The Massachusetts Bay colony
Set Forth the Godly Standard
For Civil Government

Has history ever seen a nation that wrote the law of God into its legal code? The Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641 may be the first since ancient Israel. It is certainly the best known in the modern era.

There was also the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne. And England under Alfred the Great. But more often than not the nations, even when governed by Christians, opted instead for some form of natural law.

Natural law is really just a high-brow name for man-made law. That's because fallen nature can't give us any more reliable legal guidance than the fallen mind of man.

Massachusetts Body of Liberties

By way of contrast, The Massachusetts' Body of Liberties was compiled by Nathaniel Ward in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641. The following excerpt illustrates the Puritan principle of liberty under law.

After describing the liberties granted to women, children, and others, the document lists twelve crimes punishable by death, with Bible references. Five of them are cited below. These laws reflect the absolute justice of God and may seem harsh to modern ears.

It is important to note that according to Biblical law, all penalties were mutable at the discretion of the judge except for one: the penalty for the crime of premeditated murder. (Numbers 35:31 says, “You shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer....”) For other crimes there was apparently a one-time allowance for repentance and mercy, extended upon payment of ransom and at the discretion of the victim (Ex. 21:22, 30).

In the early eighteenth century, English common law demanded capital punishment for some two hundred crimes, and in France and England during the same time period in which Ward penned this document, people were still being drawn and quartered. By comparison, the biblical law code espoused by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was remarkably humane.

(Deut. 13. 6, 10; Deut. 17. 2, 6; Ex. 22.20)If any man after legall conviction shall have or worship any other god, but the lord god, he shall be put to death.

(Ex. 22. 18; Lev. 20. 27; Deut. 18. 10.)If any man or woeman be a witch, (that is, hath, or consulteth with a familiar spirit,) They shall be put to death.

(Lev. 24. 15, 16.) If any person shall Blaspheme the name of god, the father, Sonne or Holie Ghost, with direct, expresse, presumptuous or high handed blasphemie, or shall curse god in the like manner, he shall be put to death.

(Ex. 21. 12; Numb. 35. 13, 14, 30, 31) If any person committ any wilfull murther, which is manslaughter, committed upon premeditated malice, hatred, or Crueltie, not in a mans necessarie and just defence, nor by meere casualtie against his will, he shall be put to death.

(Numb. 25, 20, 21; Lev. 24. 17) If any person slayeth an other suddaienly in his anger or Crueltie of passion, he shall be put to death.

Little Speech On Liberty

The concept of liberty set forth by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was a far cry from the promiscuous brand that resides everywhere in America today. John Winthrop laid it out in his “Little Speech on Liberty” in 1645.

Some fifteen years after the establishment of Massachusetts, John Winthrop and his fellow-magistrates were accused of over-stepping their authority in the election of a local militia officer. Winthrop was impeached and subsequently acquitted after a controversy of some three months.

He took this occasion to offer his famous “Little Speech.” In this he pled for leniency with the infirmities of magistrates and offered his famous definition of liberty under law and its notorious counterfeit.

The contrast between Governor Roger Williams of Rhode Island and Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony personified the great American dilemma: How was the new nation to define the limits of liberty? To put the question in a different light, “By what standard shall civil justice be decided?” Shall it be the law of God or the law of man?

Williams opted for the latter because he believed it was impossible for sinful men to adjudicate the law of God in the civil realm without lapsing into tyranny. Consequently, the 1663 “Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” had no basis of authority in Scripture.

Nor were office holders required to make any commitment to the Christian religion. How the law of man was to prevent tyranny under this arrangement Williams never explained.

America rejected the Massachusetts Bay Colony and opted for Williams’ model in 1787. The unfolding of that fateful decision to the present day demonstrates that it is Williams’ model that leads to anarchy and tyranny.

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