Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730–1805. Группа авторов
is another’s. Yet have not our legislature from time to time, made acts to empower the major part of the inhabitants in towns and precincts, to give away their neighbours estates to what ministers they please! And can we submit to such doctrines and commandments of men, and not betray true liberty of conscience! Every person is or ought to be, benefited by civil government, and therefore they owe rulers honor and a tribute on that account; but the like cannot be truly said of an imposed minister; for as the gospel ministry is an ordinance of God and not of man, so the obligation that any person or people are under to obey and support any man as a minister of Christ, arises from the consideration of his appearing to them to resemble his Master in doctrine and conversation, and from the benefit which people receive under their ministrations.† From whence the law of equity makes the free communications of our carnal things to Christ’s ministers, to be a matter that as really concerns the exercise of a good conscience toward God, as prayer and praise do; for they are both called sacrifices to him in the same chapter. Heb. 13. 15, 16.
Thus we have laid before the public a brief view of our sentiments concerning liberty of conscience, and a little sketch of our sufferings on that account. If any can show us that we have made any mistakes, either about principles or facts, we would lie open to conviction: But we hope none will violate the forecited article of faith so much, as to require us to yield a blind obedience to them, or to expect that spoiling of goods or imprisonment can move us to betray the cause of true liberty.
A late writer in the Boston papers, has taken much pains to prove, that some other colonies have imposed upon people in such affairs worse than New-England has; and to prove it he informs us, that an act for ministers maintenance, was passed in New-York near eighty years ago, which succeeding rulers have turned to support a denomination that had very few representatives in court when the act was made, while the denomination who made it, have been denied any benefit from it. If so, how loud is the call to every man that is a friend to liberty, and who regards the good of posterity, to rise and exert all his influence, to demolish the engine which has done so much mischief in all ages! We are far from trying to represent the fathers of New-England as the worst of the colonists; We believe the contrary. But our veneration for their memory, is so far from reconciling us to, that it fills us with greater detestation of, that mystery of iniquity, which carried them into such acts or imposition and persecution as have left a great blemish upon their character. And since these are tedious things to dwell upon, we shall close with this remark.
The Massachusetts ministers, in their letter to governor Jencks and other baptists in Providence, said, We hope and pray that ancient matters that had acrimony unhappily in them may be buried in oblivion. Now we are told that acrimony signifies that quality in one body whereby it corrodes, eats up or destroys another. This eating destroying quality is truly unhappy: but how can it be buried before it is dead? The worst of criminals are to be executed before they are buried. Therefore let this cruel man-eater be fairly executed, and we are ready to join heart and hand to bury him, and not to have a bone of him left for contention in all the land. If it be so hard to our opponents to hear of these matters, what has it been to those who have felt their eating and destroying influence for these hundred and forty years? And how can any person lift up his head before God or man, and say he hopes to have these things buried, if he at the same time holds fast, and tries hard to keep alive the procuring cause of them!
The foregoing appeal, having been examined and approved by many of his brethren, is presented to the public, by their humble servant,
Isaac Backus
POSTSCRIPT
Since the above was written, I have received direct accounts, that at Montague (whose case is mentioned p. [349].) they continue from time to time, to make distress upon the principal members of the baptist church there, whom the law directs to sign their certificates, while they let the rest of the society alone. Also that William White a regular member of the baptist church in Ashfield, who lives in Chesterfield, and has had his standing in said church certified according to law; yet had a cow taken from him on August 25, 1773, and sold the 30th, for the pedobaptist ministers rate; and that in both of these places, the civil charges of the town, and the ministers salary are all blended in one tax (contrary as I am informed to the law of our province) so that our brethren who would readily pay their civil tax, yet cannot do it, without paying the ministers also! Now the grand pretence that is made for the use of the secular arm to support ministers is, that thereby equality is established among the people; but what religion, equality or equity can there be in the above proceedings!
THE END
| 1774 | SCRIPTURAL INSTRUCTIONS TO CIVIL RULERS, Samuel Sherwood |
| Coercive Acts are passed by Parliament, which, among other things, closes Boston Harbor (Mar. 25). The colonists term these the “Intolerable Acts.” The First Continental Congress adopts a “Statement of Rights and Grievances” (Oct. 14), which strongly foreshadows the Declaration of Independence. | |
| Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America is published in Williamsburg. | |
| Other influential pamphlets appear, including James Wilson’s Considerations on the Nature & Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament and John Adams’s (as Novanglus) New England Letters. In November, Thomas Paine emigrates and settles in Philadelphia. | |
| 1775 | A CALM ADDRESS TO OUR AMERICAN COLONIES, John Wesley |
| A CONSTITUTIONAL ANSWER TO WESLEY’S CALM ADDRESS, Anonymous | |
| AMERICA’S APPEAL TO THE IMPARTIAL WORLD, Moses Mather | |
| In London, Edmund Burke makes a last-ditch appeal to the House of Commons to avert revolution in his Speech on . . . Conciliation with the Colonies (Mar. 22). | |
| Patrick Henry delivers a speech in Richmond, concluding with “give me liberty, or give me death” (Mar. 23). | |
| The ride of Paul Revere and the battles of Lexington and Concord (Apr. 18–19) begin the Revolutionary War. Ministers, in sermons and reprinted sermons, are in the vanguard to justify independence, defend liberty as a fundamental good, and encourage their congregations to sacrifice. Over 80 percent of the politically relevant pamphlets published during the 1770s and 1780s are either reprinted sermons or essays written by ministers. | |
| Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point are captured by the Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner (May 10). | |
| The Second Continental Congress assembles at Philadelphia (May 10). Congress appoints George Washington commander-in-chief. | |
| The first pitched battle of the Revolution (June 15) is fought at Bunker’s Hill, near Boston (June 15). | |
| The first anti-slavery society in America is formed in Philadelphia. | |
| Massachusetts adopts its 1692 Charter as a functioning state constitution. | |
| 1776 | THE CHURCH’S FLIGHT INTO THE WILDERNESS, Samuel Sherwood |
| THE DOMINION OF PROVIDENCE OVER THE PASSIONS OF MEN, John Witherspoon | |
| THE BIBLE AND THE SWORD, John Fletcher | |
| The Declaration of Independence is passed (July 4), but New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey have, at the suggestion of the Continental Congress, already written constitutions as independent states. | |
| The city of New York is occupied by the British (Sept. 15). | |
| The presidio of San Francisco is founded by colonists from Mexico under Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and Alfréz José Moraga (Sept. 17); Franciscan friars, led by Father Francisco Palóu, established a mission one month later. | |
| Washington retreats to Harlem Heights with an army of mostly ill-trained militia. In the Battle of Trenton (Dec. 26), Washington crosses the Delaware River and captures 1,000 Hessians. | |
| Adam Smith publishes Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in London, Thomas Paine publishes “Common Sense,” and John Adams publishes “Thoughts on Government.” | |
| The era of state constitution-making in America begins: Eight states write new constitutions, and three adopt revised |