William Strong
d. 1654
St Dunstan-in-the-East; preacher at Westminster Abbey.
Departs from the Confession on Polity: Independent-Congregational not Presbyterian-Jure-Divino
Biography
Of St Catharine's Hall Cambridge, then St Dunstan-in-the-East in London and (from 1650) preacher at Westminster Abbey itself — the Independent congregation gathered there during the Commonwealth had Strong as its principal voice. He attended the Assembly's later sessions as one of the younger Independents and was a member of John Owen's circle. His posthumously published A Discourse of the Two Covenants (1678) is a substantial federal-theology treatise that works out an Independent reading of the covenant of redemption alongside the covenants of works and grace; XXXI Select Sermons (1656) collected his Westminster Abbey preaching. Died in office at Westminster in 1654.
Principal works
- XXXI Select Sermons (1656)
- A Discourse of the Two Covenants (1678)
Independent / Dissenting Brethren
A small but articulate minority of Congregationalist divines — the 'Dissenting Brethren' — who pressed for a gathered-church polity against the Presbyterian majority. Their Apologeticall Narration (1644) and their dissents in the Grand Debate over church government shaped the Confession's carefully worded chapters and anticipated the Savoy Declaration of 1658.
Ontology placement
· 1 override of 35
Cite this divine
Study Reformed, “William Strong” (Divine), Westminster Standards Atlas, version 79a5f9880ac1, https://studyreformed.com/atlas/cite/persona/william-strong/.
Ontology version 79a5f9880ac1 — the state of the Atlas you are reading, so a citation stays checkable when the ontology is revised.