1651 PETER BULKELEY. Rare American Puritan on the Covenant of Grace - Author of Bay Psalm Book!

Peter Bulkey [Bulkeley] was an important voice in the early spiritual leadership of the "Great Migration." Originally from England, he was minister at Odell, but was silenced [1634] by Archbishop Laud on account of his puritanism and nonconformity. He had refused to wear the cross or the surplice or read the obligatory act of King Charles officially sanctioning sports on the Sabbath. 

He emigrated to America in 1635 and was sent to settle the land today known as Concord, MA [of which he is recognized as the founder]. He was of the more radical Puritans who saw America as the opportunity to found not a land of religious freedom, but of Covenant with God after the manner of the Scottish National League and Covenant. This was evidenced by his work as the Moderator at the trial of Anne Hutchinson, whom he voted to excommunicate, leading to her banishment to Rhode Island. The other moderator was the famed Thomas Hooker. 

His "Gospel Covenant" is considered one of the first books written in the New World, and perhaps the most ambitious. And it is distinctly American. The Covenant of God with His people cannot be separated from this New Land. Winthrop's "City on a Hill" for the new land is evident throughout. 

He is also best remembered today as one of the “chief divines” of Massachusetts Bay who determined to produce a new metrical translation of the Psalms. This paraphrase, based on contemporary English translations, with close attention given to the original Hebrew, was published in Cambridge in 1640 as The Whole Booke of Psalmes, but it is popularly known as the Bay Psalm Book—the first book printed in British America and the first book printed in English in the New World. In addition to Bulkeley, the other scholarly leaders of colonial New England who contributed to the translation were John Cotton, Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, John Eliot, and John Wilson.

The present copy belonged to, and is signed on the title by, radical Presbyterian, Sir John Bourchier [1595-1660]. Bulkeley's vision of a Covenant State would have resonated deeply with Bourchier. A wealthy English landowner, he was an advocate for the same vision back in England, likely instilled in him by his uncle, puritan divine Francis Barrington. Bourchier supported the Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and used his influence to vote for the Execution of Charles I. He was imprisoned just before the Civil War, released and a member of Parliament under Cromwell, and then at the restoration in 1660, he was charged and awaited trial as a regicide and for treason, but died before his trial took place. 

A scarce early American puritan work articulating a vision for a land based on a National Covenant owned by a radical Cromwellian parliamentarian working with members of the Westminster Assembly, etc,. for the same at home. 

Bulkeley, Peter [1583-1659]. The Gospel-Covenant; Or, The Covenant of Grace Opened. Wherein are explained; 1. The differences betwixt the Covenant of Grace and Cvoenant of works. 2. The different administrations of the Covenant before and since Christ. 3. The beenfits and blessings of it. 4. The Condition. 5. The Properties of It. Preached in Concord in New-England by Peter Bulkeley, sometimes fellow of Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge. The second Edition, much enlarged, and corrected by the Author. And the chiefe headsof Things (which was omitted in the former) distinguished into Chapters. London. Printed by Matthew Simmons, dwelling in Aldersgate-street next doore to the Golden Lyon. 1651. 

Original calf, probably a more recent label; the whole very nicely preserver; crisp, solid and clean with a few early pencil or sepia lines under or beside text. Probably the nicest copy of this scarce work I ever expect to see.