Edward Reynolds
1599–1676
Chief drafter of the Shorter Catechism; later Bishop of Norwich.
Biography
Reynolds chaired the committee that produced the Shorter Catechism's celebrated first answer — 'Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.' Of all the Assembly's English ministers he was the most willing to conform at the Restoration, accepting consecration as Bishop of Norwich in 1661 (the only Westminster divine to take a see). He held the diocese with mildness until his death in 1676.
Principal works
- A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule (1640)
- The Sinfulnesse of Sinne (1639)
- Three Treatises (1631)
English Presbyterian divine
The great majority of the sitting members were English parish ministers of Presbyterian conviction. They formed the drafting core of the Assembly, manning its three standing committees and supplying most of the text of the Confession, the two Catechisms, and the Directory for Public Worship.
Party in 22 cruxes
- Good and Necessary Consequence
- The Order of the Decrees
- The Decree of Reprobation
- The Covenant of Redemption
- The Mosaic Covenant
- The Imputation of Christ's Active Obedience
- The Descent into Hell
- Justification and the Antinomian Crisis
- Assurance: Of the Essence of Saving Faith?
- The Perseverance of the Saints
- The Third Use of the Moral Law
- The Tripartite Division of the Law
- The Grand Debate over Polity
- The Erastian Question
- The Regulative Principle of Worship
- Sacramental Efficacy: Signs and Seals
- The Rouse Psalter and Metrical Psalmody
- The Pope as Antichrist
- Lawful Oaths
- Grounds of Divorce: Adultery and Wilful Desertion
- The Conscious Intermediate State
- The Final Judgment and the Last Things