Alexander Henderson’s Sermons

Back to the index.

Preface

The two following are emphatically War Sermons. It will be seen that they were delivered before the grant of an Assembly and Parliament, which was proclaimed at Edinburgh on September 22, and their probable date is the second of that month. The reasons of this opinion may be shortly stated. We learn in the Preface that harvest operations had been some time in progress; and the public recantation of Jesuit Abernethy which took place on Friday, August 24, is spoken of in the forenoon’s discourse as already a matter of notoriety. On the other hand, September 16 was an important public Fast, and as there is no intimation respecting it in the course of these services, we are safe in concluding that they must have occurred on an earlier day than either the 16th or the Sabbath before that. We are thus limited to the day on which we have fixed.

It must therefore be borne in mind that at this juncture the state of national affairs was critical and alarming in the extreme. The most loyally disposed among the Covenanters had at length become convinced that the King was at one with his favourite ministers, and was bent on measures of coercion; so that it had been unanimously resolved to make preparations for war, and lose no time in placing the country in a posture of defence. Accordingly the object of the preacher in these Sermons is to “rouse his people to arms,” and it is open and avowed, without much effort to preserve appearances. But the subject he has chosen gives him frequent opportunities of delivering the needful counsels and warnings, without losing sight of the higher objects of his ministry; and it is curious to observe how the most urgent calls to action, directions for the purchase of arms, and even judicious advice as to the conduct of soldiers in presence of the enemy, are mixed up with the concerns of the spiritual warfare, and happily conveyed in the form of allegory and illustration. In the subsequent discourse, the preacher expresses his satisfaction with the way in which his appeals had been responded to.

Beloved, ye have been these days by-gane exercised about your harvest, and the winning1 of your corns. And ye know that a seasonable harvest, being withal a plentiful harvest also, it is a very comfortable thing. For there is great pains taken before it come to that part of it, in labouring of the ground and sundry other things that are painful; and there is great charges also and much cost wared (expended) upon it, before it come to that; and there is also even great hazard in this, even of as much as is cast into the ground—it is all hazarded. And withal, as the Psalm2 says, there is great grief and sorrow: “They go forth bearing their precious seed, weeping,” because people, they must choose rather to defraud their own bellies of the sustenance thereof, before the ground be defrauded of the seed. But when the fair and abundant harvest comes, then it is a recompense for all these; for their pains it is turned in ease, and especially when all the corns are safe and into the barnyard. And then for their cost and charges that they wared, it is recompensed with profit and gain; and when it is so, it makes them to forget their former charges. And for their hazard, it is turned into a certain and sure possession: so that ye see, the comfort of a fair and fruitful harvest is very great, and it answers in everything to that which formerly has bred their grief and sorrow. And so as that same Psalm says, “He that went forth weeping, bearing precious seed, cometh now home with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” They get both their hands filled now, and: gets all their pains, their charges, their hazard, and their sorrow and. grief made up. I say, this should stir up all your hearts; who by nature are very senseless of a godhead, to acknowledge the providence of God in bringing things thus about, and to give praise unto him who has done this for you, and also should make you to insist in your prayers with God, still to deal thus with you until the work be perfited; because it is only he who has the wind and the weather into his hand, and can direct and guide it as it pleases him.

But withal I would draw your minds to consider of another harvest of a higher strain than this natural harvest of the corns. Know ye not well that all this by-gane year [has been] but, as it were, a labouring of the ground—many pains taken, and great travail, and a sowing of seed? And through all the parts of the kingdom, as there has been great pains, labour, and travail, so charges has been largely wared also, ay, I doubt not but of many, even above their power. And for hazard, has there not been, and is there not yet a hazarding of men themselves, and of all that they have? And why may I not join, that this has been done with sorrow and weeping, although not for that which they have hazarded, or for their pains or charges? For there has been, (albeit it is true, indeed, ye have but few of them in regard of others,3) divers days of fasting, weeping, and humiliation throughout the land. Now, shall we not think that after all this we have need of a harvest, and should we not look forit? Ay certainly, this should be our earnest longing and desire; it should be our happiness, if we once had it, and the matter of our joy when it comes. And I may say that the time is now approaching very near, when ye shall get either a great storm and tempest, that shall put away all your harvest, and ye shall have no recompense for all that ye have done, but matter of greater sorrow and grief than ever ye had, if so be that the Lord shall take away the purity of Religion out of the land, and put in darkness, superstition, and idolatry: or otherwise the time is approaching, when there shall be matter of great rejoicing, if it shall please the Lord to bless us with that blessing of a true and sound reformation of Religion, both for our own good and comfort, and for the weal and comfort of the posterity after us. Then we shall have a fair harvest for all our pains, charges, hazards, sorrow: all shall be made up.

And therefore I exhort you now, that ye would give the Lord thanks, and praise him for that, that he has bestowed such a seasonable and such a fruitful harvest of corns upon you,4 and beseech him yet to continue it. And most of all I would entreat you to beseech the Lord so to bless the pains, the charges, and hazards of his people into this land, that they may be recompensed with a spiritual harvest; that so for their pains there may be ease, yet not worldly ease, but spiritual; for their charges, profit; for their hazard of earthly things, a certain possession of spiritual things; and for their sorrow and weeping, there may be cause of rejoicing. There is not one of you who desires to serve and honour God, and to find comfort to your own souls, but if the Lord shall be pleased to give such a harvest as this to us, but ye shall have cause of rejoicing, and all your pains, hazard, and charges shall be made up. But wo unto you, if so be that the Lord withdraw his hand from the work, and work it not out: then your wo and sorrow is but beginning. And therefore, let us now humble ourselves before the Lord for our sins, which is the cause of all this that is come upon us; and let us beseech the Lord that he would put them out of the way; that so he may look upon us graciously, and be merciful unto us, through Jesus Christ.

  1. Winning. The drying of corn, by exposing it to the sun and wind.
  2. Psalm 126:6
  3. At a former place, (Preface to Sermon, July 15, Forenoon), Henderson, speaking of the Fasts appointed to be observed on July 22 and 29, says,—“There is a common course taken now, that before August 12, throughout the whole kingdom, there shall be two days of solemn humiliation kept.” He adds,—“Now, ye need not to look for these neither, for I cannot be present with you.” There is also reason to believe that the Fast of September 16 was not observed at Leuchars, Henderson being again absent at that time in Edinburgh on the public business of the church and nation.
  4. Speaking of the harvest of this year, Baillie says,—“There had been an extraordinarie crope in that countrey the former year.” Letter to Spang, of September 28, 1639. Although the remark is made with reference to the Lothians and the Merse particilarly, yet there can be no doubt that the harvest generally was good.