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American Faith Chapter 8 - Patrick Henry · Passing On The Faith

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: To the end, Patrick Henry maintained a strong faith in God and operated from a Christian worldview.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: He clearly recognized the sovereign hand of God over the nations of men.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: During this period of the rise of deism and humanism, it is truly remarkable that most of the influential leaders in America maintained such a commitment to God's providential direction over all things.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: In Henry's famous Give Me Liberty speech, he reminded the delegates that, quote, There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us, unquote.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to Passing on the Faith, a podcast from generations.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Every week, we bring you a powerful moment from one of our sermons, audiobooks, webinars, or conference talks, handpicked to help you build a strong biblical foundation for your family.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: This week's episode is a chapter from our audiobook, American Faith, entitled Patrick Henry, Lighting the Flame for Liberty, written by Kevin Swanson.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Chapter 8, Patrick Henry Lighting the Flame for Liberty.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 28, verses 1 and 2.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes, but by a man of understanding and knowledge, right will be prolonged.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: For over a hundred years, the respective governments of each of the thirteen British colonies in America were duly elected legislatures.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: They'd been self-governing from the beginning, according to charters provided by the English king.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the first legislative assembly in America met in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: However, as America's colonies were governing themselves, Britain was giving in to empire building fever.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Threats to American self-rule dated back to the 1690s, when Increase Mather crossed the ocean in hopes of securing a new and better charter from King William for Massachusetts.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: The quest for power and the centralization of power are what drove the formation of empires.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Inevitably, this results in wars between powerful nations competing for that power.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: These wars cost money and are generally financed by taxes.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: During the eighteenth century, the French Empire had reached its zenith, and the British Empire was just developing.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: These European power struggles spilled over into the colonies.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: The argument between the French Canadians and the English was over control of the Ohio River Valley and the associated trade routes.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: As the contention escalated, the French, allied with certain Indian tribes, fought the English, allied with the American colonists and other Indian allies.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: The French and Indian War turned out to be an especially costly, lengthy affair, lasting from 1754 to 1763.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: In order to help pay the bills for the war, the British Parliament tried several legislative initiatives to levy direct taxation on the American colonists.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: These taxes were imposed without approval from the colonial legislatures, which were made up of leaders elected by the settlers.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Parliament also chose to enact legislation that would further restrict the colonies' economic and political well being.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: These measures were viewed as tyrannical impositions by the colonists.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: They regarded the actions taken by Parliament as a violation of their charters, and the colonial governments felt bound to protect the liberties of their people.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: The early years of Patrick Henry Second Timothy chapter one verses three and five.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: I thank God when I called to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded as in you also.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia on may twenty ninth, seventeen thirty six.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: He attended a local school for a few months until his father pulled him out to homeschool him.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: His father John, an Anglican by church affiliation, was not much of a spiritual example for Patrick.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: However, his mother Sarah was a Presbyterian and strongly committed to passing on the faith to her son.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: In his twelfth year, Patrick's mother began taking him to hear Samuel Davies preach at the Fork Church in the town of Ashland.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: For the next twelve years, Patrick would hear this powerful Presbyterian preacher deliver the Word of God.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: As the family traveled back home on Sunday afternoons, young Patrick would recite portions of the message for his mother and sisters.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Due largely to Pastor Davis's ministry, Hanover County became the epicenter of the Great Awakening in Virginia.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Later in life, Patrick Henry referred to Davies as the greatest speaker he ever heard.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: John Henry ended his rather slipshod homeschool program in Patrick's fifteenth year and then financed a country store for Patrick and his elder brother William.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Within a few years, the brothers managed to run the store into the ground by allowing too many of the patrons to purchase goods on loan.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: While working the store, Patrick married fifteen year old Sarah Shelton in October seventeen fifty four.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: He also tried his hand at farming, but his home burned down and the crops yielded a poor harvest that year.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Then, in 1758, he again tried running a country store, and once more, the business failed.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: At twenty four years of age, in 1760, Patrick borrowed three law texts from a friend, and within six weeks he was ready for the bar exam.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: He traveled fifty miles to Williamsburg, where he was examined by three members of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Two of the men signed off on his exam, but the third, John Randolph, was turned off by Patrick's country clothing and rough appearance.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: After examining the candidate, however, Randolph was forced to admit, quote, you defend your opinions well, sir, I will never trust to appearances again.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Mr.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Henry, if your industry be only half equal to your genius, I augure that you will do well to become an ornament and an honor to your profession.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Henry passed the bar and opened a law practice in Hanover County.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry loved to hunt and fish, typically alone.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: When working as a county lawyer, he often showed up at the courthouse with quote, a brace of ducks across his saddle and his blood stained leather hunting jacket still upon his back.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: The Parsons Cause first Timothy chapter three verses two and three.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: A bishop then must be blameless, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was December first, seventeen sixty three, when Patrick Henry took on his most celebrated legal case.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: At that time, the Anglican Church of Virginia was supported by taxes as the official state church.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: In Virginia, the farmers were assessed in tobacco, sixteen thousand pounds for each Anglican minister.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: However, the Virginia House of Burgesses extended mercy to the farmers during the years seventeen fifty five to seventeen fifty eight because the crop yields were low, and the parsons therefore only received about one third of their normal income.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: The Parsons sued the farmers and won on the grounds that the King of England had never approved the exemption made by the Virginia government.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: After this victory, a further trial was convened so that a jury could determine the amount of damages due the Parsons.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry took up the cause of the farmers.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: As he walked into the Hanover County Courthouse, the man sitting on the bench to adjudicate the case was his own father, John Henry.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: As the young lawyer rose to defend his clients, his rhetoric, quote, made their blood to run cold and their hair to rise on end, end quote.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: His father was said to have wept through his son's impassioned speech.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick's basic argument was that all English citizens, according to English constitutional law, should have the right to taxation with their own representation.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: That is, no taxation may come to a people through a governmental body not elected by the same people.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: To violate this principle was akin to tyranny.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: As he spoke these words, some in the courtroom cried out treason, treason.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry ignored the interruption and continued presenting his case.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of complying with the previous court's decision to require the farmers to pay back the taxes, Henry went on the offensive.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: He told the jury it was the pastors who ought to have been punished.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Quote, do these reverend clergy manifest their zeal in the cause of religion and humanity by practicing the mild and benevolent precepts of Jesus?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Do they feed the hungry and clothe the naked?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, gentlemen.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, these rapacious harpies would, were their powers equal to their will, snatch from the hearth of their honest parishioner his last hoe cake, from the widow and her orphan children their last milch cow.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: In this well placed rebuke, Patrick Henry rightly pointed out that these bishops should never have sued for their money.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: They were too given to covetousness, in direct violation of the requirements for pastors found in 1 Timothy chapter three.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: The young lawyer encouraged the jury to respect the previous court's ruling, but only to award damages of one penny for the clergy.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: In the end, the jury was persuaded by Henry's arguments.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: This was the case that established Patrick Henry's reputation, and it wasn't long before he had become a household name in Virginia.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: The struggle for independence Proverbs twenty eight verses fifteen and sixteen Like a roaring lion and a charging bear is a wicked ruler over poor people.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor, but he who hates covetousness will prolong his days.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was may seventeen sixty five, and all eyes were on Virginia, the oldest, most populated, and most prosperous of all the American colonies.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Just months earlier, the British Parliament had passed the Stamp Act, which levied a tax on official documents printed in the colonies.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: The Virginia House of Burgesses held a legislative session to consider the act.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: The young lawyer rode into Williamsburg to serve as a representative in the House of Burgesses.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: He had already made a name for himself at the Hanover County Courthouse two years earlier when he had successfully argued against the Parsons cause.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was still the principle of taxation without representation that concerned Patrick Henry.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: The noose of tyranny was tightening, and this freedom lover of Scotch Irish heritage did not like it.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: For much of his youth, he had taken to heart the fiery preaching of the famed Presbyterian preacher Samuel Davies.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: His veins ran with a passion for truth, freedom, and justice, as defined by God, not man.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Young Patrick waited until the end of the session and then moved his resolutions on may thirtieth, seventeen sixty five.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: These would become known around the world as the Stamp Act Resolutions.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Henry proceeded in his characteristic manner to defend the resolutions with impassioned zeal and fiery rhetoric.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: He never kept notes of his speeches, and the only fragment left of this speech was stored in the memory of those who heard it.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick ended with these final words Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, and George III.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Henry was here interrupted by shouts of treason, treason.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: He finished calmly, quote, may profit by their example.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: If this be treason, make the most of it.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was a moment that shifted the direction of human history, a true David and Goliath moment.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: One young man was inquiring into the right of the uncircumcised Philistine to defy the law of liberty that God had declared.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: He was challenging an empire, as he had done with the Parsons cause, but this time it was in the presence of the most influential leaders in the colony.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: The passionate rhetoric by which Patrick defended his resolutions persuaded the men in the room to commit themselves to the cause of liberty.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Eyewitness Paul Carrington described Henry's eloquence as beyond my powers of description.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, five of the resolutions passed the house.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: The next day, he mounted his horse and returned to his family and his fields, not bothering to stay around to witness the effects of his resolutions.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: However, historians still look upon this event as one of the definitive moments in the history of America.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Historian Cabell Rives comments, by his ever memorable resolutions in opposition to the Stamp Act and the lofty eloquence with which he sustained them, he struck a timely blow which resounded throughout America and the whole world and roused a spirit that never slumbered till its great work was accomplished.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: The moment was opportune and critical, and he seized it with a bold and felicitous energy that belonged to his ardent and impassioned nature.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like Samuel Adams in New England, not another person in Virginia had quite the courage or the foresight to issue such resolutions.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Other important leaders were waiting in the wings but lacked the boldness and the vision for liberty of Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Over the course of subsequent months, the governments of the other colonies followed suit and produced similar resolutions.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Unbeknownst to him, Patrick Henry had managed to topple the first major domino in a sequence of events that would lead to America's independence.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: In the providence of our sovereign God, he used one man at one moment in time to change the course of history.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: But this was not the end of Patrick Henry's contributions to the cause of liberty.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: The second pivotal event in Virginia's and America's road to independence occurred in 1775.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: The second Virginia Convention of the Virginia House of Burgesses assembled secretly at St.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: John's Church in Richmond to avoid immediate retaliation from Royal Governor Dunmore and Williamsburg.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: The governor had already confiscated the colonial munitions from the city armory.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Tensions were high.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Representatives from each of Virginia's counties crowded into the church, the largest building in Richmond at that time.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: The question before the assembly was whether or not to create a militia.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, it was Patrick Henry who moved the resolution, seconded by Richard Henry Lee.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: After the chairman, Peyton Randolph, entertained several arguments contrary to it from several commissioners, Patrick Henry took the stand and delivered a speech in defense of his resolution.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: He ended with these words.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate these inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I repeat it, sir, we must fight.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: They tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: But when shall we be stronger?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Will it be the next week or the next year?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Besides, sir, we have no choice.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: There is no retreat but in submission and slavery.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Our chains are forged.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: The war is inevitable, and let it come.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: I repeat it, sir, let it come.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: The war is actually begun.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Our brethren are already in the field.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Why stand we here idle?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: What is it that gentlemen wish?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: What would they have?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Forbid it, almighty God.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: The colonial leaders gathered were stunned by these passionate, persuasive, and determined words issued by this man who loved liberty so much.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: No further speech was offered or solicited on the floor.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: The motion to form a militia was put to a vote and narrowly passed.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: A committee was organized with Patrick Henry as its chair.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: With that, Virginia committed itself to the fight for independence.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Henry's famous words also inspired a nation.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Words carry more force than bullets, and his words fired the American Patriots to engage the struggle for independence.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry took his position as head of the committee to organize a state militia seriously.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: When Governor Dunmore confiscated the gunpowder stored in a public magazine in Williamsburg, Patrick Henry collected 5,000 men and marched towards the town.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: The governor finally backed down and offered to provide three hundred and thirty pounds in compensation for the gunpowder he had stolen.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry was later appointed a delegate to the first and second Continental Congress.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: With Samuel Adams, he played the most influential role in pressing the nation towards independence.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: He was elected to serve as Virginia's first independent governor and took office on july fifth, seventeen seventy-six.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: For the next three years, he was the key political figure in the state of Virginia.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: He returned to office between 1784 and 1786, serving a total of five years in the state's top office.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: The Christian Legacy of Liberty.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: If there were two critical moments in Virginia's history that paved the way for the American War for Independence, they were the Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions of 1765 and the Second Virginia Convention of 1775.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Without question, Patrick Henry was the major player in both instances.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: But why this man?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: How do Patrick Henry and other founding fathers differ from the humanist revolutionaries such as Robespierre, Lennon, or Mao Zidong?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Why did Americans enjoy great liberty after their war for independence while the French, Russians, and Chinese suffered terrible tyranny after their revolutions?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: The difference may be attributed to several factors.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: One, Patrick Henry loved liberty, and he thoroughly despised big government tyranny.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: He did not see government as the solution to problems.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Rather, it was governments which refused to restrict themselves to the bounds of God's law that were the problem.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: It is hard to find any founding father who was as excited about liberty and defended it with as much ardor as Henry.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: He would rather have died than be enslaved by the rising tyranny of the British Parliament.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: He knew that civil governments were necessary, but believed they should be small, and their power should be limited.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Some have questioned whether the American War for Independence was a just war.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Much has been written on the matter.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: But a few arguments will suffice for the purposes of this treatment.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: First, the colonies were governed by their own elected civil magistrates.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: They understood the biblical doctrine of interposition defended by John Calvin and Samuel Rutherford, in which lower magistrates are responsible for defending the liberties of the people when those liberties are threatened by a higher magistrate.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: This doctrine would teach that all are subject to God's law and the laws of the land, including the higher magistrate.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: When any magistrate rejects the laws, that government has become revolutionary and unlawful, and lower magistrates would then have the duty to resist that tyranny and restore lawful government.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: The British government was deemed guilty of such tyranny by the colonials.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: By its parliamentary actions such as taxing without representation, the British government had acted in violation of the constitutional rights of British citizens as guaranteed by constitutional documents, such as the Magna Carta and the Colonial Charters.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: The colonial magistrates therefore felt justified in resisting the tyranny and going to war for liberty and independence.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Second, Patrick Henry also realized that given the united support of the colonial legislatures, victory was achievable.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: In the words of Christ, a king must count the cost before taking on an invading force, Luke 1431.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Henry really believed that the American colonies were able, with their three million colonials, armed in the holy cause of liberty, to confront the armies of Great Britain.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: two.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Throughout his political career, Patrick Henry successfully resisted the lure of power.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Although he reluctantly served as governor of Virginia for three terms between seventeen seventy six and seventeen seventy eight, his real interest was his farm at Redhill.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Though he occasionally spent a few days in Williamsburg changing the world, he always promptly returned home to care for his invalid wife, homeschool his children, read his Bible, and plow his fields.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: This was the love of his life.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Unlike John Adams, Patrick Henry would not allow politics to interrupt his household affairs.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: He truly lived out his profession.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: He repeatedly turned down powerful political positions.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: In 1796, he was arguably.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Arguably the second most popular man in America.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Richard Henry Lee and John Marshall approached him to accept the nomination for President of the United States.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: On November 3, 1796, the Virginia Gazette published a public letter from Henry in which he once for all refused the office.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Humbly he turned down the office, quote, on account of my own insufficiency, end quote.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote that within the United States, a large number of citizens may be found, whose talents and exemplary virtues deserve public confidence, much more than anything I can boast of.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Here is the clear distinction between the tyrant and the Christian who stands for law and liberty.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: The tyrant is willing to sacrifice the liberties of others to gain power and reputation for himself.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: The Christian freedom fighter is willing to risk everything he owns for the liberties of others, and he cares little for power or reputation.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Few Americans know anything about Patrick Henry.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Few monuments have been erected in his honor.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: He receives one tiny bust in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: The Washington Mall contains nothing for him.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry leaves the fame to Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and others like them who consolidated power and influence in the federal government by their political endeavors.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: And three, Patrick Henry was willing to lead the way in America's bid for independence.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: He was one of the first to raise his voice against the tyrants and the first to pledge his life.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: It is extremely difficult to break a silence like this when nobody else will.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: It takes tremendous faith to be the first one to step in front of Goliath and ask the question, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that should defy the armies of the living God?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: It takes an extraordinary combination of wisdom, courage, and faith to lead like this.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry spoke passionately, plainly, resolutely, and loudly the thing that others feared to say.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Eventually, men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson joined him in support of liberty, but someone had to strike the first blow for freedom, and this was the unique privilege of this very courageous man.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: The Battle for the Bill of Rights Acts sixteen verses thirty five through forty.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, Let those men go.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go, now therefore depart and go in peace.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: But Paul said to them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: And now do they put us out secretly?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, indeed.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let them come themselves and get us out.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Then they came and pleaded with them, and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: It is appropriate for Christians to seek liberty from tyranny, to insist on their lawful rights, as the apostle Paul did when he was arrested and beaten at Philippi.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry continued this legacy not only for his own benefit, but for all American citizens in future generations.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sensing the strong inclination among key American leaders towards creating a powerful central government, Patrick Henry at first opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: The critical statement of rights, which would protect freedoms for Americans, had been rejected by the Constitutional Convention on september twelfth, seventeen eighty seven.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: Returning to Richmond in 1788 after a retirement from politics, Patrick served as the most dominant and influential member of the Virginia Ratifying Convention, which debated whether to ratify the Constitution.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: During the debate on the floor, Henry spoke more than any other delegate.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: He rose to speak as many as five to eight times per day over eighteen days of the proceedings.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: His influence upon Virginia and thus on America was indisputable.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: In a letter George Washington wrote to James Madison, he noted the edicts of Mr.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Henry are enregistered with less opposition by the members of that body than those of the grand monarch are in the Parliament of France.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: He has only to say, let this be law, and it is law.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: What follows is a portion of Patrick Henry's plea for a bill of rights to be attached to the U.S.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Constitution.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you give up these powers to the states without a bill of rights, you will exhibit the most absurd thing to mankind that ever the world saw, government that has abandoned all its powers, the powers of direct taxation, the sword, and the purse.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: You have disposed of them to Congress without a bill of rights, without check, limitation, or control.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: And still you have checks and guards.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Still you keep barriers, pointed where?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: Pointed against your weakened, prostrated, enervated state government.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: You have a bill of rights to defend you against the state government, which is bereaved of all power, and yet you have none against Congress, though in full and exclusive possession of all power.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: You arm yourselves against the weak and defenseless, and expose yourselves naked to the armed and powerful.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Is not this a conduct of unexampled absurdity?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: What barriers have you to oppose to this most strong, energetic government?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: To that government you have nothing to oppose.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: All your defense is given up.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: This is a real actual defect.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: It must strike the mind of every gentleman.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Against James Madison's protest, George Mason, the author of Virginia's Bill of Rights, rose to support a fundamental statement of rights for all Americans.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry's substitute motion on the floor, requiring a Bill of Rights prior to ratifying the Constitution in the Virginia General Assembly, failed by a vote of eighty to eighty eight.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Following this, Edmund Randolph offered a slightly modified motion which used softer language but still underscored the need for stated rights, and the motion passed.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Subsequently, the ratifying convention formed a committee to suggest a list of amendments of rights for the first meeting of the U.S.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Congress.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: Just before the Convention convened, Patrick Henry had drafted his own list, most of which the committee incorporated into its final proposal.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: The fight was not over yet, however.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: On october twentieth, seventeen eighty eight, Patrick returned to the state legislature to complete the job in securing the Bill of Rights as amendments to the U.S.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: Constitution.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: As the legislature convened to choose Virginia's first U.S.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Senators, once again, Patrick Henry acted as the most dominant leader in the Assembly.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: He nominated Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson to represent the state in the U.S.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: Senate for the sole reason that these men were most likely to fight hard for the Bill of Rights.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: He would not support James Madison because of his tendency to support big government and his reluctance to include the Bill of Rights in the U.S.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Constitution at first.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry supported James Monroe for Congress, but James Madison secured the congressional seat when he finally agreed to propose a Bill of Rights to the first meeting of Congress in 1789.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: In the end, the United States Congress complied with Virginia's request for a Bill of Rights.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: Massachusetts also brought forward a similar request, thanks to motions set forward by none other than Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the U.S.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Constitution has not proved as useful in holding back the ever expanding grasp of the federal government as its founders hoped it would.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: But the one page document appended to the end of the Constitution called the Bill of Rights has proven invaluable for freedom.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: It has protected liberty in many court battles in the last two centuries.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: It has protected many an innocent person, journalist, pastor, and evangelist who wished to preach the gospel.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: It has provided a restraint to many a tyrant who would have persecuted innocent citizens and created a police state in the United States.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: There were larger concerns at stake for Patrick Henry at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, some of which proved to be prophetic.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: He feared that America would give in to the empire impulse.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: He preferred that the Constitution begin with we the states instead of we the people.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: He foresaw that America would turn into a democratic tyranny in the years to come and warned of this on the floor of the Convention.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: He argued strongly against converting this country into a powerful and mighty empire.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, began using the term empire for this country during his presidency only a few short years later.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: During the constitutional debates, Henry was concerned that the citizens of the United States would be transformed from respectable independent citizens to object dependent subjects or slaves.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: He warned that the Constitution should not give the federal government the power to tax because then he predicted rich, snug, fine, fat federal officers, the collectors of taxes and excises, will outnumber anything from the states.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: He complained that this direct taxation of the citizens would provide unlimited powers of harassing the community, and called them the visionary projects of modern politicians.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry would have been horrified by the rise of the modern socialist state and the massive increase in the size of the federal government in the United States.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: He would have denounced the federal income tax, public schools, the one hundred twenty thousand pages of the Federal Register, compulsory school attendance laws, the child protection services, the gun registration requirements, the regular exercise of eminent domain, the zoning laws, the wetlands enforcement, and the sixty percent of the GNI or gross national income consumed in government spending as massive incursions on the liberties of a free nation.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: That is why so few people in our day appreciate the man responsible for spearheading this nation's independence.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: In 1992, Walter Williams, professor of economics for George Mason University, pointed out in 1787, federal spending was about three million dollars a year, or about one dollar per citizen.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: By 1910, the Fed spent a little more than six hundred million dollars, about six dollars and seventy five cents per person.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: By 1929, the Fed spent$3 billion per year,$29 per person.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: Today, the federal government spends over$4 billion per day.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: That comes to more than$6,000 per year per person, or controlling for inflation, a 9,000% increase in federal spending between 1929 and today.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: The colonists who were paying about sixty seven cents a year in taxes went to war with Great Britain.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: The Faith of Patrick Henry Jude three Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: To the end, Patrick Henry maintained a strong faith in God and operated from a Christian worldview.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: He clearly recognized the sovereign hand of God over the nations of men.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: During this period of the rise of deism and humanism, it is truly remarkable that most of the influential leaders in America maintained such a commitment to God's providential direction over all things.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: In Henry's famous Give Me Liberty speech, he reminded the delegates that, quote, there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry considered his cause righteous and just, not on the basis of humanist manifestos or by the standards of humanist philosophers, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a just cause as defined by Henry could only be judged by a just God, not by the will of the people.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: This is significant.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry was willing to throw himself and the nation at the feet of the judge of nations to beg his mercy.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: This position would also be supported by the Continental Congress.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: Although Patrick Henry did not join the Presbyterian Church with his mother, the evangelical sermons of Samuel Davies continued to work on his soul throughout his entire life.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: While deism, Unitarianism, and skepticism were wooing the hearts and minds of many colonial leaders away from Christ, Patrick Henry's theological journey went the other direction.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: He returned to the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: He chose for his Christian mentors the men who were fighting hard for the faith against the skepticism of the day, men like Bishop Joseph Butler and Bishop Thomas Sherlock.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: In a letter to his daughter Elizabeth, Patrick complained of the general prevalence of deism in the Democratic Republican Party founded by Jefferson and Madison.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: In this letter, he strongly criticizes Thomas Paine and other skeptics.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: The religion of Christ has from its first appearance in the world been attacked in vain by all the wits, philosophers, and wise ones aided by every power of man, and its triumph has been complete.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: What is there in the wit or wisdom of the present deistical writers or professors that can compare them with Hume, Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke, and others?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: And yet these have been confuted and their fame decaying, insomuch that the puny efforts of Thomas Paine are thrown in to prop their tottering fabric whose foundations cannot stand the test of time.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: In the same letter, Patrick went on to lament that some people accused him of being a deist.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: Quote, I find much cause to reproach myself that I have lived so long and have given no decided proofs of my being a Christian, end quote.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Family worship was a regular daily event in the Henry home throughout the 1780s.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick read sermons from Bishop Sherlock aloud to his children, and then they would sing psalms and hymns together, accompanied by the governor playing his violin.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: However, it was later in the 1780s that a spiritual revival came to life in the old governor's soul.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Earlier in 1775, Patrick Henry had helped start a Presbyterian school not far from his home called Hamden Sydney College.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: Around 1787, a revival swept through the college.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: It came about when four students began gathering on Saturdays for prayer.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: The president of the college, a close friend of Patrick Henry, allowed the students to gather in his own kitchen.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: Others joined the prayer meeting, wandering in from miles around the college.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was this spiritual revival that made a great impact on Patrick Henry.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: He began reading the scriptures regularly, quoting the Bible, and witnessing the gospel everywhere he went.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: On the bottom of an affidavit for a court case he argued in 1789, we find Patrick Henry's own handwriting.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: I will arise and go to my father, and will say, Father, Father, I have sinned before God and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called a son.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is a personalized testimony of a quotation from the Prodigal Son story in Luke 15, 18.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: Each morning, his children would find him reading his Bible in the dining room.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: For his remaining years, he would quote the Bible often and spread the gospel to those who would listen.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: There is some reasonable debate over the faith of many of America's founding fathers.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: However, there is really no question concerning Patrick Henry's Christian faith.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: Unlike the deists of his day, he was unabashed in his profession of faith in Christ.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Writing to his sister Anne upon the loss of her husband, Henry wrote, O may we meet in heaven, to which the merits of Jesus will carry those who love and serve him.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: In the final portion of his will, Patrick Henry included this highly significant message to his children.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: I have now disposed of all my property to my family.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is the Christian religion.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: Henry's dying words included a testimony of his faith in Christ to his bedside doctor, the deist, doctor Cabill.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: An eyewitness reported, he prayed in clear words, a simple childlike prayer for his family, for his country, and for his own soul in the presence of death.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking great words of love to his family, he told them that he was thankful for the goodness of God.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, fixing his eyes with much tenderness on his dear friend doctor Cabill, with whom he had formerly held many arguments respecting the Christian religion, he asked the doctor to observe how great a reality and benefit that religion was to a man about to die.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: After which they who were looking upon him saw that his life had departed.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: Conclusion Patrick Henry's love for liberty is hardly shared by many today, for he was one of the last of a dying breed and the stronger of those who still held to the Christian faith during the spiritual decline of the latter eighteenth century.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Most modern Americans generally do not resonate with Patrick Henry's moving words anymore because they do not appreciate freedom.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: They do not seek a liberty as defined by God's law.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: They prefer slavery to sin and the security offered by their tyrannical leaders.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: Election after election, they vote tyrants into office of their own free will.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yet there is still a faint heartbeat for freedom that resounds in a small minority of Americans today.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: There are still a few who will make the pilgrimage to the old Virginia Capitol in Colonial Williamsburg.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: They will pay their respects at St.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: John's Church in Richmond and recite the words of the famous speech once again.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Then they will visit Patrick Henry's old homesteads at Scotchtown and Redhill to visit the markers and the gravestone of an old freedom fighter and to register their commitment to the age old noble cause of liberty once more.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: The embers of liberty have pretty well died down now.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: But they are not entirely extinguished.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: There is still hope for true freedom somewhere in the world as long as there are still men and women of faith left who follow the one who died to set us free from the bondage of sin.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Galatians 5 1.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: John 8 36.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a production of the Generations Media Network.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: For more information, go to generations.org/slash media.