921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

66 Memoir of
" This court doth intreat the elders and
brethren of every church within this jurisdiction,
that they will consult and advise of one
uniform order of discipline in the churches,
agreeable to the Scriptures, and then to con-
sider how/at the magistrales are _ound fo in-
terpose for/_e preservafzon of L/zal unfformigy,
and pcace of file C/zurches.''_
In I635 a law was passed which forbade the
gathering or organization of cliurches without
leave of the magistrates, and of the elders of
the majority of the churches, within the jurisdiction,
and disfranchising all church-members
who should disobey this law. It was provided,
in i638, that all persons who had been excom-
municated from any church more than six
months, without laboring as far as they could
to be restored, should be presented to the
Court of Assistants, and there be pl:oceeded
with by fine, imprisonment, banishment, or fur-
ther, as their contempt and obstinacy should
deserve.t
"A constant watch," says Hutchinson, "was
* x Mass. Rec., t4z. t Ibid., 24a.