God’s Physicians

In accordance with its mandate from Parliament, the one hundred and twenty pastors brought together by the Westminster Assembly discussed doctrinal, disciplinary, and liturgical matters. Inevitably members of the gathering also found frequent occasion to disagree about best pastoral practice for parishioners struggling with sin, sickness, and ignorance. This chapter uses the viewpoints and arguments of Assembly members in a case study of seventeenth-century ideals regarding the pastor as godly shepherd and physician. Naturally the debates of a ten-year synod may not offer the best sampling of real-life pastoral perspectives. Thus this chapter sources its materials not only from the minutes of the Assembly but also from the personal papers and published works of its individual members. What emerges is a rich yet reliable picture of the range of perspectives on congregational care that obtained at the Westminster Assembly during some of the most critical years of the mid seventeenth century.