The Quest for Full Assurance: The Legacy of Calvin and His Successors (Joel Beeke)

Description

Against the background of the sixteenth century Reformers (with special attention to Calvin), Beeke examines the theological development of personal assurance of faith in English Puritanism and its parallel movement in the Netherlands, the Dutch Second Reformation.

Endorsements

‘A long-needed and outstanding work on the subject of assurance…of permanent importance for preachers and students’. — IAIN H. MURRAY

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ix

ABBREVIATIONS xiii

PREFACE – Sinclair Ferguson xv

INTRODUCTION 1

Part One

ASSURANCE PRIOR TO THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY

THE EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHURCH 9

THE REFORMATION FROM LUTHER TO BULLINGER 16

Martin Luther (1483-1546) 19

Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) 24

Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) 27

Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) 31

REFORMED DEVELOPMENT IN CALVIN AND BEZA 36

John Calvin (1509-1564) 37

Nature and Definition of Faith 37

Assurance of the Essence of Faith 39

Qualifying Statements 41

Making Sense of Apparent Contradictions 44

Faith and Experience 44

Flesh versus Spirit 46

Germ of Faith versus Consciousness of Faith 51

Trinitarian Framework 55

The Practical Syllogism (syllogismus practicus) 65

Theodore Beza (1519-1605) 72

Comparison with Calvin 73

The Grounds of Assurance 75

THE FATHERS OF ENGLISH PURITANISM AND THE DUTCH SECOND REFORMATION 82

William Perkins (1558-1602) 83

Structuring Principles 83

The Grounds of Assurance 87

Conversion’s Steps 88

Step #1: Humiliation 88

Step #2: Faith in Christ 89

Steps #3-4: Repentance and New Obedience 96

William Teellinck (1579-1629) 98

Assurance by Faith Working Through Love 104

Assurance by the Promises of God 105

Assurance by the Immediate Witness of the Holy Spirit 107

Part Two

ASSURANCE FROM THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY TO ALEXANDER COMRIE

ENGLISH PURITANISM AND THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION, CHAPTER 18 111

Puritan Thought on Assurance by the 1640s 113

18.1: Threefold Possibility 119

False Assurance 120

True Assurance 121

Lacking the Consciousness of Assurance 122

18.2: The Foundations of Personal Assurance 123

Divine Promises in Christ 124

Inward Evidences of Saving Grace 130

The Seat of Assurance: Christ’s Internal Presence 130

The Method of Assurance: The Practical and Mystical Syllogisms 131

The Witnessing Testimony of the Spirit 142

18.3: The Cultivation of Assurance 147

The Organic Relation of Faith to Assurance 147

The Time Element in Faith’s Maturation 150

The Means of Attaining Assurance 152

The Duty of Seeking Assurance 154

The Fruit of Assurance 155

18.4: Assurance Lost and Renewed 156

The Causes of an “Unreachable” Assurance 156

Causes in the Believer: Sin and Backsliding 156

Causes in God: Withdrawing and “Tempting” 159

The Revival of Assurance 162

Conclusion 164

JOHN OWEN 165

Two Short Catechisms (1645) 166

The Doctrine of the Saints’ Perseverance (1654) 167

Polemical Response to John Goodwin 167

Setting the Stage for Elaboration on Assurance 171

Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (1657) 173

Communion with the Father: Love 177

Communion with the Son: Grace 178

Conjugal Relationship 178

Adoption 180

Communion with the Spirit: Comfort 181

Witnessing in the Court of Conscience 182

The Believer’s “Earnest” 185

The Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order (1658) 187

An Exposition upon Psalm CXXX (1668) 189

Personal Crises 189

Enlargement Upon the Westminster Confession 191

The Attainability of Assurance 191

Assurance Normative but not Common 192

How Assurance is Obtained 196

Retaining, Renewing, and Improving Assurance 198

Pneumatologia: A Discourse on the Holy Spirit (1674ff.) 200

The Sealing of the Spirit 201

The Unction of the Spirit 208

The Doctrine of Justification by Faith (1677) 209

An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews (1668-1684) 211

Conclusion: Owen’s Influence and Pneumatological Emphasis 212

ALEXANDER COMRIE 214

Historical and Biographical Context 214

Saving Faith 217

The Habit and Act of Faith 218

Unity and Oneness (eenheid) of Faith 226

Three Faculties of Faith 227

Spiritual Knowledge 228

Spiritual Assent 229

Spiritual Trust 230

Assurance of Faith 231

The Direct and Reflex Acts of Faith 231

Assurance of the Uprightness of Faith and of Adoption 233

Assurance of Faith and Assurance of Sense 234

Conditional and Unconditional Promises 236

Faith and Justification 237

Part Three

COMPARISON OF ENGLISH PURITANISM AND THE DUTCH SECOND REFORMATION ON ASSURANCE

THOMAS GOODWIN: THE MERGING OF ENGLISH-DUTCH THINKING OF ASSURANCE 245

Goodwin and Owen 247

Spiritual Experience and Dutch Influence 247

Faith’s Relation to Assurance 255

Assurance and Knowledge of the Divine Persons 257

Discursive and Intuitive Assurance 259

Goodwin and Comrie 265

CONCLUSION 269

APPENDIX: THE DUTCH SECOND REFORMATION (DE NADERE REFORMATIE) 286

The Term Nadere Reformatie 287

The Essence of the Dutch Second Reformation 293

Assessment in Secondary Sources 303

BIBLIOGRAPHY 311

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 381

INDEX OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES 393

Product Details

Title: The Quest for Full Assurance: The Legacy of Calvin and His Successors

Author: Joel Beeke

Publisher: Banner of Truth

Pages: 411

Binding: Paperback

Size: 21.5 x 13.7 x 3.1 cm

ISBN: 9780851517452