5 Things Everyone Should Know About John Cotton: A Committed Congregationalist

How did Puritan pastor John Cotton end up on England’s most wanted list? Today, Stephen Nichols continues his conversation with Stephen Yuille, exploring Cotton’s flight to New England and the convictions that shaped his ministry.

STEPHEN NICHOLS: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. Last week, we were talking with Dr. Stephen Yuille about John Cotton, and we learned something fascinating: that John Cotton, this husband, this pastor, this Puritan, made his way onto the most wanted list. Dr. Yuille, please, our listeners have been waiting all week. Let's finish the story.

STEPHEN YUILLE: Well, as a Puritan, John Cotton was opposed to what he called “the intermixing of human inventions with divine institutions,” and so he objected to certain practices within the Church of England. And the Archbishop, he was very much in favor of what we call conformity among all ministers, and so he issued an arrest warrant for John Cotton and other Puritans. And Cotton, with the permission of his church, he went into hiding in the city of London, where he could, you know, escape in that sea of humanity and remain hidden, and the plan was eventually to travel to the Netherlands, but a friend of his named Thomas Hooker suggested the New World, New England. And John Cotton knew some people who had traveled to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and so he decided to take his wife, his family, and travel across the ocean, settle in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and settle in the city of Boston. And there he was able to serve the church without any real fear of persecution. So, to understand the man, we really need to understand something of his Puritanism.

And then if I was to add a fourth thing to keep in mind, and this is going to sound a little odd, John Cotton was a Puritan, but I'm using the word in a different sense here. John Cotton had this conviction that the purity of Christ must be the pattern of every believer. So that's really important to keep in mind, a desire to grow in Christ's likeness, a desire to know the transformational power of the gospel.

And then the fifth and final thing we really need to appreciate about John Cotton is that he was a congregationalist. And so the Puritans in the 1630s, especially as you get into the 1640s and the convening of the Westminster Assembly, they go basically in one of two directions, some towards Presbyterianism, some toward congregationalism. And John Cotton would firmly be in that camp of congregationalism, publishes a famous book called The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, which John Owen read and was going to refute, but it actually convinced John Owen to become a congregationalist. And there are other things we should know about Cotton, but I think those are the big five.

SN: So, we have John Cotton as husband and father. We have John Cotton as pastor. We have John Cotton as Puritan in terms of the ecclesiological sense of that word. And John Cotton is Puritan again in terms of Puritan piety. We also have John Cotton as a congregationalist. Now, you mentioned his influence on John Owen. As I recall, was it Richard Sibbes that preached a sermon that led Cotton to become a believer? Is that correct?

SY: Yes, it is. John Cotton went up to Cambridge University probably 13, 14 years of age. He wasn't a believer. He heard the preaching of a man named William Perkins, sometimes-

SN: Another famous Puritan.

SY: Yes, sometimes called the father of English Puritanism, and John Cotton did not like William Perkins, because he tended to probe the heart a little too deeply, and that made Cotton feel very uncomfortable. As a matter of fact, he actually relates that when the church bell chimed, announcing the death of William Perkins, he was secretly glad in his heart. He rejoiced because he was convinced he'd be free of this minister who had beset his soul. But then it was later, I think a year or two later, he was listening to a sermon by Richard Sibbes on regeneration, and that was the final step in the process, so to speak, the means the Lord used to bring John Cotton to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

SN: Well, I have so been enjoying this conversation, but I have to admit the thing about John Cotton that will forever stand out to me is that he made it onto the most wanted list, and he spent a few years hiding out on the streets of London. Well, thank you, Dr. Yuille, for being with us. Again, that's Stephen Yuille on John Cotton, and I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.