(Continued from page 220).
AS the Assembly was approaching the completion of the Larger Catechism they resolved on the 5th August to proceed at once with the Shorter, and appointed a Committee to prepare a draft. The Committee was composed of Charles Herle, Prolocutor of the Assembly; Thomas Temple, D.D.; John Lightfoot, D.D.; John Greene, M.A.; and Philip Delmé; with Herbert Palmer as chairman. Four days later Mr Palmer presented a report. Edmund Calamy and Stanley Gower were added to the Committee on the 9th, and on the 10th a report was given in by Dr Temple. On the 13th October, owing to Mr Palmer’s death, the Assembly gave instructions that the papers in Mr Palmer’s possession relating to the Assembly be sought for and delivered to the Assembly. Six days later (19th October) the Assembly appointed a new Committee to prepare the Catechism, consisting of Anthony Tuckney, minister of St Machael’s Quern, London, and Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge; Stephen Marshall, B.D., of Finchfield; and John Ward, of Ipswich; with the help of Samuel Rutherford, the only one of the Scottish Commissioners remaining in the Assembly. “To these four men,” says Mr Carruthers, “and especially the Convener, Mr Tuckney, do we owe the production of the Shorter Catechism. I wish I could accept the suggestion of Dr Mitchell that the Catechism has ‘unmistakeable evidence of its having passed through the alembic of Dr Wallis, the great mathematician,’ but, unhappily, he was not instructed to attend the Committee until the work was practically done, and this instruction would not have been given had he already been in attendance” (“Shorter Catechism,” p. 31). Mr Tuckney reported progress on 21st, 25th, 28th, 29th October and 1st, 2nd and 8th November, and on these days it was debated in the Assembly. On the 9th November Cornelius Burges, D.D., and Daniel Cawdrey, M.A., were added to the Committee for reviewing the Catechism. The revision came under consideration on the 10th and 11th November, and on the 15th November was read as far as the Fourth Commandment, and being approved, was ordered to be transcribed. The Committee were requested to prepare a preface, and on the following day Mr Tuckney reported on the remainder of the Catechism, and after reading it, it was ordered to be transcribed. The addition of the Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed was considered. Philip Nye objected to the inclusion of the Creed, and was supported by William Rayner, William Greenhill, Thomas Wilson, and Thomas Valentine. Owing to this difference of opinion the Assembly decided to add some new members to the Committee in the hope that an agreement might be reached. The additional members were Adoniram Byfield, William Rayner, Philip Nye, Thomas Case, Richard Vines, and Stanley Gower. A Sub-Committee, consisting of Dr Temple, Edmund Calamy, and Thomas Wilson, were requested to submit the preface on the following morning. The difference in connection with the Creed was settled by inserting on the margin: “i.e. continued in the state of the dead, and under the power of death until the third day” as explanatory of the phrase in the Creed: “He descended into hell.” The “preface,” which was really a postscript, was adopted. In the earlier editions of the Catechism, and in those printed with the Confession of Faith, with the exception of the American editions, this preface is usually found. It is as follows: “So much of every Question, both in the Larger and Shorter Catechism, is repeated in the Answer, as maketh every Answer an entire proposition, or sentence in itself; to the end the learner may further improve it upon all occasions, for his increase in knowledge and piety, even out of the course of catechising, as well as in it. And albeit the substance of the doctrine comprised in that abridgement commonly called the Apostles’ Creed, be fully set forth in each of the Catechisms, so as there is no necessity of inserting the Creed itself, yet it is here annexed, not as though it were composed by the Apostles, or ought to be esteemed canonical Scripture, as the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer (much less a Prayer, as ignorant people have been apt to make both it and the Decalogue), but because it is a brief sum of the Christian Faith, agreeable to the Word of God, and anciently received in the Churches of Christ.”
A message was prepared by a Committee to be addressed to the Houses of Parliament when the Catechism was presented. On the House of Commons being informed on the 25th November, 1647, that “divers divines” of the Assembly were at the door they were called in and the Prolocutor delivered the Catechism and addressed the House. On the 26th November the Catechism was presented to the House of Lords. Each House thanked the Assembly for their pains, and 600 copies were ordered to be printed for the use of the members of Parliament and the Assembly, and the Scripture proofs were also ordered to be affixed in the margin. While the Assembly were debating the proofs of the Larger Catechism they began those of the Shorter Catechism. These debates began on 2nd March, 1647-8, and continued on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 13th March, and on the 12th April it was resolved that the proofs be accepted, transcribed, and sent to Parliament. This was done on the 14th April, 1648, when the Speaker of the Commons thanked the Divines, and ordered 600 copies to be printed, with the proofs in the margin. The Shorter Catechism was accepted by Parliament without the suggestion of any modification.
(To be continued).
Yea, often times when the wicked world hath raged most, there hath been souls awakened by the Word.— Bunyan’s Grace Abounding.