The Westminster Assembly; Its History and Standards Being the Baird Lecture for 1882 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1883. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... LECTURE X. THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH OR ARTICLES OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Part I.--Introductory history of doctrine, and detailed account 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 Assembly in 1646, and interrupted for a time the preparation of its doctrinal standards. In to-day's Lecture I shall endeavour to give a succinct account of the preparation of that Confession of Faith which is regarded in most Presbyterian Churches as the principal, and in some as the sole doctrinal standard. As I promised in a former lecture (p. 54), however, I must first advert to the previous history of doctrine in the British Churches. I have already explained that the differences between the Puritans1 and their opponents at first seemed 1 'Albeit the Puritans disquieted ourChurch about their conceived discipline, yet they never moved any quarrel against the doctrine of our Church. . . It was then the open confession, both of the to be few in number, and of minor importance, just because so much of what afterwards came to be named puritanic was then accepted and valued by almost all who favoured the principles of the Reformation. I stated that this was especially the case with respect to that system of doctrine known as Augustinian or Calvinistic, the holders of which, by the time of Archbishop Laud, had come to be nicknamed 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 honour in the Church, I must now revert to this subject, a...