.. were not speedily remedied, and laid the blame upon
these new opinions ... which all the magistrates except the governour and
two others did confirm and all the ministers but two." [Footnote:
Winthrop, i. 209.] Those two were John Cotton and John Wheelwright, the
preachers of the covenant of grace.
Their brethren might well make sad speeches, for their cup of bitterness
was full; but they must be left to describe for themselves the tempest of
fear and wrath that raged within them. "Yea, some that had beene begotten
to Christ by some of their faithfull labours in this land" (England, where
the tract was published,) "for whom they could have laid downe their
lives, and not being able to beare their absence followed after them
thither to New England to enjoy their labours, yet these falling
acquainted with those seducers, were suddenly so altered in their
affections toward those their spirituall fathers, that they would neither
heare them, nor willingly come in their company, professing they had never
received any good from them." ... "Now the faithfull ministers of Christ
must have dung cast on their faces ... 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 persecutor .
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