The Relief of Derry — God’s Providence, Perseverance, and Protestant Witness

Bibles to Judges seven and I'm going to read um where are we going to read twenty three junctions seven through to twenty So I'm going to read uh from seven through to twenty.

Then Jerubal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early and pitched beside the well of Harod, so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them in the hill of Morah in the valley.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand hath saved me.

Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is faithful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilad.

And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand, and there remained ten thousand.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many.

Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee.

There and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee, and of whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.

So he brought down the people unto the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone that lappeth off the water with his tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself.

Likewise everyone that boweth down upon his knee to drink.

And the number of them that lapped putting their hand to their mouths were three hundred men, but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and delivered the Midianites into thine hand, and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

So the people took victuals in their hand and their trumpets, and he set all the rest of Israel, every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men, and the hosts of Midian were beneath him in the valley.

And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host, for I have delivered it unto thy hand.

But if thou fear to go down, go thou with fair with Pura thy servant down to the host, and thou shalt hear what they say, and afterwards shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host.

Then went he down with Pura his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.

And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number, as the sand of the spy the sea side for multitude.

And when Gideon had was come, behold there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian and came unto a tent, and smote it, that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.

And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel, for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host.

And it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof that he worshipped and returned into the host of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the hosts of Midian.

And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitches and lamps within the pitches.

And he said unto them, Look on me and do likewise, and behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do.

When I blow with a trumpet I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and say, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, and they had but newly set the watch, and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitches that were in their hand.

And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitches, and held their lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal.

And they cried, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and may the Lord bless this reading of his most precious word.

Amen.

The title A sermon being an encouragement for Protestants or a happy prospect of glorious success with exhortation to be valiant against our enemies, in opposing the bloody principles of papists and errors of popery and others.

Occasionally, on the Protestant victory over the French and Irish papists before Londonderry, in raising that desperate siege, a glorious prospect of the Protestants' happiness and others, by Mr Walker, minister and governor of the city.

George Walker, Londonderry.

His scrapline, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

We may, through all the course of holy scripture, plainly behold when the Almighty designed to work a deliverance of to his people, he made them sensible that it was not so much the arm of flesh as his immediate power that saves them.

The Israelites at that time that God had raised up Gideon, the son of Joash, to be an instrument in his hands, of saving them were oppressed by the Midianites and the Amalekites, a cruel and wasteful people that spared no means that force or fraud could invent to vex them and lay their country desolate, to draw them away to idolatry and the worship of strange gods which their fathers had not known, and least they should seem to attribute the victory to the multitude, and not give the soul glory to the God of battles.

This great captain had an express command, to try first their courage and resolution, and after that proving too many, they were selected at the water brook, where three hundred only were chosen, and with that small number the mighty army was overthrown, destroyed, broken, and confounded at first onset by the breaking of pitches, and the sounding of trumpets, and crying the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, Judges 7, verse 20.

Judges 7:20

Let but the Lord arise, says Holy David, and his enemies shall be scattered.

And again he says, God is our refuge and our strength a very present help in our troubles.

Therefore, will we not through though we we therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved, and though the mountain be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, Psalm 46, verses 1, 2 and 3.

Psalms 46:1

We find that when Samaria was besaged, and even famine raped in the city to a degree, that a woman was forced to eat the fruit of her womb when all visible means failed, and an insulting enemy every day expected to enter the city and bring it to a final desolation, that only a noise being heard in the hills and mountains raised the siege and gave abundance of plenty to the besieged according to the prophet had foretold.

And Senashra host, trusting in the arms of the flesh, and the multitude of horses and chariots, found themselves insensibly defeated by the ravaging sword of the destroying angel falling dead by the mighty stroke of an invisible power, whose force they felt but knew no way to resist, or fly from till eighty thousand of them were scattered in the chains of death.

And upon consideration of these and the light deliverances, Holy David says to comfort himself and his people.

And burneth the chariot with fire.

Be still know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our refuge.

For although God make man for the most part the instrument in his hand, the more visibly to bring about his purposes, yet without the operation of almighty power and wisdom men's devices are brought to naught.

For here we find that when Gideon came to behold the camp of the enemy, the Midianites and the Amalekites, and all the children of the host lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number as the sand of the sea, Judges seven verse twelve.

Yet this great army that had so long been the wistful terror of the country, was put into such a fear at the cry of the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, that they were utterly confounded, and knew not what they did.

For as we find in verses twenty one and twenty two of the foregoing chapter, Viz, and they stood every man in his place around about the camp, and all the hosts ran and cried and fled, and the three hundred blew their trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even though all the hosts and the hosts fled.

By this we may see, it was even more through fear and destruction that they were broken, than through any slaughter of the three hundred.

Israelites were capable of making among so great a company of men.

David, encouraged by God, pursued the Amalekites that burned Zaklig, and with four hundred men fell upon those that had taken the spoil spoil, and with four hundred men defeated the great army, recovering whatever had been taken.

Barak and Deborah defeated Jabin's great host, destroying it together with Sesra, its captain, who fell in Jael's tent.

Samson, with his single arm, rooted at sundry times the power of the Philistines, so that we see that God confounds strength with weakness.

For when men presume too much on the arms of the flesh, they quietly deceive themselves, and in the midst of their security they are overthrown.

Therefore, let a good Christian consider that his strength is in the Lord, and God be on his side, he need not be afraid, though danger beset him around about, but be comforted, made valiant in the words of the kingly prophet, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is my is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked even mine enemies and my foes come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumble and they fell.

Though the host shall encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.

Through war shall rise against me.

In this will I be confident.

Psalm 27, verses 1 to 3.

Psalms 27:1–3

This ought to be the confidence and courageous resolution of every Christian, especially soldiers who carry their lives in their hands and are said to live on the brink of the grave.

Above all, in a good cause and the defense of the sacred truth, when their religion is in danger and enemy seeks not to gain a dominion over their bodies but over their souls, to obscure the light of the gospel and cloud the kingdom in darkness and ignorance, let them take example by the valiant Maccabees, who they who, when they were beheld their holy things profaned and trampled underfoot by an idolatrous people, their altar polluted, and their sanctuaries in danger to be defiled, they took up the sword of Gideon and stood more for their religion than their lives.

Nor was the sword of the Lord wanting to give them success over their enemies, and to redeem their blessing to contrar to contrar from the destruction and desolation it groaned under.

No, may we spare to come nearer home and find innumerable instances of God raising or Gideon's to save the kings, but only from the barbarian who invaded them, but from a pe but also from a papal tyranny, from plots and conspiracies that have laboured to make the glory set in blood and ruin.

Henry VIII was raised up to scatter scatter the Midianites and Amalekites about of Rome, whose idolatries and superstitions had infected our Israel, and whose pride and luxury had laid waste their pleasant places and destroyed the good things of the land.

This I say is the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, for God made this prince an instrument in his hand.

This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

And in the next place he raised up a good Josiah in the person of Edward VI, and under him gave us the purity and light of the gospel in its primitive lustre, brighter than the morning star.

And though after the death of this good prince he withheld his sword and suffered us to be crushed under the merciless hands of our enemies, yet the bloody reign of Queen Mary, once over, wherein our adversaries displayed themselves in their true colours, feasting flames with martyrs, the martyrs' precious blood, at such a riotous profuseness as no barbarous nation has ever equaled, he heard the groans of his suffering people and set unto us a deliverance.

The sword of the Lord and of Gideon was again on our side, as appeared in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who was valiant for the truth, and in spite of all the conspiracies to raise a rebellion or bring her to an untimely end by poison daggers and many pernicious devices, she stood the Gideon or Deborah of our land.

And though Spain filled the seas with floating castles to destroy this flourishing kingdom, yet the Almighty by a small number manifestly buried his arm to save us, and ruined that those that were too confident in the arm of flesh, not only destroying the huge armada, but routing such forces as the Spaniard sent to Ireland to assist the bloody Irish papists in rebellion against their lawful sovereign, committing such cruelties as are too tedious here to mention, and although in the frustration of their plots and devices that may they might well have perceived the immediate hand of heaven protecting this great and prosperous queen, yet so far were they infatuated or transported with inseparable malice and revenge, that though their attempts cost many of them their lives, yet no sooner was the wise Protestant Prince King James the first advanced to the throne, but they want to exalt him in a blast to the skies.

But not their powder plot had been discovered by the divine hand of Providence who blasted it, all which well considered may make is confessed with the royal prophet.

We have thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple, according to thy name, O God.

So let that let thy praise unto the ends of the earth.

Thy right hand is full of righteousness.

Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughter of Judah be glad because of thy judgment, Psalm forty nine verses nine to eleven.

And now not without tears of compassion, we cannot but reflect on the popish cruelty in the poor kingdom of Ireland.

In the reign of King Charles I Tano Don Mani 1641, when without any provok provocation, armed with hellish age and the natural cruelty of a papist, they by inhumane torments massacred no less than two hundred thousand English Protestants of all ages and sects.

Insomuch that the dead bodies not being suffered by the priests to be buried created a contagion and in some measure took revenge on the murderers.

And what can we think?

But at this day a papist is a papist still, wherever the principle of religion instills a kind of fierceness and barbarity into their nature Nay, if we reflect what in a few months they have done, what better can be expected?

If we consider the spoil, plunder, ravagements and desolations the French and Irish arms have made regarding neither oaths, promises nor nearness of relation, with a desire utterly to root the English out of the kingdom, with a further design of carrying on their mischievous enterprises against the Protestant religion.

In general, it is time for Protestants to become valiant for the truth and bold as lions, not only for their religion but temporal interest, the preservation of their wives and children from murders, rapes and deflowerings and all manners of violence and wickedness, to stand as bulwarks against a rapid innuendo of anti-Christian tyranny.

Let us consider that the fowls of the air and the beasts of the forest stand in the defence of their own lives and the lives of their young ones, with such weapons as nature has afforded them.

And shall not men in such cases pluck up their spirits and redouble their courage?

Since the Almighty has of late been so favorable in giving us, even by a miracle, a Protestant king and queen to sit upon the throne, and so great a prospect of authority liverance, we are here members of the church militant.

Let us not be ashamed or afraid of our profession.

When maintaining our Christian warfare in a good conscience and a just course, we make our way to the church which is triumphant, where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things pass away, Revelation 21 4.

Though never so many storms and tempests threaten, yet a good Christian ought not to be dismayed, though in a time, even when danger does beset them.

Yet it is required that they should humble themselves before their Maker, and rely on him, who is able to save the utmost, all that trust in him.

For indeed sin is that which provokes him to withhold his mercy and bring calamities on nations and kingdoms.

It was always well with the seed of Jacob when they clay fast to the rock of their salvation, but when they grew regardless, he gave them up to the oppressing nations, who grieved his chosen heritage.

For as it said in Psalm eighteen, verses twenty five to twenty-seven, with the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright.

With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure.

With the froward thou shalt show thyself froward.

For thou wilt save the afflicted people, but will break down high looks, Nineveh humbled, set in sack cloth and ashes before the Lord, was saved from impendent wrath.

When studn when stubborn Sodom and impenitent Gomorrah sunk in sulfurous fire, let us turn then let us turn then to the Lord with our whole hearts and sing praises unto our deliverer, that our enemies and all those that seek to hurt us may fall before us.

Tis a good conscience and an assurance in God's mercy that makes men valiant.

Abraham on this score pursued the kings and rescued his brother, Lot and others, out of the hands of out of their hands.

David in the assurance undoubtedly marched against the mighty champion of the Philistines, and with inconsiderable weapons, as knowing God saves, neither by spear or shield, no more than by weak means.

When he resolves to manifest his power or intends to save, he overcame that man that had so long defied the armies of Israel.

For when the great Jehovah was designed to show his last judgment upon Pharaoh and his pursuing host into the Red Sea, and Israel cried out for fear, they were only commanded to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, and then even without contributing any help of their own, found themselves not only secured from the danger they feared, and a little before had threatened them, but saw their desire upon their enemies.

The Adam heard the voice of its creator and returned with violence to let the stubborn monarch know that the highest rules in the kingdom of men, in whose hands all are all the kingdoms of the earth, and all the breadth of life, there is a sword of the Lord and the sword of man.

Against the first there is no prevailing, but the latter is weak.

In the first be wanting if he plev if in the first be wanting God, if he pleases, can arm all the elements to fight for his servants, as he did the hail in the times of Joshua, by which are fell more than by the swords of the Israelites, or enclose his people with fiery camps of armed angels, as he did Elisha, when his life was sought for by the Assyrians.

Trust in the Lord, and he will be to his servants a wall of defence, and a strong tower, a bookler, a shield, and a mighty deliverer, who has power to do what he pleases in heaven and earth, whose will is faith and whose decrees are irresistible and irreversible.

Let us but call on him sincerely with a true heart and unsigned lips, and he will hear us and deliver us out of all our trouble.

Let us not then be afraid of their terror that seek to harm it, but assuredly rest secure in his protection, whose mercies are over all the works of his creation.

And he will keep us from the arrows that fly by night, and the shafts that go by day.

The adversary shall have no advantage over us.

Therefore, let us acquit ourselves like men and not faint or grow weary.

Let us fear, let fear fly from our breast, and let us arm ourselves with courage in a good cause.

And consider that the God of battles and the Lord of hosts is the disposer of all things.

And if the Lord be with us, who then shall be against us and prosper?

For there is a sword of the Lord and a sword of Gideon.

Thus by extraordinary means does the Almighty save.

When he bears his arm to make his power known to the sons of men, then happy are all they that trust in him, for they shall never be confounded.

Their enemies shall come out one way and flee seven.

The Lord shall draw a sword after them.

And they shall be scattered even from heaven, shall they be discomforted and scattered o'er the face of the earth, as in Judges three two.

They fall from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Caesarea.

If heaven be on our side, in vain is the combinations of man.

For who is able to stand before the almighty God whose very looks dried up the deep and whose wrath make the mountains to melt?

Before whose Majesty Job confessed himself to frail and tremble like one in a stormy tempest.

And that his fear was so great that he was not able to bear it, nor can his hand be shortened that he will not save those that stand for his truth.

Such as are the valiant for the promotion of God's honour are set to fight the Lord's battle.

That is, he owns them to be his soldiers, and he puts power and strength in their hands, as he did into his servant Joshua, when he made the heavenly bodies contrary to the course of nature.

Obey a mortal voice.

The sun and the moon stood still, till his people had accomplished their desires upon their enemies.

And as we find in Joshua ten thirteen, when Moses held up his hand the Israelites prevailed, for there is nothing too hard for the Lord when he designs to bring about his purpose.

I called on the Lord in my distress, says Holy David.

The Lord answered me and set me in large place.

The Lord is on my side, I will not fear what man can do unto me.

The Lord taketh my part with them that help me, therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

All nations compass me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them all.

Psalm one hundred and eighteen verses five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Thus we may behold how a good cause puts life into the soul, and makes a spirit rise to the extreme height of valor, banishing the image of fear by a confident assurance of success.

Make men bold as lions and unweary in their undertakings.

This made Nehemiah courageous for the house of God and for his sanctuary when he caused the very workmen to arm at their labor, having their swords in their hands, even while they were building and repairing the city of Jerusalem, to prevent and repel the treacherous enemies who sought always to surprise and to bring them to destruction.

Let us take courage then and fake not, but acquit yourselves like men.

O Lord God, holy and glorious, in whose hands are all the ends of the earth, thou God of battles on whom all success and victory depends, look down upon us, thy poor afflicted servants, pardon our sins and pass by the multitude of our transgressions.

Save us, save us, O Lord, from the malice and hatred of our implacable enemies.

Defeat their plots, confound their devices, and let them know neither policy nor the arm of flesh can do anything against those that are pleased to take into thy special care and protection.

Give us courage to be valiant, for thy revealed truth in the gospel of thy dear Son, our blessed Lord and Saviour, and even and ever defend us from the clouds and mists of papery and error.

Give us hearts to fear and reverence thy holy name, that all actions and undertakings may rebound to thy honour and glory through Jesus Christ, to whom with thee and the Holy Spirit be all power, praise and dominion.

World without end.

Amen.