" [Footnote: Hutch. _Hist._ 3d ed. ii. 292, note.]
The "evangelical expedient" was of course to revive the Cambridge
Platform; nor was such a scheme manifestly impossible, for the council
voted "that the synod ... will be agreeable to this board, and the
reverend ministers are desired to take their own time, for the said
assembly; and it is earnestly wished the issue thereof may be a happy
reformation." [Footnote: Chalmers's _Opinions_, i. 8.] In the house
of representatives this resolution was read and referred to the next
session.
Meanwhile the Episcopalian clergymen of Boston, in much alarm, presented a
memorial to the General Court, remonstrating against the proposed measure;
but the council resolved "it contained an indecent reflection on the
proceedings of that board," [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 9.] and dismissed
it. Nothing discouraged, the remonstrants applied for protection to the
Bishop of London, who brought the matter to the attention of the law
officers of the crown. In their opinion to call a synod would be "a
contempt of his majesty's prerogative," and if "notwithstanding, ... they
shall continue to hold their assembly, ... the principal actors therein
[should] be prosecuted ... for a misdemeanour." [Footnote: Chalmers's
_Opinions_, p. 13.]
Steadily and surely the coil was tightening which was destined to strangle
the established church of Massachusetts; but the resistance of the
ministers was desperate, and lent a tinge of theological hate to the
outbreak of the Revolution.
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