Although such might be
the inexorable destiny of the Massachusetts hierarchy, it was not in
ecclesiastical human nature to accept the dispensation with meekness, and
the utterances of the conservative divines seem hardly to breathe the
spirit of that gospel they preached at such interminable length.
Yet it was very difficult to devise a scheme of resistance. They were
powerless to coerce; for, although Increase Mather had taken care, when at
the summit of his power, to have a statute passed which had the effect of
reenacting the Cambridge Platform, it had been disapproved by the king;
therefore, moral intimidation was the only weapon which could be employed.
Now, aside from the fact that men like Thomas Brattle and Leverett were
not timorous, their position was at this moment very strong from the stand
they had taken in the witchcraft troubles, and worst of all, they were
openly supported by William Brattle, who was already a minister, and by
Pemberton, who was a fellow of Harvard, and soon to be ordained.
The attack was, however, begun by Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Noyes, of
witchcraft memory, in a long rebuke, whose temper may be imagined from
such a sentence as this: "We cannot but think you might have entered upon
your declaration with more reverence and humility than so solemnly to
appeal to God, your judge, that you do it with all the sincerity and
seriousness the nature of your engagement commands from you; seeing you
were most of you much unstudied in the controversial points of church
order and discipline, and yet did not advise with the neighboring churches
.
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