Religion and Patriotism the Constituents of a Good Soldier

This sermon was preached by Samuel Davies to the Hanover County militia in Virginia on August 17, 1755, during the early stages of the French and Indian War. Davies, a prominent Presbyterian minister and educator who would later become president of Princeton, delivered this address at a moment when colonial volunteers were preparing to defend the Virginia frontier against French forces and their Native American allies. The sermon reflects the urgent military situation facing the colony and the moral preparation Davies believed necessary for effective military service.

Davies argues that effective soldiering requires both genuine religious devotion and authentic love of country, neither of which can stand alone. He contends that religion without patriotism produces passive pietism that shirks civic duty, while patriotism without religion degenerates into mere self-interest or brutal aggression. True courage in battle, he maintains, flows from a clear conscience before God and a rational conviction that one's cause is just. Davies carefully distinguishes between righteous warfare in defense of liberty and property versus wars of conquest or aggression, arguing that Providence blesses those who fight defensively for their families and communities. Throughout the sermon, he weaves together biblical examples of faithful warriors with appeals to the colonists' duty to resist tyranny and protect their religious freedom.

The sermon became one of the most widely circulated pieces of colonial military rhetoric, reprinted multiple times and influencing Revolutionary War-era thinking about the relationship between Christian faith and military service. Davies's synthesis of Reformed theology with Whig political theory provided a theological framework for Christian participation in warfare that many colonial and early American Protestants found compelling. Who should read this: Students of colonial American religion and politics will find Davies's integration of Christian duty with military service illuminating, as will those interested in how Reformed ministers approached questions of war and civic responsibility. Pacifist readers may find the theological arguments for warfare challenging to their convictions.