Prepared by Grace, for Grace: The Puritans on God's Ordinary Way of Leading Sinners to Christ - Paperback

by Joel R. Beeke (Author), Paul M. Smalley (Author)

Few teachings of the Puritans have provoked such strong reactions and conflicting interpretations as their views on preparing for saving faith. Many twentieth-century scholars dismissed preparation as a prime example of regression from the Reformed doctrine of grace for a man-centered legalism.

In Prepared by Grace, for Grace , Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley make careful analysis of the Puritan understanding of preparatory grace, demonstrate its fundamental continuity with the Reformed tradition, and identify matters where even the Puritans disagreed among themselves. Clearing away the many misconceptions and associated accusations of preparationism, this study is sure to be the standard work on how the Puritans understood the ordinary way God leads sinners to Christ.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Question of Preparationism
1. Preparation and Modern Scholarship
2. Precedents to Puritan Preparation: Augustine to Calvin
3. Preparation and Early English Puritans: Perkins, Sibbes, and Preston
4. Preparation for Conversion: William Ames
5. Preparation in Early New England (I): Thomas Hooker
6. Preparation in Early New England (II): Shepard and Pemble
7. Preparation and the Antinomian Controversy: John Cotton
8. Preparation at the Pinnacle of Puritanism: Westminster, Burroughs, and Guthrie
9. Preparation under a Scholastic Lens: Norton
10. Preparation and Later Puritan Critiques: Goodwin and Firmin
11. Later Puritan Preparation: Flavel and Bunyan
12. Jonathan Edwards and Seeking God
13. Continental Reformed Perspectives: Zwingli to Witsius
14. The Grace of Preparation for Faith
Appendix: William Ames's Theological Disputation on Preparation

Front Jacket

Few teachings of the Puritans have provoked such strong reactions and conflicting interpretations as their views on preparing for saving faith. Many twentieth-century scholars dismissed preparation as a prime example of regression from the Reformed doctrine of grace for a man-centered legalism. In Prepared by Grace, for Grace, Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley make careful analysis of the Puritan understanding of preparatory grace, demonstrate its fundamental continuity with the Reformed tradition, and identify matters where even the Puritans disagreed among themselves. Clearing away the many misconceptions and associated accusations of preparationism, this study is sure to be the standard work on how the Puritans understood the ordinary way God leads sinners to Christ.

Authors Joel R. Beeke is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and a pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Paul M. Smalley is a teacher's assistant for Dr. Beeke.

Endorsements "I can think of no abler team of writers in the world today to tackle the important issue of preparatory grace, with all of its attendant law-gospel implications, than Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley. As with legalism, preparatory grace suffers from verbal abuse partly through ignorance of the real issues, and partly through prejudice for its supposed attempt to usurp gospel grace. Beeke and Smalley have provided us with a plethora of historical and theological material to enable us to walk through this controversial but important issue. It has been suggested that to understand the relationship between law and gospel is to be a theologian; on this score, these authors are theologians par excellence." Derek W. H. Thomas, professor of systematic and historical theology, RTS Atlanta, and minister for preaching and teaching, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina

Author Biography

Joel R. Beeke (PhD, Westminster Seminary) is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; a pastor of the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan; editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth; editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books; and a prolific author.

Paul M. Smalley is a teaching assistant to Dr. Beeke at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and a bivocational pastor at Grace Immanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.