The Marrow Men (1717–1722)
Scotland, 1717–1722
When Thomas Boston rediscovered Edward Fisher's Marrow of Modern Divinity (1645) in 1700 and republished it with notes, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland condemned it in 1720, and twelve ministers ('the Twelve Apostles') protested — the Marrow controversy. The Marrow Men (Boston, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, James Hog, and others) argued that the Westminster Standards permitted a freer offer of Christ than the Assembly's condemnation implied, and that the pactum salutis grounded a universal gospel offer even within particular redemption. The controversy is one of the most consequential post-Assembly readings of the Standards and shaped later Scottish free-offer theology.
Departures from the Westminster baseline
The Marrow Men (1717–1722) departs from the Westminster baseline on 2 of the 35 attributes.
II · God & Decree · Covenant of Redemption
Explicit-Developed override vs WCF: Implicit-Affirmed
V · Soteriology · Assurance
Both-Spirit-Witness-And-Marks override vs WCF: Attainable-But-Not-Essence-Of-Faith
Connected cruxes 7
Cruxes where this school's anchor personas were active parties, or where this tradition is mentioned in the legacy narrative.