Westminster (Assemblys) Annotations

Westminster (Assembly's) Annotations By this name is commonly designated a work bearing the title of Annotations upon all the Books of the Old and New Testaments, by the Assembly of Divines (Lond. 1651, 2 vols. fol.; 3d and best ed. 1657). It was the conjoint work of several eminent ministers, but was in no respect the product of the Westminster Assembly, except as it is executed in the spirit of their publications, and by persons some of whom had been members of it. The notes on the Pentateuch and on the four gospels are by Ley, subdean of Chester; those on Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther by Dr. Gouge; those on the Psalms by Meric Casaubon; on Proverbs by Francis Taylor; on Ecclesiastes by Dr. Reynolds; and on Solomon's Song by Smallwood. The Larger Prophets fell to the lot of the learned Gataker; the Smaller, in the first edition to Pemberton, in the second to bishop Richardson. The eccentric Dr. Featley undertook the Pauline epistles, but did not complete his work; and Downham and Reading were both employed on the work, though what they did has not been specified. The work is more than respectable; some parts, especially those entrusted to Gataker, are done with superior learning and ability; and the whole, though of various merit, does credit to the piety, scholarship, and judgment of the authors.