Anthony Tuckney (1599-1670): Theologian of the Westminster Assembly

By Cho Youngchun

Youngchun Cho investigates the theology of Anthony Tuckney, an overlooked yet highly influential member of the Westminster Assembly. After a brief biography and an evaluation of Tuckney’s use of Scripture and reason, Cho shows how he related union with Christ to the doctrine of the Trinity, soteriology, and assurance of salvation. This book refutes claims that seventeenth-century Reformed theology in general, and the Westminster Standards in particular, pursued logical precision at the expense of the dynamic aspect of union with Christ, demonstrating that union with Christ was a critical element to Tuckney’s theological agenda.

Series Description

Complementing the primary source material in the Principal Documents of the Westminster Assembly series, the Studies on the Westminster Assembly provides access to classic studies that have not been reprinted and to new studies, providing some of the best existing research on the Assembly and its members.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
• Release date: Nov 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781601785718

Book preview

Anthony Tuckney (1599–1670)

THEOLOGIAN OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY

Youngchun Cho

Reformation Heritage Books

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Anthony Tuckney

© 2017 by Youngchun Cho

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Direct your requests to the publisher at the following addresses:

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cho, Youngchun, author.

Title: Anthony Tuckney (1599-1670) : theologian of the Westminster Assembly / Youngchun Cho.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Reformation Heritage Books, 2017. | Series: Studies on the Westminster Assembly | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017036608 (print) | LCCN 2017043975 (ebook) | ISBN 9781601785718 (epub) | ISBN 9781601785701 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Tuckney, Anthony, 1599-1670. | Puritans—Doctrines. | Reformed Church—Doctrines. | Westminster Assembly (1643-1652)

Classification: LCC BX9339.T83 (ebook) | LCC BX9339.T83 C46 2017 (print) | DDC 230/.59—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017036608

For additional Reformed literature, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above regular or e-mail address.

Studies on the Westminster Assembly

Series Editors

John R. Bower and Chad Van Dixhoorn

VOLUMES IN SERIES:

• Covenanted Uniformity in Religion: The Influence of the Scottish Commissioners on the Ecclesiology of the Westminster Assembly —Wayne R. Spear

• Divine Rule Maintained: Anthony Burgess, Covenant Theology, and the Place of the Law in Reformed Scholasticism —Stephen J. Casselli

• God’s Ambassadors: The Westminster Assembly and the Reformation of the English Pulpit, 1643–1653 —Chad Van Dixhoorn

THE WESTMINSTER

ASSEMBLY PROJECT

Contents

Foreword

Series Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. The Life of Anthony Tuckney (1599–1670)

3. Reason and Revelation

4. In Pursuit of Reformed Catholicity

5. Trinitarian Understanding of Salvation

6. Union with Christ and the Ordo Salutis

7. Saving Faith and Assurance of Salvation

8. Conclusion

Works by Anthony Tuckney

Index

Foreword

Recently there has been increased scholarly interest in the Westminster Assembly, its documents, its theology, and its historical context. Much of this has been empowered by the publication of the minutes and papers of the assembly.

Among the divines who met at Westminster at this crucial juncture in the political and ecclesiastical history of England was Anthony Tuckney. Not much has been written on his background or theology, yet he is acknowledged as one of the most influential figures at the assembly. He went on to be master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; master of St. John’s College, Cambridge; and vice-chancellor of the university before being one of the ministers ejected for refusal to comply with the 1662 Act of Uniformity. At Westminster, he had a major impact on the production of the confession and catechisms. Some have highlighted his role in the composition of the Larger Catechism; perhaps the general neglect of this document, despite its rich theology, has contributed to Tuckney’s own relative obscurity. So far there has been no major work on his theology.

This state of affairs is now corrected by Dr. Cho’s fine book. After considering the context and the key elements of Tuckney’s career, Dr. Cho examines this divine’s Trinitarian understanding of redemption, his doctrine of union with Christ (which comes to expression in the Larger Catechism), and his treatments of revelation and reason, the authority of Scripture, and the place of confessions of faith in the church. His book will add significantly to our understanding of this crucial period, and I am delighted to see it in print.

Robert Letham

Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology

Union School of Theology

SERIES PREFACE

Studies on the Westminster Assembly

The Westminster Assembly (1643–1653) met at a watershed moment in British history, at a time that left its mark on the English state, the Puritan movement, and the churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Assembly also proved to be a powerful force in the methodization and articulation of Reformed theology. Certainly the writings of the gathering created and popularized doctrinal distinctions and definitions that—to an astonishing degree and with surprising rapidity—entered the consciousness and vocabulary of mainstream Protestantism.

The primary aim of this series is to produce accessible scholarly monographs on the Westminster Assembly, its members, and the ideas that the Assembly promoted. Some years ago, Richard Muller challenged post-Reformation historians to focus on identifying the major figures and…the major issues in debate—and then sufficiently [raise] the profile of the figures or issues in order to bring about an alteration of the broader surveys of the era. This is precisely the remit of these Studies on the Westminster Assembly, and students of post-Reformation history in particular will be treated to a corpus of material on the Westminster Assembly that will enable comparative studies in church practice, creedal formulation, and doctrinal development among Protestants.

This series will also occasionally include editions of classic Assembly studies, works that have enjoyed a shaping influence in Assembly studies, are difficult to obtain at the present time, and pose questions that students of the Assembly need to answer. It is our hope that this series—in both its new and reprinted monographs—will both exemplify and encourage a newly invigorated field of study and create essential reference works for scholars in multiple disciplines.

John R. Bower

Chad Van Dixhoorn

Acknowledgments

No man is an island.

—John Donne

As the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms were the products of the combined work and efforts of numerous prominent divines, the publication of this book, though a small piece, cannot be attributed to a lone author. Thus, it is only right and a great privilege to express my sincerest gratitude to those who contributed to this volume.

I would like to thank those who both shaped and sharpened my theology academically. I express my gratitude to Dr. Jeffrey K. Jue, my dissertation advisor, for faithfully guiding me through the entire course of study at Westminster Theological Seminary and for acutely demonstrating the essence of theological mentorship. I also thank Dr. Carl R. Trueman, whose insightful lectures and writings on the whole gamut of church history and the specific historical epochs of the Reformation and puritanism have proven to be of great theological benefit. I am also grateful to Dr. Robert Letham, who indirectly introduced me to the significance of Anthony Tuckney by way of his book The Westminster Assembly. Additionally, it was a great honor and pleasure to work with Dr. Chad Van Dixhoorn and Dr. John R. Bower throughout the editing process. Their extensive knowledge and meticulous care in their works made this volume all the more reliable and intelligible. Dr. David Noe supervised the translation of Tuckney’s Latin and rectified many mistakes. Much thanks to him as well.

Even more significantly, my theological study and research could not have been sustained without spiritual nourishment. I am greatly indebted to my parents, Rev. Kyungmuk Cho and Boksoo Hong, along with my in-laws, Dr. Yeunkeun Lim and Chumduk Ahn, for their financial support, constant prayers, and warm encouragement. I would also like to thank Rev. S. Steve Park and Jubilee Presbyterian Church, to which I have belonged while in Philadelphia. The fellowship and communion that I have enjoyed with the godly brothers and sisters at Jubilee has kept my theological studies from being dull and arid.

Last but not least, my deepest gratitude is reserved for my beloved wife, Mijung Lim, who has sacrificed her own desires and has endured lonely spells during my education abroad. Her caring love and commitment are the primary reasons for the completion of my research on Anthony Tuckney. Also, my children Angela, Edward, Christine, and Joshua have been blessings and founts of joy for me, and they have endured through Dad’s absence on many holidays and vacations. I pray that their whole life will be filled with milk and honey flowing from the blessed union with Christ by faith.

Soli Deo gloria!

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The Westminster Assembly and its labors have recently been revisited by a series of scholarly works that vitalizes the theological significance of confessions and catechisms in the life of the church. Chad Van Dixhoorn’s doctoral thesis and the subsequent publication of The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly have demonstrated that theological formulation was the primary task of and main impetus behind the assembly.1 Robert Letham has stressed that the Westminster Confession and catechisms were produced in the context of seventeenth-century England, and therefore its own English context (which has been often neglected) needs to receive due attention.2 Initiated by Westminster Theological Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary, a series of studies of the history and the theology of the Westminster Standards has been published.3 Critical texts of the original documents of the assembly have begun to be edited, thereby enabling research on primary sources, and new reference works on the Westminster Confession have arrived.4 Study of the Westminster Assembly and its Standards certainly seems to be thriving.

Why Anthony Tuckney?

In spite of this increasing interest in the Westminster Assembly in general, however, most of the individual theologians who contributed to the shaping of doctrinal standards remain obscure. Based on the belief that a study of an influential member of the assembly can advance our understanding of the context and content of the Westminster Standards, the present volume aims to introduce one of the important theologians at the assembly, Anthony Tuckney, to the academic community.

Tuckney has repeatedly been identified as an influential figure within English puritanism.5 He studied and taught at Emmanuel College, the so-called citadel of English puritanism, and was appointed to be the college’s sixth master. He played leading roles at the Westminster Assembly and the University of Cambridge, and a historian of no less stature than Patrick Collinson provides a biographical treatment of Tuckney in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and discusses his role as administrative leader in A History of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.6 Jack B. Rogers points him out as one of the seven Westminster divines who prepared the Confession of Faith.7 Garnet Milne notes that Tuckney was a leading apologist for the cessation of special revelation.8 He was called by John H. Leith one of the...most important members of the Assembly and by William Barker one of the notable scholars among the Westminster divines.9

However, not all of Tuckney’s commitments are undisputed. Robert Paul includes him in a group of presbyterian ministers who advocated for a moderate episcopacy.10 Emphasizing the Anglo-American connection among Cambridge graduates in the seventeenth century, Francis Bremer, on the other hand, refers to Tuckney as another Presbyterian who had sympathy for the Congregational leaders and who had a close friendship with John Cotton—hardly the usual stance of a proponent of moderate episcopacy.11 It is in this light that Tai Liu’s observation that Oliver Cromwell appointed Tuckney as part of the national commission of Triers (1654) may be significant, since congregationalists Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, and Philip Nye played leading roles among the triers.12

While Tuckney is flagged repeatedly as a key player in important institutions and key historical moments, there has not, to this point, been any substantial study of his thought. There can be no doubt that he enjoyed considerable influence in shaping the assembly’s Confession of Faith and two catechisms. He participated in the committee charged with finalizing the confession’s wording and as a member of that committee reported on a number of articles to the full assembly, including key soteriological and practical sections.13 He also presided over both the Larger Catechism (WLC) and the Shorter Catechism (WSC) committees, where he supervised the final editing of both documents. In these capacities, Tuckney played a major role in the assembly as an architect of its theological formulations. And while the assembly’s work was a corporate effort, and no single individual represents its theology completely, Tuckney’s theology offers a useful window to survey the intellectual context and debates of mid-seventeenth-century English Reformed theology and gain a more rounded understanding of the theology of the Westminster Assembly.

This book offers the first sustained treatment of Anthony Tuckney’s thought. Unable to fully discuss here his ecclesiological, liturgical, philosophical, and theological commitments, this study focuses on the latter, which seems especially appropriate given the sphere of his contributions at the assembly. Emerging from Tuckney’s writings is a special interest in soteriology, with the story of redemption refracted through the doctrine of union with Christ, a theme that will emerge frequently in the following pages.

Significance of Union with Christ

The doctrine of union with Christ is a distinguishing mark of the Reformed understanding of salvation. This does not mean, of course, that other theological traditions were unaware of or inattentive to the significance of union with Christ. The writings of early church fathers are replete with diverse images and other descriptions of the believer’s participation in the incarnate Son of God as the central soteric reality, and the mystical tradition of the late medieval church developed manifold marriage metaphors to highlight the intimate fellowship between Christ and His bride.14 In defense of his Protestant doctrine of justification, Martin Luther also relied on the concept of marital union, in which everything that belongs to one is transferred to the other. Faith unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom, and, as a result of this union, the believing soul by means of the pledge of its faith is free in Christ, its bridegroom, free from all sins, secure against death and hell, and is endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of Christ its bridegroom.15 In Lutheranism, however, because justification is often viewed as equivalent to the gospel itself, union with Christ enjoys merely a relative significance as subservient to the doctrine of justification.16

It was the Reformed tradition that affirmed the overarching character of union with Christ in soteriology, and John Calvin championed such a unio-centered understanding of salvation.17 In his exhaustive discussion of the person and work of Christ in book 2 of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin concludes that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ.18 He makes a seamless transition from Christology to soteriology by opening book 3 with the affirmation that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.19 The believer receives duplex gratia (twofold grace)—justification and sanctification—distinctively and simultaneously when one possesses or grasps Christ through faith.20 Against the Roman Catholic Church, which equated justification and sanctification by viewing justification as the result of a lifelong process of sanctification, and distinct from the Lutheran Church, which severed justification fundamentally from sanctification, Calvin incorporated these two benefits into the more foundational reality, union with Christ. He then illustrates the inseparability of the twofold benefit of union with Christ in a unique sandwich structure: chapters 11 through 16, which discuss justification, are enclosed by two sets of discussions on sanctification: one consisting of chapters 3 through 10 on regeneration, repentance, and Christian life, and the other of chapters 17 through 19 on good works and Christian liberty.

While Calvin was the most prominent theologian to do so, he was hardly alone among his contemporaries in discussing union with Christ as a significant element of soteriology.21 Other Reformed theologians in the sixteenth century, such as Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Girolamo Zanchi, also held that union with Christ provides an important framework for soteriology.22 This emphasis on union with Christ in the Reformed tradition would result from the growing attention to biblical exegesis, particularly of Pauline passages like Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 1:30, and from the development of covenant theology, in which the relationship between Christ as covenant head and the believer as covenant member was explored in a great depth.23

By contrast, seventeenth-century Reformed theology has been often regarded as rigorously (by which is meant excessively) logical, having thereby abandoned the dynamic fervor of the gospel-driven theology of the sixteenth-century Reformers. Puritan theology, which culminated in the Westminster Confession of Faith, has especially been accused of stressing the ordo salutis (order of salvation) at the expense of union with Christ.24 As Paul Schaefer has demonstrated, however, the puritans in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries exhibited an increased, rather than decreased, interest in the topic of union with Christ. A group of influential Cambridge puritans, comprising William Perkins, Paul Baynes, Richard Sibbes, John Preston, and John Cotton, held in common that faith, trusting solely in Christ, brings a union with Christ that itself confers two great benefits—that is, justification and sanctification.25 One of the essential elements that bound them together as the Spiritual Brotherhood despite opposing attitudes toward the established church was the way in which they understood the twofold grace of God (duplex gratia Dei); justification and sanctification arise from union with Christ distinctly yet inseparably.

Anthony Tuckney inherited this theological emphasis through his formal education and personal relationships at Cambridge. Theological training under Laurence Chaderton (who had taught Perkins and Baynes) and intimate fellowship with Preston and Cotton were critical in Tuckney’s theological formation. Under these influences and from early in his career, Tuckney presented the accomplishment and application of the gospel primarily in terms of union with Christ, and set forth each redemptive benefit in terms of communion with Christ; yet while arguing for the primacy of union with Christ, he did not neglect the necessity of articulating distinct aspects of union with Christ in an orderly manner. For Tuckney, union with Christ does not undermine the logical understanding of our redemption; rather, it establishes and enhances it. An examination of his soteriology will thus help us to see how the significance of union with Christ was affirmed in the post-Reformation period, thus enriching our understanding of the nature of union with Christ and its relation to the order of salvation.

In assembling this argument, the present volume deals with other facets of Tuckney’s theology. It will discuss the relationship between revelation and reason, the authority of Scripture, and the place of confessional documents in the church. It will trace Tuckney’s use of patristic and medieval theology in order to present an accurate picture of his place in seventeenth-century Reformed thought. Though a number of historical studies have successfully corrected common misunderstandings of seventeenth-century Protestant scholasticism, most of them tend to focus on Continental theologians, so a study of Tuckney’s theological methodology as a British Protestant scholastic can adjust this imbalance. Chapters 3 and 4 will provide such a study.

In association with an inquiry into union with Christ, chapter 5 explores Tuckney’s trinitarian understanding of redemption as well. In a polemical context in which orthodox trinitarianism was challenged by Socinians, Cambridge Platonists, and Enthusiasts, Tuckney defended Nicene trinitarianism and expounded the Chalcedonian formulation of Christ’s hypostatical union, thereby rectifying erroneous notions of the nature of union with Christ. Later chapters also treat the subject of faith and assurance as a corollary of the doctrine of union with Christ. Tuckney’s nuanced understanding of saving faith and assurance will challenge any accusation that seventeenth-century Reformed theologians severed the bond between faith and assurance that the early Reformers had affirmed, or that they shifted the ground of assurance from Christ to the sanctified life of the believer himself. This study will indicate that Tuckney did not turn away from Christ as the ground of assurance; instead, he combined saving faith and assurance of salvation organically for polemical and pastoral reasons.

The research methodology of this book begins with a careful exploration of Tuckney’s manuscripts, published sermons, and academic lecture collections. Two of his works were especially helpful for this research, A Briefe & Pithy Catechisme (1628) and Praelectiones Theologicae (1679). John Bower’s transcription of the 1628 catechism manuscript enabled the deciphering of Tuckney’s early thought. Dr. David Noe has meticulously reviewed and rectified the majority of the Latin translations in the present volume, which makes Tuckney’s complicated arguments in Praelectiones Theologicae more accurate and accessible (Dr. Noe is currently engaged in a translation of the full text). In addition, since this is the first sustained attempt to examine Tuckney’s theology and there is no substantial secondary literature about him, the study will pay close attention to previous research in seventeenth-century Reformed theology in general and to the records of the debates in which he participated. Also, Tuckney’s view on certain subjects has been compared to the views of other divines at the Westminster Assembly, employing the most up-to-date edition of The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly and thereby providing a contextual understanding of Tuckney and the Westminster Standards.

---

1. Chad Van Dixhoorn, Reforming the Reformation: Theological Debate at the Westminster Assembly, 1643–1652 (PhD thesis, Cambridge University, 2004); and Chad Van Dixhoorn, ed., The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643–1652, 5 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). The volumes of this publication are hereafter referred to as MPWA.

2. Robert Letham, The Westminster Assembly (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2009), 47–83.

3. Richard A. Muller and Rowland S. Ward, Scripture and Worship (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2007); Anthony T. Selvaggio, ed., The Faith Once Delivered: Essays in Honor of Dr. Wayne R. Spear (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2007); and J. Ligon Duncan III, ed., The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century,