RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Westminster Assembly
of divinity. Only one bishop was seen in the assembly and one doctor of divinity, Dr. Daniel Featley (q.v.), who, however, was expelled for offending against the assembly’s law forbidding the divulgence of its proceedings. The prelates had been forbidden by Charles to attend. (2) The Erastians, including the great scholars, John Lightfoot and John Selden (qq.v.), who, with Erastus of Heidelberg, regarded the State as the final seat of authority in ecclesiastical matters. (3) The Independents, few in number but powerful in debate, including Philip Nye and Thomas Goodwin (q.v.), later Cromwell’s chaplain, both of them returned from exile in Holland. This group, called “ the five dissenting brethren,” fought Presbyterianism with great tenacity and acumen. They withdrew after the Presbyterian polity was adopted. (4) The Presbyterians, who were preponderant from the beginning and gained in strength. In their number were William Twisse (q.v.), the prolocutor of the body; Herbert Palmer (q.v.), popularly regarded as the chief author of the Shorter Catechism; Stephen Marshall (q.v.), a great preacher and the chief gobetween for the assembly and parliament; and Joseph Caryl (q.v.), the author of the voluminous commentary on Job. (5) The Scotch commissioners, including the élite of the Scotch clergy, appointed by the assembly, namely, Alexander Henderson (q.v.), rector of Edinburgh University; Robert Baillie (q.v.), the Boswell of the assembly, principal of Glasgow University; Samuel Rutherford (q.v.), professor at St. Andrew’s; and George Gillespie (q.v.), parish minister in Edinburgh. Rey. Robert Douglas, the fifth clerical delegate, did not attend. The two lay delegates were Lord Maitland and Sir Archibald Johnstone. Of the latter, his nephew, Bishop Burnet, said that he often prayed in his family two hours at a stretch. The Scotch were the most vigorous element in the assembly. They acted in agreement and demanded a place on each of the committees, a demand that was granted. They had a great advantage from the start. Parliament in its struggle with Charles had turned to Scotland for help. To the parliamentary delegation was added a delegation from the assembly which called upon the Scotch to take part in its proceedings. In accepting the invitation, the Scotch made their own terms which were embodied in the Solemn League and Covenant. This famous document, drawn up by Alexander Henderson, stated as its object to defend the Reformed religion in Scotland in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, and “ to secure a reformation of religion in England and Ireland according to the Word of God and the practise of the best Reformed churches,” and to bring the two countries “ into the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, confession of faith, form of church government, directories of worship, and catechizing.’ The aim of the Scotch was to establish Presbyterianism in England and in its work the assembly followed the program laid down in the five particulars of the Solemn League.
The members were chosen by parliament, as were also the prolocutor and the two clerks. The assembly met every week-day except Saturday, and “commonly ” sat from nine in the morning till one
or two in the afternoon. A table stood in the middle of the room at which were seated the prolocutor and the clerks. Benches ran down the room on
each side, the Scotch sitting in a body
Mode of on the moderator’s right. The mem-
Procedure. bers of parliament sat on chairs near, the fire. Usually sixty were present. No one was admitted to the sittings without an order from parliament. The rules provided that no question should be brought to a vote the day it was proposed, and that speakers should make their statements good from Scripture. There was freedom of debate and the speakers spoke as long as seemed to them good. Baillie declares that they “harangue long and learnedly.” The body was , divided into three committees, to one of which each member belonged, and through these committees the business was brought before the main body. Fast-days were frequently appointed on which religious services were conducted during the day without pause. Baillie speaks of such a day (May 17, 1644, the devotions lasting from nine to five) as the sweetest day he had experienced in England. Up to Feb. 22, 1648, the assembly held 1,163 sessions. The body then seems to have closed its appointed work, but continued an irregular existence as a board of triers for examining ministers until 1652, when it seems to have expired of inanition. Fuller says “it dwindled by degrees and vanished with the parliament.”
The assembly produced five disciplinary and doctrinal statements. At the direction of parliament, it first set itself to revise the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (q.v.). When it reached Article XVI. it
was ordered by the same body to turn
Its Work. aside and devote itself to the prepara-
tion of a statement on church government which the Scotch regarded as the key to the situation. The result was the “ Propositions concerning Church Government and Ordination of Ministers,” which was sent to parliament in completed form Novy. 8, 1644. Parliament took many liberties with the document and sent it back to the assembly for amendment. It was not finished till 1648. By order of parliament the Confession of Faith was taken up in Aug., 1644, and presented to the commons Dec. 4, 1646. The assembly was instructed to add the Scripture proofs and the document was completed Apr. 29, 1647. The Scotch assembly approved it in 1647 and the Scotch parliament in 1649. The English parliament adopted it with some changes 1648. The “ Directory for the Public Worship of God ” was completed at the close of 1644 and approved by the English parliament for England and Wales Jan. 3, 1645, and a month later by the Scotch general assembly. It gave prescriptions for the conduct of public worship and other clerical functions and set aside the prescribed liturgical forms of the Book of Common Prayer. The two Westminster Catechisms, called the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, were prepared simultaneously with the Confession of Faith. It was at first proposed to prepare but a single one, but the assembly, yielding to the feeling expressed by Rutherford, that it is hard “ to dress up meat and milk in the same dish,”’ prepared two. The impression still
Westminster Assembly THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 324
Westminster Standards
prevails that the assembly succeeded in putting much strong meat into both documents.
At the suggestion of parliament the assembly also adopted Rous’ version of the psalms, a version which was produced by Sir Francis Rous, himself a member of the house of commons (see Hymnouoey, IX., § 2).
(1) Parliament nominated the members, proposed the business of the assembly, revised its work, provided the rules by which it was to conduct business, and appointed its officers. (2) The work of the as-
sembly failed in the land which gave
Things to it birth. Under Cromwell, Independ-
be Noted. ency ruled, and, in 1660, episcopacy
was reestablished as the law of England and the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion were again enforced. Puritanism produced Milton and the Pilgrim’s Progress, but it has never since been an organized force till the last half-century. The Presbyterian Church of England has no historical kinship to the Westminster Assembly and is of recent organization. (8) The four outstanding principles emphasized by the assembly are the authority of the Scriptures, which is set forth in a noble form of statement, the sovereignty of God, the rights of conscience, and the sole jurisdiction of the Church within its own domain. The statement of the last two principles easily includes more than the framers intended. When the assembly insisted that ‘‘ God alone is the Lord of the conscience,” it did not mean to issue a brief of religious toleration. The Puritan churches of America were far from any such idea, and Baillie declared “ that such a thing as tolerating all and any religion was so prodigious an impiety that this religious parliament can not but abhor the very naming of it.’ The assembly’s assertion of the jurisdiction of the Church over its own affairs did not involve for the men of that day the idea of the separation of Church and State.
The Westminster symbols still remain the canonical books of the Presbyterian churches throughout the world (the word “ Presbyterian ”’ being taken in a narrower sense than the expression ‘‘ Reformed Churches ”’), but not without important modifications not only in the text of the Confession of Faith, but also in the practical usages in worship and church government, The text of the Catechisms remains,
but the Larger Catechism is now seldom committed to memory and little read. The Westminster symbolical books are the compact historical expression of the Puritan impulse of Great Britain, which was Calvinistic in doctrine and anti-episcopal in government. ’ Davin 8. Scuarr.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sources: The official manuscript records of the Westminster Assembly were long supposed to have perished in the London fire of 1666, but were discovered in London in the library of Dr. Williams in three folio volumes, and were edited in part by A. F. Mitchell and B. Struthers as Minutes of the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Edinburgh, 1874. This volume contains the doctrinal debates; the minutes containing the debates on church government and discipline are not yet published. J. Lightfoot, Journal of the Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines (July 1, 1643—Dec. 31, 1644), in his Works, ed. Pitman, vol. xiii., London, 1824; G. Gillespie, Notes of the Debates and Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines and Other Commissioners at Westminster (Feb. 2, 1644—Jan. 3, 1645), in Presbyterian Armoury, ed. D. Meek, vol. ii., Edinburgh, 1844; the Journals of the house of lords and house of commons, 1643-49; R. Baillie, Letters and Journals, ed. from the Author’s Manuscripts by D. Laing, vols. ii.—iii., Edinburgh, 1841-42; A. F. Mitchell and J. Christie, Records of the Commissions of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland 1646-49, 2 vols., ib. 1892.
Consult further: J. Reid, Memoirs of the Westminster Divines, 2 vols., Paisley, 1811-15; W. M. Hetherington, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Edinburgh, 1843, 5th ed., revised by R. Williamson, 1890; C. A. Briggs, in Presbyterian Review, 1880, pp. 127-164; A. F. Mitchell, The Westminster Assembly, its History and Standards, London, 1883, new ed., Philadelphia, 1897; W. W. Henry, The Westminster Assembly, New York, 1897; Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly, 1647-1897, ib. 1897; Addresses at the Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Westminster Assembly, ib. 1898; Schaff, Creeds, i. 725-811; B. B. Warfield, in Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 1901, pp. 226 sqq.; W. Beveridge, Short Hist. of the Westminster Assembly, Edinburgh and New York, 1904; idem, Makers of the Scottish Church, ib. 1908. Note also Cambridge Modern History, iv. 356-363, 897, New York, 1906. The subject is illumined by accounts in T. Fuller, Church Hist. of Britain, century xviii., book xi., London, 1655 and often; D. Neal, Hist. of the Puritans, ed. J. Toulmin, 5 vols., Bath, 1793-97; J. B. Marsden, Hist. of the Early Puritans, and Hist. of the Later Puritans, 2 vols., London, 1850-52; A. P. Stanley, Memorials of Westminster Abbey, ib. 1868; T. McCrie, Annals of English Presbytery, ib. 1872; J. Stoughton, Hist. of Religion in England, vol. i., new ed., London, 1881; T. Leishman, The Westminster Directory, Edinburgh, 1901; W. H. Hutton, The English Church (1626— 1714), pp. 124 sqq., ib. 1903. The largest collection of works relating to the Assembly, including sermons by its members before parliament, is in Union Theological Seminary, New York City.