The Law, Christian Graces, and the Lord's Prayer

First published in 1700, The Christian's Reasonable Service (5 vols.) had twenty Dutch editions in the eighteenth century alone. The work expresses what God requires of man, and particularly of the Christian, to serve Him in spirit and truth, intelligently, rationally, and in harmony and response to God's revelation of Himself in His Word. With a decidedly Puritan flavor, it represents reformed and scholastic experiential Christianity at its best. Wilhelmus à Brakel systematically moves through the main doctrines of the Bible with the intention of seeing the minds of God's people renewed for the purpose of promoting godliness.

This fourth volume contains a detailed treatment of applied soteriology (Christian life), which includes an exposition of the moral law in the ten commandments, Christian graces, and the Lord's Prayer.

"With its splendid balance of reformed doctrinal statement and application to Christian life and personal piety, à Brakel's The Christian's Reasonable Service provides a magnificent illustration of the theological project associated with the late 17th-century development of the Dutch Nadere Reformatie, or 'The Further Reformation.' Although it abounds in apt definitions and detailed expositions, this theology was not aimed at academia but was intended to educate the laity in both faith and practice."