Archive for 'Westminster Assembly'
Westminster Assembly Project & Reformation Heritage Books
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by Danny Hyde.
The Westminster Assembly Project, best known for the edition of Assembly minutes and papers to be published by Oxford University Press, has now entered an extensive publishing agreement with Reformation Heritage Books.
John Bower has joined historian Chad Van Dixhoorn in launching three new series of books by the Westminster Assembly, and one series of new and classic studies on the Assembly, all being published by Reformation Heritage Books. It is hoped that both texts and studies will stimulate further research in the Assembly and the religious dimension of English civil war politics. Certainly future publications on British post-Reformation theology and Puritanism will be enriched by these publications, briefly described here.
Principal Documents of the Westminster Assembly. This series will produce the six chief works authored by the Assembly for covenanted uniformity of religion in England: the Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism, Shorter Catechism, Directory for Public Worship, Directory for Church Government, and The Psalter. Each volume will contain a historical introduction, a critical text, and multi-column comparisons of original manuscripts and early editions. The inaugural volume, The Larger Catechism, has been prepared by John Bower and scheduled for a launch in March 2010.
Writings of the Westminster Divines. The aim of this series is to provide scholarly editions of texts by Westminster Assembly members and commissioners. Volumes will include previously unpublished manuscripts as well as republications of rare editions. Carefully determined editorial standards will be used to ensure an authoritative product that is accessible to modern readers, while remaining reliable for students and scholars.
Westminster Assembly Facsimiles. With this new series, Reformation Heritage Books and the Westminster Assembly Project are providing electronic and print access to publications by Assembly members in their original form. Free PDF downloads will be made available through the Westminster Assembly Project website. The same text can be purchased for your collection in paperback and hard cover from Reformation Heritage Books.
Studies of the Westminster Assembly. Complementing the primary source material in the other series, the Assembly studies will provide access to classic studies that have not been reprinted and to new studies, providing some of the best existing research on the Assembly and its members.
For more information visit the Westminster Assembly Project. Be sure to check for more information on and about this project at our RHB website and blog.
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Days of Fasting and Prayer in the Reformed Tradition
Posted on 26. Nov, 2009 by Danny Hyde.
In honor of the National Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. today, I thought it would be beneficial to say a word or two about the history of days of fasting and prayer—whether focusing on penitence or thanksgiving—in the Reformed tradition. I would also like to offer a few reasons why this practice is beneficial but also why it is not followed as often in our time.
Some History
First, let me survey some of the history of days of fasting and prayer. These days have been in the church of Christ since the ancient church. In our Reformed tradition one reads of the Reformed churches in Switzerland (e.g., Ecclesiastical Ordinances of Geneva), the Netherlands, France, and England (see below) engaging in these services often, whether in times of great blessing or curse. One testimony of this in the tradition in which I minister, the Dutch Reformed tradition, is the prayer, “A General Confession of Sins, and Prayer Before the Sermon and on Days of Fasting and Prayer” (Psalter Hymnal, p. 181). This prayer was an application of articles 66–67 of the Church Order of the Synod of Dort, which said,
In times of war, pestilence, calamities, heavy persecution of the Churches, and other general distresses, the Ministers of the Churches shall request the Government to employ their authority and command that public days of Fasting and Prayer be appointed and set aside (art. 66).
The Churches shall observe, in addition to Sunday, also Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, with the following day, and whereas in most of the cities and provinces of the Netherlands the day of Circumcision and of Ascension of Christ are also observed, Ministers in every place where this is not yet done shall take steps with the Government to have them conform with the others (art. 67).
In our context now, days of prayer are traditionally held on the second Wednesday of March in relation to crops or on the National Day of Prayer (first Thursday in May).
Teaching in the Confessions
The Reformed Confessions also approve of such services and give us prescriptive details about them. In the Second Helvetic Confession, published by Heinrich Bullinger in 1566, he contrasted living a life of drunkenness with fasting:
For fasting is nothing else than the abstinence and temperance of the godly, and a watching and chastising of our flesh, taken up for present necessity, whereby we are humbled before God, and withdraw from the flesh those things with which it is cherished, to the end that it may the more willingly and easily obey the Spirit. Wherefore they do not fast at all that have no regard for those things, but imagine that they fast if they stuff their bellies once a day, and for a set or prescribed time do abstain from certain meats, thinking that by this very work wrought: they please God and acquire merit. Fasting is a help of the prayers of the saints and all virtues; but the fasts wherein the Jews fasted from meat, and not from wickedness, pleased God nothing at all, as we may see in the books of the Prophets.
Fasting, according to Bullinger, is an abstaining of the body with the goal of serving the Spirit. Bullinger then went on to distinguish public and private fasts and the need for both:
Now, fasting is either public or private. In olden times they celebrated public fasts in troublesome times and in the afflictions of the Church; wherein they abstained altogether from meat till the evening, and bestowed all that time in holy prayers, the worship of God, and repentance. These differed little from mournings and lamentations; and of these there is often mention made in the Prophets, and especially in the 2d chapter of Joel. Such a fast should be kept at this day, when the Church is in distress. Private fasts are used by every one of us, according as every one feels the spirit weakened in him; for so he withdraws that which might cherish and strengthen the flesh.
Bullinger applied what happened in ancient days to his own, saying that not only did the people of God “celebrate public fasts” in “olden times” during times of trouble, but “at this day” such fasts “should be kept” by us. Finally, Bullinger characterized the attitude of true Christian fasting in these words:
All fasts ought to proceed from a free and willing spirit, and such a one as is truly humbled, and not framed to win applause and the liking of men, much less to the end that a man might merit righteousness by them. But let every one fast to this end, that he may deprive the flesh of that which would cherish it, and that he may the more zealously serve God.
Fasting is not divine or ecclesiastical law, but the free and willing service of the Christian “that he may the more zealously serve God.”
Later, James Ussher wrote the Irish Articles of Religion in 1615 to express the Puritan faith in Ireland. Three of the 104 articles deal with fasting. Article 49 deals with the context for such days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer:
When almighty God smiteth us with affliction, or some great calamity hangeth over us, or any other weighty cause so requireth, it is our duty to humble ourselves in fasting, to bewail our sins with a sorrowful heart, and to addict ourselves to earnest prayer, that it might please God to turn his wrath from us, or supply us with such graces as we greatly stand in need of.
Ussher went on to describe fasting as “a withholding of meat, drink, and all natural food, with other outward delights, from the body, for the determined time of fasting” (art. 50). He went on to describe the inner aspect of fasting:
We must not fast with this persuasion of mind, that our fasting can bring us to heaven, or ascribe holiness to the outward work wrought; for God alloweth not our fast for the work sake (which of itself is a thing merely indifferent), but simply respecteth the heart, how it is affected therein. It is, therefore, requisite that first, before all things, we cleanse our hearts from sin, and then direct our fast to such ends as God will allow to be good: that the flesh may thereby be chastised, the spirit may be more fervent in prayer, and that our fasting may be a testimony of our humble submission to God’s majesty, when we acknowledge our sins unto him, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart, bewailing the same in the affliction of our bodies.
In continuity with Bullinger, Ussher saw fasting as an outward means whereby the soul was made more malleable to the work of the Spirit.
Following Ussher very closely, the Westminster Confession spoke briefly of fasting in the context of public worship:
The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear, the sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the Word, in obedience unto God, with understanding, faith, and reverence, singing of psalms with grace in the heart; as also, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ, are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God: beside religious oaths, vows, solemn fastings, and thanksgivings upon special occasions, which are, in their several times and seasons, to be used in an holy and religious manner (21.5; emphasis added).
In the Larger Catechism this is put more strikingly: “What are the duties required in the second commandment? The duties required in the second commandment are . . . religious fasting” (Q&A 108).
In the Assembly’s Directory for the Publick Worship of God, an entire section was taken up with “Publick Solemn Fasting.” The context is either a time of trouble or a time of seeking God’s blessing:
When some great and notable judgments are either inflicted upon a people, or apparently imminent, or by some extraordinary provocations notoriously deserved; as also when some special blessing is to be sought and obtained, publick solemn fasting (which is to continue the whole day) is a duty that God expecteth from that nation or people.
Before the service members prepared privately and were to assemble “early at the congregation.” A “large a portion of the day as conveniently may be” was taken up in “publick reading and preaching of the word, with singing of psalms, fit to quicken affections suitable to such a duty: but especially in prayer.” The Divines went on to give an outline of prayer:
Giving glory to the great Majesty of God, the Creator, Preserver, and supreme Ruler of all the world, the better to affect us thereby with an holy reverence and awe of him; acknowledging his manifold, great, and tender mercies, especially to the church and nation, the more effectually to soften and abase our hearts before him; humbly confessing of sins of all sorts, with their several aggravations; justifying God’s righteous judgments, as being far less than our sins do deserve; yet humbly and earnestly imploring his mercy and grace for ourselves, the church and nation, for our king, and all in authority, and for all others for whom we are bound to pray, (according as the present exigent requireth,) with more special importunity and enlargement than at other times; applying by faith the promises and goodness of God for pardon, help, and deliverance from the evils felt, feared, or deserved; and for obtaining the blessings which we need and expect; together with a giving up of ourselves wholly and for ever unto the Lord.
In prayer, ministers were “to speak from their hearts” so that both they and the people would be “much affected, and even melted thereby, especially with sorrow for their sins; that it may be indeed a day of deep humiliation and afflicting of the soul.”
Preaching texts were to be chosen based on what “may best work the hearts of the hearers to the special business of the day, and most dispose them to humiliation and repentance.”
Today’s Need
1. By instituting days of fasting and prayer today, we will be continually bringing our worship and life under the teaching of Scripture as it has been applied throughout church history.
2. By instituting days of fasting and prayer, we will be reminded of the greatness of our sins and misery in a public way and to be reminded of the necessity of true repentance and seeking the Lord.
3. By instituting days of fasting and prayer, we will publicly and corporately lift up the special needs of our congregations before the Lord. We need to dedicate ourselves to praying for the church’s inward condition and outward focus. Inwardly, we need to plead for our particular congregational needs, to plead for the wayward in our midst, to plead for our marriages, to plead for our children, to plead for godliness, and to plead for the preaching to be powerful. Outwardly we need to plead for passion in effectively witnessing, for the gospel to bear much fruit through us, and to see our congregations grow year by year.
The Impediments
What are some common impediments to holding services of fasting and prayer? Here are a few as I conclude:
1. No doubt the main culprit is our own spiritual laziness. As John Calvin said in his lectures on Joel 2:
. . . this practice has not been abolished by the gospel. And it hence appears how much we have departed from the right and lawful order of things; for at this day it would be new and unusual to proclaim a fast. How so? Because the greater part are become hardened; and as they know not commonly what repentance is, so they understand not what the profession of repentance means; for they understand not what sin is, what the wrath of God is, what grace is. It is then no wonder that they are so secure, and that when praying for pardon is mentioned, it is a thing wholly unknown at this day. But though people in general are thus stupid, it is yet our duty to learn from the Prophets what has always been the actual mode of proceeding among the people of God, and to labor as much as we can, that this may be known, so that when there shall come an occasion for a public repentance, even the most ignorant may understand that this practice has ever prevailed in the Church of God, and that it did not prevail through inconsiderate zeal of men, but through the will of God himself (Calvin, Commentaries on Joel, 14:45).
2. Another culprit are our overly scheduled and busy lives. Sadly, we are too busy to pray.
3. Finally, we are ignorant that one of the ordinary biblical means of seeking the Lord’s blessing is through public congregational fasting and prayers of penitence and thanksgiving.
Brothers and sisters, our light is getting dimmer and our saltiness is losing its savor. Let us seek the Lord through fasting and prayer in congregational services.
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Puritan Moralism?
Posted on 13. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.
Antinomianism has always been an enemy of the true Christian faith. As Rabbi Duncan said: “All sin is antinomianism” because all sin is against God’s law. The recent work of Chad van Dixhoorn has demonstrated that the major enemies of the Westminster divines were not the Roman Catholics or even the crypto-Popish Laudians, but instead Antinomian theologians whose influence in the 1640s was rapidly gaining ground. Other examples, besides the 17thC, would be the Majoristic controversy in 16thC or the Marrow debate in 18thC. But, in this post, I want to focus on the Puritans and their views on the necessity of holiness for all Christians. [...]
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Frequency of the Lord’s Supper in 17th Century Britain
Posted on 13. Sep, 2009 by Rowland Ward.
We all know John Calvin (1509–1564) argued for frequent, even weekly communion, but had to settle for less because of his particular situation in Geneva. However, other Reformers did not always share his view. Heinrich Bullinger’s (1504–1575) Decades, which were very influential in England where they were prescribed for preachers, regard frequency as lacking specific direction in Scripture and thus being a matter of the discretion of each church.
John Knox’s (ca. 1505–1572) Liturgy of 1556, reflecting the practice of the congregation of English exiles in Geneva, includes a rubric, ‘The Lord’s Supper is commonly administered once a month, or so oft as the congregation shall think expedient.’ However, the First Book of Discipline of 1560, while recognising the sufficiency of the order of Geneva (II.2), added more specific instruction: ‘Four times a year we think sufficient for the administration of the Lord’s table, which we desire to be distincted [distinguished/specified], that the superstitions of times may be avoided as far as may be…’ (XI.5). Anxious to avoid the observance of the Supper at Easter, which many thought gave special virtue to it, the Book of Discipline specified the first Sunday in each of March, June, September and December. [This is what is common in most Australian Presbyterian churches to this day.] It added, ‘We do not deny but any several kirk for reasonable causes may change the time, and may minister more often, but we study to repress superstition.’
In 1562 the Scottish General Assembly ordained that the Communion be celebrated four times in the year within towns, and twice in the year in the country. Even so, with the shortage of ministers, frequency was often far less, even once a year, sometimes spread over several Sundays if the population was large.
The usage of the Independents of the 1640s of a weekly or monthly communion was one which did not impact in Scotland, and frequency in Scotland was commonly annual for a considerable period. [There was also the factor of cost. Wine, a good mouthful per person, was expensive for a poor country like Scotland given the congregation might number many hundreds.]
Practice in the Church of England could accommodate a greater frequency. The Prayer Book (1559) and Canons (1603) were for at least three times a year, but in practice few communicated more than once, and then at Easter. William Pemble (1591–1623) wrote: “…Satan hath done much by his malicious policy to corrupt men’s hearts in the observance of it: when the Sacrament was administered often he brought it into contempt by the commonness of it; now that it is administered seldom through ignorance, it is abused and neglected as unnecessary.”
Pemble lamented that if there had been no civil law requiring attendance at least once a year, the Lord’s Table would be left without guests. Communion practice declined with the ejection of non-conformists to the new order of 1662, as they were often the more committed people, and monthly communion was found among them.
In the Directory of the Westminster Assembly the term “frequently” has enough elasticity to allow for the quarterly or half yearly practice of the Scots, and the more frequent practice in (some) English Puritan circles. George Gillespie (1613–1648) records: “But the Committee went through in order; and first, objection was made against that first section, which leaves to the discretion of the pastor and elders of each congregation how oft the communion is to be celebrated. It was desired that they might be tied, at least, to four times a-year, since the Apostle and Christ speak of often celebration. I said, There is no ground from Scripture or otherwise to determine four times a year, for this should resolve in the arbitrement of men. If congregations abuse this liberty, the presbytery at visitation of churches can help it. Mr Newcomen declared that all the new gathered churches have the sacrament every Lord’s day in the afternoon. To avoid this debate of the time, it was added in the beginning, The Lord’s Supper is to be administered frequently.” [Notes of Proceedings of the Assembly, 102.]
In the recent Volume 3 of Ligon Duncan (ed.), Westminster Confession into the 21st Century (2009), Wayne Spear has two interesting articles that suggest the general mind of the Assembly was not quite along Calvin’s line where Cavin seems to suggest a Real Presence of a nature that means we get something extra that we do not have in the ordinary preaching. A more general Reformed view would be that we receive in the Supper what we receive in the ordinary ministry but in a different way that stoops to our weak capacity.
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Westminster Assembly Picture Review
Posted on 05. Sep, 2009 by Rowland Ward.
“Assertion of Liberty of Conscience by the Independents in the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 1644.”
Painted by John Rogers Herbert, RA, ca. 1844.
This is a well-known picture republished [December 2007] by permission of the Palace of Westminster Collection in a high quality full-colour format measuring 24” x 36” by Rev Andrew Moody of ReformationArt.com. It comes complete with the key identifying the 67 persons pictured. A colour reproduction made in 1993 for the 350th anniversary of the commencement of the Assembly is of lesser quality.
The story of the picture is little known and is as follows. A Congregational minister, Rev Dr James W. Massie (1799–1869), who had been a missionary in India 1822–39, and was Secretary to the Home Missionary Society of the Congregational Union, suggested the picture and drew the outline.1 J.R.Herbert (1810–90) was a well regarded painter who had converted to Roman Catholicism about 1840 through the influence of the up-and-coming architect-designer of Gothic revival, A.W.N.Pugin (1812–52). Pugin was involved with the design of the new Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) following the disastrous fire of 1834. From about this time Herbert’s pictures are largely of religious subjects. Perhaps the 200th anniversary of the 1644 event pictured was in Massie’s mind. Certainly the Westminster Assembly picture belongs to about this period, and was exhibited by Massie in connection with his lecture series in various British cities on Liberty of Conscience from at least February 1846. The artist was permitted to view the Jerusalem Chamber by the Dean of Westminster 1842–45, Thomas Turton, and provides a faithful representation2 of the main meeting place of the Assembly, as he also does with most of the individuals pictured. The picture was issued as an engraved print by Thomas Agnew, Printseller to the Queen and Prince Albert, Exchange Street, Manchester on 16 December 1648. An interesting review appeared in The Baptist Magazine for August 1849.3
According to The Baptist Magazine,4 the printed prospectus of 1848 describes the scene in which Philip Nye, one of the five Independents in a largely Presbyterian Assembly, asserts ‘that, by God’s command, the magistrate is discharged to put the least discourtesy on any man, Turk, Papist, Socinian, or whatsoever, for his religion. They were for union in things necessary, for liberty in things unnecessary, and for charity in all.’ In other words, the claim is made that the Independents affirmed full toleration of all religious groups. The looks of surprise/horror on various faces is intended to reflect reaction to this bold affirmation. Accordingly, the original print under the 1848 title gives a reference to Robert Baillie’s Letters (Vol. 2, p. 146)—“We were all highly offended at him – all cried him downe.”
However, if one looks up the Baillie reference, one finds Nye was opposing the Presbyterian desire for uniformity and therefore he urged toleration of all whose errors were not fundamental, as for instance the difference in church government between the Independents and the Presbyterians. But as to the toleration of those not orthodox in fundamentals, Baillie is a witness that the Independents at the Assembly were of the same mind as the Presbyterians, and opposed those—not members of the Assembly—such as John Goodwin, who favoured toleration of the various religions mentioned.5
Massie, as the one behind the commissioning of the picture, represented Nye and his fellow Independents as advocates of complete toleration in his lectures,6 but cites Baillie in a completely inaccurate fashion. The careful Baptist historian, E.B.Underhill, pointed out Massie’s erroneous claim in The Baptist Magazine for October 1847. His critique, slightly extended, was subsequently published.7
The picture is an impressive one. There is a certain artistic licence in that men who were not actual members are included, such as Baxter, Owen, Cromwell and Milton.8 It might seem strange that this picture of an Assembly dear to Presbyterians should have been conceived by an Independent who claimed too much for his party, be painted by a Roman Catholic convert, and represent that which Presbyterians of the time opposed as inimical to the reformation of the British church. But that’s how it is in God’s providence. But it is a picture capable of providing a useful talking point. I like The Baptist Magazine’s suggested alternative title: “The Westminster Assembly receiving Philip Nye’s development of the tendencies of Presbyterianism.”9
[This article first appeared in the February 2008 issue of The Presbyterian Banner.]
1 Extract from the Liverpool Albion 21 February 1846 as cited in J.W.Massie, Liberty of Conscience Illustrated. (London: John Snow, 1847) viii.
2 Liberty of Conscience, 138.
3 The Baptist Magazine for 1849 (London: Houlston & Stoner, 1849) 494-498.
4 Page 495.
5 Baillie, Vol 2, 145-146; note also Vol 2, 122.
6 Liberty of Conscience, 112.
7 The Independents not the first assertors of the principle of full liberty of conscience: with especial reference to the views of the five dissenting brethren in the Westminster Assembly of Divines (1849) 18pp.
8 See the justification for the presence of these spectators in Liberty of Conscience, 98-99.
9 P. 498.
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WCF: Supra or Infra?
Posted on 05. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.
The Westminster Confession of Faith is sometimes deliberately ambiguous, which allows theologians with disagreements to adopt the Confession as a faithful summary of the Scripture’s teaching. For example, regarding eschatology, there were a good deal of chiliasts (millennialists) at Westminster (e.g. Goodwin), but there were also ‘Augustinians’, namely, the Scots (e.g. Robert Baillie). Yet, both could agree with the basic teaching of the Confession on ‘last things.’ [...]
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Re-thinking Calvin and the “Calvinists”
Posted on 02. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.
Assessing Calvin’s relationship to the so-called “Calvinists” is not easy to determine. Methodological, historical, and theological matters need to be appreciated and understood if we are to move forward in this much-vexed debate.
This may surprise some, but it needs to be said that for the most part Calvin’s theology was not original. At least, he did not wish to view himself that way. On some doctrines he did make unique contributions, namely, the Son’s aseity and Christ’s “descent” into Hell. Interestingly, both of these contributions produced a firestorm of debate among his successors in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly at the Westminster Assembly. [...]
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Debating Baptism @ The Westminster Assembly
Posted on 02. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.
Debates on the efficacy, or lack thereof, of baptism are nothing new. At the Westminster Assembly there were some interesting debates, one of which included how to view children who had been baptized. The debate concerned how to understand the word “holy” in 1 Cor. 7:14. Thanks to the work of Chad van Dixhoorn, we have better access to the Minutes of the Westminster Assembly and can better understand the dynamics of writing Confessions. [...]
