Both the Confession and our church order maintain Scripture to teach a system of doctrine. That system of doctrine is enshrined in the doctrinal documents of the Assembly. The boundaries of our belief and confession are thus marked. The apostolicity of the church as expressed in N requires office holders to ensure that the system of doctrine is passed down in its integrity to succeeding generations, especially important in an age like ours, hostile to any unified or objective truth. The battle against liberalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was but one example.
New challenges arise with successive generations.
On the other hand, the Westminster documents show the hallmarks of compromise in many areas. First, it is evident in its chapter on assurance, where Thomas Goodwin's distinctive views on the post-conversion sealing by the Holy Spirit had to be considered. Thus while it affirms infralapsarianism, the other is not opposed. Third, the Confession is most readily interpreted as adopting amillenialism, but it is silent on questions disputed by pre- and postmillenialists. Since millenial views were rife in the England of the 1640s, this was no idle decision.