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Mr. Cotton. Secondly, we deny that it is necessary to Church fellowship (that is so necessary that without it a Church can∣not be) that the Members admitted thereunto should all of them see, and expresly bewaile all the Pollutions which they have been defiled with in the former Church-fellowship. Mi∣nistry, Worship, Government, &c. if they see and bewaile so much of their former pollutions, as did inthrall them to An∣tichrist,
so as to separate them from Christ, and be readie in preparation of heart, as they shall see more Light, so to hate more and more every falfe way; we conceive it is as much as is necessarily required to separate them from Antichrist, and to fellowship with Christ and his Churches. The Church of Christ admitted many thousand Jewes that beleeved on the name of Christ, although they were still zealous of the Law, and saw not the beggarly emptines of Moses his ceremo∣nies, Acts 21 20. and the Apostle Paul directeth the Romans to receive such unto them as are weake in the faith, and see not their libertie from the servile difference of Meats and Dayes, but still lie under the bondage of the Law; yea he wisheth them to receive such upon this ground, because Christ hath received them, Rom. 14. to the sixt.
Say not there is not the like danger of lying under bondage to Moses as to Antichrist, for even the bondage under Moses was such, as if continued in after instruction and conviction, would separate them from Christ, Gal. 5. 2. and bondage under Antichrist could doe no more.
Ans. Here I desire 3. things may be observed:
First Mr. Cottons own confession of that two-fold Church estate,* 1.1 worship▪ &c. the former false, or else why to be so be∣wailed and forsaken; the second true, to be imbraced and sub∣mitted to.
Secondly, his own confession of that which a little before he would make so odious in me to hold,* 1.2 viz. that Gods people may be so farre inthralled to Antichrist, as to separate them from Christ: for saith he. If they see and bewaile so much of their former pollutions, as did inthrall them to Antichrist, so as to separate them from Christ.
Thirdly▪ I observe how easilie a soule may wander in his generalls,* 1.3 for thus he writes, Though they see not all the pollu∣tions wherewith they have been defiled in the former Church-fellowship. Again, if they see so much as did inthrall them to Antichrist,* 1.4 and separate them from Christ. And yet he ex∣presseth nothing of that all the pollutions, nor what so much is as will separate them from Christ. Hence upon that former distinction that Christ in visible Worship is Christ: I de∣maund, Whether if a godly person remaine a member of a falsly constituted Church, and so consequently (in that re∣spect)
of a false Christ,* 1.5 whether in visible worship he be not separate from the true Christ?
Secondly, I aske, Whether it be not absolutely necessary to his uniting with the true Church, that is, with Christ in true Christian Worship, that he see and bewaile, and absolutely come out from that former false Church or Christ, and his Ministrie, Worship, &c. before he can be united to the true Is∣rael,* 1.6 must come forth of Egypt before they can sacrifice to God in the Wildernes. The Jewes come out of Babel before they build the Temple in Ierusalem: The husband of a wo∣man die, or she be legally divorced, before she can lawfully be maried to another; the graft cut off from one, before it can be ingrafted into another stock: The Kingdome of Christ, (that is the Kingdome of the Saints, Dan. 2. & 7.) is cut out of the mountain of the Romane Monarchie. Thus the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 9, 10, 11. uniting with, Christ Jesus, they were washed from their Idolatrie, as well as other sins: Thus the Thessalo∣nians turned from their Idols before they could serve the liv∣ing and true God, 1 Thess. 1. 9. and as in Paganisme, so in Anti∣christianisme, which separates as certainly (though more sub∣tilly) from Christ Jesu.
Mr. Cotton confessing the true and false constitution of the church.
Mr. Cotton confessing to hold what hee censureth in the answerer.
Fallacie in Mr. Cottons generals.
A godly per∣son remaining a member of a false Church, is therein a member of a false Christ.
Separation from false Christ abso∣lutely necessa∣ry before there can be union to the true.
A sequestrati∣on or separa∣tion of the soul from the world in the idolatrous and invented worships of it before it can be presented to Christ Iesus, as a chast virgin into the chast bed of his owne most holy in∣stitutions.