THE RELATION OFCHRISTIANITY

AND OF

THE SEVERAL FORMS OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS

OF THE UNITED STATES:

A SERMON, PREACHED BEFORE THE CHITTENDEN COUNTY CONSOCIATION,

IN MILTON, JUNE 24, 1833.

BY J,K, CONVERSE, Pastor of the Calvinistic Congregational Church, Burlington. Vt.

John Kendrick Converse: Dartmouth

Hampden-Sydney

Princeton

BURLINGTON: EDWARD SMITH.

1833.

REPRINTED 1999

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE CHITTENDEN COUNTY CONSOCIATION.

Resolved, that the thanks of the Chittenden County Consociation be given to the Rev. J.K. CONVERSE, for his Sermon delivered at the opening of our session, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same for the press.

PREFACE.

*****

This discourse was first preached before the Chittenden County Consociation, at Milton, on the 24th of June, and subsequently from the pulpit of the First Congregational Church in this place. The author very much regrets to learn that a few of his Episcopal friends, who heard it, were displeased with some of the views contained in the latter part of it. He therefore begs leave to say that the discourse was not designed to contain a single remark or reflection upon the Episcopal Church as a Church. All that is said in the part of the sermon above referred to, is aimed at HIGH CHURCH PRINCIPLES, wherever they are found, whether in the Episcopal, or in the Presbyterian branch of the Church. It was his design to bring into view high church principles, which are in no way essential to episcopacy, (though often connected with it;) and to show that these principles ought to be renounced, because they are unscriptual in their origin, exclusive in their character, tending to break up that communion which has so profitably existed in our state, between Christians of different denominations, and because they are believed to be opposed to the genius of our republican institutions.

The distinction between low and high Church principles is clearly stated, with the distinct avowal that not a syllable is uttered against the former, or those who hold them. No person, therefore, can with any reason be offended, unless he be a high Church-man. It is often said by our Episcopal brethren, that there is no such distinction as high and low Church; if there be not, then some of the remarks in the second part of this discourse are directed against a mere shadow, and of course, nobody but the shadow, can feel aggrieved.

It was with unfeigned reluctance, that the author of

this discourse approached the subject here discussed at

all. But he felt himself impelled to it in defence of what he deems the cause of truth. A large edition of a work has been issued from the press in this place, dissemination the principles here examined. These principles are new to many of our people. They have been asserted by the author of the said work with a singular boldness.-Not to raise a voice of defence, might appear to some to be acknowledging MERE ASSERTIONS to be truth, or unanswerable argument. When, therefore, the writer is met by principles and practices which pointedly condemn the institutions of his own Church, and when those who would wish to join its communion are repressed, with the solemn admonition, that, by so doing, they are departing from the appointed way of salvation, he feels himself called on to show the tendency of those principles, and to defend the order and worship of the Churches planted by our pious Fathers at the expense of so much suffering and toil.

BURLINGTON, JULY 15th, 1833.

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SERMON.

****

The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. DANIEL II. 44.

The kingdom of which the Prophet speaks is the Church

of Christ. The God of heaven hath set up this kingdom in our fallen world, and he has hitherto preserved it against all the shafts of persecution with which it has been assailed. In no emergency has he ever abandoned it; and our text assures us that he never will, till it has extended its dominion from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth.

What the Almighty has proposed, or begun to do, he will finish; for, "he is in one mind and none can turn him; and what his soul desireth even that he doeth." The worlds he began to build, he finished. Not one of them was left half formed and motionless, to settle back into its original chaos. Each he placed in its orbit, and gave it light, and laws, and motion: and ever since this first development of the divine stability, the wheels of providence have rolled on with steady, settled, and resistless course. What Omnipotence begins, he brings to its consumation; and herein is our assurance that the kingdom predicted in the text shall never be destroyed.

We derive the same assurance from God's protection of the Church through ages past. If he would float his Church above a drowning world and redeem her from Egyptian bondage; if he would make a passage through the sea and escort her through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud and of fire; if he would rain her bread from heaven and stop the sun in the firmament to aid her victories; if he would light up her dungeons with celestial radiance, and by his presence cool the fires of the furnace and the stake;-we have un these stupendous events the surest pledge of her future safety.

That this kingdom was set up by the God of heaven, and is under his immediate control, is also proved by the single fact of its present existence in the world. If you look at the character and the objects of the Christian Church, you would, upon common principles of reasoning, pronounce her long existence in the world IMPOSSIBLE. For eighteen hundred years, the Christian Church has found a natural enemy in every man and woman born during that period. She has had to overcome the unanimous hostility of the world. In doing this, she has used no political stratagems; she has employed no disciplined legions or outward force of any kind. "The weapons of her warfare are not carnal but spiritual, and mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." By the use of these weapons, it is her expectation "to break in pieces all other kingdoms and to stand forever." To mock this hope-to defeat this expectation and blot out her existence from under heaven, the heathen have raged, the people have imagined a vain thing, and the kings of the earth have set themselves together;-the most furious efforts of fanaticism, the most ingenious arts of statesmen, yea, more, the concentrated strength of empires have been frequently and perseveringly applied. The blood of her sons and daughters has steamed like water; the smoke of the furnace and the stake has ascended up in thick volumes to the skies; the tribes of her persecutors, in almost every age, have sported over her woes, mingled her tears with blood, and have triumphed, as they thought, in her destruction. But those persecutors have long since gone to their own place, and their empires, like shadows passing over the plain, have disappeared and left not a trace behind.

But what has become of the Church in all this conflict of human passions,-in this leagued warfare of earth and hell? The Church still lives. She has risen successively from her ashes, fresh in beauty and in might, like a new born angel from the night of chaos. Celestial glory has beamed around her. She has dashed down the monumental marble of her foes and they who hated her have fled before her. In a spirit of benevolence, infinitely above revenge, she has decently celebrated the funeral of kings and kingdoms that plotted her destruction. How is this wonderful preservation of Christ's kingdom to be explained? Who shall unfold the mystery? This blessed book unfolds the mystery and makes our wonder cease. It assures us that "the God of heaven hath set up this kingdom in the hearts of men and "that it will never be destroyed."

"Why the do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" Why do "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take councel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed; saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision." Ps 2: 1-4,-Let them know that "the God of heaven hath set up this kingdom; that it shall never be destroyed; that it shall break in pieces all other kingdoms, and stand forever." "The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." "The heathen shall be given to him for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." Then shall the triumphant song break forth, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of Christ."

It appears, then, from our text, and also from the whole tenor of inspired prophecy, that the Church of Christ is to exist to the end of time, and have a universal prevalence in our world. As Christianity is thus designed by its divine Author, to prevail among all nations, and conditions of men, it must have in itself some inherent adaptation to the wants and faculties of men, and be capable of suiting itself to all states of society, and to all forms of government.

Having submitted these remarks on the meaning of the text, I propose to consider in this discourse, the relation of Christianity to the civil institutions of the United States, and the diverse influences which the different forms of Christianity, prevailing among us, are likely to have on these institutions.

First. THE GENERAL RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO OUR

CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

The relation of the prevailing system of religion to the civil government, and its direct influence on the government in various countries and ages, is one of the most interesting branches of the history of man. A truth which is established by all history, and which must be kept constantly in view in this discussion, is, that, whatever form of religion has had general prevalence in any country, has ultimately moulded the civil government into its own external shape and spirit.

Among the Jews, under the government established by inspired legislators, on their settlement in Canaan, their religious and political systems were closely connected, and nearly coincident. Their government in all its essential features, was a republic.* [See Jahn's "Hebrew Commonwealth," the most learned treatise extant, on the civil history of the Jews.] Religion was employed only to enforce all social and civil obligations.

Among the ancient Egyptians, the priests were clothed with almost boundless authority. They were the religious factors of the people, who claimed to have full power of negotiating with the gods, for man's salvation or destruction. The monarch kept the priests in pay, and in return, made use of them as his most important instruments of government. The civil power, was nominally predominant.

These remarks apply with equal fitness to the republics of ancient Greece, whose system of religion sustained much the same relation to the state. Among the Romans, paganism was the established religion: and every reader of history knows that it was a principle of most powerful efficiency in forming the characters and moulding the political opinions of the people. Accordingly, it was seized as a most important instrument of government. The sagacity of the first Roman emperor, was not more conspicuous in any act of his life, than in assuming to himself the office of PONTIFEX MAXIMUS, or "high priest of the empire;" for he knew full well that all his "invincible legions" could not sustain him on the throne without the aid of religion. The relation of their religion to the state, was much the same which the Church of England now sustains to the British Crown. The coincidence is remarkable in several points. When Henry the eighth set himself up as "King of the Realm, and Defender of the Faith," he doubtless had the example of Caesar before his mind, and like Caesar, he aimed to make himself the source both of ECCLESIASTICAL and CIVIL power. You all know how well he succeeded in his design.

There is also a striking coincidence in the history of the two establishments. As paganism, the established religion of the Roman empire, became exceedingly expensive and oppressive to the people, and at last sunk down under its own weight; so the overgrown and pampered establishment of England, enervated by the corruption of civil patronage, is now sinking into its grave, and the requiem of its dying struggle will soon be sung by millions, rejoicing in their emancipation from ecclesiastical oppression.* [Establishments are always expensive. The annual income of the Right Rev. Dr. Howley Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, is L27,000 or $120,000. This is more than the whole amount of salaries paid to the Executive and Judiciary officers of the United States government.

Arch-Bishop Vernon receives L10,000. The twenty-five Bishops of the Establishment, L165,000, averaging L6,000 each.

For this statement, see American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for 1833, p. 267.

See also a late English publication, entitled "Awkward Facts, respecting the Church of England and her revenue from parliamentary Documents," &c. which facts, Lord Henly says, are well known to be correct. The worst feature of the establishment of England, is, that a large portion of the Church funds flows into the hands of those clergy who do little or none of the work. The clergy who do the work are none too well paid. No branch of the Christian Church in this country is, in any respect or degree, blameable for the above facts.]

In all these instances, religion became consolidated

with the civil power, and gradually moulded the civil power with its own shape, until the strong arm of the law came to

be used for enforcing its claims upon the people. Hence, intolerance and persecution have multiplied their cruelties in every land and age. From the earliest dynasties of Egypt, down to the settlement of this country, church and state have always been united. Either religion has claimed and exercised the right of controlling the civil interests, as in papal countries, or else the civil arm has claimed the right of prescribing the form of religion and enforcing its dogmas by the severest penalties. This latter principle was transferred to the shores when settled by European colonists.

The truth is, that intolerance was then the spirit of the age and of the world.-In Massachusetts no man could be a citizen of the commonwealth, unless a member of the Congregational Church established by law. In 1631, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, passed an order "that none should be admitted too the freedom of the state but such as were Church members." They must either join the Church or be disenfranchised of all their rights.

In Virginia, the Episcopal Church was established by

law, and no other was tolerated for more than a century. Facts prove that the spirit of intolerance had lost nothing of its keenness by being transferred from the establishment of England to the shores of Virginia.

"Coelum non animum, matant, qui trans mare current."

The clergy of the Virginia colony were generally worldly men, and foreign adventurers, whose language to their patrons in England was "Put me I pray thee, into one of the priest's offices that I may eat a piece of bread."

Sam.2:36. When their request was granted and they were placed in power, they used that power in the most absolute manner.

I state these facts from the history of the first colonies in this country simply as facts, not to complain of them. Neither ought they to excite our surprise. For the truth is, that, at the settlement of these colonies, religious intolerance generally prevailed; it was the order of the day. Men had always seen religion connected to the state; they had never contemplated it in any other form and did not seem to know that it could exist in any other form. The freedom of religion and the rights of conscience, though partially stated and defended in the writings of Locke, were never understood until the time of Roger Williams. Aided by his writings, our fathers, who were sound republicans in all their feelings, saw the evils of such a union. They saw the truth of ecclesiastical power in the hands of a few bishops or heads of the Church, always had contributed to a similar accumulation of civil power in the hands of a few. They felt that this was an evil. Seeing that these things were against republicanism and regarding their condition as

favorable for making a change, they determined to make this change. Accordingly, in adopting the constitutions of the several states, and the constitution of the United States, they dissolved all connexion between the Church and the civil power. "But they did not renounce, or in any case, intend to renounce their connexion with the Christian religion. This they designedly retained as the foundation of all their civil, social and political institutions." They regarded Christianity both as the true religion and as the established religion of the country. They wrought its principles into every part of the political fabric which they reared.-All they aimed at was to destroy all legal preference to any one of its forms or denominations over another.

Now it is often asserted in our reviews and newspapers and by some of our politicians, that Christianity has no connexion with the law of the land or with our civil and political institutions. The attempt is frequently made, and it has been made in high places, to impress this sentiment on the public mind. It has been followed with partial success, and is contributing, in no small degree, to swell the torrent of infidelity and atheism, which is already pouring its turbid streams through all the channels of intelligence and moral influence. Now the effect of this attempt is injurious to the moral interests of the country. The impression itself is not true, as I shall now Proceed to show by a reference to the following facts.

1. The original settlers of this country, especially of New England, came here that they might enjoy and propagate the christian religion according to their own pleasure; and it is the first and only instance on record, of a colony being founded from purely religious motives. The propagation of Christianity was one of their principal objects. In their parting address on the strand of Delph Haven, the morning they embarked for these shores, they tell us "We are actuated by the hope of laying some foundation or making way for the propagation of the kingdom of Christ to the remote ends of the earth, though we should be but the stepping stones to others" That this was their object is abundantly shown by their charters, laws, and correspondence. In the charters of Massachusetts Bay, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia, "the conversion of the Indians to the Christian faith," is distinctly avowed as one of the principle objects of the settlements.-Thus the Christian religion was intended by the colonists to be the great corner stone of the social and political edifice which they were founding.

2. The same is proved by the plans and operations of

the colonists after they were established. For this, they planted schools and colleges to train up teachers of the Christian religion. With this view, they incorporated the general principles of Christianity into their civil laws and passed enactments for protecting the Sabbath and for supporting the preaching of the Gospel.

3. The same is proved from the course pursued by the several states in adopting their constitutions. They with one voice recognize Christianity as the religion of the country. They aimed to provide for its protection without giving any legal preference to any one of its forms.

The framers of the constitution of the United States acted upon the same principle, and all our national legislation, (till recently, at least,) has been conducted on the ground that Christianity is the established religion of the nation.-Now, the great principle derived from a review of our colonial history,-from an examination of the constitutions of the several states, and of that of the United States, is this, viz. "That the people of this country have retained the Christian religion as the great foundation of their civil, social, and political institutions, while they have refused to bestow a legal preference to any one of its forms over another.*[See this principle very fully illustrated in a discourse by the Rev. J. Adams, before the convention of the Episcopal Church of South Carolina.] This is a fact well established from the sources of proof to which I have referred.-It is a truth, then, never to be forgotten, that our fathers and our national and state legislators, have designedly retained a connexion between our civil institutions and Christianity does bear an important relation to all our civil institutions.-If you ask what that relation is; I answer; it is the same relation, which the foundation bears to the edifice built thereon: Christianity is the basis; our laws, our social system, our very opinions and morals are the superstructure.-If you destroy this foundation, the beautiful fabric reared by our fathers' toil and cemented with their blood, will tumble in awful ruin to the ground.-They considered the Christian religion as unquestionably the true religion; that it ought to be free and in no way subject to governmental control. In all they did, they assumed that it was the established religion of the country, and upon this, as upon a BROAD FOUNDATION, they built their constitutions and laws, and established the usages of the country.-The contrary doctrine, viz. that Christianity is to receive no regard or countenance from the laws of the land, is false in fact, and ruinous in its consequences. It tends to destroy that, which, as I have shown, is the foundation of every other valued interest. The man who propagates this doctrine is an enemy to his county. We, as a people, owe every thing to Christianity. It has saved us from the horrors and cruelties of paganism.-It has formed the heroic and manly characters of our fathers. It has planted our nation. It has guarded the sleep of its cradle, and protected its infancy. It planted schools to prepare its offspring for the duties of manhood. As the dove-its emblem-nourishes and trains her unfledged young, until their own wings safely bear them on the buoyant air, and then leaves them,-so, Christianity, in our national infancy, established our civil institutions; took them by the hand and led them on by their own strength, when she disjoined herself from them, and left them to be the guardians of their own safety.

And now, if the pillars of moral and social order which Christianity has furnished, are overthrown, the political edifice must also fall. And the friends of Christianity, in such an issue, will not suffer alone. No, those evil minded men, who, to gratify their hatred of the truth, would overturn these pillars, will find themselves in the same condition with the Israelitish champion, who, when brought into the house of Dagon to make sport for the festive assembly, ended by pulling it down upon the heads of the guests, and by that act involved himself in the same common ruin.

I have now illustrated, it is hoped, with sufficient

clearness, the fact that Christianity does sustain a most important relation to all our social and civil institutions;-a relation, such as the foundation of an edifice bears to the edifice itself;-and that our fathers and subsequent legislators never intended to renounce this relation, and that the attempt to fix a contrary impression, is untrue in fact, ungrateful in its character, and dangerous in its consequences.

3. The form of ecclesiastical power prevailing in our country is REPUBLICAN in its genius and its influences

upon the people. The Churches planted by the Puritans are organized on this plan, a plan, which, as we conceive, both accords with apostolical practice and perfectly harmonizes with the republican principles of our government. This plan embraces Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Dutch and Associate reformed, with a respectable portion of the Methodists, and, in short, all who hold that the power of discipline and of governing the Church is vested in its members.

All men agree in believing that God has ordained that

there should be civil government. But the fundamental principle of our republicanism is, that all the powers of civil government are originally vested in the people; that these powers may be delegated by the people to officers of their own choice. Analogous to this, is our belief respecting the order of the Church. Christ has deposited somewhere, all those powers necessary for the government of the Church. Presbyterians and Congregationalists believe that these powers are not given to the clergy but to the Church,-to the body of the professing people, who are at liberty to choose their own form of government and delegate these powers to officers appointed according to the scriptures.*[The Bill of Rights, prefixed to our national constitution, contains the fundamental principles of our civil government. So the New Testament contains the constitutional principles of Church government. It is the charter of our religious liberties, but it prescribes no form of government, any more than does our Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights recognizes THE TRUTHS that all men are born free and equal, and that the powers of civil government are vested in the people. So our religious charter teaches that the power of governing the Church is in the body of the believing People, and that the divinely appointed teachers are brethren, that they are equal-and are to call no man master. If a Church, or any number of Churches choose to promote one of these officers above the rest for the purpose of general inspection and control, it is very well; only let him know that he is superior to his fellow officers, not by divine appointment, but by the voice and "custom of the Church."

Here then is a form of ecclesiastical government,

perfectly according with the principles of our civil institutions. It now has the predominance in this country; and my prayer is, that it may be preserved in its purity to the end of time, and be instrumental in perpetuating unsullied, the rich legacy of our republican institutions, which our fathers procured for us, through perils, and tears, and blood.

I have attempted to illustrate the fact that Christianity sustains an intimate relation to our civil institutions; that this relation is that of a foundation to the edifice erected thereon;-that all the various forms of Christianity in the United States are reducible to three forms of ecclesiastical power.

I have attempted, as far as my limits would permit, to show what influence each of these forms, if generally embraces, would have on our political opinions. On several of these points, which would require a separate discourse for their full illustration, I have been able to bestow only a few brief remarks. I now commit the subject to your own reflections and to the blessing of the Head of the Church, with the earnest prayer, that he will set up in our land and perpetuate in its purity, that "KINGDOM WHICH SHALL NEVER BE DESTROYED AND SHALL STAND FOREVER."

UNIVERSITY PRESS