J
John Cotton — the architect of the New England Way, and its prosecutor.
The most influential minister in early Massachusetts, whose writing set out congregational government as a complete system. He also drove the banishment of Roger Williams in 1635 and turned on Anne Hutchinson in 1637 after having encouraged her, and defended the colony's right to expel dissenters.
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The shared center — held across the tradition
The gathered congregation is the whole church, not a branch of one.
A local body of believers who have covenanted together has, by itself, every power the New Testament gives a church: to call a minister, ordain him, discipline members, and refuse instruction from any outside body. Synods may advise. They may not bind.
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A covenant makes the church, not a parish boundary.
You are not a member of the church because you live in the town and were christened. You are a member because you professed faith, were examined, were admitted by the vote of those already in, and signed your name to how you would live with them.
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Cosmos & Afterlife
how reality is built, and what follows deathThe nature of reality
A church made by a covenant that people enter with their eyes open, not by a parish boundary
After death
Resurrection and judgment, held with decreasing specificity over four centuries