"For you see this scripture fulfilled this day and therefore I desire you as you tender the Lord and the church and commonwealth to consider and look what you do"
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A courtroom warning disguised as a Bible lesson, Hutchinson’s line turns scripture into a live wire. “For you see this scripture fulfilled this day” is not piety; it’s a claim of interpretive authority in the very moment Massachusetts magistrates are trying to strip her of it. She doesn’t just cite the Word, she declares it happening now, with her trial as proof. That move collapses distance: the judges aren’t neutrally applying law, they’ve wandered into prophecy.
The genius is the pronoun choreography. “I desire you” sounds modest, even deferential, but the verb is a lever: she’s directing the men who think they’re directing her. Then she yokes their identities to what they fear losing: “as you tender the Lord and the church and commonwealth.” Tender here means cherish, yes, but also handle with care. She implies their next action can bruise all three at once. In a colony where church governance and civic legitimacy were fused, that triad is a pressure point: convicting her isn’t merely disciplining a dissenter, it risks unraveling the moral narrative the regime uses to justify itself.
The final clause, “consider and look what you do,” lands like a parental reprimand. Subtext: you are being watched by God, by history, and by your own stated principles. In the Antinomian controversy, Hutchinson’s “immediate revelation” threatened clerical gatekeeping. This sentence is her countermove: if God speaks, then the bench is on trial too.
The genius is the pronoun choreography. “I desire you” sounds modest, even deferential, but the verb is a lever: she’s directing the men who think they’re directing her. Then she yokes their identities to what they fear losing: “as you tender the Lord and the church and commonwealth.” Tender here means cherish, yes, but also handle with care. She implies their next action can bruise all three at once. In a colony where church governance and civic legitimacy were fused, that triad is a pressure point: convicting her isn’t merely disciplining a dissenter, it risks unraveling the moral narrative the regime uses to justify itself.
The final clause, “consider and look what you do,” lands like a parental reprimand. Subtext: you are being watched by God, by history, and by your own stated principles. In the Antinomian controversy, Hutchinson’s “immediate revelation” threatened clerical gatekeeping. This sentence is her countermove: if God speaks, then the bench is on trial too.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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