The Consecrated Sword

Some may wonder what a blog named “The Consecrated Sword” is all about.  No, this is not a blog about fencing nor is it a reference to jihad!  The title comes from a Samuel Davies sermon "The Curse of Cowardice" delivered on May 8, 1758.  Davies was a famous Presbyterian preacher in colonial Virginia and Patrick Henry is said to have been strongly influenced by his preaching.  At this time, the French and Indian War was in full swing and the colony of Virginia was seeking to raise men to fight.  Davies delivered this sermon to the militia of Hanover County, challenging those men and other possible new recruits to save their country from the rapacity of the French and their Indian allies.  Hear Davies’ stirring words:

“But when, in this corrupt, disordered state of things, where the lusts of men are perpetually embroiling the world with wars and fightings and throwing all into confusion; when ambition and avarice would rob us of our property, for which we have toiled and on which we subsist; when they would enslave the freeborn mind and compel us meanly to cringe to usurpation and arbitrary power; when they would tear from our eager grasp the most valuable blessing of Heaven, I mean our religion; when they invade our country, formerly the region of tranquillity, ravage our frontiers, butcher our fellow subjects, or confine them in a barbarous captivity in the dens of savages; when our earthly all is ready to be seized by rapacious hands, and even our eternal all is in danger by the loss of our religion; when this is the case, what is then the will of God?
Must peace then be maintained? Maintained with our perfidious and cruel invaders? Maintained at the expense of property, liberty, life, and everything dear and valuable? Maintained, when it is in our power to vindicate our right and do ourselves justice? Is the work of peace then our only business? No; in such a time even the God of Peace proclaims by His providence, “To arms!”
Then the sword is, as it were, consecrated to God; and the art of war becomes a part of our religion. Then happy is he that shall reward our enemies, as they have served us. Blessed is the brave soldier; blessed is the defender of his country and the destroyer of its enemies. Blessed are they who offer themselves willingly in this service, and who faithfully discharge it. But, on the other hand, “Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully; and cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood.” . . .”
 “Is not cowardice and security, or an unwillingness to engage with all our might in the defense of our country, in such a situation an enormous wickedness in the sight of God and worthy of His curse, as well as a scandalous, dastardly meanness in the sight of men, and worthy of public shame and indignation? Is it not fit that those who so contemptuously depreciate the rich and undeserved bounties of Heaven, and who swell so insolently with a vain conceit of their own importance and worth, should be punished with the loss of these blessings? . . .”

Davies challenge to his hearers rings out through the years to us today.  This was the mindset of the men who fought and bled to provide and preserve the rights and liberties we enjoy today; rights and liberties that were not contrived by man but revealed, as they believed, by God Himself in His Holy Word.  For Davies and his contemporaries Christ’s kingship extended to each and every aspect of temporal life.  Today we are not faced with the prospect of invasion from “heathen savages and French Papists” but we are also called to bear the sword.  We are called to stand as soldiers of Christ, as Davies pleaded so long ago:

“Some of you, I doubt not, are happily free from these gross vices; and long may you continue so! But I must tell you, this negative goodness is not enough to prepare you for death, or to constitute you true Christians. The temper of your minds must be changed by the power of divine grace; and you must be turned from the love and practice of all sin to the love and practice of universal holiness. You must become humble, brokenhearted penitents and true believers in Jesus Christ. You must be enabled to live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present evil world.
This is religion; this is religion, that will keep you uncorrupted in the midst of vice and debauchery; this is religion, that will befriend you when cannons roar and swords gleam around you, and you are every moment expecting the deadly wound; this is religion, that will support you in the agonies of death and assure you of a happy immortality. . . .”

Semper Reformata,
Dale