November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Preparatory Grace in the Puritans
pared for regenerating grace. “Such opinions,” writes Shedd,
“must be given up and scriptural views must be adopted before
the Holy Spirit will create a new heart.” 69 Even that may not be
enough. If the “orthodox truth is held in unrighteousness,” that
attitude must be changed too, so the sinner is better prepared. 70
After all that preparation, the sinner having become a “serious
anxious inquirer” 71 and one who is “endeavoring to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ,” 72 it is only “in the highest degree probable”
for him, using common grace, to be saved. 73 Where is the
comfort in that
Herman Witsius (1636-1708) treats preparationism in The
Economy of the Covenants. Witsius does not believe that a man
can prepare himself for regeneration. Since the unregenerate are
evil trees, they cannot produce good fruit (Matt. 7:18). Therefore,
“unless a person can be thought to prepare himself for grace
by sin,” preparationism cannot be admitted. 74 Preparationism, insists
Witsius, is a semi-Pelagian doctrine. The semi-Pelagians
taught that a sinner can come to grace
… by asking, seeking, knocking; and that, in some at least, before
they are born again, there is a kind of repentance, together with a
sorrow for sin … a beginning of faith, and an initial love of God, and
a desire of grace. 75
That certainly sounds like the teaching of some of the theologians
that we have considered above. Witsius takes issue with
the view of Perkins. Concerning his view he writes:
69. Shedd, Theology, vol. 2, p. 518.
70. Shedd, Theology, vol. 2, p. 518.
71. Shedd, Theology, vol. 2, p. 518.
72. Shedd, Theology, vol. 2, p. 528, italics added.
73. Shedd, Theology, vol. 2, p. 526.
74. Herman Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants Between God
and Man Comprehending a Complete Body of Divinity (P&R Publishing:
Phillipsburg, NJ, repr. 1990), p. 361.
75. Witsius, The Economy, p. 363.
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