Profiles in Puritanism -- By: William S. Barker
Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 05:3 (Summer 1996)
Article: Profiles in Puritanism
Author: William S. Barker
RAR 5:3 (Summer 1996) p. 11
Profiles in Puritanism
Question: |
What is the chief end of man? |
Answer: |
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. |
Question: |
What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him? |
Answer: |
The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him. |
Question: |
What do the scriptures principally teach? |
Answer: |
The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. |
Question: |
What is God? |
Answer: |
God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. |
So begins the Westminster Shorter Catechism. For those of us who memorized it in childhood, along with scores of Bible verses, it proved to be a precious introduction to Christian theology. In more mature years we typically moved to the Westminster Confession of Faith, some devouring its systematic setting forth of Christian teaching in a single sitting upon their first enthusiastic encounter with its thirty-three concise chapters. Usually, only later, in our development did we come to appreciate the Larger Catechism, some four or five times longer than the Shorter Catechism, and with its detailed exposition of the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer, valuable helps to one’s devotional meditation and Bible study.
Where did these documents come from, and how were they produced?
The Westminster Assembly of Divines (or clergymen)
RAR 5:3 (Summer 1996) p. 12
was a group of 121 English Puritan ministers, assisted by six Scottish commissioners and thirty laymen, ten from the House of Lords and twenty from the House of Commons, who met from July 1, 1643, to February 22, 1649, with an average of 60–80 in attendance, as an advisory body to Parliament for the further reformation of religion and the church in England, Ire...
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