Q: Meaning of "cut" below

[Joel S. Berson]

What is the meaning of "cut" in the following?  (Which OED sense?)

"... when Stoddard visited Boston [circa 1700-1702] to assert his
views before an assembly of ministers, he [Cotton Mather] stood up
and spoke at length against [Stoddard's views]. ...In creating
national synods [which Mather saw as too much like Presbyterianism]
Stoddard would divest individual [Congregational] churches of their
power of self-reform, and give over their governance to synods whose
decrees would be impotent in New England, lacking 'a civil
Magistrate, that will make them cut'."

This is from Kenneth Silverman, "The Life and Times of Cotton
Mather", p. 151.  The interior quotation containing "cut" is
presumably spoken by Mather.  Unfortunately Silverman does not give a
source, and the only hit I find in GBooks is the passage from Silverman.

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org