Upcoming New Title From the Northampton Press

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Don Kistler

Puritan Board Sophomore
Our next title will be "The Covenant of Grace" by the Scottish great John Colquhoun. It's 544 pages with a foreword by Sinclair Ferguson. The retail price will be $35. Your price will be $25. It's going to the printers next week and should be available in late March or early April. Giving you folks a heads up now.

Don Kistler
 
Our next title will be "The Covenant of Grace" by the Scottish great John Colquhoun. It's 544 pages with a foreword by Sinclair Ferguson. The retail price will be $35. Your price will be $25. It's going to the printers next week and should be available in late March or early April. Giving you folks a heads up now.

Don Kistler

A John Colquhoun reprint is always news to rejoice over. I will send you an email on Monday about adding this title.
 
How strange that I should click on this thread after having just begun to read the book in question. I would second what Robert says that to see anything by John Colquhoun reprinted is certainly cause for rejoicing.
 
Here are the closing words of the author's dedication to his congregation. May God use the forthcoming reprint in like manner:

That the Lord Jesus Christ, with whom is the residue of the Spirit, may render the following Treatise, the blessed means of convincing and converting sinners, and of increasing the knowledge, confirming the faith, and promoting the holiness of saints; and especially, that he may make it highly useful to YOU, is the sincere and ardent prayer of, Your affectionate Servant in the Gospel,

JOHN COLQUHOUN.

Leith, 12th June, 1818.

John Colquhoun, A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace (Edinburgh: Ogle, Allardice and Thomson, 1818), vi.
 
How does John Colquhoun's covenant theology compare to other covenant theologians such as Witsius, Jonathan Edwards, and Bavinck? That is, does he make a Covenant of Redemption, Covenant of Grace distinction similar to Witsius, Edwards, and Bavinck? Or to put my question another way, would his covenant theology be similar to Vos' classic essay "The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology"?
 
How does John Colquhoun's covenant theology compare to other covenant theologians such as Witsius, Jonathan Edwards, and Bavinck? That is, does he make a Covenant of Redemption, Covenant of Grace distinction similar to Witsius, Edwards, and Bavinck? Or to put my question another way, would his covenant theology be similar to Vos' classic essay "The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology"?

Obviously, I will be better placed to answer the question when I have finished the book. His profession of indebtedness to Thomas Boston, however, would indicate that he was a two covenant man.
 
Obviously, I will be better placed to answer the question when I have finished the book. His profession of indebtedness to Thomas Boston, however, would indicate that he was a two covenant man.
In another post you said:
It is, however, proper to acknowledge that the Authors, to whom much of the doctrinal part of this Treatise, is indebted for its materials, are, Cloppenburg, Witsius, Turretine, Moor, Erskine, Brown, Hervey, Gib, Muirhead, Gill, and Boston.
I guess it depends if he was more indebted to Witsius, or more indebted to Boston :)
 
@Stephen L Smith - I have just come across a section in the introduction, where, after talking about the covenant of works, he says that the covenant of grace before it was published in history was made between God and Christ as the second Adam. I will make a blog post out of the relevant extract, but he clearly seems to agree with Thomas Boston.
 
I will make a blog post out of the relevant extract, but he clearly seems to agree with Thomas Boston.
If he agrees with Boston and is a two covenant man, then surely our Lord's words in Mark 12:34 apply to him "You are not far from the kingdom of God." :) Jonathan Edwards thought Boston was deficient on this. I have found Carl Bogue's essay on Edwards view of the C of R and the C of G very insightful, more so than Boston.
 
If he agrees with Boston and is a two covenant man, then surely our Lord's words in Mark 12:34 apply to him "You are not far from the kingdom of God." :) Jonathan Edwards thought Boston was deficient on this. I have found Carl Bogue's essay on Edwards view of the C of R and the C of G very insightful, more so than Boston.

There is no mention of Thomas Boston in that article (at least, nothing showed up in the search that I did). Where did Jonathan Edwards express displeasure with Boston's views?
 
In fact, the Carl Bogue article does not really prove what is alleged above. The author states that "According to Edwards the covenants of redemption and grace are essentially one, yet distinguished." Yet this view is basically the same as what Thomas Boston argued in his book on the covenant of grace: "The covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace, are not two distinct covenants, but one and the same covenant." (See this post for more.)
 
And here is an extended quotation from one of Jonathan Edwards Miscellanies cited in the article, which is entitled "Covenant of Redemption and Grace":

So that altho undoubtedly besides the marriage covenant between Christ and his church there is a covenant that God the Father makes with believers of which Jesus Christ is the Mediatour; yet this covenant is in no wise properly a distinct covenant from the covenant God makes with Christ himself as the believers’ head and surety and that he made with him before the world was. God the Father makes no covenant and enters into no treaty with fallen man distinctly by themselves; he will transact with them in such a friendly way no other way than by and in Christ Jesus as members and as it were parts of him. (“Miscellanies,” no. 1091, Yale MSS.) ...

Summarising Edwards's position, Dr Bogue states, "The distinctive feature of the covenant of grace is in its historical manifestation of the eternal covenant of redemption. It is not new in a substantive way." Again, this view is substantially the same as that of Thomas Boston.
 
Summarising Edwards's position, Dr Bogue states, "The distinctive feature of the covenant of grace is in its historical manifestation of the eternal covenant of redemption. It is not new in a substantive way." Again, this view is substantially the same as that of Thomas Boston.
Daniel, I am more knowledgeable of Edwards than Boston on this. Do you have Bogue's book on Edwards covenant theology? If so read chapter 6 and 7. Chapter 6 emphasises that Edwards saw a real distinction between the C or R and the C of G. But he equally said the distinction should not be pressed too far.

I should have emphasised Edwards clearly saw Boston as an excellent theologian. The difference, as I see it, was noted in a Tabletalk article a couple of years ago: "Edwards was nothing if not careful and precise regarding his articulation of covenant theology. He even took issue with Thomas Boston’s (1676–1732) tendency to conflate the covenants of redemption and grace as though they were basically synonymous. Edwards understood that the conditions of obedience in the two were different and could not be fulfilled by the same parties. In the covenant of redemption, the task before Christ was to come to earth in obedience to the Father and obey what the first Adam had broken in the covenant of works. In the covenant of grace, the condition for the elect in Christ is faith in the mediator, who made the covenant of grace possible in the first place."

So coming back to Bogue's quote ""According to Edwards the covenants of redemption and grace are essentially one, yet distinguished", he details in ch 6 a distinction is important providing it is not pushed too far.
 
Here is the Table of Contents. Note chapter 11.


CONTENTS


Foreword by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson vi


The Dedication xi


The Introduction xiv


Chapter 1 1

The Parties Contracting in the Covenant of Grace



Chapter 2 48

The Making of the Covenant of Grace


Chapter 3 97

The Conditions of the Covenant of Grace


Chapter 4 147

The Promises of the Covenant of Grace



Chapter 5 253

The Administration of the Covenant of Grace



Chapter 6 339

The Dispensations of the Covenant of Grace



Chapter 7 361

The Way in Which a Sinner Enters Into the Covenant of Grace So as to Become Personally Interested in It



Chapter 8 422

Evidences of One’s Being Personally Instated in

the Covenant of Grace


Chapter 9 456

The Seals of the Covenant of Grace



Chapter 10 484

The Properties of the Covenant of Grace


Chapter 11 500

The Points of Difference Between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works


Chapter 12 507

The Conclusion
 
FYI, Colquhoun's book on "The Covenant of Works" is being proofread now for publication in the not-too-distant future. That will largely depend on how well this one sells (hint, hint, hint)!
 
I was talking to a young guy at church this evening (a 19-year-old ex-RC) who was asking me for the best book on the doctrine of the covenants after I mentioned that I was reading John Colquhoun's work. He told me that he had read a couple of beginner/intermediate level books, so I was very happy to recommend that he read Thomas Boston's A View of the Covenant of Grace. :)
 
This book can now be ordered at northamptonpress.org. It is at the printers now. The shopping cart on the website is up and running.
 
I just approved the proofs of this title. It is supposed to ship to me on March 13. So I should be able to ship it out to any of you by March 18.
 
This book by Colquhoun will be here Tuesday, 3/17 and will be ready to ship the following day. I've only received a handful of orders thus far.
 
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