Journal: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal
Volume: RPTJ 09:1 (Fall 2022)
Article: Wariston At The Table: Lessons On The Use And Abuse Of The Lord’s Supper From The Diary Of A Covenanter
Author: David G. Whitla

RPTJ 9:1 (Fall 2022) p. 47

Wariston At The Table: Lessons On The Use And Abuse Of The Lord’s Supper From The Diary Of A Covenanter1

David G. Whitla

Professor of Church History Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Introduction

This paper presents a practical perspective on the reception of the Lord’s Supper, through the experience of the Scottish Covenanter, Archibald Johnston of Wariston (1611–63).2 Wariston is often typecast by historians as the archetypal Scottish Presbyterian fundamentalist of the mid-17^th century. His remarkable public career began as the lawyer largely responsible for the form and content of the National Covenant (1638) and Solemn League and Covenant (1643), going on to champion the latter’s implementation in England as one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. However, when this manifesto failed, Wariston collaborated with the Cromwell regime in the 1650s, which earned him a hangman’s noose for treason at the Restoration of Charles II in 1663.

But while this public face is well documented by the historians, the complex and often turbulent world of Wariston’s “inner man” is much less so: a place of intense puritan spirituality that centered primarily on copious Scripture intake from the pulpit and in the closet, but which also witnessed a great emphasis on the use of the Lord’s Supper as a means of grace in the Christian life. The Puritans and Covenanters were not merely Calvinists; they were experiential Calvinists. Their Christianity was not just a matter of the head, but the heart: they experienced what Henry Scougal memorably called, “the life of God in the soul of man.”3 They “tasted and saw that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8) when they came to the Lord’s Table, and many expressed this intimate spiritual experience of the sacrament in their personal diaries. Wariston’s diary provides a fascinating case study of an experiential Calvinist at the Table, with much to teach us about the use and potential abuse of the Lord’s Supper in a confessionally Reformed context, demonstrating how a right theology of the sacrament does not necessarily guarantee a consistent application of that theology in practice.

RPTJ 9:1 (Fall 2022) p. 48

Wariston’s Theology Of Communion

In order to rightly understand Wariston’s experience of communion, it is important to situate that experience in his 17^th-century Scottish theological context.

The standard text on the theology and experience of the Lor...