The Marrow Controversy

8/6/2019 The Marrow Controversy

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The Marrow Controversy—Lessons in Free Grace History 1717 and 1722: Controversy in the Church of Scotland (reformed & Presbyterianchurch)

1717 Presbytery of Auchterarder—William Craig ordination trials.He would not affirm this statement, known as the Auchterarder Creed:

“It is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sinin order to our coming to Christ.”

The creed was later condemned by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland as“unsound and detestable doctrine.”

This exposed a division within the Church of Scotland between groups who came to beknown as the “Marrow Men” and the “Neonomians.” Marrow MenGroup of 12 objected to the condemnation of the creed by the Assembly. Included

Thomas Boston, Ralph Erskine & Ebeneezer Erskine. Boston said the creed was a bitpoorly worded, but true. He didn’t say anything about it on the floor of Presbytery,though. Neonomians

The majority of the Presbytery who held that the gospel is a "new law" (neonomos),replacing the OT law with the legal conditions of faith and repentance needing to be metbefore salvation can be offered. They maintained the necessity of forsaking sin beforeChrist can be received , whereas the Marrow Men replied that only union to Christ cangive us power to forsake sin. The Neonomians considered the Marrow men’s view of thepreaching of free grace to be dangerously antinomian.

In 1718 James Hog reprinted The Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher (1645). The short book articulated the same view of free grace that Boston and the Erskineswere preaching. In 1720 the General Assembly prohibited recommending the book oradvocating it, and said ministers must warn against its use. In 1721 Thomas Bostonwrote published an annotated version of Marrow . The Marrow men were formallyrebuked by the church's General Assembly in 1722 but not removed from theirministries. The Issues of the Controversy:1. Must a person forsake his sins in order to come to Christ?

Auchterarder Creed: “It is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sinin order to our coming to Christ.”

Thomas Boston:

http://www.mountzion.org/text/marrow/marrow.html

http://www.mountzion.org/text/marrow/marrow.html



q That it is the duty of all those that hear the gospel to instantly believein Him without looking for any qualification from within.q That it is impossible for any to forsake their sins until the Spirit haddetermined him to come to Christ as a Prince and Savior exalted to giverepentance and remission of sins.

Are faith & repentance meritorious good works?

Repentance as the magic good work for the neonomiansFaith as the magic good work in modern Lordship controversies Over the years in Scotland, the reformed understanding of how someone becomes aChristian (the ordo salutis ) in terms of personal experience (not doctrinally) hadchanged. The Marrow men said grace always preceeds faith and repentance.

Repentance is not a condition of the gospel offer nor a condition of salvation, strictlyspeaking. Repentance is never a cause of grace or a condition of grace but always aconsequence of grace.

The Neonomians were insinuating that someone’s penitence would merit God’s graceand forgiveness. The Marrow men called this bondage and legalism. For instance, in theparable of the prodigal son, the son was returning home wondering in his heart, have Irepented enough, felt sorrow enough that the father might accept me? In the father’sembrace any talk of conditions for the unconditional love he has for his son is silenced.But, the older brother said, “Have I not met all of the conditions? Haven’t I merited sucha feast?” The father says, “It is yours unconditionally, but your legal heart will never setyou free to enjoy it. On those conditions you can never have it.” There is always thedanger that the spirit of the elder brother, of the legalist, will invade the preaching andapplication of the gospel. (See the Legal Spirit section under #3.)

Let all that love to wear the gospel-dress,Know that as sin, so dastard righteousnessHas slain its thousands, who in tow'ring pride

The righteousness of Jesus Christ deride;A robe divinely wrought, divinely won,

Yet cast by men for rags that are their own.But some to legal works seem whole deny'd,

Yet would by gospel-works be justify'd,By faith, repentance, love, and other such:

These dreamers being righteous overmuch,Like Uzza give the ark a wrongful touch.By legal deeds, however gospeliz'd,Can e'er tremendous justice be appeas'd?Or sinners justify'd before that God,Whose law is perfect and exceeding broad?Nay, faith itself, that leading gospel-grace,Holds, as a work, no justifying place. (Ralph & Ebeneezer Erskine) 2. Is the Gospel to be offered to all or only to those who show signs of beingelect?



Question of the Free Offer of the Gospel

Thomas Boston:q That there is no universal atonement yet there is warrant to offer Christ to all mankind whether elect or reprobate and a warrant for all tofreely receive Christ however great sinners they are or have been.

The offer bears the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ for all. This does not imply auniversal atonement or redemption. The marrow men also stood for the confessionalstandards. Yet they believed that the offer of the gospel is to be published to all meneverywhere.

The neonomians were orthodox Calvinists, but theirs was a reformed orthodoxy that wasthoroughly lifeless and cold and dead. Boston saw while he agreed with the neonomiansin preaching a doctrine of unconditional election, they were also preaching a doctrine of conditional and conditioned grace, and there work was therefore tearing the feet fromunder the fullness and freeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Basic Neonomian teaching: The grace of God in Christ saves the elect The elect are known by the forsaking of sinGrace is therefore given to those who forsake sin

The neonomians preached a conditional offer of the gospel . If you have sufficientlyrepented you may receive grace. But, only the grace of Jesus enables us to forsake sin.

That repentance can’t be the condition of hearing the gospel. When we make the offerdependent upon conditions we disgrace the gospel.

The vital distinction is between conviction as a means that God employs and conviction

as a condition that we fulfill . Conviction of sin is never a condition for the free offer of the gospel. Hence Neonomians spring, as sundry call

The new law-makers, to redress our fall. The law of works into repentance, faith,Is chang'd, as their Baxterian Bible saith.Shaping the gospel to an easy law,

They build their tott'ring house with hay and straw; Yet hide, like Rachel's idols in the stuff, Their legal hands within a gospel-muff.

Nor make the law a squaring rule of life,But in the gospel-throat a bloody knife. (Erskines’ Sonnet) A story about Pilgrim’s Progress. .

John Newton: “If you tarry ‘til you’re better, you will never come at all.” 3. How can orthodox Christians wind up with a legal spirit?



Neonomians called the marrow men antinomian.Marrow men said the neonomians were legalistic.

Legal Spirit

We encounter not only doctrinal legalism but also, often along with it, an experimentallegalism. Possible to have an evangelical head and a legal heart.

Neonomians had mastered the pattern by which grace works. Knew the ordo salutis andWestminster Confession inside out. Yet knowing the pattern by which grace works, theyhad never been mastered by the grace of God in the gospel in their hearts. They wereCalvinists with the minds and hearts of natural men as far as these truths wereconcerned. They were masters of Calvinism who had never been mastered by God’sgrace.

But the Auchterarder smoked out the heart of legalism in these orthodox men. The

marrow controversy was a litmus paper for legalism. They failed to distinguish between the law as a covenant of works and the law as a ruleof life. But Boston said: “There is a wide difference between the law as a rule of life anda covenant of works. That as a rule of life God can have no vindictive or legal anger atthem for their sins but a Fatherly anger and displeasure over their sins. ThereforeChristians ought to mourn as those who have sinned against a reconciled Father .

Attitudes of Legal Spirit

Attitude towards the lost:

Sinclair Ferguson:Until grace and God himself masters a man, that grace will never flowout to other people. He will become Jonah under his tree with a heart shut up againstsinners in need of grace because he thinks of God in conditional terms. The hearts of theneonomians had been shut to the lost.

E.g., parable of the elder brother. Legalism shows itself in the light of the exposure of free grace. The gospel produces in us a gracious heart pursuing the prodigal, loving thesinner.

Attitude towards other Christians:E.g., parable of the laborers in vineyard 11 th hour. Murmuring against their fellows. Signof self-righteous temper with legality at its roots.

o o Mentality that speaks of us and them.o o Zeal for church discipline, disguised as zeal for justice and truth

but is an unwillingness to welcome those whom Christ welcomes,temper of a heart never delivered and mastered by God’s free grace.

Attitude towards sinners:Alexander White: There is such a thing as sanctification by vinegar. It makes a manaccurate and hard. When people come being tempted by sin, broken by it, ashamed to



confess the mess they made, it is not a Calvinistic pastor who has been sanctified byvinegar they need, but a pastor who has been mastered by the unconditional grace of God, and from whom iron clad orthodoxy has been torn away and the whole armor of agracious God has been applied; the armor of him who would not break the bruised reedor quench the dimly burning wick.

Attitudes toward God John Owen:“Unacquaintedness with our mercies & our privileges is our sin as well as our trouble.We harken not to the voice of the Spirit which is given unto us that we may know thethings that are freely bestowed on us of God. This makes us go heavily when we mightrejoice. And to be weak where we might be strong in the Lord. How few of the saintsare experimentally acquainted with this privilege of holding immediate communion withthe Father in love? With what anxious doubtful thoughts do they look upon him? Whatfears what questionings are there of his goodwill and kindness? At the best many thinkthere is no sweetness at all in God towards us, but what is purchased at the high price of

the blood of Jesus. It is true that that alone is the way of communication, but the freefountain and spring of all is in the bosom of the Father .”

Attitudes in the face of temptation & accusation:Satan uses the law to twist our minds in rebellion against God. He drives us back to thelaw as a works covenant. He confirms our worst legal fears. He distorts what we onceknew of the free grace of God in the gospel. All Christians know the accusers voice, “youare not good enough to be a believer, far less a pastor.” Our refuge is our confessionthat nothing good dwells in us and we fly to Jesus.

John Newton: “Bowed down beneath a load of sin, by Satan sorely pressed. By war

without, and fears within, I come to thee for rest. Be thou my shield and hiding-place; That, sheltered near thy side, I may my fierce accuser face, And tell him, thou hast died!”

The Marrow Controversy

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