Hurricane Witherspoon
If you labor with the notion that all the Founders were
deists and atheists, be prepared with a hurricane warning coming your way. This is not a watch, this is a warning and it
is named Hurricane Witherspoon. The more
you read of Witherspoon, especially his sermons, you cannot avoid being
confronted with the claims of Jesus Christ.
By using the hurricane analogy, please do not think that Witherspoon is
a ranter; on the contrary he was a very rational man- he was a Princeton man.
This comes from a writer that has read 25 volumes of
Letters of the Delegates [of Continental Congress] 1774-1789 and 34 volumes of
Journals of Continental Congress. I have
written three books on the Christian worldview of the Founding Fathers, one
secular history of the American Revolution pertaining to the Delmarva
Peninsula, about 90 articles on www.1776faith.blogspot.com
and www.constitutionfaith.blogspot.com
; but I can sense a storm coming in my research.
The storm is a combination of Scotland and John
Witherspoon and it hit America. This
research has led me to see my own family history as coming from Scotland. I always assumed that I was English. William Webster of the Maryland militia,
Somerset battalion, Monie Division was as far as I had been able to go back for
20 years. Recently I was able to find
out that Richard Webster (born in Glamis, Angus, Scotland around 1680) came to
Cambridge, Maryland between 1699 to1704 and became a schoolmaster there. This has driven me to find out more about
Scottish history.
Magnus Magnusson’s book entitled Scotland: The Story
of a Nation is a great start in learning the overall picture of the history
of Scotland through the centuries.
Condensing the history, let us start with the time period around
1600. There were battles at places like
Preston (1684) where 2,000 Scots died on the battlefield and 8,000 were taken as prisoners (many ended up on ships as slaves).. Scots won quite a few battles but overall
were on the losing side. Many Scots came
to America as indentured servants.
The Jacobite rebellion ended in a huge defeat for the
Scots. Most Americans (like myself) know
very little about Scottish history. I
never knew that Scotland had a National Covenant in 1628. They did not like the English imposing the episcopal
form of church government on them (they were largely Presbyterians). They did not appreciate an English or
Scottish Lord or King putting a lot of their illegitimate children into jobs as
ministers of churches.
Many ships came to America carrying indentured Scots
after the National Covenant, after the Jacobite rebellion and the defeat of
Bonnie Prince Charlie.
As it became illegal to meet in the churches, many
Covenanters worshipped in homes, barns and in the fields. Magnusson estimated that 30,000 Scots died in
a 15 year period for worshipping according to their conscience. Many that did not die were carted up and sent
off to America.
We are still talking about the Scots and John
Witherspoon. As James Bond went back to
his roots in Scotland, he told “M” on the movie Skyfall: “Storm’s coming!” Two signers of the Declaration of Independence came to Scotland to persuade Witherspoon to become the president of Princeton (at that time the College of New Jersey). Richard Stockton was the initial contact that asked Dr. Witherspoon to come to Princeton. Witherspoon's wife proved hard to convince to come to America and several attempts were made by a medical student named Benjamin Rush (who was studying at the University of Edinburgh at the time) to try and persuade her to come. The decision to cross the Atlantic and live in frontier situations became easier when she discovered that a house was provided and a good salary. As she put her life in God's hands, she gave permission to go to the New World.
If you visit Mount Vernon, you may or may not learn that
a William Webster served as an indentured servant to a guy named George
Washington. You can see it in the
Maryland Gazette in April 1775. My guess
is that this servant was Scottish- William (chosen as a popular name for Scots
because of William Wallace- Braveheart) and Webster because of many Websters
that came from Scotland).
People from Anglican and Methodist (which was at that
time a part of the Anglican/Episcopal church) tended to be Tories. In my research, I have seen a strong link
with Presbyterians and the American Revolution.
This is backed by books
And by many who called
Presbyterian ministers the Black Regiment (because of their black robes). Famous Patriots/Whigs who were Presbyterian
ministers include the Rev. James Caldwell of New Jersey.
Two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence
were instrumental in bringing John Witherspoon to America to be the new
President of Princeton (College of New Jersey). Benjamin Rush and Richard
Stockton both had travelled to Scotland and tried to persuade Rev. Witherspoon
and his wife to come to Princeton. Former
presidents had been Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Davies, both of whom were greatly
used of God in the Great Awakening.
In “The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men,”
Witherspoon preaches unmistakably about the necessity of committing one’s life
to Christ. In the coming storm of what
would be the War for Independence, he preached this sermon on May 17,
1776. To his hearers, he said that this
was the first sermon where he spoke of politics. “You are all my witnesses, that this is the
first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season however, it is not only lawful
but necessary.” The sermon is 25 pages
but will be condensed and those that desire to see its entirety are encouraged
to do so.
In the first place, I
would take the opportunity on this occasion, and from this subject, to press every hearer to a sincere concern for his own
soul's salvation. There are times when the
mind may be expected to be more awake to divine truth, and the conscience more
open to the arrows of conviction than at others. A season of public judgment is
of this kind. Can you have a clearer view of the sinfulness of your nature,
than when the rod of the oppressor is lifted up, and when you see men putting
on the habit of the warrior, and collecting on every hand the weapons of
hostility and instruments of death? I do not
blame your ardour in preparing for the resolute defense of your temporal
rights; but consider, I beseech you, the truly infinite importance of the salvation
of your souls. Is it of much moment whether
you and your children shall be rich or poor, at liberty or in bonds? Is it of
much moment whether this beautiful country shall increase in fruitfulness from
year to year, being cultivated by active industry, and possessed by independent
freemen, or the scanty produce of the neglected fields shall be eaten up by
hungry publicans, while the timid owner trembles at the tax-gatherer's
approach? And is it of less moment, my
brethren, whether you shall be the heirs of glory of the heirs of hell? Is your state on earth for a few fleeting years of so much
moment? And is it of less moment what shall be your state through endless ages!
Have you assembled together willingly to
hear what shall be said on public affairs, and to join in imploring the
blessing of God on the counsels and arms of the United Colonies, and can you be
unconcerned what shall become of you for ever, when all the monuments of human
greatness shall be laid in ashes, for "the earth itself, and all the works
that are therein shall be burnt up."
Wherefore,
my beloved hearers, as the ministry of reconciliation is committed to me, I
beseech you in the most earnest manner, to attend to "the things that
belong to your peace, before they are hid from your eyes". How soon, and
in what manner a seal shall be set upon the character and state of every person
here present, it is impossible to know. But you may rest assured, that there is
no time more suitable, and there is none so safe as that which is present,
since it is wholy uncertain whether any other shall be yours. Those who shall
first fall in battle, have not many more warnings to receive. There are some
few daring and hardened sinners, who despise eternity itself, and set their
Maker at defiance; but the far greater number, by staving off their convictions
to a more convenient season, have been taken unprepared, and thus eternally
lost. I would therefore earnestly press the apostle's exhortation, 2 Cor 6:
1-2... "Behold, now is the accepted
time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
Suffer me to beseech you, or rather
to give you warning, not to rest satisfied with a form of godliness, denying
the power thereof.
There can be no true
religion, till there be a discovery of your lost state by nature and practice,
and an unfeigned acceptance of Christ Jesus,
as he is offered in the gospel.
Unhappy are
they who either despise his mercy, or are ashamed of his cross. Believe it, "
There
is no salvation in any other." "
There is no other name under heaven given amongst men by
which we must be saved." Unless you are
united to him by a lively faith, not the resentment of a haughty monarch, the
sword of divine justice hangs over you, and the fulness of divine vengeance
shall speedily overtake you. I do not speak this only to the heaven-daring
profligate or grovelling sensualist, but to every insensible, secure sinner; to
all those, however decent and orderly in their civil deportment, who live to
themselves, and have their part and portion in this life; in fine, to all who
are yet in a state of nature, for "
except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". The fear of man may make you hide your profanity;
prudence and experience may make you abhor intemperance and riot; as you
advance in life one vice may supplant another and hold its place; but
nothing less than the sovereign grace of God can produce
a saving change of heart and temper, or fit you for his immediate presence."
The biggest quote for me
in this is from the man that taught the principles of the American Republic to
one President [James Madison], one Vice President [Aaron Burr], three Supreme
Court Justices, ten Cabinet members, twelve Governors, 21 Senators, 39
Representatives, delegates to the Constitutional Convention and state leaders (from
Bill Federer’s American’s God and Country, p. 703). This man understood the principles of the American
republic and played a huge part in the founding of our nation. He even lost a son in the fighting for
independence. The hatred of the British
for this minister is shown in a letter from John to his son David on February
2, 1777:
“I have been making inquiry
into the conduct of the enemy, which has been dreadful. At Trenton they killed Mr. Roxburgh,
Presbyterian minister at the Forks of Delaware.
Though he fell down on his knees and begged his life, yet they pierced
him in a shocking manner. Some of the
people at Princeton say thought they were killing me, and boasted that they had
done it when they came back. But this is
certain- the fact of his death and the manner of it is beyond all doubt.” (Phil
Webster, 1776 Faith, p. 79)
John Witherspoon was
serious about independence; but to him, eternal life with Jesus Christ was even
more important.
I do not blame your ardour in preparing
for the resolute defense of your temporal rights; but consider, I beseech you,
the truly infinite importance of the salvation of your souls.
