SOUTHWARK:
Printed by ANN KEMMISH, King-Street, Borough.
1810.
PREFACE.
TO those Friends who requested the Publication of this Sermon—I have only to say, I have endeavored to recollect a considerable part of it; many ideas I have omitted, and others I have introduced, as I had not the least intention of making this public, nor should I but for your very pressing solicitation. I would remark by way of Preface, that the success of Sermons, in point of usefulness, depends upon the operations of God the divine Spirit; and these influences are entirely sovereign. That although this Sermon was blest to you in the hearing, it may not be so to you in the reading—nevertheless, as the friends of immortal truth—you being in the possession of that love (which rejoiceth in the truth) will also rejoice in every attempt to exalt the Person of Jesus as the truth; to comfort and establish Believers in the truth, and to encourage all the heralds of truth, to be faithful unto death. I have sent forth the truth in a very plain style; to you who know her excellencies she will shine with unfading charms; while you adore the God of all grace—and I subscribe myself,
Your willing Servant in the cause of truth,
J. CHURCH.
A SERMON.
Judges viith Chap. 20th Verse.
“And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and their trumpets in their right, to blow withal; and they cried, The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”
The history of the church of God, in all ages past, as recorded in the Scriptures, is intended by the Spirit to exhibit many things of vast importance to us, on whom the ends of the world are come.
First.—The rebellion, ingratitude, and idolatry of the Israelites, give us an awful proof of human depravity, and teach an humbling lesson to the spiritual Israel, who have the same sinful nature, are prone to the same sins, and would often fall into them and their consequences, but for the grace of God.
Secondly.—The patience and long-suffering of God, particularly marked out in this history—he bare long with them; his mercy was extended, prolonged, and manifested to them, notwithstanding all their provocations, in forgetting his deliverances of them in times past, and practising the same sins he had before resented.