Q: Meaning of "cut" below

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Joel: Below is a link into a 1911 edition of Cotton Mather's diaries
to provide more context. The word "cutt" was used.

Title: Diary of Cotton Mather, 1681-1724: 1681-1708
Author: Cotton Mather

http://books.google.com/books?id=6uwSAAAAYAAJ&q=%22make+them+cutt%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
But they know very well, that their Decrees will signify little,
except they have a civil Magistrate, that will make them cutt.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Q:  Meaning of "cut" below
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
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