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Stephen Yuille ed., "The Works of John Cotton, Volumes 1-5" (Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2025)
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Go beyond the verses and achieve a deeper understanding of Scripture with the Rebind Study Bible App. An audio experience of the Bible interwoven with expert commentary. The Rebind Study Bible App reads Scripture to you, enriching your comprehension with insights from the world renowned New International commentary on the Old and the New Testament in an accessible podcast episode format.
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Be not therefore anxious for the morrow. Matthew chapter 6. Each day will have its troubles, but by God's grace they can be survived.
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Use the Rebind Study Bible App's chat function to ask questions and get answers in real time. That's thought provoking discussion and analysis rooted in decades of research and wisdom from more than 40 scholars at your fingertips. The Rebind Study Bible App is a new way to experience the Bible with enhanced depth, at your own pace in the moments you have. Search the Apple App Store for Rebind Study Bible or go to rebind app.com newbooks network for a free seven day trial. Hello everybody, this is Marshall Po. I'm the founder and editor of the New Books Network and if you're listening to this, you know that the NBN is the largest academic podcast network in the world. We reach a worldwide audience of 2 million people. You may have a podcast or you may be thinking about starting a podcast. As you probably know, there are challenges basically of two kinds. One is technical. There are things you have to know in order to get your podcast produced and distributed. And the second is, and this is the biggest problem, you need to get an audience. Building an audience in podcasting is the hardest thing to do today. With this in mind, we at the NBM have started a service called NBN Productions. What we do is help you create a podcast, produce your podcast, distribute your podcast, and we host your podcast. Most importantly, what we do is we distribute your podcast to the NBN audience. We've done this many times with many academic podcasts and we would like to help you. If you would be interested in talking to us about how we can help you with your podcast, please contact us. Just go to the front page of the New Books Network and you will see a link to NBN Production. Click that, fill out the form and we can talk. Welcome to the New Books Network.
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Hello and welcome to the New Books Network. I'm your host, Ryan Shelton and today it's my great pleasure to be joined by J. Steven Ewell, editor of the Works of John Cotton, just published by Soli Deo Gloria, an imprint of Reformation Heritage Books. Dr. Yule is professor of church history and spiritual Formation at Southwestern Baptist theological seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Yule, thanks for joining us.
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B
Oh, it's great to be with you, Ryan. Thank you for the invite.
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C
So you've been, you're the editor on a new five volume set of works. These are the works of John Cotton. So we're going to talk a little bit about who John Cotton is and why it's such an important moment in the field to have his works published. But first, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be involved with the first ever collected publication of the works of John Cotton now 400 years after they were all first published?
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B
Certainly. I'm the director of Puritan Publishing at Reformation Heritage Books and as you mentioned, professor of church history at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And so I live near Fort Worth, Texas. Not from Texas originally. I'm Canadian by birth. But my wife and I, our family moved down. Oh, we moved down to Texas maybe 15 years ago. I began studying the Puritans over 25 years ago, and I was quite involved as an editor in the publication of the complete works of William Perkins, who is sometimes referred to as the father of English Puritanism. And then within Reformation Heritage Books, there was an impulse to publish John Cotton. I knew very little of John Cotton. I don't think I'd ever read anything by Cotton. But some within RHB recognized, hey, this is long overdue. This is a bad case. This is a serious case of neglect because he is such a formative figure, very significant. And so RHB actually approached me, hey, do you have any interest in taking this on, devoting a couple of years to it? And I perused his works and there was a lot in there that arrested my attention. So I signed on, oh, this is maybe four years ago now, and devoted the better part of three years to editing his, his complete works. And yeah, real joy, as with any project, to see it through to completion, but to actually be now just a few days away from release. Oh, there's a real measure of satisfaction in that.
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C
You've mentioned there. There was a recognition that, that his works needed to be published. Tell us a little bit about who was John Cotton, what made him an important figure in his day and why, why read him today, you know, centuries later?
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B
That's a really good question. When you know, John Cotton, born 1585, so the Elizabethan era. And he dies in 1652. Educated at Cambridge, he is a fascinating historical figure as it relates to English Puritanism and especially their struggles during the reign of Charles I and the opposition they experienced at the hand of Archbishop William Laud. And Cotton in particular, is significant because he ministered as a pastor for 20 years. So 1613-1633, at Saint Bottles in Boston, Lincolnshire. This is the original Boston in England. And then because of the persecution and the opposition, there was actually an arrest warrant put out for him. And so he fled. His plan, his initial plan was to cross the English Channel and hide out in Holland. But a friend came to him with a better idea, an alternative, and suggested why not head for New England? And so in 1633, he sails across the Atlantic and he arrives in Boston. Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony. And he ministers there in the First Church of Boston for 20 years. So here's a figure who has 20 years ministry in Old England, 20 years ministry in New England, straddling the Atlantic Ocean. So it makes him a very pivotal figure at this particular juncture in the history of. Of not just English history, but obviously Puritanism and that struggle within the Church of England. I mean, some particular themes which really put him in a position of prominence in his day. He gets involved in the antinomian controversy. He gets very involved as a proponent of Congregationalism. This is when Congregationalism is birthed over against Presbyterianism or Episcopalianism. And he is a leader in these debates. His writings prolific and very influential. So that made him a very significant figure in his day. And I think that 400 years later, those same reasons ought to resonate with us, because those are still pretty significant issues. Antinomianism, how do we understand the law, gospel dichotomy, church issues related to church and church government and ecclesiastical authority. And then, just even as a very fascinating historical figure, the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the development of New England, what is essentially a theocratic kingdom in Massachusetts. You can't understand any of that without reading John Cotton. And so that, I think, sums up. I mean, a lot more could be said. But that's a pretty good summation then, of why he stands out in his day 400 years ago and why there is this lasting legacy all these centuries later.
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C
So when we talk about the collected works of this figure. So we're talking five pretty beefy volumes.
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B
Beefy is the word. Yep.
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C
Who were some different types of people who might be especially interested in this. This new book, this new. This new set of cotton works, who were the audiences? Who would be especially. Who would benefit from having this?
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B
Well, definitely scholars, whether theological, historical, even sociological, to an extent. Bearing in mind that it is not, strictly speaking, A critical edition of Cotton's works. If it were a critical edition, I would have needed to have given more time to the history of publication and also more time to track, you know, tracking down some of Cotton's sources and influences. But that said, it is a faithful transmission of the original publication of Cotton's works. So it will have a scholarly interest, certainly across the board, a broad spectrum. Beyond that, I think, in terms of students, and again, whether it's American studies of the early colonies or the study of historical theology or the history of religion, and then if you get outside of the humanities, certainly for those in pastoral ministry, and not just of a congregational persuasion, but of whatever church background, whatever ecclesiastical alignment or conviction, John Cotton is a towering theologian. And so there is a lot there to be gleaned for students of theology, for those pastors, those ministering in churches, that will be both personally beneficial and beneficial for churches and congregations.
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C
Thanks for that. So you've said you're director of Puritan publishing at Reformation Heritage Press. John Cotton is a Puritan. And the first volume of this work is subtitled Puritan Piety. So what makes Cotton a Puritan? What is Puritanism? And what types of his works are included in this first volume of Puritan piety?
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B
Now, that is such a tricky question. What makes him a Puritan? Because the word is complicated, because of its multiplicity of meanings in the late 1500s into the 1600s. So when I say that John Carlton is a Puritan, I mean, firstly, he is engaged in that struggle in the Church of England whereby he is unwilling to conform during the reign of Charles the First, to some of the stipulations and requirements attached to the Book of Common Prayer. And he is pushing back against what he perceives to be human inventions within the Church of England. And so that is, when we use the word Puritan, that's the group we primarily have in mind. It is a group within the Church of England seeking greater reform. And so he's a Puritan in that sense. It's why he has to flee, you know, Archbishop William Laud. But when we speak of Puritan piety, we're now using the word in a different sense, as it was used back in Cotton's day, because at times people used it in the 1600s in reference to a certain style of spirituality, what a certain understanding of the Christian life. And so John Cotton would fit into this school of thought. Christians very dissatisfied with the notion that Christianity is merely a cultural thing, or Christianity involves no more than reciting the Creed, the Apostles Creed, the Ten Commandments in the Lord's Prayer. But there was this element within the Church of England convinced that no, Christianity really does involve an appropriation of what they described as God's sovereign grace. And so it actually leads John Cotton to make a comment. It's something to the effect it is not enough to get the truth of grace and some purity. No, we must grow pure as Christ is pure. So they were very concerned about the doctrine of sanctification, what it means, what it looks like, how it manifests itself in life and how we are to pursue godliness. And they were dubbed, actually, it was a pejorative term. They were then sort of labeled by those who disagreed with them as Puritans. So in that first volume, that's chiefly what I have in view when I talk about Puritan piety. It is this style, if you like, this approach to the Christian life that earned Cotton and others like him, this less than flattering label. Oh, you are simply a Puritan.
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C
So a lot of the works then, in this first volume are going to maybe appeal more to the. The pastor or the theological student. Perhaps if you were to pick one work out of this first volume that the pastor or the person who's a practicing Christian who wants to grow in their faith, what would you tell them to turn to in volume one?
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B
Excellent question. There are seven or eight works in volume one. There are three little preface. John Cotton penned, you know, an Introduction to the Works of friends. And so three of these are included in volume one as well. But I think it's maybe 80% of the volume is actually taken up with just two works. And we really, when we read these two works, get a good sense of Cotton's puritanism. And so the one is his exposition of Ecclesiastes and what it means to fear God. But the one I would really, I would. I would point to our listeners to is his book entitled the Way of Life. It's actually a collection of four sermon series where he walks through in detail how the Spirit of God brings us into the way of salvation, keeps us in the way of salvation, and then carries us along to the completion of. Of salvation. So how the Spirit of God does that in the life of the believer, what it looks like. And then our response in terms of the pursuit of the means of grace, and so the preaching of the Word and prayer and the Lord's. The Lord's Supper. And so this is this really, that work, the Way of Life gives you a very complete full picture then of how Cotton understood the Christian Life and the Pursuit of Godliness. So that. That's the one out of volume one that I would. I would encourage people to read first to give you. To get a real sense and a feel for the man, what makes him, as we say, what makes him tick. What really, what is the impetus in his life, the way of life. Bringing the soul in, keeping the soul in, and then carrying the soul on in the way of Life and Peace. It's a long title and. But just think, the Way of Life.
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C
Okay, so if volume one is this, this collection of Puritan piety, we move to a very different kind of audience potentially when we move into the Volume 2. Volume 2 is titled the Antinomian Controversy. Now, people who are really interested in early America probably know all about the antinomian controversy, but there might be other people listening who have never even heard of this, this controversy. Or what is an antinomian? What's in volume two? And what was Cotton's role in this, this dust up in those early years in the Massachusetts Bay?
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That's a good way to describe it, a dust up. The Antinomian Debates. This is volume two in its entirety. And then actually the first two works in volume three really fit with volume two, but just to keep the size of the volumes consistent, we push them into volume three. And so I mean, just that is very suggestive as to how significant this was in Cotton's day and how personally significant it was to him, because in 1636 he opens himself up to some opposition, some resistance. And this accusation, this label antinomian, is being thrown around and it begins to stick to John Cotton. And he is absolutely shocked by it, flabbergasted. It's probably one of the most difficult seasons in his pastoral ministry because he does not perceive himself to be an antinomian in any way, size, shape or form. So antinomian anti. Against. No moss. The law. And so that was basically the accusation that John Cotton downplayed the third use of the law in the life of the believer and that John Cotton minimized the doctrine of sanctification. Now, the reason for this is because John Cotton is very outspoken when it comes to a couple of what he perceives to be dangerous that he detects among some of his fellow ministers some of the nuances in their preaching. And one of these nuances concerns this emphasis on what was known as saving preparations, the idea that an individual must search their lives, search their hearts for evidence of the Spirit's work pre conversion, and arrive at a certain conviction that, yes, the Spirit has performed a pre conversion work in me whereby I have been humbled enough. And because I have been humbled enough, therefore I can be confident that I can now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And John Cotton pushes back hard against that. His reasoning is simple. He believes that the Holy Spirit's work always flows from union with Christ. Well, if there's a saving preparatory work that implies that the Spirit of God is working savingly prior to union with Christ, well, that's a theological impossibility. For John Cotton, there is nothing, there is nothing pleasing in us before faith, which means there is no saving work of the Spirit in us that precedes union with Christ. And so he saw all this talk of saving preparation, at best unhelpful, at worst, as a covenant of works that would actually detract people from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's very outspoken and criticizing that. I think rightly so, I think his argument's pretty solid. And then also related to this nuance in preaching, there's a lot of discussion and talk and emphasis on signs of grace post conversion. The how do I know I'm a Christian? Well, chiefly I know I'm a Christian by examining my life for the evidence of sanctification. And John Cotton would say, okay, hold on, hold on, I agree with that in part. And he would differentiate between primary evidence and secondary evidence. And you say that's secondary evidence. I agree sanctification is exceedingly important and sanctification is a sign of grace. But we dare not make our sanctification the foundation of our faith in Christ. Otherwise we run the risk of turning in on ourselves and making our works, making us the object of our faith rather than the Lord Jesus. And so he's very adamant that the Holy Spirit must first give a clear, what he calls a clear sight of our estate in the free promise of God's grace in Christ. That, and that alone is the primary ground of assurance that God promised his promises to save all who come to him through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Spirit convinces us of that, that is the primary principal grounds of assurance. And then sure signs of grace flow from that. Cotton is convinced that some ministers have reversed the order and in so doing, they're again in danger of misleading people, best case scenario, or actually leading them back under a covenant of works. So he's looking for clarity in these issues, but his misunderstanding, and he has some attached to him, in particular a woman by the name of Anne Hutchinson who, who seems to misrepresent his views and I mean, there was no Internet in his day. But you just imagine something akin to it, that she's spreading all these ideas and she is misrepresenting his views. And it creates so much confusion. But eventually, the elders in the various churches in the colony, they get together, they have a sit down, and they put before John Cotton a series of questions. He's able to answer them. And at the end of it, they're all satisfied. They had something akin to a group hug. And John Cotton was exonerated of any charge of antinomianism. But this is why it fills an entire volume and spills over into volume three. Because this was huge. Because for Cotton, the gospel is at stake. And it's very personal. Because he just initially can't get his mind around why he is being so misunderstood. And there's almost this pleading as you read him. You can almost hear him pleading, would you please just listen to my words, what I'm saying? And it's a fascinating debate. It's a fascinating read. It does get a little complicated in places, but it's fruitful. It's worthwhile. And these are issues we're still dealing with 400 years later.
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C
The antinomian controversy wasn't the only public controversy that Cotton became embroiled in. The the next volume, Volume three. Is. Is maybe the other controversy that he seemed to kind of not be able to shake for a long time, and that's his debate over religious liberty with another minister in the Bay Colony, Roger Williams. What's in volume three? What did Cotton have to say about religious liberty? And why are some of the works in there important for various students and scholars today?
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B
Yeah, this, too, this volume is fascinating. This relationship, then, between Cotton's political theory, or political theology, we might even call it, and his views on religious liberty, especially as these emerge in his debates with a man by the name of Roger Williams. And Roger Williams is banished from the colony because of some of his religious views, especially as it relates to a believer's relationship with the Church of England. And John Cotton viewed these issues as secondary. He believed that the ministers of the colony had spoken definitively on the issue, and Roger Williams continued to push back. And so he's actually banished from the colony. And Roger Williams claims foul. I'm being persecuted just for following my conscience. And Cotton makes it clear, no, you're not being persecuted for following your conscience. You've actually been banished for sinning against your conscience. Now, this little bit of hermeneutical gymnastics here because. A little bit of semantics, because what Cotton means by that is. Look, look. You have been informed, and it has been explained to you what scripture teaches on these subjects. Therefore, your conscience has been rightly informed. And the fact that you persist in resisting the truth is not a case of you sinning against your conscience. You're now sinning against your conscience. Rightly informed. And it then leads to his view of political theory, because Cotton very much sees the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a theocracy. And it is the civil magistrate and it is the church minister in cooperation, making sure that the people of the colony of the Commonwealth are upholding not just the second table of the law, but the first table of the law, which includes specifically the worship of God. And it is therefore the civil magistrate's responsibility to punish anyone who is not worshiping in accordance with the stipulations of the colony and what has been accepted and what has been approved. So these two come together, and I mean, Cotton really then shows his colors when it comes to his take on Roger Williams and his banishment. The irony here is thick, I mean, really thick. Because Cotton flees the very thing he champions. There's the irony. He flees England for this very reason. There's no religious liberty. He is forced to subscribe to everything in the Book of Common Prayer. He is forced to subscribe to things or adhere to things which he perceived to be superstitions. He wants conscience, freedom of conscience in England, in the context of his local church, to worship God according to what he perceives to be the stipulations of God's word. But in New England, in Massachusetts, he's not prepared to grant that same view to others who now disagree with him. There's the irony of it all. And so it is a very interesting volume. And the debate between Williams and Cotton, it too, gets very intricate in places. But it is so important for us, especially given our cultural moment, when so many of these discussions have come front and center of Christian nationalism and theocracy and theonomy. Where did the Puritans land on all of this? What did they really believe? How did they argue it from Scripture? So for anyone dabbling in that sort of thing, John Cotton will prove a worthwhile read. And we might not agree with him on everything, but certainly being able to understand that historical moment in the history of the colony, and, excuse me, in the history of what will become the United States of America, is fundamentally important. He is crucial.
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C
Well, volume four is titled Congregational Polity. Now, earlier you mentioned that Cotton was a Puritan. He was a Congregationalist. What is a Congregationalist, and how did Cotton's writings contribute to the development of the Congregational tradition in the Reformed faith?
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B
I don't want to be guilty of oversimplification, but aiming for simplification, if we think in terms of Matthew 16, verses 18 to 20, and then you skip over a couple of chapters into Matthew 18, I think around verses 18 to 20 as well. And there are those two references to the keys. And in the first instance, Christ giving the, you know, the keys to Peter. Second, emphasis more on the local church. And the great question of the day is, okay, to whom are those keys given the power of the kingdom? Well, if you're an Episcopalian, your answer is going to be the bishop. Well, firstly, if you're a Roman Catholic, your answer is going to be the Pope. If you're an Anglican, your answer is going to be, well, yes, the bishops. If you're a Presbyterian, your answer is going to be the gathering of elders from multiple churches in a synod. The Congregationalists argue, nope, you're all wrong. That the power of the keys is actually given to the local church, the members and the elders of each local church. Hence, they are arguing for the authority of the local church, not the authority of a synod, a gathering of elders from multiple churches, certainly not the authority of the bishop in a hierarchy such as what we have in the Church of England. And this is a position that really gains traction in the early 1600s. Cotton. Cotton, I think while in England, he's sort of in that seminal form, and his ideas are developing and growing and maturing. By the time he then travels to Massachusetts Bay Colony, it has solidified his convictions and he is pushing Congregationalism in the colony. When the Westminster assembly gathers in 1643, one of the main issues is going to be church government. Initially it isn't, but soon it is because the parliamentarians suffer military losses to the royalists, to the king. And so they're seeking Scottish intervention. Right. They want the Scots to come into the English Civil War on their side to help them in their battle against the King. Well, the Scots are going to say, sure, we'll help you, but it's going to be contingent on what. When these divines gather at the Westminster assembly, they're all going to be Presbyterian, and we're going to have a Presbyterian form of church government in England. And so Cotton is actually invited to come back across the Atlantic and attend the assembly. He refuses. There are several reasons, the most obvious being he's getting a little older. He doesn't want to cross. He doesn't want to get on a boat and. And cross the Atlantic. But he does write a treatise called the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and he sends it to the assembly. It's actually debated on the floor. It's actually the treatise that converts John Owen to Congregationalism. John Owen takes it up with the intention of refuting it. And by the end, he is Congregationalist. And there are others. Thomas Goodwin, Jeremiah Burroughs, those whom we know as the five dissenting brethren at the Westminster assembly, and they're all writing on this subject, especially Goodwin. But it is caught in many ways, it is leading the charge. And that volume, volume four is not the complete volume, but I'd say probably two thirds, three quarters of it taken up then with this issue and him arguing from different angles, responding to Samuel Rutherford and others. A little polemical, actually, very polemical at times, and arguing for this congregational way. And then when the Westminster assembly, when the confession is ratified, it was a 1647, and the Westminster Confession then makes its way across the Atlantic to Massachusetts. John Cotton and the ministers in the colony, they love it for the most part and think it's wonderful, but they basically take it and. And then they change the articles on church government. And this becomes what is known as the Cambridge platform, adopted in 1648 in most of the colonies in New England. And from that moment in 1648, then, you have essentially a congregational, theocratic kingdom in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. And that rests in large part on the shoulders of John Cotton. And so volume four is all you could ever wish for in terms of unraveling his logic, his reasoning, and his exposition of Scripture. So a very, very important debate at that juncture in the church. And just again, I've used the word a few times. I'll use it again. Just a very fascinating treatment of this subject.
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C
It is absolutely fascinating. And as you mentioned, it gained a lot of transatlantic and even international attention. Cotton was such a. A towering figure. The other thing that Cotton seems to have been particularly known for in his day was his prophetic or apocalyptic interpretations. And that makes up most of volume five, which I think is some of Cotton's most exciting work. So I'm excited to hear from you. That's one word for it. Yeah. What were these apocalyptic histories that Cotton wrote, and why might someone choose to read them all this time later?
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B
That's a great way to. I would never have described volume five as exciting. That's a great way to describe it, Ryan. Yes, his apocalyptic history. So in volume five, I think I can remember them all. There's his sermon series on Revelation 13, a sermon series on most, if not all, of Revelation 16, sermon series on Revelation 20, specifically verses 5 and 6, the millennium, obviously. And then most fascinating, there's that word again. In volume five. You have two separate sermon series on what he called the Canticles, the Song of Solomon. One series preached in Old Boston in England, and then a second series preached in New Boston in New England. And you're thinking to yourself, hold on a second. I thought this volume is related to apocalyptic history. Why the Song of Solomon? Well, this. And this is what is just really, really interesting, because there was an interpretive tradition. I mean, you don't see it much after the 1600s. I'm actually. I can't think of anyone after the 1600s who would have bought into this tradition. That's not to say there isn't someone. I just. I'm not aware of it. But this idea that the Song of Solomon is actually a history of the church. And in the first six chapters of the Song of Solomon, what Solomon is providing is a historical overview of the church's condition, estate from Solomon, from his day. Are you ready for this? To the English Reformation. Surprise, surprise. And then from that's to chapter six, verse seven. So Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse one, to chapter six, verse seven, from Solomon's day to the Reformation in England. And then from chapter 6, verse 10, notice we skipped a couple of verses. From chapter 6, verse 10 to the end of the book is a prophetic description of the church's condition after the day in which John Cotton lives. So it's all future what is about to happen, especially as it relates to the Jewish church and the salvation of the Jews. And so then what you have in verses 8 and 9 of chapter 6 is Cotton's present day. And there Solomon talks about, well, is it 60 queens, 60 concubines. 80 concubines and virgins, innumerable virgins, right? But out of them all, my dove, my perfect one is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her purity, singularity. And Cotton believes this is Congregationalism, Right? Of course, it's obvious. Just leaps off the page, doesn't it? And so he. He argues that that is where they are at in the Song of Solomon, prior history after what is about to happen. And he then interprets the Book of Revelation through this lens that he lives at this climactic moment. And he even views his ministry then through this apocalyptic lens that he's. He had to flee from England and from the Church of England. He's now in the wasteland. But this is God's special providence, because God is using him, has used him to establish the pure church, the one dove, the perfect one, the only one in New England, pure in doctrine, pure in worship, pure in church government. Congregationalism. And what is going to happen? What is about to happen is Congregationalism will spread back across the Atlantic to England, the Church of England. From there, it will spread across the English Channel to the reformed churches. And it will usher in, then, coupled with the Christian prince, the final downfall of the two great enemies of the Church, the Papists and the Turkish. And this will begin the millennium. It's not premillennialism, it's the advent of post millennialism. Christ doesn't return at this moment. This now ushers in the worldwide spread of the Gospel and the church. Congregationalism. At the end of those thousand years, the Lord Jesus Christ will return. And so in his exposition of Revelation 13 and the beasts, you know, that first beast, the beast was allowed to exercise authority for 1,200 and, well, no, no. How many months is it? 42 months. Right. So Cotton believes that's 1,260 years. He numbers the 1260 from 395, the Roman emperor Theodosius. And he arrives at the year 1655. So that's when he believes the millennium is going to begin. And so that's that going back to your word, that's exciting. That's volume five. And that was his understanding of eschatology. It was his eschatological expectation. And so he's writing all of that in the late early 1640s. So he's on the cusp. All of this is about to happen. Can you imagine? I mean, he dies in 1652, so he dies three years before 1655. If he had lived through 1655, he certainly would have had to have published revisions and revisited and reworked his entire eschatological paradigm. But it is a really interesting glimpse then into the advent of postmillennialism, Puritan eschatology, and how they place themselves in the middle of it all and placed England essentially then at the center of the apocalypse of the Revelation. And it's very illuminating. Now, you know, that said, there is a lot of good pastoral stuff in there because he is making pastoral application and we can still glean some truth from that, while maybe wanting to distance ourselves from some of his speculative insights. So there is some profitable stuff in there. But, yeah, it is not for the faint of heart. Volume five.
- [42:18]
C
That's right. Well, we'll leave it to the listener to determine whether the millennium did actually start in 1655. But Cotton's prediction certainly excited many of his contemporaries, not least of whom was the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, Oliver Crumble himself. But we'll have to leave it there. So we've covered now about how many 3,000, 4,000 pages of. Of Cotton's works, and of course, completely appropriate depth for what we can do in this half hour together. But you spent now these years laboring to see this project now come to press. By the time this interview releases that it'll be ready for people to go and purchase their own set of the. The works of John Cotton. With this work behind you, what are you working on now? What can we look forward to from you in the future?
- [43:17]
B
Thomas Watson. So Thomas Watson, 1620-1686, Presbyterian, his works gathered in seven volumes. As far as I'm concerned, one of the travesties of Puritan publication is that Watson's works have never been gathered and publishes a complete set. So Reformation Heritage Books is going to rectify that. And the target date is June of next year. So these are already in final proofreading, typesetting, and very, very excited about this volume because. Whereas, whereas with John Cotton, there's very much an emphasis on the polemical with Thomas Watson, the emphasis is primarily on the pastoral. He is a, he is a pastor's pastor. And in terms of some of the themes and motifs he addresses and his handling of scripture, very, very enjoyable, profitable read. So very, very excited about this one. And that is in the final stages.
- [44:22]
C
Well, I'm very excited to hear about that work and look forward to seeing it when it does finally come to press. Well, this has been a conversation with Professor J. Steven Yule. He's the editor of the Works of John Cotton, just published by Soli Deo Gloria, an imprint of Reformation Heritage Books. You've been so generous with your time, Stephen. Thank you so much for coming and chatting with us about this work.
- [44:49]
B
My pleasure, Ryan. Thank you very much.
- [44:51]
C
And thanks to our listeners for tuning into this episode of the New Books Network. You can visit newbooksnetwork.com where you can search our library of now thousands of interviews of other academic works. And as always, I thank you for listening and hope you have a great day.