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

38. A Sermon for the Day of General Election [1792]

--38-A SERMON FOR THE DAY OF GENERAL ELECTION David Tappan BOSTON I 7 9 2 DAVID TAPPAN (r7p-r8o3). The son of a Congregational minister, Tappan was born in Manchester, Massachusetts, and was graduated in rnr from Harvard. In 1774 he was ordained pastor of the church in the third parish of Newbury, where he remained for eighteen years. He then became Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard, serving in that post until his death. Theologically, he was a moderate Calvinist; politically, he was an American patriot during the Revolution and a Federalist afterward. "One of the most prolific authors of the eighteenth century" (John F. Berens in American Writers Before z8oo, p. r4ro), Tappan published numerous sermons. His magnum opus, entitled Lectures on Jewish Antiquities, was published posthumously in r8o7. Noted for a plain preaching style, Tappan at first welcomed the French Revolution as a continuation of the American Revolution, clearing the way for the coming of the millennium through the destruction of popery. But he soon turned against the French revolutionists as diabolical and atheistic and joined with Timothy Dwight in a fierce denunciation of the movement. Tappan steadily taught the vital relationship of virtue and republicanism, a theme well-developed in the election sermon printed here, preached in Newbury before Governor Hancock, Lieutenant Governor Samuel Adams, and the Massachusetts legislature on May 30, 1792. I 102 A s E R M 0 N PREACHED BEFORE His ExcELLENCY JOHN HANCOCK, Efq. GOVERNOUR; His HoNoR SAMUEL ADAMS, EsQ.: LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOUR ; THE HoNOURABLE THE COUNCIL, SENATE, AND HOUSE OF R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S, 0 F T II E COMMONWEALTH 0 F MA SSA C H U SET T S, BEING THE DAY OF GENERAL ELECTION. By DAVID TAPPAN, A.M. PASTOR OF A CHURCH IN NEWBURY. PRrNTED IN B 0 s T 0 N, MASSACHUSETTS: AT "£'HE i>tate t@refg, nY THOMAS ADAMS, PRINTER TO THE HONOURABLE, THE GENERAL COURT. M,ncc,xcu. ~Thou leddest thy People like a Flock, the Hands ofMoses and Aaron.&., Psalm 77, verse 20 ow vanous 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 figure 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. The divine appointment, then, and concurrent agency of the civil and ecclesiastical ruler, in leading the ancient people of Gem, naturalI 105 rro6 DAVID TAPPAN ly 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...