22
February 1649. The
Last Meeting of the Westminster Assembly (1649). http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/02/february-22-last-meeting-of-the-westminster-assembly-1649/
The last numbered meeting
of the Westminster Assembly, marked as “Session 1163″, met on this day, 22 Feb 1649. The Assembly was never officially
dissolved. Finally the last pretense of a meeting occurred on March 25, 1652. William Hetherington tells the story.
Hetherington,
William. History of the Westminster
Assembly of Divines. 424 pages. William Hetherington’s
History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines is one of the best historical
accounts of the Westminster Assembly that has been produced. It is a helpful
addition to the few books that aid the Confessional Presbyterian to study the
Westminster Assembly. This is a must read for the serious inquirer and student
of the Assembly, and the work that was done to bring us the best Confession
outside the Bible. Hetherington is available at: http://www.amazon.com/History-Westminster-Assembly-Divines-Hetherington-ebook/dp/B007UKH3LC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1386387410&sr=1-1
In
his History of the Westminster
Assembly, (1856), William Hetherington writes of those final days:—
“The business of the Assembly was now virtually at an
end. The subjects brought before them by Parliament had been all fully
discussed, and the result of their long and well-matured deliberations
presented to both Houses, to be approved or rejected by the supreme civil power
on its own responsibility. But the Parliament neither fully approved nor
rejected the Assembly’s productions, nor yet issued an ordinance for a formal
dissolution of that venerable body. Negotiations were still going on with the
king; and in one of the papers which passed between his majesty and the
Parliament, he signified his willingness to sanction the continuation of
Presbyterian Church government for three years; and also, that the Assembly
should continue to sit and deliberate, his majesty being allowed to nominate
twenty Episcopalian divines to be added to it, for the purpose of having the
whole subject of religion again formally debated. To this proposal the
Parliament refused to consent; but it probably tended to prevent them from
formally dissolving the Assembly, so long as there remained any shadow of hope
that a pacific arrangement might be effected with his majesty.
In
the meantime many members of the Assembly, especially those from the country,
returned to their own homes and ordinary duties; and those who remained in
London were chiefly engaged in the examination of such ministers as presented
themselves for ordination, or induction into vacant charges. They continued to
maintain their formal existence till the 22d
of February 1649, about three weeks after the king’s
decapitation, having sat five years, six months, and twenty-two days; in which
time they had held one thousand one hundred and sixty-three sessions. They were
then changed into a committee for conducting the trial and examination of
ministers, and continued to hold meetings for this purpose every Thursday
morning till the 25th of March 1652, when Oliver Cromwell having forcible
dissolved the Long Parliament, by whose authority the Assembly had been at
first called together, that committee also broke up, and separated without any
formal dissolution, and as a matter of necessity.
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