The Duty of the Civil Magistrate to Enforce the First Table of the Law: The Results of the Disputations of the Synod at Cambridge, New-England July 1646

The following historical piece answers several objections to theonomy that we still hear today: 

The Duty of the Civil Magistrate to Enforce
the First Table of the Law

The Results of the Disputations of the Synod
at Cambridge, New-England July 1646

Edited By Peter Allison, July 2005

On July 1, 1646 a Synod met at Cambridge, Massachusetts to discuss the following question.

Does the Civil Magistrate have power to:

1. Command or forbid things respecting the outward man in matters of religion, or the first table, which are clearly commanded and forbidden in the word, and to

2. Inflict suitable punishments according to the nature of the transgression against the same [the first table transgressions], and all this with reference to godly peace?

Their answer was:
The want [lack] of a right stating of this question touching the civil
magistrate's power in matters of religion has occasioned a world of errors,
tending to infringe the just power of the magistrate. We shall therefore
explain the terms of the questions and then confirm it in the affirmative.

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