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8/12/2019 1996 Issue 2 - History Study: The Declaration of Independence and the American Enlightenment - Counsel of Chal
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8/12/2019 1996 Issue 2 - History Study: The Declaration of Independence and the American Enlightenment - Counsel of Chal
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like
Voltaire, Diderot, and
Helvetius, garner 2 of the
citations. The Third
Enlightenment,
typified
by
Beccaria, Rousseau, Mably and
Raynal,
received
4 of
the
citations (Ibid.
,
p.
52) It
ought
to
be remembered also that this
listing includes both negative as
well
as
positive
referel1ces (some of
the references
to
the more radical
writers were negative rather than
complementary) .
Rushdoony
also points out that
just because Americans quoted
from Enlightenment thinkers in no
way proves they were sympathetic
to their overall philosophies:
Enlightenment writings were
known
to
Americans;
human affairs . A modern
historian would be hard-pressed to
find any American,
let
alone a
leader in the movement toward
political separation, who believed
such a
Clod
would
or
could
exist.
North, op. cit., p. 95)
TIlOse leaders
in
this country
who have been called Deists did
not
have this view
of Clod.
Benjamin Franklin (who is
consistently referred to as a Deist)
was hardly one
of
the
European
stripe. Eidsmoe observes, Franklin
was a deist as a young man, but he
became disenchanted with deism.
\N'hile Franklin probably never
became a Christian in the orthodox
sense, he came a
long
way
from
the
dark to
find political truth, and
scarce able
to
distinguish
it
when
presented to us, how has it
happened, Sir, that we have not
hitherto.once thought of humbly
applying
to
the Father of lights
to
illuminate our understandingsl In
the beginning of the Contest with
CI
Britain, when we were sensible
of danger we had daily prayer in
this room for the divine protection.
-- Our prayers, Sir, were heard,
and they were graciously
answered. All of us who were
engaged in the struggle must have
observed frequent instances of a
Superintendingprovidence in our
favor. To that kind providence we
owe this happy opportunity
of
consulting in
peace
in
arguing their
case for
independence,
American thinkers
freely resorted
to
the
thinkers who
carried
weight with
I
have lived Sir a long
time and the
longer
I
live,
the more convincing proofB I Bee of
on
the means
of
establishing our
future
national
Europeans, but this did
not mean an
acceptance
of
their
framework. American
thiB
truth -- that
God governB in
the
affairB
of
men.
And
if a
Bparrow
cannot
fall
to
the ground
without hiB
notice is it
probable that
an
empire can riBe
without
felicity. And have
we now forgotten
that powerful friendl
or do we imagine that
we no longer need
thinking was still essentially
Christian, and its context was
more theocentric than humanistic.
The Myth of an American
Enlightenment. The Journal
of
Christian Reconstruction, vol.
III,
Summer. 1976,
no.
1,
p. 70)
Deism, in its consistent
European form, never had a wide
follOWing in America. As North
notes:
English Deism was never
imported in its original
form.
A
consistent
Deist
argued
that
Clod
is
remote.
Clod once
built the world,
but since then he has permitted it
to function autonomously, almost
as a giant cosmic
clock
might
operate.
Clod
is
therefore wholly
removed
from his handiwork, an
uninterested, or at
least
only
passively interested, spectator to
deism
in his eighty-four years.
Christianity and the Constitution,
p.
44)
It was Franklin who only three
years before
his death, stood to call
the Constitutional Convention
to
prayer: The small progress we
have made after
4
or five weeks
close
attendance continual
reasonings with each other -- our
different sentiments
on
almost
every question , several of the last
producing as many noes as ays , is
methinks a melancholy proof of
the imperfection of the Human
Vnderstanding. We indeed
seem
to
feel our own want of
political
wisdom, since we have been
running about in search
of
it
In this situation of this
Assembly, groping as it were in
his assistancel I have
lived,
Sir,
a long
time, and the longer I live, the
more convincing proofs I see of this
truth -- that Clod
governs
in the
affairs of men. And if a sparrow
cannot fall to the ground without
his notice,
is
it probable that an
empire can rise without his aidl
We have been assured, Sir, in the
sacred writings, that except the
Lord build the House they labour
in vain that build it. I
firmly
believe this; and I also believe that
without his
concurring
aid we
shall succeed in this political
building no better than the
Builders of
Babel: We shall
be
divided by
our
little partial local
interests; our projects will be
confounded, and we ourselves
shall
become a reproach and bye
word down
to
future ages. And
March, 996 l' THE COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon t 2
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8/12/2019 1996 Issue 2 - History Study: The Declaration of Independence and the American Enlightenment - Counsel of Chal
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what is worse, mankind may
hereafter from this unfortunate
instance,
despair of establishing ,
(jovernments by Human Wisdom
and leave
t
to
chance,
war and
conquest.
I
therefore beg leave to move
-
that henceforth
prayers
imploring
the assistance
of
Heaven, and
its
blessings
on
our deliberations,
be
,held
in
this
Assembly every
morning
before
we proceed to
business, and that
one
or
more of
the
Clergy
of
this City
be
reqUested to officiate in
that
service. (quoted from Madison's
notes on the Constitutional
Convention
in
Max
Farrand, The
influenced
by
Deism,
among other
things is certainly to be granted, '
but,
unless
one charges these
statements off as
the
most
arrant
kind of hypocrisy, it becomes
equally clear
that
even stronger
colonial
influences were at work.
Here, in clear and forthright
language
from
these men,
is
Calvinisms predestination and
total providence (Ibid.)
John Adams and Jefferson
whQ
both privately
rejected
Trinitarianism, never
publicly
acknowledged
their:Vnitarian
beliefs
--
it
would
have been
political suicide, Historian
Edmund S.
Morgan,
states,
In
preached to
the
masses as a
religious
revival, and had the
astounding
foTiune to
succeed.
(Ibid" p:97)
The
language
of
the
Declaration
itself contradicts Deism: We,
'
therefore,
the
representatives of
the
Vnited
States
of America, in
general
congress,
s s e m b l e d ~
appealing
to the
Supreme Judge of
the world
for
the
rectitude of
our
intentions, do,
ill
the
Name, and
by
the
authority of
the good
People
of these Colonies, solemnly ,
publish and
declare,
That
These
Vnited
Colonies ate,
and
of Right
ought
to be,
free and independent
states;
, , . And
for
the
support of
Records of the Federal
Convention of 1787,
vol.
.
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;rn this
Declaration,
with a
firm
reliance on the
protection of Divine
Providence, We
mutually
pledge to
each
other our Lives, our
Fortunes, and our sacred
Honor.
In
the
DeclaratIon
of
Independece:
I pp.
450-45.2)
Thomas
Jefferson also
made statements
which
show him
to
be
something other than the
classical Deist:
Can the
liberties of a nation
be
"God is appealed to at the Supreme Judge
of the world and the authore; tee;tify
th t
their reliance
ie;
the protection of DIvIne
Providence. The god of
Deie m
eQuid
not
cone;le;tently be appealed
to in these
terme;.
sure
when we
remove
their only irm
basis,
a conviction
in
the
minds of
the
people,
that ,
these
liberties
are
the
gift
of (jodi
that they
are
not
to be
violated but
with His wrath
Indeed
I
tremble
for Tily country; when I
reflect
that
(jod
is just;
that His
justice
cannot
sleep forever;
that a revolution of
the wheel of
fortune
; a changing of
situation, is among possible events
;
that
it
may become
probable
by
supernatural interference The :
Almighty
has no
attribute which
can
take side with us in that
event.
(quoted by
R. J.
Rushdoony, This
Independent
Republic, p. 6)
Jefferson,
though clearly influenced
by deism, could probably be more
accurately
be
described as
a
Vnitarian.
Rushdoony
goes
on to
comment, That
both these
men
[Jefferson
and
Franklin]
were
America deism claimed few
adherents
before
the last quarter of
the eighteenth century
(quoted
by North,
op. cit., p, 96)
In
other
words,
the
Ame an
Enlightenment, such as t was,
occurred after,
not before, the War
of Independence.
Deism was savaged by colonial
churchmen.
Rushdoony observes
that
Deism
,always had the flavor
of
foreignness,
of
something alien
and hostile. (Rushdoony, op. cit.,
p.
10 Perry
Miller (a
confessing
atheist
himself)
makes
this .
observation:
Actually, European
deism
was an exotic plant in
America,
which never
struck roots
in
the
soil. Rationalism was
never
so widespread as liberal historians,
or those fascinated by Jefferson,
have
imagined.
The basic fact is
that the
Revolution
had
been
22
t THE COUNSl'L
of
Chalcedon
t
Match,
1996
Again, this is not the
kind
of
language
one
' ,
would expect from aconsistent
Deist. (jod is appealed to as the
Supre "e Judge of the
world
and
the
authors testify
thattheir
reliance
is
the proteCtion
of DiVine
Providence. The
god
'
of
Deism .
could not consistently e
appealed
to in these terms.
Does
this mean that th,e.
writers
of tl)e Declaration actually
intended
to
convey a fully b i b l i ~ l
and
theologically
orthodox view
of
the (jod ofthe Bible by
these
terms No,
not
necessarily,
~ e s
it
mean
that
Jefferson actu
'
ally
beiieved
in
biblical revelation
Of
course not All
it
means is that
there
may well
be
a better
way to
look
at
this
document
than through
the
eyes of
a atheistic ,
egalit1 rian.
(to be continued)
'