cannot here be summarised even in the briefest manner. Suffice it to say, that it contains a lucid, comprehensive, and well-ordered statement, in thirty-three chapters, of the Evangelical Faith, from the standpoint of an uncompromising Calvinism. Its keynote is Sovereignty, recognised all the more implicitly in the spiritual realm because repudiated in the earthly sphere. The Decrees of God are His Eternal Purpose, according to the Counsel of His Will, whereby, for His own Glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.' And man's part is to accept the decrees with entire submission. At the beginning of the Shorter Catechism stands the question and answer, borrowed indeed mainly from Calvin, 'What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.' First 'to glorify God,' a sterner lesson than that of love; standing like a proclamation, announcing the supreme principle of life. Thomas Carlyle, in speaking against modern materialism, said in 1876, the last year of his life: The older I grow, and I now stand upon the brink of Eternity, the more comes back to me the first sentence in the Catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its mean ing becomes: "What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.' ,1 Το The Confession, adopted and enforced by Parliament, was thus a great Act of Uniformity. Its framers repudiated with abhorrence the idea of toleration. Was it not the duty of all men to receive and obey the truth? Only let the rulers of the nation discover the truth, and its enforcement must follow as a matter of course. Richard Baxter, who, though not a member of the Assembly, well understood its spirit, the thought of religious toleration was the great ecclesiastical heresy of the day. Of certain persons in the Assembly and other Sectaries, as he terms them, outside, his bitter complaint is that their most frequent and vehement disputes were for liberty of conscience, as they called it—that is, that the civil magistrate had nothing to do to determine anything in matters of religion, by constraint or restraint, but every man might not only hold, but preach and do, in matters of religion, what he pleased; that the civil magistrate had nothing to do but with civil things, to keep the peace, and 2 1 Schaff, History of the Creeds, p. 787. protect the Church's liberties.' But already the spirit of repression was being worsted in its contest with the spirit of freedom. Mr. J. R. Green, the historian, quotes 'a horror-stricken pamphleteer' who numbered sixteen religious sects that existed in defiance of the law; while, on the other hand, the rigour of Puritan rule did much to provoke that reaction in the popular mind which rendered possible the Act of Uniformity that followed the Restoration of Charles the Second. And yet the Presbyterian Churches in our own day are living witnesses to all that was permanent and mighty, as well as true, in this memorable Confession of Westminster; while a people trained in the Shorter Catechism have maintained high qualities of faith, courage, and vigour which for many generations have ennobled their religious life, when only combined with brotherly kindness and charity. The Independents in the Assembly, outvoted at every point, and ceasing to attend when the Presbyterian form of Church government was formally adopted, nevertheless exerted all through the protectorate of Cromwell a great and growing influence in England. So far indeed did that influence extend, that Cromwell was at length induced to authorise the preparation of a new Confession of Faith for the whole Commonwealth yet, as it is now for the first time stated, 'without compelling the people thereto by penalties, and to extend liberty to all Christian professions, except popery or prelacy.' This last exception is curious. The Conference for this purpose was summoned to meet at the Savoy in London; but Cromwell's death intervened (1658), and the meeting, which was attended by about two hundred delegates from one hundred and twenty congregations, under the presidency of Philip Nye, was but brief, lasting only a fortnight, as well as anxious and troubled, in the uncertainty of what might befall. The Confession was unanimously voted, and was issued with an expression of thankfulness that the Churches 'launched singly and sailing apart and alone in the vast ocean of these tumultuary times, and exposed to every wind of doctrine, under no other conduct than that of the Word and Spirit, had nevertheless steered their course by the same chart, and been bound for one and the same port, without associating among ourselves, or so much. as holding out common lights to others whereby to know where we were.' Thus the great lesson, of trust in the Spirit of God to guide His people, was being gradually learned-although it was still thought necessary to formulate a Creed of thirty-two Chapters, with a Statement of Church Order and Discipline in thirty subsequent clauses. This Savoy Confession was long accepted as the chief manifesto of Independent faith and doctrine. Its theology throughout is that of the Westminster Confession, while it lucidly states and maintains the Congregational order of the Churches.1 Nor were the Baptists remiss in asserting their special beliefs. Denied a place in the Westminster Assembly, and whilst it was yet sitting, in 1644, the Baptist Congregations meeting in London found it necessary to issue a more elaborate declaration of their principles, entitled A Confession of Faith of Seven Congregations or Churches in London, which are commonly but unjustly called Anabaptists, published for the Vindication of the Truth and Information of the Ignorant : likewise for the taking off of those aspersions which 1 See the Confession in detail, Hanbury's Historical Memorials, vol. iii. p. 577 sq. |