WESTMINSTER CONFESSION, THE. The West minster Confession was the result, or rather the chief of the results, of the consultations of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. It was submitted to Parliament in December 1646, and again in April 1647 with the addi tion of Scripture proofs. In Scotland it was Approved by the Assembly of 1647 as " most agreeable to the Word of God, and in nothing contrary to the received doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of this Kirk." In 1648, by order of Parliament, it was issued in English and Latin, " and enjoyed, until the Restoration, the unique distinction of being the Confessional standard of the whole United Kingdom " (W. A. Curtis). In 1649, the Scottish Parliament having approved it, the Assembly ordained that " in every house where there is any who can read, there be at least one copy of the Shorter and Larger Catechism, Confession of Faith, and Directory for family worship." W. A. Curtis points out that " though not intended by its English authors to be imposed on the individual conscience as a document for subscription, it was promptly so used in Scotland." In 1690, under William and Mary, it obtained the royal sanction. According to Curtis, the Westminster Con fession does for the whole system of Calvinistic doctrine what the Canons of Dort (1619) did for one doctrine. " It was the last great Creed-utterance of Calvinism.
and intellectually and theologically it is a worthy child of the Institutes, a stately and noble standard for Bible loving men. While influenced necessarily by Continental learning and controversy, it is essentially British, as well by heredity as by environment; for not only is it based upon the Thirty-nine Articles, modified and supple mented in a definitely Calvinistic sense at Lambeth and at Dublin, but it literally incorporates Ussher's Irish Articles, accepting their order and titles, and using, often without a word of change, whole sentences and para graphs. . . . It still remains, in spite of changing times and altered formulae of adherence, the honoured symbol of a great group of powerful Churches through out the British Empire and the great American Republic, embracing within their membership a large proportion of the foremost representatives of the world's highest material, social, educational, moral, and religious interests. The English-speaking Presbyterian Churches throughout the world without exception adhere either to it or to some comparatively slight modification of it; while its hold, direct or indirect, upon Congregationalists and Baptists and others is a further tribute to its power both of education and of revival." See William A. Curtis.