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Liberal Education Imperiled3 2 3theory of Locke, which became a serious ground of the principles of the Revolution.Religion and philosophy at the Founding found a way to be generallysupportive of one another. The Founding was broadly religious, but was alsogrounded in self-evident truths. It was a political order that had its roots inboth reason and revelation. The Founding was not exclusively Christian, norwas it exclusively rationalist. As Thomas West notes:For the idea of self-evident truth, and of the laws of nature’s God,implied that any reasonable human being, whether Christian or not,can discover principles of moral and political truth. The founding wasnot intended, as were the Puritan settlements of the early 1600s, “toadvance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.” …It was intended tosecure the inalienable rights of all mankind. 30This theological transformation was not a secularization of the faith; quitethe opposite. It was a sacralization of the faith by reasonable means. The reasonablearguments appeared to encourage Puritans to take a more realisticview of the world, and hence become more attuned to their own theology—for example, to recognize that divine grace would not cleanse this world.This development encouraged them to support limited government and therule of law. Ultimately, Protestants recognized the instances where scripturesupported the conclusions of reason.Along those lines, Reverend Jonathan Mayhew preached one of the mostfamous pro-Revolutionary sermons in 1750:Tyranny brings ignorance and brutality along with it. It degrades menfrom their just rank into the class of brutes. It damps their spirits. Itsuppresses arts. It extinguishes every spark of noble ardor and generosityin the breasts of those who are enslaved by it. It makes naturallystrong and great minds feeble and little, and triumphs over the ruinsof virtue and humanity. This is true of tyranny in every shape. Therecan be nothing great or good where its influence reaches. For whichreason it becomes every friend to truth and humankind, every loverof God and the Christian religion, to bear a part in opposing thishateful monster. 3130West, “Transformation of Protestant Theology,” 188–89, italics in the original. Much of the materialin this paragraph is taken from the same source. In one of the most astounding developments,some theologians developed a state-of-nature view of scripture, arguing that the law of nature taughtman to preserve himself. In this way, West argues, some theologians adopted (via Luke 22:36) theconcept that “God helps those who help themselves.” See “Transformation of Protestant Theology,”199–200. On the Founding being rooted in both reason and revelation, see Harry V. Jaffa, AmericanConservatism and the American Founding (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1982), 38.31West, “Transformation of Protestant Theology,” 208–9.