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The English Presbyterians in the Westminster Assembly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Ethyn Williams Kirby
Ethyn Williams Kirby
Affiliation:
Thetford Center, Vermont
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Extract

In 1643 the Long Parliament, confronted by war with the king and by religious anarchy, called an assembly of divines to advise it on the steps which must be taken to reform the church. The situation clearly called for decisive action. The bishops, shorn of their political power, had retired to live in their sees or to join the king. Many clergymen, suspected of royalist sympathies or unpopular because of their ritualistic tendencies, had been ejected from their parishes; others, like Thomas Fuller, non-ritualistic but royalist, had left to join the king; while other loyal Anglicans remained in their parishes with the support of their patrons or their church wardens and thus presented a threat to parliament. Furthermore, with the old discipline gone, sectaries had sprung up. To fill the vacant pulpits, to provide a form of ordination for those who objected to prelatical ordination, to substitute for the Prayer Book a simpler form of worship, and, most of all, to clip the wings of the bishops or to replace episcopal government with a system nearer to that of the reformed churches,— these were the tasks which confronted parliament. To accomplish them it went back to an action of 1642, when it had appointed a number of ministers of anti-Laudian, Presbyterian, or Independent views to act as advisors in the settlement which it hoped to reach with the king.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 1964 , pp. 418 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1964

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References

1. Lightfoot, John, Works (13 vol. London, 1824)Google Scholar, Vol. XIII contains the Journal; Gillespie, George, Works (2 vol., Edinburgh, 1844)Google Scholar, vol. II contains the “Notes of Debates and Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines;” Baillie, Robert, Letters and Journal (2 vol., Edinburgh, 1775).Google Scholar Carruthers, S. W., The Everyday Work of the Westminster Assembly (Philadelphia, 1943)Google Scholar provides the background.

2. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 170.

3. SirWarwick, Philip, Memoirs, (London, 1701), p. 176.Google Scholar

4. Baillie, op. cit., II, 62, 67; Baillie called Herle Nye's “good friend,” p. 33.

5. Apologeticall Narration… (London, 1644)Google Scholar, preface; only five of the Independent members of the Assembly evidently were concerned in this petition: Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nyc, William Bridge, Jeremiah Burroughs, Sidrach Simpson; although there were several other members of their persuasion.

6. Fuller, Thomas, Church History of Britain… (London, 1655), p. 199.Google Scholar

7. Commons Journals, II, 676, 677, 780, 802, 806, 808, 813Google Scholar; 533; 545.

8. Earl of Clarendon, , History of the Rebellion… (Oxford, 1707), Vol. I, Part I, 529, 530.Google Scholar

9. Fuller, op. cit., p. 199; according to Fuller only Bishop Westeott and a few others appeared the first day and did not return when they realized th anti-Anglican tone of the Assembly.

10. Byfield, Richard, Zions Answer… (London, 1645), pp. 21, 37.Google Scholar These sermons are to he found in the John Hay Library of Brown University; all of them were read, but only a few are cited, because it would make too long a bibliography to include theni all.

11. Bowles, Oliver, Zeal for Gods House… (London, 1643),Google Scholar dedication to House of Commons.

12. Thoroughgood, Thomas, Moderation Justified… (London, 1645), p. 3.Google Scholar

13. Hill, Thomas. The season of Gods Selfe Reflection… (London, 1644)Google Scholar, dedication.

14. Palmer, Herbert, The Necessity… (London, 1643), p. 64.Google Scholar Maynard, John, A Sermon… (London, 1645)Google Scholar, echoed this thought, pp. 19, 28, as did an Independent, Caryl, Joseph, An Exposition of the… Book of Job… (London, 1643), p. 362Google Scholar: “disunion and division is (sic) a great curse.” Matthew Newcomen, Richard Vines, Henry Wilkinon, and Anthony Burgess in sermons preached in these years also emphasized the need for a unified church.

15. Burgess, Anthony, Romes Cruelty… (London, 1645).Google Scholar See also Tuckney, Anthony, The Balme of Gilead… (London, 1644), pp. 26, 27Google Scholar; Hill, , The Militant Church Triumphant… (London, 1644), p. 14Google Scholar; Calamy, Edmund, Indictment against England… (London, 1645), pp. 34, 37, 38.Google Scholar

16. Bowles, op. cit.

17. Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 2.

18. Case, Thomas, The Quarrel of the Covenant… (London, 1643), pp. 42–44Google Scholar, for Chambers see A Divine Balance… (London, 1643), pp. 13, 43.Google Scholar

19. Coleman, , The Hearts Ingagement… (London, 1643), p. 38.Google Scholar

20. Bridge, William, A Sermon… (London, 1643), pp. 24, 27.Google Scholar

21. Nye, Philip, The Excellency of the Covenant… (London, 1643).Google Scholar

22. Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 67.

23. Carruthers, op. cit., Chapter IV.

24. Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 121; Gillespie, op. cit., II, 53.

25. From 1640 on sermons by both Presbyterians and Independents had violently attacked the prelacy both as an unscriptural institution and as a deterrent to godlinss. See Conant, John, The Woe and Weale… (London, 1643), pp. 39–40Google Scholar, for a statement that their attacks had “back fired.”

26. Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 24. The debate was renewed in January 1644, Ibid., pp. 122, 129, 131. Whether these aspirants for ordination were already in deacon's orders is not known; if they were it might explain the doubt in the Assembly as to the necessity of their ordination to the priesthood. For in the parliamentary church of the 1640's and 1650's (as opposed to Anglican usage) deacon's orders were considered adequate for the duties of a pastor. This is seen in at least two cases: that of John Bowles, whom the Assembly permitted to act as minister although he had never been priested (Gillespie, op. cit., II 71) and that of Richard Baxter, who ame to be a leader in the parliamentary church, although he never advanced beyond deacon's orders.

27. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 43, 44, 45, 54; Lightfoot, op. cit., II, 218–226.

28. Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 228.

29. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 54; Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 239.

30. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 54; Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 245, 250–253.

31. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 44.

32. Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 66–76; the quotation from Palmer is on p. 75.

33. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 38; Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 81.

34. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 66.

35. Gillespie, op. cit., II, 33.

36. The sermons were: Hill, , The Right Separation Encouraged… (London, 1645);Google Scholar Vines, , The Imposters Discovered… (London, 1644), p. 18.Google Scholar See also Palmer, , The Necessity… (London, 1643), pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

37. Lightfoot, op. cit., XIII, 106, 144–164; Gillespie, op. cit., II, 91–94.

38. Baillie's letters repeatedly express the angry frustration which the Scots felt at what they regarded as the betrayal of Presbyterianism by those upon whom they had counted as supporters; Samuel Rutherford, another Scottish delegate, reflected this feeling when in 1645 he noted that there were many others besides the Independents –“friends, even gracious men (so I conceive of them)” who “do not a little hinder the work” of reformation, Rutherford, , Letters, (New York 1881), p. 495.Google ScholarPubMed

39. Sedgwick, Obadiah, A Thanksgiving Sermon… (London, 1644), p. 30Google Scholar; see also Vines, op. cit., p. 37.