Upon this assurance, I rest in peace, and am, reverend and dear Sir, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus,
Your affectionate and obliged friend, brother and servant,
G. W.
By way of P. S. to this letter, give me leave to send you a copy of the preface to Mr. M‘Gregor’s sermon, to which I have referred in my letter, and which is signed by three eminent ministers of Boston. Dated, Boston, January 12, 1742. This will give you a clear insight into what body of doctrines is professed and taught by the promoters of this work: how far they are from bigotry, and also may explain how the remaining violent opposers of those doctrines came to be so much exasperated.
The Preface to Mr. M‘Gregor’s Sermon.
AS all the protestant churches in Europe, both Episcopalian and Presbyterian, happily agreed at the time of the Reformation in the scripture doctrines of grace, as appears by the published harmony of their confessions; in particular, the church of Scotland in 1560, the church of England in 1562–3, and the church of Ireland in 1616; so it must be owned that the Presbyterians have generally persevered in a steady adherence to the original doctrines of the Reformation, to the present day.
And as the Assembly’s shorter catechism has been all along agreeable to the known principles of the New-England churches, and has been generally received and taught in them, as a system of christian doctrine agreeable to the Holy Scriptures, wherein they happily unite; it is a great pleasure to us, that our Presbyterian brethren who come from Ireland are generally with us in these important points, as also in the particular doctrines of experimental piety arising from them, and the wondrous work of God agreeable to them, at this day making its triumphant progress through the land; all now happily combining to illustrate and confirm each other in so glaring and strong a manner as is irresistible to serious and unprejudiced beholders; and has already forced many men of clear minds, strong powers, considerable knowledge, and firmly riveted in Arminian and Socinian tenets, to give them all up at once, and yield to the adorable sovereignty and irresistibility of the Divine Spirit in his saving operations on the souls of men.
For to see on the one hand, such men as these, some of them of licentious lives, long inured in a course of vices, and of high spirits, coming to the preaching of the word, some only out of curiosity, others with a strong antipathy and meer design to get matter of cavilling and banter; all at once, in opposition to their inward enmity, resolutions and resistances, to fall under an unexpected and hated power; to have all the strength of their resolution and resistance taken away; to have such an inward view of the horrid wickedness not only of their lives, but also of their hearts, with their exceeding great and immediate danger of eternal misery, as has amazed their souls and thrown them into distress unutterable, yea forced them to cry out in the assemblies with the greatest agonies: and then in two or three days, and sometimes sooner, to have such unexpected and raised views of the infinite grace and love of God in Christ, as have enabled them to believe in him, lifted them at once out of their distresses, filled their hearts with admiration, and joy unspeakable, and full of glory, breaking forth in their shining countenance and transporting voices to the surprise of those about them: and to see them kindling up at once, into a flame of love and praise to God, an utter detestation of their former courses and vicious habits, yea by such a detestation the very power of those habits at once receive a mortal wound: in short, to see their high spirits on a sudden humbled, their hard hearts made tender, their aversion from the Holy God now turned into a powerful and prevailing bent to contemplate upon him as revealed in Christ, to labour to be like him in holiness, to please and honour him by an universal and glad conformity to his will and nature, and promote his holy kingdom in all about them; loving them, forgiving them, asking forgiveness of them, abounding in acts of justice and charity, in a meek and condescending carriage towards the meanest, and aspiring after higher sanctity.
And to see other gentlemen of the like knowledge, parts and principles, and of sober, just and religious lives, as far as their meer reason with outward revelation are able to carry them, and prepossessed against this work as imagined enthusiasm, yet at once surprizingly to find themselves intirely destitute of that inward sanctity, and supreme love to God, and holiness, which the gospel teaches as absolutely needful to see the kingdom of grace and glory; to find themselves no more than conceited Pharisees, who had been working out a righteousness of their own for justification; and to have a clear discovery of their inward enmity to Christ, and the nature and way of redemption by him, with the native vileness of their hearts and lives, they had never seen before: in short, to find themselves yet unrenewed in the spirit of their minds, and under the heavy wrath and curse of God; to open into the clear discovery of their past delusions; to find the hardness of their hearts, the blindness of their minds, and their utter impotence to convert themselves, or believe in Christ; to lose all their former confidence, give up their beloved schemes, see themselves undone and helpless, and sink into a great distress: and then condemning themselves as guilty wretches, humbly lying at the foot of absolute and sovereign Grace, and looking up to Christ the only Mediator to reconcile them to the glorious God, to justify them wholly by his own most perfect righteousness, and to enlighten, quicken, sanctify, dwell in, and govern them by his Almighty Spirit; and there to wait till they find a new and mighty life and power come into their souls, enabling them to embrace, trust in, and love this divine Redeemer, rejoice with satisfaction in him, and perform every kind of duty both to God and man with pleasure, and with quite another frame and spirit than before.
Such great and sudden turns as these, are as evident demonstration as we can possibly conceive of the truth of the inspired scriptures, and in particular of those scripture doctrines, of the sovereign and victorious grace of Christ, received and taught among us: we see with our eye, that when he rideth forth on the word of truth, conquering and to conquer, his right-hand teaches terrible things. He makes his arrows so sharp and piercing in the hearts of his stoutest enemies, as oblige them to fall down under him; and when the day of his power comes on any people, he makes the most obstinate to be most gladly willing and obedient to him. And these principles of grace, and these works of God, do most invincibly confirm each other.