FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Sectiwi lOllaZ K APR 23 1932 '' THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY ITS HISTORY AND STANDARDS BEING Eljc 13airti Hecture for 1882 ALEXANDER F. MITCHELL, D.D., LL.D. .lERITUS PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, ST. MARY's COLLEGE, ST. ANDREWS; JOINT EDITOR OF " MINUTES OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY," " MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY," ETC. SECOND EDITION, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR PHILADELPHIA PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK 1897 Copyright, 1897, Trustees Presbyterian Board of Publication AND Sabbath-School Work PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. A FEW years ago, when the Free Church in Scotland was occupied in discussing the terms of subscription to the Confession of Faith and in adjusting a Declaratory Act thereanent, I was asked by several of its ministers to republish these Lectures on the Westminster Assembly and the Westminster Standards, which even then were nearly out of print. But circumstances at the time prevented me from complying with their request. Having recently learned that no more copies remain for sale, and that there is still a demand for the book among my brethren in the large Presbyterian Churches in America, I have had much pleasure in complying with the request made by the Presbyterian Board of Publication that I would allow them to republish the Lectures ; and, so far as possible in the time at my disposal, I have done my best to make them more worthy of the acceptance of my " kin beyond the sea." PREFATORY NOTE TO THE FIRST EDITION. When appointed Baird Lecturer for 1882, the Author chose as the subject of his Lectures, " Epochs in the History of the Reformed Church of Scotland." But the state of his health during 1 88 1, and his desire to complete without delay his researches on the Westminster Assembly — a subject which had engaged his attention for some years, and on which he had previously given lectures on both sides of the Atlantic — led him to ask that he might be allowed to substi- tute that subject for the one first chosen, and to write additional lectures on it. To this the Trustees most kindly consented, and seven addi- tional lectures were prepared, which with those previously written make up the present volume. His best thanks are due to the Trustees, as well for the indulgence they have shown him as for the kind aid they have promised to help forward the publication of the remainder of the Minutes of the Westminster Assembly. His thanks are also due to old friends at Cambridge, Oxford, and the British Museum for much kind aid in vlii Pj^efatory Note to the First Edition, the prosecution of his researches, as well as to a young friend in St. Andrews for revising the proof-sheets of this volume. In the first three lectures the author has given a succinct account of English Puritanism from its origin to the meeting of the Westminster Assembly, and in the tenth lecture he has given a similar account of the history of doctrine in the British Churches during the same period. But throughout he has endeavored to give prominence to aspects of the history which have hitherto been generally overlooked, and to treat more briefly of those which have been previously dwelt on. It goes without saying that while thankfully own- ing the good that has been done by the great men of other schools, he has strong sympathies with the worthies of the Puritan or Low Church School, which in the i6th and 17th centuries did so much for the revival of earnest religious life and the maintenance of evangelical doctrine, and which, notwithstanding later reverses, has continued to exercise a benign influence and to permeate with "its own seriousness and purity" English society, literature, and politics.^ ^ The liistory of English progress since tlie Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been the history of Puritanism." — Green. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Ordinance calling the Westminster Assembly . . . xiii LECTURE I. Origin of Puritanism, its Development and History under the earlier tudor sovereigns i LECTURE n. Development and History of Puritanism under Queen Elizabeth 32 LECTURE HL History of Puritanism under the earlier Stuart Kings 62 LECTURE IV. Preparations for and summoning of the Westminster Assembly 99 LECTURE V. Opening of the Assembly; its Proceedings and Debates while engaged in revising the ihirty- NiNE Articles, and the Solemn Lea(;ue and Covenant 132 X Contents. LECTURE VI. PAGE Arrival of the Scottish Commissioners, Taking of THE Solemn League and Covenant, Consequent Extension of the Commission of the Assembly, Debates on the Office-bearers and Courts of THE Church 174 LECTURE VIL The Directory for the Public Worship of God, and Proceedings of the Assembly and Parliament THEREUPON 219 LECTURE VIIL Treatises on Church Government, Church Censures, AND Ordination of Ministers 254 LECTURE IX. Debates on the Autonomy of the Church, the sole supremacy of its Divine Head, and the right OF its Office-bearers under Him to guard its Purity and administer its Discipline: Queries ON jus divinum OF Church Government .... 278 LECTURE X. The Assembly's Confession of Faith or Articles of Christian Religion : Part L Introductory His- tory of Doctrine, and detailed account of the preparation of the Confession 335 Co7ttcnts, xi LECTURE XI. PAGE The Assembly's Confession of Faith or Articles OF Christian Religion: Part II. Irs Sources AND Type of Doctrine: Answers to objections brought against it 380 LECTURE XII. The Assembly's Catechisms, Larger and Shorter . . 418 LECTURE XIII. Conclusion and Results of the Assembly 442 APPENDIX. Note A, Puritans and Puritanism 495 Note B, Travers AND Hooker 497 Note C, Millenary Petition and Conference on it . 499 Note D, The Pilgrim Fathers 501 Note E, Laud and the Scots 502 Note F, The Irish Massacres ^ 503 Note Addiitonal, Description of Assembly 504 Note G, Presbyter Theory of Eldership 505 Note H, Power of Magistrate circa sacra 508 Note I, Liberty of Conscience and Toleration . . . 509 Note K, Acts of Assembly, 1645 and 1647 514 Note M (i), Calvin and the English Reformers ... 515 Note M (2), Edwardian Articles on Sacraments ... 521 Note Additional, Verses on Members of Assembly . 523 Note N, Ball on the Covenants 5^4 Note Additional, Milton's Relation to Calvinism . 525 « " Early Editions of THE Confession . 526 « " Subscription of the Confession . . 529 An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assonbled i7t Parliament, for the calling of an Assembly of learned and godly Divines, and others, to be co7isulted7vith by the Parliamefit, for the settling of the Government and Liturgy of the Church of Eiigland, and for vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the said Church from false aspe?'sions a7id ijiterpre tat ions (Passed June 12, 1643). 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 in the Liturgy, Discipline, and Government of the Church, which do necessarily require a further and more perfect reformation than as yet hath 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, com- missaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical officers depending upon the hierarchy, is evil, and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom, a great impediment 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, who, together with some members of both the Houses of Parliament, are to consult and advise of such matters and things, touching the premises, as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament, and to XIV Ordinance of Parliamefzi give their advice and counsel therein to both or either of the said Houses, when, and as often as they shall be there- unto required : Be it therefore ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, That all and every the persons hereafter in this present Ordinance named, that is to say, — [Here are inserted the 7iames of the members, which are given on p. xvi. et seq?^ And such other person and persons as shall be nominated and appointed by both Houses of Parliament, or so 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 Parliament, left at their several respective dwellings, to meet and assemble themselves at Westminster, in the Chapel called King Henry the VII. 's Chapel, on the first day of July, in the year of our 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 Parliament, 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 Government of the Church of England, or the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the same from all false aspersions and misconstructions, as shall be proposed unto 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 required ; and the same not to divulge, by printing, writing, or other- wise, without the consent of both or either House of Parliament. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, That William Twisse, Doctor in Divinity, shall calling Westminster Assembly. xv sit in the chair, as Prolocutor 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 Parlia- ment : And in case any difference of opinion shall happen amongst the said persons so assembled, touching any 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 expenses 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, during the time of their said attendance, and for ten days before and ten days after, 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. 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 offense, 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 their said attendance upon the said service ; 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. And if any of the persons before named shall happen to die be- fore the said Assembly shall be dissolved by order of both Houses of Parliament, then such other person or persons shall be nominated and placed in the room and stead of such person and persons 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 Ordinance is by xvi List of Members of this Ordinance limited and appointed. Provided always, That this Ordinance, or any thing therein contained, shall not give unto the persons aforesaid, or any of them, nor shall they in this Assembly assume to exercise any juris- diction, power, or authority ecclesiastical whatsoever, or any other power than is herein particularly expressed. LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.^ In the order in which their names appear in the Ordinance calling the Assembly, or zuere subsequently added by the two Houses. PEERS. ■^Algernon, Earl of North- I *PhiUp, Lord Wharton, umberland. j *Edward, Lord Howard of William, Earl of Bedford. 1 Escrick. ^Philip, Earl of Pembroke ! Basil, Earl of Denbigh ; and Montgomery. ^William, Earl of Salisbury. Henry, Earl of Holland. ^Edward, Earl of Manches- ter. ^William, Lord Viscount Say and Scale. Edward, Lord Viscount Conway. Oliver, Earl of Bolingbroke ; William, Lord Grey of Warke ; vice Bedford, Holland, and Conway. "^'Robert, Earl of Essex, Lord Gejicral. ^Robert, Earl of Wariaic/c, Lord High Admiral. ^ An asterisk has been placed before the name of every one who has been found at any time to have attended the meetings, and of every one who is reported to have signed the protestation required to be taken by every member admitted to sit in the Assembly. The names of members added subsequently to the meeting of the As- sembly are printed in italics, as are also the particulars about the original members which are not taken from the Ordinance. For convenience of reference I prefix a number to the name of each divine, and I append the same number to the name of each divine in the general Index to this volume, after the Roman numerals in- dicating the page of this list on which it is found. tJie Westminster Assembly. xvli MEMBERS OF HOUSE OF COMMONS. ^Jolin Seidell, Esq. ^Francis Rous, Esq. *Edmimd Prideaux, Esq. *Sir Henry Vane, Knt., senior. *John Glynn, Esq., Recorder of London. *John White, Esq. ^Bouldstrode Whitlocke,Esq. "Humphrey Salloway, Esq. Mr. Serjeant Wild. ^Oliver St. John, Esq., His Majesty's Solicitor. ■'■Sir Benjamin Rudyard, Knt. *John Pym, Esq. *Sir John Clotvvorthy, Knt. *John Maynard, Esq. *Sir Henry Vane, Knt., junior. William Pierpoint, Esq. ■^William Wheeler, Esq. *Sir Thomas Barrington, Knt. Walter Young, Esq. *Sir John Evelyn, Knt. "^■/r Robc'ft Niifley, v. Pyni, deceased. *Sir IVilliain Massani, or Mas son, v. Ba^Tington, deceased. "^William Siroud, v. White, deceased. "^Sir A7'thiir\ ,, , , rr 7 • added awns' HaselriiT, .,; .^ , *> Robert Key- j -^ nolds, Esq. ) "^'Zouch Tate, Esq. '^Sir Gilbert Gerard (?). "^ Sir Robert Pye{^.). "^Sir John Cooke. Nathaniel Eien?ies (?) DIVINES. 1. "^Herbert Palmer, B.D., of Ashwell, Herts, Assessor after White, a7id Master of Qnecfts College, Cam- bridge. 2. ^Oliver Bowles, B.D., of Sutton, Bedford. 3. *Henry Wilkinson, j.Z>., of Mildenhall, Wilts, aft. Bishop of Winchester. 51. ^Edward Reynolds, M.A., of Braunston, Northampton, aft. D.D., Dean of Christ Church, Oxf, and Bishop of Norwich. 52. *Thomas Hill, B.D., of Titchmarsh, Northampton, aft. D.D. and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. 53. Robert Sanderson, D.D., of Boothby Pannell or Pagnell, Lincoln, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln. 54. *John Foxcroft, M.A., of Gotham, Notts. 55. *John Jackson, M.A., of Marske, Yorkshire, also preacher at Gray s Lnn. XX List of Monbcrs of 56. ^William Carter, of London. 57. *Thomas Thoroughgood, of Massingham, Norfolk. 58. *John Arrowsmith, B.D., of King's Lynne, Norfolk, afterwards Master successively of St. JoJui s and Trinity, Canibridife, and Professor of Divinity. 59. ^Robert Harris, B.D., of Hanwell, Oxford, aft. of Tritiity College there. 60. ^Robert Crosse, B.D., of Lincoln College, Oxford. 61. James [Ussher], Archbishop of Armagh. 62. *Matthias Styles, D.D., of St. George's, Eastcheap, London. 63. ^Samuel Gibson, of Burleigh, Rutland. 64. *Jeremiah Whitaker, M.A., of Stretton, Rutland, after- wards of Bennondsey. 65. *Edmund Stanton, D.D., of Kingston-on-Thames, aft. President of Coi'pus Christi College, Oxford. 66. *Daniel Featley, D.D., of Lambeth, " Third and last Pnn'ost of Chelsea College.'' 67. Francis Coke, or Cooke, of Yoxhall, Staffordshire. 68. *John Lightfoot, AI.A., of Ashley, Staffordshire, after D.D. and Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. 69. ^Edward Corbet, M.A., of Merton College, Oxford, and Rector of Charthani^ Kent, succeeded Dr. Plamniond as University Orator and Canon of Christs Church, Oxon. 70. Samuel Hildersham, B.D., of West Felton, Shrop- shire. 71. *John Langley, M.A., of West Tuderley, or 7ytherley, Hampshire. 72. ^Christopher Tisdale, or Tesdale, M.A., of Uphurst- borne, or Hurstborne, Tarrant, Hampshire. 73. ^Thomas Young, M.A., St. And., of Stowmarket, Siffolk, aft. D.D., and Master of fesus College, Cambridge . 74. *John Phillips, of Wrentham, Suffolk, brother-in-law of Dr. Ames. 75. -^Humphrey Chambers, B.D., of Claverton, Somerset, aft. of Pewsey, Wilts. 76. *John Conant, B.D., of Lymington, Somerset, aft. of St. Stephen s, Walbrook. the Westminster Assembly. xxi ']']. •>< Henry Hall, D.D., of Norwich. 78. Henry Hutton, M.A., of Caldbcck, Cumberland, and Prebendary of Carlisle. 79. *Henry Scudder, of Collingborne, Wilts. 80. -Thomas Bayhe, ^5./?., of Manningford-Bruce, Wilts. 81. '•Benjamin Pickering, of East Hoateley, or of Bnck- stead, Sussex. 82. Henry Nye, of Clapham. 83. ^Artluir Sallavvay, or Sahvay, M.A., of Seavern Stoke, Worcester. 84.. ^Sydrach Simpson, of London, afterwards succeeded Vines in Pembroke Hall, Cajnbridge. 85. *Antony Burgesse, or Purges, M.A., of Sutton Cold- field, War., and St. Lawrence, Jezury, London. 86. *RichardVines, M^.,ofCalcot,or Weddington War., Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, aft. a minister in London. 87. *Winiam Greenhill. M.A.,'' Evening Star,'' of Stepney. 88. William Moreton, of Newcastle. 89. Richard Buckley, or Piclkley, B.D. 90. *Thomas Temple, D.D., of Battersea, Surrey. 91. ^Simeon Ashe, of St. Bride's, afterwards of St. MichacVs, Pasingsliaw, appointed in room of Josiah SJiufe, who died before Assembly met. 92. William Nicholson, M.A., Archdeacon of Brecknock. 93. ^^Thomas Gattaker, B.D., of Rotherhithe. Surrey, ''vir st upend cc lectionis magnique judicii.'' 94. *James Weldy, or Welby, of Selattyn, Shropshire. 95. Christopher Pashley, D.D., of Hawarden. Flintshire. 96. -Henry Tozer, B.D., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. 97. "William Spurstow, D.D.. of Hampden. Bucks, then of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, afterwards of Hackney. 98. ^Francis Cheynell, or Channel!, of Oxford, aft. Mas- ter of St. Johns, D.D., and Margaret Professor of Divinity. 99. Edward Ellis, B.U.. of Guilsfield, Montgomery. 100. John Hacket, D.D., of St. Andrew's, Holborne, aft. Bishop of Lichfield. xxii List of Members of loi. *SamLiel De la Place, ] of French Ch., 1 02. *John De la March, j Londoji. 103. ■^Matthew Newcomen, ALA., of Dedham, Essex. 104. William Lyford, B.D., of Sherborne, Dorset. 105. *[Thomas] Carter, M.A., of Dynton, Bucks, a/L of St. Olavc s, Hart Street. 106. ^William Lance, of Harrow, Middlesex. 107. *Thomas Hodges, B.D., of Kensington, afterwards Dean of Hereford. 108. *Andreas Perne, M.A., of Wilby, Northampton. 109. *Thomas Westfield, D.D., of St, Bartholomew the Great, Bishop of Bristol, attended the first meeting. no. Henry Hammond, D.D., of Penshurst, Kent, and Canon of Christ" s Church. 111. *Nicholas Prophet, or Proffet, of Marlborough, Wilts, aft. of Edmonton. 112. *Peter Sterry, B.D., of London. 113. John Erie, D.D., of Bishopton, Wilts, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, then of Salisbury. 1 14. *John Gibbon, or Guibon, A/.A., of Waltham. 115. *Henry Painter, B.D., of Exeter. 116. ^Thomas Micklethwaite, M.A., of Cherry-Burton, Vor/cshire. 117. *John Wincop, D.D., of St. Martin's in the Fields, and Clothall, Herts. 118. *William Price, B.D., St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and of Waltham Abbey. 119. Henry Wilkinson, jun., B.D., Epping, Essex, after- wards D.D., and of Magdalen Hall, Oxfoj^d. 120. Richard Holdsworth, or Oldsworth, D.D., Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 121. William Dunning, M.A., of Cold Aston, Glouc, or Godalston, Notts. 122. '^Francis Woodcock, B.A., of St. Lawrence, Jewry, \. More ton, of Neiu castle, deceased. 123. "^John Maynard, ALA., of ALayfield, Surrey, v. H. Nye, deceased. 124. Thomas CI en don, of All Hallows, Barking, v. Nicholson, who failed to attend. the Westminster Assembly. xxlii 125. *Dantel Cawdt-ey, M.A., St. Marlins in Fir/ds, v. Dr. Harris, of Winchester, excused attending. 126. * Wiliiayfi Rathbone, or Rathband, of Hig/igate, v. Morley, who failed to attend. 127."^ John Strickland, of Nezv Saritm, v. Dr. Ward, deceased, 14 Sept. 1643. 1 28. "^Williajn Good, B.D., of Denton, No? folk. 129. Jo/ui Bond, D.C.L., Master of the Savoy, v. Arch- bishop Ussher, who, however, was 7'estored in 1647. 130. *IIinnphrey Hardwick, of Hadhani Magna, Herts. 131. "^ fohn Ward, of Ipswich ajid of Brampton, v. Painter, deceased. 132. * Edward Corbet, of Norfolk, or North Reppis, Norfolk, V. H. Hall, of Norwich. 133. "^ Philip Delme, or Delniy, of French Church, Canter- bury, V. Rathbone, deceased. 1-^,/^.. * Thojnas Ford, Af.A., of St. Faith's, London, v. Bowles, deceased. 135. * Richard Byfield, of Long Ditt07t, Surrey, v. Dr. Featley, deceased. 136. *John Dury, or Durie, v. Dr. Downing, deceased, probably because of his well-k7iown efforts topjvmote iinion among Protestants. 137. '^William Strong, p?'eacher in Westminster Abbey, v. Peale, deceased. 138. '^^ Robert Johnston, of York, v. Carter, deceased. 139. Sanmel Boulton, of St. Saviour's, Southwaj'k, after- wards D.D., and Master of Christ's College, Cam- bridge, V. Btcrroughes, deceased. SCRIBES OR CLERKS OF THE ASSEMBLY. Henry Roborough, of St. Leonard's, Eastcheap, Lo7idon. Adoniram Byfield, M.A., aftei-way-ds of Fulhajn. Ama7iue7isis or Assistant. John Wallis, M.A., Fellow of Ouee7is Coll., Ca7n., afte7'- wa7'ds D.D., Savilia7i Professor of Geometry, Oxfo7-d. xxlv List of Members of the Assembly, Scottish Commissioners, ministers. Alexander Henderson, of Robert Baillie, of Glas- Edinburgh. I gow. Robert Douglas, of Edinr. George Gillespie, of Edin- S^never sat\. \ burgh. Samuel Rutherfurd, of ^X.. Robert Blah', of St. Ajidreius Andrews. | [see p. 454 j. ELDERS. John, Earl of Cassilis \iievej' sat\ John, Lord Maitland, after Earl of Lauderdale. Sir Archibald Johnston, of Warriston. Robert Meldruvi, 171 absentee of Johnstoji. John, Ea7^l of Loudo7i. Sir Cha7-les E7'ski7te. Jolm, Lo7'd Bali7ie7i7io, v. Loud 071. A7-chibald, Marquis of Argyll. George Wi7i7'Jia7n, of Libber- ton, V. Argyll. Admitted to sit and hear in October 1644, the Prince Elector Palatine, and on one occasion permitted to speak. ^ ^ I have found no positive evidence that Messrs. C. Love, Moore, and Nevvscore should be included among the superadded divines. Nor, though I have allowed Dr. Manton's name to stand on p. 127, have I found evidence that he should be included among them ; but I find that he was named along with Calamy and Marshall in 1659-60 to advise with the Committee of the House of Commons respecting the Confession, and that he wrote a prefatory epistle to it. N.B. — Many of the quotations from the " King's Pamphlets " in the British Museum are accompanied by the press mark of the volume quoted, as E 56, E 61, and often also the place of a par- ticular pamphlet in a volume is indicated by a second number, as E 85, No. 20. THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY ITS HISTORY AND STANDARDS. LECTURE I. ORIGIN OF PURITANISM, ITS DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY UNDER THE EARLIER TUDOR SOVEREIGNS. The Westminster Assembly, if it does not form a landmark in the history of our common Protest- antism, must at least be admitted to constitute an epoch, and a notable one, in the history of Brit- ish Puritanism. There, for the first time, its long pent-up forces had something like free play given to them, and there were framed those standards, the influence of which in the development of Pres- byterianism, both in the New World and in the Old, has been no less potent than permanent. This Puritanism was no mere excrescence on the fair form of the Church of England, which might be removed without hazard of marring her symmetry, or lowering her vitality ; far less was it any fungus 1 2 Origin of Puritanism growth, endangering life or indicating decay. Neither was it, as it was at one time the fashion to assert, a mere over-sea fancy which had taken captive a few grateful exiles when abroad, and was spread among not a few restless adventurers and brain-sick enthusiasts at home. It was in the English movement for the Reformation of the Mediaeval Church from its very origin. It was the spring of many of its holiest activities, quick- ening earnest thought and life, sustaining in Chris- tian enterprise, and nerving for stern self-sacrifice ; and *' for more than a century it exercised an in- fluence such as no other party, civil or religious, has obtained at any period of our history." ^ It finds unmistakable expression in the writings of Tyndale, who first in the sixteenth century gave to British Christians the New Testament in their native tongue. Nay, its root ideas ma}' be traced back to a greater than Tyndale, — to England's one Reformer before the Reformation,^ — the great and dauntless Wyclif, of whom it has been truly ^ Marsden's Early Puritans, p. 3. See Appendix, Note A. -"The former (Puritanism) may be fairly dated as a system from the days of Wyclif."— Thorold Rogers in Princeton Review. " If the Reformation of our Church had been conducted by Wy- clif, his work, in all probability, would nearly have anticipated the labors of Calvin ; and the Protestantism of England miglit have pretty closely resembled the Protestantism of Geneva, There is a marvelous resemblance between the Reformer with his poor itinerant priests and at least the better part of the Puritans." — Le Bas' Life of Wyclif pp. 365, 366. Its Development and Histo7y. 3 said, his country could produce no Luther in the sixteenth century, simply because it had had its Luther already in the fourteenth. In other words, the thing is older than the name. The names Puritan and Precisian are supposed to have been originally nicknames, applied by way of reproach to those they were used to designate, because they claimed to adhere more purely and precisely than their neighbors to the Word of God as the only authoritative and suf- ficient rule in matters of doctrine, worship, church polity, and Christian life. This was no empty claim on their part, but one which, notwithstand- ing many shortcomings and much remaining nar- rowness, they honestly and earnestly endeavored to make good. They were not ashamed of the names imposed on them. They took them meekly, and bore them worthily, and I trust their descend- ants will never feel ashamed either of the names or of the men who did so much to make them honorable. The points of difference between the Puritans and those who fall to be distinguished from them in the Reformed Church of England seem at first to have been few in number, and of minor importance, partly, perhaps, because the full significance of the principle on which these depended was not yet clearly apprehended by themselves ; but much more because, to a cer- tain extent, that principle was then accepted 4 Origin of Ptiritanism by almost all leal-hearted supporters of the Reformation. So far as concerned doctrine, the principle in fact may be said to have been em- bodied in the Sixth Article of the English Church : " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein^ nor may be proved tJiereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation^ They and their opponents at that time were at one as to the sufficiency and supremacy of Holy Scripture in matters of faith, and even as to the general import of its doc- trinal teaching. Almost all who really valued the Reformation in England held as yet by the evan- gelical system taught in early times by Augus- tine, and in later by Anselm, Bradwardine, and Wyclif It was the Anglo-Catholic party which, as it developed, first broke up the doctrinal har- mony of the Reformed Church, and drifted farther and farther from the standpoint of its early leaders, till the Supralapsarianism of Whitgift passed into the minimized Augustinianism of Hooker, and that into the Arminianism of Laud, and the semi- Pelagianism of Jeremy Taylor. So far again as concerned matters of worship and church polity, the only expression at variance with the principle of Puritanism in the Articles of the Church was the first clause of the XXth Article, asserting the Its Developme)it and History. 5 power of the Church to decree rites and cere- monies. This clause was not contained in the corresponding article as framed in the time of Edward VI. ; and the Puritans strenuously con- tended it had been foisted in, somewhat inconsid- erately, in the time of Queen Elizabeth.^ They further contended that, when viewed in connection with the limiting clause that followed, it was in- sufficient to justify what they condemned and renounced. The rites and ceremonies at which they scrupled were not, they held, things purely indifferent, which the Church, under such a clause, might claim to enjoin, but things unlawful as having been abused to purposes of idolatry and superstition, and therefore to be laid aside as con- trary to the spirit if not to the letter of Holy Writ. In this respect too the agreement between them and those who stood aloof from them, was greater in early than in later times. Many of the first Elizabethan bishops agreed with them, and would willingly have abandoned the obnoxious ceremo- nies if the queen would have consented.^ Indeed, ^ vSome of them attributed it to Laud, but wrongly, as he did its omission to them. It is found in the Latin edition of 1563, but not in that of 1571, nor in the first English edition of 1 563, nor in that of 1571. Lamb, Card well, and Hallam doubt if it was authorized by Convocation or by Parliament. 2 Zurich Letters, passim. \\\ the doctrinal declaration issued by them in 1 559, the subscriber is required to disallow all "vain worshiping of God devised by man's phantasy, besides or con- trary to the Scriptures." 6 Origin of Puritanism for more than a century there were not wanting great and good men, free from all taint of Puritan- ism, who contended that, if only the authorities in Church and State could be persuaded to consent, all that the Puritans desired in regard to worship might be conceded without real injury to religion or danger to the Church/ Their assertion of the essential identity of bish- ops and presbyters in the apostolic church was also to a certain extent allowed ; and while some contended for the reduction of the hierarchy to more primitive dimensions, others, who defended it as lawful, did so not on the ground of any supposed Divine sanction, but on the ground of antiquity, expediency, or the propriety of the Church adapting her external framework to the state of monarchies as well as of republics. It was not till the very close of the sixteenth century that higher ground was taken by the opponents of Puritanism on this point, and at first it was taken only by a few of them. But it must never be forgotten that Puritanism was something more than a system of doctrine, 1 The celebrated John Hales of Eton, though neither Calvinist nor Precisian, did not hesitate to say "prayer, confession, thanks- giving, reading of the Scriptures, and administration of the Sacra- ments in the plainest and simplest manner, were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient liturg}', though nothing either of private opinion or of Church pomp, of garments ... or of many super- fluities which creep into the Church under the name of order and decency did interpose itself."— TV^r/ on Schism, p. 5. Its Devclopmejit and History. 7 liowcvcr scriptural, or a form of worship and church poh'ty however primitive. It was above all, as Heppe has recently so well shown,' a life, a real, earnest, practical life, — a stream welling forth pure and copious from the deepest depths of their spiritual natures, and by its unfailing supplies stim- ulating and sustaining many forms of Christian activity and loving self-sacrifice — a fire kindled and kept alive from above, to purge, re-mould, and ^ Geschichte des Pietistnus, etc., pp. 20, 21. Their idea was, '* Dass das Christenthum nothwendig Leben, und zwar ein ernstes, ganz und gar vom Worte Gottes beherrschtes und streng geregeltes Leben sein niusse, in welchem der Christ sich nicht gehen zu lassen sondern sich unablassig zu tiben, sich in Zucht zu nehmen, sich selbst in Angesichte des Wortes Gottes zu priifen und durch anhaltendes Gebet, durch Meditation, durch Fasten, iiberhaupt durch methodische und ascetische Uebung in der Gottseligkeit einer immer vollkommeneren Ileiligung nachzustreben habe." " The distinctive feature of Puritanism was not to be found in its logical severity of doctrine or in its peculiar forms of worship, but in its clear conception of the immediate relation existing between every individual soul and its God, and in its firm persuasion that every man was intrusted with a work which he was bound to carry out for the benefit of his fellow-creatures. Under both these as- pects it was pre-eminently the religion of men who were strug- gling for liberty. The Puritan was not his own. He belonged to God and to his country. The motives which urged other men to give way before the corruptions of despotism had no weight with him. The temptations which drew other men aside to make their liberty a cloak for licentiousness had no attractions for him. Under the watchwords of faith and duty our English liberties were won ; and however much the outward forms of Puritanism may have fallen into decay, it is certain it is under the same watchwords alone that they will be preserved as a heritage to our children." — History of England from the Accession of James /., by S. R. Gardiner, vol. ii. pp. 487, 489. See also Appendix, Note A. 8 Origin of Piiritanis77i transform the individual soul, and so the whole man. It was not till this wellspring of higher life was dried up, — not till the glowing fire within, which the Spirit of God had kindled, had died out, or died down, that Puritanism became rigid and repulsive, and lost its real power both over its own adherents and over the outside world. Let me enter a little more, though it can only be a little more, into details as to its origin and development. I have told you that the principle of Puritanism — the principle which, in fully developed form, was to be enshrined in the xxth chapter of our Confession of Faith ^ — may be traced, at least in germ, in the writings of the noble man who, in the sixteenth century, followed most closely in the footsteps of Wyclif, and is now regarded by many as the. true Reformer of his country. More sweetly persuasive, more powerfully constraining, than all the fitful edicts and articles of Henry VIII., and all the timid concessions of the cautious Cranmer, were the silent, gentle, holy influences proceeding from the lives, labors, and sufferings, from the teachings, oral and written, of the un- official men who had given up all for Christ, and who, notwithstanding the hazards they incurred, shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God. 1 " God alone is I>ord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any- thing contrary to His Word or beside it in matters of faith and worship!''' (Some copies for in read if.') Its Development and History. 9 They strove to set it forth purely and fully by first of all translating into their native tongue the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, Fore- most among these worthies stands William Tyn- dale, " an apostle of our England," as Foxe has termed him, and beyond question the chief instru- ment used by God in preparing for the Anglo- Saxon race that best of His gifts to it, our time- honored English Bible, with its simple, racy yet majestic, and now venerable forms of speech. Tyndale was born in Gloucestershire about 1484, was early sent to Oxford, where he distinguished himself in several liberal studies. He then re- moved to Cambridge, where he prosecuted the study of Greek under Erasmus, Soon after, he formed the resolution which it may be said to have been the one object of his life to carry out, viz., that if God should spare him he would cause the boy that driveth the plow to have more knowl- edge of the Scriptures than the priests of the Church then had.^ At first he thought to attain his object through the aid and patronage of Tunstal, Bishop of London, whose learning and liberality Erasmus had so generously lauded. He found, however, by sad experience not only that there was no room for the translator of the New ^ Demaus's Life of William Tyndale ; also Biographical Notice prefixed to Parker Society's edition of his Doctrinal Treatises, by Professor Walter, pp. Ixi, Ixxiii, Ixxv. ro Origin of Ptiritanism Testament " in my Lord of London's palace," but also that there was no safe retreat for him in all England. Even in his exile but little peace and safety fell to his lot. His steps were dogged by the emissaries of the king and the prelates, as well as by their foreign sycophants. The reformer's noble work was retarded and his life embittered by their hostile efforts. But in exile and poverty he labored on even as he had done in England, " studying most part of the day and night at his book, eating but sodden meat if he might have his will, and drinking small single beer ;" largely dependent on the charities of Christian friends for the supply of his wants, yet reserving most of what they bestowed on him for the sick and poor, and commending himself to the English merchants at Antwerp, as to Scottish students at Marburg, by his singularly gentle and attractive life. Not- withstanding all difficulties and privations he faltered not in his sacred purpose till he had brought out several editions of his New Testament, had introduced it into Scotland as well as into England, and had got ready for the press a large portion of the Old Testament. In the weary months which he spent in the prison at Vilvorde, just before his trial and martyrdom, it has been supposed that, literally to carry out his cherished purpose, he prepared for the press an edition of the New Testament in the vulgar dialect, and with Its Development and History, 1 1 its spelling conformed to the rude pronunciation of the ploughboys of his native district.^ He perished at the stake on the 6th of October 1536, with the prayer on his lips, " Lord, open the king of England's eyes." And before another year had begun its course " his prayer may be said to have been answered, for the first volume of Holy Scripture ever printed on English soil came forth from the press of the king's own printer — a folio Testament, of Tyndale's version, with his long- proscribed name on its title-page." In the prefaces and prologues prefixed to his translation of the several books of the New Testament, as well as in the didactic and controversial treatises which he published separately, Tyndale maintained the sufficiency and authority of Holy Scripture in thorough Protestant and Puritan style, and de- fended the doctrines of grace against the semi- Pelagianism of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, ere Calvin had yet entered the lists as the cham- pion of the old Augustinianism. He asserted the Scriptural identity of presbyters and bishops, and the propriety of a simple scriptural form of wor- ship, and especially of that form of observing the Lord's Supper, which came to be identified with the Puritan name and with our Scottish Reformer.^ ^ See Professor Walter (p. Ixxv.) ; but Demaus gives (p. 411) a different explanation of the peculiar spelling of that edition. ^ Tyndale's treatise Of the Supper of the Lord ; vol. iii. pp. 265, 266 of Parker Society's edition of his works : " Come forth 1 2 Origin of Piiritajiism Next to Tyndale falls to be placed Miles Cov- erdale, who followed so closely in his footsteps, laboring in the same great work, and sharing many of the same great trials and privations. Cov- erdale is supposed to have been a native of the North Riding of Yorkshire, and to have been born in 1488. He was educated at Cambridge, and formed one of the band of youthful reformers trained by Dr. Barnes, Prior of the Augustine Friars there. " Nothing in the world," he says in the first letter he wrote to Cromwell, " I desire but books ; these once had, I do not doubt but Almighty God shall perform that in me which he hath be- gun." The books were got and God blessed the study of them, so that he became one of the ear- liest preachers of the new faith in Essex and Suffolk. In October 1535, he published the first edition of his translation of the whole Bible. It appears to have been printed abroad, probably at Zurich ; but in 1537 it was republished in London. Though occasionally favored by Cranmer and Cromwell, Coverdale had to hurry into exile when the bloody statute of the Six Articles was passed. He spent some time at Tubingen, and for several years he had to content himself with a very humble post in the Palatinate, and to endure pinching poverty, while by his writings he was making reverently unto the Lord's table, the congregation now set round about it and in their other convenient seats." Its Development and History. 13 many rich. He was raised from the post of pastor and teacher at Bergzabern to the bishopric of Ex- eter by the good king Edward, and contributed largely to the progress of the Reformation in his brief reign. But he had to leave again on the accession of Mary, being rescued from prison and death only by the persistent intercession of the king of Denmark, to whom his brother-in-law — a Scot by name M'Alpin or Machabeus — was chaplain.^ He did not disdain when again in exile to act as a humble elder in Knox's congregation at Ge- neva ; ^ nor, though himself the author of an English version of the Scriptures, did he refuse to take a part in preparing and carrying through the press the well-known Genevan version of the New Testament, which became so soon and remained so long the favorite one among the Puritans.^ On his return to his native country after the death of Mary he consented to take part in the con- secration of the first Elizabethan archbishop of Canterbury, and was permitted to do so, without rochet or surplice, and in his plain black gown.^ ^ Biographical Notice of Coverdale, prefixed to Parker Society's edition of his Remains, pp. vii.-xiv. ■'' Liv7'e des Anglois, printed by J. S. Burn in 1 83 1, as also my own edition of the " Livre," in the volume of the Proceedings of the General Presbyterian Council, which met in London in 1888. 3 He returned to England before the Version of the Old Testa- ment was completed. * See documents as to Parker's consecration in Burnet's History of the Refoj-mation ; No. 9 : " Toga lanea talari utebatur." 1 4 Origin of Puritanism Yet for his nonconformity in regard to the habits, as they were termed, or for his connection with the Genevan exiles, he was left for four years without preferment, and within two years after- wards he had to give up the only preferment allotted to him — the humble benefice of St. Mag- nus, London Bridge. Thus the man who after Tyndale did most to perfect our Anglo-Saxon version of the Scriptures, when on the verge of eighty years of age, was consigned to neglect and penury ^ — in such circumstances not less hard to bear than the prison and the stake at Vilvorde. Hugh Latimer^ and John Hooper were hardly less notable characters than the two I have men- 1 " Pauper et peregrinus " are the words of Grindal, who once and again pleaded for him but pleaded in vain. * The following account of him by Alexander Alesius, written just after his cruel martyrdom, cannot fail even yet to interest us in him : — " He who has made the acquaintance of Dr. Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, has seen Polycarp— a venerable old man, gentle, grave, affable, learned, eloquent, the friend of the poor, dear to all the pious and learned, revered by myself. How often have I seen and heard him teaching the gospel before Henry VHI., the King of England, in the royal palaces at Westminster, Greenwich, and Hampton Court, with the greatest commendation and applause of the king, of the nobles of the realm, and of all ranks of the community. Who at that time was dearer to the king — and to all the nobility ? Who then was not proud to shake hands with him ? Who did not esteem it a great privilege to converse with him ? And yet such was his humility and kindliness that at court, and in the streets of London, he would take me, an exile, by the arm and converse with me right pleasantly. I remember yet the things he then foretold me, and which events have since verified." Psalm xxxvii. verses l and 2, in his Primus Liber Psabnoruni. Its Development and History. 15 tioned. Both were bold confessors of the truth in days when it was dangerous to be so, and though they were both ultimately placed in high official sta- tions, their influence tended decidedly in the same direction as that of Tyndale and Coverdale. No one who reads the homely, racy, yet earnest ser- mons of the former, or the record of the theologi- cal discussion in which he took part at Oxford, will venture to identify him with Anglo-Catholi- cism in any shape or form. No one who studies the story of the latter can fail to own that if he was not, as Heylin affirms, the first Nonconformist in England, he was at least, as Principal Lorimer has recently shovv^n, the father of that school of Moderate Puritans, who whether, as at first, under that name or, as in later times, under the name of Evangelicals or Low Churchmen, have clung to the Church of their fathers and made good their right to a place within her pale, emphasizing her Protestant teaching, — striving in every possible way to foster her inner life, and her efficiency in every department of Christian work, — at times sympathizing with the efforts made for further reform, and longing to draw closer the bonds between their own Church and the other churches of the Reformation. Early imbibing the prin- ciples of the Reformers, and obliged in conse- quence to flee from his native land. Hooper, after passing through many privations, found a refuge 1 6 Origin of Puritanism at Zurich. There he studied under Henry Bul- Hnger, — Zwingli's successor, — who was honored through him, and others, as well as more directly by his own writings, largely to aid the progress and determine the character of the Reformation in England. He brought back with him, to his native country, much of the earnest faith and liberal thought of his teacher. Immediate scope was found for his great powers as a preacher, and notwithstanding his advanced opinions, he was speedily promoted to high office, being installed in one bishopric, and appointed administrator of another. It ought to be more generally known than it yet is, that long before proscribed Papist or contemned Baptist had ventured to put in a plea for toleration, this noble-hearted Puritan Bishop had fully grasped its principle. In one of his earliest treatises he says : " As touching the superiors powers of the earth, it is well known to all them that have readen and marked the Scripture that it appertaineth nothing unto their office to make any law to govern the conscience of their subjects in religion."^ In one of the last letters written in the prison from which he passed to his martyrdom, and addressed to the Convocation then sitting, he gave still bolder utterance to his sentiments : " Cogitate apud vos ipsos, an hoc sit piorum ministrorum ecclesiae * Early IVritings of Bp. Hooper, p. 280, Its Development and History. 17 officium, vi, metu et pavore, corda hominum in vestras partes compellere. Profecto Christus non ignem, non gladitun, non carceres, non vincula, non violentian, non bononini confiscationcm, non rcgincce inajes talis terror em media org an a constitidt quibus Veritas vcrbi sui mnndo promulgaretiir ; sed, miti ac diligenti praedicatione evangelii sui, mundum ab errore et idololatria converti praecepit." ^ More- over, he firmly asserted that in matters of faith no authority of princes or bishops was to be acknow- ledged *' citra verbum Dei," and that " ipsa univer- salis ecclesiae auctoritas nulla est 7nsi qiiatenus a verbo Dei pendeat!' In several other respects Hooper was in advance of his time. In opposing the Bishop of Winches- ter's book on the Sacrament of the Altar, he main- tained that " it is ill done to condemn the infants of the Christians that die without baptism of whose salvation by the Scriptures we be assured ;" and said he "would likewise judge well of the infants of the infidels who have none other sin in them but original ... It is not against the faith of a Christian man to say that Chris fs death and pas- sion extendeth as far for the salvation of innocents, as Adam's sin made all his posterity liable to con- demnationT The following gems, selected almost at random from his earlier treatises, have all, more or less, a Puritan tinge. ** Men," he says, " may * Later Writings of fip. Hooper, p. 386. 1 8 Orighi of Puritanism have the gift of God to interpret the Scripture unto other, but never autlwrity to interpret it otherwise than it interpreteth itself." " The Scrip- tures solely and the Apostles' Church are to be followed, and no man's authority, be he Augus- tine, Tertullian, or other, Cherubim or Seraphim." " Christ and his Apostles be grandfathers in age to the doctors and masters in learning. Repose thyself only upon the Church that they have taught thee by the Scripture. Fear neither of the ordinary power nor succession of Bishops, nor of the major part." " God hath bound his Church and all men that be of his Church unto the Word of God. It is bound unto no title or name of men, nor unto any ordinary succession of Bishops or Priests ; longer than they teach the doctrine contained in Scripture no man should give hear- ing unto them." *' There is no church can be governed without this discipline, for where it is not there see we no godliness at all, but carnal liberty and vicious life." Perhaps however the most noteworthy of his early writings is his exposition of the ten com- mandments, and particularly his exposition of the fourth, where he explains that the rest of the Sabbath was necessary : first, to secure both to man and beast that periodic repose without which they could never endure *' the travail of earth ;" second, not that men might give themselves to Its Developme7it and History. 19 idleness and pastime such as was then used amonj^ Christian peoples, but that, being free from the travail of the world, they might give themselves to meditation on the works and benefits of God, the hearing of his Holy Word, and the care of the sick and poor; and third, that it might be to them a standing type and figure of the everlasting rest that remaineth for the people of God. " This Sunday," he continues, ** that we observe, is not the conujiaudnicnt of Dten, as many say, that would, under the pretence of this one law, bind the Church of Christ to all other laws that they have ungodly prescribed unto the Church ; but it is by express words comuianded that zve sJiould observe tins day (Sunday) for onr Sabbath!' ' The Puritans therefore of a later time, in contending against the Book of Sports and the pastimes by which the Lord's Day continued to be profaned in many parts of England, only resumed the con- test which Hooper had begun — and revived the teaching he had learned from Bullinger, the most conservative in this respect perhaps of all the Re- formers. He also favored a more simple way of observing the Lord's Supper than was then in use,^ wore only on certain occasions the episcopal habits, and associated with himself in the admin- istration of his extensive dioceses several super- intendents, to whom he gave special charge 1 Early Writings of Bp. Hooper, p. 342. 2 /^/^ pp ^-^5^ ^^^^ 20 Origin of Puritanism of matters of discipline, as well as of the meet- ings of the clergy for studying the Word of God, and the simpler elements of religious truth.' Farrar, Bishop of St. David's, who suffered martyrdom about the same time, seems to have belonged to the same school as Hooper. So also did Ponet or Poynet, Bishop of Winchester, who drew up one of the earliest English Protestant Catechisms, befriended Knox at Frankfort, and was a member of his congregation at Geneva. Even Ridley, who at one time had contended so bitterly with Hooper, seems to have relented in his last days, and not only exchanged friendly greetings with his former antagonist, but ex- pressed a hope that they might be one in red though they had been two in white. He had been zealous in removing from the churches throughout his diocese altars and images, and providing tables for the administration of the Lord's Supper. He disputed ably at Oxford against transubstantiation, and he declared of the priestly robes thrust on him before his degrada- tion that they were more ludicrous than an actor's in a play. Like Hooper and Latimer, he sealed ^ Biographical Notice prefixed to Parker Society's edition of his works, pp. xvii, xix. " No father in his household, no gardener in his garden, nor husbandman in his vineyard was more or better occupied than he in his diocese ... in teaching and preaching to the people there." Its Development and History. 21 his testimony with his blood rather than give place to Romish error and will-worship. I do not venture to include among these pio- neers and earliest representatives of Puritanism the name of the amiable, thoughtful, cautious but somewhat timid Cranmer. No doubt Dr. Hook and other High Churchmen of the present day are right in refusing to accept him as a representative of Anglo-Catholicism. His standpoint was more decidedly Protestant. Like several good men in the old church, he held, at least in his earlier days, that by God's law, a bishop and a priest were one, and in later life he defended with great ability and learning the Reformed doctrine of the Lord's Supper against Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. From first to last he was not ashamed to own the ministers of the Protestant churches on the Conti- nent as brethren in Christ, to encourage several of them to settle in England, to provide for them while there, and to get two of the most prominent of them appointed as Professors of Divinity in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Once and again he invited the co-operation of their leaders in carrying out a scheme he had much at heart, for gathering in council their best men, and en- gaging them in preparing a common creed, the acceptance of which might bind them more firmly together, vindicate them from the reproaches of their adversaries, and supply an antidote to the 22 Origin of Puritanism creed then being framed at Trent. He drew largely on foreign sources for the Articles he ul- timately prepared for the English Church, and still more largely for the materials of the Cate- chisms he translated or sanctioned. But his own leanings were not toward such a sweeping refor- mation as had elsewhere been carried out, perhaps not decidedly in favor of all that before the death of Edward VI. he had been prevailed on to con- cede. He certainly laid it down in the preface to the English ordinal that ever since the Apostles' days there had been three orders of ministers in the church, and resolutely adhered far more closely to the ancient forms of devotion than was done in the liturgies of the Reformed churches abroad. He urged with much persistence the injunction of kneeling in the act of receiving the communion as well as of wearing the old clerical habits. Ac- cording to a Lasco, he seems to have suggested the enforcing of the former by civil penalties, just as he had by the same means compelled Bishop Hooper to accept consecration in the episcopal robes. He somewhat resented the deference of the Privy Council to Knox and the more thorough- going Reformers, and spoke of them as ** glorious and unquiet spirits which can like nothing but that is after their own fancy," and denounced their principle (which however he somewhat misunder- stands or misstates) " that whatsoever is not com- Its Development and History. 23 nianded in Scripture is against Scripture " as " the chief foundation of the Anabaptists and divers other sects." ^ He was, however, a true-hearted Protestant, and one for whom all true-hearted Protestants in the church he adorned have abun- dant cause to thank God, for the noble service he was honored to do for it.^ It would be unpardonable for a Scotchman, in such a sketch as this, to omit all reference to John Knox. No doubt he was in one sense a foreigner in England, as were Bucer, Martyr, a Lasco, and others from the Continent, whose counsel and aid were welcomed by the young king and his advisers. But Knox was more closely allied to them in 1 Lorimer's John Knox and the Church of England, p. 104. '^ Perhaps at a time when it has become a sort of fashion to dis- parage him, the following testimony to his worth by a grateful Scottish exile whom he had sheltered and befriended may not be deemed out of place. It is thus Alesins, then Professor of Divinity at Leipzig, in the epistle dedicatory to his Commentary on the Romans, addresses his former patron : " Te enim tanquam parente istic usus sum, ad te in omnibus difficultatibus pro con- silio et auxilio tanquam ad sacram anchoram confugi. Tua opera et opes semper mihi expositce erant . . . Hunc [meum] amorem mirifice auget admiratio excellentis doctrinse tuoe et acerrimi judicii, magnge sapientii^e, gravitatis, moderationis, Clementine in delibera- tionibus et judiciis, assiduum et indefessum studium in quoerenda et eruenda veritate . . . munificentia in conquerendis et alendis hominibus doctis ex omnibus nationibus." Finally, he testifies that in liis lifelong wanderings, which had brought him into contact with men of many cities and nations, he had nowhere met a bishop more learned, more grave, prudent, pious, humane, and liberal, and that he only refrains from saying more because he knows it would offend the Archljishop's modesty. 24 Origin of Puritanism speech, and, from the first, could be utilized as a public preacher in the National Church. By the offices they conferred on or offered to him it is evident that they looked on him as more of kin than the others. By the course he followed it is evident that he acknowledged the kinship, and was not unprepared to sink the Scot in the Briton, and that, so far as conscience suffered him, he was ready to aid the reforming party in England in the great work they had in hand. Freed from his captivity in the French galleys through English influence, he was first sent as special preacher to Berwick, then to Newcastle, and the neighboring parts, disputing while there before Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, and his doctors, against transubstan- tiation and the other errors connected with the Romish mass. He was next appointed to be one of the King's six chaplains, to whom, as Dr. Hook in his Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury^ informs us, very large powers were at that time conceded. In this office he had not only occasion- ally to preach before the king and court, but also to itinerate in various districts of England, and by preaching, conference, and disputation endeavor to wean the people from their old superstitions, and win them over to the new faith. He was offered the bishopric of Rochester for the express purpose of securing that a man of energy and * New Series, vol. v. p. 13. Its Development and History. 25 resolution should be near the cautious and some- what timid primate to encourage him, and also spur him on when occasion called. This proffered honor he declined ; but as one of the royal chap- lains he zealously discharged the duties of his office, and helped in various ways the progress of the Reformation. He was consulted in regard to the Forty-two Articles and the second Prayer Book of King Edward, and from the documents recently recovered and printed by Principal Lori- mer ^ it is evident that he took an active part in the revision of both. To the last he contended against kneeling in the act of receiving the Lord's Supper, and did this with such persistence and effect that, after the book was already printed off, an additional rubric was directed to be inserted on a fly-leaf, explaining that this posture was meant solely as a token of thankfulness for the benefits received through the ordinance, but in no sense as an act of homage to " any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural flesh and blood." This has come to be known among High Churchmen as the black rubric, and was unques- tionably one of the most Protestant things in this second Prayer Book of Edward VI.^ ^ John Knox and the Church of England, pp. 109, III, 267. He had administered the Lord's Supper in a simpler form at Berwick. For the sources of this form, see my review of Lorimer's " John Knox," British and Foreign Evangelical Review for April, 1875. '' Elizabeth, while professing to re-establish this very book of 26 Origin of Puritanism John a Lasco, who, as superintendent of the foreign churches in England, occupied a position apart from the National Church, owed that posi- tion to the high esteem in which he was held by Cranmer and the advisers of the king. He was often consulted by them on the affairs of the Church, and stood by Knox in his controversy about the mode of receiving the Lord's Supper, and with Hooper in his controversy about the vestments. In his congregations he generally fol- lowed simpler forms than were yet sanctioned for the National Church. In the epistle prefixed to his Forma ac Ratio Tota Ecdcsiastici Minis ttrii in Pcrcgrinot'iim Ecclesia Londini insiituta he ex- pressly affirms that, as England was not then deemed ripe for the complete reformation which the king and his advisers desired it to attain, he had been authorized by the Privy Council and encouraged by the king to draw up for the churches of these Protestant refugees a constitu- her brother, did so with a few changes which made it less accept- able to the Puritans. In particular she took care to expunge the above rubric, as well as to prefix to the sentences addressed by the minister to the communicants certain words from Edward's first Book which might, at least, leave room for the view which the rul)ric was intended to exclude. The restoration of this rubric was repeatedly desired by the Puritans in the time of Elizabeth's successor, but, so far as I know, in vain. It was certainly left out in the Prayer Books of Charles I. Its insertion was urged by Archbishop Ussher and other moderate men in 1640, but it was not till 1 66 1 that it was authoritatively restored, and then only in a somewhat weakened form. Its Development and History. 27 tion ill strict accordance with Scripture precept and Apostolic practice, and without slavishly ad- hering to rites and ceremonies of human origin, in order that when the time should come when the laws could be more unreservedly amended, and the nation, as a whole, could bear a more thorough Reformation, it might have, in the practice of these friendly churches within its own borders, a model on which it could rely and to which it might be inclined to defer. The arrangements made in a Lasco's book in regard to worship and discipline resemble generally those of the Reformed churches on the Continent, save that the communicants neither stood nor knelt, but sat, when receiving the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper.^ To a large extent these arrangements were adopted by Knox among the English exiles at Geneva — probably just because they had virtually received the approval or toleration of Edward VI. and his Council. To the same extent and probably for the same reason they were in 1560 adopted also in Scotland. There was one material difference, however, which it is right I should mention. A Lasco, while holding with Jerome and even with Cranmer in his earlier days, that by the Divine law idem erat Prcsliytcr gid Episcopns, held also ^ loannis a Lasco Opera (Kuyper's edition), vol. ii. pp. lo, 163. This "Forma" was used from 1551 and was printed in 1555 at Frankfort on the Main. 28 Origin of Piirita^iism that it was agreeable to Scripture that the presby- ters or ministers should have a fixed president selected from among their own number and duly set over them. He did not, like Knox in the First Book of Discipline, represent such super- intendency as an extraordinary and temporary function in the church, but regarded it as an ordi- nary and permanent one ; though still the super- intendent in his view was of the same order as the other ministers, and there was no duty de- volved on him which in case of need an ordinary presbyter might not undertake. The English Reformation then, we are warranted to conclude, had not yet advanced so far as the kinsf and his advisers desired it should. There was much they thought still remaining to be done, and which could not then be done, to insure its completeness as well as its more general accept- ance till the king should attain ripe age — be able to bring his full influence to bear both on his no- bility and his people, and along with his Parlia- ment give final legal sanction to it. But already the movement had been pushed on beyond its native strength. Favored by the king, and many of the educated classes, and the burgesses of the larger towns, it had penetrated but partially among the nobility, and the uneducated masses in the provinces. Notwithstanding the itinerant labors of the royal chaplains and other special preachers, Its Development and History. 29 the country had been but partially evangelized. The people, where not positively hostile, were largely indifferent, and unprepared to stand by the new faith when the countenance of authority was withdrawn. Thus a terrible reaction set in when Edward's sister Mary ascended the throne, and the support of the authorities was transferred to the other side. No doubt the cruelties then perpe- trated under color of the law burned deep into the heart of the nation that hatred of Rome which it has ever since retained, and prepared even many of the uninstructed masses in the provinces ulti- mately to welcome or to tolerate changes to which originally they were not inclined. This unfortu- nate queen has been known ever since as the Bloody Mary. Her brief reign might well be termed the ** killing time " in England, as the reign of Charles II. was in Scotland, and however some in our day may palliate or minimize its excesses, enough by almost universal consent remains to brand with infamy the queen and her advisers. Five bishops, a considerable number of inferior clergy, and a goodly contingent of pious laymen, about 280 altogether, are said to have been burned at the stake or otherwise to have suffered for their faith.^ 1 It is thus Alesius records the grief and horror, which these cnielties aroused among Protestants at the time : " Recens plaga recrudescere facit vetus vuhius, cui cicatrix obduci coepit. De vivis episcopis crematis post Polycarpum vix scio extare exemplum, 30 Origin of Puritanism The homely narrative of Foxe, the great mar- tyrologist, though in recent times it has been fiercely assailed, still deservedly retains not a little of its old popularity, and has made us all familiar with the sad story of the sufferings and heroism of these martyrs. While their leaders thus nobly bore witness at the stake to the truths which aforetime they had taught, many of the reforming clergy who had occupied less prominent positions deemed it their duty to act on the counsel of our Lord (Matt. x. 23), and for a time to leave their native land and seek shelter where they would be free to worship God according to their consciences. Repelled by the stricter Lutherans of Germany, they were re- ceived with open heart and arms by the Reformed or Calvinistic churches, both in Germany and Switzerland. At Frankfort, Embden, Strasburg, Zurich, Basel, Aarau, and Geneva, hospitality was extended to them, places of worship were assigned to them, and opportunities for the prosecution of study, and the practice of various industries were afforded to them. If not without privations or occasional differences among themselves, yet gen- erally in quietness and with profit, they were en- abled to pass these sad years, and by intercourse etiam apud illos qui fuerunt Christiani nominis jiirati hostes, et jam in Anglia vivi ad palum comburuntur episcopi quorum vita et doctrina vere Apostolica fuit ! " Its Development and History. 31 with the chiefs of the Reformation to rcahze more fully their oneness with them in sympathy and convictions, or by attendance on their academic lectures to add to their stores of knowledge and to get their ideas widened, their principles con- firmed, and themselves prepared for further ser- vices in happier days, of which I propose to give some account in my next Lecture. LECTURE II. DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY OF PURITANISM UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. In my last Lecture I carried down my historical sketch of the origin and development of Puritan- ism to the time of the Marian persecution and the dispersion of the English exiles among the Continental Protestants. These exiles did not need to go abroad to learn the rudiments of Puri- tanism, either of its doctrinal teaching, or of its forms of worship or of church order. These I told you they had already learned from honored teachers in their own land, who had drawn their principles chiefly from their personal study of the Word of God. The thing, I told you, existed before the name, but soon after the time to which we have come the name appeared as well as the thing. The exiles were now brought into contact with men who by their own independent study had been led to similar conclusions, and there were circumstances in the recent history of Conti- nental Protestantism which naturally inclined them to attach special importance to these conclusions. 32 Puritanism under Queen Elizabeth. OJ A {^"^ years before, the Emperor Charles V., in his anxiety to prevent a disruption of the Church in Germany, had endeavored, at the moment of his poHtical triumph over the Protestant Princes, to impose on them and their subjects an Interivi which, while allowing them, till a general Council should determine otherwise, to retain in a modified form some of the more important of their doctrinal convictions, required them to receive back the old ritual and ceremonies, including of course the old priestly dresses and ornaments. This was yielded to by many for a time from dire necessity, but was firmly resisted by the more resolute. Even the ques- tion whether the surplice might be worn was an- swered by these negatively.^ The consequence was that when the temporary pressure was withdrawn and they recovered their liberty, they again discard- ed the old rites and dresses, and became more de- cidedly opposed to them than before. They were symbols of their temporary enslavement as well as relics of Popery, not retained as in England to wean them from its more essential corruptions, but to draw them back to the Old Church more fully. It was while these feelings were yet fresh and strong that the English exiles came among them. The magistrates of Frankfort accordingly, in grant- 1 Antwort M. F. Illyrici auff den Brieff etlicher Prediger von der Frage, ob sie lieber weichen denn den Chorrock anziehen soUen. 34 Developme7it and History of Puintanism ing them an asylum and a church for their wor- ship, made the condition that they should not dis- sent in doctrine or ceremonies from the French congregation, which also met in the same place. The more advanced of them were probably glad of such a good reason for moving in the direction in which they wished to move. They would not lack encouragement from a Lasco, who had stood by them in England and was then at Frankfort, worshiping with his Dutch congregation in the same church with the French and the English. At any rate they secured the harmonious consent of all the company to the conditions, and in testi- mony they appointed certain representatives to sign the confession, which the minister, doctor, and elders of the French Church had already signed. A form of service and of church discipline closely resembling that used in the French congregations was also drawn up, and an invitation given to their countrymen dispersed in other cities to come and share their privileges. But their harmony was disturbed by the new arrivals, and their difficulties increased apace, till, after various attempts at com- promise, the more advanced members of the com- pany were outvoted, and sought another asylum where they might hope to enjoy the forms and dis- cipline they valued. Through the special favor of Calvin, they found this at Geneva. The congrega- tion they had left behind, with consent of the syn- under Queen Elizabeth. 35 dies, put on somewhat more of the " face of an Eng- lish Church," but not even so did it attain to peace, nor did it ever venture to introduce the surplice or the observance of kneeling at the reception of the communion, or of the sign of the cross in baptism, or the use of the ring in marriage ; ^ and when the happier days they sighed for came, most of them at first sided with those who pleaded for a con- tinuance of liberty in such matters as these. Those happier days were supposed to have dawned in November 1558, when Elizabeth suc- ceeded to her sister's throne. Immediately Pro- testants who had been living in retirement in their own country or in exile elsewhere hast- ened to London and paid their court to the new sovereign. All were received with more or less favor and encouraged to accept employment in the reconstituted Church, save some of those who came from Geneva. During the few bright years they had spent there, they had enjoyed the friendship and protection of Calvin, and as a con- gregation had been left in a great measure free to follow their own bent, and develop their own discipline and forms. They had thought of the needs of others besides themselves, and by the pre- paration of their metrical Psalter and new version 1 Original Letters of English Reformation, p. 754 : " We gave up private baptizing, confirmation of children, saints' days, kneel- ing at the holy communion, the linen surplices and crosses, and other things of like character." — Cox and others to Calvin. 2,6 Development and History of Puritanism of the Scriptures in their native tongue, to say no- thing of their Book of Common Order and trans- lation of Calvin's Catechism, long used in Scot- land, and in part circulated in England too, they had done more real and permanent service to the cause of the Reformation in their native land than all the rest of the exiles then on the Conti- nent. Geneva was in their eyes " such a school of Christ as the world for many ages had not seen," and they had striven by their lives and labors to make their own congregation worthy of this school. Their efforts had been appreciated and acknowledged. Their ministers Knox and Good- man, and some of their members, had had the freedom of the city conferred on them, and at their departure had intrusted to its custody that " Livre des Anglois " which is the earliest register of a Puritan church and is still preserved with care in the archives of the city. Knox, however, while there, had had the misfortune to publish his treatise " On the Monstrous Regiment of Women," and Goodman his treatise, " How Superior Powers should be obeyed," ^ offences which a Tudor queen could hardly be expected to overlook or forgive, and the offences of the ministers brought the flock ^ Possibly Bishop Poynet's treatise "Of Politique power and of the true obedience which subjects owe to kings and other civil governors," reprinted in 1642, and said in reprint (E 154, No. 36) to have been first published in 1 556, may have been so at Geneva, where he was then residing. under Qitccii ElizabctJi. 37 also under suspicion. Knox in rcturnin<^ to Scot- land was not allowed to set foot on English soil, and all his efforts to explain were haughtily re- jected. Goodman for a time was so repulsed that he deemed it best to yield to the request of his former colleague and aid him in his great work in Scotland ; ^ and other members of the congre- gation had difficulty in making their peace. Elizabeth, the new queen, was happily sur- rounded by wise and faithful counselors who made her reign illustrious and prosperous, and controlled its policy in great crises; yet, as one determined to rule as well as reign, she insisted often on settling important matters according to her own arbitrary will and without regard to the wishes of her Council or her Parliament. In par- ticular she took into her own hands from the first the reformation of the Church and the regulation ^ Goodman was a man of superior abilities and extensive learn- ing. His book was highly esteemed by Milton and other patriots in the following century, and will not be thought meanly of yet by any unprejudiced reader. Having been Divinity Reader at Oxford in 1553, (ioodman was deemed the fittest person to be made min- ister at St. Andrews in 1560. But his predecessor, who had been vicar before the Reformation, and had acted as minister in 1559- 60, was allowed to carry the emoluments of his vicarage with him to Aberdeen, and Goodman, after four or five years' faithful ser- vice, failing to secure an adequate maintenance, returned to Eng- land. There he was exposed to many hardships, and had to make a sort of recantation of his political sentiments. He survived till 1602, and was held in great esteem even outside the Puritan circle. Ussher long treasured and repeated the pious sayings he had heard from him on his deathbed. 38 Development and History of Pnritanism of its worship almost with as much imperiousness as her father had done. While scrupling to as- sume the title of " Supreme Head on earth, under Christ, of the Church of England," she assumed and exercised without scruple, all the power which the title was held to imply. While professedly adopting the second Prayer Book of her brother, she imported into it that Ornaments rubric from his earlier Book, which was to work such woe in her day, and has caused such trouble even in ours. As already mentioned, she prefixed words to those enjoined in it to be used at the distribution of the elements in the Lord's Supper which were meant to make it possible even for a Romanist to com- municate, and she excluded that rubric put in originally in deference to the scruples of Knox and a Lasco which was the most Protestant thing in the book. She prevailed on Parliament when passing the Act of Uniformity, to recognize her right to add, to those already appointed, such further rites and ceremonies as she should judge to be for the glory of God and the honor of re- ligion ; and had she found the old bishops as com- pliant as her father had done, she might have been led to use this right in such a way as might grat- ify them in minor things rather than their oppo- nents. With all her good and noble qualities (and they were man\') she was a Tudor every inch, and less disposed to yield one jot of her prerogative wida'' Qticcii Elizabeth, 39 in matters ecclesiastical than in matters civil. She thought her subjects should loyally submit to the injunctions of their sovereign, in regard to the former as fully as to the latter. Even when the dangers, which at first threatened- her and might have palliated if they could not justify her early imperiousness, were passed, she could still play the despot, and endeavor by sheer force to stamp out intensely earnest convictions, which, more gently dealt with and more lovingly guided, would have been a strength to her throne and to the institu- tions of the land. She had a natural predilection for the mongrel faith and worship of her father's later years, a fondness for external pomp and sym- bolism which her most favored prelates at times found it hard to wink at — impossible to justify, and but little sympathy with the practical side of Puritanism and with that inner experience and holy self-denying life which were its crown and glory. She looked with ill-concealed dislike on the marriage of the clergy, and never repealed her sister's Act against it. Her first purpose seems to have been to retain the Marian bishops in office (if they had consented to turn with the tide once more and take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy), and only to fill up the vacant sees with men of decided Protestant convictions. But by the refusal of these bishops to take the oath of supremacy and conform to the new order, she was 40 Development and History of Puritanism obliged to fall back on the Protestant bishops who had resigned or been dispossessed in the begin- ning of her sister's reign, and on the men who had identified themselves with the reforming party in her brother's time, and who had had their convic- tions matured in retirement or in exile. It is difficult to believe, notwithstanding asser- tions to the contrary by the High Church biogra- pher of the Archbishops of Canterbury, that they had not ample assurance given them that the Church in which they were asked to serve was meant to be the restoration of that of King Ed- ward's time,' and some encouragement to hope that the things they would rather have had away were continued merely for reasons of state policy, and might (as was professed by him), if borne with for the time, be ultimately abandoned or modified. In fact, they had a right to regard the acceptance of Coverdale's services without the episcopal habits, at the consecration of Archbishop Parker, as a pledge not only that the same indul- 1 Lee in his recent work, The Church under Queen Elizabeth, admits this frankly : — " Bishops Pilkington, Sandys, Grindal, Over- ton, Meyrick, Bale, Bullingham, and Parkhurst were each and all thoroughly agreed in their principles and course of action ; and in substituting the new religion which had been set up for the old one, which had been deliberately and duly abolished by Parlia- ment, . . . they were only carrying out the obvious and avowed intentions of those state officials who had placed them in high ecclesiastical positions expressly to carry out the changes .... resolved upon." — Vol. i. p. 272. under Queen ElizabctJi. 41 gence would be extended to him in the future but also that the practical toleration they had them- selves enjoyed in King Edward's days would not be denied them again. The great bulk of the Marian clergy abandoned their former bishops and conformed externally to the new order of things, and if they, Romanist in all but the name, were to be continued and borne with, that the nation might be kept united in one comprehensive Church, much more surely might those who were ministers in Edward's days, and were seeking only what was practically conceded then, — the men who were heartily attached to the new order of things, and had the learning, the zeal, the earnest Christian life, and the preaching abilities needed to insure among the masses an intelligent accept- ance of this new order, — much more surely had they a right to expect that reasonable concessions should be made to them, and a modus vivcndi be allowed them, even if, in the interest of union amonp; Eno-lishmen, the obnoxious ceremonies were not entirely to be removed. Various efforts were made in the first Convoca- tion, which assembled after the reconstitution of the Church, formally to secure this,^ and for a few 1 It was only by a single vote, and that a proxy, that in 1 562 the Lower House of Convocation rejected proposals which would probably have done this : — " That in baptism the cross may be omitted, . . . that the order of kneeling (at the comnuinion) may be left to the discretion of the ordinary, . . . that it be sutiicient 42 Development and History of Piuntanisui years it seems at least to have been practically conceded. We cannot suppose that those bishops who had pleaded so strongly as Grindal, Jewell, Horn, and Parkhurst had done to have these stumbling-blocks taken out of the way, would be at all disposed to press hardly on scrupling breth- ren, or that even Archbishop Parker, though not so kindly befriending them, would of his own accord have left his quiet antiquarian researches and other much-loved studies to enter into conflict with them. We cannot suppose that Elizabeth's wise counselors, who saw the necessity of encour- aging the Dutch and the Huguenots in their struggles, as well as of standing by the Protestants of Scotland though they would " remit nothing of that they had received from Geneva," could be so blind to their true interests at home, as for the sake of tippit or surplice, cross or ring, to cut off the right arm of their strength.^ But the queen for the minister . . . (once) to wear a surplice. . . . That the use of organs be removed." — Strype's Annah, vol. i. pp. Z?)^-},Z9. 1 '' The great object of Elizabeth's ministers . . . was the pres- ervation of the Protestant religion, to which all ceremonies of the Church and even its form of discipline were subordinate. An in- different passiveness among the people, a humble trust in authority, however desirable in the eyes of churchmen, was not the temper which would , . . have quelled the generous ardor of the Catholic gentry on the queen's decease ; . . . but every abhorrer of cere- monies, every rejector of prelatical authority might be trusted as Protestant to the heart's core, whose sword would be as ready as his tongue to withstand idolatry." — Hallam's Constitutional His- tory of England, vol. i. pp. 195, 196, undcj^ Queen Elizabeth. 43 either of her native willfulness, or from jealousy of their increasing influence with the citizens of Lon- don and the tendency of their opinions in the political sphere, or at the instigation of some busybody who had a grudge against them, or sought by unworthy means to gain her favor, was at length unfortunately persuaded to put forth her authority against them and to enjoin the bishops to restrain or deprive them. She knew it was not a popular business, and she would rather the odium of it should light on them than on herself But in case of need she was always ready to give help, and, once committed to a side, could never again be brought to treat them with kindness and for- bearance, and frankly to utilize their acknowledged gifts for the preaching of the gospel and advance- ment of Christian knowledge and godly living among the uninstructed masses of her people. She became only the more peremptory, the more their influence became apparent, and the sym- pathies of others were drawn forth toward them, and a love for more popular control in affairs of government began to be developed — the more determined to uphold her prerogative and to humble and crush them, even if in so doing much of the earnest life of the Church had to be crushed out, many of the most effective preachers to be silenced, and many of the firmest supporters of her throne had to be maltreated or discredited. 44 Development and History of Pttritanism Time will not admit of my entering much into details as to the melancholy blunders, merciless op- pression, and savage cruelties which characterized her ecclesiastical administration in its relation to the Puritans. That has been done pretty fully by Dr. Hetherington in the introductory chapters of his History of the Westminster Assembly, and still more fully and impartially by Mr. Marsden in his History of the Early Puritans, and by some of our recent secular historians, as well as by Neale and other Puritan writers in earlier times. To certain prominent occurrences I must briefly refer, as the ultimate shape and direction of the Puritan strug- gle was largely determined by them. The returned exiles who accepted bishoprics and other high dignities, were, as already men- tioned, almost all in favor of concessions being made to the scruples of the Puritans, if not even anxious for the entire removal of the rites and ornaments to which they objected; and perhaps one of the greatest services rendered by the Parker Society in our own day has been the tran- scription and publication of their correspondence with Bullinger and other Continental reformers, in which these facts are so clearly brought out. But they hesitated to insist on obtaining such con- cessions before accepting office, when firmness on their part might possibly have secured them, and they never were in a condition to insist on them under Queen Elizabeth. 45 afterward. Nay, against their own better judg- ment and wishes, some of them were forced on to deal harshly with brethren whom they loved, and on whom they knew they must chiefly rel)- to give life and vigor to the new Church, and to defend and propagate among the ignorant and careless that reformed faith which they, not less than these brethren, held dear. " Oxford had but three preachers in 1563, and they were chief men among the Puritans. The case of Cambridge was very similar;"^ and in fact throughout the king- dom generally it was the same. It was to them the queen and her counselors must look for the earnest and resolute defence of their common faith, in the only way in which access could be got for it to the minds of the unreading masses. It was to them she must look for the vigorous defence of her own rights against Pope and Stuart and all opponents. It was not by homilies on the peril of idolatry or the sin of willful rebellion, life- lessly drawled out by men who had changed from side to side and had no very deep convictions either way, that the crisis could be met, and the more intelligent of the people roused to the seri- ousness of the issue. What Froude has said of Knox^ may be said in a measure of his Puritan brethren in P^ngland : that they saved Elizabeth's throne and secured ^ Marsden, pp. loo, lor. ^ short Studies, 1867, vol. i. p. 168. 4-6 Development mid History of Puritanism the triumph of Protestantism in Britain, in spite of herself, and of all her caprice and cruelty toward them. The men who at first presented themselves for ordination in the restored Church were generally men of mean condition and miser- ably qualified for the sacred offices to which they aspired, and so limited was the supply, even of such men, that many churches were left without ministers for a time, or consigned to the charge of men of doubtful ordination ^ as well as deficient education. Ecclesiastical lands and revenues in several cases were appropriated by the queen, in several were made over to her courtiers ; bishop- rics were kept vacant — Ely and Oxford for about twenty years. Several of those in high ecclesias- tical offices showed more concern to enrich them- selves and their families, than to aid in supple- menting confessedly inadequate livings, or to guard against further alienation and abuse. The incumbents of Queen Mary's days, who to so large an extent had nominally submitted to the new regime, were too often either popishly affected or grossly ignorant — dead to the living meaning of the changes which had been made, or unable to preach, at times even to read, in an edifying and impressive manner — clinging, as has been ^ Lee often refers to this, and holds that many of the monks and friars who conformed and got benefices, if in orders at all, were only in minor orders — lectores, acolyti, etc. So probably were many of those admitted as Readers in Scotland. under Queen Elizabeth. 47 said, to the old forms, which they could repeat by rote, rather than taking the trouble of making themselves familiar with the new — in some cases using the breviary or the missal in private, and the Anglican liturgy in public — oft but able to read the prescribed English prayers and homilies, and keep up a certain routine of service, and sel- dom able to speak any ** word of exhortation " fitted to touch the hearts of their people, or to exercise a permanent influence for good among them. The returned exiles had in most cases a respectable amount of learning, and Christian ex- perience, and the ability and will to put both to use in popular preaching and more didactic argu- ment in defence of the Reformed faith ; and at first they had no great cause to complain that their claims were overlooked. Their metrical Psalter was allowed to be sung before and after prayers and sermons, and their translation of the Bible, without formal allowance, was largely cir- culated and often reprinted, and certain prayers and the Confession in their Book of Common Order were generally appended to the Psalter and possibly used in the pulpit though not in the reading-desk. Their earnest labors and solid learning, wisely and generously directed, and their scruples reasonably yielded to or winked at, would with God's blessing have sufficed in a single generation to change the face of England, and make 48 Development and History of Pitritajiism the common people not less educated and zealously Protestant than the people of still ruder Scotland became. But those in power determined to put uniformity and submission to rigid law or to arbi- trary will in the forefront, and to exalt prerogative above all limitations of regulated freedom, and the benefits of a mechanical routine above the blessing of a living active ministry and a moral, intelligent, grave, and deeply earnest people. It was in the year 1564-5 that the first lament- able attempt was made to enforce a rigid uni- formity, and, by prerogative royal, exact subscrip- tion to it from the scrupling Puritans, who till then had been generously treated or grumblingly tole- rated. The peremptory mandate requiring them to give this subscription issued from the sovereign herself; but it was carried out, if with reluctance yet with submission, by several of the prelates, and especially by Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury,^ ^ Historians are not agreed how far she, and how far Parker was, in the first instance, to blame for the earher proceedings against then-.. I have no doubt the real explanation is that given above, that the queen wished and urged him to proceed, just as she encouraged Aylmer's action against Cartwright, but that (as in that cnse) she wished him to take the onus on himself. No doubt the bishops, as well as she, thought that firmness and a little severity was all that was needed to crush the party, and instead of retracing their steps when they found they were mistaken, they exaggerated the dangers of a policy of concession, and clamored for one of repression. Thus, ere many years had passed, we find Sandys writing to the Privy Council in the following excited terms ; " The city will never be quiet till these authors of sedition, who are now under Qiceen Elizabeth. 49 and Grindal, Bishop of London, in whose diocese many of the leading Puritans were settled and by consistent Christian living, as well as by efficient pastoral work, were commending themselves and their cause to the popular sympathy. Sampson, Humphreys, Lever, and many others — above thirty in all — several of the best, as the Archbishop him- self acknowledged, appeared and consented to be suspended or deposed rather than subscribe to observe the proposed uniformity. Not a few sought to delay the evil day by not appearing. The noble-hearted Foxe, to whom Protestant England owes so much, is reported to have pulled out his Greek Testament and said, ** To this only will I subscribe. I have but a humble prebend in the Church, and if you take it from me, much good may it do you." He seems to have been borne with ; but even good Father Coverdale who, as Grindal before, when pleading for his promo- tion, had said, " ante nos omnes in Christo fuit," could not be spared, though the plague had just spared him. After little more than a year's enjoy- ment of his humble benefice of St. Magnus Rectory, he had to retire once more into obscurity and esteemed as gods ... be far removed from the city. The people resort to them as in popery they were wont to run on pilgrimages. ... A sharp letter from her Majesty would cut the courage of these men. Good my Lords, for the love you bear to llie Church of Christ, resist the tumultuous enterprises of these newfangled men." 50 Development and History of Puritanism privation. He was reverenced and followed in London, and, by his influence, was putting the city out of sympathy with the court, and must, to use the unfeeling- words of her Majesty about another, be fitted for heaven, " but walk thither without staff or mantle." He was left in his extreme old age *' without stay of living, ' pauper et pere- grinus,' " in the land which gave him birth, and which he had labored so hard to enrich with the true riches of God's Word in his native tongue. Such measures once taken, further trouble arose, first about private meetings for worship in London, at which Knox's Book of Common Order was used instead of the Liturgy, and then in connec- tion with the more public meetings known as " the prophesyings." These were gatherings of ministers and pious laymen for the study and exposition of the Scriptures, and in the great dearth there then was of qualified preachers they were of much service to many, both in stimulating them to the study of the Word of God, and in training them to expound it with readiness and accuracy. They had been held with profit in the Dutch and French churches in London, when under the charge of a Lasco, and had probably been resumed by them on their return from the Continent. At the accession of Elizabeth they were a standing institution at Zi^irich as well as at Geneva, and v/ere introduced with much benefit under Queen Elizabeth. 51 into Scotland by Knox, soon after 1560. By the commencement of the following decade they ap- pear to have found their way into various parts of England. Several bishops who were earnest for the more thorough reformation of their dioceses/ finding them useful in quickening zeal for the reformed faith, and increasing the number of qualified preachers, gave them their countenance, and endeavored, by prudent regulations, to avert or restrain any excesses to which, in incautious hands, they might be liable. They were especially dear to Grindal, who had by 1 576 succeeded Parker in the primacy. He was a thorough Protestant himself and anxious for the continuance of a thoroughly Protestant ministry, and willing to employ any means which had been found useful in training men for it elsewhere. But the queen, either taking umbrage at the meetings having been set up without her sanction, or dreading the effect they might have in promoting discussion, encour- aging greater liberty in the expression of opinion, and fostering a desire for a more popular organ- ization either in the church or state, determined rigorously to suppress them. She spoke slightingly of the need of preachers, affirming that two or ^ The sad complaints of several of these bishops as to the state of their dioceses, from the ignorance of the people, and their dis- like of the new regime, are given from State Papers and other con- temporary sources, by Lee, vol. i, ch. iv. 5 2 Development and History of Puritanism three were enough for a whole county, and that the common people were far better not to have their stolid quiet disturbed by such over-zealous instructors. She peremptorily commanded him to issue formal orders for the suppression of the obnoxious meetings. The archbishop nobly re- monstrated against the suppression of an institu- tion which, he was satisfied, had done much good, and might easily be purged of any abuses which, through the infirmity of men, may have arisen to mar the good it did. But he remonstrated in vain. The queen not only disregarded his cour- ageous and earnest pleading, but carried her dis- pleasure so far as to suspend him from his high office, and confine him as a prisoner to his own house. It is said that, but for the unpopularity of the measure, she would have proceeded to deprive him altogether. He never fully regained the favor of his sovereign, with whom he had as boldly and faithfully remonstrated, as became the high office he held. But it is said that, when he was broken down by grief and the infirmities of old age, and bereft of sight, she relented some- what and sent him a kindly message, and that he made such acknowledgment as a Christian bishop could honorably make. His virtues and misfor- tunes made him beloved and revered by his con- temporaries, caused his name to be embalmed in the verse of the immortal Spenser, and have se- luidcr Queen Elizabeth. 53 cured for him a word of warm commendation from the High Church biographer of the Archbishops of Canterbury, who is never more sparing of his praise than to prelates of the Evangelical school, to which Grindal belonged. Soon after the commencement of the prophesy- ings, the more thorough-going Puritans who had been led on to substantially presbyterian opinions, but discouraged by friends abroad and debarred by the authorities at home from overtly seceding from the national church, began to hold private meetings for mutual conference and prayer, and possibly also for the exercise of discipline over those who voluntarily joined their associations and submitted to their guidance. It is even said that a presbytery was formed at Wandsworth in Surrey, wherein eleven lay-elders were associated with the lecturer of that congregation and certain leading Puritan clergymen. But if this was really a formal presbytery, it is evident that it was what was then called the lesser presbytery or session, not the greater presbytery or classis to which the name is now usually restricted. It is more cer- tain that when Cartwright, the redoubted leader of this school of Puritans, was arrested in 1585 and his study searched, a copy was found of a Directory for church-government, which made provision for synods, provincial and national, as well as for presbyteries, greater and lesser. This, 54 Development and History of Pnintanisni according to some authorities, had been subscribed by about 500 Puritans of this school, and, for some years, as I said, had, to a certain extent, been carried out, and a church within the church^ virtually formed. The book was republished in 1644, and so was known and consulted by the Westminster divines; and it has been reprinted in our own day by Principal Lorimer. It bears considerable resemblance to the famous Ordinances of Calvin and the Second Book of Discipline of the Scottish church, but it is more explicit in its directions as to preaching, and the forms of wor- ship. I must pass over with bare mention the harsh usage meted out to the great Puritan leader^ by 1 Ecclesiola in ecclesia. Their synods are said to have met in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Northampton, etc. 2 Thomas Cartwright, B. D., first Margaret Professor of Di- vinity, and one of the preachers in the University Church at Cambridge, where his influence and example probably led to that outbreak of Puritanism on the part of the young men, which some suppose first roused the queen against its advocates. He was harshly expelled the University, and had twice to seek shelter abroad from the cruel usage he experienced at home. In his old age he was allowed, though not without occasional restraint and even imprisonment, to hold the chaplaincy of the hospital at War- wick. He was an able disputant, an eloquent preacher, " a pure Latinist, an accurate Grecian, an exact Hebrean," a scholar so learned that Beza said he did not think the sun shone on one more so, according to Marsden "the Hooker of nonconformity, his equal in acuteness though not in penetration ; in eloquence, though not in learning, his superior ; his inferior perhaps only in profound dexterity and skill in argument mingled with an awful reverence for truth." See also Appendix, Note B. under Qitccn Elizabeth, 55 Whitgift in his early days, and by Aylnicr in his later, the ungenerous treatment of Travers, and the pitiless oppression of many " godly ministers," when, on Whitgift's accession to the primacy, the Court of High Commission was reconstituted and more extensive powers were intrusted to it, and a series of interrogatories was devised for extorting a confession from the accused, which even Cecil pronounced to be worthy of the Inquisition itself I must pass over the harsh imprisonment of Brown and other extreme Puritans of the Independent school — the tyrannical proceedings of the Court of Star-Chamber against the supposed authors of the satirical Marprelate Tracts, and the cruel sen- tences on Penry and Udal. Neither can I dwell on the illegal restraint of the freedom of discussion on ecclesiastical affairs in the House of Commons, in various Parliaments, from 1571 downward, and the noble stand made in behalf of forbearance and healing measures by Wentworth, Strickland, and other patriots in that House — the worthy pre- cursors of Pym and Hampden in the following century. Nor finally shall I advert to the doc- trinal disputes which began to be raised before the close of this reign till I come, in a subsequent lecture, to treat of the history and development of doctrine more expressly. It was indeed a policy of stamping out which was now initiated by the queen with the aid 56 DcvclopDicnt and History of Pm^itanism of despotic Courts of Star-Chamber and High Commission ; and with singular disregard of the feeb'ngs and convictions of many true-hearted patriots and accomplished Christian scholars, it was attempted to be remorselessly carried out. But the attempt failed as disastrously as it has generally done where authority and prerogative have set themselves against deep and earnest convictions. Many who had not the courage at first openly to avow it, secretly sympathized with the patriots and the Puritans, and, in time, were emboldened to confess it. By their noble bearing under oppression and tyranny, " men were led to examine the foundations of the power by which they were so cruelly oppressed. The influence of education and early attachment was thus counter- acted, until at length a determination was avowed to overturn a system whose reformation only had previously been sought." They were forced to seek outside the church what they were refused within, and, in the end, to let loose over the land as a devastating flood those waters which, had proper channels been opened for them, would have flowed on in them to revivify and transform the old church, and make its parched wastes " rejoice and blossom as the rose." " Little as they thought what the consequences of their acts would be, Elizabeth and Whitgift, James and Bancroft," as Rawson Gardiner says, " by making a schism under Queen Elizabeth. 57 inevitable, were the true fathers of Protestant dissent." Occasionally guided by considerations of state policy or by desire to avoid unpopularity, or yielding to the remonstrances of her patriotic councilors in favor of particular individuals, be- longing to the party, who had been imprisoned or deprived, Elizabeth may have forborne to press hard on them. But ever and anon new occasion was found for restraining and gagging the more obnoxious, whether they sought shelter within or toleration without the church, whether they sought minor changes or more important reforms in its constitution, whether they advocated these in their sermons, or through the press, or through the instrumentality of friends in Parliament. Even the archbishop, less averse to the repulsive task than some of his brethren, failed at times to satisfy his sovereign gradually becoming more jealous of her prerogative, more harsh and despotic just in those matters of conscience and religion in which she should have been less so, more giddy and frivolous, as she advanced to years when the follies of youth should have been laid aside, and the realities of the faith she professed to defend should have bulked larger in her view.^ She 1 "Toward the conclusion of her reign, the example of the court of Elizabeth was decidedly irreligious, and the contagion spread rapidly among the common people. A preposterous ex- travagance in dress . . . the prevalence of oaths (freely indulged 58 Development and History of Puritani sni might on great occasions still come forward as the champion of Protestantism, and act with true dig- nity and spirit as she had done in 1572 when receiving in mourning, and with expressions of deepest sorrow, the ambassador of the French king after the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; and again in 1588, when, in prospect of the arrival of the Spanish Armada, she laid aside her usual liaiiieiir, courageously cast herself on the sym- pathies and loyalty of her people, and placed her- self at their head. But that wealth of religious life and activity which the new faith so exuberantly called forth, and all the effects intellectual and industrial which it drew in its train, she failed to utilize or even to recognize as the true strength of her throne, and her best security against Popish reaction. That growing love of freedom and im- patience of minute restraint which religious and intellectual activity necessarily fostered, she failed to satisfy or appreciate, or even generously bear with. She fell behind instead of continuing to keep in advance of her advancing people — endeav- oring to anticipate their just aspirations, and by in by the queen herself) and, to crown the whole, the studied desecration of the Sabbath, mark too plainly the hollowness of that religious profession which even men of fashion were still con- strained to make. . . . Social meetings for prayer and praise and for conference among the clergy are almost inseparable from a vigorous piety and an effective ministry, and these had been dis- couraged. They were chiefly to be met with in the chambers of the Puritans." — Marsden's Early Puritans, p. 239. lender Oitcen Elizabeth. 59 kindly treatment to retain their devoted affec- tion. That alone coidd have made the continu- ance of personal government still possible, and like several of her successors in similar crises of our history, Elizabeth failed to realize it, and at the proper time to act on it. She, who with due forethought and self-restraint might have permanently attached all hearts to her and guided their progress, from imperiousness and arbitrary temper missed the possibility, threw away the splendid opportunities, and when at last she awoke in some measure to the consciousness of what she had missed or thrown away, became peevish and irritable, and sank into deep and hopeless melan- choly. " That bright occidental star " paled, and set in a gloomy and angry sky. The queen's popularity, I have said, had greatly waned during her later years. Even impartial secular historians, like Hallam, ascribe this not so much to weightier taxation, or to blunders and arbitrary proceedings in her civil government, as " to her inflexible tenaciousness in every point of ecclesiastical discipline." The ablest historian of the Puritans tells us that at one period of her reign, when Whitgift was allowed to have his way uncontrolled, nearly one-third of the beneficed clergy of England had incurred suspension, and that this to most of them involved destitution and penury, and to most of their flocks a total 6o Development and History of Puritanism deprivation of the means of grace. Men could not fail to ask : " Would it not be wiser to provide for the effervescence of a well-meaning zeal, however troublesome, within the bosom of the church, than to cast off those fiery energies which might and probably would be arrayed against her ? " The numerous party among the laity who sympathized with them had begun to ask this, and others than they were beginning to do so. How anxious thoughtful men, altogether unconnected with the party, had by that time become that all this should be changed, and a more conciliatory course be tried, appears notably from a tractate written by Francis Bacon, the accomplished phi- losopher and statesman, before the close of the year at which we have now arrived, and possibly drawn up for the guidance of Elizabeth's successor when assuming the government of the English state. In this tractate Bacon indorses their ob- jection to the use of the words priest, absolution, and confirmation, " takes exception to the various matters of ceremony at which the Puritans scru- pled, inveighs against the abuses of excommuni- cation, non-residence and plurality, the ex officio oath, and the excessive power of the bishops, against all which they protested ; " and in the spirit of a true patriot, he demands why the eccle- siastical state should be put at greater disadvan- tage than the civil, and not as considerately under Queen Elizabeth. 6i adapted to the changing wants and desires of Christian men/ ^ " I would only ask why the civil state should be purged and restored by good and wholesome laws made every third or fourth year in Parliaments assembled, devising remedies as fast as time breedeth mischiefs, and contrariwise the ecclesiastical state should siill continue upon the dregs of time, and receive no alteration now for these five-and-forty years and more. If it be said to me that there is a difference between civil causes and ecclesiastical, they may as well tell me that churches and chapels need no reparations though houses and castles do, whereas commonly, to speak the truth, dilapidations of the inward and spiritual edifica- tion of the church of God are in all times as great as the outward and material. Sure I am that the very word and style of reforma- tion used by our Saviour '■^ ab initio non fuit ita"" was applied to Church matters, and those of the highest nature." — Spedding's Bacon, vol. iii. p. 105. LECTURE III. HISTORY OF PURITANISM UNDER THE EARLIER STUART KINGS. In my last lecture I gave you an account of the history and development of English Puritanism during the reign of the last of the Tudor sove- reigns. In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, it may be said to have been still in its infancy : be- fore her death it had almost attained its maturity. Under the unkindly treatment its advocates re- ceived, it tended more and more to develop in a polemical as well as a practical form. The de- fences employed against it showed the same tend- ency to develop. First the " nocent ceremonies " formed the chief subject of attack; then, when concessions as to these were refused or withdrawn, the attack was pushed further. The worship and government of the church were more generally assailed, and finally the war threatened to extend into the region of doctrine, in which chiefly they contended for more than mere toleration. The principle which lay at the root of all the contend- ings of its advocates, and to which most of their varied assaults in matters of minor importance can be traced up, was the principle that the church 62 History of Puritanism. 63 has no right to burden the consciences of her members in matters of faith and worship with aught that is contrary to or beside {i. e. in addition to) the express or implied teaching of the Word of God. In other words, they claimed to restrict the authority of the church within narrower lim- its than their opponents, and to reclaim for liberty a larger province than they were disposed to allow her. They did not as yet themselves perceive the full import of the principle for which they contended. They were reluctant to extend it rigidly to the constitution and government of the church as well as to her articles of faith and forms of worship. But as the contest proceeded, they could not fail to be led on more and more dis- tinctly to assert it with a fuller consciousness of its far-reaching consequences, and a more earnest longing to bring back the church in constitution and government, as well as in faith and worship, to what they believed to be " the pattern showed in the mount." Their opponents were also led by the necessities of the warfare to develop their de- fence. The first Elizabethan bishops accepted the ceremonies and habits, and reluctantly submitted to various restrictions, because the queen so or- dered it, and they failed to bend her will in the direction they desired, and in the direction their Protestant brethren abroad had already led the way. Their successors, more wedded to that to 64 History of Puritanism which they had become accustomed, resolutely undertook its defense, asserting against the Puri- tan position the counter proposition that while Scripture supplied an absolute rule of faith, and no doctrine not drawn from it was to be imposed on the consciences of the members of the church, yet that it was not meant to be a complete or absolute rule in matters of worship and church constitution, but that much for which Scriptural precedent might be alleged might be now unnec- essary or inexpedient, and much which Scripture had left undetermined might be necessary to be regulated, and that the church had authority to regulate all matters of this sort and to require obedience to her regulations, provided they were not positively contrary to Scripture. They as- serted that the church had a right to retain her polity and forms if ancient and accordant with those of the state in which her lot was cast, and that agitation for a more popular form might be not only inexpedient and unseemly, but even un- lawful under a monarchy. This in brief was the position maintained with much logical dexterity and persistence by Whitgift and Cooper, and with certain modifications by the great and gifted Hooker in that treatise of Eccle- siastical Polity which still excites the admiration of men of so divergent sentiments for the candor and acuteness of its reasoning, and the stately majesty un der tJie earlier Stuart Kiiios, 65 of its diction. Finally, as the controversy became more embittered, some zealots in defence of the existing order of things advanced beyond the lines of Whitgift, or even of Hooker. They claimed for the constitution and government of the Anglican church a jus diviiiuni, and maintained that the episcopate was by divine right above the pres- byterate, and that to assert the opposite was not merely an error but a " heresy." This position, first broached by Bancroft in the reign of Eliza- beth, was to find many supporters in the period I am now to describe, and for a time almost to drive the more liberal and attractive theory of Hooker out of the field, even in the church he adorned. It was on the 24th of March 1602-3, that Elizabeth's long reign came to a close, and she was succeeded by James I. of England and VI. of Scotland. The character of James, while cal- culated favorably to impress on superficial obser- vation, discloses after deeper study elements which could not fail to mar the success of his reign. There was, as has been said, a "strange mixture in it of sagacity and folly." Love of letters and learned men combined with a passion for low sports ; professions of religion and zeal for Protestantism discredited at times by mean truck- ling to '* catholic " powers, by shameful insin- cerity and vulgar profanity. " His intellectual powers were of no common order, his learning, 5 66 History of Pitritanisin especially on theological subjects, by no means contemptible." His courtiers — even those of them who were ministers of the church — were wont to speak of him as the British Solomon. Some modern historians, on the other hand, affirm that as Henry IV. of France said, he was only " the wisest fool in Christendom." He was good- natured, but he allowed his goodness to be abused by unworthy favorites. He was shrewd and cunning, and yet could so far conceal his artifice, that he imposed, for a time at least, on many good men in Scotland, and on many of the great states- men and churchmen of England.^ But he became, as Bishop Burnet has said, " the scorn of his age," and " was despised by all abroad as a pedant with- out true judgment, courage, or steadiness, a slave to his favorites, and delivered up to the counsels or rather the corruption of Spain." ^ He was fond ^ " Such a king as since Christ's time hath not been." — Ban- croft. " The learnedest king that ever sat upon this throne, or as I verily think since Solomon's time on any other." — Bishop Hall. " A king of incomparable clemency, and whose heart is inscrutable for wisdom and goodness." — Lord Bacon. 2 His defects Mr. vS. Rawson Gardiner is disposed to trace to "that scene of terror which passed before his mother while he was yet unborn. He came into the world imperfect. His body, his mind, and his heart appear alike to have been wanting in that central force by which the human frame and the human intellect are at the same time invigorated and controlled. His ungainly figure was the type of his inner life. . . . No true and lofty faith ever warmed his heart. No pure reverence ever exalted his under- standing."— History of England fnnn 1603 to 1616, vol. i. p. 56. See also Green's History, vol. iii. pp. 55, 56. tinder the earlier Stuart Kings. 67 of absolute power, and implacable against those who called in question any of his prerogatives, fond of theological discussion, especially when he could count on an opponent courtly enough not to press him too hard in argument, fond of talking and writing against Popery, yet often found really acting for it. Above all, lie was fond of manage- ment and trickery, and vain of his ability and success in this, which he dignified with the name of kingcraft. But this craft in which he deemed himself a master failed to secure the subservience of his Parliaments, or to crush the aspirations of his people after greater liberty in church and state. His accession to the English throne could not fail to raise hopes of kindlier treatment in the minds of the Puritans. He had previously to some extent shown himself their friend, and invited more than one of their leaders, when harshly oppressed in England, to occupy a chair in a Scottish University,^ and had ventured to inter- cede with Queen Elizabeth on their behalf He had himself sanctioned and subscribed in 1581 what was termed the " negative " Confession of Faith, in which the ceremonies and the hierarchy appeared to be utterly condemned, and on one memorable occasion had spoken of the Itnglish Prayer-Book as '*an evil said mass in P^nglish, ^ Cartwriglit and Travers were invited to join Melville in the New College, St. Andrew's. M'Crie's Life of Melville, p. 153. 6S History of Puritanism wanting nothing of the mass but the Hftings." He had no pronounced rituaHstic procHvities, no im- practicable jure diviiio notions as to the office of a bishop as he had of the " divinity that doth hedge a king," and he was too well read in theology not to know what was really Protestant doctrine and what was not. But unfortunately he had already come into collision with the leaders of the more decidedly Puritanic party in the Scottish church, both through his exercise of despotic power and through the coarser vices to which he or his cour- tiers were addicted, and had given more plain than pleasant evidence of his dislike to them in his Basilicon Doron. So plain and unmistakable indeed was this that he had to make more than one attempt to explain his words away. But notwithstanding all his explanations, there was from his known peculiarities ground to fear that he might be tempted to avenge on their southern co-religionists the defeats and affionts he had re- ceived from their Scottish brethren, and might be induced to throw himself into the arms of the prelates, who were prepared to make common cause with him in the maintenance of prerogative, and sedulously to foster in his mind the idea that its maintenance was closely bound up with the preservation of their cherished hierarchy — in fact, to give all possible currency to his favorite maxim, " No Bishop no King." under the earlier Stuart Kings, 69 As he proceeded on his way to take possession of his new kingdom, petitions for reHef or in- dulgence were presented to him by the oppressed Puritans, showing how partial was the effect the harsh measures of Elizabeth and Whitgift had really had in checking the growth of this obnox- ious school. Chief among these petitions was the Millenary Petition, — so designated either from its being signed or approved of ^ by nearly a thousand (in reality about 800) ministers, or from the asser- tion contained in it that it represented the views of more than a thousand of the ministers of the church. It was expressed in deferential and mod- erate language, and its prayer for relief might have been granted without the slightest danger to the church or injury to the cause of religion in the land. An opportunity of repairing the mistake Elizabeth had made in the early years of her reign, and had persisted in to the last, was now in God's good providence presented, and had the king been really touched by the grateful and graceful saluta- tion addressed to him by the old Puritan leader from his deathbed, and risen to the occasion, or had he followed the counsels tendered by states- ^ Some say approbation, not subscription, was asked, and that the numbers so approving were 750. A pamphlet printed in 1606 gives the numbers in 25 English counties, the sum of which is 746, But no mention is made of the Welsh counties or of most within the province of York, from which returns may have been later in coming to hand. 70 History of Puritanism men like Bacon, and acted with ordinary prudence and moderation at this juncture, peace might have been restored to the distracted church on very favorable terms, and relief granted to many earn- est men warmly attached to the institutions of their country and desirous to aid in the more efficient maintenance of them. The king with great tact consented to hold a conference to con- sider the grievances of which the petitioners com- plained, and to learn in detail what the bishops had to say for themselves. To this conference, held on the 14th, i6th, and 18th January, 1603-4, he invited four of the ablest and most moderate of the Puritan ministers, viz.. Dr. Reynolds of Oxford, Dr. Chaderton of Cam- bridge, Dr. Sparkes and Mr. Knewstub, along with Archbishop Whitgift, eight bishops and as many inferior dignitaries.^ Had he only held the balance evenly between the contending parties, allowed each fully and fairly to state his case, and endeavored to decide between them as a calm judge rather than as a keen partisan, he could hardly have failed to conciliate the favor of the one without alienating the other. But he managed matters with such arro- gance and coarseness as brought him little thanks for the few concessions he ultimately made, and deeply wounded the feelings of the party he refused ^ Patrick Galloway was also present and wrote an account of the Conference, to the presbytery of Edinburgh. lender the earlier Stuart Kings. 7 1 more fully to relieve. He knew that he had that party at his mercy and wished to make them feel that it was so. Their desire for a carefully revised translation of the Scriptures was approved of and in due time was carried out, and those who would give the credit of that great undertaking entirely to others need to be reminded that it was originally suggested and pressed by the more learned Puri- tans, and that no one while he lived took greater interest in helping it on than the old Oxford Puritan who had urged it at this conference. Some of the more objectionable chapters from the Apocrypha were agreed to be struck out of the Table of Lessons, and Archbishop Abbot held that the old injunctions of Queen Elizabeth left ministers the discretion of going further in that direction. Certain additions explaining the nature of the Sacraments were authorized to be made to the Church Catechism, and the rubric of the service for private baptism was so altered as to discourage lay-baptism. The Act of Edward VI. declaring the lawfulness of clerical marriages was promised to be revived. But there was no con- cession in regard to the " three nocent ceremonies " which Bacon then, and Ussher forty years later, would willingly have given up, nor in regard to the terms of subscription which have, with consent of all parties, in our own day, been changed into 72 History of Puritanism a form that would have ahnost met the scruples of the petitioners, ere the church was yet rent and English Protestantism hopelessly divided. There was no attempt to provide a remedy for the scarcity of preachers and the redundance of non- preaching pluralists, — scandals from which the church continued to suffer for nearly half a cen- tury. With respect to those meetings of the clergy for prayer and religious conference which Grindal and other bishops had desired to tolerate in the previous reign, as also more formal meetings of the Presbyters in Synod with their Bishop, which no authority would now think of opposing, the king, coarsely interrupting their representative, said they were aiming at a Scottish Presbytery, which " agreeth with a monarchy as well as God with the devil. There Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick, shall meet and at their pleasures censure me and my council." The closing scene was even more coarse and offensive. "Well, Doctor," he said, addressing Dr. Reynolds, *' have you anything else to say ?" " No more at present, please your majesty," was the meek reply. " If this," rejoined the king, " be all the party hath to say, I will make them conform, or else I will harry them out of the land, or else do worse, hang them — that is all." And this, according to Hallam, was addressed to a man who " was nearly, if not altogether, the most under tJic earlier Stuart Ki learned man in England." ' It was a gross violation of the assurance he had given in his writings that learned and moderate Puritans of this stamp would be held by him in equal honor and love with their opponents.^ The same year which witnessed this memorable Conference witnessed also the summoning of the king's first Parliament and of the Convocation of the Church.^ The concessions agreed to at the conference were not submitted for the approval of Convocation, though that is maintained by Anglo- Catholics now, as well as by Puritans then, to be the course which in such a case ought to be followed. It was thought more for the honor of the king that they should be made simply by his prerogative royal, save the one relating to clerical marriages, which required to be submitted to Parliament. But while the House of Commons was discouraged from interfering on behalf of ^ Others suppose it was spoken aside to some of the opposite party. For further details as to this conference, see App., Note C. 2 " The style of Puritans belongs properly to that vile sect of the Anabaptists only, called the family of love. It is only this sort of men that I wish my son to punish. . . . But I protest upon mine honor I mean it not generally of all preachers, and others that like better of the single form of policy in our Church of Scotland than of the many ceremonies in the Church of Eng- land. No, I am so far from being contentious in these things that I do equally love and honor the learned and grave of either opin- ion." (E. 204, No. 2.) ^ It is called the Convocation of 1 603, but though it began on 20th March, 1603-4, most of its sittings fell within what even in the old style was the year 1604. 74 History of Puritanism the Puritans/ permission was given to the Con- vocation to prepare a series of constitutions and canons ecclesiastical which were duly sanctioned by royal authority, and which, so far as the clergy are concerned, and they have not been allowed to fall into desuetude, are held still to embody the law of the Church of England. They were 141 in number, and several of them were directed ex- pressly against the Puritans, and seem to us now- adays sufficiently harsh. " If cursing," says Dr. Price,^ " could have effected their destruction, it would have been now inevitable. The sentence of excommunication ipso facto was now added to the other penalties of nonconformity." They were anathematized if they remained in the church, holding any of its rites to be superstitious and repugnant to Scripture. They were anathematized if they seceded and ventured to affirm that their meetings or congregations apart were true and lawful churches. Even in the Convocation which passed these harsh canons one bishop was found bold enough to plead for concession or at least forbearance in regard to subscription and the nocent ceremonies, enlarging on the evils of a house divided against itself, and the mistake of silencing so many able preachers at a time when their services were so much needed, and warning his brethren of a 1 Three parts of tlie House were said to be favorable to them. 2 History of Protestant JVonconformity, vol. i. p. 476, nnder the earlier Stuart K day '* when for want of their joint-hibors some such doleful complaint might arise as fell out upon an accident of another nature recorded in the Book of Judges, when it is said that for the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart." One who bore a name long and hon- orably associated with moderate Puritanism made a more direct attempt to gain the sovereign's ear. Dr. John Burgess, afterward of Sutton Coldfield, in his sermon before the king at Green- wich, on 19th July, 1604, boldly warned him of the dangers of the course on which he had entered, and pleaded for indulgence to the many worthy men who were exposed to his displeasure. The reasons given for this bold step in the apology he made, were " new and unwonted urging of the ceremonies and subscription beyond what law required (whereby six or seven hundred of the ablest ministers in the land are like to be put out), the general depraving of religious persons (if they be conscionable) under the scorn of Puritan- ism, as if, the body of religion standing upright, men would yet cut the throat of it . . . the with- drawing of ecclesiastical causes from Parliament, though in the present and in your majesty's days safe, yet in the precedent and sanction of doubtful consequence." Not even Bacon could have put the matter more forcibly, nor followed this up more moderately and persuasively than he pro- 76 History of Puritanism ceeded to do. " Things which I confess I hold not impious, but needless and scandalous, many hundred ministers think them unlawful and would surely die rather than use them. . . . What is yielded upon suit for peace's sake might go out with flying colors, one side satisfied with their justifying, and the other gratified with their re- moval, the form of the present government being still continued with good approbation, and con- firmed by our inward peace." ^ Shortly after the adjournment of Parliament and Convocation a royal proclamation was issued, en- joining strict conformity to the established order of the church; many Puritan clergy were silenced, some who ventured to petition for indulgence were imprisoned; their flocks were irritated and the lawfulness of separating from the National Church began to be more openly discussed.^ The number of silenced and deprived ministers is variously estimated. Some place it as high as 1500, but this more probably represents the number of those who at first refused to subscribe to the three articles of the new Canon making the terms of conformity more stringent than Acts of Parlia- ment warranted. Others have reduced the number as low as fifty. Calderwood and Neale say it was above 300, Brooke makes it 400. Others were ^ Sermons, etc. (E. 145, No. 2.) '^ Marsden's Early Puritans, p. 276. tinder the earlier Stuart Kings, yj borne with by individual bishops, and through all this reign even kneeling at the Communion was not enforced in some places, and " prophesyings " were in one or two instances winked at. The Archbishop of York is said to have been more tolerant than his brother of Canterbury. Neale gives various touching instances of the hardships to which several of the silenced ministers were subjected, but none of these is so touching as is the case of the Scottish ministers, who about the same time were decoyed from their distant homes, professedly to advise with the king as to the changes contemplated by him in the Scottish church, but really to deprive their brethren opposed to these changes of the benefit of their counsel and courageous example. Dr. Hook is pleased to make merry over their case as a very harmless piece of revenge for all the lectures they had inflicted on the king in former times. But the device of summoning from Scotland, into what was virtually a foreign land, men whose only offense was the influence their talents and character gave them, and the exercise of the liberty the laws of their country allowed them, was as illegal as it was harsh and spiteful. The long imprisonment of Andrew Melville^ in the Tower of London, and 1 No one who has read the sad story of his later years when a prisoner in the Tower of London, or an exile in a foreign land, can fail to commiserate the hard fate of this great scholar and patriot. One can read, if not without indignation yet without disgust, the yS History of Puritanism the life-long detention of his nephew James from his native land, on both of which the Doctor is judiciously silent, were among the most unjust and tyrannical actions of James's reign. They gave to his Puritan subjects in the south a prac- tical exemplification of what he meant by the coarse threat of harrying them out of the land. That in fact was what it soon came to. A num- ber of their leaders as well as Andrew Melville, Forbes, Sharp, Dury, and Welsh from Scotland, had to seek abroad, in the Protestant Colleges of France, or among the merchant communities of their countrymen in the free cities of the Nether- lands, the toleration which was denied to them at home. There, using in the service of the ingenu- ous youth of other lands or of their countrymen settled in foreign cities, the stores of learning they had amassed in more favorable times, they were honored to do good work for the IMaster they loved, and to train a seed to serve Him and to bear the banner of His crown and covenant when they should be called away. Soon after the close of the Hampton Court Conference the long life of Archbishop Whitgift passionate words of the youthful Mary, when she thought she had at last got Knox into her power ; but one cannot think without indignation and disgust of her son, now in the maturity of his powers, listening behind the tapestry while his honest, if stern, reprover, at length entrapped into what was to him a foreign country, was being badgered and baited by the English Privy Council. under the earlier Stuart Kinos, 79 came to an end. He was an acute disputant, a sound, well-read divine, a firm supporter of the Augustinian or Calvinistic theology, a zealous and courageous prelate, but a man of imperious and " choleric temper," harsh and cruel toward his op- ponents. He looked forward with apprehension to the approaching meeting of Parliament, and expressed a wish he might be summoned to give in his account in another world before it met. He may have had a dim presentiment of some of the sad consequences of the tacit alliance he and his fellows had formed with despotism in the state, and more than a dim presentiment of the conse- quences which must follow from the more than tacit alliance, which now could hardly fail to be struck between the more resolute of the Puritans and the patriots of the House of Commons. Whitgift was succeeded by Bancroft, Bishop of London, who had been the champion of the hierarchy at the Hampton Court Conference, was more blind to consequences, more decidedly High Church, and more hostile to the Puritans, — "a sturdy piece," according to Bishop Kennet, " who proceeded with rigor, severity, and wrath " against them. He was in many respects the true precursor of Laud, not only in asserting the jus divi)iuin of episcopacy, but also in attempting to revive disused ornaments and ceremonies. His primacy was short, and after seven years he was So History of Pitritanism succeeded by George Abbot, a man naturally more tolerant and kindly to all who valued the principles of the Reformation, of more extensive erudition, more thoroughly Protestant, and the last Augustinian, I suppose, who sat on the throne of Canterbury. It is said to have been at his ex- pense that the great work of his old Augustinian predecessor, Bradwardine — Dc causa Dei contra Pclagiiini — was finally given to the world. His former experiences at Oxford had made him fully alive to the dangers which nascent Anglo-Cathol- icism, and a more indulgently treated Romanism, might occasion to the church and nation, and it was no doubt the earnest and hearty services ren- dered by the moderate Puritans in the defense of the principles of the Reformation, which secured for them gentler usage at his hands. Under his regime their condition appears to have been con- siderably ameliorated. Those who still remained in benefices were not harshly prosecuted as they had been before; while those who did not see their way so far to conform to the requirements of the Canons and Prayer-Book as to qualify themselves for benefices, were encouraged to use their gifts in the service of the church as lecturers and preachers. Those who scrupled to subscribe Whitgift's terms of conformity, might still obtain orders on more favorable conditions from Irish bishops, and not a few of them, like Non-jurists U7ider the earlier Stuart Kings. 8i of a later day, acted as private chaplains in the families of the nobility and gentry, or earned a precarious subsistence by teaching. Through the liberality of many of the lay friends of the party, and the purchase of impropriated tithes, fixed salaries were provided, and the number of these lecturers was gradually increased. The cause of religion under their earnest lectures and catechis- ings prospered much in London and the provin- cial towns, and to their oral teaching was added a multitude of practical religious treatises, issued through the press, which extended their influence far and wide, and made this era one of the most memorable in this department of literature.^ If they had not theoretically abandoned the opinions of Cartwright, practically, like himself in his later days, they had ceased to contend for them, and devoted themselves to peaceful work. Abbot, while a courtier and a conscientious conformist, was like many of the bishops of king James an Augustinian, or Calvinist, in thorough sympathy ^ What Ileppe says of them at a somewhat later period was certainly true of them at this date also : Wirkten sie nichl nur als begeisterte Prediger, sondern auch als eifrige Katecheten - indem sie die Katechisation als ein besonders wirksames Mittel zur Ver- breitungdes Evangelium's ansahen — sowieals die treuesten,ernsten Seelsorger, als Wohlergeben der ihnen anvertrauten Gemeinden in allerlei Weisen zu fordern und zu heben suchten. Strenge Kirchenzucht, fleissig besuchte Katechisationen, und haufig zu- sammentretende Conventikel der Gemeindeglieder sah man iiberall wo pietistische Prediger wirkten, und ebenso sah man den Segen ihrer Wirksamkeit. — Geschichte des Pietismus, pp. 50, 51. 6 82 History of Puritanism with the reformed churches abroad, and with no liankering after that scheme which at times had attractions for James himself, and greater for his unfortunate successor, the endeavoring to bring about an understanding between the Papists and the Church of England. It was through his counsels that the king was persuaded in 1615 to authorize the Irish Articles, and so virtually to concede beyond the Irish Channel what had been refused on this side at the Hampton Court Con- ference, and also in 16 18 to send deputies from the English church to the famous Synod of Dort in Holland, and so give practical countenance to the reformed churches on the Continent ; and on more than one occasion he sought to mediate in the doctrinal disputes of the Protestants in France. It is said to have been by his influence that the general reading of the Proclamation regarding sports lawful on the Lord's Day was not enforced. If at times in his last years James showed favor to the Arminians, yet in raising Ussher to the primacy of the Irish church he provided before- hand a friend to shelter the Puritans when their protector in England had passed away, a defender of Protestantism whose learning and competency none could question, an Augustinian whose varied gifts Laud and his followers might envy but could not outvie, and dared not contemn. The king's eldest son, Henry, Prince of Scot- 7nidcr tJie earlier Stuart Kings. 83 land and Prince of Wales, a young man of high spirit and great promise, in sympathy with all that was earnest and good, the one real ornament of his father's court, was cut off by a mysterious illness in 161 1. Like that son of Jeroboam, in whose heart some good thing was found, he was taken away, to the grief of all good men, in those anxious times. His removal dashed their cher- ished hopes, that a happy solution of questions pending in Church and State, which it was evident could not now be long deferred, might by his means have been attained and the hold of the Stuart dynasty on the affections of the English people mightily strengthened. The marriage of his eldest sister to the Protestant Elector Palatine, the prospect of which had cheered him in his last hours, and the consequences of which were ulti- mately to be so much more blessed to the nation than even he could then anticipate, was celebrated soon after his death, and in some measure lightened the gloom of that event. It increased the interest of the people in the fortunes of the foreign Pro- testants, and had the king only shared their spirit its more immediate consequences to the Protestants at home and abroad, and to the Stu- art dynasty, would have been more blessed still. The throne at the death of James passed to his younger son Charles, — a prince in character more noble, chivalrous, and high-minded than his 84 History of Puritmiism father, but withal inheriting in aggravated form his despotic principles, favoritism, duplicity, and fondness for kingcraft. His father in his vanity would have him wedded to a Popish princess, whose unquiet, intriguing spirit wrought him only less harm with his people than her superstitious religiosity was sure to do. James had got on ill with his parliaments, Charles got on worse with his — the House of Commons being resolute for redress of grievances in Church and State. Determined to assert his prerogative and yield up nothing to the popular wishes, he in 1628 dissolved his parliament, and endeavored for twelve years to govern without the advice of the Houses. To do this he had to arrogate increased power to his Privy Council, to resort to various questionable devices in order to raise supplies, and to surrender himself to the guidance of able but unscrupulous men, who thought to carry out in England the policy Riche- lieu had pursued with success in France, and make their master absolute. They were unscrupulous, perhaps, rather than unprincipled, but their great principle was, that if the end of good government was attained, it mattered little what were the means used to attain it, — little how prerogative was stretched, or ancient liberties were invaded; little how the spirit of the constitution was violated if any semblance of respect for the letter of it could under the earlier Stuart Kiiigs. 85 be preserved. They were generally men of pure lives and by no means destitute of high purposes, generous impulses, or genial manners. But, like their master, they lived in isolation, and were un- conscious of the strength of the forces that were ranging themselves against them. They were committed to a dangerous game in which success meant ruin to the liberties of their country, both civil and religious, — a despotism more abject than that of the most despotic of the Tudors, — while failure meant ruin to their master, to themselves, and all associated with them. To the gentle and tolerant, yet thoroughly Protestant Abbot suc- ceeded in the see of Canterbury, the resolute, untiring, overbearing Anglo-Catholic Laud, who even as Bishop of London had been chief coun- sellor in Church affairs during Abbot's declining years. Laud was personally blameless in life, vigilant in the discharge of duty, earnestly religious according to his light, devoted to his sovereign, almost the only one of his trusted counselors who was above taking a bribe or using his power for purposes of mere favoritism or self-aggrandize- ment ; but narrow-minded, unscrupulous, haughty, by no means free from irascibility and vindictive- ness, blindly ritualistic, and cruelly despotic.^ 1 " In the dull immobile face, the self-satisfied mouth, the rheumy obstinate eyes, can be read as in a book the explanation of his character and the tragedy of his tnAr— Edinburgh Ke- 86 History of Puritanism For years he was the king's most confidential adviser in State as well as in Church affairs. He sought and found able and unscrupulous coadju- tors in the work of " harrying " Puritans out of the Church and constitutionalists out of the State, setting up, in lieu of their ideal of regulated free- dom, the system to which he himself gave the name of thorough, — thorough absolutism in the State, thorough despotism in the Church. He virtually proscribed and stigmatized as Puritanism the old Augustinian doctrines which his prede- cessor not only tolerated, but approved, and for which the House of Commons so resolutely con- tended. He used the powers of his high office and of the Courts of Star-Chamber and High Commission with a rigor and savagery unknown before, condemning to life-long imprisonment, or to cruel mutilations, or ruinous fines men whose offenses did not justify such extreme proceedings, and meting out to grave divines, practiced lawyers, physicians, and scholars, punishments till then reserved for the lowest class of felons and sowers of sedition. The indignities perpetrated on Leighton, Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick are well known, and the liberation of these sufferers from their long impris- onment, and the exhibition of their mutilated faces raised to its height the popular indignation against Laud and his accomplices. Attempts have tmder the earlier Stuart Kings. 87 been made even in our own day to mitigate the disgust and indignation their treatment still awakens by questioning whether the sentence in its full extent was executed in each case, and whether it was not pronounced and the fines im- posed ^ rather /// tcrrorcni, than with the deliberate intention of being carried out to the letter. But it is a matter of comparatively minor importance whether Leighton lost one ear or both, whether he had to stand in the pillory and to endure branding and scourging on one occasion or two. The natural feeling will still be what was so well expressed in later years by that son whose boyish letters, found in his father's study, were by a ^ It has been concluded that the fines imposed were seldom exacted, as they are not entered in the Exchequer books as being paid. But considering how common it was to make gifts of such casualities to court favorites, it would require some further evidence than the negative one that the fines are not entered in the Exchequer books to prove that they were not meant to be ex- acted from the unfortunate men, so far as the means they possessed could be got at. In fact, from what we know of the venality of many of the privy councillors and the attempts made by Bishop Williams when in trouble to secure their favor, we seem rather warranted to conclude that it was only a less costly matter to get a fine remitted than to pay it. The argument for disbelief of facts authenticated by contemporary testimony on the ground of omis- sions in the official records of these times may easily be carried too far. The Journals of the House of Commons (vol. ii. p. 124) cer- tainly mention Leighton's fine and " the cutting off his earsy See also passage in Rutherford's Letter 289 beginning, "Who can suffer enough for such a Lord," and referring to " those ears you have now given for him." 88 History of Puritanism refinement of cruelty used in evidence against him/ The Archbishop's argument in vindication of the course he followed was ingenious, if not in- genuous : that harm — serious harm — was being done to religion by the differences so long toler- ated in regard to minuter matters of ritual and church arrangement, and still more by the em- bittered pamphlets against the hierarchical govern- ment of the Church, and the persistent obtruding of those Auo-ustinian or Calvinistic doctrines which o erewhile had been generally received and freely taught in the universities and in the Church, and that there was no remedy for this but in absolute submission and unreserved obedience to the king, God's appointed vicegerent — and to the injunc- tions issued by him through his wise and trusty counselors in regard to all these things. The course he followed, as Hallam so pertinently observes, " could in nature have no other tendency than to give nourishment to the lurking seeds of disaffection in the English Church. Besides re- viving the prosecutions for nonconformity in their utmost strictness ... he most injudiciously, not to say wickedly, endeavored by innovations of his own, and by exciting alarms in the susceptible ^ " If that Persian prince could so prize his Zopyrus wlio was mangled in his service, how much more will tliis Lord esteem those who suffer so for him ? " — Sermon on 2 CoR, v. 20- under tJic earlier Stuart Kinos. 89 consciences of pious men, to raise up new victims whom he might oppress. Those who made any difficulties about his novel ceremonies, or even who preached on the Calvinistic side, were har- assed by the High Commission Court as if they had been actual schismatics. The resolution so evidently taken by the court to admit of no half conformity in religion . . . convinced many that England could no longer afford them a safe asy- lum. The state of Europe was not such as to en- courage them to attempt settling on the Continent, though Holland received them kindly. But turn- ing their eyes to the newly discovered regions beyond the Atlantic ocean, they saw there a secure place of refuge from present tyranny, and a boundless prospect for future hope. " They obtained from the Crown the charter of Massachusetts Bay in 1629. About 350 persons,' chiefly or wholly of the Independent sect, sailed with the first fleet. So many followed in the subsequent years that these New England settle- ments have been supposed to have drawn near half a million of money from the mother country before the civil wars. Men of higher rank than the first colonists .... men of capacious and com- ^ Such is the numl)er given by Hallam, but tliis is ratlier the number of Robinson's congregation in Holland than of that por- tion (about 100) which actually went over with " The Mayflower." For further references to this important event see Appendix, Note L), 90 History of Puritanisfn manding minds formed to be the legislators and generals of an infant republic, were preparing to embark for America [among them John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell] when Laud, for his own and his master's curse, procured an order of Council to stop their departure. So far were these men from entertaining schemes for overturning the government at home, that they looked only to escape from imminent tyranny. But this in his malignant humor the Archbishop would not allow. Nothing would satisfy him but that they should surrender at discretion, soul and conscience, to his direction." That in fact was the issue now unmistakably presented by him — surrender of soul and con- science to his direction — in matters not of ritual and ceremony only, but of vital Protestant doc- trine too, which they believed to be founded on the Word of God, and to have been acknowledged by his own predecessors to be so. That in fact was what Puritanism with all its tenacity was being led on to resist. Having after years of patient and untiring labor at last succeeded, outwardly at least, in moulding his own province and that of York substantially in accordance with his wishes, the Archbishop turned his thoughts to the other dominions of the King where Puritanism had been allowed freer scope or treated with greater indulgence, as if, under tJic earlier Stuart Ki. while refusing a Cardinal's hat from Rome, he wished to be indeed vctiiti papa altcriiis orbis. Viy the aid of the talented but unscrupulous Went- worth, iiis trusted confidant and chosen instrument in the work of repression, he succeeded in 1634 in securing the adoption of a new and much more elaborate code of canons in Ireland, and in assim- ilating the subscriptions required of the clergy there to those required of the clergy in the Church of England. By care in the appointment of bishops for the future, he no doubt hoped gradu- ally to accomplish his purpose, and to root out the Puritans from that old refuge where they had so long found shelter, and were admitted to have done good service in upholding the Reformed faith among the old English settlers and the new Scottish colonists. This trusted agent reports with an apparent chuckle how adroitly he had managed to overreach the good Archbishop of Armagh, who wished to retain in their old honor the Irish Articles, while subscribing Jiic et nunc to the English, and who with all his learning and sound Protestantism was no match in diplomacy for either of these determined schemers. Having succeeded thus far in Ireland, Laud turned his thoughts all the more wistfully to Scotland — now the last refuge of those he had so persistently hunted down, and still a strong- jiold of Puritanism, notwithstanding the changes 92 History of Puritanism which James in the interest of absolutism in Church and State had endeavored, though with but partial success, to introduce in the govern- ment and ritual of the Church. A series of letters, printed by the late Mr. David Laing in the Appen- dix to his invaluable edition of Baillie's Letters and Journals, show what pains the English Pri- mate took to draw reluctant Scotch bishops on to the use of their " whites," and to countenance more ornate services than had been in favor in Scotland ever since the Reformation. At length he resolved the time was come to provide them with stronger meat, and he thought the train had been well laid for the changes he contemplated ; but as King James had said long before, " he knew not the stomach of that people," and perhaps he recked not what a great conflagration this train he had laid was to light up. Their Liturgy or Book of Common Order, as Knox left it, or even as King James would have altered it, was regarded by him as no meet form for worshiping the Lord " in the beauty of Holiness;" their form of admin- istering the holy communion, even if the act of kneeling were more generally enforced, was in the eyes of high churchmen sadly defective in import- ant particulars; and their forms of conferring holy orders, even as revised under King James in 1620, were insufficient to convey a valid mission.^ The * " In the admission to priesthood the very essential words of under the earlier Stuart Kings. 93 king, he said (and he was always careful to put him in the forefront when enjoining or advising what he knew would be distasteful), was much troubled to hear of these sad blemishes in the Church of his baptism. He might quite compe- tently have provided a remedy for them by his prerogative royal, i. e. of course, by the advice of Laud himself, who was really the keeper of his conscience and chief counselor in affairs of State as well as of the Church, but he would rather that this were done with the concurrence of the bishops in Scotland. Thus partly by flattery, partly by threats, Spottiswoode, the wary primate of Scot- land, and his older colleagues among the bishops, were drawn or dragged into courses of which their own deliberate judgment did not approve, and of which they had a sad presentiment that they would put in peril all that by " canny con- voyance" they had gained during the previous thirty or forty years. No doubt Laud, when on his trial, insisted that all he aimed at was to insure uniformity with the Church of England, and the acceptance in their entirety of the English Prayer-book, Articles and Canons. But, even if it were literally so, he can- conferring orders are left out. At which his majesty was much troubled, as he had great cause, and concerning which he hath commanded me to write, that either you do admit of our Book of Ordination, or else that you amend your own in these two gross oversights." — Laud io Wedderburn, Bishop of Dunblane, 94 Histo7^y of Puritanism not be absolved from gravest responsibility. The men who urged a somewhat different course were the younger men, whom he had himself favored and promoted, and v/ho could have effected little with the king without his tacit or open acquies- cence. And if changes were to be pressed at all, there was a good deal to be said in favor of the course they proposed, namely, that there should be certain differences allowed between the Litur- gies of the two countries, and the Scots should not be asked ecclesiastically to bow their necks purely and simply to the yoke of England. There was a good deal to be said for it, that some of these differences should be concessions to their invincibly " puritanic " predilections, as the almost entire exclusion of the Apocrypha from the table of lessons, the uniform substitution of the word presbyter for priest in the prayers and rubrics, the adoption of the new (authorized) English version of the Bible in the epistles, gospels, occa- sional versicles, and even in the prose Psalms in- tended to be read or chanted, the more especially, if others of them should be concessions (no doubt as moderate, and in appearance as harmless as possible,) to the Anglo-Catholic, and Romanizing parties of which these hot-headed young men were pronounced adherents, and to foster whose tenden- cies was the real, if not avowed, object of this policy.^ ^ See Appendix, Note E. under the earliei" Stuart Kings. 95 A book of canons, in several respects more severe than the EngHsh — especially in prohibiting extemporary prayers, under pain of deprivation — was also prepared, and was authorized by royal authority, even before the Liturgy which it en- joined was published. Thus the train was laid and fired, and in one rash hour all that King James and King Charles had succeeded in im- posing, all that Spottiswoode and his brethren had given their days to carry out, all that Laud and Wentworth had given their lives in pawn for, was put in jeopardy. Far different was the issue from that the reckless schemers had intended and expected. It was chiefly disastrous to their sov- ereign and themselves, spreading dismay and destruction through their own ranks, not through the ranks of their opponents. The English patriots and Puritans, in appearance at least, had been cowed ; those who had taken refuge in Ireland had been muzzled, and matters had indeed reached the last extremity. But the Scotch, whose stern persistence has never failed at such a crisis, proved equal to the occasion, and fairly turned the tide of battle. Their perfcrvidiim ingeniinn, once fully roused, had a contagious influence on the friends of Protestant truth and Puritan order everywhere throughout the British dominions. Over the events which then followed each other so rapidly in Scotland, and the marvelous revo- g6 History of Puritanism lution in which they issued, I must not hnger. They are famihar to you all : the meetings in Edinburgh of peers, gentry, commoners and divines ; the appointment of the Tables or com- mittees by each of them; their remonstrances against the introduction of the new service-book ; the rejection of their petitions and remonstrances ; the attempt to introduce the obnoxious book, the tumult which the introduction of it occa- sioned in St. Giles' Kirk ; the renewal of the Con- fession or Covenant originally approved by the king's father in 1581, with certain additions suited to the new crisis ; the petition for a free and lawful General Assembly to determine the matters in controversy, the tardy compliance with the prayer of the petition and the suspension of the orders respecting the ill-omened book ; the preparation for the Assembly, its actual meeting in the High Kirk or Cathedral of Glasgow, its attempted dissolution by the king's Commissioner; its re- fusal to dissolve till the work for which it had been summoned was done; its trial and judgment of the bishops and their chief supporters, its declaration of the nullity of the Assemblies which had given a sort of sanction to the hierarchy, and its restoration of the old presbyterian government of the Church as it had been ratified by King James and his Parliament in 1592; the attempt of the king to accomplish by force what he had tmder the earlier Shear t Kings. 97 in vain striven to effect by policy and proclama- tions ; his quailing when he saw the covenanting host on Dunse Law, consenting to treat with them, and promising them an Assembly and Parliament in which their grievances should be duly consid- ered and redressed ; the renewed outbreak of hos- tilities when neither Assembly nor Parliament was found compliant with his wishes — the refusal of his English Parliament, — at last brought together again and known ever since as the Short Parlia- ment,— to vote a subsidy for the expenses of the war, and the readiness of the English Convoca- tion— the notorious Convocation of 1640 — to do so ; the march of the covenanting army into the north of England, the successes it gained, and the permission granted it to winter there ; the despatch of Scottish Commissioners to London to conclude a new treaty, and the friendly rela- tions then established between them and the lead- ing Puritans of the south — all these important events, following each other almost with the sud- denness of a dream, are narrated at length in the commonest histories, and are familiarly known to all who are acquainted in any measure with the story and fortunes of the Kirk. Ere the negotiations with the Scotch could be brought to a conclusion Charles had been con- strained by the necessities of his position to call another Parliament, which has become famous 7 98 History of Puritanism. in all succeeding time as the Long Parliament. It was summoned for the 3d November 1640, on which day Charles once more occupied the throne of his ancestors, surrounded by his peers. The Bishops clad in rochet and chimere, to use the words of Dr. Stoughton, " once more occupied their old benches, and the Speaker of the House of Commons in florid diction congratulated the monarch on the prosperity of his realms. Out- wardly, the Church like the State looked strong, but an earthquake was at hand destined to over- turn the foundations of both." A storm which had been long gathering was now to burst in pitiless fury, and sweep away abuses which had defied every effort made to reform them. In my next Lecture I shall have much to say of the doings of this eventful Parliament, as well as of the proceedings of that Assembly of Divines, which it summoned to its assistance. LECTURE IV. PREPARATION FOR AND SUMMONING OF THE WEST- MINSTER ASSEMBLY. In my last Lecture I gave you a sketch of the history of Puritanism under the earher Stuart kings, up to the meeting of the Parhament which has since been by universal consent designated the Long Parliament. It met on the 3d November 1640, and continued till it was forcibly dismissed by Cromwell in 1652. It was brought together again after the death of the Protector, to resume its interrupted work, but failed to secure its per- manence. On 6th November 1640, the Commons, following a precedent set in several previous parliaments, appointed a grand Committee of religion consisting of all the members of the House, and this not as a mere formality but with instructions to meet from week to week for serious business. Various petitions^ were presented by the patriots and Puritans outside to quicken the zeal of their friends within the House for refor- ^ E 159, Speeches and passages of this great and happy Parlia- ment ^ etc., p. 161, 433, 436. 99 lOO Preparation for and Stimnioning niation, and in particular, one signed by about 15,000 citizens of London, known as the Root and Branch petition, from the expression occur- ring in its prayer, that the hierarchy might be abohshed ** with all its dependencies, roots and branches." A counter petition was presented affirming that episcopal government, as it is in itself the most excellent government, so it is the most suitable ... to the civil constitution and temper of this state, and therefore praying it may ** always be continued and preserved in it, and by it, notwithstanding the abuses and corruptions which in so long a tract of time through the errors or negligence of men have crept into it." The petitions were duly considered, and procedure taken on them without delay, though not at once to the extent the root and branch petitioners had desired. Nineteen grievances were tabulated, and evidence in support of them adduced in Committee, and a report thereon was presented to the House. Soon after the House of Lords, though far less under puritan influence than the Commons, also appointed a Committee to take into consideration all innovations in the church " concerning re- ligion." The Committee consisted often bishops and twenty lay peers, under the presidency of Dr. Williams, Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of West- minster, who, like many other victims of Laud's oppression, had just been released from prison. of the Westminster Assembly. loi It had power " to send for what learned divines their Lordships shall please for their better infor- mation." The divines named expressly by the House were Archbishop Ussher, Dr. Prideaux, soon after made Bishop of Worcester, Dr. Ward, Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, Dr. Twisse of Newbury, and Dr. Hackett. Those added by the Committee were Drs. Sanderson, Holdsworth, Brownrigg, F'eatley, Burgess, White, Marshall, Calamy, and Hill — all sound Protestants, and men of moderate views — whose names appear subse- quently in the list of the Assembly of Divines. The Conference of the Lords' Committee with these divines lasted for six days, during which they had solemn debates in the famous Jerusalem Chamber, and were always entertained by Wil- liams " with such bountiful cheer as became a bishop." First they took into consideration the re- cent innovations of doctrine, and it was complained that all the tenets of the Council of Trent had by one or other been preached and printed except those regarding the king's supremacy, which the state had made it treasonable [to question] ; that good works were made to co-operate with faith for justification ; that private confession, enumer- ating particular sins [to a priest] Avas inculcated as needful to salvation, that the oblation of the elements in the Lord's Supper was held to be a true sacrifice ; that prayers for the dead, monastic I02 Prepa7'ation for and Summoning vows, Arminian and Socinian errors, were incul- cated. Secondly, the Committee inquired into matters of conformity [to the ritual] and dis- covered that candlesticks were placed in parish churches on the altars so called, that canopies with curtains, in imitation of the veil before the Holy of Holies, were drawn around the altar; that a credentia or side table was made use of dur- ing the Lord's Supper ; that a direct prayer was forbidden before the sermons, [where aforetime the minister had been at liberty to pray extem- pore, or use a precomposed prayer of his own, instead of, or in addition to the bidding prayer,] and that ministers were forbidden to expound at large the catechism to their parishioners, [and enjoined simply to teach them its very words]. And thirdly, they consulted about the Book of Common Prayer ; whether some legendary saints ought not to be expunged from the Calendar, the Apocryphal chapters from the lessons, and some things from the rubrics and offices of baptism, mar- riage, and burial.^ » The following additional statement made by Dr. Hill— the last-named of the consulted divines— in his sermon before the House of Commons on 1st July 1642, goes as near to the heart of the matter as an earnest Puritan could wish, and yet it might all have been indorsed by the most conservative reformers. He compares the recent state of England to that of Jerusalem at the time when Ezekiel in vision saw the image of jealousy set up in the temple of the Lord, and thus enumerates the corruptions which had been suffered and should be removed ; " ist, In the schools of the Westminster Assembly. 1 03 The Committee sat till the middle of May, when it broke up without concluding anything. Laud, of the prophets, the nurseries of the church, do not petitions inform you that divers have there chaffered away truth for errors ? Were Whitaker and Reynolds then in vivis, they would blush to see Bellarmine and Arminius justified by many, rather than confuted. 2(1, Remnants of former corruptions left in cathedral churches . . called mother churches, but they have rather proved step-mothers, engrossing the maintenance which should provide the word of truth for other souls. What pity it is that cathedral societies which might have been colleges of learned presbyters, for the feeding and ruling city churches, and petty academies to prepare pastors for neighbor places, should be so often sanctuaries for non-residents, and nurseries to so many drones! 3d, Cast your eyes on the hundreds of congregations in the kingdom where millions of souls are like to perish for want of vision ; truth is like to perish from among them, by soul-destroying non-residents, soul-poisoning innovators or soul-pining dry-nurses. 3. Improve your power to help forward the word of truth, that it may run and be glorified throughout the land : 1st, Provide that every con- gregation may have an able trumpet of truth; 2d, especially that great towns may have lectures — markets of truth ; 3d, afford any faithful Paul and Barnabas encouragement, yea power, if Sergius Paulus desire to hear the word of God, to go and preach, though Elymas the sorcerer should be unwilling. Such ambulato'y exercises have brought both light and heat into dark and cold corners ; 4th, What if there be some evangelical itinerant preachers sent abroad upon a public stock to enlighten dark countries ? " The last proposal is especially worthy the notice of those who think that the idea of the evangelistic mission of the church is a discovery of the 19th century, instead of being one which has cropped up generally in periods of earnest revival, and notably in that with the history of which we are now concerned. Even before this sermon was preached there was exhibited in the High Court of Parliament (E. 181, No. 26), a petition of W. C[astell], . . . for the propagation of the Gospel in America and the West Indies, which petition was approved by seventy able English divines (in- cluding among others the names of Prownrigg, Sanderson, Featly, Stanton, Caryl, Calamy, Byfield, White, Marshall, Burroughs, I04 Preparation for and Sitinnwning by that time in confinement, looked on its appoint- ment with alarm, but moderate men like Lord Falkland viewed it with favor, and thought that had it continued its labors, it might have been the means of effecting many needed reforms, per- haps of saving the church and the monarchy. But what the issue would have been, says Fuller, is only known to Him who knew what the men of Keilah would have done with David had he remained among them till Saul came down. It was the last chance for the moderate men ere the Revolution attained its full height, and the chance was thrown away by the imprudence or panic of the Bishops, who were strongly represented on the Committee. The tide was now sweeping in with full force and bearing all before it. Strafford and Laud had been impeached and committed to the Tower. The former was speedily attainted and beheaded, the latter was left to languish for a time in that durance to which he had consigned many quite as worthy men. The Irish rebellion had broken out, and deeds of fiendish cruelty had been Cawdrey, Whitaker, etc.), also by Mr. Alexander Henderson and some other worthy ministers of Scotland (including Blair, Baillie, Gillespie, etc.). Extracts from this remarkable petition will be found in Appendix, Note E. Nay even an additional endowment scheme was propounded about the same time, and there issued from the press a pamphlet (E. 179) entitled Proposals for Good Works, urging inter alia the provision of additional maintenance for ministers and lecturers, and the erection and endowment of new churches in the overgrown parishes in the suburbs of London. of the Westminster Assembly. 105 perpetrated against the unoffending Protestants — deeds which only savages or madmen could have devised and executed. The Scotch Commissioners were on the spot, urging on those whose old hor- ror of Popery had been intensified by the recent massacre, to get quit of every so-called remnant of Popery in their Service-book, and of every trace of it in their doctrinal teaching and church constitution, and finally suggesting that a larger and more formal meeting of divines should be speedily called to accomplish these things, and, if it might be, to undertake the grander mission of drawing up common standards for the churches of the three kingdoms, and of bringing them into closer and more kindly relations with each other/ 1 E. 157, No, 2, ATgiiments given in by the Commissioners of Scotland unto the Lords of the treaty, persuading conformity of church government as one principal means of a continued peace between the two nations, 1641. " Our desires concerning unity of religion and uniformity of church-government as one especial means to conserve peace in his Majesty's dominions," With many professions that they do not wish to dictate to another free, independent, and larger kingdom in such a matter, they yet urge with all possible earnestness those considerations which should persuade to this. " It is to be wished that there were one Con- fession of Faith, one form of Catechism, one Directory for all the parts of the public worship of God , . . and one form of church- government in all the churches of his Majesty's dominions. . . This doth highly concern his Majesty and the weal of his domin- ions, and without forcing of consciences seemeth not only possible but an easy work. . . We do not presume to propound the form of government of the church of Scotland as a pattern for the church of England, but do only represent in all modesty these few considerations according to the trust committed unto us." io6 Preparation for and Summoning They themselves had felt that even in Scotland they must not fall back purely and simply on the stains quo, as it existed before the recent innova- tions were pressed on them, content with their old Confession and Catechisms, and Book of Common Order, but that further safeguards must be devised and additional securities taken against the danger of any recurrence to that policy which had wrought them such havoc and woe. They were already indeed looking to Henderson to lead them in the preparation of new standards ; but he, either from the felt difficulties of the task, or from his intense desire to draw into closer union all to whom the cause of Protestant truth, and constitu- tional liberty, in Church as well as State, was dear, preferred that the work should be done on a wider theatre and grander scale than Scotland could offer. All I know of the history of this great man inclines me to believe that if there was a truly patriotic leader among them, one more free from narrowness These considerations in brief were (i), that their government was the same as that of the reformed generally, — Beza's testimony in its favor being quoted ; (2) yet they had all along been harassed by the bishops of England; (3) The reformed churches hold their government to be jure divino, while most of those who plead for episcopacy grant that it is only jure htimano ; (4) The church of Scotland was bound by covenant to her form, while England was perfectly free; (5) Thus "will the design of Kmg James be car- ried out in a legitimate way, and the king not only have peace and his due place in all the churches of his own dominions, but his greatness shall be enlarged abroad by his becoming the head of all the Protestants in Europe." of the Westminster Assembly. 107 and provincialism than another, or more prepared to allow free play for considerable diversities of thought and modes of administration in a com- prehensive Presbyterian Church, it was he, — in fact that the closer union of the churches in Britain was chiefly valued by him as a step toward securing the closer union of all the Reformed Churches. But his noble ideas were at times dwarfed and pared down ; sometimes by the blind- ness and narrowness of lesser men among his own countrymen, sometimes by the jealousies aroused against him in the south as an alien and a Scot, and even he was but dimly conscious of the immense difficulty of the task before him, arising from the divided state of opinion in Eng- land, and the bitter animosities of the various parties to each other. Already in the year 1640 it had begun to be felt and expressed that the friends of the Reformation in both countries must make common cause if they would hope to suc- ceed in securing it against the insidious policy of Laud and his abettors. In a letter, brought down by Henderson to the Scottish General Assembly, from a number of " their gracious brethren of the ministry at London and about it," the expression had been used that " the Churches of England and Scotland seemed to be embarked in the same bottom, to sink or swim together;" they had the same enemies, and must unite in defense against io8 Preparation for and Summoning their assaults. In the Grand Remonstrance which the House of Commons began to prepare in the autumn of 1641, and had finished before the first of December, they declared that while they had no wish " to abolish all church-government and leave every man to his own fancy for the service and worship of God, or to let loose the golden reins of discipline," they yet desired that some changes should be made on the arrangements previously subsisting, and that there might be " a general Synod ' of the most grave, pious, learned and judicious divines of this island (not of England only), assisted by some from foreign parts pro- 1 "We are poisoned in many points of doctrine, and I know no antidote, no recipe, for cure but one — a well-chosen and well- tempered Synod and God's blessing thereon : this may cure us ; without this, in my poor opinion, England is like to turn itself into a great Amsterdam, and unless this council be very speedy the disease will be above the cure." — Speech of Sir Edivard Deering (E. 197, p. 105). About the same time appeared — Heads or Reasons for ivJiich a General Council ought to be called together in England. The reasons were that " (i) Matters of chief debate necessary to be decided (lest atheism and libertinism increase) may be cleared ; (2) Fundamentals of Christian truth and faith may be fully and invincibly settled by common consent; (3) The public profession of divine worship may be brought to some religious uniformity so far as is expedient for the amiable correspondence of several churches one with another and so fit for the edification of all Christians; (4) The means of propagating the gospel and kingdom of Christ toward those that are yet in darkness may be agreed upon and set apart for the advancement of God's glory" (E. 206, No. 14). In E. 170 various petitions are printed, praying for the calling of an Assembly of Divines of the three kingdoms to explain the doctrine and reform the government of the Church, that truth " may hew out a way to peace and unity." of the Westminster Assembly. 1 09 fessing the same religion with us, to consider all things necessary for the peace and good govern- ment of the Church." If they still hesitated to give more definite expression to the wish which lay nearest to the heart of Henderson that Scot- land should be formally invited to send deputies to the Synod and its purpose be enlarged, that Common Standards might be prepared by it for the churches of the three kingdoms, it is clear that by this time they had resolved the Assembly should be something more than a mere English Synod, something like what Cranmer long before had so eagerly desired. If what was resolved on by it should be enacted in the first instance for England only, it was meant it should be so after counsel with others and should form a model which other churches might view with favor as fitted for the guidance of a thoroughly reformed church, and likely to conduce to more intimate and friendly relations among them all. But open expression had been given to the wish that Scot- land should take formal part in the proposed Assembly at latest in the communication addressed by them to the General Assembly which met in July 1642. For in reply to that communication the Assembly ventured to refer to what Scotland had done, in earlier and in more recent times, to bring about a closer union between the reformed churches, and " anew urged on their English no Preparatioji for and Summoning brethren that the work of reformation should be- gin with uniformity of church-government." There was no hope, in their opinion, of unity in rehgion or of one Confession of Faith, one form of worship, and one Catechism, till there was one form of ecclesiastical government. They accepted the invitation given, and assured the Parliament that they would gladly do their part in this great crisis, and indeed had already appointed Commissioners to prosecute the work of uniformity with England and to endeavor to agree upon Common Standards for the churches of both kingdoms. The views of the Scotch gained the powerful support of Pym, in an able speech he made on 30th September at a Conference' of the two Houses for union of the three kingdoms in one Directory or Form of Prayer, Catechism, etc., and that able and judicious divines, not only from Scotland but also from other reformed churches, should be asked to join the Assembly. Several months before this date the Houses had actually begun to make arrangements for the meeting of the proposed Synod or As- sembly of Divines. A " gracious message " (PI 290) had come from the king, 14th February 1641, intimating that *' because his Majesty observes ereat and different troubles do arise in the hearts of his people concerning the government and lit- urgy of the Church, his Majesty is willing to de- ^ Journals of House of Commons, vol. ii, p. 789. of the Westminster Assembly. \ 1 1 clare that he will refer the whole consideration to the wisdom of his Parliament which he desires them to enter into speedily." This almost neces- sitated the Parliament calling such an assembly of divines as they had been contemplating. Accord- ingly, on the 19th April 1642, the House of Com- mons ordered that the names of such divines as shall be thought fit to be consulted with in the matter of the Church be brought in to-morrow morning. On the following morning the divines recommended for nine of the English counties, and on succeeding days those for the rest of the counties, as also for the city of London, the Uni- versities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the Channel Islands were approved ; and on the 25th the list was deemed completed. Two were ap- pointed for each county in England, for each of the Universities and for the Channel Islands, one for each county in Wales, and four for the city of London. The general opinion has been that the divines were recommended by the mem- bers of Parliament representing each county and the boroughs within it (the House in one or two instances, however, insisting on a vote being taken on the names proposed), and the balance of evidence seems to me to favor that opinion. It seems likely that some further communication had been made to the king before the 9th of May, when the first bill for calling the Assembly was 1 1 2 Preparation for and Sitnimoning formally brought into the House or before it passed the third reading ; for, as I have said else- where, in a pamphlet bearing date i6th May, 1642, and entitled," His Majesty's resolution concerning the establishment of religion and church-govern- ment," it is stated that he " hath consented that the main matters of difference which have occa- sioned all these distractions shall be framed and discussed by a number of grave, wise, and religious divines which shall be thought fit by the Houses of Parliament : every county electing two for this so grave and weighty a business, that so all things being according to God's true Word scanned and examined by the judicious and religious judgments of these worthy persons the truth may appear ; light and instruction may be given unto authority, and by their power an uniformity of government and worship agreeable to God's Word may be settled in the Church." This resolution of his Majesty does not seem to have been persevered in, or to have borne any practical fruit, — the fortune of war being then in his favor, and the counsels of the more moderate of his advisers being overborne. The bill, after passing the House of Commons, was amended in the House of Lords by the addition of fourteen divines named by the Upper House. These were generally mod- erate or conservative men ; several of them were royalists, and one a pronounced Arminian. of the Westminster Asseiitbly. 1 1 3 The list was forthwith pubHshed and has ap- pended to it the following significant declaration by the Houses, of date 9th April, 1642: "The Lords and Commons do declare that they intend a due and necessary reformation of the govern- ment and liturgy of the Church, and to take away nothing in the one or other but what shall be evil and justly offensive or at least unnecessary and burthensome : And for the better effecting thereof speedily to have consultation with godly and learned divines : And because this will never of itself attain the end sought therein, they will therefore use their utmost endeavors to establish learned and preaching ministers with a good and sufficient maintenance throughout the whole king- dom, wherein are many dark corners and misera- bly destitute of the means of salvation, and many poor ministers without necessary provision."' They, as well as the ministers, had set their hearts on something higher and better than any change in the external forms of government and worship as necessary to insure the reformation they de- sired, and the reclamation of the careless, the ignorant, and the godless. They believed the consciences of such could only be effectually reached by the earnest preaching of the gospel salvation — not by any mechanical drilling in forms, however venerable and imposing. ^ E. 144, and also 146. 1 1 4 Preparatio7i for and Siimmonirig The bill as amended had passed both Houses by the first of June, and only waited the king's assent to make it law, and insure the meeting of the Assembly in the following month. The king's assent being withheld, a second and a third bill were brought in before the close of the year ; but all was in vain, for the king would not pass either of them. At last, as Mr. Masson tells us, " hope- less of a bill that should pass in the regular way .... the Houses resorted in this as in other things to their peremptory plan of ordinance by their own authority. On 13th May, 1643, an Ordinance for calling an Assembly was introduced in the Com- mons, which Ordinance after due going and coming between the two Houses reached its maturity on the 1 2th June, when it was entered at full length on the Lords' Journals." It was printed on the 13th and again on the 20th June. The Ordinance is given at length in most editions of the Con- fession of Faith, and I need not occupy your time by quoting it here, as in its final form it is re- printed and prefixed to these lectures, along with a full list of the members of the Assembly and a somewhat more detailed account of them than is supplied in the Ordinance.^ 1 A remarkably condensed and accurate account of them will be found in Masson's Life of Milton, vol.ii. pp. 515. 524, and vol. iii. pp. 16, 17. Reid's Lives of the Westminster Divines vfoiM re- quire to be recast in the light of subsequent researches and brought up to date. of the Wcshninst€7' Assembly. 1 1 5 The purposes for which the Ordinance declares that the Assembly was called were " for settling of the government and liturgy of the Church of England, and for vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the said church from false aspersions and interpretations, as should be found most agreeable to the Word of God, 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." It authorizes the members to discuss such of these matters as shall be proposed to them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament, but prohibits them, without consent of the Houses, from divulg- ing the same by printing, writing, or otherwise. It provides that Dr. Tvvisse of Newbury shall be Prolocutor, that a sum of four shillings a day shall be allowed to each of them to defray their expenses, and that all and every of them shall be free of any penalty for non-residence or absence from their cure ; and finally, that they shall not "assume or exercise any jurisdiction, power, or authority ecclesiastical whatsoever, or any other power whatsoever, other than is herein particularly expressed." On account of the concluding restrictions some have doubted whether the Westminster Assembly was really entitled to the name of a Synod ec- clesiastical at all. But it may be said in reply to 1 1 6 Preparation for and Snmmoning their doubts, ist, That it was at least entitled to rank as an advisory Synod of the kind speci- fied in its own Confession of Faith, chap. xxxi. § 2 ; as much so, at any rate, as the ministers who, at the request of the Scottish Parliament, drew up the Old Scotch Confession and the First Book of Discipline in 1 560-1, or the divines who, in Edward VI. 's reign, drew up the Forty-two Articles; 2d, That in respect of the limitations imposed by the Ordinance, it only resembled an English Convocation which cannot proceed to business without the sanction of the crown, nor claim authority for its decisions till they have been approved by the sovereign. Even in regard to the method adopted in selecting the members of the Assembly it did not want an able defender in the author of a remarkable treatise entitled " Consilium dc refonnandd Ecclesid AngUcand!' ^ This author maintained at considerable length, that, while in ordinary circumstances the clergy were rightly left to elect their own representatives in Synods, yet in cases where the clergy were largely corrupted, and the object was to reform the corruptions that had crept in among them, it was quite competent for the magistrate, in the exercise of his own judgment to select the mem- 1 " Suggestum araplissimo coetui, authoritate augustissimi Con- sessus Regis et Regni ordinum, indicto, ad consultandum de rebus gravissimis in religione." — Londini 1643 (E 56, 12). of the Westminster Assembly. 1 1 7 bcrs from the sounder part of the clergy/ and that in circumstances such as those in which the Eng- hsh Church then was, the magistrate, in claiming to choose the members claimed nothing but what was consonant with right reason, and clearly con- firmed by usage, and what had actually been practiced in the reigns of three most powerful sovereigns, Edward VI., Elizabeth, and James I. The author of this treatise evidently belonged to the most conservative school of reformers, and cautioned the Parliament to have regard to the best interests of the country, and not to attempt changes which the nation generally was not ripe for, and would not permanently bear. On this ground he ventured to advocate the continuance of a liturgy with some provision for free prayer, and of a moderate Episcopacy, in which the bishop should not be of a different order but only of a different degree from the presbyters, — should be their mouth or executive rather than their head or sovereign ruler, — and should neither ordain, 1 "Cum enim illustrissimi senatores observassent Archiepisco})i Laudi ejusque sectatorum artibus, non in uno loco Angliaesuffectos viros de religione male sentientes et Papismo addictos, prudenter cavent ne ab ejusmodi deputantibus ejusdem farinas deputati sub- nascantur. ... An altaricola qui citari debet ad Synodum, rati- onem redditurus malesanae doctrinae in vulgus a se sparsse, allega- bitur ut Synodi fiat membrum ? " The folly of the other way had been sufficiently evinced by the results of the recent and then exploded Convocation of 1640. The course followed, the author has shown, was not unprecedented, and therefore not so revolution- ary as some would make it. 1 1 8 Preparation for and Summoning nor depose, nor excommunicate without their assent. He did not favor the introduction so called of lay elders/ and he ascribes the power of the keys jointly to the pastors and to the Christian magistrate. More than one treatise advocating similar views was published soon after the Assembly had begun its sittings, notably one by Bishop Hall on a lower platform than that he assumed in the Smectym- nuan controversy. But whether for good or evil, the question of the continuance or discontinuance of Episcopacy may be said to have been virtually determined by the Parliament in the preamble of the Ordinance calling them together, and never really to have been a subject of formal debate in the Assembly itself With all acknowledged limitations of its scope, however, the Westminster Assembly was in fact a great ''power or institution in the English realm in those unsettled times — existing side by side with the Long Parliament, in constant conference and co-operation " ^ with its leaders, generally influencing or moulding ecclesiastical legislation, and treated with unusual deference even when its 1 Among the '* adiaphora" which are not to be regulated by canons are reckoned such things as the situation of the communion table, the dress or gown of the minister, the sign of the cross in baptism, and kneeling in receiving the communion. 2 Life of Milt on in connection with the history of his tit?ie, vol. ii. p. 5H. of the Westminster Assembly. 1 1 9 remonstrances were unacceptable — maintaining a good understanding between the Parliament and the earnest citizens of London, who were its real arm of strength, and gaining and retaining a moral influence over the pious part of the people, which neither Cromwell's temporary supremacy nor the more lasting persecutions of the second Charles should suffice entirely to destroy. Taking it all in all, it was to leave its mark so deeply and permanently on a large portion of our Anglo- Saxon race, that, as Professor Masson has justly observed, it " ought to be more interesting to them still than the history of the Councils of Constance, Basle, Trent, or any other of the great ecclesiastical Councils more ancient and oecumen- ical, about which we still hear so much." ^ In one important respect, as I have said else- where,^ it resembled the celebrated council of Nicaea — the most ancient oecumenical of all. " Not a few of its members had been honored to suffer on account of the truths to which they clung, and many of them had the courage after- ward to brave suffering, ignominy, and penury rather than renounce their creed and their views of church polity and discipline. Nay, they may be said, by the very act of their meeting, to have 1 Life of Milton in connection 7vith the history of his time, vol. ii. p. 515. 2 Introduction to Minutes of Westminster Assembly, p. x.xxii. 1 20 Prepa7'ation for and Summoning put their livings, if not their Hves, in jeopardy ; " and so to have given the strongest possible proof of their deep sense of the necessity of the work to which, notwithstanding the prohibition of the king, and his mutterings of treason, they ad- dressed themselves during these troubled years. The Assembly was designed to include among its members adherents of all the chief parties among English Protestants, with the exception of that of Archbishop Laud, whose innovations and despotic government had been one main cause of the troubles that had arisen, both in church and state. Almost all the clerical members named upon it were in Episcopalian orders, most of them were graduates in Arts, not a few of them graduates in Divinity, either of Oxford or Cam- bridge. Three or four were bishops, five after- ward rose to be so, and several others were known to be favorable to the continuance of Episcopacy and a liturgy, and some of them to side with the king rather than with the parliament. Many were known to favor Presbytery. A place was found among the members for some of the most promi- nent ministers of the French Protestant Churches in England, for one of Dutch or German descent, for two or three Irishmen, and for some who, to avoid the persecutions of Laud, had left their native land for a time, and acted as pastors to the congregations of English exiles and merchants in of the IVestminster Assembly. 1 2 1 Holland. Invitations to send commissioners were addressed to the Church of Scotland, and, it is said also, to the congregational churches of New England. If few of the royalist divines ventured to appear in their places, yet Dr. Featley and one or two more did attend pretty regularly for a time, and the doctor took a prominent part in the debates on the revision of the Thirty-nine Articles — de- bates probably as important in a doctrinal point of view as any that occurred at a later stage. If Ussher, the greatest of these divines, was " con- spicuous by his absence," the Assembly at least gave the most unmistakable proof of its high re^rard for him and of its earnest desire to com- prehend within the reconstituted church those who shared his doctrinal views, by drawing its statements, on so many of the most important doctrines, from the articles prepared by him in 161 5 for the Church of Ireland. Yet most various estimates have been formed of the merits of the divines and of the value of their work. Clarendon and several of the satirists of the age have spoken of them with contempt and scorn, and others have accorded them only faint praise. But Bishop Hall was not ashamed to address them as his learned and reverend breth- ren, nor the five dissenting brethren frankly to acknowledcre their worth. Richard Baxter, who 1 2 2 Preparation for and Siumnoning was perhaps as competent as any of their con- temporaries to give an impartial verdict, does not hesitate to affirm that " the divines there congre- gated were men of eminent learning and godli- ness, ministerial ability and fidelity; and being not worthy," he modestly adds, " 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, so far as I am able to judge by the information of all history, . . . the Christian world since the days of the apostles had never a Synod of more excellent divines." This, it has been well said by Dr. Stoughton, " is high praise, but it comes nearer the truth than the condemnatory verdicts pronounced by some others. The Westminster divines had learning, scriptural, patristic, scholas- tical and modern, enough and to spare, all solid, substantial, and ready for use. . . . They had a clear firm grasp of -evangelical truths. The godliness of the men is proved by the spirit of their writings and by the history of their lives. Their talents and attainments even Milton does not attempt to deny." Hammond admits the learning of many. Hallam, no less competent a judge, admits that " they were perhaps equal in learning, good sense, and other merits to any Lower House of Convoca- tion that ever made a figure in England." Indeed in two important respects we may say that they had the advantage of any Lower House. There of the Westminster Assembly. 123 were called in to the aid of the divines a number of the laymen distinguished among their fellows in Parliament as statesmen or scholars, and not unacquainted with Theology. And, when under the Solemn League and Covenant the original purpose of the Assembly was extended, there were associated with these English divines and laymen some of the most distinguished of the Scottish ministers and elders. Hence it is, I think, that their work has stood the test of time, and is still held in honor by the Presbyterian Churches, on both sides of the Atlantic. As I have said elsewhere,^ even the twenty names of special eminence with which a recent critic has credited them constitute a larger pro- portion of the whole than may at first sight appear, for they are the names of men who were regular in their attendance, and prominent in the discus- sions, and they form at least a third of those who were so. But more may fairly be claimed for them and several of their companions than that critic is disposed to concede. Dr. William Twisse, the Prolocutor, was a man not only of subtle and speculative genius, but also of profound and varied learning. He was one of the most influential theologians of his day, held in honor by the Reformed Churches on the Continent as well as 1 Minutes of Westminster Assembly, p. xxxiii., etc., article <' Westminster Assembly" in Johnson's Universal Cydopadia. 124 Pi'eparation for and Summoning by those in Britain. Sir John Savile, who had sought the assistance of the ever-memorable John Hales for his edition of Chrysostom, did not disdain to call in the aid of Twisse in preparing for the press Bradwardine's great work, Dc Causa Dei contra Pelagium. Bishop Hall — himself a royalist and resolute defender of the hierarchy — says of him, that he was " a man so eminent in school divinity that the Jesuits have felt, and for aught I see, shrunk under his strength." Yet with all his eminence he did not claim, nor, proud as his brethren were of him, did they consent to mould their Confession according to his peculiar views either as regards the order of the Divine decrees or the nature of justification, or as to the power of God to pardon sin without requiring any atonement for it. He had suffered greatly in the war from the royalist soldiers, and though Pro- locutor of the Assembly, and held in honor by the Parliament, he died " in great straits." ' Dr. Edward Reynolds was a divine "eloquent, learned, cau- tious," and that may have been the reason why the Assembly devolved on a committee of which he was * The satirists of the day are never weary of bantering the divines about their four shillings hire. But up to the time of Twisse's death this had been very irregularly paid, as also were the emoluments of the sequestrations they held in town. Baillie says (ii. 196) many had to leave for want of means. When some partial payments were made to the Assembly, Dr. Burgess and some others declined their share that there might be a little more for those in greater need. of the Westminster Assembly. 12 convener the adjusting of those much-maligned sentences in their Confession regarding predes- tination and pretention. He was one of the most active and influential members of the Assembly, and possibly we owe to him its directory for Thanksgiving after Sermon, as well as the Gen- eral Thanksgiving added to the Book of Com- mon Prayer after the Restoration. Dr. Edmund Calamy was a more liberal and cautious Calvinist still ; and no one can read the minutes of the Assembly's debates on the extent of redemption without acknowledging that he was a genuine dis- ciple of Ussher and Davenant, and feeling thankful that he and some others of the same school deemed it their duty to cast in their lot with their non- conformist brethren in 1662 when Reynolds and Wallis abandoned them. Lightfoot, Coleman, and Seaman were all distinguished oriental scholars, and Gataker was not only a distinguished Hebrew and Greek scholar, but also one of the first in Britain to write in defence of the opinion then much questioned, but now generally received, that the Greek of the New Testament was of a differ- ent character from that of the classical authors, and by its many Hebraisms gave unmistakable evidence of the nationality and training of the writers. He was the friend of Ussher and Selden, and after them was accounted the most learned man then in England. He was distinguished 126 Preparation for and Sttmmoning by the quaint richness of his style and the argu- mentative power of his controversial works. In the Antinomian Controversy, for his treatises on which he repeatedly received the thanks of the Assembly, Mr. Marsden says that he an- swered the leaders as Hooker answered his adver- sary, " with the same profound love of truth, the same ponderous and varied learning, the same gentle spirit, . . . and the same devoted adher- ence to evangelical doctrine." Arrowsmith, " the man with the glass-eye," and Tuckney, the kindly correspondent of Whichcot, Professors of Divinity at Cambridge, were not only clever college tutors, but, as several of their published w^orks clearly indicate, men of high scholarship and consider- able mental breadth, and force of character. With them must be conjoined Dr. Joshua Hoyle, the friend of Ussher, and Professor of Divinity first at Dublin then at Oxford, admitted by Wood to have been " profound in the faculty of divinity and in patristic learning ;" and Dr. John Wallis, Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, whose attain- ments as a theologian and metaphysician were only cast into the shade by his greater attainments as a mathematician. He was the friend of Boyle, Gregory and Newton, the untiring opponent of Hobbes and the Socinians, one of the authors as well as of the earliest expositors of the Shorter Catechism, and probably one of the last surviving of the Westminster Assembly. 127 officials of the great Assembly. The age was confessedly an age of great preachers. " The pul- pit of the metropolis," as Marsden tells us, " dis- played a galaxy of light and genius such as it had never before, and perhaps has never since, ex- hibited. The printed sermons of the great Puritan j)reachers . . . sufficiently vindicate their reputa- tion. They were no adventurers. They had been brought up in the Church of England ; they were entitled to its best preferments ; and they might have had them in their youth from Laud, in their gray hairs from Charles II., had not their own consciences forbidden." In the first rank of these there fall to be numbered the following members of the Assembly : — Dr. William Gouge, '' the father of the London Puritan ministers," and the author of a laborious commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, who shunned promotion as eagerly as others seemed to court it, and yet on whose preaching Ussher and other scholars then con- gregated in the metropolis were pleased from time to time to attend ; Dr. Thomas Manton,* the author of an equally laborious commentary on Psalm cxix., " in whom clear judgment, rich fancy, and happy eloquence met;" Stephen Marshall, whose impressive eloquence is said to have secured him greater influence with the Long Par- liament than ever Laud enjoyed with the Court 1 But see footnote, p. xx. 128 Prepai'atio7i for and Swnmoning of Charles ; Calamy, who " dehghted in that ex- perimental strain of discourse which ever touches the hearts of men," and was greatly beloved by the merchant princes of the city; Palmer, '* gracious learned little Palmer," as Baillie somewhat famil- iarly terms him, who could preach to purpose in French as well as in English, was the best cate- chist in England, and one of the most earnest and faithful of its college masters — to whom are now ascribed the " Paradoxes " long attributed to Lord Bacon ; Burroughes and Greenhill, " the morning and the evening stars of Stepney ;" Joseph Caryl, author of a great commentary on the book of Job, and long popular with the learned audience of Lincoln's Inn ; and Dr. Thomas Goodwin, eminent as a theological writer and one of the most suc- cessful expository preachers of the age. These are not more shadowy to the cultured even yet than those our critic names, and in those anxious times many earnest spirits rejoiced in their light, and extolled them among preachers " as the apple tree among the trees of the wood," under whose shadow they sat with great delight, and whose fruit they found sweet and pleasant to their taste. " I could name," says one who pleaded earnestly for them, though he did not cast in his lot with them, "the Paul and the Apollos and the Peter that preached to the heart; the Barnabas and the Boanerges ; the friends of the bridegroom that of the Westminster Assembly. 129 wooed and besought us and would not be denied till our souls had received Christ Jesus the Lord. Some of them are at rest in the Lord, and let their names be blessed, and others are in the cloud and storm and warfare, and to add bonds to their many afflictions is no small unkindness to religion." To these, when the Solemn League and Covenant was entered into, there were added, as I said, the very elite of the Scottish ministers and elders : — Alexander Henderson, whose statesman- like abilities, sagacity, and culture, even royalists admit ; Samuel Rutherfurd, one of their most im- pressive preachers and most learned divines, who was twice invited to a theological chair in Hol- land ; George Gillespie, the prince of disputants, who " with the fire of youth, had the wisdom of age ;" and the consequential, but much esteemed Robert Baillie, who has embalmed in graphic nar- rative both their serious debates and their lighter gossip ; together with Johnstone of Warriston and the great Marquis of Argyll, who afterward suf- fered on account of their principles ; Loudon, the accomplished Chancellor of the kingdom, and Chancellor of its principal university, the soldierly Meldrum,and the engaging young Lord Maidand, afterward the confidant both of Sharp and Leigh-' ton. Robert Douglas, the silent, sagacious, mas- terful man, who was joined with them in commis- sion, could not be spared from the duties of leader- 13 o Preparation for and Summoning ship at home, but he assisted and cheered them by his letters/ maintained good understanding be- tween them and the Church in Scotland, and in their absence came to occupy a place among his brethren almost as unique as that of Calvin among the presbyters of Geneva. It was then no commonplace Assembly which the Parliament of England had indicted to meet at Westminster on ist July 1643 — no gathering of ignorant or imperfectly educated divines, of narrow-minded fanatics or one-ideaed enthusiasts, but of men fully competent for the work intrusted to them, and worthy of all confidence therein. It included not a few who had already gained a name and fame for themselves, several who were yet to leave their impress on the age, or on posterity, and many who at least were to commend themselves and their work by holy, consistent, self- denying, laborious Christian lives. It was meant to be as comprehensive as the accepted theology of the Reformation would at all permit, as tolerant as the times would yet bear. If its members had one idea more dominant than another it was not, as they are sometimes still caricatured, that of setting forth with greater one-sidedness and exaggera- tion the doctrines of election and pretention (for ^ These letters and those of the Commissioners in London are now printed in the two volumes of the Miniitts of the Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland recently pub- lished by the Scottish History Society. of the Westminster Assembly. 1 3 1 they did little more as to these mysterious topics than repeat what Ussher had already formulated), but that of setting forth the whole scheme of re- formed doctrine in harmonious development in a form of which their country should have no cause to be ashamed in presence of any of the sister churches of the Continent, and above all in a form which would conduce greatly to the fostering of Christian knowledge and Christian life. That in some measure this idea was realized, impartial historians are now beginning to admit,^ and we hope, in our remaining lectures, to show. 1 " It forms the most important chapter in the ecclesiastical his- tory of England during the seventeenth century. Whether we look at the extent or ability of its labors, or its influence upon future generations, it stands first among Protestant councils." — Schaff' s Creeds of Christendom, vol. i. p. 728. See also Masson as already quoted, p. 119. LECTURE V. THE OPENING OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY ; ITS PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES WHILE ENGAGED IN RE- VISING THE ENGLISH ARTICLES OF RELIGION, AND THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT. In my last Lecture I continued my sketch of the history of EngHsh Puritanism from the meet- ing of the Long Parhament down to the meeting of the Westminster Assembly. I gave you a suc- cinct account of the lengthened negotiations be- tween the king and the two Houses of Parliament about the calling of the Assembly. I told you that it was finally summoned by an ordinance of the two Houses passed on the 12th and printed on the 13th, and again on the 20th, of June 1643, and that it was appointed to meet on the ist of July ensuing. On the 24th of June two supplementary ordinances ^ were issued, the one appointing the 1 " It is this day ordered by the Lords and Commons in Parha- ment assembled, that the meeting of the Assembly of Divines with some members of both Houses of Parliament shall be on Satm-day, the first of July 1643, at nine of the clock in the morning, in the chapel commonly called King Henry the Seventh his chapel, in the city of Westminster. Whereof all parties concerned are to take notice, and to make their appearance accordingly." '' It is 132 opening of tJic Westminster Assembly. 133 meeting- to be at nine o'clock on the morning of the day named, the other ordering prayers to be offered in all churches for the blessing of God on the Assembly. Two days before this the meeting had been prohibited by a proclamation from the king at Oxford. It has not been my lot to meet with the proclamation itself, but I have seen the very full account given of it in Merciiriiis Auliais — the Court paper of the day, and I subjoin the more import- ant part of it. After a long and bitter preamble adverting to the many artifices which had been used by some factious persons to alter the whole frame and constitution of the Church, complaining of the unprecedented ordinance for calling an ir- regular Assembly of Divines, without his authority and against his liking, and speaking unworthily of those to whom a few years later he professed his willingness to submit, with a few additions, the decision of the question of church reform, he pro- ceeds as follows: ''his Majesty considering that according to the laws of this kingdom no synod this day ordered, etc., That all ministers in their several churches on Wednesday next at the public fast, and at all other times after- ward in their prayers before their sermons, shall earnestly and par- ticularly pray for the special assistance and blessing of God upon the Assembly of Divines and others appointed to meet at West- minster on Saturday the first day of July next, to be consulted with by both Houses of Parliament on matters concerning religion. And that this order be forthwith printed and sent to all parish churches." (E. 62, Nos. I and 2.) 1 34 Opening of the Westminster Assembly : or convocation of the clergy ought to be called but by his authority, nor any canons or constitu- tions made or executed but by his Majesty's license first obtained to the making of them, and his royal assent granted to put the same in execu- tion, on pain that every one of the clergy doing the contrary and thereof convicted suffer imprison- ment and make fine to the king's will, doth strictly inhibit and forbid all and every person named in that pretended Ordinance to assemble and meet together to the end and purpose there set dovv^i, declaring further the said Assembly (if they shall convene without his Majesty's authority) to be illegal, the acts thereof not to be binding on his subjects, and that he will proceed severely against all those who, after such a gracious warning, shall presume to meet together by color of the said pretended Ordinance." (E. 59, No. 24.) The pro- clamation was commanded to be published in all churches and chapels in England and Wales. It may be doubted if the command was extensively obeyed, but publicity was at once given to such a glaring breach of repeated professions and prom- ises by the parliamentary paper of the day in the following half regretful, half contemptuous terms: Friday, June 30th : " The reports from Oxford are, that a proclamation hath been published there to prohibit the Assembly of Divines here upon the 1st of next month, wherein, as it is said, they are Its Pj'occedings and Debates. 135 vehemently threatened to have all their ecclesias- tical livings and promotions taken from them if they disobey these injunctions. Which if it be true we must not expect to have the Protestant religion either maintained or propagated from thence, since evil counselors can so soon frustrate good promises for that purpose," Thus the mem- bers named to be of the Assembly knew that it was at the risk of their liberty and livings, and under threat of that terrible penalty of prcmunirc that they resolved to obey the Ordinance of the two Houses. Yet on July ist, the day appointed for their assembling, a goodly number had the courage to meet together in the appointed place. Conform- ing to the custom of the English Convocation, in whose room they were virtually surrogated, they first met for divine service in Westminster Abbey, and both Houses of Parliament adjourned early in the forenoon that their members also might be present on the occasion. The following is the quaint notice of this meeting given in No. 25 of the news- paper already referred to : " On Saturday last the Assembly of Divines began at Westminster accord- ing to the Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament, when Dr. Twisse of Newbury in the County of Berks, their Prolocutor, preached on John xiv. and 1 8th, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you," — a text pertinent to these times 136 O paling of the Westminster Assembly : of sorrow, anguish, and misery, to raise up the drooping spirits of the people of God who He under the pressure of Popish wars and combus- tions." (E. 59.) The chronicler forbears to relate any of the points of the said sermon, because he supposes it will be published in print for the satis- faction and comfort of all who may desire to read it, but to the annoyance and regret of posterity the sermon had either not been published or has now completely disappeared.^ The writer then contin- ues : " The number that met this day were three score and nine, the total number being (including the members of both the Houses of Parliament, which are but thirty) one hundred and fifty-one, 1 The very day the Assembly met, however, a pamphlet was published with the title The English Pope, etc., with an epistle to the reverend divines now convened by authority of Parliament, in which, after reference to the slanders of the royalists, they are addressed thus encouragingly : " Be of good courage, ye that have the honor to be of this Assembly. Fear not the name of traitors while you give judgment for loyalty, nor the name of Anabaptists while you propugn piety, nor the name of schismatics while you settle unity. If they believed the calumnies they circulate against you, it would have been better they had forwarded your meeting than procured proclamation declaring it treason, but they do not but fear you will disappoint all. Be you therefore the more cour- ageous for this, and if you cannot totally eradicate all those doc- trines of division which the prelates have sowed among the good wheat, yet denounce against them and publish your detestation of them; and if you cannot yet erect a perfect form of discipline by reason of the secret wars made upon you and the sinews of author- ity withheld from you, yet present us with some models of it, that the world may see how far you are from affecting anarchy and con- fusioru" (E. 53, No. 13.) Its Proceedings and Debates. 137 whereof if forty meet the first day, it maketh the Assembly vahd according to the Ordinance." Lightfoot, who probably was present at the open- ing of the Assembly, supplies the additional information that, besides the members of the two Houses and the divines named in the Ordi- nance, there was also a great congregation in the Abbey Church, and that after the service there all the members of Assembly present went into the gorgeous chapel of Henry VH. This place appointed for their meeting was the place where the Convocation of 1640, no- torious for its forlorn attempt to carry out the policy of " thorough " despotism in Church and State, had met. There the Ordinance was read and the names were called over according to the custom long observed in our Assemblies, with the results already indicated. Lightfoot further tells of " divers speeches being made by divers " — doubtless, inter alia, with the view of following up what the Prolocutor had done to encourage the members in the great w^ork to which they had been called notwithstanding the opposition with which they were threatened ; and finally he adds that "the Parliament not having as yet framed or proposed any work for the Assembly suddenly to fall upon, it was adjourned till Thursday follow- ing." To show how intently the movement was watched from Oxford, I may add the notice of 138 opening of the Westminster Assembly : this day's proceedings contained in the court newspaper for Friday, July 7th : " It was adver- tised this day that the Synod, which by the pre- tended Ordinance of the two Houses was to begin on the 1st of July, was put off till the Thursday following, being the sixth of this present month, that matters might be prepared for them where- upon to treat, it being not yet revealed to my Lord Say, Master Pym, and others of their associates in the Committee for religion, what gospel 'tis that must be preached and settled by these new evan- gelists. Only it is reported that certain of the godly ministers did meet that day in the Abbey Church to a sermon, and had some doctrines and uses, but what else done, and to what purpose that was done, we may hear hereafter." The day before this was published, the adjournment had been terminated. Certain carefully framed instruc- tions and rules for regulating the procedure of the Assembly having, after consultation with some of the divines, been adopted by the Houses, were brought in and read. All of them indicate that serious business was meant, and freedom of dis- cussion was to be protected to the utmost. They provide, yfr.f/ .' that two assessors shall be joined to the Prolocutor to supply his place in case of absence or infirmity; second: that scribes shall be appointed to set down all proceedings, and these to be divines who are not of the Assemblv, Its Proceedings and Debates. 139 viz., Mr. Henry Roborough and Mr. vVdonirani Byfield; third: that every member, at his first entry into the Assembly, shall make serious and solemn protestation not to maintain anything but what he believes to be truth in sincerity, when discovered unto him ; fourth : that no resolution shall be given upon any question the .same day wherein it is first propounded ; fifth : that what any man undertakes to prove as necessary, he shall make good out of the Scriptures ; sixth : that no man proceed in any di.spute, after the Proloc- utor has enjoined him silence, unless the Assem- bly desire he may go on ; seventh : that no man shall be denied to enter his dissent from the Assembly and his reasons for it on any point after it has been first debated in the Assembly, and thence (if the dissenting party desire it) the same to be sent to the Houses of Parliament by tJie Assembly, not by any particular man or men in a private way, when either House shall require; eighth : that all things agreed on, and prepared for the Parliament, be openly read and allowed in the Assembly, and then offered as the judgment of the Assembly, if the major part assent; pro- vided that the opinions of any persons dissent- ing and the reasons urged for their doing so, be annexed thereunto if the dissenters require it, together with the solutions (i. e. answers, as we now designate them), if any were given to the 1 40 opening of the Westminster Assembly : Assembly, of these reasons.^ Possibly there may have been some talk also at this session of revising the Thirty-nine Articles. At least under date of July nth the London correspondent oi Mercurius Aidicus reports this, though he mixes it up with the proceedings which took place on Saturday. ** It was this day certified that the ministers of their Assembly being met on Thursday, according to adjournment, fell presently upon the altering of the Thirty-nine Articles so solemnly agreed upon in the beginning of the reformation of this Church. . . . Notice of this being brought to the Lower House, caused it to be diversely spoken of; some wiser than the rest declared that it was not within the power of their commission to alter either the doctrine or the discipline of the church which had been formerly established." But he errs in supposing that the Assembly anticipated the action of the Parliament. The Journals of the House of Commons distinctly show (vol. iii. p. 156) that directions had been issued by the Houses on Wednesday that it should begin con- sideration of the Articles. Lightfoot has no entry in his journal in regard to the work of Friday; but from another source we learn that it was observed by the Assembly and the Houses as a fast — a season of humiliation, and prayer for Divine guidance and blessing on the ^ Journals of the House of Commons, vol. iii. p. 157. Its Proceedings and Debates. 141 work they were about to begin. As on the open- ing day, there met in Westminster Abbey both Houses and the Assembly, and no doubt a large congregation. The preacher in the forenoon was Oliver Bowles, one of the oldest members of the Assembly, and the author of a work Dc Pastore Evangclico^ which was republished in Holland even after Baxter had put forth his famous treatise " The Reformed Pastor," to inflame his brethren in the ministry with something of his own con- suming zeal. The sermon of Bowles was pub- lished under the title " Zeal for God's House quickened," and as a manifesto of the intentions and desires of the Houses and of the divines in their confidence, even its preface is noteworthy. *' Out of your vigilant care," he says, addressing the members of the Houses, "you have found out a way .... to convene an assembly of grave and learned divines with whom you might advise con- cerning the settlement of doctrine, worship, and church-government. You saw cause which might move you so to do in respect, ist, of those licen- tious spirits who took occasion as to vent their own fancies so to attempt anything in matter of doctrine and worship ; 2d, in that for want of an established church-government we were, and still are, in danger to fall from a tyranny to an anar- chy ; 3d, in that evil-minded men, seeing no effec- tual means provided to suppress such variety of 1 42 opening of the Westmifistei^ Assembly : sects as did start up, were ready to censure you as the favorers of such opinions." Then, after re- ferring briefly and with approbation to their giv- ing way for the admittance of divines of different judgments to be chosen as members of Assembly, and according Hberty to them to express their several views, he proceeds thus to give his esti- mate of the importance of the work assigned to them : " Is not your work a counterwork to that great and long-plotted design whereby Popery should have been readvanced,^ God's saving truth been suppressed, his worship substantially cor- rupted or utterly destroyed ? Is it not a work of the largest extent as that which concerns all other Reformed churches, whose happiness or misery will be involved in ours ? Yea, ages to come will either bless or curse you as you shall follow or neglect the opportunity." His ser- mon pointed, as the Puritan leaders had done ^ No one could be more persistent than I^aud in disclaiming all inclination toward reunion with Rome till it was other than it then was. " But facts were too strong for him. The revival of " Catholic " principles was the signal for fashionable conversions. The Jesuits smiled approval, for they knew that their day was come. The queen's chapel and the chapels of foreign ambassadors were thronged with high-born ladies, sighing for readmission into the true fold. The stern and sincere Protestant, to whom ritualism was never anything but Popery in disguise, saw the liberties which the Smithfield martyrs had won being silently filched from him. lie knew that there was another struggle before him, or the sticks were again growing which would form the fagots of new pyres." — Edinburgh Revietv for October 1882. Its Proceedings and Debates. 143 in 1560 and again in 1603, to an earnest preach- ing ministry as the great want of the times, and enlarged, as became the author of the Dc Pastorc Evaugctico, on the manner in which such a min- istry should strive to preach, almost as was done afterward by the Assembly itself in its directory for preaching, " zealously, compassionately, con- vincingly, feelingly, frequently, gravely." (E. 63.) The sermon, all in all, is a noble one. Matthew Newcomen, who preached in the after- noon of the same day, adverted, as became a Smectymnuan divine, to the preciousness of every grain of God's truth, every " selvedge " of Christ's seamless robe, and affirmed " he must have a heart more ignorant and unbelieving than the apostle's IduoTfj:: (i Cor. xiv. 24) that should come in and be an ear-witness of your proceedings, and not worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. Verily I have often from my heart wished that your greatest adversaries and traducers might be witnesses of your learned, grave, and pious debates, which were able to silence, if not convert malignity itself." (E. 63.) This day of prayer was but the first of many days similarly observed in these earnest anxious years. We may not venture to assert that, with all their care, no human in- firmity was allowed to m.ingle with the simplicity of their waiting upon God to receive indications of His will. For in what crisis of the Church's 1 44 Opening of the Westminster Assembly : fate dare we maintain that infirmity did not to some extent mingle with and mar many a holy sacrifice, many an act of true service to Christ? Yet we may without misgiving indignantly repel the theory which would ascribe any part of their conduct to conscious hypocrisy or self-deception. They were true men of God, desiring from their very hearts to do His work in their generation, and feeling deeply their need of His aid and blessing, that they might do it well. But they were men, after all, of like passions with our- selves, liable to err in judgment and in temper, compassed about with infirmities and having their mental vision obscured by not a few prejudices. To say that of them is to say no more than we should have to say of the best of their opponents. The same day Mr. Rouse and Mr. Salloway were deputed by the House of Commons " to re- turn thanks to Dr. Twisse, Mr. Bowles, and Mr. Newcomen, for the great pains they took in the several sermons they preached at the desire of both Houses in Westminster Abbey, before both Houses and Assembly, upon the day of the first meeting of the Assembly, and upon the fast-day for the Assembly," and to desire them to print their sermons. On the following day when the Assembly met, the protestation or vow,^ which was framed accord- 1 The suggestion of this seems to have come from one of the Its Proceedings and Debates. 145 ing to the third of the re^^ulations already quoted, and is still inserted in the preface to most edi- tions of the Confession of Faith/ — having been approved of by the Houses of Parliament — was taken by every member present — peers and com- moners as well as divines. The vow and the rules of procedure already given were subsequently ap- pointed to be read in the beginning of each week or month, to remind the members of the very solemn obligations under which they acted in the great work they had undertaken. There was then, also, put into the hands of the divines what is termed the new Covenant or Oath, being the second of those vows by which, previous to their alliance with the Scots, the members of the English Parlia- ment, in presence of the dangers which threatened them, thoufrht it incumbent to bind themselves to ablest and most active members of the Assembly. In a sermon preached by Palmer before the House of Commons he had said, " I humbly wish a profession or promise or vow (call it what you will) to be made by all us ministers in the presence of God to this effect : That we shall propound nothing nor consent nor oppose, but what we are persuaded is most agreeable to the Word of God ; ami will renounce any pre-conceived opinion if we shall be convinced that the Word of God is otherwise. So shall we all seek Christ and not ourselves nor sidings ; and God's truth and not victory or glory to ourselves." (E. 60, No. 3). 1 " I do seriously promise and vow in the presence of Almighty God, that in this Assembly, whereof I am a member, I will main- tain nothing in point of doctrine but what I believe to be most agreeable to the Word of God, nor in point of discij^line, but what may make most for God's glory and the peace and good of his church." — Journals of House of Commons, vol. iii. [>. 157. 10 1 46 opening of the Westminster Assembly : resist Popery and all innovations in religion. This, however, was soon to be superseded by a newer and more memorable covenant, and it does not appear to have been actually taken by the divines. At the same meeting Mr. White of Dorchester and Dr. Burgess of Watford were nominated assessors to supply the place of the Prolocutor in case of infirmity or absence. It was also arranged with consent of Parliament, that the Assembly should proceed at once to revise the first ten of the Thirty-nine articles of the Church of England, so as to clear them from the false glosses which of late had been put on them by Pelagianizing and Romanizing divines, and above all by that bold pervert^ to Romanism, who in 1634 first propounded the theory revived in our own day in Tract No. 90, that subscription of them was not 1 Davenport or Francisciis a Sancfa Clara by name. The title of his book was " Deus, natura, gratia, sive Tractatus de prredesti- natione, de mentis et peccatorum remissionc, etc., ubi ad tnuinam fidei Catholicje examinatur confessio Anglicana et ad singula puncta quid teneat, qualiter differat, excutitur, doctrina etiam Doctoris subtilis . . . olim Oxonite et Cantabrigise et solenniter approbata et honorifice prselecta exponitur et propugnatur : Lugd. 1634." The fact that two edition of the book were issued in two successive years, that it was inscribed to the king, and urged him to complete the work his favorite divines had so well begun, is proof at once whom the Jesuits deemed their true allies, and how confident they were that these allies had prepared the way for them. Earnest Protestants might well feel that in such circum- stances their very reverence for the Articles required that they should authoritatively vindicate them from the false glosses put on them. Its Proceedinos and Debates, 147 largely inconsistent with acceptance of the decrees of Trent. To prepare their work, and perhaps to conform to the precedent set by the Synod of Dort, the whole Assembly was " cast into three equal com- mittees," according to the order in which the names of the divines stood in the Ordinance of the Houses. All these three, however, were open committees, to which any member interested in their business might come at pleasure. All three were to meet on Monday at one o'clock. The first was to meet in Henry VI I. 's Chapel, taking in hand the first, second, third, and fourth Articles. The second was to meet in the place used hereto- fore by the Lower House of Convocation (that is, as we are informed by Dean Stanley, St. John's and St. Andrew's Chapel on the north side of the Abbey — a little chapel below stairs). It was to proceed on the fifth, sixth, and seventh Articles. The third was to meet in the Jerusalem Chamber, long the usual meeting-place of the Upper House of Convocation, and was to take up Articles eighth, ninth, and tenth. A sub-committee of six or eight persons, partly divines, and partly members of the House of Commons, was appointed to seek for ancient copies of the Thirty-nine Articles, that the Assembly and its Committees might found their proceedings on the most authentic. The learned Selden, who was probably Convener, made report 14B opening of the Westminster Assembly : on 15th July of the proceedings of this sub-com- mittee, and brought in many copies. No doubt one of these was that copy of the Latin Articles of 1563 still preserved in the Bodleian, and said to have been found by him in Archbishop Laud's library. It has been deemed of importance in our own day, from its bearing on the disputes which have been revived as to the authenticity of that clause of the twentieth Article, to which I re- ferred in my first lecture as asserting the power of the Church to decree rites and ceremonies, and claiming for it authority in controversies of faith. The Assembly, at the close of this long session, adjourned till Wednesday in the following week, and left Monday and Tuesday free for the import- ant work assigned to the Committees. Lightfoot tells us that at their first meeting Dr. Burgess was chosen chairman of the first Committee, Dr. Stan- ton of the second, and Mr. Gibbon of the third; but neither he nor any other extant authority has supplied a list of the three Committees as they stood on that day. Three lists are found in the manuscript minutes preserved in Dr. Williams' li- brary, which I take to be lists of these committees as they stood at certain dates. The first of them bears the date of 2d November 1643, and is given by Dr. Briggs in his recent interesting paper on the Westminster Assembly in the January number of Its Proceedings and Debates. 149 the Prcsbytcriaji Rcviciv for 1 880. The second bears the date of 15th February 1643-4. The third, of date 1 2th April 1644, is inserted at page Ixxxv of my Introduction to the published volume of the Minutes of the Assembly, and is here subjoined.^ ' \^First Committee. '\ Mr. Palmer. Mr. Bowles. Mr. Wilkinson, Sen""- Mr. Valentine. Mr. Raynor. Dr. Hoyle. Mr. Bridge. Mr. Goodwin. Mr. Ley. Mr. Case. Dr. Gouge. Mr. White. Mr. Marshall. Mr. Sedgwick. Mr. Clark. Mr. Bathurst. Mr. Nye. Dr. Smith. Dr. Burges [Convener] Mr. Green. Mr. Gower. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Wilson. Mr. Tuckney. Mr. Coleman. Mr. Herle. Mr. Herrick. Mr. Mew. Mr. Wrathband. Mr. Hickes. \_Second Committee. '\ Mr. Clayton. Mr. Gipps. Mr. Burroughs. Mr. Calamy. Mr. Walker. Mr. Caryl. Mr. Seaman. Mr. Reynolds. Mr. Hill. Mr. Jackson. Mr. Carter of L[ondon] Mr. Thorowgood. Mr. Arrowsmith. Mr. Gibson. Mr. Whitaker. Dr. Stanton [Conv""-]. Mr. Lightfoot. Mr. Corbet. , Mr. Langley. Mr. Tisdale. Mr. Young. Mr. Philips. Mr. Couant. Mr. Chambers. Mr. Hall. Mr. Scudder. Mr. Bayley. Mr. Pickering. Mr. Cawdry. Mr. Strickland. Mr. Bond. Mr. Harris. [ Third Committee. ^ Mr. Salloway. Mr. Simpson. Mr. Burgess. Mr. Vines. Mr. Greenhill. Dr. Temple. Mr. Ashe. Mr. Gataker. Mr. Spurstow. Mr. Cheynel. Mr. De la March. Mr. Newcomen. Mr. Carter of D[ynton]. Mr. Hodges. Mr. Perne. Mr. Prophet. Mr. Sterry. Mr. Guibon [Conv'-]. Mr. Michaelthwaite. Dr. Wincop. Mr. Price. Mr. Wilkinson, Jun""- Mr. Woodcock. Mr. De la Place. Mr. Maynard. Mr. Paynter. Mr. Good. Mr. Hardwick. 1 50 opening of the Westminster Assembly : By the date at which it was drawn up some of the original members had died, Dr. Featley and a few others had withdrawn, and most of the superadded divines had taken their seats in the Assembly. Possibly the last two names on the second Com- mittee should be removed to the third. At least such a change is needed to make the numbers in each equal. When the Assembly met on Wednesday, and the report from the first Committee was given in by Dr. Burgess, great debate arose because they had not adduced any passages of Scripture for the clearing and vindicating of the real sense of those Articles wherewith they were intrusted, and the question was raised whether, in proceeding upon all the Articles, Scripture should be adduced " for the clearing of them" and fixing of their meaning. This question after long debate was determined affirmatively. From this date onward to the 1 2th of October the Assembly was mainly occupied with the revision of the Thirty-nine Articles. The keen and lengthened debates which occurred in the dis- cussions on these Articles could not fail to prepare the way for a more summary mode of procedure in connection with the Confession of Faith. The proceedings then were more summary, or at least more summarily recorded,just because the previous discussions on the more important doctrines of the Protestant system, and especially on that of Justifi- lis Proceedings and Dehaies. \ 5 1 cation by Faith, had been thorough and exhaustive, and pretty fully recorded. Lightfoot has preserved no detailed record of these discussions, but in part at least they are fully reported in the first volume of the MS. Minutes of the Assembly. Dr. Featley's two speeches in the debates on the eighth Article and his five speeches in those on the eleventh, as well as his speech in regard to the Solemn League and Covenant, were published shortly after his death. They are learned, acute, and forcible, and as they give more satisfactory insight into the matters discussed than the desultory notes taken by the scribes, I subjoin a few extracts from them.^ In regard to the eighth Article on the three creeds to which a persistent party in the Assembly, as afterward in the House of Commons, objected, it appears that the exceptions taken were partly against the titles of the creeds, and partly against their contents. ** It is objected," the Doctor says, " by some of our learned brethren that the Nicene creed is in truth the Constantinopolitan, that the creed which goeth under the name of Athanasius was either made by Anastasius or Eusebius Vercel- lensis. Certainly Meletius, Patriarch of Constan- tinople, resolves it negatively, . . . and for that which is called the Apostles' Creed the father, who so christened it, is unknown. Hereunto I answer ^ Speeches in the Assembly, generally bound with his Dippcn Dipt. 1 5 2 opening of the Westminster Assembly : that though the entire creed which is read in our churches under the name of the Nicene be found totidcni verbis in the ConstantinopoHtan, yet it may truly be called the Nicene, because the great- est part of it is taken out of that of Nice, and how- soever some doubt whether Athanasius were the author of that creed which bears his name, yet the greater number of the learned of later ages entitle him to it; and though peradventure he framed it not himself, yet it is most agreeable to his doctrine, and seemeth to be drawn out of his works, and in that regard may be rightly termed his creed. For the third creed, although I believe not that the Apostles either jointly or severally dictated it, yet I subscribe to Calvin's judgment, who saith that it was a summary of the Christian faith extant in the Apostles' days, and approved of by them. Howsoever, according to the rule of Aristotle, we must use the language of the vulgar though we vote with wise men and think as they do." The things in the contents of the creeds most objected to are, he then proceeds to say, (i) the too peremp- tory way in which the Athanasian creed affirms the damnation of those who do not believe its doctrine. To this he answers with Vossius that it is to be applied to such only as have capacity to understand it, and whose consciences are convinced of its truth ; (2) that in the Nicene creed Christ is spoken of as " God of God;" to which he replies Its Proceedings and Debates. 153 that " though Christ is God of God it doth not therefore follow that the deity of the Son is from the deity of the Father, as it does not follow quia Dcus passus est, ergo Deltas passa est or quia Maria est mater Dei, ergo est Maria mater deita- tis ; " (3) that it is said in the Apostles' Creed Christ descended into hell ; to which objection he deems it sufficient to reply that all Christians acknowledge that Christ in some way descended into hell either locally, as many of the ancient fathers, and some of the moderns, or virtually, as Durandus, or meta- phorically as Calvin, or metonymically as Tilenus, Perkins, and this Assembly, and therefore no man need to make scruple of subscribing to this Article as it stands in the Creed, seeing it is capable of so many orthodoxal explications." Notwithstanding Dr. Featley's advice to them to be content to use the language of the vulgar, though thinking as wise men do, the Assembly deemed it better to alter the wording of Article VIII. so as to make it clear that they did not re- gard these ancient symbols as, strictly speaking, the work of the Apostles or of the Council of Nicea or of Athanasius, but only as being commonly so called, or going under their names, an instance of wondrous caution, which should be admired all the more by those who do not credit them with the highest scholarship or critical research, as some in our day still refuse to do. 154 Opcjiiiig of tJic Westminster Assembly : The main question on which the long debates on the Article of Justification turned was whether the merit of the obedience of Christ as well as the merit of his sufferings was imputed to the believer for his justification. Several of the most distin- guished members of the Assembly, including Twisse the Prolocutor, Mr. Gataker, and Mr. Vines, maintained, as had been formerly done by Rollock in Scotland, Piscator in Germany, and Tilenus in France, that it was the sufferings or the passive obedience only of Christ which was imputed to the believer. The Prolocutor spoke at least twice in the course of the discussion ; Gataker oftener and at greater leng^th, and with grreater keenness. Dr. Featley, who was the chief disputant on the other side, and who was a thorough Protestant and Calvinist, though a decided royalist and Episco- palian, spoke at least five times, maintaining, as Ussher had formulated it in his Irish Articles, and the great majority of English Puritans had accepted it, that Christ's active obedience or fulfilling of the law, as well as his passive obedience or suffering of its penalty, was imputed to the believer, and was necessary to constitute him righteous in the sight of God and entitle him to eternal life. I can only find room for a few brief extracts from Dr. Featley's fifth speech, which bears the title, " Concerning the resolve of the Assembly that the whole obedience of Christ is imputed to every believer." He first Its Proceedings and Debates. T55 notices and states not unfairly, the three objections taken to the proposition by Gataker that it was re- dundant, yet deficient, and novel ; redundant in that the word zvhole obedience of Christ must include his obedience to the ceremonial law as well as to the moral ; deficient in that the word obedience could not be held to include Christ's original righteousness ; novel in so far as the imputation of Christ's active as well as passive obedience was never defined for dogma before the French Prot- estant Synods of Gap and Privas.' To the objec- tion of redundancy Featley replied that though zve were not bound by the ceremonial law, yet the Jews were, and that this was part of the meaning of the Apostle when, in Galatians iv. 4, he speaks of Christ as being made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. To the charge of deficiency he rejoins that though Christ's orig- inal righteousness was requisite in him both as high priest and sacrifice, yet it was not properly the work of Christ but of the Holy Ghost, and so not to be imputed to us as any act of our Mediator. To the objection of novelty he replied that the doctrine itself was much more ancient than the French Synods in question, adducing testimonies in its favor from Chrysostom, Augustine, Bernard, Luther, Calvin, Peter Martyr, and others. He then proceeds as follows : — " Here methinks I ^ Quick's Synodicum, vol. i. pp. 227, 348. 1 56 O paling of the Westminster Assembly : hear those who are most active in the Assembly for the imputation of the mere passive obedience of Christ, Hke the tribunes among the Romans, ob)iunciare et mtcrcedcrc, that they may hinder and stop the decree of the Assembly, alleging that though some of the ancient fathers, and not a few of the reformed doctors, cast in their white stone among ours, yet that we want the suffrage of Him who alone hath the turning voice in all debates of this kind, and that according to our protestation made at our first meeting we ought to resolve upon nothing in matter of faith, but what we are persuaded hath firm and sure ground in Scripture, and howsoever some texts have been alleged for the imputation of both active and passive obedience, yet that at our last sitting they were wrested from us, and all inferences from thence cut off; all the redoubts and forts built upon that holy ground were sleighted. It will import, therefore, very much those who stand for the affirmative to recruit the forces of truth and repair the breaches in our forts made by the adversaries' batteries." He then takes up in detail the several texts which had been adduced, and replies with considerable pertinency to Gataker's arguments respecting each. The latter had said that by obedience in Rom. v. 18-19, the apostle meant the special obedience which Christ gave to His Father's commandment to lay down His life for Its Proceedings and Debates. 157 the sheep, just as in PhiHppians he spake of Christ becoming obedient unto death. To this Dr. Featley repHcs that the word in the former passage was not oTtaxorj but dcxaUofia^ which was never taken in Scripture for suffering or mere passive obedience ; further, that no man is said to have justification of Hfe or abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness by suffering only ; and finally that the obedience here mentioned, being set in opposition to Adam's disobedience, must be active as Adam's was. From the life of Lightfoot prefixed to the Latin edition of his works we learn that the same view was ably maintained by that eminent scholar, and extended to uzaxorj as well as dcxauo/ia} On the text I Cor. i. 30, Christ is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, etc., Gataker had argued that Christ is made to us righteousness as he is made wisdom, but he is not made to us wisdom by im- puting his wisdom to us, but by instructing us ; so neither is he said to be made righteousness be- cause his righteousness is imputed to us, but be- cause by his grace he makes us actually righteous. To this Featley replies (i) that whatever Christ is made to us he is made perfectly, but he is not made perfectly wisdom or righteousness save by imputing his own righteousness and wisdom to us which are most perfect ; (2) Christ is made right- 1 Light foot a Opera, vol. i. Vita, ^ 3. 158 opening- of the Westminster Assembly: eousness to us in the same sense as he is made redemption, but he is made redemption unto us by imputing his passive obedience ; therefore in Hke manner he is made righteousness to us by imput- ine his active obedience. In the same manner he rephes to the arguments founded on 2 Cor. v. 21 and Col. ii. 10, and then concludes as follows: " No man who standeth rectus in curia as Adam did in his innocency or the angels before they were confirmed in grace, is bound both to fulfill the law, and to satisfy for the violation thereof; but to the one or to the other, to fulfill only the law primarily, and to satisfy for not fulfilling it in case he should transgress ; but that is not our present case, for we are all born and conceived in sin, and by nature are the children of wrath, guilty as well of Adam's actual transgression as our own corruption of nature drawn from his loins. Therefore, first, we must satisfy for our sin and then by our obedience lay claim to life, according as it is offered to us by God in his law." " We grant freely that Christ's death is sufficient for the satisfactory part, but, unless his active obedience be imputed to us, we have no plea or title at all to eternal life. I may illustrate this by a lively similitude, such as that to which the apostle else- where alludes. In the Olympian games he that overcame received a crown of gold or silver, or a garland of flowers, or some other badge of honor ; Its Proceedings and Debates. 159 but he that was overcome, besides the loss of the prize, forfeited something to the keeper of the games. Suppose some friend of his should pay his forfeit, would that entitle him to his garland ? Certainly no ; unless ... in another race he out- strip his adversary he must go away crownless. This is our case by Adam's transgression and our own ; we have incurred a forfeiture or penalty ; this is satisfied by the imputation of Christ's pas- sive obedience; but unless his active be also im- puted to us we could have no plea or claim to our crown of glory, for we have not in our own persons so run that we might obtain." After this speech the divines called for a vote on the question, and though some of eminent parts in the Assembly dissented, yet far the major part voted for the affirmative, that Christ's wJiole obedi- ence was imputed to the believer. Before the close of the session, however, Dr. Featley seems himself to have been disposed to yield somewhat to the great divines opposed to him. Perhaps he had got a quiet hint from Ussherhis correspondent at Oxford to do so. He produced a copy of the letter referred to by the Prolocutor in the course of the discussion, which had been written by King James to the Synod of the French Protestant Church which met at Privas in 161 2. In this letter the king counseled them to let this question, and those depending on it, " be altogether buried 1 60 opening of the Westminster Assembly : and left in the grave, with the napkin and linen clothes wherein the body of Christ was wrapped . . . lest peradventure by too much wrangling they seem to cut in two the living child, which the tender-hearted mother would not endure, or divide the seamless coat of Christ which the cruel soldier would not suffer." The reason he assigned for this counsel was that the question was altogether new, and not necessary to be determined, unheard of in former ages, not decided by any council, nor handled in the fathers, nor disputed by the school- men. Probably it was on this account that when the Assembly came to treat of the subject of Justification in their Confession of Faith they left out the word zvholc to which Gataker and his friends had most persistently objected, so that the clause, which in their revised version of Article XI. had stood in the form " his zvhole obedience and satisfaction being by God imputed to us," was in the confession changed into '' imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ," which though it hardly seems to us to include, still less to favor their view, they were content to accept as less rigid than the other. At least on its being con- ceded Gataker and his friends agreed to drop further controversy on the question, as has been distinctly recorded by Simeon Ashe in his funeral sermon for his old friend Gataker. Before the 12th of October, the Assembly had Its Proceedinos and Debates, i6 "aillie's Letters, vol. ii. p. 1 17. 2 2 2 The Directory for the and Herle, with the Scottish commissioners. To the latter was assigned the duty of drafting what related to public prayer and the administration of the sacraments, and to Mr. Young that of drawing up what related to the reading of the Scriptures. It was devolved on the chairman to prepare a paper on the preaching of the word, and on Mr. Palmer to prepare one on catechising. Their first meetings, according to Baillie,^ were not very prom- ising. Goodwin, who does not seem to have had any part specially assigned to him, was disposed to make trouble, and the papers prepared by Mar- shall and Palmer were not quite to the mind of our critical countrymen. But Goodwin was propitiated, the papers of Marshall and Palmer were handed to the Scottish Commissioners for revision, and thereafter matters seem to have made more rapid progress. The Committee was able to present its first report to the Assembly on 24th May 1644. The report, according to Lightfoot, was a large report " concerning the Lord's day and prayer and preaching, which held the Assembly in work all the next week." ^ From time to time the remain- ing parts of the Directory were brought forward and discussed, especially during the months of June, July, and November, and before the end of the year, after more or less of upward of seventy sessions had been spent on it, the whole of it * Letters, yo\. ii. pp. 117, 118, 123. '^ Juunial, p. 277. Public Worship of God. 223 passed the Assembly. The first portion of it, em- bracing probably the preface, the ordinary services for the Lord's day, and the order for the adminis- tration of the sacraments, was presented (by Dr. Burgess and several other divines) to the Houses of Parliament on 21st November, and without de- lay was carefully examined and revised by them. A number of verbal alterations were made in the draft, chiefly by the House of Commons. The words " both ordinary and extraordinary " were struck out of the first title, also the words " as in the Church of Scotland " after the clause as to com- municants sitting '^ about the table or at it." The second paragraph in the section of the celebra- tion of the Communion bearing on the qualifica- tion of communicants was re-committed to a large committee. This committee, on 30th November, reported their opinion that the paragraph given in by the Assembly should be left out,^ and that in ^ Journals of House of Commons, vol. iii. p. 710. It is not quite clear what was the literal form of the paragraph given in by the Assembly, I have not found it in the manuscript Minutes. Under date of 6th June it is given by Lightfoot in the following shape : " None to be admitted, but such as, being baptized, are fouml upon careful examination by the ministers, before the officers, to have a competent measure of knowledge of the grounds of religion, and ability to examine themselves, and who profess their willingness and promise to submit themselves to all the ordinances of Christ [or thus, 7vho give Just grounds in the Judgment of charity to conceive that there is faith and regeneration wroiight in the??i']. The igno- rant, scandalous, etc., not to be admitted, nor strangers unless they be well known," But he has not given the preceding paragraph 224 ^^^^ Directory /o7^ the lieu thereof the words " the ignorant and the scan- dalous are not fit to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper " should be substituted. This report was adopted by the House. On a subsequent day part of the section on the visitation of the sick was proposed to be left out ; but whether in fact it was so it is very difficult to determine. A ^q\y verbal alterations were suggested by the House of Lords and adopted by the Commons. The most important of them was, that to the direction in the section of singing of Psalms " that every one that can read is to have a Psalm-book," their Lordships proposed to add the words, " and to have a Bible." The Commons, improving on this suggestion, proposed to transfer the words to the section '* of the public reading of the Scriptures," and developed them into a paragraph similar in form to the one in the section on singing of Psalms. ** Besides public reading of the Holy Scriptures every person that can read is to be exhorted to read verbatim as passed by the Assembly, and when, under date of 1 2th November, he refers again to this one he does not insert it exactly in the same form. He omits the clause relating to baptism, which is also wanting in the corresponding paragraph of Henderson's Governtnent and Order of the Church, which pretty closely resem- bles the above. The words within brackets suggested by Henderson as a compromise with the Independents were probably left out at the November revision, and in its piactical Directory the Assembly explicitly asserted, " Although the truth of conversion and regen- eration be necessary to every worthy communicant for his own comfort and benefit, yet those only are to be by the eldership excluded . . . who are found by them ignorant or scandalous." Public Worship of God. 225 the Scriptures privately (and all others that cannot read, if not disabled by age or otherwise, are like- wise to be exhorted to learn to read) and to have a Bible." The Ordinance of Parliament superseding the Book of Common Prayer, and establishing and ordering ]to be put in practice the Directory for Public Worship, as thus revised by the Houses, bears the date of 3d January 1644, i. e. according to our present reckoning, January 1645. But in reality it was not passed till the following day, when the Commons' amendments on the Lords' amendments were accepted by the Lords, nor, though ordered to be printed forthwith, was it actually proceeded with till March. The reason of this delay will immediately appear. The formu- lary was meant to be a common directory for the churches of the three kingdoms, and though the Scottish Commissioners had assented to it in the shape in which it passed the Assembly, yet as their General Assembly and Parliament were about to meet it was manifestly expedient that their assent also should be obtained before the book, as altered, was issued. So it was taken down to Scotland by Gillespie and Baillie, and in due form was laid before the Scottish Assembly and Parliament. On 5th March two further alterations on it were pro- posed at Westminster at the request (not, as some suppose, of the Independents, but) of the General 15 2 26 The Db^ectory for the Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Neither Baillie nor Gillespie who carried it down give us any hint of this, nor does the Act of the Assembly approving it, nor the supplementary articles for keeping of greater uniformity in accordance with it, supply the omission, unless by the statement in the Act, that the Assembly had " revised'' as well as examined and approved the Directory. But the entries ^ in the Journals of the House of Com- ^ That in the Journals of the House of Commons (vol. iv. p. 70) is : " Mr. Tate reported from the Assembly some few alterations desired by the Church of Scotland to be made in the Directory for Public Worship; the which were read and upon the question assented unto and carried to the Lords for their concurrence." The entry in their Journals (vol. vii. p. 264) is as usual more de- tailed : " A message was brought from the House of Commons by Zouch Tate, Esq., to let their Lordships know that the House of Commons have received a paper from the Assembly of Divines, wherein they offer some alterations in the Directory to which the House of Commons have agreed, and their Lordships' concurrence is desired therein. The alterations were read as follows: (l) In the administration of the sacrament of baptism, after the word "negligent," add these words, "requiring his solemn promise for the performance of his duty." After these, the words, " It is recommended to the parent to make a profession of his faith, by answering to these or the like questions," are to be left out; and these three questions following are to be left out, viz., " Dost thou believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ? Dost thou hold thyself bound to observe all that Christ hath commanded thee, and wilt thou endeavor so to do? Dost thou desire to have this child baptized into the faith and profession of Jesus Christ? " (2) Instead of the words in the Directory for the solemnization of marriage, " in the place of the public meeting of the congregation, in some church or chapel," these words to be inserted : " in the place appointed by authority for public worship." Agreed to. " The answer returned was that this House agrees to these altera- tions now brought up." Public Worship of God. 227 mons expressly bear that the proposed changes were desired by the Church of Scotland, and those in the Journals of the other House that the appli- cation for them had been presented through the Assembly of Divines, whose own minutes of 6th March contain only the vaguest possible reference to " the alterations last made." Thus the " fasch- ious " and sometimes " rude and humorous oppo- sition " of Mr. David Calderwood and some others, who were tenacious of former Scottish customs, appears to a certain extent to have been too strong to be so completely overborne even by Gillespie and Baillie, as has been long supposed. Though no noise was made in the business, and all was " quietly and calmly " settled, yet every effort was made " to get satisfaction to Mr. David " in most of the things to which he had objected. After consultation with his colleagues in London a draft of the Act about the Directory passed by the Scottish Assembly and ratified by the Scottish Parliament was sent down by Gillespie to the meeting of the Commission (intrusted with the printing of the minutes of the Assembly), " having no alteration," it is said, " but in words, and the substance being the same, only it is thought clearer, and that it will sound better here." This draft, in the enacting clauses, not only expressed approval of the preface of the Directory, but inti- mated that the preface expressed the intent and 2 28 The Directory for the meaning of the Directory, and to this extent at least Gillespie pressed its adoption with special urgency. He deprecated a too strait imposition even of a Directory, holding '* that the more straitly it is imposed, it will the more breed scruples and create controversies which wise men should do well to prevent, and the rather lest we cross the principles of the good old Nonconform- ists by too strait impositions of things in their ov»'n nature indifferent, such as many (though not all) be in the Directory." ^ In England it had been ratified according to the Cleaning and intent of the ordinance of Parliament, which was probably meant to be pretty strictly enforced, and in fact required to be so to insure the disuse of the Book of Common Prayer. In Scotland, on the other hand, it was ratified according to the intent of the preface, which was meant to leave greater latitude, and to conserve that spirit of freedom which the tolerant rubrics of the Book of Common Order had previously done so much to cherish. Ac- cordingly, while old customs and practices which could plead no written law in their favor, and were not expressly sanctioned by the new Direc- tory, were to be dropped, though lawful in them- selves, not only were the Scottish usages of the communicants, in the Lord's Supper, communicat- ing only at the table and distributing the elements ^ Baillie, Lexers ami Journals, vol. ii., Appendix, pp. 505, 506. Public Worship of God. 229 among themselves to be retained, but also other usages which could plead the authority of the Books of Discipline or of Acts of the Assembly, and were not " otherwise ordered " by the Direc- tory. Perhaps it was with a similar view that they urged even at the last moment when the Directory was already before Parliament the striking out of the very vague questions which the southern divines had at last consented should be addressed to the parent presenting his child for baptism, viz., that they might be at liberty to retain the practice sanctioned by their own Book of Common Order and various Acts of Assembly of exacting a fuller profession of faith at that time from the parent. The first edition of the Directory published in England bears the date of 1644, but it was really printed in the month of March, which according to our present reckoning would have fallen to the year 1645. The order for printing was issued on the 13th, and appears to have been executed by the 1 8th of March, all having been carefully pre- pared for it beforehand. The Scotch edition of 1645 was printed, not from the manuscript copy submitted to the Assembly in January, but from the English printed edition, and besides a number of insignificant variations from it in the spelling of certain words, only departs from it in placing the table of contents at the beginning instead of the end of the book, substituting in place of the 230 The Directory for the Act of the English ParHament the Act of the Scottish General Assembly approving the Direc- tory and enjoining its observance, and inserting between the first and second titles of the book the Act of the Scottish Parliament ratifying it, and the Acts of the Committee of Estates and of the Commission of the Assembly authorizing the printing of it. As the latter bears the date of 27th May this edition can hardly have been printed before June 1645. It was not till August that an Act passed the Scottish Parliament for publishing it. I have before me complete copies of these original English and Scottish editions of the Directory for the Public Worship of God. The former belonged to the Rev. Immanuel Bourne, one of the ministers appointed by the English Parliament to ordain ministers for the city of London. It has prefixed to it the ordinance for the ordination of ministers, and appended in manuscript "a speech at the sacrament March 27th, 1659," and " a speech after the sacrament." The latter, which is now the property of the Uni- versity of St. Andrews, appears to have belonged orio-inallv to Dr. William Moore, who was Arch- deacon of St. Andrews under the second episco- pacy, and left a number of valuable Puritan books to the University. A neat and accurate reprint of the original Scottish edition of the Directory, with a valuable historical introduction and copious Public IVorsJiip of God, 231 illustrative notes, was published by the Rev. Dr. Leishman in 1868.^ From the tenor of the preface to the Directory as well as from the testimony of Gillespie, Baillie, and others engaged in framing it, we seem war- ranted to infer that it was not intended by its framers to form a new liturgy, nor to authorize or encourage the ministers of the Church to turn the help and furniture it provided into fixed and unva- rying forms of prayer and exhortation to be re- peated verbatim Sunday after Sunday. No doubt ' The spelling has been modernized, but I have noticed only three other minute deviations from the original in the reprint. These are the omission in the directory for baptism (p. 306) of " the " before " right use of their baptism " and " of" before " all other promises ; " and the repetition in the directory for the cele- bration of the communion (p. 310) of "one," so that it reads, " He may be one with us and we one with him " instead of " and we with him." The Acts of the Scottish Parliament ratifying the Directory, and the Acts of the Committee of Estates and of the Commission of Assembly authorizing it to be printed, are not given. The illustrative notes are very interesting, but the impression they leave on the mind seems to me to be that rather more is made of the views of certain speakers in the Assembly than facts warrant. The extracts from speeches of members, with three or four ex- ceptions, are wonderfully accurate. But it must always be borne in mind that these are but selections, and at best exhibit only the sen- timents of the speakers, and that these sentiments were sometimes modified, sometimes passed from before the close of the discussions. The Assembly distinctly disclaimed responsibility for aught in the scribes' books besides its own resolutions and orders as these were ultimately adjusted and put on record. " All our discourses," Mr. Marshall said on one occasion, " are recorded by the scribes so far as their pens can reach them, but not to be taken as the judgment of the Assembly." Nay, silence was not to be construed into assent to things uttered in debate but not " ordered," 232 The Directory for the Lightfoot and one or two of the others thought it dangerous to say anything against such a practice. But while the lawfulness of stated forms of prayer was not expressly denied, everything that could be prudently done was done to persuade the ministers not to rest satisfied with these. It was urged as a special ground of objection to the old liturgy that it had proved a great means " to make and increase an idle and unedifying ministry, which contented itself with set forms made to their hands by others (and the same might be said of unvarying forms though made by themselves) without putting forth themselves to exercise the gift of prayer with which our Lord Jesus Christ pleaseth to furnish all His servants whom He calls to that office." The framers themselves distinctly state that in provid- ing certain materials of prayer and exhortation their meaning was only " that there might be a consent of all the churches in those things which contain the substance of the service and worship of God, and that the ministers, if need be, might have some help and furniture, and yet so as they become not hereby slothful and negligent in stir- ring up the gifts of Christ in them, but that each one by taking heed to himself and the flock of God committed to him, and by wise observing the ways of divine providence, may be careful to furnish his heart and tongue with further and other materials of prayer and exhortation as shall Public IVorship of God, 233 be needful on all occasions." Unquestionably they meant that the individuality of the minister, — his growing spiritual experience, his maturity of thought, his gifts of expression and utterance, — should come out in leading the devotions of the people and acting as their messenger to God, as well as in setting forth the truth as it is in Jesus, and acting as God's messenger to them, and also that the one exercise should be to him matter of thought, meditation, preparation and prayer, as well as the other, in order that he might make full proof of his ministry and commend himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. No party in the Assembly, it seems to me, went more cordially or persistently in this direction than the Scottish Commissioners. It was but the carrying out of principles they had been led on to assert in 1637^ and which their Smectymnuan friends^ had asserted in England in 1641. The excitement which Laud's foolish action had roused in Scotland still glowed in their bosoms. They heard unmoved the importunate pleading and entreaties of their best friends in the Assembly — Burgess, Calamy, Seaman, Reynolds and Palmer, that if not from regard to their persons, yet from regard to the credit of their ministry and the whole ministry of England, they would consent to leave out from 1 Row's History, pp. 398-406. 2 Ans'ver to Humble Ke7nonstrance, pp. 1 2- 1 4. 2 34 ^/^^ Directory for the the proposed preface some of the harsher expres- sions against the old Hturgy, and allow it to be laid aside with honor. But they thought the honor of their own country required it should be more strongly condemned than their English friends were willing to allow ; and Gillespie was so cruel as to tell them that Scotland would not be satisfied with less, and that its ceremonies were not, like those of the law, to be buried with honor, " but zvitJi the burial of tJie iinciraimcisedr Henderson, who had more to do than any other in moulding the sentences ^ I have quoted from the preface into the form they ultimately assumed, seems to have felt that, in the temper in which his countrymen then were, less would not be accepted by them. Gillespie said expressly that " that m.an who stirs 1 Neal has it (vol. iii. p. 143) that several Independents were on the committee which drew up the preface, but an addition had to be rr.ade to this Committee. . The MS. minutes as well as Light- foot's Journal, represent the several reports about the preface as given in by Marshall, the Convener of the original committee, or by Henderson who was a member of it, and took the most pro- minent part in getting the preface into the shape it ultimately assumed. One party, Baillie tells us, purposed " by the preface to turn the Directory into a straight liturgy ; the other to make it so loose and free that it should serve for little use; but God," he says, " helped us to get both these rocks eschewed." They had to concede something, however, to both these parties — to the first, the omission of a direct prohibition to turn the Directory into one ordinary form of prayer; to the second, the change of the words " concern the service and worship of God " into " contain the sub- stance of the service and worship of God," so as to make it clear that the uniformity desired related not to matters of detail but only to thoge of substantial importance. Public JVors/iip of God. 235 up his own i^ifts doth better than he that useth set forms," and that it was " good to hold out what is best." That in this they expressed only the gene- ral sentiment of the Church they represented is evident from the Directions for Family Worship issued a few years later by the Scottish General Assembly. " So many as can conceive prayer ought to make use of that gift of God ; albeit those who are rude and weaker may begin at a set form of prayer, but so as they be not sluggish in stirring up in themselves (according to their daily necessities) the spirit of prayer which is given to all the children of God in some measure : to which effect they ought to be more fervent and frequent in secret prayer to God, for ennabling their heart to conceive and their tongues to ex- press convenient desires to God for their family." These directions are markedly similar in thought and expression to those I quoted from the West- minster Directory, and show unmistakably how the Church of Scotland understood these and meant her ministers to carry them out. Yet nothing was further from their intentions than to encourage unpremeditated or purely extemporary effusions in prayer more than in preaching, or to represent any fluency in these as the stirring up of that gift which is given to all the children of God in some measure. As I have already said, they intended the exercise of prayer to be matter of thought, 236 The Directory for the meditation, preparation and prayer, equally with the preaching of the word ; and though no doubt they deemed the arrangement of the thoughts, and the bringing of the spirit into a proper frame, to be the most essential parts of the preparation in both cases, they did not mean to prohibit the careful writing of prayers any more than of ser- mons. Even the Independents, to whom some are too ready to attribute both the excesses and defects of the Assembly, had said in their Apolo- getical Narration,^ *' Whereas there is this great controversy about the lawfulness of set forms pre- scribed, we practised i^ivitJioiit condemning others) what all sides do allow, .... that the public prayers in our Assemblies should be framed by the meditations and study of our own ministers out of their own gifts .... as well as their ser- mons use to be." Nay, their Coryphaeus, Mr. Nye, in the most important speech he made in the Assembly when this preface was under dis- cussion, admitted there was a middle way betwixt set forms and extemporary prayers, and said, " I plead for neither, but for studied prayers." ^ And as he did not himself object to write his sermons, and occasionally in the delivery of them to refer to what he had written,^ we can hardly suppose 1 P. 12. '^ MS, Minutes of Assembly, vol. ii. f. 287. •^ Preaching in Edinburgh, " he read much out of his paper book." Public War ship of God. 237 tliat he would hav^e objected to write his prayers as well as to study them. This was the practice of some of the most godly ministers the Church of Scotland has ever had, who, though gifted with readiness of utterance and felicity of devotional expression, and satisfied if in their more private ministrations they could arrange their thoughts and prepare their hearts, yet in the stated services of the sanctuary made conscience of writing down beforehand the substance of their prayers as well as of their sermons, though they were no more in the habit of reading the latter than the former. I have by me one of the commonplace books of John Willison of Dundee which shows that this was his usual practice even when far advanced in life. And Dr. M'Crie, the most intelligent and uncompromising defender of non-liturgical wor- ship in later times, has not hesitated to say in ex- planation of this preface, " It does not follow from our not praying by a set form that we must pray extempore. Presbyterians at least require pre- meditation and study in prayer as well as in preaching, and disapprove of mere extemporary effusions in the former as well as in the latter." It is only by attention to this, and to the earnest counsels of the preface to our Directory, that they should be careful thus to furnish hotJi heart and tongue for the services of devotion ; that men of average ability and spirituality can hope to do 238 The Directory for the justice to the system of free prayer therein en- couraged, and to enable their people to reap from it the full spiritual benefits it was meant to confer. And were they only more careful and conscien- tious in doing this we should hear less about the necessity of changing our form of service, and have it more frequently acknowledged, as it has been by our beloved Sovereign in the Journal of her Highland life, that the simple fervent prayer of a Scottish minister may touch a chord in the heart which the grandest liturgy had left unmoved/ I know of no formulary of the same sort which is so free from minute and harassing regulations as to postures, gestures, dresses, church pomp, ceremonies, symbolism, and other " superfluities," as Hales terms them, which '* under pretext of order and decency " had crept into the church and more and more had restricted the liberty and bur- dened the consciences of its ministers. I know of none in which, throughout, so clear a distinc- tion is kept up between what Christ and his apos- tles have instituted, and which therefore may be regarded as imperative in Christian worship, and what has been authorized or recommended or per- mitted, under the rules of Christian prudence, by later and fallible church authorities, and the ^ " The second prayer was very touching ; his allusions to us were so simple, saying after his mention of us, * Bless their children.' It gave me a lump in my throat, as also when he prayed for the dying, the wounded, the widow and the orphans." Public Worship of God. 2^g observance of which therefore is to be required or recommended or allowed, if at all, with greater reserve as well as with more consideration for the scruples even of weaker brethren. As has been well said, *' The obligation to a practice is not the same when it is described in the Directory as 7uxcssajy, requisite, expedient^ cojiveiiient',' laivful, or sufficient, or when it is directed, advised, or reconintended, nor finally when it is provided " in one place that the minister is to, or sJiall, in another may I' or in another let him, " do such and such things." The tolerant purpose of those who framed it is fully expressed in their letter to the Scottish Gen- eral Assembly of 1645, in which they say, "We have not advised any imposition which might make it unlawful to vary from it in anything ; yet we hope all our reverend brethren in this kingdom and in yours also, will so far value and reverence that which upon so long debate and serious delib- eration hath been agreed upon in this Assembly . . . that it shall not be the less regarded and observed. And albeit we have not expressed in the Directory every minute particular which is or might be either laid aside or retained among us as comely and useful in practice ; yet we trust that none will be so tenacious of old customs not expressly forbid- den, or so averse from good examples although new, in matters of lesser consequence, as to insist 240 The Directory for the upon their liberty of retaining the one or refusing the other because not specified in the Directory." The materials for prayer and exhortation provided in the Directory were not meant by its framers, as they explain in the preface, to do more than sup- ply help and furniture, of which the officiating minister might avail himself It was said indeed by Mr. Marshall, when he first brought in the part relating to the ordinary services for the Lord's day, that it did " not only set down the heads of things but so largely, as that with the altering of here and there a word a man may mould it into a prayer." But when reminded of this some months afterward, when he brought in the first draft of the Preface bearing a statement that this was not intended, he said, " Some such expression did fall from my mouth ; I said as one reason why it was so large, here he might have such furniture as that with a little help he may do it. But there is no contradiction to say that we do not intend it. It is not a direct prohibition." (MS. Minutes, vol. ii. f. 286 b.) In other words, those who conducted the ordinary services were not directly prohibited from turning the materials furnished to them into an unvarying form of prayer, keeping as near to the words of the Directory as they could ; but at the same time they were not only not restricted or counseled to do so, but they were counseled and encouraged to do something more, according Public W or s J lip of God. 241 to their ability and opportunities. The materials provided for the ordinary services of the Lord's day are no doubt much fuller than those provided for special and occasional services, and, being meant for the guidance of young preachers as well as of ordained ministers, they required to be so. But I confess that the more I examine them, the more I am satisfied that even they were meant to be expanded, and required to be so in order to bring out their real value, and their adaptation to the purpose they were meant to serve. They are so packed with matter, that their full significance cannot otherwise really be brought home to the heart and conscience, nor would they without such expansion have satisfied the eager craving for lengthened services which had then set in. Much more is this the case with the occasional services and especially with those for the adminis- tration of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. In this last particularly only the barest outline is given both of the exhortations and of the prayers. The materials of the preliminary exhortation supply the outlines of one of the most complete and impres- sive addresses to be found in any of the Reformed Agenda ; and feelingly expanded, as men like the late Dr. Crawford were wont to expand them, could not fail to be most refreshing to every spiritually- minded communicant. They have been collected from various sources, and, like the materials of the 16 242 The Directory for tJie prayers, they show that the draft of the Scotch had passed through EngHsh hands, and been greatly improved and enriched by doing so. The verbal coincidences with *' the former Hturgy " both in the exhortations and prayers are too many and too marked to be accounted for in any other way, and it is the highest commendation of this part of their work that it has fused into one so much of what was best in the Knoxian and the Anglican Communion Offices. The materials of the Consecration Prayer are taken mainly from that in Knox's Book of Common Order, which rises so immeasurably above the other prayers in his Book. But the last part of that, as well as the materials of the concluding thanksgiving, shows more affinity with English forms,^ and tends to make this Directory ^ Even with the earlier Edwardian form. The words of the prayer in it " with thy Holy Spirit and word vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ," along with those in the exhortation preceding, *' for us to feed upon spiritually," " we dwell in Christ and Christ in us, we be made one with Christ and Christ with us," reappear in slightly modified form in the Directory : " to vouchsafe his gracious presence and the effectual working of His Spirit in us and so to sanctify these elements both of bread and wine and to bless his own ordinance that we may receive by faith the body and blood of Christ crucified for us and so feed upon him that he may be one with us and we with him, that he may live in us and we in him and to him." Probably we owe these and other approximations to the English Communion Office to Dr. Burgess, to whom the final re- vision and transcription of most of the Assembly's formularies was intrusted. He had copies of both liturgies of Edward VI. Public iVo7'sJiip of God. 243 more complete in all that such a service should embrace than any similar ofifice either in the re- formed or the ancient church. The Communion according to the Directory was frequently to be celebrated, but it was left to the minister and elders of each congregation to determine how frequently it should be so — regard being ahvays had to their comfort and edification therein. In England, in those times of revival, it was not uncommon that the Communion should be administered monthly^ in Presbyterian and weekly in Independent con- gregations. In Scotland all attainable evidence tends to show that it was administered much more rarely, though even then the practice had begun of the more pious of the people resorting to the Communion when celebrated in neighboring par- ishes as well as in their own. In some parishes during the painful contentions between engagers and non-engagers, and between resolutioners and protesters, the celebration of the communion was intermitted for two or three years. It is sad to think that men like Blair, Rutherfurd, and Wood should have made their differences in such minor ' " Blessed be God, we have now our Christian new moons and evangelical feast of trumpets. We have not only our monthly sacrament feast to refresh our souls withal in most of our congre- £;ations ... but our monthly fasts in which the word is preached, trading ceaseth, and sacrifices of prayer, praises, and alms are tendered up to God." — Preface to Calamy's Sermon, 23d February 1641. The disputes as to disci})line led to less frequent celebration. 244 ^/^^ Directo7y for the matters a plea for withholding from the congre- gation of St. Andrews the comfort of this ordi- nance for more than six years. Perhaps Scotland was not unprepared for the changes which the substitution of the Directory in place of the Book of Common Order involved. Those changes were not so great as some imagine. Free prayer, which from the first had been per- mitted and encouraged, and had latterly, if Calder- wood is to be trusted, become general, was now made imperative on the minister, but *' help and furniture " in the various exercises were provided ; and that no one should ima^^ine that encouracre- ment was thus meant to be given to ministers to engage in the public services of the sanctuary in the perfunctory manner Dr. Hammond has de- scribed, it is directed that each one " be careful to furnish his heart and tongue with further or other materials of prayer and exhortation as shall be needful on all occasions." But in England the case was far otherwise. Even inside the Puritan circle, there were not a few who would have pre- ferred to amend rather than ''to lay aside the former liturgy," and many more of the wisest and best who, through their own leanings may have been in favor of a more thorough reform, knew how hard it would be to persuade a large part of the nation and of the ministry to accept it, and felt how greatly it would add to the difficulty of the Public Worship of God. 245 task of preserving unbroken the religious unity of the nation, to proscribe that to which so many were attached by most hallowed associations and tender memories. Even the ministers generally were not nearly so well prepared for the change as those in Scotland. Dr. Hammond' makes merry over what he supposes was an ingenious device, under pretence of supplying ships which wanted a minister, to help all such idle mariners in the ship of the Church. This was a little trea- tise issued within two months after the Directory was published, and entitled " A supply of prayer for the ships of this kingdom that want ministers to pray with them, agreeable to the Directory established by Parliament, published by authority; London, John Field, 1645."— (E. 284, No. 16.) Such a treatise might have been as honestly issued by the Assembly at that time as the volume of " Prayers for the use of soldiers, sailors, colonists, and sojourners in India and other persons at home and abroad, who are deprived of the ordinary ser- vices of a Christian ministry " was by the Church of Scotland in our own day, and with as little in- tention of encouraging an idle and unedifying min- istry. But I rather incline to think the " device " may have been a device of the enemy to burlesque their work. I cannot find any authority given by Parliament or the Assembly for the publication, ^ View of the New Directory, etc., p. 80. 246 TJic Directory for the and the preface or reason assigned for the work seems to me to be written in a somewhat serio- comic vein. It appeared in May and it was not till August that the Parliament took steps to en- force their ordinance as to the old liturgy. Probably the most remarkable and not least useful part of this formulary is the section " Of Preaching the Word." This was a subject not usually handled in such treatises, but it was one to which Puritanism from the first attached great importance, and to which all who hold the pro- phetic or evangelistic in opposition to the sacer- dotal theory of the Christian ministry attach great importance still. The Puritans mourned over the paucity of preaching ministers in the Church in the reigns of the Tudors and Stuarts, and pleaded with the authorities in Church and State to take further securities for the efficient per- formance of their function by every parish min- ister. They did what they could in an unofficial way, by their prophesyings and conferences, to quicken their brethren to a sense of duty in this matter. To train them for it was one of the first objects to which they directed attention when their day of prosperity came round, and at which they labored with a perseverance and intensity only to be accounted for by the deepest sense of its im- portance to the well-being of a Reformed church. Not that they overlooked catechising or any Public Worship of God. 247 means of elementary instruction, as Dr. Hammond would insinuate (for their whole history shows how earnest and successful they were in these), but that they-held that even such work could not be efficiently carried on so as to promote the real quickening of the lapsed and uneducated masses, by mere mechanical drill in the words of a cate- chism and without constant recourse to that simple expository teaching, and personal application, which Archbishop Laud and his party had discouraged, but which no authority nowadays would dream of prohibiting. Even in Cartwright's Directory, pre- pared in the previous century, special attention had been drawn to the subject of preaching and some wise counsels given respecting it. But in this form- ulary, drawn up in the heyday of Puritanism, we have from the hand of one of the greatest masters, and revised by the ablest of the school, a summary of their thought and experience on a subject which they had made peculiarly their own, and on which if on any they may claim to give counsel still. Dr. Hammond disparages even this, but Mr. Mars- den says of it:^ ''Every sentence is admirable. So much good sense and deep piety, the results of great and diversified experience, and of a knowledge so profound, have probably never been gathered into so small a space on the subject of ministerial teaching. It is one that has received 1 Later Pnriiians, pp. 88, 89. 248 TJie Directory for the attention in successive ages from teachers of dif- ferent schools and of various tastes and habitudes of mind. . . . But a brief chapter of four pages here comprises an amount of wise instruction which will not readily be found elsewhere. The Divines of Westminster were among; the masters of this sacred art; whether we estimate their power by the enthusiasm of their crowded con- gregations, by the better test of their writings and printed sermons, or by the still higher touchstone of permanent success, ... in turning sinners from the error of their ways, in edifying the church and fitting men for God. After a variety of lessons marked by great judgment and good sense , . . they conclude with a series of admonitions to the preacher to look to the condition of his own heart, and to keep alive the flame of love and holiness within." In the copy of the Directory which be- longed to Immanuel Bourne the first part of this section is carefully and minutely subdivided and annotated, and special attention is directed to the sentence which counsels the preacher still to seek for further illumination of God's Spirit by prayer and a humble heart, *' resolving to admit and receive any truth not yet attained whenever God shall make it known to him." During the summer and autumn of 1644, while the Assembly and the House of Commons were so busily engaged in adjusting the Directories for Public WorsJiip of God. 249 Ordination and for Public Worship, the House of Lords had been occupied with the trial of the Archbishop of Canterbury. For more than three years he had been kept as a close prisoner in the Tower. Friends had urged him to escape while he was so long neglected, and had offered to aid him in doing so. But he had resolved calmly to abide the issue. From week to week during the greater part of this anxious year the old man came before the peers leaning on his staff, and it is said attired in black gown and cap, and yet even so not always respectfully treated by the populace. Ably and resolutely did he defend himself from the various charges brought against him, and the peers hesi- tated to adjudge his offenses treason. But as in the case of Strafford a bill of attainder was at length brought in and finally passed on 4th January 1644-5. Even his opponents must confess that " nothing in life became him like the leaving it." A pardon from the king in his favor was produced to the Houses, but it was disregarded by them. His petition, touching yet dignified, that in con- sideration of his age and calling, his sentence might at least be commuted, was also disregarded, and it was only after a second application that the House of Commons acceded even to his modified request that the manner of his death should be changed, and he should be not hanged but beheaded. So on Friday loth January the aged primate was 250 The Directory for the brought forth for execution on Tovverhill in the presence of an immense crowd of spectators esti- mated in one of the newspapers of the time at more than 100,000. His last address was a sort of discourse founded on Hebrews xii. i, etc., which was very variously reported in the royalist and par- liamentary newspapers; and surely it was small wonder if, as the old man gazed on that sea of upturned hostile faces, his memory misgave him, or that even with the aid of notes he gave but im- perfect utterance to his thoughts. Then came a brief but affecting prayer as to which there is no material variation,^ and with a single blow of the executioner's axe his gray head was severed from his body, and his spirit passed to its rest. The House of Lords had been far from keen in the prosecution of this last of statesman-prelates, feel- ing that however grievous his errors had been, there was now but little risk of his doing further harm to the State. Several even of the Commons are said to have shown a disposition to relent. But the ma- jority, Presbyterians as well as Independents, could 1 " Lord, I am coming as fast as I can. I know I must pass through the shadow of deatli, before I can come to see thee, but it is but umbra mortis, a mere shadow of death, a little darkness upon nature; but thou by thy merits and passion hast broke through the jaws of death ; so Lord receive my soul and have mercy upon me, and bless this kingdom with peace and plenty, and with brotherly love and charity, that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them, for Jesus Christ's sake, if it be thy will." Public Woi^ship of God. 251 not be persuaded to let the prosecution drop. The feeling of the London populace and of the more fanatical sectaries against him was very- strong, and had been intensified by the many satirical pamphlets which had been put in circula- tion since his fall. The Assembly has been blamed for doing nothing to allay the excitement and prevent the scandal of the chief minister of the Church being doomed to such a fate. Yet neither their own minutes nor the Journals of the Houses furnish the least evidence that as a body they did aught to help it on. Even as to individual mem- bers I doubt if the expressions Professor Masson has quoted from the sermons of two or three of them were meant specially to refer to him, and not rather to those who were directly responsible for the war, and had actually shed blood in it or in the Irish massacres. The most melancholy utter- ances in the sermons of Woodcock and Stanton reappear in several of those preached in the follow- ing year, when no such reference can be imagined, and are but the emphatic expression of the opinion then all but universally held and acted on that they who shed innocent blood could only atone for it by their own.^ The Scots also have been severely ^ The only discourse I have met with which openly vindicates the deed, and glories in it, was not preached before the Houses of Parliament nor by a member of the Assembly of Divines. Its title is " Jehoiada's justice against Mattan, Kaal's high priest," and its spirit is as atrocious as its title. The author does not give his 252 The Directory for the blamed, but with still less occasion. They no doubt felt keenly at first and resented bitterly the sufferings his policy had entailed on them. But Baillie, who knew and did not hesitate to speak their mind, shows no such resentment. He says expressly, when intimating to his correspondent in Holland that the trial had begun, " He is a person now so contemptible that we take no notice of his process." And at a later stage, when speak- ing intemperately of the " malicious invectives " of one of the prelates of his own country, he adds, " I could hardly consent to the hanging of Canterbury himself, or of any Jesuit, yet I could give my sentence freely against that liar's life." The insinu- ation against Henderson in the Oxford royalist paper of the day, is but one of its many slanders against the man who was its ecclesiastical bete noire as unmistakably, as Lord Say and Seale was its secular one. But by whomsoever the deed may have been prompted, and however it may have been excused at the time when the memory of his rigor and cruelty was fresh, it will now be all but universally admitted to have been a blunder as well as a crime. It brought deserved discredit on the Parliament, revolted not a few of its friends, name, but only his initials, J. H. Even if he was the Julius Herring, still more if he was only a relative of the Julius Herring who was the subject of Laud's coarse and unfeeling jest, " I will soon pickle that herring," one cannot speak of his act but in terms of the strongest reprobation. Public Worship of God. 253 exasperated a number of the best of its opponents, embittered greatly the relations between the lead- ing clergymen on both sides, and more than almost any other single occurrence destroyed for a genera- tion all hope of honorable compromise and cordial co-operation between them in the cause of religion, and the interests of highest concern to their com- mon country. LECTURE VIII. TREATISES ON CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, CHURCH CEN- SURES, AND ORDINATION OF MINISTERS. In my last Lecture I gave you a succinct account of the Directory for the PubHc Worship of God prepared by a special committee, and after careful revision adopted by the Assembly in 1644. I am to-day to speak of the treatises on church- government, church censures, and ordination of ministers, which were prepared almost simultane- ously with that Directory. Two or perhaps, more strictly speaking, three treatises on these subjects were drawn up by the Westminster Assembly in the course of the first two years of its sessions. The one to which it first addressed itself was that for which it began to make preparations immedi- ately after receiving from the two Houses the order for its members to " confer and treat among themselves of such a discipline and government as may be most agreeable to God's holy word and most apt to procure the peace of the Church and nearer agreement with other reformed Churches." It may be said to have formed the chief occu- 254 Treatises on CJmrch- Government, ete. 255 pation of the Assembly during the remainder of the year 1643 and during the greater part of 1644. It proved a work of great labor and difficulty, and it was in connection with it that those keen and almost interminable debates between the Presby- terians and Independents took place, which broke the harmony of the Assembly and retarded its more important work. This treatise was entitled by its framers, Propositions coiicernijig CJiurcJi- Government and Ordination of Ministers, but it is now generally known and referred to as the Form of CJmrch-Govcrnment, probably because that was the title arranged for the treatise on church-gov- ernment in the Solemn League and Covenant. Under this title it still holds its place in Scottish editions of the Westminster standards. It em- bodies in the form of distinct propositions, ar- ranged in logical connection, and accompanied with the Scripture proofs which were held to warrant them, the conclusions in which the As- sembly saw fit from time to time to sum up the results of its lengthened and exhaustive discus- sions. It treats in succession of the Head of the Church, of the Church itself, and the officers whom Christ its Head has given it, viz., pastors, teachers, other church governors (whom reformed churches commonly call elders), and deacons, then of particular congregations, and the officers and ordinances appropriate to them, of church- 256 Treatises on Church- Gove7^nment, government, the several sorts of assemblies for exercising it, and the common and distinctive powers of these several assemblies, and finally of the doctrine and power of ordination accompanied by a practical directory for the ordination of min- isters. Prefixed to Gillespie's Notes of the Debates and Proceedings of the Assembly, as I stated in a former lecture, we have in tabulated form the votes or separate resolutions of the Assembly out of which the Propositions were gradually framed, accompanied in the margin by a notification of the date or at least of the session when each separate vote was passed, and of the fact whether it was ordei-ed, that is, accepted without discussion, or resolved on after debate and perhaps a formal vote. The latest entry, however, in this tabulated form was made in the i86th session, or on 25th March 1644, and thus unfortunately it does not include the votes regarding the gradation of church courts and their respective powers, nor even the greater part of those relating to the ordination of ministers. It is authenticated by the subscriptions both of the assessors, and of the scribes of the Assembly, and it was probably got by Gillespie and his colleagues that it might be forwarded to the commissioners of the General Assembly in their own country, to whom they were required from time to time to give account of their proceedings. But if so, it was not formally communicated to the General CJmrch Cens7cres, etc, 257 Assembly of that year, nor indeed in accordance with the provisions of the ordinance calHng the Westminster Assembly could any public use be made of it at that date. It is only one of several indications v^e have that they occasionally sent documents as well as notes of their speeches to these commissioners, as it is also one of several indications that besides the books in which Byfield inserted notes of the speeches of the members and formal minutes of their meetings there was another (probably under the charge of his col- league Roborough) in which their votes alone, and so the separate propositions contained in their formularies of church order, worship, and doctrine, were recorded as they were voted, which book is now hopelessly lost.^ It was not till the 8th November 1644 that the Propositions, or at any rate the main part of them (I suppose so far as they are printed on the first sixteen pages of the Scotch edition of 1647), were presented by Dr. Burgess and some others of the Divines to the House of Commons as " the humble advice of the Assembly of Divines now by authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster concerning some part of church-government." And on p. 1 Vol. i, of the MS. Minutes under session i86 or 25th March, 1644, records the appointment of the prolocutor, assessors, and scribes as a committee, but does not indicate the object for which they were appointed. Possibly it was to prepare this vidimus of votes. 17 258 Treatises on C/mrch- Government, 16 of the edition of the Propositions above men- tioned, the statement (no doubt given in on this occasion) has been allowed to stand as it origin- ally did : " Some other particulars concerning church-government do yet remain unfinished, which shall be with all convenient speed prepared and presented to this honorable House. " But when by a subsequent message from the House they were requested to send in with all convenient speed all the parts of church-government that are yet behind," they replied by Mr. Marshall " that all the material parts of church-government are already brought up" with the exception of that relating to church-censures, the tibi of which was a subject of theological dispute about which they had not yet agreed. The conclusions to which they ultimately came respecting it were incor- porated not with the Propositions, but with the Directory for church-government, etc. When and how the Propositions contained on pp. 17 to 26 of the Scotch edition of 1647 were moulded into the precise shape in which we there find them, it is not so easy exactly to determine. In all likeli- hood this was the part of the Directory which was first completed and presented to the Houses, to enable them to make temporary arrangements for the ordination of ministers. From the full notes of the debates given in Lightfoot's Journal it is evident that the twelve propositions relating to the doc- CJmrch Ccnsttres, etc. 259 trinal part of ordination had by April 3d, 1644, been put into the exact form in which we there have them, and if by April 19th the directory for ordination was not yet verbatim et litcrathn as wc now have it, any alterations made on it subse- quently must have been of the most trifling kind. The Committee which drew up the first draft of this Directory were Messrs. Palmer, Herlc, Marshall, Tuckney, Seaman, Vines, Goodwin, and Gataker, with the Scottish commissioners, and their draft was completed^ between the 3d and the 19th of April, on which day it was dis- cussed, and with modifications adopted by the As- sembly. Next morning it was presented to the Houses, Dr. Burgess, in offering it to the House of Lords, saying, " That these were the first-fruits of the Assembly, and if they shall receive sanction and confirmation from their Lordships it will abundantly recompense for the long time they were in debate, and the Assembly recommends them to the blessing of God for a good success upon them." At first the action of the Houses, on what had been presented to them, was far from satisfactory to the Assembly.^ They struck out, from the ordinance they proposed to pass respect- ing ordination of ministers, all reference to the 1 Lightfoot's Journal, pp. 237-253. 2 It is recorded in Journals of the House of Commons, vol. iii. pp. 590, 591. For alterations made see pp. 610, 622, 625. 26o Treatises on Church- Government^ doctrinal part of ordination, and from the practical Directory, all reference to a presbytery as the ordi- nary ministers of ordination. They made provi- sion for the special emergency that had occurred, only by a temporary and extraordinary association of presbyters, and deferred determining the method to be ordinarily and permanently followed until the whole question of church-government was ripe for settlement. They also proposed various alterations in particular regulations re- commended by the Assembly. This fortunately came to the knowledge of the divines before the ordinance had actually passed, and they asked and got permission to make further suggestions re- specting it. The adjustment of these suggestions gave occasion to considerable debate in the Assembly, and to expressions of disappointment on the part of several divines (notably of Hender- son), that the House of Commons should have taken such liberties with a document they had so carefully drawn up ; and after paring away so much that was deemed important by its framers — especially as to the doctrinal part — should have ventured to prefix to the " directory part " a preface of their own. The preface as ultimately passed seems harmless enough, but though negatively allowed by the divines, it was as rigidly excluded from a place among their Propositions and in their Directory as it was persistently maintained Church Caistcres, etc. 261 in the English Ordinance, as printed in 1644, modified and reprinted in 1646, and merged in the larger and more general Ordinance on church- government in 1648.' At first the divines seemed disposed to content themselves with urging two amendments to the ordinance drafted by the Commons, the one embodying a more satisfactory definition of ordination than the preamble con- tained, and the other restoring the clause requiring an express promise of siibniission on the part of the people to their pastor. Ultimately, however, thirteen suggestions were sent up, of which eleven were accepted by the House of Commons without difficulty. The other two — being those just re- ferred to, and numbered respectively 8 and 9 — were after further consideration accepted ; the ^ " Whereas the word presbyter, that is to say elder, and the word bishop do in the Scriptures intend and signify one and tlie same function, although the title of bishop hath been by corrupt custom appropriated to one, and that unto him ascribed, and by him assumed, as in other things so in the matter of ordination, that was not meet. Which ordination notwithstanding being performed by him, a presbyter, joined with other presbyters, we hold for sub- stance to be valid, and not to be disclaimed by any that have re- ceived it. And that presbyters so ordained being lawfully there- unto appointed may ordain other presbyters. And whereas it is also manifest by the word of God that no man ought to take upon him the office of a minister until he be lawfully called and ordained thereunto; and that the work of ordination, that is to say, an out- ward solemn setting apnrt of persons for the office of the ministry in the Church by preachini^ presbyters, is an ordinance of Christ, and is to be performed with all due care, wisdom, gravity, and solemnity: It is ordained," etc. 262 Treatises on Church-Govejniment, first partially, the second entirely; but on the dissent of the House of Lords from the latter it was in the end rejected. Instead of the presiding minister being directed immediately before the ordination to " demand of the people concerning their willingness to receive and acknowledge the person about to be ordained as the minister of Christ, and to obey and submit nnto him as having rule over them in the Lord" etc., he was simply authorized after the ordination ** to exhort and charge the people in the name of God, willingly to receive and acknowledge him as the minister of Christ, and to maintain, encourage, and assist him in all the parts of his office." As the objection to their suggestion appears to have proceeded mainly from the House of Lords, it is likely that it arose quite as much from dislike of the position it con- ceded to the people, as of the position of rule it claimed for the minister once accepted by them. And, strange as it may seem, though the clause requiring the people to declare their acceptance of the minister, and promise submission to him, was retained in the Propositions and Directory as published in 1647, and was countenanced by the Knoxian Form of Admission of Ministers, the practice which has generally prevailed in the Church of Scotland ever since the Revolution comes nearer to that authorized by the Ordinance of the English Parliament. The people's accept- CJiurch Censures, etc. 26 ance and promises are held to have been evinced by the signature of the call or acquiescence in it, and at the time of ordination are tacitly assumed, and after the minister-elect has been ordained, and counseled as to his duty, they are exhorted and charged as to theirs. But the main subject of difference between the Assembly and the Houses related to the insertion of a satisfactory definition of ordination in the preamble of the ordinance. The original draft had borne merely that ordination, that is, an out- ward solenm setting apart of persons for the office of the ministry, is an ordinance of Christ, and left out the explanation contained in the fourth doc- trinal proposition of the Assembly. They sug- gested that the ordinance should run *' that ordi- nation by preaching presbyters with prayer and imposition of hands is an ordinance of Christ," but they ultimately agreed not to press for the insertion of the words " with prayer and imposi- tion of hands," so that the clause might stand, ** that ordination by preaching presbyters is an ordinance of Christ." ^ This modified request was substantially granted by the Houses, but it was determined by them that the words " by preach- ing presbyters " should come in not in the first part of the definition, but at its close, to complete the explanation : " that is, an outward solemn ^ Gillespie's Notes, p. 71. 264 Tj^eatises on Church- Government, setting apart of persons for the office of the min- istry in the Church." ^ Some further additions were afterward made to the ordinance on the suggestion of the Assembly which may possibly not have been in their Directory as originally transmitted. The ordinance retained one varia- tion from the draft of the Assembly which is de- serving of notice. It had been determined there by a majority that the phrase " ivith imposition of hands and prayer" should be changed into ''by imposition of hands," etc. Selden, Gataker, and Seaman all pressed this ; but Gillespie contended that ** it neither agreed with the apostle's phrase not with the opinion of our divines." ^ Yet in the House of Commons, where Selden's influence was generally greater than in the Assembly, the word by was left out, though ivith was not inserted, but the sentence simply ran, " shall solemnly set him apart to the office and work of the ministry, lay- ing their hands on him." The first and larger part of the propositions, as already stated, was only presented to the Houses on 8th November 1644, or more than six months after the part which now stands last had been sent up. The propositions concerning church-govern- ment and ordination, as put into shape by the divines and presented to the English Parliament, 1 As in note on p. 261. '^ Gillespie's Notes of Debates, p. 45. Church Censures, etc. 265 were taken down to Scotland by Gillespie and Baillie, and along with the Directory for Public worship, they were presented apparently in manu- script to the General Assembly which met in Edinburgh in February 1645. Baillie says they were to have the Assembly's opinion upon them, " but no Act till they had passed the Houses of the English Parliament." ^ Of course he means they were to have no Executive Act such as they had asked and got for the Directory for Public Worship. The Assembly passed, and the Parlia- ment ratified, an Act approving of the Propositions so far as submitted to them, but instead of de- cerninf^ and ordainins;-, as in the other case, that fc> o ' » they should be observed and practiced, it simply authorized their Commission to conclude a uni- formity on the basis of them as soon as they should be ratified without substantial alteration by the Parliament of England. They never were so ratified in the South, and the Act of the Scot- tish General Assembly in 1647, approving and establishing the Confession of Faith, speaks of the truth of Christ as to the several sorts of ecclesiastical officers and assemblies not as having been embodied in the Propositions approved in 1645, but ''to be expressed in the Directory of Government." ^ ^ Letters and Jotirnah, vol. ii. p. 260. For the Act see Note K. ^ Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, p. 475. 266 Treatises on C/mrch- Government, The circumstances which led to the preparation of this latter treatise were the following :— The majority of the English Parliament, while willing to substitute a Presbyterian for an Episcopal form of government in the National Church, were not disposed to concede the apparent jiu%' divino claim made for it in the Propositions. Even many of the warm friends of Presbytery in the south became satisfied that if they were to retain the bulk of the nation in the reconstituted Church they must be content to get their assent to their favorite system of church-government as one that in its main principles was lawful and agreeable to the Word of God rather than expressly enjoined in it, and as one that could be justified by con- siderations of reason or expediency in many of its details for which the texts appended by the Assembly to the *' Propositions " did not seem to furnish a clear divine warrant, still less a positive and permanent institution. At the desire of these friends of comprehension and their friends in Par- liament generally, who, to use Coleman's words, preferred " may be to must be," the Assembly set itself to prepare its practical Directory for church- government and discipline, and for ordination of ministers, during the latter part of 1644 and the earlier part of 1645. Henderson took a special interest in the preparation of this Formulary, and culled its materials, in part at least, from his CJiurcJi Censures, etc. 267 treatise on the Order and Government of the Church of Scotland, in part from the disciphne of the French and Dutch Protestant Churches, modifying and toning down the whole, and doing his very utmost to put it into a shape that might be acquiesced in, or borne with, by those whose personal leanings were toward other polities. Yet with every disposition to respect, as far as a loyal Presbyterian could, the scruples of the dis- senting brethren, and inclination to yield to them in minor matters, he and his colleagues found it impossible to come to an agreement with them on the basis of the practical Directory any more than on that of the theoretical " Propositions." ^ But though it entirely failed to ward off the threatened schism, the Directory did not fail to secure the favor of the majority of the Parliament, and with two or three notable exceptions, to which I shall advert in my next Lecture, it was substantially embodied in the ordinance passed by the Houses on 29th August 1648, and published under the title, TJlc Form of CJmrcJi-Govcrnmcnt to be used in tlic Church of England and Ireland. This A Even the ministers and elders met in tlieir provincial assembly at London, in November 1648, venture to say: "The external government and discipline of Christ, though it be not necessary to the being, yet it is absolutely necessary to the well-being of a church. . . . Not that we think that every circumstance in church- government is set down precisely in the word, or is of divine right in a strict sense." — Vindication of the Presbyterial Govern- ment and Ministry, pp. I -3. 2 68 Treatises on Church- Government, Form contains minute directions for the choice of elders, the erection of twelve Presbyteries and a Synod in London, and more general directions for the choice of elders and the erection of Presby- teries and Synods in other parts of the kingdom. It also made provision for the meeting of a Na- tional Assembly when summoned by Parliament, but in point of fact such an Assembly never was summoned to meet. The classical Presbyteries were to consist of one minister and at least two elders from every parish within the bounds, the provincial synods of at least two ministers and four elders from every classis within the province, and the National Assembly of two ministers and four elders from each provincial synod, and of five learned and godly persons from each university in the kingdom. These various courts were subor- dinated to each other after the Presbyterian fashion, that so appeals might be made from the inferior to the superior, and any person who deemed himself aggrieved by the proceedings of a congregational eldership might appeal to the classis, from that to the provincial synod, and from that to the National Assembly, and from it to the Parliament. This last provision no pleading nor protestation on the part of the divines could pre- vail with the Houses to alter, and perhaps that may hav^e been one reason why they did not urge on at once the complete organization of the Church Censures, etc. 269 Church, though of course the main reason was furnished by the political changes that so soon took place. Presbyteries and a synod were erected in Lancashire^ by separate ordinances, and pres- byteries^ in Somersetshire, Shropshire, and Sur- rey by other ordinances. Any organization at- tempted in other counties was rather on the lines suggested by Baxter for the county of Worcester than on the lines of the ordinances of Parliament.^ Any associations in them were probably com- posed of ministers only, and of ministers of dif- ferent judgments on the question of church-gov- ernment. It was on the 7th July 1645 that the Assembly's Directory was formally delivered to the Houses by Mr. Marshall and certain other members. The following is the entry in the Jour- nals of the House of Commons (vol. iv. p. 199), regarding it : — " The House being informed that some of the Assembly of Divines were at the door, they were called in, and Mr. Marshall acquainted the House, That whereas the House had been pleased, at several times, to order the Assembly of Divines to send to them such propositions as they had finished; which they had done; that there are some more which needed some proofs out of Scripture, and had been under debate with them and were now finished : They had cast their votes into a model and method ; and now the ^ yoiirnals of House of Cotnmons, vol. iv. p, 668 ; vol. v, pp. 7, 23. 2 E. 430, No. 16; E. 431, No. 4. Baxter's Explication, p. 21. ^ There were isolated classes in other counties in Kent ; see Minutes, p. 536; and in the West Riding of Yorkshire; see Rushvvorth, I't. iv. p. 1054. 270 Treatises on CJmr eh- Government^ House may see all before them. They have left out the proofs, both of Scripture and reason, having sent them in with their former votes ; but if the House please to command the Assembly to give in the proofs, they are ready to do it. Some of these votes are plainly held out by Scripture ; others have reasons agreeable to Scripture, and have been alleged : And such as have the light of nature are received and practised in all Reformed Churches, This work, though it appeared short, yet had spent much time, by reason of dissenting judgments ; that, if possible, they might be satisfied. To this short paper of additional votes they have given in the proofs out of Scripture ; and if those proofs, at the first reading, be not convictive, in regard that God hath not laid down the points of church disciphne in such clear texts, they desire they may not be laid aside, but that the House will command them to give in the proofs at large." The Directory for Church-Government was brought down by the Scotch Commissioners Gillespie or Baillie, and laid before the Scottish Assembly in 1647, and by their orders it was printed (with the propositions prefixed, and in the exact shape in which it had passed the Westminster Assembly) before the close of the year, that it might be examined and reported on by presby- teries. Next year the consideration of the reports was again deferred, and in the confusions that followed no action may have been taken respecting it. Baillie says that with four or five reservations it would have been approved of by the Assembly but for the persistent opposition of Caldervvood, who objected even to the propositions of which the Assembly had approved in 1645. Both Chtcrch Censures, etc. 271 sanctioned congregational elderships as distinct courts, whereas he maintained they were nothing more than committees of Presbytery. The latter provided that the provincial synods should consist not of all the ministers of the bounds, but of a certain number of ministers and elders chosen out of each presbytery, and that the National Assembly should consist not of delegates from the presby- teries, but of three ministers and three elders from each provincial synod, and five learned and godly persons from each university. To all these pro- visions we cannot doubt this uncompromising defender of old Scottish arrangements would reso- lutely object, particularly to the last,^ which had been opposed, but unsuccessfully, by the Scottish Commissioners at Westminster. But some of these provisions are not unworthy still of the considera- tion of the larger Presbyterian Churches, which feel that their supreme courts, as at present con- stituted, are somewhat unwieldy, and hardly so well adapted as they might be for the transaction of judicial business. And if ever the time should come when they should feel that the laity ought to be more directly represented than they yet are by idoneous persons as well as by elders, it may ^ Letters and Journals, vol. iii. pp. 1 1, 20, 21, 59. " A full and perfect model of discipline," '* a very excellent and profitable piece, the fourth part of our uniformitie was shufHed by throui^h the pertinacious opposition of Mr. David Caldervvood and two or three with him." 272 Treatises on Omrch- Government cheer them to remember that the Westminster Assembly, notwithstanding the objections of our countrymen, did not hesitate to put on record their decision that " synodical assembhes do con- sist of pastors, teachers, church governors, and other fit persons (when it shall be deemed expe- dient) where they have a lawful calling there- unto." The Directory was reprinted in 1690 in a neat little volume containing also Henderson's treatise on the Government and Order of the Church of Scotland, on which it was based. Once and again the treatise was reprinted in the earlier half of the succeeding century. It holds its place even in a collection of Confessions, etc., published in 1776. Use was unquestionably made of it in drawing up what are termed the Larger Overtures on Dis- cipline, etc., printed among the proceedings of Assembly 1705, and the Form of Process approved by Assembly 1707. But as a whole it, as well as the Propositions, was left unsanctioned at the Revo- lution, and it is not now nearly so well known as it ought to be. It is practical and comprehensive, a storehouse of valuable counsels as to many things in government, and still more in discipline, not touched on in the propositions, and is well worthy of being studied by Presbyterian ministers still, who wish to do full justice to the system of gov- ernment the Westminster Assembly sanctioned. Church Ce7is7ireSy etc. 273 What wiser statement of church principles could be desired than the following : Where the number of the people is so great " that they cannot con- veniently meet in one place, it is expedient that they be divided, according to the respective bounds of their dwellings, into distinct and fixed congre- gations, for the better administration of such ordi- nances as belong unto them, and the discharge of the mutual duties, wherein all, according to their several places and callings, are to labor to promote whatever appertains to the power of godliness and credit of religion, that the whole land, in the full extent of it, may become the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ. Parochial congregations in this kingdom, consisting of ministers and people who profess faith in Christ and obedience unto Christ, according to the rules of faith and life taught by Him and His Apostles, and join together in the public worship of hearing, praying, and administration of the sacraments, are churches truly constituted. . . . Communion and member- ship in congregations thus constituted ... is not unlawful. And to refuse or renounce membership and church communion with congregations thus constituted, as unlawful to be joined with, in re- gard of their constitution, is not warranted by the word of God. . . . Separation from a church thus constituted, where the government is lawful, upon an opinion that it is unlawful, and that therefore IS 274 Treatises on Church- Government, all the godly are also bound to separate . . . and to join themselves to another church of another constitution and government, is not warranted by the word of God, but contrary to it. . . . Nor is it lawful for any member of a parochial congrega- tion, if the ordinances be there administered in purity, to go and seek them elsewhere ordinarily." . . . ''Although the truth of conversion and re- generation be necessary to every worthy com- municant for his own comfort and benefit, yet those only are to be by the eldership excluded or suspended from the Lord's table who are found by them to be ignorant or scandalous." " Where there are many ruling officers in a particular con- gregation let some of them more especially attend the inspection of one part, some of another, as may be most convenient ; and let them at fit times visit the several families for their spiritual good." "These elders ought to be such as are men of good understanding in matters of religion, sound in the faith, prudent, discreet, grave, and of un- blamable conversation." " The deacons must be wise, sober, grave, of honest report, not greedy of filthy lucre." " It belongeth unto classical pres- byteries to consider, to debate, and to resolve according to God's word, such cases of conscience or other difficulties in doctrine as are brought unto them out of their association, according as they shall find needful for the good of the churches : to CJiiirch Censures, etc. 275 examine and censure according to the word any erroneous doctrines, which have been either pub- licly or privately vented within their association, to the corrupting of the judgments of men, and to endeavor the reducing of recusants or any others in error or schism, ... to dispense censures in cases within their cognizance . . . yet so as that no minister be deposed but by the resolution of a synod : to examine, ordain, and admit ministers for the congregations respectively therein asso- ciated." " The provincial and national assemblies are to have the same power in all points of gov- ernment and censures brought before them within their several bounds respectively as is before ex- pressed to belong to classical presbyteries within their several associations." The sum of all may be given in the words of Henderson in that treatise on '' The Government and Order of the Church of Scotland," from which this Directory to so large an extent is taken : " In the authority of these assemblies, parochial, pres- byterial, provincial, and national, and in the sub- ordination of the lesser unto the greater, or of the more particular elderships to the larger and general eldership, doth consist the order, strength, and steadfastness of the Church of Scotland. . . . Here is a superiority without tyranny, for no minis- ter hath a papal or monarchical jurisdiction- over his own flock, far less over other pastors and over 276 Treatises 07i Church- Government^ the congregations of a large diocese. Here there is parity without confusion and disorder, for the pastors are in order before the elders, and the elders before the deacons. Every particular church is subordinate to the presbytery, the presbytery to the synod, and the synod to the national assembly. One pastor also hath priority of esteem before another for age, for zeal, for gifts, for his good deservings of the Church, each one honoring him whom God hath honored, and as he beareth the image of God, which was to be seen among the Apostles themselves. But none hath pre-eminence of title or power or jurisdiction above others ; even as in nature one eye hath not power over another, only the head hath power over all, even as Christ over his Church. . . . And lastly, here there is a subjection without slavery, for the people are sub- ject to the pastors and assemblies, yet there is no assembly wherein every particular church hath not interest and power; nor is there anything done but they are, if not actually yet virtually, called to consent unto it." Such is presbytery in theory, and there is no reason why in practice it should not approximate to the ideal, more nearly than some recent caricaturists represent it to have done, save that we who are intrusted with its administration, not excluding these caricaturists themselves, still come far short of what we ought to be as men, as Christians, and as the descendants Church Censures, etc. 277 of such noblc-hcartcd Christians ; and that is a shortcoming that would mar any form of govern- ment which God has instituted, or human wisdom has devised. LECTURE IX. DEBATES ON THE AUTONOMY OF THE CHURCH, THE SOLE SUPREMACY OF ITS DIVINE HEAD, AND THE RIGHT OF ITS OFFICE-BEARERS UNDER HIM TO GUARD ITS PURITY AND ADMINISTER ITS DISCIPLINE ; QUE- RIES ONyV/j- diviniuti of church-government. In my last Lecture I gave you an account of the Propositions concerning church-government and ordination of ministers, and the practical Directory for church-government, church censures, and ordination of ministers, in which the Assembly embodied the results of those sharp and tough debates which " dragged their slow length along " for wellnigh eighteen months. In the present lecture I propose to advert to controversies which emerged in the course of these debates, but which were afterward brought up again and discussed more exhaustively. These were the " scabrous questions " (as others than Baillie and the West- minster Assembly have found them) of the auton- omy of the Church, the supremacy of its Divine Head, and the independence of its officers in the administration of the discipline of His house, — questions which divided the friends of Reformation in the Assembly and in the Parliament far more 278 Debates on the AiLtonomy of the Chiweh. 279 seriously than any of those previously discussed, and the differences on which I bcHeve were one main cause why Presbyterianism was never fully set up in England. In that country, perhaps more markedly than in any other, the way for the Reformation of the sixteenth century may be said to have been prepared by the civil power and the laity — by the sovereign and his great council or parliament restraining or opposing the abuses of the ecclesi- astical and the papal powers. Even under the Norman and Plantagenet kings the contest began to be waged, though at times with very indifferent success. It was revived under Edward I., and still more resolutely under his grandson Edward III. As the Popes were then residing at Avignon, and generally creatures of the kings of France, with whom Edward was at war, the nation entered into the struggle almost as heartily as it had done into that for the defense of its Magna Cliavta when assailed by the Pope. Various statutes for the restraint of abuses, particularly the stat- utes of Provisors and Praemunire, were enacted, or re-enacted in more stringent form. The former, passed in 135 1, was meant to restrain the Pope from providing to benefices as they became vacant, or before they became vacant, and so taking the appointments out of the hands of the electors, — the chapters of cathedrals and mon- 28o Debates on the asteries, — as well as out of the hands of the king and other patrons. This abuse had become much more prevalent since the papal court had taken up its residence at Avignon, and endeavored to supplement in this way the revenues of its digni- taries. The abuse was more keenly felt when the papal provisions were, as they then often were, in favor of aliens and non-residents, sometimes in favor of natives of the country with which Edward was at war, and so the revenues destined to en- able high officials suitably to discharge their func- tions, repair churches, and exercise hospitality, were drained from the kingdom and spent abroad, A further check was given to papal pretensions in 1353, when the statute of Praemunire was added, to make that of Provisors more effectual. In 1365, certain arrears of the tribute imposed on King John, when he put his kingdom under the Pope, were refused, and the king was autho- rized to resist any attempt to enforce the payment " with all the puissance of the realm," Wyclif is supposed to have been present at that parliament, — by Lechler he is supposed to have been a member of it. To the last he continued to urge the civil authorities to resist the pretensions of the Popes, and is said to have counselled the parliament of Richard II. (which re-enacted the statutes passed in the reign of his grandfatlier), that in the state of impoverishment to which the Aiitonoviy of tJic Chta^ch, etc. 281 realm was then reduced, it might lawfully with- hold from the Pope other sources of revenue which he had enjoyed from more ancient times. The earlier kings of the house of Lancaster, who owed their advancement to the throne very largely to the favor and influence of the prelates, not only yielded to their demands for increased powers to themselves, but withdrew from the contest with the Popes, and allowed the statutes above mentioned practically to fall into abeyance. Still these remained on the statute-book, and supplied the vantage ground from which Henry VIII. started on his wayward career, and was emboldened first to supersede Wolsey, then to strip his prelates of their independent or qitasi independent jurisdiction, to reduce his clergy into subjection to his will, and finally to abolish the papal supremacy in his realm, and so to concen- trate ecclesiastical as well as temporal supremacy within his dominions in the imperial crown. Probably the theory was, as Hallam and other constitutionalists contend, that this power was in the sovereign, as advised by his great council or parliament, and that ecclesiastical as well as civil regulations, intended permanently to bind the subjects of the realm, should have the assent of their representatives, or that it was more entirely conceded to him, specially on account of his personal qualities. But whatever may have been 282 Debates on the the theory, the supremacy as a matter of fact, both under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and again under EHzabeth, was generally claimed as the personal prerogative of the monarch, with which Parliament had no right to intermeddle, as if it belonged to the crown by a sort of right divine not only to judge in particular causes, but also to a certain extent to legislate, or without the consent of Parliament give validity to any ecclesiastical legislation proposed by Convocation. A jus divinum absoluttnn was claimed for the sovereign in matters ecclesiastical by many who would have scouted any similar claim in matters secular, and of course this jus diviuuui was more offen- sively asserted by many of those who, under the early Stuart kings, lent themselves to uphold their right divine more widely, and to justify their absolute and arbitrary procedure in matters civil as well as ecclesiastical. On the other hand, the more thorough going Puritans who were opposed on principle to the absolute power and arbitrary actings of the sovereign in the State, were led on to question these in relation to the Church. Some of their leaders, even in the reign of Elizabeth, contended that the representatives of the nation in Parliament assembled should have a voice in framincf or sanctioning^ ecclesiastical laws, and pleaded with them to shield them from the queen and her ecclesiastical conmiissioners. At most Atdonomy of the Church, etc. 28 ^ they confined the supremacy of the sovereign to the judging of ecclesiastical causes according to the laws passed by Parliament, sometimes to the judging of these causes only in the last resort, and for the purpose of remedying what had been done amiss by the proper ecclesiastical tribunals. The spiritual sentences of these tribunals, and especially that of excommunication, they urged should not be pronounced by any lay judge or deputy, and they desired to see the old canon law superseded by some such reformatio Icgiim as had been de- signed under Edward VI. Cartwright has been charged with expressing himself with almost papal arrogance as to the powers of the Church, His words were certainly incautious and ill-chosen, but they do not seem to me to imply more than that civil rulers, in dealing with church causes, must be guided by the rules laid down for them in the word of God, rather than by the rules of canon or of civil law. As Dr. Price has shown, it is only by separating the quotation^ adduced from its ^ " It must be remembered that civil magistrates must govern it according to the rules prescribed in His word ; and that as they are nourishers so they be servants unto the Church ; and as they rule in the Church, so they must remember to subject themselves unto the Church, to submit their sceptres, to throw down their crowns before the Church ; yea, as the prophet speaketh, to lick the dust of the feet of the Church." Here Hallam and others end their quotation, whereas they ought at least to have subjoined the explanation which follows : '* Wherein I mean not that the Church doth either wring the sceptres out of princes' hands, or taketh their crowns from their heads, or that it requireth princes to lick the dust 284 Debates on the context that it can be brought to bear the inter- pretation some have put on it. Other leading Puritans in somewhat later times, while personally owning the supremacy and the ecclesiastical com- missioners who executed it, did not conceal their liking for a simpler, freer, and more independent government in the hands of the ministers and other office-bearers of the Church. Even the moderate men, invited by the king to represent the party at the Hampton Court Conference, ven- tured to complain of various abuses of the so-called ecclesiastical courts, and to urge the reformation of these abuses. Nor did they find the king pro- fessedly so hostile to their views about some of these abuses, as about several of the other chz.i'iges they asked of him. The title of " the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England " ascribed to Henry VIII., both by Convocation and Parliament, and retained by his son Edward VI., was formally abandoned of her feet (as the Pope under this pretence hath done), but I mean as the prophet meaneth, that whatsoever magnificence or excellency or pomp is either in them or in their estates and commonwealth, which doth not agree with the simplicity of the Church, that they will be content to lay down. . . . Otherwise God is made to give place to men, heaven to earth, and religion is made (as it were) a rule of Lesbia to be applied unto any estate of commonwealth whatsoever." — Cartwright's Reply to IVhitgift, p. 180. In short, he means very much what the Bohemians meant when they say in their Confession that magistrates •' coram Agno coronas deponentes, una cum aliis regibus et sacerdotibus . . . spontaneam ipsi prae- stent obedientiam, quo etiam Spiritus Sanctus , . . ipsos adhor- tatur. I'sal. ii. 10, 11." Atito7i07ny of the CJmrch, etc. 285 by Elizabeth, nor, save from James himself and one of his flatterers at the Hampton Court Conference, do we hear more of the sovereign being a nii.xta persona. But it may be questioned if any real limitation of the supremacy was effected thereby. The Article of 1553 was, ** The King of England is supreme head in earth next under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland." That of 1563 still asserted that '* The Queen's Majesty hath the chief power in this realm of England and other her dominions, unto whom the chief government of all estates of this realm, whether they be ecclesi- astical or civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not nor ought to be subject to any foreign juris- diction." Had the words in italics been left out, as they are in the Queen's injunctions,^ the article would almost have satisfied the more advanced Puritans, as being simply a denial of the jurisdiction claimed by the Pope. But, as it was, they desired to see more excluded from the sweep of the su- premacy than " the administration of the word and sacraments," expressly mentioned in the Ar- ticles of 1563, as not claimed for the sovereign. The first step toward this may be said to have been taken by Ussher in the Irish Articles, in which the words " or the power of the keys " were added to those already mentioned, though the old statement regarding the supremacy was still re- ^ Sparrow's Collfition, pp. 68, 82. 286 Debates on the tained. It remained for the Westminster Assem- bly to complete the work by leaving out this last, and adding to their statement of what the sove- reign might not do a definite statement of what he might, in place of the general reference to the powers exercised by godly kings under the Old Testament, which had satisfied the framers of several of the earlier Reformed Confessions. The course of matters on the Continent, at least in Lutheran states, was somewhat similar to what it was in England. Whatever Luther may have originally intended, there is no doubt that after the Peasant war he became very chary of encour- aging popular government in any way, and ulti- mately lodged much of the power in matters ec- clesiastical, which some were disposed to intrust to the people, in the hands of the magistrate, either simply in virtue of his civil office, or as being the natural representative of the unorganized Christian laity .^ Ere long, this arrangement, occasioned by circumstances or necessity, was advocated on grounds of reason and Scripture, as being in theory also the best or the most legitimate one. This it was even outside the Lutheran church by Thomas Erastus, a physician and Professor of Medicine at Heidelberg. In a treatise^ on excommunication ^ See Schenkel's article Kirche\\\ Hertzog's Real- Encyclopddie. ^ Explicatio gravissimiv qitestionis iitnivi excommitnicatio mandato nitatttr divino an excoisiiata sit ab hotninibus. It was Autonomy of the CJmrcJi, etc. 287 he maintained that the pastoral office was properly and only persuasive, and that the minister had not in virtue of his office any right to exercise ecclesi- astical discipline, or to refuse admission to the most sacred ordinances to any one who claimed it. He might set forth the character and qualifications of worthy communicants, counsel, warn, and en- treat those he deemed unworthy, but might not restrain or exclude them. That and all other dis- ciplinary and coercive acts he held belonged not properly to the minister, but to the magistrate, in virtue* of his office. This treatise was ably answered by Beza,' whose views were generally espoused by the Reformed Churches on the Con- tinent as well as by the more advanced of the Puritans in England. Many of the laity, however, who sympathized with the Puritans, and a large number of the members of the Long Parliament, were strongly prepossessed in favor of the other view, and thought that the freedom of the laity from clerical oppression was bound up with the maintenance of the supremacy of the civil power, no longer represented by the sovereign alone, but by the Houses of Parliament, who in a sense claimed to represent the yet unorganized Chris- tian laity of the kingdom. written in 1568, but only published in 1589, after his death. It was translated into English in 1659 and again in 1S44. ^ Tradatus da vera excovwmnicatione et Christiano presbylerio. Londini, 1 590. 288 Debates on the In Scotland the course of matters had been very different from what it was in England, possibly before the Reformation, certainly from and after that crisis in the nation's history. Knox, while referring in his Confession to the examples of the godly kings under the Old Testament, and assert- ing in theory for the civil authorities extensive rights in the purgation and conservation of re- ligion, yet in practice confined their rights within narrower and stricter limits, and did not hesitate when he deemed them wrong to act independ- ently of them, sometimes even requiring them to receive the message of Jesus Christ as set forth by him, and to regulate their procedure in accord- ance with it. From the first the General Assem- bly claimed to meet, when occasion required it should for the good of the Church. From the first it claimed and exercised large powers of government and discipline. The statutes originally passed were no doubt more general than those which ultimately ratified its jurisdiction, but they were tolerably explicit, and pointed naturally in that direction which was afterward more decidedly followed. I give below the Act of 1567, and place alongside of it the corresponding Article and Act of the Elizabethan Convocation and Parliament : — "The Queen's Majesty hath " Anent the jurisdictioun the chief power in this realm justlie apperteining to the Autonomy of the CJnn^ch, etc. 289 of England and other her dominions, unto whom the chief government of all estates of this realm, whether they be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes doth appertain." "All such jurisdiction, priv- ileges, superiorities, and pre-eminences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority have heretofore been or may law- fully be exercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesiastical state and per- sons, or for reformation . . . of the same and of all manner errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offenses, contempt and enormities, shall for ever, by authority of this present Parliament, be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." trew Kirk and immaculat spous of Jesus Christ . . . the king's grace, with advice of my Lord Regent and three estatis of this present Parliament, hes declarit and grantit jurisdictioun to the said Kirk quhilk consistis and standis in preiching of the trew word of Jesus Christ, correctioun of maneris, and administratioun of haly sa- cramentis. And declaris that thair is na uther face of Kirk nor uther face of re- ligioun, than is presentlie be the favor of God establisheit within this realme, and that thair be na uther jurisdic- tioun ecclesiasticall acknow- ledgit within this realme, uther than that quhilk is and sal be within the same Kirk, or that vvhilk flowis thairfra, concerning the premisses." The import of the Scotch Act is as clear and un- mistakable as are the declarations of the English Article and Act to the opposite effect.^ If more ^ Tliis difference was asserted by those who pleaded the cause of Scotland in 1 640 with tlieir English brethren. "The second error ariseth from not knowing our laws and so measuring us with your line. It is surmised to us that our enemies oliject that we have broken our civil and temporal obedience, and trenched upon the King's prerogative in Parliament, by offering acts prejudicial to ills Majesty's power such as anent the abrogating all civil power from bishops and churchmen, and rescinding all acts formerly maile in their favor . . . the Act anent the restitution of presliyterics to their rights of admission, our declaration at the 19 290 Debates on the were needed to bring out the contrast the sub- sequent history abundantly suppHes it. The attempt was actually made by King James in 1584, to secure to himself by statute the same powers as an English sovereign exercised in matters ecclesiastical. But in 1592, by the Act which is still deemed the charter of the Church, not only are her courts and their jurisdiction ratified, but the Act of 1584, authorizing the appointment by the crown of commissioners in ecclesiastical causes, is declared null and of no force or effect in time to come, and it is expressly provided that the Act of the same year author- izing- the kingr and his council to summon all manner of persons super inqiiircndis, shall be no way prejudicial ** nor derogate anything to the privilege that God has given to the spiritual office- bearers in the Kirk, concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or deprivation of ministers, or any such essential censures specially grounded [on] and having war- unexampled raising of our Parliament, or such like. We neither know nor will examine if according to your laws these may be accounted derogatory to royal authority. But it i^; most sure and evident by all the registers and records of our laws . . . that they properly belong to the cognition of our Parliament, and that we have proceeded at this time upon no other ground than our laws and practice of this kingdom never before questioned, but inviola- bly observed as the only rule of our government." — Inforniadon frotn the Estates of the kingdom of Scotland to the kingdom of England t 1640. Autonomy of the Church, etc. 291 rant of the Word of God." Thus the power of ^odly kings, according to Scottish law and teaching, was meant to be not privative but cumulative of that of the office-bearers of the Church. It is only by ignoring these facts and assuming that Scottish law was similar to Eng- lish, that some modern English historians can make out the semblance of a justification for James in his conflict with the Mel vi lies and the party in the Scottish Church of which they were the leaders. Whatever their failings and short- comings, these men maintained with the cause of ecclesiastical independence that of constitutional liberty and limited monarchy, against absolutism and arbitrary power, just as truly as the patriots of the Long Parliament and the Westminster As- sembly did. And though overborne for a time after the accession of the Stuarts to the English throne, their views had been re-asserted not in word only but also in act. The whole of their second Reformation rested on the re-assertion of these views, and the restoration to their place of honor in the statute-book of those laws in which they were embodied. From the appro- bation of their proceedings expressed by the patriots of the South they were led perhaps too readily to conclude that they agreed with them in their principles, or that it would be easy by a little more argument, and closer acquaintance, to 2g2 Debates on the bring them over to do so. They did not make due allowance for national antecedents, and differ- ent standpoints, and holding their views to be bound up almost with the esse as well as the bene esse^ of a church, they urged them with a persist- ency and fervor which seemed overbearing to many of their lay friends in England. Yea, if Baillie has not done them injustice it must be ad- mitted that they had recourse at times to petty arts of diplomacy which, however they might have escaped observation or censure among their own countrymen, could hardly fail to be discovered and resented in the land of their sojourn, by the acute and able statesmen with whom they had to deal, and so immeasurably to increase the difficul- ties of the work on which their hearts were set. Baillie restlessly wrote (vol. ii. pp. 179, 197, 252) to friends on the Continent to send testimonies or aro-uments in favor of the Scottish views to influ- ence the Assembly and the Parliament, and sadly disappointed the good man was when the testi- monies did not in every point come up to his ex- pectations. He busied himself also in organizing opposition in the city to the measures of the Par- liament, and was still more sadly disappointed when this piece of artillery *' played nip-shot." " ^ This question was set out for debate in the Westminster As- sembly, but not formally decided in it. See Minutes, p. 220. '^ Letters and Journals, vol. ii. p. 362. Atttononiy of the Church, etc. 293 Even one who deems the House of Commons mis- taken can hardly fail to admire the pkick with which they stood the siege, or to wonder that a man so shrewd as BaiUie should have hoped to overpower them by such arms, or to avoid raising against his countrymen and their cause the indig- nation to which Milton gave voice soon after, with all the more scathing bitterness perhaps be- cause of his personal differences with them and their friends on the question of divorce.^ But while regard to truth requires me to say 1 " But we do hope to find out all your tricks, Your plots and packing worse than those of Trent, That so the Parliament May with their wholesome and preventive shears. Clip your phylacteries though baulk your ears. And succour our just fears, When they shall read this clearly in your charge New Pkesbytek is but old Pkiest writ large." The " Scotch What d'ye call " of the Sonnet Professor Masson rightly conjectures to be Raillie himself. And as another remarks the name of the sainted Rutlierfurd has in it been consigned to posterity rhyming with civil sword. Their phylacteries were not broader than those of his own most cherished friends, nor their lives less truly Christian. The coarse charge of dallying with the widowed " plurality " is even more spiteful. They were the first in England to refuse to give testimonials to ministers seeking institution to more than one parish. Several of them held a benefice in connection with a University chair, but that was a union of orifices allowed in the Scottish, French, and Dutch Churches of that age, who allowed no plurality of parishes. A number driven from their benefices in the country by the Cavaliers were, to preserve them from starving, admitted for a time to sequestrated livings and lectureships in London, but as the country was pacified the number even of these was diminished, and more than one upbraided with this fault offered to resign if assured of the revenues of his own benefice. 294 Debates on the thus much of the faihngs of my honored country- men, it gives me unfeigned satisfaction to be able now to add that in their great works on Church- government pubhshed about the same time weapons more worthy of the mighty contest were supphed by Rutherfurd and Gillespie/ and that the letters and counsels sent from the Continent in answer to their urgent entreaties were not the only, nor in my humble opinion the most memor- able of those then addressed to the Church of England to encourage and counsel it in the work of reformation. I have adverted to one remark- able treatise already (p. ii6), which appeared before the Assembly met, and was not altogether to the mind of the Scotch, though in this matter of the power of the keys its author came nearer to their views than to those of the English Parliament.^ ^ The Dh'ine Right of Church Govemnient and Excoiiivitinica- tion, by Rutherfurd, and Aai-on^s Rod blossomings or the Divine Ordinance of Church Government vindicated, by Gillespie, both published at London early in 1646. ■•^ " Hoc est, ni fallor vera sententia de potestate et ministris clavium quani probatam cupimus inclyto Caetui ut deinceps abrogate tribunali quod celsam Commissionem vocant et abusu curiarum episcopalium e medio sublato, Synedria Ecclesiastica non alias infligant jxienas quam ecclesiasticas . . . Pastores arceant a com- nnmione peccantes, quin et intentent extremum illud fulmen ex- conimunicationis, ut non obedientes censurce . . . coram tribunali politico sistant." As to lesser offenses of which the laws of the state take no special notice, he says it belongs to the church courts to make strict inquiry " nee quemquam admittere ad sacrre caenre synaxin, qui ea procul a se non abjecerit et veniam ex penitentia non impelraverit." — Consilititn de reformanda ecclcsis Anglicana. Aittonomy of the Church, etc. 295 I cannot omit to mention another, which though put into its present shape at a later date to help on such a reformation as the EngHsh Puritans desired in 1660, yet can hardly be doubted to em- body views which its author held and expressed at this earlier date.^ This is the Parcencsis ad ccclesias, noininatim Anglicanain, de optima ccclcsiastici rcgiminis forma pie solicitam of John Amos Comenius, a bishop of the church of the Bohemian brethren, and the only one then remaining of those who had been driven out from their native land in the war of extermination waged against them, in consequence of their election of the son- in-law of James I. to be their king. He is sup- posed to have been in England in the autumn of 1642 or spring of 1643, in intimate association not with the Scotch, but with Milton and their mutual friend Hartlieb. Of his relations with them, and his literary or educational activities, a full and interesting account has been given by Pro- fessor Masson in his life of Milton. But he does not advert to the Bishop's keen interest in and thorough acquaintance with the various phases ^ The Latin letter of the Assembly was certainly sent to the Bohemian and Hungarian as well as to the nearer Reformed Churches. The Ratio Disciplines Ordinisque Ecclesiastici in Unitate Frafno/i Bohcnionim, to which in 1660 the Pa7\€nesis was appended, was certainly also published in 1643. A co]iy of that earlier edition is to be found in the New College Library, Edinburgh. 296 Debates on the of the movement for the reform of the EngHsh Church. Bailhe, I think, must have known of these, and that probably was the reason he re- fused to encourage the Bishop's friend Dury to seek admission to the Assembly. And yet, with all his divergences from the wishes of the Scotch and his leanings toward those of Ussher, in regard to a reformed liturgy and combination of episco- pacy and presbytery, he pronounces decidedly against the whole body of the ceremonies, and in the most importunate manner pleads for the res- toration of the key of discipline as well as that of doctrine to the ministers of the Church.^ The question of the autonomy of the Church came up first in the Westminster Assembly when its members were preparing the Propositions con- cerning Church-government, of which an account was given in my last Lecture, and it was then that that far-famed single combat between Selden and ^ He quotes Olevianus and Schlisselburgius as bearing mournful testimony to the sad state both of the Reformed and Lutheran churches in Germany through want of discipline and the intrusion of the civil power into the ecclesiastical domain : " Est Csesareo- papatus confusio ecclesiastics et politicae potestatis qui domini poli- tici . , . sub prgetextu custodise utriusque tabulae rapiunt sibigladium spiritualem, ac se dominos supra ecclesiam et ministerium con- stituunt." This was as resolutely to be opposed as the " Papa- ccesareatus," the assumption of civil power by the Pope. It was to the apostles and their successors, the pastors of the Church, that the Lord had said, " Ye are the salt of the earth." " Ergo qui his ecclesiasticam disciplinam manibus excutiunt, salem eos sine salsedine esse volunt>" — Fanrncsis, p. iii. Atitonomy of the ChiLrch, etc. 297 Gillespie ^ took place around which later Scottish tradition has thrown such a halo. Nei^atively the Propositions are against any human headship, or any right of the civil magistrate to rule in Christ's house. Positively they set forth Christ as the Head of the Church and Head over all things to the Church, who has given all officers necessary for its edification and the perfecting of the saints. These officers are enumerated, their functions de- scribed, and their power of rule and censure as- serted. And while a subordination of courts, to whom a right of appeal belongs, is maintained, no mention is made of any right of appeal from them to the civil magistrate or to Parliament. There can be no doubt, therefore, that any power meant to be acknowledged as belonging to him, or it, must have been regarded as extrinsic not intrinsic, l^io not laco tyj:: ixxXr^dca::, circa sacra not /;/ sacris. ^ The manuscript Minutes coincide with Lightfoot's Journal '\r\ assigning Gillespie's speech not the session of 20th but to that of 2ist Felnuary. In Gillespie's own Notes it is introduced at the close of the account of the former session with the words, " I re|)ly," not I replied, and may simply embody a brief outline of the reply he was to mnke on the following day. The reply made to Selden on the spur of the moment was that of Herle, who in 1646 succeeded Dr. Twisse as Prolocutor, and judging even from the fragmentary jottings preserved by Byfield, one cannot doubt that it was a very able reply. Gillespie and Young appear to liave taken the evening to arrange their thoughts, and at next session made very telling replies, the former to the general liiiC of argu- ment, the latter to the citations from rabbinical and patristic authorities. 298 Debates on the When these Propositions were being digested into the practical Directory for Church-government, it was proposed to insert a proposition describing the authority the magistrate might claim and the duties he was to discharge toward the Church : " The civil magistrate hath authority, and it is his duty to provide that the word of God be truly and duly preached, the sacraments rightly admin- istered, church-government and discipline estab- lished, and duly executed according to the word of God." ^ But after debate it was resolved to waive this and some other propositions in refer- ence to the discipline, and when they were brought up in reference to the Confession of Faith, the above was no longer the first proposition, nor even the first part of the third, and it was con- siderably changed in form. But the autonomy of the Church and the right of its office-bearers to the power of the keys is distinctly implied throughout that Directory, and especially in all that it inculcates as to the powers and duties of congregational elderships, classical presbyteries, and the superior Church courts. Before that Directory was completed, however, the Assembly deemed it their duty to bring under the notice of the Houses the great importance of speedy order being taken for " the keeping of ignorant and scandalous persons from the sacrament." 1 Minutes of the ]Vcst»nnster Assanbly, j^p. So, 224. Aiitonouiy of tJic Chiu^ch, etc. 299 Their petition has not been engrossed in the Journals of either House, but that presented four days later in name of the ministers of London has been preserved in the Journals of the House of Lords, and as it was no doubt very similar, I shall insert the substance of it in a note.^ The effect of the petitions was such that the House of Lords at once passed and sent down to the Commons an ordinance " concerning the admis- sion of persons to the sacrament." But the clause in it relating to the keeping away of the ignorant and scandalous was not to the mind of the Com- mons, and instead of passing it in terms so gene- ral, they resolved to require a full enumeration of what these terms were meant to include, and to ^ After a reference to the great things the Parhament had al- ready accomplislied, and the expectation of greater they had thus been encouraged to cherish, they proceed : '• Extreme necessity doth enforce us, with sad hearts, to present to your deep and pious considerations the dangerous and unspeakable mischiefs which like a flood break in upon us, and swell higher and higher every day, every man taking liberty to do what is right in his own eyes, because no ecclesiastical discipline or government at all is yet set- tled for the guarding of the precious ordinances of Christ, especial- ly that holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, from profanation and contempt, whence it comes to pass that God is much dishonored, the tender consciences of many, both ministers and people, are offended, multitudes fall away into several and strange by-paths of separation . . . the ]iious ministers are extremely discouraged in their ministerial employments, [and] many that have formerly manifested good aifections, being much wearied with long expec- tation, do daily withdraw both from the Parliament, their orthodox ministers and from one anotlier." Immanuel Bourne is the first who siirns in name of the London ministers. 300 Debates on the refer it to the Assembly of Divines to express the particulars of that ignorance and scandal, for which they conceive that some persons ought to be sus- pended from the Communion. This course, if not meant, as their opponents insinuated, mainly for purposes of obstruction, was at least inconsistent with that which they were content to follow in the case of the more serious censure of excommunica- tion, and it was unfortunate in its issue for them- selves even more than for the Assembly. The first answers to the reference do not seem to have been so detailed as the House desired, and the matter was again remitted to the Assembly. On their representation it was resolved that persons to be admitted ought to have a competent under- standing of the doctrine of the Trinity, of the state of man by creation and by his fall, of redemption by Jesus Christ, and the means to apply Christ and His benefits, of the necessity of faith, repentance, and a godly life, of the nature and use of the sacraments, and of the condition of man after this .life; and it was once more remitted to them to state in detail " what they think to be a competent knowledge of these things." This they did without delay, and brought up on 1st April that terse statement which on the 17th was substantially passed by the Houses and embodied in their subsequent ordinance, and soon after made the basis of various catechisms intended to AtLtonomy of tJic CJuirch, etc. 301 prepare the catechumens for the Communion. It is worthy of more attention than for long it has received, and worthy especially of the attention of those who think some simpler statement of doc- trine is needed than the Assembly have supplied in their confession and catechisms, and I have ac- cordingly inserted it at length in my Catechisms of ttic Second Refonnatioii, pp. 151, 152. During the months of April and May various communi- cations passed between the Assembly and the House of Commons respecting a detailed enume- ration of scandalous offenses, but the new model- ing of the army and other pressing business aris- ing out of the war occupied the House so closely that summer, that the promised ordinance and regulations for suspension of the scandalous were left in abeyance. Accordingly, on 1st August, the Assembly presented to them a second and more urgent petition on the subject. The same petition was on the 4th of August presented to the House of Lords, and fortunately has been inserted at length in their Journals. I subjoin it in slightly abridged form : After a brief reference to their former petition, they ex- press their deep sense of the burthen of the arduous and most pressing affairs which lay on the Houses, and of the fidelity, zeal, and self-denial they had shown in the right ordering of them. Yet considering how God had honored them above all other Parhaments since the first reformation, in putting it into their hearts to repair His house and bring 302 Debates on tJie it to farther perfection than at the first, and had blessed them with tokens of His favor, they venture to represent that there can be no more proper way of showing their gratitude to God, nor any surer way to preserve His favor, than that the Houses and they should hasten to complete the service they had undertaken for His church. "When we remember," they say, "that as formerly in times of reformation amongst the Jews sometimes the godly magis- trates encouraged the Priests and Levites to promote the reformation by them intended, as Hezekiah and Josiah did, and sometimes the Lord's prophets have in like manner encouraged the godly magistrates unto the same work, as Haggai and Zechariah did ; so it hath been your often pious care to call upon this Assembly to hasten the work of the government of the Church, (when, by reason of great diffi- culties, it staid longer in our hands than was expected by others or by ourselves desired), and withal you have been pleased to receive with much favor the humble desires of this Assembly, when out of the conscience of our duty both to God and you, we have at any time stirred you up by putting you likewise in remembrance of the same great and most necessary business." " We are by these considerations emboldened, yea even constrained with so much the more importunity, to renew our former humble petition for the keeping of all scandalous persons from this sacrament, and which we conceive, as in all the former respects, very neces- sary, most reasonable and consonant to those things, which have already passed the judgment and vote of the honor- able Houses ; for if any scandalous sins deserve abstention, then likewise all other scandalous sins do lie under the same demerit, and by parity of reason should undergo the like censure. And this is certainly most conform to the general practice and judgment of the churches of God both ancient and modern ; for albeit there may be, amongst learned and pious men, difference of judgment touching the particular kind and form of ecclesiastical polity, and some particular parts and officers thereunto belonging, yet in this one point there is a general consent, that as Christ hath ordained a government and governors in His church, in His name and according to His will to order the same, so one special and Autonomy of the CJmrcJi, etc. 303 principal branch of that government is to seclude from ecclesiastical communion such as shall publicly scandalize and offend the Church of God, that thereby being ashamed and humbled they may be brought to repentance and glorify God in the day of visitation. Nor do we find that there hath been any great doubt or question made thereof in tlie Church, until Erastus, a physician, who by his profession may be supposed to have had better skill in curing tlic diseases of the natural than the scandals of the ecclesiastical body, did move the controversy." The following are the reasons they assign for their urgency in this matter : — "As the conscience of our own ministry, and desire of comfortable continuance therein, and the care of all our brethren whose case is the same, and who from many parts mind us of our duty in their behalf; and as the discharge of that service to which we are by your authority called to present our humble advice in matters of this nature, do hereunto oblige us, so also the bond of our late solemn Covenant engaging us to promote the reformation of our church, according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed churches, (both which we humbly assume to be with us in this particular), the longing desires of the godly to have this business settled . . . the great danger to the souls of scandalous communicants, which both magistrates and ministers in their places should endeavor to prevent, not only in some but in all scandals ; yea, the very practice of heathens themselves who removed profane persons from their sacra : All these and the like considerations, not with- out the encouragement of these honorable Houses in accepting our former humble desires in this behalf, have at this time engaged us to renew our earnest petition to the same effect." This petition, any one may see at a glance, was the production not of ignorant enthusiasts, but of intelligent and thoughtful men, who could reason forcibly in support of their plea, and were in sober earnest in urging it. Some would have had it presented by the Assembly as a body, the more 304 Debates on the to mark their sense of its importance. But this seemed to the majority to be too strong a step, and it was finally intrusted to the Committee, which drew it up, and to Mr. Newcomen, their Convener, who had probably had most to do in preparing it. One solitary member at least had opposed it, and in his thanksgiving sermon before the Commons, on 30th July, had expounded his views to more willing hearers than he had found in the Assembly. This was Thomas Coleman, famed for his rabbinic learning and debating powers, who had been driven by the Cavaliers from his parish in Lincolnshire, and forced, like many other ministers on the parliamentary side, to take refuge in London, where he got the appointment to St. Peter's, Cornhill, one of the sequestrated benefices. He was chosen a member of the Assembly, and became, even more decidedly than Lightfoot, the champion of Erastianism in it. He specially opposed the clause in the petition " of F>astus his learning," and before it was given in had en- deavored to prejudice the House against it in the sermon he preached before them. On the day the petition was presented he was taken to task by the Assembly, and a committee was appointed to draw up a written representation on the subject to be sent to the House of Commons. Apparently, before the report was finally adopted, an oppor- tunity " of speaking was granted to Mr. Coleman, Atttonomy of the CJiurcJi, etc. 305 if he would voluntarily recant." He refused to admit much of what had been reported as havini^ been really maintained by him. As to that which he acknowledged he maintained, it was his judg- ment though it might differ from that of the Assembly. He was sorry he had given offence by what he had done both to the Assembly and the Scotch Commissioners, and he promised that he would not add to the offence by printing his sermon. On Monday, when the Assembly held its next meeting, however, he requested the As- sembly either to relieve him from his promise or " to take order for the occasion," and he protested that it be considered ** null and void." He printed his sermon, and engaged in that famous con- troversy with Gillespie, respecting its views, of which Dr. Hetherington has given so detailed an account. I turn rather to another aspect of the contest. The conduct of Coleman, in preaching this sermon and printing it, notwithstanding the promise he had given not to do so, had probably quite as much to do with the further action of the Assembly, as the unfavorable rumors which reached them as to the unsatisfactory form the ordinance was to take. A committee of ten of the members, assisted by the Scotch Commissioners, drev/ up a still more resolute, yet more importunate petition, which was duly adopted and presented by a large deputation, on 8th August, to the 20 3o6 Debates 07i the House of Commons, and on the I2th to the House of "Lords, in whose Journals it is recorded at length. It bears the signature of William Twisse, Prolocutor, and may be taken as evidence that he was still able occasionally to attend the meetings of Assembly, and to interest himself in their pro- ceedings. Mr. White, who signed it as assessor, and presented it to both Houses, made a brief but hearty speech commending it to their earnest con- sideration. It asserts, even more resolutely than the previous one, the autonomy of the Church, argues the case with still deeper feeling of the importance of the issue, and pleads more impor- tunately for a speedy and favorable settlement of the question. No nobler paper proceeded from the Assembly, nor could Twisse have closed his official career more worthily than by putting his name to it. At the risk of tediousness, I must quote from it at least in part. After reminding the Houses of what they had already done in a matter of so high concern, they say : "Our spirits within constrain us yet further humbly to be- seech you in this particular ; and we hope it will not seem grievous unto you, if in conscience of that duty, which we as ministers, and more especially as met in this Assembly, owe to God, to His Church, and to yourselves, we are yet again humble and importunate petitioners in this thing ; seeing God is our record, and we hope it is manifest to your consciences that herein we seek not ourselves, or private interests, but the glory of God, the pure administra- tion of His ordinances, the welfare of souls, and the peace AiLtonomy of the CJmrcJi, etc. 307 and good of this whole nation. . . . We should not use this opportunity did we not firmly believe that what we have desired and do desire herein is the will and command of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King and Lawgiver in His Church, and therefore we dare not but in His name ask it, and doubt not by His grace to obtain it of the Honorable Houses." Were it not that they cherished such a hope their hearts would fail within them, "for this poor nation," and therefore as watchmen set on Zion's walls, they dared not hold their peace especially when they called to mind that the Honorable Houses had been pleased to bind themselves, and them, and the nation, in a solemn and sacred Covenant, wherein they had sworn to endeavor to remove and reform all that was contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, lest they should become partakers of other men's sins, and be in danger to receive of their plagues. "God," they continue, "hath greatly strengthened your hands against Popery, Prelacy, and superstition, and for the rest of these roots of bitterness which we have covenanted against, especially schism and profaneness, we know no better way of providing against them than this for which we now petition ; which we are confident will (through the blessing of God) be the happiest means of heahng the present and preventing future schisms, by removing out of the way that which hath been one of the greatest stumbling-blocks, and by reconciling all the godly in the kingdom, and will give much ease and satisfaction to weak and tender consciences, and which will give the greatest check to profaneness as sealing conviction upon the consciences of sinners most powerfully ; for it is not to be imagined that our denouncing the terrors of the Lord against wicked and profane persons will prevail much upon their hearts, while they may (even as soon as they have heard that sermon) come and receive the sacrament, and therein, as they think, the seal of grace and salvation to themselves." Then, taking up the charges and insinuations of their opponents, they boldly yet with all deference continue : "We hope we shall not need to plead for ourselves that the power of keeping away scandalous and unworthy persons fi om the Lord's table, which Jesus 3o8 Debates on the Christ hath placed in the ministers and elders of His churches (the free and peaceable exercise whereof we humbly desire may be confirmed unto them by your sanction), is not an arbitrary or unlimited power; for how can that power be called arbitrary which is not according to the will of man but the will of Christ ? or how can it be supposed to be unlimited which is circumscribed and regulated by the exactest law — the Word of God ; which law, in case any shall transgress and abuse this power to serve their lusts instead of serving Christ in the exercise thereof, we have advised and humbly desire that superior Assemblies may be established amongst us, who may not only relieve the injured, but censure offenders according to their demerit. Nor is this power in the least measure (as we humbly conceive) inconsistent with the liberties of the subject, it being exercised wholly and solely in that which is no part of civil liberty — the sacrament — which certainly none can claim as he is a free-born subject of any kingdom or state, but as he is visibly a member of the Church qualified according to the rule of Christ. Only we crave leave to entreat you to consider that other Christian States, which are jealous of the encroachments of an arbitrary power, and very tender of their own just liberties, have granted the full exercise of the power of censures unto the elderships of their churches ; yea, and among ourselves, power equivalent to this was intrusted to every single minister and curate in England as (in our humble apprehensions) appears both by the injunctions of King Edward the Sixth and by the injunctions and articles of inquiry of Queen Elizabeth, princess of famous memory, and by the late Book of Common Prayer and rubric before the sacrament ; nor do we at present call to mind that any Christian prince or State whose heart God did incline to seek a reformation, as you have covenanted to do, and to establish a government according to the word, did ever deny this power unto the presbyteries in their dominions ; and we trust God loves the Parliament and England so well as not to suffer them to be the first. Yet can we not (lest our own heart should smite us as not having done our duties to the utmost), but con- tinue most humbly to advise and pray that ministers and Atitononiy of tJic CJiurcJi, etc. 309 other ciders may be sufficiently cnaVjled to keep not only some but all such as are justly and notoriously scandalous from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; for should things be so ordered (which God forbid) that any wicked and scan- dalous persons might without control thrust themselves upon this sacrament, we do evidently foresee that not only we, but many ofourgodly brethren, must be put upon this hard choice, either to forsake our stations in the ministry, which would be to us one of the greatest afflictions, or else to partake in other men'ssins,and thereby incur the danger of their plagues; and if we must choose one, we are resolved, and we trust our God will help us, to choose affliction rather thafi i?iiquityy No more memorable petition was presented even to that memorable Parliament than that we have given above, so faithful, yet respectful, so cogent in argument, yet calm in tone, so importunate, yet truly dignified. It was altogether worthy of the occasion, worthy of the venerated divines whose official signatures it bore, and worthy of the great Assembly which all but unanimously indorsed it. If aught would yet have availed to make the Erastian lawyers and over-zealous sticklers for the rights of the laity pause in their course, this petition ought to have done so. But so wedded were they to their own views, and so careless of consequences, that it availed not even to defer the issue. On 19th August they passed and published Directions for the choice of Ruling Elders, and on 20th October Rules and Directions concerning suspension from the Lord's Supper in cases of ignorance and scandal, but with such haste that on the 22d they had to order the copies which 3IO Debates on the had been printed to be called in and suppressed as being erroneously printed. The deficiencies of the first as well as of the second were forcibly set forth in one of the petitions from the City min- isters, transmitted through the Lord Mayor to the Houses on 20th November. These did not alto- gether ** play nip-shot," as Baillie has it. For on 20th February 1645-6 four resolutions, and on 26th two more supplementing the Directions of the 19th August were issued by the Houses, and on 14th March an additional ordinance for the sus- pension of the scandalous, not only, as it professes, correcting errors of the press and supplying defects in the former one, but changing some of its most important and what ought to have been its most carefully considered provisions — those, namely, by which it set itself in opposition to the Assembly, and to many of the most devoted of its own lay friends, and substituted, instead of that court of Ecclesiastical Commission which it had abolished, commissioners of its own number to give directions to the elderships in cases not enumerated, and to receive and determine appeals from them. The ordinance of the 20th October had appointed only one body of commissioners, and these the members of both Houses that then were members of the Assembly, and apparently rather with the view that they should prepare matters for the Parlia- ment than themselves decide them. The ordinance Aidonomy of the Church, etc. 3 1 1 of 14th March, besides correcting a number of the defects in the former one pointed out in the London petition above referred to, substituted for the single body of commissioners formerly named, a body of commissioners in every province to be appointed by Parhament, who apparently were, in cases of discipline, virtually to supersede the synod of the province. It had been attempted in the first ordinance to give a sort of quasi ecclesiastical character to the commissioners, by confining them to the members of the Houses who were members of the Assembly. In the sec- ond the same end was sought to be attained by requiring in them all the qualifications required of ruling elders, viz., that they " be men of good understanding in matters of religion, sound in the faith, prudent, discreet, grave, and of unblamable conversation, and such as do usually receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as members of a presbyterial congregation." This was the last drop of wormwood in Baillie's cup. ** They have passed an ordinance," he mournfully writes to Dickson in Scotland, " not only for appeals from the General Assembly to the Parliament, for two ruling elders to one minister in every church meeting, for no censure except in such particular offenses as they have enumerated ; but also, which vexes us most, and against which we have been laboring this month bygone, a court of civil commissioners in 312 Debates on the every county, to whom the congregational elder- ships must bring all cases not enumerated, to be reported by them with their judgment to the Parliament or their committee." Hard had the good man labored, wire pulling and letter writing, if haply the House of Lords might be persuaded *' to scrape out all that concerns the commission- ers of shires, and put in their room the classical presbyteries to be reporters to the Parliament of all not enumerated cases of scandals." But though Manchester the speaker resolutely opposed the obnoxious clause, the House by a majority of one decided to pass it. This troubled him and his friends exceedingly, but how to help it they " could not well tell." They were perplexed, yet not in despair. The Sectaries, the lawyers, and the Erastians had combined against them. They, the Assembly and the City, would make yet one more united effort to preserve their darling pres- bytery from the threatened discredit. The As- sembly seems to have led the way, and their peti- tion and remonstrance alone has found a place in the Journals of the Houses. On 20th March Mr. Marshall directed the attention of the Assembly to the recent ordinance which the Houses had passed after long and serious debate, and which they who had had the honor of tendering their ad- vice would be expected to go before others in help- ing to put in practice. While he blessed God for Autonomy of the Church, etc. o^ j the zeal shown by the Houses in endeavoring to settle the government of the Church, yet he felt there were some things in the ordinance which lay heavily on his own conscience and the con- sciences of many of his brethren, and he urged the Assembly seriously to consider whether any- thing further could be done to set them right. After Mr. Vines and Mr. Seaman had briefly ex- pressed their concurrence in his views, he and they and Mr. Newcomen, the convener of the former committee, were appointed to consider what in point of conscience might warrant their making once more their humble address to the Houses. The same day their report was pre- sented, and with a few alterations approved of. The petition is a brief but pithy recapitulation of their former arguments and remonstrances. While thanking God for the many blessings he had made this Parliament his instruments to con- vey unto these poor kingdoms, and professing themselves thereby the more obliged to show all readiness to carry out their wishes so far as con- science permitted, yet, out of a sense of their duty to God, to the Parliament, and to the souls of the rest of their brethren, they felt constrained to rep- resent in all humility and faithfulness that there was still a great defect in the enumeration of scan- dalous sins, and that the provision of commission- ers to judge of scandals not enumerated appeared 314 Debates on the to tlicm so contrary to the way of government which Christ had appointed in His Church, that they dared not practice according to that provision, nor, considering the trust reposed in them, alto- gether hold their peace at this time. Therefore they humbly pray that the several elderships may " be sufficiently enabled to keep back all such as are notoriously scandalous from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper," affirming that it expressly belonged to them by divine right and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ, and that by the help of superior Assemblies all inconveniences feared from maladministration may be prevented, and the magistrate " to whom," they say, " we profess the Church to be accountable for their proceedings in all their elderships and church assemblies, and punishable by him with civil censures for their miscarriages, may be so abundantly satisfied of the equity thereof," that they trust his heart will be moved by God to strengthen the hands of church officers in their duties, and even to com- mand them to act zealously and faithfully in them. On Monday morning the Assembly in a body carried up the petition, which was presented by Mr. Marshall.^ The House of Commons did not take it in good part, and after it had in various 1 The petition is reprinted in full in Minutes of IVesttninster Asscj)ibly,Yi^. 209, 210, 211. The remonstrances of the Scotch to the same effect and the surreptitious publication of their papers added greatly to the irritation of the Commons. Aittonomy of the CJiiircJi, etc. 3 1 5 sessions been discussed in grand committee and in the House, it was on i ith April resolved by 88 to 76 that the petition presented by the Assembly of Divines was a breach of the privilege of Parlia- ment. A committee, of which Selden was a mem- ber, was appointed to state the particulars of the breach of privilege, and to draw up certain queries to be put to the Divines regarding they/^j diviutnn of church-government. The statement was ap- proved by the House on the 21st, and the queries on the 22d April, and a small committee was ap- pointed to communicate " in a fair manner" to the Assembly the vote of the House as to the breach of privilege, to enlarge on the several heads of the statement above mentioned, and to deliver the queries. Seldom has the House of Commons put itself into a less dignified position than it did on this occasion. Willing to wound, yet afraid to strike, deliberately ignoring the other House of Parlia- ment, and the large minority of its own members who were averse to its policy, it rushed into a conflict in which success could bring it no glory, and failure must bring certain discredit or dis- honor. The sympathies of religious people — of all but the most splenetic of those who usually opposed them — could not fail to be drawn forth toward the men who, under constraint of conscience, had stated in so calm and respectful terms their 3i6 Debates on tJie inability to act on the conditions which by a nar- row majority had been fixed, and their determina- tion to suffer rather than to be instrumental in carrying out w^hat they believed to be wrong. If the thing itself was a mistake, the manner in which it was performed was far more decidedly so. It was not worthy of an English House of Commons in such a case to send delegates to say by word of mouth what themselves had not ventured to put on record. If their own isolated position and the general respect for the Assembly restrained them from dealing with the alleged offense, as breach of privilege should have been dealt with, it should have restrained their deputies from representing it as even of a graver character than the House in its statement had ventured to assert, and as having made them liable to the penalty of a prcBiminirc. It was not till the 30th April that the deputies of the House of Commons appeared in the Assem- bly to fulfill their mission, and if one may judge of the tenor of their addresses from the fragment- ary notes of their speeches jotted down by the scribe of the Assembly, and from the references made to them in the memorable speech delivered by Johnston of Warriston on the following day, he can hardly avoid coming to the conclusion that they displayed more annoyance and irritation than became so grave an occasion, and the whole action Autonomy of the CJmrch, etc. 3 1 7 less forethought and caution than might have been expected from men so well versed in the manage- ment of affairs. Sir John Evelyn spoke first, and apparently with most temper. After enlarging on the offense which the contents of their petition had given, and stating how it might warrantably have been dealt with had it come from any other quarter, he passed on to speak of the queries which, he hints, they had heard it said were sent to retard the settlement of church-government. Tliat, he assured them, was not their object in sending them. The matters to which they related were worthy of serious consideration, and the opinions of the Assembly would be received by the House with due respect. But in coming to a decision they must be allowed the freedom of their reason, and liberty of judgment. "The House of Commons," he continued, " is very sensible of the faithful and useful endeavors of yourselves, and, though they had not been so often reminded of it, they would not have forgot- ten it." In conclusion he seems to have expressed a hope that these services were not now to be dis- continued, or a breach made between them, and warned them that if there should, they would give occasion to all the world to say that as they had been willing to serve the Parliament for a while, so they wished the Parliament to serve them for ever after. The Parliament were not unwilling 3i8 Debates on the to submit their necks to the yoke of Christ, for that was an easy yoke, and what proved to be a galhng yoke was none of His. Mr. Fiennes, who made the next and what was probably in- tended to be the principal speech, showed more tact, while he expressed himself with no less decision. This address has been more fully recorded by the scribe, and I can find room for only a single extract. " If an Assembly," he says, " so soon as a law is made, set a brand upon it as contrary to the will of God and mind of Jesus Christ and our Covenant, what can more stifle it in the birth, and make it of none effect? Can any man call that to be advice, and not rather a controlling and con- tradiction of what was already done? Did the Houses of Parliament give any color of power to this Assembly to give any interpretation of the national Covenant, especially in relation to the making of laws? Not a particular member may speak against a vote without leave, and shall [you claim] not only to debate, but to arraign and con- demn it, nay, to pass the highest doom upon it, that it is contrary to the will of God and the national Covenant . . . For any without authority to interpose their advice is to encroach upon that which is proper to the great council of the king- dom. How much more to set up judgment against judgment, altarc contra altare, tie them up to a Autono7ny of the Chitrch, etc. 3 1 9 particular sense, and that under pain of brcakin^^ God's law and incurring the censure of breach of Covenant." Then, forgetting that what the Assembly had done was known only to them- selves and the Houses, he proceeds : " To arm the hands of the subjects against the authority and power of the Parliament every one knoweth what it is, and to arm the hearts and consciences against it is the next of kin to it, and the one but the high road to the other." ** These things," he says in conclusion, "are not the ways of English- men, Christians, and ministers of Christ " (and here probably may have dropped out that refer- ence to those of another nation to which we shall find Johnston alluding). " We come to speak plainly to you and plain English. It is not in the thouGfhts of the House to diso-race or discour- age you in your ministry." Mr. Browne, who spoke next, enlarged on legal precedents as to such offenses, and the penalty o{ prceniunive which the House had not explicitly mentioned, and reminded them not only how the Pope had abused spiritual power, but how they had smarted from the abuse of it by others, forgetting apparent!}' that all the worst acts of these others were done by them as Ecclesiastical Commissioners, acting under the sanction of those statutes which gave ecclesiastical authority to the Head of the State. Sir Benjamin Rudyard spoke briefly upon 320 Debates on the the queries regarding the jus divimun of church- government, and the mode in which the House expected them to be answered, ** not by far-fetched arguments which are commonly cold before you come to the matter," but in plain and express terms. He had heard much spoken of " the pattern in the mount," but could never for his part find it in the New Testament. They had been threatened with a prcenmnire 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. Friends as well as opponents of the policy of the House of Commons have asserted that the queries were proposed anhiio teuta/idi non cedificandi. But the deputies pro- tested the contrary. The Assembly took them at their word, and next day calmly proceeded to make arrangements for the work devolved on them.^ It ^ The queries left by the deputies, and the order of the House of Commons regarding them, are to be found at pp. 225 and 226 of the printed volume of the Minutes of the Assembly, the formal statement of their case against the Assembly at pp. 456, 457, and the speeches at pp. 448-456. The queries are here subjoined. " Whereas it is resolved by the House of Commons, that all Autonomy of the CJmrch, etc. 321 was proposed that, as the cause was God's, they should begin by seeking His guidance with fasting persons guilty of notorious and scandalous offenses shall be sus- pended from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper: The House of Commons desires to be satisfied by the Assembly of Divines in these Questions following : " I. Whether the Parochial and Congregational Elderships ap- pointed by Ordinance of Parliament, or any other Congregational or Presbyterial Elderships, are jure divino and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ, and whether any particular church- government \)Q jure divino; and what that government is? " II. Whether all the members of the said Elderships, as mem- bers thereof, or which of them, zxt jure divino and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ ? " III. Whether the superior Assemblies or Elderships, viz., the Classical, Provincial, and National, whether all or any of them are jure divino and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ? " IV. Whether appeals from Congregational Elderships to the Classical, Provincial, and National Assemblies, or to any of them, and to which of them, ?a^ jure divino and by the will and appoint- ment of Jesus Christ; and are their powers upon such appeals y«;r divino and l)y the will and appointment of Jesus Christ ? *' V. Whether Oecumenical Assemblies diXt jure divi^to ; and whether there be appeals from any of the former Assemblies to the said Oecumenical jure divino and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ ? " VI. Whether by the Word of God the power of judging and declaring what are such notorious and scandalous offenses for which persons guilty thereof are to be kept from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and of conventing before them, trying, and actually suspending from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper such offenders accordingly, is either in the Congregational Eldership or Presbytery, or in any other Eldership, Congregation, or Persons; and whether such powers are in them only, or in any of them, and in which of them,y«;v divino and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ ? " VII. Whether there be any certain and particular rules ex- pressed in the Word of God to direct the Elderships or Presbyteries, Congregations or Persons, or any of them, in the exercise and execution of the powers aforesaid ; and \\ hat are those rules ? 21 322 Debates on th 'le and prayer. The suggestion was agreed to, and Wednesday in the following week was appointed to be observed as a day of humiliation, Messrs. Palmer, Whitaker, and Case being named to lead their devotions, and Messrs. Cawdry and Arrow- smith to preach. As I am not to make further reference to the work of that day I must not omit to mention here that the notes taken by the scribe of Arrowsmith's sermon show it especially to have been worthy of the occasion and of his reputation as a preacher and a devoted Christian. It had probably been intended that this proposal should be made by Lord Warriston to give the bold "VIII. Is there anything contahied in the Word of God, that the supreme Magistracy in a Christian State may not judge and de- termine what are the aforesaid notorious and scandalous offenses, and the manner of suspension for the same : and in what particu- lars concerning the premises is the said supreme Magistracy by the Word of God excluded ? " IX. Whether the provision of Commissioners to judge of scandals not enumerated (as they are authorized by the Ordinance of Parliament) be contrary to that way of government which Christ hath appointed in His Church, and wherein are they so contrary ? " In answer to these particulars, the House of Commons desires of the Assembly of Divines their proofs from Scripture; and to set down the several texts of Scripture in the express words of the same. It is Ordered that every particular minister of the Assem- bly of Divines, that is or shall be at the debate of any of these Questions, do, upon every Resolution which shall be presented to this House concerning the same, subscribe his respective name, either with the affirmative or negative, as he gives his vote : And that those that do dissent from the major part shall set down their positive opinions, with the express texts of Scripture upon which their opinions are grounded." — Journals of House of Commofis, vol. iv. pp. 519, 520. AtUonomy of the CJmrcJi, etc. 323 Scottish lawyer an opportunity of replying to the speeches of the previous day, but coming in late and finding it already made, he seems to have delivered as two speeches what he had written out and afterward sent down to the Commissioners of the Assembly as one. This has been inserted in the records of the Commission of the Scotch Assembly, but has never been published save among the reports given in to the General Assem- bly of the Church of Scotland in 1879, and as it gives a much clearer view of his argument than the desultory jottings of the scribe of the Assembly I subjoin it in a slightly abridged form : — " Mr. Prolocutor,^ —I am a stranger. I will not meddle with Parliament priviledges of another nation nor the breach thereof; but as a Christian under one common Lord, a ruling elder in another Church, and a Parliament man in another kingdome, having a commission both from that Church and State, and at the desire of this kingdome, assist- ing to your debates, I entreat for your favour and patience (seeing at all tymes I cannot attend this reverend meeting according to my desire) to express my thoughts of what is before you. In my judgment that is before you w'^" con- cerns Christ and these kingdoms most, and above all, and w^'' will be the chiefest mean to end or continew these troubles. ... I can never be persuaded they were raised or willbe calmed upon the settling of civil rights and privi- ledges either of King or Parliaments, whatsoever may 1 It is entitled in the records of the Commission " Lord Warris- toun's Speech to the Assembly of Divines in England in Answer to Sir John Evelyn and Nath[aniel] Fiennes, concerning the Breach of Priviledge." It is now published at full length in vol. i. pp. 82-98 of the Minutes of the Commission of the General As- sembly of the Church of Scotland. 324 Debates 07i the seeme to be our present successe. But I am convinced they have a higher rise from above, for the highest end— the setthng the crown of Christ in this island to be propagat[ed] from island to continent. Untill King Jesus be set down on his throne with his sceptre in his hand I do not expect God's peace, and so no solid peace from men in these kingdomes ; but that soveraigne truth being established a durable peace will be found to follow yupon." " I was glade to hear the Parliament professe their willing- nesse to receive and observe whatsoever shall be shewne from the Word of God to be Christ or his Church their right and due ; albeit I wes sorrie to see any in the delyverie of [their message] to intermix any of y"" own personall asperity, any aspersion upon this assembly or reflection upon another nadon ; so I believe in this day of law for Christ in which justice is offered, if he get not right it will be counted your fault, in not shewing His patent from His Father and His Church's patent from him. [Now they have laid it on your shoulders, it lies at your door.] " Sir, all Christians are bound to give a testimony to everie truth when they ar called to it ; but ye ar the immediat ser- vants 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 testi- monies given to his prophetical and priestly office by the pleading and suffering of his 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 w"^ is tenderest to him ; and confessors or martyres for Christ's crowne ar the most royal and most stately of any state mar- tyrs ; 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 tesdmony 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 generation, w"^" seems most to oppose it and y-'by require a seasonable testimony. But in a peculiar way it lyeth upon you, sir, who hes both your calling from Christ for it and at this time a particular Autonomy of the Chw^ch, etc. 325 calling from man. It is that w'''^ the hon'''*-' houses requires and expects from you especially at such a time when the settlement of religion depends y'upon, and when it is the verie controversie of the tyme xo xpvM'iif.vMv^. And the civil magistrates not only call you before them to averre the truth therein, but also to give you good examples, comes befor yow out of the tendernes of y"" civil trust and dutie to maintain the priviledge of Parliament by the covenant, and for respect to yow to give a testimony asserting of y"" civil ryghts and priviledge, and to forwarn you least yee break the samen and incurre civil prcmoniries. Sir, this should teach us to be as tender, zealous, and carefuU to assert Christ and his Church their priviledge and right, and to forewarn all least they endanger y"" souls by incrotching y'upon, . . . that Christ lives and reigns alone over and in his Church, and will have all done therein according to his word and will, and that he hes given no supreme headship over his Church to any pope, king, or parliament whatsoever. " 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 defi- cient in the discharge of your commission from Christ. But now, Sir, ye have a commission from God and man (for the w*^^ ye have reason to thank God and the Parlia- ment) 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 waive anything necessary for this testimony, . . . nor quit a hoofe, or edge away an hemme of Christ's robe royal. These would seem effects of desertions, tokens of being ashamed, affrayed, or politikly diverted, yea gradus denegatiotiis Christi, and all these and everie degree of them, sir, I am confident, will be verie farre from the thoughts of everie one heir, who already by their votes and petitions, according to y' protestation at y"" entry, have shewn themselves so zealous and forward to give their testi- mony, albeit they did easily foresee it would not be verie acceptable to powers on the earth. . . . " Truely, sir, I am confident ye will never be so in love with 326 Debates on the a peaceable and external possession of anything that may be granted to the Church as to conceale, disclaime, or intervert your Master's right. That were to lose the substance for the circumstance, to disserve and dethrone Christ to serve yourselves and enthrone others in his place. A tennent doing so to his overlord forfaults all. Who speaks for civil liberties would never so undo them ; ye ar commandit to be faithful in little ; but now ye ar commandit to be faithful in much. For albeit the salvation of soules be called ciira citrarum, the wellfare and happiness of the Church made up of these is farre more. But the kingdome of Christ est quid optimum maximum, and to have it now under your debate, as it is the greatest honour God can bestow upon an assem- bly, so is it the greatest danger, for, according now as God shall assist you or desert you, ye may and will be the instru- ments of the greatest good or evil on earth. . . . " Sir, some may think ye have had a designe in abstaining so long to assert the divine right of church-government, and now to come in with it. Truely, Sir, I look on this check as from ane good providence for your great sparingnes and absteinensies in that poynt, and must beare witness to many passages of God's good hand in not suffering us to make a stand of our desires concerning religion, either in Scotland or heir, albeit we have oft set downe measure to ourselves. But he hes as often moved us step for step to trace back our defections, and made the last innovation a besom to sweepe out the former, and the king's refusall to be a mean to engage us in covenant with himself and others. ... By this good hand of God and for this end I hope these queries ar brought to you at this time. "Sir, your serving the Parliament a while, I am confi- dent hes bene and will be still, not that they may serve yow who hes ministcrium, a quo absit domiiiatus, sed ad adsit authoritas, as over us in the Lord, but to serve the Lord Jesus Christ ; and that Parliament will glorie more in y*" sub- ordination and subservience to him nor in their empire or command over the world. "Sir, we may heare much of breache of priviledge and covenant in relation to civile rights. Let us remember in the covenant the three ends in the title and preface, three Autonomy of the CJmrcJi, etc. 327 maine duties in the body, and the thrie effects in the close. The covenant begins with the advancement and ends with the enLargement of the kingdome of Christ as the sub- stantial! and overword of the whole. The first article of the sevin is Christ's article, lyke dies doininica in the week, all the rest ar in Domino, and subordinat y^mto, and s^bordi- nata noft pugnant. And certainlie so judicious and happy, so protesting, covenanting, declaring, so doing and suffering a Parliament, for reformation will never claime anything as a civile priviledge or right w*^'' ye will dtmonstrat to be proper to Christ's kingdome as distinct from the kingdomes of the earth. Christ's throne is highest, and his priviledge supreme as only head and king of his Church, albeit kings and magistrates may be members in it. There is no author- ity to be ballanced with his, nor post to be set up against his post, nor the altar of Damascus against his altar, nor strange fire against his fire, nor Corahs to be allowed against his Aarons, nor Uzziahs against his Azariahs. Is it so small a thing to have the sworde that they must have the keyes also ? Quce Dens sejnnxit Jwvw ne jungat. And truely, sir, I am confident that parliament, citty, country, both nations will acknowledge themselves engaged under and to this authority, and as they would not be drawn from it, so ye will never endeavour to draw us to any other authority ; and whatsoever reflection to the contrary wes insinuat by the delyverer of the message, I cannot but imput it to personal! passion, w*"'' long ago is knowne to the world. But we will never beleeve the hon^''^ house would allow thereof, as farre beneath their wisdome and contrare to your merite. "And now, sir, seeing the quaeries ar before you, I am con- fident that whatsoever diversity of opinions maybe 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 govern- ment of his own house and should rule the samen ; and that none of this Assembly, even for the gaining their desires in all the poynts of difference, would by y'^ silence, concealment, and connivance weaken, communicat, or sell any part of this fundamental! truth, this sovereign interest of Christ, and 328 Debates on the that ye will all concurre to demonstate the samen by clear passages of Scripture, necessarie consequences yTra, w'^^ can no more be denyed or esteemed cold nor the letter itself, and by the universall constant practice of the Apostles, w^^ ar as cleare rules unto us as any human lavves, inferences, and practises ar or can be brought for any civile priviledges. "Sir, I will only close this by reminding yow of two passages of your letter, sent by order of the House of Com- mons to the Generall Assembly of the Church of Scotland, that ye will sett out such a discipline as to the utmost of your power ye may exalt Christ, the only Lord over the Church his own house, in all his offices, and present this church as a chast virgine to Christ. And for this end that ye were not restrained by the Houses in your votes and resolutions, nor bound up to the sense of others, nor to carry on privat designes in ane servile way ; but by your oath new formed against all fettering of your judgments, and engaged y'by according to the Houses' desire, to use all freedome becoming the integrity of your conscience, weight of the cause, and the gravity and honour of such an Assembly." Heartened and cheered by the speech of Lord Warriston, and feeling they had a noble cause to maintain, the Assembly resolutely set themselves to their Herculean task, and for eight weeks they labored at it zealously and uncomplainingly. Most of the replies had passed through the com- mittees, and a considerable part through the Assem- bly, but, as had been anticipated by many, it proved to be a very tedious business and threatened to divert them too long from more pressing work. So when, through the mediation of the City, a better understanding had been restored between the House of Commons on the one side and the As- Autonomy of the CJmrch, etc. 329 sembly and the Scottish Commissioners on the other, and a third ordinance had been passed by ParHament withdrawing the obnoxious Provincial Commissioners, and substituting in their room the ParHament itself or a grand committee of the two Houses, the London ministers, though not fully satisfied, consented to act under the Ordinance, and the Scotch Commissioners, while urging yet further concessions, agreed to refrain from insisting on them as a condition of continued amity. The House of Commons, whose members had all along protested that they were not opposed to godly discipline, but only wished it to be " rightly jointed with the laws of the kingdom," issued an order for hastening the Confession and Catechism, which was regarded as a warrant for postponing the other work. This work, however, there is reason to believe, was not lost, but supplemented and expanded by some of the London ministers, it made its appearance before the close of the year^ in certain parts of the jfiis Divinum Rcginiinis Ecclcsiastici, much to the indignation of several members of the House of Commons. The answers to the queries were, with consent of the House, resumed by the Assembly in 1648 after it had finished its Confession and Catechisms, and had no other special work to do. But the minutes after that date are so brief that only a few entries are made on the subject, and we ^ Answers to the queries had appeared in June 1646. 330 Debates on the do not know if the work was ever formally com- pleted. The final Ordinance of Parliament on church-government, embodying and supplementing or making permanent the former ones, still con- tained the clause authorizing appeals from the Church courts to Parliament, but I have found no evidence that any such appeal was ever made. The London ministers in fact, in agreeing to organize under the Ordinances of 6th June 1646, had published their resolution " to practice in all things according to the rule of the Word, and according to these Ordinances so far as they con- ceive them to correspond to it, and in so doing they trust they shall not grieve the spirit of the truly godly, nor give any just occasion to them that are contrary minded to blame " their pro- ceedings.^ It was during these anxious months in the spring and early summer of 1646 that those far- famed debates on the independent government of the Church took place which are recorded at con- siderable length in the Minutes of the Assembly.^ The proposition " That Jesus Christ as King and Head of His Church, hath appointed an ecclesias- tical frovernment in His Church distinct from the civil government," was first tabled for discussion on Friday 6th March 1645-6, while the Ordinance * Considerations and Cautions from Zion College, 19 June 1646. 2 See Minutes of the Assembly, pp. 193-203, 424-432. Aittonoiny of the C/iurch, etc. 331 for Provincial Commissioners was being elaborated in the Houses. It does not seem to have formed part of the original report on the Church, as it had been brought up on Thursday, and Coleman, before opening the discussion on the following Monday, " moved to pass the proposition brought in by the Committee which would pass without any ques- tion," and once again in the course of the debate he renewed his proposal. But it was not agreed to by the Assembly. So with all the zest of a keen and practised debater he set himself to the discussion of the proofs adduced in support of the proposition, and for several days bore the brunt of the battle almost single-handed. The argu- ments were based chiefly on Matt, xviii. and I Cor. v., and were proposed in syllogistic form, and long and tough were the encounters between him on the one side and Rutherfurd and Gillespie on the other. Others spoke occasionally and briefly, but these were the combatants in chief, and on them all eyes were fixed. At length, on the 1 8th, when the Assembly called to the order of the day, Mr. Coleman was not present to continue the de- bate, but some members of the House of Com- mons, \vho were desirous to elicit further expla- nations from the Divines, continued it for a time, and it was again adjourned. Next day it was reported that Mr. Coleman was ill, and two of the members were deputed to visit him. The follow- 332 Debates oji the ing day one of these reported that he had fulfilled his commission, and found that Mr. Coleman was very ill, but returned his thanks to the Assembly for their kind inquiries, and expressed his desire to be further heard in the argument, and to have the debate adjourned till he was able to return. They complied so far with the request of their dying brother, and it was not till, on 30th of March, they had followed his body to the grave that they resumed the debate. It was carried on more languidly by Lightfoot and some members of the House of Commons throughout the month of April, and then was merged in the wider de- bate raised by the queries of the Commons. After further discussion, the proposition was on 7th July passed as part of the answer to the first query, fifty-two voting for it, and Lightfoot alone against it. On 26th September it was with some slight verbal changes passed as the first section of chap- ter XXX. of their Confession. That chapter was not passed by the House of Commons, nor does it have a place in the Independent or the Baptist recension of the Confession. But it is retained by all the Presbyterian churches, which receive the Confession as it came from the Assembly, and is held in honor by them. Thus, through calm and storm, in sunshine and in shade, the Divines held on the even tenor of their way, and whatever may have been intended AtUonomy of the Church, etc. 333 by some " who were not ovcrloving of any, least of all of these clergymen," they were not in point of fact brought into disgrace or discredit at the time, nor have they been so subsequently on account of their firm but dignified and respectful protest against the Erastianism of so large a section of the House of Commons. Before these debates came to a close, the first civil war had virtually ended. The relief of Gloucester (p. 184) was, according to Mr. Green, the turning-point in the struggle, and, though after that occasional blinks of sunshine came to raise the sinking spirits of the Cavaliers, things on the whole went steadily if slowly against them. The victory of Marston Moor broke their power in Yorkshire, and that of Naseby did the same for the King and Prince Rupert in the heart of England, and that of Philiphaugh did for Mont- rose in Scotland. As the Parliamentary forces prepared to close round Oxford, the king escaped to the Scottish army before Newark, and on the surrender of that place retired with them to New- castle. There one more earnest and prolonged attempt was made to bring him to terms. Hen- derson wore out his sinking strength in the thankless service. He and Blair, with the nobles and officers, besought the infatuated monarch, with tears, to yield to the wishes of his people. But all was in vain, and with sore hearts and sad 334 Debates on the Autonomy of the Chui^ch. misgivings they left him in the hands of the Eng- hsh Commissioners, and took their departure from a land where it was now only too manifest they were no longer welcome guests. LECTURE X. THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH OR ARTICLES OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Pa7't I. — Introductory history of doctrine^ a7td detailed ace omit of the preparation of the Confession. In my last Lecture I gave you a full account of the controversies on the autonomy of the Church, which engaged the attention of the As- sembly in 1646, and interrupted for a time the preparation of its doctrinal standards. In to-day's Lecture I shall endeavor to give a succinct ac- count of the preparation of the Assembly's Con- fession of Faith, which is regarded in most Pres- byterian Churches as the principal, and in some as the sole doctrinal standard. As I promised in a former lecture (p. 55), however, I must first ad- vert to the previous history of doctrine in the British Churches. I have already explained that the differences between the Puritans^ and their 1 " Albeit the Puritans disquieted our Church about their con- ceived discipline, yet they never moved any quarrel against the doctrine of our Church. . . It was then the open confession, both of the Bishops and of the Puritans, that both parties embraced a mutual consent in doctrine."— Bishop Carleton's Examination of Bishop Montague's Appeal, p. 5. 335 336 The Westminster Confession of Faith. opponents at first seemed to be few in number, and of minor importance, just because so much of what afterward came to be named puritanic was then accepted and valued by almost all who favored the principles of the Reformation. I stated that this was especially the case with re- spect to that system of doctrine known as Augus- tinian or Calvinistic, the holders of which, by the time of Archbishop Laud, had come to be nick- named doctrinal Puritans. As the movement which culminated in the Westminster Assembly was designed above all to be a protest against the misrepresentation this involved, and if possible to restore Augustinianism and the theology of the English reformation to its old place of honor in the Church, I must now revert to this subject, and give at least a brief outline of the history of this theology in the British Churches. There was perhaps no branch of the mediaeval Church where the system of doctrine developed by Augustine had so unquestionably retained its old supremacy to the last as the Anglo-Norman. The system of its greatest theologians, Anselm and Bradwardine, appropriated by Wyclif and the Lollards, continued or revived by Tyndale, Frith, Barnes, and their coadjutors, may be said to have formed the substratum of the Reformed teaching, even while it was least affected by influences from abroad. Such influences, however, were early Iiit7'odtictory Histo7'y of Doctrine, 'i^^'] brought to bear on that teaching, and it has long seemed to me that the effect of these upon it, and their ready assimilation, were largely due to the hold Augustinianism had already gained, that it was through the teaching of Anselm, Bradvvar- dine, Wyclif, and Tyndale, rather than from " fas- cination of the calm, clear intellect of Calvin," they were first attracted toward him and the later predestinarian school. With the full sanction of Cranmer and the Privy Council of Edward VL, Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr were in 1548 in- vited to P^ngland, and soon after their arrival were installed as professors or lecturers in divinity in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, to imbue with the theology of the Reformation the future ministers of the English Church. Their published commentaries on the Ephesians and the Romans embody the substance of the lectures they delivered in the years 1550 and 155 1, and show clearly that their teaching on predestination and other related subjects was in thorough ac- cordance with that of Augustine and Anselm, as well as with that of Calvin. The following is Bucer's definition of election : — " Est itaque electio destinatio et certa Dei miseratio ab seterno ante mundum constitutum, qua Deus eos, quorum vult misereri, ex universo perditorum hominum genere ad vitam seternam secernit, ex plane liberali mise- ricordia, priusquam quicquam possint boni aut 22 338 The Westmhistcr Confession of Faith. mali facere. Certa, inquam, est et immutabilis, per Jesum Christum unigenitum filium Dei et nostrum mediatorem, ab aeterno destinatum caput ecclesiae ac reconciliatorem, secundum seternum et immutabile propositum suum, ut nos adoptaret in filios et haeredes et in novam vitam regeneraret, ut sancti essemus et irreprehensibiles coram ipso ad gloriam gratiae suae." ^ Martyr's definition is : — " Dico igiturpraedestinationemesse sapientissimum propositum Dei, quo ante omnem aeternitatem decrevit constantei*, eos, quos dilexit in Christo, vocare ad adoptionem filiorum, ad justificationem ex fide et tandem ad gloriam per bona opera, quo conformes fiant imagini Filii Dei, utque in illis declaretur gloria et misericordia Creatoris." ^ Note- worthy as these definitions are when viewed by themselves, they are still more noteworthy when we view them in connection Avith the XVI Ith of the Edwardian Articles which were drawn up about the same time. Had we known no more than that these two divines were held in high regard by Cranmer and the advisers of the king, and were consulted by them on the revision of the 1 Piaelectiones. . . D. Martini Buceri habitce Cantabridgioe in Anglia, anno 1550 et 1551, pp. 22, 23. ■■* In Epistolam S, Pauli Apostoli ad Romanos D, Petri Martyris commentarii, p. 41 1, folio edition, 1 558. The work was not pub- lished till after he left England, but we learn from the preface that it had been written out by 1552, and the schedcc circulated among his friends there, and from his letters we learn it was ready for publication when he left in 1 553. Introductory History of Doctrine. JO' liturgy, we would have known enough to warrant us carefully to compare their teaching with that of this Article, to ascertain whether the one was not to a certain extent reflected in the other, and calculated to aid us in tracing its sources and character. But we know further, that after the death of Bucer, Martyr continued to be consulted and cherished by the Primate, and we have posi- tive testimony that he was one of those associated with him, not only in the commission of thirty- two for the reformation of the ecclesiastical laws, but also in some smaller conmiittee^ (of that com- mission, or of Convocation) which was occupied especially with purity of doctrine. He paid re- peated and lengthened visits to Lambeth in the fall of the year 155 i and the spring of 1552, on the business of that committee, and his friend and amanuensis, John ab Ulmis, had in 1550 translated from German into Latin, for the Pri- mate, the Confession of Strasburg.^ He was named by Cranmer in 1553 in his Purgation^ * " The Convocation began to be held ... on the 12th of De- cember by most excellent and learned men who are to deliberate and consult about a proper moral discipline, and the pitriiy of doctrine. The Archbishop of Canterbury, and Peter ISIartyr, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of London, together with the newly appointed Chancellor of England . . . Bishop of Ely and our friend Skinner . . . are to form a select committee on these points." — John ab Ulmis to BuUinger, in Original Letters relating to the Refonnation, Parker Society edition, pp. 444, 503. 2 John ab Ulmis, Original Letters, Parker Soc. ed., p. 404. ^ I with the said Master Peter Martvr and other four or five. 340 The Westminster Confession of Faith, as one with whose help he would be ready to defend " all the doctrine " set forth in the reign of Edward VI. ; and still later he seems to be referred to by the Archbishop in his final examination as one whose advice he had taken about the Articles/ We feel, therefore, not merely warranted, but even bound to compare them with his doctrinal teaching ere we venture, with any approach to confidence, to pronounce on the sources from which they have been taken, or the exact shade of meaning they were meant to convey. I have given above the definition of predestination by Martyr as it is exhibited on p. 411 of the folio edition of his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. Let me now place this opposite to the first part of the which I shall choose, will by God's grace take upon us to defend not only the common prayers of the Church, the ministration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies, but also all the doc- trine and religion set out by our sovereign lord King Edward the Sixth. — Foxe's Acts and A/onitments, vol. vi. p. 539, ^ Foxe (viii. p. 58) represents Cranmer as saying that "as for the catechism and the book of articles ... he granted the same to be his doings," but the formal Processus contra Thoniam Cranmer (Works, Parker Society's edition, vol. ii. p. 545), gives a very different representation : " Ad septimum fatetur se edidisse librum . . . A defence of the true and Catholic faith, etc. — et negat se edidisse librum, in eodem articulo etiam mentionatum, vocatum — A discourse of Peter Martyr — et quoad tertium librum vocatum, A discourse of the Lord's Supper \l)y Peter Marty r'\ negat se ilium edidisse, tamen credit hujusmodi liber est bonus et catholicus, et quoad catechismum et articulos in eodem fatetur se adhibuisse ejus consilium circa editionem ejusdem." The word ejus can refer only to Martyr. Archdeacon Ilardvvick, Ijy quoting merely the last clause, has failed to bring out this, though correcting Foxe. Introihictory History of Doctrine. 341 Edwardian Article, inserting here and there within brackets the analogous phrases which Martyr uses when more fully explaining his definition, that it may be seen how very closely his ideas and modes of expression appear to be reproduced in the Latin form of that Article : — Martyr's Definition. Dico igitur praedestinatio- nem esse sapientissimum pro- positum Dei, quo ante omnem iEternitatem [nfite jacta fitn- damciita m2indi,\\ i )decrevit constanter {suo coiisilio licet fiobis occulta, 459) eos quos dilexit in Christo [a calami- tate libcrare, 431 [atque ut] vasa in Jionorcm facta, 428) ad felicitatem [ccternam salu- tem, 433)per Christum addu- cere, 431. [tanto Dei beneficio, 344, dojiatos, 343) vocare ad adoptionem filiorum {^justo tempore, 473) [vocatioite, quam Augustinus ex Pauli phrasi vocat, secundum pro- posit um, 426) ad justificatio- nem ex fide [gratis per Christum justificare ut effi- ciantur conformes imagini filii Dei, . . . utque ambulent in bonis operibus, 421, utque in illis declaratur gloria et 7nisericordia Creatoris, {ad vitam ceternam {cEternain felicitatem, 431) electos ad- diicit, 434.) Latin Article of 1553. Praedestinatio ad vitam est aeternum Dei propositum, quo ante jacta mundi funda- menta, suo consilio, nobis quidem occulto, constanter decrevit eos quos [ ] elegit ex hominum genere, a maledicto et exitio liberare, atque ut vasa in honorem efficta, per Christum ad aeter- nam salutem adducere. Unde qui tarn praeclaro bene- ficio sunt donati, illi Spiritu ejus opportuno tempore oper- ante, secundum propositum ejus vocantur, vocation! per gratiam parent (credunt A) justificantur gratis, adoptan- tur in filios unigeniti Jesu Christi imagini efficiuntur conformes, in bonis operibus sancte ambulant, et demum ex Dei misericordia pertin- gunt ad sempiternam felici- tatum. 342 The Westminster Confession of Faith. The definition of Martyr is more brief than that of the Articles, but even so it contains the words in C/u'isto, which were only inserted in the Article in 1563, and are generally to be found in the Re- formed Confessions. It is only when we take account of the analogous phrases in which Martyr explains his definition, that the full coincidence in meaning and phraseology between him and the Article is brought out. In fact, there are but two phrases wanting to make the verbal parallel com- plete, and they are both found in the definition of Bucer: ex iinivcrso pcniitoriun Jioniintuii gcnere, and unigcniti filii} The parallel, therefore, so far as the positive statement of doctrine is concerned, is complete, and whatever wider meaning we may deem our- selves warranted to read into the Article, we can never surely be warranted to exclude that which Martyr held and meant to teach. Even the sub- sequent part of the Article is far more nearly in verbal agreement with his teaching than with that of any other. There is no such resemblance to the phraseology and teaching of Melanchthon after he ceased to be an Augustinian and became a Synergist. There is in a few instances, as Dr. Burton (Bishop Short's History, p. 487) had pointed out, a verbal coincidence with the phraseology and teaching of Luther in his treatise on the Epistle to 1 See p. 337. Introductory History of Doctrine. 343 the Romans. But that treatise was written while both Luther and Melanchthon were Augustinians, and teaches distinctly Augustinian doctrine ; and as it was never formally disavowed by Luther, there was considerable temptation to those who maintained that doctrine to use the testimony of the master against his disciples. Still, however, in this second part of the Article, as in the first, the resemblance to the teaching of Martyr is closer. I insert below these further coincidences, as also a few between the phraseology of Calvin ^ in the 1 543 edition of his Institutions, and the concluding part of the Article, because it comes so close to that of the Article and of Luther. Some suppose that part was inconsistent with his doctrine, but if so, neither he nor the Westminster divines seem to have been aware of the inconsistency : — Non igitur ad despera- Quemadmodiim pr^edes- tionem adigimurhac doctrina tinationis et electionis nostric sed miilto potius magnam ex in Christo pia considcratio, ea consolationem accipim- dulcis, suavis et ineffabilis us (407). De perseverantia consolationis plena est vere nullo modo dubitandum est, piis, et his qui sentiunt in sc et pr^esertim cum in cordibus vim Spiritus Christi facta nostris habemus Spiritum carnis et membra qujE adhuc Sanctum nobis ferentem prae- sunt super terram, mortifi- clarum de ea testimonium cantem, animumque ad (124). Habent enim Spiritum celestiaetsupernarapientem. Christi quo et vivunt et . . . tum quia fidem nostram de mortificant facta carnis {in aeterna salute consequenda ^ See Note L in Appendix. 344 T^^^ Westminster Confession of Faith. prcFfatione). Dei Spiritus qui datur piis . . . miram consolationem his affert quos afflaverit (electis in margijie) (476). Cum scribit de prasdestina- tione eo semper spectat ut nostram fiduciam confirmet (419) (ad stabiliendam fidu- ciam Cal. 361). Qui in animo vere sentiat se gratis a Deo electum esse prop- ter Christum . . . mirablHter haud dubie accendetur ad Deum redamandum (419). Curiosuh iUi habenis coer- cendi sunt qui antequam Christum . . . discantabys- sum illam praedestinationis scrutantur, et num praedes- tinati sint necne frustra in- vestigant. Nam hi haud dubie in confusionem con- scientias aut desperationem sua hac inepta curiositate ducent et praecipitabunt seipsos. — Lutherus in Ep. ad Romanes. Traduntur Sa- tanae decipiendi et praecipi- tandi (475).— Martyr. per Christum, phirimum stabiHt atque confirmat, tum quia amorem nostrum in Deum vehementer accendit. — ArTICULUS XVII. Ubi crucem et tribulation- em expertus fueris ; tum primum dulcescet necessitas haec praedestinationis, tum primum senties . . . quam plena consolationis sit pr^e- destinatio. — Lutherus in Ep. ad Romanos. Ita hominibus curiosis carnahbus et Spiritu Christi destitutis, ob oculos perpetuo versari praedestinationis Dei sententiam.perniciosissimum est praecipitium, unde illos diabolus protrudit vel in desperationem vel in aeque perniciosam impurissimae vitas securitatem. — Art.xvii. Quemadmodum in exitialem abyssum se ingurgitant, (in ultimum mortis praecipitium ruunt, (364) in majorem hebe- tudinem truduntur, (366) solutam carnis securitatem, (363) quasi desperata nequitia volutabuntur in flagitia (365) quiut de sua electione fiant certiores, aeternum Dei consilium, sine verbo, percontantur : ita qui recte atque ordine eam investigant, qualiter in verbo continetur eximium inde re- ferunt consolationis fructum (Calv. Inst. 361). Inti^odiictory History of Doctrine. 345 Hie docere oportet, fide- lium esse promissiones Dei generaliteraccipere, ut nobis in sacris Uteris a Spiritu Sancto traditae sunt, neque oportere de arcana Dei volun- tate esse solicitos (Martyr, p. 194). Ut cum aliquid velint suscipere, consilium . . . ex voluntateDeirevelata, i.e, e sacra scriptura petant, non autem ex arcano divinae pra^destinationis (p. 422). In rebus agendis ea est nobis perspicienda voluntas quam verbo suo declarat. Id requirit unum Deus a nobis quod priecipit (Calv. 370). Deinde, licet pni^dcstina- tionis decreta sunt nobis ignota, promissiones tamcn divinas sic amplecti oportet, ut nobis in sacris literis generaliter proposita^ sunt ; et Dei voluntas in nostris actionibus ea sequenda est, quam in verbo Dei habemus revelatam.— Art. xvii. The resemblances between the AngHcan formu- lary and the Augsburg, Wiirtemberg, and some other German Confessions arose in part out of earlier historical relations. But all of them, as a matter of fact, occur in Articles which were held in common by the Lutherans and the Reformed. Martyr had signed the Augsburg Confession when at Strasburg, and was ready to do so on his return, while some of his colleagues who remained did not object to sign the Confession of Wiirtemberg. But neither of these, nor any other of the early Lutheran Confessions, as Dorner admits, has an Article on Predestination. By the insertion of such an Article, as well as by the terms in which they expressed it, the English Reformers must be 346 The Westminster Confession of Faith. regarded as indicating their leaning toward the theology of Augustine and of the Reformed rather than the Lutheran Churches. The same leaning is clearly apparent in the group of Articles on the sacraments, and especially in the one on the Lord's Supper. This last, in the form in which it was set forth in 1553, shows verbal coincidences not only with Martyr's writings but also with the Fonmila Consensus Tigurini^ copies of which had been sent into England by BuUinger soon after it was framed. Few Continental authors were during the long reign of Elizabeth more highly esteemed or more widely read in England than Calvin, Bullinger, and Martyr. The Institutions of Calvin were used as a text-book in the universities, and they and several of his commentaries were translated into English. The Decades or sermons of Bullinger were commended by Convocation to the study of the clergy, and were also translated. The volu- minous Loci Communes of Martyr were published in London as well as on the Continent, and he was repeatedly and earnesdy invited to return to his former chair. In a word, the leading bishops and theologians of that reign drew more closely to the Reformed than to the Lutheran Churches.^ Even ' P'or particulars see Appendix, Note M. 2 " I am well assured that the learned bishops who were in the reformation of our Church in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign did so much honor St. Augustine that in the collecting of the Tutroihictory History of Doctrine. 347 those of them who, hke Crannier and Ridley in the earher time, were very mild Augustinians them- selves agreed more with the teaching of the Re- formed than of the Lutheran doctors on the few subjects on which there was difference between them, though the distinct testimony against the ubiquity of Christ's human nature was withdrawn from the Articles of 1563. Becon, Jewel, Nowell, Sandys, Pilkington, as well as Humphreys, Samp- son, and Foxe, were certainly more pronounced Augustinians, and, notwithstanding assertions to the contrary, did mention election for other pur- poses than to warn people against trusting in it;^ and their teaching supplies us with the first and perhaps fairest commentary on the meaning of the XVIIth Article ere differences of opinion had arisen respecting it. Whitgift, Hutton, Overall, Cartwright, Whitaker, Reynolds, and many of the bishops and theologians in the reign of Elizabeth's successor, held and taught the same Augustinian doctrines. It was toward the close of her reign, about the year 1595, that we first hear of the dis- tinct enunciation of opposite views in the Univer- sity of Cambridge by Barret, a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, who is said soon after to have Articles and Homilies and other things in that reformation, they had an especial respect unto St. Augustine's doctrines." — Bishop Carleton's Examination, p. 49. ^ See especially Sandys' Se7'inon'i,\t. 190; rilli. 6. 27 LECTURE XII. THE assembly's CATECHISMS, LARGER AND SHORTER. My last Lecture was devoted to an account of the Confession of Faith which was prepared by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and is still accepted by almost all orthodox Presbyterians of the Anglo-Saxon race as their confession or chief doctrinal symbol. I showed you how carefully it was framed on the lines already laid down by the best British divines, and especially by that prince of theologians, Ussher of Armagh, — to whom his fellow-churchmen of subsequent times have failed to render the homage he deserves for his great learning and his firm attachment to Augustinian- ism and our common Protestantism. It now only remains that before concluding these historical sketches I should give you some account of the Catechisms of the Assembly, and especially of the Shorter Catechism, which, with Baxter, I regard as, in several respects, the most remarkable of their symbolical books, the matured fruit of all their consultations and debates, the quintessence of that system of truth in which they desired to train English-speaking youth, and faithful training 418 The Assembly s Catechisms. 419 in which, I behevc, has done more to keep aHve on both sides of the Atlantic reverence for the old theology than all other human instrumentalities whatever. Attention is only now beginning to be given in somewhat like adequate measure to the structure and composition of these catechisms. The com- position of the Confession of Faith has been minutely examined, and something like general agreement as to the sources from which it has been taken has been arrived at. But no similar service has yet been rendered in regard to the catechisms, and I do not see how I can more appropriately bring these Lectures to a close than by bringing a humble contribution to suppl)' this desideratum. It may fairly be said of the catechisms framed on the system of the doctrinal Puritans, and pub- lished in England between the years 1600 and 1645, that their name is legion. Perhaps no more convincing proof could be cited of the great in- fluence the men were exercising throughout these years of trial and oppression, and also of the manner in which they came to acquire, retain, and increase it, as that which is furnished by the floods of different catechisms and different editions of the same catechism, — often five or six, in several cases ten or twelve, and in some cases from twenty to thirty editions being poured forth from the 420 The Assembly s Catechisms, London press in rapid succession. Among the members of the Assembly there were at least twelve or fourteen who had prepared and pub- lished catechisms of their own years before the Assembly met, as Twisse, White, Gataker, Gouge, Wilkinson, Wilson, Walker, Palmer, Cawdrey, Sedgewick, Byfield, and possibly Newcomen, Ly- ford, Hodges, and Foxcroft, to say nothing of Cartwright, Perkins, Ussher, Rogers, and Ball, who at a somewhat earlier time had prepared the way for them, and whom several of them can be shown to have more or less followed in their plan, or in details. The first step toward the preparation of a cate- chism may be said to have been taken in December 1643,^ when Messrs. Marshall, Palmer, Goodwin, Young, and Herle, with the Scottish Commis- sioners, were appointed a committee to draw up a directory for public worship. That was intended to include a directory for catechising, if not a cate- chism, and the preparation of that paper was in- trusted to Mr. Herbert Palmer.^ Notwithstanding his great reputation as a catechist, his paper, as first presented, does not appear to have come up to the expectation of the Scottish Commissioners. Their chronicler tells us, "Mr. Marshall's part anent preaching, and Mr. Palmer's about catechis- ^ Baillie's Letters, vol. ii. p. 1 18. 2 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 140. Larger aiid SJiorter. 421 ing, though the one be the best preacher, and the other the best catechist in England, yet we no ways Hke it ; so their papers are passed in (/'. c. into) our hands to frame them according to our mind." ^ This was written on 2d April 1644, and on 2 1st November of the same year it is briefly re- corded that " the catechise is drawn up, and I think shall not take up much time," and again, on 26th December, that ** we have near[ly] also agreed in private on a draught of catechism, whereupon, when it comes into public, we expect little debate." The natural inference from these notices seems to be that this catechism was either some one which had been drafted by themselves in terms of the remit made to them — the catechism published in 1644 for the benefit of both kingdoms, or that of Rutherfurd, still extant in MS. in the Library of the University of Edinburgh^ — and which they were prematurely counting on getting the com- mittee and the Assembly to accept without much discussion, or else some modification of Mr. Pal- mer's directory or catechism, such as we shall find reason to believe they were willing, after consulta- tion with their friends in the north, to accept, at least in its method and principles. Before this date the printed Minutes^ of the Assembly show ^ Baillie's Letters, vol. ii. p. 148. ''■ " Ane Soume of the Christian Religion," since presented in my CatechisDis of the Second Reformation. ^ Page 12, 2d December 1644. 42 2 The Assembly s Catechisms ^ that Messrs. Marshall, Tuckney, Newcomen, and Hill had been added to Mr. Palmer " for hastening the catechism," and that on 7th February 1644-5 Messrs. Reynolds and Delme were added, — of course in conjunction with the Scotch Commis- sioners, who claimed the right to be on all com- mittees appointed to carry out any part of the uniformity covenanted for between the Churches. Among the catechisms which I examined cur- sorily in 1866 in the British Museum and in Sion College Library was one bearing the title. An Endeavour of Making CJiristian Religion easie, and published at Cambridge in 1640 without the author's name, but which, from Dr. Wallis' preface to his Explanation of the Shorter Catechism, I con- cluded was probably Palmer's. In it each of the principal answers is, by repetition of part of the question, made a complete and independent propo- sition, and these principal answers are broken down in a peculiar way in a series of subordinate ques- tions, all capable of being answered by the mono- syllables Aye or No. It did not then strike me as so similar to the Westminster Catechisms in their ultimate form as it does now, and not know- ing then what we know (now that the Minutes have been transcribed from the almost illegible original) of the successive stages by which this ultimate form was reached, I had almost forgotten all about it, till 1876-7, when, as I ruminated Lai^gcr a7id Shorter. 423 over the notes of a very unintelligible debate in the Minutes, this fact came back to my remem- brance as one which might enable me to cast light on it. It was not my good fortune, however, to get back to the British Museum till November 1879, and before that time my attention, as well as that of others, had been called by an Edinburgh bookseller to what is said by Dr. Belfrage in the history of the Shorter Catechism prefixed to the Second edition of his Practical Exposition of the Assembly s Shorter Catechism. This history was not contained in the earlier edition of the book. Dr. Belfrage appears to have seen Palmer's Cate- chism, and to have compared it with the Assem- bly's, but his conclusion regarding it coincided rather with my first impressions. He states, how- ever, that M'Crie, on the ground of the passage quoted above from Baillie, was disposed to come to the conclusion that ** Mr. Palmer was concerned in the first draft of the Catechism." My friend Dr. Briggs, who also saw Palmer's treatise when in London in 1879, early in the following year gave an interesting account of its relations to the Shorter Catechism in the paper to which I re- ferred in a former lecture.^ I have preferred to wait till I had leisure to make a further study of all the contemporary Puritan catechisms, and might venture to speak of them with fuller knowledge. ^ In Presbyterian Review, for January l88o. 424 The Assembly s Catechisms, I have now little doubt that the paper which Palmer gave in to the Committee and to the Assembly in 1645, and which occasioned the de- bate to which I have referred, was substantially the same with the preface to his catechism. It details the method which he had himself made use of in his catechizings, and which many modern keys (as they are called) to the Shorter Catechism have borrowed from him or from Dr. John Wallis, who, without loss of time, applied the system of his revered master to the new catechism which the Assembly ultimately agreed on. The Scotch Commissioners, when they first heard this paper, were not satisfied with it; and their impartiality therefore is the more highly to be commended in regard to it. They had themselves in the mean- time brought out " the New Catechism according to the form of the Kirk of Scotland, published for the benefit of both Kingdoms," ^ and perhaps in the hope that it might be adopted as the common catechism. Yet when they had had time to con- sider the subject more deliberately, and advise with their friends in Scotland regarding it, they proved in the debate to which I have referred, if not the only, certainly the most prominent advo- cates of Palmer's method and peculiar form of catechism. This debate occurred on the 13th of ^ Printed in the Old Bailly 1644, and reprinted in Catechisms of the Second Reformation. Larger and Shorter. 425 May 1645, probably just after the fifth edition of Pahiicr's Httle treatise had appeared.^ His efforts on that occasion were directed mainly to securing the Assembly's approval of his mctJiod of catechising rather than of the detailed coiitcnts of his catechism. Yet, as I read the brief minutes of the debate, his efforts were not crowned with success. The Scotch Commissioners Rutherfurd and Gillespie spoke warmly in favor of his method of catechising, and of the practice he adopted of making each principal answer a distinct and complete proposition, and breaking down the principal answers by subordinate questions which could all be answered by Aye or No. His per- sonal friend Delme gave the plan a sort of general support, but all the other speakers, and among them Messrs. Marshall and Reynolds, two of the most prominent members of his committee, while frankly acknowledging his great skill and success as a catechist and the good that might come from ministers in their catechisings availing themselves of his method, resolutely objected to have these subordinate questions and answers reduced to rigid form and inserted in the public catechism.^ 1 Published in London 1645. 2 Minutes of l'Vt'sti?iiiisft'r Assembly, \>Tp. 91-94 — Mr. Marshall . ■ " I confess that the pains which that brother that brought in tlie Report [hath taken] is both accepted with God and hatli been blessed by him. . . . But I crave leave to give a few dissenting thoughts to the method propounded," These were in substance 426 The Assembly s CatccJiisms, One can hardly contemplate without a shudder how near we were to missing the most concise, nervous, and severely logical catechism in our language had Mr. Palmer and the Scotch Com- missioners at that time carried their point and got these subordinate questions and answers inserted in the catechism. I do not think that was further pressed on the Assembly after this date,^ but Mr. Palmer continued to be so persuaded of its excel- lence and importance that he determined with himself that he would print upon his own method the catechism which the Assembly should ulti- mately adopt, and, departing to his rest ere that had that people would come to get up the subordinate answers by rote as well as the principal ones, that good might come of the catechiser himself breaking up the principal answers in the method proposed, but not from their being inserted into the catechism and learned by rote. He approved, however, of commending all this in the preface to the catechism. Mr. Reynolds : " We all agree that way which is most for ingenerating knowledge is most to be used. But that this way before you is the best way I cannot discern. [If] you resolve it shall be but a directory, then how shall those Ayes or Noes be of use ? . . . You will obtain your end as well by setting it down in the preface to the catechism." Seaman says there were two questions before them, the one relating to a catechism, the other to the method of catechising, and that the two should be kept distinct, and the minister not too strictly tied up as to the latter. Palmer was somewhat dissatisfied with the result of the debate, and said that if he had not a peculiar interest in the matter he would have spoken more upon it. ^ Baillie, however, says at a later date : " We had passed a quarter of the catechise and thought to have made short work with the rest; but they are fallen into such mistakes and endless jang- lings about both the method and the matter that all think it will be longsome work." — Letters, vol. ii. p. 416. Lm^gcr and SJiorte7\ 427 been completed, he left his purpose, as a sacred legacy, to be executed by his young friend Wallis. He accordingly in 1648 published that explanation of the Shorter Catechism on the model of Palmer's treatise, on which several so-called keys to it have in our own day been based. On 1st August, 1645, a further report was pre- sented by the committee to the Assembly. The interval may possibly have been employed in try- ing to put the materials of Palmer's Catechism into more acceptable shape, or to bring it nearer to the Scotch one (which, though more brief, is framed on the same plan), and to disencumber it of all the subordinate questions to the formal insertion of which objection had been taken. The only hints which the Minutes supply are that there was a debate as to whether the Creed should be expressed and probably made, as it was both in the Scotch and in Palmer's, and several contemporary catechisms, the basis of the exposi- tion of the Articles of Faith, or whether these articles should be taken up in the systematic order more usually adopted in strictly Puritan catechisms. There was also a debate concerning God, which was one of the first articles in all the catechisms of the period, whether they were framed on the basis of the Apostles' Creed or of the commonly received system of theology. But I conclude that even yet the committee was not 428 The Assembly s CatecJiisms, altogether of one mind/ and that it was on this account that, after debate on 20th August, it was reconstituted, and Mr. Palmer, Dr. Stanton, and Mr. Young were appointed to draw up the whole draft of the catechism with all convenient speed. Either, however, they did not proceed very speedily or they met with unexpected difficulties in their undertaking, and, on 22d July 1646 Mr. Ward was adjoined to them. It was not till i ith September 1646 that their report was called for, nor till the afternoon of Monday 14th September that it was actually presented ; and from that date on to the 4th January 1646-7 it was from time to time taken up, and passed as far as the fourth commandment.^ On 1st December, however, before much of it had passed, a large addition was again made to the committee, viz., Messrs. Whitaker, Nye, and Byfield, and " the brethren who had been intrusted with the methodizing of the Confession of Faith," viz., Messrs. Reynolds, Herle, Newcomen, Arrowsmith, and Tuckney ; and pro- bably it was in consequence of these changes on the committee that on the 14th of January, on a motion by Mr. Vines, it was ordered " that the committee for the catechism do prepare a draught of two catechisms, one more large and another more brief, in the preparation of which they are to have an eye to the Confession of Faith and the ^ Minutes, pp. 124, 125. ' Minutes, pp. 281-318. Larger and SJiorter. 429 matter of the catechism already begun," ' or, as the Scotch Commissioners report it in a letter to the Commission of their own Assembly, which bears unmistakable evidence of being from the hand of Rutherfurd : " The Assembly of Divines, after they had made some progress in the catechism which was brought in to them from their committee, and having found it very difficult to satisfy themselves or the world with one form of catechism or to dress up milk and meat both in one dish, have, after second thoughts, recommitted the work that two forms of catechism may be prepared, one more exact and comprehensive ; another more easie and short for new beginners."^ The cate- chism which had already been so far passed was unquestionably still on the basis of Palmer's, but a large portion of the detailed historical explana- tions of the second part of the creed, relating to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, was omitted, and in the exposition of the com- mandments another basis is already plainly discernible, while a more pronounced Calvinistic ^ Minutes, p. 321 ; also Baillie's Letters, vol. ii. p. 379. 2 MS. Minutes of Commission. To the same effect, Gillespie says to the Assembly in Edinburgh in August 1647, that the divines have found great difficulty "how to make it full, such as might be expected from an Assembly, and, upon the other part, how to condescend to the capacity of the common and unlearned. Therefore they are a-making two distinct catechisms — a short and plain one for these, and a larger one for those of understanding." Appendix to Baillie's Letters, vol. iii. p. 452. 430 The Assembly s Catechisms, character is given to the doctrinal teaching. The variations from and additions to individual answers can in general be still traced to other contempo- rary catechisms, and the more important of them to those of Ussher, on whose catechetical manuals, as previously on his Articles of Religi6n, they seem to me to take pleasure in falling back, especially on all cardinal questions. Even this partially passed recension of a catechism follows his and more strictly Puritan treatises rather than Palmer's in placing in the forefront the question and answer as to the rule of faith, and in inserting another as to the decrees of God ; and it is to the same source we have to trace the questions and answers as to the covenants of works and of grace, the prophetical, priestly, and kingly offices of the Redeemer, and the effectual calling, justification, adoption, and sanctification and perseverance of those who have been made partakers of redemp- tion, and even the detailed and specific statements as to the sinfulness of the estate into which man fell. All these, which make the Westminster Cate- chisms what they ultimately became, are to be sought outside of Palmer's Endeaiwr of making Christiaji Religion casie, which the more they tried to adapt it to their purpose, the more they had to alter or supplement it ; and all these are to be found in the distinctively Calvinistic catechisms of Ezekiel Rogers, John Ball, William Gouge, M. Larger and Shorter. 431 N[ewcomen or Nicholl], and, to a considerable extent, in those of Henry Wilkinson and Adoni- ram Byfield, as well as of Archbishop Ussher. Of this I deem myself entitled to speak with some confidence, having had the opportunity of carefully comparing the answers in their manuals as well as in Palmer's with the definitions ultimately inserted by the Assembly in one or other of its catechisms. It was not until after the Scripture proofs for the Confession of Faith were completed that the result of the labors of the reconstituted com- mittee in preparing a Larger Catechism were called for. But, on 15th April 1647, ^^e first portion of them was presented to the Assembly and further portions were from time to time presented and discussed till, on 15th October of the same year, the Larger Catechism was finished, substantially in the shape in which we still have it. The doctrinal part of this manual, as every one who has carefully studied it knows, and as the resolution reconstituting the committee prepares us to expect, is taken to a large extent from the Confession of Faith. The explanation of the ten commandments, and of the duties required and the sins forbidden under each, is largely derived from Ussher's Body of Divinity, NichoU's and Ball's catechisms, and perhaps also from Cart- wright's Body of Divinity and some of the larger 432 The Assembly s Catechisms^ practical treatises of Perkins. The exposition of the Lord's Prayer has been got in part from the same sources, in part also from Attersoll's, or some other catechism based on Perkins' treatise on the Lord's Prayer, and like it, supplying matter for confession of sin, as well as for prayer more strictly so called, under each of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. I can enter into particulars as to this derivation or correspondence only in the most cursory way, but in the collection of catechisms published by me in 1886, I have endeavored to provide materials for tracing it out more fully. The first question or interrogation, which does not seem to have appeared in the former draft of the committee, is taken from the old English translation of Calvin's Catechism, What is the principal and chief end of man's life? The answer to this question may be said to combine the an- swers to Question 3rd in the Catechisms of Calvin and Ames, " To have his glory showed forth in us," and " in the enjoying of God," and it may have been taken from them ; or the first part may have been taken from Rogers, Ball, or Palmer, and the second from one of the earliest catechisms of the Swiss Reformation, viz., that of Leo Judae, pub- lished at Zurich before 1530.^ The second ques- 1 From its importance I insert in full the question and answer. Q. Die, sodes, ad quern finem homo creatus est ? R. Ut optimi maximi ac sapientissimi Dei Creatoris mnjestatem ac bonitatem agnoscamus, tandemque illo a-ternuni fruamiir. Larger and SJiortcr. 433 tion is one found in several contemporary cate- chisms, and the answer to it is substantially taken from the Confession of Faith. The third question, which in the former draft had stood apparently at the head/ is put here in a somewhat altered shape, and the clause which had there been principal, and again becomes so in the Shorter Catechism, is brought in as subsidiary and thrown to the end of the answer. The next question, relating to the proofs showing that the Scriptures are the word of God, is found in many Puritan catechisms, and the answer is abridged from the Confession of Faith. The question as to what the Scriptures principally or especially teach is found both in Paget's and in Ball's Catechism, and the answer in Ussher's Principles of Christian Religion. The next question, What do the Scriptures make known of God ? and the answer, are found in analogous forms in Rutherfurd's and some other contempo- rary manuals. The answer to the question, What is God?^ had in the former draft been taken from Palmer's work, with the exception that ** perfec- tion," in the singular, had been changed into " per- fections," in the plural, as it had been in another catechism published anonymously in the previous year. Here the former description is exchanged for one abridged apparently from Ussher's Body ^ Miinites, p. 281. 2 " God is a most glorious being, infinite in all perfections." 28 434 ^/^^ Assembly's Catechisms, of Divinity} The next answer, respecting the properties or attributes of God, was at first dis- tinct from the previous one. Dr. Briggs supposes it may have been got by crushing into one the answers to more than a score of questions in Pahiier's treatise and Dr. Matthews deduces it by a somewhat similar condensation of various answers in Ball's larger catechism. But it is simply an abridgment of a paragraph in Chapter II. of the Confession of Faith ; and the ultimate answer of the Larger Catechism to the question. What is God ? was got by joining these two answers into one. The answer to the same question in the Shorter Catechism is from a different source, and is composed of the Scriptural definition " God is a Spirit," with the incommunicable attributes arranged in the same order as they were by Rogers, but in adjectival form, and the communi- cable in substantive form almost exactly as they had been given by Egerton. But time will not admit of my prosecuting this minute comparison further. The doctrinal defini- tions in the Larger Catechism are, as I have said, in a great measure abridged from the Confession of Faith, and so far as they are not so they may generally be found in a shorter form in Ball's and Nicholl's catechisms, or in a more diffuse form in Ussher's Body of Divinity. The same may be said, ^ " God is a spirit, infinite in being and perfection." Larger and Shorter. 435 even more unreservedly, of the exposition of the ten commandments and of the Lord's Prayer as concerns NichoU and Ussher.' But one of the most singular and unexpected disclosures brought to light in the recently published Minutes of the Assembly is that, while the early draft of the cate- chism in 1645 treated first of crcdcuda, then of the ten commandments, and so left to the last the means of grace and the Lord's Prayer, and while the Larger Catechism as finally adjusted followed the same order, yet, as first entered on the Minutes of the Assembly in 1647, it treats of the means of grace or the word, sacraments, and prayer, be- fore it expounds the commandments, in this follow- ing the plan of Ball's and some other catechisms, and showing that, if not in details, yet in outline and method, the divines followed some previous manual on the same plan as his — possibly that small one of date 1542, attributed to Calvin, — which, after beinc: loncf lost, has been brouorht to light recently by M. Douen, and printed as an ap- pendix to the second volume of his Huguenot Psalter. At least they follow its plan more ex- actly than that of Ball ; and the statement of Baillie, given on page 426, is sufficient to show ^ Dr. Schaff in his Creeds of Chrisk'udorn iugg^hi's, that the treatise of Wollebius, entitled Con/peiu/iuf/i Theologiir, or An Abridgmeut of Christian Divinity, may also have been drawn upon. So also possibly may have been the Exposition of the Heidelberg Cate- chisjn. 436 The Assembly s Catechisms, that the question of method continued long to divide them. Their detailed and elaborate an- swers in the several parts of this catechism are, even when founded on previous treatises, care- fully matured expansions of the answers given in these. I shall try to find room in the Appendix (O) for one specimen of this, furnished by the rules they have provided for the exposition of the commandments, on the principles set forth in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. These rules had been more and more elaborated in the larger Puritan catechisms from the days of Whitaker and Cartwright to those of Ball and Ussher, and were finally brought as near to perfection as they could well be by Dr. Gouge and Mr. Walker — the sub-committee appointed to prepare them — probably with the help of Dr. Tuckney, who by that time was acting as chairman of the Commit- tee on the Catechism, and is supposed to have taken a very special charge of the exposition of the ten commandments. The Larger Catechism was completed on 15th October 1647, read over in the Assembly on 20th by Dr. Burgess, and on the 22d was carried up to the two Houses ^ by the Prolocutor and the whole Assembly, when thanks were returned to them " for their great labor and pains in compiling this Long Catechism." It ap- pears to have been presented in manuscript to the 1 Lords' Journals, ix. p. 488 j Commons' Joiunals, v. p. 340. Larger and Shorter, ^-iyl Scottish Assembly in July 1647, so far as it was then completed, and on the 17th September cer- tain alterations desired by their Commission were made at Westminster. It was approved by the General Assembly on 20th July 1648.^ It was presented with the proofs on 14th April 1648. The Shorter Catechism was not put into final shape till after the Larger one had been virtually completed, though it perhaps embodies somewhat more of the materials of the earlier manual, which had partially passed the Assembly in 1646. Drs. Belfrage, Hetherington, and the younger M'Crie, relying on Neal's account, have stated that the shorter one was first completed and presented to Parliament. But Neal has fallen into the error of overlooking the fact, that the Larger Catechism, without proofs, was presented to Parliament on 22d October 1647, as well as with proofs on 14th April 1648, while the Shorter Catechism, without proofs, was only sent up on 25th November 1647, and again with proofs on 14th April 1648.^ The following are the brief notices respecting it found in the Minutes of the Assembly. On 5th August 1647, it was resolved (p. 408) " that the Shorter Catechism shall be gone in hand with presently, by a committee now to be chosen," and ordered that " the Prolocutor, Mr. ^ Peterkin's Records of Kirk, p. 496. 2 Minutes, pp. 485, 492, 511. 43 8 The Assembly's Catechisms, Palmer, Dr. Temple, Mr. Lightfoot, Mr. Greene,. Mr. Delmy, shall be this committee." It was to meet the same afternoon, and Mr. Palmer to take care of it, or be its convener. On August 9th, " a report of the Short Catechism was made by Mr. Palmer; and Mr. Calamy and Mr. Gower were added to the committee." ^ This is the last occasion in which the Minutes notice the presence of Mr. Palmer in the Assembly, and shortly after this he fell into a serious illness and died. The exact date of his death has not been ascertained even by Dr. Grosart, who has so carefully investi- gated his history ; but by 28th September a suc- cessor had been presented to one of the charges held by him. On August loth " Dr. Temple made report of the Lesser Catechism." On September 8th, Mr. Wilson was added to the committee for the catechism, and the same day Mr. Wilson made report of the catechism. On September i6th, a further order was given to proceed with the little catechism. It was not, however, till 19th October 1647, when the Larger Catechism was ready to be presented to the two Houses of Parliament, that orders were given to Messrs. Tuckney,^ Mar- shall, and Ward finally to adjust the Shorter one, yet no doubt preparation was being made for it during the interval by the committee previously ^ Mimites, pp. 408-410. "^ Ibid., p. 485, Cambridge gave him leave of absence for a time from his charge there. Larger and Shorter. 439 appointed, probably along with Wallis, who ulti- mately attended the committee as its secretary, and who in all likelihood had been privately as- sisting his friend Palmer with it during the last weeks of his life/ On 21st October the first re- port from this new committee was brought in by Tuckney, and discussed. Some debate arose as to whether the word " substance," or rather the expression " one in substance," in the answer to the question. How many persons are there in the Godhead ? should be left out. This, we know, was not done, but " one in substance " was changed into " the same in substance," a closer rendering of the Nicene b/ioo'jfftos, and the phrase ** equal in substance, power and glory," originally used in the Larger Catechism, was changed to the same form as in the Shorter. No further particulars of the de- bates on this catechism are given in the Minutes, but nothing save formal business was transacted in the Assembly till it had been finished. On 8th Novem- ber, it is recorded that the Commandments, Lord's Prayer, and Creed were added to the catechism, and on the following day that Mr. Rutherfurd took his leaveofthe Assembly, receiving the thanks of the As- sembly, through the Prolocutor for the great assist- ance he had rendered to it in its labors and debates.^ ' He was evidently :\. protege of Palmer and a fellow in Queen's College of which Palmer was master. '^ Minutes, pp. 487, 488. On 15th October, when the completion of the Larger Catechism was reported, Mr. Rutherfurd moved, and 440 The Assembly s Catechisms, On the same day, Mr. Burgess and Mr. Cawdrey were added to the committee, along with WaUis, for the review of the catechism. All was again reviewed by the committee, and discussed by the Assembly before the 25 th November. The brief statement originally prepared as a preface was appended as a postscript. Messrs. Nye and Rey- nor dissented from the insertion of the Creed at the end of the catechism, but possibly the terms of the postscript just referred to, and the explana- tion added some days later as to the sense in which the Article " he descended into hell " was to be understood, may have satisfied their scruples.^ Though in Scotland, as elsewhere, this catechism has been, and deservedly so, the most popular of all the productions of the Assembly, it was the one with the elaboration of which the Scotch Commissioners had least to do. Henderson had left and had died before the Confession was com- pleted. Baillie left immediately after it was finished, and took down with him to Scotland the first copy of the Confession, without proofs. Gil- lespie, after repeated petitions to be allowed to the Assembly ordered, " that it be recorded in the scribes' books that the Assembly hath enjoyed the assistance of the honorable reverend and learned commissioners from the Church of Scotland, in the work of the Assembly during all the time of the debating and perfecting the four things mentioned in the Covenant, viz., the Directory for Worship, the Confession of Faith, Form of Church- Government, and Catechism." — Ibid., p. 484. ^ Minutes, pp. 490, 492. Larger and Shorter. 441 return home, received permission to leave in May 1647, when the proofs for the Confession had been completed, but while the debates on the Larger Catechism were still going on, and the answer to the question, What is God ? — with which his name has been traditionally associated — had not as yet been adjusted for that Catechism, much less for the Shorter one.^ It still remained in the same ^ Even three months after he left London all that he was able to report to the Scottish Assembly respecting the catechisms was that the divines " have had no time yet to do anything in the lat- ter, but here is the copy of the greater, zahich is almost cowpletey The only instance in which we can be very sure that he has left his mark on the Confession is that (in ch. xvi. Miscellany Questions) pointed out some years ago by Professor Candlish : " Theheavenliness of the mat- The Scripture is known to be ter, the efficacy of the doctrine, indeed the word of God by the beams of divine authority which it hath in itself, . . . such as the heavenliness of the matter, the majesty of the style, the irresis- tible power over the conscience, the general scope to abase man, and to exalt God ; nothing driven at but God's glory and man's salvation, ... the super- natural mysteries revealed there- in, which could never have entered into the reason of man, the marvellous consent of all parts and passages (though writ- ten by divers and several pen- men), even where there is some appearance of difference, . . . these and the like are characters and marks which evidence the Scriptures to be the word of God. the majesty of the style, the con- sent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incom- prehensible excellencies and the entire perfection thereof, are ar- guments whereby it doth abun- dantly manifest itself to be the word of God." — Confession of Faith, ch. i. Z v. 442 The Asstvnbiy s Catechisms ^ brief form as it bears in the earliest draft of the As- sembly and in the catechetical manuals of Cart- wrieht and Ussher. Even Rutherfurd had been seized with a fit of home-sickness, and wrote that he did not think the elaboration of this catechism of sufficient importance to detain him from his college and his flock at St. An- drews. At any rate, though persuaded to re- main till it had passed, so to speak, the first reading, he does not seem to have left his dis- tinctive mark on it. Not the faintest trace of that wealth of homely imagery, which enriches the MS. catechism attributed to him, is to be found in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. From first to last, it appears to me in its clear, condensed, and at times almost frigidly logical definitions, to give unmistakable evidence of its having passed through the alembic of Dr. Wallis, the great mathe- matician, the friend and protege of Palmer, the opponent of Hobbes and the Socinians, and prob- ably the last survivor of those connected with the great Assembly who was not ashamed to speak of the benefit he had derived from its discussions during the preparation of its Confession and Cate- chisms, long after he had conformed to the Church of the Restoration.^ The Shorter Catechism con- ^ Wodrow and both the M'Cries seem to look on his claim to the authorship of this catechism with a certain amount of favor. Dr. Belfrage refers to a " theologian of great research " who favors Larger and SJiortcr, 443 tains, as I have just told you, more of the mate- rials of the catechism partially passed by the As- sembly in 1646 than the Larger does, but not in a shape which brings them nearer to the form of Palmer's original work. On the contrary, it is a thoroughly Calvinistic and Puritan catechism, the ripest fruit of the Assembly's thought and expe- rience, maturing and finally fixing the definitions of theological terms to which Puritanism for half a century had been leading up and gradually coming closer and closer in its legion of cate- chisms. It differs in one or two things even from the Larger Catechism, composed just before it. Its second question as to the rule of faith, if in more concise form than the third question of the other, is more direct and emphatic. Its definition of God is more happy, and, as already mentioned, is from a different source. It does not insert its definitions of faith and repentance where the other has them, but holds them over till its third part, when it comes to treat of the way of salva- tion and the means of grace. And while, as I have said, it is a thoroughly Calvinistic catechism, it has nothing of church censures, church courts, or church officers, as many similar productions have. Nay, it does not even have a definition of the Church, whether visible or invisible, like the that of Arrowsniith, but he does not appear to have been a mem- ber of the committee or in attendance on the Assembly at that time. 444 ^^^^ Assembly s CatccJiisvis, Larger Catechism and the Confession of Faith, but only an incidental reference to it in connec- tion with the answer to the question, To whom is baptism to be administered ? It would seem as if in this their simplest yet noblest symbol they wished, as far as Calvinists could do so, to eliminate from their statements all that was subordinate or unessential — all relating to the mere organization of Christians as an external conmiunity — all in which they differed from sound Protestant Episco- palians on the one hand, and from the less un- sound of the sectaries on the other, and to make a supreme effort to provide a worthy catechism in which all the Protestant youth in the country might be trained. So highly was the effort appreciated at the time that the king, no doubt with the sanction of Ussher and his fellow-chap- lains, in some of his latest negotiations with the Parliament, offered to license it, while still hesitat- ing to accept the Directories for Public Worship and for Church-Government as they had been drawn up by the Assembly. It was no sooner passed by the Parliament and published than it became widely popular in England, and it main- tained its popularity in a wonderful degree even after the sad reverses which befell its authors in 1662. For more than a century after that, it was the most widely recognized manual of instruction, not only among Presbyterians but also among the Largc7^ and Shorter. 445 other orthodox Dissenters. The Independents used it both in England and America. The Baptists used it with a very few alterations, and in the i8th century that great evangelist John Wesley, who was ever ready to adapt to his own purposes good books prepared by others holding opinions considerably different from his own, al- lowed it to circulate among his societies in a modi- fied form. It was early translated into Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and has been retranslated in our own day into Hebrew and Syriac, and into most modern languages both in the east and the west. When about forty years ago I visited the Leb- anon schools, in the neighborhood of Beyrout, I was greatly interested to find that the American missionaries not only taught this old catechism to the Druse and Maronite children, but also taught it in the old Scottish form which has now all but disappeared at home, making it the first reading-book, having the A B C at the beginning, and a syllabary corresponding to our a, b, ab; e, b, eb, etc, but of course all in orthodox Arabic. The guiding principle of the Assembly and its committee in its composition was that announced by Dr. Seaman in one of the earliest debates about it, viz., *' That the greatest care should be taken to frame the answer not according to the model of the knowledge the child hath, but according to that the child ou^ht to have." And if too little 44^ The Assembly s Catechis77tSy care was taken in former times to teach it intelli- gently to the young, and gradually to open up its full meaning to them, yet, as Dr. M'Crie has well observed, " the objection was pushed too far when it was maintained that without a full scientific un- derstanding of its doctrines it is useless to acquire familiarity with their phraseology and contents. The pupil must learn the rudiments of Greek and Latin long before he can comprehend the use of them, or apply them as a key to unlock the trea- sures of ancient learning [in fact, in all Churches he is first taught his Christian creed in this way], and experience has shown that few who have been carefully instructed in our Shorter Catechism have failed to discover the advantage of becoming acquainted in early life, even as a task, with that admirable form of sound words." For three quarters of a century past, I do not believe that intelligent teachers of the Catechism have been rare, either in the parochial or in the Sabbath schools of Scotland, and with the helps with which Gall and others, who have drawn on the older stores of Wallis and Palmer and Lye, have pro- vided them, there is no excuse for any teacher making the study of it an irksome task, or falling in a good measure to bring it down to the capaci- ties and home to the hearts of his pupils. I am but fulfilling a simple duty when I thus publicly express my deep gratitude to my teachers, both in Larger mid Shorter. 447 the day-school and in the Sabbath-school for the uniform pains they took to make the study of it interesting- and attractive. I can confidently affirm that I found their instructions of no small advantage when I proceeded to the more systematic study of theology, and I shall never lose hope of the living orthodoxy of the Presbyterian Churches while their rising ministry and church-members are intelli- gently and affectionately trained in the Shorter Catechism, and set themselves to train their flocks in it as good old Principal Hill used to recommend them to do. In a paper I put in type toward the close of 1880, and published in 1886,^ I have endeavored pretty fully to trace out the sources of the several answers in this Catechism, or at least to indicate the many points of contact and resemblance be- tween them and those of the earlier Puritan cate- chisms, several of which had been composed by members of the Assembly. The exercise has been interesting to myself, and I trust its results will not be uninteresting to many of my brethren. It shows how gradually in the stream of successive cate- chisms those definitions of theological terms which were ultimately to be perfected and crystalized, so to speak, at Westminster, were developed and matured, and more and more widely accepted. I cannot within the compass of this lecture enter 1 Catechism of the Second Reformation alreaily referred to. 44S The Assembly s Catechisms, into details, but I may say generally before closing, that so far as plan and the order of the questions or interrogatories is concerned, I regard the little catechism of Ezekiel Rogers, who was a minister first in Yorkshire, and latterly in New England, as most closely resembling the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. The answers in his little treatise are much more simple and elementary, the exposition of the ten commandments is in the briefest possible form, and the verbal coincidences in individual answers are few. But all is there in miniature, and almost all in the same order as in the later and fuller catechism. The plan of M. N.'s (or as I suppose, Newcomen's or NichoU's) Catechism is very similar also, the execution is much more detailed, especially in the exposition of the commandments, and particular answers frequently coincide in expression as well as in general meaning with those of the Shorter Cate- chism. The chief deviation is, that it, like that of the Church of England and several of the more moderate Puritan catechisms, begins by remind- ing the catechumen of his baptism, and of the privileges and responsibilities arising out of it. Next perhaps in point of resemblance stand the catechisms of Gouge and Ball. The author of the former was an influential member of the Assembly, and his treatise has many verbal coincidences with that prepared by them, but it deviates so far from Lai^gei^ and SJioi'ter. 449 it in plan by placing the exposition of the com- mandments before the explanation of the doctrines of the Christian faith. A similar remark applies to Ball's treatise, entitled A Short Catechism. This has decidedly more verbal coincidences with the Assembly's Shorter Catechism in the answers to particular questions, but it deviates farther in plan, treating first of doctrine, then of the means of grace, preaching, prayer, exposition of the Lord's Prayer and of the sacraments, of the Church and Church censures, and finally expounding the commandments, and concluding with a few gen- eral questions. Palmer's Catechism, as already stated, is similar in general plan, with the excep- tion that, like the Anglican Catechism, it treats of prayer and the Lord's Prayer before it treats of the sacraments, and that it moulds its exposition of doctrine closely on the Apostle's Creed. It was unquestionably on the basis of its first part the divines began to work in 1645, but so many of its historical questions have been omitted in the course of their successive revisions, and so much that was needed to explain and define im- portant doctrines of the Christian system has been added, that the similarity is not now so marked in that first part, much less in the others, as, from the fact mentioned, one might have expected. The only trace the Shorter Catechism perhaps now bears of having been moulded on one which 29 450 The Assembly s Catechisms^ had the Apostle's Creed for the basis of its first or doctrinal part is that, at the close of that part, it takes account only of the eternal state of be- lievers. But, strange as the fact may seem, it deviates in this from Palmer's, and from almost every other catechism — NichoU's, however, as in so many other things, coming nearest to it. The only way in which one, who knows how strongly its authors speak in other parts of the desert of sin and the endless misery in reserve for the impeni- tent, can account for no reference being made to these topics in this place is, that the divines were expounding the last article of the Apostles' Creed, and had in view only the case of those who could truly say, " I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting," and did not deem themselves bound even incidentally to advert to the future of those who had neither part nor lot in Christ and his great salvation. The title sanctioned by the English Parliament for this catechism was not that originally fixed on by the Assembly itself, and by which it is now universally known, but the following expansion of it : — " The Grounds and Principles of Religion contained in a Shorter Catechism (according to the advice of the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster), to be used throughout the king- dom of England and dominion of Wales." ^ It ^ For procedure of the Houses, see Minutes of Assembly, p. 511. Larger and Shorter, 451 seems to have had the approval of the divines, and at least ten or twelve editions of it with this title were published in England before 1720. Between 21st October and 19th November the Catechism may be said to have passed the first and second reading in the Assembly, and; with- out proofs, it was presented to the House of Commons on the 25th, and to the House of Lords on the 26th November. It was presented with proofs on 14th April 1648, and by 25 th Septem- ber 1648 it had been passed by the Houses, with the above title. It was approved by the General Assembly of Scotland on 28th July 1648, and their Acts in regard to it and the Larger Catechism were ratified by the Estates of the Scottish Parlia- ment on 7th February 1649. No express mention is made of it or the Larger Catechism in the Act re-establishing Presbytery after the Revolution, but it has always retained its place of honor in the Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, as else- where, as the most widely known and most highly valued of our doctrinal symbols. Richard Baxter's opinion of this Catechism was very high, and his testimony to its merits very emphatic : " I do heartily approve," he says, " of the Shorter Catechism of the Assembly, and of all therein contained, and I take it for the best catechism that ever I yet saw, and the answers continued (that is, I suppose, read continuously) 452 The Assembly s Catechisms, for a most excellent summary of the Christian faith and doctrine, and a fit test to try the ortho- doxy of teachers themselves." Nay, he adds that, " for the innate worth of it, he prefers it to any of the writings of the Fathers, and that he takes the labors of the Assembly, and especially the Con- fession and Catechisms, as the best book next his bible in his study." The sainted Leighton seems also to have had a high opinion of it, and admits that the thoughts we find in it on the awful sub- ject of the divine decrees " are few, sober, clear, and certain." Principal Hill speaks with high commendation of the Catechism and the system of teaching it followed by the ministers of his day : " Considered as a system of divinity," he says, " this catechism is entitled to much admira- tion. It has nothing superfluous ; the words are chosen with uncommon skill, and the answer to almost every question is a text on which a person versant in such subjects can easily enlarge, . . . and in the hands of an experienced, attentive exam- iner, . . . the catechism may be made completely to answer the purpose of leading the people to the apprehension of Christian doctrine and of the extent of Christian duty." The opinion of Dr. Schaff in our own day, if, as becomes a German, somewhat more guarded than Baxter's, is hardly less remarkable. He says : " The Shorter Catechism is one of the Larger and SJiorter, 453 three typical catechisms of Protestantism which are Hkely to last to the end of time. It is fully equal to Luther's and to the Heidelberg Cate- chism in ability and influence ; it far surpasses them in clearness and careful wording (or, as he elsewhere says, in brevity, terseness, and accuracy of definition), and is better adapted to the Scottish and Anglo-American mind ; but it lacks their genial warmth, freshness, and child-like simplicity." Perhaps quite as noteworthy are the words he quotes from Carlyle, who, when testifying against modern materialism, thus expressed himself: — ** The older I grow — and I now stand upon the brink of eternity — the more comes back to me the first sentence in the catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its mean- ing becomes : What is the chief end of man ? — To glorify God, and enjoy him forever." LECTURE XIII. CONCLUSION AND RESULTS OF THE ASSEMBLY. With the completion of the Catechisms the work of the Westminster Assembly may be said to have come to an end. Even before they were finished, the attendance had fallen off considerably, and it dwindled still further after they were out of hand, till there was often difficulty in obtaining the attendance of the forty members required to change a committee into a formal meeting of the Assembly. Rutherfurd, the last of the original Scottish Com- missioners, had taken his departure in November 1647, and it is more than doubtful whether Blair, who came up the following autumn, was ever admitted to take his seat. The Assembly after 1647 seems to have occupied itself chiefly in getting ready for publication its answers to the reasons of the dissenting brethren, in vindication of their dissents from the decisions of the Assembly on the subject of the presbyterial government of the church, and the ordination of its ministers, as well as to certain papers they had given in to the committee on accommodation.^ The divines also ^ These, as stated on p. 206, were published in 1648, and with a new title-page in 1652. 454 Conclusion and Rcsnlts. 455 resumed consideration of the Queries of the House of Commons regarding the jus divinuni of church- government, and made further progress in putting into shape their answers to them, but they do not appear to have completed their labors or to have presented the results of them to the House. Their sessions continue to be numbered till 22d February 1648-9, which is marked as Session 1 163. After that date they met chiefly as a committee for the examination of presentees to benefices and of candidates for license till 25th March 1652. Whether their meetings ceased at that date, or whether, though no record of them is now extant, they were continued till the dismissal of the Long Parliament by Cromwell in the following year, has not as yet been positively ascertained. By the departure of the Scottish army from F^ngland in 1646-7,^ the unique influence of Scotland on Eng- land in matters of both civil and ecclesiastical policy was sadly weakened ; and by the ill-starred invasion of England by the Duke of Hamilton and the adherents of the " Unlawful Engagement," nominally to insure the restoration of Charles to his regal power on Covenanting terms, but really to secure his deliverance from his Sectarian jailers on terms less onerous, that influence may be said to have been finally extinguished, and the calamity the invaders sought to avert rendered all but inevi- 1 See p. zr:,. 45 6 Couches ion and Re stills table. Not that the dim idea of such a catastrophe, as was at length hurried on, had not been previ- ously brooding in the minds of the Army leaders, and had been resolutely adopted by them when the English Parliament, under the influence of the Presbyterian party, resolved to make one more effort to negotiate a satisfactory treaty with the King. The King, according to his usual policy, haggled on various matters on which in the end he was obliged to give way, and, on the 5 th December 1648, a majority of the House of Com- mons voted " that the King's offers afforded a ground of settlement." Then, without loss of time, the leaders of the Army ventured to assail the freedom of Parliament itself, and forcibly to ex- clude the chiefs of the Presbyterian party from taking their seats in the House of Commons, and the House, thus maimed, recalled its former vote, and became the obedient tool of its new masters, claiming supreme power of legislation without the concurrence of the House of Lords. One of its first acts was to give effect to what had been sim- mering in the minds of the army leaders for months past,^ and to declare the unfortunate monarch to ^ This is clearly implied in various parts of the " Remonstrance " of Fairfax and his officers, though the Remonstrance itself only came out in November 1848. See especially pp. 48 . . . 54. " In all cases of like rebellions or civil wars, the prudence of most nations and ages (as well as the justice of the thing) has led to fix the exemplary punishment first upon the capital leader, and upon others nearest to him, and not to punish the inferiors and exempt of the Assembly. 457 have been the main cause of the late wars and bloodshed, and, maimed and overborne by a fac- tion, as it was, to improvise a tribunal unknown to the constitution/ for the trial and punishment of the King. The legality of this tribunal was challenged by the King, and he refused to ac- knowledge its authority, or to plead to the indict- ment before it. He was nevertheless condemned to death, and when on 30th January 1648-9, the sentence was carried out in front of his own palace of Whitehall, " one dismal universal groan burst from the horror-stricken crowd." the chiefs, so in this case it is most clear, that to fix your justice first upon the head and thereby let his successors see what them- selves may expect, if they attempt the like, may hopefully discour- age them . . . and so is like to be a real security," p. 50. " If any . . . object that the grounds aforegoing . . . would extend, as well against any accommodation with him, since his person came into the Parliament's power, or at least against any restitution there- upon (without his first submitting to judgment and a change of heart and principles) and, consequently, would have served as well against that accommodation with him, and restitution of him, which the Army seemed once to plead for, we shall confess it, as to the main," p. 51. And then in the following pages they enlarge on the reasons which moved them, which were, first, The Parliament's engagement with Scotland for another address to him ; and second, The clause in the Solemn League and Covenant as to the preservation of the king's person, now to be ignored. ^ " The work of military violence, clothed in the merest tatters of legality ... the small minority in Parliament, which had given the semblance of constitutional procedure to the trial in Westmins- ter Halls, were no more than the instruments in the hands of the men of the sword." — Gardiner's History of the Commonwealth, vol. i. p. I. 458 Conclusion and Results Whatever doubt may exist as to the action or inaction of the Westminster Assembly in the case of Archbishop Laud, there can be no doubt as to the courage and promptitude with which its lead- ers and the Presbyterian ministers of London gen- erally protested against the judicial murder of the King, nor as to the earnest anxiety they showed to the last to help forward any settlement of out- standing differences, which would have saved the monarchy, and afforded reasonable security for the liberties of the Parliament and the Reformation of the Church. But their fast friends and allies, the Scotch, had long ere this returned to their homes, and, when too late, the Presbyterians in the south learned the value of their faithful warnings, and found they were indeed at the mercy of that Sectarian Army, who were bent on securing their own ends, though these should have to be gained by overturning the ancient constitution of the kingdom, and setting up in its room a common- wealth in name — an oligarchy ^ or military despot- ism in fact. The committee of the Scottish Estates had instructed their Commissioners to protest against the trial of the King, and the Commis- sioners of the Scottish Assembly, concurring in the protest, expressed their utter detestation of " so horrid a design against his Majesty's person," 1 " The oliijarchy which had usurped the name of a Common- wealth."— Gardiner's Commonwealth, vol. i. p. 199. of the Assembly. 459 and disclaimed all responsibility for ** the miseries, confusions, and calamities that mi^^ht follow." Their deputy, Blair, minister of St. Andrews and Scottish Chaplain to the King, expressed himself as strongly on the enormity of this act as the most ardent Royalist could desire, and never ceased to speak of the unfortunate monarch in terms of warm affection and regard.^ His early interviews with Cromwell, on the other hand, seem to have left on his mind impressions ^ even less favorable than those which Baxter and Ussher formed from their intercourse with him. Immedi- ately on learning that the " horrid design " had actually been carried out, the conmiittee of the Scottish Estates caused Charles II. to be pro- claimed as the lawful heir of his father in the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and sent to their Commissioners in London a copy of the proclamation, with a remonstrance to the House of Commons, which gave so great offense to the regicides, that they first imprisoned the Com- missioners, and soon after ignominiously dismissed them from the kingdom, under the escort of a troop of horse.^ The Scotch sent deputies to invite the young King to come among them, subscribe their Covenants, and take possession of his throne. 1 Blair's Autobiography and Life, pp. 214, 261, "a good king evil-used." '^ Ibid., p. 210, " an egregious dissembler and a great liar." ^ See Minutes, pp. 229, 230, note. 460 Conchtsiou and Results At first they were unsuccessful, but both ParHa- ment and Church persevered in their suit, and at last prevailed on him to accept their invitation and terms. But he was far from sincere in the matter, and soon showed it was dire necessity, not hearty consent, which made him stoop to do so. Moreover, an extreme party had sprung up among themselves, who were too much in sympathy with the Sectaries of the south and too distrustful of their old Royalist countrymen. In their earnest desire to satisfy the scruples and disarm the hos- tility of these men, the more moderate party con- sented to measures which were harsh toward their sovereign, and toward many, who were really eager to forget past differences, and do their utmost to defend their native country against the formidable force which was now preparing to assail it. Fair- fax, having refused to lead that force, resigned his office as Commander-in-chief, which was devolved on Cromwell, who did not share his scruples. All, that the caution and skill of experienced generals could in the circumstances effect to force him back to England, was done by the Leslies and the troops under their command. But, through the interference and dictation of a Com- mittee of the Estates,^ it is said, their plans were at ^ Had the Committee set about purging the Army in March 1649, when petitioned by the Commission of Assembly, the action might have been both wise and safe, but to insist on it on the eve of a battle against the remonstrances of the General was neither of the Assembly. 461 last thwarted, the triumph which seemed within their grasp was snatched from them, and a disaster was inflicted on the nation which was great in its immediate, and still greater in its remoter conse- quences. Cromwell's army, after its victory at Dunbar, returned, and for months occupied the very heart of the kingdom. Nothing remained for the young monarch after his coronation at Scone in i65i,but, as soon as he could gather together even a less disciplined army, to summon to his aid the Royalists of the south, and to try the fortune of war in England. Few of these obeyed his hurried call, and at Worcester, on 3d September 165 i (the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar), after an obstinately contested engage- ment,^ the Scottish army was defeated, the sup- porters of the ancient constitution were crushed, Cromwell " obtained his crowning mercy," and the Sectaries for a time became masters through- out the three kingdoms. Many fancy pictures have been drawn of the glories of that period in Scotland as well as in England, of the tran- quillity of the country, the purity of the ad- ministration, and the comparative freedom and wise nor safe, and to that action he seems to attribute his defeat. " I take God to witness we might have as easily defeated them as we did James Graham at Phihphaugh, if the officers had staid by their troops and regiments!''' ^ " As stiff a contest for four or five hours as I have ever seen." — Cromwell. 462 Conclusion and Results contentedness of the people. These pictures still require to be greatly toned down to bring them into fair accordance with known facts, which only the far greater severities of the later Stuart regime could have cast so much into shade. There can be no question of the military genius or personal prowess or piety of Cromwell, nor of the high-toned morality of many of his enioiirage^ nor of the worthiness of the ends aimed at in much of his foreign and domestic policy. But the circumstances which brought him to the front, and which first tempted or shut him up to the course he thenceforth resolutely pursued, the ex- pedients to which he had recourse on various occasions when he could not attain his ends by strictly constitutional means, made it from the first all but impossible that he should be honored " to bring health and cure " to the distempered nations, or should ever come to trust and be trusted by the great majority, who had been seek- ing, through all these commotions, not a new form of government or a new ruling dynasty, but the purification and continuance of the old.^ Neither the noble qualities and aims of the man, nor the brilliancy of his military successes, nor the great- ' lie had no appreciation of the instinctive horror, with which the Enghsh people regarded an army which counted its impulses as the revelation of God, ... it was l)eyond his power to lay broad the foundations of the peace for which he sighed. — Gardiner's Civil War, vol. iii. p. 518. of the Assembly. 463 ness of his influence for much immediate good at home and abroad, ought to be allowed to blind us to the falseness of the position in which he put himself toward the legitimate aspirations of the nation, nor to the unworthy trickeries^ and cruel- ties to which at times, in maintaining his position, he condescended to have recourse, nor to the sad consequences to Puritanism at home and to Pro- testantism abroad that ultimately came of his usurpation, and the measures by which its success was insured. Much of the hero-worship latterly paid at his shrine has been the glorification of force ; and, if ever there was a case in which it ^ Even Neal says of his policy toward the Cavahers, the Presby- terians, and the Republicans : " Cromwell had the skill not only to keep them divided, but to increase their jealousies of each other, and by that means to disconcert all their measures against himself." Vol. iv. p. 90. See also Beattie's History, p. 261. " In the ascent of this bold usurper to greatness, he had successively employed and thrown away several of the powerful factions who distracted the nation. He had encouraged the I^evellers and persecuted them ; he had flattered the Long Parliament and betrayed it ; he had made use of tlie Sectaries to crush the Commonwealth ; he had spurned the Sectaries in his last advance to power. These, with the Royalists and the Presbyterians, forming in effect the whole people, though too disunited for such a coalition as must have over- thrown him, were the perpetual, irreconcilable enemies of his administration. Master of his army, which he well knew how to manage, surrounded by a few deep and experienced councilors, furnished by his spies with the completest intelligence of all designs against him, he had no great cause of alarm from open resistance. But, he was bound by the instrument of government to call a Par- liament; and in any Parliament his adversaries must be formid- able."— Hallam's Constitutional History of England, vol. ii. chap. X. pt. ii. 464 Conclusion and Results might be truly said that force was no remedy, it was for that in which the Parliament and the nation found themselves in 1648. He did not attempt to loose, but only to cut the knot, over- powering, by the force of the Army, the legiti- mate authorities of the nation when the prospect of agreement between them was not yet aban- doned,— perhaps had begun to be somewhat more hopeful. By the judicial murder of the king he outraged the feelings of the vast majority of the people, and by his whole policy he provoked and intensified that reaction which came to a head so soon after his death. His government was per- sonal government, almost as undisguisedly as ever that of Charles had been, and it was more un- blushingly based on the supremacy of the Army as " a providential power," entitled to overrule or supersede every other. It was a despotism to the core, even when it was most a paternal and relig- ious one. And in Scotland as well as in Ireland, the paternal was ever the vanishing quantity, and the despotism pure and simple the constant one. He could confide only in his own small coterie ; his power of influencing individual men, even within the Puritan circle, was but limited ; he had no such gift of eloquence or electrical force as enabled him to move or control the hostile or indifferent masses, and mould them to his will. He was never content, with all the safeguards he of the Assembly. 465 devised, to be simply the first magistrate in a free state.^ Even the ParHaments, elected under the regulations drafted by him or his Council, did not prove obsequious to his will, and were only a little less respectfully dismissed than the Long Parlia- ^ He wished, no doubt, that England should be free and happy, but he wished to be its greatest man, if not its sovereign. He had nothing of the magnanimity of Washington or Wellington, " To the last he was a slave of the vulgar lust of power ; and to this he sacrificed both his integrity and his country, his conscience, and his peace. Of all usurpers, Cromwell was perhaps the best — the best of a race which merits the indignation of mankind." " To govern according to law may sometimes be an usurper's wish, but can seldom be in his power. The Protector abandoned all thought of it. Dividing the kingdom into districts, he placed at the head of each a major-general as a sort of military magistrate responsible for the subjection of his prefecture. These were eleven in number, men bitterly hostile to the Royalist party and to all civil authority. They were employed to secure the payment of a tax of ten per cent., imposed by Cromwell's arbitrary will on those who had ever sided with the King during the late wars, when their estates ex- ceeded £\OQ per annum. The major-generals, in their cor- respondence printed among Thurloe's papers, display a rapacity and oppression beyond their master's. They complain that the number of those exempted is too great ; they press for harsher measures ; . . . they dwell on the growth of malignancy and the general disaffection. It was not, indeed, likely to be mitigated by this unparalleled tyranny. All illusion was now gone as to the pre- tended benefits of the civil war. It had ended in a despotism, com- pared to which all the illegal practices of former kings, all that had cost Charles his life and Crown, appeared as dust in the balance. . . . That between party and party the ordinary civil rights of men were fairly dealt with is no extraordinary praise; . . . but it is manifest that, so far as his own authority was concerned, no hereditary despot, proud in the crimes of a hundred ancestors, could more have spurned at every limit than this soldier of a com- monwealth."— Marsden's Later Puritans, pp. 4CX)-403, also, Hal- lam's History, vol. ii. ch. x. pt. ii. 30 466 Conchision and Results ment had been. Whatever he may have tolerated in rehgion, he did not tolerate freedom of church government in England/ still less in Scotland. Notwithstanding all his advances, that country continued in a state of sullen discontent, if not of veiled rebellion. Not only was the General As- sembly dismissed in 1653, and prevented from meeting in 1654, but the synods and inferior courts at times were vexatiously interfered with, and dispersed ; and the decisions of presbyteries in the settlement of ministers, even when based on the call of the people, were often overruled. I have recently had occasion to examine the records of the Synod of Perth and Stirling during the period, which show a state of repression in that central province more systematic than previous researches had prepared me to expect.^ It 1 The church there was rather, as one has said, a mere institute for preaching and expounding the Word of God, than for the ad- ministration of seaHng ordinances or the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline. Hence the number of children which grew up unbaptized, and the need for a form of adult baptism, at the Restoration. - In October 165 1, there was no meeting of synod — " the Eng- lish army having overspread the land, and garrisons being planted both in Perth and Stirling, and no safety for traveling, nor liberty for the brethren to convene." The following year, the synod met at Dunning, but were kept out of the church by a popular tumult, apparently encouraged by those who favored the English faction. In October 1653, the Synod met at Dunblane, and, "considering the poverty of the number, and also the want of freedom, being interrupted by the soldiers of Captain Robertson's command," then lying at Dunblane, they unanimously adjourned the synod till the of the Assembly. 467 was the temporary success of his repressive policy, I beHeve, which emboldened Clarendon in England, and Sharp in Scotland, to pursue their following spring, protesting on the interruption of the soldiers, that this interruption should be no prejudice to their liberty to meet again, according to the power given them by Jesus Christ, to assemble as well as to preach, in regard the Word of God, the Solemn League and Covenant, the Acts of the General Assembly, and the laws of the land all allowed it," They did not meet again till October 1654, and, expecting to be again interrupted, before taking up any other business, they made arrangements for their next meeting, as well as for the change of the time and place for it, if these should prove unsuitable or unsafe. They met again in April 1655, and, hearing that a party of soldiers was coming to interrupt their meeting, they improved on the innovation of the preceding year, and resolved not only to fix time and place for their meeting, but to transact their business before the usual sermon, and the arrival of the soldiers, who apparently had been timed not to arrive till after the sermon. That was not interrupted by them, but, immediately after, an English officer commanded the Assembly to dissolve, and being asked to show his warrant for what he did, he refused, and threatened, and actually did use, violence ; where- upon the moderator, after the usual solemn protest, dissolved the meeting. See also Beattie, pp. 232-236. The meeting of the Synod of Fife was also interfered with on one occasion, and in a paper subscribed by Rutherfurd and other leading Protestors in 1653 they said, " Our souls are also grieved with the encroach- ments, that are made by the civil power upon the privileges of the church, in the power of her courts and judicatories in the admit- ting and removing of ministers ; and by their disposing upon their maintenance and stipends at pleasure ; these church privileges being not only allowed and confirmed by the laws of the land, but founded on and consonant to the Word of God." . , . They further complain that '• these powers had given express inhibition to the colleges and universities of this land anent the taking of the Covenant ... a demonstration clear enough, that it is intended that it should be no more had in ixmembrance." — Blair's Auto- biography and Life, p. 305, note. See also Bailie's Letters of 1654. 468 Conctusion and Results far more rigorous and cruel courses. After the death of Cromwell, the motley fabric he had reared fell of its own accord. His son Richard abdicated the office of Protector, as soon as he found he could not count on the support of those who had followed the fortunes of his father. The officers of the army would have liked to retain the supreme control of affairs in their own hands, but, uncertain of the attitude of Monk, and the Scottish division of the Army toward themselves, or to the exiled prince, they consented to recall the *' Rump" of the Long Parliament, which, in 1653, Cromwell had contemptuously dismissed ; and it continued to direct the government of the kingdom for a time. After Monk came with his forces to London, and was welcomed by its citi- zens, the " excluded members " were encouraged again to take their seats, and so the last legally elected Parliament (whose rights, Bradshaw had told Cromwell, were not invalidated by his act of dismissal) was peacefully reinstated at Westmin- ster. Without delay it fell back on its old tradi- tions ; restored the Solemn League aud Covenant to its place of honor in the House, and in the churches; reapproved without qualification of all the chapters of the Confession of Faith, save Chap- ters XXX. and xxxi., and recognized the Presbyte- rian government of the Church, but with a tolera- tion for tender consciences. And these, rather of the Assembly. 469 than the older arrangements of 1648, are those by which the spirit of English Presbyterianism ought in fairness to be judged. Having provided for the assembling of a Parliament more truly representa- tive of the nation, and more in the old form, this memorable House of Commons then agreed to its own dissolution. The new House of Commons was elected by a wider constituency than Crom- well had ever ventured to intrust with such a power, and a number of old Cavaliers found places among its members. They were not so powerful in it, however, as they were soon to be- come, and, in all probability, it would have listened with favor to the proposal of Sir Matthew Hale, that, before his restoration, conditions should be arranged with the King for securing the liberties of the nation and the reformation of the Church. But those in the more immediate confidence of Monk, as well as Hyde and others about the King, dreaded such a movement, and did their utmost to hurry on the Restoration while the favorable impression produced by the Royal De- claration for " toleration to tender consciences," issued from Breda, was still at its height. Thus, in the exuberance of an unsuspecting loyalty, all was confided to the honor of the King, and on the 29tli of May he was welcomed to London with unbounded enthusiasm and joy. There is per- haps no reason to suppose that the king himself 470 Concltision and RestUts meant deliberately to amuse or mislead those who had so implicitly confided in him. Indeed the Declaration he issued in October 1660, and the offers of promotion in the church he made to lead- ing Puritans seem to show the contrary, and that he would have been gratified to be the means of restoring a better understanding between the old Cavaliers and the moderate Puritans who had united in doing him so signal a service. But he was not thoroughly in earnest in the cause. It was indolent good-nature, more than any deeper principle which actuated him, and so he was not resolute in his course. While he had not gone quite far enough in his Declaration to satisfy Bax- ter, and some of his more scrupulous brethren, he had gone too far to please the old bishops, and they left no stone unturned to avert the threatened mischief. " They worked upon Clarendon, they rallied the courtiers as one man round the banner of the High Church, they spirited away Sir Mat- thew Hale from the Lower House by having him appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer. At length their efforts were crowned with success." ^ On the 28th of November 1660, they saw his Declaration^ rejected in the House of Commons by a majority of 26. With this may be said to ^ Bayne's English Puritanism, p. 122. ^ His Majesty'' s Declaration to all his loving subjects of Eng- land and Wales concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs,''' London 1660. of the Assembly. 47 1 have perished all prospect of such a reconstruc- tion of the Church as would have satisfied the reasonable desires and cherished hopes of the more moderate Nonconformists, and with that almost all prospect of any large or liberal tole- ration to them outside. It was now unmistak- ably clear that whatever may have been the per- sonal wishes of the king, and one or two of the noblemen in immediate attendance on him, his chief advisers, lay as well as clerical, were not in favor of any real or generous compromise. The Savoy Conference could hardly in such cir- cumstances have been other than a failure, though every effort was made to load the Presbyterians with the odium of the failure. Their recent ser- vices to the royal cause, it was now evident, had not obliterated from the minds of their embittered opponents the remembrance of the more ancient feud. Now that they thought they had them in their power, and a majority of the House of Commons at their back, they were determined to make their position as uncomfortable as they could. No real ground had been given for this. There was no inconsistency in contending, as these had done through all the preceding troubles, for a certain amount of liberty in the state, and of reformation in the Church, and yet standing by the ancient constitution and royal family. The attempt to misrepresent them, and excite preju- 472 Conclusion and Results dice against them, and to revive the old doctrine of passive obedience, and the divine right of kings, was unworthy of those who prostituted their sacred office to assert it, and to prepare a fresh harvest of calamity for the nation. The issue of such a course could only be a great schism and a new struggle, which only truly Christian men could have continued to maintain so resolutely with no arms but those of prayer and patience. "At length the storm burst." The work of the Savoy Conference was transferred to the revived Convocation, and after the Book of Common Prayer had been revised by them, and many minor alterations made (but few making it more accep- table to the Puritans^), it was transmitted to the king, and the Bill to compel uniformity was re- introduced into Parliament. The history of its progress there, of the changes made in its pro- gress— tending to increase its harshness — and of the narrow majorities by which at last it was passed, has been often told, and recently it has been re-told with greater minuteness and accuracy by Canon Swainson. On the 14th January, it was read a first time in the House of Commons ; on the 8th of May, it finally passed the House of Lords, and on the 1 8th it received the royal as- sent. " The fate of the Puritans was thus sealed. ' Even the "ridiculous story" of Bel and the Dragon, struck out of the table of lessons after the Hampton Court Conference, was now restored. of the Assembly, 473 The contest of a hundred years was at an end," and by St. Bartholomew's Day, 24th August 1662 (fixed by the Act), it is said that full two thousand of them had surrendered their benefices and left the Church. Their sorrows and sufferings were great and long-continued, but these at last came to an end. The consequences to the Church her- self, immediate and more remote, as many of her truest friends have confessed, were more lasting, and even more deplorable. Mr. Marsden, their most generous critic in re- cent times, in one of the most eloquent passages in his second volume/ calls in question the wis- dom and expediency of the course they followed in refusing to accept the promotion offered them, and to take their place at once in the restored Church. " They acted," he says, " with integrity, but they were not wise. . . . There seems to have been now, as there always was, a want of concert and of practical good sense amongst the Puritan leaders. . . . There are times when good men are imperiously called upon to accept preferment at the expense of reputation. Vulgar minds will find it impossible to respect or even to understand their motives. The race of ambition is a passion so universal, that the few who pursue it from dis- interested motives are never appreciated. Yet Christian heroism calls, though rarely it must be ^ Later Puritans, pp. 427, 428, and other writers quoted there. 474 Conclusion and Results allowed, for this species of self-immolation, and men, for their heavenly Master's sake, must even be content sometimes to have greatness thrust upon them. To accept the preferments was at least to gain more influence with the Court ; to reject them was to abandon the little they pos- sessed. They ought to have renounced the Cov- enant, they ought to have unsaid the former extravagancies of themselves or of their party : this indeed they did in private ; and they should not have shrunk from doing it publicly and before the people. Nor had they in truth much cause for shame. Which of their opponents had not something to retract? Which of them, for in- stance, now ventured to maintain (whatever they might secretly wish) the canons of 1640 and the practices of Laud ? . . . Had they accepted pre- ferment it seems impossible that the calamities should have occurred which now immediately ensued. Could the Act of Uniformity have passed with Richard Baxter in the House of Lords? Would the most violent High Churchman have ventured to recommend the king to put his hand to a bill which must instantly create a new secession and place at its head a band of Nonconforming Bishops ? . . . They did not perceive the import- ance of the crisis, and that this was their last op- portunity. . . . Their motives were pure, but their decision was unfortunate." of the Assembly. 475 It may be granted to Mr. Marsdcn that there are times when such self-immolation as he describes may be Christian men's duty, but on the other hand it must be asserted that there are also times when the only effect of it would be to blot a good name, to mar the effect of a lifetime's labors, and to grieve the hearts of the godly who must be parted from, without securing the confi- dence or gaining the kindly sympathies of those with whom they must associate themselves. There are times when all that is noblest and best in a man will rise in revolt against the thought of leaving those with whom he has been wont to take sweet counsel in matters of holiest concern, and going over to those who, he feels, do not un- derstand him, cannot sympathize with him and will not heartily co-operate with him, but will do all they can to thwart him and make his new position irksome. And if ever there was a time when the spiritual instinct might be called in to aid in turning one way or another the balance of the judgment, it was surely at such a crisis as had then arisen. Would the adhesion of even a large proportion of the Puritan ministers to the national Church have sufficed to abash vice in high places, or to arrest the excess of riot by which the Cavaliers of that generation were determined to signalize their emancipation from former restraints, or to secure even the most necessary reforms in 476 Conclusion and Results the discipline and internal administration of the old Church ? Would it not have been a life-long martyrdom, far more painful than that they were called to bear, to be cut off from those whose sympathy had cheered, whose counsel had guided, whose holy example had encouraged them in all good, and to be associated and identified with men who hated their strictness, set no value on their peculiar excellencies, and did not feel their need of them, or really care to retain them ? Could they have hoped to find themselves in better case than did the sainted Leighton in Scotland, who was misjudged by those he left, mistrusted by those he joined, and at last constrained to abandon in disgust the work for the sake of which he had consented to make this sad self-immolation ? But acting as they did, resolving to forego even high preferment rather than risk being compromised, these noble confessors at least preserved their own peace of conscience and the esteem and sympathy of those whose esteem and sympathy they truly valued, commanded the respect of the best of their opponents, and bore a testimony to the real- ity of religious principle which told even on that backsliding generation, and has secured them honor and influence for all future time. Besides, a similar course to that which Marsden recommends may be said to have been followed in Scotland, both under the first and the second of the Assembly, 477 Protestant episcopacies, as it had also been in England on the accession of Elizabeth ; ^ and under both it is admitted to have been a si^inal failure. What the leaders of English Puritanism shrunk from doing at the Restoration several of the leaders of Scottish Puritanism ventured to do both in 1606 and in 1 661, as Nicolson, Cowper, and Forbes at the former date, and Sharp, Leigh- ton, Halyburton, and Honeyman at the latter. But they did not thereby succeed in repairing the breaches that had been made in the walls of Zion, nor in working out any great deliverance in the land. The results of their compliance were mor- tifying to themselves and disappointing to others, and ended in a policy so oppressive and unchris- tian that Archbishop Leighton declared " that he would not concur in planting the Christian reli- gion itself in such a manner, much less a form of church-government." The fate of the Scottish Presbyterians was still more tragic than that of the English. Thrown off their guard by an ambiguous letter of the king, and by the representations of their envoy, in whom they placed too implicit confidence, they took no active measures to secure the dearly-won liberties of their Church till it was too late to do so. The P>nglish advisers of the king had made up their minds, in furtherance of what they ^ See pp. 40, 42, 47 S Conclusion and Results deemed English interests, to defy Scottish 'opin- ion, and far outdo the repressive poHcy of Crom- well. That Church which was dear to the Scottish people, and had, notwithstanding many shortcom- ings, proved itself worthy of their love, which had never swerved in its loyalty to the sovereign, and had suffered much at the hands of the sec- taries for its steadfastness in his cause, was not only cramped and repressed, but in a drunken fit deprived by the Parliament of the legal securities which his father had ratified, and the king him- self had sworn to. The rights of the younger portion of the ministers to their benefices were put in jeopardy, and on their declining to make the compliances demanded of them, they were ordered by an Act of Council to leave by a cer- tain day. A large number of them did so, and by that Act, and other repressive measures, it is said that nearly four hundred were outed or de- prived. How far Sharp, in whom they reposed so unlimited confidence, was the dupe of Monk and Sheldon, and how far he was the willing ally of the one in bringing back the king without conditions, and of the other in the insane attempt to wreathe the yoke of a new episcopacy round the neck of the Scottish nation, can hardly now be ascertained. But the result was as fatal to his country and himself as if it had been deliberately planned, and English statesmen and their Scottish of the Assembly. 479 dupes or tools had determined to make Scotland a second Ireland. That which Henderson and their other leaders feared in 1643 had now come on them, when they were exhausted by their pre- vious weary struggle and less able effectually to oppose it. But they were to prove, by their heroic endurance of oppression and cruelty almost unparalleled, the constancy of their at- tachment to their beloved Presbytery, and to win back by these means what they had previously thought could be gained and retained only by force of arms. The withdrawal of so many able, zealous, and experienced ministers (about 2000 in England and 400 in Scotland) was unquestionably a sad loss to the national Churches, and the long period of deadness that followed, the mad outbreak of vice, profanity, and religious indifference which for a time seemed to bear down all that was self- restrained and earnestly Christian, was perhaps its saddest consequence, sadder far than any that came to the sufferers themselves from the con- tempt and hatred and cruel oppression they had to endure. But the ejection of these confessors had other consequences which it would be wrong to overlook. It was overruled for good by Him who orders all things wisely and well, and was the means of working out results which, humanly speaking, could not otherwise have been gained. 480 Co7iclusion and Results First, Their conduct bore striking testimony to the reality of religious principle. As I have just stated, it may be doubted whether the conformity of these men, and the continuance of the whole of them in the national Churches, would have arrested the sad course of events, and saved the nation then so resolutely bent on breaking loose from all restraint. But it might have shut their own mouths or weakened the force of the testimony which in more fortunate times they had borne for God and godliness, and would have had still to bear before men who were resolved to own them only as either knaves or fools. Their conformity in the circumstances, it seems to me, would have done more than anything else to justify the opinion that, after all their professions, they were but hypocrites or fair-weather Christians, who, whatever they might say for religion, were as reluctant as their neighbors to make any real sacrifice for it. But when their leaders, rather than prove unfaithful to the convictions which in more fortunate times they had avowed, chose to forego the ease and independence which were within their reach, and to refuse the dignities which were offered them, and when so large a number of their followers joined them in surrendering their prefer- ments and exposing themselves to certain privation, and to almost as certain persecution, and when, notwithstanding all they had to suffer, they per- of the Assembly. 48 1 severed in their course, whatever men may say of them, they dare not for very shame say that they were not in sober earnest about rehgion and the scriptural organization of the Church, and even under obloquy and apparent defeat were achiev- ing for their Master and themselves a glorious moral victory. A distinguished member of a later secession has illustrated the grandeur of the Puri- tan one by a comparison it would have been in- vidious in me to suggest, but I may venture to repeat his words : " They went forth each man alone. They had no free press to plead their cause ; they had no free country in which to organize and carry on their church ; they had no Chalmers to be the Moses of their exodus ; they went forth as Abraham did, not knowing where they should obtain their next meal, or where they should sleep the next night — casting themselves and their little ones on the providence of God." And I may venture to add that, if ever the words of the Apostle might be truly applied to any of his successors, they might be so to them : " Being re- viled, we bless ; being persecuted, we suffer it : being defamed, we entreat." The diaries of Philip Henry, recently published, furnish many noble and touching illustrations of this abounding in charity and good will. Second, It secured the ultimate triumph of the cause of civil liberty and religious toleration. Had 31 482 Conclusion and Results all that they ventured to ask at the Restoration been frankly conceded to them, the loss to Britain and to Anglo-Saxon Christendom might have been far greater than the gain. Some of the worst excesses of the later Stuarts might have been escaped. The crown might have been a little more chary in exceeding its prerogatives and abusing its in- fluence, but its province would not have been so distinctly marked out, so carefully limited, or so faithfully kept as it has been under that happier Revolution Settlement, which was the real outcome of the influence of moderate Puritanism in its application to the State. The Church might have been somewhat more comprehensive, somewhat more tolerant of the friends of evangelical truth within her pale than for long she was, but she would not have been a whit more tolerant of those who were beyond her pale. In fact, from their smaller numbers and less influential position, the final triumph of the principle of toleration might have been long deferred. As I have said already, that was a noble principle which the Assembly had enshrined in its Confession, and while it shall continue to survive Puritanism will not need to hide its diminished head before any of the other Isms of the day : " God alone 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 matters of faith of the Assembly, 483 or worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true Hberty of conscience, and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute blind obedi- ence, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also." If in the day of their prosperity they had affirmed this principle, a large number of them had failed consistently and lovingly to carry it out in practice. God suffered them to be cast into a furnace seven times heated, that they might learn in adversity the lesson they had not thoroughly mastered in prosperity, and from bitter experience be led to realize the full value and extent of the principle enshrined in their own Confession. Third, It has kept open for settlement in more fortunate times the questions which were then not ripe for settlement. Had these men conformed, having all conceded which they had ventured to ask, the constitution of the national Churches would have been but slightly modified, the cause of more free and simple worship, of a reasonably independent church action and government, and of a more pure and vigorous church discipline, would have been but little advanced. But by their ejection and continuance in separation, a testi- mony was kept up for the truths for which they and their fathers had witnessed, and by the experiences through which their descendants have since passed they have been enabled to give 484 Co7iclusion a7td Restdts practical proof of the vitality of the principles for which their fathers contended, and to provide a contribution of no mean value for the happier times when English-speaking Christians on both sides of the Atlantic shall be inclined to forget the sad past and to labor together in rearing to their common Father and Redeemer a nobler temple than we have yet seen, and when perhaps even the bright vision of a united Protestantism, such as Cranmer and Calvin longed for, and Ussher, Leighton, Henderson, Howe, and Baxter labored for, may be realized. These lectures on the Westminster Assembly, and the Westminster Standards, must now be brought to a close. I am sure that, after the length to which this one has already extended, you will excuse me from attempting to enter more fully into certain debatable questions which I have been able to touch on only in the most incidental manner. I should like to say something more on the question whether England was in any sense ripe for Presbytery in the middle of the 17th cen- tury, and whether our countrymen, by their over- keenness in pressing it, did not cast away a good chance of a more moderate, but more stable settle- ment, such as Ussher had proposed, under which the old Church of England might have proved to be one of the fairest daughters of the Reformation and remained in loving sympathy and hearty fel- of the Assembly. 485 lowship with the sister Churches at home and £ibroad. I must be content, however, to pass over such inviting topics, and to confine myself in a few closing sentences to one point only. It is said that the Westminster Assembly was, after all, a failure, and that its standards, ere many years had passed, were cast aside in the land which gave them birth. Indeed it was so, and so was much of the regard for God and things divine. Many, set free from the restraint under which they had for a time been kept, surrendered themselves up to every excess of riot. The very king, for whose sake so much had been dared and suffered by loyal Presbyterians, heartlessly forgot the promises he had given, and abandoned them to the mercy of their old antagonists. The court he gathered round him was the most dissolute which England for centuries had seen, and many, of whom better things might have been expected, contended but feebly against iniquity in high places. Many of whom the age was not worthy surrendered their livings rather than submit to the new Act of Uni- formity, and went forth from the Church they loved and wished to serve, to prove, under contempt and persecution, the reality of the Christian principles they had professed in the day of their prosperity and their deep attachment to the constitution of their native land. But though their doctrinal standards were haughtily ignored and themselves 486 Conclusion and Results ejected from the reconstituted Church, their the- ology Hved on all the same. It lived on in the Episcopal Churches of England and Scotland in the teaching of Reynolds, Conant, Wallis, Hop- kins, and Leighton, and several other like-minded men, who strove to be faithful to God in the midst of abounding defection. It lived on, too, in the teaching of those who went forth as outcasts from society and the Churches of their native land, preached it by their meek and holy lives when no longer allowed to preach it by their lips, and out of their deep poverty and sore tribulation enriched after generations and stored the treasures of their experience and teaching in those precious practical treatises which will live while the English language continues to be spoken, and the faith of St. Paul, Augustine, Ussher, and Leighton to be valued, by the Anglo-Saxon race. Even in that time of lowest depression, emphatic testimony was borne to it by John Bunyan and his Baptist brethren, when, in 1677, they substantially adopted the Confession of the Westminster Assembly, as the Independents had previously done. In his thrill- ing sermons and inimitable allegories he secured for it as wide and loving acceptance among the humble and unlettered as the masterly discussions and defenses of its more learned advocates had secured for it among many of the educated and thoughtful. It is said to have been from the of the Assembly. 487 writings of Manton that Augustus Toplady, who was to stand fortli so resolutely in its defense in the following century within the national Church, received his first earnest impressions. Tlie Westminster Confession and Catechisms continued to be adhered to in Scotland, within as well as without the reconstituted Church, even after the Acts of Parliament which had ratified them were repealed. And, though cast out in Old England, they were taken in in the New, and in other colonies beyond the Atlantic, first by the children of the Pilgrim Fathers, and then by the descendants of the Scottish and Scoto-Irish emi- grants of a later day, under whose joint tutelage mainly the United States have grown up into a great and noble nation — the heirs with us on this side of the old Augustinian faith and Presby- terian order, and I will add, so far as my ac- quaintance warrants me to speak, its main hope and stay in the future. In the same sad years not less emphatic testimony to the hold their system of theology still had on the minds of a very pious and earnest part of the nation was borne by the publication of numerous editions of the Shorter Catechism in England. These in- controvertibly show, either that, notwithstanding their hard lot, Nonconformists were at that time more numerous than has generally been supposed, or else that Evangelical ministers of the national 488 Conchcsioji a? id Results Church did not yet scruple to avail themselves of a Catechism which they knew King Charles and his chaplains had in 1648 been willing to sanc- tion ; and thus even under apparent defeat Puri- tan theology and Puritan antipathy to Romanism continued largely to influence the English nation. In the State during these sad years things went from bad to worse till the tyranny, licentiousness, and Popish proclivities of the later Stuart kings once more roused the nation against them, and provoked a revolution which, being more strictly kept within the lines of the constitution than that of 1649, has proved more practical and permanent. With the advent of William of Orange to the Brit- ish throne Protestantism was once more saved, and civil and religious liberty at length was settled on a stable foundation. He not only granted by law a large toleration outside to orthodox dissent- ers, but also strove to make the national Church so comprehensive that if possible the mischief of St. Bartholomew's day might be repaired and moderate Puritans again find room within its pale. The success of this great scheme was prevented chiefly by the Jacobites and extreme High Church- men, but in part also, it must be admitted, by the indifference shown toward it by not a few of the Puritan leaders. Notwithstanding the hard ex- periences through which they had passed, they were still a numerous and influential body, espe- of the Assembly. 4cS9 cially in London and other towns. It seemed as if, like ancient Israel, the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and grew, and that it was not till the counsel of Balaam was adopted against them, or by them against them- selves and they fell off from the Evangelical faith of their fathers, that much real injury happened to them. " So far as outward prosperity was con- cerned the position and prospects of Presbyterian- ism were never," Dr. M'Crie assures us, " brighter or more promising than at the era of the Revo- lution. In the great metropolis its chapels were thickly planted, and they were filled with wealthy and influential congregations, which, so long as the older ministers survived, were favored with a pure and vigorous dispensation of the Gospel, and in good measure kept alive the flame of holy zeal and heavenly devotion which had warmed the Church under the winter of persecution." Dr. Stoughton seems to think that at that era Pres- byterians, Independents, and Baptists together embraced nearly half of the population of Eng- land. Early in the i8th century a religious de- clension was ushered in, which in greater or less decfree extended to all the Churches in Britain and on the Continent, "a spiritual blight, which," as Dr. M'Crie so well says, " it is difficult to ex- plain in any other way than by the withdrawal of God's Spirit from the Churches of the Reforma- 490 Conclusion and Results tion." The Presbyterians of England, from their aversion to or neglect of subscription, even in the most general form, were among the first to suffer in this long and chilling winter time. Many of their congregations dwindled away ; not a {qv^ of their members, coming under the new Evangeli- cal impulse given to England by Whitfield, sought for themselves a new home. Others merged with the Independents ; others lapsed into Rationalism, if not into Arianism or Unitarianism, and the old Presbyterian Church of South Britain now lives mainly in the immortal writings of its early teach- ers, in the memory of the heroic sufferings they so meekly bore, and of their noble-hearted faith- fulness to Christ and His truth in times of trial and rebuke. The torch of Evangelical Presby- terianism has been once more rekindled from Scotland, and promises now to give a brighter light than it has done for long. But the old lamp has been virtually extinguished, and the lamp- stand removed out of its place — reading to all, in these somewhat similar times, the much needed lesson that no past attainments, no past services, no past sacrifices will avail to preserve a Church from decay and dissolution if it hold not the be- ginning of its confidence steadfast unto the end, if it cleave not close to its divine Redeemer and be not unashamed of Him and His words when brought face to face with any faithless and scoffing of the Assembly. 491 if it allow the light of Evangchcal truth and the fire of EvangeHcal piety to die out or to die down. Let those of us who think we stand remember those who have fallen, and let us take good heed to ourselves lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, and from Him who is the light and life of men. And let us persevere in prayer, that He with whom is the residue of the Spirit may be pleased to send down on us, in more abundant measure than ever hitherto, the influences of His Holy Spirit to revive His work in all the Churches of the Presbyterian family and to give us times of refreshing from His presence and from the glory of His power, such as our fathers longed for and were often privileged largely to enjoy. The standards of the Westminster Assembly have not failed to bind the Church and nation which have held by them to many sister and daughter Churches of which we have no cause to be ashamed, and which, with only the bond the As- sembly provided to bind them to the historic past, — to the principles embodied in the creeds of the undivided Church, and to the teaching of Augus- tine and Calvin — have continued to live and thrive and do as noble service in the cause of our com- mon Lord as any of those which claim a higher pedigree and retain a more rigid and elaborate ritual. And the end is not yet, nor while God 492 Conclusion and Results. continues to honor the EvangeHcal teaching of so many of the distinguished ministers in all our Presbyterian Churches to turn multitudes from lives of sin and selfishness to those of holiness and self-sacrifice, to comfort the wounded in spirit and quicken the careless, have we any cause to fear for the great principles of that Evangelical system long held in common by all the Reformed Churches, and still the surest guarantee of their vitality and success. APPENDIX APPENDIX. NOTE A, pp. 2, 7. The old English Puritan was such an one that honored God al)Ove all, and under God gave every one his due. His first care was to serve God, and therein he did not what was good in his own, but in God's sight, making the Word of God the rule of his worship. He highly esteemed order in the house of God, but would not under color of that submit to superstitious rites. . . . He reverenced authority keeping within its sphere, but durst not, under pretext of subjection to the higher powers, worship God after the traditions of men. He made conscience of all God's ordinances, though some he esteemed of more consequence. He was much in prayer, with which he began and closed the day. In it he was exercised in his closet, family, and public assembly. He esteemed that manner of prayer best where by the gift of God expx-essions were varied according to the present wants and occasions; yet did he not account set forms unlawful ... he did not wholly reject the Liturgy, but the corruptions of it. He accounted preaching as necessary now as in the primitive church, God's pleasure being still by the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. ... He esteemed that preaching best wherein was most of God and least of man, . . . and that method best which was most helpful to understanding, affections, and memory. The Lord's day he esteemed a divine ordinance, and rest on it necessary so far as conduced to holiness. He was careful to remember it, to get house and heart in order for it, and when it came he was studious to improve it. Lawful recreations he 495 496 Appendix. thought this day unseasonable, and unlawful ones much more abominable. Yet he knew the liberty which God gave him for needful refreshing, which he did neither refuse nor abuse. The sacrament of baptism he received in infancy, which he looked back to in age to answer his engagements and claim his privilege. The Lord's supper he accounted part of his soul's food ... he esteemed it an ordinance of nearest communion with Christ, and so requiring most exact preparation. He endeavored to have the scandalous cast out of communion, but he cast not out himself because the scandalous were suffered by the negligence of others. He thought that God had left a rule in his Word for discipline, and that aristocratical by elders, not monarchical by bishops, nor demo- cratical by the people. Right discipline he judged pertaining not to the being but to the well-being of a church; therefore he esteemed those churches most pure where the government is by elders, yet unchurched not those where it was otherwise. Perfec- tion in churches he thought rather a thing to be desired than hoped for. And so he expected not a church state without all defects. The corruptions that were in churches he thought it his duty to bewail with endeavors of amendment, yet would he not separate where he might partake in the worship and not in the corruption. . . . He put not holiness in churches ; he would have them kept decent, not magniticent. His chiefest music was singing of Psalms, wherein though he neglected not the melody of the voice, he looked chiefly after that of the heart. He accounted religion an engage- ment to duty, that the best Christians should be best husbands, best wives, best parents, best children, best masters, best servants, best magistrates, best subjects. . . . The family he endeavored to make a church, both in regard of persons and exercises, admit- ting none into it but such as feared God, and laboring that those that were born into it might be born again unto God. He blessed his family, morning and evening, by the word and prayer. . . . His whole life he accounted a warfare, wherein Christ was his Captain, his arms prayers and tears, the cross his banner, and his word, " vincit qui patitury — 77/ lican principles, who boldly adopts the line of argument which an able reviewer in our own day has attributed to the Presbyterians and the majority of the Long Parliament. It is thus he argues (p. 9) : *' It is an old maxim in philosophy, Sublata causa tollitur effectus. And consequently such unprofitable and noisome mem- bers being put aside one way or other, it removeth the non-secur- ity and danger obtained liberty is exposed to. Will you tell me, is he not a desperate and unskilful physician who will take it on him to cure the body and not remove the cause of the disease? That verily is to build with a foundation. What madness is it to go about to secure purchased liberty, and not remove the cause of its non-security I Truly it is so much, as to keep fire in the bosom, and not to be burned, to touch pitch and not be defiled, to keep the thief in the house and the throat not to be cut, and to keep a viper in the bosom and not to be stinged. Oh ! shall liberty be preserved as long as its enemies are free ? No, verily. They will be still conspiring and taking crafty counsel against it. So long as the son of Jesse liveth they will never think them- selves secure, and that their kingdom shall be established. And therefore, Saul-like, they will still fall a-persecuting David. Nay, let me tell you, those become accessory to their own hurt and rnin, who ivould not destroy the destroyers of their liberties. Thus they become negative cut-throats and burrios to them- selves. But to prevent bondage and slavery, it is good, it is good to root out those who go about to destroy our liberty. Otherwise we abuse the power God and nature have con- ferred on us to maintain and defend our own liberties against our adversaries." He then proceeds to offer his judgment in particulars as follows : — *' ist. All malignant and formal Presby- terian incendiaries should one way or other be rooted out if we Appendix. 5 1 3 mind to maintain our own 1 liberties inviolable. This is evident from what is already said, for they are the very enemies by whom the Lord's people m the three nations only stand in hazard. They indeed are the Canaanites whom the Lord hath commissioned to destroy. They verily are the inhabitants of the land, and there- fore must be rooted out. . . . They are bears robbed of their whelps, and therefore they will never be satisfied till they be destroyed. They are Atnalek indeed, they lay in wait, while as the Lord's people in Britain came out of the spiritual Egypt from under the Episcopal and Malignant yoke, And therefore (heirnajne deserveth to be razed from under heaven. 2. Albeit all such should be rooted out and destroyed, yet not one and the same way. They should be dealt with according to their guilt. Some of them who are prime incendiaries and leading men should be finally cut off. Others again of them who are not so deep in the guilt, deserve not physically but politically to be cut off, i. e. (as Artaxerxes saith, Ezra V. 26) either by banishment or imprisonment, or confiscation of goods, according to their desert." To the objection that this would make a pretty clean sweep in Scotland where such men were the more numerous party, and where few or none even of the " godly " were for the English interest, and where their action could not be said to be illegal even when it was hostile, the author replies (p. 21) : " If the Parliament of England look not more to conscience and duty than quirks and law formality, they will be forced to condemn the best and weightiest of all their proceedings. I wonder if law-quirks taught a handful of godly men in the nation to turn a king off his throne, to cut off his head, to banish his son, to cut off the peers of the land, to turn out betrayers of their trusts and such like ? I trow not ; I believe duty only led them on to such things. Oh ! shall not duty as yet lead them on to proceed against their and our implicable enemies ? . . . Hath he not rented the kingdom from Saul for sparing Agag, and given it to them ? Will they spare him too ? No, I hope, as Samuel, they will hew him in pieces. The Lord put it in their hearts so to do." This is the only pamphlet of the period in which I remember to have met with this famous simile. It proceeded not from sober- minded Puritan in time of peace, nor from maddened Covenanter in the day of sore distress, but from a fanatic sectary or rabid Protestor in the day of his triumph, and was adduced to encourage harsh measures, not against Papists and Prelatists, but against the Presbyterians, his fellow-countrymen and fellow-covenanters. 33 5 1 4 Appendix, They, in his eyes, were the Canaanites, the Amalekites, the Am- monites, the Joab and Shiniei, whom King Solomon was to cut off, — nay, apparently the Saul who spared Agag and the Agag who was spared rolled into one. No comment on this production could well be more cutting than that which I find written in an old hand on the copy of it now before me : — " To hang all Scots, the doom is sad ; Better it were to hang the dog that's mad." NOTE K, p. 265. 1. Act of General Assembly approving the Propositions con- cerning Kirk Government and Ordination of Ministers — " . . . And now the Assembly having thrice read and diligently examined the Propositions (hereunto annexed) concerning the officers, as- semblies, and government of the Kirk, and concerning the ordi- nation of ministers brought unto us as the results of the long and learned debates of the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster, and of the Treaty of Uniformity with the Commissioners of this Kirk there residing : after mature deliberation, . . . doth agree to and approve the Propositions aforementioned, touching Kirk gov- ernment and ordination, and doth hereby authorize the Commis- sioners of this Assembly who are to meet at Edinburgh to agree to and conclude in the name of this Assemblie, an uniformity betwixt the Kirks of both kingdoms in the aforementioned particulars, so soon as the same shall be ratified without any substantial alteration by an Ordinance of the Honorable Houses of the Parliament of England." The Assembly excepted from their Act, and reserved the liberty of further discussion, respecting the right of the doctor to administer the sacraments and the respective rights of presbyteries and people in the calling of ministers. 2. Extract from Act approving of the Confession of Faith. — " But lest our intention and meaning be in some particulars mis- understood, it is hereby expressly declared and provided that the not mentioning in this Confession the several sorts of ecclesiastical officers and assemblies shall be no prejudice to the truth of Christ in these particulars to be expressed fully in the Directory of government." 3. Ratification of the Propositions for Church Government, Appendix. 515 Ordination of Ministers, and of the Act of Assevibly thereanent. — " The Estates of Parliament now convened in the second session of this first Triennial Parliament, by virtue of the last Act of the last Parliament, holden by his Majesty and three Estates in Anno 1641, after public reading of the following propositions con- cerning Kirk government and ordination of ministers, together with the Act of General Assembly approving the same, DO UNANI- MOUSLY ratify and approve the said Propositions according to the said Act of General Assembly, to the which Act the Estates do hereby add the authority of Parliament, and ordaine the same to have the strength and force of a law in all time coming." This Act was not contained in former collections of the Scotch Acts, nor printed till the original register of the Parliament of 1 645 was discovered a short time ago, and printed in full in the last edition of vol. vi, of Thomson's Acts of the Scottish Parliament. NOTE L, p. 343.— Calvin's Relation to English Reformers. A vast amount of unchristian temper and unseemly bitterness has been expended on the discussion of this question, and the reformer of Geneva in particular has been loaded with an amount of abuse and misrepresentation more than sufficient to save him for ever from the woe denounced against those of whom all men speak well. Fed sis tiia sorte contentus, O magne Calvine ! One must reap the impassioned diatribes which were fashionable sixty or eighty years ago, to be able to understand the noble courage and candor of Bishop Horsley when he uttered the words, " I hold the memory of Calvin in high veneration ; his works have a place in my library, and in the study of the Scriptures he is one of the commentators I frequently consult." And one cannot but rejoice that in our own day Dean Perowne has expressed himself in still stronger terms. It would require not a note or even a lecture, but a volume, to deal with these mis- representations in detail, and that may safely be left to some true-hearted successor of Toplady, or Thomas Scott, or Bishoji Waldegrave, who still deems it the highest commendation of his Church that she is one of the fairest daughters of the Reformation. All that I feel called to do is to put in a demurrer to such mis- representations, and to state briefly two or three pleas in support of it. It is said the XVIIth Article cannot be meant of a decrdion 5 1 6 Appendix. absolntum of a predestination in the Augustinian or in the Calvin- istic sense, but in that of the later Lutherans or Arminians, for it was with the Lutherans that the English Reformers were specially intimate, and from them, or through them, that some of their offices and several of their Articles came to them. One may leave on one side the offices with the remark that, so far as they came from the Nuremberg Liturgy, they came through the Consiiltatio of Herman, Archbishop of Cologne. In the prepara- tion of that Bucer was quite as much concerned as Melanchthon, and Bucer was a predestinarian of the Augustinian school, who probably would have considered himself entitled to harmonize his views on baptismal regeneration with his views on predestination in the same way as Bishop Carleton and others did in the next century,' and Mr. Gorham in the nineteenth. If any parts of the Burial Service came through Lutheran formularies, they came from ancient Western sources, reaching back to a time when Augus- tinianism, which affirmed the perseverance of all the predestinate, but not of all the regenerate, was the prevailing faith of the Western Church. With respect to doctrinal formularies, even if one were to grant all that has been advanced as to the close connection of the English Reformers with the Lutherans and their less close connection with Calvin and the Swiss, it would still remain to be pointed out — \st, That at the time the Augsburg Confession was composed, Melanchthon, as well as Luther, was still Augustinian, and that good authorities in our own day affirm that Luther remained so to the last, as did Flacius Illyricus, Schnepff, Heshusius, and some others of his followers. 2d, That Brentz, who had the chief hand in drawing up the Wiirtemberg Confession (which in several articles seems in 1563 to have been followed by the English), though not a pronounced Augustinian himself, framed it when doing his utmost to preserve a good understanding with the more moderate of the Reformed, especially with Bucer and Martyr, and with others of their school still remaining at Strasburg; that his confession was accepted by that free city, and that it was probably from thence, through Jewell, it found its way into England before 1563. John ab Ulmis had been employed to translate a Strasburg Confession into Latin for Cranmer. yi. That it is only in Articles as to which Lutherans and Reformed were agreed, that a real similarity can be traced between the Edward- ian Articles and the Augsburg or the early German Confessions. 1 Examination of an Appeal to Ccesar, pp. 96, 97. Appendix. 5 1 7 None of these have an article on predestination, nor does any other Lutlieran Confession, as Dr. Dorner tells us, have it. Nor can any such marked similarity be traced between this Article and any of the definitions of Melanchthon or of any Lutheran doctor of the Synergistic school. The only resemblance traceable is to certain expressions in the treatise of Luther on the Epistle to the Romans, and that, as already stated, was written while he was still a pronounced Augustinian, and teaches distinctly the Augustinian or predestinarian view. But it cannot be granted that the intimacy between the English and the Swiss Reformers was only formed during the later Marian times. Had the English exiles been regarded as Lutherans when driven from their own country, they would have been received with open arms by their co-religionists in Germany. But the very reverse was the fact. The strict Lutherans afforded them no shelter, showed them but little kindness, and were not appealed to in their differences. We do not find even the gentle Melanchthon specially exerting himself in their behalf, nor them resorting to him for counsel. Nor was it to him that the thoughts of those in prison in England turned. Hooper's recourse was still to his old friend Bullinger, and the one letter Cranmer is known to have written from his prison was addressed to his old and much trusted friend Martyr. Even in 1551-52, it was not to Melanchthon, but to Bullinger, that those who were exercised about predestination, and desired further counsel than the writings of Calvin and the teaching of Martyr supplied, were disposed to turn. Traheron or Trehern, tutor to the young Duke of Suffolk, the intimate friend and associate of Cheke, the young King's tutor, and, like him, a member of the sub-committee of the Ecclesiastical Commission, wrote to Bullinger on the question in the following terms: — " There are certain individuals here who lived among you some time, and who assert that you lean too much to Melanchthon's views. But the greater number among us [pliirimi), of whom I own myself to be one, embrace the opbiion of John Calvin as being perspicuous and most agreeable to holy Scripture." Then after thanking God that Calvin's treatise against Pighius on this question had appeared at the very time when it had begun to be agitated among them, he adds : — " We confess that he has thrown much light upon the subject, or rather so handled it as that we have never before seen anything more learned or more plain." Bullinger, some time before, had concluded with Calvin and the Genevese a 5 1 8 Appendix. consensus on the subject of the sacraments, in the XVIth Article of which the topic of election was touched on, but, though it was so in the most guarded terms, its bearing was so olivious that Melanch- thon is said " confodisse eum ariiculu/n " in the copy sent him. In the letter Bullinger sent to Traheron he states, even more decisively that in the consensus, that faith foreseen is not the cause, but the consequence of election, though still refusing to follow Calvin in his teaching on the subject of reprobation : " Electionis et prsedes- tinationis causa non est alia quam bona et justa Dei voluntas inde- bite salvantis eleclos debite autem damnantis . . reprobos." " In- terim fidem ceu opus nostrum non constituimus causam electionis quasi propter fidem quam in nobis prcevidii Detis nos elegerit sed gratiae Dei tribuimus electionem et salutem . . . Etenim Paulus non dicit Deum elegisse nos quod credituri eramus sed ut crede- remus ; unde et Augustinus sumpsisse videtur quod dixit, Non quia credimus ipse nos elegit sed ut credamus ne priores videamus ipsum elegisse." This letter, Avrilten in March 1 553, can hardly have arrived in England in time to be used in the framing of the XVI Ith Article. It was not altogether to the mind of Traheron and those who thought with him, as appears by his reply, which, as well as his previous letter, is given at length among the Parker Society's original letters relating to the English Reformation (pp. 324-328). But it really concedes almost all that is maintained as dogma in the Confessions of the Reformed Churches, even those of them composed or approved by Calvin, though not all that he, Bucer, Beza, Martyr, and Knox deemed themselves warranted as private doctors to inculcate. So much importance was attached to it by Bullinger, that he had copies of it, evidently meant to be shown to others, sent to Hooper and to Martyr, who in reply in- formed him that, though not agreeing with him altogether, he had been especially on his guard in treating on that subject, " lest men should cast all their faults and sins upon God, or derive from the will of God an excuse for their wickedness," as would appear when his commentaries on the Romans were published, as he hoped they would be that same year. " May God," he adds, " grant us all so to feel respecting predestination, that what ought to be the greatest consolation to believers may not become the painful subject of pernicious contention." Neither was Calvin himself so little known nor so lightly esteemed in England at that time as some have represented. He was in high repute with the young King, the Protector, and several Appendix, 519 of the reforming; nobles, with Chcke the King's tutor, and Traheron, as well as with Knox, Martyr, i Lasco, and the other foreigners then helping on the work in England. Bishop Coverdale, when in exile, had translated from the Latin his treatise on the Lord's Supper, which had commended his views on that subject to favor and acceptance, just as, we known from Traheron, his treatises on predestination were commending to favor his views on the only other subject then occasioning difference between the Lutherans and the Reformed. The treatise in answer to Pighius, which was published in the very beginning of 1552, is the one specially referred to by him, but that was not the first in which he had handled this subject, nor the first which had reached England. His commentary on the Romans, which was published in 1539, was well known, and in it he had treated on predestination in the same spirit as Martyr subsequently did. His Institutions were not unknown, and in the second edition of that work, issued in 1539, a distinct chapter was assigned to this subject, which in the fifth edition, issued in 1550, was further enlarged, and so much run on that, without the author's consent, it was published separately the same year. It is not unusual yet to represent Cranmer as by no means on the most friendly footing with Calvin, and but half- reluctantly inviting him to that great council of the chief Reformers which he was so desirous to assemble. It is also represented that the main, if not the only object that council was intended to accomplish, was to heal the divisions that had arisen among Pro- testants on the subject of the Lord's Supper. But the letters of the Primate, and none of them more decisively than his letter to Melanchthon himself, show that the Confession, or consensus, was meant to embrace the whole circle of Christian doctrine. Strype expressly includes the question of predestination among others. When obliged reluctantly to abandon or postpone his grander scheme, he intimated his intention to press on without further delay the lesser one of preparing such a confession for his own Church, and strenuously proceeding in the reformation of manners as well as doctrine. This he did in a letter to the much maligned Calvin, who had shown himself more ready to second his efforts for the council, as well as for a closer civil league among Protestant States, than either Bullinger or Melanchthon had ven- tured to do. This letter, so far as I know, has only been recovered in our own day, and printed by the vStrasburg theologians who are re-editing the works of Calvin with such loving care. For English- 5 20 Appendix. speaking churches, no more vahiable addition has for long been made to our knowledge of the esteem in which he was really held by those who were engaged in the noble enterprise of reviving the life and restoring the purity of the English Church. Archbishop Laurence has much to say of his " bold temerity," and " love of hypothesis," as perhaps exceeding both his piety and his learning, and the entire want of community of spirit between him and the Reformers of the English Church, and what he has said many lesser men since have repeated with still greater bitterness and scorn. Here is how the honored primate, who, more than any other, determined the character of that church, wrote to him in the autumn of 1 552. No more noble or brotherly letter ever went to foreign Protestant from Lambeth Palace : — " Et pietate et eruditione prsestanli viro D. Joanni Calvino, amico suo dilecto. — Quod consilium raeum laudas de conventu doctissimorum et optimorum virorum in Anglia habendo, ut posteris traderetur de reformatse doctrinse capitibus, juxta scrip- turse normam consensus, et studium operamque tuam ad hoc in- stitutum perficiendum alacri animo offers, recte tu quidem mea sententia judicasti, et ad Dei gloriam propagandam vohmtatem te habere propensissimam non obscuris argumentis declarasti, Atque utimam daretur facultas ad efifectum perducendi hoc quod ecclesia; tam utile judicamus. Verum multa sunt quae in animum meum inducunt hanc nostram deliberationem irritam fore : tum quod D. Philippus ad meas literas nihil hactenus rescripsit, tum quod D. Bullingerus respondet se vereri ne frustra de convocando con- cilio deliberemus hoc tempore, in quo Germania bello sic divexatur ut neque sibi neque D. Philippo consultum sit ecclesias suas relinquere. Quare haec consultatio aut prorsus omittenda aut in aliud tempus magis opportunum differenda videtur. Literim nos ecclesiam Anglicam pro virili reformabimus dabimusque operam ut et dogmata et mores juxta sacra rum literarum regulam corri- gantur. Dominus Jesus te gubernet et tueatur ad suam gloriam etecclesice sedificationem. Vale. Tuus quantus est. — T. Cant. " Lambethii, 4 Octobris 1552." Sir John Cheke's letter, of 22d May 1553, " Homini doctissimo ac pientissimo et mecum multis de causis conjunctissimo," is even more laudatory, and speaks of a "conjunctio doctrinae," as well as of a "societas humanitatis et ingenii." Appendix. 521 NOTE M Martyr's Statements, etc. Nostra enim [saciamenta] , . . numero pauciora actu faciliora intellectu augustissima, obser- vatu castissima et significatione proestanlissima. — Aiigustinus ci- tatus in cofiimentario Alartyris, p. 118. Multi satis habent si contem- plati fuerint, etc. [itl poslea). Nemo enim sumendo sacra- menta gratiam ullam recipit quam fide non percipiat . . . neque vi, ut loquuntur, operis operati quicquam ex eis accedat (salutem afferant) Vox ea pere- grina est nee aiuiihir iisquatn in saeris Uteris (123). — Qui enim saciamenta percipit vel digne vel indigne accedit : si indigne nil habet nisi damnum et jac- turam, si digne, igitur fide viva qua percipit representatum gra- tiam.— 494. Neque tantum sunt signa nostrarum actionum sed etiam promissionis et voluntatis Dei ejusque obsignationes. Et Spiri- tus Sanctus istis utitur ad animos nostros excitandos. — 117. Sunt quidem et hi sacramen- torum fines, tit notir sint ac tessercs Christiana: professionis et societatis sive firaternitatis . . . vera gratiae suae testimonia et sigilla ut per ea nobis gratiam suam testetur Deus, representet atque obsignet. — Fo7-miila Con- setisus Ti^ti rin i. p. 346. Anglican Articles of 1553. Dominus Noster Jesus Christus sacramcntis numero paucissiniis observatu facillimis significatione proestantissimis societatem novi populi colligavit sicuti et bap- tismus et coena Domini. Sacramenta non instituta sunt a Christo ut spectarentur aut circumferuntur, sed ut rite illis uteremur; et in his duntaxat qui digne percipiunt, salutarem habent efiectum, idque non ex opere (ut quidam loquuntur) operato, quae vox ut peregrina est et saeris literis ignota sic parit sensum minime pium, sed admodum superstitiosum : qui vero indigne percipiunt damna- tionem (ut inquit Paulus) sibi ipsis acquirunt. Sacramenta per verbum Dei instituta non tantum sunt notae professionis Christianorum sed certa quaedam, polius testi- monia et efficacia signa gratice atque bonae in nos voluntatis Dei per quae invisibiliter ipse in nobis operatur nostramque fidem in se non solum excitat verum etiam confirmat. 522 Appendix. Article De Ccena Domini. Neque illi satis dicunt qui Ceena Domini non est tantum arl)itrantur . . . ccenam Domini signum mutua; benevolentiae signum tantum esse Christian^e Christianorum inter sese, verum benevolentise etofficiorummutuce potius est sacramentum nostr?e charitatis . . . caput et summam per mortem Christi redemptionis. in hoc ponimus quod obsignet Atque adeo rite digne et cum nobis Dei dona et promissiones quas ille offert fide apprehen- dendas (113), ut ibi mors Domini commemoraretur et communi- cantes fructum ejus perciperent et Christo conjungerentur (34) gratiam reconciliationem et re- missionem peccatorum. Fallun- tur ergo illi qui putant transub- stantiationem, etc. {ut posted). ToUenda est quselibet localis praesenti^e imaginatio. Tametsi enim philosophice loquendosupra coelos locus non est ; quia tamen corpus Christi, ut fert bumani corporis natura et modus, finitum est et coelo ut loco continetur necesse est a nobis tanto locorum interval lo distare quanto coelum abest a terra. — Foi'in. Cons. Tig. Non tamen sentiendum est corpus Christi tam late fundi quam late patet divinitas ejus. Illud enim ut humanse naturae conditio requirit certo ac de- finito loco continetur qui est coelum . . . ut articulus de ascensione fidem facit (350). Falluntur ergo illi qui putant vel transubstantiationem vel praesentiam Christi in Euchar- istia quasi ex illius carne quam, ut illi volunt, realiter manduc- fide sumentibus, panis quern frangimus est communicatio cor- poris Christi : similiter poculum benedictionis est communicatio sanguinis Christi. Panis et vini transubstantiatio in Eucharistia ex sacris Uteris probari non potest sed apertis scripturae verbis adversatur et multarum superstitionum dedit occasionem. Quum naturae humanae Veritas requirat ut unius ejusdemque hominis corpus in multis locis simul esse non possit sed in uno aliquo et definito loco esse oporteat, idcirco Christi corpus in multis et diversis locis eodem tempore praesens esse non potest et quoniam ut tradunt sacrae literae, Christus in coelum fuit sul)latus, et ibi usque ad finem seculi est permansurus non debet quisquam fidelium carnis ejus et sanguinis realem et corporalem (ut loquuntur) praesentiam in Eucharistia vel credere vel pro- fiteri. Sacramentum Eucharistiae ex inslitutione Christi non serva- butur, conferebatur, elevabatur nee adorabatur. Appendix, 523 Sacramentum Eucharistiae ex institutione Cliristi non serva- batur, batur. annis (rcaliler et corporaliter percipiinus (306), aHcrnam vitam hausturi sumus. — 305. Elevatio, etc., non parvam occasionem idololatriiie prtebent. {Martyr in Ep. ad Cor. p. 162). Qua in re multum peccatur hodie . . . satisque habent homines si contemplati fuerint genuflexerint atque adoraverint. Article — Alinistri malitia non vitiat Ministrorum sai?'awen/a, e/c. {p. n8). tollit efficaciam divinarum, etc. circumferebatur, eleva- nec adorabatur. malitia non institutionum Article — Sacrificium unicum nostra? De unica Christi oblatione in salutis perfectum est per mortem cruce perfeda. Oblatio Christi Christi Jesu servatoris nostri in semel facta perfecta est re- ara crucis (492), una enim ejus demptio pro omnibus peccatis mors satis fuit ad omnia peccata totius mundi turn originalibus expianda. quam actual ibus : neque praeter illam unicam est ulla alia pro peccatis expiatio. Unde miss- arum sacrificia, quibus vulgo Sacrifici qui illud sacrificium dicebatur, sacerdotem offerre suis missis et superstitiosis et Christum in remissionem paenre impiis susurris nobis applicent aut culpas pro vivis et defunctis . . . Christum offerre pro aliis figmenta sunt et perniciosae im- omnino commentum est (296). posturas. NOTE TO PAGE 379, The first part of the following elegy on the older members of the Assembly is found appended to more than one funeral sermon. I give part of it from the funeral sermon on Vines, contained in E. 870 :— " That venerable Synod, which of late Was made the object of men's scorn and hate, (For want of copes and mitres, not of graces) Are now called up, like Moses ; and their faces, When they return, shall shine. God sees it fit, Such an Assembly should in glory sit. 524 Appendix. The learned Twisse went first (it was his right). Then holy Palmer, Burroughs, Love, Gouge, White, Hill, Whitaker, grave Gataker, and Strong, Perne, Marshall, Robinson, all gone along, I have not named them half. Their only strife Hath been (of late) who shall first part with life ; Those few, who yet survive, sick of this age. Long to have done their parts and leave the stage. Our English Luther, Vines, whose death I weep. Stole away (and said nothing) in a sleep. Sweet (like a swan) he preached that day he went. And for his cordial took a sacrament; Had it but been suspected he would die. His people sure had stopped him with their cry." The elegy on Ussher in E. 875, almost exceeds the bounds of legitimate laudation. I can find room only for a few lines : — " This was the man so just, so stout, so sage, The shame and glory of our sinful age. How said I ? Man ? That epithet's too mean. Armagh was more ; the miracle of men. Could he be less, who was both learned and meek ? Could he be less, who self did never seek ? Could he be less, who knew no guile, no gall; Wise as a serpent, yet a dove withal ? Could he be less, who knew no kind of pride, And yet knew more than all the land beside? His intellect scorned to be confined by Dover, Bravely expatiating the whole world over. Beyond the common ne plus ultra, he (Like Drake ambitious of discovery). Sailed still on, bounded by no degree On this side of universality. Storing his country with more noble prize Than that which in the Western climate lies ; America doth no such mines contain, As those comprised in the Indies of his brain." NOTE N, p. 388. The full title of this remarkable book is, ''A Treatise of the Cov- enant of Grace : wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel-grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Armin- ians and others are confuted; the nature of uprightness, and the 7oay of Christ in bringing the soul into communion xvith Himself: together tuith many other points, both doctrinally and practically profitable, are solidly handled. By that faithful servant of Jesus Christ and minister of the Gospel John Ball . . . London, 1645." Appendix. 525 The following is the table of the contents of the several chap- ters: — I. Of the first part. — I. Of the signification of the word Covenant ; 2. Of the Covenant Qcn}i made with man in the state of innocency; 3. Ot the Covenant of Grace in general; 4. Of the Covenant o{ promise; 5. Of the Covenant of promise made with Aiiam immediately upon his fall; 6. Of the Covenant oi ^x-s.z^ as it was made and manifested to Abraham; 7. Of the Covenant oi grace under Moses till the return of Israel from the Babylonish captivity; 8. A particular explication of the Covenant that God made with Israel, and what Moses brought to the further expres- sure of the Covenant of grace ; 9. Of the Covenant that God made with David ; 10. Of the Covenant that God made with Israel after the Babylonish captivity; II. Of truth and uprightness. II. Of the second part. — Of the N'ew Testament or Covenant, and how God hath revealed Himself herein ; 2. Christ the Mediator of the N'ew Testament, for whom He died and rose again; 3. How Christ hath fultilled the office of Mediator, or how He is the Mediator of the Nezv Testament ; 4. How Christ doth bring His people into Covenant or fellowship with Himself; 5. How Chris- tians answer to the call of Christ, and so come to have fellowship with Him. NOTE, p. 401.— Milton's relation to Calvinism. I have not ventured to do more than put it interrogatively. Some of the older editors of his great poem regard the passage quoted as evidence of the author's leaning to moderate Calvinism. But it is now known that before the end of his days he wrote a large treatise on theology in which he advocated opinions at vari- ance with the sentiments of the great mass of the Puritans on a question of far greater importance. This work was not published till our own day, and its learned editor has not ventured to do more than to say that the opinions maintained in it on the decrees of God are opposed to supralapsarianism on the one hand and to Socinianism on the other. But I find it difficult to resist the conclusion that Milton, by the time he wrote that treatise, had bid adieu not only to supralapsarianism, but even to infralapsarianism in its most moderate form. There is good reason to believe, how- ever that he had abandoned his earlier creed very slowly and gradually, and before parting with Calvinism altogether, had taken refuge for a time in the more lil)eral school of Amyraut, Dave- 526 Appendix, nant, and Howe. It may be fairly questioned if he had finally left this refuge when he wrote the Paradise Lost. At least in the passage I have quoted, and some others in the poem, there seems to me more affinity to the opinions of that school than of any other. The opinion, that while God has given sufficient grace to all, he gives peculiar grace to some who of His will are elect above the rest, seems akin to their teaching. NOTE O, p. 436. I intended to exhibit at length in this note the correspondences between the rules given in the Larger Catechism for the explica- tion of the Divine Law, and those found in the earlier treatises of Perkins, Attersoll, Ball, and IJssher. I must refrain, however, from inserting these. Any one who will compare the rules as first in- serted in the Minutes of the Assembly with the form in which they appear in the earlier treatises will see at a glance how closely the Westminster Divines followed in the wake of their predecessors. NOTE, p. 378. — Early Editions of the Confession OF Faith. The first three impressions of the Confession, as stated on the above page, were meant for the private use of the members of the English Parliament,^ and the Assembly of Divines, and copies of them are still to be found in Ihe British Museum (E 366 (?), E 368, E 516). From the third impression, but with certain variations preserved in most Scottish editions, 300 copies were reprinted in Edinburgh for the use of the members of the Scottish Assembly of 1647 (St. Andrews University Library, and in other libraries in Scotland). After the Confession was adopted by that Assembly, one edition appears to have been published before the close of 1647 (E 418, No. 12). A copy of this and of the London edition No. 3 is in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. In the following year the Confession, in the form approved by the English Houses, was published at London with the title Articles of Christian Re- ligion, etc., as on p. 368. Principal Lee seems to have doubted if it was ever published in this form, but copies exist both in the British Museum (116 f, 19, E 449, T. ^f^-^) and in the Bodleian; and another copy has recently been offered for sale in London. 1 In E 388, No. 6, it is expressly stated that " the members subscribed their names to the receipt " of their copies. Appendix. 527 These are all in quaj-to. Another edition in octavo or i2mo was published at Edinlnngh in 1648, with the following title: '■^TJie JItimble Advice of the Assevibly of Divines lunv by aiithorily of Par- liament sitting at Westminster concerning (l) « Confession of Faith, (2) a Lai-ger Catechism (3) a Shorter Catechism. Presented by them lately to both Houses of Parliament" (3505 bb, Brit. Mus.). It was probal)ly from one of the Scottish editions, that those published by Bostock at London in the same year were taken. They are — \st, '■'■The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, etc. [as in No. 3, above], Printed for Robert Bostock at the King's Head, Paul's Churchyard 1648 " (i 16 f, 20). At the end it has " Impri- matur Jaines Cranford, Dece^nber 7, 1647." 2nd, " The Confession of Paith, and Catechisms agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at West/ninster to be a part of tiniformity in religion, betiveen the Churches of Christ in the Three Kingdoms. London, Printed for R. B. etc. [as above], 1648." This is accounted the fust English edition. Ihe copy in the British Museum is from the library of the late Duke of Sussex, and bears the press mark 14 12 a, 13. Another copy, bearing the press mark E 1419, has the Propositions concerning Church Government appended, and seems to have been the edition which brought him into trouble with the House of Commons (see their Jotirnals under date 6th August 1 649). I suppose it was from the first of these editions of Bostock that a German translation was made in the same year. Its title is : '■'Demi'/thiger Bericht derversammelten und ietz undaus macht und Befehl des Parlaments zu Westmiinster sitzenden Lehrern der heiligen Schrifft belangende, ein Glauhens Bekenntniss beyden hdusern des Parlaments neulich iiberreichet, im Jahr nacht Christi Gebilrt 1648, 8z/^." A copy of this edition, we learn from the Appendix to Niemeyer's Collectio Confessionum, is preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin. It is remarkable as being the first edition in which the Scripture proofs are inserted at length, instead of being merely indicated in the margin. The preface contains a very notable testimony to the high regard in which the divines of Britain and their work were held by their brethren in Germany, who also had been called to suffer for their faithful attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation. They speak of the Confession as, "ein Tractatlein reich in alien Stucken Gotllicher Weisheit und Lehre, fast von Wort zu Wort aus heiliger Schrift . . abge- fasst, und ist ein kurtzer Begriff des heilsamen Worte an deren Fuil)ild dieselbe Englandische Kirche nach abgeworffenen Joche 528 Appendix. Babstischer Menschen-satzungen und Haupt-irrthiimen bis daher bestandig gehalten und annoch halten thut. . . . Siehe, so stehet doch der Leuchter dieser so lehr und glauben-reicher Kirchen, diirch Gottes gnade unbeweglich und leuchtet auf demselben in diesem wollgegriindetem Glaubens-bekenntniss das Licht der Wahrheit . . hell und klar herfiir, glaiibigen hertzen zum Trost und Versicherung." Possibly a Dutch edition may have been pub- lished about the same time, and in 1649 a rare and much prized edition in English issued from the Elzevir press. Several editions in i2mo or i8mo were published in London and Edinburgh between 1650 and 1655, (3504 a, B. M. etc.), as were also two Latin editions in small 8vo at Cambridge in 1656 and 1659, and others of smaller size at Glasgow in 1670,^ and at Edinburgli in l66o, 1680, and 1694. In 1658 there issued from the London press what is termed the second English edition of the Confession, a large and neatly printed quarto, with the Scripture proofs inserted at length, and the emphatic parts of them in a different letter. A copy, with the press mark E 757, is in the British Museum, but it is by no means a rare edition. An edition in i2mo was published at London in 1660 (3505 aa, Brit. Mus.). The third (so called) English edition, is a small octavo, published at London in 1688. The fifth, bearing the date of 17 17, is a large octavo, and perhaps the most handsomely printed of all these early editions of the Confession. After the Revolution, editions in i2mo, without the proofs printed at length, were published in Scotland in 1688-9 and 1690, and in the latter year one in folio for the use of church courts, which, like the copy engrossed in the records of the Scot- tish Parliament in the same year, does not contain the proofs either in their abbreviated or lengthened form. The editions of later date need not be specified, with the exception of the beautiful octavo forming vol. i. of Dunlop's Collection of Confessions, etc., and published at Edinburgh in 17 19, with a memorable preface in defense of Confessions of Faith, The Independents' recension of the Confession was published in 1659, with the title, A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practiced in the Congregational Churches in England. It does not differ materially from the recension of the Parliament save in the insertion of a chapter (xx.) on the Gospel and the extent of the grace thereof. This will appear to most Calvinists now-a-days a less happy statement than that sanctioned by the Westminster lit was reprinted in Glasgow in 1674. Appe7idix, 529 Assembly in their Larger Catechism, in answer to the question, " How is tlie grace of God manifested in the second Covenant ?" The Baptist recension was pubhshed in 1677, and again in 1688, under the title, A Confession of Faith, put forth by the Elders and Brethren of many congregations of Christians {baptized 7tpon pro- fession of their faith) in London and the country, with an Ap- pendix concerning Baptism. It follows mainly the Independent recension, but seems to me to show traces of the moderating influ- ence of Bunyan. The first editions of the Catechism are in E 411, 416. NOTE (Additional), p. 379.— Subscription to the Confession. I have said elsewhere that the Westminster Divines, from their earnest desire to form one comprehensive Church, did not require subscription to their Directories for Public Worship and for Church Government, nor exact conformity to their minute details, as Laud had done to those of the Prayer- Book and Canons, It may be doubted if the English section of them meant to require more for their Confession of Faith than that it should be (like the Irish Articles) the norm of public teaching. They felt with Bax- ter that " there is a singular use for a full body of theology or a profession concluded on by such reverend assemblies, that the younger ministers may be taught by it, and the reverence of it may restrain them from rash contradicting it; and there is a necessity of exercising power in ministerial assemblies for the actual restraint of such as shall teach things intolerably unsound, and all ministers should be there accountable for their doctrine." Such a full body of theology in a non-liturgical Church was essential as a guide in prayer as well as in preaching, and its authority as the norm of both was the least restriction that could be imposed if reasonable soundness was to be maintained, and due security given to the congregations that the liberty allowed in the devotional services should not degenerate into license. Probably this was all that the majority of the English divines were disposed to insist on. At any rate a sentence of Tuckney often quoted, seems to point in that direction. " In the Assembly I gave my vote with others that the Confession of Faith, put out by authority, should not be either required to be sworn or subscribed to, . . . but only so as not to be publicly preached or written against." I have not come on any 530 Appendix. clear trace of this vote in the Minutes of the Assembly, but possibly it occurred on or soon after 26th November 1646, when the Con- fession was completed, and about to be sent up to the Houses, and when it is recorded that " Mr. Nye, Mr. Carter, junior, and Mr. Greenhill enter their dissent to the sending up of the Confession of Faith in order to the Preface," and is ordered that "before the Confession of Faith be sent up the Preface shall be debated and prepared to be sent up with it, if any be made.'''' But so far as appears from the Minutes none was debated or sent up. The Church of Scotland, while agreeing with the English Divines as to the Directory of Public Worship, and Form of Church Government, has always required her ministers to regard the Confession of Faith as something more than the norm of teaching to which in their public ministrations they were to con- form, and by the Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1693 she was sufficiently authorized to require more than this, including at least personal acceptance of its main doctrines, and of the sum and substance of the Reformed Faith, as set forth in it. INDEX INDEX. The names in Italics are those of members of the Westminster Assembly. The use of the Roman and Arabic numerals immediately following the names has been explained in the note, p. xvi. Aarau, Basel, etc., 30. Abbot, Abp., 80-82, 353, 385. Act of Supremacy, 288. Toleration, 488, 510. Uniformity, 38, 472. Acts, Scotch, of 1567, 288 ; of 1592, 290-1, Adamson, Abp., 364. Alesius, Alexander, 14, 23, 29. Altare Damascenum, 364. America, 89, 487, 502. Amesius, or Ames, 354, 380, 388. Amyraut, 360. Anselm, 336, 337. Apocrypha, 71, 94. Apoiogetical Narration, 199, 204 Replies to, 200. Aquinas, Thomas, 356. Afgyli, Marquis of, xxiv, 129. Arminians, 350, 352, 362. Arrowstnith, Dr. John, xx, 38: 126, 322, 355. 395, 428, 442. Articles of Religion, xlii. of Edward VI., 25. 340-345- XXXIX. of Elizabeth, 5, M7, 150. 236. XXXIX. of Elizabeth, debate on Art. vii. and xi., 150-153. of Westminster As- sembly, see Confession of Faith. Articles, Lambeth, 348, 349, 350. Irish, 82, 121, 382-386. Ashe, Simeon, xxi, qi. Assembly, General, of Scotland, 96, 225-228, 229, 239, 270, 288, 362, 458, 463- Westminster, 108, 109, iii I18-131, 135, 366, 376, 454, 484. 109, 377. Assembly, Westminster, Baillie's account of, .75-' 78. , Debates in, 186, 192, 197, 201, 233, 260, 296, 330, etc. See also Catechisms, Confession of Faith, Directory for Public Worship, do. for Church Government. Augsburg Confession, 345. Augustine, Augustinianism, 336, 337, 343, 352, 355, 390, 399. 406. Autonomy of Church, 278-334. Bacon, Lord, 60, 71, 398, 402. Spedding's Life of, 61, 500. Baillie, Robert, xxiv, 129, 192, 194, 216, 221, 234, 292, 296. 310, 311, 361, 390, 440. Bali, John, 387, 388, 396, 413, 420, 431- 437. 448. Baljuerino, Lord, xxiv. Bancroft, Abp., 79, 351, 499. Baptism, 226, 371. Baptists, 390, 486. Barlow, 349, 500. Bare, 348, 351. Barret, 347-351- Barrington, Sir Thos., M. P., xvii. Bartholomew's Day, 58, 473. Bathurst, Theo., xviii, 2q. Baxter, 121, 390, 470, 474. Baylie, Thos., B.D., xxi, ^o. Bedford, Earl of , xvi. Beza, 287, 357, 358. Bible, 10, IT, 12, 13, 36, 71, 224, 288, 416. Genevan translation of, 35, 47. King James's translation, 71. Bishops, 41, 42, 63, 64, 70, 81, 93, 98, 100, 117, 167, 261, 347, 474. 533 534 Index. Blair, Robert, xxiv, 243, 333, 454, 459. Bohemian Confession, 283. Bolingbroke, Earl of, xvi. Bonar, Dr. H., 396, 401. Bond, John, D.C.L., xxiii, T2q. Book of Common Order, 36, 47, 50, 106, 228, 229, 242, 244. Book of Common Prayer, 25, 38, 59, 100, 105, 156, 225, 231, 234, 242, 308, 472. Books of Discipline, 116, 229. Boston, 395. Boulton, Sam., B.D., xxiii, i^q. Bourne, Immanue!, 229, 230. Bowles, Oliver, B.D., xvii, 2; 141. Boyd, Robert, of Trochrig, 359. Bradwardine, 80, 336. Bridge, William, xviii, 10. Brownists, 55. Broivnrigge, Bp., xviii, iq. Bucer, 337. Buchanan, 366. Bidkley, Richd., B.D., xxi, 8q. Builinger, 44, 346, 358, 381. Bunyan, John, 395, 401, 402, 411, 486. Burges, Cornelius . Dr., xviii, j^; loi, 146, 166, 223, 242,373, 436. Burgess, Dr. John, 75. Burgcssc, Anthony, xxi, 8s : 387. Burnet, Bp., 66. Bjirroughes , Jer ., xix, 44: 128. Burton, Mr., 86. Dr. , 342, Byfield, Adoniram, xxiii, 420, 430. Byjield, Richard, xxiii, /jj. Calamy, Edmund, B.D., xix, 4^: loi, 125, 243, 395- Calderwood, 76, 227, 244, 364. Calvin, 35, 152, 343-5, 357, 381, S^S- Calvinism, objections against, 395-404. Cambridge, 45, 70, 337, 347, 352, 422, 438. Cameron, John, 360. Campbell, Dr. George, 403. Canons of 1603-4, 74. 1637 (Scotch), 95. 1640, 137, 474. Cape I, Richard, xviii, 25. Carleton, Bp., 335, 347, 349, 350. Cat yl, Joseph, xix, ^7; 128, 173. Carter [John], xviii, 2J. Carter, Thos., xxii, 10^. 53, 54, 67, 283, 371- 323-32S, Carter, lV.,xx,jb. Cartwright, Thos., B.D 284, 347. 353, 498. Case, Thos., xviii, 14. Castell on Propagation of Gospel, 103. Cass His, Earl of, xxiv. Catechism and Catechising, 246, 300, 367 418-453- Ca7vdrey, Daniel, xxiii, 12J ; 322, 420, 439 Ceremonies, 71, 238, 296. Chadderton, Dr., 70. Chalmers, Dr., 396, 481. Chambers, Humphrey, B.D., xx, /j. Charles I., 84, 93, 97, 333, 455, 488. Charles II., 456, 459, 469, 485. Chaucer, 401. Cheynell, Fran., D.D., xxi Christ, Head of Church, 330-32. Church, 188, 371, 443. censures, 258. government, 186-205, 254-277. officers, 190, 255. Clarendon, iii, 470. Clendon, Thos., xxii, 124. Clerk, Peter, xviii, 26. Cleyton, Rich., xix, 41. Clotworthy, Sir John, M.P., xvii. Cocceius, 381, 388. Coleman, Thos., x'ix,j8; 125, 172, 304, 331. Colet, Dean, 406. Comenius, John Amos, 295. Commissioners, Scottish, to Westminster Assembly, 129, 174, 179, 191, 225, 265, 270, 305. to receive Appeals, etc.. 310-313, 330. Committee of Accommodation, 205-209. on Directory for Public Wor- ship, 221, 234. on Directory for Ordination, 259- onConfessionof Faith, 367, 368. on Catechisms, 420, 427, 428, 436-438. Grand, 99, 221. Committees of Assembly, Three larger, 146-149. Commons, House of, 55, 73, 99, 108, i8c, 223, 226, 261, 314-318, 320, 329, 376. Communion, 243, 299, 346, 371, Note L. Index, 535 Communion, Kneeling at, 25, 35, 41, 77- Sitting at, 11, 19, 223. Directory for, 241, 242. Conant,John, P..D., xx, jb. Conference, Hampton Court, 70, 72, 78, 282, 348 ; also Note C, 499. Conference, Savoy, 471, 472. Confession of Faith, Westminster, 335, 367, 376, 377- dissents from, 373, 374. sending up to Houses, ■ title of, 378. ■ sources of, 382-387, 391. • objections to, 395-416. - Commentaries on, 391. • Early Editions of, 379. 524- Consensus of Zurich, 343, 515. Convocation of 1562, 41. of 1603-4, 73- of 1640, 97. of 1661, 472. Irish, of 1615, 350, 384. of 1634, 91, 384. Comvay, Earl of, xvi. Cooke, Francis, xx, 67. Cooke, Sir Joh « , RI . P . , x vii . Corbet, Edw., xx. Corbet, Eciiv., xxiii, 132. Court of High Commission, 55, 86. of Star Chamber, 55, 86. Covenant, Scottish National, 95, Note E, 502. > English National, 145, 164, 170. Solemn League and, 164, 173, 181-185, 307, 318, 326. Covenants of Works and Grace, 354, 387, 388. Coverdale, Miles, 12, 13, 49. Cowper, 401, Cranmer, Abp., 21, 109, 338, 339, 347. Crawford, Dr., 396, 397. Creed, 152, 162, 427, 439. Cromvi'ell, Oliver, 90, 183, 198, 217, 455, 459, 463- Cromwell, Richard, 468. Cross, sign of, 41, 42. Crosse, Robt., B.D., xx, bo. Davenant, Bp., 125, 351, 353. Davenport or Sancta Clara, 146. Deacon, an officer of church, 190, 255. Debate, The grand, between Presbytery and Independency, etc., 206, 454. Decree of God, 370, 391-395- Delme, Phiii/>, xxiii, ijj. Denbigh, Earl of, xvi. Dickson, David, 363, 507, Directory for Family Worship, 235. for Public Worship, 219-253. for Church Government, Cart- wright's, 53. , West- minster Assembly's, 265, 298. Discipline, 229, 266, 302-303. Doctor, officer in church, 190, 191. Doddridge, 401. Dorner, History of Protestant Doctrine, 387.388,517- Dort, 82, 147, 350, 384, 409, 410. Douglas, Robert, xxiv, 129. Downing, Dr. Calibtite, xix, 43. Du7ining, William, xxii, I2i. Dtiry,John, xxiii, 797; 296, 506. Edward HI., 279. Edward VI., 282, 284, 308, 337. Elder, ruling officer in church, 192-197, 505. Elizabeth, 35, 37-40, 42, 48, 51, 52, 56-59, 282, 285, 308, 350. Ellis, EduK, B.D., xxi, qq. England, Church of, 3, 15, 37, 40, 88. 93, 113, 185, 244, 284, 294, 352, 416, 470, 484. Episcopacy, 100, 117, 167, 296. Erastus and Erastianism, 154, 186, 201, 286, 287, 304. Erastian Queries, 202, 320-322. Erie, John, B.D., xxii, 113. Erskine, Sir Chas., xxiv. Erskines, E. and R., 395. Essex, Earl of, xvi, 184. Evelyn, Sir John, RI.P., xvii, 317. Excommunication, 187. Exiles, English, on Continent, 30-37. Falkland, Viscount, 184. Farrar, Bp., 20. Fasts and Fasting, 187,321. Featlcy, Dr. Daniel, xx, bb : loi, 121. , Speeches, 151-159. 536 Index, Fiennes, Nathaniel , xvii, 318. Forbes, Dr. John, 361. Ford, Thos., xxiii, IJ4. Form of Church Government in Church of England and Ireland, 267-269. Foxe, John, 30, 49. Foxcroft, John, xix, J^ ; 420. Frankfort, 33-35. Fuller, 103. Galloway, Patrick, 413. Gammon, Haymibal, xvii. Gataker, Thos., B.D., xxi, gj ; 125, 126, 154, 156, 160, 420. Geneva, 35, 36. Gibbon, John, xxii, 114. Gibbs, George, xix, 42. Gibson, Samuel, xx, 6j. Gillespie, George, xxiv, 129, 187, 211, 227, 231, 234, 265, 266, 297, 305, 374, 441, 442. Glasgow, Assembly of, 96, 362. Glyn,John, M. P., xvii. Good, William, xviii, 12S. Goodman, Christ., 36. Good7vin, Thos., B.D., xviii, 12 : 128, 221. Gouge, William, D.D., xviii, 18 : 127, 420, 43i» 435, 448, Go7ver, Stanley, xviii, j^. Green, John, xviii, jj. Greenhill, W., xxi, 87. Grindal, Abp., 42, 51. Guthrie, James, 197, 506. Hacket, Dr. John, xx\, g8; loi. Hale, Sir Matthew, 469. Hales, John, 6, 238. Hall, Bp., 118, 121, 124, 351. Hall, Henry, B.D., xxi, 77. Hallam, 5, 42, 72, 88, 122, 281, 283, 381. Hamilton, Patrick, 357. , Sir William, 404. Hammond, Dr. H., xxii, no: 244-248. Hampton Court, see Conference. Harley, Sir Robt., xvii. Harris, Dr. John, xix, 4q. Harris, Robt., B.D., xx, J9; 396, 497. Hazelrig, Sir A., M.P., xvii. Heidelberg, 286. • Catechism, 453. Henderson, Alex., xxiv, 106, 129, 163, 192, 193, 224, 234, 252, 266, 275, 379, 441. Henrietta Maria, 84. Henry VHI., 282, 284. Prince of Wales, 80. Heppe, 7, 81, 353. Herle, Charles, x\x,jq; 222, 297. Herrick, Rich., xix, 40. Herring, J., 252. Hetherington, Dr., 305, 437. Hickes, Gaspard, xvii, 8. Hildersham, Sam., B.D., xx, 70. Hill, Dr. Thos., XIX. J2 ; 102. Hodge, Dr. A. A., 405, 409. Hodges, Thos. , xxn, 107 : 420. Holdsworth, Dr. Richd., xxii, 120; loi. Holland, Dr., 353. Hollattd, Earl of, xvi. Hooker, 54, 64, 350. Hooper, Bp., 15-20, 410. Hozvard, Lord, xvi. Howie or Hoveus, 359. Hoyle, Dr. Joshua, xvii, q ; 126, 353, 355, 367- Humphrey, Dr. L., 49, 353. Hut ton, Henry, xxi, 78. Independents, 204-206, 224, 390, Jackson , John, x']x,SS- James I. of England and VI. of Scotland 65-B3, 159. 290. 351, 364- Jerusalem Chamber, 175, and note, 404 504- Jewel, Bp., John, 347. Johnston, Sir A., or Lord Warriston, xxiv, 129, 163, 316, 322-328. Johnston, Robt., xxiii, /j8. Jurisdiction, ecclesiastical, 283. Jus diviman, 321-324, 372, Keys, power of, 285. Knewstub, Mr., 70. Knox, John, 23-25, 45, 50, 288, 357. Lancashire, 217, 269. Lance, Wm., xxii, lob; 166. L.angley,John, M.A., xx, 71. Lasco, John i, 26-28. Latimer, Bp., 14. Laud, Abp., 85, 93, 104, 142, 233, 247, 249, 252, 352, 362. Leighton, Dr. Alex.^ 86, Index, 537 Leighton, Abp. Robert, 362, 395, 403, 452, 486. Leslie, Alex., or Earl of Leven, 460. Leslie, David, 460. Ley, John, xviii, /J. Liberty of Conscience, see Toleration. Lightfoot, Dr. John, xx, 68 ; 125, 186, 222, 232, 332- Liturgy, see Book of Common Prayer. Laud's, 93. London, 299, 311, 330. Lords, House of, loi, 179, 222, 259, 262. Lord's Day, 19, 82, 371. Lord's Supper, 11, 19, 371, 391. Louden, Earl of, xxiv. Love, Dr. Rich., xviii, 77. Luther, 286, 343-345, 357- Lyford, Wm., B.D., xxii, 104; 420. M'Cheyne, R., 396. M'Crie, Dr. Thos., Junior, 166, 170, 215, 381, 437, 489. Magistrate, Civil, 286, 298, 372, 374. Aliiitland , Lord, xxiv, 129. Manchester, Earl of, xvi, 312. Manton, Dr. Thos., xxiv, note ; 127, 487. March, John de la, xxii, 102. Marprelate Tracts, 55. Marsden, L., 58, 247, 381, 473. Marshall, Stephen, B.D., xviii, 2j; loi, 127, 221, 240, 312, 420, 425. Marston Moor, 333. Martyr, Peter, 337, 338-343. Mary, Queen of England, 29. Massani, Sir W., xvii. Massacre, Irish, 104, 251, 503. Masson, Professor, 119, 251, 295. Maynard,John, M. P., xvii. Maynard, Mr. John, xxii, 123. Melanchthon, 342. Meldrum, Dr. Robert, xxiv. Melville, Andrew, 77, 291, 358, 366. Mc7v, William, B.D., xviii, 27. JMickclthiuaite, Thos., xxii, 116. Millenary Petition, 69, 499. Mihon, John, 122, 293, 401, 524. Milton's Sonnet, 293, 295. iModel, New, 292. Monk, General, 468-470, 478. Montague, Bp., 349. Montrose, Earl of, 333, Moore, Dr. W., 230. Moreton, William, xxi, 8S. Morley, Dr. Geo., xix, jo. Naseby, 333. Neal, 168-170, 221, 437. Newark, 333. Newbury, 184. Newcastle, 333. Newcoinen, Mattheiv, B.D., xxii, 103; 143, 304. 313, 420, 430, 431, 434. Nicholson, Wm.,xxi,g2. Northumberland, Earl of , xvi. Nowell, 347. Nye, Henry, xxi, 82. Nye, Philip, xviii, jo; 168, 236, 428. Obedience, Passive, 88. Officers, extraordinary and ordinary, of divine institution in the Church, 190. o/xooutrio?, 427. Ordinance for calling the Assembly, xiii, "5, 132. for Choice of Elders, 309. for suspension of ignorant and scandalous, 298, 309, 330. Ordinances for Presbyterian Government, 330. Ordination, Book of, 92. Directory for, 259-264. Overall, Bp., 347, 349, 353, 380. Owen, Dr. John, 209, 398. Oxford. 45, 70, 133, 137, 333, 337, 352, 355. Painter, Henry, D.D.,xxii, //j'. Palatine, Prince Elector, xxiv, 83. Palmer, Herbert, B.D., xvii, /; 128, 149, 187, 193, 221, 420-427, 438. Parker, Abp., 48. Parliament, 5, 28, 55, 73, 84, 98, 117, 118, 135, 162, 182, 265, 267, 306. Pashley, Dr. Christ., xxi, 95; 287. Pastor, an officer of divine institution, 190. Peale, Edward, xviii, 22. Pembroke, Earl of, xvi. Perkins, 380, 420. Pernc, Andreas, xxii, 108. Petitions of Assembly to Parliament, 299, 306, 314. Philips, John, xx, 7.^. Pickering, Benj., xxi, 81. 538 Index. Picrpoint, IVm., M. P., xvii. Pilgrim Fathers, 89, 121, and Note D, 501. Place, Stunuel de la, xxii, loi ; 271. Pluralities, 72, 499. Prayer, Free, 232, 237. Pope and Popery, 105, 416. Poynet, Bp., 20, 36. Preaching, Directory for, 246-248. Praemunire, 135, 279, 316, 320. Predestination, 130, 337, 340, 343, 391. Prelacy, 167, note. Presbytery, 120, 198, 275, 282. Price, Dr. Win., xxii, 118; 166. Prideaux, Edtn., M. P., xvii. Pridcaux, Bp., 101, 353, 380. Privas, Synod of, 155, 159. Proclamation prohibiting meeting of As- sembly, 133. Prophet, Nicholas, xxii, ///. Proofs, Scripture, for Confession, 377. Prophesyings, 50, 77, 80, 246. Propositions concerning Church Govern- ment, 18S, 255, 257, 264. CXI., of Gillespie, 507. Protestation or Vow of Members of As- sembly, 145. Prin or Prynnc, 86. Psalms, metrical, 47, 192, 224. Purge, Pride's, 217. Puritans, Origin of name, etc., 3, 7, 493. Pye, Sir Robert, xvii. Pynt,John, M. P., xvii. Pyne, John, xviii, 13, Queries of Commons as to Jus divintiin, 315, 320. Rathbone, Wm., xxiii, 12b. Rationalism, 399. Ray nor, Wt>t., xvii, b. Reasons of Dissent by " Dissenting Bre- thren," and Answers by Assernbiy, 206. Regents or Professors from Scotland, 366. Revolution of 1688, 488. Reynolds, Dr., 70, 349, 380. Reynolds, Dr. Edward, xix, j/; 124, 214, 428. Reynolds, Robt., M. P., xvii. Ridley, Bp., 20, 347. Rohorough, Henry, xxiii. Rogers, Ezekiel, 420, 448. Rogers, 'J'homas, 350. Rollock, 358. Root and Branch Petition, 100. Rouse, Francis, M. P., xvii, 192. Rubric, Black, 25. Rudyard, Sir Uenj., M. P., xvii, 319. Rules presented to Assembly, 138. Rutherfurd, Samuel, xxiv, 129, 191, 294, 395, 421, 425, 439» 454- Rutland, Earl of, xvi. Sabbath, see Lord's Day. Salisbury, Earl of, xvi. Sallaivay, Arthur, xxi, 83. Salloway, Humphrey, M. P., xvii. Sampson, Dr., 49. Sanderson, Dr. Robert, x'lx, ^j ; loi. Sandys, Abp., 40, 48. Savoy, see Conference. or Independent Confession, 390, 528. Say and Scale, Viscount, xvi, 2^2. Schafif, Dr., 131, 386. Scharpius or Schairp, Dr John, 361. Scotland, Church of, 115, 197, 223, 237, 245, 262, 275, 356, 403, 424, 478. See also. Assembly, General. Parliament of, 225, 265, 288, 379, 451, 478. Reformation in, 42, 92, 106, 210, 288, 290, 311. Scudder, Henry, xxi, yq. Seaman, Dr. Lazarus, xix, 48 : 125, 313. Sects and Sectaries, 216, 458. Sedgewick, Obadiah, xviii, 24; 395, 420. Selden, John, M. P., xvii, 147, 189, 296, 315. Servetus, 412. Simpson, Sydrach, xxi, 84. Smectymnuus, 233. Smeton, 359. Smith, Dr. B. or P., xviii, j/. Socinianism, 399. Somersetshire, 269. Sparkes, Dr., 70. Spurstowe, Dr. William, xxi, qj. Stanley, Dean, 175, 178, 386, 415. Stanton, Dr. Edmd., xx, 6j; 251, 371. St. John Oliver, M.P. xvii. Sterry, Peter, B.D., xxii, T12. Stoughton, Dr., 98, 122, 168, 184, 203. Index. 539 Strafford, Earl of, 91, 95, 104, 386. Strang, Dr., 360. Strasburg, 357. Strickland, John, xxiii, 127. Strong, Win., xxiii, /J7. Stroud, Williaiii, M.P., xvii. Styles, Dr. Matthias, xx, 62. Subscription, 48, 74, Note, 529. Supremacy, 281-283. Surplice, 33, 35, 42, 92. Symsons, 363, 364. Synods, London, 268. Tate, Zoiich, M P., xvii. Taylor, Francis, B. D., xviii, jj. Temple, Dr. Thos., xxi, qo : 367, 438. Thoroughgood, Thos., xx, j/. Tisdale, Christopher, xx, 72. Toleration, Question of, 15, 208-218, Note, 509- Toplady, 351, 401, 487. Tozer, Henry, B.D., xxi, qb. Tuckney, Dr. Anthony, xix, J7; 126, 355, 395, 428, 436, 438- Twisse,Dr. lVilliain,x\'n,s : 101, 115, 123, 135, 144, 154, 159, 297, 306, 354, 379, 420. Union, Protestant, 106, 107. Ussher, Abp., James, xx, br : loi, 121, 131, 296. 351, 353. 383. 384, 420, 430, 434, 435, 486. Valentine, Thos., B.D., xvii, 4. Vane, Sir Harry, Sen., M.P., xvii. Vane, Sir Harry, Jun., M.P., xvii. Veitch, Prof., 366. Vines, Richard, xxi, Sb ; 154, 313, 428. IValker, George, B D., xix, 4b. 350, 353- Q4- log. lb. Wallis, Dr. John, xxiii, 125, 126, 422,427, 439. 441- Wandsworth, Presbytery of, 53. Hard, Dr. Sam., xviii, 20; 101, Ward, John, xxiii, /j/. Warwick, Earl of, xvi. Wcldy, or Welhy,Jas., xxi Wentworth, see Strafford. Wcstfuld, Bp., Thos., xxii, Wharton, Lord, xvi. Wheeler, William, M.P.. xvii. Whidden, P'rancis, RI.A., xviii, Whitaker, Dr., 103, 347, 353. Whitaker , Jeremiah, xx,b4; 181. White, John, xviii, 21 : loi, 146, 306, 409. White, John, M.P., xvii. Whitlocke, Bouldstrode, M.P., xvii. Whitfield, George, 395, 401. Whitgift, Abp., 55, 56, 70, 78-80, 347, 350. Wild, Mr. Sergeant, M P., xvii. Wilkinson, Henry, Sen., B.D., xvii, j. Wilkinson, Henry, Jun., B.D.,xxii, iiq. Williams, Abp., 87, ico. Willison, 237, 395. Wilson, Thos., xviii, j6; 420,438. Wincop, Dr. John, xxii, 1 17. Wincop, Dr. Thos., xviii, //. Winrham, George, xxiv. Wishart, George, 357. Witsius, 388. Woodcock, Francis, xxii, 122 : 251. Worcestershire, 269. Wiirtemberg Confession, 516. Wyclif, 2, 336, 337. Young, Dr. Thomas, xx, yj ; 221, 297. Young, Walter, RI.P., xvii. Zurich, 30, 50.