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REV. J. HENRY SMITH, D. D.
Presented to the Library by the Executive Committee of
Publication of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
By order of the General Assembly.
JAS. K. HAZEN,
Recurved, June 23, 1848
',
Secretary and Treasurer.

MEMORIAL VOLUME
=
WE ARE SEAN WON
OF THE
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
1647-1897.
учур
CONTAINING ELEVEN ADDRESSES DELIVERED BEFORE THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED
STATES, AT CHARLOTTE, N. C., IN MAY, 1897.
IN COMMEMORATION OF
THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE WESTMINSTER
ASSEMBLY, AND OF THE FORMATION
OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS.
SECOND EDITION.
Published by the direction of the General Assembly of 1897.
Richmond, Va.:
THE PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION.
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Whitler's Skepperson.
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PRINTERS
Richmond Va
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LUCET
GRAND CHAPT
BY
IN ENEBRIS
COPYRIGHT, 1897,
JAMES K. HAZEN, Secretary of Publication.

PREFACE.
THE General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States, held in 1896 at Memphis, Tenn.,
resolved to commemorate in some suitable way the Two
Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Westminster
Assembly of Divines. It also appointed an ad interim
committee to prepare an order of exercises for this cele-
bration by the Assembly of 1897. This Assembly met.
at Charlotte, N. C., and these commemorative services
were held in connection with its sessions. Eleven ad-
dresses of great excellence were delivered before the
Assembly, and in the presence of very large audiences.
The Assembly resolved to have these addresses pub-
lished in a suitable volume, and appointed a small com-
mittee to cooperate with the Committee of Publication
in issuing it. An Introduction is added, which may
have some value, and the portraits inserted may give
additional interest to the volume. May the blessing of
the Head of the Church make these addresses, in this
permanent form, of abiding service to the cause of truth
and righteousness for many years to come!
FRANCIS R. BEATTIE,
CHARLES R. HEMPHILL,
HENRY V. ESCOTT,
The Assembly's Editing Committee.
iii
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
ASSEMBLY ACTION-WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY-
BIBLIOGRAPHY,
•
I.
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE TIME,
BY THE REV. HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE, PH. D., D. D.
II.
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION AT THE TIME,
BY THE REV. ROBERT PRICE, D. D., LL. D.
III.
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY ITSELF,
THE CATECHISMS,
BY THE REV. T, DWIGHT WITHERSPOON, D. D., LL. D.
IV.
THE DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION,
BY THE REV, ROBERT L. DABNEY, D. D., LL. D,
V.
BY THE REV. GIVENS B. STRICKLER, D. D., LL. D.
PAGE.
vii
I
31
53
ST
115
V
vi
CONTENTS.
VI.
THE POLITY AND WORSHIP OF THE STANDARDS,
BY THE REV. EUGENE DANIEL, D. D.
VII.
THE RELATION OF THE STANDARDS TO OTHER
CREEDS,
BY THE REV. JAMES D. TADLOCK, D. D., LL. D.
VIII.
THE STANDARDS AND MISSIONARY ACTIVITY,
BY THE REV. MOSES D. HOGE, D. D., LI…. D,
IX.
THE STANDARDS IN RELATION ΤΟ CURRENT
THEOLOGY,
BY THE REV. SAMUEL M. SMITH, D. D.
►
X.
THE STANDARDS IN RELATION TO FAMILY AND
SOCIAL LIFE,
BY THE REV. JOHN F. CANNON, D.D.
•
XI.
"THE STANDARDS AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT,
BY THE HON. WILLIAM M. COX, A. M.
PAGE.
139
169
185
219
255
271

REV. FRANCIS R. BEATTIE, B. D. PH. D., D. D.
INTRODUCTION.
By REV. FRANCIS R. BEATTIE, B. D., PH. D., D. D.,
PROFESSOR IN LOUISVILLE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
@
A
SHORT chapter containing some account of the
origin and purport of this volume may be of some
interest to its readers. A brief recital of
A brief recital of the action of
the General Assembly which led up to the celebration
at which these addresses were given will inform the
reader in regard to the circumstances out of which this
volume sprang. An outline of the history of the stirring
and heroic period of which the Westminster Assembly
formed at once the culmination of much that lay in the
century before it, and the foundation of a great deal that
rose in the century that followed its meeting, may help
the reader to a simple and intelligent view of the histori-
cal setting of each address. In connection with this
mere outline of the history of the period, the ordinance
of Parliament convening the Assembly and the names of
its members are both given. Some readers may have
more than a passing interest in these matters. A partial
Bibliography of the literature which has gathered round
the Westminster Assembly and the memorable Symbols
which it produced is included for the advantage of those
who desire to pursue their study of these inviting topics
at greater length.
In four brief sections this introductory chapter will
deal with these separate topics ·
vii
viii
INTRODUCTION.
I. THE ACTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
The proposal to celebrate in some suitable manner the
Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the meeting
and work of the Westminster Assembly of Divines was
brought before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States,' which met at Memphis,
Tenn., in May, 1896. This proposal came formally
before the Assembly by an overture and a resolution, in
the following terms, respectively:
"AN OVERTURE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGARDING THE TWO
HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
WESTMINSTer Assembly. 2
To the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States, in session at Memphis, Tenn., 1896:
"The undersigned desires respectfully to call the attention
of the Assembly to the fact that it is now just about two cen-
turies and a half since the Westminster Assembly, which framed
our Catechisms and Confession of Faith, was in session.
"He also brings to the attention of the Assembly the fact
that several branches of the Presbyterian family are already
proposing to celebrate, in various ways, the Two Hundred and
Fiftieth Anniversary of that great event during the coming year.
"He further expresses the conviction that at the present day
it is important to give prominence to the history and contents of
the great doctrinal symbols which the Westminster Assembly
gave to the world.
We live in an age of unrest and criticism,
if not of transition, in regard to many things pertaining to the
Christian faith. An intelligent acquaintance with the history of
the Westminster Assembly, and a clear grasp of the doctrinal
system which it formulated, may be of great value in these cir-
cumstances.
This is the proper official title of that branch of the Presby-
terian Church which is often popularly termed the Southern
Presbyterian Church, or the Presbyterian Church in the South-
ern States.
2 Minutes of the General Assembly for 1896, page 585.
INTRODUCTION.
ix
"The undersigned, therefore, respectfully overtures the Gen-
eral Assembly to take steps to observe this anniversary in some
suitable way-say, in connection with the Assembly of 1897.
"FRANCIS R. BEATTIE.
“Louisville Seminary, May 18, 1896.”
At the same time the following resolution was pre-
sented to the Assembly at Memphis by one of its mem-
bers:¹
"Whereas the twenty-ninth day of April, 1897, will be the
Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the completed report
to the British Parliament of those formularies of faith known as
the Westminster Standards, and whereas this Assembly would
record its sense of the inestimable blessings which have resulted
from the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, not only to
the churches holding these Standards, but to the cause of Chris-
tianity, therefore,
เ
•
K
Resolved, That this Assembly hereby recommends to the
Synods and Presbyteries within its bounds the propriety
of commemorating this event in such manner as they deem
best.
W. D. MORTON.”
These papers were both sent to the Committee of
Bills and Overtures of the Assembly, and it presented
the following report, which was adopted by the Assem-
bly 2:
"Your committee recommends that the General Assembly
commend to the Presbyteries and Synods the propriety of ob-
serving the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the form-
ulation of the Westminster symbols of doctrine, and that order
be taken by this Assembly to celebrate this event in connection
with the sessions of the General Assembly of 1897. To carry
this order into effect, it is recommended that the Assembly ap-
point an ad interim committee to prepare a programme of com-
memorative exercises, and to select speakers for the occasion.
CHARLES R. HEMPHILL, Chairman.”
(4
1 Minutes of the General Assembly for 1896, pages 585, 586.
Ibid., page 586.
X
INTRODUCTION.
Later on in the sessions of the Assembly of 1896 the
Moderator, Dr. Mallard, announced the following com-
mittee to arrange for the celebration, during the next
Assembly, of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary
of the origin of the Westminster Standards: J. Henry
Smith, D. D., Chairman; F. R. Beattie, D. D., W. M.
McPheeters, D. D., T. C. Johnston, D. D., W. A. Alex-
ander, D. D., John A. Preston, D. D.'
This committee thus appointed proceeded in due time
to discharge the duty laid upon it by the Assembly.
Under the efficient leadership of its chairman, and by
correspondence between the members of the committee,
an elaborate series of subjects and a carefully-selected
list of speakers were made ready. The result of their
labors was the presentation of the following report to the
Assembly of 1897, which convened at Charlotte, N. C.: 2
“REPORT TO THE ASSEMBLY AT CHARLOTTE, N. C., of the AD
INTERIM COMMITTEE OF THE CELEBRATION OF THE TWO HUN-
DRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WESTMINSTER
ASSEMBLY.
"The last General Assembly appointed an ad interim com-
mittee to prepare a programme of commemorative exercises,
and to select speakers for the celebration during the present
Assembly in Charlotte, N. C., of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth
Anniversary of the formation of the Westminster symbols of
doctrine. This committee consisted of the Rev. J. Henry
Smith, D. D., chairman; F. R. Beattie, D. D., W. M. McPhee-
ters, D. D., T. C. Johnston, D. D., W. A. Alexander, D. D.,
and John A. Preston, D. D. Alas! within a little over three
months after this appointment (September 13th) the whole
church was called to mourn the death of the last-named member
of this committee--a death and a loss that has shrouded in deep
and personal sorrow all who knew Brother Preston, especially
¹Minutes of the General Assembly for 1896, page 618.
2 Ibid., 1897, pages 8 11.
INTRODUCTION.
xi
the Synods of North Carolina and Virginia, and the devoted
church, in whose house of worship the Assembly is at present
meeting, of which he was the popular and beloved pastor. Your
committee, with the sad exception just noted, have been in
active correspondence with one another for about four months,
and have, with remarkable and most gratifying unanimity and
heartiness, agreed upon the following programme of exercises,
and upon the selection of speakers, principals and alternates,
for this interesting and important occasion. The Assembly will
observe that the topics fall under three general heads, viz. :
"1. The civil and religious condition of Britain at the time.
"2. The personnel and work of the Assembly in its Confes-
sion, Catechisms, Polity, and Worship.
"3. The relations and influences of these symbols of doctrine
to current popular theology and to the Reformed churches
generally, and upon individual, family, social, and civil life-
making in all eleven addresses.
"
K
"I. HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
"(1), The Social and Political Condition of Britain at the
time, with special reference to those aspects of the times that
(a), prepared the way for the calling of the Assembly, and (b),
exerted an influence on it when called. Principal-Rev. Henry
A. White, D. D., Lexington, Va. Alternate-Rev. Robert P.
Kerr, D. D., Richmond, Va.
“(2), The Religious Situation of Britain at the time.
cipal-Rev. Robert Price, D. D., Clarksville, Tenn. Alternate-
Rev. C. R. Hemphill, D. D., Louisville, Ky.
(3), Description of the Assembly-its personnel, proceedings,
and place of meeting. Principal-Rev. T. D. Witherspoon,
D. D., Louisville, Ky. Alternate-Rev. R. K. Smoot, D. D.,
Austin, Texas.
Prin-
"II. EXPOSITORY AND CRITICAL.
"(4), The Doctrinal Contents of the Confession-its funda-
mental and regulative ideas; and the necessity and value of
creeds. Principal-Rev. Robert L. Dabney, D. D., Victoria,
Alternate-Rev. John S. Watkins, D. D., Spartanburg,.
Texas.
S. C.
"(5), Nature, Value, and Special Utility of the Catechisms..
Principal-Rev. G. B. Strickler, D. D., Hampden-Sidney, Va.
Alternate-Rev. S. A. King, D. D., Waco, Texas.
xii
INTRODUCTION.
“(6), Polity and Worship-emphasizing their relation to doc-
trine. Principal-Rev. B. M. Palmer, D. D., New Orleans, La.
Alternate-Rev. Eugene Daniel, D. D., Raleigh, N. C.
"III. INFLUENCES, RELATIONS, ETC., ETC.
"(7), The Churches that hold the Westminster Symbols, and
the Reformed Churches generally-their points of contact and
contrast; their present relations, work, and outlook. Princi
pal-Rev. J. D. Tadlock, D. D., Columbia, S. C. Alternate¬
Rev. J. W. Walden, D. D., Athens, Ga.
(8) The Westminster Symbols in their Relation to and In-
fluence upon the Missionary Character and Activities of the
Church. Principal-Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D. D., Richmond,
Va. Alternate-Rev. W. F. V. Bartlett, D. D., Lexington, Ky.
"(9), The Westminster Symbols Considered in Relation to
Current Popular Theology and the Needs of the Future. Prin-
cipal-Rev. Samuel M. Smith, D. D., Columbia, S. C. Alter-
nate-Rev. E. H. Barnett, D. D., Atlanta, Ga.
"(10), The Influence exerted by the Westminster Symbols
upon the Individual, the Family and Society. Principal-Rev.
J. F. Cannon, D. D., St. Louis, Mo. Alternate-Rev. A. R.
Cocke, D. D., Waynesboro, Va.
"(1), The Influence of the Westminster System of Doctrine,
Worship and Polity on Civil Liberty and Responsible Govern-
ment. Principal-Hon. W. M. Cox, Baldwyn, Miss. Alter-
nate--Judge J. Q. Ward, Paris, Ky.
"Your committee is pleased to report that all the principals
except one have signified their grateful willingness to undertake
the service assigned them. Dr. Palmer, however, by reason of
physical inability, has transferred the service appointed him to
his alternate, which, we are happy and glad to say, Dr. Daniel
has accepted.
"
"(1), Your committee earnestly recommend to the Assembly
to set apart and appropriate six evenings during the sessions of
this Assembly to hear these addresses.
"(2), We respectfully recommend that the Moderator of this
Assembly preside on these evenings, announce the topics, and
introduce the speakers.
"(3), We further recommend that the Assembly order that
the travelling expenses of such appointees as may not be com-
missioners from their Presbyteries be paid out of the incidental
INTRODUCTION.
xiii
fund of the Assembly, inasmuch as they are called by the
Assembly itself, through its ad interim committee, to come and
address it on a designated subject.
"Your committee, aware of Dr. Dabney's blindness, and
hearing that Dr. Palmer was threatened with the same, and
anxious to have the able help of both these beloved brethren in
this interesting anniversary, passed a special and unanimous
vote that if either of these brethren found himself unable to be
présent at this meeting, and would send his paper on the topic
assigned him, your committee would promise to endeavor to
have it properly read to the Assembly. Whether these addresses
or papers shall be published in a separate volume, and by whom,
it will be for the Assembly itself to decide.
"Sincerely thanking the Assembly that appointed us, for the
sacred trust reposed in us, and for the high honor it conveys, we
respectfully ask to be discharged.
"
"J. HENRY SMITH,
FRANCIS R. BEATTIE,
"W. M. MCPHEETERS,
"T. CARY JOHNSTON,
"W. A. ALEXANDER,
The Assembly's Ad Interim Committee."
(C
This report was adopted by the Assembly of 1897, and
referred to the Committee on Devotional Exercises, of
which Rev. R. Z. Johnston, D. D., was chairman. This
committee made reports from time to time to the Assem-
bly. These were adopted by the Assembly, and the
result was that the addresses were delivered before the
Assembly in the following order: Dr. White and Dr.
Price were heard on Thursday night, May 20th; Dr.
Witherspoon on Friday, the 21st, at noon, and Dr. Dab-
ney at night of the same day; Dr. Daniel on Saturday,
May 22d, at noon; Dr. Strickler on Monday, May 24th,
at 11 A. M., and Dr. Tadlock at night of the same day;
Dr. Hoge on Tuesday, May 25th, at noon; Dr. Smith
1 Minutes of the General Assembly for 1897, pages 9
and 15.
xiv
INTRODUCTION.
$
on Wednesday, May 26th, at noon; Dr. Cannon on
Thursday, May 27th, at noon, and the Hon. W. M.
Cox on Friday, May 28th, at noon.
The addresses were all of a very high order, and gave
great satisfaction, not only to the Assembly, but also to
the large and deeply interested audiences which were in
attendance from the beginning to the close of the series
of addresses. It is only stating a pleasing fact to say
that the interest grew and the enthusiasm deepened with
cach succeeding address, till at the close the impression.
produced by eleven such addresses was profound and
lasting.
The Assembly, by a rising vote, testified its apprecia-
tion of these commemorative addresses in the following
terms: '
""
Resolved, 1. That the Assembly has listened with intense
interest and profound attention to the addresses made at the
Westminster celebration observed by this Assembly by Rev.
H. A. White, D. D., Rev. Robert Price, D. D., Rev. T. D.
Witherspoon, D. D., Rev. R. L. Dabney, D. D., Rev. G. B.
Strickler, D. D., Rev. Eugene Daniel, D. D., Rev. J. D. Tad-
lock, D. D., Rev. M. D. Hoge, D. D., Rev. Samuel M. Smith,
D. D., Rev. J. F. Cannon, D. D., and the Hon. W. M. Cox.
"2. That the Assembly expresses its very great gratification
with the exceptionally high order of the addresses these brethren
have delivered, and it at the same time assures them that they
have discharged the responsibilities laid upon them in a manner
which elicits our highest praise and merits our deepest grati-
tude.
"3. That the Assembly tenders to these brethren, by a rising
vote, its sincere and formal thanks for the splendid service which
they have rendered in making this celebration so successful, and
in rendering its results so effective for good, under the blessing
of God, to the whole church."
¹ Minutes of the General Assembly for 1897, page 46.
INTRODUCTION.
XV
The Assembly also resolved to publish the addresses
of Dr. Strickler and Dr. Cannon in pamphlet form for
general circulation among our people.' They will be
issued by the Committee of Publication at Richmond,
Va., in due season.
The Assembly also directed that the eleven addresses
of the Westminster celebration be published in a suitable
memorial volume. This direction was in the following
terms, from the Committee of Bills and Overtures:
"In answer to the overture from the Lexington Presbytery,
asking for the publication of the Westminster addresses, we re-
commend that-
"1. The Assembly appoint a committee of three to edit and
publish the addresses delivered at Charlotte, N. C., and to se-
cure subscriptions for the same.
"2. The Committee of Publication be instructed to issue
two editions, one permanently bound, and one cheaply bound in
paper.
"3. The thanks of the Assembly be cordially given to the au-
thors of these addresses, and that the manuscripts of these ad-
dresses be requested for publication.""
The Moderator, Dr. Goetchius, appointed Rev. F. R.
Beattie, D. D., Rev. C. R. Hemphill, D. D., and Ruling
Elder Henry V. Escott, a committee to coöperate with
the Committee of Publication in accordance with the
above resolutions of the Assembly." This committee,
in conference with the Committee of Publication, at
once entered on its duties, securing a large number of
advance subscribers, and in due time this volume was
issued as the result of its labors.
It is proper to mention the fact that the Moderator of
the Assembly, Rev. G. T. Goetchius, D. D., presided.
on the occasion of the delivery of the first and second ad-
¹ Minutes of the General Assembly for 1897, pages 24 and 34.
2 Ibid., 1897, page 43.
3 Ibid., 1897, page 44.
xvi
INTRODUCTION.
dresses; and that, at his request, the following members
of the Assembly presided as the subsequent addresses
were delivered in order: Rev. F. R. Beattie, D. D., Rev.
Robert Price, D. D., Rev. M. D. Hoge, D. D., Rev. R. Q.
Mallard, D. D., Rev. S. A. King, D. D., Rev. R. C.
Reed, D. D., Rev. J. B. Shearer, D. D., Rev. R. Z. John-
ston, D. D., and the Hon. B. R. Wellford.
The closing action of the Assembly touching this.
Westminster celebration was to present a resolution of
thanks to the ad interim committee, in terms as follows: '
The thanks of the General Assembly are hereby given to
the ad interim Committee on the celebration of the Two Hun-
dred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Westminster Standards for
their faithful and efficient labors, resulting in so splendid a pro-
gramme of subjects, and in so wise a selection of speakers,
thereby contributing ably to the revival of interest in these
noble symbols of faith.
"
"We hereby express our heartfelt sympathy for our beloved
brother, Rev. J. Henry Smith, D. D., of Greensboro, N. C., a
member of the committee, in the sickness which prevented his
attendance on this meeting of the General Assembly."
Dr. Smith was chairman of the ad interim committee,
and his zeal and ability did much to give the programme
of the celebration its mature form. It was a source of
deep regret that he was not present in person to see and
rejoice in the grand result of his faithful service.
It is too soon to speak at length of the deep and wide-
spread benefits which may flow from this celebration and
others of a similar nature held in various connections.
throughout our bounds. With God's blessing upon
these celebrations, good will surely follow. Larger
knowledge of the origin and contents of our Standards
will be one result. Greater devotion to the system of
1 Minutes of the General Assembly for 1897, page 53.
INTRODUCTION.
xvii
doctrine, polity, and worship which they contain will
surely be kindled. And a renewed purpose to spread
these great teachings abroad among men will no doubt
be formed by many of our people.
It is gratifying to notice that other branches of the
Presbyterian family in America and Europe are also
entering upon similar celebrations during this year. A
revived interest in the doctrines of the Reformed system
will be the sure result, and with this will come vigorous
spiritual life and quickened religious activity in the con-
quest of the world for the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. THE HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE PERIOD OF
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
In this section a brief preliminary historical outline of
the era of which the Westminster Assembly forms the
centre will be given. Such an outline may furnish to
some readers, at a single glance, a helpful view of the
whole period to which, in various ways, reference is
made in the addresses which make up the body of this
volume. In this brief sketch only the historical frame-
work of the leading names, dates and events can be pre-
sented, so that scarcely anything that is wrought out at
length in these addresses will be anticipated. The
perusal of this section at the outset may make the study
of the splendid addresses which follow all the more
pleasant and profitable.
The historical period of which the Westminster Assem-
bly of Divines is the central event may be made to cover
the period from the accession of James VI. of Scotland to
the throne of the United Kingdoms of England and Scot-
land as James I., in 1603, to the time of the Restoration
of the Stuarts, at the close of the Protectorate, in 1660.
This makes a period of fifty-seven years, during which
2
xviii
INTRODUCTION.
Puritanism had its remarkable career, and of which the
ripest results were gathered up by the Westminster
Assembly in its splendid symbols. But prior to this
period for many years, and especially during the long and
brilliant reign of Elizabeth, certain influences were at
work, both in England and Scotland, which prepared the
way for the movement that culminated in the Westmin-
ster Assembly. This may be termed the preparatory
period. In England it dates definitely from the year
1534, when, under Henry VIII., the Act of Supremacy
was passed. In Scotland it has its real beginning from
the year 1560, when Presbyterianism was ratified by law
as the religion of the realm, under Knox, in the reign of
Mary Queen of Scots. Thus, for fully half a century prior
to James I., the movements in both the civil and religious
spheres, which shaped themselves definitely in the Puri-
tan struggle, were already at work both in England and
Scotland. During this formative period there were four
sovereigns in England and two in Scotland. In Eng-
land Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth
held the sceptre up to 1603, while in Scotland, from the
death of James V., in 1542, Mary ruled till 1567, and
then her son, James VI., with a regency during his
minority, up to the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, when
James VI. of Scotland became James I. of England and
Scotland. This is the period prior to what we have
called the Westminster Assembly era.
With the year
1603 this era really begins, and for forty years the sore
struggle went on till the Assembly met, in 1643, and
then it continued, in various forms, till the Restoration,
in 1660. Though the conflict was chiefly in England,
Scotland felt some of its pulsations. In the political
sphere it was a conflict between the throne, with its idea
of the divine right of kings, and the people, who were
INTRODUCTION.
xix
slowly realizing that they, too, had some divine rights.
In the realm of religion the conflict was between a com-
plete reformation, such as had been effected in Scotland,
and a partial reformation, such as was represented by
the Episcopacy of Elizabeth's day. In the state it was
absolutism against the rights of the people, and in reli-
gion it was prelacy against presbytery. The struggle,
which took more than half a century to assume its defi-
nite form, was more than another half-century in work-
ing out its perplexing problems. In the forum and on
the field, in the pulpit and through the press, the inevi-
table contest was waged, till one Stuart king died on the
scaffold; and, later on, the unique Protectorate had to
give way for the return of another Stuart king to the
throne.
James I. reigned from 1603 to 1625, a period of twenty-
two years.
Then came the ill-fated Charles I., who was
put to death in 1649, after a turbulent rule of twenty-
four years.
It was during this fateful period that at
times the destiny of civil and religious liberty seemed to
be hanging in the balance. At length the Assembly at
Westminster was convened, and carefully framed those.
symbols which announce so plainly the abiding princi-
ples of evangelical religion, as well as of civil and religi-
ous liberty.
During the reign of James I. the representatives of the
people in Parliament had little control of public affairs,
and for years at a time the king dispensed with the
services of Parliament altogether. The result was that
civil rights were ignored or destroyed, and religious
grievances became more and more intolerable. When
James died, in 1625, Puritanism, both as a civil and a re-
ligious force, had almost reached its high-water mark.
With the accession of Charles I. to the throne some
XX
INTRODUCTION.
had hopes of a better day; but these hopes were soon
shattered, and the worst fears of many were speedily
realized. Charles soon dissolved Parliament. In 1626
another was called, but soon dissolved, and this opera-
tion was repeated with still another in 1629.
Many of the Puritans emigrated to America about
1630, following the Pilgrim Fathers, who had landed in
New England ten years before. In 1633 Laud is made
Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1637 he tried to force
Episcopacy upon Scotland. In the same year the trial
of Hampden for refusing to pay ship-money took place.
Various petitions were presented to the king, seeking re-
dress for sore evils in church and state, but all their ap-
peals were in vain. Towards the close of 1640 the Long
Parliament met, with Pym leader in the House of Com-
mons. In May, 1641, Strafford, the chief adviser of
Charles, was executed. The same year Charles visited
Scotland, seeking the support of that kingdom. In 1642
the Royalist and the Parliamentary forces unsheathed
the sword, and the contest was transferred from the halls
of legislation to the battle-field. In 1643 the Westmin-
ster Assembly met, and the struggle still went on in the
field, with Oliver Cromwell the leader of the Parliament-
ary forces. During 1645 the Royalist forces suffered sore
defeats, especially at Naseby, and in 1646 Charles gave
himself up to the Scottish leaders, and they in turn, in
1647, surrendered him to the Parliament. For nearly two
years the dreadful conflict continued, until at length the
king was executed January 30, 1649, and England was
proclaimed a commonwealth before the close of the same
year. From that time till 1653 Parliament sought to
hold the reins of power and rule alone, but in that year
Oliver Cromwell was made Lord Protector.
Soon after
he somewhat rudely dismissed what remained of the
INTRODUCTION.
xxi
Long Parliament, which had been in existence since 1640,
and which continued to have a nominal existence down
to 1660, when it was finally dissolved. This Long Par-
liament must ever be remembered in connection with the
Westminster Assembly.
The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell continued down
to 1658, and in some respects it was marked by not a
little tyranny, and by frequent disregard of the will of
the people. In that year Cromwell died, and his son,
Richard, became Lord Protector. He was totally unfit
to hold the reins of government, and the people became
displeased, so that the way was ere long opened for the
return of the monarchy, and the restoration of the Stuart
line in the person of Charles II., in 1660. This virtually
closed the outward political career of Puritanism, though
the great principles represented by it were so wrought
into the life of the English people that Britain after the
Restoration was greatly different in both church and state
from what it was prior to the Long Parliament.
From 1660 and the Restoration on to 1688 and the
Revolution, there is a period subsequent to the West-
minster Assembly era, when, for a time, much that was
really gained during that era seemed to be apparently
lost. Charles II. was on the throne from 1660 till his
death, in 1685; and James II. followed, but held the
sceptre only about three years. Neither of them had
rightly learned the great lessons which the period of
fifty-seven years, from 1603 to 1660, should have taught
those who were to fitly rule the British people, while the
people had been taught lessons during that same period
which they could never forget or set aside. The result
was that the gates were almost as gladly opened for the
approach of William of Orange as they had been for
Charles II., so that what seemed lost by the Restoration
xxii
INTRODUCTION.
of 1660 was really recovered by the Revolution of 1688.
Thus the dreadful, struggle of those dark days, from
1603 to 1660, was crowned with the permanent results
which are to be seen in the civil and religious liberty en-
joyed by Britain and the United States to the present
day. In the heart of that period, so fraught with bless-
ing, stands the Westminster Assembly, and in its cele-
brated symbols we have promulgated the principles.
which made triumph sure in the end. The splendid
way in which these principles have stood the severest
tests for two hundred and fifty years, on two continents,
and under different forms of government, is abundant
proof of the value of these principles, and a cogent rea-
son why those who have fallen heir to them should be
true to their splendid heritage. A birthright so dearly
purchased and so valuable shall surely never be sold for
a mess of pottage.
A few facts of history regarding the Assembly itself
may be of some service in this preliminary sketch.
The Assembly met, in response to the call and appoint-
ment of the Long Parliament, on the first day of July,
1643.
Most of its sessions were held in the Jerusalem
Chamber of the historic Abbey of Westminster. Its first
work was an attempt to revise the Thirty-nine Articles.
The Assembly continued at this task till the 12th of
October, 1643, when the proposed revision of fifteen
Articles was completed. The Parliament then gave the
Assembly directions to cease its work on the Articles and
begin with the Government and Liturgy of the Church.
Meantime the Scottish Commissioners arrived on the 15th
of September, 1643, and the Solemn League and Cove-
nant was taken on the 25th of September of the same
year. In accordance with the direction of Parliament,
the Assembly began its work on the Government and
/
INTRODUCTION.
xxiii
Liturgy of the Church in October. The Assembly seems
to have labored on the Form of Church Government and
on the Directory for Worship at the same time, during
the years 1643 and 1644. The Assembly presented its
first report, which was a partial one, to Parliament on
the 24th of May, 1644. Other partial reports were made
during June, July and November of that year, and the
Directory, as a whole, received the approval of Parlia-
ment on the 3d of January, 1645, so that this Directory,
which was to take the place of the Liturgy, was really
the first finished work of the Assembly.
In the meantime the work of the Assembly on the
Form of Government was dragging on its weary way
through endless debates, for the real battle-ground was
here. On the 20th of April, 1644, the first partial report
on Church Government was made to Parliament, and on
the 8th of November of the same year a further, and
probably a completed, report was made.
In February, 1645, the Scottish General Assembly ap-
proved both the Directory of Worship and the Form of
Government, but did not yet formally adopt them, await-
ing the action of the Parliament. After various delays.
an ordinance substantially adopting the reports of the
Assembly passed both Houses of Parliament on the 29th
of August, 1648. The Form of Government in this or-
dinance was essentially of the Presbyterian type.
The Confession of Faith comes to be next considered.
On the 20th of August, 1644, the committee for the Con-
fession was appointed, and sub-committees were after-
wards formed to aid in this work. Great care was evi-
dently taken with this doctrinal symbol, for reports from
the various committees were made from time to time,
and these were revised again and again. On the 25th
of September, 1646, the first nineteen chapters of the
xxiv
INTRODUCTION.
Confession were reported to the House of Commons, and
on the 4th of December of the same year the whole Con-
fession was presented to the House of Commons, and on
the 7th of December to the House of Lords.
This pre-
sentation was made by the Assembly in a body. On the
29th of April, 1647, the Scripture proofs were presented
to Parliament, but it was not adopted by that body till
the following summer, and then with some important
exceptions where the relations of church and state are in
question.
As early as December, 1643, the Assembly began work
on the Catechisms. On August 1st, 1645, a report was
presented by the Catechism Committee to the Assembly,
and on the 14th of January, 1647, the Assembly decided
to prepare two Catechisms instead of one. The Larger
Catechism was completed first. It was presented to the
Assembly on the 20th of October, 1647, and on the 22nd
of the same month it was laid before both Houses of
Parliament. The Scripture proofs were presented on
the 14th of April, 1648, and this Catechism was approved
by the General Assembly of Scotland on the 20th of
July, 1648. The Shorter Catechism was not presented
to Parliament till the 25th of November, 1647, and the
Scripture proofs were not reported till the 14th of April,
1648. The hands of Palmer, Tuckney and Burgess were
prominent in framing the Catechisms.
Soon after this the Assembly ceased its active work in
the lines on which it had moved all through these event-
ful years. It continued to discharge certain ecclesiasti-
cal functions, such as granting licenses to ministers,
down to about the close of 1652, and it really passed out
of existence with the decline of the Long Parliament
which had convened it. Its actual term of existence is
sometimes given as five years, six months and twenty-
INTRODUCTION.
XXV
two days, during which time it held at least one thou-
sand one hundred and sixty-three sessions, but it is not
easy to say absolutely when it ceased to exist. Towards
the close of its sittings its minutes may not have been
made with such care as during the early years of its
work, and its real work was done before 1649, when
Charles I. was executed.
To give a wider view of the relations of the Westmin-
ster Assembly to the whole Reformation movement, a
few brief statements are set down to complete this his-
torical outline.
About the close of the fifteenth and beginning of the
sixteenth centuries several of the great actors who were
to play important parts in the drama of the Reformation
were born.
Luther was born in 1483, Zwingli in 1484,
Farel in 1489, Henry VIII. in 1491, Melanchthon in 1497,
Knox in 1505, Calvin in 1509, and William the Silent in
1533. Thus Providence was in various lands preparing
different men who should in due season be ready for the
gigantic task to which they were called.
Then, at nearly the same time, the Reformation move-
ment began in the several countries represented by these
historic names just mentioned. In Germany Luther's
theses appeared in 1517, and in 1520 he was excommu-
nicated; and the Reform cause in that land was thereby
launched on a tempestuous sea. In 1522 Zwingli was
beginning to boldly declare the true doctrine of the gos-
pel, and in a few years Switzerland had the true light
shining brightly by its lovely lakes amid the mountains.
In 1526 Henry VIII., for reasons of a doubtful nature,
was in conflict with the Pope; and in 1534 the Act of
Supremacy was passed, and the Reformation was nomi-
nally planted on English soil. By the year 1550 Calvin
was supreme in Geneva, and at that time also the Re-
xxvi
INTRODUCTION.
formed doctrine, largely in its Calvinistic type, had a
firm foothold in France and the Netherlands. About
the same time, and more or less for a generation or two
later, Geneva and Holland exerted much influence on
the Reform movement in Britain. Knox spent some
time at Geneva, and many English Puritans found an
asylum in Holland. About 1560 we find Knox in Scot-
land preaching the pure gospel, and organizing the Re-
formation in his native land in a thoroughly scriptural
manner in its doctrine, polity and worship. As Knox
was completing his work in Scotland, in spite of the op-
position of Queen Mary, William the Silent, about 1566,
was preparing to cope with the strong arm of Spain in
what seemed at first a hopeless struggle, but which
turned out in the end to be a glorious triumph. Then
in France soon after came, in 1572, that dreadful massa-
cre of St. Bartholomew's Day, which at one fell blow
robbed that fair land of her best and noblest blood.
In Geneva, in Holland, and in Scotland the Reforma-
tion was perhaps made more thorough than in any other
land, and it was from these centres that certain influences
were brought to bear upon the Reform movement in
England for many years prior to the Westminster Assem-
bly. As is well known, there was in Elizabeth's day a
strong party in England who wished for a more com-
plete reform in religion than the Episcopacy of that time.
represented. This party, in her day, and afterwards, in
the time of James I. and Charles I., was in constant
communication with the thorough-going Reformers in
Scotland and on the continent. This indicates the con-
nection of the Westminster Assembly in England with
the true Reform life of Scotland and the continent. This
is also clearly shown from the ordinance of Parliament
calling the Assembly, wherein it is stated that the
A
INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
Assembly shall seek to bring the church in England
into "nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland and
the other Reformed churches abroad.” Thus it came to
pass that this memorable Assembly, whose splendid
story is so grandly told in the addresses which make up
this volume, gathered up into itself the varied yet kin-
dred streams that flowed from the pure springs which
rose among the hills of Scotland, the mountains of Switz-
erland, and the plains of Holland; and then, in turn,
this Assembly, with its venerable symbols, has, in the
providence of God, ever since been the unfailing reser-
voir from which has flowed numberless pure and life-
giving streams into lands far and near, to make glad the
city of God even to the ends of the earth. That we have
one stream from that reservoir still pure, ever purified,
flowing through our beloved Zion, should evoke our
grateful praise and provoke our earnest zeal to open up
other channels, that this stream may refresh the waste
places of the earth.
III. THE ORDINANCE CALLING THE ASSEMBLY, AND A
LIST OF ITS MEMBERS.
The ordinance issued by Parliament to convene the
Westminster Assembly bears date of June 12, 1643, and
is as follows:
46
An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament for
the calling of an Assembly of learned and godly divines,
and others, to be consulted with by the Parliament, for the
settling of the Government and Liturgy of the Church of
England, and for the vindicating and clearing of the
doctrine of the said church from false aspersions and inter-
pretations.
-
C
Whereas, amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God
upon this nation, none is, or can be, more dear unto us than the
purity of our religion; and for that, as yet many things remain,
xxviii
INTRODUCTION.
in the Liturgy, Discipline and Government of the church, which
do necessarily require a further and more perfect reformation
than hath yet been attained.
"And whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the
Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, that the present
church government, by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors,
commissaries, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and other eccle-
siastical officers, depending upon the hierarchy, is evil, and
justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom, a great impedi-
ment to reformation and growth of religion, and very prejudicial
to the state and government of this kingdom; and that therefore
they are resolved that the same shall be taken away, and that
such a government shall be settled in the church as may be most
agreeable to God's Holy Word, and most apt to procure and
preserve the peace of the church at home, and nearer agreement
with the Church of Scotland and other Reformed Churches
abroad.
(
And for the better effecting hereof, and for the vindicating
and clearing of the doctrine of the Church of England from all
false calumnies and aspersions, it is thought fit and necessary to
call an Assembly of learned, godly and judicious divines, to con-
sult and advise of such matters and things, touching the prem-
ises, as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the
Houses of Parliament, and to give their advice and counsel
therein to both or either of the said Houses, when, and as often
as, they shall be thereunto required.
'Be it therefore ordained, by the Lords and Commons in
this present Parliament assembled, that all and every the persons
hereafter in this ordinance named, that is to say,' [here follow
the names,] and such other persons as shall be nominated and
appointed by both Houses of Parliament, or as many of them as
shall not be letted by sickness, or other necessary impediment,
shall meet and assemble, and are hereby required and enjoined,
upon summons signed by the clerks of both Houses of Parlia-
ment, left at their several respective dwellings, to meet and
assemble at Westminster, in the chapel called King Henry
Seventh's Chapel, on the first day of July, in the year of our
In the original ordinance the names of the members of the
Assembly are inserted at this point. They are placed at the
close in this sketch.
INTRODUCTION.
xxix
Lord one thousand six hundred and forty-three; and after the
first meeting, being at least of the number of forty, shall from
time to time sit, and be removed from place to place; and also,
that the said Assembly shall be dissolved in such manner as by
both Houses of Parliament shall be directed.
"And the said persons, or so many of them as shall be so
assembled or sit, shall have power and authority, and are hereby
likewise enjoined, from time to time during this present Parlia-
ment, or until further order be taken by both the said Houses,
to confer and treat among themselves of such matters and things,
touching and concerning the Liturgy, Discipline and Govern-
ment of the Church of England, or the vindicating and clearing
of the doctrine of same from all false aspersions and miscon-
structions, as shall be proposed to them by both or either of the
said Houses of Parliament, and no other; and to deliver their
opinions and advices of or touching the matters aforesaid, as
shall be most agreeable to the Word of God, to both or either of
the said Houses, from time to time, in such manner and sort as
by both or either of the said Houses of Parliament shall be re-
quired, and the same not to divulge, by printing, writing, or
otherwise, without the consent of both or either House of Par-
liament.
"And be it further ordained, by the authority aforesaid, that
William Twisse, Doctor in Divinity, shall sit in the chair, as pro-
locutor of the said Assembly; and if he happen to die, or be letted
by sickness, or other necessary impediment, then such other
person to be appointed in his place as shall be agreed on by both
the said Houses of Parliament. And in case any difference of
opinion shall happen amongst any of the said persons so assem-
bled, touching any of the matters that shall be proposed to them
as aforesaid, that then they shall represent the same, together
with the reasons thereof, to both or either the said Houses
respectively, to the end such further direction may be given
therein as shall be requisite in that behalf.
"
And be it further ordained, by the authority aforesaid, that
for the charges and expense of the said divines, and every of
them, in attending the said service, there shall be allowed unto
every of them that shall so attend the sum of four shillings for
every day, at the charges of the Commonwealth, at such time
and in such manner as by both Houses of Parliament shall be
appointed.
XXX
INTRODUCTION.
"And be it further ordained, that all and every the said
divines, so as aforesaid required and enjoined to meet and
assemble, shall be freed and acquitted of and from every offence,
forfeiture, penalty, loss, or damage, which shall or may arise or
grow by reason of any non-residence or absence of them, or any
of them, from his or their, or any of their, church, churches, or
cures, for or in respect of the said attendance upon the said ser-
vice, any law or statute of non-residence, or other law or statute
enjoining their attendance upon their respective ministries or
charges, to the contrary thereof notwithstanding.
(C
And if any of the persons before named shall happen to die
before the Assembly shall be dissolved by order of both Houses
of Parliament, then such other person or persons shall be nomi-
nated and placed in the room and stead of such person or per-
sons so dying, as by both the said Houses shall be thought fit
and agreed upon. And every such person or persons so to be
named shall have the like power and authority, freedom and
acquittal, to all intents and purposes, and also all such wages
and allowances for the said service, during the time of his or
their attendance, as to any other of the said persons in this ordi-
nance named is by this ordinance limited and appointed. Pro-
vided always, that this ordinance, or anything therein contained,
shall not give unto the persons aforesaid, or any of them, nor
shall they in this Assembly assume to exercise, any jurisdiction,
power, or authority ecclesiastical whatsoever, or any other power
than is herein particularly expressed.”
This is the full text of the ordinance summoning the
Assembly and appointing its work, to which reference.
is frequently made in the addresses which form the body
of this volume. The full list of the members of the
Assembly is also added. The original list was one hun-
dred and fifty-one. A number of others were added froin
time to time to take the place of some who never attended
and of others who died. The names of these are also
given, so that the whole list may be entirely complete.
FROM THE LORDS.--The Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of
Bedford, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, the Earl of
Salisbury, the Earl of Holland, the Earl of Manchester, the Vis-
INTRODUCTION.
xxxi
count of Say and Sele, the Viscount Conway, Lord Wharton,
and Lord Howard of Eserick.
FROM THE COMMONS.-John Selden, Francis Rouse, Edmund
Prideaux, Henry Vane, senior, John Glynn, John White, Bul-
strode Whitelocke, Humphry Salloway, Serjeant Wild, Oliver
St. John, Benjamin Rudyard, John Pyn, John Clotworthy,
John Maynard, Henry Vane, junior, William Pierpont, William
Wheeler, Thomas Barrington, John Evelyn, and Walter Young.
OF DIVINES.-John Arrosmith, Simeon Ashe, Theophilus
Bathurst, Thomas Baylie, Oliver Bowles, William Bridge, Ralph
Brownrigg, Richard Buckley, Anthony Burgesse, Cornelius
Burges, Jeremy Burroughes, Edmund Calamy, Richard Capell,
Joseph Carrill, John Carter, Thomas Carter, William Carter,
Thomas Case, Humphrey Chambers, Francis Cheynell, Peter
Clerk, Richard Cleyton, Francis Coke, Thomas Coleman, John
Conant, Edward Corbet, Robert Crosse, John De La March,
Samuel De La Place, Calibute Downing, William Dunning,
Edward Ellis, John Erle, Daniel Featley, John Foxcroft, Han-
nibal Gammqn, Thomas Gataker, John Gibbon, George Gibbs,
Samuel Gibson, Thomas Goodwin, William Gouge, Stanley
Gower, John Green, William Greenhill, John Hacket, Henry
Hall, Henry Hammond, John Harris, Robert Harris, Charles
Herle, Richard Herrick, Jasper Hickes, Thomas Hill, Samuel
Hildersham, Thomas Hodges, Richard Holdsworth, Joshua
Hoyle, Henry Hutton, John Jackson, William Lance, John
Langley, John Ley, John Lightfoot, Richard Love, William
Lyford, Stephen Marshall, William Mew, Thomas Micklethwaite,
William Morton, George Morley, Matthew Newcomen, William
Nicholson, Henry Nye, Philip Nye, Henry Painter, Herbert
Palmer, Christopher Pashley, Edward Peale, Andreas Perne,
John Philips, Benjamin Pickering, William Price, Nicholas
Prophet, John Pyne, William Raynor, Edward Reynolds, Arthur
Sallaway, Robert Sanderson, Henry Scudder, Lazarus Seaman,
Obadiah Sedgewick, Sidrach Simpson, Brocket Smith, William
Spurstow, Edmund Stanton, Peter Sterry, Matthias Styles,
Francis Taylor, Thomas Temple, Thomas Thoroughgood, Chris-
topher Tisdale, Henry Tozer, Anthony Tuckney, William Twisse,
James Ussher, Thomas Valentine, Richard Vines, George Walker,
Samuel Ward, James Weldy, Thomas Westfield, Francis Whid-
den, John Whincop, Jeremiah Whitaker, John White, Henry
Wilkinson, senior, Henry Wilkinson, junior, Thomas Wilson,
Thomas Wincop, and Thomas Young.
xxxii
INTRODUCTION.
The clerks of the Assembly were Henry Roborough,
Adoniram Byfield, and their assistant was John Wallis.
THE SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS.-Ministers: Alexander Hen-
derson, Robert Douglas, Samuel Rutherford, Robert Baillie, and
George Gillespie. Elders: The Earl of Cassilis, Johnston of
Warriston, and Lord Maitland.
The following members were added during the sittings.
of the Assembly, to take the place of those who died or
never sat:
LORDS.-The Earl of Denbigh, Lord Grey of Warke, the Earl
of Bolingbroke, the Earl of Essex, and the Earl of Warwick.
COMMONERS. Robert Harley, William Massam, William
Stroud, Arthur Hazelrig, Robert Reynolds, Zouch Tate, Gilbert
Gerard, Robert Pye, and John Cooke.
DIVINES. Francis Woodcock, John Maynard, Thomas Clen-
don, Daniel Cawdrey, John Dury, William Rathbone, John
Strickland, William Good, John Bond, Humphry Hardwick,
John Ward, Edward Corbet, Philip Delmé, Thomas Ford,
Richard Byfield, William Strong, Robert Johnston, and Samuel
Boulton.
SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS.-Robert Meldrum, the Earl of Lou-
don, Charles Erskine, Lord Balmerino, the Marquis of Argyll,
and George Winrham.
IV. A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY.
In this section a brief account of some of the more
accessible literature which pertains to the Westminster
Assembly and the work which it did is given. No
analysis or criticism of this literature is attempted, but
only an enumeration of those books which may enable
the reader to pursue his studies at length upon this sub-
ject is made. For the sake of orderly statement, the
literature in question is arranged in several classes, but
in no case is the enumeration exhaustive or complete.
1. For the secular history of the era of the Westminster
Assembly only a few books require to be named, as any
INTRODUCTION.
xxxiii
reliable history of England and of Scotland will suffice to
give the framework of the secular or political history of
the time. Froude's History of England is perhaps about
as good as any. Green's History of the English People
is quite complete, and generally reliable, if not always
sympathetic. Hallam's Constitutional History of England
is of value at several points. For Scotland, Burton's
History of Scotland is one of the very best of the older
treatises. Gardiner's History of England is very volumi-
nous and complete, and Clarendon's Works are the most
elaborate of all. Then the Life of Oliver Cromwell, by
Thomas Carlyle, though it has the flavor of hero-worship
about it, should be read, as also the biographies of any
of the chief leaders in the great Puritan struggle, such
as Hampden, Pym, Milton, and others.
2. For the ecclesiastical and religious history of this
great period, any good treatise on Church History may be
read with profit, though it is a remarkable fact that very
few of the German writers on church history do justice
to this period in Britain, and some of them are all but
silent about it. Kurtz, usually accurate, and Geisseler,
generally comprehensive, have really nothing to say
about the Westminster Assembly. The consequence is
that we have to rely largely on English authors for infor-
mation upon this subject.
Fisher's History of the Christian Church and Schaff's
Church History are the most recent treatises on the whole
subject of church history. Both are readable and instruc-
tive, though neither can be said to be entirely sympa-
thetic narratives of the proceedings of the Assembly.
In D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation the connection
between the Reform movement in Britain and on the
continent is brought out, although the references to the
period of the Westminster Assembly are rather meagre.
xxxiv
INTRODUCTION.
Of the older works, Burnet's History of the Reformation
is one of the most elaborate. Calderwood's History of
the Church of Scotland and Wodrow's Correspondence are
the great works on that branch of the subject. As works
of a more special nature, a few may be named. Perry's
History of the Church of England deals with the matters.
in question from the Episcopal point of view. Hether-
ington's History of Scotland is perhaps still the best
single book on this aspect of the subject. A very com-
plete work is Stoughton's Ecclesiastical History of Eng-
land. For the Puritans, Neal's History of the Puritans
and Marsden's Early and Late Puritans are worthy of a
prominent place.
Various biographies of the leading men of the time,
especially of prominent members of the Assembly, may
be consulted with advantage. For Knox, McCrie's Life
of Knox is good, as also his Life of Melville. Strype's
Life of Parker and his Life of Grindal are instructive.
Brook's Lives of the Puritans is a good single treatise to
give some information about most of the leading Puri-
tans. Stowell's History of the Puritans in England is
also worthy of mention. In Bacon's The Genesis of the
New England Churches there is a good account of the
transplanting of Puritanism from Old to New England.
John Fiske, in recent writings, is informing.
3. For the History of the Assembly itself, only a tithe of
the abundant literature which lies before us at this point
of view can be named here. First of all, Stanley's Me-
morials of Westminster Abbey should be perused, to give
a vivid impression of the memorable place where the
Assembly met. For the proceedings of the Assembly,
The Minutes of the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly
of Divines, edited by Mitchell and Struthers, is of the
utmost value. The official manuscript record of the As-
INTRODUCTION.
XXXV
sembly was discovered a little over twenty years ago in
Dr. Williams' library, in London, England, and has been
of great value. Lightfoot's Works, and especially his
Journal of the Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines, are
full of information. Gillespie's Notes of the Debates and
Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster
should be set beside Lightfoot, as they represent two
types of view. Of great value on the national side are
The Journals of the House of Lords and of the House of
Commons during the period when the Assembly was in
session. For many details found nowhere else, we must
go to Baillie's Letters and Journals, where many quaint
and shrewd observations are found. In Fuller's Works,
in Whitlocke's Works, and in Rushworth's Works, the
reader who has an abundance of leisure can find much
of primary value.
Some of the most recent books on the Assembly and
its work are now to be named. Hetherington's History
of the Westminster Assembly, edited by Williamson, is
brief and accurate; and Mitchell's Westminster Assembly :
Its History and Standards, is perhaps the best single popu-
lar book on the Assembly yet published. It is The Baird
Lecture for 1882, and is of real interest and value. In
addition to these we may mention Reid's Memoirs of the
Westminster Assembly, Briggs' Documentary History of
the Westminster Assembly, in Presbyterian Review for
1880, and Schaff's Creeds of Christendom, Volume I.
4. Touching the exposition of the doctrinal contents of
the Westminster Standards, only a few suggestions may
be made. Passing by the great treatises on theology
which represent the system of doctrine and polity taught
in these Standards, some books, which deal directly with
them in an expository way, are here set down, with very
brief descriptions when deemed useful. Schaff's Creeds
xxxvi
INTRODUCTION.
of Christendom is very complete and informing in Volume
III., though the exposition made is not always in hearty
sympathy with the definite system set forth in the Stan-
dards. Shedd's History of Doctrine, though too brief to
satisfy, is worth consulting for its indirect references.
Mitchell's work, already mentioned, on The Westminster
Assembly, in its closing chapters, has a good exposition
of the doctrinal contents of the Standards. A. A. Hodge's
Commentary on the Confession of Faith is of very great
value, and is as good as any treatise on the Confession
alone. It is simple and sympathetic. Somewhat similar
Expositions of the Confession at the hands of Dickson, of
Shaw, and of Mitchell, are worthy of mention. On the
Catechisms, especially the Shorter, there is a small library
of literature. The authors we may mention are Vincent,
Watson, Flavel, Willison, Brown, Fisher, Steele, Mair,
Green, Hodge, all of whom have done good service on
the Catechisms. Beattie's The Presbyterian Standards
binds together and seeks to blend into one complete
exposition the contents of the Confession and both Cate-
chisms. For an exposition of the Larger Catechism
alone, Ridgeley's Body of Divinity is deserving of notice,
when so few treatises deal directly with the Larger Cate-
chism.
To call attention to literature which is in danger of
being neglected, we mention a few works which deal
with the polity, discipline and worship of the church in
their relation to the Westminster Assembly, which was
convened to deal with these matters as much if not more
than with the subject of doctrine.
A few of the rare old treatises which were produced in
the Westminster era are named first: Gillespie's Aaron's
Rod Blossoming is perhaps the ablest plea for Presbytery
ever made.
Rutherford's A Peaceable Plea for Paul's
INTRODUCTION.
xxxvii
Presbytery is valuable also. Baillie's A Dissuasive from
the Errors of the Times is a curious old work. Byfield's
Grand Debate between Presbytery and Independency gives
a vivid sketch of the Assembly debate on this question.
Baxter's Five Disputations of Church Government and
Worship is a capital old work. King's Inquiry into the
Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primi-
tive Church is another very elaborate product of this
period. Anderson's A Defence of the Church Government,
Faith, Worship and Spirit of the Presbyterians was pub-
lished a generation or two after the Westminster era,
and has much merit.
Of more recent works the following may be noted:
Brown's Constitution, Government and Discipline of the
Christian Church is comprehensive. Miller's Presbyterian-
ism and other works are of much value for plain readers.
Smyth's Presbytery, not Prelacy, the Scriptural and Primi-
tive Polity is valuable for the literature which it brings
before the reader. In both Hetherington's and Mitchell's
works, already named in another connection, there is
much on this topic also. Bannerman's The Christian
Church is an able recent treatise on the Presbyterian side.
Hodge's Discussions in Church Polity is of permanent
value. Peck's Ecclesiology and Girardeau's Instrumental
Music in the Christian Church have special value on their
respective topics. It must be added that in Thornwell's
Collected Writings there is much of lasting importance,
and that the same may be said of Dabney's Discussions,
recently published. Johnson's History of the Southern
Presbyterian Church ought to be named here also.
Useful articles on polity, discipline and worship, from
the Presbyterian point of view, may be found in the
various volumes of the Proceedings of the Councils of the
Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System.
xxxviii
INTRODUCTION.
5. Touching the influences of the Westminster Assem-
bly, only a few suggestions as to literature can be made,
for to set down everything here would be to catalogue
the literature of the history of Puritanism and Presby-
terianism on two continents, and to give an account of
that struggle for the civil and religious liberty which we
now enjoy. For Scotland, Buchanan's Ten Years' Con-
flict brings out the working of the principles laid down
by the Westminster Assembly in the Disruption struggle.
McCrie's Annals of English Presbytery tells the story for
England. For America, Hill's American Presbyterianism,
Hodge's Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States of America, Gillett's History of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and
Briggs' American Presbyterianism, will suffice for the
United States, while Gregg's History of the Presbyterian
Church in Canada is the complete work for the Dominion.
For the Puritan stream of influence, in addition to
books already named in other connections, Edwin Hall's
The Puritans and their Principles may be mentioned as
one of many books which might be noted here.
For the influence of the principles of the Westminster
Assembly on civil liberty, many books might be named,
but we can only refer in a general way to those books
which treat of the long struggle for constitutional govern-
.nent in Britain and on the continent of Europe, and to
those numerous treatises which deal with the American
Revolution; for in all of these the legitimate outcome of
these principles is to be seen.

REV. HENRY A. WHITE, M. A., PH. D., D. D.
I.
THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF
BRITAIN AT THE TIME OF THE CALLING OF
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, WITH SPE
CIAL REFERENCE TO THOSE ASPECTS OF THE
TIMES THAT (a), PREPARED THE WAY FOR
THE CALLING OF THE ASSEMBLY, AND (6),
EXERTED AN INFLUENCE ON
ON IT
IT WHEN
CALLED.
BY
REV. HENRY A. WHITE, M. A., Ph. D., D. D.,
PROFESSOR IN WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY,
LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA.
;
ANALYSIS.
The situation in 1643.-In Virginia.-In Massachusetts. -In
Europe.-Assembly convened.-Scotch Commissioners.-Assem-
bly's task. Directory of Worship reported.-Confession framed.
--Catechisms made.-Charles I. executed.-The Standards the
product of a great movement.-Homer referred to.—Social and
political life of Britain reviewed.-England in 1543.-Henry VIII.
-Germany.- Luther.-Calvin.- Scotland.—Wishart.-Thomas
Cromwell.-Coverdale's Bible.-New Anglican church.-Cran-
mer.-Romanism checked.-Mary.-Philip of Spain.-Sore per-
secutions.-Martyrs' blood the church's seed.-Elizabeth.-Eng-
land awakes. ---Social advance.-Holland and France.-Knox.-
Protestant sentiment.-Parliament active.-Pope interferes in
vain.-Mary Stuart.-The Armada.-Popery described. Its rise.
Its nature.-Political Rome because papal Rome.-The scarlet
woman.-Church of England in 1570.-Vestments.-Marian exiles
return.-Debate arises.-Puritans appear.-Elizabeth's attitude.
---Council of Trent.-Jesuits.-Puritans largely Presbyterians.-
Hooker and Bancroft.-Calvinism and James I.-A crisis.—James
a bigot and a tyrant.-Hated Presbytery.-Puritans petition
James.-The king haughty.-Great conflict.-Puritans versus
Romanists.-Parliament versus king.-Some Puritans fled the
country. Most remained.--Charles I.-Conflict deepens.—Civil
and religious.-Arminianism versus Calvinism.-The Bible read.
---Laud persecuted.--Morals decline.-Spiritual life at stake.—
Calvinism to the rescue.-Scotland and Laud.-Jennie Geddes.
Presbytery restored in Scotland.-King and Parliament.-Long
Parliament. Pym. - Laud in prison. Strafford executed.-
Charles checked.--Grievances.--War begins.-Army of the Com-
mons under Essex.--Westminster Assembly summoned in 1643.-
Thirty-nine Articles revised.-Cromwell.--Pym and Scotland.
Solemn League and Covenant.-The Scotch army.-Assembly's
work.-English Presbyterianism leads.---English and Scottish
Puritanism differ.-Commons largely Presbyterian.--Polity.-
Standards the product of English theology and Scottish faith.-
Several parties in Assembly.-Debates.-Cromwell gave Inde-
pendents force.-Presbyterianism never had firm foothold in
England. --Religious toleration.-Presbytery broke the power of
absolutism.--Presbyterian churches in America the heirs of this
victory.--- Scotch-Irish and American Presbyterians made the
work complete.-Exhortation to loyalty and devotion.
――――
1
P
THE
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
I.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF BRITAIN
AT THE TIME OF THE
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
CALLING OF THE
THE
HE Westminster Assembly of Divines was con-
vened in the Westminster Abbey, London, in the
year 1643. On our side of the Atlantic it was the era
of colony-planting, when none but members of the
Episcopal Church were permitted to dwell in the Tide-
water region of Virginia, and when none but members.
of the Congregational Church could vote and hold office
in Massachusetts. On the farther side of the Atlantic,
the year 1643 marked the central period in the long
struggle for conscience and for freedom, when the princes
of the earth were taking counsel together to establish
the doctrines of religion through the agency of the sword,
when Romanists and Protestants on the continent were
engaged in the tragedy of the Thirty Years' War, when
the infant Louis XIV. was just ascending the most
powerful throne in Europe, when Calvinists and Armin-
ians were holding fierce debate in Holland, when John
Milton was waging battle for the liberty of the press,
when Richard Baxter was learning how to preach and
how to pray, and Oliver Cromwell was acquiring the art
I
2
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
of cavalry leadership in the field of war against King
Charles I.
The booming of guns was borne to London on nearly
every breeze from the north and west during the summer
of 1643. Saturday, the first day of July in that year,
saw a vast throng assembled in the Abbey church,
Westminster. In obedience to the call of England's
body of law-makers the city on the Thames sent devout
men and women to crowd the house of worship. Dr.
William Twisse, the Puritan minister from the town of
Newbury, occupied the pulpit. Ten members of the
House of Lords, twenty members of the House of Com-
mons, and sixty-nine ministers of the gospel from all
England, sat in the congregation to hear the elaborate
discourse from the text, John xiv. 18: "I will not leave
you comfortless: I will come to you." After service
the ministers and members of Parliament betook them-
selves to Henry VII.'s Chapel and there gave answer to
their names as the clerk called the official roll of the
Westminster Assembly.
Among the clergy of that Assembly were a few
Huguenots; all the rest had received Episcopal ordina-
tion in England. One bishop in full canonical dress
held a seat. Nearly all were clad in the plain, simple
garb of Puritan ministers. On July 8, the entire Assem-
bly took the oath of office as a governmental commission
under the authority of the English Parliament, charged
with the business of revising and amending the Thirty-
nine Articles, the constitution of the Church of England.
Under our form of government the Assembly might be
termed a constitutional convention, called to consider
ecclesiastical law.
September 15 marked the reception of commissioners
from Scotland as corresponding members. Ten days.
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
3
later the Assembly and the Parliament gave pledge to
keep the Solemn League and Covenant with Scotland,
and thus the two kingdoms were bound together by
formal treaty to wage war against King Charles I.
Not the revision of the old church constitution, but the
construction of a new governmental basis for the church
in England, Scotland and Ireland, was the work now laid
upon the Assembly by the Parliament. The law-makers
resolved to root out Episcopacy and to plant Presbyteri-
anism in the realm. The Episcopal members shook
from their feet the dust of Henry VII.'s Chapel, and
journeyed homeward. Additional Puritan members
came to assist in the work of revolution. The entire
Assembly took up its abode in the Jerusalem Chamber,
and there, in the presence of the sacred tapestry, they
prepared those standards in church government and doc-
trine which form the constitution of the Presbyterian
system of churches throughout the earth.
One year of labor and of fierce debate resulted in the
formulation of the new frame of church government and
the new order of religious service. On January 4, 1645,
the House of Commons passed sentence of death on
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and gave
sanction to the Assembly's Directory of Worship. Thus
"the archbishop and the old service-book died together."
Before the bar of the House of Commons on April 29,
1647, the Assembly presented those articles of belief and
doctrine, with Scripture-texts annexed, which we revere
as the Westminster Confession of Faith. The close of
the year 1648 saw the Assembly's active work com-
pleted with the Shorter and Larger Catechisms. The
Long Parliament gave official sanction to the entire series
of ecclesiastical symbols elaborated by the Westminster
Assembly, and immediately afterwards, in January,
4
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
"
1649, this same Parliament sent King Charles I. to die
on the scaffold. The Presbyterian system of doctrine
and polity became the basis of the established religion of
England at the moment when the old theory of the divine
right of kings was virtually overthrown. In the West-
minster Assembly we may behold Calvinism putting on
the whole armor of God, likewise taking the shield of
faith and the sword of the Spirit, and going forth unto
the final battle against the Church of Rome. The West-
minster Standards, constituting the complete charter of
the freedom of the individual conscience, thus embody
the primary principles of that mighty ecclesiastical and
political movement of the seventeenth century that gave
both religious and civil liberty to the people of the king-
dom of England.
When the Greek poet, Homer, wishes to portray the
beauty and the mechanism of a certain famous warrior's
shield, he invites the reader into the fabled workshop to
see the crude metals under the measured beating of
hammers gradually forged into shape. In like manner
let us seek to lay bare the heart of the English people in
the days of the Tudors and of the Stuarts. Let us watch
the operation of those national forces that were casting in
the mould of Protestantism the social and political life of
England and Scotland. Let us examine the form and
spirit of the national organism during the century preced-
ing the Westminster Assembly, if, perchance, we may
discern
'What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge, and what a heat,”
were shaped the war shields of our hope.
When we turn our steps backward in time through a
period of one hundred years, we may look upon the
b.
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
5
England of 1543. The Anglo-Saxon realm is attempt-
ing the beginner's part upon the stage of European
politics. Under the leadership of King Henry VIII.
England is entangling herself in the masquerade of
mingled bluster and treachery on the continent where
Spain and France are the leading actors. King Henry,
second monarch of the House of Tudor, uniting in his
own person the royal dignity of the ancient rival lines of
York and Lancaster, has worn for more than twenty
years the title, accorded him by the Pope, of (Fidei De-
fensor) Defender of the Faith. The king bears well the
weight of his two-and-fifty years, and seems untroubled
by the memory of two wives executed upon the scaffold,
for, with only four years of life yet remaining, he is
seeking his sixth royal consort. King Henry is no
longer the defender of the Pope's ancient dignity. Dur-
ing a period of ten years England has been in a state of
revolt against the political authority of the papacy, and
the monarch of the realm is the legal head of the Church
of England.
In this same year, 1543, we may look across the
channel into Germany to behold the hero who bearded
the papal lion in his den at Wittenberg and at Worms.
Martin Luther has three years of life yet left for breath-
ing his own warlike spirit into the growing Protestant.
party on the continent. Only four and twenty years
have passed away since the public Disputation of Leipsic,'
wherein he made the earliest avowal of the conviction
that the church can exist without a pope.
Since 1520
the German people have been reading his declarations
that the priest is only a ministerial officer, and that the
consecration by bishops might be dispensed with; that
without faith the sacraments are useless, and that it
' July, 1519.
3 The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.
3
2 Address to the German nobility.
6
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
؟
is foolish presumption "to seek justification through
works."'"'
Since 1530 the Lutheran theology has been
set forth in the Augsburg Confession, prepared by Me-
lanchthon: a time still later, 1537, is marked by Luther's
Smalcald Articles, signed by the Protestant princes of
Germany, who take oath, under Luther's direction, to
draw the sword against their emperor, if needs be, in
the defence of their religious creed. The last days of
the reformer are filled with exhortations addressed to his
followers to stand firm and keep the faith in the battle
that draweth nigh.
In 1543 we may see John Calvin exalted to the seat of
chief law-giver in the Christian commonwealth of Geneva.
Calvin has just attained the age of thirty-four, and even
already during the previous seven years his Institutes of
the Christian Religion have been leavening the religious
thought of Switzerland, Holland and France with the
great principle of the absolute sovereignty of God.
When we turn northward in this same year we ob-
serve the superstition of Romanism still hovering like a
dark cloud over the land of the Scots. Loyalty to the
papacy has led King James V. and his nobles, in the
previous year, to make war against Henry of England,
only to suffer disaster in the battle at Solway Moss. And
now King James V. is dead and the blood of the French
Guises, in the person of the infant Mary Stuart, holds the
title to the throne of Scotland. But the darkness of the
hour is made bright by the flames of a beacon-light of
glory. George Wishart, Scotland's second Protestant
martyr, is yielding up his life at St. Andrews at the
stake, unto which Beaton, the Romish cardinal, has
ordered him to be bound. Wishart's death is not in
vain, for his teachings against the authority of the
'Christian Liberty.
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
7
Church of Rome have found a seed-bed in the mind of
John Knox.
Ten years of Thomas Cromwell's policy of exalting
the royal authority in England has set the realm adrift
from its papal moorings. Any man who denies that the
king is the supreme head of the Church of England is
liable to a traitor's death. In theory this church is still
in harmony with the Romish congregations on the conti-
nent. She maintains practically every point of Romish
doctrine, uses the Latin service-book and governs ecclesi-
astical affairs through the agency of archbishops and
bishops. But King Henry VIII. has taken steps that
will lead ere long to changes in doctrine. He has ap-
propriated the papal revenues, has assumed the right to
appoint church officials, and has made booty of the lands
and treasures of the English monasteries. Beyond all these
revolutionary acts, the king has given to his people the
Word of God translated into their native form of speech.
In 1536, Henry and Cromwell authorized the circulation
of Coverdale's edition of the Bible in English. At noon-
day in each parish church in this year, 1543, we may,
perhaps, behold a group of peasants gathered about the
pulpit where the open Bible rests. Perchance the father
reads the sacred pages to his listening family, and then
all betake themselves to the field, there to labor and to
meditate upon the inspired message. The ploughman
carries a portion of the printed word in his bosom, and
at the end of the furrow pauses to drop into the memory
some of the words that will eventually bear fruit in the
great spiritual and ecclesiastical revolution among the
masses of the English people. When we pass to the
England of King Edward VI., we see a beautiful edifice,
the new Anglican church, springing out of the heart of
the nation to the sound of the sweetest music known to
8
50
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
mortal ears, the chanting of spiritual psalms and hymns
in the English tongue. Archbishop Cranmer has organ-
ized the Church of England upon the basis of the Epis…
copal form of government, but he composes a new prayer-
book in the English language, and has arranged a
doctrinal system of Forty-two Articles of belief drawn
from the Augsburg Confession, with the adoption of
the Calvinistic teaching concerning the Lord's supper.
Throughout the kingdom there is continued smashing of
images and of painted glass in the churches. Romish
doctrines have received a staggering blow.
In the pathway of the reform movement stands the
daughter of Henry VIII. and of his first wife, Catherine
of Arragon. Queen Mary yields her hand in marriage to
that dark-browed son of Spain, King Philip, and hastens
to deluge her realm with the blood of Protestant martyrs.
She entertains at her royal court an agent of the Pope,
and commands the celebration of the Romish mass
throughout the kingdom. Those who disobey the man-
date are forced into exile, into prison, or to the stake.
John Rogers dies in the flames at Smithfield in the pres-
ence of his wife and babes. Bishop Hooper is chained
to the stake at Gloucester, and Rowland Taylor perishes.
in like manner at Suffolk. Bishops Ridley and Latimer
are burnt at Oxford. "Be of good comfort, Master
Ridley, and play the man," cries Latimer when the fire
is kindled at his feet. "We shall this day light such a
candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall
never be put out." Archbishop Cranmer himself, after
six recantations written all in vain, is led out to die. He
regains a firmer mind when death is imminent and re-
vokes his recantations. As the flames leap up around
him, Cranmer holds his right hand steadily in the midst
of them, saying, "This hand hath offended.”
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
9
The despotism of Bloody Mary was without avail.
The blood of the martyrs became the seed of a stronger
Protestant church. The heart of the nation was aroused
to deliver battle even unto the death against the arch-
tyrant in Rome. To-day we claim a share in the halo of
glory that encircles the brow of each individual in the
noble army of martyrs of Mary's reign. They died in
behalf of English liberty as threatened by papal tyranny;
they died in defence of the Lutheran-Calvinistic system
of doctrine; they died for the right to worship God in that
form of speech that is native to Anglo-Saxon lips.
A new England is spread before us as we enter the
realm of Queen Elizabeth. From 1558 to 1603 she directs
the destiny of the growing commercial empire that still
continues to dominate the modern world. It is the era
when Spenser, Ben Jonson, and Shakespeare hold sway
in the realm of literature. The spirit of modern progress
manifests great vigor. The sails of the English traders
begin to whiten every sea. It is the epoch when ex-
plorers flourish; when Walter Raleigh sends expeditions
in search of colonial homes, and when Elizabeth's gallant
sea-dogs, under the leadership of Francis Drake, singe
the beard of the King of Spain, and drive his vessels
from the great waters. It is the age of growing science.
and of great inventions. It is only in Elizabeth's time
that men discover the phenomenal facts that light may
be introduced into a house through window-glass; that
a chimney will lead smoke to the top of a building; that
a mattress, laid upon a wooden framework, offers a more
comfortable resting-place than a straw pallet; that a
feather pillow gives a more gentle support to the head
than a log of wood; and that pewter plates and tin spoons
are of greater utility and beauty than utensils manufac-
tured from wood.
Sk
IO
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
This epoch witnesses a wonderful development in na-
tional sentiment among the people of England. Across
the channel they can see the heroism of the people of
Holland, who are organizing the Dutch Republic in the
face of Spanish oppression. The Huguenots of France,
in 1572, pour out their blood in the massacre of St.
Bartholomew. John Knox bears the teachings of Calvin
from Geneva to Scotland, and the Presbyterian system is
there lifting up its head against Mary Stuart and Roman-
ism. All around the horizon the Protestants are in the
thickest fury of the battle, and their call is heard in Eng-
land. Her people have made good use of the preceding
thirty years, and the new generation is familiar with the
Bible given them by Coverdale. The strong Protestant
sentiment of the majority of her subjects leads Elizabeth
to make a complete breach with the Church of Rome.
The queen is Lutheran in her personal religious creed.
She takes to herself the title of Supreme Governor of the
Church, and adopts Cranmer's Prayer-Book as the order
for religious services. Parliament removes three articles
from the creed of Cranmer's time and reissues the Thirty-
nine Articles as the constitution of the Anglican Church.
In the matter of doctrine, as well as in the matter of
political authority, England is now in complete revolt from
the papacy. Not until this time, the year 1570, does the
Pope make use of his most potent agencies to force the
rebellious kingdom into submission. He issues a decree
assuming to depose Elizabeth from her throne, and be-
gins a series of intrigues and plots to elevate Mary Stuart
to the seat of sovereignty in England. But Elizabeth's po-
litical prestige is unassailable. She can snap her fingers
at the man in Rome because a Calvinistic people stand
with drawn sword to support their royal leader. Mary
Stuart is sent to the block, the Spanish Armada is scat-
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, etc.
II
I
tered and broken upon the crags of the North Sea, and
England is pushed forward to a position of strength in
the world of European politics by reason of the uncon-
querable spirit of Anglo-Saxon Calvinism.
While the Pelagianism of Rome thus enters into deadly
conflict with the Augustinianism of England and Scot-
land, let us pause in our narrative to discern the actual
political and social character of the papacy. In its origin
and in its administration, the papacy was a political des-
potism, the incarnation of the kingdom of this world. It
was the result of a two-fold development whereby the
bishop of the city of Rome attained great authority as a
temporal sovereign, and at the same time climbed to the
position of head of the entire church.
As late as the third century of the Christian era the
bishop of Rome had no authority outside of his own
diocese. In the fourth century, however, he became
patriarch of the territory around Rome. The prestige of
Rome was gradually transferred to the bishop of the
city, and a religious basis was afterwards invented for
his assumed authority. He played the part of cham-
pion for all the churches of Western Europe, and these
churches gradually began to acknowledge his superior
official dignity. The Council of Chalcedon (451 A. D.),
in its twenty-eighth canon, accorded high honor to the
bishop of Rome because of his residence in the ancient
capital of the empire, but ascribed equal honor to the
bishop of Constantinople because he dwelt in the city of
the emperor. Leo, bishop of Rome, made protest against
this canon, and claimed for himself the place of highest
honor in the church because he was the alleged successor
of St. Peter, whom he called the first of the apostles.
Leo based his entire claim of primacy in the church upon
the untenable theory that Peter possessed superior autho-
I2
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
rity over the other apostles, and that he was the founder
and first bishop of the church in Rome. In order to
give legal basis to this bold assumption, a stupendous
series of forged documents were brought forward to sus-
tain the Roman bishop's claim of authority over temporal
rulers. Vast territories were given the bishop by the
Emperor Charlemagne, and thenceforward, through in-
trigue and diplomacy, the bishop of the city of Rome,
under the title of pope, asserted his supreme authority
in the church and finally in the state. The papacy be-
came supreme over all Europe.
In imitation of the Roman empire, the empire of the
church was marked off into provinces. Over each one of
these was placed an archbishop, with ancient proconsular
powers. Each province was divided into dioceses and
parishes, and over these were established bishops and
priests in supreme authority. In this vast govern-
mental web all the threads were bound fast to Rome,
and the great spider in the centre of the network was
the Pope.
Monasteries filled with armies of monks held
vast regions in the name of their master in Rome. The
Pope was superior to kings and princes in every country
in Europe, and his officials were not subject to the civil.
laws of any land. Papal agents were ambassadors,
privy councillors, and prime ministers at the European
courts. Learning and literature were controlled by the
Pope's subordinates. The legal title to one-third of the
land in Europe was vested in the papacy. From one-
half to four-fifths of the public revenue from the various
nations went into the papal treasury at Rome. The
papal empire had active charge of education, politics,
and social affairs and dominated the entire lives of men
from the cradle to the grave. The papacy developed a
system of theology that was entirely an affair of the head
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
13
and not of the soul. In its sacramental theory it virtu-
ally claimed divine power for the clergy. The sacra-
ment was supposed to produce its effect opere operato, by
the mere performance of the clerical act itself, without
reference to the individual upon whom the act was
wrought. None but the priest could baptize the infant,
perform the rite of marriage, administer blessing to the
dying, or bury the dead. In most cases the priests and
bishops were the sole administrators of estates. All
these public and private interests were in the hands of the
clergy, and money was demanded for the performance of
every ecclesiastical service. Rome was the centre of the
political and social life of Europe. At the same time
Rome was the centre of all political and spiritual wicked-
ness. Under the papacy the very light that men possessed
became darkness.
The guilt of papal Rome! The blackness of the
guilt of the line of church officials who claimed to be
shepherds, but were only wolves! In Luther's time
Rome was in very truth the scarlet woman! Sixtus IV.
was pope from 1471 to 1484. Poison and the dagger
were his favorite methods of removing opponents. His
personal vices are unnamable. Alexander VI. (Roderigo
Borgia) held the office from 1492 until 1503. Under his
direction church offices were sold at auction; cardinals
and bishops were given poison at his table.
His son
Cæsar was a monster of lust, who indulged in murder as
if it were a pastime.
Julius II. held the office of pope from 1503 until 1513.
As an Italian prince, he formed alliances with the Euro-
pean powers, and waged war for the purpose of conquer-
ing and seizing the territory of his neighbors. Leo X.
(1513-21) began the construction of St. Peter's Church
in Rome, and in order to secure money for its comple-
14
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
tion, sent his priests abroad to sell pardons for sin. The
blasphemies of one of the auctioneers aroused Luther.
The monstrous iniquities of the papal clergy, the grievous
taxation imposed upon the people, and the claim of
authority to sell spiritual privileges in heaven, stirred
the nations of Europe into a great ecclesiastical and po-
litical rebellion against the Church of Rome.
In the kingdom of England in 1570, Elizabeth claims
all the authority previously accorded to the pope. The
Thirty-nine Articles are chiefly Lutheran in doctrine, and
they avow the Calvinistic view of predestination and the
Lord's supper. Theological students carry the Prayer-
book under one arm and Calvin's Institutes under the
other. Calvin and Cranmer have joined hands in the
organization of the English church with the Episcopal
form of government. But bishops stand on the same
plane of dignity with presbyters. Ministers from the
continental churches with presbyterial ordination are.
received without further ceremonial into the English
churches. English bishops pass over to the continent,
and sit as co-presbyters with the Lutheran and Presby-
terian ministers. Harmony seems to reign among the
English Protestants. War breaks out, however, over
the vestments worn by the clergy.
The exiles driven forth by Queen Mary return from
the continent to form an ecclesiastical war-
r-party in Eng-
land. In the cities on the Rhine, where they found
refuge, English churches were organized. Fierce debates
resounded in these congregations over the forms of church
government and the forms of worship. From Strasburg
and Zurich in Elizabeth's reign a party returns to support
the Anglican ritual. From Geneva and Basel comes a
Presbyterian band, and Frankfort sends a flock of Inde-
pendents (Congregationalists.) The church war opens in
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
15
England when these eight hundred exiles return from the
Rhine and the Alps. Doctrine and government in Eliza-
beth's established church give complete satisfaction. But
these English Protestants have seen the simplicity in
dress and ritual that marks the worship of Lutherans and
Calvinists. They have been nearer to Rome, and have
seen the danger from the papal forms. "Away," they
cry, "away with the square cap, and the lawn sleeves,
and the white surplice, and the sign of the cross in
baptism." These are denounced as "badges of popery,"
and the civil magistrates must not enforce their use.
These externals merely transform ministers into papal
priests. Because of their demand for greater purity and
simplicity in the matter of public worship, the restored
exiles are termed Puritans. They continue to denounce
the Romish priests of Mary's reign, who still officiate in
Elizabeth's churches. Behind the surplices and under the
caps they see thousands of unworthy and ignorant men,
reading to the people the services of the Prayer-book.
These war cries are spoken in an age devoted to for-
mality and display. Elizabeth's reign is filled with
pomps and royal processions. Every inch of space on
the queen's state dresses is adorned with jewels. Her
bespangled robes are draped over
are draped over vast farthingales,
spread out like tables on which her arms may rest.
"Her appearance when thus attired has been compared
to that of an oriental idol." The extravagances of the
rich are imitated by the poor; women whose families are
suffering for bread go abroad in velvet clothing. Puri-
tanism begins to demand spirituality in the church.
"No more pomp and ceremonialism," they cry. Away
with the vestments and the bowing of the knee that re-
call the degenerate worship of the papal administration!
Podat
In 1563 the Council of Trent completes its work of
16
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
mild reform, and the papacy establishes itself upon a
basis of austere morality. Seven years later, with the
papal curse resting upon her, Elizabeth engages in conflict
with the Jesuits and with the Puritans. Both of these
parties are persecuted. In defence of the Calvinistic
creed, Thomas Cartwright, professor of divinity at Cam-
bridge, sets forth the view that the management of church
affairs belongs unto the church through her selected re-
presentatives. He declares that the rule of bishops is
unlawful, and that the only scriptural form of ecclesias-
tical government is the Presbyterian.' The great mass
of the Puritans follow Cartwright's leadership. A smaller
band adhere to the Congregationalist theory of Browne,
publicly advanced in 1588. Hooker utters a call for
peace in his Ecclesiastical Polity, but Bancroft, afterwards
archbishop, lays the foundation of the theory that claims
divine right for the Episcopal form of government and
for the apostolic succession of bishops. Nevertheless the
Presbyterian party gains prestige by upholding the queen
in her conflict with Spain and Romanism. The English
universities become hot-beds of Calvinism; the new gen-
eration of clergymen are nearly all disciples of Geneva,
and often ascend the pulpit in the black Geneva gown.
Even the higher bishops abstain from bowing at the name
of Christ. Stained glass disappears from the windows,
and the communion-table stands in the centre of the
church. The entire ritual is approaching a Calvinistic
simplicity when Elizabeth dies and the throne is claimed
by James Stuart of Scotland.
A great crisis was at hand in national affairs when
King James I., son of Mary Stuart, journeyed southward
to London in 1603. James was awkward and ungainly
"The earliest Presbyterian church in England was established
on the Thames river, near London, in 1572.
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
17
in person, but his mind was more full of sharp angles
than his body. He was a canny Scot, shrewd at striking
bargains and making compromises. He was possessed
of a quick wit, and had some knowledge of theology.
He desired to pose as the British Solomon, although
Henry IV. of France termed him "the wisest fool in
Christendom." He was deficient in common-sense, and
was filled with self-conceit. A Calvinistic training super-
added to the partial French nature of King James ren-
dered him a bigot in religion and a tyrant in politics.
He claimed to be the Lord's anointed vicegerent, com-
missioned to re-establish the Davidic theocracy in the
British realm. He claimed divine right to exercise abso-
lute personal authority in his kingdom. His experience
with presbyterial courts in Scotland, moreover, had in-
spired in the king an intense hatred of the Presbyterian
system.
Eight hundred Puritan ministers met the king with
a petition for certain reforms in connection with ceremo-
nies and the character of the clergy. They raised no
objection to the Episcopal form of church government.
They demanded an educated, spiritual ministry, and the
abolition of the square cap, white surplice, and the sign
of the cross in the ritual. The king heard these com-
plainants in the Hampton Court Conference.
He ac-
cepted the suggestion of Reynolds and ordered a new
translation of the Bible. "No bishop, no king" was
the maxim that formed the basis of the policy of James.
His bearing was full of arrogance. When a Puritan
minister used the word Presbytery, James flew into a
passion: "A Scottish Presbytery agreeth as well with a
monarchy as God with the devil. Now Jack and Tom
and Will and Dick shall meet and at their pleasures
censure me and my council . . . let that alone." At
•
2
18
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
a moment when slight concessions from the king, in ac-
cordance with those practically made already by some of
the English clergy, would have preserved the unity of
his kingdom, this haughty assumption of absolute au-
thority by James brought ruin. "I will have one doc-
trine," said the king, "one discipline, one religion in
substance and ceremony." He burst out in rage against
the Puritans, and shouted: "I will make them conform
or I will harrie them out of this land, or else worse."
The great religious and political conflict was opened.
The landed gentry, the merchants, and the professional
men, and a few of the nobility were Puritans, and their
stronghold was the House of Commons. They possessed
wealth and education. They were filled with unyielding
antagonism toward Romanism. When James spoke of
Rome as the "mother church," when he sought the
hand of a Spanish princess for his son Charles, when
he made promises of indulgence to Romanists, the Puri-
tans recalled to memory the Spanish Armada and the
Gunpowder Plot. Their spirit as Englishmen was
aroused when they beheld toleration granted to Roman-
ists and not to Puritans. The Commons met his royal
claims at every point. They refused to vote money
for the expenses of his administration. The King out-
raged national sentiment by contracting marriage for
Charles with the Roman Catholic princess of France,
Henrietta Maria. As a further unwise act, he ordered
the publication of the Book of Sports, enjoining games
and other festivities after service on the Lord's day.
A few of the Puritans fled to Holland to unite with the
Separatists, who were making ready to sail to Massachu-
setts in the "Mayflower."
Mayflower." Most of them remained to
offer battle in the House of Commons against the claim
of absolute sovereignty on the part of the monarch, who
-
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
19
made use of his alleged divine prerogative to yield the
realm of England to Rome and to Spain. He was de-
grading the morals of the people; he was supporting at
his court profligate favorites like Buckingham; he was
increasing papal ceremonies in the church, and he was
holding friendly conference with Spain, the champion of
Romanism, when death came to claim him, in 1625.
The conflict was continued between Charles I. and
Parliament over the king's income and the governmental
revenue. Charles claimed authority to levy and col-
lect taxes; the Commons asserted that the power of taxa-
tion belonged to them as the representatives of the peo-
ple.
The differences in religion became greater. The
Huguenots of France and the Protestants of Denmark
were going down before the power of Romanist rulers.
King Charles possessed a Romanist wife, and supported
Romanist favorites at the court. Arminian doctrine
became more prevalent, and Montague, Manwaring, and
others of this creed, likewise defended the king's au-
thority and denounced the claims of Parliament. The
Arminian clergy began to revive ancient ceremonial
forms, and in Durham Cathedral the communion table
was permanently located at the east end of the chancel.
Calvinism remained dominant in the Commons and
grew in strength among the people. The subjects of King
Charles were reading with keen eagerness the version of
the Bible issued in 1611. They began to entertain great
reverence for the literal word of Holy Scripture. Some
of them went to extremes in assuming an external de-
portment of solemn seriousness. Some upheld a Phari-
saic observance of the Sabbath day and gave Bible names
to their children. But under occasional excess in the
strict observance of the letter of the sacred law there lay
CO
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
that earnestness of character that constitutes the strength
of the Anglo-Saxon race.
The claims of the king seemed to the Puritans in the
Commons to open the way for the entrance of the cere-
monies and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and they
girded themselves for the battle against the royal despot-
ism. They denied that Charles was the supreme ruler
of the realm, and declared that they alone were author-
ized to voice the sentiments of the sovereign people of
England.
He
Charles accepted the gage of battle. He sent Eliot,
leader of the Commons, to die in the Tower of London.
He used the Court of Star Chamber, composed of his privy
councillors and others, as the instrument of personal
tyranny. The king's opponents were condemned and
punished without fair trial. The year 1633 saw William
Laud made Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud secured.
the republication of the Book of Sports, and labored to
make Sunday afternoon a time of revelry. He attempted
to locate all communion tables in the eastern end of the
church. He was a martinet in matters of ritual.
broke up the congregations organized after the continen-
tal model. The scourge, the pillory, and the prison were
ready for non-conformists. To the Puritans Laud seemed
to be leading a retrograde movement that would bring
the Church of England again under the power of the
Pope. He advocated the doctrine of the apostolic suc-
cession of the English bishops. He upheld the divine
prerogative of the English king. He erected a crucifix in
Lambeth chapel. The communion table was railed off
at the east end of the church and called an altar. Laud's
clergy began to talk of the invocation of saints. The
queen celebrated mass in the royal palace. She enter-
tained there an agent of the Pope. License and de-
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
21
bauchery ran riot. Indelicacy and indecency ruled at
the court. Lax morality and reckless luxury went hand
in hand. The seat of government was the centre of gor-
geous ritual and ecclesiastical tyranny under the direction
of Laud, to whom the Pope was offering the red hat of a
Romish cardinal.
The spiritual life of England was at stake.
If the pre-
lates and courtiers were not leading the church toward
Rome, then they were assuredly leading the people into
settled debauch. From his country home at Horton,
John Milton looked forth upon that spectacle of gilded
license to declare, in the poem called Comus, that the
courtesies of the court were "glozing lies"; that gor-
geous apparel might cover men who gloried in their
shame; that the carnival of sensuality was due to the
power of wine and sloth that had come from France and
Italy. The creed of the court, said Milton, was this :
CC
'Tis only daylight that makes sin."
Honor was there stigmatized as a cheating voice, a jug-
gling art, a vain idol. The breach of one moral law was
adduced as an argument for the violation of a second.
In Milton's poem the true church is portrayed as a vir-
tuous woman sitting in the palace paralyzed, "in stony
fetters, fixt and motionless."
Against this governmental return toward the debauch-
ery of the papal church of the Middle Age, Calvinism, in
the English House of Commons, resting upon the
authority of the individual conscience, stood ready to
decide the issue in the hall of debate and upon the field
of battle.
The war in behalf of purity in religion began in Scot-
land. Laud prepared a new Prayer-book and sent it to
Edinburgh for the use of the churches.
On July 23,
22
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
1637, the priest of St. Giles Church came forth in white
surplice to read the new ritual. Jennie Geddes flung
her stool at his head, and a riot drove the minister from
the chancel. All Scotland arose in arms against Laud's
innovations, and in 1638 the National Covenant was
signed, binding the Scottish people to labor for the purity
and liberty of the gospel. In the same year, at Glasgow,
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland deposed
the bishops and reëstablished the Presbyterian system.
Two brief wars with Scotland were waged by King
Charles, but the lack of money compelled him to sum-
mon the representatives of the people. The combatants
stood face to face in the arena of debate. The issues of
religious and of civil liberty were at length to be decided
in a conflict between Charles Stuart and the English
Parliament.
November 3, 1640, the Long Parliament came together.
That Puritan lion, John Pym, was the leader of the House
of Commons. Pym labored in behalf of personal liberty
for the people upon the basis of the declaration, that "the
greatest liberty of our kingdom is religion." He proposed
the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford for threatening to
lead an Irish Catholic army into England. Archbishop
Laud was sent to the Tower and Strafford was sent to
the scaffold upon the charge of treason. The tyranny of
Charles I. in church and in state was checked, and all of
his despotic powers were stripped from him. The Star
Chamber and the Court of High Commission, instruments
of his absolutism, were abolished. The Commons put
the question of religion to the front. They passed an
ordinance against Laud's ceremonies and the Sunday
sports, and expelled the bishops from the House of
Lords. The Grand Remonstrance was then enacted, a
restatement of all past grievances against the king, fol-
"
-
A
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, etc.
23
lowed by a demand for cabinet ministers, and for the
reference of church matters to an Assembly of divines.
nominated by Parliament. Charles appealed to his pedi-
gree as his title to divine authority, and flung his stand-
ard to the breeze on August 22, 1642. Unto his stand-
ard flocked that party in the Church of England who
believed in Laud's ceremonials and in the supreme au-
thority of bishops and archbishops. The House of Com-
mons accepted the gage of battle, and the war began.
The political issue between king and Parliament as to
the form of civil government was to be fought out by
religious parties; Presbyterians and Independents com-
bined against Episcopalians.
I
G
Charles and Laud denied that they sought to reestablish
the papacy in England. Their statement was probably
true. Nevertheless, they were laboring in the interest
of a type of religion as degenerate as that of the Church
of Rome. They sought to make the English monarch a
virtual pope, supported by a hierarchy of English church-
men. This Anglican model set as low and degrading an
example in spiritual and moral matters as that permitted
by Romanism. The tyrannical policy of the mediaval
popes was surpassed by Charles and Laud when they
sought to force their system upon the people by breaking
down representative government in Parliament. They
attempted to destroy the right to worship, the right to
think, and the right of self-government, all at one fell
blow.
The Commons sent an army to the field under Essex,
and in 1643 summoned the Westminster Assembly to
reconstruct the religious system of the kingdom. The
first work of the Assembly was the attempt to revise the
Thirty-nine Articles. But the battles of 1643 were not
favorable to the parliamentary forces. Cromwell was
24
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
just learning the art of war in cavalry skirmishes, and
Rupert's horsemen were holding the field for Charles.
Pym resolved to ask aid from the Scots. Commissioners
were sent to Edinburgh, and the treaty was signed,
called the Solemn League and Covenant. Five days
after the battle of Newbury, September 25, the English
Parliament and the Assembly stood with uplifted hands
in St. Margaret's Church in London, and took oath to
keep the Solemn League and Covenant. Scotland sent
an army to fight against the king, and Parliament pledged
itself virtually to establish the Presbyterian system in
England. The Westminster Assembly at once began
the work of bringing the English Established Church
into harmony with the reformed churches on the con-
tinent, and more particularly into sympathetic touch
with the church in Scotland. The English Presby-
terians constituted the majority of the great party that
was laboring in behalf of constitutional government.
They were the revolutionists who led the nation in the
battle against the absolute monarchy of James I. and
Charles I. Their work gave England the mental pre-
paration for the overthrow of the power of Charles I. in
1649, and for the Revolution of 1688. Their thinkers
had developed an English type of Calvinistic theology,
but in the Assembly they were ready to accept the views
of the commissioners from Scotland who were strict con-
structionists of the school of Geneva.
The national traditions and modes of thought of the
English people committed them to the supremacy of the
laity over the local clergy in matters of religion. Very
few of the English Puritan leaders accepted the Scottish
view of Presbyterianism as a divine institution. The
English followers of the religious party organized by Cart-
wright looked upon the Presbyterian system as an eccle-
CONDITION Of Britain, etc.
25
The As-
siastical form of parliamentary government.
sembly of divines was called to work under the control
of the two Houses, and the clergy in the parishes were
to be subject to the direction of the lay elders. The
Presbyterian system commended itself to many in Eng-
land because it rested for ecclesiastical authority not
upon the king, but upon the nation itself through its
organization by means of elective representatives. This
representative system could still further be controlled in
accordance with the sentiments of the mass of the people,
by holding the ecclesiastical courts themselves in sub-
jection to the great body of civil representatives, the
House of Commons.
From the beginning of the reign of the Stuart dynasty
the Presbyterian party was dominant in the House of
Commons; but in 1641 that House supported the Root
and Branch bill for the abolition of episcopacy and for the
transference of the authority of the bishops to commit-
tees of laymen in each diocese. During the sessions of
the Westminster Assembly the Presbyterians in the Com-
mons held to the theory that all ecclesiastical jurisdiction
must be based upon the authority of a civil, constitutional
government. The real aim of the English Presbyterian
party in the Commons was to render both church and
King responsible to Parliament. In the Westminster As-
sembly little debate took place in connection with the for-
mulation of doctrinal propositions. All Puritans alike
were opposed to every form of Romish belief; therefore
the leaven of Scottish faith was mingled with English
Presbyterian theology, and the finished work, the Con-
fession and Catechisms, have come down as the most
efficient creed whereby a militant Calvinism may enter
into battle in behalf of civil liberty.
With reference to the method and forms of ecclesiasti-
26
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
cal jurisdiction, the English Presbyterians, at least in the
House of Commons, were less revolutionary than in the
matter of doctrine. They manifested a spirit strongly
conservative in the sphere of church government. In
the Westminster Assembly three parties confronted one
another. The Presbyterians were supported by the six
Scotch commissioners, Alexander Henderson, George
Gillespie, Samuel Rutherford and Robert Baillie, minis-
ters of the gospel, and the laymen, Lord Maitland and
Archibald Johnston. The Independents were repre-
sented in the Assembly by five ministers, Thomas Good-
win, Philip Nye, Jeremiah Burroughs, William Bridge,
and Sidrach Simpson. These ministers had lived in exile in
Holland during the days of Laud's supremacy, and re-
turned to take part in the parliamentary reformation. A
third party, called Erastians, was composed of two divines,
Thomas Coleman and John Lightfoot, and of many law-
yers who sat in the Assembly. Throughout the year 1644
the Independents held the floor of the Assembly in fierce
debate over ecclesiastical ordination and discipline. They
upheld the extreme democratic view that each separate
congregation of believers possesses final ecclesiastical
authority in opposition to the Presbyterian system of
successive courts, presbyteries, synods and assemblies,
with jurisdiction granted to each higher court over the
lower body. The Presbyterians outvoted the Indepen-
dents in the Assembly; but during this same year Crom-
well's army of Independents was winning the victory of
Marston Moor, and prestige was thereby added to the
five Congregationalist brethren. During a portion of the
years 1645-'46 the Assembly resounded with the fury of
the Erastian controversy. This party advocated the view
that the English Parliament is one with the English
church, in full accordance with the ancient Jewish theo-
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
27
cracy. Selden's argument against the exercise of discip-
line by church courts was rendered ineffective by Gilles-
pie's knowledge of the Scriptures, and the Assembly estab-
lished itself in favor of the principle that there is biblical
authority for a government exercised by church officers
distinct from that of the civil magistrate.
As conservatives the Presbyterians wrought out their
views in the Assembly. As conservatives they sought
to deal with the king.
But Cromwell's Independents
won the battle in the field of war against Charles I.,
and they brought the monarch before the judicial tribu-
nal. The Presbyterians were ready to accept the pro-
mise of King Charles that he would establish their eccle-
siastical system under his monarchy.
The Indepen-
dents made full adoption of Presbyterian principles con-
cerning representative government as opposed to mon-
archy. They expelled the Presbyterians from the House.
of Commons, and sent the king to the block. The
Presbyterian system of ecclesiastical government was
never widely extended among the English churches; it
had to seek acceptance in other lands. Nevertheless, its
great revolutionary work in England was completed.
Romanism had found a grave in English soil. The old
principle of monarchical absolutism in the church and in
the state was no more. Forty years later, when the
English people saw that the rod of the papacy was indeed
broken, and that the necessity no longer existed of join-
ing the church to the state in order that the latter might
preserve the existence of Protestantism, then were they
ready to adopt, to a certain extent, the principle of reli-
gious toleration for all creeds.
In conclusion, let us hear the words of Samuel R.
Gardiner, the highest authority on the period of the
Puritan revolution, with reference to the movement of
28
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
1640-49: "The Presbyterians had done their work.
They had overthrown the monarchy, never, in the sense
in which Charles understood the word, to rise again in
England." He says further: "The restored kingship
of Charles II. was fettered by Parliament in a way which
would have been unendurable by Charles I.; and if,
ecclesiastically, the church of Sheldon and Morley ap-
peared in very truth the church of Hooker and Laud,
there is a sense in which its historical continuity is to be
detected in what, in 1646, was known at Westminster as
the Reformed Church of England. When bishops ulti-
mately ascended their ancient thrones, they sat on them
because they were favored by Parliament rather than be-
cause they were favored by the king. The supremacy of
lay England in its collective capacity over king and
church was, in reality, the main object for which the
Presbyterians were contending, and their object and not.
Charles' object, was obtained with the full co-operation.
of the party of the Cavaliers, when king and bishops re-
appeared in 1660 under changed conditions."
Fathers and brethren of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church of the United States, I greet you as
among the most consistent heirs and defenders of the
faith handed down by the Westminster Assembly. That
Assembly of Englishmen and Scotchmen girded on its
armor and led Calvinism to victory against the hier-
archical system that derived its origin from Romanism.
Never again can the scarlet woman, nor the divine right
of kings and bishops hold their former sway. But the
Westminster Assembly itself did not, and perhaps could
not, adopt the principle of complete religious liberty.
The Scottish settlers in the province of Ulster, Ireland,
bore the seeds of that principle to our own Appalachian
ridges and foothills. The open Bible, the Westminster
CONDITION OF BRITAIN, ETC.
29
Confession, and the Shorter Catechism taught them the
principle of resistance to kings, and they formed the
bone and sinew of the revolutionary party that wrought
out the independence of the American colonies. Pres-
byterian principles led to the glorious action of the peo-
ple of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, in the year
1775.
The Hanover Presbytery played a large part
in securing the insertion of the principle of religious lib-
erty in the Virginia Bill of Rights in 1776. In 1785 the
same Presbytery forced through the Virginia Assembly
Jefferson's bill for the establishment of religious freedom,
and thus, for the first time in all history, secured the
complete divorce of the church from the state. In the
year 1861 our own Southern Assembly committed us to
the principle that the sole function of the church is the
adjudication of spiritual affairs. May we keep our Zion
pure and holy. May her officers be always men of spot-
less life and uprightness in heart. May our blue banner
continue to be the standard of Christ's spiritual kingdom,
and beneath its folds may righteousness and truth hold
undisputed sovereignty.

REV. ROBERT PRICE, D. D.
II.
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN AT
THE TIME OF THE MEETING OF THE WEST-
MINSTER ASSEMBLY, WITH SPECIAL REFER-
ENCE TO THOSE ASPECTS OF THE TIMES
THAT (a), PREPARED THE WAY FOR THE
CALLING OF THE ASSEMBLY; AND (6), EX-
ERTED AN INFLUENCE ON IT WHEN CALLED.
BY
REV. ROBERT PRICE, D. D.,
PROFESSOR IN THE SOUTHWESTERN PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY,
CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE.
C
Ca
31
ANALYSIS.
Two lines of influence led to the Assembly-one was English,
the other was Scotch.-Relation of Henry VIII. to the Reforma、
tion in England.-Episcopal polity and many Romish practices
retained.---Earnest spirits opposed Henry's plans.-Edward VI.
favorable to the Reformation.-Mary reversed the policy of Ed-
ward.—Elizabeth returned to the position of Henry.-Her sym-
pathy with Rome. -Reasons for her Protestantism.-The origin ·
of Puritanism.-The Marian exiles.-Presbyterian polity fa-
vored. Thomas Cartwright.-Green criticised.-Hooker alluded
to.-The first Presbytery.-Presbyterianism prior to the Assem-
bly. The National Church.-The Brownists.-Elizabeth and
the early Presbyterians.--Hooker and the debate between Pres-
byterianism and Episcopacy.-The principles of the Westminster
Standards taking shape.-But within the National Church.-
James I., though reared in Scotland, not in sympathy with Pres-
byterianism.-The Reformation in Scotland.-Unlike that in
England. A conviction of the people.-Patrick Hamilton.-
His martyrdom.-Protestantism strong.-Romanism abolished.
-John Knox.-First Scottish Assembly.-Church organized as
Presbyterian.-Here also the principles of the Westminster
Standards appear.-Monarchy and Presbyterianism.-Church
establishment.-Presbyterianism opposed to Prelacy and Popery.
--Andrew Melville.-General Assembly and the bishops.-Leng
and bitter conflict with Prelacy.-Prelatic control for a time.
James opposed Presbyterianism.-Persecution and exile.-Sore
evils.-Charles I. followed same fatal policy.-His duplicity.—
Wentworth and Laud.-The High Commission Court.-The
Star Chamber Court.-Many persecuted.-Uniformity forced.-
Solemn league and covenant.-Long parliament.-The king
and parliament in conflict.-The proposal to call an Assembly.-
Called in 1643 to settle religion in the realm.
Katalog
32
II.
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN AT THE
TIME OF THE MEETING OF THE WESTMINSTER
ASSEMBLY.
T
HE religious state of Britain which rendered the
calling of the Westminster Assembly necessary
and possible, and which determined its character when
called, was the result of two distinct lines of influence,
the one English and the other Scotch. These moved
separately, in the main, until James the Sixth of Scot-
land ascended the English throne, as James the First,
in 1603, when they became united in the production of
a common result. To obtain a clear conception of the
religious state of Britain at the time of the Westminster
Assembly, it will be necessary rapidly to trace the course
of these two lines of influence from their origin until the
period upon which our interest is concentrated in these
exercises.
All the churches of the Protestant Reformation, with
the exception of the Church of England, were Augusti-
nian in their theology, and antiprelatical in their polity.
Luther's views in regard to the doctrine of the divine
decrees, and the relation of sovereign grace to the free
will of man, were the same as those of Calvin. This
was true also of Melanchthon at the beginning of his
career as a reformer, though he afterwards modified his
views somewhat. And, when the English Reformation
had so far advanced that its evangelical leaders were at
3
33
34
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
liberty to express their real sentiments, they incorporated
the Calvinistic doctrines in their Thirty-nine Articles,
where they are still to be found. No other doctrinal
sentiments were entertained in the Church of England
until the rise of Arminian views in the time of Archbishop.
Laud. When the Synod of Dort met in Holland in 1618.
and condemned the views of Arminius, representatives
from the Church of England, appointed by James I., sat
and voted with it.
One of the essential features of the Reformation was
an uprising against the Romish hierarchy. Conse-
quently, the office of the diocesan bishop was abolished,
and the parity of the clergy recognized, in both the
Calvinistic and Lutheran Churches, on the continent of
Europe. The fundamental principles of Presbyterianism,
such as the parity of the ministry, the coöperation of the
laity in church government, and the authoritative action
of synods, are held by the Lutheran body to this day.
The Lutheran Church of Sweden retains the title of
bishop, but like the Episcopate of the Methodist Church,
the office is not that which claims to be derived from the
apostolical succession. In some of the German states,
in Holland, in France, and in Scotland, the Presbyterian
system in its entirety was adopted. But the Church of
England derived its existence from a source in which
evangelical truth and order could not be expected to
originate. The establishment of the Church of England,
in its separation from the papacy, was a purely political
movement, or rather a movement prompted by the selfish
purpose of a cruel and unprincipled tyrant. After living
in wedlock with Catherine of Arragon for twenty years
Henry VIII. wearied of her; possibly, as he claimed,
his conscience may have troubled him about the legiti-
macy of his union with his brother's widow. For these
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
35
reasons, and the hope of securing a male heir to his
throne, together with his passion for Anne Bullen, he
determined to put Catherine away. His efforts to obtain
a divorce were foiled by the obstinacy or the weakness
of the pope, and he resolved to accomplish his purpose
by renouncing the authority of the pope and usurping
the headship of the Church of England himself.
There were secret sympathizers with the Protestant
doctrines in England at that time, such as Cranmer,
Latimer and Thomas Cromwell, but there is not the
slightest evidence that they had any part in prompting
the movement, or seriously affecting its character while
Henry lived. The only change made in the church was
in its relation to the papacy by substituting the king's
authority for that of the Pope. The old system of eccle-
siastical polity, with its elaborate hierarchy of arch-
bishops, bishops and cathedral clergy, was retained.
Its doctrinal system was fixed by the publication of the
Six Articles, in which the distinguishing tenets of
Romanism were re-enacted, as transubstantiation, com-
munion in one kind, the celibacy of the clergy, the bind-
ing obligation of monastic vows, private masses, and
auricular confession. The reception of these doctrines
was enforced by the severest penalties, and those who
denied them were liable to be burned at the stake. As
an illustration of the impartiality of Henry's despotism,
on the 28th of July, 1540, Thomas Cromwell, one of the
great pillars of the Reformation, was beheaded on a
trumped-up charge of treason, and two days afterwards
three Protestant clergymen were burned for heresy, and
at the same time and place four Roman Catholics were
beheaded for denying the king's ecclesiastical supremacy
and adhering to the bishop of Rome. It may well be
supposed that a church originating in such circumstances,
36
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
organized under such a head, and imposed upon the peo-
ple by such tyranny, would necessarily possess some
features which would arouse the opposition of the purest
and most intelligent of the English people. And, in-
deed, this was the cause that led to the long and bitter
controversies by which the church was agitated, to the
cruel persecutions which the established church waged
for more than one hundred years against dissenters, and
to that religious revolution of which the Westminster
Assembly was the culmination and its creed the symbol.
And yet, while the iron hand of Henry VIII. moulded
the external form of the Church of England according to
his will, there was an element of Presbyterianism in the
creed of the real reformers which they dared not utter.
It came to light afterwards, when it became safe to speak
their minds, that the great leaders, such as Cranmer,
Hooper, and others, did not regard Episcopacy as a jure
divino, but rather as a jure humano institution, best suited
to the circumstances under which the Reformation be-
gan, and, indeed, the only form which could be had
while Henry reigned. It was equally impossible to set
aside the episcopal system during the reign of his son,
Edward VI. For a while genuine Protestantism, re-
leased from Henry's bigotry and intolerance, made
rapid progress, yet the people had no voice in ecclesias-
tical affairs; in fact, the great majority of the people and
of the parochial clergy were in sympathy with the Catho-
lic Church, the whole matter was in the hands of the
civil rulers, Cranmer and his associates were timidly
conservative, and the case of Hooper, who was impris-
oned for refusing to be consecrated with the insignia
brought over from Romanism, clearly showed that no
radical changes in the ecclesiastical system would be
tolerated. The outward progress and open avowal of
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
37
the reformed doctrines was checked by the accession of
Mary. The ease with which she reversed the ecclesias-
tical policy of the government, and took the church back
to Rome, shows how little hold Protestant doctrines had
taken on the people. As Henry had found but little
difficulty in bringing the Parliament to vote for with-
drawal from the Pope, so Mary found as little difficulty
in inducing it to vote for a return. The only demand
which it firmly refused was to surrender the property of
the monasteries which Henry had confiscated and con-
ferred on members of the House of Lords. A great
many Protestants were burned at the stake; but the
effect of this was to spread and intensify the popular
aversion to a church so cruel. The celebrated saying of
Tertullian that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of
the church," was found to be true, and Protestantism
was strengthened and purified by the efforts to extermi-
nate it. Many fled to the continent, and there came in
contact with the Presbyterian form of church govern-
ment, and on the death of Mary returned to England
filled with the spirit of freedom and scriptural truth
which they had there imbibed.
Elizabeth's policy was similar to that of her father,
Henry VIII. There was some reason to believe that
she was a Catholic at heart, and would have been will-
ing to return to the Roman allegiance if the thing had
been practicable. But, as the Pope excommunicated her
and denied her legitimacy, her occupancy of the throne.
depended upon the support of her Protestant subjects..
She was, therefore, compelled to be a Protestant in self-
defence. As it was, she devoted herself to the main-
tenance of the national church as then constituted, and
to the repression of anything like dissent, or any form
of religious liberty. Puritanism as a party, and active
38
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
power, made its appearance during her reign, and was
greatly strengthened by the return from the continent of
the Marian exiles. The Puritans took exception to the
vestments worn by the clergy, especially bishops, as
being relics of the papacy and significant of erroneous
doctrines, as well as to what they regarded superstitious
forms and ceremonies. They were generally, though
not all, in favor of the Presbyterian form of church gov-
ernment. It is not an uncommon opinion that the early
Puritans were, most of them, Independents or Congrega-
tionalists. This was not true; the larger number were
Presbyterians in sentiment. They did not propose,
however, to secede from the national church. Many of
them held pastoral charges, some were bishops. They
hoped, rather, by fair and open discussion to propagate
their views, and to prepare the way for a modification of
the government of the church, by the introduction of
the office of ruling elder and the establishment of presby-
teries and synods. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
Thomas Cartwright, Professor of Divinity in the Uni-
versity of Cambridge, than whom no man of his day
bore a higher reputation for profound scholarship, pulpit
eloquence, acuteness, judgment, and piety, introduced
into his lectures at the university the discussion of ques-
tions relating to the subject of ecclesiastical polity. He
maintained the following positions:
ì. That there were but two divinely-constituted offices
in the church, namely, those of bishops or elders, and
leacons, and that all others, archbishops, diocesan
bishops, archdeacons, et cetera, ought to be abolished.
2. That every church ought to be governed by its own
ministers and elders.
*
3. That every minister should have the charge of a
particular congregation.
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
39
4. That ministers should be openly and fairly chosen
by the people.
In addition to these doctrines he held others which
were in opposition to the practices and institutions of the
Established Church, but which were in harmony with the
Presbyterian system. Cartwright was deprived of his
professorship, and expelled from the university by the
ecclesiastical authorities. So great was the persecution.
waged against him, that he was forced to leave England
and take refuge on the continent. Cartwright has not
received the honor, in the history of Presbyterianism,
which is his due. His fame has been eclipsed by that of
Calvin and Knox, but his system was as pure, and his
sacrifices for the truth as great, as theirs, though, unlike
them, he suffered defeat. Green, in his History of the
English People, now so widely read, and so deservedly
admired, though he is in hearty sympathy with the
political principles of the Puritans, denounces Cartwright
with partisan bitterness, because in the first place, he
held that the Presbyterian form of government was
taught in the Scriptures; secondly, that all spiritual
power and jurisdiction, the decreeing of doctrine and the
ordering of ceremonies, lay wholly in the hands of the
church, which Green calls placing the state beneath the
feet of the church; and thirdly, because Cartwright did
not rise to the full conception of religious toleration, as
if that was peculiar to him. It is a melancholy fact that
the true principles of toleration were not understood in
that age even by the best and wisest of men. At this
very time, the Established Church, in league with the
state, was hounding this godly and learned man to im-
prisonment and exile. The same author praises Hooker,
the leading writer against Presbyterianism, because he
abandoned the "narrow ground" of scriptural argument
40
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
to base his conclusions on the general principles of
"moral and political science," on the "eternal obliga-
tions of natural law."
In 1572 many of the Puritan clergy, with a number of
laymen of prominence, formed themselves into a presby-
tery at Wandsworth, a place not far removed from the
city of London. This was the first presbytery ever
organized in England. A large portion of the London
clergy soon attached themselves to it, and other presby-
teries were established in neighboring counties. Thus
nearly a hundred years before the meeting of the West-
minster Assembly Presbyterianism was planted in Eng-
land in an organized form. And yet, this movement
was not an attempt to set up a Presbyterian church
separate from the national establishment. It was rather
a private association of clergymen and laymen for carry-
ing into effect the Presbyterian discipline for the benefit
of themselves and their congregations, without seceding
from the church. And though, a few years later, an
effort was made to organize the several presbyteries into
synods, it was not proposed to throw off the authority of
the bishops. The idea of leaving the national church
would have been regarded by these reformers as schis-
matic, and would have been abhorrent to their principles.
The first separatists were the Brownists or Independents,
who had no affiliation with the Presbyterians. It is said
that this scheme of Presbyterian church government was
signed by as many as five hundred ministers, amongst
the ablest and best in the realm; so early and so rapidly
had these principles taken root and spread. It is not
improbable, to say the least, that if the truth had been
allowed a fair field the subsequent history of the Church.
of England would have been very different from what it
was. But this and all such movements were put down
-
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
4I
by Elizabeth's government with cruel violence, and
came to naught, except as they strengthened and per-
petuated the great principles involved, until an oppor-
tunity arose for reasserting and establishing them, as
was done finally in the Westminster Assembly.
((
The most celebrated work written on the Episcopal
side during the controversy waged in Elizabeth's reign
as to the claims of the two rival systems of church gov-
ernment was that of Richard Hooker, entitled Ecclesi-
astical Polity." Mr. Cartwright and those who held
with him took the ground that the form of church gov-
ernment adopted by the apostles at the founding of the
Christian Church was the Presbyterian, in which the
only two orders of church officers were presbyters and
deacons, and that this form, being of divine origin,
should be retained by the church in all ages and all
countries. Hooker replied, in substance, that even if it
were true that the polity of the Apostolic Church was
Presbyterian, it did not follow that that form should
necessarily prevail universally and permanently. "The
Holy Scriptures," he said, "are a perfect standard of
doctrine, but not a rule of discipline and government;
nor is the practice of the apostles an invariable rule or
law to the church in succeeding ages, because they acted
according to the circumstances of the church in its infant
and persecuted state." Making the admitted distinction
between natural and positive law, he claimed that the
laws relating to the government of the church, being of
the nature of positive laws, are not immutable, but may
be changed with changing circumstances. One funda-
mental error in this reasoning is the assumption that all
positive laws, even those enacted by divine command,
can be altered by human authority, whereas they can be
altered only by the lawgiver himself, as was done in
42
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
the case of the positive laws of the Mosaic dispensation.
It will be observed, however, that the ground upon
which Episcopacy is now defended is very different from
that on which Hooker defended it. Its advocates now
claim that it is of divine authority, and therefore cannot
be changed, a claim not made by Hooker. On the whole,
it is evident that the principles afterwards embodied in
the Westminster system were widely disseminated, and
took deep root in the English mind during the reign of
Elizabeth, notwithstanding the bitter persecution waged
against their adherents.
Elizabeth's successor, James I., had been brought up
in the communion of the Scottish kirk, and those who
were not acquainted with his character and past history
might have hoped that on coming to the English throne.
he would throw his influence in favor of Presbyterianism,
at least so far as to procure toleration for those who held
to its principles; but if they did indulge those hopes.
they were destined to be grievously disappointed..
The history of the Reformation in Scotland was in
striking contrast with the history of the Reformation in
England. In the latter it originated in the caprice of an
unprincipled despot; in the former the movement began
with the people as the result of personal conviction.
The doctrines of the Protestant reformers probably found
their way into Scotland through the secret circulation of
the writings of Luther and others. The first, so far as is
known, who openly and systematically preached them.
was Patrick Hamilton, a young man of royal lineage,
great talents and burning zeal. In 1526 he went to the
continent and studied under Luther and Melanchthon.
On his return he devoted himself to the preaching of the
truth. He was arrested and burned at the stake. The
martyrdom of one so young, so high-born, and so accom-
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
43
plished, helped to attract attention to the doctrines for
which he suffered. They spread with considerable
rapidity in the next ten years, notwithstanding the bitter
persecution which was waged, in which many perished
at the stake. In 1546 the party had become so strong
that the Protestant nobles rose in armed resistance to
their persecutors. In 1560, by the aid of Queen Eliza-
beth of England, the government forces were defeated,
and the right to hold a free parliament was extorted.
This body met on the first day of August, 1560. One of
its first acts was to abolish the Roman Catholic Church as
the Church of Scotland, to prohibit the mass under severe
penalties, and to require the Protestant ministers, of whom
John Knox was the chief, to draw up a confession of faith,
which was there and then adopted as the standard of the
national church. On the twentieth of December of the
same year, the ministers and many of the leading Protes-
tant laymen met together for the purpose of organizing
the new church, and devising means for carrying on the
work. This is called the first meeting of the Scottish
General Assembly. There were present only six minis-
ters and thirty-four laymen. Their first step was to
draw up a book of church order, defining the system of
ecclesiastical government which they proposed to adopt,
and their principles.of church discipline. This is known.
as the First Book of Discipline, to distinguish it from
another standard afterwards adopted, embodying sub-
stantially the same principles, but in their application to
the system more thoroughly developed in practice. The
system thus established has prevailed in the Church of
Scotland from that day to this, and has come down to us
through the Westminster Assembly. Through all the
intervening years the Scotch church has battled and
suffered for those principles, and the blood of its martyrs,
J
44
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
poured out like water, has rendered the soil of Scotland
sacred ground in the eyes of all Presbyterians the world.
over. It is somewhat remarkable that, in an age and
country in which for so long a time they had been ac-
customed to the rule of a powerful hierarchy, the Scottish
reformers should have reached, at the very outset, the
true and scriptural theory of the church. It is equally
strange that, in an age and country accustomed to mon-
archy and aristocracy in the state, they should have con-
ceived the idea of a republican form of government for
the church. This may be accounted for in part by their
acquaintance with the Genevan church and the writings.
of Calvin, though theirs was a more thorough develop-
ment of Presbyterianism than prevailed in Geneva. The
real cause, however, lies in the fact that they took the
Scriptures as their sole and infallible guide of faith and
practice, and modeled their church organization after
that which was established by the apostles.
But although Protestantism in Scotland originated in
individual conviction, and grew by the propagation of
the truth, yet, in accordance with the ideas universally
prevalent in those days, it was, as a church, established
by an ordinance of the civil government. Thus an alli-
ance of church and state was formed, which, while it
furnished a support and defence to the church in its
exposed and feeble infancy, was followed in later years
by deplorable results, from which it has not yet re-
covered. It is true the reformers did not hold that this
alliance was of such a character as to give the state any
power over the church, but only, as at Geneva, to sus-
tain the church and enforce its decrees. But the politi-
cians held a different theory, and acted upon it when it
could be made to serve their selfish purposes. Accord-
ingly they devised a scheme by which the titles of arch-
V
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
45
bishops and bishops were continued in the church,
though the incumbents were not to be allowed to exer-
cise the episcopal powers. The object of this scheme, to
which the Assembly was brought reluctantly to submit
as an ad interim arrangement, was to enable the unscru-
pulous politicians to get control of the funds of the
church, through their tools, the episcopal appointees.
This was a clear violation of the rights of the church
and the wishes of the Protestants. For if there was any
one element of the polity of the old church to which the
Scotch were peculiarly hostile it was episcopacy. This
arrangement furnished the starting-point of a systematic
and persistent effort to force episcopacy on the Church of
Scotland, which was stubbornly resisted, and which led
to untold sufferings. In 1580, under the leadership of
the celebrated Andrew Melville, the General Assembly
asserted its authority, and, by a unanimous vote, abol-
ished the arrangement and required the bishops to
demit their pretended offices. James VI. viewed these
proceedings of the Assembly with the greatest disappro-
bation, and he undertook to defeat them by the appoint-
ment of an archbishop of Glasgow. The church, how-
ever, stood firm, though brought into dangerous collision
with the king. Melville and his associates were of the
stuff of which heroes and martyrs are made. But from
this time to the close of his reign James pursued the
uniform policy of trying to subject the ecclesiastical
courts to his own control, to deprive them of all authority,
and to force bishops on the church. He felt that the
freedom of the Presbyterian system was incompatible
with despotism in the state, while the bishops could be
used as the instruments of his tyranny.
His motto was,
"No bishop, no king." To secure the subjugation of
the church he did not hesitate to resort to deceit and
46
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
?
But no
persecution. Some of the most eminent ministers in the
kingdom were banished. In 1603 he succeeded to the
English throne, under the title of James I.
change was made by this in his ecclesiastical policy,
except to render it, if possible, more uncompromising
and severe. By the close of his reign in 1625, the pre-
latical party had secured the control of the Church of
Scotland, the offices of bishop and archbishop were estab-
lished, and the courts of the church were virtually sus-
pended.
From the course pursued by James towards the Church
of Scotland we can easily infer his policy in England.
He identified himself with the high church party. He
avowed, at the beginning of his reign, his enmity to the
Puritans. Some, who petitioned to be relieved from the
disabilities to which they were subjected, were thrown
into prison. At the conclusion of the Hampton Court
Conference he said to the Puritan representatives, "If
this be all your party hath to say, I will make them con-
form themselves, or else I will harrie them out of the
kingdom, or else do worse, only hang them all.” This
declaration furnishes the key to his subsequent policy.
Ministers who refused to conform to what they regarded
as superstitious ceremonies were silenced, and sometimes
shut up in prison, or forced to leave the country. Many
distinguished for their learning and piety, together with
their devoted followers, preferred exile, with religious
liberty, to their beloved country groaning under civil
and religious despotism, and sought refuge in Holland,
where English churches were erected after the Presby-
terian model. Some, driven by episcopal oppression to
the opposite extreme of church government, adopted the
independent polity, and after a temporary residence
among the liberty-loving and hospitable Dutch, emigrated
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
47
to New England, and laid the foundations for a new
church, and a new commonwealth. The foolish, bigoted,
and tyrannical rule of James I. was one of the chief
causes which led to such fatal results to his family and
his kingdom, and to that great religious revolution which
culminated in the Westminster Assembly.
Charles I. fell heir to the principles, as well as the
throne, of his father. The latest of the great English
historians speaks of "the strange mixture of obstinacy
and weakness in his character, the duplicity which lav-
ished promises, because it never purposed to be bound by
any,
and the petty pride that subordinated every political
consideration to personal vanity or personal pique.
"There is reason to believe," says Macaulay, "that he was
perfidious, not only from constitution and from habit, but
also on principle. He seems to have learned from the
theologians whom he most esteemed that between him
and his subjects there could be nothing of the nature of
mutual contract; that he could not, even if he would,
divest himself of his despotic authority, and that, in
every promise which he made, there was an implied re-
servation that such promise might be broken in case of
necessity, and that of the necessity he was the sole
judge." This is the man whose portrait was recently
consecrated with solemn religious ceremonies, performed.
by high religious functionaries, in an American church.
Such an act is but little less than profanation, and is
treason to the cause of civil and religious liberty. Charles
I. undertook, with the aid of Wentworth, to establish a
despotism in the state, and, with the aid of Archbishop
Laud, a despotism in the church. No liberty of belief or
practice was to be allowed. All were required to be
members of the Established Church, and all were required
to conform, in the minutest particulars, to its rites and
>>
48
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
ceremonies.
Laud was an Arminian in his theology and
semipapal in his ecclesiastical polity. His purpose was
to bring the Church of England into an agreement with
the Church of Rome as nearly as could be done without
abandoning its separate existence. He was not content,
therefore, with punishing infractions of well-established
laws and customs, but added others of his own inven-
tion, which were enforced with equal severity. The
High Commission Court and the Star Chamber Court
were the instruments of his oppressions. Burton, Prynne,
Bastwick, and Leighton, gentlemen of respectable rank,
learning, and piety, for advocating in print views of
church government and Christian morality displeasing
to Laud, were set in the pillory, scourged, their ears cut
off, their noses split, their faces branded with a hot iron,
and themselves condemned to perpetual imprisonment.
Any attempts of the Parliament to check these outrages
were regarded as an infringement on the king's preroga-
tive as the head of the church. Episcopacy had already
been forced upon the Scotch, but Laud was not con-
tent without their more thorough conformity to the
Church of England, and now proceeded to impose upon
them a Book of Canons and the English Liturgy, or
rather, as Macaulay says, “A liturgy which, wherever
it differed from that of England, differed, in the judg-
ment of all rigid Protestants, for the worse. The attempt
to enforce these foreign ceremonies produced a riot, and
the riot rapidly became a revolution.” The Scotch en-
tered into a solemn covenant with one another and with
God to defend their religious rights, and flew to arms.
In 1640 the English Long Parliament met and proceeded
to correct the evils of the administration, both civil and
religious. The bishops were excluded from the House
of Lords; Laud was arrested, impeached, and afterwards
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
49
executed, and finally the episcopal system was entirely
abolished.
The abolition of episcopacy left England without any
national church. This was a state of things which,
according to the ideas then prevalent, was not to be
allowed. Consequently, on the 12th of June, 1643, an
ordinance was passed by Parliament calling an assem-
bly of divines to meet at Westminster, on the first day of
July following, for the purpose of reorganizing the
church; or, in the language of the title of the ordinance
itself, "to be consulted with by the Parliament, for the
settlement of the government and liturgy of the Churchi
of England, and for vindicating and clearing of the doc-
trine of the said church from false aspersions and inter-
pretations." The Scottish kirk was invited to send
commissioners to aid and advise in the deliberations of
this Assembly, and about the same time the two nations
entered into a Solemn League and Covenant, binding
themselves, amongst other things, to preserve the Re-
formed religion in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine,
worship, discipline, and government; the reformation of
religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland in doc-
trine, discipline, and government, according to the word
of God, and the example of the best Reformed churches;
and to endeavor to bring the churches of God in the
three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity
in religion, confession of faith, form of church govern-
ment, directory for worship, and catechising.
The religious situation of Britain at the time of the
meeting of the Westminster Assembly was the result of
the series of events which I have thus endeavored to
outline. It can be understood and appreciated only by
a careful consideration of the causes by which it was
produced.
4.
50
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
1. The English Puritans and the Scotch Puritans had
risen against their oppressors and had united to right
their wrongs.
In England the national church had
ceased to exist. The calling of the Westminster Assem-
bly was necessary to the formulating of their common
doctrines, and the settlement of their church polity.
The great majority of the English Puritans, and the
entire body of the Scotch Puritans, were Calvinistic in
their theology, and Presbyterian in their views of church
government. It was natural, therefore, that this system
should be adopted.
2. There was a small but growing body of Indepen-
dents in England, and they had their representatives in
the Westminster Assembly, men of piety, learning, and
ability. They rejected the idea of a national church
altogether; indeed, they rejected the idea of any visible
organic union between separate congregations, and held
to the self-governing power of the individual churches,
without responsibility to any superior court of appeal,
civil or religious. They professed also a larger religious
toleration than either the Episcopalians or Presbyterians.
How much this tolerant spirit was due to the fact that
they were the weaker party, we cannot determine. One
thing is true, that in their settlements in New England,
where they were supreme, they were not tolerant. This
party exerted an influence in the Assembly out of pro-
portion to their numbers, or the strength of their princi-
ples, through the support of Cromwell and the army,
and they were able to obstruct and somewhat modify the
Assembly's action.
3. The members of Parliament were mostly Presbyte-
rians, but unfortunately many of them held to Erastian
principles, and were unwilling to relinquish the control
of the church by the state. This party was also repre-
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF BRITAIN.
51
sented in the Assembly by some of the greatest scholars
of the day, such as Selden and Lightfoot. Their learn-
ing and eloquence in the Assembly had no effect except
to prolong the discussion, but their influence in Parlia-
ment hindered the thorough application of the system.
adopted by the Assembly to the church at large.
It is not given to me to speak of the results of the
Westminster Assembly, but I may be permitted to re-
mark, that it is to the peculiar experiences of the people
of God in England and Scotland, their long contentions
for the truth, and their bitter persecutions, during the
period over which we have travelled in this discourse,
that we are indebted for that incomparable statement and
definition of Christian doctrine, which forms the stan-
dards of the Presbyterian churches in England, Scotland,
Ireland, and America.

REV. T. D, WITHERSPOON, D. D., LL. D.
HIL
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY: ITS PLACE OF
MEETING, ITS PROCEEDINGS, AND ITS PER-
SONNEL.
BY
REV. T. D. WITHERSPOON, D. D., LL. D.,
PROFESSOR IN THE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.
53
Skyp
The place of meeting.-External description.-The Abbot's
Place. The doorway and entrance.-The Jerusalem Chamber.-
Why so named.-Its size. -Window.-Fireplace. --Refectory.—
Tapestry hangings.-Here Assembly met, 1643.-Varied memo-
ries of the place.-The ordinance calling the Assembly.-The
proceedings. The opening service.-The sermon by Dr. Twisse.
-Parliament present.-Constitution of the Assembly.-Number
of members.-Number attending.-Assessors. - Scottish Com-
missioners.-Most of the members connected with the national
church.-All Calvinists in doctrine.-Doctrinal harmony.-Div-
ided in polity.-Five parties.-Episcopalians.-Independents.-
Presbyterians.-Moderate Presbyterians.-Moderate Episcopa-
lians. Description of the Assembly proceedings.-How they
conducted debate. The moderator. The vice-moderators.-
Two scribes.-How the members were seated about the cham-
ber. Their varied costumes.-The days and hours of sitting.-
The committees of the Assembly.-How they worked.-The
quorum was forty members. The devotional services.-The
order of discussion.-Baillie's description.-The leading men in
the Assembly.-Twisse.-Burgess.-Palmer.-Selden.-Pym.-
Rouse. Lightfoot.-Gataker.-- Coleman. - Marshall. --Arrow-
smith.-Tuckney.-- Hoyle. — Wallis. Henderson: his work.-
Gillespie: his ability.-Rutherford.-The general character of
the Assembly for ability, learning and piety.-Placed high in
each particular.-Clarendon's estimate unfair.-Milton's scarcely
impartial. The Satirists' absurd.-Banter's more impartial.-
High character.—They had profound reverence for the authority
of Holy Scripture.-Had deep sense of dependence on God.-
They spent much time in prayer.-They fasted at times, once a
month at least.-Solemn religious services.-Lightfoot's descrip-
tion of one fast-day given.—Collection taken for poor.—A single
prayer two hours long.--Rugged men for rugged work in rugged
times.-Like a sea-girt island-on windward side strong cliffs
withstand the raging waves, and protect the leeward side, with
its fruits and flowers--so they stood against the storm of their
time. We have the blessing they procured.-We should be
grateful.
—
Pa
ANALYSIS.
J
S
Mag
Ja
54
"
III.
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY: ITS PLACE OF
MEETING, ITS PROCEEDINGS, AND ITS PER-
SONNEL.
TH
HE visitor to Westminster Abbey, as he approaches
its western or principal front, is struck with what
at first view seems a singular blemish upon architecture
otherwise faultless and imposing. Immediately in front
of the lofty façade, clinging like a barnacle to its base, is
a small rectangular structure, humble of proportion and
homely of style, which begins just south of the great
central doorway of the cathedral, and extends across the
entire southern part of the front, connecting itself with
a larger building on the right, of which it forms a part,
and which was originally the "Abbot's Place,' or
home of the abbot and his Benedictine monks. The
little structure, though it does obstruct, as far as its
poor altitude will allow, the view of the stately cathe-
dral, has, nevertheless, a real significance in art. It
serves as a foil to set forth more conspicuously the lofti-
ness of the cathedral, and to heighten our impressions of
its grandeur, the little homely structure fitly represent-
ing the humble abode of man; the lofty cathedral with
magnificent reach of tower and arch, of gable and spire,
an appropriate symbol of the sublime dwelling-place of
God.
ܙ
And now, if we turn but a step or two to the right
from the walk leading to the great central doorway, we
shall find a modest door opening into this little building,
55
56
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
It
and if we are so fortunate as to gain admission, shall
find ourselves in the celebrated Jerusalem Chamber.
is a narrow, rectangular room, running north and south,
about forty feet in length by twenty in breadth. The
small door, at which we suppose ourselves to have en-
tered, is on the western side of the room and very near
its northern end. As from our point of entrance we
look down the long room, we see that its western wall
is pierced at the centre by a large double window, the
only one opening into the room, and, indeed, the only
one needed, as it pours in a great flood of light. Im-
mediately opposite this window, on the eastern side of
the room, is a great fireplace with its open grate, the
genial warmth from which attracted the Assembly to
this chamber as a meeting-place when the chapel of
Henry VII. had become uncomfortable by reason of the
cold. Beyond the fireplace, and almost at the end of the
room, opens a doorway, the principal one in size and
importance. It leads through an ante-chamber, and by
connecting hallways, into what was once the refectory
or dining hall of the Abbey. The chamber in which we
stand was in the ancient days of monastery the "with-
drawing-room" or private apartment of the abbot, to
which he retired for meditation and prayer; and the
small door through which we suppose ourselves to have
entered opened into his conservatory or garden. The
name, Jerusalem Chamber, was derived from the tapes-
tries with which the walls were hung in earlier days,
and which portrayed different scenes in the siege of
Jerusalem. The visitor to-day finds the walls hung
with tapestries, but not with those which originally gave
the name. Indeed, even when the Westminster As-
sembly held its sessions, the original tapestries had
given place to others representing the history of the
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
57
1
planets. The latter, which have since given place in their
turn to others, must have been attractive, for old Robert
Baillie, "the Boswell of the Assembly," whose eye
nothing escapes, tells us in one of his inimitable letters
that the room was "well hung," as he also tells us that
the light from the great window was softened by cur-
tains of pale thread with red roses," and that the room
"has a good fyre, which is some dainties at London."
CC
What memories cluster about these walls! The
painting over the fireplace, with its encircling Scripture
texts, reminds us that it was in this chamber that Henry
IV., the grim old warrior, put off his crown at the touch
of death. For when, in his extreme old age, he had
thought to do penance for his usurpation by a crusade.
for the recovery of the holy sepulchre, and when, with
the royal galleys in port, ready to bear him to sea, he
had come to pay his parting devotions at the shrine of
Edward the Confessor, he was seized with a chill, and
borne into this chamber and laid before the fire on a
pallet until a chamber could be fitted for him. And
when he had been borne to his bed in another room, and
realized that the end was at hand, there occurred the
scene which Shakespeare has dramatized for us in im-
mortal verse:
"KING HENRY: Doth any name particular belong
Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
WARWICK: "Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.
KING HENRY: Laud be to God! even there my life must end.
It hath been prophesied to me many years,
I should not die but in Jerusalem;
Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land.
But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die."
In this chamber Sir Thomas More was confined for
four days on his way to the Tower, where he was held
58
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
in cruel imprisonment by Henry VIII., and from which
he was led forth to execution. Here lay in state the
body of Dr. Robert South, the greatest and wittiest of
English court preachers. From this chamber was car-
ried forth, after lying in state for four days, the body of
Addison in that memorable funeral procession at dead of
night which Lord Macaulay has so graphically described,
when "Bishop Atterbury, one of those Tories who had
loved and honored the most accomplished of the Whigs,
met the corpse and led the procession by torchlight
round the shrine of St. Edward and the graves of the
Plantagenets to the chapel of Henry VII.," Whig and
Tory vying with each other to do honor to England's
illustrious essayist and litterateur.
Here, also, lay in state the body of Sir Isaac Newton,
wept by the whole world, and followed forth by the
leading members of the Royal Society as its escort, to be
buried, as the London Gazette of the following week in-
forms us, "in a spot in front of the choir, which, being
one of the most conspicuous in the Abbey, had been
previously refused to various noblemen who had applied
for it." Nor are the associations with the Jerusalem
Chamber altogether sad. Twenty years or more before
the gathering of the Westminster Assembly the Abbey
became the residence of John Williams, one of the most
notable men of his day, who was at once Dean of West-
minster and Archbishop of York, "the last churchman,"
says Dean Stanley, "who occupied at once an arch-
bishoprick and a deanery, one of the few eminent Welch-
men who have figured in history." Dean Williams was
possessed with a noble passion both for architecture and
for music. He expended several thousand pounds in
the repairing and beautifying of the Abbey, using only
his own private means; "neither," says the chapter-

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
59
house record, "would he impatronize his name to the
credit of that work which should be raised by other
men's collatitious liberality." The Jerusalem Chamber
was his special delight. The attractions which drew the
Assembly to it were largely due to his care. Here he
gave musical entertainments which were the delight of
London, as “he made the Jerusalem Chamber a volary
of the choicest singers that the land had bred." Here,
also, he gave royal banquets, and when, in 1624, the
ambassadors from the court of France were present to
arrange for the ill-starred marriage of Charles I. to
Henrietta Maria, a banquet was ordered to be given by
the dean in their honor; and so, as Bernard, the old
chronicler, tells us, "the king's will signified, the in-
vytement at a supper was given and taken, which was
provyded in the colledge of Westminster, in the roome
named Hierusalem Chamber."
Thus, through scenes alternatively of sorrow and joy,
the old chamber passed as the generations rolled by, but
for all time its chief claim to historic interest will arise
out of its connection with the proceedings of the West-
minster Assembly, to which we will now direct our
attention.
The ordinance convening the Assembly passed both
houses of Parliament and became a law on the 12th of
June, 1643. It was entitled "An Act for the Calling of
an Assembly of Godly Divines and Others." It directed
that they should meet "at Westminster, in the chappell
called King Henry the Seventh's Chappell, on the first
day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1643
ferre and treate amongst themselves of such matters and
things touching and concerning the liturgy, discipline
and government of the Church of England, or the vindi-
cating and clearing of the doctrine of the same from all
to con-
•
•
60
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
"E3
false aspersions and misconstructions, as shall be pro-
posed unto them by both or either of the said houses of
Parliament, and no other; and to deliver their opinion
and advices of, or touching, the matters aforesaid, as
shall be most agreeable to the word of God, to both or
either of the said houses from time to time, in such
manner or sort as by both or either of the said houses of
Parliament shall be required; and at the same time not
to divulge by printing, writing, or otherwise, without
the consent of both or either houses of Parliament."
In obedience to this ordinance, on Saturday, July 1,
1643, the Assembly met in the Abbey in the face of a
great company, and its proceedings were opened with a
sermon by Rev. William Twisse, D. D., the prolocutor,
from the text, John xiv. 18, "I will not leave you com-
fortless," "a text," says the old chronicler of that day,
"pertinent to these times of sorrow and anguish and
misery, to raise up the drooping spirits of the people of
God who lie under the pressure of popish wars and com-
bustion." Immediately after this service, in which
both houses of Parliament were present and took part,
and which was probably held in the choir of the Abbey,
the members designated to the Assembly ascended the
steps of the Chapel of Henry VII., and there the enroll-
ment was made.
The ordinance constituting the Assembly called for
two divines from each county of England and one from
each county of Wales. To these were added four from
the city of London, two from each of the two universi-
ties, two from Ireland, and others from important.
boroughs, so that the whole number of divines named
in the ordinance was one hundred and twenty-one. If
all had attended there would have been a fair representa-
tion of all shades of Protestant belief in the land, except
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, ANd Personnel.
61
13
that of the extreme high-churchmen represented by
Archbishop Laud on the one hand, and that of the ex-
treme Independents on the other, who really believed in
no form of church government. Ia point of fact the
advocates of an episcopal form of government. including
Archbishop Ussher, Bishops Brownrigge and Westfield
and many others, were, for the most part, royalists, and
as the king, by royal proclamation from his camp, for-
bade the gathering of the Assembly, they all, with the
exception of Bishop Westfield and Dr. Featley, declined
to attend. The former of these two died very soon after
the sitting of the Assembly, and the latter, having vio-
lated the ordinance of Parliament in reference to divulg-
ing the Assembly's proceedings, was, by order of that
body, expelled before Dr. Westfield's death. Those
who actually attended and took part in the proceedings,
about eighty-five in all of the original one hundred and
twenty-one, together with some twenty or thirty others
whose names were added by Parliament from time to
time to fill vacancies occasioned by declinature or by
death, were, with few exceptions, Presbyterian in views
of church polity, though regularly in orders in the
Church of England.
To these divines, the number of whom from first to
last amounted to something like one hundred and fifteen,
must be added thirty "lay assessors" as they were
called, twenty of whom were members of the House of
Commons, and ten of the House of Lords. Of the ten
peers very few attended with any regularity, and none
took any prominent part. Of the commoners, however,
many were constant and interested attendants, and a few
amongst them took free and active part in the discus-
sions, although one of the latter class, the illustrious
John Selden, says facetiously, in his Table Talk, that
62
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
((
the lay assessors were sent not to do work, but merely
to overlook the clergy, just as when the good woman
puts a cat into the milkhouse to kill a mouse she sends
her maid to look after the cat, lest the cat should eat up
the cream." Nor must we fail to add the small, but
most potent Scottish contingent; the General Assembly of
Scotland, having, in view of the prospective adoption of
the Solemn League and Covenant for uniformity of reli-
gion throughout the realm, named four of her ablest di-
vines, and three of her most illustrious laymen, as Com-
missioners to the Westminster Assembly. Five of these,
four ministers and one layman, appeared and took their
seats, and, though declining to vote, took very active
part in the discussions and debates, and, as the results
show, really exerted a moulding influence upon all the
work of the Assembly.
When we inquire into the doctrinal beliefs of these
men from all parts of the realm, and all, with the excep-
tion of the Scotch Commissioners, and a few Indepen..
dents, in the regular communion of the Church of Eng-
land, we may be surprised to be told that they were, to
a man, and through and through, Calvinists. If there
was an Arminian in all the body he did not have the
courage to lift his head. Nor should this surprise us,
for the Church of England, in all the days of its noble
struggle for civil and religious liberty, was, in its best
elements, as intensely Calvinistic as the Church of Scot-
land, or that of Holland. All the great English Reform-
ers, Anselm, Bradwardine, Tyndal, Wycliffe, Ussher,
Whitgift, and others, were Calvinists. Men may play
with Arminianism in times of peace, but in the great
crises of spiritual conflict there is nothing but the solid
bedrock of the eternal sovereignty of God on which the
foot can rest with any sense of security; and in times
->
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
63
1
like these, churches, as well as individuals, unconsciously
become Calvinists. The Westminster Assembly was not
called together to formulate a creed. It already had one,
clearly enunciated, universally accepted-the one Calvin-
istic creed of the great Reformed Church in all its
branches. The language of their commission was, as we
have already quoted it, very explicit: "For the vindi-
cating and clearing of the doctrine of the same (the
Church of England) from all false aspersions and mis-
constructions." They were not to frame a creed, but
to state the accepted creed of the church in language
that would not be open to the aspersions of the cavilling,
or to the misconstructions of honest inquirers after truth.
In the matter of church polity, on the other hand, the
Assembly was greatly divided. First, as to the proper
form of church government, at least five parties come
into prominence in the discussions. On the one extreme
are a few advocates of episcopal government, pure and
simple, as we have it in the Church of England at the
present time.
On the other extreme are a few Indepen-
dents, numbering amongst them some of the ablest men
of the body, especially those known as "the five dissent-
ing brethren,'" Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, William
Bridge, Jeremiah Burroughs, and Sidrack Simpson, all
recently returned from exile in Holland, and recognized
as amongst the ablest debaters and most learned men of
the body. They are in favor of a purely congregational
form of government, as we have it in our Baptist and
Congregational churches to-day. Between these ex-
tremes are three other clearly-defined parties. Leaning
toward the Episcopalians, and constituting what we may
call the right centre, is a very strong party, including
the Prolocutor, Dr. Twisse, Mr. Gataker, Mr. Palmer,
Dr. Temple, and many other eminent men, who incline
ܙ
64
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
to a Presbyterianism, with Sessions, Presbyteries, and
Synods, but modified by an order of superintendents who
shall really have many of the functions of bishops, but
without the name. Over against them, constituting
what we may call the left centre, were the Scotch Com-
missioners, and the English divines and laymen of the
school of Cartwright, who contended with all their elo-
quence, learning, and genius, for a jure divino Presbyte-
rianism, as explicitly ordained in Scripture. Between
these, as the true centre of discussion, was the large
body who held to a Presbyterian form of government,
not as authoritatively ordained in Scripture, but as con-
sistent with the teaching of the word of God, and as con-
servative of the spiritual liberties of the people. It was
upon this centre that the Assembly finally rested, its
Book of Discipline containing a Presbyterianism pure
and unmodified, not as jure divino, but as "lawful and
agreeable to the word of God."
In the matter of church discipline there was wide di-
vergence, leading to prolonged and heated debate.
There was a party of Erastians in the Assembly, small
in number, but containing some of the ablest and most
illustrious men, not only of the Assembly, but of the
age in which they lived. It is only necessary to recall
the names of Selden, Lightfoot, and Coleman to exhibit`
something of its strength; and, strong as it was in the
ability of its defenders, it was still stronger from the well-
known sympathy and support of the Parliament; for al-
though that body had unceremoniously stripped the king
of all ecclesiastical authority, it had done so with the
express purpose of retaining in its own hands the power
of administering discipline for spiritual offenses, so that
the Erastians of the Assembly counted on the weight of
the Parliament's well-known support.
K
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
65
Having thus indicated the lines along which discussion.
would naturally run, it may be interesting to look in for
a moment upon the working of the Assembly itself.
The Jerusalem Chamber has been specially fitted to
receive the body. At the northern end a platform, a
foot in height, has been erected to receive the chair of
the Prolocutor, or, as we would say, Moderator of the
body. Immediately in front of this platform, upon the
floor, one to the right and the other to the left, are two
chairs for the two "Master-Assessors," or, as we would
say, Vice-Moderators. Beginning a little in front of the
Moderator's platform, and extending down through almost
the entire length of the chamber, is a long, narrow table,
and at the upper end of this are two chairs, for the two
"scribes," or, as we would say, clerks of the Assembly.
Along the western side of the room, beginning near the
long table, and extending upward to the wall, are sev-
eral of what Robert Baillie calls "rankes of formes," or
what we would call tiers of seats, each tier seating com-
fortably ten or twelve persons. The seats on the lowest
tier, and on the end nearest the Prolocutor, are given, as
the place of honor on the Prolocutor's right to the Scotch
Commissioners; the remaining seats in all the tiers are
reserved for the members of the House of Commons. To
the Prolocutor's left, running along the eastern wall, ast
far as the fireplace, are similar tiers of seats; and at the
extreme end of the room, along the whole southern wall,
are similar tiers also. These two divisions of seats are
occupied by the English divines, who fill them pretty
closely. An open space is left about the fireplace, and
there, on comfortable chairs, which they can move about
at will, sit the members from the House of Lords, when-
ever it pleases their lordships to be present.
It is an interesting sight to stand by the Prolocutor's
5
66
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
chair and look over the body, the lords with their jaunty
cloaks and their dangling swords; the English divines
in their black gowns and Geneva bands; here and there
a churchman in his full canonicals; the commoners with
their short cloaks, knee breeches and silken hose, the
sombre colors constrasting notably with the gay foppery.
of the lords; and then, the Scotch Commissioners, clean
shaven and close shorn, with waistcoats buttoning closely
up to their chins, snugly-fitting coats, knee breeches.
and silver-buckled shoes.
The Assembly sat every day in the week except
Saturday. Its usual hours were from 9 A. M. to 3 P. M.
It was broken up into three great committees, on one or
the other of which every member's name was enrolled.
To each committee one section was assigned of the work
to be done. When this committee had prepared the sec-
tion carefully with all the Scripture proofs bearing upon
it, it reported to the Assembly and another section was
assigned. Nothing could come before the Assembly
that had not first been carefully digested and formulated
by one of the committees. At the hour fixed for assem-
bling, the Prolocutor took his seat and opened with
prayer. Forty constituted a quorum. If that number
were present, the proceedings of the previous day's ses-
sion were read, and the business proceeded. If a quorum
were not present, the body resolved itself into a com-
mittee of the whole for informal conference and discus-
sion until a quorum was had.. Then Mr. Byfield arose,
read the section or paragraph under discussion, then the
first passage of Scripture in its support, and the issue
was joined. The rules of procedure were similar to
those in one of our presbyteries, with a single notable
exception: if two or more speakers sought the floor at
the same time, instead of the presiding officer, as with
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNel.
67
us, deciding the question of right to the floor, the deci-
sion was left to the body of the Assembly, each member
shouting vociferously the name of the one whom he de-
sired to hear; and so, amidst a din well represented in
the engraving of the Assembly, which some of us may
have seen, entitled Cry him down," "the divines,'
as old Robert Baillie tells us, "confusedlie call on his.
name whom they desire to heare speake, and on whome
the loudest and maniest voices call, he speakes.”
''
In an Assembly full of men of striking personality, and
of prominent relation to the stirring events of the time, it
is difficult to decide what particular characters it may
be most interesting to study. Let us begin with the
Prolocutor, Rev. William Twisse, D. D. He was one
of the notable men of his day. A man of sixty-eight
years of age, a scholar crowned with the highest honors
of the University of Oxford, a high Calvinist of the su-
pralapsarian school, and a theologian of such profound
erudition and such speculative genius that his great
Latin folios as they came forth, one after another, filled
all the continent of Europe with his fame, so that it has.
been said that he was better known and more honored
abroad than at home, he was, nevertheless, so modest
and retiring, so wedded to the seclusion of his study and
so indifferent to fame, that he declined all offers of pro-
motion and remained to the day of his death in an
humble vicarage at Newbury. Appointed by Parlia-
ment to the prolocutorship of the Assembly, no position
could have been given him for which he was less fitted
or whose duties were more irksome to him. Unskilled
in parliamentary law, diffident of his own judgment, in-
capable of strong self-assertion, dreamy and absent-
minded in the midst of the long debates, he strove to do
his duty in an office which he would have been only too
Togg
68
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
glad to demit, but to which he was held by the order of
Parliament, it being, says Dr. Baillie, "the canny con-
veyance of those who guide most matters for their own
interest, to plant such a man of purposes in the chair."
In one respect, however, he was admirably fitted for
his office. One of his duties was to make both the open-
ing and closing prayer at every meeting of the Assembly;
and, being a man of intense fervor and consecration,
twice a day he carried the Assembly, with all its cares
and burdens, on his great heart up to the throne; and it
was while thus importunately pleading that he was
stricken with his last illness, and, falling back in his
chair, was carried to his bed to rise no more. A touch-
ing revelation of his true character appears in the state-
ment of his biographer, that, when informed that the
end was near, a smile irradiated the face of the old
scholar and theologian, as he exclaimed with animation,
"Now, at length, I shall have leisure to follow my
studies to all eternity.
t
Turning from Dr. Twisse to the Master Assessor, who
occupies the chair in front and to his right, we find a
man of altogether different mould. Dr. Cornelius Bur-
gess is not wanting in scholarship and learning, for he
has taken both degrees in divinity at Oxford, and is
recognized as one of the most learned divines and most
powerful preachers in London; but, unlike Dr. Twisse,
he is every inch a soldier. A man of fifty, with iron-
gray hair, shortly cropped, erect and stalwart frame, he
comes in with the step of a soldier, makes a military
wheel as he takes his chair, looks with the eye of an
eagle over the Assembly, and, when he speaks, speaks
with the impetuosity of a mountain torrent. As early
as 1627 he had been chaplain to Charles I. In the con-
flict between Charles and the Parliament he had thrown
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNel.
69
himself with all his fiery energy into the cause of the
Parliament. He has been four times before the Court
of High Commission, and now as he sits in the Assembly
he is chaplain to the Earl of Essex's regiment of horse
in Cromwell's army, and is now and then absent from
his seat as he goes to the front and ministers in true
Puritan style to the men of his command in bivouac or
on the battle-field.
How different from either of those mentioned the man
who occupies until his death the other assessor's chair,
Mr. Herbert Palmer, sitting in place of Mr. White,
whose health has never permitted him to attend. Di-
minutive of stature, he is known as "the little Mr.
Palmer"; but, though small of body, he is a man of
gigantic intellect, and of such nobility of nature and
greatness of soul as to win universal admiration and
love. He is, perhaps, the most accomplished in polite.
literature of the English divines. So fluent and graceful
is he in the use both of the French and Latin tongues
that he is charged with the conduct of the foreign cor-
respondence of the Assembly. He is master of Queen's
College at Cambridge, and university lecturer, a man of
independent fortune, who delights to use it in the educa-
tion of young men for the ministry and for other good
causes. But his chief attraction for us is the fact that
he may truly be called the "Father of the Shorter Cate-
chism.' He was noted long before the meeting of the
Assembly for his devotion to catechetical instruction.
He had prepared a number of catechisms, the most im-
portant of which was in its fifth edition when the As-
sembly convened. He was chairman of the Committee
on the Directory, and had the subject of catechising
especially assigned to him by the committee.
He was
chairman of the Committee on the Catechism until his
))
70
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
death, and, though the finishing touches to the Cate-
chism were given after his death by Anthony Tuckney,
who succeeded him, yet a comparison of our present
Larger and Shorter Catechisms with the last edition of
the Catechism of Mr. Palmer will show how largely we
are indebted to him for those incomparable summaries.
of doctrine which grow only the more priceless with the
lapse of years.
Passing over for the present the Scotch Commissioners,
let us recall one or two of the members of Parliament,
as they sit over on the right. There, facile princeps, is
John Selden, the "learned Selden," "the glory of the
British nation," as Grotius terms him, Antiquariorum
Coryphæus, as he is styled upon the tablet erected to his
memory at Oxford. He was, for the extent of his eru-
dition and the versatility of his genius, incomparably the
foremost scholar of his age. As a lawyer he was with-
out a peer at the English bar; whilst as a historian, as a
theologian, as an archaeologist, a linguist, an antiquary,
he enjoyed a reputation fully as great. He was a recog-
nized authority in civil law, in canon law, in rabbinical
law, indeed was master of all rabbinical lore.
His sway
was equally felt in philology, in heraldry, and in all de-
partments of literature, Representing the University of
Oxford in the Long Parliament, he spared time to attend
the sessions of the Assembly only when some question
was up for discussion that specially interested him; and
when it was known that he was to speak every ear was
attent, his great eloquence and commanding genius
swaying the Assembly as the wind bows the trees of the
forest.
Not far from Mr. Selden sits another member, a deeply-
interested listener, and often an earnest participant in the
debate. I need only call the name, John Pym, and
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
71
there arises before you the figure of the great Puritan
patriot, the matchless leader of the parliamentary party
in its struggle for constitutional liberty against the
tyranny of Charles I. He was the one man who had the
sagacity to see that the Earl of Strafford, the king's chief
counsellor, was, with his sullen determination, and his
power of intrigue, the Richelieu upon whom Charles
leaned. He was the only man in the realm who had at
once the courage to move the impeachment of the Earl,
and the magnetic eloquence with which to arraign him.
at the bar of the House as the "great promoter of
tyranny in the realm"; and to carry by an overwhelm-
ing vote the order which led the great leader to the
scaffold, and gave the death-blow to schemes of oppres-
sion which only his resolute courage and inflexible will
could have carried to success.
One more of these commoners must receive at least a
passing notice. Sitting quietly there, taking an intelli-
gent interest in all the discussions, is Francis Rouse,
author of the well-known Rouse's l'ersion of the Psalms.
When he came into the Assembly the psalmody in use
was the old rugged one of Sternhold and Hopkins. Mr.
Rouse had already prepared a metrical version of the
Psalms, and, by request of the Assembly, revised it for
use in its services, and it is this version, afterwards
amended from time to time, that is still in use amongst
the psalm-singing churches" of Scotland and of this
country. It is an anomaly, as strange as it is interest-
ing, that those rugged old paraphrases, with what Rufus
Choate calls their "uncommon pith and gnarled vigor of
sentiment," and what Sir Walter Scott characterizes as
"a rude sort of majesty which perhaps would be ill
exchanged for mere elegance"; that those old psalms
which were the heritage of our Scotch fathers for so
"
SA
72
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
many generations, and to the music of which the heroic
Covenanters marched to the battle or to the stake, were
composed by a South-of-England man, who possibly
never was in Scotland, and were first wafted to God
in song, not upon the moors of Scotland, or in the Grey-
friars or Old St. Giles, but amidst the stately columns
and under the fretted arches of an English cathedral.
It would be interesting, if we had time, to sketch the
characters of a few at least of the English divines, such
as John Lightfoot, the world-renowned author of the
Hora Hebraicae et Talmudice, and Thomas Gataker, dis-
tinguished both in oriental and in classical research,
and Stephen Marshall, the popular preacher and re-
nowned ecclesiastic, with his colleagues of the famous
Smectymnuus, all of whom were members of the As-
sembly. There were also Arrowsmith and Tuckney,
professors of divinity at Cambridge; Hoyle, professor of
divinity at Dublin; Wallis, professor of geometry at
Oxford, the first mathematician of his day, and a host
of other men of note.
-
We pass, however, to those in whom we are most
interested-the Scotch Commissioners. First amongst
them, indeed the foremost man, after John Knox, of the
Church of Scotland, is Alexander Henderson. The
providence that gave him to the church as a leader was
wonderful. About the year 1615 Robert Bruce, the dis-
tinguished preacher, held a communion service in the
vicinity of the parish church of Leuchars. That church
was being served at the time by a young divine of the
Established Church, who had been imposed upon the
church by the bishop over the protest of the congrega-
tion. On the day for his induction, the congregation,
with true Scotch tenacity, had locked the doors of the
church, so that when the bishop and attendant ministers
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
73
came to conduct the installation they were unable to
enter, until the young minister who was to be installed
climbed up to one of the windows, and, breaking his way
in, succeeded in forcing the doors so that the farce of
installation might proceed. This young minister, who
was no other than Alexander Henderson, having heard
of the great fame of Mr. Bruce, and being curious to
hear him, attended his service, seating himself in a
retired place where he supposed his presence would not
be observed. When the assistant minister had finished
the preliminary service, Mr. Bruce came forward, and
after a solemn pause, as was his custom, uttered most
impressively the words of his text, "Verily, verily, I
say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the
sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is
a thief and a robber."
The words of the Master, so singularly appropriate
and so solemnly uttered, were carried home with resist-
less energy by the Spirit. The unspiritual nature of hist
whole past ministry appeared to Mr. Henderson with
appalling distinctness. By God's grace he came into a
new life; and with this new experience came, under
closer study of the word, a conviction of the divine right
of Presbytery, and Alexander Henderson stepped forth
from the scholarly retirement to which he had devoted
his life to become the great leader in the sanguinary
strife for Christ's crown and covenant. He combined
rare gifts as a leader, and perhaps in no other way can
I better exhibit to you that remarkable combination of
endowments which gave him unparalleled influence in
Scotland than by depicting a scene in which all his mar-
vellous powers were put to the fullest test. It was at
the celebrated General Assembly of Glasgow in 1638,
over which, as over several successive assemblies in
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THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
those stormy times, he was called, in deference to his
great powers as a leader, to preside. The avowed pur-
pose of this Assembly being to abolish episcopacy, and
a number of bishops having sent in their declinature to
recognize the authority of the Assembly, Charles I. de-
termined to interpose in their behalf, and sent the Mar-
quis of Hamilton as his commissioner, with authority
and instructions to dissolve the Assembly if it should
undertake to deal with the refractory bishops. The in-
tense excitement may be conceived when the hour ar-
rived for the consideration of the answer of the bishops.
The Marquis of Hamilton, a distinguished soldier, fresh.
from the camp and in military dress, occupied a con-
spicuous chair in front, and a great concourse of people
filled the hall. The answer of the bishops having been
read, Mr. Henderson, with that stately dignity and over-
awing gravity which were characteristic of him, arose
and asked if it was the pleasure of the Assembly to pro-
ceed to the trial of the bishops. On this the Marquis of
Hamilton sprang to his feet and declared that it was not
in accordance with the pleasure of his majesty, King
Charles, that the relations of the bishops should be dis-
turbed, and he was present in the king's name to inter-
dict any proceedings in that direction. Mr. Henderson,
in a very courteous and well-considered address to his
grace, expressed the thanks of the Assembly to King
Charles for having convened them, and gave assurance
of their loyalty and their desire to conform themselves
as far as possible in all things to the king's will, but
reminded him that being now constituted as a court of
the Lord Jesus their first allegiance was to him and his
law, and then calmly, without the least sign of perturba-
tion, put the question again as to whether the Assembly
was ready to proceed with the trial of the bishops.
C
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
75
Astonished beyond measure at what seemed the audacity
of the moderator, but, controlling himself as well as he
could, the Marquis arose and declared that such proceed-
ings would be revolutionary, and if persisted in would
necessitate his immediate withdrawal as the representa-
tive of the royal court. With a manner as bland as a
summer day, the moderator replied to his grace that it
was a great pleasure to the Assembly to have his distin-
guished presence, that they should exceedingly regret
his withdrawal, and trusted he would consent to remain,
as nothing treasonable or disloyal was in any of their
hearts, and then resolutely put, the third time, the ques-
tion, "Is the Assembly ready to proceed with the trial of
the bishops?" The commissioner now sprang to his
feet in a towering rage, drew from his pocket the written
instructions of the king, and declared that he would
immediately dissolve the Assembly if another word were
spoken on this subject. Above all the din of confusion
throughout the hall the calm, courageous voice of the
moderator was heard. Standing in the high pulpit, far
above the heads of the people, his majestic form looming
up, and a light as from the throne irradiating every
feature, he seemed a fitting representative of the court of
heaven as he looked down, with an air almost of patron-
age, into the face of the commissioner of an earthly sov-
ereign, and kindly but firmly told him that the Assembly
could not and would not, even upon pain of the king's
displeasure, prove disloyal to the King of kings. Then
came the supreme moment, when, amidst a wild turbu-
lence that even the calm voice and majestic mien of the
moderator could but partially suppress, the Marquis of
Hamilton stepped to the front, in imperious tones de-
clared, in his majesty's name, the Assembly dissolved,
proceeded to discharge every member under highest
76
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
pains and penalties from taking further part, and then,
calling upon every loyal subject of the king to follow
him, stalked down the aisle and out of the door, his
sabre rattling behind him.
When the door had closed, Mr. Henderson's wonder-
ful self-possession and genius appeared. Calming the
turbulence of the excited throng that was ready to pur-
sue the Marquis with personal violence, Mr. Henderson
commended him for his fidelity to his sovereign, and for
carrying out the instructions given him to the letter;
then, turning, reminded the Assembly that they were
commissioners of a greater King, and urged them by the
example of the king's servant and representative, to
obey, even to the death, the inspired and authoritative.
instructions of King Jesus. The effect was magnetic;
the bishops were brought to the bar, convicted of contu-
macy, and deposed, Mr. Henderson conducting the cere-
mony of deposition amidst a solemnity and awe that
would have befitted the judgment day.
Another wonderful man is George Gillespie, the
youngest, and in many respects the most remarkable
member of the body. Born in 1613, in the little town of
Kirkcaldy, on the Firth of Forth, the son of a humble,
consecrated minister, he was sent to the University of
St. Andrews (to the praise of beneficiary education be it
said) as "Presbytery's bursar" or beneficiary. Gradu-
ating with distinction in his seventeenth year, he com-
pleted his theological course just as the great struggle
was on for the divine right of Presbytery, and refused
Episcopal ordination, vowing that he would never be
ordained while the world stood, except by a scriptural
presbytery. Serving in obscurity and without ordina-
tion, as the private chaplain to Lord Cassilis, in that same
memorable month of July, 1637, when Jennie Geddes, in
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
77
the cathedral of St. Giles, threw her stool at the head of
the Dean of Edinburgh for presuming to "say mass at
her lug," this unknown youth was sending through the
press in Holland, because it could not be published in
Britain, a work entitled, A Dispute Against the Eng-
lish Popish Ceremonies, Obtruded upon the Church of
Scotland, a book which immediately lifted him into
fame, which probably did more even than the stool of
Jennie Geddes to overthrow prelacy in Scotland, and to
whose matchless learning and resistless logic no answer
was ever attempted by the prelatists, except the cheap
one of commanding every copy of it to be burned at the
stake.
www
Young as he was, Mr. Gillespie was one of the fore-
most men of the Assembly. All are familiar with the
incident recorded of him, disputed by some, but seeming
to have historic ground, that when the Committee on
the Catechism had found themselves unable to construct
a satisfactory answer to the question, "What is God?"
and, referring it to the Committee of the Whole, that
also had failed, it was proposed that Mr. Gillespie, as the
youngest member, lead in prayer for the special aid of
the Spirit, and when he had begun his prayer with the
words, "O God, who art a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and
unchangeable, in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness, and truth," the body felt that their
prayer was heard, and the coveted answer sent, and so
entered that incomparable answer which can never be
improved upon to the end of time.
The chief reputation of Mr. Gillespie rests upon the
marvellous breadth and readiness of learning, and the
wonderful genius and power of debate, which made him,
young as he was, the mainstay of the Assembly in its
hard battle with the forces of Erastianism, led on by
78
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Selden and Lightfoot and Coleman, intellectual giants,
and supported by all the prestige and influence of the
Parliament. On a memorable day, when, in framing
the Book of Discipline, the subject of excommunication.
had been reached, and the committee was ready to report,
affirming excommunication to be ar exercise of spiritual
function, and therefore to be administered by the church
through spiritual courts, and not by the civil magistrate,
Mr. Selden left his seat in Parliament and came to the
Assembly for one of his greatest efforts. It was known
that he would speak, and the Jerusalem Chamber was
thronged; the lords in their chairs, every member in hist
form, and all spectators who could procure a "writ of
invytment" from Parliament (for none could enter,
either to see or to heare, lett be to sitt," without writ-
ten permission) were occupying the extra seats. The
passage of Scripture under consideration, as supporting
the spirituality of excommunication was that in Mat-
thew xviii. 15-17, "Moreover, if thy brother shall tres-
pass against thee," etc. As Mr. Byefield read the pas-
sage, every eye was fixed upon Mr. Selden, who arose
with the dignity and affability that were natural to him,
and proceeded to argue that excommunication was a
purely civil penalty amongst the Jews, that the word
translated church in the original Hebrew Gospel of Mat-
thew, referred to a civil, not to an ecclesiastical tribunal;
and then, with a little jocular reference to the men who
"carried their little gilt-edged English Bibles in their
pockets, and were always quoting from them," he be-
gan to quote, with a fluency and copiousness that seemed
amazing, from the original Hebrew of the Old Testa-
ment, from the Chaldee Targums, from the rabbinical He-
brew of the Mishna, and the Gemara, from Josephus
and Philo, from orientalists and scholars, until his oppo-
((
→
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
79
nents and their cause seemed hopelessly buried under
the mass of Hebraic and Talmudic literature with which
he had overwhelmed them.
At the close of his most subtle and powerful argu-
ment the Assembly seemed dazed. Herle and Marshall
made attempt to reply, but failed to make any impres-
sion. It looked as if the cause of spiritual independency
was lost, when Samuel Rutherford turned to Gillespie,
and said, with intense earnestness: "Rise, George, rise
up, man, and defend the right of the Lord Jesus to
govern, by his own laws, the church he has purchased
with his blood." Under this strong appeal the young
man arose, and without a note before him proceeded to
analyze the speech of his learned opponent, stripping the
argument of all the vast rubbish of learning in which it
was encased, exhibiting its inherent weakness; and then,
in a masterly exegesis of the passage, showed by seven
distinct lines of argument, that the excommunication re-
ferred to was spiritual. The offence, a trespass, was
spiritual; the offended stood in spiritual relation as a
brother; the end aimed at was spiritual, to gain him;
the method of procedure was spiritual, telling it to him.
alone; the court, a spiritual court; the censure, a spirit-
ual censure; the effect, exclusion from spiritual interest
and privilege. With such acuteness, fervor, sincerity
and eloquence did he argue, that before he had gone far
he was producing a profounder impression even than
that of Selden; and when he concluded, not only had he
carried the Assembly with him, but Selden himself is
said to have exclaimed, with mingled admiration and cha-
grin, "That young man has, by a single speech, swept
away the learning and labor of ten years of my life.'
>>
Time will permit me to allude to but one man more,
and I refer to him simply as illustrating the marvellous
80
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
versatility of character and gift of these men. Who has
not heard of Samuel Rutherford? Who that has read
his almost inimitable "Letters" has not come to think of
him as some sweet, saintly soul, like St. Bernard or
Thomas A'Kempis, wrapt in quiet contemplation of the
Master, or absorbed in pleading at the throne for the
souls of men. Who thinks of him as a scholar of such
repute throughout all Europe that he is time and again
called to chairs of divinity in the leading universities on
the continent? Or who thinks of him as one of the war-
horses of his day? Let a single scene, by way of illus-
tration, suffice. We are all familiar with the sweet
hymn of Mrs. Annie Cousins, in which she has so ex-
quisitely paraphrased the words of Rutherford on his
death-bed. We love to think of the sweet, saintly man
as his seraphic piety breathes in these words:
"Oh! Christ, he is the fountain,
The deep, sweet well of love;
The streams on earth I've tasted,
I'll drink more deep above.
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land."
But let us not forget that it was while on the same
death-bed, and only a short time before, that a message
came from Charles II. summoning him to appear before
the next Parliament on the charge of high treason,
Lifting himself from his couch, and pointing with his
bony finger, he said to the messenger, "Go, tell your
royal master that it behooveth me to appear before a
higher judge and judicatory than his, and ere a few days
arrive I shall be where few kings or great men ever
come."
I have drawn deeply, almost inexcusably, upon your
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, ANd Personnel.
∞
81
patience; let me, in conclusion, dwell for a moment upon
the character of the Assembly as a body. It has met
with very varied estimate. Lord Clarendon, in his self-
styled History of the Rebellion, has given to the whole
history and work of the Assembly but a single paragraph,
and that as contemptuous as language could make it;
but this paragraph was written after he had sought in
vain to bend the Assembly to his will. Milton, in a
grim play of humor in his Paradise Lost, has evidently
made the sitting of the Assembly the basis of one of his
pictures of the infernal world, as, speaking of the em-
ployments of the fallen angels, he says:
"Others, apart, sat on a hill retired,
In thought more elevate, and reasoned high
Of Providence, foreknowledge, will and fate;
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute;
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost."
But Milton wrote this and all his criticisms after the
Assembly had condemned his work, The Doctrine and
Discipline of Divorce, which he had dedicated to that
body with words of very highest praise.
The satirists and punsters of the day found in the
Assembly, of course, a tempting subject for their jests.
and jibes:
"Pretty Synod doth it sit,
Voyd of grace, as well of wit,
And make no canons;
But such as ordinance are called,
Which have the very souls enthralled
Of every man on 's.
"Now from black Tom and blacker Noll,
That kill and flay without control,
Thereby to end us;
From Synod's nonsense and their treason,
And from their catechistic reason,
Good heaven, defend us!'
>
6
82
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
}
But in the face of all prejudice and calumny, as the
years move on, men will come more and more to the
judgment of a contemporary, Richard Baxter, who had
reason to be impartial, when he says: "The divines there
congregated were men of eminent learning and godli-
ness and ministerial abilities and fidelity; and, being not
worthy to be one of them myself, I may the more freely
speak that truth which I know, even in the face of malice
and envy, that as far as I am able to judge by the infor-
mation of all history of that kind, and by any other evi-
dence left us, the Christian world since the days of the
apostles had never a synod of more excellent divines
(taking one thing with another) than this Synod and the
Synod of Dort."
There are two things, which, in addition to their
learning, genius, and intrepid courage, must ever com-
mend them to our admiration. The first is their rever-
-
ence for Scripture. Not only did they give it “the first
place, the place of honor," in the Confession of Faicn,
but a cardinal rule of the Assembly was that, “Wnat
any man undertakes to prove as necessary, he shall
make good out of Scripture," and an examination of the
published proceedings will show that the authority of
Scripture as the inspired and infallible word of God was
in every case bowed to with reverence and submission
as the arbiter of all controversy and the basis of all be-
lief.
The second characteristic is the sense of humble de-
pendence on God, as seen in the prominence given to
prayer. Not only were the daily sessions opened and
closed with prayer, and often interspersed with prayer for
specific objects, but once a month all business was regu-
larly suspended, that a day of fasting and prayer might
be observed in concert with the two houses of Parlia-
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
83
ment.
And what days they were! We read, for in-
stance, in Lightfoot's Journal, that on Friday, October
13, 1643, the order is taken for the fast on the follow-
ing Monday in these words: "The time to be from nine
to four; the exercises to be the word and prayer, three
to pray and two to preach. Dr. Burgess, Mr. Goodwin,
and Dr. Stanton to pray, and Mr. Palmer and Mr.
Whittacre to preach."
And then on the following Monday we have this re-
cord: "Monday, October 16th. This day we kept a
solemn fast in the place where our sitting is, and no one
with us but ourselves, the Scotch Commissioners, and
some Parliament men. First, Mr. Wilson gave a picked
psalm, or selected verses of several psalms, agreeing to
the time and occasion. Then Dr. Burgess prayed about
an hour; after he had done, Mr. Whittacre preached
upon Isaiah xxxvii. 3: 'This day is a day of trouble,'
etc. Then, having had another chosen psalm, Mr.
Goodwin prayed; and, after he had done, Mr. Palmer
preached upon Psalm xxv. 12. After this sermon we
had another psalm and Dr. Stanton prayed about an hour,
and with another psalm and a prayer of the Prolocutor,
and a collection for the maimed soldiers, which arose to
about £3, 15s., we adjourned until to-morrow morn-
ing."
It seems almost incredible to us that men should have
remained continuously in devotional worship from 9 A. M.
to 4 P. M., and that, as Dr. Baillie tells us, a single
prayer was sometimes two hours long; but in those
times, when all the interests of the kingdom of Christ
seemed to be in peril, men felt their dependence on God,
and when once at the throne of grace knew not how to
come away until the blessing was obtained.
Rugged men in sooth they were, but the times were
-
84
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
rugged, and the characters of the men were suited to the
times in which they lived. Go around upon the wind-
ward side of one of our sea-girt islands, where the storm
breaks in its wildest fury, and the waves roll in mountain
high. Look at those tall cliffs that rise perpendicularly
out of the sea, as if they had advanced to meet it in its tem-
pestuous rage. God's great breakwaters for the protec-
tion of the sunny isle behind them, they bare their breasts
by day and night to the storm, and hurl back waves that
toss the mightiest ships like straws upon their bosom.
You do not expect to find on the face of these cliffs the
fair verdure, the delicate flowers, or the softened out-
lines of the hills over on the leeward slope. The only
lines of architecture you expect to find on these granite
cliffs are the rude ones cut by the chisels of the tempest;
but as you look up to them and think of the mighty
forces of night and storm with which they have con-
tended, and the steadfastness with which they have re-
pelled every invading foe they seem to you all the more
glorious, and fill your soul with all the more reverence,
because of their rugged simplicity, God's great bastions
against the encroaching sea.
And so, as we contemplate the lives and characters of
these illustrious men, whose lot was cast in the midst of
the storms of political and ecclesiastical revolution, who
heroically bared their breast to the tempest, receiving in
full shock, and hurling back in defiance the waves of
despotic absolutism in the state, and hierarchical oppres-
sion in the church, their majestic forms loom up before
us in the thick of the conflict for the defence of the civil
and religious liberties which we enjoy, and there is a
majesty and a sublimity in the rugged grandeur of their
natures that overawe us. We uncover our heads with
reverence before them, and our souls thrill with emotions
-
PLACE, PROCEEDINGS, AND PERSONNEL.
85
of gratitude, admiration, and love, as we remember that
it was because they stood breast-deep amidst the waves,
and maintained their position, inflexible and unawed,
under all the fury of the tempest, that we are to-day in
the midst of a Presbyterianism, which under the soft sun-
light of God's truth, covers all its fair fields with ver-
dure, bids the fragile fern unfold upon the barren cliffs
its graceful fronds, and fills the world with the delicate
aroma of its flowers.

REV. R. L. DABNEY, D. D., LL. D.
1
..
IV.
THE DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFES-
SION-ITS FUNDAMENTAL AND REGULATIVE
IDEAS, AND THE NECESSITY AND VALUE
OF CREEDS.
BY
REV. ROBERT L. DABNEY, D. D., LL. D.,
OF VICTORIA, TEXAS,
FOR MANY YEARS PROFESSOR IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
VIRGINIA.
87
ANALYSIS.
1. THE DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
Its system Calvinistic.-Pauline.-Two regulative ideas.-
God's purposes revealed in Scripture.-The nature and attributes
of God.—Catechism.—First question.—The fourth question.—
Covenant of works.-Of grace.-In harmony with nature and
end of God.-Confession theocentric at root.-In a relative way,
anthropocentric and Christocentric.-Hence Trinity and attri-
butes prominent.-Moral attributes.-The redemption of Christ
must agree with the conditions.-Archibald Alexander quoted.—
Westminster divines fitted for their work.-The Confession has
two marked features. It is scriptural.-It is moderate.—The
framers of the Confession knew philosophy and theology.-Yet
left metaphysics out.-Built the Confession on Scripture.-The
debates were settled by the word.-False philosophy indirectly
refuted.—Even the patristic authority put below that of the
Scriptures. The propositions of Confession are biblical.-Hence
of permanent value.-Need no revision.-Confession moderate.-
A system.-Parts related.-An arch.--An organism.-Holds
Trinity. Is neither supra nor sublapsarian.-Teaches God's
providence.—Sets forth original sin.-Asserts imputation.—An
nounces the penal and substitutionary nature of Christ's work.-
Speaks of assurance.-Alludes to the millennium.-But extremes
of statement are carefully avoided.-Prudent moderation.-No
dog that of
narrowness.
Categ
M
II. THE NECESSITY AND VALUE of Creeds.
A creed defined.-Illustrated.-Its conditions.-Relation to
Bible.-Holy Scripture the final and infallible creed. The
Standards must express the contents of Scripture.-Subscription
to our Standards only by officers.-Not by members.-No perse-
cution for opinion's sake.-No expulsion from the universal
church. Admits recognition of other denominations.-Commu-
nion of saints.-Objections to creeds.-Christ gave no command
to set up human standards.-Creeds assume that the Bible is
lacking in some important respect.-These two sets of objections
fully answered.--Visible church needs a creed.-Versions of
Scriptures same.-Creeds useful for instruction.-Valuable as a
witness for true doctrine and holy practice.-Creeds serve to
interpret clearly the Scriptures.-Are useful for instruction.—
Cases quoted.-Argued.—Actual creed always.-Better to have
it written than not.--Creeds are plain, honest statements to
others of our doctrines.-They serve as a bond of union and co..
operation. Our Confession one of the very best for these im-
portant purposes.-So commended.
A
7
A
88
IV.
THE DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFES-
SION: ITS FUNDAMENTAL AND REGULATIVE
IDEAS, AND THE NECESSITY AND VALUE OF
CREEDS.
F¹
IRST there is assigned to me the consideration of the
doctrinal contents of the Confession, with its funda-
mental and regulative ideas. Should I attempt an ex-
amination of these heads of doctrine in the limited time
allowed for these addresses, the result could be little
more than a table of contents, dry and uninstructive to
educated Christians. The Shorter Catechism already
gives us such a summary of most of the heads treated
in the Confession, and superior to anything which one
man could now produce. All admit that the Confession
embodies that system of revealed theology sometimes
termed the Pauline, sometimes the Augustinian, and
popularly the Calvinistic. Should we question preva-
lent public opinion as to the peculiar and dominant fea-
tures of that system, it would point us to what are
popularly termed the five points of Calvinism. But
these propositions are themselves consequences or con-
clusions drawn from more ultimate principles. It is
among these, then, that the fundamental and regu-
lative ideas of the Confession are to be sought. These
I conceive to be two: the supreme end of God's dispen-
sations revealed in Scripture, and the constitution and
attributes of the Godhead.
The first principle is settled for us in the first question
X
89
90
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
of the Catechism. If "man's chief end is to glorify
God and enjoy him forever," then God's chief end in
creating and governing him must correspond; it must
be the promotion of God's own glory in the holiness,
service, and blessedness of his rational creatures. And
the same conclusion must follow, from the definition of
God, as a Spirit, eternal and unchangeable in all his per…
fections. He who is before all other things, who is the
Creator of all things, the absolute owner of all things,
the sustainer of all being, must have found his intended
end in himself alone; and being unchangeable, his
supreme thought and purpose must ever remain what
they were from eternity. But as the end must shape
the means, it is thus made certain a priori that every
procedure of God in providence and redemption will be
shaped with controlling reference to its tendency to pro-
mote his glory. The covenant of works, the preceptive
and penal law, the covenant of grace, the method of
man's justification and sanctification, the agent and in-
strument therefor, with all God's temporal nd final
judgments upon men and angels, must be so selected as
best to correspond with the divine perfections.
It has been debated among theologians whether the
controlling point of view for the science of redemption is
anthropocentric, Christocentric, or theocentric. Those
who assert the first point of view seem to rest upon the
maxim that the nature of the disease determines the na-
ture of the remedy. This is the plan upon which Principal
Hill constructed his excellent book upon divinity. The
covenant of grace is God's remedy for man's breach of
the covenant of works. Therefore the moral and legal
虐
​state into which man reduced himself by his fall must
dictate the nature of the gospel remedy. When the doc-
trine of original sin is settled, it must logically determine
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
91
our views of the gospel. The history of doctrine teaches
us that there is a profound, though not ultimate, truth.
in this proposition. If the Pauline view of man's death
in sin and condemnation is held, then the Pauline view
of sovereign, supernatual regeneration will be adopted.
If the Pelagian view of man's state since the fall is held,
the Pelagian scheme of redemption will follow. Enfee-
bled conceptions of the office work of the Son and the
Spirit, in and for man, will naturally introduce lower con-
ceptions of the persons and nature of these gospel agents,
until the fatal logical stress brings the theology down to
mere Socinianism. All this is true, and it is most in-
structive. But it is not the ultimate truth of revelation.
The prior question lies behind it: why must man needs
be redeemed when fallen? As to the sinning angels, no
such "needs be" operated. It does not seem that the
Westminster Assembly adopted the anthropocentric as
their dominant point of view.
As to the second scheme, the Messiah is unquestion-
ably the Alpha and Omega of our salvation, "the way,
the truth, and the life," without whom no man can
come to God, our prophet, priest, and king, in whom our
redemption is complete, because all the fulness of the
Godhead dwelleth in him bodily, and he is "the head of
all principality and power." He is also the revealer to
men of the invisible God, so that no man knoweth the
Father except as he knoweth the Son. But these truths
are not to be so pressed as to exclude from our view the
parts of the Father and the Spirit in the work of redemp-
tion. And this work, while all-important to us sinners,
and while the crown and glory of all God's other works,
is not the whole of his providence towards his creatures.
The ruling point of view, therefore, assumed by the
Westminster divines is the theocentric. It is the con-
92
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY,
stitution of the Godhead as a trinity in unity, and the
august circle of the divine attributes which regulate
everything in their system of revealed theology. And
hence again it results, that every head in their system of
doctrine must converge to God's glory as its ultimate
end. Why must the law be for reasonable creatures a
rule of perfect righteousness? Because God is perfectly
righteous. Why must he who breaks it be inexorably
condemned? Because God is unchangeably just. Why
are sinners, so justly condemned, redeemed at such cost?
Because God's love and mercy are infinite. Why must
violated law be completely satisfied before this infinite
mercy can flow forth to the miserable? Because God's
retributive justice is essential and immutable. [How
comes it that a daysman can be found who has " a right
to lay down his life for sinners, and take it again''? Be-
cause Messiah is as. truly Son of God as Son of man.
Why must sanctification invariably follow justification?
Because God is holy. How can man, dead in sin, live
again unto God? Because the Holy Spirit, the quick-
ener, is an almighty agent. Such are a few of the in-
stances which display the method which has regulated
the construction of revealed theology in our Confession.
Dr. Archibald Alexander once made this statement:
that the Reformed Protestant theology reached its zenith
in the seventeenth century. The Westminster Assembly
was convened near the middle of that age, and in the
midday light of its learning and genius. Had we no
histories of its members, and no record of its discussions,
the contents of the Confession itself are enough to teach
us that those profound and illustrious scholars were en-
riched with all the stores of sacred learning gathered
from previous ages, and culminating in their glorious.
epoch. They knew the past history of the church, and
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
93
of doctrine, and of philosophy, and had before them all
the great symbols of the previous ages, from the Coun-
cil of Nice to the Synod of Dort. Providence thus quali-
fied them for their important task to the most eminent
degree, and set them in that historic epoch most favor-
able to success. In speaking of their work, I propose to
signalize in the remainder of this address two of its re-
markable traits. One I may describe as its scriptural-
ness, the other as its moderation.
It is impossible to question the full acquaintance of
the Westminster divines with the history of doctrine and
philosophy. We find the treatises of the Middle Ages
colored and almost shaped by the Peripatetic philosophy.
Their authors justified this result by pointing to the inti-
mate, and, as they claim, unavoidable connections of
philosophy with theology. Our divines knew all this
perfectly well. They knew the tenor of the Platonic,
the Aristotelian, the Sophistic, the Stoic, the Academic
philosophies of the ancients. They understood the con-
tests of Scotists and Thomists, of Realists and Normal-
ists. Bacon had written a few years before, and the
debates between Gassendi and Des Cartes were then agi-
tating the scholars of the continent. The new physics
and astronomy of Copernicus and Galileo were eagerly
supplanting the scholastic, so that Rome supposed her
theology was invaded, and was in need of the thunders
of the church for its defence. And even a Turrettin, a
generation later than our Assembly, deemed it necessary
for the integrity of Scripture to contest the heliocentric
theory of the universe. But the Westminster divines
more wisely left this physical debate alone, and in their
whole system of doctrine not even a tinge of any human
philosophy is apparent. Of course, since human philoso-
phy had been so audacious as to attempt the decision of
94
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
•
everything, secular and divine, sacred truths mooted by
it had to be settled by the Assembly; but they are de-
termined never on dialectical, but always and exclusively
upon biblical grounds. For instance, the Assembly was
bound to contradict the materialism of Gassendi and
Hobbs, by asserting that the soul of man has a distinct
and immortal subsistence. The Bible doctrine of origi·
nal sin and effectual calling must conflict with Scotism
and Pelagianism by teaching the determination of man's
fallen will to ungodliness. But the Assembly relies
upon Holy Scripture, not upon metaphysics, to support.
its positions. Nor does it borrow for the moulding of
its system the shape of any human school of theology.
It is acquainted with all; it is subservient to none.
When defining the hypostatic union in the Messiah, it
translated into English the material part of the very
words of the creed of Chalcedon. Yet it chooses these
very terms, not on the authority of an Athanasius, a
Basil, an Augustine, an Anselm, a Luther, a Calvin, or
an Owen, but because they express the mind of the Holy
Ghost in Scripture. So thorough and exclusive is this
biblical trait of their propositions, that one might sup-
pose they had bound themselves by the same prelimi-
nary rule which had been adopted by the Synod of Dort,
when it forbade its members to argue from any human
philosophy or ecclesiastical authority. And herein ap-
pears the wisdom of this Assembly. Church synods have
ever erred, and may always err. Human philosophies
are ever changing; consequently a system which builds
itself upon these supports must soon appear to totter,
and to require amendment or reconstruction. "But the
word of God liveth and abideth forever;" the structure
which is built exclusively upon this is, like it, perma-
nent. In this we find the chief glory and value of our
1
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
95
Standards. It is for this reason they remain as well
adapted to the eighteenth and nineteenth as to the sev-
enteenth century, to America as to Britain, to a popular
as well as to a regal commonwealth. It is for this rea-
son that the Confession will need no amendment until
the Bible needs to be amended.
The second marked trait of the Confession, its doc-
trinal moderation, presents the other reason for its per-
manent adaptation. Divines so learned and able as those
of the Westminster Assembly knew well that the body
of doctrine which they taught is a system of truth. That
is to say, the several parts must stand together, in order
that the body may have stability. They are logically
inter-dependent. The system is an arch, whose strength
is perfect as long as each stone holds its proper place;
but the removal of any one loosens all the rest and en-
dangers the fall of the whole. Or, to use another simili-
tude, our creed is like an organized living body in this,
that the presence and healthy action of each part is
essential to the safety of the body.
The Assembly, therefore, was too wise to attempt the
conciliating of opposites by the surrender of any essen-
tial member of the system of revealed truth. They pre-
sent us the Pauline, Augustinian, or Calvinistic creed in
its integrity. But, on the other hand, they avoid every
excess, and every extreme statement. They refrained,
with a wise moderation, from committing the church of
God on either side of those "isms" which agitated and
perplexed the professors of the Reformed theology.
the following instances be considered.
Let
I
The Confession firmly asserts the doctrine of a trinity
in the Godhead, substantially as it had been taught in
the Nicene and Athanasian creeds. It teaches that while
God is one infinite, single, spiritual substance, there have
96
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
!
been from eternity three modes of subsistence, Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, whose distinctions are real, perma-
nent and personal. It avows that this is a divine fact,
presenting a mystery, insoluble for man's limited mind;
and it attempts no solution. It contents itself with
proving the august fact simply by God's testimony.
Now, they well knew that there were attempted rationales
current throughout the patristic, medieval and Reforma-
tion ages, upon which many theologians had labored,
and with which the grandest human intellects, as that of
Aquinas, had supposed themselves satisfied. Taking
the contents of the human consciousness as their pat-
tern, they theorized that the infinite intelligence must
have eternally and necessarily evolved the word from
itself in the very exercise of its function of thought; and
the Spirit, or practical subsistence, from the continuous
exercise of its functions of appetency and will. They
said that the unitary Godhead is actus purus: its essen-
tial functions, of thought, emotion, and free choice are
identical with and constitute its substance. Hence, its
subsistence in the trinitarian mode, said they, is obvious,
natural and necessary. The Father is the eternal power
of thought and choice. The Son or Word is but the
eternal, continuous stream of thought-activity which the
central power forever and necessarily emits, and the Spirit
is the active emotion and free choice which the infinite
thought cannot but evoke, as it is objectified in the
divine consciousness. Now, does this metaphysic give
us objects which satisfy the meaning of Scripture, where
it testifies to us that the three subsistencies, while each
divine, are distinct and personal? Or does it give us
mere abstractions in the place of persons? Does this
theory, or does it not, destroy the fundamental distinction
of the reason between substance and its powers? Is it
DOCTRINAL Contents of the ConfesSION.
97
not virtually that Heraclitic idealism revived in our age
by Hegel? Does not the theory involve the monstrous
assumption that to think is to create, so that God gives
to the second and third persons, as well as to his created
works, no other substantive entity than that which a
human mind gives to its ideas by thinking them? And
does not all this set us on the high road to pantheism?
The Assembly knew that popes and archbishops had
sanctioned this attempted rationale of the Trinity (as they
continue to do to our age). But the Assembly says not
one word about it; it passes it all by in dead silence,
neither approving it nor deigning to refute it. Why?
Because it is wholly extra-scriptural. Were it of true
value, the Assembly would have done the same, because
its mission did not lead it a single step beyond God's
word.
The issue between the supra and sublapsarian theories
of the decree had been fully joined and debated before
the days of the Assembly. Its prolocutor, Dr. Twisse,
was a known supralapsarian. He and his party claimed
that their theory was the only one which secured for the
decree logical symmetry. Their opponents charged that
it came too near making God the author of sin. Again
the Assembly refuses to recognize the debate. It will
not commit itself to this ultraism of the hyper-Calvinists.
It asserts, indeed, that the decree is sovereign, and God's
election of his redeemed unconditioned; but further it
will not go.
Without naming or sanctioning the sub-
lapsarians it adopts the mildness of their theory, while it
refuses to raise or to approve the proposition that the
several parts of God's infinite and eternal thought have
or can have any real order of sequence in his own con-
sciousness; for this is a proposition extra-scriptural, yet
asserted in one form or the other with equal rashness by
7
98
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
both parties. Therefore the Assembly will have nothing
to do with it, but stops precisely where the word stops.
No divines have taught the doctrine of a sovereign,
universal, and particular providence more firmly than
they did. But again they refuse to press its rationalé a
single step beyond the Scriptures. They well knew that
in human theologies there were burning questions just
here. Does creative omnipotence confer any intrinsic
being upon dependent existence, or is their apparent
continuous subsistence merely God's perpetual recreative
act? Do dependent beings possess any inherent power,
or make any active emission thereof? Can even a cre-
ated spirit emit any specific action except as enabled and
determined thereto by a particular præcursus of the divine
power? Is not this extreme doctrine necessary to sus-
tain the certainty and sovereignty of God's providence?
Or does it not virtually make God the author of sin and
supersede the creature's responsibility, and thus set us
upon the awful verge of pantheism? Or, if we refuse it,
how shall we define the method of God's control over
second causes? Again our Assembly takes the moderate
ground. The Scriptures, while asserting God's power
and providence, do not define its method, neither will
the Assembly. These divines knew perfectly well that
the Aquinist school of popish theologians always as-
serted this extreme doctrine of the divine præcursus with
its attendant positions. They knew that a powerful wing
of the Reformed (still supported by the great Turrettin
a generation later) asserted these positions as essential
to the doctrine of providence. But again the Assembly
will have nothing to do with them; it will teach that
blessed doctrine just so far as Scripture teaches it, and
there it stops.
All Augustinians, Romanists and Protestants taught
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF the ConfeSSION.
99
that the race fell in Adam, and that this fall constitutes
a permanent and decisive moral revolution, leaving man
"dead in trespasses and sins.” But what is this revolu-
tion? Is it a change of attributum or accidens in man?
Is his inability for the spiritual service of God physical
or moral? Some Lutheran Augustinians, in their zeal,
taught that the fall had extinguished a part of man's
essentia. The semi-Pelagians replied that if this were
true, then it would be unrighteous in God to hold fallen
man longer to his moral responsibility. The Pelagians
continued to assert their old maxim, “If I ought I can,"
as a necessary intuition. Many of the Reformed felt it
necessary (as Jonathan Edwards, a century later) to re-
sort to the distinction between natural and moral ability,
notwithstanding its perilous ambiguities. Behold here
again the wise moderation of our Confession! It will
not employ or countenance the extra-scriptural distinc-
tion. It carefully avoids the ultraism of teaching that
the fall destroyed anything in man's essentia. It firmly
asserts our intuitive consciousness that we are always
free agents while we are responsible, while rejecting
the Scotist dream of the contingency of the will. It
avoids, on the other hand, the Stoical extravagance of
condemning all the social virtues of the unregenerate as
merely spurious, because short of godliness. But it
teaches just the Bible concept of the sinner's state of
spiritual deadness with admirable moderation and accu-
racy, saying, "By this fall men have wholly lost all ability
of will unto any spiritual good accompanying salvation."
Sinners are dependent on sovereign grace for the new life
of godliness. Still they are free agents, else they would
not be accountable. The fall has not extinguished
faculty, else responsibility would be extinguished to the
same extent. The unrenewed have social virtues, but
DorM
I 00
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
they have no ability of will to begin of themselves those
actions of spiritual godliness which constitute the new
life. There is the sad but authentic fact, as proved by
experience and Scripture, stated with the utmost moder-
ation, charity and precision at once.
Again, is the imputation of the guilt of Adam's first
sin to his seed immediate and precedaneous? Or is it
mediate and consequent in the logical order upon men's
subjective depravity inherited by race-connection? This
thorny debate was troubling the French, Holland and
Swiss Reformed at the very time our Assembly was sit-
ting. Joshua De La Place was asserting mediate impu-
tation, and Garrissoles was denouncing him as a betrayer
of the whole doctrine. The "Reformed National Synod
of France was admonishing De La Place, and he was
explaining and disclaiming. Again our wise divines re-
fused to follow this debate beyond the limits of express
Scripture. They assert, as Scripture compels us to do,
that the guilt of Adam's first sin is imputed and his cor-
ruption conveyed to all the race except the divine Son of
Mary; for this sad and stubborn fact is taught by
Moses and the prophets, by Christ and Paul. But fur-
ther the Confession will not go. The race sinned in
Adam, and fell with him. But the Assembly will give
no metaphysics, nominalistic or realistic, to explain the
awful fact, because Scripture gives none.
})
Again, the Confession asserts with most positive pre-
cision the penal substitution of Christ, the imputation of
our guilt to him, his punitive sufferings and sacrifice
therefor, and the imputation of this satisfaction to all be-
lievers for their justification. It holds fast to the truth
of particular redemption. Yet it carefully avoids imply-
ing any limitation upon the infinite value and merit of
Christ's sacrifice. It carefully avoids confusing the two
Kapa
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF the ConfeSSION.
IOI
concepts of legal satisfaction for guilt with the conse-
quent at-one-ment, or reconciliation, of the believing
sinner. And it gives no countenance to the quid-pro-quo
theory of expiation, which affects, with a mischievous.
over-refinement, to affix a commercial ratio between the
sins of the elect and the one indivisible and infinite merit
of the divine sacrifice. It asserts, with the strictest
Reformed, that saving faith is a divine grace, and estab-
lishes in the renewed soul a full assurance of gospel
truth. But the Confession refuses to say, along with
Luther and Calvin, that a divine and perfect assurance
of one's state of grace and salvation is of the essence of
saving faith.
Last, we note the caution of the Assembly concerning
the millennium. They were well aware of the move-
ment of the early Millennarians, and of the persistence of
their romantic and exciting speculations among several
sects. Our divines find in the Scriptures the clearest
assertions of Christ's second advent, and so they teach
it most positively. They find Paul describing with equal
clearness one resurrection of the saved and lost just be-
fore this glorious second advent and general judgment.
So they refuse to sanction a pre-millennial advent. But
what is the nature, and what the duration, of that mil-
lennial glory predicted in the Apocalypse? Here the
Assembly will not dogmatize, because these unfulfilled
prophecies are obscure to our feeble minds. It is too
modest to dictate a belief amidst so many different opinions.
Such are some of the instances of the prudent modera-
tion of our Standards. Because of this trait our Confes-
sion is worthy to be the creed of all gospel churches.
And this quality shows us that it is a work which cannot
be revised and amended without a breach in its organic
integrity. Many are professing to say: Let us have a
I02
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.'
creed which shall teach the Reformed system in its sub-
stance, but let us retrench its ultraisms and excrescences.
The history of doctrine shows us that the Confession has
no excrescences. The Westminster Assembly has al-
ready pruned them off. The real effect of change will
be an amputation of some essential member, endangering
the life of the whole structure, not a cleansing away of
useless accretions. Let us, then, be wise and hold fast
this priceless possession of which a gracious Providence
has made us heirs. Our supreme wisdom will be "to
let well enough alone," and humbly teach our scriptural
creed, instead of attempting vainly to tinker it.
The second branch of the subject leads to the consider-
ation of the necessity and value of creeds. The word
"creed" comes to us from the Latin credo. According
to an old custom, the fathers and Canonists named a re-
ligious document from the first word of its text. Thus
the papal-bull "Unigenitus" is so named because that
adjective is the first word of its first sentence: "Unigen-
itus filius dei," etc. In the Apostles' Creed, for instance,
credo is the first word (I believe in God the Father
Almighty, etc.), whence the whole document came to
be called the "Credo." We thus learn very simply
what a creed means: it is a summary statement of what
some religious teacher or teachers believe concerning the
Christian system, stated in their own uninspired words.
But they claim that these words fairly and briefly ex-
press the true sense of the inspired words. The church
records several creeds of individual Christian teachers;
but the creeds of the modern Protestant world are docu-
ments carefully constructed by some church courts of su-
preme authority in their several denominations, or by
some learned committee appointed by them, and then
formally adopted by them as their doctrinal standard.
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
103
The proper conditions for a just creed should be
understood. In order to the reasonable defence of creeds,
the conditions for which Presbyterians make themselves
responsible should be clearly stated and considered.
The Southern Presbyterian Church wholly disclaims
everything except the holy Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments as either an infallible or authorita-
tive rule of faith and practice. It claims, therefore, for
its Standards no rightful influence whatever over the
consciences of either clergy or laity except so far as their
propositions are sustained by holy writ. We hold, as
did the Synod of Dort, that in constructing our Stand-
ards we are bound to build exclusively upon the sacred
Scriptures, teaching nothing except what is expressly
set down therein or what follows therefrom by good and
necessary consequence, and asserting nothing upon the
authority of any human philosophy, ethics, or of any
uninspired theologians. Again, we utterly reject the
right of any human authority, whether secular or eccle-
siastical, whether orthodox or heterodox, to enforce by
civil pains or penalties a profession of belief by any one,
lay or clerical, in any creed whatever, whether true or
false, or even in the word of God itself. We declare
that God alone is the Lord of the conscience. While we
hold that all rational beings are morally responsible for
erroneous religious and moral opinions, we teach that
this responsibility binds to God alone, and not to any
earthly authority or ruler, spiritual or political. While
we disapprove and lament the holding of false and in-
jurious opinions by our fellowmen, we declare that the
only means proper to us whereby to amend them are
charity, teaching, faithful admonition and holy example.
God alone is the proper avenger of unbelief. Therefore,
we have nothing to do with any persecutions or oppres-
P
104
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
3
sions, or any invasions of men's just liberty of thought,
of which some human creeds in the past have been made
the pretext. We declare that our responsibility for all
such abuses and injustice is utterly dissolved by our
reasonable and scriptural position concerning the proper
use of human creeds; inasmuch as our doctrine thereon, if
faithfully followed, absolutely forbids and renders im-
possible all persecution for opinion's sake. We also
hold that, inasmuch as Holy Scripture commands us "to
receive them that are weak, but not to doubtful disputa-
tions," we are not to require of penitent believers asking
admission to Christ's church any of the heads of our
creed, except such as are fundamental to Christian re-
demption and holy living; but, upon their sincere adop-
tion of the latter, the laity are to be admitted to all the
privileges of the visible church. It is only of the pas-
tors and the doctors of the church, and of such other
officers as exercise spiritual rule therein, that we right-
fully require the adoption of our whole creed, as con-
taining the system of doctrine set forth in the Holy
Scriptures. And such requirement of these is reasonable.
and lawful and absolutely necessary to the faithful testi-
mony of any church unto that system of truth for which
her Lord has made her a witness. But, once more, we
expressly repudiate the claim of right or authority to
dismiss, exclude or expel any person, lay or clerical,
from the catholic or universal church of Christ on the
mere ground of his dissent from or rejection of parts of
our creed. All we claim is the right to separate him
therefor from among the teachers of our branch or de-
nomination of the catholic church, leaving him free to
join any other denomination whose creed he can heartily
adopt. Should any dissentient from our doctrine refuse
to us this method of self-protection, he would be invad
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
105
ing our spiritual liberty and not defending his own.
For when we have freely associated ourselves unto what
we conscientiously believe to be a faithful witness-bear-
ing to the testimony of Jesus, he who should claim to
impugn our doctrinal testimony by our own authority
would be only perpetrating a gross outrage upon our
equal rights and liberty of conscience, and we accord-
ingly declare that we do not limit the being and rights.
of "the holy catholic church" to that company of be-
lievers holding with us our Standards and scripturally
denominated by the term Presbyterian. But we recog-
nize as other denominations in the sacramental host all
who teach the fundamental doctrines and uphold the
morals of Christ's gospel. We believe that the visible
unity whereby God is to be glorified is to be found in
the faithful recognition of each other's sacraments, orders.
and church discipline (limited to admonition and spiritual
penalties), by each denomination in the church catholic;
and not in a fusion and amalgamation of all into one
visible ecclesiastical body; a result only made feasible
by one or the other criminal alternative, popery or broad
churchism.
Objections to creeds remain to be discussed. After
the above statement of the use we claim for them, and
our repudiation of all right of persecution for opinion's
sake, there remain but two objections which have even a
seeming show of force. One is, that Christ in Holy
Scripture has not commanded or authorized any visible
church or church court to set up any Standards, or bonds
of communion, of human and uninspired authority. We
are challenged to show the place containing such a com-
mand from God. We are reminded of our own declara-
tion that "the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants,"
and of our own strict protests against all such as "teach
106
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
for dogmas the commandments of men." The other ob-
jection is, that the addition of a creed of human compo-
sition implies the arrogant assumption that the language
of the church doctors or church courts who formulate
such creeds is better, more just, and more perspicuous
than the words of the Holy Spirit. But this claim is un-
true, vain-glorious, and near to impiety.
The Presbyterian Church retracts no word of her tes-
timony against will-worship and the intrusion of human
authority into Christ's church. But she unavoidably
holds that "there are some circumstances concerning the
worship of God and government of the church, common
to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered
by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according
to the general rules of the word, which are always to be
observed." (Conf., Ch. I., Sec. 6.) No visible church
could exist without acting upon this qualification, and
adopting, under the guidance of revealed principles,
those practical rules of detail imperatively taught her by
experience and historical facts. The reply to the first
objection is, that such use of human creeds as is defined
above comes, like all other human expositions of Scrip-
ture, under this class. The same principles which jus-
tify these also justify creeds.
All Protestants believe that Holy Scripture should be
translated into the vernacular tongues of the nations.
Only the Greek and Hebrew are immediately inspired;
the translators must be uninspired. Therefore these
versions are uninspired human expositions of the divine
originals. Wycliffe's version, Luther's, Tyndal's, are but
their human beliefs of what the Hebrew and Greek
words are meant by the Holy Spirit to signify. These
translators might have said with perfect truth, each one,
"These renderings into English or German are my
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
107
credo." The church which uses such a translation for
the instruction of her people and the settlement of even
her most cardinal doctrines is using a creed of human
composition; and those who exclaim, "The Holy Scrip-
tures themselves are our only and our sufficient creed,"
put themselves in a ridiculous attitude whenever they
use a vernacular translation of the Scriptures, for that
which they profess to hold as their creed is still but an
uninspired human exposition.
Beyond question, God has ordained, as a means of
grace and indoctrination, the oral explanation and en-
forcement of divine truths by all preachers. Thus Ezra
(Nehemiah viii. 8) causes the priests to "read in the
book the law of God distinctly, and give the sense, and
cause them to understand the reading." Paul com-
manded Timothy (2 Tim. iv. 2) to "reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." He, as an
apostle of Christ, not only permits, but commands, each
uninspired pastor and doctor to give to his charge his
human and uninspired expositions of what he believes
to be divine truth, that is to say, his creed. If such hu-
man creeds, when composed by a single teacher and de-
livered orally, extempore, are proper means of instruction
for the church, by the stronger reason must those be
proper and scriptural which are the careful, mature, and
joint productions of learned and godly pastors, delivered
with all the accuracy of written documents. He who
would consistently banish creeds must silence all preach-
ing and reduce the teaching of the church to the recital
of the exact words of Holy Scripture without note or
comment.
Another revealed precept is equally plain: that God
appointed his church to be a witnessing body, "the pil-
lar and ground of the truth." This must mean that the
108
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
church is to testify constantly to the whole body of re-
vealed precepts and doctrines, and not to parts or frag-
ments only. The direction of this witness-bearing is
expressly committed to the presbyters of the church.
They are commanded (2 Tim. i. 13) "to hold fast the
form of sound words, which they heard" from the apos-
tles, and (Jude 3) "earnestly to contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints." Again, the
presbyters are expressly commanded to provide a suc-
cession of teachers of those divine doctrines, and, in
doing so, to provide for the fidelity of their successors to
this code of truths. 2 Tim. ii. 2: And the things that
thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same
commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able (ikanoi,
qualified) to teach others." Indisputably this precept
involves the use of some adequate standard of the re-
vealed system of truth for the testing of the sufficient
intelligence and orthodoxy of belief in the new men to
be entrusted with this divine charge. It is equally clear
that when the presbyters admit these to take part in
their ministry, the new men virtually covenant to be
faithful to that system of truths to which their ordainers
are also solemnly bound. The function to which these
admit them is the witnessing function. But witnessing
to what? Should the new men claim, and the older
presbyters bestow, the prerogative of rejecting and dis-
puting the very system of truths to which they are sol-
emuly covenanted, we know not which would be greater,
the faithlessness of the ordainers to their trust or the
impudent dishonesty of the candidates in seeking the
trust that they may betray it. Now, what shall this
standard of fitness be? Some reply, it should be the
word of God alone. Our previous discussion has shown,
in the first place, that if this is to be the standard it
(C
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION. 109
must be the original Greek and Hebrew Scriptures alone,
for every translation is but the uninspired translator's
credo. Thus this claim, made by parties who require of
their preachers no knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew
tongues, appears little short of ridiculous.
In the second place, experience has taught that, since
the death of the inspired men, the Scriptures alone are
no longer a sufficient test of fidelity to divine truth, and
here we rebut the second objection which has been so in-
solently obtruded. We do not rest our assertion upon
the arrogant assumption of an accuracy and perspicuity
of language and style superior to those of the inspired
men; we base it upon a set of stubborn historical facts
which have emerged, since the inspired men went to
heaven, out of the infirmity, spiritual darkness, vain-glory
and indwelling sin of unsanctified or partially sanctified
men in the visible church. The necessity of a further test
in form of a subsequent creed results not from any lack of
proper selection or infallible accuracy in the words of
the languages of inspiration, but from the human nature
and infirmity of mankind in their use of language.
Nothing should be more familiar to scholars than the
fact so well described by Horace, that they are like the
foliage of an evergreen tree. It never, like a deciduous
tree, changes all its leaves at one season; but there is a
perpetual slow change in the individual leaves, of which a
few continually change color, and a few drop off. Such
being the nature of human language, it may follow that
the word which, at the time the inspired men wrote, was
the best and most exact possible symbol of his intended
thought will have ceased to be such, after the lapse of
generations. Then the subsequent definition becomes
proper and necessary, not because of any defect in the
inspired words, but because of the fickle infirmity of
IIO
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
CC
men. Thus, when the Authorized Version was issued,
"to let" meant "to hinder"; in popular English it now
means "to allow" or "permit," almost the opposite idea.
"To prevent" signified "to precede"; it now means
"to hinder" or obstruct." But why multiply instances?
A more imperative need of subsequent definition has
arisen out of the infirmity of human intellect, and the
blindness of the human heart which prompted professed
believers in Scripture to frame new and discordant con-
cepts of the leading terms of holy writ. Here we are face
to face with a large group of stubborn facts, which it is
simply childish to attempt to disregard. Let us suppose
a court of scriptural presbyters, invested with the duty
and responsibility of selecting and ordaining successors.
Let us suppose this court professing to employ no other
test or standard of fidelity to God's truth than the Scrip-
ture itself. Let us suppose a cluster of candidates before
them, of whom each and all declare that they believe the
Holy Scriptures, and hold all their ipsissima verba as
their sincere creed. The court points to these express
words of Christ in John's Gospel: "I and my Father are
one." The court declares for itself that it can honestly
see in these words this meaning only-the consubstantial
unity and equal divinity of the two persons. But one of
the candidates is a Sabellian, and he exclaims, "No, it
means that Father and Son are neither of them consub-
stantial with deity, but two parallel emanations from a
central incognoscible divine unit." Another is an Arian;
he declares, "No; the Son is but a creature, the earliest
and most exalted of creatures, and divine Son of God,
only by an act of adoption." The third is a Socinian,
and he cries, "No; Christ is only a human being, favored
by God, more than any other prophet, with a species of
adoption, because of his sanctity and loyalty." Now,
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
III
we need not claim that a court of presbyters is the only
party which construes the inspired words aright, or that
it alone is honest. The court and the Sabellian, the Arian
and the Socinian, each declares the same sincere belief
in the Holy Scripture. Allow them all to be equally
honest, yet this obstinate fact remains, that they all con-
tradict each other. Must they yet be all ordained as
authorized witnesses to one vital truth, and that by this.
court, which honestly believes each of the others in fatal
error? Where, then, could be the church's testimony
for truth?
Again, the court of presbyters points to the term
metanoia, and asks each candidate what it means. They
all declare the Holy Scripture, including this term, is
their honest creed. But one is a Pelagian, and he says
metanoia means simply an outward reform of manners
and morals, wrought by the human will. Another is a
papist, and he translates metanoia "doing penance."
Another is an evangelical believer, who asserts that
metanoia is conversion, a fundamental revolution of the
soul as to God, sin, and duty. Yet all say their creed is
the Bible! Again, we say, why multiply instances?
There is not a cardinal doctrine, nor sacrament of the
gospel, concerning which parties claiming to be Chris-
tians do not advance explanations discordant with, and
destructive of, each other. What is it, then, except a
puerile fraud, for men to cry, "The Scripture is the only
creed needed"? If a church is to have any honest testi-
mony, something else is needed as a test of harmony in
beliefs, a candid explanation in other terms, which,
though human, have not been misconstrued.
This view has, in fact, a force so resistless that it is
unavoidably obeyed by all the parties which profess to
discard it. There is not, and there never has been, a
I 12
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
body possessing any organic consistency, as a church or
denomination of Christians, which has not had a virtual
creed, if unwritten, additional to the mere words of
Scripture. And every one of them practically applies its
creed for the preservation of its testimony by the exclu-
sion of dissentients. The only real difference between
these professedly creedless bodies and the Presbyterian
Church is, that their unwritten creeds are less manly, less
honest and distinct, and, therefore, more fruitful of dis-
cord among themselves, than our candid, published and
permanent declaration. And here is one of the legiti-
mate uses of our creed: when we invite men to share
with us our responsibility as witnesses to God's truth,
they have a right to ask us what the tenor of that wit-
nessing is to be. It is but dishonest child's play to say,
Holy Scripture is the creed to which we witness," when
the inquirer knows that every party of heretics and ene-
mies of God's truth is ready to give the same answer.
We give a clear and honest reply. We say to the in-
quirer, Here is our printed creed, which expresses the
propositions we believe the Scriptures to teach in care-
fully chosen words, whose meaning is as unambiguous
and as recognized at this time with those who dispute
our views as with ourselves. "If these words express
your views of the Holy Scripture, you can come and wit-
ness with us, happily, honestly, and usefully. If they
do not, we neither persecute nor unchurch you, but
leave you, under your responsibility to your own God,
to select the affiliation which suits you." Such a creed,
instead of being a cause of schism, is an Irenicum, à
source of mutual respect, brotherly love and substantial
agreement, amidst minor differences, between the several
branches of the church catholic.
Our Confession of Faith is among the fullest and
((
DOCTRINAL CONTENTS OF THE CONFESSION.
113
In many
most detailed creeds of the Protestant world.
places there is a current tendency towards shorter or
very brief creeds. It has been already avowed by us
that the creed required of penitent believers seeking our
fold should be short, the shortest possible, provided it
includes the necessary fundamentals of redemption.
But the doctrinal covenant required of teachers and
rulers in Christ's church ought to be full and detailed.
No man who is still a “babe in the faith, "and such
as have need of milk, and not of strong meat," should
dare to assume these sacred offices. Our Lord requires
of those who fill them a full and thorough knowledge of
all the heads of doctrine which make up the system of
gospel truth, for two commanding reasons. One is this,
he knows that those truths constitute a system. In
order that they may stand they must stand together. Each
head must support and be reciprocally supported by the
other heads, else none of them stand securely; because
there is such logical interconnection between all the
parts that the rejection of one head introduces logical
doubt and difficulty concerning the other heads. If any
stone in the arch be loosened, every other stone and the
whole structure will become insecurce.
> >
The members of this venerable body are too familiar
with Christian theology to need any illustration of this
result. Now, a babe in Christ may be supposed to hold
sincerely a few fundamental truths of redemption, though
he doubt or reject other connected heads of doctrine
because he is a babe. He does but little connected
thinking upon the system. He sees a few things clearly,
but the rest dimly. Hence, we may credit him with
being both sincere and illogical. But such a one is
unfit to direct others in spiritual things. The Christian
who is qualified for this is one who has thought widely,
8
114
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
!
clearly, and consistently. Such a man, if honest, cannot
uphold the arch of truth after dropping out any one of
its essential stones; he must uphold each and all, or he
is not fully trustworthy for upholding the sacred arch.
The other reason is that "all Scripture is given by in-
spiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine." There-
fore, the faithful and competent teacher must employ all
the parts of revelation. It is only by declaring to his
charge the whole counsel of God that he can stand
clear of their blood in the great day of accounts.
Ad

REV. GIVENS B. STRICKLER, D. D., LL. D.
V.
THE NATURE, VALUE, AND SPECIAL UTILITY
OF THE CATECHISMS.
BY
•
REV. GIVENS B. STRICKLER, D. D., LL. D.,
PROFESSOR IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
AT HAMPDEN-SIDNEY, VIRGINIA.
J[5
ANALYSIS.
Catechetical teaching.-By question and answer.-Its his-
tory.-Scripture instances.-The law. The Passover.-Ezra.-
The Talmud-Jewish catechetical schools.-Josephus.-Jewish
schools in later times.-Apostolic age.-Teaching and preach-
ing. The early Fathers.-Christian catechetical schools.-Dr.
Schaff quoted.-Early mission work. Not used in Dark Ages.—
Reformers revived it.—Gave it large place.-Its value felt.-Sum-
mary.-Best method of instruction.-Especially religious teach-
ing.-Reasons.-Brings truth clearly before the mind.-Calls
attention to it.- Tests knowledge.- Exposes ignorance. -Pre-
sents all aspects of truth.-Secures accuracy and completeness.-
Aids practical application.-Gains spiritual ends.-Summary.-
Yet public preaching of utmost value.-Primal value.-Church
leaders also use catechetical method.-Luther.-Calvin.-Zwin-
gli.- Beza.- Knox.- Cranmer.- Ridley. Usher. The testi-
mony of enemies confirms.-Romish catechism checked Reform-
ation. Catechetical instruction defended the Waldenses against
Rome. The Westminster Catechisms are of the highest value.-
They are fitted to be so.-Their authors were competent men.—-
Had full knowledge.-Had other catechisms to aid.-Made with
great care and patience.-Several committees acted.-The Larger
and Shorter Catechisms.-No other catechisms made with equal
care. Compared with Heidelberg and Romish.-Contain all the
essential truths of the gospel.-God.-Sin.-Christ.-Salvation.-
Duty.-Death.-Destiny.-Truths stated with great accuracy.
Stated in positive form.-Yet it wards off error.-Doctrine of
justification, to illustrate.-Summary.-Objections considered.-
Young people cannot understand the teaching.-But may under-
stand much.-Honest effort will master it.-Hard to remember.-
Not more so than many secular things learned.-Reasons for
using our own catechisms.-If not learned in childhood, likely
never learned.-Youth the best time for lasting impressions to be
made.-Rain-marks upon stone slab, to illustrate.-Denomina-
tional prosperity requires it.-Young people thereby protected
against attacks, and able to hold their ground.-Inspiration of
Bible. Decrees.-Predestination.- Election.- Depravity.-- Re-
generation.-Perseverance.- Save our people from dangers.--
The truths thus taught build good and great characters.-This
the crown of all.-A closing exhortation.
116
Ma
S
―
V.
THE NATURE, VALUE, AND SPECIAL UTILITY
OF THE CATECHISMS.
T
EACHING, by the catechetical method, has marked
the history of the church almost from the begin-
ning down to the present time. A divine warrant for
it, if not requirement of it, may be found in such pas-
sages of God's word as Deut. vi. 6, 7: "And these
words which I command thee this day shall be in thine
heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." And
Exodus xii. 26, 27: "And it shall come to pass that
when your children shall say to you, What mean ye by
this service?" (the service of the passover) "that ye
shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who
passed over the houses of the children of Israel in
Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our
houses." In these instances, in order to give children
the full and accurate instruction they needed about the
commandments of the Lord referred to, and about the
important sacrament instituted in the church in the
passover, it was necessary that a number of questions
should be asked and answered; and then, that the truth.
about these and other subjects, once learned, might not
be forgotten, but kept ever fresh in the memory, and in
constant and influential contact with the mind and heart,
it was necessary that it should frequently be reviewed;
117
118
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
that there should be "precept upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a
little and there a little.' Thus, we may say, the cate-
chetical method of instruction was instituted at the very
beginning of the Mosaic dispensation.
"}
Not only, however, was it then instituted, but there
is evidence that it was afterwards more or less faithfully
made use of during at least portions of that long period
of time; and that it was most efficient in preserving
amongst the Israelites a knowledge of the revelations
that, at different times, God made to them.
At any
rate, just before, and at the dawn of the new dispensa-
tion, this mode of teaching was in general use amongst
the Jews. Students of the Talmud and of the Targums
find that there were then catechetical Bible schools in
all the synagogues; and that they were very numerous;
sixteen, for instance, in such a city as Tiberias, and
more than four hundred in Jerusalem. Some say four
hundred and sixty; others four hundred and eighty.
They find also that the Jewish teachers attached to
these schools so much importance that they were tempted
to ascribe their origin to the remotest antiquity; to claim
that they were in existence before the flood, and that
many of the illustrious men mentioned in the Scrip-
tures-Enoch, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
Samuel, Elisha, and a number of others-belonged to
them, first as pupils, afterwards as teachers; that these
schools constituted a special privilege and a peculiar
honor that God had bestowed on his true people in all
ages. Of course such claims, to the full extent that
they were thus made, have little historical value. Yet
they seem to furnish strong evidence that such schools
had been in existence in their past history for a long
period of time. Josephus claimed that they had been
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
I 19
in existence from the days of Moses, and that in them
many of the people had not only been taught the com-
mandments of the Lord, but had learned them so well
that they could recite them as accurately as they could
give their own names. It seems to be evident, then,
that such schools were in existence at our Saviour's
advent. Indeed, if the testimony of the rabbis may
be relied on, they were not only in existence, but were
regarded as an integral part of the religious system
of the country, and as essential to its welfare. A
number of proverbs were then in existence expressing
this view. . It was said that the world continues in
existence only by the breath of the children of the
schools-the Bible schools; that the true guardians of
the country were the teachers of those schools; that if
any one would destroy the Jews, he must first destroy
their schools; and it was one of their religious laws that
no one should live in a place where one of those schools
had not been established. There seems thus to be clear
evidence that the catechetical method of teaching had
marked the history of the church from the beginning of
the Mosaic dispensation down to the inauguration of
the new.
But there is evidence equally clear that it then passed
over into the new. The Jews, as we have seen, were
accustomed to this mode of instruction. Those who be-
came Christians had been accustomed to it. No doubt
the apostles themselves had learned much that they knew
about the Old Testament Scriptures in such schools; and,
therefore, when they became disciples, and were com-
manded by the Saviour to go forth and make known the
great truths of the gospel which they had learned from
him, we may be sure that they made use of the cate-
chetical method, with which they were already so fa-
I 20
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
miliar, as well as of the public and formal discourse.
Traces of this fact seem to be found in the accounts
given in the New Testament of their modes of instruction,
especially in the distinction sometimes made between
teaching and preaching. It is said that our Saviour
went about teaching" in their synagogues, and
"preaching" the gospel of the kingdom; that the
apostles ceased not to "teach" and to "preach" Jesus
as the Christ; that on one occasion Paul and Barnabas
tarried at Antioch "teaching" and "preaching" the
word of the Lord. Thus a distinction is sometimes
made between teaching and preaching; and, no doubt,
in such instances, by teaching is meant the catechetical
method, the method by question and answer; while by
preaching is meant the public formal continuous dis-
course, to which the same term is still applied. There
seems to be no reason to doubt, then, that the catecheti-
cal method of teaching was in use under the old dispen-
sation, and that it passed over from the old into the
new.
CC
That it was employed under the new by the early
fathers, after it was introduced by the apostles, is a fact
of church history so familiar that little need be said
about it. Baron Bunsen says that "the apostolic church
made the school," the Christian school, "the connect-
ing link between itself and the world." Celsus, one of
the earliest and most powerful opponents of the church,
charged that Christians propagated religion through
their schools, and Origen admitted the truth of the
charge; but defended the policy of the church in em-
ploying that method of propagation, by pointing out the
great moral and spiritual benefits the children received.
in the schools. Dr. Schaff calls attention to the fact that
although the early church had no societies for dissemi-
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
I2 I
nating the gospel, no Home and Foreign Missionary
societies, such as we now have, nevertheless in about
three centuries the whole population of the Roman em-
pire was nominally Christianized; and that this great
achievement was wrought by the divinely approved plan
of “the child-reaching and child-teaching methods" of
which the church then made use. It is a familiar fact
that there was early established in the church a kind of
institution called the catechumenate, or classes of cate-
chumens; that when any of the surrounding pagans
wished to come into the church, they were first placed in
those classes, and, as a rule, kept there for two or three
years; that often the best talent of the church was em-
ployed to give them instruction before they were ad-
mitted to the enjoyment of the sacraments of the church,
and that this was one of the grand instrumentalities by
which the church was spread abroad over the world, and
by which her conquests were preserved, and converted
into the means of future and still greater victories.
When the Dark Ages came on, of course this method of
instruction, as well as every other, fell into disuse.
Those ages became dark for that very reason; for the
darkness was the darkness of religious ignorance. When,
however, the Reformation dawned, this mode of teaching
was at once revived, and most actively employed in dis-
seminating the gospel. Luther wrote two catechisms;
Calvin wrote two; a large number were prepared by
others; and they continued to multiply down to the
meeting of the Westminster Assembly; and in that As-
sembly there were twelve men, perhaps fourteen, who
had written catechisms and efficiently employed them in
the religious training of their people.
Thus, under the old dispensation and under the new,
down to the Westminster Assembly, and, indeed, ever
1
122
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
since, the catechetical method of instruction has been
employed by the church in doing her great work; and I
have furnished the foregoing evidence of the fact that
we might see that this mode of teaching has resting upon
it the unqualified endorsement of the church in all ages,
especially in her best ages; and that it has been one of the
most efficient of all the agencies which God has made use of
to secure those blessed results by which the past history of the
church has been marked.
Of course, for such a fact as this there must be a good
reason, and that reason it is not difficult to discover: the
catechetical mode of teaching has the endorsement of the
church in all ages, and has been employed by her great
Head as one of the most efficient of all means for ac-
complishing his work in the world, because it is the best
mode for giving thorough religious instruction. It is the
best for a number of reasons.
One is, that this mode, better than any other, brings
before the mind of the pupil the subject that is to be the
matter of consideration. It brings up that subject in the
form of a question. That question distinctly raises the
point to be considered. It invites special attention to it.
It secures special attention to it. It fixes special atten-
tion on it; and further questions may keep the attention.
fixed on it until it has been fully explained and fully
understood. The other usual method of instruction, the
formal continuous discourse, does not so certainly secure
these ends, so necessary to thorough work. It may, in-
deed, as distinctly raise the point to be considered; but
it does not so certainly secure attention to it.
find the mind of the pupil in a passive state, indifferent
It may
1 For fuller information on this subject, see the larger Ency-
clopedias, art. "Catechisms," Princeton Review, January, 1849;
especially Turnbull's Yale Lectures on the Sunday-School,
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
123
to the subject, or even in opposition to its consideration;
but, having no means of ascertaining that fact, may dismiss
it long before it has been understood, and so long before
the very object of the attempted instruction has been
gained. In this important respect, therefore, the cate-
chetical method is much the better for thorough instruc-
tion.
It is the better method, also, because it makes the
student more distinctly conscious of any ignorance of a
given subject by which he may be characterized. We
may very readily imagine that we are quite well ac-
quainted with a subject until we are closely questioned
in regard to it. Augustine once said, in regard to an
important point in theology, that he thought he knew all
about it until he was subjected to thorough interroga-
tion; but that he then discovered that he knew very
little about it. Questions that go down to the very roots
of a subject; that pursue it in all its different ramifica-
tions out to their remotest terminal points; that present
it in all its different aspects, and in all its important rela-
tions to other correlated subjects, and in all its practical
bearings on religious experience, and character and life,
such questions, persevered in as long as may be neces-
sary, are absolutely essential to ascertain whether a
subject is fully understood. And if there be any indis-
tinctness of view in reference to it, or any ignorance in
regard to it of any kind whatever, these questions will
make the student conscious of the fact, and will reveal
to him his need of futher information; and will, also,
enable the teacher to perceive just where further efforts
for his benefit should be made. The public continuous
discourse does not possess these advantages to anything
like the same degree. It must, indeed, be diligently
used, for it is at first the only means we have of arrest-
124
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
ing the attention of men; of exciting their interest in
the truth; and of bringing them under its influence and
within the reach of the church; and, therefore, accord-
ing to the divine command, we should employ it for
these purposes, with all constancy and earnestness. But
when those points have been gained, if we would ground
men in the knowledge of the truth; establish them in
the faith; bring them fully under the sanctifying influ-
ence of the great essential doctrines of revelation, and
thoroughly equip them for every good work, and for
efficiency in communicating those doctrines to others,
we must make use of the method now insisted on-the
catechetical method-the method by question and answer.
This fact is too plain to need further enforcement.
This suggests another reason why this is the best
method of teaching: it furnishes the best opportunity
for accurate instruction. Nothing but the truth is of
any value anywhere. Nothing but the truth is of any
value in science or in philosophy; and, especially, nothing.
but the truth is of any value in religion. Nothing but
the truth can enlighten the mind. Nothing but the
truth can awaken the conscience and purge it from dead
works to serve the living God. Nothing but the truth
can exert a sanctifying influence on the soul. Nothing
but the truth can be a lamp to the feet, and a light to the
path. Nothing but the truth can we expect the Spirit of
truth to employ to transform us into his image who is
the truth. What men need, then, is "the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth." Any admixture of
error with the truth is as injurious to the soul as the ad-
mixture of poison with wholesome food is to the body.
The catechetical method of teaching, it is evident, can
secure this end much more perfectly than any other.
J
By questions and answers alone can the teacher find out
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
125
If
in regard to any given subject what the pupil knows,
and what he does not know, and so by that method only
can he ascertain what instruction is needed to give a
scriptural view of it. The public discourse may give
accurate instruction, but it has no means of securing an
accurate reception of the instruction. The consequence
is that there are multitudes in our churches who have
been sitting under that kind of instruction for years--
ten, twenty, thirty, forty years-who yet could not accu-
rately define a single subject which, during that long.
period of time, they have so often heard discussed.
closely questioned, they could not tell what faith is, or
repentance, or sin, or, guilt, or justification, or sanctifica-
tion. Their views on these, and on all other important
subjects, are indistinct, incomplete, insufficient, perhaps,
for their own safety; certainly insufficient for their com-
fort and for their efficiency in communicating the truth
to others. Thus the public discourse may give accurate
instruction, but it has no means of securing an accu-
rate comprehension of it. The catechetical method has.
When the truth on any subject has been stated, by ques-
tions and answers the teacher may ascertain whether it
has been understood, and if it has not been, he may con-
tinue those questions and answers until it has been fully
mastered. It is clear, then, that this method furnishes
by far the best method for securing accurate instruction.
Still another reason why this is the best method is, that
it furnishes the best opportunity for an efficient practical
application of the truth to the spiritual wants of the
learner. By answers to questions, the teacher may find
out as accurately as is possible just what is the state of
the mind and heart of the pupil, and so find out just what
ministrations he needs. He may rightly divide the word
of truth. He may give to each one his portion in due
126
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
season. He may impress on the attention the warnings
of the Scriptures just when he sees they are needed; the
threatenings, or the promises, just when he sees they are
needed; all their great lessons, just when they are seen
to be requisite for the wants of the soul. Thus this
method furnishes an opportunity for the most effectual
personal application of the truth to each individual that
we can possibly enjoy.
Such are some of the reasons why this is the best
method of religious instruction. Better than any other
method, it secures attention to the subject to be consid-
ered, and, more distinctly than any other, makes the
learner conscious of his intellectual and spiritual wants;
and, besides, furnishes the best opportunity we can have
for giving accurate instruction, and for making a season-
able and successful application of the truth to the per-
sonal wants of those placed under our care. And it is in
such considerations as these that we find the explanation of
the great historical fact that this method of teaching has had
the unqualified endorsement of the church in all periods of
her history, and that God has made so much use of it in the
extension of the kingdom of his Son.
Of course, in these remarks, I am not to be under-
stood as in the slightest degree depreciating the public
preaching of the word. That is absolutely necessary,
in the first instance, to arrest the attention of men; to
arouse their interest; "to convince of sin, and of right-
eousness, and of judgment to come," and to bring men
within the reach of the church, and under the influence
of further agencies that may be employed for their
spiritual good; and for these purposes the gospel is to be
preached with all diligence, "in season and out of sea-
son," as the Saviour.commands. But when that has
been successfully accomplished, if we would establish
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
127
them in the knowledge of the truth, and properly train
them for future usefulness, in their turn to make the
gospel known to others, and efficiently to labor for the
establishment of the kingdom into which they have been
brought, we must employ the method now insisted on-
the catechetical method-that the church has always
found most useful for this purpose. This has always
been the theory of the great leaders of the church.
But the excellence of this method is not simply a
matter of theory. It has in a remarkable way been con-
firmed by the unmistakable experience of the church.
Here a multitude of facts might be mentioned; but there
is time for only two or three.
One is that the great leaders of the church have
always relied upon it as the best means for the indoctri-
nation of the people and for fitting them for usefulness.
Luther made great use of it for this purpose.
He lifted
up his voice and proclaimed to the world, then awaken-
ing out of a long sleep in ignorance and sin, with an
energy with which he hardly proclaimed any other
truth, "Children are the seed of the church, and for the
church's sake Christian schools" (catechetical schools)
'must be established and maintained." So decided was
he in his views on this subject that he declared that no
man was fit to become a minister, or ought to be allowed
to enter the sacred office, who had not already proved
himself to be a competent catechetical teacher. Calvin
held similar views, and Zwingli and Beza, in Switzer-
land; Knox, in Scotland; Cranmer and Ridley, in Eng-
land, and Usher, in Ireland. They all relied upon this
method of instruction for securing satisfactory and last-
ing results as upon no other.
Another fact is that the excellence of this method is
confirmed in a very instructive way by the testimony of
128
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
the enemies of evangelical truth. The Council of Trent
said "the heretics have chiefly made use of catechisms
to corrupt the minds of Christians," thus recognizing
and asserting the great success with which they had
been employed for instructing the people; and, therefore,
that council decreed that this agency should be met and
counteracted by a similar agency amongst their own
people; and a catechism was prepared under the imme-
diate supervision of the Pope himself, and all the teachers.
of the church were specifically charged to see to it that
it was learned by the people; and from that day down to
this that church has not failed to make use of it to
retain her children under her control. At the beginning
of the Reformation, that church, indeed, observing what
advantages were being gained by means of catechisms,
addressed itself to similar work with greater energy
than ever before, and it is the statement of one of their
principal historians that by that means it, in a single
generation, arrested the reform movement, and that it
has ever since by the same means substantially confined
that movement to the geographical limits which it had
then reached. In this remarkable manner does the
Church of Rome attest the efficiency of this method of
instruction.
Still another fact, bearing on this subject, is that all
the evangelical churches that have maintained their ex-
istence in spite of the persecutions to which, at different
periods in their history, they have been subjected, have
done it by indoctrinating their children in a knowledge.
of the truth by the catechetical process. In the thir-
teenth century, for instance, Rome sent an emissary to
the Waldenses to ascertain what might be done to win
them to its fold. When he returned he reported that by
means of catechetical schools the people had been so
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
129
thoroughly established in their views of truth that they
could not be prevailed on to listen to anything else.
Thus it is demonstrated, both by theory and exper-
ience, both by the testimony of the enemies and of the
friends of the gospel, that the best means of imparting
thorough and lasting religious instruction, and of training
the children and youth of the church for future useful-
ness in her service, is the method which I now advocate
—the interlocutory method of question and answer. If,
then, we wish to make use of the best method for accomplish-
ing these great ends amongst our people, this is the methoa
which we must employ.
And now, in the next place, I shall endeavor to show
that in our Catechisms we have already provided, in the
best possible form, the matter necessary for this great
work. Several facts will make this evident:
One is, that our Catechisms were most carefully pre-
pared by men fully competent for the task. It may very
truly be said that a body of men more competent for the
work could not have been brought together. It was not
to them a new work; a work of which they had no
knowledge; in which they had no experience. As
already stated, a number of them had already, before the
Assembly met, prepared catechisms of great excellence
for the instruction of their people. These furnished a
basis on which to begin their work; and then they had
to assist them all the great catechisms of the Reformers,
the catechisms of Luther, of Calvin, of Ursinus, and of
a number of others. And they did their work most
laboriously and carefully. Early in the sessions of the
Assembly they appointed a committee, composed of men
who were known to have had most experience in such
work and to possess most ability for it, to begin the un-
dertaking. Soon afterwards that committee reported;
130
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY,
but its report was not accepted. Another committee,
somewhat differently constituted, was appointed. After
much consideration, it reported the results of its labors;
but still the Assembly was not satisfied. Still another
committee was appointed, its composition again some-
what changed. After long deliberation, this committee.
presented a catechism so acceptable that it was approved
almost to the end, when again the Assembly became
dissatisfied with the result, and determined to make still
another effort to obtain something more perfect. A
fourth committee was constituted, its composition again
somewhat altered; and that committee was instructed to
prepare two catechisms-one larger, for more mature
catechumens; the other smaller, for the younger mem-
bers of families and congregations. That committee re-
ported, and the Assembly adopted the two Catechisms.
which we now have in our possession. In this way, for
about five years, committees of the Assembly, and the
Assembly itself, labored on these two little books. Not
a sentence was admitted into them until after the most
protracted and thorough consideration. Not a word was
allowed a place in them until it had been subjected to
the closest scrutiny, and had proved itself to be just the
right word to express the meaning intended. It is prob-
able that there is not another catechism in existence on
which one-tenth of the time and labor and ability and
learning was expended that was employed in the pro-
duction of these two with which God has so highly
favored our denomination. They are the work, not of
one man, as Luther's and Calvin's; nor of two men, as
the Heidelberg Catechism was; nor of four, as was the
catechism of the Church of Rome; but they are the pro-
duct of some five years of the most earnest and prayerful
deliberations of the whole Westminster Assembly! If,
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS. 131
then, it is possible for the most conscientious efforts of
most competent men to prepare suitable catechisms for
the religious instruction of the people, we ought to have
them in the little books we now possess.
But their value is further seen in the fact that they
contain all the essential truths of the gospel. The truths
of the Scriptures in regard to God and his attributes,
the law and its penalties, sin and its consequences,
Christ and his salvation, the Spirit and his work and
graces, life and its duties, death and its issues, eternity
and its final rewards for the righteous, and its final
retribution for the wicked; these, and all other doc-
trines that must be known and believed in order that
men may be saved and fitted for full usefulness in the
divine service, these little books contain, as any one
may see who gives them a careful examination. They'
are thus complete manuals of the great fundamental
doctrines of divine revelation; we think we have suf-
ficient reason for believing the most complete in exist-
ence. Not only, however, do they contain all the essen-
tial truths of religion, but they contain them in the most
accurate form. Although these Catechisms have been in
existence two centuries and a half, and although, for
that long period of time, they have been subjected to
all the severe and decisive tests of the experience of the
church, and of the closest scrutiny of her most perfect
scholarship, no change in the form of the statement of
any one of their great doctrines has ever been made.
No suggested change has ever appeared to the church to
be of sufficient value to deserve serious consideration!
How grateful we should be to the great Head of the
church that he has graciously placed in our hands so
perfect a means for training up our children and youth
in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord!"
132
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Another excellence that our Catechisms possess is that
they not only thus state the essential truths of religion
with so marvellous accuracy, but that they so state them,
that, while expressing them clearly in a positive form,
they, at the same time, negatively, at every important.
point, guard against the most serious errors by which, at
those points, they have ever been assailed.
Almost any
answer to the questions of the Catechisms might be taken
as an illustration of this fact. Take, for instance, the
answer of the Shorter Catechism to the question, "What
is justification?" "Justification is an act of God's free
grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth
us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone." It
is an "act," thus guarding against the error that it is a
process, sometimes long protracted. An act of "God's
free grace," guarding against the error that it is by
works. "Wherein he pardoneth all our sins," guarding
against the error that pardon is only partial, some sins.
being reserved for expiation by penance and the fires of
purgatory. “And accepteth us as righteous in his sight"
—already righteous-guarding against the error that he
accepts us only that we may afterwards become right-
eous. "Only for the righteousness of Christ," guarding
against the error that our own righteousness forms a
part of the ground on which justification is based.
"Only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us,"
guarding against all the errors held, that his right-
cousness avails for us in some other way.
"And re-
ceived by faith alone," guarding against the error that
any other grace is necessary for the purpose.
se. Thus, in
this answer, not only is the truth in regard to justifica-
tion stated with sufficient fulness for the instruction of
our children and youth, but it is so stated that, at every
1
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
133
important point, the learner is guarded against. every
serious error with which at those points it has ever been
assaulted. This is an excellence of our Catechisms of
great value. It equips our people with scriptural tests,
in convenient form, and of easy application, by which
every erroneous doctrine with which they may be con-
fronted may be tried.
Still another excellence of our Catechisms is, that they
not only state the truth in regard to every essential doc-
trine of God's word, but state it in the form of a complete
system, every doctrine in its right place and in its right
relations to other doctrines. This is true of no other cate-
chism. Yet it is a point in their favor of great import-
ance. It is to be remembered that the truths of the
Scriptures, although scattered hither and thither over
their pages without regard to scientific order, and
although all that is taught on any important subject
cannot be found, perhaps, in any one passage, but must
be found in a number of different and widely-separated
passages, nevertheless those truths, when collected out
of the book, and brought together, and rightly adjusted
one to another, form a system of truth, a divine system,
more harmonious and perfect than any other that was
ever excogitated by human learning and genius. It is
also to be remembered that no truth can be fully under-
stood and appreciated until it is seen, not only in-its own
light, but in the light of all the other truths to which it
stands related. The death of Jesus of Nazareth, for in-
stance, looked at only in itself, would have been regarded
as a very insignificant event. It would have been noticed
only for a moment by only a few as the pitiable fate of a
poor Jewish peasant of extraordinary, but most visionary,
pretensions, under the deserved penalty of violated law.
But when looked at, not in itself alone, but in the light
134
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
of all correlated truths, how different does it appear! So
of all the essential truths of religion. It is a great ex-
cellence of our Catechisms, then, that they not only con-
tain the fundamental doctrines of revelation, but that
they present them in the form of a system, in which
every truth can be contemplated, not only in its own
light, but in the additional, and clearer, and only suffi-
cient light of all correlated truths; and thus can be so
seen as to be most thoroughly understood and most fully
appreciated.
Such is only an, imperfect exhibition of the merits of
our Catechisms. Enough has been said, however, I
trust, to make it plain that in them we have furnished
to our hands, in the best possible form, the matter neces-
sary to indoctrinate our people with the great truths of
religion by that process which has received the approba-
tion of God's people in all the past, and which God has
always so much blessed.
It has been objected to these Catechisms, indeed, that
it is difficult for young people to understand them; and,
no doubt, this is true. But it is by no means impossible;
and, therefore, the only question is, are the truths which
they contain worth the effort necessary to acquire them?
Human ability has never yet succeeded in stating them
correctly in an easier form. Unless our young people,
then, master them in this form, they must remain igno-
rant of them. Is that alternative, with all its conse-
quences, to be preferred to the labor necessary to acquire
them? Besides, even if in early life they do not fully
understand them, they may readily learn enough abund
antly to compensate them for all the time and effort they
may expend on them; and clearer views will certainly
come later.
It is also objected to these Catechisms that it is diffi-
Ma
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
135
cult to remember them; and no doubt that, too, is true.
But it is not more difficult than to remember a number
of lessons taught in our secular schools, which we re-
quire our children to remember, and which they must
remember if they would be fitted for the secular duties of
life. Moreover, memory needs training. What better
training can be given it than by storing up in it those
great facts and truths of God's word that are "able to
make them wise unto salvation"? Alas! for the chil-
dren whose parents excuse them from so necessary and
valuable a study on grounds so trivial!
But now, in conclusion, let me tax your patience long
enough briefly to point out some reasons why we should
use these Catechisms for the great purpose for which
they were intended and for which they are so eminently
suited:
1. Unless they are learned in childhood and youth,
the strong probability is that they will never be learned
at all. Not one in five hundred of our people, perhaps,
learns them later in life. They must be learned, then,
early in life, or never. Are we willing for the latter
alternative? Are we willing that our children shall
never accurately know the great truths of religion?
Are we willing that they shall never accurately know
what is meant by such doctrines as faith, and repentance,
and justification, and sanctification? Would that be
wise? Would that be safe?
2. We cannot too early impress the great truths of the
Catechisms on their minds and hearts. We should never
forget that in childhood and youth the soul is most sus-
ceptible of deep and lasting impressions. In our great
museums we sometimes see stone slabs with the marks
of raindrops on them that fell before man had any exis-
tence, and the impressions of the feet of tiny birds that
136
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
walked over them when time was yet young.
The ex-
planation is, that those slabs were once in a formative
state, so soft that objects so light would thus impress.
them; and then, as time passed by, those slabs, with
those impressions on them, hardened into the solid rock;
and thus those impressions became as enduring as the
slabs themselves are. So, in childhood and youth, the
souls of our children are most susceptible of impres-
sions for good or evil; and then, as the years elapse,
those souls, with those impressions on them, indurate;
and thus those impressions become as lasting, as ever- ·
lasting, it may be, as the souls themselves. How im-
portant it is, then, that these earliest and most enduring
impressions should be made in behalf of right and truth
and God by the inculcation of the great truths of our
Catechisms! How important that those truths should,
in the very beginning of their histories, be laid down
deep around the very roots of their young natures, that
up out of them their future characters may grow, and
that by them their future lives may be determined and
controlled!
3. It is necessary to our success as a denomination
that our Catechisms be intelligently and faithfully taught.
Our doctrines are constantly and bitterly assailed. In
much of the literature of the day, especially in that kind
which, unfortunately, our children too much read, they
are caricatured as severe, harsh, unreasonable, anti-
quated; as belonging to a remote and ignorant past; as
being entirely out of harmony with the progress that has
been made in better views of the benevolence, of the
divine nature, of the dignity of man, and of the vast-
ness and freeness of redeeming love. Multitudes of
our people do not know how to meet these assaults.
They do not know what to say in answer to the attacks
NATURE AND VALUE OF THE CATECHISMS.
137
that are made on the plenary inspiration of the Scrip-
tures; the absolute sovereignty of God; the doctrine of
the divine decrees; of predestination and election; of the
total depravity of the human race; of the necessity of
the regeneration of the Spirit, and of the perseverance of
the saints. Those who make these assaults see that
they do not know what to say; and this fact invites and
provokes additional assaults. Nor is this the only and
the worst consequence. Seeing that so many of our
people do not know how to defend the doctrines which
we hold, they have not that respect for us, as a de-
nomination, that is necessary to give us such influence
over them, and over the world, as we must have, if we
would win them to our views, and do the work amongst
them that our Saviour requires at our hands. Every in-
telligent observer in our churches must see that this is
true to a most painful extent. It has been true long
enough. It is high time that this state of things were
brought to an end; and I trust that as one result of these
celebrations of the formation of our Standards our min-
isters and elders and deacons and intelligent members
will arouse themselves, and by a proper inculcation of
our doctrines bring it to an end! Why cannot the min-
isters and officers in our denomination so instruct our
people as to these great doctrines, that in every church
there shall be a number, at least, who shall know how
to maintain them against any of the popular assaults
that are so frequently made upon them? We shall
never succeed as we may and ought until this is done.
4. We should diligently teach the doctrines of our
Catechisms, because if faithfully inculcated they will do
in the future what they have already so often done in the
past. In former years they have made great and good
churches--churches as great and good as any the world
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THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
has yet seen. They have made great and good denomi-
nations-denominations as great and good as any that
have yet marked the world's history. They have made
great and good men and women-men and women as
great and good as any with which God has yet blessed
the human race. They have purified and elevated and
ennobled all the institutions of the world-the family,
the state, the church. They have brought to bear upon
them as beneficent an influence as any to which they
have ever been subjected. No system of doctrines has
such a history for good as ours has. Search and see. But
what these doctrines have done in the past they may do
again in the future. Let us teach them, then, as we
ought, and our "Zion will arise, and shine, her light
having come," and God will honor us with a noble part
in disseminating his truth, and in taking this poor apos-
tate world captive, and in bringing it to the Saviour's
feet, and laying it down there, the splendid trophy of his
redeeming grace!

REV. EUGENE DANIEL, D. D.
VI.
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP--EMPHASIZING
THEIR RELATION TO WORSHIP.
BY
REV. EUGENE DANIEL, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RALEIGH, N. C.
139
16
ANALYSIS.
Introductory references to Dr. B. M. Palmer.-The topic
stated as given.-This theme covers polity and worship and their
underlying doctrine.—The sufficiency and sovereignty of God
the unifying principle of the Confession and Catechisms, the
Form of Government and the Directory of Worship.-The con-
ception of God in the Confession and Catechisms.-The funda-
mental principle of church government the sufficiency and sov-
ereignty of God in Christ.-Christ the alone King and Head.-
This in opposition to the papacy and to Erastianism.-This sov-
ereignty of Christ variously realized.-In his gathering into one
his elect. In his ordaining the Bible as the alone law of the king-
dom.—In his prescribing therein a government, in the hands of
officers, distinct from the civil magistrate.-In his making things
not commanded forbidden.-Doctrine of "circumstances."-This
sovereignty further realized in worship.-Christ the Master of
all assemblies.-Ordains all sacraments and ordinances.-In-
spirer of prayer and praise.--Author of all effectual preaching.
His Spirit the only Vicegerent.-Sovereignty finally realized in
subduing all enemies, in destroying death, in coming in glory,
in reigning as Theanthropos forever.-Corollaries.-First, be-
ware of that taproot of sorrows, complications of church and
state. Second, God himself, by his Spirit armed with his word,
and by his amazing providence, had inwrought his sufficiency
and sovereignty into the Westminster Standards.-Doctrine,
polity and worship one sublime doxology.
140
VI.
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP-EMPHASIZING
THEIR RELATION TO DOCTRINE.
M
ODERATOR, FATHERS AND BRETHREN OF THE
ASSEMBLY: You will lend me your sympathy
when I say that I find the responsibility of this hour al-
most crushingly oppressive. It were a matter of grave
import, at any time and under any circumstances, to
stand in this historic place, to look into the faces now
upturned to mine, and to open the lips in this venerable
presence. But beyond these not unusual considerations,
there are others of moment connected with the discharge
of the duty of the hour, to which I may briefly advert.
A few weeks ago there fell beneath my eye the pro-
gramme of exercises in celebration of the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of the Westminster Assembly.
Glancing over it I saw that a very prominent topic of dis-
cussion had been assigned to that eminent and honored
servant of the church, the Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer, and,
to my unfeigned astonishment, that my own name had
been written beneath his as that of his alternate. I had
just had time to congratulate myself that the kindness thus
shown me by your Committee of Arrangements might be
gratefully accepted without any burden of responsibility,
when the thought of these easy honors was quickly dis-
pelled by the receipt of a letter from Dr. Palmer, which
was full of sadness for myself and of disappointment for
you. The distinguished principal stated that it would
be impossible for him to attend this meeting of the Gene-
141
142
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
ral Assembly; that his vision was so indistinct as to make
it inexpedient for him to prepare the paper expected of
him; that he desired this summer to make one last effort
to recover his failing eyesight, and that if this should.
not be successful, he would resign himself to the will of
the Lord, and preach on in the dark until it should please
God to open his eyes "to the celestial glories of the
upper day." Upon receiving this letter I at once wrote
to Dr. Palmer, entreating him to prepare the address by
dictation, and assuring him that I would covet no higher
honor than that of reading it in his name. But there
came a quick response, again asking that I should relieve
the principal of the whole responsibility of the address.
So positive was the declinature, couched in language of
that gracious encouragement to myself which has always.
characterized this eminent man in his dealings with his
younger brethren in the ministry, that with "fear and
trembling" I consented to place my neck beneath the
yoke intended for him, sorrowing, most of all, that we
must to-day miss the majesty of his lofty thought, nor
have our souls uplifted and thrilled by the sound of his
eloquent voice.
The subject assigned to Dr. Palmer as principal, and
coming to me as bis alternate, is given in these words,
“Church Polity and Worship-Emphasizing their Rela-
tion to Doctrine."
After careful reflection I have concluded that it is ex-
pected of me not to discuss in detail the practical opera-
tions of church government, nor the particular ordinances
of divine worship, but rather, to discover and signalize
those general principles which the Westminster Assem-
bly laid as the foundation stones of the whole polity and
worship of the church of God, and especially, to hold up
to view any one cardinal scriptural truth which may
quad-
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
143
bind all the parts of our Standards together in organic
unity. I believe that the whole system of doctrine, of
polity, and of worship is one. The single proposition
which I shall endeavor to illustrate and enforce is this:
The pervading and unifying doctrine of the Westminster
Standards is that of the sufficiency and sovereignty of
God, whose good pleasure is the source of the church's
being, whose will is her law, and whose glory is her end.
I. Adverting briefly to the Confession of Faith: The
able and distinguished theologian who has preceded me,
with a power of analysis and a force of statement pecu-
liarly his own, has already sufficiently emphasized the
theocentric character of that venerable symbol. I shall,
therefore, content myself with simply calling attention
to its language of wonderful sublimity, wherein it
asserts, with almost superhuman power, the conception
of God enshrined within the reverent souls of those men
whose work we honor now after these two hundred and
fifty years. Taking the shoes from off our feet and
bowing the heart as in solemn worship, let us hear these
divines as, with Bible in hand, they point to the sacred
page and tell us what is God: "There is but one only
living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfec-
tion; a most pure Spirit, invisible, without body, parts,
or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incompre-
hensible, almighty; most wise, most holy, most free,
most absolute; working all things according to the
counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will,
for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-
suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving
iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him; and withal, most just and
terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will
by no means clear the guilty."
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THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness in and
of himself, and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient,
not standing in need of any creatures which he hath
made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only mani-
festing his own glory in, by, with, and upon them; he
is the alone Fountain of all being, of whom, through
whom, and to whom are all things; and hath most sov-
ereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or
upon them, whatsoever himself pleaseth. In his sight
all things are open and manifest; his knowledge is
infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature,
so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain. He is
most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in
all his commands. To him is due from angels and men
and every other creature whatsoever worship, service, or
obedience he is pleased to require of them."
"God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold,
direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and
things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most
wise and holy Providence, according to his infallible
foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of
his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom,
power, justice, goodness, and mercy." And so speak
the Catechisms: "God is a Spirit, in and of himself
infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection;
all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible,
everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most
wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth."
The climax of conciseness is attained in that reputed
adoring outburst of Gillespie's prayerful soul: "O thon,
who art a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in
thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness,
and truth."
((
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CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
145
Where was ever found as noble a conception of God
in the minds of uninspired men? Whenever the lovers
of all that is rich and stately in the liturgies of other
churches would press upon us their claims of admiration,
may we not point to our own Standards, and ask where,
in any tongue, may be purer or loftier words than these
in which the best scholarship of the best period of Eng-
lish literature exalts Almighty God? And not only here
in these quotations is this all-sufficiency of the one
supreme Jehovah expressed. This is the heart and soul
of every cardinal doctrine taught. The Bible is of value
because it is the word of the infallible God. Sin is
awful because it is defection from God. The highest
end of Jesus Christ's life and death is the conservation
of the glory of God. "The decrees of God are his
eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will,
whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained what-
soever comes to pass. Sin is any want of conformity
unto or transgression of the law of God." Effectual
calling is the work of God's Spirit. Justification and
adoption are acts, and sanctification is the work of God's
free grace.
The full happiness of the redeemed consists
in being "made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of
God to all eternity." Prayer must be "the offering up
of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his
will." Unbelief in God, God's word, God's Son, God's
prescribed way of salvation, will condemn the soul
through all the ages; but to awaken in God's likeness
will be supernal and unending joy. Thus in the doc-
trinal Standards of the Westminster Assembly, God is
everywhere, first, midst, last, and without end.
((
II. Passing out of the realm of doctrine into the
domain of church government and worship, it is easy to
see that here also God's sovereignty is the solid basis of
در
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THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
all scriptural, ecclesiastical polity. To this end does God
bow the heavens and come down to earth in the second
Person of the adorable Trinity, that he may be, not only
the Saviour, but also the ruler, of the church. The chief
corner-stone in the system of government proclaimed by
the Westminster Assembly, and known as Presbyterian,
is the vital and all-comprehensive truth that God in-
carnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the alone King and
Head of the church. "It pleased God, in his eternal
purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only
begotten Son, to be the mediator between God and man,
the Prophet, Priest and King; the Head and Saviour of
his church; the heir of all things and judge of the
world.”
"The Son of God, being very and eternal
God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did,
when the fulness of time was come, take upon him man's
nature," etc.
Which Person is very God and
very man, and yet one Christ, the only mediator between
God and man."
"On the third day he arose from
the dead, with the same body in which he suffered; with
which also he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at
the right hand of the Father, making intercession; and
shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the
world.' So spake the Assembly through the Confes-
sion. And so, in that Assembly, rang out through the
reports on church government such mighty praise to
Christ as this:
((
))
((
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Jesus Christ, upon whose shoulders the government
is, whose name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace;
of the increase of whose government and peace there
shall be no end; who sits upon the throne of his father,
David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to estab-
lish it, with judgment and justice, from henceforth, even
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
147
forever; having all power given unto him in heaven and
in earth by the Father, who raised him from the dead
and set him on his own right hand, far above all princi-
pality and power and might and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in
that which is to come, and hath put all things under his
feet, and gave him to be Head over all things to the
church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth
all in all; he being ascended up far above all heavens,
that he might fill all things, received gifts for his church,
and gave all officers necessary for the edification of his
church and for the perfecting of the saints.”
"This
Jesus Christ is the Mediator, the sole Priest, Prophet,
King, Saviour, and Head of the church, and contains in
himself, by way of eminency, all the officers in his
church." Thus did these godly divines make Jesus the
sole Head and King in Zion. Thus did they "bring
forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all."
Looking backward from the eminence occupied by
ourselves on this fifth jubilee of that Assembly, we ask :
Could this simple truism of the sovereignty of Jesus
Christ over his church ever have been denied? Could
men ever have dreamed that Zion should be under any
other Lord? Could it require any courage to proclaim
this first and simplest principle of ecclesiastical polity?
Ah! to us, here and now, it all seems simple, as the
very alphabet of church government; but to those men,
then and there, it was the enunciation of a principle that
had been buried for centuries; and the declaration was a
declaration of war against two of the mightiest usurpers
that ever thrust themselves upon the Redeemer's throne.
The one of these was Cæsar; the other was papal Rome.
More than thirteen hundred years had dragged their
tedious length along since the reputed conversion of
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THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
Constantine. The pagan religion of Rome had always
been in close and inseparable connection with the gov-
ernment of the state. The polytheism of that time, not
without its varied poetical charms, had interlinked itself
with the whole life of the people. Imaginary gods.
swept through the air, walked the groves, arose from
the ocean, whispered in the breeze, thundered in the
storm, shut or opened the caves of the winds, and made
their homes on the loftiest mountains. They were wor-
shipped at the firesides, consulted in matters of business,
inquired of in judicial proceedings, and were absolutely
identified with all affairs of state. By an insidious and
easy transformation, the alleged conversion of the head
of paganism effects a transition into an adulterous con-
nection of church and state; and then, the Iliad of long
and unutterable woes! Constantine becomes the head
of the church. History sweeps on.
The direful prece-
dent is followed with fatal facility. The church lives
on, often more dead than alive, in the unholy union.
King after king claims to sit in the place of Jesus Christ,
and Henry VIII. does not scruple to declare himself the
Supreme Head of the Church in England. Even the vir-
tuous and amiable Edward assumes the same high and
awful title. Mary Tudor and Elizabeth, appalled by the
thunders of John Knox, hesitate as to the title, but dare
the deed. James gladly receives the decision of the
twelve judges of the Star Chamber: "The king, having
the supreme ecclesiastical power, can, without Parlia-
ment, make orders and constitutions for church govern-
ment.' Charles even more audaciously would wear the
crown of the Redeemer. When, therefore, the doctrine
of the sole kingship and headship of Christ is at last
clearly and authoritatively declared, kings may read the
The outwork-
doom of civil despotism over the church.
"}
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
149
ing of this mighty principle will be slow, as its burial
out of human sight was endured for a millennium; but
even if a new world must be required for its full develop-
ment, that principle, so full of God's energy, shall pre-
vail. The Lamb's wife will yet walk the earth free of
Cæsar's chain.
The papacy, the other usurper, was no less ancient;
was, possibly, even more powerful. The false idea of
an enforced outward, organized unity of the church,
with its visible earthly head, looms before us in distinct
outline, even in the third century of the Christian era.
It is but a little later until the Roman prelate demands
to be recognized as the centre of this unscriptural Catho-
lic unity. The error takes root and grows until the pon-
tiff arrogantly calls himself the Vicar of Jesus Christ,
claims unlimited power, and sitting as God, boasts him-
self that he is God. A thousand years elapse, and still
the monstrous usurpation grows more powerful and ever
more corrupt. Kings bow the knee to this Dagon, or
stand shivering at his door to receive absolution from his
lips, as from Jesus Christ himself. He not only lords it
over God's heritage, but sways the sceptre over the
bowed heads of the kings and princes of the earth. The
worn and wasted remnant that have not bowed the knee,
have been crying for centuries, "O Lord, how long?"
And now the sword of the Spirit is unsheathed. The
truth of God is hewing its way, right and left, and
marching to a grand consummation, in opposition to all
the lightnings and thunders of the Vatican. And here,
by this learned and powerful body of divines, the crown
rights of King Jesus are boldly proclaimed, and all Rome
is defied. Sternly the God-fearing Assembly, under
oath to be true to its convictions, points to its blood-
stained banner and bids the pontiff read: "The Lord
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Jesus Christ is the only King, the only Head in
Zion."
The leaven of this vital and all-embracing truth
wrought mightily in every direction, and gave shape to
all the subordinate principles embraced in the Assembly's
development of the polity of the church. To the exhi-
bition of the various and stupendous ways in which this
one cardinal doctrine of Christ's sovereignty was drawn
into realization, let me now proceed to invite your atten-
tion.
1. The sovereign Jesus himself gathers his elect into
the one body of which he is the Head. "The catholic,
or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the
whole number of the elect that has been, are, or shall
be, gathered into one, under Christ, the Head thereof;
and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of him that
filleth all in all." 'The visible church consists of all
those throughout the world that profess the true religion,
together with their children, and is the kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ.” "Unto this catholic visible church
Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances
of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in
this life to the end of the world; and doth by his own
presence and Spirit, according to his promise, make them
effectual thereunto." The King of Glory finds those
whom the Father hath given him, carnal, sold under
sin, in awful rebellion against God and his Christ. These
he subdues into willing subjects; yet, only by love, and
through the effectual and irresistible workings of the
Holy Ghost sent forth to apply the word of God. Thus
the king pierces to the dividing asunder of the joints and
marrow, and soul and spirit, and becomes a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. Sending the rod
of his strength out of Zion, he rules in the midst of his
ܙ
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
151
•
enemies; makes his people willing in the day of his
power, in the beauties of holiness, and more than the
womb of the morning; he drinks of the brook in the way
and lifts up the head. Set as a king upon the holy hill
of Zion, he exultingly exclaims, "I will declare the de-
cree; the Lord said unto me, 'Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession"'" In the view of
the Westminster Assembly, here was the true bond of
Christian union; not rigid and compulsory conformity to
a body bound hand and foot in the fetters of cast-iron
formalism, nor allegiance to a corrupt or a capricious and
tyrannical monarchy, nor blind and superstitious devotion
to the person, and submission to the will of papal or
prelatic despot, but the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace, as the whole body gathered into one by the will of
its living Head, joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual
working in the measure of every part, maketh increase
to the edifying of itself in love, thus growing up into
him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ.
2. This sovereignty is also realized in the fact that, to
this body, thus gathered into one, the King gives his
own word as the exclusive law of being, of belief, and of
daily life.
The Westminster Assembly believed that
the Bible was the very word of God, sufficient and per-
spicuous; its teachings and commandments to be re-
ceived on the authority of the King, loyalty to whom
required implicit faith and prompt and unquestioning
obedience just so soon as the true meaning of the word
could be ascertained. The thus saith the Lord" was
to be decisive and final. Before this rule of faith and
practice the fancies of a supposed inward revelation were
(C
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vain, and the traditions of the church itself were divested
of power to bind the conscience. The supremacy and
sovereignty of Zion's King were to be made real to her
through the very words of the Holy Ghost, the only
Vicegerent of his Majesty sent to earth. The members
of the Assembly seated themselves as if at the very foot
of the throne, and within the shadow of a self-imposed
oath, read to them afresh every week, promising and
vowing in the presence of the Almighty God to main-
tain nothing in point of doctrine but what they believed
to be most agreeable to the word of God. "The whole
counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his.
own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either ex-
pressly set down in Scripture, or, by good and necessary
consequence, may be deduced from Scripture, unto
which nothing is at any time to be added, whether by
new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men."
The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the
Scripture itself.” "The Supreme Judge by which all
controversies of religion are to be determined. . . can be
no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture."
The conscience is to be left "free from the doctrines and
commandments of men which are in anything contrary
to his word, or beside it, in faith or worship." The
King's own "Himself hath said it
'Himself hath said it" is the exclusive
rule, positive and negative. The Assembly uncovers.
and holds up to view the weighty principle, long after-
ward used so powerfully by our own Dr. Thornwell in
his celebrated argument with the distinguished theolo-
gian of Princeton, that, whether in faith, government or
worship, the substantial article or action, if not expressly
commanded, is forbidden. Yet, even here the wisdom
and conservatism of the Assembly exhibit themselves in
the explanatory, if not qualifying, statement: “Never-
|
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CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
153
theless
there are some circumstances concerning
the worship of God and government of the church, com-
mon to human actions and societies, which are to be
ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence,
according to the general rules of the word, which are
always to be observed." These "circumstances," as
Gillespie (quoted by Girardeau) shows, must be (1),
"only circumstances; no substantial part; no sacred,
significant thing;" (2), “must be such things as are
not determinable by Scripture; (3), "must be accom-
panied with some good reason and warrant given for the
satisfaction of tender consciences." Or, as Dr. Thorn-
well, and after him Dr. Peck, clearly states: "Circum-
stances are those concomitants of an action without which
it cannot be done at all, or cannot be done with decency
and decorum." Precisely what discretion is implied in
the phrase I have italicized, this is not the place, nor am
I the person, accurately to determine. It seems suffi-
cient to state the principles clearly known, and to urge
that their observance must stand or fall with the church's
loyalty to her living Lord. Their application at that day
wrought wonders, and turned the world in the church
upside down. Burdensome liturgies, imposed by human
authority and ministering to human indolence and igno-
rance, were banished. The whole hierarchy of arch-
bishops, bishops, chancellors, commissaries, deans, deans
and chapters, archdeacons, priests, acolytes, trembled
and tottered as the King spake through his word. The
paraphernalia of will-worship and of holy vestments,
which from the days of Elizabeth, and as far back as
Edward, had so grieved the simple Puritan faith, were
"determined to be taken away." The King, through
his servants and with the sword of the Spirit, hewed
them down and proclaimed with all authority: "God is
""
A
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THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth." The Bible was the sole law of
the kingdom.
ܕ
3. Shall we now advance a step further and say: This
sovereignty of Christ is also realized in the fact that, in
the Scriptures given by the King to his church, he hath
appointed for her "a government," in the hands of offi-
cers chosen and qualified by himself and "distinct from
the civil magistrate." Out of this complex proposition,
I shall briefly educe three of its important elements.
(1), The Westminster Assembly believed that there
is a form of government for the church prescribed in
the word of God. As we well know, the Assembly
was composed of Presbyterians, Independents, and Eras-
tians. The first class, especially those from Scotland,
avowed and urged the principle. The second, while at
times apparently lax in the application of it, yet steadily
united in appeals to it for the defence of their peculiar
tenets. The third class, basing its arguments largely
upon extraneous considerations, yet also urged, with
persistency and with ability, the relation between the
Jewish and Christian churches, and the combined civil
and ecclesiastical polity of the one as authority for the
same combination in the government of the other. Upon
the whole, the prevailing view of the Assembly was that
Christ hath revealed for his church, in his word, a gov-
ernment.
(2), But when the question arose, what is this scriptu-
ral government? then, as might have been anticipated,
came the battle of the giants." Even in expectancy
of this inevitable issue, long before it came, its over-
shadowing influence was felt. The debate of those days
when this question was pending is historic. We read it,
not without sorrow over human weakness, but far more
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
155
with profound recognition of the conscientiousness and
the ability which it evoked. Those men were under
oath to be true to God's word. For the greater part,
they were staunch to their convictions; and for this we
shall forever honor them.
It was a foregone conclusion that the government an-
nounced should be Presbyterian, i. e., simply by elders
of the people; in primo actu, the power residing in the
whole church as the life is in the whole body, but the
exercise of the power being in the hands of elders called
of Jesus Christ, the King, and invested by him with
authority to rule under the law, which it is theirs not
to make, but to declare and to enforce. The power of
the whole being in every part, and over the power of
every part, is realized through representative Assemblies,
each accountable to Jesus Christ, the only King.
I have said that it was a foregone conclusion that
Presbyterianism should be the outcome of that Assembly.
The reason is plain. The Reformers had bent them-
selves to the study of the Bible, and with amazing coin-
cidence they had come to a very common conclusion.
Having examined the Scriptures with an honesty of heart
and a culture of mind and a devoutness of soul never
surpassed, the Reformers most generally had announced.
that the government of the apostolic church was Presby-
terian. Even the Independents in the Assembly at times.
came to the very point of "accommodation" with this
view, and it will be evident that their refusal at last was
due more to their relation to Cromwell and to the Parlia-
ment, and their dread of an imperium in imperio, than to
any other cause. Back of their hesitancy as to church
courts was ever the influence of considerations growing
out of the relations of church and state. From the Re-
formers in Holland, in Switzerland, and above all, in
156
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Scotland, came the uniform result of scriptural investiga-
tion, and the Assembly but voiced the general views
when it declared that Presbyterianism was the scriptural
government of the church. From this side of the arc
the pendulum started when it swung out across the
centuries of apostasy and corruption, and to this side
must it swing back again. I do not mean to affirm that
the Westminster Assembly gave, in their fullest develop-
ment, the principles involved in the doctrine of the elder-
ship. It did give them in essential germinal complete-
ness. More than two hundred years afterward, a son of
our own church seized them, enstamped the image and
engraved the superscription of his own sanctified genius.
upon them. Whoever, to-day, would see them in the
blazing light of "logic on fire" may read James Henley
Thornwell!
(3), But the Coryphæus over this whole company of
debated propositions was this: the government of the
church is in the hands of officers distinct from the civil
magistrate. This brings us into the very thickest of the
fray. The Assembly affirms the autonomy of the church
under the only King; the world, the flesh, and the devil
deny it.
I cannot adequately describe that long, patient, labo-
rious contest. Time would fail to tell how the work of
the Assembly was hindered and opposed by a few of its
own body within, by the Parliament without, and by
the collusion of both. When at last, in spite of all
obstacles and hindrances, the Assembly's work was
done, and submitted to the very body which had com-
manded its performance, that body delayed action.
Again and again the Assembly urged it by respectful
and dignified petition, and finally by representatives.
personally appearing before the Commons and mildly
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
157
but firmly insisting. This appearance was stigmatized.
by the House as a "breach of privilege." And then
came a shameful spectacle, as the deputies of the Com-
mons, appointed for the purpose, stood on the floor of
the Assembly, and the civil power rebuked the church
in language of stinging insult and arrogant domina-
tion, demanding that the Assembly set itself afresh to
answer certain questions regarding the jus divinum of
the church-questions the real object of which seemed
to be to delay and ultimately defeat the Assembly's
work. Says Dr. Mitchell in the Baird Lectures: "They
had been threatened with a præmunire by the king before
they began their work. They were now told by the
deputies of that House whom they had risked so much
to serve that they had incurred that penalty. They
must have listened with pain to the speeches, but they
listened in silence. No angry word escaped them. No.
course of action was hastily resolved on. They read
the paper which the deputies had left, and quietly ad-
journed for the day." Sublimely calm, they patiently
resumed their work. Observing a day of fasting and
prayer, they took up the queries propounded and labo-
riously entered upon their discussion. The memorable
address of Lord Warriston, at this juncture, rang out as
if the very spirit of all the Covenanters had found in him
a tongue. May I quote his words as given by Mitchell?
Said he:
((
Sir, all Christians are bound to give a testimony to
everie truth when they ar called to it; but ye ar the
immediat servants of the Most High-Christ's precones
and heralds, whose propper function is to proclaim
his name, preserve his offices, and assert his rights.
Christ has had many testimonies given to his prophetical
and priestly office by the pleading and suffering of his
158
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
}
29
saincts; and in thir latter dayes he seems to require the
samyne unto his kingly office. A king loves a testimony
to his crowne best of any, as that woh is tenderest to
him; and confessors or martyres for Christ's crowne ar
the most royal and most stately of any state martyrs;
for although Christ's kingdome be not of this world, and
his servants did not fight therefor when he wes to suffer,
yet it is in this world, and for this end was he born.
And to this end that we may give a testimony to this
truth amongst others were wee born, nor should we be
ashamed of it or deny it, but confesse and avouche it by
pleading, doing, and suffering for it, even in this genera-
tion, we seems most to oppose it and y' by require a
seasonable testimony." "Sir, ye are often desired
to remember the bounds of your commission from man
and not to exceed the samen; I am confident you will
make as much conscience not to be deficient in the dis-
charge of your commission from Christ. But now, sir,
ye have a commission from God and man (for the weh ye
have reason to thank God and the Parliament) to discuss
the truth that Christ is a king and hes a kingdome in
the externall government of his church, and that he hes
set doun the lawes and offices and other substantialls
y" of.
Wee must not now before men mince, hold up,
conceal, prudentially wave anything necessary for this
testimony, not quit a hoofe, or edge away an
hemme of Christ's robe royal."
'And now, sir,
seeing the quæries ar before you, I am confident that
whatsoever diversity of opinions may be amongst you in
any particular, yee will all look to and hold out the
maine, Christ's kingdome distinct from the kingdomes
of this earth, and that he hes and might appoint the gov-
ernment of his own house and should rule the samen ;
and that none of this Assembly, even for the gaining
ch
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
159
their desires in all the poynts of difference, would by
y' silence, concealment, and connivance weaken, com-
municat, or sell any part of this fundimentall truth, this
sovereign interest of Christ, and that ye will all con-
curre to demonstrate the samen by clear passages of
Scripture, necessarie consequences y fra, we can no
more be denyed or esteemed cold nor the letter itself,
and by the universall constant practice of the apostles,
wo ar as cleare rules unto us as any human lawes, infer-
ences, and practises ar, or can be brought for any civile
priviledges."
-
The success of the Assembly in its labors to secure
the autonomy of the church and the crown rights of the
king was incomplete for the time, but was destined to
be full. Compelled to admit a right of final appeal (in
cases of discipline) to a parliamentary commission, we rea-
lize that the battle was then only partially won.
But we
realize, as well, that the Assembly imbedded in its Con-
stitution those principles which were left lying as dyna-
mite beneath the grim Castle of Politico-Ecclesiasti-
cism, requiring only time to upheave and demolish it.
The doctrine that “God alone is Lord of the conscience,”
and that Christ's government of his kingdom is in him-
self, and in those alone whom he hath appointed, was to
march on, conquering and to conquer.
It flamed out in
Scotland in 1732, and again in 1752. Just two hundred
years after the Assembly it burst forth with expanded
glory, when in Scotland, in 1843, the Free Church repu-
diated all connection with the state, and her four hun-
dred ministers left manses, glebes and edifices, and
boldly marched forth to be God's freemen. But the ex-
pansiveness of the principle required a new world for its
development. In 1788, here in America, the remaining
traces of Erastianism were eradicated from the Standards,
160
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
and God's church, cutting the tentacle of the octopus
which for fifteen hundred years had bound and smothered
her, finally stood forth the unfettered bride of Christ. The
sublime sense of the immediate responsibility to Jesus
Christ as the alone Lord of the conscience, and the love,
not only of religious, but of civil freedom, which it in-
variably fosters, burned in the Scotch-Irish ruling elders
so largely composing the men of Mecklenburg, whose
Declaration of Independence near this very spot will be
remembered as long as North Carolinians live to love and
honor the history of their State.
But I must not venture into this broad domain which
has been reserved for an address yet to come, but must
hasten to say-
4. The Westminster Assembly realized the sovereignty
of Christ over his church, not only in polity, but also in
worship
As founded by our Lord and his apostles, the worship
of the church partook of the simplicity of its government.
Presbyterian in organism, its services of worship were
such as plain elders of the people, ruling and teaching,
might conduct and administer. So early as the second
century, prelacy, by degrees, substituted Presbytery, and
more and more the will of the king, as the master of as-
semblies and ordinances was ignored. Human inven-
tions now take the place of divine institutions. The in-
flux of influences of court custom becomes painfully
manifest as soon as (about 323 A. D.) the Roman em-
peror becomes practically the earthly head of the Chris-
tian church; and the significant fact is that the corrup-
tions of worship obtaining under Constantine, and for
centuries afterward, have almost their counterpart in the
formalism, the ritualism, the scenic splendor and pagean-
try, everywhere prevalent at the time of the Reforma-
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
161
tion. The tap-root of it all was the unholy alliance of
church and state; that is to say, of the church and the
world. The Reformers found the way to a return to
apostolic simplicity of worship under Jesus, the King,
ever barred by the earthly monarch and his court. They
protested against the countless images, fasts, feasts,
feast days, monasteries, nunneries, vestments, and set
liturgies, as all "beside" the things commanded by the
King. So intolerable had the burden become, and so
thoroughly stifling to all spirituality the atmosphere by
which public services were surrounded, that, whatever
else the Assembly may have been uncertain about, they
were avowedly resolved, as Parliament had already de-
cided, that the countless uncommanded things of hu-
manly imposed liturgical worship should be substituted
by a simple directory, all of whose substantive provisions
should be either expressly enjoined by the Head and
Sovereign of the church in his word, or, by good and
necessary consequence, be deducible from it. Accord-
ingly, the Assembly, with comparatively little debate,
and with great concurrence of all parties, adopted the
Directory of Worship.
It would be impossible, here and now, to enter into
any detailed comparison between that Directory and the
liturgy it substituted. Its chief characteristics are sim-
plicity, spirituality, freedom from the inventions of man,
and unswerving loyalty to the commands of Christ the
King. It makes Jesus the Master of all assemblies.
The Sabbath is his, the Lord's day. Himself is to pre-
side over every meeting of his saints, and his Spirit is to
be invoked as the author of all true prayer and the in-
spirer of all acceptable praise. Most prominently did
the Assembly elevate the preaching of the word, which
had so long been slighted and even despised. The gos-
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THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
pel ministry was to proclaim the King's law and pro-
mulgate the King's gospel, ever with laborious prepara-
tion of head and heart and spiritually aroused conscience;
and for all efficiency and power they were to hang de-
pendent upon the King's own Spirit. The sacraments,
divested of former superstitions, were no more to be
worshipped, but were to be administered reverently, with
decency and with order; and all power and efficiency
were to be found, "not from any virtue in them nor in
him that did administer them, but only by the blessing.
of Christ and the working of his Spirit."
If the Assembly's Directory increased liberty, it also
augmented responsibility. If it took away the support
of set and prescribed forms on which the indolent might
lean and even sleep, this was done to the avowed intent
that those who conducted public services might the
more industriously prepare for them; and thereunto the
more diligently stir up the gifts of God within them.
Thus, in ordinances which Jesus had given, in sacra-
ments which Jesus had instituted, in only services which
Jesus had commanded, and with none but the simple
forms which Jesus had made lawful, filled with Christ's
spirit, with souls aglow with the love of Christ, wor
shippers were to draw near to God and ascribe praise,
honor and glory unto him that sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb forever and ever.
5. The Westminster Assembly believed and, taught
that this sovereign exaltation of Jesus Christ shall be
increasingly glorious through time and resplendent for-
ever. By the King's command, the gospel of the king-
dom is to be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations. "Christ is to be exalted in his coming
again to judge the world.. in the full manifesta-
tion of his own glory, and of his Father's, with all his
-
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
163
holy angels; with a shout, with the voice of the arch-
angel, and with the trumpet of God." "The self-
same bodies of the dead which are laid in the grave, be-
ing then again united to their souls forever, shall be
raised up by the power of Christ." "The bodies of the
just, by the Spirit of Christ and by virtue of his resur-
rection as their Head, shall be raised in power, spiritual
and incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body.
.. "The righteous, being caught up to Christ in the
clouds, shall be set on his right hand, and, there openly
acknowledged and acquitted, shall join with him in judg-
ing of reprobate angels and men; and shall be received
into heaven, where they shall be fully and forever freed
from all sin and misery: filled with inconceivable joy :
made perfectly holy and happy, both in body and soul,
in the company of innumerable saints and angels, but
especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy
Spirit to all eternity. And this is the perfect and full
communion which the members of the invisible church
shall enjoy with Christ in glory.”
Then, having reigned over the kingdom of universal
dominion, in heaven and in earth, until he hath put down
all rule, and authority and power, with all enemies
beneath his feet, and even death, the last enemy, de-
stroyed, then cometh the end, when the kingdom of
power shall have been delivered up to God, even the
Father, and Jesus Christ, as Theanthropos, shall reign
over the everlasting kingdom of glory, and "God be all
in all." Unto him every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess that Christ is LORD, to the glory of God
the Father.
>>
And now, Moderator and brethren of the Assembly,
with whatever ability God hath given, I have discussed
A
164
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
pefore you this immense theme. In conclusion, may I
not briefly urge two corollaries which the discussion has
suggested and impressed?
1. More than thirty-five years ago, in the fair city
of Augusta, Ga., on the threshold of a home which
she was about to leave for her own separate work
and destiny, stood the then youngest of all in the
sisterhood of the churches of Jesus Christ. Sad, yet
resolute, pensive, yet hopeful, the dark clouds of war
hovering over her and an unknown future looming before
her, that church called to her side the willing and able
Thornwell, and bade him take his pen, mightier than the
sword, and write in imperishable record her reasons for
her separate existence. That address to all the churches
of Jesus Christ is historic and known of you all. The
point now to be emphasized is that the cardinal consid-
eration imbedded in that immortal document is, that this
church must be separate in order that she might be free
from any and all entangling alliances with the state.
Upon that solid rock she took her stand. Many storms
have swept over her since that eventful hour, but that
foundation is still immutably beneath her feet. And, to-
day, looking backward over the unnumbered woes which,
from Constantine to Charles I., and from Charles I. to
the American General Assembly in 1789, have oppressed
and crushed to earth the Lamb's wife; and remembering
that it took nearly fifteen hundred years for her to
emancipate herself from the shackles that fettered her,
who can be surprised that the blood of the Covenanting
martyrs in Scotland, of the Huguenots in France, of the
Puritans in England, should find a voice to sweep to us
across these two and a half centuries the admonition :
Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and
to God the things that are God's!" Can it be surprising
ܙ
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP..
165
that those of us who know history should view with
shuddering dread any step that tends to take from us the
freedom from civil domination wherewith Christ and
the long struggle of two hundred years have made us
free?
2. The facts of history enable us to understand why
the sovereignty of God should have been borne in upon
the Westminster Assembly so as to transfuse every part
of its doctrine, polity, and worship. By the coöperative
power of two glorious instrumentalities the omnipotent
Jehovah was making bare his arm before the almost be-
wildered gaze of the men of that day, while his voice
proclaimed, "Not by might, nor by power; but by my
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
The one of these agencies was the Bible. The Re-
formation was a revival. Its author was the Holy
Ghost. As always, the instrument was the word of
God. The Almighty drew the sword of the Spirit, and
with it flashed forth the brightness and splendor of his
own power and glory. Nearly three centuries before the
Assembly, Wycliffe, who died in 1384, had translated
the whole Bible out of the Vulgate, and earned the
posthumous glory of giving his body to be burned.
Just one hundred years later, Tyndale was born, and
made almost a fugitive on the face of the earth for
his repeated attempts to publish parts of the word of
God, until at Antwerp, in 1534, he issues his New Tes-
tament, nails his name to its masthead, and, as usual, is
burned at the stake. But still the word of God is not
bound. Tyndale's friend and co-worker, Miles Cover-
dale, in 1535, publishes his English translation of the
whole Bible, whose version of the Psalms is in the Epis-
copal Prayer-Book unto this day; his work denounced
by the Inquisition and condemned to the flames. Martin
166
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Luther, after twelve years of toil, issues his great Ger-
man Bible in 1532. The Genevan Bible comes forth in
1560; and our own King James' version in 1611. The
long-smothered blaze of revelation was bursting out
everywhere, and the light of God's sovereign word was
so glorious as to make even persecution "pale its in-
effectual fires," as Jerome of Prague dies undaunted at
the stake, and Huss of Bohemia goes out of the world as
in Elijah's chariot, praying in the Psalms of David and
singing with a loud voice the Christe Eleison.
The other instrumentality working with the word was
God's sovereign and stupendous providence. Steadily
and surely the King of Glory was delivering the church
from her two ancient oppressors, Rome and Cæsar.
Never in earthquake, in whirlwind, or in fire, had the
presence of the power and glory of God been more
plainly shown than in his providential ruling of all the
kings of the earth at this period of history. He puts
enmity between the two mighty usurpers of Christ's
crown. Henry VIII., bold, headstrong, fickle, and licen-
tious, yet advanced the Reformation. Edward VI.,
guided by Cranmer and Somerset, and coming under the
influence of even John Knox, was made to promote it.
Mary Tudor, married to a mummy in all feeling except
vindictiveness, and bitter under the outrageous insults
heaped upon her divorced mother, would extirpate the
faith and burn its every branch; but God, through her,
sent disciples to Calvin and scattered the seeds of reli-
gion everywhere. Elizabeth thought that two or three
preachers would be enough for a whole county, and
James and Charles would "harrie them out of the land,
but conventicles sprang up like magic, and ministers of
the word, the like of whom had almost never before been
seen, arose as if out of the very dust of the earth. And
"}
C
CHURCH POLITY AND WORSHIP.
167
if England had seen God's amazing power, Scotland
more. From the common people to the lords, from the
lords to the throne, arose the tide; and monarchy was
powerless to say, "Hitherto, but no farther.” Blood of
eighteen thousand martyrs flowed, but every drop of it
had a voice to cry from the ground and to preach the
word. The very agonies of the dying were the birth-
throes of eternal living. Driven from hope in man, to
whom might the saints go but unto the sovereign God?
When in old Greyfriar's churchyard the Covenanters
dipped their pens in the blood gushing warm from their
hearts to self-made openings in their veins, and so signed
their allegiance to Jesus as King, we can see how, out
of the suppressed groans and prayers, not loud, but deep,
in that awful hour they must have looked for support to
the sovereign God and his everlasting arm.
Well may
Froude say of these Calvinists: "They were splintered
and torn, but no power could bend or melt them."
And the reason Froude gives is good: "They dwelt, as
pious men are apt to dwell, in suffering and sorrow, on
the all-disposing power of Providence. Their burden.
grew lighter as they considered that God had so deter-
mined that they should bear it."
ܕ
The members of the Westminster Assembly met after
two centuries of all this mighty working of God's word
and God's providence. Like Elijah at Horeb, they
looked out upon the glory of the Lord sweeping before
them in earth's convulsions, in tornado and in fire; and
then, reverently opening their Bibles under the sanction
of their awful oath, and saying, "Speak, Lord, thy
servants hear," they blend their Doctrine and Polity into
Worship, and all into Doxology: "The Lord is our re-
fuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. There-
fore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and
168
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
though the mountains be whelmed into the midst of the
sea."
"Allelulia! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!
"Lord of every land and nation,
Ancient of eternal days,
43
Sounded through the wide creation,
Be thy just and awful praise.
For thy providence that governs,
Through thine empire's broad domain
Wings an angel, guides a sparrow,
Blessed be thy gentle reign.
But thy rich, thy free redemption,
Dark through brightness all along;
Thought is poor and poor expression;
Who can sing that awful song!
"Go: return, immortal Saviour;
Leave thy footstool, take thy throne;
Thence return and reign forever!
Be the kingdom all thine own!”
"

REV. JAMES D. TADLOCK, D. D., LL. D.
VII.
THE CHURCHES THAT HOLD THE WESTMINSTER
SYMBOLS, AND THE REFORMED CHURCHES
GENERALLY-THEIR POINTS OF CONTACT
AND CONTRAST; THEIR PRESENT RELA-
TIONS, WORK, AND OUTLOOK.
BY
REV. JAMES D. TADLOCK, D. D., LL. D.,
PROFESSOR IN THE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA,
Thing
..
169
ANALYSIS.
Topic stated.-Statistics of Presbyterian and Reformed
Churches given. In the United Kingdom. -In North America.
In South America.-Australasia.-In other places.-Other Re-
formed Churches --Total number.- Distribution.-The Reforma-
tion in its two branches.-The one Lutheran, and the other Cal-
vinistic. Their creeds.-The Reformed creeds are twofold.-
The one Zwinglian, the other Calvinistic.—The work of Calvin
and Zwingli contrasted.--Various Catechisms and Confessions
described. — About thirty in number.-Heidelberg.-Thirty-nine
Articles.-Westminster Standards.-Helvetic.-Dort.--French.--
Belgic.—Arminian Articles.—The Sixty-seven Articles.--Luther's
theses Berne.-Basel.-Calvin's Catechism.-Gallican.-Bran-
denberg.-Elizabeth's Articles.-Irish Articles. -Scottish Confes-
sions. Finally the Westminster Standards emerged. --The doc-
trinal harmony of these great creeds.-Westminster Assembly
fell heir to all of them.-Its work was not all new work.-The
building of Solomon's temple taken to illustrate the work of the
Westminster Assembly.-Doctrine and polity contrasted and
compared.—The situation in Britain in this connection.—The
corresponding situation in America.-Reference made to the
Sixth General Council of the Alliance of the Reformed
Churches. The outlook.-General survey takes a wide sweep.-
The mission of the church generally.—Of the Reformed Churches
specially.--Her theology and her ministry.--The great need of
the sinful world.-The world-wide missionary activity of these
churches.-Reasons for encouragement.--Discouragements there
are, but they fade out of sight. The glorious hope of final tri-
umph.-All branches of the Lord's host are to stand and work
together. They shall have a share in the glory that shall surely
come.—Tokens of a coming storm.-Pledges of an assured vic-
tory.
1
17C
VII.
THE CHURCHES THAT HOLD THE WESTMINSTER
SYMBOLS, AND THE REFORMED CHURCHES
GENERALLY.
TH
HE topic assigned to me is as follows: "The
Churches that Hold the Westminster Symbols,
and the Reformed Churches Generally; Their Points of
Contact and Contrast; Their Present Relations, Work,
and Outlook." The various subdivisions of this topic.
will be taken up in the order of their statement. In
order to bring the subject before us with a degree of
completeness some detailed statistics must be given.
These will give us a clear view of the Presbyterian and
Reformed churches in general, and of those holding the
Westminster Standards in particular. The statistics we
have been able to gather are as follows:
CHURCHES THAT HOLD THE WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS.
THE UNITED KINGDOM.
1. Presbyterian Church of England,
2. Church of Scotland in England,
3. Presbyterian Church in Ireland, .
4. Reformed Presbyter'n Church in Ireland,
5. Eastern Reformed Pres. Ch. in Ireland, .
6. Secession Church of Ireland,
7. Church of Scotland, .
8. Free Church of Scotland,
MINISTERS.
339
14.
656
29
·
7
1,608
1,165
9. United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 610
10. Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 8
II. United Original Secession Ch. [Scotland],
21
•
·
.
4,457
·
MEMBERS.
68,997
3.552
104,838
4,085
1,230
620,376
344,273
190,950
1,176
3,837
1,343,314
I7I
172
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
NORTH AMERICA.
1. Presbyterian Church in Canada,
2. Canada Synod of Church of Scotland,
3. Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.,
4. Presbyterian Church in the U. S.,
5. Associate Ref'd Pres. Ch. of the South, .
6. Associate Ref'd Pres. Ch. of N. America,
1. Presbyterian Church of Brazil,
2. Presbytery of Trinidad,
3. Presbytery of British Guiana
4. Presbyterian Church of Jamaica,
7. Gen'l Synod Ref'd Pres. Ch. America, . 35
8. Synod Ref'd Pres. Church in America, . 109
9. United Pres. Church of North America, 895
•
10,355
SOUTH AMERICA AND WEST INDIES.
MINISTERS.
31
10
•
•
1. Evangelical Church in Italy,
2. Independent Presbyteries in China,
3. Presbyterian Church of Manchuria,
4. Presbyterian Church of Korea,
•
5. Presbytery of South Formosa,
6. Presbytery of Ceylon,
Carried forward, .
AUSTRALASIA.
1. Pres. Church of Eastern Australasia,
2. Pres. Church of New South Wales,
3. Pres. Church of South Australia,
4. Presbyterian Church of Victoria,
5. Presbyterian Church of Queensland,
6. Presbyterian Church of Tasmania,
7. Presbyterian Church of New Zealand,
8. Presbyterian Ch. Otago and Southland,
9. Mission Synod of New Hebrides, .
MISCELLANEOUS.
•
•
•
-
·
•
·
MINISTERS.
. 1,077
6
. 6,797
. 1,349
•
87
•
•
29
•
70
MINISTERS.
6
159
17
226
42
70
84
84
20
708
MINISTERs.
18
19
5
auf. 2
·
MEMBERS.
188, 180
I, 134
1,070,246
210,539
10,640
6,000
I1,272
123,541
1,621,552
MEMBERS.
44,000
745
10,981
55,726
MEMBERS.
270
10,447
1,430
22,873
5,000
I, 500
8,902
13,302
63,724
MEMBERS.
- 1,449
2,000
156
1,257
I, 120
>
5,982
CHURCHES HOLDING WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS.
173
Brought forward, . .
7. Presby's of Ch. of Scotland in Africa,
8. Presby's of Free Ch. of Scotland in Africa,.
9. Pres'y United Pres. Ch. of Scot. in Af'ca,.
ΤΟΥΛΙ,
•
MINISTERS.
42
•
•
•
42
14,737
Number of churches that hold Westminster Symbols,
MEMBERS,
5,982
5,982
2,906,757
42
The Reformers in the first part of the sixteenth cen-
tury were called Protestants, taking the name from a
protest which they entered against the famous edict
passed at the diet of Spires, A. D. 1529. Later an
irreconcilable difference emerged between Luther and
Zwingli, who led the Reformation in Switzerland. This
was principally in regard to the Lord's supper and the
extent of God's sovereignty, but resulted in the perma-
nent division of the Protestants, to be known hence-
forward as Lutheran and Reformed. Notwithstanding
both are Reformed, still the terms have received a his-
torical setting, and for convenience are used to designate
the two great divisions of the Protestant church. Our
topic will lead us to speak only of the Reformed Church
or churches.
To get the sweep of our field it is necessary to indulge
a little further in statistics, the dry bones of history.
Besides the churches in the United States that adopt
the Westminster Standards there are other large and in-
fluential churches that accept these Standards as the
basis of their church doctrine. Of these may be men-
tioned the United Presbyterian Church of North America,
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Reformed (D.)
Church in America, the Reformed (G.) Church in the
United States of America, the Synod of the Reformed
174
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Presbyterian Church in America, General Synod Re-
formed Presbyterian Church, the Welsh Calvinistic
Methodist or Presbyterian Church in the United States
of America, the Christian Reformed Church in America.
The membership of these churches aggregate more than
650,000. It is estimated that the adherents of the Pres-
byterian and Reformed churches in the world number
25,000,000. In Europe they are distributed as follows:
Bohemia, 70,000; France, 800,000; Germany, 3,000,000;
Holland, 2,500,000; Hungary, 2,000,000; Switzerland,
1,700,000; other countries (in Europe), 250,000; Africa,
400,000; Asia, 300,000; Australia, 200,000; South
America, 30,000.'
While the Reformation movements in Germany and
Switzerland were contemporaneous, yet they were inde-
pendent of each other. Luther was born in 1483;
Zwingli in 1484. Luther put a stop to Tetzel's selling
indulgences in Wittenberg by nailing his ninety-five
theses on the church door in 1517. Zwingli drove
Sampson, the indulgence seller, from Zurich in 1518.
The movements in their beginnings were almost simul-
taneous, the occasion the same, each was headed by a
single leader, the evils and wrongs of the papacy protested
against by both the same, and yet the lines of develop-
ment diverge and end in organizations as widely different
as are the Lutheran and Reformed churches. May not
the free government and mountains of Switzerland, in
contrast with the monarchy and despotic Charles of
Germany, have had some influence in shaping what is
distinctive in the two churches?
Let us look more narrowly at the principal Reformed
creeds. They number more than thirty. The three
most widely accepted are the Heidelberg Catechism, the
I
See Presbyterian Hand-Book, 1897.
CHURCHES HOLDING WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS. 175
Thirty-nine Articles, and the Westminster Standards.
Next to these are the Helvetic Confession and the
canons of the Synod of Dort.
The Reformed Confessions may be classified as Zwing-
lian and Calvinistic. As to nativity they may be desig-
nated as Swiss, German, French, Dutch, English, and
Scotch. To the Swiss family belong the Confessions of
Zurich, Basel, Berne, and Geneva; to the German family
belong the Heidelberg Catechism, the Tetrapolitan, Bran-
denburg, and Anhalt Confessions; to France and the
Netherlands belong the French and the Belgic Confessions,
the canons of the Synod of Dort, and the Arminian
Articles; to the English family belong the Thirty-nine.
Articles, the Scotch Confessions, and the Westminster
Standards. Besides these there are others of less import-
ance that originated in Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary.
Since we trace back the pedigree of the Reformed fami-
lies to Switzerland, we may note the growth from that
point. Zwingli wrote four theological works, which
were symbolical in character. The first in 1523, which
consisted of sixty-seven articles. These, like Luther's
theses, were intended for public disputation.
articles exalt the headship of Christ, the supremacy of
the Scriptures, and present the way of salvation freed
from the accretions of popery. His second work was
the Ten theses of Berne, issued in 1526. In this, again,
is emphasized the headship of Christ in the church, the
supremacy of the Scriptures as the standard of final
appeal, and Christ the only way of salvation; at the
same time are denounced masses for the dead, and other
unscriptural doctrines of the Romish church. The third
is a Confession of Faith addressed to the Emperor
Charles V. in 1530. The fourth, an exposition of the
Christian faith addressed to Francis I. in 1531.
t
176
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
The author of the Confession of Basel was Acolampa-
dius. This was written in 1531, and makes the Scrip-
tures the standard of final appeal.
The second Helvetic Confession is the first of the
Reformed churches of national authority. Bullinger was
its author. It appeared at Zurich in 1566, and was
Zwinglian in its tone. It consists of thirty chapters,.
and in its wide sweep covers the whole field of contro-
versy between the Reformers and the Romanists. It is
at the same time a witness and a protest. It makes a
wide discrimination between the authority of the Scrip-
tures and that of the fathers, councils and traditions.
It places the crown upon the Saviour's brow.
The Catechism of Geneva, revised and enlarged by
Calvin, appeared in 1541, and was translated at different
times into Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, German,
Dutch, Hungarian, Greek and Hebrew. Of the con-
tents of this creed it is unnecessary to remark.
Of France and the Netherlands there are three impor-
tant Confessions. The most important is the Gallican,
published in 1559, the work of John Calvin, and is a
summary of the doctrines of grace as grasped by his
great mind.
M
Belgium is historic ground, hallowed by martyrs'
blood. It may claim the honor of having furnished the
first martyrs of evangelical Protestantism. Into this
fair land Philip II. of Spain sent his butcher, the Duke
of Alva, with 10,000 men to extirpate heretics. After
prosecuting for six years his bloody work he made the
infamous boast that besides the multitudes slain in bat-
tle and massacred after the victory, he had consigned to
the executioner 18,000 victims. The Confession of this
people is known as the Belgic, and it was to exterminate
the noble confessors of it that Philip turned loose 10,000
CHURCHES HOLDING WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS.
177
Spanish blood-hounds. The author of this Confession
was the martyr Guido De Bres, and its date 1561.
The Synod of Dort, with representatives from Eng-
land, Scotland and Germany, met in 1618. This Synod
adopted canons under five heads of doctrine, which em-
braced the Calvinistic system. The oldest Confession of
the Reformed Church in Germany attempts to mediate
between Luther, Zwingli and Calvin. It gives no un-
certain sound, however, as to the supremacy of the
Scriptures and the doctrine of justification by faith. It
was adopted in 1530.
The Heidelberg Catechism ranks with the best of the
Reformed symbols. It is claimed to excel all others in
catholicity; this, probably, is owing to the fact that it
presents less jaggedly the angular points of Calvinism.
Its principal author was Ursinus, in 1563.
There were three Confessions of Brandenburg, the
central province of Prussia, the latest dating 1645.
There were many other creeds adopted in Germany, of
less importance and less general in their use.
The Thirty-nine Articles, or the Elizabethan Creed, as
they are called, were perfected and published in 1563.
The Irish Articles were framed in 1615, while the Scotch
Confessions bring us up to 1643. All these Confessions
which we have noticed antedate the Assembly that
adopted the Westminster Standards.
I have been thus specific in enumerating these Confes-
sions and attaching their dates in order that we may not be
unmindful of our indebtedness to those who formulated
them, and sometimes sealed their testimony with martyr-
blood. While appreciating and honoring that venerable
body of great and good men that left to the church such
an admirable formulation of scriptural doctrine, let us
not forget those whose sweat, and prayers, and blood
178
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
prepared the ground and furnished so much of the mate-
rial. From the day that Luther nailed his theses upon
the door of the old church in Wittenberg until the
meeting of the Assembly of illustrious divines in West-
minster, one hundred and thirty years, no brighter
galaxy of names can be found in ecclesiastical history
than those that illumine, and adorn these pages. They
had to attack the enemy in fortifications built and
strengthened by the ages. Crowned and sceptred mon-
archs with armies to do their bidding, and popes clothed
with power to interdict and to anathematize, occupied the
ground. The civil and ecclesiastical powers had been
struggling for centuries for the mastery. And while
this contest was waging, civil and religious liberty was
ground between the upper and nether millstones. And
when the Reformers appeared on the scene, as of old
when for the accomplishment of a given purpose the
Pharisees and Sadducees and the Herodians combined,
so in this case kings and emperors and cardinals and
popes united their forces. And not since the days of
Nero and Diocletian has this old crazy world witnessed
such persecutions and wholesale massacres. And thus
the conflict went on, while the enemy never fell back but
an inch at a time, and the Reformers gained only an
inch at a time, and that at the price of blood, and these
creeds that have been mentioned garnered up what was
so dearly won.
There is a remarkable agreement among these Confes-
sions in exalting God's sovereignty in matters of salva-
tion, Christ's headship in the church, the Scriptures the
standard of final appeal, and the sovereignty, under God,
of the individual conscience. These were the great car-
dinal truths at issue between the Reformers on the one
side, and Romanists and Erastians on the other; and in
CHURCHES HOLDING WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS. 179
these creeds they formulated all that is vital to the doc-
trines of the Reformed churches. Those who came later
fell heir to all that had been achieved before. When the
Westminster Assembly of divines met they were in pos-
session of all these symbols which embodied the results
of the sixteenth century and first half of the seventeenth.
Not only this, they were in possession of the Apostolic,
the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds. Not only this,.
they had the advantage of all that was involved in that
undercurrent of reform and noble protest that ran through
much of the Dark Ages. Wycliffe is called the morning
star of the Reformation. That star glimmered on the
horizon two hundred years before the ring of Luther's.
hammer was heard in Wittenberg, and was the harbinger
of a galaxy of stars soon to throw their light athwart the
darkness of papal night. In this toil and suffering and
patient waiting, I find, in some respects, an analogy in
the building of the ancient temple. I hear the patient
pick in a thousand quarries, and the ring of the axe on
a hundred slopes of Lebanon. I see them bringing
down the polished stones and dressed cedar, and load-
ing them on rafts along the Mediterranean coast. These
I follow until landed at a point opposite to Jerusalem.
Here starts a line of toilers stretching from the sea across ·
to Mount Moriah, conveying the materials, and deliver-
ing them to the builders, under whose magic skill rises
the beautiful Temple of Solomon, so long to resound with
the music of worship. And the house, when it was in
building, was built of stone made ready before it was
brought thither, so that there was neither hammer nor
axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was
building. Those who laid the stones and adjusted the
timbers, however skillfully they did it, were not entitled
to all the glory of that temple. So those who formu-
180
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
lated the Westminster Symbols, however wisely they
did it, must divide the honors with the centuries. They
did their work well, but most of the material used was
made ready before it was brought thither.
Some of the Reformed churches hold to the system of
doctrine that is taught in the Westminster Standards, but
reject the church polity of the Standards; others hold to
the polity, but reject some of the doctrines. Of these we
have examples in our own country. The Cumberland
Church is strictly Presbyterian in polity, while it mars
and mutilates the Westminster system of doctrine. Its
theology is neither Calvinistic nor Arminian, but a mix-
ture of both. It is like the image that was part of iron
and part of clay. The Baptist Church, so far as it
formally accepts a creed, receives the theology of the
Westminster Standards, except as to one of the sacra-
ments, but the polity of the Baptist Church is congrega-
tional. The historical position of the Church of England.
is quite peculiar if not anomalous. While recognized as
belonging to the Reformed family, yet it is sometimes.
spoken of as the half-way house between Rome and
Geneva, or between Romanism and Protestantism.
say the least, the Anglican church is a compromise;
and it is difficult, looked at from a human standpoint, to
see how, under the circumstances, it could have been
otherwise. The throne of England during the sixteenth
century was occupied by Henry VIII, and his children.
Henry was a Roman Catholic, but England was too
small for him and the Pope. Henry cared but little for
the church, but he was determined to be monarch, and,
therefore, aided the Reformation in resisting the claim of
the Romish church to exercise civil power. Edward,
who succeeded his father, was favorable to the Reforma-
tion.
Mary, who succeeded Edward, was a Roman
To
CHURCHES HOLDING WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS. 181
Catholic of the Spanish type; she was followed by
Elizabeth, who had the iron will of her father. Yet,
the subjects in her realm being as they were, her Par-
liament as it was, the international relations of the
kingdom as they were, it is difficult to see how she
could have acted differently without endangering her
throne and plunging Europe into a bloody war. The
outcome was that a Calvinist creed and a semi-Romish
poiity and worship were adopted for the Anglican church.
The position of the Anglican church is that of an un-
stable equilibrium. Hence the tendency is towards.
Rome, or to recede, as is evidenced by high church
and low church.
Alta
What is known as the orthodox Congregational Church.
combines Calvinistic theology with Congregational polity.
The term "Reformed," as it is used in this country, is
applied to Calvinistic divisions of Protestants of British
origin. The principal of these who do not adopt the
Westminster symbols are the Reformed Church in Amer-
ica and the Reformed Church in the United States. The
United Presbyterian Church of North America is the
result of an union of the Associate with the Associate
Reformed, which was itself the product of the union of
the Reformed and Associate churches. The Reformed
Church in America is one of the oldest denominations
in our country. It was planted by the settlers in New
Amsterdam, N. Y., as early as 1628. Its courts include
the classes, the particular synod, and the general synod.
Its principal symbol is the Heidelberg Catechism. The
Reformed Church in the United States was formed in
1747, of exiles from the Palatinate. The theological
school at Mercersburg belongs to this denomination.
While the theology is Calvinistic, it is not of a rigid
type. The form of worship may he described as litur-
482
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
gical. These are the principal Reformed churches in
North America.
In the sixth General Council of the Alliance of the
Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System,
held at Glasgow in 1896, there were eighty-six repre-
sented; of these, thirty-six adopt the Westminster
Standards.
Time will not allow any more minute consideration of
their points of contact and contrast, nor of their present
relations. I close this paper with some reflections as to
their outlook.
The centuries are behind us, but the millenniums are
before us. Much has been gained on the battle-grounds
of the past.
The cycles of history, as they have rolled
on, swept away environments that hampered develop-
ment and checked progress. From the announcement of
the protevangelium until the song of annunciation rang
out over Judæan hills, every cycle of the history widened
out the horizon and projected in clearer outline on
brighter skies the scheme of redeeming love. The in-
troduction of the gospel was a transition from Jewish
legalism to free grace.
It was
The Reformation broke the iron grasp of the papacy
and imposed restrictions upon the sceptre of emperors.
and kings. Much was gained in rescuing the church
from ecclesiastical bondage and civil domination.
a signal epoch in asserting the spirituality of the church
and vindicating the crown rights of our Lord. And it
was a preparation for the mitigation of the barbarities of
intolerance.
The Reformed churches have a grand mission to per-
form for this poor, sin-cursed world. Her theology
equips her for it. The scheme of mercy starts from God
and reaches down to earth. The system of theology of
CHURCHES HOLDING WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS. 183
the Reformed churches heads in and starts from the sov-
ereignty of God, and, reaching down, wakes a response
in the cry of helplessness. The Reformed churches
have always emphasized the preaching of the word.
This is in accord with the divine plan, for it pleased God
to save men by preaching, and the parting words of the
Master are,
"Go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel,'' coupled with the promise, "Lo, I am with you
alway, even to the end of the world."
As brightening the outlook, I remark further that these
churches in recent times seem to have a growing realiza-
tion of the obligation and the glory of being co-workers
with the Godhead in the consummation of the crowning
work of the Trinity, when the person that paid the price
shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.
Note further the territorial extent of these churches.
They girdle the world. They are planted in papal and
pagan lands.
Their torches are blazing on all the coast-
lines and sending their beams across the continents of
darkness.
Some see discouragement in these divisions among the
Reformed churches, but division is far better than petri-
faction and corruption in unity. Our flag is the same,
our marching-orders the same, the conquest aimed at in
all the campaigns the same. This is no day for faint-
heartedness among God's people. The voice of pro-
phecy and of history emphasizes the great commission de-
livered by the Master when he took his departure from
earth, and imparts significancy to the promise of his
speedy return. When the loving and earnest cry shall
go up from all along the lines, "Come, Lord Jesus, come
quickly," then may be heard breaking from the cleft sky
the response, “Lo, I come." I am no enthusiast, but
the Lord is coming in power, love and grace, and he
184
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
will come as soon as the church decks herself to meet
him.
In conclusion, in this outlook I do not overlook that
other grand division of the Protestant church. We
would not if we could, and we could not if we would,
forget that grand old man that towers in history, who
threw down the gauntlet and joined issue with mitred
popes and cardinals and the crowned heads of Europe.
The nailing of the theses on the door of the old church
at Wittenberg, October 31, 1517, drew a line across the
track of history as ineffaceable as did the Noachian flood.
The Reformed churches can never forget the Diet of
Worms, where Martin Luther closed his memorable
speech with the words, "Here I stand; I can do naught
else. God help me. Amen." The Reformed churches
are not alone. The bugle blast is heard in other camps
summoning to the conflict. It may be that the clouds.
that are scurrying across the political sky of Europe por-
tend the coming of a storm that is to shake, not the
earth only, but also heaven, that the things which can-
not be shaken may remain. When that time comes,
Reformed, and Lutheran, and Methodist, too, will link
shields. And when the conflict is over, all will come
and pile their trophies at the feet of Jesus and crown him
Lord of all.

REV. MOSES D. HOGE, D. D., LL. D.
VIII.
RELATION OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS
TO FOREIGN MISSIONS.
BY
REV. MOSES D. HOGE, D. D., LL. D.,
PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, AT RICHMOND, VA
185
ANALYSIS.
Commemorations: their significance and value.-Westminster
Abbey and its associations.-Dean Stanley.-Connection be-
tween the Westminster Standards and foreign missions.—Influ-
ence not immediate.- Dark Ages after the apostolic era.—The
Reformation not a foreign missionary era.-Hindrances to mis-
sions after the publication of the Westminster Standards.—
Blighting influence of the Moderate party.-Ejectment for non-
conformity.-The Standards not an original fountain.-Early
enterprises marred by misconception of the scriptural plan of
missions.-Colonial and commercial enterprises.-Men in ad-
vance of their times.-Pathetic failures.-Characteristic of our
own age.—The church, by its divine constitution, a missionary
organization.--The recognition of this principle in Scotland and
the United States.--Progress of missions in consequence. — Mis-
sionary work of the Presbyterian Church and that of other de-
nominations.-The vast number of communicants and adherents
throughout the world.-Approval of Presbyterian principles and
methods.--Lay representation and ruling elders.-The aborig-
ines of our own country.-Eliot and Brainerd.--Two typical
missionaries, Alexander Duff and J. Leighton Wilson.--Con-
gratulations from an Ecumenical Council.
286
VIII.
RELATION OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS
TO FOREIGN MISSIONS.
PROBA
ROBABLY no event has occurred within the memory
of any one in this audience so calculated to awaken
the attention of our Presbyterian people to the value of
the Westminster Standards in giving direction and de-
velopment to the social, national, and ecclesiastical life.
of the world as the commemoration of the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of their formation.
It is in compliance with the recommendation of our
General Assembly that we are engaged in this celebra-
tion. Some of our presbyteries have anticipated us, and
great audiences have been gathered to listen to the
stirring addresses of speakers appointed for the purpose
of discussing the characteristic truths of our Confessions
and the wide influence they have exerted for two hun-
dred and fifty years. Our religious papers and even the
secular press has caught the tune of the time, and in
numberless editorials and communications have called
public attention to what the Presbyterians are doing.
Our Northern brethren in their General Assembly,
now in session, will take up the theme and make ar-
rangements for a commemoration, possibly on a greater
scale, though not with greater enthusiasm than our own.
Throughout the vast domain in which their churches
are thickly planted, eloquent voices will rehearse the
history of the Westminster Assembly and recount to
listening thousands the great principles, proclaimed by
187
188
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
an assembly of divines such as England never before
and never since could gather for the consideration of
themes of such sacred and surpassing interest.
Nor will these commemorations be confined to our
own continent. They will be repeated among the Eng-
lish-speaking populations of many lands, and thus by all
the diversified agencies I have enumerated the story of
the Westminster Assembly will become familiar to eager
hearers, whose number cannot be calculated.
-
I was greatly moved by the address of my distin-
guished brother from Louisville, and especially by his
graphic description of the most historic edifice in the
world-Westminster Abbey-and his portrayal of the
scences which had been witnessed in the Jerusalem
Chamber. I can only compare his address to the pic-
ture he gave us in his peroration of the scenery on the
Scottish coast, where the waves of ocean had carved the
clifts in shapes of rugged grandeur, and yet in the
crevices of the clifts grew the clambering vines and the
fragrant flowers which gave color, tenderness, and soft-
ness to the rocky ramparts.
It so happens that I have spent more time in the city
of London than any other city in the world except
Richmond and Baltimore. There is in London no public
edifice, secular or sacred, which I have entered so fre-
quently as Westminster Abbey. During Dean Stanley's
visit to Richmond something happened which disposed
him to do me some favor. I had just returned from
England, and he said: "The next time you visit Lon-
don I will do for you what no one else can probably do
better. I will show you Westminster Abbey." He
knew that I was already familiar with the building, and
I knew what he meant by the offer. There was, indeed,
no one else who could discant so eloquently on every
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. 189
chapel, shrine, and monument. It so happened that I
returned to London the next summer. One evening I
visited the Abbey. No tourists were there. I had the
stately, solemn pile all to myself for a brief, impressive
season. You may imagine how startled I was as I
slowly made my way down the aisle when I was sud-
denly confronted with the marble on which was in-
scribed Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, and standing there re-
membered that he who less than a twelvemonth before
had so kindly promised to be my guide was now lying
in the dark crypt beneath.
One of the most interesting apartments of the Abbey
is the Jerusalem Chamber. Of this I need not speak.
The address just referred to has described the place so
graphically, and has so impressed the associations con-
nected with it, that you feel as if you had personally
seen what has been so clearly depicted. It is what
transpired in that chamber two and a half centuries ago
that so deeply interests us now.
In such commemorations there is a great moral element.
Sometimes it is good to get free from the narrow envi-
ronments of the immediate present and ascend some
eminence which commands a view of ways long since
trodden, and then, from what is taught in the review,
learn to forecast the ever-widening way of the future.
It is only by such studies that we catch the spirit of the
great historic eras which have been potent in shaping
the institutions of our own times. It is only when we
can transport ourselves to the distant past and evoke from
its obscurity the forms of its heroic men; it is only when
we acquaint ourselves with the errors they combated, the
difficulties they surmounted, the hardships they endured,
that we can fully comprehend the character of the men
who thus toiled and suffered, or appreciate the value of
190
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
their lives, or trace the influence of their examples and
principles upon succeeding generations. Thus placing
ourselves among them, we take a new interest in the
men themselves and in the work they achieved, and
while we embalm their memories in grateful recollection,
we catch the fire which yet lives in their ashes, and we
feel the inspiration which their great examples of devo-
tion to duty enkindles in our hearts.
It was my office to make an address on "The Educa-
tional Influence of Presbyterianism on National Life" at
our council in Glasgow last summer.
On another mem-
orable occasion I discussed "The Influence of the West-
minster Standards on the Religious Thought of After
Times." The connection between the principles embodied
in these Standards and the development of a noble national
life is obvious. So, too, is their potency in shaping the reli-
gious opinions of those who come in contact with them.
But the relation between our Standards and foreign mis-
sions is not at once apparent. It is difficult to trace,
historically, with satisfactory clearness, any such imme-
diate influence as would place Presbyterians in advance
of other Protestant denominations either as to priority
in time or successful activity in missionary work.
vation.
It is one of the happy facts in the history of missions
that God has been pleased to bless with increase and
progress all branches of the Christian church which hold
by common agreement to the fundamental truths of sal-
We are often reminded that each branch of the
church propagating truth in its own way is like one of
the primary colors, each beautiful in its own hue, while
it is the blended light of all these varied tints that con-
stitutes the pure, white light of day. It requires the
whole brotherhood of the redeemed to reflect the beauty
and glory of the altogether lovely.
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
191
In listening to the addresses which have made this.
session of our General Assembly so memorable, I have
observed no disposition to arrogate to Presbyterian doc-
trine and church government any such preeminence ast
would be offensive to brethren of other denominations
or displeasing to One to whom assumptions of superi-
ority and self-glorification may be regarded as injustice
to other members of his family equally dear to him.
We may be grateful for the possession of such a clear,
concise, symmetrical system of truth as that contained
in our Confessions, and for a form of government so
simple and so easily adapted to all the exigencies of
church life and to all the varied conditions of humanity
arising from culture, social position, and distinctive
characteristics of race, and at the same time we may be
conscious that we have often been slow to take advant-
age of our endowments and opportunities. If we have
been remiss or tardy in illustrating our own principles
in their power to inspire the most practical activity, we
ought not to complain if others have applied these prin-
ciples more readily and vigorously than ourselves.
We can see that our Standards ought to have kindled
the missionary spirit as it did the spirit of civil and reli-
gious liberty. It did kindle the latter transcendently,
triumphantly, whenever tyranny in the state and despot-
ism in the church attempted to nullify the rights of citi-
zens or to invade the sacred domain of conscience. But
we are sadly familiar with the story of the early efforts
made to suppress any organized movement for the evan-
gelization of the heathen world, not only in other churches,
but in our own. Who has not remembered with grieved
surprise the ruling of the senior member of an Associa-
tion when a young man, who subsequently became one
of the most eminent of missionaries, proposed for the con-
192
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
sideration of the body the duty of sending the gospel
to the heathen, was peremptorily ordered to sit down,
the command being accompanied by an assertion of the
venerable father, "When it pleases God to convert the
heathen he will do it without your aid or mine." It
was not, however, in an Association but in a Presbyte-
rian General Assembly that a similar proposition to send
the gospel to the heathen was treated not only as an
unnatural, but also as a revolutionary design. This
was in 1796, but even as late as the year 1824, when a
few of the students of St. Andrews formed themselves
into a missionary society, the authorities of the univer-
sity would not assign them a room for their meetings,
and one of the students in after years published the
statement that during the whole course of his theological
training not a single reference was ever made to the
subject of the world's evangelization, as if the function.
of the church was to conserve all the blessings of the
covenant of grace for the benefit of those who had already
received them.
When Dr. Duff returned to Scotland to recruit after
the failure of his health in India, and to awaken the
missionary zeal of his countrymen, he found them so
absorbed in certain political questions, very important in
themselves, no doubt, especially those which affected
their ecclesiastical interests, that it was difficult at first
to obtain a hearing, and when he proposed to visit the
presbyteries that he might portray what he had seen and
heard of the wants and woes of the populous East, and
to enkindle the enthusiasm of his people in reference.
to the illimitable field white for the harvest, his proposi-
tion was received with doubts and fears by some, and
with blank amazement by others.
It is true that he finally gained the ear and heart of
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
193
the church, and the discouragement he suffered at first
only made his ultimate success more conspicuous by the
contrast. These grave doubts, and the graver opposition
encountered by the friends of foreign missions long after
the work of the Westminster Assembly had been com-
pleted, now excite our wonder and grief, especially when
we remember that the great principles which give divine
sanction and encouragement to the duty of attempting
the evangelization of all nations were all embodied in
those Standards.
As a summary of the cardinal doctrines of the word of
God; as a code of Christian ethics; as a concise state-
ment of the government, discipline and worship of the
church as taught in the Holy Scriptures, they stand un-
rivalled among all human expositions of sacred truth.
We have the demonstration of this fact in the admirable
volume recently issued by our Committee of Publication,
entitled The Presbyterian Standards, composed by a pro-
fessor in one of our theological seminaries—a work char-
acterized by the judicial fairness of its statements, the
clearness of its analysis, the simplicity of its style, and
the reverential loyalty and love for the church and its
divine head which suffuses it, in which the author makes
it plain that the duty of the church in reference to the
conversion of the world is everywhere implied in these
Standards, and may be logically inferred from their teach-
ings, inasmuch as the whole theory and trend of the Cal-
vinistic system makes the evangelization of the nations.
the chief enterprise of the church. "God, through
Christ, by the Spirit, has given the message of life to the
church, and the church in turn is to give this saving
message to the whole world." Such is the teaching of
the Westminster Standards. But if it be asked why did
not the churches into whose possession they came imme-
194
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
diately recognize their obligation, it might also be asked
why did not the churches which succeeded the apostolic
era of missionary enterprise continue to prosecute the
work which made that era the golden age in missionary
annals? Why came the ages denominated
dark,
whose darkness was made all the more visible by the
few illuminated points where apostolic fervor still sur-
vived amidst the general gloom? Why, with equal em-
phasis it might be asked, was not the Reformation of the
sixteenth century immediately followed by a great mis-
sionary revival? We might take it for granted that such
a reformation could not have been an accomplished fact
without kindling in the souls of those who had been
irradiated by its light an inextinguishable desire to send
the gospel to the benighted portions of the earth which
had never been touched by its beams. Here and there,
indeed, this desire had found practical expression in the
isolated efforts to send missionaries into fields never
trodden by the messengers of peace. But even the great
leaders of the Reformation do not seem to have had a
clear conception of the all-comprehending purpose of
their Lord in the universal extension of his kingdom or
of the corresponding obligations of his people. "All
the world" was a field so vast that the Reformed churches
just emerging from the ignorance and superstition which
had so long enthralled them, and struggling to maintain
their own existence amidst surrounding foes so formid-
able and aggressive, found enough to tax their energies
to the utmost in guarding what they had won. The
evangelization even of the contiguous nations, bitterly
hostile to the new faith, was an undertaking too great
for their resources. Even Luther at times despaired of
the universal triumph of the gospel. The gentle Me-
lanchthon left on record no statement of his anticipations.
((
>>
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
195
of the day when the kingdoms of the world would be-
come the kingdoms of their Lord. Erasmus alone, whose
birth twenty-three years before that of Luther, placed
him, as it were, on the boundary line of the Reformation
era, and who was so often irresolute when decision was
demanded and ready to compromise when truth was at
stake, was in advance of his co-temporaries in his clear
conception of the duty of the church to evangelize the
heathen world, and seemed to catch more of the spirit of
the glowing verse of David and Isaiah when, with the
light of the coming morning in their eyes, they hailed
the day when the Gentile world would rejoice in the
beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
His sweetest song
was his last, when in his celebrated missionary treatise,
published the year before his death, he rebuked Chris-
tian nations for making war upon the heathen instead of
striving to woo and win them to Christ, and so taught
the men of his generation that it was not the mailed
hand of the warrior but the ministering hand of the ser-
vants of the Prince of Peace that would ultimately rule
the world! Had this been the spirit of his co-tempora-
ries, the melancholy admission made by one of our
standard writers on missions might not have been put on
record, in which it is asserted that, "from the (Lutheran)
awakening down to the work of Carey in Serampore,
during three centuries the Reformed churches were
asleep as to missions, spending their time in internal
dissentions"; nor the admission of another historian
who declares that "as to Protestant foreign missions
the Reformation had only indirect or long-delayed re-
sults."
When after the dissolution of the Long Parliament and
the restoration of Charles II., the "Act of Uniformity"
was passed, and when the memorable day in 1662 came,
196
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
on which more than two thousand of the most learned
and godly ministers in England were ejected from their
charges (six hundred of their brethren in Scotland also
abandoning their livings), and when their congregations.
were compelled to meet by stealth, if they met at all, in
desolate fields or on the lonely mountain-side, surprise
has been expressed that when prohibited from preaching
the gospel at home they did not fly to foreign lands and
there find the opportunity denied them in their own.
land. But those who reason thus forget the insurmount-
able obstacles arising from the impossibility of co-opera-
tion, or from ignorance of openings for missionary ser-
vice in foreign lands, and the want of any base of sup-
ply and support at home. We see the providential
compensation for this hindrance in the fact that when
the tongue was silent the pen was never more active or
more efficiently employed, for that was the period when
those massive volumes of practical and polemic the-
ology were composed, learned, logical, scriptural, and all
suffused with the very sweetness of the gospel, constitut-
ing the noblest religious literature that has made any
age of the world illustrious. Among those silenced by
the Act of Uniformity were Flavel, Baxter, Owen, Char-
nock, Bates, Alleine, and Howe. None of them had
been members of the Westminster Assembly, but their
writings were the noblest commentaries on the Confes-
sions and Catechisms of that Assembly, and saturated
with their spirit. This was England's golden age of
theology, and the men who made it illustrious doubtless
rendered a more enduring service to evangelical religion
than they could have done, at that perturbed period, in
the missionary field.
We should not expect too much in the way of direct
and immediate stimulation to foreign missions from our
Ca
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
197
Westminster Standards for another reason. These
Standards, instead of being an original fountain, formed.
a reservoir into which the healthful waters from many an
ancient river emptied themselves.
We find a parallel to this in the Constitution of our
country, defining the form of government and providing
for the security of the institutions under which we have
made such progress in prosperity and power. But if it
should be asked, What were the influences which gave
birth to these institutions which constitute such a pre-
cious heritage, it would not be a satisfactory answer to
say that they were the creations of the patriots and sages
who framed our Constitution and declarations of right,
for the question would recur, From what sources did they
derive the principles embodied in these Codes and Con-
stitutions?
Did the masterly state papers, filled with philosophic
inductions and with lucid expression of the profoundest
maxims of political wisdom and unanswerable demon-
strations of popular right, such as commanded the admi-
ration of the wisest statemen in the old world, spring
spontaneously from the soil like the giant trees of the
Western forests?
We give all honor to patriot statesmen who built up
the visible structure of our government, but the noble
Constitution which they framed was not their invention.
Their task was to formulate and put down upon parch-
ment the clearest statement of the principles which had
been throbbing in the bosoms of patriots and struggling
for expression through generations of conflict for the
right. "It was,
"It was," as has well been said, "not the foun-
tain out of which the streams of liberty flowed, but the
reservoir into which a thousand little rills had been run-
ning until finally it overflowed with waters to refresh a
continent."
198
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
So we may say of the great compendium of truth
formulated by the Westminster divines. Its tributaries
from apostolic times, through all subsequent ages, though
sometimes small and often intermittent, never ceased to
flow. For purity of doctrine, conservation of what is
fittest to survive, and antagonism to all that is fittest to
perish; for condensation of great truths expressed in the
fewest words, these Standards, by the admission of those
who have no sympathy with Presbyterianism, are un-
rivalled among all uninspired writings. They gather
up the cardinal truths enunciated through all the ages
and present them in the most concise form. Their supe-
riority consists not in the originality of the truths them-
selves, but in condensing what was bes' in all the theo-
logical systems of the past, and presenting them in the
tersest and most intelligible form. We may say of the
Westminster Standards what was said of the proverbial
philosophy of many generations:
"The truth, though old and oft expressed,
Is his at last who says it best.'
Such a distillation from the divine word, like that
word itself, is the leaven which slowly, certainly, must.
pervade the whole mass until all is assimilated. "If the
vision tarry, we must wait for it," remembering that—
"Time's noblest offspring is the last."
The progress of the gospel is not always like the
march of a well-disciplined army of invasion, gaining
victories in every conflict, holding fast the strategic
points it has captured, one by one, until the whole terri-
tory is occupied. It is rather like an oriental river issu-
ing from perennial fountains and flowing on with a
deepening and widening current until it encounters the
desert sands into which it sinks and becomes apparently
--
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
199
a lost river, but only after awhile to reappear again and
resume its onward flow.
Such a temporary arrest was seen when the era char-
acterized by heroic men loyal to the truth, resolute in
defending it, not counting their possessions or even their
lives dear to them if secured by the sacrifice of principle,
was followed by another, and, perhaps, the most spirit-
less, colorless, and unattractive era in British annals.
When we are enumerating the hindrances which re-
tarded the influence of the Westminster Standards in
awakening a spirit of universal and earnest evangelism,
we must not forget to mention the almost mortal chill
which came to the church from the rise of what was
called the Moderate Party. It was a party destitute not
only of heroic enterprise, but of the strong convictions.
which make heroic enterprise possible. Fifty years be-
fore Great Britain was in the noontide of intellectual and
spiritual achievement. It was an era made luminous by
a constellation of illustrious statesmen, jurists and di-
vines-the era of Milton and Hampden and Bunyan, of
Paradise Lost and the Pilgrim's Progress and the Saints'
Everlasting Rest; the era of consecrated soldiers of the
country and of the cross, who marched to battle keeping
step to the music of Psalms; when mighty theologians.
built up those massive systems of truth which no adver-
sary could shake; when the gospel was preached with
apostolic fervor, and the church, loyal to its King, stood
like a palace built for God.
Then came the sad decline. There were, indeed,
many sincere and devout men still surviving, but the
majority of the divines of the day spent their lives, as
we are told, in writing apologies for Christianity, in
rhetorical tilts with infidels and papists, or in delivering
moral lectures such as Seneca might have inspired, and
200
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
sermons which were feeble dilutions of Plato with the
text from St. Paul.
But God had not forgotten to be gracious; the sand-
sunken river was not a lost river. Like a breath from
the everlasting hills came the evangelical revival of
which Whitfield was the outstanding representative—at
once the flower and crown, and with that time of re-
freshing came a return to the first love and to the first
works inspired by that love, so that the wilderness and
the solitary place were made glad again, and the desert
rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.
I will not dwell on the early tentative missionary en-
terprises, whether undertaken by Protestant Hollanders
or German Lutheran Pietists or zealous evangelists of
Denmark, Sweden or the British Isles. Some of these
well-meant endeavors were marred by misconceptions of
the true theory of missions; some of them were migra-
tory rather than missionary, emigrations to escape perse-
cution, or colonial, to found new states where the hope of
commercial advantages was the chief incentive, or where
the religious instruction was superficial and vitiated by
compromises with heathen rites and ceremonies, or where
mercenary motives were the inducements to profess
Christianity. And yet during all that era of imperfect
comprehension of the true methods of mission work
there were a few devout souls, far in advance of their
time, who were filled with an unutterable longing to speed
the cause of evangelization in ways which modern ex-
perience has proved to be the right ways of the Lord.
They failed because the age was not ready for them.
There is something pathetic in such failures. They re-
mind us of the strong swimmer unable to resist the
multitudinous waves of the sea, and so, unheeded and
unappreciated, they went down with their sublimest as-
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
201
pirations unfulfilled. That day, thank God, has passed.
The man who has something to say and something gen-
erous to propose will get hearers and helpers, too, and
will reap the reward of an influence multiplied by the
co-operation of sympathetic co-workers, with a whole
brotherhood about him, all swayed by one motive, all
moving compactly to one end, like David's men keeping
step with unbroken ranks in the march to conflict and
victory. It is this which makes the present the most
auspicious period of the world in which to live; it is
this which makes each individual life worth more to its
possessor and to the public than ever before. It is some-
thing to thank God for when one lives at a time when
the church regards itself a divinely organized missionary
society, whose chief aspiration is the conversion of the
world.
The true theory of missions is one that clearly recog-
nizes the fact that the great head of the church has not
only committed to it the truths necessary to salvation,
but has provided it with the government, the laws, the
offices, and the equipment for building up the kingdom.
of God and extending its conquests through the world.
This is in accordance with the spirit and teaching of the
Westminster Standards, in proof of which we need only
quote their noble testimony: "Unto this catholic, visi-
ble church Christ has given the ministry, the oracles and
ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the
saints in this life and to the end of the world; and this
he doth by his own presence and Spirit, according to his
promise, made effectual thereto." Thus are the scat-
tered sheep "gathered" from the North and the South,
the East and the West, into the safe and happy fold of
the Good Shepherd.
By its divine constitution the church is, therefore,
202
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
qualified to secure all the spiritual ends for which it was
instituted, and is in itself a missionary society of which
every communicant is a member; and as each one has a
recognized place in it because of its representative form
of government, this very fact is calculated to enlist the
sympathies, to deepen the sense of responsibility, and to
stimulate to the most earnest, practical activity on the
part of
every member of the great household of faith.
The coronation of the true missionary method came
when the great principle, so long latent in the Westmin-
ster Standards, or finding only partial recognition, re-
ceived its noblest expression when the Church of Scot-
land because the first church after the Reformation to
send forth missionaries under its own immediate appoint-
ment, thus setting its solemn seal to the truth that the
church, by its constitution and divinely-ordained pur-
pose, was a society for the maintenance and extension
of the kingdom of God throughout the whole world.
The second church, in its organized, ecclesiastical ca-
pacity, to recognize this obligation was the Presbyterian
Church of the United States.
The Rev. Dr. John H. Rice, professor in the Union.
Theological Seminary, Virginia, near the close of his life
dictated an overture to be sent to the General Assembly of
1831, with a preamble, asserting that it was the primary
and chief object of the institution of the church to com-
municate the blessings of the gospel to the world with
the efficiency of united effort, and this was followed by
a series of resolutions, the first of which was, "That the
Presbyterian Church in the United States is a missionary
society, and every member of the church is a life mem-
ber of the same, and bound in maintenance of his Chris-
tian character to do all in his power for the accom-
plishment of that object." Another resolution enjoined
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
203
upon church sessions in admitting new members to
state distinctly to the candidates that they were joining
a community the object of which was the conversion of
the heathen world, and to impress on their minds a deep
sense of their obligation, as redeemed sinners, to co-
operate in the accomplishment of the great object of
Christ's own mission to mankind.
Wonderful has been the change in the aspect of the
foreign mission field since the adoption of that principle.
A new hope, like a star, has risen on the vision of the
church, and the splendid result has been the planting of
the cross among the kindreds and tongues of every con-
tinent of the globe, and in numberless islands of the sea.
The glowing anticipations of Isaiah are finding their
historic fulfilment, as the spiritual deserts of the earth
blossom as the rose, and the solitary places, so long
silent, rejoice with joy and singing in the light and
warmth of the coming kingdom.
At the meeting of our alliance last summer in Glasgow,
Professor Lindsay said it would be well if that Council
could give to all the various churches represented in it
an account of the great work that Presbyterians, as a
corporate body, were doing for the heathen nations, and
among other things informed them that the Presbyterian
churches do more than a fourth of the whole mission
work among the heathen that is done by all the Protes-
tant churches together. He also mentions by name,
though not invidiously, three great denominations, and
asserts that the Presbyterian Church is doing more in the
foreign field than all of them combined.
It is well, also, to keep our people informed of the fact
that after the Reformation of the sixteenth century all
the Reformed churches of the world, with the exception
of the Anglican and Lutheran, adopted the Presbyterian
A
204
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
system of doctrine and form of church government, and
now those who hold that faith and form throughout
Europe, America and the Orient, constitute the largest
Protestant denomination on the globe. It surprises
many of our own people to be told this because they are
accustomed to measure the numerical strength of Presby-
terianism everywhere by what they know to be true in
our own country, where at least two denominations
greatly outnumber our own; and because many large
organizations, both in Europe and America, while not
called Presbyterian are strictly so. They may be known
by different names; they may be called Waldensian, or
Bohemian, or Dutch, or they may bear, as many of them
do, nothing more than the title, "Reformed," but they
all are as truly Presbyterian as those which are known
by that name, and when the members and adherents of
these different branches of the one family are enumerated
it is ascertained that the Presbyterian is the largest Pro-
testant church in christendom. It is true mere numbers
do not prove orthodoxy, but they become an important
factor in determining the progress of a denomination and
its hold on the public conscience as well as in forecasting
its advancement and widening influence in the future.
It is deeply gratifying to note the approval which other
denominations give to the distinctive characteristics of
Presbyterianism. This approval may not be expressed
in words, but it is tacitly given, and is an endorsement
as far as it goes. The Baptists agree with us in our
views of ministerial parity. Episcopalians and Method-
ists are in accord with us as to the subjects and mode of
baptism. The Baptist Church is, in the main, a Calvin-
ist church, and so is the Episcopal if the Thirty-nine
Articles express its doctrinal belief. And what concerns
us more just now is the virtual testimony of other de-
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
205
nominations to the value of an officer like the ruling
elder in the missionary field. The Presbyterian Church
is the only one that recognizes and makes constant and
efficient use of that officer both in home and foreign en-
terprises. When its ministers are driven away by perse-
cution or removed by death, the work need not cease
while ordained elders are there to gather the converts,
and read and expound to them the truths of God's word
and to exhort them to be steadfast in the faith of the
chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls, and to pray and hope
for the time when under-shepherds may be restored to
guide and nurture the flock.
In all Protestant non-Presbyterian denominations
there is an ever-growing tendency towards a representa-
tive church government in which the lay element is a
factor; and in the foreign field among such churches.
there is a conscious want of such an agency as that
which the eldership of the Presbyterian Church supplies,
as is demonstrated by the fact that substitutes for such
offices are called into service to give new stability and
efficiency to missionary work.
Thus in our Standards there are, doubtless, other
latent principles, unappreciated because unrecognized,
until in the providence of God new conditions and new
exigencies arise which compel attention to their value
among all Christian men who are ready to welcome and
make practical use of any methods, no matter from what
source they come, by which their work is accelerated
and crowned with greater success. Not only are these
principles potent in aggressive work, but they anticipate
and antagonize errors which at the time of the West-
minster Assembly had no existence. Among these may
be mentioned the modern theory of "the larger hope,”
or "second probation" for the heathen in the world to
206
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
come
-a theory calculated to weaken the conviction of the
need of missions among the heathen, and thus to abate the
efforts of the church to maintain them. Our Standards
give no intimation of another opportunity to hear the gos-
pel between death and the resurrection. In the case of
the righteous they assert that their souls are made perfect
at death and do immediately pass into glory. In the case
of the wicked they pass into the abode of the lost, where
they remain reserved to the judgment of the great day,
"when they shall have the fearful but just sentence of
condemnation pronounced against them." As surely as
sentence is pronounced it will be executed, and as the
result the wicked "shall be cast out from the favorable
presence of God and forever separated from the fellowship
and glory of Christ and of his saints and of the holy
angels."
Among the missionary enterprises of the eighteenth
century the most interesting, to us at least, are those
which contemplated the evangelization of the aborigines
of our own continent.
These efforts possess a pathetic and almost tragic in-
terest because undertaken in behalf of a people who were
once the sole owners of the vast domain now occupied by
the imperial States of the American Union—a domain of
which they were dispossessed partly by aggressive wars
and partly by the vices of civilization grafted upon the de-
pravity of savage life; and because whole tribes of the
people so despoiled have become extinct, while the rem-
nants, still surviving, are steadily diminishing notwith-
standing the philanthropic efforts made to arrest that de-
cline.
The translation of the Bible into the language of one
of the Indian tribes by Eliot demands our attention, be-
cause it was accomplished under embarrassments greater
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
207
than existed in the case of any other translator who ever
rendered the Holy Scriptures into the vernacular of any
people. There is not a vestige of that tribe now on
earth. There is not a human being who can now read
Eliot's Bible; and yet its translation was not love's labor
lost. That Bible has no readers, but the very language
in which its blessed truths were expressed is remem-
bered among the redeemed and glorified who here on
earth learned to chant its Psalms and adore the Saviour
it revealed. The book is silent evermore, but its story
of redemption is still celebrated in immortal songs.
The late Dr. William Graham, professor in the Presby-
terian College of London, during a visit to this country,
made a tour through the New England States and took
Northampton in his way that he might see the place so
tenderly associated with the last hours of David Brainerd.
Dr. Graham published a sketch of that wonderful man,
one of the best of the many that have appeared. Few
have seen the periodical in which it was published. Dr.
Graham says: "Three things have made the name of
Brainerd memorable-his biography by Jonathan Ed-
wards, his eulogy by Robert Hall, and his influence on
Henry Martyn, to whom he was a Protestant patron saint."
The missionary annals of the world furnish us with few
accounts of such privations as are recorded of him-thorns
exceedingly sharp, but blossoming into flowers of saintly
purity and sweetness. Renouncing positions where he
might have found congenial companionship and comfort
as well as usefulness, he chose the solitary, self-denying
life of a missionary among the Indian savages; a lonely,
consumptive man, living in a wigwam, sleeping on a bed
of straw, eating mouldy bread or sour cakes prepared by
his own hand. His experience of the most effectual
way to reach the heart even of savage hearers is instruc-
208
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
tive. He found that the terrors of the law did not
alarm them. They were men accustomed to brave all
dangers without a tremor, but floods of tears flowed from
their eyes at the recital of the love of him who came down
to earth to seek the lost, and then went up to heaven to
intercede for them. It must delight the brother who
gave us that admirable address on the Catechisms of the
church to be reminded that Brainerd, as his biographer
tells us, lodged the Shorter Catechism in the minds of
these wild men of the woods, knowing that solid piles
of doctrine must be driven into the swampy soil of the
Indian mind before any firm foundation could be secured
for the erection of a permanent superstructure.
Worn out with toil, he went to Northampton, the
home of Jonathan Edwards, to die in the twenty-ninth
year of his age. During the closing days of that life of
privation he was tenderly ministered to by the daughter
of the great theologian to whom he had been betrothed,
and still more tenderly ministered to by One who, above
all others, had loved him and above all others was beloved
in return by the dying saint, until he passed away in pace
and in pacem. Two graves, moss-grown and fir-shaded,
more than any others around them, touched the heart of
the English pilgrim with the pathos both of human and
divine love, and these were the graves of Brainerd and
that of the girl he loved, but did not live to marry.
Having endeavored to delineate the relation of the
Westminster Standards to Foreign Missions, more es-
pecially in their influence in developing the great princi-
ples which in our day and in our own church have made
the work of universal evangelization at once conserva-
tive and aggressive, and successful, too, just in propor-
tion to their conformity with apostolic models and meth-
ods, I conclude the discourse with a brief portraiture of
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. 209
་
two typical men, in whom the principles discussed found
their illustration and embodiment.
The first missionary since the Reformation sent forth by
any church in its corporate capacity and ordained to labor
in the foreign field was Alexander Duff, whose name stands
as a synonym of whatever is heroic, self-sacrificing and
saintly in missionary character and achievement. His
personal history has all the charm of romance, height-
ened by the additional charm of being not only a hal-
lowed, but a veritable, history.
Born in a valley overlooked by the peaks of Beni-vrac-
kie, hard by the battle-field where the crafty and cruel
Claverhouse fell mortally wounded, his imagination.
in early youth touched by the weird, wild songs of
Dugald Buchanan-the Ossian of the highlands-and his
heart filled with the deeper emotions enkindled by the
visions of the Apocalypse and the triumphant songs of
the innumerable multitude, he himself in later life as-
cribed to these influences the impressions which gave
color, tone and direction to much that was characteristic
of him in after years.
Of the effective use he made of these early associations
we have an illustration in the memorable address he
made before the General Assembly of the Free Church
of Scotland in 1850, twenty-one years after his ordina-
tion as a missionary to India, when he told his audience.
of the emotion with which he had listened in his boy-
hood to Jacobite songs, and his romantic devotion to
"Prince Charlie," and then vividly picturing the enthusi-
asm with which youthful warriors from "bracken, bush
and glen" rallied to their standards and of how the gory
beds and cold, grassy winding sheets of Culloden Muir
bore testimony to the intensity of their loyalty to an
earthly prince, he appealed to Highland fathers and
2.10
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
}
mothers to show a deeper, diviner loyalty in joyously
consecrating their sons to the service of the King of kings.
Of course, I cannot present even an outline of Dr.
Duff's splendid career in India; but as an orator, most
impassioned and inspired when his theme was the great-
ness and the glory of the missionary enterprise, he has
had no superior among all who have consecrated their
lives to that supreme interest of the church.
The en-
thusiasm aroused by his eloquent appeals to his country-
men after his return from India would seem to be exag-
gerations were they not attested by those who witnessed
what has been reported. Probably great audiences have
never been more thoroughly entranced by human speech
since the days so graphically described by Macaulay,
when in "the great hall of William Rufus which had
resounded with acclamations at the inaugurations of
thirty kings" Burke made the opening address "with
an exuberance of thought and a splendor of diction,"
mingled with a pathos which stirred the deepest emo-
tions of men of judicial gravity and sternest, stoical self-
control, and the more impressible portion of his hearers.
to an excitation of feeling which there was no attempt to
restrain.
So when Duff ended one of his impassioned appeals
and the audience broke out into a tempest of enthusiastic
applause, it was sometimes necessary to chasten and
temper the high-wrought emotion by the voice of prayer
by some venerable father called upon to lead the devo-
tions of the Assembly.
The testimony of one competent to form such a judg-
ment was that though it had been his privilege to hear
Fox and Pitt speak in the House of Commons in the
very zenith of their glory as statesmen and orators, he
had never heard from either a speech surpassing one
Dr. Duff had just delivered for loftiness of tone, for ar-
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. 2II
gumentative force, transcendent eloquence and overpow-
ering impressiveness.
It was the happy privilege of Dr. Duff to come nearer
to the solution of the controverted question than any one
else who ever attempted it, with regard to the use of
secular literature and science in the training of Hindoo
young men in his schools in Calcutta. He learned how
successfully to attack Hindoo superstitions by an Eng-
lish education in true science, every fact of such science
being antagonistic to and subversive of some article in
the Hindoo religion. But this was only preparing the
way of the Lord. He well knew that every item of
belief in a false religion might be annihilated, and then
leave the student nothing more than a cultivated skeptic.
His great reliance, therefore, after removing the rubbish
and stumbling-blocks out of the way, was the preaching
of Christ crucified, the wisdom of God and the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Such
was the work of this master-builder-a work solid in its
foundation, safe in its superstructure, and certain to
become demonstrably scriptural by the test of time.
was also the high distinction of Dr. Duff to be successful
in a double vocation, that of being one of the wisest and
most efficient of all workers in the foreign field, and also
the instrument of arousing an intelligent and abiding en-
thusiasm among his countrymen at home. No returned
missionary ever wrought such a revolution in public
opinion, and no one ever sent back so many volunteers
into the foreign field.
It
This gives him a unique place in missionary biography.
Around his bier Christians of all confessions met. "For
the first time in Scottish ecclesiastical history, the mem-
bers of three kirks and their moderators, in person or
through their representatives, trod the one funeral march,"
and throughout the world where the tidings of his de-
212
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
parture came, tears of sorrow at such a loss were min-
gled with thanksgivings that God had given to men such
a missionary of the cross.
The Rev. Dr. Hampden C. Dubose has rendered a
service for which the gratitude of the Christian public.
is due for publishing a memoir of Dr. John Leighton
Wilson, "for eighteen years a missionary on the Western
coast of Africa, and for thirty-three years secretary of
foreign missions in his own country." Dr. Dubose, who
has spent a large portion of his own life in the foreign
field, was well qualified by experience and by the strong.
and tender affection he cherished for the subject of his
memoir to compose a biography as deeply interesting as
it is instructive and inspiriting. The author had the ad-
vantage of much valuable information furnished him by
some of the most intimate friends and ardent admirers of
Dr. Wilson. Among these he makes special mention of
two contributions received from Drs. Adger and Dabney,
and he awakens our sympathy for both in a single sent-
ence full of pathos, in which he tell us that each of these
communications was dictated to an amenuensis, inas-
much as both of the venerable contributors were afflicted
with the loss of sight.
One of these now sits on this platform in view of this
great audience, unseen by him; my class-mate and lifelong
friend. I am comforted by the assurance that the dark-
ness which envelops him is but the shadow of God's
wing, beneath which he is all the nearer to his Father's
side and heart; and he may say in words ascribed to
another:
"Dear Lord, upon my bended knee,
I recognize thy purpose clearly shown;
My vision thou hast dimmed
That I might see
Thyself, thyself alone."
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
213
The biographer of Dr. Wilson tells us that in the
year 1734 there came to America a colony of Presbyte-
rians who settled in Williamsburg county, South Carolina,
a godly community, with piety in the home, piety in the
school, and spiritual worship in the church-a community
of Christian households, in which daughters were trained
to industry and virtue, and sons taught to speak the
truth, to fear the face of no man, and to do that which
was right in the sight of the Lord.
The father of Leighton Wilson was a planter, whose
home was the abode of plenty, contentment, and social
enjoyment; ordinarily filled with guests attracted by the
generous hospitality for which men of his class were
famed. There the boy was early developed in physical
health and vigor by the free, out-door life he lived-
fishing, hunting, riding, and engaging in all the athletic
sports in which the sons of planters in easy circum-
stances in that day delighted, whether in forest, field, or
stream. It was by manly pastimes like these, in a
climate that invited to out-door life all the year round,
that he gained the great stature to which he attained; the
deep, broad chest, and the physical vigor which never
failed him either on the African coast or in the close
confinement of the mission rooms.
p
In the history of Dr. Duff we saw how the environ-
ments of his youth had much to do in giving tone and
color to his character and in shaping the course of his sub-
sequent life. In his boyhood the influence of picturesque
scenery; the harmonies of nature heard in winds and
waterfalls and the songs of birds; the weird traditions of
primitive times; the wild minstrelsy of native bards; the
haunted glen; the ivy-mantled ruin-all these touched
his fancy and charmed the inward eye with the visions of
romance.
214
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
The surroundings of Wilson in his boyhood were very
different, but none the less potent. The songs most
familiar to his ear were plantation songs in the happy
harvest time, and still oftener the melodious and mighty
chorus of voices of the negro worshippers in the crowded
church or in the ample grove, lit up at night by flaming
pine torches. One of the uncles of Leighton Wilson was
a man whose counsels in church courts and whose in-
structive sermons, full of heavenly unction, gave him a
wide influence. He was especially happy in his dis-
courses to the colored people, in whose spiritual welfare
he took the liveliest interest. In return, their affection
for him was most fervent. They flocked to him from
neighboring plantations on communion Sabbaths, and
when the services were over they crowded around him
to grasp his hand, and lingered long after the benedic-
tion. Now we see the formative and directive influence
of early associations. It was the profound interest in
the colored people of this uncle, under whose roof young
Wilson once spent a winter, that his own missionary en-
thusiasm was kindled for the natives of the dark conti-
nent. Familiar as he was with the habits and peculiari-
ties of the negro race, among whom he was born and
with whom he found his first playmates, he was thus,
in the providence of God, trained for the splendid service
to which he devoted the prime of his life on the western
coast of Africa. There is no time now to speak of his
labors there as a teacher, translator, naturalist, and lin-
guist; of his perils by fever, flood and cannibals; of his
loneliness and depression of spirits from the death of
colleagues; but in this connection it may be well to say
something with regard to one of his memorable achieve-
ments. The English, French, Portuguese, Spaniards
and Americans were all at one time actively engaged in
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
215
the slave trade. Almost at the end of the seventeenth
century the number exported from the coast during the
year 1798 was not less than one hundred thousand.
When public opinion was aroused in Great Britain and
the United States, and a effort made to suppress the
nefarious traffic, a British squadron was placed on the
coast of Africa, but those interested in the continuance of
the trade made strenuous opposition to the retention of
the fleet on the coast, the argument being that it was in-
efficient and had failed to guard the coast or capture the
slave-trading vessels. It was at this juncture that Dr.
Wilson's intervention became effectual. His biographer
states that Dr. Wilson prepared a paper demonstrating
the efficiency of the blockade, and sent it to a wealthy
merchant in Bristol, who placed it in the hands of Lord
Palmerston. The premier directed that an edition of
ten thousand copies should be printed and widely distri-
buted in prominent circles. "The monogram proved
that the squadron had accomplished a great deal, and
urged that only the fastest ships should be stationed on
the coast. Lord Palmerston informed Dr. Wilson that
after the publication of his article all opposition in Eng-
land to the retention of the African squadron ceased.
And thus the long night of woe to the unhappy sons of
Darkest Africa ended, and the dawn of a brighter day
was ushered in. For this consummation Dr. Wilson
toiled, and prayed, and then rejoiced."
Dr. Wilson had little of the sentiment, the romance,
the brilliancy or the magnetic power so conspicuous in
Dr. Duff, but his characteristics were these: simplicity,
humility, transparency, candor, courage, decision, conse-
cration and heavenly-mindedness. Those who knew
him most intimately will testify that every one of these
traits were well-defined in him and so blended as to form
216
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
a combination of beautiful and attractive symmetry. It
may be said of him as of the prophet Elisha, "a man of
God," "a holy man of God.”
Dr. Dubose closes his charming memoir by saying:
"During the last months of his life his experience was
not that of the valley and shadow of which the Psalmist
spake, but it was rather that of the prophet who had led
his people out of Egyptian bondage, and who, standing
on Pisgah's summit, looked across the plains of Canaan
to Mount Zion and to the General Assembly of the first
born."
One of the most pleasing incidents in the history of
our late council in the city of Glasgow was an address
from the eastern section of the Executive Commission or
the Ecumenical Methodist Conference, so cordial in its
tone, so appreciative of our principles and their influence
in the work of the world's evangelization, that I cannot
refrain from referring to a portion of it:
"It is with especial gratification that we recall in the
presence of so many of its distinguished representatives
our manifold debts to the historic Presbyterian Church,
it being preeminently Protestant. Your great church
has been of necessity a witnessing church, and has
gained one of its chief distinctions in going forth 'unto
Jesus without the camp, bearing his reproach.' It has
been given to you 'not only to believe in Christ, but also
to suffer for his sake.' Your church has furnished the
memorable and inspiriting spectacle, not simply of a
solitary heroic soul here and there, but of generations of
faithful souls ready, for the sake of Christ and his truth,
to go cheerfully to prison and to death. This rare honor
you rightly esteem as the most precious part of your
priceless heritage.
"And we further glory in the thought that the great
THE STANDARDS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
217
Presbyterian Church can never cease to be evangelical,
since it has become so intensely evangelistic. Taking
the world over, Presbyterianism in the future must be
looked to as one of the very greatest and most beneficent
forces for the Christian conversion and evangelization of
the generations of mankind on every continent. We do
unfeignedly rejoice as we behold your goodly array of
churches giving the noblest of their sons, and consecrat-
ing their vast resources of learning and wealth to the
greatest, the mightiest of all enterprises, the conversion
of the world to Christ, assured that he shall yet 'reign
from the river to the ends of the earth.'"
"We close," says the address, "as we began, by pray-
ing that the Master's presence may be in all your assem-
blies; that he may prosper all your undertakings; that he
may make ‘all grace to abound toward you,' until your
cherished ideal of 'a free church in a free state' shall in
every nation under heaven be an accomplished fact, and
every citizen be taught that the chief end of man is to
glorify God and enjoy him forever."
-
•

REV. SAMUEL M. SMITH, D. D.
IX.
THE WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS CONSIDERED IN
RELATION TO CURRENT POPULAR THEOL-
OGY AND THE NEEDS OF THE FUTURE.
BY
REV. SAMUEL M. SMITH, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT COLUMBIA,
SOUTH CAROLINA.
219
ANALYSIS.
The theme a comparison.-The Westminster symbols and cur-
rent theology.-This theology a type of thought.-Its terms vague.
-Its attitude negative.--Abuses conservative theology. --Familiar
terms in new senses.-Peculiar to no church.-Has no one leader.
-Each a leader.-Good men among them.-Views held debated.
--This theology professes to be biblical.--Yet makes little use of
Scripture.--Claims to be spiritual and ethical. --Claim questioned.
-Discontent its bond.-Dislikes systematic theology.--Calvinism
still more. The divine immanence its source.-Schleiermacher
its father.-Spinoza its ancestor.--German philosophy its friends.
-Its three features.--Mysticism.--Pantheism.-Rationalism.-
Philosophical survey.--Summary.-Its doctrine of immanence
vague.—Tends to pantheism.--Miracle minimized.—Distinction
between natural and supernatural obscured.-Drummond alluded
to.--Progressive revelation.-Revelation a process.--Inspiration
modified.-Beecher criticised.-Leads to radical criticism.-Lit-
erary freedom.-Christ's mission.-Progressive revelation.-The
incarnation. The person of Christ.--The solidarity of the race.
Election rejected.-Atonement explained away.-Doctrine of sin.
---View of redemption.-The race idea.—Anthropology and sote
riology inverted.-Christian consciousness exalted.-- Divine im-
manence.--Comparative religion.--Natural law. --Process every-
where.—Eschatology reconstructed.-Current literature scanned.
-Broader views given.-Grace and law. -Restorationism fa-
vored.--The pale ghost of a spiritualized pantheism.-Special
discussion.-The divine fatherhood.-Confusion-Natural and
spiritual fatherhood. Conservative theology correct.—Sover-
eignty first.-Fatherhood next.-Scripture favors.-Passages
quoted.—Expounded.---True spiritual sonship shown.-The in-
carnation emphasized.—The atonemont ignored.--The life of
Christ more than his death.-Christ revealer only.-Not redeemer.
---Prophet, not priest.-Scripture puts stress on his death.-So
early preaching.-The cross.-Christocentric theology.-Back to
Christ.--Plausible, but puerile.---Calvinism never left Christ.---The
Scripture teaching.--Sin a fact.--Sincentric theology. --Calvinism
rightly theocentric.-Doctrine of Christian consciousness.—Cur-
rent theology reproduces Schleiermacher.-Quotations.-Bible
shorn of its authority.-Christian consciousness a figment.-A
folly. Catechism for the new theology. --The Calvinism of the
Standards must stand against it.-This will meet the needs of the
future.
-
220
IX.
THE WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS CONSIDERED IN
RELATION TO CURRENT POPULAR THEOL-
OGY AND THE NEEDS OF THE FUTURE.
T
HE topic assigned me deals with a comparison, the
terms of which are the Westminster symbols on
the one hand, and the current popular theology on the
other. The first term of this comparison has been pre-
sented already with great clearness and with signal
ability by the distinguished speakers who have pre-
ceded me, so that it may be safely assumed that at this
stage of our programme the audience has a clear and
comprehensive conception of the contents and the char-
acter of these great symbols; when the distinctive fea-
tures and salient points of the current popular theology
of the day shall have been set forth, the comparison will
have been instituted, the relation between the two will
be self-evident, and the part the Westminster Standards
must play in the needs of the future will appear implicit
in the comparison, needing, if anything, emphasis only.
Let it be said in the outset that there are certain char-
acteristics common to this theology that need to be
noted; some of them to be constantly remembered, in-
asmuch as they greatly embarrass any attempt to give
an exact and concise statement of the views therein
advanced.
Bear in mind, then, that it represents a tendency
rather than any clearly-defined system of doctrine or dis-
221
222
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
tinctly-formulated creed; it is more like a school of
thought in what seems to be a transition period. All
its deliverances are more or less vague, its terms indefi-
nite and uncertain. It is negative rather than positive,
consisting chiefly in the criticism of existing systems,.
far more successful in the discovery of weakness than in
the development of strength, more alert and acute in the
emphasis of alleged existing difficulties and objections
than capable and effective in the removal of them, tele-
scopic and microscopic alike in the vision of defects, but
myopic to a degree in the vision of any remedies that
really remedy.
Its representatives set forth with great vigor and great
plainness the faults of the conservative theology, and
they assume with equal positiveness an immense supe-
riority in behalf of the new, but just wherein exactly
this assumed superiority consists they fail with any de-
finiteness to show.
The natural effect of this vagueness is, moreover,
heightened by a free and frequent use of terms long
familiar and inseparably associated with certain fixed,
definite ideas; but they invest these terms with a new
and a different meaning, using them in a way—
"That palters with us in a double sense,
That keeps the word of promise to our ear
And breaks it to our hope."
The casual reader is very likely to be misled by such
use of the familiar terms; and failing to discriminate is
often surprised and sometimes somewhat indignant at
what he conceives to be unjust and uncharitable criti-
cism. It has no lines of theological or ecclesiastical de-
marcation; it runs through all churches and has its
representatives in all schools of theology. It is a sort
of theological cave of Adullam into which every man
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
223
that hath any quarrel with his creed doth resort with
great gladness and not seldom with some noise.
It owns, however, no David; recognizes no master;
has no accredited representatives authorized to speak for
it; puts forth no confession of its faith to which appeal
may be made. Exactly what the Westminster symbols
teach is within the compass of any intelligence willing
to study these Standards, but when one turns to the
popular theology of the day, what shall be his guide?
Its advocates well illustrate what one of their number
aptly styles the Freedom of Faith. The only way to
arrive at the views held by this school is to collect and
collate the deliverances of its most prominent and active
exponents, remembering always that no one is entitled
to speak for any other; any one of them may, with all
honesty of heart, repudiate the deliverances of all others
and earnestly contend that such views do not represent
the new theology, while with equal right any and all
others may refuse recognition to his views.
Each repre-
sentative writes as if he carried the whole Progressive
Theology immediately under the crown of his own hat.
This fact I wish to emphasize in order to guard against
individual injustice, and because, moreover, it affords
opportunity distinctly to recognize that among the ad-
herents of this current popular theology are found not
only men of diverse views, but also of very different dis-
positions and characters, among them some of sweet
spirit and devout consecration and effective service for
God and man. Let it be remembered that we deal not
with the characters of such, but only with doctrinal
views. Could such men control the discussion I should
have less to say in criticism; could such characters
counteract the effect of such views we should have less
to fear; but alas! they cannot; however sweet-spirited
224
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
men may be, logic is relentless; a conclusion is not
greatly affected by the character of him who furnishes
its premises, and these shining exceptions are sometimes.
contributing to results from which they would shrink in
horror, while their amiable and excellent character serves
only to aggravate the evil. It must be said also, that
men of this stamp are not sufficiently numerous or active
to exercise any considerable influence on the discus-
sion; for it assuredly is, in the main, anything but
sweet-spirited and amiable, and is marked by a conspicu-
ous absence of certain characteristics of the wisdom that
is from above; even if it be granted that conservative
theology has been overtaken in its faults, it can scarcely
be claimed that this effort to restore it has been especially
marked by a spirit of meekness.
One of the most constant characteristics of the discus-
sion is the absence of Scripture citation. This is the more
remarkable and peculiar when we remember that the new
theology claims for itself a preeminently biblical character
as one of its distinctive differentiæ, distinguishing it from
that of such symbols as the Westminster, which is as-
serted to be scholastic rather than biblical, while the new
claims to be exactly the reverse; but one misses greatly
that constant resort to the ipsissima verba of sacred Scrip-
ture which conservative theology has made so familiar;
we have, instead, some argument, many assertions, a mul-
titude of assumptions, but rarely ever a Scripture text; our
progressive brethren profess great reverence for the spirit
of Scripture, but they make scant appeal to its letter;
they seem to write under the conviction that "the letter
killeth," and not without cause; for if there is a single
readjustment of theirs that can survive an appeal to the
letter of God's word, I have failed utterly to find it.
Besides claiming to be more biblical, it claims also
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
225
to be more ethical, more evangelical, more spiritual; as-
serts "an increasing frankness," "a deepening sincer-
ity," "a deepening spirituality"; but this deepening
sincerity does not seem to abridge the liberty its repre-
sentatives exercise in the interpretation of their ostensi-
ble creeds, nor does their superior spirituality prevent
their drawing the stipend of a church whose windows
they break from the inside; in view of which facts they
lay themselves liable to the suspicion of having mis-
placed their somewhat vaunted "elasticity," inasmuch
as it seems to lie not so much in the creed as in the con-
science.
Having noticed that this current theology has no lines
of demarcation, we remark finally in this connection that
it has apparently no bond of union save that of discon-
tent; the spirit of the Melancholy Dane, without his
melancholy, however:
"The times are out of joint; Oh! cursed spite
That ever I was born to set them right."
In this spirit they are in heartiest accord, except that
they do not seem to consider it a cursed spite that de-
volves the duty; it is on the contrary a self-elected task
and one pursued thoroughly con amore. Amid all differ-
ences there is one thing in which they are all and alto-
gether, absolutely, cordially unanimous, viz. that con-
servative theology is in desperate need of a renascence,
and that it is their mission to meet this need; they agree
very heartily in an inveterate and virulent dislike of all
systematic theology in general and of Calvinism in par-
ticular.
:
Searching for some advantageous starting-point for a
brief but comprehensive survey of the whole field, I con-
ceive the doctrine of the divine immanence to furnish
our best approach; this rather than any other impresses
226
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
me as the regulative principle of the whole, so far as it
has any regulative principle; here, if anywhere, we shall
find a unifying element. It is a doctrine derived, doubt-
less, from Schleiermacher, who, more than any other, may
be considered the father of this new school,' This very
able and very distinguished man is a theological paradox,
one of the most wonderful eclectics the world has ever
seen, blending in his fervent soul and brilliant brain
more contradictories of feeling and of thought than any
other one man, possibly, of this prolific century. His
earliest, deepest, most abiding impressions were derived
from the Moravians; his association with them gave a
devoutness to his feeling and his thought which was
never afterwards lost. Then followed the fascinating.
influence of Spinoza's brilliant genius which graved an
indelible impress into the very heart of his philosophy.
Spinoza dominates Schleiermacher's thinking.
We then have superimposed upon these two funda-
mental, coördinate impresses the then young, though
regnant, philosophy of that day: Plato, Descartes, Kant,
Lessing, Fichte, Hegel and Schelling. These all enter
influentially into Schleiermacher's philosophic makeup,
and all leave distinct traces of their influence on him.
So that we have in this wonderful man the well-nigh
incredible blending of three utterly diverse elements,
each of the three decidedly marked and wonderfully dis-
¹Of course, I would not be misunderstood as ignoring the in-
fluence of other leaders more modern and far more prominent
in the public eye.
I desire to go to the fountain whence all
these later, lesser streams flow. If one wishes to understand
the true character of this so-called new theology, let him study
this light which dawned in 1768.
((
micat inter omnes
velut inter ignes
Luna minores."
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
227
:
tinct, viz.: Mysticism, Pantheism, and Rationalism. If
called upon to combine them into one compound, we
should be compelled to call him a mystic, pantheistic
rationalist! For though he began by putting imperious
conclusion to the long conflict between reason and faith
by the simple process of ordering the former off the field,
cutting the Gordian knot of rationalistic difficulties by
peremptorily ruling reason as an authority out of the
realm of religion utterly, yet by a bouleversement most.
remarkable he ended by presenting the world, in the
name of theology, a philosophy simon pure and one vir-
tually and radically rationalistic at that!
We have not space here for any attempt at a survey or
analysis of this system of religious philosophy; suffice
it to say with utmost brevity, that tried by the Standards
prevailing in this presence, he is, in our judgment at
least, not sound on a single doctrine. The relevance of
this statement appears when we state our conviction that
every distinctive feature of the current popular theology
reveals Schleiermacher's influence; reveals it very dis-
tinctly, sometimes very directly. He occupies practi-
cally, though not formally, substantially the same posi-
tion in the new theology that Calvin does in the re-
formed. One of the most eminent and learned advocates
of the former says unequivocally: "Schleiermacher still
utters the truth to which all that is highest in modern
Christianity responds."
Schleiermacher's doctrine of the divine immanence is
simply Spinoza's pantheism spiritualized, and in the
new theology the same doctrine appears clearly reflected,
the color remains distinct, simply paled into a lighter
shade. The descent of the doctrine is very direct;
Schleiermacher is its father and Spinoza its grandfather;
one who knows its paternal ancestry would, in any theo-
228
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
logical court, unhesitatingly swear to the legitimacy of
the offspring; it carries its credentials in its very coun-
tenance.
Just what this doctrine means in the mouths of its
advocates, we find it impossible to state with any confi-
dence. The terms and references are of the vaguest and
most indefinite kind. They allege in very general terms.
that the conservative school teaches a God remote, re-
moved from the world, shut out from his creation,
whereas the new reveals a God near at hand, the former
a God isolated, the latter a God in close connection; they
emphasize as the difference and the defect of the ortho-
dox theology that it teaches a transcendent God, the
progressive, an immanent God; when we endeavor,
however, to discover more definitely the exact difference
between the two, according to the claims of the progres-
sives, we find ourselves utterly at fault for lack of any-
thing even distantly approaching clear definition. Exact
definition is something the new theology seems to abhor
as much as the devil is popularly supposed to abhor holy
water, and which it avoids as uniformly as it does Scrip-
ture citation. In all the terms that make any show of
distinguishing between what its writers mean by this
immanence and what they are pleased to call the tran-
scendence of the old theology, their immanence takes on
the complexion of pantheism and reveals the traces of
Spinoza's influence on the great father of their school.
All of their boasted advance on the conservative doctrine
is in the direction of pantheism. I may be permitted to
interject here that in my judgment this is inevitable; for
I believe that the conservative doctrine so far from
teaching a God remote, teaches, on the contrary, a con-
nection so close and intimate that none can be closer;
the only alternative is pantheism or the practical merg-
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
229
ing of the identity of God in that of the universe.
While it may not be strictly just to call their doctrine or
the divine immanence pantheism, we feel perfectly safe.
in saying that it is pantheistic. Let us proceed, how-
ever, to our consideration of this doctrine as the regula-
tive principle of the new theology.
According to it, God is in some mysterious way unde-
fined and, perhaps indefinable, so actually, intimately,
closely interposed with some sort of a constant, habitual,
ordinary connection with the world both of nature and
of grace, that there is no need and there can be no place
for any extraordinary interposition-or "interruption'
as they prefer to style it-and hence the miracle becomes
a superfluity and an impertinence. Some would do
away with the miraculous entirely, as Schleiermacher
does in the Gospels, sweeping away every miracle in
the narrative, admitting into his whole scheme two only:
the miracle of the creation, and the miracle of the Christ.
Few go so far as this, but there is among them all a
marked disposition to minimize the miraculous; a dispo-
sition often not least influential when unavowed, appear-
ing frequently in incidental comment upon the miracles
themselves or in innocent and insinuative paraphrase of
the narrative containing them.
God being so intimately immanent, and that, too, by
virtue of so constant, so habitual, so ordinary a connec-
tion, the distinction between the natural and the super-
natural is greatly obscured, in many instances virtually,
if not formally, obliterated. Schleiermacher himself
recognized no difference whatever between natural and
revealed religion, the natural is supernatural, and the
supernatural natural; not many are so extreme as the
great leader, but there is in the whole school a constant
tendency to eliminate the supernatural, and this in every
G
:
230
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
department and in every direction. According to the
explanations and interpretations of this school a modern
Nicodemus would have small occasion ever to ask, How
can these things be? and the natural man will be amply
capable of receiving and knowing all these things, for
they are very naturally discerned. This tendency to
eliminate the supernatural is at once indicated, pro-
moted, and measured by one of the popular fads of the
day, the craze for analogies that has prevailed now for
some years—a movement that finds its full flower in the
brilliant fancies and corruscating word-play of such
writers as the late Henry Drummond.
From the same seminal source develops also the con-
ception of a progressive revelation-though I must re-
cord here my protest against such palpable perversion of
the word revelation-that the revelation of God to man
is "a continuous process through the reason, through
experience, through the courses of history, or through
the events and discipline of life," a gradual unfolding of
knowledge under favoring auspices, a perfectly simple
and a perfectly natural process, reducing what we have
been wont to call divine inspiration to mere illumination,
the product of spirituality, differing in degree not in
kind, the only difference between those who still con-
tinue to be called the inspired writers and the devout of
later ages lying in surroundings and circumstances, or
what this pretentious period loves to call "environment."
Which age has the advantage is a matter for each stu-
dent to determine for himself; some saying that the ad-
vantage lies preeminently with the disciples and apostles
of our Lord, while other some modestly affirm with
Henry Ward Beecher that they believe what Paul, e. g.,
would have believed had he lived in this day! The
logic of the position is most evidently on the side of the
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
231
latter class; revelation being like everything else a pro-
cess, going on under the influence of an immanent God,
it presumably improves with every age under the great
law of progressive dévelopment; with any such view of
revelation it is simply absurd and childish to shrink
from the implication that Beecher knew more of Christ
than Paul.
From this it is only a step, and a very short step, that
ushers us into the whole field of the most radical criti-
cism and that both explains and justifies all its methods
and all its results. We need feel no surprise, we should
experience no shock at the freedom with which the
sacred record is treated, is amended, is corrected, is im-
proved generally. Its sacredness has been "developed"
out of it; what claim has it for any special reverence?
Of course, critics who enjoy the advantage of a continu-
ous revelation cannot be reasonably expected to hesitate
at amending the utterances of men who are nearly
twenty centuries behind the present stage of revelation;
and hence we say that the most radical criticism is only
the logical and inevitable outcome of the dominant prin-
ciple of the whole school.
Closely allied with this is the view entertained of
Christ's mission into the world; it is the paramount ex-
pression of this immanence or the culminating stage of
the progressive revelation of the immanent God. (The
only difficulty being in the fact that the revelation seems
still to progress after its culmination!) "The life of
Christ was not the humiliation of the Son of God, the
divine glory concealed, as it were, behind a veil. On
the contrary, "He was the revelation of God in his
absolute glory," and we are told that "when Schleier-
macher discovered this as by a revelation, the unveiled
glory of God, the thought of ages, was reversed." Ac-
>
232
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
cording to this view of his mission, Christ is the inevit-
able and the natural flower of God's revealing purpose;
the necessary outcome of the divine immanence,
its com-
plement and its consummation.
Such being the character and the purpose of Christ's
mission, the incarnation leading and intended to lead to
a more perfect and a more permanent immanence, we
have resulting some very peculiar views of the incarna-
tion of Christ, not as the "taking to himself a true body
and a reasonable soul," but as a union with the human
race, a sort of infusion or injection of the divine into the
race, a species of genetic, organic, permanent connection
of God with mankind, with the race as a race, just as
close in its connection as was that of Adam. Here
again, and for the same reason as heretofore, we cannot
define; but the new theology refers very emphatically
and quite frequently to some such mysterious, generic
union whereby the divine immanence is by Christ's in-
carnation rendered still more intimately and effectively
immanent, with certain very decided doctrinal develop-
ments.
(1), There emerges somewhere and somehow a some-
what, which they call "The Solidarity of the Race,"
which broadens the scope of Christ's work to the utter
annihilation of all such narrowness as election, limited
atonement, and the like.
"(
'If it is a fallen world, it is also a redeemed world; if it is a
lost world, it is also a saved world; the Christ is no less to it
than Adam; the divine humanity is no smaller than the Adamic
humanity; the Spirit is as powerful and as universal as sin; the
links that bind the race to evil are correlated by links equally
strong binding it to righteousness.
>>
There is a certain sense in which that language might
be used by conservative theology, though it would de-
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
233
serve to be considered loose writing in any sense; that
the looseness, however, is not simply in the style is made
evident by the paragraph which immediately follows it:
"It (z. e., the new theology) goes in a certain manner with
the old theology in its views of common evil, but it diverges
from it in its conceptions of the redemptive and delivering forces
by ascribing to them corresponding sweep. To repeat: it does
not admit that Christ is less to the race than Adam, that the
gospel is smaller than evil. . . . It allies itself with the thought
of the present age and the best thought of all ages; that man-
kind is moved by common forces, and follows common tenden-
cies, falling and rising together in all good and ill desert, verify-
ing the phrase, the life of humanity.
+
"1"
The uniform use of the word "race," or its equivalent,
is the key to the foregoing paragraphs; the incarnation
brings about an organic connection between Christ and
the race; the union is a racial, not a personal union.
This is the far-reaching significance of the phrase, "soli-
darity of the race.”
(2), A second doctrinal result of this phase of the
divine immanence is that by this generic union of the
divine with the human there is exerted such a moral
and spiritual influence upon the race as to render the
conservative view of the corruption and depravity of our
nature an anachronism and an absurdity; it, therefore,
revolutionizes the whole of anthropology and soteriology,
and of necessity very materially modifies the doctrine of
the Holy Spirit and of his work.
(3), A third distinct result of this view of the divine
immanence, in its influence on the effects of the incarna-
tion, is seen in the begetting and development of the
modern doctrine of the Christian consciousness, as it
is called, with all its fruitage. This doctrine is re-
served for special consideration at a later stage of my
address.
234
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
This divine immanence, entering into the human race
as a race, being as wide in its scope and as universal in
its energy as the limits of mankind, the logical conse-
quence is that God reveals himself to and allies himself
with all peoples, in all ages, and in every quarter of the
world, the only difference being in somewhat differing
degrees of clearness; Christianity has no more inherent
affinity, no closer connection, with Judaism than with
any and all other ancient systems. It is merely the re-
sultant of a development going on under the steady in-
fluence of the divine immanence. Christianity, they are
fond of saying, comes not to destroy, but to fulfil, and
this with reference to all the vast variety of heathen
mythologies, not a whit less than with reference to Juda-
ism. All the so-called science of comparative religions.
is a logical outcome, and you will find it figuring natur-
ally and prominently in the new theology, with not a
hint that Judaism is any more divine in its origin than
Buddhism.
Under the dominant influence of this conception of the
divine immanence, you discover on all hands and in in-
creasing measure the disposition to bring every depart-
ment of Christian doctrine, and every phase of religious.
experience, all of providence and all of grace, under the
dominion of one great natural law, that of progressive
development; revelation is a process, the incarnation is
a process, the atonement is a process, regeneration is a
process, justification is a process, probation is a process,
judgment is a process. The entire field of eschatology
needs revision and restatement; death is not decisive of
destiny, there is no limit in time or eternity to probation,
to discipline, to development. This latter you will re-
member as one of the first departures of the new theology
to arrest attention and enlist discussion; it broke out like
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
235
a rash over the face of current literature, and for a while
was epidemic; it was simply a symptom, merely one.
feature of a perfectly consistent and strictly logical pro-
gress from the principle involved in this new idea of the
divine immanence, and the end is not yet. The pro-
gressives tell us :
"We are gaining along the heights of faith broader views of
redemption in which we may hope to comprehend and harmo-
nize the new scientific truths of the correlation of all things, and
the laws of the development of the universe.
11
God's grace is only one department of natural law,
one phase merely of the universal process; and the
whole race, as a race, under the influence of this great
natural law, sweeps on as a part of a grand cosmic de-
velopment through æons of ages towards some far-off,
divine event, undefined as yet by this theology, but
having, in my judgment, apparently but one logical
issue, viz., annihilation for countless myriads of the
human race, with some sort of a beatification for the
comparatively few favored ones whose happy lot it shall
be finally to form the ultimate crown of the infinite series.
in the measureless future! This seems the only logical
result; but the logical and theological are not always
absolutely identical, and "along the heights" of the
latter I sometimes seem to catch fugitive glimpses of
views which squint towards a species of restorationism
or universalism, as a result of the all-embracing love of
the immanent God.
Here ends our survey of the field as a whole; and our
deliberate verdict upon the scheme in its entirety, its in-
herent nature, and its logical results, must be that
nothing but the pale ghost of a spiritualized pantheism
stands between it and the doom of a blank atheism.
This conviction begets hope within us; our age has no
236
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
place for atheism, nor do we think pantheism in any
form can long be popular.
Following this general summary, I single out for
more particular emphasis in detail the developments of
this theology in several capital directions :
I. The Doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood.
They charge the conservative theology with obscur-
ing the fatherhood of God, and they claim the honor of
rescuing this doctrine from such obscuration and of
bringing it afresh and prominently before the world.
They institute a comparison between the earlier Greek
theology and the Latin, alleging the latter to be harsher,
sterner, more scholastic, less spiritual, and they assert
that under its domination the fatherhood has been buried
in the sovereignty.
I judge that there may be possibly some plausibility
at least in this charge; it is altogether likely that Latin
theology lays more stress on the sovereignty than on the
fatherhood. It is the distinguishing characteristic, and
we have been accustomed hitherto to consider it equally
the distinguishing glory, of Calvinistic theology that
beyond any other and beyond all other it emphasized
the sovereignty of God. This more than anything else
has given to Calvinism its strength and strenuousness,
its sturdiness and persistence, its reverence for God, and
its regard for man made in God's image; it is this that
makes it fear God so supremely that it fears naught
beside him, it is this that teaches a submission to God
so humble and so utter as to leave no room for submis-
sion to aught beneath him.
That God is the Father it has always taught, taught
clearly, taught constantly, taught consistently, but it
has taught that he is sovereign first, then father; a
sovereign who is also a father, rather than a father who
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
237
is also a sovereign.
There is much in this order; so
much that it colors the whole of theology; this, more-
over, is the Scripture order.
The difference between the old theology and the new
is not that the latter teaches the fatherhood more clearly,
but that it broadens it more widely; not that it emphasizes
it more strongly, but that it extends it more unlimitedly.
When, therefore, the representatives of the current the-
ology charge that conservative orthodoxy "obscures"
the fatherhood, let it be understood distinctly that what
they really mean is that it limits the fatherhood; and this
is what "an increasing frankness" and "a deepening
sincerity" ought to say. Let me add here that in such
limitation it simply follows the explicit and uniform
teaching of the Holy Scriptures.
According to the new theology the fatherhood is
broadened until it embraces the whole human race, as a
race; all mankind are the children of God. There is a
general, vague sense in which this is true, but not at all
in the sense in which the new theology teaches. One of
their most eminent representatives declares :
"Man as man is God's child, and the sin of the man consists
in perpetually living as if it were false. It is the sin of the
heathen, and what is your mission but to tell him that he is God's
child and not living up to his privilege?"
Concerning this so-called development, I have space
for only two remarks:
1. In this boasted extension of the relation, all that
ever made it precious has been developed out of it. If,
to borrow the language of the advocates of this view,
the heathen bowing down to stocks and stones is as
really the child of God as he whom the new theology
calls “the conscious child" of God, then quoad the father-
hood the whole difference is purely subjective; so far as
238
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
the objective fact is concerned, the most degraded and
debased heathen and the humblest, devoutest saint stand
in the sight of God on the same level, save in the matter
of illumination; this is what their extension of the doc-
trine means, if it means anything different from what con-
servative theology has been teaching from time immemorial.
But if it does mean this, then their extension of the doc-
trine has entirely done away with the fatherhood in any
true and proper sense by reducing in practically to the
creatorship.
2. My second remark is that the whole teaching of
Scripture is definitely and decisively against this pal-
pable absurdity.
The word of God nowhere proclaims this a privilege
common to man as man, but one bestowed on man as a
believer and upon the inexorable condition of his faith;
no man enters into it by his natural birth, but by a
spiritual birth, a being born again; he is not created a
child in Adam, but recreated a child in Christ Jesus.
Consider, e. g., the Scriptures relied upon by our pro-
gressive brethren as sustaining their view. Gal. iii. 26-29:
"26. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus.
"27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ.
"28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond
nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus.
"29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise."
Even the most cursory exegesis of that passage de-
monstrates infallibly :
(1), That the "all" addressed are professed believers
in Christ; to such are the words spoken, not to man as
man, nor even to Jew as Jew.
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
239
(2), They are said distinctly to be the children of God
"by faith in Christ Jesus'; not by virtue of birth into a
sanctified race, nor by virtue of the historic fact of an
incarnation or generic result of it, nor yet by virtue of the
fact of the fatherhood of God, but by their faith in Christ
Jesus.
(3), It is a class who have put on Christ" by a bap-
tism into him; uniformly in the Scriptures a spiritual
baptism.
(4), And by virtue of such personal union with Christ
this faith, baptism, enduement, nullifies all distinctions.
of race, sex, and caste; such as have experienced it be-
come thereby and therefrom " 'one in Christ Jesus,
what they never were, and never could have been by
>>
nature.
(5), This oneness is solely from Christ and solely in
him; he is at once the source and the sphere of its opera-
tion.
((
(6), As such they are "Abraham's seed," not Adam's ;
i. e., an elect seed; and they are "heirs according to the
promise,” a promise made not to mankind, but to one
elect family of mankind.
(7), Those who are "Christ's" are heirs, and only those.
The language could not have been more explicit, em-
phatic, and effective if it had been constructed expressly
to refute the very error it is cited to sustain.
John i. 11, 12, is another passage referred to as sup-
porting the view:
"II. He came unto his own, and his own received him not."
"12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
We are told in comment:
own.
"They were his own, but they wanted power to become his
Draw a distinction, then, between being the child of God
and realizing it."
240
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
Now, in what sense they were his own" when he
came to them? Does it mean that they were the sons of
God? Were they the sons of God when they rejected
him? (See Jno. viii. 38-44.) Was there no difference be-
tween Annas and Caiaphas on the one hand, and Peter and
John on the other, save that the latter had power to realize
that they were sons, whereas the former, though as really
sons, had not power to realize the fact? Such would seem
to be the content of the comment; but note:
(C
<C
He came unto his own (race), but his own (race) re-
ceived him not (as the Christ or Messiah), but as many
as received him, to them gave he power (ovoia not
dúraμis) to become the sons of God;" not to realize that
they were sons, but to become such; and this ¿ovoía
"right, authority, privilege," is expressly here, as else
where, limited to those that believe in his name, exactly
the same truth taught in the previous passage; by faith
they become sons of God, what they were not, and could
not have been, before they believed. Once more; James
i. 18, is quoted, "Of his own will begat he us by the
word of truth," and then it is added, "But remember, it
is a truth; true whether you believe it or not; true
whether you are baptized or not."
The obvious assumption underlying this comment be-
ing, that by "truth" in the Scripture text James means
the truth of the divine fatherhood, as referred to in the
comment, though this is so palpable a perversion as hardly
to consist with common honesty in a commentator.
"The word of truth, "in the text, most evidently means
the word of God, regularly referred to as the instrumen-
tal agency of the new birth. James does not teach in
that text that men are brought by the truth of the divine
fatherhood to realize that they are sons, but that sons
are begotten by the gospel. This text would seem, from
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
241
the very plainness of the figure used, to be beyond the
possibility of misconstruction; it ought not to be neces-
sary to emphasize, to any considerable extent, that one
could not be a child before he was begotten.
The new theology is very happy in some things, but
exegesis is not its forte.
II. One of the most Significant Departures of the New
Theology is Seen in the Emphasis it Places on the Incarna-
tion.
As between the incarnation and the atonement, con-
servative theology has always laid chief stress on the lat-
ter, regarding the incarnation, in its relation to the atone-
ment, as a means to an end; God the Son becoming the
incarnate Christ in order that he might render the atone-
ment. 'Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of
the same; that through death he might destroy him that
hath the power of death, that is the devil."
The new theology reverses the emphasis of the old,
and lays its chief stress on the incarnation; its writers
have very little to say of the atonement, and that little so
exceedingly vague that it is utterly impossible to dis-
cover, with any satisfying exactness, just what their
conception of the atonement is; so far as their allusions
go, they indicate, in my judgment, a Socinian concep-
tion. They write much as though they believed the
incarnation to be the natural, logical, inevitable crown of
a revealing process; that it would have occurred even
had there been no sin to atone for. As one says: "That
the incarnation of the Son of God was also intimately
connected with the laws of God as they are revealed in
outward nature, that his manifestation in the flesh waî
part of an immutable, eternal purpose."
One of the very latest exponents of this school prophe-
((
F
242
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
sies that in the improved theology of the future "the
incarnation will not be an expedient, but a consummation."
This phrase is exceedingly significant, not an expedient,
but a consummation! not a means to fulfil some divine
purpose, of which it was the necessary antecedent condi-
tion, but the final flower of a past process long unfolding
through the ages. Mark it, it is not the atonement that
is the consummation, but the incarnation. And of what
is the incarnation a consummation? Why, evidently, of
revelation; Christ is viewed thus not as the redeemer of
man, but the revealer of God; here is the force of the
epigrammatic contrast between expedient and consum-
mation; he is the prophet, not the priest. Here you
have the genesis and the genius of the whole soteriology
of the school, its informing spirit. This rightly appre-
hended and properly appreciated also explains its remark-
able affinity with certain hoary old heresies anent the
person of Christ. This is why Unitarianism, e. g., has.
been so ready to applaud the movement, and so prompt
to claim its representatives.
The new theology lays its emphasis on the birth, not
on the death; the manger is its focal point, not the
cross-the dreamy, poetic sentimentalism of the three
orient visitors at the cradle, rather than the awestruck
group around the cross that watched the divine tragedy
enacting between a darkening heaven and a shuddering.
earth.
M
To a reflecting mind, that this is a clear reversal of the
Scripture emphasis is evident:
1. The word of God teaches that Christ came to die.
This is one distinctive feature that, amid much that is
common to humanity, differentiates his birth from that
of all the rest of the sons of men, viz.: that whereas in
the case of every other human being death is but the
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
243
fatal catastrophe that puts summary arrest on all the
plans and purposes of earthly life, in his case it was the
fulfilment of all its plans and purposes, the crown and
the consummation of the whole, the accomplishment
unto which and until which he was straitened. When
he cried out, "It is finished," he meant not that his life
was ended, but that its purpose was accomplished, its
mission fulfilled. He came literally to die, his life was
in order to his death.
2. Beginning with the Acts, we find the apostles
plainly ignorant of this great development. The incar-
nation yields to the atonement, and the death of Christ,
in its purpose and effect, becomes the great burden of
apostolic preaching. Little is said of the life as com-
pared with the place given to the death; this is too pa-
tent to need enlarging upon; indeed, a recent writer of
the new school marks this, and himself calls attention to
it, and construes it as a mark of inferiority, indicating
rather a doctrinal departure than a doctrinal development,
and he depreciates the apostolic preaching on that account.
His criticism serves at least to make one thing clear;
either the apostles have "departed," or the new theology
has; as between the two, I am frank to say that I prefer
to "depart" and be with the apostles.
3. So dominant was Christ's death in apostolic doc-
trine, that the very words, "cross of Christ," became vir-
tually synonymous with the word gospel. This was what
Paul preached; it was this that Paul gloried in ; he de-
termined not to know anything save Christ crucified.
Had the new theology's conception prevailed then,
such phraseology could never in the world have become
current. This apostolic emphasis of the death of Christ,
so decided, so uniform, is absolutely fatal to this new
view of the incarnation; aye, more, it is a complete re-
versal of it.
244
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY,
III. Of all the Alleged Improvements Proffered by the
Current Theology, the Most Pleasing and Plausible is that
which Pleads for a Christocentric Theology.
Its rallying cry is "Back to Christ!" which certainly
has much to commend it to the devout. Were the phrase
slightly changed, and "Close to Christ," or even "Closer
to Christ" substituted, I should have less fault to find;
but the words back to Christ imply that conservative
theology has departed from Christ, illustrating a feature.
common to all their claims, viz., that every claim is, on
its obverse, a charge. As I deny the charge I challenge
the phrase. The true character of this rallying cry and
its far-reaching significance become evident when we dis-
cover that in the usage of its advocates it applies not to
the theology of the seventeenth century only, as they call
it, but also to that of the first century. It is urged not
against John Calvin alone, but also against John Calvin's
great forerunner in Calvinism, the Apostle Paul, and we
are urged to go back from Paul to Christ; this fact should
give us pause, lest we find ourselves invited to go not
back to Christ, but to go back of Christ, whither I be-
lieve not a few of the new theologists have already gone.
The allegation is made that the orthodox theology
puts an exaggerated emphasis, lays undue stress on
sin; hence the new theology calls the Calvinistic system
a sincentric, rather than a Christocentric theology. They
urge that sin is at most but an incident or an accident in
the nature and history of man, that it is not at all of the
essence of man, so to speak, and, therefore, to make all
theology turn on the doctrine of sin is to convert a mere
accident into the very essence of truth, determinative of
the whole system.
This objection has a very plausible sound, and the
assumption of philosophic terms gives it the appearance
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
245
of force, just as the semi-scientific jargon it is fond of
using gives it weight often with the popular mind; but
that it is only plausible we think is easily demonstrable
to any thoughtful hearer.
1. Admit, if you please, the charge that the conserva-
tive theology is sincentric, it is only so because the Bible
is, and it is not more so than the Bible. The word of
God might be entitled, Man's Ruin and God's Remedy.
It reveals in the very beginning man's initial sin, and
from that point, from Genesis to Revelation, it is a his-
tory of the conflict advertised in the protevangelium be-
tween the seed of the woman and the serpent; this I
conceive to be its prime purpose, all else is but inci-
dental and ancillary to this the main object of the book :
to trace the development of God's redeeming purpose
through all ages and dispensations until the volume ends,
as it began, in a paradise, descending from God out of
heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. In
the very beginning man became a sinner; from that
moment all his relations to God were those of a sinner,
all his approaches to God were the approaches of a sin-
ner, all of God's revelations to him were revelations to
a sinner, all of God's dealings with him were dealings
with a sinner. Any theology that did not take this into
account would be false to fact, and hence unfaithful to
truth. If this constitutes a theology sincentric, then
sincentric it must be. If man be such a sinner as the
word of God declares him to be, then nothing short of
this theology can suit him, because nothing short of it
can save him. What sort of theology man would have
had had he never sinned, we do not know, and we are
not greatly concerned to inquire; it is a condition that
confronts us, not a theory; conservative theology meets
that condition and meets it exactly as the Bible does.
246
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
2. The contrast between the essential and the acci-
dental is mere jugglery with philosophic terms. The
implication is that traditional theology converts the acci-
dental into the essential, an implication manifestly ab-
surd upon its very face. That this is so, is proven by
the fact that orthodox theology teaches that in the begin-
ning man was without sin, and that in the end he shall
be again free from it, that the perfect man is a sinless
man. This is the very raison d'être of its so-called sin-
centric theology.
When our enterprising brethren lay such stress on the
incidental" character of sin we could retort by remind-
ing them that the incidental may be exceedingly influen-
tial; e. g., a prosperous, active, independent mechanic
falls from a scaffold and is picked up insensible; he re-
covers, to be a cripple for life; he must lie prone upon
his back and be tended like an infant, his whole loco-
motor system is paralyzed; he may live fifty years after-
ward, sound and well in every other respect, neverthe-
less his whole after-life will be determined and controlled
by that incident, and it is of little weight to say that
such a condition is not of the "essence" of the man, and
ought, therefore, not to be determinative of his future;
it is such, nevertheless. Just so the Bible tells us that
in the youth of the world mankind suffered a fall, and
that by it his moral backbone was broken, that he has
been ever since a confirmed cripple-aye, even worse, by
far, it teaches that this "mere incident" spiritually slew
him!
T
3. Any attempted contrast between a Christocentric
theology and a sincentric seems to me singularly out
of place. The truth is, that a theology will be really
Christocentric just in proportion as it is sincentric; no
system can properly exalt Christ that underestimates.
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
247
sin. No system has ever honored the Saviour as Cal-
vinism has, and this plausible pretense of the new the-
ology sounds like the mock homage of the reed sceptre
and the crown of thorns. Calvinistic theology, however,
strictly speaking, is neither sincentric nor yet Christo-
centric; it is theocentric; for while recognizing the abso-
lute sovereignty and mediatorial supremacy of our ador-
able Lord, it looks forward to the ultimate time when
he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father. . . . And when all things shall be subdued
unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto
him that put all things under him, that God may be all
in all."
((
ܙ
IV. The Current Popular Theology gives a large place
to what it calls the Christian Consciousness.
Schleiermacher maintained that religion resides in the
sensibility, not in the intelligence, nor in the will, nor
in the active powers of man; that it is a form of feeling,
which he specified more particularly as a sense of abso-
lute dependence. This was the fundamental position of
his theology, or philosophy, rather; for his system is
more properly the latter than the former. This sense of
dependence he declared to be the essential principle of
all religion in every form, from the lowest up to the
highest. How this sense of dependence will express it-
self will depend mainly upon the degree of culture in the
individual or the community; the more enlightened and
pure a person is, the more will he be able to appreciate
what is involved in this sense of dependence upon God.
All men have naturally this sense of dependence, or God-
consciousness, as it is sometimes called, lying dormant,
to be awakened, developed, cultured and illuminated by
various agencies and influences. When this religious
consciousness, or God-consciousness, has been awakened,
248
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
developed, cultivated to a certain stage, it becomes them
the Christian consciousness.
One of his admirers among the representatives of the
current theology says:
"Schleiermacher spoke not only of a religious consciousness
in man whose primary characteristic was the feeling of depend-
ence upon God, but also of what he called the Christian consci-
ousness, the product of specifically Christian influences during
the ages of the church. The fact of a Christ, his teaching, and
the events of his life had entered into history, becoming in-
wrought, as it were, into the consciousness, as if an essential
part of its furniture. For this reason the history of the church
became the continuation of a revealing process, in which the
action of God, as the indwelling Spirit, perpetuated and de-
veloped the work of Christ."
And the admiring follower speaks of this view as
"redeeming the study of history."
The results of such views cannot be better expressed
than in the terse but comprehensive words of Dr. Hodge:
'Christianity subjectively considered is the intuitions of good
men, as occasioned and determined by the appearance of Christ.
Objectively considered, or in other words, Christian theology,
is the logical analysis and scientific arrangement and elucidation
of the truths involved in those intuitions."
(4
According to this basal principle of Schleiermacher,
Christianity is a strictly natural development, just as
really so as is agriculture; the latest forms of Christian
faith bearing very much the same relation to the fetichism
of the heathen that the agricultural implements of this
century bear to the crude devices of primitive ages. As
has already been said, Christianity was as closely con-
nected with heathenism as with Judaism; so far as in-
herent character is concerned "there was no more affinity
with it in Judaism than in the higher forms of heathen
thought."
C
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
249
Such views of the nature and the origin of Christianity
necessarily take from inspiration all its distinctive char-
acter and rob it of all that is extraordinary by reducing
it to mere illumination, the same in kind as that shared
by all believers; a mere intuition or understanding of
truth determined in degree by religious experience, de-
pending for its efficiency and its value largely upon the
character, the circumstances, the opportunities, the ad-
vantages, of the particular individual in each case.
The Scriptures have, and can have, no real authority
as a rule of faith; their chief value, indeed their only
practical value, is to stimulate men to strive after the
experience of the religious life of its writers, and thus to
attain, each for himself, a like intuition of divine things.
Any one familiar with the writings of the current
popular theology will at once recognize the exceeding
close kinship, the remarkable similarity, between the
Christian consciousness, which plays so prominent a part
in its system, and the views of Schleiermacher. Its
advocates use the term somewhat vaguely; sometimes
as if it were very nearly synonymous with human
reason, generally as though it were equivalent to the
common consent of the religious sensibility of universal
christendom, a combination of reason and feeling, the
human heart and the human intellect under the illumi-
nating and developing influences of God's grace and
providence; and this alleged common consent, as an in-
tuition, is invested with the semper, ubique, ab omnibus
attributes which constitute it in the judgment of its
advocates a court of final and supreme resort.
For example, we read:
We can go further and claim, not only that the Christian
consciousness is the organ of increasing knowledge, but also that
all statements and interpretations of truth, to be accepted, must
"
250
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
commend themselves to the Christian consciounsess.
. Its
function, then, may be considered both the development and the
testing of progressive theology.
"The Christian consciousness of to-day, which is itself a pro-
duct of the gospel, cannot be contradicted by the gospel. Hence
any theories which claim to be confirmed by the Bible, yet
against which Christian sentiment protests, should not be ac-
cepted. '
1
"The mind accepts revelation because it accepts the sub-
stance of revelation.
The reason believes the revelation
because in itself it is reasonable.
It is as legitimate for
the reason to pass judgment upon the contents of revelation, as
upon the grounds of receiving it.
It enters into the
material of revelation and plants its feet there.".
The author's own emphasis of certain words in the
preceding paragraph relieves the necessity of comment on
the part of the present speaker; nor need I pause here.
to show that, to all intents and purposes, this view of
the character and office of the Christian consciousness
puts the current theology practically and squarely on the
platform of Schleiermacher.
It is evident that the Bible is divested of all authority;
it is accepted only so far as it commends itself to the in-
dividual Christian consciousness of the reader; anything.
that he considers unreasonable, he refuses; anything not
in accord with his sentiment, he rejects; the obvious,
the inevitable result, is, that every man becomes vir-
tually the maker of his own Bible!
I shall dismiss this doctrine of the Christian conscious-
ness with two remarks:
'But how would this application of the very same logic do?
"The Christian consciousness of to-day, which is itself a pro-
duct of the gospel, cannot be contradicted by the gospel."
Hence any sentiment which claims to be the Christian conscious-
ness, yet contradicts the Bible, is thereby proven spurious and
should not be accepted.
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
251
1. I deny its very existence. It is a mere figment of
the imagination. It is constantly referred to, and de-
ferred to, as if it were a universal and unanimous con-
sensus of the Christian mind and heart, an infallible
authority, an ultimate appeal; whereas this vaunted
Christian consciousness is at best nothing more than the
clamorous claim of a comparatively small coterie of self-
confident men, who remind one of a hopeless minority in
a deliberative body, that strives to make up in noise what
it lacks in numbers; the fussy few who are the ecclesi-
astical Ishmaelites of their respective denominations.
Can any man doubt that these self-styled "progressives"
are an insignificant minority when compared with the
great body of conservative believers? Can there be any
question of the fact that the common consent of Christian
feeling, if there be such a thing, is against their views?
If I be answered that the consciousness referred to is
not that of the great body of ignorant believers, but
rather the verdict of the learned, those qualified to under-
stand such matters, my reply would be, first: That this
vacates virtually the position entirely, such an answer is
a surrender. But, second: not even can this surrender
avail, for there is among this limited class no such una-
nimity of assent as is assumed. We have the Christian
consciousness in Andover and Union (New York) Semi-
naries asserting one thing, while the Christian conscious-
ness in Princeton, McCormick, Union, (Virginia), Colum-
bia, Louisville, Clarksville, etc., asserts exactly the con-
trary.
You find this semper, ubique, ab omnibus intuition most
confidently asserting certain things through the lips or
our very progressive brother Lyman Abott in Brooklyn,
and immediately the Congregational Council, of which
he is a member, holds a meeting and gravely informs.
252
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
the world that brother Abbott's Christian consciousness
is not their Christian consciousness. Now, then, it be-
comes a very practical and a very puzzling question,
whose Christian consciousness is authority? And in this
question lies the refutation of the whole absurdity, which
brings me to my second remark :
2. The doctrine is not a figment only, it is a folly.
The criticism must be arrested here, not for lack of
material but for want of time.
In my opening sentence I stated that when the present.
stage of our discussion should have been reached, the
relation between the current theology and the West-
minster symbols would be self-evident, and that the part
the latter must play in the needs of the future would be
implicit in the comparison. If only the smallest measure
of success has attended my effort at a review of the cur-
rent theology, this relation is now seen to be clearly
that of contrast decided and complete, embracing sources,
methods and results; there is scarcely a material point
of agreement between the two; if one is right, the other
is radically and comprehensively wrong. Let the new
use the dialect of the old as it will, its meaning and in-
tent, its spirit and motive, must soon become evident; the
trade-marks of the old cannot much longer accredit it in
the esteem of any save of such as are so blind that they
will not see. We trust that their revision and restate-
ment will keep pace with their progress and will honestly
reflect that progress. We crave a speedy formulation of
their faith, one that shall fairly and fully register their
advance; let them leave their vagueness and give us
something definite; abandon the negative, the destruc-
tive, and assume the positive, undertake the construc-
tive; let them put forth their revised symbols.
We
THE SYMBOLS AND POPULAR THEOLOGY.
253
heartily commend for their consideration the following
as the first question and answer in their improved cate-
chism:
"What is the chief end of God?
God's chief end is to glorify man and to develop him for-
ever."
If such be the relation between the two systems, the
only position consistently open to the Westminster the-
ology is that of unyielding opposition; there is no possi-
bility of harmony, there ought to be no place for com-
promise; as long as it is faithful to the duty of contend-
ing earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, so
long must it resist the advance of this modern type of
theology. Like its greatest representative, it is "set for
the defence of the gospel." Its coherence of thought; its
compactness of logical structure; its definiteness and
clearness of statement; its unswerving loyalty to God's
word; its constant resort to that word as its ultimate
appeal, its final and infallible authority; its exaltation
of God as sovereign; its humbling influence on the pride.
and prejudice of man; its emphasis of the doctrines of
divine grace-all fit it to serve both as a test of truth
and as a bulwark against error, at once the safe guide
and the safeguard of pure, scriptural doctrine.
It is easy to see that when the authority of the Scrip-
tures is discredited and every man taught to mould his
theology solely according to his tastes, his sentiments,
his prejudices, there can be no assurance for the future;
there remains no standard but individual preference, and
not only theology, but even morals are at the mercy of
mere whim; every man becomes a law unto himself,
and this in religion and morals, as everywhere else, is
anarchy, and anarchy is chaos.
The Westminster theology stands prepared to present
254
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
a solid front against such error; no other system has the
inherent force to resist this rising tide as the Westmin-
ster has; it stands, therefore, to-day invested with an
importance perhaps transcending all present possible ap-
preciation, for should this new theology win the day
there is danger that the world may be ultimately orphaned
of its God as it is fast being robbed of its Bible.
The part, then, that Calvinistic theology must play in
the needs of the future is that of a granite ledge against
the insidious encroachments of a troubled sea casting up
mire and dirt; its office is to say, with the voice of that
God, whose humble mouth-piece it has been privileged
to prove in many a stormy period of the past,
"HITHERTO SHALT THOU COME, BUT NO FURTHER: AND HEL
SHALL THY PROUD WAVES BE STAYED."

REV. JOHN F. CANNON, D. D.
X.
THE INFLUENCE EXERTED BY THE WESTMINSTER
SYMBOLS UPON THE INDIVIDUAL, THE FAMILY
AND SOCIETY.
BY
REV. JOHN F. CANNON, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE GRAND AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ST. LOUIS, MO.
255
ANALYSIS.
References to Froude and Bacon.-The tree is known by its
fruits. The Westminster Standards are fully vindicated by the
test which time and experience supply.-Two modes of treating
the subject combined.-One is the argument from the doctrines
of the Standards and the constitution of man's nature. The
other is reasoning from the actual verdict of history.-Both lines
concurrent and conclusive.--The Catechisms meet the youthful
mind at a time of life when deep impressions are made.-Baxter
quoted. The first question of the Catechism strikes a high key.-
This high key is kept up all through.-The divine sovereignty
exalted. The fearful nature of sin emphasized.-Salvation by
grace made clear.-The security of the believer established.-His
glorious hope unfolded.-These doctrines tend to produce a strong
and elevated type of piety.—The Standards also give a large
place to distinctively ethical teaching.-Half the Catechisms,
almost, is ethical teaching.-The whole sphere of man's duty is
here covered.--The foundation of duty is made to rest upon the
authority of God in his word.-Beecher quoted.-History cited
to confirm this.-Many examples given.-Huguenots.-Dutch
Kapit
—
Protestants.-Puritans.- Covenanters.---Scotch-Irish.-Even re-
jectors of the doctrines of the Standards praise their ethics.--
Their very strictness one of their excellencies.-Conviction rather
than sentiment controls.-The effect on the individual is good.-
Cases quoted.--Courage produced by this teaching.-Contrast
with Arminian doctrine.-Ireland used to illustrate.-The Stan-
dards deal largely, also, with domestic and social life.-The
family made sacred.-The covenant relation of parents made
plain. On this basis the children are to be trained for the Lord.
-The value of this for the family shown."The Cottar's Satur-
day Night," to illustrate.-Good citizens are thus produced.—The
individual made right and the family held sacred have this
result. The Standards also honor the Sabbath.-The sacred day
protected. This is of great value to society in a variety of ways.
-The family and the Sabbath are the two Edenic institutions
which the Standards exalt and protect.-A solemu warning
uttered.-An earnest exhortation given.
256
X.
THE INFLUENCE EXERTED BY THE WESTMIN-
STER SYMBOLS UPON THE INDIVIDUAL, THE
FAMILY, AND SOCIETY.
a
N his celebrated essay on
Calvinism," Mr. Froude
says: "The practical effect of a belief is the real test of
its soundness." It is true of creeds, as of men, that
they are to be known by their fruits. Men do not gather
grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. Every good tree
bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth
forth evil fruit."
ܙ
((
There is a most real and vital connection between be-
lief and conduct, between creed and character. What
men believe, that they become. As Bacon says: “Truth
and goodness differ but as the seal and the print; for
truth prints goodness." The same may be said of error
and evil. Evil in conduct and character is ever the im-
print of error.
Two hundred and fifty years afford a sufficient proba-
tion for fairly testing a system of religious doctrine,
especially when that system has been tried among differ-
ent peoples and under different social and political condi-
tions. To-day we are to inquire how the Standards,
framed by the Westminster Assembly, abide this test.
How have they stood translation into real life or incar-
nation in living men and women? Have their practical
effects been such as to vindicate their right to survive
among the creeds of Christendom? What influence have
257
258
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
they exerted upon "the individual, the family, and
society," where they have been embraced? The ques-
tion may be answered in two ways:
First, we may reason a priori from the nature of the
doctrines set forth in our Standards, and from what we
know of human nature as to the moral effects which they
must produce.
Or we may appeal to history to ascertain what are the
effects which they actually have produced. We shall
try to combine these methods; although it will be readily
perceived that the subject is too extensive to receive any-
thing like exhaustive treatment within the limits of a
single discourse.
I
-
1. In the first place, in order to estimate the influence
which these symbols of faith exert over the individual
who comes in contact with them, the fact must be taken
into account that they meet him very early in his career.
The Westminster divines well understood the neces-
sity of training up a child in the way he should go in
order to insure against his departing from it in age.
They heard and heeded the risen Master's commission
to Simon Peter, "Feed my lambs." Their very best
work, in the judgment of many, is found in the provi-
sion which they made for the lambs of the flock.
Richard Baxter is quoted as saying: "If the West-
minster Assembly had done nothing more than pro-
duced the Shorter Catechism they would be entitled
to the everlasting gratitude of the Christian church."
He further expressed the opinion that, next to the Bible,
it was probably the best book in the world. Its many
excellencies, and its admirable adaptation to the purpose
for which it was framed, have been well set forth in a
preceding address, so that it is needless for me to en-
large upon it.
THE SYMBOLS AND THE FAMILY.
259
That Catechism meets the youth first of all with the
significant question, "What is the chief end of man?"
and the pregnant answer, "Man's chief end is to glorify
God and to enjoy him forever.” It has been said that
the first question in each of the most widely used Cate-
chisms of Christendom is a key to its character and con-
tents. Of the Westminster Shorter this is unquestion-
ably true. Its opening question strikes the keynote of
the whole system of doctrine which it unfolds. God is
exalted. His sovereign supremacy is asserted; he is all
and in all; his glory is the only proper end both for him-
self and all his creatures; he is not for the sake of the
creature; the creature is for his sake. As one has said,
'In all place, in all time, from eternity to eternity, Cal-
vinism sees God."
<<
G
Cla
Along with this supreme exaltation of God, the West-
minster Standards inculcate the teaching of Scripture as
to the enormity of sin, and the hopelessness and misery
of man's fallen estate. On this crucial question they go
to the root where truth and error divide. There is
nothing superficial or compromising in their treatment
of it. They make no concession to the pride of the
human heart. In proportion as God is glorious and great,
the sin of man is heinous and fatal. It is recreancy to
his supreme relation; it separates him from his God, and
hence leaves him "dead in trespasses and sins." The
sinner is lost. Left to himself his condition is one of
hopeless condemnation and woe.
Then a salvation is revealed which is all of grace; a
salvation which from beginning to end is "of the Lord."
No flesh is allowed to glory in his presence. No inch of
room is left for human boasting. But it is a salvation
which is complete. It embraces the believing sinner
in the arms of unchanging love. It secures him by the
260
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
bonds of an everlasting covenant. It gives him an in-
alienable place in the family of God. It sets before him
a hope which is unclouded by a single doubt. Now
the objection which men have urged against this scheme
of doctrine from the beginning until now is that it is un-
favorable to holiness and morality; that it takes away
all motives to godly and righteous living, and opens the
way to licentiousness.
The Scriptures distinctly refute the objection, and so
do all history and experience. Grace is the spring of
holiness, and its only spring, "The grace of God which
bringeth salvation . . teaches us," and it only teaches
the lesson effectively, "that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly in the present world.”’
(C
Love is the fulfilling of the law, and love is evoked by
grace. The only hope of our emancipation from sin,
according to the Apostle Paul, arises from the fact that
we are not under the law but under grace." The sin-
ner is in no condition to render acceptable obedience or
devoted service until all confidence in the flesh has been
completely shattered, and he has been freed from every
vestige of legal bondage, and brought into the liberty of
grace. He is only brought into this condition when he
has been humbled and then exalted, smitten, and then
healed by the doctrines of grace which are formulated in
the Westminster Standards. Hence, wherever these
doctrines have been received they have brought forth
the fruits of righteousness. What Dr. Chalmers said of
Scotland is true the world over: "Wherever there has
been most Calvinism, men have been most moral."
Another feature of our Standards which deserves to be
noticed in this connection, as a feature which makes for
righteousness, is the prominence which they give to
•
THE SYMBOLS AND THE FAMILY.
261
ethical teaching. They are an exposition not only of
doctrine but of duty. They do not treat only, as some
ignorantly suppose, of dogmas of faith. They set forth
not only "what man is to believe concerning God," but
also "what duties God requires of man." Following
the order of Holy Scriptures, having laid a foundation of
doctrine, they proceed to rear upon it a superstructure of
duty.
More than half of each of the Catechisms is devoted to
ethical subjects. The perpetual obligation of the moral
law is recognized. It is expounded precept by precept,
in the light of the Sermon on the Mount, and with a
simplicity, and precision, and spiritual insight which
have never been surpassed.
It is shown that the life redeemed and directed by
grace is not a lawless life, but is bounded and regulated
by the statutes of the Lord.
The whole sphere of human conduct is covered.
Duty is grounded on its only sure foundation-divine
authority. The conscience is commanded by the only
voice to which it owes obedience, the voice of God.
The heart is plied by the only motives to holiness that
have ever completely swayed it, motives drawn from
the cross of Christ. Surely, such teaching, when ac-
companied by the Spirit's grace, must conduce to right-
eousness of life. Mr. Beecher never spoke more truly
than when he said of Calvinism: "There never was a
system since the world stood which put upon man such
motives to holiness, or which builds batteries which
sweep the whole ground of sin with such terrible artil.
lery."
As a matter of fact, wherever this system of truth has
been embraced it has produced a noble and distinct type
of character-a type so clearly marked that secular his-
262
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
torians, with no religious bias, have recognized it, and
pointed to it as a "remarkable illustration of the power
of religious training in the formation of character." We
see it among the Huguenots of France, the Protestant
Dutch of Holland, the Puritans of England, the Cove-
nanters of Scotland, the Scotch-Irish of Ulster, and also
among the descendants of them all in our own country.
Widely as these people differ as to race and language and
national habits, there is a strong family likeness between
them, a likeness which can only be accounted for by the
fact that they were trained in a common religious faith.
And the type of character developed among them was as
pure and noble as it was distinct. It is safe to say it
has never been surpassed in the history of the world.
That they had their faults goes without saying. But
even their “failings,
failings," as Burns said of his father's, were
such as "leaned to virtue's side."
The accusations which their opponents have made
against them have, in most instances, been encomiums.
They have been criticised for being too strict and un-
compromising in their views of life and duty. But all
excellence is marked by strictness. Strictness certainly
characterizes everything which truly represents God.
The laws of nature are all strict; the laws of hygiene
are strict; and the life which would secure their benedic-
tion must be a strict life. So with the laws of morals.
Like him who ordained them they know no variable-
ness nor shadow of turning." Any pretended exposition.
of the moral nature and claims of God which is character-
ized by looseness, by that very fact brands itself as false.
Their narrowness has been unctuously deplored. But
after all is it not the narrowness of truth?
The Master himself said, "Strait is the gate and nar-
row is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there
THE SYMBOLS AND THE FAMILY.
263
be that find it." "Narrowness," it has been said, "is
often the badge of usefulness." Great leaders of men
have been narrow. Elijah was too narrow to adopt the
worship of Baal. Martin Luther was too narrow to in-
clude in his creed the errors of the Papacy. Wesley was
too narrow to sympathize with the cold ritualism of his
age. William Carey was so narrow that he had no
sympathy with the anti-mission spirit of his age. Gideon
was so narrow that he could not tolerate the idols in his
father's house, but rose in his might and tore them
down." The narrowness of Calvinists has usually been
of the same sort. One thing cannot be questioned-the
adherents of this faith have always been marked by
intelligence. It is a plain fact of history that Calvinism
and ignorance have never dwelt together in unity.
Wherever they have met, one or the other has had to
quit the field. They have been men who were possessed
and controlled by convictions rather than sentiments.
They have believed something, and have been ready to
stand for their belief against all odds. They have been
men in whom conscience was developed, who were in-
spired by a high regard for right and duty. Stanley,
the African explorer, giving his impressions of Living-
stone and Mackay, whose missionary work he had ob-
served in the heart of Africa, expressed the opinion that
Scotchmen make the best missionaries in the world;
and that what gives them their preëminent qualifications
for this arduous work is their supreme devotion to duty.
That devotion is the legitimate fruit of their religious
training.
w
Courage is another trait which to a marked degree has
characterized such as are moulded by this creed. It is
not true that "conscience makes cowards of us all."
This is true only of a bad conscience. A good conscience
264
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
makes a man a hero. He who walks in the fear of God
is emancipated from lower fears. He who believes in an
Almighty Father, who has foreordained whatsoever
comes to pass, and who through his overruling provi-
dence is preserving and governing all his creatures, and
all their actions, is made superior to those experiences of
life which cause others to quake and fear. Hence, Ban-
croft says, "A coward and a Puritan never went together."
And with them, as always, the fear of God has been
accompanied by a regard for man. Honesty, integrity,
and all social and domestic virtues have been developed
among them to a degree that is rarely seen in this selfish
and grasping world. "Men may talk as much as they
please, says Mr. Beecher, "against the Calvinists, Puri-
tans, and Presbyterians, but you will find that when they
want to make an investment they have no objection to
Calvinism, or Puritanism, or Presbyterianism. They
know that where these systems prevail their capital may
be safely invested.”
In the providence of God a most significant object les-
son has been given to the world as to the practical effect
of our Presbyterian faith, on character in contrast with
the effect of an antipodal faith, the full-blown Armi-
nianism the papacy.
Forty years ago a German traveller in Ireland wrote
that in passing from Leinster into Ulster he seemed to
have entered another world, so great was the contrast.
That contrast still exists. In the latter, one meets every-
where an intelligent, industrious, moral, and law-abid-
ing people. In the former, he is confronted on every
hand with ignorance, and poverty, and lawlessness, and
crime. Thirty thousand soldiers are quartered in Ireland,
only three thousand of them in Ulster. Four times as
many policemen, in proportion to the population, are re-
-
THE SYMBOLS AND THE FAMILY.
265
quired in the south of Ireland as in the north. There is
but one explanation of the difference: the Ulster men
have been moulded by the teachings of the Westminster
Assembly; their southern neighbors have been moulded.
by the decrees of the Vatican, and the Council of Trent.
We claim, then, for our venerable creed, that whatever
the world may say of it, it is fitted to be, and, according
to the testimony of impartial history, has proved itself to
be a character-making creed.
2. But the Westminster Standards do not concern
themselves alone with the individual; they take into ac-
count also his domestic and social relations. Green, the
English historian, says: "Home, as we conceive it, was
the creation of the Puritan." Certain it is that the ideal
Christian home has been most nearly realized in those
places where the influence of the Westminster Symbols has
been most dominant. Nor is it strange. For, first, they
jealously guard the inviolable sanctity of the marriage
bond. In an age of intolerable looseness they expounded
fearlessly and without compromise the teaching of Holy
Scripture as to marriage and divorces, and the duty or
Christians to marry only in the Lord. It is stated as a
historical fact, that "in all the history of the Puritans
there is not an example of a divorce." Thus they
cleared from its abuses, and set forth in its original sanc-
tity, that fundamental relation of the family.
Again, they seized more clearly than any other sym-
bols of faith have ever done the scriptural idea that the
family, rather than the individual, is the unit upon which
the church and society are built; that the family of the
believer is included in the provisions of God's covenant
with him; that the children of believing parents have a
place in the visible church, and that baptism, instead of
being an empty, meaningless ordinance, to be adminis-
266
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
เเ
tered indiscriminately to all children, is the appointed
sign and seal of a sure covenant between God and the
believing parent. The original charter of the church.
was, "I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after
thee." Its New Testament form is, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.”
The grace of God has ever expressed itself through a two-
fold covenant. It has not been content to offer life and sal-
vation to the individual believer, but has always included
in its offer the children whom God has given him. No
smaller gospel can adequately express the exceeding
riches of redeeming grace; no smaller gospel can per-
fectly satisfy the need of the human soul. In vain is
the message sent down from heaven to the individual
believer, "Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with
him." The parental heart will send back the auxious
question, "Is it well with the child?"
That deep yearning of the soul the gospel answers
with the assurance that as we confidently commit our-
selves, so may we commit our children, into the arms of
redeeming love. This precious feature of our holy reli-
gion the Westminster Standards clearly expound, and I
am not sure but it is their most distinctive glory. Now
when this full gospel of the grace of God is embraced ;
when Jesus Christ is accepted not only as a personal
Saviour, but also as the Saviour of the house, Joshua's
resolve becomes the natural response of the heart:
"As
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The
home takes on the character and shape of a religious
institution. It becomes a Bethel. The family altar is
reared. The rule by which the household is ordered is
the word of God. Hence, as a matter of fact, wherever
Presbyterianism has prevailed, homes have been found,
like the home of Abraham, characterized by two features,
THE SYMBOLS AND THE FAMILY.
267
A
family discipline and family worship. It is no accident
that the Cottar's Saturday Night was written by a poet
trained under the Westminster Standards, and that its
scene is laid in a land moulded by Presbyterianism.
Scotch servant-girl hearing the poem read before a com-
pany of admiring English people, naively said that she
saw nothing very wonderful about it, for that was the
way they did at her father's house every night. Such
scenes are indigenous to Presbyterian soil; and if our
beloved old church ever loses her glory, it will be when
the fires go out on her family altars.
3. From such homes as these it is needless to say
good citizens come. Children who have first learned to
show their piety at home naturally grow up to be loyal,
orderly and useful members of society. What the num-
erous springs scattered through yon western mountains
are to your broad and beautiful Catawba, such are the
pious homes of a commonwealth to its social and politi-
cal life. Hence, wherever Presbyterianism has been
planted, and has been true to her doctrinal Standards,
she has made a distinct impression upon the face of
society. She has never failed to bless the state under
whose ægis she has dwelt. Not by intermeddling in
its administration, or seeking to shape its policies, but in
a more legitimate and more effective way: by contribut-
ing to the state, men and women who fear God and order
their lives and homes according to his word.
But the Westminster Symbols have made one contri-
bution to the weal of society which is so notable as to
deserve specific mention; that is, the sanctity with which
they have invested the Sabbath-day. The fourth com-
mandment is recognized as perpetually binding, and is
enforced by the sanctions of Scripture drawn both from
creation and redemption. No other holy day is acknowl-
268
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
edged. The Sabbath alone is exalted as the one holy
day of the church-set apart not by human but by divine
appointment. The whole day, it is taught, is to be
sanctified by a holy resting, and spent in good works.
and the public and private exercises of God's worship.
Accordingly, Presbyterians the world over have had no
more distinctive mark than this that they have been a
Sabbath-keeping people.
Now the relation which this sacred institution sustains
to the welfare of society is too well understood to need
any vindication in this presence. The Sabbath law is
written as distinctly on man's nature as it ever was on
the table of stone. An observance of it is absolutely
essential to his physical, moral and social well-being.
Daniel Webster said, "The Sabbath is the bulwark of
our liberties, because it is the bulwark of morality."
Blackstone said, "A corruption of morals usually follows.
a profanation of the Sabbath." Show me a community
where the Sabbath is observed according to the teachings.
of our Standards, and I will show you an orderly, law-
abiding, and moral community. Show me one where
the Sabbath is desecrated, and I will show you one which
is a very breeding-place of anarchy and vice and crime.
The family and the Sabbath! The two institutions of
Eden which survived the wreck of the fall! They are
the two strong supports of all social order, the Jachin
and Boaz upon which human society rests. Let them
be disintegrated and social chaos inevitably follows.
These two institutions our venerable Standards exalt
as no others do. For their maintenance the Presbyterian
Church has always stood. Fathers and brethren and
Christian friends, they have been handed down to us as
a precious legacy from God-fearing ancestors. We have
received them as a high trust, to be passed on in unim-
ܕ
THE SYMBOLS AND THE FAMILY.
269
Shame upon
paired integrity to generations yet to come.
us if they suffer loss in our hands! When Isaac so-
journed in the valley of Gerar he found that the wells
which his father Abraham had digged and used had
been stopped up by the envious Philistines. They were
no longer sources of blessing and refreshment. He
showed himself a worthy son of his father by digging
them again, that they might be to him and to his all that
they had been in his father's day. He thus sought to
preserve and perpetuate the good which his father had
done. These two springs of blessing have been opened
for us, at unspeakable cost, by hearts and hands long
stilled in death. We have drunk from them and been
refreshed. But alas! the Philistines are at work to close
them up with the rubbish of earth and hinder their out-
flow of blessing. There are no institutions of our holy
religion which the great enemy of all good is attacking
to-day with more persistent or subtle malignity and zeal.
We are threatened with the dire calamity of losing the
home and the Sabbath that our forefathers know.
Does not this commemorative occasion summon us by
every sacred and inspiring motive to rise up for their de-
fence, to open them up afresh in all their original fulness.
that they may send their sweet and purifying streams
down through the coming years?

HON. WILLIAM M. COX, A. M.
XI.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM
OF DOCTRINE, WORSHIP AND POLITY ON
CIVIL LIBERTY AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERN-
MENT.
BY
HON. WILLIAM M. COX, A. M.,
RULING ELDER IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT BALDWYN, MISS.
dalala
271
ANALYSIS.
The wide scope of the theme indicated.-The Westminster
system older than the Standards.-It is Calvinism.-Its two great
postulates.-God holy and sovereign, man sinful and lost.-Re-
demption founded in God's purpose of grace.-The system a
complete philosophy. The mode of worship simple and spiritual.
Its system of polity representative.-Christ the Head of the
church.--Gradation of courts.-A balanced system.-It is popu-
lar government according to law.-Calvinism and Presbyterian-
ism have affinity.-Influence of this doctrine, worship and polity
great.—It is bold and positive. --Favors education.-Solves prob-
lems.--Compact system.-Requires study. ---Develops noble char-
acter. Reverences God.-Human government rests on Divine
authority. Noble citizens produced.-Unjust laws resisted.-
Anarchy and despotism alike opposed.---Moral sense quickened.
-Love of justice produced.-Hence civil liberty and responsible
government fostered.-Civil liberty defined.--What it guaran-
tees. History shows what Calvinism has done for civil liberty.-
Instances cited.—Presbyterian polity aided.—People trained to
self-government and for leadership.-Specific doctrines aided.—
Doctrine of sin humbles pride.--Absolutism destroyed.-Predes-
tination exalts the humble. Blind submission impossible. -
Prince and peasant alike heirs of glory.-Freedom of conscience
has same result.-God supreme.-The place and duty of civil
'magistrate.-No passive obedience.— Cases cited to illustrate.~
Calvin's great work discussed.-Its influence traced from Geneva
to Holland and Britain.-The dreadful conflict.-Fearful perse-
cutions.—St. Bartholomew's Day.-Louis XIV.-Huguenots.—
Philip II.-The Netherlands.--William the Silent.-Scotland and
Knox. England and Cromwell.-The English Revolution.-The
Presbyterians and the Independents.--The Covenanters.-The
Solemn League and Covenant.-Persecutions and final triumph
in Scotland.-The American Revolution the culmination.-The
origin and growth of the American colonies traced out.-The
Puritans and the Scotch-Irish.-The part they played in securing
civil liberty and responsible government in this country.-The
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.-Bancroft, Ranke,
Morley and Froude quoted.-The verdict of history confirms.
de
P
P
272
XI.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE WESTMINSTER SYS-
TEM OF DOCTRINE, WORSHIP AND POLITY
ON CIVIL LIBERTY AND RESPONSIBLE GOV-
ERNMENT.
HE theme assigned me is a large one.
It will be
observed that it is not the influence of the West-
minster Standards, but of the Westminster System of
Doctrine, Worship and Polity on Civil Liberty and Re-
sponsible Government which I am expected to discuss
upon this occasion,
TH
The system is older than the Standards, and in all its
essential features had been formulated long before the
sitting of the Westminster Assembly of divines.
The Westminster system of doctrine is, broadly
stated, Calvinism. It makes two fundamental postu-
lates: God, a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in
his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness.
and truth; man, a creature made in the image of God,
but fallen from his original state of innocence and bless-
edness into an estate of sin and misery; corrupted by
sin throughout his entire nature, exposed to the penalty
of God's retributive justice, and utterly and forever un-
able of himself to merit God's favor or forgiveness.
-
Correlated with these, indeed, flowing naturally out of
them, is God's gracious scheme of atonement and re-
demption, determined upon in the divine mind from all
eternity, and developed in the fulness of time by the
sending forth of the Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to
—
273
274
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
be a mediator between God and man, who, moved by
infinite love and compassion, took the place of those
whom the Father had given him, and satisfied in his
own person all the demands of the divine justice against
them. These, it holds, having been from all eternity.
predestinated unto everlasting life, are called out of the
world, regenerated by God's Spirit, justified by faith in
his Son, adopted into the divine family, sanctified by the
indwelling Spirit, and kept by the mighty power of God
against all the wiles of the wicked one to eternal life.
Why God did not elect to save all men Calvinism does
not know. It only knows that such was not his sover-
eign pleasure. Nor does it know why he chose some
and passed by others; but it is assured that it was for
reasons which satisfied the divine wisdom and the divine
goodness, and it is convinced that but for this election
and but for God's enabling grace all men alike had per-
ished, for that all alike would have rejected God's graci-
ous offer of mercy and life.
This system of doctrine is but the philosophic develop-
ment in their true relation and just proportion of all the
teachings of Scripture touching God and man, and God's
relations to and dealings with his creatures. It is but
the reduction to the crystalline form of science of that
great mass of truth contained in the Scriptures in the
fluid form of literature. If affords the rationale of Chris-
tianity. It is the science of religion.
The Westminster system of worship is marked by
great simplicity and the almost entire absence of ceremo-
nial and ritual. It sets apart one day in seven, the
Christian Sabbath, wholly to the Lord, to be employed
in the private and public exercises of religion. It assem-
bles the people reverently in their houses of worship,
where they attend with decorum and gravity while the
་
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 275
Scriptures are read and expounded by an approved min-
ister or teacher, and the congregation lead in the singing
of hymns of praise to God and the offering of prayer,
adoring his majesty and perfections, thanking him for
his goodness and mercy, making confession of sin, and
supplication for its forgiveness, and imploring his favor
for themselves and all mankind. This system lays
special emphasis upon the preaching of the word, hold-
ing it to be the power of God unto salvation. It demands
of the minister thorough preparation and great diligence.
and care that he may rightly divide the word and bring
the truth level with the understanding of the most un-
learned of his hearers. It thus makes of preaching a
mighty agency for the education of the people in the
highest wisdom and their training in godliness and true
holiness. It permits to the minister no assumption of
the priestly office. It allows no human intermediary
between the soul of man and God. It encourages all to
come into the very presence of the Deity, to approach
with boldness the throne of grace, and to worship God,
who is a spirit, in Spirit and in truth.
The Westminster system of polity is representative
republicanism. It acknowledges one, and one only,
Head of the Church, and that Christ Jesus our Lord; and
it denies that any king or pope is his vicegerent on
earth. It holds that the people are, under God, the
source of all power, and that no teacher or ruler can be
placed over them save by their consent regularly ex-
pressed. It commits the government of the individual
church to a body of elders freely elected by its members,
It groups a number of contiguous churches under the
care of a presbytery, composed of the resident ministers
and the chosen representatives of the churches. All the
presbyteries in any state or nation are, in their turn,
276
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
subject to the supervision and control of a General
Assembly, composed of the representatives of all the
presbyteries. It thus provides a gradation of courts.
from the session to the General Assembly, all of whose
members are upon a footing of absolute equality. It
secures local self-government in local affairs, and a true
and efficient central authority. It avoids the unmixed
despotism of a pope or hierarchy on the one hand, and
the looseness of congregational independence on the
other. It is throughout a system of popular government
according to law. It provides a true authority resting,
humanly speaking, in the consent of the governed, and
defined by constitutional limitations prescribed by Christ
himself, the founder and Head of his Church.
There is perfect congruity between the three systems;
while Calvinism in doctrine may be found in connection
with Prelacy or Independency in polity, and while Pres-
byterianism may be joined with Arminianism, and while
great simplicity and spirituality in worship may be, and
often is, found out of connection with either Calvinism
or Presbyterianism, it is yet true that there is a strong
natural affinity between them, and they have most often
been found together. Each seems to be in a measure de-
pendent on the others for its own fulness and perfection.
The influence of this triple system upon civil institu-
tions has been manifold and great. Of necessity it could
not be otherwise. Its influence, however, has been
largely mediate and indirect. It has affected govern-
ment as it has affected the characters, intellectual and
moral, of the peoples who live under it.
Calvinism has been the most potent educator for the
masses which the world has ever known. Nothing can
surpass it as a means of mental culture.
It cannot be
equalled in its capacity to stimulate and nourish the mental
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 277
faculties and develop intellectual power. It invites to
the study of problems the most abstruse and profound
which ever engage the minds of men. It does not deal
in barren negations; it is a bold, a positive and fruitful
philosophy; it solves all mysteries; it resolves all doubts
touching nature and her phenomena, touching man
and his destiny, by its bold assumption of one supreme
and eternally inscrutable mystery. In its doctrine
of God, the Lord Jehovah, maker and upholder of all
things, supreme and rightful ruler of the universe, who
knoweth the end from the beginning, and doeth all
things after the purpose of his own sovereign will, en-
dowed by necessity with all moral perfections, and filled
with love for his intelligent creatures, it lays a broad
and deep foundation for a true and satisfying philosophy.
Upon this it builds by the most severely logical pro-
cesses a system of truth closely knit and compacted
together, which solves the mystery of human existence
and answers the perpetual questionings of the human
consciousness. What am I? Whence am I? Whither
do I go? are questions which have perplexed the minds
of the thoughtful in all time. They are of everlasting
human interest. They will not down, but clamor for an
answer. Calvinism answers them with a fulness which
no other system does, and to the mind accepting its fun-
damental postulates the answer is absolutely conclusive.
He who would comprehend this system must gird up
the loins of his mind for strenuous endeavor. He has
undertaken no idle task, to be accomplished in an hour,
but one which will tax to the utmost all his powers of
thought, and afford exercise for a lifetime to all his
mental faculties. As a mere instrument of mental dis-
cipline it cannot be surpassed, for it lays under contribu-
tion all literature, all science, all philosophy; and, dealing
278
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
with the most difficult and pressing problems that pre-
sent themselves to human thought, it resolves them by
showing their relation to its great fundamental assump-
tion. Wherever it has been wisely and generally taught
it has mightily stimulated thought among the people and
developed among them a high order of intellectual power.
But it not only developes intellectual power, for it also
begets mental poise and balance and conduces to intel-
lectual repose.
He who accepting its great regulative
principles has traced them out to all which they logically
involve can no longer be agitated by intellectual doubts
and fears. The riddle of the universe for him has been
solved. The mystery of his own being has been made
plain. Chaos has become Cosmos.
The universe is seen to be the work of a supreme in-
telligence, and its moral government forever established.
The distinction between good and evil, between right
and wrong, between holiness and sin, is seen to be funda-
mental and everlasting, and the ultimate triumph of right
inevitable. He who has reached these conclusions is no
longer the sport of error and false doctrine.
He is no
more like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and
tossed. But his convictions are established upon a rock,
and he can exclaim, "My mind is fixed, O Lord, my mind
is fixed." But great as have been its effects in develop-
ing intellectual power and stability, its influence upon
moral character has been even greater. There is a
subtle law of our spiritual natures by which we become
assimilated to our thoughts, "As a man thinketh in his
heart so is he."
Our opinions, true or false, mightily influence our con-
duct and character. Especially is this true when men
heartily receive and hospitably entertain a great system
of truth dealing with matters of supremest moment and
P
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 279
interest, and having for its chief end the determination
of conduct in the highest concerns of life. If, now, this
system be a revelation of himself, his will and purposes
by the supreme intelligence, and be applied to the mind
and heart by his enlightening Spirit, it becomes a con-
trolling and transforming power in character and life.
Calvinists have always been noted for certain great
traits which may be taken as the natural fruitage of the
system. Chief among them is a profound reverence for
God and his authority, a profound conviction that he and
he only is to be feared and obeyed. And as under this
system all rightful human authority must be derived
from and must rest ultimately upon God's sovereign au-
thority, and as obedience to all rightful human authority
is obedience to God himself, this supreme reverence for
God is accomplished by a spirit of obedience to all just
human authority and all righteous human law. This
spirit of obedience to rightful authority has marked the
Calvinistic peoples in their civil relations in every age
and country, and has made of them orderly and law-
abiding citizens in every just government under which
they have lived. But this supreme reverence for God
and supreme allegiance to his authority begets a spirit of
instinctive resistance to all unjust authority and all un-
righteous law. These are recognized as usurpations,
which it is a duty to God to resist and put down. And
so Calvinism opposes its adherents in their fundamental
characteristics to anarchy and the license of the mob on
the one hand, and to the autocratic misrule of a despot
on the other.
-
With this reverence for God and his authority there
goes ever a keen appreciation of moral distinctions and
an abiding consciousness of human guilt, weakness, and
imperfections. Truth, justice, right, perfect holiness,
280
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
are felt to be of everlasting obligation, and absolute per-
fection the only worthy end of human effort.
The Calvinistic standard of human character is a high
one, so high, indeed, as to be recognized at once as im-
possible of attainment in this life and under present con-
ditions. But it challenges to an unending struggle with
the selfish and lawless appetites and professions of our
fallen natures, and affords the strongest possible incen-
tives to strenuous endeavor after moral excellence. It is
not too much to claim that the Calvinistic peoples have
been marked by a love of truth and justice, a devotion to
duty, an unswerving allegiance to right, a personal up-
rightness and purity of character, not surpassed by the
adherents of any other creed or system. We may with
confidence maintain that the world has never known a
higher type of stalwart manhood, nor a gentler, purer,
or more lovable womanhood than have prevailed among
those peoples into whose hearts and life has entered this
Calvinistic creed, with its commingled elements of granitic
strength and stability, and of supreme, because divine,
tenderness and grace.
It can be seen, then, that Calvinism has made a most
important contribution to the cause of civil liberty and
responsible government, by developing in the peoples to
whom it has been both a creed and a life-power those
intellectual and moral qualities without which civil lib-
erty and responsible government were forever impossi-
ble. No people can ever have a better government than
they deserve; no people can ever achieve and enjoy civil
liberty until they have learned that it does not mean un-
bridled license. Civil liberty is liberty regulated by law.
It guarantees to every citizen the full enjoyment of all
just rights and privileges, conditioned upon his own re-
cognition and observance of the rights and privileges of
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 281
others. It presupposes a high degree of popular intelli-
gence, and a general spirit of obedience to law.
Until these have been attained, the most perfect con-
stitution of government the genius of man could possibly
devise, it matters not how liberal it might be in theory,
would prove worthless in practice, and though the forms.
of freedom might be preserved, would result in despotism
and oppression.
S
It is a most notable fact in this connection that those
nations, which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
ries, that crucial epoch in the liberty of free institutions,
made the most determined struggle against absolutism
in church and state, and for civil and religious freedom,
were precisely those which had been brought most fully
under the training and discipline of Calvinism.
The freest people in the world to-day must trace their
institutions back through the England, the Scotland, the
Netherlands, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
to the Geneva of Calvin; and the England, the Scotland,
the Netherlands of the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
ries were to their heart's core intensely Calvinistic.
They won civil liberty and established responsible gov-
ernments because Calvinism had made them desire to be
free, and had fitted them to achieve and enjoy freedom.
The Presbyterian polity also contributed largely to
this end. It furnished the people in their ecclesiastical
affairs a pure type of representative republicanism. It
habituated them to self-government. It trained them to
self-restraint. It taught them independence and self-
reliance. It developed among them a capacity for leader-
ship, and a power of command which served them equally
well when applied to affairs of state.
It furnished a sys-
tem equally as well adapted to the state as to the church.
It stimulated in them a desire for civil liberty.
No peo-
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THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
ple accustomed to govern themselves in one sphere could
ever become reconciled to an unmixed despotism in the
other.
There are, however, certain specific teachings of Cal-
vinism which have had a more direct influence than those
just mentioned upon civil government, and which in the
long and desperate struggle which raged in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries between absolutism and free-
dom, played an indispensable part.
Its doctrine of sin and depravity has been the greatest
of all levellers. It includes all men under sin, from the
slave in his hovel to the king on his throne. No rank
or station, however exalted, can exempt from this uni-
versal condition. All men alike, the high and the low,
the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the
noble and the base born, are involved in the same guilt,
share the same depravity, are exposed to the same con-
demnation. In the light of this tremendous fact all
earthly distinctions disappear, and the privileges of birth
and caste are seen to be without adequate foundation.
The pretensions of the high born to an innate superiority
and consequent right to lord it over the masses are dissi-
pated, and the pride of the great is humbled into the
dust. The spell of their greatness is broken, and the
meanest peasant can see and feel that the mightiest noble,
or even the king himself, is, after all, barring the acci-
dents of birth and fortune, but a man like himself. All
men are seen to be equal in the sight of God and before
his righteous law, all men are seen to owe to God su-
preme allegiance, and to all men alike it is seen that the
same offer of mercy is made upon the same conditions.
The inference is easy, that if all men are equal before
the law of God, they should also be recognized as equals
by the law of man. Hence, there emerges clearly to
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 283
view the great axiom of modern democracy, that all
men are created equal and vested with certain inalien-
able rights. This principle, properly limited, is Calvin's
rather than Jefferson's.
But if its doctrine of sin abased the pride and hum-
bled the pretensions of the great, its doctrine of predes-
tination exalted the lowly. To the arrogance and pride.
which went with earthly power, the simple peasant, con-
scious within himself of his high calling of God in Christ
Jesus, could oppose a yet higher pride. "Though his
name did not appear in the register of heralds, it was
recorded in the book of life." Though unknown among
men beyond the limits of his lord's estate, he was known
in the councils of heaven. His name was among those
whom the Father from all eternity had given to the Son
in an everlasting covenant. He had been bought with a
great price, had been saved with a great salvation; for
in his stead the Prince of Glory had died upon the tree.
Though base born, he yet shared the highest royalty.
Though poor in this world's goods, yet all things were
his. He felt himself to be an heir of God and a joint-
heir with Jesus Christ. God himself had made him free,
and it was not within the province of earthly power to
make him a slave. And he knew that it "had not pleased
God to call many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble; but that God had chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the
weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and
base things of the world, and things that were despised
had God chosen; yea, and things which were not, to
bring to naught the things which were." And all whom
God had chosen were equals and brethren, and if any
would be great among them, he must become the ser
vant of all.
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THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
✔
This conviction stimulated in those who cherished it a
feeling of pride and a sense of dignity and worth which
upheld and sustained them under the scorn and contempt
of their earthly superiors, and enabled them, when occa-
sion demanded, to outface the pride of nobles and kings.
It transformed the hind into a man and a hero, and,
when the days of fierce fighting came, it filled the armies
of Condé, of William the Silent and of Cromwell with
yeomen, artisans and shop-keepers fit to stand against
the chivalry of Europe.
Another principle of Calvinism which has made an
important contribution to the cause of civil liberty is its
teaching concerning freedom of conscience, that "God
only is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from
the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in
anything contrary to his word or beside it in faith or
worship." This is involved in the entire Calvinistic con-
ception of man in his relations with God. It is of the
very essence of Calvinism. It is a principle which is
utterly subversive of the spiritual over-lordship of Pope
and hierarchy and of all pretensions upon the part of the
civil power to control the subject in matters of religion.
In its logical outcome it limits the authority of the
state strictly to matters secular, and leads inevitably to
the entire independence and separation of church and
state.
Intimately connected with its teaching concerning
freedom of conscience is its doctrine of the civil magis-
trate. It holds that he is a minister of God ordained to
be under him over the people for God's glory and the
public good, that he is armed with the power of the
sword for the defence and encouragement of them that
are good and the punishment of evil-doers, and that he
is to be obeyed in all his lawful commands.
There is a
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 285
vast deal contained in that last clause. It places a sharp
limitation upon the duty of the subject to the ruler, and
saps the very foundation of absolutism. If the civil
magistrate is to be obeyed in his lawful commands, he is
to be disobeyed in those which are unrighteous and un-
lawful and contrary to God's law of right and truth.
Calvinism is perfectly consistent with itself and the
written word in holding that we ought to obey God
rather than man.
Calvinists have never held the craven doctrine of pas-
sive obedience. The Reformed or Calvinistic churches
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries stood practi-
cally alone in teaching that tyrants were usurpers and
were to be resisted and deposed. Luther himself coun-
seled non-resistance to tyranny, declaring that a wicked
tyrant was better than a wicked war. The prelates of
the Anglican Church, when the liberties of Britain and
the world were trembling in the balance, prostrated
themselves at the feet of a wicked tyrant, proclaimed to
the world that he could do no wrong, and exhorted the
people to submit while their ancient liberties were tramp-
led in the dust, the constitution of their country sub-
verted, and themselves subjected to the irresponsible
power of a corrupt, ruthless despotism.
But Calvinism proclaimed resistance to tyrants to be
obedience to God. It nerved the people to undying op-
position to absolutism in church and state, and trans-
formed a simple peasantry into the most magnificent
fighting force in Christendom.
When in the sixteenth century the human intellect,
roused by the renascence of the ancient learning from
the torpor of centuries, and freed from the shackles of
superstition, began to devote itself to the earnest and
reverent study of God's word, especially when the truths
286
THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
of that word loosely scattered upon its surface were by
the transcendent genius of Calvin gathered up and
wrought into a system, at once the true science of reli-
gion and the highest and most faithful philosophy ever
promulgated among men, the seeds of revolution were
scattered broadcast over Europe. Again was to be veri-
fied the saying of the Master, that he had not come to
send peace on earth but a sword.
While the system dealt chiefly with the relations of
men to God, it involved also incidentally their relations
to each other. While concerned chiefly with the life to
come, it did not disdain to teach men their rights in the
life which now is.
In common with all Protestantism it was a revolt
against spiritual sovereignties, but it went further and in
its essential principles assailed the foundations of all
despotism, civil as well as ecclesiastical. Radiating
from Geneva, it spread rapidly over Central and Western
Europe and the British Islands. Wherever it obtained
a foothold it roused a spirit of opposition to civil despot-
ism, as well as ecclesiastical domination. No more
radical system had ever been promulgated, nor one more
fitted to stir society as then constituted from centre to
circumference. It struck at the root of all errors, whether
in the church or state. It was at once instinctively re-
cognized as the natural enemy of all irresponsible power;
and it was perceived by princes and prelates alike that,
if permitted to run unchecked, the world's dynasties and
hierarchies were doomed, and that Europe must soon
pass from the domination of kings and popes to a gov-
ernment in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs by the
people and for the people.
This would have been a blessed consummation, but
the powers of darkness were all roused to prevent it, and
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 287
in their furious onslaught the cause of civil liberty and
human progress was held back for generations, and
throughout the larger and fairer parts of Europe either
hopelessly checked or grievously wounded and distorted.
There is nothing in human annals of more surpassing
interest than the united struggle of the papacy and the
great Catholic monarchs to beat back and stamp out the
flaming truths of Calvinism, and to overwhelm and ex-
terminate its adherents. The fires of the Inquisition
prevented its ever getting a firm footing in Italy or
Spain. It was soon throttled in Belgium, in Bavaria,
in Bohemia, Austria, and Poland. It struggled long
and desperately in France. The Calvinists of that
country struggled for decades with what seemed an un-
conquerable courage to vindicate their right to live as
freemen and worship God according to the dictates of
their own consciences. They poured out their blood
like water.
"It has been reckoned," says Jonathan Edwards,
"that about this time within thirty years there were
martyred in this kingdom, for the Protestant religion,
thirty-nine princes, one hundred and forty-eight counts,
two hundred and thirty-four barons, one hundred and
forty-seven thousand five hundred and eighteen gentle-
men, and seven hundred and sixty thousand of the com-
mon people." What a holocaust of victims ! What a
contribution upon the part of Presbyterians and Calvin-
ists of martyrs to civil liberty and freedom of conscience.
In one day, the never-to-be-forgotten 24th day of August,
1572, upon signal given by the cathedral bell, there
were butchered in cold blood seventy-five thousand men,
women, and children by the minions of the Pope and
with the consent of the king. This terrible atrocity was
deemed worthy by the Pope of special commemoration by
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THE WESTMINSTER Assembly.
the striking of a medal and services of thanksgiving in the
churches of Rome. But it needed no special commemora-
tion. The friends of human rights will never let it be for-
gotten. The massacre of St. Bartholomew will stand while
men love justice and right and freedom of thought and of
conscience, as the monumental crime against the rights of
humanity. It is a damned spot which all great Nep-
tune's ocean could never wash out. It is a flaming
beacon light to warn all the generations of the future.
But the odds against the Calvinists were too great.
They were conquered, but for a time were not utterly
destroyed. Some measure of toleration was extended
them until Louis XIV. revoked the edict of Nantes,
formally suppressed the reformed religion, and banished
every Protestant pastor from the realm. This blow
practically destroyed the Reformed Church in France.
It was followed by an enormous emigration of the
Huguenots to the immense gain of every country which
received them, but to the everlasting undoing of France.
She has never recovered, can never recover, from the loss
of their piety, their pure morality, their stability and
strength of character, their patriotism, their aptness for
all the arts of peace and war. In her madness, she had
thrust out her best. France has been ever since like a
ship without ballast, wallowing in the waves, which
ever and anon threaten to engulf her. After the Revo-
lution and the Terror, after her wild dreams of conquest,
after her overthrow and humiliation by her ancient
enemy, she again has peace. She has also the forms,
but she lacks the genius and spirit of freedom. She is
passing from the first place in Europe to one of compara-
tive imbecility, while her place is taken by a nation of
purer faith and sterner morals.
Cotemporary with the persecution of the Huguenots
4.
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 289
in France was the effort of Philip II., head of the Austro-
Spanish monarchy, to suppress the reformed religion in
the Netherlands. This brave, enterprising, and intelli-
gent people had early received the Calvinistic system in
its entirety. They speedily renounced their spiritual
subordination to the Pope and sympathized deeply with
their co-religionists in other countries in their efforts to
win freedom of conscience and worship. But they were
not to be permitted to enjoy this sight themselves with-
out first passing through the fires of a persecution unsur-
passed in atrocity, and waging a defensive warfare for
decades not less desperate, but in the end more fortunate
than that of the Huguenots. 'Philip, who was a most
bigoted Catholic, had made it the purpose of his life to
destroy Protestantism and dragoon the peoples of Europe
back into spiritual dependence upon Rome, while at the
same time he utterly destroyed all their aspirations for
civil liberty. He sent against the brave Hollanders not
only the best equipped and most veteran troops in Europe,
but also the most experienced and skilful generals then
living. He employed in his crusade against the schis-
matics not only all the arts of honorable warfare, but
also the axe of the executioner, the knife of the assassin
and the torch of the incendiary. The brutality, the lust,
the terrible atrocity of the Spaniards upon the taking and
sacking of towns and cities had passed into history under
the name of the Spanish Terror. The cruel Alva boasted
that besides the multitudes slain in battle he had com-
mitted eighteen thousand to the executioner, and this
because they feared God more than they feared Philip,
and preferred to die rather than to play traitors to the
truth. The brave Hollanders, under their great stadt-
holder, William the Silent, struggled on amid terrible
reverses till Leyden alone of their principal cities held
290
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
!
out.
This city was closely invested and was near its
fall, and when Leyden should fall the good cause would
be irretrievably lost. In this dire extremity their spirit.
equalled their peril. They resolved to invoke the aid of
the elements. They cut the dykes which held back the
North Sea. A mighty tempest from the northwest rolled
in the raging waters and Leyden was saved. They
saved their freedom though they drowned their land;
and under the princes of the House of Orange they built
up a great Protestant commonwealth which long served
as a mighty bulwark against all the aggressions of abso-
lutism, and furnished an asylum to fugitives from reli-
gious persecution from all the countries of Europe.
They eventually furnished the prince under whom the
liberties of the British people were firmly secured.
While these things were happening upon the conti-
nent a work was being done across the channel in Scot-
land, which has made of her an inspiration to the lovers.
of civil and religious freedom the world over, and has
borne most notable fruit for these three centuries. John
Knox, the third of the great triumvirate of reformers,
after a season spent at Geneva, where he had enjoyed the
tuition of Calvin had mastered his system and caught his
spirit, returned to his native land. He labored diligently
and fearlessly for the spread of the truth, and with so
much success that Scotland was won for the Reformed
faith and Presbyterianism fully established. So tho-
roughly was the work done that three centuries and
more have not been able to undo it, and the consequent
change in Scottish character and life was so great as to
have been likened to a resurrection from death. But let
Carlyle speak, "In the history of Scotland, too, I can
find properly but one epoch. We may say that it con-
tains nothing of world interest at all but this Reformation
1
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 291
by Knox. A poor barren country, full of continual
broils, dissensions, massacrings. Bravery enough, no
doubt, fierce fighting in abundance, but not braver nor
fiercer than that of their old Scandinavian sea-king an-
cestor—a country in the last stage of rudeness and desti-
tution nothing developed in it but what was rude,
external, semi-animal-and now at the Reformation the
internal life was kindled under the ribs of this outward
material death. This that Knox did for his nation we
may really call a resurrection from death. The Puri-
tanism of Scotland became that of England, of New
England.
“A tumult in the High Church at Edinburgh spread
into universal battle and struggle over all these realms.
After fifty years struggling there came out what we
call the glorious revolution, habeas corpus act, free par-
liaments, and much else. Alas, is it not too true what
we said that many men in the van do always like Rus-
sian soldiers march into the ditch at Schwiedmitz and
fill it with their dead bodies, that the rear may pass over
them dry-shod and gain the honor.
"How many earnest, rugged Cromwells, Knoxes, poor
peasant Covenanters, wrestling, battling for very life in
rough, miry places, have to suffer, and struggle, and fall,
greatly censured, bemired, before a beautiful revolution of
eighty-eight can step over them in official pumps and silk
stockings, with universal three times three.”
>
Presbyterianism in Scotland was one of the chief fac-
tors in vindicating the liberties of the British people. It
has always been obnoxious to the Stuart dynasty, who
regarded it as inimical to monarchy. "Presbytery,'
said James I., "doth consist with monarchy as well as
God with the devil." The attempt to suppress it in the
interest of prelacy precipitated the civil war, which
292
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
ended as all know in the overthrow of the king and his
execution by Parliament for treason against the laws and
liberties of England.
This great struggle was upon the part of Parliament a
war by the Calvinists of Scotland and England against
absolutism in church and state, and for civil and religous
freedom. For whatever the names by which the adhe-
rents of Parliament were known, whatever their views
upon church polity, they were at one upon doctrine, and
were strongly Calvinistic. That this is true is amply
verified by the Westminster Standards, promulgated un-
der the auspices of the Long Parliament, which we this
day celebrate.
This is not the occasion to discuss the differences
which sprung up between the Presbyterians and Inde-
pendents. It can never be known whether had the views
and plans of the former prevailed, England would have
had as the immediate result of the war a limited monar-
chy, with ample guarantee for the liberties of the sub-
ject, and the Revolution of 1688 been anticipated for more
than a generation. But it is evident that such was their
hope and purpose.
The Independents, however, triumphed through the
genius of Cromwell, who for some years, as Lord Protec-
tor gave to England a government of great power, vigor,
and wisdom, but which was after all as thorough-going
a despotism as that which Charles I. lost life and crown
in seeking to establish. The restoration of Charles II.,
after the death of Cromwell, and consequent overthrow
of the commonwealth, was for the time the utter undoing
of all for which the Puritans had fought, and introduced a
worse despotism than that of Charles I. The Presbyte-
rians, especially, felt the utmost severity of the royal
displeasure.
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 293
The Stuarts, though a Scottish house, had always
hated and feared the Scottish kirk, and now for twenty-
eight years Charles, and afterward his brother James,
exhausted every resource of craft and power to break the
spirit of the Scottish people, destroy their national church,
and root out the last vestige of Presbyterianism from the
realm.
The patient endurance, the inflexible resolution, the
unshaken constancy, the heroic devotion of the Presby-
terians of Scotland under this fiery ordeal constitute one
of the marvels of history.
All Scotland was reddened with blood. Claverhouse
and his troopers, like ravenous wolves, pursued God's
elect through crags and fens. Eighteen thousand suf-
fered martyrdom for the truth. Men, women and chil-
dren were shot, were hanged, were beheaded, were
thrust through with the sword, were drowned in the
tide. This persecution recalls the suffering of God's
ancient people. Paul seems to have been uttering pro-
phecy as well as recording history when he said, "And
some had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea
also of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned,
they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with
the sword. They wandered about in sheep skins and
goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom
the world was not worthy). They wandered in deserts
and in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.” But
they conquered in the end. Had they proven recreant
to the truth, had the stern old covenanters once yielded,
the cause of civil and religious freedom would have met
a reverse from which it might never have recovered.
But they kept the faith, and succor came. Through
their initiative and assistance the Revolution of '88 was
made an accomplished fact. Through their invincible
·294
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
courage and unyielding constancy they won for them-
selves freedom of conscience and worship, and prepared
the way for the general diffusion of civil liberty through-
out the English-speaking world.
But the chief act in the great drama was the American
Revolution and the founding of the American Republic.
Here the political principles of Calvinism have been most
fully wrought out, and their beneficent effects most fully
realized. Here, for the first time in history, the church
has been made entirely independent of the state, and the
fullest freedom of conscience guaranteed to all men.
Here the Calvinistic principle of representative republi-
canism has been fully accepted; and through it has been.
secured local self-government in local affairs, together
with a true and efficient central authority, while at the
same time it has avoided imperial centralization with its
inevitable tendency to despotism on the one hand, and
the excessive multiplication of petty sovereignties with
their conflicting interests and pretensions on the other,
and the perpetuity of our institutions seeming now to be
secured, absolutism is doomed. The principle of civil
liberty and responsible government is triumphant, and
nothing remains among civilized peoples but the gradual
working of it out in detail. While the credit for this
grand result does not belong exclusively to any one race
or sect among the American people, it is yet true that
the influences which brought it about were predomi-
nantly Calvinistic and largely Presbyterian.
The population of the colonies at the time of the Re-
volution had been drawn most largely from Calvinistic
sources, had been brought up under Calvinistic disci-
pline, and had imbibed freely of Calvinistic ideals. When
we remember that the Puritans of New England, the
Dutch of New York, a full half of the Germans of Penn-
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 295
sylvania, Maryland and Virginia, the Scotch of New
Jersey, the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, Virginia and
the Carolinas, the Huguenots of South Carolina (but
these people were scattered in considerable numbers
through all the colonies), were all of them Calvinists,
and practically all of them save the first-named were
Presbyterians, we are prepared to appreciate the part
borne by Calvinists and Presbyterians in the vindication
of American rights and the establishment of our free in-
stitutions.
to
The part borne by the Puritans of New England in
the agitation which led to the war is common history,
and need not be recounted here. It is not so generally
known that the Presbyterians in all the colonies were,
a man, the early and steadfast friends and champions of
American rights, and were the first to declare for com-
plete independence. The Presbyterian ministers con-
tributed largely to the success of the Revolution by
preaching the duty of resisting tyranny, and inspiring
the people with confidence in God's overruling care and
protection.
The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were the first to adopt
a policy looking to the severing of all connection with
the mother country.
The Scotch-Irish settlers upon the Watauga and the
Holston Assembly at Abingdon in January, 1775, re-
solved that "we are resolutely and unalterably determined
never to surrender our inestimable privileges to any
power on earth but at the expense of our lives."
The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of Western Pennsyl-
vania, assembled at Hanna's Town in May, 1776, re-
solved to oppose by force of arms the aggressions of the
British Parliament, and to coincide in any scheme that
might be formed for the defence of America.
296
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
We
The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the good county of
Mecklenburg, in the brave State of North Carolina, as-
sembled in May, 1775, in the then hamlet, but now
beautiful and historic city of Charlotte, and within ear-
shot of your place of assembly, and adopted a Declara-
tion of Independence and a well-digested scheme of gov-
ernment; and they did this more than a year before
Washington and Jefferson had ceased to hope for a re-
conciliation with the mother country, or the Continental
Congress sufficiently mastered its fears to renounce its
allegiance to the British crown. Bancroft is fully war-
ranted in declaring that the first voice publicly raised in
America for severing all connection with Great Britain
came not from the Puritans of New England, nor the
Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but
from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.
The Mecklenburg declaration will stand while free
institutions endure as a monument to the devotion of
Presbyterians to civil liberty and responsible government.
But the lapse of time admonishes me that I must bring
this address to a close. Though tempted to go more
fully into the history of the war of the Revolution and
the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and to show
more in detail the part borne by Calvinists and Presby
terians both in field and council, I must desist, lest I
weary you overmuch, nor can I, though the theme be an
inviting one, consume more of your time to show the
need of Calvinism for the future as a great conservative
power to resist the disintegrating influence now at work
in all civilized states, tending to the denial and subver-
sion of all legitimate authority and the bringing in of
anarchy and the wild license of the mob. I must be
content to quote in support of the main contention of
this address the testimony of some eminent, competent,
and disinterested authorities.
THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 297
Bancroft, the historian of the United States, in speak-
ing of Calvinism, calls it "the system which for a cen-
tury and a half assumed the guardianship of liberty for
the English-speaking world"; and again he says that
"the genius of Calvin infused enduring elements into
the institution of Geneva, and made of it for the modern
world the impregnable fortress of popular liberty, the
fertile seed plot of democracy."
John Morley, the great radical, has recently declared
that "Calvinism saved Europe.
Ranke, the historian of the Popes, asserts that "John
Calvin was virtually the founder of America.'
Froude, the English historian, in his lecture on “Cal
vinism" at St. Andrew's University, used this language:
"I shall ask you again why, if it be a creed of intel·
lectual servitude, it was able to inspire and sustain the
bravest efforts ever made by men to break the yoke of
unjust authority? When all else has failed, when patri-
otism has covered its face and human courage broken
down, when intellect has yielded, as Gibbon says, with
a smile or a sign, content to philosophize in the closet
and abroad to worship with the vulgar, when emotion.
and sentiment and tender imaginative piety have become
the handmaids of superstition, and have dreamt them-
selves into forgetfulness that there is any difference.
between lies and truth, this slavish belief called Calvin-
ism has in one or another of its forms borne ever an in-
flexible front against illusions and mendacity, and has
preferred rather to be ground to powder like flint than to
bend before violence or melt under enervating tempta-
tion."
})
ܕ
Upon these conclusions of history, I am satisfied to
rest the case.

MA
*W
JAL
بوری
STAI

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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