Anti Federalist
04-15-2014, 01:52 PM
From the Reverend Henry Cumings.
The sermon preached at Lexington on April 19, 1781, on the sixth anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution.
This was the ending of the sermon.
Sirs,
The manner of your observing this day, in commemoration of the commencement of the present war, the scene whereof, was first opened in this place, does you honor, as it gives an evidence, at once, of your piety, and of your patriotism and firm attachment to the cause of your country. With honest indignation we recollect the day, when the storm of British vengeance, which had been long gathering, first burst upon your heads, in the wanton massacre of several of your brave fellow citizens and soldiers. The memory of those, who have magnanimously jeoparded their lives, and shed their blood in the country’s cause, will ever be dear to us.
We particularly retain an honorable remembrance of those, who first fell a sacrifice to British wrath; and feel emotions of sympathy toward their surviving relatives, who cannot but be sensibly affected on this occasion. We would also join with you, in grateful acknowledgments to God, who mercifully checked the wrath of our enemies in its first eruptions, and caused it to recoil back on their own heads.
We doubt not, but from the warmth of honest resentment; from a love of liberty and of your country, you will persevere to oppose and resist those insolent and haughty enemies, of whose wanton cruelty, you have had too melancholy a specimen, to permit you to expect much mercy at their hands, should they gain their point.
Let me now observe, that your appearing equipt in military armour, as soldiers prepared for war, naturally leads to reflections on the pernicious influence of those corrupt lusts of human nature, from whence come wars. They who would be glad to live peaceably with all men, are often unhappily forced into contention, and obliged to take arms, and engage in hazardous contests, in order to defend their lives and liberties, against the evil designs of unreasonable men, who when they suppose they have power and strength to accomplish their purposes, scruple not to give unbounded scope to their pride, covetousness and ambition; which passions are mortal enemies to the rights of mankind, and the source of that slavery and cruel bondage, under which so many of the nations of the earth groan at this day.
A consideration of the pernicious influence and effects of these corrupt lusts and passions should engage you and should engage us all to mortify them in ourselves. For where they prevail, they not only lead to a conduct prejudicial to the peace and welfare of human society, but make men slaves in the worst sense, how much soever they may hate the name.
While therefore, you are engaged with a laudable zeal in the cause of civil liberty, you will permit me to remind you, that there is another kind of liberty of an higher and nobler nature, which it is of [681] infinite importance to every one to be possessed of; I mean that glorious internal liberty, which consists in a freedom from the dominion of sin, and in the habit and practice of all the virtues of a good life. This is that noble and exalted liberty of the sons of God, of which our saviour speaks, when he says, If the Son of God shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed. And this, once gained, will inspire you with the greatest magnanimity and fortitude, in the cause of outward liberty.
For the righteous are bold as a lion.
To conclude. Let us all, with that ardor and earnestness which the importance of the thing requires, labour after this glorious liberty of the sons of God, that when we shall quit this tumultuous warring world (having acted our parts well in it), we may be admitted to those peaceful mansions, where, free from strife and contention, and all the pernicious effects of ungoverned wrath and ambition, we shall enjoy a blessed immortality, in the tranquil uninterrupted possession of every felicity that our natures are capable of.
Amen
The sermon preached at Lexington on April 19, 1781, on the sixth anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution.
This was the ending of the sermon.
Sirs,
The manner of your observing this day, in commemoration of the commencement of the present war, the scene whereof, was first opened in this place, does you honor, as it gives an evidence, at once, of your piety, and of your patriotism and firm attachment to the cause of your country. With honest indignation we recollect the day, when the storm of British vengeance, which had been long gathering, first burst upon your heads, in the wanton massacre of several of your brave fellow citizens and soldiers. The memory of those, who have magnanimously jeoparded their lives, and shed their blood in the country’s cause, will ever be dear to us.
We particularly retain an honorable remembrance of those, who first fell a sacrifice to British wrath; and feel emotions of sympathy toward their surviving relatives, who cannot but be sensibly affected on this occasion. We would also join with you, in grateful acknowledgments to God, who mercifully checked the wrath of our enemies in its first eruptions, and caused it to recoil back on their own heads.
We doubt not, but from the warmth of honest resentment; from a love of liberty and of your country, you will persevere to oppose and resist those insolent and haughty enemies, of whose wanton cruelty, you have had too melancholy a specimen, to permit you to expect much mercy at their hands, should they gain their point.
Let me now observe, that your appearing equipt in military armour, as soldiers prepared for war, naturally leads to reflections on the pernicious influence of those corrupt lusts of human nature, from whence come wars. They who would be glad to live peaceably with all men, are often unhappily forced into contention, and obliged to take arms, and engage in hazardous contests, in order to defend their lives and liberties, against the evil designs of unreasonable men, who when they suppose they have power and strength to accomplish their purposes, scruple not to give unbounded scope to their pride, covetousness and ambition; which passions are mortal enemies to the rights of mankind, and the source of that slavery and cruel bondage, under which so many of the nations of the earth groan at this day.
A consideration of the pernicious influence and effects of these corrupt lusts and passions should engage you and should engage us all to mortify them in ourselves. For where they prevail, they not only lead to a conduct prejudicial to the peace and welfare of human society, but make men slaves in the worst sense, how much soever they may hate the name.
While therefore, you are engaged with a laudable zeal in the cause of civil liberty, you will permit me to remind you, that there is another kind of liberty of an higher and nobler nature, which it is of [681] infinite importance to every one to be possessed of; I mean that glorious internal liberty, which consists in a freedom from the dominion of sin, and in the habit and practice of all the virtues of a good life. This is that noble and exalted liberty of the sons of God, of which our saviour speaks, when he says, If the Son of God shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed. And this, once gained, will inspire you with the greatest magnanimity and fortitude, in the cause of outward liberty.
For the righteous are bold as a lion.
To conclude. Let us all, with that ardor and earnestness which the importance of the thing requires, labour after this glorious liberty of the sons of God, that when we shall quit this tumultuous warring world (having acted our parts well in it), we may be admitted to those peaceful mansions, where, free from strife and contention, and all the pernicious effects of ungoverned wrath and ambition, we shall enjoy a blessed immortality, in the tranquil uninterrupted possession of every felicity that our natures are capable of.
Amen