An Appeal to the Patriot by William C. Brownlee (Free PDF Download)

William Brownlee wrote this treatise to explain how a good and just society cannot exist on the basis of laws alone but only by the fear of God in the hearts of its people. Court judges and juries, the armed forces and the free press all need to have virtue and morality to work properly and benefit society. "But this cannot be done, unless men in public employment be rendered honorable, just, and pure. And such virtues cannot exist, in the solidity of a persevering principle, without strict virtue and the fear of God in the heart." "The human system of morality, drawn up by the wise and the learned, can never communicate the principle of spiritual life; and from the days of Socrates to our times, it never has done it." "God only can quicken us, who are dead."

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WILLIAM CRAIG BROWNLEE, (1783(4)–1860), was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1803 he graduated with a Master’s degree from the University of Glasgow. In 1807 he married Mariah McDougall in Scotland. In 1808, he went to America, after being licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Sterling. In 1813, he was a pastor at the Associate Scotch Church at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1816, he took charge of the Academy of Queen’s College. In 1819, he went to the Presbyterian Church at Baskingridge, New Jersey. In 1824, he received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the University of Glasgow. In 1825, he was appointed Professor of Languages in Rutgers College. In 1826, he was the pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in New York City. In 1843, he had a bad attack of paralysis and was disabled. He was the editor of “The Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church,” and “The American Protestant Vindicator.” He wrote a novel called “The Whigs of Scotland.”