THE AGENCY OF GOD, ILLUSTRATED IN THE ACHIEVEMENT
OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

SEBm@N’o
BELIVEREDJ AT NEW-PRESTON, CONNECTICUT,

Wm? 49 §lE33@_@o

BEING A RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION OF THAT DAY.

BY CHARLES A. BOARDMAN,
Pastor of the Congregational Church of Christ in that place.

O NEW-HAVEN :

PRINTED BY TREADWAY AND ADAMS.

 

18326.

SERMON.

Pssnm cxxiv. 1—’7.—-—If2't had -not been the Lord who was on our side,
now may Israel say ; If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when men rose up against us; then they had swallowed us up gm}:/s,
when their wrath was kindled agamst us: then the waters had over-
whelmed as; the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud wa-
ters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given
us as (L prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as to bird out of the
snare of the fowlers : the smtre is lwolsen, amt we are escaped.

IT is not known to what ‘particular event in the history of
the nation of Israel, this language directly applies. It con-
templates a deliverance from oppression, in which the wri-
ter and the nation saw the right hand of the Lord stretched

forth for their help. i Indeed, so entirely was that nation .

indebted to God for its existence, that in every period of its
prosperity; its princes, its priests, and its poets, had occasion
to ascribe glory to the Lord for their own elevation, and
their country’s deliverances and glory. So numerous and
manifest were the interpositionsof the Most IIi,gl1i11 their
favour, that on more than one occasion the sons and
daughters of Zion might, with singular appropriateness,
adopt the language of the text.

But clearly as We trace the indications of the Almighty
hand in the history of the Israelites, it was not on that

nation, that God exhausted the might of a his arm, or the

benevolence of his heart. It is not in the history of that
nation alone, that we are to look for the developeinent of
his counsels in his Wonderful works. In that of our own
country, he has‘ drawn the evidences of his agency so
legibly, that we cannot misinterpret them, but by an imi-
tation of the sin and perverseness of Israel, which caused

4'

his glory to depart, and ultimately made him a hissing and
a shaking of the headpamong ‘the nations. Indeed there
never was a nation whose history was so perfect a parallel
to that of the Israelites, as is that of these States. The
Israelites were thrust out by the hand of oppression; and
so were our fathers :~—When thus thrust away from the
protection and favour of a prince whose land they had
blessed, “the Lord took them up;” so did he for our
fathers in similar circumstances :—--For them, he cast out
the heathen and planted them; for our fathers, he wrought
in the same manner 2---——.HE broke for them the bands of
their oppressors; and for us he has broken the bands of
colonial subjection :——-By a series of merciful interpositions
he raised the Israelites to a standing among the nations,
and while he made their glory the envy, he made their
name and that of their God, terrible to the princes of the
earth; and by a series of like interpositions he has raised
us up, upon the landof our fathers’ sepulchres, to similar
eminence among the nations. And with equal propriety
may we, standing to day at the distance of fifty years from
that great event which threw our political and national-
destinies most emphatically into the hands of the God of
Israel, while we compass his altar with songs of deliver-
ance, in commemoration of that event, sing as once they
sung; “If it had not been the Loan who was on our side
when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us
up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: then
the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over
our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
BLESSED BE THE Loan who hath not given us as a prey to
their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare
of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.”
Let us then trace the indications of divine agency
which are found in the achievements connected with
the independence of the United States, the declaration
cf which this day commemorates.

5

In pursuing this course of illustration, I shall notice
these indications as manifested, '

I. In the preparations necessary for the independence
of these States; and

II. In the actual achievement of that independence by
the revolution.

I am to notice

I. The indications of divine agency which appear in the
preparation for the independence of the United States.

I These appear,

1. In the circumstances under which the early colonists fled
from England to this country. g .

These were circumstances of a fierce and bloody reli-
gious persecution :--—a persecution which filled England
with the terrors of the High Commission and the Star-Cham~
her: which, while it shut up the churches against an
enlightened, beloved, and devout ministry; and hunted to
prison, flight, or death, scores “of the best men and most
glorious ministers of the gospel, that ever blessed a nation,
or adorned, a church ;” placed in the pulpits of England
under the protection of the royal favour and prerogative, a
clergy, many of whom were too ignorant to preach, and
too corrupt to pray; and drove some of her best sons and
most loyal subjects into everlasting exile. A few of these

first fled to Holland, Where they were still under the ban of I

the English court and hierarchy, and in the midst of a cor-
ruption which they could neither purify nor endure ;-——placing
themselves under the protection of the God they served,
they fled to the then New World in America. They fled,
to enjoy in an unexplored wilderness, at the hands of the
sons of the forest, a blessing which a King who claimed
the appellation and prerogative of the Head of the Church
of God, and a bench of Christian Bishops, denied them
‘in the land. of their birth—'—--the privilege of worshiping God
unmolested in a pure conscience, and of training up a
generation to serve him, when they should descend to the
grave. They fled: and in 1620, after the sufferings of a

6

voyage of four months, laid, with prayers and tears, the
corner stone of the independence of America, and of the
enlightened freedom of the world.

Now nothing is plainer than, if the population of this
portion of the new world were, at the time it did, to
occupy a place among the independent nations of the
earth, it must previously become an enlightened, hardy
and brave one. It must previously become a race of men
who have rights, who know what they are, and feel their

value ;--~—a body of men who should be able to assert these

riglits under the frowns of royalty, and to defend them, be
willing to look power in the face. Such a race England
found, spread over these colonies, when she arose to hum-
ble and reduce them. But whence had the asserters of

American independence derived this character? From
:an ancestry who had felt the grasp of oppression" and had

writhed under it ;—-—an ancestry who had been forced to
discuss and settle a question which involved the great
principles of civil liberty ;-——the question of royal supremacy
in religioi1:—-fi'om an ancestry who had learned by a
painful experience, how far submission to intolerant exac-
tion and ungodly domination was dutiful or expedient ;——~
who had learned in the same school of personal suffe1°ing,
to think, to plan, to execute, for future generations. They
wished to send down to their children of remote genera-
tions, a pure gospel and a pure worship; an intellectual
vigour and independence, associated with a love of God
and an exalted morality, which should, on the one hand,

;guar'd their rights and privileges from licentiousness, and
on the other, defend them against the encroachments of

arbitrary power. For this purpose, they first dedicated

themselves and their offspring to God: and then, in the

provision they made for the support and efficiency of an
enlightened and pious ministry; in the structure of the

Igovernment they formed, the schools they instituted, the
colleges they founded, and the habits they pursued, laid

.;the foundations deep, broad, and strong, for the perpetuity

M 7

3‘ .
and enlargement of the church of God, and for the enjoy-
ment and protection of their political rights. On these
foundations the pillars of the independence of the colonies

.were reared; and on these, to this day rests the temple

of our liberties. .

all have said that such an ancestry was necessary to pre-
pare the men of mind, and heart, and force, to assert and
establish our independence; and the assertion is supported
by the analogy of fact. The colonies of Spain in South
America were planted by another class of men, and under
different auspices. They were men whose minds were
enslaved 14--—-they were planted under the royal favour.
They_could fawn to oppression, and worship an image.
They could cringe under eztaction, and buy the pardon of
sin with the avails of the mines they wrought. And what
was the consequence? Generations have risen up and
passed away with just energy enough to be servants, just
light enough to be contented with the house of their bon-

dage, and just debasement enough to be the minions of "

an ignorant and cruel priesthood. For two hundred years
they wore contented the shackles of despotism, and for the
last fifty under the light of our own example. France furs-
nishesi another instance in point. The revolution of that
country succeeded the termination of our struggle, and the
attainment of our independence, at a distance of eight
years. j There had been no persecuted Puritans laying,
in prayers and faith, the foundations of an enlightened
and enlightening church of Christ, and of institutions

adapted to produce a free and jealous peasantry.*“ And

*The author, is aware of the striking similarity in the character of
the Huguenotsand the Puritans; but the former arose and lived in a
country which had already formed its institutions, and in cimtunstances
in which they had no power to change the order of things, so as to
favour the cause of civil or religious liberty. They exerted a holy in-
fluence; but the national character‘ was already formed, and their task

was rather that of'purit’ying existing corruptions, than of’ laying f'oun--

dations of institutions which should prevent their future existence,

8

what was the consequence? I answer, in the language lot’

a distinguished statesman of our own country and time:
“The great Wheel of political revolution began to move in
America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and safe.
Transferred to the other continent, from unfortunate but

i natural causes, it received an irregular and violent impulse; p

it whirled along with a fearful celerity; till at length, like
the chariot wheels in the races of antiquity, it took fire
from the rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward,
spreading conflagration and terror around.”""“ There, the
influence which the fathers of America here exerted, had
not been known sufliciently early to impart light and health

and vigour to the national morality; and there was there-

fore no preparation for a revolution in their government.
There, the God of the Puritans was known, by the great
body of the nation, onlyto be insulted and denied; and'the
people, after drinking blood to their fill, sat down at length
under a despotism as dreadful as that which they had
vainly endeavoured to shake off. ‘More recently, Spain
partially awoke and talked of liberty; but the character of
her sons, formed under the influence of an ignorant and su-
perstitious ancestry, was unequal to the work of accom-
plishing the emancipation of their country.

In these facts, we trace the necessity of a preparation for
the American revolution, and its success, to just such an an-
cestry as our Puritan fathers. i Let us now lookat the indi-
cations which mark the presence " of the hand of God in
giving us such an ancestry. .And, who gave the fathers of
N ew-England their piety’! (For here was the secret of their
power.) Theirs was not that piety which lives on the favour
of the great, and dies when that favour is withdrawn. It
was a stern and holy integrity of conscience, springing from
a love to God and men, which could neither be bribed by
the luxury of royal favour, or ecclesiastical patronage, nor
awed into listlessness or inaction by the terrors of the Star-

*Webster’s Address.

It

9

Chamber, or the Gatehouse. Who gave them this "piety,
and maintained it While the king frowned on, and his clergy
punished it? Gan a cause he found, adequate to the pro-
duction of such a piety in such circumstances, whichis not
identified with the direct and efficient agency of God? It
was the Spirit of the living God, poured out on England,
which raised up these men, to free her from the shackles of
papal superstition and misrule; to proclaim liberty to her
captives; and to lay in the new world the foundations of a
free and mighty nation. We might with equal reason doubt
that God’s hand wrought the Reformation by the instru-

rnentalitylof Luther and his coacljutors, as doubt that his

agency produced the piety, stability, and elevation of char»

acter of our fathers. But what, or who brought them to

this land? Did the love and hope of gold bring them
hither? No. Company after company was formed in

England to explore these territories for the gold which

was known to have been found in South America, but they

sunk under their hardships, and abandoned their enterprise.

Their object was too low, and their love of it too feeble
to give permanence and utility to their undertaking. And

. -had this been the object which brought the Puritans across

the ocean, if they had lived to plant the colonies, we should
have Worn the chains of colonial dependence to this day.
Neither was their flight hither the result of disappointed

ambition, expressing the alienation of their affections from

the land of their birth, or resentment for the injuries they
had received. They came reluctantly, with the pure love
of their country beating strong in their hearts; weeping to
the billows which bore them forever from their heritage
and their home. They came, because the hand of oppres-
sion had closed every other door of hope against theirfree
enjoyment of the rights of conscience in the Worship of
God, Like the Israelites they were thrust out by the in-
strumentality of oppression, and for a similarpurpose,———that
gofnrorshiping God, and preserving his institutions. And now

slid .not God send them? Did not God send out the Israel~
0

An

10

ites from Egypt? Was it with a high arm that he brought
them forth? Look now over the record, and point me to
an indication of divine agency in the exodus of Israel, mire.»
cles only excepted, which does not shine forth in the history

of the formation of character, flight, and settlement, of the

Pilgrims. . . An

Indications‘ of the agency of God in preparing the way
for the independence of these States appear,

2. In the preservation of the colomsts after their arrival in
this country.

If to the establishment of our independence such an an-
cestry as God gave us in our Puritan fathers was neces-
sary, it was equally necessary, not only that God should
transport and plant them here, but preserve them in the
land to which they fled, till they could lay the foundations

. of institutions which should foster and strengthen the spirit

of freedom which they possessed, and transmit it, withthe
enterprise and firmness necessary to maintain it, to future
generations. All might, and probably would have been lost
if the Plymouth colony had been cut off Within the first
twenty years of its existence. Other men, in other circum-
stances, probably would have ultimately succeeded them,
who would have left their children of distant generations, an
inheritance of submission to royal authority and perpetual
bondage, . y.{ » 4 .t ‘ i

I have saidthis would probably have been the result of the
early “destruction of the Plymouth colony; and the circum-
stances of the case show this to have been almost the only
probability. The jealousy of the British court was early ex-
cited against the colonists. In 1635, only fifteen years
from the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, at a time
when that colony had acquired just strength enough. to hope
-for the purpetuity of its erristence, and show a front to ag-

gression, a royal commission was issued to the high offi-P
cers of state and some of the nobility, for the purpose of

‘overthrowing their whole system of government, and bind-
ing them for the sacrifice. By this commission, absolute

11

power was given to the Archbishop of Canterbury, (the
inflexible enemy of the Puritans,) and others, “to make laws
and constitutions concerning either their (the colonists)
state public, or the utility of individuals.” The commission-
ers were authorized to support the clergy, (belonging to the
church estab1ishment,) by assigning them tithes, oblations,

T and other profits, according to their discretion; to inflict

punishment on those who should violate theirrordinances;
to remove governors of plantations, and appoint others;
and to constitute tribunals and courts of justice, ecclesias-
tical and civil, with such authority and form as they should
think proper. They were also constituted acommittee to
hear complaints against a colony, its governor, and other
officers, with power to remove the offender to England for
punishment. They were further directed to cause the revo-
cation of such letters patent, granted for the establishment
of the colonies, as should upon inquiry be found to have
been unduly obtained, or to contain a grant of liberties hurt-
ful to the prerogative royal?‘ TWO years after the issuing‘ of
this commission, that is, in 1637, Charles I. issued a pro-
clamation, directing that none should be transported to
New-England, who had not the special license of the govern-
ment, and that this should be granted to those only who
had taken the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and had con»-
formed to the church of Englan.d.T In the same year, the
commissioners before referred to, issued awrit by Wliiclr
judgment was given, that the liberties of .Massachusetts should

be seized into the hands that corferred them; and the privy V

council ordered the governor and cornpany to send their patent

T to England to be delivered up. 1 But during these seventeen

years,the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts had acquir-o
ed some strength ; and neither was the proclamation of the
king complied With, nor the judgment of his court executed.
Either probably, and certainly both, would have bound

l*Vid. Marshall’s Washington, Vol. I. p. 10665:
-flbid. Vol. I. p. 114.
1 Ibid. Vol. I. p. 115.

192‘
Americajto the footof the throne of England for ages. ” in
such a state of things, who can doubt, that if the first coloa
nists had been early swept away, another, and a widely
different class of men would have succeeded them ;--—-that
the institutions of America Would have been moulded by
hearts which could have conceived of no liberty beyond
the limits of royal patronage, and hands upon which any
chains would have set easily, provided they were fastened

by their‘ Gracious Sovereign Charles I. assisted by their lord‘

his Grace of Canterbury ;’-—--«and, that the liberties of America
would have been ‘conveyed in fee-simple, and beyond all
recovery to the King of England, and to his heirs and suc-
cessors forever.’ t ‘

But the first colonists were preserved. They first gave

_ themselves to the Lord, and then formed their system of civil
government. This, for the first nineteenyears, was a pure t

Bemocracy, and thenceforward, a Representative Republic,
modified by its connexion with the English court?‘ Twenty-
three years after the landing of the fathers at Plymouth, they
drew, in the confederation of the New-England colonies,
the perfect miniature of the present union of the states com-
posing this republic. Within forty-three years then, from
the landing at Plymouth, that form of government was de-

vised and put into operation, which one hundred and thirty-

three years afterwards (when it had planted itself, deeply
and immovably, in the hearts of the children of those who
formed it) was to be established and acknowledged as the
basis of the civil liberty of these states at the point of the bay-
onet; and that system of combining the strength of inde-
pendent sovereignties adopte_d,which instrumentally gave
success to that mighty struggle on which was staked the
temporal destinies of all the millions of America. Where
then, would have been the materials for that band of patriots,
one of whom (Adams) in giving utterance to his own glowing
emotions, spoke the language of his associates, when he
said, on the morningof the 19th April, 1775, ‘while listening

*'V.’id. I\vf[arsha.ll’s Washington, Vol. I. p. 953..

13

to the report of the British musketry which shed the first
blood in the contest, which gave a nation birth, “Oh what.
a glorious morning is this !”“—~Whe1'e would have been the
materials of that Continental Congress which fifty years ago
to-day, in the face of a mighty empire, appealing to the
God of their fathers for the rectitude of their intentions,
could declare the United States rams AND INDEPENDENT?
where would have been the materials for the army of ’76 ;
—---where the government for which that army fought ;'--—-
where the union and the heart that gave its battle strength ;
——-where the independence of these states, if the Puritan
‘colonists had been swept away within the first twenty years‘
of their dwelling in the wildernesss C? All would have been
lost.

But they were preserved. And their preservation will be
an everlasting paradox to that man who sees no hand of
God in it. A little band--few-——poor—-—enfeebled by a my»
age of four rnonths-——-—defenceless, set down upon the margin

of an unmeasured wilderness; surrounded by a thousand if

savages; with a dreary winter before them, and the ocean
dashing at their feet, to hold them eternal prisoners from
the home of their fathers; are preserved I And while strug-
gling to maintain a being in the world, and the pure wor-
ship of God, lay the foundations of a mighty nation! Open
new the volume of history, and tell me of a parallel to this
wonderful preservation, that of Israel only excepted, in the
history of nations. What potent spell has bound the war
spirit of the Indian, that the tomahawlr lies rusting at his
feet, while our fathers and their little ones sleep quietly, in"
his power’! Or, to adoptlanguage more appropriate: Who
was that mighty agent, who, when our fathers in this land
“even but few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers
in it; when they went from one nation to another, from one
kingdom to another people, suffered no man to do them
wrong; yea, reproved kings for their sakes: saying, Touch
not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm '1” ‘Who

5* Vid. Everett’s Oration at Concord-. p- 31»

1 4

was it that “drove out the heathen and planted them '3”
‘Who watched over the rising interests of these colonies, and
when the long, dispute between Massachusetts and Con-
necticut arose, which threatened early destruction to that
confederationof the N ew-England colonies, which was so
essential a preparation for the independence of the States,
when every effort of the parties for settlement resulted in
only increased asperity; suddenly, mysteriously, and reflecta-
ally healed the contention by the destruction of Fort Say-
brook in 1649 11"‘ N ow, I can perceive no evidence that the
hand ofGod defended the land of Israel from invasion when
three times in the year, all their males repaired unarmed to

Jerusalern, which I do not see, that God’s hand defended y

the Puritans, through all the early periods of their settle-

, ment in New-England. Andl see almost as clearly, in their

preservation, the preparation that God was making for the
independence of these States, as I see, in the preservation of
Israel in the land of Canaan, the preparation which God was
making for the coming of the Son of Man.

The indications of the agency of God in preparing the

way for the independence of the United States, appear,
3. In the tears zuhich the colonies were called to wage.
Nothing is more obvious than, if the colonies were ever to
dissolve all connexion with the government of England, they
must previously be furnished with arms ;---have some practi-
cal knowledge of their use ;——-~feel the necessity, and under-

‘ stand thelmeans of providing munitions of war, and possess,

at least, some practical knowledge of its details. But how
were the colonies to be armed and furnished with the knowl-
edge requisite to maintain such a struggle as that which Se»
cured our independence? Had perpetual peace smiled

‘around the dwellings of the fathers, With their peaceful habits

-and dread of war, they would have felt no necessity for arms,

V and made no exertion to procure them. They would have
i left theirchildren a brave, but an unarmed peasantry. Be-
side, had they dwelt in perpetual peace, and been anac-

‘-rvid. Marsha1l’s ‘Washington, V01. I. p.146.

I‘

la

icusly desirous of arming themselves, it would have been ut-
terly impracticable. To the manufacture of arms they were
long incompetent; and application to the mother country
for munitions of war, when threatened with no sword upon
themselves, Would, most assuredly, at any time, have met
with refusal, if not with overwhelming resistance. Such an
application, during any period of our "colonial history, in all
probability, would have so inflamed the jealousy of the Eng»
lish Court as to have produced the utter subjugation of the

colonies, and thus crushed in its bud, the independence of i

America. But one door then, could have been opened for
this martial preparation of the colonies for the contest through
which they could take a place among the independent na-
tions of the earth. That door, the hand of God opened; but
it opened only into the arsenals of the enerniesrof the colo-
nies. They must march to battle, that they might be armed.
The wars which they were early called to wage with the
natives of the soil prepared them to receive arms at the
hands of the mother country. With these, the War was long

and bloody. Sufiiciently so, to train the colonists to the i

peculiar modes of Indian warfare, and to proper means of de-
fence against it. But the enemies with which they were ul-
timately to contend were not Indians alone. i And if the
great battle for independence was to issue in the triumph of‘

freedom, the colonies must not only be armed and trained l

to all the arts of savage war, but they must also learn it in its
European form. For, it was both European and Indian
troops that theyvvere destined to meet in the conflict for in-
dependent national existence.

But where, and how should the humble peasantry of the

Aniericanlicolonies learn European tactics? Go back to

England, and join her regiments against Holland, or Spain,
they could not. Into what school of blood then, must

they enter’! War must be kindled between England and K,

France; America must be the theatre of its operations;
and the soldiers who were to achieve the independence of

16 

the colonies must learn to subdue Britons, by fighting by
their side, in a common cause. i

Now, could the battle of the revolution possibly have
been fought without arms '2 Couldthe colonies have been
armed without that train of Wars through which they were
conducted previously to the day when England stretched

rforth her hand to strangle in blood the spirit of liberty

which in 1775 scowled on her oppression, and in ’76 threw
down the gauntlet to her generals and her armies?

To some extent the colonies were armed ;il-—--they had
learnt to measure strength with their enemies in the field.
They stood the shock of the onset of a mighty nation, and
rose weary, but triumphant from the conflict. But who
gave them this preparation? Hr; who led them through
all their former wars, is the answer, For, did the mic»
nists tthemselves seek through this method, this essential
preparation for the battle of independence? It is notori-

i ous that nothing was further from their thoughts. Did

Britain seek, through this method, the object of preparing
for her own defeat? ~.Cer.-tainly no-t. ‘Without the forecast

of either party in the contest which established our inde~
pendence, this essential preparation was made. Now, if
God did not most emphatically make it, who did? If

God’s hand is not visible here, where is the evidence that
he rules the nations or governs the World? ,

Indicationsof the divine agency in preparing the way
for our independence, appear, .

4. In the revivals of religion which God g7*an.ted to the
colonies previously to the rwolutio-n.

To the successful issue of a revolution, having for its
object the security of the privileges of freemen, a vigorous
and healthy tone of morals is almost as essential as men
and arms. The revolution of France lost every thing for
-want of this. Naples lacked this preparation, and she fell.

South America still wants this to settle her government;

and Greece——--poor Greece, for want of this, has bled
almost to death. Without this, it is probable our own

1‘?

independence could not have been achieved; or, if achieve
ed, it is morally certain that the blessings of civil and re»
ligious liberty, which it has brought along with it could not
have been perpetuated. For with all the morality and
piety which existed in the country at the close of the war,
it was scarcely that we were saved from immediate anarchy
and ultimate despotism. And God, as if he had some great
purpose of mercy to answer through the medium of the
emancipation of the colonies,-———as if determined to show
that here he would establish the place of his rest, took
early care to imbue the minds of the people, to a then un-7
paralleled extent, with the morality and grace of the gospel.
In the early periods of the history of the colonies, he left not
himself without witness of his power and grace. In the
years 1629, 30, 37, 77, 80,83, 96, 1712, 18, and 91, power-
ful and somewhat extensive revivals were bestowed on many
of the churches of N ew-Eng1and. But, as if in anticipation of
the eventful period embraced between 1776 and 1783, God
began to pour forth his Spirit remarkably in 1735, and brought
on in 1740 and 1741 the most” extensive and powerful revival
of religion which Newi-England had then ever witnessed.
The influence of this revival would be felt through the entire
period of the war, and probably has not even yet entirely
passed away. N ow although but few comparatively of the
subjects of i these revivals may be found to have been in
the ranks of the army, or in the councils of the States, yet
they may have had, and no doubt actually did have, an im-
portant influence in forming the public moral character, and
in adapting that character to the exigences of the revolu-
tion. Without them, our statesmen and heroes, who never
felt their sanctifying influence, might have been very differ-
ent men from what they actually were, and the cause they

espoused might therefore have been conducted to a very

different, perhaps to an inglorious, issue.
For how much of the acquisition of our independence;

for how much of the privileges and blessings which we have

reaped from it; and for how much of our national character
3

I8

and renown, we are indebted to the revivals of religion
which preceded the revolution, another day will disclose.
But now they stand out upon the pages of our history, wit-
nessing the preciousness of the inheritance which God re-
served to himself in this land; illustrating His agency in
preparing the colonies for the assertion of their independ-
ence, and throwing over the conflict which achieved it the
sanction of His own Great Name.

Let me now briefly trace,
II. The indications of the divine agency which appear in
the actual achievement of our independence.
Among these I notice,

1. The division in the English counsels on flmerican afl'a2'rsr. A

A In looking over the hi.sto:ry of the first years of the war of
the revolution,I have frequently been led to”vvonder at the
tardiness of the movements of the British armies. At the
commencement of this struggle,--—-when there was no orga-
nization of the military force of the colonies; the militia

poorly equipped for service-, in comparison with those with A

whom they were called to contend; without discipline and
without forts; when almost no public stores were col-
lected,—--it would almost seem that a vigorous and continued
effort on the part of the invaders, might have ravaged the
land; ‘ prevented the tormation of the Continental Army;

and, by the achievement of a single campaign, buried in the

dust the high hopes of the patriots of America.

That England did not take this course is owing probably
more to the division of her own counsels on the great question
of war with America, than to any other event. There, the
cause of rational liberty and American rights had friends,--------
friends of no ephemeral character. Pitt, and Burke, and
Fox,---—men whose power was terrible to the Norths, and
Hillsboroughs, and Suffolks;--vvere there, and there pleaded
the cause of civil liberty, in the face of a monarch and the
ministry, with a manliness which showed that their own
minds were deeply imbued with its spirit, and their hearts

T9

devoted to its interests. It was not easy for even the ma-
jority of both houses of Parliament to go with much confi-
dence against the opinions of this triad of political wisdom
in the heart of Old England. Pitt’s early prophecy that
America would resist, repeated in a voice which England
heard, “My Lords, you cannot conquer America,” rung in
the ears of the ministry, and of both houses, during all their
work of preparation, and all their strife of battle for the
subjugation of the colonies. _ They were half unmanned by it
when they made the onset. Gage himself was awed by it.
He saw, on the day that he shed the first blood of America
at Lexington, that he had roused the mighty spirit thatPitt
had told him lay sleeping in the United Colonies, and felt
the danger of its energies. He moved cautiously,-—slowly,-—
timidly. And while he wondered and waited, the voice of
blood, crying’ from the fields of Lexington and Concord,
rung through the land like a sevenfold thunder, and awoke
a spirit which it was vain to resist, and hopeless to subdue.
This inaction at the commencement of the struggle, seems
to bear a strong relation, in the connexion of events, to the
success of the cause of freedom, and to have been induced,
in no small degree, by the division in the counsels of Britain.
And do we not perceive here the workings of the same
hand that defeated the purposes of Absalom by dividing his
councils, and by a similar mode of operation giving success
to a cause on which the Most High eternally designed to
enstamp, in characters legible to all the nations, the names
of Rienrnoosness and STRENGTH.

Indications of the agency of God in the achievement of
our independence, appear,

2. In sustaining the spirit of both the army and the country,
during so long as conflict, attendecl with so many discourage-»
ments, till the great object was accomplished.

There is not, I believe, on record a parallel to the Ameri-
can war, considering the circumstances in which it was
waged, and the success in which it resulted. Other con-..
quests have been gained by a rapid succession of victories.

950

This great contest seems to have issued in the triumph of
freedom through a succession of disasters: and England
seems defeated through the almost detailed defeat of the
armies she opposed. Read over the contents of the chap»-
ters of the history of this struggle for almost the first two
years, and what do you find there but notices of the repulse,
retirement, or defeat,of difi'erentsections of the army which
ultimately accomplished the independence of the states?
‘g The evacuation of forts.--——The loss and destruction of
stores and villages.-«Arnold defeated on the Lakes.-——-Dan-
bury bur11t.—-Washington, after a hard fought battle, de-
feated on the Brandywine.--Loses the victory at Germana
town.---Burgoyne successful in the North 2’ and, with few
exceptions, victory following the march of the invader till
near the close of the campaign of 1777. t Then, indeed,
Burgoyne surrenders: but upon the heels of this success
comes on the memorable winter of "77, and the extreme
suffering of a starving, naked, freezing army, under the im-
mediate command of Washington, in winter quarters at
Valleyforge. Desertion, sickness, defection, reduce that
army to a skeleton: soon Georgia and South Carolina lie
submissive at the feet of the British general ; and the same
tale of woe reaches down, with almost unvarying account, to
1781. And it was not until late in the campaign of that
year that Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. Add to all
these trials and distresses of the army, the poverty of the
public treasury ; the divisions and defection among the peo-
ple; the incursions of the Indians; the depreciation of the
currency; the divisions in Congress; and then, who can
think without astonishment, that the spirits of the best
friends of liberty had not sunk, and the army and the coun-
try had not crouched to British power for a morsel of bread!

, Who can think of the terminatiort of this contest, at the very,

time when this country, although victorious over two veteran
armies, lay bleedingfat every pore, and the empire with
which she had sustained the conflict was still mightytirt
strength,--—-and not wonder that the cause of freedom had not

E21

found its grave on the very fields where its armies had
achieved its victories.

. Let it not be said in view of these wonders that mere
unsanctified patriotism, unassisted valour, accomplished
the defeat of Britain, and the establishment of the indel-
pendence we now enjoy. The case bears so strong a
resemblance to that of God’s ancient people,”-who not-
withstanding all their discontents under the guidance of
a leader which Jehovah himself had selected, and all their
lustings for the house of their bondage, were still “brought
forth into a wealthy pIace,”——--that we might almost asivvell
doubt that the Most High gave them deliverance and victory
over their enemies, and with no weapon of war lifted up
against the city, threw down the walls of Jericho, and bade
every man go up to its possession straight before him, as
doubt whether God turned to flight, at the time and in the
circumstances that he did, ‘the armies of the aliens,’ for us.
So clearly are drawn the traces of the divine hand, in the
achievement of this victory, that when I see this exhausted
country delivered from her invaders; rising from theconflict
with scarcely strength enough to shout the victory, it  with
difficulty that I can refrain from joining the praises of tri-l
umphant Israel, and adopting the language of Moses, say,
“ I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously :.
the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Thy
right hand, 0 Lord, is become glorious in power: thy
right hand, 0 Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.”

Like indicationsof the divine hand appear,
 In the presertvation qfour liberties when our armies had

eonquegred the peace of ’83. t T T l

The men who composed the army which expelled the ene-
mies of their country, were poor. Their wealth had been
sacrificed to the common cause: they were unpaid,’ and an
exhausted treasury threatened to send them unarmed to their
homes with norecompense but the remembrance of their
sufferings and the glory they had won. The officers of this
army were many of them stung with a prospect of beggary.

2253

in a land whose independence they had lavished their estates
and shed their blood to establish. Under this irritation,
anonymous letters urging a refusal to disband until Congress
had satisfied their demands on the justice of their country,
were circulated in the American camp, threatening most
fearfully, to extinguish the torch of liberty in the blood of
the very country to which for seven years these veterans
had fought to bequeath it. At one moment, an armed sol»
diery posted itself at the doors of the hall of Congress. An-
other step and our liberties would have perished in the fury
of a military despotism.

I have not forgotten the instrurnentality and influence of the
Commander-in-Chief, in quelling these discontents in this

crisis. But a question occurs which can never be answered
‘ till thereply directs me to_God. Who, and what gave to
Washington on that occasion,----whenevery selfish ’ interest

of his own urged one Way, and the still uncertain security of
his country urged him another,---Who, and what gave to him
that decision on which was staked every thing dear to Amer»
ica ? And who gave to that decision its effect? If God’s
hand is not here, in vain shall We look for it in any of those
-events by which he raises up or casts down a nation.

In the review of this subject, we perceive, in zvhctt. manner

our fathers and the heroes of the revolution areto be regarded.  

If I do not much mistake, there is in our country an in-
creasing disposition to bestow upon both the fathers of N ew-

England, and the patriots of the revolution, a distinction,

which neither the history of their achievements, nor the
revelation of the God the holiest of them served, demands
or justifies. We do indeed owe to their instrnrnentality a
most precious remembrance. We owe to their virtues,
love; to their elevation and firmness of character, venera-
tion; to their patriotism and valour, honour; and to their
frailties and their faults, charity and forgiveness. We may
and we will revere their memory. W'ewill speak of their
names and their services to our children, and tell them

E23

never to forget, but always to do justice to their fathers. But
if our praise of them go farther than this; or if here the voice
of our gratitude expire, we do them injustice :--,—--vve rob God
of the glory which his manifested agency in our behalf most
righteously demands, and thus do ourselves and our country
a disservice. ‘Honour, and remember with high respect,
and imitate the virtues of the great and goodvmen, who
through their instrumentalityi have bequeathed us this pre-
cious inheritance of light and liberty, we may; but deify
them, or ascribe to them the honour and glory of all that
we enjoy as a free and happy people, we may not. The
reason is, they were but instruments in the acquisition of i all
our elevation and blessedness. God formed the character
of our Puritan ancestors ;——God brought them hither ;-—-—God
defended them till the influence of their habits, and the in-
stitutions they established, had lmoulded the character of
their descendants ;—-—God ordered all the circumstances‘ un-
der which they instrumentally prepared the Way for the
declaration and establishment of theindependence of this
great nation ;——-God went forth with the armies that hunted

despotism from the land ;——-God dwelt in their camp ;---—~God
turned back their weapons whenlevelled at their country’s

precious interests; and God has preserved to us the legacy
which these patriots left us when they dropped into the
grave. Not a step is found in the history of our country

from its infancy, to the present unparalleled vigour and

hopefulness of its’ youth, in which God has not left the me»
morials of his name and presence ; and now shall we be blind
to all the manifestations of his agency and goodness which
appear in his gracious providence? Shall we rob him, to heap
everlasting adulations on the instruments by which hehas
so largely blessed us? Shall we chant forever the praises
of Carver, Vl/Tinslow, Cotton, ,Mather, Quincy, F1'anklin, Ad»-
ams, Jefferson, Lee, Warren, La Fayette, and Washington,
and lay no offering of holy gratitude and thanksgiving on

the altar of the Most High God, in Whose hands these wor- "

thies were but the tools with which He. built up the temple



of our liberties’! No, my hearers. God has done too m.uch
in this mighty enterprise, to be forgotten; and men too
little to inherit its praise. When we tell our children, then,
the story of our father’s Worth, and of our country’s deliv-
erance, let us tell them too, that God Wrought it all; and
that by the value of all their privileges; by the precious re-
membrance of the blood by which they were bought; by
the happiness which they enjoy, and for which their fathers

wept, prayed, fought, and died, they are bound, through all ~

their generations, to love, and serve, and exalt the Holy One
who inhabiteth the high praises of Israel.

This subject also discloses as reason, that the remembrance
of this day should be perpetuated.

This reason /is not, (as has been justly said,) that “the
Fourth of Julyis better than any other day;” nor simply,
that on this day the independence of the United States was
declared; but because it is a day with which is associated
the recollection of a long train of astonishing events which de-i~
velope the designs of the Most High, and show the operations
of his wonder-Working hand. This day is associated with
events which bring God out from the cloud behind which he
wrought all the work of preparation for our national.deliv-
erance and elevation, and show him guiding us in every
-danger; giving strength when our armies fainted, and vic-
tory when the land was wasted; inscribing his own name
on all the columns of our glory, and present Him as worthy
of our confidence and service forever. It is a day associated
with events in which the Great Head of the Church, and the
King of Zion shows himself to the nations, as the friendof
the civil rights of man, in a light, joyful to the free, but ter-
rible to despots. More for a nation than for this, God has
rarely, if ever done. Indeed, that nation does not now
«exist, which exhibits evidence of a more intimate alliance to
‘heaven than our own. This day revives the recollection of
the evidence of this alliance, and when it. shall be forgotten,
its remembrance, and that of all the merciful interpositions
«cf the Most High which evince it, will perish from the land,

‘:25

Btrhletiinsot God lose, in the forgetfulness of the people, this

occasion of a nation’s praise. So often as this anniversary
shall return, let those whom the right hand of the Lord has

made free, remember his works and record their grateful
rernembrance of his mercy. “Let the people praise thee,
O. God; yea, let all the people praise thee.”

The subject discloses also, the proper mode ofpe7*1oct'uat'i'ng
the rememorance qf this day. , i r 0 A i

If Mars and Bacchus had been the deliverers of the chil-
dren of the pilgrims from arbitrary exaction and foreign
domination, then might We appropriate this day to their
l1OI1i€)l1l‘l;--if-.-lllltfifl might We celebrateit with martial pornp and
revelry. But if the Lord Jehovah be our defence and pres-
server; if He raised up and prepared the heroes of ’76 for
the conflict; if “ God went forth with our armies, and cov-

ered their heads in the day of battle ;” if He by an out-

stretched arm has given to us the charter of the rights of
freernen; if the Lord’s hand has accomplished all the W011-
ders which this day commemorates,-—-4-tlien the appropriate
duty~oft:lfiis,day is, to “go unto God as our exceeding joy---

speak well.of his name with reijoicing,——-and compass his

altar with songs of deliverance.” it _ i

lam aware that this is delicate ground. I know that
there are men, the value of whose opinions We are boundto
appreciate, who think that, associated as this day is Witli
“ the shouts of battle and the shock of arms,” no celebration
is appropriate but that which brings back the music of the
camp, and the thunder of the field, and the rnirth and rnerriment
that Wine inflames. But What are the recollections which
thegeelebration of this day perpetuates, which demand this
martial expression of gladness? You tell me they are deeds
of martial glory.   You lead me to Lexington, Con-cord, Bun...
ker Hill, Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth, and Georgetown,
and bid me call to remembrance the thunder of the cannon
and musketry that once echoed from the surrounding hills,
andlicommemorate these scenes with the‘? repetition of the
Same, sounds of terror, and with the voice of mirth. I ac.-

4 I

926

company you to these scenes of trial and of death- But
here, conscience, and every feeling of my heart, bid me
tread lightly: for here lie the ashes of the Illustrious Dead.
Here lie the fathers of our liberties. I Precious men! Here
you groaned and sighed for your bleeding country, and
died. Yes, Precious men! to you, uncler*God, I owe it
that these hands wear ‘no chains; that this spirit is not
bound down to the worship, of I know not What; that when

I shall descend to the grave, I may leavemy children, be-’

yond the reach of the oppressor’s rod and the despotis
power----heirs to the same inheritance you bequeathed to
me,—-—Liberty‘: and I cannot, I cannot here repeat the
death-sounds in which you fled away. I

But you conduct me to-day to Legislative Halls, and bid

me commemorate the stern integrityof the men that filled
them in the most perilous period of our history, with the
martial ceremonies that gaveteffect to their decisions. But
I see there indications of a deep thoughtfulness, of solici-
tudes that balance the character and condition of unborn
generations, and of a solemn judgment, as if they held the
destinies of a world in their hands,--and shall I celebrate

their’ anxieties, their wisdom, and steadiness of purpose, with I

the roar of cannon and the huzza of the mob ?,

Turn now with me and contemplate theiimovements of a
mightier agent; the designs ,_ of an loftier intelligence; the
interposition of infinite power and love. Belioldfthe King
of kings, by a thousand Wonders proclaiming himself Ova
Fninnn: selecting aw little band of his own followers, and
leading them forth with a father’s tenderness to the possession
of this goodly land ; defending them with his own omnipo-
tence as the apple of his eye ; by them establishing a church
on thegates of which He has written Salvation, and on the
wallsof which He has inscribed Praise, making the place
of theirrefuge the lot of his inheritance, saying by a thou»-
sand tokens of mercy, “ This is my rest forever; here will
I dwell; for I have desired it l” Behold Him pouring his
HolySpirit from on high to sanctify the people; raising up

27

and forming the character of that illustrious generation who i

have won so much glory for themselves, and so much bles-
sedness for us,-——-and then say, if the day which revives re-
collections of such solemn, such holy interests, is appropri-
ately celebrated when devoted to martial display and tu-
multuous joy. Let the memory of this day never be lost.
But let it be preserved by a celebration which shall bring a
nation’s homage and a nation’s honours and cast them at
the foot of the throne of our Mighty Deliverer, J ehovah-J esus.
Thus let the memory of this day be perpetuated, and an»
nually as it returns, while the sun shines on Independent
America, let a chorus of praise to the Holy One of Israel,
breaking from the lips of all the millions of her freemen,

ascend like one great cloud of incense to heaven. Then,

angels may take part in the joy of our anniversaries, and
God will look down and smile.