Works
Cotton's written legacy includes a body of correspondence, numerous sermons, a catechism, and in 1646 a shorter catechism for children titled Milk for Babes, which is considered the first children's book by an American and was incorporated into The New England Primer around 1701 and remained a component of that work for over 150 years. His most famous sermon is probably "Gods Promise to His Plantation" (1630), preached at the departure of John Winthrop's fleet for New England.
Additionally, he wrote a theonomic legal code titled An Abstract of the laws of New England as they are now established. This legal code provided a basis for John Davenport's legal system for the New Haven Colony, and was one of two competing drafts of that were compiled to make Massachusetts' The Body of Liberties. Cotton's theonomy has had a significant effect on the 20th-century Dominionist movement.
His most influential writings on church government were The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared. He also carried on a pamphlet war with Roger Williams on liberty of conscience. Williams' The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644) brought forth Cotton's "The Bloudy Tenent washed and made white in the bloud of the Lamb".
Some other works include:
- “A.W. M'Clure: The Life of John Cotton”
- “John Norton: Memoir of the Life of John Cotton”
- Christ the Fountain of Life (sermons on 1 John 5)
- Treatise of the Covenant of Grace
- "The Covenant of God's Free Grace" (sermon) with a profession of faith by John Davenport (1597-1670)
- 'The Controversy Concerning Liberty of Conscience in Matters of Religion
- Of the Holiness of Church Members
- 'The True Constitution of a Particular Visible Church'
- Commentaries on Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon
- A Practical Commentary ... upon The First Epistle General of John
- The Bloody Tenent of Persecution and A Reply to Mr. Roger Williams
- God's Promise to his Plantation
- The Way of Life
- The True Constitution of a Particular Visible Church
- The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England
- A Defence of Mr John Cotton from the imputation of Self-Contradiction with an introduction by John Owen
Read more about this topic: John Cotton (Puritan)
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“My plan of instruction is extremely simple and limited. They learn, on week-days, such coarse works as may fit them for servants. I allow of no writing for the poor. My object is not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety.”
—Hannah More (1745–1833)
“Science is feasible when the variables are few and can be enumerated; when their combinations are distinct and clear. We are tending toward the condition of science and aspiring to do it. The artist works out his own formulas; the interest of science lies in the art of making science.”
—Paul Valéry (1871–1945)
“On pragmatistic principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily in the widest sense of the word, it is true.”
—William James (1842–1910)