Note 86 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
The famed poet, William Cowper, Esq., who had been long under Dr. Cotton’s care, at St. Alban’s, was very partial to this work. In one of his letters we find the following words: “Marshall lies on my table, and is an old acquaintance of mine. I have both read him and heard him read with pleasure and edification; the doctrines he maintains are, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ, the very life of my soul, and the soul of all my happiness. I think Marshall one of the best writers, and the most spiritual expositor of the Scriptures I ever read: I admire the strength of his argument and the clearness of his reasoning upon the parts of our holy religion which are least understood (even by real Christians), as a master-piece of the kind.”
Dr. Cotton is said to have studied under Boerhaave, the most celebrated professor of physic of the early part of the eighteenth century, at Leyden, where he took his Doctor’s degree. He was very assiduous in his attentions to Dr. Young, author of “Night Thoughts,” whom he attended in his last illness. His works, which are chiefly on medical subjects, were collected and published in two volumes, in 1791. He died August 2, 1788.