5. The Printing of The Westminster Confession

5. The Printing of The Westminster Confession

his was published in five installments in The Presbyterian and T Reformed Review:

1. "In Britain": xii. 1901, of the Review, pp. 606–659, of which pp. 606–614 are here printed (pp. 337–347).

2. "In the United States": xiii. 1902, pp. 60–120, of which pp.

60–70 are printed below (pp. 347–361).

3. "In Translation": xiii. 1902, pp. 254–276, of which pp. 254– 259 are given below (pp. 361–367).

4. "In Modification": xiii. 1902, pp. 380–426, of which pp. 380– 386 are given below (pp. 368–376).

5. "Appendices": xiii. 1902, pp. 551–587.

I. In Britain

The history of the printing of the Confession of Faith presents some rather curious features. It was no less than four times privately printed—once in part and thrice in whole—before it was published. It was first published not in England where it had been made, but in Scotland. It probably had been published in no less than three editions, before its publication was authorized by the legislative body by the direction of which it was drawn up, and to which it was presented only as "humble advice." It has always continued to be published—with the single exception of the normative edition issued by Parliament (June, 1648)—not in the form authorized by that body, but in the form in which it was set forth prior to that authorization. Though its use has extended to the very ends of the British

Empire, its publication for that Empire up to to-day continues very much a Scotch monopoly. Only a single edition 1 has been issued in England since the early years of the eighteenth century (1717). 2 It has never been printed in Ireland. It has never been printed in the Dominion of Canada. No Welsh translation of it has ever been made. Some vernacular versions of it have, to be sure, been issued in India—which are, however, with one exception

(made by missionaries of the Irish Presbyterian Church), the work of American missionaries. With the exception of these, throughout all the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain, it is only in Victoria and New

Zealand 3 that the Confession of Faith has even up to to-day been put into print. As the vigorous bodies of Presbyterians planted in these several lands all trace their origin back to Scotland, so they still draw the needed supply of their symbolical books from the printing presses of Scotland.

The manner in which the Confession of Faith first got into print deserves a full description. Its first issues were private editions, printed strictly for the use of the bodies concerned with its formulation or authorization. The earliest of them contained only its first nineteen chapters. These were sent up to the House of Commons, September 25, 1646, in response to an

order issued September 16, and received by the Assembly of Divines September 18. They were read in the House on Friday, October 9, and ordered to be printed, after the Divines should have "put in the margin the proofs out of the Scripture to confirm what they have offered to the House in such places as they shall think it most necessary." This order was brought to the Assembly by Mr. Tate on October 12, and a Committee was appointed "to consider of this order how obedience may be yielded thereto." On the next day the Committee reported, deprecating the requirement of the addition of proof-texts before printing. This was made known forthwith to the House of Commons, whereupon it was "Resolved, etc., That five hundred copies of the Confession of Faith be forthwith printed for the service of the Houses, without annexing of the texts of Scripture for the present: Yet, notwithstanding, the House does expect that the Divines should send in the texts of Scripture with all convenient speed."

This reply was brought by Mr. Marshall to the Assembly on October 14, and it was forthwith "Ordered—That the scribes do take care of the exact printing of the Confession of Faith." Accordingly the first nineteen chapters of the Confession were at once put to press and appeared duly in a small quarto volume under the title, "The humble advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament, sitting at Westminster,

Concerning part of a Confession of Faith, Presented by them lately to both Houses of Parliament."

Meanwhile the Divines continued their labors on the remaining chapters, and by November 26 were able to record in their Minutes, "The Confession of Faith was finished this day," and to resolve that "the whole

Confession of Faith shall be transcribed and read in the Assembly, and sent up to both Houses of Parliament." By December 4 this final reading and adjustment of the text was completed, and on that day it was sent up to the Commons, and on December 7 to the Lords. On December 10 an order

was brought from the House of Commons directing that 600 copies of it, and no more, be printed for the service of the two Houses and the Assembly, and that the care of the printing be devolved on the Assembly. It was accordingly ordered, as in the earlier instance concerning the first nineteen chapters, "that the Scribes take care of the exact printing of the Confession of Faith." The work was prosecuted so rapidly that Baillie could write on December 24, 1646, "All is now printed," and was able to carry up the printed book with him to Scotland, and to present it to the Commission of the General Assembly at their January meeting (January

21). It is a small quarto volume bearing the title, "The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster, concerning a Confession of Faith, presented by them lately to both Houses of Parliament."

The work of preparing proof-texts in pursuance of the order of the House of Commons was fairly set on foot on January 6, 1647, and on April 5 following the entry was made again in the Minutes, "The Confession was finished," i.e. in Committee. It was not until the 26th, however, that the proof-texts could be ordered to be sent to the Houses; they were presented to them on April 29. On the same day the Commons ordered, "That six hundred copies, and no more, of the Advice of the Assembly of Divines concerning the Confession of Faith, with the quotations and texts of Scripture annexed, presented to this House, and likewise six hundred copies of the proceedings of the Assembly of Divines upon the Nine-and-thirty

Articles of the Church of England, be forthwith printed for the service of both Houses and of the Assembly of Divines; and the printer is enjoined at his peril not to print more than six hundred copies of each, or to divulge or publish any of them. It is further Ordered—That no person presume to reprint, divulge, or publish the said Advice or proceedings, or any part of them, till further order be taken by both or either of the Houses of

Parliament." This order was on the same day (April 29, 1647) reported to the Assembly of Divines, and it would appear that the work was carried through, in obedience to it, "with all speed as may be." The resultant volume was a small quarto similar to the former issues, and bearing the title,

"The humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster, Concerning a Confession of Faith, with the Quotations and Texts of Scripture annexed, Presented by them lately to both Houses of Parliament."

As we have already seen, the second of these issues—the complete Confession without proof-texts—was carried up to Scotland by Baillie, who left London probably in the last week of December, 1646 (before the 2d of January, 1647); and was presented to the General Assembly's

Commission at their January meeting (January 21). The third issue—the complete Confession with proofs—had found its way to Scotland before the meeting of the General Assembly, which convened on August 4, 1647.

Probably it was brought up by Gillespie, who took his leave of the Westminster Assembly on July 16. At the third session of this General

Assembly a Committee was appointed "for examining the Confession of Faith, Rouse's Paraphrase, Catechisme, etc., and to receive any scruples and objections, and to report"; and an invitation was given at the fourth session to "all that had objections against any thing in the Confession, to repaire to the Committee"; while at the fifth session (August 9) there was passed an "Act for Printing 300 Copies of the advise of the Assemblie of Divines in England, Concerning a Confession of Faith, for the use of the Members of the Assembly." This volume, also a small quarto, was accordingly printed by the King's printer, Evan Tyler, with the same title as before—"The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines … concerning a Confession of Faith, etc."—and bearing the order of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland providing for the printing of "three hundred copies and no

more." It must have appeared during the sessions of the General Assembly, at the twenty-third session of which, August 27, 1647, an act of approbation of the Confession was passed.

So far the Confession had issued from the press only as a privately printed and, presumably, carefully guarded pamphlet. By the Act of the General

Assembly of August 27, however, it had become the public Confession of Faith of the Church of Scotland. It was naturally, therefore, at once published. The first published edition was equally naturally a reprint of the copy printed for the use of the Scottish Assembly. It also bears the imprint of Evan Tyler, at Edinburgh, 1647; and like its privately printed predecessor it is a small quarto of fifty-six pages. Meanwhile matters dragged in the English Parliament, which had busied itself with a review of the text of the Confession that had resulted in some slight changes dictated by the growing Independent influence; and it was not until the 20th of June,

1648, that it was "Ordered—That the Articles of Christian Religion" (the Parliament's new name for the document) "… be forthwith printed and published"; while on the next day it was "Resolved, That the texts of Scripture be printed with the Articles of Faith." Not till midsummer of 1648, therefore (June 27 at the earliest), was the Confession, under this new title and with certain alterations of text, consisting chiefly in the omission of chapters xxx. and xxxi. and parts of chapters xx. and xxiv., with some less important changes in chapter xxiii., published by the authority of Parliament. It is far from unlikely that there had already appeared in the interval not only a Scotch edition, bearing the imprint of "Edinburgh,

1648," but without the name of printer or publisher, which is notable as the first edition which contains in a single volume the Confession and the Catechisms; but also a London edition of the Confession by itself, printed in 1648 for Robert Bostock, under the old title of "The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, etc." It is certain, in any case, that this

Parliamentary edition came into the world as an untimely birth, and that all subsequent editions derive from the Scotch edition of Evan Tyler as their editio princeps, and not from the authorized Parliamentary "Articles of Christian Religion." Already in 1649 even the earlier title, "The Humble

Advice to both Houses of Parliament," had given way to the simpler "The Confession of Faith … agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster," to which is added in the Scotch editions (and by 1652 in the English also), "And now appointed by the Generall Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland to be a part of Uniformity in Religion between the Kirks of Christ in the three Kingdoms." 4

The book thus put into the hands of the public proved a very popular one, and became at once the object of a great demand. Before the end of the seventeenth century, at least as many as forty separate editions had been printed, seventeen of which were English and twenty-three Scotch; and, besides, translations had been made into Doth German (1648) and Latin

(1656), and of the Latin version at least nine editions had been issued. By the time its first century was completed these forty editions had been at least doubled, and there had been added to the extant versions an Irish

(Gaelic) translation (1725), which had already attained its second edition (1727), and was almost ready for its third (1756). The large popular call for the book, attested by the rapidity with which edition thus followed edition, is further illustrated by what may be called the evolution of the volume in which it was contained. This was such as to adapt it more and more to popular use and fit it ever more fully to meet purely popular needs.

As at first published the volume contained nothing but the bare text of the Confession of Faith, accompanied by supporting references to the Scriptures. Thus the reader was "remitted to the Bible" for even the matter of the proofs: which, as Dunlop truly says in the Advertisement to his critical edition, 5 was "troublesome to him, and in so far equivalent to the

not printing the Scriptures at all." It was inevitable, therefore, that in the better adaptation of the book to popular use these references should be expanded into the adduction at large of the proof-passages themselves. It is rather odd that this was first done in a translation—in that early German version (1648) whose authors speak feelingly of the Confession as "a tractate rich in all particulars of the divine wisdom and teaching, drawn almost word for word from the Holy Scriptures," and as "a brief compend of the wholesome Word," out of which "shines brightly and clearly the light of the truth, for the comforting and strengthening of believing hearts." It was not till ten years later (in the Rothwell editions of 1658) that the same extension was made in English, "for the benefit," it is quaintly said, "of masters of families": on the same occasion, for the further lessening the labor of using these texts, an attempt was made to point their lessons by emphasizing what was thought to be the salient words in them. By whom this expansion of the texts was done is not known: but the texts as thus first extended held the ground up to 1719, when for the first time they were subjected to critical scrutiny and reduced to more precise and scholarly shape by William Dunlop for his notable "Collection"—the earliest attempt (and it may almost be said the last as yet) to produce a scientific as distinguished from a popular edition of the Confession of Faith.

Meanwhile the volume was attracting to itself similar documents, and was ever growing in compass. Two principles of development early exhibited themselves. The one (and the weaker) tended toward making out of it a more complete ecclesiastical manual. The other (and more powerful) tended to make of it an ever more richly furnished popular book of religion. The two Catechisms were early added, as documents too closely similar to the Confession to be kept apart from it. The first edition containing them appeared at Edinburgh in 1648, and by 1649 they may be said to have already established themselves as its inseparable companions.

Already in 1649 there was added to these three documents the Divines'

"Humble Advice concerning Church Government and Ordination of Ministers" (Bostock's second edition [1649]; see also the London editions of 1650, 1651, and again 1658). But the force of the stream was setting in the other direction: in 1650 "The Sum of Saving Knowledge" first appears in the volume (Edinburgh: Gedeon Lithgow), and at the same time the Directory for Family Worship and the Solemn League and Covenant (the same, alternative copies; cf. London and Edinburgh editions of 1652).

After a while the two streams united, and, after the fashion of popular books, the effort of publishers seemed to be to supply as comprehensive a collection as possible. Examples of these developed editions may be found in the Dutch-printed edition of 1679, and the so-called "fifth" London edition of 1717—the latter of which characteristically boasts on the titlepage that it contains "all the other additions that have hitherto been printed." 6 The former of these two issues already contains, besides the Confession and Catechisms, the Sum of Saving Knowledge, the National and Solemn Covenants, the Acknowledgment of Sins, the Directory for Public Worship, Propositions concerning Church Government, and the Directions for Private Worship. The latter contains, in addition to these, the Ordinance for calling the Assembly of Divines together, the Vow taken by its members, the Advice on the ordination of ministers, and certain brief notes, including the Parliamentary order for the reëstablishment of Presbytery in England, etc. In 1728 this evolution completed itself in an edition printed at Edinburgh by Thomas Lumisden and John Robertson, which is the first to contain the precise series of documents which have since become the invariable contents of the standard Scottish editions of "The Confession of Faith."

The regular contents of the Scottish editions, thus attained, embraces the following documents:—1. Preliminary matter, consisting of two

introductory letters and a number of Ordinances and Acts. The introductory letters are (a) the Commendatory Letter "to the Christian

Reader, especially Heads of Families," signed by forty-four Puritan Divines, and (b) "Mr. Thomas Manton's Epistle to the Reader." The Ordinances and Acts include: (a) The Ordinance of the Lords and Commons, July 12,

1643, convening the Westminster Assembly; (b) the Act of the Scottish Assembly, August 19, 1643, appointing Commissioners to the Westminster

Assembly; (c) the Promise and Vow taken by the Members of the Westminster Assembly; (d) a List of the Divines who met at that Assembly, and of the Commissioners of the Church of Scotland; (e) the Act of the Scottish Assembly, August 27, 1647, approving the Confession of Faith; (f) the Acts of Parliament, February 7, 1649, and 7th June, 1690, ratifying the Standards. 2. The Text of the Confession and Catechisms. 3. Adjoined matter, viz.: (a) The Sum of Saving Knowledge, with the Practical Use thereof; (b) the National Covenant; (c) the Solemn League and Covenant;

(d) the Acknowledgment and Engagement; (e) the Directory for Public Worship; (f) the Form of Presbyterial Church Government; (g) the Directory for Family Worship. Lastly, 4. The "Table." That the main contents of the volume—the Confession and Catechisms—may not be lost amid the accretions gathered about them, it is usual to put them into larger type than that used for the preliminary and adjoined matter, although the opening Commendatory Letter and the Form of Government are also ordinarily accorded the honor of this larger type.

Since the publication of the edition of 1728 little has been done for the Confession of Faith on British ground. The critical work of Dunlop in 1719 had prepared the definitive text and the final form of the proof-texts and even of the "Table"—i.e., so to speak, had done the textual work. The edition of 1728 set finally, so to say, the canon of the collection. The British

Churches holding to this Confession have ever since been content to do no

more than repeat without intentional change the results thus registered for them. A single set of stereotyped plates—not quite of a sort to leave nothing to be desired on the score of either beauty or accuracy 7—now suplies the whole world of British Presbyterianism with its "Confessions of Faith." The only exception to this that needs be recognized probably is the carefully edited reprint of the text of the edition of May, 1647, along with the variations of the Parliamentary edition of 1648, which Mr. William

Carruthers has issued in a small pamphlet through the press of the Presbyterian Church of England. Even the edition published at Melbourne for the Presbyterians of Victoria—almost a unique attempt among the British Colonial Churches to supply their own demand 8—proves to be from the same plates. The same languidness has taken the place also of the early zeal to provide versions of the Confessions for peoples of other tongues. The Scottish missionaries seem not to have been accustomed to give the Confession to their converts in their several languages. Even in the British dependencies they have left this to others. As far as we are informed only a single missionary translation of the Confession has been prepared in our day by British hands—the Gujarati version made by the missionaries of the Irish Presbyterian Church. Scotch Presbyterians seem to have come to look upon their Confession much as they do on the sun and the rain—as a Divine blessing with which they have nothing to do but to receive and enjoy it, not without "some murmurings and disputings."

There have come under our notice something less than one hundred and fifty British editions of the Confession of Faith. The time through which our search has been protracted has been too limited and the circumstances under which it has been carried on too unfavorable for us to venture to hope that we have met with more than, say, about half the whole number.

We print the list therefore merely as notes toward a bibliography of the Westminster Confession. 9

II. In the United States The Westminster Confession was slow in finding its way into print in America. This was not because it was distasteful to the American

Churches: the Puritanism of the Colonists was doctrinally the same as that of England, and they gave a hearty welcome to this Puritan formulary. It was due in the first instance to the lack of facilities in the Colonies at that early day for printing: and afterward to the Independency of the New

England Churches, which naturally preferred the "Savoy Declaration," put out by the English Congregationalists in 1658, to the original "Westminster

Confession," now become distinctively the creed of the Scottish Presbyterians.

When the Westminster Confession was first given to the public (1647), there was but a single printing press in the Colonies. This had been brought out in 1638 and set up at Cambridge, where from the beginning of 1639 it had been kept busy, under the supervision of the Rev. Henry Dunster, the first President of Harvard College. The actual printer up to about 1649 was one Stephen Day, who had come out with the press in 1638 for the purpose of operating it, but whose works do not accredit him as a skilled handicraftsman. He was succeeded in 1649 by Samuel Green, the first of a family of printers who for many years carried on their work in New

England; but he was apparently without training in the art, and only gradually acquired ability to turn out good work. A new press and equipment were sent out, indeed, during the course of the years 1654–1658 by the Corporation for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians, and in 1660 the same Corporation sent out the first skillful printer to come to New England, Marmaduke Johnson—to assist Samuel Green in printing the Indian Bible. By these accessions the Cambridge establishment was

greatly improved in capacity and efficiency. It enjoyed an absolute monopoly in the Colonies until 1674, when John Foster's press was set up in Boston; and indeed during the latter portion of this period it was protected in this monopoly by a law which forbade printing within the jurisdiction of the General Court of Massachusetts, "except in Cambridge"

(1664). In none other of the Colonies was a press established for yet ten years more. In these circumstances, the reprinting of British books in America was not to be thought of. American books were rather customarily sent to England to be put into type, and the best that could be done in America was to overtake in some form or other the absolutely necessary local demands. Accordingly when the Cambridge Synod of 1646–1648 had done its work, only its "Platform of Church Discipline"—which was original with it—was printed (and exceedingly rudely printed) by Samuel

Green (1649) at Cambridge; while the Confession of Faith adopted by it— which was accepted from the hands of the Westminster Assembly—was expected to be imported from abroad.

The Westminster Confession, it will be remembered, though previously privately printed (in whole or in part) three times in London for the use of members of Parliament and the Assembly itself, and once in Edinburgh for the use of the members of the Scottish Assembly, was not published until after the rising of the Scottish Assembly in the latter part of August, 1647, and then only in Edinburgh and without authorization from the English

Parliament. It was not until June 20, 1648, that the Parliamentary edition was given to the world; and the earlier issue in that same year at Edinburgh and London of what must be looked upon as surreptitious editions can have antedated this but a few weeks. It may be held as quite certain, therefore, that no copies of the Confession had found their way to New

England by October 27, 1647, when the General Court of Massachusetts added to the duties with which the Cambridge Synod, in session that year,

were already charged, the additional task of preparing a Confession of Faith; and appointed a Committee to draw up a draft of it against the next meeting of the Synod. Before the Synod reconvened, however (midsummer,

1648), copies of the Westminster Confession had arrived, though not (we may feel sure) copies of the Parliamentary issue of June 20th of that year: and it proved so satisfactory to the delegates that the Synod was enabled to decline the labor of preparing a Confession of its own in favor of a simple acceptance of this. The story is told by John Cotton in the Preface to the "Platform." We read:

"Having perused the publick confession of faith, agreed upon by the Reverend assembly of Divines at Westminster, and finding the summ and substance thereof (in matters of doctrine) to express not their own judgements only, but ours also: and being likewise called upon by our godly

Magistrates, to draw up a publick confession of that faith, which is constantly taught, and generaly professed amongst us, wee thought good to present unto them, and with them to our churches, and with them to all the churches of Christ abroad, our professed and hearty assent and attestation to the whole confession of faith (for substance of doctrine) which the Reverend assembly presented to the Religious and Honorable Parlamēt of England: Excepting only some sections in the 25 30 and 31. Chapters of their confession, which concern points of controversie in church-discipline;

Touching which wee refer our selves to the draught of church-discipline in the ensueing treatise. The truth of what we here declare, may appear by the unanimous vote of the Synod of the Elders and messengers of our churches

assembled at Cambridg, the last of the sixth month, 1648: which joyntly passed in these words; This Synod having perused, and considered (with much gladness of heart, and thankfullness to God) the cōfession of faith published of late by the Reverend Assembly in England, doe judge it to be very holy, orthodox, and judicious in all matters of faith: and doe therefore freely and fully consent thereunto, for the substance thereof. Only in those things which have respect to church government and discipline, wee refer our selves to the platform of church-discipline, agreed upon by this present assēbly: and doe therefore think it meet, that this confession of faith, should be cōmended to the churches of Christ amongst us, and to the Honoured Court, as worthy of their due consideration and acceptance. Howbeit, wee may not conceal, that the doctrine of vocation expressed in Chap, 10. S. 1. and summarily repeated Chap, 13. & 1. passed not without some debate.

Yet considering, that the term of vocation, and others by which it is described, are capable of a large, or more strict sense, and use, and that it is not intended to bind apprehensions precisely in point of order or method, there hath been a generall condescendency thereunto."

The Court acquiescing in this decision and desiring to incite the languid churches to make their returns to its request for their judgment, by a vote passed June 19, 1650, desired.

"yt euery church will, by the first oppertunity, take order for the p'cureinge of that booke, published by the synod at London, concerninge the doctrine of the gosple, that the churches may consider of that booke, also, as soone as they can be gotten."

This, it will be observed, is an order for a wholesale importation of copies of the Westminster Confession. We cannot press the phraseology that designates the volume to be imported as "that booke, published by the synod at London." The whole language of the order is popular and general, rather than technically precise: and as a matter of fact no edition of the Confession of Faith was in the strict sense "published by the synod at London." The Parliamentary edition of 1648, entitled "Articles of Christian Religion," was adjusted to Independent opinion, and would doubtless have been most acceptable to the feelings of Congregationalist

New England: but there is no reason to believe that this edition was especially in the mind of the Court, as it certainly was not in the mind of the Synod, seeing that they made exception to Articles not contained in this edition: and the early printed copies of the Confession which have been preserved in the libraries of New England to our day are not of this edition.

By 1650 some thirteen issues of the Confession had already been made in Britain; but besides the privately printed issues and the Parliamentary edition of 1648, only three of these had been published at London, viz., the two Bostock editions of 1648 and 1649 and an edition of 1650. It was probably from these editions that the Massachusetts Churches were expected to supply themselves; though doubtless they actually purchased whatever editions were most easily procurable in the London markets.

These were all, of course, at least ultimately, of Scotch origin. The authors of the Preface to the "Savoy Declaration" in 1658 make it a matter of

complaint that "that Copy of the Parliaments, followed by us, is in few mens hands; the other as it came from the Assembly, being approved of in Scotland, was printed and hastened into the world before the Parliament had declared their Resolutions about it; which was not till June 20. 1648. and yet hath been, and continueth to be the Copy (ordinarily) onely sold, printed and reprinted for these eleven years."

So things went on for a generation until the Reforming Synod of 1679 and 1680 met at Boston, charged, among other things, with the task of setting forth the faith of the new generation. In the interval the English

Independents had issued (1658) their modification of the Westminster Confession—the so-called "Savoy Declaration"—based on the Parliamentary "Articles of Christian Religion" of 1648; and it was but natural that the New England Congregationalists should now wish to give their adherence rather to this than to the unaltered Confession of Westminster. This was rendered the more inevitable by the fact that Mather and Oates, the two leading members of the Committee appointed by the Synod to draw up a Confession of Faith, had been in England in 1658, and were on terms of personal friendship with the Independent Divines who had framed the "Savoy Declaration." Accordingly it was the Savoy

Declaration, only slightly but significantly altered (and that in a sense the direct opposite to the mind of the British Independents in the point of the relation of the Civil Magistrate to the Church) that was reported to the Synod May 12, 1680. On June 11, 1680, the General Court ordered it published: and it appeared in the same year at Boston, from the press of John Foster, and was several times reprinted subsequently. The Churches of Connecticut adopted the same document at the Saybrook Synod of 1708.

They say:

"We agree that the Confession of faith owned and Consented unto by the Elders and Messengers of the Chhs assembled at Boston In New England May 12 1680 being the Second Session of that Synod be Recomended to the Honble the Genll Assembly of this Colony at the next

Session for their Publick testimony thereto as the faith of the Chhs of this Colony."

In October of that year the General Court of Connecticut accordingly enacted this Confession as the Confession of Faith of Connecticut, and this it continued legally to be until 1784. At its next session, May, 1709, the Court provided for its printing. It appeared at New London in 1710—the first book printed in Connecticut—and again in 1760; and it has repeatedly been published subsequently. Thus the "Savoy Declaration,"which exerted no influence and wrought out no history in England, was given, in a slightly modified form, life and influence in America, and even bade fair entirely to supersede in this land the original Westminster Confession.

In these circumstances it is not strange that the Westminster Confession in its unaltered form had to wait until near the close of the first quarter of the eighteenth century before it found its way into print in America. The circumstances which secured its printing in the first instance even then are obscure. Possibly there had arisen a demand for it among New England

Congregationalists themselves; it is certain that it was the Westminster Confession, and not the Savoy modification of it, which was in use among the English Independents of the time; 10 and there is no reason why many in New England may not have wished (to say nothing more) to have in their hands the formularies of their English brethren. It is of course possible, however, on the other hand, that the demand which it was sought to supply by the publication of the book arose from the Presbyterian

Scotch-Irish, who were now beginning to make themselves felt as an element in our Colonial life. In any event, the earliest American-printed edition of the Westminster Confession we have met with, is an octavo volume of 161 pages containing the Confession and Larger Catechism (the Shorter Catechism being omitted, doubtless, because otherwise fully accessible), printed in Boston in 1723 by the eminent printer Samuel

Kneeland, for the still more eminent bookseller Daniel Henchman, who was probably the most enterprising American publisher prior to the Revolution. As the title-page suggests, it is taken not from the current

Scotch editions, but from that rather peculiar series, published chiefly though not exclusively at London, which began with the Rothwell issues of 1658, and proceeded in subsequent issues called the "[second edition],"

1658, "third edition," 1688, "fifth edition," 1717, all published in London —while the two forms of the so-called "fourth edition" alone of the series are Scotch (Glasgow, 1675, Edinburgh, 1708). This circumstance undoubtedly raises a degree of probability for the Congregationalist origin of this edition.

It can hardly be doubted, on the other hand, that the second American edition which we have met with, was called out by a purely Presbyterian demand. This was issued in 1745 at Philadelphia, from the press of Benjamin Franklin, and was a finely manufactured 16mo volume of 588 pages, following the type of the normative Edinburgh edition of Lumisden and Robertson of 1728, and containing all the documents included in that edition and ever subsequently constituting the fixed contents of Scotch editions. It came from the press, it will be observed, the year of the formation of the Synod of New York, and it may well be that the disruption of the Synod of Pennsylvania, and the controversies out of which that disruption grew and which had been disturbing the Church since 1740, were the occasion of its preparation. That only these two

editions were issued in America until, as the century was drawing to a close (1789, 1799), the two greater Presbyterian bodies established in this country began to publish their amended editions of the Confession, is readily accounted for by the continued dependence of Presbyterians at large on Scotland for their supply of Confessions. This dependence is attested by the very large number of Scotch Confessions bearing dates in the eighteenth century which are found scattered through America to-day.

There are even traces of prominent pastors acting as something like regular importing agencies for greater or smaller communities, and busying themselves with seeing that the Confession of Faith was circulated as widely as possible among their own and contiguous flocks. Benjamin Chestnut, 11 for example, seems to have added this to the many other good works by which he fulfilled the office of a bishop for the whole of South Jersey. Some of the smaller branches of Presbyterianism in America to this day seek much or all of their supply abroad, though reprints of the Scotch book, containing the whole series of documents which have found their way into it, have also continued to be issued in America up to to-day.

The real history of the publication of the Westminster Confession in America begins thus in 1789. The infancy of Presbyterianism in the New

World, and even its lusty youth, was then already a thing of the past; and it was celebrating the attainment of its majority by constituting a General

Assembly and preparing a complete Constitution for its future direction.

The Doctrinal Standards embodied in this Constitution were borrowed from those prepared by the Westminster Assembly, with only such alterations in their teaching as to the relation of the civil magistrate to the Church and to spiritual things, as were thought necessary to adapt them to a free Church in a free State. But the American Church looked upon them, as thus adjusted, as distinctively its own Standards, in contradistinction to the Standards of the Church of Scotland, and consistently spoke of them

and acted toward them as such. The whole process of the framing of a Constitution was begun by raising a Committee, which was instructed to "take into consideration the Constitution of the church of Scotland and other Protestant churches, and agreeably to the general principles of Presbyterian government, to compile a system of general rules for the government of the Synod, and the several Presbyteries under their inspection, and the people in their communion." And the completed series of documents was set forth, at the end, as unitedly composing "the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America," thus consciously differentiated from all other Churches in Christendom.

The printing of this distinctive Constitution was in these circumstances a matter of course: and for a while the Assembly retained the publication and diffusion of it entirely in its own hands. There were issued in this way, directly by the Assembly, four editions—one in 1789 from the press of Thomas Bradford (a new impression was issued in 1792), one in 1797 from the press of Robert Aitken, one in 1806 from the press of Jane Aitken, and one in 1815 through the publishing house of W. W. Woodward. There were

1000 to 1500 copies issued in the first of these editions, possibly increased by another 1000 by its second impression; 4000 copies in the second; 5000 in the third; and doubtless quite as many more in the fourth. The book had meanwhile been improved, by a careful and expert revision and the adjunction of proof-texts, in the second edition; and by exquisite typographical skill in the third. Meanwhile the demand for it had become sufficiently great to tempt private enterprise, and "unauthorized editions," the ventures of booksellers on their own account, began to appear as early as 1801. In these circumstances the Assembly was led after the issue of its fourth edition (1815), to adopt the new policy of committing the publication of its "Constitution" to private initiative, only reserving the right of revision and certification of the text as issued, and claiming a

percentage on the value of the issues. From 1821, when the first edition under this new arrangement appeared, until 1839, when it was receded from, there were sent forth at least fifteen editions, all except the first of which (Finley, 1821) appear to come from a single set of stereotyped plates.

How many copies were thus put into circulation we can only conjecture; but we presume 20,000 would be a low estimate.

In 1838 the great division of the Church into Old and New School bodies took place, and each division went its own way in the publication of the "Constitution" common to the two. The Old School branch at once withdrew the general permission to booksellers to print its book, and placed it exclusively in the hands of the Board of Publication, which it had adopted from the Synod of Philadelphia (1839). Stereotyped plates were at once made; and a new set again in 1853—a somewhat unfortunate set, from the point of view of accuracy of text. From these the Board issued during the years intervening between the Division and Reunion (1870) no less than 80,000 copies, besides 2000 copies of an edition de luxe. In the same period it issued also 37,000 copies of the Confession in a cheaper

(pamphlet) form; and 2750 copies of a German translation of it. During this same period there had been issued under the auspices of the New

School branch of the Church at least six editions (from 1845); and at least three issues had been put forth by private enterprise. Moreover, the new division of the Church consequent on the Civil War had created a vigorous

Church in the Southern States, which had put forth a first edition of its Standards, early in the '60s, of some 20,000 copies. After the reunion of the Old and New School Churches in 1870, the old plates of the Board of Publication were continued in use to supply the united Church, and 40,500 copies were printed from them up to 1891, when they were happily supplanted by a carefully corrected new set, from which there have already been printed, up to 1900, 10,000 copies. To these must be added 500 copies

of the edition de luxe issued in 1884; 1000 copies of the German version, issued in 1872–1873 and 1891, and 50,250 issues of the Confession in pamphlet form. The grand total of copies put out by the Board of Publication from 1839 to 1900 thus aggregates no fewer than 224,000 copies. To this must be added 35,818 copies issued by the Southern

Church, as well as those issued between 1839 and 1870 by the New School branch and private enterprise. So that it can scarcely be thought excessive to suppose that more than 325,000 copies of the Confession have been put into circulation by the Presbyterian Church since 1840: and perhaps it would not much overshoot the mark to say that throughout its whole history, from 1789 to 1900, there have been put into circulation not many fewer than a half-million copies of the Confession of Faith in the form given it by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

What the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America did for its "Constitution" in 1789, that the Associate Reformed Church did for its in 1799. The first edition of its Constitution, containing the Confession of Faith as modified by the Associate Reformed Synod to the same general effect as had been done by the sister Church ten years before, appeared in that year, and introduced a new series of issues of the Confession of Faith which still continues to be put forth to-day—both in simple reprints of the original Associate Reformed book (still issued by the Associate Reformed

Synod of the South), and in the form given it by the United Presbyterian Church in issues beginning in 1859. We have met with only seven editions of the Associate Reformed book; and with only five editions of the United

Presbyterian book. But we cannot suppose these to do more than represent a series of much more numerous issues which have escaped our search; and we cannot doubt that a very considerable addition to the total number of copies put into circulation by the American press has been contributed by this series of editions.

The purpose for which the Westminster Confession of Faith has been printed in America has ever been distinctly an ecclesiastico-practical one.

Very little scientific interest has intruded itself in the preparation of either the text or its accompaniments. The first editions issued by the several

Churches have apparently been taken from whatever texts lay conveniently at hand. In the case of the Southern Presbyterian Church this was unfortunately the unusually inaccurate text then (since 1853) current in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; in the case of the other Churches it was the current British texts of the time. Now and then, however, an effort has been made to produce a corrected text. An early instance of this is afforded by the text of the edition of 1797 (Robert

Aitken), in which important textual corrections were made. A very notable instance is supplied by the care taken in correcting the text by the Committee of the New School Assembly to which was committed the task of preparing the edition issued by that body in 1850 +. And the editions published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School

Work since 1891 are the product of a very exact scrutiny and reach the highwater mark of accuracy of printing in the American editions. But even in this text there are conserved a number of readings which have originated rather in printers' slips than in ecclesiastical revisions, and which have been retained in the revised text apparently as distinctively American readings.

One would think that it would be better to restore the text in all points, where direct ecclesiastical warrant for change cannot be adduced, to the text of the princeps—i.e. the edition of Evan Tyler of 1647.

The history of the accompaniments of the text runs parallel with that of the text itself. The proof-texts, for example, in the reprints of the British editions made for the smaller branches of the Church, and as well in the editions deriving from the Associate Reformed book of 1799, do not intentionally vary from those of Westminster, and are taken uncriticised

from the current British editions. The first edition of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America was printed without proof-texts. And when, shortly afterward, it was proposed to add them, the work was characteristically undertaken as if it were an independent enterprise of a new Church. There was no reference made to the Westminster proofs in the initiation of the work or in the appointment of the Committee to prepare the new texts; and no open profession was made on the part of the Committee of having based their work on the Westminster proofs, or indeed of having even consulted them. It was only when the new proofs were submitted to a new Committee for revision that directions were given that they should be compared with the Westminster proofs. The new proofs cannot, however, be a posteriori spoken of as prepared in independence of the Westminster proofs: nor can they be thought an improvement upon the Westminster proofs. A peculiar feature connected with them is the inclusion among them of certain footnotes, of an expository or even argumentative character. Some of these—particularly that on the word "man-stealing" in the 142d Question of the Larger

Catechism—were of inordinate length and polemic in character, and subsequently gave trouble and were officially removed from the margin of the Standards in 1816. Nevertheless, these hastily prepared and unsatisfactory proof-texts—with only the removal of the above-mentioned objectional notes, accomplished in 1816—held their place in the Standards of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America from 1797 to 1896, and still hold their place in the Standards of the Presbyterian Church of the United States until to-day. Since 1896 they have been replaced in the Standards of the former of these two Churches by a new and much improved set of proofs, which were prepared by a Committee appointed in 1888, and were approved by the Assembly in 1894. In the whole period from 1789 to 1896, moreover, the Shorter Catechism as published in the

"Constitution" of these Churches was unprovided with proof-texts, a note advising the reader to turn for them to the corresponding Questions of the Larger Catechism. The current form of the Westminster proofs was accustomed to be printed with the Shorter Catechism as separately published by these Churches. Since 1896, however, the Shorter Catechism as published by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America has been provided with its own appropriate texts, prepared by the Committee of 1888–1894.

After a history of about a century and three-quarters, at the opening of the twentieth century the Westminster Confession is still in wide circulation in America, and is accessible in several forms. Copies of the British edition are still imported, especially perhaps those issued by T. Nelson & Sons, with a New York as well as British imprint. Reprints of the Scotch book are still made by the Associate Presbyterian Board of Publication, with a Philadelphia imprint, but doing business at Eau Claire, Pa. The old

Associate Reformed book is still issued by the Publication Committee of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South, at Atlanta, Ga. But especially three great publishing houses are engaged in supplying a large Presbyterian public with the Confession of Faith, in several different forms: the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, at Philadelphia; the Presbyterian Committee of Publication, at Richmond,

Va.; and the United Presbyterian Board of Publication, at Pittsburgh, Pa.

From these three houses several thousands of copies of the Confession are put into circulation annually. Little has been done in the meantime to supply the multitudinous foreign population that has crowded to our shores with the Westminster Confession of Faith in their own tongues. A German translation was published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication in 1858, and is still kept on sale. A Spanish translation, based on an earlier one published in Mexico, is now issued at Albuquerque, N.

M. But what are these among so many? American Presbyterian missionaries have, on the other hand, been especially faithful in translating and circulating the Confession among the peoples to whom they have carried the Gospel: but this is not the place to speak of these rather numerous versions made and printed outside of the United States.

In the search we have been able to make we have met with some eightyeight editions of the Confession of Faith printed in the United States. We suppose ourselves to have catalogued almost a complete list of the editions issued by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. We cannot suppose ourselves to have been so fortunate, however, in the case of the issues of other Churches: no doubt we have missed quite the half of these. We are able to print, therefore, nothing more than notes toward a bibliography of the American editions. 12

III. In Translation The history of the diffusion of the Westminster Confession by means of translation is sufficiently obscure, but by no means lacking in points of curious interest. The work was certainly begun betimes. The Westminster

Confession was not published until the autumn of 1647 (in Edinburgh); and not until the next spring did a surreptitious edition of it appear in London, while the authorized Parliamentary edition lingered until midsummer. Within a year of its first appearance, and so hot on the heels of its first publication in London that it must be treated as contemporaneous with the Parliamentary edition itself, a German translation had already appeared in Germany (1648). And by the opening of the next year (January

18, 1649)—before any further effort had been made to circulate the Confession in English 13—official steps were already taken looking to the

preparation of a Latin version, which, however, did not appear until several years afterwards (1656). But with this first burst of enthusiasm the primitive zeal for translation seems to have exhausted itself. It was not until the Confession was three-quarters of a century old that it was given the clothing of yet another speech (Gaelic, 1725), and after that all effort so to diffuse it ceased for more than a century. Toward the latter half of the nineteenth century, however, it once more showed a tendency to find its way into the divers tongues of the earth; and by the close of the first two hundred and fifty years of its life it was to be read in at least fifteen different languages.

It is remarkable how little is discoverable of the origin of the earlier versions.

Of the German version of 1648 absolutely nothing seems to be known except what can be inferred from the unique copy of it that has been preserved in the Royal Library of Berlin. Without father, without mother, this Melchizedek of versions simply is: it had passed entirely out of the memory of men when it was brought to light again by the description given by Niemeyer in 1840 of the only remaining copy of it. Similarly all record of the making of the Latin version of 1656 has perished: only the initials

"G. D.," at the foot of the little preface which introduces it, remain to quicken conjecture as to the personality of the scholar who was so much afraid that his reputation for writing fluent Latin would be spoiled by the spissitude of the material with which he had in this case to deal, his capacity for rhetorical ornament be thrown into doubt by the exceeding gravity of its style. These two versions differ from the whole series of their successors, moreover, in that they can scarcely be thought the product of missionary zeal, but were rather intended, probably, to give information to their

Continental brethren of the teaching of the Churches of Britain. The first properly so-called missionary version—that is, the first version the sole purpose of which was to extend the distinctly ecclesiastical use of the

Confession—was the "Irish" translation of 1725, which was prepared by the Synod of Argyle, at the instance of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, for the benefit of the Gaelic-speaking Scots. It was also the last version prepared by the Church of Scotland or under its auspices: and indeed the last but one which has hitherto emanated from a British source.

Missionaries of the Irish Presbyterian Church have in our own day put forth a version in one of the languages of India (Gujarati, 1888): but with this exception it seems that there has been no translation of the Confession made by British hands since 1725.

The task of giving the Confession to the world in its several languages has been taken up since 1842, however, with some energy by the American

Presbyterians; and eleven versions have been made by them during the last sixty years. One of these has been intended to meet needs arising on the home field itself—the German version of 1858. The rest are the product of distinctly foreign-mission zeal and mark so far the planting of the Church in virgin soil. Two are, to be sure, into languages which have long ago learned to speak with a Christian accent—Portuguese and Spanish. But the remainder are incursions into heathen precincts, and offer this textbook of pure and undefiled Christian truth to the study of those to whom

Christianity itself is a novelty. These all are the product of American workers, lisping no doubt in these strange tongues; but by the grace of God they may plant seed which shall hereafter bear a harvest of Christian thinking, by means of which whole nations may be blessed.

The eleven versions prepared by American missionaries during the last sixty years are, in the order of their date, the following: Hindustani, 1842; Urdu,

1848; German, 1858; Siamese, 1873; Portuguese, 1876; Spanish, 1880; Japanese, 1880; Chinese, 1881; Arabic, 1883; Benga, 188——; Persian, 189

——. Some of them, such as the Spanish and Portuguese and Urdu, have already been thoroughly revised, and either sent forth or at least prepared to

be sent forth in better literary form for wider influence. Several are being diligently used in the instruction of ministers of the Word. And though some of them, such as notably the Japanese, have been permitted to fall into desuetude, and others have scarcely yet been launched (such as the Arabic,

Persian, and Benga), it is to be hoped that root will ultimately be taken by all and that many more will shortly be added to their number. The Presbyterian Churches owe it to their own sincerity to see that their doctrinal Standards, embodying, as they profess to believe, the very truth of God which is revealed in the Scriptures, are put in the possession of all whom they can reach with their propaganda. Otherwise, how shall they give an account of the "talents" entrusted to them?

Meanwhile it is something that the Westminster Confession now exists in some fifteen languages. It is true many of the more cultured and influential languages are lacking from this list. There does not seem to exist any version of the Westminster Confession in Dutch or French or Italian or any of the tongues of northern or eastern Europe. It must needs be confessed, further, that the versions that exist in the languages of culture are not always couched in the language of culture, and can proffer little claim to a place in the "literature" of those languages. How different in this respect is the history of the translation, say, of Calvin's "Institutes." Every version of the "Institutes" was literature, the product of a master in the idiom in which he worked: the Italian poet Giulio Cæsare Paschali; the English scholar, jurist, and statesman Thomas Norton; the Spanish litterateur Cypriano de Valera; the Dutch scholar Charles Agricola; the Bohemian hymnist George Strejc

—these names are but examples of the class: in every tongue the "Institutes" flowed out from the hands of master craftsmen. On the other hand, the translations of the Confession have almost never proceeded from writers "to the manner born." For the most part they are the work of

foreigners, handling the language with stiff and inflexible—often, no doubt, with bungling—fingers.

We may even go farther and note that the several versions of the Confession have ordinarily failed to find entrance not merely into the literature but even into the regular channels of the book-trade of the several languages into which it has been rendered. The experience of Niemeyer, astonishing as it is, and in his case indicative chiefly of the disgraceful insularity of German scholarship a half-century ago, would be more legitimately the experience of the average seeker after knowledge in most of the book-marts of the world. He had published his "Collectio confessionum in ecclesiis reformatis publicatarum" (Leipzig, 1840) without the Westminster formularies; and he actually tells us in the Preface to an Appendix he added nine months later, for the purpose of including them, that he had sought them in vain and had "taken it very hard" that he could never lay his hand on a single exemplar of the Westminster Confession! Of course he needed only to send to Edinburgh or to Philadelphia to get a cartload of exemplars of current issues; and a man of learning, engaged in the scientific study of symbolics, ought to have known that. And his friend Reboulius seems to have had no difficulty in turning up even in the Royal Library of Berlin a German and three Latin copies, which appear to have been lying there for the inspection of any one who cared to look at them. But the incident certainly illustrates how little the Westminster Confession had found its way into the channels of ordinary information and trade of the Germany of 1840—though there had been in existence for two hundred years a German translation, and a "literary" version at that. There has been a Spanish version in existence since 1880, a Portuguese one since 1876; but the chances of a Spanish or Portuguese reader coming accidentally across a copy in the most frequented book-shops of Madrid or Lisbon—or shall we not even say of Mexico or Rio de Janeiro?—or even succeeding in "unearthing"

a copy by diligent inquiry in the most enterprising book-shops of these cities, would probably be very small. The Westminster Confession may exist at the opening of the twentieth century in fifteen languages; but it is another matter whether it can be said to be very much in evidence in these fifteen languages, or even, in any broad sense of the word, accessible in them. Or, perhaps we should rather say, in any one of them—even in English. We were credibly told, a couple of years ago, that a copy of it was sought in vain in the largest book-shops of Glasgow! It is obviously very easy to overestimate the significance of the existence of the Westminster

Confession in fifteen languages.

It is also very easy to underestimate it. That it has found its way into these languages, for the most part, without finding its way into their literature or book-marts is a feature of its history which it shares with the Scriptures themselves, and, indeed, is paralleled by the mode of entrance of Christianity itself into the world. It belongs, in short, to the "servant-form" of Christianity. Christianity has always propagated itself by appeal, in the first instance, to the humble, whose interest has been in content rather than form: and its "literature," in the first instance, has in every race sought none of the ornaments of literary elaboration to give it wings. The very characteristic of the first literature of Christianity, in the eyes of the philologist, 14 is just its "formlessness": and it was all the product of alien pens. The same has been true of it ever since, as it has found entrance into this or that land. It is the idea that seeks to make its way into the mind of a nation first of all; and this idea is planted as seed, in the first instance, in the hearts of the humble who occupy no great place in the world. It is only after a while, when it takes root and grows, that it blossoms spontaneously into beauty. It has been, therefore, not only inevitable but fully in accord with the fitness of things—with that "servant-form" which our Lord

Himself took when he came into the world and offered Himself to the

babes and sucklings—that the Confession too has only struggled into other languages, transferring itself into new tongues by the painful efforts of men born aliens to them; and has been put into circulation only among those simple ones who have by their very simplicity been prepared for it. Thus and thus only will it ever find a path into a nation's heart. And it should not in the least discourage us to see it only thus making its way in the world.

What seems discouraging is that several of the fourteen translations which have been made of the Confession do not seem, for one reason or another, to be receiving that opportunity to plant themselves in the hearts of even the "simple" which alone we expect or crave for them. The Latin version of course was not intended for popular use and is now no longer in any sort of circulation. The old German version has perished, and only a single exemplar of it is known to remain in existence; while the modern German version (1858) is practically confined in its use to the German-speaking

Presbyterians of the United States. The Japanese version has been given no real opportunity of life, and is no longer to be had. The Siamese version is almost out of print. The Arabic, Persian, and Benga versions have never been published; and although the two latter are locally in use they can hardly be said to have been given to the world. The use of the Gaelic version must necessarily grow less and less extensive. There remain only the versions in Spanish and Portuguese, Chinese, Hindustani, Urdu and Gujurati, for which we can hope for a future of growing usefulness. An increase of zeal may add new ones or resuscitate old ones—such as the Japanese and Siamese—but at the moment there are, after all, only seven or eight versions

(including the German and Gaelic) which are really "in circulation." Even after the comparatively energetic work of the last sixty years, the Presbyterian Churches have no reason to blame themselves for undue zeal in propagating their professed doctrines by means of translations of their

Confession.

In the following notes 15 we have brought together the information we have been able to gather as to the translations of the Confession. We have included in the list even those versions which have, because produced either in Britain or the United States, been already mentioned in the lists of editions published in these countries. Thus the list contains the full series of versions brought to our attention. There may well be others which have escaped our search: but it is likely that we have been able to include nearly all. 16

IV. In Modification It is not merely in its pure form, as it came from the hands of the Assembly of Divines, that the Westminster Confession has been put into circulation.

Perhaps we may even say that during these later years it is not in its pure form that it has been most widely influential. If we wish to attain a complete view of the extent of its dissemination we must attend therefore as well to the modifications of it which have been published. With the nature of these modifications we have here nothing directly to do. We have merely to note the formal fact that modified forms of the Westminster

Confession have been produced and sent out into the world.

These modified forms are not very numerous; but they began to be made very early in the history of the document, and they have usurped its place in the case of a very large portion of its constituency. Indeed, it was only in a modified form that the Westminster Confession received the authorization of the very body at whose behest it was prepared. That it was put into circulation in an unmodified form at all was due to the Scotch Church

"stealing a march," so to speak, on the English Parliament. And it might almost be said that it is only in a modified form that it is in use to-day

outside the limits of immediate Scotch influence. In all the large American Presbyterian Churches, for example, it is not the Westminster Confession precisely as the Assembly of Divines framed it, but the Westminster

Confession in some respects modified, that has been adopted as their standard of faith. We must certainly bear in mind that there are modifications and modifications. Some may merely touch the periphery of the circle of doctrines which the document teaches, and may affect even its external form in only a minute manner. Some, while introducing a considerable amount of change in its form, may penetrate very little or not at all into the substance of its doctrine. Others may profoundly affect its whole point of view and revolutionize its whole teaching. As a matter of fact, the Westminster Confession has been made the subject of modifications of all these sorts. But it is chiefly the less serious varieties of modification that have been introduced into it; and it is in its most slightly modified forms that its wider influence has been gained.

The production of modified forms of the Westminster Confession is of course the result of the existence from the very time of its publication of bodies of Christians who felt that it was expected of them to adopt it as the expression of their faith, but who found it in this or that point unacceptable to them, and were led to cut the knot by so far modifying it as to adapt it to their uses. It must be remembered that the Westminster

Confession was the product of a national, or perhaps it would be speaking more properly to say of an international, movement. It was not the construction of a chance body of Christians voluntarily gathered together with a view to formulating their peculiar tenets. It was drawn up by a Synod appointed by the Parliament of England and assisted by delegates from Scotland, the task of which was to prepare a scheme of uniformity in religion for the Three Kingdoms. It came into the world, therefore, as a national Confession. As such it was adopted by the Church of Scotland,

and as such it was published by the Parliament of England. It was impossible for any body of Christians in the Three Kingdoms to avoid attending to it.

Moreover, it did in effect express the reasoned faith of the great mass of British Protestants. It was impossible for any body of them to refuse to take some account of it without bringing their orthodoxy under the suspicion of their brethren. A certain moral pressure was thus brought to bear upon the Protestant bodies of Great Britain and its colonies by the confessed excellence and generally representative character of the document, which almost compelled them to give it at least a modified acceptance. But fairly representative as it was of the substance of the general Protestant faith, there were minor points of teaching in the document against which this or the other party was bearing passionate protest. It was the very essence of the Independent contention that was struck at in the Westminster doctrine of Church organization and government. And what was the distinction of the Christian congregations who spoke of themselves as those "baptized upon profession of their faith," except their peculiar views on the subjects and mode of baptism? As it was inevitable that these Christians should have to face the unspoken demand that they should orient themselves with respect to the Westminster Confession, it was equally inevitable that they should wish to set forth forms of it in which their peculiar views should find recognition or at least meet with no open contradiction. Thus, from the first, Independent and Baptist recensions of the Westminster Confession, at least, were foregone conclusions—unless, indeed, the document should fall dead from the press. And the early production of these recensions is the proof that, despite the untoward turn of circumstances which rendered impossible of attainment the main object of the Assembly of Divines—the institution of uniformity of religion in the Three Kingdoms on a sound

Reformed basis—the Westminster Confession did not fall dead from the

press. Every great branch of Non-Conformists in England adjusted itself to it and gave it, in a form adapted to its special opinions on minor matters, the cordial testimony of public acceptance. Thus the Westminster

Confession in its substance became in fact practically the common Confession of the entirety of British non-prelatical Christianity.

The earliest modification of the Westminster Confession was the work of the English Parliament itself, acting in the Independent interest, and was produced even before the Confession was authoritatively published in England. It was thus and thus only in fact that the Confession was offered to the English Churches by the constituted authorities. The edition of the Confession published by Parliament at the end of June, 1648, under the title of "Articles of Christian Religion, Approved and Passed by both

Houses of Parliament, After Advice had with the Assembly of Divines, by Authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster"—the only edition of the Confession published by the authority of the State—is in effect the Independent recension of the Confession. The growing Independent influence had sufficed to secure that all that was offensive to that party should be exscinded from the document before it was put forth as the lawfully ordained public Confession of Faith of the Church of England.

The chief bone of contention here concerned, of course, the organization of the churches into a Church, provided with a series of courts clothed with authoritative jurisdiction. With this was involved the whole subject of Church discipline. And more remotely there came to be connected with it the question of a limited toleration, not so much of divergencies in doctrine as of differences in Church organization, government, and forms of worship. To meet the case thus raised the Parliament simply struck out of the document the whole series of sections treating of Church government and discipline. Other changes were made: but they were minor and in a true sense incidental.

It was accordingly upon this Parliamentary recension that the Independent Divines built when, ten years later (1658), they met at the Savoy to frame a Declaration of their faith. They introduced many minor variations in phraseology, recast a whole chapter—that on Repentance—and indeed inserted a whole new chapter—on the Gospel; and here and there they sharpened or heightened the expression of the doctrines taught in the document. But only in the two points of Church government and "discipline" and of "toleration" did they modify greatly its teaching. Their modified Confession had little prolonged circulation or influence, it is true, among the Independent Churches of England; these are found generally continuing to use the unaltered Westminster formularies. But in the New

World it made for itself a richer history. Adopted both by the Massachusetts (1680) and Connecticut (1708) Churches as their standard of belief, it constituted for many years the public Confession of American

Congregationalists, and indeed lighted the pathway of these Churches down almost to our own day. It is interesting to observe, however, that the American Congregationalists in adopting the Savoy recension resiled from its introduction into the document of the principle of "toleration," thus bidding us to take note that its introduction by the English Independents was rather incident to their position than a settled principle of Independent belief. Independents suffering disabilities and Independents in position to inflict disabilities for religion's sake, took opposite views of the relation of the civil magistrate to religious teaching. It was reserved to Presbyterians, after all, to make the "intolerant" teaching of the Westminster Confession a really constraining ground for modifying the document. The Independent modifications turned, as on their hinge, rather on matters concerned with Church courts: all else was incidental to this and liable to variations and the shadows cast by turning.

Meanwhile the English Baptists had been defining their relation to the Westminster Confession and had published a modification of it of their own (1677). As good Independents, they naturally took their start from the Savoy Declaration (1658), still further interpolating and filing it, and, of course, incorporating into it their own views as to baptism. It cannot be said that this Baptist recension exhibits quite the same degree of skill and learning that characterized the work done by the Savoy Synod: but it does exhibit equal fervor of religious feeling and equal devotion to the Reformed faith. In it the influence of the Independent recension of the Westminster

Confession attained its height, and through it perhaps the Westminster teaching itself has reached its widest dissemination. For no more than its parent document did this Baptist recension remain the property of its

English framers: it too crossed the sea, and in 1742 became the standard expression of the faith of the American Baptists, who have grown into a great host. If the Westminster Divines had done nothing else than lay down the lines upon which the great Baptist denomination has built its creed, its influence on the Christian faith and life of the masses would have been incalculably great.

In the new conditions of political life in free America the definition of the Westminster Confession of the relations of the civil magistrate to the Church could not fail to be thrown forward into a fierce light. As we have seen, the English Independents had already, somewhat incidentally, exscinded the "intolerant" features of the Confession and had been followed in this by the Baptists: though the American Congregationalists, occupying themselves the seat of the civil magistrate, had restored the objectionable principle. The fact is that in the seventeenth century

"toleration" was rather a sentiment of the oppressed than a reasoned principle of Christian ethics: while unrestricted "religious liberty" had scarcely risen on the horizon of men's thoughts. Whatever was done toward

freeing the Westminster Confession from "intolerant principles" in that age was therefore fitful and unstable, and rather a measure of self-protection than the consistent enunciation of a thoroughly grasped fundamental principle. Thus it happened that the American Presbyterians were the first to prepare modifications of the Westminster Confession which turned on the precise point of the duty of universal toleration, or rather of the fundamental right of unrestricted religious liberty. The first of these modifications in the interests of the principle of religious freedom and the equality of all forms of religious faith before the law, was that made by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1789. The Associate Reformed Church followed in the same pathway in 1799; and the United Presbyterian Church has continued this testimony in its own way ever since its formation in 1858. Thus it has come about that practically the whole body of American Presbyterians has cleansed the Westminster

Confession from every phrase which could by any form of interpretation be made to favor intolerance and has substituted the broadest assertion of religious liberty.

It will have been observed that no one of the modifications thus far adverted to in any way affected the scheme of doctrine of the Confession.

The Independents, Baptists, American Presbyterians alike gave the heartiest assent to the Reformed faith as set forth in this Confession; and it was only because they recognized in its form of sound words the expression of their fundamental belief that they busied themselves with adjusting it in minor matters to their opinions and practices. The opening nineteenth century saw the rise, however, in what was then the extreme western portion of the United States, of a body of Christians who by inheritance were so related to the Westminster Confession that they found it difficult to discard it altogether, but who in their fundamental theology had drifted away from the Reformed faith, to which it gives so clear and well-compacted an

expression. By this combination of circumstances there was produced at last a modification of the Westminster Confession, which was directed not to the adjustment of details of teaching that lay on the periphery of its system of doctrine, but to the dissection out of it of its very heart. An Arminianized Westminster Confession is something of a portent: yet it is just this that the Cumberland Presbyterians sought to frame for themselves

(1814), and to which, having in a fashion framed it, they clung for nearly three-quarters of a century.

Of course the Confession thus formed was never satisfactory even to its framers. To Arminianize the Westminster Confession with any thoroughness would leave to it only the general literary tone of its phraseology and its outlying definitions of secondary importance, while all that is really distinctive of it as a Confession of Faith would be extirpated. It required, however, about seventy years for the Arminian leaven placed in the Confession by the Cumberland Presbyterians to leaven the whole lump.

The first reworking they gave it, though definitely directed to eliminating from it its formative doctrine—the Reformed doctrine of the sovereignty of God—left the larger part of the document intact. Every direct statement of the doctrine of the divine determination of human destiny was expunged, but the general tone of the document remained untouched. The result was felt by the Cumberland Presbyterians themselves to be eminently unsatisfactory. They perceived that the casting out of what they called "the boldly defined statements" of foreordination was insufficient for their end, and only succeeded in bringing the document into conflict with itself; for, as they truly said, "the objectional doctrine with its logical sequences pervaded the whole system of theology formulated in that book." They perceived equally that their own Arminianizing principle was not given its full logical development by the substitution of statements announcing it for the Reformed statements expunged from the Confession. It was thus

inevitable that the Confession prepared by them in 1814 should sooner or later be further "modified," and the revolution then begun be made complete. The time seemed to be ripe for this early in the ninth decade of the century: and in 1883 an entirely new Confession was adopted by the Cumberland Presbyterians which is so drastic a "modification" of the Westminster Confession as to retain nothing of its most distinctive character and very little even of its secondary features. In this document

"modification" has stretched beyond its tether and become metamorphosis.

In the course of the two hundred and fifty years that have elapsed since its formulation the Westminster Confession has thus been sent out into the world in some half-dozen modifications. Some of these modifications concern so small a portion and so subordinate an element in the document that it becomes doubtful whether the publications in which they are embodied should not be rather treated as editions than as modifications of it. The Parliamentary edition of 1648 and the Confessions of the American

Presbyterian Churches belong to this class: and we have accordingly listed them among the editions of the Westminster Confession in the bibliographies published in The Presbyterian and Reformed Review for October, 1901, and January, 1902. That we include them also in the list of modifications presently to be given is in the interests of a complete enumeration of these modifications in one place, and need create no confusion. Others of these modifications, while so far transforming the document that they cannot be treated as mere editions of it, are yet fully conservative of the whole system of doctrine taught in it and retain its general structure and the greater part of its very phraseology. In this class belong the Savoy Declaration of 1658 and its descendants in the Boston

Confession of 1680 and the Saybrook Confession of 1708, on the one hand, and in the Baptist Confession of 1677 on the other. The Cumberland Presbyterian recensions stand in a class by themselves as an

extreme case of modification, striking at the very heart of the Confession and able to result in nothing other than its destruction.

In the following notes 17 we have brought together as full an account of these several modifications as seemed necessary in order to trace the diffusion of the Westminster Confession in the new forms thus given it. We have not attempted to record all the editions in which the several modifications have been issued; but have contented ourselves with referring the reader, when possible, to sources of information in which they can be traced. Only in the case of the Cumberland Presbyterian Confessions, whose history has not hitherto been thoroughly worked out, have we sought fulness of record.

1. The pamphlet edition is referred to, published by Mr. Wm. Carruthers recently, through the Publishing Office of the Presbyterian Church of England. See The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, xii. 1901, pp. 658–

659, No. 137.

2. Such editions as those of "Edinburgh, Robert Seton; and Whittaker & Co., London, 1855"; "Glasgow and London, 1859"; "London, Edinburgh and New York, T. Nelson & Sons, 1859 and 1860," are scarcely exceptions to this statement. Neither are the editions of Shaw's Exposition, "Blackie &

Son, London and Glasgow, 1877"; and Hodge's Commentary, "London:

T. Nelson & Sons, Edinburgh and New York, 1870."

3. See The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, xii. 1901, pp. 656–658, Nos.

132, 133, 135.

4. Principal Lee remarks on the incongruity of this statement persisting in the title of the Confession after the hope of the institution of such uniformity had long since passed away ("Additional Memorial, etc.,"

Edinburgh, 1826, pp. *134 sq., where also other anomalies of this kind are recited). The better form, "Of public authority in the Church of Scotland," seems to have been introduced first in Dunlop's "Collection," 1719, and in the normative edition of Lumisden & Robertson, 1728. The "Collection" of Lumisden & Robertson, 1725, however, retained the old form, which naturally persists therefore in its reprints as well as in some other copies at least as late as 1786. (See The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, xii. 1901, pp. 641–644 and 647–649, Nos. 57, 58, 62, 63, 66, 90, 96, 97, 102.)

5. Edinburgh: James Watson, 1719, p. clx.

6. As does also the so-called "fourth" edition, Edinburgh, 1708.

7. Samples of errors in current editions are given by Mr. Carruthers in the edition recorded at No. 137. They all occur in this stereotyped text, though

some of them are not in Dunlop, e.g. those in ix. 1; xxii. 7. Add the error in Larger Catechism, 105: "Trusting in unlawful means."

8. No other Colonial edition is known to us except one published in New Zealand.

9. For this list of 137 British editions see The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, xii. 1901, pp. 614–659.

10. Neal, "History of the Puritans," ii. 1849, p. 178.

11. See for him, Dr. Alfred Nevin's "Presbyterian Encyclopædia," sub nom.

12. See for these 88 American editions The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, xiii. 1902, pp. 71–120.

13. The only editions published prior to 1649 were the first Scotch of 1647, an Edinburgh edition of 1648, the first London of 1648, and the Parliamentary of 1648.

14. See Eduard Norden's "Die antike Kunstprosa," Leipzig, ii. 1898, ad init.

15. See for these The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, xiii. 1902, pp.

259–276.

16. Few of these translations are to be found in the collections of editions of the Confession. We have been indebted for our knowledge of them, therefore, mostly to the missionaries by whom they are used, and our thanks are due to them for their readiness to supply both copies of the books and information about them. We have tried to give credit for these courtesies, in general, as we have spoken of each version in turn. But it has been impossible to do justice to the kindness we have experienced or even to mention the names of all who have extended it.

17. For these see The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, xiii. 1902, pp.

387–426.

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