William Linn, The Blessings of America. A Sermon, Preached in the Middle Dutch Church, on the Fourth July, 1791, being the Anniversary of the Independence of America at the Request of the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order (New York, 1790).

The Church asks and needs no assistance except the protection of its rights; and it willingly yields to civil government the surest support, by diffusing knowledge, and promoting righteousness and peace among men. The like manner of expression may, with propriety, be used by every American; and it affords, on this auspicious day, a suitable and profitable subject for our meditation. The government which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his Church is distinct from the power which appertains to the kingdoms of this world, and it consists in inflicting spiritual pains; in admonitions, reproofs, censures, and exclusion from membership. The members of the Church, indeed, are also members of civil society, and subject to all its laws, so far as is consistent with a good conscience; but the great evil has been in the civil magistrate usurping the throne of Christ and exercising spiritual / dominion.