A TRVE RELATION Of the chiefe passages betweene Mr. Anthony Wotton and Mr. George Walker in the yeare of our Lord 1611. and in the yeares next following untill 1615. Written by George Walker out of his owne papers which he hath yet to shew for the vindicating of himselfe from some imputations laid on him by Mr. Thomas Gataker in his defence of Mr. Wotton Printed at London for William Branch and are to be sold in St. Olaves Churchyard upon Breadstreete hill 1642. A true relation of the chiefe passages betweene Mr. Anthony Wotton and Mr. George Walker in the yeare of our Lord 1611. THe foule brand which Mr. Gataker hath laboured to set upon mee in his preface to wit breach of piety and charity and defect of humanity and common honesty is so scandalous to the person and calling of a living Minister and Pastor in Gods Church that Mr. Gataker in going about to set it on me doth manifestly appeare to have printed it deepely in his owne forehead The words of truth spoken of a dead man in the defence of a divine and saving truth and in confuting of a dangerous error can bee no such breach of piety or charity as the unjust scandall and slander laid on a man living and labouring in the worke of the Lord For this tends to bring his Ministry and the word of God by him preached into contempt to disgrace his person most uncharitably and to adde affliction to him who hath suffered persecution and bonds for the truths sake by wounding him deepely in his reputation which is contrary to humanity and common honesty Mr. Wotton in his papers which he dispersed in this Citie and which he acknowledged to be his owne when I brought them to his face before Mr. Gataker and eight other grave Ministers doth deny the imputation of the whole obedience of Christ to the Law of God both active and passive both joyntly and severally He affirmes that there is no end or use whatsoever of the imputation of Christ his righteousnesse for justification He renounceth the law in whole and part performed by our selves or any other in our stead for our justification In stead of mans owne workes of righteousnesse performed to the law in his owne person which was the condition of justification and life in the first covenant and instead of Christs fulfillng of the law for us which is the condition of justification and life to beleevers in the covenant of grace he sets up faith even the Act of beleeving for righteousnesse affirmes that it is said to be imputed in a proper sense without a trope and serves for all purposes in our justification under the Gospell as perfect righteousnesse of workes performed to the whole law did for mans justification in the first covenant Hee denieth the punishment of our sinnes in Christ and the satisfaction wch in him our head surety was made to Gods justice for purchase of our pardon For saith he I see no place left for pardon if we in Christ be said to have satisfied Gods justice to have suffered in him the punishments due to sin for pardon and punishment are contrary Thus he overthrowes our redemption by Christ and that Christ is our ransome as Socinus did though hee hold the words of Scripture with Socinus in an improper sense to wit Redeemer Ransome Propitiation and the rest For no man can dreame of any other way by which Christ is said in Scripture to redeeme us and to be a ransome for sinne but onely by being made under the Law and a perfect fulfiller of it in our stead If faith serves for all purposes to justification as a mans perfect righteousnesse of workes performed to the full in his owne person would have done in the first Covenant then it serves to this purpose to be our formall righteousnesse yea our owne inherent righteousnesse by which we are justified Which is most contrary to the truth of the Gospell and contradictory to his owne words in other places These and such like speeches I condemned for Socinian Heresie and blasphemy as Beza Paraeus and Lubertus had done before me and for this Mr. Gataker did deride me when I gave in my charge against Mr. Wotton 27. yeares agoe and now blames it in mee as falshood and dishonesty I desire no better defence of my innocency but Mr. Wottons owne confession in his Expositions which Mr. Gataker hath published for his defence For in his answer to the first proposition he confesseth that the denying of the imputation of Christs righteousnesse as a meritorious cause of justification is both hereticall and blasphemous And this he himselfe doth in the words which are cited out of his owne papers to prove him guilty of the first error as you may see in the 12 page of Mr. Gatakers defence where they are thus laid downe and translated out of Mr. Wottons Latin Theses No necessary use or end can he assigned of the imputation of the obedience of Christ to the justification of a sinner And in an English Manuscript of his which I also shewed and he acknowledged for his owne he useth more peremptory words saying I dare not admit of Christs righteousnesse imputed to any end whatsoever I find no testimony or proofe of it in any part of Gods word no signification in any Sacrament of the Gospell no necessary use or end thereof Which words if we take them as Mr. Gataker hath related them prove him to be an Heretike and blasphemer by his owne confession Unlesse Mr. Gataker can perswade us that to be imputed as a meritorious cause is to be imputed for no end or use whatsoever But before I proceede to my narration I will first lay downe the occasion by which I have provoked Mr. Gataker to proclame so bitterly against me and to brand me with breach of piety charity and defect of humanity and common honesty In my discovery and confutation of Socinianisme I perceived that Mr. Goodwins disciples did admire and extoll him as a deepe searcher out and discoverer of divine truth which none could ever find out before him To convince them of folly and ignorance I rehearsed the names of severall persons who had published and taught the same things before Mr. Goodwin and for them and other errors and Heresies which are therein necessarily included have beene condemned in former ages as Peter Abailard Servetus Socinus Arminius and Mr. Wotton out of whose booke De Reconciliatione Mr. Goodwin stole his opinions My words are these The fifth perverse publisher of this heresie who first openly professed it in England and in manuscript Pamphlets and printed bookes dispersed it in London and from thence into severall places of the Countrie about twenty eight yeares agoe was Anthony Wotton I would gladly know what just offence can be taken at any of these words That Mr. Wotton was the perverse publisher of this heresie and the first that openly professed it in England is a manifest truth
as being full of Socinian errours and as I have beene informed did also send to Amsterdam to stop the Printing of it which was there attempted also So that Mr. Wottons disciples were forced to Print it at their owne charge by stealth in some further place beyond the Seas and to disperse the copies here in England Upon one of which Mr. Goodwin a lover of novelties and strange doctrines unhappily stumbled and thence stole his opinions which his foolish followers receive and admire as new revelations from heaven never heard of before Thus have I briefly related the chiefe passages betweene Mr. Wotton and my selfe I have heard of others also who did privately oppose Mr. Wotton especially Master Woodcocke a grave Preacher Parson or Vicar of Chessam who did in writing confute Mr. Wotton and admonished him to forsake his errours One thing I cannot omit which was a strong motive to move divers godly people in London to abhorre Mr. Wottons opinions that was the sharpe censure which that holy man of God Master Alexander Richardson gave against them on his death bed and which Mr. John Barlow an eare-witnesse thereof did report to divers from his mouth Mr. Richardson being ready to leave this world Mr. Barlow who had often before resorted to him for direction in his study and resolution of doubts in many points of Divinity was at that time present with him and told him that hee had heard me the Sabbath before propounding the Doctrine of Justification to be laid open out of the fifth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and to be maintained against Papists Socinians and other Heretiques some of which were of late revived in the City and withall desired to know his judgement concerning Mr. Wottons opinion who denyed Christs fulfilling of the Law for justification of beleevers and the imputation of his Righteousnesse and held faith to be imputed in a proper sense without a trope Mr. Richardson answered and said Take these words of me a dying man I have read and well weighed Mr. Wottons papers and opinions and I know them to be so pestilent and dangerous that whosoever liveth and dyeth in the beleefe of them shall never enter into the Kingdome of heaven Commend me to Mr. Walker and desire him from me as being my last request to him to be couragious in the cause of God and for that saving truth which he hath undertaken to maintaine against those dangerous and deadly errours lately set on foote by Mr. Wotton This message being delivered unto me before diverse witnesses some of which are alive to testifie it did much encourage me and made me more bold to lay open the abomination of Mr. Wottons opinions publickely in my Sermons without feare or regard of the slanders and revilings of his factious and furious disciples This was in the yeare 1613. And I praise God I am constant in the same minde and doe pray and hope that God will give me grace to persevere in this beleefe to the end As for Mr. Gatakers invective against me in Mr. Wottons defence I doe as little regard it as Mr. Goodwins rayling Libell which some say Mr. Gataker counselled him to write against me If it were not vaine expence of precious time I could produce Socinianisme out of Mr. Gatakers Printed workes and prove him a party I could prove him to be Thomas of all sides Sometimes holding that the elect and faithfull are cloathed with the garment of Christs Righteousnesse and againe disputing against their communion and imputation of Christs Righteousnesse But I pray God to give him a more setled judgement in the truth and a more charitable heart to his laborious neighbours who spend their time in better studies then writing of Treatises for unlawfull gaming and card-playing and bedawbing Margents with many quotations to small purpose but onely for ostentation of much reading Yet give me leave to aske Mr. Gataker a few questions which if he cannot answer with any credit let him for shame hold his peace and blush to thinke of his defence of Master Wotton to the accusing and defaming of himselfe 1. Question Whether is it truth and honesty to say that all the eight Ministers with unanimous consent generally resolved and pronounced that there appeared not to them either heresie or blasphemy in ought that Mr. Wotton was by me convinced to have delivered or maintained When their subscription shewes that they medled onely with his Expositions and not with his hereticall and blasphemous speeches in which I paralleled him with Socinus the Hereticke 2 Quest Whether Mr. Gataker doth thinke that Mr. Wotton renouncing the Law of God and the righteousnesse thereof performed by Christ in our stead for our justification doth not in so doing deny Christ his ransome paid and satisfaction made to Gods just Law for our redemption and for remission of our sins 3 Quest Whether mans perfect fulfilling of the Law in his owne person under the covenant of workes was not formall inherent righteousnesse and would have made man worthy of life And if so how he can excuse Mr. Wotton from making faith the formall inherent righteousnesse of beleevers in the covenant of the Gospel by which they are worthy of justification and eternall life seeing he saith that faith under the Gospell serves to all purposes for obtaining eternall life as mans perfect fullfilling of the Law did in the covenant of workes 4 Quest Whether Mr. Wotton professing his dissent from Socinus in those things which are Orthodox and true to wit That faith is obedience to Christs Commandements who commands us to beleeve and repent That repentance which commeth not but by faith is the meanes to obtaine forgivenesse of sins which Christ hath brought that is to get the sense and assurance of forgivenesse And that faith is a beleeving of that which Christ taught and an assurance of obtaining that he promised upon our repentance and obedience can therefore be justified from the heresies of Socinus in the point of justification when he holds other things which are condemned in Socinus for heresie as that faith used in a proper sense not tropically is said to be imputed for righteousnesse to justification and not the righteousnesse of Christ apprehended and applied by faith And that Christ hath not redeemed us and satisfied for our sinnes and procured our pardon and justification by fulfilling the Law in our stead And that faith though not for the merit worth and vertue of it yet by the place and office which the Lord of his mercy hath assigned is the condition upon which God doth justifie and adopt us and is accepted of God and counted for righteousnesse 5 Quest Whether Mr. Wotton doth not deny the free covenant of Grace when he holds that God doth not covenant to justifie and give life but upon a condition performed on our part equivalent for all purposes to a mans perfect fulfilling of the Law in his owne person under the covenant of workes 6 Quest Whether
Mr. Wotton affirming that if we be freely pardoned then our sinnes were not punished in Christ our head and surety doth not deny Christs satisfaction for sinne 7. Quest Whether Mr. Wotton be not guilty of hereticall tergiversation and grosse contradiction in these passages First when he saith that there is no end or use of the imputation of Christs Righteousnesse pag. 12. of Mr. Gatakers defence And againe pag. 21. That it is hereticall and blasphemous to say that Christs Righteousnesse is not imputed as the meritorious cause of Justification And againe in his Essayes saith that there is no mention of the merit of Christ in all the Scriptures Secondly when he saith That Faith doth not justifie us per se by it selfe and yet is said properly and not tropically to be imputed to us for Righteousnesse pag. 27. of the Defence and is the onely condition which God requires on our part for Justification pag. 13. Also when he saith That Faith doth not justifie us but onely as it apprehendeth and applyeth Christ and his Righteousnesse pag. 27. And yet denyeth that Christs Righteousnesse is so apprehended and applyed by Faith that God counts it our Righteousnesse to Justification pag. 12. Thirdly when he renounceth the Law of God performed by our selves or any other in our stead for the justifying of us before God pag. 12. And denyeth that we are punished for our sinnes in Christ our head and surety for the satisfying of Gods just wrath pag. 29. And yet pag. 34. saith I acknowledge and professe that Christ hath made satisfaction for us by paying a true price to God his Father Is not this the same tergiversation which the Hereticke Socinus useth Who in some places confesseth in the Scripture phrases that Christ is our Redeemer our Ransome and the propitiation for our sinnes And in other places denyeth Christs satisfying and paying of a ransome to God for our Redemption and justification Fourthly when he saith that we are not accounted to be formally righteous by fulfilling the Law and satisfying the Justice of God in Christ and yet saith that we are accepted of God as Righteous for Christs obedience no lesse then if wee had indeed performed those things pag. 32. and pag. 26. For ought I hold of Faith Christs Righteousnesse may be even the formall cause of our Justification But pag. 22. He confesseth that he denyeth Christs Righteousnesse to be imputed as the formall cause whereby we are made formally Righteous which is a flat contradiction of the Apostles words Rom. 5. 19. By the obedience of one many shall be made righteous that is constituted and made formally righteous for so the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} doth signifie 8. Quest Whether Mr. Wotton can with a good conscience by Mr. Gataker be justified and proclaimed free from heresie when he wil fully and perversely denyeth the very forme essence and being of Justification to wit the imputation of Christs Righteousnesse which he first simply rejecteth as being of no use and afterwards as the formall cause of justification seeing he the said Mr. Gataker hath publickely extolled and commended for Orthodox the like Treatise of Mr. William Bradshaw wherein he makes imputation of Christs Righteousnesse the forme of Justification and inveighed against some meaning me who had opposed some errours and contradictions which are in that Booke in his funerall Sermon Preached at Mr. Bradshawes buryall 9. Quest Whether the faithfull being by one spirit united to Christ and made one spirituall body and partakers of his righteousnesse and whole obedience to the Law of God and thereby constituted righteous before God can without hereticall perversenesse be denyed againe and againe to be formally that is truely and really righteous by that Righteousnesse though not inherent in every beleever but onely spiritually communicated from the head to every member of the body 10. Quest Whether Mr. Wotton might not justly be judged to be possessed with the spirit of Socinian blindnesse and giddinesse when he derides Orthodox Divines For making every beleever justifyed by imputation of Christs satisfactory obedience a Redeemer and Saviour and satisfyer for all the elect and faithfull for thus he argues If Christs Righteousnesse and satisfaction be imputed to every beleever then must every beleever be counted a Redeemer Justifyer Satisfyer for all the Elect But this is absurd Ergo the Antecedent is false In one of his written pamphlets though they doe not hold that Gods imputing of Christs obedience and satisfaction is an accounting of it to be performed by them in their owne persons or imputed as a meritorious efficient cause but onely his accounting it theirs by communion from Christ the head to every member so farre as to make him formally righteous And yet he himselfe contradicting his former absolute denyall of imputation pag. 12. doth hold imputation of Christs Righteousnesse as a meritorious and efficient cause of Justification pag. 21. Which is a manifest falling into that absurdity which he would pin upon others For if it be counted ours as a meritorious efficient cause then are we all counted justifyers who doe justifie the Elect and merit their justification I could propound divers other Questions but when Mr. Gataker sees himselfe seriously to answer these I hope he shall perceive if he hath ever an eye left to see that his defence of Mr. Wotton is worse then standing at his backe till his head be broken even a breaking of his head and a defaming of him by going about to defame me unjustly in this pretended Defence the issue whereof is That by publishing in Print those damnable hereticall speeches which I in private objected against Mr. Wotton out of his owne writings not one word whereof he could deny he hath made Mr. Wottons name to stinke like the issue of a running Cancer in a most foule body and like those Sepulchres dogges which scratch rotten carkasses out of their graves hee hath raked up Mr. Wottons rotten body of errours out of his grave as some godly Divines have said upon the reading of his defence For what true Christian when he reades those desperate speeches which I objected in my parallel now Printed by Mr. Gataker viz. That there is no end or use whatsoever of the imputation of Christs obedience active or passive for the justification of sinners That Faith taken in a proper sense is by God counted for Righteousnesse And is for all purposes as sufficient to justification under the Gospell as the fulfilling of the Law by a man in his owne person was in the covenant of workes that he renounceth the fulfilling of the Law by Christ for our Justification And that our sinnes are not punished in Christ nor Gods wrath satisfyed thereby is not so offended with the ill savour of those rotten heresies that he is forced to stoppe his nose at the reading of them as passengers doe when they passe by the valley of Hamon Gog Ezech. 29. 11. If Mr.
Gataker be so profuse and prodigall of his Reputation as to subscribe to them that there is no heresie or blasphemy in them when Beza Paraeus Lubertus and others our betters have before me so proclaymed them to be Yet he hath with breach of piety and charity and with greater virulency and defect of humanity and common honesty than he hath proved to be in me most falsely fathered on those dead Saints Mr. Randall and Mr. Stocke and on those living pious men Doctor Gouge and Master Downham a subscription to those errours that they saw no heresie or blasphemy in them Whereas indeed and in truth I have to shew in writing that their subscription was not to all or any thing which I produced out of his writings against him but onely to his Expositions wherein he denyed many of his errours and set a false glosse on the rest Indeed some things in those Expositions I did then shew to be already condemned for heresie and blasphemy by the learned before named and thereupon I did blame their subscription and protested against it and desired to dispute with Mr. Wotton and prove those points heresie but Mr. Gataker interposed and prevailed so with the rest that I could not be heard neither could I by any intreaty obtaine a copy of those Expositions but they were committed to Doctor Baylie to be kept till Mr. Wotton had more fully in writing purged himselfe and the Doctor durst never suffer me once to read them fearing lest I should write a publike confutation of them Howbeit I wrote a confutation of so much as I could remember by hearing them once read at the time when they were subscribed and on Wednesday being the second day after did shew it to Doctor Gouge and Mr. Downham after the Sermon at Blackfryers And a long time after I with much adoe by Mr. Wetwoods meanes obtained the sight of them for two houres in which space I copyed them out as is before related so farre was I from pressing Doctor Baylie to conceale them as Mr. Gataker would intimate pag. 37 that I never laboured for any thing more earnestly then to have them published for the freeing of my selfe from the crimes which Mr. Wotton then and now Mr. Gataker by false reports would lay and fasten on me pag. 39. of his Defence As for that testification rehearsed pag. 38. and subscribed by John Downham and William Gouge it was gotten by Mr. Wotton seven yeares after when the businesse was almost forgotten And as Mr. Downham told me it was upon this occasion Mr. Wotton having written his Booke de Reconciliatione came to him and told him that now he had fully purged himselfe from Socinianisme as he promised in a Booke which Mr. Mason the Bishops Chaplaine would licence for the Presse if two or more of them who heard the Controversie betweene him and me would testifie that I did not convince him of heresie before them and that they all had so subscribed And upon this suggestion which was false they two onely gave that attestation which Mr. Stocke and Dr. Baylie abhorred to doe repenting of what favour they had shewed him at the first If this be not so let Mr. Downham and Dr. Gouge speake for themselves As for the rest of Mr. Gatakers defence it is so frivolous that a short answer will serve His maine charge against me is that I make Mr. Wotton to hold the same things which have formerly been condemned for heresie in Abailard Servetus and Socinus for this he accuseth me of iniquity but the iniquity returnes upon his owne head First for Peter Abailard he held that our sins are not punished in Christ and that it had beene injustice in God to punish one for another and to impute the obedience of one to others And against him Saint Bernard disputes Epist. 190. in these words It was man who was indebted and man satisfyed If one dyed for all then all dyed in him that the satisfaction of one may be imputed to all for he who offended and forfeited was not one and he who satisfyed another the head and the body are one Christ And a little after I call my selfe righteous but by his Righteousnesse Which is that Christ the end of the Law for Righteousnesse to every beleever And againe Man is mercifully redeemed or delivered yet so as that there Justice executed even in the deliverance If the heresie of Abailard thus confuted by Bernard be not the same which I proved to be held by Mr. Wotton let the Reader judge If Abailard did deny in plaine words the eternall Deity of Christ and after him Servetus and Socinus also so also did Mr. Wotton in effect though in words he professed the contrary For he held that Christs obedience did serve onely to justifie himselfe and to bring him into high favour with God so that God justifies us by him as by a favourite onely upon condition of our trusting in him Now where is the infiâ—â—â—â— value of his Deity if he needed justification and favour for himselfe Secondly that Servetus and Socinus were in the same errour and that Mr. Wotton in the points of justification holds with them I have proved out of his owne words It is a poore defence for Mr. Gataker to excuse him by naming other heresies of theirs which he professed not neither did I charge him with them And to plead that because they were condemned for other heresies more then this therefore this was no heresie I know it to be heresie and blasphemie and with the learned before named do proclame it to be so Yea Mr. Wottons owne conscience told him that his opinions were condemned for heresie and blasphemy and for feare of shame denyed them at sometimes and most frequently contradicted himselfe saying and unsaying as Socinus his Master often did I am loath to spend more time to answer to this last part of Mr. Gatakers defence which one short breath is sufficient to blow away If he be forward to breake out into a further defence of these errors and of Mr. Wotton who in his first paper speaking of the Doctrine of justification as it is held and maintained by all Orthodox Divines of the reformed Church did not blush to say I am enforced to dissent from them all what spirit enforced him I cannot conceive unlesse it was the spirit of Abailard who is condemned by Saint Bernard for saying Omnes doctores nostri post Apostolos in hoc conveniunt c All our Doctors or teachers since the Apostles agree in this point but I am of another opinion sic omnes non sie ego all other thinke so but I doe not think so I shall by Gods grace be as ready to resist him still And I doubt not but the hand of all Orthodox Divines wil be against him who takes part with one against all yea against the holy Scriptures and the holy Pen-men of them My faith by which I beleeve that I shall be saved is a firme beleife that Christ is my head and surety who fulfilled the whole Law for me that he might thereby redeeme reconcile and justifie me and that my sins were punnished in him and his righteousnesse is my righteousnesse in which I stand righteous before God I know whom I have beleeved I feare not what any man can say against me If God be with me I care not who be against me If he justifie me who can condemne I will therefore rest on that promise of the Lord Esay 54. 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that riseth up against thee in judgement thou shalt condemne This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord FINIS