The Westminster Assembly

Post-Reformation England

The Reformation was a time of upheaval. The Roman church had been corrupted into thinking of salvation in terms of works, had added many erroneous teachings, and had used their system of works and purgatory to make a lot of money off of indulgences.

This had led, of course, to Martin Luther’s Reformation. He was not the only Reformer, however. John Calvin, who came after Luther, had really done the heavy lifting in systematizing the truths of Scripture in his Institutes. Going a step farther than Luther in many ways, he condemned many of the practices of the Catholic Church as compromising, and advocated a simple worship using only the things commanded by Scripture.

England was a bit late to the Reformation, but arrived in the midst of it in the form of the Anglican Church in 1534. Henry V desired a divorce from his bride, and as the Pope would not allow it, he separated the church in England from Rome and made himself head of the church, and then allowed himself to get divorced.

In the Anglican Church (or the Church of England), there were many Reformers who wanted the church to look similar to the church in Geneva where Calvin was. Unfortunately, there were still many who wanted to be Roman Catholic, who now found themselves to be priests or bishops in a church divorced from Rome. And so debates on different aspects of the church being maintained that were Roman Catholic in nature began to rage in the church.

The Puritans

Most all the churches of the Protestant stripe were writing statements on what they believed to combat the beliefs of the Roman Church. In 1563, the Anglican Church had a basic statement of faith written in the 39 Articles. They are still in effect today. This document was meant to ensure that those who were clergy in the Anglican Church did not believe in Catholic doctrine. However, there was quite a bit of wiggle room within the documents, and there was much that the head of the church (the King or Queen of England) still mandated for the pastors of the church. Many pastors were made to wear vestments, special priestly robes and ornamentation.

A sect of people in the church who wanted to press the Anglican Church to be more Reformed, that is, more like Calvin’s church, and return to simple worship, began to be called “Puritans” because they wanted to purify the church of all Roman doctrine. Many puritans gave up at times, and became “separatists,” leaving the Anglican Church altogether and starting their own congregations. This, however, was illegal. One had to be licensed by the state to preach at all.

But many Puritan preachers would merely ignore orders. There were many who, like the separatist friends, were thrown in prison for refusing to wear priestly vestments. Many were simply fired from their post. Some got away with it. The Puritans were a minority, yet a significant minority. We get a small glimpse into how Puritans were viewed in Shakespeare’s 12th Night, in which he makes fun of a Puritan by making him out to be very strict in his piety, and very judgmental of all non-Puritans whom he views as licentious and “antinomian” (someone who doesn’t believe in following the law of God).

While Puritans were very zealous for following God’s law, they were so because they were very zealous for following the Word of God, and the law set forth there. The law was there to point us to Christ, yes, but also for us to follow in gratefulness to Christ in all we do.

The Scots, to the north, had taken a different approach. John Knox, an early Reformer, had been quite successful in reforming the church to look similarly to Calvin’s church in Geneva, and in fact had begun to reform the government of the church to not be hierarchical, but Presbyterian.

Explain Presbyterianism.

By the time of the English Civil War in 1642, the king, who was the head of the church naturally, and the parliament, split the kingdom apart. The king is eventually killed, and Parliament takes full control. As many in Parliament were sympathetic to Puritans, the Puritans finally found themselves in a position of power. Not only that, but they were called upon by Parliament to draft something that would approve upon the vagueness of the 39 Articles. They were called upon to write a Confession of Faith at Westminster Abbey in 1649.

The Assembly

The Assembly met a total of 1,163 times over the course of many years. They hammered out doctrines on a host of subjects. They were even called upon to begin ordaining men to the ministry in the Church of England.

At first, there was quite a bit of disagreement. Many Puritans in England, though agreeing that the Word of God should be followed in full, had a great deal of disagreement on what that meant. The interpretive differences caused chaos.

Yet Scotland would help. The Scottish church had been Presbyterian for a while, and had confessional documents on their own. Many Scots came down from the North at the request of the Assembly, and men like Samuel Rutherford and George Gillespie became key figures in helping forge the Confession.

The documents were to become the standard of what all men must believe in order to hold office in the Church of England. This meant that finally vestments could be thrown to the side as the conscience was allowed to be free: only that which God prescribed would be commanded in worship. One could not require the people of God to come to worship and worship God in a way that He had not commanded. Furthermore, it would be an offense to God for us to think that we can invent our own ways to worship Him. For this purpose, the Assembly also drafted a “Directory for Public Worship.”

The Confession, of course, had other things to say. It was very keen to discuss theology very specifically concerning Scripture, God, His Divine Will, Salvation, Good Works, Free Will, the Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper), as well as much more.

Discussion Questions: What stood out to you in your reading of the first chapters of the book?