Lecture 24: Anglicans and Puritans
The great document of English Puritanism is the “Westminster Confession”
(1647), composed by an assembly of Puritan theologians at the request of
Parliament during the English Civil War. The “Westminster Confession”
is a classic statement of the covenant theology that had developed in the
Reformed tradition. A key teaching of covenant theology, going back
to Calvin, is that the Old Testament and the New Testament are two
administrations of one and the same covenant of grace in Jesus Christ.
The only other covenant between God and humanity was the “covenant of
works,” which Adam violated. Covenant theology is sometimes also called
“federal theology,” from a Latin word meaning “covenant.” Later Reformed
theologians developed the concept of an eternal covenant of redemption
between God the Father and God the Son.Major disagreements arose in 17th-century England over church governance
or polity. The Church of England had an episcopate, and thus an episcopal
polity. The episcopate is a governing structure of bishops. The English word
“bishop” comes ultimately from the Greek word episcopos, meaning literally
“overseer” or “supervisor,” the word from which we also get “episcopate.”The Presbyterians were Puritans who were convinced that the church should
be governed by synods or councils of ministers holding the New Testament
of¿ ce of elder or presbyter. “Presbyter” comes from the New Testament
Greek term presbuteros, which means “elder.” The Presbyterians believed
in the equality of all ministers, and hence rejected a hierarchy of ministers.Some Puritans, called “Independents,” argued for a congregationalist polity,
in which each local congregation was self-governing. Unlike Presbyterians,
Congregationalists rejected the “parish principle,” according to which
individuals are born and baptized into the local parish church, which
belongs to a national church. From this radical congregationalism emerged
the Baptists. Ŷ