The Pains of the Westminster Assembly
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
If there ever was a document, therefore, whose contents might be expected to exhbit that genius, the essence of which consists we are told, in taking pains, it assuredly is the Westminster Confession of Faith. And when we read its exquisitely balanced phrases, and are moved with admiration for the pefection of the guarding which it gives to its doctrinal propositions on this side and that, we are reaping the benefit of these repeated views which the Assembly was forced to give the whole matter, perhaps even more than of the minute scrutiny it lavished on the formulation of it on the final occasion of its actual incorporation into the Confession. And when, after this, and in the light of all the experience gained by such repeated reviews of the material, first the Larger Catechism, and then the Shorter Catechism were elaborated, it is not at all strange that a precision of definition was attained which has called forth such praises as these documents, and especially the Shorter Catechism, have recieved from the most varied quarters. [B.B. Warfield]|
