Critical Analysis on The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery

Throughout this document, the authors continue to bring up that they definitely didn't want any sort of government other than the church body. This made me wonder why this was brought up so frequently. It seems that the most possible reason for this fear of control came from the author's previous associations with the "ritualistic" Presbyterian denomination. The previous denomination had all kinds of control anywhere you were to look. One person controlling another. The authors wanted to get rid of that kind of control and give it not only to all of the people of the church, but mostly to Christ.
Another very important and prominent word in this document is will. The question I have is, which will is this? There is will as in hoping that it will happen, or there is will as in willing it almost as if it is demanded. The most likely is the first. This is important that they will this things though because it shows that these things are a deep concern and not just more rules.
The first word after the introduction is imprimis, which basically means, "first of all." I wonder, why is this will first of all of them? Well, usually things are first because they are most important. It is most important that the church would give up themselves to become merged with the body of Christ. This is so important because without Christ in control of us and Lord over all of us, are we really Christians, or Christ-ians? The word is means Christ in us. The answer to the question is no. There would be no purpose to this entire document without this imprimis, the first, the most important.
Like mentioned before, there is a lot of government control issues brought up by this document. The third willing is one of these. It is awesome that one of their hopes is that this new church has the ability to interpret scripture for itself because back when this was being written, people had to take the teachers word for it instead of being able to find the meaning for themselves.
It is hard to grasp the fourth of the wills for me because I can't see "candidates for the Gospel ministry" or people going into ministry not studying the scriptures without fervent prayer. If someone was to go into ministry without fervent prayer, or communication with God, they would be lost. I do enjoy that they include that they will that these people going into ministry are to set themselves apart from others just like in Psalm 1:1. It also covers things such as pride which is also an important thing to remove from this profession. I almost see it as guidelines to ministry, or even a good Christian lifestyle.
Like most of the wills, the sixth will follows how most Christian churches handle things today. It also represents how things should be. It is very important that churches choose their own preachers and workers. This is so because different churches have different needs and most others don't know what those needs are. It also talks about how offerings are to be of your own free will. I'm not sure, but if they were to have to clarify that, their previous church situation must have been contrary to that. So, the fact that they finally get it to be free will, that is a big change and a good one.This next will, the seventh one, makes me wonder if this document is written to all and about all people, or if it is written just about the people of the church. I get this question because it says, "that the people henceforth take the Bible as the only sure guide to Heaven." I see it that if they are Christians in a church that they would know that the Bible would be the only sure guide to Heaven. But since it also includes talking about not being deceived by other books, it almost defeats what I said before. It is important that they put this will in the document because so many religions have been messed up because they tried to use more than one book of law. For example: Mormons. They use The Book of Mormon and sometimes will look through the Bible.
I really enjoy that the authors of this document cared enough about the people from the last denomination that they still wished them the best and to be able to see clearly some day. For example: the 9th will, the 10th, and the last (the 11th). In one of them they hope that the people who see the presbytery as government would some day see what they are doing and turn to Jesus as their ruler. In another they wish that everyone from their past denominations and everyone who is lost can someday find the right path and be saved, hopefully in time before it is too late.
I found most of this document to be obvious rules and regulations for any Christian church of this day, but knowing that this was written before most Christian churches and probably was the basis for all the the rules that I find obvious, it was very thoughtful, direct, and is also an important document in keeping Christian churches self and Christ guided. It would not be a surprise to me if this is the document that many Christian churches guide themselves by.