consisted of the
Governor, the Bishop of Quebec, and the intendant, together with four
others to be named by them, one of whom was to act as attorney-general.

PRESBYTERIANISM ESTABLISHED

MEETING OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY

A.D. 1643

DAVID MASSON

Official recognition of Presbyterianism in Great Britain marked
a distinct departure in ecclesiastical affairs. The Westminster
Assembly, whose confession and catechisms, while not accepted
in England, became, and still remain, the doctrinal standards
of the Scotch and American Presbyterian churches, was one of
the most important religious convocations ever held. The
Presbyterian form of church government has been adopted by
various sects, whose representatives are found in many parts of
the world.

The great object of the Westminster Assembly was to dictate,
dogmatically, articles of faith and a form of worship that
should be compulsory. It was mainly owing to the influence of
Oliver Cromwell, who stood for toleration and independence,
within limits, that the assembly did not have its way.

Masson, the great authority on this subject, gives in the
following pages a clear and comprehensive account of the
religious situation in Great Britain at the time, of the
composition of the assembly, and of its labors during the five
years and more of its continuance.

At the time of the meeting of the Westminster Assembly there was a
tradition in the Puritan mind of England of two varieties of opinions as
to the form of church government or discipline that should be
substituted for episcopacy.

In the first place there was a tradition of the system of views known as
Presbyterianism. From the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, if not
earlier, there had been Nonconformists who held that some form of the
consistorial model which Calvin had set up in Geneva, and which Knox
enlarged for Scotland, was the best for England, too. Thus Fuller, who
dates the use of the term "Puritans," as a nickname for the English
Nonconformists generally, from the year 1564, and who goes on to say
that within a few years after that date the chief of those to whom that
term was first applied were either dead or very aged, adds: "Behold,
another generation of active and zealous Nonconformists succeeded them:
of these Coleman, Button, Halingham, and Benson (whose Christian names I
cannot recover) were