num_pages: 297
description: 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 The Question of Preparationism1. Preparation and Modern Scholarship2. Precedents to Puritan Augustine to Calvin3. Preparation and Early English Perkins Sibbes and Preston4. Preparation for William Ames5. Preparation in Early New England (I): Thomas Hooker6. Preparation in Early New England (II): Shepard and Pemble7. Preparation and the Antinomian John Cotton8. Preparation at the Pinnacle of Westminster Burroughs and Guthrie9. Preparation under a Scholastic Norton10. Preparation and Later Puritan Goodwin and Firmin11. Later Puritan Flavel and Bunyan12. Jonathan Edwards and Seeking God13. Continental Reformed Zwingli to Witsius14. The Grace of Preparation for Faith William Ames's Theological Disputation on Preparation
language: English
title: Prepared by Grace, for Grace: The Puritans on God's Way of Leading Sinners to Christ
publisher: Reformation Heritage Books