Cotton's ministry and theirs, and that they could not preach a
covenant of grace so clearly as he, because they had not the seal of the
Spirit. The progress of the new opinion was rapid, and it is clear Mrs.
Hutchinson had only given expression to a feeling of discontent which was
both wide-spread and deep. Before winter her adherents, or those who
condemned the covenant of works,--in modern language, the liberals,--had
become an organized political party, of which Vane was the leader; and
here lay their first danger.
Notwithstanding his eminent ability, he was then but a boy, and the task
was beyond his strength. The stronghold of his party was Boston, where,
except some half-dozen, [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 212.] the whole
congregation followed him and Cotton: yet even here he met with the
powerful opposition of Winthrop and the pastor, John Wilson. In the
country he was confronted by the solid body of the clergy, whose influence
proved sufficient to hold together a majority of the voters in
substantially all the towns, so that the conservatives never lost control
of the legislature.
The position was harassing, and his nerves gave way under the strain. In
December he called a court and one day suddenly announced that he had
received letters from England requiring his immediate return; but when
some of his friends remonstrated he "brake forth into tears and professed
that, howsoever the causes propounded for his departure were such as did
concern the utter ruin of his outward estate, yet he would rather have
hazarded all" .
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