Page:Beauty for Ashes.djvu/47

Rh TESTIMONY OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.

We come next to the famous Westminster Assembly of divines, convoked by authority of Parliament, in the year 1643. And concerning the Confession of Faith drawn up by this Assembly, the Rev. Dr. Beecher says:

Now, that this "reverend assembly" believed and taught the doctrine of infant damnation, is a fact not to be disputed. Two of the articles in the chapter of their Confession on Effectual Calling, read as follows:

"Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth. So also are all other elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.

"Others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved; much less can men not professing the Christian religion be saved in any other way whatsoever, be