 = Westminster Assembly = 
 
 The Westminster Assembly of <unk> was a council of theologians ( or " divines " ) and members of the English Parliament appointed to <unk> the Church of England which met from 1643 to 1653 . Several Scots also attended , and the Assembly 's work was adopted by the Church of Scotland . As many as 121 ministers were called to the Assembly , with nineteen others added later to replace those who did not attend or could no longer attend . It produced a new Form of Church Government , a Confession of Faith or statement of belief , two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction ( Shorter and Larger ) , and a <unk> manual , the Directory for Public Worship , for the Churches of England and Scotland . The Confession and catechisms were adopted as doctrinal standards in the Church of Scotland and other Presbyterian churches , where they remain <unk> . <unk> versions of the Confession were also adopted in Congregational and Baptist churches in England and New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . The Confession became influential throughout the English @-@ speaking world , but especially in American Protestant theology . 
 The Assembly was called by the Long Parliament before and during the beginning of the First English Civil War . The Long Parliament was influenced by <unk> , a religious movement which sought to further reform the church . They were opposed to the religious policies of King Charles I and William Laud , Archbishop of Canterbury . As part of a military alliance with Scotland , Parliament agreed that the outcome of the Assembly would bring the English Church into closer conformity with the Church of Scotland . The Scottish Church was governed by a system of elected assemblies of elders called presbyterianism , rather than rule by bishops , called <unk> , which was used in the English church . Scottish commissioners attended and advised the Assembly as part of the agreement . <unk> over church government caused open division in the Assembly , despite attempts to maintain unity . The party of divines who favoured presbyterianism was in the majority , but political and military <unk> led to greater influence for the congregationalist party . Congregationalists favoured autonomy for individual congregations rather than the <unk> of congregations to regional and national assemblies entailed in presbyterianism . Parliament eventually adopted a presbyterian form of government , but it lacked the power the presbyterian divines desired . During the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 , all of the documents of the Assembly were repudiated and episcopal church government was reinstated in England . 
 The Assembly worked in the Reformed Protestant theological tradition , also known as <unk> . It took the Bible as the authoritative word of God , from which all theological reflection must be based . The divines were committed to the Reformed doctrine of <unk> — that God chooses certain men to be saved and enjoy eternal life rather than eternal punishment . There was some disagreement at the Assembly over the doctrine of particular redemption — that Christ died only for those chosen for salvation . The Assembly also held to Reformed covenant theology , a framework for interpreting the Bible . The Assembly 's Confession is the first of the Reformed <unk> to teach a doctrine called the covenant of works , which teaches that before the fall of man , God promised eternal life to Adam on condition that he perfectly <unk> God . 
 
 = = Background = = 
 
 Parliament called the Westminster Assembly during a time of increasing hostility between Charles I , monarch of England and Scotland , and the Puritans . Puritans could be distinguished by their insistence that worship practices be supported implicitly or explicitly by the Bible , while their opponents gave greater authority to traditional customs . They believed the Church of England , which had separated itself from the Catholic Church during the English Reformation , was still too heavily influenced by Catholicism . They sought to rid the church and nation of any of these remaining influences . This included the Church 's episcopal polity , or rule by a hierarchy of bishops . Puritans , unlike separatists , did not leave the established church . Under Charles , the Puritans ' opponents were placed in high positions of authority , most notably William Laud who was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633 , even though these " high churchmen " were in the minority . Puritans were forced to keep their views private or face fines and imprisonment . Laud promoted advocates of <unk> , a theological perspective opposed to the Reformed theology of the Puritans . Worship practices such as kneeling at communion , <unk> at the name of Christ , and the placement of communion tables at the East end of churches were also reinstated . To the Puritans , these seemed to be a step in the direction of Catholicism . 
 There were also conflicts between the king and the Scots , whose church was ruled by a system of elected assemblies called presbyterianism . James , Charles 's predecessor as King of Scotland , made it clear that he intended to impose elements of episcopal church government and the Book of Common Prayer on the Scots beginning in 1604 . The Scots considered this a <unk> to Roman Catholicism . Charles furthered English <unk> on the Church of Scotland in <unk> and 1637 . This led to the First Bishops ' War between Charles and the Scots in 1639 . Charles called what came to be known as the Short Parliament to raise funds for the war , but he soon dissolved it when it began voicing opposition to his policies . Following the Second Bishops ' War with the Scots in 1640 , Charles was forced to call another parliament to raise additional funds . 
 What came to be known as the Long Parliament also began to voice vague grievances against Charles , many of which were religious in nature . Parliament had many Puritans and Puritan @-@ <unk> members , who generally opposed the existing episcopal system , but there was little agreement over what shape the church should take . Later in 1640 , the Root and Branch petition was presented to the House of Commons , the lower house of Parliament . It was signed by about 15 @,@ 000 <unk> and called for total elimination of the episcopal system . Committees were organized in the House of Commons to enact religious reforms , leading to the imprisonment of Archbishop Laud and his supporters in the Tower of London as retaliation for their repression of Puritans . The Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber , courts which had inflicted severe punishments on Puritan dissenters , were also abolished . 
 
 = = Calling the assembly = = 
 
 The idea of a national assembly of theologians to advise Parliament on further church reforms was first presented to the House of Commons in 1641 . Such a proposal was also included in the Grand <unk> , a list of grievances which Parliament presented to Charles on 1 December that year . Charles responded on 23 December that the church required no reforms . <unk> , Parliament passed three bills in 1642 appointing an assembly and <unk> that its members would be chosen by Parliament . Charles , whose royal assent was required for the bills to become law , was only willing to consider such an assembly if the members were chosen by the clergy . This was the practice for selection of members of <unk> , the assembly of clergy of the Church of England . 
 <unk> the king , between 12 February and 20 April 1642 , each county delegation of England in Commons chose two divines , in addition to two for each county of Wales , four for London , and two for each University ( Oxford and Cambridge ) . County <unk> often chose divines from their own county , but not always . Commons chose the members in this way to ensure that their local constituencies were represented in the decision . The House of Lords , Parliament 's upper house , added another fourteen names on 14 May , to which Commons agreed . Meanwhile , relations continued to deteriorate between the king and Parliament . Charles raised the royal standard at Nottingham on 22 August , marking the beginning of the First English Civil War . The start of the war lent support to the cause of the Assembly in Parliament , because holding it would convince the Scots that Parliament was serious about reforming the church and induce the Scots to come to their aid . On the other hand , the war added strain to the already busy Parliament . 
 Parliament finally passed an ordinance to hold the assembly on its own authority without Charles 's assent on 12 June 1643 . It named as many as 121 ministers and thirty non @-@ voting parliamentary observers : twenty from Commons , and ten from the House of Lords . The Assembly was almost entirely English ; Parliament appointed Englishmen for the counties of Wales , but the French stranger churches ( churches of Protestant refugees from Catholic France ) sent two ministers in place of any from the Channel Islands . Many of the divines were internationally recognized scholars of the Bible , ancient languages , <unk> , and scholastic theology . Many were also famous preachers . Most of these theologians had retained their positions in the Church during the tenure of William Laud . Some had been ejected from their churches or cited by ecclesiastical courts for their views . Some had fled to the Continent , and one to the American colonies . Nonetheless , they all considered themselves members of the Church of England and had received episcopal ordination . Most were conformists , meaning they agreed to follow the Act of Uniformity 1558 and the Book of Common Prayer . 
 The Assembly was strictly under the control of Parliament , and was only to debate topics which Parliament directed . Assembly members were not permitted to state their disagreements with majority opinions or share any information about the proceedings , except in writing to Parliament . Parliament chose William Twisse , an internationally respected theologian , to be the Assembly 's <unk> or chairman . Due to Twisse 's ill health , Cornelius <unk> , whom Parliament appointed as one of several <unk> , served as <unk> pro <unk> for most of the Assembly . Twenty @-@ two appointed members of the Assembly died before 1649 , and they along with those who did not attend for other reasons were replaced by another nineteen members . Three non @-@ voting scribes were also added in 1643 . 
 
 = = <unk> the Thirty @-@ Nine Articles = = 
 
 The Assembly 's first meeting began with a sermon by William Twisse in the nave of Westminster Abbey on 1 July 1643 . The nave was so full that the House of Commons had to send members ahead to secure seats . Following the sermon , the divines processed to the Henry VII Chapel , which would be their place of meeting until 2 October when they moved to the warmer and more private Jerusalem Chamber . After their initial meeting they <unk> for about a week , as Parliament had not yet given specific instructions . 
 On 6 July , they received a set of rules from Parliament and were ordered to examine the first ten of the Thirty @-@ Nine Articles , the current doctrinal standard of the Church of England , and " to free and <unk> the Doctrine of them from all <unk> of false <unk> " . After a day of <unk> , the Assembly took a vow , as directed by Parliament , to " not maintain any thing in Matters of Doctrine , but what I think , in my conscience , to be truth " . The divines organized themselves into three standing committees , though each committee was open to any member of the Assembly . The committees would be assigned topics and prepare propositions for debate in the full Assembly following each morning of committee meetings . In addition , over 200 ad hoc committees were appointed for tasks such as examination of candidate preachers , college fellows , and suspected heretics . 
 The Assembly resolved , after some debate , that all the doctrines of the Thirty @-@ Nine articles would need to be proven from the Bible . Assembly members were prone to long speeches and they made slow progress , frustrating the leadership . The eighth of the Thirty @-@ Nine Articles recommended the Apostles ' Creed , <unk> Creed , and <unk> Creed , considered to be basic statements of <unk> , to be received and believed . The Assembly was unable to resolve conflicts between those who would not be bound by creeds and those who wished to retain the existing language that the creeds be " thoroughly received and believed " . The " <unk> " , who took the former position , argued that the articles only require the " matter " of the creeds be believed . On 25 August the article was put off until the rest of the articles could be dealt with . This early disagreement on fundamental issues revealed deep rifts between different factions of the assembly . 
 
 = = <unk> church government = = 
 
 From the beginning of the First Civil War , the Long Parliament recognized that they would need assistance from the Scots . In return for a military alliance , the Scottish Parliament required the English to sign the <unk> League and Covenant in 1643 , which stipulated that the English would bring their church into greater conformity with the Church of Scotland . The Scottish Parliament sent commissioners to London to represent Scotland 's interests to the English Parliament . Eleven of these , four theologians and seven members of Parliament , were also invited to the Assembly . The commissioners were given the opportunity to become full voting members of the Assembly but declined , preferring to maintain their independence as commissioners of their own nation and church . Samuel Rutherford , George Gillespie , and Alexander Henderson were the most outspoken of the commissioners . 
 On 12 October 1643 , Parliament ordered the Assembly to cease work on the Thirty @-@ Nine Articles and to begin to frame a common form of church government for the two nations . The Assembly would spend a quarter of its full sessions on the subject of church government . The majority of the Assembly members supported presbyterian polity , or church government by elected assemblies of lay and clerical representatives , though many were not <unk> committed to it . Several members of this group , numbering about twenty and including William Twisse , favoured a " primitive " <unk> , which would include elements of presbyterianism and a reduced role for bishops . 
 There were also several congregationalists , who favoured autonomy for individual local churches . Their most influential divines were Thomas Goodwin , Philip <unk> , <unk> Simpson , Jeremiah <unk> , and William Bridge . They were often called the " dissenting brethren " in the Assembly . They have sometimes been labelled " <unk> " , but they rejected this term . The Assembly members for the most part reserved the label " Independent " for separatists who left the established church . The congregationalist divines cannot be equated with separatists and <unk> , as they had accepted episcopal ordination and remained in the Church of England . Their influence was assisted by the success of Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army in the ongoing civil war . Cromwell and many others in the army supported <unk> . 
 A third group of divines were known as <unk> , a term for those who believed that the state should have significant power over the church . The entire Assembly was Erastian in the sense that the body had been called by Parliament and was completely under state control . Those labelled " Erastian " at the Assembly believed the civil authority , rather than church officers , should hold the power of church discipline . This included the power to <unk> communion from unrepentant <unk> . They did not see any particular form of church government as divinely mandated , and because of this the dissenting brethren allied with them when it became clear that a presbyterian establishment would be much less tolerant of <unk> than Parliament . There were only two divines at the Assembly who held the Erastian view , John <unk> and Thomas Coleman , but the presence of members of Parliament , especially John <unk> , as well as the fact of parliamentary oversight of the Assembly , gave Erastian views <unk> influence . 
 Several <unk> , supporters of the existing system of bishops , were also included in the summoning ordinance , but Parliament may have nominated them to lend greater legitimacy to the Assembly and not have expected them to attend because Charles had not approved of the Assembly . Only one , Daniel <unk> , participated , and he only until his arrest for treason in October 1643 . 
 Debate on church officers began on 19 October . The Assembly began with the issue of ordination , as many of the divines were concerned about the rise of various sectarian movements and the lack of any mechanism for ordination of ministers of the established church . While some members did not seem to think ordination necessary for preachers ( though they should not administer the sacraments without it ) , a majority of the divines thought any regular preaching without ordination unacceptable and wished to erect a provisional presbytery for purposes of ordination . There was also debate at this early stage over the nature of the visible church . The congregationalists considered a church to be a single local congregation , while the majority considered the national church to be a unity and were alarmed at the prospect of a <unk> English church . Despite these debates , up until the end of 1643 there was hope that a common church government could be framed that would be satisfactory to all parties involved . 
 On 3 or 4 January 1644 , the five leading dissenting brethren signalled a break with the rest of the Assembly when they published An <unk> <unk> , a polemical pamphlet appealing to Parliament . It argued that the <unk> system was more amenable to state control of religious matters than that of the presbyterians because they did not desire the church to retain any real power except to withdraw <unk> from aberrant congregations . By 17 January , the majority of the Assembly had become convinced that the best way forward was a presbyterian system similar to that of the Scots , but the dissenting brethren were allowed to continue to state their case in hope that they could eventually be reconciled . It was hoped that by avoiding asserting that presbyterianism was established by divine right , the congregationalists could be accommodated . 
 Despite these efforts , on 21 February it became clear just how fundamentally opposed the groups were . Philip <unk> , one of the dissenting brethren , asserted in a speech that a presbytery set over local congregations would become as powerful as the state and was dangerous to the commonwealth , provoking vigorous opposition from presbyterians . The next day , the Assembly finally began to establish a <unk> for presbyterian government . Owing to a strong belief in the unity of the church , the Assembly continued to try to find ways to reconcile the dissenting brethren with the majority throughout 1644 , including the establishment of a special committee for that purpose in March . However , on 15 November , the dissenting brethren presented their reasons for disagreement with the rest of the Assembly to Parliament , and on 11 December the majority submitted a draft of a presbyterian form of government . 
 
 = = Conflicts with Parliament = = 
 
 Relations between the Assembly and Parliament were already deteriorating in 1644 , when Parliament ignored the Assembly 's request that " grossly ignorant and notoriously <unk> " individuals be barred from communion . While members of Parliament agreed that the sacrament should be kept pure , many of them disagreed with the presbyterian majority in the Assembly over who had the final power of excommunication , taking the Erastian view that it was the state . Also , by 1646 , Oliver Cromwell 's New Model Army had won the war on behalf of Parliament . Cromwell , along with a majority of the army , was strongly in favour of religious toleration for all sorts of Christians even if the national church was to be presbyterian . His rise to power as a result of his military victories made the idea of a strictly presbyterian settlement without freedom of worship for others very unlikely . Parliament at least wanted to know which sins in particular were grave enough to trigger excommunication by the church ; the Assembly was <unk> to provide such information , as the majority considered the power of the church in this area to be absolute . 
 In May 1645 , Parliament passed an ordinance allowing <unk> to appeal the church 's sentences to Parliament . Another ordinance on 20 October contained a list of sins to which the church would be limited in its power to <unk> . To the majority of the divines ' dismay , an even more Erastian ordinance was proposed in March 1646 . The Assembly published a protest , provoking the Commons to charge it with breach of privilege and to submit nine questions to the divines on the matter . <unk> were to be included with the answers , an attempt to force the divines associated with the protest petition to reveal themselves . 
 The Nine <unk> , as they came to be called , focused on the divine right ( <unk> <unk> ) of church government . While the presbyterian divines were capable of defending their vision for church government as established by divine right in the Bible , they were unwilling to answer the queries because doing so would further expose the <unk> of the Assembly and weaken their case in Parliament . In July 1647 , the New Model Army invaded London and conservative members of Parliament were forced out . Parliament passed an ordinance establishing religious tolerance and ensuring that the Assembly 's vision of a national , compulsory presbyterian church would never come to fruition . In London , where support for presbyterianism was greatest , <unk> were established in only sixty @-@ four of 108 city parishes , and regional presbyterian classes were only formed in fourteen of England 's forty counties . A planned national general assembly never met . Many presbyterians did , however , establish voluntary <unk> in what was a de facto free church situation until the Restoration in 1660 , when a compulsory episcopal system was reinstated . 
 The new Form of Government was much more acceptable to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland . They passed it on 10 February 1645 , contingent on some <unk> of presbyterian government which were expected to be worked out in a forthcoming Directory for Church Government . At the same time they announced their desire to formally unite the two churches . Following the rise of Cromwell and the secret <unk> of some Scots with Charles this hope was abandoned , and the documents were never formally adopted . The General Assembly ceased to function under Cromwell and the kings who succeeded him from 1649 to 1690 . 
 
 = = Confession , catechisms , and the Directory for Public Worship = = 
 
 During and after the debates over church government , the Assembly framed other documents which did not cause open rifts . The Directory for Public Worship , which was to replace the Book of Common Prayer , was swiftly written in 1644 and passed by Parliament on 3 January 1645 . The Directory , accepted by the Scots as well , took a middle course between the presbyterians and congregationalists . The presbyterians for the most part preferred a fixed <unk> while congregationalists favoured <unk> prayer . The Directory consisted of an order for services with sample prayers . The Assembly also recommended a psalter , translated by Francis <unk> for use in worship . 
 A Confession of Faith to replace the Thirty @-@ Nine Articles was begun in August 1646 . While there is little record of the actions of the Assembly during the writing of the Confession , it is clear that there were significant debates in the Assembly over almost every doctrine found in it . The Confession was printed and sent to Parliament in December . The House of Commons requested scripture citations be added to the Confession , which were provided in April 1648 . Parliament approved the Confession with revisions to the chapters on church <unk> , <unk> and councils , and marriage on 20 June 1648 . The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland had already adopted the Confession without revision in 1647 . The restoration of Charles II in 1660 effectively made this legislation a <unk> . 
 The Assembly had already done significant work on a catechism between December 1643 and January 1647 containing fifty @-@ five questions , before it decided to create two catechisms rather than one . The Larger Catechism , intended to assist ministers in teaching the Reformed faith to their congregations . The Shorter Catechism was based on the Larger Catechism but intended for use in teaching the faith to children . Parliament demanded scripture proofs for the catechisms as well . The Scots General Assembly approved both catechisms in 1648 . 
 The Assembly understood its mandate under the <unk> League and Covenant to have been fulfilled on 14 April 1648 when it delivered the scripture citations to Parliament , and the Scottish Commissioners had already left by the end of 1647 . The Assembly continued to meet primarily for the purpose of examination of ministers for ordination . Most of the divines were unhappy with the republican Commonwealth that emerged after Colonel Pride 's <unk> of the Long Parliament in 1648 . As a result , a majority stopped attending rather than agree to the oath of <unk> to the Commonwealth that was imposed in 1649 . Newspapers continued to report on the meetings of the Assembly as late as March 1653 . The Assembly must have stopped meeting sometime between then and Cromwell 's dissolution of the <unk> Parliament on 20 April 1653 . 
 
 = = <unk> = = 
 
 The Assembly was a product of the British Reformed tradition , taking as a major source the Thirty @-@ Nine Articles as well as the theology of James <unk> and his Irish Articles of 1615 . The divines also considered themselves to be within the broader European Reformed tradition . They were in frequent correspondence with continental Reformed theologians , and sought their approval . They also drew upon the pre @-@ Reformation British theological tradition , which emphasized biblical knowledge and was influenced by the <unk> theological tradition exemplified by Anselm , Thomas <unk> , and John <unk> . The recorded debates of the Assembly are full of citations of church fathers and medieval scholastic theologians . 
 The Confession starts with the doctrine of revelation , or how people can know about God . The divines believed knowledge of God was available to people through nature as well as the Bible , but they also believed that the Bible , or Scripture , is the only way in which people attain saving knowledge of God . The doctrine of Scripture was also a particularly important area of debate at the time . Scholars had begun to argue that the Hebrew vowel points , marks added to the text to aid in pronunciation , of the Old Testament were probably not part of the original . This caused significant debate between Reformed <unk> and Roman Catholics . Catholics argued that such a discovery demonstrated the need for an authoritative <unk> to interpret the Bible as opposed to the Protestant doctrine of <unk> , that the essential teachings of the Bible could be interpreted by anyone . English Reformed writers in particular took up the work of defending the Reformed doctrine . The divines had a strong view of the inspiration of the Bible , and believed that God revealed himself in the propositions found in Scripture . While the issue of biblical <unk> , the belief that there are no errors in the Bible , did not arise until the eighteenth century , the divines clearly did not believe the Bible to contain any errors . Many of the divines held a rather mechanical view of biblical inspiration , believing that not only the words and ideas but also the letters and vowel points of the Hebrew text were inspired by God . On the other hand , they acknowledged that the text was written by humans in their own styles . They did not make any distinction between essential and incidental matters with respect to biblical inspiration . 
 Puritans believed that God is sovereign over all of history and nature and that none of what were called his decrees would be frustrated . There was significant debate in the Assembly over the relationship of God 's decree of <unk> , or choice to save some people , to the redemption purchased by Christ 's death . Many of the Reformed during this period taught that Christ died with the purpose only to save those who were <unk> chosen to be saved , a doctrine called particular redemption . A vocal minority of the divines of the Assembly argued for a position known as hypothetical <unk> . Edmund <unk> held such a view , and he argued that Christ 's death , as well as saving those who had been chosen , offered salvation to all people on condition that they believe . The Assembly 's Confession did not teach such a view , and its language is much more amenable to a particular redemption interpretation , but there is a general agreement among scholars that the Confession 's language allows an hypothetical <unk> interpretation . 
 Covenant theology is an interpretive framework used by Reformed theologians which was significantly developed during the seventeenth century . Under this scheme , as articulated by the Assembly , God 's dealings with men are described in terms of two covenants : the covenant of works and covenant of grace . The Westminster Confession was the first major Reformed symbol to explicitly mention the covenant of works ( sometimes called the covenant of life ) , in which God offered Adam eternal life on condition of perfect obedience . In the fall of man , Adam broke the covenant of works by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil . To remedy this , God offered salvation apart from human initiative in what was called the covenant of grace . This covenant allowed man to enjoy eternal life despite his inability to obey God 's law perfectly . The idea of the covenant of grace was a much more common feature of orthodox Reformed theology . The Westminster divines set these two covenants against each other as the two major ways in which God deals with people . 
 The divines were even more strongly opposed to Catholicism than to William Laud and his followers , the <unk> . They associated both Catholicism and <unk> with <unk> and persecution . Before the civil war , the divines saw these two groups as the greatest threat to the church . With the rise of radical sectarian movements during the war , the divines became much more concerned with these groups than <unk> against Catholicism . The divines were particularly concerned with those they labeled <unk> . This was a loose term for those who saw the moral law as in some way no longer relevant for Christians . The divines saw these groups as more immediately threatening than Catholicism . 
 
 = = Legacy = = 
 
 The work of the Westminster Assembly was repudiated by the Church of England during the Restoration in 1660 . The Act of Uniformity 1662 , a law requiring even greater adherence to the Book of Common Prayer and support for <unk> than had previously been required , forced Puritan ministers to leave the Church . Though some presbyterians continued to desire to be readmitted to the established church , restrictions on worship for non @-@ conformists led to presbyterians putting aside differences with congregationalists and adopting <unk> church orders . 
 The Civil War brought with it the end of the consensus among English Protestants that there should be a single church imposed by the state , though there was still not complete freedom of religion . The ideals of the dissenting brethren of the Assembly were significant in the rise of <unk> , the doctrine that the church is found in several institutions rather than a single one in a given location . Though Protestants already commonly recognized the validity of churches in different territories , the outcome of the Assembly 's debates marks the wider acceptance of the idea that several true churches may be found in the same territory . 
 The Confession produced by the Assembly was adopted with amendments by Congregationalists in England in the form of the <unk> Savoy Declaration , as well as by <unk> Baptists in the form of the 1689 Baptist Confession . When the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was reestablished in 1690 following the Glorious Revolution , it ratified the Westminster Confession , but not any other document produced at Westminster . The Confession remains , according to the 1929 <unk> Articles , the Church of Scotland 's " principal subordinate standard " , subordinate to the Bible . <unk> of the Shorter Catechism has been made a requirement for children in many Presbyterian churches . 
 The migrations and missionary efforts of each of these groups lead to the widespread significance of the Westminster Assembly throughout the English @-@ speaking world . The Assembly 's Confession was particularly influential in American Protestant theology . It was included with congregationalist changes as part of the 1648 Cambridge Platform , a statement produced by ministers of colonial Massachusetts and the surrounding region , and again in colonial Connecticut as part of the 1708 <unk> Platform . The Confession was modified for American Baptists in the <unk> Philadelphia Confession . The <unk> Act of <unk> required American Presbyterians to agree to the theology of the Assembly 's Confession , and the Confession remains a part of the Presbyterian Church ( USA ) ' s Book of Confessions . The Confession has been called " by far the most influential doctrinal symbol in American Protestant history " by the historian of religion Sydney E. <unk> . 
 
 