GEORGE DUFFIELD - Patriot Preacher

II Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

From 1772 to 1790, Rev. George Duffield was pastor of Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, attended by such patriots as John Adams. In May 1776, Adams heard a sermon by Duffield that compared the way King George III treated the colonists to how Pharaoh treated the Israelites. Duffield personally believed that God intended for the Americans to be liberated, just as He intended the Israelites to be set free.

So inspired was Adams that on May 17 he wrote to his wife, Abigail:
Is it not a saying a Moses, Who am I that I should go in and
out before this great people? When I consider the great events which
are passed, and those greater which are rapidly advancing, and that
I may have been instrumental in touching some springs, and turning
some small wheels, which have had and will have such effects, I feel
an awe upon my mind, which is not easily described Great Britain
has at last driven American to the last step, complete separation from
her; a total, absolute independence.

Duffield, who also served as chaplain of the Continental Congress and of the Pennsylvania militia during the war, had a profound influence on many patriots, according to J. T. Headley;
In a discourse delivered before several companies of the
Pennsylvania militia and member of Congress, four months before
the Declaration of Independence, he took bold and decided ground
in favor of that step, and pleaded his cause with sublime eloquence,
which afterwards made him so obnoxious to the British that they
placed a reward of fifty pounds for his capture.

Later on in that sermon, Duffield delivered a prophetic word that is as immediate today as it was then:
Whilst sun and moon endures, America shall remain a city
of refuge for the whole earth, until she herself shall play the tyrant,
forget her destiny, disgrace her freedom, and provoke her God.

Proverbs 29:2, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
Taken from “Under God” by Toby Mac and Michael Tait