A popular preacher who attracted crowds because of his elegant, heavily ornamented style, he continued to be uncertain about his relationship to God until he heard a plain-style sermon preached by Sibbes. Then, judging that God had effectually called him to salvation, he took up this simpler evangelical style, and, though he lost some of his popularity, he soon decided that the change was distinctly for the better. In 1612 he was appointed vicar of the handsome St. Botoph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire, and within a few years he had established within his church an inner circle of the elect who entered into a covenant to "follow after the Lord in the purity of his worship," as he was later to report in
The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared ... (1648).
During his years in the English Boston John Cotton preached many sermons, some of which were published as long as twenty-five years after they were first delivered. Typically these sermons were not prepared for publication by the author but were published from notes made by those who heard the sermon.
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