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8/12/2019 1995 Issue 11 - Theonomic Ethics and the Westminster Confession: The Records of the New Haven Colony - Cou…
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The Records of the New Haven
Colony (1641-1644):
The
judicial law of yod given
by Moses and expo
unded
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 salutaI)' 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
8/12/2019 1995 Issue 11 - Theonomic Ethics and the Westminster Confession: The Records of the New Haven Colony - Cou…
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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, t 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
Non-Profit
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U.s. Postage
PAID
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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