A Further Enquiry After Truth & A Further Defense Thereof

“A Further Enquiry After Truth,” wherein is shown, what Faith is required of unregenerate persons; and what the Faith of God’s elect is, which is a blessing of the Covenant of Grace. Occasioned by a Pamphlet, entitled, “A Modern Question Modestly Answered.” “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Matt.9:13. “So long as a man thinks his own righteousness good enough, that he shall do well enough, Christ does not call that man to believe.” John Owen.

Though little is known about our author, one can relate that as a young man, Lewis Wayman became a member of the Church meeting at Rothwell, of which Richard Davis was the pastor. Upon recognition of the fact that the Lord was preparing and equipping him for the Ministry of the Gospel, he was frequently sent out as a visiting minister to those churches that had aligned themselves with the ministry of Richard Davis, one of which was Kimbolton, a small village in Cambridgeshire. This church at Kimbolton, upon the passing of its minister Richard Bailey, in 1714, eventually called Wayman to become the pastor of the church in 1717, a position he held for forty-six years until his death in March, 1764. Though he published only two books and a few funeral sermons, one can easily surmise that both Joseph Hussey, {who frequently preached at Kimbolton, including the funeral sermon for Richard Bailey,} and Richard Davis, {the pastor of the church of which Wayman was a member,} were influential in his theological thinking, although we trust that the Lord himself through the effectual application of his truth, was the primary impetus behind those truths which he was faithful to maintain throughout his long ministry.

Excerpt: I will sum up our argument from this place. There are two sorts of people in the world, the election and “the rest,” Rom.11:7, to whom God stands in a different relation; to “the rest” a Creator and Benefactor, but to “the election” an everlasting Father in Christ. Jn.20:17. Christ is by Divine Constitution, a Mediator and Lord, for the existence, conservation and government of all; but he is a Head and Husband, to redeem and save with an everlasting salvation all the Father gave him. Col.1:17-18; Eph.5:25. “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Jn.6:39-40. He died for the one, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, I Pet.3:18, but for the rest he did not die, that he might bring them to God; or they should certainly have come; for he would not have miscarried in his design. He prays for the one, but he does not pray for the other. “I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” Jn.17:9. Therefore, as the law hath respect to relation; by the first conclusion, there being no special relation between Christ and all that hear the Gospel, the law does not require all that hear the Gospel to believe with the faith of God’s elect; which, as we have shown before, is the faith in question. But, secondly, the notion of this author makes the law of God to bind men to believe that which is not true; and so countenances the lie of unbelief under the guise of faith; which our Lord reproved in the blinded Jews, “Jesus answered, if I honour myself, my honour is nothing; it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God; yet ye have not known him; but I know him, and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you, but I know him, and keep his saying.” Jn.8:54-55. And seeing upon the distinction of relation laid down above, some have a right to life, pardon, communion with the Lord, yea, to the Son himself, and others have not a right; is it comely for ministers of the Gospel of Christ to stand and offer Christ, offer grace, offer life and salvation to them that have no apparent right, nor yet a secret right; as the case is with respect to the rest among the assemblies of the faithful? And would they think themselves well used, if their servants, who are appointed to feed their children, as Peter was to feed Christ’s sheep and lambs, Jn.21:15,17, should, instead of keeping their master’s charge, take his food, take his raiment, take his belt and most valuable goods, stand at the door, and offer them, and tender them to strangers, and especially when they have not the least intimation of their master’s design to bestow them? And yet the case is thus here, with regard to the vessels of wrath, Rom.9:22; Rom.11:7, whom God has appointed to destruction. - But why must it be supposed, that God offers an opportunity to all to be saved? And, how can we understand it to be a privilege and blessing, to have an opportunity upon impossible conditions? And especially, seeing the duty supposed to arise from this opportunity is required under pain of damnation? To the first some answer, “that God affords an opportunity to all, that he might vindicate himself, that is, his justice, or his mercy, or both, from the charge his creatures might probably bring against them.” This supposes, I conceive, that God will be brought to the bar of the creature to give account for his conduct towards the works of his hands; which indeed, through the amazing and confounding pride of our hearts, is frequently done. We quarrel at his righteous decrees; we quarrel at his gracious dispensations, our eye being evil because he is good; and we fall out with him as Jonah did, about the shadow of an herb, Jonah 4:9, for such is the monstrous deformity of fallen nature! But admitting this, that God was arraigned, his justice needs no vindication. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Rom.3:19. The saved of the Lord justify him in his sayings, and clear him when he is judged, Rom.3:4, they own, that had they been sent to hell, the sentence had been just, and wonder that they are not there; and as for the rest, who are of the works of the law, Gal.3:10, their guilty conscience will stop their mouths at the bar of God, and send them with Judas, sullen, to their place. Matt.27:3-5. - From what hath been said, viz., that the principle of faith is a supernatural light, distinct from reason; and, that it is from the Father of glory, Eph.1:17, by an immediate shine through Christ upon the soul; and so as to the principle, it is God’s act or work, not the creature’s; how can we conceive that faith, as to the being of the principle, comes under the nature or notion of a duty at all, without bringing the author of it under a law, which is unsuitable to his being? And seeing it is allowed to be a special part of God’s salvation by grace, and so a peculiar privilege; how came this alone to be under the law and not election, and other blessings of the New Covenant? And does it not stand upon an equal foot, to make creation, regeneration, and resurrection unto a state of glory, the creature’s moral duty too; seeing this never was in the creature’s power, any more than those? - And last of all, only suppose the thing to be, that all who hear the Gospel should believe in Christ for life and salvation, according to what this author tells us is their duty; would there not, probably, be millions in the world believing in Christ for life and salvation, to whom God hath not given eternal life in Christ, and who shall never obtain salvation by him? “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” Jn.10:26. “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Lk.10:21.