PURITAN CHURCHES IN THE U.K.?
Many folks own and love reprinted works of the old British Puritans. R.C.M. was recently asked the question, "Are there still any Puritan Churches in England?"
We passed the enquiry on to our colleague Dr. Stephen Westcott in Somerset, England. Dr. Westcott replies:
"Puritanism was originally a 'nick-name' applied to those who desired a more thorough Reformation than that established by King Henry VIII (1491-1547) on his break with Rome, and Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). The key-note of Puritanism was a desire to frame all things in Christianity according to the BIble - God's authoritative word.
It was thus purity in doctrine and practice that was aimed at, although purity of life flows from those things. Some Puritans sought to futher reform the national Church (Church of England/"C of E") from within (the Church Puritans) others gave up on the Church of England and formed seperatist churches (or fled to Holland or New England).
After many struggles and much opposition, under the Long Parliament and when the Civil War was beginning, the Puritans were able to reform the National Church along more biblical lines (worked out at the Westminster Assembly of Divines, convened in 1643). They adopted the Reformed or Calvinistic doctrine as being biblical, and the Presbyterian Church system, as being founded on the Bible and the ancient synagogue system of the Jews, which was recognized by Jesus in the New Testament.
Presbyterianism contrast with the two other alternative systems: Episcopacy (Church of England, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy) which has a graded hierarchy up to an Archbishop or Pope (and was devised largely by the Emperor Constantine to control the Church on the lines of the Roman army and civil service as an arm of the State) on the one hand, and Independency (each local Church fully autonomous and complete in itself, with no formal links to any other on earth) on the other hand.
The attempt was made to organise a whole-Britain (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) national Presbyterian Church, but this was pevented by the return of the king (Charles II) in 1660, and the re-establishment of the Anglican hierarchy. (Over 2,000 godly Puritan pastors were ejected from their Churches on 24th September, 1662 in England alone. This was called "The Great Ejection").
Puritanism in doctrine continued, but the Puritans had become 'nonconformists' outside the establishment. Some became Baptists, many became Independents or Congregationalists (because it was impossible to keep up the organised structure of Presbyterianism under opposition and persecution.)
The term "puritan" dropped out of use by about 1700-1720, and the successors of the Puritans were to be found amongst the nonconformists and some (doctrinally Reformed) in the evangelical or 'low church' party with the C of E. Sadly Puritan Bibical truth declined rapidly. Many puritan (because biblical) emphases resurfaced in the 'Great Awakening' in the late eighteenth century, particularly in the ministry of George Whitefield and his circle. (cf. The Wesleys, as Arminianians, taught an evangelical faith that was seriously changed from the Reformation and Puritan belief).
In the early to mid Ninteenth Century the 'evangelical' Churches in England, both nonconformist and low-church C of E held many Reformed (and thus old Puritan) doctrines, but there was no longer an identifiable Puritan party. After about 1850 there set in a great decline and abandonment of Bible doctrine, which has continued and accelerated ever since.
From the early 1950's Christian publishers - notably the 'Banner of Truth Trust' in the U.K. - made many Puritan books (both historically Puritan and modernly neo-Puritan) available; so there has been, since that date, a spread of Calvinist and almost 'would-be' neo-Puritans across the nation of Britain, but typically they have to worship in mixed or compromised Chuches.
They have also had to decide (prayerfully) how much defection and false practice was due to Scriptural ignorance, and thus forgiveable in Christian charity - and what teaching and practice involved excessive compromise, requiring ecclesiastical separation. This is the constant dilemma for the truly biblical Christian in Britain today.There are no existing Presbyterian Churches of the Puritan pattern at the present.
There is a younger denomination called the 'Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales' (10 congregations at the time of this article) but this is more of an approximation (with either greater or lesser degree of success), rather than an exact reduplication, of the old Puritan ecclesia and beliefs. Clearly a new initiative might be possible, which would aim at the older, confessionally Puritan Presbyterian church model, once again.
Small groups gather in several parts of England and Wales, and many others would, undoubtedly, rally to such a revived cause. If one or more of the small but soundly Reformed denominations in America could send a preacher or two to evangelise and work with us, these scattered groups could be organised, and the potential is there to amalgamate with the soundest, but small, Presbyterians groups in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
If you of the American confessional churches love the old Puritans a and their fine robust, biblical, faith; and if you - for their sakes - would want to honor the land from which they sprang, "Pray for us in England!" and, if you are qualified and called - "Come over and help us!"
(This article was written earlier, as a plea to the American churches, and used here as an explanation of how the RCM effort might be helpful in England.)
About Us
