By Rev. John Colquhoun, Glendale
The Westminster Standards
The Westminster Assembly of Divines had its origin in troublous times and the fruit of it was what is known as the Westminster Standards, that is, the Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Directory for Public Worship, and the Form of Presbyterian Church Government. Through the mis-rule of King Charles I., he and his Parliament took opposite sides, and men flocked to the standards of each. The Council of Scotland twice attempted to mediate between the King and the English Parliament, but while the Parliament approved of this, the King commanded them to be content with their own settlement, and not interfere with the affairs of another nation. In 1642 the English Parliament, understanding that the General Assembly was to meet in Edinburgh in July, addressed a communication to them in view of the perilous situation, expressing their desire to avoid a civil war, and to promote reformation in both Church and State. In the Assembly’s reply a recommendation was made that there should be unity in religion, “that in all his majesty’s dominions there might be one Confession of Faith, one Directory of Worship, one public Catechism, and one form of Church Government.” At the same time a letter from a number of English Divines was addressed to the Assembly to the same effect. Thus we find that the first motion for uniformity of doctrine, worship and government, put forward as a church, came from the Church of Scotland, and it found congenial soil in the hearts of the godly in England. During the Treaty of Oxford a bill was presented to the King asking him to call a Synod of the most grave Divines to devise means to bring about uniformity of religion and also civil and religious liberty, which his majesty rejected. When the King acted thus, Parliament resolved to convene the Synod on its own authority.
The Assembly of Divines met for the first time on 1st July 1643 in Westminster, under the ban of the King, who issued a proclamation on 22nd June forbidding them to meet for the purposes specified by Parliament, but despite the King’s ban, they continued to meet with the sanction of what was known as the Long Parliament. During the years which they sat, though there were one hundred and seventy-four members appointed by Parliament, yet only between sixty and eighty seemed to be the average daily attendance, of which, it is significant, none were bishops. We are not here concerned with the history of the Westminster Assembly but rather with its fruits and these are set forth in the documents which it produced. Its purpose was to establish uniformity of belief, church government, and mode of worship in England, Scotland, and Ireland. This was the expressed desire of the Assembly of the Church of Scotland as has been noticed already. That this desire was not fulfilled is, in no way, the fault of the General Assembly, nor of the Westminster Assembly. Other factors were at work which need not detain us here.
Though the Confession of Faith was not the first document in order to be produced, yet we are warranted to consider it first in this sketch. It was the work of a Committee of the most learned divines, including the Scottish Commissioners. These produced a document of thirty-three chapters, which was Calvinistic through and through. This may raise the question, What is Calvinism? It is the system of doctrine which John Calvin, the Genevan Reformer, found in the Word of God, and which he presents to us in a systematic form in his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion. When compiling their Confession of Faith the Westminster Divines went to the same source as Calvin, and it is a noteworthy fact that, while they do not mention a single heresy which was extant in their day, or from the beginning of the Christian era, yet they give in clear and concise language what the Scriptures say on every view which they deal with, so that it was easy at a later date to affix proof texts to every statement which they produced. As Dr. Hetherington says, “All that learning the most profound and extensive, intellect the most acute and searching, and piety the most sincere and earnest, could accomplish, was thus concentrated in the Westminster Assembly’s Confession of Faith, which may be safely termed the most perfect statement of Systematic Theology ever framed by the Christian Church.” History of the Westminster Assembly, 3rd edition, p.345. This document is one of the subordinate standards of the Church in Scotland, and is, in no way intended to supplant the Scriptures. The matter has been well put in the following statement:- “The Christian Church, as a divine institution, takes the Word of God alone, and the whole Word of God, as her only rule of faith; but she must also frame and promulgate a statement of what she understands the Word of God to teach. This she does, not as arrogating any authority to suppress, change, or amend anything that God’s Word teaches; but in discharge of the various duties which she owes to God, to the world, and to those of her own communion. Since she has been constituted the depositary of God’s truth, as it is her duty to Him to state, in the most distinct and explicit terms, what she understands that truth to mean. In this manner she not only proclaims what God has said, but also appends her seal that God is true. Thus a Confession of Faith is not the very voice of divine truth, but the echo of that voice from souls that have heard its utterance, felt its power, and are answering to its call. And, since she has been instituted for the purpose of teaching God’s truth to an erring world, her duty to the world requires that she should leave it in no doubt respecting the manner in which she understands the message which she had to deliver.” Ibid. p. 347.
The distinguishing note of the Westminster Confession is the prominence given to the doctrines of grace, and, therefore it is in the highest sense evangelical. It, along with the other subordinate standards, sets forth the whole counsel of God as set forth in the Scriptures, and summarises the doctrines of the Word of God in clear and concise language and altogether fitted to show forth the whole doctrine of the Bible.
On the 4th August 1647 the Confession of Faith was ratified by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Dr. Hetherington says of this Assembly, “This, therefore, may be regarded as the Assembly by which was completed the Second Reformation of the Scottish Church, and the full arrangement of its Confession, form of Worship and Discipline, as they exist at the present day, and as we trust will ever exist, till the second coming of Him who is the only Head and King of the Church,” History of the Church of Scotland, 6th. ed. p. 114. It was also ratified by the Scottish Parliament on 7th June 1690. This was the Act which settled Presbyterian Church government in Scotland, and it was expressly meant that these standards would be the common standards for the three kingdoms. Not only so but the Confession of Faith was embodied in the Act of Security, which in turn was embodied in the Act of Union which became the bond of union between England and Scotland, and the first oath that the monarch of this country has to swear on his accession is that he will support and protect the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Dr. Alex. F. Mitchell of St. Andrews says, “True it has failed to bind together the Established Churches of England and Scotland; but it has not failed to bind the Church which has held by it, to many sister and daughter Churches of which she has no cause to be ashamed. It binds her to many in Scotland who have gone out from her, but who still cling to her standards and forms of worship and perhaps at times rebuke the more sharply just because they love her. It binds her to the orthodox Presbyterian churches of England and Ireland, of Canada and Australia, as well as to the great Presbyterian Churches in the United States of America. Our only hope of a really united Presbyterian Church lies in substantial adherence to it; and if we will only be true to our Church, and vigilantly improve our opportunities, I do not think we have any cause to despair of this, and even more extensive good. She needs no blank shield nor banner with new device, but only her old faith and life in Christ; and he who has preserved her as a witness for truths precious to the greatest doctors of the West, and bound up with their deepest spiritual experiences, may yet own her as evidently as He has lately done the little Jansenist Church of Holland, and say of her, ‘Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it.’ She has once already saved the Reformation in England, and may help to do it again.” Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, 1644-1649, Introd. lxxviii.
As was shown already the Westminster Standards were Calvinistic, and being the Constitution of the Church in Scotland, that Church was an upholder of Calvinism out and out. To depart from Calvinism was a substitution of Calvinism and a departure from the original foundation. For this the Constitution made no provision, and, therefore, if such a change took place it placed those who made the change outside the Constitution. This was made clear in the House of Lords’ decision in the Free Church Case in 1904. Lord Robertson, in giving his decision said:- “But that the Confession of Faith is ‘the truths of God’ was solemnly attested to be the personal belief of all who signed it. That this was found to be a hard yoke is credible, and has been asserted. Of the means at the command of the Free Church to alleviate this pressure I do not know. But what she has now done is to substitute a belief in the doctrine of the Church as expressed in the Confession of Faith, and the general words in the first of the declarations, adopted by the United Assembly on 31st October 1900, make it plain that the doctrine of the Church as part of her constitution is intended to be mutable. This places the Confession of Faith in a precarious instead of a stable position, and in my opinion this is an abandonment of the essential characteristic of the Free Church.”
(To be continued)