Written By Dan Peet
While it is commonly believed that the roots of Congregationalism can be traced back to one man, Robert Browne, my research during my Master’s studies on the works of the early Congregationalists led me to a very different conclusion based on their testimony of events.
In John Cotton’s own testimony, it was not by Robert Browne and the Separatists that he came to his ecclesiological convictions. In his own words ‘The particular visible Church of a Congregation to be the first subject of the power of the Keyes (sic), we received by the light of the Word from Mr. [Robert] Parker, Mr. [Paul] Baynes, and Dr [William] Ames.’ (Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven, and Power Thereof, According to the Word of God, John Cotton, 1644). The Congregationalists at the Westminster Assembly, led by Thomas Goodwin, also rejected the idea that they were Brownists in their tract An Apologetical Narration Humbly Submitted to the Honourable Houses of Parliament (1643). They rejected the name Brownist and instead, they tried to present themselves as middle-way men as they wrote, ‘We did then, and do here publicly profess, we believe the truth to lie and consist in a middle way betwixt that which is falsely charged on us, Brownism; and that which is the contention of these times, the authoritative Presbyterial government in all the subordinations and proceedings of it.’
My work is not the first to point away from Robert Browne to explain the origins of Congregationalism. In 1912 Congregational Historian Champlain Burrage looked not to Robert Browne and the Separatists but to what he called ‘The Congregational Puritanism of Henry Jacob’. Other Historians, following Burrage, have pointed to the Puritan William Ames as a father figure for Congregationalism.
My research agrees with this line of historians; that the Early Congregationalists were not Brownists nor were they taken up with separatism. It also agrees that William Ames was the greatest individual influence upon the early Congregationalist, John Cotton. However, my work goes beyond previous research in tracing many diverse influences upon the developing Congregationalists.
My thesis highlights the influence of Robert Parker and Paul Baynes, whom Cotton himself credits, and the old non-conformists, the radical puritans of the 1570s such as Thomas Cartwright, and the writers of the Admonition to Parliament. In doing so, it argues that the Congregationalists did not adopt all of their views from one man, as nice and convenient as that would be. Moreover, it seeks to show that the Congregationalists were not some extreme outsider group, but belonged to the tradition of reform and Puritanism already developing in England. Rather than being widely distinct from Thomas Cartwright and the radical Puritans of the 1570s, it would be more accurate to say that the Congregationalists stood up and practised what the earlier Puritans preached.
As these various influences came together and Congregationalism developed during the 1630s and 1640s, no man was more influential than the New England minister John Cotton. Cotton was the single greatest influence on the developing Congregationalism, personally and regarding his works. It was Cotton who sent the dissenting Brethren, Thomas Goodwin and Phillip Nye down the path of Congregationalism. It was Cotton’s works which were most proudly lauded by fellow
Congregationalists and others at the Westminster Assembly and beyond. John Cotton’s work, The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven is the greatest treatise of Early Congregationalism, it was held up by Goodwin and Nye as their position, and it was acknowledged and endorsed by Samuel Rutherford on the Westminster Assembly floor. It also famously, converted John Owen to congregationalism.
In 1648, at the second synod of Massachusetts, The Cambridge Platform passed unanimously among the Pastors and elders in attendance. The Cambridge platform was a declaration of faith and order which showed that the early Congregationalists were very orthodox in their views. The document affirmed the New Englanders’ agreement with all of the Westminster Confession of faith, except chapters 25, 30 and 31, which dealt with church discipline and authority, and replaced these with a treatment of the New England way. While Richard Mather drew up the platform, it was prefaced by John Cotton, who fully agreed. Furthermore, it drew heavily from Cotton’s previous works, lifting phrases and even whole sections from them. Its unanimous passing shows both the uniformity of practice in the Bay Colony and Cotton’s work’s influence. The Cambridge Platform was also an influence upon its English counterpart; the Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order written in 1658, which was co-written by two of Cotton’s converts, John Owen and Thomas Goodwin, and provided English Congregationalists with a standard for practice in their churches.
So What does all this mean? I will leave you with two main points. Firstly, Congregationalism is not some outsider group. The Congregationalists belonged to the stream of Puritan reform efforts already taking place in England. They were a development in the Puritan desire to recapture the purity and simplicity of worship, and ultimately, to rediscover and put into place the New Testament pattern of church order. Secondly, in considering what it means to be historically Congregationalist, I would direct you not to Robert Browne and separatism. But rather the standard laid out within the Savoy Declaration, and an examination of John Cotton’s great work The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven.
This article was first published in infellowship issue 252 (2024)
