Page:On the Revision of the Confession of Faith.djvu/31

Rh and exaggeration the doctrines of election and preterition (for they did little more as to these mysterious topics than repeat what Ussher had already formulated), but that of setting forth the whole scheme of reformed doctrine in harmonious development in a form of which their country should have no cause to be ashamed in presence of any of the sister Churches of the Continent, and above all in a form which would conduce greatly to the fostering of Christian knowledge and Christian life." Working in this spirit, and especially with a desire to retain the essence of the earlier English and Irish Articles (possibly as a vindication of their historical continuity as the Church of England), everything narrow or one-sided was excluded, and a strong effort was made to include all legitimate shades of Calvinistic opinion. The publication of the Minutes of the Assembly reveals this catholic and inclusive tendency in a very strong light. At every point care was taken to reach substantial unanimity, and it was ever deemed a sufficient objection to a mode of statement that it was exclusive of one or another type of Calvinism. Free speech was permitted to or rather demanded of all; and perhaps in no council before or since have all doctrinal points been more thoroughly debated, more anxiously canvassed or more carefully stated. The result is that these Standards are a model of guarded strength in moderation, and have by their own inherent merit won their way to acceptance in more churches and retained their vigor through longer years than perhaps any other Protestant creed. As they are the most complete, so are they the most carefully framed, and the most inclusive, and the most acceptable, of all the standards of the Reformation. It can scarcely be necessary to stop to point out in detail the characteristic excellences of the Confession: its clear analysis, its lucid definitions, its atmosphere of devout piety, its