Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730–1805: In Two Volumes

39. A Sermon Preached Before the Artillery Company [1793]

- 3 9 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE ARTILLERY COMPANY Peter Thacher BOSTON I 7 9 3 PETER THACHER (I752-I8oz). Thacher, the great-grandson of Reverend Peter Thacher (d. 1727), graduated in 1769 from Harvard with highest honors. He later had conferred upon him a doctor of divinity degree from the University of Edinburgh. He was pastor at the Congregational Church in Malden, Massachusetts, from Ino to I784, and then moved to the Brattle Street Church in Boston, where he remained until his early death from tuberculosis (in Savannah, Georgia ). Regarded by George Whitefield as the ablest preacher in the colonies -he called Thacher the "young Elijah"-his oratorical powers were much valued by Massachusetts patriots, who gave him special "beating orders" to organize the coastal defense. Chaplain to the General Court, he was the probable author of the Resolutions of Malden to its General Court representative. He later represented the town in the convention that framed the I78o state constitution. After the Revolution , he was active in a number of affairs, including the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Indians, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Humane Society, the Charitable Fire Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a founder (in I79I) and a trustee of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Thacher published twenty-two sermons, a list of which is given in William Emerson, A Sermon on the Decease of the Reverend Peter Thacher, D.D. (I8o3). !130 s E R M 0 N, PREACHED BEFORE THE A N c I E N T AND H 0 N 0 R A B L E ARTILLERY COMPANY, jUNE 3• 1793; BEING THE DAY OF THEIR Annual Election of Officers. BY PETER THACHER, D.D. PASTOR OF A CHVRCH lN I!OSTON. PRINTED AT BOSTON, BY M A N N I N G AND L 0 .R I N G. IN Q,YAKER LANE.-MDCCXCIII. ~Then the five men departed and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and th~y were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.~ Judges XVIII.7. ll scripture is written for our instruction. It is intended not only to reveal to us the purposes of God's mercy and the requisitions of his will, but to furnish our minds with the wisdom which is profitable to direct us in the various situations to which by Providence we are called. The history of the Bible contains a lively picture of human life and manners. It paints the various feelings which agitate the heart of man at different periods. It describes the manner in which individuals and bodies of men have conducted in different circumstances . It points out the motives of their conduct, and the consequences which resulted from it. And thus the word of GoD furnishes us with maxims of wisdom, and lessons of experience, without our paying the dear price at which they are sometimes purchased. From this history we find that mankind have been much the same in all ages; that the same passions and principles have actuated them all; and that the same effects have generally resulted from the same causes. Modern philosophers are ready to suppose that they have made great improvements in the knowledge of mankind, and in the various systems by which human governments may be formed and supported with the most happy success. But if we read the history of the Bible, we shall be ready to conclude with Solomon, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun." In this history we shall find the same general principles laid down which are now considered as the basis of free and happy states, and the same methods prescribed to preserve and increase them when they are formed. It is difficult to find any situation now to which there cannot be found some parallel in the sacred volume. The maxim, "that it is necessary in peace to prepare for war," is I I 33 1134 PETER THACHER now...