The Grand Debate over Polity

Background

Both the Presbyterians and the Independents at the Assembly agreed that episcopacy was not jure divino — the Long Parliament had already abolished it (October 1646 by ordinance, after the Assembly's debate). The question was what should replace it. The Five Dissenting Brethren (Goodwin, Nye, Bridge, Burroughs, Simpson) — all formed in the Dutch Reformed exile congregations of the 1630s — argued for Independency: the visible church to whom Christ gave the keys is the local congregation, gathered by covenant; synods and councils may advise but cannot bind. The English Presbyterian majority and the Scottish Commissioners argued for graded presbyterianism: the keys are given to elders in a series of courts (session, presbytery, synod, general assembly), with each higher court having authoritative jurisdiction over the lower. The Scots pressed jure divino Presbyterianism — divinely required by Scripture — while many English Presbyterians took a milder jure ecclesiastico position.

The Assembly’s handling

The Grand Debate ran for more than a year, with the most consequential sessions through 1645. The Independents published *An Apologeticall Narration* (1644) to take their case to the public; the Scots responded with Rutherford's *Due Right of Presbyteries* (1644) and Gillespie's *Aaron's Rod Blossoming* (1646, the demolition of Erastianism that also defended jure divino presbyterianism). The Assembly's votes went with the Presbyterian majority; the Independents protested but stayed and continued to vote on other matters. The Form of Presbyterial Church Government (1645) is the polity document, WCF XXX-XXXI is the confessional language. The Confession's ecclesiology is presbyterian in substance but worded generously enough that 1689 Particular Baptists and post-Savoy Congregationalists could adopt most of the language without contradiction.