Religion Influences Political Prosperity
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=4145
Election Sermon 06/06/1816
By Reverend Pliny Dickinson
“Let a nation assume the purest republicanism, and work into their constitution the most refined principles of liberty, and then discard the doctrines and crush the institutions of religion,… [r]epublicanism, sinks into despotism…. Every ruler, of whatever name, whether king, emperor, governor, legislator, judge or magistrate, without the fear of God before his eyes,… he will become an oppressor to all within his power….Religion is connected with government by the principles of morality,…[a]s in point, I will here introduce the familiar remarks of another illustrious Sage, [President George Washington]who, yet speaketh: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness; these firmest props of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them:… Thus spake the man, whose maxims we delight to repeat, whose memory we delight to honor; thus declared he, the inseparable connection between religious influence and political prosperity….”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=153941
Sermon – Columbia South Carolina House of Representatives – 1854
Reverend James Henry Thornwell
“A Sovereign State prostrate before a Sovereign God. This is the spectacle which we behold today….Everything which indicates a growing regard for the kingdom of Jesus Christ on the part of this State I hail with joy, as I am assured that God will never leave nor forsake the people that are steadfast in His covenant.…[However] there is a God that judges in the earth, and He does visit a people for the sins and iniquities of their rulers. Virtue is power, and vice is weakness, and every corrupt Senator, every debauched counselor, every wicked man, is like a crumbling stone in the foundation of an edifice. …”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=153869
ON THE IMPERISHABLE AND SAVING WORDS OF CHRIST. DELIVERED, IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BY T. H. STOCKTON, CHAPLAIN, H. R.- 1860
“Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matthew, 24:35.
“[T]he Bible is a higher Law than the Constitution of the United States….It may be extended, so as to include all our State constitutions, and all our Church constitutions, and all our more Social constitutions. Put them all together, magnify and boast of them as we may, not only is the Bible a higher law, but it is an infinitely higher law. For thus says the Lord: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
But, a higher Law implies a higher Judge, and a higher Administrator. And who is the higher Judge? The Holy Spirit! The Spirit of truth, promised unto us to guide us into all truth; making us spiritual and giving us spiritual apprehensions….
And who is the higher Administrator? Christ himself! Into whose hands the Father has committed all power “in heaven and in earth,” to qualify Him fully for the duties of this sovereign office….Does anyone object to the higher Administrator? Does anyone object to the higher Judge? Then, why object to the higher Law? They go together, are all divine, and all supreme forever. So that we may say with the prophet: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our king: He will save us.”….”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=153942
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD, DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUNDAY, JANUARY 31ST, 1864
By the Reverend Byron Sunderland
“But whoever undertakes to say that the gospel is not in itself essentially a system that takes hold upon the question of right and wrong everywhere in the nature, relations, society, intercourse and business of men, knows nothing of its principles or of its design. I know there has been an attempt to divorce the gospel from politics, and politics from the gospel; and I hold it to be one of the most stupendous practical errors, follies, heresies, and crimes of the age. The gospel is the most radical force of a moral and spiritual kind ever introduced into this world….
The gospel was designed to attack all false opinions and sentiments, all immoral customs and practices, all despotic and cruel principles, and every enemy of the virtue, the true culture, the Christian progress, and the spiritual elevation of mankind; and woe be to that professed minister of Christ who fails through any fear or favor of man, to declare the whole counsel of God, who abates one jot from the Revelation of divine wisdom. …
It is the duty of the minister to proclaim Christ and him crucified, the only and all-sufficient Savior of the world, and all the cognate and kindred doctrines of grace;…and he must apply this truth, rightly dividing the word – a workman that needs not to be ashamed….
The truth is, and we may all know it, a pure Christianity is the only sufficient and proper conservator of the duties, the obligations, and immunities of mankind – the only lasting and adequate security of republican constitutional liberty.”
http://nationalblackroberegiment.com/sermon-election-1783/
Pastor Henry Cumings -1783
I Peter 5:5 “Yea, all of you be subject to one another.”
“That all men ought in some sense to be subject to one another, is the plain doctrine of the apostle Peter,… “Yea, all of you be subject to one another” 1Peter 5:5…. Every one ought to consider, that he was born, not for himself alone, but for others, for society, for his country…Let no man seek his own… but to extend their regards to the welfare of others, and exercise a benevolent concern and care for the good of their fellow creatures….And whoever duly considers the nature of Christianity… has imbibed the spirit and principles of this religion, will make a better magistrate, a better legislator, a better judge….Our new constitution… has provided every guard… to defend our liberties, civil and religious,…[It] has authorized our civil rulers to take care of the morals of people, by furnishing then with the means of instruction in virtue, piety and every branch of useful knowledge. They will therefore consider themselves as obliged to adopt suitable measures for the encouragement of… religion among all orders of men….As to laws obliging people to assemble for public worship, and provide themselves with public teachers of religion; such laws are evidently well adapted to promote the good order of civil government… for impressing men’s minds with an awe of the supreme Governor of the world…May the benevolent Parent and supreme Ruler of the universe bestow his benediction on us; unite our hearts in love to one another, and in the love of virtue; and dispose us to keep all his commandments always…Amen”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=153942
The GOSPEL AND POLITICS
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD, DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUNDAY, JANUARY 31ST, 1864
By the Reverend Byron Sunderland
“But whoever undertakes to say that the gospel is not in itself essentially a system that takes hold upon the question of right and wrong everywhere in the nature, relations, society, intercourse and business of men, knows nothing of its principles or of its design. I know there has been an attempt to divorce the gospel from politics, and politics from the gospel; and I hold it to be one of the most stupendous practical errors, follies, heresies, and crimes of the age. The gospel is the most radical force of a moral and spiritual kind ever introduced into this world….
The gospel was designed to attack all false opinions and sentiments, all immoral customs and practices, all despotic and cruel principles, and every enemy of the virtue, the true culture, the Christian progress, and the spiritual elevation of mankind; and woe be to that professed minister of Christ who fails through any fear or favor of man, to declare the whole counsel of God, who abates one jot from the Revelation of divine wisdom. …
It is the duty of the minister to proclaim Christ and him crucified, the only and all-sufficient Savior of the world, and all the cognate and kindred doctrines of grace;…and he must apply this truth, rightly dividing the word – a workman that needs not to be ashamed….The truth is, and we may all know it, a pure Christianity is the only sufficient and proper conservator of the duties, the obligations, and immunities of mankind – the only lasting and adequate security of republican constitutional liberty.”
http://nationalblackroberegiment.com/sermon-election-1792-3/
An Election Sermon by Pastor Timothy Stone-1792
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whether ye go to possess it. Keep, therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
Deuteronomy 4:5-6
“We are not left in doubt concerning the wisdom and salutary [useful] nature of that constitution under which the Hebrews were placed, as it proceeded immediately from God….He therefore undertook the government of them Himself in all matters respecting religion, civil policy, and that military establishment which he saw to be necessary for their happiness and defense…..And the Lord commanded saying, “gather Me the people together and I will make them bear My words that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God” [Deuteronomy 4:10, 24]….
The holy religion of the Son of God hath a most powerful and benign influence upon moral beings in society….If the preceding observations have their foundation in reason and the Word of God, we see the happy connection between religion and good government….
Religion and civil government are not one and same thing… though both may — and are — designed to embrace some of the same objects…. [M]inisters of state or ministers of religion, or in what ever character they may act, will therefore exert themselves to promote that cause which aims at no less an object than the glory of Jehovah and the highest felicity of his unlimited and eternal kingdom….You gentlemen are vested with an authority which men of wisdom and virtue will ever revere….May you ever exercise such authority in the meekness of wisdom for the best good of your brethren agreeably to those unchangeable laws of righteousness and goodness which the Supreme Lawgiver hath established in His moral kingdom.”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=61
Pastor Isaac Beall in 1812.
“Civil government is one of those blessing which a kind of God has seen fit to bestow upon the lapsed family of Adam. In this present imperfect state, a people could not long remain happy, without a civil government…. God has ordained civil government for the good of man…[and] righteousness is the only qualification of a civil ruler mentioned by the inspired penman in our text….As in a good constitution of government there is no absolute power but that of the laws…of Jehovah being a transcript of perfect rectitude, there can be no reasonable objection raised against their being executed….God has ordained rulers to avenge the wrongs of injustice and oppression, and the violation of sedition and rebellion….From our subject collectively, we learn first that the rights and privileges, the liberty and happiness; yea, and the lives also, of the great body of the people, are, under God, entrusted in the hands of their rulers….
That our rulers may be ministers of God to us for good, it is our duty to implore the presence of God with them, his spirit to aid and assist them; and his blessing to crown their administration with success:…”
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION MUST CONTINUE FOR AMERICA’S SUCCESS
By Pastor Samuel Langdon 1788
Deuteronomy, 4: 5–8.
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people: for what nation is there so great, which hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? and what nation is there so great, which hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day.
“Here Moses recommends to Israel the strict observance of all the laws which he had delivered to them by God’s command, relating both to their civil polity and religion, as the sure way to raise their reputation high among all nations as a wise and understanding people….[T]he Israelites may be considered as a pattern to the world in all ages; and from them we may learn what will exalt our character, and what will depress and bring us to ruin….I have presented you with the portrait of a nation, highly favoured by heaven with civil and religious institutions, who yet, by not improving their advantages, forfeited their blessings, and brought contempt and destruction on themselves….
I call upon you also to support schools in all your towns, that the rising generation may not grow up in ignorance…. [T]rain them up in the fear of God, in an acquaintance with his word,… they are to succeed in your stead; government and religion must be continued by them; from among these will shortly rise up our legislators, judges, ministers of the gospel, and officers of every rank.”
DIVINE JUDGMENTS UPON TYRANTS
Reverend Jacob Cushing-1778
“God is the sovereign of the world, and disposes all things in the best manner. All blessings and calamities, of a public nature, and the revolutions of kingdoms and states, are to be viewed as under the special direction of heaven. … God, in the righteous administrations of his providence, permits the sons of violence to oppress his saints and people….The established rule of the divine procedure towards nations is ascertained in Jer. xviii, 7, &c. “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….Thus God, in a variety of ways, may correct and punish his degenerate people; and, among others, permit enemies to oppress them, shed blood in their land, and lay them waste….Indeed churches are not perfect or complete; they are apt to decline and transgress; nothing therefore can be more equal and fit, than that God should, in his holy providence, manifest his righteous displeasure against backsliding churches that have fallen from the power and purity of religion, into a state of corruption….Though God chastise his people with the rod of his hand, or permit enemies to oppose and oppress them, yet he will remember his holy covenant, and shew compassion to them, upon their humiliation and repentance….The corrections of his hand are the scourges of a faithful God, who retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. To this purpose we have a more general exhortation to repentance, in Hos. vi. 1. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.” The same God that punisheth us, can only remove his judgments, and shew us mercy. God will “speak peace to his people, and to his saints, if they return not again to folly—surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him.”…
A DISCOURSE ON THE LOVE OF OUR COUNTRY
Reverend Richard Price-1790
“We are met to thank God for that event in this country to which the name of the Revolution has been given;…Let us therefore, offer thanksgivings to God, the author of all our blessings. Had he not been on our side, we should have been swallowed up quick, and the proud waters would have gone over our souls. But our souls are escaped, and the snare has been broken. Blessed then be the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. cxxivth Psalm….You love your country, and desire its happiness; and, without doubt, you have the greatest reason for loving it. It has been long a very distinguished and favoured country. Often has God appeared for it, and delivered it.”
TRAIN UP YOUR CHILDREN IN THE PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM
Reverend Israel Evans-1791
“Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1
“The doctrines of the gospel are calculated to promote good will and liberty among men;… “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” The true spirit of the Gospel contains the true spirit of liberty….The people are in the habit and exercise of liberty, when they resort to the first principles of government, and trace their rights up to God the Creator:…Without religious and civil liberty, we can have no security of life, or of any of the good things of God:…Liberty is enlightened by knowledge; and… [w]here there is wisdom, virtue, and liberty, there mankind are men. In all the dark ages of the world, tyranny has been established upon the slavish ignorance of mankind. Tyrants, in time past, secured their domination by darkening the minds of their subjects….Be assured, my dear countrymen, knowledge is absolutely necessary to secure the blessings of freedom…. Every parent, and every friend to the freedom of his country, ought to be solicitous for the improvement of our youth in the principles of freedom and good government…. Shall the children and youth of a free people be suffered to grow up ignorant of the value of those liberties you intend to commit to their trust? Shall they be unfit to take care of those political blessings which have been secured for them at the great expense of much toil, treasure, and precious blood?…Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Let us determine to be free from the unjust power of men, and free from the slavery and tyranny of sin, and we shall then be truly free. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
AN ORATION IN COMMEMORATION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
by Reverend Enos Hitchcock-1793
“The importance of religion to the peace and order of society, is unspeakably great. Every thing is replaced and established by religion. It surrounds the whole system of morality, resembling that universal force of physical nature, which retains the planets in their order, and subjects them to a regular revolution….Americans! [T]hink of the many privileges which distinguish your condition. Be grateful for your lot; and let your virtue secure what your valour, under God, hath obtained; and transmit to latest posterity the glorious inheritance. May the political edifice erected on the theatre of this new world, afford a practical lesson of liberty to mankind, and become in an eminent degree the model of that glorious temple of universal liberty which is about to be established over the civilized world.”
http://morallaw.org/resources/political-sermons/
OUR RIGHTS COME FROM GOD-NOT GOVERNMENT
In 1974, California governor Ronald Reagan gave a speech at a political convention about how some constitutions say that government grants you your rights, but ours says you are born with these rights.
“I have always believed that there was some Divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage….I know there have been other constitutions; new ones are being drawn today by newly emerging nations. Most of them-even the one of the Soviet Union-contain many of the same guarantees as our own constitution; and still there is a difference. The difference is so subtle that we often overlook it, but it is so great that it tells the whole story. Those other constitutions say, “Government grants you these rights,” and ours says, “You are born with these rights, they are yours by the Grace of God, and no government on earth can take them from you.”
Standing on the tiny deck of the Arabella in 1630 off the Massachusetts coast, John Winthrop said, “We will be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=158414
The Bible the Security of American Institutions.
Preached in the First Congregational Church, Washington, D.C., January 16th, 1876, by the Pastor. J. E. RANKIN, D. D.
The Old Testament, the old Hebrew Scriptures, outgrown are they? Just as much as are the foundations of the earth….They are to human life, to society, to government, to institutions, to laws, to the life and well-being of man, to the life and well-being of nations.…[If] the Old Testament tells us how to build up and make prosperous a great nation,…we have only to turn to the New Testament, to discover man’s duty as a man…. The Lord Jesus says that His kingdom is not of this world. And yet, in His kingdom here, and in fitting men for His future kingdom, He trains up men and women and children who make the best citizens of earthly kingdoms. He loans to temporal kingdoms the citizens of eternity….
Christian love, the gospel of the Lord Jesus provides the most conservative influence that ever was planted in earthly kingdoms; puts leaven into every one of them, such as tends to make model citizens, model men….
Who constitute the dangerous classes in a republic? They are men and women and children who are kept from the Bible and the power of the Bible. You may tell me that some of them are very religious. I admit it. And yet many of them do not understand the first principles of a true Christian morality….And who are the conservative classes in our civilization? They are the families which are under the influence of the Bible; the men and women who are under training of the truth as it is in Jesus; who study the Bible for themselves; who reject tyranny in things ecclesiastical just as emphatically as they do in things civil!… [So]… if it can be made to appear that nothing is so good as the Bible,…[it] makes it not only the right, but the duty of the State,…to permit the Bible…[as] the fundamental instruction of American children, but even to make it the corner-stone of their education; to begin with it, to end with it; to make it a text-book in all our schools….For sure as the Bible is the book of God, He has so constituted society and governments that if it be the chart by which we manage our public affairs…”
“A CITY THAT IS SET ON A HILL CANNOT BE HIDDEN MATTHEW5:14
Peter Bulkey (1583-1659) was the Puritan leader who founded the city of Concord, Massachusetts. In his book of sermons, The Gospel Covenant, he stated:
We are as a city set upon a hill, in the open view of all the earth….We profess ourselves to be a people in covenant with God, and therefore….the Lord our God…will cry shame upon us if we walk contrary to the covenant which we have promised to walk in. If we open the mouths of men against our profession, by reason of the scandalousness of our lives, we (of all men) shall have the greater sin.
Source: The American Patriots Bible
HOLD FIRMLY TO THE PRINCIPLES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
In 1909, Reverend Francis Grimke delivered a sermon warning America if it ever departed from righteousness:
“The stars and stripes- the old flag-will float… over all these states ….If the time ever comes when we shall all go to pieces, it will…[be] from inward corruption-from the disregard of right principles…from losing site of the fact that “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people.” The succession of the Southern States in 1860 was a small matter with the succession of the union itself from the great principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, in the golden Rule, in the Ten Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless we hold, and hold firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness…our union…will be “only a covenant with death and an agreement with hell” [Isaiah 28:18]. If it continues to exist, it will be a curse and not a blessing.”
Source: The Founders Bible
ELECTION SERMON
“Righteousness Exalts A Nation” – Proverbs 14:34
America’s Founding Fathers were concerned not just about their own generation but also posterity-about future generations. In fact, when they wrote the U.S. Constitution, they candidly acknowledged that they had done so in order to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” Reflecting this concern, in an Election Sermon preached to the Connecticut Legislature, the Reverend Mathias Burnet admonished citizens and leaders:
“To God and posterity you are accountable [for your rights and your rulers]….Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you.”
He reminded citizens that while they would give an account to God for whether or not they had preserved the rights he had entrusted to them, they would also answer to posterity.
Source: The Founder’s Bible
“RIGHTEOUSNESS”
When the Founding Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution, they candidly acknowledged that they had done so in order to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” Reflecting this concern, Patrick Henry warned:
Whether this [the American Revolution] will prove a blessing or a curse will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they will be great and happy. If they are of contrary character, they will be miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation [Proverbs 14:34]. Reader! – whoever thou art, remember this! – and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself and encourage it to others. P. Henry
Source: The Founder’s Bible
http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=151803
JULY4th DISCOURSE
John Cushing, Minister 0f the Gospel – 07/04/1796
“WE will not hide them from their Children, showing the Generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wonderful works, which He hath done; for He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their Children; that the Generation to come might know them, even the Children that should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children; that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God; but keep his Commandments.” (Psalm 78:4-7)
“We are peaceably met to celebrate the 4th of July, the important day when these United States were declared free, sovereign, and independent…This day completes twenty years since that important declaration was made, which, through God’s goodness, has been maintained….Our Fathers had no miracles wrought for them, but they experienced many mercies—in so good a cause as they embarked in, they trusted Providence, and God preserved and fed them….But worldly interest was not what was uppermost with them; religion was the principal thing they had in view….They believed that they maintained the pure doctrines and discipline of the gospel; and that it was their duty to support them at all events….God’s goodness in making us a free people ought to unite our hearts to fear before him, all the days of our life. He has exalted us, and given us a rank among the nations…. [L]ive in peace, forget not that you have spiritual enemies to combat…fight the good fight of faith; have on the whole armor of God, that you may conquer all your spiritual adversaries. Remember there is a war in which there is no discharge, I mean the war of death. If you become good soldiers of Jesus Christ, he will give you the victory, and enable you to sing that triumphant song, Oh Death, where is thy Sting; O Grave, where is thy Victory?”
LOVE OF COUNTRY
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=4153
RELIGION AND MORALITY ARE INDISPENSIBLE SUPPORTS
Joseph McKeen – Election Sermon – 05/18/1800
“It has pleased God in his gracious providence to grant us the singular privilege of deliberately framing, and freely adopting, constitutions of government, for the express purpose of securing our freedom, and promoting our welfare….The more freedom we have, the more necessary is the aid of religious and moral principles to the maintenance of order and tranquility….It is with… pleasure, that we read… of the late illustrious president of the United States, the following sentiments, which can never be too deeply impressed on our minds. “Of all the disposiions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the- tribute of patriotism who would labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them…. Let it simply asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded of the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.”
OUR RULERS SHOULD ENCOURAGE THE WORSHIP OF GOD
http://blackroberegiment.wallbuilders.com/sermon-election-1788/
Election Sermon – By David Parsons – 05/28/1788
“Rulers therefore should, by their example and authority, encourage the worship of God, and… that they should be hearty friends to religion – devout worshipers of God … that righteousness (which in the scriptures is used to signify sincere piety, or the fear of God) makes an important part of the character of a ruler… The authority of rulers may be exercised in matters of religion, so far as to tolerate, encourage and support the worship of God in some form or other… A people may reasonably expect to find in their rulers a love and esteem for virtuous men; and a disposition to advance those of that character to places of honor and truth. Thus the royal Psalmist, “Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the Land, that they may dwell with me;” “he that walketh in a perfect way, shall serve me.”…When Joshua was appointed chief magistrate, God installed him in his powers, and put the law into his hand saying, “this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.”…rulers… take… directions from his word, and imbibe his spirit.”
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Proverbs 29:2
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