.. because of fear in the night if we will not fight the Lord
Jesus Christ may come to be surprised.
And when his brethren heard it they sought how they might destroy him; for
they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine.
In March the legislature met, and Wheelwright was arraigned before a court
composed, according to the account of the Quaker Groom, of Henry Vane,
"twelve magistrates, twelve priests, & thirty-three deputies." [Footnote:
Groom's Glass for New England, p. 6.] His sermon was produced, and an
attempt was made to obtain an admission that by those under a covenant of
works he meant his brethren. But the accused was one whom it was hard to
entrap and impossible to frighten. He defied his judges to controvert his
doctrine, offering to prove it by the Scriptures, and as for the
application he answered that "if he were shown any that walked in such a
way as he had described to be a covenant of works, them did he mean."
[Footnote: Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 17, note 27.] Then the rest of
the elders were asked if they "did walk in such a way, and they all
acknowledged they did," [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 215. Wheelwright, p. 18.]
excepting John Cotton, who declared that "brother Wheelwright's doctrine
was according to God in the parts controverted, and wholly and
altogether.
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