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continently to convene Mr. Cotton" before that "infamous " Court. Some time previously the Earl of Dorset had promised to do what he could for Cotton should he be persecuted as others before him had been, but now, when appealed to, he replied "that if Mr. Cotton had been guilty of drunkenness, of uncleanness, or any such lesser fault, he could have obtained his pardon; but inasmuch as he had been guilty of Nonconformity and Puritanism, the crime was unpardonable and therefore he must fly for his safety!'

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Accordingly, Mr. Cotton travelled in disguise to London and while hesitating between Holland, Barbadoes and New England decided to set sail for the last-named place. To this decision he was no doubt much influenced by the pressing invitations of friends and by "letters procured from the Church of Boston by Mr. Winthrop, the Governor of the Colony." Boston in New England was certainly very glad to welcome him. It was a figurative saying there for many years that the lamp in the lantern of St. Botolph's ceased to burn when Cotton left that church to become a shining light in the wilderness of New England.

His ascendency seems to have been a purely personal one, however. Though Hutchinson

says that he was more instrumental in the settlement of the civil as well as the ecclesiastical polity of New England than any other person one finds little in his writing to explain his power. And the "6 insinuating and melting way "' which Hubband attributed to him is conspicuous chiefly by its absence from the published sermons which have come down to us. He became the progenitor of many of the best and most useful citizens Boston has had, and these good people are ever zealous to link the Old Boston to the new. This very winter of 1908, for instance, they have been approached by the mayor of the old-world city to help repair a portion of St. Botolph's church as a sign of love for its "shining light.”

The request this functionary made seems rather odd until one has heard what our Boston gladly did in this respect more than fifty years ago. The story is told briefly in a sounding Latin inscription written by the Honourable Edward Everett and engraved upon a memorial plate in the southwest chapel of St. Botolph's, now called Cotton Chapel, in honour of him who was once minister of the church. Put into English it reads:

"In perpetual remembrance of John Cotton who, during the reigns of James and Charles

was, for many years, a grave, skilful and laborious vicar of this church. Afterward, on account of the miserable commotion amongst sacred affairs in his own country, he sought a new settlement in a new world, and remained even to the end of his life a pastor and teacher of the greatest reputation and of the greatest authority in the first church of Boston in New England, which city received this venerable name in honour of Cotton. Two hundred and twenty-five years having passed away since his migration, his descendants and the American citizens of Boston were invited to this pious work by their English brethren in order that the name of an illustrious man, the love and honour of both worlds, might not any longer be banished from that noble temple in which he diligently, learnedly and sacredly expounded the divine oracles for so many years; and they have willingly and gratuitously caused this shrine to be restored, and this tablet to be erected, in the year of our recovered salvation, 1855.'

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Those who then subscribed to the chapel have, almost all of them, descendants bearing the same names who are to-day living in and about Boston. These people it is, no doubt, who will gladly respond to the request of the

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COTTON CHAPEL, ST. BOTOLPH'S, BOSTON, ENGLAND

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

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