But the peculiar gift of man is to sing knowing what he says. Further, the understanding ought to accompany the heart and affections, which cannot be unless we have the song imprinted in our memory, that we may be ever singing it. Continue reading →
History of the Reformed Churches
Audio: Dan Borvan On The Perseverance Of The French Reformed Church
Recently, the Rev Dr Dan Borvan (DPhil) gave a talk at Providence Christian College (Pasadena, CA) on the history of the French Reformed Church. As he says, the French Reformed are an important part of our history and they are, for a . . . Continue reading →
Saturday Psalm Series: Psalms, Hymns, Spiritual Songs, and Instruments in the Vulgate (Part 1)
We Reformed folk like to think that what we do now in public worship is what we have always done. This is especially easy to do when we are cut off from or unaware of the original sources and practices of our . . . Continue reading →
The Pragmatic Polity of the French Reformed Churches
In continuity with orthodox Christians since the third century, Reformed Protestants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries confessed the centrality of the church: “Outside the church there is no salvation.”1 Despite this lofty view, Reformed churches never reached a common consensus on . . . Continue reading →
A Prison Letter From Huguenot Marie Durand
The “French Religious Wars” describes a series of eight civil wars fought out between 1562 and 1598. An estimated three million people perished, fifteen percent of the French population. Although the antagonists wore their inherited religious labels of “Protestant” or “Catholic,” social . . . Continue reading →
Imprisoned And Faithful: A Letter From Marie Durand
[Marie Durand] would be born in 1711 in Bouchet-de-Pranles into a community with a hoary past of linguistic, cultural, political, and religious autonomy. She was born into a church whose beliefs and practices were deeply rooted in the sixteenth-century Reformation and the . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 223: From Every Tribe, Tongue, And Nation (1)—Introduction To The Canons Of Dort
In this episode Dr Clark begins a new series on the Canons of Dort (1619). When people outside of the Reformed churches think about Reformed theology, they often think of the so-called “Five Points,” or TULIP. As it turns out, there is . . . Continue reading →
Westminster’s Youngest Divine: George Gillespie
Patrick Hamilton (1504–28) was a preacher of the gospel. He studied Reformation theology in Germany and went home again to Scotland, in 1527, to preach that gospel knowing that he would die for it, and in 1528 he did. He was lured . . . Continue reading →
Jerome Bolsec (2): Calvin’s Appeal For Help
To encourage that united front and confound Bolsec’s claim for support, the magistrates of Geneva sent a letter to the ministers of Switzerland, late in October, 1551, telling them of Bolsec’s actions and teaching: “He made an attempt, eight months ago, in . . . Continue reading →
Jerome Bolsec (1): The Primary Source Of Most Of Calvin’s Bad Press
The facts of the controversy are rather simple. Jerome Bolsec who was a Carmelite monk and doctor of theology in Paris, was drawn to the Reformation and so forced to leave France. By early 1551 he had settled in the canton of . . . Continue reading →
We Subscribe
The Reformation was above all a doctrinal reform in the life of the church. Throughout the Middle Ages, calls for reform had primarily been concerned with the moral life of the church. The Reformation certainly resulted in profound moral and spiritual renewal . . . Continue reading →
Were The Protestant Reformers Missionary Failures? Challenging The Nineteenth-Century Narrative
One of the stories told about the Reformation in missiological circles is that the reformers weren’t interested in seeing the gospel go to the ends of the earth.
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New Resource Page: On The Marrow Controversy
The Marrow of Modern Divinity was regarded by the orthodox Reformed, in the 17th century, as a good summary of the orthodox view of law and gospel, justification, sanctification, and the third (normative) use of the law in the life of the Christian. . . . Continue reading →
Updated Calvin Resource Page
John Calvin (1509-64) was one of the most significant figures in the history of the West. He was among the major Protestant Reformers in the sixteenth century. He contributed significantly to the Reformed wing of the Reformation. He was an industrious Bible . . . Continue reading →
The Hungarian Reformed Church Contra Instruments In Worship
The musical instruments, however, adopted for the pantomime (saltatrici) Mass of Antichrist, together with images, we abhor. There is no use for them in the church, and indeed they are marks and occasions of idolatry. Hungarian Reformed Church, Articles (1567) art. 17 . . . Continue reading →
Meet Calvin’s Wife: Idelette
Idelette was a young widow with two young children. Her former husband, Jean Stordeur, a cabinet maker from Liège (one of “those cities of the Netherlands in which the awakening had been most remarkable,” J.H. Merle D’Aubigne writes), contracted the plague in . . . Continue reading →
Herman Witsius Contra Intinction
XXV. Next follow the actions of the disciples, and consequently of the other guests. And these, according to Christ’s appointment, are three: first, to receive both the bread and the cup; but each separately, for so Christ distributed them: in this manner . . . Continue reading →
A New Calvin Title In English: God Or Baal—Two Letters On The Reformation Of Worship And Pastoral Service
The French “Nicodemites” have long been an interest on the HB. I first wrote about them here in 2009, from which I borrow here to give some background by which to understand the value of a first-ever English translation of two early . . . Continue reading →
Brakel: Amyraut Claimed A “Middle Way” And A Way To Remove The Offense Of Particular Atonement
Amyraut, and all who follow him, maintain to have found a middle position whereby the offense of the true doctrine can be removed. They hold to the existence of two decrees. One is a universal decree whereby God, being graciously disposed towards . . . Continue reading →
A. A. Hodge Contra Amyraut
11. What is the view of this subject entertained by the French Protestant theologians, Camero, Amyraut, and others? These theological professors at Saumur, during the second quarter of the seventeenth century, taught that God, 1st. Decreed to create man. 2d. To permit . . . Continue reading →