Anne Hutchinson’s Creed
- That the Law and the preaching of it, is of no use at all to drive a man to Christ.
- That a man is united to Christ and justified, without faith; yea, from eternity.
- That faith is not a receiving of Christ, but a man’s discerning that he hath received him already.
- That a man is united to Christ only by the work of the Spirit upon him, without any act of his.
- That a man is never effectually Christ’s, till he hath assurance.
- This assurance is only from the witness of the Spirit.
- This witness of the Spirit is merely immediate, without any respect to the word, or any concurrence with it.
- When a man hath once this witness he never doubts more.
- To question my assurance, though I fall into murder or adultery, proves that I never had true assurance.
- Sanctification can be no evidence of a man’s good estate.
- No comfort can be had from any conditional promise.
- Poverty in spirit (to which Christ pronounced blessedness, Matt. v. 3) is only this, to see I have no grace at all.
- To see I have no grace in me, will give me comfort; but to take comfort from sight of grace, is legal.
- An hypocrite may have Adam’s graces that he had in innocence.
- The graces of Saints and hypocrites differ not.
- All graces are in Christ, as in the subject, and none in us, that Christ believes, Christ loves, etc.
- Christ is the new Creature.
- God loves a man never the better for any holiness in him, and never the less, be he never so unholy.
- Sin in a child of God must never trouble him.
- Trouble in conscience for sins of Commission, or for neglect of duties, shows a man to be under a covenant of works.
- All covenants to God expressed in works are legal works.
- A Christian is not bound to the Law as a rule of his conversation.
- A Christian is not bound to pray except the Spirit moves him.
- A minister that hath not this new light is not able to edify others: that have it.
- The whole letter of the Scripture is a covenant of works.
- No Christian must be pressed to duties of holiness.
- No Christian must be exhorted to faith, love, and prayer, etc., except we know he hath the Spirit.
- A man may have all graces, and yet want Christ.
- All a believer’s activity is only to act sin.
This is a list of beliefs for which Anne Hutchinson was prosecuted, and was transcribed from: The Heresies of Anne Hutchinson and Her Followers, by Rev. Thomas Welde of the fisrt church of Roxbury, Massachusetts; The Preface to “A Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Antimonians.” (1644).
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