Historical Background

Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church insisted that civil authorities enforce conformity to Catholic teachings and practice. Those deemed heretics were punished and even executed. As the Reformation progressed, some civil authorities were convinced of the validity of Protestantism. This resulted both in wars between Protestant regions and Catholic regions and caused many refugees to flee. It was later accepted in some places that, “the religion of the prince determines the religion of that land.” From 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door, all the way until 1791, when in America, the Bill of Rights was ratified, it was normal for each country to have a national religion established and enforced by law. Even after 1791, some American States had established churches as late as 1833.^N Although there were places and periods of religious toleration, such as in Holland, the usual state of affairs was persecution of those not practicing the official religion as prescribed by civil authorities or the established church.⁷⁵

The absolutist King James (of KJV fame), king of England and Scotland, died in 1625. His son, Charles I, of like temperament, then became king. As the episcopal⁷⁶ system of church government resembles that of a civil monarchical government, King James, Charles, and others like them used the maxim, “no bishop, no king.”^O The Scottish people were largely Presbyterians, but King Charles attempted to jam episcopal and Roman Catholic type government and worship practices down the Scots’ throats. The Scots would have none of it, and successfully enforced their desires by the National Covenant of 1638 and against the king in 1639–40 with military force.^{P, Q}

In the meantime, King Charles was also making a mess of things in England by religious persecution and intolerable civil and religious tyranny, including oppressive substitutes for legal taxes. Only parliament could authorize more taxes, and parliaments⁷⁷ refused to do so, upon which Charles would dismiss that parliament. Finally, the Long Parliament refused to disband. The king was going to have to get his way with military force. Parliament was militarily much weaker than the king, so they appealed to the Scots for aid, to make a civil league with Parliament.

Now, the Church of England had been orthodox and Reformed in basic doctrine, but their worship and church government were largely after the Roman Catholic model; the king was effectively the “Pope” of the Church of England. But most of Parliament leaned Presbyterian. And, most Puritans⁷⁸ were Congregationalists, often termed Independents. Their beliefs were otherwise close to those of Presbyterians. Besides that, there were many in the Church of England who believed in the episcopal form of church government, but were otherwise doctrinally close to the Independents and Presbyterians. Parliament was of course well aware of the mess the king was making in the Church of England and of the divisions among themselves. Thus, they resolved to call an assembly of divines (their term for what today we call ministers, pastors, or preachers) to advise Parliament and help settle differences. The first task of this assembly, later known as the Westminster Assembly, was to revise the Thirty Nine Articles, the doctrinal standard of the Church of England.

The Scots had nothing to gain from aiding Parliament, and were certainly not about to unequally yoke themselves with non-Presbyterians after their hard fight to regain their ancient liberties. But Parliament was in no position to bargain, and the Scots’ help was largely motivated by charity and also by hope that England would be less of a future threat. The result was the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. In it, Scotland, England, and Ireland made what was both a civil alliance and a religious covenant to establish a uniform Presbyterian and Calvinist church in the three countries. Obviously, given the situation, there were a lot of details to be worked out.^R

Working out the details thus became the main task of the Westminster Assembly. There were four main areas of work for them as assigned by Parliament: a Directory for Worship, a Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith, and a Catechism, later produced as the Larger Catechism and Shorter Catechism. All of their work was produced with great and careful thought, discussion, and prayer. The first of these two were most important in the minds of Parliament and the Scottish Commissioners to the Assembly. While the Scottish Commissioners participated in and advised the Assembly, they were not actually part of it; they reported to the Church of Scotland instead.^S

The Westminster Assembly met from 1643 to 1652, a troubled time during which Charles I was beheaded, Oliver Cromwell rose to power, and Charles II ascended the throne of Scotland. The Confession of Faith was finished in 1647 and the two Catechisms in 1648.^T These three documents have seen very wide distribution all over the world, typically with some modifications due to denominational doctrinal differences. The Directory for the Public Worship of God was finished in 1644 and remains in use in a few denominations to this date.^U The Form of Church Government was far and away the most controversial due to the mix of Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Independent delegates, and was subject to much weakening by compromise of language and content. Although the majority of divines were Presbyterians, they had no desire to be tyrants to their brethren. Also, many in Parliament wanted civil control of the Church, something absolutely intolerable to the Scots. And, the Independents insisted that there would be no higher authority than the individual congregation. As a result of this disunity, the Divines finally left out much of the theology, and submitted a Practical Directory for Church Government to Parliament in 1645. This was adopted in part and published by Parliament in 1648, but never adopted by either of the Churches of England or Scotland.^V Copies exist, but are in little use. Once all four documents were done, the Scottish commissioners returned home, and most of the remainder of the Westminster Assembly’s time was taken up in examining candidates for ministerial office.

The history of the Westminster Assembly reminds one of the famous first transatlantic voyage of Christopher Columbus. He was commissioned to find a westward sea route to India and utterly failed. But in the process, he discovered the Americas, the Americas stayed discovered, and the world has greatly benefited. Likewise, the Westminster divines failed at Parliament’s most important mandate, to unify the form of church government in three kingdoms, and their work on worship is little regarded today. But what was then regarded as their less important work, the Confession and Catechisms, has become a great blessing for Christians around the world for centuries. And, this Sum of Saving Knowledge is the concentrate of that blessing. It is still printed in Scottish editions of the Westminster Standards and has been instrumental in many conversions to Christ^W and the edification of many believers, all to the praise and glory of God.

75 God has commanded believers to propagate His Word and Gospel to unbelievers and erring believers, and the Holy Spirit is often pleased to use Scripture, preached, shared, and applied, to convert the lost and sanctify believers. But only the Holy Spirit is able to convert and sanctify a sinner’s heart. Alas, the evil and futility of using government force to try to do the Holy Spirit’s work of changing hearts has been a hard lesson for the Church to learn.

76 Broadly speaking, there are three main systems of ecclesiastical government: In the episcopal system, authority flows from top down. The Roman Catholic Church is a prime example; the Pope is an absolute monarch. In the presbyterian system, congregations elect their ministers, elders, and other officers, subject to approval by the body of existing elders, often called a session. A plurality of elders is required. Each congregation sends elder delegates to the next higher body, the presbytery, and higher level bodies are over the presbyteries if the denomination is large enough. While most matters are settled by elders at the congregational level, appeal may be had to the presbytery, and upward to the highest body. Important matters of church government and statements of doctrine and belief are approved or generated in higher courts, but subject to approval by a specified numerical majority of sessions. In the congregational system of church government, full authority resides in each individual congregation. In practice, most congregational denominations have denominational associations.

77 The king could dissolve a parliament, so there was no Parliament as a permanent institution. Parliaments succeeded one another and were thus distinguished one from another. This was different from the modern sessions of Parliament.

78 Puritans (also called Precisionists back then) have been greatly maligned, largely because their zeal for piety infuriated those of loose morals—a situation that persists to this day. Like everybody else back then, they enforced some of their beliefs with civil force, a matter often exaggerated by modern critics.