The Records of the New Haven

Colony (1641-1644):
"The judicial law of yod given
by Moses and expounded in other
parts of scripture, so far as it is a
hedge and a fence to the moral
laws, and neither ceremonial nor
typical nor had any reference to
Canaan, hath an everlasting equity
and should be the rule of our
proceedings." "It was ordered that
the judicial laws of yod, as they
were delivered by Moses ... be a
rule to all the courts in this
jurisdiction in their proceedings
against offenders:
Puritan William
Perkins (cited in Rossell
H. Robbins,
Encyclopedia of
Witchcraft and
Demonology [New
York: Crown, 1959], p.
382):
That the witch truly
convicted is to be
punished with death, the highest
degree of punishment, and that by
the law of Moses, the equity
whereof is perpetual.
Puritan Thomas Cartwright,
according to Hutchinson, The
Histol)' of the Colony and
Province of Massachusetts Bay
(1764):
Cartwright, who had a chief
hand in redUcing puritanism to a
system, held, that the magistrate
was bound to adhere to the
judicial law of Moses, and might
not punish or pardon otherwise
than they prescribed.
English theologian Thomas
Scolt (1747-1821) in his Holy
Bible with Notes (at Exo. 21:1)
wrote:
Making some allowance for
the circumstances val)'ing in
different ages and nations, there is
a spirit of equity in these laws,
which is well worthy of being
transfused into those of any
state .... A full investigation of the
subject would evince, that the
laws enacted by [Moses] were
uniformly more wise, equitable,
humane, mild, and sal utaI)' in
their tendency, than the complex
body of laws, even of the most
civilized nations ....
Robert L. Dabney, The
Practical Theology, p. 513:
The application of the lex
talionis made by Moses against
false witnesses was the most
appropriate and equitable ever
invented.
7. A leading criticism of the
Puritans of the Westminster
Assembly and of the 1600's is
their endorsement of the
application of capital punishment
in accordance with the Old
Testament law. The 1640
Massachusetts Civil Bay Code in
America is an example of the
Puritan view, and it applies the
specifics of yod's penal codes.
Reformed Basel theologian
Johannes Wollebius (1586-1629),
in his Compendium of Christian
Theology, (cited in J. W.
Beardslee, Reformed Dogmatics
[1965], p. 10) wrote:
Propositions: I. As the
ceremonial laws concerned with
yod, the political was concern
with the neighbor. II. In those
matters on which it is in harmony
with the moral law and with
ordinal)' justice, it is binding upon
us. III. In those matters which
were peculiar to that law and were
prescribed for the promised land or
the situation of the Jewish state, it
has no more force for us than the
laws of foreign commonwealths.
Leading Westminster Divine,
yeorge yillespie in his Aaron's
Rod Blossoming (1646, 1:1):
I know some divines hold that
the judicial law of Moses, so far as
concerneth the
punishments of sins
against the moral law,
idolatl)', blasphemy,
Sabbath-breaking,
adultel)', theft, etc.,
ought to be a rule to
the Christian
magistratel and, for my
part, I wish more
respect were had to it,
and that it were more consulted
with.
Puritan John Owen (Works,
8:394):
Although the institutions and
examples of the Old Testament, of
the duty of magistrates in the
things and about the worship of
yod, are not, in their whole
latitude and extent, to be drawn
into rules that should be obligatoI)'
to all magistrates now ... , yet,
doubtless, there is something
moral in those institutions, which,
being unclothed of their Judaical
form, is still binding to all in the
like kind, as to some analogy and
proportion. Subduct from those
administrations what was proper
to, and lies upon the account of,
the church and nation of the Jews,
and what remains upon the
general notion of a church and
nation must be everlastingly
binding.
December, 1995 t THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon t 23
Puritan Thomas Shephard
(1605-1649) (The Morality of the
Sabbath, rep. 1853, 11I:53fl:
The judicial laws, some of
them being hedges and fences to
safeguard both moral and
ceremonial precepts, their binding
power was therefore mixed and
various, for those which did
safeguard any moral law, (which
is perpetual,) whether by just
punishments or otherwise do still
morally bind all nations .... As, on
the contrary, the moral abiding,
why should not their judicials and
fences remain! The learned
generally doubt not to affirm that
Moses' judicials bind all nations,
so far forth as they contain any
moral equity in them, which
moral eql!ity doth appear not only
in respect of the end of the law,
when it is ordered for common
and universal good, but chiefly in
respect of the law which they
safeguard and fence, which if it be
moral, it is most just and equal,
that either the same or like judicial
fence (according to some fit
proportion) should preserve it still,
because it is but just and equal that
a moral and universal law should
be universally preserved ....
8. That which is ' expired' in
the judicial laws are those
elements that structured it for Israel
as a nation (the particular land
arrangements which allowed for
cities of refuge, blood avengers,
elders in the gates, stoning [as
typologkal of Qod's crushing
judgment), levirate marriages, and
the like) or are applicable to the
peculiar ancient circumstances, the
accidental histOrical and cultural
factors of Israel (fences around
rooftops, g()ring oxen, etc.).
R. L Dabney, lectures in
Systematic Theology, p. 412, re:
lev. 18 law against incest:
We hold that this law,
although found in the Hebrew
code, has not passed away;
because neither ceremonial nor
typical. ... We argue also,
presumptively, that if this law is a
dead one, then the Scriptures
contain nowhere a distinct
legislation against this great crime
of incest: The same would be
true of bestiality and other crimes.
On page 402 he states: 'The laws
of Moses, therefore, very properly
made adultery a capital Crime ... :
On page 403 Dabney lists
capital punishment laws for
murder, striking a parent, adultery,
etc., without any disapprobation.
In fact, English theologian
Thomas Ridgeley, in his 1855 A
Body of Divinity (11:307). noted
that the following laws were
seven kinds that ' expired" with the
coming of the New Testament: (1)
24 f THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon , December, 1995
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levirate and inalienability of
property; (2) jubilee, (3) six year
limit on slavery; (4) sabbatical
year, (5) usury prohibitions; (6)
annual festivals; and (7) cities of
refuge and blood avengers.
Recommended Resources
Kenneth L (ientry, Jr., Qod's
law in the Modem World
(Presbyterian and Reformed,
1992).
Kenneth L Qentry, Jr .. 'The
Westminster Confession of Faith
and Qod's law: Six sermon tape
set: $28.00 (from author) .
Qreg L Bahnsen, No Other
Standard: Theonomy and Its
Critics (Inst. for Christian
Economics, 1991)
(iary North, ed., Theonomy:
An Informed Response (ins!. for
Christian Economics, 1991) Q