Johannes in eremo. Memoirs, relating to the lives, of the ever-memorable, Mr. John Cotton,…

There was a Generation of Familists, in our own and other Towns, who under Pretence of Holding forth, what I had taught, Touching Union with Christ, and Evidencing that Union, did Secretly vent Sundry and Dangerous Errors and Heresies, denying all Inherent Righteousness, and all Evidencing of a Good Estate thereby in any sort, and some of them also Denying, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection of the Body. When they were questioned by some Brethren about those things, they carried it, as if they had Held forth nothing, but what they had Received from me: whereof, when I was Advised, to clear my self, I Publicly Preached against those Errors. Then, said the Brethren to the Erring Party, See, Your Teacher declares himself clearly to differ from you▪ No matter (say the other) what he saith in Public, we understand him otherwise, and we know what he saith to us in Private. Yea, and I my self could not easily Believe that those Erring Brethren and Sisters, were so Corrupt in their Judgments as they were Reported; they seeming to me forward Christians, and utterly ⟨p. 39⟩Denying any such Tenants, or any thing else but what they received from my self. All which bred in Sundry of the Country, a Jealousy, that I was in Secret, A Fomentor of the Spirit of Familism, if not Leavened my self that way. Which I discerning, it wrought in me, thoughts (as it did in many other sincerely Godly Brethren of our Church) not of a Separation from the Churches, but of a Removal to Newhaven, as being better known to the Pastor, and some others there, than to such as were, at that time Jealous of me here. The true Ground whereof was an Inward Loathness to be Troublesome unto Godly Minds, and a Fear of the Unprofitableness of my Ministry there, where my way was suspected to be Doubtful and Dangerous. I chose therefore rather to meditate a Silent Departure, in Peace, than by Tarrying here, to make way for the Breaking forth of Temptations. But when, at the Synod, I had discovered the Corruption of the Judgement of the Erring Brethren, and saw their Fraudulent pretence of Holding forth no other, but what they received from me (when as indeed they pleaded for Gross Errors contrary unto my Judgment) I thereupon did bear Witness against them;

There was a Generation of Familists, in our own and other Towns, who under Pretence of Holding forth, what I had taught, Touching Union with Christ, and Evidencing that Union, did Secretly vent Sundry and Dangerous Errors and Heresies, denying all Inherent Righteousness, and all Evidencing of a Good Estate thereby in any sort, and some of them also Denying, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection of the Body. When they were questioned by some Brethren about those things, they carried it, as if they had Held forth nothing, but what they had Received from me: whereof, when I was Advised, to cleer my self, I Publickly Preached against those Errors. Then, said the Brethren to the Erring Party, See, Your Teacher declares himself cleerly to differ from you No matter (say the other) what he saith in Publick, we understand him otherwise, and we know what he saith to us in Private. Yea, and I my self could not easily Believe that those Erring Brethren and Sisters, were so Corrupt in their Judgments as they were Reported; they seeming to me forward Christians, and utterly