1645 JOHN WHINCOP. Israel's Tears for Distressed Zion. Godly Sorrow for a Broken World.

John Whincop [c.1600-1647] was a prominent puritan divine who seemingly spent his entire life personally grieved by the spiritual state of England. He was a Jeremiah, a weeping prophet.  At one time, he had a patent approved to move to the American Colonies to serve alongside John Robinson. This was shortly after his graduation from Cambridge, then known as the Puritan's Nursery. But the money raised and patent approved, he was finally prevented from leaving and spent his life working instead for the spiritual renewal of England.  And, well, my man is not doing well in this sermon . . . but it is easy to resonate with his sense of the almost hopeless nature of his task.  It was my lot the last time I appeared in publick to proclaim Gods call to weeping and mourning; and now I present your honours with a peoples practising (though too late) what before God call'd unto . . . and could I show the true practice of it [presently] in England too, as well as Israel, with Job then, I could har