921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Rev. Samuel WhiNng. 85
due execution 6f them depended upon their
power." *
"The elders or ministers," as Hutchinson
observes, "although they were not considered
as one of the estates, yet no matters of great
weight or moment, whether of a religious or
civil nature, were determined without their
advice and a formal reference to them (in early
times they were generally present in the
courts); and they were thus naturally led to
use their influence with the people to acquiesce
in, and approve of the measures which
they themselves had been consulted upon and
advised to." It was the "influence and advice "
of the few Puritan ministers who were true
and enlightened friends of the liberties of the
people, of toleratibn, and of the equality of all
before the law, that preserved our self-sacri-
ricing and God-fearing ancestors from the dis-
astrous consequences which would have fol-
lowed from the permanent establishment, in
the Church and in the State, of that theocratic
.policy which they had inaugurated. The debt
• I Minor, tIist. Mass. Bay, 3 x.