Election Sermon

SERMON DELIVERED ON THE DAY OF GENERAL ELECTION, | _ AT MONTPELIER, OCTOBER 12, A. D. 1820, BEFORE THE HONORABLE LEGISLATURE OF VERMONT. —o— BY GEORGE LEONARD, A. M. Rector of St. Paul's Church, Windsor, Vt. and Trinity Church, Cornish, N. H. —_— PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THD GENERAL ASSEMBLY. tt IS WINDSOR, Vt. PRINTED FOR THE STATE....BY IDE & ALDRICH. OCTOBER, 1820. ELECTION SERMON. These all do contrary to the decrees of Cesar, saying, That there i: another king’, one Jesus. Tur apostle Paul, in company with Silas, on his _ first apostolic journey, about the year fifty of the Chris. tian era, came to Thessalonica, the capital of Macc. _ donia. Here he preached in the synagogues of the Jews on three successive sabbath-days, “reasoning with them out of the scriptures; opening and alledgin:: that Christ must needs have suffered and risen agail from the dead: and that this Jesus whom he preached unto them was Christ.” Some of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles of both sexes, embraced the gospel; _ but the unbelieving Jews, moved with envy and indignation at the success of St. Paul’s preaching, excited a ; “great disturbance in the city, irritated the populace, i assaulted the house of Jason, who had kindly re- ‘@eiyed these men, whom they accused of “turning the world upside down;” and not finding them, “they dray Jason and certain of the brethren unto the rulers ot city,” and charged them with treasonable opinions an, practices. “These all do contrary to the lecees ¢ Cesar, saying, That there is another king, one Jesus From this passage it seems, that the religion of a was accused, even at this early period, not more thar sixteen years after his ascension into glory, of aspiny , against temporal dominion and power. Indeed, t h accusation was brought against him on his trial befor : Pontius Pilate:-—“Whosoever,” say his persecutorg “maketh himself a king, is not Cesar’s friend.” Whe we consider the jealousy with which the powers of th earth, under all forms of government, have lag Yy looked on the assumption of any rival power, we shi net so much wonder that the suspicion, hovered founded, of the imperious Cesar, was excited at the i ris of a new and unprecedented dominion; a dominic which used no external force or compulsion, but which carried its influence to the secret principles and purposes of the mind. He was thus suspicious of a " | who would subvert his power, and divide with him empire of the world: but little did he dream, that vast dominion would one day sink under the dissolving influence of luxury and vice, and the rude assaults of barbarian invasion; and that its crumbling fragments would be held together under the visible Kinga ) this one Jesus—this obscure plebian, of an obs country; and that the reins his successors were dest im 1ed to drop, would be taken up and held by one claia to be the vicegerent of this lowly character; that the gilent progress of his interest would introduce a gradu- | but permanent and effectual change in the human 5 condition, not only as to religion and morals, but, in some material respects, as to the forms of civil power. Jt was not merely in the lowly origin of Christianity, that it was thus assailed by the prejudices of its enemies, and loaded with suspicions of its infringements on the temporal rights of community; but even at this day there are some, who, judging not from the nature and real character of this religion, but from its abuses, accuse it of hostility to the civil rights and liberties of mankind, It may not, therefore, be considered unappropriate to the present occasion, to endeavor to defend our religion _ against any such aspersion, and to show that it is, in its nature and genius, so far from being unfavorable to civil liberty, that it does actually foster and cherish the true principles of it. To make this appear, we will first take a view of the nature and design of our Lord’s mission. When Jesus Christ came down to earth, to reveal the mysterious purposes of judgment and of mercy, in the eternal mind of the Divinity, he most explicitly declared, that his business with men, was not to change the forms of civil powet, or to dispose of temporal dominion; for, if so, his Servants would have fought—not to settle the claims of buman angbition, which has been the fruitful source of almost all the political woes, that have afflicted human Society, in all ages of the world; but to. suppress it. He was not, he said, constituted a judge and a divide indeed, on every occasion, ke refused to interp, every question of civil right, and asserted th kingdom was not of this world, but that his e ané heaven to men was to reveal and illustrate the will, which is the universal, eternal, and im fe law of man. His business was with man, as an ligent, moral, and religious being, capable of fo - vight principles of action, and of consulting in hi duct his own present and future well-being, an good of those with whom he is connected in hu m ciely, and as in all cases responsible to him w judge, avenge and reward.

" ss Oy In fine, the errand on which Christ, as an amk dor from heaven, came into the world, was, to set it a moral and spiritual kingdom, and to em body ligious community. This was a kingdom it a should dwell righteousness. It was a kingdor ent from any worldly power. The potentates. s of world are engaged in regulating the common ce “on of property, of honor, and of dominion; but ne these things employed, otherwise than incidental attention of the Messenger from God. …