Qass 
 
 Book 
 
LIVES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHIEF FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 The Lord our God "be with us, as he was with our fa- 
 thers ; let him not leave us, nor forsake us 
 
 1 KiTSQS 8 : 57. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 ^ < » » > ■ , ... 
 
v 
 
^ 
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Veneration for departed worth is a sentiment so 
 natural and proper, that he who is incapable of feel- 
 ing it, must be regarded as hopelessly ungenerous and 
 ignoble. The remembrance of the just is a blessing 
 to them that cherish it. Such memories awaken a 
 pure ambition ; and lead to the virtuous resolve to em- 
 ulate, to equal, to exceed the patterns we admire. 
 The contemplation of exemplary goodness gives life 
 to magnanimous thoughts, and beneficent purposes. 
 It is wise to multiply these lessons, and to surround 
 ourselves with these incentives of excellence. The 
 Egyptian graced his habitation with the embalmed 
 persons of his ancestry, hoping that thus their merits 
 might linger in the abode of their descendants. The 
 Grecian multiplied the statues of those who had been 
 distinguished for public or private virtues, believing 
 that the mute eloquence of the sculptured stone would 
 not plead in vain for that respect which ends in imita- 
 tion. So too let us adorn our dwellings with the 
 memorials of the great and good. Let them be em- 
 balmed with the odorous spices of grateful remem- 
 brance. Let the very walls of our houses, garnished 
 with their portraitures and the pictured story of their 
 deeds, summon us to a righteous emulation. The 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 trophies of Miltiades would not suffer Themistocles to 
 sleep. 
 
 As for us, whose homes are on the soil of New 
 England, we need not go far from our birthplace, to 
 find the most illustrious examples to be studied and 
 copied. Since the days of the apostles, there have 
 been no worthier patterns of Christian character and 
 primitive piety than the Puritans, to whom we are 
 indebted for all that gives our people any superiority 
 in any respect over other nations of the earth. Not 
 that we are to practice an indiscriminate and idolatrous 
 veneration. " There are no errors which are so likely 
 to be drawn into precedent, and therefore none which 
 it is so necessary to expose, as the errors of persons 
 who have a just title to the gratitude and admiration 
 of posterity. In politics, as in religion, there are de- 
 votees who show their reverence for a departed saint, 
 by converting his tomb into a sanctuary for crime." 
 But though the Puritans had their faults and failings, 
 what sort of moral appetite must that be which fastens 
 upon and devours these unsavory scraps, and neglects 
 all that is pure and wholesome in their character 1 
 If there be any sore spot in their example, these flesh- 
 flies detect it with unerring instinct, and dart upon it 
 with a ravenous delight. He who can see nothing 
 in the sun but its spots must be worse than blind ; for 
 while his eye gazes with morbid intensity on darkness, 
 he has no vision for that which is bright and fair. 
 
 Luther has said that " evil comes of good :" which 
 remark accords with the Rabbinical proverb, " Vine- 
 gar is the son of wine." And we find that even some 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the descendants of the Puritans have proved so de- 
 generate as, vi^ith filial impiety, to blacken and revile 
 the memory of their sires. Foul and unnatural deed ! 
 How doth it react to the degradation and infamy of 
 its base perpetrators ! " There is no readier way," 
 says Tillotson, "for a man to bring his own worth 
 into question, tlian by endeavoring to detract from the 
 worth of other men." And this is especially the case 
 when the slanderer is vilifying his own progenitors. 
 What can be more odious than to see the child defa- 
 cing and polluting the sepulchre of his fathers ? The 
 only disgrace he can fix upon them, is that of having 
 generated a monster so contemptible as himself. Such 
 recreant and apostate natures usually exceed all oth- 
 ers in the avidity and malignity with which they tra- 
 duce the sainted dead. They do this for the reason 
 Dryden gives, and he must have known as being one 
 himself, 
 
 "For renegadoes, who ne'er turn by halvea, 
 Are bound in conscience to be double knaves." 
 
 The mists which obscure the sun are exhaled by his 
 own fervent beams. Envy and detraction are the 
 shadows which ever follow shining merit. The ca- 
 lumniators of the Puritans serve as the shades in the 
 picture, which render the lights more distinct and 
 vivid. The fair fame of the Puritans shines the more 
 luminous, when contrasted with the dark dispositions 
 of their slanderers. 
 
 It is but justice to the pious dead to vindicate their 
 good name, which, as Cicero says, is the appropriate 
 possession of the departed. And justice to ourselves 
 1# 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 requires, that we should preserve untarnished the 
 reputation of our fathers, so that we may feel its full 
 influence to quicken our own virtues, and to stimulate 
 them to greater activity and fruiifulness. Certain it 
 is, that they will be the most likely to partake of the 
 excellencies of the Puritans, who most deeply revere 
 them. 
 
 In different ages there have arisen men, too great 
 or too good for the times in which they lived : — men, 
 like Israel's martyred prophets, of whom the world 
 was not worthy. They have strode so far in advance 
 of their cotemporaries, that as Coleridge said of Mil- 
 ton, they dwarfed themselves in the distance. Bitter 
 scorn and bitterer wrath was their portion while they 
 lived. 
 
 And after they are gone, other generations sweep 
 by, till the same venerable worthies are again almost 
 lost from view in the dim perspective of the past. 
 Then are their names again decried, because they 
 stopped where they did. The most distinguished of 
 living British essayists has said with a just severity; — 
 " It is too much that the benefactors of mankind, after 
 having been reviled by the dunces of their own gener- 
 ation for going too far, are to be reviled by the dunces 
 of the next generation for not going far enough." 
 
 The world shows its unworthiness of these good 
 men, either by forgetting their virtues as soon as pos- 
 sible : or else by remembering their names only to 
 traduce them. Thus thanklessly and harshly has it 
 dealt with our pilgrim fathers. But, blessed be the 
 Lord ! there are not wanting those, who, like " Old 
 
INTRODUCTION. VH 
 
 Mortality" among- the trraves of the Covenanters, with 
 chisel in hand, revisit the resting-place of our Puritan 
 sires, raising up the fallen n)onuments ; removing the 
 encroaching mosses; and, with pious care, retouching 
 the fading inscriptions which the ceaseless stream of 
 time is wearing away. 
 
 Such a pleasing task of filial piety and reverent love 
 is before us in the present undertaking. Nor doubt 
 we, that the work is well pleasing unto God, who is 
 himself, in his providence, the Vindicator of their 
 wisdom and zeal ; and whose Word has taught us, 
 that the memory of the just is blessed, and that the 
 righteous must be had in everlasting remembrance. 
 
 These considerations have induced the Publishing 
 Committee of the Massachusetts Sabbath School So- 
 ciety to prepare a series of biographical sketches of 
 some of the distinguished men, who were God's in- 
 struments in making this country what it is. These 
 volumes will collect, and present in one view, every 
 thing which relates to them that can be recovered from 
 scattered confusion and from oblivion. It is intended 
 that this exhibition shall bring out the characters, 
 actions, sufferings and principles of these remarkable 
 men, in such form as may interest and profit the gen- 
 eral reader, and not be unuseful to such as may be 
 studious of the early history of our country. 
 
 The Committee have observed with pain, that there 
 is, in some quarters, a disposition to subject the mem- 
 ory of the Puritans to what is sometimes significantly 
 called ' ' cavalier treatment. ' ' The best defence which 
 can be made of these worthies is to show them as 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION 
 
 they were. Could such an exhibition be made to the 
 life, it is certain that it would have the same dispers- 
 ing effect upon their detractors, as the appearance of 
 Cromwell's unconquered " Ironsides" had upon the 
 runaways of Naseby, of Preston, and of Worcester. 
 
 It is hoped that these volumes will not only find a 
 place in all our Sabbath school libraries, but may ob- 
 tain a general circulation among the young men and 
 young women of our land. It is believed that the 
 contemplations of these noble examples wiil be found 
 among the best means of strengthening the minds, 
 enriching the memories, and settling the principles, of 
 the young. The moral beauty of the character of the 
 Puritans consist chiefly in this, — they ivere men of 
 principle. This made them deliberate in resolving, 
 and inflexible in performing. The "noble grace of 
 decision" shone conspicuously in their lives; they 
 were decided for truth, for conscience, for God. It 
 was a rich gift of the Holy Ghost, and enabled them 
 for a work in which all oth^r adventurers must have 
 failed. 
 
 May God bless this undertaking, so that it may help 
 to revive in power and purity the remnants of the pi- 
 ety and spirit of the pilgrims which yet linger among 
 us. May it help to increase the multitudes which, 
 like the Puritans of old, have gone up, through much 
 tribulation, from the footstool to the throne ! 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN COTTON. 
 
 BY Xi' W. M'CLURE, 
 
 WrUten for the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, and 
 revised by the Committee of Publication. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, 
 
 Depository, No. 13 Cornhill. 
 
 1846. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 
 By CHRISTOPHER C. DEAN, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The difficulty of preparing a work of this nature 
 can only be conceived of by one who has tried it. 
 The mere collecting of the scattered materials, dis- 
 persed in the obscurest cotners, as they usually are, is 
 a great labor. It is a greater toil to arrange them in 
 due order, when once they are collected. The set- 
 tling of doubtful and contradictory statements is often 
 a tedious and perplexing business. And then comes 
 the writing, which the author must accomplish as he 
 can. The only merit which this little book can claim, 
 is laborious accuracy bestowed upon a worthy subject. 
 For its faults in other respects, there can hardly be 
 any remedy. For, to apply here a rhyme of Presi- 
 dent Oakes, 
 
 "They thai can Cotton's goodness well display, 
 Must be as good as he :— but who are ihey ?" 
 
 In prosecuting the design of the Publishing Com- 
 mittee of the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 
 it is evident that the distinctive principles of the Puri- 
 tans must come under review. In order that these 
 might be more completely presented, they are dis- 
 cussed somewhat fully in a few chapters devoted to 
 that object. Accordingly, in this volume, will be found 
 a chapter occupied with an account of the nature and 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 origin of Puritanism, in which our fathers are vindi- 
 cated from the charge of schism and sinful division of 
 the Church. Another chapter delineates the main 
 features of the Congregational Church government. 
 Another still, exhibits the merits of Congregational- 
 ism. 
 
 May God grant wisdom to all who may take part 
 in this attempt to revive the memory of the patriarchs 
 of our land ; and give to the readers grace to profit by 
 their holy example. 
 
 " A lift may find him who a sermon flies." 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 His parentage. Residence at the University. Conversion. 
 
 The man whose life and principles will now be 
 represented, from the vast influence he exer- 
 cised in his own time, and, consequently, upon 
 all following times, has been fitly called the 
 Patriarch of New England. Boston, especially, 
 is indebted to him for much more than hs name. 
 He found it but little better than a woody wil- 
 derness ; and he left it a flourishing town, a sort 
 of Jerusalem of the West. 
 
 John Cotton was a native of Derby, on the 
 river Derwent, in England. He was born on 
 the fourth of December, in the year 15S5. He 
 was descended of ' gentle blood.' His parents 
 were persons in easy circumstances, and able to 
 provide him with the necessaries for a good edu- 
 cation. The father, Roland Cotton, a lawyer 
 by profession, was distinguished, as well as the 
 mother, by a solid and fervid piety. The child, 
 VOL. I. 2 
 
14 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 thus brought forth and brought up, did no dis- 
 credit to his training. His youth, unstained by 
 follies, gave no occasion for reproach in after 
 years. It is pleasing to consider a person, who, 
 from the cradle to the grave, lived a long life 
 without spot or blame, other than what arose 
 from the mistakes of those around him, or those 
 errors of his own which serve to associate him 
 with weak humanity, but not with its vices or 
 its crimes. It is true, that, at certain times, 
 amid the tempests of passion and prejudice, 
 much mire and dirt was cast upon his charac- 
 ter, but none of it would adhere. It all fell off 
 again, and left his reputation unsullied as ever. 
 
 He was admitted to Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, at the early age of thirteen. His father 
 who had never had many clients before, from 
 that time had them in abundance. The son, 
 who had, in consequence, a very liberal main- 
 tenance, and w^ho also had a watchful eye to 
 discern the ways of divine providence, was 
 thereby led to say : — " God kept me at the uni- 
 versity !" 
 
 At this ancient seminary, the nursing mother 
 of so many eminent Puritan ministers, he spent 
 fifteen studious years, till he became learned in 
 all the wisdom of that age of erudite scholars 
 and deep divines. He was prevented from ob- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 15 
 
 taining a fellowship in his college, only by rea- 
 son of embarrassments growing out of the 
 construction of expensive buildings for its use. 
 
 He was then chosen a fellow of Emmanuel 
 College, after a severe examination, which he 
 triumphantly sustained. He was examined with 
 special rigor in the Hebrew language. He was 
 tested more particularly upon the latter part of 
 the third chapter of Isaiah, which consists of an 
 inventory of the fineries of the haughty daugh- 
 ters of Zion, such as might well astonish a 
 modern Parisian milliner. This passage, which 
 contains more unusual and perplexing terms 
 than any other in the Old Testament, occasioned 
 no trouble to our ardent scholar, who was able 
 to converse in that tongue. Hebrew literature 
 was much cultivated among the Puritan divines, 
 who gave especial attention to those three lan- 
 guages in which it was stated on the cross, that 
 Jesus of Nazareth was King of the Jews. And 
 yet the famed Erasmus, though reputed in his 
 day to be " the most Greek among the Grecians, 
 and the most Latin among the Latins," and 
 thouorh so used to discourse in the latter Ian- 
 guage as to forget his mother tongue, gave up 
 the attempt to acquire the Hebrew in utter dis- 
 couragement. This study, in which Luther so 
 much delighted, found many expert proficients 
 
16 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 among the spiritual fathers of New England. 
 Nearly all the first ministers of Massachusetts 
 cultivated it : and some very singular anecdotes 
 are preserved to illustrate their familiarity with 
 that language, which, as John Eliot said, " it 
 pleased our Lord Jesus Christ to make use of 
 when he spake from heaven unto Paul." Some 
 of the laymen bestowed great attention upon it. 
 Thus Governor Bradford, who had thoroughly 
 mastered some four or five other languages, 
 studied the Hebrew most of all ; "because," as 
 he elegantly said, " he would see with his own 
 eyes the ancient oracles of God in their native 
 beauty !" 
 
 In the same distinguished College where he 
 gained his fellowship, Mr. Cotton afterwards 
 became Head Lecturer ; then Dean, an officer 
 charged to attend to the deportment and disci- 
 pline of the students ; and Catechist, an employ- 
 ment of chief note in the old conventual schools. 
 He was also Tutor to numerous scholars, by 
 whom he was held in the highest estimation as 
 a teacher. 
 
 While occupied thus usefully, he was much 
 honored and admired for the strength and readi- 
 ness of his mind, and for the vast extent of his 
 reading. The sermons, which he occasionally 
 preached in the University, were pompous ha- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 17 
 
 rangues, stuffed with a huge mass of learning 
 and soaring conceits, according to the taste of 
 the "vain wits" of that seat of science. These 
 ostentatious displays made him very popular 
 with that class of men, who delighted in such 
 parades of learned lore, as much as they dis- 
 tasted the plain preaching of the humbling doc- 
 trines of the cross. Cotton was then one of 
 their own sort, being himself of that lamentably 
 numerous class who undertake to preach the 
 gospel of Christ without having personally felt 
 its life and power in the heart. 
 
 He first distinguished himself by a funeral 
 discourse for Dr. Some, Master of Peter House, 
 in which he flourished away with so much arti- 
 ficial originality, affected eloquence and " orato- 
 rious beauty," that he came to be regarded as 
 the Xenophon of the University, and the special 
 favorite of the muses. Some time after, he de- 
 livered a University sermon in St. Mary's 
 Church, which gained the high applause of the 
 academical pedants, who looked only for a grand 
 exhibition of what the preacher could do to show 
 off himself, rather than for a presentation of 
 "Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling 
 block, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto 
 them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, 
 2=^ 
 
18 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of 
 God." 
 
 But the Lord had other employment for this 
 "chosen vessel." He who had dwelt so long 
 among those halls of science as one of her most 
 assiduous devotees, began at last to feel the 
 higher claims of religion. 
 
 In those days there was at Cambridge an em- 
 inent and godly divine, Rev. William Perkins, 
 whose name was long precious among our fa- 
 thers, one of whom made this epigram upon 
 him, in allusion to a certain natural defect ; 
 
 " Though nature thee of thy right hand bereft, 
 Right well thou writest with thy hand that's left." 
 
 This good and able man was sound in the 
 faith, and deep in the experience of the great 
 doctrines of the gospel. His ministrations, so 
 searching to the heart and so rousing to the 
 conscience, were blessed to the conversion of 
 many who became some of the brightest lights 
 of their age. Among others, Mr. Cotton was 
 much wrought upon by his faithful exhibition of 
 the truth. But the young and aspiring scholar, 
 fearing to become engaged in the pursuit of per- 
 sonal religion, lest it should hinder him in the 
 studies he was ambitiously following, suppressed, 
 so far as he could, the motions and stirrings of 
 his mind. In the pride of intellect, and the lust 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 19 
 
 of literary distinction, he resisted the strivings 
 of the Holy Spirit. For a while, he succeeded 
 in stifling the still small voice of conviction, till 
 one day walking in the fields, he heard the bell 
 tollincT the death-knell of the devout Mr. Per- 
 kins. At this, Mr. Cotton secretly rejoiced; 
 and began to congratulate himself, that he should 
 no more be troubled by him, who had, as he 
 said, " laid siege to and beleaguered his heart." 
 
 But this selfish satisfaction at such a riddance 
 soon became a cause of great spiritual distress. 
 It dwelt constantly upon his mind as an aggra- 
 vated sin, that he had thus exulted at the pros- 
 pect of being freed, at such a price, from divine 
 incitements and restraints. God made it " an 
 effectual means of convincing and humbling him 
 in the sight and sense of the natural enmity that 
 is in man's nature against God." 
 
 In this state of mind, he heard a sermon from 
 Dr. Sibbs, a man of great note among the Puri- 
 tans in the time of the first James. This sermon 
 was upon the nature and necessity of regenera- 
 tion. It first showed the state of the unregener- 
 ate, and the misery of those who have no 
 righteousness but that of the moral virtues. 
 Under this discourse, Mr. Cotton felt all his 
 false hopes and self-righteous confidences failing 
 him. He found the truth of what the Bible 
 
20 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 taught him, that he was a sinner in the sight of 
 God, — that he was wholly and helplessly de- 
 praved, and utterly lost beyond the power of 
 recovering himself. For near three years, he 
 was fainting under the burden of desponding 
 thoughts, feeling that he had willfully withstood 
 the means of grace and the offers of mercy which 
 God had extended to him. At length the barbed 
 arrow, which so long had rankled in his heart, 
 was plucked away. Through the same wound 
 from which the bloody drops of contrition had 
 flowed, the healing grace of Jesus was infused. 
 This comfort appears to have been ministered to 
 his soul under the preaching of the same worthy 
 Dr. Sibbs ; between whom and the happy con- 
 vert there ever after subsisted " a singular and 
 constant love," as between a spiritual father and 
 his son in the faith. 
 
 The conversion of Mr. Cotton was of that 
 primitive, orthodox stamp, which has always 
 produced the best sort of Christians. There is 
 reason to suspect that many who are in the habit 
 of speaking of such a change in terms of levity 
 and unbelief, would inwardly rejoice if they 
 could be assured of undergoing the same moral 
 renovation before they shall be summoned to the 
 bar of God. There is something in such an 
 experience which commends itself even to the 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 21 
 
 conscience of the scoffer and profane. In the 
 case of Mr. Cotton it was no rash and reasonless 
 excitement : but the result of years of anxious 
 inquiry and mental conflict. It occurred when 
 he was at the maturity of his powers and in 
 their highest state of discipline and development. 
 It was a solid work, on a firm foundation, by the 
 Almighty hand : and therefore was it a lasting 
 monument of grace. The subject of it, at the 
 ^ime, was not far from twenty-seven years of 
 age. 
 
 Ere long he was called once more to fill the 
 old stone pulpit of St. Mary's venerable church. 
 A numerous auditory of the University men, 
 attracted by his high reputation, thronged the 
 place. These were hearers, who, as the excel- 
 lent John Norton said of them, and he knew 
 them well, " prefer the Muses before Moses, and 
 taste Plato more than Paul, and relish the Orator 
 of Athens far above the Preacher of the Cross." 
 They were confidently expecting to be regaled 
 with the heaped up quotations, the philosophical 
 abstractions, the scholastic subtleties, and rhe- 
 torical ornaments, by which the preachers on 
 those occasions were wont to hold up to admira- 
 tion, not their Master, but themselves. When 
 Mr. Cotton arose, the hum of approbation, which 
 used to greet a popular speaker, resounded 
 
22 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 through the temple. But their expectation was 
 destined to be disappointed. The discourse was 
 upon the subject o{ repentance, and was enunci- 
 ated from a heart which had freshly felt the 
 power of the theme. It was a plain, pungent, 
 practical address, directly aimed at the con- 
 science of the hearers. The countenances of 
 his audience betrayed their discontent ; in token 
 of which, they pulled down their shovel-caps 
 over their faces, and listened in sullen mood. 
 
 The poor preacher, discouraged with this cold 
 reception of his zealous endeavors for their good, 
 retired to his chambers with some sad thoughts 
 of heart. He had not been long alone, when 
 Dr. John Preston, then a fellow of Queen's 
 College, and of great esteem in the University, 
 knocked at his door. This person, like so many 
 others, had repaired to the sermon, with his ears 
 itching to hear a splendid literary performance. 
 For a while, he manifested his vexation in every 
 way he could : but ere the close, he was " cut to 
 the heart" by the sword of the Spirit. Making 
 an errand of borrowing a book, he called on Mr. 
 Cotton, with whom he had not been acquainted. 
 His wounded soul could not keep silence ; and 
 he sought those spiritual succors which God 
 blessed to the peace of his mind. This man too 
 became a powerful preacher of the gospel, and a 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 23 
 
 mighty man of renown among the Calvinistic 
 doctors of that age of giant minds. This nota- 
 ble seal of his ministry consoled Mr. Cotton for 
 the manner in which his first evangelical sermon 
 was received by the many. He never regretted 
 that he had cast his ostentatious ways aside, and 
 had sought only to approve himself unto God. 
 Some of the more religious divines prayed him 
 to " persevere in that good way of preaching," 
 which, by the grace of God, he effectually did. 
 How true is the remark of the excellent Thomas 
 Fuller, " It is easier and better for us to please 
 one God, than many men, with our sermons." 
 Between Mr. Cotton and Dr. Preston there was 
 formed one of those most profitable Christian 
 friendships, which must outlast earth and heaven- 
 There are no good men, but others are the better 
 for them. 
 
24 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Settlement at Boston in Old England. Obstacles to Selileuient. 
 Spiritual Conflicts. Arminian Controversy. Marriage. Non- 
 Conformity. 
 
 When Mr. Cotton was about twenty-eight years 
 of age, he was invited by the people of Boston, 
 in Lincolnshire, to settle in the ministry among 
 them. Old Boston, whose chief honor now is, 
 that she imparted her name to her cisatlantic 
 daughter, was indebted for it to Botolph, an an- 
 cient Saxon saint ; the name Botolph's town, 
 having been, in time, contracted to its present 
 form. In that place, Mr. Cotton labored many 
 years in the pastoral office, exerting a wonderful 
 influence upon the character of the people. We 
 read in Burke's famous speech made long after- 
 wards on American affairs, the odd quotation 
 from an old song ; — 
 
 Solid men of Boston, make no long orations, 
 Solid men of Boston, drink no strong potations. 
 
 I am ready to believe that this character for so- 
 lidity, for brevity of speech, and for observing 
 the " holy dictate of spare temperance," may be 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 25 
 
 owing to the labors of this man of God, leaving 
 their impress upon the descendants of his parish- 
 ioners there, as I doubt not they have done here. 
 
 Mr. Cotton's settlement was not without some 
 difficulty. The church-warden, with the better 
 sort of people, desired that he should be their 
 pastor. But the mayor, with the looser class, 
 had procured from Cambridge another candidate 
 more to their minds. When the election came 
 to be held under the charter, the votes were found 
 to be equally divided. The mayor, having the 
 casting vote, by some mistake gave it in favor 
 of Mr. Cotton. The civic dignitary, mortified 
 at his error, requested that the vote might be 
 taken again. His request was complied with, 
 and resulted as before, in an equal division. And 
 now, strange to tell, the mayor made the same 
 mistake, and again gave his casting vote in Mr. 
 Cotton's favor. In great vexation, the blunder- 
 ing magistrate insisted upon trying the vote for 
 the third time ; but the people refused their con- 
 sent. Thus the choice fell upon Mr. Cotton, 
 through the unintended act of his most strenuous 
 opposer. 
 
 This obstruction being removed, there came 
 another in the way. Dr. Barlow, the diocesan, 
 understanding that the successful candidate was 
 infected with Puritanism, tried to discourage his 
 
 VOL. I. 3 
 
26 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 settlement. The prelate's only objection was, 
 that Mr. Cotton was too young a man to be set 
 over such a numerous and factious people. The 
 young man had so modest an opinion of himself, 
 that he was satisfied with the objection, and pro- 
 posed to go back to the University. But some 
 of his supporters, understanding, as good Mr. 
 Norton tells us, " that one Simon Bibby was to 
 be spoken with, who was near to the bishop, they 
 presently charmed him ; and so the business 
 proceeded without further trouble, and Mr. Cot- 
 ton was admitted into the place after their manner 
 in those days." It looks suspicious in this case, 
 that the charmers operated upon the said Simon 
 Bibby, by means of unlawful spells, perchance 
 mingling the potency of simony and bibificatio7i. 
 But whatever the nature of their enchantments 
 may have been, Mr. Cotton cannot be charged 
 with any knowledge of their proceedings. 
 
 About this time he was deeply exercised with 
 spiritual troubles, even as his Master was sub- 
 jected to temptation at the beginning of his pub- 
 lic ministry. There is much truth in Luther's 
 saying, " that three things make a divine ; med- 
 itation, supplication, and temptation." It is 
 probable that few ministers have ever been ex- 
 tensively useful in the Church of God, without 
 first passing through severe conflicts of mind 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 27 
 
 against doubts, and fears, and unbelief; before 
 coming to the settled enjoyment of the consola- 
 tions and supports of the gospel. Taught both 
 by sterner and by sweeter experience, they learn 
 how to guide others through similar spiritual 
 difficulties- It is thus that they become "able to 
 comfort them which are in any trouble, by the 
 comfort wherewith they themselves are com- 
 forted of God." 
 
 Engrossed as he was in these severe mental 
 trials, Mr. Cotton paid no heed to the parties 
 and factions which disturbed the town. This 
 sort of impartiality conciliated the good will of 
 the people, when they saw that the salvation of 
 his own soul was far more upon his thoughts, 
 than the contentions and disputes around him. 
 
 At that time, there was a Mr. Baron in the 
 place, a man very skillful in his calling, as a 
 physician, but who chiefly devoted his studies to 
 the defence of Arminianism, which he main- 
 tained on all occasions, with much acuteness and 
 ability. To his constant conversation, Mr. Cot- 
 ton silently listened, till he "had learned, at 
 length, where all the great strength of the doctor 
 lay." Having mastered all Mr. Baron's scruples 
 and objections, and, avoiding all those expres- 
 sions and phrases of others, which afforded that 
 gentleman any advantage in debate, Mr. Cotton 
 
28 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 began publicly to preach the doctrine of God's 
 eternal election ; the effectual calling of the sin- 
 ner by irresistible grace ; and the certain perse- 
 verance of saints, so that they shall not fall 
 from a state of grace, either totally or finally. 
 The result was, that the adverse disputant 
 desisted from all further debate ; Arminianism 
 died quite away, without struggle or convulsion, 
 " and all matters of religion were carried on 
 calmly and peaceably." 
 
 When he had resided at his parish about half 
 a year, he visited Cambridge, to take his degree 
 of Bachelor of Divinity. On this occasion, he 
 added largely to his reputation, by a much ad- 
 mired sermon to the clergy, from the text ; " Ye 
 are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt have lost 
 his savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? " He 
 also distinguished himself by his skill in a pub- 
 lic disputation, held in the schools for the purpose 
 of proving himself qualified for his degree in 
 divinity. He appeared to high advantage, though 
 matched against a very keen debater, a Dr. 
 Chappell ; afterwards Provost of Trinity College, 
 in Dublin, and a strenuous advocate of Pelagian 
 sentiments. After gathering these University 
 laurels, Mr. Cotton returned to his parochial 
 charge, where he enjoyed the high esteem of 
 his flock. It is a remark of one of his fellow- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 29 
 
 laborers, " So God disposeth of the hearts of 
 hearers, as that generally they are all open and 
 loving to their preachers in their first times ; 
 trials are often reserved until afterwards. Epi- 
 phanius calleth the first year of Christ's minis- 
 try, the acceptable year. — Young Peter girdeth 
 himself, and walks whither he will; but old 
 Peter is girded by another, and carried whither 
 he would not." 
 
 Being comfortably settled in his church, he 
 married Elizabeth Horrocks, " an eminently vir- 
 tuous gentlewoman.'' The day of their union, 
 was ever memorable to him, upon another 
 account ; for it was then, that he first received a 
 comfortable assurance of God's love to his soul. 
 The promises of grace and life, were sealed upon 
 his heart by the Holy Spirit ; and this comfort 
 con^tinued with him, in some happy measure, 
 through the residue of his days. He would 
 often say of the day of his espousals, " God made 
 it a day of double marriage to me ! " for it was 
 then that he obtained the blessed evidence of the 
 marriage-union of his soul with Christ. 
 
 His worthy companion was of great assistance 
 to him in his ministry, in many respects; but 
 especially in this, that she greatly promoted his 
 usefulness among those of her own sex. The 
 female members of the congregation, taking 
 3# 
 
30 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 notice of her uncommon discretion and piety, 
 would freely impart to her the state of their 
 minds upon the subject of religion, acquainting 
 her with their difficulties, and the points on 
 which they stood in need of special counsel and 
 instruction. The information she imparted to 
 her husband, enabled him to adapt his public 
 teaching to the wants of his hearers, and to ren- 
 der it far more conducive to their spiritual good. 
 If experience can prove any thing, it has abun- 
 dantly proved that the judicious marriage of a 
 clergyman greatly enhances his usefulness, and 
 his estimation among his flock. It not only 
 places him as " a family man," in close sympa- 
 thy with the families of his flock, but it puts him in 
 unexceptionable communication with the female 
 portion of his charge. He thus obtains a suffi- 
 ciently confidential knowledge of the condition 
 of their minds, and also the opportunity of meet- 
 ing their wants as a religious shepherd and 
 guide. He in this manner becomes qualified to 
 benefit them, far beyond what it would be prac- 
 ticable or desirable to do by means of personal 
 familiar intercourse. It is not without reason, 
 that the Apostle gives repeated counsel, that 
 every elder or parochial bishop, should be " the 
 husband of one wife," neither more nor less. 
 After Mr. Cotton had spent three years in 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 31 
 
 Boston, his deep and devout studies brought him 
 to a solemn conviction, that there were many- 
 antiquated corruptions yet left unreformed in the 
 national Church, with the practice of which he 
 could not comply. From this time, he ceased to 
 conform strictly to the Church of England, 
 though he never voluntarily renounced its com- 
 munion. 
 
 The next chapter will be devoted to an account 
 of the origin and nature of Puritanism, of which 
 John Cotton was a staunch and uncompromising 
 advocate. 
 
32 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Necessity of Controversy. Necessity of Reforming the Church, 
 Romish corruption had taken away Christ's threefold office. 
 Reformation in England restored his prophetical and priestly offi- 
 ces. His kingly office not restored. Relics of Popery retained in 
 the National Church. Puritans demand a complete Reformation. 
 The principle involved Nehushtan. How the principles of 
 Congregationalism are reached. Puritans persecuted. Their 
 conduct under persecution. Take refuge in New England, 
 Happy results of their removal. The charge of Schism triumph- 
 antly retorted. The Massachusetts settlers no separatists. Laud, 
 the great schismatic. His party were the separatists. Address 
 from the Arbella. The "standing order" in New England no 
 "sect." Puritanism as necessary now as in the days of our fa- 
 thers. Appeal to the sons of the Pilgrims. 
 
 The Puritans lived in an age of controversy. 
 It was one of those periods when the vast sea of 
 human opinions, convulsed under chafing winds 
 and weltering waves, sweeps away many of the 
 ancient landmarks, and often, by their removal, 
 restores to their forgotten prominence such land- 
 marks as are more ancient than they. It was a 
 time when the earthquakes of political and re- 
 ligious agitation disturbed every existing insti- 
 tution ; throwing all their foundations out of 
 course, that they might settle down at last upon 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 33 
 
 a basis more firm and square. Novel errors 
 assailed old truths, and new truths grappled with 
 antiquated errors. Perhaps there has never 
 been a waking up of the human mind so general 
 and so intense, as during that prolonged season 
 of every kind of conflict. Such seasons must 
 result in the advancement of truth, the progress 
 of the human mind, and the improvement of the 
 social state. Truth is ultimately, always stron- 
 ger than her foes. Whatever may be the inci- 
 dental evils of controversy, they are not so great 
 as the evils it prevents or does away. It is a 
 sharp remedy : but it is less painful than the 
 diseases which it checks or heals. Such keen 
 debate is only to be regretted as aUogether inju- 
 rious, when it arrays the real friends of truth 
 against each other in disputes about matters of 
 inferior moment. In such cases the acrimony 
 is usually in an inverse ratio to the importance 
 of the point discussed. We may then exclaim 
 in the language of the " facetious Fuller," allud- 
 ing to a passage in the prophet Joel ; — " Alas I 
 that men should have less wisdom than locusts, 
 which, when sent on God's errand, did not 
 thrust one another.'^ 
 
 The necessity of reform in the church arose 
 from its corruption. The leaven of this corrup- 
 tion had begun to work even before the decease 
 
34 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 of the apostles. "^ And from that time, the 
 spreading fermentation, diffusing itself through 
 a long course of ages, at last leavened nearly the 
 whole mass with the sour crudities of popery. 
 No doubt, the church as yet unreformed was the 
 true church, just as a tree decayed and maimed 
 is still a true tree. But there was need that the 
 dead limbs should be lopped down, and thre rotten 
 wood cut out, and the eating funguses removed, 
 and the encroaching mosses and other hurtful 
 parasites scraped off, and the heterogeneous 
 grafts pruned away. In short, there was much 
 that wanted to be done, to restore the aged tree 
 to a natural and vigorous growth, without am- 
 putating any part that retained its health and 
 soundness. It was not the design of the reform- 
 ers to institute a new church : but to restore the 
 integrity and purity of the old. And so far as 
 it experienced such reformation, it is primitive, 
 apostolical and catholic. 
 
 Antichrist had so far prevailed, as greatly to 
 interfere with the sole Headship of Christ in 
 and over his church. His threefold office of 
 chief Prophet, high Priest, and only King, had 
 been dangerously and ruinously invaded. The 
 light of the gospel, obscured by foggy ignorance 
 
 * 2 Thesd. 2 : 7. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 35 
 
 and fuming- errors, had left the world in dark- 
 ness. 
 
 " O blindness of our earth- incrusled minds ! 
 In what a midnight shade, what aombrous clouds 
 Of error, are our souls immersed, when Thou, 
 O Sun supreme, no longer deign'st to shine \" 
 
 Welcome, thunder : — and welcome, hurri- 
 cane ; — if those gloomy, fatal clouds are thereby- 
 swept away. Luther, wake the storm, that the 
 heavens may be cleared ; and the Sun of Right- 
 eousness shine forth in his strength ! 
 
 Christ's prophetical office, as the authoritative 
 teacher of his Church, had been infringed by 
 substituting the teachings and traditions of men 
 in the place of his instructions. The pure doc- 
 trines of his Word were no longer taught or 
 understood. Dogmas wholly subversive of them 
 were received instead. The grace which re- 
 deems and renews the sinner, and which it is 
 the main design of the Bible to inculcate, was 
 lost sight of. Nothing was regarded but such 
 matters as the efficacy of penance and indulgen- 
 ces, the nature of purgatory and transubstantia- 
 tion, and other things as contrary to the lessons 
 of the Bible as Belial is to the Christ of God. 
 
 The priestly office of Jesus, who is the only 
 atoning sacrifice and the one Mediator between 
 God and men, was no less invaded. The doc- 
 
36 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 trine that human merit can av^ail to purchase 
 salvation displaced that most fundamental article 
 of Christianity, that remission of sins and the 
 gift of eternal life is through faith alone. It was 
 held, that the sacraments of themselves had 
 power to sanctify the recipients ; although the 
 gospel denies all efficacy to forms and ceremo- 
 nies, aside from the special influence of the Holy 
 Spirit. Other mediators with God were set up 
 by the side of Jesus, and even above him, in the 
 affection and confidence of the worshipers. 
 Full faith was given to all manner of absurd 
 miracles, alledged to be wrought by hermits, and 
 departed saints, and other celestial beings. 
 
 " Such tales monastic fablers taught, 
 Their kindred strain the minstrels caught; 
 A web of finer texture they 
 Wrought from the rich romantic lay." 
 
 The virgin mother ; with a host of martyrs of 
 all sorts, real and fabulous ; with numberless 
 saints, many of them of uncertain existence, and 
 others of very dubious sanctity ; with good spir- 
 its and legendary angels : all these were relied 
 upon in vows and prayers, to the injury of the 
 Redeemer's exclusive right to stand and inter- 
 cede between the sinner and his God. 
 
 These infractions of his claims were attended 
 by the usurpation of Christ's kingly office. In 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 37 
 
 despite of his just prerogative to be supreme 
 Head and Lawgiver in his own kingdom, men, 
 assuming to act by his authority, dared to set 
 aside his laws, and supplant them by ordinances 
 of their own invention^ The Son of God had 
 prescribed the terms of membership and commu- 
 nion in the church which he had purchased \vith 
 his own blood, and the mode of dealing with 
 offenders : he had deposited with the church the 
 sacred "power of the keys" wherewith to bind 
 and loose : he had indicated the character of the 
 officers under his government, and defined the 
 nature of their authority and their duties : and 
 he had stamped upon his worship and ordinances 
 a simplicity becoming to their spiritual charac- 
 ter. But a usurping hierarchy, engrossing a 
 powder belonging to none but Christ, had over- 
 turned all his enactments ; and instituted cere- 
 monies and modes of worship utterly foreign to 
 his will ; and imposed terms of communion and 
 office in the church, totally repugnant to the 
 divinely appointed order and discipline of the 
 house of God. 
 
 Such were the gross abuses and corruptions 
 which had long prevailed, before the Protestant 
 Reformation, — that moral equator of the world's 
 history. It had become necessary to " prove all 
 things ;" and rejecting the evil, to hold fast to 
 
 VOL. I. 4 
 
38 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 that which is good. One of the old divines has 
 correctly said : — " The reformers disclaimed only 
 the ulcers and sores, not what was sound in the 
 existing church." 
 
 Now in England, during the reigns of the 
 eighth Henry and some of his next successors, 
 the needful reformation had advanced so far as 
 to terminate the open infractions of Christ's pro- 
 phetical and priestly offices. The doctrines he 
 taught were openly professed once more : and 
 free salvation by his atonement and intercession 
 was now preached again. 
 
 But here the work came to a stand. The in- 
 vasions of the royal and legislative office of the 
 Saviour were not redressed. The only altera- 
 tion was a change of usurpers. The pope and 
 his myrmidons were cast out only to make room 
 for another set who claimed to be heads and law- 
 makers to that city of God, which owed alle- 
 giance and obedience in these matters to the 
 Lord alone. 
 
 The Anglican Church had never been thor- 
 oughly purged from the remnants of popery. 
 They, who first took the work in hand, were not 
 able, in consequence of the premature death of 
 the sixth Edward, to carry it on so far as they 
 intended. And such as came after them strove 
 rather, so far as they could, to retrace their steps 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 39 
 
 toward the recently forsaken Babylon. It was 
 not without reason that one of the divines of the 
 Church of England exclaimed : — " What need 
 hath reformation itself to be frequently reformed, 
 seeing corruptions will so quickly creep there- 
 into." That Church retained so much of the 
 essence of popery, that Rome, to this day, has 
 never given up the hope that her vagrant daugh- 
 ter will yet return to her embraces. Says Ed- 
 ward Weston, a Jesuit in the time of Henry 
 VIII ; — " The English drove the pope out of the 
 kingdom so hastily, that they forced him to leave 
 his garments behind him : and now they put 
 them on, and, like so many players acting their 
 parts, they dance in them in a way of triumph." 
 And the bloody Bonner, then Bishop of London, 
 playfully remarked, in allusion to the supersti- 
 tions which were retained ; — " If they sup of 
 our broth, they will soon eat of our beef!" The 
 archbishop of Spalato, who came to England in 
 1616, declares in a letter to bishop Hall, that he 
 saw nothing reformed there but the bare doctrine 
 of the church. It is not strange, therefore, that 
 a strong tendency toward Rome has been ever 
 betraying itself in that quarter. Bishop Taylor 
 considered his church to be separated from that 
 of Rome merely "by " a paper wall." And 
 though some excellent men have affirmed that 
 
40 LIFE OF JOHN COTTPN. 
 
 the said paper wall was "just the thickness of 
 the Bible," other men have found no difficulty 
 in surmounting it, and getting back into the 
 Italian fold. The church theory of the Angli- 
 cans is the same as that of the Romanists. 
 Both communions are based upon the same pre- 
 tensions : they rest alike on that ecclesiastical 
 figment, which is miscalled " apostolical succes- 
 sion." If this be a good reason for being a pre- 
 latist, it is a far stronger reason for being a papist. 
 The pope urges the same arguments against the 
 prelatists, that these latter use against us : and 
 the same reasons justify us for disowning the 
 supremacy of the prelates, which justify them 
 for disowning the supremacy of the pope. It is 
 natural that the high churchmen of England and 
 elsewhere should sigh for such a reconciliation 
 as might procure an endorsement of their claims 
 by the pretended successors to St. Peter's chair. 
 It is easy to understand the zeal of the Oxford 
 divines, whose labors threaten to give occasion 
 for renewing the complaint of archbishop Laud, 
 " a man whom it is an act of self-denial to 
 name without some epithet of reproach." In 
 his dying speech, he said; — "The Church of 
 England is become like an oak, cleft to shivers 
 with wedges made out of its own body." 
 
 John Cotton, and other Puritans, regarded the 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 41 
 
 Church of England as wofully dissenting from 
 the true Church of Christ, by her making the 
 monarch of the realm her head and ruler. The 
 king of Britain, say they, is a " protestant in 
 taking, not in giving." Honest Fuller says ; — 
 " The pope being dead in England, the king 
 was found his heir at common law, as to most 
 of the power and profit the other had usurped." 
 This impious intrusion of an earthly prince, who 
 might oftentimes be a monster of profligacy, or 
 perhaps a mere child, a girl, into the throne of 
 Zion's King, was more than the Puritans, ever 
 jealous for the rights and honors of their Lord, 
 could brook. They felt that "the church by 
 law established" had dissented from the true 
 basis of the church of God, because her articles 
 of faith and frame of government rested on acts 
 of parliament, which has power to new model 
 her at will : whereas she should have stood upon 
 the simple foundation of the Word of God. 
 Osborne observes, in his Memoirs of Queen 
 Elizabeth ; — " The doctrine professed most gen- 
 erally in England, bore in foreign nations the 
 name of parliament faith. "=^ This phrase often 
 occurs in the letters of Erasmus. 
 
 Now the Puritans demanded, in the name of 
 
 * Parliamentaria fides, 
 
 4* 
 
42 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 the Lord, that his royal power and privilege 
 should be restored to him. New England had 
 her "judicious Hooker," him of Hartford, the 
 fellow-voyager with John Cotton to these shores. 
 This good man thus explains the object sought by 
 himself and his brethren ; — " As the prophetical 
 and priestly office of Christ, was completely vin- 
 dicated in the first times of reformation, so now 
 the great cause and work of God's reforming 
 people is, to clear the rights of Christ's kingly 
 office, and in their practice to set up his king- 
 dom.'"^ They received the name of Puritans 
 from their resolute attempt to restore to their 
 primitive purity the Christian faith and institu- 
 tions, according to the principles laid down by 
 the adorable Founder of Christianity. Their 
 sentiments are thus expressed by the celebrated 
 Dr. John Owen : — " They who hold communion 
 with the Lord Jesus Christ, will admit nothing, 
 practice nothing, in the worship of God, but 
 what they have his warrant for. Unless com- 
 ing in his name, they will not hear an angel 
 from heaven. They know the apostles them- 
 selves were to teach the saints only what he 
 commanded them. And you know how many 
 in this very nation, in the days not long since 
 
 * Preface to Survey of Church Discipline. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 43 
 
 passed, yea, how many thousands left' their na- 
 tive soil, and went into a vast and howling wil- 
 derness, in the uttermost parts of the world, to 
 keep th§ir souls undefiled and chaste unto their 
 dear Lord Jesus, as to this matter of his worship 
 and institutions."^ 
 
 It is necessary that we should understand the 
 principle involved in this great controversy. 
 The Puritans did not contend for the abolishing 
 of a few harmless or insignificant ceremonies 
 more or less. They were willing, in the main, 
 that such as chose to practice them voluntarily 
 should do so. But they resisted the arbitrary 
 imposition of those ceremonies upon those who 
 conscientiously disliked them. And they re- 
 sisted the imposition of such things as conditions 
 of membership and ministry in the church, 
 chiefly because they abrogated the only condi- 
 tions which Christ had seen fit to establish, and 
 presumed to bring in others by the force of hu- 
 man enactments. They held, that the attempt 
 to annul the terms of citizenship and office 
 which Christ had decreed in his spiritual king- 
 dom, and to substitute and enforce others of hu- 
 man devising, was an act of usurpation, and 
 essentially treasonable and rebellious against the 
 King of Zion. 
 
 * Communion with God. 
 
44 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 To comprehend the merits of this controversy, 
 we are not to look at the importance of the 
 points objected to in the forms of the national 
 church, considered in themselves. In itself, it 
 may be of very little consequence, whether, or 
 not, ordination shall be exclusively performed 
 by diocesans, — or whether or not the sign of the 
 cross shall be used in baptism, — or whether the 
 externals of public worship shall be performed 
 in one way or another way, — or whether the 
 Lord's Supper shall be received in this posture 
 or in that. These, it may be, are small ques- 
 tions to divide the church about. And yet it 
 argues much more of smallness of soul to insist 
 that they shall always be answered in one par- 
 ticular way, as did the prelatical party, than to 
 insist that every one should enjoy his own pref- 
 erence in such matters, according to the free 
 spirit of Christianity, as did the Puritans. They 
 cared the less whether these things were essen- 
 tial or not. But it became a question of awful 
 magnitude, when they began to ask. By what 
 right do men, setting aside the regulations of 
 Christ, assume to say ; — " Conform to our can-- 
 ons and decrees, albeit your Lord has never 
 enjoined them : else you shall have no place in 
 the house of God !" In this imperious demand, 
 the Puritans saw not only an act of grievous 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 45 
 
 tyranny over the consciences of the disciples, the 
 free-born children of tlie house ; but they beheld 
 an appalling invasion of the exclusive rights and 
 dignities of the Lord and Master of the house- 
 hold. It was not merely against the unrighteous 
 exclusion of faithful men from the communion 
 of the church and its covenanted mercies, against 
 which our fathers protested ; but it was much 
 more against proceedings so derogatory to the 
 glory of the Mediator's throne. Even such tri- 
 vial affairs as crucifixes and surplices acquire a 
 magnitude not properly belonging to them, when 
 they trench upon our allegiance to the Prince of 
 life. Let it cost what it will, the supreme and 
 undivided sovereignty and headship of Christ 
 over all things pertaining to the church must be 
 preserved inviolate and entire. 
 
 Our later fathers, in the revolutionary times, 
 acted like sound political puritans. Those 
 staunch Boston boys did not make one great tea- 
 pot of our harbor, and tinge its waters, as we 
 say, with that greenish cerulean hue which it 
 has never lost : — they did not thus hasten the 
 glorious independence of these colonies, because 
 they were too penurious to pay for the Chinese 
 leaf three pence in the pound more than was 
 proper. Oh no : — it was because they withstood 
 the odious and tyrannical principle of taxation 
 
46 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 without representation. They stood for the 
 right which, Burke says, " the Anglo-Saxon 
 race have claimed in all ages, of being taxed 
 only with their own consent." They were read- 
 ier to die than to submit to this paltry import 
 duty : for they saw that it was designed to sanc- 
 tion a practice which must wrest from them the 
 most cherished of their British liberties, and 
 bring in a thousand forms of oppression upon 
 them and their posterity. 
 
 Possibly, some of the ceremonies of the church 
 may have been once innocent, and even useful, 
 like the venerable sign of the cross. But when, 
 by long abuse, they had come to be inseparably 
 coupled with superstition, there was good cause 
 why the observance of them, at least the compul- 
 sory observance, should cease. Among the 
 commendable actions of the pious Hezekiah, we 
 read that he "brake in pieces the brazen serpeni 
 that Moses had made ; for unto those days, the 
 children of Israel did burn incense to it ; and he 
 called it, Nehushtan ; " — that is, a mere piece of 
 brass. Now this was a most precious relic of 
 antiquity. By means of it, God had wrought a 
 most wonderful deliverance for his people. It 
 was even a type of the Messiah himself, who 
 should yet be uplifted by the gospel, even " as 
 Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness," 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 47 
 
 SO that perishing souls might look to him and 
 live. And yet the Jewish king, like a godly and 
 zealous Puritan, as in his time he was, dashed 
 it to fragments, that it should no more be per- 
 verted to idolatrous purposes. They who approve 
 this deed, which God himself approved, canno^ 
 but justify the image-breaking of our fathers." 
 
 The church had become encrusted with many 
 successive layers of corrupt innovation. For 
 ages, these accretions had been forming one 
 upon another. The wish of the Puritans was, 
 to peel off these lamina ; and to remove them 
 all, till they should come down to the original 
 proper substance of the Church. They were for 
 unwinding the interminable mummy-cloths, by 
 which the Church had been nearly bandaged 
 into a corpse ; and so restoring her to life and 
 enjoyment, to beauty and action. They followed 
 the plan of stripping off all those usages which 
 could not plead the recorded inspiration of the 
 Bible in their favor. They rejected every canon 
 and custom, of whose origin they could tell the 
 date, and of whose originators they could give the 
 names. And when all these foreign, unconge- 
 nial and injurious inventions, which had been 
 superimposed upon the primitive discipline, had 
 been removed, they found as the result, our no- 
 ble Congregational Church Polity. Take any 
 
48 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 existing Church, and deprive it of all the pecu- 
 liarities for which it is indebted to man, until 
 nothing is left but what is of divine institution, 
 and the pure Scriptural residuum, thus purged 
 of human adulterations, will be simple Congre- 
 gationalism. Tliis system of Church polity, 
 perfectly accords with the genius of Christianity, 
 and is instinct with the free spirit of our religion. 
 For reducing their views on the subject of 
 Church government to practice, and for acting in 
 accordance with their convictions, it is well known 
 that our fathers were very roughly handled by 
 those who claimed to be their ecclesiastical su- 
 periors. The persecuted men submitted to their 
 sufferings for the Lord's sake. It was no part 
 of their policy, to conduct themselves so outra- 
 geously, as, in a manner, to compel magistrates 
 to restrain, or mobs to assail them. The\' did 
 not first by their misbehavior, necessitate a tu- 
 multuous opposition ; and then raise a piteous 
 cry of " Persecution ! persecution ! " The plan 
 of trading in this sort of capital, and making 
 their gains out of the sympathy of a silly multi- 
 tude led away by such tricks of " moral reform," 
 was an invention of after times. When it could 
 be avoided, our fathers shunned the stroke of 
 oppression, and shielded themselves in every 
 justifiable way. But wlicn it was inevitable. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 49 
 
 they met it calmly and courageously, they bore 
 it meekly and piously, as the chastening of the 
 Lord. In Luther's " Table Discourses," we find 
 that bold reformer saying ; — " When governors 
 and rulers are enemies to God's word, then our 
 duty is to depart, to sell or forsake all we have, 
 to fly from one place to another, as Christ com- 
 mandeth. We must make and prepare no 
 uproars and tumults, by reason of the gospel ; 
 but we must suffer all things." 
 
 Thus did the Puritans. When a parish min- 
 ister in England, found any of the practices of 
 the National Church to be contrary to the sim- 
 plicity and obedience of Christ, he discontinued 
 the use of them. He abandoned one such point 
 after another, as fast as his conscience was 
 enlightened in respect to them. Meanwhile, he 
 kept quietly along in the discharge of all his 
 ministerial functions. If the ecclesiastical pow- 
 ers took no notice of his non-conformity as to 
 their unrighteous regulations, as was often the 
 case for considerable periods together, the man 
 of God labored peacefully and zealously for the 
 salvation of the flock committed to his care, by 
 the providence of the great Head of the Church. 
 When at last the vigilant eye of official despo- 
 tism, took notice of his Puritanism, he sought to 
 screen himself from the coming storm, by calling 
 
 VOL. I. 5 
 
60 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 to his aid such protectors as he could find. 
 When such means failed, and warrants were 
 issued for his arrest and imprisonment, he then 
 " fled from one city to another ; " he either con- 
 cealed himself among friends, till the tempest 
 should blow over, or strove to escape through 
 ports strictly guarded to prevent his departure, 
 and live as an exile in some foreign land. But 
 if he fell into the hands of those who would lord 
 it over a conscience which refused obedience in 
 spiritual matters to any but Christ, he then sub- 
 mitted with dignified resignation, to the pains 
 and penalties of the law. He refused to renounce 
 his Master ; but he refused not to suffer for him. 
 Of such, some, subjected to fines and confisca- 
 tions, " took joyfully the spoiling of their goods ;" 
 " and others had trial of cruel mockings and 
 scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and impris- 
 onment ; " and others still " refused not to die, 
 for the name of the Lord Jesus." 
 
 When extruded from their parish churches, 
 they met, in retired places, such part of their 
 flocks as sought their instructions, with a love 
 for the truth which surmounted the sense of peril ; 
 for the arm of power sought to suppress these 
 " conventicles," as they were opprobriously 
 termed. And yet, originally, this was a most 
 honorary name ; for the primitive churches were 
 
LIFE OP JOHN COTTON. 61 
 
 called " conventicles," by the pagan emperors, 
 in those days when the Roman sword dripped 
 with an unceasing stream of martyr's blood. "^ 
 
 When driven forth as banished men, our 
 fathers did not feel that they were forsaking the 
 sacred cause of the gospel. Their exile to these 
 western shores was a confession that the faith 
 was dearer to them, than all the cherished 
 objects of attachment they left behind. They 
 thus evinced how much they " preferred Jerusa- 
 lem above their chief joy." They regarded 
 their exodus from the land of bondage, as " not 
 a flight /ro??i duty, but unto duty." Here they 
 were enabled to bear a more decided testimony 
 against the intermixture of human inventions, 
 with divine ordinances, than they could have 
 done elsewhere. Here only, could they main- 
 tain in their purity, the worship and polity of 
 the gospel. We see the wisdom of God in 
 transplanting them to these vacant deserts, whose 
 remoteness made them more fit for free and 
 untrammeled inquiry for the ordinances of the 
 Bible. Here no antiquated prejudices rudely 
 thwarted the investigating mind. No frowning 
 cathedral, with gloomy pomp, predisposed the 
 mind of the worshiper to accord with usages. 
 
 * Arnobius, Lib. 4. Ed. Lugd., p. ir)2. Lactanlius, Inst. Lib. 5. 
 c. 1 1. De Morte Persec. cc. 15, 34, 36, 48. 
 
52 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 which, for centuries, had obscured the evangeli- 
 cal sincerity. Amid the aisles of the forest, and 
 beneath the dome of heaven, surrounded by na- 
 ture in its pristine state, as yet, untouched by art ; 
 environed by the works of the Creator, which 
 the hands of man had not assayed to remodel, 
 our fathers reverently hearkened to the oracles 
 of God. In this temple not made with hands, 
 they first celebrated that worship, which is not 
 of mere human appointment. It was thus, in 
 the wilderness, that God gave to Moses the pat- 
 tern of the tabernacle. It was while he was an 
 exile in an uncultured part of Chaldea, that 
 Ezekiel saw the plan of the temple. It was 
 during his banishment to the desert isle of Pat- 
 mos, that the Apostle beheld that glorious vision 
 of the city of God. And it was amid these pri- 
 meval solitudes, that God more distinctly mani- 
 fested to our pilgrim sires, the true frame and 
 model of the primitive Church. Here they 
 afforded a specimen of the new heavens and the 
 new earth, " which, according to his promise, 
 we look for." 
 
 For having obeyed their consciences, which 
 bid them obey the Bible, — for having followed the 
 leading of the Scripture, which is at once the 
 two-edged sword and royal sceptre of the Son of 
 God in his spiritual kingdom, — for refusing to 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 53 
 
 keep the commandments and traditions of men, — 
 the Puritans have been covered w^ith reproaches. 
 Especially have they been charged with the 
 odious accusation of separation from the true 
 Church of God ; breaking out of her enclosure, 
 and casting themselves, in all the presumption of 
 unbelief, on the uncovenanted mercies of God. 
 No pains have been spared to heap scorn upon 
 their name, and to brand them with the odious 
 crime of schism. 
 
 But this charge of schism they hurled back, 
 like Abdiel replying to the prince of darkness, 
 *' with retorted scorn." One of them, speaking 
 of the Laudians, and their triple plot of Armini- 
 anism, Romanism, and civil Despotism, for the 
 promotion of all which they so furiously urged 
 conformity, makes the following strong remarks : 
 " We dare not be guilty of the schism which we 
 charge upon that party in the Church of England : 
 and if any faction of men will require the assent 
 and consent of other men to a vast number of 
 disputable and uninstituted things, and utterly 
 renounce all christian communion with all that 
 shall not give that assent and consent, we look 
 upon those to be separatists." 
 
 The Puritans did not consider themselves as 
 excluded from communion by the Church of 
 England, but by a schismatical faction which 
 5* 
 
54 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 had gotten the upper hand in that communion. 
 They ever insisted that they were true and 
 faithful sons of that ancient Church : " nor did 
 they think it was their mother who turned them 
 out of doors," but some of their mother's children 
 who were angry with them, and who, abusing 
 ihe name of their mother, so harshly treated 
 them. They held, that the true Protestant Re- 
 forming Church of England, comprehended all 
 faithful, baptized Christians, however variant, 
 as to modes of belief and practice in lesser points 
 of religion, and wherever dispersed, throughout 
 the then British dominions. This holy and 
 catholic fellowship they steadfastly maintained. 
 They felt that it was unjust and libelous, that 
 they should be stigmatized as Schismatics, 
 merely because they were determined, as Christ- 
 ians ought to be, to allow of no unauthorized 
 intrusion upon the kingly office of their Lord. 
 They were sensible, that they were grossly 
 wronged in being treated as heretics, only for 
 conforming to the will of Christ, instead of the 
 will of man ; and for seeking to restore the sacred 
 streams of ecclesiastical usage to the primitive 
 channels, from whence they had been drawn 
 aside into so many branching canals by the 
 innovators of a dozen centuries. The Puritans 
 agreed with Bishop Stillingfieet in the preface to 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 55 
 
 his Irenicum, that Christ, "who came to take away 
 the insupportable yoke of the Jewish ceremonies, 
 certainly did never intend to gall the necks of 
 disciples with another, instead of it ; and it 
 w^ould be strange, if the church would require 
 more than Christ himself did ; and make more 
 terms of communion, than our Saviour did of 
 discipleship." " The grand commission the apos- 
 tles were sent out with, was only to teach 
 v;hat Christ had commanded them ; not the least 
 intimation of any power given them to impose or 
 require any thing, beyond what he himself had 
 spoken to them, or they were directed to by the 
 immediate guidance of the Spirit of God." To 
 the statutes of Christ, promulgated by the in- 
 spired Apostles, the Puritans ever gladly sub- 
 mitted. Though they refused to subscribe to 
 parliament canons, they were always ready to 
 subscribe to the New Testament. When Arch- 
 bishop Laud undertook to cut ofT such members 
 from the Church, our fathers regarded him as a 
 man who should bestride one bough of a tree, 
 and fall to sawing it off between himself and the 
 main-trunk, under pretence of lopping off the 
 whole tree ! They looked upon Laud as the 
 grand Schismatic, who was destined to catch a 
 severe fall as the result of his sectarizing opera- 
 tions. The last stroke of his axe, he felt in his 
 
66 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 own person, at what time the oppressed rose up 
 in desperation, " and wronged the wronger till 
 he rendered right." 
 
 There are many good reasons which will jus- 
 tify a man for transferring his covenant relation 
 from one true church, to another such. No 
 exception can be taken at the opinion of Dr. 
 Ames ; — " If any, wronged with unjust vexation, 
 or providing for his own edification, or in testi- 
 mony against sin, depart from a church where 
 some evils are tolerated, and join himself to 
 another more pure, yet without condemning the 
 church he leaveth, he is not therefore to be held 
 as a schismatic, or as guilty of any other sin. '"^ 
 To leave even a pure church, for one compara- 
 tively more pure, provided it be done with due 
 love and respect toward the body which is left, 
 is no rupture of spiritual unity, or breach of 
 Zion's peace. " Unity in diversity, and diver- 
 sity in unity, — is a law of nature, and also of 
 the Church." Though every tent-pin which 
 really belongs to the tabernacle, is hallowed and 
 precious, we should not break the cords, or rend 
 the curtains to pieces, for the sake of driving 
 every pin with the utmost exactness. 
 
 The guilt of schism, where it is actually in- 
 
 * Book of Conscience, Book iv: ch. xiv. no 16. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 57 
 
 curred, is terrible indeed. It is hateful in the 
 sight of the Lord. More rude than the soldiers 
 at the cross, it rends asunder his seamless ves- 
 ture. Nay in its wilder and more savage exces- 
 ses, it would fix its demon clutches on his sacred 
 and mystical body, to rend it, if that were possi- 
 ble, limb from limb. 
 
 Now if there were any schism involved in the 
 wide division of sentiments between the Puri- 
 tans, and the domineering heads who were then 
 lording it over God's heritage, we contend that 
 the fault lay wholly with the latter. They re- 
 fused to part with the popish relics which still 
 hung thick about the " Church by law estab- 
 lished," and which the first reformers had only 
 left for a season, till the state of public opinion 
 among the body of the people should be suffi- 
 ciently enlightened to permit the entire abolition 
 of them. Though the time had come when 
 these vestiges of popery might have been peace- 
 fully thrown off, the Laudians not only clung 
 tenaciously to them, but used every exertion to 
 restore as much as possible of the accursed Baby- 
 lonish vesture which had been cast aside. The 
 Puritans, who " hated even the garments spotted 
 by the flesh" of the idolatrous Church of Rome, 
 contracted no schismatic taint by their endeavors 
 to escape all contact with so much as one pol- 
 
58 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 luted shred worn by that ancient harlot who had 
 reveled so long on the spoils of Christ's king- 
 dom, and made herself drunk with the blood of 
 her saints. Well were they vindicated in a 
 speech of the eloquent Chatham, in the house of 
 Lords, in 1773. Dr. Drummond, archbishop of 
 York, had taxed the non-conforming clergy as 
 men of " close ambition." "They are so, my 
 lords," retorted the noble earl, " and their ambi- 
 tion is to keep close to the college of fishermen, 
 not of cardinals ; and to the doctrine of inspired 
 apostles^ not to the decrees of interested and 
 aspiring bishops. They contend for a spiritual 
 creed and a spiritual worship ; we have a Calvin- 
 istic creed, a popish liturgy, and an Arminian 
 clergy." Sure it was no sin for the Puritans to 
 do their best to bring the church out of such an 
 unnatural and unreasonable predicament, even 
 if it could only be effected by a remedy adequate 
 to the disease, — another Protestant reformation. 
 But we take stronger ground than this, in 
 vindicating our conscientious fathers from the 
 sin of schism. They did not willfully and will- 
 ingly withdraw from the communion of the par- 
 ish churches of England. As Chillingworth 
 says, they were " nonfi/gitivi, sedfugati ;" they 
 were not voluntary fugitives, but were driven to 
 compulsory flight. They were not spontaneous 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 69 
 
 seceders ; they were expelled by force and pow- 
 er. They would have remained in the folds 
 wherein they were born, had they been suffered 
 to do so, except on the impossible condition of 
 defiling their consciences and violating the Word 
 of God. They may have trembled somewhat at 
 the menaces of the great; but they trembled much 
 more at the Word of the Lord. They were 
 willing that others should conform, who could 
 do it without hurting their own consciences. 
 Even Luther coulH say ; — " I could be well 
 content to hold the pope in befitting respect and 
 honor, yet so far that he permitted me to have 
 my conscience at liberty, and forced me not to 
 oflfend my God, and to act any thing against 
 
 him." 
 
 But the non-conformists of England were not 
 allowed to abide in the national church, nor even 
 in the realm, except on the hard alternative of 
 conforming to what they felt to be sin, or else 
 mhabiting the prisons. They went not forth of 
 their own accord ; they were thrust out at the 
 sword's point. It was thus that they became 
 " strangers unto their brethren, and aliens unto 
 their mother's children." Who, then, were the 
 schismatics ? — the men, who, willing to tolerate 
 others, refused to sin against the sole supremacy 
 of Christ in his Church ? — or they who imposed 
 
60 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 unscriptural terms of communion, and exacted 
 strict conformity as the price of toleration ? 
 Says Hales of Eaton ; — " Where cause of schism 
 is necessary, there, not he that separates, but he 
 that occasions the separation, is schismatic."^ 
 We cannot but think that the sin of schism, if 
 any there be, cleaves to the tyrannous and im- 
 perious exactors of things which Christ has 
 never commanded ; and not to the pious recu- 
 sants. To these last may well be applied the 
 parting benediction of Moses ; — " Let the bless- 
 ing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the 
 top of the head of him that was separated from 
 his brethren." 
 
 The year 1662 is forever memorable in the 
 annals of the sufiering non-conformists. Then 
 was passed and enforced the infamous act of 
 uniformity, which deserves to be classed" with 
 the rescripts which caused the Bartholomew 
 massacres, and with the revocation of the edict 
 of Nantes. That act of uniformity was the di- 
 viding stroke of separation, and it was not dealt 
 by the hands of the Puritans, but by those of 
 their relentless oppressors. Jonathan Mitchell 
 was then pastor of Cambridge in New England: 
 a man of whom Baxter said ; — " If there could 
 be convened an oecumenical council of the whole 
 
 ♦ Tract concefning schism, in Sparks' Collection, v. 25. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 61 
 
 Christian world, that man would be worthy to 
 be the moderator of it."^ On the last day of that 
 eventful year, the matchless Mitchell, as his 
 friends loved to call him, wrote as follows ; — 
 " Our cause is not separation from any thing 
 good in other churches, whether truth of church- 
 state, or any doctrine rightly professed, or ordi- 
 nance rightly administered in them. But it is 
 reformation only of what is amiss or defective in 
 the churches we came from.t This defines the 
 true position of our fathers : a position which 
 none will assail, but those who fancy that 
 "healing the sores must maim the body." 
 
 When Moses, descending from the mount, 
 found the catholic congregation of Israel turned 
 to idolatry, he "took the tabernacle, and pitched 
 it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and 
 called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation.'* 
 In this, be sure, he was not guilty of schism ; and 
 much less were our fathers, when going forth 
 on compulsion, unwilling exiles, they took the 
 tabernacle, made in all things* according to the 
 pattern showed them in the mount, and set it 
 up, far from the camp of idolatry, in this west- 
 ern wilderness. As the followers of Jesus, who, 
 
 * Remarkablea of Dr. I. Mather, 
 t Elijah's Mantle, p. 2. 
 
 VOL. I. 6 
 
62 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 " that he might sanctify the people with his own 
 blood, suffered without the gate," their language 
 was ; — " Let us go forth unto him without the 
 camp, bearing his reproach ; for here have we 
 no continuing city, but we seek one to come." 
 Jesus was in his time a great reformer and Pu- 
 ritan, coming with his winnowing fan in his 
 hand, that he might thoroughly purge his floor : 
 and such schismatics as he and his apostles were 
 when cast out of the synagogues of Judea, even 
 such were our fathers when forcibly extruded 
 from the parish churches of England. 
 
 That they suffered this extrusion solely against 
 their will, and therefore were not accountable 
 for it, as being a misery they could not avoid, is 
 manifest from many proofs. It appears in that 
 celebrated and pathetic address sent by the first 
 Massachusetts emigrants while yet on board the 
 Arbella, " to the rest of their brethren in and of 
 the Church of England." "We are not of 
 those," say that noble band, "who dream of 
 perfection in this world ; yet we desire that you 
 would be pleased to take notice of the principals 
 and body of our company, as those who esteem 
 it our honor to call the Church of England, from 
 whence we rise, our dear mother, and cannot 
 part from our native country where she specially 
 resideth, without much sadness of heart, and 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 63 
 
 many tears in our eyes ; ever acknowledging 
 that such hope and part as we have obtained in 
 the common salvation, we have received in her 
 bosom, and sucked it from her breasts. We 
 leave it not, therefore, as loathing- that milk 
 wherewith we were nourished there ; but bless- 
 ing God for the parentage and education, as 
 members of the same body, shall always rejoice 
 in her good, and unfeignedly grieve for any sor- 
 row that shall ever betide her; and while we 
 have breath, sincerely desire and endeavor the 
 continuance and abundance of her welfare, with 
 the enlargement of her bounds in the kingdom 
 of Christ Jesus ; wishing our heads and hearts 
 were fountains of tears for your everlasting wel- 
 fare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in 
 the wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of 
 supplication."^ So too, the year before, the 
 pious Higginson, the faithful pastor of Salem, in 
 taking his last look of his native land from the 
 stern of his ship, exclaimed ; — " We will not say 
 as the Separatists were wont to say at their 
 leaving of England, Farewell, Babylon ! Fare- 
 well, Rome ! But we will say. Farewell, dear 
 England ! Farewell, the Church of God in Eng- 
 land, and all the Christian friends there ! We 
 
 * Hubbard, Chapter XXIII. 
 
64 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 do not go to New England as separatists from 
 the Church of England; though we cannot but 
 separate from the corruptions in it : but we go 
 to practice the positive part of church reforma- 
 tion, and propagate the gospel in America.'"^ 
 
 Jonathan Mitchell, at whose untimely death 
 it was said, that " all New England shook when 
 that pillar fell to the ground," thus expressed the 
 matter in his sermon, called " Nehemiah upon 
 the Wall." Speaking against '* separation, ana- 
 baptism and anarchial confusion," he says; — 
 " If any would secretly twist in, and espouse 
 such things as those, and make them part of our 
 interest, we must needs renounce it as none of 
 our cause, no part of the end and design of the 
 Lord's faithful servants, when they followed him 
 " into this land that was not sown." Separation 
 and anabaptism, are wonted intruders, and seem- 
 ing friends, but secret fatal enemies, to reforma- 
 tion. Do not, on pretence of avoiding corruption, 
 run into sinful separation from any true churches 
 of God, and what is good therein. And yet it 
 is our errand into the wilderness to study and 
 practice true Scripture reformation ; and it will 
 be our crown in the sight of God and man, if we 
 find it and hold it, without adulterating devia- 
 tions." 
 
 * Magnalia, Book III., ch. I., Sec. 12. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 65 
 
 Additional testimonies of the same character 
 will be given in another place. Such language 
 must fully exculpate such as used it from the 
 charge of making schismatical divisions, if it be 
 admitted that they uttered these expressions with 
 sincerity. We are too well aware, that some mean 
 and malignant writers, who were unable to con- 
 ceive it possible that men could entertain such 
 magnanimous sentiments as these, have ques- 
 tioned the sincerity of our fathers. The charac- 
 ter of our fathers, so bold to avow the truth, and 
 so resolute to suffer in its behalf, sufficiently 
 refutes the calumny. The most decided Con- 
 gregationalists among their descendants, whose 
 sincerity has never been questioned, read the 
 above cited declarations of Winthrop and his 
 associates with high approbation, and heartily 
 accord with the sentiments therein expressed. 
 The New England churches consider them- 
 selves to be purified branches of that original 
 church-stock which flourished in England, before 
 Romish art and violence had twisted it out of its 
 proper shape and form. 
 
 Surely it is the extremity of injustice to accuse 
 the Puritans as being of a schismatical temper. 
 They felt themselves, as we, their descendants, 
 and inheritors of their principles, now feel our- 
 selves to be, in full fellowship with all that is 
 
66 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 good and all that is true in the communion of 
 the Church of England and in every other 
 Christian denomination. They and we are in- 
 separably joined to the whole church catholic 
 of faithful men, " endeavoring to keep the unity 
 of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 
 
 The multiplicity of sects is much deplored. 
 A sect, according to the derivation of the word, 
 is something which is " cut off." But in New 
 England, the "standing order," is no sect, no 
 cut-off. We are not dissected from others, even 
 though they be severed from us. We be the 
 main-stock, which remains rooted and grounded, 
 even when parted branches are torn away. We 
 are the mother-church, and so no flying off of 
 her children, can make us as any one of them. 
 Whatever other respected denominations and 
 beloved sister-churches may be, we are here, no 
 sect, — no cut-off; but the original vine of God's 
 planting in this land. We grow upon the an 
 cient trunk, "partaking of its root and fatness." 
 We be no innovators, no revolutionists, no disor- 
 ganizers. Our church polity, and scheme of 
 doctrine, is in rightful possession of all the 
 ground it holds. 
 
 Thus, if we insist upon the use of the Bible 
 in our common Schools, we set up no novel 
 claim. This country was settled by Bible 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 67 
 
 Christians, who spent life and treasure for the 
 purpose of making the Bible the basis of our 
 system of education, as well as of all the rest of 
 our social institutions. We are only on defensive 
 and conservative ground, and are only moving 
 on in the straightforward track of duty. 
 
 We have showed the necessity of Puritanism 
 in the days of our fathers, — the need of thorough 
 ecclesiastical reform in regard to the infringe- 
 ments and usurpal encroachments upon Christ's 
 kingly office in the government of the Church 
 he had purchased with his own blood. In this 
 point of view, they were the light of the world, 
 and shone serene, far above the troubled clouds, 
 which by snatches obscured their brightness 
 from the sight of men. • 
 
 Yes : the Puritan piety was needed in that 
 day. And no less is it needed now. The 
 words of one of those good men are as seasona^ 
 ble as ever ; — " Babylon paints her face anew 
 at this day ; antichrist hath varnished his inter- 
 est, so that there are many who are allured and 
 taken with the beauty of that harlot." We have 
 also seen the truth of his further remark, that 
 " a loose protestant is fit to become a strict 
 papist.'"^ Human corruption is seeking as 
 
 * W. Sioughton, Election Sermon, 1668. p. 27. 
 
68 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 busily as ever, to obscure the beaming simplicity 
 of the gospel ; spoiling its divine beauty " through 
 philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of 
 men, after the rudiments of the world, and not 
 after Christ." Alas for our Zion, once "the 
 perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth," 
 alas for her, if that race of noble spirits shall be- 
 come extinct in such a day of rebuke and 
 blasphemy as this. " The fathers, — where are 
 they ? " 
 
 " O, they are fled the light ! Those mighty spirits 
 Lie raked up with their ashes in their urns; 
 And not a spark of their eternal fire, 
 Glows in a present bosom." 
 
 But no ; — the sacred flame is not quenched in 
 this land, which the prayers of our pilgrim sires 
 have hallowed, and made it holy ground. 
 
 " E'en in their ashes, live their wonted fires." 
 
 The latent heat pervades the soil, breathes geni- 
 ally in the air, and diffuses the life-warmth 
 through all our social state. 
 
 Our thoughts revert to those days of sorest 
 trial, when our fathers and mothers literally 
 " left all," to follow Christ into " a land not 
 sown." " Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan 
 him ; but weep sore for him that goeth away ; 
 for he shall return no more, nor see his native 
 country." What a scene the embarkation of 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 69 
 
 those sorrowing- companies of pilgrims must 
 have been. There were godly and reverend 
 ministers, disguised in shipman's garb, appre- 
 hensively watching, lest the pursuivant should 
 come to arrest their flight ; dreading to go, but 
 dreading more to be hindered from going. 
 There were men with anxious countenances, 
 hurrying the preparations for their tedious voy- 
 age ; — women, with care-worn features, and 
 looks of resignation, waiting the last signal in 
 silent agony : — children, poor things, who must 
 be borne far away, not knowing whither or why. 
 There were friends to be left behind, under the 
 sad presentiment of meeting no more on earth. 
 The tenderest ties were sundering, even such as 
 had never been severed before. Were there 
 ever sorrows or tears like those ? What impas- 
 sioned repetitions of terms of endearment, such 
 as excited afTection loves to utter, were mutually 
 breathed, till the voice became choked with emo- 
 tion, and they wept upon each other's necks till 
 they recovered speech again. Then comes the 
 breaking away from fond embraces, whose tender 
 pressure shall never again be felt ; — the brief 
 farewells, the ejaculated blessings, the affection- 
 ate charges, and messages of love to absent 
 friends. And now the last fast is cast off. The 
 vessel moves upon her billowy course. The 
 
70 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 forms so tearfully watched, recede into fainter 
 view. But waving signals tell of the " longing, 
 lingering glances," which cannot bear the deep 
 desponding anguish of the last — last look. 
 
 love of Jesus ! how does it triumph in such 
 an hour of bitterest woe ! the power of relig- 
 ion, which can constrain to a living martyrdom, 
 keen as the pangs of death, and torturing as the 
 cross ! Aye, how does it cheer the soul, not by 
 stupifying its sensibilities, but by lifting them 
 all torn and bleeding, to the view of a pitying 
 Saviour, and elevated in sublime devotion, re- 
 ceiving from his compassion, a rush of sympa- 
 thy, an overflowing consolation, a joy so full 
 of heaven, that earth and all its sorrows are 
 sweetly forgotten. Blessed wounds which bring 
 such healing ! Happy griefs w^hich teach such 
 comfort ! These scars of the heart are the love- 
 tokens of Christ, and the treasured pledges of a 
 home whose friendships are eternal, and where 
 parting is unknown. 
 
 Let us rally around the banner of our sires. 
 What recreant and caitive heart, what degener- 
 ate spirit would desert it now ? The pilgrims 
 bore it, like valiant standard-bearers, in the front 
 of the Lord's battle. There it has ever been 
 wont to fly, where the conflict raged strongest 
 against the powers of darkness. And still un- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 71 
 
 torn and untarnished, it has often waved over 
 the field of its glorious triumphs. Though the 
 flag, in these stiller times, may hang drooping 
 from the lofty staff, yet, when iniquity cometh 
 in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord, as a rush- 
 ing, mighty wind, shall lift up the ancient stand- 
 ard. Then, in sure token of victory, it will 
 spread out its ample folds, with the broad blazon 
 of the bannered cross. 
 
72 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mr. Cotton countenanced by the people in his non-conformity. 
 Suspension from ministry. Suspension unexpectedly tnken 
 off. Successful labors. Theological instructions. Indefatigable 
 preaching. Correspondence. Wonderful and general reforma- 
 tion. Archbishop Williams. Earls of Dorchester and Lyndsay. 
 Disabled by ague. Second marriage. Cited to High Com- 
 mission Court. Fate of the informer. Earl of Dorset intercedes W 
 for 3Ir. Cotton in vain. Concealment. Letter to I\Irs. Cotton. 
 Sets out to go to Holland. Diverted to Ixmdon. Interesting con- 
 ference with Mr. Davenport and others. Resolves to go to New 
 England. Embarks wiili dlLlJculiy in the Grithn. 
 
 When Mr. Cotton ceased from his conformity 
 with the exceptionable features in the national 
 worship, so great was his popularity with his 
 people, that, far from opposing him on that ac- 
 count, the greatest part of them sustained him 
 in his course. Thomas Leverett, however, one 
 of his parishioners,, with some others, prosecuted 
 complaints against their minister in the Episco- 
 pal courts ; till, after some time, he was silenced 
 by order of the bishop. 
 
 During his suspension, Mr. Cotton gave con- 
 stant attendance to the public preaching of his 
 substitute ; but never to the readinof of the Book 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 73 
 
 of Common Prayer. He was now subjected to 
 severe temptations to swerve from the path of 
 duty. He was not only promised, that he should 
 be restored to the freedom of his ministry, but 
 promoted to very great preferment in the church, 
 on condition of conformity to the scrupled rites, 
 only in a single instance. But he kept the in- 
 tegrity of his conscience undefiled, " unawed by 
 influence, and unbribed by gain." Meanwhile 
 a portentous cloud of troubles was gathering 
 over his head ; but was strangely dispersed 
 again. Mr. Leverett himself, the author of 
 these difficulties, became deeply penitent for 
 his agency in causing them. He went to one 
 of the proctors of the archi-episcopal court, to 
 whom he presented a pair of gloves, and then 
 made his appeal from the court below. Mr. 
 Leverett made oath before this officer, who 
 favored him in the terms of the deposition, that 
 " Mr. Cotton was a man conformable to the 
 mind of the Lord.'' On the strength of this 
 very ambiguous deposition, the silenced minis- 
 ter, he scarce knew how, found himself healed 
 of his ecclesiastical bronchitis, and restored to 
 the use of his voice in the pulpit. The same 
 Mr. Leverett ever after was his steadfast friend ; 
 and following his fortunes to this side of the 
 Atlantic, was for many years a useful elder in 
 
 VOL. I. 7 
 
74 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 the first church in Boston, Mass. By the same 
 means, Mr. Bennet, another of his parishioners, 
 occasionally screened his minister from harass- 
 ing prosecutions. 
 
 After this affair, Mr. Cotton went on with his 
 sacked duties, uninterrupted for many years. 
 Making no efforts to build up a party or to gain 
 adherents, he laboriously devoted himself to 
 teaching the people the Christian religion. 
 During the twenty years that he retained his 
 charge, he thrice went over the whole body of 
 systematic divinity, with especial pains to in- 
 doctrinate the younger part of his flock. In his 
 preaching he largely expounded several of the 
 books of Scripture, in which gift he greatly ex- 
 celled. 
 
 As one instance of his power to awaken the 
 conscience, it is said that he once handled the 
 sixth commandment with such effect, that a 
 woman who had been married sixteen years to 
 her second husband, openly confessed to the 
 crime of poisoning her former husband. This 
 confession she made, though it exposed her to 
 be burned to death at the stake ; the barbarous 
 punishment then awarded to such an offence, 
 wliitli was regarded as " petty treason." 
 
 So great was Mr. Cotton's celebrity as an in- 
 structor, that his house was full of young students. 
 
LTFK OF JOHN COTTON. 75 
 
 some of whom resorted to him from Holland, 
 and some from Germany. In those days, the 
 sons of the Puritans did not repair to the land 
 where too many of the learned, enveloped in 
 the fumes of their unquenchable pipes, " drink 
 beer and think beer," till their brains reek with 
 the noisome smoke of transcendental speculation. 
 The most of Mr. Cotton's pupils were from that 
 University where he had been trained ; for Dr. 
 Preston ever counseled his students who had 
 nearly completed the , prescribed course of stud- 
 ies, to perfect their preparation for public ser- 
 vices by a brief residence with the puritan 
 minister of Boston. It came to be a common 
 saying-, that " Mr. Cotton is Dr. Preston's 
 seasoning vessel." 
 
 His ministerial labors were abundant. In 
 addition to the ordinary duties of the Sabbath, 
 he preached statedly four times in the week, 
 viz., early each Wednesday and Thursday morn- 
 ing ; and again in the afternoons of Thursday 
 and Saturday. Moreover he frequently held 
 other occasional services, in which he often 
 spent six hours in prayer and preaching. When 
 we think of such immense labors sustained 
 through a long course of years, we are at a loss 
 which to admire most ; the indefatigable indus- 
 try of the teacher, or the insatiable eagerness of 
 
76 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 the people for his instructions. In these degen- 
 erate days, such congregations are as rare as 
 such ministers. For several of the latter years 
 of his residence in that well cultured field, he 
 was assisted by a colleague. That was not the 
 era of superabounding periodicals and cheap 
 literature. The mass of the people then de- 
 pended on hearing, for mental aliment and ex- 
 citement, as much as now on reading. 
 
 Mr. Cotton's usefulness was further extended 
 by a large correspondence with those who 
 sought his aid for resolving obscure points of 
 doctrine, difficult texts of Scripture, or perplex- 
 ing cases of conscience. Besides this he was 
 considerably occupied every year in providing 
 for the spiritual wants of other congregations ; 
 and especially in his native place, where he 
 was held in the highest estimation. 
 
 The multiplied toils of this faithful servant 
 were not thrown away. The Spirit of the 
 Lord was with him. There was 'a surprising 
 reformation of manners in the community. 
 Profaneness was well nigh abolished. Hurtful 
 and superstitious practices were done away. 
 The great body of the people became decidedly 
 religious. As the phrase was, most of the 
 Satanicals had become Puritanicals. The 
 mayor, with the greater part of the magis- 
 
LIFE OP JOHN COTTON. 77 
 
 trates, had embraced the truth. Many scores of 
 devout persons, without forming themselves into 
 a separate church, more fully perfected their 
 existing church-state by solemnly covenanting 
 with God and with each other, to follow the 
 Lord in the purity of his worship. The minis- 
 ter whose fidelity was thus rewarded, was the 
 admiration of his hearers ; " exceedingly be- 
 loved of the best, and admired and reverenced 
 of the worst." He was held in high respect by 
 some of the chief dignitaries both in Church and 
 State. It was noticed that the temporal pros- 
 perity of the town was much promoted by the 
 increased intelligence and good order which 
 pervaded the place in consequence of his activ- 
 ity. On his account it was much resorted to by 
 strangers, and " many gentlemen of good qual- 
 ity " made it their abode. 
 
 At this time, Mr. Cotton had a very able col- 
 league. Dr. Anthony Tuckney, afterwards Mas- 
 ter of St. John's College, Cambridge. While 
 he filled this latter office, he published a 
 " Briefe Exposition of Ecclesiastes," by Mr. 
 Cotton, a year or two subsequent to the latter's 
 decease. To this volume, printed at London in 
 1654, Dr. Tuckney prefixed a dedication, ad- 
 dressed to the mayor, with the aldermen and 
 
 other Christian friends, of Boston, in Lincoln- 
 
 7# 
 
78 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 shire. The dedication presents a very happy 
 picture of his joint ministry with Mr. Cotton in 
 that favored place. " The large interest," says 
 Dr. Tuckney, " which I have long enjoyed in 
 your favor, and which you must ever have in 
 my heart, hath emboldened me to prefix your 
 names to this piece ; and with the more confi- 
 dence of its acceptance, because in it an address 
 is made to you at once by two who sometimes 
 were together your ministers in the gospel of 
 Christ : by the ever to be honored Mr. Cotton, 
 in the book, and by my unworthy self in the 
 review and dedication of it. Both of us are 
 now removed from you : the one, first to a 
 remote part of the world, there to plant church- 
 es, — and thence, after that happy work done, to 
 heaven : the other to some more publique ser- 
 vice nearer hand. I often call to mind those 
 most comfortable days, in which I enjoyed the 
 happiness of joint ministry with so able and 
 faithful a guide : and both of us so much satis- 
 faction and encouragement from a people so 
 united in the love both of the truth, and of one 
 another. I cannot read what Paul writeth of 
 his Thessalonians, (in the first chapters of both 
 his epistles to them,) but I think I read over 
 what we then found in Boston. They were 
 then very happy days with you, when your 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 79 
 
 faith (lid grow exceedingly, and your love to 
 Christ's ordinances, ministers, servants, and to 
 one another abounded. AUhough your town 
 be situated in a low country, yet God then 
 raised your esteem very high : and your emi- 
 nency in piety overtopped the height of your 
 steeple. Your name was as an ointment poured 
 out, and your renown went forth for that beauty 
 and comeliness, which God had put upon you." 
 How can we refrain from lamenting, that a 
 •Christian flock, so happily and profitably united 
 under the guidance of its beloved pastors, could 
 not escape the fury of religious tyranny ? Such 
 interference is impotent as to any good, but all - 
 powerRil for evil. There is evidence, that the 
 leaven of Mr. Cotton's piety long lingered in 
 that once favored place. Perhaps we have an 
 evidence that its influence is still, in some 
 measure, transmitted to the present inhabitants. 
 In this year, 1846, the mayor and aldermen of 
 that ancient corporation addressed a letter to 
 the civic authorities of Boston in New England. 
 This well written communication was sent with 
 the noble design of drawing closer the bonds of 
 amity between two countries which were appre- 
 hended to be in some danger of coming to hos- 
 tilities. In this friendly missive, the people of 
 the mother town do not fail to remind the trans- 
 
80 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 atlantic daughter, that she is indebted to them of 
 old for their famous Mr. Cotton, and their more 
 famous name. From thence is drawn an argu- 
 ment for the peace of the nations to which these 
 cities respectively belong. 
 
 His learning, and his ability in putting it to 
 good use, made him a special favorite with 
 Archbishop Williams. And when that prelate 
 was bishop of Lincoln, and also Lord Keeper of 
 the Great Seal, being the last ecclesiastic who 
 held that office in England, he went to the im- 
 perious James I., and made so favorable a report 
 of Mr. Cotton's singular worth and learning, that 
 the king gave consent that his ministry should 
 not be interrupted on account of his non-con- 
 formity. And this was very remarkable, when 
 we consider that monarch's impetuosity and ex- 
 asperation against such as offended in that par- 
 ticular. The mystery of Mr. Cotton's impunity 
 was not known to Samuel Ward, of facetious 
 memory, the author of the " Simple Cobbler." 
 He remarked in his pleasant manner, " Of all 
 men in the world, I envy Mr. Cotton, of Boston, 
 most ; for he doth nothing by way of conform- 
 ity, and yet hath his liberty : and I do almost 
 every thing that way, and cannot enjoy mine." 
 
 The vicar of Boston was very much respected 
 by the earls of Dorchester and Lindsay. These 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. SI 
 
 noblemen being in the vicinity, attending to the 
 draining of some part of the Lincolnshire fens, 
 came to hear this noted preacher. His text 
 that day was Gal. 2 : 20 ; "I am crucified with 
 Christ," &c. ; and he was prepared to discourse 
 on the duty of living by faith in adversity. But 
 considering that these high and mighty lords 
 had never been very conversant with adversity, 
 he promptly reversed his subject, and expatiated 
 on the duty of living by faith in prosperity. It 
 is said, that they also heard him discourse on 
 civil government, and were greatly captivated 
 with the wisdom and spirit by which he spake. 
 They assured him of their friendship ; and 
 offered, if ever it should be needed, to exert all 
 their influence at the royal court in his behalf. 
 When these puissant nobles had occasioned 
 some scandal by indulging in diversions unsuit- 
 able to the Sabbath, they kindly accepted his 
 discreet admonitions, and promised reformation. 
 His faithful dealing is the more to be com- 
 mended, when we take into account the pro- 
 found veneration then felt for those who were so 
 favored in the accident of birth. We have heard 
 old countrymen, advanced in years, tell of the 
 awful respect in which nobility was held in 
 their young days : so that in attempting to 
 speak to a peer of the realm with his star upon 
 
82 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 his breast, the tongue would cleave to the roof 
 of the mouth. ^ The French revolution seems 
 to have forever broken down this feeling of 
 overpowering veneration for aristocracy. We 
 look upon an anointed king with far less emo- 
 tion in these times, when reverence for mere 
 rank is rapidly passing away. 
 
 Toward the end of his residence in Boston, 
 Mr. Cotton was for a whole year disabled from 
 preaching, by a quartern ague, which began in 
 September, 1630. His physicians advising a 
 change of air, he removed to the mansion of the 
 earl of Lincoln, another of his noble friends, 
 whose Countess was a lady of eminent piety. 
 Among their children was the celebrated lady 
 Arbella Johnson, and also the lady Susan, wife 
 of John Humphrey, one of the assistants. Both 
 of these ladies settled, and the former died, in 
 this colony of Massachusetts. In the hospitable 
 dwelling of their parents, Mr. Cotton recovered 
 his health : but lost his estimable wife by the 
 same disease, after a happy and religious union 
 of eighteen years. About a year after, he mar- 
 
 ♦ It is said, that a young lady from the country being ushered into 
 the dread presence i>f S;irali, Duchess of Marllwroui,'!!, lost all her self- 
 possession, and falling upon her knees, mechanically recited her cus- 
 tomary grace at meals : " Lord, make ua suitably thankful for what 
 we arc about to receive ! " 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 83 
 
 ried an estimable widow, Mrs. Sarah Story, 
 who was an endeared friend of his former wife. 
 Good Mr. Norton, speaking of these grave and 
 godly matrons, compares them with Euodias 
 and Syntyche, " which labored with Paul in 
 the gospel." 
 
 Not long after his second marriage, the tem- 
 pest, which had been delayed for so many 
 years, broke forth. There was in the town a 
 dissipated character, Gawain Johnson by name, 
 whose irregularities had brought him under the 
 notice of the correctional police. Resolved to be 
 revenged upon the magistrates by whom he had 
 been punished, he went up to London, and filed 
 an information against them in that infamous 
 tribunal, the High Commission Court. This 
 body was styled the " High Commissioners for 
 Causes Ecclesiastical : " and was first set up by 
 Queen Elizabeth in 1.559. It was composed of 
 bishops, privy counselors, officers of state, law- 
 yers, deans, and the like, to the number of forty 
 or more ; three of whom, usually with a bishop, 
 or other dignitary, at their head, were vested 
 with full power to inquire into and punish all 
 opinions or practices different from those of the 
 established Church. All such cases they could 
 try, either with or without a jury, the whole 
 supremacy and despotism of the monarch being 
 
84 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 committed into their hands by royal commission. 
 Persons informed against by letter only were 
 cited before them ; and in trying them, no re- 
 gard was had to the statute laws of the realm. 
 The accused were tossed about in the vast, 
 stormy jjnd most uncertain gulf of the common 
 law ; where shipwreck was almost inevitable. 
 The most odious of the proceedings in that 
 court, in which witnesses were not openly ex- 
 amined, was the oath ex officio ; — an oath by 
 which the prisoner was required to^answer any 
 question which should be put to him, no matter 
 how deeply the answer might injure him. If he 
 refused to swear, he was severely punished for 
 contempt of court ; if he answered, he was con- 
 victed on his own confession. This outrage 
 was systematically committed against every 
 principle of law and justice, requiring that no 
 man shall be compelled to criminate himself. 
 Hume has justly denounced the High Commis- 
 sion as a " real Inquisition ; attended with sim- 
 ilar iniquities and cruelties.'"^ Dr. Lingard, 
 himself a Romanist, says : *' The chief differ- 
 ence consisted in their names. One was the 
 court of Inquisition, the other of High Commis- 
 sion." t This tribunal, while it lasted, was in 
 
 * Eliz., chap. xli. 
 
 t History of England, vol. v., chap. vi. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 85 
 
 truth a very efficient substitute for the Inquisi- 
 tion, which Du Plessis Mornay energetically 
 called, " that hell of the papacy." 
 
 The charge made at the office of this in- 
 famous court against the Boston magistrates, 
 was for not kneeling at the sacrament, and for 
 neglecting some other ceremonies of the like 
 importance. The officers of the court required 
 that the minister's name should be inserted. 
 " Nay," said the informer, Johnson, " the min- 
 ister is an honest man, and never did me any 
 wrong." But being told that his complaint 
 would be thrown out unless it included the 
 name of the minister who permitted the alledged 
 irregularities, the miserable man, rather than 
 lose his revenge, inserted the name of one who 
 had never injured him. Upon this, letters mis- 
 sive were forthwith despatched to bring ]\Ir. 
 Cotton before that dreaded bar. 
 
 The Rev. John Rogers of Dedham, in Eng- 
 land, one of the sons of that Marian martyr who 
 used to be figured in the rude wood -cuts of the 
 New England Primer, was informed of the 
 accusation entered against Mr. Cotton. Mr. 
 Rogers received the sorrowful tidings just as 
 he was going to preach his weekly lecture. In 
 his discourse he deeply lamented the occur- 
 rence, and broke out, with a sort of prophetic 
 
 VOL. L 8 
 
86 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 fire, in words to this effect : — " As for that man 
 who hath caused a faithful pastor to be driven 
 from his flock, he is a wisp used by the hand 
 of God for the scouring of his people. But 
 mark the words now spoken by a minister of 
 the Lord ! I am verily persuaded, that the 
 judgments of God will overtake the man that 
 hath done this thing ; either he will die under a 
 hedge, or something else, more than the ordi- 
 nary deaih of men, shall befall him." Those 
 old men of God did not hesitate to venture a 
 prediction of this kind; for they had full often 
 witnessed the wretched end of such characters ; 
 
 "And old experience doth attain, 
 To something like prophetic strain." 
 
 and it came accordingly to pass, that this sorry 
 informer, very shortly after, died of the plague 
 under a hedge in Yorkshire. Through fear of 
 contagion, he perished alone, and was left long 
 unburied. Our fathers, who were exceedingly 
 inquisitive and trustful in such matters, did not 
 fail to recognize in this event an evident divine 
 retribution from the hand of Him, who, as the 
 Psalmist saith, "hath bent his bow, and made 
 it ready, — who ordaineth his arrows against ihe 
 persecutors." 
 
 Good Mr. Whiting, " the angel of the church 
 in Lynn," where he was the first pastor, was 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 87 
 
 himself a native of • old Boston. He wrote a 
 biographical sketch of Mr. Cotton, which was 
 the basis of John Norton's more extended 
 memoir, on which latter work Cotton Mather 
 enlarged considerably. To the facts related in 
 Mather's very valuable account, the present 
 narrative makes very great additions collected 
 from every available source. This Mr. Whiting, 
 speaking of John Cotton's enemies, who secretly 
 plotted, or openly acted, against him in old 
 Boston, remarks : — " They all of them were 
 blasted, either in their names, or in their estates, 
 or in their families, or in their devices, or else 
 came to untimely deaths ; which shows how 
 God hath owned his servant in his holy labors ; 
 and that in the things wherein they dealt proudly 
 against him, he would be above them." Doubt- 
 less, the avenging providence of God is not to 
 be rashly scrutinized. We cannot be too cau- 
 tious in the interpretation of such matters. 
 And yet a broad induction of facts will justify 
 the solemn conclusion, that " verily there is a 
 God that judgeth in the earth." His people 
 are his charge. " Yea, he hath reproved kings 
 for their sakes ; saying. Touch not mine anoint- 
 ed, and do my prophets "no harm." 
 
 Mr. Cotton, warned that letters missive were 
 issued against him, concealed himself from the 
 
88 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 easier search of the pursuivants by flight. He 
 was aware that, if apprehended, he had nothing 
 better to expect than to pine in perpetual impris- 
 onment, in which so many of his brethren had 
 worn out their shortened days. During his 
 concealment, his potent friend, the Earl of Dor- 
 chester, or as more commonly called, Dorset, 
 who was a thorough courtier, lord chamberlain 
 to the queen, and far enough from being a 
 Puritan, exerted all his influence in the case. 
 But that grinding and remorseless oppressor, 
 Laud, who, about this time, was made archbish- 
 op of Canterbury, and who on the very day that 
 he became primate and metropolitan of all Eng- 
 land, received, by a significant coincidence, the 
 ofler of a cardinal's hat from Rome, was inexor- 
 able. That bitter prelate would often exclaim : 
 " that I could meet with Cotton ! " The 
 noble earl, perceiving that all his intercessions 
 must be unavailing, wrote to the irreproachable 
 fugitive, that " if he had been guilty of drunk-, 
 enness, or unclean ness, or any such lesser fault, 
 he could have obtained his* pardon ; but inas- 
 much as he had been guilty of non-conformity 
 and puritanism, the crime was unpardonable; " 
 and ended with advising him to fly for his safety. 
 It is not surprising, after this sample of their 
 quality, that Mr. Cotton should long after say : 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 89 
 
 " The ecclesiastical courts are like the courts 
 of the high priests and pharisees, which Solo- 
 mon, by a spirit of prophecy stileth, dens of 
 lions and mountains of leopards. And those 
 who have to do with them, have found them 
 markets of the sins of the people, the cages of 
 uncleanness, the forges of extortion, the taberna- 
 cles of bribery." 
 
 There is extant a letter, dated October 3, 
 1632, written by Mr. Cotton while under con- 
 cealment, to the lady he had but lately married. 
 It is here inserted as presenting a confidential 
 expression of his feelings at the time. 
 
 Dear &c. If our heavenly Father be pleas'd 
 to make our Yoke more heavy than we did so 
 soon expect, remember I pray thee what we 
 have heard, that our heavenly Husband the 
 Lord Jesus, when he 1st called us to Fellow- 
 ship with himself, called us unto this Condition, 
 to deny ourselves, and to take up our Cross 
 daily, to follow him. And truly, tho' this Cup 
 be brackish at the first; yet a Cup of God's ming- 
 ling is doubtless sweet in the Bottom, to such 
 as have learned to make it their greatest Happi- 
 ness to partake with Christ, as in his Glory, so 
 in the Way that leadeth to it. Where I am 
 for the present, I am very fitly and welcomely 
 8# 
 
90 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 accommodated, I thank God : so as I see here I 
 might rest desired enough till my Friends at 
 Home shall direct further. They desire also to 
 see thee here, but that I think it not safe yet, 
 till we see how God will deal with our Neigh- 
 bours at Home : for if you should now travel 
 this Way, I fear you will be watched and dogged 
 at the Heels. But I hope shortly God will 
 make Way for thy safe Coming. The Lord 
 watch over you all for Good, and reveal him- 
 self in the Guidance of all our Affairs. So with 
 my Love to thee, as myself, I rest ; desirous of 
 thy Rest and Peace in him. J. C. 
 
 This letter, written under such circumstances 
 of painful separation, imminent peril, and un- 
 certainty for the future, betrays no petulant 
 impatience or unmanly repinings. It beautifully 
 portrays the sublime peacefulness of the mind, 
 which, in the hour of adversity, is stayed on 
 God. Within six weeks from the writing of the 
 above letter, this pious couple was again united, 
 though obliged still to live in concealment. 
 
 After earnest prayer for divine direction, and 
 much consultation with good men upon the sub- 
 ject, Mr. Cotton concluded to seek refuge in 
 Holland, whither so many of the Puritan minis- 
 ters and people had already fled from the vio- 
 
LIFE OP JOHN COTTON. 91 
 
 lence of persecution. Some of his Boston 
 friends urged him to permit them to sustain and 
 protect him, that they might privately enjoy the 
 benefit of his ministry, without which they must 
 be exposed to great temptation. But the vener- 
 able Mr. Dod, an old Puritan famous for his 
 piety and his wit, told them, " that the removing 
 of a minister was like the draining of a fish- 
 pond : the good fish will follow the water ; but 
 eels, and other refuse fish, will stick in the 
 mud." 
 
 That there were in the pond some good fish, 
 with life enough to follow the water, appears 
 from Mr. Cotton's book on the " Holinesse of 
 Church-Members," printed many years after in 
 1650. It is dedicated " to my honored, wor- 
 shipful and worthy friends, the Mayor and Jus- 
 tices, the Aldermen and Common Council, 
 together with the w^hole Congregation and 
 Church at Boston." Speaking of old times 
 with them, he says ; — " And ye became follow- 
 ers of us, and of the Lord ; and showed your- 
 selves ensamples in some first fruits of reform- 
 ation, unto many neighbor congregations about 
 you : 1 Thess. 1 . 6, 7. And though you saw, 
 that any small measure of reformation, (which 
 then was offensive to the State, and suffered 
 under the name of Non-Conformity,) would 
 
92 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 expose yourselves to some sufferings, unless you 
 deserted me, yet I bear you record, you chose 
 rather to expose yourselves to charge and hazard 
 for many years together, than to expose my 
 ministry to silence. And though, at last, in 
 that hour and power of darkness, when the late 
 High Commission began to stretch forth their 
 malignant arm against ns, I was forced to depart 
 secretly from you, (from some of you, I say,) 
 howbeit, not without the privity and consent of 
 the chief, yet sundry of you yielded up your- 
 selves, as Ittai to David, to follow the Lord 
 whithersoever he should call ; and to go along 
 with me, whether to life or death, in this late 
 howling wilderness. And though, after my de- 
 parture, you were^somewhat carried aside with 
 the torrent of the times, yet, I believe, not with- 
 out some apprehension of the light of the word 
 going before you, in your judgments, to the sat- 
 isfaction of your own consciences. And ever 
 since that time, wherein the strong hand of the 
 Lord, and the maglignancy of the times, had set 
 this vast distance of place, and great gulf of seas, 
 between us ; yet still you claimed an interest in 
 me, and have yearly ministered some real testi- 
 mony of your love. And at last, when the 
 Lord, of his rich grace, had dispelled the storm 
 of malignant church-government, you invited 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 93 
 
 me again and again, to return unto the place and 
 work wherein I had walked before the Lord and 
 you in former times. But the estate of those 
 of you who came along with me, and who there- 
 by had most interest in me, could not bear that. 
 Nor would my relation to the church here suffer 
 it. Nor would my age, now stricken in years, 
 nor infirm body, ill-brooking the seas, be able to 
 undergo it, without extreme peril of becoming 
 unserviceable either to yourselves or others." 
 
 From this document we learn several things, 
 which might not otherwise have come to our 
 knowledge. It appears, that the affections of 
 his old flock clung to their banished minister : 
 and that, through some twenty years of absence, 
 they annually sent him substantial tokens of 
 their anxiety to promote his comfort. We find 
 too, that when the execution of William Laud 
 and Charles Stuart had removed the bar to his 
 return, they sent him such reiterated and urgent 
 calls as could be declined only for the most im- 
 perative reasons. 
 
 To these reasons there is another to be added. 
 While the Long Parliament was at the height 
 of its power, before Cromwell had dosed it with 
 his " purging colonels," the presbyterial form of 
 government was imposed by law on the parishes 
 of England. Presbyterianism, at that time, ad- 
 
94 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 milled persons confessedly unregenerate to the 
 Lord's table. In reference to this, Mr. Cotton 
 told his importunate friends ; — " The estate of 
 your church, admitting more than professed 
 saints to the fellowship of the seals, and the 
 government of your church subjected to an ex- 
 trinsical ecclesiastical power, would have been 
 perpetual scruples and torments to my con- 
 science, which, knowing the terrors of the Lord, 
 and the conviction of my own judgment, I durst 
 not venture upon." To this he adds, in his 
 charitable, unreproaching manner ; — " Not that I 
 misjudge others who can satisfy their conscien- 
 ces in a larger latitude : but because every man 
 is to be fully persuaded in his own mind, and I 
 must live by my own faith. Rom. 14 : 5." 
 
 Mr. Cotton did not lay down his pastoral 
 charge in any summary or informal manner. 
 He first obtained the consent of his people, so 
 far as it was possible to consult them on the 
 subject. " On this point," he says, " I conferred 
 with the chief of our people, and offered them to 
 bear witness to the truth I had preached and 
 practiced amongst them, even unto bonds, if they 
 conceived it might be any confirmation to their 
 faith and patience. But they dissuaded me 
 from thai course, and thinking it better for them- 
 selves, and for me, and for the Church of God, 
 
LIFE OP JO h"n cotton. 95 
 
 to withdraw myself from the present storm, and 
 to minister in this country [New England, 
 whence this letter was written] to such of their 
 town as they had sent before hither, and such 
 others as were willing to go along with me, or 
 to follow after me.'"^ 
 
 Governor Hutchinson has preserved for us a 
 letter! to Dr. Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, writ- 
 ten by Mr. Cotton, a few weeks before sailing 
 for America, for the purpose of resigning his 
 vicarage into the prelate's hands. Dr. Williams 
 had showed him all the indulgence he could, till 
 Laud compelled the reluctant prelate to resort to 
 rigorous measures. Mr. Cotton gratefully ac- 
 knowledges the diocesan's kindness, gives a 
 short account of the drift of his ministry at Bos- 
 ton, and assigns the reasons of his departure in 
 a manner the most meek and respectful, and yet 
 happily blended with a high principled firmness 
 and religious independence. This communica- 
 tion breathes the deepest solicitude for the wel- 
 fare of the flock from which he was torn away. 
 
 Being thus fully released from all obligation 
 of duty to his recent charge, he took measures 
 
 * See letter, dated Dec. 3, 16:34, in Hutchinson's Original Papers, 
 page 56. 
 t Original Papers, p. 249, &c. The letter is dated May 7 : 1633. 
 
96 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 to effect his escape from his native shores. To 
 shun the officers who were on the watch for his 
 apprehension, he traveled under an assumed 
 name and a change of garb, toward the port 
 where he expected to embark for Holland. But 
 when he had nearly reached the place, he w^as 
 met by one of his relatives, who, by dint of per- 
 suasion and entreaty, induced him to betake 
 himself to London. 
 
 There were then in that city three pious min- 
 isters who considered the imposed ceremonies 
 as things in themselves of little consequence, 
 and as such submitted to them. One of these 
 was Dr. Goodwin, a clergyman of great distinc- 
 tion, and afterwards one of the leading divines 
 in the renowned Westminster Assembly. The 
 cynical Anthony Wood styles him and Dr. Ow- 
 en, " the two Atlasses and Patriarchs of Inde- 
 pendency." Another of the three alluded to was 
 Mr. Thomas Nye, in high repute for learning. 
 The other was John Davenport, the founder of 
 the New Haven colony, and one of the " chief 
 fathers" of New England. These gentlemen 
 embraced the opportunity of holding a confer- 
 ence with Mr. Cotton. Knowing him to be an 
 exceedingly dispassionate and judicious man, 
 they made no doubt but that they should con- 
 vince him, that it was his duty to conform 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 97 
 
 rather than to leave his country and his flock. 
 At this conference he first confuted all the ar- 
 guments they could array to justify their con- 
 formity ! and then vindicated his own course in 
 choosing to undergo so great privations, rather 
 than to defile his conscience by acquiescing in 
 customs which derogated from the kingly office 
 of the great Head of the Church. As the result 
 of these discussions, these three able champions 
 came entirely over to Mr, Cotton's views. Nor 
 does this detract at all from their just reputation, 
 but rather enhances it. " For he that is over- 
 come of the truth parteth victory with him that 
 overcometh, and hath the best share for his own 
 part." These men belonged to that class of 
 which good Fuller says, that " they count them- 
 selves the greatest conquerors, when the truth 
 hath taken them captive." The three, not long 
 after, themselves became exiles for the truth to 
 which they had honorably yielded."^ After Mr. 
 Cotton's death, Mr. Davenport gave a glowing 
 account of this interesting debate, in which, he 
 
 * This Dr. Goodwin lay wind-bound, in hourly expectation that the 
 pursuivants would seize him before the wind would favor his escape 
 lo Holland. Distressed as he was for a more propitious gale, he 
 cried, " Lord, if thou hast at this time any poor servant of thine who 
 wants this wind more than I do another, I do not ask for the chang* 
 ingofit: I submit unto it . The wind soon came about, and carried 
 him clear from his pursuers. 
 
 VOL. I. 9 
 
98 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 says, Mr. Cotton " answered with great evi- 
 dence of Scripture light, composedness of mind, 
 mildness of spirit, constant adhering to his prin- 
 ciples, and keeping them unshaken." The trio 
 of friends in this amicable contention were struck 
 with admiration at his might in the Scriptures, 
 his vast and various reading, his prompt memo- 
 ry, his ready reply, and his government of his 
 own spirit, far beyond what they had " taken 
 notice of in any man before him." Mr. Daven- 
 port closes by saying; — "The reason of our 
 desire to confer with him rather than any other 
 touching these weighty points, was our former 
 knowledge of his approved godliness, excellent 
 learning, sound judgment, eminent gravity, 
 candor and sweet temper of spirit, whereby he 
 could placidly bear those that differed from him 
 in their apprehensions. All which, and much 
 more we found ; and glorified God, in him, and 
 for him." This description explains the secret 
 of Mr. Cotton's uncommon success as a debater, 
 and as a resolver of the doubtful and difficult 
 questions in his casuistry which were constantly 
 submitted to him for solution. Truly, these 
 men who are so firmly tenacious of their opin- 
 ions, and yet thus maintain them in the spirit of 
 love and the meekness of wisdom, are usually 
 the most invincible and irresirstible in debate. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 99 
 
 In John Cotton's " Covenant of Grace," a 
 book written long after this, in America, of 
 which several editions were printed, there is, in 
 that of 1655, an Addr'ess to the reader, by Rev. 
 Thomas Allen, minister of St. Edward's, Nor- 
 wich, Eng., who a few years before had been 
 teacher of the church in Charlestown, Mass. 
 The addresser says of the author : "He was a 
 man of peace, of a very sweet spirit, and had a 
 very special faculty of composing differences in 
 the iudo-ments of the brethren. And thus much 
 I shall crave liberty to testify of him, that, be- 
 sides the multiplicity of occasions which was 
 constantly upon him, he was not without care 
 about the peace and welfare of the churches 
 abroad ; and notwithstanding his so vast a dis- 
 tance in body from the churches and saints in 
 his native country, yet he had great thoughts in 
 heart for the division of his brethren here, being 
 seriously studious how to compose and heal 
 their breaches. He hath sometimes said unto 
 me, being privately together ; — ' Brother, I per- 
 ceive there is a great gravamen which the one 
 party is much offended at with the other. I 
 pray let us study how we may ease and remove 
 it.' " 
 
 Mr. Whiting gives him this character as a 
 disputant : — " He was of admirable candor, of 
 
100 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 unparalleled meekness, of rare wisdom, very 
 loving even to those that differed in judgment 
 from him, yet one that held his own stoutly, 
 tightly maintaining and keenly defending what 
 himself judged to be the truth." Beware of 
 such men, unless you be willing to accord with 
 them. 
 
 It is worth mentioning here, that among the 
 auditors in that London conference, was Rev. 
 Henry Whitfield, rector of Oakley in Surrey, 
 who from that time became a conscientious non- 
 conformist, and was afterwards the founder of 
 the town and church of Guilford, in the New 
 Haven colony. 
 
 While secreted at London, by Mr. Davenport 
 and other ministers, Mr. Cotton gave up the 
 design of proceeding to Holland. He w^as dis- 
 couraged from betaking himself to that country, 
 for the same reasons which induced Mr. Robin- 
 son's Leyden flock to leave it for America. 
 Letters from Governor Winthrop, and from the 
 infant church in our own Boston, decided him 
 to shun the fires of persecution by braving the 
 waters of the ocean, then much more formi- 
 dable to the voyager than now. 
 
 It was about the middle of July, 1633, when 
 Mr. Cotton, with Thomas Hooker and Samuel 
 Stone, two ministers of great note, and with a 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 101 
 
 number of his old Boston parishioners, com- 
 menced his adventurous voyage. They sailed 
 in a vessel called the Griffin, the name of a 
 fabled creature, partly eagle and partly lion. 
 It was a ship of three hundred tons, having at 
 this time about two hundred passengers, of 
 whom four died while on the way. 
 
 Mr. Cotton and Mr. Hooker experienced 
 much difficulty in getting out of England ; for 
 long search had been made for them by the 
 emissaries of that odious instrument of all sorts 
 of tyranny, the High Commission Court. All 
 the ports were waylaid for their apprehension ; 
 and at the Isle of Wight, where it was expected 
 that the Griffin would have made her last stop- 
 page, she was strictly searched by the pur- 
 suivants. But the staunch ship afterwards, by 
 private agreement, lay off the Downs ; and, grif- 
 fin-like, with lion heart and eagle wings, swoop- 
 ed upon the prey, and bore it in triumph from 
 the disappointed hunters. 
 
 But oh, the sadness of that hour ! when the 
 hapless exiles, relieved at last from the haunt- 
 ing fear of capture, felt all their love of home 
 rise in the strength of that mastering passion. 
 Forgetting the bitterness of their lot, and re- 
 gardless of the hardships of the future, they 
 
 wept their last farewell to parted friends, and to 
 9# 
 
102 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 the native land they should see no more. Nat- 
 ural affection was strong ; but gracious affection 
 was stronger. The love of Christ constrained 
 them. God counted their bitter tears ; and they 
 have found them each a pearl in heaven. " And 
 Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, 
 there is no man that hath left house, or breth- 
 ren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or 
 children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, 
 but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this 
 time, houses, and brethren and sisters, and 
 mothers, and children, and lands, with persecu- 
 tions ; and in the world to come, eternal life." 
 
 We almost envy our fathers for their distress- 
 ing opportunity of evincing the strength, sin- 
 cerity and purity of their love to Jesus, before 
 they went to meet him joyfully at his judgment- 
 seat. And is there no way, in which the ten- 
 derness and constancy of our love may be put 
 to decisive proof ? Can we do nothing to show 
 that our hearts arc wholly given to the Lord ? 
 Aye, by crucifying our bosom-sins, by pure and 
 holy living, by unremitted efforts for the salva- 
 tion of men, by our utmost exertions to promote 
 the Church's grand mission work of the world's 
 conversion, by ceaseless sacrifices joyfully made 
 in the holy cause of benevolence, — by these, we 
 too may prove that Jesus has full possession of 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 103 
 
 our souls. Thus may we make it manifest, 
 that, in blood and in spirit, we are the sons of 
 the pilgrims. This shall argue for us, that we 
 are ready, if persecution should arise, to suffer 
 what our fathers endured : — that we are ready to 
 walk, like them, with firm, unfaltering step, 
 through pains and perils for conscience' sake : 
 that we are ready to follow on, through despoil- 
 ment, exile, bonds and death, to the celestial 
 throne, and the crown eternal. 
 
104 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Voyage lo America. Birth of Seaborn Cotton. Arrival at Bostorj. 
 Small beginnings. Interest felt in Mr. Cotton's coming. Admi*- 
 slon to the church. Installation. Laying on of hands, why used. 
 Distinction between the oflices of pastor and teacher. Not two 
 orders in the ministry, but ditferent employments of the same 
 order. " God's promise lo his Plantations." Mr. Cotton's ser- 
 vices in giving form and order to ecclesiastical aind civil affairs. 
 Utility of order. 
 
 It was about the middle of July, in 1633, when 
 Mr. Cotton commenced his voyage. Both he 
 and Mr. Hooker preserved their disguise, till 
 they were so far over the main ocean, that they 
 could safely disclose who they were. Mr. 
 Stone, who was much the youngest, and f^r 
 whom the search was not so furious, performed 
 all the public religious duties of the ship's com- 
 pany, till his companions could resume their 
 character as preachers, and officiate in their 
 turns. 
 
 This was a richly freighted ship, bearing a 
 large part of the fortune of New England. Our 
 pun-loving ancestors observed, at her coming, 
 that God had supplied them with three neces- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 106 
 
 sary commodities : " Cotton for their clothing-, 
 Hooker for their fishing, and Stone for their 
 building." During the voyage, they usually 
 had three services every day ; which was, per- 
 haps, the first example of a " protracted meet- 
 ing." When they had been a month at sea, 
 Mr. Cotton, whose first wife died childless, 
 became a father. This, his eldest child, re- 
 ceived the name Seaborn, in commemoration of 
 the mercies attending his birth. Seaborn Cot- 
 ton lived to be a highly useful and honored 
 minister of the gospel. There were other chil- 
 dren born on the same passage. At the end of 
 seven weeks, which was then regarded as a re- 
 markably expeditious and prosperous voyage, 
 they landed at what is now the good old city of 
 Boston, on the third day of September, 1633. 
 
 This place had then been settled three years. 
 Governor Dudley says, that the first settlers, 
 previous to their coming hither, had already 
 determined to name the place they should fix 
 upon after the scene of Mr. Cotton's pastoral 
 labors, and in compliment to him, with the hope 
 that it might be some little inducement to him to 
 come there himself. The compliment, however, 
 at the time, was not so very flattering. For so 
 forlorn and unimposing was this little out-of-the- 
 way settlement, that our fathers, who delighted 
 
106 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 in puns, anagrams, alliterations, and other 
 modes of playing wpon words, used rather 
 familiarly to call it Lost-town. .Let them be 
 excused, if, by such pleasantries, they some- 
 times sought to alleviate the discomforts of their 
 lot. The place soon began to wear a more cheer- 
 ing aspect ; and flourished more and more, till 
 it far exceeded in importance the parent-town 
 whose name it inherited. Our elder writers 
 ascribe much of its early prosperity to the wis- 
 dom, conduct and credit of Mr. Cotton; who 
 seems to have had something of the talent of 
 the Athenian statesman, who, when laughed at 
 because he had no skill to touch the lute„ 
 retorted that he knew not how to fiddle ; but he 
 knew how to raise a small city into a powerful 
 state. In New England, " a little one became 
 a thousand, a small one a strong nation." 
 
 Just before his arrival, the people had been 
 holding a special season of fasting and prayer, 
 urging their covenant with God as a reason 
 why he should send them a spiritual guide, to 
 be unto them, like Hobab to the tribes of Israel, 
 " as eyes in the wilderness." Their supplica- 
 tions were answered in the gift of this " able 
 minister of the New Testament." Mr. Cotton 
 was then about forty-eight years of age, and 
 ripe in wisdom, knowledge, experience and 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 107 
 
 grace. At his coming, his services were called 
 for in different directions. His great capacities 
 for usefulness were considered to be the com- 
 mon property of the whole colony ; and it was 
 at first proposed, that his support should be pro- 
 vided for from the colonial treasury, in consid- 
 eration of the public benefit expected to accrue 
 from his labors. This motion however, was, 
 very properly, overruled. The magistrates and 
 other leading men decided, that this great light 
 must be set in the chief candlestick ; and, 
 within a fortnight, designated him to be Teacher 
 of the First Church in Boston, of which the Rev. 
 John Wilson was then Pastor, 
 
 Mr. Cotton was first to be admitted to the 
 church. This was an interesting scene. There 
 was a stated religious service held on the Sat- 
 urday evenings. At the first of these meetings 
 after his landing, he, by request, took part in 
 the discussion of the question, which, on that 
 occasion, happened to be in reference to the 
 -church. He expatiated upon the diversities in 
 the spiritual state and grades of purity of difler- 
 €nt churches. He showed from the Song of 
 Solomon 6 : 8, that some churches are as queens, 
 some as concubines, and some as virgins. After 
 this, he and his wife were propounded for ad- 
 mission. 
 
lOS LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 On the Lord's day following, he conducted 
 the exercises of public worship in the afternoon. 
 He then expressed his desire to make a confes- 
 sion of his faith, according to usage. His con- 
 fession related chiefly to the subject of baptism, 
 which he then desired for his child. He gave 
 his reasons for not baptizing it while at sea ; 
 from which it appears, that he then held that 
 the sacraments can only be administered in a 
 settled congregation, or organized church ; and 
 also, that a minister, notwithstanding his official 
 character, can dispense the seals only in his 
 own congregation. On this last point, at least, 
 he afterwards changed his views so far as to 
 maintain that a minister micfht ff'ive the sacra- 
 ments in a church which is destitute of the 
 proper officers. 
 
 Mr. Cotton next requested the admission of 
 his wife, to whose qualifications for membership 
 he bore "a modest testimony." He craved that 
 she might be excused from making a public 
 oral profession of her faith, as was then the cus- 
 tom of the church. He regarded the practice as 
 ' unfit for women's modesty," and contrary to 
 the apostle's rule. To her examination in pri- 
 vate by the elders, he had no objections. So she 
 was asked, whether she consented to the con- 
 fession of faith made by her husband, and con- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 109 
 
 curred in his desire for admission. Upon her 
 answering in the affirmative, they were both 
 admitted by vote of the church. Their child 
 was then baptized by Mr. Wilson, the father 
 himself presenting it. At the baptism of an- 
 other child, which took place at the same time, 
 he gave it as a reason for disusing the unscript- 
 ural and unnatural custom of employing spon- 
 sors, that the ordinance was designed as the 
 " parents' incentive for the help of their faith." 
 
 A month afterwards, October 10, 1633, a day 
 of fasting was observed. Thomas Leverett, 
 " an ancient, sincere professor," an old parish- 
 ioner of Mr. Cotton, and his fellow-voyager to 
 this country, was chosen ruling elder ; and Mr. 
 Firmin, " a godly man," was elected deacon. 
 These officers were ordained by imposition of 
 the hands of the presbytery : that is to say, the 
 pastor, and such ruling elders as were pre- 
 viously in office. The pastor and other officers 
 of each particular church constituted the presby- 
 tery of that church ; and in this sense alone can 
 the term Presbyterian apply to our Congrega- 
 tional Churches. 
 
 This business being over, Mr. Cotton was 
 
 then publicly chosen by the Church to be their 
 
 Teacher, which was made manifest by the 
 
 members' lifting up their hands. Next, the 
 
 VOL. I. 10 
 
110 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 pastor, Wilson, demanded of him whether he 
 accepted that call. After a pause, he replied to 
 the effect, that he knew "his unworthiness and 
 insufficiency for the place ; yet, recounting the 
 particular passages of God's providence which 
 concurred to call him to it, he felt himself con- 
 strained in duty to accept it. Upon this, the 
 pastor and two ruling elders laid their hands 
 upon his head, and the pastor prayed. Then, 
 removing their hands, they again placed them 
 on his head ; and calling him by name, from 
 thenceforth separated him to the said office in 
 the name of the Holy Ghost, laid upon him the 
 charge of the congregation, and in this signifi- 
 cant manner indued him with all the privileges 
 of his station. Last of all, they formally 
 blessed him. The presbytery of the church 
 having thus completed its part in this interest- 
 ing ceremony, the ministers of the neighboring 
 churches there present gave him, at the pastor's 
 request, the right hand of fellowship. The pas- 
 tor finally made a mutual stipulation between 
 the church and its newly inducted teacher. 
 
 In respect to the solemn imposition of hands, 
 just spoken of, or ordination as it is often termed, 
 we must observe that it does not follow of course, 
 that Mr. Cotton renounced the ministry he had 
 formerly received in the Church of England. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. Ill 
 
 This may seem to be the natural supposition. 
 But it must be borne in mind, that when, three 
 years before, Mr. Wilson was constituted teacher 
 of the same church, it was done in a similar man- 
 ner ; but with a protestando, that it was no reor- 
 dination, as we now understand the term. These 
 are the words of Governor Winthrop, who as- 
 sisted on that occasion : " We used imposition 
 of hands, hut with this protestation by all, that 
 it was only as a sign of election and confirma- 
 tion, not of any intent that Mr. Wilson should 
 renounce his ministry he received in England." '^ 
 This is sufficiently explicit. And when the same 
 Mr. Wilson, about one year prior to Mr. Cot- 
 ton's arrival, was made pastor of the same 
 church in which he had been thus constituted 
 teacher, this too was done by the laying on of 
 the hands of the ruling elder and the deacons. 
 Of course, in this case, no protestation was 
 needed, for it is impossible to suppose that the 
 Church would nullify its own previous ordi- 
 nance. Nor was any express protestation neces- 
 sary in Mr. Cotton's case ; for it had already 
 been established, by the precedent in Mr. Wil- 
 son's instance, that no renunciation of his pre- 
 vious ministerial authority was intended. 
 
 * Winthrop's History of New England, vol. 1, p. 32, 33, Savage's 
 edition. 
 
112 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 The first installation in New England in 
 which the laying on of hands was omitted, was 
 that of Kev. Charles Morton, settled over the 
 First Church in Charlestown, the 5th of No- 
 vember, 16S6. ]\lr. Morton thus alludes to the 
 subject in a letter written some three years after 
 to the right honorable Hugh Boscawen, Esq., in 
 England : " Though their custom has been a 
 new imposition of hands upon every new call to 
 the exercise of the ministry, yet to us, who 
 came from Europe, Mr. Bailey"^ and myself, it 
 was abated. And for aught I can perceive, they 
 mind more the substance of religion, than the 
 circiimstances oi some men's private opinions."! 
 Dr. Increase Mather gave the charge, " and 
 spoke in praise of the Congregational way, and 
 said. Were he as Mr. Morton, he would have 
 hands laid on him." Rev. Joshua Moodey 1: 
 also, in his prayer, alluded to the subject, and 
 intimated, that •' that which would have been 
 grateful to many, namely, laying on of hands, 
 was omitted." <$> From that time, the precedent 
 
 * Installed October 6, 1686, in Waterlown, Mass ; afterwards 
 pastor of the First Church in Boston. 
 
 t This letter ia transcribed in part into a very admirable work by 
 Samuel Mather, D. D., called " An Apology for the Liberties of the 
 Churches in Now England." Boston, 1733, p. 148. 
 
 1 Pastor of the First Church in Boston, 
 
 § Budington's History of the First Church in Charlestown, p. 102, 
 103. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 113 
 
 set by Mr. Morton, in the case of resettling 
 ministers who had been previously ordained, 
 was followed more and more, till it became the 
 constant practice. Previous to this change, 
 ministers, in the intervals between one pastoral 
 care and another, were regarded as they are 
 now. They were spoken of, and treated as 
 ministers, and exercised their function as occa- 
 sion required. Reimposition, when used, was 
 not intended to restore the ministerial charac- 
 ter, as though that had been lost ; but to desig- 
 nate the person to a special charge. 
 
 Our fathers neither regarded imposition of 
 hands as an act that could not be repeated, nor 
 as essential to the validity of an ordination. 
 Theodore Beza, Calvin's famous successor at 
 Geneva, never received it ; and, under John 
 Knox's influence, it was for some time disused 
 in Scotland. It was not an act that could not be 
 repeated. They viewed it simply as a solemn 
 designation of the individual to a particular 
 office or dut}^ in the church, and as a sign of 
 investiture. They held, that every true minis- 
 ter must, in the first place, be inwardly called to 
 the work by the Spirit of God, as Aaron was ; 
 and then he must be outwardly called by some 
 church of Christ. They held that this power 
 of external vocation, \yhich belongs to the 
 10*^ 
 
114 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 church, is far superior to ordination, which, in- 
 deed, is included in it, as the less is included in 
 the greater. The church being able to give a 
 lawful calling to a minister, is much more able 
 to carry that call into effect by the simple cere- 
 mony used for that purpose by the brethren in 
 the apostles' time. Hence they maintained the 
 validity of what is sometimes called lay-ordina- 
 tion ; but which they, regarding it as the act of 
 the whole body of the church, the original 
 source of all spiritual power, considered as hav- 
 ing in it more of ecclesiastical authority than if 
 performed only by some of its officers acting by 
 delegated powers. Accordingly, in some very 
 few instances, the ceremony was performed, 
 even in the presence of numerous ministers, 
 only by the presbytery, or officers of the partic- 
 ular church, occasionally assisted by some of 
 the brethren. This was done merely by way of 
 asserting and establishing the great pilnciple, 
 that the power of ordination resides in, and 
 emanates from, the Church. After this had 
 been sufficiently understood, it became the inva- 
 riable custom, and so continues to this day, that 
 the ceremony should he performed by other 
 ministers. But though administered by coun- 
 cils, it is still regarded as done solely at the re- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 115 
 
 quest of the church which convenes the council 
 for that purpose. 
 
 The distinction between the duties of the 
 pastor and teacher, is thus defined in the Cam- 
 bridge Platform : " The pastor's special work 
 is, to attend to exhortation, and therein to ad- 
 minister a word of wisdom ; the teacher is to 
 attend to doctrine, and therein to administer a 
 word of knowledge." Both are empowered to 
 dispense the sacraments, to execute church- 
 censures, and to preach the Word, as to which 
 duties, " they are alike charged withal." ^ The 
 pastor, on whom chiefly devolved the care of 
 the flock when out of the pulpit, was expected 
 to spend his strength mostly in exhortation, 
 persuading and rousing the church to a wise 
 diligence in the Christian calling. The teacher 
 w^as to indoctrinate the church, and labor to in- 
 crease the amount of religious knowledge. His 
 workshop was the study ; while the pastor 
 toiled in the open field. Thus Mr. Cotton 
 gave himself up to reading and preparation for 
 the instruction of his people. Twelve hours of 
 close application he used to call " a student's 
 day; " and such a day's work he usually per- 
 formed, secluded among his books. For intelli- 
 
 * Chap. VI., sec. 5. 
 
116 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 gence respecting the state of his flock, he 
 depended mostly upon the pastor and ruling- 
 elders. He received many visits, but seldom 
 made any himself. Perhaps it may help to a 
 clearer understanding of the difference in the 
 nature of these two offices, to state, that when a 
 case of excommunication occurred, it belonged 
 to the pastor to conduct the business and pro- 
 nounce the sentence, if the offence related to 
 immorality or " disorderly walking ; " but if it 
 were a matter of heretical or erroneous opin- 
 ions, it vvas expected that the teacher would 
 preside. 
 
 In the estimation of our fathers, the pastor's 
 station was considered to have rather the prior- 
 ity in importance and dignity. It has been a 
 source of perplexity with some, how this could 
 be, seeing that the teacher was sometimes much 
 more distinguished, as to his attainments and 
 general character, than his colleague ; as hap- 
 pened in this case of Mr. Cotton as compared 
 with Mr. Wilson. But it seems to be very in- 
 telligible, that a man may be pre-eminently 
 endowed with the qualifications needful in a 
 religious teacher, and yet be comparatively unfit 
 for the more active duties of the parochial care. 
 On the other hand, a man may be admirably 
 fitted to watch as a pastor over the flock of God, 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 117 
 
 who is comparatively disqualified to feed that 
 flock with knowledge and understanding. 
 
 It must not be supposed, that our fathers insti- 
 tuted two orders in the ministry. They firmly 
 held, that all ordained ministers were of equal 
 rank ; and that there is not the slightest supe- 
 riority of one over another, except such as 
 results from superior wisdom, knowledge, piety, 
 zeal, and reputation arising from either or all of 
 these, by which individuals are occasionally ele- 
 vated to a higher degree of estimation and influ- 
 ence than iheir brethren generally. With them, 
 the terms elder, pastor and bishop, were synony- 
 mous and interchangeable, as they are in the 
 New Testament, where they are used as differ- 
 ent names for the same office. The distinction 
 between the duties of the pastor and teacher was 
 merely a division of the labors belonging to their 
 common calling ; each taking the part for which 
 he was best qualified, without considering wheth- 
 er, in personal matters, he were the greater or 
 more honored of the two. The precedence was 
 accorded to the pastor, because the part of the 
 work assigned to him is essentially the more im- 
 portant part. For " the word of wisdom," in 
 which he was to deal, must be considered as 
 more honorable than " the word of knowledge,'* 
 which was the allotted province of the other. 
 
118 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Without any disparagement of the latter, we 
 may assent to the poet's estimate of the relative 
 value of each : — 
 
 "Knowledge dwells 
 In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; 
 Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. 
 Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass, 
 The mere materials with which wisdom builds, 
 Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to his place, — 
 Does but encumber what it seems to enrich. 
 Knowledge is proud, that he has learned so much ; 
 Wisdom is humble, that he knows no more." 
 
 In this matter we may give more weight to 
 an opinion of Martin Luther's, recorded in his 
 " Table Discourses," as it seems in some sort to 
 be a decision against himself. " One asked 
 Luther, Which were greater and better — to 
 strive against the adversaries, or to admonish 
 and lift up the weak ? He answered and said, 
 ' Both are very good and necessary ; but it is 
 somewhat greater and better to comfort the 
 faint-hearted.' " 
 
 The usage which now prevails in our churches 
 does not so much set aside the distinction be- 
 tween pastoral and teaching duties, as blend 
 both offices in one person, who is both pastor 
 and teacher to his congregation. Most of our 
 churches think themselves too small to require 
 the labors of two officers, and too poor to sus- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 119 
 
 tain them. It were well, if they generally took 
 better care of the single minister in whom these 
 duties are united. Indeed these duties nat- 
 urally run into each other, and it is impossible 
 precisely to point out their bound-marks. It is 
 now expected that doctrine shall be preached 
 practically, and that practice be preached doc- 
 trinally. It is expected that each shall be so 
 discussed, as that one shall involve the other, 
 and their mutual relations be distinctly ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 Perhaps it would be well for larger and more 
 affluent churches to restore the ancient usage, 
 which our earlier churches practiced so far as 
 they were able. It is very rare to find a person 
 who combines the requisites of a pastor and a 
 teacher in a high and equal degree. And the 
 killing attempt to unite each sort of excellence, 
 where nature had conferred but one, has often 
 occasioned a lamented waste of life and talents. 
 The distinction recognized by our fathers still 
 exists, as it must in the nature of things. How 
 often it is said, Such an one is a fine preacher, 
 but no pastor ; and that another is a faithful 
 and successful pastor, but does not excel so 
 much in the pulpit. And their respective hear- 
 ers, who have sense enough to know that they 
 
120 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 cannot have every kind of perfection in one 
 man, try to be thankful for such as they have. 
 
 About this time Mr. Cotton preached a ser- 
 mon, which has been repeatedly printed under 
 the title, '* God's Promise to his Plantations." 
 Its object is to exhibit the reasons which may 
 justify so serious a step as the forming of a new 
 settlement, like that in which he and his asso- 
 ciates were engaged. Its chief felicity, how- 
 ever, is the text, " Moreover I will appoint a 
 place for my people Israel, and I will plant 
 them, that they may dwell in a place of their 
 own, and move no more."^ Whatever fastidious 
 critics may think of our forefathers' antiquated 
 sermons, it cannot be denied that they had a 
 singularly happy faculty of finding appropriate 
 texts for every occasion. Mr. Cotton's selec- 
 tion, in the instance now referred to, had the 
 additional merit of being fulfilled in the result. 
 In our fathers and their posterity, was fulfilled 
 that which was spoken by the prophet of the 
 Lord : " He hath cast the lot for them, and his 
 hand hath divided it unto them by line ; they 
 shall possess it forever, from generation to gen- 
 eration shall they dwell therein. The wilder- 
 ness and the solitary place shall be glad for 
 
 * 2 bam. 7 : 10. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 121 
 
 them ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom 
 as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and 
 rejoice, even with joy and singing." 
 
 At the time of Mr. Cotton's arrival, the eccle- 
 siastical and civil affairs of the colony were in a 
 confused plight. Under his advice, the state of 
 affairs improved so rapidly, and became so well 
 arranged, as to give some countenance to the 
 expression of one by no means friendly to what 
 he calls " the innovating genius of the great Cot- 
 ton," and who speaks of him as "sovereign in 
 his dogmas, and absolute in power." One of 
 our oldest historians has said, " Such was the 
 authority he had in the hearts of the people, 
 that whatever he delivered in the pulpit was 
 soon put into an order of court, if of a civil, or 
 set up as a practice in the church, if of an ec- 
 clesiastical concernment."^ 
 
 Our Congregational churches are greatly in- 
 debted to him for that pre-eminent liberty they 
 enjoy. The liberty and power which Christ, 
 the King, had vested in his people, had for ages 
 been wrested away by men who, like all usurp- 
 ers, proved to be tyrants ; and turned, as the 
 Puritans said, " the Lord's house into a house 
 of Lords," where they domineered over the 
 
 * Hubbard'a History of New England. 
 VOL. T. 11 
 
V22 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 faith and consciences of the disciples. The 
 rightful power and freedonn of the churches was, 
 by Mr. Cotton, deduced afresh from the Script- 
 ures, and fully re-established in practice. Our 
 churches have ever since been nobly jealous and 
 tenacious of that free ecclesiastical order which 
 Christ conferred upon them, and for whose 
 restoration they are indebted, under God, to Mr. 
 Cotton and his pious and learned associates. 
 
 An eccentric preacher of the Wesleyan per- 
 suasion, who has been for some time deceased, 
 is said to have publicly characterized the most 
 numerous denominations in New England in 
 this manner : " The watchword of the Congre- 
 gationalists is. Order ! order ! That of the 
 Baptists is, Water ! water ! And that of the 
 Methodists is, Fire ! fire ! " We have good 
 reason to be satisfied with our part of this 
 description. For water and fire are good ser- 
 vants, but very bad masters ; or, as the Duke of 
 Bridgewater was wont to say, " They are the 
 best of friends, but the worst of enemies." On 
 the other hand, "order is heaven's first law." 
 It is this which makes all the difllerence between 
 the stately walls of the temple, and heaps of 
 stones and building lumber. Ben Johnson sen- 
 tentiously observes : " It is only the disease of 
 the unskillful, to think rude things greater than 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 123 
 
 polished, or scattered more numerous than com- 
 posed." And Dryden's rhyme affords us a 
 valuable precept : — 
 
 " Set all things in their own peculiar place ; 
 And know that order ia the greatest grace." 
 
 Richard Hooker rejoiced, on his death -bed, at 
 the prospect of soon entering a world of order. 
 And doubtless the church on earth will more 
 closely resemble the church in heaven, when 
 every minister and every member shall be, as 
 godly John Norton says Mr. Cotton was, " like 
 the heavenly bodies, always in motion ; but 
 Btill careful to keep within his proper sphere." 
 The God whom we worship and serve, " is not 
 the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all 
 churches of the saints," 
 
124 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Principles of Congregational Church PolUy. Nature of the Church. 
 Simplicity of worship instituted by the New Testament. Early 
 innovations and perversions. Reformation in England incom- 
 plete. Diversities among the Puritans, some at either extreme. 
 Massachusetts Colonists shunned extremes. John Cotton's ' Keys 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven.' Cambridge Platform, 1648. Subject 
 proposed and divided. 1. Nature of the Church and its privileges 
 Origin of the name 'Congregational.' Letter to Skelion. Primi- 
 tive Churches were parochial and independent. Primitive order 
 restored in New England. The Church a monarchy democratically 
 administered. Connection and communion of independent Church- 
 es. Dr. Heylin. Cotton's objections to the term 'Independency.' 
 Opposition of Congregationalists to ' Brownism.' Cotton's reply 
 to Baillie. John Robinson's advice. Thomas Shepard. True 
 idea of Church unity. H. Nature and powers of the ministry. 
 O/Ficers of two sorts. The first order. Cotton's view. The second 
 order, or deacons. Apostolical succession discussed. Bishop 
 Hoadley. Archb. Whately. Bishop of Hereford. Macaulay. Or- 
 dination, what it is. Archbishop Cranmer. Bishop Burnet. Lu- 
 ther. Popular election of officers. Effect of ordination. Our 
 forefathers free from the hierarchal temper. HL Nature and forms 
 of public worship. What is prayer. Unlawful to iryipose forms. 
 Origin of liturgies. Lord Say and Seal Origin of English litur- 
 gy . Rejected by our fathers. Inconveniences of it. The use of 
 sacraments. Our fathers' discipline commended. 
 
 A ciiAPTKR or two will here be given to an ac- 
 count of the principles and merits of the system 
 of church government instituted by Mr. Cotton 
 and his associates in New England. Their 
 
LIFE OP JOHN COTTON. 125 
 
 views and practices will be presented, avoiding, 
 as far as may be, all controverting of the opin- 
 ions of others. 
 
 The Church, as they viewed it, is the living 
 temple of God. The precious material, where- 
 with it is constructed, is hewn from the quarry 
 of human nature. The massive blocks had there 
 lain shapeless and senseless, and altogether dead 
 in trespasses and sins. But the Holy Ghost, 
 acting "by means of the fire and hammer of God's 
 Word, hath separated them from the formless 
 and lifeless mass, and hath squared and fitted 
 them for their respective places, and hath en- 
 tered into them and quickened them with an 
 everlasting life, and hath joined them in vital 
 union to Christ, that living Rock of salvation, 
 that head-stone of the corner, that eternal foun- 
 dation-ledge of Zion. Thus they, " as lively 
 stones, are built up a spiritual house," for "spir- 
 itual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 The grand temple at Jerusalem, which, allow- 
 ing for diflference of material, was modeled after 
 the plan of the tabernacle of Moses, was intended 
 to serve " unto the example and shadow of heav- 
 enly things." It was a type of the celestial or 
 spiritual sanctuary, " of the true tabernacle, 
 
 which the Lord pitched, and not man." Hence 
 11# 
 
126 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 the care with which it was constructed to accord 
 precisely with a prescribed model, " as Moses 
 was admonished of God when he was about to 
 make the tabernacle ; for, See, saith he, that 
 thou make all things according to the pattern 
 showed to thee in the mount." The idea of the 
 worldly sanctuary is wholly taken from the 
 heavenly sanctuary. 
 
 The instituted worship of God under the older 
 Testament, abounded in forms and ceremonies 
 which had all of them a moral significance em- 
 bodying some divine truth, or shadowing out 
 some celestial reality. But even that ritual 
 must have nothing of human origin superadded. 
 The Pharisees brought in many innovations de- 
 rived by tradition of the elders. But Jesus 
 repeats, with approbation, the sentence of the 
 prophet against them : — " In vain do they wor- 
 ship me, teaching for doctrines the command- 
 ments of men." Mark the contrast here ; — 
 human traditions can never constitute a worship 
 acceptable to God. Therefore God required 
 that his altar should be built only of unhewn 
 stones ; and declared that whosoever lifted up a 
 tool upon it had polluted it. The purity of di- 
 vine worship is defiled by every admixture of 
 man's inventions and devices. 
 
 The instituted worship of the New Testa- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 127 
 
 ment, delights not in figurative pomps and 
 shows, but in plain and literal truth. Its ordi- 
 nances are few and simple, because it rejoices, 
 not in the " shadows of good things to come," 
 but in the " very image of the things" them- 
 selves. Here too, we are to see, that all things 
 be made according to the divine pattern, and 
 kept free from men's contrivances and tradition- 
 ary enlargements. The worship of the church 
 is to be fashioned after the New Testament ex- 
 emplar. We have there a fair transcript of the 
 pattern in the mount, a true copy of the ground 
 plan and elevations. To follow this, will be 
 unquestionably safe. To depart from it, will be 
 certainly to go wrong. It is not enough to jus- 
 tify such a usage in divine worship, to say that 
 there is nothing in the Bible expressly against 
 it. "The truth is," as Johr^ Norton tersely 
 says, " there is enough against it, if there be 
 nothing for it." 
 
 The apostles, " as wise master-builders," left 
 a fabric of doric strength and simplicity. But 
 the fair edifice soon began to be weakened and 
 marred by tasteless changes. And the spiritual 
 architects of the middle ages made sad havoc of 
 the venerable pile. Much of it was rased to the 
 very foundation : and what was buiU instead, 
 bore the marks of a modern and a meaner style. 
 
12S LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 The work went on, till the straggling structure 
 presented a strange mixture of the handiwork of 
 different ages and nations. Some remains of 
 the primitive vastness and simplicity were still 
 visible : but oddly blended with Gothic pillars, 
 and Saxon arches, and Norman windows, and 
 Romanesque towers. Most of what was left of 
 the original building was covered up by cum- 
 brous and uncouth additions, and rudely daubed 
 with untempered mortar, or finely plastered over 
 with Italian stucco. 
 
 In the first times of the Protestant reformation, 
 much was done toward removing the huge mass 
 of innovations, and restoring the more ancient 
 order. But in England, the work of restitution 
 stopped all too soon. The reformation of doc- 
 trine was gloriously effected : but the reforma- 
 tion of order and worship fell far short of 
 recovering the primitive purity. The Puritans 
 felt that the work must go on much farther, be- 
 fore the just and necessary authority of Christ 
 could be re-established in his kingdom. They 
 came at once to the right principle, that the 
 Bible is our only safe and sufficient guide in 
 ecclesiastical practice, as well as in articles of 
 belief. 
 
 When our fathers reached these shores, they 
 had a general idea of the nature of that instituted 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 129 
 
 worship which they proposed to set up in con- 
 formity with the usage of the primitive Church, 
 in accordance with the pattern in the mount. 
 The details of the plan they had not as yet had 
 opportunity to study, nor had they come to an 
 entire agreement. They were fully determined 
 that every thing should be arranged by the rule 
 of Scripture : but they found some difficulty in 
 the application of this rule, till experience and 
 practice imparted the requisite skill. 
 
 There was much diversity of sentiment among 
 the Puritans. Some there were who still con- 
 formed, though very discontentedly, with what 
 they felt to be abuses, but which they hoped to 
 see purged away by the Church herself. There 
 were others who conformed in all points, except 
 some two or three. Others still refused con- 
 formity in half a dozen points ; and others again, 
 as many more. Some went so far as to separate 
 entirely from the Church of England, wholly 
 disowning it as a true Church of God. 
 
 The Puritans who formed the Massachusetts 
 colony shunned either extreme. On the one 
 hand, they refused to conform to the abuses 
 which were retained in the mother church : and 
 on the other hand, they resolutely protested, on 
 innumerable occasions, that they were no sepa- 
 ratists, and that they were in full communion 
 
130 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 with all that was right and true in the Churches 
 of England, or any other country. Though, at 
 first, there was considerable diversity of senti- 
 ment on minor points among themselves, they, 
 as the light of truth shone progressively brighter, 
 came to an increasing agreement of views. 
 Their practices, at first, from necessity, some- 
 what uncertain, were modified by degrees, as 
 their experience and their knowledge of the 
 Scripture teachings on the subject became en- 
 larged. But they soon settled down into the 
 usages which have so long been maintained in 
 our churches. 
 
 Their first printed guide in ecclesiastical mat- 
 ters was John Cotton's celebrated book, entitled, 
 " The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven." This 
 work has been recently republished by one of 
 our enterprising booksellers ; and a treatise so 
 curious and instructive ought to have a wide 
 circulation. It is chiefly interesting as a dem- 
 onstration, that every individual church, with its 
 own officers, is the depository of "the power of 
 the keys." In other words, all the ecclesiastical 
 rights and powers which Christ has given to his 
 Church, are given to every regularly constituted 
 independent church. 
 
 In describing the metes and bounds of church 
 power, Mr. Cotton argues thjjit, as in the State, 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 131 
 
 there is a division of powers into several hands, 
 which are to concur in all acts of common con- 
 cern, and which arrangement results in a heal- 
 thy constitution of the body politic. This book 
 maintains, that a church, duly organized with 
 its own proper officers, has within itself all that 
 is necessary to its continuance and well-being, 
 and to the management of its own elections, ad- 
 missions, and censures. Elders and brethren 
 are the constituent members of this sacred cor- 
 poration. The elders are entrusted with gov- 
 ernment, the brethren are invested with privilege. 
 The church is so to be ruled by its elders who 
 are over it in the Lord, that without them noth- 
 ing may ordinarily be done, and that they may 
 have a negative upon the votes of the fraternity, 
 and that they alone may authoritatively preach 
 and administer sacraments : — yet are the breth- 
 ren to be so upheld in their liberties, that, unless 
 with their consent, nothing of common concern 
 may be imposed upon them. Because particu- 
 lar churches may abuse their power, the book of 
 the keys asserts the need of church communion 
 m synods or councils, which may determine, 
 declare or enjoin such things as will correct 
 abuses or disorders in the offending congrega- 
 tions. But still to such churches themselves 
 must be left the formal acts which are requisite 
 
132 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 for carrying out the advice of the council. If 
 such advice should be scandalously and obsti- 
 nately refused, then it will be the duty of the 
 council to withdraw communion from the contu- 
 macious church. 
 
 Tliis is a summary of the main positions of 
 that once celebrated book ; and these positions 
 are sustained by the Cambridge Platform, except 
 what relates to the claim of a veto-power in the 
 elders; on which Mr. Cotton soon ceased to in- 
 sist. 
 
 Soon after its publication, the famous Dr. 
 Owen undertook to confute it ; instead of which, 
 quite contrary to his expectation, it confuted and 
 converted him. While speaking of its effect 
 upon his mind, he makes the following remark : 
 " And, indeed, this way of impartial examining 
 all things by the Word, comparing causes with 
 causes, and things Avith things, laying aside all 
 prejudicate respects unto persons, or present 
 traditions, is a course that I would admonish all 
 to beware of, who would avoid the danger of 
 being made Independents.'"^ 
 
 The " Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," was 
 the standard book of New England church dis- 
 cipline, till the Cambridge Platform was brought 
 
 * A Review of ihc true nature of schism. By John Owen, D. D., 
 cliapler II. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 133 
 
 forth in 164S, by a synod which sublimely closed 
 its proceedings with singing " the song of Mose3 
 and the Lamb," in the fifteenth chapter of the 
 Revelation. 
 
 Since the Cambridge Platform was adopted, 
 the custom of our churches has varied in a few 
 particulars from what is recommended there. 
 Thus the Platform advises that each church 
 should have its pastor, its teacher, and its ruling 
 elder, as well as its deacons. And this arrange- 
 ment, for a while, was generally kept up. But 
 before long, the offices of pastor and teacher 
 were merged in one : or rather, one person filled 
 them both : and the duties of the ruling elder, 
 which principally related to discipline, were 
 practically devolved in the smaller churches up- 
 on the pastor and deacons; and in the larger 
 churches, upon a committee chosen for such 
 purposes. 
 
 It is not my object to give a complete descrip- 
 tion of all the usages of Congregationalism at 
 the present day. To do this, with the grounds 
 and reasons of those usages, would require a 
 volume by itself. Nor is it necessary. Every 
 one who wishes to examine the matter, may 
 find all that is important in some of the older 
 and of the more recent publications, where 
 all the information necessary has been la- 
 VOL. I. 12 
 
134 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 boriously collected, and arranged with admi- 
 rable judgment and care. 
 
 All that will now be attempted, is a general 
 description of the leading features of the church 
 government adopted by the venerated fathers of 
 New England. 
 
 This will be presented under three sections. 
 
 First, the nature of the church and its priv- 
 ileges ; 
 
 Secondly, the nature and powers of the min- 
 isterial office ; 
 
 Thirdly, the nature and forms of public wor- 
 ship. 
 
 SECTION I . 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH AND ITS PRIVILEGES. 
 
 The term "Congregational" appears to have 
 been first brought into use by John Cotton. His 
 preference for it was grounded on the fact, that 
 the word which, in our English version of the 
 Bible, is rendered churchy simply and properly 
 means a congregation. The word would have 
 been rendered " congregation," if King James 
 had not required his translators to use the word 
 " church" instead. The right sense is given in 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 135 
 
 the nineteenth Article of Religion of the Church 
 of England, where the church is defined to be 
 " a congregation of faithful men, in which the 
 true Word of God is preached, and the sacra- 
 ments duly administered according to Christ's 
 ordinances, in all those things that of necessity- 
 are requisite to the same." So exactly does 
 this language express the Puritan sentiments on 
 the subject, as to justify the celebrated Earl of 
 Shaftesbury, when he said in debate before the 
 house of lords, that he " found the nineteenth 
 article did define the church directly as the In- 
 dependents do." 
 
 In a letter addressed to Rev. Samuel Skelton 
 of Salem by Mr. Cotton, three years before he 
 left England, there is given the following defini- 
 tion of a church : — " It is a flock of saints, called 
 by God into the fellowship of Christ, meeting 
 together in one place, to call upon the name of 
 the Lord, and to edify themselves in communi- 
 cating spiritual gifts, and partaking of the ordi- 
 nances of the Lord." After his coming to this 
 country, Mr. Cotton would have added to the 
 above definition, that a mutual covenant, express 
 or implied, to unite for the purposes specified, is 
 necessary to complete the constitution of a 
 church. He subscribed to the Cambridge Plat- 
 form, which teaches, that in the larger and more 
 
136 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 general sense, " the Catholic church is the whole 
 company of those that are elected, redeemed, 
 and in time effectually called from sin and death 
 unto a state of grace and salvation by Jesus 
 Christ.'"^ In the common and more special 
 sense, the true visible church is " a company of 
 saints by calling, united into one body, by a holy 
 covenant, for the public worship of God, and the 
 mutual edification one of another, in the fellow- 
 ship of the Lord Jesus." t 
 
 The national churches imagine that all the 
 christian people residing in any country form 
 such a congregation. But our fathers held, that 
 the term denotes a literal congregation, meeting 
 statedly in one place for divine worship and 
 ordinances, and united for that purpose into one 
 body by a holy covenant. They could find no 
 trace of any hierarchy in the New Testament. 
 All the acts of church government, and discipline 
 mentioned in that book, were administered by 
 individual churches. They saw, that, in the 
 apostles' time, no one church claimed any right 
 to rule over another. They saw, that each 
 church, great or small, had as full power to 
 manage its own affairs, as though it had been 
 the only church in existence. They saw, that 
 
 ♦ Chap. II. sec. 1. f lb. aec. 5. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 137 
 
 each individual church was a complete body of 
 itself, endowed with all the organs of indepen- 
 dent vitality, and enabled to do whatever may 
 be needful for its own preservation, well-being, 
 and enlargement. 
 
 There is something noble and liberal in this 
 idea, which presents all Christian congregations 
 as so many free, spiritual communities ; not 
 governed by others, but each governing itself by 
 he rules and requirements of God's Word. It 
 was only by a long series of usurpations and 
 gradual encroachments, that the churches lost 
 this original and free constitution, and became 
 massed together under the ghostly tyranny of 
 lordly hierarchs. 
 
 Our fathers restored in New England the 
 primitive apostolical order by which each several 
 congregation, or church in the ordinary New 
 Testament sense, is divinely empowered to carry 
 on a system of self-government in strict observ- 
 ance of the rules of the gospel, as to election 
 of officers, admission and discipline of members, 
 and general management of its own ecclesias- 
 tical affairs. Each church, duly constituted, 
 with its own officers, was entitled to act for itself 
 in all such matters, free from the control of any 
 man, or body of men, external to itself In the 
 New Testament, our fathers could find no war- 
 12# 
 
138 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 rant for synodical, or diocesan, or provincial, or 
 national, or parliamentary churches ; or for 
 churches organized by civil authority. They 
 found the apostles planting no churches, but 
 such as were parochial : that is to say, distinct 
 congregations, composed of persons possessing 
 the faith, usually meeting in one assembly, and 
 transacting their own business w^ithout any sub- 
 jection to foreign authority. They held, that 
 any organized congregation of believers, formed 
 and kept up under the influences of the Holy 
 Spirit, and the regulations of the written Word 
 of God, is an evangelical church. The view 
 which our fathers took of such a church was 
 this ; — It is an absolute monarchy democratically 
 administered. It is an absolute monarchy : for 
 Christ is its supreme Head and King ; his will is 
 law ; he alone has the right to legislate ; and his 
 decrees recorded in the Bible must alone be obey- 
 ed. And the affairs of this spiritual monarchy are 
 democratically administered : for to the church 
 is given the free election of all executive officers, 
 and the members are all possessed of equal 
 rights and privileges. What noble schools of 
 liberty and independence of soul, willingly obe- 
 dient to Christ, but free from vassalage to man, 
 must be found in these self-governing societies ! 
 There is a passage in a letter from Mr. Cotton 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 139 
 
 to the Lord viscount Say and Seal, which has 
 been supposed to militate against these views. 
 It is in tlie following words ; — " Democracy I do 
 not conceive that ever God did ordain as a fit 
 government, either for church or commonwealth. 
 If the people be governors, who shall be govern- 
 ed ? As for monarchy and aristocracy, they are 
 both of them clearly approved and directed in 
 Scripture, yet so as referreth the sovereignty to 
 himself, [i. e. to God,] and setteth up Theocracy 
 in both, as the best form of government in the 
 commonwealth as well as in the church.'"^ At 
 the first view, this passage seems to be in violent 
 opposition to Mr. Cotton's advocacy of popular 
 institutions on all other occasions. Some, who 
 are friendly to his memory, know not what to 
 make of it; and others regard it as a lure to 
 tempt certain Puritan peers and other great men 
 to come over and join the colonies, as many of 
 them were then thinking to do. 
 
 The matter is easily set right by considering 
 the meaning of the words "democracy" and "aris- 
 tocracy," as used in this letter. The aristocracy 
 spoken of here is elective, and for the most part 
 temporary. Every representative government is 
 an aristocracy, elected by the people to make and 
 
 * See the leller in HuLchinson'3 History of Massachusetts, vol. I., 
 p. 437, &;c. 
 
140 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 administer the laws, for longer or shorter peri- 
 ods. A simple democracy, according to the 
 primary sense of the word, and the definitions 
 of the ablest political writers, is a state of things 
 in which the whole collected people make and 
 execute the laws. This is mere mob-law, which 
 is no government at all, having neither settled 
 constitution nor executive officers. It is in this 
 sense, that John Cotton denounces democracy ; 
 as every reasonable man must do. But the word 
 in our day is taken in a much better sense than 
 formerly, and is used to designate that republi- 
 can form of government in which the people act 
 through regularly constituted officers of their 
 own choosing. That this was Mr. Cotton's 
 meaning is plain from another passage in the 
 same letter, toward the close, which is quoted 
 for the sake of making him, as he has a right to 
 be, his own interpreter. " Bodine confesseth, 
 that, though it be status popularis where the 
 people choose their own governors, yet the gov- 
 ernment is not a democracy, if it be administered, 
 not by the people, but by the governors, whether 
 one, (for then it is a monarchy, though elective,) 
 or by many, for then, as you know, it is aristoc- 
 racy. In which respect it is, that church gov- 
 ernment is justly denied, even by Mr. Robinson, 
 to be democratical, though the people choose 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 141 
 
 their own officers and rulers."^^ We find the 
 same idea expressed by Mr. Stone of Hartford, 
 when asked to describe the Congregational gov- 
 ernment. He replied in his scholastic way ; — 
 "It is a speaking Aristocracy in the face of a 
 silent Democracy." The church is taught and 
 ruled by officers, who are freely chosen by the 
 people to act in their offices as the Bible directs. 
 This arrangement secures, at once, the order and 
 the liberty of the churches. 
 
 Because churches are thus emancipated from 
 all foreign jurisdiction, it must not be supposed, 
 that they are isolated, disconnected bodies, hav- 
 ing no mutual relations of love and duty. No : 
 they are a sisterhood : and though all the sisters 
 stand on terms of equality and liberty, they are 
 both necessarily and willingly bound in family 
 ties, the strongest and sweetest of any. As the 
 liberty of the individual Christian is not inconsist- 
 ent with " the communion of saints," so neither 
 is the liberty of particular congregations incon- 
 sistent with the communion of churches. Dr. 
 Heylin, though a bitter hater of the Puritans, 
 has very happily described John Robinson's 
 "model of church government" as " consisting of 
 a coordination of several churches for their mu- 
 
 # Hutchinson's Hist. I., 439. 
 
142 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 tual comfort ; not a subordination of the one to 
 the other, in the way of direction or command. 
 Hence," he adds, " came the name of ' Independ- 
 ents,' continued unto those amongst us who 
 neither associate themselves with the Presbyte- 
 rians, nor embrace the frenzies of the Anabap- 
 tists." It is mostly by this name of " Independ- 
 ents " that the Congregationalists, who are now 
 so numerous in England, are generally known 
 in that country. That name, however, was not 
 wholly satisfactory to Mr. Cotton. He remarks 
 upon it as follows: — " Nor is ' Independency' a fit 
 name for the way of our churches : for in some 
 respects it is too strait, and in others too large. 
 It is too strait, in that it confineth us within our- 
 selves, and holdeth us forth as independent of 
 all others : whereas indeed we do profess depend- 
 ence upon magistrates for civil government and 
 protection, dependence upon Christ and his 
 Word for the sovereign government and rule of 
 our administrations, dependence upon the coun- 
 sel of other churches and synods when our own 
 variance or ignorance may stand in need of such 
 help from them ; and therefore this title of 
 ' Independency ' straiteneth us and restraineth 
 us from our necessary duty and due liberty. 
 Again, in other respects, * Independency ' stretch- 
 eth itself too largely and more generally than 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 143 
 
 that it can single out us, for it is compatible to a 
 national church as well as to a congregational. 
 — Wherefore, if there must needs be some note 
 of difference to decypher our estate and to dis- 
 tinguish our way, I know of none fitter than 
 to denominate ours — ' Congregational.' " "^ The 
 name ' Independent ' is expressly disapproved 
 by the Cambridge Platform.! 
 
 Some of the more rigid Separatists, known by 
 the uncouth title of Brownists, carried the idea 
 of independency to such an extreme as to render 
 every church an isolated body, dwelling soli- 
 tarily, without a sisterhood, and the cheering 
 interchange of acts of communion. They were 
 hurried to this extremity, by the excessive 
 anxiety to avoid any entanglement which might 
 again ensnare them in the meshes of ecclesias- 
 tical bondage. Mr. Cotton and his coadjutors 
 happily avoided a sentiment so destructive of all 
 the benefits of the fellowship of the churches. 
 In replying to Baillie, Mr. Cotton takes occasion 
 to say of Brown ; — " Neither in whole nor in 
 part do we partake in his schism ; he separated 
 from churches and from saints ; we, only from 
 the world, and from that which is of the world." 
 — " Though we put not such honor upon those 
 
 * Way of Congregational Churches Cleared, p. 11. 
 t Chap. II. Sect. 5. 
 
144 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 he calls ' Brownists,' as to own them for our 
 ' fathers,' yet neither do we put so much dis- 
 honor upon them as to ' heap coals of con- 
 tumely ' upon their heads : we look not on 
 them with contempt, but compassion."^ Mr. 
 Cotton concurred in sentiment with the excellent 
 John Robinson, who, in his parting instructions 
 to that part of his flock which was about to 
 proceed from Leyden to the Plymouth rock, 
 recommended them to use " all means to avoid 
 and shake off the name of Brownist, being a 
 mere nickname, and brand, to make religion 
 odious, and the professors of it, to the Christian 
 world."! Our fathers held indeed, that every 
 congregation is completely independent of all 
 others as to jurisdiction and authoritative con- 
 trol ; but not as to other forms of connection 
 arising from common interests and reciprocal 
 aflfections. They carefully cherished an inter- 
 course of mutual respect, and confidence, and 
 love, an interchange of counsels, and aids, and 
 fraternal offices ; which they styled " the com- 
 munion of churches." The judicious and mod- 
 erate opinions of our fathers are well expressed 
 by Thomas Shcpard : — " We utterly dislike 
 such Independency as that which is maintained 
 
 * Way of Congregational Churches Cleared, p. 9, 10. 
 Young's Clironicles, p. 397. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 145 
 
 by contempt, or careless neglect, of sister 
 churches. We utterly dislike such dependency 
 of churches upon others, as is built upon usur- 
 pations and spoils of particular churches.'"^ 
 
 The Puritans loved church unity ; — not a 
 mere nominal and formal union, where there is 
 neither life nor similarity; a union well com- 
 pared by Leighton to that of sticks and stones 
 when frozen together ; a union consisting in a 
 bare outward uniformity, under which is con- 
 cealed the bitterest scorn and hate. They 
 prized " the unity of the faith," and sought to 
 keep " the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
 peace:" and this was nearly all they deemed 
 important. 
 
 Great efforts have been made to effect a uni- 
 formity of government and worship, which 
 should bring all Christendom into one ecclesias- 
 tical establishment, with unvarying modes and 
 forms. There are men whose notion of the 
 church is like a system of gas-pipes in a great 
 city, branching in all directions, yet meeting at 
 last in one main trunk, which is regarded with 
 senseless awe, and mystic veneration as " the 
 great centre of visible unity." Very different 
 is the Gospel view, which shows every par- 
 
 * Treaiiae of Liturgies, &c., p. 114. 1653. 
 VOL. I. 13 
 
146 LIFE OF JOHN COT-TON. 
 
 ticular church to be built directly on Christ as 
 the foundation, and to be no otherwise connected 
 with other churches, except as through him 
 who is as the common foundation of them all. 
 So too each believer, by himself, is a branch of 
 the true vine, deriving life and nourishment, 
 not mediately through ramified boughs of de- 
 pendence and long limbs of distant succession ; 
 but immediately from Christ himself, in whom 
 all the branches grow, who is the only vital 
 bond of union between them. All real Christian 
 union circulates through him from church to 
 church, and from heart to heart. This hallowed 
 bond is not an indefinitely extended chain of 
 which only the head-link fastens directly upon 
 the mediatorial throne. Every believer is him- 
 self in Christ. The disciples are one in him, 
 and only in him. To all of them his Spirit is 
 imparted directly from himself; and this unites 
 them by pervading them all. 
 
 A Catholic Christian union already exists, so 
 far as the different denominations rest upon the 
 true foundation. An old divine has said, " I 
 have seen a field here, and another there, stand 
 thick with corn. An hedge or two has parted 
 them. At the proper season, the reapers en- 
 tered. Soon the earth was disburthened, and 
 the grain was conveyed to the destined place ; 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 147 
 
 where, blended together in the barn, or in the 
 stack, it could not be known that a hedge once 
 separated this corn frona that. Thus it is with 
 the church. Here it grows, as it were, in dif- 
 ferent fields, severed, it may be, by various 
 hedges. By and by, when the harvest is come, 
 all God's wheat shall be gathered into the gar- 
 ner, without one single mark to distinguish that 
 once they differed in the outward circumstan- 
 tials of modes and forms." 
 
 The " high-church" temper does not accord 
 with the genius of Congregationalism. We 
 are not of those who are never sure that they 
 are actually in the temple, until they find 'them- 
 selves perched upon its topmost pinnacle. Such 
 as these, Dean Kennet speaks of, as having lost 
 their Christianity in the name of the church. 
 Luther describes them as " attributing more 
 power to the church which is begotten and 
 born, than to the Word which hath begotten, 
 conceived, and borne the church." Of such 
 men, John Cotton used to say, " They are all 
 church, and no Christ." 
 
148 LIFE or JOHN COTTON. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 NATURE AND POWERS OF THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE. 
 
 The fathers of New England held that the 
 officers of the church are of two sorts. One of 
 these is variously spoken of as pastors, teach- 
 ers, elders, presbyters, bishops, overseers, and 
 other names indicative of the nature of their 
 calling-, and its duties. These all stand upon 
 an equality as regards rank and authority. 
 There is no difference among them, except 
 such as make any man to differ from his politi- 
 cal equals, arising from diversity of talents, 
 attainments, or moral worth. Hence the office 
 holds out no temptation to those ambitious 
 aspirants, whose whole desire is to reach some 
 station superior to that of their fellows. There 
 is BO contending which shall be greatest in the 
 kingdom of heaven, so long as there is no such 
 condition acknowledged there. Each looks his 
 brother in the eye, without receiving from him 
 the glance of arrogance, or casting upon him 
 that of uneasy inferiority. The primitive paro- 
 chial bishops of the old " standing order " in 
 Massachusetts, look with pity on those dissent- 
 ing presbyters, who sink the dignity of their 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 149 
 
 office, by giving place to spiritual superiors 
 whom the Chief Shepherd never set over them. 
 The Scripture view of the ministerial office is 
 thus briefly summed up by the venerable John 
 Cotton : " The bishops Paul speaketh of in 
 Timothy, of whose qualification he giveth direc- 
 tion, (1 Tim. 2 : 2—7,) he calleth them all, 
 when he cometh to give order for their mainte- 
 nance, by the name of elders. And in his 
 epistle to Titus, the elders which Paul left Titus 
 to ordain in every city, he calleth them bishops. 
 Tit. 1 : 5 — 7. Now of these he appointeth many 
 in one city or church ; not many cities or 
 churches under one bishop, Acts 14 : 23 ; elders 
 in every city. Acts 20 : 17, 28 ; many elders 
 or bishops in the church of Ephesus, Phil. 1:1; 
 many bishops as well as many deacons in one 
 church of Philippi, and that a poor one too ; for 
 Philippi was a church in Macedonia, Acts 16 : 
 12 ; and all the churches in Macedonia had 
 trial of deep poverty, 2 Cor. 8 : 12." ^ 
 
 The deacons form the only other class of 
 church-officers to be seen in the light of the 
 New Testament. Their appropriate duty is, to 
 attend to the secular afllairs of the church ; but 
 being usually more eminent for active piety, 
 
 * Way of the Churches of New England, &c., p. 48. 
 
 13=^ 
 
150 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 they are chiefly looked to for advice, and ex- 
 pected to prepare the business which may come 
 before the church. It is singular that, in most 
 religious denominations, this office is either dis- 
 continued, or its nature and duties are entirely 
 changed. In the hierarchal churches, the dea- 
 cons are transferred from the charge of tempo- 
 ralities to that of spiritualities. They have 
 ceased to " serve tables," and profess to " give 
 themselves to the AVord of God and to prayer." 
 In a word, they claim to be clergymen. More- 
 over, they are never inducted into their office 
 with any expectation of retaining it for life. It 
 is not sought or conferred for its own sake ; but 
 merely as one condition of being admitted to a 
 higher order in the priesthood. It is difficult to 
 conceive of a greater departure from its original 
 design, than this divinely appointed office has 
 undergone. In the Congregational churches it 
 is retained, and fulfills its original purposes. 
 
 We hear much in our times about the neces- 
 sity of an " apostolical succession " in the gos- 
 pel ministry. And truly such a succession is 
 needful, not in form, but in fact ; not in show, 
 but in spirit. Wherever you see a " son of 
 consolation," one " who is a good man, and full 
 of the Holy Ghost and of faith," there you see a 
 true successor of the apostles, so far as they can 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 151 
 
 have successors on earth. It is no matter 
 through what external source he may have 
 derived his license or authority to preach the 
 gospel and administer its offices ; if the spirit 
 that was in the apostles be in him, he is their 
 fellow-laborer, and their successor in the work 
 they wrought. Though he may have under- 
 gone no prelatical manipulations, he is qualified 
 to serve at the altar, " by the imposition of a 
 holier hand." 
 
 When we see a man called to the ministry by 
 the church of God, his mind instinct with the 
 grand truths of revelation, " mighty in the 
 Scriptures," fervent in spirit, instant in prayer, 
 burning with love to Jesus, and to the souls for 
 which Jesus bled, laboriously and faithfully dis- 
 pensing the bread of life to hearts hungering for 
 the heavenly food, where is he who will coldly 
 ask to see his commission to preach the gospel, 
 to ascertain if it be endorsed by human sanc- 
 tions ? When such a ministry is blessed to the 
 illumination of the ignorant, to the reformation 
 of the profligate, the conversion of the infidel, 
 the comfort of the afflicted, the edification of be- 
 lievers, and the salvation of hundreds and of 
 thousands, who would care to inspect his eccle- 
 siastical pedigree ? While such a man " con- 
 tinues steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and 
 
152 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in 
 prayers," who will question the apostles' fellow- 
 ship with him, and their approval of his work? 
 
 Look at Bunyan, faring so coarsely in Bed- 
 ford jail, and yet with quenchless zeal exercising 
 his despised ministry with the broad seal of 
 heaven's approbation, — the effusion of the Holy 
 Ghost making it effectual for the conversion of 
 sinners and the consolation of saints. Then 
 look at the lordly diocesan, under whose unhal- 
 lowed authority that man of God was incarce- 
 rated only for doing his Master's work, — look at 
 the " enthronized" prelate, arrayed in canonical 
 silks and rubrical lawns, intent on worldly dig- 
 nities and possessions, a stranger to the great 
 teachings of the gospel, and hostile to its spirit. 
 Compare the two men, the tinker and his op- 
 pressor. Then, with the Acts of the Apostles 
 and their Epistles in your hands, ask which of 
 the two men looks the most like their successor. 
 Were the fishermen of Galilee, or the tent-maker 
 of Tarsus to revisit this world, the scene of their 
 toils and sufferings for Christ and his Church, 
 in which of these men would they discern the 
 clearest proofs of spiritual affinity with them- 
 selves ? With which would they most readily 
 hold communion in their ministerial offices ? 
 
 When you receive the sacrament with a heart 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 153 
 
 melted in penitence, glowing with love, burning 
 with holy desire ; when you enter with your 
 whole soul into the communion of saints ; when 
 you feed on Jesus by faith, and find that his 
 flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed ; 
 when, in that sacred hour, heaven descends into 
 your bosom, and all is joy and peace : say, — can 
 you doubt the validity of the ordinance, and 
 scruple at the official character of the adminis- 
 trator ? No : you would say ; — " God is here, 
 and it is good for me to be here : for truly my 
 fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus 
 Christ." That man's religion is vain, who 
 proudly rejects a ministry which God conde- 
 scends to accept, and seal with his presence and 
 his blessing. Wherever we find the most of 
 the apostolical doctrine and the apostolical spirit, 
 there we are sure to find the most genuine suc- 
 cession. 
 
 As for this ecclesiastical figment of a direct 
 lineal succession from the apostles, we may ar- 
 ray against it not only the opinion of our fathers, 
 but the testimony of prelates inferior to none in 
 learning, and as much interested as any of their 
 brethren in sustaining the fiction, if it were pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The famous Dr. Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor, 
 declared, "As far as we can judge of things, 
 
154 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 God's providence never yet in fact kept up a 
 regular, uninterrupted succession of rightful 
 Bishops.'"^ Speaking of that pretended succes- 
 sion, he says ; — " Of which the most learned 
 must have the least assurance ; and the un- 
 learned can have no notion, but through igno- 
 rance and credulity."! Dr. Whately, the 
 present Archbishop of Dublin, has declared ; — 
 " There is not a minister in all Christendom who 
 is able to trace up, with any approach to cer- 
 tainty, his own spiritual pedigree. "t The pres- 
 ent Bishop of Hereford, in a charge to his clergy, 
 says, in reference to the certainty of an apostoli- 
 cal succession ; — " To spread abroad this notion, 
 would be to make ourselves the derision of the 
 world.-'"^ 
 
 The " simple faithful," and such as " occupy 
 the room of the unlearned," are in a sorry case, 
 if they can never take the comfort of Christian 
 sacraments in due security, till they can decide 
 where erudite prelates disagree. It happens, 
 somewhat oddly, that, at least two metropolitans 
 of the Anglican Church, Tillotson and Seeker ; 
 
 ♦ Preservative against Nonjurors, p. 47, 4th ed. 
 t Answer to Ilepresentation by Committee of Convocation, 
 p. 89— 91. 
 t Whalely's Kingdom of Christ, Esaay II., Sect. 30. 
 § Cited in Hall's Puritans, p. 388. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 155 
 
 and four of its heads, James the First, William 
 the Third, and George the First and the Second, 
 had none but Presbyterian baptism, which is 
 said by some to be a nullity. " So we have 
 Bishops appointed by unbaptized heads of the 
 church, and consecrated by prelates excommu- 
 nicated at Rome," the corrupt mother of a cast- 
 off daughter, who yet claims to inherit all her 
 boasted exclusive privileges from that unhappy 
 parentage. It is surely impolitic to rest the 
 doctrines of the church, as Macaulay has well 
 said, "on a historical theory, which, to ninety- 
 nine Protestants out of a hundred, would seem 
 much more questionable than any of those doc- 
 trines. "=^ It is far better to derive our belief 
 from the apostolical Scriptures, which are the 
 pure fountain-head ; than from any of the 
 branches of that " muddy Tiber," the Roman 
 succession. 
 
 The Israelites were thought to be in sad 
 plight, when, for lack of smiths, they were forced 
 to go down to the Philistines, " to sharpen every 
 man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and 
 his mattock." It was acutely said by some of 
 our old Puritans ; — " Sure, if Christians might 
 
 not have any ministers, unless ordained by the 
 
 I 
 
 * See an able article on " Church and Slate," in the Edinburgh Re- 
 view for April, 1839. 
 
156 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 popish bishops, the case were as pitiful as if 
 sheep might have no shepherds, but such as are 
 appointed to them by the wolves.'"^ 
 
 Of late years the old superstitious notions of 
 ordination seem to be regaining ground. There 
 are many who look upon this solemnity as a sort 
 of charm, having a magical effect to make a man, 
 be he what he may, a true minister of Christ ; 
 and investing him with a mysterious character, 
 and conferring on his ministrations a spiritual 
 efficacy which cannot be secured in any other 
 way. The first reformers and the martyrs of 
 the reformation had juster sentiments. In the 
 book entitled " The Necessary Doctrine and 
 Erudition of a Christian Man," which was 
 penned by Archbishop Cranmer as a text-book 
 for the instruction of the common people, that 
 blessed martyr affirms the original identity of 
 bishops and presbyters ; and contends that noth- 
 ing more than mere election, or appointment, is 
 essential to the sacerdotal office, without conse- 
 cration, or any other solemnity. From a man- 
 uscript in the handwriting of the same worthy ,^ 
 penned with a view to further reformation in the 
 time of Edward VI., and transcribed by bishop 
 Stillingfleet in his Irenicum, occurs the follovv- 
 
 * iVIodegl ami Brotherly Answer to Charles Herle, by Ri. Mather 
 and Win. Tlioiiipsou, IGll. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 157 
 
 • 
 
 ing explicit Statement ; — " Question 12. Wheth- 
 er in the New Testament be required any conse- 
 cration o( a bishop and priest, or only appointing 
 to the office be sufficient ? " " Arisiver. In the 
 New Testament to be a bishop or priest needeth 
 no consecration, by the Scripture : for election or 
 appointing thereto is sufficient." Seeing that 
 the consecrating rites of ordination are used, not 
 of necessity, but only for decency or solemnity, 
 it is of very little importance, comparatively, how 
 or by whom they are performed. If the cere- 
 monies were omitted, the ordination would be 
 less decorous, but not less valid. 
 
 Such evangelically liberal opinions were once 
 more common than now, in those who arrogate 
 the episcopal function to themselves. In the 
 reign of James the First, the bishops of Raphoe 
 and Elphin, in Ireland, united as presbyters 
 with the Scottish presbyterians in ordination 
 services."^ Archbishop Bancroft, though a stern 
 persecutor of all non-conformity, and the rest of 
 the bishops with him, owned ordination by pres- 
 byters to be valid : and, on this account, refused 
 to reordain the Scottish presbyters who were 
 then to be made bishops of the new dioceses in 
 North Britain ; declaring that to doubt it, was to 
 
 * Bogue and Bennett's History, vol- II. p. 41 1. 
 VOL. I. 14 
 
159 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 • 
 
 doubt whether " there were any lawful vocation 
 in most of the reformed churches. ""^ Dr. Bur- 
 net, bishop of Salisbury, thus expressed himself 
 on this subject ; — *' As for the notion of the dis- 
 tinct offices of bishop and presbytef, I confess it 
 is not so clear to me : and therefore, since I look 
 upon the sacramental actions as the highest of 
 sacred performances, I cannot but acknowledge 
 those who are empowered for them, must be of 
 the highest office in the church." t 
 
 Erasmus does not hesitate to say, that, in the 
 time of the apostles, " Bishop, Priest, and Pres- 
 byter was all the same," I But it were out of 
 place here to relate such testimonies, which are 
 numerously rehearsed in the books which ex- 
 pressly treat of these topics. Let these citations 
 suffice to show, that our fathers were not sin- 
 gular in their opinions, which their strenuous 
 adversaries had not always the hardihood to 
 controvert. Even what has been called " lay 
 ordination," in cases of emergency is not with- 
 out the sanction of divines of the highest con- 
 sideration, both in ancient and modern times. 
 Thus Luther says ; — " If any pious laymen 
 were banished to a desert, and having no regu- 
 
 * Archb Spolteswood's Hisl. p. 514. 
 
 t Vindication of the Church of Scotland, p. 310. 
 
 I Opera, Tom. V. Col. 652. Ed. Lugd. 1701. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 159 
 
 larly constituted priest among them, were to 
 asrree to choose for that office one of their num- 
 ber, married or unmarried, this man would be 
 as truly a priest as if he had been consecrated 
 by all the bishops in the world. Augustine, 
 Ambrose, and Cyprian were chosen in this 
 manner.'"^ Even Hooker, the boasted cham- 
 pion of prelatic power, was "judicious " enough 
 in the third book of his Ecclesiastical Polity, to 
 acknowledge boldly, that such ordinations have 
 been often justifiable. " There may be," he 
 says, " sometimes very just and sufficient reason 
 to allow ordination made without a bishop. 
 Where the Church must needs have some 
 ordained, and neither hath nor can have possibly 
 a bishop to ordain, in case of such necessity the 
 ordinary institution of God hath given often- 
 times, and may give place." 
 
 Our fathers held that the power of calling 
 suitable persons to office, belongs to the church ; 
 and there too inheres the power of displacing 
 such incumbents as prove to be incapable or 
 unworthy. It is a maxim of law, that the right 
 of divesting for good cause, goes with the right 
 of investing.! The privilege of calling to office 
 
 * Appeal to the German emperor and nobles, given in D'Aubigne's 
 Hist, of Reformation. II. 84. 
 t Cujus est instituere, ejusdem est destituere. 
 
160 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 the first churches exercised in the very presence 
 of the apostles. And it was many ag^es before 
 this privilege was entirely wrested out of their 
 hands by the hierarchal usurpers, who strove to 
 exalt the clergy at the expense of the people, 
 and acted on the principle that the church was 
 made for the minister, and not the minister for 
 the church. Though all the ministers were to 
 perish in a night, the Church would still survive 
 in the baptized fraternity ; and this brotherhood 
 would be authorized to establish the ministry 
 anew. It is from the Church that the ministry 
 must come. They must be church members 
 before they can become church ministers ; and 
 the very name of minister^ or servant, implies 
 the previous existence, and the appointing 
 power, of the body to be served. 
 
 The opinion of our fathers is thus expressed 
 by Cotton Mather ; — " Ordination they looked 
 upon but as a ceremony, whereby a called min- 
 ister was declared by imposition of hands, to be 
 solemnly set apart for his ministry ; and in the 
 same rite, the assistances, and protections, and 
 manifold blessings of the Holy Ghost in the 
 exercises of his ministry, were solemnly im- 
 plored for him. Briefly, they reckoned not 
 ordination to be essential unto the vocation of a 
 minister, any more than coronation to the being 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 161 
 
 of a king ; but that it is only a consequent and 
 convenient adjunct of his vocation, and a solemn 
 acknowledgment of it, with an useful and proper 
 benediction of him in it."^ 
 
 Properly the church elects her own officers ; 
 and ordination is but solemnly and formally 
 setting apart to his duties the person so chosen. 
 It is no charm, and exerts no magic power. It 
 is merely opening to suitable persons that door 
 of office which should stand closed to the un- 
 suitable. As the church has the sole right of 
 calling to office, this greater right involves the 
 lesser right of directing how the ordination 
 should be conducted, due regard being had to 
 the requirements of the Bible. But though 
 officers derive their calling from the voice of the 
 church ; yet the powers and privileges of office, 
 after they are called and inducted, they derive 
 from the appointment of Christ, who has deter- 
 mined in his law what they shall be. Thus it 
 is in our civil commonwealth, which is modeled 
 very much upon the Scriptural plan of church 
 polity. The executive officers of the State ob- 
 tain their offices by the choice of the people ; 
 but being once chosen, their duties and preroga- 
 tives are not prescribed by the popular will, but 
 
 * Magnalia Book V. Ch. XVII. Sect. 5. 
 
 14# 
 
162 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 by the written constitution of government. So 
 the church appoints her ministers ; but Christ 
 appoints their duties and privileges in the Bi- 
 ble, the sacred statute-book of his kingdom. 
 " The law and the testimony,'' describes the 
 nature of these offices ; the Church only sup- 
 plies incumbents to occupy them. They who 
 hold them are to follow only the regulations 
 which their Lord has enacted. The Church 
 may exclude from her ministry, and her mem- 
 bership such as prove themselves unworthy ; for 
 to this end the keys of the kingdom are com- 
 mitted to her with the tremendous power of 
 binding on earth what shall also be confirmed 
 in heaven. But if she attempt to exercise this 
 " power of the keys " contrary to the decrees of 
 inspiration, nothing is effected; for in so doing 
 she changes the key, and an erroneous key 
 bindeth not."^ The Church can do nothing but 
 what Christ has authorized to be done. The 
 power committed to the Church is not legisla- 
 tive, but administrative. Her power is ministe- 
 rial, or stewardly ; and it is for this purpose, 
 that " the keys " are hung at her girdle. Christ 
 put a stop to law-making, when he made an 
 end of the canon of inspiration. The matter is 
 
 * Clavia errans aon ligat 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 163 
 
 forcibly expressed by Mr. Cotton, of whom a 
 very powerful opponent remarked ; — " I had a 
 particular unwillingness to enter the lists of 
 strife with that reverend, famous, most able, 
 and tight writer." Mr. Cotton was speaking of 
 that clause in the apostolic commission ; — 
 " Teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
 ever I have commanded you." His words are : 
 " If the apostles teach people to observe more 
 than Christ has commanded, they go heyond 
 their commission; and a larger commission 
 than that given to the apostles, neither Elders, 
 nor Synods, nor Churches can challenge." 
 
 This matter- is discussed by him with great 
 clearness and " evidence of Scripture light " in 
 his book, entitled " The Keys of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven." This is, at the present day, the 
 most important of his published writings. He 
 here claims somewhat more of authority for the 
 elders of the Church, than has usually been 
 conceded among Congregationalists ; and par- 
 ticularly he ascribes to the elders the veto 
 power, so that they may have a negative upon 
 the acts of the brotherhood ; but no right, in any 
 thing which concerns the latter to impose 
 aught upon them without their consent. With 
 this one exception as to the veto, the senti- 
 ments of this book accord with what has been 
 
164 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 generally professed by our churches, and it is 
 marked by careful discrimination and logical 
 precision. 
 
 Their great business of proclaiming the gos- 
 pel, clothes the ministers with an influence so 
 commanding, while rightly directed, that they 
 need wish for no higher authority. To " labor 
 in the word and doctrine," is to rule pre- 
 eminently well, and gives the teaching elder 
 who does it a special title to " be counted 
 worthy of double honor." " Preaching is a 
 principal part of governing, and Christ himself 
 ruleth his Church by his Word." 
 
 It is something admirable that our forefathers 
 should stamp such an independent character 
 upon each particular church and its ministry. 
 In so doing they rose above all the prejudices of 
 education, and surmounted the whole force of 
 public opinion in their times. Though born in 
 an age of hierarchies, and bred under one 
 themselves, they made no attempt to imitate 
 the system here. What was there to hinder 
 them from constituting a new hierarchy here 
 wqth the potent John Cotion at its head ? What 
 was there to prevent them from endowing their 
 churches with vast territorial possessions en- 
 tailed upon them forever ? They did nothing of 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 165 
 
 the kind ; thoug-h they had purchased to them- 
 selves a right to do so if they chose, by banish- 
 ing themselves to the wilderness for the express 
 purpose of doing as they chose. But no man 
 would have resisted more strenuously than Mr. 
 Cotton himself, the attempt to confer upon him 
 the least official supremacy above his brethren. 
 We find him refusing to be supported in any 
 other way, than by voluntary contribution, the 
 free-will offerings of his people.^ 
 
 Following the Scripture rules and precedents, 
 our fathers declared for the equality of all 
 churches, the equality of all church members, 
 and the equality of all church ministers. That 
 " liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," 
 could have no stronger safeguards. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 NATURE AND FORMS OF PUBLIC W^ORSHIP. 
 
 The principal part of this duty is prayer, with 
 its proper adjuncts of praise and confession. 
 Our fathers held, that " true prayer is the work 
 of God's Spirit in our hearts, teaching and ena- 
 
 # Winthrop's Hist. I. p. 12L 
 
166 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 bling^ us to pour out our souls unto God in all 
 necessities and occasions." On this account, 
 they held that prayer should be free; not 
 restricted to set forms and prescribed liturgies, to 
 be used compulsorily at all times of devotion. 
 They found neither Christ nor his apostles 
 requiring any invariable forms of prayer. From 
 this John Cotton argued, that there is "no expe- 
 diency thereof to the edification of the church ; 
 unless it might be presumed, that there is some 
 help, or means, of God's worship expedient to 
 the edification of the Church, which never came 
 into the heajt of Christ and of his apostles to 
 commend unto the Church." * To exact the 
 constant use of a " stinted liturgy " when Christ 
 exacted it not, our fathers regarded as a direct 
 usurpation of Christ's kingly office, by imposing 
 conditions of membership and ministry in his 
 Church which he never decreed. 
 
 Such a liturgy, they said, was the lethargy of 
 worship. It is not to be wondered at, that they 
 sometimes spoke harshly of it, when stung to 
 desperation by tyrannous and cruel attempts to 
 force them, under the severest penalties, to read 
 or hear it. " Oppression maketh a wise man 
 mad." 
 
 ♦ A Modest and Clear Answer, &c.. ch. 1. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 167 
 
 The Puritan divines could find no trace of 
 such liturgies for the first three centuries of the 
 Christian era. They found that the compilation 
 of them owed its origin to the wretched ignorance 
 of many of the clergy, who, being incapable of 
 properly discharging this duty, had forms of 
 prayer drawn up for their use. Such forms, the 
 Puritans regarded as crutches for the Jame ; and 
 were willing that the lame should use them. 
 But they knew no reason why these instruments, 
 however handsomely turned or richly adorned, 
 should be forced upon such as were not lame 
 enough to need them. Thus in a speech made 
 in 1641, in the house of peers, by Lord Viscount 
 Say and Seal, that noble Puritan says ;— " This 
 injunction of such forms upon all men turns that 
 which, in the beginning, necessity brought in for 
 the help of insufficiency, to be now the continu- 
 ance and maintenance of insufficiency, and a 
 bar to the exercise of able and sufficient gifts and 
 graces ; as if, because some men had need to 
 make use of crutches, all men should be prohib- 
 ited the use of their legs, and enjoined to take 
 up such crutches as have been prepared for those 
 who had no logs ! " 
 
 The service-book having been mostly transla- 
 ted from the Latin missal used by the Romish 
 priests, was the occasion of much stumblino- at it 
 
168 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 by the Puritans. Even King James once 
 described it as "an ill-said mass in English." 
 The reason given by the compilers of the com- 
 mon-prayer for retaining so much of the Romish 
 book, was a wish to conciliate the Papists, as 
 much as possible, to the Protestant w^orship. 
 And even Bishop Stillingfleet could once argue, 
 that what \yas merely " laid as a bait " for the 
 Papists, could never have been intended " as an 
 hook for those of our own profession." But a 
 hook they found it ! and so keenly barbed, that 
 it was not without much laceration that they 
 disengaged it from their bleeding mouths. 
 
 They could never be reconciled to that which 
 became the instrument of so much civil and relig- 
 ious despotism. They could never succumb to 
 the pretensions of any set of men to dictate to all 
 other men, even in distant regions and future 
 centuries, with what petitions they should ap- 
 proach the throne of grace, and in what terms 
 they shall address their Heavenly Father. To 
 prescribe a form, they said, was stopping the 
 course of God's Spirit, and muzzling the mouth 
 of prayer. What can be more contrary to the 
 free and fetterless spirit of New Testament wor- 
 ship, than thus to confine it to sluggish canals, 
 with formal locks for reaching a measured ele- 
 vation ; instead of permitting it to flow in its 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 169 
 
 natural channels as marked out by the finger of 
 Providence, and filled by the Spirit of God ? As 
 well might we attempt to give an artificial out- 
 line to the flames upon the altar, and seek to fix 
 them in one unvarying shape. 
 
 The inconveniences of being lied up to such a 
 ritual were curiously illustrated during the 
 struggle between James II. and the Prince of 
 Orange. Though the body of the clergy favored 
 the side of William and Mary, they were obli- 
 ged to follow the liturgy, which the Archbishop, 
 engrossed as he was by political duties, had not 
 time to alter. The poor ministers had to keep 
 on praying for their most dread and sovereign 
 liege-lord. King James, that " God would con- 
 found the devices of his enemies." This was 
 hard, both on them and the public : on them, as 
 being forced to pray against their own wishes ; 
 and on the public, because the nation would have 
 been ruined, if their prayers had been accepted.=^ 
 During the American Revolution, it came to pass, 
 that nearly every Episcopal meeting-house in the 
 colonies was closed. Their ministers, inclined 
 as they were to principles of monarchy, both in 
 Church and State, could not vary from the pre- 
 scribed forms of prayer : and the people, filled 
 
 * Life and Times of Dr Edmund Calamy. L 20L 
 VOL. I. 15 
 
170 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 with the spirit of liberty, could not endure the 
 petitions for king George, which those unaltera- 
 ble forms required. 
 
 No one form of prayer can be ample enough to 
 express all the wants of the Church. It was well 
 said by one good man ; — " If I had a prayer-book 
 which contained all my wants, it would be so 
 large, that I should be obliged to carry it about 
 on a wheel-barrow ! " 
 
 In other parts of worship, such as singing the 
 praises of God, and the preaching of his Word, 
 our fathers had little that was peculiar to them- 
 selves. The sacraments of baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper, they regarded as signs or 
 emblems of the highest spiritual truths. In 
 administering the sacraments, they used a plain- 
 ness and simplicity, agreeable to the Scriptural 
 patterns, and such as showed that they were but 
 signs. A pompous and imposing ceremonial 
 tends to confine the mind of the worshiper to 
 the sacrament, as if it might have some virtue or 
 saving efficacy in itself. But the more simple 
 celebration constrains the worshiper to feel that 
 these sacred things, after all, are only signs; 
 and thus the soul is led to look through them, 
 and beyond them to that which is signified. Such 
 observance is the most spiritual, and is best 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 171 
 
 adapted to secure the great ends of the sacra- 
 ments of grace and life. 
 
 Thus have we briefly surveyed the outlines of 
 that godly discipline, which our fathers model- 
 ed after the pattern in the mount. The lapse 
 of two centuries has suggested no material 
 improvement, no closer approach to the primitive 
 and apostolical plan. This building of God 
 goes bravely on. Founded on the Rock of 
 Ages, it lifts apace its rising walls, and heightens 
 all its towers, standing in massive and enduring 
 strength. 
 
 And when the millennial sun shall rise in 
 cloudless glory, the fair fabric shall front the 
 rejoicing East. Its gold, and silver, and precious 
 stones shall reflect in mild radiance the intenscr 
 blaze of the ascending orb. Each stately pillar 
 and graceful arch shall glow with the living 
 light of heaven. From its open gates of lucid 
 pearl shall burst the choral songs, which tell 
 that God, — God in the fullness of his bliss,— -is 
 there. 
 
172 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The merits of Congregationalism. Paul's defence of himself against 
 the charsre of heresy. Application of it to the Puritans. Restora- 
 tion of Christ's kingship in the Church. John Cook quoted. Re- 
 capitulation. Subject divided. I. Antiquity of the Congregational 
 way. Study of antiquity. Excessive deference paid to the old 
 Eccleaiastical writers. Uncertainty of Pairistical traditions, illus- 
 trated by more recent instances. Remnants of the earliest fathers 
 characterized. Retort of Irish convert. King Jamie's maxim. 
 Luther's estimate of the " fathers." Lord Bacon's estimate. 
 King James again. The sacred writers the best church antiquari- 
 ans. John Wilkes' retort. Luther's retort. John Cotton's opin- 
 ion. His opinion sanctioned by candid Romanists. What if we 
 had lived in the third century ? Connecticut ministers. II. Cath- 
 olicism. What it is. S. Mather. Dr. Owen. J. Cotton. Prot- 
 estation of Puritans. Two divines. Open communion, the 
 Congregational practice. I. Mather. Cambridge Platform. J. 
 Cotton. Gov. Winslow. John Higginson. Jonathan Mitchell. 
 Massachusetts pastors to John Dnry. Variety in unity preferable 
 to mere uniformity. III. Spirituality. Congregationalism conge- 
 nial to the "free spirit" of the gospel. Spirit and forms. Milton; 
 Barrowe. Conder. Practical tendencies of Congregationalism. 
 Promotes liberality. Cherishes public spirit. Favorable to liber- 
 ty. Excites free inquiry. John Robinson. John Norton. J. 
 Winslow. J. Cotton. Relation of Church and State. " The wis- 
 est of the best." Failures and successes of the Puritans. 
 
 The apostle Paul was once pleading in his own 
 defence before Felix. It was a critical hour, and 
 his life hung- upon the event. The Jewish 
 priests, by their hired advocate, TertuUus, had 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 173 
 
 charged the Apostle as being a mover of sedition 
 against the imperial authority, and as being a 
 ringleader, or literally a front-rank man, of the 
 sect of the Nazarenes. On these grounds, they 
 demanded that he should be adjudged to death. 
 
 The Apostle, in his reply, first disposed of the 
 unfounded charge of sedition. He then pro- 
 ceeded to discuss the accusation, that he was a 
 prominent leader among the Nazarenes, which 
 was one of the earliest names by which the fol- 
 lowers of Jesus were known. " But this I con- 
 fess unto thee, that after the way which they 
 call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." 
 While he thus frankly owns himself to be a 
 Nazarene, he makes the acknowledgment in such 
 a way as to take off all culpability from the fact. 
 For he alledges, that, as a Nazarene, he worships 
 none other than the God of his fathers ; and this 
 was a privilege which had been secured to the 
 Jews by several of the edicts and charters of the 
 Roman emperors. He was thus entitled to the 
 protection of the law. He not only affirms that 
 he was a worshiper of the God of Abraham, but 
 that he believed the whole canon of the Jewish 
 Scriptures ; and, like the mass of that people, 
 had a firm hope of a general resurrection. 
 
 The invidious name of sect or heresy, which 
 the high-church party among the Jews applied 
 15=^ 
 
174 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 to the Nazarenes, means strictly a taking up, — 
 a taking up with any new-fang-led opinions. 
 This charge the Apostle could very sincerely 
 deny. For the Holy Ghost had taught him that 
 Christianity was nothing else but Judaism 
 brought to its full perfection. Judaism was the 
 acorn, whose ceremonial shell concealed the fu- 
 ture oak. It was the germ which contained all 
 the rudiments, as yet undeveloped, of the broad, 
 umbrageous tree. The advent of Christ was the 
 germination which burst the henceforth useless 
 shell ; and started the rapid growth of that tree 
 of life, beneath whose wide and sheltering shad- 
 ow the gathered nations of the earth should sit. 
 In the process of centuries, this monarch of 
 the forest had nearly lost its natural growth. It 
 was overgrown with strangling vines, and with 
 parasites which wasted its vigor, and with nox- 
 ious grafts of a nature contrary to its own. The 
 refonners of the sixteenth century, set themselves 
 to work as God's husbandmen, to clear away 
 this cumbrous mass of foreign vegetation. The 
 Church of God in England, one chief limb, was 
 purged to a great extent : but it remained for our 
 Puritan fathers, in the following century, to 
 complete the work, and to present at least one 
 living branch of the ancient tree restored to its 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 175 
 
 pristine state, and flourishing in its own natural 
 and beauteous growth. 
 
 But to drop this parable, our fathers when they 
 went on to perfect their ecclesiastical reform, 
 were assailed by all the forces of the hierarchy. 
 High priests and lower priests loudly accused 
 them before Csesar's tribunals of heresy and sec- 
 tarism. To this invidious charge the accused 
 could reply with the Apostle :— " But this I con- 
 fess unto thee, that after the way which they 
 call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." 
 After the first English reformers had restored 
 the prophetical and priestly offices of Christ, our 
 forefathers conceived that the kingly office of 
 Christ still remained to be restored. They 
 sought to reform the government, as well as the 
 doctrine, of the Church. They maintained that 
 ordinances of man's invention are no more to be 
 mixed up with what Christ has instituted as 
 King, than man's dogmas are to be blended with 
 his teachings as the great Prophet of Israel, or 
 than man's works and merits are to be mingled 
 with his atonement as the High Priest of our 
 
 profession. 
 
 Their views were well expressed in a tract 
 printed in 1647, by John Cook, of Gray's Inn, 
 Barrister: from which a few quotations will be 
 offered. " The question, truly stated, is but this, 
 
176 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Whether the inventions of men ought any more 
 to be mixed with the institutions of Christ in his 
 Kingly office, than their good works in his 
 Priestly office." An Independent " is content to 
 be every man's servant, so as Christ may but 
 reign over his conscience, which if He should 
 not, we know not where he is to reign." " He 
 depends not on any but Christ Jesus the Head, 
 in point of canon and command, for spiritual 
 matters. Concerning the discipline of Christ's 
 Church, he does no more depend upon man than 
 concerning the doctrine ; and counts it the most 
 glorious sight in the world, to see Jesus Christ 
 walk as King, ruling by the sceptre of his Word 
 in the midst of his golden candlesticks." " He 
 will not be beaten but by Scripture weapons : 
 and in reading Scriptures, neither stretches 
 things wider, nor draws them narrower than 
 God has made them." We give one extract 
 more. " He judges Christ's Kingdom to be only 
 there where His laws are in force ; for that 
 county is no part of a prince's dominion which 
 is not regulated by his laws."^ 
 
 True to these principles, the " Reformists" 
 sought, with scrupulous care, to restore the prim- 
 
 ♦ A reprint of this sententious tract may be found in the third vol- 
 ume of Hambury's Historical Memorials relating to the Independ- 
 ents, &c. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 177 
 
 itive and apostolical order of church administra- 
 tion. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we gave a brief 
 sketch of the main features of that church gov- 
 ernment which our fathers deduced and adopted 
 from the Bible. We showed, that they held each 
 local church or covenanted congregation, to have 
 entire spiritual jurisdiction within itself, to be 
 fully competent to its own government by the 
 rules of God's Word, and to be no ways depend- 
 ent on other churches, except for reciprocal acts 
 of kindness and assistance, as one hand may help 
 another. We showed that they considered min- 
 isters of the gospel to be all equal in respect to 
 official rank; to be elected and called by the 
 Church to that great work ; and to labor therein 
 according to the instructions of the Bible, and 
 not according to the dictates of men. Owning 
 Christ as supreme Lord and Master, and all his 
 disciples as free and equal subjects of his power, 
 they looked upon the visible Church as an abso- 
 lute monarchy democratically administered. We 
 also exhibited their views of public worship, — 
 that it should be simple in its character, and 
 chiefly marked by unfettered freedom and high 
 spirituality. 
 
 And now we present for consideration the 
 
178 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 merits of this ancient, catholic and scriptural sys- 
 tem of ecclesiastical discipline. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF THE CONGREGATIONAL WAY. 
 
 Far be it from us to slight the authority of 
 antiquity, provided it be of the highest kind ; 
 namely, the oldest of which the case admits. 
 Our pilgrim-sires contended, that their order was 
 no newer than the New Testament : and that it 
 was old enough to be coeval with Christ and his 
 apostles, from whom it originated. 
 
 The mind takes a pleasure in coming into 
 contact with things remote. It delights to travel 
 back into the distant ages of the past, tracing up 
 usages to their origin, and standing at the far off 
 fountains from whence the streams of custom 
 have come rolling down to our times. These 
 pilgrimages of the mind amid the vestiges and 
 monuments of perished centuries are full of 
 pleasure and profit. 
 
 " Nor rough and barren are the winding ways 
 Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers." 
 
 But there is no study which requires more 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 179 
 
 plain and practical good sense. Imaginative 
 minds become, as it were, spell-bound by the 
 venerable aspect of the past; and under its 
 wizard-wand, lose the power of discriminating 
 between veritable truth and monastic fabling, 
 between actual occurrences and legendary lore. 
 It requires great soundness of judgment to trav- 
 erse the dim vista of ages almost unstoried, 
 where the solemn shapes loom up with awful 
 port, " and frowning in the uncertain dawn of 
 time," subdue the soul with a superstitious rever- 
 ence. To reduce these shadowy forms to their 
 real dimensions requires a keen-eyed caution and 
 strong-minded solidity, which have not been the 
 endowments of every enthusiastic scholar. One 
 of the most laborious and sensible of England's 
 older antiquarians has said ; — " Abating only 
 Holy Writ, it is as impossible to find antiquity 
 without fable, as an old face without wrinkles." 
 As to the fathers of the church, as they are 
 called, or the ancient ecclesiastical writers, it is 
 not easy to see any good ground for the defer- 
 ence which has been paid to their authority in 
 theological questions. Especially when we con- 
 sider how easy it is on any such question to 
 quote fathers against fathers, and councils against 
 councils, it is strange to observe the respect 
 which has been paid to the contradictory respon- 
 
180 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 ses of these ambiguous oracles. Neither the 
 Church nor any of its members in those earlier 
 times had any promises of supernatural aid and 
 guidance, more than the Church and its members 
 may have now. Nor had they any more right 
 to decree for our observance, articles which 
 Christ never sanctioned, than we have to do such 
 a thing for them that shall live a thousand years 
 hence. 
 
 It is said, that the Greek and Latin fathers are 
 valuable witnesses as to the belief and practice 
 of their own times, and so they are. But it is 
 not from their times, nor from any times except 
 those of the apostles, that we are to take our 
 pattern. 
 
 It has been said too, that, as these antiquated 
 authors lived nearer to the apostolic age than we, 
 they must have preserved a nearer and more 
 correct tradition of what the apostles did. But 
 let us take a case with which we are familiar. 
 It is not two hundred years since the first set- 
 tlers of New England were living. They have 
 been succeeded by five or six generations of their 
 descendants, an educated people, deeply inter- 
 ested in the events of that period, and abounding 
 in printed books relating to it. Now suppose we 
 were to go about among our people, collecting 
 all the traditionary information which remains 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 181 
 
 among them, relative to the affairs and practices 
 of the first settlers of this soil. Can any one be- 
 lieve, that out of the materials so amassed, the 
 web of an accurate and veritable history could 
 be woven ? It is certain that a narrative drawn 
 up from such sources of information must abound 
 in gross mistakes and absurd fabrications. 
 
 What reliance, then, can be placed upon tra- 
 ditions received by men who lived and wrote 
 two hundred years after the apostles : — traditions 
 preserved among a people of whom the mass 
 was exceedingly ignorant and unintelligent ; and 
 of whom the superior part was by no means 
 marvelously enlightened. The credibility of 
 such traditions, to which the art of printing had 
 not rendered its important aid, must ever be 
 extremely suspicious. Take a case nearer our 
 own day, drawn 
 
 " From that Brabantine field. 
 The proudest field of fame." 
 
 The battle of Waterloo was the most eventful 
 passage of arms which has been decided for many 
 a long century. For historical purposes it is 
 important to know at what hour of the day, that 
 fearful strife of embattled nations began. And 
 yet of all the numerous actors in the scene who 
 have attempted to narrate the order of its events, 
 VOL. I. 16 
 
182 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 scarce two agree as touching that one simple 
 matter of fact. How vague and unsatisfactory, 
 then, must be any uninspired tradition, especially 
 if it have been long unwritten ? The reflecting 
 mind cannot content itself with such dubious au- 
 thority in matters of the highest moment. And 
 why should it seek contentment there, when the 
 apostles themselves, " moved by the Holy Ghost," 
 committed to infallible records all the traditions 
 which they wished to hand down to the success- 
 ive ages of the church ? '^ 
 
 The writings of the fathers were extravagantly 
 over-estimated in their own times, and ever since. 
 Read the remains which have come down to us 
 from the apostolic age. The largest of these are 
 the epistle of Barnabas, the fellow laborer of St. 
 Paul ; and the " Shepherd " of Hermas, the 
 same, perhaps, to whom St. Paul addressed a 
 salutation in the last chapter of his epistle to the 
 Romans ; and the epistle of Clement, also sa- 
 luted in the same chapter. Whoever expects to 
 find in these pieces much of the Pauline stamp 
 of thought and diction, will be sadly disappoint- 
 ed. The epistle of Barnabas is a tedious and 
 tasteless affair, full of poor and senseless con- 
 ceits, and absurd allegories. As for the " Shep- 
 
 *2The83. 2: 15, and 3: G. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 183 
 
 herd" of Hermas, if any one were to read it, 
 without knowing but what it might be some 
 modern production, he would throw it aside as 
 the scribbling of some miserable driveler. The 
 epistle of Clement the Roman, addressed to the 
 Corinthian Church, is a moderately respectable 
 performance ; but, in respect to richness of gos- 
 pel truth and evangelic fervor, immeasurably 
 inferior to the epistles of St. Paul to the same 
 Christian community. In reading these writings 
 of men whom the apostles had known and 
 taught, we cannot but feel the conviction deep- 
 ened, that it was the inspiration of God which 
 enabled the apostles to teach in a strain of doc- 
 trine and argument at least a whole heaven 
 above these their disciples and followers. 
 
 If we learn from these earliest fathers so lit- 
 tle, indeed nothing, in addition to what instruc- 
 tion the New Testament gives, we may well 
 give up the expectation of being made much 
 wiser by the study of the vast and voluminous 
 remains of the later fathers. When the Romish 
 priest objected to the Irish convert to protestant- 
 ism, that he was not acquainted with the opin- 
 ions of the fathers, it was wisely retorted by the 
 latter, that he had done what was milch better ; 
 he had prayerfully studied the grandfathers, — 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He who has 
 
184 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 informed himself of the low state of education 
 and literature during the centuries which pre- 
 ceded the Protestant reformation, will hardly 
 persuade himself that the authors of those times 
 are fit to be the teachers of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. Their traditions will have no weight 
 whatever. Even that royal sophomore, James 
 I., had sense enough to say; — "In all usages 
 and precedents, let the times be considered 
 wherein they first began ; which [times] if they 
 be weak or ignorant, it derogateth from the au- 
 thority of the usage, and leaveth it for suspect." 
 According to this principle, the fathers will be 
 but dubious guides. A more thorough and sys- 
 tematic view of the doctrines and duties of 
 Christianity can be derived from the volumes of 
 Dr. Dwight, than from all the ponderous tomes 
 of Chrysostom, and the huge lumbering folios of 
 Aug-ustine beside. 
 
 It is true that the works of the later fathers, 
 who lived when the primitive simplicity was 
 lost from sight amid the accumulating inven- 
 tions of superstitious or aspiring men, are gener- 
 ally favorable to hierarchy and its proud 
 pretensions. But the few genuine documents 
 which have descended to us from the first three 
 centuries, fully substantiate the Congregational- 
 ism of the Puritans. And this explains the 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 185 
 
 treatment which the ancient writers have re- 
 ceived from the divines of the Anglican Church. 
 That treatment led Chillingworth to say, that 
 " those divines account the fathers to be fathers 
 when they are for them, and children when 
 they are against them." Martin Luther, who 
 was learned in this sort of lore, was so perplexed 
 by the many discrepancies and puerile fancies 
 which abound in those old ecclesiastical writers, 
 that he cast them aside in despair. He once 
 said ; — " When God's Word is by the fathers 
 expounded, construed and glossed, then, in my 
 judgment, it is even like to one that straineth 
 milk through a coal-sack, which must needs 
 spoil and make the milk black." In five differ- 
 ent places of Lord Bacon's works, he repeats the 
 sentiment ; — " Time seemeth to be of the nature 
 of a river or flood, that bringeih down to us that 
 which is light or blown up, and sinketh and 
 drowneth that which is soHd and grave." Were 
 it not for his lordship's charity, he might have 
 felt some suspicions, that antiquity, after all, has 
 sent down to us the best it had. 
 
 The Puritans were too stiff-kneed to succumb 
 to the decisions of uninspired men, whether an- 
 cient or modern. But they were ready to bring 
 their church polity to the test of antiquity, pro- 
 vided it should be the oldest antiquity of all. In 
 16=^ 
 
1S6 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 reply to such as imagined that their churches 
 dropped out of the clouds some time in the six- 
 teenth century, they could adopt the language 
 of King James at the Hampton Court Confer- 
 ence ; — " I know not how to answer the objec- 
 tions of papists, when they charge us with 
 novelties, but by telling them, that we retain the 
 primitive use of things, and only forsake their 
 novel corruptions." 
 
 And truly, if antiquity is to decide the point, 
 let us go back of the old writers to the older 
 Bible. The Acts of the Apostles is a far purer 
 and more ancient record than the most antiqua- 
 ted of the church histories ; and the apostolical 
 epistles are far safer and more venerable docu- 
 ments than the mustiest relics of what school- 
 men and churchmen have penned. Why should 
 we examine the subject of the Church's consti- 
 tution by the feeble tapers of human wisdom, 
 when we may bring it at once to the sun-light of 
 revelation. If you were suffering from a pain- 
 ful disease, and the physician were to offer you 
 a vast variety of remedies, of which some would 
 help you a little, and others would help you 
 more ; and if he were to hold out one which 
 would afford instant and permanent relief, would 
 you not promptly reject the others, and insist 
 upon receiving that which will give immediate 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 187 
 
 health and soundness ? And why should we be 
 dallying with the fathers, when the blessed 
 Bible SO far exceeds them in every thing in 
 which they can be supposed to benefit us ? 
 Well has it been said by a living divine ; — 
 " The Bible is older than the fathers, — truer 
 than traditions, — wiser than councils, — more 
 learned than universities, — more orthodox than 
 creeds, — more infallible than popes, — more au- 
 thoritative than priests, — more powerful than 
 ceremonies, — more reliable for the world's sal- 
 vation than any thing or every thing else under 
 the heavens." 
 
 When the Papist asks the Congregational- 
 ist ; — " Where was your church before the Pu- 
 ritans set it up ? " we might answer as John 
 Wilkes, the celebrated sheriff of Middlesex, did 
 in a similar case. He retorted on the Papist ; — 
 " Sir, did you wash your face this morning ? " 
 The Papist answered, somewhat sullenly, in the 
 affirmative. " Well then," rejoined the witty 
 sheriff, "where was your face before it was 
 washed ? " This question was shrewdly put : 
 for let the popish corruptions be thoroughly 
 washed off, and the popish pollutions be purged 
 away, and the fair face of the Church will re- 
 appear in its primeval beauty. Or we may 
 answer briefly with Luther to the priest who 
 
188 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 scornfully asked ; — " Where was your Church 
 during so many long centuries ? " To whom 
 the bold reformer promptly replied ; — " My 
 Church was where yours never was, — in the 
 Bible ! " Holding fast this inviolable charter of 
 the city of God, we may appeal from men who 
 reject us, to God who owns us. We may 
 appeal in the language of the prophet; — 
 " Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abra- 
 ham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge 
 us not : thou, Lord, art our Father, our Re- 
 deemer ; thy name is from everlasting." 
 
 Nothing can be more sound than John Cot- 
 ton's remark ; — " That must be true which was 
 primitive ; and that must be primitive which is 
 from the beginning. There is no false way," he 
 adds, "but what is an aberration from the first 
 institution." He followed this principle till it 
 led him to say ; — " The way of Independency 
 hath been bred in the womb of the New Testa- 
 ment of the immortal seed of the Word of truth, 
 and received in the times of the purest primitive 
 antiquity.""^ He looked upon no other mode of 
 ecclesiastical discipline to be " so ancient as the 
 way of our Congregational government of each 
 church within itself, by the space of three hun- 
 
 ♦ Way ofCongregalional Churches, p. 9, 164S. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 1S9 
 
 dred years. Con^egational discipline was insti- 
 tuted by Christ and his apostles. '"^ This opinion 
 is sanctioned by some of the best informed histo- 
 rians in the communion of the Church of Rome. 
 Of this, any one may find sufficient proof in the 
 authorities cited by Moshein. To these may be 
 added the testimony of the monastic writers 
 of church history, known as the Magdeburg 
 Centuriators. " But, whoever will look through 
 the approved authors of this age, will see that 
 the form of government was quite democratical. 
 For individual churches had equal power, as to 
 purely teaching the Word of God, administering 
 th& sacraments, excommunicating heretics and 
 offenders, choosing, calling, ordaining, and for 
 just reasons deposing again, their ministers, and 
 assembling conventions and synods."! DuPin, 
 a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a man of rare 
 learning and candor, speaking of the first three 
 centuries, acknowledges in general that the mode 
 of church government was altogether of a popu- 
 lar cast ; and then adds ; — "• After all, it must be 
 confessed, that the discipline of the church has 
 been so extremely different, and so often altered, 
 that it is almost impossible to say any thing pos- 
 
 * Way of Congregational Churches, pp. 93,94. Also Prop. I., in 
 survey of Church Discipline. 
 
 t II Cent. Chapter 7. Title, De Consociatione Ecclesiarum. 
 
190 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 itively concerning it."^ The hierarchal way of 
 ruling is most evidently not aboriginal in the 
 church, but is the fruit of antiquated changes. 
 
 Why, then, should we cling to practices which, 
 however antiquated, were in their origin innova- 
 tions upon the pristine usage. " An error by 
 continuance of time can never become a truth, 
 but only the more inveterate error." Suppose 
 that, with our present views and feelings, all 
 Christendom were to urge some novelty upon us 
 for our adoption — should we feel under the 
 slightest obligations to adopt it ? Certainly we 
 should not. But suppose that, with the same 
 correct views and feelings which we now have 
 on the subject, we had lived in the third or fourth 
 centuries ; when so many hierarchal novelties 
 were introduced and imposed : — should we have 
 felt obligated to submit to them then ? We cer- 
 tainly should not. Why then should we submit 
 to the same things now ? They were innova- 
 tions when they were first introduced, and they 
 have been mere innovations ever since. Our 
 stal-vvort sires trampled them in the dust, and 
 strode ruthlessly over them all, that they might 
 plant their feet upon the rock of truth, that rock 
 of prhiiitive formation. They were solicitous 
 
 * Biblioth. Patrum. Tom. III., Cent. III., p 183. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 191 
 
 to base the fabric of their churches on none but 
 a scriptural antiquity : for they knew that the 
 Word of God is not only ancient of days, but 
 that it " abideth forever." They embraced the 
 maxim of Peter Martyr, admitting " nothing* 
 without, nothing against, nothing beside, nothing 
 beyond, the divine Scripture." 
 
 A recent writer, who has treated these sub- 
 jects with consummate ability, tells us truly, that 
 " this has ever been the great principle of Puri- 
 tanism : that God's Word is the sole and suffi- 
 cient standard of faith and duty." Nearly a 
 century after the landing of the Pilgrims, an as- 
 sembly of Connecticut ministers, in setting forth 
 their general assent to the Savoy Confession of 
 Faith, as containing the system of doctrine which 
 they embraced, — deemed it important to preface 
 that act and confession with these words, worthy 
 to be written in broad letters of living light. 
 " We do not assume to ourselves that any thing 
 is to be taken upon trust from us, but commend 
 to our people the following counsels : 1. That 
 you be immovably and unchangeably agreed in 
 the only sufficient and invariable rule of religion, 
 which is THE Holy Scripture, the fixed canon, 
 incapable of addition or diminution. You ought 
 
 TO ACCOUNT NOTHING ANCIENT THAT WILL NOT 
 STAND BY THIS RULE ; AND NOTHING NEW THAT 
 
192 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 WILL. 2. That you be determined by this rule 
 in the whole of religion. That your faith be 
 right and divine, the Word of God must be the 
 foundation of it, and the authority of the Word the 
 reason of it.'"^ Such noble advices will never 
 be heard from the lips of the assertors of priestly 
 power. Their only study is to circumscribe the 
 rights of the people, and restrain them from that 
 use of "private judgment," which God requires 
 of every accountable being. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE NEW ENGLAND CHURCH GOVERNMENT AS 
 RESPECTS CATHOLICITY. 
 
 By catholicity is meant that generous and lov- 
 ing spirit, by which every Christian embraces, in 
 the arms of his charity, every other Christian as 
 a brother in the Lord. The true apostolical 
 Catholicism rejoices in the unity of the spirit, 
 rather than in the unity of outward forms. It 
 fondly cherishes a union of hearts, even where 
 there may be little uniformity of practices. It is 
 like the law of vegetative life, which is the same 
 
 *The Piirilaiis and iheir Principleii, by Rev. E. Hall, 8vo., 1846, 
 p. irx). 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 193 
 
 in all plants, and marks them as the subjects of 
 one and the same kingdom ; and yet developes 
 itself in an endless variety of production. It has 
 been eloquently said ; — " The productions which 
 adorn the paradise of God, from the loftiest ce- 
 dar of Lebanon, to the lowliest plant which 
 flourishes beneath its shade, are all pervaded by 
 the same great principle of spiritual life ; are all 
 sustained by the same influences of heaven and 
 of earth ; all imbibe living moisture from the 
 same dew and shower ; and rejoice in the genial 
 radiance of the same celestial sunshine : but 
 they, at the same time, present endless varieties 
 of form and structure, of fruit and flower, of leaf 
 and fragrance." 
 
 Now the catholic spirit of the gospel manifests 
 itself by recognizing the same spirit wherever 
 found, and however diversified the aspect it wears. 
 With false and anti-christian churches, it has 
 nothing to do. Its repugnance to them is as 
 strong as its attraction toward every evangelical 
 communion. Hatred of heresy is a twin flower 
 with love of truth. They bloom on a common 
 stalk. But while the brotherly love of the gos- 
 pel shrinks, like the sensitive plant, from the 
 hateful contact of soul-destroying errors, it unfolds 
 all its leaves to the congenial breath of purity. 
 " We reckon it our distinguishing honor," writes 
 
 VOL. I. 17 
 
194 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Samuel Mather, " that, of all the reformed church- 
 es, we are the most distant from the church of 
 Rome, and the most conformed to the churches 
 in the days of the apostles and of primitive Christ- 
 ianity." 
 
 As respects this genuine catholicity, the Con- 
 gregational churches may affectionately invite 
 comparison with their sister-churches of other 
 names. And this comparison is invited, not as 
 challenging an invidious superiority in this or 
 any other point of excellence ; but as kindly 
 craving their own proper dues. 
 
 Dr. Owen and our fathers took an open and 
 honest stand. " Unless," say they, " men can 
 prove that we have not the spirit of God, that we 
 do not savingly believe in Jesus Christ ; that we 
 do not sincerely love all the saints, his whole 
 body and every member of it ; they cannot dis- 
 prove our interest in the Catholic Church.""^ 
 Our fathers regarded their communion as one 
 purified branch of the true church catholic. 
 This was the extent of their modest claim. 
 They did not pretend to unchurch other commu- 
 nions. They did not pretend, that they had an 
 exclusive monopoly of covenant blessings. They 
 asserted nothing more than a right to regard 
 
 ♦ John Owen, D. D., "OfSchism," &c. chap. IV., sec 19. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 195 
 
 themselves as one province of the kingdom of 
 Christ, in which their Lord's laws were more 
 strictly enforced than elsewhere. Listen to the 
 declaration of John Cotton ;— " We cannot but 
 conceive the churches in England were rightly 
 gathered, and planted according to the rule of 
 the gospel : and all the corruptions found in them 
 since, have sprung from popish apostacy in suc- 
 ceeding ages, and from want of thorough and 
 perfect purging out of that leaven, in the late 
 times of Reformation in the days of our fathers. 
 So that all the work now, is not to make them 
 churches which were none before, but to reduce 
 and restore them to their primitive institution." ^ 
 The treatise from which this is quoted, though 
 prepared by Mr. Cotton, appears to contain the 
 results of his brethren's deliberations. From 
 this, and innumerable other ^testimonies of the 
 same character, it is evident, that our fathers 
 were equally ready to assert their own rights, 
 and to admit the just rights of others, to a place 
 in the house of God. 
 
 In the time of James L, in a pamphlet called 
 " A Protestation of the King's Supremacy, made 
 in the Name of the afflicted Ministers, &c.," the 
 demands of the Puritans were thus expressed. 
 
 * " Way of the Churches in New England, &c., p. Ill" 
 
196 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 ** All that we crave of his majesty and the State, 
 is, that with his and their permission, it may be 
 lawful for us to worship God according to His 
 revealed will ; that we may not be forced to the 
 observance of any human rites and ceremonies. 
 So long as it shall please the king and parlia- 
 ment to maintain the hierarchy or prelacy in 
 this kingdom, we are content that they enjoy 
 their state and dignity : and we will live as 
 brethren among the ministers that acknowledge 
 spiritual homage to the spiritual lordships, paying 
 them all temporal duties of tithes, and joining 
 with them in the service and worship of God so 
 far as we may, without our own particular com- 
 municating in those human traditions which we 
 judge unlawful.'"^ Two distinguished divines, 
 during a process against them for non-conformity, 
 sent a letter to tl^e Archbishop and the other 
 ecclesiastical members of the High Commission, 
 in which occurs the following language ; — " Con- 
 science is a tender thing, and all men cannot 
 look upon the same thing as indifferent ; if, 
 therefore, these habits seem so to you, you are 
 not to be cmideimied by us ; on the other hand, 
 if they do not appear so to us, we ought not to 
 be vexed by you. " t 
 
 * Cited in Neale's History, Part I., chap. 1. 
 tib. Parin.,chap. 4. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 197 
 
 In matters of this nature, the Congregational 
 churches not only profess catholic principles, but 
 practice them. And a square-foot of perform- 
 ance is worth an acre of profession. Thus our 
 churches lovingly receive the members of other 
 evangelical churches to occasional, and even sta- 
 ted communion at the Lord's table, and in other 
 religious ordinances. We receive such members 
 into our own churches without rebapiism : and 
 their ministers without reordination. We cordi- 
 ally unite with them in associated effort to extend 
 the Redeemer's kingdom on the earth. Our men 
 and our means have contributed to the gathering 
 of thousands of churches which are attached to 
 other denominations. What more could we do 
 to evince a catholic spirit of fraternal union with 
 all who " hold the Head, from which all the body, 
 by joints and bands having nourishment minis- 
 tered, and knit together, increaseth with the 
 increase of God ? " 
 
 Our churches, in respect to Catholicity, will 
 compare to great advantage with other religious 
 communities. These, in general, will not suffer 
 any to enter, or to continue among them, espe- 
 cially ministers, unless they will conform to 
 every practice, however unessential, or however 
 inconsistent with scripture rule. But we, on the 
 contrary, are ready to receive from them, without 
 17=^ 
 
198 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 rebaptism or reordination, all whom Christ has 
 received. We exact no conditions of them but 
 what Christ has required. We demand their 
 assent only to such points as all evangelical 
 Christians admit to be vital to the faith, and fun- 
 damental to salvation. In minor points, every 
 one is left to the liberty of his conscience, and to 
 the freedom of his own judgment : " admitting," 
 as Dr. Increase Mather has said, " of all those, 
 though in different persuasions about lesser 
 points, of whom it may be judged, in reasonable 
 charity, that Christ has received them to the 
 glory of God." To which he adds this impres- 
 sive remark ; — " Our foundation is in these holy 
 mountains ! " ^ 
 
 This is that chief grace of charity which bids 
 us to " love alike, though we do not understand 
 alike." It teaches us to exercise the mild judg- 
 ment of Christian love in the reception of such 
 as are weak in the faith. The Cambridge Plat- 
 form directs, that " such charity and tenderness 
 is to be used, as the weakest Christian, if sin- 
 cere, may not be excluded nor discouraged. 
 Severity of examination is to be avoided."! 
 Dr. Samuel Mather says ; — " My great grand- 
 father, the holy and learned Mr. Cotton, once 
 
 * "Elijah's Mantle," p. 16. 
 t Chap. XII , sec. 3. 
 
LIFE OP JOHN COTTON. 199 
 
 said to his congregation, that, if any person, 
 though a poor Indian, should step forth and say, 
 ' I love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and 
 truth,' and should testify his willingness to walk 
 according to the gospel, though his defects were 
 great for ignorance and the like, he should be 
 for admitting him to the Lord's table." 
 
 The liberal character of Congregationalism is 
 opposed to a strenuous pressing of uniformity. 
 The rules of outward uniformity must bend, 
 when necessary, to the maxims of spiritual 
 unity : even as the precepts of the ceremonial 
 law gave way, when they occasionally conflicted 
 with the requirements of the moral law. "We 
 require no man," says Mr. Cotton, " to swear to 
 our church government : nor ever did, that I 
 know. Neither do we so much as require, 
 that they should profess their approbation of our 
 government." "^ These sentiments of one whom 
 Dr. Goodwin calls " that apostle of his age," are 
 sanctioned by his fellow-laborers and fellow-suf- 
 ferers. Thus in Winslow's " Brief Narration," 
 numerous examples are given of free communion 
 as practiced by the Leyden, Plymouth and Mas- 
 sachusetts churches, in their intercourse with 
 other reformed churches. " For we ever placed," 
 
 * Holinease of Church Members, p. 29. 
 
200 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 he says, " a large difference between those that 
 grounded their practice on the Word of God, 
 though differing from us in the exposition or un- 
 derstanding of it, and those that hated such 
 Reformers and Reformation, and went on in 
 anti-christian opposition to it and persecution of 
 it.'"^ Those good men felt that they, so far as 
 it rested with them, were in full communion 
 with all that was right anywhere in the Christ- 
 ian world. As they phrased it, they were " for 
 every reformed church, so far as it is reformed." 
 They steadily repudiated the charge, so indus- 
 triously alledged against them, of being sepa- 
 ratists. Said the excellent John Higginson of 
 Salem, when preaching the annual election ser- 
 mon in 1663 ; — " The end of our coming hither 
 was a reformation only of what was amiss or 
 defective in the churches we came from : from 
 which we made no separation, but a local seces- 
 sion only into this wilderness, with true desires 
 and endeavors after a more full reformation ac- 
 cording to God's Word."t In the same dis- 
 course, he affirms ; — " This was, and is, our 
 cause, that Christ alone might be acknowledged 
 by us, as the only Head, Lord, and Lawgiver in 
 his Church ; that his written Word might be 
 
 * Young's Chronicles, p. 391. 
 
 t The Cause of God and hia People, p. 11. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 201 
 
 acknowledged as the only rule ; that only and 
 all his institutions might be observed and en- 
 joyed by us ; and that with purity and liberty, 
 with peace and power." ^ In carrying out this 
 design, our fathers distinguished between things 
 necessary, and such as were in their nature 
 indifferent. So Higginson, on the same occa- 
 sion, taught ; — " In matters divine, where we 
 have a clear command, with Moses, we must 
 not yield an hoof : but in matters human, stand- 
 ing upon extreme right may prove to be extreme 
 wrong." t 
 
 Jonathan Mitchell, a kindred spirit, preached 
 the annual election sermon for 1667. He then 
 took occasion to remark ; — " The good old non- 
 conformists were very zealous for reformation, 
 and yet always steadfast enemies to separation : 
 those two may well consist, and they left us a 
 good example therein." I So too John Norton, 
 and all the other Massachusetts pastors, in their 
 letter to Mr. Dury, have said ; — " We chose 
 rather to depart into the remote and unknown 
 coasts of the earth, for the sake of a purer wor- 
 ship, than to lie down under the hierarchy, in 
 the abundance of all things, but with the preju- 
 
 •* The Cause of God and his People, p. 13. 
 
 tib. p. 21. 
 
 I Nehemiah on the Wall in troublous times, p 28. 
 
202 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 dice of conscience. But that in flying- from our 
 country, we should renounce communion with 
 such churches as profess the gospel, is a thing 
 which we confidently and solemnly deny." "^ If 
 this formal disclaimer, to -which they subscribed 
 their names, will not absolve them from the 
 charge of having made a breach in the catholic 
 unity, then no compurgation could avail. 
 
 In a letter written by Oliver Cromwell to the 
 Long Parliament, he says ; — " All that believe, 
 have the real unity, which is the most glorious ; 
 because inward and spiritual, in the Body, and 
 to the Head. As for being united in outward 
 forms, commonly called Uniformit}?-, every Christ- 
 ian will for peace-sake study and do, as far as 
 conscience will permit. And for brethren, in 
 things of the mind we look for no compulsion, 
 but that of light and reason."! The Protector's 
 modern vindicator has said ; — " To Cromwell, 
 perhaps as much as another, order was lovely, 
 and disorder hateful ; but he discerned better 
 than some others what order and disorder really 
 were. The forest-trees are not in ' order ' be- 
 cause they are all dipt into the same shape of 
 Dutch dragons, and forced to die or grow in 
 that way ; but because in each of them there is 
 
 * Letter to Mr. John Dury, p. 11. 
 
 t Carlisle's Letters and Speeches of O. Cromwell ; Letter XV. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 203 
 
 the same genuine unity of life, from the inmost 
 pith to the uttermost leaf, and they do grow ac- 
 cording to that ! " 
 
 We rejoice in that unsurpassed catholicity of 
 our churches, which allows a happy liberty to 
 them and to their members. And if only there 
 be a spiritual and internal union, why should the 
 entire visible church be hewn down to the dead 
 level of a dull uniformity? Variety in unity 
 is the law of heaven. In God himself is seen 
 the adorable mystery of trinity in unity, invest- 
 ing his " lightning-shrouded seat " with three- 
 fold glory and indivisible perfection. The living 
 creatures about the throne, variously represent 
 distinct powers and virtues. The burning seraph, 
 and rushing cherub are glorious in their several 
 make and mould. From the brightest archangel 
 to the fairest of the ministrant spirits, there are 
 many gradations of might and beauty, even as 
 one star differeth from another. And amonar 
 the ransomed saints from earth, there are patri- 
 archs, who, before the flood, were ripening in 
 wisdom and grace for a thousand years : and 
 with these is the infant which " fell on sleep " 
 with the baptismal dew still fresh upon its 
 brow. In that day, when God shall " make up 
 his jewels," and shall set them in his crown, it 
 will be gemmed with a gorgeous variety of 
 
204 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 precious stones, not cut to one size or shape, nor 
 tinged with the same unvarying hue. The 
 sapphire shall blaze along with the diamond, 
 and the ruby blush between. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE MERITS OF CONGREGATIONALISM AS RESPECTS 
 SCRIPTURAL SPIRITUALITY. 
 
 This mode of church government affords full 
 scope to the genius of our religion. The free 
 spirit of Christianity is impatient of human fet- 
 ters and trammels. It delights in breaking 
 yokes, and disinthralling minds which have 
 been subjugated by sin and by worldly usages. 
 It constitutionally dislikes the confinement of 
 imposed forms when they are not of divine ap- 
 pointment. 
 
 The grace of God in the heart is a leaven, 
 which works from within outwards. It is an 
 inner life, which, instead of adapting itself to the 
 outward shape it inhabits, conforms that to itself. 
 As the solid bones of the head fit themselves to 
 the conformation of the soft brain, so the out- 
 ward forms of our religion should take their 
 shape from the animating and assimilating spirit 
 within. And to pursue the figure, — when the 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 205 
 
 brain is dead, so is the skull ; which yet long 
 retains its shape after the other has turned to 
 dust and disappeared. Even so are all the 
 forms of religion empty, dead and defiled, when 
 its life and spirit are departed. They are like 
 the death's head and cross-bones in the monkish 
 cells, fitter to inspire disgust than to awaken 
 piety. They belong to the charnel-heaps of a 
 lifeless and decayed religion. 
 
 The gospel holds up spiritual worship in op- 
 position to that which is merely formal ; and 
 therefore it favors a simple worship, not encum- 
 bered with pompous observances which would 
 be likely to catch the mind of the worshiper, and 
 detain it in a ceremonial net-work. The ancient 
 attempts to adorn the plain apostolic worship 
 with a magnificent ritual, resulted, as Milton 
 says, " in drawing down all divine intercourse 
 between God and the human soul into an exteri- 
 or and bt)dily form; till nearly all the inward 
 parts of worship, which issue from the native 
 strength of the soul, ran lavishly to the upper 
 skin, and there hardened into a crust of formali- 
 ty." It is certain, that thfe Congregational dis- 
 cipline and worship must languish, so far as the 
 power of godliness declines. To maintain our 
 father's system in its vigor and efficieiTcy, there 
 must be a high degree of spirituality in the 
 VOL. I. 18 
 
206 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Church, a pervading, vital and active piety. 
 This fact is one chief recommendation of that 
 system, and is an evidence of its primitive and 
 scriptural character. 
 
 There is a strong propensity in man to merge 
 the life and spirit of religion in its outward forms. 
 When we see persons who were once apparently 
 converted to God under the simple ministrations 
 of the gospel, betaking themselves at last to a 
 punctilious observance of rites and ceremonies, 
 we cannot but lament their degenerate piety. 
 How applicable to them the language of the 
 apostle to those of his converts who were relaps- 
 ing into Jewish formalities; — "Are ye so fool- 
 ish ? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now 
 made perfect by the flesh ?" May we ever have 
 grace to escape such vassalage ; for vassalage it 
 is, though its serfs are so prone to be proud of 
 their shackles. 
 
 One of the oldest Puritans, a martyr to the 
 cause of spiritual Christianity, has said ; — " Let 
 us, for the appeasing and assurance of our con- 
 sciences, give heed to the Word of God, and by 
 that golden reed measure our temple, our altar, 
 and our worshipers ; even by these rules where- 
 by the apostles, those excellent, perfect work- 
 men, founded and built the first churches."^ 
 
 * RuiTuw'.s Brief liijcovi'iy, &c., 1590, p. 7. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 207 
 
 The Bible Christian caiuiol but feel a deep in- 
 terest in an ecclesiastical order which studiously 
 seeks to arrange itself "according to the pattern 
 in the mount." "The Word of God," says a 
 modern writer of note, " is our only rule^ in the 
 sense both of a law and a standard ; a rule suffi- 
 cient, as opposed to all deficiency ; exclusive, as 
 relates to any other than the Divine authority 
 from which it emanates ; universal, as embracing 
 all the principles of human actions ; and ulti- 
 mate, as admitting of no appeal from its decis- 
 ions.""^ 
 
 He who is born of the Spirit, is born free : and 
 where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 
 Jesus is the grand Liberator of souls, bringing 
 deliverance to the captives, and the opening of 
 the prison doors to them that are bound. The 
 children of Zion come of no servile parentage : 
 for " Jerusalem which is above is free, which is 
 the mother of us all." In short, the religion of 
 Jesus is the emancipation of the soul. And so, 
 by a sort of natural necessity, it calls for forms 
 of government as liberal and popular as disin- 
 thralled humanity can wish. The spiritual and 
 scriptural forms which our fathers adopted, fully 
 meet this requisition. 
 
 * Protestant Nonconformity, by J. Conder, 1818, II., p. 313. 
 
208 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 In considering the merits of this ancient, 
 catholic, and spiritual system, we must not omit 
 to speak of its practical tendencies. 
 
 We are led to notice the tendency of Congre- 
 gationalism to. enlarge and liberalize the heart. 
 Paying little regard to the sectarian peculiarities 
 of other communions, it is the less apt to overes- 
 timate any peculiarities of its own. Hence it is 
 the more ready to enter into such leagues and 
 alliances as may foster the communion of church- 
 es, without destroying their just independence. 
 
 As it was best adapted to those primitive 
 times of the gospel wherein it began, so will it 
 be found best adapted to those ultimate times of 
 promise, in which the gospel shall prevail over 
 all the earth. " Such is the truly liberal and 
 catholic spirit, which characterizes the principles 
 of Congregationalism, that if the millennium 
 were to commence tomorrow, there would be no 
 need of modifying or changing any one of those 
 principles. It sets up no exclusive terms of 
 communion ; it ijisists upon no outward forms, 
 or unessential rights as conditions of Christian 
 fellowship. It receives all, whom there is evi 
 dence to believe Christ has received. On this 
 ground, our churches without relinquishing or 
 altering any one principle of their organization, 
 or polity, might admit to their communion the 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 209 
 
 whole world, converted to Christ, and extend the 
 hand of fellowship to all Christians of whatever 
 name or denomination. But on the principle of 
 the Episcopalians, the millennium can never 
 come till the whole world become Episcopalians ; 
 and on the principle of the Baptists, the millen- 
 nium can never come till the whole world become 
 Baptists ; and on the principle of the Papists, the 
 millennium can never come till the whole world 
 become Papists : but on the principle of the 
 Congregationalists, the millennium may come at 
 any time, and they be prepared to enter into the 
 spirit of it, and embrace in the arms of Christian 
 fellowship, all who love the Lord Jesus Christ 
 in sincerity and truth, however much they might 
 differ in certain points of form and ceremony."^ 
 
 Congregationalism cherishes public spirit, or 
 that disposition which prompts men to exertions 
 and sacrifices for the general good. Whatever 
 happy pre-eminence New England may enjoy, is 
 owing to the public spirit diffused throughout her 
 population. And it has been diffused mainly 
 by the influence of that ecclesiastical order which 
 makes every member of the church feel that he 
 has something to do for others, as well as for 
 
 * Tribute to the memory of the Pilgrims, by Joel Hawes, D. D., 
 
 p. 87, 83. 
 
 18* 
 
210 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 himself. This is from the remoter source 
 whence are derived those acts of ample munifi- 
 cence for which New England is famed. The 
 generous benefactions of individuals and of con- 
 gregations to promote education, beneficence and 
 piety at home and abroad, are chiefly emanation^ 
 from the deep-seated springs which our church 
 polity has opened. This is the rod of God which 
 smites the rock, and causes streams to gush forth 
 in the desert, and make it glad. 
 
 It is obvious that such a church polity elevates 
 the popular rights, and favors civil liberty, and 
 imparts the capacity to maintain it. People who 
 have been bred to self-government in an inde- 
 pendent church are competent to govern them- 
 selves in a free commonwealth. A people so 
 trained must feel an equal aversion to despotism 
 and to anarchy. They can have no sympathy 
 with either. They will be the sworn foes of op- 
 pression, and the fast friends of order. The 
 sense of individual responsibility which has been 
 aroused in the church -meeting, will not sleep in 
 the town-meeting. It will ever be a wakeful 
 sentinel by the watch-fires of freedom. It was 
 on their system of independent churches, that 
 our forefathers based the political liberties of the 
 country. And the foundation which they laid 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 211 
 
 has stood firm as the granite hills. And so long 
 as that system of independent churches shall 
 predominate in the land, so long will it be mor- 
 ally impossible for aspiring hierarchs to tread 
 religious freedom in the dust. 
 
 Freedom of inquiry after truth is eminently 
 promoted by Congregationalism. It tells every 
 man that he is personally responsible to God for 
 knowing the truth. It tells him, that he cannot 
 throw oftMiis responsibility on pope or patriarch, 
 on proud prelate or plain pastor, on the living or 
 the dead. The mind once stirred up to investi- 
 gation, will never more lie down submissive to 
 the dictates of authority. " Human reason, when 
 the fit of free inquiry is upon it, is in truth like 
 a wild beast; the smaller the cage in which you 
 confine it, the more fiercely it will rage." The 
 wiser course is, to place the truth fully in the 
 way, and then give full scope to the speaker. If 
 he be seeking sincerely, he will soon close with 
 the obvious truths which will meet him on every 
 side. If he be not sincere in his seeking, he will 
 at least, escape the deeper debasement of an en- 
 forced and groveling hypocrisy. God himself, 
 all-powerful as he is, wins the heart by persua- 
 sion rather than by force. 
 
 In exemplifying the liberal character of our 
 
212 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 principles, we cannot help quoting the well- 
 known farewell address of John Robinson to the 
 Plymouth colonists. " He was very confident 
 that the Lord had more truth and light yet to 
 break forth out of his holy Word. He took occa- 
 sion also miserably to bewail the state and con- 
 dition of the Reformed Churches, who were 
 come to a period in religion, and would go no 
 further than the instruments of their Reforma- 
 tion. As, for example, the Lutherans, they 
 could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther 
 saw; for whatever part of God's will he had 
 further imparted and revealed to Calvin, they 
 will rather die than embrace it. And so also, 
 saith he, you see the Calvinists, they stick 
 where he left them ; a misery much to be 
 lamented ; for though they were precious shin- 
 ing lights in their times, yet God had not 
 revealed his whole will to them ; and were they 
 now living, saith he, they would be as ready 
 and willing to embrace further light, as that they 
 had received. Here also he put us in mind of 
 our church covenant, at least that part of it 
 whereby we promise and covenant with God 
 and one another, to receive whatsoever light or 
 truth shall be made known to us from his writ- 
 ten Word ; but withal exhorted us to take heed 
 what we received for truth, and well to examine, 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON 
 
 213 
 
 and compare it and weigh it with other Script- 
 ures of truth before we received it. For, saith 
 he, it is not possible the christian world should 
 come so lately out of such thick anti-christian 
 darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge 
 should break forth at once." ^ These noble 
 instructions given by the Leyden pastor, have 
 been grossly perverted to sanction a reception of 
 errors which that great man had examined and 
 rejected long before. Even in his day, so far 
 from being regarded as " new light," they were 
 renounced as " old darkness." 
 
 We have another example of the liberal char- 
 acter of Puritanism, which is not less noble 
 than Robinson's address, and is not so liable to 
 be wrested into a plea for the adoption of error. 
 It occurs in the dedication of John Norton's 
 " Orthodox Evangelist ; "— " Even fundamental 
 truths, which have been the same in all genera- 
 tions, have been, and shall be, transmitted more 
 clear from age to age in the times of reforma- 
 tion ; until that which is perfect is come, and 
 that which is imperfect be done away. The 
 truth held forth is the same ; though with more 
 of Christ, and less of man. Such addition is no 
 
 * Gov. Wiaslow's Report in Young'a Chronicles, p. 396. 
 
214 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 innovation, but an illustration : not new light, 
 but new sight." And such has been the case. 
 Theologians, without tampering with what our 
 forefathers held to be fundamental articles of 
 faith, have greatly improved the mode of pre- 
 senting and illustrating the articles of their 
 belief. They have not changed the mirror : 
 but by raising its polish, it reflects a clearer 
 image of the truth. 
 
 As Governor Winslow once remarked, " the 
 primitive churches are the only pattern which 
 the churches of Christ in New England have in 
 their eye, not following Luther, Calvin, Knox, 
 Ainsworth, Robinson, Ames, or any other, fur- 
 ther than they follow Christ and his apostles." 
 Mr. Cotton, no less than the good Robin- 
 son, lamented the disposition of the reformed 
 churches in Europe to keep at a stay just where 
 their reformers left them, rather shrinking back 
 than going further in the path of improvement. 
 These are some of his words ; — " Who knoweth 
 not, they have all been more studious and tena- 
 cious of what form the doctrine, and worship, 
 and discipline was left unto them, than inquisi- 
 tive after further light ; yea, sometimes more 
 inclinable to look back unto Egypt, than to 
 hasten toward Canaan ? — Seeing our faith rest- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 215 
 
 eth only on the Word of the Lord, and his 
 Spirit breathing therein ; and the Word hath 
 promised that more and more light shall break 
 forth in these times, till Antichrist be utterly 
 confounded and abolished ; we shall sin against 
 the grace and worth of Truth, if we confine our 
 truth to the divines of present or former ages."^ 
 This breathes the free spirit of Christianity, 
 which can be confined to no narrower limits 
 than the infinite fullness of eternal truth. 
 
 Our forefathers favored the same principles of 
 government both in church and state. It is said 
 that democracy necessarily runs into aristocracy, 
 because the executive power must fall into the 
 hands of a few. But our forefathers desired that 
 this aristocracy should not rest upon the accident 
 of birth, nor the circumstance of wealth, but upon 
 the personal merit of individuals. They desired 
 so to order the Church and State, that, by the 
 natural course of events, wisdom and goodness 
 should rise to -their proper elevation, and have 
 their proportional ascendency in the direction of 
 aflfairs. What Governor Winthrop desired, was 
 to have the administration consigned into the 
 
 * A Modest and Clear Answer, &c., 1642, chapter X. 
 
216 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 hands of the best of the people, and of the wisest 
 of these. This scheme reminds us of the prom- 
 ise which Ion exacted from his senate ; — 
 
 " Promise, if I leave 
 No issue, that the sovereign power shall live 
 In the affections of the general heart, 
 And in the wisdom of the best." 
 
 It may be said, that this sounds very well in 
 theory or in poetry ; but cannot be completely 
 attained in practice. To this we answer, that 
 our fathers were " not of those who dream of 
 perfection in this world." But they set their 
 standard of perfection high, and sought to ap- 
 proximate to it as nearly as they could. 
 
 And how did they expect to make the sov- 
 ereign power reside " in the wisdom of the 
 best," when every thing was left depending 
 upon the popular elections ? They sought to 
 effect this result, by making the people see that 
 their own interest required it should be so. To 
 bring the people at large to understand this 
 truth, that their interests required that the pow- 
 ers of government should be lodged in the hands 
 of " the wisest of the best," our fathers depended 
 upon the school master and the minister. In 
 other words, they would have the people trained 
 up to an intelligent piety, which would, almost 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 217 
 
 with certainty, so use the elective franchise, that 
 the best qualified men should be chosen to office. 
 Hence their zeal for education, and the early- 
 provision they made for the college, and common 
 and grammar schools. That the whole body of 
 the people should be educated was essential to 
 the success of their political theory. For the 
 same reason did they take such anxious care to 
 provide for an able and orthodox ministry. 
 They would allow no town to be settled, except 
 by a number competent to form a church, and to 
 sustain a minister of the gospel. Hence too the 
 laws which required all the people to attend on 
 public worship. All this was done with a view 
 to accomplish the object of their social compact, 
 by training up a people who shall have good 
 sense and good feeling enough to commit the 
 political power to the wisest and best men 
 among themselves. The success of our fathers' 
 plans has, in a good measure, justified their 
 theory of government, and most of their meth- 
 ods of securing its beneficial operation. 
 
 In reviewing the result of their labors, our 
 
 feelings are divided between exultation over the 
 
 happy fruits of their pains, and sorrow of heart 
 
 that so much of the good seed they planted has 
 
 VOL. I. 19 
 
218 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 failed to ripen. Great has been the measure, 
 both of success, and of disappointment. And as 
 each, in rapid aUernation, has engaged our 
 thoughts, 
 
 A wild and variant blast our bugles sent, 
 Wandering 'iwixt notes of triumph and lament. 
 
 But after making every allowance for numerous 
 partial failures of their schemes, the grand 
 social and moral experiment of our Puritan 
 fathers has been blessed with eminent pros- 
 perity. It is true, that many tares are growing 
 in the field, but great will be the wheaten har- 
 vest that shall be reaped. The world cannot 
 turn up to the face of day, for the sun to shine 
 upon, a region more flourishing and fair than 
 ours. Surely God " hath not dealt so with any 
 nation." To His name be all the praise ! 
 
 But the chief reward of our fathers' pious 
 toils is yet to come. They looked for more 
 than earth can give ; they expected all that 
 heaven can grant. They are not doomed to 
 disappointment. They shall obtain the prize 
 they sought, on the saints' coronation-day. Oh 
 then, — when the hosts of heaven shall be mar- 
 shaled in their bright array, when the universe 
 of God shall be assembled to the sight, when 
 " all the pomp and prodigality of heaven " shall 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 219 
 
 be lavished forth to grace the scene, — while an- 
 gel trumpets and celestial harps shall ring out 
 their melodious thunderings, while jubilant alle- 
 luias, like the surges of the voiceful sea, shall 
 burst in all the tumult of delight, — then shall 
 those holy men receive their triumphal garlands 
 whose amaranthine wreaths shall never fade 
 away. Robed in light, and throned in glory, 
 they shall reign with the Son of God forever- 
 more. 
 
220 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Difficulties in the way of our forefathers. Relation between Church 
 and State. Abstract of Mo-saic laws. Codification of laws. Rela- 
 tion between the ministers and the magistrates. Mr. Norton. 
 Mr. Cotton's sermon. Letter to Lord Say and Seal. First associ- 
 ation of ministers. Mode of supporting the ministry. Public 
 spirit of those times. Roger Williams banished. Controversy 
 between him and Mr. Cotton. Revival of religion in First Church. 
 Church discipline. Anne Hutchinson. The Antinomian coutro. 
 versy. John Wheelwright. Sir Henry Vane. Mr. Cotton impli- 
 cated. Discovers the deceptions practiced upon him. Regains his 
 good standing. General Court. Offence at Mr. Wilson's sermon. 
 Offence at Mr. Cotton's speech. Rowland Hill. Mr. Wheelwright 
 condemned. First synod held in New England. Eighty errors 
 condemned. Mr. Wheelwright banished. Mrs. Hutchinson ad- 
 monished. She recants. She relapses. Is excommunicaied. 
 Banished. Her unhappy end. Mr. Cotton writes against Mr. 
 Barnard and Mr. Ball of England. 
 
 The enterprise in which our fathers were here 
 engaged, when Mr. Cotton joined them, was one 
 of great difficulty, as well as great importance. 
 They had some general ideas, derived from their 
 sacred oracle, the Bible, of the nature of the free 
 government, in the Church and in the State, 
 which they wished to set up. But they were 
 sorely perplexed in trying to reduce those ideas 
 into practical forms. It was a novel undertak- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 221 
 
 ing. They had no expetience of other men to 
 guide them. They were pioneers. They were ' 
 to strike out a new path, through jungle and 
 through forest, to reach the high and glorious 
 results toward which they were looking. But, 
 at the outset, they were themselves confused in 
 the intricate and untraveled maze. They were at 
 a loss to find the due bearings and proper start- 
 ing points. 
 
 At this juncture Mr. Cotton came to their aid. 
 To them he seemed like that other John, who 
 was the Lord's herald :— "the voice of one cry- 
 ing in the wilderness, ' Prepare ye the way of the 
 Lord, make his paths straight.' " 
 
 He never attained to the great conclusion, to 
 which 'the present age has come, that there ought 
 to be an entire separation of Church and State. 
 But he led the way to it, by taking a position 
 much nearer to it than that which was then oc- 
 cupied by the Christian world. He taught, that 
 the ecclesiastical power is totally distinct from 
 the civil power ; and that, though they be closely 
 connected, they are never to be confounded. 
 This distinction prepared the way for their sep- 
 aration. Mr. Cotton thus expressed himself on 
 the subject. "God's institutions, such as the 
 19^ 
 
222 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 government of church and commonwealth be, 
 may be close and compact, and coordinate one 
 to another, and yet not confounded. God hath 
 so framed the state of church government and 
 ordinances, that they may be compatible to any 
 commonwealth, though never so much disordered 
 in his frame. But yet when a commonwealth 
 hath liberty to mould his own frame, I conceive 
 the Scripture hath given full direction for the 
 right ordering of the same, and yet in such sort 
 as may best maintain the well-being of the 
 church. Mr. Hooker doth often quote a saying 
 out of Mr. Cartwright, though I have not read it 
 in him, that no man fashioneth his house to his 
 hangings, but his hangings to his house. It is 
 better that the commonwealth be fashioned to 
 the setting forth of God's house, which is his 
 church, than to accommodate the church frame 
 to the civil state. "=^ 
 
 In following out these sentiments, the colony, 
 where "the commonwealth had that liberty to 
 mould its own frame," could not fail to conform 
 to the republicanism of the Congregational 
 church polity in which our fathers believed. 
 
 * Hutchinaon's History of Mass., vol. 1, p. 437. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 223 
 
 As all the freemen of this new-born republic 
 were church members, it was thought that the 
 law of God ought to be their rule in civil affairs. 
 The General Court desired Mr. Cotton to draw 
 up an abstract of the laws of Moses, omitting 
 such as were of temporary obligation, and in 
 their nature peculiar to the Jewish polity. This 
 service he performed, and the fruit of his labor 
 was many years after printed at London by 
 William Aspinwall, in 1655. From this trans- 
 action some malicious joker has taken occasion 
 to say, that our fathers voted that they would be 
 governed by the laws of Moses, till they could 
 find time to make better. The jester had per- 
 sonal reasons, no doubt, for disliking the Mosaic 
 legislation, which is very severe upon slanderers 
 and such as bear false witness. Mr. Davenport 
 gives the following correct account of the mat- 
 ter. "Considering that these plantations had 
 liberty to mould their civil order into that form 
 which they should find to be best for themselves, 
 and that here the churches and commonwealth 
 are complanted together in holy covenant and 
 fellowship with God in Christ Jesus, he did, at 
 the request of the General Court in the Bay, 
 draw an abstract of the laws of judgment deliv- 
 
224 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 ered from God by Moses to the commonwealth 
 of Israel, so far forth as they are of morale that 
 is, of perpetual and universal equity among all 
 nations, especially such as these plantations are : 
 wherein he advised that Theocracy, that is, 
 God's government, might be established, as the 
 best form of government, where the people that 
 choose civil rulers are God's people in covenant 
 with him."^ 
 
 Mr. Cotton's abstract was not adopted. Anoth- 
 er drawn upon the same general principles, but 
 with numerous deviations, some of them impor- 
 tant, obtained the preference. It was printed in 
 London in 1641, and has been supposed to be 
 the joint labor of Mr. Cotton and Sir Henry 
 Vane.t 
 
 This was soon superseded by another body of 
 laws of the same general character ; but with a 
 much better arrangement. It is remarkable, that 
 the statutory system which was eventually adopt- 
 ed, was a code of laws systematically arranged 
 under one hundred heads. It has been one of 
 the chief commendations of the mighty mind of 
 
 * From a manuscript life of John Cotton by Mr. Davenport, quoted 
 in Hutchinson's Original Papers, p. 161. 
 t Reprinted Mass. Hist. Soc. C'ollec, Ist Series, vol. V. p. 171, &c. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 225 
 
 Napoleon, that he was the first in modern times 
 to apply the principles of plain practical common 
 sense to the subject of legislation. That ^reat 
 man anticipated that " his fame in the eyes of 
 posterity would rest even more on the code which 
 bore his name, than on all the victories he had 
 won." It has become the basis of the legislation 
 of half of Europe. Whhin a few years the same 
 method has been adopted in several of our States, 
 and it has resulted in that recent revision of the 
 statutes of Massachusetts, by which a chaos of 
 laws was reduced to order and consistency. It 
 is wonderful to find that this last great improve- 
 ment, the codification of laws, was discovered and 
 put in practice in this colony more than two cen- 
 turies ago: and our learned modern citizens 
 have, unawares, reverted to the method of their 
 fathers. The honor of this boast of legislation 
 belongs to the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, the witty 
 and pious minister of the ancient town of Ips- 
 wich ; and also a student of the science of law.=^ 
 Mr. Cotton advised the people to persevere in 
 their design of setting up a Theocracy, or divine 
 government over a Christian commonwealth. 
 
 * Ward's Code is reprinted in the Colleclions of Massachusella 
 Historical Society, 3d series, vol. VII., p.— 
 
226 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 His plan was, to have the public affairs adminis- 
 tered agreeably to the principles and require- 
 ments of revealed religion, by executive officers 
 appointed by the free election of the people. 
 The people were to choose their own governors 
 and other magistrates: and these officers were 
 to govern themselves by the instructions of the 
 Word of God. God, speaking by his Word, 
 was to be owned as chief Lawgiver and supreme 
 Head of their community. They who are dis- 
 posed to laugh when they see the legal enact- 
 ments of our ancestors backed up with texts of 
 Scripture, may as well save half a smile for 
 Lord Bacon, and other of the highest judicial 
 functionaries of England, who, in those times 
 often confirmed their decisions in the same man- 
 ner. Whoever will turn over the older parlia- 
 mentary debates, will find the haughtiest caval- 
 iers in the House of Commons, triumphantly 
 clinching an argument by appealing to Holy Writ. 
 And doubtless, when the prophecies are more 
 completely fulfilled in the coming of the kingdom 
 of God on earth, the day will come round again, 
 when it will be deemed meet for Christian people 
 to regulate their political affairs by scriptural 
 principles. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 227 
 
 As one result of this attempt in our colony, the 
 ministry was brought into a very close alliance 
 with the magistracy. For both the ministry and 
 the magistracy, the people cherished a religious 
 veneration. Nor were they jealous of the inti- 
 mate relations of their temporal and spiritual 
 rulers, so long as the keys of power remained in 
 the hands of the people by means of the elective 
 franchise, both in Church and Commonwealth. 
 Whenever any disposition to engross undue 
 authority was betrayed, the people, notwith- 
 standing their profound respect for their leaders, 
 always promptly applied the never-failing reme- 
 
 Good Mr. Norton says; — "It was an usual 
 thing, henceforth, for the Magistrate to consult 
 with the ministers in hard cases, especially in 
 matters of the Lord ; yet so, as notwithstanding 
 occasional conjunction, religious care was had 
 of avoiding confusion of counsels : Moses and 
 Aaron rejoiced, and kissed one another in the 
 mount of God." 
 
 As an illustration of this matter, we may refer 
 to an affair which took place in September, 1634. 
 Mr. Hooker and many of his friends, who had 
 at first settled in Newtown, were anxious to 
 
22S LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 remove to Connecticut. Much opposition was 
 made to their removal : and the two coordinate 
 branches of the General Court came into very 
 serious collision. Neither branch would yield 
 to the other. In this painful emergency the 
 whole Court appointed a day of fasting and 
 humiliation, which was observed in all the con- 
 gregations. A few days after, the Court met 
 again. Before proceeding to business, Mr. Cot- 
 ton preached from Haggai,2: 4; — "Yet now be 
 strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord ; and be 
 strong, Joshua son of Josedech the high priest ; 
 and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the 
 Lord, and work ; for I am with you, saith the Lord 
 of hosts." In his sermon the preacher severally 
 described the strength of the magistracy, minis- 
 try, and people. Thus the strength of Zerubbabel, 
 or the magistrate, is his official power and au- 
 thority : the strength of Joshua, or the minister, 
 is the purity of his life and teaching ; and the 
 strength of the people is their liberty. The 
 preacher went on to show, that, in matters of 
 common concern, each of these three estates in 
 the first instance, had a negative voice upon the 
 doings of the others ; and yet that the ultimate 
 resolution ought to be in the whole body of the 
 people. The sermon closed with an answer to 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 229 
 
 all objections, and a solemn declaration of the 
 people's right and duty to maintain their true 
 liberties against any unjust violence or aggress- 
 ion. This discourse gave extraordinary satis- 
 faction. All animosities and difliculties vanished, 
 the various conflicting interests were reconciled, 
 and all hands went to work vigorously, unani- 
 mously and peacefully from that day. Alluding 
 to this atiair, the reverend historian, Hubbard, 
 says; — "Mr. Cotton had such an insinuating 
 and melting way in his preaching, that he would 
 usually carry his very adversary captive after 
 the triumphant chariot of his rhetoric." It was 
 in accordance with the views expressed in that 
 "political sermon," that he said on another occa- 
 sion; — "Purity preserved in the church, will 
 preserve well-ordered liberty in the people ; and 
 both of them establish well-balanced authority in 
 the magistrates. God is the author of all these 
 three."=^ 
 
 It was another effect of his all-subduing per- 
 suasiveness, that certain men of distinction who, 
 in the heat of the recent controversy, had spoken 
 disrespectfully to some of the magistrates, "being 
 reproved for the same in open court, did gravely 
 and humbly acknowledge their fault." 
 
 # Letter to Lord Say and Seal. 
 VOL. L 20 
 
230 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 The first association in Massachusetts was 
 formed by the ministers of Boston and the vicin- 
 ity about the year 1635. It met once in two 
 weeks at the houses of the members. The 
 usual business was the discussion of some impor- 
 tant theological question. This association was, 
 by some, regarded with a godly jealousy, lest it 
 might, at a future day, encroach on the liberties 
 of the people. The experience of more than 
 two centuries has proved that this was a needless 
 jealousy. The associations of Massachusetts, 
 both local and general, have been highly useful 
 and influential. At the same time, the indepen- 
 dence of the churches has suffered no infringe- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Cotton's disposition to popularize the 
 whole administration of religious affairs showed 
 itself in the manner in which he chose to receive 
 his salary. He insisted that it should be derived 
 from the free-will offerings of the people. Once 
 each Lord's Day, at the close of public worship, 
 every member of the congregation who felt dis- 
 posed to contribute to the support of the gospel, 
 walked up to the elders' seat, where one of the 
 deacons received the offerings. The proceeds 
 were deposited in a public chest, out of which 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 231 
 
 Mr. Wilson and his colleague received for their 
 support one hundred pounds per annum. Con- 
 sidering how much greater was the value of 
 money in those days, none of our ministers are 
 now more amply maintained. The grace of God 
 was bestowed on the First Church of Boston, 
 even as, of old, on the churches of Macedonia ; 
 so that, " in a great trial of affliction, the abun- 
 dance of their joy and their deep poverty abound 
 ed unto the riches of their liberality." 
 
 Nor were the pastors, on their part, less dis- 
 interested. Not to speak of the proverbial 
 generosity of that whole-souled man, Mr. Wil- 
 son, we find, that, when subscriptions were 
 made for charitable purposes, Mr. Cotton's 
 donation would equal that of the wealthiest of 
 his flock. In effecting his settlement here, he 
 incurred expenses amounting to eighty pounds, 
 which, at that period, was a pretty round sum. 
 But when the people wished to reimburse it, he 
 declined the offer, as not being necessary in his 
 circumstances. 
 
 Indeed there is no trait more admirable in 
 our fathers, than their wonderful public spirit, 
 and the readiness of individuals to make per- 
 sonal sacrifices for the general good. When 
 
232 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 people elsewhere marvel at the public and pri- 
 vate munificence of the citizens of Boston 
 toward all objects of literary, philanthropic and 
 religious interest, we can say that they came 
 honestly by this ennobling disposition, for they 
 derived it in its full strength from their Calvin- 
 istic progenitors. 
 
 Most of the colonists who were men of prop- 
 erty greatly impaired their estates by the sacri- 
 fices they made for the common cause. They 
 were ever prompt to extend to each other a 
 helping hand. Thus, when Governor Win- 
 throp, neglecting his own affairs in his diligent 
 service of the public, met with severe losses, 
 the people spontaneously presented him with 
 five hundred pounds. 
 
 The early part of Mr. Cotton's ministry here 
 was disturbed by some violent storms of contro- 
 versy. After these tempests had " wrought 
 themselves to rest," there followed many calm 
 and peaceful years. 
 
 In 1635, Eoger Williams was banished from 
 the colony. The merits of this controversy will 
 be discussed in another chapter. Let it here be 
 said, however, and that with all respect for the 
 memory and character of that " fiery Welch- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTO|<r. 233 
 
 man," that the action of our fathers in this 
 matter is capable of a good defence : and that 
 the condemnation they have generally received 
 has been excessive and unjust. The matter is 
 now mentioned merely with reference to Mr. 
 Cotton's share in the transactions. 
 
 While the magistrates had the case of Mr. 
 Williams under consideration, Mr. Cotton, with 
 the neighboring ministers, whom the accused 
 had once professed to hold in the highest ven- 
 eration, presented a request that the civil 
 authorities would stay their proceedings till the 
 elders " had in a church-way endeavored his 
 conviction and repentance." The ministers 
 hoped, that it was not from seditious principle 
 that Mr. Williams had acted ; but from a mis- 
 guided conscience, which they expected to be 
 able to set right. The magistrates acceded to 
 the proposal of the ministers ; but the governor, 
 who too well understood the " nature of the 
 creature," foretold to them ; — " You are de- 
 ceived in the man, if you think he will conde- 
 scend to learn of any of you." When other 
 measures failed, and Mr. Williams was ban- 
 ished, Mr. Cotton wielded his pen in behalf of 
 the magistrates. He published a letter concern- 
 20* 
 
234 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 ingf the power of the civil magistrate in matters 
 of religion. The banished man replied to this 
 letter ; and also published a tract against the 
 " Bloody Tenent of Persecution " for the cause 
 of conscience. Mr. Cotton rejoined with an- 
 other, entitled, " The Bloody Tenent washed 
 and made White in the Blood of the Lamb, 
 being discussed and discharged of blood guilti- 
 ness by just defence, in answer to Mr. Wil- 
 liams ; to which is added a reply to Mr. 
 Williams' answer to Mr. Cotton's letter." His 
 opponent retorted with a treatise, styled, " The 
 Bloody Tenent yet more bloody by Mr. Cotton's 
 endeavor to wash it white in the Blood of the 
 Lamb, &c." Here the dispute ended, as is 
 usual in such cases, each party satisfied that he 
 had the best of the argument. 
 
 For three or four years in the beginning of 
 Mr. Cotton's ministry, the internal prosperity of 
 his church was unexampled ; and would, at this 
 day, be regarded as a powerful revival. There 
 were more conversions and admissions than in 
 all the other churches of the colony. Many 
 persons of profane and dissolute lives were sur- 
 prisingly reformed, and received into the bosom 
 of the church. The discipline, admirably ad- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 235 
 
 ministered under the pastor Wilson and the 
 ruling elder Leveret, was of singular benefit to 
 the congregation. There were many " gifted 
 brethren " into whose lips the Spirit of grace 
 was poured, to the great edification and profit of 
 the whole body of which they were members, 
 which was in danger of being " exalted above 
 measure through the abundance of the revela- 
 tions." 
 
 But clouds of thick darkness soon overcast 
 the sunny prospect, and poured down their tor- 
 rents, accompanied with the withering flash and 
 the terrifying thunder. All at once the field, 
 which was waving with such goodly harvest, 
 was found to" be sown with tares. Noxious 
 weeds crept into that well-watered garden of 
 gracious plants, and " roots of bitterness spring- 
 ing up troubled them, and thereby many were 
 defiled." 
 
 The prominent instigator of this mischief was 
 a daughter of Eve, named Anne Hutchinson. 
 She was probably a pious woman ; and cer- 
 tainly an artful one. On the ground of the 
 apostle's direction, that the elder women should 
 teach the younger, she used to convene large 
 numbers of females at her house, where she in- 
 
236 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Stilled into them the doctrines of antinomianism 
 in their most demoralizing form. That she was 
 worthy of the heaviest ecclesiastical censures, no 
 competent judge of such matters can doubt. 
 The justice of the civil disabilities under which 
 she was eventually placed, must be considered 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Her most active supporter was Rev. John 
 Wheelwright, her brother-in-law, who preached, 
 as an assistant, within the extensive bounds of 
 the Boston church, which then included Brain- 
 tree, where he principally labored. His parti- 
 zans urged to have him associated as colleague 
 with the other ministers : but Mr. Cotton evaded 
 the connection, on the ground that Mr. Wheel- 
 wright was an unsafe and violent man, and apt 
 to raise questions of doubtful disputation. 
 
 Another of Mrs. Hutchinson's helpers was 
 Sir Henry Vane, then a very young man, and 
 newly arrived in the colony, where, by his 
 grave and dignified demeanor, he wonderfully 
 took with the people, stealing their hearts, like 
 Absalom, from their beloved Winthrop, whom 
 he speedily supplanted in the chair of state. By 
 his connection with the female heresiarch, he 
 lost his popularity, and his office, and soon re- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTOlf. 237 
 
 turned to England. He there acted a very 
 conspicuous part during the civil wars, resisted 
 Cromwell's assumption of the protectorate, and 
 was a staunch Genevan republican to the last. 
 He died as a political martyr, being beheaded, 
 at fifty years of age, for high treason against the 
 ever-treacherous Stuarts. He is a striking in- 
 stance of that late retribution by which posterity 
 reverses the judgment of former times. The 
 ablest literary arbiters of the present day, pro- 
 claim this person, once so much abused, as one 
 of the moral heroes of his eventful times, as a 
 colossal champion of popular rights, and both as 
 a civilian and theologian, of vast and varied 
 abilities. As a writer of prose in that age of 
 great thinkers and authors, they announce him 
 to be inferior only to the matchless Milton, and 
 scarcely second even to him. That great poet 
 has paid him a tribute sufficient to enrich his 
 memory for many an age, in the following son- 
 net "to Sir Henry Vane, the younger." 
 
 " Vane, young in years, but in sage council old, 
 
 Than whom a belter senator ne'er held 
 
 The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled 
 
 The fierce Epirot and the African bold; 
 
 Whether lo settle peace, or to unfold 
 
 The drift of hollow stales, hard to be spelled ; 
 
238 LTFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Then to advise how War may, best upheld, 
 
 ]\Iove by her two main nerves, iron and gold, 
 
 In all her equipage : besides to know 
 
 Both spiritual potoer and civil, what each means, 
 
 What severs each thou hast learned, which few have done : 
 
 The bounds of either sword to thee we owe : 
 
 Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans 
 
 In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son." 
 
 Upheld by these powerful supporters, Mrs. 
 Hutchinson was enabled to raise a terrible com- 
 raotion in the community. They had the 
 address to procure, for a time, the countenance 
 of Mr. Cotton. This they did, by giving him 
 such explanations in private conversation, as 
 satisfied his unsuspicious nature of the ortho- 
 doxy of their sentiments. Captivated by their 
 ardent zeal and high professions, he gave heed 
 to these " seducing spirits " for a time. But 
 when, to his consternation, the vail of duplicity 
 was thrown aside, he was shocked to find that 
 he had unwittingly lent the sanction of his name 
 to opinions so dangerous and corrupt. Upon 
 this, the Antinomians charged him with dis- 
 sembling, holding one set of opinions in the 
 pulpit, and another in private discourse. This 
 is the only transaction of Mr. Cotton's life which 
 seems to have given serious offence to his breth- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 239 
 
 ren, who charged him with wavering . and 
 timidity. 
 
 His only fauh, however, appears to have been 
 the too great facility with which he suffered 
 persons whom he had held in the highest esti- 
 mation, to delude him as to their real sentiments, 
 and to father their errors upon him. As soon as 
 he was disabused, he exerted himself to repair 
 the mischief. He publicly lamented his fault, 
 in that he had slept in false security, while the 
 enemy was sowing tares. In a letter to Mr. 
 Davenport, he says ; — " The truth is, the body 
 of the island is bent to backsliding into error and 
 delusions : the Lord pity and pardon them, and 
 me also, who have been so slow to see their 
 windings, and subtle contrivances, and insinua- 
 tions in all their transactions." Governor Win- 
 throp gives this testimony of him, that, "finding 
 how he had been abused, and made, as himself 
 said, their stalking-horse, (for they pretended to 
 hold nothing but what Mr. Cotton held, and 
 himself did think the same,) did spend most of 
 his time, both publicly and privately, to discover 
 those errors, and to reduce such as were gone 
 astray." Among others reclaimed by his efforts 
 was Robert Lenlhal, the minister of Weymouth. 
 
240 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Long afterwards, on a general fast-day, " Mr. 
 Cotton, in his exercise that day at Boston, did 
 confess and bewail, as the churches, so his 
 own security, sloth and credulity, whereupon 
 so many and dangerous errors had gotten up 
 and spread in the church ; and went over all 
 the particulars, and showed how he came to be 
 deceived ; (the errors being framed in words so 
 near the truths which he had preached,) and the 
 falsehood of the maintainers of them, who usu- 
 ally would deny to him what they had delivered 
 to others."^ He was sufficiently humbled for 
 a fault which appears to have been only the 
 amiable infirmity of a heart too generous and 
 confiding. When his eyes were opened to the 
 duplicity which had been practiced, he spared 
 no pains that he might rectify his mistake, and 
 was very successful in arresting the spread of 
 the evil. " By that means," says Hubbard, 
 '* did that reverend and worthy minister of the 
 gospel recover his former splendor throughout 
 the whole country of New England, with his 
 wonted esteem and interest in the hearts of all 
 his friends and acquaintance, so as his latter 
 
 * Savage's Winthrop, I. 253 and 280. 
 
\ 
 
 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 24 1 
 
 days were like the clear shining of the sun after 
 rain." 
 
 Nearly the whole of the members of the 
 church who resided witliin the present limits of 
 Boston, favored the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson at 
 the outset, with the exception of the pastor Mr. 
 Wilson, Governor Winthrop and two or three 
 others. This small minority had on its side 
 all the ministers in the colony, except Mr. 
 Wheelwright and Mr. Cotton ; and nearly all 
 the laymen of note. In this contest, so violent 
 and almost unintelligible, it is surprising to see 
 the same church, retaining as its ministers, 
 those who were accounted the heads of the 
 opposing parties. This fact, far more than any 
 argument, evinces the prudence and Christian 
 temper of the two men. 
 
 The principal errors of the Hutchinsonians 
 were, first, the denial that sanctification is, in 
 any sense whatever, an evidence of justifica- 
 tion : and secondly, the assertion that the Holy 
 Ghost dwells personally in every believer. Sir 
 Henry Vane must needs go a little farther, and 
 maintain that the Holy Ghost is united to the 
 believer, in the same manner as the divine 
 nature is united with the man Christ Jesus. 
 
 VOL. I. 21 
 
242 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 The General Court took up the matter : 
 though Rev. Hugh Peters sharply rebuked Gov- 
 ernor Vane, and plainly hinted that if the civil 
 authority would limit its action to " the things 
 that are Caesar's," " the things that are God's " 
 would go on much more quietly. 
 
 The Court, having the matter under consider- 
 ation, called for the opinion of the ministers. In 
 the morning Mr. Cotton preached on the disput- 
 ed points to general satisfaction. In the after- 
 noon, Mr. Wilson made a lament over the dark 
 and distracted condition of the churches, and the 
 divisions occasioned by the newly broached 
 opinions. At this speech, Mr. Cotton, with 
 Governor Vane and others took deep offence, 
 and called upon the pastor to retract his expres- 
 sions. Mr. Wilson, supported by the firm hand 
 of Governor Winthrop, declined to give the 
 satisfaction required. The contention threat- 
 ened to wax sharp between them : but at last the 
 wisdom and gentleness of the two ministers 
 calmed the murmurings and mutterings which 
 were ready to burst forth in a storm of strife. 
 The next time Mr. Wilson preached, he was so 
 happy as to give contentmeni to all. 
 
 As is usual in such cases, one error led on to 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 243 
 
 another, heresy begat more heresy, and schism 
 necessitated further schism. The ministers 
 questioned Mr. Cotton on a variety of articles: 
 and though most of his replies were satisfactory, 
 others were not thought to be sufficiently ex- 
 plicit and unequivocal. Expressions and phrases 
 were weighed and dissected with astonishing 
 scrupulosity. Though Mr. Cotton was not to 
 be shaken from his honest belief, yet neither was 
 he betrayed into rashness. 
 
 A ship, with passengers, was about to sail for 
 Endand. " Tell our transatlantic friends," said 
 the teacher, " that all our strife is about magni- 
 fying the grace of God. Some seek to exalt the 
 grace of God towards us ; and some, the grace 
 of God within us." Mr. Wilson, hurt at this, 
 replied that he knew of neither elders nor breth- 
 ren among their churches who did not labor to 
 magnify the grace of God in respect to both jus- 
 tification and sanctification, or the grace of God 
 both toward us and within us. As the people 
 understood the matter of difference, the pastor, 
 according to the nature of his office, naturally 
 insisted on sanctification as " the grace of God 
 within us ;" or gracious works, and experimental 
 godliness. And the teacher, as the nature of 
 
244 LIFEOF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 his office might easily incline him, insisted more 
 on justification, as the free grace of God towards 
 us, pardoning us, not for our works or any thing 
 in us, but solely for the sake of Christ. Each 
 of these worthy divines was full in the faith of 
 both these points : but to either point a relative 
 importance was assigned by one of the ministers 
 beyond w^hat the other would allow. Perhaps 
 this unprofitable dispute was never better dis- 
 posed of than by the excellent Rowland Hill, 
 who once said in a sermon; — "If I were asked 
 which I loved the most, justification or sanctifi- 
 cation : — 1 would answer like the little children, 
 when you ask them which they love best, father 
 or mother ? They will tell you, ' I love them 
 both best.'" 
 
 At their session in March, 1637, Mr. Wheel- 
 wright was tried before the General Court for a 
 highly inflammatory sermon preached on a fast 
 day. He was adjudged to be guilty of sedition 
 and contempt of Court, though Governor Vane 
 and a few others entered their protest. There 
 was a reluctance to proceed to the passing of 
 sentence. The case was deferred to the next 
 Court, and Mr. Wheelwright was recommended 
 to the care of the Boston church, which had in- 
 
LIFE OP JOHN COTTON. 245 
 
 terposed a petition in his* behalf. Meanwhile 
 the discussions between the ministers had nar- 
 rowed the ground of controversy, till it was re- 
 duced to a mere hair-line, of such fineness as to 
 require the nicest sort of metaphysical eye-glasses 
 to discern any room for further difference of 
 opinion. 
 
 When the Court was again convened, Mr. 
 Wheelwright confronted his judges with all 
 possible boldness. He and his partizans had 
 been so insolent and violent, as to injure their 
 cause : but they were encouraged by some new 
 arrivals which brought fresh strength to the an- 
 tinomian standard. Their fanatical zeal blazed 
 out in all directions, with flaming extravagances 
 which fired inflammable minds. Some were 
 deranged with joys, and others with despair. 
 The public excitement and distress was becom- 
 ing intolerable. Days of fasting and prayer 
 were observed with reference to the sad condition 
 of affairs. 
 
 At a conference of ministers and elders held 
 on the 30th of July, harmony was restored be- 
 tween Mr. Cotton and the other ministers : but 
 Mr. Wheelwright, who was present, continued 
 impracticable. 
 
 21^ 
 
246 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 On the 30th of August, the first synod ever 
 held in New England, was held at Cambridge. 
 All the pastors, teachers and elders in the coun- 
 try were present. They were boarded at the 
 public charge, by which also was defrayed the 
 traveling expenses of the members from the 
 colony of Connecticut. This synod condemned 
 eighty or more different errors, which had been 
 set afloat in the community : Mr. Wheelwright 
 remaining as pertinacious as ever. This con- 
 demnation was signed by all the members, except 
 Mr. Cotton, who appears to have scrupled at the 
 condemnation of two of the points specified. 
 
 On the 2d of November the General Court 
 assembled at Cambridge. After their long for- 
 bearance, finding all their attempts to reconcile 
 Mr. Wheelwright unavailing, and feeling that 
 a continuance of these dissensions absolutely 
 endangered the existence of their little common- 
 wealth, which was almost shaken to pieces 
 thereby, they proceeded to banish him from 
 iheir society. His sister, Mrs. Hutchinson, after 
 a very singular trial of two days' duration, was 
 also voted to be " unfit for their society," and 
 required to leave it. Mr. Wheelwright went, 
 with many of his followers, and founded the 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 247 
 
 town and church of Exeter, N. H. From thence 
 he soon after removed to Wells in Maine : and 
 after five or six years' absence, he owned his er- 
 rors, made his retraction, and was restored to a 
 residence in Massachusetts. 
 
 The unhappy woman who had fomented such 
 a disturbance, after a short imprisonment, was 
 set at liberty. But returning to her old course 
 of agitation, she was summoned before the whole 
 congregation on a lecture day, when her errors 
 were enumerated and condemned, and a solemn 
 admonition was read to her by Mr. Cotton, who ^ 
 decidedly reproved the disposition of the woman 
 who had once been his most ardent admirer. 
 
 She then resided a while in Mr. Cotton's 
 family, where he and Mr. Davenport labored to 
 convince her, and bring her to repent of her er- 
 rors. They so far prevailed with her, that she 
 made a written recantation of most of her anti- 
 nomian heresies ; but in language so equivocal, 
 as failed to satisfy the church. In an oral ex- 
 planation she made a general confession of her 
 delusions, so humble and penitential, that they 
 began to hope that she was really about to be 
 reclaimed. But the moment they began to 
 touch upon particular points, she became as wild 
 
248 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 as ever : and involved herself in such contradic- 
 tions as amazed and alienated the last of her 
 supporters and advocates. All hope in her fa- 
 vor being now abandoned, a motion was made 
 for her excommunication. The long-suffering 
 church, feeling a lingering tenderness for their 
 erring sister, and something of horror at the 
 thought of passing that dread sentence, still hes- 
 itated to take the step. At last, the resolution 
 was adopted, and the gangrened limb was 
 stricken from the body. 
 
 After lingering with her friends awhile, she 
 departed to an island in Narragansett Bay, which 
 her husband and others had purchased of the 
 Indians. Here they were ever starting some 
 monstrous or foolish notion : — such as, that wo- 
 men have no souls, that morality is antichrist, 
 and that the devil and the Holy Ghost had an 
 indwelling with every believer. Her husband 
 dying about six years after, she again removed 
 into the limits of the Dutch colony beyond New 
 Haven. Here, in the following year, she came 
 to the end of her earthly sorrows under the Mo- 
 hawk scalping-knife. She perished with all her 
 family of sixteen persons, except that one daugh- 
 ter was carried into captivity. 
 
 I 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 249 
 
 This protracted controversy being thus brought 
 to a close, Mr. Cotton found leisure to write a 
 reply to a treatise which a Mr. Barnard in Eng- 
 land had published against the mode of gathering 
 the churches in this country. Mr. Cotton, in 
 this year 1638, also replied to a defence of litur- 
 gies by Mr. Ball. 
 
 Thus this faithful soldier of the cross, ever 
 valiant for the truth, had scarce panted through 
 the toils of one sharp conflict, before he girded' 
 himself for fresh encounters. And, doubtless, it 
 was no small relief, to turn from the struggle 
 within the camp to meet an adversary abroad. 
 
250 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mr. Cotton's success in the ministry. His influence in the commu- 
 nity. Instances. Women's vails. Independent spirit of the people. 
 Instances. Morality of the colony. Mr. Cotton invited to return to 
 England in 1641. Again next year to the Westminster Assembly. 
 Congregationalists in the Assembly. Mr. Cotton declines going. 
 Survey of the sum of Church Discipline. Otlier writings on the 
 subject. Synod of 1643. Synod of 1646 — 8. Cambridge platform. 
 Mr. Cotton in the family. Family altar. Sabbath keeping. T. 
 Shepard. Letter to N. Rogers. Hospitality. Benevolence to 
 Church of Segetea. Learning. Reading Calvin. Habits of study. 
 Manner of preaching. Luther. Roger Clap. Fast days. Contro- 
 versial writings. Correspondence, N. Rogers, O. Cromwell. 
 Carlyle. Mr. Cotton's personal appearance. Pulpit delivery. Equa- 
 nimity. Patience under abuse. Cause of his death. Last labors. 
 Prepares to die. Closing scene. Funeral obsequies. Dwelling- 
 house. Will. Houses of worship. Baptisms. Admissions to the 
 church. Mr. Cotton's children. His grand-children. Ministers and 
 preachers to the Indians. Children of Mr. Cotton who died before 
 him. The Mothers. Mr. Cotton's widow. Woodbridge's elegy. 
 
 After his troubles in connection with Mrs. 
 Hutchinson's disturbances, which so afflicted him 
 that he seriously meditated a retreat from the 
 colony, Mr. Cotton passed the rest of his days in 
 peace and high esteem. His labors in the pulpit 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 251 
 
 and elsewhere were exceedingly great ; and the 
 power of God mightily attended them, and 
 crowned them to the conversion of numerous 
 souls, and the edification of thousands. Under 
 the wise counsels of the noble and devout Win- 
 throp in the State, and those of Mr. Cotton in the 
 Church, the community prospered to such a 
 degree, as to make the grateful inhabitants apply 
 to them the words of the Psalm , — " Thou leddest 
 thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and 
 Aaron." 
 
 Mr. Cotton knew how to touch the keys of 
 the human heart, so as to draw out responsive 
 and accordant notes. He played this complica- 
 ted organ with a master's hand : and though he 
 found it sometimes sadly out of tune, his skill 
 would often blend the jarring sounds in surpris- 
 ing harmony. The church which he governed, 
 with one or two exceptions, so peacefully, was 
 organized of very discordant materials. Many 
 of the members were strongly inclined to most 
 of the forms of the national church of England, 
 in which they had been bred ; and others were 
 speculative and adventurous reformers, who 
 scarce knew how to be subject to any settled rule. 
 But the patient sagacity of their teacher was 
 
252 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 marvelously successful in training them to hab- 
 its of agreement and order. 
 
 A few instances are recorded which may 
 serve to show the extent of his influence. In 
 1634, the people of Boston chose a committee for 
 the division and distribution of the town lands, 
 and purposely omitted to place any of the mag- 
 istrates on the committee. Mr. Cotton soon 
 persuaded them, that it was more according to 
 order, to refer such affairs to the civil elders of 
 their Israel. And so they unanimously agreed 
 to go into a new election, agreeably to his views. 
 
 In 1639, when the decays of their first rude 
 place of worship, and the growth of the congre- 
 gation, made it necessary to rear another, there 
 arose a warm dispute as to the spot where it 
 should stand. Their Teacher interfered with 
 such success as to reconcile their opinions upon 
 a point, which, above all others is apt to rend a 
 congregation in sunder. The new edifice cost a 
 thousand pounds, which this poor people cheer- 
 fully paid, without assessment, by voluntary 
 contri^^ution. 
 
 At an election held in 1641, it was proposed, 
 that two of the deputies, who had fallen into low 
 circumstances, should be dropped in favor of 
 
 / 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 253 
 
 wealthier men. The Teacher, hearing of the 
 project, generously, but prudently, condemned it 
 at his next weekly lecture, in which he main- 
 tained, that, if old and faithful officers had grown 
 poor in the public service, instead of being dis- 
 carded, they should be relieved at the public 
 expense. The reproof was felt, and had its 
 proper effect. 
 
 In another case he proved that even the arbi- 
 trary fashions of female apparel could not with- 
 stand the weight of his solid counsels. Roger 
 Williams and Mr. Skelton had persuaded the 
 female part of their congregation at Salem, that 
 it was a religious duty for all women to wear 
 vails in public worship. Mr. Cotton went there 
 to preach on the Lord's day. He was much 
 struck at the oriental aspect of things in the 
 congregation, so different from the customs of 
 the English people : and in his forenoon instruc- 
 tions, he effectually took the vail from off the 
 understandings of the ladies, and so enlightened 
 their minds thereby, that they all appeared in the 
 afternoon without any vail upon their heads. 
 And so that fashion passed away. 
 
 But it would be the height of injustice to our 
 free-spirited ancestors, to suppose that there was 
 VOL. T. 22 
 
254 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 any thing servile in the profound deference they 
 usually paid to the suggestions of their civil and 
 ecclesiastical leaders. When occasion required, 
 they were not slow to show a stubborn independ- 
 ence with which it would not do to trifle. 
 Thus in 1634, the people felt apprehensive, that, 
 by re-electing Winthrop, they should make way 
 for a Governor for life. Mr. Cotton, then at the 
 height of his popularity, in a sermon before the 
 General Court, on whom the choice devolved, 
 taught ; " that a magistrate ought not to be turn- 
 ed out without just cause, no more than a mag- 
 istrate might turn out a private man from his 
 freehold, without trial." No noise was raised 
 about this dangerous doctrine ; but, at that same 
 election, they turned out Winthrop, and put in 
 Dudley. Next year they ousted Dudley, and 
 put in Haynes. The year after, they left ofC 
 Haynes, and put in Vane. And all by way of 
 practically showing their dissent from the doc- 
 trine, that an elective magistrate has any thing 
 like a freehold tenure of his office. In 1639, 
 the Governor and magistrate ventured to nomi- 
 nate three persons to fill vacancies in their board; 
 leaving the people, however, as they said, " to 
 use their liberties according to their consciences." 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 255 
 
 And the people did use their liberties according 
 to their consciences. They chose never a man 
 of them. These were days, when " king Cau- 
 cus " did not reign so despotically as now. 
 
 Such instances, rightly considered, are equally 
 honorable to all the parties. It shows that the 
 extreme deference ordinarily paid to their lead- 
 ing men, was not a blind and slavish submission; 
 but a free and intelligent homage to their pre- 
 eminent wisdom and worth. 
 
 Such was the state of morals in those days, 
 that of twelve hundred men under arms on a 
 training day, not one was intoxicated, or guilty 
 of profane language. Not long after this time, 
 a sermon was preached in London, before both 
 houses of parliament, the Lord Mayor and 
 Aldermen of London, and the Westminster 
 Assembly of Divines, constituting the most 
 remarkable auditory which the world could then 
 have brought together. In that sermon, the 
 preacher said ;— " 1 have lived in a country 
 where in seven years I never saw a beggar, nor 
 heard an oath, nor looked upon a drunkard." 
 That country was New England. In another 
 place, additional testimony will be presented as 
 to the high tone of morality in the first age of 
 this country. 
 
256 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Mr. Cotton was by no means forgotten in his 
 native country. The times were coming, when 
 "carousing cavaliers were turned to flight in 
 every fight and skirmish," by " praying Puri- 
 tans," those warriors of " iron grimness, stern as 
 doom." It was about to be ascertained that solid 
 " round-heads " were much too hard for empty 
 " rattle-heads." The Long Parliament had be- 
 gun to take matters in hand as parliaments had 
 never done before. That persecuting power, 
 which had banished from Britairi so many of 
 the choice spirits of the land, was now broken ; 
 and many of the wanderers were returning to 
 their homes, while others were earnestly invited 
 to avail themselves of the altered state of affairs. 
 In 1641, a letter was addressed to Mr. Cotton 
 and several other leading colonists, entreating 
 them to return to the mother-country, and to 
 take the part which would naturally fall to them, 
 if there, in remodeling the institutions of the 
 land. This letter was signed by the leading 
 men in that great revolution, including Oliver 
 Cromwell. It was even in contemplation to 
 send over a ship expressly for him. 
 
 The next year, Mr. Cotton was invited, with 
 Mr. Hooker and Mr. Davenport, to repair to 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 257 
 
 England, and partake in the labors of the famous 
 Assembly of Divines at Westminster. Mr. 
 Cotton and Mr. Davenport were at first disposed 
 to comply with the invitation, but were dissuaded 
 by Mr. Hooker. The latter was decidedly 
 opposed to the measure. He probably foresaw, 
 that the overwhelming preponderance of Pres- 
 byterian members in that Assembly would prob- 
 ably create great difficulty for any who were so 
 fully committed in conscience and principle to 
 the Congregational Way, as himself and his 
 brethren here. There were in that Assembly, 
 five Congregationalists, commonly distinguished 
 as the " Dissenting Brethren." These, with 
 some help from about as many more of lesser 
 note, kept the whole Assembly at bay for long 
 years of debate and toil. The great body of the 
 members was deeply intent upon establishing a 
 government by Presbyteries, Synods, and As- 
 semblies, over all the churches of England, 
 without any toleration of other sects. They 
 labored in this work with immense vigor, having 
 all the power of the Long Parliament to back 
 them. But do what they would, the invincible 
 " Dissenting Brethren " had the amazing ad- 
 dress to embarrass all their attempts. It was long 
 22^ 
 
2-5S LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 before they could effect any thing, except the 
 preparation of the Catechisms, Confession of 
 Faith, and such doctrinal articles, in which they 
 all agreed. And when at last, with extreme 
 difficulty, the Assembly had completed their 
 complicated model of church-government, and 
 had begun to get a part of the machinery into 
 actual operation, it was too late ! All the wheels 
 were broken at once, when Cromwell stamped 
 with his heavy heel, and the Long Parliament 
 vanished. 
 
 Of that redoubtable " Five," were Dr. Good- 
 win and Philip Nye, who knew of old what a 
 perilous debater Mr. Cotton could be. Right 
 glad would they have been, in those " wars of 
 the Lord," to have had the aid of three champi- 
 ons from New England. But these latter were, 
 doubtless, better employed in completing and 
 settling the work in which they were here 
 engaged. Mr. Hooker and Mr. Cotton were 
 then occupied in the preparation of " A Survey 
 of the Sum of Church-Discipline." The first 
 copy of this work was lost at sea by shipwreck 
 on its way to England to be printed. Another 
 copy had a happier passage, and was published 
 at London in 1648. It is in two books ; of 
 
LIFE OP JOHN COTTON. 259 
 
 which the first is by Mr. Hooker, and the other 
 by Mr. Cotton. On tlie title-page first printed, 
 the whole work is attributed to Mr. Hooker : 
 from which it has happened that Mr. ^Cotton's 
 share in it has escaped the notice of most of 
 those who have spoken of it. This was a very 
 important treatise in its day ; and it was edited 
 and prefaced by Dr. Goodwin. The editor, 
 alluding to the loss of the original copy, makes 
 a remark upon it worth transcribing. " The 
 destiny which hath attended this book, hath 
 visited my thoughts with an apprehension of 
 something like an omen to the cause itself: that 
 after the overwhelming of it Aviih a flood of 
 obloquies, and disadvantages, and misrepresen- 
 tations, and injurious impressions cast out after, 
 it, it misfht in the time which God alone hath 
 put in his own power, be again emergent." He 
 also compares the cause to seed-corn, which, if 
 it fall to the ground and die, together with some 
 of those who scatter it, shall at last bring forth 
 much fruit. These presages seem to be in latter 
 stages of fulfillment. For, though long depressed, 
 and, in a manner buried, the principles of Con- 
 gregationalism have never, since the primitive 
 ages, spread so rapidly as of late years. 
 
260 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Most of the ablest treatises which appeared in 
 defence of those principles in the seventeenth 
 century, went from New England. Mr. Cotton 
 did more in this way than any of our divines : 
 but valuable books were prepared by Hooker, 
 Davenport, Stone, Allen, Shepard, Richard Ma- 
 ther, Thompson, Welde, Norton, and others. 
 This was the great controversy of their day. 
 Our fathers studied it with care. There was 
 scarcely a minister of note among them, who did 
 not preach and publish upon it. They were far 
 enough from setting the pattern for that spurious 
 liberality, which is now so much in vogue, and 
 which dreads to have any thing said or done 
 about Congregationalism for fear of making it 
 sectarian. 
 
 In the year 1643, all the ministers in the 
 country, to the number of fifty, assembled at 
 Cambridge. " They sat in the college, and 
 had their diet there after the manner of schol- 
 ars' commons, but somewhat better, yet so 
 ordered as it came not to above sixpence the 
 meal for a person." This frugality is the most 
 remarkable thing recorded of this synod. Mr. 
 Cotton and Mr. Hooker were the moderators. 
 The main business was, to dissuade the New- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 261 
 
 bury ministers, Thomas Parker and James 
 Noyes, from attempting to introduce the Pres- 
 byterian government in their church. 
 
 While we are upon synods, we may as well 
 speak of the most important meeting of the kind 
 ever held in New England. It was convened 
 at Cambridge late in 1646, under the auspices 
 of the magistrates. After three sessions, the 
 last of which terminated on the 28th of August, 
 1648, they presented to the churches and the 
 civil government, the celebrated " Cambridge 
 Platform of Church Government." Having 
 fully discussed the work, the General Court at 
 its next meeting but one " thankfully accepted 
 thereof, and declared their approbation of the 
 said Platform of Discipline, as being, for the 
 substance thereof, what they had hitherto prac- 
 ticed in their churches, and did believe to be 
 according to the Word of God." It thus re- 
 ceived in Massachusetts the sanction of law : 
 and indeed was adopted in all the New England 
 colonies, Rhode Island excepted, till the Say- 
 brook Platform was adopted in Connecticut sixty 
 years after. I believe that the articles of faith 
 in very many of our churches, expressly recog- 
 nize the Cambridge Platform as presenting the 
 
262 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 principles of ecclesiastical order recognized and 
 practiced by them. And yet if any one were to 
 inquire how many, out of the thousands of 
 members of those churches who have subscribed 
 that declaration, have ever read the instrument 
 referred to, the result would be, perhaps, more 
 curious than gratifying. Less actual incon- 
 venience, however, has resulted from the too 
 general omission of the duty of examining this 
 instrument, than might have been expected. 
 The principles of Congregationalism are so few, 
 simple and intelligible, that the people obtain 
 some general understanding of them without 
 much special effort. Still it would be far bet- 
 ter, if the people who follow our system would 
 read the book in which it is set forth, together 
 with some of the valuable writings which have 
 recently appeared on the same subject. 
 
 But little novv remains to be considered, ex- 
 cept what relates to the personal character and 
 habits of Mr. Cotton. 
 
 In the family, he " ruled well his own 
 house ; " as became one who so well " ruled his 
 own spirit." If any thing went amiss, he never 
 corrected it in a passion : but, with great delib- 
 eration, began by showing what precept of the 
 Bible had been transgressed or disregarded. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 263 
 
 At the devotions of the family, morning and 
 evening, he read a chapter, explaining and ap- 
 plying the contents in a practical manner, but 
 briefly. Before and after the reading, prayers 
 were made, though very short and pertinent. 
 He studied brevity in all : for he held, " that it 
 was a thing inconvenient many ways to be 
 tedious in family duties." 
 
 The Sabbath he kept most conscientiously 
 from evening to evening : and it is supposed to 
 be from his example, that the custom prevailed 
 so extensively in New England of " resting 
 according to the commandment " at the going 
 down of Saturday's sun. When that evening 
 arrived, he made a larger exposition at family 
 prayer than at other times. Then the children 
 and servants were thoroughly exercised in the 
 catechism, probably using such as were of his 
 own preparation : one of which, called " Milk 
 for Babes," was used for feeding the minds of 
 the New England children for many years after 
 his death. Another, called '* Meat for Strong 
 Men," became their diet at a maturer age, 
 " and nourished them up in the words of faith 
 and of good doctrine." The catechising over, 
 there followed prayer, and the singing of a 
 
264 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 psalm. Mr. Cotton then withdrew to his study, 
 and its devotions, till the hour of repose. 
 
 The next morning, after the customary family 
 worship, he retired to his private communion 
 with God, till he went to tlie house of God, and 
 its public duties. Returning to his home about 
 noon, he at once secluded himself in his oratory 
 or study, into which there must be no intrusion, 
 except for the purpose of carrying him a very 
 slight repast. At the time for afternoon wor- 
 ship, he came forth again, as one who had been 
 holding converse with God in the mount of 
 prayer. Coming back from the sanctuary, he 
 first sought his retirement, and spent a season 
 in closet prayer. He then prayed with his fam- 
 ily ; after which each one of the household 
 repeated as much as could be remembered of 
 the sermons of the day. In those days, this 
 was the common practice in all Puritan fami- 
 lies. Almost every person was provided with a 
 book for the purpose of taking notes : so that 
 the congregation looked, as we should say, like 
 an assembly of reporters. This repetition of 
 sermons was thoroughly attended to : and happy 
 was the youth who could give the most exact 
 account of text, ajiplicalion, doctrine, divisions 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 265 
 
 and uses. Almost the only relic of this instruc- 
 tive custom which has come down to our day, 
 is the practice, still preserved in some families, 
 " of bringing home the text." While the good 
 old usage was kept up, the want of Sabbath 
 schools for the religious instruction of the young 
 was not much felt. Or rather, there was a Sab- 
 bath school, and that of the best kind, in every 
 family. In Mr. Cotton's household, when the 
 repeating of the sermons was finished, with all 
 the remarks and little explanations and dis- 
 cussions to which that exercise had given occa- 
 sion, the evening meal was served up. After 
 supper, another psalm was sung. Then the 
 good man, lifting up his eyes and hands, would 
 exclaim ; — " Blessed be God in Christ our 
 Saviour ! " — and the Sabbath was done. Be- 
 fore retiring to rest, he again, in his study, 
 committed all that he had done to that God 
 whom he " served with a pure conscience." 
 
 The sanctification of the Lord's day was a 
 very conspicuous trait of Puritan piety. Good 
 Thomas Shepard, gives as a reason for migra- 
 ting to this country, that he " saw the Lord 
 departed from England when Mr. Hooker and 
 Mr. Cotton were gone." That excellent man 
 VOL. I. 23 
 
266 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 was extremely scrupulous in observing God's 
 holy day. His preparations for the pulpit were 
 commonly finished by two o'clock on Saturday 
 afternoon ; in allusion to which, he once used 
 these words ; — " God will curse that man's 
 labors, that lumbers up and down in the world 
 all the week, and then upon Saturday in the 
 afternoon goes to his study ; when as God 
 knows that time were little enough to pray in 
 and weep in, and get his heart into a frame fit 
 for the approaching Sabbath." This bears rather 
 hard on those ministers who are sometimes de- 
 scribed as " Saturday-afternoon-men." Such, if 
 any such there be, may derive instruction from 
 the following extract from a letter of Mr. Cot- 
 ton's, written to Rev. Nathaniel Rogers in 
 1630. " Studying for a sermon upon the Sab- 
 bath day, so far as it might be any wearisome 
 labor to invention or memory, I covet, when I 
 can, willingly to prevent it : and would rather 
 attend unto the quickening of my heart and 
 affections, in the meditation of what I am to 
 deliver. My reason is, much reading, and in- 
 vention, and repetition of things, to commit 
 them to memory, is a weariness to the flesh and 
 spirit too ; whereas the Sabbath day doth rather 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 267 
 
 invite unto an holy rest. But yet if God's 
 providence have straitened my time in the week- 
 days before, by concurrence of other business not 
 to be avoided, I doubt not, but the Lord, who 
 allowed the priests to employ their labor in kill- 
 ing their sacrifices on the Sabbath day, will 
 allow us to labor in our callings on the Sabbath, 
 to prepare our sacrifice for the people." 
 
 Mr. Cotton was always noted for his hospital- 
 ity. The stranger and the needy were enter- 
 tained at his table with a pastoral benignity. It 
 was rare that his house was without a guest. 
 It was a gospel inn. He used to say ; — " If a 
 man want an heart for this charity, it is not fit 
 such a man should be ordained a minister." 
 While he lived in England, he was noted for 
 his bounty to distressed ministers, many of whom 
 were deprived by prelatical rigor of the means 
 of subsistence before that rigor fell upon him. 
 Many of the refugees who were driven from 
 their flocks in Germany by the persecution then 
 raging in the Palatinate of the Rhine, found a 
 generous friend in him. Some of them were 
 very eminent divines, who requited his kindness 
 in Latin superlatives, the only coin the poor 
 
268 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 souls could spare. "^ To his generous practice 
 there is recorded one of those exceptions which 
 " proves the rule." It shall be given in the 
 words of Mr. Whiting, who is speaking of Mr. 
 Cotton's manner of living at Old Boston in Old 
 England. " His heart and doors were open to 
 receive, (as all that feared God, so) especially- 
 godly ministers, which he most courteously en- 
 tertained, and many other strangers besides. 
 Only one minister, Mr. Hacket by name, which 
 had got into the fellowship of famous Mr. Ar- 
 thur Hildersham, with many other godly minis- 
 ters, and being acquainted with their secrets, 
 betrayed them into the prelate's hands : this 
 man coming into Boston and meeting with Mr. 
 Cotton, the good man had not the heart to speak 
 to him, nor invite him to his house ; which, he 
 said, he never did to any stranger that he knew 
 of before, much less to any minister." 
 
 Another instance in which Mr. Cotton showed 
 himself to be one of those who " devise liberal 
 things" occurred in 1651, while he was living in 
 America. There was a little Congregational 
 
 * la ihoir accounts of him, they styled him; — " Faiitor dociissi- 
 mus, clarissimus, fidalissimus, plurimumve honorandus." 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 269 
 
 Church of exiled Puritans at Segetea in Bermu- 
 da, of which Mr. Natlianiel White was pastor. 
 Banished by their opposers, this little flock re- 
 treated to one of the southern islands, a desolate 
 spot where they suffered severe hardship. When 
 the report reached Mr. Cotton, he exerted him- 
 self to procure collections for their relief. Near 
 eight hundred pounds was contributed by some 
 six or eight of the poor churches in the Bay. 
 A fourth part of the sum was gathered by the 
 Boston Church, where there was but one sub- 
 scription that equaled, and none that exceeded, 
 Mr. Cotton's. The money was laid out in corn 
 and other necessaries, and sent, by the hand of 
 two brethren, in a small vessel hired for the 
 purpose. It arrived at its destination, on the 
 very day when the afflicted exiles had made a 
 personal distribution of their last handful of 
 meal, and had no prospect before them but that 
 of speedily famishing to death. On that self- 
 same day too, their believing pastor had preached 
 upon that most suitable text ;— " The Lord is my 
 Shepherd, I shall not want." The admiring 
 €xiles could not sufficiently express their grati- 
 tude for this timely succor from their New 
 England friends. "For the administration of 
 23*' 
 
270 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 this service not only supplied the want of the 
 saints ; but is abundant also by many thanksgiv- 
 ings to God;" 
 
 In reviewing what his contemporaries have 
 said of Mr. Cotton, we cannot but be struck with 
 the high repute in which he was held for learn- 
 ing. This was a quality in the absence of 
 which, no minister in the days of the Puritans 
 could command respect. A pious and learned 
 ministry, our fathers considered to be a necessary 
 of life. A Dutch scholar of distinction heard 
 Mr. Cotton preach at Boston in Old England, 
 and declared; — "that never in his life had he 
 seen such a conjunction of learning and plain- 
 ness as there was in the preaching of this wor- 
 thy man." It was rare for him to allude to his 
 own acquisitions ; but in the confidence of friend- 
 ship, Mr. Cotton once said ; — " That he knew 
 not of any difficult place in all the whole Bible, 
 which he had not weighed somewhat unto satis- 
 faction." He had an immense library for those 
 days ; and an immense acquaintance with it. 
 But his favorite author was one whose name is 
 not apt to be spoken with commendation by 
 " lips polite." Said Mr. Cotton ; — " I have 
 read the fathers, and the schoolmen, and Calvin 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 271 
 
 too : but I find that he that has Calvin has them 
 all." When asked in liis later days, why he 
 indulo-ed himself in nocturnal studies more than 
 formerly, he answered with a smile ; — " Because 
 I love to sweeten my mouth with a piece of 
 Calvin before I go to sleep." It is needless to 
 ask what were the doctrinal sentiments of a man 
 with such a moral taste as this. It is evident 
 that he held to that Pauline system, which is 
 properly the belief of minds naturally strong, or 
 highly illuminated by the Spirit of grace. No 
 person can be both an intelligent and ardent 
 Calvinist, who has not either a profound and 
 penetrating judgment, capable of grasping truths 
 of the first magnitude ; or else a heart intensely 
 excited and irresistibly led by that spiritual in- 
 fluence, which the gospel describes as essential 
 to salvation. 
 
 The habits of Mr. Cotton, from youth to age, 
 were those of an indefatigable student. He was 
 an early riser, devoting the morning hours to 
 closer application. In his later years, he ab- 
 stained from any evening repast ; occupying the 
 time appropriated to supper in reading, reflection 
 and prayer. Having a vigorous constitution, 
 his life and labors were happily prolonged by 
 
272 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 careful diet and regular living. He rarely 
 needed any other doctor for the body. Dryden 
 says : 
 
 , " The first physicians by debauch were made ; 
 
 Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade." 
 
 He was " sparing of sleep, more sparing of 
 words, but most sparing of time." His study 
 was his paradise, which he never willingly left, 
 except to do some good office. Unseasonable 
 visitors, who consumed his precious time, he 
 treated with all gentleness and urbanity : but 
 after such an one had retired, he would say wiih 
 some regret ; — " I had rather have given this 
 man an handful of money, than have been kept 
 thus long out of my study." He kept by him a 
 sand-glass which ran for four hours : this turned 
 over three times, measured his day's work. Of 
 this no small part consisted in fervent prayer : 
 for he held with Luther, that he who has prayed 
 well, has studied well. 
 
 In the manner of his preaching, Mr. Cotton 
 was plain and perspicuous. He conscientiously 
 forbore to make any display of his vast learning 
 in the pulpit. He addressed himself to the 
 common people. His chief anxiety was, to be 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 273 
 
 understood. He would often say, though apt to 
 handle the deepest subjects ;— " I desire to 
 speak so as to be understood by the meanest 
 capacity." When an iron key would unlock 
 the mystery of godliness better than a golden 
 one, he preferred the cheaper, but more useful 
 metal. The wish of his heart, was to glorify 
 God, rather than to win commendation for hnn- 
 self. At the end of all his manuscript discour- 
 ses, he ever inserted this, or some similar 
 phrase,—" For thy glory, God ! " In him, 
 the fumes of the " odorous lamp " of science 
 never dimmed the light of his piety. 
 
 He commonly bestowed great labor upon his 
 public discourses ; though he sometimes preached 
 with very great effect when he had no prepara- 
 tion or warning. Sometimes, as he was gomg 
 to the pulpit, his text would open to him in a 
 new and striking manner ; he would then un- 
 fold it by the hour, expressing himself with 
 such steadiness and precision, that the most 
 critical of his hearers would not be aware that 
 they were listening to an unstudied effort. 
 
 In vindication of his plain and familiar way 
 of preaching, Mr. Cotton would say ;— " If I 
 preach more scholastically, then only the learn- 
 
274 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 ed, and not the unlearned, can so understand as 
 to profit by me ; but if I preach plainly, then 
 both the learned and unlearned will understand 
 me, and so I shall profit all." He viewed the 
 subject just as Martin Luther did, as he is 
 reported to have expressed himself in his table 
 talk. When Dr. Erasmus Albert was to preach 
 before the prince-elector, Luther said to him ; — 
 *' Let all your preaching be in the most simple 
 and plainest manner : look not to the prince, 
 but to the plain, simple, gross and unlearned 
 people ; of which cloth the prince himself is 
 also made. If I, in my preaching, should have 
 regard to Philip Melanchthon, and other learned 
 doctors, then should 1 work but little goodness. 
 I preach in the simplest sort to the unskillful, 
 and the same giveth content to all. Hebrew, 
 Greek and Latin I spare, till we learned ones 
 come together, as then we make it so curled and 
 finical, that God himself wondereth at us." At 
 another time, the stout reformer exclaimed ; — 
 " When preachers come to me, to Melanchthon, 
 to doctor Pommern, &c., then let them show 
 their cunning, how learned they be ; — they 
 shall be well put to their trumps. But to 
 sprinkle out Hebrew, Greek and Latin in their 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 275 
 
 public sermons, the same savoreth merely of 
 pride, which agreeth neither with time nor 
 place, nor is it pertinent. In the church, 
 among the congregation, we ought to speak, as 
 we use at home in the house, the plain mother- 
 tongue, which every one understandeth, and is 
 acquainted withal." 
 
 Of the happy effect of Mr. Cotton's manner 
 of preaching, we have a very pleasing and in- 
 structive example in the autobiography of that 
 worthy old soldier of Jesus Christ, Captain 
 Roger Clap. Having spoken of his admission 
 to the Church in Dorchester, at its formation in 
 1630, he proceeds with the relation of his sub- 
 sequent experience in religion. " Jesus Christ 
 being clearly preached, and the way of coming 
 to him by believing was plainly shown forth ; 
 yet because many, in their Relations, spake of 
 their great terrors and deep sense of their lost 
 condition, and I could not so find, as others did, 
 the time when God wrought the work of con- 
 version in my soul, nor in many respects the 
 manner thereof ; it caused in me much sadness 
 of heart, and doubtings how it was with me, 
 whether the work of grace were ever savingly 
 wrought in my heart or no ? How lo cast off 
 
276 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 all hope, to say, and verily to believe that there 
 was no work of grace wrought by God in my 
 heart, this I could not do ; yet how to be in 
 some measure assured thereof was my great 
 concern. But hearing Mr. Cotton preach out 
 of the Revelations, that Christ's Church did 
 come out of great tribulation, he had such a 
 passage as this in his sermon ; — ' That a small 
 running Stream was much better than a great 
 hand Flood of Water, though the Flood maketh 
 the greatest Noise : so,^ saith he, ' A little con- 
 stant Stream of godly Sorroiu, is better than 
 great Horror.'' God spake to me by it, it was 
 no little support unto me. And God helped me 
 to hang on that text ; (and through his grace I 
 will continue so to do,) namely, ' This is a faith- 
 ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
 Jesus Christ came into the world to save sin- 
 7iers.^ '"^ May the words of Mr. Cotton comfort 
 some who read these pages, even as when they 
 came with a blessing to that right old Puritan ! 
 Besides his incessant preaching, and a large 
 correspondence in which he was very usefully 
 
 * Memoirs of Capt Roger Clap. Boston, 1731. Reprinted by 
 David Clapp, Jr. 184 Washington street, 1844, p. 24. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 277 
 
 employed as a casuist, being expert in the solv- 
 ing of cases of conscience, he was much engaged 
 in extraordinary labors. In the frequent fast- 
 days appointed by his Church in those troublous 
 times, he would be engaged in prayer and 
 preaching for five and six hours together. He 
 would also keep many whole days of fasting by 
 himself, occupying the time with humiliation of 
 his soul and prayer. He also observed, as oc- 
 casion prompted, entire days of private thanks- 
 giving for special mercies received. 
 
 Of all his more important publications, we 
 have had occasion to speak in the course of this 
 narrative. Most of them were called forth 
 by the controversies which then agitated the 
 Church on the subject of government and dis- 
 cipline. They are remarkable for the mild 
 Christian spirit which pervades them. " None 
 will blame a man," says Thomas Fuller, " for 
 arming his hands with hard and rough gloves, 
 who is to meddle with briers and brambles." 
 But though he had to deal with some of the 
 most thorn-backed and scratching antagonists, 
 they could not provoke him to anger. Though 
 a most tenacious and vigorous maintainor of the 
 truth, he never lost " the meekness and gentle- 
 voL. I. 24 
 
278 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 ness " which he learned of his divine Master. 
 " It may fairly be said that an amiable spirit in 
 controversy forms one of the most incontroverti- 
 ble evidences of elevated piety, because it is 
 precisely this point in which so many men of 
 indubitable excellence have failed." Good men 
 have often debated, " as if personal invective, 
 and embittering a style, were God's way of 
 bettering a cause, or battering an opinion." As 
 to the temper in which controversy should be 
 conducted, Mr. Cotton may serve " as a pattern 
 for all answerers to the world's end." Through 
 the spirit in which he replied, he did like Job 
 with the books of his adversaries, " and bound 
 them as a crown to him." 
 
 We have alluded to his extensive correspond- 
 ence. But little of it has escaped the ravages 
 of time. Among others, he maintained a friend- 
 ly correspondence with archbishop Usher. As 
 a sample of the manner in which he wrote 
 familiarly to his pious friends, an extract is 
 here given from a letter dated the ninth of 
 March, 1631 ; and addressed to the reverend 
 Nathaniel Rogers, who was afflicted with a very 
 tedious and disheartening malady. '* I bless 
 the Lord with you, who supporteth your feeble 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTOf^. 279 
 
 body to do him service, and meanwhile perfect- 
 eth the power of his grnce in your weakness. 
 You know who said it, ' Unmortified strength 
 posteth hard to liell, but sanctified weakness 
 creepeth fast to heaven.' Let not your spirit 
 faint, though your body do. Your soul is pre- 
 cious in God's sight ; your hairs are numbered ; 
 and the number and measure of your fainting 
 fits, and wearisome nights, are weighed and 
 limited by his hand, who hath given you his 
 Lord Jesus Christ, to take upon him your in- 
 firmities, and bear your sicknesses." 
 
 Among other distinguished correspondents of 
 Mr. Cotton's was one beyond comparison the 
 greatest man of his time. The life of Oliver 
 Cromwell is yet to be written. It has, as yet, 
 been " attempted" only ; and that in the most 
 murderous manner. For a considerable period 
 after his death, it would have been regarded as 
 high treason to have presented a true picture of 
 his merits. And when, at last, the expulsion of 
 the Stuarts left historians at liberty to do some 
 justice to Cromwell's character, the age had be- 
 come too degenerate to understand or appreciate 
 the man. The materials for his history were 
 only such as had been collected by his bitter 
 
280 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 foes : whose only study was to conceal every 
 thing which could adorn his memory, and parade 
 every thing which could be found or invented to 
 blacken it. The present generation takes its 
 idea of the man, either from Clarendon, who 
 hated his politics ; or from Hume, who hated his 
 religion ; or from inferior authors, who hated 
 every thing about him. He is commonly re- 
 garded as a person of extraordinary talent, but 
 whose talent lay chiefly in the line of canting 
 hypocrisy. His fame, however, is destined to 
 emerge from the clouds which have so long 
 obscured it. Whoever reads, with unprejudiced 
 mind, the recent collection of his letters and 
 speeches, wherein Cromwell speaks for himself 
 in his own way, will feel a revolution in his 
 opinions of the Protector. He possessed the 
 very highest capacity for both military and civil 
 affairs, ranking him among the very first of sol- 
 diers and statesmen. To this he added a piety 
 the most profound and unaffected, constantly and 
 naturally pervading all language, whether on 
 the most private or public occasions. He as- 
 sumed the high station which he so ably filled, 
 in obedience to what he felt to be a divine call, 
 requiring of him what he alone could have ef- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 2S1 
 
 fected, — the preservation of the peace, liberty 
 and religion of his distracted country. 
 
 In Carlyle's collection we find the first of 
 Cromwell's letters to Mr. Cotton, which was all 
 written with the Protector's own hand. In con- 
 nection with it, that strange " elucidator" re- 
 marks in his own fantastic idiom as follows ; — 
 " Reverend John Cotton is a man still held in 
 some remembrance among our New England 
 friends. A painful preacher, oracular of high 
 gospels to New England ; who in his day was 
 well seen to be connected with the Supreme 
 Powers of this Universe, the word of him being 
 as a live coal to the hearts of many." Carlyle 
 supposes that Cotton had been writing to Oliver 
 concerning some act of Parliament for propagat- 
 ing the gospel in New England. This is a 
 mistake. The Protector had written to Rev. 
 William Hooke, who was Mr. Davenport's col- 
 league at New Haven ; and who, a few years 
 after was one of Oliver's chaplains. In his 
 letter to Mr. Hooke, Oliver had sent loving and 
 respectful salutations to Mr. Cotton. Mr. 
 Hooke, whose wife was near of kin to Cromwell, 
 intimated the message to Mr. Cotton, with the 
 suggestion that a letter from him to the Protec^ 
 24* 
 
282 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 tor would be taken in good part. Mr. Cotton 
 accordingly wrote a letter of some length, which 
 is preserved in Hutchinson's Collection. It is 
 occupied, after the manner of a solution of a case 
 of conscience, with a cautious vindication of 
 Cromwell's policy, especially in the matters 
 of dosing the Long Parliament with " Pride's 
 purge," and demanding justice upon the head of 
 a perjured and traitorous king. Mr. Cotton, 
 having summed up the considerations belonging 
 to the case in a manner accordant with the 
 views which Cromwell himself appears to have 
 taken of it, goes on to say; — " These things are 
 so clear to mine own apprehension, that I am 
 fully satisfied, that you have all this while fought 
 the Lord's battles, and the Lord hath owned 
 you, and honored himself in you, in all your 
 expeditions ; which maketh my poor prayers the 
 more serious, and faithful, and affectionate, (as 
 God helpeth,) in your behalf." This letter is 
 dated the twenty-seventh of May, 1651. Crom- 
 well's reply is dated the second of October fol- 
 lowing. It owns, as Carlyle says, " Their gen- 
 eral relationship as Soldier of the gospel and 
 Priest of the gospel, high brother and humble 
 one ; appointed, both of them, to fight for it to 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 283 
 
 the death, each with such weapons as were 
 given him."->'= Other letters, now lost, passed 
 between them. 
 
 In stature, Mr. Cotton was rather low, and 
 slightly inclined to be robust. He had a fair 
 complexion, and ruddy countenance : and his 
 locks, which were naturally brown, in his later 
 life had a snowy whiteness, which, as " a crown 
 of glory" made our patriarch's aspect venerable 
 to behold. There was an inexpressible majesty 
 in his mien, which compelled the respect of all 
 who approached him : and the voice of profane- 
 ness was hushed when he was by. The inn- 
 keeper at Derby, where Mr. Cotton often visited 
 while he dwelt in England, used to tell his com- 
 panions that he wished that man were out of his 
 house, for he was not able to swear with him 
 under his roof. 
 
 His voice was not strong ; but clear and dis- 
 tinct, and heard with ease in the largest assem- 
 blies. He delivered himself in the pulpit with 
 much dignity, using a natural and becoming 
 gesture of the right hand. But such a divine 
 power and holy unction attended his grave and 
 
 * Oliver Cromwell's Letlers and Speeches, Letter CXXV. 
 
284 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 earnest manner, that Mr. Wilson said of him ; — 
 " Mr. Cotton preaches with such authority, 
 demonstration and life, that methinks, when he 
 preaches out of any prophet or apostle, I hear 
 not him ; I hear that very prophet and apostle : 
 yea, I hear the Lord Jesus Christ himself speak- 
 ing in my heart." this is the true Christian 
 eloquence, when the lips of the ambassador seem 
 to breathe the very words of the Lord of life and 
 salvation ! 
 
 He had an almost miraculous evenness of 
 vemper. No insult could disturb his self-pos- 
 lession. Such was the meekness and mildness 
 Df his disposition, that Mr. Norton used to regard 
 him as the Moses and Melanchthon of the new 
 world. In the words of that good old puritan, 
 Simeon Ashe, " he was a dwarf in regard of 
 humility, but a giant in regard of strength." 
 Though but a lamb in his own cause, like his 
 master, he was a lion in that of God and his 
 church. His gentleness had nothing about it, 
 either nerveless or cowardly. His chief services 
 in behalf of the truth he loved were ever marked 
 by a modest estimation of himself. " The high- 
 est flames," says Jeremy Taylor, " are the most 
 tremulous : and so are the most holy and emi- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 295 
 
 nently religious persons more full of awfulness, 
 and fear, and modesty, and humility." Mr. 
 Williams, when his adversary, candidly owned 
 the goodness of his heart, and commended his 
 attachment to the truths of the gospel. Mr. 
 Cotton once said to a confidential friend ; — 
 " Angry men have an advantage above me : the 
 people dare not set themselves against such men, 
 because they know it will not be borne ; but some 
 care not what they say or do about me, because 
 they know I will not be angry with them again." 
 As a specimen of the manner in which he 
 met abusive treatment, we are told, that he was 
 once /ollowed from the church to his home by a 
 peevish, complaining hearer, who tried to pro- 
 voke him by telling him, that his preaching had 
 latterly become either very dark, or very flat. 
 To this he mildly answered, " Both, brother, it 
 may be, both : let me have your prayers that it 
 may be otherwise." 
 
 On another occasion a very ordinary sort of 
 a man had boasted of his clear insight into the 
 book of Revelation. Mr. Cotton modestly re- 
 plied ;— " Well, I must confess that I want light 
 in those mysteries." Upon this, the man sent 
 him by a servant a pound of candles. The good 
 
236 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 minister received this piece of impudence with 
 a silent smile ; revenging himself only by a 
 christian taciturnity. Mather, relating the cir- 
 cumstance in his magniloquent style, remarks ; — 
 " Mr. Cotton would not set the beacon of his 
 great soul on fire, at the landing of such a little 
 cock-boat." 
 
 The excellent Mr. Flavel relates an incident 
 of this kind. While Mr. Cotton lived at Boston 
 in old England, he was seen passing along the 
 street, by some gay young fellows, who had been 
 at the tavern, indulging in that, which Solomon 
 says, is a mocker : and is never more so than 
 when it makes mockers of those who use it. 
 One of them says to his companions ; — " I will 
 go and put a trick upon old Cotton." Crossing 
 over to the reverend and holy man, he whispered 
 in his ear ; — " Cotton, thou art an old fool." 
 That good man, without the slightest irritation, 
 looked mildly at him, and replied; — " I confess 
 I am so : the Lord make both me and thee wiser 
 than we are, even wise unto salvation." Re- 
 turning abashed to his companions, the wanton 
 insulter told them of this meek reply, which 
 sobered for that time their intemperate mirth, 
 and perhaps first taught them "how awful good- 
 ness is." 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 287 
 
 These examples provoke a sort of impatience, 
 that more of his expressions have not been pre- 
 served. We are sure that he daily uttered such 
 instructive dictates of a mind, adorned with un- 
 affected humility, singularly refined from the 
 dross of earthly passions, and mellowed to a 
 sweet maturity of grace by the ripening warmth 
 of close communion with the Lamb of God. 
 
 The labors of Mr. Cotton were hastening to 
 a close, by exposure to wet in passing the ferry 
 to Cambridge, where he went to preach to the 
 students. This sermon was from Isaiah 54: 13. 
 " And all of thy children shall be taught of the 
 Lord.'! Among those who heard it, was Increase 
 Mather, then a young scholar, and in after life 
 married to Mr. Cotton's only surviving daughter. 
 Dr. Mather never forgot the impressions made 
 upon his mind by that discourse. His powers of 
 utterance failed while speaking. He was attack- 
 ed with inflammation of the lungs, became asth- 
 matic, and was seized by a complicated disease, 
 which he felt as a warning that his end drew 
 nigh. 
 
 The next Sabbath he took for his text tne last 
 four verses of the second epistle to Timothy, on 
 which epistle he had been expounding in course. 
 
288 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 He told his auditory the reason of his taking so 
 many verses at once ; — " Because else," said he, 
 " I shall not live to make an end of this epistle." 
 On the following Sabbath, being the twenty-fifth 
 of November, he delivered his last sermon with 
 much difficulty, on John 1 : 14, on the glory of 
 Christ, "from the faith to the sight of which he 
 was hastening." He had the feelings of another 
 of the non-conforming divines, who said ; — " If 
 I must be idle, I had rather be idle under ground, 
 than above ground." He chose rather to be 
 dead, than live dead ; having ofien expressed a 
 wish that he " might not outlive his work." 
 
 This duty done, Mr. Cotton spent one day in 
 his study, in special prayer and preparation for 
 the last great conflict which he was assured was 
 at hand. On leaving that beloved and familiar 
 apartment, he remarked to his consort ; — " I 
 shall go into that room no more ! " He now 
 betook himself to the couch, where he expected 
 " the mercy-stroke of death," the blow that must 
 shatter the last link with which sin or sorrow 
 could fetter his soul. Although his foretastes 
 and promises of heaven chiefly attracted him 
 thitherward, he declared that it greatly contribu- 
 ted to his readiness to depart, when he consid- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 289 
 
 ered the company of saints, so many of whom 
 he had known and dearly loved, in whose com- 
 munion he was shortly to mingle. 
 
 Magistrates, clergymen, and private Christians 
 in great numbers resorted to his sick-bed, mourn- 
 fully listening to his dying counsels. Mr. Dun- 
 ster, at that time President of Harvard College, 
 with many tears besought his blessing, saying ; 
 " I know in my heart, they whom you bless 
 shall be blessed." Shortly before his death, Mr. 
 Cotton sent for the elders of the church, who 
 prayed over him. He exhorted them to feed the 
 flock of which they were overseers, and to watch 
 against those declensions to which he saw that 
 professors of religion were tending. He added; — 
 " I have now, through grace, been more than 
 forty years a servant unto the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and have ever found him a good master." 
 When his colleague, Mr. Wilson, a man who 
 abounded in love as much as Mr. Cotton did in 
 light, took his last leave, he breathed an ardent 
 wish that God would lift up the light of his 
 countenance upon the dying man ; he promptly 
 replied ; — " God hath done it already, brother !" 
 He then called for his children to whom he left 
 the covenant of God as their chief portion. 
 
 VOL. T. 2'5 
 
290 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Having settled all his affairs, and taken leave of 
 the world, he begged to be left alone for the 
 little time he had to live, that his soul might be 
 undisturbed in communing with his God. He 
 caused the curtains to be drawn, and exacted a 
 promise of the gentleman who attended him, 
 that the privacy of his chamber should not be 
 interrupted. Then reminding that gentleman, 
 who was a beloved member of his church, of 
 that promise, he gave him this parting benedic- 
 tion ; — " The God that made you, and bought 
 you with a great price, redeem your body and 
 soul unto himself!" These were the last words 
 he was heard to utter. After a few speechless 
 hours, he quietly breathed out his spirit into the 
 hands of Him who gave it. This gentle trans- 
 lation of his soul from earth to heaven, took 
 place shortly after eleven o'clock of Thursday 
 morning, the twenty-third of December, 1652, in 
 the sixty-eighth year of his age. On the twen- 
 ty-eighth of the same month, he was honorably 
 interred by a mourning concourse of the people, 
 among whom he had ministered in holy things 
 for more than nineteen years. He was borne on 
 the shoulders of his brother-ministers to his last 
 sleeping place, in a tomb of brick, in what is 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 291 
 
 called the " Chapel Burying Ground." A deep 
 and sincere mourning' was made for him by his 
 afflicted flock, with whom all the scattered 
 churches of New England joined their sorrows ; 
 and numerous elegies, according to the taste of 
 the times, recorded the general grief. The lec- 
 tures in his church during the following winter, 
 preached, as they were by the neighboring cler- 
 gymen, were but so many funeral discourses. In 
 the first of them, by his old friend and fellow- 
 laborer and fellow-sufferer, Richard Mather of 
 Dorchester, he gave the following counsel to the 
 church ; — "Let us pray that God would raise up 
 some Eleazer to succeed this Aaron : but you 
 can hardly expect, that so large a portion of the 
 Spirit of God should dwell in any one, as dwelt 
 in this blessed man." His departure was la- 
 mented as a public loss in all the churches of the 
 country. In particular, Mr. Davenport most 
 tenderly bewailed it in a sermon at New Haven, 
 from the w^ords; — " I am distressed for thee, my 
 brother, very pleasant hast thou been unto me." 
 The south part of Mr. Cotton's dwelling- 
 house was built by Sir Henry Vane, who 
 boarded there with him till Sir Henry returned 
 to England, first giving that addition to Sea- 
 born Cotton. It stood on the lot south of 
 
292 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 what was lately the estate of Gardner Green, 
 Esq. ; and was part of the ground now occu- 
 pied by the " Tremont Row," nearly opposite 
 to the Savings Bank. That rise of ground 
 long bore the name of "Cotton's Hill." His 
 house was still standing, then the oldest house 
 in Boston, some twenty years ago. The inven- 
 tory of his estate amounted to one thousand and 
 thirty-four pounds, four shillings. His will pro- 
 vided, that, in certain contingencies, half of his 
 estate should go to Harvard College, aj^d half to 
 support the free school in Boston. Those con- 
 tingencies never happened : but the provision 
 made for them evinces his deep interest in the 
 important work of education. To the Church 
 he bequeathed a piece of silver plate to be used 
 at the communion table, where at his first com- 
 ing he had made use of wooden chalices. This 
 reminds us of the lament uttered by one of the 
 writers in the middle ages, who sighs for those 
 days of primitive piety, when the church in her 
 poverty had wooden cups, but golden priests : 
 but now, alas ! he cries, we have golden chalices 
 and wooden priests. 
 
 The first place of worship in which he here 
 officiated, and which was the first ever erected 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 293 
 
 to God upon this peninsula, stood in what is in 
 these republican days State street, but in those 
 monarchal times was King's Street. It was 
 built in 1632. There are lovers of liturgic 
 pomp, who cannot feel the spirit of devotion un- 
 less awakened by columned aisles, and stained 
 windows, and splendid altars, and sacred vest- 
 ments, and responsive readings, and resounding 
 organs, and choral chants. Such worshipers, 
 as it has been forcibly said, " seem to have no 
 idea of the Supreme Being but as a Grand Mas- 
 ter of ceremonies to the whole universe." They 
 would have scorned the adorations of that mud- 
 walled edifice, with its lowly roof of thatch, 
 where, for eight years of sadness, Wilson and 
 Cotton, with their exiled flock, worshiped in 
 spirit and in truth the Father w^ho " seeketh 
 such to worship him." Let that humble struc- 
 ture be commemorated with those wattled tem- 
 ples, in which the first converts to Christianity 
 among our British sires, who dwelt in what was 
 then a land as savage and heathen as was this, 
 before the pilgrims came, sang high praises to the 
 babe that was laid in the manger at Bethlehem. 
 The second house of worship was built in 
 what is now called Cornhill Square in 1640. 
 25=^ 
 
294 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 After standing for seventy-one years, it was re- 
 built in Cornhill Square in 1712. After the 
 lapse of near a century, the First Church re- 
 moved, and built the present meeting-house in 
 Chauncy Place. Oh, who that passes by that 
 venerated sanctuary, can refrain from calling to 
 mind that holy and apostolic succession of men 
 of God, from the warm-hearted Wilson to the 
 orthodox and eloquent Foxcroft, who have min- 
 istered to that famous Church, and the multi- 
 tude of its sainted dead ? And who that reflects 
 upon the fearful falling away of that assembly 
 from the faith of their fathers, can suppress the 
 lamentation of the prophet ; — " How is the gold 
 become dim ! how is the most fine gold changed !" 
 During the nineteen years and more, that Mr. 
 Cotton presided in that Church, one thousand 
 and thirty-four children received the seal of bap- 
 tism. Of these four hundred and fifty-six were 
 females ; and five hundred and thirty-eight were 
 males, being a large excess in favor of the latter. 
 The number of baptisms in each year, exceeded 
 fifty. On this duty of sealing the children of 
 the covenant, and placing Christ's mark upon 
 the lambs of his flock, the teacher laid great 
 stress, and imparted much instruction, some 
 part of which remains in print. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 295 
 
 During the same period, there were admitted to 
 the Church, three hundred and six men, and three 
 hundred and forty-three women : in all six hun- 
 dred and forty-nine, being an average of thirty- 
 four admissions in each year. Seventeen persons 
 had been publicly admonished for different offen- 
 ces ; and five of them who could not be reclaimed, 
 were cut ofTby excommunication. Considering 
 the numbers of the Church, and the strictness of 
 the watch and discipline then maintained, so 
 small a number of ecclesiastical censures argues 
 great purity and blamelessness on the part of the 
 members at large. 
 
 Mr. Cotton had three sons and as many 
 daughters ; all by his second wife. Seaborn 
 Cotton, his oldest child, graduated at Harvard 
 College in 1651. He was ordained the second 
 minister of Hampton in New Hampshire, in 
 1660, where he spent his days in gfeat useful- 
 ness and honor. He died the nineteenth of 
 April, 1686, aged fifty-two years. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his own son, John Cotton, who also 
 died there at the same age of fifty-two. 
 
 The second son of the patriarch of Boston, 
 
 John Cotton the younger, graduated at Harvard 
 
 "College in 1657. For several years he preached 
 
296 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 to the Indians at Martha's Vineyard, in their 
 own language. He was ordained at Plymouth 
 in 1669, and labored there in the ministry with 
 great diligence and success for thirty years, both 
 among the whites and Indians. In his fifty- 
 ninth year he removed to Charleston, South 
 Carolina, where he gathered the Congregational 
 Church, which still exists, and is one of the 
 principal churches in that city. He died in less 
 than a year after, on the eighteenth of Septem- 
 ber, 1669. His son, Roland Cotton, graduated 
 at Harvard in 16So, and was ordained the first 
 minister of Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1694. 
 He also preached to the Marshpee Indians, of 
 whom, in 1693, two hundred and fourteen were 
 under his care, while five hundred others in the 
 neighborhood of Plymouth were under the care 
 of his father. Roland Cotton died at Sandwich 
 in 1722. He had a brother, Josiah Cotton, who 
 graduated at Harvard in 1698. He was Clerk 
 of Court, Register of Deeds, and Judge of the 
 Common Pleas. He also preached to the In- 
 dians, at five difl^erent stations, for nearly forty 
 years. He died the nineteenth of August, 1756, 
 aged seventy-five. Three other brothers of Ro- 
 land and Josiah were ministers. Roland had" 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 297 
 
 three sons who were ministers of repute, John 
 Cotton at Newton, Nathaniel Cotton of Bristol, 
 and Ward Cotton of Boylston. Josiah Cotton 
 of Plymouth had a son John, who was the first 
 minister of Halifax. 
 
 There have been many other descendants of 
 the Boston minister, who have inherited his 
 name and calling. In him there was a fulfill- 
 ment of the promise ;— " My Spirit that is upon 
 thee, and my words which I have put in thy 
 mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor 
 out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the 
 mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from 
 henceforth and forever." It may be said of the 
 posterity of very many of the pious settlers of 
 this "New English Canaan ;"—" Their seed 
 shall be known among the Gentiles, and their 
 offspring among the people : all that see them 
 shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed 
 which the Lord hath blessed." 
 
 But we must revert to the immediate family 
 of the venerable saint of Boston. His youngest 
 son, Roland, and his oldest daughter, Sarah, 
 died nearly at the same time, at an early age, of 
 the small pox, which raged in Boston in 1649. 
 Sarah died on the twentieth of November. Her 
 
298 LIFE OF JOHN COTTb^N. 
 
 last words to her parents were ; — " Pray, my 
 dear father, let me now go home." In a few 
 lines of his we find the following language of 
 pious acquiescence in this affecting wish ; — 
 
 " Go then, sweet Sara, take thy Sabbath rest, 
 With thy great Lord, and all in heaven, blest." 
 
 Roland died nine days after his sister, on 
 which sad occasion, the submissive father again 
 vented his feelings in his antiquated measures. 
 
 "Suffer, saith Christ, your little ones, 
 
 To come forth, rae unto, 
 For of such ones my kingdom is. 
 
 Of grace and glory too. 
 We do not only suffer them, 
 
 But offer them to thee ; 
 Now, blessed Lord, let us believe, 
 
 Accepted that they be." 
 
 Of Mr. Cotton's younger daughters, one was 
 married to a respectable merchant by the name 
 of Egginton, but did not long survive the birth 
 of her only child. The child also in a few 
 years followed the mother to the grave. The 
 other daughter of Mr. Cotton became the wife 
 of Increase Mather, D. D., one of the most use- 
 ful men to Massachusetts whom that " mother 
 of great men " has ever produced. Through 
 Mrs. Mather, her father became the ancestor of 
 
LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 299 
 
 several of the most distinguished ministers of 
 the country. His celebrated grandson, Cotton 
 Mather, in our days so grossly slandered and 
 maligned, has noticed an interesting fact in re- 
 gard to the second, or Old North Church in 
 Boston. The formation of this church, in 1649, 
 appeared to be quite detrimental to the inter- 
 ests of Mr. Cotton ; and yet he cheerfully en- 
 couraged the undertaking, because it seemed to 
 be required by the interests of religion. Now, 
 of that very church, his son-in-law was pastor 
 above threescore years, and his grandson for 
 foriy-four. 
 
 Mr. Cotion's \vidow became the second wife 
 of Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, the father 
 of her son-in-law, to whom she thus became a 
 parent by a double affinity. She survived her 
 second husband, with whom she lived in great 
 happiness for many years. 
 
 We thus close our account of John Cotton, 
 and those connected with him. That star rose 
 brightly on the older England, and rode through 
 stormy skies. But it sweetly shed hs parting 
 rays on the newer England, at its serene and 
 unclouded setting. We close with the following 
 extract from his funeral elegy, by Benjamin 
 
300 
 
 LIFE OF JOHN COTTON. 
 
 Woodbnd.e, D D., which, doubtless^T^ed 
 to the philosophic printer, Dr. Franklin, the hint 
 01 His famous epitaph upon himself;— 
 
 "A living, breathing Bible; tables where 
 
 Best covenants at large engraven were ; 
 Gospel and law in his heart had each its column : 
 
 H,s head an index to the sacred volume; 
 His very name a title-page ; and next 
 
 His life a commentary on the text. 
 O what a monument of glorious worth, 
 
 When in a new edition he comes forth 
 \^ iihout erratas, may we think he'U be.' 
 In leaves and covers of eternity. 
 
 [ ^ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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