July 1st, 1993 marked the 350th anniversary of the beginning of the Westminster Assembly, a gathering whose work has profoundly shaped the theology of those churches which bear the name Presbyterian, as well as others such as Congregationalists and some Baptists.

The Westminster Assembly was not a regular ecclesiastical assembly but an advisory commission called by the English Parliament to propose legis­lation for the restructuring of the Church of England in a time of great social and political turmoil.

The assembly was composed of ministers (divines) and laymen who were members of the Houses of Parliament. They met in Westminster Abbey for more than five and a half years, and during that time they produced documents which are well known and in use today: The Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism and Shorter Catechism.

Background⤒🔗

The Westminster Assem­bly did not meet in a place of quiet for undisturbed theological reflection. Rather, it met in the nation's capital, a stone's throw from the Houses of Parliament, in a time of civil war in England.

James VI, famous for his reluctant support of the "King James" version of the Bible, was succeeded on the throne by his son Charles, who was more ruthless but less politically astute than his father. Charles I, with the eager assistance of William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, tried to rule without the assistance or interference of Parliament for 11 years. He followed a course of revising the liturgy of the Church of England to make it more like many practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Those who resisted were punished by imprisonment, exile and mutilation.

The resisters were usually part of a group within the Church of England known to their enemies as "Puri­tans". Deeply influenced by the principles of the Calvinistic Reformation, they had struggled since the reign of Elizabeth to bring their church more closely into harmony with biblical teaching. In the 1640s resistance to the policies of Charles I moved from the pulpits and the streets to Parliament, especially the House of Commons. John Pym, Speaker of the House, was a convinced Puritan — and later a member of the Westminster Assembly.

Charles' treasury was drained by his efforts to sup­press the revolution of the Covenanters in Scotland, so he reluctantly called the English Parliament into ses­sion to obtain more tax money. Parliament refused to grant revenues unless Charles would agree to respond to their grievances. Among their demands was a change in church government.

In 1642, when negotia­tions failed, Charles attempted to invade the House of Commons to arrest the leaders. The armed guards turned his forces back and Charles withdrew from London. The great English Civil War had begun.

The Assembly←⤒🔗

Parliament (excluding those who supported the King) adopted an ordinance on 12th June 1643 calling an assembly of "learned and godly Divines, and others," for assistance in establishing a government in the Church of England which would be "most agreeable to God's holy word, and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church" (Mitchell, The Westminster Assembly, p. ix). The ordinance named 10 mem­bers of the House of Lords, 20 members of the House of Commons and 121 ministers.

Not all of those named actually attended; the king forbade attendance, and some of those nominated obeyed. Sixty-nine gathered for the opening session. As the years passed, some grew ill or weary. The usual atten­dance was probably around 60.

At first the Assembly met in the ornate chapel of Henry VII, behind the main sanctuary of the Abbey. When cold weather came, they moved to the smaller Jerusalem Chamber, which had "a good fire" (Robert Baillie, Letters and Journals, p. 107). There they sat according to rank, the Lords nearest the fire.

Historians frequently write of the "parties" of the Assembly. These were not organised groups but rather shifting alliances which represented a number of differing points of view on certain issues, usually having to do with church govern­ment.

Some of those named as members were committed to episcopal church govern­ment, including three bishops. None of them participated in the main work of the Assembly. A number of English ministers were "pragmatic Pres­byterians", open to pres­byterial church government as the only viable option in the circumstances, but favoured limited rule by bishops. A small number of Assembly members were called Erastians. They defended the supremacy of the civil magistrate in the church. Their most eminent spokesman was a member of Parliament, John Selden. They had powerful allies in Parliament, where there was much distrust of a church which would operate with some independence from the state.

There were many in the Assembly who were com­mitted to presbyterian church government as a matter of conviction. They had been taught by the writings of the Elizabethan Puritan leaders Thomas Cartwright and Walter Travers. On most matters they agreed with the Scottish commissioners.

Another small but influential group was the English independents (the name was given by their opponents); they held that theirs was a "middle way" between independency and presbyterianism. Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nye were their most prominent spokesmen.

Scottish Participation←⤒🔗

The members of the West­minster Assembly were Englishmen; they met on English soil, to debate the doctrine, worship and government of the Church of England. The work of the Assembly, however, had its most lasting effect in the Church of Scotland and her daughter churches. God's providence used military and political developments to bring this surprising out­come.

In 1643, the English Parliament seemed to be losing the war against the King. They sent a delegation to Scotland, which had already successfully resisted Charles, to obtain the help of the Scottish Army. The treaty under which Scotland agreed to send assistance was called the Solemn League and Covenant. Its terms included a commitment by the countries to seek to bring the churches of England, Ireland and Scotland into "the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, confession of faith, form of church government, direc­tory for worship and catechising".

To implement that pledge, commissioners were sent to participate in the Westmin­ster Assembly. The com­missioners were ruling elders Lord Maitland and Archibald Johnston and ministers Alexander Henderson, Samuel Ruther­ford, Robert Baillie and George Gillespie. They were very active in the debates and committee work of the Assembly, but did not vote.

As the Assembly com­pleted work on the various documents, they were sent not only to the English Parliament but also to the Scottish Parliament and to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Documents←⤒🔗

The composition of a new confession was not the primary purpose for which the Assembly was called. However, the situation changed with the adoption of the Solemn League and Covenant, which called for a common confession of faith. Neither the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England nor the Scots Confession of 1560 was deemed suitable for the purpose.

The Assembly spent nearly three years introduc­ing the Confession which came to bear its name. It embodied the Reformed faith as developed in Geneva by John Calvin and passed on by such British theolo­gians as Whitaker, Perkins and Ames. It was unique among the confessions of the Reformation in using covenant theology as a basic theological framework.

The Christian education materials of the 17th century were catechisms. Several members had published catechisms of their own before the Westminster Assembly met. It was natural, then, that the Assembly would provide for instruction in the doctrines of the confession by way of catechism. After an exten­sive effort to write a single catechism, the Assembly decided upon two: a short and plain one for those who were "common and un­learned" and another for those "of understanding" (Mitchell, Westminster Assembly, p. 418).

The Larger Catechism is known chiefly for the minute detail of its exposition of the Ten Commandments. It has many beautiful features which deserve to be better known. For example, it echoes the Heidelberg Catechism in treating obedience to God's law as the way in which a regene­rate person may express thanksgiving for God's grace in the Gospel. It has ques­tions on the doctrine of reve­lation, and on the church (missing in the Shorter Catechism). The application of redemption is treated under the themes of union and communion with Christ, emphasising the experiential dimension of Christian faith.

The Shorter Catechism was in Scotland the most popular and perhaps the most influential of the Westminster Assembly's pro­ducts. It is therefore ironic that the Scottish commis­sioners had very little to do with its composition: most of them had returned home before the Catechism came before the Assembly.

Other documents pro­duced by the Assembly are not so well known. The Assembly was largely occupied in debating matters of church government from September 1643 through to December 1644. The material they had approved in that period is now found in the document entitled The Form of Presbyterial Church Government. That docu­ment was a kind of progress report, not yet put into final form.

The Assembly's final word on church government is found in the Directory for Government. This never received official approval in either England or Scotland and is almost unknown today. It deserves more attention, as expressing more completely the views of the Assembly.

The Puritans were con­cerned that the worship of the church should be "according to the Word of God". The Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God included sections on the public read­ing of Scripture, prayer, preaching (with a splendid description of "Puritan plain-style preaching" and the necessary qualities of the preacher's work), the sacra­ments, the Lord's Day, marriage, care of the sick and burial of the dead, and days of public fasting and thanksgiving (a prominent feature of the piety of the time).

It had a paragraph on the singing of Psalms in praise. To implement uniformity in praise, the Assembly pro­duced a metrical psalter. Francis Rous, a lay member of the Assembly, had published the Psalms in metre. The Assembly revised his work, and directed that that book alone be used in the public worship of the church.

The Outcome←⤒🔗

The Westminster Assem­bly began with high hopes that Reformed Christianity would prevail in the British Isles. In God's providence, those who held such hopes were disappointed. The reform legislation prepared by the Westminster Assem­bly received qualified approval from the English Parliament, and was more fully ratified in Scotland. That approval was short-lived.

When Cromwell, a con­gregationalist, became Lord Protector, he put an end to efforts to install presbyterian government in the Church of England. When he invaded Scotland, he restricted the operation of the presby­terian government already in place. His regime was suc­ceeded by the tyrannical reign of Charles II, who repudiated his own oath of adherence to the Covenant and fiercely persecuted all who remained faithful.

When William and Mary came to the throne in the Revolution of 1688, the Church of England retained the episcopal government, the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, which had charac­terised its existence before the Westminster Assembly met.

In Scotland, The West­minster Confession was made the official creed of the church, but none of the other Westminster docu­ments was made part of the ecclesiastical law of the church. The other docu­ments, however, continued to have a significant impact in Scotland. The dissenting Presbyterian churches in Scotland, and Presbyterian Churches in other countries, have given official status not only to the Confession but also to a number of the other Westminster documents. Especially the Shorter Catechism has been known and loved, since memorisa­tion of it has been a standard requirement for children in Presbyterian churches. Interest in and discussion of the Westminster standards in our time seems to be increasing.

The history of the West­minster Assembly is both humbling and encouraging for Christians. It is humbl­ing, because it contains the story of the failure of earnest believers to achieve what they set out to do: the full reformation of the church "according to the Word of God". But it is also encouraging, because the Lord has used the work of the Assembly to give a theo­logical clarity and biblical direction to Reformed churches (and others!) for three and a half centuries. God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways. To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.