This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. There is no copyright on this material and we encourage you to reproduce it and pass it on to your friends. Many free resources as well as our complete mail order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at area code 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L3T5. If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog. History of the Westminster Assembly of the Vines by William M. Hetherington, as read by Leah Domes. Tape number 13. 3. See page 254. An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament about suspension from the Lord's Supper. 20th of October, 1645. It was my intention to have inserted the whole of this important ordinance in the appendix, for the purpose of showing the exact point on which the Westminster Assembly and the Parliament disagreed, as well as the extent to which they were of one mind. But as that has been done with considerable distinctness in the body of the work, and as I am desirous to avoid unnecessary expansion, it seems to me expedient for the present to suppress that rather prolix document, reserving to myself the power of inserting it in a future edition. Should it be, then, thought desirable, or should I prosecute the intention of enlarging the work? 4. See page 258. An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament concerning the Choice of Elders. 14th of March, 1646. For the reasons above stated, and with still greater reluctance, I have resolved to abstain from inserting this ordinance also. And I may add that had the plan of the present work, and the dimensions within which it was judged necessary to confine it permitted, there are a number of very important documents, little known or regarded, which might have been inserted in the appendix, and would have formed a very valuable addition to the means by which the general reader may acquire some adequate knowledge of the true history and character of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. 5. The Scottish Commissioners. A brief notice of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly may be interesting to those who have not ready access to the biographical memoirs of those eminent men. 1. Alexander Henderson. This very distinguished man, the leader of the Second Reformation in Scotland, was born in the year 1583 in the parish of Christ in Fifeshire. Of his direct patronage, nothing is known except that his father was a cadet of the family of Henderson of Fordell, an ancient and honorable family in the same country. He entered the University of St. Andrews in the year 1599 and took a degree of Master of Arts in 1603. and a few years afterwards was appointed to a professorship in the same university. He continued to retain his class of philosophy and rhetoric, which he taught with great applause, till about the year 1613, when he was presented to the parish of Loucars, through the influence, it is said, of Archbishop Gladstein's. As he had at that time favored policy which King James was imposing upon the Church of Scotland, his settlement was strenuously opposed by the people. They fastened the church door on the day of his induction, and kept it so securely that he and the ministers who accompanied him were obliged to make their entrance by a window. He does not appear to have paid any attention to the wishes or the welfare of the people, but merely to have viewed Lucar's as a position from which to commence a course of ambition and of clerical preferment. But a change was at hand which affected the whole of his future life and conduct. The venerable and heavenly-minded Robert Bruce had about that time been committed to return from his banishment to the Highlands, and took advantage of his recovered liberty to preach in those parts of the country to which he obtained access. Mr. Henderson, having learned that Bruce was to preach in the neighborhood, felt a strong desire to hear a man so celebrated. He went secretly to the church, tradition names Darcy as the place, and took a position in a dark corner, where he could remain concealed. Bruce entered the pulpit, and after a solemn pause, gave out his text, the following words, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." Every word uttered with the grave emphasis of Bruce's deep voice went to the heart of Henderson, as it described and condemned his mode of entrance into Lucar's. He returned with the arrow in his heart, and the result was his conversion. From that time forward he was a changed man. Hitherto he had been a favorer of the Palladic system, but without having studied it or tried it by Scripture. He now felt it his duty to study the difference between the Palladic and Presbyterian systems, and arrived at the clear conviction that Episcopacy was equally unauthorized by the Word of God and inconsistent with the Constitution of the Church of Scotland. The progress of events soon constrained him to bear his testimony to the truth publicly. He opposed the Articles of Perth at the Assembly held in that town in the year 1618. From that time forward, for a considerable number of years, Henderson remained in comparative obscurity, prosecuting his pastoral duties earnestly, maintaining correspondence with the most pious ministers throughout the country, and jealously watched by the Pilatic party. A remarkable revival of vital godliness was during that period spreading extensively throughout the kingdom, preparatory, no doubt, for the coming struggle. And in that revival Henderson was deeply interested. But the very stillness of that religious revival, appearing to the Pilatic party to be something like gloomy acquiescence in their innovations, led them to anticipate a complete triumph, and they roused themselves to make a final effort. Then came the crisis. In the year 1636, a book of ecclesiastical canons was sent down from England, and in the course of the same year, a book of ordination. In the following year, a liturgy appeared and was ordered to be read in all the churches. Henderson and other ministers presented a petition to the Privy Council, praying to be relieved from constrained compliance with these injunctions. This was the commencement of a regular and lawful mode of opposition, but the rash pride of the prelates compelled the resistance to assume a more stormy aspect. The attempt to enforce the reading of the liturgy in Edinburgh, on the 23rd of July, 1637, caused a tumult in which a woman's hand dashed to the earth all the anticipations of that tyrannical party. The tumult was soon allayed, but not the deep and strong spirit of resistance which had taken possession of the energetic mind of Scotland. Grave, earnest, and thoughtful men now resolved to combine for the restoration and defense of their religious and civil liberties, and of these Henderson became at once the acknowledged leader. The union thus begun was knit into sacred strength by the National Covenant, framed chiefly by Henderson and Johnston of Worcester, and subscribed by thousands in the Greyfriars Church on the 28th day of February, 1638. This solemn and sacred document was subscribed with great cordiality throughout the entire kingdom, and gave to the covenanted Reformation a name and a power which can never perish, while spiritual freedom is dear to those whom the truth has made free indeed. The union of Scottish Presbyterians thus confirmed was too strong to be put down by force, or set at defiance. The King consented that a General Assembly should be held in which all religious matters might be considered. This Assembly, the first which had been held since that of Perth in 1618, met at Glasgow on the 21st of November, 1638, and Henderson was unanimously chosen to be the moderator. The position was one of great difficulty, and demanded a man not only of high principle and calm courage, but of the most consummate prudence. Henderson was equal to the position and its duties, as he fully proved by his firmness and decision when the Royal Commissioner attempted to dissolve the Assembly, his grave dignity when he pronounced sentence on the bishops, and his prophet-like solemnity when he summed up the proceedings at the close, and sealed them with the awful reference to the curse of Hyle the Bethelite. Henderson was at this time translated from Lucrece to Edinburgh. Contrary to his declared love of retirement, on the condition that he should be allowed to retreat to some quiet rural parish when overtaken by the infirmities of age, a quiet retreat which the public necessities of the period never permitted him to realize. From that time forward he was constrained to take a prominent part in all public duties. Papers on Public Affairs, which would now be called State Papers, were written by him, though issued in the name of a nobility. He was constrained to aid in conducting negotiations for peace with the King. He was made Rector of the University of Edinburgh, and when the English Parliament began to entertain the idea of seeking a reformation of Church government in their own country, and of seeking an alliance with Scotland and its Church, they anxiously sought the concurrence and aid of Alexander Henderson. The correspondence with England was almost entirely conducted by him, till it issued in the English Parliament summoning the Westminster Assembly, and requiring ministers from Scotland to be present at and aid in its deliberations. During the discussions of the Westminster Assembly, Henderson continued to retain his high influence with all parties. and to exercise it wisely, as the history of its proceedings amply proves. When the King went to the Scottish Army and withdrew with it to Newcastle, Henderson was sent thither as a last attempt to induce His Majesty to consent to the terms proposed by the Parliament. But as the Parliament had abolished Episcopacy, which Charles had determined to support, he drew Henderson into discussion by exchange of letters on the Episcopalian controversy and the binding force of the coronation oath. This epistolary controversy extended to five letters on the part of the king and three on that of Henderson. At length Henderson, worn out in constitution with his numerous, weighty, and incessant labors, and sick at heart with the obstinate infatuation of a despotic and deceitful monarch, abandoned his hopeless enterprise to save a king, whom no reasoning could convince, and no treaties could bind, resolved to return to Scotland that he might at last die in peace. He arrived in Edinburgh on the 11th of August, and died on the 19th of the same month, in a state of calm serenity, holy hope, and deep gratitude to God for having called him to believe and preach the glorious gospel. A brief outline of the mental character and abilities of Alexander Henderson has been already given in the preceding pages of this work and need not be here repeated. Yet if our space had permitted, we should have liked to have directed attention to those remarkable papers on public affairs which were written by him. They display statesmanship of the very highest order, surpassed in splendor of dictation by those of Milton. but not surpassed even by Milton in comprehensiveness of thought, loftiness of principle, and dignity of expression, while they were perfectly free from the proud scorn and fierce denunciations in which the stern Republican indulged. They are every way worthy of a truly Christian statesman, a character which the world has rarely seen, and for want of which the suffering nations are convulsed and miserable. Epistopalian writers have assigned the victory to the king in the controversial correspondence between him and Henderson. For such a preference nothing but the most blinding prejudice can account, as it would be very easy to prove had we space to give even a brief analysis of the respective arguments. We may add, not only in learning and reasoning are Henderson's papers immeasurably superior to those of the king, but even in calm and graceful dignity of style, in which a sovereign might have been expected to excel for the habitual influence of his high station. But Henderson was by nature a king of men, and his whole bearing and language were always kingly. He was one of those great men whom God gives to elevate a nation, and work a mighty work, and whose departure leaves that age dark. feeble and deploring. 2. Samuel Weatherford. There is some difficulty in ascertaining either the birthplace of Samuel Weatherford or the year in which he was born, but the most probable account is that he was born about the year 1600, at that Nisbet, a village close to the river Teverill, in the parish of Crailing, Roxburghshire, was his birthplace. He appears to have received his early education at Jedborough in the year 1617. He became a student in the University of Edinburgh, where he took his degree of Master of Arts in 1621. In 1623, he was elected one of the regents of the college, which office he relinquished in 1625 and devoted himself to the study of divinity. In the year 1627, he resettled Pastor Ann Watt in the stewardry of Kirk Cudbright without having been constrained to come under any engagement to the bishop. Weatherford continued to discharge the duties of the ministry in this small and remote parish with great zeal, unwary diligence, and remarkable success during a period of nine years. But that period was not without its troubles. First he lost his two children and then his wife died after a severe illness of above a year by which his gentle and affectionate heart was very deeply afflicted. He was himself laid aside from his public labors for 13 weeks by a fever which reduced him to extreme debility for a time. After his recovery he continued to prosecute his labors with increased earnestness and activity, and became very dear not only to all the people of his own charge, but to the entire district around. Many anecdotes are preserved by tradition of the influence which he acquired, and the way in which he used it for the reformation of evil customs, and the promotion of vital godliness. There is a traditionary account also of a private visit paid to him by Archbishop Usher, at first as an unknown stranger, till a discovery took place, and the Archbishop, at Rutherford's request, preached in the pulpit of the Presbyterian minister, and stayed another day to enjoy his heavenly conversation. But the quiet and holy life which Rutherford had hitherto led was not permitted to continue. The death of Bishop Lamb, having made the Sea of Galloway vacant, Sidesurf, Bishop of Brecon, was translated to Galloway, and immediately began a course of oppressive domination over his new diocese. Rutherford had published an elaborate work against Arminianism, written in Latin, and Sidesurf, who held Arminian tenants, directed his persecuting power against the author. Rutherford was summoned to appear before the Bishop's High Commission Court and deprived of his office in 1636. The Court of High Commission in Edinburgh ratified the sentence of deposition, and banished him to Aberdeen, in which prelacy reigned supreme. The Aberdeen doctors at first engaged him in controversial disputations, but three of these discussions were enough for them, and they prudently ceased from a controversy in which they were overmatched. In a short time, the influence of Rutherford began to be felt in Aberdeen, among the people, and the baffled doctors petitioned the court that he might be sent farther north, or banished from the kingdom. The king had actually granted a warrant to that effect, when the power of Prelacy was overthrown by the commotion of 1637, a consequence of which Rutherford ventured to return to Anwar, which he reached in February 1638. He was sent by his presbytery to attend the Assembly of Glasgow, and by that assembly was appointed to be one of the Professors of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews, to his own grief and that of his beloved and attached flock at Anwar. In the year 1643 he was sent to London as one of the commissioners from the Church of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly. While he attended that assembly, he greatly distinguished himself by his skill in debate, his eloquence in preaching, and his great learning and ability as an author. Few works of that age surpassed or even equal those which were produced by Rutherford during that intensely laborious period of his life. The first of these was entitled The Due Right of Presbytery. Next appeared Lex Rex. a profound work on constitutional law, which has not yet found it superior. Soon afterwards he published a work on the divine right of church government, in opposition to the Erasteans. Three very excellent works on practical theology were produced in the same toilful and prolific period, The Trial and Triumph of Faith, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners, and Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist. In 1649 he published a free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience, chiefly directed against the claims of the English sectarians for an unlimited license to utter every opinion and engage in every practice which any man might choose, without regard to the peace or welfare of the community, a degree of licentiousness which Cromwell was at last constrained to put down by the strong hand of armed power. when it threatened danger to even his iron sway. Not long after his return from London, he was elevated to the principalship of the new college in St. Andrews, and while discharging his professorial duties with all his former zeal, resumed also his practice of preaching, in which he so much delighted, as often as opportunity and time permitted. When the contest between the Resolutioners and the Protesters arose, Rutherford joined the Protesters, and advocated their views with great and even impassioned eagerness. This led to alienation between him and friends with whom he had been formerly accustomed to hold intimate and cordial intercourse, and greatly distressed all the remainder of his life, while it exposed him to the fierce hostility of those traitors and tyrants who applauded for the restoration of policy. Sharp, in particular, treated him with the utmost contumely, procuring an order from the Committee of Estates to burn his Lex Rex at the Market Cross in Edinburgh, and presiding at the repetition of the same mean act beneath Weatherford's own windows in St. Andrews. Weatherford was at that time sinking under toil, grief, and bodily sickness. Yet his persecutors procured a sentence against him, depriving him of his situation in the College, confiscating his salary, confining him to his own house, inciting him to appear before the ensuing Parliament on a charge of high treason. On hearing of his summons, he calmly remarked that he had got another summons before a superior judge and judicatory, and sent back the following message, I behoove to answer my first summons, and ere your day arrive I shall beware few kings and great folks come." He then prepared a dying testimony in behalf of the covenanted Reformation, and having thus finished his work on earth, looked rapturously forward to the hour of his release. During his few remaining days he enjoyed remarkable happiness and elevation of spirit in the near prospect of death. or rather of departure to be with Christ. His language to those friends who came to see him was full of holy joy. His last words were, Glory, glory dwelling in Emmanuel's land. And having uttered these words, he expired on the morning of the 20th of March, 1661, in the 61st year of his age. The threatening sound of the coming storm so soon to burst in a tempest of persecuting fury on Scotland, had been but faintly heard by him, when the hand of the Saviour snatched him from its violence, and took him to his home in heaven. 3. Robert Bailey Robert Bailey was born in Glasgow on the 30th of April, 1602. His father, a merchant in that city, was the younger son of Robert Bailey of Jerviston. near Hamilton and thus connected with several families of distinction in the west of Scotland. He was educated at the public school at that time taught by Robert Blair who afterwards became eminent as a divine. He entered the University of Glasgow in 1617 and took his degree of Master of Arts in 1620 with considerable distinction. Being fond of learning and desirous to acquire as much of it as possible before entering on the duties of the ministry to which he had devoted himself, Bailey continued to attend the College under Boyd of Tropperidge and Cameron, who had previously been Professor of Divinity at Sumer. Cameron was accustomed to inculcate the slavish tenet that all resistance to the Supreme Magistrate in any case was unlawful. and the effect of this was never entirely banished from the mind of Bailey. He became one of the regents in the college in the year 1625, about which time he received orders from Law, Archbishop of Glasgow. In the year 1631, he was appointed Minister of Kilwinning, through the influence of the Eglinton family, and was soon afterwards married. Up till this period, and for some years longer, Bailey had been deposed to conform to many of the Pilatic ceremonies recently introduced, but was strongly opposed to all Arminian and Popish doctrines. But the despotic proceedings of the King and the Pilatic Party, in their attempt to impose their canons and liturgy on the Church and people of Scotland, roused the somewhat compromising and timid spirit of Bailey. and impelled him to study, more carefully than he had previously done, the real nature and tendency of such arbitrary men and measures. With some hesitation he joined those who petitioned against the violent imposition of these books, and at length joined in the subscription of the National Covenant. From that time forward his conduct became more decided than before, though he continued to cherish some scruples in regard to the total abolition of diocesan episcopacy, as he showed by his modified vote in the Glasgow Assembly, when that point was decided. When the King attempted to subdue the Covenanters by force, and then raise an army in defense of their civil and religious liberties, Bailey accompanied a regiment of men raised in Irishire as their chaplains. when the free Scottish nation met the king in arms at Dunslaw. Bailey's strong literary tendency led him to employ his ready and prolific pen in writing against the innovations of the Palladic faction, and the extensive and exact learning displayed in his writings induced the men of greater action to employ him in literary labours. He was, in consequence, summoned to Newcastle in 1640, and sent to London soon afterwards as one of the commissioners for conducting the treaty with the King. After his return to Scotland he was, contrary to his inclination, appointed one of the professors of divinity in the University of Glasgow. To this office he was admitted in July 1642. This important position, however, he was not long allowed to occupy undisturbed. He was appointed by the Assembly of 1643 as one of the Scottish Commissioners to attend the Westminster Assembly of Divines, and arrived at London on the 18th of November the same year. He continued at the post of duty and labour till December 1646, with the exception of one short journey to Scotland to report to the Scottish Assembly what progress had been made by the Westminster Divines. During the period of his residence in London, the restless pen of Bailey was incessantly engaged, both in the production of elaborate controversial treatises, and in the writing of those numerous letters and journals, which gave such full, minute, and graphic accounts of the Westminster Assembly. On resuming his duties in the University, Bailey employed all his influence for the important object of carrying into effect various overtures passed by previous assemblies for the advancement of learning and good order in grammar schools and colleges. But this most laudable attempt was frustrated by the reoccurrence of fresh troubles in the Church and Kingdom. When the King fell into the hands of the English Army and Parliament, a secret treaty termed the Engagement was framed between the Royalists of the two Kingdoms, for the purpose of attempting to rescue the infatuated monarch from the danger into which his open despotism and known disregard for the faith of the treaties had led him. This unhappy attempt introduced the most deplorable disunion into Scotland, both in church and state. In a short time, the church was split into two parties, known by the names of resolutioners and protesters. of which it may be fairly said that the Resolutioners were too ready to adopt the base course of compromise and expediency in which mere politicians delight, while the protesters not only maintained a stern and uncomplying attitude, but allowed themselves to use the language of keen asperity and showed somewhat of a vindictive spirit. Alexander Henderson was dead before these disastrous contentions began. Gillespie, too, was no more, and the men of less commanding talents and inferior judgment were unable to sway the public mind, as had been done during the great period of the Covenant. Bailey joined the Resolutioners as was to be expected from his early training and his constitutional timidity. He continued to hold his position and discharge his duties as professor, often with great grief and vexation. a consequence of the increasing confusion in church and state. Soon after the restoration of Charles II, Bailey was elevated to the Principalship of the University, but did not long enjoy his well-earned honors, and not for one moment in peace. His remaining days were embittered by the perfidious and treacherous conduct of nearly all those whom he had most trusted, of the King, of Lauderdale, and chiefly of Mr. James Sharp, better known as Archbishop Sharp, a man whose memory is more deeply stained with the base and cruel crimes of treachery and persecution than almost any other that ever disgraced the country which gave him birth. But the time of Robert Bailey's relief from all earthly troubles was at hand. He lived to see the re-imposition of Episcopacy in Scotland. and the entry of Archbishop Farifal into Glasgow in April 1662, and died weary and heartbroken toward the end of August in the same year, in the sixty-first year of his age, in time to be spared from witnessing the storm of bloody persecution then breaking out, by which Scotland was devastated for twenty-eight dark and terrible years of crime and suffering. 4. George Gillespie. Few men have gained so much renown within so short a period as George Gillespie. Few have been more beloved when living, more bewailed when dead. He was the son of the Reverend John Gillespie, minister at Kirkcaldy, and was born on the 21st of January, 1613. In the year 1629 he commenced his academic studies at the University of St. Andrews where he is said to have early distinguished himself. But when he had completed his course, and was ready to enter the ministry, he was constrained to pause for a period. Being convinced that Prolatic Church government is of human invention, he would not submit to receive ordination from a bishop, and could not, at that juncture, obtain admission to the ministry without it. But Lord Kenmure took him into his household as domestic chaplain, where he resided till the death of that pious nobleman in 1634. Soon afterwards he occupied a similar position in the family of the Earl of Kassilis, and at that same time acted as tutor to Lord Kennedy, the Earl's eldest son. He had thus both leisure and inducement to prosecute his studies. which subsequent events proved him to have done with equal assiduity and success. When, in 1637, the King and the Polatic Party had formed the desperate resolution of forcibly imposing the Book of Canons and the Liturgy upon the Church and people of Scotland, George Gillespie, in the early part of the summer of that year, published his work entitled a dispute against the English Popish ceremonies. Nothing could have been more suited to the emergency. It encountered systematically and point by point all the arguments of the Proletic Party, with such an extensive array of learning and such acuteness and power of reasoning as to excite universal astonishment. At that time Gillespie was only in his twenty-fifth year. and both friends and foes marveled at the appearance of a work so elaborate from the pen of such a youth. The only answer attempted by the Pilatic party was their procuring an order from the Privy Council that the book should be called in and burned. It is now, however, by such a process that a true and able book can be destroyed. Gillespie's work still exists, and may yet be of service. The power of the bishops departed, and as George Gillespie had become known and admired, he was not allowed to remain much longer in a private position. Having received a call from the Church and Parish of Weymouth, he was ordained to the pastoral charge thereof by the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy on the 26th of April, 1638, and was the first who was admitted by a presbytery at that period without the authority of the bishops. From that time forward, Gillespie, notwithstanding his youth, occupied a prominent position. He was a member of the famous Glasgow Assembly of 1638, and he was also sent as one of the commissioners to London in 1640. He was translated to Edinburgh in 1642, and continued to be one of the ministers of that city during the remainder of his life. George Gillespie was one of the commissioners sent by the Scottish General Assembly to take part in the deliberations of the Westminster Assembly. He arrived at London along with Alexander Henderson on the 15th of September 1643, and almost immediately became one of the most prominent members of that August Assembly, although the youngest man and minister of the whole, being only in the 30th year of his age, and the fifth of his ministry. That is an excellent youth, says Bailey. My heart blesses God in his behalf. There is no man whose parts in the public dispute I do so admire. He has studied so accurately all the points that are yet come to our assembly. He has got so ready, so assured, so solid a way of public debating, that whoever there be in the assembly divers very excellent men Yet in my poor judgment there is not one who speaks more rationally and to the point than that brave youth has done ever. Great, unquestionably, must have been the learning and the ability of the man who met and defeated, each on his own peculiar ground, such antagonists as Goodwin and Nye on the independent controversy, and Coleman, Lightfoot, and the learned Selden on the side of Erastianism, as the accounts of contemporaries prove Gillespie to have done. In addition to his constant attendance in the Assembly and his arduous exertions in the course of its debates, Gillespie employed his acute and powerful mind in written controversy with the ablest advocates of Erastianism. In two or three vigorous pamphlets he completely silenced Coleman, whose reputation for Hebrew learning had procured him the name of Rabbi Coleman. But he had also planned, and was all the while prosecuting, a much larger work. That work appeared about the close of the year 1646, under the title of Aaron's Rod Blossoming, or the Divine Ordinance of Church Government Vindicated. This remarkably able and elaborate work was conclusive on the subject of the Erastian controversy. Not one of the learned and able Elastians of that age even made the attempt to answer it, although they did not relinquish their sullen grasp of unscriptural power. It has not been answered yet, and although it may not be suited to the forms of modern thought and expression, yet if its reasonings were recast in a modern mold, it would still be found triumphantly conclusive. nor was it in the field of controversy alone that Gillespie employed his preeminent mental qualifications. He took an equally active and influential part in the framing of the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms, which embodied the doctrinal decisions of the Assembly, and some memorable anecdotes have been preserved relating to his special eminence in connection with these more strictly theological productions. When the public labours of the Westminster Assembly drew nearer close, the Scottish commissioners returned to their native country. Gillespie, along with Bailey, appeared at the General Assembly, which met in August 1647, and laid before it the result of their protracted labours. The Confession of Faith was ratified by that Assembly, and so became the doctrinal standard of the Church of Scotland. subordinate only to the Bible, on which all of its doctrines were avowedly founded. The same assembly caused to be printed a series of propositions, or theses against Erastinism, as Bailey terms them, amounting to one hundred and eleven, drawn up by Gillespie. The perusal of these propositions would enable any person of unprejudiced and intelligent mind to master and refute the whole arresting theory, and could not fail, at the same time, to call forth sentiments of admiration towards the clear and strong mind by which they were framed. George Gillespie was appointed moderator of the General Assembly of 1648, although worn out with the great and incessant toils in which he had been engaged, and suffering under a severe illness, which already displayed the symptoms of consumption. His influence was sufficient to preserve the Assembly, from consenting to give any countenance to the weak and wicked intrigues already begun by worldly politicians. But the renewed anxiety and labor incurred by these exertions completely exhausted his remaining strength. He left Edinburgh and retired to Kirkcaldy, his birthplace, in the faint hope of obtaining by change of scene and air, some renovation to his health. But continuing to think, and being no longer able to attend church courts, he addressed a letter to the Commission of Assembly in September, stating his opinions concerning the duties and the dangers of the time. Feeling death at hand, he partly wrote and partly dictated what may be termed his dying testimony against association with malignant enemies of the truth and godliness. At length on the 17th of December, 1648, his toils and sorrows ceased, and he fell asleep in Jesus. So passed away from this world one of those bright and powerful spirits which are sent in troublous times to carry forward God's work among mankind. and recalled to heaven when that work is done. 5. Worreston Archibald Johnston of Worreston was one of the elders appointed by the General Assembly to act as commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. Previous to this, he had distinguished himself in the struggle between the Church of Scotland and its Prolatic oppressors. He was rapidly becoming eminent as an advocate at the Scottish Bar, when the outraged church roused itself to resist the imposition of the canons and liturgy. Immediately he joined the Asserners of Religious Liberty and took an active part in all their public procedure, in which his great legal knowledge, acuteness of intellect, soundness of judgment, and promptitude in action proved signally beneficial to the cause of truth and righteousness. When the General Assembly met at Glasgow in 1638, Mr. Johnston was unanimously chosen to be Clerk of the Assembly, for which office he was peculiarly qualified, being as well acquainted with ecclesiastical as with civil law. A very remarkable congeniality of mental endowments and moral qualities soon rendered Johnston and Henderson almost inseparable companions and fellow counsellors. The great national covenant was framed by their conjoined powers of knowledge and thought. They were the leading men of the commissioners, appointed to treat for peace with the King. By them the solemn latent covenant between England and Scotland was written, and their labourers were again conjoined when they were sent together to the Westminster Assembly. Two years before that period, the King, having come to Scotland with a view of conciliating or deceiving the Covenanters, showed great favour to Mr. Johnston, raised him to the Order of Knighthood, and made him one of the judges in the Court of Session, by the title of Lord Worsdon. But these preferments and honours did not induce him to swerve a hair's breadth from his fidelity to the Covenanted Church of Scotland. which was dearer to him than rank and wealth, and the smiles of a monarch. In the Westminster Assembly, Worston attended very constantly, and frequently engaged in the discussions and debates of that grave and learned body, fully maintaining his high reputation. Even the English Parliament requested him to sit among them, and aid in their deliberations, although he was not and could not become a member of that High Court. After the decapitation of Charles I by the English Parliament against the strong and earnest protestations of both state and church in Scotland, the outraged and indignant feeling of the community enabled the Scottish Royalists to gain the ascendancy in public affairs, and they determined to place his son on the throne of Scotland. and framed an engagement with the English Royalists to aid them in the attempt to recover that of England also. Warston did his utmost to prevent the nation from entering upon a course which could only lead to ruin, and when he could not prevail, he joined the protesters and aided their councils. Cromwell easily triumphed over the divided power of Scotland, But Worston, though he strove to avert a war with England, refused to hold office under the Protector, whom he regarded as the usurper of regal power. Some years afterwards, he was induced to accept the office of Clerk-Register under the administration of Cromwell. On the restoration of Charles II, the Marquis of Argyll was thrown into prison, and orders were issued for the seizure of others. including Warston, but he escaped and fled to the continent. While there, he was attacked by a severe illness and reduced almost to death by that and the unskillfulness, some say the treachery, of a physician. From the prostration of all bodily and even mental power caused by this illness and treatment, he never wholly recovered. The cold and revengeful eye of Charles was still upon him, and in 1663 he was seized in France, brought to Scotland, tried, condemned, and executed, when so enfeebled by age and disease that he could scarcely either stand or speak. Yet with the calm tranquility and spiritual elevation of a martyr, he gave the relics of his wasted life to the cause in which he had strenuously expended his strength. 6. LAUDERDALE. John Maitland, afterwards Earl and Duke of Lauderdale, was descended from the Maitlands of Lovington, a family which was first raised, to distinction, by the great abilities of that very acute and unscrupulous statesman, the Secretary of Queen Mary and political antagonist of John Knox. Lovington, the family seat, was the birthplace of John Maitland in the year 1616. In his youth, he manifested considerable ability and became distinguished for his classical acquirements. His first public appearance was at the period of the conflict between the Pilatic party and the Covenanters, when he keenly espoused the cause of Covenanted Reformation. He was, at that time, known as Lord Maitland, his father the Earl of Lauderdale being still alive. His rank and talents caused him to be regarded as a valuable acquisition, and his apparent zeal made him to be trusted and employed by the Scottish Church and Parliament. After having been engaged in various important negotiations, in some of which his violent temper and language injured the cause which he advocated so harshly, he was nominated one of the commissioners to the Westminster Assembly, but his attendance was neither very regular nor of much importance, and before the Liberations closed, the death of his father caused his return to Scotland. Not long after this period, the Earl of Lauderdale became a decided royalist, was one of the framers of the Engagement, or secret treaty with the King, and after the decapitation of that unhappy monarch, attached himself to the fortunes of his son. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Worcester, and remained in confinement till the overthrow of the Commonwealth by Monk. He then hastened to The Hague, where the young king was residing, and was received with open arms, and trusted with almost unlimited power in regard to Scottish affairs, His influence was exerted for a time through the medium of the Earl of Middleton and the Privy Council of Edinburgh, and its first manifestation was the overthrow of the Presbyterian Church, the establishment of prophecy, and the commencement of remorseless persecution. But Middleton, proving unmanageable, was set aside in 1662. Ross, who succeeded him, was also set aside in 1667, and from that time Lauderdale resided in Scotland, and conducted the persecution himself with grim and horrible delight. Nothing more savagely ferocious, more base, brutal, and bloody than the conduct of Lauderdale was ever recorded sustained the annals of history and disgraced human nature. On this point we have neither space nor inclination to dwell, but must leave him to the unutterable infamy which will forever blacken his name and memory. But a time of retribution came at last. In 1672 the king degraded the title of a duke by bestowing it on Lauderdale and the English peerage by elevating him in its rank. But his treachery had made him universally distrusted, and his arrogance had become intolerable. In the beginning of 1682, he was deprived of all his offices and pensions, and cast aside as a worn-out political tool. He did not long survive his disgrace, but died in the summer of the same year, leaving behind him no son to inherit either his titles or his shame. and without one friend to lament his fall. 6. Philip Nye and Religious Liberty Reference has been so frequently made to the conduct of Philip Nye in the Westminster Assembly and his suspected intercourse with Cromwell that it seems necessary to investigate these topics somewhat more fully than could be done in the limits of a footnote. Mr. Nye was one of those Puritan divines who fled to Holland to escape from the severe and tyrannical proceedings of Lot. During his residence in Holland, at Arnheim, he adopted the views of the independents. About the beginning of the long parliament, he returned to England and obtained a charge at Kimbleton in hunting Dinshire, through the influence of Lord Kimbleton, also called Lord Mandeville. and afterwards Earl of Manchester. That noble was an intimate friend of Oliver Cromwell, and by his means Nye and Cromwell became also friends. When the Parliament summoned the Assembly of Divines to meet at Westminster, Philip Nye was one of those so summoned, and the Rectory of Ankton, near London, was conferred upon him, as conveniently securing his constant attendance. No man was more urgent in recommending the signing of the solemn Latin covenant than Nye, and for a time it seemed as though he would have been one of the most earnest in procuring the desired uniformity in religion between the two kingdoms. But there is reason to believe that Nye and Cromwell had, at a very early period, resolved that the independent or congregational system should be the only one to which they would consent. This became apparent early in 1644 by the publication of the Apologetical Narrative written by Nye. The state of public affairs must be carefully marked in order to perceive the bearing of events upon each other. For some time after the commencement of the war, the king appeared likely to be successful. Neither Essex nor Waller displayed any military skill. There appeared more energy in the Earl of Manchester, but that energy may be fairly attributed to Cromwell, who was now his lieutenant-general, and had already begun to raise and train that body of troops who were afterwards known as Cromwell's Ironsides, and who were never beaten. The Parliament had urged the approach of the Scottish Army. They had rapidly advanced towards York, and being joined by Fairfax, Manchester, and Cromwell, laid siege to that city. Prince Rupert hastened to its relief, and the Battle of Marston was fought on the 2nd of July, 1644, in which the Royalists were totally defeated. But in the autumn of the same year, the two armies of Waller and Essex were lost in the West counties and the success of the war continued doubtful. In October Manchester and Cromwell encountered and worsted the King at Newbury but Manchester refused to prosecute their success and an open rupture ensued between him and Cromwell. In the latter part of November Cromwell complained in his place in Parliament of this dilatory and ineffectual prosecution of the war, and moved that the members of Parliament should cease to remain also commanders in the Army. This proposal, called the Self-Denying Ordinance, passed in the Commons on the 19th of December, 1644, but was not accepted by the Lords. The Treaty of Uxbridge engaged the attention of all parties during the month of January and the early part of February 1645. But this treaty was broken off on the 20th or 21st of February, and the self-denying ordinance was soon afterwards reintroduced and finally passed on the 3rd of April 1645. By this ordinance, Cromwell also, as a member of Parliament, should have laid down his command, but he could not be spared from the army. On the 9th of April, he was again at the head of his men, actively and successfully engaged, cutting off convoys and hemming in the King, with a degree of energy which promised the speedy termination of the war. On the 14th of June, the Battle of Naseby was fought, where Cromwell, at the head of his new modeled army, routed the king and destroyed all his prospects of success. Let it be observed that throughout the whole of this period the proceedings of the assembly were prevented from making almost any progress by Nye and his friends. Their opposition by means of protracted debates on every minute point began early in 1644. On the 20th of February in that year Nye attempted to gain the favor of the Parliament by arguing that the setting up of Presbyteries would be dangerous to liberty. Failing in this attempt, which the Parliamentary members themselves repelled, he prosecuted the safer method of recharging the progress of the Assembly by protracted delays. This course was rendered safe and successful by an order which Cromwell induced the Parliament to pass on the 13th of September 1644, when the Battle of Marston had removed urgent danger, to refer to the Committee of both Kingdoms the matters in dispute between Presbyterians and Independents. This Committee received all statements but decided nothing, and ceased to exist in March 1646. But before it ceased to exist, the Army had been remodeled, and with Cromwell at its head, had reduced the King to despair, and made itself master of both Parliament and Kingdom. During all this time it was believed that Nye managed to keep up a constant intercourse with Cromwell and the Army. Of this the Scottish Commissioners entertained no doubt, but as they still cherished the hope that a satisfactory conclusion might at last be obtained, they kept themselves within the limits of honourable and fair discussion. leaving intrigues to be defeated by the course of Providence, and refuting sophistry by clear reasoning. When the King, on the 6th of May 1646, betook himself to the Scottish Army, a slight change seemed to come over the Parliament. The Ordinance for the Erection of Presbyteries, which had lain in abeyance since November 1644, was issued by the Parliament the 9th of June 1646. but hampered by unsuitable conditions and limitations. But when it was found that the obstinacy of the infatuated King was absolutely invincible, and that to retain him any longer in the Scottish Army would at once involve a war with England, and frustrate all the proceedings of the Westminster Assembly, the Scottish Commissioners felt it to be their duty to abandon all further contests in England. allow the King to return to the Parliament as he desired, and leave the English nation to settle the affairs of their own state and church as they might determine, taking with them to Scotland the doctrinal productions of the Westminster Assembly, to be ratified and established in their own country. The Scottish Royalists indeed attempted to frustrate these prudent and peaceful designs, and were but too successful. Their ill-omened engagement involved Scotland in a war with England, and laid the divided kingdom prostrate beneath England's mighty protector. This sagacious and highly principled man did not, however, prevent the Scottish people from continuing to enjoy the religious worship of their choice, though he deprived church government of all power and balance party against party so as greatly to paralyze both, as he had done in England. But the career of Nye was not yet at an end. When both Parliament and Assembly had been dissolved by Cromwell, it was still found necessary to have some method of providing religious instruction for the nation. A committee of divines called the Committee of Triers was appointed and in this committee Nye continued to wield great power. The two parties, the Presbyterians of the old Puritan race and the more modern Independents, were still opposed to each other. Various attempts, by conferences and otherwise, were made to frame some agreement between them. In these attempts, such men as Owen and Baxter and Howie took part, but all their attempts were frustrated. and chiefly by Philip Nye. This I can confidently state on the authority of the mild, gracious, and tolerant John Howey. In a letter to Baxter, dated 25th of May, 1658, he says, I cannot yet meet with an opportunity for further discourse with Mr. Nye, nor do I hope for much success in any further treaty with him. I perceive so steady a resolution to measure all endeavors of this kind by their subservience to the advantage of one party. I resolve, therefore, to make trial what His Highness will do, as speedy as I can. The Life of John Howey by Rogers, page 92. Baxter himself, writing to the Independents in their time of power, says, It was the toleration of all the sects unlimitedly that I wrote and preached against, and not that I remember of mere independence. Those that did oppose the toleration of independence of my acquaintance did not deny them the liberty of independency, but opposed separation, or the gathering of other churches out of parish churches that had faithful ministers. If they would have taken parish churches on independent principles, without separation, neither I nor my acquaintance did oppose them, nor their endeavor to reform such churches. The case greatly differed for an independent to refuse parish churches when no ceremony, no liturgy, no oath or subscription is required of him, which he scrupulous. is not like his refusing oaths, subscriptions, liturgy, ceremonies, and so on. But in a word, grant us but as much, and take us but in as we granted to, and took in the independents, and we are content. Make this agreement and all is ended, and we desire no more of you. We never denied the independents the liberty of preaching lectures as often as they would, nor yet the liberty of taking parish churches. They commonly had presentations and the public maintenance, and no subscription, declaration, liturgy, or ceremonies were imposed on them. Again, I say, I ask for you no more liberty than was given the independence by their brethren called Presbyterians. Baxter's Life by Sylvester, page 131 Such statements as these, and more might easily be adduced, proved clearly enough what the men who knew Nye thought of his character and conduct, and of the manner in which he used power when it was in his grasp. And it may be added that he held that grasp very tenaciously. Throughout the whole period of Cromwell's sway, Nye retained great influence. Not only was he one of the triers but he was also one of the commissioners for adjusting ministers and schoolmasters, a task in which he manifested no reluctance to take an active share. He aided in framing the Declaration of the Faith, Order and Practice of the Congregational Churches in 1658, but it was rendered ineffectual by the death of Cromwell in the same year. On the restoration of Charles II, It was debated in council for several hours whether the deep and incessant political intrigues in which Nye had been so long engaged did not render it necessary to include him in the act of a tainter. The result was that he was ejected from his benefits, and it was declared that he should accept of, or exercise any office, ecclesiastical or civil, he should stand as if he had been totally exempted from the act of indemnity. To him alone of all the Westminster divines was such severity shown, and as if papers had been seized, the Council were in possession of information which seemed to them to justify such procedure. The act of the tainter included only three men who were not of those who had acted as judges when the late King was sentenced to death. These three were Colonel Lambert, Sir Harry Vane, and the notorious Hugh Peters. that it was seriously debated whether Philip Nye should not be included in such a class of men, the actual regicides, or their most intimate associates, sufficiently indicates how deeply involved he was believed, and even well known to be, in all the intrigues of the period, and especially in all those political measures that led to the decapitation of Charles I. There is one incident in Nye's conduct at an early stage of the Westminster Assembly's proceedings already recorded in the pages of this work, pages 202 and 203, relative to which some brief remarks are still necessary. Congregational writers are in the habit of boasting of his position and speech on that occasion as the first public, open and full assertion of the great principle of religious liberty. nothing can be more inconsistent with historical truth. The occasion already referred to is the only one which at all resembles the boasted, traditionary anecdote. But the avowed object of Nye on that occasion was not the assertion of religious liberty, but an attempt to excite the jealousy of the Parliament against the Presbyterian system by asserting that such a system, rising court above court, with successive right of appeal from the lower to the higher so it should reach the General Assembly, representing the whole Church in the Kingdom, was inconsistent with civil liberty. This attempt was both censured by the Assembly and repelled by the most of the leading members of Parliament who were present. Its manifest and total failure mortified Nye so much that he did not again repeat it in the Assembly. But from that day his efforts were incessant to cause and prolong delay, while his secret intercourse with the Army and with Cromwell was carried on with greater activity than ever. His interposed retardations and incessant intrigues were successful. Nothing was settled till Cromwell abolished Parliament and turned the remnant of the Assembly into a committee of triers, in which Nye's influence was predominant and continued to be So the Restoration laid Britain prostrate beneath the basest and most profligate of all her kings, to the extreme danger and well-nigh the utter ruin of all liberty, both civil and religious. And yet this intriguing man, whose conduct was still largely instrumental in producing such a disastrous result, is still held up and applauded by some as the great assertor of religious liberty. It is with great reluctance that I have directed so much attention to the conduct of Nye, but I felt myself compelled to take some notice of the claims so pertinaciously raised on his behalf as the first true assertor of religious liberty, to the disparagement equally of Scottish Presbyterians and English Parisians, and very specially to the discredit of the Westminster Assembly. Men have the strange power of persuading themselves that they are in the that their course is the only right and safe one. I have no doubt that Philip Nye fully believed that the independent system, as he understood and practiced it, was the best for the interests of civil and religious liberty, and that he saw himself justifiable in using every method to secure its triumph, and even succeeded in persuading himself that those methods were right, although they involved a violation of the solemn legal covenant which he had sworn to maintain. He was a great politician, says Neil, and there is scarcely anything which a great politician cannot persuade himself to believe, scarcely any course which he cannot persuade himself to adopt, if they seem fitted to promote his political designs. But it is not by great politicians that religious liberty has ever been promoted, nor by their deep schemes that its maintenance has been secured. Had Nye been less of a politician, there is reason to believe that neither a revised Lydian policy nor a resuscitated potpourri would ever again have endangered the liberties, both civil and religious, of Britain. And it will be well if the conduct which must still be waged against both of these hostile powers, the defenders of these priceless blessings, avoid all courses that great politicians may recommend. and act openly, boldly and firmly, without intrigue or compromise, in accordance only with the strong principles of the Word of God. It may be thought by some that we have applied the term Presbyterian in several instances, when the term Independent or Congregational would have been more appropriate. We do not wish to dispute about a mere word, but a brief statement of the reason why the word Presbyterian has been used in relation to events which others ascribe to the Independent Party may here be given. Before the Long Parliament had resolved to abolish policy and summon an Assembly of Divines to deliberate on the system to be adopted in its stead, the Puritan ministers had begun to form themselves into Presbyteries. Numbers more of them looked not to Scotland only, but also very specially to Holland, where the Presbyterian form was in full order. for a model into some conformity with which the English Church might be advantageously molded. When the Assembly met, there were only five of its members avowedly independent, and they never amounted to more than ten or eleven. During the deliberations of the Assembly, Nye and Goodwin almost alone maintained a strictly distinctive element of congregationalism, in some instances Nye alone. that distinctive and even separatist or individualizing element, while the defending of it kept Nye at the head of all the innumerable forms of sectarianism in the army and throughout the kingdom, and rendered him so useful to Cromwell, was never adopted and maintained in the same manner by even those men who came to be regarded as the leading independents. Neither Owen nor Howie were ever independents according to Nye's system. but approached indefinitely near the Presbyterian system, as it existed in Scotland and Holland, and could readily have joined with these churches. We therefore include them, and all such liberal-minded men, in the general designation of Presbyterians, for the same reason we regard the noble band of non-conformist Puritan divines who were ejected on St. Bartholomew's Day as Presbyterian Puritans. or rather as Puritan Presbyterians. That is, we regard them as a noble band of sincere, self-denying Christian ministers, whose scriptural tenets were those which have designated Puritan, and who were not only prepared to adopt the Presbyterian system of church government, but preferred it, as both founded upon and most agreeable to the Word of God, and as most conducive to a nation's welfare. ample evidence might easily be procured for the writings of an overwhelming majority of these high-principled men, to prove that we have not misrepresented their sentiments, and that we have given them the designation which most correctly describes them, and by which they ought to be known, the nonconformist Puritan Presbyterians. To them, to the churches of Scotland and Holland, and, above all, to the sacred truths and principles which they all drew from the Holy Scriptures, we ascribe the glory of the Declaration and Defense of Religious Liberty, and neither to the Long Parliament, to the Army Sectarians, to Cromwell, to Philip Nye, nor to any or all of those who, in proclaiming a boundless toleration, did their utmost to break down all distinctions between truth and error, and thereby to plunge the human mind into the wild whirlpool of mental, moral and religious anarchy. I have no wish to disparage either the dissenting brethren of the Westminster Assembly or the independent ministers or systems of any period, but I feel it to be my duty to assert historical truth and to vindicate the character of the Westminster Assembly and of the true Presbyterian divines, church and system, in doctrine, government and discipline, as most successfully embodying and defending the principles of religious freedom. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introductory Importance of the Westminster Assembly Quarrel between Henry VIII and the Pope Cranmer's Suggestion 1531 Henry Style Supreme Head of the Church Effects of the power thus assumed Six Articles of Religious Agreement, Reformation Promoted by Edward VI, The Liturgy and Book of Ordinations. 1550. Cooper Refuses the Episcopal Vestments. Articles of Religion, Bloody Mary and Persecution, Frankfurt Troubles, Contests about Ceremonies, Queen Elizabeth, Active Supremacy, Renewed contests about vestments and ceremonies. 1562. Convocation. Close of reforming period. General view of the grounds of controversy between the court divines and the reforming party. Despotic injunction of the Queen. Suspension of those who refused to conform and who, wishing greater purity, were now called Puritans. remonstrances of foreign churches. 1566. The Puritans begin to form a separate body. Chief differences between them and the Church. 1567. Their first communion interrupted. Parliament attempts to interpose but in vain. State of religion in England. Associations for worship, discipline, prophesying. Cartwright and Whitgift. 1572. First Presbytery Constituting England. Grindahl interposes but in vain. Puritan writings prohibited. Rise of the Brownists. Whitgift's Articles, High Commission. 1588. Bancroft's Theory of Giro Divino Policy. The Martin Mark Relate Tract. Attempt of Parliament to Interfere Sufferings of Puritans. Controversy on Sabbath Keeping. Growth of Arminianism among the Poulatus. King James the Millenary Petition. Hampton Court Conference. Bancroft and the High Commission. Civil Liberty Manifestly Endangered. 1616. Rise of the Independents or Congregationalists. 1618. The King's Book of Sports. The King's despotism begins to rouse Parliament. Accession of Charles I. Despotic principles of the High Church Party. The Parliament begins to defend liberty, civil and religious. 1633. The Book of Sports revived. Continued contests between the King and the Parliament. Laud's cruel treatment of Leighton, Burton, Bastwick, and Prynne. Hampton and the ship money tax. The immigration of Hampton and Cromwell prohibited. Laud reaches the climax of Pilate's usurpation. abortive attempt to force prowessy on Scotland. 1640 The long Parliament called its vigorous measures. Lod and the Earl of Stafford impeached. Prolatic controversy smacked in this. Parliament declares its own sittings permanent. Protestation of Parliament. The King in Scotland. Remonstrance of the House of Commons. Impeachment of the Bishops. The King attempts to seize the five members and then leaves London. 1642. The Royal Standard raised at Nottingham. Bill for the Abolition of Policy. Ordinance calling the Assembly of Divines. Outline of Scottish Affairs. Reflections suggested by the preceding narrative. Chapter 2. Meeting of the Westminster Assembly 1643 List of the Assembly of Divines First Meeting of the Assembly, its Theory General Regulations of the Assembly Bailey's Account of its Order of Procedure Prolatic Members of the Assembly Fasts and Sermons of the Assembly intercourse with the Church of Scotland, deliberations respecting a league or covenant, the solemn league and covenant, remarks concerning it, parties in the Westminster Assembly, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, Orascians, remarks concerning these parties, Scottish Commissioners to the Assembly. Characters of Henderson, Gillespie, Rutherford and Bailey. Numerous sects in England. Causes of these numerous sects. Effects on the Assembly and the Kingdom. Political independence, toleration. Chapter 3 The Independent Controversy order to frame a directory of worship, deliberations concerning office bearers in the church, concerning the office of apostles, concerning pastors and teachers or doctors, concerning ruling elders, concerning deacons, suggestions respecting the supply of vacant charges, 1644, The subject of ordination introduced. The struggle between the parties begun. Proposition of the independence concerning ordination. Consent of the congregation to or election of the pastor. Alterations made by the Parliament in the doctrinal part of ordination successfully resisted by the Assembly. Directory for public worship. form of church government and discipline. Opposition made by the independents. Their apologetical narration extracts answers to that work, Antipologia. Remarks on the independent controversy. The arguments on both sides stated admission of a close approximation. Many congregations under one presbytery debated. Remarkable debate between Selden and Gillespie. Nye's argument against Presbytery censured. Admissions by the Independents. Committee of Accommodation. Proceedings of that committee. Debate on Congregational Ordination. Suspensions from sacraments and excommunication. Reasons of dissent by the Independents. The Assembly's answer. Reasons of dissent and answers or grand debate. Independents requested to state their own model. They decline and publish a copy of a remonstrance. Answer to this by the Assembly. Committee of Accommodation Revived Abandoned Remarks on this Controversy and its Consequences Chapter 4 The Errasting Controversy Preliminary Remarks on the Errasting Theory Selden's Hints Respecting Excommunication His Arguments on 1 Corinthians 5-4 Selden's Arguments on Matthew 18, 15-18 Answer by Gillespie Whitelock's Argument and Suggestion on Divine Right Firmness of the Assembly Successful Whitlock and the Just Divinum Claim in Parliament 1645 Conduct of Parliament on the Suspending of Ignorant and Scandalous Persons from the Lord's Table Selden's Argument on that Subject Whitelock's Argument remarks on these arguments. Ordinance upon suspension and on, a Rastian clause. Petitions from London and the City Ministers. 1646 Ordinance for the Choice of Elders, a Rastian clause. Remonstrance of the Scottish Parliamentary Commissioners. Haughty conduct of the English Parliament. Petition of the Assembly, Howe Received. The Parliament's Just the Venom Questions. The Assembly's Deliverance on the Essential Element of the Controversy, Firmness of the Assembly. The Assembly Prepares Answers to These Questions. The Just the Venom Treaties by the City Ministers. Outline of Political Events. The King Retires to the Scottish Army altered tone of Parliament. Arresting Clause removed from the Ordinance for the Choice of Elders and Erection of Presbyteries. The King in the Scottish Army negotiations. Vindication of Scotland from the accusation of having sold the King, true state of the matter. 1647 Removal of Obstructions and Erection of Presbyteries and Synods. Negotiations with the King. Votes of Parliament concerning church government and toleration. Preparation of the Confession of Faith. Not the slightest Erastean modification admitted. Presented to Parliament. Scripture proofs required. 1648. How far ratified by Parliament? What alterations suggested? What topics recommitted Remarks. Literature of the Erastian Controversy. Theories of Different Shades of Erastianism. Coleman's Sermon. Gillespie's Brotherly Examination. Controversy Between Coleman and Gillespie. Gillespie's Aaron's Rod Blossoming. Rutherford's Divine Right of Church Government. Treaty by Apollonius. Concluding Remarks on Erasmusm Chapter 5 Conclusion of the Westminster Assembly 1647-48 The Catechisms Composed Inquiry Concerning the Authorship of the Catechisms Departure of the Scottish Commissioners 1649 Dissolution of the Assembly 1645 Ratification of the Westminster Assembly's Productions by the Church of Scotland with Explanations. Outlined as Subsequent Events in England. Usurpations of the Army and Cromwell. The King in the Isle of Wight. Negotiations. Death of Charles I. Dissolution of the Long Parliament and the Westminster Assembly. The Engagement. Ejection of Presbyterians. Committee of Triars. 1658. The Independence and Power. The Savoy Confession. Death of Cromwell. Restoration of Charles II. Policy Restored. The Savoy Conference. 1662. The Act of Uniformity. Two thousand Presbyterian ministers Ejected on St. Bartholomew's Day. Divines of the Westminster Assembly Ejected. Retrospective View of the Whole Subject. Main Object of the Westminster Assembly. Advantages of Religious Uniformity. Effects of the Assembly on Universities. On Theological Literature. On the State of Education in England. Sectarianism, State of the Army. On religious toleration. Its true nature intimated. Liberty of conscience. How misunderstood by both parties. 1654. Unlimited toleration not granted by the independents when in power. Opinions of the early reformers of the Church of Scotland of the Westminster Assembly. Fundamental Principles of Faith by the Independents Great Idea of a General Protestant Union Entertained by the Westminster Assembly Chapter 6 Theological Productions of the Westminster Assembly Church Government Directory of Public Worship Confession of Faith Objections against Confessions Answered What a Confession of Faith really is! Comprehensiveness and Accuracy as a System. Relation to Church History. Precision of Thought and Language. Statement of Coordinate Jurisdictions. True Liberty of Conscience. Plan of the Confession. The Catechisms. Anecdote of Gillespie. Relation of the Confession to the Idea of a General Protestant Union. Coincidences between the period of the Westminster Assembly and the present times. Protestant Union yet attainable. Conclusion. Appendix. 1. Religious uniformity recommended by the Scottish commissioners in 1640-1641. Their views. 2. Extracts from Bilaspi's manuscripts and extracts on election of ministers. 3. Ordinance about suspension and so on. 4. Ordinance for the choice of elders. 5. Biographical notes of the choice commissioners. 1. Henderson. 2. Rutherford. 3. Bailey. 4. Gillespie. 5. Warston. 6. Lauderdale. 6. Philip Nye and Religious Liberty. The end. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Still Waters Revival Books. There is no copyright on this material and we encourage you to reproduce it and pass it on to your friends. Many free resources as well as our complete mail order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books at great discounts is on the web. at www.swrb.com. You can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at area code 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. T6L3T5. If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog