by them delivered and to maintain their own way Now might one have frequently heard both in Court and Church-meetings where they were dealt withal about their opinions and exorbitant carriages such bold and menacing expressions as these This I hold and will hold to my death and will maintain it with my blood And if I cannot be heard here I must be forced to take some other course They said moreover what they would do against us biting their words in when such and such opportunities should be offered to them as they daily expected Insomuch that we had great cause to have feared the extremity of danger from them in case power had been in their hands Now you might have heard one of them Preaching a most dangerous Sermon in a great Assembly when he divided the whole Country into two ranks some that were of his opinion under a Covenant of Grace and those were friends to Christ others under a Covenant of Works whom they might know by this if they evidence their good estate by their Sanctification those were said he enemies to Christ Herods Pilates Scribes and Pharisees yea Antichrists and advised all under a Covenant of Grace to look upon them as such and did with great zeal stimulate them to deal with them as they would with such And withal alledging the Story of Moses that killed the Egyptian barely left it so I mention not this or any thing in the least degree to reflect upon this Man or any other for God hath long since opened his eyes I hope But to shew what racket these opinions did make there and will any where else where they get an head Now might you have seen open contempt cast upon the face of the whole general Court in subtile words to this very effect That the Magistrates were Ahabs Amaziahs Scribes and Pharisees Enemies to Christ led by Satan that old Enemy of Free-Grace and that it were better that a Milstone were hung about their necks and they were drowned in the Sea than they should censure one of their Iudgment which they were now about to do Another of them you might have seen so audaciously insolent and high-flown in Spirit and Speech that she bad the Court of Magistrates when they were about to censure her for her pernicious carriages Take heed what they did to her for she knew by an infallible revelation that for this act which they were about to pass against her God would ruin them their Posterity and that whole Common-wealth By a little taste of a few passages instead of multitudes here presented you may see what an heighth they were grown unto in a short time and what a spirit of Pride Insolency contempt of Authority Division Sedition they were acted by It was a wonder of mercy that they had not set our Common-wealth and Churches on a fire and consumed us all therein They being mounted to this heighth and carried with such a strong hand as you have heard and seeing a spirit of Pride Subtilty Malice and Contempt of all men that were not of their minds breathing in them our hearts sadded and our spirits tyred we sighed and groaned to Heaven we humbled our Souls by Prayer and Fasting that the Lord would find out and bless some means and ways for the cure of this sore and deliver his Truth and our selves from this heavy bondage Which when his own time was come he hearkned unto and in infinite Mercy looked upon our Sorrows and did in a wonderful manner beyond all Expectation free us by these means following 1. He stirred up all the Ministers Spirits in the Country to preach against those Errors and Practices that so much pestered the Country to inform to confute to rebuke c. thereby to cure those that were diseased already and to give Antidotes to the rest to preserve them from infection And tho' this Ordinance went not without its appointed effect in the latter respect yet we found it not so effectual for the driving away of this infection as we desired for they most of them hardned their faces and bent their wits how to oppose and confirm themselves in their way 2. We spent much Time and Strength in conference with them sometimes in private before the Elders only sometimes in our publick Congregation for all comers many very many hours and half days together we spent therein to see if any means might prevail we gave them free leave with all lenity and patience to lay down what they could say for their Opinions and answered them from point to point and then brought clear arguments from evident Scriptures against them and put them to answer us even until they were oftentimes brought to be either silent or driven to deny common Principles or shuffle off plain Scripture and yet such was their pride and hardness of heart that they would not yield to the Truth but did tell us they would take time to consider of our Arguments and in the mean space meeting with some of their Abetters strengthened themselves again in their old way that when we dealt with them next time we found them further off than before so that our hopes began to languish of reducing them by private means 3. Then we had an Assembly of all the Ministers and learned Men in the whole Country which held for three weeks together at Cambridge then called New-Town Mr. Hooker and Mr. Bulkley alias Buckley being chosen Moderators or Prolocutors the Magistrates sitting present all that time as hearers and speakers also when they saw fit a liberty also was given to any of the Country to come in and hear it being appointed in great part for the satisfaction of the people and a place was appointed for all the Opinionists to come in and take liberty of Speech only due order observed as much as any of our selves had and as freely The first week we spent in confuting the loose Opinions that we gathered up in the Country the summ of which is set down pag. 1. c. The other fortnight we spent in a plain Syllogistical Dispute ad vulgus as much as might be gathered up nine of the chiefest Points on which the rest depended and disputed of them all in order pro con In the forenoons we framed our arguments and in the afternoons produced them in publick and next day the Adversary gave in their Answers and produced also their arguments on the same questions then we answered them and replyed also upon them the next day These Disputes are not mentioned at all in the following Discourse happily because of the swelling of the book God was much present with his Servants Truth began to get ground and the adverse party to be at a stand but after discourse amongst themselves still they hardned one another yet the work of the Assembly through Gods blessing gained much on the hearers that were indifferent to strengthen them and on many wavering to settle them the Error of the Opinions
and Behaviour at present were more modest and submiss than formerly they had been and for that he excused his former Intemperances by his much employment and publick businesses it was thought fit to deliver him from that Temptation so he was only sentenced to be disfranchised with admonition no more to occasion any disturbance of the publick Peace either by speech or otherwise upon pain of Banishment and further censure Mr. Aspin THE next who was called was Mr. William Aspin to whom the Court said that his case was in a manner the same with Master Cogshals his Hand was to the Petition he had justified Master Wheelwright's Sermon and had condemned the Court and therefore what could he say why the Court should not proceed to Sentence For he had been present and heard what was said to Master Cogshall to have convinced him of his fault and therefore it would be needless to repeat any thing To this he answer'd and confessed the Petition and that his Heart was to it as well as his Hand and that that for which Mr. Wheelwright was censured was for nothing but the Truth of Christ and desired to know what we could lay to his Charge therein The Court told him that he being a Member of this Civil Body and going contrary to his Relation and Oath to stop the course of Justice in countenancing seditious Persons and Practices against the Face of Authority this made him to be a seditious Person He answered he did but prefer an Humble Petition which he could not do but he must intimate some cause why and that Mephibosheth in his Petition did imply as much of Davids unjust Sentence against him as was in this Petition The Court replyed that he was ill advised to bring that Example for his Justification which makes clearly against him for Mephibosheth doth not charge David with any injustice not so much as by Implication but excuseth himself and layeth all the blame upon his Servant Then he alledged the Petition of Esther to Abasuerus but neither would that serve his turn for she petitioned for her life c. without charging the King with Injustice He still fled to this Plea that it is lawful for Subjects to petition the Court answered that this was no Petition but a seditious Libel the mis-naming of a thing doth not alter the nature of it besides they called it in the first place a Remonstrance which implies that they pretended Interest and is in the nature of it a Plea which challengeth a right of a party besides they give peremptory Judgment in the cause and that directly opposite to the Judgment of the Court the Court declared Mr. Wheelwright guilty they proclaim him innocent the Court judged his Speech to be false and seditious they affirmed it to be the Truth of Christ and the very words of the Holy Ghost which is apparently untrue if not blasphemous Further in pretending their moderation they put Arguments in the peoples minds to invite them to violence by bringing the Example of Peter drawing his Sword wherein they blame not his Fact but his Rashness And that of the People rescuing Ionathan which to make the more effectual they say that it was not seditious Lastly It was great arrogance of any private man thus openly to advance his own Judgment of the Court therefore it will appear to their Posterity as a Brand of Infamy upon these erroneous Opinions that those who maintained them were not censured for their Judgment but for seditious Practices He further pleaded that no Petition can be made in such a case but something may be mistaken through misprision as trenching upon Authority the Court answer'd that if they had only petitioned the Court to remit this Censure or had desired respite for further considerations or leave to propound their doubts there could have been no danger of being mistaken Besides there was no need of such haste in petitioning seeing the Sentence was not given but deferring to the next Court Master VVheelwright â—â—jâ—…yned only to appear there The Court then being about to give Sâ—…ntence Mastâ—… Aspin desired the Court to shew a Rule in Scripture for Banishment the court answered as before that Hagar and Ishmael were banished for disturbance he replied that if a Father give a Châ—… a Portion and sent him forth it was not Bâ—…nishment but it was answered the Scripture calls it a casting out not a sending forth and one said further that he was a Child worthy of such a Portion Then the Sentence of the Court was for his dis-franchisemnnt and banishment and time given him to the last of March upon Security for his departure then which he presently tendered and so was dismissed The Court intended only to have dis-franchised him as they had done Mr. Cogshall but his Behaviour was so contemptuous and his Speeches so peremptory that occasioned a further aggravation and it appeared afterward to be by an over-ruling Hand of God for the next day it was discovered that he was the man that did frame the Petition and drew many to subscribe to it and some had their names put to it without their knowledge and in his first draught there were other passages so foul as he was forced to put them out and yet many had not subscribed but upon his promise that it should not be delivered without advice of Mr. Cotton which was never done VVilliam Baulston and Ed. Hutchison AFter these two of the Serjeants of Boston were called VVilliam Baulston and Ed Hutchison these both had their Hands to the Petition and justâ—…fied the same VVill. Baulston told the Court that he knew that if such a Petition had been made in any other place in the world there would have been no fault found with it The other told the Court turning himself in a scornful manner that if they took away his Estate they must keep his Wiâ—…e and Children for which he was presently committed to the Offiâ—…r The Court reasoned a good while with them both but they were peremptory and would acknowledge no failing and because of their contemptuous Spâ—…eches and for that they wâ—…re known to be very busie persons and such as had offered Contempt to the Magistrates for that they were not of their Opinion they were dis-franchised and fined VVill Baulston Twenty Pounds Ed. Hâ—…tchison Fourty Pounds The next morning Ed. Hutchison acknowledged his fault in his misbehaviour in the face of the Court and so was released of his Imprisonment but both were disabled from bearing any publick Office Tho. Marshal Dynely and Dier Rich. Gridly ANother day were called four more of the Principal stirring Men who had subscribed to the Petition Thomas Marshal the Ferry-man who justified the Petition so far that he would not acknowledge any fault yet he answered more modestly thâ—…n the former therefore he was not sined but dis-franchised and put out of his place Dynely and Dyer had little to say for themselves but persisting in their justification
bait let down to catch withal now if any began to nibble at the bait they would angle still and never give over till they had caught them but if any should espy the naked hook and so see their danger and profess against the Opinions then you should have them fairly retreat and say Nay mistake me not for I do mean even as you do you and I are both of one mind in substance and differ only in words By this kind of Iesuitical dealing they did not only keep their credit with them as men that held nothing but the truth but gained this also viz. that when afterwards they should hear men taxed for holding errors they would be ready to defend them and say out of their simplicity of heart Such men hold nothing but truth for I my self judged of them as you do but when I heard them explain themselves they and I were both one By this Machivilian policy these deluders wrere reputed sound in their judgments and so were able to do the more hurt and were longer undetected 10. What men they saw eminent in the Country and of most Esteem in the Hearts of the people they would be sure still to father their Opinions upon them and say I hold nothing but what I had from such and such a man whereas their Iudgments and Expressions also were in truth far differing from theirs upon point of tryal but if it came to pass that they were brought face to face to make it good as sometimes they have been they would winde out with some evasion or other or else say I understood him so for it was so frequent with them to have many dark shadows and colours to cover their Opinions and Expressions withal that it was a wonderful hard matter to take them tardy or to know the bottom of what they said or sealed 11. But the last and worst of all which most suddenly diffused the Venom of these Opinions into the very Veins and Vitals of the People in the Country was Mistress Hutchinsons double weekly lecture which she kept under a pretence of repeating Sermons to which resorted sundry of Boston and other Towns about to the number of fifty sixty or eighty at once where after she had repeated the Sermon she would make her comment upon it vent her mischievous Opinions as she pleased and wreathed the Scriptures to her own purpose where the custom was for her Scholars to propound questions and she gravely sitting in the chair did make answers thereunto The great respect she had at first in the hearts of all and her profitable and sober carriage of matters for a time made this her practice less suspected by the godly magistrates and Elders of the Church there so that it was winked at for a time though afterward reproved by the Assembly and called into Court but it held so long until she had spread her leaven so far that had not providence prevented it had proved the Canker of our Peace and ruine of our Comforts By all these means and cunning slights they used it came about that those Errors were so soon conveyed before we were aware not only into the Church of Boston where most of these seducers lived but also into almost all the parts of the Country round about These Opinions being thus spread and grown to their full ripeness and latitude through the nimbleness and activity of their fomenters began now to lift up their heads full high to stare us in the face and to confront all that opposed them And that which added vigour and boldness to them was this that now by this time they had some of all sorts and quality in all places to defend and Patronise them some of the Magistrates some Gentlemen some Scholars and Men of Learning some Burgesses of our General Court some of our Captains and Souldiers some chief Men in Towns and some Men eminent for Religion Parts and Wit So that wheresoever the case of the Opinions came in agitation there wanted not Patrons to stand up to plead for them and if any of the Opinionists were complained of in the Courts for their Misdemeanors or brought before the Churches for Conviction or Censure still some or other of that party would not onely suspend giving their Vote against them but would labour to justifie them side with them and protest against any Sentence that should pass upon them and so be ready not onely to harden the Delinquent against all means of conviction but to raise a Mutiny if the major part should carry it against them So in Town-meetings Military-trainings and all other Societies yea almost in every Family it was hard if that some or other were not ready to rise up in defence of them even as of the apple of their own eye Now oh their boldness pride insolency alienations from their old and dearest Friends the disturbances divisions contentions they raised amongst us both in Church and State and in Families setting Division betwixt Husband and Wife Oh the sore Censures against all sorts that opposed them and the contempt they cast upon our godly Magistrates Churches Ministers and all that were set over them when they stood in their way Now the faithful Ministers of Christ must have dung cast on their faces and be no better than legal Preachers Baal's-Priests Popish Factors Scribes Pharisees and Opposers of Christ himself Now they must be pointed at as it were with the finger and reproached by name Such a Church Officer is an ignorant Man and knows not Christ such an one is under a Covenant of Works such a Pastor is a Proud Man and would make a good Persecuter such a Teacher is grossly Popish so that through these reproaches occasion was given to Men to abhor the Offerings of the Lord. Now one of them in a Solemn Convention of Ministers dared to say to their Faces that they did not Preach the Covenant of Free-Grace and that they themselves had not the Seal of the Spirit c. Now after our Sermons were ended at our publick Lectures you might have seen half a dozen Pistols discharged at the face of the Preacher I mean so many objections made by the Opinionists in the open Assembly against our Doctrine delivered if it suited not their new fancies to the marvellous weakning of holy truths delivered what in them lay in the hearts of all the weaker sort and this done not once and away but from day to day after our Sermons yea they would come when they heard a Minister was upon such a Point as was like to strike at their Opinions with a purpose to oppose him to his face Now you might have seen many of the Opinionists rising up and contemptuously turning their backs upon the faithful Pastors of that Church and going forth from the Assembly when he began to Pray or Preach Now you might have read Epistles of defiance and challenge written to some Ministers after their Sermons to cross and contradict truths
in their acknowledgment Many after this came unto us who before flew from us with such desires as those in Act. 2. Men and Brethren what shall we do and did willingly take shame to themselves in the open Assemblies by confessing some of them with many tears how they had given offence to the Lord and his People by departing from the Truth and being led by a Spirit of Error their alienation from their brethren in their affections and their crooked and perverse walking in contempt of Authority slighting the Churches and despising the Counsel of their godly Teachers Now they would freely discover the slights the Adversaries had used to undermine them by and steal away their Eyes from the Truth and their Brethren which before whilst their Eyes were seal'd they could not see And the fruit of this was great Praise to the Lord who had thus wonderfully wrought matters about Gladness in all our Hearts and Faces and Expressions of our renewed Affections by receiving them again into our Bosoms and from that time untill now have walked according to their renewed Covenants humbly and lovingly amongst us holding forth Truth and Peace with Power But for the rest which notwithstanding all these means of Conviction from Heaven and Earth and the Example of their seduced Brethrens return yet stood obdurate yea more hardned us we had cause to fear than before we convented those of them that were Members before the Churches and yet laboured once and again to convince them not only of their Errors but also of sundry exorbitant Practices which they had fallen into as manifest Pride contempt of Authority neglecting to hear the Church and lying c. but after no means prevailed we were driven with sad hearts to give them up to Satan Yet not simply for their Opinions for which I find we have been slanderously traduced but the chiefest cause of their Censure was their Miscarriages as have been said persisted in with great obstinacy The persons cast out of the Churches were about nine or ten as far as I can remember who for a space continued very hard and impenitent but afterward some of them were received into fellowship again upon their Repentance These persons cast out and the rest of the Ring-leaders that had received sentence of Banishment with many others infected by them that were neither censured in Court nor in Churches went all together out of our Iurisdiction and Precinct into an Island called Read-Island sirnamed by some the Island of Errors and there they live to this day most of them but in great strife and contention in the civil Estate and otherwise hatching and multiplying new Opinions and cannot agree but are miserably divided into sundry Sects and Factions But Mistress Hutchison being weary of the Island or rather the Island weary of her departed from thence with all her Family her Daughter and her Children to live under the Dutch near a place called by Sea-men and in the Map Hell-Gate And now I am come to the last Act of her Tragedy a most heavy stroak upon her self and hers as I received it very lately from a godly Hand in New-England There the Indians set upon them and slew her and all her family her Daughter and her Daughters Husband and all their Children save one that escaped her own Husband being dead before a dreadful Blow Some write that the Indians did burn her to death with fire her House and all the rest named that belonged to her but I am not able to affirm by what kind of death they slew her but slain it seems she is according to all Reports I never heard that the Indians in those parts did ever before this commit the like Outrage upon any one family or families and therefore Gods hand is the more apparently seen herein to pick out this woful woman to make her and those belonging to her an unheard-of heavy Example of their Cruelty above others Thus the Lord heard our Groans to Heaven and freed us from this great and sore Affliction which first was small like Elias's Cloud but after spread the Heavens and hath through great Mercy given the Churches rest from this disturbance ever since that we know none that lifts up his head to disturb our sweet Peace in any of the Churches of Christ among us blessed for ever be his Name I bow my knees to the God of Truth and Peace to grant these Churches as full a riddance from the same or like Opinions which do destroy his Truth and disturb their Peace A POSTSCRIPT I think it fit to add a comfortable Passage of News from those parts written to me very lately by a faithful hand which as it affected mine own Heart so it may do many others viz. That two Sagamores or Indian Princes with all their Men Women and Children have voluntarily submitted themselves to the Will and Law of our God with expressed desires to be taught the same and have for that end put themselves under our Government and Protection even in the same manner as any of the English are which morning-peep of Mercy to them saith he is a great means to awaken the Spirit of Prayer and Faith for them in all the Churches T. Welde A Catalogue of such Erroneous Opinions as were found to have been brought into New-England and spread under hand there as they were condemned by an Assembly of the Churches at New-Town Aug. 30. 1637. The Errors 1. IN the Conversion of a sinner which is saving and gracious the Faculties of the Soul and Workings thereof in things pertaining to God are destroyed and made to cease The Confutation 1. This is contrary to the Scripture which speaketh of the Faculties of the Soul as the Understanding and the Will not as destroyed in Conversion but as changed Luke 24 45. Christ is said to have opened their Understandings Ioh. 21. 18. Peter is said to be led whither he would not therefore he had a Will Again to destroy the Faculties of the Soul is to destroy the Immortality of the Soul Error 2. Instead of them the Holy Ghost doth come and take place and doth all the works of those natures as the faculties of the human nature of Christ do Confutation 2. This is contrary to Scripture which speaketh of God as sanctifying our Souls and Spirits 1 Thess. 5. 23. purging our Consciences Heb. 9. 14. refreshing our Memories Ioh. 14. 26. Error 3. That the love which is said to remain when Faith and Hope cease is the Holy Ghost Confutation 3. This is contrary to the Scriptures which put an express difference between the Holy Ghost and Love 2 Cor. 6. 6. And if our love were the Holy Ghost we cannot be said to love God at all or if we did it was because we were personally united to the Holy Ghost Error 4 5. That those that be in Christ are not under the Law and commands of the word as the rule of Life Alias that the Will of God in
Court answer'd that it was apparent he was the Instrument of our Troubles he must prove them to be by such accident and till then the Blame must rest upon himself for we know Christ would not own them being out of his way After these and many other speeches had passed the Court declaring him guilty for troubling the Civil Peace both for his seditious Sermon and for his corrupt and dangerous Opinions and for his contemptuous Behaviour in divers Courts formerly and now obstinately maintaining and justifying his said Errors and Offences and for that he refused to depart voluntarily from us which the Court had now offered him and in a manner perswaded him unto Seeing it was apparent unto him from that of our Saviour Matth. that we could not continue together without the ruine of the whole he was sentenced to be disfranchised and banished our Jurisdiction and to be put in safe custody except he should give sufficient Security to depart before the end of March upon this he appealed to the King's Majesty but the Court told him an Appeal did not lie in this case for the King having given us an Authority by his Grant under his Great Seal of England to hear and determine all causes without any Reservation we were not to admit of any such Appeals for any such subordinate State either in Ireland or Scotland or other places and if an Appeal should lie in one case it might be challenged in all and then there would be no use of Government among us neither did an Appeal lie from any Court in any County or Corporation in England but if a party will remove his cause to any of the King 's higher Courts he must bring the King 's Writ for it neither did he tender any Appeal nor call any Witnesses nor desired any Act to be entred of it then he was demanded if he would give Security for his quiet departure which he refusing to do he was committed to the custody of the Marshal The next morning he bethought himself better and offered to give security alledging that he did not conceive the day before that a Sentence of Banishment was pronounced against him he also suffered to relinquish his Appeal and said he would accept of a simple Banishment The Court answer'd him that for his Appeal he might do as he pleased and for his departure he should have the liberty the Court had offered him provided he should not preach in the mean time but that he would not yield unto so in the end the Court gave him leave to go home upon his promise that if he were not departed out of this Jurisdiction within fourteen days he would render himself at the house of Mr. Stanton one of the Magistrates there to abide as a Prisoner till the Court should dispose of him Mr. Cogshall THe next who was called was Mr. Iohn Cogshall one of the Deacons of Boston upon his appearance the Court declared that the cause why they had sent for him was partly by occasion of his Speeches and Behaviour in this Court the other day and partly for some light miscarriages at other times and that they did look at him as one that had a principal Hand in all our late Disturbances of our publick Peace The first things we do charge you with is your justifying a Writing called a Remonstrance or Petition but indeed a seditious Libel and that when Mr. Asp. was questioned by the Court about it you stood up uncalled and justified the same saying to this effect that if the Court meant to dismiss him for that it was best to make but one work of all for though your self had not your Hand to the Petition yet you did approve thereof and your Hand was to the Protestation which was to the same effect whereupon you being also dismissed used clamorous and unbeseeming Speeches to the Court at your departure whereby we take you to be of the same mind with those who made the Petition and therefore liable to the same punishment upon this the Petition was openly read and liberty was granted to him to answer for himself His first answer was that what he then spake he spake as a Member of the Court to which it was answer'd again that 1. He was no Member of the Court standing upon Tryal whether to be allowed or rejected at such a time as he uttered most of those speeches 2. Admit he were yet it is no priviledge of a Member to reproach or affront the whole Court it is Licentiousness and no Liberty when a man may speak what he list for he was reminded of some words he uttered at his going forth of the Court to this effect that we had censured the Truth of Christ and that it was the greatest stroak that ever was given to Free-Grace To which he answer'd That his words were mistaken for he said that he would pray that our Eyes might be opened to see what we did for he thought it the greatest stroak that ever was given to N. E. for he did believe that Mr. Wheelwright did hold forth the Truth He was further charged that at the Court after the day of Elections he complained of Injury that the Petition which was tendered was not presently read before they went to Election To which being answer'd That it was not then seasonable and against the Order of that day but the Court were then ready to hear it if it were tendered whereupon he turned his back upon the Court and used menacing speeches to this effect That since they could not be heard then they would take another course To which he answer'd confessing he spake over hastily at that time that his words were only these Then we must do what God shall direct us He was further charged that he should say that half the people that were in Church-Covenant in N. E. were under a Covenant of Works this he did not deny but said he proved it by the Parable of the ten Virgins Mat. 15. After these and many other Speeches had passed between the Court and himself by which it plainly appeared that he had been a very busie instrument in occasioning of our publick Disturbances and his justifying of Mr. Wheelwrights Sermon and the Petition or Remonstrance being seditious Writings a Motion was made for his Banishment but he pretended that there was nothing could be laid to his Charge but matter of different opinion and that he knew not one Example in Scripture that a man was banished for his Judgment It was answer'd that if he had kept his Judgment to himself so as the publick Peace had not been troubled or endangered by it we should have left him to himself for we do not challenge power over mens Consciences but when seditious Speeches and Practices discover such a corrupt Conscience it is our duty to use Authority to reform both But though a great part of the Court did encline to a motion for his Banishment yet because his Speech
will be ready to draw their Swords for him like Peter for furor arma ministrat like him who when he could not by any Sentence in the Bible confute an Heretick could make use of the whole book to break his head we might hold forth instances more than enough The Wars in Germany for these hundred years arose from dissentions in Religion and though in the beginning of the contention they drew out onely the Sword of the Spirit yet it was soon changed into a Sword of Steel So was it among the Consederate Cantons of Helvetia which were so many Towns as nearly combined together as ours here so was it also in the Netherlands between the Orthodox and the Arminians so hath it been between the Calvinists and Lutherans In every place we find that the contentions began first by disputations and Sermons and when the minds of the people were once set on fire by reproachful Terms of incendiary Spirits they soon set to blows and had always a tragical and bloody issue And to clear this objection Mr. Wheel professed before-hand what he looked for viz. that his Doctrine would cause combustions even in the Common-wealth as well as in the Churches which he could not have feared if he had supposed as in Charity he well might that those who were set over the People here in both States were indeed true Christians yea he not only confesseth his expectation but his earnest desire also of such combustions and disturbances when he saith that it is the Saints desire to have the fire kindled as if he were come among Turks or Papists and not among the Churches of Christ amongst whom Paul laboured to quench all fire of contention but with the Corinthians Romans and Galatians and wished that those were cut off who troubled them setting a mark upon such as made division and a note of a carnal mind therefore this objection will not save him his offence is yet without excuse he did intend to trouble our peace and he hath effected it therefore it was a contempt of that authority which required every Man to study Peace and Truth and therefore it was a seditious contempt in that he stirred up others to joyn in the disturbance of that Peace which he was bound by Solemn Oath to preserve But here he puts in a plea that he did take the onely right way for Peace by holding out the Lord Jesus Christ in the Covenant of Free Grace for without Christ there is no peace but get Christ and we have all To this we reply first We would demand of him what he accounts a holding forth a Covenant of Grace for saving that he saith this is a Covenant of Grace that is a Covenant of Works no Man can discern any such thing by his proofs for there is not any one argument in his Sermon to convince the judgment that so it is and if we search the Scripture we find in the Old Testament Ier. 31. the Covenant of Grace to be this I will write my Law in their hearts or I will be their God c. and in the new Testament we find He that believes in the Lord Iesus Christ shall be saved and that it is of Faith that it might be of Grace but other Covenant of Grace than these or to the same effect are not in our Bibles Again Tho' it be true that get Christ and we have all in some respect yet we must remember him of what he said with the same breath that Truth and external Peace cannot possibly stand together how then would he have us believe that such a holding forth Christ should bring the desired Peace This is some what like the Jewish Corban I will give to God and he shall help my Parents or as when a poor man stands in need of such relief as I might give him instead there of I pray to God to bless him and tell him that the blessing of God maketh rich or as I give a Lawyer a Fee to plead my cause and to procure me Justice and when the day of hearing comes he makes a long Speech in commending the justice of the King and perswading me to get his favour because he is the fountain of Justice This is to reprove the wisdom of God by looking that the supreme and first cause should produce all effects without the use of subordinate and nearer causes and means so a Man should live out his full time by God's decree onely without meat or medicine this plea therefore will not hold let us hear another It is objected that the Magistrates may not appoint a Messenger of God what he should teach admit so much yet he may limit him what he may not teach If he forbid him to teach Heresie or Sedition c. he incurs as well a contempt in teaching that which he was forbidden as sins in teaching that which is evil Besides every truth is not seasonable at all times Christ tells his Disciples That he had many things to teach them but they could not bear them then Joh. 16. 12. and God giveth his Prophets the Tongue of the Learned that they may know how to speak a word in season Isa. 50. 40. and if for every thing there be a season then for every Doctrine Eccles. 3. 1. The abolishing of the Ceremonial Law was a Truth which the Apostles were to teach yet there was a season when Paul did refrain it Acts 21. 24. and the same Paul would not circumcise Titus though he did Timothy so the difference of persons and places made a difference in the season of the Doctrine and if Mr. Wheelwright had looked upon the words which followed in the Text Matth. 9. 16 17. he might have learned that such a Sermon would as ill suit the season as old Bottles do new Wine and by that in Esay before-mentioned he might have had known the Spirit of God doth teach his Servants to discern of seasons as well as of truths for if there be such a point in wisdom as Men call discretion sure Religion which maketh truly wise doth not deprive the Servants of God of the right use thereof When Paul was to deal with the Sorcerer who did oppose his Doctrine Acts 13. he calls him the Child of the Devil c. but when he answered Festus who told him he was mad and rejected his Doctrine also he useth him gently and with terms of honourable respect Tho' Stephen calls the Jews stiff-necked and of uncircumcised hearts c as knowing them to be malitious and obstinate Enemies to Christ yet Paul directs Timothy being to deal with such as were not past hope tho' they did oppose his Doctrine for the present not to strive but to use all gentleness instructing them with meekness c. 2. Tim. 2. The Prophet Elisha when he speaks to Iehoram very roughly as one not worthy to be looked at yet he shews a different respect of Iehosaphat tho' he were then out of his way and