Mark Horne

Calvin Defended Against Drs. Cunningham and Hodge, by the Rev. John B. Adger, D.D. [1810-1899] (PDF file)
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These, then, are examples of outstanding and unusually wealthy men. None of them enjoyed any titles or fiefs, gifts, or salaries from the government, nor did they play tricks with the law or commit any crimes to acquire their fortunes. They simply guessed what course conditions were going to take and acted accordingly, kept a [...]

We must now examine this question. How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son–not for Christ’s own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men?
First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he [...]

Why do I mention this obvious point?  Because Augustine was not correct in his understanding of justification and was quite plainly a “moralist” in his conception of how salvation involved becoming righteous in order to be acceptable to God.
It is one thing to have to correct laypeople making such basic conceptual mistakes.  It is quite [...]

The assumption is that the church is a building  being built, a tree growing up, or a human being maturing.
All are metaphors that apply in many cases (and the Bible does so), but they aren’t sufficient to justify a “theory” of doctrinal development.
The church is a pilgrim through the ages.  It constantly thinks it now [...]

A couple of articles I haven’t had time to fully digest yet as I speed ahead on my biography of Tolkien:

The Children of Hurin
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sacramental World

Both of these articles are quite worthwhile.  They are both, I think, hurt by a desire to “defend the Faith.”  Both have their particular virtues on that [...]

Before World War I, they were like this:

They were called Elfs, Fairies, Goblins, Gnomes interchangeably.
Then J. R. R. Tolkien managed to survive WWI, probably because he got Trench Fever.
Convalescing and dealing with the death of friends, he wrote stories about Elves that looked like this:

By the way.  This is a very good book, but it [...]

“I first went to greet Hrothgar in his ring-hall, where Healfdene’s kinsman promptly assigned me a seat by his son and heir once my purpose was made plain to him. The company was joyous; never in my life have I heard under heaven’s vault such merriment of men over mead in the hall! The noble [...]

So I got Anti-Calvinists: The Rise of English Arminianism c. 1590-1640 (Oxford Historical Monographs) out of the Library again (i.e. after doing it the first time twelve years ago).
I’ll probably be blogging some more about it.  In my opinion, the “extremism” of the Calvinists might explain why they were so credibly though slanderously lumped with [...]

From James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, p. 59.
The twentieth-century Protestant Church locked six days a week has no precedents in the Reformation.  All the Reformed churches of the sixteenth century conducted weekday services before and after working hours.  We have noted the Geneva schedule.  In Strassburg there was a weekday service [...]

From James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, p. 102-103.
“Lecturing” was a running exposition of Scripture and was especially popular through the system of Puritan [i.e. not Presbyterian] “lectureships,” of endowed preaching posts outside the regular benefices.  The Directory permitted lecturing, but specified that Scripture was to be expounded, it should wait till [...]

From James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, p. 109.
…in most cases the legatees of the Westminster Assembly Puritans did not care to maintain the full prescriptions of the Directory.  The anti-liturgical current moved most of them still farther to the left.  Perhaps the most faithful exponents of the Directory after the Restoration [...]

Many of these melodies are very vigorous. This is often not recognized, because in many traditions the tunes are sung slowly, and often with simplified rhythm. However, in their original rhythms, at a brisk ‘folk-song’ tempo, some can be hair-raising, such as Psalms 2, 47, 99, or 148. It was not for [...]

From James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, p. 109.
Some measure of the revolution effected by the Puritan movements in Reformed worship can be seen in the contrast with the French experience.  When the storm troopers of the Counter-Reformation drove the Huguenots by the thousands into exile abroad in the 1680’s, many were [...]

From James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, pp. 58, 59.
The Huguenots quite caught Calvin’s concept of congregational psalmody.  It became their hallmark, in homes, in corporate worship, or on the battlefield.  The French Discipline required all to own and bring their liturgical psalters, and to share in the singing.  The synods took [...]

From James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, pp. 38-40
As the staple of private and family  as well as of the services of the church, the psalms became known to many by heart.  No other book of the Old Testament, at least, could rival the psalms in the affections and knowledge of the [...]

Thomas Müntzer was born in Stolberg in Thuringia in 1488 or 1489. He was born not – as has often been stated – to poverty but to modest comfort; and his father was not hanged by a feudal tyrant but died in bed in the fullness of years. When he first comes clearly into view, [...]

In my mind, the most analogous antecedent figure to N.T. Wright is Martin Bucer. Bucer regarded “works of the law” as Jewish ceremonies (which is kinda like boundary markers) and he wanted to integrate the Spirit into the process of the Christian life and saw a second justifying work in the life of the Christ. [...]

Jerome Zanchius:
Good works are the instrumental cause of the possession of eternal life; by these indeed, just as by an obvious and legitimate way, God leads us into the possession of eternal life.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 16, “Of Good Works,” paragraph 2:
These good works, done in obedience to God’s commandments, are the fruits [...]

One would not expect a Reformed theologian [as opposed to a Lutheran one] to teach that good works are detrimental to salvation.  This position was advocated by Nicholas von Amsdorf, although it was rejected by the Formula of Concord.  But where Amsdorf’s position was rejected, so was George Major’s.  He held: “Good works are necessary [...]