"This work provides a helpful tool for ministers, scholars, church leaders, and all who love the Reformed faith. I am grateful for its availability."—R. C. Sproul
This unique reference volume will have lasting, practical value for students of the Reformed tradition. For the first time, seven important confessional statements produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been harmonized in a single volume. Three strands of Reformed churches in England are represented:
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Dutch-German: the Belgic Confessions of Faith (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and the Canons of Dort (1618-19)
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Swiss: the Second Helvetic Confession (1566)
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Scottish-English: the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47) and the Larger and Shorter Westminster Catechisms (1647)
This book's practical value is further enhanced by its arrangement. The various confessions of faith have been arranged in parallel columns under the traditional categories and subject headings of systematic theology. Readers will find it easy to study and compare the formulations on particular points of doctrine, such as the Trinity, justification, Christian liberty, and baptism. The editors chose this approach, believing that it emphasizes the fundamental agreement that exists among the churches of the Reformed tradition with regard to the essential matters of faith and doctrine.
Doctors Beeke and Ferguson also provide a historical introduction to the confessions and the respective conditions under which they were framed. For those who desire to do further research, an extensive annotated bibliography of Reformed theological writings is included.
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