Faith In God And Fidelity To The Constitution Versus The Rule Of Men
BY Herschel Smith
9 years, 10 months ago
Mike Vanderboegh does us a service by reminding us of Peter Muhlenberg. I’ve read it before, but my favorite anecdote goes as follows.
Coming to the end of his sermon, Peter Muhlenberg turned to his congregation and said, “In the language of the holy writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away.” As those assembled looked on, Pastor Muhlenberg declared, “There is a time to fight, and that time has now come!” Muhlenberg then proceeded to remove his robes revealing, to the shock of his congregation, a military uniform.
Marching to the back of the church he declared, “Who among you is with me?” On that day 300 men from his church stood up and joined Peter Muhlenberg. They eventually became the 8th Virginia (Regiment) fighting for liberty.
I’ll also remind you of what my own professor, Douglas Kelly, said of the role of religion in the war of independence.
Their experience in Presbyterian polity – with its doctrine of the headship of Christ over the church, the two-powers doctrine giving the church and state equal standing (so that the church’s power is not seen as flowing from the state), and the consequent right of the people to civil resistance in accordance with higher divine law – was a major ingredient in the development of the American approach to church-state relations and the underlying questions of law, authority, order and rights.
[ … ]
It was largely from the congregation polity of these New England puritans that there came the American concept and practice of government by covenant – that is to say: constitutional structure, limited by divine law and based on the consent of the people, with a lasting right in the people to resist tyranny.
If you don’t do anything else today, read Mike’s whole article, and then read mine.
On January 5, 2015 at 10:38 am, TexTopCat said:
A good observation. Too bad the people have lost much of this attitude, especially in the progressive liberal areas.