5 Things Everyone Should Know About John Cotton: A Pastor’s Heart
Who was John Cotton, and why was he such an influential Puritan pastor? Today, Stephen Nichols welcomes Stephen Yuille to discuss several key facts about Cotton’s life, ministry, and legacy.
STEPHEN NICHOLS: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, I have a special guest, Dr. Stephen Yuille. Dr. Yuille is the Director of Puritan Publishing at Reformation Heritage Books. He is the preaching-teaching pastor at Fairview Covenant Church in his home in Granbury, Texas, where he is currently joining me by phone. He is also professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of a number of books, and he is the editor of the new five-volume set of the works of John Cotton. Dr. Yuille, welcome to 5 Minutes in Church History.
STEPHEN YUILLE: It is great to be with you. Thank you very much for the invitation.
SN: Well, let's get right into it. Please tell us—tell everyone—five things that they need to know about John Cotton.
SY: Yeah, that's a great question. And I was giving that some thought this morning and trying to imagine someone picking up these five volumes of John Cotton's collected works. And what is it that the reader really needs to know to appreciate the man and appreciate the content of those volumes? And so, I think the first thing is this: John Cotton was a husband and a father. I mean, both feet firmly planted on the ground. He married a woman named Elizabeth. They were wed for eighteen years, and then she died. I think she contracted malaria or something like that. And then his second marriage to a young woman named Sarah, and they had six children, three boys, three girls. Sadly, two of those children contracted smallpox as infants and died, obviously at a very early age. So I think it's really important to know some of these details concerning the man, that he was flesh and blood just like us, and he faced many of the challenges we face. And so he is relatable. And so as we read him and we're hearing the voice of a man acquainted with life's challenges and the different conditions that arise.
I think the second thing we really need to appreciate is that he was a pastor. He spent a lot of time at Cambridge University where he studied, and then he served for a time as a fellow and dean. But at 27/28 years of age, he was called to his first pastorate at St. Botolph’s Church located in Boston, Lincolnshire on the eastern shore of England, ministered there for twenty years, and then traveled to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and ministered in the first church at Boston for twenty years. So twenty years in Old Boston, twenty years in New Boston, a pastor. And that's very important when reading his works, to understand, to appreciate, that many of his works are published sermons, sermon series on the book of Ecclesiastes, a lengthy sermon series on First John. And so a pastor's heart as he ministers God's Word to his people.
It's also very important to keep that in mind because on occasion, John Cotton can be a little polemical, a little controversial, but never for the sake of being controversial. It's never speculative. Whenever he engages in debate or what we might call polemics, it's because he has a pastoral end in view. He thinks something is at stake, and he's concerned about the spiritual wellbeing of the people under his charge, so very much fulfilling the role of a shepherd. And so, I personally think that's really helpful for gleaning the most from him and appreciating where he's coming from as he writes.
The third thing I would add is John Cotton is a Puritan. He is a Puritan among Puritans. And so he's early 1630s. He's still in England, and he is vehemently opposed to the intermixing of human inventions and divine institutions within the Church of England, and he makes the most wanted list belonging to the Archbishop William Laude.
SN: Well, this story just took a fascinating and suspenseful turn, so we'll have to come back next week to finish off our conversation on John Cotton. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.
