Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

echism was read to the Fourth Commandment, and ordered to be transcribed. The next day the remainder was reported, and ordered transcribed. The addition of the Creed raised some debate-Ney, Rayner, Greenhill, Wilson, and Valentine dissenting-any further debate of the matter, however, being cut short by a vote of twenty-three to twelve. On the same day the Committee on the Catechism was still further increased, and next day, which was the 19th of November, the words, "he descended into hell," being, by a vote of nineteen to twelve, put into the margin, the Shorter Catechism was completed, and ordered to be" carried up by the whole Assembly," which was duly done, to the Commons, November 25th, and to the Lords November 26th, and by both accepted, with thanks and commendation for the Assembly's great pains, and with an order to print six hundred copies, and no more, for the use of the Houses and the Assembly of Divines, and "that they would affix the texts of the Scripture in the margin."

Everything in the Assembly is now looking toward the end. The Commissioners of the Church of Scotland have all left; Henderson, a year ago last May, stopping at Newcastle to convert Charles from the divine right of bishops to the divine right of Presbytery, and since August 12, 1646, in his grave; and Gillespie, in July of the present year-Baillie and the Lord Chancellor having already left on Christmas of 1646. Rutherford alone is left. Upon a motion made by him, it was ordered that it be recorded on the scribe's books: "The Assembly hath enjoyed the assistance of the honorable, reverend, and learned Commissioners of the Church of Scotland in the work of the Assembly; during all the time of the debating and perfecting of the four things mentioned in the Covenant, viz.: the Directory for Worship, the Confession of Faith, Form of Church Government, and Catechism, some of the reverend and learned divines, Commissioners from the Church of Scotland, have been present in and assisting to this Assembly." With this endorsement of the departed and the departing, and thanks from the Prolocutor, by order of the Assembly, and in their name, Samuel Rutherford took his leave November 9, 1647. The same day a committee of seventeen was appointed "to consider what the Assembly is to do when the Catechism is finished?" They were in danger of falling to pieces, not now

through dissension, but for want of something to do. There is a good deal of straggling, late-coming, and early-going, and no coming at all.

Before we dismiss this matter, let it be noted, that this venerable body was afflicted with the common malady of all deliberative bodies-non-attendance. Further on there really might be some excuse for such delinquency, since eight or nine years was a long session, even in the days of long Parliaments; but as early as March, 1645, Marshall moved "in regard to latecoming, which was a great loss of time," and often delayed the organizing of the body for want of a quorum. And when they did come, their inattention was as derogatory as their tardiness, since we find it ordered, that the members of the Assembly do not bring any books or papers to read privately in the Assembly during its sittings; that they forbear ordinary going from one place to another in the Assembly; that in case any member has occasion to be out of his seat, that then he be uncovered. But absenteeism, tardiness, and inattention are not easily cured. They are chronic vices. May 26, 1645, forty-four members band together and bind themselves by a promise to be present every morning at nine o'clock; but already, in July, a numerous and weighty committee of fifteen members and four doctors of divinity-then not as plenty as now-on it, is appointed "to consider if the seldom-coming and going-away before adjournment," to meet to-morrow, and report with all convenient speed. They report, debate, and give the names of the delinquents. It would be worth much to us, to know who of that grave body played truant during these high debates. They were not Dr. Gouge, Herle, Nye, Smith, Dr. Burgess, Calamy, Marshall, Sedgwicke, Dr. Temple, White, Palmer, Guibon, Chambers, Cawdry, and Ash, seeing they were this police committee, and, moreover, we know them as zealous workers. Next week the names of the delinquents were sent to the Parliament; from this Mr. Woodcock, a young and reputable man, dissents; we know not why.

Things, however, seem not to mend, and after some six months, the Lords and Commons, who are now “hastening" the Confession of Faith, take the matter in hand. Henceforth, there is to be "a roll-call every morning at nine o'clock" (the former hour was ten, but business was becoming more press

ing and we are glad to record that this spurt of zeal on the part of Parliament synchronizes with a good stent of work on the Assembly's part. We hear no further complaint for another six months, when the two Houses of Parliament issue a second order, which I do not find recorded in these minutes, but which was "to be duly executed in all its parts." After another halfyear, for the disease seems semi-annually remittent, it is resolved "that the distribution of money for the time to come (we are now in December, 1646, and have been sitting three and a half years) shall be exactly according to the presence or absence of members from this day forward." This has a business look. Attempts were made to pass even something stronger, such as the weekly reading out of the names every Friday, after twelve o'clock, but clearly the vis inertia was becoming very stable. "A Mr. Hodges went away, and was called back by the Prolocutor, and would not return," and no remedy, we judge, for such discourtesy; for the Assembly resolve, "no further question shall be put concerning the business." But the spirit of murdered time would not down, for November 15, 1647, it is resolved, that those who go away without leave, or before the rising of the Assembly, "they"-with an emphasis shall be accounted as absent for the day; and the last numbered session, February, 1649, closes its Minutes of that day with the resolution, "that the £200 now to be distributed shall be according to the rule of the last distribution," which,we take to mean, no work, no pay-the per diem being four shillings. It seems small, but a trooper did his fighting for two shillings and six pence.

When "the truants" called us off, the Assembly had presented the Shorter Catechism, and returned "to affix the texts." In March "the Scriptures were read in full Assembly." April 12 "the proofs" of both Catechisms were ordered to be transcribed, and to be carried up on Friday morning, April 14, 1648. September 20, 1648, the Assembly requests Lord Manchester, to desire the Lords to urge the Commons "to hasten the Little Catechism." This is their last word on the Shorter Catechism. Their minutes grow more meagre from day to day. The Assembly has dwindled down to three days a week, with a good many lacunæ in its roll and sessions. February 1, 1649, there is no King since day before yesterday,

and no present business for the Assembly, but still "prayers for the Lords and Commons," at four shillings a day. February 8, "Mr. Carter, of London (he is an Independent), to pray;" there being, by vote of the Commons, no House of Lords since two days past, their lordships need no chaplain. The Assembly is now small enough "to adjourn to the scribe's chamber."

February 15, "Mr. Hardwick to pray next week."

February 22, 1649, “Mr. Johnson to pray."

This is session 1163, the last one numbered, and the Assembly thenceforth disappears in a committee for examining ministers. Zealous and accurate calculations have shown that it sat five years, six months, twenty-two days.

When the curtain again rises, there is neither crown nor crosier, House of Commons nor Assembly of Divines-but a soldier booted and spurred, and leaning heavily on his sabre— OLIVER CROMWELL, afterward Lord Protector.

Such then was the Westminster Assembly. A body of noble, learned, courageous, and God-fear ingmen-not inspired, and, neither by themselves nor others, regarded as infallible-wide differences, and, at times, sad divisions being among them. Moreover, they labored under certain grave disabilities. The State had called them, not to propound, but to advise, and necessarily sought to use them for political ends, and these feudal fetters limited them on all questions of church and state, questions of a most precarious nature, because of the perilous times -when the church was without a bishop, and the state without a king, and that in an age when kings, no less than bishops, were God's anointed, and royalists and prelatists constituted the mass of the people. But in all ideas of government, there was becoming manifest a drift toward freedom, at least away from authority. In polity, it looked toward Independency, and in theology, toward Arminianism; and along both lines toward a larger liberty of conscience and conduct.

The creed of the Assembly was, of course, retrospective and not prospective, since they had taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which were most surely believed among them. Confessions are necessarily conservative, because they are human, and not divine; the spirit of tolerance is all that we can expect, never the spirit of prophesy. Conser

vatism, therefore, prevailed in their formulas, as it always does, and, as in historical movements, it always must, but it prevailed by concession, which is the cöefficient of progress. To prevail in any other way, would be to stand still, when God's word is that the people "go forward." Such victories end in death. Their work was a grand one in its aim and result, and yet was, in some sense, a failure. It was done on English soil, and by English hands, and yet was not an English product; nor was it ever accepted by the English people. In fact, it was an exotic. It did not take kindly to the climate then, nor has it since. Scotland is its habitat, as it was its home. Old England and New England, and all their descendants, have cast out high Calvinism and high Presbyterianism. But these men faithfully did their work. Per aspera, they attained ad astra. Because of these perils, caution and precaution-which are something of wisdom,-and charity-which is well-nigh all of wisdom -had the fuller sway, and by them, God gave the work of the Westminster divines a wider dominion than he has been pleased to give to any other Protestant Symbol, save the Confessio Augustana.

Art. II. THEORIES OF LABOR REFORM AND SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT.

By REV. WM. A. HOLLIDAY, Belvidere, N. J.

SOCIETY may be regarded as distributed into three main classes. At one extreme we have all those who live upon their fellow men in a sense not creditable to themselves. The idle, the vicious, the criminal belong here. They are not in direct relation with the great branches of honest production. Their lot, consequently, is not so immediately affected by the fluctuations to which these are subject. The thrift of the community, of the country, is not their thrift, and its reverses are not their reverses. So far is this from being the case, that it may be most plausibly maintained that a bad year, as respects the general prosperity, is a good year for all who live and prey upon

« НазадПродовжити »