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The Journal of Christian Reconstruction ISSN 0360-1420 Vol. V Winter, 1978-79 No. 2 The Journal of Christian Reconstruction Symposium on Puritanism and Law THE JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION This journal is dedicated to the fulfilment of the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28 and 9:1—to subdue the earth to the glory of God. It is published by the Chalcedon Foundation, an independent Christian edu­ cational organization (see inside back cover). The perspective of the journal is that of orthodox Christianity. It affirms the verbal, plenary inspiration of the original manuscripts (autographs) of the Bible and the full divinity and full humanity of Jesus Christ—two natures in union (but without intermixture) in one person. The editors are convinced that the Christian world is in need of a serious publication that bridges the gap between the newsletter-magazine and the scholarly academic journal. The editors are committed to Chris­ tian scholarship, but the journal is aimed at intelligent laymen, working pastors, and others who are interested in the reconstruction of all spheres of human existence in terms of the standards of the Old and New Testa­ ments. It is not intended to be another outlet for professors to professors, but rather a forum for serious discussion within Christian circles. The Marxists have been absolutely correct in their claim that theory must be united with practice, and for this reason they have been success­ ful in their attempt to erode the foundations of the non-communist world. The editors agree with the Marxists on this point, but instead of seeing in revolution the means of fusing theory and practice, we see the fusion in personal regeneration through God’s grace in Jesus Christ and in the extension of God’s kingdom. Good principles should be followed by good practice; eliminate either, and the movement falters. In the long run, it is the kingdom of God, not Marx’s “kingdom of freedom,” which shall reign triumphant. Christianity will emerge victorious, for only in Christ and His revelation can men find both the principles of conduct and the means of subduing the earth—the principles of Biblical law. The Journal of Christian Reconstruction is published twice a year, summer and winter. Each issue costs $4.00, and a full year costs $7.00. Subscription office: P.O. Box 158, Vallecito, CA 95251. Editorial office: 713 W. Cornwallis Road, Durham, N. C. 27707. Copyright by Chalcedon, 1979. ISSN 0360-1420 THE JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION VOL. V Winter, 1978-79 No. 2 A CHALCEDON MINISTRY GARY NORTH Editor Table of Contents I. Symposium on Puritanism and Law Editor’s Introduction ..............................................................................1 Introduction to Bucer’s De Regno Christi Jack Sawyer..............................................................................................8 The Fourteenth Law: The Modification of Penalties Martin B ucer ...................................................................................... 11 Calvinism and “The Judicial Law of Moses” James B. Jordan...................................................................................... 17 Samuel Rutherford and Puritan Political Theory Richard F lirm ......................................................................................49 Introduction to John Cotton’s Abstract of the Laws of N ew E ngland Greg L. Bahnsen .................................................................................75 An A bstract of the Laws of New E ngland as they Are Now Established. Printed in London in 1641 John Cotton ............................................................................................82 Capital Crimes in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties ( 1641) 95 Non-Autonomy and Some Puritan Dilemmas Terrill /. E ln iff...................................................................................... 97 The Salem Witch Trials Kirk H o u s e ..........................................................................................133 Medieval Economics in Puritan N ew E ngland, 1630-1660 Gary N o r t h .......................................................................................... 153 II. Defenders of the Faith John Knox David H. C hilton ............................................................................... 194 Editor's Introduction Since 1930, a true renaissance in Puritan studies has taken place. Schol­ ars in numerous academic disciplines have published a massive body of materials. The late nineteenth century saw the publication in the United States of painstakingly detailed reprints of the early colonial law codes by men like Charles Hoadly, but for the most part, these dutiful editors were not university professors, but self-educated antiquarians. The pre-1930 attitude of American historians toward the Puritans can probably best be seen in the writings of Vernon Parrington, who was hostile toward the Puritan tradition in America. In the late 1920’s, when Perry Miller was trying to decide on a dissertation topic for his Ph.D., he was warned by one professor not to touch the New England Puritans, since Parrington had already dealt with them sufficiently, and there was not much use in go­ ing over the subject again. Miller’s dissertation became Orthodoxy in Massachusetts (1933), a true classic, one which was probably more re­ sponsible for reviving scholarly interest in New England Puritanism than any other book, with the possible exception of Miller’s The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939). (It is also a curious fact that Miller was not employed by Harvard’s history department, but by the English department, yet few twentieth-century scholars have had the singu­ lar influence on American historians that Miller exercised.) Another professor of English, William Haller, produced The Rise of Puritanism in 1938, and it was followed by M. M. Knappen’s Tudor Puri­ tanism in 1939. After World War II, the interest of English scholars in English Puritanism grew quite rapidly, led by the Marxist historian, Christopher Hill, who produces massively documented books faster than some of his colleagues can read them. The English scholarly journal, Past and Present (which was originally Marxist in perspective), has de­ voted much of its space to the question of Puritanism. The Marxists see the rise of Puritanism as the first major break with medievalism in Britain. They also see Cromwell’s revolution as the first successful modern revolu­ tion, and for obvious reasons, Marxist scholars are interested in revolutions. A representative book is the one edited by Trevor Aston, Crisis in Europe, 1560-1660 (1965), a collection of essays taken from Past and Present. Also important is the extraordinary book, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), by Keith Thomas, which Hill has accurately described as 1 2 JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION “majestic.” These scholars are interested mainly in England’s social, political, economic, literary, and intellectual traditions that had their origins in the Puritan movements. Far more narrow in scope, but very important, are the reprints of Puri­ tan classics by the Banner of Truth Trust in Edinburgh. These books focus on Puritan piety and theology, rather than the social concerns of the Puritan divines. The scholars associated with Banner of Truth have de­ voted their studies to the questions of evangelism, piety, and worship that were dealt with by the Puritans. By making available inexpensive reprints of Puritan classics, Banner of Truth in the British Isles, and several Re­ formed Baptist publishers in the United States (Jay Green, Lloyd Sprinkle), have performed a much-needed service in bringing a forgotten Christian tradition to the attention of twentieth-century Christians. Our problem, however, stems from the wide gap between the scholars and the churchmen. The secular historians are interested in the wider impact of Puritanism in Anglo-American history: Puritanism as ideology, Puritanism as community, Puritanism as innovation, etc. They are in­ terested in Puritan theology only insofar as this theology explains the ori­ gins of Puritanism’s wider impact. Furthermore, they tend to misunder­ stand Puritan theology, or garble their explanations, because of their lack of familiarity with the Bible and Protestant theology in general. They have a masterful grasp of the primary sources, of both sermons and the eco­ nomic and political documents, but they cannot seem to get the theological categories straight. In contrast, the churchmen and modem orthodox theologians who have taken interest in Puritanism understand the subtle nuances of Puritan theology, but they have limited knowledge of and limited interest in the broader questions of Puritanism in social history. There is little likelihood that secular scholars who resist the truth of Puritan preaching in their own lives will soon attain a mastery of the mean­ ing of Puritan theology. We need not be quite so pessimistic concerning the possibility of neo-Puritans in the churches beginning to concern themselves with the question of Puritanism’s impact on Anglo-American society in general. Rushdoony’s comment that the secularists are interested in history but not in God, and the modern Christians are interested in God but not in history, seems accurate when applied to the two-edged revival of interest in Puritanism. What is needed is a fusion of the two concerns: an interest in God and therefore an interest in the working out of the plan of God in history. The Journal of Christian Reconstruction is devoting two issues
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