Absalom's Conspiracy

A true Copy of Record, Examined,

BY SAMUEL WYLLYS, Sec'ry.

ELECTION SERMON.

II SAMUEL XV.4.

—OH that I were made judge, in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!

THE perfection of a government will not save it from the evils of faction and party spirit. The divine government itself has long had its opposers. Immediately after its introduction on earth, as we learn from the book of Genesis, the chief of those rebellious spirits, who by a restless ambition had raised a war in heaven, visited the new creation, to sow sedition, and divide its happy inhabitants from their allegiance. He chose the serpent for his craftiness and subtilty, as the fittest instrument to scatter the poison of seduction, and to thwart the designs of wisdom. A temptation, most dangerous and alluring to man in his exalted and happy state, was propounded to the most susceptitible p. 6of the family of paradise. To artful intimations that they were unreasonably abridged in happiness, and held in ignorance by the tyranny of their Creator, were added the enticing promises of encreased freedom, the enlargement of knowledge, and sensitive pleasure. The temptation was fatally successful, and a rebellion hence arose against God on earth, that has raged with awful virulence for almost six thousand years. It called forth the strong arm of power in the flood; on Sodom and its neighbouring cities; in Egypt and at the Red Sea, on a leader that arrogantly questioned, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice;" and against Korah and his accomplices, who dared to say to Moses and Aaron, the accredited ministers of a polity ordained by God himself, "Ye take too much upon yourselves, and wherefore lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord." The same restless and ungovernable spirit, raised the Jews against the prophets, to put them to death; it brought the Saviour of men to the cross, and persecuted his followers, until the divine government, in justice to itself, sent an army to sack Jerusalem, and to disperse a wicked, a stiff-necked, and a gainsaying people to all the winds of heaven. What it has done in later ages, may be learned from the encrimsoned page of history, and seen in every apartment of the mighty Bedlam, the great Lazarhouse p. 7of man: Of man naturally anarchial, disorganized, and seduced by the promise of the father of lies, "Ye shall be as gods."

p. 7AS one object will be kept in view in the following discourse, it will not be necessary to descant on the excellency of one form of government above another; it is enough for our present purpose, that this truth be acknowledged, that faction is, and has been, the lot of every government. The government of kings and nobles has its evils and dangers, which I need not repeat, as they have been the theme of the friends and foes of real liberty. And enthusiastic theorists alone will assert, that elective governments can be so pure in their principles, and so perfect in their administration, as to be perfectly secure from turbulence and insurrection. "As heaven's best beams turn vinegar more four," we must acknowledge, however degrading it may be to the human character, that faction has thriven most in the mildest governments; and that republics in particular, have been proverbially stormy and tempestuous.

IF it is asserted by respectable authority, that, "It is yet in experiment whether human nature can bear so free a government as our own;" he is not the enemy of liberty and of the people who would meet p. 8its difficulties, but he who would sedulously conceal and keep them out of sight.

THIS is my apology for selecting a passage of holy writ, that may lead to matter so unusual on this anniversary occasion. It is a religious duty that we owe to our good government, to be armed against these wiles of faction, these "depths of Satan;" wiles, grown common by frequent repetition; but so flow of heart are men to understand, that they are until this day little considered by the great body of mankind.

DIVINE inspiration informs us, that the Jewish nation, during the reign of David, were prosperous and happy. When he died it is recorded of him, "that he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honors." The same truth is also apparent from many passages in the Psalms, in which, the glories of Christ's future kingdom are undoubtedly shadowed forth, in the real prosperity of Israel, under the wise administration of the son of Jesse: "Out of Zion the perfection of beauty hath shone." It pleased God, however, for a particular sin of David, to send into his family the scourge of domestic discord. An unhappy event took place that awoke, and called into action, the worst of passions, in Absalom the king's son, the passion of revenge. With p. 9a temper soured by an incident, well known to all who read the word of God, he was soon the cause of serious trouble to his father, and the people he governed. When the viler passions are once roused in the human heart, it is with difficulty they are laid. Chagrin, and disappointment, easily agree to acts of desperation. Possessed of personal accomplishments, and the arts of address, young Absalom aspired at no less than the dethroning of his father, and usurping the government. To obtain these, he went through the usual process of every demagogue, and insinuated himself into the favour of the people. As parade and novelty are pleasing to the great body of mankind, "he prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him:" An essay at show, borrowed from the wicked heathen nations, as unusual as it was unlawful in Israel. But a custom being unusual and unlawful, is often alone sufficient to recommend it to a race of creatures, whose "hearts are continually set in them to do evil." To administer justice between man and man, in a great nation, is an Herculean task. It seems at this time that the judiciary department of his father's government, was unusually crowded with business, and as it is easier to fault, than to mend the measures of our rulers, this furnished a favourable opportunity to an unprincipled and aspiring young man.