This master-stroke resembled
Hilkiah's when he imposed his book on Josiah; for on no point of
discipline were the ministers so emphatic as on the sacred and absolute
nature of their prerogative to interpret the Scriptures; nor did they fail
to impress upon the people that it was a sin akin to sacrilege for the
laity to dispute their exposition of the Bible.
The deduction to be drawn from these premises is plain. The assembled
elders, acting in their advisory capacity, constituted a supreme tribunal
of last resort, wholly superior to carnal precedent, and capable of
evolving whatsoever decrees they deemed expedient from the depths of their
consciousness. [Footnote: See Gorton's case, Winthrop, ii. 146.] The
result exemplifies the precision with which a cause operating upon the
human mind is followed by its consequence; and the action of this
resistless force is painfully apparent in every state prosecution under
the Puritan Commonwealth, from Wheelwright's to Margaret Brewster's. The
absorption of sacerdotal, political, and juridical functions by a single
class produces an arbitrary despotism; and before judges greedy of earthly
dominion, flushed by the sense of power, unrestrained by rules of law or
evidence, and unopposed by a resolute and courageous bar, trials must
become little more than conventional forms, precursors of predetermined
punishments.
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