History's Clues to America's Crisis

A Two-Century-Old Warning by Pastor Chauncey Lee

July 4th, 1800 AD

 

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Notes from Berit: Empires rise and fall. Though military might and a measure of cultural (not Christian) ethics brought times of peace and progress to some "great" civilizations, they all crumbled after a century or two. Might America's freedom fade as well? If so, why?

You can find some insights and answers in the following message by Rev. Chauncey Lee, who followed the famed Rev.Jonathan Edwards as pastor of a church in Colebrook, Connecticut. Concerned about the rising assault on Christian faith and freedom two centuries ago, he compared America's foes, to (1) the serpent who tempted Eve and (2) the left-wing, anti-Christian revolutionaries called Jacobins [not British Jacobitism]. Led by the devious but charismatic Robespierre, that tyrannical movement steered the bloodiest part of the French Revolution during the 1790s.

An interesting statement by Thomas Jefferson may help explain the spiritual battle described in this message. Remember, Jefferson was elected president the next year -- in 1801.

"They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion." - Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800

Since the 18th-century language in this "discourse" is hard to read and understand, much has been left out. Wherever explanations were needed, words were added within a parenthesis.

"And the woman said unto the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 'ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'" Genesis 3:2-3.

This day, fellow-citizens, completes twenty four years since our country emerged from a state of dependence upon a foreign power, and assumed a rank among the nations of the earth, as a free, and independent republic....

I beg leave to call your serious attention to the present state of things. I see this my duty, both as a fellow-citizen... and as a spiritual watchman... to hold up to your view, the dangers which threaten our country... and point to the means of deliverance and safety....

A restless, factious spirit constantly impelling to innovation and change is both unreasonable in its nature, and fatally pernicious in its effects. Or in other words... when mankind, either as individuals or nations, abandon those principles, and depart from that line of conduct, which God hath prescribed and by his word or providence clearly pointed out as the path of duty and happiness, they do it at their utmost peril. Evil inevitably ensues, and certain destruction is the end....

The text in Genesis, refers to the original constitution under which man was placed, and points directly to the fruitful source of all the evils and miseries, which have ever embittered and poisoned the cup of humanity. Our first parents then composed the whole family of man.... God their Creator, was their Governor and King. He had made the most ample provision for the supply of all their wants, and the gratification of every reasonable desire.....

[Happiness depended] upon their obedience to the divine law — their continued conformity to the rules of righteousness and justice—abstaining from the taste, or touch of the forbidden fruit....

Can any subsequent event of the like nature be brought as a parallel? Truly, I know of none unless it be the present, prevailing unreasonable dissatisfaction and implacable opposition of Americans towards the administration of constitutional authority and the operation of the government of their choice: one of all human governments the most mild, benign and equal upon which the sun ever shone....

Let us further  inquire, what were the immediate cause, or causes, which actually led to this first grand apostasy of mankind, and effected this awful revolution in the nation of Eden. This...inquiry... will afford the most sure ground of argument, in reasoning by analogy....

The Tempter's Trick

The moment we look at it, we see that the essential, immediately influential, and proximate cause, which led to the very first  act of... degradation and misery... was infidelity. "Ye shall not surely die." This was the new god ... which impelled and supported the hand of Eve, while she plucked the fruit of that forbidden tree...

The better to insure the success of his wicked enterprise, the villain chose not to appear in his true character, but assumed the form of a serpent.... With much show of disinterested friendship and generosity, mixed with an air of wonder and surprise, he asks, "...has God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Is it possible that you should be thus unreasonably restricted? thus deprived of the essential rights of men and citizens?

Eve answers in an honest statement of facts, as expressed in the text:

"And the woman said unto the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'" Genesis 3:2-3.

He then throws off the mask, and comes out open and bold in the principles of infidelity, and his blasphemous assertions of the divine tyranny.

"And the serpent said unto the woman, 'ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.'"

Here is the origin, and the very quintessence of Jacobinism. Never was a truer copy of an original drawn, than that which is marked out by the tongues, the pens, and the swords of the modern illuminators of mankind — the champions of Liberty [from God's Word] and Equality [for those who submitted to Robespierre], Health and Fraternity [without God].

Their whole system is a perfect paraphrase upon this text [in Genesis 3]. They have even refined upon the cunning of Satan, and outdone him in his own art. He contented himself with denying God's truth, and calling in question his goodness—while his followers have the superior effrontery of coming to the same thing in a shorter way—by denying his existence....

America's Temptations

We live in a land that may justly be styled the Eden of the world; and of all the trees of the garden we may freely and safely eat — one only excepted, the tree of licentiousness and sedition, which alas is growing in the midst of the garden....

We are forbidden only to mingle bitter with our sweets. Our means of every national and political blessing are abundantly liberal, and nothing forbidden, but the mad privilege of self destruction, for which however, many are contending, with a zeal equaled only by their malice and intrigue.

In the blessings of religion and government and all their happy fruits, our country appears to symbolize with the nation of Eden.... But like the former we are fast yielding to the artful suggestions of the tempter, aspiring to be gods knowing good and evil, and reaching forth after the forbidden fruit....

In the midst of our national garden, stands the tree of knowledge of political good and evil. This we are now more particularly to examine by the fruits it bears, and the effects of those fruits. This tree, to the disgrace of our country, is in the midst of our political garden. It grows and flourishes only in the soil of human depravity. Its trunk is Infidelity.

As it extends upward, it soon divides into two large main branches, and these are Atheism and Anarchy. These branches, however, the worshippers of the tree distinguish by different and more specious names—the former they call the Age of Reason, and the latter, the Rights of Man; while with a very imposing air, they fondly call the body of the tree Liberty and Equality.

From these main branches aforementioned shoot out innumerable other smaller limbs and twigs. A few of which are such as the following: Political regeneration, private [character] assassinations [lies, slander?], Revolutions, Forced loan, Foreign robbery, Public debauchery, Private and national perfidy, Terrorism, Revenge, Government (tyranny), Universal domination....

If this evil actually exist in our country, similar causes will produce similar effects.... When our first parents [Adam and Eve] yielded to the arts of the tempter, impelled by conscious guilt, they hid themselves among the trees of the garden.

Just so the disciples of Jacobinism -- as soon as they have eaten of the forbidden fruit -- immediately skulk, and mingling themselves with the mass of good citizens, endeavor to hide themselves, and carry on all their nefarious operations in the darkness and secrecy of intrigue.

Nearly allied to this is another circumstance. Adam and Eve knew that they were naked and sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And what are the aprons of Jacobins by which they strive to conceal the nakedness and deformity of their real views and intentions? ...flimsy, but specious pretexts of zeal for the public good — high sounding attachment to the principles of the constitution — a patriotic concern for the liberties of their country, and ranting declamation against unconstitutional measures.

Mindless Deceptions

They are willfully blind... dead in every principle and practice of political error and mischiefs. The means of persuasion addressed to them are thrown away. The most powerful arguments are vain; and the knowledge of facts before their eyes makes not the least impression. I much doubt, whether among all that class of citizens, a single instance of political conversion can be produced.

A few of the principal fruits of the Jacobinic tree, I shall now briefly mention....

1st Fruit: ...no distinction between liberty and licentiousness....

2nd Fruit: ...a total want of conscience in civil rulers.... A man chosen to civil office, however fair and unimpeachable his character before his election, yet commences the downright villain and the faithless tyrant as soon as ever he begins to act in his public character.... The constituted authorities are not the organs of the public will....

3rd Fruit: That religion and government have no connection. Government is not to be influenced or guided by the principles of religion....  No matter what his creed—if he be an infidel or Atheist, so much the better, provided he be thoroughly imbued with the principles of Jacobinism.... Ministers of the gospel cannot teach their people how to conduct themselves as peaceable good subjects...and warn them to shun the rocks which threaten the destruction of their country....

4th Fruit: ...a blind...admiration of the government of France, in all its vertiginous motions, windings, revolutions, and abominations....

6th Fruit. ...all the arts of insinuation, secret intrigue, personal invective, and the shameless abuse, of open lying defamation, through the medium of tongues, pens, books and newspapers are the worthiest means employed....

But strange and unaccountable as it is, this Jacobinic sedition is now prevailing in our country, and even assuming the air of triumph. Both in conversation and newspapers, marks of exultation are discoverable ; and the certainty of a Jacobinic administration, as the fruit of the next election, is avowed by every mouth, and scattered through every state....

Not all the foreign powers on earth combined against us, can effect our ruin, without our own aid. If America fall, and add another example to the long melancholy list of departed Republics, she will owe her destruction to her own hands.

The present day, therefore, is a day for action and alarm, and not for security and sloth. It is a day which tries men's souls.... "He that is not with us, is against us, and he that gathereth not with us, scattereth abroad."...

We must cleave to the God of our fathers, and not sacrifice to those new gods, that have come newly up, whom our fathers feared not.... We must faithfully instruct our children in the principles of true religion, and true liberty. We must observe God's Sabbaths.... We must preserve the fountains of public honors and offices, pure and unsullied...

And to every insinuation of the tempter let us make this determined reply:

"We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 'ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'" Genesis 3:2-3


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