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NEW SERIES, No. 19.-JULY, 1876.

Art. I. THE FORMATION OF OUR STANDARDS.* By J. B. BITTINGER, D.D., Sewickley, Pa.

"ON Saturday last, the Assembly of Divines began at Westminster, according to the ordinance of both the Houses of Parliament, where Dr. Twist of Newbery, in the County of Berks, their Prolocutor, preached on John xiv: 18-'I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you,' a text pertinent to these times of sorrow and anguish and misery, to raise up the drooping spirits of the people of God who lie under the pressure of popish wars and combustions." In these simple and somewhat sad words, the parliamentarian newspaper of the time records

* Minutes of the Sessions of the WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES while engaged in preparing their Directory for Church Government, Confession of Faith, and Catechisms (Nov. 1644 to March, 1649), from transcripts of the originals, procured by a Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Edited by PROF. MITCHELL and REV. JOHN STRUTHERS. William Blackwood & Sons, London. [A noteworthy volume, and which, by its notes, preface, introduction, and index of names (there should be by all means, also, an index of topics), is made doubly valuable. I wish it might be reprinted, and so brought within the reach of every member of Pan-Presbyterianism.]

the beginning of an Assembly, whose name and fame have since passed round the world. Very different is the tone of the royalist paper, as witness: "It was advertised this day that the Synod, which, by the pretended ordinance of the two Houses, was to begin on the 1st of July, was put off till Thursday following--it being not yet revealed to my Lord Say, Master Pym, and others of their associates in the Committee of Religion, what gospel 'tis that must be preached and settled by these new evangelists, 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." Such were the gibes and word-play with which the Cavaliers were entertained by the Mercurius Aulicus, under that day and date of July 7, 1643. But he laughs best who laughs last. The royalist reporter was a little out as to the details of the meeting. This may have been carelessness on his part, or indifference, or it may be that that day, which, in its maturity proved to be an epoch in history, was dies non in the court of human judg

ment.

According to the ordinance of Parliament, the Assembly met Saturday, July 1, 1643, but did not sit for business till the following Thursday. Their task was set them, and began with their first session. Of the four things mentioned in the Covenant, to which, by order of Parliament, under date of July 5, they were first to direct their attention, was the consideration of the first ten articles of the Church of England, "to free and vindicate the doctrine of them from all aspersions and false interpretations." To this work they at once commended themselves a work full of difficulties, if not dangers. Mending would not suffice, and altering was not allowed. While employed on these ten, another order came for the next nine following. They had only got through repairing and amending fifteen, when a third order, that of Oct. 12, 1643, "required them to lay aside the remainder, and enter upon the work of Church Government," and afterward, by another order-for orders in those days were frequent and peremptory-" we were to employ us in framing a Confession of Faith for the three kingdoms, according to our solemn league and covenant."

The general order in which "the four things mentioned in the

Covenant" were discussed, was Church Government, Directory of Public Worship, Confession of Faith, and a Catechism. We say "general" order, because all of them were under consideration, if not discussion, simultaneously. The four-fold chord, which was to bind the three kingdoms in peace and uniformity, was not separately woven in its several strands, and then formed into one-it began as one. Our standards in their sev

eral parts grew side by side; some, indeed, outgrew others, and came to an earlier maturity, but whether in the blade, or in the bloom, or in the ripe fruit, there was one and the same life moving in all the parts all the time, and they are one organically and not mechanically. In the first days of the Minutes with which we are now concerned, it is ordered "to report the preface to the Directory and concerning the Sabbath-day." The discussion on the Directory continued till Dec. 30, 1644, when it was ordered that "the appendix be sent up to-morrow.' But from the Scottish Lord Chancellor's speech, we gather that the draught of Church Government would and ought to be presented at the coming January meeting of the General Assembly of Scotland. At the same session, the Committee on the Catechism was increased, with a view to hasten its completion. The draught of Government was ordered to be transcribed (Dec. 9, 1644), and was sent up to both Houses of Parliament, and so reported two days after; but in the beginning of the following year a note of trouble is heard from Uxbridge, where Parliament is treating with the King, and the Lords command the Earl of Manchester "to desire to hasten what is behind of Church Government, because it makes some stop in the business there." Next day comes an order "to send up what is remaining in Government," but not till July 4, 1645, was "the humble advice of the Assembly to both Houses of Parliament " carried up. Twenty-one months of discussion, long and learned, were devoted at intervals to the settling of Church Government. "This work," said Mr. Marshall, "though it appears short, yet has spent much time, by reason of dissenting judgments, that if possible they might be satisfied." Into this period of twentyone months must be intercalated the time spent on the Directory of Worship, which, though begun after Church Government, was completed before it. In fact, Church Government never was completed. It was the first topic, and it was the last, and

down to 1648 we find traces of its slow length as it dragged along. The Confession of Faith occupied the attention of the Assembly between two and three years. In August of 1644, it is already mentioned, and the last month of '46 it is completed. These dates show that the framing of the Confession began before either Government or the Directory were finished, overlapping both of them a considerable time. As early as November of 1644, Baillie reported the Catechism as drawn up, and "I think shall not take up much time," but our canny Scotchman lost his guess, since our Catechisms did not get themselves completed so soon, nor so easily the larger not till October, 1647, and the shorter fully a month later; and here, as in the case of the Confession of Faith, and notably so in Government, 'twas not done when 'twas done-the Scripture proofs, as usual, lagged behind. Thus, from October 12, 1643, when the Assembly was ordered to take up Government, to April 12, 1648, when the Scripture proofs of both Catechisms were ordered to be sent up to Parliament, the standards were under discussion. All the parts were taken in hand before any one part had been completed, and as there were questions which came up, some in several of "the four things," and some in all of them, the discussions were necessarily duplicated and reduplicated, from time to time, during those four and a half eventful years.

For while the Assembly were discussing, in the seclusion of the Jerusalem Chamber, those standards, which were intended to give peace and security to the three Kirks and Kingdoms, those realms were in the fiercest ferment. Every element of discord was let loose. The whole atmosphere was charged with passions, threatening to explode in deeds of violence, cruelty, and blood; civil war had been flagrant in England for more than a year past. During the Assembly's sittings was fought every battle, from the Second of Newbery to the fatal day of Naseby. The King a fugitive, a prisoner, and a "martyr;"—the Primate tried, condemned, and executed; and the Church, whose articles they were met to explain and defend, prostrate and bleeding at every pore. Ireland was all ablaze from Dublin to Derry, Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Catholic, and, at times, both against the Parliament. In Scotland, Montrose had come down from the Grampians like a wolf on the fold, and scattered the Covenanters like sheep, from Tipper