Westminster Confession of Faith

Westminster Confession of Faith, that body of doctrines proposed by the Westminster Assembly, and adopted by Parliament in 1646 as the creed of the English Church, and now—the doctrinal basis of almost all Presbyterian churches. A committee, consisting of about twenty-five members, was appointed by the Assembly to prepare matter for a joint Confession of Faith about Aug. 20, 1644. The matter was prepared, in part at least, by this committee, and the digesting of it into a formal draught was entrusted to a smaller committee on May 1-2, 1645. The debating of the separate articles began July 7, 1645, and on the following day a committee of three (afterwards increased to five) was appointed to take care of the wording of the Confession as the articles should be adopted in the Assembly. On July 16 the committee reported the heads of the Confession, and these were distributed to the three large committees to be elaborated and prepared for discussion. All were repeatedly read and debated in the most thorough manner possible in the Assembly. On Sept. 25, 1646, a part of the Confession was finally passed, and on Dec. 4 the remainder received the sanction of the Assembly, when the whole was presented to the Parliament. That body ordered the printing of six hundred copies for the use of members of Parliament and of the Assembly, and that Scripture proofs should be added to the Confession, which was accordingly done. In 1647 the Confession was approved by the Church of Scotland in the form in which it had passed the Assembly, and it was ratified afterwards by the Scotch Parliament. It was passed by the English Parliament in 1648, under the title of Articles of Christian Religion, but with certain changes. The basis of the Confession is doubtless those Calvinistic articles which are supposed to have been prepared by Usher, and in 1615 were adopted by the convocation of the Irish Church.

In the formation of this symbol the Assembly at first undertook to revise the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church, and proceeded with that work until fifteen articles had been revamped with elements of a more pronounced Calvinistic character and provided with Scripture proofs. The only important change made in this process was the omission of Article VIII, concerning the authority of the three ecumenical symbols. The intention of the synod was to ground every statement directly on Scripture as the only rule of faith, while the Church of England, under Edward VI and Elizabeth, conceded to Catholic tradition, if not in conflict with Scripture, a regulative authority. The Scottish commissioners, however, induced the Assembly to undertake the formation of an entirely new symbol.

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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia

Keywords: Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster, confession of faith, creeds, Church of England, Anglican Church, Anglican, English Church, Presbyterian, Presbyterianism

Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.

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