Abstract

This article considers 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 considers these crisis sermons 'vertically' over an extended time frame and as a distinct genre. A remarkable consistency in theme and form emerges, which was nonetheless adaptable to particular crises and situations.