November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Protestant Reformed Theological Journal
The Notion of Preparatory Grace
in the Puritans
by Martyn McGeown
I. Introduction
Preparatory grace is a notion that crept into the theology of
many of the Puritans. Although the Puritans insisted that man is
totally depraved and unable to contribute anything to his salvation,
“as early as 1570” some English theologians began to teach
that the sinner “might somehow dispose himself for saving grace.” 1
By this they meant, generally (with some variation), that an unregenerate
sinner could prepare himself for the grace of regeneration
by a serious consideration of his sins in the light of God’s
law. By careful self-examination the sinner could and ought to
stir himself up to loathe his own sinfulness and to desire mercy,
and by a judicious use of means (especially attendance upon the
preaching of the gospel) he could put himself in the position of
being a likely candidate for the new birth. Most of the Puritans
who advocated such views insisted that God prepares the sinner
in this way. They were loath to suggest that man can do this unaided
by the Spirit. However, they also taught that this preparatory
grace was often present in reprobates, so that preparation for
regeneration did not necessarily lead to salvation in the end.
II. Early Puritan Preparationists
A. William Perkins (1558-1602)
William Perkins, although he was an ardent predestinarian,
was one of the earliest of the Puritans to be infected with this idea
of preparationism. He taught that the Holy Spirit by the ministry
of the gospel (and especially the law), prepares a sinner for re-
1. Norman Pettit, The Heart Prepared: Grace and Conversion in
Puritan Spiritual Life (Yale University Press: New Haven and London,
1966), p. 3.
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Vol. 41, No. 1