NEW ENGLAND THEOLOGY Lecture 7 Some Outstanding Puritan Leaders in New England (2)

NEW ENGLAND THEOLOGY
Lecture 7
Some Outstanding Puritan Leaders in New England (2)

Having looked at one of New England’s greatest civic leader, John
Winthrop, let us now turn to some of the leading theologians of the
Massachusetts Bay Company. These easily outnumbered the civil magistrates.
Compared with Old England where there was one clergyman for every
thousand parishioners, in new England there was a pastor for every
congregation numbering between two and three hundred. Al of them were very
well educated most of them having been trained at one of Europe’s most
prestigious universities: Cambridge.

John Cotton
The first one of these prominent church leaders was John Cotton (1584-
1652) who acquired a reputation for being one of the most controversial
preachers among Puritans. Young John was converted while a lecturer and
dean of Emmanuel College in Cambridge. By the time he was appointed to St.
Botolph, however, he was firmly committed to the Puritan cause. Right from
the start he began to omit certain elements of the Anglican worship with the
result that in 1632 he was summoned before the High Commission Court.
Being unable and unwilling to comply with their demands he decided that
same year to join the throng of Puritans moving in great numbers to America.
He arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on September 4 and by October 10 the
First Church in that city asked him to serve as their pastor and teacher
Although he was a powerful preacher and loved by many of God’s people
controversy followed him wherever he went. He was involved in two of the
most difficult cases that disturbed the peace of New England, namely the
Antinomian issue associated with the name Anne Hutchinson and the dispute
with Roger Williams dealing with the issue of the relationship between the
Church and Civil authorities. Hutchinson who had already been a member of
his church in England had followed him to Boston, Massachusetts. Shortly
after her arrival she let it be known that of all the ministers in the colony only
two preached the covenant of grace: Cotton and her brother in law, John
Davenport. The rest, she said, were still under the covenant of works because
they taught that one could attain to assurance of salvation by evidences
gathered from good works or sanctification. Cotton eventually had to distance
himself from her increasingly radical views on grace bordering on
antinomianism.
As for his dealings with Roger Williams, Cotton believed that the

magistrates were called by God to protect the church from her enemies and
enforce proper beliefs and practices.
Cotton earned a reputation for preaching vividly, forcefully and above all
fruitfully, many people being converted under his ministry. He wrote a popular
catechism, Milk for Babes (1646) which became the standard instruction
manual for New England children for decades.
Cotton married twice. His second wife survived him and married another
notable American Puritan preacher, Richard Mather. His daughter Maria
married Increase Mather and became the mother of Cotton Mather, two other
giants of Puritan Massachusetts.

Thomas Hooker: Founder of Hartford
Thomas Hooker, New England’s foremost preacher, pastor, and
evangelist was born at Marfield, England in July 1586 and was much loved and
respected for his many years of effective ministry in England prior to his
migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hooker was one of the most
famous Puritan divines or theologians of his day and was a major architect of
the New England theology as well as the founder of Hartford, CT in 1636.

Early Life
Thomas Hooker was admitted to Christ College, Cambridge in March,
1604, a few months before his eighteenth birthday. Shortly thereafter Hooker
switched to Emmanuel College Upon receiving his B.A. he stayed on for
another ten years as a tutor. Sometime during his tenure at Cambridge Hooker
went through a long protracted conversion experience. One of his counselors,
Simeon Ash, spent many nights trying to console Hooker by directing him to
Christ and His promises. Clinging to these promises he was at long last
delivered from all his fears and soundly converted. With a certainty born of
experience, he would later say to others, "The promise of the gospel was the
boat which was to carry a perishing sinner over into the Lord Jesus Christ"
(Mather, Great Works of Christ in America, 1:334). His experiences gave him
an abiding sympathy for others involved in similar struggles of the soul.
Shortly after his conversion Hooker believed God was calling him to
preach the gospel. He received a call to a small church in Esher, England.
While there he was asked to minister to a woman who was deeply depressed,
even suicidal, having convinced herself that she had committed the
unpardonable sin and was therefore lost forever. After spending many weeks
counseling her, the Lord used Hooker’s pastoral skills to bring the lady to full
assurance of salvation Years later Hooker wrote his famous The Poor
Doubting Christian Drawn Unto Christ, a book based largely on his own

experience and that of the woman he had led to faith in Jesus.
In 1621 Hooker married Susanna Garbrand, who was the maid of the
lady he had ministered to in Esher. In 1628 he became pastor of the church at
Essex and his fame as a gospel preacher continued to grow. About this time
William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury and a fierce enemy of the
Puritans, began harassing Hooker and other preachers who refused to conform
to the new rules for worship in the Established Church. Laud summoned
Hooker to London, asking him about his preaching ministry, finally suspending
him from it. Hooker discontinued his preaching and pastoral ministry,
providing for his family by teaching students When Laud summoned him
again, Hooker, sensing danger, fled for his life with his wife and children to
Amsterdam in 1631 where many other Puritans were living in exile. The Dutch
government allowed the English to establish churches there, assuming that
these churches would take the Presbyterian form of church government. Much
to their amazement the English Puritan churches of Holland established an
Independent or Congregational form of government whereby each
congregation was separate and independent from all others.
John Paget had been selected to pastor the church of Puritan exiles in
Amsterdam and had committed himself to the church polity of the Dutch
Reformed Church. When Paget asked Hooker to share the preaching and
pastoral responsibilities with him, he learned that Hooker was a
Congregationalist and therefore withdrew his invitation. A short time later
Hooker was asked to consider a similar ministry in Delft, but this did not work
out either. So Hooker was in the Netherlands for two years, waiting for a
ministry, which never came. Eventually he believed God was calling him to
move to the new world, as John Winthrop and others had done in 1630. So in
the spring of 1633 Hooker made his way secretly with his family back to
England and from there to America.

Life in New England
Hooker, along with his wife and children, sailed on the Griffin in July,
1633 Travelling with him were two other Puritan preachers, John Cotton and
Samuel Stone, also with their wives and children. The Griffin arrived in Boston
on September 4, 1633. Many of Hooker’s church members from Essex had
preceded him to the new world and eagerly awaited their pastor’s arrival in
Newtown, near Boston. Hooker immediately took up his pastoral duties,
preaching twice on Sundays, giving a lecture on Thursday, and catechizing the
families during the week.
A year or so later Hooker and the members of his congregation decided
to move to the Connecticut River valley because they felt there was not enough

land for themselves and their livestock in the Boston area. Some historians
claim there was also rivalry between these two leaders as well as
disagreements on the issue of voting rights of the settlers, Hooker being in
favour of a more democratic approach while Cotton championed a restricted
and aristocratic form of government. John Winthrop, Governor of the Bay
Colony, opposed the move citing the need to keep as many residents as
possible in Boston in view of potential Indian attacks. The General Court,
however approved the migration and so in October of 1635 a small band of
people, around sixty plus their cattle, left for Connecticut, hoping to begin a
more prosperous life there. The following year Hooker and his family, along
with another group settled in modern day Hartford.
Soon after his move to Hartford Hooker became embroiled in the
Antinomian controversy associated with the name Anne Hutchinson. We have
already seen what that issue was all about and how governor Winthrop handled
it. Hutchinson taught that the Holy Spirit dwells in a believer in such a way
that He speaks directly to the justified person, negating the necessity for
keeping the Ten Commandments. True believers, she said, have a law within
them which overrules any outward law in the Bible or any given by the state.
Thus a believer was free to act as he pleased provided he followed the direction
of the Spirit. She also taught that sanctification is no proof of justification For
all these views she claimed support from her favourite pastor John Cotton.
Now it is true that Cotton taught a form of this, saying that due to the depravity
of one’s heart, a person could be deceived about the nature of his good works.
Just because one gives outward evidence of faith is no guarantee of saving
faith. Cotton’s teaching on this is not unorthodox but Anne Hutchinson took it
much further, saying that there is no reason at all for a believer to be concerned
about keeping God’s law at any point. The danger was that this would cause a
general lawlessness in the Bay, undermining the authority of the state and
church. Hutchinson was banished to Narragansett, later known as Providence,
R.I.
John Winthrop summoned Thomas Hooker to work through the issues
arising from Anne Hutchinson’s views. Hooker’s involvement was to arbitrate
the concerns other ministers had with John Cotton’s views on salvation. While
no one questioned Cotton’s basic orthodoxy he tended to emphasize man’s
passivity in salvation to such an extent that one might conclude there was
nothing man could do but wait for God’s Spirit to act. Hooker and the other
New England Puritans, however, put more stress on man’s responsibility to
seek salvation in Christ, putting away his sin and thus prepare himself for
Christ coming to visit him in grace in due time. Some have concluded from
this that Hooker taught that man could do this in his own strength but this is

wrong. Hooker believed that such preparation is the work of the Holy Spirit
who uses the law to convict of sin and thus get sinners in the right frame to
receive the Gospel. If Cotton’s views took hold, then this passivity could lead,
as it surely did with Anne Hutchinson, to extra-biblical revelation, visions, and
other subjective notions not traceable to the inscripturated Word of God. This
might result in antinomianism, living apart from any adherence to God’s word
and law. Hooker expertly, over several public meetings, showed Cotton and his
followers his error. Cotton eventually amended his views and thus was more
acceptable to the mainstream of Congregational theological thought.

Lessons Learned from the Life of Thomas Hooker
Hooker was a great man with exceptional gifts in many areas. He was a
gifted preacher as well as skilled pastor, organizer and diplomat. That said, it
needs to be pointed out there were also some imbalances and inconsistencies in
his theology. Some have suggested that the later rejection of Calvinism by
New England in favor of Arminianism and later Unitarianism can partly be laid
at the feet of Hooker and other Puritans who taught a system of preparationism.
In a desire to purify the church, they seemed to downplay the simple faith in
Christ in favour of a much more involved way of salvation. They tended to
view conversion as a long process of soul searching conviction of sin. The
impression was given that unless one had a similar experience, then his
conversion to Christ was suspect. The continental Reformers in Geneva and
Holland saw it a differently. They trusted God’s covenant promise that he
would work in believing parents and their children, and believed that the Holy
Spirit usually worked gradually within the family as the father instructed his
children.
Hooker was also very good at handling theological controversy. He was
frequently called upon by John Winthrop to sort through the controversies of
their day. He did this with his friend John Cotton in the Arminian controversy,
with Roger Williams and the threat of separatism and fanaticism, and with
Anne Hutchinson and her extra-biblical revelation and antinomianism.
In evaluating Hooker and other New England people we need to take into
account the times they lived in.
Today many people believe that Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams.
were unfairly treated by the New England authorities, that they were the
victims of bigotry, cruelty, and religious intolerance which we in our culture
abhor. But we need to take into account the historical context in both cases.
The Massachusetts Bay was a Puritan movement, the vision being John
Winthrop’s famous maxim, a city set upon a hill. Both Hutchinson and
Williams were a major threat to this prevailing view, and the Puritan court in

Boston was long suffering in dealing with them; and even after pronouncing
them guilty, gave both plenty of time to leave for Naragansett, even allowing
Hutchinson to remain in Boston for the winter. Such treatment was considered
very generous by 17th century standards.
Another positive trait in Hooker is his biblical and Puritan view of the
state which has served as the foundation for New England’s concept of
democracy, which, in turn, has affected the formation of the USA. Some
historians have noted the conflict of thinking between John Winthrop,
Governor of Massachusetts Bay, and Thomas Hooker, founder of Hartford.
Winthrop followed an aristocratic view of government; Hooker, on the other
hand, believed in democracy, the consent of the governed. Winthrop wrote, “I
do not conceive that ever God did ordain democracy as a fit government either
for Church or Commonwealth.” To this Hooker wrote Winthrop, saying among
other things, “a general counsel (governance) chosen by all is most suitable to
rule and the most safe for relief of the whole.” On May 31, 1638, one year after
arriving in Hartford, Hooker preached or lectured, from Deuteronomy
1:13, “’Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes,
and I will make them rulers over you,’ captains over thousands, and captains
over hundreds- over fifties, over tens, etc.” Hooker’s main point in his lecture
was that the choice of public magistrates belongs to the people by God’s own
allowance. The General Court took Hooker’s words to heart and one year later
established the Fundamental Laws which served as the first democratic
constitution in the New World. According to many historians this sermon by
Thomas Hooker is the earliest known suggestion of a fundamental law, enacted
not by royal charter, nor by concession from any previously existing
government, but by the people themselves, a primary and supreme law by
which the government is constituted.” His ideas constitute the germ of the idea
of the Commonwealth, and it was developed into the Constitution of 1639. As
Leonard Bacon wrote in his Early Constitutionary History of Connecticut:
For larger freedom in building his ideal New Jerusalem, the
statesmanlike pastor, Thomas Hooker, led forth his flock a second time
It is not by accident, therefore, that Connecticut is known as the Constitution
State.

Thomas Shephard
A third religious leader of great influence is Thomas Shephard. He was
born in Towcester, Northamptonshire in 1605, the youngest of nine children.
His mother died when Thomas was four years old and his father remarried but
the stepmother showed little interest in her husband’s children. Like most
future Puritan preachers, Thomas was educated at Emmanuel College,

into the gr

Cambridge, enrolling there at the age of 15. He spent the first two years
neglecting God and prayer falling in with bad company indulging in the lusts
of the flesh, pride, gambling and drinking. But the Lord used the powerful
preaching of John Preston to bring him to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Upon graduation he was appointed to a part time lectureship at Earls Colne in
Essex, near London which meant preaching under the auspices of a Church of
England bishop. God greatly blessed his labours and many souls were
converted by his ministry. He would have continued his labours had it not been
for Archbishop Laud’s summoning him to answer charges of non-conformity.
This resulted in his being forbidden to preach in the diocese of London. After a
second and third confrontation with Laud Shephard moved to Yorkshire where
he became chaplain to Sir Richard Darly and was used greatly by the Lord. But
even there the servants of Laud found him and forced him to go elsewhere.
When they followed him again for the third time Thomas knew that is was
impossible for him to serve the Lord in England with a clear conscience, so he
decided to go to America. Living in constant fear of being arrested by Laud’s
soldiers he sailed for Boston in 1634 to with his wife whom he had married
two years earlier. But after only a few hours at sea a terrible storm arose which
forced the captain to return to the harbour. Shepherd remained in hiding in
England until the following year when he sailed again. By that time his
firstborn son had died and a second had been born. The Shepards finally
arrived in New England on October 3, 1635. Four months later his wife died of
tuberculosis. The widower settled in Newtown (Cambridge, where he became
pastor of the newly established Congregational church, a church he served till
his death in 1649.

Influence and reputation
After Hooker and Cotton, Shepherd became the most popular and
influential minister in New England. He was known for his careful sermon
preparations. He used to say, “God will curse that man’s labours who goes idly
up and down all the week, and then goes into his study on a Saturday
afternoon. God knows that we have not too much time to pray in, and weep in,
and get our hearts into a fit frame for the duties of the Sabbath.” (Benjamin
Brook, The Lives of the Puritans, Vol.3, p. 104-105).
Shephard was very involved in the controversies of the day such as the
disputes with Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams. He defended
Congregationalism, defining it as “a via media between Brownism, which
placed church government entirely in the hands of the members, and
Presbyterianism, which gave that power to the presbytery of the local church”
(Joel Beeke, Meet the Puritans, p.527).
Shephard preached very experimentally and many of his sermons were

later published and are still read today. One of his most famous works is
exposition of the Parable of the Ten Virgins.
Although Shepherd as a good Congregationalist believed the Church of
Christ to be a gathering of true believers, he was realistic enough to know
that “there is and will be a mixture of close hypocrites with the wise hearted
virgins in the purest churches” (Quoted by O.R. Johnston in Puritan Papers,
Vol. 1, 19956-1959, p.117). His aim in expounding this parable therefore is to
set forth the characteristics of what he calls Gospel hypocrites and to urge
professing Christians to examine their hearts to find out in time whether they
belong to this category of “almost Christians.”
In the section entitled The gospel hypocrite and common grace, Shepard
points out that there are many who have a kind of faith that is not saving faith,
but who are yet diligent in Christian duties. Their power to live like that comes
from God but it is his work in common grace, not the work of his saving or
special grace. Gospel hypocrites can have experiences that are almost
indistinguishable from those of true believers. Yet there is a difference as the
following excerpt from Shephard’s treatise shows: Hypocrites have awakening
grace, and are much troubled; they have enlightening grace and know more
than many true Christians: they have affecting grace, and are wonderfully
taken with the glad tidings of the Gospel, but satisfying grace, or that grace that
brings them to full rest, and satisfying sweetness in God, not only to their
consciences but to their hearts…this they never come to…,.this is the last end
and fruit of the redemption of Christ so to satiate as not to desire other things,
and there to stay, though the heart doth oft not feel the same sweetness
(Ibid.,p.125).
Today Thomas Shepherd is not nearly so highly regarded as in his own time.
Many find him morbidly introspective but let us not forget that ours is not an
age that appreciates serious reflection. Even if we must grant that Shepherd
and other New England theologians may have gone too far at times with their
searching and probing questions, judged by Scripture they only did what the
psalmists, prophets, apostles and our Lord Himself did, namely issue frequent
calls to professing believers to examine themselves whether they were indeed
what they professed to be. (Psalm 26:2; 139:23-24; Mathew 7:23; 2 Cor. 13:5; I
John 1:6; 2:9; 4:7-8, etc.)