Dakota Beacon

Election Day arrives with hype and hoopla. How times have changed! New England ministers at our founding are forgotten men of the American Revolution. If remembered at all they are pictured as witch hunters, bloviating evangelists, and divinely ordained Colonial Gestapo. In fact, they were the most educated advocates of liberty leading up to and through the Revolutionary War. Following are extracts from Election Sermons taken from “They Preached Liberty” by Franklin Cole, Coral Ridge Ministries.

THE DIVINE SOURCE OF LIBERTY. “All power is originally from God, and civil government his institution…Civil Power ought therefore ever to be employed agreeable to the nature and will of the supreme Sovereign and Guardian of all our rights.” –Benjamin Stevens, Kittery, Massachusetts. Election Sermon, 1761.

“Life, liberty, and property are the gifts of the Creator.” –Daniel Shute, Hingham, Massachusetts. Election Sermon, 1768.

OUR HERITAGE OF LIBERTY. “God forbid that any son of New England should prove such a profane Esau as to sell his birthright! Our ancestors, though not perfect and infallible in all respects, were a religious, brave, and virtuous set of men, whose love of liberty, civil and religious, brought them from their land …” Jonathan Mayhew, Boston, Massachusetts. Election Sermon, 1754.

“Britons and Americans, subjects of the same Crown, connected by the ties of nature, by interest and religion, maintained the most perfect harmony, and felt the purest joy in each other’s happiness for more than a hundred years: And would to God, that harmony had never been disturbed.” John Lathrop, Boston, Massachusetts. Thanksgiving Sermon, 1774.

“As nobody on earth had any title to this land but the original inhabitants – our fathers got leave of them to settle, and made peace with them, and fairly purchased their lands of them. The king has no right to give it… But God gave our fathers favor in the eyes of the people of the land; and they obtained their title to these lands; which was as good as the people of England have to theirs… All pretenses to the contrary are vain and frivolous to the last degree.” Samuel Webster, Salisbury, Massachusetts. Sermon, “The Misery and Duty of an Enslaved People.” 1774.

NATURE OF LIBERTY. “It [Liberty] has the most to fear from ignorance and avarice; for it is no uncommon thing for a people to lose sight of their liberty in the eager pursuit of wealth; … and it will always be as easy to rob an ignorant people of their liberty as to pick the pockets of a blind man.” Phillips Payson, Chelsea, Massachusetts. Election Sermon, 1778.

“If laws…exist only on paper and ink, what benefit can a people derive from them? The divine law is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword; and surely his ministers ought to make the laws, which they execute, bear some resemblance to his.” Moses Mather, Middlesex, Connecticut. Election Sermon, 1780.

NATURE OF TYRANNY. “Power, especially over-grown power, whets the ambition and sets all the wits to work to enlarge it. Therefore, encroachments on the people’s liberties are not generally made all at once, but so gradually as hardly to be perceived by the less watchful;’ and all plastered over, it may be, with plausible pretenses, that before they are aware of the snare, they are taken and cannot disentangle themselves.” Samuel Webster. Salisbury, Massachusetts. Election Sermon, 1777.

“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… 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.” Simeon Howard, Boston, Massachusetts. Election Sermon, 1780.

RESULTS OF TYRANNY. “When right is perverted, justice bought and sold, and bribery, venality, and corruption are countenanced or winked at, and wickedness permitted to triumph and rage without control… [then] the public safety and happiness is not only hazarded, but clear gone.” Eliphalet Williams, Hartford, Connecticut. Election Sermon, 1769.

“Needless taxes are not for the good, but the misery of the subjects, tending to reduce them to poverty and distress; and may therefore be justly considered as wanton undisguised oppression, to support the pride, ambition, and extravagance of a few grandees.” Robert Ross, Stratford, Connecticut. Sermon, “The Union of the Colonies,” 1775.

VINDICATION OF LIBERTIES. “When anyone’s liberty is attacked or threatened, he is first to try gentle methods for his safety; to reason with, and persuade the adversary to desist, if there be opportunity for it; or get out of his way if he can; and if by such means he can prevent the injury, he is to use no other. But the experience of all ages has shown that those, who are so unreasonable as to form designs of injuring others, are seldom to be diverted from their purpose by argument and persuasion alone.” Simeon Howard, Boston, Massachusetts. Artillery Election Sermon, 1773.

While sermons will not solve our problems, they do offer insight and inspiration. None other than agnostic Ben Franklin observed, “Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.”

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).