" Cotton Mather wrote thus of his
grandfather, old John Cotton: "The Sabbath he begun the evening before, for
which keeping from evening to evening he wrote arguments before his coming
to New England, and I suppose 't was from his reason and practice that the
Christians of New England have generally done so too." He then tells of the
protracted religious services held in the Cotton household every Saturday
night,--services so long that the Sabbath-day exercises must have seemed in
comparison like a light interlude.
John Norton described these Cotton Sabbaths more briefly thus: "He [John
Cotton] began the Sabbath at evening; therefore then performed family-duty
after supper, being longer than ordinary in Exposition. After which he
catechized his children and servants and then returned unto his study. The
morning following, family-worship being ended, he retired into his study
until the bell called him away. Upon his return from meeting he returned
again into his study (the place of his labor and prayer) unto his private
devotion; where, having a small repast carried him up for his dinner, he
continued until the tolling of the bell. The public service being over, he
withdrew for a space to his pre-mentioned oratory for his sacred addresses
to God, as in the forenoon, then came down, _repeated the sermon in the
family_, prayed, after supper sang a Psalm, and towards bedtime betaking
himself again to his study he closed the day with prayer.
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