Sacheverell first achieved notability as a High Church preacher in May 1702 when he gave a sermon entitled "The Political Union", on the necessity of the union between church and state and denigrating Dissenters, occasional conformists and their Whig supporters. His peroration included an appeal to Anglicans not to "strike sail to a party which is an open and avowed enemy to our communion" but instead to "hang out the bloody flag and banner of defiance". Gaining a small London readership, Daniel Defoe labelled Sacheverell "the bloody flag officer" and in his "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters" he included in its subtitle an acknowledgement of "Mr Sach—ll's sermon and others". John Dennis also replied to Sacheverell in "The Danger of Priestcraft to Religion and Government".