A fascinating sermon preached before Cromwell's Parliament by a rather obscure member of the Westminster Assembly, John Whincop. He seems to have been an active and respected member of the Assembly [see Reid, Memoirs], but having died shortly hereafter in the throes of the English Civil War, his name was largely forgotten. His having been presented to preach on multiple Fast Days before parliament speaks to his respect in the community.
The present sermon, very scarce on the market, is seen by many scholars of the period as perhaps the clearest example of the Presbyterian / Puritan ideal of England, Protestant Ireland, and Scotland as truly God's New Israel. It is transparent in the opening lines of the sermon,
" . . . to remember Zion, was that for which at first this Monethly Fast was intended, our poore Protestant Brethren in Ireland, Gods little Remnant, his Zion there, this was the first end propounded for it: Afterwards our English Zion cryed aloud for prayers and tears too. And now God's Zion in Scotland cries as loud as any, all but one Zion, one Church, professing one Religion, and faith in Christ, yet each one labouring under its several pressures, under inraged and cruel enemies."
He then proceeds to conflate the Presbyterian political and military apparatus with the New Israel as well. It was this "New Israel" ideological hybrid of political, military, and covenanted people as "Israel" that followed the Puritans to America and still in some senses permeates American evangelicalism more broadly.*
A moving sermon on God's care for his people . . . a perhaps misguided sermon when it comes that particular theological premise [in our view, anyway].
Whincop, John. Israels Tears for Distressed Zion. Shown in a Sermon before the Right Honourable House of Lords Assembled in Parliament, at their late Solemn Fast, in the Abby-Church of Westminster, Sept. 24. 1645. London. Printed by R. C. for Andrew Crooke, at the sign of the Green Dragon in Pauls Church-yard, 1645. 47pp.
Good, clean text; removed from a larger sammelband at some point. Textually complete as issued. Imprimatur leaf preceding title has a small tear and ripple at lower right, label remains on rear.
*We love the puritans, by the bye; but this particular aspect of their theological trajectory seems unhelpful; it is what was resisted by Roger Williams and others