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THE POLITICAL USE OF THE BIBLE IN EARLY MODERN BRITAIN: Early modern Puritan writers can typically be slotted in the first four categories. Unfortunately, scholars of early modern political thought fail to understand this relationship between Nature and Grace, and therefore, predisposed to slot Harrington and Milton as classical as opposed to biblical republicans by highlighting their use of the classics while ignoring their use of the Scriptures. Others will dismiss, or at the least, grant peripheral considerations to those other Puritan political theorists who solely resorted to the Scriptures when attempting to new-model government, precisely because their models lack classical influence. Christian Humanism Harrington and Milton saw no theological contradiction in synthesising pagan classical works with the Christian text to model a commonwealth. Since all truth was God’s truth, pagan authors, though retaining a corrupt image of God, could bear witness to political truth, rendering it acceptable to revitalise their secular languages and rhetoric with biblical concepts. Neither was motivated to embellish their political models with divine literary decoration. Margo Todd in Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order (1987), attempts to de-mythologise Puritan scholarship by suggesting that Puritans exceeded Scriptural assumptions, ventured “beyond the Bible or their Reformed heritage for their ideas,” and approached both Scripture and theology in a way continuous with their immediate Christian humanist predecessors. 26 Christian humanists contributed significantly to social reform, but did so with both Renaissance and classical sources in mind. Todd maintains that the prominent characteristic of Christian humanism was “devotion to a biblical reformation of Christendom.” “The Renaissance demand for a return to the sources became for Christian humanists an imperative to apply the critical assumptions and the exegetical techniques of the Italian humanists to the Christian’s most authoritative text.” 27 Their stance was not simply neo-stoic; nor is it accurate to identify it simply with the civic humanism of Italy. Biblicism, patristic influences, Stoicism and civic humanism were all tightly interwoven in Erasmianism to produce a thoroughly distinctive movement, religious and civic, Christian and humanist. With Seneca and Christ, humanists called for individual self-control; with Cicero, they called for good government; with the Old Testament prophets, they called for social 26 Margo Todd, Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order (Cambridge University Press, 1987), 6, 17. 27 Ibid., 23. justice. The search for practical solutions to real problems in this world came to be seen by them as the believer’s true calling. This amalgam of pious yet practical social activism should be seen as another hallmark of Erasmian humanism. 28 Todd concludes that “Christian humanist social theory was in essence, then, a framework for the reformation of the commonwealth.” 29 John Calvin (1509-1564), explains in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), that the employment of pagan sources was to be qualified by the Scripture’s prominent place as the absolute source of truth. Read Demosthenes or Cicero; read Plato, Aristotle, and others of that tribe. They will, I admit, allure you, delight you, move you, enrapture you in wonderful measure. But betake yourself from them to this sacred reading. Then, in spite of yourself, so deeply will it affect you, so penetrate your heart, so fix itself in your very marrow, that, compared with its deep impression, such vigour as the orators and philosophers have will nearly vanish. Consequently, it is easy to see that the Sacred Scriptures, which so far surpass all gifts and graces of human endeavour, breathe something divine. 30 Calvin highlighted his own personal regard for the pervasive wisdom that abounded in the works of the classics; “That admirable light of truth shining in” secular writings can “teach us that, the mind of man, though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts.” 31 With its appreciation for these scholarly investigative techniques, Christian humanism demanded “a return to the sources,” which consequently drew attention back to a profound appreciation and investigation of ancient historical sources, both patristic and classical. But the “text of the Bible itself was, of course, paramount among Christian humanist concerns.” 32 This Renaissance extraction of philological approaches to biblical exegesis emphasises a mode of scholarship as opposed to an integration of a new philosophical thrust or tendency. 28 Ibid., 34. 29 Ibid., 51. 30 John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed., John T. McNeill, trans., Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 20 (London: SCM Press, Ltd., 1961), Book 1, 82. 31 Ibid., 273. 32 Todd, Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order, 22-23. 8
ROYALISTS, REPUBLICANS, FIFTH MONARCHISTS AND LEVELLERS The Hermeneutical Relationship Between the Bible and Government: What Constitutes ‘Political’ Material? The nature of the ‘political’ is often defined by methods of participation to influence the administrative processes of civil government or to lobby civil authorities. Individuals in ‘free’ societies can pursue numerous avenues to engage public policy issues, governmental reform, and constitutional change. Confronting challenging life-issues through these ‘political’ avenues is a worthy activity responsive to the dynamic needs of changing societies. Nevertheless, the Scriptures hardly isolate the ‘political’ to methods of activism and civil engagement. It primarily emphasises instead the relationship between ruler and ruled, beginning with the sovereignty of God and man’s capacity, as vice-regent, for self-government under His moral charge, divine direction, and sovereign mandate. Civil government and the administration of law represent the institutionalisation of human authority for ordered liberty, justice, and judgment to secure God’s relational purposes for man in a fallen world. In this regard, the ‘political’ is primarily ‘governmental,’ which is not initially ‘civil,’ but divine administration for blessed relationships, both with God and our fellow man. This ‘relational’ theme, governmental in nature, is stressed throughout the Scriptures. One of the most fundamental assumptions from which to understand the nature of divine and human relationships is that God is Lord of creation and bears absolute authority to govern man in every area of life. Stated another way, and albeit refreshingly redundant, the Scriptures reveal the ultimate basis for governing authority as beginning with God as the great uncreated being, relational ruler and providential governor of the universe. His creation of man after His own image includes authorising and commanding him to govern himself individually, and then corporately. Governmental principles, structural paradigms, and relational models should find their ultimate basis in God’s character, which comprehend His commands and ordained covenantal relationships, and include His divinely delivered civil model or political paradigm to Israel. Thinking biblically about the ‘political’ means that we do not first focus or exclusively emphasise civil institutional procedure or external expressions of governing authority, or political activism for that matter; rather, we prioritise God Himself, His supreme governing authority, and His expectations for human relationships. Civil authority then finds its legitimacy in God’s purposes for human relationships; its origin, nature, and purpose follow this first divine sphere of government. Not surprisingly, civil government, as an institutional expression divinely delivered to Israel, is structured so as to acknowledge the sovereignty of God and the self-governing capacity of men. The origin of civil government, as well as its purpose, function and province obviously constitute biblical ‘political’ material, though the term ‘governmental’ is preferred. Questions related to its province concern the subject matter of its authority and power, otherwise known as jurisdiction, or the lawful use of lawful authority. The nature and form of civil government, whether structurally centralised or diffused, including the organisation and role of courts, is also addressed by the Scriptures. The administration of law, justification of authority, covenantal transactions and commitments, as well as the nature of legal equality is also discussed. The Scriptures also touch upon issues of justice and judgment, defence and punishment, international relations and just war theory, as well as civil disobedience, religious and legal duties, liberty of conscience, and institutional separation between civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The difficulty is determining the ongoing relevance of the Bible’s discussion relative to each of these items, and therefore, a hermeneutical issue. How do we move methodologically from the biblical text and its meaning, to significant application in our time, especially when many of these subjects are lodged in the Old Testament? We will first examine the constitutional proposals of some leading Royalists who engaged the Scriptures to assert a kingly prerogative. There are a few representatives worth considering and royalist pamphlets were already circulating before the first phase of the English Civil War itself, which commenced by late August, 1642 with the royal standard of Charles I established at Nottingham. 9
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