The way things are going, we may be in for another Bush v. Gore-esque 38-day slog. Election day is almost a week old, but the election season is young yet. In any case, the temptation to think little of our governmental institutions and constitutional order will be strong. Many are actively debasing it (and have been for some time). Let the notes from a 1744 election sermon below act as a shield against this tendency. *** James Allen (or sometimes... Read more
Since election day(s) technically isn’t over, I’m going to keep posting these New England (17th to 18th century) sermon notes (and maybe thereafter as well given the positive response to them). New and timely one below. Enjoy! Noah Hobart (1706-1773) was born in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1706, graduated from Harvard in 1724, and was ordained pastor of the First Congregational Church at Fairfield, Connecticut in 1733. He gained some renowned for entering a pamphlet skirmish with Anglicans in the era,... Read more
The sermon below, ominously entitled, “A Day of Darkness,” was preached by Samuel Checkley (1695-1769) in 1755 at Boston before Governor William Shirley, of whom I’ve spoken of before. Relatively little is known about Checkley’s life. He does not too often crop up in the great histories of New England. He was the pastor of the New South Church in Boston. His parents were immigrants from Northamptonshire. His ancestor, Anthony, had been the first attorney general under the new charter... Read more
I’ve been reading Matthew Henry’s (1662-1714) commentary on Ecclesiastes to compliment the sermon series on the same at my church. A deep dive into the wisdom literature of the Old Testament has never been more necessary, nor more comforting. This doesn’t quite count as an election sermon (notes from which I’ve been posting over the past week) but its close. Commenting on Ecclesiastes 1:9-11, Henry, channeling Solomon, disabuses us of self-confidence stemming from any false conceptions of the novelty of... Read more
I am not a Donald Trump acolyte. I am ambivalent. I have the evidently antiquated view that that a presidency should be primarily judged by its foreign and military policy, not by domestic goings on (the domestic populace always being fickle). In 2020, because of the pandemic and civil unrest, foreign policy matters even less than it normally does. Terrorism, the only thing that used to make people care about things abroad, isn’t a hot button issue right now (even... Read more
It is nearly impossible, or at least improper, to discuss New England life and theology without mentioning Samuel Willard (1640-1707). Apart from John Cotton, the trio of Mathers, Thomas Hooker, and a few others, Willard is the most noteworthy New England luminary, and his influence dominated the second generation of New Englanders. Willard was born in Concord, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard in 1655 (and was the only member of his class to take an M.A., 1659). He was driven out... Read more
I have lately been posting notes from New England election sermons (from the 17th and 18th centuries) in an effort to combat the less-than-helpful political analysis floating around out there this time of year from platformed pastors and evangelical elite think pieces. Accordingly, I thought it might be helpful to consider briefly the history, nature, and purpose of these sermons. In his magisterial study of New England preaching, The New England Soul, Harry Stout highlights the ubiquity and dominance of... Read more
This is the second installment in my series of notes from 17th and 18th century New England election sermons (see the first post here). In 1765, it was Andrew Eliot‘s (1718-1778) turn to preach the annual sermon in Boston on election day, this time before Francis Bernard who, unlike Governor Shirely, was very unpopular in the Bay Colony. (Eliot’s sermon preached at the day of execution of Levi Ames in 1773 is also worth reading.) By way of brief biography,... Read more
It’s that time again, when well-know, platformed pastors provide their unsolicited, generally unhelpful, advice on electoral politics. Given that I always, almost without exception, find said advice to be subpar (to put it gently), I thought I’d provide some notes from an 18th century election day sermon, that is, from a time when pastors were more equipped to pontificate on matters of the state. Drinking deeply from the well of New England election sermons is, in my experience, surer to... Read more
The Cantankerous Calvinist
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Only One Party Threatens the Constitutional Order
“Today, Monday October 26, 2020, will go down as one of the darkest days in the 231-year history of the United States Senate.” This was Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on the day cited in the statement. To what was he referring? None other than the Senate confirmation of now Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Why was this the darkest day in Senate? Was the integrity of the vote in some way compromised? Was some procedural rule violated?... Read more