PURITAN NEWS WEEKLY

www.puritans.net/news/

02/02/05

 

 

WESTMINSTER PROJECT

 

By J. Parnell McCarter

 

 

There is an exciting project in the works which will greatly enhance our understanding of the Westminster Standards.  Information about the project is found at http://www.westminsterassembly.org/Frameset1.htm .  Here are quotes from the website:

 

“The Westminster Assembly (1643-1652) was both the largest parliamentary committee of the English civil war and the last of the great post-Reformation synods. The Assembly is perhaps best known as the creed-making body behind the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, documents which have guided Presbyterian and Reformed churches for centuries…The Westminster Assembly Project exists to make the writings of the Westminster Assembly and its members available to scholars and to the general public.”

“The Westminster Assembly Digital Library will provide a searchable text of all primary material of the Westminster Assembly and primary sources about the Assembly, both manuscript and published. Working in close conjunction with the The  WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY TRANSCRIPTION PROJECT , the Digital Library will eventually include the following:
 

  • The full text of all the unpublished papers of the Assembly
  • The full text of all published documents of the Assembly
  • Transcripts of all primary sources about the Assembly and accounts of the Assembly, both manuscript and published, including Gillespie’s notes, John Lightfoot’s journals, Wallis’s vindication, Thomas Thorougood’s journal and other key texts
  • Manuscripts and published texts by individual Westminster divines.
  • Eventually, the project hopes to provide a searchable text of the minutes of the Westminster Assembly.
     

Progress reports This site will list all texts in preparation by the Westminster Assembly Digital Library. As funding is obtained, these important texts will be searchable by the public free of charge, via a web-based online database.”