Christian Hebraism in John Witherspoons Sermons

The use of Christian Hebraism as a political language of religious discourse has not been thoroughly explored for the eighteenth-century transatlantic sphere. John Witherspoon’s works, such as Prayer for National Prosperity (1758) and The Dominion of Providence (1776), are no exception. This article argues that Witherspoon’s application of covenant theology and biblical Israel, as a template for the ideal state, conveys a consistency of his perception of the ecclesiastical election of a nation, the responsibilities of monarchs, and the justification of public upheaval in Scotland and the North American sphere. A thorough examination of the Prayer for National Prosperity delves deep into how Witherspoon uses biblical motifs to address the political and ecclesiastical accountability of the people and the monarch in a covenant with God. Moving on to The Dominion of Providence written on the Eve of the Revolutionary War, this survey addresses Witherspoon subscription to the national interpretations of covenant theology that perceived the North American sphere as the sole covenanted, proto-democratic Israel in a sea of other Protestant nations.