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JOHN COTTON: THE ANTINOMIAN CALVINIST By Gregory Allen Selmon Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion May, 2008 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor James P. Byrd Professor James Hudnut-Beumler Professor Paul Dehart Professor John S. McClure Professor Joel Harrington To my supportive and loving family: this dissertation is a testimony to God’s grace and your support ii ACKOWLEDGEMENTS This work illustrates the faithful love and support I have received from my family. While they often doubted the system, they never wavered in their support of me. I would like to thank my loving wife, Mary Elizabeth, for seeing me through this project. She had many days of being a graduate student widow. I also would like to thank my children- Preston, Geneva, Elijah, and Isaac- who have grown up knowing nothing but Dad working on some crazy dissertation project. I constantly try to teach them that perseverance is the most important trait in life. This work is an illustration of perseverance and not my brilliance! I also would like to thank Dr. James Byrd for his advice and assistance with this project. His comments, particularly in the end of this process, were extremely helpful in clarifying and focusing my argument. Finally, I also want to thank President Terry Phillips of Grace Evangelical College and Seminary in Bangor, Maine for his support and proof-reading expertise. His comments and assistance only made this project better. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION.............................................................................................................. ii ACKOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................. iii Chapter I. THE ANTINOMIAN CALVINIST .....................................................................1 Why another work concerning Cotton: Historiography.................................15 Form and Structure ........................................................................................42 II. THE FOUNDATIONS......................................................................................48 The Shared Foundations: Christ, The Holy Spirit, and Total Depravity ........62 Covenants of Works and Grace ......................................................................68 Conclusions.....................................................................................................83 III. SALVATION.....................................................................................................85 The Foundations of Soteriology: Repentance and Faith...............................104 Justification: Reconstruction of the Soul by the Spirit .................................120 Objections to Cotton’s Understanding of Soteriology .................................131 Conclusion to Cotton’s Soteriology..............................................................145 IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT ......................................................................................149 The Work of the Spirit: Sanctification..........................................................155 The Work of the Spirit: Assurance ...............................................................165 Conclusion: Modern Objections ...................................................................182 V. ANTINOMIAN? ............................................................................................197 Was Cotton Heterodox?................................................................................212 VI. CONCLUSION: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN................................................237 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................250 iv CHAPTER I THE ANTINOMIAN CALVINIST It could be easily argued that John Cotton was the most famous of all the first generation American Puritans. His reputation as a Puritan pastor and scholar was already well established by his successful pastorate in Boston, England. This ministry made him the envy of his fellow Puritan pastors and a household name in the Puritan community. Upon his arrival in New England, he was quickly called as the teacher of First Church Boston. There, his ministry experienced the first significant revival in American history. Cotton also quickly became the primary teacher for the colony when he continued his practice of holding a Thursday lecture that was attended by most of the clergy and prominent laity. The recent publication of Cotton’s voluminous correspondence also illustrated that he was the advisor to many within the Puritan community.1 His advice, opinions, and perspective on the Christian life were sought by both commoners and the nobility. In the past three hundred and fifty years, there has been no shortage of books that provide information concerning the basic details of his life and ministry, and many important scholarly works have affirmed that he was a significant leader within both English and American Puritanism. Yet, even with all of this acclaim, the reasons for Cotton’s ministerial success as well as the source of his personal magnetism have remained obscure. In other words, Cotton remained an enigma: important but extremely confusing. This dissertation seeks to assess Cotton’s importance for his day and today. 1 Sargent Bush, Jr. editor, The Correspondence of John Cotton (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001). 1 Building upon the work of others but providing a new interpretation of Cotton’s primary theological and pastoral particularities, this dissertation seeks to illuminate the reasons for Cotton’s popularity as well as his importance for Puritanism. This dissertation will argue that best way to understand Cotton’s significance is a renewed investigation into both Cotton’s life as well as his theology. In particular, this dissertation will present Cotton’s theology within the context of his life and ministry. The goal of this exploration will be a renewed investigation of Cotton’s thought during his early years in New England. These years of ministry have proved troublesome for those seeking to understand Cotton’s true place and importance within Puritanism. During this time, Cotton became embroiled in the Antinomianism controversy. This thought came under fire from his New England colleagues and this trend continues to today. In recent years, several influential scholars have described Cotton as a theological compromiser whose opinions and theology changed often throughout his life.2 This interpretation has guided several generations of scholars resulting in a distortion of Cotton’s thought. This dissertation will take a two-part approach to correcting the standard interpretation. First, each chapter will take the known basic facts concerning 2 As we will see, Larzer Ziff’s biography of Cotton began this direction within the scholarship. His research emphasized Cotton’s tendency toward compromise as central to understanding his place within Puritanism. Perhaps more influential in his critique of Cotton’s theology was William Stoever. Stoever argued that Cotton’s theology moved from the Puritan mainstream toward a rejection of the proper means in promoting assurance. He argued that this change directly led to the Antinomian controversy. Larzer Ziff, The Career of John Cotton: Puritanism and the American Experience (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962) and William K.B. Stoever, A Faire and Easie Way to Heaven: Covenant Theology and Antinomianism in Early Massachusetts (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1978). Several recent works have basically agreed with and augmented Stoever’s observations. These include, Brooks Hollifield, Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003) and Theodore Dwight Bozeman, The Precisionist Strain: Disciplinary Religion and Antinomian Backlash in Puritanism to 1638 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004). 2 Cotton’s life and weave a fresh interpretation of Cotton’s place within Puritanism.3 These short biographical sections will present Cotton as a defender of Reformed thought: a man concerned with promoting God’s sovereign glory in election and other traditional Reformed doctrines. Cotton began his ministerial career by winning the day for classic Reformed thought in Lincolnshire against a rising Arminian movement.4 This victory shaped his self-understanding, and it prompted his responses to theological questions he faced throughout his life. Each chapter will begin with these short biographical sections to prepare the way for a new interpretation of Cotton’s thought before, during, and after the Antinomian controversy. In the process, these biographical sections comprise one means of explaining the ultimate issues behind the Antinomian controversy. In particular, they illustrate why Cotton’s theological trajectory emphasized divine grace in every aspect of salvation and sanctification. This theological trajectory was formed from his education and the early conflicts that he faced as a young pastor and theologian. They also build one element of the argument for understanding Cotton’s importance as a Reformed theologian in early America. 3 This will not be a complete new biography of Cotton’s life. Many of the basic events within Cotton’s life and ministry are not in debate. As a prominent first generation American Puritan
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