then just vacated. It is not too much to say that during those Winthrop years this Society was revolutionized; it entered upon a new phase of existence. Prior to the election of Mr. Winthrop its membership was limited to sixty. The attendance at its meetings was small and indifferent; their surroundings, severely simple, were also unattractive. Those present found themselves in a small apartment, sitting upon settees arranged in ranks in front of the armchair not this in which I now am occupied by the President. My father had then for years been a member of the Society, and it was his wont to make a diary entry after each meeting he attended. Politically he was at the time bitterly opposed to Mr. Winthrop and to the great body of those composing the Society. His entries. bear evident marks of the fact. He was of the dissatisfied. Nevertheless, after the May meeting of 1857, when Mr. Winthrop's long occupancy of the chair had hardly more than begun, I find the following frank admission:-"The impulse given to this institution by the events of last year is quite surprising. The attendance is always large, and the positive energy much more developed." The two memorable events marking this influence of Mr. Winthrop's individuality were the increase in the charter number of members, at the time by no means unopposed, from sixty to one hundred, and the gift to the Society of this Dowse room, in which its members. could meet in suitable state. Both could be distinctly traced to Mr. Winthrop; and this fact was recognized by the Committee which, twenty-two years ago, nominated my immediate predecessor, and the successor to Mr. Winthrop. In its report for that year the Committee referred to said emphatically that to Mr. Winthrop's "devoted effort and untiring zeal more than to any other or to all causes combined is owing the growth of the Society in usefulness and in reputation. During the thirty years of his presidency it may truly be said that Mr. Winthrop has ever carried the Society with him both at home and abroad, and it is needless to add that nowhere has it failed to be adequately represented."2 It was, moreover, during Mr. Winthrop's presidency, and in fact coeval with its commencement, that the publication of our Proceedings was begun as a record of what took place at our meetings, distinct from the body of the Society's Collections. On the day when Mr. Winthrop resigned, the twenty-first volume in that series was placed upon the table and distributed among the members. During Mr. Winthrop's period seventeen volumes were added to our printed body of Collections. On the day of his withdrawal from this chair, Mr. Winthrop observed that, of those who were members when he entered upon the presidency, ten only were among the living when he left it. During those thirty years the Society had been almost wholly renewed. He also then referred to the striking fact, to which I alluded myself fourteen months ago, that it was during his presidency that the roll of the Society shone with its most distinguished names. I then specified nearly a score of those then members of it, illustrative of the remarkable fecundity of the Winthrop period in historical literature as well as research. Three busts of Mr. Winthrop are known to have been taken. The first, and of the younger period, is that which heretofore has occupied the pedestal opposite that surmounted by the bust of Savage. The second was by Powers, taken in the year 1868, which is in the Harvard College library. The third, that now before us, is reproduced from a cast, probably also by Powers, which stood in the library of the late Charles Deane, and was given to the Society by his family when this building was opened for use. I have as yet been unable to ascertain the place of the original, if, indeed, it was put into stone. Nevertheless, its strength and resemblance are, as compared with the bust which preceded it, at once apparent. Taken altogether, it is not unworthy of him it represents, and bears comparison with the companion presentment of Mr. Savage. It is not pleasant to reflect how few of those now here are able from their own memories to bear witness to this fact. I have said that, at the close of the thirty years of Mr. Winthrop's presidency, the names of but ten of those who were. members when he was first chosen remained upon our roll. Over a score of years have since run out; and of the hundred names on the roll in April, 1855, twenty-two only remain on it still. In other words, probably not one in five of those here present remember Mr. Winthrop as he sat in this chair and presided at our meetings. It is, therefore, eminently proper that the testimony of these survivors should appear upon the record, that the bust now about to be unveiled fitly represents to coming generations and in the everlasting marble one to whom the Society owes so much, and upon whose history and development he placed a mark at once deep, legible, lasting and beneficent. Mr. EDWIN D. MEAD, having been called on, read the following paper: JOHN COTTON'S FAREWELL SERMON TO WINTHROP'S COMPANY The First Church in Boston contains many tablets in memory of men, both of the old time and the new, associated with its great history. Among those of the colonial days thus honored are Sir Henry Vane, Anne Hutchinson, Simon and Anne Bradstreet, Governor Endecott, and Governor Leverett. The statue of Winthrop, when recently removed from Scollay Square, was fittingly placed beside the First Church. Within the church has just been placed the most beautiful and most important of its monuments, the recumbent marble statue of John Cotton, by Bela L. Pratt. In its pedestal of masonry, not yet completed, will be set a stone from the old St. Botolph's Church at Boston, in Lincolnshire, secured through the courtesy of the present vicar by the President of our Massachusetts Historical Society, who has altogether taken so important a part in the erection of this noteworthy memorial. The inscription which will be graved over it is from Mr. Adams's hand, and is as follows: Born in Derbyshire, England 4 December 1585 JOHN COTTON He died in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay 23 December 1652 Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1607 Vicar of the Church of Saint Botolph 1612-1633 Regardless of Preferment and He became the object of Prelatical Persecution He then sought refuge in New England Ordained immediately on his arrival -Scholar-Theologian - Preacher - Publicist Living, he was revered as Dead, he is remembered as "Patriarch of the Massachusetts Theocracy" His Descendants in the Seventh and Eighth Generations 1907 This gives in simple and impressive words the outlines of John Cotton's life. The erection of this beautiful memorial is a matter of public moment, and for it Boston is grateful. Half a century ago, a chapel in old St. Botolph's Church was restored by citizens of our Boston in memory of John Cotton, the inscription upon the memorial brass tablet being from the hand of Edward Everett. Phillips Brooks, a descendant of John Cotton, preached more than once in St. Botolph's pulpit; and in the cloisters of our own Trinity Church there was placed, almost complete, the upper portion of the stone tracery of one of the old windows of St. Botolph's. It is intimated that when the new Episcopal cathedral is erected here, it may be a copy of the famous church from which John Cotton came to the First Church in Boston. All these things bring closer together the old Boston and the new. Several years ago, in 1894, I reprinted among the Old South Leaflets the farewell sermon which John Cotton preached to Winthrop's company at Southampton in 1630, on the eve of their sailing for New England. The circumstances of that farewell, and even the very existence of the sermon, have been. strangely overlooked, and to most persons are unknown; and our President has asked me to share with you the results of studies concerning the sermon, which to me have been so interesting. The placing of the memorial to John Cotton in the First Church makes this certainly a fitting time to consider an address of such cardinal importance by him, to the founders of Massachusetts, on as memorable an occasion. "God's Promise to his Plantation" is the title under which the sermon was published, the text, always so significant in the old Puritan sermons, being from 2 Samuel, vii, 10: "I will appoint a place for my people in Israel, and I will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more." The sermon was published in London the same year. "Printed by William Jones for John Bellamy, and are to be sold at the three Golden Lyons by the Royal Exchange, 1630" such is the imprint on the first edition. Another edition was printed in London in 1634; and this was "Reprinted at Boston in New England, by Samuell Green; and are to be sold by John Usher. Anno 1686." Like most of Cotton's other works, so precious to his generation in New England and so commanding in their influence, it then re mained long out of print; and during the two centuries it' so completely disappeared that only in rare historical collections are old copies to be found. The circumstances under which the sermon was delivered even became lost sight of by the historians, although they were so interesting. For this sermon by John Cotton holds the same place in relation to the Massachusetts colony which John Robinson's famous sermon at Delftshaven holds in relation to the Plymouth colony. It was the farewell sermon to Winthrop's company, as Robinson's sermon was the farewell to the Pilgrim Fathers. Yet the great historical significance of this sermon has been strangely overlooked. Robinson's words have become classic. They are quoted at every Forefathers' Day dinner. The theologians hold controversy as to what they meant; the historians speculate as to precisely how and when they were spoken; and painters venture to conjure the scene. The sermon itself is not in our hands. Bradford even preserved no record of it for us. We simply have Edward Winslow's reminiscence of it, written down twenty-five years after it was delivered. Yet the address is famous, while Cotton's sermon is practically unknown. Cotton was in his day a far more famous and influential man than Robinson. The departure of the Massachusetts colony from Southampton was an event which caused a sensation in England, whereas the Mayflower company was an obscure company whose sailing attracted slight attention. John Cotton, perhaps the leading Puritan minister in England at the time, went all the way from Old Boston to Southampton to bid his friends godspeed and to preach this farewell sermon. The sermon was at once printed, was printed again and yet again, and lies in the libraries. Yet almost no man reads it, and even the historians seem to have forgotten that it was ever preached. Winslow's account of Robinson's sermon at Delftshaven is given in a communication which he addressed to the Earl of Warwick and the Commissioners of the Plantations, and which he printed in 1646, under the title of "Hypocrisie Unmasked," in reply to charges which Samuel Gorton had made against the colonies. He does not pretend to give the whole address, nor even the exact language. There is one point in Robinson's address which should be especially noted in connection with Cotton's advice to the |