Marginal notes: references to passages in the Bible upon which the laws are based.

This work is really a body of proposed laws for the Massachusetts Bay colony, called "Moses his judicials" by its compiler, Rev. John Cotton, and presented to the General court in 1636. It was not adopted but the English publisher in making his title seems to have mistaken it for the "Body of liberties," prepared by Rev. Nathaniel Ward and actually adopted by the General court in 1641. cf. Mass. hist., soc., Collections, 3d ser., v. 8, p. 191-215; Winsor, Nar. & crit. hist., 1885, v. 3, p. 349-350.