The Emancipation of Massachusetts Part 13

_Gov._ Mr. Coggeshall was not present.

_Mr. C._ Yes, but I was, only I desired to be silent till I should be called.

_Gov._ Will you ... say that she did not say so?

_Mr. C._ Yes, I dare say that she did not say all that which they lay against her.

_Mr. Peters._ How dare you look into the court to say such a word?

_Mr. C._ Mr. Peters takes upon him to forbid me. I shall be silent....

_Gov._ Well, Mr. Leverett, what were the words? I pray speak.

_Mr. L._ To my best remembrance ... Mr. Peters did with much vehemency and entreaty urge her to tell what difference there was between Mr.

Cotton and them, and upon his urging of her she said: "The fear of man is a snare, but they that trust upon the Lord shall be safe." And ...

that they did not preach a covenant of grace so clearly as Mr. Cotton did, and she gave this reason of it, because that as the apostles were for a time without the Spirit so until they had received the witness of the Spirit they could not preach a covenant of grace so clearly.

The Rev. John Cotton was then called. He was much embarra.s.sed in giving his evidence, but, if he is to be believed, his brethren, in their anxiety to make out a case, had colored material facts. He closed his account of the interview in these words: "I must say that I did not find her saying they were under a covenant of works, nor that she said they did preach a covenant of works."

_Gov._ You say you do not remember, but can you say she did not speak so?

_Mr. C._ I do remember that she looked at them as the apostles before the ascension....

_Dep. Gov._ They affirm that Mrs. Hutchinson did say they were not able ministers of the New Testament.

_Mr. C._ I do not remember it.

Mrs. Hutchinson had shattered the case of the government in a style worthy of a leader of the bar, but she now ventured on a step for which she has been generally condemned. She herself approached the subject of her revelations. To criticise the introduction of evidence is always simpler than to conduct a cause, but an a.n.a.lysis of her position tends to show not only that her course was the result of mature reflection, but that her judgment was in this instance correct. She probably a.s.sumed that when the more easily proved charges had broken down she would be attacked here; and in this a.s.sumption she was undoubtedly right. The alternative presented to her, therefore, was to go on herself, or wait for Winthrop to move. If she waited she knew she should give the government the advantage of choosing the ground, and she would thus be subjected to the danger of having fatal charges proved against her by hearsay or distorted evidence. If she took the bolder course, she could explain her revelations as monitions coming to her through texts in Scripture, and here she was certain of Cotton's support. Before that tribunal she could hardly have hoped for an acquittal; but if anything could have saved her it would have been the sanction given to her doctrines by the approval of John Cotton. At all events, she saw the danger, for she closed her little speech in these touching words: "Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in my conscience I know to be truth, I must commit myself unto the Lord."

_Mr. Nowell._ How do you know that that was the Spirit?

_Mrs. H._ How did Abraham know that it was G.o.d?...

_Dep. Gov._ By an immediate voice.

_Mrs. H._ So to me by an immediate revelation.

Then she proceeded to state how, through various texts which she cited, the Lord showed her what He would do; and she particularly dwelt on one from Daniel. So far all was well; she had planted herself on ground upon which orthodox opinion was at least divided; but she now committed the one grave error of her long and able defence. As she went on her excitement gained upon her, and she ended by something like a defiance and denunciation: "You have power over my body, but the Lord Jesus hath power over my body and soul; and a.s.sure yourselves thus much, you do as much as in you lies to put the Lord Jesus Christ from you, and if you go on in this course you begin, you will bring a curse upon you and your posterity, and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

_Gov._ Daniel was delivered by miracle. Do you think to be delivered so too?

_Mrs. H._ I do here speak it before the court. I look that the Lord should deliver me by his providence....

_Dep. Gov._ I desire Mr. Cotton to tell us whether you do approve of Mrs. Hutchinson's revelations as she hath laid them down.

_Mr. C._ I know not whether I do understand her, but this I say, if she doth expect a deliverance in a way of providence, then I cannot deny it.

_Gov._ ... I see a marvellous providence of G.o.d to bring things to this pa.s.s.... G.o.d by a providence hath answered our desires, and made her to lay open herself and the ground of all these disturbances to be by revelations. . . .

_Court._ We all consent with you.

_Gov._ Ey, it is the most desperate enthusiasm in the world....

_Mr. Endicott._ I speak in reference to Mr. Cotton.... Whether do you witness for her or against her.

_Mr. C._ This is that I said, sir, and my answer is plain, that if she doth look for deliverance from the hand of G.o.d by his providence, and the revelation be ... according to a word [of Scripture] that I cannot deny.

_Mr. Endicott._ You give me satisfaction.

_Dep. Gov._ No, no, he gives me none at all....

_Mr. C._ I pray, sir, give me leave to express myself. In that sense that she speaks I dare not bear witness against it.

_Mr. Nowell._ I think it is a devilish delusion.

_Gov._ Of all the revelations that ever I read of I never read the like ground laid as is for this. The enthusiasts and Anabaptists had never the like....

_Mr. Peters._ I can say the same ... and I think that is very disputable which our brother Cotton hath spoken....

_Gov._ I am persuaded that the revelation she brings forth is delusion.

All the court but some two or three ministers cry out, We all believe it, we all believe it....

And then Coddington stood up before that angry meeting like the brave man he was, and said, "I beseech you do not speak so to force things along, for I do not for my own part see any equity in the court in all your proceedings. Here is no law of G.o.d that she hath broken, nor any law of the country that she hath broke, and therefore deserves no censure; and if she say that the elders preach as the apostles did, why they preached a covenant of grace and what wrong is that to them, ...

therefore I pray consider, what you do, for here is no law of G.o.d or man broken."

_Mr. Peters._ I profess I thought Mr. Cotton would never have took her part.

_Gov._ The court hath already declared themselves satisfied ...

concerning the troublesomeness of her spirit and the danger of her course amongst us which is not to be suffered. Therefore if it be the mind of the court that Mrs. Hutchinson ... shall be banished out of our liberties and imprisoned till she be sent away let them hold up their hands.

All but three consented.