Note 15 — Chapter IV · • The Contributions of Independency
Reading edition
The Biblical authority for Separatism Williams found in both general and specific injunctions. The former, in the second commandment, in the third chapter of Daniel, in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation—the “wine of her fornication” being the ceremonial and ordinances of the English church—and in the Song of Solomon. The latter were: Revelation, 18:4: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins....”; Isaiah, 53:11: “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch not the unclean thing; go ye out in the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord”; II Corinthians, 6:17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” On these texts he based his argument with Cotton for the total separation of the New England churches. (See Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. I, p. 300.)