confession

Westminster Confession of Faith

WCF · 1646 · 33 chapters, 172 paragraphs

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By: Westminster Assembly
Dates: written 1646; first published 1647; adopted by the Church of Scotland, 1647
Tradition: reformed, presbyterian
Also called: Westminster Confession
Related: Revised by Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (first printing, 1677); Revised by Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689); Revised by Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order (1658); The same text as Westminster Confession of Faith (modernized, 1646)
Follows: The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster, Concerning a Confession of Faith, the third edition, 1647, “Printed for the Company of Stationers”, with the Scripture proofs (London); Wing W1429, ESTC R206150 · the scan (PDF) , from archive.org
Transcribed: From a source not recordedChecked against a copy at archive.org: the epistle “To the Christian Reader” (`prose/to-the-christian-reader`), transcribed from it, word by word, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-29
License: Public domain
Notes: Completed by the Assembly in December 1646. The text has been corrected against the third edition of 1647 (“Correct wcf1646 with third edition from 1647”); the corrections are in its commit history. What they were made from is not a scan but the Westminster Assembly Project’s transcription of that edition, a PDF made in Word (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GMAPVoozVOws-3kmly8fglhJCiR_9gDA/view, SHA-256 18600f106012c41db3ce4f3a6ad552cd0e084fa768aa388f7d87f57c1e51edfe), which catalogues it as ESTC R206150, Wing W1429. The scan is EEBO’s film of Wing W1429, whose title page and page breaks (A1r ending “which”, C1r “is ve-”) are the transcription’s; Wing W1430, also of 1647, is another setting. prose/to-the-christian-reader is not this printing’s: the epistle “To the Christian Reader; Especially heads of Families”, signed by thirty-eight London ministers (Thomas Manton, Thomas Goodwin, William Bates, Thomas Watson and others), was first printed in The Confession of Faith, Together with The Larger and Lesser Catechisms … Again Published with the Scriptures at large (London: E. M. for the Company of Stationers, sold by John Rothwel, 1658), the edition that set out the proofs in full, and was reprinted with the Westminster Standards for long after. It was transcribed from EEBO’s film of that edition on archive.org, word by word, with its margin references as footnotes; Princeton Theological Seminary’s copy of 1658 (archive.org) has the same epistle, its first page set line for line as this one, but signed with forty-four names, six more than this copy (Matthew Haviland, William Blackmore, William Wickins, John Seabrooke, John Peachie and Obadiah Lee); that longer list is the one later editions and modern copies print. Its misprints “Delnge”, “mnst”, “kmowledge” and “fnch” are corrected to “Deluge”, “must”, “knowledge” and “such”, and its “Joh. 4. 9” for Philip’s “Come and see” to “Joh. 1. 46”.
Spelling: As printed; modernized in wcf1646-modernized
Commentaries: David Dickson, Truths Victory over Error (1684), with each paragraph
Side by side: Westminster, Savoy and the 1689 Westminster and the 1689
Download: wcf1646.json · 409 kB

Prefaces and appendices

To the Christian Reader; Especially heads of Families

1
Of the Holy Scripture
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10
2
Of God, and of the holy Trinity
2.1 2.2 2.3
3
Of Gods Eternall Decree
3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8
4
Of Creation
4.1 4.2
5
Of Providence
5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7
6
Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof
6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6
7
Of Gods Covenant with Man
7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6
8
Of Christ the Mediatour
8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8
9
Of Free-will
9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5
10
Of Effectuall Calling
10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4
11
Of Justification
11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6
12
Of Adoption
12.1
13
Of Sanctification
13.1 13.2 13.3
14
Of Saving Faith
14.1 14.2 14.3
15
Of Repentance unto life
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6
16
Of Good Works
16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7
17
Of the Perseverance of the Saints
17.1 17.2 17.3
18
Of the assurance of Grace and Salvation
18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4
19
Of the Law of God
19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 19.7
20
Of Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4
21
Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day
21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 21.6 21.7 21.8
22
Of lawfull Oathes and Vowes
22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7
23
Of the Civil Magistrate
23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4
24
Of Marriage, and Divorce
24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 24.6
25
Of the Church
25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6
26
Of the Communion of Saints
26.1 26.2 26.3
27
Of the Sacraments
27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5
28
Of Baptism
28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 28.6 28.7
29
Of the Lords Supper
29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.5 29.6 29.7 29.8
30
Of Church Censures
30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4
31
Of Synods and Councels
31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 31.5
32
Of the State of men after death, and of the Resurrection of the dead
32.1 32.2 32.3
33
Of the last Judgement
33.1 33.2 33.3

Westminster Confession of Faith

Prefaces and appendices

Contents