The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

I. John Cotton-First Puritan Expounder of New World

America’s first prophetic expositor was JOHN COTTON (1584-1652), learned Puritan minister of Plymouth and Boston, often called the “Patriarch of New England,” and noted as an antagonist of Roger Williams. He was born at Derby, England. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was exceptionally pious. His intellectual powers were so unusual that he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, at only thirteen. Upon the invitation of Emmanuel College, likewise of Cam bridge, he transferred there, becoming an expert in classical languages, particularly Hebrew. ¹ He became a tutor, then head lecturer, dean, and catechist of the college. He later received his B.D. degree from Cambridge. PFF3 33.2

Picture 1: EARLY COLONIAL STALWARTS EXPOUND PROPHECIES
Left to right (upper): John cotton, puritan theocrat; John eliot, apostle to Indians; John Davenport, puritan pastor. (center): william burnet, governor of New York and massachusetts; John Clarke, baptist preacher-physician; william stoughton, massachusetts jurist.(lower) Increase Mather,Harvard President; Cotton Mather,congregational theologian
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Cotton became New England’s most authoritative representative of priestly stewardship. He dreamed of a Utopia of the saints, and sought to make it real. He doubtless left a greater impress upon seventeenth-century New England than any other minister. ² (Portrait on opposite page.) PFF3 35.1

Cotton’s funeral oration upon Dr. Some brought him into prominence in a new light. Through this typical “university sermon,” he was invited to preach while still unconverted. But his sermons were so filled with the “Florid Strains” of “pompous Eloquence,” he states, that he later destroyed the notes. He experienced a spiritual awakening, however, and in 1612 became vicar of the church at Boston in Lincolnshire, England. Here he was soon cited to appear before the Bishops’ courts for his Puritan views, and was silenced for a time. In the twenty years he served at Boston (England), Cotton on Sundays conducted a catechetical class in the afternoon, preached expository sermons in the morning from the great chapters and books of the Bible, and also delivered daily lectures. PFF3 35.2

After a period of illness and renewed persecution by Archbishop Laud, Cotton emigrated to Massachusetts in 1633, finally becoming the preacher at Boston. He endeavored to establish a theocracy with the Mosaic law substituted for the common law, the sufficiency of the Scripture for all needs being considered axiomatic. At the request of the General Court he drew up an abstract from the law of Moses entitled Moses His Judicials (1636). This code was not accepted, but for many years was erroneously considered to be an abstract of the Massachusetts code of laws. ³ He defended the whipping of Quakers and was the bitter antagonist of Roger Williams, writing The Bloudy Tenent, Washed, And made white in the bloud of the Lambe (1647) in answer to Williams’ Bloudy Tenent (1644). He is said to have introduced into America the practice of keeping “Sabbath” from Saturday evening to Sunday evening. ⁴ PFF3 35.3

“The Sabbath he [Cotton] began the Evening before: For which keeping of the Sabbath, from evening to evening, he wrote Arguments before his coming to New England: And I suppose, ‘twas from his Reason and Practice, that the Christians of New England have generally done so too.” ⁵ PFF3 36.1

Cotton was author of several works, including three on prophecy-An Exposition upon the Thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation (1655); The Powring Ovt of the Seven Vials: or an Exposition, of the 16. Chapter of the Revelation (1642); and The Churches Resurrection, or the Opening of the Fift and sixt verses of the 20th Chap, of the Revelation (1642). His Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in either England (1656) ⁶ was very popular. As an expositor Cotton reasons with singular clarity. Through these three works on prophecy we have Cotton’s exposition of Revelation 13, 16, and 20. PFF3 36.2

Cotton reached a commanding pinnacle attained by no other pioneer clergyman. He was a powerful preacher, his reasoned eloquence swaying his congregations trained to argumentative discourse. ⁷ In sheer acquisition of knowledge, probably no man of his time outdid him. His was the heroic pattern of the seventeenth century—a four-hour sandglass turned three times marking his day’s work. ⁸ Here are Cotton’s positions on prophecy. PFF3 36.3

1. FIRST BEAST Is ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

According to Thomas Allen’s preface, the Exposition upon the Thirteenth Chapter of Revelation was comprised of sermons from Cotton’s weekly lectures on prophecy at Boston, in the winter of 1639-40, “where he went over the other chapters of Revelation, as he did this thirteenth.” ⁹ This in itself is remarkable—a weekly lecture on the prophecies by the most prominent colonial minister of the time soon after the establishment of the colony! How we wish the entire series had been preserved! Cotton begins with the basic premise that the dragon of Revelation 12 is Satan, ruling through pagan Rome. ¹⁰ Then, coming to chapter 13, he says clearly, “I conceive to be the first beast, the Roman Catholick visible Church,” with the Pope as head. ¹¹ The seven heads he identifies from Revelation 17. He says: PFF3 36.4

“The seven heads are seven Mountaines on which the Woman sitteth, which are the mountaines of the City of Rome, it is built upon seven hills, and the seven heads are also seven Kings, that is, seven Kingly governments, sovereign governments: The first were Kings, then Consuls, then Decemvins, then Dictators, then Tribunes, and then the Caesars: Five were fallen, that is, were past in John’s time, the sixth were then extant, and they were Caesars; the Pope he makes the seventh: Now the Pope then is the seventh of these Heads, but the seventh head and the beast are two distinct things, though he be one that rules the beast, and hath a great influence in the guiding of it.” ¹² PFF3 37.1

2. SEVENTH HEAD-POPES; TEN HORNS-TEN KINGDOMS

The ten horns, he continues, are “so many kings,” or kingdoms, “broken off from the Roman Empire,” giving their dominion to the papal Beast. ¹³ And the names of blasphemy are the papal assumptions-Pontifex Maximus, Pardoner of sins, Judge of Scriptures, etc. The animal characteristics of the Beast refer to Daniel 7, where the four beasts are Babylon, Persia, Grecia, and Rome. ¹⁴ The “seate” given by the dragon is Rome—so that civil emperors thereafter dwelt at Ravenna. ¹⁵ PFF3 37.2

3. JUSTINIAN BANISHES GOTHS; ESTABLISHES PAPAL PRIMACY

The wound, Cotton thought, was “given by Goths and Vandalls,” ¹⁶ Huns and others. And the wound was healed, he surmised, by Justinian’s destroying the Goths out of Italy and establishing the Justinian Code, constituting the Bishop of Rome “to be the first (or to have the Primacy) of all Priests,” ¹⁷ as he was made “inspector over all the rest,” with the conferring of powers and estates. ¹⁸ It is the power also called the “great whore” in Revelation 17. PFF3 37.3

“Remember the Beast is the Roman Catholick visible Church, whereof Rome was the mother City, and mother Church, accounted of all the Churches in the world, and the Pope is the visible head of this Church, in this Chapter called the seventh head.” ¹⁹ PFF3 38.1

4. 1260 DAYS INVOLVE 1260 YEARS

The Beast’s allotted period—forty-two months—is the time of consent to the Beast from the “tenne Horns,” enabling the Beast “to make Warre” for that period. ²⁰ And Cotton stoutly contends that the forty-two months of the Beast, the 1260 days of the witnesses in sackcloth, and the three and a half times of the woman in the wilderness (Waldenses) are all one and the same: “All these are manifest to be contemporary, (as they call it) to begin together in the same period of time, and to end together.” ²¹ Cotton flatly rejects the idea of three and a half literal years for a Jewish Antichrist, just before the great judgment day.” ²² But, “taking a day for a year,” ²³ he seeks the beginning year as possibly when the pope assumed the title Pontifex Maximus, about 395, ²⁴ according to Brightman. Prophetic interpretation thus starts in America with the clear recognition of the year-day principle. This should ever be remembered. PFF3 38.2

5. PERIOD SUGGESTED FROM 395 TO 1655

As to the chronological timing of the 1260 years, Cotton says: PFF3 38.3

“If you reckon from 395 years, and adde to that 1260. years, putting these two together, they will expire in the yeare, that shall be according to the Roman account 1655. I will not be two confident, because I am not a Prophet, nor the Son of a Prophet to foretell things to come, but so far as God helps by Scripture light, about the time 1655. there will then be such a blow given to this beast, and to the head of this beast, which is Pontifex maximus, as that we shall see a further gradual accomplishment and fulfilling of this Prophecy here.” ²⁵ PFF3 38.4

This is as clear as any Old World suggestion of the time. And France is brought into the picture as the “tenth part” of the city to fall away. ²⁶ And the warring against the saints definitely included the Waldenses and Albigenses. ²⁷ PFF3 39.1

6. SECOND BEAST SYMBOLIZES POPE HIMSELF

Cotton thought that the second beast, having “supream power in Spiritualls,” “is no other but the Pope of Rome; The heads of the Roman Catholique visible Church, from one succession to another.” ²⁸ This, too, was a common contemporary view in Europe. PFF3 39.2

7. 666 Is STILL UNFATHOMED

Discussing the various attempts to decipher the 666, Cotton rejects the suggestion that it is the “number of his years.” ²⁹ Nor is it attached to A.D. 666, though some cite Boniface’s claim of the title of “Chief Bishop” in 606-but “606 is not 666.” Nor does he feel that Latinus or Ecclesia Catholica provides the name, ³⁰ and frankly concludes, “But yet wee are not at the bottome.” ³¹ PFF3 39.3

8. MILLENNIUM FOLLOWS ANTICHRIST’S DESTRUCTION

In Cotton’s exposition of the millennium, written in 1642, he first of all places himself clearly on record that the thousand years begin after the destruction of Antichrist and Rome. ³² Denying the Augustinian theory of the millennium in the Middle Ages, ³³ Cotton avers it could not have begun with Constantine or Theodosius, for neither had the keys to the bottomless pit, but only Christ. And further: PFF3 39.4

“This casting of Satan into the bottomlesse pit, was to this end, that he should not deceive the Nations any more; But a thousand yeares after Constantine he deceived the world with more corrupt and Superstitious Religions then before; and even with Pagan Religion also: The Holy Ghost puts no difference between Popish Pagancie and Heathenish Pagancie.” “These thousand yeares therefore doe most properly begin from the destruction of Rome.” ³⁴ PFF3 39.5

9. STILL HOLDS TO SPIRITUAL FIRST RESURRECTION

But Cotton still clings, inconsistently, to the Augustinian concept of the first resurrection as “the rising of men from spirituall death to spirituall life.” ³⁵ They rise to experience and accomplish a reformation. ³⁶ He warns against formalism and mere church membership, ³⁷ and appeals to New England not to follow in the steps of the Reformation churches in Europe. But he insists that the devil’s binding follows the “destruction of antichrist and the ruine of Rome.” ³⁸ This, too, was in harmony with the clearest exposition of the Old World. PFF3 39.6

10. SEVEN VIALS FOR WORSHIPERS OF BEAST

Cotton’s The Powring ovt of the Seven Vials (1642) was an exposition of Revelation 16, “with an Application of it to our Times.” Declaring this work to be “fit and necessary for this Present Age,” the preface ends pointedly: PFF3 40.1

“Now the Father of lights, and God of all grace, fill our hearts with the life and power of faith and zeale, to pray for, long for, speed, and waite for the most desired ruine, and speedy begunne-downefall of that most cursed Kingdome of Antichrist, according to the scope and drift of that Prophesie, expressed in the powring out of these Seven Vials.” ³⁹ PFF3 40.2

Asserting the seven angels to be God’s messengers of wrath, Cotton defines those who receive the mark of the beast, or Papacy, as those who receive their orders from that Church of Rome. ⁴⁰ He further asserts that the seven vials are the “judgments of God vpon the Roman Antichristian state.” ⁴¹ These judgments are progressive, ⁴² encompassing all. The Romish church is built upon tradition and perversion, with the hierarchy as the Pope’s “invention and appointment.” ⁴³ PFF3 40.3

11. THE SEAT OF THE BEAST Is ROME

Discoursing voluminously on each vial, Cotton declares the “seat of the beast,” or Babylon, of the fifth vial, to be the city of Rome, which the Dragon, or pagan Rome, gave over to the Beast, or papal Rome.” ⁴⁴ PFF3 40.4

12. EUPHRATES: STREAMS OF SUPPORTERS OF BABYLON

The river Euphrates, Cotton Interestingly construes not as the literal river in Chaldea but as pertaining to Rome rather than to Turkey. ⁴⁵ This he applies to the streams of papal supporters for papal, or modern, Babylon, with the drying up as the taking away of his “maintenance.” The general agreement of expositors to the “foure families of the Turkes,” ⁴⁶ or Turkish dominion, is noted, however, with the kings of the East as the Jews. But from such an interpretation Cotton dissents. ⁴⁷ PFF3 40.5

The hating of the whore in Revelation 17, by the ten Christian states, is duly noted. ⁴⁸ Then he remarks: PFF3 41.1

“For after the Lord hath beene pleased to scome the Churches from their Hierarchicall monarchy, then the next newes you shall heare of, will be, that Christian Princes begin to see the lewdnesse that is found in their worship, the wickednesse of their Murders, Sorceries, Fornications, and Thefts, whereby they robbed their soules, as well as their bodies, then will they dry up these streames, and so Euphrates (that did wash this Rome, and the Turkish Empire also) will be dryed up.” ⁴⁹ PFF3 41.2

As the river Euphrates cannot mean the literal river that watered old Babylon, but that which “waters the throne of the Beast; that waters the seat of antichrist,” so will the “drying up of this Euprates dry up the force, and strength of the new Babylon,” ⁵⁰ according to Cotton. This concept appeared periodically in the writings of others in later years. PFF3 41.3

13. TEN-HORNED BEAST is ANTICHRIST OF ROME

Cotton contends that the sixth trumpet involves the Turks, ⁵¹ and that the Beast with the seven heads, or “seven hills,” and the ten horns, or “ten governments,” is “antichristian Rome” and the false prophet “the Bishop (or Antichrist) of Rome.” ⁵² And out of this gathering of forces will come Armageddon ⁵³ Note it: PFF3 41.4

“When the streames of Rome begin to decay: the streames that doe water and refresh Rome. Then looke for Warres, and Tumults of Warres, great Warres, mustering up of Popish Princes, and their Armies, and pagan Princes, and their Armies, there will be no backwardnesse in these earthly spirits, in this case, to the captivating of all (if it were possible) to the maintenance and supportance of Rome.” ⁵⁴ PFF3 41.5

Cotton ends by speaking again of the “wasting and drying up of the corruptions of Religion which shall waste Rome,” ⁵⁵ and declares: PFF3 42.1

“It shall not be a great day to the Papists, not a great day to the Dragon, nor to the Romish Catholique Church except it be a great day of their destruction, and that it will be indeed, as yee shall see when this battell is to be fought in the nineteenth Chapter, and they shall never trouble the World more that will be the issue of it.” ⁵⁶ PFF3 42.2

14. SECOND ADVENT THE CLIMAX

This all leads up to the climax of Christ’s second advent. ⁵⁷ And Armageddon will be fought at Megiddo, ⁵⁸ the “last battell, which Christian Princes shall fight against Antichrist and his Adherents.” ⁵⁹ PFF3 42.3

15. TURKS SENT AGAINST APOSTATE CHRISTENDOM

In his Bloudy Tenent Washed, Cotton declares that, according to the sixth trumpet of Revelation 9:14, 20, the Turks were sent against apostate Christendom as a punishment. ⁶⁰ And he insists in his chapter 27 that praying for the coming of Christ’s kingdom involves praying “for the comming downe of all opposite Kingdomes,” and particularly for “vengeance on the Roman Antichrists.” ⁶¹ PFF3 42.4