Just three weeks after the Second Continental Congress convened, and six weeks after the
Battles of Lexington and Concord, Harvard President Samuel Langdon addressed the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, MAY 31, 1775.
Samuel Langdon's address was titled "Government Corrupted By Vice":
"They...attempted,
by a sudden march of a body of troops in the night, to seize and
destroy one of our magazines, formed by the people merely for their own
security...
The fire began first on the side of the king's troops...
But
for what? Because they have made a noble stand for their natural and
constitutional rights, in opposition to the machinations of wicked
men...aiming to enslave and ruin the whole nation..."
Samuel Langdon continued:
"We
must keep our eyes fixed on the supreme government of the ETERNAL KING,
as directing all events, setting up or pulling down the kings of the
earth at His pleasure...
That for the sins of a people God may
suffer the best government to be corrupted, or entirely dissolved; and
that nothing but a general reformation can give ground to hope that the
public happiness will be restored..."
Harvard President Langdon spoke further:
"The
kingdom of Israel was brought to destruction, because its iniquities
were full...because there remained no hope of reformation...
Their government degenerated in proportion as their vices increased, till few faithful men were left in any public offices...
At
length, when they were delivered up for seventy years into the hands of
the king of Babylon, scarcely any remains of their original excellent
civil polity appeared among them..."
Langdon added:
"When a government is in its prime...virtue prevails--every thing is managed with justice, prudence, and frugality...
But
vice will increase with the riches and glory of an empire; and this
gradually tends to corrupt the constitution, and in time bring on its
dissolution.
This may be considered not only as the natural
effect of vice, but a righteous judgment of heaven, especially upon a
nation which has been favored with the blessing of religion and liberty,
and is guilty of undervaluing them; and eagerly going into the
gratification of every lust..."
He went on:
"They were a sinful nation...who had forsaken the Lord; and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger...
Their princes were rebellious against God...seizing the property of the subjects...and robbing the public treasury.
Every
one loved gifts...they were influenced in every thing by bribery...they
even justified and encouraged the murder of innocent persons to support
their lawless power...
And God, in righteous judgment, left them
to run into all this excess of vice to their own destruction, because
they had forsaken Him...
The public greatly suffered, and the people groaned, and wished for better rulers and better management.
But in vain they hoped for a change...when the spirit of religion was gone, and the infection of vice was become universal.
The
whole body being so corrupted, there could be no rational prospect of
any great reformation in the state, but rather of its ruin..."
Rev. Langdon continued his address to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress:
"Yet if a general reformation of religion and morals had taken place, and they had turned to God from all their sins --
if
they had again recovered the true spirit of their religion, God, by the
gracious interpositions of His providence, would soon have found out
methods to restore the former virtue of the state, and again have given
them men of wisdom and integrity...
We
have rebelled against God. We have lost the true spirit of
Christianity, though we retain the outward profession and form of it. We
have neglected...the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and His
holy commands and institutions...
Their hearts are far from Him.
By many, the Gospel is corrupted into a superficial system of moral
philosophy, little better than ancient Platonism..."
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Rev. Samuel Langdon concluded:
"Let
us repent and implore the divine mercy. Let us amend our ways and our
doings, reform everything that has been provoking the Most High and
thus endeavor to obtain the gracious interpositions of Providence for
our deliverance...
May the Lord hear us in this day of
trouble...We will rejoice in His salvation, and in the name of our God,
we will set up our banners!...
Wherefore
is all this evil upon us? Is it not because we have forsaken the Lord?
Can we say we are innocent of crimes against God? No, surely it
becomes us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand, that He may exalt
us in due time...
If God be for us, who can be against us? The
enemy has reproached us for calling on His name and professing our
trust in Him. They have made a mock of our solemn fasts and every
appearance of serious Christianity in the land...
May
our land be purged from all its sins! Then the Lord will be our refuge
and our strength, a very present help in trouble, and we will have no
reason to be afraid, though thousands of enemies set themselves against
us round about."
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