A review of Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Prepared by Grace, for Grace: The Puritans on God’s Ordinary Way of Leading Sinners to Christ (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2013.  297 pp. Pbck.  $25.00).



The key thesis of this book is that conversion is normally preceded by a preparatory law-work; or, in the language of Jonathan Edwards, that ‘God makes men sensible of their misery before he reveals his mercy and love.’

Most of it is devoted, however, not to expounding this doctrine, but to a historical survey designed to prove that this has been the prevailing view in Reformed theology from the beginning (including Luther and Calvin), but particularly among English Puritans such as William Perkins, John Preston, William Ames and Richard Sibbes; and among New England Puritans such as Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard and John Cotton.  Modern attempts by Perry Miller and others to show that significant figures diverged from this consensus are reviewed and (as a rule) refuted.

At the same time Doctors Beeke and Smalley lose no opportunity to point out that this Reformed preparationism was completely different from the Roman Catholic doctrine of congruent merit, according to which grace is infused as a reward for doing the best we can with our own natural abilities; and they are no less insistent that Reformed  preparationism has to be distinguished from the Arminian idea that once sinners are motivated by a sense of spiritual need, grace merely assists them to Christ, without any invincible input on God’s part.

Posted in Christian Doctrine, Historical; Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

All lovers of Gaelic song will be familiar with Calum Kennedy’s heart-rendering ‘Oran mu Leanabh Og’ (‘Song of a Young Child’), but few, I suspect, will be aware of its source.  It was composed by the most prolific of our Gaelic hymn-writers, Peter Grant, and portrays an infant reporting back from heaven to assure his parents that if they knew the bliss he now enjoyed, far from grieving for him, they would be longing to join him.

Grant’s poetry was quintessentially lyrical and in the not too distant past his songs were being sung all over the Highlands.  The first collection appeared around 1809 (when Grant was only 26), the last in 1926: 21 editions in all.  Now his name is all but forgotten, yet not only are these songs treasures in themselves (and quite enough to provide a whole programme for BBC Alba), but his life and work provide a fascinating window into the world of the post-Culloden Highlands.

Posted in Biographical, Gleanings; Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

The danger with the independence referendum is that few seem to have any idea of the scale of what’s envisaged.  It’s not about what used to be called Home Rule.  Nor is it a mere Devolution Upgrade.  It’s about making England a foreign country.  It’s about making Scotland independent in the same sense as Australia is independent: part of the Commonwealth, with occasional visits by HM the Queen as titular Head of State.

Posted in Contemporaries, Reviews; Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

It’s October, the SNP party-conference is over, soon it will be September and any day now we should hear someone roll out the arguments for a Yes-vote vote in the forthcoming referendum.  

Posted in Reviews; Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

Ashkar arrived in Edinburgh three years ago to begin his studies at the Free Church College: the second member of his family to join us (his brother, Aftab, is now a minister in Grangemouth).

Three months later Ashkar returned home.  Britain’s misguided immigration rules (the concession of weak governments to mindless public clamour) forbade his wife to join him, and the thought of four lonely years in a cold, alien city was too much.

Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

Three months have passed since Alastair McIntosh, by nature a generous spirit, sent me a copy of his most recent book, ‘Island Spirituality’, suggesting I might review it.  I read it, and decided I couldn’t.  Our views are diametrically opposed and had I been honest there would have been blood on the carpet.  This was a New Age critique of Calvinism, repeating all the standard anti-Calvinist clichés while at the same creating the illusion of first-hand research by presenting a handful of selective quotations from one or two of the fifty-eight volumes which have come down to us from the Genevan Reformer.  If future scholars adopt a similar procedure they will have no difficulty showing that I disapprove of Sgiathanchs; and that would be, at best, but a half-truth.

Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

Last year’s Carloway Show was a washout.  This year’s was bathed in sunshine, and that, added to the prospect of meeting people you hadn’t seen for years, plus the delights of burgers and candy-floss, was enough to attract some 2,000 visitors to what is now the best window on crofting in the Western Isles.

Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

Historically, the Establishment Principle has meant (1) official state recognition of Christianity as the national religion (2) endowment of the church by the state and (3) civil government having a clearly defined responsibility with regard to religious matters.  This responsibility extended to promoting the peace and unity of the church, ensuring the due observance of gospel ordinances and even the suppression of blasphemy and heresy (Westminster Confession, 23.3)

All this was possible in a world such as 17^th century Scotland, where Christianity was the only religion, there was only one Christian denomination, and politicians and churchmen shared the same faith.  But what can the Establishment Principle mean in a society where Christians are a minority, the church has broken up into literally thousands of denominations and political power lies in the hands of a determined secularism?

Posted in Christian Doctrine, Reviews, Thorn in the Flesh; Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

John Calvin probably never heard of the Western Isles, and many in the Western Isles certainly wish they had never heard of him.

There’s no point in re-traversing the old familiar allegations of his baneful influence on the arts; nor is there any point in defending him from the charge that it was his fault that in the 1970s a man from Barvas had to trudge the seven miles to Galson if he wanted a ‘Christian drink’.  What really bugs me is that scarcely a day passes but the phrase ‘a narrow Calvinism’ walks across my computer-screen.

Posted in Biographical, Historical; Posted 11 years ago by Donald Macleod

Today, Alexander Duff is largely forgotten, his memory eclipsed by his younger contemporary, David Livingston.  Yet when Duff died in 1878, the Times contained a long obituary, Prime Minister Gladstone eulogised him and Scotland mourned as a nation that had lost its noblest son.  Few then would have thought it possible that Duff would ever be forgotten, but forgotten he is, and nowhere more so than in the Highlands.

Posted in Biographical, Thorn in the Flesh; Posted 12 years ago by Donald Macleod