Hurricane Witherspoon

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.