divines were eminent for their acquirements in Hebrew, and in Talmudical, classical, and oriental literature. Their debates, which were sometimes continued for months upon a single point, were regular scholastic discussions. An appeal was continually made to the Greek and Hebrew originals, to the analogy of faith, and to the opinions of the Rabbinical doctors and early fathers. In these branches of study some of them attained an eminence, which, if ever it has been equalled, has certainly never been excelled. They still shine forth, with singular glory, as stars of the first magnitude. Besides the discussions of the Assembly, which occupied their forenoons, and those of the committee, which filled up their afternoons, the members were many of them employed in preparing dissertations for the parliamentary discourses and other works of great extent, erudition, and learning. When the universities were deserted, in consequence of the removal of the adherents of the king, their places were filled with incumbents selected chiefly from among the members of this Assembly. And while many had asserted that the reputation of these universities was sadly diminished by their new professors, the very contrary is the truth in the case. Learning, religion, and good sense prevailed to a much greater extent at the Restoration, than before the civil wars, in both these seats of learning. All the eminent philosophers and divines, who did so much honour to their country in the three succeeding reigns-the Tillotsons, Stillingfleets, Patricks, Souths, Caves, Sprats, Kidders, Whitbys, Bulls, Boyles, Newtons, and Lockes-were educated by these very professors. And if, as is always allowed, the glory of the scholar illustrates the character of his teacher, we may at once perceive how pre-eminently qualified these men were to be the tutors of the greatest geniuses that have ever adorned humanity.

In foreign countries, also, the reputation of these universities was at this time very high; while the number of learned performances which they produced was as great as during any former period.* Never certainly was the standard of ministerial qualifications placed higher than by these divines. "The languages, Greek and Hebrew, are," they urged, "necessary to understand the original text, and derive our doctrine from the fresh and pure fountains. The Latin is also needful, that we may the better receive the benefits of the gifts given to the fathers and writers of former ages, (for all gifts are given by God to profit the church withal,) but also to be acquainted with the liberal arts and sciences." After showing how the knowledge of the arts and sciences contribute to the usefulness of the ministry, and how a learned ministry has been in all ages

*Neal III. 400.

the bulwark of the church against heretics and errorists, they conclude that "therefore the enemies of a learned ministry are the friends of popery and all heresies, of ignorance and blindness, and the enemies of the truth and gospel, of the light and comfort of the church of Jesus Christ."* The fruits of these principles and labours we find in that harvest of nonconforming ministers who filled the churches at the period of the Restoration, of whom two thousand in England, between three and four thousand in Scotland, and sixty out of sixty-five in Ireland, gave up their livings rather than abandon principle; of whom the world was not worthy; whose works of piety and devotion will ever constitute the staple productions of our Christian literature; and of whom we have a noble succession in those five hundred Presbyterian clergymen and two hundred licentiates and students in divinity in Scotland, who have now taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and suffered even unto poverty, in their glorious contest for the truth and honour of the gospel. Howe and Charnock, Bates and Heyward, and a host of other worthies, exemplify the character of these divines, and the truth of these observations. Without the works of many of these divines, no theological library could be complete, since they contain treaties on various subjects, which are regarded as incomparably the best in the English language.

Neither is this character of the divines of the Westminster Assembly rendered in any degree questionable by the baseless calumnies of Clarendon, or the revengeful vituperation of Milton. By their denunciation of Milton's work on divorce, which led to his being brought before the House of Lords, and by their steady opposition to the constitutional proceedings of his master Cromwell, they excited the deep and keen anger of his fierce antagonist. In this, however, Milton only proved his own inconsistency, and reflected discredit, not on the Assembly, but upon himself. For that very work on divorce had been dedicated by him to this very Assembly. In this dedication, after they had been in session for two years, he denominates them "a select Assembly" "of so much piety and wisdom," "a learned and memorable Synod, in which piety, learning, and prudence were housed." The hireling defamer of political opponents, and the enraged avenger of a private quarrel, are neither of them therefore entitled to vilify a large and respectable Assembly, whose character is otherwise so undoubtedly established.†

*See Byfield's (a member of the Assembly) Short Treatise describing the Church of Christ. London, 1653, p. 26, 27. +See Orme's Life of Baxter, p. 71.

SECTION III.

THE STANDARDS OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.

But great as were these men in natural genius, and eminent as they were in acquirement and in their literary and theological publications, it is as the authors of those standards which were the fruits of their five years' deliberations, that they most powerfully claim our reverence. The first of these is the Confession of Faith. We have stated that the members of the Assembly had been almost to a man Episcopalians, or at least conformists. The first object of the Assembly was not therefore to overthrow, but to alter and improve, the existing system of polity and doctrine. Accordingly, one of their first acts was to divide their whole body into three committees, to each of which was distributed a certain number of the articles of the English Church. After having spent ten weeks in the revision of the first fifteen articles, they were arrested in their proceedings by an order at once to frame a Directory for public worship; and as it was afterwards thought that uniformity would be better promoted by constructing a new Confession, the further amendment of the thirty-nine Articles was dropped. A committee was therefore appointed to this work in May, 1645, who presented the complete Confession in November, 1646, which after being reviewed and amended was published in May, 1647. The outline of this work would appear to have originated with Alexander Henderson, the leader of what is termed the Second Scottish Reformation, who had been appointed by the General Assembly of Scotland in 1641 to draw up a Confession of Faith, a Catechism, a Directory for all parts of public worship, and a Platform of Government, and who was a commissioner to the Westminster Assembly. In June, 1648, the two houses of Lords and Commons having gone over the whole, article by article, ordered it to be published under the title of "Articles of Religion approved and passed by both houses of Parliament, after advice had with an Assembly of Divines called together by them for that purpose." The whole Confession being immediately transmitted to Scotland, was received with approbation by both the General Assembly and Parliament, and has continued to be the established doctrine of the Church of Scotland until this day, and of all the Presbyterian churches founded by her in England, Ireland, America, and all other parts of the world. This Confession has been embodied almost verbatim in the Confession adopted by the Congregationalists at the Savoy Conference, in their Cambridge and Saybrook platforms, and in the Confessions of the Old South Church in Boston, and other New-England churches; and also by the Calvinistic Baptists.

The next work completed by the Assembly was the reduction of the substance of this Confession into the form of Catechisms; one called "The Larger," for the groundwork of a public exposition in the pulpit, according to the custom of the foreign churches; and the other "The Shorter," for the instruction of children in the principal doctrines of the Christian religion. The Shorter Catechism was presented to parliament in November, 1647, and the Larger in April, 1648. These works are beyond all praise. To those who recognize the system of doctrine they contain as being that taught in the word of God, they must be allowed to be, next to the Bible, the most complete and perfect summaries of evangelical truth that exist; most admirable in their arrangement; simple and scriptural in their language; comprehensive in their details, and masterly in their whole construction. They are, in short, perfect systems of divinity. Beginning with a general introduction, illustrative of the great end of man's creation and the only infallible standard of faith and practice, they are divided into two parts. The first division explains what we are to believe concerning God in himself considered, and in his doings towards the human race, in their creation, fall, and redemption. The second division embraces the duty which God requires of man; in which is given a full explanation of the moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments; and the special duties arising from the gospel dispensation, such as faith, repentance, the diligent use of the means of grace and prayer, as illustrated in the general summary of "The Lord's Prayer." To these catechisms, millions are indebted for their theological knowledge, for their saving piety, and for their preservation from dangerous heresies and errors; while to them, under God, must our church trace her deliverance from many a dangerous onset, and her present establishment in the faith once delivered to the saints.

The next work of the Assembly was the one which gave rise to the greatest debates-that is, the Form of Government. At first no more was thought of than such a modified form of episcopacy as would remove the evils consequent upon the hierarchy. But when the views of the Scottish divines were presented and most elaborately discussed, and a full knowledge was obtained of the working, efficiency, and influence of the Presbyterian system, as practised in the reformed churches, the great majority of the Assembly, Episcopalians though they had been, were led to approve of Presbytery as the system of polity instituted by Christ and his apostles. They all, except about eight Independents, (who differed as to the second point,) adopted as of divine right "the two radical principles of Presbyterial church government, the PARITY OF MINISTERS of the Gospel, or the identity of Bishops and Presbyters; and

the regulation of all matters in the church by the counsel and will of the whole body, or their representatives, which comprehends the subordination of inferior to superior judicatories."

Even the Congregationalists in the Assembly embraced almost every thing in this work, and had actually agreed to a compromised view upon which both parties would have been harmoniously united, but for the political influence of Cromwell, for whose interest it was necessary that they should be kept divided.* This form of government, however, was never fully approved by the parliament, owing to the increased influence of the Independents. Erastian, and Sectarian parties in that body; and the impossibility of harmonizing them all upon the platform of Presbyterianism. It was, however, at once

*They both admitted the same orders of office-bearers in the church, though the Independents would have recognized more than the Presbyterians thought either necessary or commanded in Scripture; and they differed little in their opinions respecting the powers properly inherent in congregations." (Hetherington. p. 165.) Mr. Nye, the leader of the Independents, admitted that they held classical and synodical meetings very useful and profitable, yea, possibly agreeable to the institution of Christ: but the question is this, whether these meetings have the same power that ecclesia prima, or one single congregation has? (Lightfoot, p. 144.) The compromise above alluded to. was brought in by a committee raised for the purpose, and composed of Messrs. Seaman, Vines, Palmer. Marshall Godwin, Nye, Burroughs, and Bridge, together with the four Scottish divines, and was as follows: "1. That there be a presbytery, or meeting of the elders of many neighbouring congregations. to consult upon such things as concern those congregations in matters ecclesiastical; and such presbyteries are the ordinances of Christ, having his power and authority. 2. Such pres byteries have power in cases that are to come before them. to declare and determine doctrinally what is agreeable to God's word and this judgment of theirs is to be received with reverence and obligation as Christ s ordinance. 3. They have power to require the elders of those congregations to give an account of any thing scandalous in doctrine or practice.' (Lightfoot. p. 214, 215.) Another report was brought forward from this committee about a week afterwards, containing two additional propositions, forming five in all, as follows: "4. The churches and eldership being offended, let them examine, admonish. and in case of obstinacy. declare them either disturbers of the peace, as subverters of the faith, or otherwise, as the nature and degree of the offence shall require. 5. In case that the particular church or eldership shall refuse to reform that scandalous doctrine or practice, then that meeting of elders, which is assembled from several churches and congregations, shall acquaint their several congregations respectively. and withdraw from them and deny church communion and fellowship with them." (Lightfoot. p. 229.) In the course of their argument and illustrations, the dissenting brethren, that is, the Congregationalists. made so many concessions, that it is rather difficult to conceive on what their final opposition rested. As. for instance, they admitted "that synods are an ordinance of God upon all occasions of diffi culty that all the churches of a province may call a single congregation to account; that they may examine and admonish, and, in case of obstinacy, may declare them to be subverters of the faith; that they have authority to determine in controversies of faith; that they may deny church communion to an offending and obstinate congregation, and that this sentence of non-communion may be enforced by the authority of the civil magistrate; and that they may call before them any person within their bounds concerned in the ecclesiastical business before them, and may bear and determine such causes as orderly come before them." Reasons and Answers of Dissenting Brethren, page 138.