"
[Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. pp. 13-15.]
This petition was presented to the court on May 19, 1646; but the session
was near its close, and it was thought best to take no immediate steps.
The elders, however, became satisfied that the moment had come for a
thorough organization of the church, and they therefore caused the
legislature to issue a general invitation to all the congregations to send
representatives to a synod to be held at Cambridge. But notwithstanding
the inaction of the authorities, the clergy were perfectly aware of the
danger, and they passed the summer in creating the necessary indignation
among the voters: they bitterly denounced from their pulpits "the sons of
Belial, Judasses, sons of Corah," "with sundry appellations of that nature
... which seemed not to arise from a gospel spirit." Sometimes they
devoted "a whole sermon, and that not very short," to describing the
impending ruin and exhorting the magistrates "to lay hold upon" the
offenders. [Footnote: _New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin's ed. p. 19.] Winthrop
had been chosen governor in May, and, when the legislature met in October,
he was made chairman of a committee to draft an answer to Childe. This
document may be found in Hutchinson's Collection. As a state paper devoted
to the discussion of questions of constitutional law it has little merit,
but it may have been effective as a party manifesto.
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