"Cherishing those virtuous and religious principles": Robert Smith, Patriot Anglicans, and preaching as moral reflection

To the Pulpit, the Puritan Pulpit, we owe the moral force which won our independence.

The famous words of John Wingate Thornton are quoted at the outset of the weighty volume Political Sermons of the American Founding Era. The introduction to this collection similarly points to The History of the American Revolution by Massachusetts pastor William Gordon and his claim that it was the clergy of New England who spoke "boldly for the liberties of the people", against "the parson" who taught the people "slavishly to bow their neck to any tyrant". 

The posts over the past few days, exploring the political sermons of Anglicans aligned to the Patriot cause, suggest a rather different account.  The preaching of Anglican political theology was shaped by the Revolution of 1688 with its commitment to constitutional liberties and obedience. It expounded (and understood itself to be) a 'middle way' between ancien regime absolutism and an over-zealous emphasis on popular rights against government: in other words, a rational, ordered liberty opposed to the nightmares of both 1649 and the reign of James II.

This leads us to consider another way in which the political sermons of Patriot Anglican clergy stood in continuity with 18th century Anglican preaching: it was 'plain and practical', reflective preaching, contrasting with the preaching of Enthusiasts and their desire to encourage dramatic spiritual experiences. Anglican preaching sought to wisely aid and guide the community's process of moral reflection. If 'moral force' was proclaimed from New England pulpits, 'moral reflection' was encouraged from Patriot Anglican pulpits.

A superb example of this is found in the sermons of Robert Smith, the South Carolina parson and Patriot who was to become first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of South Carolina. In a selection of Smith's sermons, Charles Wilbanks notes that Smith's opposition to Whitefield's revivalism was "reflective of generations of Anglican conservatives". An emphasis on moral reflection is found throughout Smith's sermons, including in his understanding of the civic community. As Wilbanks states:

That his support for the revolution had to be based on something other than the natural rights and universal equality of man cannot be dismissed. Smith had a vision of government that was intertwined with his conception of community - a righteous community ... Christian duty, then, was intertwined with a civic conscience. The civic conscience that Smith envisioned should mandate that the Christian defend, above all, the public good. Private gain, personal comfort, individual rights and prerogatives were clearly subordinate to the duty to one's community.

In his 1775 sermon before the Commons House of Assembly and the Members of the Provincial Congress, in St. Philip's, Charleston, Smith provided a measured summary of the political context, clearly justifying the Patriot cause but doing so without any reliance on the exaggerated, partisan polemic of the Enthusiasts:

You have truly joined in owning the necessity of this day's supplication and prayer; that as differences have arisen between our Mother Country and us; not on our part. [Not] as some would insinuate, through the unreasonable [illegible] of power, or factious discontent, but in the sole defense of undoubted rights, we should beg the Almighty to bless our endeavors and grant that peace, unanimity, harmony and love with healing in its wings, may again be established between us.

At the core of the sermon was the moral vision of the virtuous community:

As the only means then of securing that divine protection, we should earnestly resolve to put away the evil of our doings, to fear God, and keep his commandments, cherishing those virtuous and religious principles, which will ever add to our real welfare.  When virtue and true religion flourish in a state it is happy and prosperous; when they decline, the strength and glory of it declines also ... It is the genius of true religion to inspire the mind with every noble virtue; the love of our country, generosity, fortitude, temperance.

He emphasised that social elites had a particular responsibility and vocation to embody such virtue:

Let them be examples of every noble and virtuous requirement, of love for their community, temperance, moderation, fidelity and honor, let them reverence that Almighty Being on whom they depend for all things.

Smith's sermon - with but a few alterations - would have been well-received as an Assize sermon in a mid- to late-18th century English county. The clergy listening to the sermon would have nodded approvingly at its reiteration of the by then traditional Anglican understanding of works and social virtue. Laity would have been reassured by the modest constitutional understanding evident in the sermon, avoiding both high-flying notions of passive obedience, unheard from pulpits for generations, and radical theories rejecting wise, rational constitutional order. Clergy and laity alike would have understood his insistence that "true religion" (they, like Smith, would know that this meant the reasonable Christianity of the Church of England) was essential for social and communal well-being and good order. And both would have immediately recognised the style of the sermon, guiding and encouraging the community in moral reflection.

Smith's 1775 sermon is another example of how traditional Anglican preaching - traditional both in content and style - was not the preserve of Loyalists but was also employed to support the Patriot cause.  This is suggestive of how the differences between Patriot and Loyalist Anglicans were not, contrary to some accounts, theological, orthodox v. heterodox. Traditional Anglican commitments, styles, and teaching were found amongst both Loyalists and Patriots. 

(The drawing is of St. Philip’s Church, Charleston, attributed to Thomas You, c. 1766. Smith was Rector of St. Philip's 1759-95.)