Election Sermon

MR. TAPPAN's ELECTION SERMON.

COMMONWEALTH of MASSACHUSETTS. In the House of Representatives, May 30, 1792.

Attest. HENRY WARREN, Clerk.

p. 5AN Election SERMON.

THOU LEDDEST THY PEOPLE LIKE A FLOCK, BY THE HANDS OF MOSES AND AARON.

HOW various and transcendent are the excellencies of the sacred writings! They combine all the different species of literary composition in their highest perfection, and consecrate them to the moral improvement, the present and future happiness of man. They furnish the best summary precepts, models, and incentives, for producing the good citizen and statesman, for effecting an orderly and prosperous state of things in the civil and temporary combinations of this world: Whilst their primary object is, to prepare men for the far nobler, the everlasting community of the blessed.

THESE observations are eminently illustrated by that part of the inspired volume, which relates to GOD'S ancient people. The words just recited, look back to the infancy of that favoured nation. They introduce the GOD of Israel under the beautiful p. 6figure of a Shepherd leading his flock; which expresses in a very lively and endearing manner, the singular tenderness and care, with which Heaven had conducted that people from the bondage of Egypt, to the promised Canaan. The latter part of the verse, presents the subordinate and united agency of Moses and Aaron, in accomplishing that memorable series of events. These two celebrated characters had been early and closely linked together, by the ties of nature, of religion, and of common sufferings. They were afterwards united by the more awful bond of a divine commission, which constituted them Plenipotentiaries from JEHOVAH, the King of Israel, to the Egyptian Court, which employed them as instrumental saviours of their oppressed countrymen, as their guides and protectors through the dangers of the wilderness, and the prime Ministers of their civil and ecclesiastical polity. Whilst the one was Chief Magistrate in the Commonwealth, the other was High Priest, or first officer in the Church. And the institution and combined influence of these two orders in that community, were a most wise and salutary provision both for its public and individual happiness.

p. 6THE divine appointment, then, and concurrent agency of the civil and ecclesiastical ruler, in leading the ancient people of GOD, naturally invite our attention to the importance and utility of political and religious guides in a christian state, and to that union of affection and of exertion for the common good, which ought to characterize and cement them. To explain and enforce this union, without confounding the Church and the Commonwealth, p. 7or blending the different provinces of their respective Ministers, is a truly delicate task. The Speaker hopes, however, that his well-meant endeavours to explore such a field, before an audience so respectable, will not be deemed either vain, or impertinent to the occasion. He flatters himself that the seasonable and momentous complexion of the subject, which cannot fail to strike every intelligent eye, will procure to the discussion and application of it a candid reception.

THIS joyful anniversary collects our civil and sacred leaders from various parts of the State, to one consecrated spot. It unites them, methinks, into one happy brotherhood. It brings them together to the altar of GOD, their common Founder, Master, and Judge. It makes them joint partakers in a kind of yearly festival, sacred to liberty and to religion—a festival, which seems to renew and to seal mutual friendship, and their harmonious ardent affection to the general interest. Is it not congenial then with the spirit of the day, as well as decent and useful on other accounts, that these two orders should sometimes be the united object of its public addresses from the word of GOD; that their reciprocal influence, and their conjunct operation to the common good, should be clearly defined, and forcibly urged?

UNDER the solemn impression of these ideas, we will endeavour to mark out the two different provinces of Moses and Aaron, or of the Ruler and the Priest; the beneficent influence of each upon the public welfare; and the several ways, in which they may p. 8and ought to befriend and assist each other in leading the people of GOD.

p. 8THE discriminating genius of the two departments may be thus defined. The one has for its immediate object, the temporal interest of mankind; the other, their spiritual and everlasting. The one aims to regulate their outward behaviour, so far as to restrain them from injuring one another or the public, and engage their contributions to the common welfare: The other contemplates the due regulation of the heart, as well as the overtacts which issue from that source. The one enforces its addresses by sanctions merely civil and worldly; the other by motives which chiefly respect the soul and the life to come.

LET us now turn our attention to the important and happy influence of each department upon the public interest.

THE importance of such an officer in society as the ci◊◊◊ Magistrate, is immediately seen and felt by all. It grows out of the present weakness and corruption of mankind. It is suggested by the social feelings belonging to our frame, joined with a sense of mutual dependence and common danger. Accordingly, when such officer possesses the spirit of his station, and with intelligence and fidelity pursues its leading design, the effects on the community will be equally benign and diffusive. A ruler of this character, like the central orb of the planetary world, enlightens and animates, cements and beautifies the whole political system. With a skilful, steady, yet gentle hand, he moulds a confused mass p. 9of discordant materials into one regular and harmonious compound, and holds it together with a silken, yet invincible chain. By a strictly righteous, equal, and paternal administration, he spreads the blessings of justice, freedom, tranquillity, public and private prosperity, through all classes of the people. The advantages of such a magistracy transcend description. To use the delicate and splendid figures of inspiration. It resembles "the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; like the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain."