25 September 1643 A.D. Several Parties of the Westminster Assembly
25 September 1643
A.D. Several Parties of the Westminster
Assembly
Barker, Will. “September 25: The
Several Parties of the Westminster Assembly.” This Day in Presbyterian History. 25 Sept 2015. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2015/09/september-25-the-several-parties-of-the-westminster-assembly/.
Accessed 25 Sept 2015.
September 25: The Several Parties of the Westminster
Assembly
The Assembly Subscribes the Solemn League &
Covenant [1643]
I. The Parties
Discussions of the Assembly tend to focus on the
different parties, often to the neglect of the great unity that existed among
the members. It must never be forgotten that their first concern was for
the gospel of Christ and for the unity of all who truly belong to him.
One of the most beautiful chapters in the Confession, “Of the Communion of
Saints”, begins: “All saints that are united to Jesus Christ their head by His
Spirit and by faith have fellowship with Him…: (WCF XXVI/1). Further, as
teachers they were all Calvinists in theology and could all be called Puritans,
depending on the definition of that controversial term. The main
controversy among them was church government and the related matter of church
discipline, including the role of the state. The parties, therefore, are
perceived along the lines of church polity: episcopalian, presbyterian,
or congregationalist, with two additional categories being relevant – the
Erastians and the Scottish delegation.
Episcopalians
All of the Westminster divines appointed by the Long
Parliament in 1643 were ordained ministers in the Church of England, although
many had refused to conform to some Anglican practices and some had temporarily
gone into exile in the Netherlands. This means that they had entered the
ministry in an episcopal system, and many still favored a moderate
episcopacy. Men such as James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland,
did not attend the Assembly because it did not have the approval of King
Charles I. Others dropped out in the early stages. But all were
opposed to prelacy, that is, the functioning of bishops like secular princes
rather than as the teaching and preaching ministers of the New Testament.
Some who favored a moderate episcopacy remained in the Assembly and were
gradually persuaded to prefer the presbyterian position.
Presbyterians
The Presbyterians, who favored a system with parity
of the clergy, but with a graded system of church courts so that local
congregations were bonded together and in submission to a regional presbytery,
and presbyteries were in submission to a national general assembly, were in the
majority in the Assembly. They were of two persuasions, however:
those who believed in presbyterianism by divine right – i.e., that it is the
only system prescribed by the New Testament – and those who believed presbyterianism
was simply the system most consistent with the principles of church government
taught in the New Testament. The latter was the prevailing view among the
English divines at Westminster.
Congregationalists or Independents
Those who favored congregational church government
were led by a very able and vocal group that became known as “the five
dissenting brethren.” These five had all gone into exile in the
Netherlands in the 1630’s and had close relations with the congregationalists
in New England. These were non-separating Puritans who wanted local
church autonomy while still maintaining an association among churches and with
the state. Although the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay enforced the New
England congregational way through the civil magistrate, the English
congregationalists were led by circumstances to prefer toleration.
Erastians
The Erastians, whose name is derived from a
16th-century Swiss theologian, were not in favor of any particular church
polity – episcopal, presbyterian, or congregational – by divine right, but were
mainly concerned that church discipline be finally carried out only with the
approval of the state. This view was upheld in the Assembly by a small
but learned group and was supported by many in Parliament, which had called the
Assembly and whose approval was necessary for the implementation of the
Assembly’s decisions.
The Scottish Delegation
As a result of the Solemn League and Covenant,
approved by the Scottish Parliament on August 17, 1643 and subscribed by the
English Parliament and the members of the Westminster Assembly on September 25,
four Scottish ministers joined the Assembly in September of 1643. These
were not voting members but had the right to speak. In exchange for the
assistance of the Scottish army to the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War
against the King, the Solemn League and Covenant sought to bring the churches
of England and Ireland into conformity to the Reformed religion in Scotland in
doctrine, worship, discipline, and government. The Scottish commissioners,
with almost a century of presbyterian history behind them, favored
presbyterianism by divine right.
Such were the parties that emerged as church
government proved to be the most controversial issue in the Assembly.
Again we should remember that all of the Westminster divines were
Calvinists. As we look back to the Assembly with gratitude primarily for
the setting forth of the Reformed faith in the Confession and Catechisms, we
should celebrate the doctrinal unity which it had. Where there was diversity,
there was also a spirit of accommodation on the part of many. Richard
Baxter, a contemporary Puritan but not a member of the Assembly, had immense
appreciation of its members and its accomplishments. He later commented
that if all Episcopalians had been as Archbishop Ussher, all Presbyterians as
Stephen Marshall (the great preacher of the Assembly), and Independents as
Jeremiah Burroughs, the divisions of the church might soon have been healed.
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