Marrow Controversy
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The Marrow Controversy was a Scottish ecclesiastical dispute occasioned by the republication in 1718 of The Marrow of Modern Divinity by E. F. (The Marrow was originally published in 2 parts in London in 1645 and 1649). E. F. is generally believed to be a pseudonym for Edward Fisher, an English Calvinist of the seventeenth century noted for his spirituality and learning. The work consists of religious dialogues which discuss the doctrine of the atonement and aim to guide the reader safely between Antinomianism and Neonomianism.
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[edit] Content of the controversy
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[edit] History of the controversy
While serving as a minister in the Church of Scotland in Simprin in the early 1700s, Thomas Boston borrowed a copy of the Marrow from a friend. He greatly appreciated the book and spoke of it to several people, including Ebenezer Erskine and Thomas Hog. In 1718 Hog republished the Marrow, adding his own preface. Hog's preface included attacks on widely held views in the Church of Scotland.
The book displeased the moderates, who comprised the majority of the Church of Scotland. James Haddow, Principal of St. Andrews University took the lead in opposing the Marrow, exchanging a series of published pamphlets with Hog and assailing it in his opening sermon at the Synod of Fife in April 1719.
Due to this controversy, a "committee for preserving the purity of doctrine" was appointed at the General Assembly that year, with the intent that the committee would discredit the book. The committee proceeded to write a report that strongly condemned the book. The following year (1720) the Assembly overwhelmingly approved the committee’s report and condemned the book as Antinomian and heretical.
At the Assembly in 1721 twelve men submitted a Representation and Petition, arguing that in condemning the Marrow the Assembly had condemned propositions which were couched in Scriptural language, and others statements which were expressly taught in their standard theological books. They also argued that the report had misrepresented the book’s teaching, lifting thoughts out of their historical and textual context. Their petition was rejected. In the Assembly of 1722 the twelve Representers were solemnly rebuked.
Subsequently every effort was made by the men who had opposed The Marrow to prevent ministers holding the Marrow doctrines from being given pastoral charges, but no further disciplinary action was taken against the Representers, which brought the ecclesiastical controversy to and end, but the theological disagreement continued and ultimately, though over a different issue, the defenders of Marrow theology left the Church of Scotland to form the Secession Church.
In 1726 Thomas Boston republished a new edition of the Marrow, adding his own preface and a large number of annotations defending the Marrow’s teaching as Scriptural. Unlike Hog’s edition, this publication was not condemned by the Church of Scotland.
[edit] References
- C. A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism, pp. 254 sqq., New York, 1885.
- David C. Lachman,The Marrow Controversy: An Historical and Theological Analysis, Edinburgh: Rutherford House, 1988.
- W. M. Hetherington, History of the Church of Scotland, chap. ix., pp. 342, 344-347, New York, 1881.
This article includes content derived from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914, which is in the public domain.
