Noteworthy Political Sermons of the 18th & 19th Centuries

• Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, “A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers,” (http://www NULL.lawandliberty NULL.org/mayhew NULL.htm) 1750. In this sermon called “the morning gun of the American Revolution,” Rev. Mayhew interpreted Romans 13 to demonstrate that when rulers act outside their God-given authority, they become tyrants and deserve resistance not obedience.
• Rev. John Witherspoon, “The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men,” (http://books NULL.google NULL.com/books?id=HpRIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false) May 17, 1776. Shortly before he signed the Declaration of Independence, the President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and mentor to many of the founders delivered this sermon on a national day of prayer and fasting, defending the cause of civil and religious liberty.
• Rev. Jasper Adams, “The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States (http://books NULL.google NULL.com/books?id=GPN35H38arUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false),” February 13, 1833. Rev. Adams rejected the concept that Christianity has no connection with our law or political institutions, but that Christianity was intended to be “the corner stone of the social and political structures” of the founders. “We must be a Christian nation, if we wish to continue a free nation.”
• Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, “The Duty of Christian Freemen to Elect Christian Rulers (http://books NULL.google NULL.com/books?id=UFstAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA135#v=onepage&q&f=false),” July 4, 1827. Rev. Ely called for the formation of a “Christian party in politics” and that because we are “a Christian nation” we ought to elect only Christian leaders into public office.