The Marrow Controversy was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 ecclesiastical dispute occasioned by the republication in 1718 of The Marrow of Modern Divinity (originally published in two parts in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1645 and 1649 by "E. F.", generally believed to be a pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 for Edward Fisher

Edward Fisher (theologian)

Edward Fisher was an English theological writer. He is generally considered the author of The Marrow of Modern Divinity by E. F., a work which influentially stated the doctrine of unconditional grace, and was at the centre of the later Marrow Controversy...

, an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Calvinist lay theologian of the seventeenth century, belonging to the guild of barber surgeon

Barber surgeon

The barber surgeon was one of the most common medical practitioners of medieval Europe - generally charged with looking after soldiers during or after a battle...

; not to be confused with Edward Fisher, Esq.). The work consists of religious dialogues which discuss the doctrine of the atonement and aim to guide the reader safely between Antinomianism

Antinomianism

Antinomianism is defined as holding that, under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation....

 and Neonomianism

Neonomianism

Neonomianism in Christian theology is the doctrine that the Gospel is a new law the requirements of which we fulfill by faith and repentance, most often associated with the theology of Richard Baxter ....

.

History

In 1700, while making a pastoral visit in the small country parish of Simprin, in the course of his work as a Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

 minister, Thomas Boston

Thomas Boston

Thomas Boston was a Scottish church leader.He was born at Duns. His father, John Boston, and his mother, Alison Trotter, were both Covenanters. He was educated at Edinburgh, and licensed in 1697 by the presbytery of Chirnside...

 saw and borrowed a copy of The Marrow of Modern Divinity. He greatly appreciated the book and while a member of the 1717 General Assembly, commended it to a fellow minister. As a consequence of this conversation, in 1718 arrangements were made to have the Marrow reprinted, with a preface by James Hog of Carnock.

The book displeased those who comprised the majority in the Church of Scotland, who were inclined to the legalism prevalent in the late 17th century. James Hadow

James Hadow

James Hadow was Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews from 1707 till 1747. He was the born in Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland on 13 August 1667. He died on 4 May 1747 at St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.- Life :...

, Professor of Divinity and Principal of St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews, took the lead in opposing The Marrow, assailing it in his opening sermon at the Synod of Fife in April 1719. This was published shortly thereafter as The Record of God and Duty of Faith Therein required. An interchange of pamphlets with Hog ensued, with Hadow accusing the Marrow of the Antinomian heresy and Hog asserting that Hadow was misrepresenting the Marrow.

Committee for Purity of Doctrine report

At the May 1719 General Assembly, an existing "Committee for Purity of Doctrine" was instructed to "enquire into the publishing and spreading of Books and Pamphlets, tending" to the spread of doctrines "inconsistent with our Confession of Faith" and to call such authors to account. The committee's report, submitted in May 1720, strongly condemned the book as Antinomian. The Assembly overwhelmingly approved this report, prohibited all ministers of the Church of Scotland from recommending The Marrow in any way, and instructed them to warn their people against reading it. This, of course, had the effect of advertising a previously obscure book to people throughout Scotland and many proceeded to buy a copy and to read it carefully.

Representation and Petition

At the Assembly in 1721 twelve men, including Boston, Hog and Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, submitted a "Representation and Petition", arguing that in condemning The Marrow the Assembly had condemned propositions which were scriptural, and other expressions which were plainly taught both by many orthodox divines and in the doctrinal standards of the Church of Scotland. They also argued that the report had misrepresented the book’s teaching, taking various expressions out of context. Their petition was rejected. In the Assembly of 1722 The Marrow's condemnation was reaffirmed and the twelve Representers were rebuked.

Associate Presbytery

Subsequently every effort was made by the men who had opposed The Marrow to prevent ministers holding Marrow doctrines from obtaining more influential pastoral charges, but no effective disciplinary action was taken against them. The ecclesiastical controversy thus gradually drew to an end, but theological disagreement continued. In the 1730s, though over a different issue, that of patronage, some of the proponents of Marrow theology left the Church of Scotland to form the Associate Presbytery, with the distinctive doctrines of The Marrow forming the theological basis for the new church.

In 1726 a new edition of The Marrow was published, with a preface and extensive annotations by Thomas Boston, defending and expounding the Marrow’s teaching as Scriptural. In this form The Marrow has been frequently reprinted over the last nearly 300 years and has been widely influential.

External links

• The Marrow of Modern Divinity in Google Books
• The Marrow Project, a blog devoted to exposition of The Marrow of Modern Divinity.