The Grace of Law: A Study of Puritan Theology, by Ernest F. Kevan

Paperback, 296 pages
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN   978-1-877611-63-6
Retail Price: $18.00
RHB Price: $14.00

Publisher’s Description: In this study, Ernest Kevan investigates the works of numerous seventeenth-century theologians to provide an overview of a Puritan understanding of the law in relationship to the life of the Christian. After describing the Puritans and the antinomian controversy that developed among them, Kevan demonstrates how the orthodox view among the Puritans regarded the moral law as an expression of God’s majesty established as a guide for man’s blessedness and a measure to expose sin. He then proceeds to show how the law relates to God’s people after the fall in the context of the covenant of grace. Great care is used to explain the relation of Christ’s work to the law, the ongoing moral obligation Christians have to the law, the idea of gospel obedience, and the Christian’s freedom from the law’s condemnation. Although the Puritans saw law and grace as opposing principles regarding one’s justification, they also taught how God ultimately uses the law in the life of the believer for His gracious purposes.

“Ernest Kevan’s The Grace of Law gives us a library of biblically balanced Puritan wisdom condensed into one book. Dr. Kevan has masterfully drawn and woven together the threads of several dozen Puritan writers on God’s law into a beautiful tapestry of their theology of grace. As the law relates to all of life and godliness, readers will find The Grace of Law a wise and concise guide with regard to a broad range of crucial topics such as God’s covenants, justification by faith alone, and the practical ‘third use’ of the law to direct the Christian’s life. I first read this much-needed book in 1977 and was profoundly influenced by it, but today it is needed more than ever. I pray that this reprint will serve as a wake-up call and a pedagogical tool for a church being lulled to sleep by cheap grace and antinomianism.”

—Joel R. Beeke, President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids

Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. The Law of God for Man
2. The Law and Sin
3. The Place of the Law in the Purpose of God
4. The End of the Law
5. The Continuance of Moral Obligation
6. Christian Law-Keeping
7. Perfect Freedom
Conclusion
Bibliography

About the Author: Ernest F. Kevan served as the first principal of London Bible College, now London School of Theology, where he labored until his death in 1965.

The Sound-Hearted Christian, by

Nearing the end of his life and ministry, William Greenhill left his congregation a parting gift and lasting testimony of his pastoral care for their souls—he published The Sound-Hearted Christian.  This book developed from a series of sermons Greenhill preached on Psalm 119:18, “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.” Greenhill shows that a sound heart is watchful and attentive, recognizing that our soul is our greatest possession. After demonstrating the excellence and desirability of a sound heart, he challenges us to test the soundness of our heart. He then directs and motivates us to get and keep a sound heart. The book ends with several appended sermons on faith, Christ, and God’s Word, which serve as further encouragements to establishing and maintaining a sound heart.

“The Puritans affirmed that true knowledge always begins in the head and extends to the heart, embracing the affections. In a day (not unlike our own) in which mere assent was taken for faith, empty profession was taken for conversion, and dead formality was taken for holiness, the Puritans’ insistence upon the need for a heart-felt appropriation of the truth was both timely and necessary. They devoted countless pages to exposing the danger of hypocrisy and the nature of sincerity. The skill with which they handled this delicate probing of the heart is nowhere more evident than in the present work. In William Greenhill, a renowned preacher and eminent scholar, you have a trustworthy guide into this vitally important subject—what it means to be a sound-hearted Christian.” —J. Stephen Yuille, Pastor at Grace Community Church in Glen Rose, Texas, and author of Puritan Spirituality.

“Greenhill’s exposition of sound-heartedness is superlative. His chapters on how to keep and retain a sound heart are themselves worth the price of the book. The five additional sermons included in this volume are incredibly rich and clear in content, and help promote sound-hearted Christian living. Taken together, The Sound-Hearted Christian and these appended sermons form an outstanding, practical summary of how to live coram Deo (in the presence of God) from the inside out. If you are a Christian who yearns to walk before God with biblical, Christ-centered, spiritual vitality and practical reality, I know of no book more valuable than this one.” —Joel R. Beeke, President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Table of Contents:

Biographical Introduction

To the Reader

1. A Sound Heart Is a Watchful Heart

2. The Chief Care of a Gracious Man Is about His Heart

3. The Application

4. A Gracious Soul Desires Soundness of Heart

5. The Privilege, Dignity, and Excellency of a Sound Heart

6. How to Get a Sound Heart

7. How to Keep a Sound Heart

8. Motives to Keep a Sound Heart

9. A Description of an Unsound and Corrupted Person

10. Uses and Applications

Additional Sermons

Believing Falls Under a Command

Christians Ought to Be of Christ’s Mind

Do All in Christ’s Name

The Preciousness of the Word

The Sweetness of the Word

About the Author:

William Greenhill (1598–1671) entered Cambridge University at the age of seventeen, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1619 and a master’s degree in 1622. Along with Jeremiah Burroughs, Greenhill was forced to take refuge in Rotterdam because he refused to read the king’s Book of Sports from the pulpit in 1636. By 1641, Greenhill and Burroughs had returned to England and settled in London, where they became lecturers at Stepney, Middlesex.

Over the course of his ministry, he served both parish churches and Independent congregations—sometimes simultaneously. Greenhill’s competence and respectability are observable in the numerous positions he was honored to hold. He was a preacher to Parliament, involved in both the Westminster Assembly and the Savoy Conference, and a commissioner under Cromwell with the responsibility of approving preachers.

Greenhill was ejected from his parish church in 1660 after the Restoration, but managed to continue to serve his gathered Independent church at Stepney—sometimes meeting in his house adjacent to the church and sometimes in a concealed attic—until his death. In 1669, when the congregation numbered five hundred, he took on Matthew Mead as his assistant. Mead became his successor upon Greenhill’s death in 1671.

Authors Cotton Mather & James Janeway
Retail: $18.00
RHB: $14.00

John H. Gerstner syays,

“A Token for Children, written by James Janeway in the seventeenth century, is designed for adults in the twenty-first century. If we contemporary ‘Christians’ want to know what Christian experience is, we can do no better than to let these little children of centuries ago teach us…. Every modern Christian parent ought to buy and study this book before making it required reading for all of his/her offspring.”

Joel Beeke says,

“Cotton Mather (1663–1728), a Puritan pastor in New England, wrote his own account of children converted by God. That book, plus Janeway’s, are printed together in this volume. They not only show how Puritan parents evangelized their children in the home, but still today, can assist you in parenting and assist your children who may read them for great profit to their own souls.”

James Janeway (1636–1674) compiled numerous accounts of the conversions of young children and their testimonies prior to their early deaths to serve the spiritual well-being of children. Next to the Scriptures and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Janeway’s book was the most widely read children’s book in the seventeenth century.

The Puritans were convinced that the ability to think clearly was of the utmost importance. In our day, common sense is not very common and clear thinking is not very clear. This book will help discipline the mind and train the reader to discern proper thinking and argumentation in seeking the truth.

Who was Isaac Watts? Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, England, on July 17, 1674. His father had served several prison terms because of his non-conformity. In 1702, Watts became pastor of Mark Lane Chapel, a large Congregational church in London. Although ill health forced his virtual retirement within a few years, the congregation insisted that he remain pastor as long as he lived. Watts never married, though he did propose to Elizabeth Singer, who rebuffed him with these words: “Mr. Watts, I only wish I could say that I admire the casket as I admire the jewel.” Watts wrote prodigiously, and was the author of over 750 hymns. On the day of Watts’ death, Matthew Arnold declared Watts’ “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” to be the finest hymn in the English language. Others include “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” and “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun.” Isaac Watts died on November 25, 1748 and was buried in the non-conformist burial ground at Bunhill Fields.

A Token For Children

“James Janeway (1636–1674) compiled numerous accounts of the conversions of young children and their testimonies prior to their early deaths to serve the spiritual well-being of children. Next to the Scriptures and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Janeway’s book was the most widely read children’s book in the seventeenth century.

“Cotton Mather (1663–1728), a Puritan pastor in New England, wrote his own account of children converted by God. That book, plus Janeway’s, are printed together in this volume. They not only show how Puritan parents evangelized their children in the home, but still today, can assist you in parenting and assist your children who may read them for great profit to their own souls.” —Joel Beeke 

“Are the souls of your children of no value? They are not too little to die, they are not too little to go to hell, they are not too little to serve the great Master, not too little to go to heaven.” —James Janeway

“A Token for Children, written by James Janeway in the seventeenth century, is designed for adults in the twenty-first century. If we contemporary ‘Christians’ want to know what Christian experience is, we can do no better than to let these little children of centuries ago teach us…. Every modern Christian parent ought to buy and study this book before making it required reading for all of his/her offspring.” —John H. Gerstner, from the foreword

Title: 
A Treatise on the Law and Gospel

John Colquhoun (1748–1827) was a minister in the Church of Scotland whose sermons and writings reflect those of the Marrow brethren of the Secession church. Colquhoun’s writings are theologically astute and intensely practical. He wrote on the core doctrines of the gospel, particularly on experiential soteriology.

In this book, Colquhoun helps us understand the precise relationship between law and gospel. He also impresses us with the importance of knowing this relationship. Colquhoun especially excels in showing how important the law is as a believer’s rule of life without doing injury to the freeness and fullness of the gospel. By implication, he enables us to draw four practical conclusions: 1) the law shows us how to live, 2) the law as a rule of life combats both antinomianism and legalism, 3) the law shows us how to love, and 4) the law promotes true freedom.

Contents:

1. The Law of God or the Moral Law in General
2. The Law of God as Promulgated to the Israelites from Mount Sinai
3. The Properties of the Moral Law
4. The Rules for Understanding Aright the Ten Commandments
5. The Gospel of Christ
6. The Uses of the Gospel, and of the Law in Subservience to It
7. The Difference between the Law and the Gospel
8. The Agreement between the Law and the Gospel
9. The Establishment of the Law by the Gospel
10. The Believer’s Privilege of Being Dead to the Law as a Covenant of Works
11. The High Obligations under Which Believers Lie
12. The Nature, Necessity, and Desert of Good Works

Quote from the Author:

“The law and the gospel are the principal parts of divine revelation; or rather they are the center, sum, and substance of all the other parts of it. Every passage of sacred Scripture is either law or gospel, or is capable of being referred either to the one or to the other . . . If then a man cannot distinguish aright between the law and the gospel, he cannot rightly understand so much as a single article of divine truth. If he does not have spiritual and just apprehensions of the holy law, he cannot have spiritual and transforming discoveries of the glorious gospel; and, on the other hand, if his view of the gospel is erroneous, his notions of the law cannot be right.”—John Colquhoun

John Colquhoun (1748–1827) Introduced by Joel R. Beeke

Hardcover, 352 pages
Retail Price: $25.00
RHB Price: $19.00
ISBN 978-1-60178-062-1
Release Date: Late April

Publisher’s Description:

John Colquhoun (1748–1827) was a minister in the Church of Scotland whose sermons and writings reflect those of the Marrow brethren of the Secession church. Colquhoun’s writings are theologically astute and intensely practical. He wrote on the core doctrines of the gospel, particularly on experiential soteriology.

In this book, Colquhoun helps us understand the precise relationship between law and gospel. He also impresses us with the importance of knowing this relationship. Colquhoun especially excels in showing how important the law is as a believer’s rule of life without doing injury to the freeness and fullness of the gospel. By implication, he enables us to draw four practical conclusions: 1) the law shows us how to live, 2) the law as a rule of life combats both antinomianism and legalism, 3) the law shows us how to love, and 4) the law promotes true freedom.

Contents:

Publisher’s Introduction
Author’s Introduction
Advertisement
Chapter
1. The Law of God or the Moral Law in General
2. The Law of God as Promulgated to the Israelites from Mount Sinai
3. The Properties of the Moral Law
4. The Rules for Understanding Aright the Ten Commandments
5. The Gospel of Christ
6. The Uses of the Gospel, and of the Law in Subservience to It
7. The Difference between the Law and the Gospel
8. The Agreement between the Law and the Gospel
9. The Establishment of the Law by the Gospel
10. The Believer’s Privilege of Being Dead to the Law as a Covenant of Works
11. The High Obligations under Which Believers Lie
12. The Nature, Necessity, and Desert of Good Works

Quote from the Author:

“The law and the gospel are the principal parts of divine revelation; or rather they are the center, sum, and substance of all the other parts of it. Every passage of sacred Scripture is either law or gospel, or is capable of being referred either to the one or to the other . . . If then a man cannot distinguish aright between the law and the gospel, he cannot rightly understand so much as a single article of divine truth. If he does not have spiritual and just apprehensions of the holy law, he cannot have spiritual and transforming discoveries of the glorious gospel; and, on the other hand, if his view of the gospel is erroneous, his notions of the law cannot be right.”—John Colquhoun

The Art of Divine Contentment

There is much in this world to leave us wearied. Yet the Apostle Paul could say, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” Commenting on Philippians 4:11, Thomas Watson provides us great encouragement as he points us to the only hope of gaining true contentment. He not only explains the nature of this contentment, but also gives motives to seek it and instructions for obtaining it. Watson’s works are all marked by profound spirituality, terse style, impressive remarks, and practical illustrations. This book, first printed in 1653, is no exception.

“Discontent is to the soul as a disease is to the body: it puts it out of temper and greatly hinders its regular and sublime motions heavenward. For my part, I know not any ornament in religion that doth more bespangle a Christian, or glitter in the eye of God and man, than this of contentment. Nor certainly is there anything wherein all the Christian virtues do work more harmoniously, or shine more transparently, than in this orb. If there is a blessed life before we come to heaven, it is the contented life.”—Thomas Watson

Logic: The Right Use of Reason in the Inquiry after Truth

As a child of Puritan parents, it is not surprising that Isaac Watts was greatly concerned about people’s ability to think clearly. Whether a man was studying for the ministry or any other of the sciences, the ability to reason rightly was of utmost importance. Watt’s work on logic and reason became a standard textbook for nearly 200 years, being used in such schools as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale.

In Logic, Watts address proper thinking under the four basic functions of the human mind: perception, judgment, reasoning, and disposition. In part one, Watts addresses human perception, the cultivation of ideas, and how we associate them with words. In part two, Watts treats human judgment and its ability to construct various kinds of propositions, while giving guidance for avoiding the formation of bad judgments. Part three covers our ability to reason, giving instruction on the use of syllogisms for constructing a good argument. Part four discusses the mind’s disposition as a method of arranging our thoughts for better understanding and memory. This book will help discipline the mind and train the reader to discern proper thinking and argumentation in seeking truth.

by Thomas Watson
Reatil: $20.00 RHB: $15.00
December, 2008

There is much in this world to leave us wearied. Yet the Apostle Paul could say, “I have learned, in

whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” Commenting on Philippians 4:11, Thomas Watson provides us great encouragement as he points us to the only hope of gaining true contentment. He not only explains the nature of this contentment, but also gives motives to seek it and instructions for obtaining it. Watson’s works are all marked by profound spirituality, terse style, impressive remarks, and practical illustrations. This book, first printed in 1653, is no exception.

“Discontent is to the soul as a disease is to the body: it puts it out of temper and greatly hinders its regular and sublime motions heavenward. For my part, I know not any ornament in religion that doth more bespangle a Christian, or glitter in the eye of God and man, than this of contentment. Nor certainly is there anything wherein all the Christian virtues do work more harmoniously, or shine more transparently, than in this orb. If there is a blessed life before we come to heaven, it is the contented life.”
—Thomas Watson

Logic: The Right Use of Reason in the Inquiry after Truth

by Issac Watts
Retail: $28.00 RHB: $21.00
December, 2008

As a child of Puritan parents, it is not surprising that Isaac Watts was greatly concerned about people’s ability to think clearly. Whether a man was studying for the ministry or any other of the sciences, the ability to reason rightly was of utmost importance. Watt’s work on logic and reason became a standard textbook for nearly 200 years, being used in such schools as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale.

In Logic, Watts address proper thinking under the four basic functions of the human mind: perception, judgment, reasoning, and disposition. In part one, Watts addresses human perception, the cultivation of ideas, and how we associate them with words. In part two, Watts treats human judgment and its ability to construct various kinds of propositions, while giving guidance for avoiding the formation of bad judgments. Part three covers our ability to reason, giving instruction on the use of syllogisms for constructing a good argument. Part four discusses the mind’s disposition as a method of arranging our thoughts for better understanding and memory. This book will help discipline the mind and train the reader to discern proper thinking and argumentation in seeking truth.

You can Buy Here

A Christian Directory is a comprehensive survey of practical theology. In it, Richard Baxter instructs Christians on a host of issues that they face in life. He gives directions for ordering ones personal life before God, performing duties in family relationships, fulfilling responsibilities within the life of the church, and living uprightly in relation to public officials and one’s neighbors. This book does a masterful job in combining the principles of communion with God and the specifics of obedience to God. No Puritan work on applied theology has approached the popularity, scope, or depth of this treatise. With widespread interest in counseling and practical, biblical living in today’s church, Baxter’s work should be a welcome addition to every library and to anyone who wishes to give solid scriptural answers to man’s most important questions.