Free Grace AND a Free Gospel. I

I posted, a little while back, a quotation from Principal Macleod's book Scottish Theology on the subject of Hyper-Calvinism. Well, here at Free St. George's we do not believe in ducking issues. Principal Macleod was writing about the 'Marrow Controversy' of the early eighteenth century. Here I begin what will be (God willing), a series of posts on the 'Marrow Controversy.'

Young ministers in their first churches often find things difficult. Thomas Boston (1676-1732. Pictured) was ordained pastor of the Church of Scotland at Simprin, in the Scottish Borders in 1699. It was a tiny parish, and a tiny congregation (Boston called them his 'handful). A new manse was built for him, on a very humble scale, close to the Kirk building, and he began his work as a country pastor.
Boston often visited his 'handful', and, due to the paucity of his library, he studied the people as well as books. One day in 1700, while visiting an old soldier's cottage, Boston saw two little books above one of the windows. With the instincts of a minister with a small library, he took down the books, and to his joy they proved to be works of theology. One was a book by Saltmarsh, a hyper-Calvinist, the other a book entitled The Marrow of Modern Divinity. Boston had never heard of the book before. The old soldier let his young minister keep both books, for he himself saw that Boston needed to learn the way of the Gospel better. Boston found Saltmarsh quite unpleasant, but he drank in the Marrow, and it cleared up all his confusion on the covenant theology. It gave him boldness in evangelistic preaching, and soon the little Kirk was ringing with the free offer of the Gospel to sinners. It became Boston's favourite book, and it remained so.

In the next post, God willing, we shall consider what exactly the book that so excited and changed young Thomas Boston was.