Good morning, Dr. Beeke,
It is an honor to address you through this medium, and at the same time, I appreciate your time in reading this brief letter. I am writing to you because your magnificent work, “A Puritan Theology,” is gaining significant interest in seminaries in Latin America, as well as in study groups. Now we have the Spanish version. In this regard, if you have the time to answer my questions, they will be published in a blog to continue promoting the knowledge of sound doctrine in our countries.
Without further ado, here are my questions:
- How did the project to write “A Puritan Theology” come about?
The book, A Puritan Theology, started as a desire that I had for years to publish a kind of Puritan systematic theology. However, given my workload as a professor and pastor, I thought I would have to wait until retirement to do this. Then, in God’s good providence, Dr. Mark Jones sent me several chapters on Puritan teachings regarding the covenants of works and grace to consider for publication with Reformation Heritage Books. When I talked to him about coauthoring a full work on Puritan theology, he was very interested. We then dialogued about how to lay out a plan for the book, finally settling on sixty chapters, with each of us committed to contributing half of the chapters.
It was a massive project, and both Mark and I realized that we needed to enlist the help of others to do it well. I asked my teaching assistant, Paul Smalley, to coauthor four chapters with me and to assist in editing the others. Jan van Vliet, Sinclair Ferguson, James La Belle, Tim Worrell, and Matthew Westerholm each coauthored a chapter with me. Mark also coauthored chapters with Mark Herzer, Bob McKelvey, Michael Haykin, Danny Hyde, Ryan Kelly, Gert van den Brink, and Ted van Raalte. And a team of copy editors and proofreaders went through the manuscript to weed out errors. The result was a book of more than a thousand pages (in English), packed full of citations of dozens of Puritan divines.
- What can we learn from the writings of the Puritans?
The Puritans had helpful things to say about virtually every aspect of the Christian life. But allow me to focus on some ways that the Puritans are particularly helpful.
First, the Puritans call us to constantly look to Jesus Christ as the Mediator of grace. They lovingly dwelt upon Christ’s work as our Prophet, Priest, and King, both in his state of humiliation and exaltation.
Second, the Puritans encourage us to cling to both biblical doctrine and vital spiritual experience. They rejected both a cold intellectualism and a rootless, restless emotionalism. Instead, they strove to know God in all that He reveals in the Word and to love God according to the mighty influence of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
Third, the Puritans point us to cultivate piety through both the gospel and the law of God. They advocated a disciplined life of using the means of grace—especially meditation on the Word—with the aim of constantly contemplating the grace of the Savior and seriously striving to obey His commandments in every area of life.
Fourth, the Puritans teach us how to endure suffering for the glory of God. Their own lives were tested by civil wars, epidemics of the plague, fires that destroyed entire communities, the death of many children, and severe persecution from the authorities that put some of them into prison and drove others into exile. In the midst of all these trials, they taught and modeled Christlike submission to God’s providence.
- One of the battles for most theology students is pride. What does Puritan theology teach us about this?
First, the Puritans teach us to meditate on the incomprehensibility of the infinite God. John Owen counseled, “Be much in thoughtfulness of the excellency of the majesty of God and thine infinite, inconceivable distance from him…. Nothwithstanding all our confidence of high attainments, all our notions of God are but childish in respect of his infinite perfections. We lisp and babble, and say we know not what, for the most part, in our most accurate, as we think, conceptions and notions of God” (The Mortification of Sin in Believers, in Works, 6:63, 65).
Second, the Puritans help us to lower ourselves to a proper self-estimation by the weight of our sins. John Bunyan said, “I have also, while found in this blessed work of Christ, been tempted to pride and liftings of heart,” but God helped him for “it hath been my every day’s portion to be lit into the evil of my own heart, and still made to see such a multitude of corruptions and infirmities therein, that it hath caused hanging down of the head” (Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:44).
Third, the Puritans teach us to see our pride as a horribly evil likeness to Satan. Cotton Mather said, “I therefore endeavoured to take a view of my pride—as the very image of the Devil, contrary to the grace and image of Christ—as an offense against God” (cited in Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry, 152).
Fourth, the Puritans show us that our gifts and ministries are nothing without the Spirit of Christ. Thomas Watson said, “Ministers knock at the door of men’s hearts, the Spirit comes with a key and opens the door” (A Body of Divinity, 221). Shall we boast and pride ourselves in that which we never had the power to do?
- How can one make the most of reading “A Puritan Theology”? Any recommendations?
Here are a few recommendations about reading A Puritan Theology:
First, start by choosing a topic of great interest to you, and read the chapter(s) on that topic.
Second, if you have the desire to read through the whole book, you can do so a little bit at a time. The Chapel Library publishes a plan to reach through A Puritan Theology over the course of a year, five days a week, a few pages a day (https://www.chapellibrary.org/pdf/books/rapt.pdf).
Third, read the book taking note of the Puritan authors and books cited in the footnotes. When you come across something you desire to study in depth, get a copy of that Puritan book and read it for yourself.
Fourth, pay attention to the Scripture passages that the Puritans quote. Read those Scriptures yourself, meditating on their meaning. Use the Puritans as a launch pad to go deeper into the Bible.
Fifth, read with prayer and praise. Respond to what you are reading as one who is in the presence of God. If the Lord uses some part of the book to stir you to faith, repentance, or good works, make holy resolutions about what you will do, by grace, and put what you learn into practice.
- Finally, could you recommend some books or writings by Puritan authors that may be useful for theology students?
A good way to become more familiar with Puritans writings is to read Meet the Puritans, a book that introduces who each Puritan was and his major treatises. There are hundreds of Puritan books reprinted today, and thousands more available online. Here are a few Puritans books that Paul Smalley and I highlighted in a recent video that Reformation Heritage Books recorded (https://youtu.be/9a90_zs75kA?si=hit64f9g9FJAlpJZ).
John Flavel, A Fountain of Life, in volume 1 of his Works, on Christ’s work to redeem us, published separately as Christ and the Threefold Office and Christ Humbled Yet Exalted.
Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm, the “holy violence” of spiritual warfare and seeking zealously after God.
Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices.
Thomas Goodwin, Christ Set Forth.
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections.
Thank you, Dr. Beeke for your time and kindness.