Chapter XXXI. Of Synods and Councils
Chapter XXXI. Of Synods and Councils
Chapter XXXI. Of Synods and Councils | Revisions of the WCF - Westminster Standards
I. For the better government and further edification of the Church,
there ought to be such assemblies as are commonly called synods or councils.
II. As magistrates may lawfully call a synod of ministers and other fit persons
to consult and advise with about matters of religion;
so, if magistrates be open enemies to the Church,
the ministers of Christ, of themselves, by virtue of their office,
or they, with other fit persons, upon delegation from their churches, may meet together in such assemblies.
Revision of 1788:
I. For the better government, and further edification of the church,
there ought to be such assemblies as are commonly called synods or councils:
and it belongeth to the overseers and other rulers of the particular churches,
by virtue of their office, and the power which Christ hath given them for edification and not for destruction,
to appoint such assemblies; and to convene together in them, as often as they shall judge it expedient for the good of the church.
What changed, and when. In 1788 paragraph II was struck out entire, and the sentence in bold was added to paragraph I. That is why the chapter has five paragraphs in the text of 1647 and only four in the revised one: the former III, IV and V become 2, 3 and 4.
Why. It is the necessary consequence of the change in chapter XXIII. If the magistrate can no longer call synods, it must be said who calls them: the rulers of the church itself, and they alone.
What the text of 1647 rested on. For the calling by the magistrate, the Assembly cites among others Isaiah 49:23, 2 Chronicles 19:8-11 and Matthew 2:4,5; for the meeting of the ministers of themselves, Acts 15:2,4,22,23,25.
What this change shows. Here the distance between the two texts is less than it seems, and this must be said.
The Church of Scotland herself, on approving the Confession in 1647, declared that she understood this paragraph
"only of Kirks not settled or constituted in point of Government":
in a church already constituted, synods meet by the power which Christ has given her, without waiting for the magistrate's call.
It may be read in the act of approbation, which on this site accompanies the Confession.
In that respect the revision of 1788 says nothing which Scotland had not already said.
What the revision removes is the rest: that, where the church is yet to be reformed or constituted,
the magistrate may call a synod to ask its advice.
And that was exactly the case of the Westminster Assembly, called by the Parliament of England in 1643,
as before it the Council of Nicaea and the Synod of Dort had been called by the civil power.
Under the revised text, the assembly which drew up the Confession could not have met in the manner in which it did meet.
What is lost, then, is the idea that the reformation of the Church is a public matter, which concerns the nation and those who govern it.
In its place there remains the other: that religion is an internal affair of each church.