Marrow Reprinted

Thanks to Christian Focus Publications (HT: M. Jay Bennett) for republishing Edward Fisher's Puritan classic, The Marrow of Modern Divinity. This edition includes the invaluable notes of Thomas Boston, as well as an Introduction by Philip Ryken and an historical Introduction by William Vandoodewaard. This book has an important place in the theology and history of the Christian Church, and will, I trust, be a blessing to 21st century readers too.

Tip-Toeing Through the TULIPs

In 1552, the German Lutheran Joachim Westphal coined the term 'Calvinism,' which he opposed strenuously. The system of theology represented by this label may be traced back further, however, to 1536, when John Calvin first published his Institutes, and even further back to the theology of Augustine and, indeed, Paul and our Lord Jesus.

It was not until the Dutch Remonstrants put forward their five articles of Arminianism that the Orthodox Reformed were forced to articulate what became known as the 'Five Points of Calvinism' in response at the Synod of the Dordt. The Canons of Dordt express these Five Points of Calvinism brilliantly, but the English translation of this document is not the source of the acrostic that is commonly associated today with the Five Points: TULIP. Nor is this acrostic to be traced directly to the famous tulip mania of the Dutch Golden Age which followed soon after the Synod of Dordt.

As Robert Dabney summarized the Five Points in the 19th century, they are: 1) Original Sin; 2) God's Election; 3) Particular Redemption; 4) Effectual Calling; and 5) Perseverance of the Saints. It is generally believed that Loraine Boettner was the first to coin the TULIP acrostic as a mnemonic device for easier memorization in his 1932 book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. As he put it:

The Calvinistic system especially emphasizes five distinct doctrines. These are technically known as "The Five Points of Calvinism," and they are the main pillars upon which the superstructure rests. In this section we shall examine each of these, giving the Scripture basis and the arguments from reason which support them. We shall then consider the objections which are commonly brought against them.

As will be shown, the Bible contains an abundance of material for the development of each of these doctrines. Furthermore, these are not isolated and independent doctrines but are so inter-related that they form a simple, harmonious, self-consistent system; and the way in which they fit together as component parts of a well-ordered whole has won the admiration of thinking men of all creeds. Prove any one of them true and all the others will follow as logical and necessary parts of the system. Prove any one of them false and the whole system must be abandoned. They are found to dovetail perfectly one into the other. They are so many links in the great chain of causes, and not one of them can be taken away without marring and subverting the whole Gospel plan of salvation through Christ. We cannot conceive of this agreement arising merely by accident, nor even being possible, unless these doctrines are true.
...
The Five Points may be more easily remembered if they are associated with the word T-U-L-I-P; T, Total Inability; U, Unconditional Election; L, Limited Atonement; I, Irresistible (Efficacious) Grace; and P, Perseverance of the Saints.

And so a flower was born. Since then, some Calvinists have devised other acrostics which they feel better express the doctrines of grace in the Calvinistic system of theology which the Five Points are designed to convey (see Roger Nicole, Timothy George, Michael Horton, R.C. Sproul, Sr., James Boice and Philip Ryken, for instance). There is also an Arminian daisy (I have not attempted to trace this origin of this). But the TULIP, like a flower that bends yet does not break, continues to thrive.

As William Perkins, one of the authors of A Garden of Spiritual Flowers, put it, in his Golden Chain, the doctrine of the Reformed is "that the cause of the execution of God’s predestination, is his mercy in Christ, in them which are saved; and in them which perish, the fall and corruption of man; yet so, as that the decree and eternal counsel of God, concerning them both, hath not any cause beside his will and pleasure." And thus, as Paul wrote 2,000 years ago, our salvation is by grace: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." (Rom. 11.6)

To God be the glory for his magnificent grace.

What is Beauty?

If you were asked to define beauty, how would you answer?

The Scriptures teach us before corruption entered the world God made all things "very good" (Gen. 1.31) and that "the heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19.1); and that things which are "lovely" and "pure" are among those things which are praiseworthy and ought to be thought upon (Phil. 4.8); and they teach us that our chief desire ought to be to "behold the Beauty of the LORD" (Ps .27.4) and to "worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness" (Ps. 96.9); that our prayer should be for "the beauty of the LORD our God [to] be upon us" (Ps. 90.17); and that he is to us a "Diadem of Beauty" (Isa. 28.5).

But as Alain de Lille, Thomas Becon, George Turberville, William Shakespeare, and other have well said, "All that glitters is not gold." The world with its vain adoration of the creature before the Creator has loved beauty for its own sake and so destroyed what is beautiful in its quest for beauty. Therefore, what emanates from the Lord, who is Beauty itself, that is beautiful. While Satan may appear as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11.14) and so deceive, and what Thomas Watson referred to as "spiritual beauty" may be found inside one's character and not on the cover of a magazine in a grocery store checkout aisle, yet beauty is of the Lord, wherever it is found, and sometimes in the most unlikely places. It is to be appreciated for that reason, not for its own sake, but for the sake of the Potter who took the clay and fashioned it in his own image and for his own glory. Even fallen man is worthy of respect for being made in the image of his Creator, and while "[t]here is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice" (John Calvin, Serm. No. 10 on I Cor., 698), and that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like the lilies of the field (Matt. 6.28-29), yet to delight in the works of God, apart from God, who alone is the Creator and the Giver of good gifts, is to seek beauty apart from the Beautiful.

Many from Samuel Coleridge to Felix Mendelssohn have argued that beauty is to be defined as "unity in variety." Elio Carletti is said to have characterized it thus: "Beauty is a summation of the parts working together in such a way that nothing is needed to be added, taken away or altered." Whether in nature or art, symmetry, order, unity in that which is manifold, all highlight these truths about beauty. Beauty and truth indeed, together, represent the harmony found in God.

Philip G. Ryken, Art for God's Sake, p. 43:

Beauty and truth belong together. As the poet John Keats said in his famous "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "beauty is truth, truth beauty -- that is all ye need to know." Taken literally, Keats's identification of truth and beauty (to say nothing of his claim that this is the sum of all knowledge) is an exaggeration; yet truth and beauty are interconnected.

With all of this said, are we here any closer to understanding what drives the artist to compose his words or notes or colors so that another will find them beautiful? Why is it then said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and why so subjective, if beauty comes from God? (For Ralph Waldo Emerson said, " Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of beauty is Art." And everyone knows that taste is personal and art is not appreciated alike by all.)

While much-maligned in this area, Calvinism with its love of the "book" of nature, as well as the book of the Bible, teaches us that all beauty, rightly understood, points us to Him who is Beautiful.

Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism and Art:

Standing by the ruins of this once so wonderfully beautiful creation, art points out to the Calvinist both the still visible lines of the original plan, and what is even more, the splendid restoration by which the Supreme Artist and Master-Builder will one day renew and enhance even the beauty of His original creation.

Martin E. Marty, book review of Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition, ed. by Paul Corby Finney:

But Calvinism is also rooted in "Calvin's love of creation and beauty"--which may be the "least known and appreciated" of Calvin's claims. Calvin marveled at scientific marvels, and he concluded that creation was not only useful: "God also intended it to be a source of delight to human beings."

Beauty strikes each of us differently, for we are variable and differently made, but beauty that is true reflects Him who is triune, holy and perfect. I can't claim to define beauty in a blog post, but I welcome thoughts from readers who may seek to answer the question "What is beauty?" in their own way. Meanwhile, I leave the reader with another thought from John Keats, who said it very simply elsewhere (Endymion): "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

Oliver Bowles Treatise on the Evangelical Pastor

Oliver Bowles, Westminster Divine, wrote a famous but much-neglected treatise on the pastoral office in Latin entitled De Pastore Evangelico Tractatus (1649). The Westminster Assembly Project, which has undertaken a translation of the work, although it is currently on hold, says that it:

deserves to be known as one of the best books ever written on pastoral ministry in the Puritan tradition. The 400-page treatise represents the life work of Oliver Bowles, the Cambridge tutor and local pastor who served the Westminster Assembly as its oldest member and delivered the first fast sermon before parliament during the Westminster Assembly. Bowles divided his book into three sections: one on the minister’s spiritual and intellectual preparation for the pastoral office; one on the public and private ministry of God’s Word; and one on the administration of the sacraments (including church discipline) and the conduct of pastoral prayer. De Pastore Evangelico Tractatus is distinguished by its careful attention to the theology of pastoral ministry, its reliance on Patristic and Catholic as well as Reformed source material, and its wealth of practical insights into the daily work of the pastor. Though rarely studied, it is perhaps the best resource for understanding the Westminster view of gospel ministry.

Philip Ryken provides a biographical sketch of this divine in The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century, Vol. 2. Selections from the translation work by Jonathan Rockey and edited by Philip Ryken may be found in one chapter of the recently-published Resurrection and Eschatology: Theology in Service of the Church: Essays in Honor of Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. (2008), ed. Lane G. Tipton and Jeffrey C. Waddington. For those who wish to read the work in Latin, a 1667 edition is available online here at Google Books. It is to be hoped that the full English translation will be forthcoming.