A Sermon Preached Before His Excellency James Bowdoin

MR. LYMAN's ELECTION SERMON.

COMMONWEALTH of MASSACHUSETTS. IN SENATE, May 30, 1787.

Attest.

SAMUEL COOPER, Clerk.

N. B. The Address to His Excellency JOHN HANCOCK, Esq; Governour elect, was omitted in the delivery, as his choice and acceptance of the office, was not then declared.

p. 5AN Election SERMON.

ROMANS, CHAP. XIII. VERSE 4, first clause.

For he is the Minister of GOD to thee for good.

IT is the appropriate privilege of christianity, to afford doctrines and precepts adapted to the circumstances of all characters of men. Other systems of morality are partial in their instructions, deficient in motives, and erroneous in the maxims of human life. But the author of our saith hath grounded our obligations upon a rational foundation, excited us to duty by suitable and efficient motives, and extended his instructions to every class of men. With equal regards he respects the wise and the noble, the uninstructed and him of low degree. To render his system the more beneficial, he has appointed ministers to explain its principles, and inculcate his saving doctrines upon men of all degrees; to vindicate and magnify his institutions before Kings, and to preach the gospel to the poor.

p. 6AND this is the minister's happiness, that he is ready furnished with instructions suited to every auditory before whom he may speak. All men need instruction, to be prompted to the discharge of their supreme obligations to God, and their relative obligations to each other. And this is their common privilege, that the blessed Jesus by his written word and preached gospel, provides for all a portion in due season.

THE words selected for the basis of a discourse upon the present occasion, contain instruction for rulers; to point them to the origin of their power and the use they should make of it: They comprize a lesson equally useful to subjects; how to conduct themselves in relation to their rulers, and what views to entertain of their authority.

SHOULD the Preacher conform himself to the text, and place to view the solemn importance of it, the present occasion might be richly profitable to this great assembly. May that Divine Teacher, who spake as never man spake, by the aids of his Spirit, assist the Preacher to find out acceptable words and the words of truth and soberness; to recommend his doctrines in their purity and power to his servants, now convened to learn the law in his sanctuary.

p. 7For he is the minister of God to thee for good.

OUR first enquiry is, Who is this minister of God? The context informs us, that he is the civil magistrate, called in a preceding passage, the higher powers, since the magistrate is raised in the community to a station above his brethren, and intrusted with authority to govern others, by ordaining and executing laws for the common good. That magistrates are designated by the Apostle, appears from his terming them, Rulers who are not a terror to good works, but to the evil; they are appointed to support good morals and punish vice. And this part of the description agrees with the civil magistrate, He is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil: And as an acknowledgement of his services and dignity, he receives tribute. It is thus evident from the Apostle's calling him the Higher Powers, the Ruler and the Revenger, that the civil magistrate is intended by the minister of God. In speaking upon this subject, four general propositions will merit our attention, viz.

I. That civil authority is of divine institution.

II. That civil authority is instituted for the good of the people in general, and for the benefit of the church of Christ in particular.

III. What measures must the civil authority pursue to answer the end of their institution?

p. 8IV. What are the obligations of subjects to the civil authority?

1. Civil authority is of Divine institution.

He is the minister of God.

Order is Heaven's first law. Without it the gracious designs of the Creator cannot be accomplished. He has made his creatures of various powers and degrees; rising by an easy and happy gradation, from the lowest species of animals, to the most exalted rank of heavenly intelligencies. Creatures of the same species are constituted with certain differences, by which they greatly excel each other. Men, who are said to be born in a state of equality, are yet endowed with unequal measures of strength and wisdom. And hence there is a greater variety amongst men, than amongst several different species of animals. Some are qualified to teach and guide; others to be taught and led by their superiors. To affirm that in the qualifications to rule and guide, all men are equal, is to blend characters totally diverse, to confound wisdom with folly, and affability and condescension with ill-nature and pride. There have ever been distinctions in the world, and various degrees amongst men; while endowed p. 9with such various qualities and affections, the distinction will remain. To gainsay this distinction, is to counteract one of the principal laws of humanity. Some must be in authority; others in subordination. And happy is that people who are allowed in Providence, to look out from among their brethren persons of the best disposition, and most aptly qualified to rule over them.

p. 9THAT particular persons should be distinguished and exalted in society, may be argued from the methods of Providence, ever since man hath been upon earth. No people were ever able to subsist for any length of time, without forming into some kind of civil government, and setting aside those boasted equalities, with which men are born into the world. They must be subject to some common rule and authority, in order to possess any measure of happiness and security. Where there are no rulers to govern the community, all things are immediately involved in confusion and misery. The continuance of our original equality, is a state of nature, and all ages have found a state of nature to be a state of war. Therefore it has pleased the common Parent of men, to lead them to a state of civil subordination, by which a part of the community are intrusted to ordain and carry into effect, laws and regulations for the whole.