Covenanted Uniformity in Religion

Spear, Wayne R. Covenanted Uniformity in Religion: The Influence of the Scottish Commissioners on the Ecclesiology of the Westminster Assembly. Studies on the Westminster Assembly. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage, 2013, 236 pp., hc. ISBN 978-1-60178-244-1

Up until last year, access to Wayne Spear’s 1976 Ph.D. thesis was limited to bound photocopies of the typed disseration. Now, thirty-seven years after it was submitted and eight years after his retirement from the Chair of Systematic Theology at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, PA, Spear’s research is at last in print and might have the audience which it deserves.

The subtitle, The Influence of the Scottish Commissioners on the Ecclesiology of the Westminster Assembly, describes what the book is about. After the preface and introduction, there is the first part of the book which has three chapters. Chapter one sets out the historical background of the Westminster Assembly. Chapter two describes the way that the Assembly conducted business, with an emphasis on the structure of the committees. Chapter three deals with the Scottish Commissioners and their work.

The second part has four chapters which treat the church and its officers, the local church, governmental assemblies, and ordination. The pattern followed by Spear is to state the final formulation at which the Assembly arrived; to describe how, through the work of the committees, the formulation was developed; and to pick up on issues which were of particular interest to the Scots by describing the existing Scottish practice and noting the extent to which the Scottish Commissioners were able to either persuade the English Divines to adopt the Scottish way or to safeguard its continuation in the Church of Scotland. While doing this, Spear also notes the differences between the Scots and the English over which elements of church government were considered to be mandated by the Word or which were agreeable to the Word.

Drawing from his research, Wayne Spear concludes by describing what use was made of the Form of Presbyterial Church Government composed by the Westminster Assembly in England and Scotland, reviewing the aims of the Scots at the Assembly, and analysing the degree of Scottish success.

Perhaps the first question to ask is: Why publish a dissertation completed in 1976 now? The answer is that until Chad Van Dixhoorn’s edition of the minutes of the Westminster Assembly arrived in 2012, access to this primary source of material was rather limited. Now, with this increased access comes increased interest in, and opportunity to interact with, studies which have relied on this source. Spear’s work is one such study.

A second question might be: Where does Covenanted Uniformity in Religion fit in the historiography of the Form of Presbyterial Church Government?

In 1969, J. R. De Witt’s Jus Divinum was published which in many ways supported the 19th century consensus that the majority of the Westminster Divines were jus divinum Presbyterians who were debating with an Independent minority over the form of government which the Assembly would advise the English Parliament to institute in the Church of England. Robert S. Paul, writing in 1985, countered that the majority of the Westminster Divines were pragmatic Presbyterians who would have preferred something along the lines of Ussher’s Primitive Episcopacy. In a 1993 essay, De Witt conceded that his original description of the Presbyterian party at the Assembly required nuance. Two years later, in the introduction to a reprint of one of the most important written works to come out of the debates, Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici, David W. Hall states that that 1646 book reflects the original intent of the majority of the Westminster Divines on the subject of church government.

Spear’s study shows that R. S. Paul is more or less correct; that De Witt was wise to revise his thesis; and that all that the existence of “Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici” proves is that there were English Presbyterians who were in close agreement with the Scots and who fared as well or as badly as the Scots in the Assembly’s debates and final formulations.

Of the Form of Presbyterial Church Government, Spear concludes that if instituted, it would have established a Presbyterian government in England based on general biblical principles, while allowing the Scots to continue as they were. The Scottish Commissioners were unable to get essential parts of their system established on the basis of divine institution, but were able to stop any of those essential parts being excluded from the final formulations. He also concludes that if jus divinum is an essential part of the definition of Presbyterianism, then the Form of Presbyterial Church Government is sub-Presbyterian.

A third question might be: Do I need this book? If you have an interest in Presbyterianism, whether as an academic study or as the form of government to which you adhere, then the answer is yes. This book is an introduction to, summary of, and bibliography for historic Scottish Presbyterian Principles. A grasp of these principles is required to understand the background and context of all subsequent discussions. You have know your Gillespie before you can interact meaningfully with Thornwell and Hodge.

This review originally printed here, on pages 90-92:

http://haddingtonhouse.org/.../Book-Reviews-and-Briefs.pdf