In this audio message, Dan Ford discusses how the Puritans influenced our nation. There was much we can learn from their example. For instance, we see how they worked to take dominion for Christ. Many of their writings and teachings point to how Scripture is sufficient to direct church and family life.

Romans 15:4 (NKJV) - "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."

Music During the Puritan Era, there was a reformation of family life according to the scripture. This message, the Puritan influence on families who created our nation, was delivered by Dan Ford at the Puritan Family Reformation Conference in Wake Forest, North Carolina in 2008. I know this time of day we can get tired. I hope we're not tiring of the Puritans yet. We've had some good insights into some of the families that rediscovered Godly family life and the likes of Martin Luther, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards.

We had other presentations on how the Lord graciously gripped the hearts of men to return to the duties of the home. Excellent presentations on how God works in the spirits of men, and then works outwardly from that. In my former presentation, we rolled the scroll out a little bit wider and looked at a sweep of history from the time of the rediscovery of the word of God and the effect that that had in the home life of England, from the early reformers to the Puritans to the resistance by the Stuart kings to the Glorious Revolution and how that literature succeeded beyond that. We're going to roll the scroll out just a little bit further this time for something a little different to see how some of those things changed the world in wider ways. We're gonna do a sweep again of history that predates the time of the stewards, was affected during the time of the stewards, Particularly as it pertained to America and the settlement here, we can see the effect, the ramifications of such a life at one time changed the world.

Hopefully in that we'll see ourselves and we can see that the Lord is not through reforming. We have to, again, roll our scroll out pretty wide now. This is a bull or a decree from the Pope that was issued to the king of Spain in 1572. This would have been Philip II. This is the original bull, these are quite rare.

The broadsides are issued by the pope. This one's called the bull of the crusade as it pertains to the islands, the far off islands. That's literally a divine right document. For in the name of Christ, the King of Spain, to conquer the world. This is literally the divine right.

This is Christ's sanction to conquer America. And that gave the king of Spain great interest in conquering because he thought he was doing it for Christ. This is then king, 1572, and you can see the seal of Philip who issued this to some of his conquerors. So they did everything by license, they did everything according to order. What we must realize as English lovers of reformation, he was also, we don't think of him as such, but when he was a prince some years earlier, he was also King of England.

He had married Queen Mary, they desired to have offspring, and he desired to institute once and for all the Counter-Reformation. He was very ardent about that fact. He had married in to England for political reasons. This is a decree which I own dated 1554. It's issued in the name of Philip and Mary, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Ireland, defenders of the faith, princes of the Spain, again high honors and high authority, to the constable of the castle of Dover and the warden of the clink to do justice bodily according to one Henry Harrison, who's been excommunicated by Edmund Bonner, who is then Bishop of London, very much against the Protestant movement, because of Henry's manifest obstinate resistance to the ecclesiastical authorities of England and contempt done to the church.

This Henry Harrison, who's unrecorded in Fox's book of martyrs, but there are many martyrs who were not recorded in that book, suffered because he had offended the mother church and it was the state's job to execute that justice. This is dated 30th November 1554, about the time that John Knox had fled and before the martyrdom of John Rogers and the others. This is a slide from the prior presentation, again, which shows the family of John Rogers witnessing that. This is because of the prince of Spain's desire to conquer in the name of Christ. So part and parcel of any mindset worldview is the idea of dominion, taking dominion in the name of Christ.

This was certainly one model, and Philip thought he was faithful to that. Mary died without child. He was outside the realm of royalty then in England. He made some advances on Elizabeth again for political purposes but as we know Elizabeth was an ardent Protestant and other offenses took place through the ambassadors of the Spanish ambassadors to England and the result of all that breaking down was Philip's invasion of England in 1588 when it is said that the Protestant winds blew and he was unable to conquer England by force. This is the same Philip who had been their king and thought it was his right to take that again by divine right.

This is a radical example of the Spanish policies in America. This is the taking of Mexico City by Cortez. We can see the Dominion was done in the Spanish model in the name of the king, because the king had the right to do it, and it was his title to do it, and he sent troops. That's one model of colonization, or taking charge of the heathen. The English model we know was quite different by the time of Philip's death.

By 1600, 1603 and the rise of the Stuarts in England, the Geneva Bible had set in. They knew that dominion was in a different manner, but they also desired colonization quite self-consciously to counter the dominion of Spain. In Spain, the king owned America by title from Christ himself in his eyes. This is a book published in 1605 by Edwin Sands. Edwin Sands was a champion of Protestantism.

His father brought him up, he and his brother George, in a godly household. They were very much friends of even the separatists. Along with the Puritans, there's a quote I found by Edwin Sands Sr., his father, who said, the householder that feareth God will by good order and due consent keep his family in the fear of God. So here they saw God was the one that had title to everything including the home and they ought to fear him. So necessarily these men would have a different understanding of taken dominion.

In his relation, which by the way was not liked by James, Edwin Sands was despised by James I. He thought that Sands desired to set up a little Geneva in America, and I don't think he was far off. I think that's exactly what Sands was wanting to do. Sands procured the charter of Virginia. He was in the London Company of Virginia, eventually became the treasurer, not the resident treasurer in America, but back on the board, if you will, in England.

In this book, written before Virginia was colonized, just before that, he is very critical of both the religion of the Spanish, which he thought increases sin, not diminishes it, because it doesn't teach self-governance, It teaches sin, sin, sin, go to confession, communion, sin, sin, sin, go to confession, communion. The Protestant idea is govern yourself, and Sans and his faction, Puritans, was all about that. But he also criticized, Interestingly enough, the Spanish dominion from a different aspect. He thought and said in this book that Spain was denuding itself, one, by giving all power to its king, but also by taking dominion of far off lands by their youngest and bravest men. So what does that do to Spain, Sands says?

It destroys it. The king may be getting rich on the gold and the plunder of America, but the families of Spain are dying because they don't have the strength of the men. The young men are being taken by the state and sent off. That's a very astute understanding because Sands was the one in 1619, who along with the new governor and the new acknowledgement that the colony of Virginia named after Elizabeth could have a house of burgesses and self-government for certain things. Sands was all about self-government.

He had argued that politically behind the scenes and got that and along with the ship that included the governor and the commissions for the Burgesses were women so that in Virginia there could be families. Another important aspect of this man's life was he was a great supporter of John Robinson's exiled church in Holland, which we know of later as the Puritans, the pilgrims who settled Plymouth in 1620. If you ever wonder why people who were exiled and had a church and actually sought out the church, the king sought out that church, particularly William Brewster, their elder, for punishment, why would that church be granted a patent and a right to sail from Plymouth in England to settle under the crown in America. Get Edwin Sands work behind the scenes. John Robinson wrote that besides the Lord himself, Sir Edwin Sands was the best friends that that little church had on earth and that was true.

So Sands not only was instrumental in the founding and the self-government of the colony of Virginia, but he is essential in the settlement, in the new settlement of refugees in New England. And can we not see a huge difference in the model of this which is based on the Geneva Bible and that which Spain did both in the name of Christ? This is a book, Essays or Observations, Divine and Moral. This is the practical works, if you will, of Pastor John Robinson, which he taught his congregation before they sailed to America. As with the Puritans, they addressed all things.

See, in this chapter, he addresses how God has created societies. God had made man a sociable creature, and had not only ordained several societies in which persons are to unify themselves for their mutual welfare, but withal to dispense his blessings, as that no man is so barren but somewhere to profit others. In other words, when man, according to the Puritan mind, forms themselves in society is for the benefit of others. It's not about what he gets out of itself. This is being preached to these refugees before they settle in America.

John Robinson also says of the husband's duty, two things are particularly required of the husband, which are love and wisdom. His love life must be quote like Christ to his church, holy in quality and great in quantity. So this man was a passionate man, and if you read any of John Robinson's writings, they're very passionate about Christ and the duty of people. He fit very well in our model of the Puritan that we've been hearing in this conference. We know the idea of the householder was essential to the idea of society in England.

Edwin Sands Sr. Had written of the householder's responsibility. A householder refers to a man who leads a house that has an estate. He usually has some property, sometimes he has servants, but certainly he has a family, and he's responsible. He's the holder of the house.

He's the representative of Christ, who God is going to hold accountable for the running of that house. So the idea of a householder is a theme I think we've heard in several of the presentations. So when the settlers came in 1620, they were based on a different principle. This is an engraving from the 1800s, which is based on a painting in the Plymouth Museum of the settlers in Plymouth. And they don't come in with armies, they come in with families.

Because according to Sands, who was instrumental, according to the refugees, dominion was to take place family by family. Where did they get that doctrine? In the Noetic Covenant. When God sent out peoples into the earth, He did not send out armies. He sent out families to take possession.

And thus in the English and Puritan tradition, you have the idea of taking possession of the land, which is very important, is done by families. In medieval times, the church more and more became the owners of land. They were a landed church, and that was one of the egregious errors of a church. A church does not take possession of the land and own it. That's not the sphere by which God subdues the earth, nor is a state the one who subdues the earth in the Spanish model.

It's families and they were ardent about we need to do it God's way and they strove and at great cost. But notice the difference. You have to know and it was very self-conscious in the minds of these early settlers that they were countering the false way because the example of the false way was before them but they did it God's way. In Virginia we have the first poet who's George Sands he's the brother of Edwin Sands and he sails in 1619 as well, and becomes a resident treasurer, so his brother's treasurer in England, he's the resident treasurer, he's on the first council of the Burgesses, 1619, but he's also a lover of literature. While in Virginia, he began translating this, or began writing this book, which is a translation of the Psalms from Latin in poetry, and he has essays on family in that.

We can see the literature began by the same family. So the Sands family are some of the unknown heroes of our nation because they were the first seeds or some of the first seed that God scattered both in America and in England. And one thing we need to understand about the settlement of both New England and Virginia, particularly the Puritan settlements, there were many, many Puritans who backed, who funded, who were all about the settlement of America who never came. We show the cooperation of that. It wasn't that everyone was a refugee, but you did what you could in whatever station of life you were in, which was another common term by the Puritans, serve God in whatever station he has put you.

So if you stay in England, you serve his cause and you support. If you flee, you do it under God's glory and sometimes God will check. Oliver Cromwell was ready and packed to go to America in the 1630s. He had given up on England, but God stopped. The king stopped him, But it was the hand of God because God used him powerfully.

This is a picture that was painted about 50 some years ago about showing colonial life in Virginia, again the southernmost colony at the time. We can see again a quite different scene than what you would find in Spanish America. We see families doing commerce and trade and taking dominion, with much struggle by the way. One of the things that the northern colonists, the Puritan colonies in New England had that the southern colonies didn't have was the idea of covenant. Now of course the southern colonies knew about a covenant family, but the Puritans carried in it all spheres.

This is another man who supported the Puritans as well. He was a Puritan in England. I mean, he supported the American colonization. He also had favor with the king, believe it or not. He wrote this book, The New Covenant, or the Saints Portion.

It's basically practical application of those who are in the New Covenant, the benefits that Christ gives for you being in that covenant, and how Christ uses that covenant to subdue the earth and to spread the gospel. John Preston died in 1628. Men such as John Winthrop thought that with John Preston's death and his favor at the court, that God indeed had given up on England. And many people fled to America upon the death of John Preston, but they didn't leave his ideas when they came. John Cotton, who was the first pastor of the new town of Boston, which is named after the town which he originated from, wrote this book in 1645.

It's called The Ways of the Churches of Jesus Christ in New England. It's arguing for congregational polity versus Anglicanism and even against presbyterianism, but he carries the idea of covenant with him. What he says on page four and argue in this case for church polity being covenantal, he says, there is no other way given whereby a people, free from natural or compulsory engagements, can be united or combined together into one visible body to stand by mutual relation, fellow members of the same body, but only by mutual covenant. As a pereth between husband and wife in the family, magistrates and subjects in the Commonwealth, fellow citizens in the same city." and we can see his understanding of society is very covenantal from top to bottom. Basic marriage being covenantal, the magistrates and subjects.

Notice he doesn't call it a kingdom which is another characteristic of many of the Puritan writers. They call the nation a commonwealth because it's for ordained by God for the common good of the people. And notice he uses fellow citizens of the same city. That was also characteristic of America in both New England and Virginia and eventually the colonies were up and down. You may be a subject of the crown, but you are a citizen of your town or your city, which shows ownership.

You have ownership because that reflects dominion. These are words that were borrowed by our founders when they carved our nation. I love this little book. It's the first book that describes the covening of Christian Indians due to the missionary work of John Elliott and Mayhew and others. This was a work published by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England, which wasn't a controlling corporation.

It was a contractual corporation whose job it was to take free will offerings, which set the precedence for the kind of missionary work that we engage in today. Free will offerings, not by the state, but by free will givers to the work to support the evangelization of the Indians that had two benefits. One, it spreads the dominion of Christ, but it also brings Christ to the lost. This is very important in the mindset. Again, these were men, the Puritans were men who knew that the Indians were not covenant lists because they knew the Noatic Covenant pertained to all people around the world.

When God made the covenant with Noah, it didn't cease with the new covenant. The new covenant is alongside that because the covenant of Noah goes to all peoples around the world. It's the sign of it is the rainbow. The rainbow which is the cup all people and all preachers are in covenant with God. God causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust as well as water and rain.

If we know what makes up the rainbow, it's sun and rain. And that's a symbol that the Puritans saw as all men were in covenant. It's their job to bring that covenant of Christ then to the lost. This book describes the first engagement of American Indians into Christian communities. This is written by John Eliot who says they did enter covenant with God and each other to be the Lord's people and to be governed by the word of God in all things.

The words of the covenant are these in English. We do give ourselves and our children unto God to be his people. He shall rule us in all our affairs, not only in our religion and in affairs of the church, which we desire as soon as we can, and God will, which means they haven't formed a church covenant yet, but also in all our ways, in all the affairs of this world, God shall rule over us. Isaiah 33, 22 The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us.

The wisdom which God has taught us in his book shall guide us and direct us in all our ways. Oh Jehovah, teach us wisdom to find out thy wisdom in thy scripture. Let the grace of Christ help us because Christ is the wisdom of God. Send thy spirit into our hearts and let it teach us, Lord take us to be thy people and let us take thee to be our God. That's a giving of themselves and a receiving of Christ.

Notice the quote from Isaiah. The Lord is our law giver, the Lord is our judge, and the Lord is our king. This is not the King of Spain, nor in Eliot's eyes is it the King of England. It's Christ directly. These people are in covenant with Christ and they owe their accounts to him.

Again, quite a different model than we find in the Dominion under the Spanish monarch. As we saw in England, the Puritans supplied families with reading material, which was very essential in their devotions. Communal reading was important as well as early education of children was important. This is the title page of the second edition of John Cotton's Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes. It included a catechism to teach your children And it was the predecessor of what became the New England Primer, which came after that, was modeled upon that.

This is a Primer from 1762, which has the assembly of divines and Mr. Cotton's catechism included. Again, the children would be catechized, they would read this, they would learn to read, oftentimes by this, and then learn the doctrines of Christ. So we can see the same strain of Puritanism was very much settled in New England. Here are some of the moral lessons we usually are familiar with the ABC wood cuts that we find in the Primer.

These are little moral parables on biblical character. A. A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. B, better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. C, come unto Christ all ye that are laborer and heavy laden and he will give you rest.

D, do not the abominable thing which I hate, sayeth the Lord. E, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. F, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him. Etc, etc, etc. These are moral lessons that go with the alphabet.

I like some of the prayers that are included in, and the primers would vary from time to time and have different things in them. This particular one had something that all good children must. Good children must fear God all day, love Christ all way, parents obey, in secret pray, no false things say, mind little play, by no sin stray, make no delay in doing good. So That's the prayer of doing good for children. Again, everything they learned was moral lessons.

With that in mind, we come to Cotton Mather, the grandson of John Cotton. He wrote this little book on essays to do good. Again, very simple title, but very deep meanings. In his Domestical Relations, In Essays to Do Good, Cotton Mather writes, the husband's relative to God. Again, they were very relative to their relatives.

In other words, whenever you dealt with somebody, you always related to God in your relations. Everything was based on that concept. Duties were all relational because they all went back to the giver of duties. Writes Cotton Mather, what shall I do that my wife may have cause forever to bless God for having brought her to me." Very strange way to address your responsibility to your wife because what he's saying is my interests aren't important here. What may I do that my wife will bless God for having her brought to me.

Wonderful way of relating relates. That's what they call it. Your relations were based on how they blessed God, how they honored God, and that's the key to successful husbandry if you put it in the domestic sense, in New England. And he also had sayings back to the wife, how she may bless God in her dealings with her husband. It's wonderful because it's God-centered relations.

This is a book which Scott will address in much more detail. This is a very important book that was printed in the 1730s, I believe, by Cotton Mather. And it's the various essays on early piety by various ministers of New England. My only point here is Mather was the descendant of John Cotton. Richard Mather, increased Mather.

And he wrote one of the essays in this, but I like at the bottom and it's probably hard to read on the screen. But to which is added a sermon number nine, advice to the children of godly ancestors. Again the Mathers were patriarchal in their understanding. So here we have John Cotton publishing a book, which his elderly father publishes an article. So we see the success with the doctrine.

With all this godliness and Puritanism and biblical understanding in New England, The whole of New England society was based on such principles. What we find in this document, or the title page of this, is the charter granted by William and Mary. This was a charter that was actually secured by increased matter, by which they threw out Edmund Andros, the tyrant who had ruled over the dominion of New England when during the reign of James II, New England was put under dominion, and it was very tyrannical. Some of the complaints, which I have in a pamphlet which is not out, some of the complaints were that the agents of the king were taking the property rights of the people. It's very important to understand the idea of dominion and the duty that they owe God in the possession of their land.

This was sacred land because it was the Lord's land and when they took possession of it, they were taking possession in the name of Dominion of Christ. When the tyrants came over under James II, Andros and Randolph and others, Randolph took the commons of Boston as his private estate. That was considered tyranny by those who had settled. Sixty years of what the planters before them had settled was taken by these agents. They took away their titles, which again was taken away their divine right according to them.

These are the acts and laws which accompany the Charter. These are printed in one book of His Majesty's province, the Massachusetts Bay in New England. And we find the morality of the Puritans in the laws that they passed. Again, the charter guaranteed them the right to pass their own laws. Parliament did not have a right to pass the internal laws of the colonies.

They had self-government due to the visionary work of Sands and others, but also Winthrop and others who made sure, and then increased Mathers who secured the charter again. These are some of the acts to protect families, to protect virtue, and to punish evildoers, something they saw as the role of the magistrate. So in New England, you had new soil, if you will. A lot of the reformation in old England had to fight against opposition. The king was willing to let the people go as long as they flew the English flag and counted themselves, not Spanish but English, but they were able to build a society from the bottom up, from the primers up to the laws, which they saw as honoring God.

So it was a very unique experiment in the history of mankind. It was given to the Puritans. This is an act against ravishment or rape being enacted by the Lieutenant Governor, Council and Representatives, the General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any man shall ravish any woman, commit carnal copulation with her by force against her will, or if any man shall unlawfully or carnally know or abuse any woman child under the age of 10, every person and person offending in either of these cases beforehand mentioned being thereof convicted shall be accused as felons and shall be a judge to suffer the pains of death in cases of felony. This is an act in biblical law. These people saw that the virtue of a woman was her property right given to her by God, and no man has a right to take it without suffering the ultimate cost.

And I will say it was only in America that these laws were capital, because they respected womanhood, and they respected virtue, and it was the civil magistrate's job to have the force behind that protection to protect the families see how the magistrates the civil government was to work in harmony with the families as well as the church which is the way they saw God had designed societies. This is an act against adultery and polygamy and sometimes the acts would have preambles that would explain the problem and why the act needed to be issued and why it was enforced. Whereas the violation of the marriage covenant is highly provoking to God and destructive to the families. That's a self-evident truth almost, but it's repeated here. It'd be therefore enacted by the governor, council and representatives, and general council assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any man be found in bed with another man's wife, the man and woman so offending shall there be convicted, shall be severely whipped, not exceeding thirty stripes, unless it appears upon the trial, etc., etc.

If a man be convicted of adultery, the man and woman shall be convicted of the crime before their majesty's justice, the best size and general gold delivered shall be set upon the gallows for the space of one hour with a rope tied around their neck and the other end cast off the gallows or over the side of the gallows and in that way from thence to be to the common goal shall be severely whipped not exceeding 40 stripes. This is severity because they were to protect the families. What a social statement that is to see such a thing. Next one, and this is the last we'll cover, is the act for the punishment of buggery. Buggery is a general word for sexual perversion of any way.

For avoiding the detestable and abominable sin of buggery with mankind or beast, which is contrary to the very light of nature. So here they appeal both to God's word but also to how God made us. Being enacted and declared by the Lieutenant Governor, Council and representatives of the general court assembled, and by the authority of the same, it is enacted that the same offense be judged felony and other forms and proceedings therein to be used against offenders as encased in a felony, and that every man being duly convicted of lying with mankind as he lieth with a woman, and every man or woman that shall have carnal copulation with any beast or brute creature, the offender and offenders in either of these cases before mention shall suffer the pains of death, and the beast shall be slain and burned." That is to protect society, and this was very seldom used because it was such a tough law. But it was clear that when you were going to engage in perversion, you were acting against God as well as society in general. And because the civil society was given the power of a sword, they put it before you.

Many other laws were derived from the scriptures. This is something that we have long forgotten, but we still hold to these laws in many of our states. This is actually from the back of a Bible. It was printed in the early 1800s and a lot of the testaments would have this. It's a table of kindred and affinity whereupon whosoever are related are forbidden in Scripture and by our laws to marry together.

Kindred and affinity are the legal statements who you can marry and who you cannot marry. We need to get back to this understanding. But where did they get this list? Where did they derive this table? It says they derived it from Scripture.

They didn't do a sociological study or take a poll, opinion polls, to what they did. They went to the source of authority who ruled all things. We do not offend God by allowing those who should not marry to marry. And it was very much part of every state until very recently. So we have to understand that there is no separation of morality from the state.

It's the state's job to preserve the morality. And in this case, and in these cases we've just looked at, to protect the family. Again, the cooperation of family and state. This is a book, a pamphlet, published in the 1730s. Again, it's typical New England.

It's been eaten by rats and deteriorated quite a bit. I love this, this is typical of some of the Thanksgiving sermons of the 1700s, all the way until the founding of our nation and even past that. This one's called our Father's God, the hope of posterity, with some serious thoughts on the foundation rise and growth of the settlement in New England, with a view to the edification of the present and the institutions' admonitions of future generations, as the discourse delivered in Deedah, Massachusetts, November 23rd, 1738. It's a wonderful display of their patriotism of how their particular city was founded how the colony was founded he says in part says the preacher O let us endeavor to recover the spirit of family government and the authority which our forefathers had. Again, our forefathers talking about their forefathers, the Puritans.

They ruled their houses well and had their households in good subjection. Verily, in family government is the foundation laid for good order. Peace and regular conduct in both church and state." Sounds like Thomas Manton all over again. "'O let us command our children and households that they fear God, that they reverence their superiors and behave with all due suitable decorum towards everyone. Again, the idea of government, the whole idea of government comes from the command to honor your father and mother and they spread that out the Puritans did and understanding respect for all authority as well as church and state.

Jason read this I don't think we need to read it again, but Jonathan Edwards farewell address addresses family as well. So we can see the whole idea of family and family responsibility was central to the Puritan idea in America. It was foundational to our understanding of good society. Excuse me, I need to back up. Samuel Davies, who's not this slide, I'm gonna go back and, gonna have a little review for a second.

Samuel Davies, who was a contemporary of Jonathan Edwards and part of the Great Awakening as well as Jonathan Edwards, published these series of sermons. Actually, these were done posthumously to him. The sermon number 29 is the necessity and excellency of family religion. Again, that same theme we find over and over because it's central to the idea of both English settlements and settlements here. What in the sermon called the necessity and excellency of family religion, Samuel Davis starts with the foundation of all societies, in which he says, the first and radical society is that of the family, which is the nursery of church and state.

Again, the same theme. This was a society instituted in paradise in the state of innocence and by our individual creator, finding that it was not good for a man, a sociable creature, to be alone, formed a help-me-for-him, and united them in the enduring bonds of conjugal relations. From thence the human race was propagated, and when it multiplied, it was formed into civil governments and ecclesiastical assemblies." That's a good civics lesson. That's a good beginning of the civics lesson. But Davies goes on.

I appeal to yourselves, is there not such a thing, not such as a thing reason in your taking care of the immoral spirits of your perishing children? Ought you not be as regularly as laborers for their comfort and subsistence in eternity as well? Nay, it is not your obligation to family religion as much strong as the immortal spirit is more important than the machine of animated clay and the interest of eternity, exceedingly those of the transitory world. We can see the double responsibility of the parents. The parents were the means of grace often, as Edwards said.

Parents could not bring grace to their children, but God would use the parents and their training of their children to bring them to him. I'll go to the conclusion of the sermon. Davies sums up, therefore, wherever you have your habitations, America or England, let Jehovah, may I so speak, have an altar, and there morning and evening prayers and praises be presented till you are all called to worship him in his temple above, where your prayers shall be swallowed up in everlasting praise, amen. So we can see they were a visionary, both to the next generation but towards eternity as well. That was the mantle that the Americans, the American Puritans wore.

The British policy was quite different. They saw the American colonies primarily as financial. As America became more prosperous in the 1700s, the crown became more and more interested in subduing that liberty that they had originally granted. The charter stood in their way, but the crown, not so much interested in depriving them of their liberty, but depriving them of their finances, began enacting the trade laws through the mercantile policies. These are a couple that were issued in the 1720s.

These are the white pine acts, which were instituted throughout America, particularly in New England, because England had the finest trees in the world at the time. Much of the tall trees, the pine trees in England, were taken already and England wanted a great navy and America had the naval stores, the masks and the timber and whatnot. These were acts passed by Parliament 1620 which claimed certain girth of tree in the name of the king. That was an affront to the Dominion understanding of the settlers of New England. When they heard of the Act in 1722, it prevented the King from taking the incorporated lands, or the trees in the incorporated towns, So the various towns of New England just spread their environment out and said, now our town's this big.

The king can't have those trees. So in 1729, the king says, no, it goes back to the charter of 1692. That's the lands. The Americans saw that as a Spanish policy. They were very much prejudiced against the Spanish and the Spanish idea of dominion.

They thought the king is now trying to take dominion. The king sent agents to America who could go on your property without your consent and look for boards that were cut for a certain girth and say these are the king's boards that were taken apart in your barn or go to a sawmill and if you found boards that were cut from an improper sized tree they could confiscate it. This was a direct affront on the families of New England. That law was enacted in the 1720s and enforced at the time, but was very ineffectual and they gave up on enforcing it. It stood on the books.

In the 1760s, Governor Bernard of Massachusetts issued a proclamation saying that they were going to now enforce it because in the 1760s the trade regulations increased. The crown needed revenue and American resources were a source of that. Unfortunately for them, the resources were owned by those who owned the land. So now we have the divine right of land and crown. We saw in the early Protestantism, they fought against a paternal church.

Now they saw the coming of a paternal state, but that did not denote the authority of the families. This is an act passed in 1774, which was the Quartering Act. Again, trade policies increased, resistance increased. Finally, after the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts was passed. There's one act that specifically attacked families, and it's the Quartering Act.

Quartering of troops was something that was used by the French monarch to subdue the Huguenots before who resisted he would have troops stay in your home, mainly to keep watch on you, mainly to keep the peace under the tyranny of the king. There was a courtiering act passed in the 1760s which had little teeth. This one had real teeth. What is the threat of the court of the act to the family? When you have troops stationed in your home, they are not under the local laws at all.

They are accountable only to the admiralty courts which has no trial by jury, no accountability to the people. The problem with the Court of the Act is it takes away the right of the householder. The soldier becomes the householder, and if he is going to abuse your wife or your children, you have no redress by law, which goes to the very foundation of what civil government was to be in England. In other words, rape and ravishment can go on with no redress. That's an affront on the houses.

That takes away the right of the householder. The Corian Act was an affront on the people of America in 1774 and they attributed it directly to the ministers of the king. America appealed to God. Another principle that was part and parcel to the resistance of the Puritans to Charles I in the 1600s, was that when the king acts tyrannical, your appeal is to heaven. America appealed to God in this particular proclamation of thanksgiving, again, something that the American Congress borrowed from the Puritans.

This is a proclamation saying, it having pleased Almighty God through the course of the present year to bestow great and merciful mercies on the people of these United States and it being the indispensable duty of all men gratefully to acknowledge their obligation to him for benefits received. Resolved, that it is hereby recommended to the legislative and executive authority in each of the said states to appoint Wednesday, the 30th day of December next, to be observed as a day of praise and thanksgiving, or thanksgiving and praise, that all the people made with united hearts on that day expressed a just sense of his unmerited favors, particularly in that it had pleased him by his overriding providence to support us in a just and necessary war for the defense of our rights and liberties. This is the Puritan idea of a inter-possession, inter-opposing appeal to heaven. When the king is acting tyrannical, you appeal to God, but then you also do your duty. This is a wonderful document from Massachusetts.

This was at a time when it looked like the American cause was lost, that is, we looked at the situation the Army. This was issued during the plight of Valley Forge when the Continental Army was in dire needs of clothing. America was not set up with anything like the government we know today which funds nearly everything. It could not even support its own army. It requisitioned the several states.

This was a proclamation issued by Massachusetts in early 1778 during the winter at Valley Forge, which says, state of Massachusetts Bay and the House of Representatives, Whereas the Army are in present and pressing want of shoes, stocking shirts, which cannot be immediately supplied by the public stores, meaning anything the government can do, this court now applies the generosity of the public spirit of every friend of liberties in America for the relief of those soldiers who are hazarding their lives for their defense. According it is resolved that the good people of the several towns in this state be and are thereby requested to collect, by voluntary and generous subscriptions within their respective towns, a number of shirts and also a number of pairs of shoes and stockings equal to one seventh part of the male inhabitants. What America did was rely on its families' generosity. So we have from Britain the Quartering Act and the oppression of families. We have the fight for liberty appealing to the families because those shoes and stockings and trousers came from the families.

These were knit by the people, but they couldn't give them their leftovers as it says. And it is earnestly recommended that the good people of this state to supply such shoes and other clothing as are strong and good. And the select men and agents are directed to return to the supplier all such clothing as are not of good quality. Again, that's built in that if you try to pass off your useless clothes in the name of doing your patriotic duty, they'll turn them back to you to your shame. And it's further resolved that the agents, this is the bottom of our act here, that the agents of the several counties before said shall take into the wagon carriages and carry to the several camps such small articles as may be offered and be sent at present to the officers and privates free of expense.

And it is determined that each state's clothing is a quota of the Continental troops, which are at present in great want. It is most earnestly recommended to the people of this state that every rank is to exert themselves to prepare every kind of clothing for the Army and deposit them in suitable places, and proper persons shall be appointed to receive the same and take them to the troops." Again, we can see the character of America was still basically familial. Familial from the bottom up. If the army or the state couldn't supply the needs, the families did. So we see again that cooperation of family and state even in the founding era of our country.

After the war for independence, literature continued. This slide shows a New England Primer that was published shortly after the War for Independence. It also shows what was popular in the day. Chap books. Chap books were penny books.

They cost you a penny or two to buy. The one on the right is the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Again, these were resources that families would use to educate their children. The bottom is a woodcut of two children praying. This is a woodcut in the New England Primer of that era.

The Psalms of David that we had in our last lecture was also very popular. It's called Watts Hymns. This was a copy that was published immediately after. Watts Hymns were altered somewhat for the American audience. For instance, some of the Psalms were a Psalm for New England, and they would change the wording just a little bit in the poetry of the Psalm to address how God has blessed New England.

This particular copy was owned by Daniel Waldo who fought in the war for independence. And he just happened to be the longest survivor of that war. He lived in the into the 1860s. He was over a hundred years old. He went into the ministry after the war.

Went to seminary, went into the ministry, became chaplain of the Congress in the 1840s. They called him Chaplain Waldo. He lived into the Civil War. It's quite a remarkable history. This man from the Civil War could remember fighting in the war for independence.

His copy, we can look at a couple of the Psalms. This is Isaac Watts putting to meter Psalm 101, which the Americans altered just a little bit, of justice and grace I sing, and pay to my God my vows. Thy grace and justice, heavenly clean, teach me to rule my house. Now to my tent, O God, repair, and make Thy servant wife. I'll suffer nothing near to Thee that will offend Thy eyes.

Another is Psalm 133. Blessed is the pious house where zeal and friendship meet. Their songs of praise and mingled vows make their communion sweet. Thus on the heavenly hills the saints are blessed above where joy like morning dew distills and all the air is love." Again the centrality there of family worship continuing. The point here is we do a sweep of history, we can see that all of these ideas were borrowed from their forefathers.

These things were carried over. Some of the literature is reprinted, as in the case of Watts Hymns, the New England Primer, and other things. Some things are new. On borrowed principle, this is the famous blue book speller of a man who was a convert to reform faith, Noah Webster, who began publishing, as he considered himself not a Christian, became reformed by the time he issued his dictionary, blew back because it's blue-covered, paper-covered boards, which is very common in publishing children's books in America. This is just an excerpt, an example of the kind of education that was taught by the American youth after the war for independence.

The name or application of God, Jehovah Christ, Messiah, etc. Should begin with a capital letter, again, building on the idea of education. The example that Noah Webster uses is, here, ye children, the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding, For I give to you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also and said to me, let thy heart retain my words, keep my commandments, and live." I don't know if you can see it from there, but it's got the phonetic sounds.

But we can see the character of learning to use the English language in the 1800s. All of this was borrowed by the Reformed spirit. So as we do a sweep of history, we can see that what God put in the hearts of men such as William Tyndale and others was carried through, and carried through no less than the founding of our nation. So we can see that when we hear the praises of the speakers up here of what God can put in your heart about your love for your family and love for your wife. God often has something much greater in mind and it's played out on the stage of history, not only in this case in one continent but on two, in the very foundation of our nation.

We ought to, therefore, as a nation, as our forefathers did, in much of the Patriot songs of the time and into the 1800s, before we lost that vision, lost the vision of both family and of our Lord, and giver of our nation, giver of our lives, giver of our families. We should thank God for what He's done, because He is a great and merciful God. Because what He did was use men through various centuries and over various generations to give us what we have. I think that also gives us confidence to know that even though the opposition to him is new and comes about in many formats new of our day, our God is still above them all. But he uses his own beloved in which to enact his will.

So we can see in the settling of Virginia, we can see in the resistance to the tyrants of Britain, we can see the opposition to the Spanish model of dominion, that people just loving God and doing their duty was used by Him to champion His cause and bring to success what we have in this country. We ought to be thankful. We ought to remember the Puritans, remember what they gave us, continue to appreciate the Lord for doing that. Thank you. You