Josh Lyon - HT32: Modern Church History - Dr. William VanDoodewaard - May 2024

Hearing the phrase “the American Colonies” likely brings prominent events to mind. Jamestown, the Mayflower, the Revolutionary War, or the Declaration of Independence might stand out, and justifiably so. If asked to name a few Founding Fathers, doubtless George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin would be among the ranks. Thanks to Broadway, Alexander Hamilton may even make the list. But one influential early American man remains relatively inconspicuous: John Cotton (1584 – 1652). During a tumultuous time in English history, Cotton served as a minister in two nations. He fought for sound doctrine amid persecution, labored for the souls of his people, and brought many to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Both renowned and controversial, the Puritan preacher directed much of the spiritual life of the New England church and consequently the trajectory of American colonies. His life and ministry demonstrated personal piety; faithfulness in the household; necessary qualifications to preach the gospel; love for Christ and the church; and trust in the Lord’s sovereign hand. Thus, John Cotton’s faithful ministry stands as a model for the modern man seeking to be a godly pastor.

Life & Godliness

In God’s providence, tension was rising in the Church of England in the late sixteenth century. Bloody Mary’s infamous persecution of Protestants was still fresh on the minds of the faithful, so when James I began imposing high church worship on his subjects, many Christians were especially concerned. Believers who refused to capitulate were persecuted, and many fled England for greener pastures in continental Europe and America. In the formative years of what would become the United States, only the determined soul ventured overseas to the wilderness of the budding colonies. One such pilgrim was an English Puritan minister named John Cotton. Like many of his Puritan brothers, Cotton knew the world needed reform.[1] However, as persecution in England continued under Charles I, Cotton knew he could no longer tolerate the corrupt worship in the church, so he determined to leave his home for America.[2] In 1633, at 48 years old, Cotton took his family overseas on a mission to create a new, holy nation.[3]

Childhood & Conversion

The Puritan’s transatlantic emigration resulted from the Lord’s gracious work in his life over nearly half a century. Decades earlier, John Cotton was born to believing parents in Derby, England in 1584.[4] His parents loved and cared for him, and wanted him to be well educated. Thus, they sent him to the local grammar school as a young boy to receive formal training.[5] Despite his faithful upbringing, Cotton was unconverted in his youth. Even though he did not yet know Christ, Norton describes his life as one “unstained, whence he was so much the more capable of being an excellent Instrument in the Church in his after-age. Many do that evil whilst they are young, which makes them unable (at least comparatively) to do so much good when they are old.”[6] Cotton’s biographer continues to reflect upon the Lord’s common grace to the young man, who was a promising student, and went to Cambridge University at 13 having completed his initial schooling. There Cotton sat under Willam Perkins’s teaching, who spoke faithfully of Christ, but John rejected the Spirit’s inward prompting at first because he so highly valued his schooling; to him, religion was a hindrance to his intellectual advance.[7] In fact, upon hearing of Perkins’s death, Cotton was “secretly glad in his heart, that he should now be rid of him who had (as he said) laid siege to and beleaguer’d his heart.”[8] Through this experience the Lord pricked Cotton’s conscience, and soon after opened his eyes to see his true spiritual state and great need of Christ through the public preaching of Richard Sibbes, another Puritan minister.[9] As a student, Cotton had gained a reputation as a prodigious orator, however, his audiences were disappointed with his newfound love for proclaiming Christ. His conversion cost him his popularity.[10]

But the lack of public affirmation did not sway Cotton from preaching, for upon graduating from Cambridge he served at Emmanuel seminary.[11] At 27, he left Emmanuel and became pastor at a local congregation in Lincolnshire, England.[12] Despite his youth, Cotton quickly became known as one of the most prominent Puritans in England.[13] Throughout these years the Lord shaped him into a man fit for gospel service. Cotton was wholly Christ’s, and his life as a man of God was manifest.

Personal Piety

True conversion always results in a transformed life. The Spirit of Christ in a man brings godly fruit to bear within and without, and the believer begins to thrive in union with the Godhead. This was certainly the case for Cotton, whom Norton describes as “a man of much Communion with God, and acquaintance with his own heart.”[14] Cotton himself speaks to his hatred for sin and love for Christ in his 431-page commentary on First John. Thinking upon the Christian’s duty of repentance, he makes two points: “First, dost thou at any time (as thou oughtest continually) remember thine old sins? O! remember withal, him whom thou cruicifiedst by them was the Eternall God, the Lord of glory, and that will work a godly sorrow, Zech. 12.10. to see him so to abase himself for my sake.”[15]

Cotton’s high view of the Savior and hatred for sin shaped his life. For him, everything essential pertaining to life in the world and salvation lay in theology,[16] and his theology drove him to the Word and prayer. Whether studying for his own edification or preparing to teach, “he neither sate down unto, nor arose from his meditations without prayer: whilst his eyes were upon his book, his expectation was from God. He had learned to study, because he had learned to pray: An able Student, a Gospel-Student, because unable to study without Jesus Christ.”[17] This devotion to God drove Cotton to labor incessantly. “His diligence was in the third degree most intense,” Norton remarks, “and most exact.”[18] This diligence is evident in both his daily practice and private worship, for “he was always an early riser, and in his latter years, not eating any supper; he made up the avocations of that day by retiring that time, and the rest of the evening to his Study,”[19] and he “was frequent in duties of Humiliation, and Thanksgiving. Sometimes five or six hours in Prayer, and opening of the Word.”[20]

In the incredible pace of the modern world, one might balk at the thought of squeezing five to six hours with the Lord into a twenty-four hour, tightly packed, carefully planned day. Yet one can only imagine how much the people of God, and the pastor himself, would benefit if today’s minister dedicated such a portion of his life to communion with God. Cotton’s piety is commendable and exemplary for the man seeking to love Christ and walk in His ways as a minister of the gospel. Moreover, Cotton’s godly life naturally diffused into his household.

Life & Family

John Cotton’s diligence in his private life dictated how he led his family. He knew the importance of fatherhood, and lived like it. Norton describes Cotton’s awareness of the severity of his role as father and the implications for the pastorate:

As the being of man, so the well-being of humane affaris depends not a little upon Domestick government, whence are the seminaries and first societies of mankind. He well knew a Bishop ought not to be defective in so momentous a duty, incumbent upon all heads of families: He must be one that ruleth well his own house. In conscience whereof, he himself rising betimes in the morning, as soon as he was ready, called his family together (which was also his practice in the evening) to the solemn worship of God; reading, and expounding, and occasionally applying the Scripture unto them, always beginning and ending with prayer. In case of sin committed by child or servant, he would call them aside privately (the matter so requiring) lay the Scripture before them, causing them to read that which bare witness against such offence: seldom or never correcting in anger, that the dispensation of godly discipline might not be impured, or become less effectual, through the intermixing of humane passion.[21]

This high view of the pastorate and emphasis on the importance of faithful fatherhood also drove him to guard the Lord’s Day in his home. “He began the Sabbath at evening; therefore then performed Family-duty after supper, being larger then ordinary in Exposition, after which he Catechised his children and servants, and then returned into his Study.”[22] On Sunday morning he arose to preach, and would return home to preach that same sermon to his family during their private worship.[23]

Cotton’s theology and personal devotion permeated his domestic life each day of the week. However, it seems Cotton felt the spiritual training of children was lacking in his time. Despite the popularization of the printing press, literature in the early seventeenth century rarely targeted children.[24] Christian works were not exempt either, and faithful parents during this time relied on their own inventions to care for the souls of their children. Cotton’s desire to raise his own children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord may have been the motivation for him to develop and publish his own children’s catechism. He penned Milk for Babes[25] in an apparently literarily destitute age; it was the first children’s book printed in America.[26]

Kids need appropriate and accurate instruction in the Word of God, and Cotton pioneered a tool to help children walk in the ways of the Lord. While not every man will be able to follow in Cotton’s footsteps by writing their own book, the modern pastor would at least do well to sift through the abundance of twenty-first century Christian children’s literature to find faithful books for the sake of his own children, and to recommend to those in his congregation. Cotton’s care for his family provides a faithful example to husbands and fathers seeking to manage their own households well, and further demonstrates his biblical credentials for the pastorate.

Life & The Church

Pastoral Qualifications

To be sure, Paul’s elder-defining lists to Timothy and Titus are humbling for any man desiring pastoral ministry. According to Norton, “no calling … calleth for more Abilities, or a larger measure of humane knowledge then the Ministery.”[27] But God has been pleased to raise up godly men for His glory and people throughout history, and Cotton was thus set apart for gospel ministry. Norton praises Cotton as a well-learned man, exceedingly competent in reading, learning, and communicating.[28] But, most importantly, Cotton was capable and insightful as an expositor of the Scriptures.[29] In the centuries to come, this high standard for the ministry would begin to fade away in many denominations. Educational standards for pastors have been and continue to be lowered in the modern era. The souls of God’s people need qualified ministers to preach the whole counsel of God, and this necessitates a knowledgeable pastor.

Love for the Flock

Simply knowing the Scriptures and having sound doctrine is not sufficient for a faithful ministry, however. The pastor must be steeped in God’s Word and have sincere love for Christ and His church. This was the case for Cotton, for his affections for Christ and mastery of the Word resulted in great care for the spiritual wellness of his people. In fact, to him “the central issue in every person’s life was the state of one’s soul.”[30]

Cotton’s love for his people was not limited to his affections only, but paired with his zeal for good deeds. He was “so undefatigable in the Lords work,” Norton recalls, “so willing to spend and to be spent” throughout his ministry.[31] For a man in Cotton’s position in a newborn New England, life was especially busy. “The constant work of his Ministry was great, if not too great for one man … besides his preaching in season, and out of season, he was daily pressed, if not oppressed, with the care and service of the Churches; Attendance to personal cases, and manifold other Imployments inevitably put upon him, both from abroad and at home.”[32]

Despite the pressures on him from without, Cotton still managed to care well for his flock within his church. During his twenty years in New Boston, he preached through part of a book of the Bible each Lord’s Day morning, led a doctrinal catechism in the afternoon, and, “besides his ordinary Lecture on the 5 days of the Week, he preached thrice more in publick on the Week days. On the fourth and fifth days early in the morning, and on the last day at three of the clock in the afternoon.”[33] Just as in his own home, Cotton cared for the covenant children in his congregations, and tried to teach their parents to do the same. In arguably his most famous sermon, Cotton exhorts his hearers to “have a tender care that you look well to the plants that spring from you (that is, to your children), that they do not degenerate as the Israelites did … if men have a care to propagate the ordinances and religion to their children after them, God will plant them, and not root them up.” With sermons like these, through the ordinary means of preaching His Word, the Lord blessed Cotton’s ministry; the eminent minister witnessed “the Conversion of many souls, and the Edification of thousands.”[34]

Boston’s preeminent church was also blessed by Cotton’s extensive writing. As mentioned above, he cared deeply for children in the church, evidenced by his preaching, development of a well-received catechism[35] and defense of covenant baptism.[36] However, Cotton’s ministry did not exist without some turbulence, for he advocated Congregationalism and an ecclesiastically-involved magistrate;[37] debated Roger Williams;[38] and initially joined the wrong side of a major antinomianism controversy.[39] Nonetheless, Cotton’s church flourished during his ministry and he labored faithfully through it all. Despite his doctrinal differences with some of his Puritan brethren, Cotton genuinely desired the unity of the church and sought to keep careful watch over his own theology;[40] he trusted his sovereign God to preserve him.

Life & Providence

Recognizing the Lord’s powerful hand in the lives of His people is a mark of spiritual maturity in the believer. Hindsight is often a gracious gift; God allows His own to reflect upon His goodness and steadfast love having carried them safely through trial after trial. This proved true for Cotton even unto death. In 1652, Cotton was called to preach at Harvard College. On his journey there he became sick with what would eventually end his life nearly three months later.[41] In Cotton’s last known letter, he reflects upon the Lord’s hand in contracting his fatal illness, and thanks God for allowing him to remain in ministry despite his physical weakness.[42] Through all his hardships, Cotton trusted in the Lord’s providence, and rejoiced that God would care for him throughout his days. He correctly gave God the glory, and yet again models how a pastor ought to live. It is clear the Lord worked powerfully in the life and ministry of John Cotton to shape him into a minister marked by his personal piety; faithfulness to his family; qualifications to preach the gospel; love for Christ and the church; and trust in God’s sovereign hand. The heart of the exemplary pastor is captured well in a poem he left behind, titled “A Thankful Acknowledgement of God’s Providence”:

In mothers womb thy fingers did me make,

And from the womb thou didst me safely take:

From breast thou hast me nurst my life throughout,

That I may say I never wanted ought.

In all my meals my table thou hast spread,

In all my lodgings thou hast made my bed:

Thou hast me clad with changes of array,

And chang’d my house for better far away.

In youthful wandrings thou didst stay my slide,

In all my journies thou hast been my Guide:

Thou hast me sav’d from many-an-unknown danger,

And shew’d me favour, even where I was a stranger.

In both my Callings thou hast heard my voice,

In both my matches thou hast made my choice:

Thou gav’st me sons and daughters, them to peer,

And giv’st me hope thoul’t learn them thee to fear.

Oft have I seen thee look with Mercy’s face,

And through thy Christ have felt thy saving-grace.

This is the Heav’n on Earth, if any be:

For this, and all, my soul doth worship Thee.[43]

Bibliography

Abbot, Robert. Milk for Babes; or, a Mothers Catechism for Her Children. London: John Legatt, 1646. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_milk-for-babes_abbot-robert_1646.

Cotton, John. A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Observations, Reasons, and Uses Upon The First Epistle Generall of John. London: R.I. and E.C., 1656. Accessed April 29, 2024. http://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_a-practical-commentary-_cotton-john-1585-1652_1656.

———. “God’s Promise to His Plantation.” In Sermons That Shaped America: Reformed Preaching from 1630 to 2001, edited by William S Barker and Samuel T. Logan Jr. New Jersey: P&R Publishing Co, 2003.

———. “John Cotton to Sir Richard Saltonstall.” In Puritans in the New World: A Critical Anthology, edited by David D. Hall, 235–38. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.

———. Milk for Babes: Drawn Out of the Breasts of Both Testaments. London: J. Coe, 1646. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_milk-for-babs-_cotton-john-1585-1652_1646.

———. The Correspondence of John Cotton. Edited by Sargent Jr. Bush. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://archive.org/details/correspondenceof0000cott.

———. The Grounds and Ends of the Baptisme of the Children of the Faithfull: Opened in a Familiar Discourse by Way of a Dialogue, or Brotherly Conference. London: R.C., 1647. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://archive.org/details/groundsendsofbap00cott_0.

———. The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven, and Power Thereof, According to the Word of God. London: M. Simmons, 1644. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://archive.org/details/keyesofkingdomof00cott_0.

Hall, David D. The Antinomian Controversy, 1636-1638: A Documentary History. Duke University Press, 1990. https://books.google.com/books?id=of2S0mD5P5cC.

Harris, Benjamin. The New-England Primer Improved for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English: To Which Is Added The Assembly of Divines, and Mr. Cotton’s Catechism. Hartford: Ira Webster, 1843. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://archive.org/details/newenglandprimer00west.

Hunt, Peter. International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. Taylor & Francis, 2003. Accessed April 30, 2024. https://books.google.com/books?id=uLYNUOsMWvwC.

Jinkins, Michael. “Cotton, John (1584–1652).” In The Dictionary of Historical Theology. Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Paternoster Press, 2000.

Norton, John. Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh; or, The Life & Death of That Deservedly Famous Man of God, Mr John Cotton, Late Teacher of the Church of Christ, at Boston in New-England. London: Tho. Newcomb, 1658. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://archive.org/details/abelbeingdeadyet00nort_0.

Shavit, Z. Poetics of Children’s Literature. University of Georgia Press, 2009. https://books.google.com/books?id=NerYSgnlnaIC.

Silvey, Anita. Children’s Books and Their Creators. Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Accessed April 30, 2024. https://books.google.com/books?id=graiX5o4tMYC.

Stoever, William K. B. “A Faire and Easie Way to Heaven”: Covenant Theology and Antinomianism in Early Massachusetts. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988. http://archive.org/details/afaireeasiewayto0000stoe.

Tarr, Nathan. “Williams, Roger.” Edited by Michael A. G. Haykin. In The Essential Lexham Dictionary of Church History. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022.

[1] John Cotton, The Correspondence of John Cotton, ed. Sargent Jr. Bush (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 16. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://archive.org/details/correspondenceof0000cott.

[2] John Cotton, “John Cotton to Sir Richard Saltonstall,” in Puritans in the New World: A Critical Anthology, ed. David D. Hall (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 237.

[3] Michael Jinkins, “Cotton, John (1584-1652),” in The Dictionary of Historical Theology (Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Paternoster Press, 2000).

[4] Jinkins. A quick biographical search of Cotton’s life provides both 1584 and 1585 as the correct year in which he was born, depending on the source. His birthday, Dec. 4, is not disputed, however.

[5] John Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh; or, The Life & Death of That Deservedly Famous Man of God, Mr John Cotton, Late Teacher of the Church of Christ, at Boston in New-England (London: Tho. Newcomb, 1658), 7. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://archive.org/details/abelbeingdeadyet00nort_0.

[6] Norton, 23.

[7] Norton, 12.

[8] Norton, 12.

[9] Norton, 13.

[10] Norton, 13-15.

[11] Norton, 10.

[12] Jinkins, “Cotton, John (1584-1652).”

[13] David D. Hall, The Antinomian Controversy, 1636-1638: A Documentary History (Duke University Press, 1990), 5. https://books.google.com/books?id=of2S0mD5P5cC.

[14] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 24.

[15] John Cotton, A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Observations, Reasons, and Uses Upon The First Epistle Generall of John (London: R.I. and E.C., 1656), 4. Accessed April 29, 2024. http://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_a-practical-commentary-_cotton-john-1585-1652_1656.

[16] John Cotton, The Correspondence of John Cotton, 11.

[17] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 27.

[18] Norton, 25.

[19] Norton, 25.

[20] Norton, 17-18.

[21] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 26-27.

[22] Norton, 27.

[23] Norton, 27.

[24] Z. Shavit, Poetics of Children’s Literature (University of Georgia Press, 2009), 160. https://books.google.com/books?id=NerYSgnlnaIC.

[25] John Cotton, Milk for Babes: Drawn Out of the Breasts of Both Testaments (London: J. Coe, 1646), Accessed April 19, 2024. http://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_milk-for-babs-_cotton-john-1585-1652_1646.

[26] Anita Silvey, Children’s Books and Their Creators (Houghton Mifflin, 1995), 19. Accessed April 30, 2024. https://books.google.com/books?id=graiX5o4tMYC; Robert Abbot, Milk for Babes; or, a Mothers Catechism for Her Children (London: John Legatt, 1646). Accessed April 27, 2024. http://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_milk-for-babes_abbot-robert_1646. The catechism was initially published in England in 1646, but made its way to America 10 years later and became the first children’s book published in the New World in 1656, though Cotton sadly would not have lived to see that edition. Ironically, Robert Abbot, another English Puritan, published his own catechism with nearly the same title that same year, also in London. Regardless, both would be trumped the following year with the completion of the WSC.

[27] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 24.

[28] Norton, 24.

[29] Norton, 24.

[30] Cotton, The Correspondence of John Cotton, 16.

[31] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 18.

[32] Norton, 25; Cotton, The Correspondence of John Cotton, 458-461. Even with the many responsibilities on his shoulders in New England, Cotton never lost touch with the happenings in England, nor his prominence in his home country. Cotton was interested in the English civil war, and wrote a letter of counsel to Oliver Cromwell in 1651 regarding Cromwell’s treatment of the Scots.

[33] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 17.

[34] Norton, 23.

[35] Peter Hunt, International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (Taylor & Francis, 2003), 860. Accessed April 30. 2024. https://books.google.com/books?id=uLYNUOsMWvwC; Benjamin Harris, The New-England Primer Improved for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English: To Which Is Added The Assembly of Divines, and Mr. Cotton’s Catechism (Hartford: Ira Webster, 1843). http://archive.org/details/newenglandprimer00west. Hunt’s Encyclopedia confirms Milk for Babes had decades of consistent use in what became a standard introduction to English grammar. The cited 1843 edition of The New England Primer claims to be a facsimile of the 1777 edition, which proves its historicity and tenure in early America.

[36] John Cotton, The Grounds and Ends of the Baptisme of the Children of the Faithfull: Opened in a Familiar Discourse by Way of a Dialogue, or Brotherly Conference. (London: R.C., 1647), http://archive.org/details/groundsendsofbap00cott_0.

[37] John Cotton, “John Cotton to Sir Richard Saltonstall,” 235–38; John Cotton, The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven, and Power Thereof, According to the Word of God. (London: M. Simmons, 1644). Accessed April 27, 2024. http://archive.org/details/keyesofkingdomof00cott_0. Cotton responds to Richard Saltonstall’s accusations regarding Cotton’s involvement of the civil magistrate to enforce church worship attendance in Boston. Saltonstall brings charges of intolerance and facilitating hypocrisy in the church, and Cotton defends his reasons for punishing those who do not participate in the life of the church (even the unregenerate, which was, and still would be, controversial).

[38] Nathan Tarr, “Williams, Roger,” in The Essential Lexham Dictionary of Church History, ed. Michael A.G. Haykin (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022).

[39] William K. B. Stoever, “A Faire and Easie Way to Heaven”: Covenant Theology and Antinomianism in Early Massachusetts (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988), 34-57. Accessed May 2, 2024. http://archive.org/details/afaireeasiewayto0000stoe. Stoever describes Cotton’s precarious position in the critical issue within the life of the New England church. Cotton differed in his view and teaching from many of his Puritan colleagues regarding the role of works in the believer’s assurance of salvation. He initially sided with would-be condemned Anne Hutchinson before later realizing she was indeed a heretic. Men like Thomas Shepard and Robert Baillie warned and rebuked him, respectively, for initially defending Hutchinson.

[40] Cotton, “John Cotton to Sir Richard Saltonstall,” 238.

[41] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 42-43.

[42] Cotton, The Correspondence of John Cotton, 505.

[43] Norton, Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh, 28-29.