1646 JOHN WHITE. Heretics and False Teachers to be Banished - Massachusetts Bay Colony Interest.

An interesting sermon preached by Westminster Assembly divine, John White [1575-1648] during the English Civil War that sheds insight into the early thinking of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, especially as it relates to its treatment of "heretics." 

White, along with many Dissenters at the time, wrestled with the tensions between gospel unity and doctrinal purity. Generally a moderate, White even conformed to certain practices in order to continue serving his people [as William Gurnall, etc.]. 

Here, however, he articulates the other side of the tension, i.e. that true "gospel" unity must be gathered around something definite. Though he maintains that generosity of heart is critical on many points, he also draws lines clear lines, recognizing the need for a central, proclaimed and confessed faith for the Church to be revived and reformed, advocating for exclusion for those unwilling to meet the criteria.

The idea of community exclusion for theological non-conformity was not new for White. Today is remembered as having been one of the catalysts to the formation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He helped obtain the original charter and sent people from his own community in Dorset to settle Massachusetts specifically for the purpose of establishing and enjoying religious liberty [within doctrinal confines, of course]. Francis Higginson and Samuel Skelton, first Ministers of the Massachusetts Bay Company, were selected by White. And it was White who held the service for John Winthrop aboard the Arbella prior to its Departure for America in 1629. White was, as much as any man in England, perhaps uniquely responsible for the Great Migration.

Undoubtedly, White's ideals, as articulated later here, played a roll in the Massachusetts Bay Colony's thinking around the banishment of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. A significant document.

White, John. The Troubles of Jerusalems Restauration; or, The Churches Reformation: Represented in a Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable House of Lords, in the Abbey Church, Westminster, November 26, 1645. London. Printed by M. Simmons for J. Rothwel, and L. Fawne, 1646. 62pp. 

A fascinating sermon, which White was too ill to deliver in its entirety before the Assembly. A call for unity, as others, but unity through uniformity of doctrine and strict ethical and doctrinal disciple.

EXTRACTS:

There are Instances of Troubles raised by Satan and his instruments against the Church by those which are without, no less are those that are stirred up within the bowels of the Church, by false Brethren, who by speaking perferse things, to draw Disciples after them, strike at the very foundation, on which the Church i sbuilt, the very doctrine of Truth. What divisions were raised thereby in the Churches, even in the Apostles owne days, divers of their Epistles do sufficiently declare, and that Satan continued by the same policy to divide the Church in sunder, and thereby to ruin it, the records of the Primitive time, setting before us the Factions that infected the Church in those ages, and the Excommunications, Banishments, and other Persecutions, which ensued thereupon, make it evident enough to all that will take the pains to look into the histories of those times.

Neither do these troubles, however raised by the practice of Satan, fall upon the Church without the foreknowledge and both permission and direction of God himself. Our Saviour tells his Disciples in express terms that he came not to send Peace on earth, but a sword. Not that this is an effect, but a consequent of the Gospel. The Gospel is in itself a message of glad tidings of Peace. But is of Peace between God and Man. 

. . . 

The establishing of Christ's Kingdom in the Church is the overthrowing of the Devil's Kingdom in the World, as many subjects as Christ gains, so many the Devil loseth. Our Saviour tells us that when the Gospel is preached it brought down Satan from Heaven like lightning. No marvel then if Satan to save his own Kingdom labor to hinder the planting of the church, and as little marvel if his servants join with him therein, as for other reasons so especially because the Gospel which the church embraceth discredits and condemns all their ways, restrains their lusts, and cuts off all their hopes, sentencing them to hell to be made the subjects of God's wrath to all eternity. 

Very nicely preserved complete English Civil War sermon from the Cromwellian era. Complete as issued, removed from a larger sammelband at some point with relevant flotsam on spine. Textually crisp. First two leaves tenderly held. Discrete ex library stamp. Rare on the market.