July 4th – Remember

This is The Mayflower Compact. If you’re like me, you haven’t read it in years, if ever.

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.

I know our Independence is about so much more than religion, just read the Declaration of Independence one more time.   I get that there is a First Amendment and separation of Church and State.  And I know this can start lots of arguments.  I don’t really want to go there.  There was just something about reading The Mayflower Compact that got my attention.  It’s sad to think if any politician or political group tried to put “for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith” in any speech or document, they’d be blasted for it.  I don’t know if I have a point to this except to say…Remember.

Patrick Henry
Ratifier of the U.S. Constitution

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” 
_{–The Trumpet Voice of Freedom: Patrick Henry of Virginia, p. iii.}

John Jay
1st Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and President of the American Bible Society

“In forming and settling my belief relative to the doctrines of Christianity, I adopted no articles from creeds but such only as, on careful examination, I found to be confirmed by the Bible.” 
_{–American Statesman Series, p. 360.}

John Adams
2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God … What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.” 
_{–Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.}

“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.“ 
_{–Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.}

“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever.”
_{–Adams wrote this in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776.}

Thomas Jefferson
3rd U.S. President, Drafter and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.” 
_{–The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.}

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event.” 
_{–Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.}

James Monroe
5th U.S. President

“When we view the blessings with which our country has been favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us then, unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgements for these blessings to the Divine Author of All Good.” 
_{–Monroe made this statement in his 2nd Annual Message to Congress, November 16, 1818.}

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