![]() In a Thanksgiving Service at the House of Commons after peace was restored, the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs praised the Scottish army for their conduct on English soil: A chief reason for the King's failure was that he was bereft of the support of the English Parliament who had considerable sympathy for the Scots' cause. Twice the army of King Charles marched north to subdue his rebellious fellow-countrymen and twice he was forced to give way before Scottish arms. 3From this movement came the National Covenant subscribed in 1638 by all the Protestant leadership of the country. In the words of Richard Baxter: 'One woman cried out in the church, "Popery, Popery", and threw her stool at the priest and others imitated her presently, and drove him out of the church and this little spark set all Scotland quickly in a flame'. From such unlikely beginnings a revolution had begun in Scotland. A more biblical Christianity was persecuted in both England and Scotland until finally the noble women of Edinburgh could stand no more, and when a new service book was to be read in St Giles church on 23 July 1637 they put a stop to it by their outcry. James, and later his son, Charles I, had no love for presbytery and they regarded episcopacy as the best support for an autocratic monarchy. The English Puritans hoped to find in James a king sympathetic to their own aspirations for the reformation of the church but it was not to be. In 1603, in the person of James VI, Scotland gave England a shared sovereign. ![]() In 1560 Protestantism was precariously established in both England and Scotland and, confronted by the great Catholic powers of Europe, the two countries were brought closer than they had ever been before. Let us begin by remembering some general history. It is granted on all sides that the Scots made a major contribution to the work of the Westminster Assembly, but how could so few wield an influence so disproportionate to their number? The Background to the Work of the Westminster Assembly ⤒ □ 2But the Scots commissioners numbered only six in February 1644. ![]() In the event, the number attending was closer to sixty and often less. Initially the English divines called to Westminster numbered 120. Not only did the Scots have this rather unusual relationship to the Assembly, their number was also very small in comparison with the majority. Instead they tried to go privately by coach, but the traffic jam was so bad that the horses could not move and the commissioners finished up going 'on foot, with great difficulty, through huge crowdings of people'. With typical Scottish reserve, the visitors from the north declined to do this - 'not loving to place ourselves before all the divines of England'. The rest of the commissioners were instructed to walk before the divines of the Assembly. But where were the Scots to appear in all this pageantry? One of the Scots commissioners was a nobleman so his place was near the front. After them came the House of Commons and finally the Assembly of Divines. At the head of that procession were the Lords of the Common Counsel in their gowns, then the Mayor and Aldermen dressed in scarlet on horseback, followed, in turn, by the leading officers of the army and navy and more members of the House of Lords. First there was a service at Christ's Church, Newgate, then a mighty procession wound its way through streets, lined by the armed trained bands, to Taylors Hall where the gathering was to take place. On a February afternoon in 1644 a great dinner was held by the order of Parliament in the City of London. ![]() This was somewhat humorously illustrated soon after their arrival. As we shall see, they were 'commissioners' and as such their position was an unusual one. The Scots present, strictly speaking, were not members of that Assembly at all for they did not vote, although they possessed the right to speak. The Westminster Assembly was an assembly of English divines, meeting, of course, in the English capital. Some surprises soon face the inquirer into the subject now before us.
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