The Election Sermon

A true Copy of Record, Examined by GEORGE WYLLYS, Sec'ry.

An ELECTION SERMON.

Then said I unto them, Ye see the Distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the Gates thereof are burnt with Fire: Come, and let us build up the Wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a Reproach. Then I told them of the Hand of my GOD which was good upon me; and they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their Hands for this good Work: But when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah the Servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem, the Arabian heard it, they laughed us to Scorn, and dispised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? Will ye rebel against the King? Then answered I them, and said unto them, the GOD of Heaven he will prosper us, therefore we his Servants will arise and build: But you have no Portion, nor Right, nor Memorial in Jerusalem.

AFTER much perplexity, and in the midst of great anxiety, resulting from the unhappy situation of our national and American affairs, we once more see the return of an anniversary election.

On this occasion, in which our political fathers attended with crouds of loyal subjects, and free-born citizens, are come up to the house of GOD, to recognize his goodness, spread our distressed case before him, and devoutly seek his gracious patronage, I know of no words more suitable to address you in, than those now read.

They are the words of good Nehemiah, in that truly animated speech, in which he addressed himself to his suffering brethren, at Jerusalem, when he came with the good hand of his GOD upon him; and a p. 6royal mandate from the Persian Monarch, to redress their grievances and repair the wastes of Jerusalem.

They contain every thing suited to our case in this dark and troublesome day.

We have here in the first place,

I. Our own condition exactly expressed, "Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire,"

II. What spirit we ought to shew in our distressed Circumstances, "They said, let us rise up and build, so they strengthened their hands for that good work."

p. 6III. The opposition to be expected, and embarrassments which frequently attend benevolent endeavours to retrieve a sinking nation and distressed people, arising from an evil designing faction. "When Sanballat, &c. heard it, they laughed us to scorn, dispised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? Will ye rebel against the King?"

IV. A good resolution persisted in, fixed on a pious basis, ensuring the greatest confidence of success, "The GOD of Heaven he will prosper us, therefore we his servants will go on and build:" And a proper treatment of such as are unfriendly to due exertions for the public safety, "You have no portion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem."

The patience and candor of this numerous and respectable audience, will bear with me, while I touch on these respective branches, in the subsequent discourse, apparently tending to influence to suitable reflections on this solemn occasion.

I. We have then our own condition expressed, "Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire."

Jerusalem was the capital of Judea, and "the center of unity of the Jewish people, both in religious and civil affairs;" the temple there erected, was an emblem of their religious and civil polity. For "thither the tribes went up to give thanks unto the name of the Lord, and there was the seat of judgment, even the seat of the house of David." Ps. cxxii. v. 5. The Jewish personage, therefore, in describing the afflicted condition of the people, by the wastes of Jerusalem, and her gates burnt with fire, signifies the distressed and ruined state of the people, relative to their religious and civil affairs, and the consequent miseries they felt, as well the demolition of their literal temple by the ravages and flames of war.

In all these respects, they were in a miserable condition indeed. A parallel between their situation and ours, in every instance, I pretend not; but a resemblance in some particulars, and in regard of the degree of distress, will be sufficiently apparant from a concise view of our real state at this day.

p. 7In general the ground of our complaints, is such things as these. A determined plan already pushed on, to the astonishment of all true Englishmen, calculated in its natural tendency to subvert the British constitution, which for ages has stood the guardian of the means of her subject's happiness, the envy of foreign nations, and the admiration of the whole world, and to substitute in the room thereof, absolute despotism, and as the certain consequence, cruel tyranny, and the total slavery of all America.

IN pursuit of this, many cruel resolves, and unconstitutional acts of late parliaments, which wore a most threatning aspect to the whole continent—If we would see their genuine operations and proper effects, we need only advert to a neighbouring province—there we shall find, they have made an actual seizure of their charter, ravished its most valuable and essential rights, without giving the people an opportunity to receive conviction of having made a forfeiture, or vindicating their innocency, from the vile slander and wicked misrepresentations of designing men.

In consequence the distress and confusion of that devoted province —their capital filled with the King's troops, their harbour with his ships, on purpose to compel the people into submission; their port blockaded up, their trade and business at an end, the inhabitants, by thousands, instantly turned to want and beggary, having no method of subsistence but on the charitable contributions of their sympathizing brethren, in their own and neighbouring colonies.

In this state have they endured with great patience and fortitude, till at length we are assured, by good intelligence, open hostility is commenced by the King's soldiers. In the late battle at Concord and Lexington, inglorious to the British arms! they have imbrued their hands in the innocent blood of their fellow subjects with a relentless cruelty and inhuman barbarity, too much like that which we have experienced from the merciless savages of the wilderness.