ABSTRACT
Within a short time after the first colonists settled in New England there had developed a considerable body of political literature dealing philosophically with the classic problems of politics: the nature and functions of government, the relation of liberty to authority, the nature of law. The concept of natural law has never been more completely absorbed in that of divine law than in certain writings of this first generation of New Englanders. In the proposed code of laws for New England which Cotton drafted in 1636 or 1637 one have an excellent illustration of his ideas of divine law. A considerable portion of this crude and fragmentary code is based upon his interpretation of the Scriptures. Inheritances are to descend naturally to the next of kinne, according to the Law of Nature, delivered by God. One of the most interesting literary productions of early New England is Nathaniel Ward's The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam in America.
