Election Sermon

REsolved, That Col. Stoddard, Capt. Sheaffe, and Col. Bowers, be a Committee to wait on the Rev'd Mr. Bridge, and return him the Thanks of this House for his Sermon preached before the General Assembly Yesterday; and to desire a Copy for the Press.

A true Copy, Samuel Adams, Cl.

AN ELECTION-SERMON.

Happy art thou O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!—

THE great God who is the sovereign of the universe, is the fountain and source of happiness: As he hath given existence to societies and public bodies of men, as well as to individuals, so all the happiness which they have shared in, and enjoyed, has come from him, the divine benefactor.

This every thoughtful person must be sensible of: especially they who have been elevated above the common level of mankind, p. 6and have been capable of taking notice of the wonderful operations, in the course of divine providence, which have tended to the good of societies, whose history they have been acquainted with—and such as they have lived in, and to whom in some sphere they have ministred—and more especially yet, if they have been, or are, persons of religion and piety.

Through the great and distinguishing goodness of the most high God the people of Israel, who descended from the good patriarch Jacob and in Egypt grew, to be a great people, were at length delivered from thence by a mighty hand, and were formed into a civil society, or body politic.

This society was specially and peculiarly happy and blessed: And the words of our text are a high encomium on the happiness and felicity of that people, uttered by Moses, who had a perfect knowledge of their state and condition, who had been the instrument of their deliverance from the oppressions of a proud, despotic, cruel, prince, and who p. 7under God was the founder of their state, their chief magistrate, king and ruler.

At a convention of the heads of the people, and of the tribes of Israel, he pronounced a blessing upon each tribe, and by the spirit of prophecy, he foretold the peculiar blessings, which in some future periods should come upon them. Having done thus, he pronounces the whole Hebrew nation, or the whole Israel of God, blessed: and more than intimates the special and peculiar favor of God, which they should experience in the promised land, the land of Canaan, which they were then upon the borders of, and which they should speedily pass over to possess.

p. 7But, as if all this should be considered in a prophetic light and view only, or as relating to the special tokens of the divine favor to them, in time to come; he speaks in our text of their then happy state and condition.

He had been with them as a faithful guardian, as a good servant of God; as a kind father, as a great benefactor—He had been witness to all that the Lord had done p. 8for them—how that the Lord had delivered and defended them from their enemies, and in every respect had provided for, and supported them—and therefore he declared them happy and blessed; eminently and distinguishedly so, in the favor of the Lord Jehovah: Happy art thou O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! The shield and the sword are here used figuratively, and denote the divine care, the goodness and beneficence of the God of Israel, in protecting and defending his people from the designs and attacks of their enemies, in giving them victory over them, and establishing them as a society, over which God himself was their immediate ruler and governor. So that all their deliverances, all their greatness, all their power and authority, all their safety, in a word all their excellency of every sort, is here attributed to God, by this his faithful servant. A pattern this, worthy the imitation of the greatest potentates and legislators on earth!

But it is worthy our notice, with what a sensible pleasure, and real satisfaction, Moses p. 9the chief magistrate of the Hebrew commonwealth speaks of the happiness of his people. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, &c. What people in the whole world have been so distinguished by the God of Heaven as thou art? what favors have been bestowed on thee? how art thou saved from out of the hands of thine enemies? and how art thou raised to a peculiar pitch of honor and greatness, beyond all the nations and people in the world? Surely thou art highly favoured by the most high God, who is eminently the God of thy salvation.

p. 9Let it be observed yet further, that Moses was about to leave them, and to leave the world too, and to give up his account to God, the judge of all the earth. He had met, indeed, with many great and sore trials and conflicts in the course of his administration of government among them. For though they were distinguished greatly by the favors of Heaven, yet they had not been the most tractable; yea they had been a rebellious people, and had provoked him, so that he had spoken unadvisedly with his lips. p. 10And, being provoked by them, he offended God, and was debarred an entrance into the land of Canaan, and was called to resign up his commission, his civil power and dignity, into the hands of another, who was appointed by God to be his successor, and to partake of mortality, the common lot of all the children of men. Yet for all this, he discovers a peculiar satisfaction, a heart-felt joy and gladness, in seeing and beholding their present, as well as their future happiness—neither the contradictions of a stiff-necked people, nor the views and prospects of a speedy dissolution, could abate, much less annihilate, the love he bare to them, or the delight and satisfaction he enjoyed on account of that singular pitch of glory and grandeur, which they had arrived unto.