.
1 The colony obtained copies of official correspondence with the British
ministry, exposing the secrets and plots against their liberties. Six of
Governor Bernardis and one of General Gage's letters had been sent by
Mr. Bollan, the colonial agent, to the Council, in April, 1709. The disclo
sures enraged the people, and made the writers odious. — ED.
a In his letter to England, OCT. 20, 1769, Hutchinson wrote: "I have been
tolerably treated since the Governor's" — Bernard — "departure, no other
charge being made against me in our scandalous newspapers except my
bad principles in matters of government." — ED.
168 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
Rulers of every degree are in a measure above the fear
of man, but are, equally with others, under the restraints
of the divine law. The Almighty has not divested him
self of his own absolute authority by permitting subordi
nate government among men. He allows none to rule
otherwise than under him and in his fear, and without a
true fear of God justice will be found to be but an empty
name. Though reason may in some degree investigate
the relation and fitness of things, yet I think it evident
that moral obligations are founded wholly in a belief of
God and his superintending providence. This belief,
deeply impressed on the mind, brings the most convincing
evidence that men are moral agents, obliged to act accord
ing to the natural and evident relation of tilings, and the
rank they bear in God's creation ; that the divine will,
however made known to them, is the law by which all
their actions must be regulated, and their state finally de
termined.
Rulers may in a degree be influenced to act for the
public good from education, from a desire of applause,
from the natural benevolence of their temper; but these
motives are feeble and inconstant without the superior
aids of religion. They are men of like passions with
others, and the true fear of God only is sufficient to con
trol the lusts of men, and especially the lust of dominion,
to suppress pride, the bane of every desirable quality in
the human soul, the never-failing source of wanton and
capricious power. " So did not I," said the renowned
governor of Judah, "because of the fear of God." He
had nothing to fear from the people. His commission he
received from the luxurious Persian court, where the
voice of distress was not heard, where no sad countenance
might appear; but he feared his God. This moved him
to hear the cries of his people, and without delay redress
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 169
their wrongs. He knew this was pleasing to his God, and,
while he acted in his fear, trusted he would think upon
him for good. This fear doth not intend simply a dread
of the Almighty as the Supreme Ruler and Judge of men,
but especially a filial reverence, founded in esteem and
superlative love implanted in the heart. This will natu
rally produce a conformity to God in his moral perfections,
an inclination to do his will, and a delight in those acts of
beneficence which the Maker of all things displays through
out his extended creation. This fear of God is the begin
ning and also the perfection of human wisdom ; and, though
dominion is not absolutely founded in grace, .yet a true
principle of religion must be considered as a necessary
qualification in a ruler.
The religion of Jesus teacheth the true fear of God, and
marvellously discloseth the plan of divine government.
In his gospel, as through a glass, we see heaven opened,
the mysteries of providence and grace unveiled, Jesus
sitting on the right hand of God, to whom all power is
committed, and coming to judge the world in righteous
ness. Here is discovered, to the admiration of angels, the
joy of saints, and the terror of the wicked, the government
of the man Christ Jesus, founded in justice and mercy,
which in his glorious administration meet together in
perfect harmony. The sceptre of his kingdom is a right
sceptre; he loveth righteousness and hateth wickedness.
And though his throne is on high, — prepared in the
heavens, — yet he makes known to the sons of men his
mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
By him kings reign and princes decree justice, even all
the nobles and judges of the earth. His eyes are upon
the ways of men. His voice, which is full of majesty, to
earthly potentates is, Be wise now, O ye kings ; be in
structed, ye judges of the earth; serve the Lord with fear,
15
170 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
and rejoice in your exalted stations with submissive awe;
embrace the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the
way.
The Christian temper, wrought in the heart by the
divine Spirit, restores the human mind to its primitive
rectitude, animates every faculty of the soul, directs every
action to its proper end, extends its views beyond the
narrow limits of time, and raises its desires to immortal
glory. This makes the face of every saint to shine, but
renders the ruler, in his elevated station, gloriously re
splendent. This commands reverence to his person,
attention to his counsels, respect to the laws, and author
ity to all his directions, and renders an obedient people
easy and happy under his rule ; — which leads to the con
sideration of the last thing suggested in the text, viz. :
The glorious effects of a just administration of govern
ment.
"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." This includes both the distinguishing honor and
respect acquired by rulers of this character, and the un
speakable felicity of a people thus favored of the Lord.
Justice and judgment are the habitation of the throne of
the Most High, and he delighteth to honor those who rule
over men in his fear. He has dignified them with a title
of divinity, and called them, in a peculiar sense, the chil
dren of the Highest. And we are not to wonder that, in
the darker ages of the world, from worshipping the host
of heaven the ignorant multitude were led to pay divine
honors to their beneficent rulers, whom they esteemed as
demi-gods.
The light of divine revelation has dispelled these mists
of superstition and impiety, and opened to the pious ruler's
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 171
view the sure prospect of unfading glory in the life to
come; and in the present state he is not without his
reward. To find that his conduct meets with public
approbation, that he is acceptable to the multitude of
his brethren, greatly corroborates his internal evidence
of integrity and impartiality, and especially of his ability
for public action, and — which is the height of his ambition
in this state of probation — enlarges his opportunity of
doing good. The shouts of applause — not from sordid
parasites, but the grateful, the artless multitude — the
pious ruler receives as the voice of nature — the voice
of God. This is his support under the weight of govern
ment, and fixes his dependence upon the aid of the Al
mighty, in whose fear he rules. How excellent in the
sight of God and man are rulers of this character !
Truly the light is good, and a pleasant thing it is to
behold the sun. Thus desirable, thus benign, are wise
and faithful rulers to a people. The beautiful allusion
in the text naturally illustrates this. The sun, as the
centre of the solar system, connects the planetary worlds,
and retains them in their respective orbits. They all
yield to the greater force of his attractive power, and thus
with the greatest regularity observe the laws impressed
upon the material creation. The ruler of the day, as on a
throne, shining in his strength, nearly preserves his station,
and under the prime Agent directs all their motions, im
parting light and heat to his several attendants and the
various beings which the Creator has placed upon them.
His refulgent rays dispel the gloomy shades, and cause the
cheerful light to arise out of thick darkness, and all nature
to rejoice. The planets, with their lesser attendants, in
conformity to their common head, mutually reflect with
feebler beams their borrowed light for the common benefit;
172 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
and all, in proportion to their distance and gravity, bear
their part to support the balance of the grand machine.
By this apposite metaphor the divine Spirit has repre
sented the character and extensive beneficence of the
faithful ruler, who, with a godlike ardor, employs his
authority and influence to advance t^e common interest.
The righteous Lord, whose countenance beholdeth the
upright, will support and succeed rulers of this character,
and it is an evidence of his favor to a people when such are
appointed to rule over them. The natural effect of this is
quietness and peace, as showers upon the tender grass,
and clear shining after rain. In this case a loyal people
must be happy, and fully sensible that they are so, while
they find their persons in safety, their liberties preserved,
their property defended, and their confidence in their
rulers entire. The necessary expenses1 of the govern
ment will be borne by the community with pleasure while
justice holds the balance and righteousness flows down
their streets.
Such a civil state, according to the natural course of
things, must flourish in peace at home, and be respectable
abroad ; private virtues will be encouraged, and vice
driven into darkness ; industry in the most effectual man
ner promoted, arts and sciences patronized, the true fear
of God cultivated, and his worship maintained. This —
this is their only invaluable treasure. This is the glory,
safety, and best interest of rulers — the sure protection and
durable felicity of a people. This, through the Redeemer,
renders the Almighty propitious, and nigh unto a people
in all they call upon him for. Happy must the people be
that is in such a case ; yea, happy is the people whose
God is the Lord.
1 Seep. 164, note 1.— ED.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 173
But the affairs of this important day demand our more
immediate attention.
With sincere gratitude to our Almighty Preserver, we
see the return of this anniversary, and the leaders of this
people assembled — though not, according to the general
desire, in the city * of our solemnities — to ask counsel of
God, and, as we trust, in the integrity of their hearts, and
by the skilfulness of their hands, to lead us in ways of
righteousness and peace. The season indeed is dark ;
but God is our sun and shield. When we consider the
days of old, and the years of ancient time, the scene
brightens, our hopes revive.2 Our fathers trusted in God ;
he was their help and their shield.
These ever-memorable worthies, nearly a century and a
half since, by the prevalence of spiritual and civil tyranny,
were driven from their delightful native land to seek a
quiet retreat in these uncultivated ends of the earth ; and,
however doubtful it might appear to them, or others,
whether the lands they were going to possess were prop-
1 At the Town-House, in Boston, from which usual place of legisla
tion the arbitrary interference of the king excluded us. This show of
despotism, rather than the inconvenience, is the real objection to sitting at
Cambridge. — ED.
2 Here is a clear and beautiful reference to the principles and history of
New England, and of "the glorious Revolution " of 1089 — a reminis
cence very profitable for Governor Hutchinson to reflect on, and very sug
gestive to the Board of Councillors and House of Representatives who
hear it, and to all people who may read it. Samuel Adams, Clerk, and
now " the most active member of the House," will see that it is published
and circulated. It suggests precedents for curing the present ills in our
body politic, if gentler remedies, such as petitions and remonstrances,
prove to be insufficient. Dr. Mayhcw, twenty years before this, considered
in his pulpit " the extent of that subjection to the higher powers which
is enjoined as a duty upon all Christians. Some," he said, " have thought
it warrantable and glorious to disobey the civil powers in certain cases,
and in cases of very great and general oppression," etc. See the passage
on pages 02, 63. — ED.
15*
174 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
erly under the English jurisdiction, yet our ancestors were
desirous of retaining a relation to their native country,
and to be considered as subjects of the same prince. They
left their native land with the strongest assurances that
they and their posterity should enjoy the privileges of
free, natural-born English subjects, which they supposed
fully comprehended in their charter. The powers of gov
ernment therein confirmed to them they considered as
including English liberty in its full extent ; and however
defective their charter might be in form, — a thing common
in that day, — yet the spirit and evident intention of it
appears to be then understood. The reserve therein made,
of passing no laws contrary to those of the parent state,
was then considered as a conclusive evidence of their full
power, under that restriction only, to enact whatever laws
they should judge conducive to their benefit.
Our fathers supposed their purchase of the aboriginals
gave them a just title to the lands; that the produce of
them, by their labor, was their property, which they had
an exclusive right to dispose of; that a legislative power, re
specting their internal polity, was ratified to them ; and that
nothing short of this, considering their local circumstances,
could entitle them or their posterity to the rights and
liberties of free, natural-born English subjects. And it
does not appear but that this was the general sentiment
of the nation and Parliament.1 They did not then view
their American adventurers in the light ancient Rome did
1 This was a complimentary and politic view, no doubt; but to Massa
chusetts the price of her liberty had been eternal vigilance. Indifference
to the colonies, the changes of government, the contests between liberty
and despotism in England, each in turn were opportunities to our fathers
for defeating the ceaseless intrigues of our enemies. The history of our
charters, treated as a speciality, would be a proud monument to the pru
dence, judgment, foresight, tact— the statesmanship — of the fathers of
New England. — ED.
OP CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 175
her distant colonies, as tributaries unjustly subjected to
arbitrary rule by the dread or force of her victorious
arms, but as sons, arrived to mature age, entitled to dis
tinct property, yet connected by mutual ties of affection
and interest, and united under the common supreme head.
The New England charter was not considered as an act
of grace, but a compact between the sovereign and the
first patentees. Our fathers plead their right to the priv
ilege of it in their address 1 to King Charles the Second,
wherein they say "it was granted to them, their heirs,
assigns, and associates forever ; not only the absolute use
and propriety of the tract of land therein mentioned, but
also full and absolute power of governing all the people
1 After the restoration of monarchy, in 1G60, and the " Charles the Mar
tyr" clergy and courtiers were reinstated, — not by the aid of the Inde
pendents, — the old Laudian hate of New England became rampant, and
we find abundant letters from their emissaries to Clarendon, to the Bishop
of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the like, with a plenty of
reports, of " articles of high misdemeanor," writs of quo warranto, dis
courses of petty intrigue, and other spawn of such creatures as Andros,
Randolph, and Maverick. The Revolution of 1089, simultaneous in Old
England and New England, blasted their hopes. The four commissioners,
Nichols, Cartwright, Carr, and Maverick, — any two or three of them to
be a quorum, — were commissioned by Charles II., in 1004, to travel
through New England to look out for " the reputation and credit of
Christian religion, (!) as an evidence and manifestation of our fatherly
affection towards all our subjects ... in New England, . . . their
liberties and privileges." (!) "All complaints and appeals, in all causes
and matters, as well military as criminal and civil," to be " determined
. . . according to their good and sound discretions." Thus, by one
dash of his pen, " Charles R." proposed to overthrow every institution of
government in New England; and his commissioners — one of them the
most active and malicious, and a debased and brutal man, as his name
then stood on the criminal records of Massachusetts — arc simply, "from
time to time, as they shall find expedient, to certify us, or our privy coun
cil, of their actings and proceedings touching the premises." This was
one of the occasions of the address to King Charles, October 25, 1004. —
Hutchinson's Massachusetts, Appendix, xv. xvi. — ED.
176 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
of this place by men chosen from among themselves, and
according to such laws as they shall from time to time see
meet to make and establish, not being repugnant to the
laws of England ; they paying only the fifth part of the
ore of gold and silver that shall be found here, for and in
respect of all duties, demands, exactions, and services
whatsoever." And, from an apprehension that the powers
given by the crown to the four commissioners sent here
were in effect subversive of their rights and government,
they add: "We are carefully studious of all due subjec
tion to your Majesty, and that not only for wrath, but for
conscience' sake." "But it is a great unhappiness to be
reduced to so hard a case as to have no other testimony
of our subjection and loyalty offered us but this; viz., to
destroy our own being, which nature teacheth us to pre
serve, or to yield up our liberties, which are far dearer to
us than our lives ; and which, had we any fears of being
deprived of, we had never wandered from our fathers'
houses into these ends of the earth, nor laid out our labors
and estates therein." »
But all their humble addresses were to no purpose. As
an honorable historian observes: "At this time Great
Britain, and Scotland especially, was suffering under a
prince inimical to civil liberty ; and New England, with
out a miraculous interposition, must expect to share the
same judgments." And, indeed, of this bitter cup, the
dregs were reserved for this people, in that and the suc
ceeding happily short but inglorious reign. Our charter
was dissolved,1 and despotic power took place. Sir Ed-
1 On the 18th of June, 1084. James II. was proclaimed in Boston, 1G86,
April 12th; and, May 15th, Dudley received a commission, as President,
with a Council, to govern Massachusetts, which was superseded by the
arrival of Andros, December 19, 1686, as Governor of New England. He
reigned tilt 10th of April, 1680, when he was seized by the " sovereign"
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 177
mund Andros, — a name never to be forgotten, — in imi
tation of his royal master, in wanton triumph trampled
upon all our laws and rights; and his government was
only tolerable as it was a deliverance from the shocking
terrors of the more infamous Kirk.1 Sir Edmund at first
made high professions of regard to the public good. But
it has been observed "that Nero concealed his tyrannical
disposition more years than Sir Edmund and his creatures
did months."
But the triumphing of the wicked is often short.2 The
glorious revolution, under the Prince of Orange, displayed
people, and late in the year was " sent in safe custody" to England.
Andros was a n't instrument for James II., who commended the atrocities
of a Jeffries, and would sell his crown and his people to France. — ED.
1 He was colonel of the troops which assisted Judge Jeffries in his
butcheries in the west of England, Avhich the " Catholic" James II. de
lighted to relate to his foreign ambassadors. " Kirke would give his
officers a grand dinner; on the removal of the cloth the health of the
king and queen was drunk, and at this signal the executioners hanged,
under the very eyes of the guests, and to the sound of military instru
ments, the latest prisoners, whose dying agonies merely excited hideous
mirth." He thus put to death nearly six hundred persons. "When
closely pressed to become a Papist, he answered that he was preengaged;
having promised the Emperor of Morocco, if he ever did change his reli
gion, that he would turn Mohammedan." Randolph, the correspondent
of Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, in a letter from Boston, in 1686,
writes to his " Grace" that the colonists "have been struck with a panicke
feare upon the apprehension of Col. Kurck's coming hither to be their
governor," and entertains " his Grace" with petty scandal and unscrupu
lous plottings about " the affaires of our church" in Massachusetts. This
was in reply to the prelate's inquiries, who was anxious to "propagate
the gospel in foreign parts." — Carrel's Counter-Revolution in England,
ed. 1857. 107, 213; Hutchinson's Collections, 549, 552. — ED.
2 Governor Hutchinson cannot have listened to this sermon, and its
implied parallel of the times of Andros with his own official period, with
out discomfort, and perhaps regret. His own pen had recorded, in liis
History of Massachusetts, the infamy of the men of these times, and he
himself was plainly on the high road to promotion or to — perdition.
— ED.
178 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
a brighter scene to Great Britain and her colonies ; and
though no part of its extended empire did bear a greater
part in the joy of that memorable event than this prov
ince, yet it was then apprehended we were not the great
est sharers in the happy effects of it. I trust we are not
insensible of the blessings we then received, nor unthankful
for our deliverance from the depths of woe.
We- submitted to the form of government established
under our present charter,1 trusting, under God, in the
wisdom and paternal tenderness of our gracious sovereign,
that in all appointments reserved to the crown a sacred
regard would be maintained to the rights of British sub
jects, and that the royal ear would always be open to
every reasonable request and complaint. It is far from
my intention to determine whether there has been just
reason for uneasiness or complaint on this account. But,
with all submission, I presume the present occasion will
permit me to say that the importance of his Majesty's
Council to this people appears in a more conspicuous
light since the endeavors which have been used to render
this invaluable branch of our constitution wholly depend
ent upon the chair. Should this ever be the case, — which
God forbid ! — liberty here will case. This day of the
gladness of our hearts will be turned into the deepest
sorrow.
The authority and influence of his Majesty's Council,
in various respects, while happily free from restraints, is
1 The "province" charter of October 7, 1691, was submitted to not
without reluctance. By it the governor had the sole appointment of
military officers, of officers of the courts of justice with the consent of the
Council, and a negative on all others chosen by the General Court; so that,
as the governor held his commission from the crown, they were, in effect,
royal appointments, though not salaried by the crown. Under the former
charter all were chosen by the General Court, and "So accountable to the
people. See note 1, p. 164. — ED.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 179
momentous ; our well-being greatly depends upon their
wisdom and integrity.1 The concern of electing to this
important trust wise and faithful men belongeth to our
honored fathers now in General Assembly convened.
Men of this character, we trust, are to be found; and upon
such, and only such, we presume will the eye of the electors
be this day. It is with pleasure that we see this choice in
the hands of a very respectable part of the community,
and nearly interested in the effects of it. But our reliance,
fathers, under God, is upon your acting in his fear. God
standeth in the assembly of the mighty, and perfectly
discerns the motives by which you act. May his fear rule
in your hearts, and unerring counsel be your guide. You
1 It was usual to elect the lieutenant-governor, provincial secretary,
attorney-general, and one or more judges of the Supreme Court, to the
Council. They were a sort of privy council. But, in 1766, their seats
were filled by the opponents to the Stamp Act, and after this the governor
found in each successive year fewer friends in council. The lieutenant-
governor, — Hutchinson, — in his History of Massachusetts, published in
the next year, — 1707, — treating of the Council, declared the government
of Massachusetts, and of other provinces, defective, for want of a branch
with " that glorious independence which makes the House of Lords the
bulwark of the British constitution." Still he thought " the colonies not
ripe for hereditary honors"! In a series of letters, in November and
December, 1768, Governor Bernard urges that the king should appoint a
royal council, instead of that elected by the people, and suggests an act of
Parliament authorizing the king — Governor Bernard being his repre
sentative — to supersede all commissions to improper persons; and Mr.
Oliver, in February, 1769, in letters to England, objects to the Council
" as altogether" — too — " dependent on their constituents .... to
answer the idea of the House of Lords in the British Legislature."
After 1766, the Council and the House harmonized in their measures,
and the unhappy governors, left solitary and alone, sought relief by
plotting for the overthrow of " this invaluable branch of our constitu
tion." The schemes of these traitors to liberty — names indelible on the
darkest roll of political baseness — were adopted by the British ministry
four years later, in 1774; but the colonists "trusted in God and kept their
pdwder dry." — ED.
180 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
have received a Sure token of respect by your being raised
to this high trust; but true honor is acquired only by
acting in character. Honor yourselves, gentlemen, —
honor the council-board, your country, your king, and
your God, by the choice you this day make. You will
attentively consider the true design of all true government,
and, without partiality, give your voice for those you
judge most capable and disposed to promote the public
interest. Then you will have the satisfaction of having
faithfully discharged your trust, and be sure of the appro
bation of the Most High.
The chief command in this province is now devolved
upon one1 of distinguished abilities, who knows our state,
and naturally must care for us, — one who, in early life,
has received from his country the highest tokens of honor
and trust in its power to bestow ; and we have a right
to expect that the higher degrees of them conferred by
our gracious sovereign will operate through the course of
his administration to the welfare of this people. His
Honor is not insensible that, as his power is independent
of the people, their safety must depend, under* Providence,
upon his wisdom, justice, and paternal tenderness in the
exercise of it. It is our ardent wish and prayer that his
administration may procure ease and quietness to himself
1 Thomas Hutchinson, distinguished as the historian of the province,
and excellent in private life, but whose ambition quickened his conscience
only in his duty to the king, and made him an enemy to his country.
Born September 9, 1711, of an ancient and honorable family, he graduated
at Harvard College in 1727, at the early age of sixteen ; was of the Coun
cil from 1749 to 17GG; lieutenant-governor from 1758 to 1771; in 1700 ap
pointed Chief Justice, and was now at the head of the government, after
the departure of Governor Bernard. Faithful to the British ministry in all
its measures, some of which he suggested, he left his native country June
1st, 1774, and died in England in June, 1780. Eliot and Allen have ample
notices of him. — ED.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 181
and the province ; and, having served his generation
according to the Divine will, he may rise to superior
honors in the kingdom of God.
When the elections of this important day are deter
mined, what further remains to be undertaken for the
securing our liberties, promoting peace and good order,
and, above all, the advancement of religion, the true fear
of God through the land, will demand the highest attention
of the General Assembly. We trust the Fountain of
light, who giveth wisdom freely, will not scatter darkness
in your paths, and that the day is far distant when there
shall be cause justly to complain, The foundations are
destroyed — what can the righteous do? Our present
distresses, civil fathers, loudly call upon us all, and you
in special, to stir up ourselves in the fear of God. Arise !
— this matter belongeth unto you; we also will be with
you. Be of good courage, and do it.
Whether any other laws are necessary for this purpose,
or whether there is a failure in the execution of the laws
in being, I presume not to say. But, with all due respect,
I may be permitted to affirm that no human authority
can enforce the practice of religion with equal success to
your example. Your example, fathers, not only in your
public administrations, but also in private life, will be the
most forcible law — the most effectual means to teach us
the fear of the Lord, and to depart from evil. Then, and
not till then, shall we be free indeed ; being delivered from
the dominion of sin, we become the true sons of God.
The extent of the secular power in matters of religion
is undetermined ; but all agree that the example of those
in authority has the greatest influence upon the manners of
the people. We are far from pleading for any established1
1 " Civil rulers ought undoubtedly to be nursing fathers to the church,
16
182 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
mode of worship, but an operative fear of God, the honor
of the Redeemer, the everlasting King, according to his
gospel. We, whose peculiar charge it is to instruct the
people, preach to little purpose while those in an ad
vanced state, by their practice, say the fear of God is not
before their eyes ; yet will we not cease to seek the Lord
till he come and rain down righteousness upon us.
I trust on this occasion I may without offence plead the
cause of our African slaves, and humbly propose the pur
suit of some effectual measures at least to prevent the
future importation of them. Difficulties insuperable, I
apprehend, prevent an adequate remedy for what is past.
Let the time past more than suffice wherein we, the patrons
of liberty, have dishonored the Christian name, and de
graded human nature nearly to a level with the beasts
that perish. Ethiopia has long stretched out her hands to
us. Let not sordid gain, acquired by the merchandise of
slaves and the souls of men, harden our hearts against her
piteous moans.1 When God ariseth, and when he visiteth,
by reproof, exhortation, and their own good and liberal example, as well
as to protect and defend her against injustice and oppression; but the very
notion of taxing all to support any religious denomination," etc. — Address of
the Baptists to the Congress at Cambridge, Nov. 22, 1776.
By the amendment of the constitution, in 1833, the absolute separation
of church and state was completed. On this subject see " Life and Times
of Isaac Backus," by Rev. Dr. Hovey, 18-38. — ED.
1 The suggestion of the preacher was heeded. "A Bill to prevent the
Importation of Slaves from Africa into this Province" was passed in the
House, but an amendment was proposed by the Council, and it seems to
have gone no further. In 1767 and 1774, Massachusetts passed laws
against slavery, which were vetoed by express instructions from England.
The inhabitants of Boston, at a town meeting, held May 26, 1766, for in
structing their representatives, — Otis, Gushing, Adams, and Hancock, —
charged them " to be very watchful ... for the total abolishing of
slavery from among us; . . . to move for a law to prohibit the impor
tation and purchasing slaves for the future." In the first draft of the
Declaration of Independence was this paragraph: "He"— the king —
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 183
what shall we answer? May it be the glory of this prov
ince, of this respectable General Assembly, and, we could
wish, of this session, to lead in the cause of the oppressed.
This will avert the impending vengeance of Heaven, pro
cure you the blessing of multitudes of your fellow-men
ready to perish, be highly approved by our common Father,
who is no respecter of persons, and, we trust, an example
which would excite the highest attention of our sister
colonies. May we all, both rulers and people, in this day
of doubtful expectation, know and practise the things of
our peace, and serve the Lord our God without disquiet
in the inheritance which he granted unto our fathers.
These adventurous worthies, animated by sublimer pros
pects, dearly purchased this land with their treasure ; they
and their posterity have defended it with unknown cost,a
in continual jeopardy of their lives, and with their blood.
Through the good hands of our God upon us, we have
for a few years past been delivered from the merciless
sword of the wilderness,1 and enjoyed peace in our borders ;
and there is in the close of our short summer the appear
ance of plenty in our dwellings ; but, from the length of
a " Be it far from me, O Lord," said the ancient hero, " that I should do this.
Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? " There
fore he would not drink it. Will not the like sentiments rise in a generous
mind thrust into our possessions?
" has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most
sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who
never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another
hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of
the CHRISTIAN King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market
where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for
suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable
commerce." — ED.
1 Not much troubled by French and Indians since the conquest of Can
ada, in 1759-60, — ED.
THE TRUE PRINCIPLES
our winters, our plenty is consumed, and the one half of
our necessary labor is spent in dispersing to our flocks and
herds the ingatherings of the foregoing season ; and it is
known to every person of common observation that few,
very few, except in the mercantile way, from one gener
ation to another, acquire more than a necessary subsistence,
and sufficient to discharge the expenses of government and
the support of the gospel, yet content and disposed to lead
peaceable lives. From misinformations only, we would
conclude, recent disquiets have arisen. They need not be
mentioned — they are too well known ; their voice is
gone out through all the earth, and their sound to the end
of the world. The enemies of Great' Britain hold us in
derision while her cities and colonies are thus perplexed.1
America now pleads her right to her possessions, which
she cannot resign while she apprehends she has truth and
justice on her side.
Americans esteem it their greatest infelicity that,
through necessity, they are thus led to plead with their
parent state, — the land of their forefathers' nativity, —
whose interest has always been dear to them,a and whose
wealth they have increased by their removal more than
their own. They have assisted in fighting her battles, and
greatly enlarged her empire, and, God helping, will yet
extend it through the boundless desert, until it reach from
sea to sea. They glory in the British constitution, and
are abhorrent, to a man, of the most distant thought of
withdrawing their allegiance from their gracious sovereign
a Their losses and private expenses, in watches, guards, and garrisons for their
defence, and from continual alarms, in all their former wars, have greatly ex
ceeded the public charges.
i " The enemies of Great Britain " scorned the complaints of the colo
nies against the arbitrary measures of the ministry as unavailing, and
laughed at their supposed helplessness against wrong. — ED.
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 185
and becoming an independent state. And though, with
unwearied toil, the colonists can now subsist upon the
labors of their own hands, which they must be driven to
when deprived of the means of purchase, yet they are
fully sensible of the mutual benefits of an equitable com
merce with the parent country, and cheerfully submit to
regulations of trade productive of the corn in on interest.
These their claims the Americans consider not as novel,
or wantonly made, but founded in nature, in compact, in
their right as men and British subjects ; the same which
their forefathers, the first occupants, made and asserted as
the terms of their removal, with their effects, into this
wilderness,* and with which the glory and interest of their
king and all his dominions are connected. May these
alarming disputes be brought to a just and speedy issue,
and peace and harmony be restored !
But while, in imitation of our pious forefathers, we are
aiming at the security of our liberties, we should all be
concerned to express by our conduct their piety and vir
tue, and in a day of darkness and general distress care
fully avoid everything offensive to God or injurious to
men. It belongs not only to rulers, but subjects also, to
set the Lord always before their face, and act in his fear.
While under government we claim a right to be treated
as men, we must act in character by yielding that subjec
tion which becometh us as men. Let every attempt to
secure our liberties be conducted with a manly fortitude,
but with that respectful decency which reason approves,
a It is apprehended a greater sacrifice of private interest to the public good,
both of Great Britain and the colonies, hath at no time been made than that of
the patriotic merchants of this and all the considerable colonies, by their non
importation agreement. And whatever the effects may be, their names will be
remembered with gratitude to the latest generations, by all true friends to
Britain and her colonies.
16*
186 TRUE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
and which alone gives weight to the most salutary meas
ures. Let nothing divert us from the paths of truth and
peace, which are the ways of God, and then we may be
sure that he will be with us, as he was with our fathers,
and never leave nor forsake us.
Our fathers — where are they ? They looked for another
and better country, that is, an heavenly. They were but
as sojourners here, and have long since resigned these
their transitory abodes, and are securely seated in man
sions of glory. They hear not the voice of the oppressor.
We also are all strangers on earth, and must soon, without
distinction, lie down in the dust, and rise not till these
heavens and earth are no more. May we all realize the
appearance of the Son of God to judge the world in
righteousness, and improve the various talents committed
to our trust, that we may then lift up our heads with joy,
and, through grace, receive an inheritance which cannot
be taken away, even life everlasting! AMEX.
DISCOURSE
PREACHED
December 15th, 1774,
BEING THE DAY RECOMMENDED
By the Provincial Congrefs ;
And Afterwards at ike BOSTON LECTURE.
BY
WILLIAM GORDON
PASTOR OF THE THIRD CHURCH IN ROXBURY
"And the King confulted with the old men that Itood before
' his father, «vhile he yet lived, and faid, how do ye advife,
' that I may anfvver this people ? And they fpake unto him,
* faying, if thuu wilt be a fervant unto this people this day,
' and wilt ferve them, and anfvver them, and Ipeak good
' words to them, then they will be thy fervants for ever.1'
i Kings. 12. 6, 7.
" I ardently wifh that the common enemies to both countries
' may fee to their difappointment, that thefe difputes be-
' tween the Mother country, and the colonies have termina-
' ted like the quarrels of lovers, and increafed the affe6Hon
* which they ought to bear to each other."
Governor Gage's Letter to the Hon. Peyton Randolph, Efq;
THE SECOND EDITION.
BOSTON: Printed for, and Sold by T H o M A s
LEVERETT,in Corn-Hill. '1775.
NOTE.
The Boston Thursday Lecture, at which Mr. Gordon repeated this sermon,
was founded by the Rev. John Cotton, in 1633, and yet retains a lingering
existence, as an opportunity for ministerial gatherings. It was the occasion
for presenting, and sometimes discussing, questions of general, social, or politi
cal interest; and a collection of the Thursday lectures, or sermons, for the first
hundred and fifty years, would be a faithful epitome of the current and progress
of public opinion during that period. It would hardly be an exaggeration to
say that much of the early colonial legislation was merely declaratory of what
had fallen from oracular lips in the Thursday pulpit. So general was the in
terest in the occasion, that it was established by authority as the " market day."
The institution illustrates the politico-theological history of New England as
stated in the Introduction to this volume. " The Shade of the Past " is the title
of Rev. N. L. Frothiugham's sermon on "The close of the Second Century
since the establishment of the Thursday Lecture." Rev. R. C. Waterston
preached, December 14, 1843, " A Discourse in the First Church on the Occasion
of Resuming the Thursday Lecture." — ED.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
A BRIEF OF EVENTS FROM MARCH, 1770, TO DECEMBER, 1774.
THE reasons which led to the repeal of the Stamp Act prevailed also
against the act of 1767, which was repealed in March, 1770, excepting as to
the duty on tea. The British ministry, with Governor Hutchinson and his
fellow-conspirators, found that British bayonets were powerless against
non-importation agreements, and that British merchants would not wil
lingly lose their American commerce. Yet Lord North, with singular
fatuity, Avhile making this second surrender to the spirit of the " rebel "
colonies, said: " A total repeal cannot be thought of till America is pros
trate at our feet"! — an anomalous position, offering terms of capitulation,
and in the same breath demanding unconditional submission!
Mr. Pownall, who had a thorough knowledge of the colonies, moved for
a total repeal. "If it be asked," he said, "whether it will remove the
apprehensions excited by your resolutions and address of the last year for
bringing to trial in England persons accused of treason in America, I
answer, no. If it be asked, if this commercial concession would quiet the
minds of the Americans as to the political doubts and fears which have
struck them to the heart throughout the continent, I answer, no. So
long as they are left in doubt whether the Habeas Corpus Act, whether
the Bill of Rights, whether the Common Law as now existing in England,
have any operation and effect in America, they cannot be satisfied. At
this hour they know not whether the civil constitutions be not suspended
and superseded by the establishment of a military force. The Americans
think they have, in return to all their applications, experienced a temper
and discipline that is unfriendly; that the enjoyment and exercise of the
common rights of freemen have been refused to them. Never, with these
views, will they solicit the favor of this House ; never more will they wish
to bring before Parliament the grievances under which they conceive
190 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. «
themselves to Labor. Deeply as they feel, they suffer and endure with a
determined and alarming silence. For their liberty they are under no
apprehensions. It was first planted under the genius of the constitution;
it has grown up into a verdant and flourishing tree; and should any severe
strokes be aimed at the branches, and fate reduce it to the bare stock, it
would only take deeper root, and spring out again more hardy and durable
than before. They trust to Providence, and wait with firmness and forti
tude the issue."
The House of Representatives, relying on the Massachusetts charter as
a compact, in a message to Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, July 31, 1770,
deny that " even his Majesty in Council has any constitutional authority
to decide any controversies whatever that arise in this province, except
ing only such matters as are reserved in the charter;" and they " are
clearly of opinion that your Honor is under no obligation to hold the
General Court at Cambridge, let your instructions be conceived in terms
ever so peremptory, inasmuch as it is inconsistent and injurious to the
province." The}" quote Mr. Locke on civil, government/in the matter of
prerogative, that the people have "reserved that ultimate determination to
themselves which belongs to all mankind where there lies no appeal on
earth, viz., to judge* whether they have just cause to make their appeal to
Heaven." They add : " We would by no means be understood to suggest
that this people have occasion at present to proceed to such extremity."
On June 19th, 1771, they again " protest against all such doctrines, prin
ciples, and practices as tend to establish either ministerial or even royal
instructions as laws within the province." Hutchinson replied that the
charter was a mere grant of "privileges" from the crown, which might
be cancelled at any time, and that he must act in conformity to his " in
structions " or not at all. In a message to the governor, on July 5th, they
say : " We know of no commissioners of his Majesty's customs, nor of
any revenue his Majesty has a right to establish in North America; we
know and feel a tribute levied and extorted from those who, if they have
property, have a right to the absolute disposal of it."
The apparent lull in public feeling in 1770-72 alarmed the patriot lead
ers; but it was the calm before a storm. The sight of foreign soldiery
and hostile fleets to enforce an odious despotism from another land, daily
demonstrated that non-resistance was slavery. The capture and destruc
tion of one of the British armed revenue vessels which lined our coasts —
the Gaspee, at Providence, R. I., on the night of June 10th, 1772 — was
the first overt act of resistance, and the people said Amen !
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 191
It would be difficult, perhaps, to assign to any one specially the idea of
committees of correspondence as the most efficient means of unity and of
concert of action. As already stated,1 Dr. Mayhew had, in 1766, sug
gested the thought to Mr. Otis. Gordon says that Mr. Samuel Adams
visited Mr. James Warren, at Plymouth, to confer with him on the best
plan for counteracting the misrepresentations of Governor Hutch inson
that the discontented were a mere faction, and Mr. Warren proposed the
committees of correspondence. Mr. Adams was pleased with it, and the
machinery was put in operation at the first favorable opportunity. As
the government and defence of a free people depend upon its own volun
tary support, and Governor Hutchinson refused a salary from the province,
and accepted it of the crown, the General Court did " most solemnly pro
test that the innovation is an important change of the constitution, and
exposes the province to a despotic administration of government."
The Boston " Committee of Correspondence," appointed at this junc
ture " to state the rights of the colonists ... as men, as Christians,
and as subjects-; to communicate and publish the same to the several
towns in this province, and to the world," made their report, at a town
meeting in Faneuil Hall, on the 20th of November, 1772. They quote
freely from " Locke on Government," of which there was a Boston edi
tion published soon after. They declare that, "in case of intolerable
oppression, civil or religious, men have a right to leave the society they
belong to and enter into another." That in religion there should be
mutual toleration of all professions " whose doctrines are not subversive
of society," — a principle which excludes the Papists, for they teach " that
princes excommunicated may be deposed, and those they call heretics may
be destroyed without mercy; besides their recognizing the Pope in so
absolute a manner, in subversion of government, by introducing, as far
as possible, into the states under whose protection they enjoy life, liberty,
and property, that solecism in politics, Iniperium in imperio, leading di
rectly to the worst anarchy and confusion, civil discord, war, and blood
shed. . . . That the right to freedom being the gift of GOD ALMIGHTY,
it is 'not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become
a slave." " The colonists," they say, " have been branded with the odious
names of traitors and rebels only for complaining of their grievances.
How long such treatment uill or ought to be borne, is submitted." They enu
merate, among their grievances, the revenue acts, the presence of stand
ing armies and of hosts of officers for their enforcement; the rendering
l See page 44.
192
the governor, judges,1 and other officers, independent of the people by
salaries from the crown, " which will, if accomplished, complete our
slavery; " the instructions to the governor whereby he " is made merely
a ministerial engine ; " the surrender of the provincial fortress, Castle
William, to the troops, beyond the provincial control; the suspension of
the New York Legislature "until they should quarter the British troops; "
" the various attempts which have been made, and are now made, to
establish an American Episcopate," though " no power on earth can
justly give either temporal or spiritual jurisdiction within this province
except the great and general court.'"'
The report, with " a letter of correspondence," was printed and sent to
" the selectmen of every town in the province." It was like the match to a
well-laid train, and there burst forth from every quarter responses of such
spirit and severity against " these mighty grievances and intolerable
wrongs," the change in the state of affairs was " so sudden and unex
pected," as to greatly alarm and perplex the governor, now helpless and
friendless, and his subsequent controversies with the House only tended
to strengthen the colonial cause. Virginia approved of all this; the system
of correspondence was extended to the colonies, and laid the foundation
of that union which resulted in the general congress at Philadelphia, in
September, 1774.
The report of the proceedings of the Boston town-meetings was reprinted
in London in 1773, with a preface, written by Dr. Franklin, to expose the
misrepresentations of Lord Dartmouth and the ministry, that the discon
tented were only a faction, and to show that the true causes of discontent
might be well understood. This greatly irritated the ministry. The
discovery and publication, in 1773, of the confidential letters of Oliver,
Hutchinson, and other " government " men, exasperated the people against
the authors. Then followed the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor,
and similar conduct in Philadelphia and New York; and the sequence
was, the Boston Port Bill, which recited " That the opposition to the
authority of Parliament had always originated in the colony of Massa
chusetts, and that the colony itself had ever been instigated to such
conduct by the seditious proceedings of the town of Boston." It de
stroyed the commerce of the port. Many were distressed for the neces
saries of life; but the act operated as a bond of sympathy between the
l "No tyranny so secure, none ao intolerable, none so dangerous, none so
remediless, as that of executive courts." — Josiah Quincy. Jr., 1772.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 193
colonies, and excited a feeling of brotherhood and union against England.
General Gage arrived at Boston May 13, 1774, as commander-in-chief
of the king's forces, and as Governor of Massachusetts. " The Episcopal
clergy" and others addressed Governor Hutchinson, just before he sailed
for England, June 1st, "expressing their approbation of his public conduct,
and their affectionate wishes for his prosperity," though he was execrated
by all others. On his arrival there he found that the ministry had
adopted the policy advised in his letters of 1768-9, and annulled the
charter, as to the executive and judicial powers, and thus he saw the ruin
of his country, — if it could be effected, — the work of his own ingrati
tude and selfish ambition. And, as if intended for a beacon, and an
exemplar to the other colonies of the animus and real principles of their
enemies, another act established in Canada the Papal Church and a civil
despotism in harmony with the history and genius of that hierarchy.
In one of their letters, the patriots say, " that a people long inured to
hardships lose by degrees the very notions of liberty; they look upon
themselves as creatures, at mercy, and that all impositions laid on by
superior hands are legal and obligatory; so debased that they even rejoice
at being subject to the caprice and arbitrary power of a tyrant, and kiss
their chains. But, thank Heaven! this is not yet verified in America. We
have yet some share of public virtue remaining. We are not afraid of
poverty, but disdain slavery. The fate of nations is so precarious, and
revolutions in states so often take place at an unexpected moment, when
the hand of power has secured every avenue of retreat, and the mind of
the subject so debased to its purpose, that it becomes every well-wisher
to his country, while it has any remains of freedom, to keep an eagle
eye upon every innovation and stretch of power in those that have the
rule over us. . . . Let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves
on the ruin of this country."
The rapid course of events in 1774 electrified the Sons of Liberty. The
arrogance of the ministry, and the severity and abruptness of their acts in
Parliament, were met by a spirit of stern defiance, and there swept along
the Atlantic shores of the American colonies such a chorus for liberty as
was never heard before in national tragedy. The Provincial Congress,
— representatives of freemen, — assembled now, not by virtue of paltry
parchments from blasphemous "sacred Majesty," but by charter from
the ALMIGHTY, to whom they make solemn appeal, "assumes every
power of a legal government; for"— says General Gage — "their edicts
are implicitly obeyed throughout the continent." They "resolve," and
17
194 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
the treasury is supplied; to their call for "immediate defence," minute-
men, armed hosts, come with alacrity from peaceful life, the artisan from
his shop,1 the farmer from his plough, the fisherman from his shallop,
the lawyer from his brief, the merchant from his ledger, and the chaplain
from his parish —from field and flood they proffer all for liberty, and mat
ron and maid, with eager hands and hearts, help them to their holy duty.
Dr. Joseph Warren wrote to Josiah Quincy in November, 1774 : " It is
the united voice of America to preserve their freedom, or lose their lives
in defence of it. Their resolutions are not the effects of inconsiderate
rashness, but the sound result of sober inquiry and deliberation. I am
convinced that the true spirit of liberty was never so universally diffused
throughout all ranks and orders of people, in any country on the face of
the earth, as it now is through all North America." Of the state docu
ments of the General Congress at Philadelphia, Chatham, in the House
of Lords, said: "For myself, I must declare and avow, that in all my
reading and observation, — I have read Thucydides, and have studied
and admired the master states of the world, —that for solidity of reason
ing, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such complication
of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to
the General Congress at Philadelphia."
The Provincial Congress, assembled at the meeting-house in Concord,
October 13, 1774, in a message to Governor Gage, signed by John Han
cock, President, said, " that the sole end of government is protection and
security of the people. Whenever, therefore, that power which was
originally instituted to effect these important and valuable purposes is
1 The Blacksmiths' Convention of Worcester County, Massachusetts, November
8, 1774, illustrates the fervid determination of the people. They resolved that,
"deeply impressed with a sense of our duty to our country, paternal affection
for our children and unborn millions, as also for our personal rights and lib
erties, we solemnly covenant . . . that we will not ... do or perform any
blacksmith's work, or business of any kind, . . . . for any person or persons
.... commonly known by the name of tories, . . . mandamus coun
sellors, . . . for every person who addressed Governor Hutchinson at his
departure from this province; . . . all of whom should be held in contempt,
and those who are connected with them ought to separate from them, laborers
to shun their vineyards, merchants, husbandmen, and others, to withhold their
commerce and supplies." This, signed by forty-three of the best men, with
strong arms and great hearts, Ross WYMAN, of Shrewsbury, President, and
TIMOTHY BIGELOW, of Worcester, Clerk, was widely distributed in handbills,
and published in the newspapers.
Lincoln's History of Worcester, chapters vi.— ix., admirably illustrates the
spirit of the Revolution.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 195
employed to harass, distress, or enslave the people, in this case it becomes
a curse rather than a blessing; .... and we request that yon imme
diately desist from the fortress now constructing at the south entrance into
the town of Boston, and restore the pass to its natural state." To which
the governor answered: "The fortress, unless annoyed, will annoy no
body; , . . and I warn you of the rock you are upon, and require you
to desist from such illegal and unconstitutional proceedings."
Letters of the famous tory churchman, Peters, of Connecticut, were
laid on the President's table. One, dated September 28, said: "Six
regiments are coming over from England, and sundry men-of-war. So
soon as they come, HANGING WORK will go on. DESTRUCTION will
attend first the seaport towns The lintel sprinkled on the
sidepost will preserve the faithful," i. e., the Episcopalians. On the first
of October he wrote to Rev. Dr. Auchmuty, of New York: "The" —
Episcopal — " churches in Connecticut must fall a sacrifice, very soon,
to the rage of the Puritan mobility, if the old serpent, that dragon, is not
bound. . . . Spiritual iniquity rides in high places, with halberts,
pistols, and swords. See the proclamation I sent you by my nephew,
on their pious Sabbath day, the fourth of last month, when the preachers
and magistrates left the pulpit, etc., for the gun and drum, and set off for
Boston, cursing the king and Lord North, General Gage, the bishops and
their cursed curates, and the Church of England."
The occasion of the discourse appears in the following " Resolve recom
mending to the people of this province" — Massachusetts — " to observe a
day of public THANKSGIVING throughout the same," passed by the
First Provincial Congress, held in the meeting-house, at Cambridge,
October 22, 1774 :
" From a consideration of the continuance of the gospel among us, and
the smiles of Divine Providence upon us with regard to the seasons of the
year, and the general health which has been enjoyed; and in particular,
from a consideration of the union which so remarkably prevails, not only
in this province, but throughout the continent, at this alarming crisis, it
is resolved, as the sense of this Congress, that it is highly proper that a
day of public thanksgiving should be observed throughout this province;
and it is accordingly recommended to the several religious assemblies
in the province, that Thursday, the fifteenth day of December next, be
observed as a day of thanksgiving, to render thanks to Almighty God for
all the blessings we enjoy. And, at the same time, we think it incumbent
on this people to humble themselves before God, on account of their sins,
196 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
for which he hath been pleased, in his righteous judgment, to suffer so
great a calamity to befall us as the present controversy between Great
Britain and the colonies; as also to implore the Divine blessing upon
us, that, by the assistance of his grace, we may be enabled to reform
whatever is amiss among us; that so God may be pleased to continue to
us the blessings we enjoy, and remove the tokens of his displeasure, by
causing harmony and union to be restored between Great Britain and
these colonies, that we may again rejoice in the smiles of our sovereign,
and in possession of those privileges which have been transmitted to us,
and have the hopeful prospect that they shall be handed down entire
to posterity under the Protestant succession in the illustrious House of
Hanover. JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT."
The preacher, Mr. Gordon, born at Hitchin, in England, pastor of an
Independent church at Ipswich, removed to America in 1770, and was
ordained pastor of the Jamaica Plain Church, in Roxbury, July 6, 1772.
" His soul was engaged in " the American cause. He was chaplain to the
Provincial Congress; and several sermons on public occasions during the
struggle show his zeal and prudence as a Son of Libei'ty. He improved
his excellent opportunities for fulness and fidelity in his "History of
the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United
States of America: including an account of the late war, and of the
thirteen colonies from their origin to that period," first published in
1788, — a candid and impartial work, of. which there have been several
editions. He returned to England in 1780, and died at Ipswich, October
19, 1807, aged 77. — Allibone, Allen.
This sermon excited the indignation of " the king's friends," one of
whom, "a friend to peace and good order," published "observations"
upon it as "daring and treasonable, . . . absurd and impertinent,
. . . a firebrand of sedition, . . . audacious and wicked;" so awful
to "every honest man, every virtuous citizen," that " to let it pass disre
garded would argue an inattention to the welfare of the public wholly
inexcusable." " Where could this reverend politician, . . clerical
disclaimer, . . Christian sower of sedition, . . notable empiric,
. . warfaring priest, . . ordained leader, . . this church-militant
general, . . have learnt to preach up doctrines of sedition, rebellion,
carnage, and blood? Not, I am sure, from the merciful divulger of his
religion, for he only taught the precepts of peace and forgiveness. . . .
I most heartily wish, for the peace of America, that he and many others
of his profession would confine themselves to gospel truths."
DISCOURSE IV.
A THANKSGIVING SERMON.
IT IS OF THE LORD'S MERCIES THAT WE ARE NOT CONSUMED, BECAUSE HIS
COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT. — Lam. iii. 22.
THE pulpit is devoted, in general, to more important
purposes than the fate of kingdoms, or the civil rights of
human nature, being intended to recover men from the
slavery of sin and Satan, to point out their escape from,
future misery through faith in a crucified Jesus, and to
assist them in their preparations for an eternal blessed
ness. But still there are special times and seasons when
it may treat of politics. And, surely, if it is allowable for
some who occupy it, by preaching up the doctrines of
non-resistance and passive obedience,1 to vilify the prin
ciples and to sap the foundations of that glorious revolu
tion that exalted the House of Hanover to the British
throne, it ought to be no transgression in others, nor to
be construed into a want of loyalty, to speak consistently
with those approved tenets that have made Qeorge the
Third the first of European sovereigns, who otherwise,
1 The publications of the period abound in such finger-points to these
" missionaries," who were considered as simply ecclesiastical corps of
sappers and miners, busy among the people, disguised as teachers of reli
gion, disseminating doctrines subversive of liberty, and who were secrptly
in heart as zealous for the British ministry as were their more honorable
brethren, the chaplains of the mercenary armies, who took the hazards of
open war. Perhaps the sacrifices of the former were the greater. — ED.
17*
198 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
with all his personal1 virtues, might have lived an obscure
Elector.
Having, then, the past morning of this provincial
thanksgiving, accommodated the text to the case of indi
viduals, I shall now dedicate it, according to its original
intention, to the service of the public, the situation of
whose affars is both distressing and alarming.
The capital of the colony is barbarously treated, pre-
tendedly for a crime, but actually for the noble stand she
has made in favor of liberty against the partisans of sla
very. She has distinguished herself by her animated oppo
sition to arbitrary and unconstitutional proceedings, and
therefore has been marked out, by ministerial vengeance,1
1 Official insolence and ignorance never received a quicker or more dig
nified rebuke than in the united and decisive voice of the colonies for
Boston and against the ministry. In the debates on the Boston bills, Col.
Barre said to the ministry: "You point all your revenge at Boston alone;
but I think you will very soon have the rest of the colonies on your back."
Salem nobly resented and refused the proffered bribe of the diverted com
merce of Boston to her port. The newspapers published numerous ac
knowledgments of such substantial tokens of " aid and comfort" as this:
"On Tuesday morning last came to town," — Boston, — "from Marble-
head, eight cart-loads of salt fish ; a generous donation from our sympa
thizing brethren of that small town."
The people of Massachusetts refusing any supplies for the British
troops, Gen. Gage sent a vessel to Baltimore for a load of flour, for
blankets, etc., but "the committee of correspondence of that place re
fused to furnish any of the articles until they heard from the General Con
gress, where they had sent an express to receive directions how they
should act on the occasion;" yet that same committee were then freely
contributing to. the necessities of the Boston patriots. Poor Gage's sup
plies from England and elsewhere were intercepted and captured by
"Yankee" privateers, and he was often reduced to predatory incursions.
A letter from Alexandria, Virginia, of July Gth, 1774, said: "All Vir
ginia and Maryland are contributing for the relief of Boston, — of those
who, by the late cruel act of Parliament, arc deprived of their daily
labor and bread, — to prevent the inhabitants sinking under the oppres
sion, or migrating, to keep up that manly spirit that has made them dear
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 199
to be made an example of, whereby to terrify other Amer
ican cities into a tame submission. She is an example,
and, thanks to Heaven ! an example of patience and forti-
to every American." Enclosed was a list of the cargo of "Schooner
Nassau," — corn, flour, wheat, etc., — " consigned to the Hon. John Han
cock and James Bowdoin, Esqrs., Mr. Samuel Adams, Isaac Smith, Esq.,
and the Gentlemen Committee " of Boston, for distribution. The " Ga
zette/' which published this letter, says : " Every part of this extensive
continent, so far as we have yet heard, appears to be deeply interested in
the fate of this unhappy town. Many and great are the donations we
have already received, and many more we have good reason to expect."
The same paper contains "Resolutions unanimously entered into by the
Inhabitants of South Carolina, at a General Meeting held at Charlestown,"
in July, 1774, which declare " that not only the dictates of humanity, but
the soundest principles of true policy and self-preservation, make it
necessary for the inhabitants of all the colonies in America to assist and
support the people of Boston."
Now was to be realized the splendid thought of the Rev. Dr. Mayhew's
"Lord's-day Morning" meditations1 — "a communion of the colonies."
" Letters of friendship and regard — a desire to cement and perpetuate
union among ourselves " — flew like winged messengers of love from col
ony to colony, and from heart to heart; and on the seventh of October,
1774, George III. saw, not Boston and Massachusetts crushed beneath his
German foot, not the fratricidal discord of base men in sordid haste to
fatten upon the ruin of sister colonies despoiled by despotism, — for so
low was his avowed policy, and so brutal the hope of his kingly breast;
but, thank God! there was too little of Oxford " obedience," and too few
of its minions in America, for such thrift; — he saw not that, but a Conti
nental Congress in session at Philadelphia, composed of " the representa
tives of his Majesty's faithful subjects in all the colonies from Nova Sco
tia to Georgia" — a new power in the world. Their committee — Thomas
Lynch, of South Carolina, Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, and Edmund
Pendlcton, of Virginia — prepared a letter to Gen. Gage, representing " that
the town of Boston and province of Massachusetts Bay are considered by
all America as suffering in the common cause for their noble and spirited
opposition to oppressive acts of Parliament, calculated to deprive us of
our most sacred rights and privileges," and remonstrating against his
hostile military preparations in that town. His Majesty called them
" rebels," and they soon declared and proved themselves to be neither
subjects nor rebels, but a free people. — ED.
1 See his letter on pages 44,«45.
200 A THANKSGIVING SERMON
tude, to the no small mortification of her enemies, whose
own base feelings led them to imagine that she would
immediately become an abject supplicant for royal favor,
though at the expense of natural and chartered rights.
May some future historian, the friend of mankind and
citizen of the world, have to record in his faithful and
ever-living page that she never truckled, though British
sailors and soldiers, contrary to their natural affection for
the cause of liberty, were basely employed to intimidate
her, but perseveringly held out through the fiery trial till
a revolution of men and measures brought on her deliver
ance !
But it is not the capital alone that suffers. The late
venal Parliament, in compliance with the directions of
administration, have, under the false color of regulating
the government of the colony, mutilated its charter, and
conveyed dangerous powers to individuals for the enforc
ing and maintaining those encroachments that they have
ventured, in defiance of common equity, to make upon the
rights of a free people ; and had not the calmness and
prudence of others supplied their lack of wisdom, the
country might by this time have become an Aceldama.*
a I take this opportunity of making my public acknowledgments to his Excel
lency the governor for not having precipitated the country into a civil war — an
event which, as appears by his letter,! he ardently wishes may never exist.
Should the continent be exercised with so great an evil, I promise myself, from
the known humanity— the constant attendant of true bravery — the known hu
manity of the British officers and troops, that they will not add barbarity to
the unavoidable calamities of war. But should any hellish policy order its being
done, the colonies, 'tis to be supposed, will dread all less than slavery to those
cruel masters that can issue such savage edicts.
i General Gage, in his reply of October 20th, 1774, to the letter of the
Continental Congress just cited, wrote: "I ardently wish that the com
mon enemies to both countries may see, to their disappointment, that
these disputes between the mother country and the colonies have termi
nated like the quarrels of lovers, and increased the affection which they
ought to bear to each other." — ED.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 201
Upon the principles which the British Legislature have
adopted, in their late extraordinary proceedings, I see not
how we can be certain of any one privilege, nor what hin
ders our being really in a state of slavery to an aggregate
of masters, whose tyranny may be worse than that of a
single despot ; nor that a man can with propriety say his
soul is his own, and not the spring to move his bodily
machine in the performance of whatever drudgery his
lords may appoint; nor that the public have a permanent
and valuable constitution. If the British Legislature is the
constitution, or superior to the constitution, Magna Charta,
the Bill of Rights, and the Protestant Succession, these
boasts of Britons are toys to please the vulgar, and not
solid securities.
The operation of the late unconstitutional acts of the
British Parliament would not only deprive the colony of
invaluable privileges, but introduce a train of evils little
expected by the generality, and give the British ministry
such an ascendency in all public affidrs as would be to the
last dangerous/
a In support of this paragraph I shall quote the following passages from the
protest of the Lords against the regulating act, viz. :
"• The new constitution of judicature provided by this bill is improper and
incongruous with the plan of the administration of justice in Great Britain.
" The Governor and Council, thus instituted with powers with which the British
constitution has not trusted his Majesty and his privy-council, have the means
of returning such a jury in each particular cause as may best suit with the grati
fication of their passions and interests. The lives, liberties, and properties of the
subject are put into their hands without control, and the invaluable right of
trial by jury is turned into a snare for the people, who have hitherto looked upon
it as their main security against the licentiousness of power.
" We see in this bill the same scheme of strengthening the authority of the
officers and ministers of state, at the expense of the rights and liberties of the
subject, which was indicated by the inauspicious act for shutting up the harbor
of Boston.
" By that act, which is immediately connected with this bill, the example was
set of a large, important city (containing vast multitudes of people, many of
whom must be innocent, and all of whom are unheard), by an arbitrary sentence,
deprived of the advantage of that port upon which all their means of livelihood
did immediately depend.
"This proscription is not made determinable on the payment of a line for an
202 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
The spirited behavior of the country, under these inno
vations, has charmed arid affrighted numbers, and, should
offence, or a compensation for an injury, but is to continue until the ministers of
the crown shall think n't to advise the king in council to revoke it.
" The legal condition of the subject (standing unattainted by conviction for
treason or felony) ought never to depend upon the arbitrary will of any person
whatsoever."
I would add, also, the clause in the regulating act respecting town meetings *
leaves it in the power of a governor to prevent them all at pleasure, those only
excepted for the choice of town officers in March, and for the choice of repre
sentatives. Neither the most trifling nor the most important business can be
legally transacted, so as to be binding upon the inhabitants, even in the most
distant towns of the government, without leave first had and obtained of the
governor, in writing, expressing such special business, though.it should happen
that if not done within less time than necessary for the obtaining of that leave
it cannot be done at all. The townsmen can neither lay out a new road nor
raise moneys for mending an old one, nor can they settle a minister, without
obtaining the express written leave of the governor. Yea, they are forbid so
much as to talk; for they are not to treat of any other matter at their March
meeting except the election of their officers, nor at any other meeting except the
business expressed in the leave given by the governor, or, in his absence, by the
lieutenant-governor If this is not to establish slavery by legislative authority,
I beg to know what is. The arbitrary mandates of the grand monarch, enjoin
ing his slaves silence when state affairs are disagreeable to the public, will scarce
be thought by many so great an attack upon the rights of mankind, as an at
tempt to perpetuate something of the like nature by a permanent law. Should
the favorite of a governor have embezzled the town's money, how shall a meet
ing be obtained to vote and order a prosecution against him? Should a candi
date be reported as a warm friend to the liberties of the people, how shall leave
be had for his being settled, though unanimously approved of and admired?
Should an oppressed town be desirous of stating its grievances and praying a
redress, how shall the inhabitants do it in a corporate capacity, should the com-
mander-in-chief be prejudiced against them? Should the electors be inclined to
instruct their representatives upon matters of the highest concern to them, how
shall they do it without violating the law, when the ruler's interest prevents his
giving them leave? A thousand other events are made to depend upon the arbi
trary will of a governor by the clause before us. And why are all the towns
of the colony to be reduced to such a slavish dependence? Because, as the Brit
ish legislative asserts, "a great abuse has been made of calling town meetings,
and the inhabitants have, contrary to the design of their institution, been misled
to treat upon matters of the most general concern, and to pass many dangerous
and unwarrantable resolves." Oh, abominable! —that a people should be de
prived of their precious and long-enjoyed liberties, not for any wilfully perverse
known crime, but because of their being foolishly misled. Why did not the wise
ministry ease themselves of the opposition given them by the city of London, by
i The towns were so many commonwealths, petty democracies, and the
British ministers could not have adopted any device which would more
keenly touch the people than this interference with their wonted assem
blies. — ED.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 203
it be continued with prudence, urn-emitted zeal, and true
fortitude, will produce monuments of praise, more lasting
than brass, even though it should not prove successful,
which is scarce supposable.
The distresses that the late acts have already occa
sioned are many and great, and too well known to require
an enumeration ; and yet, could we be secure of a speedy
relief in the permanent redress of our grievances, we
should soon forget them. But we have our fears lest they
should be only the beginning of sorrows, and are in doubt
whether we pay not be called to experience the horrors
of a civil war, unless we will disgrace our descent, meanly
submit to the loss of our privileges, and leave to posterity
— the many millions that shall people this continent in
less than a century — bonds and fetters.
The important day is now arrived that must determine
whether we shall remain free, or, alas ! be brought into
bondage, after having long enjoyed the sweets of liberty.
The event will probably be such as is our owrn conduct.
Will we conform to the once exploded but again courtly
doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance, rather
than hazard life and property — we may have the honor
of burning under the heats of summer and freezing under
the colds of winter in providing for the luxurious entertain
ment of lazy, proud, worthless pensioners and placemen.51
a like regulation of their charter, upon the ground of the citizens having been
misled? Why do they not. upon the same ground, prevent all corporation and
county meetings in Great Britain, that so they may not be pestered with any
future petitions or remonstrances? But, should the operation of the regulating
act be secured, who can tell how long it will be ere the British legislative will
assign the solid reason of having been misled to treat upon matters of the most
general concern, and to pass many dangerous and unwarrantable resolves for
suspending all the American assemblies, or, at least, for reducing the members
of each to the more convenient number of the Yorkers?
I decline, as wholly unnecessary, all remarks upon the miscalled act for the
impartial administration of justice, etc.
a There are some honorable exceptions to this general intimation, but they are
204
Will we make our appeal to Heaven against the in
tended oppression — venture all upon the noble principles
that brought the House of Hanover into the possession of
the British diadem, and not fear to bleed freely in the
cause, not of a particular people, but of mankind in gen
eral — we shall be likely to transmit to future generations,
though the country should be wasted by the sword, the
most essential part of the fair patrimony received from
our brave and hardy progenitors — the right of possessing
and of disposing of, at our own option, the honest fruits
of our industry. However, it is alarming to think that,
through the mistaken policy of Great Britain, and the ab
surd notion of persisting in wrong measures for the honor
of government, we may be obliged to pass through those
difficulties, and to behold those scenes, and engage in
those services that are shocking to humanity, and would
be intolerable but for the hope of preserving and perpet
uating our liberties. Our trade ruined, our plantations
so few that they can save themselves only, and not the list, from deserved re
proach.
In the year 1697 the pensions amounted only to seven thousand and seventy-
seven pounds sterling, but in the year 1705 they amounted to eighteen thousand
one hundred and eleven pounds. Since then they have increased to a most
enormous sum. A late publication informs us that about ten years back there
was a million of debt contracted on the sixpence per pound tax laid on pensions.
The interest of a million at four per cent, being forty thousand pounds per an
num, the pensions, to have answered for it, must have amounted to one million
six hundred thousand pounds per annum; if at three per cent., to one million
two hundred thousand. There might, possibly, have been a deficiency in this
fund; but it cannot be thought that the financier would have proposed it had it
been very considerably deficient.
I heartily wish that some who have leisure, and can procure the necessary
materials, would inform the public, as near as possible, what sums are exhausted
by places and pensions. As to the numerous expenditures in the secret services
of rewards, bribery and corruption, jobs and contracts, they must remain among
the arcana imperil. But, were a virtuous, patriotic administration to close a41
those unnecessary drains whereby the wealth of Great Britain is carried off, they
would, in a few years of peace, greatly reduce the national debt, and have no
temptation to gull the people under a pretence of easing them by American
taxes, when they design only to provide for their numerous dependents, and to
increase the power of the crown, alias the ministry.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 205
trodden down, our cattle slain or taken away, our property
plundered, our dwellings in flames, our families insulted
and abused, our friends and relatives wallowing and our
own garments rolled in blood, are calamities that we are
not accustomed to, and that we cannot realize but with
the utmost pain ; and yet we must expect more or less of
these should we be compelled to betake ourselves to the
sword in behalf of our rights. It is not a little grievous
to be alarmed with the apprehension of such severe trials,
unless we will in our conduct resemble those simple ones
that, for the sake of indulging themselves in present ease
and plenty, barter away their whole interest in future hap
piness.*
But, though the situation of our public affairs is both
distressing and alarming, it is by far better than we have
deserved from the Sovereign of the universe ; it would
have been much worse had we been dealt with according
to our demerits. " It is of the Lord's mercies that we are
not consumed ; because his compassions fail not." Some
may, at first hearing, object against this, as being too strong
an expression, and may think, considering the morals of the
people when compared with the inhabitants of other places,
that it is misapplied. I am ready to allow that the morals
of this people, taken collectively, are superior to those of
other places, — Connecticut excepted, where, I suppose,
they are nearly the same, — whether in the New or the
Old World, all things considered ; and I cannot but view
a It may be objected that the points in dispute are too trifling to justify the
hazard of such severe trials. It will be answered that it is the principles the con
tinent is opposing in its attempts to prevent the establishment^' precedents.
The real dispute is, whether the long-enjoyed constitution of these American
colonies, when they are not consenting to it, shall be liable to every alteration
that a legislative three thousand miles off shall think convenient and profitable
to themselves, and whether a House of Commons at that distance, to which they
neither do nor can send a single representative, shall dispose of their property
at pleasure. Obstaprincipiis.
18
206
as «i strong proof hereof the order that prevails through
the country now that the execution of the laws, because
of the peculiarity of the times, is suspended. ' And yet,
after all, I must hold to the text ; and, that we may be
fully convinced, and be duly aifected with the truth of it,
shall make some remarks upon this people considered as
the subjects of God's moral government.
I. In the first place, I remark, that the prevalency of
any vices and immoralities among this people must be
peculiarly provoking.
Circumstances aggravate or alleviate the crimes of soci
eties no less than of single persons; and far more and
other is expected from some than from many others in a
very different situation and condition.
1 The ministry sought not only " to beggar the colonies into submis
sion" by ruinous restraints on trade, but to reduce them to anarchy by
paralyzing their governments, whose life was supposed to emanate from
the crown, and then necessity would compel submission; but the result
astonished all. New governments sprang directly from the people, and
the people obeyed. " Obedience is what makes government," said Burke,
commenting on this phenomenon, " and not the names by which it is
called; not the name of governor, as formerly, or committee, as at pres
ent. . . . We wholly abrogated the ancient government of Massachu
setts. We were confident that the first feeling, if not the very prospect of
anarchy, would instantly enforce a complete submission. The experiment
was tried. A new, strange, unexpected face of things appeared. An
archy is found tolerable. A vast province has now subsisted, and sub
sisted in a considerable degree of health and vigor, for nearly a twelve
month, without governor, without public council, without judges, without
executive magistrates. ... In effect, we sutfcr as much at home by
this loosening of all ties, arid this concussion of all established opinions, as
we do abroad. For, in order to prove that the Americans have no right
to their liberties, we are every day endeavoring to subvert the maxims
which preserve the whole spirit of our own. To prove that the Americans
ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom
itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry advantage over them in debate
without attacking some of those principles, or deriding some of those feel
ings, for which our ancestors have shed their blood." — ED.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 207
Now, it should be remembered that this is but a young
people, not a hundred and fifty years old ; for they were
not a people for the few first years of their settlement in
this wilderness — no more than a small company, who must
have soon perished by the hands of the native Indians had
not God interposed. Their youth is an aggravation to the
crimes committed by them. For a young person to be
given to vice, though he has a corrupted nature the same
as others, is highly offensive : we look for a decent, modest,
and orderly behavior in him.
In like manner a young state should be pure in its
morals; should be addicted to no particular vices; should
observe the utmost regularity of behavior, and should not
even think of, much less practise, the crimes too generally
to be met with in countries of long standing, when at
tained to their height in power and affluence. There is
an utter unfit-ness in the former's attempting to imitate the
latter. Can we say that this rising young state is clear as
to this matter; that it has not copied the corrupt manners
of its aged parent ; and that it hath not its particular vices
that are a reproach to it ? However willing we may be,
through self-love and native fondness, to apologize for it,
we cannot conscientiously pronounce it not guilty while
we know how notorious intemperance, uncleanness, luxury,
and irreligion are among us.
But another thing that makes the vices and immoralities
of this people peculiarly provoking is, their descent and
education. The sins of a youth descended from pious
parents, who has had good examples set him, and who has
been carefully educated, are worse than those of a common
youth that has not enjoyed such advantages.
Now, the ancestors of this people were eminently godly ;
it was the strength of their zeal for true, unadulterated
religion, and the ardor of their love to God and Christ,
208
that prevailed upon them to venture over the great deep,
and to seek an abode in this then inhospitable and danger
ous country, and that reconciled them to the numberless
difficulties that they had long to encounter without ever
attaining to the various comforts that we enjoy. They
were concerned to perpetuate the same spirit of piety
which they were actuated by ; paid great attention to the
rising generation, and wisely provided for the good instruc
tion of succeeding ones. Wherein can we charge them
with want either of wisdom or faithfulness to posterity?
Do we not still reap the fruits of their contrivance and
foresight, though not in so ample a manner as might be,
through our own faultiness ? Judge ye, what could have
been done more through their instrumentality for this part
of the Lord's vineyard than what has been done? Where
fore, then, hath it brought forth so many wild and bad
grapes, when it should have yielded the choicest fruit?
Is not this people strangely degenerated, so as to possess
but a faint resemblance of that godliness for which their
forefathers were eminent ? And could these last appear
for a while again in this colony, with the common passions
and sentiments of human nature, would they not stand
amazed at the sinfulness of the present generation, and
be ready to disown them for their posterity? Is it -not
another generation of professors, very different both as to
sentiments and practice from that which, by their emigra
tions for conscience' sake, first planted the gospel in New
England? Would not the like zeal for the leading doc
trines of Christianity, and the like strictness in morals that
prevailed in the first settlers, be severely censured and be
stigmatized by some reproachful epithet, as in their day,
by the generality among us, though through the spirit of
the times the persecution might not be more than that of
the tongue? They that will divest themselves of preju-
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 209
dice, and judge impartially, will be obliged, I apprehend,
to acknowledge that this people do not answer to the hon-
orableness of their descent, any more than to the care that
was taken by their predecessors for their being well edu
cated in the principles and practices of religion ; the full
benefit of which care though they may not enjoy, through
the censurable faultiness of some in neglecting their duty,
yet is so far enjoyed as that people in general, including
all ranks, are not better instructed and educated anywhere,
it is probable, than in this country. But certainly the
more honorable their religious descent, and the better their
education, the more provoking must their vices and immo
ralities be ; and nothing can be more worthy of their par
ticular consideration, especially in these threatening times,
than those words in Amos iii. 2, wherein the Lord ad
dresses the children of Israel, saying: "You only have I
known of all the families of the earth ; therefore I will
punish you for all your iniquities." I might add more
particulars to this first remark, but choose to make them
distinct ones of themselves.
II. I therefore proceed to mention, in the second place,
that the obligations this people are under to holiness are'
special, from the many appearances of God in their favor,
and his having so multiplied and exalted them.
How oft has the Supreme Governor of the universe
wonderfully, next to miraculously, interposed for their
deliverance when in the utmost danger! Their enemies
expected to swallow them up, and were upon the point
of doing it, when Providence hath critically interposed, so
that they have escaped like a bird out of a snare that has
been thrown over it. When their eagerness to cooperate
With the parent state, in reducing the power of the com
mon enemy, led them into a bold and dangerous enter
prise, in which, if they had miscarried, they would have
18*
210 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
been subject to an almost irreparable damage, and which
must have miscarried, according to the usual course of
human and military affairs, had not special events, carry
ing in them the evident marks of providential appoint
ment,1 though in the account of the unbeliever purely
casual, — I say, which must have miscarried had not special
events turned up, — it pleased God to order the existence
of them, and, by crowning the expedition with success, not
only to avert the train of evils that must otherwise have
followed, but to give this people, then indeed in their in
fancy, a ]VAME2 among the warlike veteran states of Europe,
and to show the world what a few raw provincials could
do, under the smiles and care of Heaven, against fortifica
tions and batteries really strong, and defended by regulars,
though not by Britons. May they never lose that name, nor
blast the laurels gained at Louisburg by any future cow
ardly conduct, when it is not conquest, but liberty and
property, that are at stake !
God hath not only appeared for this people, but hath
greatly multiplied and exalted them. They were at first
a few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers in the
land. They came from a well-cultivated kingdom to a
savage people and a wild country, enough to discourage
the stoutest. However, they ventured to take up their
1 The French ship Vigilant, of sixty-four guns, and six hundred men,
when within two hours' sail of Louisburg, Cape Breton, May 19th, was led
off in pursuit of smaller craft, and captured. Her arrival would have been
fatal to the enterprise. The New England men, being in want of balls, were
supplied by those sent by the French guns, which they put into their own
cannon, and fired back again. — Prince's Thanksgiving Sermon, 1745; Par-
sons's Life of Sir Wm. Pepperell, Bart. — ED.
2 Perhaps the capture of Louisburg, in 1745, as a proof of the military
prowess of New England, may be taken as the point of time when the
colonies became conscious of their strength, and when England became
jealous of their dependence. — ED.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 211
abode in it, and, through the original blessing of Heaven
upon them, which, perhaps, never displayed itself and
wrought more effectually, except in the instance of the
Jews, they are become a considerable nation,1 possess a
tolerable share of wealth, and would enjoy much public
happiness were the painful disputes between them and the
parent country comfortably terminated. The face of the
colony is not less changed for the better since first settled
than what is set forth in the language of Isaiah's prophecy:
"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; the
desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blos
som abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing;
the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it ; the excel
lency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of
the Lord, and the excellency of our God."a These enumer
ated are special obligations on this people to holiness. But
does their holiness correspond with them ? Are the fruits
yielded by them suited to such benefits? Are they that
manner of people that might have been expected, and that
they engaged to be when under difficulties, and in great
perplexity through threatening appearances ? — or have
they not, like the Jews of old, after singing the divine
praises, forgot the works of God and the wonders he hath
showed them ? And hath not the cast of their after-con
duct evidenced that, in renewing their engagements with
a Isaiah xxxv. 1, 2.
1 An estimate, made in 1775, by the American Congress :
State. People. State. People.
Massachusetts, . . . 400,000 Pennsylvania, . . . 350,000
New Hampshire, . . 150,000 Maryland, . . . 320,000
Rhode Island, . . . 59,678 Virginia, . 650,000
Connecticut, -. . . 192,000 North Carolina, . . 300,000
New York,, '/ . . 250,000 South Carolina, . . 225,000
New Jersey, . . . 130,000 TO^ . . . 3,026,678
ED.
212 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
him in the clay of their affliction, "they did flatter him with
their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues; and
that their heart was not right with him ; " for " they have
not been steadfast in his covenant," have not walked agree
able to the design and purport of God's covenant of grace,
with which they have in much mercy been made ac
quainted.
III. I shall now remark, in the third and last place, that
though the appearances of religion among this people are
great and many, yet it is to be feared that real religion is
scarce, that the power of godliness is rare, and that while
there is much outward show of respect to the Deity, there
is but little inward heart conformity to him.
Individuals are justly entitled to the benefit of an excep
tion, notwithstanding which it may be applied with too
much truth to the community as a body, "This people
draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth
me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." a What
is religion, with the generality, more than being baptized,
attending' public worship statedly on the Lord's day, own
ing the covenant, coming to the Lord's table, and then
being orderly in the outward deportment ? If, besides all
now mentioned, there is a strict attendance upon private
prayer, and the further addition of family, though the
prayers shall consist of nothing more than the repeating
of a certain set of words that the tongue has been habitu
ated to, the goodness of such religion must not be ques
tioned, though not proceeding from a work of regenera
tion, not produced originally by any special influences of
the Holy Spirit, not accompanied with any saving illumi
nations from above, with any spiritual view of the divine
glories, any true hatred to sin, any sense of the beauty of
holiness, any soul-sanctifying love to God and the Lord
a Matthew xv. 8.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 213
Jesus. Is there not a great though unhappy affinity be
tween the case of this people, religiously considered, and
that of the Laodicean church,' as described by the Alpha
and Omega in Revelation iii. 15 — 18?
The above remarks upon this people, considered as the
subjects of God's moral government, being duly weighed,
shall we not be brought to own with humility and grati
tude that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not con
sumed, because his compassions fail not? As yet we are
not consumed.
Though, when we look down from the adjoining hills,
and behold the capital, we cannot but lament, saying,
" How is the gold become dim ! how is the most fine gold
changed ! how does her port mourn, because her shipping
come not to her as formerly ; all her wharves are deso
late ; how is she possessed and surrounded by an armed
force, as though in the hands of an enemy ! — yet, blessed
be God, she doth not sit solitary; she is full of people;
she is honorable among the nations ; she is as a princess
among the provinces, seeing that she hath not meanly
become tributary. She weepeth sore in the night, and
her tears are on her cheeks ; but, like beauty in distress,
she is the more engaging. She hath many lovers to com
fort her, and her friends have not dealt treacherously with
her, so far from having become her enemies. Her inhabit
ants are suffering, but not starving. Her priests and her
elders have not given up the ghost while seeking meat
to relieve their soul. The tongue of the sucking child
cleaveth not to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The
young 'children ask not bread without any man's offering
to break it unto them. We see not her dwellings and
public buildings, both civil and sacred, in flames, and the
whole becoming, by a speedy destruction, a horrid heap
of ruins."
214
Though, when we survey the country, we bemoan the
attempts that have been made upon the ancient founda
tions of its civil government, which, if successful, will in all
probability, after a time, undermine and destroy its reli
gious liberties ; yet we are thankful that no dwelling has
been destroyed, — that none of any party have as yet
perished by the shocks they have occasioned in the state,
— that the sword hath not been commissioned by Heaven
to destroy, and the way to an accommodation been ren
dered still more inaccessible through the shedding of
blood. We adore the goodness of God, which has kept
us from being consumed by the ravages of war. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because
his compassions fail not. And much more so that, in the
distressing and alarming situation of our public affairs,
there have been so many favorable circumstances to pre
serve us from fainting, to hearten us up, and to encourage
our hopes in expecting that we shall at length, in the
exercise of prudence, fortitude, arid piety, get well through
our difficulties.
Here allow me to run through a brief summary of these
favorable circumstances, composed of the following par
ticulars : The rising and growing consistency of sentiments
in the friends of liberty, which hath led one assembly and
another on this continent to attempt preventing the fur
ther introduction of slaves1 among them, though herein
1 One of the carticlcs of the " American Association," formed by the
Congress at Philadelphia, in September, pledged entire abstinence from
the slave trade, and from any trade with those concerned in it. The pre
vailing sentiment was expressed by Mr. Jefferson in the original draft of
the Declaration of Independence : " Determined to keep open a market
where MEN should be bought and sold, he" — George III. — "has pros
tituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or
restrain this execrable commerce." On the ministerial plan to excite a
slave insurrection, Mr. Burke said, 1774: "An offer of freedom from Eng-
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 215
they have been counteracted by governors, and which
the American Congress has with so much wisdom and
justice adopted ; the increasing acquaintance with the
rights of conscience in matters of religion, as belonging
equally alike to men of all parties and denominations,
while they conduct as good members of civil society, with
out endeavoring to injure their neighbors of different or
opposite sentiments ; the blundering policy of the British
ministry in giving so cruel a cast to the Boston Port Bill,
taking away by it private property, and subjecting its res
titution to the pleasure of the sovereign ; in following that
so hastily with other acts, equally unjust and more exten
sively pernicious, affecting the whole colony, and built
upon principles and claims that rendered every dwelling,
plantation, and right through the continent precarious,
dependent on the will of the Parliament, or, rather, of the
junto or individual that hath the power of managing it ;
in declaring openly, while supporting the bills, that their
design was not against a single town or colony, but against
all America ; in presuming that the other towns and colo
nies, upon receiving the dreadful news, would turn pale
and tremble, conceal their spirit of resentment and oppo
sition in sneaking professions of tame submission, and
abandon the distressed, though their own ruin must have
followed upon it, however slowly ; and, upon such pre
sumption, neglecting to divide in time the different colo
nies by flattering promises suited to their several situa
tions, and by secret purchases, ere they could form a
general union; the reestablishment of arbitrary power and
land would come rather oddly, shipped to them " — the slaves — " in an
African vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of Virginia or Carolina
with a cargo of three Angola negroes. It would be curious to sec the Guinea
captain attempting at the same instant to publish his proclamation of lib
erty and to advertise his sale of slaves." — ED.
216
a despotic government in a most extensive and purposely
enlarged country,1 contrary to the royal declaration given
a few years before, qualified somewhat to the inhabitants
by that formal security of their religious liberty which
was noways wanting, but, as is generally, I fear justly
taught, with the base, diabolical design of procuring their
assistance, if required, in quelling the spirit of freedom
among the natural arid loyal subjects of Great Britain;11
a I have no objection to the Canadians being fully secured in the enjoyment
of their religion, however erroneous and anti-Christian it may appear to me as a
Protestant, but to the British legislative's not having given a universal estab
lishment to the rights of conscience among them. The rights of conscience are
too sacred for any civil power on earth to interdict, wherein they produce not
overt acts against the necessary and essential rights of civil society. J say neces
sary and essential, to guard against the reasonings of interested, designing priests
of every denomination, who are for forming unnatural alliances between church
and state, the sword of the Spirit and the sword of the magistrate. Arguments
drawn from the ancient Jewish theocracy are of no avail till the existence of a
Christian theocracy is proved, in direct opposition to the words of our great
Leader, who has said, " My kingdom is hot of this world."
Should the necessity of our affairs convene another congress, hope, among
other things, it will be agreed upon, as the proper solid basis for the firmest and
most extensive union, that every colony should retain, while the majority of it
are so pleased, whatever is its prevailing form of religion, and admit of a uni
versal toleration to all other persuasions, whether professors of Christianity or
not.
'Twas a special pleasure to me, on my first arrival in America [in 1770],
among the friendly 1'hiladelphians, to observe how Papists, Episcopalians, Mo
ravians, Lutherans, Calvinists, Methodists, and Quakers, could pass each other
peaceably and in good temper on the Sabbath, after having broke up their re
spective assemblies, which 1 could not but take notice of in an early letter to my
native country,
Jt may be said that, notwithstanding this apparent regard for the rights of
conscience, I am really unfriendly to them unless I will admit of an American
episcopate. Though some may be prejudiced against it from the fibbing, ran
corous, and abusive opposition that certain D.D.'s are continually making to
measures for preserving the civil rights of this continent (whose conduct I can
easily account for, and who have doubtless received intelligence, as well as my
self, that the design of sending a bishop to America, as soon as circumstances will
permit, is certainly kept in view, and that — — is intended for the see; and men
1 This was one of the " causes " set forth in the Declaration of Inde
pendence : " For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbor
ing province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies." — ED.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 217
the speedy arrival of the Port Bill in the common way of
conveyance, whereby some difficulties were avoided and
some advantages enjoyed, while administration was not so
merciful as to attempt giving us the earliest intelligence
whose ambitious hopes of a deanery, arch-deaconship, or crosier, are likely to
be disappointed by the public manoeuvres in favor of liberty, will be out of
humor, and should be patiently borne with, though they vent their spleen against
liberty itself), yet the rights of Episcopalians are not thereby forfeited, and
whenever the majority of them, laity included (and not a few of the leading
clergy, who are for more homage than the present equality admits), are desirous
of an American episcopate, and will see to its being with security that the bishop
and every other dignitary shall be confined purely to spiritual matters, shall
have no more rule in civil concerns than the parochial priest, shall be maintained
by no kind of tax, but by voluntary contributions, or from legacies given a
full year before the death of a testator when coming out of a real estate, and
shall be deprived of all power to injure or interrupt other denominations, let
them be gratified. It will have a good effect, and will prevent our young men's
making a trip to England for orders, which generally proves dangerous to their
love of freedom. But it will be long enough ere some who have been arduously
laboring to establish a Protestant American episcopate will, with all their con
scientious attachment to and zeal for it, agree to its existence in this !New World
upon such equitable conditions, as may be inferred from the little attention paid
to what Lord Sterling mentioned to them at or in the neighborhood of Amboy.
As to the civil establishment given to the Canadians by the Quebec Bill,l the
slavery of it has been admirably exposed in the address of the Congress ; and yet,
was it a fact that the body of the French inhabitants preferred it to every other
form, I am of Lord Littleton's opinion, that they should have it while they re
quested it. We have reason, howrever, to believe that the mode of trial by juries
was desired by the bulk of the people, and that it was taken away to gratify the
petty noblesse of the country, who were for enjoying, as when under France, the
power of oppressing their inferiors. But, surely, care ought to have been taken,
by provisos in the act, that Britons should not have been shut out from settling
in a country for the conquest of which they did and do contribute, without giv
ing up their liberties and commencing slaves; and that a British gentleman,
were he pleased to make the tour of Canada, might not be exposed to an impris
onment by a lettre de cachet from a governor in consequence of secret instruc
tions from home, should he have unhappily fallen under the high displeasure of
a British ministry.
1 The debates in the House of Commons, in the year 174 1, on the Bill
for the Government of Quebec, were not given to the public till 1839, when
they were edited .and published by' Mr. Wright from manuscript notes
of Sir Henry Cavendish, Bart., M. P. They justify the worst apprehen
sions of our fathers, and demonstrate the servile and unmanly spirit of
the thirteenth Parliament of Great Britain — May 17G8 to June 1774 —
perhaps the worst in British history. The splendor of the great names in
it — friends to law and liberty — only sets forth in stronger light the wick
edness of the government and its tools. — ED.
19
218 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
of what had been done ; its arrival at Boston, New York,
and Virginia nearly at the same time ; the firmness that
the Bostonians showed upon the occasion ; the indigna
tion with which it was received, as the news flew through
the continent; the spirited behavior1 of the noble Vir
ginian Assembly,*1 whereby they hastened their own disso
lution ; the accounts from different places and colonies
forwarded to the capital for her encouragement under her
distress, and to assure her of assistance and support, and
that they considered hers in the true light of a common
cause — not in consequence of, but ere they had received
her applications for advice and direction, with the state of
her situation ; the forwardness which showed itself every
where to contribute to her relief, and to adopt measures
that might in the issue recover and secure the liberties
of this and the other colonies ; the surprising agreement
a Many political ministerial writers have, with a malicious cunning, attributed
to Massachusetts more merit in opposing the attempts against American rights
than it is entitled to. The Episcopal colony 2 of Virginia bravely led in the
movements at the time of the Stamp Act, and was the first that, by their assem
bly, declared against the Boston Port Bill in the strongest terms of an honest
indignation.
1 They resolved to keep June 1st — the day when the Port Bill was to
take effect — in fasting, humiliation, and prayer. On this the governor
dissolved them; but, before separating, they proposed an annual congress
of the colonies, and declared that an attack on one colony was an attack
on all, and demanded " the united wisdom of the whole." See page 193.
— ED.
2 At this time Virginia could hardly be considered as in fact an Episco
pal colony. Baptist missionary communities from New England had
undermined the Established Church, so that fully two-thirds of the people
were dissenters. Patrick Henry became illustrious as their advocate, and
Mr. Jefferson received his first clear conceptions of a free civil constitution
from the practical exhibition of religious liberty and equality in a Baptist
church in his neighborhood. The power of " lords spiritual and tem
poral " had been already overturned in Virginia by the verdict in the
famous tobacco case, making the colonial law supreme. — Curtis's Prog
ress of Baptist Principles, pp. 49-52, 354-57. 1857. — ED.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 219
in opinion that has prevailed in persons at a great distance
from each other while consulting for the general good,
whereby they have been led to transmit by letters nearly
the same proposals to each other as though the inspiration
of the Most High gave them the like understanding ; the
fixing upon a general congress, and choosing delegates,
although in several places governmental chicanery was
used to prevent it ; the tender, compassionate feelings
that every delegate, of whatsoever denomination, without
party distinctions, discovered for the Bostonians, under
the free and affecting prayer of a worthy Episcopalian,*
when, at the opening of the congress, they had been
alarmed with the false rumor that Boston had been
attacked by the military and navy ; the amazing conse
quences that this false alarm did, and continues to pro
duce. It proved the means of showing that the colonists
were not to be intimidated, though martial appearances
were to terminate in actual hostilities ; that they would
be volunteers in the cause of liberty ; and that they
meant not to avoid fighting, whenever it became neces
sary. It put many thousands upon boldly taking them
selves to arms, and marching forward, as they apprehended,
to the assistance of their oppressed fellow-subjects. It
kindled a martial spirit, that has spread through various
a The Rev. Mr. Duche.l
1 The Rev. Jacob Duche, an Episcopal clergyman of Philadelphia, of
brilliant talents, distinguished by making the prayer at the opening of the
first congress at Philadelphia. He was invited to officiate, on motion of
Mr. Samuel Adams. Mr. John Adams wrote to his wife: "Mr. Duche
unexpectedly struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the
bosom of every man present." He was opposed to independence, and
wrote to Washington proposing his resignation of the command of the
army. Washington transmitted the letter to Congress, and Mr. Duche
found it well to leave for England, in 1776. He died in January, 1798, aged
about sixty. — Allen's Biog. Diet. — ED.
220 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
colonies, and put the inhabitants upon perfecting them
selves in the military exercise, that so they may be early
prepared for the worst. To that it has been owing, in a
great measure, that the continent has put on such a war
like appearance ; that companies have been formed, and
are continually training, as far down as to and even in
Virginia, if not further ;a and that they will be better
prepared than was ever before the case to repel all inva
sions that may be made upon their natural and constitu
tional rights, even though supported by a British army.
Should British officers and troops wrongly imagine that
their commissions and oaths oblige them to act, though in
opposition to those very principles of the constitution that
supports them and empowers the king to give them their
commissions, instead of recollecting that all obligations
entered into must necessarily be attended with this pro
viso, that they are not contrary to and subversive of the
constitution, and that it is a reverence for and love to the
constitution that distinguishes the soldier from the mer
cenary, — still, they would have no inclination to fight
with fellow-subjects whose only fault was an excessive
love of freedom, and a fixed determination not to submit
to what they really believed were designed attacks upon
their most precious liberties. In such circumstances, may
we not hope that the former would rather wish to escape
with honor than to disgrace themselves with conquest,
and that the men of might will not find their hands?
But should it be otherwise, and their native bravery be
sacrificed in support of a bad cause, yet it might be too
hard a task for them to subdue their brethren when fight
ing, pro aris et focis, for all that is dear, and who almost
universally excel in the art of striking a mark, by which
a We are informed of the like in South Carolina.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 221
the waste of ammunition will be greatly prevented.51 The
want of field artillery1 will not be much nor long felt
under a commander that has skill to avoid being attacked,
and to choose his ground for attacking, in a country with
which he is perfectly acquainted, and where every inhabi
tant, even the children, are standing spies upon all the
motions of an adversary. But, as I earnestly beg of Heaven
that the redress of our grievances may be obtained without
fighting, I shall not dwell longer upon this point, and
proceed to mention those other favorable circumstances,
of a pacific kind, that remain to be specified, — such as tjie
generous donations made for the poor of Boston ; 2 the
union of the colonies ; the prevailing harmony and una-
a Mr. Knoch, then lieutenant in the first regiment of Orange-Nassau, in a trea
tise on " The Insufficiency of Fire-arms for Attack or Defence, demonstrated from
Facts," etc., written in about 1759, proves "that, at a medium taken from any
number of battles fought somewhat before that period, not more than, one man
could have been killed or wounded by eighty shot discharged. "3
1 Four cannon constituted the whole train of artillery of the British
colonies in North America at the opening of the war, April' 19, 1775; two
of which, belonging to the province of Massachusetts, wcr.e taken by the
enemy. The other two were the property of citizens of Boston. They
were constantly in service through the war. In 1788, by order of Con
gress, they were delivered to the Governor of Massachusetts, John Han
cock. On one was inscribed, " The Hancock, — sacred to Liberty ; " and on
the other, "The Adams." — Holmes's Annals, ii. 309. — ED.
2 The Continental Congress resolved, September 17, 1774, that all the
colonies ought to continue their contributions for " the distresses of our
brethren at Boston, so long as their occasions may require; " and, October
8th, that " all America ought to support Massachusetts in their opposition
to the late acts of Parliament." — ED.
3 " This reverend gentleman has found a method of doing without much
ammunition; for certain it is that there is at present no appearance of
great quantities, and much less prospect of procuring more in future. How
marvellous is sacerdotal invention, when set to work! . . . What
American has experience enough to cope with" — General Gage — "a
commander-in-chief, bred an officer, and highly distinguished? . . . .
Where could he possibly have acquired his knowledge? . . . Not in a
review before a governor; ... not by turn-out every now and then,
19*
222 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
nimity among the individuals composing the grand con
gress ; their approbation of the opposition given by this
colony to the acts for altering their ancient form of gov
ernment ; their association respecting trade, and the like ; a
the readiness of the people to conform to it; and the
intrepid conduct of the southern inhabitants in preventing
the introduction of any more teas among them. These are
favorable circumstances, beyond what the most sanguine
friends of liberty expected ; that appear to be of the
Lord's doing, and are marvellous in our eyes ; that, if
foretold, would have been deemed morally impossible by
those who are still inimical to them, though evidencing a
wonderful interposition of Providence ; and that may justly
encourage us, as well as keep us from fainting, especially
when taken in connection with that spirit of prayer and
humiliation which has discovered itself in different places
on occasion of the times. Would to God there was more
of this ! Did it abound universally, we should have greater
ground of encouragement by much ; for the fervent prayers
of the humble, penitent, and returning avail with God,
through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. However, from
what there is, and the other favorable circumstances, we
are warranted to expect that at length, in the exercise of
prudence, fortitude, and piety, we shall get well through
our difficulties.
a The resolve of an embodied people, in a contest for liberty, when the voice
of the majority has been fairly obtained, to interrupt, and, where necessary, forci
bly to prevent a trade that would ruin the common cause, and cannot be carried
on without subjecting them to slavery, notwithstanding the great injury it may
occasion to individuals, I apprehend, will, on the same principles that justify
a proscribing a traffic that would hazard the introduction of the pestilence,
admit of as much stronger a vindication as slavery is the greater plague.
with a few facetious parsons and new-fangled minute-men, to make a ridicu
lous parade of arms for the amusement and scoff of every woman and
child in the village."— Tory "Observations," quoted before on p. 195.—
ED.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 223
We must prudently fall in with the measures recom
mended by the congress, that so we may not be reported
to other colonies as disregarders of them, whereby first a
jealousy may be produced, and then a disunion effected.
We must promote unanimity among ourselves, peace and
good order, that we may not be represented as desir
ous of confusion in hopes of making an advantage of it.
We should let the laws of honor and honesty have their
full weight with us, that we may fall under no reproach
for abusing the present suspension of human laws. We
should diligently provide for the worst, and be upon our
guard, that we may not be suddenly stripped of those
appurtenances,1 the loss of which will be severely felt
should we be called upon, by a dire necessity, to make
our appeal to Heaven.
I have been ready at tynes to infer, from the military
spirit that hath spread through the continent, that though
we are to be saved, it is not to be without the sword, or, at
least, the strong appearance of it, unless Infinite Wisdom
(which we shall heartily rejoice to find is the case) should
be in this way preparing the colonies for cooperating with
the parent state, after that matters in dispute have been
settled to satisfaction, in some important struggle with a
common enemy; and therein, by giving her effectual as
sistance, for wiping away the reproaches that interested
calumny and malice have thrown upon them, and for con
firming an eternal friendship. But is it the awful determi
nation of Heaven that we shall not retain our liberties
without fighting, let no one despair. The continent, after
1 General Gage's seizure of the province powder, at Charlestown, Sep
tember 1st, was the "first indication of hostile intention;" and in his
attempt to destroy the magazines at Concord, in April, the British troops
shed the first blood in the war of independence. — Frothingham'a Siege of
Boston, 13—17, 51—64. — ED.
224 A THANKSGIVING SERMON,
having discovered consummate wisdom, can never conduct
so absurdly as to leave a single colony alone in the dis
pute. Their own security will constrain them to support
whichsoever is attacked. They will rather assist at a dis
tance than have a war upon or within their own borders,
and will be sensible that whoever fights on the side of
American liberty hazards his life in their battles. Should
it be allowed, for argument's sake, that some one province
or other, through selfishness or timidity, should basely
slink from the common danger, yet would the rest have
greater probability of succeeding than had the Dutch when
they began to emerge from slavery and to acquire their
liberties.* Let us be but brave, and we may promise our-
a "The whole country of the seven United Provinces is not as large as one-half
of Pennsylvania, and when they began their contest with Philip the Second for
their liberty, contained about as many inhabitants as are now in the province of
Massachusetts Bay.i Fhilip's empire then comprehended, in Europe, all Spain
and Portugal, the two Sicilies, and such provinces of the Low Countries as ad
hered to him; many islands of importance in the Mediterranean; the Milanese
and many other valuable territories in Italy, and elsewhere; in Africa and Asia,
all the dominions belonging to Spain and Portugal; in America, the immense
countries subject to those two kingdoms, with all their treasures and yet unex
hausted mines; and the Spanish West Indies. His armies were numerous and
veteran, excellently officered, and commanded by the most renowned generals.
So great was their force, that, during the wars in the Low Countries, his com-
mander-in-chicf, the Prince of Parma, marched twice into France, and obliged
that great general and glorious king, Henry the Fourth, to raise at one time the
siege of Paris, and at another that of lioan. So considerable was the naval
power of Philip, that, in the midst of the same wars, he fitted out his dreadful
armada to invade England. Yet seven little provinces, or counties, as we should
call them (says that eminent Pennsylvania!!), inspired by one general resolution
' to die free rather than live slaves,' not only baffled, but brought down into the
dust, that enormous power that had contended for universal empire, and for
half a century wras the terror of the world. Such an amazing change indeed
took place, that those provinces afterward actually protected Spain against the
power of France."
1 The history of the name of "Massachusetts Bay," as it appears on the
title-page, leads back to the beginning of the colony. " Massachusets,
alias Mattachuscts, alias Massatusets bay/' as it is called in the charter
4th Charles I., originally designating only what is now Boston harbor, was,
by force of the royal charters, applied to the colony and to the province,
and by custom to the sea within the headlands of Cape Ann and Cape Cod.
PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1774. 225
selves success. Do we join piety to our prudence and for
titude; do we confess and repent of our sins, justify God
in his so trying us, accept of our punishment at his hands
without murmuring or complaining; do we humble our
selves, amend our ways and doings, give up ourselves to
God, become a holy people, and make the Most High our
confidence, — we may hope that he will be on our side;
and "if the Lord is for us, what can men do unto us?"
Have we the God of hosts for our ally, we might bid
adieu to fear, though the world was united against us.
Let us, then, be pious, brave, and prudent, and we shall
— some of us, at least — have room for thanksgivings, not
merely for promising appearances, but for actual deliver
ance out of present difficulties, though it should not be
till we have been conversant with the din of arms and the
horrors of war. But should the country be wasted for a
few years, and a number of its inhabitants be destroyed,
ere the wished-for salvation is granted, how soon, after
having secured its liberties, will it regain its former pros
perity; yea, become far more glorious, wealthy, and popu
lous than ever, through the thousands and ten thousands
that will flock to it, with riches, arts, and sciences, ac
quired by them in foreign countries ! And how will the
surviving inhabitants and their posterity, together with
refugees who have fled from oppression and hardships,
whether civil or sacred, to our American sanctuary, daily
It was the Indian name of the hill at Squantum, on the southern shore
of Boston harbor.
" Thence Massachusetts took her honored name."1
The affix of " Bay " was discontinued in the constitution of 1780. This
was the origin of the popular names, "The Bay People," "The Bay
State," "The Old Bay State."
l From the beautiful poem, by Wm. P. Lunt, D.D., at the laying of the corner
stone of the " Sailors' Snug Harbor " at Quincy. — ED.
226 A THANKSGIVING SERMON.
give thanks to the Sovereign of the universe that this gen
eral asylum was not consumed ! How oft will they, with
raptures, think upon that noble exertion of courage that
prevented it, celebrate the praises of those that led and
suffered in the common cause, and with glowing hearts
bless that God who owned the goodness of it, and at
length crowned it with success! Hallelujah. The Lord
God omnipotent reigneth.
The way to escape an attack is to be in readiness to
receive it. While administration consists of those that
have avowed their dislike to the principles of this conti
nent, and the known friends of America are excluded,
there should be no dependence upon the fair speeches or
actual promises of any, but the colonies should pursue the
means of safety as vigorously as ever, that they may not
be surprised. 'T is the most constant maxim of war, that
a man ought never to be more upon his guard than while
he is in treaty ; for want of attending to it, King Edward
the Fourth was suddenly attacked, defeated, and made
prisoner, by the Earl of Warwick, in 1470.
Government cot tufted by Vice^ and recovered by
Righteoufnefs.
SERMON
PREACHED
BEFORE THE HONORABLE
CONGRESS
Of the Colony
Of the Maffacbufetts-Bay
IN NE W-ENGLAND,
AiTembled at WdTERTOffN,
On Wednefday the 3lft Day of May ^ 1/75.
Being the Anniverfary fixed by CHARTER
For the Eledtion of COUNSELLORS.
By SAMUEL LANGDON, D. D.
Prefident of Harvard College in CAMBRIDGE.
As a roaring Lion and a ranging Bear, fo is a
wicked Ruler over the poor People. Prov. 28. 15.
W A r E R TO W N:
Printed and Sold by BENJAMIN EDES,
MDCCLXXV.
IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, WATER-TOWN, May 31, P.M., 1775.
Ordered, That Mr. Gill, Dr. Whiting, Mr. Pitts. Mr. Jewet, ana Col. Lincoln
be a Committee to return the thanks of this Congress to the Rev. Dr. Langdon
for his excellent Sermon delivered to the Congress in the forenoon; and to
request a copy of it for the press.
A true extract from the Minutes.
SAMUEL FREEMAN, Secretary.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
THE last few months in Massachusetts developed a temper in the
people, and a persistent policy on the part of Governor Gage, which,
manifestly to both parties, must before long end in collision. On the
1st of September, 1774, Governor Gage issued precepts for "the Great
and General Court" to be convened at Salem, October 5th; on the
28th of September he issued his " proclamation," that, " from the many
tumults and disorders which had since taken place, the extraordinary
resolves which had been passed in many of the counties, the instructions
given by the town of Boston, and some other towns, to their representa
tives, and the present disordered and unhappy state of the province," he
then thought it highly inexpedient that it should be so convened. But
ninety of the representatives did meet at Salem on the 5th, and on the
next day, Thursday, organized a convention — John Hancock, Chairman,
and Benjamin Lincoln, Clerk. On Friday they "resolved themselves into
a Provincial Congress," which, after several sessions, was dissolved, De
cember 10th, — having first " recommended " the election of delegates to
another congress, February 1st ensuing, to " consult, deliberate, and resolve
upon such further measures as, under God, shall be effectual to save this
people from impending ruin, and to secure those inestimable liberties
derived to us from our ancestors, and which it is our duty to preserve
for posterity." The third Provincial Congress assembled at Watcrtown,
May 31, 1775; and before that body President Langdon delivered this
Sermon, it being the day fixed by charter for the election of councillors,
• — " election-day," — and this was the usual " Election Sermon."
The first blood of the war of the Revolution was shed at Lexington, on
the 19th of April, 1775. The fire of British guns gleamed over the
colonies, and beneath its flash every heart throbbed, and every soul felt
that the die was cast. Yet it was not Englishmen who were in fratricidal
20
230
war with their American brethren, but England, palsied by the church
"gospel "of unlimited submission, and corrupted by her German king.
Even then, though shocked, there yet lingered in the American breast
the old yearning towards " home," the mother-land, and the fond pride
of British nationality, which might have been rekindled, and the dissolu
tion of the political bands deferred; but German obstinacy smothered
the flame, and resistance — " rebellion " — became a revolution. Happily,
time heals the wounds and dissipates the asperities of political separation;
and in the indissoluble unity of the nations in blood, in language, and in
faith, there remains a nobler brotherhood, dear to every manly heart and
Christian hope.
The resistance and union of the colonies were the very opposite of the'
results expected by the ministry. Severity defeated its ends. Colonial
non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption agreements were
met by government prohibition of the fisheries and commerce, though
it involved a sacrifice of British interests; for it was shown that New
England only could successfully prosecute the fisheries, and the table of
the House of Commons was loaded with statistics of their enormous value
and importance to trade. The sword was two-edged; but with George III.
personal feelings were superior to national interests.
The Provincial Congress voted, May 5th, that General Gage " ought to
be considered and guarded against as an unnatural and inveterate enemy
to the country." One hundred thousand pounds lawful money were
voted; and thirteen thousand six hundred men, from Massachusetts
alone, enlisted, as a superior force was the " only means left to stem
the rapid progress of a tyrannical ministry." Force must be met by
force; and the colonial militia — men with souls in them, ardent for their
own firesides and rights — were ready for the king's mercenary troops.
" In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress" was
authority enough. Proclamations from royal governors were as the idle
wind. Gage was master of Boston only. The trembling tories detained
the wives and children of the patriots in Boston, for the security of the
town, though in violation of General Gage's faith for their removal. The
inhabitants of the seaports, exposed to the enemy by sea, fled from their
homes to the interior, and were in want and suffering. " How much
better," said the preacher, oppressed by the sight of all this misery, " for
the inhabitants to have resolved, at all hazards, to defend themselves
by their arms against such an enemy ! " The day at Lexington and
Concord, and other principal events, are referred to in the Sermon.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 231
Such, in brief, was the face of affairs on this 31st of May, when the
Provincial Congress was convened at Watertown. The old formula of
proceedings was observed as far as possible. It was —
"Ordered, That Mr. Brown, Doct. Taylor, and Colonel Sayer be [a]
committee to wait on the commanding officer of the militia of this
town, to thank him for his polite offer to escort the Congress to the
meeting-house, and to inform him that, as this Congress are now sitting,
the Congress think it needless to withdraw for that purpose : but will,
with the reverend gentlemen of the clergy, attend them to Mrs. Coolidge's,
if they please to escort them thither, when the Congress adjourns."
By a special vote, Dr. Langdon's Sermon was sent to each minister in
the colony, and to each member of the Congress.
The preacher, SAMUEL LANGDON, D. D., born in Boston, in the year
1722, graduated at Harvard College, 1740, and chaplain of a regiment
in the crusade against Louisburg, 1745, was pastor of a church in Ports
mouth, N. H., from 1747 till 1774, when, by reason of his eminent talents,
learning, and piety, and of his bold and zealous patriotism, he was
appointed to the presidency of Harvard College.
He was moderator of the annual convention of the ministers, held, by
special invitation of the Provincial Congress, at Watertown, June 1st,
following election-day, when he signed the following letter:
"To the Hon. JOSEPH WARREN, Esq., President of the Provincial Con
gress of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, etc.
" SIR: — WTe, the pastors of the Congregational churches of the Colony
of the Massachusetts Bay, in our present annual convention/' — at Water-
town, June 1, 1775, — " gratefully beg leave to express the sense we have
of the regard shown by the Honorable Provincial Congress to us, and the
encouragement they have been pleased to afford to our assembling as a
body this day. Deeply impressed with sympathy for the distresses of
our much-injured and oppressed country, we are not a little relieved in
beholding the representatives of tins people, chosen by their free and
unbiassed suffrages, now met to concert measures for their relief and
defence, in whose wisdom and integrity, under the smiles of Divine Provi
dence, we cannot but express our entire confidence.
" As it has been found necessary to raise an army for the common
safety, and our brave countrymen have so willingly offered themselves to
this hazardous service, we are not insensible of the vast burden that
their necessary maintenance must" — devolve — " upon the people. We
232 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
therefore cannot forbear, upon this occasion, to offer our services l to
the public, and to signify our readiness, with the consent of our several
congregations, to officiate, by rotation, as chaplains to the army.
" We devoutly commend the Congress, and our brethren in arms, to
the guidance and protection of that Providence which, from the first
settlement of this country, has so remarkably appeared for the preserva
tion of its civil and religious rights.
" SAMUEL LANGDON, MODERATOR."
After an able administration, in a period of peculiar embarrassment, he
resigned the presidency of the college, and became pastor of the church
at Hampton Falls.
In the New Hampshire State Convention of 1788 he was prominent in
securing the adoption of the Federal Constitution. He died, November
29th, 1797, beloved and revered for his private and public life.2
1 See Address to the Clergy, p. xxxvii.
2 Rev. Rufus W. Clark's sketch in Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit,
i. 455—459.
DISCOURSE V.
AN" ELECTION SERMON.
AND I WILL RESTORE THY JUDGES AS AT THE FIRST, AND THY COUNSELLORS
AS AT THE BEGINNING; AFTERWARD THOU SHALT BE CALLED THE CITY
OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, THE FAITHFUL CITY. — Isaiah i. 26.
SHALL we rejoice, my fathers and brethren, or shall we
weep together, on the return of this anniversary, which
from the first settlement of this colony has been sacred to
liberty, to perpetuate that invaluable privilege of choosing
from among ourselves wise men, fearing God and hating
covetousness, to be honorable counsellors, to constitute one
essential branch of that happy government which was
established on the faith of royal charters ?
On this day the people have from year to year assem
bled, from all our towns, in a vast congregation, with glad
ness and festivity, with every ensign of joy displayed in
our metropolis, which now, alas ! is made a garrison of
mercenary troops, the stronghold of despotism. But how
shall I now address you from this desk, remote from the
capital, and remind you of the important business which
distinguished this day in our calendar, without spreading
a gloom over this assembly by exhibiting the melancholy
change made in the face of our public affairs ?
We have lived to see the time when British liberty is
just ready to expire, — when that constitution of govern
ment which has so long been the glory and strength of
the English nation is deeply undermined and ready to
20*
234 THE ELECTION SERMON
tumble into ruins, — when America is threatened with cruel
oppression, and the arm of power is stretched out against
New England, and especially against this colony, to com
pel us to submit to the arbitrary acts of legislators who
are not our representatives, and who will not themselves
bear the least part of the burdens which, without mercy,
they are laying upon us. The most formal and solemn
grants of kings to our ancestors are deemed by our op
pressors as of little value ; and they have mutilated the
charter of this colony, in the most essential parts, upon
false representations, and new-invented maxims of policy,
without the least regard to any legal process. We are no
longer permitted to fix our eyes on the faithful of the land,
and trust in the wisdom of their counsels and the equity of
their judgment; but men in whom we can have no confi
dence, whose principles are subversive of our liberties,
whose aim is to exercise lordship over us, and share among
themselves the public wealth, — men who are ready to serve
any master, and execute the most unrighteous decrees for
high wages, — whose faces we never saw before, and whose
interests and connections may be far divided from us by
the wide Atlantic, — are to be set over us, as counsellors
and judges, at the pleasure of those who have the riches
and power of the nation in their hands, and whose noblest
frtan is to subjugate the colonies, first, and then the whole
nation, to their will.
That we might not have it in our power to refuse the
most absolute submission to their unlimited claims of au
thority, they have not only endeavored to terrify us with
fleets and armies sent to our capital, and distressed and put
an end to our trade, — particularly that important branch
of it, the fishery,1 — but at length attempted, by a sudden
1 Mr. Sabine's learned " Report on the Principal Fisheries of the Amer
ican Seas," 1853, is an invaluable contribution to American history. It is
AT WATERTOWJST, MAY 31,1775. 235
march of a body of troops in the night,1 to seize and
destroy one of our magazines, formed by the people merely
for their security, if, after such formidable military prep
arations on the other side, matters should be pushed to an
extremity. By this, as might well be expected, a skirmish
was brought on ; and it is most evident, from a variety of
concurring circumstances, as well as numerous depositions
both of the prisoners taken by us at that time and our own
men then on the spot only as spectators, that the fire
began first on the side of the king's troops. At least five
or six of our inhabitants were murderously killed by the
regulars at Lexington before any man attempted to return
the fire, and when they were actually complying with the
command to disperse ; and two more of our brethren were
likewise killed at Concord bridge, by a fire from the king's
soldiers, before 2 the engagement began on our side. But,
whatever credit falsehoods transmitted to Great Britain
from the other side may gain, the matter may be rested
entirely on this : that he that arms himself to commit a
robbery, and demands the traveller's purse by the terror
of instant death, is the first aggressor, though the other
should take the advantage of discharging his weapon first,
and killing the robber.
The alarm was sudden, but in a very short time spread
far and wide. The nearest neighbors in haste ran together
to assist their brethren and save their country. Not more
than three or four hundred met in season, and bravely
essential to a correct knowledge of American colonization, and of much
of our subsequent history. — ED.
1 April 18-19. — ED.
2 Mr. Frothingham presents the results of an able and con'scientious
study of these events in his " History of the Siege of Boston," — " The best
of our historic monographs." — Bancroft in Allibone. Sec also Mr. Henry
B. Dawson's elaborate pages in " The Battles of the United States." —
ED.
236 THE ELECTION SERMON
attacked and repulsed the enemies of liberty, who re
treated with great precipitation. But, by the help of a
strong reinforcement, notwithstanding a close pursuit and
continual loss on their side, they acted the part of rob
bers and savages, by burning,1 plundering, and damaging
almost every house in their way to the utmost of their
1 Rev. Isaac Mansfield, Jr., chaplain to General Thomas's regiment, in
his Thanksgiving Sermon " in the camp at Roxbury, November 23, 1775,"
says of the event of April 19th : " What but the hand of Providence pre
served the school of the prophets from their ravage, who would have
deprived us of many advantages for moral or religious improvement?"
To this he adds the note following : " ' General Gage, as governor of this
province, issued his precepts for convening a General Assembly at Boston,
designing to enforce a compliance with Lord North's designing motion;
they were to be kept as prisoners in garrison, till, under the mouth of can
non and at the point of the bayonet, they should be reduced to a mean and
servile submission. To facilitate this matter, he was to send out a party
to take possession of a magazine at Concord. Presuming that this might
be done without opposition, the said party, upon their return from Con
cord, were to lay waste till they should arrive at Cambridge common;
there, after destroying the colleges"— seminaries of sedition — " and other
buildings, they were to throw up an entrenchment upon the said common,
their number was to be increased from the garrison, and the next morning
a part of the artillery to be removed and planted in the entrenchment
aforesaid. This astonishing manoeuvre, it was supposed, would so effect
ually intimidate the constituents, that the General Assembly, by the com
pliance designed, would literally represent their constituents.' The author
is not at liberty to publish the channel through which he received the fore
going, but begs to assure the reader that it came so direct that he cannot
hesitate in giving credit to it. He recollects one circumstance which ren
ders it highly probable: Lord Percy (on April 19), suspicious his progress
to Concord might be retarded by the plank of the bridge at Cambridge
being taken away, brought out from Boston several loads of plank, with
a number of carpenters; not finding occasion to use them, he carried them
on his way to Concord, perhaps about a mile and a half from the bridge;
about an hour after the jpkuik were returned. If he had intended to
repass that river at night, he must have reserved the plank; if he designed
to stop in Cambridge, the plank must be an incumbrance. This conduct,
in returning the plank, may be accounted for upon supposition of the
foregoing plan of operation." — ED.
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 237
power, murdering the unarmed and helpless, and not re
garding the weaknesses of the tender sex, until they had
secured themselves beyond the reach of our terrifying
arms.*
That ever-memorable day, the nineteenth of April, is
the date of an unhappy war openly begun by the minis
ters of the king of Great Britain against his good subjects
in this colony, and implicitly against all the other colonies.
But for what ? Because they have made a noble stand
for their natural and constitutional rights, in opposition to
the machinations of wicked men who are betraying their
royal master, establishing Popery in the British dominions,
and aiming to enslave and ruin the whole nation, that
they may enrich themselves and their vile dependents
with the public treasures and the spoils of America.
We have used our utmost endeavors, by repeated hum
ble petitions and remonstrances, by a series of unanswer
able reasonings published from the press, — in which the
dispute has been fairly stated, and the justice of our
opposition clearly demonstrated, — and by the mediation
of some of the noblest and most' faithful friends of the
British constitution, who have powerfully plead our cause
in Parliament, to prevent such measures as may soon re
duce the body politic to a miserable, dismembered, dying
trunk, though lately the terror of all Europe. But our
a Near the meeting-house in Menotomy 1 two aged, helpless men, who had not
been out in the action, and were found unarmed in a house where the regulars
entered, were murdered without mercy. In another house, in that neighborhood,
a woman, in bed with a new-born infant about a week old, was forced by the
threats of the soldiery to escape, almost naked, to an open outhouse; her house
was then set on fire, but was soon extinguished by one of the children which
had laid concealed till the enemy was gone. In Cambridge, a man of weak
mental powers, who went out to gaze at the regular army as they passed, with
out arms or thought of danger, was wantonly shot at and killed by those inhu
man butchers as he sat on a fence.
1 Now West Cambridge. — ED.
238 THE ELECTION SERMON
king, as if impelled by some strange fatality, is resolved to
reason with us only by the roar of his cannon and the
pointed arguments of muskets and bayonets. Because
we refuse submission to the despotic power of a minis
terial Parliament, our own sovereign, to whom we have
been always ready to swear true allegiance, — whose au
thority we never meant to cast off, who might have con
tinued happy in the cheerful obedience of as faithful sub
jects as any in his dominions, — has given us up to the
rage of his ministers, to be seized at sea by the rapacious
commanders of every little sloop of war and piratical cut
ter, and to be plundered and massacred by land by mer
cenary troops, who know no distinction betwixt an enemy
and a brother, between right and wrong, but only, like
brutal pursuers, to hunt and seize the prey pointed out by
their masters.
We must keep our eyes fixed on the supreme govern
ment of the Eternal King, as directing all events, setting
up or pulling down the kings of the earth at his pleasure,
suffering the best forms of human government to degen
erate and go to ruin by corruption, or restoring the de
cayed constitutions of kingdoms and states by reviving
public virtue and religion, and granting the favorable
interpositions of his providence. To this our text leads
us ; and, though I hope to be excused on this occasion
from a formal discourse on the words in a doctrinal way,
yet I must not wholly pass over the religious instruction
contained in them.
Let us consider — that for the sins of a people God
may suffer the best government to be corrupted or en
tirely dissolved, and that nothing but a general reforma
tion can give good ground to hope that the public happi
ness will be restored by the recovery of the strength and
perfection of the state, and that Divine Providence will
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 239
interpose to fill every department with wise and good
men.
Isaiah prophesied about the time of the captivity of the
Ten Tribes of Israel, and about a century before the cap
tivity of Judah. The kingdom of Israel was brought to
destruction because its iniquities were full ; its counsellors
and judges were wholly taken away because there re
mained no hope of reformation. But the sceptre did not
entirely depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet, till the Messiah came ; yet greater and greater
changes took place in their political affairs : their govern
ment degenerated in proportion as their vices increased,
till few faithful men were left in any public offices ; and at
length, when they were delivered up for seventy years
into the hands of the king of Babylon, scarce any re
mains of their original excellent civil polity appeared
among them.
The Jewish government, according to the original con
stitution which was divinely established, if" considered
merely in a civil view, was a perfect republic. The heads
of their tribes and elders of their cities were their coun
sellors and judges. They called the people together in
more general or particular assemblies, — took their opin
ions, gave advice, and managed the public affairs accord
ing to the general voice. Counsellors and judges compre
hend all the powers of that government ; for there was no
such thing as legislative authority belonging to it, — their
complete code of laws being given immediately from God
by the hand of Moses. And let them who cry up the
divine right of kings consider that the only form of gov
ernment which had a proper claim to a divine establish
ment was so far from including the idea of a king, that it
was a high crime for Israel to ask to be in this respect like
other nations ; and when they were gratified, it was rather
240 THE ELECTION SERMON
as a just punishment of their folly, that they might feel
the burdens of court pageantry, of which they were
warned by a very striking description, than as a divine
recommendation of kingly authority.
Every nation, when able and agreed, has a right to set
up over themselves any form of government which to
them may appear most conducive to their common wel
fare. x The civil polity of Israel is doubtless an excellent
general model, allowing for some peculiarities; at least,
some principal laws and orders of it may be copied to
great advantage in more modern establishments.
When a government is in its prime, the public good
engages the attention of the whole ; the strictest regard is
paid to the qualifications of those who hold the offices of
the state ; virtue prevails ; everything is managed with
justice, prudence, and frugality ; the laws are founded on
principles of equity rather than mere policy, and all the
people are happy. But vice will increase with the riches
and glory of an empire ; and this gradually tends to cor
rupt the constitution, and in time bring on its dissolution.
This may be considered not only as the natural effect of
vice, but a righteous judgment of Heaven, especially upon
a nation which has been favored with the blessings of
religion and liberty, and is guilty of undervaluing them,
and eagerly going into the gratification of every lust.
In this chapter the prophet describes the very corrupt
state of Judah in his day, both as to religion and common
morality, and looks forward to that increase of wicked-
1 " Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; .... it is the right of the people to
alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its founda
tions on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."— Dec.
of Ind., July 4th, 1776. — ED.
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 241
ness which would bring on their desolation and captivity/
They were "a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evil-doers, children that were corrupters, who
had forsaken the Lord, and provoked -the Holy One of
Israel to anger." The whole body of the nation, from head
to foot, was full of moral and political disorders, without
any remaining soundness. Their religion was all mere cere
mony and hypocrisy ; and even the laws of common justice
and humanity were disregarded in their public courts.
They had counsellors and judges, but very different from
those at the beginning of the commonwealth. Their
princes were rebellious against God and the constitution
of their country, and companions of thieves, — giving
countenance to every artifice for seizing the property of
the subjects into their own hands, and robbing the public
treasury. Every one loved gifts, and followed after re
wards ; they regarded the perquisites more than the duties
of their office ; the general aim was at profitable places and
pensions ; they were influenced in everything by bribery ;
and their avarice and luxury were never satisfied, but hur
ried them on to all kinds of oppression and violence, so
that they even justified and encouraged the murder of
innocent persons to support their lawless power and in
crease their wealth. And God, in righteous judgment,
left them to run into all this excess of vice, to their own
destruction, because they had forsaken him, and were
guilty of wilful inattention to the most essential parts of
that religion which had been given them by a well-attested
revelation from heaven.
The Jewish nation could not but see and feel the un
happy consequences of so great corruption of the state.
Doubtless they complained much of men in power, and
very heartily and liberally reproached them for their noto
rious misconduct. The public greatly suffered, and the
21
242 THE ELECTION SERMON
people groaned and wished for better rulers and better
management; but in vain they hoped for a change of men
and measures and better times when the spirit of religion
was gone, and the infection of vice was become universal.
The whole body being so corrupted, there could be no
rational prospect of any great reformation in the state, but
rather of its ruin, which accordingly came on in Jeremiah's
time. Yet if a general reformation of religion and morals
had taken place, and they had turned to God from all their
sins, — if they had again recovered the true spirit of their
religion, — God, by the gracious interpositions of his prov
idence, would soon have found out methods to restore the
former virtue of the state, and again have given them men
of wisdom and integrity, according to their utmost wish,
to be counsellors and judges. This was verified in fact
after the nation had been purged by a long captivity, and
returned to their own land humbled and filled with zeal
for God and his law.
By all this we may be led to consider the true cause of
the present remarkable troubles which are come upon Great
Britam and these colonies, and the only effectual remedy.
We have rebelled against God. We have lost the true
spirit of Christianity, though we retain the outward pro
fession and form of it. We have neglected and set light
by the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his
holy commands and institutions. The worship of many
is but mere compliment to the Deity, while their hearts
are far from him. By many the gospel is corrupted into
a superficial system of moral philosophy, little better
than ancient Platonism ; and, after all the pretended re
finements of moderns in the theory of Christianity, very
little of the pure practice of it is to be found among those
who once stood foremost in the profession of the gospel.
In a general view of the present moral state of Great
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 243
Britain it may be said, " There is no truth, nor mercy, nor
knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying,
and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery," their
wickedness breaks out, and one murder after another is
committed, under the connivance and encouragement even
of that authority by which such crimes ought to be
punished, that the purposes of oppression and despotism
may be answered. As they have increased, so have they
sinned ; therefore God is changing their glory into shame.
The general prevalence of vice has changed the whole face
of things in the British government.
The excellency of the constitution has been the boast
of Great Britain and the envy of neighboring nations.
In former times the great departments of the state, and
the various places of trust and authority, were filled with
men of wisdom, honesty, and religion, who employed all
their powers, and were ready to risk their fortunes and
their lives, for the public good. They were faithful coun
sellors to kings; directed their authority and majesty to
the happiness of the nation, and opposed every step by
which despotism endeavored to advance. They were
fathers of the people, and sought the welfare and prosperity
of the whole body. They did not exhaust the national
wealth by luxury and bribery, or convert it to their own
private benefit or the maintenance of idle, useless officers
and dependents, but improved it faithfully for the proper
purposes — for the necessary support of government and
defence of the kingdom. Their laws were dictated by
wisdom and equality, and justice was administered with
impartiality. Religion discovered its general influence
among all ranks, and kept out great corruptions from
places of power.
But in what does the British nation now glory? — In a
mere shadow of its ancient political system, — in titles of
244 THE ELECTION SERMON
dignity without virtue, — in vast public treasures continu
ally lavished in corruption till every fund is exhausted,
notwithstanding the mighty streams perpetually flowing
in, — in the many artifices to stretch the prerogatives of
the crown beyond all constitutional bounds, and make the
king an absolute monarch, while the people are deluded
with a mere phantom of liberty. What idea must we
entertain of that great government, if such a one can be
found, which pretends to have made an exact counter
balance of power between the sovereign, the nobles and
the commons, so that the three branches shall be an
effectual check upon each other, and the united wisdom of
the whole shall conspire to' promote the national felicity,
but which, in reality, is reduced to such a situation that it
may be mannged at the sole will of one court favorite ?
What difference is there betwixt one1 man's choosing, at
his own pleasure, by his single vote, the majority of those
who are to represent the people, and his purchasing in such
a majority, according to his own nomination, with money
out of the public treasury, or other effectual methods of
influencing elections ? And what shall we say if, in the
same manner, by places, pensions, and other bribes, a
minister of the crown can at any time gain over a nobler
majority likewise to be entirely subservient to his purposes,
and, moreover, persuade his royal master to resign himself
up wholly to the direction of his counsels? If this should
i Mr. Burke, in his "Thoughts on the Present Discontents," 1770, said:
" The power of the crown, almost rotten and dead as prerogative, has
grown up anew, with much more strength, and far less odium, under the
name of influence," intrigue, and favoritism; and a few years later he
refers to the " not disavowed use which has been made of his Majesty's
name for thfc purpose of the most unconstitutional, corrupt, and dishon
orable influence on the minds of the members of this Parliament that
ever was practised in this kingdom. No attention even to exterior de
corum," etc. — ED.
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 245
be the case of any nation, from one seven years' end to
another, the bargain and sale being made sure for such a
period, would they still have reason to boast of their ex
cellent constitution ?l Ought they not rather to think it
high time to restore the corrupted, dying state to its origi
nal perfection ? I will apply this to the Roman senate
under Julius Caesar, which retained all its ancient for
malities, but voted always only as Caesar dictated. If the
decrees of such a senate were urged on the Romans, as
fraught with all the blessings of Roman liberty, we must
suppose them strangely deluded if they were persuaded
to believe it.
The pretence for taxing America has been that the na
tion contracted an immense debt for the defence of the
American colonies, and that, as they are now able to con
tribute some proportion towards the discharge of this debt,
and must be considered as part of the nation, it is rea
sonable they should be taxed, and the Parliament has a
right to tax and govern them, in all cases whatever, by its
own supreme authority. Enough has been already pub
lished on this grand controversy, which now threatens a
final separation of the colonies from Great Britain. But
can the amazing national debt be paid by a little trifling
sum, squeezed from year to year out of America, which is
continually drained of all its cash by a restricted trade
with the parent country, and which in this way is taxed
to the government of Britain in a very large proportion?
Would it not be much superior wisdom, and sounder pol
icy, for a distressed kingdom to retrench the vast unneces-
1 This contemporary observation of the English government of that
period shows the watchful eye of the colonists on the administration; and
by it we can better appreciate their masterly conduct of public affairs, and
their superiority over the British statesmen. England knew not her
colonists, but she was known of them. — ED.
21*
246 THE ELECTION SERMON
sary expenses continually incurred by its enormous vices;
to stop the prodigious sums paid in pensions, and to num
berless officers, without the least advantage to the public;
to reduce the number of devouring servants in the great
family; to turn their minds from the pursuit of pleasure
and the boundless luxuries of life to the important inter
ests of their country and the salvation of the common
wealth? Would not a reverend regard to the authority
of divine revelation, a hearty belief of the gospel of the
grace of God, and a general reformation of all those vices
which bring misery and ruin upon individuals, families, and
kingdoms, and which have provoked Heaven to bring the
nation into such perplexed and dangerous circumstances,
be the surest way to recover the sinking state, and make it
again rich and flourishing? Millions might annually be
saved if the kingdom were generally and thoroughly re
formed ; and the public debt, great as it is, might in a few
years be cancelled by a growing revenue, which now
amounts to full ten millions per annum, without laying
additional burdens on any of the subjects. But the
demands of corruption are constantly increasing, and will
forever exceed all the resources of wealth which the wit
of man can invent or tyranny impose.
Into what fatal policy has the nation been impelled, by
its public vices, to wage a cruel war with its own chil
dren in these colonies, only to gratify the lust of power
and the demands of extravagance ! May God, in his great
mercy, recover Great Britain from this fatal infatuation,
show them their errors, and give them a spirit of reforma
tion, before it is too late to avert impending destruction !
May the eyes of the king be opened to see the ruinous
tendency of the measures into which he hns been led, and
his heart inclined to treat his American subjects with jus
tice and clemency, instead of forcing them still further to
AT WATEKTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 247
the last extremities ! God grant some method may be
found out to effect a happy reconciliation, so that the col
onies may again enjoy the protection of their sovereign,
with perfect security of all their natural rights and civil
and religious liberties.
But, alas! have not the sins of America, and of New
England in particular, had a hand in bringing down upon
us the righteous judgments of Heaven? Wherefore is all
this evil come upon us ? Is it not because we have forsaken
the Lord ? Can we say we are innocent of crimes against
God ? No, surely. It becomes us to humble ourselves
under his mighty hand, that he may exalt us in due time.
However unjustly and cruelly we have been treated by
man, we certainly deserve, at the hand of God, all the
calamities in which we are now involved. Have we not
lost much of that spirit of genuine Christianity which so
remarkably appeared in our ancestors, for which God dis
tinguished them with the signal favors of providence
when they fled from tyranny and persecution into this
western desert? Have we not departed from their virtues?
Though I hope and am confident that as much true reli
gion, agreeable to the purity and simplicity of the gospel,
remains among us as among any people in the world, yet,
in the midst of the present great apostasy of the nations
professing Christianity, have not we likewise been guilty
of departing from the living God ? Have we not made
light of the gospel of salvation, and too much affected the
cold, formal, fashionable religion of countries grown old in
vice, and overspread with infidelity? Do not our follies
and iniquities testify against us ? Have we not, especially
in our seaports, gone much too far into the pride and lux
uries of life? Is it not a fact, open to common observation,
that profaneness, intemperance, unchastity, the love of
pleasure, fraud, avarice, and other vices, are increasing
248 THE ELECTION SERMON
among us from year to year? And have not even these
young governments been in some measure infected with
the corruptions of European courts? Has there been no
flattery, no bribery, no artifices practised, to get into
places of honor and profit, or carry a vote to serve a par
ticular interest, without regard to right or wrong? Have
our statesmen always acted with integrity, and every
judge with impartiality, in the fear .of God ? In short,
have all ranks of men showed regard to the divine com
mands, and joined to promote the Redeemer's kingdom
and the public welfare ? I wish we could more fully justify
ourselves in all these respects. If such sins have not been
so notorious among us as in older countries, we must
nevertheless remember that the sins of a people who have
been remarkable for the profession of godliness, are more
aggravated by all the advantages and favors they have
enjoyed, and will receive more speedy and signal punish
ment ; as God says of Israel : " You only have I known
of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you
for all your iniquities.*
The judgments now come upon us are very heavy and
distressing, and have fallen with peculiar weight on our
capital, where, notwithstanding the plighted honor of the
chief commander of the hostile troops, many of our breth
ren are still detained, as if they were captives ; l and those
that have been released have left the principal part of
their substance, which is withheld, by arbitrary orders,
contrary to an express treaty, to be plundered by the
army.b
a Amos iii. 2.
b Soon after the battle at Concord, General Gage stipulated, with the select
men of Boston, that if the inhabitants would deliver up their arms, to be depos-
i One apology for this bad faith was, that if only tory interests remained
in Boston the patriots would fire the town. It occasioned extreme anxi
ety and suffering. — Frothin^ham, 93-96. — ED.
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 249
Let me address you in the words of the prophet : "O
Israel ! return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen
by thine iniquity." My brethren, let us repent, and implore
the divine mercy ; let us amend our ways and our doings,
reform everything which has been provoking to the Most
High, and thus endeavor to obtain the gracious interposi
tions of Providence for our deliverance.
If true religion is revived by means of these public
calamities, and again prevails among us, — if it appears in
our religious assemblies, in the conduct of our civil affairs,
in our armies, in our families, in all our business and con
versation, — we may hope for the direction and blessing
of the Most High, while we are using our best endeavors
to preserve and restore the civil government of this colony,
and defend America from slavery.
Our late happy government is changed into the terrors
of military execution. Our firm opposition to the estab
lishment of an arbitrary system is called rebellion, and we
are to expect no mercy, but to yield property and life at
discretion. This we are resolved at all events not to do,
and therefore we have taken up arms in our own defence,
and all the colonies are united in the great cause of liberty.
But how shall we live while civil government is dis-
ited in Fanueil Hall, and returned when circumstances would permit, they
should have liberty to quit the town, and take with them their effects. They
readily complied, but soon found themselves abused. With great difficulty, and
very slowly, they obtain passes, but are forbidden to carry out anything besides
household furniture and wearing apparel. Merchants and shopkeepers are
obliged to leave behind all their merchandise, and even their cash is detained.
Mechanics are not allowed to bring out the most necessary tools for their work.
Not only their family stores of provisions are stopped, but it has been repeat
edly and credibly affirmed that poor women and children have had the very
smallest articles of this kind taken from them, which were necessary for their
refreshment while they travelled a few miles to their friends; and that even
from young children, in their mothers1 arms, the cruel soldiery have taken the
morsel of bread given to prevent their crying, and thrown it away. How much
better for the inhabitants to have resolved, at all hazards, to defend themselves
by their arms against such an enemy, than suffer such shameful abuse!
250 THE ELECTION SERMON
solved? What shall we do without counsellors and
judges? A state of absolute anarchy is dreadful. Sub
mission to the tyranny of hundreds of imperious masters,
firmly embodied against us, and united in the same cruel
design of disposing of our lives and subsistence at their
pleasure, and making their own will our law in all cases
whatsoever, is the vilest slavery, and worse than death.
Thanks be to God that he has given us, as men, natural
rights, independent on all human laws whatever, and that
these rights are recognized by the grand charter of British
liberties. By the law of nature, any body of people, desti
tute of order and government, may form themselves into
a civil society, according to their best prudence, and so
provide for their common safety and advantage. When
one form is found by the majority not to answer the grand
purpose in any tolerable degree, they may, by common con
sent, put an end to it and set up another, — only, as all
such great changes are attended with difficulty and danger
of confusion, they ought not to be attempted without
urgent necessity, which will be determined always by the
general voice of the wisest and best members of the com
munity.
If the great servants of the public forget their duty,
betray their trust, and sell their country, or make Avar
against the most valuable rights and privileges of the
people, reason and justice require that they should be
discarded, and others appointed in their room, without
any regard to formal resignations of their forfeited power.
It must be ascribed to some supernatural influence on
the minds of the main body of the people through this
extensive continent, that they have so universally adopted
the method of managing the important matters neces
sary to preserve among them a free government by corre
sponding committees and congresses, consisting of the
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 251
wisest and most disinterested patriots in America, chosen
by the unbiased suffrages of the people assembled for that
purpose in their several towns, counties, and provinces.
So general agreement, through so many provinces of so
large a country, in one mode of self-preservation, is unex
ampled in any history ; and the effect has exceeded our
most sanguine expectations. Universal tumults, and all
the irregularities and violence of mobbish factions, natu
rally arise when legal authority ceases. But how little
of this has appeared in the midst of the late obstructions
of civil government! — nothing more than what has often
happened in Great Britain and Ireland, in the face of the
civil powers in all their strength ; nothing more than
what is frequently seen in the midst of the perfect regula
tions of the great city of London ; and, may I not add,
nothing more than has been absolutely necessary to carry
into execution the spirited resolutions of a people too
sensible to deliver themselves up to oppression and
slavery. The judgment and advice of the continental
assembly of delegates have been as readily obeyed as if
they were authentic acts of a long-established Parliament.
And in every colony the votes of a congress have had
equal effect with the laws of great and general courts.
It is now ten months since1 this colony has been de
prived of the benefit of that government which was so
long enjoyed by charter. They have had no General
Assembly for matters of legislation and the public revenue ;
the courts of justice have been shut up,2 and almost the
1 Since July 17, 1774, when the General Court at Salem closed the door
against the secretary sent by Governor Gage to dissolve the Assembly,
chose Thomas dishing, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine, James Bow-
doin, and John Adams, delegates to a congress of the colonies, passed
resolves, and separated. — ED.
2 The power of public opinion in preserving order and safety during the
252 THE ELECTION SERMON
whole executive power has ceased to act ; yet order among
the people has been remarkably preserved. Few crimes
period from the time when the king's courts and magistrates — all legal
authority — ceased to act, till the accession of constitutional authority, —
a phenomenon which excited the admiration of the world, — is finely illus
trated in Mr. Freeman's account of the proceedings in Barnstable county,
"on the first Tuesday of September," 1774. As there might be appeals
from the Court of Common Pleas to the Superior Court, the Chief Justice
of which, Hutchinson, had accepted a salary from the crown, the people
suppressed the sessions of that court throughout the province, except in
Boston, where they were not in power. Fifteen hundred of the people of
Barnstable, Plymouth, and Bristol counties, thoroughly organized, met in
front of the court-house, at Barnstable, and, through their conductor-in-
chief, Dr. Nathaniel Freeman, of Sandwich, addressed Colonel Otis, the
venerable Chief Justice: ..." Our safety, all that is dear to us, and
the welfare of unborn millions, have directed this movement topi-event the
court from being opened or doing any business. We have taken all the con
sequences into consideration; we have weighed them well, and have
formed this resolution, which we shall not rescind." The Chief Justice then
calmly but firmly replied: "This is a legal and a constitutional court; it
has suffered no mutations; the juries have been drawn from the boxes as
the law directs; and why would 37ou interrupt its proceedings? — why
do you make a leap before you get to the hedge?" Dr. Freeman re
sponded : "All this has been considered. We do not appear out of any dis
respect to this honorable court, nor do we apprehend that if you proceed to
business you will do anything that we could censure. But, sir, from all
the decisions of this court, of more than forty shillings' amount, an appeal
lies; an appeal to what? — to a court holding office during the king's
pleasure, — a court over which we have no control or influence, — a court
paid out of the revenue that is extorted from us by the illegal and unconsti
tutional edict of foreign despotism, — and there the jury will be appointed
by the sheriff. For this reason we have adopted this method of stopping the
avenue through which business may otherwise pass to that tribunal, — well
knowing that if they have no business they can do us no harm." The
Chief Justice then said: "As is my duty, I now, in his Majesty's name,
order you immediately to disperse, and give the court the opportunity to per
form the business of the county." Dr. Freeman replied : " We thank your
Honor for having done YOUR duty : WE SHALL CONTINUE TO PERFORM
OURS." The court then turned and repaired to the house where they had
put up.
This was supposed to be the first overt act of TREASON, done deliber-
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 253
have been committed, punishable by the judge ; even for
mer contentions betwixt one neighbor and another have
ately, in the face of day. The solemnity and sense of right which gov
erned the people, and which was a characteristic of the revolutionary
period, was grandly exhibited in their code of regulations adopted on this
occasion. We give their own words :
" Whereas a strict adherence to virtue and religion is not only well-
pleasing in the sight of Almighty God, and highly commendable before
men, but hath a natural tendency to good order, and to lead mankind in
the paths of light and truth:
" Therefore, Resolved, That we will . . . avoid all kinds of intemper
ance by strong liquors, and no otherwise frequent the taverns than for
necessary entertainment and refreshment; that we Avill not swear pro
fanely, or abuse our superiors, equals, or inferiors, by any ill or opprobri
ous language; that we will not invade the property of any, or take of their
goods or estate without their leave or consent; that we will not offer violence
to any persons, or use any threatening words, otherwise than such as shall
be approved of and accounted necessary by our community for the accom
plishing the errand we go upon;~and that we will carefully observe an
orderly, circumspect, and civil behavior, as well towards strangers and
all others as towards those of our own fellowship.
" Resolved, That Messrs. Aaron Barlow, Nathaniel Briggs, James Foster,
Joseph Haskell, 3d, John Doty, Judah Sears, Jr., Stephen Wing, and
John Pitcher, be a committee to hear and determine all offences against
morality, decency, and good manners, that shall be complained of, . . .
with power to call before them, examine, acquit, or punish, according to
the nature and circumstances of the offence
" Resolved, That we will, during the time of our said enterprise, aid,
protect, and support our said committee in the full and free discharge of
their duty and office, and use our most careful endeavors for the punish
ment of all offenders.
"And, forasmuch as these our public transactions are of a public nature,
and, as we apprehend, laudable; and as we have no private interest to
serve, or anything in view but the good of our country and its common
cause :
" Therefore, Voted, That these resolves be read once every day, at some
convenient time and place, during our transitory state and temporary fel
lowship, — so that our righteousness may plead our cause, and bear a pub
lic testimony that we are neither friends to mobs, or riots, or any other
wickedness or abomination.
"And, lastly, we Resolve, That we will yield all due respect and obedi-
22
254 THE ELECTION SERMON
ceased ; nor have fraud and rapine taken advantage of the
imbecility of the civil powers.
The necessary preparations for the defence of our liber
ties required not only the collected wisdom and strength
of the colony, but an immediate, cheerful application of
the wealth of individuals to the public service, in due
proportion, or a taxation which depended on general con
sent. Where was the authority to vote, collect, or receive
the large sums required, and make provision for the utmost
extremities? A Congress succeeded to the honors of a
O
General Assembly as soon as the latter was crushed by
the hand of power. It gained all the confidence of the
people. Wisdom and prudence secured all that the laws
of the former constitution could have given ; and we now
observe with astonishment an army of many thousands
of well-disciplined troops suddenly assembled, and abun
dantly furnished with all necessary supplies, in defence of
the liberties of America.
But is it proper or safe for the colony to continue much
longer in such imperfect order? Must it not appear
rational and necessary, to every man that understands the
various movements requisite to good government, that the
many parts should be properly settled, and every branch
of the legislative and executive authority restored to that
order and vigor on which the life and health of the body
encc to those persons whom we shall choose and appoint for our officers
and leaders," etc. — " History of 'Cape Cod," by Rev. Frederick Freeman,
Boston, 1800; a work of great value and interest, of which chapters "xix.
xx. are additional to previous materials, and supply a passage in the moral
history of the people the most difficult to be preserved.
Mr. Burke, in March, 1775, reflecting on this singular spectacle of a
people remaining in perfect order without a public council, judges, or ex
ecutive magistrates, said: "Obedience is what makes government, and
not the names by which it is called; not the name of governor, as for
merly, or committee, as at present." — ED.
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 255
politic depend ? To the honorable gentlemen now met
in this new congress as the fathers of the people, this
weighty matter must be referred. Who knows but in the
midst of all the distresses of the present war to defeat the
attempts of arbitrary power, God may in mercy restore
to us our judges as at the first, and our counsellors as at
the beginning ?
On your wisdom, religion, and public spirit, honored
gentlemen, we depend, to determine what may be done as
to the important matter of reviving the form of govern
ment, and settling all necessary affairs relating to it in the
present critical state of things, that we may again have
law and justice, and avoid the danger of anarchy and con
fusion. May God be with you, and by the influences of
his Spirit direct all your counsels and resolutions for the
glory of his name and the safety and happiness of this
colony. We have great reason to acknowledge with
thankfulness the evident tokens of the Divine presence
with the former congress, that they were led to foresee
present exigencies, and make such effectual provision for
them. It is our earnest prayer to the Father of Lights
that he would irradiate your minds, make all your way
plain, and grant you may be happy instruments of rnnny
and great blessings to the people by whom you are consti
tuted, to New England, and all the united colonies.
Let us praise our God1 for the advantages already given
us over the enemies of liberty, particularly that they have
been so dispirited by repeated experience of the efficacy
of our arms; and that, in the late action at Chelsea, when
several hundreds of our soldiery, the greater part open to
1 Governor Gage, in his proclamation of June 12, 1775, a few days after
Dr. Langdon's sermon was preached, said: " To complete the horrid pro
fanation of terms and of ideas, the name of God has been introduced in
the pulpits to excite and justify devastation and massacre." — ED.
256 THE ELECTION SERMON
the fire of so many cannon, swivels, and muskets, from a
battery advantageously situated, — from two armed cutters,
and many barges full of marines, and from ships of the
line in the harbor, — not one man on our side was killed,
and but two or three wounded ; when, by the best intelli
gence, a great number were killed and wounded on the
other side, and one of their cutters was taken and burnt,
the other narrowly escaping with great damage/
If God be for us, who can be against us ? The enemy
has reproached us for calling on his name, and professing
our trust in him. They have made a mock of our solemn
fasts, and every appearance of serious Christianity in the
land. On this account, by way of contempt, they call us
saints ; and that they themselves may keep at the greatest
distance from this character, their mouths are full of horrid
blasphemies, cursing, and bitterness, and vent all the rage
of malice and barbarity. And may we not be confident
that the Most High, who regards these things, will vindi
cate his own honor, and plead our righteous cause against
such enemies to his government, as well as our liberties?
O, may our camp be free from every accursed thing ! May
our land be purged from all its' sins ! May we be truly a
holy people, and all our towns cities of righteousness !
a This action was in the night following the twenty-seventh current, after our
soldiery had been taking off the cattle from some islands in Boston harbor. By
the best information we have been able to procure, about one hundred and five
of the king's troops were killed, and one hundred and sixty wounded, in the
engagement.i
1 Frothingham, pp. 109, 110, says this was magnified into a battle, and
dwelt upon with great exultation throughout the colonies. The loss of the
enemy was probably exaggerated. — Gordon, Letter xiv.
Mr. Mansfield, in his Thanksgiving Sermon at Roxbury, November 23,
1775, said: " Providence has likewise smiled upon the camp, in permitting
so few fatal accidents, and evidently been its safeguard." He says: "I
am informed that by means of upwards two thousand balls that have
been thrown from the opposite lines, five men only have been taken off!
AT WATERTOWN, MAY 31, 1775. 257
Then the Lord will be our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble, and we shall have no reason to
be afraid though thousands of enemies set themselves
against us round about, — though all nature should be
thrown into tumults and convulsions. He can command
the stars in their courses to fight his battles, and all the
elements to wage war with his enemies. He can destroy
them with innumerable plagues, or send faintness into
their hearts, so that the men of might shall not find their
hands. In a variety of methods he can work salvation for
us, as he did for his people in ancient days, and according
to the many remarkable deliverances granted in former
times to Great Britain and New England when popish
machinations threatened both countries with civil and
ecclesiastical tyranny. a
a When we consider the late Canada Bill, which implies not merely a tolera
tion of the Iloman Catholic religion (which would be just and liberal), but a tirm
establishment of it through that extensive province, now greatly enlarged to
serve political purposes, by which means multitudes of people, subjects of Great
Britain, which may hereafter settle that vast country, will be tempted, by all the
attachments arising from an establishment, to profess that religion, or be dis
couraged from any endeavors to propagate reformed principles, have we not
great reason to suspect that all the late measures respecting the colonies have
originated from popish schemes of men who would gladly restore the race of
Stuart, and who look on Popery as a religion most favorable to arbitrary
power? It is a plain fact that despotism has an establishment in that province
equally with the Roman Catholic Church. The governor, with a council very
much under his power, has by his commission almost unlimited authority, free
from the clog of representatives of the people. However agreeable this may be
to the genius of the French, English subjects there will be discouraged from con
tinuing in a country where both they and their posterity will be deprived of
the greatest privileges of the British constitution, and in many respects feel the
effects of absolute monarchy.
Lord Littleton, in his defence of this detestable statute, frankly concedes that
I perceive likewise that by means of about three hundred balls, etc., thrown
into this place" — Roxbury — " in the course of one month, viz., from
September 3 to October 3, but two were wounded (one but slightly; the
other died, after some time, of his wound), and no man was immediately
killed! It is to be remarked further, that not one person was hurt, in the
course of above three hundred shells being thrown to a fortress erected
upon Ploughed Hill," in Charlestown. — ED.
22*
258 THE ELECTION SERMON AT WATERTOWN, 1775.
May the Lord hear us in this day of trouble, and the
name of the God of Jacob defend us, send us help from
his sanctuary, and strengthen us out of Zion ! We will
rejoice in his salvation, and in the name of our God we
will set up our banners. Let us look to him to fulfil all
our petitions.
it is an establishment of the Roman Catholic religion, and that part of the pol
icy of it was to provide a check upon the New England colonies. And the
writer of an address of the people of Great Britain to the inhabitants of Amer
ica, just published, expresses himself with great precision when he says "that
statute gave toleration to English subjects." l
1 See page xxxi. — ED.
SERMON
PREACHED BEFORE THE
HONORABLE COUNCIL,
AND THE HONORABLE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE
COLONY of the MASSACHUSETTS-BAY,
IN
NEW-ENGLAND.
MAY 29th, 1776.
BEING THE ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ELECTION OF
THE HONORABLE COUNCIL FOR THE COLONY.
BY SAMUEL WEST, A.M.
PASTOR OF A CHURCH IN DARTMOUTH.
And I will reftore thy judges as at the firft, and thy coun-
fellors as at the beginning : afterward thou fhalt be
called the city of righteoufnefs, the faithful city, ISA.
4. 26 Their children alfo fhall be as aforetime, and
their congregations fhall be eftablifhed before me, and
I will punifh all that opprefs them : and their nobles
, fhall be of themfelves, and their governor fhall proceed
from the midlt of them, JERE. 30. 20. 21. As free
and not ufing your liberty for a cloak of malicioufnefs,
but as the fervants of G O D, i PETER 2 16. The
beaft that thou faweft, fhall afcend out of the bottomlefs
pit, and go into perdition : and they that dwell on the
earth fhall wonder, whofe names were not written in
the book of life from the foundation of the world,
when they behold the beaft, REV. 17. ver. 8.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY JOHN GILL, in QUEEN-STREET.
1776.
IT? COUNCIL, May 30, 1776.
On motion, Ordered, That Thomas Gushing, Benjamin Lincoln, and Moses
Gill, Esquires, be a Committee to wait on Rev. Mr. West, and return him the
thanks of the Board for his Sermon delivered yesterday before both Houses of
Assembly j and to request a copy thereof for the press.
PEHEZ MORTON, D. Secretary.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
THE "Provincial Congress," or provisional government, after General
Gage was renounced, October 7, 1774, and before which President Lang-
don preached in 1775, was dissolved, by its own act, July 19, 1775, and
on the same day was convened the new government, " The Honorable
Council and the Honorable House of Representatives," before which the
Rev. Mr. West now preached. This step in political progress was in
itiated in this way : In an address, May 16, 1775, to the American Con
gress at Philadelphia, — " the representative body of the continent," —
the Massachusetts " Congress" said : " We have made all the preparation
for our necessary defence that our confused state would admit of; and, as
the question equally affected our sister colonies and us, we have declined,
though urged thereto by the most pressing necessity, to assume the reins
of civil government without their advice and consent. ... We are
now compelled to raise an army, which, with the assistance of the other
colonies, we hope, under the smiles of Heaven, will be able to defend us,
and all America, from the further butcheries and devastations of our im
placable enemies. . . . We hope you will favor us with your most
explicit advice respecting the taking up and exercising the powers of civil
government. ... As the sword should, in all free states, be subser
vient to the civil powers, ... we beg leave to suggest to your con
sideration the propriety of your taking the regulation and general direction
of the army."
Upon consideration of 'this application, the Continental Congress, June
9, 1775, recommended to Massachusetts " to conform as near as may
be to the spirit and substance of the charter; " to choose an assembly
who should elect councillors, " which assembly and council should exercise
the powers of government until a governor of his Majesty's appointment
will consent to govern the colony according to its charter." This form
262 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
was continued till the present constitution was adopted, in 1780, and John
Hancock chosen governor. Their political ideas were happily expressed
by the device on the bills of public credit, of August 18, 1775, which was
the figure of an American, with a sword in his right hand, bearing Alger
non Sydney's celebrated line, "Ense petit placidam sub libertafe quietem,"
and in his left hand Mayna Charta ; around the figure, " Issued in Defence
of American Liberty." This, modified, is emblazoned on the shield of
the " Commonwealth ; " the motto is still retained ; and thus Massachusetts
displays in her state arms a memento of the cost of her liberty, and in
the legend a perpetual memorial of her historical and political fellowship
with that eminent school of republican statesmen of which Sydney, with
Russell, was the glory, and whose " Discourses on Government " was, next
after the Bible, the political text-book of the fathers of the Republic.
On the 2d of July, "Washington entered Cambridge as commander-in-
chief. The speech from the throne, October 26, 1775, announced to Par
liament actual "rebellion"1 in the colonies, and that the naval and land
forces had been greatly augmented, and set forth the necessity of suf
ficient force to suppress it. A bill was introduced interdicting all trade
with the thirteen united colonies, and authorizing the capture of their
property on the ocean. The Continental Congress retaliated by issuing
letters of marque to cruise against the subjects of Great Britain, and by
permitting trade with all the world but Great Britain and Ireland.
The New England " Thanksgiving"— the glad observance of which is
now extended to nearly all the States in the Union, even to the Pacific —
was not omitted even in the gloomiest days of the struggle. The proc
lamation for that anniversary in Massachusetts, intervening half way
between the "election-days" of 1775 and 1770, is here given, as the object
of this volume is to reproduce the facts, thoughts, and emotions of the
days of the Revolution, as then expressed, — for contemporary pictures
are always the most faithful.
A PROCLAMATION
FOR A PUBLIC THANKSGIVING.
Although, in consequence of the unnatural, cruel, and barbarous Meas
ures adopted and pursued by the British Administration, great and dis
tressing Calamities are brought upon our oppressed Country, and on this
l See pp. 75, note 1, and 93—95,
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 263
Colony in particular; we feel the dreadful Effects of Civil War, by which
America is stained with the Blood of her valiant Sons, who have bravely
fallen in the laudable Defence of our Rights and Privileges; — Our Cap
ital, once the Scat of JUSTICE, Opulence, and Virtue, is unjustly wrested
from its proper Owners, who are obliged to flee from the Iron Hand of
Tyranny, or are held in the unrelenting Anns of Oppression; — Our Sea
ports greatly distressed, and Towns burnt by the Foes, who have acted
the Part of barbarous Incendiaries. And although the wise and holy
Governor of the World has in his righteous Providence sent Droughts
into this Colony, and wasting Sickness into many of our Towns, yet we
have the greatest Reason to adore and praise the Supreme Disposer of
Events, who deals infinitely better with us than we deserve; and, amidst
all his judgments, hath remembered Mercy, by causing the Voice of
Health again to be heard amongst us : Instead of Famine, affording to an
ungrateful People a Competency of the Necessaries and Comforts of Life;
in remarkably preserving and protecting our Troops when in apparent
Danger, while our Enemies, with all their boasted Skill and Strength, have
met with Loss, Disappointment, and Defeat; — and, in the Course of his
good Providence, the Father of Mercies hath bestowed upon us many
other Favors, Avhich call for our grateful Acknowledgments.
Therefore, We have thought fit, with the Advice of the Council and
House of Representatives, to appoint THURSDAY, the Twenty-third Day
of November Instant, to be observed as a Day of Public THANKSGIV
ING, throughout this Colony ; hereby calling upon Ministers and People
to meet for religious Worship on said Day, and devoutly to offer up their
unfeigned Praises to Almighty GOD, the Source and benevolent Bestower
of all Good, for his affording the necessary Means of Subsistence, though
our Commerce has been prevented, and the Supplies from the Fishery
been denied us; — That such a Measure of Health is enjoyed among us; —
That the Lives of our Officers and Soldiers have been so remarkably pre
served, while our Enemies have fell before them ; — That the vigorous
Efforts which have been used to excite Savage Vengeance of the Wilder
ness, and rouse the Indians to Arms, that an unavoidable Destruction
might come upon our Frontiers, have been almost miraculously defeated;
— That our unnatural Enemies, instead of Ravaging the Country with un
controlled Sway, are confined within such narrow Limits, to their own
Mortification and Distress, environed by an American Army, brave and
determined; — That such a Band of Union, founded upon the best Prin
ciples, unites the American Colonies ; — That our Rights and Privileges,
264 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
both Civil and Religious, are so far preserved to us, notwithstanding all
the Attempts of our barbarous Enemies to deprive us of them.
And to oifer up humble and fervent Prayers to Almighty GOD, for the
whole British Empire, especially for the UNITED AMERICAN COLO
NIES : — That he would bless our Civil Rulers and lead them into wise
and Prudent Measures in this dark and difficult Day :— That he would
endow our General Court with all that Wisdom which is profitable to
direct: — That he would graciously Smile upon our Endeavors to restore
Peace, preserve our Rights and Privileges, and hand them down to
Posterity : — That he would give Wisdom to the American Congress equal
to their important Station: — That he would direct the Generals and the
American Armies, wherever employed, and give them Success and Vic
tory: — That he would preserve and strengthen the harmony of the
UNITED COLONIES:— That he would pour out his Spirit upon all
Orders of Men through the Land, bring us to a hearty Repentance and
Reformation; purify and sanctify all his Churches: — That he would
make Ours Emanuel's Land: — That he would spread the Knowledge
of the Redeemer through the whole Earth, and fill the World with his
Glory. All servile Labor is forbidden on said Day.
GIVEN under our hands at the Council Chamber in WATERTOWN, this
Fourth Day of November, in the Year of the LORD One Thousand Seven
Hundred and Seventy-five.
By their Honors' Command,
PEREZ MORTON, DEP'Y SEC'RY.
JAMES OTIS, BENJAMIN LINCOLN,
W. SPOONER, MICHAEL FARLEY,
CALEB GUSHING, JOSEPH PALMER,
JOSEPH GERRISH, SAMUEL HOLTON,
JOHN WHITCOMB, JABEZ FISHER,
JEDEDIAH FOSTER, MOSES GILL,
JAMES PRESCOTT, BENJAMIN WHITE.
ELDAD TAYLOR,
tint 19t0gle.
So the clouds of war gathered rapidly and heavily, and the Declaration
of July Fourth sundered the colonies from the mother country, and they
became a nation.
265
Boston having been evacuated by General Howe, March 17th, the
present Legislature was convened, as in former days, in the old Town
House, or State House, as it then began to be called. The sermon was
preached, as of old, in the "old brick meeting-house" near by, on the
site which had been dedicated to the worship of God ever since 1640.
It is now occupied by " Joy's Building."
The preacher, Samuel West, minister of Dartmouth, was not behind
his professional brethren in zeal for the welfare and liberty of his country,
nor in vigorous defence of her rights, both in the pulpit and by the press.
He was an able and acute reasoner, and distinguished in metaphysical
speculations with the Edwardses, father and son. The pi'esent Discourse
was specially devoted to a consideration of the true principles of govern
ment, and a close application of them to Britain and her colonies. He
was a member of the convention for forming the Constitution of Massa
chusetts, and of that of 1788, which ratified the constitution of the
United States. With him the patriot Otis —
" Favored man, by touch ethereal slain" —
resided for a while after his retirement. Dr. West was born at Yarmouth,
on Cape Cod, March 4, 1730, a subject of George II., graduated at Harvard
College in 1754, and died September 24, 1807, aged seventy-seven, a
citizen of the United States.
The texts on the title-page of the sermon admirably exhibit the political
hopes of that day, the wish for reconciliation and the reestablishment of
the old relations to the mother country, and the intensity of the times.
The councillors elected for the memorable year 1770 were —
For the late Colony of MASSACHUSETTS BAY :
Hon. JAMES BOWDOIN, Esq.; Hon. BENJAMIN LINCOLN, Esq.;
ARTEMAS WARD, Esq.; SAMUEL HOLTON, Esq.;
BENJ. GREENLEAF, Esq.; JABEZ FISHER, Esq.;
CALEB CUSHING, Esq.; MOSES GILL, Esq.;
JOHN WINTHROP, Esq.; BENJ. WHITE, Esq.;
RICH. DERBY, JUN., Esq.; WM. PHILLIPS, Esq.;
THOMAS GUSHING, Esq.; BENJ. AUSTIN, Esq.;
JOHN WHITCOMB, Esq.; EBEN. THAYER, JUN., Esq.;
ELDAD TAYLOR, Esq.; FRANCIS DANE, Esq.
23
266 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
For the late Colony of NEW PLYMOUTH :
Hon. WM. SEVER, Esq.; Hon. DAN. DAVIS, Esq.;
WALTER SPOONER, Esq.; Jos. CUSHING, Esq.
For the Province of MAINE :
Hon. JERE. POWELL, Esq.; Hon. DAVID SEWELL, Esq.;
Hon. BENJ. CHADBOURN, Esq.
For SAGADAHOCK :
Hon. JOHN TAYLOR, Esq.
AT LARGE:
Hon. HENRY GARDNER, Esq. ; Hon. DANIEL HOPKINS, Esq.
Previous to the election the following gentlemen, who were of the
last Council, resigned their seats at the Board, viz. :
Hon. JAMES OTIS, Esq.; Hon. ENOCH FREEMAN, Esq.;
JOHN ADAMS, Esq.; CHARLES CHAUNCY, Esq.;
JEDEDIAH FOSTER, Esq.; JOSEPH PALMER, Esq.
DISCOURSE VI.
ELECTION SERMON".
PUT THEM IN MIND TO BE SUBJECT TO PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS, TO
OBEY MAGISTRATES, TO BE READY TO EVERY GOOD WORK. — TitUS ill. 1.
THE great Creator, having designed the human race for
society, has made us dependent on one another for happi
ness. He has so constituted us that it becomes both our
duty and interest to seek the public good ; and that we
may be the more firmly engaged to promote each other's
welfare, the Deity has endowed us with tender and social
affections, with generous and benevolent principles : hence
the pain that we feel in seeing an object of distress; hence
the satisfaction that arises in relieving the afflictions, and
the superior pleasure which we experience in communi
cating happiness to the miserable. The Deity has also
invested us with moral powers and faculties, by which we
are enabled to discern the difference between right and
wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil : hence the ap
probation of mind that arises upon doing a good action,
and the remorse of conscience which we experience when
we counteract the moral sense and do that which is evil.
This proves that, in what is commonly called a state of
nature, we are the subjects of the divine law and govern
ment ; that the Deity is our supreme magistrate, who has
written his law in our hearts, and will reward or punish us
according as we obey or disobey his commands. Had the
268
human race uniformly persevered in a state of moral recti
tude, there would ha\7e been little or no need of any other
law besides that which is written in the heart, — for every
one in such a state would be a law unto himself. There
could be no occasion for enacting or enforcing of penal
laws ; for such are " not made for the righteous man, but
for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly, and for
sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of
fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for
whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with man
kind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if
there be any other thing that is contrary to" moral recti
tude and the happiness of mankind. The necessity of
forming ourselves into politic bodies, and granting to our
rulers a power to enact laws for the public safety, and to
enforce them by proper penalties, arises from our being in
a fallen and degenerate state. The slightest view of the
present state and condition of the human race is abun
dantly sufficient to convince any person of common sense
and common honesty that civil government is absolutely
necessary for the peace and safety of mankind ; and, con
sequently, that all good magistrates, while1 they faithfully
discharge the trust reposed in them, ought to be religiously
and conscientiously obeyed. An enemy to good govern
ment is an enemy not only to his country, but to all man
kind ; for he plainly shows himself to be divested of those
tender and social sentiments which are characteristic of a
human temper, even of that generous and benevolent dis
position which is the peculiar glory of a rational creature.
An enemy to good government has degraded himself
below the rank and dignity of a man, and deserves to be
classed with the lower creation.2 Hence we find that wise
and good men, of all nations and religions, have ever incul-
i See pp. 72, 75-77. — ED. 2 See pp. 69-74, and notes. — ED.
269
cated subjection to good government, and have borne their
testimony against the licentious disturbers of the public
peace.
Noi' has Christianity been deficient in this capital point.
We find our blessed Saviour directing the Jews to render
to Caesar the things that were Caesar's ; and the apostles
and first preachers of the gospel not only exhibited a good
example of subjection to the magistrate, in all things that
were just and lawful, but they have also, in several places
in the New Testament, strongly enjoined upon Christians
the duty of submission to that government under which
Providence had placed them. Hence we find that those
who despise government, and are not afraid to speak evil
of dignities, are, by the apostles Peter and Jude, classed
among those presumptuous, self-willed sinners that are re
served to the judgment of the great day. And the apostle
Paul judged submission to civil government to be a mat
ter of such great importance, that he thought it worth his
while to charge Titus to put his hearers in mind to be sub
missive to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every good work ; as much as to say, none
can be ready to every good work, or be properly disposed
to perform those actions that tend to promote the public
good, who do not obey magistrates, and who do not become
good subjects of civil government.1 If, then, obedience to
the civil magistrates is so essential to the character of a
Christian, that without it he cannot be disposed to perform
those good works that are necessary for the welfare of
mankind, — if the despisers of governments are those pre
sumptuous, self-willed sinners who are reserved to the
judgment of the great day, — it is certainly a matter of the
utmost importance to us all to be thoroughly acquainted
i See pp. 54-61. — ED.
23*
270 THE ELECTION SERMON,
with the nature and extent of our duty, that we may yield
the obedience required ; for it is impossible that we should
properly discharge a duty when we are strangers to the
nature and extent of it.
In order, therefore, that we may form a right judgment
of the duty enjoined in our text, I shall consider the nature
and design of civil government, and shall show that the
same principles which oblige us to submit to government
do equally oblige us to resist tyranny ; or that tyranny and
magistracy are so opposed to each other that where the
one begins the other ends.1 I shall then apply the present
discourse to the grand controversy that at this day subsists
between Great Britain and the American colonies.
That we may understand the nature and design of civil
government, and discover the foundation of the magis
trate's authority to command, and the duty of subjects to
obey, it is necessary to derive civil government from its
original, in order to which we must consider what "state
all men are naturally in, and that is (as Mr. Locke ob
serves) a state of perfect freedom to order all their ac
tions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they
think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without
asking leave or depending upon the will of any man." It
is a state wherein all are equal, — no one having a right to
control another, or oppose him in what he does, unless it
be in his own defence, or in the defence of those that,
being injured, stand in need of his assistance.
Had men persevered in a state of moral rectitude, every
one wrould have been disposed to follow the law of na
ture, and pursue the general good. In such a state, the
wisest and most experienced would undoubtedly be cho
sen to guide and direct those of less wisdom and expe
rience than themselves, — there being nothing else that
1 See pages 62, 67 note 1; 69, 74, note 1. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 271
could afford the least show or appearance of any one's hav
ing the superiority or precedency over another ; for the
dictates of conscience and the precepts of natural law be
ing uniformly and regularly obeyed, men would only need
to be informed what things were most fit and prudent to
be done in those cases where their inexperience or want
of acquaintance left their minds in doubt what was the
wisest and most regular method for them to pursue. In
such cases it would be necessary for them to advise with
those who were wiser and more experienced than them
selves. But these advisers could claim no authority to
compel or to use any forcible measures to oblige any one
to comply with their direction or advice. There could be
no occasion for the exertion of such a power; for every
man, being under the government of right reason, would
immediately feel himself constrained to comply with every
thing that appeared reasonable or fit to be done, or that
would any way tend to promote the general good. This
would have been the happy state of mankind had they
closely adhered to the law of nature, and persevered in
their primitive state.
Thus we see that a state of nature, though it be a state
of perfect freedom, yet is very far from a state of licen
tiousness. The law of nature gives men no right to do
anything that is immoral, or contrary to the will of God,
and injurious to their fellow-creatures ; for a state of nature
is properly a state of law and government, even a gov
ernment founded upon the unchangeable nature of the
Deity, and a law resulting from the eternal fitness of
things. Sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, and
the whole frame of nature be dissolved, than any part,
even the smallest iota, of this law shall ever be ab
rogated ; it is unchangeable as the Deity himself, being
272 THE ELECTION SERMON,
a transcript of his moral perfections. A revelation,1 pre
tending to be from God, that contradicts any part of nat
ural law, ought immediately to be rejected as an impos
ture ; for the Deity cannot make a law contrary to the law
of nature without acting contrary to himself, — a thing in
the strictest sense impossible, for that which implies con
tradiction is not an object of the divine power. Had this
subject been properly attended to2 and understood, the
world had remained free from a multitude of absurd and
pernicious principles, which have been industriously prop
agated by artful and designing men, both in politics and
divinity. The doctrine of non-resistance and unlimited
passive obedience to the worst of tyrants could never have
found credit among mankind had the voice of reason been
hearkened to for a guide, because such a doctrine would
immediately have been discerned to be contrary to natural
law.
In a state of nature we have a right to make the persons
that have injured us repair the damages that they have
done us ; and it is just in us to inflict such punishment
upon them as is necessary to restrain them from doing the
like for the future, — the whole end and design of punishing
being either to reclaim the individual punished, or to deter
others from being guilty of similar crimes. Whenever
punishment exceeds these bounds it becomes cruelty and
revenge, and directly contrary to the law of nature. Our
wants and necessities being such as to render it impossible
in most cases to enjoy life in any tolerable degree without
entering into society, and there being innumerable cases
wherein we need the assistance of others, which if not af
forded we should very soon perish ; hence the law of na
ture requires that we should endeavor to help one another
to the utmost of our power in all cases where our assist-
1 See pages 67 note 1, 86 note a. — ED. 2 See pages 53, 54. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 273
ance is necessary. It is our duty to endeavor always to
promote the general good ; to do to all as we would be
willing to be done by were we in their circumstances; to
do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God.
These are some of the laws of nature which every man in
the world is bound to observe, and which whoever violates
exposes himself to the resentment of mankind, the lashes
of his own conscience, and the judgment of Heaven. This
plainly shows that the highest state of liberty subjects us
to the law of nature and the government of God. The
most perfect freedom consists in obeying the dictates of
right reason, and submitting to natural law. When a man
goes beyond or contrary to the law of nature and reason,
he becomes the slave of base passions and vile lusts ; he
introduces confusion and disorder into society, and brings
misery and destruction upon himself. This, therefore, can
not be called a state of freedom, but a state of the vilest
slavery and the most dreadful bondage. The servants of
sin and corruption are subjected to the worst kind of
tyranny in the universe. Hence we conclude that where
licentiousness begins, liberty ends.
The law of nature is a perfect standard and measure of
action for beings that persevere in a state of moral recti
tude ; but the case is far different with us, who are in a
fallen and degenerate estate. We have a law in our mem
bers which is continually warring against the law of the
mind, by which we often become enslaved to the basest
lusts, and are brought into bondage to the vilest passions.
The strong propensities of our animal nature often over
come the sober dictates of reason and conscience, and
betray us into actions injurious to the public and destruc
tive of the safety and happiness of society. Men of un
bridled lusts, were they not restrained by the power of
the civil magistrate, would spread horror and desolation
274
all around them. This makes it absolutely necessary that
societies should form themselves into politic bodies, that
they may enact laws for the public safety, and appoint par
ticular penalties for the violation of their laws, arid invest
a suitable number of persons with authority to put in
execution and enforce the laws of the state, in order that
wicked men may be restrained from doing mischief to
their fellow-creatures, that the injured may have their
rights restored to them, that the virtuous may be encour
aged in doing good, and that every member of society
may be protected and secured in the peaceable, quiet pos
session and enjoyment of all those liberties and privileges
which the Deity has bestowed upon him; i. 6., that he
may safely enjoy and pursue whatever he chooses, that is
consistent with the public good. This shows that the end
and design of civil government cannot be to deprive men
of their liberty or take away their freedom ; but, on the
contrary, the true design of civil government is to protect
men in the enjoyment of liberty.1
From hence it follows that tyranny and arbitrary power
are utterly inconsistent with and subversive of the very
end and design of civil government, and directly contrary
to natural law, which is the true foundation of civil gov
ernment and all politic law. Consequently, the authority
of a tyrant is of itself null and void ; for as no man can
have a right to act contrary to the law of nature, it is
impossible that any individual, or even the greatest number
of men, can confer a right upon another of which they
themselves are not possessed ; i. e., no body of men can
justly and lawfully authorize any person to tyrannize
over and enslave his fellow-creatures, or do anything con
trary to equity and goodness. As magistrates have no
authority but what they derive from the people, whenever
i Pages 69, 78.— ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 275
they act contrary to the public good, and pursue measures
destructive of the peace and safety of the community,
they forfeit their right to govern the people. Civil rulers
and magistrates are properly of human creation ; they are
set up by the people to be the guardians of their rights,
and to secure their persons from being injured or op
pressed, — the safety of the public being the supreme law
of the state, by which the magistrates are to be govei^ied,
and which they are to consult upon all occasions. The
modes of administration may be very different, arid the
forms1 of government may vary from each other in differ
ent ages and nations ; but, under every form, the end of
civil government is the same, and cannot vary : it is like
the laws of the Medes and Persians — it altereth not.
Though magistrates are to consider themselves as the
servants of the people, seeing from them it is that they
derive their power and authority, yet they may also be
considered as the ministers of God ordained by him for
the good of mankind;2 for, under him, as the Supreme
Magistrate of the universe, they are to act : and it is God
who has riot only declared in his word what are the neces
sary qualifications of a ruler, but who also raises up and
qualifies men for such an important station. The magis
trate may also, in a more strict and proper sense, be said
to be ordained of God, because reason, which is the voice
of God, plainly requires such an order of men to be ap
pointed for the public good. Now, whatever right reason
'requires as necessary to be done is as much the will and
law of God as though it were enjoined us by an immedi
ate revelation from heaven, or commanded in the sacred
Scriptures.
From this account of the origin, nature, and design of
, civil government, we may be very easily led into a thor-
1 Page 82. — ED. 2 pages 75-77. — ED.
276 THE ELECTION SERMON,
ough knowledge of o'ur duty ; we may see the reason why
we are bound to obey magistrates, viz., because they are
the ministers of God for good unto the people. While,
therefore, they rule in the fear of God, and while they
promote the welfare of the state, — i. e., while they act in
the character of magistrates, — it is the indispensable duty
of all to submit to them, and to oppose a turbulent, fac
tious, and libertine spirit, whenever and wherever it dis
covers itself. When a people have by their free consent
conferred upon a number of men a power to rule and gov
ern them, they are bound to obey them. Hence disobe
dience becomes a breach of faith ; it is violating a consti
tution of their own appointing, and breaking a compact
for which they ought to have the most sacred regard.
Such a conduct discovers so base and disingenuous a tem
per of mind, that it must expose them to contempt in the
judgment of all the sober, thinking part of mankind.
Subjects are bound to obey lawful magistrates by every
tender tie of human nature, which disposes us to consult
the public good, and to seek the good of our brethren, our
wives, our children, our friends and acquaintance ; for he
that opposes lawful authority does really oppose the safety
and happiness of his fellow-creatures. A factious, sedi
tious person, that opposes good government, is a monster
in nature ; for he is an enemy to his own species, and des
titute of the sentiments of humanity.1
Subjects are also bound to obey magistrates, for con
science' sake, out of regard to the divine authority, and
out of obedience to the will of God ; 2 for if magistrates
are the ministers of God, we cannot disobey them without
being disobedient to the law of God ; and this extends to
all men in authority, from the highest ruler to the lowest
officer in the state. To oppose them when in the exercise
i See p. 87, note. — ED. 2 See p. 64. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 277
of lawful authority is an act of disobedience to the Deity,
and, as such, will be punished by him. It will, doubtless,
be readily granted by every honest man that we ought
cheerfully to obey the magistrate, and submit to all such
regulations of government as tend to promote the public
good ; but as this general definition may be liable to be
misconstrued, and every man may think himself at liberty
to disregard any laws that do not suit his interest, hurnor,
or fancy, I would observe that, in a multitude of cases,
many of us, for want of being properly acquainted with
affairs of state, may be very improper judges of particular
laws, whether they are just or not. In such cases it be
comes us, as good members of society, peaceably and con
scientiously to submit, though we cannot see the reason
ableness of every law to which we submit, and that for
this plain reason : if any number of men should take it
upon themselves to oppose authority for acts, which may
be really necessary for the public safety, only because
they do not see the reasonableness of them, the direct
consequence will be introducing confusion and anarchy
into the state.
It is also necessary that the minor part should submit to
the major ; e. g., when legislators have enacted a set of
laws which are highly approved by a large majority of the
community as tending to promote the public good, in this
case, if a small number of persons are so unhappy as to
view the matter in a very different point of light from the
public, though they have an undoubted right to show the
reasons of their dissent from the judgment of the public,
and may lawfully use all proper arguments to convince the
public of what they judge to be an error, yet, if they fail
in their attempt, and the majority still continue to approve
of the laws that are enacted, it is the duty of those few
that dissent peaceably and for conscience' sake to submit
24
278 THE ELECTION SERMON,
to the public judgment, unless something is required of
them which they judge would be sinful for them to comply
with ; for in that case tfyey ought to obey the dictates of
their own consciences rather than any human authority
whatever.1 Perhaps, also, some cases of intolerable op
pression, where compliance would bring on inevitable ruin
and destruction, may. justly warrant the few to refuse sub
mission to what they judge inconsistent with their peace
and safety ; for the law of self-preservation will always
justify opposing a cruel and tyrannical imposition, except
where opposition is attended with greater evils than sub
mission, which. is frequently the case where a few are op
pressed by a large and powerful majority.3 Except the
above-named cases, the minor ought always .to submit to
the major; otherwise, there can be no peace nor harmony
in society. And, besides, it is the major part of a com
munity that have the sole right of establishing a constitu
tion and authorizing magistrates ; and consequently it is
only the major part of the community that can claim the
right of altering the constitution, and displacing the magis
trates ; for certainly common sense will tell us "that it
requires as great an authority to set aside a constitution
as there was at first to establish it. The collective body,
not a few individuals, ought to constitute the supreme au
thority of the state.
The only difficulty remaining is to determine when a
people may claim a right of forming themselves into a
a This shows the reason why the primitive Christians did not oppose the cruel
persecutions that were inflicted upon them by the heathen magistrates. They
were few compared with the heathen world, and for them to have attempted to
resist their enemies by force would have been like a small parcel of sheep en
deavoring to oppose a large number of ravening wolves and savage beasts of
prey. It would, without a miracle, have brought upon them inevitable ruin and
destruction. Hence the wise and prudent advice of our Saviour to them is,
" When they persecute you in this city, flee ye to another." 1
i Seep. 295. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 279
body politic, and assume the powers of legislation. In
order to determine this point, we are to remember that all
men being by nature equal, all the members of a com
munity have a natural right to assemble themselves to
gether, and act and vote for such regulations as they
judge are necessary for the good of the whole. But when
a community is become very numerous, it is very difficult,
and in many cases impossible, for all to meet together to
regulate the affairs of the state; hence comes the necessity
of appointing delegates to represent the people in a gen
eral assembly. And this ought to be looked upon as a
sacred and inalienable right, of which a people cannot
justly divest themselves, and which no human authority
can in equity ever take from them, viz., that no one be
obliged to submit to any law except such as are made
either by himself or by his representative.
If representation and legislation are inseparably con
nected, it follows, that when great numbers have emigrated
into a foreign land, and are so far removed from the parent
state that they neither are or can be properly represented
by the government from which they have emigrated, that
then nature itself points out the necessity of their assum
ing to themselves the powers of legislation ; and they
have a right to consider themselves as a separate state
from the other, and, as such, to form themselves into a
body politic.
In the next place, when a people find themselves cruelly
oppressed by the parent state, they have an undoubted
right to throw off the yoke,1 and to assert their liberty,
if they find good reason to judge that they have sufficient
power and strength to maintain their ground in defending
their just rights against their oppressors; for, in this case,
by the law of self-preservation, which is the first law of
i See pp. 93-95. — ED.
280
nature, they have not only an undoubted right, but it is
their indispensable duty, if they cannot be redressed any
other way, to renounce all submission to the government
that has oppressed them, and set up an independent state
of their own, even though they may be vastly inferior in
numbers to the state that has oppressed them. When
either of the aforesaid cases takes place, and more espe
cially when both concur, no rational man, I imagine, can
have any doubt in his own mind whether such a people
have a right to form themselves into a body politic, and
assume to themselves all the powers of a free state. For,
can it be rational to suppose that a people should be
subjected to the tyranny of a set of men1 who are perfect
strangers to them, and cannot be supposed to have that
fellow-feeling for them that we generally have for those
with whom we are connected and acquainted; and, besides,
through their unacquaintedness with the circumstances of
the people over whom they claim the right of jurisdiction,
are utterly unable to judge, in a multitude of cases, which
is best for them ?
It becomes me not to say what particular form2 of gov
ernment is best for a community, — whether a pure democ
racy, aristocracy, monarchy, or a mixture of all the three
simple forms. They have all their advantages and disad
vantages, and when they are properly administered may,
any of them, answer the design of civil government toler
ably. Permit me, however, to say, that an unlimited,
absolute monarchy, and an aristocracy not subject to the
control of the people, are two of the most exceptionable
forms of government : firstly, because in neither of them
is there a proper representation of the people ; and, sec-
1 As, for instance, in the case in hand, the British Parliament and the
American colonies, pp. 110,206. — ED.
2 See pp. 80, 81, 82. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 281
ondly, because each of them being entirely independent
of the people, they are very apt to degenerate into tyranny.
However, in this imperfect state, we cannot expect to have
government formed upon such a basis but that it may be
perverted by bad men to evil purposes. A wise and good
man would be very loth to undermine a constitution that
was once fixed and established, although he might dis
cover many imperfections in it ; and nothing short of the
most urgent necessity would ever induce him to consent
to it ; because the unhinging a people from a form of gov
ernment to which they had been long accustomed might
throw them into such a state of anarchy and confusion as
might .terminate in their destruction, or perhaps, in the
end, subject them to the worst kind of tyranny.
Having thus shown the nature, end, and design of civil
government, and pointed out the reasons why subjects are
bound-to obey magistrates, — viz., because in so doing they
both consult their own happiness as individuals, and also
promote the public good and the safety of the state, — I
proceed, in the next place, to show that the same princi
ples that oblige us to submit to civil government do also
equally oblige us, where we have power and ability, to
resist and oppose tyranny ; and that where tyranny begins
government ends.1 For, if magistrates have no authority
but what they derive from the people ; if they are properly
of human creation ; if the whole end and design of their
institution is to promote the general good, and to secure to
men their just rights, — it will follow, that when they act
contrary to the end and design of their creation they
cease being magistrates, and the people which gave them
their authority have the right to take it from them again.
This is a very plain dictate of common sense, which uni-
i Sec pp. 73, 74, note 1 ; 93-96. — ED.
24*
282
versally obtains in all similar cases ; for who is there that,
having employed a number of men to do a particular piece
of work for him, but what would judge that he had a right
to dismiss them from his service when he found that they
went directly contrary to his orders, and that, instead of
accomplishing the business he had set them about, they
would infallibly ruin and destroy it? If, then, men, in the
common affairs of life, always judge that they have a right
to dismiss from their service such persons as counteract
their plans and designs, though the damage will affect
only a few individuals, much more must the body politic
have a right to depose any persons, though appointed to
the highest place of power and authority, when they find
that they are unfaithful to the trust reposed in them, and
that, instead of consulting the general good, they are dis
turbing the peace of society by making laws cruel and
oppressive, and by depriving the subjects of their just
rights and privileges. Whoever pretends to deny this
proposition must give up all pretence of being master of
that common sense and reason by which the Deity has
distinguished us from the brutal herd.1
As our duty of obedience to the magistrate is founded
upon our obligation to promote the general good, our
readiness to obey lawful authority will always arise in
proportion to the love and regard that we have for the
welfare of the public ; and the same love and regard for
the public will inspire us with as strong a zeal to oppose
tyranny as we have to obey magistracy. Our obligation
to promote the public good extends as much to the oppos
ing every exertion of arbitrary power that is injurious to
the state as it does to the submitting to good and whole
some laws. No man, therefore, can be a good member of
i See pp. 71, 72. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 283
the community that is not as zealous to oppose tyranny as
he is ready to obey magistracy. A slavish submission to
tyranny is a proof of a very sordid and base mind.1 Such
a person cannot be under the influence of any generous
human sentiments, nor have a tender regard for mankind.
Further : if magistrates are no farther ministers of God
than they promote the good of the community, then obe
dience to them neither is nor can be unlimited ; for it
would imply a gross absurdity to assert that, when magis
trates are ordained by the people solely for the purpose of
being beneficial to the state, they must be obeyed when
they are seeking to ruin and destroy it. This would imply
that men were bound to act against the great law of self-
preservation, and to contribute their assistance to their
own ruin and destruction, in order that they may please
and gratify the greatest monsters in nature, who are violat
ing the laws of God and destroying the rights of mankind.
Unlimited submission and obedience is due to none but
God alone. He has an absolute right to command ; he
alone has an uncontrollable sovereignty over us, because he
alone is unchangeably good ; he never will nor can require
of us, consistent with his nature and attributes, anything
that is not fit and reasonable ; his commands are all just
and good ; and to suppose that he has given to any partic
ular set of men a power to require obedience to that which
is unreasonable, cruel, and unjust, is robbing the Deity of
his justice and goodness, in which consists the peculiar
glory of the divine character, and it is representing him
under the horrid character of a tyrant.2
If magistrates are ministers of God only because the
law of God and reason points out the necessity of such an
institution for the good of mankind, it follows, that when
ever they pursue measures directly destructive of the pub-
i P. 51 . — ED. 2 See p. 95. — ED.
284
lie good they cease being God's ministers, they forfeit their
right to obedience from the subject, they become the pests1
of society, and the community is under the strongest obli
gation of duty,2 both to God and to its own members, to
resist and oppose them, which will be so far from resisting
the ordinance of God that it will be strictly obeying his
commands.3 To suppose otherwise will imply that the
Deity requires of us an obedience that is self-contradictory
and absurd, and that one part of his law is directly con
trary to the other ; i. e., while he commands us to pursue
virtue and the general good, he does at the same time re
quire us to persecute virtue, and betray the general good,
by enjoining us obedience to the wicked commands of
tyrannical oppressors. Can any one not lost to the princi
ples of humanity undertake to defend such absurd senti
ments as these? As the public safety is the first and grand
law of society, so no community can have a right to invest
the magistrate with any power or authority that will ena
ble him to act against the welfare of the state and the
good of the whole. If men have at any time wickedly
and foolishly given up their just rights into the hands of
the magistrate, such acts are null and void, of course ; to
suppose otherwise will imply that we have a right to in
vest the magistrate with a power to act contrary to the
law of God, — which is as much as to say that we are not
the subjects of divine law and government. What has
been said is, I apprehend, abundantly sufficient to show that
tyrants are no magistrates,4 or that whenever magistrates
abuse their power and authority to the subverting the pub
lic happiness, their authority immediately ceases, and that
it not only becomes lawful, but an indispensable duty to
1 See p. 78. — ED. 3 See p. 62, note 1. — ED.
2 See p. 83, note 1. — ED. 4 See p. 94, note a. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 285
oppose them ; that the principle of self-preservation, the
affection and duty that we owe to our country, and the
obedience we owe the Deity, do all require us to oppose
tyranny.
If it be asked, Who are the proper judges1 to determine
when rulers are guilty of tyranny and oppression ? I an
swer, the-public. Not a few disaffected individuals, but the
collective body of the state, must decide this question ;
for, as it is the collective body that invests rulers with their
power and authority, so it is the collective body that has
the sole right of judging whether rulers act up to the end
of their institution or not. Great regard ought always to
be paid to the judgment of the public. It is true the
public may be imposed upon by a misrepresentation of
facts; but this maybe said of the public, which cannot
always be said of individuals, viz., that the public is always
willing to be rightly informed, and when it has proper
matter of conviction laid before it its judgment is always
right.
This account of the nature and design of civil govern
ment, which is so clearly suggested to us by the plain
principles of common sense and reason, is abundantly con
firmed by the sacred Scriptures, even by those very texts
which have been brought by men of slavish principles to
establish the absurd doctrine of unlimited passive obedi
ence and non-resistance, as will abundantly appear by ex
amining the two most noted texts that are commonly
brought to support the strange doctrine of passive obedi
ence. The first that I shall cite is in 1 Peter ii. 13, 14:
"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man," — or,
rather, as the words ought to be rendered from the Greek,
submit yourselves to every human creation, or human con
stitution, — " for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king
i See p. 86, note a. — ED.
286 THE ELECTION SERMON,
as supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent
by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise
of them that do well."1 Here we see that the apostle
asserts that magistracy is of human creation or appoint
ment ; that is, that magistrates have no power or authority
but what they derive from the people ; that this power
they are to exert for the punishment of evil-doers, and for
the praise of them that do well ; i. e., the end and design
of the appointment of magistrates is to restrain wicked
men, by proper penalties, from injuring society, and to en
courage and honor thje virtuous and obedient. Upon this
account Christians are to submit to them for the Lord's
sake ; which is as if he had said, Though magistrates are
of mere human appointment, and can claim no power or
authority but what they derive from the people, yet, as
they are ordained by men to promote the general good by
punishing evil-doers and by rewarding and encouraging
the virtuous and obedient, you ought to submit to them
out of a sacred regard to the divine authority ; for as they,
in the faithful discharge of their office, do fulfil the will of
God, so ye, by submitting to them, do fulfil the divine
command. If the only reason assigned by the apostle
why magistrates should be obeyed out of a regard to the
divine authority is because they punish the wicked and
encourage the good, it follows, that when they punish the
virtuous and encourage the vicious we have a right to
refuse yielding any submission or obedience to them ; i. e.,
whenever they act contrary to the end and design of their
institution, they forfeit their authority to govern the peo
ple, and the reason for submitting to them, out of regard
to the divine authority, immediately ceases ; and, they being
only of human appointment, the authority which the peo-
* Compare these pages with Dr. Mayhew's, in 1750, p. 23. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 287
pie gave them the public have a right to take from them,
and to confer it upon those who are more worthy. So far
is this text from favoring arbitrary principles, that there is
nothing in it but what is consistent with and favorable to
the highest liberty that any man can wish to enjoy; for
this text requires us to submit to the magistrate no further
than he is the encourager and protector of virtue and the
punisherof vice ; and this is consistent with all that liberty
which the Deity has bestowed upon us.1
The other text which I shall mention, and which has
been made use of by the favorers of arbitrary government
as their great sheet-anchor and main support, is in Rom.
xiii., the first six verses: "Let every soul be subject to
the higher powers ; for there is no power but of God.
The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of
God ; and they that resist shall receive to themselves dam
nation ; for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to
the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the
same : for he is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth
not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, a re
venger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil. Where
fore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also
for conscience' sake. For, for this cause pay you tribute
also; for they are God's ministers, attending continually
upon this very thing." A very little attention, I appre
hend, will be sufficient to show that this text is so far from
favoring arbitrary government, that, on the contrary, it
strongly holds forth the principles of true liberty. Sub
jection to the higher powers is enjoined by the apostle
because there is no power but of God ; the powers that be
i Seep. 78. — ED.
288
are ordained of God ; consequently, to resist the power is
to resist the ordinance of God : and he repeatedly declares
that the ruler is the minister of God. Now, before we can
say whether this text makes for or against the doctrine of
unlimited passive obedience, we must find out in what
sense the apostle affirms that magistracy is the ordinance
of God, and what he intends when he calls the ruler the
minister of God.
I can think but of three possible senses in which magis
tracy can with any propriety be called God's ordinance, or
in which rulers can be said to be ordained of God as his
ministers. The first is a plain declaration from the word of
God that such a one and his descendants are, and shall be,
the only true and lawful magistrates : thus we find in
Scripture the kingdom of Judah to be settled by divine
appointment in the family of David. Or,
Secondly, By an immediate commission from God, or
dering and appointing such a one by name to be the
ruler over the people : thus Saul and David were imme
diately appointed by God to be kings over Israel. Or,
Thirdly, Magistracy may be called the ordinance of
God, and rulers may be called the ministers of God, be
cause the nature and reason of things, which is the law of
God, requires such an institution for the preservation and
safety of civil society. In the two first senses the apostle
cannot be supposed to affirm that magistracy is God's
ordinance, for neither he nor any of the sacred writers
have entailed the magistracy to any one particular family
under the gospel dispensation. Neither does he nor any
of the inspired writers give us the least hint that any per
son should ever be immediately commissioned from God
to bear rule over the people. The third sense, then, is the
only sense in which the apostle can be supposed to affirm
that the magistrate is the minister of God, and that niagis-
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 289
tracy is the ordinance of God ; viz., that the nature and
reason of things require such an institution for the pre
servation and safety of mankind. Now, if this be the
only sense in which the apostle affirms that magistrates
are ordained of God as his ministers, resistance must be
criminal only so far forth as they are the ministers of God,
i. e., while they act up to the end of their institution, and
ceases being criminal when they cease being the ministers
of God, i. e., when they act contrary to the general good,
and seek to destroy the liberties of the people.
That we have gotten the apostle's sense of magistracy
being the ordinance of God, will plainly appear from the
text itself; for, after having asserted that }o resist the
power is to resist the ordinance of God, and they that
resist shall receive to themselves damnation, he immedi
ately adds, as the reason of this assertion, "For rulers are
not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou
then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good,
and thou shalt have praise of the same : for he is the
minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that
which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in
vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doth evil." Here is a plain declara
tion pf the sense in which he asserts that the authority of
the magistrate is ordained of God, viz., because rulers are
not a terror to good works, but to the evil ; therefore we
ought to dread offending them, for we cannot offend them
but by doing evil; and if we do evil we have just reason
to fear their power; for they bear not the sword in vain,
but in this case the magistrate is a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil : but if we are found doers
of that which is good, we have no reason to fear the
authority of the magistrate ; for in this case, instead of
being punished, we shall be protected and encouraged.
25
290
The reason why the magistrate is called the minister of
God is because he is to protect, encourage, and honor
them that do well, and to punish them that do evil ; there
fore it is our duty to submit to them, not merely for fear
of being punished by them, but out of regard to the
divine authority, under which they are deputed to execute
judgment and to do justice. For this reason, according to
the apostle, tribute is to be paid them, because, as the min
isters of God, their whole business is to protect every man
in the enjoyment of his just rights and privileges, and to
punish every evil-doer.
If the apostle, then, asserts that rulers are ordained of
God only because they are a terror to evil works and a
praise to them that do well ; if they are ministers of God
only because they encourage virtue and punish vice ; if for
this reason only they are to be obeyed for conscience' sake;
if the sole reason why they have a right to tribute is
because they devote themselves wholly to the business of
securing to men their just rights, and to the punishing of
evil-doers, — it follows, by undeniable consequence, that
when they become the pests of human society, when they
promote and encourage evil-doers, and become a terror to
good wrorks, they then cease being the ordinance of God ;
they are no longer rulers nor ministers of God ; they are
so far from being the powers that are ordained of God
that they become the ministers of the powrers of dark
ness,1 and it is so far from being a crime to resist them,
that in many cases it may be highly criminal in the sight
of Heaven to refuse resisting and opposing them to the
utmost of our power ; or, in other words, that the same
reasons that require us to obey the ordinance of God, do
equally oblige us, when we have power and opportunity,
to oppose and resist the ordinance of Satan.
1 See p. 73. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 291
Hence we see that the apostle Paul, instead of being a
friend to tyranny and arbitrary government, turns out to be
a strong advocate for the just rights of mankind, and is for
our enjoying all that liberty with which God has invested
us ; for no power (according to the apostle) is ordained of
God but what is an encourager of every good and virtuous
action, — "Do that which is good, and tliou shalt have
praise of the same." No man need to be afraid of this
power which is ordained of God who does nothing but
what is agreeable to the law of God ; for this power will
not restrain us from exercising any liberty which the Deity
has granted us; for the minister of God is to restrain us
from nothing but the doing of that which is evil, and to
this we have no right. To practise evil is not liberty, but
licentiousness. Can we conceive of a more perfect, equi
table, and generous plan of government than this which
the apostle has laid down, viz., to have rulers appointed
over us to encourage us to every good and virtuous action,
to defend and protect us in our just rights and privileges,
and to grant us everything that can tend to promote our
true interest and happiness ; to restrain every licentious
action, and to punish every one that would injure or harm
us ; to become a terror of evil-doers ; to make and execute
such just and righteous laws as shall effectually deter and
hinder men from the commission of evil, and to attend
continually upon this very thing; to make it their constant
care and study, day and night, to promote the good and
welfare of the community, and to oppose all evil practices?
Deservedly may such rulers be called the ministers of God
for good. They carry on the same benevolent design
towards the community which the great Governor of the
universe does towards his whole creation. 'T is the indis
pensable duty of a people to pay tribute, and to afford an
easy and comfortable subsistence to such rulers, because
292 THE ELECTION SERMON,
they are the ministers of God, who are continually labor-
ing and employing their time for the good of the com
munity. He that resists such magistrates does, in a very
emphatical sense, resist the ordinance of God ; he is an
enemy to mankind, odious to God, and justly incurs the
sentence of condemnation from the great Judge of quick
and dead. Obedience to such magistrates is yielding obe
dience to the will of God, and, therefore, ought to be per
formed from a sacred regard to the divine authority.
For any one from hence to infer that the apostle enjoins
in this text unlimited obedience to the worst of tyrants,
and that he pronounces damnation upon those that resist
the arbitrary measures of such pests of society, is just as
good sense as if one should affirm, that because the Scrip
ture enjoins us obedience to the laws of God, therefore we
may not oppose the power of darkness ; or because we are
commanded to submit to the ordinance of God, therefore
we may not resist the ministers of Satan. Such wild work
must be made with the apostle before he can be brought
to speak the language of oppression ! It is as plain, I
think, as words can make it, that, according to this text,
no tyrant can be a ruler;1 for the apostle's definition of a
ruler is, that he is not a terror to good works, but to the
evil; and that he is one who is to praise and encourage those
that do well. Whenever, then, the ruler encourages them
that do evil, and is a terror to those that do well, — i. e., as
soon as he becomes a tyrant, — he forfeits his authority to
govern, and becomes the minister of Satan, and, as such,
ought to be opposed.
I know it is said that the magistrates were, at the time
when the apostle wrote, heathens, and that Nero,2 that
monster of tyranny, was then Emperor of Rome ; that
therefore the apostle, by enjoining submission to the pow-
i Seep. 67, note 1. — ED. 2 See pp. 57 b, 61 a. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 293
ers that then were, does require unlimited obedience to
be yielded to the worst of tyrants. Now, not to insist
upon what has been often observed, viz., that this epistle
was written most probably about the beginning of Nero's
reign, at which time he was a very humane and merciful
prince, did everything that was generous and benevolent
to the public, and showed every act of mercy and tender
ness to particulars, and therefore might at that time justly
deserve the character of the minister of God for good to
the people, — I say, waiving this, we will suppose that this
epistle was written after that Nero was become a monster
of tyranny and wickedness ; it will by no means follow from
thence that the apostle meant to enjoin unlimited subjec
tion to such an authority, or that he intended to affirm
that such a cruel, despotic authority was the ordinance of
God. The plain, obvious sense of his words, as we have
already seen, forbids such a construction to be put upon
them, for they plainly imply a strong abhorrence and dis
approbation of such a character, and clearly prove that
Nero,1 so far forth as he was a tyrant, could not be the
minister of God, nor have a right to claim submission from
the people; so that this ought, perhaps, rather to be viewed
as a severe satire upon Nero, than as enjoining any submis
sion to him.
It is also worthy to be observed that the apostle pru
dently waived mentioning any particular persons that were
then in power, as it might have been construed in an in
vidious light, and exposed the primitive Christians to the
severe resentments of the men that were then in power.
He only in general requires submission to the higher pow
ers, because the powers that be are ordained of God.
Now, though the emperor might at that time be such a
i See pp. 57, 61. — ED.
25*
294
tyrant that he could with no propriety be said to be ordained
of God, yet it would be somewhat strange if there were no
men in power among the Romans that acted up to the
character of good magistrates, and that deserved to be es
teemed as the ministers of God for good unto the people.
If there were any such, notwithstanding the tyranny of
Nero, the apostle might with great propriety enjoin sub
mission to those powers that were ordained of God, and
by so particularly pointing out the end and design of
magistrates, and giving his definition of a ruler, he might
design to show that neither Nero, nor any other tyrant,
ought to be esteemed as the minister of God. Or, rather,
— which appears to me to be the true sense, — the apostle
meant to speak of magistracy in general, without any ref
erence to the emperor, or any other person in power, that
was then at Rome ; and the meaning of this passage is as
if he had said, It is the duty of every Christian to be a
good subject of civil government, for the power and au
thority of the civil magistrate are from God ; for the pow
ers that be are ordained of God ; i. e., the authority of the
magistrates that are now either at Rome or elsewhere is
ordained of the Deity. Wherever you find any lawful
magistrates, remember, they are of divine ordination. But
that you may understand what I mean when I say that
magistrates are of divine ordination, I will show you how
you may discern who are lawful magistrates, and ordained
of God, from those who are not. Those only are to be es
teemed lawful magistrates, and ordained of God, who pur
sue the public good by honoring and encouraging those
that do well and punishing all that do evil. Such, and
such only, wherever they are to be found, are the ministers
of God for good : to resist such i$ resisting the ordinance
of God, and exposing yourselves to the divine wrath and
condemnation.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 295
In either of these senses the text cannot make anything
in favor of arbitrary government. Nor could he with any
propriety tell them that they need not be afraid of the
power so long as they did that which was good, if he meant
to recommend an unlimited submission to a tyrannical
Nero ; for the best characters were the likeliest to fall a
sacrifice to his malice. And, besides, such an injunction
would be directly contrary to his own practice, and the
practice of the primitive Christians, who refused to comply
with the sinful commands of men in power; their answer
in such cases being this, We ought to obey God rather than
men.1 Hence the apostle Paul himself suffered many cruel
persecutions because he would not renounce Christianity,
but persisted in opposing the idolatrous worship of the
pagan world.
This text, being rescued from the absurd interpretations
which the favorers of arbitrary government have put upon
it, turns out to be a noble confirmation of that free and
generous plan of government which the law of nature and
reason points out to us. Nor can we desire a more equi
table plan of government than what the apostle has here
laid down ; for, if we consult our happiness and real good,
we can never wish for an unreasonable liberty, viz., a free
dom to do evil, which, according to the apostle, is the only
thing that the magistrate is to refrain us from. To have
a liberty to do whatever is fit, reasonable, or good, is the
highest degree of freedom that rational beings can possess.
And how honorable a station are those men placed in, by
the providence of God, whose business it is to secure to
men this rational liberty, and to promote the happiness and
welfare of society, by suppressing vice and immorality, and
by honoring and encouraging everything that is honorable,
virtuous, and praiseworthy ! Such magistrates ought to be
iScep. 278. — ED.
296
honored and obeyed as the ministers of God and the
servants of the King of Heaven. Can we conceive of a
larger and more generous plan of government than this
of the apostle ? Or can we find words more plainly ex
pressive of a disapprobation of an arbitrary and tyranni
cal government? I never read this text without admiring
the beauty and nervousness of it; and I can hardly con
ceive how he could express more ideas in so few words
than he has done. We see here, in one view, the honor
that belongs to the magistrate, because he is ordained of
God for the public good. We have his duty pointed out,
viz., to honor and encourage the virtuous, to promote the
real good of the community, and to punish all wicked and
injurious persons. We are taught the duty of the subject,
viz., to obey the magistrate for conscience' sake, because
he is ordained of God ; and that rulers, being continually
employed under God for our good, are to be generously
maintained by the paying them tribute; and that disobe
dience to rulers is highly criminal, and will expose us to
the divine wrath. The liberty of the subject is also clearly
asserted, viz., that subjects are to be allowed to do every
thing that is in itself just and right, and are only to be
restrained from being guilty of wrong actions. It is also
strongly implied, that when rulers become oppressive to
the subject and injurious to the state, their authority, their
respect, their maintenance, and the duty of submitting to
them, must immediately cease ; they are then to be con
sidered as the ministers of Satan,1 and, as such, it becomes
our indispensable duty to resist and oppose them.
Thus we see that both reason and revelation perfectly
agree in pointing out the nature, end, and design of gov
ernment, viz., that it is to promote the welfare and happi
ness of the community ; and that subjects have a right to
1 See p. 73. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 297
do everything th.it is good, praiseworthy, and consistent
with the good of the community, and are only to be
restrained when they do evil and are injurious either to
individuals or the whole community; and that they ought
to submit to every law that is beneficial to the community
for conscience' sake, although it may in some measure
interfere with their private interest; for every good man
will be ready to forego his private interest for the sake
of being beneficial to the public. Reason and revelation,
we see, do both teach us that our obedience to rulers is
not unlimited, but that resistance is not only allowable,
but an indispensable duty in the case of intolerable tyr
anny and oppression. From both reason and revelation we
learn that, as the public safety is the supreme law of the
state, — being the true standard and measure by which we
are to judge whether any law or body of laws are just or
not, — so legislators have a right to make, and require sub
jection to, any set of laws that have a tendency to promote
the good of the community.
Our governors have a right to take every proper method
to form the minds of their subjects so that they may be
come good members of society. The great difference that
we may observe among the several classes of mankind
arises chiefly from their education and their laws : hence
men become virtuous or vicious, good commonwealths-
men or the contrary, generous, noble, and courageous,
or base, mean-spirited, and cowardly, according to the
impression that they have received from the government
that they are under, together with their education and
the methods that have been practised by their leaders to
form their minds in early life. Hence the necessity of
good laws to encourage every noble and virtuous senti
ment, to suppress vice and immorality, to promote indus
try, and to punish idleness, that parent of innumerable
298
evils ; to promote arts and sciences, and to banish igno
rance from among mankind.
And as nothing tends like religion and the fear of God
to make men good members of the commonwealth, it is
the duty of magistrates to become the patrons and pro
moters of religion and piety, and to make suitable laws for
the maintaining public worship, and decently supporting
the teachers of religion. Such laws, I apprehend, are abso
lutely necessary for the well-being of civil society. Such
laws may be made, consistent with all that liberty of con
science which every good member of society ought to be
possessed of;1 for, as there are few, if any, religious socie
ties among us but what profess to believe and practise all
the great duties of religion and morality that are necessary
for the well-being of society and the safety of the state, let
every one be allowed to attend worship in his own society,
or in that way that he judges most agreeable to the will
of God, and let him be obliged to contribute his assistance
to the supporting and defraying the necessary charges
of his own meeting. In this case no one can have any right
to complain that he is deprived of liberty of conscience,
seeing that he has a right to choose and freely attend that
worship that appears to him to be most agreeable to the
will of God ; and it must be very unreasonable for him to
object against being obliged to contribute his part towards
the support of that worship which he has chosen. Whether
some such method as this might not tend, in a very eminent
manner, to promote the peace and welfare of society, I
must leave to the wisdom of our legislators to determine ;
1 " Ought to be possessed of." But who is to he the judge ? — Mr. Backus,
Mr. West, or the Pope? Mr. Backus demanded the repeal of all laws
compelling the support of public worship, and that it should be left to the
voluntary support of the people. —ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 299
be sure it would take off some of the most popular1
objections against being obliged by law to support public
worship while the law restricts that support only to one
denomination.
But for the civil authority to pretend to establish 2 par
ticular modes of faith and forms of worship, and to punish
all that deviate from the standard which our superiors
have set up, is attended with the most pernicious conse
quences to society. It cramps all free and rational inquiry,
fills the world with hypocrites and superstitious bigots —
nay, with infidels and skeptics ; it exposes men of religion
and conscience to the rage and malice of fiery, blind zeal
ots, and dissolves every tender tie of human nature; in
short, it introduces confusion and every evil work. And I
cannot but look upon it as a peculiar blessing of Heaven
that we live in a land where every one can freely deliver
his sentiments upon religious subjects, and have the privi
lege of worshipping God according to the dictates of his
own conscience,3 without any molestation or disturbance,
— a privilege which I hope we shall ever keep up and
strenuously maintain.4 No principles ought ever to be
discountenanced by civil authority but such as tend to
the subversion of the state. So long as a man is a good
member of society, he is accountable to God alone for his
religious sentiments; but when men are found disturbers
of the public peace, stirring up sedition, or practising
against the state, no pretence of religion or conscience
1 At this time the Baptists, of whom the excellent, and able, and zealous
Backus was the chief, were restless under the then legal obligations. Dr.
West's proposed method was deemed by many a dangerous departure
from the old paths, and the complete divorce was not effected till many
years later, in 1834. — ED.
2 See pp. 47-52; also p. 86, note a. — ED.
3 See p. 68, note 1 . — ED. 4 See p. 58, note a. — ED.
300 THE ELECTION SERMON,
ought to screen them from being brought to condign pun
ishment. But then, as the end and design of punishment
is either to make restitution to the injured or to restrain
men from committing the like crimes for the future, so,
when these important ends are answered, the punishment
ought to cease ; for whatever is inflicted upon a man under
the notion of punishment after these important ends are
answered, is not a just and lawful punishment, but is
properly cruelty and base revenge.
From this account of civil government we learn that
the business of magistrates is weighty and important. It
requires both wisdom and integrity. When either are
wanting, government will be poorly administered; more
especially if our governors are men of loose morals and
abandoned principles ; for if a man is not faithful to God
and his own soul, how can we expect that he will be faith
ful to the public? There was a great deal of propriety in
the advice that Jethro gave to Moses to provide able men,
— men of truth, that feared God, and that hated covetous-
ness, — and to appoint them for rulers over the people. For
it certainly implies a very gross absurdity to suppose that
those who are ordained of God for the public good should
have no regard to the laws of God, or that the ministers
of God should be despisers of the divine commands.
David, the man after God's own heart, makes piety a ne
cessary qualification in a ruler : " He that ruleth over men
(says he) must be just, ruling in the fear of God." It is
necessary it should be so, for the welfare and happiness of
the state ; for, to say nothing of the venality and corrup
tion, of the tyranny and oppression, that will take place
under unjust rulers, barely their vicious and irregular lives
will have a most pernicious effect upon the lives and man
ners of their subjects : their authority becomes despicable
in the opinion of discerning men. And, besides, with
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 301
what face can they make or execute laws against vices
which they practise with greediness ? A people that have
a right of choosing their magistrates are criminally guilty
in the sight of Heaven when they are governed by caprice
and humor, or are influenced by bribery to choose magis
trates that are irreligious men, who are devoid of senti
ment, and of bad morals and base lives. Men cannot be
sufficiently sensible what a curse they may bring upon
themselves and their posterity by foolishly and wickedly
choosing men of abandoned characters and profligate lives
for their magistrates and rulers.1
We have already seen that magistrates who rule in the
fear of God ought not only to be obeyed as the ministers
of God, but that they ought also to be handsomely sup
ported, that they may cheerfully and freely attend upon
the duties of their station ; for it is a great shame and dis
grace to society to see men that serve the public laboring
under indigent and needy circumstances ; and, besides, it
is a maxim of eternal truth that the laborer is worthy of
his reward.
It is also a great duty incumbent on people to treat
those in authority with all becoming honor and respect, —
to be very careful of casting any aspersion upon their char
acters. To despise government, and to speak evil of dig
nities, is represented in Scripture as one of the worst of
characters; and it was an injunction of Moses, "Thou
shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." Great
mischief may ensue upon reviling the character of good
rulers ; for the unthinking herd of mankind are very apt
to give ear to scandal, and when it falls upon men in
power, it brings their authority into contempt, lessens their
influence, and disheartens them from doing that service to
i See p. 69, note 1. — ED.
26
302
the community of which they are capable ; whereas, when
they are properly honored, and treated with that respect
which is due to their station, it inspires them with courage
and a noble ardor to serve the public : their influence
among the people is strengthened, and their authority
becomes firmly established. We ought to remember that
they are men like to ourselves, liable to the same imperfec
tions and infirmities with the rest of us, and therefore, so
long as they aim at the public good, their mistakes, mis
apprehensions, and infirmities, ought to be treated with the
utmost humanity and tenderness.
But though I would recommend to all Christians, as a
part of the duty that they owe to magistrates, to treat
them with proper honor and respect, none can reasonably
suppose that I mean that they ought to be flattered l in
their vices, or honored and caressed while they are seeking
to undermine and ruin the state ; for this would be
wickedly betraying our just rights, and we should be
guilty of our own destruction. We ought ever to perse
vere with firmness and fortitude in maintaining and con
tending for all that liberty that the Deity has granted us.
It is our duty to be ever watchful over our just rights,
and not suffer them to be wrested out of our hands by
any of the artifices of tyrannical oppressors. But there is
a wide difference between being jealous of our rights,
when we have the strongest reason to conclude that they
are invaded by our rulers, and being unreasonably suspi
cious of men that are zealously endeavoring to support the
constitution, only because we do not thoroughly compre
hend all their designs. The first argues a noble and
generous mind ; the other, a low and base spirit.
Thus have I considered the nature of the duty enjoined
in the text, and have endeavored to show that the same
i See pp. 97-103. — ED.
* PREACHED AT BOSTON. 1776. 303
principles that require obedience to lawful magistrates flo
also require us to resist tyrants ; this I have confirmed
from reason and Scripture.
It was with a particular view to the present unhappy
controversy that subsists between us and Great Britain
that I chose to discourse upon the nature and design of
government, and the rights and duties both of governors
and governed, that so, justly understanding our rights and
privileges, we may stand firm in our opposition to minis
terial tyranny, while at the same time we pay all proper
obedience and submission to our lawful magistrates; and
that, while we are contending for liberty, we may avoid
running into licentiousness; and that we may preserve the
due medium between submitting to tyranny and running
into anarchy. I acknowledge that I have undertaken a
difficult task ; but, as it appeared to me, the present state
of affairs loudly called for such a discourse ; and, therefore,
I hope the \vise, the generous, and the good, will candidly
receive my good intentions to serve the public. I shall
now apply this discourse to the grand controversy that at
this day subsists between Great Britain and the American
colonies.
And here, in the first place, I cannot but take notice
how wonderfully Providence has smiled upon us by caus
ing the several colonies to unite * so firmly together against
the tyranny of Great Britain, though differing from each
other in their particular interest, forms of government,
modes of worship, and particular customs and manners,
besides several animosities that had subsisted among them.
That, under these circumstances, such a union should take
place as we now behold, was a thing that might rather
have been wished than hoped for.
And, in the next place, who could have thought that,
1 See p. 218. — ED.
304
when our charter was vacated, when we became destitute
of any legislative authority, and when our courts of justice
in many parts of the country were stopped, so that we
could neither make nor execute laws upon offenders, —
who, I say, would have thought, that in such a situation
the people should behave so peaceably, and maintain such
good order and harmony among themselves? This is a
plain proof that they, having not the civil law to regulate
themselves by, became a law unto themselves ; and by
their conduct they have shown that they were regulated
by the law of God written in their hearts. This is the
Lord's doing, and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes.1
From what has been said in this discourse, it will appear
that we are in the way of our duty in opposing the tyranny
of Great Britain ; for, if unlimited submission is not due
to any human power, if we have an undoubted right to
oppose and resist a set of tyrants 2 that are subverting our
just rights and privileges, there cannot remain a doubt in
any man, that will calmly attend to reason, whether we
have a right to resist and oppose the arbitrary measures of
the King and Parliament ; for it is plain to demonstration,
nay, it is in a manner self-evident, that they have been and
are endeavoring to deprive us not only of the privileges
of Englishmen, and our charter rights, but they have en
deavored to deprive us of what is much more sacred, viz.,
the privileges of men and Christians;8 i. e., they are rob
bing us of the inalienable rights that the God of nature
has given us as men and rational beings, and has confirmed
a The meaning is not that they have attempted to deprive us of liberty of con
science, but that they have attempted to take away those rights which God has
invested us with as his creatures and confirmed in his gospel, by which believers
have a covenant right to the good things of this present life and world.
1 See note 1, p. 206. — ED.
2 This was very plain English for the British Parliament to read, and
shocking to Oxford divines. — ED.
1776. 305
to us in his written- word as Christians and disciples of
that Jesus who came to redeem us from the bondage of
sin and the tyranny of Satan, and to grant us the most
perfect freedom, even the glorious liberty of the sons
and children of God ; that here they have endeavored to
deprive us of the sacred charter of the King of Heaven.
But we have this for our consolation : the Lord reisneth :
C> 7
he governs the world in righteousness, and will avenge the
cause of the oppressed when they cry unto him. We
have made our appeal to Heaven, and we cannot doubt
but that the Judge of all the earth will do right.
Need I upon this occasion descend to particulars? Can
any one be ignorant what the things are of which we com
plain ? Does not every one know that the King and Par
liament have assumed the right to tax us without our
consent? And can any one be so lost to the principles of
humanity and common sense as not to view their conduct
in this affair as a very grievous imposition ? Reason and
equity require that no one be obliged to pay a tax that he
has never consented to, either by himself or by his repre
sentative. But, as Divine Providence has placed us at so
great a distance from Great Britain that we neither are
nor can be properly represented in the British Parliament,
it is a plain proof that the Deity designed that we should
have the powers of legislation and taxation among our
selves ; for can any suppose it to be reasonable that a set
of men that are perfect strangers to us should have the
uncontrollable right to lay the most heavy and grievous
burdens upon us that they please, purely to gratify their
unbounded avarice and luxury? Must we be obliged to
perish with cold and hunger to maintain them in idleness,
in all kinds of debauchery and dissipation ? But if they
have the right to take our property from us without our
consent, we must be wholly at their mercy for our food
26*
306 THE ELECTION SERMON,
and raiment, and we know by sad experience that then-
tender mercies are cruel.
But because we were not willing to submit to such an
unrighteous and cruel decree, — though we modestly com
plained and humbly petitioned for a redress of our griev
ances, — instead of hearing our complaints, and granting
our requests, they have gone on to acid iniquity to transgres
sion, by making several cruel arid unrighteous acts. Who
can forget the cruel act to block up the harbor of Boston,1
whereby thousands of innocent persons must have been
inevitably ruined had they not been supported by the con
tinent? Who can forget the act for vacating our charter,
o o "
together with many other cruel acts which it is needless
to mention? But, not being able to accomplish their
wicked purposes by mere acts of Parliament, they have
proceeded to commence2 open hostilities against us, and
have endeavored to destroy us by fire and sword. Our
towns they have burnt,3 our brethren they have slain, our
vessels they have taken, and our goods they have spoiled.
And, after all this wanton exertion of arbitrary power, is
there the man that has any of the feeling of humanity left
who is not fired with a noble indignation against such mer
ciless tyrants, who have not only brought upon us all the
horrors of a civil war, but have also added a piece of bar-
1 No class in the community rendered more efficient service to their
country than did the seamen, especially at the commencement of the war.
Mr. Sabine's Report on the Fisheries contains a most interesting chapter
— pp. 198-210 — on the " Public Services and Character of Fishermen."
Newport, R. I., Marblehead, and Boston seamen did invaluable service.
See also Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, ii. 88, and Arnold's His
tory of Rhode Island, ii. 386; Cooper's Naval History, London ed., 1839,
i. 28G. - ED.
2 They shed the first blood at Lexinjrton, April 19th. — ED.
3 Charlestown, burnt June 17, and Falmouth, October 18. See Froth-
ingham's History, and Willis's History of Portland, ii. chap. 8. — ED.
1776. 307
barity unknown to Turks and Mohammedan infidels, yea,
such as would be abhorred and detested by the savages of
the wilderness, — I mean their cruelly forcing our brethren
whom they have taken prisoners, without any distinction
of whig or tory, to serve on board their ships of war,1
thereby obliging them to take up arms against their own
countrymen, and to fight against their brethren, their
wives, and their children, and to assist in plundering their
own estates ! This, my brethren, is done by men who call
themselves Christians, against their Christian brethren, —
against men who till now gloried in the name of English
men, and who were ever ready to spend their lives and
fortunes in the defence of British rights. Tell it not in
Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest it cause
our enemies to rejoice and our adversaries to triumph !
Such a conduct as this brings a great reproach upon the
profession of Christianity ; nay, it is a great scandal even
to human nature itself.
It would be highly criminal not to feel a due resent
ment against such tyrannical monsters. It is an indis
pensable duty, my brethren, which we owe to God and
our country, to rouse up and bestir ourselves, and, being
animated with a noble zeal for the sacred cause of liberty,
to defend our lives and fortunes, e,ven to the shedding the
last drop of blood. The love of our country, the tender
affection that we have for our wives and children, the
regard we ought to have for unborn posterity, yea, every
thing that is dear and sacred, do now loudly call upon us
to use our best endeavors to save our country. We must
beat our ploughshares into swords, and our pruning-hooks
into spears, and learn the art of self-defence against our
1 " It is, in truth, nothing more than the old, and, as I thought, exploded,
problem of tyranny, which proposes to beggar its subjects into submis
sion."— Edmund Burke, 1775. — ED.
308 THE ELECTION SERMON,
enemies.1 To be careless and remiss, or to neglect the
cause of our country through the base motives of avarice
and self-interest, will expose us not only to the resent-
1 A large octavo pamphlet of thirty-one pages — " The Manual Exercises,
as ordered by his Majesty in 1764, together with Plans and Explanations
of the method generally practised at Reviews and Field-Days. Massachu
setts Bay: Boston. Printed and sold by Isaiah Thomas at his Printing-
office, near the Mill-Bridge " — was recommended by the "Provincial Con
gress at Cambridge, October 20, 1774, .... as the best calculated for
appearance and defence." Another pamphlet of fifteen pages — "Rules
and Regulations for the Massachusetts Army. Salem : Printed by Samuel
and Ebcnezer Hall. 1775" — begins thus: "In Provincial Congress, Con
cord, April 5th, 1775. Whereas the Lust of Power whk-h of old oppressed,
persecuted, and exiled our pious and virtuous ancestors from their fair
possessions in Britain, now pursues, with tenfold severity, us, their guilt
less children, who are unjustly and, wickedly charged with Licentiousness,
Sedition, Treason, and Rebellion; and being deeply impressed with a
Sense of the almost incredible Fatigues and Hardships our venerable Pro
genitors encountered, who fled from Oppression for the sake of civil and
religious Liberty for themselves and their offspring, and began a settle
ment here on bare Creation, at their own expense; and having seriously
considered the Duty we owe to God, to the Memory of such invincible
Worthies, to the King, to Great Britain, our Country, ourselves and Pos
terity, do think it an indispensable Duty, by all lawful Ways and Means
in our Power, to recover, maintain, defend, and preserve the free exercise
of all those civil and religious Rights and Liberties for which many of our
Forefathers fought, bled, and died, and to hand them down entire for the
free Enjoyment of the latest Posterity;" and they " recommend " fifty-
three articles for the regulation of " the Army that may be raised," etc.
Article one is that " all officers and soldiers .... shall diligently frequent
Divine Service and Sermons "
The whole is " signed by order of the Provincial Congress.
" JOHN HANCOCK, President."
How perfectly Cromwellian is all this! These soldiers were freemen;
they chose the delegates to that very congress; from the lips of their own
chosen pastors flowed fervid appeals, like that in the text, to which they
constantly listened, and which they drank in till their souls were kindled.
Could George III. and his mercenary Hessians conquer such soldiers, who
fought not for money, but for their homes, — yes, and for us, — with Bi
bles in their pockets, and faith in their hearts, and English Puritan blood
in their veins ? — ED.
1776. 309
ments of our fellow-creatures, but to the displeasure of
God Almighty ; for to such base wretches, in such a time
as this, we may apply with the utmost propriety that pas
sage in Jeremiah xlviii. 10: "Cursed be he that doth the
work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keep-
eth back his sword from blood." To save our country
from the hands of our oppressors ought to be dearer to us
even than our own lives, and, next the eternal salvation of
our own souls, is the thing of the greatest importance, — a
duty so sacred that it cannot justly be dispensed with for
the sake of our secular concerns. Doubtless for this reason
God has been pleased to manifest his anger against those
who have refused to assist their country against its cruel
oppressors. Hence, in a case similar to ours, when the
Israelites were struggling to deliver themselves from the
tyranny of Jabin, the king of Canaan, we find a most bit
ter curse denounced against those who refused to grant
their assistance in the common cause ; see Judges v. 23 :
"Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bit
terly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to
the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
mighty."
Now, if such a bitter curse is denounced against those
who refused to assist their country against its oppressors,
what a dreadful doom are those exposed to who have not
only refused to assist their country in this time of distress,
but have, through motives of interest or ambition, shown
themselves enemies to their country by opposing l us in
1 About this time — March 31st— Washington wrote of these men: "One
or two have done what a great number ought to have done long ago —
committed suicide. By all accounts there never existed a more miserable
set of beings than these wretched creatures now are. Taught to believe
that the power of Great Britain was superior to all opposition, and, if not,
that foreign aid was at hand, they were even higher and more insulting in
310
the measures that we have taken, and by openly favoring
the British Parliament ! He that is so lost to humanity as
to be willing to sacrifice his country for the sake of ava
rice or ambition, has arrived to the highest stage of wick-
7 O O
edness that human nature is capable of, and deserves a
much worse name than I at present care to give him. But
I think I may with propriety say that such a person has
forfeited his right to human society, and that he ought to
take up his abode, not among the savage men, but among
the savage beasts of the wilderness.
Nor can I wholly excuse from blame those timid persons
who, through their own cowardice, have been induced to
favor our enemies, and have refused to act in defence of
their country ; for a due sense of the ruin and destruction
that our enemies are bringing upon us is enough to raise
such a resentment in the human breast that would, I
should think, be sufficient to banish fear from the most
timid make. And, besides, to indulge cowardice in such a
cause argues a want of faith in God ; for can he that
firmly believes and relies upon the providence of God
doubt whether he will avenge the cause of the injured
when they apply to him for help? For my own part, when
I consider the dispensations of Providence towards this
land ever since our lathers first settled in Plymouth, I find
abundant reason to conclude that the great Sovereign of
the universe has planted a vine in this American wilder
ness which he has caused to take deep root, and it has
their opposition than the regulars. When the order issued, therefore, for
embarking the troops in Boston, no electric shock, no sudden explosion
of thunder, in a word, not the last trump, could have struck them with
greater consternation. They were at their wits' end; and, conscious of
their black ingratitude, they chose to commit themselves, in the manner
I have above described, to the mercy of the waves, at a tempestuous sea
son, rather than meet their offended countrvmen." — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 311
filled the land, and that he will never suffer it to be
plucked up or destroyed.
Our fathers fled1 from the rage of prelatical tyranny and
persecution, and came into this land in order to enjoy lib
erty of conscience, and they have increased to a great peo
ple. Many have been the interpositions of Divine Provi
dence on our behalf, both in our fathers' days and ours ;
and, though we are now engaged in a war with Great
Britain, yet we have been prospered in a most wonderful
manner. And can we think that lie who has thus far
helped us will give us up into the hands of our enemies?
Certainly he that has begun to deliver us will continue to
show his mercy towards us, in saving us from the .hands
of our enemies: he will not forsake us if we do not forsake
him. Our cause is so just and good that nothing can pre
vent our success but only our sins. Could I see a spirit of
repentance and reformation prevail through the land, I
should not have the least apprehension or fear of being
brought under the iron rod of slavery, even though all the
powers of the globe were combined against us. And
though I confess that the irreligion and profaneness which
are so common among us gives something of a damp to
my spirits, yet I cannot help hoping, and even believing,
that Providence has designed this continent for to be the
asylum of liberty and true religion ; for can we suppose
that the God who created us free agents, and designed
that we should glorify and serve him in this world that we
might enjoy him forever hereafter, will suffer liberty and
true religion to be banished from off the face of the earth?
But do we not find that both religion and liberty seem to
be expiring and gasping for life in the other continent? —
where, then, can they find a harbor or place of refuge but
in this?
i See pp. x.— xii. — ED.
312
There are some * who pretend that it is against their
consciences to take up arms in defence of their country ;
but can any rational being suppose that the Deity can re
quire us to contradict the law of nature which he has writ
ten in our hearts, a part of which I am sure is the principle
of self-defence, which strongly prompts us all to oppose
any power that would take away our lives, or the lives of
our friends? Now, for men to take pains to destroy the
tender feelings of human nature, and to eradicate the prin
ciples of self-preservation, and then to persuade themselves
that in so doing they submit to and obey the will of God5
is a plain proof how easily men may be led to pervert the
very first and plainest principles of reason and common
sense, and argues a gross corruption of the human mind.
We find such persons are very inconsistent with them
selves ; for no men are more zealous to defend their prop
erty, and to secure their estates from the encroachments of
others, while they refuse to defend their persons, their
wives, their children, and their country, against the assaults
of the enemy. We see to what unaccountable lengths
men will run when once they leave the plain road of com
mon sense, and violate the law which God has written in
the heart. Thus some have thought they did God service
when they unmercifully butchered and destroyed the lives
of the servants of God ; while others, upon the contrary
extreme, believe that they please God while they sit still
and quietly behold their friends and brethren killed by
their unmerciful enemies, without endeavoring to defend
or rescue them. The one is a sin of omission, and the
other is a sin of commission, and it may perhaps be diffi
cult to say, under certain circumstances, which is the most
1 " Whereas the people called Quakers profess themselves conscientiously
scrupulous of attending in arms at military musters," they were exempted
by a statute of 17G3. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 313
criminal in the sight of Heaven. Of this I am sure, that
they are, both of them, great violations of the law of God.
Having thus endeavored to show the lawfulness and ne-
£?
cessity of defending ourselves against the tyranny of Great
Britain, I would observe that Providence seems plainly to
point to us the expediency, and even necessity, of our con
sidering ourselves as an independent state.1 For, not to
consider the absurdity implied in making war against a
power to which we profess to own subjection, to pass by
the impracticability of our ever coming under subjection to
Great Britain upon fair and equitable terms, we may ob
serve that the British Parliament has virtually declared us
an independent state by authorizing their ships of war to
seize all American property, wherever they can find it,
without making any distinction between the friends of
administration and those that have appeared in opposition
to the acts of Parliament. This is making us a distinct
nation from themselves. They can have no right any
longer to style us rebels ; for rebellion implies a particular
faction risen up in opposition to lawful authority, and, as
such, the factious party ought to be punished, while those
that remain loyal are to be protected. But when war is
declared against a whole community without distinction,
and the property of each party is declared to be seizable,
this, if anything can be, is treating us as an independent
state. Now, if they are pleased to consider us as in a state
of independency, who can object against our considering
ourselves so too ?
But while we are nobly opposing with our lives and es
tates the tyranny of the British Parliament, let us not for
get the duty which we owe to our lawful magistrates ; let
us never mistake licentiousness for liberty. The mere we
1 Within forty days, July 4th, came the " Declaration of Independence."
27
314 THE ELECTION SERMON,
understand the principles of liberty, the more readily shall
we yield obedience to lawful authority ; for no man can
oppose good government but he that is a stranger to true
liberty. Let us ever check and restrain the factious dis
turbers of the peace ; whenever we meet with persons that
are loth to submit to lawful authority, let us treat them
with the contempt which they deserve, and ever esteem
them as the enemies of their country and the pests of so
ciety. It is with peculiar pleasure that I reflect upon the
peaceable behavior of my countrymen at a time when the
courts of justice were stopped and the execution of laws
suspended. It will certainly be expected of a people that
could behave so well when they had nothing to restrain
them but the laws written in their hearts, that they will
yield all ready and cheerful obedience to lawful authority.
There is at present the utmost need of guarding ourselves
against a seditious and factious temper ; for when we are
engaged with so powerful an enemy from without, our
political salvation, under God, does, in an eminent manner,
depend upon our being firmly united together in the bonds
of love to one another, and of due submission to lawful
authority. I hope we shall never give any just occasion to
our adversaries to reproach us as being men of turbulent
dispositions and licentious principles, that cannot bear to
be restrained by good and wholesome laws, even though
they are of our own making, nor submit to rulers of our
own choosing. But I have reason to hope much better
things of my countrymen, though I thus speak. However,
in this time of difficulty and distress, we cannot be too
much guarded against the least approaches to discord and
faction. Let us, while we are jealous of our rights, take
heed of unreasonable suspicions and evil surmises which
have no proper foundation ; let us take heed lest we hurt
the cause of liberty by speaking evil of the ruler of the
people.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 315
Let us treat our rulers with all that honor and respect
which the dignity of their station requires ; but let it be
such an honor and respect as is worthy of the sons of free
dom to give. Let us ever abhor the base arts that are
used by fawning parasites and cringing courtiers, who by
their low artifices and base flatteries obtain offices and
posts which they are unqualified to sustain, and honors of
which they are unworthy, and oftentimes have a greater
number of places assigned them than any one person of the
greatest abilities can ever properly fill, by means of which
the community becomes greatly injured, for this reason,
that many an important trust remains undischarged, and
many an honest and worthy member of society is deprived
of those honors and privileges to which he has a just
right, whilst the most despicable, worthless courtier is
loaded with honorable and profitable commissions. In
order to avoid this evil, I hope our legislators will always
despise flattery as something below the dignity of a
rational mind, and that they will ever scorn the man that
will be corrupted or take a bribe. And let us all resolve
with ourselves that no motives of interest, nor hopes of
preferment, shall ever induce us to act the part of fawning
courtiers towards men in power. Let the honor and re
spect which we show our superiors be true and genuine,
flowing from a sincere and upright heart.
The honors that have been paid to arbitrary princes
have often been very hypocritical and insincere. Tyrants
have been flattered in their vices, and have often had an
idolatrous reverence paid them.1 The worst princes have
been the most flattered and adored ; and many such, in the
pagan world, assumed the title of gods, and had divine
honors paid them. This idolatrous reverence has ever
been the inseparable concomitant of arbitrary power and
1 See pp. 98, 99, 100. — ED.
316
tyrannical government; for even Christian princes, if they
have not been adored under the character of gods, yet the
titles given them strongly savor of blasphemy, and the
reverence paid them is really idolatrous. What right has
a poor sinful worm of the dust to claim the title of his
most sacred Majesty ? Most sacred certainly belongs only
to God alone, — for there is none holy as the Lord, — yet
how common is it to see this title given to kings ! And
how often have we been told that the king can do no
wrong!1 Even though he should be so foolish and wicked
as hardly to be capable of ever being in the right, yet still
it must be asserted and maintained that it is impossible for
him to do wrong !
The cruel, savage disposition of tyrants, and the idola
trous reverence that is paid them, are both most beautifully
exhibited to' view by the apostle John in the Revelation,
thirteenth chapter, from the first to the tenth verse, where
the apostle gives a description of a horrible wild beast a
a Wild beast. By the beast with seven heads and ten horns I understand the
tyranny of arbitrary princes, viz., the emperors and kings of the Eastern and
Western Roman Empire, and not the tyranny of the Pope and clergy; for the
description of every part of this beast will answer better to be understood of
political than of ecclesiastical tyrants. Thus the seven heads are generally inter
preted to denote the several forms of Roman government; the ten horns are
understood of the ten kingdoms that were setup in the Western Empire; and
by the body of the beast it seems most natural to understand the Eastern, or
Greek Empire, for it is said to be like a leopard. This image is taken from Dan
iel vii. 6, where the third beast is said to be like a leopard. Now, by the third
beast iiv Daniel is understood, by the best interpreters, the Grecian Monarchy.
It is well known that John frequently borrows his images from Daniel, and I
believe it will be found, upon a critical examination of the matter, that when
ever he does so he means the same thing with Daniel ; if this be true (as I am
fully persuaded it is), then, by the body of this beast being like a leopard in the
Revelation of John, is to be understood the Eastern, or Greek Empire, wrhich
was that part of the old Roman Empire that remained whole for several ages
after the Western Empire was broken' into ten kingdoms. Further: after the
beast was risen it is said that the dragon gave him his seat. Now, by the dragon
is meant the devil, who is represented as presiding over the Roman Empire in its
pagan state; but the peat of the Roman Empire in its pagan state was Rome.
Here, then, is a prophecy that the emperor of the East should become possessed
i See p. 94, note a. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 317
which he saw rise out of the sea, having seven heads and
ten horns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy.
By heads are to be understood forms of government, and
by blasphemy, idolatry ; so that it seems implied that there
will be a degree of idolatry in every form of tyrannical
government. This beast is represented as having the body
of a leopard, the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion ;
i. e., a horrible monster, possessed of the rage and fury of
the lion, the fierceness of the bear, and the swiftness of the
leopard to seize and devour its prey. Can words more
strongly point out, or exhibit in more lively colors, the
exceeding rage, fury, and impetuosity of tyrants, in their
destroying and making havoc of mankind? To this beast
we find the dragon gave his power, seat, and great au
thority; i. e., the devil constituted him to be his vicegerent
on earth; this is to denote that tyrants are the ministers
of Satan, ordained by him for the destruction of mankind.
Such a horrible monster, we should have thought, would
have been abhorred and detested of all mankind, and that
of Rome, which exactly agrees with what we know from history to be fact; for
the Emperor Justinian's generals having expelled the Goths out of Italy, Home
was brought into subjection to the emperor of the East, and was for a long time
governed by the emperor's lieutenant, who resided at Ravenna. These consid
erations convince me that the Greek Empire, and not the Tope and his clergy,
is to be understood by the body of the beast, which was like a leopard. And
what further confirms me in this belief is, that it appears to me that the Pope
and the papal clergy are to be understood by the second beast which we read
of in Revelation xiii. 11 — 17, for of him it is said that '' he had two horns like a
lamb." A lamb, we know, is the figure by which Jesus Christ is signified in the
Revelation and many other parts of the New Testament. The Pope claims both
a temporal and spiritual sovereignty, denoted by the two horns, under the char
acter of the vicar of Jesus Christ, and yet, under this high pretence of being
the vicar of Jesus Christ, he speaks like a dragon; i. e., he promotes idolatry in
the Christian Church, in like manner as the dragon did in the heathen Avorld.
To distinguish him from the first beast, he is called (Revelation xix.) "the false
prophet that wrought miracles; " i. e., like Mahomet, he pretends to be a law
giver, and claims infallibility, and his emissaries endeavor to confirm this doc
trine by pretended miracles. How wonderfully do all these characters agree to
the Pope ! Wherefore I conclude that the second, and not the first beast, denotes
the tyranny of the Pope and his clergy.
27*
318
all nations would have joined their powers and forces
together to oppose and utterly destroy him from off the
face of the earth ; but, so far are they from doing this, that,
on the contrary, they are represented as worshipping him
(verse 8) : "And all that dwell on the earth shall worship
him," viz., all those "whose names are not written in the
Lamb's book of life ; " i. e., the wicked world shall pay him
an idolatrous reverence, and worship him with a godlike
adoration. What can in a more lively manner show the
gross stupidity and wickedness of mankind, in thus tamely
giving up their just rights into the hands of tyrannical
monsters, and in so readily paying them such an unlimited
obedience as is due to God alone ?
We may observe, further, that these men are said (verse
4) to "worship the dragon ; " — not that it is to be sup
posed that they, in direct terms, paid divine homage to
Satan, but that the adoration paid to the beast, who was
Satan's vicegerent, did ultimately centre in him. Hence
we learn that those who pay an undue and sinful venera
tion to tyrants are properly the servants of the devil;
they are worshippers of the prince of darkness, for in him
all that undue homage and adoration centres that is given
to his ministers. Hence that terrible denunciation of
divine wrath against the worshippers of the beast and his
image : " If any man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indigna
tion, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in
the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the
Lamb ; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever
and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who wor
ship the beast and his image, and who receive the mark of
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 319
his narae."a We have here set forth in the clearest man
ner, by the inspired apostle, God's abhorrence of tyranny
and tyrants, together with the idolatrous1 reverence that
their wretched subjects are wont to pay them, and the
awful denunciation of divine wrath against those who are
guilty of this undue obedience to tyrants.
Does it not, then, highly concern us all to stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Heaven hath made us free, and to
strive to get the victory over the beast and his image —
over every species of tyranny ? Let us look upon a free
dom from the power of tyrants as a blessing that cannot
be purchased too dear, and let us bless God that he has so
far delivered us from that idolatrous reverence, which men
are so very apt to pay to arbitrary tyrants ; and let us
pray that he would be pleased graciously to perfect the
mercy he has begun to show us by confounding the devices
of our enemies and bringing their counsels to nought, and
by establishing our just rights and privileges upon such a
firm and lasting basis that the powers of earth and hell
shall not prevail against it.
Under God, every person in the community ought to
contribute his assistance to the bringing about so glorious
and important an event ; but in a more eminent manner
does this important business belong to the gentlemen that
are chosen to represent the people in this General Assem
bly, including those that have been appointed members of
the Honorable Council Board.
Honored fathers, we look up to you, in this da'y of calam
ity and distress, as the guardians of our invaded rights,
and the defenders of our liberties against British tyranny.
You are called, in Providence, to save your country from
a Rev. xiv. 9, 10,
1 See pp. 48, note 1; 49, note 1; 98. — ED.
320
ruin. A trust is reposed in you of the highest importance
to the community that can be conceived of, its business
the most noble and grand, and a task the most arduous
and difficult to accomplish that ever engaged the human
mind — I mean as to things of the present life. But as
you are engaged in the defence of a just and righteous
cause, you may with firmness of mind commit your cause
to God, and depend on his kind providence for direction
and assistance. You will have the fervent wishes and
prayers of all good men that God would crown all your
labors with success, and direct you into such measures as
shall tend to promote the welfare and happiness of the
community, and afford you all that wisdom and prudence
which is necessary to regulate the affairs of state at this
critical period.
Honored fathers of the House of Representatives : We
trust to your wisdom and goodness that you will be led to
appoint such men to be in council whom you know to be
men of real principle, and who are of unblemished lives ;
that have shown themselves zealous and hearty friends to
the liberties of America; and men that have the fear of
God before their eyes ; for such only are men that can be
depended upon uniformly to pursue the general good.
My reverend fathers and brethren in the ministry will
remember that, according to our text, it is part of the
work and business of a gospel minister1 to teach his hear
ers the duty they owe to magistrates. Let us, then,
endeavor to explain the nature of their duty faithfully,
and show them the difference between liberty and licen
tiousness; and, while we are animating them to oppose
tyranny and arbitrary power, let us inculcate upon them
the duty of yielding due obedience to lawful authority.
In order to the right and faithful discharge of this part
i See pp. 47, 53, 54.— ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1776. 321
of our ministry, it is necessary that we should thor
oughly study the law of nature, the rights of mankind,
and the reciprocal duties of governors and governed. By
this means we shall be able to guard them against the
extremes of slavish submission to tyrants on one hand,
and of sedition and licentiousness on the other. We may,
I apprehend, attain a thorough acquaintance with the law
of nature and the rights of mankind, while we remain
ignorant of many technical terms of law, and are utterly
unacquainted with the obscure and barbarous Latin that
was so much used in the ages of popish darkness and
superstition.1
To conclude : While we are fighting for liberty, and
striving against tyranny, let us remember to fight the good
i " The old forms of writs and legal process — the authority of ' The
State/ ' The Commonwealth/ or ' The People/ being substituted for that
of the king — were still retained in all the states; and, out of a pedantic
spirit of imitation on the part of the lawyers, in spite of the efforts of the
state Legislatures to give greater simplicity to legal proceedings, the forms
and practice of the courts, even subsequently to the Revolution, were made
more and more to conform to English technicalities. This spirit on the
part of the lawyers, who formed a very influential portion of every state
Legislature, proved a serious obstacle to all attempted reforms and sim
plifications of the law." — Hildreth's History of the United States, vol.
iii., 380, 381.
By recent legislation in England and in several of the United States,
on the subject of evidence, a vast accumulation of legal subtleties and
refinements, tending to hinder, if not to frustrate justice, has been thrown
aside among the rubbish of the past, — curious and useless learning.
Much has been done to simplify the conveyance of real estate, and divest
it of the encumbrances which originated in early times and another condi
tion of society ; and to secure to women their rights to property, by sweep
ing away the fictions which reminded us of former barbarity; and special
pleading is added to the magnificent hecatomb. In review it seems as if
the intent had been, first, to drive the parties out of court, but, if they
were smart enough to keep in, next to prevent justice between them, if
the subtlest logic and ingenuity, spun out to the thinnest though graveSt
nonsense, could do it.— ED.
322 THE ELECTION SERMON, 1776.
fight of faith, and earnestly seek to be delivered from that
bondage of corruption which we are brought into by sin,
and that we may be made partakers of the glorious liberty
of the sons and children of God : which may the Father
of Mercies grant us all, through Jesus Christ. AMEN.
A
SERMON
PREACHED BEFORE THE
HONORABLE COUNCIL,
AND THE HONORABLE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
OF THE
STATE of MASSACHUSETTS-*BAY,
IN
NEW-ENGLAND,
AT
BOSTON,
MAY 27, 1778.
BEING THE ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ELECTION
OF THE HONORABLE COUNCIL.
By PHILLIPS PAYSON, A. M.
PASTOR OF A CHURCH IN CHELSEA.
B O S T O N : N. E.
PRINTED BY JOHN GILL, PRINTER TO THB
GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
M. DCC. LXXVIII.
STATE OP MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, COUNCIL CHAMBER, May 28, 1778.
Ordered, That Moses Gill, Henry Gardner, and Timothy Danielson, Esquires,
be a Committee to wait on the Rev. Mr. Samuel Phillips Payson, and return him
the thanks of the Board for his Sermon delivered yesterday before both Houses
of Assembly; and request a copy thereof for the press.
JOHN AVERT, D. Secretary.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
IN a note to Lord North, dated February 4, 1774. George III. wrote that
"General Gage, though just returned from Boston, expresses his willing
ness to go back at a day's notice, if convenient measures are adopted.
He says they will be lions while we are lambs; but if AVC take the
resolute part, they will undoubtedly prove very meek. Four regiments,
sent to Boston, will, he thinks, be sufficient to prevent any disturbance.
All men rtow feel that the fatal compliance in 17GG has increased the
pretensions of the Americans to thorough independence."
Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgo}rne, going into Boston, May 25,
1774, asked the skipper of a packet, outward bound, what news there
was. He replied that Boston was surrounded by ten thousand country
people. "What!" Burgoyne exclaimed, "ten thousand peasants keep
five thousand king's troops shut up! Well, let us get in, and we'll soon
find elbow-room." The presumptuous and confident general was soon to
find snug quarters among those same " peasants," with hardly enough of
" elbow-room " for comfortable reflection.1
On the 17th of October, 1777, at Saratoga, General Burgoyne surren
dered his sword to General Gates. " After dinner, the American army
was drawn up, in parallel lines, on each side of the road, extending nearly
a mile. Between these victorious troops the British, with light infantry
in front, and escorted by a company of light dragoons, preceded by two
mounted officers bearing the American flag, marched to the lively tune of
1 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 114. Mr. F. says that Burgoyne loved a
joke, and used to relate that, "while a prisoner of war, he was received with
great courtesy by the Boston people as he stepped from the Charlestown ferry
boat, but he was really annoyed when an old lady, perched on a shed above the
crowd, cried out, at the top of a shrill voice, ' Make way! make way! — the gen
eral 's coming! Give him elbow-room ! ' "
28
326 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
Yankee Doodle." 1 General Burgoyne glittered in his uniform. Gates
was in his plain blue frock, and each of the American soldiers had on
" the clothes which he wore in the fields, the church, or the tavern.
They stood, however, like soldiers, well arranged, and with a military air,
in which there was but little to find fault with. All the muskets had
bayonets, and the sharp-shooters had rifles. The men all stood so still
that we were filled with wonder. Not one of them made a single motion,
as if he would speak with his neighbor. Nay, more, all the lads that
stood there in rank-and-file kind nature had formed so trim, so slender, so
nervous, that it was a pleasure to look at them, and we were all surprised
at the sight of such a handsome, well-formed race. In all earnestness,"
says the same Hessian officer,2 " English America surpasses the most of
Europe in the growth and looks of its male population. The whole nation
has a natural talent for Avar and a soldier's life."
The ministry were assailed in Parliament for their employment of the
Indians against the Americans. One of the secretaries defended it, con
cluding, "It is perfectly justifiable to use all the means that God and
nature have put into our hands." — " That God and nature put into our
hands!" repeated Chatham, writh contemptuous abhorrence; "I know
not what idea that lord may entertain of God and nature, but I know
that such abominable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and
humanity. What! attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to
the massacre of the Indian scalping-knife! — to the cannibal and savage
torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating — literally, my lords, eating —
the mangled victims of his barbarous battles ! . . . The abominable
principles, and this most abominable avowal of them, demand most
decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench," — pointing to
the bishops, — " those holy ministers of the gospel, and pious pastors of the
church, — I conjure them to join in the holy work, and to vindicate the
religion of their God." That appeal was in vain. The chief of that bench
was at the head of the " Society for the Propagation of their Gospel in
Foreign Parts" in America; the end justified the means; and, beside,
implicit obedience was their "badge."3 Mayhew had denounced their
principles and object in 1750 and afterward. They knew the utter hostility
of America4 to their rule, and their only hope now was in violence.5
1 Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, i. 81.
2 Jrving's Washington, Lond. Ed., vol. iii. 905. 3 See p. 42.
4 See pp. xx ix., 41, 44, 52, 83, 100, 103, 109, 110, 160, 175, 195, 197, 218.
5 See pp. xxxi., xxxii., and Peters' letter, p. 195.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE. 327
The glad news from Saratoga was like the noonday sun on the gloom
and heaviness, engendered by continued reverses and suffering, pervading
the colonies ; it strengthened the heart of Washington, infused new life
into the legislative councils, inspirited the people; and in the providential
ordering of events, which human foresight or prudence could not have
anticipated or prevented, and on which hinged the great issue, the faith
of all was confirmed that God was with them, as he had been with their
fathers. An incident, close in time with this auspicious and splendid
achievement, illumines the record of our history, and by its light we may
see the source of that marvellous strength in weakness, and endurance in
trial, which George III., Lord North, and that "right reverend bench"
could never comprehend, nor their wit or power overcome. It was an
order of Congress, directing the Committee of Commerce to import
twenty thousand copies of the Bible, the great political text-book of the
patriots.1
The enormous and unavailing expenditures of England against her
colonies, the failure of her generals, of greatest reputation and success in
Europe, in their American campaigns, and the animation and good cheer
of the patriot heart, dispirited the tories, the " friends of government."
On the 15th of November, the thirteen colonies confederated under the
style of " The United States of America," and presented a consolidated
front to George III., who might see on their national coin, not his own
now hated and discarded royal effigy, but the motto " We are one," which,
passing from palm to palm, linked every heart in one united whole. In
the midst of this prosperity, on the recommendation of Congress, the 18th
day of December was observed as a day of solemn thanksgiving and
praise throughout the United States.
On the sixth of February, 1778, France — hesitating till after the tidings
of the capture of General Burgoyne, giving decisive evidence of the vigor
of the American character, and of their ultimate success — formed an alli
ance with the " United States," as an independent nation, and from this
time there was a feeling that the question was not as to the final result of
the war, but only how long George III. would persist in fighting, and how
long England would endure his blind obstinacy and folly. As in the other
colonies, or "states," as they now wrere, so in Massachusetts, old ties and
authorities being thrown aside, and new governments being only in incep
tion, it was a period when executive authority and decision were most
needed, and yet were weakest; and the disorder of anarchy and revolution
1 See p. 262.
328
were averted only by the virtue and intelligence of the people, demonstrat
ing the truth that " where the spirit of liberty is found in its genuine
vigor, it produces its genuine effects, . . . and can never endanger a
state unless its root and source is corrupted." A constitution, agreed
upon by a State Convention, February 28, 1778, was then before the peo
ple, for their consideration, and Mr. Payson's Sermon, appropriate to the
time, had particular reference to the subject of government. Its practical
wisdom, its profound observations on man, on the dangers and safeguards
of liberty, on religion, morality, and education, rather than large statis
tics of material wealth, as the greatest good, and the true test of prosper
ity — on the character and requisites of good magistracy, and on the diffi
culties of free institutions, all are treated on such broad and comprehensive
principles of universal and perpetual truth, that his sermon is adapted to
all times, and may be pondered, perhaps, with peculiar advantage at this
day.
The preacher, Rev. Samuel Phillips Payson, son of Rev. Phillips Pay-
son, of Walpole, Massachusetts, was born January 18, 1736, educated at
Harvard College, 1754, ordained at Chelsea, October 26, 1757, and died
January 11, 1801, aged sixty-four, after a life of great value to his own
people and to his country. He was of a family noted in many gener
ations for piety and usefulness. The name of Phillips is identified with
venerable institutions of learning, and that of Payson is dear to the Chris
tian world. Mr. Payson was distinguished as a classical scholar, for his
studies in natural philosophy and astronomy, and for his fidelity as a
Christian pastor and teacher, but has, perhaps, a stronger claim to our
grateful remembrance as a high-minded patriot in the dajs of his coun
try's peril,, difficulty, and darkness. We find in the pages of his friend
Gordon's History of the Revolution an incident illustrative of the times
and of his character. It is this: The British forces, on their inglorious
retreat towards Boston, after their raid at Lexington and Concord, suffered
from the fire of the provincial sharp-shooters. A few of these, headed by
Mr. Payson, who till now had been extremely moderate, attacked a party of
twelve soldiers, carrying stores to the retreating troops, killed one,
wounded several, made the whole prisoners, and gained possession of their
arms and stores, without any loss whatever to themselves. The preacher
suited the action to the word and the word to the action, in his part of the
national tragedy.
DISCOURSE VII.
ELECTION SERMON.
BUT JERUSALEM, WHICH IS ABOVE, IS FREE, WHICH IS THE MOTHER OF US
ALL. SO THEN. BRETHREN, WE ARE NOT CHILDREN OF THE BOND WO
MAN, BUT OF THE FREE. — Gal. iv. 26, 31.
IT is common for the inspired writers to speak of the
gospel dispensation in terms applicable to the heavenly
world, especially when they view it in comparison with the
law of Moses. In this light they consider the church of
God, and good men upon earth, as members of the church
and family of God above, and liken the liberty of Christians
to that of the citizens of the heavenly Zion. We doubt
not but the Jerusalem above, the heavenly society, pos
sesses the noblest liberty to a degree of perfection of which
the human mind can have no adequate conception in the
present state. The want of that knowledge and rectitude
they are endowed with above renders liberty and govern
ment so imperfect here below.
Next to the liberty of heaven is that which the sons of
God, the heirs of glory, possess in this life, in which they
are freed from the bondage of corruption, the tyranny of
evil lusts and passions, described by the apostle "by being
made free from sin, and becoming the servants of God."
These kinds of liberty are so nearly related, that the latter
is considered as a sure pledge of the former ; and there
fore all good men, all true, believers, in a special sense are
28*
330 THE ELECTION SERMON,
children of the free woman, heirs of the promise. This
religious or spiritual liberty must be accounted the greatest
happiness of man, considered in a private capacity. But
considering ourselves here as connected in civil society,
and members one of another, we must in this view esteem
civil liberty as the greatest of all human blessings. This
admits of different degrees, nearly proportioned to the
morals, capacity, and principles of a people, and the mode
of government they adopt ; for, like the enjoyment of
other blessings, it supposes an aptitude or taste in the pos
sessor. Hence a people formed upon the morals and prin
ciples of the gospel are capacitated to enjoy the highest
degree of civil liberty, and will really enjoy it, unless pre
vented by force or fraud.
Much depends upon the mode and administration of
civil government to complete the blessings of liberty ; for
although the best possible plan of government never can
give an ignorant and vicious people the true enjoyment of
liberty, yet a state may be enslaved though its inhabitants
in general may be knowing, virtuous, and heroic. The
voice of reason and the voice of God both teach us that
the great object or end of government is the public good.
Nor is there less certainty in determining that a free and
righteous government originates from the people, and is
under their direction and control ; and therefore a free,
popular model of government — of the republican kind —
may be judged the most friendly to the rights and
liberties of the people, and the most conducive to the
public welfare.
On account of the infinite diversity of opinions and
interests, as well as for other weighty reasons, a govern
ment altogether popular, so as to have the decision of
cases by assemblies of the body of the people, cannot be
thought so eligible ; nor yet that a people should dele-
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 331
gate their power and authority to one single man, or to
one body of men, or, indeed, to any hands whatever, ex
cepting for a short term of time.1 A form of government
may be so constructed as to have useful checks in the
legislature, and yet capable of acting with union, vigor,
and despatch, with a representation equally proportioned,
preserving the legislative and executive branches distinct,
and the great essentials of liberty be preserved and secured.
To adjust such a model* is acknowledged to be a nice
and difficult matter;2 and, when adjusted, to render it
respectable, permanent, and quiet, the circumstances of
the state, and the capacities and morals both of rulers
and people, are not only of high importance, but of abso
lute necessity.
a The form or constitution of government that has been submitted to the
people of this state so amply secures the essentials of liberty, places and keeps
the power so entirely in the hands of the people, is so concise and explicit, and
makes such an easy step from the old to the new form, that it may justly be con
sidered as a high evidence of the abilities of its compilers; and if it should not
be complied with, it is very probable we never shall obtain a better.
1 " Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government
of himself; can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or
have we found angels, in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history
answer this question." — Jefferson. 1801. — ED.
2 " A Constitution and Form of Government for the State of Massa
chusetts Bay, agreed upon by the Convention of said State, February 28,
1778, to be laid before the several Towns and Plantations in said State for
their approbation or disapprobation," a pamphlet of twenty-three pages,
was distributed among the towns, by vote of the House of Representatives,
March 4, 1778. The constitution was rejected. Ten thousand votes were
against it, two thousand votes in its favor; one hundred and twenty towns
made no returns. It contained no bill of rights ; did not properly separate
the legislative, judicial, and executive functions; " allowed" the free oxer-'
cise and enjoyment of religious worship, whereas that is an inalienable
right; did not provide an equal representation; and many other objections
were stated. It was thought best to postpone the framing of a constitu
tion till more peaceful and settled times, and that it should then be done
by delegates specially chosen for the service. Barry's History of Massa
chusetts, iii. ch. v., gives a very clear account of the subject. — ED.
332 THE ELECTION SERMON,
It by no means becomes me to assume the airs of a
dictator, by delineating a model of government; but I
shall ask the candid attention of this assembly to some
things respecting a state, its rulers and inhabitants, of
high importance, and necessary to the being and continu
ance of such a free and righteous government as we wish
for ourselves and posterity, and hope, by the blessing of
Gocl, to have ere long established.
In this view, it is obvious to observe that a spirit of
liberty should in general prevail among a people; their
minds should be possessed with a sense of its worth and
nature. Facts and observation abundantly teach us that
the minds of a community, as well as of individuals, are
subject to different and various casts and impressions. The
inhabitants of large and opulent empires and kingdoms
are often entirely lost to a sense of liberty, in which case
they become an easy prey to usurpers and tyrants. Where
the spirit of liberty is found in its genuine vigor it pro
duces its genuine effects; urging to the greatest vigilance
and exertions, it will surmount great difficulties ; [so] that it
is no easy matter to deceive or conqirer a people determined
to be free. The exertions and effects of this great spirit
in our land have already been such as may well astonish
the world ; and so long as it generally prevails it will be
quiet with no species of government but what befriends
and protects it. Its jealousy for its safety may sometimes
appear as if verging to faction ; but it means well, and
can never endanger a state unless its root and source is
corrupted.
Free republican governments have been objected to, as
if exposed to factions from an excess of liberty. The Gre
cian states are mentioned for a proof, and it is allowed
that the history of some of those commonwealths is little
else but a narration of factions; but it is justly denied
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 333
that the true spirit of liberty produced these effects. Vio
lent and opposing parties,1 shaking the pillars of the state,
may arise under the best forms of government. A gov
ernment, from various causes, may be thrown into convul
sions, like the Roman state in its latter periods, and, like
that, may die of the malady. But the evils which happen
in a state are not always to be charged upon its govern
ment, much less upon one of the noblest principles that
can dwell in the human breast. There are diseases in
government, like some in the human body, that lie undis
covered till they become wholly incurable.
The baneful effects of exorbitant wealth, the lust of
power, and other evil passions, are so inimical to a free,
righteous government, and find such an easy access to the
human mind, that it is difficult, if possible, to keep up the
spirit of good government, unless the spirit of liberty pre
vails in the state. This spirit, like other generous growths
of nature, flourishes best in its native soil. It has been
engrafted, at one time and another, in various countries:
in America it shoots up and grows as in its natural soil.
Recollecting our pious ancestors, the first settlers of the
country, — nor shall we look for ancestry beyond that
period,2 — and we may say, in the most literal sense, we
1 " Let me warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful
effects of the spirit of party generally. ... In governments of the popular
form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy ; . . .
in governments purely elective it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From
their natural tendency it is certain there will always be enough of that
spirit for every salutary purpose; and, there being such constant danger
of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate
and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance
to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of wanning, it should
consume." —Washington. — ED.
2 It is a mistaken pride and a fallacy which would lead us not to look for
our origin beyond the Atlantic. We cannot know ourselves or our history
without this. America, isolated from the Old World bravely warring
334
are children, not of the bond woman, but of the free. It
may hence well be expected that the exertions and effects
of American liberty should be more vigorous and com
plete. It has the most to fear from ignorance and ava
rice ; for it is no uncommon thing for a people to lose
sight of their liberty in the eager pursuit of wealth, as the
states of Holland have done ; and it will always be as
easy to rob an ignorant people of their liberty as to pick
the pockets of a blind man.
The slavery of a people is generally founded in igno
rance of some kind or another; and there are not wanting
such facts as abundantly prove the human mind may be
so sunk and debased, through ignorance and its natural
effects, as even to adore its enslaver, and kiss its chains.
Hence knowledge and learning may well be considered as
most essentially requisite to a free, righteous government.
against and slowly upheaving and overturning hereditary wrong, was
exclusively appropriated by the advance guard of Christian humanity, by
actual possession, at Plymouth, in 1620; and the spirit of liberty, freed
from hoary hindrances, vigorously put forth her strength and glory. But
liberty was not born here; and we cannot learn her lineage, nor that of
our Puritan ancestors, — her devotees, — nor appreciate the cost and
wealth of our inheritance, without the study of English history, and civil
ization, and of the Reformation; for the fruits of all this were simply trans
planted to our shores by the children of those who wrought it. Alfred is
ours, and Kunnemcde, and Edward VI., and Elizabeth; Raleigh, Bacon,
and Shakspeare; Hampden, Milton, Cromwell, Sydney, yes, and " King
Charles the martyr," are ours; and it is our glory that we continue the
roll with the magnificent names of Washington, Franklin, and Edwards,
— an earnest, may we hope, of our future.
The beautiful opening of Gibbon's "Memoirs of my Life and Writ
ings," written in his usual philosophical vein, is a charming passage for
all those who feel that " lively desire of knowing and of recording our
ancestors," which " so generally prevails, that it must depend on the influ
ence of some common principle in the minds of men." " Remember from
whom you sprang," exclaimed John Hancock, when he proposed a gen
eral Colonial Congress. — ED.
1778. 335
A republican government and science mutually promote
and support each other. Great literary acquirements are
indeed the lot of but few, because but few in a community
have ability and opportunity to pursue the paths of sci
ence ; but a certain degree of knowledge is absolutely
necessary to be diffused through a state for the preserva
tion of its liberties and the quiet of government.
Every kind of useful knowledge will be carefully encour
aged and promoted by the rulers of a free state, unless
they should happen to be men of ignorance themselves; in
which case they and the community will be in danger of
sharing the fate of blind guides and their followers. The
education of youth, by instructors properly qualified,11 the
establishment of societies for useful arts and sciences, the
encouragement of persons of superior abilities, will always
command the attention of wise rulers.
The late times of our glorious struggle have not indeed
been favorable to the cause of education in general, though
much useful knowledge of the geography of our country,
of the science of arms, of our abilities and strength, and
of our natural rights and liberties, has been acquired;
great improvements have also been made in several kinds
of manufactory.1 But our security and the public welfare
a The want of proper instructors, and a proper method of instructing, are the
reason that what we call common education, or school-learning, is generally so
imperfect among us. Youth should always be taught by strict rule in reading,
writing, and speaking, and so in all parts of their education. By this means
the advantages of their education will commonly increase with their age, that
by a little application in their riper years persons may raise a useful superstruc
ture from a small foundation that was well laid at school in their earlier days.
It would be of eminent service if instructors would more generally endeavor to
fix in the minds of their scholars the rules of reading, of spelling, of writing, or
of whatever branch of knowledge they teach.
i To tlic colonies, fringing the Atlantic, and hemmed in by primeval
forests, the command to primitive man seemed to be uttered anew: " And
God blessed them ; and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and
replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the
336 THE ELECTION SERMON,
require yet greater exertions to promote education and
useful knowledge. Most of the internal difficulties of a
state commonly arise from ignorance, that general source
of error. The growls of avarice and curses of clowns will
generally be heard when the public liberty and safety call
for more generous and costly exertions. Indeed, we may
never expect to find the marks of public virtue, the efforts
of heroism, or any kind of nobleness, in a man who has no
idea of nobleness and excellency but what he hoards up in
his barn or ties up in his purse.
It is readily allowed there have not been wanting states
men and heroes of the generous growth of nature, though
instances of this sort are not so common. But if these
had been favored with the improvements of art, they
would have appeared to much greater advantage, and with
brighter lustre. Nothing within the compass of human
sea;" and " a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes on the
thick trees." Their thrift was in the saw-mill, the ship-yard, the fisheries,
commerce, and, last of all, agriculture; and their interest, as well as that
of England, was to exchange their staples for the manufactures of the
mother country. But the industry and increase of one hundred and fifty
years had wrought a change in the condition and wants of the people,
so that the more compact populations naturally turned to handicraft, and
the new political relations quickened this action. Educated labor made
rapid progress in new devices for economy of time and industry. It was
encouraged by legislation, and stimulated by the desire of independence.
" The great improvements and discoveries" of that day would now excite
a smile, perhaps. The first cotton-mill in America, established at Beverly
in 1788, was visited by Washington, in his tour through the country, in
1789. A periodical of the day described it as " a complete set of machines
for carding and spinning cotton, which answered the warmest expectations of
(he proprietors. The spinning-jenny spins sixty threads at a time, and
with the carding-machine forty pounds of cotton can be well carded per day.
The warping-machine and the other tools and machinery arc complete,
performing their various operations to great advantage, and promise much
benefit to the public, and emolument to the patriotic adventurers." — Stone's
Beverly, 1843, p. 85. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 337
ability is of that real weight and importance as the educa
tion of youth — the propagation of knowledge.1 Despot
ism and tyranny want nothing but wealth and force, but
liberty and order are supported by knowledge and virtue.
I shall also mention the love of our country, or public
virtue, as another essential support of good government
and the public liberties. No model of government what
ever can equal the importance of this principle, nor afford
proper safety and security without it. Its object being
the approbation of conscience, and its motive to exertion
being the public welfare, hence it can only dwell in
superior minds, elevated above private interest and selfish
views. It does that for the public which domestic affec
tion does among real friends; but, like other excellences,
is more frequently pretended to than possessed.
In the ancient Roman republic it was the life and soul
of the state which raised it to all its glory, being always
awake to the public defence and good; and in every
state it must, under Providence, be the support of govern
ment, the guardian of liberty, or no human wisdom or
policy can support and preserve them. Civil society
cannot be maintained without justice, benevolence, and
the social virtues. Even the government of the Jerusalem
above could not ren'der a vicious and abandoned people
quiet and happy. The children of the bond woman, slaves
to vice, can never be free. If the reason of the mind,
" Patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, univer
sities, academies, and every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue,
and religion among all classes of the people, not only for their benign
influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of
society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our constitu
tion from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party,
the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of
foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction to elective govern
ments."— President Adams's Inaugural, 1797.— ED.
29
338 THE ELECTION SERMON,
man's immediate rule of conduct, is in bondage to cor
ruption, he is verily the worst of slaves. Public spirit,
through human imperfection, is in danger of degenerating
to selfish passion, which has a malignant influence on
public measures. This danger is the greater because the
corruption is not commonly owned, nor soon discerned.
Such as are the most ^diseased with it are apt to be the
most insensible to their error.
The exorbitant wealth of individuals has a most baneful
influence on public virtue, and therefore should be care
fully guarded against. It is, however, acknowledged to
be a difficult matter to secure a state from evils and mis
chiefs from this quarter ; because, as the world goes, and
is like to go, wealth and riches will have their command
ing influence. The public interest being a remoter object
than that of self, hence persons in power are so generally
disposed to turn it to their own advantage. A wicked
rich man, we see, soon corrupts a whole neighborhood, and
a few of them will poison the morals of a whole com
munity. This sovereign power of interest seems to have
been much the source of modern politics abroad, and has
given birth to such maxims of policy as these, viz., that
"the wealth of a people is their truest honor," that "every
man has his price,"1 that "the longest purse, and not the
longest sword, will finally be victorious." But we trust and
hope that American virtue will be sufficient to convince
the world that such maxims are base, are ill-founded, and
altogether unfit and improper to influence and lead in
government. In the infancy of states there is not com
monly so much danger of these mischiefs, because the love
1 Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, is the reputed author of the saying
that all men have their price; but his biographer, Archdeacon Cox,
says. the words were "all those men," speaking of a particular party in
opposition. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 339
of liberty and public virtue are then more general and
vigorous ; but the danger is apt to increase with the wealth
of individuals. These observations are founded upon
such well-known facts, that the rulers of a free state have
sufficient warning to guard against the evils. The general
diffusion of knowledge is the best preservative against
them, and the likeliest method to beget and increase
that public virtue, which, under God, will prove, like the
promises of the gospel, an impregnable bulwark to the
state. l
I must not forget to mention religion, both in rulers and
people, as of the highest importance to the public. This
is the most sacred principle that can dwell in the human
breast. It is of the highest importance to men, — the
most perfective of the human soul. The truths of the
gospel are the most pure, its motives the most noble and
animating, and its comforts the most supporting to the
mind. The importance of religion to civil society and
government is great indeed, as it keeps alive the best
sense of moral obligation, a matter of such extensive
utility, especially in respect to an oath, which is one of the
principal instruments of government. The fear and rever
ence of God, and the terrors of eternity, are the most
powerful restraints upon the minds of men ; and hence it
is of special importance in a free government, the spirit
of which being always friendly to the sacred rights of
conscience, it will hold up the gospel as the great rule of
faith and practice.2 Established modes and usages in
1 " It is substantially true that virtue, or morality, is a necessary spring
of popular government. Promote, then, as an object of primary im
portance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge." — Washington.
—ED.
2 " Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man
340 THE ELECTION SERMON,
religion, more especially the stated public worship of God,
so generally form the principles and manners of a people,
that changes or alterations in these, especially when nearly
conformed to the spirit and simplicity of the gospel, may
well be esteemed very dangerous experiments in govern
ment. For this, and other reasons, the thoughtful and
wise among us trust that our civil fathers, from a regard
to gospel worship and the constitution of these churches,
will carefully preserve them, and at all times guard against
every innovation that might tend to overset the public
worship of God, though such innovations may be urged
from the most foaming zeal. Persons of a gloomy,
ghostly, and mystic cast, absorbed in visionary scenes,
deserve but little notice in matters either of religion or
government. Let the restraints of religion once be broken
down, as they 'infallibly would be by leaving the subject
of public worship to the humors of the multitude,1 and
we might well defy all human wisdom and power to sup
port and preserve order and government in the state.
Human conduct and character can never be better formed
claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great
pillars of human happiness, these primest props of the duties of men and
citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to re
spect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections
with private and public felicity. Let it be simply asked, where is the
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obli
gation desert the oaths whif h are the instruments of investigation in courts
of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality
can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the
influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and
experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in
exclusion of religious principles." — Washington's Farewell. — ED.
1 This strong language was not considered extravagant. By "the
humors of the multitude," so much dreaded, was meant simply leaving
public worship to the voluntary support of the community, by which it is
now sustained. See p. 181, note 1. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 341
than upon the principles of our holy religion ; they give
the justest sense, the most adequate views, of the duties
between rulers and people, and are the best principles in
the world to carry the ruler through the duties of his
station ; and in case a series of faithful services should be
followed with popular censure, as may be the case, yet the
religious ruler will find the approbation of his conscience
a noble reward.
Many other things might be mentioned as circumstances
much in favor of a free government and public liberty, as
where the inhabitants of a state can, in general, give their
suffrages in person, and men of abilities are dispersed in
the several parts ,of a state capable of public office and
station ; especially if there is a general distribution of
property, and the landed interest not engrossed by a few,
but possessed by the inhabitants in general through the
state. Things of this nature wear a kind aspect. But,
for the preservation and permanence of the state, it is of
still higher importance that its internal strength be sup
ported upon the great pillars of capacity, defence, and
union. The full liberty of the press — that eminent in
strument of promoting knowledge, and great palladium
of the public liberty — being enjoyed, the learned profes
sions directed to the public good, the great principles of
legislation and government, the great examples and truths
of history, the maxims of generous and upright policy, and
the severer truths of philosophy investigated and appre
hended by a general application to books, and by observa
tion and experiment, — are means by which the capacity
of a state will be strong and respectable, and the number
of superior minds will be daily increasing. Strength,
courage, and military discipline being, under God, the
great defence of a state, as these are cultivated and im
proved the public defence will increase ; and if there is
29*
342 THE ELECTION SERMON,
added to these a general union, a spirit of harmony, the
internal strength and beauty of the state will be great
indeed. The variety and freedom of opinion is apt to
check the union of a free state ; and in case the union be
interrupted merely from the freedom of opinion, contest
ing for real rights and privileges, the state and its govern
ment may still be strong and secure, as was, in fact, the
case in ancient Rome, in the more disinterested periods of
that republic. But if parties and fictions, arising from
false ambition, avarice, or revenge, run high, they endanger
the state, which was the case in the latter periods of the
republic of Rome. Hence the parties in a free state, if
aimed at the public liberty and welfare, are salutary ; but
if selfish interest and views are their source, they are both
dangerous and destructive.
The language of just complaint, the voice of real griev
ance, in most cases may easily be distinguished from the
mere clamor of selfish, turbulent, and disappointed men.
The ear of a righteous government will always be open to
the former; its hand with wisdom and prudence will sup
press the latter. And, since passion is as natural to men
as reason, much discretion should be used to calm and
quiet disaffected minds. Coercives in government should
always be held as very dangerous political physic : such as
have gone into the practice have commonly either killed or
lost their patients.
A spirit of union is certainly a most happy omen in a
state, and, upon righteous principles, should be cultivated
and improved with diligence. It greatly strengthens pub
lic measures, and gives them vigor and dispatch ; so that
but small states, when united, have done wonders in de
fending their liberties against powerful monarchs. Of this
we have a memorable example in the little state of Athens,
which destroyed the fleet of Xerxes, consisting of a thou-
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 343
sand ships, and drove Darius with his army of three hun
dred thousand men out of Greece.
It must not be forgotten that much, very much, depends
upon rulers to render a free government quiet, permanent,
and respectful; they ought therefore, in an eminent degree,
to possess those virtues and abilities which are the source
and support of such a government.1 The modern maxims
of policy abroad, the base arts of bribery and corruption,
of intrigue and dissimulation, will soon be productive of
evils and mischiefs in the state ; and, since a corruption of
manners almost necessarily follows a corruption of policy,
the rulers of a free state ought to be influenced by the
most generous and righteous principles and views. Igno
rant and designing men should be kept from public offices
in the state, as the former will be dupes to the ambitious,
and the latter will be likely to prove the instruments of
discord. Men, upon their first promotion, commonly act
and speak with an air of meekness and diffidence, which
however may consist with firmness and resolution. The
practice of power is apt to dissipate these humble airs; for
this and other reasons it may generally be best not to con
tinue persons a long time in places of honor and emolu
ment.
The qualities of a good ruler may be estimated from the
nature of a free government. Power being a delegation,
and all delegated power being in its nature subordinate
and limited, hence rulers are but trustees, and government
a trust ; therefore fidelity is a prime qualification in a ruler ;
this, joined with good natural and acquired abilities, goes
far to complete the character. Natural Disposition that is
benevolent and kind, embellished with the graceful modes
of address, agreeably strike the mind, and hence, in prefer
ence to greater real abilities, will commonly carry the votes
1 See p. 69, note 1, p. 86, note a, pp. 162, 168. — ED.
344 THE ELECTION SERMON,
of a people. It is, however, a truth in fact, that persons
of this cast are subject to a degree of indolence, from
which arises an aversion to those studies which form the
great and active patriot. It is also a temper liable to that
flexibility which may prove prejudicial to the state. A
good acquaintance with mankind, a knowledge of the lead
ing passions and principles of the human mind, is of high
importance in the character before us ; for common and
well-known truths and real facts ought to determine us in
human matters. We should take mankind as they are,
and not as they ought to be or would be if they were per
fect in wisdom and virtue. So, in our searches for truth
and knowledge, and in our labors for improvement, we
should keep within the ken or compass of the human mind.
The welfare of the public being the great object of the
ruler's views, they ought, of consequence, to be discerning
in the times — always awake and watchful to the public
danger and defence. And in order that government may
support a proper air of dignity, and command respect, the
ruler should engage in public matters, and perform the
duties of his office, with gravity and solemnity of spirit.
With wisdom he will deliberate upon public measures;
and, tenacious of a well-formed purpose and design, he will
pursue it with an inflexible stability. Political knowledge,
a sense of honor, an open and. generous mind, it is con
fessed, will direct and urge a ruler to actions and exertions
beneficial to the state ; and if, added to these, he has a
principle of religion and the fear of God, it will in the
best manner fit him for the whole course of allotted duty.
The greatest restraints, the noblest motives, and the best
supports arise from our holy religion. The pious ruler is
by far the most likely to promote the public good. His
example will have the most happy influence ; his public
devotions will not only be acts of worship and -homage to
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 345
God, but also of charity to men. Superior to base passions
and little resentments, undismayed by danger, not awed
by threatenings, he guides the helm in storm and tempest,
and is ready, if called in providence, to sacrifice his life for
his country's good. Most of all concerned to approve
himself to his God, he avoids the subtle arts of chicanery,
which are productive of so much mischief in a state ; ex
ercising a conscience void of offence, he has food to eat
which the world knows not of, and in the hour of his
death — that solemn period — has a hope and confidence
in God, which is better than a thousand worlds.
A state and its inhabitants thus circumstanced in respect
to government, principle, morals, capacity, union, and rul
ers, make up the most striking portrait, the liveliest emblem
of the Jerusalem that is above, that this world can afford,
That this may be the condition of these free, independent,
and sovereign states of America, we have the wishes and
prayers of all good men. Indulgent Heaven seems to in.
vite and urge us to accept the blessing. A kind and won
derful Providence has conducted us, by astonishing steps,
as it were, within sight of the promised land. We stand
this day upon Pisgah's top, the children of the free woman,
the descendants of a pious race, who, from the love of lib^
erty and the fear of God, spent their treasure and spilt
their blood. Animated by the same great spirit of liberty,
and determined, "under God, to be free, these states have
made one of the noblest stands against despotism and
tyranny that can be met with in the annals of history,
either ancient or modern. One common cause, one com
mon danger, and one common interest, has united and
urged us to the most vigorous exertions. From small be
ginnings, from great weakness, — impelled from necessity
and the tyrant's rod, but following the guidance of Heaven,
— we have gone through a course of noble and heroic
346 THE ELECTION SERMON,
actions, with minds superior to the most virulent menaces,
and to all the horrors of war; for we trusted in the God
of our forefathers. We have been all along the scorn and
derision of our enemies, but the care of Heaven, the charge
of God ; and hence our cause and union, like the rising
sun, have shone brighter and brighter. Thanks be to
God ! we this day behold in the fulness of our spirit the
great object of our wishes, of our toils and wars, brighten
ing in our view. The battles we have already fought, the
victories a we have won, the pride of tyranny that must
needs have been humbled, mark the characters of the free
men of America with distinguished honor, and will be read
with astonishment by generations yet unborn.
The lust of dominion is a base and detested principle,
the desire of revenge is an infernal one ; and the former,
if opposed, commonly produces the latter. From these
our enemies seem to have taken their measures, and hence
have treated us with the greatest indignities, reproaches,
insults, and cruelties that were ever heaped upon a peo
ple when struggling for their all. The remembrance of
these things can never be lost. And although, under God,
American wisdom and valor have hitherto opposed and
baffled both their force and fraud, and we trust ever will,
yet justice to our cause, to ourselves, and to our posterity,
as well as a most righteous resentment, absolutely forbid
a The memorable and complete victory obtained over General Burgoyne and
his whole army will not only immortalize the character of the brave General
Gates and the officers and troops under his command, but, considering the im
mense expense Britain would beat in replacing such an army in America, to
gether with other reasons, renders it highly probable it may prove one of the
capital events that decides the war and establishes the independency of these
states.l
i See the Prefatory Note. A very full and complete account of this
event in every view is presented in ^ossing's Field Book of the Revolution,
vol. i., chaps, ii. iii. Read, also, Dawson's Battles of the United States,
Book I., ch. xxv. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 347
that anything should pacify our minds short of a full and
perfect independence. This, supported by the wisdom,
virtue, and strength of the continent, must be our great
charter of liberty. Nature has given us the claim, and the
God of nature appears to be helping us to assert and main
tain it. I am led to speak upon this point with the great
est confidence, from the late measures and resolves of that
august assembly, the American Congress, which were so
circumstanced and timed as must, with their general con
duct, raise a monument to their fame that will bid defiance
even to the devouring hand of time itself.1
We must be infidels, the worst of infidels, to disown or
disregard the hand that has raised us up such benevolent
and powerful assistants in times of great distress. How
wonderful that God, who in ancient times " girded Cyrus
with his might," should dispose his most Christian Majesty
the king of France to enter into the most open and gener-
our alliance 2 with these independent states ! — an event in
providence which, like the beams of the morning, cheers
and enlivens this great continent. We must cherish the
feelings of gratitude to such friends in our distress ; we
must hold our treaties sacred and binding.
Is it possible for us to behold the ashes, the ruins, of
large and opulent towns that have been burnt in the most
wanton manner, to view the graves of our dear country
men whose blood has been most cruelly spilt, to hear the
cries and screeches of our ravished matrons and virgins
that had the misfortune to fall into the enemies' hands,
and think of returning to that cruel and bloody power
which has done all these things? No ! We are not to sup
pose such a thought can dwell in the mind of a free, sensi-
i See Prefatory Note — " Confederation."— ED.
42 By treaty of February 6, 1778. War between England and France
followed close after, March 13th. — ED.
348 THE ELECTION SERMON,
ble American. The same feelings in nature that led a
Peruvian prince to choose the other place, must also teach
us to prefer connections with any people on the globe
rather than with those from whom we have experienced
such unrighteous severities and unparalleled cruelties.
It seems as if a little more labor and exertion will bring
us to reap the harvest of all our toils ; and certainly we
must esteem the freedom and independency of these states
a most ample reward for all our sufferings. In preference
to all human affairs our cause still merits, and ever has
done, the most firm and manly support. In this, the
greatest of all human causes, numbers of the virtuous
Americans have lost their all. I recall my words — they
have not lost it; no, but, from the purest principles, have
offered it up in sacrifice upon the golden altar of liberty.
The sweet perfumes have ascended to heaven, and shall be
had in everlasting remembrance.
In this stage of our struggle we are by no means to
indulge to a supine and dilatory spirit, which might yet be
fatal, nor have we to take our resolutions from despair.
Far from this, we have the noblest motives, the highest
encouragements. I know the ardor of the human mind is
apt in time to abate, though the subject be ever so impor
tant ; but surely the blood of our 'friends and countrymen,
still crying in our ears, like the souls of the martyrs under
the altar, must arouse and fire every nobler passion of the
mind. Moreover, to anticipate the future glory of Amer
ica from our present hopes and prospects is ravishing and
transporting to the mind. In this light we behold our
country, beyond the reach of all oppressors, under the
great charter of independence, enjoying the purest lib
erty ; beautiful and strong in its union ; the envy of
tyrants and devils, but the delight of God and all good
men ; a refuge to the oppressed ; the joy of the earth ;
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 349
each state happy in a wise model of government, and
abounding with wise men, patriots, and heroes ; the
strength and abilities of the whole continent, collected
in a grave and venerable council, at the head of all, seek
ing and promoting the good of the present and future
generations. Hail, my happy country, saved of the Lord !
Happy land, emerged from the deluges of the Old World,
drowned in luxury and lewd excess ! Hail, happy pos
terity, that shall reap the peaceful fruits of our suffer
ings, fatigues, and wars ! With such prospects, such trans
porting views, it is difficult to keep the passions or the
tongue within the bounds of Christian moderation. But
far be it from us to indulge vain-glory, or return railing
for railing, or to insult our foes ; we cultivate better prin
ciples of humanity and bravery, and would much ruther
cherish the feelings of. pity, especially to those of our ene
mies of better minds, whose names, with the baser, may
appear in the pages of impartial history with indelible
blemish. We wish, from the infatuation, and wickedness,
and fate of our enemies, the world would learn lessons in
wisdom and virtue ; that princes would learn never to
oppress their subjects ; that the vaunting generals of Brit-
ian would learn never more to despise and contemn their
enemy, nor prove blasphemers of God and religion. We
wish the whole world may learn the worth of liberty. And
may the inhabitants of these states, when their indepen
dence and freedom shall be completed, bless God for ever
and ever; for thine, O Lord, is the power, and the glory,
and the victory.
But, under our raised expectations of seeing the good
of God's chosen, let us think soberly, let us act wisely.
The public still calls aloud for the united efforts both of
rulers and people ; nor have we as yet put off the harness.
We have many things amiss among ourselves that need to
30
350 THE ELECTION SERMON,
be reformed, — many internal diseases to cure, and secret
internal enemies to watch against, who may aim a fatal
blow while making the highest pretensions to our cause ;
for plausible pretences are common covers to the blackest
designs. We wish we had more public virtue, and that
people would not be so greedy of cheating themselves and
their neighbors. We wish for much greater exertions to
promote education, and knowledge, and virtue, and piety.
But in all states there will be such as want no learning, no
government, no religion at all.
For the cure of our internal political diseases, and to
promote the health and vigor, the defence and safety, of
the state, our eyes, under God, are directed to our rulers ;
and, from that wisdom and prudence with which they
have conducted our public affairs in the most trying times,
we have the highest encouragement to look to them.
As a token of unfeigned respect, the honorable gentlemen
of both Houses of Assembly present will permit me, by way
of address, to observe, that the freemen of this state, by
delegating their powers to you, my civil fathers, have re
posed the greatest trust and confidence in you, from whence,
we doubt not but you are sensible, arises the most sacred
obligation to fidelity. Preserving a constant sense of this,
and keeping the public welfare as your great object in view,
we trust you will never be wanting in your best endeavors
and most vigorous exertions to defend and deliver your
country. The matters of the war will undoubtedly, at pres
ent, claim your first and principal attention, — always es
teeming its great object, the liberty of your country, of more
inestimable value than all the treasure of the world ; and
therefore, to obtain and secure it, no necessary charges or
costs are to be spared. The internal matters of the state
that claim your attention, though they may pass a severe
scrutiny, will be noticed with all justice and impartiality;
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1778. 351
and in the choice of a Council, — that important branch
of our Legislature from which we have experienced such
eminent services — of which branch, or one nearly similar,
we hope this state will never be destitute, — in this choice,
persons of known ability, of public virtue and religion, and
possessed of the spirit of liberty, will have the preference.1
The burdens of your station are always great, and in
these times are much increased ; but you have the best
of motives for exertion, — you have the consolation which
arises from the fullest assurance of the justice of our cause ;
you have the unceasing prayers of good men ; more than
all these, you have the countenance and smiles of Heaven :
with unceasing ardor, therefore, you will strive to be
laborers together with God.
1 COUNCILLORS FOR 1778.
For the old Colony of MASSACHUSETTS BAY:
Hon. ARTEMAS WARD, Esq.; Hon. TIMOTHY EDWARDS, Esq.;
BENJ. GREEN LEAF, Esq.; OLIVER PRESCOTT, Esq.;
CALEB CUSHING, Esq.; JOSIAH STONE, Esq.;
THOMAS GUSHING, Esq.; TIMOTHY DANIELSON, Esq.;
JABEZ FISHER, Esq.; OLIVER WENDELL, Esq.;
BENJ. WHITE, Esq.; SAMUEL NILES, Esq.;
BENJ. AUSTIN, Esq.; JOHN PITTS, Esq.;
DANIEL HOPKINS, Esq.; ELEAZER BROOKS, Esq.;
FRANCIS DANA, Esq.; SAMUEL BAKER, Esq.
For the late Colony of NEW PLYMOUTH :
Hon. WM. SEVER, Esq.; Hon. DAN. DAVIS, Esq.;
WALTER SPOONKR, Esq.; NATHAN CUSHING, Esq.
For the late Province of MAINE :
Hon. JERE. POWELL, Esq.; Hon. JEDEDIAH PREBBLE, Esq.;
Hon. JOSEPH SIMPSON, Esq.
For SAGADAHOCK:
Hon. HENRY GARDNER, Esq.
AT LARGE:
Hon. MOSES GILL, Esq. ; Hon. ABRAHAM FULLER, Esq.
— ED.
352
As nothing will be omitted that the good of the state
calls for, we expect to see greater exertions in promoting
the means of education and knowledge a than ever have
yet been made among us. You will especially allow me,
my fathers, to recommend our college, so much the glory
of our land, to your special attention and most generous
encouragements; for everything that is excellent and good
that we hope and wish for in future, in a most important
and essential sense, is connected with and depends upon
exertions and endeavors of this kind. I need not observe,
the leaders and rulers in our glorious cause have a fair
opportunity of transmitting their names to posterity with
characters of immortal honor. With my whole soul, I
wish you the blessing of God, and the presence and guid
ance of his Holy Spirit.
My hearers, let us all hearken to the calls of our country,
to the calls of God, and learn those lessons in wisdom
which .are so forcibly inculcated upon us in these times,
and by such wonderful measures in Providence. From a
sacred regard both to the goodness and severity of God,
let us follow the guidance of his providence, and in the
way of duty leave ourselves and all events with God.
Remembering that Jerusalem which is above is the mother
of us all, that we are children " not of the bond woman,
but of the free," let us stand fast in the liberty where-
n In matters of science we have a most ample field open for improvement. To
complete the geography of our country, to improve in the arts of agriculture
and manufacture, and of physic, and other branches of science, are great objects
that demand our special attention, and to obtain which an uninterrupted course
of observation and experiment ought to be kept up. And if our General As
sembly would form, and establish upon generous principles, a 'Society of Arts
and Sciences 1 in this state, they would most certainly do great honor to them
selves, and most eminent service to the public.
* The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was incorporated in
1780, and Mr. Payson was a valued contributor to its " Transactions."—
ED.
353
with Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Imitating the virtue, the piety
the love of liberty, so conspicuous in qur pious ances
tors, like them let us exert ourselves for the good of poster
ity. With diligence let us cultivate the spirit of liberty,
of public virtue, of union and religion, and thus strengthen
the hands of government and the great pillars of the state.
Our own consciences will reproach us, and the world con
demn us, if we do not properly respect, and obey, and
reverence the government of our own choosing. The
eyes of the whole world are upon us in these critical
times, and, what is yet more, the eyes of Almighty God.
Let us act worthy of our professed principles, of our glori
ous cause, that in some good measure we may answer the
expectations of God and of men. Let us cultivate the
heavenly temper, and sacredly regard the great motive of
the world to come. And God of his mercy grant the bless
ings of peace may soon succeed to the horrors of war, and
that from the enjoyment of the sweets of liberty here we
may in our turn and order go to the full enjoyment of the
nobler liberties above, in that New Jerusalem, that city
of the living God, that is enlightened by the glory of God
and of the Lamb. AMEN.
30*
SERMON
PREACHED BEFORE THE
HONORABLE COUNCIL,
AND THE HONORABLE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE
STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY,
IN
NE W-EN GLAND,
%
MAY siy 1780.
BEING THE ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ELECTION
OF THE HONORABLE COUNCIL.
BY SIMEON HOWARD, A. M.
Paftor of the Weft Church in BOSTON.
N. B. Several paflages omitted in preaching are now
inferted in the publication of this difcourfe.
Kf99*m*fffi*f9fi9*^^
BOSTON, NEW. ENGLAND:
Printed by JOHN G I LI, in COURT-STREET.
MDCCLXXX.
STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, IN COUNCIL, June 1, 1780.
Ordered, That Moses Gill, Henry Gardner, and Timothy Danielson, Esquires,
be and hereby are appointed a Committee to wait upon the Rev. Mr. Simeon
Howard, and return him the thanks of this Board for his Sermon delivered
yesterday before both Houses of the General Assembly ; and to request a copy
thereof for the press.
True Copy.
Attest, SAMUEL ADAMS, Secretary.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
" AT the commencement of the dispute, in the first effusions of their zeal,
and looking upon the service to be only temporary, the American officers
entered into it without paying any regard to pecuniary or selfish con
siderations It is not, indeed, consistent with reason or justice to
expect that one set of men should make a sacrifice of property, domestic
ease, and happiness, encounter the rigors of the field, the perils and vicis
situdes of war, to obtain those blessings which every citizen will enjoy in
common with them, without some adequate compensation. It must also
be a comfortless reflection to any man, that, after he may have contributed
to securing the rights of his country at the risk of his life and the ruin
of his fortune, there would be no provision made to prevent himself
and family from sinking into indigence and wretchedness." These were
among the reflections presented by Washington, in January, 1778, to a
committee of Congress on the causes of the numerous defects in the mili
tary establishment. He recommended a " half-pay establishment," or
life pension to the officers after the close of the war. " Besides," he
added, " adopting some methods to make the provision for officers equal
to their present emergencies, a due regard should be paid to futurity.
Nothing, in my opinion, would serve more powerfully to reanimate their
languishing zeal, and interest them thoroughly in the service, than a half-
pay establishment. This would not only dispel the apprehension of per
sonal distress, at the termination of the war, from having thrown them
selves out of professions and employments they might not have it in their
power to resume, but would, in a great degree, relieve the painful antici
pation of leaving their widows and orphans a burden on the charity of
their country, should it be their lot to fall in its defence." May 15th, 1778,
Congress passed resolves which for a time relieved the distresses of the
army ; but the inability of the public to perform their engagements, and
the depression of public credit in subsequent years, " caused such dis-
358 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
contents and uneasiness, that alarming consequences were feared." If
the national and state credit should now be depreciated " sixty for one
of specie, and even government take it at forty for one," — its condition in
1780, — or seventy-five for one of specie, or even one hundred and twenty
for one, as was the case in 1781, and this distress be in the midst of war
against the greatest power in Christendom, and the evil be aggravated by
the timid, sordid, and unscrupulous who infest every community, and the
future be darkened by an uncertainty discouraging to even the most hope
ful and patriotic, even in success,1 — all this would fail to impress us with
the actual distress of that period. The terrible experience of the inefficiency
of the "confederacy," having authority over states only, and not over the
people, — the individuals of the nation, — was the cause of its abandon
ment, and the adoption of the present Constitution, beginning, — "WE,
the people of the United States."
The author of the following discourse needs no other memorial of his
generous mind, sound judgment, and enlightened principles, than maybe
found in his own pages. He fitly succeeded the gospel minister and
patriot, the Rev. Dr. Mayhew, in his pastorate of the West Church of
Boston, May 6, 1767, and was distinguished for the gentle virtues, mild
ness, benevolence, charity; yet, says Dr. Allen, "he heartily engaged in
promoting the American Revolution, and participated in the joy experi
enced on the acknowledgment of our Independence." He was a native
of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, born May 10, 1733, graduated at Harvard
College in 1758, and, after a prosperous ministry of thirty-seven years,
died August 13, 1804, and was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Lowell. The
present constitution of Massachusetts was now before the people, wait
ing for their adoption, and Mr. Howard's sermon was a consideration
of the principles of free civil government, and of the character and con
duct of civil rulers essential to its administration. The constitution was
adopted by the popular vote, but not with unanimity. The government
was organized October 25, 1780, and John Hancock was chosen the first
governor. 2
1 Congress, in its appeal to the states, September 13th, 1779, declared that a that
period had past " when honest men could doubt of the success of the Revolution.
The greatness of Washington, the immense cost of our liberty, the intolerable
wrongs and cruelties of the war, cannot be appreciated without a study of the
financial history of the Revolution — the most painful and gloomy, yet one of
the most instructive chapters in our history. — See Ramsay, Marshall, Wash
ington's Letters, and FelVs Massachusetts Currency.
2 Barry's History of Massachusetts, iii. 177-182.
DISCOURSE YIII
ELECTION SERMON.
THOU SHALT PROVIDE OUT OF ALL THE PEOPLE ABLE MEN, SUCH AS FEAR
GOD, MEN OF TRUTH, HATING COVETOU8NESS J AND PLACE SUCH OVER THEM
TO BE RULERS. — Exodus xviii. 21.
ALMIGHTY God, who governs the world, generally carries
on the designs of his government by the instrumentality
of subordinate agents, hereby giving scope and opportu
nity to his creatures to become the ministers for good to
one another, in the exercise of the various powers and
capacities with which he has endowed them. Though, for
the vindication of his honor, to dispel the darkness and
give a check to the idolatry and vice which overspread the
world, and in order to prepare mankind for the reception
of a Saviour, to be manifested in due time, God was
pleased to take the Jewish nation under his particular care
and protection, and to become their political law-giver and
head ; yet he made use of the agency of some of that peo
ple in the administration of his government. The legis
lative power he seems to have reserved wholly to himself,
there being no evidence that any of the rulers or assem
blies of the people had authority to make laws ; but the
judicial and executive powers were intrusted with men.
At the first institution of the government, Moses seems to
have exercised the judicial authority wholly by himself.
In this business he was employed from morning till even-
360
ing, when Jethr.o, his frith er-in-law, the priest and prince
of Midian, came to visit him. This wise man — for such
he surely was — observed to Moses that this business was
too heavy for him, and what he was not able to perform
alone ; and therefore advised him to appoint proper per
sons to bear the burden with him, provided it was agree
able to the divine will. Moses, it is said in the context,
hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all
that he had said. There can be no doubt but that God
approved this measure, — though it was first suggested by
a pagan, — otherwise it would not have been adopted. It
seems, indeed, to have been highly expedient, and even
necessary. From whence it appears that even in this
government, which was so immediately the work of God,
room was left for men to make such appointments as by
experience should be found necessary for the due adminis
tration of it. The general plan was laid by God, and he
was the sole legislator. This was necessary in that age of
darkness, idolatry, and vice. Mankind seem to have been
too ignorant and corrupt to form a constitution and a code
of laws in any good measure adapted to promote their
piety, virtue, and happiness ; but God left many smaller
matters to be regulated by the wisdom and discretion of
the people. This is agreeable to a general rule of the
divine conduct, which is, not to accomplish that in a super
natural or miraculous way which may be done by the exer
tion of human powers.
It is said in the context that, in compliance with the
advice of Jethro, Moses chose able men, and made them
rulers ; but it is generally supposed that they were chosen
by the people. This is asserted by Josephus, and plainly in
timated by Moses in his recapitulatory discourse, recorded
in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, where he says to the
people, " I spake unto you, saying, I am not able to bear
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 361
you myself alone : take ye wise men, and understanding,
and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers
over you." So that these officers were without doubt
elected by the people, though introduced by Moses into
their office. And, indeed, the Jews always exercised this
right of choosing their own rulers ; even Saul and David,
and all their successors in the throne, were made kings by
the voice of the people/ This natural arid important right
God never deprived them ofj though they had shown so
much folly and perverseness in rejecting him and desiring
to have a king like the nations around them.
The business for which Jethro advised that these rulers
should be chosen was, to decide the smaller and less diffi
cult matters of controversy that arose among the people,
while causes of greater consequence were to be brought
before Moses; so that they \vere a sort of inferior judicial
officers or judges of inferior courts. Though they were
not officers of the highest dignity and authority in the
state, yet the Midianitish sage advised that they shoulfl be
"able men, such as fear God; men of truth, hating covet-
ousness;" judging that such men only were fit for office.
He has here in a few words pointed out to us what sort of
men are proper to be put in authority, whether in a higher
or lower station ; for if such qualifications are necessary
for this inferior office, they must surely be more so for the
higher and supreme offices in government. And the con
sideration of these qualifications is what I principally in
tend in the following discourse. But, before I enter upon
this, I would give a little attention to two or three other
points. Accordingly, I shall consider,
I. The necessity of civil government to the happiness
of mankind.
a See 1 Sam. xi., xv. ; 2 Sam. ii., iv., v., viii.
31
362 THE ELECTION SERMON,
II. The right of the people to choose their own rulers.
•III. The business of rulers in general.
These particulars being finished in a few words, I shall
then,
IV. Particularly consider the qualifications pointed out
in the text as necessary for civil rulers.
After which, the subject will be applied to the present
occasion.
I. Let us consider the necessity of civil government for
the happiness of mankind. Men have, in all ages and
nations, been induced, by a sense of their wants and weak
nesses, as well as by their love of society, to keep up some
intercourse with one another. A man totally separated
from his species would be less able to provide for himself
than almost any other creature. Some sort of society,
some intercourse with other men, is necessary to his hap
piness, if not to his very existence.
Suppose, then, a number of men living near together,
and maintaining that intercourse which is necessary for
the supply of their wants, but without any laws or govern
ment established among them by mutual consent, or in
what is called a state of nature; — in this state every one
has an equal right to liberty, and to do what he thinks
proper. The love of liberty is natural to all. It appears
the first, operates the most forcibly, and is extinguished
the last of any of our passions. And this principle would
lead every man to pursue and enjoy everything to which
he had an inclination. Several persons would no doubt
desire and pursue the same thing, which only one could
enjoy; hence contests would arise, and, no one else having
a right to interfere, they must be settled by the parties ;
but prejudice and self-love would render them partial
judges, and probably prevent an amicable settlement, so
that the dispute must at last be ended by the strongest
1780. 363
arm, and thus the liberty of the weak would be destroyed
by the power of the strong. Every unsuccessful com
petitor would think himself injured by another's seizing
that to which, in his own opinion, he had an equal right,
and would endeavor to obtain compensation. This would
provoke retaliation, and naturally lead on to an endless
reciprocation of injuries. The injured, who found himself
unable to contend with his adversary, would call in the
assistance of some more powerful combatant to avenge his
cause. The aggressor, too, would endeavor to strengthen
himself for defence, by associates ; and thus parties would
be formed for rapine, devastation, and murder, and the
peaceful state of nature soon be exchanged for a number
of little, contending tyrannies, or for one successful one
that should swallow up all the rest. This would generally
be the case where men should attempt to live without laws
or government ; nor can they any way secure themselves
against all manner of violence and injuries from bad men
but by uniting together in society, agreeing upon some
universal rules to be observed by all; — that controversies
shall be determined, not by the parties concerned, but by
disinterested judges, and according to established rules;
that their determinations shall be enforced by the joint
power of the whole community, either in punishing the
injurious or protecting the innocent.1 Man is not to be
trusted with his unbounded love of liberty, unless it is
under some other restraint than what arises from his own
reason or the law of God, — these, in many instances,
would make but a feeble resistance to his lust or avarice ;
and he would pursue his liberty to the destruction of his
feJlow-creatures, if he was not restrained by human laws
and punishment.
Let us next consider, —
1 See pp. 86, note a; 280, 285. — ED.
364
II. The right of the people to choose their own rulers.
No man is born a magistrate, or with a right to rule over
his brethren. If this were the case, there must be some
natural mark by which it might be known to whom this
right belongs, or it could answer no end ; but no man was
ever known to come into the world with any such mark
of superiority and dominion.1 If a man, by the improve
ment of his reason and moral powers, becomes more wise
and virtuous than his brethren, this renders him better
qualified for authority than others ; but still he is no magis
trate or lawgiver till he is appointed such by the people.
Nor has one state or kingdom a right to appoint rulers
for another. This would infer such a natural inequality
in mankind as is inconsistent with the equal freedom of
all. One state may, indeed, by virtue of its superior power,
assume this right, and the weaker state may be obliged to
submit to it for want of power to resist. But it is an un
just encroachment upon their liberty, which they ought to
get rid of as soon as they can. It is a mark of tyranny on
one side, and of inglorious slavery on the other.
The magistrate is properly the trustee of the people.
He can have no just power but what he receives from
them. To them he ought to be accountable for the use he
makes of this power. But if a man may be invested with
the power of government, which is the united power of
the community, without their consent, how can they call
1 " Nature knew no right divine in man, »
No ill could fear in God; and understood
A Sovereign Being but a sovereign good
Who first taught souls enslaved, and realms undone,
The enormous faith of many made for one? ....
Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law;
Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe,
Then shared the tyranny, then lent it aid,
And gods of conquerors, slaves of subjects, made." POPE. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 365
him to account? What check can they have upon him,
or what security for the enjoyment of anything which
he may see fit to deprive them of? They must in this
case be slaves. But as every people have a right to be
free, they must have a right of choosing their own rulers,
and appointing such as they think most proper; because
this right is so essential to liberty, that the moment a peo
ple are deprived of it they cease to be free. This, as has
been already observed, is a right which the Jews always
enjoyed. They elected their kings, generals, judges, and
other officers ; though in some few instances God did ex
pressly point out to them the person whom they ought to
choose, which, however, he has never done with any other
people. '
Let us now consider, —
III. The business of rulers in general.
And this is, to promote and secure the happiness of the
whole community. For this end only they are invested
with power, and only for this end it ought to be employed.
The apostle tells us that the magistrate is God's minister
for good to the people.2 This is the sole end for which
God has ordained that magistrates should be appointed —
that they may carry on his benevolent purposes in pro
moting the good angl happiness of human society; and
hence their power is said to be from God ; that is, it is so
while they employ it according to his will. But when
they act against the good of society, they cannot be said
to act by authority from God, any more than a servant
can be said to act by his master's authority while he acts
directly contrary to his will. And no people, we may pre
sume, ever elected a magistrate for any other end than
their own good ; consequently, when a magistrate acts
1 See p. 274. — ED. 2 See pp. 75-77, 275. — ED.
31*
366 THE ELECTION SERMON,
against this end, he cannot act by authority from the peo
ple; so tli.it he acts, in this case, without any authority
either from God or man. He cannot, by any lawful au
thority, act against, but only for the good of society.
This, in general, is the business of civil rulers. But there
are a variety of ways and means by which they are to
carry on this business, and accomplish the important end
of their institution, which it is quite beybnd my present
design particularly to point out, though there may be
occasion to suggest some of them in the progress of my
discourse. Let us now consider, —
IV. The qualifications pointed out in the text as neces
sary for rulers.
1. They must be able men. God has made a great
difference in men in respect of their natural powers, both
of body and mind ; to some he has given more, to others
fewer talents. Nor is there perhaps a less difference in
this respect arising from education. And though there
are none but what may be good members of civil society,
as well as faithful servants of God, yet every one has not
abilities sufficient to make him a good civil ruler. " Woe
unto thee, O land, when thy king is a child," says Solomon,
hereby intimating that the happiness of a people depends
greatly upon the character of its rulers, and that if they
resemble children in weakness, ignorance, credulity, fickle
ness, etc., the people will of course be very miserable. By
able men may be intended men of good understanding
and knowledge, — men of clear heads, who have improved
their minds by exercise, acquired a habit of reasoning,
and furnished themselves with a good degree of knowl
edge, — men who have a just conception of the nature and
end of government in general, of the natural rights of
mankind, of the nature and importance of civil and reli
gious liberty, — a knowledge of human nature, of the
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 367
springs of action, and the readiest way to engage and
influence the heart, — an acquaintance with the people to
be governed, their genius, their prejudices, their interest
with respect to other states, what difficulties they are
under, what dangers they are liable to, and what they
are able to bear and do. These things are ever to be
taken into consideration by legislators when they make
laws for the intefnal police of a people, and in their trans
actions with or respecting other states. It would be going
too far to say that an honest man cannot be a good ruler
unless he be of the first character for good sense, learning,
and knowledge ; but it will not be denied that the more
he excels in these things, the more likely he will be to rule
well. He will be better able to see what measures are
suited to the temper and genius of the people, and most
conducive to the end of his institution ; how to raise
necessary supplies for the expenses of government in
w^ays most easy and agreeable to the people ; how to
extricate them out of difficulties in which they may be
involved ; how to negotiate with foreign powers ; how
to prevent or mitigate the calamities of war by compro
mising differences, or putting the people into a condition
to defend themselves and repel injuries; in a word, how
to render them happy and respectable in peace, or formi
dable in war. These things require a very considerable
degree of penetration and knowledge.
As it is of great importance to the community that
learning and knowledge be diffused among the people in
general, it is proper that the government should take all
proper measures for this purpose — making provision for
the establishment and support of literary schools and col
leges. But ignorant and illiterate men will not be likely
to be the patrons of learning ; unacquainted with its ex
cellency and importance, and seeing no comeliness or
368 THE ELECTION SERMON,
beauty in it, they will reject and despise it, as the Jews
did the great Teacher of wisdom who came from God.
It would not be strange if such men, entrusted with the
government of a people, should wholly neglect to make
any provision for the encouragement of literature. It is
therefore proper that rulers should be men of understand
ing and learning, in order to their being disposed to give
due encouragement and support to the teachers and pro
fessors of the liberal arts and sciences.1
It may be further observed, that weak and illiterate
men at the head of a government will be likely to place
in inferior and subordinate offices men of their own char
acter, merely because they know no better.
But by " able men " may be intended men of courage,
of firmness and resolution of mind, — men that will not
sink into despondency at the sight of difficulties, or desert
their duty at the approach of danger, — men that will haz
ard their lives in defence of the public, either against in
ternal sedition or external enemies ; that will not fear the
resentment of turbulent, factious men ; that will be a ter
ror to evil-doers, however powerful, and a protection to
the innocent, however weak; men that will decide sea
sonably upon matters of importance, and firmly abide by
their decision, not wavering with every wind that blows.
There are some men that will halt between two opinions,
and hesitate so long when any question of consequence is
1 Mr. Hiklreth says that only the constitutions of Pennsylvania, North
Carolina, Massachusetts, and the second constitution of New Hampshire,
made any mention of the all-important subject of education ; and in the
two former states the clauses which required the Legislature to establish
schools regained a dead letter. Jefferson attempted to introduce a system
of common schools in Virginia, but did not succeed. Only New Hamp
shire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland, could boast anything
like a system of public education, and many years elapsed before their
example was imitated. — History of the United States, iii. 38-3-395. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 369
before them, and are so easily shaken from their purpose
when they have formed one, that they are on this account
very unfit to be intrusted with public authority.1 Such
double-minded men will be unstable in all their ways ;
their indecision in council will produce none but feeble and
ineffectual exertions ; and this doubting and wavering in
the supreme authority must be prejudicial to the state,
and at some critical times* may be attended with fatal con
sequences. Wise men will not indeed determine rashly,
but when the case requires it they will resolve speedily,
and act with vigor and steadiness.1
By " able men " may be further intended men capable
of enduring the burden and fatigue of government, — men
that have not broken or debilitated their bodies or minds
by the effeminating pleasures of luxury, intemperance', or
dissipation. The supreme government of a people is
always a burden of great weight, though more difficult at
some times than others. It cannot be managed well with-
• out great diligence and application. Weak and effeminate
persons are therefore by no means fit to manage it. But
rulers should not only be able men, but,
2. " Such as fear God." The fear of God, in the lan
guage of Scripture, does not intend a slavish, superstitious
dread, as of an almighty, arbitrary, and cruel Being, but
that just reverence and awe of him which naturally arises
from a belief and habitual consideration of his crlorious
O
perfections and providence, — of his being the moral gov
ernor of the world, a lover of holiness and a hater of vice,
who sees every thought and design as well as every action
of all his creatures, and will punish the impenitently vicious
and reward the virtuous. It is therefore a fear of offend-
1 Promptness and decision were peculiarly necessary at that time in the
emergencies of the war. — ED.
370
ing him productive of obedience to his laws, and ever
accompanied with hope in his mercy, and that filial love
which is due to so amiable a character.
It is of great importance that civil rulers be possessed
of this principle. It must be obvious to all that a practi
cal regard to the rules of social virtue is necessary to the
character of a good magistrate. Without this a man is
unworthy of any trust or confidence. But no principle so
effectually promotes and establishes this regard to virtue
as the fear of God. A man may, indeed, from a regard to
the intrinsic amiableness and excellency of virtue, from a
mere sense of honor, from a love of fame, from a natural
benevolence of temper, or from a prudent regard to his
own temporal happiness, follow virtue when he is under
no strong temptation to the contrary. But suppose him
in a situation where he apprehends that temporal infamy
and misery will be the certain consequence of his practis
ing virtue, and temporal honor and happiness the conse
quence of his forsaking it, without any regard to God, as his
ruler and judge, and can we expect that he will adhere to
his duty ? Will he sacrifice everything dear in this life in
the cause of virtue, when he has no expectation of any
reward for it beyond the grave ? Will he deny himself a
present gratification, without any prospect of being repaid
either here or hereafter ? Will he expose himself to re
proach, poverty, and death, for the sake of doing good to
mankind, without any regard to God as the re warder of
virtue or punisher of vice ? This is not to be expected.
We all love, and we ought to love, ourselves ; and all
wish to be happy. Why, then, should a man give up pres
ent ease and happiness for suffering and death in the cause
of virtue, if he has no expectation that God will reward
virtue? This would be acting against the principle of
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 371
self-love, which is generally too powerful to be counter
acted.
But suppose a man to be habitually under the influence
of this principle, — that is, to believe and duly consider
God as his ruler and judge, who will hereafter reward
virtue and punish vice with happiness and tnisery respec
tively, unspeakably greater than any to be enjoyed in this
world, — and he may then, upon rational principles, and in
consistency with his self-love, forego the greatest tempo
ral good, and expose himself to the greatest temporal evil,
in the cause of virtue ; and we may reasonably expect
that he will. Virtue will be his chief good ; he will be
attached to it as to his very being, Avith all the strength
and ardor of his love and desire of happiness. The fear
of God, therefore, is the most effectual and the only sure
support of virtue in the world.
Men invested with civil powers are not, to be sure, less,
but generally much more, exposed to temptations to violate
their duty than other -men. They have more frequent
opportunities of committing injuries, and may do it with
less fear of present punishment; and therefore stand in
need of every possible restraint to keep them from abusing
their power by deviating into the paths of vice.
It is further to be considered that the practice of piety,
which is comprised in the fear of God, has a powerful ten
dency to ennoble and dignify the mind, and beget in it an
abhorrence of everything mean and base ; to inspire a
magnanimity and fortitude of spirit that will support and
carry it through the greatest dangers and difficulties ; to
refine and purify the heart, to disengage it from the van
ities of the world, and beget that good-will and benevolence
which are the brightest part of a virtuous character. Con
templating daily the perfections of the Deity, as displayed
in the creation, government, and redemption of the world,
372 THE ELECTION SERMON,
must naturally tend to exalt the affections, and fix them
upon divine things ; to make us love and desire to imitate
the moral character of God, and consequently to weaken
the force of those lusts which are so apt to draw men
aside and entice them into sin ; to enliven every princi
ple of virtue, and make us perfect, even as our Father in
heaven is perfect.
It is also to be observed that the human mind is liable
to mistake and err ; that circumstances often occur, espe
cially to those who are concerned in government, in which
more wisdom is necessary than they are possessed of, even
though they may be able men. In such cases we are
directed to look up to God, the original and inexhaustible
source of wisdom. Nor have we any reason to suspect
that such applications will be in vain. God perfectly
knows the human mind, and all the ways in which its
views and determinations can be influenced, and he may,
without infringing upon its moral liberty, by a power
ful though imperceptible operation, put it into such a
train of thinking as may give it a juster view and lead it
to a wiser determination than it would otherwise have
formed. There is, I apprehend, nothing in this suppo
sition inconsistent with the principles of rational theol
ogy and natural religion. ISTor, without supposing that
God does thus interpose, is it easy to conceive how that
part of the divine government which is in the hands of
civil rulers should in all cases be adapted to the various
circumstances of particular persons. But there is little
reason to think that this light and direction will be
granted to men who have no fear of God before their
eyes, because, though they lack wisdom, they will not ask
it of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not. And rulers being without this divine counsel, it will
not be strange if, merely for this reason, their conduct is
1780. 373
wrong and ill-judged, calculated in many instances not
for the good, but the hurt of the people, and, it may be, at
a critical time, for their utter destruction.
There can be no doubt but God often brings distress
and ruin upon a sinful people through the ill-management
of their rulers, given up to error and blindness. In the
nineteenth chapter of Isaiah we have a prophecy of the
overthrow of the kingdom of Egypt ; and the infatuation
of their rulers is mentioned as one of the immediate causes
of this calamity. "The spirit of Egypt," says God, "shall
fail, and I will destroy the counsel thereof." It is after
wards added, " Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the
counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become
brutish." And in the twenty-ninth chapter of the same
book God threatens his own people that, for their hypoc
risy and other wickedness, "the wisdom of their wise men
shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men
shall be hid." In the same way, it is reasonable to sup
pose, God often brings his judgments upon other nations.
And, therefore, if a people desire to have rulers of wise
and understanding hearts, counselled and directed by
Heaven, they should take care that they be men who fear
God.
Let me observe, once more, that it is of great importance
to their happiness that religion and virtue generally pre
vail among a people ; and in order to this, government
should use its influence to promote them. Rulers should
encourage them, not only by their example, but by their
authority ; and the people should invest them with power
to do this, so far as is consistent with the sacred and
inalienable rights of conscience, which no man is supposed
to give up, or may lawfully give up, when he enters into
society. But, reserving these, the people may and ought
to give up every right and power to the magistrate which
32
374 ELECTION SERMON,
will enable him more effectually to promote the common
good, without putting it in his power essentially to injure
it. He ought, therefore, to have power to punish all open
acts of profaneness and impiety, as tending, by way of
example, to destroy that reverence of God which is the
only effectual support of moral virtue, and all open acts
of vice, as prejudicial to society. He should have power
to provide for the institution and support of the public
worship of God, and public teachers of religion and virtue,
in order to maintain in the minds of the people that rever
ence of God, and that sense of moral obligation, without
which there can be no confidence, no peace or happiness
in society.
"Without such care in government, there is danger that
the people will forget the God that is above, arid abandon
themselves to vice ; or, to say the least, impiety and vice
are much less likely to become general where such care is
taken than where it is 'not. And God having, in the con
stitution of nature, made religion and virtue conducive,
and even necessary, to the happiness of human society, he
has thereby plainly taught us that it is the duty and busi
ness of society, as such, or of the civil magistrate, to do
everything to promote them that may be done without
injuring the rights of conscience. And no man who has
full liberty of inquiring and examining for himself, of
openly publishing and professing his religious sentiments,
and of worshipping God in the time and manner which he
chooses, without being obliged to make any religious pro
fession, or attend any religious worship contrary to his
sentiments, can justly complain that his rights of con
science are infringed.1 And such liberty and freedom
1 The scheme here indicated by Mr. Howard resembled that in the con
stitution of Maryland, which authorized a " general and equal tax" for
the support of the Christian religion, to be applied to the maintenance of
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 375
every man may enjoy, though the government should
require him to pay his proportion towards supporting
public teachers of religion and morality.
Taking this care of religion is so plain and important a
duty, that the government which should wholly neglect it
would not only act a very unwise and imprudent part
with respect to themselves, but be guilty of base ingrati
tude and a daring affront to Heaven.1 By such conduct
they would, as a community, in effect adopt the language
of the profane fatalists mentioned by Job, who " say unto
God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of
thy ways. What is the Almighty that wre should serve
him ? And what profit shall we have if we pray unto
him?" Now, although it is possible that rulers who have
no religion themselves may enact proper laws to support
it among the people, yet it is to be remembered that their
example will have great influence, and, if that be irreligious
and vicious, will in some measure defeat the good effects
of their authority, and do more to spread corruption than
that will to prevent it. It is therefore highly proper, in
such minister as the tax-payer should designate, or, if he preferred it, to
the support of the poor. — Hildreth's U. S., iii. 383. See p. 298. — ED.
1 A clear and concise summary of the early constitutional provisions in
the several states on the subject of religion may be found in Mr. Hil
dreth's History of the United States, iii. 38:2-385. At the beginning of the
Revolution, Congregationalism was the established religion in Massa
chusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut; the Church of England in all
the southern colonies, and partially so in New York and New Jersey. The
equality of all Protestant sects was recognized in Rhode Island, Pennsyl
vania, and Delaware; and of the Roman Catholics in the last two. The
priests of the last-named sect were liable to perpetual imprisonment or
death in Massachusetts and New York. In its history, principles, and
sympathies, Catholicism was said to be subversive of free government; an
enemy — open or concealed, as expedient in its progress — to free insti
tutions, the printing-press, common schools, popular education, the Bible,
and freedom of opinion and speech — the safeguards of liberty. — ED.
376 THE ELECTION SERMON,
order to promote piety and good morals among the people,
that rulers be men who fear God — who have a just sense
of religion on their own minds, and conform to it in their
lives.
It may be proper to add, that though the fear of God
may exist where there is no knowledge or belief of Chris
tianity, yet that the scheme of doctrines contained in the
gospel is much better calculated than any other known to
the world to produce and strengthen that divine principle.
The plan of redemption which it unfolds for the fallen
race of men exhibits the Deity in the most amiable light,
as the perfection of love and benevolence. " The solemn
scenes which it opens beyond the grave ; the resurrection
of the dead; the general judgment; the equal distribu
tion of rewards and punishments to the good and bad,
and the full completion of divine wisdom and goodness in
the final establishment of order, perfection, and happiness,"
afford such motives to the love and reverence of God, and
to the practice of all holiness and virtue, as can be drawn
from no other scheme of religion ; and, therefore, a belief
of the gospel of Christ may justly be considered as an im
portant qualification for a civil ruler.
I might observe further, under this particular, that impi
ous, immoral men at the head of government, and having
authority to appoint subordinate officers, will probably
make choice of men of their own character, and in this
way be a means of spreading corruption, and of much
injury to society.1 But I must pass on to consider another
qualification of rulers. For,
3. They must be men of truth.
This means men free from deceit and hypocrisy, guile,
and falsehood, — men who will not, by flattery and cajol
ing, by falsehood and slandering a competitor, endeavor to
i See pp. 69, 70, 274. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 377
get into authority ; and who, when they are in, will con
scientiously speak the truth in all their declarations and
promises, and punctually fulfil all their engagements.
In treating with other states they will act with the same
integrity which honest men do in their private affairs, and
promise nothing but what they intend and think they shall
be able to perform. Engagements already made to other
powers they will honestly endeavor to fulfil, so far as it
belongs to their department, without seeking or pretend
ing a cause for failure when no such cause exists.1
They will show the same integrity and fidelity in their
conduct towards individuals. They will not promise to
any one what they have reason to think they cannot or do
not intend to perform. Promises of government already
made, the execution of which belongs to them, they will
1 " I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs,
that ' honesty is always the best policy.' Observe good faith and
justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all: religion
and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be good policy that does not
equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no dis
tant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and
too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and
benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the
fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which
might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has
not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The
experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles
human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?" — Washing
ton's Farewell.
" The pretended depth and difficulty in matters of state is a mere cheat.
From the beginning of the world to this day you never found a com
monwealth where the leaders, having honesty enough, wanted skill enough
to lead her to her true interest at home and abroad." — Harrington.
" The laws by which God governs the world must be quite altered, the
course of nature must be reversed, before it can reasonably be hoped that
unrighteous schemes will operate for the real advantage of a people." —
Hcmmemvay. — ED.
32*
378 THE ELECTION SERMON,
look upon themselves bound to fulfil, if possible, that no
man may be a sufferer by confiding in the public faith.
Civil rulers generally bind themselves expressly, and
always implicitly, by accepting their office, faithfully to
discharge the duties of it, — and a man of truth will pay
a sacred regard to this engagement. He will not content
himself with receiving the honors and emoluments of his
office while he neglects the duties of it. Considering that
he has solemnly bound himself to do this business, he will
give the same care and attention to it that a prudent man
in a private station does to his own particular concerns.
A man of truth will not undertake an office for which he
thinks himself incapable, because this would be promising
to do what he is conscious he is incapable of doing ; nor
will he be instrumental of appointing others to offices for
which he thinks them unqualified: this would be acting
falsely ; because, by the appointment, he declares that he
thinks them qualified. Having solemnly engaged to use
his power for the public good, he will never employ it in
encouraging and supporting the enemies of his country, or
carry on, under the mask of patriotism, measures to pro
mote his own selfish and private views, or to screen and
protect from public justice offenders against society. He
will not employ his abilities to impose upon the under
standings of others, and make the worse appear the better
reason, in order to disguise truth and pervert justice. He
will not suffer one man, or one part of the community, to
be injured and robbed by another, when his office enables
him to prevent it, because this would be violating his
promise. In a word, he will to his utmost endeavor to
answer the end of his institution by performing the duties
of his station, and manifest by all his conduct that he is
an honest, upright man. He will make no false pretences,
he will put on no false appearances, but ever act with
Christian simplicity and godly sincerity.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 379
Such will be the conduct of men of truth, and such
men only are proper to be entrusted with authority over a
free people. Rulers of this character will be honored,
beloved, and confided in by their countrymen, and re
spected by other nations ; their subjects will be easy and
happy, united together in the bonds of truth and love, and
by their union able to defend themselves against invaders;
their government, resting on the basis of truth and justice,
will be firm and stable, revered and honored both at home
and abroad. Whereas that deceit and hypocrisy, that
falsehood and insincerity, that dissimulation and craftiness,
which have so often dictated the measures of government
in most of the nations of the earth, and which are ex
pressly recommended to rulers by Machiavel, and incul
cated, among other immoralities, as necessary parts of a
good education, in the celebrated and much-admired let
ters of a late British nobleman to his son,a however they
may sometimes succeed and procure some temporary ad
vantages, will almost always weaken and disgrace the gov
ernment which practises thern,b by sapping the foundation
of public credit, producing uneasy jealousies, disaffection,
divisions, and contempt of authority among the people,
and leading them by example to the practice of the same
insincerity, falsehood, and dishonesty towards one another
which they see in their rulers, and by rendering them infa
mous in the eyes of other nations, and perhaps raising up
enemies to punish their perfidy.
And it may without doubt be asserted with truth, upon
the principles both of natural religion and revelation, that
that government which is directed by truth and integrity
a Lord Chesterfield.
b "There is no safety where there is no strength, no strength without union,
no union without justice, no justice where faith and truth in accomplishing
public and private engagements is wanting." — Sydney's discourses concerning
government.
380
will bid the fairest to secure and promote the happiness
of the community, however contrary this assertion may be
to the principles and practices of modern courtiers and
politicians. But I must proceed to the other qualification
of a good ruler mentioned in the text, which is
4. " Hating covetousness." Covetousness, you all know,
is an inordinate desire of riches, — such a desire as will
make a man pursue them by unlawful means, and prevent
his using them in a right manner. Hating covetousness
is a strong expression to denote a freedom from this vi
cious temper, and a sense of its unreasonableness and
turpitude.
That it is of great importance that civil rulers have this
qualification will be evident on a little reflection.
Covetousness is a fruitful source of corruption. A
man governed by this appetite will be guilty of any enor
mity for the sake of gratifying it. "They that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many fool
ish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and
perdition ; for the love of money is the root of all evil."
Almost all the oppression, fraud, and violence that has
been done under the sun, has owed is rise and progress to
covetousness. The indulgence of this vice debases the
mind, and renders it incapable of anything generous and
noble; contracts its views, destroys the principles of benev
olence, friendship, and patriotism, and gives a tincture of
selfishness to all its sentiments. It hardens the heart, and
makes it deaf to the cries of distress and the dictates of
charity; it blinds and perverts the judgment, and disposes
it to confound truth and falsehood, right and wrong.
A civil ruler, under the direction of this principle, will
oppress and defraud his subjects whenever he has it in his
power ; he will neglect the duties of his office whenever
he can promote his private interest by the neglect ; he will
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 381
enact laws to serve himself, not the community; and he will
enact none that he thinks would be prejudicial to his pri
vate interest, however beneficial they might be to the pub
lic, however necessary for the support of justice and equity
between man and man;*he will pervert justice, and rob the
innocent for bribes ; he will discourage every measure that
would occasion expense to himself, however salutary to
his country. Rather than part with his money, he will see
the arts and sciences, which are so ornamental and friendly
to a community, languish, erudition starve, and the rising
genius which promised glory to his country nipped in the
bud by the cold hand of poverty ; yea, religion itself, the
greatest honor and blessing of society, he will see lan
guish and die, rather than impart anything to support its
cause. And having long looked upon riches in the same
light that good men do upon religion, as his chief good,
and feeling the same attachment to them which they do
to that, he may, if required by laws already made to pay
anything for its support, absurdly plead that it is against
his conscience, strangely mistaking his love of money for
the love of God, and his covetousness for his conscience ;
supposing, with those corrupters. of religion mentioned by
the apostle, "that gain is godliness." If he has a voice in
the appointment of subordinate officers, he will sell his
vote to the highest bidder, and appoint such as will be
most subservient to his private interest, however unquali
fied for the office. In a word, all his conduct, all his rea
soning and votes, will be tinctured by his selfish spirit;
and in a critical time, when great expense is necessary
for the public safety, he may by his parsimony be a means
of the ruin of his country.
But a ruler who hates covetousness will conduct in a
very different manner. He will never oppress or wrong
the community; the public interest will be always safe in
382 THE ELECTION SERMON,
his hands; he will freely expend his time and his estate in
discharging the duties of his office for the good of his
country ; he will be ever ready to promote good laws,
though they deprive him of opportunities of making gain,
and involve him in expense; he will devise liberal things,
and cheerfully bear his part in the expense necessary to
carry on every measure that promises advantage to his
country; he will do all in his power to promote the liberal
arts and sciences, manufactures, and all useful inventions,
to encourage men of learning and genius, and to aid the
cause of religion and virtue. In promoting men to places
of trust, he will be influenced by no selfish, private views,
but by a regard to the public good ; no bribe will purchase
his vote for an unfit man, and, hating covetousness himself,
no consideration will induce him to give it for a sordid,
avaricious wretch ; he will neglect no measures necessary
for the public safety and happiness for fear of parting with
his money. In fine, all his conduct will bear the marks of
his nobleness and liberality of sentiment, of his disinter
estedness and public spirit.
I have now considered the several qualifications of a
good ruler mentioned in the text ; and they all appear
necessary to form that character, whether in the legisla
tive, executive, or judicial department. Nor is it easy to
say in which they are most necessary, though it is not
difficult to see that the want of any one of them in either
must be prejudicial and dangerous to the community.
But I must now make some reflections upon the sub
ject, and apply it to the present occasion. And,
1. What has been said of the necessity of government
for the peace and happiness of mankind may lead us to
reflect with shame upon the selfishness and corruption
of our species, who, with all their rational and moral
powers, can no otherwise be kept from injuring and de-
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 383
stroying one another than by superior force, or the fear of
temporal sufferings and punishment, and with whom you
are no longer safe than it is unsafe for them to hurt you.
This is a very humiliating consideration ; and, so far as we
know, there is no other order of creatures throughout the
boundless universe who, if left to their natural liberty,
would be so mischievous to one another as man.
2. This may also lead us to reflect, with pleasure and
gratitude to God, upon the steps which have been taken
by this people to frame a new constitution of govern
ment, and that a plan has been formed which appears, in
general, so well calculated to guard the rights and liber
ties, and promote the happiness of society, and which, it
is to be hoped, will soon be the foundation of our govern
ment, instead of that insecure basis upon which it now
rests.1
1 The constitution framed by the convention Sept. 1, 1779— March 2,
1780, was adopted by the people, and the first Legislature under it assem
bled at Boston, October 25, 1780.
That " ALL MEN ARE BORN FREE AND EQUAL" was inserted in the
Declaration of Rights by the late Judge Lowell, father of Rev. Dr. Charles
Lowell, of the West Church, with express reference to the abolition of
slavery. It was simply declaratory of public opinion, which expressed
itself in our early laws, but with more force and distinctness, in later
years, from the pulpit and the\>ress. I have found frequent and earnest
reference to the subject in the sermons of the period, from which this
volume is a selection. ^
The Rev. Dr. Hemmcnway, in a profound discourse on " A CHRISTIAN
STATE," — Massachusetts Election, 1784, — alluding to a legal decision
then lately made by the Supreme Judicial Court in that commonwealth,
interpreting the clause, " All men are born free arrd equal," and involving
the existence of slavery, used these words : " We rejoice to find the right of
enslaving our fellow-men is absolutely disclaimed, is at length pro
scribed, and is no longer suffered to live with us. And it is devoutly
wished that the turf may lie firm on its grave." Yet the system in Mas
sachusetts seems to have partaken rather of the spirit, though not of the
form, of the old English relation of master and servant, or apprenticeship,
384 THE ELECTION SERMON,
3. We may likewise see, from what has been said, how
much it is the duty and interest of a people to pay due
submission to the orders of government, and to endeavor
unitedly to support its authority. Both rulers and sub
jects are perhaps too apt to consider their respective
interests as distinct and separate, whereas they are in
truth one and the same — the prosperity and happiness of
the whole community. Everything done by subjects in
obedience to and support of the just authority of govern
ment, is conducive to their own happiness ; and everything
done by governors that is beneficial to the governed, is
likewise so to themselves ; and it is from the mutual
endeavors of both to serve each other that the prosperity
of society must result. If rulers abuse their power they
may destroy the happiness of the community, but this
may be done as effectually by the subjects' refusing to
obey and support the authority of government.1 Nor may
any people expect to enjoy all the blessings of society
unless their government is preserved in due force and
vigor.
4. We are reminded of the gratitude which we owe
to God that he has not permitted the natural and im
portant right which every society has of electing its own
rulers to be wrested out of oi!r hands, as is the case
than of unlimited ownership; for the courts sometimes recognized in
them rights inconsistent with the latter.
It is worthy of note that no distinct provision on the subject of slavery
appears in any state constitution, except that of Delaware, which
provided that "no person hereafter imported from Africa ought to
be held in slavery under any pretence whatever; " and that "no negro,
Indian, or mulatto slave ought to be brought into this state for sale from
any part of the world." — Hildreth's History of the United States, iii.
390, 391, 302. — ED.
i See pp. 87, 276. — ED.
385
in some other countries. Had Great Britain carried on
without opposition the measures she was pursuing with
us, we should probably in a little time have been wholly
deprived of this privilege. She had already assumed an
absolute right of appointing two brances of the Legisla
ture.1 These would have had the appointment of all judi
cial and military officers. And upon the same ground
that she robbed us of the election of a governor formerly,
and of councillors lately, she might have annihilated the
House of Representatives ; or, if she had not done this in
form, she might, by bribery and corruption, have rendered
that House a mere tool to the servants of the crown, as is
the case in that country.2 It is therefore owing to the
opposition which this people made to the measures of the
British court, and to the blessing of God upon that oppo
sition, that they have now a voice in appointing their own
rulers ; otherwise our government might now have been
in the hands of the weakest and most profligate favorites
of that corrupt and infatuated court.
5. We are reminded how much it is the duty and inter
est of a people who are in the enjoyment of this right to
1 The governor and council. — ED.
2 Thomas Paine, in " The Crisis, Number III.," one of his popular
political appeals in 1775, addressed "To the King," used this language:
" Sir, it is not your rotten troop in the present House of Commons; it is
not your venal, beggarly, pensioned lords ; it is not your polluted, canting,
prostituted bench of bishops; it is not your whole set of abandoned min
isters, nor all your army of Scotch cut-throats, that can protect you from
the people's rage." This not elegant but energetic appeal represents
the contemporary feeling towards the British government, and was the
language best suited to the times that " tried men's souls." The Earl of
Chatham said, in the House of Peers, in 1770: "I do not say, my lords,
that corruption lies here, or that corruption lies there; but if any gentleman
in England were to ask me whether I thought both Houses of Parliament
were bribed, I should laugh in his face, and say, 'Sir, it is not so!' " See
also p. 244, note 1. —ED.
33 v
386 THE ELECTION SERMON,
exercise it with prudence and integrity. The people's ap~
pointing their own rulers will be no security for their good
government and happiness if they pay no regard to the
character of the men they appoint. A dunce or a knave,
a profligate or an avaricious worldling, will not make a
good magistrate because he is elected by the people. To
make this right of advantage to the community, due atten
tion must be paid to the abilities and moral character of
the candidate. This is a consideration that concerns this
people at large, as all have a voice in the election of our
rulers, either personally or by their representatives. But
upon this occasion it is proper to observe that it especially
concerns the members of the honorable Council and House
of Representatives here present, by whom the councillors
for the ensuing year are this day to be elected. And I
shall not, I hope, be thought to go beyond my line of duty l
if I say that the electors ought not to give their votes at
random, or from personal or private views. They act in
this business in a public character, by virtue of power
delegated to them by the people, to whom, as well as to
God, the origin of all power, they are accountable for the
use they make of it. Nor can they answer it to either, or
even to their own consciences, if, through interested or
party view^s, they advance to the council-board men un
qualified for the important duties of that station. At such
a critical time as the present, the want of wisdom or integ
rity in that House may be attended with the most fatal
consequences. The advice of Jethro in the text demands
the consideration of all those who are to bear a part in the
elections of this day : " Provide out of all the people able
men, such as fear God, — men of truth, hating covetous-
ness." There never was a time when such men were more
necessary at that board than the present. Nor would I
1 See pp. xxv., xxix. — xxxviii., 47, 54. — ED.
780. 387
entertain an opinion so dishonorable to my country as to
suppose there are not such men in it ; though I cannot, at
the same time, entertain an idea so flattering as to suppose
there are not many among us who fall far short of this
character. It belongs to the present electors to distinguish,
so far as they can, these characters one from the other, and
to give their votes only for the former. Whoever con
siders the part which this Board has in legislation, — their
authority in directing the military and naval force of the
state, their being invested with the supreme executive
power, and, in some important cases, with a supreme judi
cial power, — will be sensible that great wisdom, integrity,
and fortitude are necessary for the right management of
these powers. Should they be committed to men of small
abilities and little knowledge, — men unacquainted with the
nature of government, and with the circumstances of this
state, — men void of integrity, of narrow, contracted views,
governed by ambition, avarice, or some other selfish pas
sion, — men of no fortitude and resolution, of dastardly,
effeminate spirits, — should such men, I say, be intrusted
with the great and important powers vested in the Council,
what could be expected but that their public conduct
would bear the marks of their ignorance, weakness, effem
inacy, and selfishness, to the great injury and dishonor, if
not to the ruin, of the Commonwealth? And though such
men may be as fond of this station as those who are best
qualified for it, and perhaps much fonder, yet it would be so
far from rendering them truly honorable, that it would only
render them the more infamous, by bringing into public
view their vices and defects, while the electors of such men
would fix an indelible stain upon their own characters, and
inherit the curses of the present and future generations.
But men who have themselves been honored by the
unbiased suffrages of their country must surely be too
388 THE ELECTION SERMON,
wise and virtuous thus to prostitute their votes ; and it
may, I hope, be taken for granted that knowledge and
integrity, the fear of God, and a public spirit, will govern
in the ensuing election, and such men be raised to the
council-board as will do honor to that respectable station,
to their electors, and themselves.1
I now beg leave, with all due deference and submission, to
suggest a few things that may reasonably be expected of a
General Court, composed of such men as the text describes,
by the people who have invested them with this power and
authority. It may be expected that they will give due
attention to the public affairs committed to their care. By
accepting a seat in either House, a man does, implicitly at
i COUNCILLORS FOR 1780.
For the old Colony of MASSACHUSETTS BAY:
t Hon. JAMES BOWDOIN, Esq.; Hon. SAMUEL NILES, Esq.;
THOMAS CUSHING, Esq. ; SAMUEL BAKER, Esq. ;
JABEZ FISHER, Esq.; JOHN PITTS, Esq.;
SAMUEL HOLTON, Esq. ; t ELEAZER BROOKS, Esq. ;
MOSES GILL, Esq.; AARON WOOD, Esq.;
t BENJ. AUSTIN, Esq. ; t STEPHEN CHOATE, Esq. ;
TIMOTHY DANIELSON, Esq.; t CALEB STRONG, Esq.;
JOSIAH STONE, Esq.; t WILLIAM WHITING, Esq.;
ABRAHAM FULLER, Esq. ; t JOSEPH DORR, Esq.
For the late Colony of NEW PLYMOUTH :
Hon. WALTER SPOONER, Esq.; Hon. NATHAN CUSHING, Esq.;
DAN. DAVIS, Esq.; THOMAS DURFEE, Esq.
For the late Province of MAINE :
Hon. JERE. POWELL, Esq.; Hon. EDWARD CUTT, Esq.;
Hon. JOSEPH SIMPSON, Esq.
For SAGADAHOCK: •
Hon. HENRY GARDNER, Esq.
AT LARGE:
t Hon. ROBERT TREAT PAINE, ESQ. ; Hon. BENJAMIN WHITE, Esq.
t Not of the Board the last year.
— ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 389
least, solemnly engage to attend to the business which is
there to be transacted. Nor do I see how he can with any
propriety be called a man of truth who, after such engage
ment, neglects that business for the sake of going to his
farm, his merchandise, or his pleasure. It appears to me
that such neglect argues great unfaithfulness in the delin
quents, and it may be attended with very pernicious con
sequences. Individuals may, and often do, plead in excuse
for this, that the business may be done without them; but
they ought to remember that every one has an equal right
to excuse himself by this plea, and if all should do so, the
concerns of the public must be wholly neglected. But
it may be justly expected that our civil rulers will take
due care to provide for the public defence. Notwithstand
ing the great exertions we have already made, and the
great things which God has done for us, we must still con
tend with the enemies of our rights and liberties, or be
come their abject slaves. And it depends in a great mea
sure upon our public rulers, under God, whether we shall
contend with success or not. It is by their seasonable and
prudent measures that an army is to be provided and fur
nished with necessaries to oppose the enemy ; and it must
be the wish of every true American that nothing may be
omitted which can be done to support and render success
ful so important a cause, — a cause so just in the sight of
God and man, which Heaven has so remarkably owned,
and all wise and good men approved, — a cause which not
only directly involves in it the rights and liberties of
America, but in which the happiness of mankind is so
nearly concerned, — for in this extensive light I have
always considered the cause in which we are contending.
Should our enemies finally prevail, and establish that abso
lute dominion over us at which they aim, they would not
only render us the most miserable of all nations, but prob-
33*
390 THE ELECTION SERMON,
ably be able, by the riches and forces of America, to triumph
over the arms of France and Spain, and carry their con
quests to every corner of the globe ; nor can we doubt but
that they would carry them wherever there was wealth to
tempt the enterprise. The noble spirit of liberty which
has arisen in Ireland1 would be instantly crushed, and the
brave men who have appeared foremost in its support be
rewarded with an axe or a halter. The few advocates for
this suffering cause in Britain would be hunted and perse
cuted as enemies to government, and be obliged in despair
to abandon her interest. And in every country where this
event should be known the friends of liberty would be
disheartened, and, seeing her in the power of her enemies,
forsake her, as the disciples of Christ did their Master;
so that our being subdued to the will of our enemies
might, in its consequences, be the banishment of liberty
from among mankind. The heaven-born virgin, seeing
her votaries slain, her altars overthrown, and her temples
demolished, and finding no safe habitation on earth, would
be obliged, like the great patron of liberty the First-born
of God, to ascend to her God and our God, her Father
and our Father, from whom she was sent to bless man
kind, leaving an ungrateful world, after she had, like him,
been " rejected and despised of men," in slavery and
misery, till with him she shall again descend to reign and
triumph on earth. Such might be the consequence should
the arms of Britain triumph over us. Whereas, if America
preserves her freedom, she will be an asylum for the op
pressed and persecuted of every country; her example and
1 Towards the close of the American war there sprang up in Ireland a
large party, who declared that no power on earth could bind Ireland hut
its own king, lords, and commons. January 1, 1800, the separate legis
lature of Ireland being suppressed, its legislative union with Great Britain
was effected. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 391
success will encourage the friends and rouse a spirit of
liberty through other nations, and will probably be the
means of freedom and happiness to Ireland, and perhaps
in time to Great Britain, and many other countries. So
that our contest is not merely for our own families, friends,
and posterity, but for the rights of humanity, for the civil
and religious privileges of mankind. We have surely,
then, a right to expect that the government of this state
will neglect no measure that is necessary on their part to
aid so interesting a cause, whatever difficulties or expense
may attend it; and I hope it may with equal confidence
be expected that the people will cheerfully lend their
arms and bear the expense th'at may be required for so
glorious a purpose. Great expense must, without doubt, be
necessary to carry on our defence ; but whoever is disposed
on this account to give up the dispute, proves himself to
tally unworthy of the liberty for which we are contending.
As the support, or rather the recovery, of the public
credit is absolutely necessary to our having a respectable
army in the field, as well as to our internal peace and pros
perity, it may be expected that this government will not
be wanting in any measure for this purpose which wisdom
and sound policy can suggest.
If by means of the depreciation of our paper currency,
and any law of this state, many persons have suffered, and
are still liable to suffer great injury, — if this injustice falls
principally upon widows and fatherless children, and such
others as are least able to support themselves under the
loss, — this surely is an evil that ought speedily to be re
dressed ; and, if it be possible, compensation should be
made to the sufferers by those who have grown rich by
this iniquity. And as the General Court of the last year
did with great justice make an allowance for the deprecia
tion of the currency, in fixing their own wages, and in
392 THE ELECTION SERMON,
some other instances, it may justly be expected that the
honorable court of this year will go on to extend this jus
tice to every part of the community, and order the same
allowance to be made in discharging all debts and contracts,
however their private interests may be thereby affected.
The large taxes now levying, and to be levied, make it
peculiarly proper that great care should be taken in fixing
the proportion which the different parts of the community
are respectively to pay; and we have a right to expect
that our honored fathers who are to guard the rights of the
whole will not require any particular part to bear a greater
proportion of this burden than is just, considering its ability
and circumstances.
Liberty and learning are so friendly to each other, and
so naturally thrive and flourish together, that we may
justly expect that the guardians of the former will not
neglect the latter. The good education of children is a
matter of great importance to the commonwealth. Youth
is the time to plant the mind with the principles of virtue,
truth and honor, the love of liberty and of their country,
and to furnish it with all useful knowledge ; and though
in this business much depends upon parents, guardians, and
masters, yet it is incumbent upon the government to make
provision for schools and all suitable means of instruction.
Our college justly claims the patronage and assistance of
the state, in return for the able men with which she has
furnished the public,1 not to observe that her present suf
fering and low state renders her an object of pity. By the
well-known depreciation, she, as well as many of her sons
in the ministry, have lost a great part of their income, —
she and they having in this respect had the same hard lot
with widows and orphans.2 Nor will I suppose that we
shall ever have a General Court of so little love to their
1 See p. xxxiv. — ED. 2 See page 368, note 1. — ED.
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 393
country, or so little sensible of the importance of literature
to its virtue, liberty, and happiness — so barbarous and
savage as to suffer her, or any of her family, to languish in
poverty, or to want what is necessary to their making a
decent and honorable appearance.1
If anything can be done by government to discourage
prodigality and extravagance, vain and expensive amuse
ments and fantastic foppery, and to encourage the opposite
virtues, we may reasonably hope it will not be neglected.
The fondness of our countrymen — or, shall I say, country
women? — for showy and useless ornaments, and other
articles of luxury, has been remarked by a gentleman in
Europe, of great eminence for political wisdom, as very un
becoming our present circumstances. This is a folly that
bodes ill to the public, and it must be the wish of every
wise and good man that it were laid aside. Men in au
thority, if they can do no more, may at least discoun
tenance it by their example, and this will not be without
its good effect.
Finally, our political fathers will not fail to do all they
can to promote religion and virtue through the commu
nity, as the surest means of rendering their government
easy and happy to themselves and the people. For this
purpose they will watch over their morals with the same
affectionate and tender care that a pious and prudent par
ent Watches over his children, and, by all the methods
which love to God and man can inspire and wisdom point
out, endeavor to check and suppress all impiety and vice,
and lead the people to the practice of that righteousness
which exalteth a nation. If any new laws are wanting, or
more care in the execution of laws already made, for dis
couraging profaneness, intemperance, lewdness, extrava
gant gaming, extortion, fraud, oppression, or any other
1 See pp. 335, 352, 3G7. — ED.
394 THE ELECTION SERMON,
vice, they will take speedy care to supply this defect, and
render themselves a terror to evil-doers, as well as an en
couragement to such as do well. They will promote to
places of trust men of piety, truth, and benevolence. Nor
will they fail to exhibit in their own lives a fair example
of that piety and virtue which they wish to see practised
by the people. They will show that they are not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, by paying a due regard to his
sacred institutions, and to all the laws of his kingdom.
Magistrates may probably do more in this way than in
any other, and perhaps more than any other order of men,
to preserve or recover the morals of a people. The man
ners of a court are peculiarly catching, and, like the blood
in the heart, quickly flow to the most distant members of
the body. If, therefore, rulers desire to see religion and
virtue flourish in the community over which they preside,
they must countenance and encourage them by their own
example. And to excite them to this, I must not omit to
observe that, though the fear of God, a regard to truth,
and a hatred of covetousness, are necessary to form the
character of a good ruler, they are, if possible, still more
necessary to form the character of a good man, and secure
the approbation of God, the Judge of all ; for to him
magistrates, in common with other men, are accountable.
Nor does he regard the persons of princes any more than
of their subjects. If they are impious and vicious, if they
abuse their power, they may bring great misery upon
other men, but they will surely bring much greater upon
themselves. The eye of Heaven surveys all their coun
sels, designs, and actions; and the day is coming when
these shall all be made manifest, and every one receive
according to his works. Happy they who in that day
shall be found faithful, for they shall lift up their heads
with confidence, and, amidst applauding angels, enter into
PREACHED AT BOSTON, 1780. 395
they joy of their Lord; while those who have oppressed
and injured the people by their power, and corrupted
them by their example, shall be covered with shame and
confusion, and sentenced to that place of blackness and
darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnash
ing of teeth !
Let me now conclude by reminding this assembly in
general that it concerns us all to fear God, and to be. men
of truth, hating covetousness. The low and declining
state of religion and virtue among us is too obvious not
to be seen, and of too threatening an aspect not to be
lamented, by all the lovers of God and their country.
Though our happiness as a community depends much
upon the conduct of our rulers, yet it is not in the power
of the best government to make an impious, profligate
people happy. How well soever our public affairs may
be managed, we may undo ourselves by our vices. And
it is from hence, I apprehend, that our greatest danger
arises. That spirit of infidelity, selfishness, luxury, and
dissipation, which so deeply marks our present manners, is
more formidable than all the arms of our enemies. Would
we but reform our evil ways, humble ourselves under the
corrections, and be thankful for the mercies of Heaven ; re
vive that piety and public spirit, that temperance and fru
gality, which have entailed immortal honor on the memory
of our renowned ancestors ; we might then, putting our
trust in God, humbly hope that our public calamities would
be soon at an end, our independence established, our
rights and liberties secured, and glory, peace, and happi
ness dwell in our land. Such happy effects to the public
might we expect from a general reformation.
But let every one remember that, whatever others may
do, and however it may fare with our country, it shall
surely be well with the righteous ; and when all the
396 THE ELECTION SERMON, 1780.
mighty states and empires of this world shall be dis
solved, and pass away " like the baseless fabric of a vis
ion," they shall enter into the kingdom of their Father,
which cannot be moved, and, in the enjoyment and exer
cise of perfect peace, liberty, and love, shine forth as the
sun forever and ever.
The UNITED STATES elevated to
Glory and Honor.
A
SERMON,
Preached before
His EXCELLENCY
JONATHAN TRUMBULL,EsQL.L.D,
Governor and Commander in Chief,
And the HONORABLE
The GENERAL ASSEMBLY
O F
The State of CONNECTICUT,
Convened at Hartford,
At the
Anniverfary ELECTION,
May 8th, 1783.
By EZRA STILES, D. D.
PRESIDENT OF YALE-CO ILKOE.
NEW-HAVEN:
Printed by THOMAS & SAMUEL GREEN.
M.DCC.LXXrXIII.
AT A GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the Governor and Company of the State
of CONNECTICUT, hoklen at Hartford on the second Thursday ol May,
Anno Dom. 1783.
Ordered, That Roger Sherman, Esq., and Captain Henry Daggett return the
thanks of this Assembly to the REVEREND DOCTOR EZRA STILES for his Sermon
delivered before the Assembly on the 8th instant; and desire a copy thereof, that
it may be printed.
A true copy of Record,
Examined by
GEORE WYLLTS, Secretary.
EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
PRESIDENT STILES was one of the most learned and high-minded men
of his time. He was familiar with the lore of the Hebrew and Christian
Church. He conversed and corresponded in Hebrew, Latin, and French,
with facility, and was learned in the Oriental literature and antiquities
connected with Biblical history. He taught in astronomy, chemistry, and
philosophy. He and his friend Dr. Franklin were among the earliest
statisticians in America, and his studies in this science exhibit the most
comprehensive and enlightened views. That he was a thorough antiquary
is manifest in his history of the Three Tyrannicides, and that he was a
true son of New England appears in his saying that the day of the
" martyrdom" of King Charles I. " ought to be celebrated as an anniver
sary thanksgiving that one nation on earth had so much fortitude and
public justice as to make a royal tyrant bow to the sovereignty of the
people."
By an extensive foreign correspondence he kept up with the progress
of knowledge and discovery, to which he himself contributed. That he
was a zealous and an understanding friend of civil and religious liberty, a
man of practical knowledge and observation, a sagacious student of men
and things, is apparent in his discourse on " Christian Union," 1760, as
well as in this remarkable sermon of 1783, on the " United States elevated
to Glory and Honor." Chancellor Kent said, at the Commencement at
Yale College, in 1831 : " President Stiles's zeal for civil and religious liberty
was kindled at the altar of the English and New England Puritans, and it
was animating and vivid. A more constant and devoted friend to the
Revolution and independence of this country never existed. Take him for
all in all, this extraordinary man was undoubtedly one of the purest and
best gifted men of his age. Though he was uncompromising in his belief
and vindication of the Protestant faith, he was nevertheless of the most
400 EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
charitable and catholic temper, resulting equally from the benevolence of
his disposition and the spirit of the gospel." The Rev. Dr. Channing said
of Dr. Stiles : " This country has not perhaps produced a more learned
man His virtues were proportioned to his intellectual acquisition.
In his faith he was what is called a moderate Calvinist; but his
heart was of no sect He desired to heal the wounds of the divided
Church of Christ, not by a common creed, but by the spirit of love
He wished to break every yoke, civil and ecclesiastical, from men's necks.
To the influence of this distinguished man in the circle in which I was
brought up, I may owe in part the indignation which I feel towards every
invasion of human rights. In my earliest years I regarded no other
human being with equal reverence." Nor did his zeal as a scholar lessen
his fidelity as a pastor and preacher in his ministry at Newport, then
second only to Boston in commerce.
Ezra Stiles, son of Rev. Isaac Stiles, was born in North Haven, Con
necticut, December 10, 1727; graduated at Yale in 1747; delivered a
Latin oration, in 1753, in memory of Dean Berkeley, and another at
New Haven, in February, 1755, in honor of Dr. Franklin, with whom he
had a life-long friendship. He was minister at Newport, Rhode Island,
from 1755 to the beginning of the war of the Revolution, in 1777; became
pastor of the North Church in Portsmouth, but was soon appointed
President of Yale College, an office which he adorned; and died May
12th, 1795. The present edition of his Election Sermon is reprinted from
the edition of 1783, at New Haven. It was reprinted in London, as a lite
rary curiosity, in all the luxury and splendor of large paper and bold
type. — Sparks's American Biography, xvi. 78; Sprague's Annals, i. 470,
479; Dr. Park's Life of Hopkins.
DISCOURSE IX
ELECTION SERMON".
AND TO MAKE THEE HIGH ABOVE ALL NATIONS WHICH HE HATH MADE, IN
PRAISE, AND IN NAME, AND IN HONOR; AND THAT THOU MAYEST BE' AN
HOLY PEOPLE UNTO THE LORD THY GOD. — Deut. XXVi. 19.
TAUGHT by the omniscient Deity, Moses foresaw and
predicted the capital events relative to Israel, through the
successive changes of depression and glory, until their final
elevation to the first dignity and eminence among the
empires of the world. These events have been so ordered
as to become a display of retribution and sovereignty ; for,
while the good and evil hitherto felt by this people have
been dispensed in the way of exact national retribution,
their ultimate glory and honor will be of the divine sover
eignty, with a " Not for your sakes do I this, saith the
Lord, be it known unto you, but for mine holy name's
sake."
However it may be doubted whether political commu
nities are rewarded and punished in this world only, and
whether the prosperity and decline of other empires have
corresponded with their moral state as to virtue and vice,
yet the history of the Hebrew theocracy shows that the
secular welfare of God's ancient people depended upon
their virtue, their religion, their observance of that holy cov
enant which Israel entered into with God on the plains at
the foot of Nebo, on the other side Jordan. Here Moses,
34*
402 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON. 1783.
the man of God, assembled three million of people, — the
number of the United States, — recapitulated and gave
them a second publication of the sacred jural institute,
delivered thirty-eight years before, with the most awful
solemnity, at Mount Sinai. A law dictated with sovereign
authority by the Most High to a people, to a world, a
universe, becomes of invincible force and obligation with
out any reference to the consent of the governed. It is
obligatory for three reasons, viz., its original justice and
unerring equity, the omnipotent Authority by which it is
enforced, and the sanctions of rewards and punishments.
But in the case of Israel he condescended to a mutual
covenant, and by the hand of Moses led his people to
avouch the Lord Jehovah to be their God, and in the most
public and explicit manner voluntarily to engage and cov
enant with God to keep and obey his law. Thereupon
this great prophet, whom God had raised up for so solemn
a transaction, declared in the name of the Lord that the
Most High avouched, acknowledged, and took them for a
peculiar people to himself; promising to be their God and
Protector, and upon their obedience to make them pros
perous and happy.a He foresaw, indeed, their rejection of
God, and predicted the judicial chastisement of apostasy —
a chastisement involving the righteous with the wicked.
But, as well to comfort and support the righteous in every
age, and under every calamity, as to make his power known
among all nations, God determined that a remnant should
be saved.- Whence Moses and the prophets, by divine
direction, interspersed their waitings with promises that
when the ends of God's moral government should be
answered in a series of national punishments, inflicted for
a succession of ages, he would, by his irresistible power
and sovereign grace, subdue the hearts of his people to a
a Deut. xxix. 10, 14; xxx. 9, 19.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 403
free, willing, joyful obedience; turn their captivity; recover
and gather them " from all the nations whither the Lord
had scattered them in his fierce anger; bring them into
the land which their fathers possessed ; and multiply them
above their fathers, and rejoice over them for good, as he
rejoiced over their fathers.a Then the words of Moses,
hitherto accomplished but in part, will be literally ful
filled, when this branch of the posterity of Abraham shall
be nationally collected, and become a very distinguished
and glorious people, under the great Messiah, the Prince
of Peace. He will then " make them high above all na
tions which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in
honor, and they shall become a holy people unto the Lord
their God."
I shall enlarge no further upon the primary sense and
literal accomplishment of this and numerous other prophe
cies respecting both Jews and Gentiles in the latter-day
glory of the church ; for I have assumed the text only as
introductory to a discourse upon the political welfare of
God's American Israel, and as allusively prophetic of the
future prosperity and splendor of the United States. We
may, then, consider —
I. What reason we have to expect that, by the blessing
of God, these States may prosper and flourish into a great
American Republic, and ascend into high and distinguished
honor among the nations of the earth. "To make thee
high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and
in name, and in honor."
II. That our system of dominion and civil polity would
be imperfect without the true religion ; or that from the
diffusion of virtue among the people of any community
would arise their greatest secular happiness : which will
terminate in this conclusion, that holiness ought to be the
a Deut. xxx. 3.
404 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
end of all civil government. " That thou mayest be a holy
people unto the Lord thy God."
I. The first of these propositions will divide itself into
two branches, and lead us to show,
1. Wherein consists the true political welfare and pros
perity, and what the civil administration necessary for the
elevation and advancement of a people to the highest
secular glory.
2. The reasons rendering it probable that the United
States will, by the ordering of Heaven, eventually become
this people. But I shall combine these together as I go
along.
Dominion is founded in property, and resides where that
is, whether in the hands of the few or many. The domin
ion founded in the feudal tenure of estate is suited to hold
a conquered country in subjection, but is not adapted to
the circumstances of free citizens. Large territorial prop
erty vested in individuals is pernicious to society. Civil
ians, in contemplating the principles of government, have
judged superior and inferior partition of property necessary
in order to preserve, the subordination of society and es
tablish a permanent system of dominion. This makes the
public defence the interest of a few landholders only.
A free tenure of lands,, an equable distribution of prop
erty, enters into the foundation of a happy state, — so far,
I mean, as that the body of the people may have it in their
power, by industry, to become possessed of real freehold,
fee-simple estate ; for connected with this will be a gen
eral spirit and principle of self-defence — defence of our
property, liberty, country. This has been singularly veri
fied in New England, where we have realized the capital
ideas of Harrington's Ocean a.1
1 " The Commonwealth of Oceana," by James Harrington, Chief of the
Commonwealth Club, was published in 1656, when Cromwell was in the
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 405
But numerous population, as well as industry, is neces
sary towards giving value to land, to judiciously partitioned
territory. The public weal requires the encouragement of
both. A very inconsiderable value arose from the sparse,
thin settlement of the American aboriginals, of whom
there are not fifty thousand souls on this side the Missis
sippi. The Protestant Europeans have generally bought
the native right of soil, as far as they have settled, and
paid the value ten-fold, and are daily increasing the value
of the remaining Indian territory a thousand-fold ; and in
this manner we are a constant increasing revenue to the
sachems and original lords of the soil. How much must
the value of lands reserved to the natives of North and
South America be increased to remaining Indians by the
inhabitation of two or three hundred millions of Euro
peans?
Heaven hath provided this country, not indeed derelict,
but only partially settled, and consequently open for the
reception of a new enlargement of Japheth. Europe was
settled by Japheth ; America is settling from Europe : and
perhaps this second enlargement bids fair to surpass the
first; for we are to consider all the European settlements
of America collectively' as springing from and transfused
with the blood of Japheth. Already for ages has Europe
arrived to a plenary, if not declining, population of one
hundred millions; in two or three hundred years this
second enlargement may cover America with three times
that number, if the present ratio of increase continues with
meridian. The American Republic was born of the English Common
wealth. The lineage is clear; and this reference by President Stiles to
Harrington's schemes is one of many beautiful illustrations of the fact,
which come up to the surface along the current of literature, and remain,
as buoys, to mark the channel down which have flowed the great hopes
of former days to become the verities of our own. — ED.
406 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
the enterprising spirit of Americans for colonization and
removing out into the wilderness and settling new coun
tries, and if Spain and Portugal should adopt that wise
regulation respecting the connection of the sexes which
would give a spring to population within the tropics equal
to that without. There may now be three or four millions
of whites, or Europeans, in North and South America, of
which one-half are in rapid increase, and the rest scarcely
keeping their number good without supplies from the
parent states. The number of French, Spaniards, Dutch,
and Portuguese may be one million souls in all Amer
ica, although they have transfused their blood into twice
that number of Indians. The United States may be two
million souls, whites, which have been an increase upon
perhaps fewer than twenty or thirty thousand families
from Europe. Can we contemplate their present, and
anticipate their future increase, and not be struck with
astonishment to find ourselves in the midst of the fulfil
ment of the prophecy of Noah ? May we not see that we
are the object which the Holy Ghost had in view four
thousand years ago, when he inspired the venerable patri
arch with the visions respecting his posterity? How
wonderful the accomplishments in distant and discon
nected ages ! While the principal increase was first in
Europe, westward from Scythia, the residence of the
family of Japheth, a branch of the original enlargement,
extending eastward into Asia, and spreading round to the
southward of the Caspian, became the ancient kingdoms
of Media and Persia : a and thus he dwelt in the tents
of Shern. Hence the singular and almost identical afiin-
O
ity between the Persic and Teutonic languages, through
all ages, to this day. And now the other part of the
prophecy is fulfilling in a new enlargement, not in the
a Jos. Ant., lib. i. c. 6.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 407
tents of Shem, but in a country where Canaan shall be his
servant, at least unto tribute.
I rather consider the American Indians as Canaanites
of the expulsion of Joshua,1 some of which, in Phoenician
ships, coasted the Mediterranean to its mouth, as 'appears
from an inscription which they left there. Procopius, who
was born in Palestine, a master of the Phoanician and
other oriental languages, and the historiographer of the
great Belisarius, tells us that at Tangier he saw and read
an inscription upon two marble pillars there, in the ancient
Phoenician — not the then modern Punic — letter, "We
are they who have fled from the face of Joshua the robber,
the son of Nun." a Bochart and Sclclen conjecture the
very Punic itself. Plato, ^Elian, and Diodorus Siculus
narrate voyages into the Atlantic Ocean thirty days west
from the Pillars of Hercules, to the island of Atlas. This
inscription, examined by Procopius, suggests that the
Canaanites, in coasting along from Tangier, might soon
get into the trade winds and be undesignedly wafted
across the Atlantic, land in the tropical regions, and com
mence the settlements of Mexico and Peru. Another
branch of the Canaanitish expulsions might take the reso
lution of the ten tribes, and travel north-eastward to where
never man dwelt, become the Tchuschi and Tungusi Tar
tars about Kamschatka and Tscukotskoinoss, in the north
east of Asia ; thence, by water, passing over from island to
island through the Northern Archipelago, to America,
became the scattered Sachemdoms of these northern re
gions. It is now known that Asia is separated by water
a Ibi ex albis lapidibus constant COLUMNS DU^E prope magnum fontem erectae,
Phcenicios liabeutescharacteres insculptos, qui Phoccicum lingua sic sonant: NOS
II SUMUS QUI FUGERUNT A FACIE JoSHU^E PR^EDONIS FILII NAUE. — Evagr.
Hist. ecc. 1. 4, c 18. Procop. Vandalic, 1. 8.
1 See Gookin's Historical Collections of the Indians, in Massachusetts
Historical Collections, i. 144. — ED.
408 DR. STILES' s ELECTION SERMON, i?83.
from America, as certainly appears from the Baron Dul-
feldt's voyage round the north of Europe into the Pacific
Ocean, A. D. 1769. Amidst all the variety of national
dialects, there reigns a similitude in their language, as
there is also in complexion and beardless features, from
Greenland to Del Fuego, and from the Antilles to Otaheite,
which show them to be one people.
A few scattered accounts, collected and combined to
gether, may lead us to two certain conclusions:1 1. That
all the American Indians are one kind of people ; 2. That
they are the same as the people in the northeast of Asia.
An Asiatic territory, three thousand miles long and
fifteen hundred wide, above the fortieth degree of latitude,
to the hyperborean ocean, contains only one million of
souls, settled as our Indians, as appears from the numera
tions and estimates collected by M. Mtiller and other
Russian academicians in 1769. The Koreki, Jakuhti, and
Tungusij, living on the eastern part of this territory next
to America, are naturally almost beardless, like the Samoi-
eds in Siberia, the Ostiacs and Calmucks, as well as the
American Indians, — all these having also the same custom"
of plucking out the few hairs of very thin beards. They
have more similar usages, and fewer dissimilar ones, than
the Arabians of the Koreish tribe and Jews who sprang
from Abraham, or than those that subsist among European
nations who sprang from one ancestor, or those Asiatic
nations which sprang from Shein. The portrait-painter,
Mr. Smibert,2 who accompanied Dr. Berkeley, then Dean
1 The learned and judicious paper, by Samuel Foster Haven, Esq., of the
American Antiquarian Society, published by the Smithsonian Institute in
18-50, gives an elaborate view of the " General Opinions respecting the Origin
of Population in the New World," with a critical account of the literature
upon this subject. — ED.
2 Smibert's picture of l)r. Berkeley and his family is in possession of
YaleCollcffe. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 409
of Deny, and afterward Bishop of Cloyne, from Italy to
America in 1728, was employed by the Grand Duke of
Tuscany, while at Florence, to paint two or three Siberian
Tartars, presented to the duke by the Czar of Russia.
This Mr. Smibert, upon his landing at Narrnganset Bay
with Dr. Berkeley, instantly recognized the Indians here
to be the same people as the Siberian Tartars whose
pictures he had taken. Moravian Indians from Greenland
and South America have met those in our latitude at
Bethlehem,1 and have been clearly perceived to be the
same people. The Kamschatdale Tartars have been car
ried over from Asia to America, and compared with our
Indians, and found to be the same people. These Asiatic
Tartars, from whom the American aboriginals derived,
are distinct from and far less numerous than the Mon-
gul and other Tartars which for ages, under Tamerlane
and other chieftains, have deluged and overrun the south
ern ancient Asiatic empires. Attending to the rational
and just deductions from these and other disconnected
data2 combined together, we may perceive that all the
1 Moravian settlement of Pennsylvania. — ED.
2 By his foreign correspondence Dr. Stiles was assiduous in learning the
progress of discovery on the northwest coast of America. This collection
of data, the bases of his " certain" deduction, well illustrate his intellectual
life, his untiring acquisitiveness, — for he gathered the facts more from
observation than from books, — his system ization, and his penetration and
judgment. His theory is adopted by Dr. Charles Pickering, of the United
States Exploring Expedition, who says : " I confess it was only on actually
visiting the North Pacific that the whole matter seemed open to my view."
He describes the islands of the Aleutian group, the countless inlets and
channels connecting the two continents, and says, " Where, then, shall Asia
end and America begin?" — "Races of Man," Bohn's Ed., 18-34, p. 296.
"The invention all admired, and each how he
To be tir inventor missed ; so easy it seemed,
Once found, which yet, unfound, most would have thought
Impossible/' — MILTON. — ED.
35
410 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
Americans arc one people — that they came hither cer
tainly from the northeast of Asia; probably, also, from the
Mediterranean ; and if so, that they are Canaanites, though
arriving hither by different routes. The ocean current
from the north of Asia might waft the beardless Samoieds
or Tchuschi from the mouth of Jenesea or the Oby, around
Nova Zembla to Greenland, an$ thence to Labrador, many
ages after the refugees from Joshua might have colo
nized the tropical regions. Thus Providence might have
ordered three divisions of the same people from different
parts of the world, and perhaps in very distant ages, to
meet together on this continent, or " our island," as the
Six Nations call it, to settle different parts of it, many
ages before the present accession of Japheth, or the former
visitation of Madoc, 1001, or the certain colonization from
Norway, A. D. 1001, as well as the certain Christianizing
of Greenland in the ninth century, not to mention the visit
of still greater antiquity by the Phoenicians, who charged
the Dighton1 rock, and other rocks in Narraganset Bay,
with Punic inscriptions, remaining to this day; — which
last I myself have repeatedly seen and taken off at large,
as did Professor Sewall. He has lately transmitted a copy
of this inscription to M. Gebelin, of the Parisian Academy
of Sciences, who, comparing them with the Punic paleog
raphy, judges them Punic, and has interpreted them as
denoting that the ancient Carthaginians once visited these
distant regions.
Indians are numerous in the tropical regions; not so
1 Dr. Stiles resided at Dighton for a while, after the war began, Newport
being open to the enemy from the sea. The result of Mr. Schoolcraft's
more careful study of the Dighton inscription is, that it is simply of Indian
origin. The Mananas " inscription," coast of Maine, has excited a like
interest. From a personal examination of it, in August, 18-35, I believe
that the Hand Avhich made the rock made the " inscription." — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 411
elsewhere. Baron la Hontan, the last century, and Mr.
Carver so lately as 1776 and 1777, travelled northwest
beyond the sources of the Mississippi. From their obser
vations it appears that the ratio of Indian population, in
the very heart of the continent, is similar to that on this
side of the Mississippi. By an accurate numeration made
in 1766, and returned into the plantation office in London,
it appeared that there were not forty thousand souls, In
dians, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from
Florida to the Pole. According to Mr. Carver, there are
about thirty,* and certainly not forty, Indian tribes west
of the Senecas and Six Nation confederacy, and from the
Mississippi and Ohio northward to Hudson's Bay, and
from Niagara to the Lake of the Woods. The chiefs of
all these speak the Chippeway language. And perhaps all
the remaining territory north of New Spain, and even on
this side the northern tropic, and northwestward to Asia,
will not exhibit five times that number, at highest.
Partly by actual numeration, and partly by estimate, the
Indians in the Spanish dominions in America are consid
ered as a million souls in New Spain, and a million and
one-half in Peru; or two or three million souls in the
whole. And perhaps this would fully comprehend those
of Paraguay and the Portuguese provinces. In my opin
ion, great defalcation must be made from these numbers.
The aboriginals have been injudiciously estimated at
twenty millions; but I believe they never exceeded two
or three million souls in all North and South America,
since the dtiys of Columbus.
The European population so surpasses them already,
that, of whatever origin, they will eventually be, as the
most of them have already become, servants unto Japheth.
Six hundred and twelve thousand Indians pay tribute in
a Carver's Trav., p. 415.
412 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
Peru. We are increasing with great rapidity; and the
Indians, as well as the million Africans in America, are
decreasing as rapidly. Both left to themselves, in this
way diminishing, may gradually .vanish j1 and thus an
unrighteous slavery may at length, in God's good provi
dence, be abolished, and cease in this land of liberty.
But, to return: The population of this land will probably
become very great, and Japheth become more numerous
millions in America than in Europe and Asia; and the
two or three millions of the United States may equal the
population of the oriental empires, which far surpasses
that of Europe. There are reasons for believing that the
English increase will far surpass others, and that the diffu
sion of the United States will ultimately produce the gen
eral population of America. The northern provinces of
China spread for ages, and at length deluged the southern
with a very numerous and accumulated population. "In
the multitude of people is the king's honor." a
But a multitude of people, even the two hundred mil
lion2 of the Chinese empire, cannot subsist without civil
government. All the forms of civil polity have been tried
by mankind, except one, and that seems to have been
reserved in Providence to be realized in America. Most
a Prov. xiv. 28.
1 The cotton-gin, invented about 1793-4, by ELI WHITNEY, a native of
Westborough, Massachusetts, December 8, 1765, turned " the whole course
of industry in the southern section of the Union," and the fate of " the
million Africans," and their descendants of mingled bloo^l. The total
number of Indians in the United States territory was estimated, in 18-33,
at 400,704. The total number of slaves, in 1854, was 3,204,313. The
shameless ingratitude and wrong to Whitney are narrated in " Silliman's
Journal," January, 1832. — ED.
2 The reader will readily excuse the omission of the author's long note
on Chinese statistics, cited from Hatton's Geography, and Du Halde, v.,
p. 209. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 413
of the states, of all ages, in their originals, both as to
policy and property, have been founded in rapacity, usur
pation, and injustice ; so that in the contests recorded in
history, the public right is a dubious question, — it being
rather certain that it belongs to neither of the contending
parties, — the military history of all nations being but a
description of the wars and invasions of the mutual rob
bers and devastators of the human race. The invasion of
the lawless Macedonian, who effected the dissolution of the
Medo-Persian empire; the wide-spread Roman conquests;
the inundation of the Goths and Vandals; the descents
of the Tartars on China; the triumphs of Tamerlane,
Ulugh-beg, and Aurengzebe ; and the wide-spread domi
nation of the impostor of Mecca, with his successors, the
Caliphs and Mamelukes, down to KonK-Kan, who de
throned his prince, and plundered India of two hundred
millions sterling; — these, I say, with the new distribution
of property and new erected policies, were all founded in
unrighteousness and tyrannical usurpation. The real in
terest of mankind, and the public good, has been generally
overlooked. It has really been very indifferent to the
great cause of right and liberty which of the belligerent
powers prevailed, — a Tangrolipix or a Mahomet, an
Augustus or an Antony, a Scipio or a Hannibal, a
Brennus or an Antiochus, — tyranny being the sure por
tion of the plebeians, be the victory as it should happen.
These things have led some very enlightened as well as
serious minds to a fixed conclusion and judgment against
the right and legality of all wars. In the simplicity of my
judgment, I have for years been of this opinion, except as
to the offensive wars of Israel and defensive war of
America. War, in some instances, especially defensive,
has been authorized by Heaven. The blessing given by
Melchisedec to Abraham, upon his return from the slaugh-
35*
414 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
ter of Chelclerlaomer and the kings of the East, justified
that holy patriarch. The war with Amelek, and the extir
pation of the Canaanites by Joshua, were of God. The
location of the respective territories to the first nations,
was so of God as to give them a divine right defensively
to resist the Nimrods and Ninuses, the first invading ty
rants of the ancient ages. The originally free and glori
ous republics of Greece had a right from God to withstand
the haughty claims of the Assyrian empire, which they
successfully resisted for ages, till the Roman power arose
behind them, and at length prostrated their liberties.
But after the spirit of conquest had changed the first
governments, all the succeeding ones have, in general,
proved one continued series of injustice, which has reigned
in all countries for almost four thousand years. These
have so changed property, laws, rights, and liberties, that
it has become impossible for the most sagacious civilians
to decide whose is the abstract political right in national
controversies ; rather, we know that none of them have
any right. All original right is confounded and lost. We
can only say that there still remains in the body of the
people at large — the body of mankind, of any and every
generation — a power, with which they are invested by the
Author of their being, to wrest government out of the
hands of reigning tyrants, and originate new policies,
adapted to the conservation of liberty, and promoting the
public welfare. But what is the happiest form of civil
government, is the great question. Almost all the polities
may be reduced to hereditary dominion, in either a mon
archy or aristocracy, and these supported by a standing
army. The Roman and Venetian senates were but a
hereditary aristocracy, with an elective head. The sena
torial succession is preserved independent of the people.
True liberty is preserved in the Belgic and Hselvetic re-
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 415
publics, and among the nobles in the elective monarchy of
Poland. For the rest of the world, the civil dominion,
though often wisely administered, is so modelled as to be
beyond the control of those for whose end God instituted
government. But a democratical polity for millions, stand
ing upon the broad basis of the people at large, amply
charged with property, has not hitherto been exhibited.
Republics are democratical, aristocratical, or monarchical.
Each of these forms admits of modifications, both as to
hereditation and powers, from absolute government up to
perfect liberty. Monarchy might be so limited, one would
think, as to be a happy form, especially if elective; but
both monarchy and aristocracy, when they become hered
itary, terminate in the prostration of liberty. The greater
part of the governments on earth may be termed monarch
ical aristocracies, or hereditary dominions independent
of the people. The nobles and nabobs, being hereditary,
will at first have great power; but the royal factions have
not failed to intrigue this away from the nobles to the
prince: the assembly of even hereditary nobles then be
come ciphers and nullities in dominion. The once glori
ous Cortes of Spain experienced this loss of power. It is
next to an impossibility to tame a monarch ; and few have
ruled without ferocity. Scarcely shall we find in royal
dynasties, in long line of princes, a few singularly good
sovereigns — a few Cyruses, Antonini, Alfreds, Boroihmeses.
Indeed, if we look over the present sovereigns of Europe,
we behold with pleasure two young princes, the em
peror,1 and the monarch of France,2 who seem to be raised
up in Providence to make their people and mankind happy.
1 See p. 464, note 1. — ED.
2 Louis XVI., for the iniquities of his fathers, died upon the scaffold,
January *21, 1793, aged thirty-eight. See p. 445, note 1. — ED.
416 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
A Ganganelli in the pontifical throne was a phoenix of
ages, shone for his moment, and scarcely to be found as^ain
in the catalogue of a Platina.1 We see enterprising lit
erary and heroic talents in a Frederick III., and wisdom
in a Poniatowski. I add no more. But when we con
template the other European and Asiatic potentates, and
especially the sovereigns of Delhi, Ispahaun, and Constan
tinople, one cannot but pity mankind whose lot is to be
governed by despots of small abilities, immersed and riot
ing in the splendor of a luxurious effeminacy. Nor could
government proceed were not the errors and desultory
blunders of royalty frequently corrected by the circum
spection of a Colao, a few sensible characters, venerable
for wisdom, called up among the stated councillors of
majesty.
Lord Bacon said that monarchy had a platform in na
ture ; and, in truth, monarchical ideas reign through the
universe. A monarchy conducted with infinite wisdom
and infinite benevolence is the most perfect of all possible
governments. The Most High hath delegated power and
authority to subordinate monarchies, or sole ruling powers,
in limited districts, throughout the celestial hierarchy, and
through the immensity of the intellectual world ; but, at
the same time, he hath delegated and imparted to them wis
dom and goodness adequate to the purposes of dominion ;
and thence the government is, as it ought to be, absolute.
But in a world or region of the universe where God has
imparted to none either this superior power or adequate
wisdom beyond what falls to the common share of human
ity, it is absurd to look for such qualities in one man — not
even in the man Moses, who shared the government of
Israel with the senate of seventy. Therefore there is
no foundation for monarchical government from supposed
1 See p. 466, note 1.— ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 417
hereditary superiority in knowledge. If it be said that
monarchs always have a council of state, consisting of the
wisest personages, of whose wisdom they avail themselves
in the government of empires, — not to observe that this
is a concession indicating a deficiency of knowledge in
princes, — it may be asked, Why not, then, consign and
repose government into the hands of the national council,
where always resides the superiority of wisdom? The
supposed advantage of having one public head for all to
look up to, and to concentre the attention, obedience, and
affection of subjects, and to consolidate the empire, will
not counterbalance the evils of arbitrary despotism and
the usual want of wisdom in the sovereigns and potentates
of the earth. For the hereditary successions in the dynas
ties of kings, in the effeminate families of the great, seem
to be marked and accursed by Providence with deficient
wisdom. And where is the wisdom of consigning govern
ment into such hands? Why not much better — since we
for once have our option or choice — to commit the direc
tion of the republic to a Wittena-gemot, or an aristocrat-
ical council of wise men? Should we call forth and dis-
&
nify some family, either from foreign nations or from
among ourselves, and create a monarch, whether a hered
itary prince or protector for life, and seat him in supremacy
at the head of Congress, soon, with insidious dexterity,
would he intrigue, and secure a venal majority even of
new and annual members, and, by diffusing a complicated
and variously modified influence, pursue an accretion of
power till he became absolute.
The celebrated historian Mrs. Catharine Macaulay,1 that
1 The eight volumes of Mrs. Macaulay's " History of England from the
Accession of James I. to that of the Brunswick Line," appeared succes
sively during the years 1763 to 1783. The high republican tone and noble
zeal for liberty which distinguished this work, and the time of its publica-
418 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
ornament of the republic of letters, and the female Livy
of the age, observes : " The man who holds supreme power
for life will have a great number of friends and adherents,
who are attached by interest to his interest, and who will
wish for continuance of power in the same family. This
creates the worst of factions, a government faction, in the
state. The desire of securing to ourselves a particular
unshared privilege is the rankest vice which infests human
ity ; and a protector for life, instead of devoting his time
and understanding to the great cares of government, will
be scheming and plotting to secure the power, after his
death, to his children, if he has any, if not, to the nearest
of his kin. This principle in government has been spro-
ductive of such bloodshed and oppression that it has in
clined politicians to give preference to hereditary rather
than elective monarchies ; and, as the lesser evil, to con
sign the government of society to the increasing and at
length unlimited sway of one family, whether the individ
uals of it should be idiots or madmen. It is an uncontro-
verted fact, that supreme power never can continue long
in one family without becoming unlimited." a
We stand a better chance with aristocracy, whether he
reditary or elective, than with monarchy. An unsystem-
atical democracy and an absolute monarchy are equally
detestable, equally a magormissabib, the terror to all
around them. An elective aristocracy is preferable for
America, as it is rather to be a council of nations1 —
a Mrs. Macaulay's letter to the author, 1771.
tion, coincident with the period of the Revolution, rendered the author a
great favorite with the American patriots and scholars. Dr. Stiles's lan
guage was not an extravagant expression of her popularity in England or
America. She visited Washington in 1785. He was one of her corre
spondents. After a remarkable and somewhat eccentric life, she died in
1791. — ED.
i See p. 458, and note 1. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 419
agreeable to the humane, liberal, and grand ideas of Henry
IV. and the patriot Sully — than a body in which resides
authoritative sovereignty ; for there is no real cession of
dominion, no surrender or transfer of sovereignty to the
national council, as each state in the confederacy is an
independent sovereignty.1
In justice to human society it may perhaps be said of
almost all the polities and civil institutions in the world,
however imperfect, that they have been founded in and
carried on with very considerable wisdom. They must
have been generally well administered, — I say generally,
— otherwise government could not proceed. This may be
said even of those governments which carry great defects
and the seeds of self-destruction and ruin in their consti
tution ; for even an Ottoman or an Aurengzebe must
establish and prescribe to himself a national constitution,
a system of general laws and dominion. But the abstract
rationale of perfect civil government remains still hidden
among the desiderata of politics, having hitherto baffled
the investigation of the best writers on government, the
ablest politicians, and the sagest civilians. A well-ordered
democraticai aristocracy, standing upon the annual elec
tions of the people, and revocable at pleasure, is the polity
which combines the United States ; and, from the nature
of man and the comparison of ages, I believe it will ap
prove itself the most equitable, liberal, and perfect.
With the people, especially a people seized of prop
erty, resides the aggregate of original power. They can
not, however, assemble from the territory of an empire,
and must, therefore, if they have any share in government,
represent themselves by delegation. This constitutes one
order in legislature arid sovereignty. It is a question
whether there should be any other ; to resolve which, it
1 See p. 358, note 1. — ED.
420 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
may be considered that each of these delegates, or repre
sentatives, will be faithful conservators of local interests,
but have no interest in attending extensively to the pub
lic, further than where all particular local interests are
affected in common with that which one delegate repre
sents in particular.
It should seem, then, that the nature of society dictates
another, a higher branch, whose superiority arises from its
being the interested and natural conservator of the uni
versal interest. This will be a senatorial order, standing,
not on local, but a general election of the whole body of
the people. Let a bill, or law, be read, in the one branch
or the other, every one instantly thinks how it will affect
his constituents. If his constituents are those of one
small district only, they will be his first care; if the people
at large, their general or universal interest will be his first
care, the first object of his faithful attention. If a senator,
as in Delaware, stands on the election of only the same
district as a deputy, the Upper House is only the repeti
tion of the lower; if on the election of several counties
combined, as in Virginia, each member of the Upper House
stands and feels himself charged with a greater and more
extensive care than a member of the House of Burgesses :
not but that it is the duty of each deputy to attend to the
general interest, Georgia, Pennsylvania,1 arid Jersey, have
each a Senate or Legislature of one order only; for
although in Jersey it seemeth otherwise, yet that interest
which will determine a vote in one, will determine it in
both Houses. The same is true of the two Carolinas.
The constitutions of Maryland and New York are
1 The single legislature was a favorite idea with Dr. Franklin, and it is
said that the high authority of his opinions in France aided its adoption
there; and from the want of the Senate, or Upper House, as a great
balance-wheel, came the horrors of the French Revolution. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 421
founded in higher wisdom. The polity of Massachusetts
is excellent, and truly grand ; it retains, indeed, some of
the shadows of royalty, which may give dignity, but never
operate an essential mischief in the hands of a chief magis
trate who is annually elected by the people at large. But
Connecticut and Rhode Island have originally realized the
most perfect polity as to a legislature. Any emendations
and improvements may be made by the Assembly, with
respect to the establishment of the law courts, and a con
stitutional privy council, which in all future time will be
necessary to attend the chief magistrate in the ordinary
civil administration. These things are remedied in Vir
ginia, whose constitution seems to be imperfect in but one
thing : its twenty-four senators, though elected from local
districts, should be elected by the people at large, — being
men of such public eminence, and of merit so illustrious,
as to be known, not to a few only, but to all the tribes
throughout the state. It establishes judges quamdiu se
bene gesserint. It provides perfectly for legislation and
law courts, for the militia, and for that continual admin
istration of government, in absence of assemblies and
while the judiciary tribunals are sitting, which must reside
in and be uninterruptedly exercised at the head of sover
eignty in every civil polity,
It gives me pleasure to find that public liberty is effect
ually secured in each and all the policies of the United
States, though somewhat differently modelled. Not only
the polity, or exterior system of government, but the laws
and interior regulations of each state, are already excel
lent, surpassing the institutions of Lycurgus or Plato; and
by the annual appeals to the public a power is reserved to
the people to remedy any corruptions or errors in govern
ment. And even if the people should sometimes err, yet
each assembly of the states, and the body of the people,
36
422 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
always embosom wisdom sufficient to correct themselves;
so that a political mischief cannot be durable. Herein we
far surpass any states on earth. We can correct ourselves,
if in the wrong. The Belgic states, in their federal ca
pacity, are united by a perfect system, constituted by that
great prince, William of Nassau, and the compatriots of
that age ; but they left the interior government of the jural
tribunals, cities, and provinces, as despotic and arbitrary as
they found them. So the elective monarchical republic
of Poland is an excellent constitution for the nobles, but
leaves despotism and tyranny, the portion and hard fate
of the plebeians, beyond what is to be found in any
part of Europe. Not so the American states ; their inte
rior as well as exterior civil and jural polities are so nearly
perfect, that the rights of individuals, even to numerous
millions, are guarded and secured.
The crown and glory of our confederacy is the amphic-
tyonic council l of the General Congress, standing on the
annual election of the united respective states, and revoca
ble at pleasure. This lays the foundation of a permanent
union in the American Republic, which may at length
convince the world that, of all the policies to be found on
earth, not excepting the very excellent one of the Chinese
Empire, the most perfect one has been invented and
realized in America.
If, in the multitude of devices for improving and carry
ing our policy to greater perfection and a more permanent
and efficacious government, — ifj I say, some elevated
geniuses should go into the ideas of monarchy, whether
hereditary or elective, and others think of a partition of
1 Five years later, in 1788, James Madison, in the "Federalist," Nos. 18,
38, describes this celebrated institution, as "it bore a very instructive
analogy to the present confederation of the American Union." See p.
458, note 1. — KD
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 423
the United States into three or four separate independent
confederacies, perhaps, upon discussing the subject calmly
and thoroughly, and finding that the policy which will at
last take place must stand on plebeian election, they may
at length be satisfied that the die is already cast, and the
policy has taken its complexion for ages to come. Thus
the nine bowls engraved with the map of dominion estab
lished the policy of the Chinese empire for near twenty
ages.a The ancient division of the empire subsisted by
means of these symbols of dominion, which passed in suc
cession to the nine principal mandarins, or supreme gov
ernors under the imperial sovereignty; and this for the
long tract from their first institution by the Emperor Yu,
who reigned two thousand two hundred years before
Christ, to Chey-lie-vang, who was contemporary with the
great philosopher Menzius, three hundred years before
Christ. So that symbol of union, the American flag, with
its increasing stripes and stars, may have an equally com
bining efficacy for ages. The senatorial constitution and
consulate of the Roman Empire lasted from Tarquin to
Caesar. The pragmatic sanction has probably secured the
imperial succession in the House of Austria for ages. The
Medo-Persian and Alexandrian empires, and that of Tam
erlane, who reigned, A. D. 1400, from Smyrna to the
Ganges, were, for obvious reasons, of short and transitory
duration; but that of the Assyrian endured, without
mutation, through a tract of one thousand three hundred
years, from Semiramis to Sardanapalus. Nor was the
policy of Egypt overthrown for a longer period, from the
days of Mitzrairn till the time of Cambyses and Amasis.
Whatever mutations may arise in the United States,
perhaps hereditary monarchy and a standing army will be
the last.
a Du Halde, Hist. China.
424 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
Besides a happy policy as to civil government, it is
necessary to institute a system of law and jurisprudence
founded in justice, equity, and public right. The Ameri
can codes of law, and the lex non scripta, the senatus con-
sulta, and the common law, are already advanced to great
perfection, — far less complicated and perplexed than the
jural systems of Europe, where reigns a mixture of Roman,
Gothic, Teutonic, Salic, Saxon, Norman, and other local
or municipal law, controlled or innovated and confused by
subsequent royal edicts and imperial institutions, superin
ducing the same mutation as did the imperatorial decrees
of the Caesars upon the ancient jus civile, or Roman law.
A depuration from all these will take place in America,
and our communication with all the world will enable us
to bring home the most excellent principles of law and
right to be found in every kingdom and empire on earth.
These being adopted here may advance our systems of
jurisprudence to the highest purity and perfection, — es
pecially if hereafter some Fleta, Bracton, Coke, some great
law genius, should arise, and, with vast erudition, and with
the learned sagacity of a Trebonianus, reduce and digest
all into one great jural system.
But the best laws will be of no validity unless the tri
bunals be filled with judges of independent sentiment,
vast law knowledge, and of an integrity beyond the pos
sibility of corruption. Even a Bacon should fall from his
highest honors the moment he tastes the forbidden fruit.
Such infamy and tremendous punishment should be con
nected with tribunal bribery, that a judge should be
struck into the horror of an earthquake at the very
thoughts of corruption. The legislatures have the insti
tution and revocation of law ; and the judges in their
decisions are to be sacredly governed by the laws of the
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 425
land.1 Most of the states have judged it necessary, in
order to keep the supreme law courts uninfluenced and
uncorrupted tribunals, that the judges be honorably sup
ported, and be fixed in office guamdiu se bene gesserint.
But I pass on to another subject, in which the welfare of
a community is deeply concerned, — I mean the public
revenues. National character and national faith depend
on these. Every people, every large community, is able to
furnish a revenue adequate to the exigencies of govern
ment. But this is a most difficult subject ; and what the
happiest method of raising it, is uncertain. One thing is
certain, that however in most kingdoms and empires the
people are taxed at the will of the prince, yet in America
the people tax themselves, and therefore cannot tax them
selves beyond their abilities. But whether the power of
taxing be in an absolute monarchy a power independent
of the people, or in a body elected by the people, one
great error lias, I apprehend, entered into the system of
revenue and finance in almost all nations, viz., restricting
the collection to money. Two or three millions can more
easily be raised in produce than one million in money.
This, collected and deposited in stores and magazines,
would, by bills drawn upon these stores, answer all the
expenditures of war and peace. The little imperfect ex
periment lately made here should not discourage us. In
one country it has been tried with success for ages, — I
mean in China, the wisest empire the sun hath ever shined
upon. And here, if I recollect aright, not a tenth of the
imperial revenues hath been collected in money. In rice,
wheat, and millet only, are collected forty million of sacks,
— one hundred and twenty each, — equal to eighty million
1 In this connection read Mr. George Sumner's oration, Boston, July 4,
1859, pp. 10, 51-67.— ED.
36*
426 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
bushels; in raw and wrought silk, one million pounds.
The rest is taken in salt, wines, cotton, and other fruits of
labor and industry, at a certain ratio per cent., and depos
ited in stores over all the empire. The perishable com
modities are immediately sold, and the mandarins and
army are paid by bills on these magazines. In no part of
the world are the inhabitants less oppressed than there.
England has eleven hundred millions property, — real,
personal, and commercial, — and five million souls. Their
ordinary revenue has for many years been ten or twelve
millions ; and during this war the national expenditures
have been annually twenty millions. A great part is raised
by excise ; by the land tax not above a fifth or sixth,
although the annual rental of England is really sixty mil
lions. The funded debt has arisen from one hundred and
twenty-three millions, A. D. 1775, to two hundred and
thirty millions, in 1783, and can never be paid.1 It is un
paralleled in the annals of empires that six or seven mil
lions of people ever discharged so heavy a burden. The
Roman imperial debt was once — in the times of the
Caesars — three hundred millions sterling, when the em
pire consisted of thirty million of people. One emperor
at his accession wiped out twenty millions, and the Goths
and Vandals settled the rest to the ruin of thousands.
May God preserve these States from being so involved !
The present war being over, the future increase of pop
ulation and property will in time enable us with conven
ience to discharge the heavy debt we have incurred in the
defence of our rights and liberties. The United States
have now two hundred and fifty millions of property,
pretty equally shared by two or three million people.
i The debt of Great Britain is £803,733,958. The population of the
British Islands is 27,000,000, and of all territory under British rule,
215,000,000. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 427
And our national debt a is not ten million sterling, — which
is to the whole collectively as it would be for one man
possessing an estate of two hundred and fifty pounds in
land and stock to oblige himself to pay ten pounds. The
interest only of the British national debt, upon six or seven
million people, is above ten millions sterling annually; —
that is, greater than the whole national debt of the United
States upon half that number. Our population will soon
overspread the vast territory from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi, which in two generations will become a prop
erty superior to that of Britain. Thus posterity may
help to pay for the war 1 which we have been obliged to
fight out for them in our day. It will not, however, be
wise to consign to posterity so heavy a debt, lest they
should be tempted to learn, like other nations, the practice
of public injustice and broken national faith.
Another object of great attention in America will be
commerce. In order to form some ideas respecting it in
the United States, we may take a summary view of it
while we were in connection with Britain, and thence
a Forty-two millions of dollars at the peace.
1 The gracious Providence which ordained Washington, no less created
Hamilton specially for the nation. His genius brought order out of chaos,
and created our permanent financial system. "At the time when our
government was organized, we were without funds, though not without
resources. To call them into action, and establish order in the finances,
Washington sought for splendid talents, for extensive information, and,
above all, he sought for sterling, incorruptible integrity. All these he
found in Hamilton." — Gouverneur Morris. "He smote the rock of the
national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He
touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprang upon its
feet. The fabled birth of Minerva from the brain of Jove was hardly more
sudden or more perfect than the financial system of the United States as
it burst forth from the conception of Alexander Hamilton." — Daniel
Webster. See the admirable sketch of Hamilton and his Works in Alli-
bone's Dictionary of Authors. — ED.
428 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
judge what it may be after we shall have recovered from
the shock of this war.
The British merchants represented that they received
some profit indeed from Virginia and South Carolina, as
well as the West Indies ; but as for the rest of this conti
nent, they were constant losers in trade. Mr. Glover has
candidly disclosed the truth; and he and other writers
enable us to form some ideas of the matter. It appears,
from an unclecennary account laid before Parliament in
1776, that the state of commerce between England only
and English America, for the eleven years preceding hostil
ities, was thus :
Exports to the Imports from the
Continental colonies, 26! mil. ster. 131 mil. ster.
West Indies, . . 14^ " " 35| " " ( mostly on acct. of the
Total, 4T " " 49 f continental colonies.
A commerce of twenty-six million exports, and only thir
teen million imports, is self-annihilated and impossible.
The returns from the West Indies comprehended a great
part of the continental remittances. The American mer
chants, by a circuitous trade from this continent and from
Africa, remitted to London and Britain, by way of the
West Indies, in bills of exchange drawn on sugars, the
balance of what they seem to fall short in direct remit
tances on the custom-house books.
The whole American commerce monopolized by Great
Britain must be considered collectively, and was to Eng
land only in the above account forty-one million exports,
and forty-nine million imports. This, inclusive of the
twelve per cent, charged, amounted to a real annual profit
of thirty-two per cent, to the English merchants, in actual
remittances of the year, besides a standing American debt,
it is said, of six million, carrying interest. Well might
THE FUTU11E GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 429
the British merchants sustain a loss in American bankrupt
cies of a million a year — though probably at an average
not five or ten thousand — in so lucrative a trade.1 An
idea of the mercantile debt may be thus conceived. There
is a district within the United States upon which the state
of European trade 2 at the commencement of hostilities
was thus; being chiefly carried on by foreign factorages —
a mode of commerce which the British merchants intended
to have been universal. In the course of a systematical
trade had at length arisen a standing debt of a million
sterling, among about a quarter of a million of people. To
feed this the British merchants sent over one quarter of a
million sterling annually ; for which, and collected debts,
they received in actual remittance half a million sterling
within the same year; i. e., a quarter of a million returned
half a million, and fed or kept up a debt of one million,
paying to Britain an annual lawful interest ; the security
of all which complicated system stood upon American
mortgages. This is true mercantile secret history.
If this specimen applied to all the States — and, God be
thanked ! it does not — it would show not only the great
ness and momentous importance of our trade to Europe,
but the necessity of legislative regulations in commerce,
to invalidate future foreign mortgages, and yet support
credit by the enforcement of punctual, speedy, and certain
payments, whether with profit or loss. Without this no
permanent commerce can be supported. I observed that
the above specimen may assist us. It is not necessary for
every purpose to come to great exactness in capital esti
mates. The total exterior commerce of Great Britain
with all the world is about twelve millions annually ; of
1 See pp. 107, 127, note; 136. — ED.
2 Boston and Newport were the great marts of foreign trade. — ED.
430 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
which five millions, or near half, was of American connec
tion, and four millions of this directly American, as Mr.
Glover asserts ; and the real profit of the American trade
was become to Britain equal to nearly half the benefit of
her total exterior commerce to the whole world. The
total of British exports to all the world, A. D. 1704, was
only six millions and a half sterling. The American Brit
ish trade, in its connections, returns, and profits, nearly
equalled this, A. D, 1774. We were better to Britain than
all the world was to her seventy years before. Despised
as our commerce was, it is evident that, had the union
continued, our increasing millions would soon have made
remittances for more than the fewer millions of Britain
could have manufactured for exportation ; for the greater
part of the manufactures of every country must be for
domestic consumption. A specimen of this we have in
the woollen manufacture. England grows eleven million
fleeces a year, worth two million sterling, manufactured
into eight million ; of which six million is of domestic
consumption, and two million only for exportation. When
it is considered that a great part of this went to other
countries, how weak must be the supposition that Britain
clothed America ; while America, from the beginning, in
their own domestic manufactures, furnished nine-tenths of
their apparel.
Our trade opens to all the world. We shall doubtless
at first overtrade ourselves everywhere, and be in danger
of incurring heavy mortgages, unless prevented.1 The
nations will not at first know how far they may safely
trade with us. But commerce will find out its own sys-
1 Child, Gee, Huske, and Glover wrote largely on American trade, and
its value to England. Edmund Burke mastered its principles; and his
speeches, especially that of 1775, contain much of the order observable in
these pages of Dr. Stiles. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 431
tern, and regulate itself in time. It will be governed on
the part of America by the cheapest foreign markets ; on
the part of Europe, by our ability and punctuality of re
mittance. We can soon make a remittance of three or
four million a year, in a circuitous trade, exclusive of the
iniquitous African trade.1 If Europe should indulge us
beyond this, our failures and disappointments might lay
the foundation of national animosities. Great wisdom is
therefore necessary to regulate the commerce of America.
The caution with which we are to be treated may occasion
and originate a commercial system among the maritime
nations on both sides of the Atlantic, founded in justice
and reciprocity of interest, which will establish the benev
olence as well as the opulence of nations, and advance the
progress of society to civil perfection.
It is certainly for the benefit of every community that
it be transfused with the efficacious motives of universal
industry. This wTill take place if every one can enjoy the
fruits of his labor and activity unmolested. All the variety
of labor in a well-regulated state will be so ordered and
encouraged as that all will be employed, in a just propor
tion, in agriculture, mechanic arts, commerce, and the lit
erary professions. It has been a question whether agri
culture or commerce needs most encouragement in these
states. But the motives for both seem abundantly suf
ficient. Never did they operate more strongly than at pres
ent. The whole continent is [in] activity, and in the lively,
vigorous exertion of industry. Several other things call
for encouragement, as the planting of vineyards, arid olive
yards, and cotton-walks ; the raising of wool, planting
1 The pulpits of Dr. Stiles and Dr. Hopkins, at Newport, R. I., — then the
headquarters of the African slave-trade, — afford models of apostolic fidel
ity in gospel preaching at " the sins of the times." They were Christian
heroes. See Dr. Park's Memoir of Samuel Hopkins, D. D., 1854. — ED.
432 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
mulberry trees, and the culture of silk ; and, I add, estab
lishing manufactories.1 This last is necessary, very neces
sary — far more necessary, indeed, than is thought by
many deep politicians. Let us have all the means possible
of subsistence and elegance among ourselves, if we would
be a' flourishing republic of real independent dignity and
glory.
Another thing tending to the public welfare is, removing
causes of political animosities and civil dissension, promot
ing harmony, and strengthening the union among the
several parts of this extended community.2 In the memo
rable bellum sociale among the Romans, three hundred
thousand of Roman blood fought seven hundred thousand
brethren of the Italian blood. After a loss of sixty thou
sand, in disputing a trifling point of national honor, they
pacificated the whole by an amnesty, and giving the city
to the Italians.* We may find it^a wise policy, a few years
hence, under certain exceptions, to settle an amnesty and
aVid. Velleius paterc.
1 Hildrcth, iii. 406. The imports from Great Britain in 1784 and 1785
amounted in value to thirty millions of dollars, while the exports did not
exceed nine millions. This ruinous competition was checked by the law
of 1789, proposed by Hamilton, for the encouragement of manufactures,
to which the war of 1812 gave a fresh impulse. They have felt the fluc
tuations of party and of commerce, but the United States are now far
advanced to the "real independent dignity" foreseen by Dr. Stiles in
1783. Arkwright and Whitney, Fulton and Watt, divide the honors
in this noble competition of industry. See p. 335, note 1. — ED.
2 In a sermon, preached in 1760, on the conquest of Canada, Drt Stiles
said: " It is probable that in time there will be a Provincial Confederacy
and a Common Council, and this may in time terminate in an Imperial Diet,
when the imperial dominion will subsist, as it ought, in election." The
sagacious author saw the " imperial dominion," as he called it in 1760, or
" amnesty," as he termed it in 1783, consummated in the unanimous elec
tion of Washington in 1789 as President of the Republic — of " the people
of the United States." This foreseeing, this repeated pi-cdiction, first of
the Confederacy, and then of its " terminating " " in a few years" in the
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 433
circulate a brotherly affection among all the inhabitants
of this glorious republic. We should live henceforward
in amity, as brothers inspired with and cultivating a cer
tain national benevolence, unitedly glorying in the name
of a Columbian or American, and in the distinguished
honor and aggrandizement of our country; — like that
ancient national affection which we once had for the
parent state while we gloried in being a part of the Brit
ish empire, and when our attachment and fidelity grew to
an unexampled vigor and strength. This appeared in the
tender distress we felt at the first thoughts of the dissolu
tion of this ancient friendship. We once thought Britain
our friend, and gloried in her protection. . But some
demona whispered folly into the present reign, and Britain
forced upon America the tremendous alternative of the
loss of liberty or the last appeal, either of which instantly
alienated and dissolved our affection. It was impossible
to hesitate, and the affection is dissolved, never, never
more to be recovered ; like that between Syracuse and
Athens, it is lost forever. A political earthquake through
the continent hath shook off America from Great Britain.
Oh, how painful and distressing the separation and dis
memberment! Witness, all ye patriotic breasts, all ye
lovers of your country, once lovers of Great Britain —
witness the tender sensations and heartfelt violence, the
reluctant distress and sorrow, with which ye were pene
trated, when, spurned from a parent's love, ye felt the con
viction of the dire necessity of an everlasting parting to
meet no more — never to be united again!
O, England ! how did I once love thee ! how did I
once glory in thee ! how did I once boast of springing
a Bute.
Union, is one of the most remarkable instances of political foresight and
sagacity on record. — ED.
37
434 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMOX, 1783.
from thy bowels, though at four descents ago, and the
nineteenth from Sir Adarn of Knapton ! In the rapturous
anticipation of thine enlargement and reflourishing in this
western world, how have I been wont to glory in the
future honor of having thee for the head of the Britannico-
American empire for the many ages till the millennium,
when thy great national glory should have been advanced
in then becoming a member of the universal empire of the
Prince of Peace ! And if perchance, in some future period,
danger should have arisen to thee from European states,
how have I flown on the wings of prophecy, with the
numerous hardy hosts of thine1 American sons inheriting
thine ancient principles of liberty and valor, to rescue and
rein throne the hoary, venerable head of the most glorious
empire on earth! But now, farewell — a long farewell —
to all this greatness ! And yet even now, methinks, in
such an exigency, I could leap the Atlantic, not into thy
bosom, but to rescue an aged parent from destruction, and
then return on the wings of triumph to this asylum of the
world, and rest in the bosom of Liberty.2
1 Sec pp. 130-135, 184, 185, 238. —ED.
2 It is grand to find the magnanimous feelings and views of early times,
briefly interrupted, again asserting their legitimate power in the leading
minds of this day, and none would more enjoy and value the flow of
good feeling and sound sense in the following passage than Washington
and his associates :
" Of all countries known in history, the North American Republic is
most conspicuously marked by the fusion, or rather the absence, of rank
and social distinctions, by community of interests, by incessant and all-
pervading intercommunication, by the universal diffusion of education,
and the abundant facilities of access not only to the periodical conduits,
but to the permanent reservoirs of knowledge. The condition of England
is in all these respects closely assimilated to that of the United States;
and not only the methods, but the instruments of popular instruction
are fast becoming the same in both, and there is a growing conviction
among the wise of the two great empires that the highest interests of both
will be promoted by reciprocal good-will and unrestricted intercourse,
THE FUTUKE GLORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 435
Moreover, as we have seen the wisdom of our ancestors
in instituting a militia, so it is necessary to continue it.
The Game Act, in the time of James I., insidiously dis
armed the people of England.1 Let us not be insidiously
disarmed. In all our enlargements in colonization, in all
our increasing millions, let the main body be exercised
annually to military discipline, whether in war or peace.
This will defend us against ourselves and against surround
ing states. Let this be known in Europe, in every future
age, and we shall never again be invaded from the other
side of the Atlantic. " The militia2 of this country," says
General Washington, "must be considered as the palla
dium of our security and the first effectual resort in case of
hostility."
Another thing necessary is a vigilance against corrup-
perillcd by jealousies and estrangement. Favored, then, by the mighty
elective affinities, the powerful harmonic attractions which subsist between
the Americans and the Englishmen as brothers of one blood, one speech,
one faith, we may reasonably hope that the Anglican tongue, on both
sides of the Atlantic, as it grows in flexibility, comprehensiveness, expres
sion, wealth, will also more and more clearly manifest the organic unity
of its branches, and that national jealousies, material rivalries, narrow
interests, will not disjoin and shatter that great instrument of social
advancement which God made one, as he made one the spirit of the
nation that uses it." — Marsh, "English Language in America," Lecture
xxx., 1800. — ED.
1 By the Act 3d James I., 1GOG, persons of an annual landed revenue
of £100 were empowered to seize all guns and sporting implements from
any and all persons of an income of less than £40 a year, they being
deemed unqualified for the enjoyment of cony and deer hunting. In
those days the king called upon all of £40 a year to receive knighthood, or
pay into his royal palm a fee for escaping the honor. Such were the
hazards of having "£40 a year," or more or less; such the security of
individual or popular rights; and such the boast of him who may hold
his patent of nobility, temp. Jac. I. — ED.
2 The Constitution of the United States, 1789, provides that, "a well-
regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right
of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." — ED.
486 DR. STTLES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
tion in purchasing elections and in designations to offices
in the Legislatures and Congress, instituting such effica
cious provisions against corruption as shall preclude the
possibility of its rising to any great height before it shall
be controlled and corrected.1 Although, in every political
administration, the appointment to offices will ever be
considerably influenced by the sinister, private, personal
motives either of interest or friendship, yet the safety of
the state requires that this should not go too far. An
administration may indeed proceed tolerably when the
officers of a well-arranged system are in general ordinary
characters, provided there is a pretty good sprinkling of
men of wisdom interspersed among them. Plow much
more illustrious would it be if three quarters of the offices
of government were filled with men of ability, understand
ing, and patriotism! What an animation would it dif
fuse through a community if men of real merit in every
branch of business were sure of receiving the rewards and
honors of the state! That great and wise monarch, Olam
1 President Buchanan, whose many years and opportunities of observa
tion and experience, early and late, give weight to his testimony both as
to fact and principle, in a letter of the 22d of November, 18-38, wrote as
follows :
" I shall assume the privilege of advancing years in referring to another
growing and dangerous evil. In the last age, although our fathers, like
ourselves, were divided into political parties, which often had severe con
flicts, yet we never heard, until a recent period, of the employment of money
to carry elections. Should this practice increase until the voters and their
representatives in tlae state and national legislatures shall become infected,
the fountain of free government will then be poisoned at its source, and
we must end, as history proves, in military despotism. A democratic
republic, all agree, cannot long survive unless sustained by public virtue.
When this is corrupted, and the people become venal, there is a canker at
the root of the tree of liberty, which must cause it to wither and die."
In a letter to the editor, in 1816, Hon. Henry Clay said of the system
indicated by the phrase "To the victors belong the spoils," it is a "policy
which I fear may, in the end, prove disastrous to our institutions." — ED.
THE SUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 437
Fodhla, the Alfred of Ireland, one thousand years before
Christ, instituted an annual review and examination of all
the achievements and illustrious characters in the realm ;
and, being approved by himself and the annual assembly
of the nobles, he ordered their names and achievements to
be enrolled in a public register of merit. This continued
two thousand years, to the time of that illustrious chief
tain, Brien O'Boroihme. This had an amazing effect. By
this animation, the heroic, military, and political virtues,
with civilization, and, I add, science and literature, as
cended to an almost unexampled and incredible perfec
tion in Ireland, ages before they figured in other parts of
Europe, not excepting even Athens and Rome. I have
a very great opinion of Hibernian merit, literary as well as
civil and military, even in the ages before St. Patrick.
But to return : The cultivation of literature will greatly
promote the public welfare. In every community, while
provision is made that all should be taught to read the
Scriptures, and the very useful parts of common education,
a good proportion should be carried through the higher
branches of literature. Effectual measures should be taken
for preserving and diffusing knowledge among a people.
The voluntary institution of libraries in different vicinities
will give those who have not a liberal education an oppor
tunity of gaining that knowledge which will qualify them
for usefulness. Travels, biography, and history, the knowl
edge of the policies, jurisprudence, and scientific improve
ments among all nations, ancient and modern, will form
the civilian, the judge, the senator, the patrician, the man
of useful eminence in society. The colleges have been
of singular advantage in the present day.1 When Britain
i There are 124 colleges, 51 theological schools, 10 law schools, and 40
medical, in the United States. — American Almanac, 1860. The United
37*
438 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
withdrew all her wisdom from America, this revolution
found above two thousand, in New England only, who
had been educated in the colleges, intermixed among
the people, and communicating knowledge among them.
Almost all of them have approved themselves useful;
and there have been some characters among us of the
first eminence for literature.1 It would be for the public
emolument should there always be found a sufficient
number of men in the community at large of vast and
profound erudition, and perfect acquaintance with the
whole system of public affairs, to illuminate the public
councils, as well as fill the three learned professions with
dignity and honor.
I have thus shown wherein consists the true political
welfare of a civil community or sovereignty. The founda
tion is laid in a judicious distribution of property, and in a
good system of polity and jurisprudence, on which will
arise, under a truly patriotic, upright, and firm adminis
tration, the beautiful superstructure of a well-governed
and prosperous empire.
Already does the new constellation of the United States
begin to realize this glory. It has already risen to an
acknowledged sovereignty among the republics and king
doms of the world. And we have reason to hope, and, I
believe, to expect, that God has still greater blessings in
store for rliis vine which his own right hand hath planted,
to make us high among the nations in praise, and in name,
States census of 1850 showed, at that date, an annual expenditure of
about $15,000,000 for newspapers and periodical literature, which, on a
probable estimate, "would cover a surface of one hundred square miles,
or constitute a belt of thirty feet around the earth, and weigh nearly
70,000,000 pounds." There were, at the same date, 15,615 other than pri
vate libraries, containing 4,636,411 volumes, much the larger portion of the
above being in the northern states. — ED.
i See pp. xxxii., xxxiv., 43. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 439
and in honor. The reasons are very numerous, weighty,
and conclusive.
In our civil constitutions, those impediments are re
moved which obstruct the progress of society towards
perfection, such, for instance, as respect the tenure of
estates, and arbitrary government. The vassalage of
dependent tenures, the tokens of ancient conquests by
Goths and Tartars, still remain all over Asia and Europe.
In this respect, as well as others, the world begins to
open its eyes. One grand experiment, in particular, has
lately been made. The present Empress of Russia, by
granting lands in freehold, in her vast wildernesses of Vol-
kouskile, together with religious liberty, has allured and
already drafted from Poland and Germany a coloniza
tion of six hundred thousand souls in six years only, from
1762 to 17G8.a
Liberty, civil and religious, has sweet and attractive
charms. The enjoyment of this, with property, has filled
the English settlers in America with a most amazing
spirit, which has operated, and still will operate, with great
energy. Never before has the experiment been so effectu
ally tried of every man's reaping the fruits of his labor and
feeling his share in the aggregate system of power. The
ancient republics did not stand on the people at large, and
therefore no example or precedent can be taken from
them. Even men of arbitrary principles will be obliged,
if they would figure in these states, to assume the patriot
so long that they will at length become charmed with the
sweets of liberty.
Our degree of population is such as to give us reason to
expect that this will become a great people. It is proba
ble that within a century from our independence the sun
will shine on fifty millions of inhabitants in the United
a Marshal's Travels.
440 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
States.1 This will be a great, a very great nation, nearly
equal to half Europe. Already has our colonization ex
tended down the Ohio, and to Koskaseah on the Missis
sippi. And if the present ratio of increase should be
rather diminished in some of the other settlements, yet
an accelerated multiplication will attend our general prop
agation, and overspread the whole territory westward for
ages. So that before the millennium the English settle
ments in America may become more numerous millions
than that greatest dominion on earth, the Chinese Empire.
Should this prove a future fact, how applicable would be
the text, when the Lord shall have made his American
Israel high above all nations which he has made, in num
bers, and in praise, and in name, and in honor !
I am sensible some will consider these as visionary,
Utopian ideas; and so they would have judged had they
lived in the apostolic age, and been told that by the time
of Constantine the Empire would have become Christian.
As visionary that the twenty thousand souls which first
settled New England should be multiplied to near a
million in a century and a half.2 As visionary that the
Ottoman Empire must fall by the Russian. As visionary
to the Catholics is the certain downfall of the pontificate.
1 As deduced, by method of finite differences, from the census returns of
1830, '40, and '50, the population of the United States will be, in 1883,
.'50,992,000; and, on an assumed equi-rational law of increase, according to
the returns of 1820, '30, '40, and '50, it will then be 60,146,000. — Mr. E. B.
Elliott's MSS. Thus the official decennial enumerations more than justify
the estimates made by Dr. Stiles from his comparatively crude data. Dr.
Franklin made similar calculations. See Franklin's Works, edited by Jared
Sparks, LL.D., ii., p. 319. There are now living some who will see the
political centre of the Union near the Mississippi; and already the com
merce of the great lakes exceeds the total foreign commerce of the United
States. Sec Cooper's Cont. to Smithsonian Inst. 1858, paper on the region
west of the Mississippi. — ED.
2 See p. 211, note 1. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 441
•
As Utopian would it have been to the loyalists, at the
battle of Lexington, that in less than eight years the inde
pendence and sovereignty of the United States should be
acknowledged by four European sovereignties, one of
which should be Britain herself. How wonderful the
revolutions, the events of Providence ! We live in an age
of wonders ; we have lived an age in a few years; we have
seen more wonders accomplished in eight years than are
usually unfolded in a century.
God be thanked, we have lived to see peace restored to
this bleeding land, at least a general cessation of hostilities
among the belligerent powers. And on this occasion does
it not become us to reflect how wonderful, how gracious,
how glorious has been the good hand of our God upon us,
in carrying us through so tremendous a warfare ! We
have sustained a force brought against us which miirht
O O O
have made any empire on earth to tremble; and yet our
bow has abode in strength, and, having obtained help of
God, we continue unto this day. Forced unto the last
solemn appeal, America watched for the first blood;1 this
was shed by Britons on the nineteenth of April, 1775,
which instantly sprung an army of twenty thousand into
spontaneous existence, with the enterprising and daring, if
imprudent, resolution of entering Boston and forcibly dis
burdening it of its bloody legions. Every patriot trembled
till we had proved our armor, till it could be seen whether
this hasty concourse was susceptible of exercitual arrange
ment, and could face the enemy with firmness. They early
gave us the decided proof of this in the memorable battle
of Bunker Hill.a We were satisfied. This instantly con
vinced us. and for the first time convinced Britons them
selves, that Americans both would and could fight with
a June 17, 1775.
1 See pp. 235, 237. — ED.
442 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
great effect. AY hereupon Congress put at the head of this
spirited army the only man on whom the eyes of all
Israel were placed. Posterity, I apprehend, and the world
itself, inconsiderate and incredulous as they may be of the
dominion of Heaven, will yet do so much justice to the
divine moral government as to acknowledge that this
American Joshua was raised up by God, and divinely
formed, by a peculiar influence of the Sovereign of the
universe, for the great work of leading the armies of this
American Joseph (now separated from his brethren), and
conducting this people through the severe, the arduous
conflict, to liberty and independence. Surprising was it
with what instant celerity men ascended and rose into
generals, and officers of every subordination, formed chiefly
by the preparatory discipline of only the preceding year
1774,1 when the ardor and spirit of military discipline was
by Heaven, and without concert, sent through the conti
nent like lightning. Surprising was it how soon the army
was organized, took its formation, and rose into firm system
and impregnable arrangement.
To think of withstanding and encountering Britain by
land was bold, and much more bold and daring by sea ;
yet we immediately began a navy, and built ships of war
with an unexampled expedition. It is presumed never
was a thirty-five-gun ship before built quicker than that
well-built, noble ship, the Raleigh? which was finished
from the keel and equipped for sea in a few months.
Soon had we got, though small, a very gallant initial navy,
1 See pp. 193, 190, 214-220, 224, 251, 253, note. — ED.
2 " A fine twelve-pounder frigate," launched May 21, 1776, at Portsmouth,
N. H. Her hull was completed in sixty days after her keel was laid. She
was pierced for thirty-two guns. Nine weeks before the " Madison," of
twenty-four guns, was launched at Sackett's Harbor, November 26, 1812,
her timber was growing in the forest. — ED,
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 443
which fought gallantly, and wanted nothing but numbers
of ships for successful operations against that superior
naval force before which we fell. We have, however,
exhibited proof to posterity and the world that a powerful
navy may be originated, built, and equipped for service
in a much shorter period than was before imagined. The
British navy has been many centuries growing ; and
France, Holland, the Baltic powers, or any of the powers
of this age, in twenty years may build navies of equal
magnitude, if necessary for dominion, commerce, or orna
ment.
A variety of success and defeat hath attended our war
fare both by sea and land. In our lowest and most danger
ous estate, in 1776 and 1777, we sustained ourselves against
the British army of sixty thousand troops, commanded by
Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, and other the ablest generals
Britain could procure throughout Europe, with a naval
force of twenty-two thousand seamen in above eighty
British men-of-war.* These generals we sent home, one
after another, conquered, defeated, and convinced of the
impossibility of subduing America. While oppressed by
the heavy weight of this combined force, Heaven inspired
us with resolution to cut the gordian knot, when the die
was cast irrevocable in the glorious act of Independence*
This was sealed and confirmed by God Almighty in the
victory of General Washington at Trenton, and in the
surprising movement and battle of Princeton, by which
astonishing effort of generalship General Howe and the
whole British army, in elated confidence and in open-
mouthed march for Philadelphia, was instantly stopped,
a To lose America has cost Britain the loss of more than a hundred thousand
men, and a hundred and twenty millions sterling in money. Mr. Thomas Pitt,
from authentic documents, lately asserted in Parliament that only the first five
years of this war had cost Britain five millions more than all the wars of the
last age, including the splendid victories of the Duke of Marlborough.
444 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
remanded back, and cooped up for a shivering winter in
the little borough of Brunswick. Thus God " turned the
battle to the gate," and this gave a finishing to the foun
dation of the American Republic. This, with the Bur-
goynade at Saratoga by General Gates, and the glorious
victory over the Earl of Cornwallis in Virginia, together
with the memorable victory of Eutaw Springs, and the
triumphant recovery of the southern states by General
Greene, are among the most heroic acts and brilliant
achievements which have decided the fate of America.
And who does not see the indubitable interposition and
energetic influence of Divine Providence in these great
and illustrious events ? Who but a Washington, inspired
by Heaven, could have struck out the great movement
and manoeuvre at Princeton ? To whom but the Ruler of
the winds shall we ascribe it that the British reinforce
ment, in the summer of 1777, was delayed on the ocean
three months by contrary winds, until it was too late for
the conflagrating General Clinton to raise the siege of
Saratoga? What but a providential miracle detected the
conspiracy of Arnold, even in the critical moment of the
execution of that infernal plot, in which the body of the
American army, then at West Point, with his Excellency
General Washington himself, were to have been rendered
into the hands of the enemy? Doubtless inspired by the
Supreme Illuminator of great minds were the joint coun
sels of a Washington and a Rochambeau in that grand
effort of generalship with which they deceived and aston
ished a Clinton, and eluded his vigilance, in the'ir transit
by New York and rapid marches for Virginia. Was it
not of God that both the navy and army should enter the
Chesapeake at the same time ? Who but God could have
ordained the critical arrival of the Gallic fleet, so as to
prevent and defeat the British, and assist and cooperate
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 445
with the combined armies in the siege and reduction of
Yorktown ? Should we not ever admire and ascribe to a
Supreme Energy the wise and firm generalship displayed by
General Greene when, leaving the active, roving Cornwallis
to pursue his helter-skelter, ill-fated march into Virginia,
he coolly and steadily went onwards, and deliberately,
judiciously, and heroically recovered the Carolinas and the
southern states?
How rare have been the defections and apostasies of our
capital characters, though tempted with all the charms of
gold, titles, and nobility! Whence is it that so few of our
army have deserted to the enemy? Whence that our
brave sailors have chosen the horrors of prison-ships and
death, rather than to fight against their country ? Whence
that men of every rank have so generally felt and spoken
alike, as if the cords of life struck unison through the con.
tinent ? What but a miracle has preserved the union of
the States, the purity of Congress, and the unshaken pa
triotism of every General Assembly? It is God, who has,
raised up for us a great and powerful ally, x — an ally which
sent us a chosen army and a naval force ; who sent us a
Rochambeau and a Chastelleux,2 and other characters of
the first military merit and eminence, to fight side by side
with a Washington and a Lincoln, and the intrepid Amer
icans, in the siege and battle of Yorktown. It is God
1 The gratitude due to France for the services rendered to us in our Rev
olution is considered in Letters iv. — vii. of " Paciticus" — Alexander Ham
ilton — on Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793. See also
" Life and Works of John Adams," by Mr. Charles Francis Adams, index,
Marbois, Vcrgcnnes. — ED.
2 The volume of Travels in North America, in 1780-1-2, by the Marquis
de Chastelleux, is rich in observations on the men and things of that period.
The English translation of 1787 was republished in New York in 1827,
with spicy notes. For instance, Mr. John was " celebrated for
duplicity on both sides of the water." — ED.
38
446 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
who so ordered the balancing interests of nations as to
produce an irresistible motive in the European maritime
powers to take our part. Hence the recognition of our
independence by Spain and Holland, as well as France.
Britain ought to have foreseen that it must have given joy
to surrounding nations, tired and wearied out with the
insolence and haughtiness of her domineering flag, — a flag
which spread terror through the oceans of the terraqueous
globe, — to behold the era when their forces should have
arrived at such maturity and strength that a junction of
national navies would produce an aggregate force adequate
to the humiliation of Britain and her gallant and lofty
navy. Nor could they resist the operation of this motive
prompting them to assist in the cutting off of a member
with which the growing aggrandizement and power of
Britain were connected, as thus she would be disarmed of
terror, and they should be at rest. If Britain doth not
learn wisdom by these events, and disclaim the sovereignty
of the ocean, the junction of national navies1 will settle the
point for her in less than half a century ; so wonderfully
does Divine Providence order the time and coincidence of
the public national motives, cooperating in effecting great
public events and revolutions.
But the time would fail me to recount the wonder-work
ing providence of God in the events of this war. Let
these serve as a specimen, and le'ad us to hope that God
will not forsake this people for whom he has done such
marvellous things, — whereof we are glad, and rejoice this
day, — having at length brought us to the dawn of peace.
O Peace, thou welcome guest, all hail ! Thou heavenly
visitant, calm the tumult of nations, and wave thy balmy
wing to perpetuity over this region of liberty ! Let there
be a tranquil period for the unmolested accomplishment
1 See note 1 on p. 457, on the Armed Neutrality. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 447
of the Magnolia Dei — the great events in God's moral
government designed from eternal ages to be displayed in
these ends of the earth.
And here I beg leave to congratulate my country upon
the termination of this cruel and unnatural war, the cessa
tion of hostilities, and the prospect of peace. May this
great event excite and elevate our first, our highest ac
knowledgments to the Sovereign Monarch of universal
nature, to the Supreme Disposer and Controller of all
events ! Let this, our pious, sincere, and devout gratitude,
ascend in one general effusion of heartfelt praise and hal
lelujah, in one united cloud of incense, even the incense
of universal joy and thanksgiving, to* God, from the col
lective body of the United States.
And while we render our supreme honors to the Most
High, the God of armies, let us recollect with affec
tionate honor the bold and brave sons of freedom who
willingly offered themselves and bled in the defence of
their country. Our fellow-citizens, the officers and sol
diers of the patriot army, who, with the Manlys,1 the
Joneses, and other gallant commanders and brave seamen
of the American navy, have heroically fought the war by
sea and by land, merit of their once bleeding but now
1 Captain John Manly, — "Jack Manly/'— of MarMchcad, Massachu
setts, under a naval commission from Washington, October 24, 1775,
hoisted the first American flag on board the schooner Lee. To him the
first British flag was struck; and, on the 28th of November, 1775, he
brought into Gloucester the first prize taken in behalf of the entire coun
try, the English ship Nancy, from London for Boston, freighted with mili
tary supplies, which were taken by land to Cambridge, to the joy of
Washington, and which were of immense value to the besieging army at
that moment of absolute want. This was one of the wonderful interposi
tions in our favor so remarkable in our whole history. They christened one
piece " The Congress." Captain Manly, eminent in naval annals, died in
Boston, 1793, aged fifty-nine. — Sabine's Fisheries of the American Seas,
200, 203; Babson's History of Gloucester, 397. — ED.
448 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
triumphant country laurels, crowns, rewards, and the high
est honors. Never was the profession of arms used with
more glory, or in a better cause, since the days of Joshua
the son of Nun. O Washington ! how do I love thy
name ! How have I often adored and blessed thy God for
creating and forming thee the great ornament of human
kind ! Upheld and protected by the Omnipotent, by the
Lord of hosts, thou hast been sustained and carried through
one of the most arduous and most important wars in all
history. The world and posterity will with admiration
contemplate thy deliberate, cool, and stable judgment, thy
virtues, thy valor, and heroic achievements, as far surpass
ing those of a Cyrus, whom the world loved and adored.
The sound of thy fame shall go out into all the earth, and
extend to distant ages. Thou hast convinced the world
of the beauty of virtue ; for in thee this beauty shines
with distinguished lustre. Those who would not recog
nize any beauty in virtue in the world beside, will yet
reverence it in thee. There is a glory in thy disinterested
benevolence which the greatest characters would purchase,
if possible, at the expense of worlds, and which may excite
indeed their emulation, but cannot be felt by the venal
great, who think everything, even virtue and true glory,
may be bought and sold, and trace our every action to
motives terminating in self, —
" Find virtue local, all relation scorn ;
See all in self, and but for self be born." a
But thou, O Washington ! forgottest thyself when thou
lovedst thy bleeding country. Not all the gold of Ophir,
nor a world filled with rubies and diamonds, could effect
or purchase the sublime and noble feelings of thine heart
in that single self-moved act when thou renouncedst the
a Dunciad, b. 4, p. 480.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 449
rewards of generalship, and heroically tookest upon thyself
the dangerous as well as arduous office of our generalis
simo, and this at a solemn moment, when thou didst delib
erately cast the die for the dubious, the very dubious
alternative of a gibbet or a triumphal arch. But, beloved,
enshielded, and blessed by the great Melchisedec, — the
King of righteousness as well as peace, — thou hast tri
umphed gloriously. Such has been thy military wisdom
in the struggles of this arduous conflict, — such the noble
rectitude, amiableness, and mansuetude of thy character, —
something is there so singularly glorious and venerable
thrown by Heaven about thee, — that not only does thy
country love thee, but our very enemies stop the madness
of their fire in full volley, stop the illiberality of their
slander at thy name, as if rebuked from Heaven with a
"Touch not mine anointed, and do my hero no harm!" Thy
fame is of sweeter perfume than Arabian spices in the gar
dens of Persia. A Baron de Steuben l shall waft its fra
grance to the monarch of Prussia ; a Marquis de Lafayette
shall waft it to a far greater monarch, and diffuse thy
renown throughout Europe ;a listening angels shall catch
the odor, waft it to heaven, and perfume the universe.
And, now that our warfare is ended, do thou, O man of
God, greatly beloved of the Most High, permit a humble
a The author does not doubt but that the capital events in the mediatorial
kingdom on earth into which angels desire to look, especially those which re
spect the Protestant Zion, are subjects of extensive attention in heaven, and that
characters of real and eminent merit in the cause of liberty and virtue are echoed
and contemplated with great honor in the celestial realms.
1 Counties and towns in New York, Indiana, and Ohio, perpetuate the
name of this brave and noble-hearted general, a volunteer in the cause of
freedom in America. He remained in this country, and died at Steuben-
ville, New York, November 28, 1798, aired sixty-four. There is an admi
rable outline of his life in Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, ii., 342,
and an adequate tribute to his worth and services may be found in his
Life, by Friedrich Kapp, 1859, pp. 735. — ED.
38*
450 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
minister of the blessed Jesus — who, though at a distance,
has vigilantly accompanied thee through every stage of
thy military progress, has watched thine every movement
and danger with a heartfelt anxiety and solicitude, and,
with the most sincere and earnest wishes for thy safety
and success, has not ceased day nor night to pray for
thee, and to commend thee and thy army to God — con
descend to permit him to express his most cordial congrat
ulations, and to share in the triumphs of thy bosom, on
this great and joyous occasion. We thank the Lord of
Hosts that has given his servant to see his desire upon his
enemies, and peace on Israel. And when thou shalt now
at length retire from the fatigues of nine laborious cam-
O £3
paigns to the, tranquil enjoyment, to the sweetness and
serenity of domestic life, may you never meet the fate of
that ornament of arms and of humanity, the 'great Belisa-
rius, but may a crown of universal love and gratitude, of
universal admiration, and of the universal reverence and
honor of thy saved country, rest and flourish upon the
head of its veteran general and glorious defender, until, by
the divine Jesus who'm thou hast loved and adored, and of
whose holy religion thou art not ashamed, thou shalt be
translated from a world of war to a world of peace, liberty,
and eternal triumph !
The time would fail me to commemorate the merits of
the other capital characters of the army. To do this, and
to pay the tribute of fraternal honor and respect to our
glorious allied army, will belong to the future Homers,
Livys, and Tassos of our country ; for none but Americans
can write the American war. They will celebrate the
names of a Washington and a Rochambeau, a Greene and
a Lafayette, a Lincoln and a Chastelleux, a Gates and a
Viomenil, a Putnam and a Duke de Lauzun, a Morgan, and
other heroes, who rushed to arms and offered themselves
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 451
voluntarily for the defence of liberty. They will take up
a lamentation and drop a tear upon the graves of those
mighty ones — those beauties of Israel — who have fallen
in battle from the day of Lexington to the victory of
Yorktown. And while they commemorate those who
have lived through singular sufferings, — as those honora
ble personages, a Lovel, a Laurens, and a Gadsden, — - the
names of the illustrious martyr-generals, Warren, Mercer,
Montgomery, De Kalb, Wooster, Thomas, with a Polaski,
and others, will be recorded as heroically foiling in these
wars of the Lord. But I may not enlarge, save only that
we drop a tear, or rather showers of tears, upon the graves
of those other brave officers and soldiers that fell in battle,
or otherwise perished in the war. "O that my head
were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," that I mi^ht
weep the thousands of our brethren that have perished in
prison-ships, — in one of which, the Jersey, then lying at
New York, perished above eleven thousand the last three
years, — while others have been barbarously exiled to the
East Indies for life. Come, mourn with me, all ye tender
parents and friends, the fate of your dear — dear But
these scenes are too tender and distressing. Can we ever
love Britain again ? Can the tender, affectionate fathers
and mothers, brothers and sisters, — can the numerous be
moaning friends and relatives, and, perhaps, the espoused
bosoms of the tender sex, — can they, I say, ever forget
the cruel mockings, scourgings, starvations, deaths, assas
sinations of their dearest offspring and connections in
British captivity? Can they forget the numerous thou
sands of thoir captivated countrymen instantly consigned
to destruction, to dungeons, prisons, places of variolous
infection and certain death? Will they be soothed by
telling them this is the fate of war? As well may inquisi
torial cruelties be soothed by alleging they are salutary
452 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
corrections, and necessary for the good of the church.
Our enemies took occasion from this fate of war to reek
their vengeance, and to lash us with a severity too unmer
ciful ever to be forgotten. Can we forget the conflagra
tions of Charlestown, Norfolk, Esopus, Fail-field, and other
American towns, laid in ashes by a Tryon and other incen
diaries?1 Were these the kindnesses American brethren
received from the hands of Britons and their more cruel
associates the Indians and loyalists? Can we forget the
barbarous tragedy of Colonel Haine, or the murder of
Captain Huddy, in violation of the most sacred laws of
war and of national honor? Blush, O Britain, for the
stain of your national glory ! Can we ever forget with
what cruel and malicious delight they tortured, entowered,
and insulted an American plenipotentiary, — the illustri
ous Laurens, — although by the laws of honor and nations
the person of an ambassador is sacred ? Can we ever
forget the cruel and infamous treatment of the Honorable
Mr. Gadsden ? O Gadsden,2 how I reverence thy piety,
thy firmness in captivity, thine intrepid and uncorrupted
patriotism, thine enlightened politics, thy unremitted fer
vor and zeal in the cause of liberty ! But how painful is
it to recount the even less than ten-thousandth part of the
series of distresses, the complicated woe and misery, that
make up the system of sufferings which we have been
called to endure in the pangs and throes of the parturition
of empire, in " effecting our glorious revolution, in rescu-
1 " Twelve temples, or houses of public worship, were burnt and demol
ished by the British, from Boston to Hudson's River, besides those burned
beyond." — Note to the second edition, 178-3. — ED.
2 For an account of the murder of Huddy by Tory refugees, of Lord
Rawdon's infamy in the execution of Colonel Hayne, and of Governor
Tiyon's cruelty to the venerable Gadsden, see Lossing's Field Book of the
Revolution, ii., 360, 774, 708. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 453
ing millions from the hand of oppression, and in laying
the foundation of a great empire." a
The patriot army merits our commemoration, and so do
the great characters in the patriotic Assemblies and Con
gress. Let America never forget what they owe to those
first intrepid defenders of her rights, the Honorable Mr.
Samuel Adams, and the Hon. James Otis, Esq. ; add to
these the Hon. Dr. John Winthrop, Hon. James Bowdoin, '
Esq., who, with others, were the marked objects of minis
terial vengeance, who early stepped forth and heroically
withstood tyranny, and alarmed their country with its
danger, while venal sycophants were lulling us to rest and
hushing us into silence. His Excellency Mr. President
Randolph merits our grateful commemoration, and so do
the governors Rutledge, Ward, Livingston, Hopkins, Nash,
Clinton, the Hon. Messrs. Wythe, Dyer, Sherman, Pen-
dleton, Henry, Ellery, the Lees, President Huntington,
Lynch, Witherspoon, Wolcott, Gov. Paca, Gov. Hall, Law,
Marchant, President McKean, Ellsworth, Vandyke, Jeffer
son — Jefferson, who poured the soul of the continent into
the monumental act of Independence. These, and other
worthy personages of this and the other states, will be
celebrated in history among the cardinal patriots of this
revolution. All the ages of man will not obliterate the
meritorious name of His Excellency Governor Hancock,
as President of Congress at a most critical era, nor the
meritorious names of that illustrious band of heroes and
compatriots, those sensible and intrepid worthies wrho,
with him, resolutely and nobly dared, in the face of every
danger, to sign the glorious act of Independence. May
their names live, be preserved, and transmitted to posterity
with des'erved reputation and honor, through all American
a General Washington's address to the army, in general orders, April 19, 1783,
on the cessation of hostilities.
454 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
ages ! a Those great civilians and ambassadors, the illustri
ous Franklin, Adams, Jay, and Laurens, have approved
themselves equal to the highest negotiations in the courts
of nations, been faithful to their country's liberties, and, by
their great and eminent services, have justly merited to
have their names sent forward to immortality in history
with renown and unsullied glory.
Great and extensive will be the happy effects of this
warfare, in which we have been called in Providence to
fight out not the liberties of America only, but the liber
ties of the world itself. The spirited and successful stand
wrhich we have made against tyranny will prove the salva
tion of England and Ireland, and, by teaching all sovereigns
the danger of irritating and trifling with the affections and
loyalty of their subjects, introduce clemency, moderation,
and justice into public government at large through Europe.
Already have we learned Ireland and other nations the
road to liberty, the way to a redress of grievances, by
a JOHN HANCOCK.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. — Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY. — Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE JRLAND. — Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT. — Roger Sherman, Samuel Huutiugton, William Williams,
Oliver Wolcott.
NEW YORK. — William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis
Morris.
NEW JERSEY. — Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson,
John Hart, Abraham Clark.
PENNSYLVANIA. — Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John
Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George
Ross.
DELAWARE. — Caesar Rodney, George Read.
MARYLAiND. — Samuel Chace, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll
(of Carrollton).
VIRGINIA — George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxtgn.
NORTH CAROLINA. — William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH CAROLINA. — Edward Kutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch,
Jr., Arthur Middleton.
GEORGIA. — Button Gwinnett, Lymau Hall, George Walton.
THE FUTURE GLORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 455
open, systematical measures, Committees of Correspond
ence,1 and military discipline of an armed people. Ireland
has "become gloriously independent of England.2 Nor will
the spirit rest till Scotland becomes independent also. It
would be happier for the three kingdoms to subsist with
parliaments and national councils independent of one
another, although confederated under one monarch. The
union of 1707 has produced the loss and dismemberment
of America.3 It is just possible that within this age some
ill-fated counsellor of another connection might have arisen
and prompted Majesty and Parliament to sanguinary meas
ures against America ; but it is more than probable that
their enforcement would have been deferred, or procrasti
nated a century hence, or to a period when our accumu
lated population would have dictated wiser, milder meas
ures to the British court; and so America, by a gentle,
fraternal connection, would have remained cemented4 to
1 Sec pp. 44, 191, 199. —ED.
2 January 1, 1800, ended that independence, and was the dato of the
legislative union between England and Ireland. — ED.
s The intensity of Dr. Stiles's detestation of the two Scotchmen, Bute
and Murray, — which led him to say that the " union" of Scotland and Eng
land in 1707 " has produced the loss and dismemberment of America,"
probably because, by that union, the Scotch statesmen, hated for their
arbitrary principles, were eligible to the English councils, — affords an
amusing parallel to Dr. Johnson's inveterate prejudice against the Scotch.
In his dictionary the Doctor defines oats as " a grain which in England is
generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." Bute
was believed to be, by his personal influence, the evil genius of George III.
and of England, and was profoundly hated there as well as in America;
and the jurist Murray — Lord Mansfield — upheld the worst measures
against America. Yet both were exemplary in private life. See pp. 09, 70,
80, 102, 108, 301, 343.— ED.
4 The pathos with which Dr. Stiles speaks of " the painful and distress
ing separation and dismemberment" from the mother country, and his
vehement denunciation of the " demon" Bute, do not exaggerate the
loyal temper of our fathers. They would have then been content with
456 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
Britain for distant ages. But a Rehoboam counsellor
stepped in, et actum est de republica — the Ten Tribes are
lost.1 Had it not been for the insidious and haughty
counsels of a Bute and a Mansfield, imbued with principles
incompatible with liberty, with the unwieldy faction of
their despotic connections in the empire, America and
Ireland had remained united with Britain to this day.
Chagrined and mortified by the defeat and dishonor
brought upon them by Butean counsels and dominion,
as well as with their own curtailed and unequal weight
in Parliament, Scotland, emulous of the glory of Ireland,
half the rights which the present British American Provinces enjoy. But
the blindness of Governor Hutchinson to the character of his countrymen,
and the consequent false impressions he gave to the British cabinet, the
miserable weakness of Gage and Howe at Boston, and the madness of the
king in forcing the colonies to union, show the providential government
of God, and that his time for this great epoch in the history of human
society was now come. — ED.
1 To the second edition, 178-3, the author here made this prophetic note:
" And very soon will Bengal and the East Indies be lost and delivered
from the cruelty and injustice of British government there. This will
speedily be the fruit of Great Britain's departing from the commercial to
the governmental idea concerning the East. The conflagrating and plun
dering qualities of a Clive, and the absurd haughtiness of the subsequent
dominion, will at length rouse the spirit of those populous parts of the
oriental empires, having learned the use of artillery and the European
modes of war, to make one vigorous exertion and shake off this foreign
yoke. It is not within the compass of human probability — it is absurd
and absolutely impossible — that fifteen millions of people should long
continue subjugated to the government of five or six million at the dis
tance of half the circumference of the globe. This event may be acceler
ated by the necessary tripartite division of the navy in the oriental and
Atlantic oceans. The union of European nations cannot fail of taking
advantage of the future comparative weakness of British strength arising
from this division. Too soon, alas! may Britain, with both wings lopped
off, the East Indies and America, exhibit the spectacle among nations
described by the Franklinean emblem of Magna Britannia with her colo
nies reduced. One cannot refrain from tears at contemplating the fate of
nations, the rise and fall of empires." — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 457
will wish for and obtain a dissolution of the union, and
resume a separate sovereignty. It must be the lenity, the
wisdom, the gentle and pacific measures of an Augustan
age that can conserve the remnant of the British empire
from this tripartite division.
Nor will the British isles alone be relieved into liberty,
but more extensive still will be the peaceable fruits of our
righteous conflict. The question of the mare liberum and
the mare dausum, heretofore discussed by the ablest
civilians of the last century, will no more require the
learned labors of a Milton, a Selden, a Grotius. This war
has decided, not by \\\vjus maritimum of Rhodes, Oleron,
or Britain, but on the principles of commercial utility and
public right, that the navigation of the Atlantic Ocean
shall be free ; and so probably will be that of all the
oceans of the terraqueous globe. All the European pow
ers will henceforth, from national and commercial interests,
naturally become a united and combined guaranty for the
free navigation of the Atlantic and free commerce with
O
America. Interest will establish a free access of all na
tions to our shores, and for us to all nations. The armed
neutrality1 will disarm even war itself of hostilities against
i The authorship of this confederacy, which destroyed Britain's long-
established sovereignty of the ocean, and greatly contributed to the ulti
mate independence of the United States of America, is' attributed to
several persons. 1. Mr. William Lee, of Virginia, a merchant in London,
and some time agent of Congress at Vienna and Berlin during the Avar of
the Revolution, wrote, December 10, 1780, to Governor Lee, of Maryland:
"I feel no little pleasure in communicating to you the completion, so far,
of this confederacy, as the first traces were laid by myself two years ago; and
if Congress had now in Europe ministers properly authorized to negotiate
with the powers it would not be difficult to obtain a general acknowledg
ment from them of the independence of America, which was my ultimate
object in foruriny tl\c. outlines of this scheme! " — See letter in National Intelli
gencer, August 23, 18-39. 2. Mr. John Adams — diary, December 21, 1782
— heard the King of Sweden named as "the first inventor and suggester
39
458 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
trade — will form a new chapter in the laws of nations,
and preserve a free commerce among powers at war.
Fighting armies will decide the fate of empires by the
sword, without interrupting the civil, social, and commer
cial intercourse of subjects. The want of anything to take
will prove a natural abolition of privateering, when the
property shall be covered \vith neutral protection. Even
the navies will, within a century, become useless. A gen
erous and truly liberal system of national connection, in
the spirit of the plan conceived and nearly executed by
the great Henry IV. of France,a will almost annihilate
war itself.
We shall have a communication with all nations in
a Sully's Memoirs. 1
of the plan." 3. On the evidence of " documents in my possession," says
Mr. George Sumner, in his oration, Boston, July 4th, 18-39, " I here render
the honor" of the real authorship of the armed neutrality to Florida
Banca, the minister of Spain. The official documents are in Anderson's
Commerce, vi. 302-37-5, 406, edit. 1790. The universal terror from British
privateers was the proximate cause of the league, and England's distress
the opportunity. — ED.
1 Bohn's ed. of Sully, 18-50, ii. p. 235; iv., Book xxx. This political
scheme for a general council of the Christian powers of Europe was
formed by Elizabeth of England and Henry IV. of France. The Edict of
Nantes was intended as a part of the grand design. A senate, of about
sixty-six commissioners, or plenipotentiaries, to be rcchosen every three
years, from all the governments of the Christian republic, was to be in
permanent se'ssion, " to deliberate on any affairs which might occur, to
discuss the different interests, pacify the quarrels, clear up and determine
all the civil, political, and religious affairs of Europe, whether within itself
or with its neighbors." The scheme bore a strong resemblance to the
American " confederation," and was formed in part on the model of the
ancient Amphictyons of Greece, an institution referred to by the framers
of our own government. See the " Federalist." The total exemption of
private property from capture on the high seas, as recently proposed by
the United States government to European powers, would go far to realize
the splendid prediction of the text, and, indeed, render " the navies
useless," except for the noble missions of humanity, of science, and of
national courtesies. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 459
commerce, manners, and science, beyond anything hereto
fore known in the world. Manufacturers and artisans, and
men of every description, may perhaps come and settle
among us. They will be few indeed in comparison with
the annual thousands of our natural increase, and will be
incorporated with the prevailing hereditary complexion
of the first settlers; — we shall not be assimilated to them,
but they to us, especially in the second and third genera
tions.1 This fermentation and communion of nations will
doubtless produce something very new, singular, and glo
rious. Upon the conquest of Alexander the Great, statu
ary, painting, architecture, philosophy, and the fine arts
were transplanted in perfection from Athens to Tarsus,
from Greece to Syria, where they immediately flourished
in even greater perfection than in the parent state. Not
in Greece herself are there to be found specimens of a
sublimer or more magnificent architecture, even in the
i Dr. Cotton Mather says that in 1696, in all New England, there were
one hundred thousand souls. Dr. Franklin thought that, of the one
million English souls in North America in 1751, not eighty thousand
"had been brought oversea." Dr. Stiles, in 1760, estimated the inhabi
tants of New England at half a million; and Mr. Savage, in the Preface
of his Genealogical Dictionary, supposes that nineteen-twenticths of the
people of the New England colonies in 1775 were descendants of those
here in 1692, and that probably seven-eighths of them were offspring of
the first settlers, and originating from England proper. lie adds: "A
more homogeneous stock cannot be seen, I think, in any so extensive
region, at any time since that when the Ark of Noah discharged its pas
sengers on Mount Ararat, except in the few centuries elapsing before the
confusion of Babel." In an elaborate paper read before the American
Statistical Association, in March, 1859, by the President, Edward Jarvis,
M. D., it appears, as the result of long and minute calculation, based upon
the best available data, that the total persons of New England origin
living in the "United States, in 1850, including the natives and those born
abroad since 1790, was 4,021,192, and that nearly or quite one-third of
the native white population have New England blood in their veins. This
confirms Mr. Bancroft's estimate. — ED.
460 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
Grecian style, than in the ruins of Baalbec and Palmyra.
So all the arts may be transplanted from Europe and Asia,
and flourish in America with an augmented lustre, not to
mention the augment of the sciences from American in
ventions and discoveries, of which there have been as
capital ones here,a the last half century, as in all Europe.2
a AMERICAN INVENTIONS. — 1730, Reflecting Quadrant [commonly called
Hadley's], by Mr. Thos. Godfry, at Philadelphia; 1731, Mercurial Inoculation,
by Dr. Muin<on; 1750, Electrical Pointed Rods, by Dr. Franklin; [1755, Terres
trial Comets, by President Clap;] 1762, Sand-Iron, by Dr. .Tared Elliot; 1769,
Quantity of Matter in Comets, by Professor Winthrop; [1776, Submarine Navi
gation by the power of the Screw, by Mr. Bushuel.] 1
1 The parts within [ ] were added in the second edition, 1785. — ED.
2"Credat qui vult!" exclaimed a listener, when, with his masterly
survey of the elements of empire and their potential future, the wise man
in the pulpit opened his grand and comprehensive vision of " The United
States elevated to Glory and Honor," and of the national mission of good
will to men; yet some, even of that generation, live to contrast the epoch
of the nation's beginning — its three millions of inhabitants, scattered
along the Atlantic border — with our present recognized position as " the
greatest maritime nation on the face of the earth." The country was for
many years embarrassed with the war debt, less in amount than our
present annual national expenditure. Populous inland states, cities, and
commerce, before whose statistics the national figures of 1783 dwindle to
fractions, now press fast towards the Pacific, through whose "golden
gate" floats a commerce exceeding the grand total when Washington
became President, and whose senators are in the capitol.
" Westward the course of empire takes its way."
Indeed, there were then living, sons of America, Fitch, in manhood, and
Fulton, in youth, the inventors of steam navigation, whose genius was to
span oceans, and unite continents as with a bridge, and make highways of
rivers; and now Ericsson has revolutionized the marine of the world.
Whitney, then a youth, was to create, by his cotton-gin, the chief staple of
southern agriculture, and the principal even of England's manufactures;
Bowditch, then in boyhood, was to rank with the great mathematicians
and astronomers. The elder Edwards, the intellectual chief of his age, who
"ranks with the brightest luminaries of the Christian church, not excluding
any country or any age since the apostolic," and " as much the boast of
America as his great countryman, Franklin; " Webster, the great lexicog-
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 461
The rough, sonorous diction of the English language
may here take its Athenian polish, and receive its attic
urbanity, as it will probably become the vernacular tongue
of more numerous millions than ever yet spake one lan
guage on earth. It may continue forages to be the pre
vailing and general language of North America.1 The
rapher, who has no rival but Worcester, another of New England's sons ;
Irving, then in. arms, preeminent in modern literature; and, in later times,
Allibone, of equal rank in critical bibliography; Prescott, Spark?, Bancroft,
Hildreth, Motley, in histgry ; Bryant, Whittier, and Longfellow, in poetry;
Copley, West, Stuart, Trumbull, Allston, Cole, Church, and Hosmer, among
the masters in modern art; Mann and Barnard, in education; Lynclhurst,
twice Lord Chancellor of England, Marshall, Jay, Parsons, Story, and
Kent, in jurisprudence; Morse and Jackson, whose electric wire, "beat
ing with the pulse of humanity," unites cities, kingdoms, and continents,
annihilating time and space; Jackson, Wells, Morton, whose splendid
discovery of anaesthetics is recognized by the world as one of the greatest
boons given by any age to suffering humanity ; Agassiz, the chief natu
ralist of the age, abiding with us; Draper, the accomplished delegate of
American science at the British Association at Oxford; and Jarvis, the
eminent statistician, representing his country with distinguished honor in
the International Statistical Congress at London in 1800; — these, and many
others, have already placed the United States in the front rank in science,
letters, and art. — ED.
1 The reader will be glad to compare the profound views presented by
Dr. Stiles with the observations of a late able writer, who thinks that
" the physical character of our own territory is such as to encourage the
hope that our speech, which, if not absolutely homogeneous, is now em
ployed by twenty -five millions of men in one unbroken mass, with a uni
formity of which there is perhaps no other example, will escape that
division which has shattered some languages of the Old World into frag
ments, like those of the confusion of Babel. The geography of the United
States presents few localities suited to human habitation that are at the
same time inaccessible to modern improved modes of communication.
The carriage-road, the railway, the telegraph, the mails, the newspaper,
penetrate to every secluded nook, address themselves to every free in
habitant, and speak everywhere one and the same dialect. Why or how
external physical causes, as climate and modes of life, should affect
pronunciation, we cannot say; but it is evident that material influences
of some sort are producing a change on our bodily constitution, and
39*
462 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
intercommunion of the United States with nil the world
in travels, trade, and politics, and the infusion of letters
into our infancy, will probably preserve us from the pro
vincial dialects, risen into inexterminable habit before the
invention of printing. The Greek never became the lan
guage of the Alexandrian, nor the Turkish of the Otto
man conquests, nor yet the Latin of the Roman Em
pire. The Saracenic conquests have already lost the pure
and elegant Arabic of the Koreish tribe, or the family of
Ishmacl, in the corrupted dialects of Egypt, Syria, Persia,
and Inclostan. Different from these, tlie English language
will grow up with the present American population into
great purity and elegance, un mutilated by the foreign dia
lects of foreign conquests. And in this connection I may
observe with pleasure how God, in his providence, has
ordered that, at the Reformation, the English translation
of the Bible should be made with very great accuracy
— with greater accuracy, it is presumed, than any other
translation. This is said, allowing that some texts admit
of correction. I have compared it throughout with the
originals, Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac, and beg leave to
judge and testify it to be a, very excellent translation.1
we are just acquiring a distinct national character. That the delicate
organs of articulation should participate in such tendencies is alto
gether natural; and the operation of the causes which gave rise to
them is palpable even in our handwriting, which, if not uniform with
itself, is generally, nevertheless, so much unlike common English script
as to be readily distinguished from it." — Geo. P. Marsh, Lecture xxx.,
The English Language in America. — ED.
1 The following decided language from one of our most distinguished
scholars and philologists embodies, it may be presumed, the opinion of
the great body of competent Greek and Hebrew scholars, and would
probably be affirmed by the American and British Bible Societies as the
result of their observation. The revision of 1611 is, and seems likely to
remain, in its strength and beauty, the standard. " I do not hesitate,"
says Mr. Marsh, "to avow my conviction, that if any body of scholars of
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 463
Nor do I believe a better is ever to be expected in this
imperfect state. It sustained a revision of numerous
translators, from Tyndal to the last review by the bishops
and other learned divines in the time of James I., one
hundred and eighty years ago, and lias never been altered
since.a It may have been designed by Providence for the
future perusal of more millions of the human race than
ever were able to read one book, and for their use to the
millennial ages.
This great American Revolution, this recent political
phenomenon of a new sovereignty arising among the
sovereign powers of the earth, will be attended to and
contemplated by all nations. Navigation will carry the
American flag around the globe itself, and display the
thirteen stripes and new constellation at Bengal and Can
ton,1 on the Indus and Ganges, on the Whang-ho and the
a Vid. Lewis's Hist. Transl. Bib.
competent Greek and Hebrew learning were now (I860) to undertake, not
a revision of the existing version, but a new translation, founded on the
principle of employing the correct phraseology of the day, it would be
found much less intelligible to the mass of English-speaking people than
the standard version at this moment is;" and that to " hope of finding
within the compass of the English language a clearer, a more appropri
ate, or a more forcible diction than that of the standard version, is to be
tray an ignorance of the capabilities of our native speech with which it
would be in vain to reason; " and " that as there is no present necessity
for a revision, so is there no possibility of executing a revision in any
way that would be, or ought to be, satisfactory to even one Protestant
sect, still less to the whole body of English-speaking Protestants." — Lec
tures on the English Language, Lecture xxviii., by Gco. P. Marsh. — ED.
1 To the second edition, 1785, the author added this note : " Since the
first edition, in 1783, this voyage has been happily performed, for the first
time, in about fourteen months, by the Empress of China, a ship of three
hundred and sixty tons, John Green, Esq., of Boston, commander. She
sailed from New York Feb. 22, 1784, arrived at Canton, in China, Aug. 30,
departed thence Dec. 27, on her return, and arrived safe at New York, May
11, 1785, with the loss of but one man in the whole voyage. And Aug. 9,
464 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
Yang-tsc-kiang, and with commerce will import the wis
dom arid literature of the East. That prophecy of Daniel
is now literally fulfilling — r^nn na^ni o^an siaatai — there
shall be a universal travelling to and fro, and knowl
edge shall be increased. This knowledge will be brought
home and treasured up in America, and, being here di
gested and carried to the highest perfection, may reblaze
back from America to Europe, Asia, and Africa, and illu
mine the world writh truth and liberty.
That great civilian Dr. John Adams, the learned and
illustrious American ambassador, observes thus:a "But
the great designs of Providence must be accomplished ; —
great indeed ! The progress of society will be accelerated
by centuries by this Revolution. The Emperor of Ger
many is adopting, as fast as he can, American ideas of
toleration and religious liberty; and it will become the
fashionable system of Europe very soon.1 Light spreads
a Lett. Dec. 18, 1781.
1785, the ship Pallas, Capt. John O'Donnel, arrived at Baltimore from
China. She left Macao, in Canton, the 20th of January preceding. This
was the second East India ship from China to America. The same month
of Aug., 1785, a Swedish ship arrived also at Baltimore from Calcutta, in
the East Indies. This is the third East India ship which arrived in Amer
ica in the year 1785." — ED.
1 Maria Theresa of Austria thought the cause of George III., against the
colonies, to be " the cause of all sovereigns," and had " a high esteem for
his Majesty's principles of government." She died November 29, 1780,
and was succeeded by her son, Joseph II., then in his fortieth year. He
used his despotic power with a wisdorn and singularity that startled Eu
rope. He ordered a new translation of the Bible to be made in the Ger
man tongue, established a free press, the equality of all Christian denom
inations, abolished the priestly censorship of books, which had been so
rigorous " that on subjects of religion, morality, and government, a valu
able and a prohibited publication were almost synonymous terms,"
founded public libraries, established educational institutions, abolished
feudal slavery, and labored to educate and elevate his people. So precip
itate and radical were his innovations, so fatal were they to superstition
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 465
from the day-spring in the west ; and may it shine more
and more until the perfect day." So spreading may be
the spirit for the restoration and recovery of long-lost
national rights, that even "the Cortes of Spain may reexist,
and mental and moral darkness, that Pius VI., old and feeble, made a
Avinter journey, in February, 1782, to Vienna, to remonstrate against them,
but in vain. At the accession of Joseph II. the United States government
was seeking European alliances. Their history and principles became
familiar to the statesmen and leading minds of Europe. Our minister,
John Adams, published at Leydcn, in April, 1781, his eloquent " Memo
rial " of their claim to respect and consideration, and in February, 1782,
he wrote to his government that it had been translated and " inserted in
almost every gazette in Europe; " that the King of Sweden had quoted
its "very words" in his public answer and reproach to George III.; that
Joseph II. had desired an interview with its author, and, " what is more
remarkable, has adopted the sentiment of it concerning religious liberty
into a code of laws for his dominions, — the greatest effort in favor of
humanity, next to the American Revolution, which has been produced in
the eighteenth century."
The Revolution raised Ireland to the position of a kingdom, and the
contagion of its republican principles was felt throughout Europe. The
French nobles, Lafayette, Rochambeau, D'Estaing, Lausun, and others,
conveyed to their own country the popular sympathies and principles for
which they had fought in America, and thus gave an impulse to the Rev
olution in France.
Historians and philosophers regard the American Revolution as the
great epoch in the modern history of human society — of the world; as
"commencing a new series of human history, a new system of political
relations, which must involve in its combinations all the countries of the
earth."
Washington stands out to the world as the grandest object of contem
plation, the Father of the Republic to which is confided the great problem
of popular government, of the broadest Christian freedom, and towards
which the genius of liberty ever looks with hope, yet with solicitude; for
Avhose prosperity the nations pray, as for one whose calamity will be the
despair of humanity, and the triumph only of him who would destroy the
image of God in man. How exalted the trust, how momentous the con
duct of the American citizen! — Coxe's "House of Austria," Bonn's ed.,
chap, cxxiv.; "Life and Works of John Adams," 18-32, vii., 404, 525,
527; Miller's Philosophy of History, ed. 1854, 145-147, 178, 181, 185, 186.
—ED.
466 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
and resume their ancient splendor, authority, and control
of royalty.0 The same principles of wisdom and enlight
ened politics may establish rectitude in public government
throughout the world.
The most ample religious liberty will also probably
obtain among all nations. Benevolence and religious
lenity are increasing among the nations. The reformed
in France, who were formerly oppressed with heavy per
secution, at present enjoy a good degree of religious lib
erty, though by silent indulgence only. A reestablishment
of the Edict of Nantes would honor the Grand Monarch
by doing public justice to a large body of his best and
most loyal subjects. The Emperor of Germany last year
published an imperial decree granting liberty for the free
and unmolested exercise of the Protestant religion within
the Austrian territories and dominions.5 The Inquisition
a So jealous were the Cortes of their liberties, that the states of Arragon in
particular, after sundry previous stipulations, exacted a coronation oath of the
king, which was pronounced by the Justitia Arragonensis (who represented the
person of the supreme power in the state), a power which they asserted to be
superior to kings, in these words: Nos qui valemos tanto comme vos, y podemos
mas que vos, vos elegimos Key : con estas y estas conditiones, intra vos y nos, un
que manda mas que vos. " We who are as powerful as you, and have more au
thority than you, elect you king; with the stipulated conditions, between you
and us there is one (viz., the judiciary) higher in command than you." See a
learned tract, De jure magistratuum in subdito et officio subditorum erga magis-
tratus: printed at Lyons, 1576, full of jural and political erudition, and, for that
age, full of liberty.
b The order of Jesuits, suppressed in rapid succession by the European princes,
1765, was finally abolished, 1773, by the sensible and sagacious Ganganelli, who
bid fairer to reunite the Protestants, had it been possible, than any pontiff since
the secession from Leo X. Nor can the order be revived, nor the suppression of
religious houses in Spain and Austria, nor Austrian liberty, be prevented by the
bigoted, austere Braschi, the present reigning pontiff.l
i July 21-23, 1773, Ganganelli, Clement XIV., "established by the Di
vine Providence, over kingdoms and nations, in order to pluck up, destroy,
disperse, dissipate, plant, or nourish, as may best conduce to the right
cultivation of the" papal hierarchy, in his bull of that date, said : "After
a mature deliberation, we do, out of our certain knowledge, and the ful-
ness of our apostolical power, suppress and abolish the said company, . . .
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 467
has been, in effect, this year suppressed in Spain, where
the king, by an edict of 3d of November, 1782, proclaimed
liberty for inhabitants of all religions ; and, by a happily
conceived plan for literary reformation, the aurora of sci
ence will speedily blaze into meridian splendor in that
kingdom. An emulation for liberty and science is enkin
dled among the nations, and will doubtless produce some
thing very liberal and glorious in this age of science, this
period of the empire of reason.1
The United States will embosom all the religious sects
O
or denominations in Christendom. Here they may all
enjoy their whole respective systems of worship and church
government complete. Of these, next to the Presbyteri
ans, the Church of England will hold a distinguished and
principal figure. They will soon furnish themselves with
a bishop in Virginia and Maryland, and perhaps another
so that the name of the company shall be, and is, forever extinguished
and suppressed. . . . These our letters shall be forever and to all eter
nity valid, permanent, and efficacious, . . . observed by all and every
whom they do or may concern, now or hereafter, in any manner what
ever." The reason given was that the Jesuits were an intolerable political
and moral curse. They had six hundred and sixty-nine colleges, one hun
dred and ninety-six seminaries, two hundred and twenty-three missions,
twenty-two thousand seven hundred and eighty-two members, scattered
over the world. August 17, 1814, another infallible Pope, Pius VII., abro
gated the brief of his infallible predecessor, and reestablished the order
for political purposes ; and it now infests our own country. The " fathers,"
leagued with the Pope's " venerable brothers, the archbishops, bishops,"
priests, etc., and " liberal Protestants" ! aid and comfort these priestly
enemies to civil and religious liberty by money, pupils, and approbation.
The policy of the Papal church is to keep the people in perpetual infancy,
the sole basis of its own existence, and of despotism, its natural result
and ally. See p. 416. — ED.
1 1n the second edition, 1785, the author appends this note: " Justly may
we anticipate great alterations in society, and very beneficent improve
ments in the state of mankind, 'from the progressive refinement of man
ners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and, above all, the PURE AND
BENIGN LIGHT OF REVELATION.' — General Washiivton."— ED.
468
to the northward, to ordain their clergy, give confirmation,
superintend and govern their churches, — the main body of
which will be in Virginia and Maryland, — besides a dia
spora or interspersion in all the other states. The Unitas
Fratrum for above thirty years past have had Moravian
bishops in America ; and I think they have three at pres
ent, though not of local or diocesan jurisdiction, their
pastorate being the whole unity throughout the world.
In this there ever was a distinction between the Bohemian
episcopacy and that of the eastern and western churches ;
for, in a body of two thousand ancient Bohemian churches,
they seldom had above two or three bishops. The Bap
tists, the Friends, the Lutherans, the Romanists, are all
considerable bodies in all their dispersions through the
states. The Dutch and Gallic and German Reformed or
Calvinistic churches among us I consider as Presbyterian,
differing from us in nothing of moment save in language.
There is a considerable body of these in the states of New
York, Jersey, Pennsylvania, and at Ebenezer, in Georgia.
There is a Greek Church, brought from Smyrna; but I
think it falls below these states. There are Westleians,
Mennonists, and others, all which make a very inconsider
able amount in comparison with those who will give the
religious complexion to America, which for the southern
parts will be Episcopal, the northern, Presbyterian. All
religious denominations will be independent of one an
other, as much as the Greek and Armenian patriarchates
in the East ; and having, on account of religion, no supe
riority as to secular powers and civil immunities, they will
cohabit together in harmony, and, I hope, with a most
generous Catholicism and benevolence.1 The example of
1 Of the seven or eight denominations named by Dr. Stiles, some hardly
survive, while others, as the Methodist and Baptist, have become numerous.
Twenty-one religious denominations are enumerated in the census of the
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 469
a friendly cohabitation of all sects in America, proving
that men may be good members of civil society and yet
differ in religion, — this precedent, I say, which has already
been intently studied and contemplated for fifteen years
past by France, Holland, and Germany, may have already
had an effect in introducing moderation, lenity, and justice
among European states. And who can tell how extensive
a blessing this American Joseph may become to the whole
human race, although once despised by his brethren, exiled,
and sold into Egypt? How applicable that in Genesis
xlix. 22, 26 : " Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful
bough by a well ; whose branches run over the wall. The
archers have sorely grieved him, and shpt at him, and
hated him. But his bow abode in strength ; the arms of
his hands were made strong by the arms of the mighty
God of Jacob. The blessings of thy father have prevailed
above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost
bound of the everlasting hill ; they shall be on the head
of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was
separated from his brethren."
Little would civilians have thought ages ago that the
world should ever look to America for models of govern-
Unitcd States for 18-10, of which, counting the Methodist, Baptist, Pres
byterian, Congregational, and Dutch Reformed, who arc named in the
order of their numerical ratio, as of the Congregational type, there were
29,607 churches; and of all others, including Episcopal, Roman Catholic,
Christian, and Friends, 8015 churches, — an aggregate of 37,052 churches,
— showing the ratio of the former to the whole as about 4 to 5. The
total of church accommodations was 14,270,139, of which 10,00 1,050 were of
the Congregational type as above, and 3,005,483 of the others, — showing
the ratio of the former to the whole as about 3 to 4, or 74.0 per cent, of
the whole. The Methodists had 13,338 churches; Baptists, 9300; Congre-
gationalists, 1700; Episcopalians, 1401 ; Roman Catholics, 1227; Lutherans,
1221. They are unequally distributed over the Union, and the relation
of denominational to moral, educational, and social statistics offers a
most inviting and instructive inquiry. — ED.
40
470 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMOtf, 1783.
ment and polity ; little did they think of finding this most
perfect polity among the poor outcasts, the contemptible
people of New England, and particularly in the long de
spised civil polity of Connecticut,1 — a polity conceived
by the sagacity and wisdom of a Winthrop, a Ludlow,
Haynes, Hopkins, Hooker, and the other first settlers of
Hartford, in 1636. And while Europe and Asia may
hereafter learn that the most liberal principles of law
and civil polity are to be found on this side the Atlantic,
they may also find the true religion here depurated from
the rust and corruption of ages, and learn from us to re
form and restore the church to its primitive purity. It
will be long before the ecclesiastical pride of the splendid
European hierarchies can submit to learn wisdom from
those whom they have been inured to look upon with
sovereign contempt. But candid and liberal disquisition
will, sooner or later, have a great effect. Removed from
the embarrassments of corrupt systems, and the dignities
and blinding opulence connected with them, the unfet
tered mind can think with a noble enlargement, and, with
an unbounded freedom, go wherever the light of truth
directs. Here will be no bloody tribunals, no cardinal's
inquisitors-general, to bend the human mind, forcibly to
control the understanding, and put out the light of reason,
the candle of the Lord, in man, — to force an innocent
Galileo to renounce truths demonstrable as the light of
day. Religion may here receive its last, most liberal,
and impartial examination. Religious liberty is peculiarly
i " In a ' Conspectus of a Perfect Polity/ the author has given the out
lines of the constitution of a commonwealth, agreeing, in its great princi
ples, with those of the constitution of the United States and of the indi
vidual states. But he maintained that a Christian state ought expressly
to acknowledge and embosom in its civil constitution the public avowal of
the 'being of a God,' and ' the avowal of Christianity.'" — Kingsley's
Life of Stiles. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 471
friendly to fair and generous disquisition. Here Deism
will have its full chance ; nor need libertines more to
complain of being overcome by any weapons but the gen
tle, the powerful ones of argument and truth. Revelation
will, be found to stand the test to the ten thousandth
examination.
There are three coetaneous events to take place, whose
futurition is certain from prophecy, — the annihilation of
the pontificate,1 the reassembling of the Jews, and the ful
ness of the Gentiles. That liberal and candid disquisition
of Christianity which will most assuredly take place in
America, will prepare Europe for the first event, with
which the other will be connected, when, especially on
the return of the Twelve Tribes to the Holy Land, there
will burst forth a degree of evidence hitherto unper-
ceived, and of efficacy to convert a world. More than
three quarters of mankind yet remain heathen. Heaven
put a stop to the propagation of Christianity when the
church became corrupted with the adoration of numerous
deities and images, because this would have been only
exchanging an old 'for a new idolatry. Nor is Christen
dom now larger than it was nine centuries ago. The
promising prospects of the Propaganda fide at Rome2 are
come to nothing; and it may be of the divine destiny
that all other attempts for gospelizing the nations of the
earth shall prove fruitless, until the present Christendom
itself be recovered to the primitive purity and simplicity ;
at which time, instead of the Babel confusion of contra-
1 By the conquest of Canada in 1759-60, God then and there ordained
that America should be a free, and, to this end, a Protestant, nation. It
would be a notable, a practical celebration of this era of American liberty
if the final conflict of the same ^reat principles should distinguish the
years 1859-60 in the Old World's progress. Centuries mark the onward
life of nations. — ED.
^ See p. 466, notes b and 1. — ED.
472 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
dieting missionaries, all will harmoniously concur in speak
ing one language, one holy faith, one apostolic religion, to
an uncontroverted world. At this period, and in effect
ing this great event, we have reason to think that the
United States may be of no small influence and consid
eration. It was of the Lord to send Joseph into Egypt,
to save much people, and to show forth his praise. It is
of the Lord that " a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon- under her feet," and upon "her head a crown of
twelve stars," a should "flee into the wilderness, where she
hath a place prepared of God,"b and where she might be
the repository of wisdom, and "keep the commandments
of God, and have the testimony of Jesus." It may have
been of the Lord that Christianity is to be found in such
greater purity in this church exiled into the wildernesses
of America, and that its purest body should be evidently
advancing forward, by an augmented natural increase and
spiritual edification, into a singular superiority, with the
ultimate subserviency to the glory of God in converting
the world.
When we look forward and see this country increased
to forty or fifty millions,1 while we see all the religious
sects increased into respectable bodies, we shall doubtless
find the united body of the Congregational, consociated,
and Presbyterian churches making an equal figure with
any two of them ; or, to say the least, to be of such mag
nitude as to number that it will be to no purpose for
other sects to meditate their eversion. This, indeed, is
enterprised, but it will end in a Sisyphean labor. There
is the greatest prospect that we shall become thirty out of
forty millions.2 And while the avenues to civil improve-
a Not to say Thirteen. b Rev. xii. 1.
1 See p. 440, note 1. — ED. 2 Sec p. 408, note 1. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 473
ment and public honors will here be equally open to all
sects, so it will be no dishonor hereafter to be a Presbyte
rian, or of the religious denomination which will probably
ever make the most distinguished figure in this great re
public. And hereafter, when the world shall behold us a
respectable part of Christendom, they may be induced by
curiosity with calmness and candor to examine whether
something of Christianity may not really be found among
us. And while we have to lament our Laodiceanism, de
ficient morals, and incidental errors, yet the collective sys
tem of evangelical doctrines, the instituted ordinances,
and the true ecclesiastical polity, may be found here in a
great degree of purity. Europeans, and some among us,
have habituated themselves to a most contemptible idea
of the New England churches — conceiving us to be only
a colluvies of error, fanaticism, irregularity, and confusion.a
a Peters's History of Connecticut.l
1 This celebrated work, by the famous Rev. S. A. Peters, LL.D., contains
curious observations on the wonders of nature, art, and " fanaticism," in
New England, the truth of which could be established only by the au
thor's high reputation for veracity and godly simplicity. He describes a
" chasm" in the Connecticut River, where " water is consolidated, with
out frost, by pressure, by swiftness, between the pinching, sturdy rocks,
to such a degree of induration that no iron crow can be forced into it; ...
steady as time, and harder than marble, the stream passes irresistible, if
not swift as lightning; one of the greatest pLanomcnons in nature. . . No
living creature was ever known to pass through this narrow, except an
Indian woman How feeble is man, and how great that Almighty
who formed the .... irresistible power and strength of waters ! " In
Windham the frogs "filled a road forty yards wide, for four miles in
length, and were for several hours passing through the town, unusually
clamorous The event was fatal to several women. ... I verily be
lieve," Mr. Peters says, " an army under the Duke of Marlborough would,
under like circumstances, have acted no better than they did." He is
hopeless, "for the Church of England has lost the opportunity of civiliz
ing, christianizing, and moderating the burning zeal of the dissenters in
New England, who were honest in their religion, merely by the sinful
40*
474 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
They Lave taken this idea in part from our brethren in
Britain, who have viewed us very much also in the same
light to this day. This, on the contrary, is the truth, that,
allowing for offences unavoidable, for imperfections and
controversies incident to the churches in their most
regular state, our churches are as completely reformed,
and as well modelled according to the Scripture plan, as
can be expected till the millennium. Particularly these
essential things may be found among them upon examina
tion : that the churches, or particular congregations, are
regularly formed, and duly uphold public worship every
Lord's day, and this ordinarily in a very decent, solemn
manner; that the preaching of the word, baptism, and the
Lord's supper, are regularly and duly administered by the
pastors ; that the pastors are orderly, and regularly set
apart to the ministry by the laying on of the hands of
the presbytery, or of those who have regularly derived
office power, in lineal succession, from the apostles and
omission of not sending a bishop to that country, who would have ef
fected greater things among them than an army of fifty thousand men."
But the nowjnild and desponding Peters was, in 1774, a terrible son of
Mars, a bloody-minded leader of the " Church of England " militant, re
joicing in the prospect of " hanging work " among the uncivilized "dis
senters." See his letter on page 195 of this volume. In the second edition
of his " History," " printed for the author," London, 1782, Mr. Peters
confidingly says: "Whatever other historical requisite it may want, it
must, I think, be allowed to possess originality and truth." Its claim to
originality has never been questioned, and the work has placed the learned
and reverend author among the celebrities of the " Church of England "
of that period. He heartily detested "preaching."
Mr. Kingsley says that " on examining the more prominent statements
of Peters, not one has been found which is not either false, or so deformed
by exaggerations and perversions as to be essentially erroneous. To
prove a truth upon the leading portions of his history would be, it is be
lieved, an impossible task."— Hist. Disc, at New Haven, 1838, 83-90.
The Rev. Dr. Bacon calls it " that most unscrupulous and malicious of
lying narratives." — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 475
Jesus Christ. We have no classical or synodical tribunals,
yet we have ecclesiastical councils ; and our church dis
cipline, although not sufficiently attended to, is such that
persons of evident scandal and immorality, and vicious
ministers (of which, God be thanked! there have been but
few, very few indeed), cannot live long in our churches.
With all our humbling imperfections, I know of no amend
ment necessary, as to our general system of church polity.
Nothing of moment, unless it be grace, — no doctrine, no
ordinance or institution of the primitive churches, — but
may be found in general reception and observance among
us. If we are condemned for having no tribunals or judi-
catories out of the church, — which, however, is not true, —
let it be remembered that neither Christ nor his apostles
ever instituted any; and that in this respect we are just
in the same state, with regard to ecclesiastical polity, as
the one hundred and fifty churches of the apostolic age,a
and particularly the seven churches of Asia in the time
of St. John.
The invalidity of our ordinations is objected against us,
and so of consequence the invalidity of all our official ad
ministrations. And, now that we are upon the matter,
give me leave to exhibit a true though summary state of
it, as the result of a very full, laborious, and thorough
inquiry. It was the mistaken opinion of some of our first
ministers in New England (than whom there never was a
more learned collection, for they embosomed all the theo
logical and ecclesiastical erudition of all ages), — it was, I
say, their opinion, that the power of ordination of all
church officers was in the church, by their elders. They
well knew, from ecclesiastical and Scripture antiquity, that
the power of election was there ; and they judged ordina-
a It has been computed that the churches of the apostolic age did not exceed
one hundred and tii'ty or two hundred congregations in the whole world.
476 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON. 1783.
tion the lesser act ; but their great reason was,1 that the
church might not be controlled by any exterior authority,
whether Episcopal or Presbyterial, and so no more be
harassed by bishops' courts, or any other similar tribunal.
Our fathers held to an eldership, for they saw it in all
antiquity, as well as the Bible ; and it was their judgment
that elders should be ordained by elders of the same
church. The most of the first forty churches had ruling
elders; a few had not.2 These few created an early diffi
culty, on which our fathers early made a mistaken decision,
that where there were no elders in the church, ordination
might be done by the laying on of hands of delegated
brethren. The introduction of ministers already ordained
into the pastoral charge of a particular church was at first
done by the lay brethren ; and this was, from the begin
ning, improperly called ordination, how often soever re
peated. A repetition of ordinations or baptisms does not
nullify the first regular administrations. All the first New
England ministers were ordained before. Thus Mr. Wilson
was first ordained by a bishop in England ; then, 1630, by
Governor Winthrop and others, he was ordained teacher
in Boston ; he then ordained an elder ; and upon the ac
cession of Mr. Cotton, 1633, he was, by this elder and
Governor Winthrop, again, a third time, ordained, and con
stituted pastor. So the learned and courtly Mr. Davenport
was ordained by a bishop, then by the brethren, pastor of
the church in New Haven, in 1639; and, 1688, was again
ordained pastor of the first church in Boston by Elder Penn.
Mr. Hooker was ordained a presbyter by a bishop in Eng-
1 Sec pp. x.-xv. — ED.
2 On the subject of ecclesiastical polity, see the admirable " Vindication
of the Government of the New England Churches/' by John Wise, A.M.,
fourth edition, Boston, 1860, published by the Congregational Board, with
Rev. Dr. Clark's " Historical Introductory Note/'— ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 477
land, and then again by the brethren at Newtown, 1633,
who removed with his church to Hartford. Mr. Bulkley,
of Concord, and Mr. Noyes, of Newbury, and others, ex
pressly adhered to their former ordinations in England
by the bishops, though not as bishops, but as presbyters.1
But in general the induction of the ministers of the first
churches was performed by lay brethren, and this was
called ordination, but should be considered, what in reality
it was, only induction, or instalment of those who were
vested with official power. These, as I said, were all
ordained before by the bishops in England. Nor have I
ever found with certainty more than one instance of lay
ordination of a person never before ordained, the last cen
tury (and there are few but what I have examined), and
this was done by the advice and under the inspection of
ministers ordained by the bishops in England, one of whom
prayed at the solemnity of the consecration, and all gave
their approbation and right-hand of fellowship, which, in
my opinion, amounts to their performing the ordination
themselves, they being present and assisting in the trans
action. This was at Woburn, 1642. I believe there were
two or three more similar ordinations of unordained candi
dates before the ministers saw and corrected their error,
which indeed was almost the only error of moment which
the ministers went into the last century.2
Immediately upon publishing the Cambridge platform,
1648, our brethren in England remonstrated against allow-
1 In a long note, " Winthrop's entries in a manuscript diary," August 27,
October 25, 1030, November 22, 1632, October 10, 11, 1033, " 2m. 6d. 1637,"
April 24, 1639, are quoted to "evince that the ministers relied upon their
ordinations in England." As the diary is now in print (see p. 491, note 2)
the note is not reprinted. — ED.
2 An elaborate and valuable series of papers on the Ecclesiastical Anti
quities of New England was published by the Rev. Samuel Sewall in the
American Quarterly Register, 1838-1842. — ED.
478 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
ing lay ordination. They alleged that we had no example
in Scripture of lay ordination ; that the sacerdotal gift, or
office power, was conferred and given by the laying on of
the hands of the presbytery,* and that we had examples
of presbyterian ordination in Scripture ; and not only that
it was safest to proceed in this way, but that it was the
only scriptural ground. These arguments convinced our
fathers, and they immediately set about to remedy the
practice which had hitherto, providentially, wrought no
mischief, as the body of the pastors had been ordained by
bishops. It instantly became a custom for some of the
ordained ministers present to lay on hands in ordinations ;
it being for some time judged necessary that the delegated
brethren should join, in token of subjection of the church
to the pastoral care of the minister. But at length it
became a custom, so early as before 1660, that, at the
desire of the church, the ordaining ministers performed
the whole — both conferred office power on the pastor elect
by the laying on of hands, and committed the church to
his pastoral charge, which, with the joint fellowship of the
pastors and churches, finished the ordination. Thus ordi
nations were recovered into their right state and order the
last century, and before lay ordinations had wrought any
evil. Thus office power, by Scripture presbyters, con
tinued to be transfused through the clergy. I have reason
and even assurance to believe that there was no candidate
ordained in New England before 1746 l but whose ordina
tion may be traced to the bishops in England. I have
found no instance to the contrary, although I have
searched and examined all the ordinations of the first half-
century here, and most of them for the first hundred years.
a 1 Tim. iv. 14.
i The author, in the second edition, 1785, adds a note, " The Ordination
among the Separates began this year." — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 479
And as to the wild and enthusiastic period between 1740
and 1750, though it gave birth to perhaps thirty little Sepa
rate congregations, yet some have dissolved, others become
regular, and the ten or a dozen now remaining are more
and more convinced of the duty of seeking ordination
from among the standing ministers.1 And it is remarkable
that Mr. Thomas Dennison, now living, assisted, laid on
hands, and gave the charge at the first ordination in 1746,
and at the three succeeding ordinations among the Sepa
rates in New England, from whence all the ordinations in
the churches of that description have proceeded. And
although in the first, but not in the others, he acted as
a brother delegated by the church, and in the others as an
elder of another church, yet it is remarkable, I say, that he
himself had been ordained, in 1743, by one whose ordina
tion I have traced to the Mathers and other Boston minis
ters, and through them up to the Bishop of Chester, and
other bishops in England. It is probable the few Separate
churches remaining will in time become regular by seek
ing ordinations among the pastors of the standing churches
where the ordinations are indubitable.
For, as I have said, the ordination of our clergy is regu
lar and scriptural, and may be traced in the line of pres
byters up to the apostolic age ; and so in general may the
ordinations in this line through the whole Christian world,
especially in the great divisions of Lutherans, Calvinists,
and Church of England. So wonderfully has Christ pre
served the sacerdotal or presbyterian order in the church,
that the succession in this line is without a doubt. The
i Prince's "Christian History," Gillie's " Historical Collections," Tracy's
"History of the Great Awakening," Dr. Clark's " History of the Congre
gational Churches in Massachusetts," chap, xiii., are among the many
works on that memorable period. See article Whiteficld, George, in Allen's
Biographical Dictionary. — ED.
480 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
first ninety-four ministers who came over and settled New
England, Long Island, and the Jerseys, before 1669, and
chiefly before 1640 — these, I say, were all educated1 in
the English universities, and were ordained in England ;
some of whom — as Hooker, Davenport, Chauncy, Lee,
Bulkley, ISToyes, Norton — were men of universal reading
in theological literature, and were profoundly versed in the
writings of the Greek and Latin churches, in the councils
and historians, the fathers, the writers of the middle ages,
and the reformers, especially those miracles of human and
divine learning, Chauncy and Lee. Of these ninety-four,
one or two only were ordained by the Puritans, as the
fourteen2 who came over after the ejection of 1662 were
ordained by the bishops, or more probably by the Presby
terians in the protectorate : all the rest by the bishops.
All these were ordained presbyters by the bishops in Eng
land ; particularly the Rev. Mr. Richard Mather was or
dained a presbyter by Dr. Morton, Bishop of Chester, 1618.a
The bishops did not intend to communicate ordaining
powers, but they really intended to convey all the power
of a Scripture presbyter, and by the Scripture we find this
power conferred by the laying on of the hands of the pres
bytery; which demonstrates that presbyters, as such, were
endued with the power of ordination.b If the succession
in the line of bishops might have been interrupted at the
Reformation, yet not so in the line of presbyters. Office
power has unquestionably been preserved in England,
among presbyters, not only to the times of its subjugation
to Rome by Austin the monk, but ages before, even to
Lucius, according to venerable Bede. And indeed we
have it more directly to the apostolic age, without going
a Life of Dr. Increase Mather. b 1 Tim. iv. 14.
1 See pp. xiii.-xv. — ED.
2 Their names arc given in Mather's "Magnalia," Book III. fol. 4. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 481
through Rome, for Bishop Jewel asserts truly that the
ancient churches of England were of Greek, that, is orien
tal, derivation. We have in this manner a historical evi
dence and assurance that the New England ordinations in
particular may be traced back to the holy apostles.
There is not an instance, in the apostolic age, of bishops,
priests, and deacons being stated officers of more than a
single congregation. I risk this historic assertion with the
examination of the whole learned world, although I well
know that, like the evidences of revelation, it has been ex
amined a thousand times with different judgments. Every
congregation regularly and fully organized had them, as
appears from Dionysius the Areopagite and St. Ignatius.
The succession of bishops, who were only the first presby
ters, as wrell as of the other elders, was preserved by ordi
nations performed by presbyters in or out of a church.
And though ordinations were usually performed by three
or more, yet if only one presbyter laid on hands it was
valid. Titus, a single elder, was left thus to ordain elders
in Crete. The church of Alexandria, founded by St.
Mark, retained presbyterian ordination exclusive for three
hundred years, as appears from Eutychius, the patriarch
there in the ninth century, who wrote the originals of that
church in Arabic, from which I have translated the follow
ing extract, viz. :
" The ninth year of Claudius Csesar, while Mark the evangelist
resided at Alexandria, Hananias being converted to Christianity,
Mark baptized him, and constituted or ordained him chief father at
Alexandria, and he became the first patriarch of Alexandria. Mark
the evangelist likewise constituted and ordained twelve (Cashishaa)
presbyters, with Hananias, who should abide with the patriarch, so
that when there should be a vacancy in the patriarchate, they should
elect one of the twelve presbyters, upon whose head the other
a The title Cashies is given to the Coptic clergy to this day.
41
482 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
eleven should impose their hands, bless him, and create him patri
arch ; and then elect some eminent person, and constitute him a
presbyter with themselves, in the room of him who was made a
patriarch, so that there should always be twelve. Nor did this
institution concerning the presbyters cease at Alexandria, that they
should create the patriarchs out of the twelve presbyters, until the
times of Alexander, patriarch at Alexandria, who was of the num
ber of the three hundred and eighteen " (at the Council of Nice,
A. D. 325). " For he forbade the presbyters afterwards to create a
patriarch, and decreed that, upon the death of a patriarch, the
bishops should assemble and ordain a patriarch. And he farther
decreed that, on a vacancy in the patriarchate, they should elect,
either from the twelve presbyters, or from any other country, some
iminent person, and create him patriarch. And thus evanished the
ancient institution by which the patriarch had been created by
the presbyters, and there succeeded in its place his decree con
cerning the creation of the patriarchs by the bishops. Thus, from
Hananias to the time of Demetrius, who was the eleventh patriarch
at Alexandria, there was no bishop in the provinces of Egypt ; nor
did any patriarchs before him constitute bishops. *But he, being
made patriarch, constituted three bishops. And he was the first
Alexandrian patriarch who made bishops. Upon the death of Deme
trius, Heraclas became patriarch, and constituted twenty bishops." a
Thus, in this most valuable piece or relic of ecclesiasti
cal antiquity, we have preserved and transmitted to us a
specimen and exemplar of a truly primitive and apostolic
church. And herein we have a full proof that, while there
were fifteen hundred pastors or Cashisha, yet there were
no bishops in Egypt, in the posterior appropriate sense of
the Latin and Greek churches, until the fourth century,
although the Christians had by that time become so nu
merous in Egypt that, in the most severe and memorable
persecution under Maximianus, the predecessor of Con-
stantine the Great, one hundred thousand Christians were
put to death there, and seven hundred thousand were sold
a Eutychij origines eccl. Alexand.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 483
for slaves ; a barbarity which satiated and glutted the mal
ice of persecution, and wrought a conviction in the whole
Roman Empire of the impossibility of subduing Christianity.
Correspondent to this idea of a church and its officers
was the form particularly of the church 'of Ephesus, and
the seven churches of Asia, in the apostolic age, and the
churches of New England, wherein, at their primitive in
stitutions, were originally two or more elders, besides the
pastors and teachers, i. e., four presbyters ; although, hav
ing generally, though not universally, dropped the ruling
elders, they now more nearly resemble the church of
Philippi, in having at present only bishops and deacons.
It might, however, be well to resume the eldership, as in
the days of our ancestors.
Agreeable to this primitive idea of a church was the
church of Ireland, planted and formed by that great light
of Christendom, St. Patrick, who — as Titus travelled
Crete, and ordained elders in every city — himself trav
elled Ireland, converted it to Christianity, and constituted
three hundred and fifty -five churches, and in each ordained
a set of elders, with a bishop at their head,a as did Mark
in Alexandria; — agreeable to that of the Irish poet in the
psalter of Cashet, which, doubtless, while it retains the
historical sentiments, loses its beauty in translation :
" The blessed Patrick, with his priestly hands,
The rite of consecration did confer
Upon the most religious of his clergy,
Three hundred and fifty-five in number.
He likewise, for the service of the church,
As many sacred structures did erect,
And presbyters ordained three thousand." *
a Nonnius, speaking of St. Patrick, says: " Ecclesias 355 fundavit, episcopos
ordinavit eodem numero, presbyteros autem usque ad tria millia ordinavit."—
See Nonnius and Keating
1 See Neander's Church History, Torrey's trans., Bonn's ed. 1858, iii.
172-177. — ED.
484 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
[He began the conversion of Ireland about A. D. 432,
and labored in it until his death, about A. D. 490, a3tat.
122. His ecclesiastical laws and canons continued there
four hundred years after his death, until after the Danish
invasion. Although St. Patrick was born in Wales, yet
he was educated and ordained in Gaul, and borrowed from
thence the model of his churches ; which shows that the
Gallican churches, before their subjugation to Rome, as
well as the Church of England in the time of the bishops
and monks of Glastenbury, were similar in their ecclesi
astical polity to the churches in Egypt before the Council
of Nice, to those of Ireland in Patrick's day, to the pres
ent Walderisian reliquiae, or remnant of the ancient Gal
lic churches, and to the Calvinistic churches of the
Reformation.] * If the whole Christian world were to
revert back to this original and truly primitive model, how
far more simple, uniform, and beautiful, and even glorious,
would the church universal appear, than under the muti
lated, artificial forms of the pontifical or patriarchal con
stitutions of the middle and present ages; and how far
more agreeable to the ecclesiastical polity instituted and
delivered by the holy apostles. May this be exhibited and
displayed in the American churches. Of this, it gives me
joy to believe, there is the greatest prospect. The initial
' revival of this primeval institution is indeed already so
well established here, where the Presbyterians hold so
great a proportion in the American Republic, that there
can be but little doubt but that in the ordinary course of
events our increasing and growing interest, without any
interference with the other sects, will at length ascend to
such a magnitude, and become so great and respectable a
part of Christendom, as to command the attention, con-
1 The lines in brackets were added in the edition of 1785. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 485
temptation, and fraternal love of our brethren and fellow-
Christians of the church universal, and even of the world
itself. And when the set time to favor Zion shall come in
God's good and holy providence, while Christendom may
no longer disdain to adopt a reformation from us, the then
newly gospelized heathen may light up their candle at
America. In this country, out of sight of mitres and the
purple, and removed from systems of corruption confirmed
for ages and supported by the spiritual janizaries of an
ecclesiastical hierarchy, aided and armed by the secular
power, religion may be examined with the noble Berean
freedom, the freedom of American-born minds. And
revelation, both as to the true evangelical doctrines and
church polity, may be settled here1 before they shall
have undergone a thorough discussion, and been weighed
with a calm and unprejudiced candor elsewhere. Great
things are to be effected in the world before the millen
nium, which I do not expect to commence under seven or
eight hundred years hence; and perhaps the liberal and
candid disquisitions in America are to be rendered exten
sively subservient to some of the most glorious designs
of Providence, and particularly in the propagation and
diffusion of religion through the earth, in filling the whole
earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. A
time will come when six hundred millions of the human
race shall be ready to drop their idolatry and all false
religion, when Christianity shall triumph over superstition,
as well as Deism, and Gentilism, and Mohammedanism.
They will then search all Christendom for the best niodel,
1 Compare with this the remarkable words of John Robinson, the pas
tor of the Pilgrim Fathers, who said to them, on their embarkation at
Dclfthavcn, in 1G20 : " Brethren, I am fully persuaded, I am very confident,
that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy Word."
He probably had special reference to ecclesiastical polity. — ED.
41*
486 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 178-3.
the purest exemplification of the Christian church, with
the fewest human mixtures. And when God in his provi
dence shall convert the world, should the newly Christian
ized nations assume our form of religion, should American
missionaries be blessed to succeed in the work of Chris
tianizing the heathen, — in which the Romanists and for
eign Protestants have very much failed, — it would be an
unexpected wonder, and a great honor to the United
States. And thus the American Republic, by illuminating
the world with truth and liberty, would be exalted and
made high among the nations, in praise, and in name, and
in honor. I doubt not this is the honor reserved for us ;
I had almost said, in the spirit of prophecy,, the zeal of the
Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.1
" So the dread seer in Patmos' waste who trod,
Led by the visions of the guiding God,
Saw the dim vault of heaven its folds unbend,
And gates, and spires, and streets, and domes descend
Far down the skies. With suns and rainbows crowned,
The new-formed city lights the world around." a
a Vision of Columb. b. 2.2
1 How gloriously this prophecy of America's mission to the world is
already being accomplished, appears, in part, in the noble history and
statistics of the Missionary, Bible, and Tract Societies of the United
States in their operations over the round world; — missionaries not only
of the Christian home and civilization, but coadjutors in the fields of
science and philosophy. To them ethnology, philology, history, geog
raphy, commerce, are willing and continual debtors, as well as aids.
Perhaps the conquest of Canada may be adopted as the epoch of modern
missionary enterprise, when the door was wide opened to its benevolent
designs among the aborigines, — see Whcelock's narratives, — and from
that expanding, till it shall illumine the world with the gospel of Chris
tian liberty. The natural political influence of American institutions
abroad hardly admits of statistical statement, as it is not the result of
organized associations. — ED.
2 Dr. Stiles must have quoted these lines from the MS. of Mr. Barlow's
poem, which was not published till 1787. It was dedicated to the unhappy
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 487
Having shown wherein consists the prosperity of a state,
and what reason we have to anticipate the glory of the
American empire, I proceed to show,
II. That her system of dominion must receive its finish
ing from religion ; or, that from the diffusion of virtue
among the people of any community would arise their
greatest secular happiness ; all which will terminate in
this conclusion : that holiness ought to be the end of all
civil government — "that thou mayest be an holy people
unto the Lord thy God."
On the subject of religion we might be concise and tran
sient, if indeed a subject of the highest moment ought to
be treated with brevity.
It is readily granted that a state may be very prosperous
and flourishing without Christianity ; — witness the Egyp
tian, Assyrian, Roman, and Chinese empires. But if there
be a true religion, one would think that it might be at
least some additional glory. We must become a holy peo
ple in reality, in order to exhibit the experiment, never yet
fully made in this unhallowed part of the universe, whether
such a people would be the happiest on earth. It would
greatly conduce to this if Moses and Aaron, if the magis
tracy and priesthood, should cooperate and walk together
in union and harmony. The political effort of the present
day, through most of the United States, is to disunite,
divide, and separate them,1 through fear lest the United
Louis XVL, and was republishcd in Paris. This distinguished states
man's career illustrates the broad and deep influence of the American
Revolution on European politics. He regarded the cross not as the em
blem of Christianity, but of its corruptions by Popery. He died Decem
ber 22, 1812, aged fifty-eight. Allen's Biog. Diet, has a full notice of him,
with authorities. Where are his large collections, intended for a History
of the United States? — ED.
1 The external separation of church and state, now complete, leaves a
nobler vantage-ground to the Christian Teacher in his duty to his coun-
488 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
States, like the five viceroyships of New Spain, should be
entangled and oppressed with the spiritual domination of
European and Asiatic hierarchies. As if, by the title of
minister or pastor, we might not as well be reminded
of the ministers of Holland and Geneva, or the mild and
peaceable pastors of the primitive church, as of the dom
ineering prelates and other haughty, intriguing dignitaries
of the Romish church. Hence Aaron is spurned at a dis
tance, and the Levites are beheld with shy contempt, as a
useless, burdensome, dangerous tribe ; and, in some of the
states, for the only sin of being priests of the Most High
God, they are inhibited all civil offices, and, to a great
degree, disfranchised of their civil immunities and rights
of citizenship.1 I thank my God for this ordering of his
holy providence, — for I wish the clergy never to be vested
with civil power, — while I am considering the spirit and
disposition of the public towards the Church of God, indi
cated by such events. A general spirit reigns against the
most liberal and generous establishments in religion ;
against the civil magistrates encouraging or having any
thing more to do about religion than to keep the civil
try; and as Christian morals and principles are the true foundation of a
free Christian commonwealth, how momentous is his responsibility to
God and man for fidelity in " declaring all the counsel of God ! " The
zeal, firmness, and integrity of the pulpit in " preaching the gospel," from
the time of Mayhcw to Stiles, was of vital importance to the triumph of
our national freedom. But Christianity is perpetual, and for daily use.
Most legislation involves or relates to public morals, questions in foro
conscientiw, and here Christianity has sovereign jurisdiction, which can be
violated only by the sufferance of that teacher who, whether from timid
ity, weakness, or open treachery, is false to his Master, unworthy of his
great commission, and sure of the contempt of men. Mayhew and Stiles
are examples, for all time, of Christian manhood in the pulpit. " Politics
and the Pulpit " is the title of an " essay " on the true relations of the
pulpit, published by the American Tract Society. — ED.
1 See p. 69, note 1, et seq. — ED. ,
THE FUTURE GLORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 489
peace among contending sects : as if this was all that is to
be done for religion by the friends of Jesus. And hence,
in designating to the magistracy and offices of government,
it begins to be a growing idea that it is mighty indifferent,
forsooth, not only whether a man be of this or the other
religious sect, but whether he be of any religion at all ;
and that truly deists, and men of indifferentism to all
religion, are the most suitable persons for civil office, and
most proper to hold the reins of government ; and that,
to prevent partiality in governors, and emulation among
the sects, it is wise to consign government over into the
hands of those who, Gallio-like, have no religion at all.1
This is Machiavellian wisdom and policy ; and hence
examples are frequently adduced of men distinguished
truly for deism, perhaps libidinous morals, and every vice,
yet of great abilities, it is said, — great civilians, lawyers,
physicians, warriors, governors, patriots, politicians, — while
as great or greater and more numerous characters, in the
same departments, — a Thuanus, a Grotius, a Paul of
Venice, a Sir Henry Wotton, a Sir Peter King, a Selden,
a Newton, a Boyle, those miracles of wisdom and friends
to religion and virtue, — are passed by with transient cool
ness and neglect. I Avish we had not to fear that a neglect
of religion was coming to be the road to preferment. It
was not so here in our fathers' days. *
Shall the Most High send down truth into this world
from the world of light and truth, and shall the rulers of
this world be afraid of it? Shall there be no intrepid
Daniels, — great in magistracy, great in religion? How
great was that holy man, that learned and pious civilian,
when he shone in the supreme triumvirate at the head of
an empire of one hundred and twenty provinces — vener
able for political wisdom, venerable for religion !
i See p. 69, et seq. — ED.
490 DR. STILES' s ELECTION SERMON, nss.
If men, not merely nominally Christians, but of real
religion and sincere piety, joined with abilities, were ad
vanced and called up to office in every civil department,
how would it countenance and recommend virtue! But,
alas ! is there not too much Laodiceanism in this land ? Is
not Jesus in danger of being wounded in the house of his
friends? Nay, have we gone already such lengths in
declension that, if even the Holy Redeemer himself and
his apostles were to reappear among us, while unknown
to be such, and importune the public government and
magistracy of these states to become nursing fathers to
the church, is it not to be feared that some of the states,
through timidity and fearfulness of touching religion,
would excuse themselves, and dismiss the holy messengers,
the heavenly visitants, with coldness and neglect, though
importuning the spouse with an " Open to me, my beloved,
my sister, my dove " ?
But after the present period of deism and skeptical
indifferentism in religion, of timidity and irresolution in
the cause of the great Emmanuel, perhaps there may arise
a succession of civil magistrates who will not be ashamed
of the cross of Christ, nor of patronizing his holy religion
with a generous Catholicism and expanded benevolence
towards all of every denomination who love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity and truth, — patronizing it, I repeat,
not with the insidious views of a Hutchinsonian1 policy,
but from a rational and firm belief and love of evangelical
truth. Zion's friends will rejoice in Zion's welfare, and
the religious as well as civil patriot will shine in the faces
of the future Moseses and Joshuas of this land. So shone
1 The theological world was some time disturbed by the speculative
school founded by John Hutchinson, 1674-1737, who taught that all
knowledge is contained in the Scriptures, and that every Hebrew root has
a spiritual as Avell as an obvious sense. — Allibone ; Gorton. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 491
it in the first governor, Winthrop, and so shineth it in a
Washington. Yea, I glory in believing and knowing that
there are many now in the public magistracy of this and
the other states who feel with that illustrious and most
excellent governor, upon whom rested much of the spirit
of Samuel and David, and of Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and
Josiah — I mean Nehemiah the Tirshata, who, with Moses,
esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the
treasures of Egypt"; who was of so pious, so noble, so pat
riotic a spirit, such a lover of his country and the true
religion, that he preferred the very dust of Zion to the
gardens of Persia, and the broken walls of Jerusalem to
the palaces of Shushan.
Whenever religion is erected on the ruins of civil gov
ernment, and when civil government is built on the ruins
of religion, both are so far essentially wrong. The church
has never been of any political detriment here, for it never
has been vested with any civil or secular power in New
England, although it is certain that civil dominion was
but the second motive, religion the primary one, with our
ancestors in coming hither and settling this land.1 It was
not so much their design to establish religion for the
benefit of the state, as civil government for the benefit of
religion, and as subservient and even necessary towards
the peaceable enjoyment and unmolested exercise of reli
gion — of that religion for which they fled to these ends
of the earth. An institution is not made for the laws, but
the laws for the institution. I am narrating a historical
fact, not giving a position or principle which by shrewd
politicians may be abused to justify spiritual tyranny, and
to support the claims of the pontificate over all the civil
states, kingdoms, and empires in Christendom.
The American Nehemiah, the opulent 2 and pious Gov-
1 See pp. xii., xv.-xix. — ED.
2 This gentleman's name is made familiar by his History, first published
492 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
ernor Wipthrop I., and the other first magistrates of the
several New England republics, were men of singular
wisdom and exemplary piety. And, God be thanked ! the
senatorial assembly of this happiest of all the United
States still embosoms so many Phinehases and Zorobabels,
so many religious patriots, the friends of Jesus and his
holy religion ; and that the Messiah's cause is here accom
panied with civil government and the priesthood; — allu
sively the two olive trees upon the right of the candlestick
(the churches) and upon the left; the two golden branches
which through the two golden pipes, Moses and Aaron,
empty the golden oil out of themselves,a and diffuse their
salutary influence of order and happiness through the
community.
a Zech. iv. 11.
in 1790, at Hartford, under the care of Mr. Webster, and two later editions,
ably edited by Mr. Savage. Another work from his pen, the " Short
Story" of the Antinomian troubles, has been treated with editorial sever
ity, under the supposition that it was written by another hand, Rev.
Thomas Welde. Some of his manuscripts are yet unpublished. Dr.
Stiles's impression of Winthrop's " opulence" is corrected by his own letters
in Mr. Savage's " appendix," which show that " one great motive" to his
migrating to New England was the care of his family; that he had lived
for some years in an unsettled condition;, as early as 1623 he wrote to his
son, "I wish oft God would open a way to settle me in Ireland;" that
he was embarrassed by debt, and finally sold his land for about £1500;
"you must sell it speedily, for much debt will lie upon us," — letter August
14, 1630, — which left him enough to win a new home in the New World.
Here, too, he had pecuniary difficulties, which certainly leave no "blem
ish" upon his memory, and of which his own account may be read in the
History, vol. i., 474-477.
It would be safe, in point of time, to attribute the favorite portrait of
Winthrop (see p. 154) to Ruben's pencil, but not to Vandyke's, for he prob
ably did not set foot in England till after Winthrop's departure, in March,
1629. Those artists sought for commissions from the court and nobility.
Eliot's and Allen's Dictionaries have good notices of Winthrop. See
an article by Mr. R. C. Winthrop, in Bridgman's " King's Chapel Memo
rials," 1853, pp. 309-315; "Historical Magazine," 18-37, p. 321; 1858, pp.
22, 170, 224; also this volume, pp. xi., xxiii., notes. —ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 493
As to nominal Christianity, I have no doubt but that it
will be upheld for ages in these states. Through the
liberty enjoyed here, all religious sects will grow up into
large a»d respectable bodies. But the Congregational and
Presbyterian denomination, however hitherto despised,
will, by the blessing of Heaven, continue to hold the
greatest figure in America, and, notwithstanding all the
fruitless labors and exertions to proselyte us to other
communions, become more numerous1 than the whole
collective body of our fellow-Protestants in Europe. The
whole proselytism of New England in particular, for sixty
or seventy years past, has not exceeded eight or ten
thousand, while our augment in that term, by natural
increase, has been half a million. The future difference in
our favor will be far greater, even admitting a tenfold
increase of proselytism. We anticipate with pleasure the
growth and multiplication of our churches. God grant
that we may not, like the seven churches of Asia, have a
name to live, while we are dead. Happy will it be for us
should we become a holy people, zealous of good works ;
for it is undoubtedly the will of Heaven, and especially
after the recent salvations of the Most High, that we should
be a holy people unto the Lord our God.
It is greatly to be wished that these principles of our
common Christianity might be found in general reception
among all the churches of these states :
The Trinity in unity, in the one undivided essence of the
Great Jehovah.
The sacred Scriptures are of divine inspiration.
In the immense universe, two little systems of intelli
gences, or orders of being, have lapsed, and that unhappily
we have the dishonor of being one of them.
The second person of the coeternal Trinity, having as-
i See pp. 440, 468, notes. — ED.
42
494 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
sumed human nature, made a real atonement for sin, and
by his vicarious obedience and sufferings exhibited that
righteousness and vicarious merit by which alone we are
forgiven and justified.
The Holy Ghost is equally a divine person with the
Father and the Son, sharing with them divine, supreme,
equal, and undivided honors.
True virtue consists in a conformity of heart and life to
the divine law, which is as obligatory upon Christians as if
eternal life was suspended on perfect obedience.
The eternal principle of holiness essentially consists in
divine love, a disinterested affection for moral excellency,
a delight in the beauty and glory of the divine character,
that is, the supreme love of God. And connected with
and issuing from this is a joyful acquiescence in his will,
a rejoicing in his sovereignty and universal dominion.
While salvation and pardon are of free grace, the retri
butions of eternity will be according to our works.
Whenever I find these principles, with others connected
with them, and the real belief of them evinced by an
amiable life, there I judge the essentials of Christianity to
be found, and thither my charity and benevolence extend
with equal ardor and sincerity, be the religious denomina
tion as it may. Of these, the doctrines of the divinity of
the Lord Jesus, and his real vicarious atonement, are the
most important — the Jachin and Boaz, the pillar-truths of
the gospel, the articuli stantis et cadentis ecclesice.
This was the system of theology brought over from the
other side of the flood by our pious forefathers, now with
God. The more this is realized in a state, the more will
its felicity be advanced ; for, certainly, the morals of
Christianity are excellent. It enjoins obedience to magis
tracy, justice, harmony, and benevolence among fellow-
citizens ; and, what is more, it points out immortality to
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 495
man. Politicians, indeed, usually consider religion only as
it may affect and subserve civil purposes, and hence it is
mighty indifferent to them what the state of religion be,
provided they can ride in the whirlwind and direct the
storm. Nothing is more common than to see them in
every country making use of sects, for their own ends,
whom they in their hearts despise and ridicule with su
preme contempt. Not so the Christian patriot, who from
his heart wishes the advancement of Christianity much
less for the civil good than for the eternal welfare of
immortal souls. We err much if we think the only or
chief end of civil government is secular happiness. Shall
immortals, illuminated by revelation, entertain such an
opinion ? God forbid ! Let us model civil society \vith the
adoption of divine institutions so as shall best subserve
the training up and disciplining innumerable millions for
the more glorious society of the church of the first-born.
Animated with the sublime ideas which Christianity in
fuses into a people, we shall be led to consider the true
religion as the highest glory of a civil polity. The Chris
tian institution so excelled in glory, that the Mosaic lost all
its glory. So the most perfect secular polity, though very
excellent, would lose all its glory when compared with a
kingdom wherein dwelleth righteousness, a community
wherein the religion of the divine Jesus reigns in vigor
and perfection.
Let us institute a comparison of religions in three dif
ferent polities, which will sufficiently represent the state
of the whole world. And may that spirit which justly
springs from such a comparison animate all, whether in
humble life or in the most elevated stations among man
kind. We may consider three contiguous empires, of the
same civil polity, all alike as to the social virtues, laws of
justice, benevolence, and the morals of civil society, — for
496 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, ,1783.
I mean to institute a very liberal and candid comparison.
On the one of these shall be established the idolatry of the
Bonzas, as a specimen of all the idolatrous religions ; deism
shall cover the second ; and, of the unidolatrous religions,
I will select for the third, not the Mohammedan, not the
Jewish, but the Christian, in its purest apostolic form.
As to the first, the species of idolatry is indifferent,
whether ancient or modern, that of the Druids or Zoroas
ter, of the Bramina or Romanists, or, lastly, that of the
great Lama of Potola, which is the most extensive as well
as most splendid religion on earth, being the religion of
one-third of the human race. Let us select the last ; it has
for its basis, in common with all other idolatrous systems,
adoration arid worship, of some kind or other, to a hierar
chy of celestial spirits, as our intercessors and protectors
under the supreme God. These have been in all ages the
Mahuzzim of Daniel, who predicts the apostasy of the
church to the worship of Mahuzzim departed souls, invisi
ble spirits, as intercessors with God. This is the real basis
of all idolatry, ancient and modern. These were the Baa
lim and the heroes. And it is just indifferent whether we
sacrifice and pray to Hercules or St. Paul, to the thirty
thousand gods of Athens or the saints of the calendar, as
advocates with the Father of the universe. Now, let the
inhabitants of an empire be resolved into religious assem
blies and convocations for the sacrificial worship of these
inferior divinities, with a splendid ceremonial and priest
hood : who does not see, in these enlightened realms, that
all this is religious delusion, a transfer of worship to the
creature from the Creator? — who may well say, "Who hath
required this at your hands?" If it be said that supreme
worship is not rendered to the saints of the pontifical can
onization, so neither was it by the Ten Tribes, all of whom
but eight thousand kissed the calves and worshipped the
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 497
numerous Baalim, heroes, or demi-gods. Dr. Middleton
has shown that the specifical worship, with a change of
names only, is paid at Rome to the modern canonized
saints, as to the deified heroes of the ancient Romans and
Greeks. The last effort of the philosophers against Chris
tianity was in the time of Julian ; and they subordinated
the whole system of ethnical worship to the worship of
the Supreme Being, asserting that as Christians acknowl
edged the ministry of angels, so they held with the minis
try of genii that of deceased and departed spirits, who
must be supposed to retain a peculiar affection for their
families, cities, and kingdoms on earth, especially for those
who should have referred themselves to their protection,
and intercession with the Deus O. M. the Supreme God.
Thus they defended themselves upon the very same rea
soning as that upon which the Christian idolatry is de
fended. We are directed to ask the prayers of our fellow-
Christians on earth, and, by parity, why should we not ask
their prayers in heaven, where they must be supposed to
have far greater influence ? And if we are directed to
treat one another, and especially great benefactors of our
country, with public respect while here, why not, by parity,
continue this respect and the symbols of honor to them in
heaven ? What a beautiful gradation is there, it is said,
in the ethnical and Christian worship, or ascription of
gratitude to inferior and powerful intercessors ! And how
does it tend to keep alive our minds, and impress them
with glorious ideas of that grand, august, and beautiful
system of agency and subordinate administrations in the
great government of the One Great Supreme ! How
beautiful the subordinate mediation of angels and saints,
under the all-comprehensive mediation of the blessed
Jesus, through whom all worship, adoration, and homage
is to ascend to the Sovereign of the universe ! Let us be
42*
498 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
assured that the Romanists think themselves to have great
reason for the adoration of the superior powers.
Adjacent to this an empire of the same excellent consti
tution shall be overspread with deism exclusively. And
to give the idea the most candid extent, perhaps beyond
the desires of a Tyndal, or even of a Shaftesbury, — the
amiable Confucius of deism, — not to mention the smaller
and more desultory geniuses of a Hume or a Voltaire, —
neither of whom had any more taste or judgment in reli
gion or moral reasoning than Cicero in poetry or Gibber
for the drama, — I say, to give the fairest idea of perfect
deism, let the people of this empire be resolved into
occasional, but not too frequent, worshipping assemblies,
for worshipping the God of nature under the direction
of the illuminated brethren, or of some right worship
ful brother ; and also to thank God for his goodness in
this life, and for a certain prospect of a blessed im
mortality, if there should be any ; when, perhaps, some
noble minds, spirits of elevated and sublime genius, of
bold, refined, and independent sentiment, might descant
upon the common principles of social virtue and benev
olence. I have certainly done justice to deism, although
we hear nothing of pardoning mercy, because truly we
need none, — such being the excellency and dignity of
man, who, as Phocelides saith, is the image of God, that
he well answers the end of existence, merits reward, and
must hereafter be happy under the all-comprehending, the
most benevolent administration of the universal Father.
How pure and sublime is natural religion !
Christianity shall be the establishment of the third ter
ritorial empire. And to preclude the sectarian prejudica-
tions from disturbing the clearness and calmness of the
mental perception, let any one overspread it with the Bible
Christianity according to his own idea. I, for myself
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 499
might overspread the whole with the Congregational
churches, being not simply satisfied, but sure, from a
thorough perlustration of all ecclesiastical history, that
they are nearly apostolical as to doctrine and polity. And
let this justice further be done, that religion shall reign
in the hearts and lives of the people at large ; and that
it be the great and harmonious endeavor of the rulino-
characters and influential personages through the state,
both by example and precept, to support such a reign of
virtue and holiness. All that is valuable and truly excel
lent in the other empires is embraced ; and, in addition,
we have discoveries, and offers, and assurances, great in the
confession of all men, if true, and glorious beyond descrip
tion, — infinitely momentous indeed, and infinitely surpass
ing what is to be found in all the mythologies or moral
systems around the globe. But I do not enlarge.
Ten thousand myriads of ages hence, in which of these
three would the civilian, the patriot, the man of religion
wish to have been found ? — in which to have- acted his
part ? — for most certainly they are not indifferent — and,
in advancing its glory, to have exerted the talents and
activity with which the Author of Nature had blessed
him?
Which of these governments is it probable would most
contribute to the secular welfare, and be attended with
the greatest dignity, and even the greatest worldy splen
dor? But, above all, which most subservient to eternity
and its momentous concerns ? In which, as a school of
institution and discipline, should we enjoy the happiest
advantages for immortality.? Which of these empires
would be the favorite of Jesus ? Or is he indeed an un
concerned spectator of human affairs ? If not, why should
we doubt or hesitate to give the preference to the Chris
tian Republic ? If revelation be not true, it does us no
500 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
hurt ; we are as safe and as well off as others, having all
their moral virtue. But if revelation be true, it is true exclu
sively, and therefore to be attended to at peril. This is no
proof; but it is a reason for exciting our attention to its
evidence, both in miracles and prophecy, as well as in a cer
tain internal beauty and glory opened by Heaven upon a
benighted world. Peradventure, with other happy millions,
we may be also blessed to perceive it to be not a cun
ningly devised fable, as was conceived by that impious pon
tiff who could exclaim, Eheu! quantum lucrifecit nobis
hoBCfabula Christif but the wisdom and power of God, to
have issued from the fountain of unerring wisdom and
consummate benevolence ; — which will be the case, the
happy fact, the moment we perceive the evidence of the
one single fact of the resurrection of Christ, after his
undoubted crucifixion, — a fact testified by eye-witnesses,
and supported by evidence preserved in memoirs which
have come down to us with greater authenticity than Jus
tin or Ta'citus, — evidence, I say, overlooked indeed, but
never overthrown, and which at once will support the
whole glorious superstructure of Christianity.
But I need pardon that I should institute this compari
son in a Christian assembly, and in a country where we
seem to be in no danger of idolatry, and where, God be
thanked ! deists are very thinly sown ; although, like
another set of men among us of illaudable and invidious
description, they magnify themselves into legions.
I have supposed all religions equal as to virtue, and that
civil virtue is the only end of civil society ; but I must
resume both these mistakes. Vices and every species
of wickedness are found, more or less, to enter into the
essence of all religions except that of divine revelation. If
Christians are wicked, and even should they surpass the
Gentiles in vice, their religion never taught them so. But
THE FUTURE GLORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 501
fe
the very institution of the festivals of the ancient gods
and goddesses directly taught the most impure obscenities
and libidinous revellings. And this is continued to this
day in the East Indies. An Indian Bramin, Arunasalem, a
Pandarums, or priest of Tarmaburam, was converted to
Christianity in 17G5,a upon which the college of Panda-
rum sent him a letter to reclaim him. Too long, says he
in his reply, — too long have I been a witness to public
lewdness in the sacrifices and worship of your pagodas
or temples. My conscience told me these institutions
could not come from a pure and holy God. O my God!
how do I lament that I have been twenty-eight years
thine enemy ! No ablution, no sacrifice of Lingam, can
wash away sin and purify the souf; the blood, sufferings,
and sacrifice of Jesus Nadar, the Redeemer, alone cleanse
from all sin.1
This, with a survey of the state of man in all ages, may
show us that ethnic morals do not merit the high encomi
ums, the rapturous eulogies, which some have given them.
Nor are deistical morals very promising. A world, a uni
verse full of Rochesters and Chesterfields — what would it
be 9 — characters which may blaze their moment in an
earthly court, but can never shine in the court above.
Modern deists, — but why do I say modern ? for the very
fraternity is but of yesterday, — the deists have more
lately improved and adopted suicide and fate into their
system, holding it in common with the Brarnins of Asia
and the Aulic chieftains in Africa. We might trace the
matter of suicide through a tract of ages, from Calenus,
the Indian philosopher, who from the funeral pile laughed
at Alexander the Great, to that sublime genius, that deis-
a Born 1737.
1 The author's note of two pages, on the Religion of India, is omitted.
—ED.
502 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
tical madman, who lately "stole away "out of life with
his wife and four children at once, — "closing the eyes
of six persons out of perfect humanity and the most en
dearing fondness and friendship."*
Sir William Temple, Sale, and other learned deists, fond
of depreciating Christian virtue by comparisons, have ex
tolled and celebrated the Mohammedan, Chinese, and
other oriental morals, as far superior to the Christian.
But the learned historiographer, Principal Robertson, as
serts, with historic verity, that upon the comparison of
Europe, in particular, in its Gentile and Christian ages,
her morality will appear to have been greatly improved
and meliorated, and that the ethnic morals fell far below
the Christian. While we have to confess and lament the
vice rampant in Christendom, we have reason to believe
that the more Christianity prevails in a country, civil so
ciety will be more advanced, ferocious manners will give
way to the more mild, liberal, just, and amiable manners of
the gospel.
Be it granted that in all countries are to be found men
of integrity, honor, benevolence, and excellent morals,
even where vice has a prevalent reign to the greatest ex
cesses of a general licentiousness ; yet, supposing a com
munity, a kingdom, a world, overspread with such charac
ters, with the finest morals of a Socrates or a Confucius,
what would be the moral state of such a country in com
parison with one overspread with the reign of the Chris
tian morals ? — I mean in perfection.
How much soever we may admire the morals of Plato
or Epictetus, they are not to be compared with those
taught by Moses and the divine Jesus. Nor are we to
conceive that civil virtue is the only end of civil govern-
a William Beadle, who. professing himself a deist, on the eleventh of Decem
ber, 1782, cut the throats of his wile and four children, and then pistoled himself.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 503
ment. As the end of God's government is his declarative
glory in the holiness and happiness of the universe, so all
civil government ought to subserve the same end. The
most essential interests of rational beings are neglected
when their secular welfare only is consulted. If, there
fore, we defend and plead for Christianity from its secular
and civil utility only, and leave it here, we dishonor reli
gion by robbing it of half, nay, its greatest glories. It
serves a higher purpose ; for, although it subserves the
civil welfare infinitely beyond the morals of deism and
idolatry, yet it also provides for the interests of eternity,
which no other religion does. It opens to us the most
grand and sublime discoveries concerning God, reconcilia
tion with him, and the reunion of this lapsed world with
the immense universe. Discoveries momentous and inter
esting beyond conception ! — without which we are left to
perfect incertitude, if not totally in the dark, with respect
to eternity and its vast concerns.
Should we have recourse to the goodness of God, yet
of all beings angels would think that man should be the
last to reason from the benevolence and goodness of the
Universal Parent to the impossibility of his offspring
being involved in future ill, when from thence we might
equally reason against the existence of present ill. If
some distant seraph, who never knew or heard of ill,
should reason thus, it would be no marvel, perhaps ; but
that we, with all our sins and sufferings about us, should
go into such reasonings, is the height of folly, the absurd
ity of absurdities. And why should that Infinite Good
ness preserve the numerous millions that die in finished
though half-punished vice, that did not preserve the lives
of those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell — who did
not avert the desolations of Lisbon, Naples, Herculaneum,
504 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
and Palermo ? Cast thine eyes thither, O man, remember
the battle, and do no more.0
If, instead of reasoning from the works and word of
God, and thus ascending upwards into Deity, we
" Take the high priori road,
And reason downward, till we doubt of God";b —
if, by inductive reasonings from the perfections of God
to what can and what cannot be, we should, among other
things, boldly conclude a Trinity and the Incarnation of the
eternal Word absurd nullities, and yet it should appear in
another state that a crucified Jesus sits at the riirht hand of
£)
the Majesty on high, — how would these mighty sensible
characters, these fine geniuses, these sublime, these foolish
reasoners, be disappointed ! May I be forgiven a very
earnest solicitude here, having myself passed through the
cloudy, darksome valley of skepticism, and stood on the
precipice, from whence I was in danger of taking a juve
nile leap into the irrecoverable depths of deism ; for so
rare are the Forbeses and the Jenningses, the instances of
emancipated real infidels, that nulla vestigia retrorsum0
maybe inscribed on the temple of deism. Knowing these
dangers, I pity from my heart, and almost bleed at every
pore, for those who are caught in the vortex, and are capti
vated with the wily, satirical, delusory, and deficient rea
sonings of deism. Elevated with the pride of mental
enlargement, of a supposed untrammeled understanding,
tlrey ascend aloft above the clouds of prejudices into the
Pisgah heights, from whence they fancy that they see all
religions the same — that is, equally nothing but priest
craft and artificial error; whereupon they compliment them
selves as endowed with a superiority of discernment in
morals, with high sensibility, sentimental and liberal ideas,
a Job xli. 8. b Pope. c No return from hence.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 505
and charm themselves with other fine self-applied diction,
which in truth only clothes the tedium, the weariness of
half-discussed, unfinished inquiries ; or perhaps the hope
that at worst the want of certain knowledge may pass
with God, if there is any, as a sufficient excuse for some of
the doubtful levities of life.
But errors in judgment, it is said, will be of no account
with God. In ten thousand matters they may not. We
may trifle on many things, but on the things that respect
eternity, the things of religion, it is too solemn, too danger
ous to trifle. Although most religions are false and ridic
ulous, there may however be one which we must renounce
or trifle with at our peril. For if revelation be true, as
most assuredly it is, it is in Jesus only that we have
eternal life. Infidels, and those excessively benevolent
Christians who consider all religions alike and equally
ridiculous, do well in their calmer moments to ponder
those words of the eternal Judge : " Whosoever shall
deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father
which is in heaven." a Where then will a Judas and a
Beadle appear? Step forth, tliou Herbert, the father of
deism ! Come hither, ye Bolingbrokes, Tindals, Collinses,
Humes, Voltaires, with all your shining abilities, and that
disappointed group of self-opinionated deniers of the Lord
"that bought them," with that cloud of deluded followers
who " would not that I should reign over them," — evanish
from my presence, with all the light of your boasted wis
dom, into the blackness of darkness, for ever and ever ! On
what principles can the despised, the amiable Jesus with
hold or recede from so awful a sentence, so tremendous a
denunciation ?
How infinitely happier they who, believing the record
a Matt. x. 33; John iii. 36.
43
506 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
which God giveth of his Son, have received him, and are
become the sons of God! Is it nothing — is it a small
thing to be initiated into the glorious idea of God and the
Trinity revealed in the Scriptures ? — to contemplate the
hierarchy and government of the universe, and the high
dignity of that most illustrious Personage who is our Inter
cessor, Advocate, and Sovereign ? Shall this light come
into the world, and we neglect it ? And shall it be said
that these views do not animate a sublimer virtue than the
motives taken from civil society ? Shall the consideration
of being citizens of a little secular kingdom or community
be equally animating with those taken from our being
citizens of the august monarchical republic of the universe ?
But I must desist, with only observing that the United
States are under peculiar obligations to become a holy
people unto the Lord our God, on account of the late
eminent deliverance, salvation, peace, and glory with which
he hath now crowned our new sovereignty,"
I have thus finished the two heads upon which I at first
proposed to discourse. And I shall not further trespass
upon the patience of this very honorable auditory by an
application, but close with the addresses usual upon this
anniversary solemnity.
To GOVEENOE TKUMBULL :
I beg leave in the first place, with the greatest honor,
the most profound and dutiful respect, to address myself
to his Excellency the Governor of this State.
May it please your Excellency : We account ourselves
happy, most illustrious sire, that, by the free election and
annual voice of the citizens, God hath for so many years
past called you up to the supreme magistracy in this com
monwealth. And while we rejoice that this state em-
a Deut. iv. 34.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 507
bosoms numerous characters equal to the highest offices of
government, yet should this day's election fall again upon
him who, according to the interpretation of his name, a
Jehovah hath given us, it would diffuse a joy through
the United States. And should you now resign the chair,
you would enjoy the reflection that you had been carried
through a scene of the most distinguished usefulness, and
lived to see the end of the war, and establishment of
American liberty and independence.
It is observable that, by a particular turn of genius and
a peculiar discipline in early life, God often prepares great
characters for that future usefulness and eminence for
which they are designed in the world. This was conspic
uous in the instances of Joseph, Moses, and Daniel, —
neither of whom in youth thought that they were training
up for the eminent spheres of action in which they after
wards moved.
Endowed with a singular strength of the mental powers,
with a vivid and clear perception, with a penetrating and
comprehensive judgment, embellished with the acquisition
of academical, theological, and political erudition, your
Excellency became qualified for a very singular variety of
usefulness in life. Instituted in the sciences, the Hebrew
literature, and theology, you were not only prepared for
the sanctuary, but, being expert in all questions touching
the law of your God, you became qualified to judge how
we, the ministers of the gospel under your government,
ought to behave ourselves in the house of God, while it
has pleased God to call you up to other services in civil
life. Thus the great Melchisedec was priest of the Most
High God, and king of Salem. So Moses, though of the
tribe of Levi, and learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was
called of God to be king in Jeshurum.
a Jonathan, Jebovah-natan.
508 DR. STILES'S ELECTION' SERMON, 1783.
An early entrance into civil improvement, and fifty
years' a service in oar country, with an uncommon activity
and dispatch in business, had familiarized the whole rota
of duty in every office and department antecedent and
preparatory to the great glory of your Excellency's life,
the last eight years' administration at the head of this
commonwealth, — an administration which has rendered
you the Pater Patrice, the father of your country, and our
dulce decus atque tutamen.
We adore the God of our fathers, the God and Father
of the spirits of all flesh, that he hath raised you up for
such a time as this,b and that he hath put into your breast
a wisdom which I cannot describe without adulation, a
patriotism and intrepid resolution, a noble and indepen
dent spirit, an unconquerable love of liberty, religion, and
our country, and that grace by which you have been car
ried through the arduous labors of a high office with a
dignity and glory never before acquired by an American
governor. Our enemies revere the names of Trumbull
and Washington. In honoring the state and councils of
Connecticut, you, illustrious sire, have honored yourself to
all the confederate sister states, to the Congress, to the
Gallic empire, to Europe, and to the world, to the present
and distant ages. And, should you now lay down your
office and retire from public life, we trust that you may
take this people to record, in the language in which that
holy patriot, the pious Samuel, addressed Israel, and say
unto us:c "I am old and gray-headed, and I have walked
before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold,
here I am ; witness against me before the Lord : whose ox
have I taken ? or whose ass have I taken ? or whom have
a 1733, elected representative; 1740, elected into the council; 1766, elected
deputy-governor; 1769, elected governor,
b Esth. iv. 14. c 1 Sam. xii. 2.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 509
I defrauded ? whom have I oppressed ? or of whose hand
have I received any bribe, to blind mine eyes therewith ?
and I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not
defrauded nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught
of any man's hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is
witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day,
that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they
answered, He is witness."
May you receive a reward from the Supreme Governor
of the universe, which will be a reward of grace. For,
although your Excellency might adopt the words of that
illustrious governor, Nehemiah, and say, " Think upon me,
my God, for good, according to all that I have done for
this people," a yet your ultimate hope for immortality will
be founded in a more glorious merit than that achieved
by mortals in the most illustrious scenes of public useful
ness. May the momentary remnant of your days be
crowned with a placid tranquillity; and, when you shall
have finished your work on earth, may you be received to
the rewards of the just, and shine in the general assembly
of the first-born through eternal ages. Amen.1
To THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL :
With great respect would I next address myself to his
Honor Lieutenant-Governor Griswold,2 and the rest of the
honorable Councillors of this State.
May it please your Honor , and the other Members of the
Honorable Council: That senatorial order must be truly
a Neh. v. 19.
1 He died August 17, 1785, aged seventy-four. We add Washington's
tribute: "A long and well-spent life in (he service of his country places Gov
ernor Trumbull among the first of patriots." Mr. I. W. Stuart's "Life "of the
Governor, 18-39, 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 700. — ED.
2 Matthew Griswold, afterwards governor, died 1790, aged eighty-three.
—ED.
43*
510 DR. STTLES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
important which stands upon the general voice and elec
tion of the public at large, because it must comprehend
men of such public and. conspicuous merit as to be known
among all our tribes — men of approved patriotism and
wisdom, as well as popularity. We esteem it our happi
ness that our governors and our nobles proceed from our
selves. When we consider the trifling and inferior charac
ters of the most of the venal counsellors in the late royal
governments, when compared with the solid wisdom of the
council of this state, we may be convinced that a Legisla
ture standing upon a free election of the people to be gov
erned, bids fair to ensure more wisdom and incorruptibility
than if in the appointment of the most august sovereigns
in the world.
We glory in it that this state has at all times furnished
gentlemen, in the appointment of the people, of abilities
equal to every department and branch of dominion, whether
legislative or executive. It is particularly happy that men
impressed with the feelings of the people, of great knowl
edge in laws and jurisprudence, in the civil polity espe
cially of this state, have hitherto been and still are found
at the council-board, in the military departments, and in
the highest judiciary tribunals of this commonwealth.
This state has ever preserved a grave, sensible, and
weighty council, in a pretty delicate situation indeed, but
of great prudence and influential wisdom. It is this coun
cil which combines and consolidates the whole common
wealth.
The general anniversary election dictates annually the
general sense of the community. And while a rotation to
a considerable degree, though not by constitution, yet by
usage, and the mutability of the human passions, and in
the course of events, does in effect take place, we have
been happy, however, and I hope always shall be, in the
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 511
retention of a number of ancient and venerable council
lors to transmit the wisdom and experience of their pre
decessors, and to give a steady and immutable complexion
to the succession in the General Assembly, especially as to
the capital matters of law, liberty, and government.
We glory in you, gentlemen, as our crown of rejoicing.
"We securely confide our liberties and safety, the civil, reli
gious, and literary welfare of this republic, to your super
intendence. We pray God that in all your momentous
deliberations and resolutions you may be guided by the
wisdom from above — by the mighty Counsellor, the
Prince of Peace. Amen.
To THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES :
It is my duty, in the next place, to pay the tribute of
public honor to the respectable and numerous body of the
lower House of Assembly, the second branch in the honor
able Legislature and sovereignty of this state,
Mr. Speaker^ and Gentlemen of the House of Represen
tatives : Your House is already formed standing on the
free, local elections of a free people. From the character
of your constituents we doubt not you bring with you the
love of liberty, justice, and public right. Assembled from
all our tribes to consult the public good, so far as this is
left to your judgment, you will act with well-informed wis
dom and integrity ; while, so far as you know the minds of
your constituents, may we not presume that you will hold
it your duty to act and represent their judgments, be your
own as they may ? You have matters of high moment to
attend to, and some of a very insidious nature. Besides
i In the second edition, 1785, the author adds this note : " The Hon. Col.
William Williams, Member of Congress at the Declaration of Indepen
dence." — ED,
512 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
matters of internal government, a liquidation of the ex
penditures of the war, finance, revenue, funds, are some of
the subjects before this Assembly. It is not impossible but
you may perceive some hovering genius, something of an
anti-American spirit, flitting about, and at times alighting
upon some within the walls of the Senate. Will you not
hunt it down, and send it to the shades? May you all be
.inspired with a real, hearty, and uncorruptecl patriotism
and firmness in the cause of liberty and independence.
Let an independent liberality of sentiment, and reverence
for right and equity, reign in this branch of the Senate,
that the world may see that the administration of the
united branches combined in the sovereignty of this state
is conducted with a certain plain but noble dignity and
majesty.
This Assembly, at every session for eight years past, has
been full of the most anxious and weighty concerns for our
bleeding country. But this House is no more called to
raise armies, or, amidst the most complicated distresses, to
devise means for their support. What a load, what a bur
den and weighty care has devolved upon this House through
the war! But these conflicts are at an end, and you will
be now called to the arts of peace, and to promote the
welfare and aggrandizement of our country.
And while this honorable House is' attending to the sec-
O
ular concerns of civil government, may we not humbly
wish that you would not repudiate the idea of being nurs
ing fathers to our spiritual Israel, the church of God
within this state ? Give us, gentlemen, the decided assur
ance that you are friends of the churches, and that you are
the friends of the pastors, who have certainly in this try
ing warfare approved themselves the friends of liberty and
government.1 Your predecessors, one hundred years ago,
1 See p. 437, and note. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 513
accounted this among their principal honors. They were
solicitous to promote religion and learning, and to give
suitable encouragement to both.
And, in this connection, will it be forgiven me if I
humbly recommend Yale College to the smiles of govern
ment ? Through the good hand of our God upon us, we
may truly say, in the language of the sons of the prophets
to Elisha, " Behold, now, the place where we dwell is too
strait for us." a May we not humbly ask of the public that
they would be pleased to build us another house, or the
necessary edifices for the reception and accommodation
of the youth, but about one-third of the students being
provided for in the present college edifice? Was I not so
nearly connected with it, I might say with truth, what has
often been told me by others, that there is not a state upon
the continent but would account such a seat of learning,
in whose hands soever it might be, as an illustrious orna
ment to their community.
A trust may be well executed when the end of the trust
is answered, although there may have intervened some
mismanagements. Small bodies as well as great, not even
congresses and assemblies, — and, may I not add, not even
this honorable assembly excepted, — are not only frequently
aspersed and censured, but have sometimes erred; so,
perhaps, have the governors of the college : when, how
ever, upon a candid inquiry, it may be found that in
money concerns they have managed with an unexampled
frugality, even to parsimony, that never was there more
done to purpose with so small means in a literary institu
tion, and that the college is at present in a pretty flour
ishing state. At my accession, in 1778, the number of
matriculated undergraduates in the four classes was one
hundred and nineteen, and this current year they have
a 2 Kings vi. 1. »
514 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
been two hundred and fifty-one.*1 And in point of schol
arship and literature, I hope we do not fall very far behind
the other sister colleges in America.
Plow happy, were its foundations and emoluments ade
quate to the civil and religious purposes of this institution!
An enlargement of the public library, a complete apparatus
for experimental philosophy, premiums for stimulating
genius in every branch of literature, endowments of pro
fessorships, especially those of philosophy, law, and medi
cine, would be of inconceivable benefit in the liberal
education of youth. These things I doubt not will be
effected in time, but the literati wish to see them accom
plished in the present day.
The college has often, since its foundation,13 experienced
a There are ten colleges in the United States, from New England to Virginia
inclusive, besides two intended ones in the Carolinas. The numbers of under
graduates iu the most considerable are estimated as follows:
Harvard College, founded 1636, . . 150 undergraduates.
William and Mary College, . " 1698, . . 100
Jersey College, " 1746, . . 60 "
Philadelphia College, ... " 1755, . . 30
Dartmouth College,! ... " 1769, . . 80 "
b A.'D. 1700 2
1 The catalogues show —
At Yale, . . 1839 . . . 6,810 graduates and 641 students.
Harvard, . 18(50 . . .7,110 " " 800
Brown,. . 1860. . .2,043 " " 232 "
Dartmouth, 18-58 . . . 3,068 " " 368 " in 1860.
Williams, . 1859 . . . 1,995 " " 236 " in 1860.
Bowdoin, . 1858 . . . 1,284
Amherst, . 1857 . . . 1,237 " " 242
See p. 437, note 1. — ED.
2 The earliest entry on the Colonial Records in regard to the establish
ment of a college bears date " At a General Court, held at Guilford, June
28, 1652," when they passed a vote of " thanks to Mr. Goodyear for his
kind proffer to the setting forward such a work." Stephen Goodyear
was Deputy Governor of New Haven colony, and to him seems to belong
the honorable distinction of making the first offer to endow " a college at
New Haven."— Barber's History of New Haven, 18-31, p. 20, and Hoad-
ly's New Haven Colonial Records, 1858, pp. 141, 370, note. — ED.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 515
the liberality and smiles of the General Assembly, for
which it is always ready to return and repeat its thanks
and gratitude. Some unhappy differences of sentiment,
together with the war, have interrupted the stream of
public munificence. But is there no balm in Gilead to
heal the wound? Is there no way to accommodate and
adjust matters so as to conciliate the friendship of the state
towards its university ?
The states of Holland, in the rnidst of their expensive
wars in the cause of liberty, founded and endowed the
University of Leyden. Should this state be pleased to
endow two or three professorships, and appoint a board of
civilians to elect the professors, in concurrence with the
present corporation*, and see that the moneys granted by
the state were applied to the use to which they were
appropriated by the General Assembly — might this not
give satisfaction?
But I trespass upon your patience. All the great inter
ests of this state, whether as a separate sovereignty or in
its connection with the United States, are entrusted to
you : a very weighty trust. You have a thousand pious
prayers going up for you daily at the throne of grace.
You have all the patriots saying, Be strong, O Zorobabels!
You have all the ministers inculcating obedience to you.
And may you, above all, have the influential guidance of
unerring Wisdom, to render you acceptable to the multi
tude of your brethren, to make you eminent blessings in
your day, and reward you with immortality and glory in
the world to come. Amen.
To THE MINISTERS :
And I now turn myself to the pastors of the churches.
Reverend and Beloved Brethren: I have not assumed
upon me to dictate to the civil magistracy, nor do I dictate
516 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
to the sacerdotal order, albeit I might speak to the most
of my brethren present as being such a one in years as
Paul the aged. Condescend, however, holy brethren, to
receive a humble address from one who loves the order
with a sincere and fervent affection, although Trav-rw rwv
Permit me, then, to say, that, while we do not fail to
inculcate obedience to the magistracy and laws, and
recommend to our people the election of a pious magis
tracy, our principal work is not secular, but spiritual and
divine. Let us with the greatest assiduity devote our
selves to our Lord's work, as ambassadors of the Prince
of Peace. Let us preach the divinity and unsearchable
riches of Christ, and salvation by his atonement, that
theological system which places the whole of redemption
upon free grace — a grace free as to us, though merited by
the holy Redeemer. Let us search the Scriptures for the
real evangelical verity, and inquire not so much for new
theories in divinity as what truths were known and
realized in faith and life by the primitive Christians of the
apostolic age and the three first centuries ; and believe
that no other system, no other doctrines, are essentially
necessary to carry men to heaven in these ages than those
which enabled the myriads of holy martyrs to seal the
testimony of Jesus with their blood.
There is but one true system of theology, and this has
been equally known in all the Christian ages. For al
though great improvements and discoveries are daily mak
ing in philosophy and natural science, yet there have been
no new discoveries in divinity since the apostolic age ; — I
do not mean merely no new revelation, but of the innu
merable latent truths concealed in the Bible, — and there
are infinitely greater treasures hidden there than in nature,
— none have been perceived in later ages but what have
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 517
been as clearly discerned by the contemplative theologians
of all ages. The sentiments are the same, though clothed
in different diction. Philosophy, as I said, is improving;
nor has the progress of civil society yet reached its sum
mit; but divinity, I apprehend, has been long at a stand,
having ages ago come to the highest perfection intended
us at present by Heaven, which did not design any further
improvement in it from the sealing of the vision till the
second coming of Christ. In the millennium these hidden
treasures will be brought forth. But, for the preceding
period, divinity will be and remain at a stand, except per
haps that towards the close of it the prophecies will disclose
themselves.
Religion has had and will have different fashions, even
where it is still essentially the same. Previous to the tenth
century the writings of St. Augustine gave an extensive
complexion to theology; afterwards, Lombard's collection
of sentences or opinions of evangelical divines ; but he was
shoved into neglect by Aquinas, who reigned umpire till
the Reformation. Luther followed Augustine, and Calvin
Aquinas. The real theology of Melancthon, Calvin, Arch
bishop Cranmer, and Owen, was one and the same.
We despise the fathers and the pious and learned divines
of the middle ages ; pious posterity will do the same by
us, and twirl over our most favorite authors with the same
ignorant pity and neglect. Happy they if their favorite
authors contain the same blessed truths!
I rejoice that God has hitherto preserved a learned and
evangelical ministry in these churches. The theology in
general reception comprehends all the excellent things of
our common Christianity. And if some favorite hurekas,
some fancied discoveries, should be burnt up in the day of
the Lord, yet there will be left as great an abundance of
precious stones, of the tried and pure gold of truth, as in
44
518 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
any part of the world. Indeed, we have gotten all the
light of Christendom, and we need no more. We have
enough ; we are wealthy in sacred knowledge. We may
spend long lives in making ourselves masters of that vast
treasure of sacred wisdom which holy men of great light
have attained. May I comprehend with all saints the
height and depth of this knowledge! May my God
possess me of this treasure, and I am content. All this
knowledge, to the greatest extent of the human limit, has
been gotten and acquired over and over again and again.
Like other science, to every generation it seems new,
while it is only possessing the knowledge similar to our
predecessors'.
Moreover, charity, union, and benevolence are peculiarly
ornamental in the ministerial order. Let us cherish these
amiable graces in ourselves and others. Let us be faith
ful. And the nearer we come to the solemn moment
when we must render our account to God the Judge, the
more may we be quickened and animated in the ministry ;
and think no labor, no assiduity too great, nothing too
much to be done for the salvation of precious and immor
tal souls; nothing too much for the cause and kingdom of
Him who hath loved us to the death. May you, holy
brethren, "be strong in the grace which is in our Lord
Jesus Christ." May the work, the pleasure of the Lord,
prosper in your hands. May you be honored of Jesus to
turn many to righteousness. And when the Chief Shep
herd shall appear, may you receive a crown of glory which
fadeth not away. Amen.
To THE ASSEMBLY AT LAKGE :
And now, my fellow-citizens of this independent repub
lic, my fellow-Christians of every order and denomination
in this assembly, and all you that fear God and hear me
this day, give audience.
THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 519
The Most High planted our fathers, a small handful, in
this Jeshimon, and lo ! we, their posterity, have arisen up
to three millions of people.* Our ears have heard, and
our fathers have told us, the marvellous things God did for
them ; but our eyes have seen far more marvellous things
done for us, whereof we are glad and rejoice this day.
Should our ancestors look down from the high abodes of
Paradise into this assembly, and attend to the things
which we have been this day commemorating, methinks
they might catch a sensation of joy at beholding the reign,
the triumph, of liberty on earth. Hitherto has " our bow
abode in strength, and our arms been made strong by the
hands of the mighty God of Jacob." And while, amidst
the festivity of this Anniversary Election, we congratulate
one another and our country upon the cessation of hostil
ities, and that, having fought the good fight, our warfare
is ended, let us not fail to look through providence up to
the God of providence, and give glory to God the Lord of
Hosts, the God of our fathers, whom "let us serve with a
perfect heart and a willing mind." Let us cultivate and
cherish the virtues of the divine as well as civil life, bear
ing in mind that we are all hastening to that period wherein
all the glories of this world will be swallowed up and lost
in the glories of immortality. Be it our great ambition,
our incessant endeavor, to act our parts worthily on the
stage of life, as looking for and hastening to the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we be prepared for the
solemnities of a far more august assembly than the most
splendid assembly on earth. We are ardently pursuing
this world's riches, honors, powers, pleasures ; let us pos
sess them, and then know that they are nothing, nothing,
nothing. They serve a temporary gratification, evanish,
a Deut. x. 22.1
i See p. 211, note 1. — ED.
520 DR. STILES'S ELECTION SERMON, 1783.
and are no more. But we cannot be dissuaded from the
pursuit. Death, however, kindly ends it. Let us think
that we have two worlds to live for, proportion our atten
tion to their respective interests, and we shall be happy
forever. We shall then be prepared to shine in the assem
bly of the just, at the right hand of the Sovereign of Life.
How glorious to bear a part in the triumphs of virtue, the
triumphs of the Redeemer, in the last day of the great
and general assembly of the universe ! How glorious to
make a part of that infinitely honored and dignified body
which, clothed with the Redeemer's righteousness and
walking in white robes, shall be led by the Messiah
through the shining ranks of archangels, seraphirns, and
the innumerable hosts of the whole assembled universe,.
up to the throne of God ; and, being presented to and
received by the triune Jehovah, shall be seated with Jesus
in his throne at the summit of the universe, to the con
spicuous view and for the eternal contemplation of the
whole intellectual world, as an everlasting monument of
sovereign grace ! " to the intent that now unto the prin
cipalities and powers in the -heavenly places might be
known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, ac
cording to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ
Jesus our Lord : " a to whom be glory in the church through
the never-ending succession of eternal ages. AMEX.
a Eph. iii. 10, 11.
INDEX
ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY, honors to Dr.
Mayhew, 46.
ADAMS, Charles Francis,
ADAMS, John, on Church of England,
xxx. ; and Thomas Hollis, xxxii. ; on
character of Dr. Mayhew, 44; on the
"molasses act," 112; account of the
council chamber, 113, 153; on the
stamp-act riot, 132; on sermons of
Dr. Chauncy and Dr. Mayhew, 134;
address to George III., vi. ; reply of
George III. to, 149 ; on Duche's prayer,
219; of the Massachusetts council, 266;
on education. 337; on rebellion, 75,
251,445; ambassador, 454; declaration
of independence, 554; "armed neu
trality," 457; the future, 465; Austria,
465.
ADAMS, John Q., on the American
Revolution, xxix.
ADAMS, Samuel, clerk of House of Rep
resentatives, 155, 173; rep. Boston. 182 ;
committees of correspondence, 191;
committee for relief of poor of Boston,
199; delegate to Congress at Philadel
phia, 219, 251 ; governor of Massachu
setts, 221; "The Adams," 221, 453;
Dec. Ind.. 454.
ADAMS, Rev. Z., preaches to the min
ute-men, xxxvii.
AFRICAN TRADE, "iniquitous," 431.
AGASSIZ, Louis, 164.
"ALBANY PLAN OF UNION," 126.
ALEXANDRIA, Va., generosity of, 198.
ALFRED, King, 334.
ALLEN, Rev. Dr. William, 180, 358, 479,
492.
ALLIBONE, S. Austin, account of Hol
lis, xxxii.; Critical Dictionary cited,
235. 461; his account of Alex. Hamil
ton, 427, 490.
44*
ALLSTON, "Washington, 461.
AMBOY, N. J., Lord Sterling at, 217.
AMERICA and P^n gland, unity of, iii., iv.,
vi., 116, 130-134, 143, 184, 185, 229,230,
247, 265, 433, 455.
AMERICA, commerce of, monopolized
by England, 107, 111, 116; its course,
127; source of England's wealth, 127;
how affected by the Revolution, 136,
185, 189. 204, 206. 222; value of, 230;
increase of, 333; Hamilton's influence
on, 427; statistics of, 428—432; Dr.
Stiles's predictions of, fulfilled, 463;
first voyage to Canton, 463.
"AMERICA, the Book of," 115—117.
! AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND
SCIENCES, its establishment suggested
by Rev. Mr. Payson, 408.
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, v.,
408.
AMERICAN ARMY, artillery of, 221; pat-
I riotic, 327, 442; suffering of, 327; its
' successes and defeats, 442—445.
/'AMERICAN ASSOCIATION" of Con-
I gress, 214.
! AMERICAN COLONIES, poverty of, 123,
124, 127, 184; " not afraid of poverty,
but cisdain slavery," 193, 222, 224;
union of, 215, 255, 264, 327, 347, 445.
j AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 463, 464.
AM EUICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION,
! 459.
AMHERST COLLEGE, 514.
AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL, 422, 458.
ANARCHY, 206, 251, 253.
ANDROS, Sir Edmund, 175 — 177.
| ANN, Cape, xx., 225.
APTHORP, Rev. Mr., " missionary," etc.,
i 100.
ARKWRIGHT, of Ihigland, 432.
, " ARMED NEUTRALITY," the, 446, 457.
522
INDEX.
ARNOLD, S. G., " History of Rhode
Island," 306.
ASSISTANCE, writs of, 112, 113.
AUSTIN, Benj., 265, 351, 388.
BAUSON, J. J., History of Gloucester,
447.
BACKUS, Rev. Isaac, 182, 298, 299.
BACON, Lord, 334, 416, 424.
BACON, Rev. Dr. Leonard, 477.
BAILEY, Rev. Jacob, "missionary,"
etc., 100.
BAKER, Samuel, 351, 388.
BALTIMORE, patriotism of, 198 ; second
American voyage to Canton, 464.
BANCA, Florida, "armed neutrality,"
458.
BANCROFT, George, History of United
States, 131, 132, 138, 235, 459, 461.
BAPTISTS, the, 182, 218, 299.
" BARCLAY'S APOLOGY." xxx.
BARLOW, Aaron, 253.
BARLOW, Joel, notice of, 486.
BARNARD, Henry. 461.
BARNSTABLE COUNTY, Mass., revolu
tionary spirit of, 252.
BARRE, Col. Isaac, "sons of liberty,"
131; portrait of, 132; eulogized, 138;
his'prophesy. 198.
BARRY, J. S., History of Massachusetts,
331, 358.
BARTLETT, Josiah, Dec. Ind., 454.
BARTLETT, Rev. Wm. S., memoir of
Bailey, 100.
BATH and Wells, See of, x., xvi.
BEADLE, William, deist, suicide, 502.
BELCHER, Gov., picture of, 154.
BELKNAP, Rev. Dr., 125.
BERKELEY, Dean, 408, 409.
BERNARD. Governor, 114; thanksgiving
proclamation, 1766, character of, 117;
his administration, 151—153, 180; tory
partisan, 165; his letters, 167, 179.
BEVERLEY, first cotton-mill at, 336.
BIBLE, the, political text-book, xix.,
262; "resolve" of Congress to import
20,000 copies, 327, 375 ; remarks on by
Dr. Stiles, 462; by Mr. Geo. r. Marsh,
462: Bible Societies, 462; Austria, 464.
BIGELOW, Timothy, 194.
BISHOPS, " no real danger" of them in
America, xxx.; Dr. Mayhew's opin
ion of them, 71; plotting, 110, 192; in
Canada, 216, 217 ; excluded from par
liament, xx. ; " no bishop, no king,"
103.
BLACKSTONE'S "COMMENTARIES" in
America, xxvii.
BLACKSMITHS, convention of, 194.
BOLLAN, tory letters, 167.
" BOOK OF SPORTS." 90.
BOOKS on government in New England,
xxxiv.
BOSTON, England, tribute to John Cot
ton, xxi. ; name of, xxii.
BOSTON, K. E., chh. of, xx. ; lawyers,
xxvii.; resists revenue laws. 112, 152;
council chamber, 113; stamp act,
120; poverty of, 124,198; taxes, 126;
pictures of Barre and Conway, 132;
" massacre," 153 ; resolves. 154, 199, 218,
229; slavery, 182; assisted by "all the
colonies," 199; "Thursday lecture,"
188; " committee of correspondence,"
191; town meetings, 192; "port-bill,"
192, 198, 201, 213—221 , 263 ; poor of, 221 ;
effects of Gen. Gage's treachery, 230,
248; evacuated, 265, 310; seamen of,
306 ; besieged, 325 ; foreign trade, 429 ;
first American voyage to Canton, 463.
BOWDOIN, 101; James, 156; councillor,
199,265,388; in congress, 251; Stiles,
453.
BOWDOIN COLLEGE, 101, 514.
BOWERS, J., of the council, 156.
BOYLE, Robert, 489.
BRADBURY, John, councillor, 156.
BRADFORD, Gamaliel, councillor, 156.
BRADFORD'S LIFE OF MAYHEW, 88,
103.
BRADSIIAW, the tyrannicide, 97.
BRADSTREET, Simon, agent to England,
xxii. ; portrait of, 154.
BRATTLE, Wm., councillor, 156,
BRAXTON, Carter. Dec. Ind., 454.
BRIDGEWATER, Mass., 358.
BRIGGS, Nath. patriot, 253.
BRISTOL-COUNTY COURTS interrupted
in 1774, 252.
BRITISH ARMY in Boston, 152,165,189;
effect of, 190, 199, 230; appeal to, 220;
the first to shed blood, 223, 229,441;
at Concord, 236. 237 ; at Saratoga, 346,
347; at Bunker Hill, 441; successes
and defeats of, 443, 444.
BRITONS jealous of their liberties, 94.
INDEX.
523
BROOKS, Rev. Charles, History of Med-
ford, xi.
BROOKS, Eleazer, councillor, 351, 388.
BROWN, of Massachusetts Congress, 231.
BROWN UNIVERSITY, 514.
BRUNSWICK, Gen. Howe at, 444.
BRYANT, Win. C., 461.
BUCHANAN, President, letter on politi
cal corruption, 43G, vi.
BULKLEY, Rev. Peter, of Concord, 477,
480.
BUNKER HILL, 441.
BURGOYNE, Gen., condemns the war,
109; anecdote of, 325; at Saratoga,
326, 327, 346, 444; sent home, 443.
BURKE, Edmund, on education in
America, xxvii. ; on taxing the colo
nies, 111,206, 307; on repeal of stamp-
act, 122, 141, 142; on colonial repre
sentation, 123; prerogative, 244; co
lonial military service, 125; slave in
surrection, 214; colonial trade, 127,
136; kindred blood, 130; George III.,
149,244; Dr. Stiles, 430.
BURLINGTON, Rev. Sarn'l Sewall, 477.
BUSHNKLL, submarine navigation, 460.
BUTE, 455, 456.
" CALVIN'S WORKS " in New England,
xxx., 517.
CAMBRIDGE, session, 173, 182, 190, 308;
college, 236; Washington, 262; army,
447. See Harvard College.
CAMDEN, Lord, anecdote, 94; against
taxing America, 109, 133; eulogized,
138.
CANADA, effect of conquest, 107, 145,
183, 432, 471, 486; crusade, 108, 132;
Roman Catholic bishop and the civil
government, 193, 216, 217; a check
upon New England, iv., 258.
CANTON, first American voyage to, 1784.
463.
CARLYLE, Thos., on the regicides, 93;
memory of Cromwell, 96.
CARR, and Cartwright, royal commis
sioners to New England, 175.
CARROLL, Charles, of Carrollton, Dec.
Ind., 454.
CARVER, Indian population, 411.
CAVENDISH'S debates on Quebec bill,
217.
CHACE, Samuel, Dec. Ind., 454.
CHADBOURN, Benj., councillor, 266.
| CHANNING, Rev. Dr. W. E., tribute to
! President Stiles, 400.
; CHARLES I., "confirmed" Massachu
setts Patent, xi., 224; promotes Laud,
xi. ; a tyrant, 91, 93, 95; discourse On
his " martyrdom, :' by Dr. May hew,
40, 104, 160 ; by Milton, 62, 63 ; by Fox,
Godwin, Stiles, Carlyle,93; Langdon,
239; anniversary of, in New England,
88,334; its origin, 97, 98; his "Crom
well,'' 134; Stiles, 399.
CHARLES II. 's parliament " run loyally
mad," 9(5; portrait of in council cham
ber, Massachusetts, 114, 154; anxious
for " Christian religion " in New Eng
land, 175; his partisans, 197.
CHARLESTON, S. C., resolves of com
mon interest with Massachusetts, 199.
CHARLESTOWN, Mass., 223, 257; burnt,
306, 325, 452.
i CHARTERS, colonial, of Massachusetts,
[ xvii., xxii. — xxv., 155; "compacts,"
108; annulled, 110, 175.
CHASTELLEUX, the Marquis de,445; his
" Travels," 450.
CHATHAM, the Earl of, on the colonists
of America, xxix., xxx.; the friend
of, 145; " the death of," 145; hated by
George III., 149; admiration of the
statesmen of the Revolution, 194; de
nounces the ministry, 326; parlia
mentary corruption, 385.
CHAUNCY, Charles, councillor, 266.
CHAUNCY, Rev. Charles, 480.
CHAUNCY, the Rev. Dr., sermon on re
peal of the stamp act, 106, 136, 149;
endorsed by President John Adams,
134; Burke, 136; his character, 114.
CHELSEA, "action at," 256; Payson,
328.
CHESAPEAKE, providential coinci
dence, 444.
CHESTER. Bishop of, 479, 480.
CHESTERFIELD, Lord, "letters," 379,
501.
CHILD, Mr. Josiah, 430.
CHILD, Robert, xii.
CHOATE, Stephen, councillor, 388.
" CHURCH AND STATE," ix., x., xix.,
xxix., 101, 145.
CHURCH OP ENGLAND, as related to
the American colonies, x, — xiv. ; trib-
524
INDEX.
ute to the Rev. John Cotton, xxi.,
xxii., xxix.; "attempt to land in
America," xxx. — xxxii., 192; "Ox
ford homily,1' 41, 65, 71, 197, 199, 217,
230, 229, 304; "Dr. Sacheverell," 84;
Charles the martyr, 88, 98— 103; Vir
ginia, 110, 218; Boston, 154, 160; New
England, 175, 177, 193, 257, 326, 473,
see Quebec bill ; future, 467, 479.
CIBBER, 498.
CICEHO, Dr. May hew, 46, 498.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT, Christian basis
of, 53, 58—62, 67; apostolic teachings
on, 54, 56. 64, 66, 67, 69, 70, 73, 74, 75,
78 ; errors of apostolic time, 55, 59, 68,
69; ordained of God, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61,
64, 65, 70, 71, 73, 74, 77 ; not in spirit
ual matters, 58, 65 ; only for the good
of society, 56, 60, 61, 63, 66—71, 73—76,
78; passive obedience, 53, 54, 57, 60,
61, 63, 64, 68, 69, 74; resistance, 59,
60—66, 69, 71-75, 77, 78, 82, see "Ty
rannicide''; "the powers that be,"
61; is from and of the people, 61, 62;
"the established church," 64, 65.71,
72; rulers should be good men, 70, 77.
CLAP, President, comets, 460.
CLARENDON, Lord, Charles the martyr
and " our blessed Saviour " ! 42, 175.
CLARK, Abraham, Dec. Ind., 454.
CLARK, Rev. Dr. J. S., " History of the
Congregational Churches," 479.
CLARKE, Rev. R. W., notice of Presi
dent Langdon, 232.
CLAY, Henry, on political corruption,
436.
CLERGY, x , xix., xxxv., xxxvii., 71,
110, 475, 480.
CLINTON, General, 325, 443, 444, 453.
CLYMER, George, Dec. Ind., 454.
COLE, Thomas, 461.
COLLEGES in America, xxxiv., 437, 444,
514; see Goodyeare, 514.
COMMON PRAYER, Book of, xiii.
COMMISSIONERS to New England, from
Charles II., 175, 176.
CONANT, Governor of Massachusetts,
xi.; letter to the Rev. John White,
of Dorchester, xv.
CONCORD, Mass., Congress, 194, 308;
April 19th, 223. 230, 235, 236, 248, 477. I
CONFEDERATION, the, 327.
CONNECTICUT, 123; military service, i
125 ; " sons of liberty," 131 ; people of,
205; population in 1775,211; common
schools, 368; Congregationalism, 375;
election sermon, 307; Dr. Stiles, 400;
polity, 421; Dec. Irid., 454.
CONSTITUTION of the United States, its
origin, 358.
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 163; Lord
Chatham, 194, 199; Gen. Gage's letter
to, 200, 211, 214; wisdom of, 215, 453;
help for Boston, 221 ; delegates to, 251 ;
advice to Massachusetts, 261; grant
letters of marque, 262; John Han
cock, 334; the army, 357, 442.
CONWAY, Gen., moves for the repeal of
the stamp act, 142.
COOK, Rev. Samuel, election sermon,
1776,147; notice of, 155
COOPER, see Smithsonian Institute, 440.
COPLEY, 145, 461
CORNWALLIS, Lord, 444, 445.
" CORRESPONDENCE, committees of,"
suggested by Rev. Dr. Mayhew, 44,
199, 455.
COTTON, the Rev. John, xiv. ; chief man
in forming the polity of Massachu
setts, xx.; letter from Cromwell,
tribute to his memory, xxi. ; church
of England, xxii. ; founder of the
" Boston Thursday Lecture," 188; re-
ordained by Gov. Winthrop, 476.
COTTON-GIN, industrial and political
importance of the invention, 412.
COUNCIL CHAMBER of Massachusetts,
113.
COURTS in Massachusetts suppressed,
252.
CRADOCK, Mathewe, first governor of
the Massachusetts " Company," xi.,
xxiii. ; his house at Medford, xi. ; let
ter to Gov. Endecott, xvi.
CRANMER, George, letter to Richard
Hooker on " Brownism," xiv., 517.
CREDIT, bills of public, 262, 357; depre
ciation of, 358, 391.
CROMWELL, iii.; an "Independent,"
xiv.; letter to the Rev. John Cotton,
xx.; John Hancock, xxxiv.; death
of Charles I., 96; Patrick Henry, 134,
308. 334: " Commonwealth Club," 404.
CROWN POINT captured, 145
CURTIS'S " Progress of Baptist Princi
ples," 218.
INDEX
525
CUSHING, Caleb, councillor, 264, 265,
351.
GUSHING, Joseph, councillor, 266.
CUSHING, Nathan, councillor, 351, 388.
CUSHING, Thomas, speaker of Massa
chusetts House of Itepresentatives,
155; rep. from Boston, 182; delegate
to Continental Congress, 251; coun
cillor, 265, 351, 388.
CUTLER, Timothy, president of Yale
College, ''obtains episcopal ordina
tion," etc., 100.
CUTTS, Edward, councillor, 388.
CYPRIANI'S engraving of Dr. Mayhew,
46,
DALRYMPLE, Col. ,154.
DANA, Francis, councillor, 265, 351.
DANFORTH, Samuel, councillor, 156.
DANIELSON, Timothy, councillor, 351,
358.
DANVERS, deacon, minister, and min
ute-men, xxxvi.
DARTMOUTH'S, Lord, misrepresenta
tions corrected by Dr. Franklin. 192.
DARTMOUTH, the Rev. Dr. West, of,
265.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, 514.
DAVENPORT, Rev. John, "learned and
courtly, :' 476, 480,
DAVIS, Daniel, councillor, 266, 351, 388.
DAWSON, Rev. Dr., reads "book of
sports," 90.
DAWSON, Henry B., "Battles of the
United States," 235, 346.
D'ESTAING, 465.
DEHON, 101.
DE KALB, " martyr general," 451.
DELAWARE, Dec. Ind., 454.
DELAWARE, equality of all sects in, 375 ;
system of representation in, 420.
DEMOSTHENES, studied by Dr. May-
hew, xlvi.
DENNISON, Thomas, 479.
DEMOCRACY of "Independence," xiv.,
xix.
DENOMINATIONS, religious, in United
States, 467—469, 472, 493.
DEXTER, Samuel, councillor, 156.
DIGHTON ROCK, inscription, 410.
DIVINE PROVIDENCE, recognized by
Washington in his " first official act,"
140—144, 173, 190, 207; at Louisburg,
210; in the " marvellous " harmony of
the colonies, 222, 240 ; in the war, 255,
256; in "raising up" Washington,
442, 448, and "the spirit of military
discipline through the continent like
lightning," 442; "in the glorious act
of Independence, sealed and con
firmed by God Almighty," 443; in the
detection of Arnold, etc. etc., 444, 460,
464, 519, iv.
DIXWELL, the tyrannicide, finds a ref
uge in New England, xx, ; life of, by
Dr. Stiles, xxxiv.
DORCHESTER, England, seat of colonial
enterprise, xi.; Rev. John White, xv.
DORR, Joseph, councillor, 388.
DOTY, John, patriot of Barnstable
county, 253.
DOWNING, George, the "Navigation
Acts," 107.
DRAKE'S History of Boston, 101; Barre
and Conway, 132; repeal of stamp
act, 138.
DRAPER. Dr. John William, 461.
DUCHE, Rev. Jacob, prays in congress,
proposes treason to Washington, and
then leaves his country, 219.
DUDLEY, Joseph, president of Massa
chusetts, 1686, 76.
DULFELDT'S voyage, 408.
DURFEE, Thomas, councillor, 388.
DYER, 453.
EDGEHILL, battle of, for the bishops,
xx.
EDUCATION in America, in the princi
ples of government, xxvii. — xxix.;
legislation on in the states, 368, 375 ;
important to the public welfare, 352,
392, 437.
EDWARD VI.. 334.
EDWARDS, Jonathan, distinguished
abroad, 114; Rev. Samuel West, 265,
334, 460.
EDWARDS, Timothy, councillor, 351.
ELECTION-DAY, proceedings on, 155,
233, 265, 386, 510.
ELECTION SERMONS, the first, xxiv. ;
" equivalent to political preaching,"
ix., xxiii.; historical, xiii.,xviii., xix;
Gordon's account of, xxii.— xxvii.,
229, 262, 265.
ELECTIONS, " corruptions in purchas-
526
INDEX.
ing," danger of, 435, 436; President
Buchanan's letter on, 436.
ELIOT'S Biographical Dictionary, 46,
180, 492.
ELLERY, 453, 454.
ELLIOTT, E. B , on future population
of the United States, 440.
ELIZABETH, Queen, church in time of,
xiii., xiv., 334; congress, 458.
ELLSWORTH, 453.
ENDECOTT, John, first governor of
Massachusetts colony under charter
of 1628, xi., xii., xx., xxiii. ; letter
from Cradock, first governor of the
" companie," xvi., xxiii. ; portrait of,
154.
ENGLAND'S political obligation to her
colonies, 109; rich by colonial trade,
111 ; debt of, 427 ; our obligations to
England," iv., 334.
ERICSSON, 460.
EKVING, John, councillor, 156.
ESOPUS, burnt, 452.
EVELYN'S DIARY, anniversary of
Charles the Martyr, 97, 98.
EVERETT, Edward, inscription to mem
ory of the Rev. John Cotton, xxi.
ESSEX INSTITUTE, " Collections " of,
112.
EUTAW SPRINGS, victory of, 444.
FAIRFIELD, town of, burnt, 452.
FALMOUTH, Maine, burnt by Mowatt,
see Willis, 306, 347.
FANEUIL, 101 ; Hall, Barre, and Con-
way, 132; meetings at, 153, 191; Gen.
Gage's bad faith, 249.
FARLEY, Michael, councillor, 264.
FAST-SERMONS, Bishop Lake's, in 1625,
xvi ; Rev. Wm. Hubbard's, xviii.,
xix. ; occasions for, xxii., xxiii. ; ele
gant extracts from, on anniversary
of Charles the Martyr, 41, 42.
" FEDERALIST, The," 422, 458.
FELT, Rev. Dr. J. B ., Endecott's laws,
xx. ; " Massachusetts currency," 358.
FISHER, Jabez, councillor, 264, 265, 351,
388.
FITCH, steam navigation, 460.
FITCH, Gov. Ingersoll's report of Col.
Barre's speech, 131.
FISHERIES, their importance, see Sa-
bine, 234, 306.
FLORIDA, 411.
FLOYD, William, Dec. Ind., 454.
FOSTER, James, patriot, Barnstable
county, 253.
FOSTER, Jed'h, councillor, 264, 266.
Fox, Charles J., on tyrannicides, 93.
FRANCE, loses Louisburg, 108, 210; hos
tile to English colonies, hi., iv. ; and
their protection against, 126; loses
Canada, 145, 183, iv. ; forms an alliance
with the United States, 327, 415, and
war with England, 347; revolution,
415; plan of Henry IV. ,419; gratitude
due to France, 445; Protestant refu
gees, 101: influence of American Rev
olution, 465.
DR. FRANKLIN, his library, xxxiv.;
before the House of Commons, 127;
on the stamp act, 134; loyalty of the
colonists, 143; English reprint of re
port of town meetings in Boston, 192;
his rank, 334; statistician, 399; friend
ship with Dr. Stiles. 400; influence in
France, 420, 454; Dec. Ind., 454; elec
tricity, 460; pop. of America, 459.
FRENCH, Rev. Jonathan, Mr. Quincy's
account of, xxxv.
FREEMAN, Enoch, councillor, 266.
FREEMAN, Rev. Frederic, History of
Cape Cod, 252—254.
FREEMAN, Dr. Nathaniel, patriot leader
in Barnstable county, 252.
FROTHINGHAM, Rev. N. L., " Thursday
Lecture," 188.
FROTHINGHAM. Richard, Jr., " History
of Siege of Boston," xxxi., xxxvii.,
223 ; first blood of the Revolution, 235 ;
Gen. Gage's bad faith, 248; Charles-
town burnt, 306; anecdote of Bur-
goyne, 325.
FULLER, Abraham, councillor, 351.
FULTON, Robert, 432, 460.
GADSDEN, "honorable," 451; infam
ously treated, 452.
GAGE, Thomas, governor of Massachu
setts, "all the people in his govern
ment are lawyers," xxvii. ; his letters,
167 ; universal obedience to Congress,
193; message to, 194; is refused pro
visions, 198; wishes for peace, 200,
221; seizes province powder, 223; legis
lature, 229; his bad faith, 230, 248;
INDEX.
527
piety, 255; too confident, 325; weak
ness, 454.
GAME ACT, of James I., 435.
GANGANELLI. 416, 466.
GARDNER, Henry, councillor, 266, 351.
u GASPEE," the capture of, 190.
GATES, General, at Saratoga, 325; " im
mortalized," 346; u theBurgoiiayde,"
444; a hero, 450.
GEE, Joshua, on trade, 430.
GEORGE I., septennial parliament and
the Popish faction, 160.
GEORGE II., his German troops, 91;
died 1760, 145, 160.
GEORGE III., sends Hessian swords to
America, 91, 308; his policy, 109, 127,
143; of foreign blood, and a Stuart in
principle, 145, 160, 164, 197, 230; a bad
king, 149, 246; slave-trade, 214; "in
fluence," 244, 385; " sacred majesty,"
316; in error, 325"; discarded, 327,460.
GEORGIA, 199; government of, 420;
Dec. Ind. ,454.
GERRISH, Joseph, councillor, 156, 264.
GERRY, Elbridge, Dec. Ind., 454.
GIBBON, Edward, the love of ancestry,
334.
GILL, Moses, councillor, 264, 265, 351.
GLOUCESTER. Mass., the first prize-ship,
see Babson, 447.
GLOVER, on trade, 430.
GODFREY, Thomas, Philadelphia, re
flecting quadrant, 460.
GODWIN, William, "death of Charles a
sort of rfeicw/e,42; " not easy to imag
ine a greater criminal than " Charles
I., 93.
GOFFE, the tyrannicide, finds refuge in
New England, xx.; Dr. Stiles's Life
of, xxxiv.
GOODYEAR, Stephen, deputy governor
of New Haven colony, makes the first
offer to " endow a college " there, 514.
GOOKIN, Daniel, " Historical Collec
tions" of the Indians, 407.
GORDON, Rev. William, death of Josiah
Quincy ; " his only surviving child,"
xxxvii.; scheme for the hierarchy in
America, 110; stamp act, 133; thanks
giving sermon, 1774, 188; tory criti
cisms, 221.
GOWEN, James, councillor, 156.
GRAY, Harrison, councillor, 156.
GREEN, General, recovers southern
states, 444, 445, 450.
GREEN, John, first American voyage to
Canton, 1783, 463.
GREENLEAF, Benjamin, councillor, 156,
265,351.
GRENVILLE, George, xix.; stamp act,
113, 131; "Treasurer," 115, 136; aban
doned, 141.
GRID LEY, " writs of assistance," 114.
GRISWOLD, Matthew, Gov., 509.
GROTIUS, 457, 489.
GWINNETT, Button, Dec. Ind., 454.
HAINE, Col., tragedy of, 452.
' HALF-PAY establishment," 357.
HALL, Stephen, councillor, 156.
HALL, Samuel and Ebenezer, printers,
308.
HALL, Lyman, 453; Dec. Ind., 454.
HALLAM, Henry, the bishops, xx. ;
t; Anglican clergy — non-resistance —
servility," 42.
HAMILTON, Alexander, finance, 427;
manufactures, 432; " Pacificus," 445.
HAMPDEN, John, John Hancock,
xxxiv.; John Adams, 75; principle,
112, 164, 334.
HAMPTON FALLS, Rev. Dr. Langdon,
232.
HANCOCK, John, John Hampden,
xxxiv.; negatived as councillor, 156;
rep. from Boston, 182; president of
Provincial Congress, 194, 308; "The
Hancock," 221 ; chairman of conven
tion at Salem, 229; first governor
under constitution of 1780, 262, 358;
proposed Continental Congress, 334,
453; President, 454.
HARRINGTON'S " Oceana," xxxiii.,377,
404.
HARRIS'S " Lives," Cromwell's letter to
Cotton, xx.
HARRISON, Benjamin, Dec. Ind., 454.
HART, John, Dec. Ind., 454.
HARTFORD, polity of, first settlers of,
470, 477.
HARVARD COLLEGE, John Owen, xv. ;
"Christo et Ecclesias," Hollis sends
books to, xxxii.— xxxiv.; Mayhew,
46; Downing, 107; Chauncy, 114;
legislature, 155; Hutchinson, 180;
Laugdou, 231, 232; Gage's designs
528
INDEX.
against, 23G; West, 265; Payson, 328;
favored, 352, 392; Howard, 358, 514.
HASKELL, Joseph, patriot, Barustable
county, 253.
HAVEN, Samuel Foster, v. ; origin of
population of the New World, 408, see
Smithsonian Institute.
HAWKINS' missions, xxxii.
HAYNES, John, Gov., 470.
HENRY, Patrick, resolves,Virginia,134;
the Baptists, 218, 453.
HENRY IV., of France, a council of
nations, 419, 458.
HENSHAW, Joshua, 156.
HERBERT, Edward, "the father of
Deism," 505.
HERBERT, George, prediction, xiii.
HEWES, Joseph, Dec. Ind., 454.
HEYWARD, Thomas, Dec. Ind., 454.
HIGGINSON, Rev. John, "New England
a plantation religious, not of trade,"
xviii.
HILDRETH, Richard, History of United
States, 368, 375, 432, 461.
HILL, John, councillor, 156.
HILLSBOROUGH, Lord, " circular," 122;
insolence, 151.
" HISTORICAL MAGAZINE," 492.
HOADLEY, in Dr. Franklin's library,
xxxiv.; Dr. May hew, 46; John
Adams, 75.
HOLBOURN, Admiral, 124.
HOLLIS, Thomas, the bishops, Dr. May-
hew, xxx.; benefactor of Harvard
College, xxxii., xxxiv. ; portrait of, '
46; political, 70; see Jenks, Rev. Dr.
HOLMES, Dr. Abiel, French refugees,
100; " Annals," 221, 383.
HOLT, Dr. Mayhew, 75.
HOLTON, Samuel, councillor, 264, 265,
388.
HOOKER. Rev. Thomas, 470, 476.
HOOKER, "the judicious," 480; "cler
gy," xiii.; " Independency," xiv.
HOOPER, William, Dec. Ind., 454.
HOPKINS, Stephen, 453, 454.
HOPKINS, Rev. Samuel, "The Puri
tans," xiii.
HOPKINS, Edward, Gov., 470.
HOPKINS, Rev. Dr., of Newport, 400,
431; see Park.
HOPKINS, Daniel, councillor, 266, 351.
HOPKINSON, Francis, Dec. Ind., 454.
HOSMER, sculpture, 461.
HOVEY, Rev. Dr., " Life and Times of
Backus," 182.
HOWARD, Rev. Simeon, election ser
mon, 355; notice of, 358; scheme for
supporting religion, 374.
HOWE, Gen., goes into Boston, 325, 456;
and then goes out again. 2G5 ; " cooped
up" at Brunswick, 444.
HUBBARD, Thomas, councillor, 156.
HUBBARD, Rev. Wm., History of New
England, xv.; see Conant, Roger;
Fast-day sermon, 1682, xviii.
HUDDY, Capt., murdered, 452.
HUME, "men more honest," etc., 70,
498.
HUMPHREY, James, councillor, 156.
HUNTINGTON, Samuel, 453; Dec. Ind.,
454.
HUSKE'S "Present State of North
America," 430.
HUTCHINSON, Thomas, Massachusetts
polity, see Cotton, John, xx. ; " spec
ulative," xxvii.; parliament, 107,122;
"History," 175, 177, 179; Chief Jus
tice, 113. 114, 252; notice of, 180;
mobbed. 132, 138; his letters, 192;
hated, 194; lieutenant governor, 153
—155, 173, 179, 190; goes to England,
193; invites foreign troops to his own
home, 165, 189; "bad principles in
government," 167, 177, 179, 189, 190,
194, "252. 456.
HUTCHINSON, Rev. John, 490.
INDEPENDENCE, Declaration of, "for
eign mercenaries," 91; merely declar
atory, 108, 109, 114, 313; slave-trade,
214, 384; Canada, 216; government,
basis of, 240, 260; "the soul of the
continent," 453.
" INDEPENDENCY," democracy, Crom
well, Milton, Cotton, Locke, xiv.;
Sir James Mackintosh, John Owen,
xv.
INDIANS, conversion of, xv. ; England's
guilt, xvi., xvii.; the French, 183;
savages employed by the British min
istry against the colonies, 452; Chat
ham's rebuke, 326; Indian territory,
405; Gookin's Historical Collections,
407; over-estimate and decrease of,
411, 412.
INDEX.
529
INGERSOLL, Jared, " Sons of Liberty," KINGSLEY, James L., Stiles, 470 ; Peters,
131, 132. 474.
INGLIS, Rev. Charles, "all" church of! KIRK, Col., the brutal agent of James.
England "missionaries" hostile to II , expected in New England, 177..
KNIGHT'S ENGLAND, 90, 149, 151.
KNOX, Grenville, anecdote, 113,
the Revolution, xxxi.
IRELAND, "massacre," 90; church of,
483, 390, 454, 455, 465; ancient Ireland,
437.
IRETON'S grave violated, 97.
IRVING, Washington, History, 326, 461.
JACKSON, Dr. Charles T.. 461.
JAMES I., a tyrant, not a king, 74;
America not within the realm, 107;
game act, " nobility," 435.
JAMES II., the revolution, 63; "divine
right," 72; his portrait in the council
chamber of Massachusetts, 113, 154;
proclaimed in Boston, 176; his atro
cities, 177.
JARVIS, Dr. Edward, population of
United States, 459; International Sta
tistical Congress, 461.
JAY, John, civilian, 454, 461.
JEFFERSON, Thomas, Dr. May hew, 91;
LAFAYETTE, 449, 450, 465.
LA HONTAN, 411.
LAKE, Arthur, bishop, missionary ser
mon, Massachusetts, White, xvi.—
xvii.
LANGDON, Rev- Dr., election sermon,
1775, 228, 231; ministerial convention,
231; president of Harvard College,
232; Gov. Gagers piety, 255.
LAUD, William, bishop, etc., New Eng
land, x.; his crue!tyTa representative
man, xi. — xiii., 101; threatens to crop
" King Winthrop's ears," but did not,
xii. ; library, xvi. ; his successor, xxii. ;
book of sports, 90.
LAURENS, of the army, 451 ; tortured,
by the British, 452, 454.
LAUZUN, 440, 465.
slave trade, 214; studies liberty and j LAW, 453.
equality in the Baptist church, 218; i LAW, progress of the, 321, 424.
Declaration of Independence, 453,
454.
JEFFRIES, the infamous, 177.
JENKS, Rev. Dr. Win., 100; see Hollis.
"JERSEY," prison ship, 451.
JESUITS, " locusts that come out of the
bottomless pit," xvi. ; America, xvii. ;
suppressed "to all eternity" and re
stored, both by infallible popes, 467;
their colleges, etc., 467, 471.
JEWELL, Bishop, 481.
JOHNSON, Rev. Dr. Samuel, King's Col
lege, 100. .
JONES, captain in the American navy,
" merits the highest honors," 447.
JOSEPH II., of Austria, frightens the
pope by Christian liberty, 464—466.
JUDICIARY, purity of, 424.
" JUNIUS," on American affairs, 113.
KAPP, Friederich, Life of Steuben,449.
KENT, James, tribute to Dr. Stiles, 399,
461.
KILBY STREET, Boston, stamp riot,
132.
KING, Sir Peter, 489.
LAWS, good, based on Christian mor
ality, xxiii., xxix.
LEE, Arthur, of Virginia, "an Ameri
can episcopate," 110, 453.
LEE, Francis Lightfoot, Dec. Ind., 454.
LEE, Rev. Samuel, 480.
LEE, Richard Henry, 454.
LEE, William, of Virginia, " armed neu
trality," 457.
LEGARE, 101.
LEIGHTON, Alexander, mutilated by
Bishop Laud, xi.
LEONARD, George, councillor, 156.
LESLIE, on government, 72.
LEWIS, Francis, Dec. Ind.. 454.
LEXINGTON, Mass., 229, 230, 235-237,
306, 441.
" LIBERTY-TREE," Boston, 138.
LIBRARIES in America, xxxiii., xxxiv.,
438.
LINCOLN, Bishop of, tribute to Rev.
John Cotton, xxii.
LINCOLN, Benjamin, Gen., anecdote of,
112; councillor, 156,264,265; clerk of
convention at Salem, 229; "a Wash
ington and a Lincoln," 445, 450.
45
530
INDEX.
LINCOLN, William, History of Worces
ter, 194.
LITERATURE, Science, and Art, prog
ress of, in the United States, 460.
LITTLETON, Lord, on the Quebec bill,
217, 257.
LIVINGSTON, Philip, 453; Dec. Ind.,
454.
LOCKE, John, "Independents,1' xv.;
in New England, xxx. ; Harvard Col
lege, xxxiii.; Dr. Franklin, xxiv. ;
Dr. May hew, 46; Milton, 74; Massa
chusetts, 190, 191, 270.
LONDON, Bishop of, honor to Rev. John
Cotton, not to Laud, xxii.
LONGFELLOW, Henry W., 461.
LONG ISLAND, 480
" LORD'S ANOINTED, The," 63, 101.
LORDS, House of, protest, 201.
" LORDS, spiritual and temporal," not
wanted in America, xxx.
LOSSING, Benson J., Field-Book of the
Revolution. 306, 326, 346, 449, 452.
Louis XVI., 415. 487.
LOUISBURG, crusade against, 108, 145,
210, 231.
LOVELL, of the army, 451.
LOWELL, Rev. Dr. Charles, 46, 358, 383.
LOWELL, John, " all men are born free
and equal," 383.
LOYALTY of America, 96, 104, 123, 130,
131, 135, 143, 174, 223, 247, 265, 433, 434,
451, 455.
LUDLOW, Harvard College, xxxii., 470.
LUNENBURG, Mass., minute men and a
sermon, xxxvi.
LUNT, Rev. W. P., "Massachusetts,"
225.
LYNCH, Thomas, of South Carolina, let
ter to Gen. Gage, 199, 453, 454; Dec.
Ind., 454,
LYNDHURST, Lord, 145, 461.
MACAULAY, Mrs. Catharine, "the fe
male Livy of the age," popular in
America, Washington, 417.
MACKINTOSH, Sir James, " Independ
ents," xiv., xv.; Jacobites, 160.
MADOC, America, 410.
MADISON, James, " Federalist," 422.
MAINE, 101, 156, 266, 306, 351, 388, 410.
MANANAS, Maine, inscription at, 410.
MANLY, Capt. John, 447.
I MANN, Horace, 461.
[ MANSFIELD, Lord Murray, mobbed,
139 ; detested in America, 455. 456.
MANSFIELD, Rev. Isaac, chaplain,
"camp at Roxbury," 236; story of
Gen. Gage's foray at Lexington, 236;
Harvard College, 236; providential,
256.
MANUFACTURES, Washington visits
cotton factory at Beverley,336; Alex
ander Hamilton, 432.
MARBLEHEAD, donation to Boston,
198; fishermen in the Revolutionary
War, 306; Capt. Manly takes first
British flag, 447.
MARBOIS, France, 445.
MARCHANT, 453.
MARSH, George P., the unity of Amer
ica and England, 434; language, 462.
MARSHALL, J., United States, finance,
358; Chief Justice of the United
States, 461.
MARSHALL'S "Travels," 439.
MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Rev. Dr. May-
hew, 46.
MARVELL, Andrew, Harvard College,
xxxiv.
MARYLAND, relieves Boston, but not
Gen. Gage, 198; population in 1775,
211; Dec. Ind., 454; public education,
368; support of religion, 374; consti
tution of, 420, 457, 467.
MASSACHUSETTS, name of, 224; colo
nized by " the Dorchester Company,"
xi. ; Roger Conant, the first governor,
suggests to Mr. White it may be a ref
uge "on account of religion," xv.;
Bishop Lake's sermon, xv. — xvii.; the
company reorganized, and John En-
decott supersedes Conant, as second
governor of the colony, xi. ; company
incorporated by Charles I., 1629, and
two governments instituted, one for
the " company," of which Matthew
Cradock was named first governor
by the patent, and one for the colony,
in which John Endecott was "con
tinued" governor, xi., xxiii.; Cra-
dock's house at Medford, xi.; John
Winthrop chosen second governor of
the " company," and, on removal to
Massachusetts, supersedes Gov. Ende
cott, becoming de facto third gover-
INDEX.
531
nor of the colony, xxiii., xxiv., xii.;
colony denounced by Laud, xii. ; pol
icy of, xii. — xix. ; laws of, xix., xx.;
its missionary origin, x., xii., xv., xvi.,
MOODY, Rev, Samuel, chaplain at Louis-
burg, 108.
MORGAN, " and other heroes," 450.
MORRIS, Robert, Dec. Ind., 454.
207; "provincial charter," xxii.; plots j MORRIS, Gouverneur, Hamilton, 427.
to annul the charter, 110, 178, 190,206, MORRIS, Lewis, Dec. Ind., 454.
222; election-day, 155; governors, xi. MORSE, S. F. B., 461.
—xxiii., 178, 179, 193, 221, 262; the , MORTON, 461.
council. 107, 110, 113, 117, 151—155, 173, MORTON, Bishop of Chester, 480.
176—180, 190, 201, 222, 234, 241, 261, 351, J MORTON, John, Dec. Ind., 454.
385, 387; poverty of, 123, 124; French | MORTON, Perez, councillor, 264.
war, 125; death to Roman Catholic MOTLEY, historian, 461.
priests, 375; congress, 193, 194, 229—
231. 251, 254. 261, 308; army, 230, 231,
261,308; state arms, 262; constitution,
265, 328, 331, 368, 376, 379, 421; Dec. J 410.
Ind., 454. j NASH, 453.
MATHER, Cotton, on population of New " NAVIGATION ACTS," 107, 112, 122.
England, 459. I NELSON, Thomas, Dec. Ind., 454-
MATHER, Increase, object of the first ', NERO, to be resisted, 57, 61.
planters, xviii.; procured the provin- NEWBURY, Mass., Noyes, 477.
MUIRSON, Dr., 460.
NARRAGANSET BAY, Dighton Rock,
cial charter of Massachusetts, xxii. ;
ordination, 479, 480.
MATHER, Rev. Richard, 480,
MAVERICK. Samuel, commissioner, etc.,
175.
MA YHEW, Jonathan, D.D., notice of, 45,
46; life and opinions, 41— 46; prelacy
in 'New England, xxx. ; sermon on
Charles the Martyr, 40—104, 173; see
" Society for propagating the gospel
in foreign parts"; stamp act, 134;
" committees of correspondence," 44,
45,199; his pulpit, 488.
McKEAN, President, governor, 453.
MEDFORD, Cradock's house, xi.
MERCER, '; martyr general," 451.
MIDDLETON, Arthur, Dec. Ind., 454.
MIDDLETON, Dr., 497.
MILITIA, xxxvi., 194, 308, 435.
MILTON, John, " Independency," xiv. ;
Harvard College, xxxiii.; Dr. Frank
lin, xxxiv.; tyrannicide, 62, 74, 83;
Christian government, 67, 334, 409, 457.
MILTON. Mass., Hutchinson, 155.
MINUTE-MEN, xxxvi., 194.
MISSIONARY INSTITUTIONS in America,
480.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER, 411; future politi
cal centre of the United States, 440.
" MOLASSES ACT," anecdote, 112.
MONTESQUIEU, Dr. Franklin, xxxiv.
NEW ENGLAND, colonists of, x., xiv. ;
and Canada, 108; public spirit of. 125,
234; trade, 127: " sons of liberty," 132;
"English subjects," 174, 176; man
hood, 175; at Louisburg, 210, 247;
from England, -333, 334; descendants
in the United States, 440.
NEW HAVEN, Yale College, Stiles, 400,
476, 514.
NEW HAMPSHIRE, public spirit of, 125;
population of, 211; Dr. Langdon,232;
education, 368; Congregationalism,
375, 454.
NEW JERSEY, religion, 375; govern
ment, 420; Dec. Ind., 454, 480, 514.
NEWPORT, R.I., naval enterprise, 306;
Berkeley, Hopkins, Stiles, 400; trade,
429; "iniquitous African trade," 431.
NEWTON, Rev. Thos. Hooker, 477.
NEWTON, Sir Isaac, 489.
NEW YORK, public spirit of, 125 ; Barr6,
132; tea, 192; population in 1775,211;
"Boston Port Bill," 218; death to
Roman Catholic priests, 375: govern
ment, 420; Washington, Clinton, 444;
" Jersey," 451 ; Dec Ind , 454.
NIAGARA, British flag, 145, 411.
NICHOLS, commissioner, " Christian re
ligion " in New England, 175.
NILES, Samuel, councillor, 351, 388.
NORFOLK, Va.. burnt, 452.
MONTGOMERY, "martyr general," 451. NORTH CAROLINA, population of, in
532
INDEX.
1775, 211; education, 368; General
Greene, 445; Dec. lud., 454.
NORTH, Lord, 189, 236; George III.,
325, 327.
NORTON, the Rev. John, election ser
mon, 1661, xviii.; colonial agent in
England, xxii.; artillery sermon,
xxiii., 480.
NOVA SCOTIA, bishopric, xxxi., 199.
NOYES, liev. James, of Newbury, 477,
OBEDIENCE, passive, church of Eng
land, 41—44, 53.
O'DONNELL, John, Baltimore, second !
American voyage to Canton, 464.
OHIO, 411.
OLIVER, Andrew, stamp riot, 132; pro- i
vincial secretary, 154, 163; welcomes j
foreign troops to New England, 163; i
the council " too dependent on their
constituents,1' 179.
ORANGE, Prince of, "glorious revolu
tion," 177.
OTIS, James, Chief Justice, Barnstable,
court suppressed, 252 ; councillor, 156 ;
"com. of correspondence," 191.
OTIS, James, Hollis, xxxii.; " com. of
correspondence," May hew, 44; " tax
ation without representation," 112;
writs of assistance, 113, 153; repeal of
Stamp act, 120, 121; war service of
Massachusetts, 125; slave-trade, 182;
councillor, 264. 266; Stiles, 453.
OWEN, Rev. John, Harvard College,
xv., 517.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY, xxxi., xli., 199,
204, 239, 265, 304.
OXFORD, Mass., Huguenots, 101.
PACA, William, 453: Dec. Ind.. 454.
PALMER, Joseph, councillor, 264, 266.
PAINE, Thomas, " the crisis," 385.
PAINE, Robert Treat, u Dr. Mayhew,
the father of civil and religious liberty
in Massachusetts and America," 43;
delegate to Continental Congress, 251.
councillor, 388; Dec. Ind., 454.
PARK, Rev. Dr., Memoir of Hopkins, !
431.
PARKER, John Lawson, Life of Arch
bishop Laud, x.
PARLIAMENT and the colonies, the pul
pit, xxvi.— xxviii., 107—120, 122, 127;
colonies without the realm, 107—122;
Canada, 108, 129; Dr. Chauncy's ser
mon, stamp act, 107 — 156 ; Lord North,
189—193, 198—201 ; too late, 238; " the
tyranny of a set of men," 280; "by
fire and sword," 306; "tyrannical
monsters," 307; " a whole community
not rebels," 313; "robbed us of the
election" of officers, 385, 454.
PARSON, Dr. Usher, Pepperell, 108,
210.
PARSONS, Theophilus, 461.
PAYSON, Rev. Samuel Phillips, election
sermon, 323; notice of. 328; American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, 352.
PENDLETON, Edmund, of Virginia, let
ter to Gen. Gage, at Boston, 199;
Stiles, 453.
PENN, Elder, 476
PENN, John, Dec. Ind., 454.
PENNSYLVANIA, war expenses, 125;
Wilke^barre, 132; population of in
1775, 211, 224; education, 368; equal-
ity,375; Moravians, 409; polity, 420;
Dec. Ind., 454.
PENSIONS, British, 204, 246.
PEPPERELL, Louisburg, 108, 210.
PEQUOT EXPEDITION, thanksgiving,
xxiii.
PETER, Rev. Hugh, origin of Massachu
setts colony, Conant, White, Bishop
Lake. xvi. ; to England, xx.
PETERS, Rev. Dr. S. A., "indelible
character," 100; his pretty letter, 195;
the "originality" of his "History,"
" the sinful omission of not sending
a bishop." " unscrupulous and mali
cious," 473, 474.
PERCY, Lord, April 19th, 236.
PHILADELPHIA, 113; stamp act, 120;
tea, 192; Congress, 194, 199, 261;
"American Association," 214; free
dom, 216; Duche, 219; Washington,
443; college, 514.
PHILLIPS, Payson, 324, 328.
PICKERING, Dr. Charles, origin of
American aborignes, 409.
PITCHER, John, Barnstable patriot, 253.
PITT, William, providential, 70; the
American controversy " a great com
mon cause," 109. 130; "rejoices" at
the resistance, 133, 135,163; eulogized,
INDEX
533
138, 144; his administration, 144, 145.
See Chatham.
PITTS, James, councillor, 156, 351, 388.
PLATO, Dr. May hew, 46.
PLYMOUTH, polity of adopted in Massa
chusetts, xiv. ; councillors, 156, 252,
266, 334, 388.
POLASKI. " martyr general." 451.
POPE, Alexander, "for forms of gov
ernment," etc., 161; "the enormous
faith," etc., 334, 504.
POPERY, in England, xv., 89, 100, 101;
see Jesuits, 89; butchery, 90, 166;
" modern Home," 154, 160, 257; " sub
versive of society,'' 191; Canada, iv.,
193, 216, 237, 471; its policy, 466, 467,
471 ; see Jesuits, 375, 487, 497.
POPULATION, colonial, 210, 517; in 1775,
211 ; of United States, 427, 440,459, 472.
PORTLAND, burnt, 306. See Willis.
PORTSMOUTH, N. H., Langdon, 231;
Stiles, 400 ; enterprise, 442.
POWELL, Jere., councillor, 266, 351,588.
POWNALL, Thomas, governor, "no ad
mirer of Charleses or Jameses," 114;
poverty of Massachusetts, 124; moves
for repeal of duty on tea, 189.
PRATT, Ch. of New York, notice of, 113.
PREBBLE, Jedediah, councilor, 351.
PRESCOTT, James, councillor, 264.
PRESCOTT, Oliver, councillor, 351.
PRESCOTT, W. H., historian, 461.
PRICE, Dr., Dr. Franklin, xxxiv.
PRIESTLY, Dr., Dr. Franklin, xxxiv.;
mobbed, 139.
PRINCE, Rev. Thomas, Louisburg, 1745
210; Christian History, 479.
PRINCETON, N. J., Washington, 444.
PRISON SHIPS, the, 445, 451.
PROVIDENCE. See Divine Providence.
PROVIDENCE, 11. 1., "the Gaspee," 190.
PRYNNE, brutality of Bishop Laud, xi.
PULPIT, the, St. Paul's Cross, x., xii.; j
special occasions, xxii. — xxiv.; in j
New England, xxv. — xxvii. ; its in-!
fluence, xxxviii., 43, 89, 197, 267—270,
308; see Election Sermons; its prov
ince and duty, iii., 487, 488.
PURITANS, x.— xix., xxvii., xxxi.
PUTNAM, Gen., a " hero," 450.
QUAKERS, excused from military ser
vice, 312.
45
QUEBEC, Seeker and papacy, xxx., 257;
capture, 145; ministerial design, 216,
257, 258; " Debates" on, 217.
QUINCY, Josiah, " numbered with the
patriotic heroes," " his only surviving
son " still lives, xxxv.; ''executive
courts," 192; "the true spirit of lib
erty," 194,
RALEIGH, Sir Walter, 334.
" RALEIGH," the frigate, 442.
RAMSAY'S HISTORY, 358.
RANDOLPH, Ed., enemy to New Eng
land, 175.
RANDOLPH, President of Congress, 453.
READ, George, Dec. Ind., 454.
" REBELLION," dciined by Dr. Mayhew,
63; John Adams, 75; Dr. Franklin,
134; George III., 199, 249, 262 j state
of, 308.
REFORMATION, the, and the Puritans,
one in principle, xiv. ; the English
Bible, 462.
REVOLUTION of 1640, 1688, 1776, unity
of, xx., xxvii. — xxxiv. ,63, 96; Amer
ican, ix., xx.. 109.
RHODE ISLAND, naval enterprise ia
Revolution, 125; population of, in
1775, 211: seamen, Arnold's History,
306; Berkeley, Stiles, Hopkins, 400;
polity, 421; Dec. Ind., 454.
RIOTS, stamp act. 138, 139; no riots, 251.
ROBERTS, David, Salem custom-house,
writs of assistance, 112.
ROBINSON. Rev. John, Pilgrims, 485.
ROCHAMBEAU, Cluiton, 444, 445; "cel
ebrated," 450, 465. .
ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION, 141,
149.
RODNEY, Caesar, Dec. Ind., 454.
Ross, George, Dec. Ind., 454.
ROXBURY, "in the camp at, Nov. 23,
1775," 236; providential, 256.
ROYALL, Isaac, councillor, 156.
RUNNEMEDE, 334.
RUSH, Benjamin, Dec. Ind., 454.
RUSHWORTH, princes " account of their
actions to God alone." 95.
RUSSELL, James, councillor, 156.
RUSSELL, Lord -William, the patriot,
" no rebel," 75, 262.
RUTLEDGE, John, South Carolina, 453.
RUTLEDGE, John, Doc. Ind., 454.
534
INDEX.
SABINE, Lorenzo, " Report on Ameri
can Fisheries," 234, 306, 447.
SACHEVERELL, riots, 84.
SACKETT'S HARBOR, "the Madison,"
442.
SAGADAHOCK, Maine, councillors for,
156. 266, 351, 388.
SALARIES, "fixed," refused, 164, 172;
from the crown, 178, 192.
SALE, 502
SALEM, Conant, Endecott, xi. ; custom
house, 112; generous, 198; general
court, 229, 251 ; Hall, printers, 308
SANCROFT, "our church" in Massa
chusetts, 177.
SANDERS, Thomas, councillor, 156.
SANDWICH, Mass., courts suppressed,
1774; see Freeman, 252.
SARATOGA, Burgoyne's surrender, 325 ;
gladness, 327; providential, 444.
SAVAGE, James, population of United
States, 459; edits Winthrop, 492.
SAYER, Col., congress, Watertown, 231.
SCOTLAND. 455.
SEAMEN of the Revolution, 306.
SEARS, Judah, Cape Cod patriot, 253.
SECKER, Archbishop, popish bishop at
Quebec, xxx.; leaves £1000 for the
first bishop settled in America, 42.
See Society for Propagation of Gos
pel in Foreign Farts.
SELDEN, John, " law for resisting ty
ranny, "94, 407; "mare cliusum,"457,
489.
SENECAS, the, 411.
SEVER, William, councillor, 156, 351.
SEWALL, David, councillor, 266.
SEAVALL. Rev. Samuel, 477.
SEWELL, Prof., Dighton inscription,
410.
SHAFTESBURY, 498.
SHAKESPEARE, 334.
SHERMAN, Roger, 453; Dec. Ind., 454.
SHREWSBURY, Ross Wyman, president
Blacksmiths' convention, 194.
SIDNEY, Algernon, " on government,"
xxx.; Harvard College, xxxiii.; Dr.
Franklin, xxxiv.; Dr. May hew, 46;
John Adams, 75; shield of Massachu
setts, 262. 334. 379.
SlGOURNEY, 101.
SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL, Eli Whitney's
cotton-gin, 412.
SIMPSON, Joseph, councillor, 351, 388.
" Six NATIONS,'' confederacy of, 411.
SLAVERY, John Lowell, " all men,"
etc., 383; Dec. Ind., etc., 384; cotton-
gin, 412.
SLAVE TRADE, Massachusetts, 182, 383;
George III., 183, 214; Thomas Jeffer
son, 214; Edmund Burke, 214, 215.
SMIBERT, the artist, Dr. Mayhew, 46;
Berkeley, Yale College, 408, 409; In
dians, 409.
SMITH. Isaac, on committee for poor of
Boston, 1774, 199.
SMITH, James, Dec. Ind., 454.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE'S CONTRIBU
TORS, Samuel F. Haven, 408; Cooper,
440.
" SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATION OF GOS
PEL IN FOREIGN PARTS," its " gos
pel," xxxi., 230, 326; its "missiona
ries," 71 ; labors in New England, 72,
103, 160, 197; its real design avowed,
109 ; when "this society will be brought
to the happy issue intended," 110, 199,
304; Dr. Mayhew, 160, 237; "uiissiou-
aries," 197—216, 237-
SOMERS, John Adams, 75.
"SONS OF LIBERTY," triumph, 112;
Barre, 131 ; household words, 132, 152;
awake. 193.
SOUTH CAROLINA, "resolutions" of
common cause with Boston, 199; pop
ulation of, in 1775, 211, 215; "train
ing," 220; trade, 428; Gen Greene,
445; Dec. Ind., 454.
SPARHAWK, Nathaniel, councillor, 156.
SPARKS, Jared, Stiles, 400; Franklin,
440, 461.
SPOONER, William, councillor, 156, 264,
266, 351, 388.
SPRAGUE'S "ANNALS," xxxiv., 232,
400.
SQUANTUM, 225. See Lunt, Rev. W. P.
STAMP ACT, its history, 107—118;
"no stamps," 133; its effect, 134; re
peal of, 44, 120, 131, 141, 142, 166, 189;
Dr. Chauncy's sermon, 105; see Con-
way ; see engraving on title page ;
also p. v.
STAR CHAMBER, Laud, xi.
ST. ASAPH, Bishop of, friend to Amer
ica. 132.
ST. BOTOLPH, Boston, xxii.
INDEX.
535
ST. LAWRENCE, the French, 111,
ST. PATRICK, 483, 484.
ST. PAUL'S CROSS, London, New Eng
land denounced from, xii.
STERLING. Lord, 217.
STEVENS, Charles Emery, v.
STEUBEN, Baron, 449.
STILES, President, notice of, 399, 400 ;
election sermon, 397; New England
settled for religion, xix. ; the tyran
nicides, 93; the colleges and the Rev
olution, xxxiv. ; to establish the hier
archy in America, 110; chronological,
409—411; Indians and Africans " de
creasing rapidly," 412; Mrs. Macau-
lay, 417; Edmund Burke, 430; slave-
trade, 431; "confederacy" and union
predicted, 432; future population of
the United States, 440. 460, 461 ; Bute
and Murray, 455; his pulpit, 488; ad
dress to Gov. Trumbull and the legis
lature, 505—518.
STOCKTON. Richard, Dec. Ind., 454.
STONE, Josiah, councillor, 351. 388.
STONE, Rev. E. M., History of Beverley,
336.
STONE, Thomas, Dec. Ind., 454.
STORY, Jos., Massachusetts charter,
xxiv., 461.
STORY, William, stamp-act riot, 132.
STOUGHTON'S ELECTION SERMON, 1668,
xiii.
STRONG, Caleb, councillor, 388.
STUART, Gilbert, 461.
STUART, I. TV., Life of Gov. Trumbull,
509.
STUARTS, the, " divine right," xi., 84.
SULLY, 419; scheme for confederacy of
nations, 419.
SUMNER, George, 425, 453.
SWIFT, Dean, " church and state," 145.
TARQUIN, right of revolution, 62.
TAYLOR, Dr. E., congress at Water-
town, 231; councillor, 264, 265.
TAYLOR, George, Dec. Ind., 454.
TEA TAX, 189.
TEMPLE, Sir William, 501.
TENNISON, Archbishop, £1000 for first
bishop in America, 42.
THACHER, Oxenbridge, writs of assist
ance, 114.
"THANKSGIVING," xxii. ; proclama
tion, stamp act, 117; Dr. Chauncy,
106; Mansfield, Roxbury "camp,"
236,256; Dr. Langdou, 260; Novem
ber 15, 1783, 327.
THAYER, Eben, Jr., councillor, 265.
THOMAS, Gen., army at Roxbury, 236,
451.
THOMAS, Isaiah, 308.
THOMPSON, Pishey, History of Boston,
Eng., xxii.
THORNTON, Matthew, Dec. Ind., 454.
THUANUS, Stiles, 489
TlCONDEROGA, 145.
TORIES, the, 248, 309; slander Dr. May-
hew, 44; "observations," 221, 248;
"a miserable set," Washington, 30!);
"the faithful," Dr. Peters, 195; cru
elty, 452.
TOWNSEND, Charles, Barre, 131.
TOWN GOVERNMENTS in New England,
description of, 202, 331.
TRACY'S " GREAT AWAKENING," 479.
TREASON, first ( ?) overt act of, 252.
TRENTON, Washington, 443.
TRYON, Gen., an "incendiary," 452.
TRUMBULL, Gov. Jonathan, Dr. Stiles's
address to, 506 ; Washington's tribute,
509.
TRUMBULL, Dr., Connecticut war ex
penditures, 125.
TRUMBULL, John, 461.
TYLER, Royal, councillor, 156.
TYNDALL, 489.
TYRANTS AND TYRANNICIDES*, asy
lum in New England, xx. ; Dr. Stiles,
xxxiv.,.93, 316, 399; " the glory of a
Protestant, state." Milton, 62, 74, 93;
Dr. May hew, 63, 74, 91—97 ; C. J. Fox,
Wm. Godwin, Thos. Carlyle, 93.
UNIFORMITY, act of, 1662, xxii., 480.
UNITED STATES, form of government
" most perfect," 422; exploring expe
dition, Pickering, 409; early navy,
442, 443, 447, 458; progress of, 438,
441.
VANDYKE, 114, 435.
VARNEY, Sir Edward, " fight for the
bishops" at Edgehill, xx.
VASSALL, Massachusetts, xii.
VERGENNES, 445.
VERMONT, Barre, 132.
536
INDEX.
VIOMENIL, 450. I WELDE, Rev. Thomas, to England, xx. ;
VIRGINIA, without the realm, 108; op- j a mistake, 492.
poses episcopacy, 110; Patrick Henry, WELLS, anaesthetics, 461.
134, 192; aid to Boston, 198; Pendle- WENDELL, Oliver, councillor, 351.
ton, 199; population of, in 1775, 211; WEST, Benjamin, 461.
refuses slave trade, 215; Boston Tort ! WEST, Rev. Samuel, notice of, 265; elec-
Bill, 218: training, 220; constitution, j tion sermon, 260, 298; support of re-
421; trade, 428; Comwallis, 444, 445 ;
Dec. Ind., 454, 467.
VOLTAIRE, 498.
WALPOLE, Robert, " every man has his
price," 338.
WALPOLE, Mass., Payson, 328.
WALTON, Izaak, "Independency," xiv.
WALTON, George, Dec Ind., 454.
ligion, 299.
WESTBOUOUGH, Eli Whitney, 412.
WEST CHURCH, Boston, May hew, Low
ell, 46; Howard, 358.
WEST INDIA TRADE, 127, 428.
WEST POINT, Arnold, 444.
WHALLEY, the tyrannicide, xx.— -
xxxiv.
WHEELOCK, President, 488.
WARD, Artemas, councillor, 156, 265, WHITCOMB, John, councillor, 264, 265.
351. I WHIPPLE, William, Dec. Ind., 454.
WARD, Rev. Nath'l, to England, xx.; j WHITE, Benjamin, councillor, 264, 265,
election sermon, 1641, xxiv.
WARREN, James, "committe of corres
pondence,'' 191. SeeMayhcw.
WARREN, Joseph, "the true spirit of
liberty,'' 196; see Quincy; president
of provincial congress, 231; " martyr
general.'' 451.
WASHINGTON, virtue of, 70; " molasses
act," 112; "the invisible hand which
351, 388.
WHITE, Rev. John, of Dorchester, xv.,
xvi. See Massachusetts.
WIIITEFIELD, Rev. George, 479.
WHITING, William, councillor, 388.
WHITNEY, Eli, cotton-gin, 460.
WHITTIER, John G., 461.
WlLKES-BARRE, 132.
WILLARD, Joseph, "naturalization in
conducts the affairs of man," 140, v.; American colonies," 101.
Duche, 219; at Cambridge, 262; the j WILLIAM AND MARY'S COLLEGE, 514.
tories, 309 ; Saratoga, 327 ; "the baneful
effects of the spirit of party, "333. 334:
at Beverley, 336; "general diffusion
of knowledge," 339; "religion and
morality," 340; plea for the army,
357; "good faith, "377; Mrs. Macau-
lay, 418; ordained of God, iv., 427,
442; president, 432; Arnold, 444; na
val, 447; Dr. Stiles's apostrophe, 448;
WILLIAMS COLLEGE, 514.
WILLIAMS, William, Dec. Ind., 454.
WILLIS, William, History of Portland,
306.
WILSON, James, Dec. Ind., 454.
WILSON, Rev. John, 476.
WING, Stephen, Cape Cod patriot, 253.
WISE, Rev. John, "tlemocracy in
Christ's government in Church and
Gov. Trumbull, vi., 509; address to I in State," xxix.
the army, 453, 465; "benign light of i WINTHROP, John, "I wish oft God
revelation," 467, 491.
WATERLAND, Dr., theology, 100.
WATKRSTON, Rev. R. C., " Boston
Thursday Lecture," 188.
WATERTOWN, Provincial Congress, 229,
231.
WATT, James, of England, 432.
WEBSTER, Daniel, " the Revolution ac
would open a way to settle me in Ire
land,'1 1623; in "much debt," his "one
great motive " for coming to New
England, 492; portrait, 154, by Van
dyke (?), 492; succeeds Cradock as
governor of the Massachusetts "com-
panie," or corporation, and super
sedes Endecott as governor of Massa
complishcd on a strict question of! chusetts colony, xi., xxiii., xxiv. ; tlfe
principle," xxviii.; see Education;
Hamilton, 427.
WEBSTER, Noah, lexicographer, 460.
clergy, xix.; "manuscript diary," or
"history," 477, editions of, 492; his
"Short Story" of the Antinomian
INDEX.
537
troubles noticed, 492; re-ordains Rev.
John Cotton, 476; "the American
Nehemiah," 491, 492.
WINTHROP, John, "polity of Connecti
cut," 470.
WINTHROP, John, councillor, 265;
Stiles, 453; comets, 460.
WINTHROP, Robert C., 492.
WITHERSPOON, John, 453; Dec. Ind.,
454.
WOBURN, ordination, 477.
WOOD, Aaron, councillor, 388.
WOOLCOTT, Oliver, 453; Dec. Ind. ,454.
WOOSTER, " martyr general," 451.
WORCESTER COUNTY, patriotic, 194.
WORCESTER, Joseph E., lexicographer,
460.
WOTTON, Sir Henry, 489.
WYMAN, Ross, president Blacksmiths'
Convention, 194.
WYTHE, George, 453; Dec. Ind., 454.
YALE COLLEGE, Stiles, 399; Berkeley,
Franklin, 400, 408; Smibert, 408, 514.
" YANKEE DOODLE," at Saratoga, Bur-
goyne, 326.
YARMOUTH, Dr. West, 265.
YORKTOWN, Va., battle of, 445, 451.
The reverse of the title pages was unavoidably omitted in the Index.
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