Armed Citizens and Christian Soldiers: Crisis Sermons and Ulster Presbyterians, 1715-1803

Abstract

This article considers a sample of published sermons preached to Presbyterians in Ulster and generated by the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, the American war and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. These include sermons from days of Fast and Thanksgiving and occasional sermons to independent militia companies, Volunteers and Yeomanry. Such sermons have been used in a ‘horizontal’ manner by historians studying events contemporary with them, but this article also considers these ‘crisis sermons’ ‘vertically’ over an extended time frame and as a distinct genre. A remarkable consistency in theme and form emerges, which, however, was readily adaptable to particular crises and situations.