OUR FOREFATHERS’
COVENANTS
Part 23
May 15, 2020
Before we move on to discuss the life of Benjamin Rush, let
me wrap up our discussions on Alexander Hamilton and then deviate for a little
bit to talk about the Liberty Bell, and the significance it played in our
nation’s founding.
Alexander
Hamilton’s last letter on politics, written two days before his death,
illustrates the two sides of his thinking already emphasized; in this letter he
warns his New England friends against dismemberment of the union as "a clear sacrifice of great positive advantages,
without any counterbalancing good; administering no relief to our real
disease, which is democracy, the poison of which, by a subdivision, will
only be more concentrated in each part, and consequently the more
virulent."
No
judgment of Hamilton is more justly measured than James Madison’s written in
1831.
"That he possessed intellectual powers of the first order,
and the moral qualities of integrity and honor in a captivating degree, has
been awarded him by a suffrage now universal. If his theory of government
deviated from the republican standard he had the candour to avow it, and the
greater merit of co-operating faithfully in maturing and supporting a system
which was not his choice."
Alexander
Hamilton's Covenant Theology -- as noted yesterday -- was, more than anything
else, the force that directed his thought processes. More visionary than
practical at times, he looked prophetically into the future to a day when the
rule of Jesus Christ would govern all societies. His visionary
perspective sometimes overruled the practical when it came to implementing
covenant concepts for government. He saw the formation of the United
States not just as the putting together of a set of unified states under a
constitution, but as a people who entered into a blood covenant with each other
in the Biblical sense.
In our
previous discussions on Covenant and its principles, I noted that covenant is
not something folks enter into as a contract or an agreement which can be
broken or dissolved because of some disagreement. Covenant envisions
disagreement. Covenant sees differences. But covenant ONLY works in
a practical sense when you have a people committed to the Lord who understand
the sacredness of it.
Alexander
Hamilton and a large majority of our nation's founding fathers all understood
covenant. They gave themselves to one another, to the death. They
all understood that no real covenant can function and be operative without
entering into it under God. God the Father gave His only Son, Jesus
Christ, who shed His blood on the Cross in order that we could receive and
participate in that same covenant He originally made with Abraham. It was
a covenant of blessing. It was a covenant of God's mercy. It was a
covenant made in agape/kheseed.
Agape,(the Greek word) of course, is who God
is. Agapeis a love that
knows no bounds. Kheseedis
the Hebrew equivalent (the "k" sound is almost silent), and the Old
Testament abounds with literally hundreds of uses of this word describing,
mercy, faithfulness, a love that chases after, lovingkindness, tender mercies
-- and much, much more.
Hamilton,
Madison, Washington, Adams, Sherman, Henry -- and even Jefferson, as he
approached the end of his life -- understood covenant within a framework of
which our current society seems completely oblivious. Though they called
themselves Whigs, Federalists, New Republicans, and numerous other things which
denoted their concepts of how the government should be assembled and how our
Constitution should be framed, each of them understood that they were
implementing a society and a governance for that society such as the world had
never seen. With perhaps a couple of exceptions, virtually every single
one of those men we refer to as our "founding fathers" revered God
and worshiped Him, understood that Christianity was the only practical way to
achieve a self-governing society in which peace, prosperity and true liberty
would last.
They were
right. Throughout the centuries, nations have risen and fallen.
Societies have come and gone. Governments have been formed and
dissolved. America is the ONLY nation on the face of the earth ever
formed as "one nation under God," and it has lasted longer than any
society in history.
I noted
yesterday that Alexander Hamilton was a master of reading the hearts and
intents of people, (in truth, he had the ability to function with that Gift of
the Spirit we know as "the discerning of spirits.") and when he saw
questionable methods or tactics being applied by his fellow-founders, he wasted
no time in letting them know that he wouldn't stand for anything less than
above-board truthfulness and integrity. When his arguments appeared to
fall on deaf ears, he would go around the individual in question and inform
others of those actions he considered ill-advised.
It is
quite likely that he never understood that he was functioning with a prophetic
gift of the Holy Spirit, and the concept of modern-day prophets was something
totally missing from his era. Patrick Henry was another of our founding
fathers who easily operated in a prophetic realm, and most likely never
understood it as such.
Yesterday,
I said that Alexander Hamilton's personal faith in Jesus Christ was the guiding
force that governed his life. His personal sense of covenant and the deep
commitment that comes in covenant relationship drove him. For Hamilton,
covenant was the essential means by which government could and must
operate. Through Federalism he saw the opportunity to help bring about a
"nation under God, indivisible, and with justice for all."
Take a
look as we conclude today's discussion at some of what Hamilton had to say
about Christianity and government, and the formation of our American
Constitution.
"For my own part,
I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could
have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."
"I have carefully
examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a
juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its
favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted
to the mind of man."
In a
letter written to James Bayard two years before his death, Hamilton wrote,
"In my opinion,
the present constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under
its banner bona fide must we combat our political foes, rejecting all changes
but through the channel itself provided for amendments. By these general
views of the subject have my reflections been guided.
"I now offer you
the outline of the plan they have suggested. Let an association be formed
to be denominated "The Christian Constitutional Society," its object
to be first: The support of the Christian religion. second: The support
of the United States."
Hamilton's
dying words to the minister who attended him following his being shot by Aaron
Burr were:
"I have a tender
reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the
merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray
for me."
As Americans, we are blessed beyond measure
to have had people such as Alexander Hamilton involved in the formation and
defense of this nation, its Constitution and governance. There is no
doubt in my mind -- and I totally agree with Alexander Hamilton -- that America
came together under "the finger of God" with specific purpose for the
spreading of the Gospel, for the creation of a society which would ultimately
become an example to the world of just mankind can prosper, live in peace and
know true liberty so long as they honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
For 240+ years, we have done just that
despite the efforts of God-haters, liberals and leftists who have expended
every effort possible to destroy our nation's Christian foundations.
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't
thank the Lord for being born in this nation.
I do want
to deal with another of our founding fathers today -- Benjamin Rush -- but
there's a quote I find eminently appropriate for our all of our
celebrations. It comes from
In looking
for the name of the individual(s) who commissioned the making of this bell, I
was trying to find out who called for the inscribing of the Scripture
verse. It appears that our history has omitted the name of the person who
actually proposed this, but the order for the casting of the original bell with
scripture verse intact came from an order of the Assembly of the Province of
Pennsylvania for the State House in Philadelphia (also known as Independence
Hall) in 1751. Although we have no concrete evidence to back it up, it would
appear that the commissioning of the bell was to commemorate William Penn's
Charter of Privileges written 50 years before.
We covered
that in more depth back in a previous Coffee Break, but just to put the quote
from Leviticus in context, here is the first paragraph of William Penn's
preamble to that Charter of Privileges:
"BECAUSE
no People can be truly happy, though under the greatest Enjoyment of Civil
Liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Consciences, as to their
Religious Profession and Worship: And Almighty God being the only Lord of
Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; and the Author as well as Object of
all divine Knowledge, Faith and Worship, who only doth enlighten the Minds, and
persuade and convince the Understandings of People,
I
do hereby grant and declare, That no Person or Persons, inhabiting In this
Province or Territories, who shall confess and acknowledge One almighty God,
the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the World; and professes him or themselves
obliged to live quietly under the Civil Government, shall be in any Case
molested or prejudiced, in his or their Person or Estate, because of his or
their conscientious Persuasion or Practice, nor be compelled to frequent or
maintain any religious Worship, Place or Ministry, contrary to his or their
Mind, or to do or suffer any other Act or Thing, contrary to their religious
Persuasion."
The
Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London cast the very first Liberty Bell, but its
metal composition was so brittle that the very first time the bell struck, it
cracked. John Pass and John Stow, who were local Philadelphia founders,
offered to melt and recast the bell and strengthen its composition. The
new bell was completed and hung in March, 1753. The first time it rang,
however, the city fathers didn't like its tone, so Pass and Stow recast it a
third time. They completed the work in short order, and in June, 1753,
the bell was re-hung. Although some of the city fathers still didn't like
the tone of the new bell, the majority of citizens agreed that it was a good
sounding bell, and this time the bell stayed.
That bell
cracked almost a hundred years later, although the date of its initial crack is
in question. That crack, however grew in proportion on February 22, 1789
in honor of George Washington's Presidency when it tolled for several
hours. An attempt to repair the crack some 57 years later resulted in
only extending the flaw, and the bell has not been rung publicly since.
The bell was recast and a replacement donated by Henry Seybert in 1876 at the
Centennial Anniversary Celebration.
The name,
"Liberty Bell," however, was not the name the bell was known by until
1835. In fact, the bell had no name per se until R. G. Williams published
Volume 1, No. 2 of The Anti-Slavery Record in February of 1835. His
comment is worth reprinting here:
"The Liberty Bell. Being in Philadelphia a few days since,
I was invited after viewing the room in which the Declaration of Independence
was signed, to ascend the tower of the State House, to take a view of the city.
The view was delightful. On our ascent, we did not fail to examine the
celebrated Bell. It weighs 2300 pounds, and was cast 23 years before the
Declaration of Independence was signed. On that occasion it was rung, and has
been run every 22d February and 4th of July since.
It is remarkable that the following inscription was on the bell
when it was cast. It was considered a sort of prophecy:"PROCLAIM
LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND, AND TO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF."May
not the emancipationists in Philadelphia, hope to live to hear the same bell
rung, when liberty shall in fact be proclaimed to all the inhabitants of this
favored land? Hitherto, the bell has not obeyed the inscription; and its peals
have been a mockery, while one sixth of "all inhabitants" are in
abject slavery."
In fact,
Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation almost 29 years later fulfilled the
prophecy, and the Liberty Bell became a prophetic symbol of the freedoms we
enjoy in Christ as Americans. It commemorated to a certain degree the
words of those Mayflower settlers whose compact and covenant began,"In the name of God…Having undertaken for the glory of
God and advancement of the Christian faith… "announcing the
fact that this nation's very beginnings were undertaken"for the Glory of God, and advancement of the
Christian faith."
The signs
and symbols, the Scripture references that abound in our founding fathers'
commentaries, and their labors of love and covenant to establish this great
nation make abundantly clear that they purposed to have "one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Looks like
I’ve run out of time to deal with Benjamin Rush so we will pick it up there
next week.
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Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76502
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