|
TABLE OF CONTENTS |
ix |
|
ABBREVIATIONS |
xiii |
|
PREFACE – Sinclair Ferguson |
xv |
|
INTRODUCTION |
1 |
|
Part One |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
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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 |
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