Furthermore, Hoge and Wenger discovered a consensus
among judicatory officers regarding pastors who have left local church ministry: «These pastors tended to be loners in the district or presbytery, for whatever reason not part of ministerial friendship groups or action groups.
In this they seem to have fallen upon a very good expedient for their own happiness and safety; for since the good or ill condition of a nation depends so much upon their magistrates, they could not have made a better choice than by pitching on men whom no advantages can bias; for wealth is of no use to them, since they must so soon go back to their own country; and they being strangers
among them, are not engaged in any of their heats or animosities; and it is certain that when public
judicatories are swayed, either by avarice or partial affections, there must follow a dissolution of justice, the chief sinew of society.