Grace it cannot be shewed out of Gods Word That any promise runs thus If you be thus or thus prepared for Christ then he belongs unto you ye have performed the condition and the benefit conditioned is yours I do acknowledge that the formal object of an efficacious Call are Elect persons prepared by the Law being sick lost dead sinners to their own apprehensions to the end that sin may abound and grace abound and that to their sense and feeling Rom 5.20 But there ate no preparations wrought either by Law or Gospel which so qualifie the Soul as a man may conclude from thence That God cals with a purpose to save Mr. Culverwel in his Treatise of Faith much bewailes the cordition of such who build their Faith upon the change of their lives affirming That they can never have sound and stedfast Faith but an unconstant and staggering opinion at the best This grounding of Faith upon gracious qualifications before union is much oppugned by Mr. Coltan in his New Covenant and by Mr. Norton in his Orth. Evang. Surely this is a doctrine which hath too much affinity with that of the Jesuites and Arminians who imagine that God makes a promise that he will give super-natural Grace to men upon condition they will use well their common grace PROPOSITION II. That the first evidence of our Justification is not any work of Sanctification 1. All good works are to be done in Faith Heb. 11.4 Rom. 14.23 Heb. 11.8 We must as â—â—rsinus saith be perswaded that both our persons and our actions are accepted in and through Christ If this perswasion be the cause of good Works there must be a ground of this perswasion precedent to our Works Good Works are the effects of a former evidence therefore not our first evidences 2. All Moral Duties are comprehended under this general Precept of Love by which Faith works Gal. 5.6 as being either the elicite or imperate acts of Love but we cannot truly love God or our neighbor before we know and believe the love that God hath to us 1 Joh. 4.16 17 18 19 20 21. Who is righteous saith Bernard but he that requiteth the love of God with love again Which is never done except the Holy Ghost reveal unto a man by Faith Gods eternal purpose concerning his future Salvation Epist 107. If all our acts of evangelical love flow from the apprehension of Gods love to us they caÌ„not be procreant causes of this apprehension nor our first evidences 3. All that the Gospel requires of us is to believe and repent We cannot evangelically repent before we perceive in some measure that God is reconciled unto us in Christ Zach. 12.10 Ezek. 16.63 Wherefore it is not our repentance nor any work of Sanctification which is our first evidence A man cannot earnestly apply himself to Repentance unless he know himself to be of God Cato Inot 3.3.2 4. All Works of Sanctification are so many acts of gratitude which hath ever relation to some former known benefit and especially our Redemption through Christ 1 Cor. 6.20 This benefit must be known by some Argument precedent to our works Therefore Sanctification is not our first evidence ursinus makes Gratitude the third part of his Catechism and placeth it after mans misery and freedom through Christ 5. All good works must be done in the name of Christ our Mediator Col. 3.17 in obedience to God our Father Then are we to know Christ to be our Mediator and God our Father and so by consequence our justification by some Argument antecedaneous to our works 6. The appearing of Gods grace which brings Salvation and of the kindness and love of God our Saviour justifying of us by his grace is the cause of all our good works Tit. 2 3. If the appearing of Justification and Salvation to the eye of Faith be the cause of all our Sanctification then is not Sanctification our first evidence 7. All good works from the first to the last are to be done without a servil fear Luk. 1.74 This sear is never removed but by a precedent sight of our deliverance from our spiritual enemies wherefore our Redemption and Justification is made known unto us by some other means which goes in order before all works of Sanctification 8. To begin to evidence a good estate from works is opposite to the method prescribed by the Apostle Peter He did write to Christians who knew and believed their justification for believing they rejoyced in joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 He exhorts them to add unto their Faith Vertue c. 2. Pet. 1.5 This Faith was existent out of its causes not to be grounded upon works but only confirmed by them He doth not say Add unto your works faith of assurance but add unto your faith works Therefore this Faith of assurance is not founded upon sanctification as a first evidence 9. We have two distinct witnesses of our good estate which in order do precede our sanctification 1 Our inward call of the spirit 2 Our act of believing on the Son of God The spirits inward call accompanying the outward begets this act of Faith 1 Joh 5.10 1 Thess 1.5 This act of Faith brings forth works of Sanctification Gal. 5.6 Sanctification is in order the last of the three witnesses of a good estate as being the effect of the two former wherefore it is not our first evidence Hoc est initium salutis nostrae quod in nobis sentimus efficax interna vocatio Dei fides nostra assentiens Zanchie De Certâ salute Ecclesiae Mr. Calvin with other learned and godly Divines living in that age wherein the light of the Gospel did abundantly break forth defined justifying Faith not only by an act of the Will whereby we receive Christ and his benefits but also by an act of the Mind by which we are certainly perswaded of Gods love to us in Christ and he doth constantly deny sanctification to be our first evidence and in his Commentaries upon Peter and John calls Works after-proofs Faiths props Both he and Zanchie do acknowledge with all sound Divines and the whole Church that good works evidence but with this caution There must be a former evidence Mr. Calvin thus expresseth himself But forasmuch as of the fruits of Regeneration the Saints gather an Argument of the Holy Ghosts dwelling in them they do thereby not slenderly strengthen themselves to look for the help of God in their necessities when by experience they find him their Father in so great a matter And even this also they cannot do unless first they have conceived the goodness of God sealed with no other assuredness than that of the promise for if they begin to weigh it by good works nothing shall be more uncertain or more weak Inst 3.14.19 Zanchie doth declare his judgement in the same expressions Loco 11. De Justificatione Calvin upon this text 1 Joh. 3.19 And hereby we know that we are of
A Brief and PLAIN APOLOGY Written By JOHN WHEELWRIGHT Wherein he doth vindicate himself From al those Errors Heresies and Flagitious Crimes layed to his charge by Mr. Thomas Weld in his short story And further Fastened upon him by Mr. Samuel Rutherford in his Survey of Antinomianisme Wherein Free Grace is Maintained in three Propositions and Four Thesis VIZ. Prop. 1. That the Faith of Gods Elect whereby they do believe on Christ is not grounded upon a conditional Promise made to gracious qualifications previous to Faith Prop. 2. That the first evidence of our Justification is not any work of Sanctification Prop. 3. That an act of Faith which is grounded upon gracious Qualifications previous to Vnion and Works as first evidences is legal Thes 1. That Assurance of Justfication from Works of Sanctification is not our Assurance of Faith Thes 2. That Justification goes in order before our Beleeving Thes 3. That the Faith of Gods Elect whereby they do beleeve on Christ is grounded upon a free simple absolute promise of Grace Thes 4. That all Promises proper and peculiar to the Gospel are absolute He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbor commeth and Searcheth him Prov. 18.17 The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 LONDON Printed by Edward Cole Printer and Book-seller at the Sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil near the Royal Exchang 1658. To the Christian Reader IF that old Maxime of Jeroms be true In suspicione haereseas nolo quanquam esse patientem surely there is no reason I should suffer what is written against me by Mr. Thomas Weld and Mr. Samuel Rutherford without any reply The Montanists Priscilianists Gnoâ—ticks Borboritae Caenosy that dirty sect Thomas Munsterus Joâ—annes Leidensis Kniperdolingus have not many more marks of infamy and reproach drawn upon them then these my adversaries have imprinted upon me They bring me upon the Stage present me unto the worlds view Stigmatize me for an Arch-Familist Antinomian Liâ—ertine seducer lay me under the guilt of Contempt of Authority and â—edition relate me to an hundred and eleven errors nine unsavoury speeâ—â—s make al the heresies and enormous crimes in the Country to center â—â—â—e My conscience doth acquit me with such cleer evidence against al â—â—â—se horrible accusations that I could willingly pass by al in silence were 〈◊〉 not true which Augustine saith qui fidens conscientiae suae negligit faâ—â—â—m suam crudelis est I am no stoick but very sensible of al indigniâ—â—â—s and injuries put upon me yet should I not in this case have opened 〈◊〉 mouth did not the Loud and strong cal of Mr. Weld and Mr. â—utherford constrain me to publish my Defence Should I consent by â—â—â—ful silence to what they charge upon me not only to the great dishonor of 〈◊〉 self Ministry and my relations here upon earth but of my Lord and Master in heaven Christ Jesus I should grievously sin against the Law 〈◊〉 God Nature and Grace The best way to cleere up things is to follow that rule of Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The truth I not only evidence it self but discover falshod Veniat veritas ut posfalsitas deâ—â—ehendi John Wheelwright Free Grace maintained c. THE chief Cause of all my sufferings in New England so far as I know was certain Doctrine with its Application which I delivered in the Church of Boston concerning the grounds of a special Faith the substance whereof is contained in these three following Propositions which I shall confirm PROPOSITION I. That the Faith of Gods Elect whereby they do believe on Christ is not grounded upon a conditional Promise made to gracious qualifications previous to Faith 1. First There are no such gracious qualifications precedent to union for then should that which is born of the flesh be Spirit a man dead in trespasses and sins put forth acts of spiritual life an evil tree bring forth good fruit an enemy to God do his Will a person without union do something he must act graciously who hath no formal principles of such acts then may a man please God without Faith and qualifie himself by sin 2. The setting up of antecedent gracious qualifications as a ground of our Faith is quiet opposite to the clear revelation of Gods free grace and the ministration of his power in our conversion and the Lord walks in a contrary way towards his Elect. He cryes down all flesh all power in our selves to act graciously that the glory of his power may be revealed Isa 40. He puts out the light of seeming gracious qualifications and cals us out of darkness making us sensible of the palpable darkness of sin and misery wherein we are inthraled that the light of his grace and mercy in Christ may appear unto us as it is in it self marvellous 1 Pet. 2.9 The almighty power of God the marvellous grace and mercy of God towards us in Christ could never be so apprehended of us in our effectual call did we look at our selves as precedently gracious 3. They who ground their Faith upon these gracious qualifications can never be at any certainty By what light do such being in the state of nature discern that they are rightly qualified having performed as they call it the Condition of Faith It is not the light of the Spirit Faith and Word 4. They who are of this judgement build their Faith upon an imaginary foundation a Work and a Word The Work is done out of Christ the Word is a supposed promise made to this Work unto which the free promise of Grace hath no respect Object 1. The Lord invites such as thirst and are gracciously qualified to come unto him Answ If it be meant of Evangelical thirsting it presupposeth union and a formall principle of life dead men thirst-not They are not called upon firstly to believe but to renew Faiths act Neither is it their grace but their want of grace which is used as an Argument to perswade them to come Object 2. By gracious qualifications and preparations for Christ is not meant qualifications formally gracious but only such as effect or have relation to true Grace which doth necessarily follow them Answ It is acknowledged that some Writers thus express themselves They raise up these qualifications to a very great height and assert that they are proper to Gods Elect not to be found in any reprobate calling them the Condition of Faith and that the Soul thus prepared sees that the promise belongs unto her yet deny that they are works of Sanctification I cannot see but they who affirm that they are works distinguishing between Elect and Reprobates and Arguments that the promise belongs unto them and yet will not have them to flow from a formal principle of saving Grace do imply a contradiction Whether these qualifications and preparations for Christ be denominated gracious formally efficiently or relatively in order to true
the truth and shall assure our hearts before him doth thus Comment Semper autem me minerimus non habere nos ex charitate notitiam quam dicit Apostolus quasi inde petenda sit salutis certitude certe non aliunde cognoscimus nos esse filios Dei nisi quia gratuitam suam Adoptionem cordibus nostris per spiritum suum obsignat Et nos certum ejus pignus in christo oblatum fide amplectimur This is the question here determined by Mr. Calvin How we come first to know that we are the Children of God and by the like reason justified He denies that it is by any argument taken from our love How then By the inward witness of the Spirit perswading us of our Adoption What use then are we to make of our love to the Brethren in point of evidencing It under props saith he and strengthens our perswasion These are his words Est igitur charitas accessio vel adminiculum inferius al sidei fulturam non fundamentum quo nititur Zanchie upon Ephes 5.1 draws this as an inference from that text Sciamus ergo pro fundamento christianae Pietatis teneamus hoc primum principium fidem i. certissimam perswasionem de remissione peccatorum ex solâ paterna clementia condonatorum causam esse omnium virtutum omnium bonorum operum omnisque verae obedientiae They who stand for the first evidencing of Works overthrow this fundamental principle The Answer which Mr. Cotton gives to this Question Whether some saving qualification may be a first evidence of Justification is thus set down by himself in terminis A man may have an Argument from thence yea I doubt not a firm and strong Argument but not a first evidence In his Answer to Mr. Baylie Object 1. Keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren are brought in by the Apostle John as first evidences of Justification 1 John 2.3 3.14 Answ These and the like Scriptures strongly argue That works of Sanctification are cerrain evidences of a good estate which is a truth so clearly held forth in Gods Word as if it were written with a beam of the Sun But can it be concluded from hence That John and the Christians to whom he wrote amongst which they of the lowest rank did know the Father had received an unction from the holy One and knew all things had no former evidence of their justification Did they never hear the inward witness of the Spirit nor see their Falth by which they did receive this witness Did they conclude a good estate by reflecting upon their keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren without any immediate discerning of their inward Call or their act or acts of believing as precedent in order to their works Whether was this keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren the procreant cause of their knowing and believing the love of God to them or the contrary The Apostle puts it out of doubt 1 Joh. 4.16.20 We know and believe the love that God hath to us What effect doth this produce We love him because he first loved us It is our knowing and believing that God loved us first even from eternity that makes us love him This is then the Apostles meaning We who have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father we who are believers are confirmed in our Faith because it is operative and works causing us to keep Gods Commandments and this special Commandment of loving the Brethren What is the keeping of Gods Commandments but charity out of a pure heart and Faith unfeined 1 Tim. 1.5 Faith whereby we are truly perswaded of Gods mercy towards us in Christ is the mother of a good Conscience and charity What is love to the Brethren but an holy affection wrought in us by the Holy Ghost whereby upon the apprehension of Gods love to us in Christ we do from our very hearts wish well unto them and study to do them all the good we can 1 Joh. 4.16.19 20. Truly we should neither love God nor the Brethren nor his Commandments did he not first make known his love in Christ to us Mr. Calvin upon these words 1 Joh. 2.3 And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments writes thus Notandus est hic orde quum dicit nos cognoscere quod noverimus Significat Dei obedientiam sic conjunct am esse scientiae ut tamen haes ordine fit prior â—cuti necesse est causam effectu suo esse priorem Object 2. An Effect argues the Cause as well as the Cause doth its Effect Why may we not begin with keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren to evidence a good estate and make them our first evidences We can know by fruit that there is a tree upon which it did grow and by streams that there is a fountain from which they did flow though we never see the tree or the spring Answ The tree doth naturally bring forth its fruits and the fountain sends out its streams without any act of ours whether we see them or not But Justification which is a gracious act of God acquitting of us from our sins and accepting us as just for the righteousness sake of Christ received by Faith doth not cause us to bring forth works of Righteousness and true holiness by a meer Physical force but as apprehended by Faith which works by love Gal. 5.6 The perswasion that Mary Magdalene had of the pardon of her many sins made her love much Luk. 7.46 If a tree did not bring forth fruit nor a fountain send out water but by our looking on them as the instrumental cause surely we should see the tree as going before the fruit and the spring-head before the streams Good works are such effects as are caused by our apprehension of Gods mercy towards us in Christ Object 3. No man can limit God to what evidence he shall first bring into the Conscience of a justified estate Answ True yet can God limit himself He can do more by his absolute power than he doth by that which is actual If the Lord wil have all works of sanctification to be done in Faith out of love without a slavish fear as so many acts of gratitude for our Redemption through Christ they who deny sanctification to be the first evidence do not limit God but are limitted by God The Gospel is as immutable in the order as in the substance of its parts being an everlasting Gospel Rev. 14.6 Object 4. Many of Gods Children can evidence to themselves a good estate by their love to God his children and commandments who never were perswaded of Gods love to them by any argument taken either from the inward testimony of the holy Ghost or their act or acts of beleeving Answ This is asserted gratis but not proved How did those Children of God come unto Christ Surely they were taught of God and heard the spirits inward call He
Assurance of Faith Assurance of Faith may be taken in a Twofold sense 1. Largely for whatsoever assurance we have of Gods special love to us in Christ from Scripture-grounds in which sense a conclusion deduced from true Works of Sanctification is a conclusion of Faith beleeved in its premises or one of them the other being known by spiritual sense The witness which the spirit gives in a conditional promise is as true as that which he bears in an absolute promise No man living saith Vega should ever draw me to doubt of my being in the state of Grace if I might infer it out of two Propositions the one beleeved and the other made some way evident unto me 2ly Assurance of Faith may be taken strictly and properly for our first perswasion we have of Gods mercy towards us in Christ 1 Thess 1.5 This distinction is in use amongst Protestant Writers and the Papists understand them in this sense Certainty saith Mr. Perkins is either of Faith or Experimental which Papists call Moral Certainty by Faith is to apply the promise of salvation to our selves and to beleeve without doubting that remission of sins belongs unto us Moral certainty is that which proceeds from Works of sanctification as signs and tokens of true Faith Treat of Con. cap. 3. Bellarmine doth acknowledge this Moral certainty with this difference from us That it is only conjectural but he will by no means admit of that absolute perswasion precedent to our works calling it the Lutheran presumption They saith he will have their certainty to go before their works and not to follow them Tom. 4. Cap. 9. De Justificatione So that in this Thesis I do not deny simply that we have any assurance of Justification from our works of sancttification far be it from me but that the assurance which we have from our works is our first perswasion of Gods Grace and mercy towards us in Christ which properly in strictness of speech is called an assurance of Faith is denied by me In which respect I said in my Sermon That our first perswasion of Gods love was not by faith it self 1. By faith as an argument though it be by faith as an organ or instrument Consonant to this is that which is affirmed by Zanchy in his dispute with Mazhacchius about the order of evidencing our election page 361. Thus he writes Quis hic non videat apertè qualis fuerit sententia Buceri in hâc materiâ Nimirum ut incipiamus à priori id est contemplatione soluis divinae bonitatis gratiae in Christo oblatae in Evangelio revelatae Et inde certam persuasionem concipiamus nos vere fuisse ad aeternam salutem electos ideoque nunc efficaciter vocari Deinde descendamus ad id quod etiam revera est posterius nimirnm ad certum fidem assensum obsequium vocanti praebendum This is all which I do herein assert That our first perswasion of Gods mercy towards us in Christ is not founded upon any arguments taken from our works of sanctification which I have aboundantly proved in my second Proposition whether I refer the Reader THESIS II. That Justification goes in order before our Beleeving Justification by a passive Faith goes in order of Nature before our act of beleeving which is thus confirmed 1. We have the Spirit of Adoption are made partakers of divine Nature become new creatures before we put forth any act of Faith 1 Joh. 5.1 Joh. 1.12 13. This is Mr. Calvins Note upon this 13. vers Negat Evangelista posse quemquam credere nisi qui ex Deo genitus est Now whereas it seems by the twelfth verse that we are not the sons of God but consequently to our act of beleeving he doth thus answer it In respect of our sense we do not begin to be the sons of God but after faith 2. We are no sooner living in the first Adam but his sin is imputed unto us before we commit any actual sin Rom. 5. and by the like reason as soon as we live in the second Adam his righteousness is imputed unto us before we put forth any act of righteousness As in carnal Generation all men are born sinners even by imputation So in spiritual regeneration all men are born righteous having the righteousness of Christ imputed to them 3. If we be not justified antecedently to our act of beleeving then can a man in the state of condemnation do that eminent work of God to beleeve on Christ whereas except we be in Union with Christ and so by consequence in the state of Grace we can do nothing Joh. 15.5 To Beleeve is the act of a Person either in the state of Grace or in the state of condemnation Not of condemnation therefore of grace and we are justified before our act of Faith 4. Elect Infants dying before they come to years of discretion or sanctified in their Mothers Wombs are justified by the habit of Faith Persons in this state of Grace being adulti cease not to be justified when they fall into sownes or otherwise put forth no act of Faith which I suppose would follow were they not justified by the seed of Faith If the seed failed in such a case so much as the act doth by what band should they be united unto Christ And how could persons out of union with Christ be justified The Belgick Professors in the Synod of Dort give this as a reason Why the Faith by which we are first converted and from which we are called Beleevers is not an act but an habit infused of God because otherwise oft upon one and the same day we should be Beleevers and Unbeleevers the children of God and the children of the Devil It would I conceive upon the same ground follow That were we not justified by rhe habit of Faith but only by the act we should many times be successively justified and unjustified Chamier thus expresseth himself I say it is most true That justifying Faith doth follow if not in time yet in order justification Mr. Cotton saith in his New Covenant page 55. A man is as passive in regeneration as in his first generation only God giveth his spirit that doth unite us unto Christ which is received by Faith together with Adoption and Justification and yet by the act of Beleeving we are justified also Gal. 2.16 that is manifested to be justified in our own consciences Object 1. This is against the judgement of our Orthodox Divines who generally make Faith an instrumental cause of our Justification Answ They who do affirm That in our active conversion we perceive and receive Christ by an act of Faith do not deny a passive reception precedent to that act in our conversion wherein we are altogether passive Object 2. The Scripture never saith That we are justified by the habit of Faith but rather by the act Answ The Scripture doth not say That we are justified by the habit or act of Faith in
that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Joh. 6.45 What made them follow Christ by Faith and holy Obedience It was this inward voyce of the spirit accompanying the outward word which they did hear and know Christs sheep hear his voyce and follow him for they know his voyce Joh. 10.3 4. That which made them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ was the inward witness of the spirit He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 Joh. 5.10 Can it truly be said That these Children of God so sanctified as they can thereby discern their justification did never hear nor know the spirits inward call nor see their saith Can a man love God or his children who knows not in some degree his reconciliation A man in the state of nature hates God and his children and this enmity is never slain before peace be revealed Eph. 2.16 17. We cannot love the law of God except we know its rigour and curse to be taken from us through Christ We must be delivered from the law in respect of its rigid exaction and malediction and that to our apprehensions before we can serve in the newness of the Spirit Rom. 7.6 Suppose that Gods true children should say That sanctification is their first evidence God speaks no such thing in his Word to the which we must rather attend but the quite contrary as hath been proved neither can they rest in that way of evidencing who are truly gracious for the law of grace binds them first to be perswaded of remission of sins and then to serve God without fear from this perswasion and this law is written in their hearts If men under the law should glory in their penitency works of sanctification and strict walking as first evidences they may be convinced à priori because they want this cause hereof viz. The apprehension of Gods mercy towards them in Christ even as we cut off Enthusiasts Antinomians Familists Libertines who boast of their full assurance à posteriori by reason they have not the effects penitency works of sanctification and strict walking The middle way is the Gospel way to wit from the appearing of Gods grace to our own souls in particular to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world PROPOSITION III. That an act of Faith which is grounded upon gracious Qualifications previous to Vnion and Works as first evidences is legal The Works upon which this seeming act of Faith is founded are not evangelical but legal which I thus demonstrate 1. After that the Commandment comes the spirit of bondage in the law we are said to be married to the law bring forth fruit unto the law and to serve in the oldness of the letter unril we be espoused unto Christ Rom. 7 Before Faith come in the free Promise we are kept under the law schooled and over-awed by the law Gal. 3.23 24. We are in bondage under the law til we receive the adoption of sons Gal. 4.3 4 5. Acts done by them as such who are married to the law in bondage under the law must needs be legal and of this nature are all supposed gracious qualifications before faith 2. Works made first evidences and that de jure though they go under the name of works of sanctifitation yet are they indeed works of the law because they do not proceed from principles evangelical but legal 1. They are not done in Faith whereby we are perswaded that our persons and our actions are accepted in and through Christ No our works must first be done and our perswasion must be the effect of these works We must see our works accepted before our persons 2. They are not done in Love for how can we love God before we know and believe the love that he hath to us 1 Joh. 14 16.19 Our apprehension of Gods love must only be an effect of our works and of some imaginal promise made to us in respect of these our works 3. They cannot be acts of Gratitude for our Redemption through Christ These works must be the first means whereby we come to know our Redemption and justification 4. They are all done out of Bondage and servile Fear This servile fear is never cast out but by a sure perswasion of Gods love to us 1 Joh. 4.18 And what is the cause of this fear but the spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 Wherefore it doth necessarily follow That a conclusion which doth stay it self upon these legal media works done out of this fear is no conclusion of Faith but if we may so call it a conclusion of works being grounded upon works of the law Estius though a Popish writer speaks to this purpose upon Heb 8.10 Itaque fatemur tempore veieris Testamenti fuisse novi Testamenti filios Et contra tempore Novi Testamenti non paucos censeri filios Testamenti veteris videlicet eos omnes qui carualibus Judaeis similes timore poenae legem servant imo non servant Sed sibi servare videntur ut loquitur August lib. 3. conte 2. Epist Pel. Cap. 4. The Application which I made of this Doctrine was this for substance They who have no more Faith than is built upon gracious qualifications before union and works made first evidences are under a covenant of works and though they be never so much reformed yet wil they persecute them under the covenant of grace as did Paul before his conversion the Scribes Pharisees c. Wherefore if any shal profess themselves to be legal and raise up persecution against you for this truth contend earnestly for it in a way of patient suffering by the sword of the spirit the word of God The Doctrine contained in these three Propositions and this or the like general hupothetical application was the cause of my deep sufferings It seems that you Brother Weld with some others who prosecuted against me did build the Faith upon gracious qualifications precedent to union and works as first evidences I censure this Doctrine of yours to be legal as aforesaid and hereupon you are filled with indignation cast me out as the filth of the world and off-scouring of al things make me a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men which you effect by these means About two months after the Preaching of my Sermon before ever I was dealt withal in a brotherly way I am sent for to the Court to answer for what I had delivered where I have the true cause of my sufferings suppressed and put out of sight and a feigned cause closely and secretly brought in Certain of my Brethren the Reverend Elders had a great hand in this mysterious business for whilst my cause was depending long before my banishment an Accusation was secretly drawn up against me in writing put into the Court thus inscribed The Grounds and Reasons of the Dissent of the Elders of the Churches from some things delivered by
a special Faith or order of evidencing were under a covenant of Works I was not so censorious I doubt not but many of your judgment who are truly gracious having an internal principle of true faith byassing their spirits another way than they discern The persons so judged by me were such as walked and only walked according to that judgement which I condemend not only Theoretically but Practically But seeing by this Doctrine you understand that Heretical Blasphemous Doctrine contained in the three former parts of your Accusation which you have fathered upon me fallaciously without any just cause it is a double injury and this member of your charge must needs vanish away with the rest of your devised calumnies putting a corrupt sense upon certain expressions in the Notes of my Sermon contrary to all rules of interpretation divine and humane This ground-work being thus secretly laid in the conclusion I am censured by the major-part of the Court to banishment as guilty of those two crimes Contempt of Authority and Sedition That I was justly condemned and censured by the court is that which you in your short story endeavour to prove but by what evidence of reason and force of arguments falls now into consideration to be examined and discussed 1. First You go about to prove that I was guilty of Contempt of Authority because say you I did not study Truth and Peace which Authority required Contempt is an act of the mind whereby we little or not at all regard a thing Contempt of Authority is when a man doth willingly refuse to submit to the promulgated just Laws or lawful known commands of Magistrates as such and hereupon proceeds to do something contrary to those laws and commands I know no law or command prohibiting me to Preach what I delivered Neither do I see how any such law could be just and it will be a difficult thing for you to prove That I acted from obstinacy of Will and such a defect of the Mind I have already proved the truth of my Doctrine and that I endeavoured to bring my Heaters to consent to that Doctrine cannot be denied so that herein I studied truth and peace Peradventure some Magistrates and Elders intended that I should not Preach against gracious qualifications before union and the first evidencing of Works but rather to have cryed down the contrary Doctrine as Antinomianisme and Familism and because I did not Preach according to their Minds this is looked at as contempt of Authority If to preach true Doctrine and unite men in the truth contrary to the intent of some Magistrates and Elders be contempt of Authority surely the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were notorious delinquents and guilty of this crime You speak of other contemptuous carriages but instance in no particulars I came one day tardy to the Court of which you tell all the world but that was from mis-information not out of any contempt I used some expressions of an acquitting glorying conscience when I suffered such shame in your Assemblies and did dispise that shame and so did he who was free enough from contempt of Authority endure the Cross despising the shame 2. In the second place you undertake to make it good That I was guilty of Sedition by these Arguments 1. First say you I inflamed the minds of men one against another caused divisions made breaches All this was accidental The word of God is a fire a sword and hammer to inflame divide break in pieces If simply to make divisions were Sedition it would more strongly conclude against Christ than Barrabas Your Arguments taken from Ethnick partial descriptions of Sedition are of no force against Christians Sedition is a dividing civil Societies as they are combin'd together in an unity of justice and common utility My Division was not Civil but Spiritual I did not go about to divide in that which was just and profitable but in that Errour of gracious Qualifications before Union and Works first Evidencing Paul was accused by Tertullus the Orator for a pestilent fellow and a mover of Sedition upon the like ground 2. Secondly You Object That I laid most of the Magistrates and Elders under a Covenant of Works To lay men under a covenant of Works simply in it self is not any transgression Political Moral or Evangelical The Syllogisme which concluded the Elders under that covenant was this They who walk in that way described by me to be a Covenant of Works are under that Covenant But the Elders Walk in that way described by me to be a Covenant of Works Therefore the Elders are under that Covenant Upon much questioning in the Court the major was made by me upon a question put by the Court to the Elders the minor was brought into Court in writing by them The Conclusion was made by the Court My Proposition was conditional or equipollent thereunto and conditionalis prepositio nihil ponit in esse seu nihil certe affirmat The Elders assumption made it absolute The Argument by which I described a man under a covenant of Works were the internal motions of his spirit known only to God and his own conscience and the Argument sub unâ utrâque is not à pari In a word I did not so much as in my thoughts conclude the Magistrates and Elders or any one of them or any other person absolutely to be under that covenant This conclusion The Magistrate and Elders are under a covenant of Works cannot be deduced from any thing delivered by me without the Elders Assumption in which I had no hand This was the Courts frequent and main Objection against me That I laid them and the Elders under a Covenant of Works I desired to know of them in what line or page protesting that I neither expressed nor intended any such thing Far be it from me to take Gods Office out of his hand who is the searcher of the heart and the tryer of the reins of all men If the Elders Assumption and the Courts Conclusion be removed there remains nothing for me to suffer for but only my Proposition which it seems did pungere and cut deep If it cannot be proved out of my Sermon that I said the Magistrates Elders and most of the Country were under a Covenant of Works c. I am innocent 3. Thirdly You Reason from the Seditious Effects of my Sermon I do not know any following Seditious practises But if there were any such they are not to be called Effects but Events That is put for a cause which is no cause I do not see any innate force in my Sermon to produce any Effects but these 1. To draw the Hearers from your Tenants about Faiths grounds both in judgement and practise 2. To Unite them in that judgement and practise which I apprehended to be evangelical 3. To contend by Arguments and sufferings with such as did profess themselves to be legal persecuting them for the Truth herein in case
any such should arise Might not all this have been done without Sedition Tertullian reports That the Gentiles used to fall upon Christians in time of publick Calamity If Tiber and Nilus did not over-flow if the heavens restrained their influence if there were Earthquakes Wars Famine Pestilence as the cause of all those evils whenas indeed the cause was in themselves 4. You make a great matter of certain typical allegorical expressions which I used to set forth our spiritual combate taken from bodily fightings which you would have to be understood in their literal proper sense as if I should stir up to a bodily fight You confess that I did otherwise express my meaning why wil not you take my meaning as I did express it Why might not I use scripture expressions in a scripture sense To cut off all your Arguments at once all this while you dispute ex non concessis You have grounded the Courts sentence Censure all your reasons to maintain the justice of the Court upon the matter contained in that secret Accusation before mentioned which did never shew its face openly but acted in tenebris Brother Weld you would have your Hearers to take it for granted That I delivered that which you charged upon me in your Accusation to which you relate all your defence of the Courts justice You lay this as a ground-work as will appear by sundry passages in that which you call a short story but especially in your Preface to it These are your words Now you might hear one of them Preach a most dangerous Sermon in a great Assembly when he divided the whole Country into two rancks some that were of his opinion under a Covenant of Grace those were friends to Christ Others under a Covenant of Works whom they might know by this if they did evidence their good estate by sanctification These were said he Enemies to Christ Herods Pilates Scribes Pharisees yea Antichrists I confess if this were true I had deservedly suffered But I pray you Mr. Weld let me come a little closer unto you With what good conscience can you report these things First That which you relate is not contained in the Notes of my Sermon which I suppose are upon record in the Court of the Massachusets in New England neither immediately nor in their principles Secondly After your Accusation before mentioned came to my hands I sent an Answer to you Elders which you received shewing my self much grieved with that your clandestine unparalled practise disclaiming these Errours which you charged upon me as erronious and wicked shewing that you had no ground to father them upon me Thirdly I was questioned in the Court about these particulars First They asked me Whether Faith and Repentance were any Conditions of the Gospel I Answered They were Conditions consequent but not antecedent that is they followed Christs giving of himself unto us in a free promise but went not before Secondly They demanded of me Whether Sanctification was any Evidence of a good Estate Yes said I it is secondary evidence but not the first Thirdly The Court put this Question to me Whom I meant of by those under a Covenant of Works To which I Replyed I intend it of none absolutely but conditionally if they walk in that way which I describe to be legal I did openly in the Court and I doubt not in your hearing plainly express my sense and meaning Fourthly Reverend Mr. Cotton who constantly in the Court stood by me with me in a speech which he made bears this witness to the Doctrine I taught I do conceive and profess That our Brother Whelewrights Doctrine is according to God in the Points controverted and wholly and altogether and nothing did I hear alleaged against the Doctrine proved by the Word of God Would that learned judicious holy man of God give such testimony to that Doctrine delivered by me or would you have suffered it in him if it had been according to your Report Certainly he would have abhorred it and born as much witness against it as you Miserable is that cause which cannot be justified without such feigned Accusations against so much light Will these their Fictions justifie the Courts acts To set a fairer colour upon your cause and make it more probable that I was justly condemned and censured by the Court you do in your short story take this course 1. First You put upon me many odious and reproachful Names I am stiled by you an Antinomian Familist Libertine Seducer My conscience bears me witness That I do not hold so far as I know any opinion of Sectaries as such nor any Doctrine condemned in any approved Council or Synod but such as is maintained by some Orthodox Divines not disconsonant from the Harmony of Churches Confessions though I do not build my Faith upon the Dictates of men but only upon the written Word of God I am not through Gods infinite mercy an Antinomian Familist Libertine or any other Sectary but a Christian I do with Mr. Calvin prefer the Papists before them Mr. Weld would drown me in that Pit of Heresies which was privily digged for me The Points of Doctrine which I held wherein I did really differ from my Reverend Brethren in matters of greatest concernment were so far as I know only these Five following Positions 1. That to conclude that Christ belongs unto us from Qualifications precedent to Union is legal and no conclusion of Faith 2. That to conclude a good estate from Works as first evidences of our union is legal and no conclusion of Faith 3. That the Faith of Gods Elect by which they do believe on Christ is grounded upon an absolute promise of grace 4. That the first evidence of Gods grace and mercy in giving of us Christ is the inward witness of the spirit in an absolute promise of Grace 5. That in our passive conversion we are justified by a passive reception of Christ precedently in order of nature to our act of beleeving If I may justly be branded for an Antinomian Libertine Familist Seducer by reason of the Assertions or such as are dependent upon them I cannot justifie my self yet let me be convinced that they or any of them are erronious I shall by Gods grace retract Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo 2. Secondly You would make your Reader beleeve page 25. That in the Synod I disputed and maintained these Points contained in your Charge which you call the ground-work of my imagined Sedition You know very well Brother Weld that long before the Synod in my Answer to the Elders I disowned them as wicked Errours shewing that they were your groundless Inferences and is it likely I should defend them in the Synod There was no such matter The Positions which I brought into the Synod to my best knowledge were these ensuing which I shall explicate and confirm THESIS I. That Assurance of Justification from Works of Sanctification is not our
represent me to the world the Lord himself would have Stigmatized me with a witness If should out of Gods judgment grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived my folly and madness would have been made manifest unto al men I should have been filthy and unjust stil the Lord who gave Jezabel a time to repent and she repented not cast her into a bed killed her children with death would discover my heresy and wickedness though I laboured never so cunningly to palliate the same and al the Churches should have known that God is he who searcheth the Reines and hearts Rev. 2.21.22.23 You have set upon me al the fearful works of reprobation God takes them off by his word and acts of providence Is not the witness of God alone more to be credited then the witness of you al Indeed Mr. Rutherford glories much in one of his witnesses whom he supposeth to be the Author of the short Story Let it then be taken for granted that Mr. Rutherford is my lawful judg yet he hath no witness so far as I know but the Author of the short story who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceales his name against natures light and hath born notable false witness against me in that he did accuse me of seducing a man and leading of him into many wicked errors upon such a weak ground as I have shewed and his other witness is Mr. Thomas Weld both of them being parties in the cause Will he now condemne me upon this account before he heare what I can plead for my self Is this righteous judgment Admit there be more witnesses and Mr. Rutherford stand up as an other witness for so he is in this case it is not the multitude nor Godliness of the witnesses that makes their testimony true but the conformity which is between the testimony and the thing testifyed Is Mr. Rutherford certain that what he reports is true He knows very wel that mendacio annumeratur asseveratio rei incertae pro certa quamvis putamus esse veram Mr. Rutherford stands as it were upon the shoulders of the short Story-writers takes his bloody pen as he cals it into his hand draws blood of many sound men in judgment the deare Saints and servants of God whose blood in the sight of God is precious and what they report he reports and more too with much passion and in most reproachful language where I leave him to stand or fal with them To conclude this is the sum of my answer to Mr. Thomas Weld and Mr. S. Rutherford The true real cause of my sufferings in my Estate Liberty Name Ministry in my Self Wife Children Family under the name of heresy contempt of Authority and sedition was that doctrine contained in my first three propositions wherein I differed from some of my brethren about the grounds of a special faith and the order of evidencing a good estate It was of late attempted to bring me under new sufferings for delivering the same doctrine in a Sermon which I preached at Boston at the Court of Election and it was objected that I raked up the old matter This true cause is silenced by them both Certain of my brethren the Elders devised a cause against me as I have shewed and can prove differing from this in substance which they presented to the Court yet never brought it to publick view but makes use of it amongst themselves prejudicing the Court and their freinds against me This false fained cause is published by the short Story writers and Mr. Rutherford follows them I commit the further clearing up of these things unto the Lord who wil bring every work to judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil To God only wise be prayse through Jesus Christ for ever Amen A Postscript 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What credit is to be given to the wittness borne against me by Mr. Weld and Mr. Rutherford wil more evidently appeare by these opposite Testimonies which I do here annex Mr. Cotton in his answer to Mr. Baly Pag. 60. 61. Makes this report Neither the Church nor my selfe did ever look at Mr. Wheelwright either as an Antinomian or Familist Many of us knew that he had taken good pains against both and in that very place where he was wont to preach insomuch that one of his hearers who since joyned to Mr. Gortons society openly contested against his doctrine as false and Antichristian And when Mr. Wheelwright was put out of this Country though he be since restored ye if he had cleaved to the errors the companys fel into he would never have refused their earnest invitation and cal of him to Minister unto them They sent to him and urged him much to come to them to a far richer soyl and richer company then where he lived yet he constantly refused and upon that very ground because of the Corruption of their judgments Professing often while they pleaded for the Covenant of grace they tooke away the grace of the Covenant To The Honoured general Court now assembled at Boston the Petition of the Church and Town of Hampton 26. 2. 1654. Humbly Sheweth THat whereas our Reverend Pastor M. John Wheelwright doth deeply Suffer in his name as an heretical criminous person especially by two printed books the one written by Mr. Thomas Weld the other by Mr. Samuel Rutherford Which hath and wil have a sad influence upon his person Ministry Family Wife Children and posterity for ever and they seem to us cheifly to ground their charge upon this Honoured Courts proceedings against him who censured him to Banishment for Contempt of Authority and sedition and condemned him in a Court order for seducing many of the people of New-England into dangerous errors by his opinions and Revelations So that it was feared that they would make some sudden irruption against them of contrary judgment as they did in Germany Our humble request therefore unto this Honored Court is that they would be pleased to take into their consideration their several acts concerning him and if it appeare that he suffered further then cause required through any mistake that some course might be taken for the healing and reparation of his name Otherwise we do conceive that we are not long like to enjoy his ministry and presence amongst us whom to our best discerning we have ever found orthodox and sound in judgment upright and blameless in life and conversation Whose departure from us wil tend to our great detriment both to our inward and outward man if not destructive to our peace and welfare We leave our request in the hands of your worships for whose good guidance by Gods gracious presence we pray At a general Court held at Boston 24. August 1654. THis Court taking into consideration the good service and great use which Mr. John Wheelwright hath been and is of in the Towns of Hampton and adjacent places and the earnest endeavours which that Town hath used