Prepared by Grace, for Grace

Book excerpt: 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