Election Sermon

A Lingke t> SERMON, DELIVERED ON THE DAY OF GENERAL ELECTION, AT MONTPELIER, OCTOBER s, 1818. BEFORE THE HONORABLE LEGISLATURE OF VERMONT. BY CLARK KENDRICK, PASTOR OF THE BABTIST GHURCH AND CONGREGATION IN POULTNEY, Published by order of the Legislature. SS MONTPELIER, Vt. PRINTED BY E. P. WALTON, OCTOBER, 1818. Saree ELECTION SERMON. ROMANS, Xiii. 4. . For he is the minister of God, to thee for good. THESE words, which I have chosen as a foundation for a discourse on the present occasion, have special reference to civil magistrates. In discoursing from the same, I propose to attend to three particulars. I. Shall endeavor to shew that civil rulers are God’s ministers. _ Tl. When they may be said, really, to be ministers of good to the people. ' If. Shall consider the duties of the people to their rulers. I proceed to shew, that civil magistrates, are God’s ministers. Says the royal Psalmist, “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, aud his kingdom ruleth over all.” This kingdom evidently embraces all ranks of being, and all created things, whether material, or immaterial, and it pervades all space. If the Divine government extends through unlimited ubiquity, and God has ordained law and subordination through the vast dominion of unintelligible matter ; if he has shut up the sea with doors, and has divided a way for the lightning of thunder, and guides Arcturus, with her sons; if he has given an agency to the heavenly bodies, to gevern the system to which they belong, the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night; we should naturally conclude that his government and care, extend to the national system; that it occupies a more exalted character in the Divine mind, than a system whose operations are merely mechanical, ihe motions of which shall be suspended, and its Jaws and principles finally dissolved; and that in this superior system he has established the means of order and regarntty. In the words of Davill, we read as follows :-— “For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he is the Governor among the nations.” Here the kingdom of God is to be understood in a more restricted sense, than in the passage before recited, and is confined to the nations of the earth, or to the great family of man here below. If people are of more importance than the house they inhabit, we shall rationally suppose that moral beings are of more consequence than the material world in which they dwell, which was formed for their convenience, though both were ultimately designed for the glory of their Creator.

Says the Prophet, “For thou hast made him (meaning man) a little lower than the Angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion é6ver the works of — thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” Tf then, the human family, in one sense of the term, are denominated the kingdom of the Lord; if they were made, in dignity, next to the angelic hosts, were formed in the Divine image, and made superior to all other ranks of being here below, if they belong to that moral system, which will display the glory of its Author for interminable ages, it is but the dictate of reason to believe, that tle means of government and social order are esiablished among, them. Tn connection with the preceding observations, another idea presents itself in support of the doctrine set up; which is, that civil government <<arises immediately, naturally, and universally from the social nature of man.” This sentiment is most ingeniously illustrated, by the late Rey. Dr. S. Williams, in an election sermon, feunded on Jotham’s parable.” Says our learned author, “neither the weakness nor the wickedness of man, nor any thing derived from any of his compacts, or any of his actions, will be sufficient to account for that, which has universally taken place in every country, age, and state of society, from the first creation of man until now. It must be something in the nature and constitution of man himself, which is thus uniformly and perpetually producing civil government wheresoever the human race exist.” — Tt is quite a common place saying, that men, in entering into civil compact, surrender some of their rights, to secure the rest.” But to me, the sentiment is defective, and militates against the wisdom of God, in the construction of principles for social —" or it supposes men were designed for soltude, The moral law, which is the grand chain that binds all rational beings to their God, and to one another, makes no provision for a solitary state of existence, but it enjoins relative duties.

Ti appears then, that we were formed for social connections, and that we necessarily belong to a system of subordination. Ifso, we have no rightss eparate from our connection with the great common family. From hence we see, that the numerous race of ‘‘anchorets, hermits, and all the various orders who have abandoned the world, to people the lonely deserts, and monastic retreat,” have deserted, not only their rights, but their duties, and haye, in so domg, committed violence upon the laws of their existence. From the illustrations already given, I think it evident that civil government, and of course magistrate authority, find their origin and support, in the original and established constitution of Jehovah. Nor are we left to national deduction, to decide a point of this importance, for the scriptures _ are nigh unte us, even in our houses, and in our © hearts. In them we read of those who governed nations, in an early period of the world. But in the Hebrew nation, God more immediately discoyered his will, gave them a judicial code, and appointed Moses their leader, and to promulgate, and execute their laws. Moses, as principal ruler, for the better regulation of their civil affairs, “chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, — rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” “Judges and officers — shalt thou make thee in all thy gates.which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes ; and they shall judge the people with just judgment.’” In the chapter from which our text is selected, says the Apostle, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation. Wilt thou then, not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to thee for good: But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he is the minister of God, a revyenger to execute wrath upoa him that doeth evil. Fer, for this cause, pay ye tribute also; for they are God’s ministers attending continually on this very thing.”