Chad Van Dixhoorn, God’s Ambassadors: The Westminster Assembly and the Reformation of the English Pulpit, 1643–1653. Reformation Heritage Books, 2017. 240 pages.
Chad Van Dixhoorn, the authority on the Westminster Assembly, offers an intriguing study of the Assembly and how it addressed issues of preaching and preachers.
The volume begins by setting the context of the Assembly in the Reformation and the Reformed emphasis on preaching (pp17-22). It then reviews the struggles over preaching which had marked the Church of England since the late 16th century (pp22-33). Most recently, Archbishop Laud had preferred the sacraments over preaching. At the commencement of the Long Parliament, which would call the Assembly, Cornelius Burgress and Stephen Marshall both preached sermons warning of the lack of preaching in England (p30). Both would be leading figures in the Assembly. In the following years, the removal of royal and episcopal censorship and the Civil War allowed a proliferation of unauthorised, untrained, and often unorthodox preachers. So, the Assembly faced a challenge to promote preaching and to also regulate it (pp31-38).
God’s Ambassadors then reviews the work of the Assembly. One task which the Parliament gave to the Assembly, somewhat unexpectedly, was that of examining ministers. Initially this was required for ministers displaced by the war who applied for a new living (typically one from which a royalist minister had been sequestered by Parliament). Soon the project expanded to examining all ministers who were seeking to change their livings, and then also to examine candidates for ordination — even after the Assembly would have preferred that this task be in the hands of Presbyteries. In all the Assembly, through forty-seven committees formed for the various tasks, conducted about 5,000 examinations. The discussion of this process sets it in the context of the convoluted procedures for granting a living in the pre-war Church of England (pp44-48). The Assembly developed protocols and questions for these examinations (pp49-57).
The Assembly divines were something of idealists and started the Assembly with reforming zeal. Much of the discussion of this volume reflects that. Yet the Assembly also had to give Parliament immediate practical advice about the disrupted Church of England in the midst of the civil war. God’s Ambassadors offers intriguing insights into the pragmatics of the Assembly, guided by its theology.
In Chapter 5, Van Dixhoorn considers the Assembly debates which reveal views of preaching. The first is a debate about whether pastors only should read the Scriptures in worship, and whether the reading could be longer than, or even different to, the preaching portion. He shows that in these debates some members of the Assembly were reacting to Laud’s elevation of reading of Scripture over preaching; others were more concerned to affirm the priesthood of all believers; others viewed the role of Old Testament priests as something of a model for Christian ministers; others remembered that the Reformation had recovered the reading of Scripture. Further debates dealt with whether the diaconate was a preaching office (answer, no) and whether catechising was a form of preaching (answer, yes, in 1643). The so called “Grand Debate” debate about church government included an interaction over whether the congregation in Jerusalem in Acts 2 was served by many lay-preachers. The congregationalist thought so, the Presbyterian majority considered there were several congregations served by their own ministers (p71).
Chapter 6 considers the Assembly’s directory on ordination, which became part of The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government. This set out the process for ordination, which had unsurprising parallels with the questions the Assembly used for examining ministers and candidates. It was clear that, in contrast to previous regimes, all clergy were to be preachers. It also introduced new experiences for congregations and ministers. Before the Presbytery determined to ordain or induct a minister, he was to visit the congregations for at least three days to preach and allow the congregation to assess if his gifts were appropriate for their edification. Then, the ordination would take place in the parish church, before the congregation (pp84-87).
The Directory for Public Worship (the subject of ch 7) has extensive directions about preaching (and even the inclusion of those was debated). Van Dixhoorn points out that the Assembly expected a preacher to be a scholar who could read the Bible in the original languages and use theology book; a worshipper who was prayerful and convicted of his message; an orator who could speak competently and plainly; an apologist who dealt with error and heresy; a pastor who applied the word to the flock; and a servant of Christ and his people. The Directory recommends that preachers use the structure William Perkins (1558-1602) outlined in his classic The Art of Prophesying — exegesis, statement of doctrine and application.
The final section of the book consists of six shorter chapters (8-13), each considering an aspect of preaching and how it was treated in the writings and speeches of Assembly members. Chapter 8 shows that Assembly members considered that preachers should be godly — “the assembly insisted on the necessity of personal holiness” in all preachers (p106). It was also important that they be well trained. Van Dixhoorn shows that the members of the Assembly also held that a preacher should be ordained. It is here that he highlights the title of the volume. A preacher is an ambassador who speaks with Christ’s authority — which means he must be commissioned by Christ, through his church (pp114-19).
Chapter 9 sets out the convictions of the Assembly members that preaching is the word of God and the ordinary of means for grace. This includes a short discussion clarifying how the Westminster view that preaching is the word of God differs from Karl Barth’s view, despite Barth’s claim to share the of the Reformers (pp123-24). To be fair to Barth’s historical theology, he contrasts his view with that of “Protestant orthodoxy” which he accuses of holding a “theory of inspiration, which implies a freezing, as it were, of the relation between Scripture and revelation”.[1] Van Dixhoorn highlights the same contrast.
Chapter 10 sets out how the members of the Assembly prioritised preaching over reading Scripture, reading sermons and private discussions — much as they valued each of each of them.
Chapters 11 and 12 are an intriguing discussion of Westminster hermeneutics. Preachers were to preach the whole of the Word of God, but to do so meant to preach Christ (pp143-47). For some (Edward Reynolds the prime example) this meant that Christ was the author, object and end of all preaching. Others (e.g. Philippé Delmé) no doubt held Christ to be the author and end of preaching, but were not so instant that Christ must explicitly be the content of the sermon (pp147-48). A related issue was the place of law and gospel in preaching. Here the members of the Assembly aimed to avoid the moralism which they saw typified the preaching of Arminians and yet to avoid the antinomian avoidance of the law as instruction for Christian living (pp148-50).
Chapter 12 traces two styles of Christological exegesis, the more usual Puritan pattern of deriving a doctrinal point and preaching that, as well as a style which focusses on “types, themes and pictures” found in the text.
The final substantial chapter records the conviction of the Assembly-men that effective preaching depends on the work of the Holy Spirit. Related to this, Van Dixhoorn notes that different members favoured different uses of notes in preaching — extempore, outlines and full notes. None thought the Spirit blessed only one method of delivery.
Why will you find this book worth reading?
This is history writing which is easy to read, and offers careful recounts of the details of Westminster deliberations.
If you are interested in the history of the Westminster Assembly, this careful study of the how the Assembly dealt with preaching offers all sorts of insights into the context, concerns and processes of the Assembly.
If you think preaching matters, it is heartening to understand
why the Assembly was convinced that preaching is the way God presents his embassy
to the world; and it is fascinating and informing to read the careful reflection
on the ministry of God’s ambassadors.
Reformation Heritage Books supplied a review copy of God’s Ambassadors
[1] Barth, K., Bromiley, G. W., & Torrance, T. F. (2004). Church dogmatics: The doctrine of the Word of God, Part 1 (Vol. 1, p. 124). London; New York: T&T Clark.