The Lord's-Day in a Christian Household

William M. Hetherington, The Constitution of the Family Circle in Family Life; or, Masters and Servants as They Were, Are, and Ought to Be by the Rev. W.M. Hetherington, D.D., LL.D. and the Rev. Andrew Thomson, D.D., pp. 37-38:

The Lord's-Day in a Christian Household

It is a beautiful and a holy sight to see a truly Christian household on the Lord's day. Parents, children, and servants have knelt together in family worship, praying for the presence and the blessing of God in his house of prayer. They have, with quiet activity, made their simple arrangements that as many as possible may attend public worship, with such alternate changes as enable all to attend on some portion of the day. Evening has come. Some of the members of the family -- father, sons, or daughters -- have given an hour to Sabbath-school teaching. Others, the mother and other daughters, have given that hour to the instruction of the domestic servants. It is now nearly time for family worship. All are again assembled; but before beginning that sacred duty, the father devotes some time to catechising both the children and servants -- ascertaining what attention they have paid to public worship -- how they understood, and how much they have remembered of the sermon, giving such explanations and instructions as may be needed and beneficial on these topics, and on the portion of Scripture as it is read; then in solemn, earnest, affectionate, hopeful prayer commends the whole household to the care of their one heavenly Father, in the name of the one Redeemer, and by the one Holy Spirit.

Paradise of the Church

Alexander Henderson wrote a document in 1640 that was published in 1641 under the title Arguments Given in by the Commissioners of Scotland unto the Lords of the Treaty perswading Conformity of Church Government, as one principall Meanes of a continued peace betweene the two Nations (J.R. De Witt, Jus Divinum: The Westminster Assembly and the Divine Right of Church Government, p. 40). It was published by William Hetherington in his History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Appendix I, pp. 381-392 under the title "Our Desires Concerning Unity in Religion, and Uniformity of Church Government, as a Special Mean to Conserve Peace in His Majesty's Dominions." In it, Henderson makes the argument that division within the church, particularly on the subject of ecclesiastical government, is such a great hindrance to the advancement of God's kingdom in the earth, that uniformity in faith, doctrine, worship and government, agreeable to the word of God, ought to be the chief aim of those whose care it is to lead and guide the church. Henderson writes:

We do all know and profess, that religion is not only the mean to serve God, and to save our own souls, but that it is also the base and foundation of kingdoms and estates, and the strongest band to tie subjects and their prince in true loyalty, and to knit their hearts one to another in true unity. Nothing so powerful to divide the hearts of people as division in religion; nothing so strong to unite them as unity in religion; but the more zeal in one religion the more firm union. In the paradise of nature the diversity of flowers and herbs is pleasant and useful; but in the paradise of the Church different and contrary religions are unpleasant and hurtful. It is therefore to be wished that there were one Confession of Faith, one form of Catechism, one Directory for all the parts of the public worship of God, and for prayer, preaching, administration of sacraments, etc., and one form of Church government, in all the Churches of his majesty's dominions.

De Witt notes (ibid, pp. 40-41): "The statement reads like a prospectus of the work of the Westminster Assembly was to undertake nearly three years later."

Scotland's Covenants

William M. Hetherington, Poems on Various Subjects (1851), pp. 85-90:

SCOTLAND’S COVENANTS (written in 1843)

I.
Heard ye the tidings dire,
Ye Scottish Christians true?
That Rome’s remorseless ire
Is forging chains for you?

That Spain’s Armada vast
Sweeps o’er the groaning waves,
On you those chains to cast,
And make you crouching slaves!

Unconquered land! awake!
In Covenant-strength combine!
To God your great vow make
For liberty divine!

’Tis done! Her soul is free!
Spain’s Jesuit hordes are fled!
Scotland, on grateful knee,
Adores her KING and HEAD!

II.
By king-craft and dark guile
Has Scotland been betrayed;
Proud prelates scornful smile
On her all prostrate laid.

Her spirit is not dead, –
Her Covenant not disowned; –
Yet shall her KING and HEAD
In His pledged land be throned.

Faith lives, and prayers arise, –
God hears her solemn vow;
That banner o’er the skies
Again is floating now!

Free is the Covenant-land, –
Yes, free! tho’ despots rage,
And with red ruthless hand
Fierce persecution wage.

To Heaven the martyr-cries
Ascend, “O Lord, how long!”
The crownless tyrant flies, –
For God, our Judge, is strong!

III.
Again dark clouds sunk o’er
The land; faith silent grew;
No hand aloft upbore
The Covenant-banner blue.

Unhallowed scorn grew bold, –
Proud strength to rend it tried:–
Not yet is Scotland cold, –
The assailant is defied!

Let the war-cry be given!
Let the loud trumpet ring!
Free to the winds of heaven
Our ancient banner fling!

Bold in Emmanuel’s cause,
Faith’s glorious fight we wage;
For CHRIST – His CROWN – and LAWS,
We dare the foe’s wild rage!

Where stood our martyred sires
We stand – the cause is one!
Not persecution’s fires
We fear – but God alone!

What tho’ for conscience’ sake
Homeless we journey forth,
Let us one temple make
Of God’s own heaven and earth!

All sufferings, Lord, we hail,
Rejoicing – when for Thee! –
Hark! shouts rise on the gale! –
And SCOTLAND’S CHURCH is FREE!

Wallace's Oak

Freedom is best, I tell thee true, of all things to be won; then never live within the bonds of slavery, my son. -- Attributed to William Wallace's uncle.

There once was an ancient oak tree in the Torwood, near Falkirk, Scotland. It was reputed to be a common resting place for none other than William Wallace, Scotland's most famous patriot. It lived for centuries evidently; the painting here is by A. Nasmyth (1771). Sir Walter Scott records how he would retire there before or after battle in Tales of A Grandfather (1st series, 1828), Chap. 7:

A large oak-tree in the adjoining forest was long shown as marking the spot where Wallace slept before the battle, or, as others said, in which he hid himself after the defeat. Nearly forty years ago Grandpapa [Scott himself] saw some of its roots; but the body of the tree was even then entirely decayed, and there is not now, and has not been for many years, the least vestige of it to be seen.

Magnus Magnusson, Scotland: The Story of a Nation (2000), pp. 146-147:

Oak wood has long been revered in Scotland as a potent symbol of strength, hardness and durability. Until two centuries ago there was a vast oak tree known as 'Wallace's Oak' in the Torwood, a couple of miles north of Falkirk. In 1723 it was described as having a girth of thirty-six feet, still bearing leaves and acorns, and 'ever excepted from cutting when the wood is sold'. Fifty years later its girth measured as twenty-two feet at four feet above the ground by a John Walker, who observed that 'whatever may be its age, it certainly has in its ruins the appearance of greater antiquity than what I have observed in any tree in Scotland...it has been immemorially held in veneration and is still viewed in that light.' But, as Sir Walter Scott and others reported, by the end of the eighteenth century no trace of it remained, and efforts to pinpoint the exact site of the tree have been somewhat conjectural.

Tangible relics of 'Wallace's Oak' remain, however. The great tree was ultimately, and literally, loved to death by souvenir hunters. In the 1790s a piece of it was made into a box by the goldsmiths of Edinburgh and presented to George Washington, first President of the United States, as 'the Wallace of America'; this relic does not survive, alas -- it was stolen in a stage-coach raid in the 1820s and never seen again. The last of the roots of the tree was excavated to make a snuff box which was presented to King George IV on the occasion of his celebrated Royal Visit to Edinburgh in 1822...

Today, Wallacebank Wood, owned by the Glenbervice Golf Club, and managed along with the Scottish Wildlife Trust as a Wildlife Reserve, is home to coppiced descendants of the Wallace Oak.

William Hetherington wrote a poetic tribute to the Wallace Oak in Twelve Dramatic Sketches, founded on the Pastoral Poetry of Scotland (1829), which is recorded in James Grant Wilson, The Poets and Poetry of Scotland: From the Earliest to the Present Time (1876), Half-Vol. 4, p. 263:

The Torwood Oak

The Torwood Oak! How like a spell
By potent wizard breathed, that name
Bids every Scottish bosom swell,
And burn with all a patriot's flame!

The past before the rapt eye brings --
Forth stalk the phantom shades of kings,
And loud the warrior's bugle rings
O'er gory fields of blood!

I see the Roman eagle whet
Its hungry beak, I see it soar;
It stoops, I see its pinions wet,
Ruffled and wet with its own gore:
I see the Danish raven sweep
O'er the dark bosom of the deep, --
Its scatter'd plumage strows the steep
Of rugged Albin's shore.

Lo! England's Edward comes! -- the plain
Groans where his marshall'd thousands wheel,
Grim Havoc stalks o'er heaps of slain,
Gaunt Famine, prowling, dogs his heel!
Ah! woe for Scotland! blood and woe!
Fierce and relentless is the foe,
And treason points the murderous blow,
Edges the ruthless steel!

But who is he with dauntless brow,
And dragon crest, and eagle eye,
Whose proud form never knew to bow
Its lofty port and bearing high?
Around him close a glorious band, --
Few -- but the chosen of the land;
Beneath the Torwood Tree they stand,
Freedom to gain, or die!

'Tis he, the bravest of the brave!
Champion of Scotland's liberty,
Whose mighty arm and dreadful glaive
His mother-land could thrice set free!
That hero-patriot, whose great name
Justly the foremost rank may claim
Of that grace the rolls of fame --
WALLACE OF ELDERSLIE!

Yes, oft the Torwood Oak has bent
Its broad boughs o'er his noble head;
Oft, in his hour of peril, lent
The shelter of its friendly shade;
And though rude Time and stern Decay
Its moulder'd stem have swept away,
The hero's name there dwells for aye --
A name that cannot fade!

Puritan Polymath

John Wallis is a name perhaps better known to 21st century mathematicians than 21st century church-goers. But he is worth highlighting because he was, as it were, a Puritan polymath, or Renaissance man, versatile in so many ways. His list of credentials and accomplishments is a marvel to read. He

• Studied under Martin Holbeach (1597-1670), a noted Puritan educator, who also taught Isaac Barrow

• Was the protégé of Herbert Palmer

• Was a Minister of the Gospel

• Served as amenuensis to the scribes of the Westminster Assembly

• Was influential in the preparation and design of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

• Was the author of the first exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648)

• Was an Ardent defender of the doctrines of the Trinity, Infant Baptism and the Christian Sabbath

• Was a leading mathematician who is partially responsible for the development of modern calculus, credited with proposing Wallis' Product, introduced the term "continued fraction", coined the phrase "interpolation"

• Was perhaps the first to maintain the theory of circulation of blood in a public disputation

• Was involved in a plan to teach deaf-mutes how to speak

• Authored an English grammar for native speakers and foreigners

• Served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and the royal court between 1643-1689

• Was one of the first members of the Royal Society

• Was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford

• Is credited with introducing the ∞ symbol for infinity

• Was the last surviving member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (d. October 28, 1703) at the age of 87. [Thomas Case was the last nonconforming Westminster Divine, having died on May 30, 1684, at the age of 84.]

• His autobiography provides the last first-hand account of the proceedings of the Westminster Assembly

• Asteroid 31982 Johnwallis is named for him

His intellectual gifts were astounding. Wikipedia writes:

One aspect of Wallis's mathematical skills has not yet been mentioned, namely his great ability to do mental calculations. He slept badly and often did mental calculations as he lay awake in his bed. One night he calculated the square root of a number with 53 digits in his head. In the morning he dictated the 27 digit square root of the number, still entirely from memory. It was a feat which was rightly considered remarkable, and Henry Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, sent a colleague to investigate how Wallis did it. It was considered important enough to merit discussion in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of 1685.

Wallis gives his own account of the matter in a letter to Thomas Smith of Madalene College, which is found in the Spectator, Vol. LII (1879), p. 11 and reproduced by E.W. Scripture, "Arithmetical Prodigies," in The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. IV (April 1891), p. 38:

December 22d, 1669. -- In a dark night, in bed, without pen, ink or paper or anything equivalent, I did by memory extract the square root of 30000,00000,00000,00000,00000,00000,00000,00000, which I found to be 1,77205,08075,68077,29353, fere, and did the next day commit it to writing.

February 18th, 1670. -- Johannes Georgius Pelshower (Regimontannus Borussus) giving me a visit, and desiring an example of the like, I did that night propose to myself in the dark without help to my memory a number in 53 places: 2468135791011112141113151618207192122242628302325272931 of which I extracted the square root in 27 places: 157103016871482805817152171 proxime; which numbers I did not commit to paper till he gave me another visit, March following, which I did from memory dictate them to him.

Yours, etc.,
John Wallis

The discussion by church historians of his role and influence on the productions of the Westminster Assembly may be of particular interest.

William M. Hetherington, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, pp. 259-260:

It has been also conjectured, that the first outline of the Catechism may have been drawn by Dr. Wallis, one of the scribes of the Assembly at that period, and afterwards so justly celebrated as Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, and one of the first mathematicians of the age. This conjecture may have arisen from the fact that he wrote a short treatise, entitled, "A Brief and Easy Explanation of the Shorter Catechism;" which was so much approved of by the Assembly that they caused it to be presented to both Houses of Parliament. But in truth, as has been already suggested, the framing of the Catechism appears to have been the work of the committee, and not of any one individual; and it was brought to its present admirable degree of nearness to perfection by the united deliberations of the whole Assembly.

Chad Van Dixhoorn, The Making of the Westminster Larger Catechism:

Having outlined the historical purpose of the Larger Catechism, it still seems appropriate to ask why the Catechism had to be written. After all, respected teachers in Britain had composed good catechisms; Calvin’s catechism was in the bookstores and so was the Heidelberg Catechism. Why could the Assemblymen not agree to use one of these catechisms for purposes of unity and instruction?

One answer has to do with the structure or format of earlier catechisms that the majority of Westminster divines did not like. In the eighth edition of A Brief and Easie Explanation of the Shorter Catechism, a young divine named John Wallis, explains the Assembly’s unique method in setting up the catechism: “The Assembly was careful that all the Answers might be entire sentences by themselves, without depending for their sense upon the foregoing Question, being indeed so many distinct Aphorisms, containing briefly the grounds of Christian Religion.” One benefit of this structure, in Wallis’s view,

is that the learner is not necessitated to charge his memory with the Questions, that he may understand the Answer [sic]; nor is the like danger, as in many other Catechisms, of confounding the understanding by misapplying the Answer to a wrong Question. Their Questions also are so framed, that any one of them may be asked singly and distinctly, without dependance on the Question foregoing.14

14. John Wallis, A Brief and Easie Explanation of the Shorter Catechism Presented by the Assembly of Divines in Westminster, to both Houses of Parliament, and By them Approved. Wherein the Meanest Capacities may in a Speedy and Easie way be Brought to Understand the Principles of Religion, in Imitation of a Catechism, formerly published by Master Herbert Palmer, B. D. and late Master of Queens College (eighth ed., London: for Jane Underhill, 1662), preface. I am grateful to Jason M. Rampelt for bringing this preface to my attention in conversation.

A.F. Mitchell, The Westminster Assembly: Its History and Standards, pp. 430-431:

From first to last, it appears to me in its [the Westminster Shorter Catechism's] clear, condensed, and at times almost frigidly logical definitions, to give unmistakeable evidence of its having passed through the alembic of Dr. Wallis, the great mathematician, the friend of Palmer, the opponent of Hobbes and the Socinians, and probably the last survivor of those connected with the great Assembly who was not ashamed to speak of the benefit he had derived from its discussions during the preparation of its Confession and Catechisms, long after he had conformed to the Church of the Restoration.

James Reid, speaking of his published sermons, Memoirs of the Westminster Divines, Vol. 2, p. 214, sums up his most important qualities:

In these sermons [of Dr. John Wallis], the reader may see both the author's learning and piety; with the Calvinistic doctrines of the Reformation, and of the Holy Scriptures. They may indeed be accounted too Puritannical by some persons; but they will not be the less acceptable on that account to others. The style is plain, and the matter excellent.

Willem Apollonius, Dutch Presbyterian

In the 1640s, church polity was a matter which excited great agitation between Presbyterian, Erastian and Independent parties, not only in the British isles, but also across the channel in the Netherlands, as well as across the pond in New England. At the encouragement of Presbyterian Robert Baillie (who "masterminded a grand anti-Independent strategy encompassing the three nations [Scotland, England and the Netherlands]," Keith L. Sprunger, Dutch Puritanism, p. 365), and his cousin William Spang of Veere, the Dutch Classis of Walcheren commissioned Willem Apollonius (d. 1657) to answer seven questions of church polity and worship in a treatise directed to the Westminster Assembly called A consideration of certaine controversies at this time agitated in the kingdome of England, concerning the government of the church of God (Latin, 1644; English trans. 1645), a copy of which was given to each Westminster divine, and which elicited a letter of thanks from the Assembly, and praise from Baillie: "Surely he hes done a piece of good service to God and his churches here" (Baillie, Letters, II.246). Acting on behalf of the classis again, he sent those seven questions to the Congregationalists of New England, who appointed John Norton to write a response, Responsio ad totam questionum (1648; English trans., The Answer to the Whole Set of Questions of the Celebrated Mr. William Apollonius, 1958), which was in fact the first book published in Latin in America.

William Hetherington provides additional insight into the importance of Apollonius' contributions to the debates over church polity, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, pp. 301-302:

There appeared another work at this time, not indeed written by one of the Assembly of Divines, but so intimately connected with the controversies which were agitated among them, that it deserves to be mentioned here. This was a treatise written by the celebrated Apollonius of Middleburg, entitled, "Consideratio Quarundam Contraversiarum ad Regimen Ecclesiae Dei Spectantium, quae in Angliae Regno hodie Agitantur." When this treatise was published, a copy of it was sent to each member of the Westminster Assembly. "It was," says Baillie, "not only very well taken, but also, which is singular, and so far as I can remember, absque exemplo, it was ordered, nemine contradicente, to write a letter of thanks to Apollonius."1 The spirit of this work is thoroughly Presbyterian, encountering alike the theories of the Independents and the Erastians. It consists of seven chapters, each treating of a separate topic briefly, but with great clearness and force of reasoning. They are as follows: -- "1. Concerning the qualification of Church members. 2. Concerning a Church covenant. 3. Concerning the Church visible and instituted. 4. Concerning power ecclesiastical. 5. Concerning ecclesiastical ministry and its exercise. 6. Concerning Classes (Presbyteries) and Synods, and their authority. 7. Concerning forms or directories of faith and worship." It will at once be seen, that in the discussion of these topics the learned author must come into direct collision with both the Independents and the Erastians; yet his work has very little of a merely controversial character, being a calm and dispassionate, but very clear and able, disquisition concerning these important theological questions. There is another very valuable work by the same author, written a short time before the meeting of the Westminster Assembly, but treating very fully of the Erastian theory. Its title is, "Jus Majestatis Circa Sacra; sive, Tractatus, Theologicus de jure Magistratus circa res Ecclesiasticus." A translation of this work, for the purpose of general circulation, would be a very valuable contribution to the cause of religious liberty, which is at present beset by so many and such formidable enemies.

1 Baillie, vol. ii. p. 246.

It is to be hoped that one day someone will heed this encouragement from Hetherington to translate Jus Majestatis Circa Sacra. There are other works by Apollonius written in Dutch which this writer would very much like to see in English, such as Tractaat van eenige byzondere Deugden der Kinderen Gods (Treatise on some especial Virtues of the Children of God), and Over den Sabbath (On the Sabbath), both published in 1652. Apollonius is little-known in our day, but in the heady days of international Puritanism, his writings constituted a major Dutch contribution to the debates over church polity in Old and New England in defense of Presbyterianism.

Circa Sacra, Not In Sacris

William Hetherington, Introduction to Robert Shaw's An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith:

Another decided and great merit of the Confession consists in the clear and well-defined statement which it makes of the principles on which alone can securely rest the great idea of the co-ordination, yet mutual support, of the civil and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions. It is but too usual for people to misunderstand those parts of the Confession which treat of these jurisdictions – some accusing those passages of containing Erastian concessions, and others charging them with being either lawless or intolerant. The truth is, they favour no extreme. Proceeding upon the sacred rule, to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s, they willingly ascribe to the civil magistrate a supreme power in the State—all that belongs to his province, not merely with regard to his due authority over the persons and property of men, but also with regard to what pertains to his own official mode of rendering homage to the King of kings. It is in this latter department of magisterial duty that what is called the power of the civil magistrate, circa sacra – about religious matters, consists. But there his province ends, and he has no power in sacris—in religious matters. This is most carefully guarded in the leading proposition of chapter xxx.:— "The Lord Jesus christ, as King and Head of His Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hands of Church Officers, distinct from the Civil Magistrate. The leading Erastians of that period, learned and subtle as they were, felt in impossible to evade the force of that proposition, and could but refuse to give to it the sanction of the Legislature. They could not, however, prevail upon the Assembly either to modify or suppress it; and there it remains, and must remain, as the unanswered and unanswerable refutation of the Erastian heresy by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. In modern times it has been too much the custom of the opponents of Erastianism tacitly to grant the Erastian argument—or, at least, the principle on which it rests by admitting, or even asserting, that if a Church be established, it must cease to have a separate and independent jurisdiction, and must obey the laws of the State, even in spiritual matters; but then declaring, that as this is evidently wrong, there ought to be no Established Church. There is more peril to both civil and religious liberty in this mode of evading Erastianism than is commonly perceived; for, if it were generally admitted that an Established Church ought to be subject, even in spiritual matters, to the civil jurisdiction of the State, then would civil rulers have a direct and admitted interest in establishing a Church, not for the sake of promoting Christianity, nor with the view of rendering homage to the Prince of the kings of the earth, but for the purpose of employing the Church as a powerful engine of State policy. That they would avail themselves of such an admission is certain; and this would necessarily tend to produce a perilous contest between the defenders of religious liberty and the supporters of arbitrary power; and if the issue should be the triumph of Erastianism, that issue would inevitably involve the loss of both civil and religious liberty in the blending of the two jurisdictions—which is the very essence of absolute despotism. Of this the framers of our Confession were well aware; and, therefore, they strove to procure the well-adjusted and mutual counterpoise and co-operation of the two jurisdictions, as the best safeguards of both civil and religious liberty, and as founded on the express authority of the Word of God. It never yet has been proved, from either Scripture or reason, that they were wrong, although their views have been much misunderstood and grievously misrepresented. But, instead of prosecuting this topic, we refer to the comment on those chapters which treat of the civil magistrate, of synods, and of Church censures, as giving a very accurate and intelligible explanation of the doctrine of the Confession on these subjects.

The Confession of Faith has often been accused of advocating intolerant and persecuting principles. It is, however, in truth, equally free from latitudinarian laxity on the one hand, and intolerance on the other. An intelligent and candid perusal of chapter xx., "On Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience," ought of itself to refute all such calumnies. The mind of man never produced a truer or nobler proposition than the following:—"God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship." The man who can comprehend, entertain, and act upon that principle, can never arrogate an overbearing and intolerant authority over the conscience of his fellowman, much less wield against him the weapons of remorseless persecution. But there is a very prevalent, and yet very false, method of thinking, or pretending to think, respecting toleration and liberty of conscience. Many seem to be of opinion that toleration consists in making no distinction between truth and error, but regarding them with equal favour. This opinion, if carefully analysed, would be found to be essentially of an infidel character. Many seem to think that by liberty of conscience is meant, that every man should be at liberty to act in everything according to his own inclination, without regard to the feelings, convictions, and rights of other men. This would, indeed, be to convert liberty into lawlessness, and to make conscience of licentiousness. But the Confession proceeds upon the principle that truth can be distinguished from error, right from wrong; that though conscience cannot be compelled, it may be enlightened; and that when sinful, corrupt, and prone to licentiousness, men may be lawfully restrained from the commission of such excesses as are offensive to public feeling, and injurious to the moral welfare of the community. If this be intolerance, it is a kind of intolerance of which none will complain but those who wish to be free from all restraint of law human or divine. Nothing, in our opinion, but a wilful determination to misrepresent the sentiments expressed in the Confession of Faith, or a culpable degree of wilful ignorance respecting the true meaning of these sentiments, could induce any man to accuse it of favouring intolerant and persecuting principles. Certainly the conduct of those who framed it gave no countenance to such an accusation, though that calumny has been often and most pertinaciously asserted. On this point, also, it would be well if people would take the trouble to ascertain what precise meaning the framers of the Confession gave to the words which they employed; for it is not doing justice to them and their work to adopt some modern acceptation of a term used by them in a different sense, and then to charge them with holding the sentiment conveyed by the modern use or misuse of that term. Yet this is the method almost invariably employed by the assailants of the Confession of Faith.