THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY
AND ITS WORK

by

BENJAMIN BRECKINRIDGE WARFIELD

Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology
in the Theological Seminary of Princeton
New Jersey, 1887–1921

BAKER BOOK HOUSE

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506

Copyright 1932 by

Oxford University Press

New York, Inc.

Reprinted 2000 by Baker Book House Company

Set of Ten Volumes

ISBN: 0-8010-9645-6

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Prefatory Note

Rev. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology in the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church at Princeton, New Jersey, provided in his will for the collection and publication of the numerous articles on theological subjects which he contributed to encyclopaedias, reviews, and other periodicals, and appointed a committee to edit and publish these papers. In pursuance of his instructions, this, the sixth volume, containing his articles on the Westminster Assembly and its Work, has been prepared under the editorial direction of this committee.

The clerical preparation of this volume has been done by Mr. John E. Meeter, to whom the thanks of the committee are hereby expressed.

Ethelbert D. Warfield

William Park Armstrong

Caspar Wistar Hodge

Committee.

Contents

chapter

I. The Westminster Assembly and Its Work

II. The Making of the Westminster Confession, and Especially of its Chapter on the Decree of God

III. The Westminster Doctrine of Holy Scripture

IV. The Doctrine of Inspiration of the Westminster Divines

V. The Printing of the Westminster Confession

VI. The First Question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

Other Articles on the Westminster Assembly and its Work

I. Shall We Revise the Confession of Faith? (An Address to the Presbytery of New Brunswick; 24 pp., Trenton, 1889.)

II. The Presbyterian Churches and the Westminster Confession. (The Presbyterian Review, x. 1889, pp. 646–657.)

III. On the Revision of the Confession of Faith. (91 pp., New York, 1890.)

IV. Ought the Confession of Faith to be Revised? (A Series of Papers by John De Witt, Henry J. Van Dyke, Benjamin B. Warfield, W. G. T. Shedd; 131 pp., New York, 1890.)

V. Proposed Reply to the Recommendations of the Assembly’s Committee on the Revision of the Confession of Faith. (Proposed to the Presbytery of New Brunswick, October 6, 1891; 16 pp.)

VI. The Final Report of the Committee on Revision of the Confession. (The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, iii. 1892, pp. 322–330.)

VII. The Significance of the Westminster Standards as a Creed. (An Address delivered before the Presbytery of New York; 36 pp., New York, 1898.)

VIII. Revision or Reaffirmation? (A letter sent to the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, dated June 25, 1900; 4 pp.)

IX. A Declaratory Statement. (“Papers submitted to the General Committee for Information, August 30, 1901,” pp. 5–8.)

X. The Confession of Faith as Revised ...