The ostensible object of these
gatherings was to recapitulate the sermons of the week; but the step from
discussion to criticism was short, and it soon began to be said that she
cast reproach "upon the ministers, ... saying that none of them did preach
the covenant of free grace, but Master Cotton, and that they have not the
seale of the Spirit, and so were not able ministers of the New Testament."
[Footnote: _Short Story_, p. 36.] Or, to use colloquial language, she
accused the clergy of being teachers of forms, and said that, of them all,
Cotton alone appealed to the animating spirit like Luther or St. Paul.
"A company of legall professors," quoth she, "lie poring on the law which
Christ hath abolished." [Footnote: _Wonder-Working Providence_, Poole's
ed. p. 102.]
Such freedom of speech was, of course, intolerable; and so, as Cotton was
implicated by her imprudent talk, the elders went to Boston in a body in
October to take him to task. In the hope of adjusting the difficulty, he
suggested a friendly meeting at his house, and an interview took place. At
first Mrs. Hutchinson, with much prudence, declined to commit herself; but
the Rev. Hugh Peters besought her so earnestly to deal frankly and openly
with them that she, confiding in the sacred character of a confidential
conversation with clergymen in the house of her own religious teacher,
committed the fatal error of admitting that she saw a wide difference
between Mr.
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