Reviews for Beauties of History; Or, Pictures of Virtue and Vice

The average rating for Beauties of History; Or, Pictures of Virtue and Vice based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-02-01 00:00:00 Joshua Doty Written by an apologist for Scottish Presbyterianism, this work examines the proceedings of the Westminster Assembly within the Assembly's historical context. I was confronted for the first time with the idea of the Westminster Confession as a political document. It is, after all, the faith document of the losers in England's 17th century cultural war, commissioned by Parliament in its battle against the monarchy and prelacy. And, apparently, not all of the Divines, human beings caught up in a conflict having dire consequences, were motivated solely by spiritual concerns. That being said, I found it fascinating that little heated discussion centered on faith issues. The real controversies centered on governance and authority for the Assembly's proposed worship system for Great Britain, with questions of whether the church should be submitted to civil authority, individual churches should be subject to authority outside of themselves, and the nature of authority over church members dominating the discussion. Although Mr. Hetherington convinced me that I want to be a Presbyterian for the rest of my life, his work suffered from a lack of objective narrative and analysis. It also suffered from the archaic language used in its writing, over 100 years ago. In reading it, I believe a scholarly reexamination of the Westminster Assembly by a qualified Christian historian is long overdue and sorely needed. [ETA: I read the original, unedited version which is out of print. Consequently, my references to archaic language may not be true for the edited copy.]

Review # 2 was written on 2013-02-26 00:00:00 Melaniasab Sab Amazing book! Every true Presbyterian ought to read this work!