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- 2 6 A SERMON ON OCCASION OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE CONSTITUTION Samuel McClintock PORTSMOUTH I 7 8 4 SAMUEL McCLINTOCK (I7p-I8o4). A graduate of the College of New Jersey in Princeton and pastor (ordained in I756) of the Greenland , New Hampshire, Congregational Church, McClintock (also written "Mcclintock" and "MacClintock") spent his life in that post, except for periods as chaplain during the French and Indian War and with the New Hampshire troops during the Revolution. (He was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill in I775.) McClintock was awarded an M.A. by Harvard in I76I and a D.D. by Yale in I79L He had a keen mind and was a fine preacher, a number of whose sermons were published. The sermon reprinted here is of interest because it was preached on June 3, I784, at the beginning of the new government under the recently adopted constitution of the state of New Hampshire. McClintock and his first wife (Mary Montgomery of Portsmouth) had fifteen children in the first sixteen years of their marriage. Three of their sons died fighting in the Revolution. Although he pursued the deists and infidels with zeal during the I79os, McClintock thereafter became a strong supporter of Thomas Jefferson (a novelty among New England Congregational ministers) because, he said, he saw the country being ruled by a "junto of little tyrants . . . a proud domineering aristocracy." In Jefferson he saw "a great man of great, and distinguished abilities . . . now placed in the chair of government , who all along has shewn himself the friend . . . of the natural rights of man" Games McLachlan, Princetonians, 1748-q68 [I976]). [18.117.153.38] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 20:32 GMT) A s E R M 0 N PREACHED BEFORE TAE HONORABLE 1'H£ c 0 u N c I A'ND THE .HONOR.ABLI THE s E N A T AND H 0 U SE oF REP R E SENT AT IV E S~ 01' TKI:I STATE OF NEW. HAMPSHIRE, ON OCCASION OF THE COMMENCEMEN'I' or T 1110: NEW CONSTITUTION F 0 R M oF G 0 V E R N M E NT. BY S A M U E L McC L I N T 0 C K. A. M. NEW· HAMPSHIRE: P 0 R T SM 0 U TH, PR I NT E D BY 1l 0 IE R. T G E1l:R. U B_ N,l'C:Cst.xx:uv. Honored and respectable Audience, It is with diffidence I appear in this place, on the present great occasion, before such an assembly. Nothing, besides the respect I owe to the supreme legislative of this state, could so far have overcome the sense of my own insufficiency, as to induce me to comply with their invitation. Your candor will make a favourable allowance for the imperfections which your discernment will perceive, while I attempt to offer some observations suitable to the occasion, from Jeremiah XVIIIth, 7-10th. ~At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down and to destroy it: If that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it: If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.~ he being and providence of GoD are the great principles of religion, which as they are conformable to the light of nature and reason, have obtained the general consent of mankind in all ages. It is not more evident "-""'~~-f£-~ii.t1>'"' from the visible works of creation that there is a God, who made all these things, than it is from the course of events in this world that they are under the direction and government of a wise, good, holy and powerful providence. By this natural conviction of the superintendence of the Deity over the affairs of this world, the pagan nations were led to consult their gods, and seek to them for direction and assistance, when they were engaging in affairs of great and public concernment, and to offer to them public thanks when their enterprizes were successful. And do they seek to them that are no gods? shall not a people then who are...

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