William Twisse (1578 – 20 July 1646) was a prominent English clergyman and theologian. He was named prolocutor of the Westminster Assembly in an ordinance dated 12 June 1643,[1] putting him at the head of the churchmen of the Commonwealth. He was described by a Scottish member, Robert Baillie, as "very good, beloved of all, and highlie esteemed; but merelie bookish."[2]
He died on 20 July 1646 and was buried in Westminster Abbey but exhumed in 1661 and his remains deposited with those of dozens of other Parliamentarians in a pit in the churchyard of St Margaret's, Westminster.
Views
Twisse was a strong defender of a Calvinistsupralapsarian position.[9] In his Vindiciae gratiae of 1632 he attacks Jacobus Arminius, and in Dissertatio de scientia media of 1639 he adopts certain Dominican arguments[6] on predestination. His views were in a minority at the Westminster Assembly.[10]
A premillennialist,[11] he wrote a preface to the 1643 English translation, Key of the Revelation, of Joseph Mede's influential Clavis Apocalyptica. Mede was a friend and correspondent.[12]
Works
A Discovery of D. Jackson's Vanity (1631) against Thomas Jackson
Vindiciae Gratiae (Amsterdam, 1632)
Dissertatio de scientia media tribus libris absoluta (Arnhem 1639)
An Examination of Mr. Cotton's Analysis of The Ninth Chapter of Romans[14]
The Five Points of Grace and of Predestination[15]
Of the Morality of the Fourth Commandment
A Treatise of Mr. Cotton's Clearing Certaine Doubts Concerning Predestination
The Doctrine of the Synod of Dort and Arles, Reduced to the Practice (1650)
Of the morality of the Fourth Commandment, as still in force to binde Christians : delivered by way of answer to the translator of Doctor Prideaux his lecture, concerning the doctrine of the Sabbath (1641) OL14032019M
^"William Twisse". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Ligonier Ministries. ligonier.org
