View source for Westminster Confession, Larger Catechism and Shorter Catechism.

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topic_name = Westminster Confession, Larger Catechism and Shorter Catechism.
[[File:Westminster Confession of Faith title page.jpg|thumb|Westminster Confession of Faith title page]] |
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opinion_pieces = {{short_opinions}} |
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>That is the Way thou must go.  It was cast up by the patriarchs, prophets, Christ and his apostles</strong><br>(Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress: Good-will.)</div>


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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.</strong><br>(Westminster Confession, chapter 1, paragraph 10.)</div>


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*If Christianity is the teaching of Christ and His apostles, then this is a helpful introduction.

*Declaration of faith of Bible-believing protestants, puritans and evangelicals.

*Prepared in 1647 for the English Parliament during the civil war, by English and Scottish Christians.<ref>1647 (Westminster Confession only, with Bible texts) https://archive.org/details/humbleadviceofas00west/mode/2up at 2023-08-22.</ref><ref>1651 (all 3 documents, but Bible refs without their text) https://archive.org/details/confessionoff00chur/page/n1/mode/2up at 2023-08-22.</ref><ref>1658 (all 3 documents and Bible texts) https://archive.org/details/humbleadviceofas200west at 2023-08-22.</ref>  The Westminster Confession was enacted in Scottish law as the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1690.<ref>https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aosp/1690/7/contents at 2023-08-22.  This is in modern typeface but lacks the Bible texts.</ref>

*The Bible texts are immensely useful.


====Further Reading====
The Larger Catechism presents the material in a helpful Question and Answer format.  It can be downloaded, with the original Scripture texts printed in full, from:-<br>
https://archive.org/details/humbleadviceofas200west

That document is the Second Edition, printed by Griffin and Rothwel (described in modern webpages as "1658").  The Larger Catechism starts at the page labelled 121.

The document can be computer-searched, but some matches may be missed because of the old-fashioned typeface.  If a search-string contains the letter "s", then two searches are worthwhile, one using "s" and one using "f" instead, because of the old-fashioned vertical "s".

Some websites give the impression that they sell or provide the seventeenth century version in modern typeface.  Unfortunately a short check indicates that such versions are not the originals.  <ref>The check is of the three answers in the Shorter Catechism concerning the eighth commandment, and specifically of the Bible texts listed by the document.  The "1658" and "1651" versions both list #*1 Tim 5:8, #*Eph 4:28, #*Ex 20:15, #*Lev 25:35, #*Prov 28:19, Deut 22:1-5, Ex 23:4,5, Gen 30:30, Gen 47:14,20, Prov 21:17, Prov 23:20f.  The # indicates that the reference is retained in a modern-typeface version.  The * indicates that the reference is retained in a nineteenth-century American version.  References which are not so marked are suppressed in both those modern-typeface versions, which also have added other references.</ref>


====Notes====
<references/>

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