Royalist  divines  were  chosen  as  well  as  Puritan  ;  but  when  the  king
forbade  their  meeting,  they  preferred  to  obey  the  king  rather  than  the
Parliament.  That  the  Prelatic  party  was  not  represented  in  the
Westminster  Assembly  cannot,  therefore,  be  fairly  attributed  to  the
partiality  of  Parliament,  or  to  any  sinister  design  carried  through  by
the  more  powerful  Puritans.  As  actually  constituted,  we  find  this
Assembly  singularly  well  chosen,  and  representative  of  varying
opinions  in  a  remarkable  degree.  The  members  certainly  were
not  men  who  had  stood  neutral  in  the  national  and  ecclesiastical
struggles.  The  leading  members  had  all  been  prominent  in  these
controversies.  But  they  were  fair  men,  not  fanatical ;  amenable  to
reason  and  open  to  conviction,  though  deeply  exercised  and  already
well  established  in  the  truth.  Among  the  calmest  and  most  judicial
minds  in  that  venerable  Assembly,  the  Scotch  members  deserve  a
conspicuous  and  honourable  place.  They  had  very  definite  opinions
of  their  own  on  points" of  doctrine  as  well  as  on  points  of  discipline,
yet  we  find  them  wisely  using  their  influence  to  moderate  disputes
and  heal  differences,  willing  to  secure  agreement  on  points  of  im-
portance by  making  ready  accommodation  on  points  of  detail.  For
example,  in  debating  about  the  decree  of  God,  it  appeared  that  some
held  that  there  were  two  decrees,  one  to  life  and  the  other  to  de-
struction, while  others  held  that  there  was  but  one  eternal  decree.
