Darrell Todd Maurina

Congregational worship was influenced by the radical wing of Puritanism, which stressed worship shaped by biblical teaching alone. Worship was stripped to its New Testament essentials, centering on the exposition of the Word and the observance of the sacraments. Customs and features of worship not expressed in Scripture were dropped.

The movement which came to be known as Congregationalism owes its origin in the middle of the seventeenth century to a revolt against both the “high-church” liturgy and the hierarchical government by bishops in the state-supported Church of England. These objections, which necessarily brought with them a radically different order of worship, stemmed from a Reformed or Calvinistic theological opposition to the remnants of Roman Catholic liturgy and government in the Church of England.

The objectors were themselves divided into a more moderate Puritan wing and a radical separatist wing. While the Puritans wished to remain within the Church of England and purify what they considered unbiblical ceremonialism, the separatists viewed the Puritan cause as hopeless, advocated a “reformation without tarrying for any,” and called for immediate separation. Excepting a few early Puritan bishops, the Puritan cause was further subdivided into two subgroups. One subgroup, the Presbyterians, wished to replace government by bishops with government by regional presbyteries of ministers and elders. The other faction, the independents or “Congregationalists,” argued that since Scripture frequently mentions the pastors, elders, and deacons of the local congregation but is largely silent about any officers or bodies outside the local congregation, neither presbyteries nor bishops were permitted by Scripture to exercise authority over congregations other than their own. Under persecution by the Church of England, the distinction between separatists and Puritan independents tended to disappear, both parties eventually merging into congregationalism under Cromwell’s rule, 1640–1660.

The Puritans were ridiculed by their opponents for supposedly taking this as their creed: “I believe in John Calvin, the Father of our religion, disposer of heaven and earth, and in Owen, Baxter, and Jenkins his dear sons our lords, who were conceived by the spirit of fanaticism, born of schism and faction, suffered under the act of uniformity.” Both John Owen the congregationalist and Richard Baxter the presbyterian were tarred with contempt for their Calvinism, and both were persecuted further under various acts of uniformity for refusal to participate in the legally enforced worship services of The Book of Common Prayer.

Even the enemies of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists recognized the basic unity of their Reformed principles of worship. What are these Reformed principles? As specified by the congregationalist Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order and echoed in the presbyterian Westminster Confession of Faith: “The acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture” (Savoy Declaration 22:1, cf. Westminster Confession 21:1).

This principle, known as the regulative principle, indicates that Scripture regulates the method by which God may be worshiped. It was one of several issues that divided the Protestants at the time of the Reformation. While Lutherans and Anglicans argued that Protestant worship could retain any Roman Catholic ceremonies which were not explicitly forbidden by the Word of God, Calvinists retorted that man should not worship God in any ways he did not explicitly prescribe in his Word.

Where did this view come from? It is derived from the Reformed emphasis on the total depravity of humanity. If “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10), people are certainly incapable of knowing the will of God apart from His revelation in Scripture. In fact, Scripture must clearly indicate the will of God or no one can be saved. Any addition to Scripture will serve only to suit one’s sinful desires, and any subtractions will serve only to salve awareness of one’s sinful disobedience. A specific example is the second commandment, in which God declares “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Exod. 20:5) and curses those who worship him in idolatrous ways. This twin emphasis on human sinfulness and Scriptural authority produced immediate consequences in congregational worship.

Centrality of Scriptural Exposition. First, worship services became centered on Scripture exposition, rather than on liturgical prayers and ceremonies. While some Anglican priests were content to read brief homilies prepared by others and were defended in their actions by leading bishops, Puritan preachers of all stripes insisted on preaching and expounding the Word of God. Sermons were seldom less than an hour in length and often much longer; pastoral prayers sometimes exceeded the length of the sermon. Even church architecture symbolically reflected this emphasis by placing the pulpit in the center of the meetinghouse with a communion table and baptismal font underneath. At times these were further reduced into a flip-up shelf for communion and a small bowl for baptism attached to the pulpit itself.

Care in Administration of the Sacraments. Second, although the sacraments were definitely secondary to the preaching of the Word, they were administered with great caution. The churches practiced either “closed” or “close” communion, restricting participants to members in good standing of the local church or to those known with certainty to be members in good standing of another solidly Reformed church. Baptism was also reserved for the children of church members. Although the “half-way covenant” ideas of Solomon Stoddard relaxed these standards for a time, the evangelistic preaching of his successor Jonathan Edwards and Edwards’ followers soon placed an even higher priority on the need for converted church membership. With this emphasis on conversion came a still stronger emphasis on preaching the Word of God.

Scriptural Reform of Worship. Third, all ceremonies and features not specified in Scripture were categorically eliminated. This meant a refusal to wear the medieval vestments of the Roman Catholic priesthood, which to the Puritans symbolized the Mass as a reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ. The entire Christian calendar of saints’ days and holy days—including Christmas and Easter—was eliminated and replaced by a strong emphasis on the celebration of the Lord’s Day. Simplicity in worship and removal of anything that might distract from the preaching of the Word were deemed essential. The order of the worship service itself was rearranged; the traditional order of the Mass was replaced with what was thought to be a copy of first-century worship. Here Congregationalists and Presbyterians parted company. Although the two groups cooperated in developing the Westminster Directory for Public Worship, some real differences emerged which are noted in the Directory’s liturgical commentary.

As a result of these factors, the worship of all Puritans, especially that of the Congregationalists who saw themselves as the more rigorous and stricter party within Puritanism, was radically simplified.

The Congregationalists might well have agreed with Donne’s criticism, but they would have taken his description of their plain and simple Genevan worship as a compliment to the ruthlessness of their biblical pruning knife.