William Perkins (1558-1602)

William Perkins was the bestselling English theologian of the late-Elizabethan era. He wrote about 40 books and treatises, many of which popularised Reformed theology in England and were also influential in Europe and the New England colonies. Besides his popularity as an author, Perkins was a renowned preacher and pastoral counsellor. He spent the first half of his career at Christ’s College Cambridge, first as a student (1577-1583), then as a fellow (1584-1594). At Cambridge Perkins taught and influenced a generation of puritan pastors, and many more through his writings.

In 1594 he resigned his fellowship in order to get married, but continued preaching at St Andrews the Great, the parish church across the road from Christ’s College. Perkins died young, succumbing to illness at the age of 44, however his impact and reputation lasted long after him. Perkins is sometimes labelled the ‘father of Puritanism’, both because of the teaching he championed in his writings, and his lasting influence. Three related themes are particularly worth highlighting.

First, Perkins focused on the doctrine of assurance. In Perkins’ day England officially held to Reformed theology, as expressed in its doctrinal standard (The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 1563), its liturgy (The Book of Common Prayer, 1559), and its two Books of Homilies (1562, 1571). Perkins was acutely aware of the pastoral challenges that come with living in a nation where everyone went to church and was nominally ‘Christian’. On the one hand it bred an enormous amount of presumption instead of sincere repentance and saving faith. At the other extreme, many English people struggled with personal assurance. They understood that the gospel offered assurance, but they struggled with the issue of knowing whether they were personally among God’s chosen people or not. Perkins sought to address these two opposite problems in his teaching on the nature of saving faith and assurance.

Secondly, Perkins emphasised the right reception of Reformed theology. A good example of Perkins’ approach is seen in his catechism The Foundation of Christian Religion (1591). Whereas most catechisms would focus on teaching the content of the faith (the Apostles’ Creed, Lord’s Prayer, and 10 Commandments), Perkins thought that this assumed too much. People can easily memorise the content of the faith but never be converted! His catechism was therefore a kind of a ‘pre-catechism’, focussing on helping people to truly apply these truths ‘inwardly in your hearts and consciences, and outwardly to your lives and conversations’ (Perkins, Works, I:A2v). Perkins had the heart of a teacher and pastor. He dearly wanted people to not merely rote-learn doctrine, but to come to love and obey God and his truth as they learned about him.

Third, Perkins is probably best known for his teaching on predestination. His most famous work was called A Golden Chain (1590). The title alludes to Romans 8:29 and the unbreakable sequence of stages that God’s saving work takes in his people: election → calling → justification → sanctification → glorification. Perkins elaborates on this sequence, as laid out in the well-known diagram published in this book. He also warned of the dark shadow version of this sequence in the path taken by the reprobate (those destined for judgement). These people could fool themselves about their salvation but really only experience a superficial and temporary ‘faith.’ Perkins elaborated on how to distinguish the two in many of his works, emphasising the ‘mustard seed of faith’, the barest regenerate desire that will always eventually grow into mature faith and love of the saviour.

Whereas some English churchmen believed that the elect were utterly unknowable, Perkins believed that the elect are able to detect God’s choice of them through observing God’s work in their lives. Here Perkins’ essentially expands upon Article 17 of the The Thirty-Nine Articles. The reason that knowledge of predestination can be ‘full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons’ is that the experience of sanctification testifies to one’s election. Thus Perkins’ theology emphasised how extremely practical the doctrine of predestination is, connecting abstract and difficult theological truths about God’s sovereign election to the practical life of obedience and piety. If the work of God is an unbreakable chain (as Scripture testifies) then faith always leads to assurance and obedience. However, if the chain is breakable (as some argued in Perkins’ day), then predestination is a dangerous idea that Christians shouldn’t ever think about it, much less have preached to them. This ‘golden chain’ description of salvation is nothing less than the backbone of Reformed theology. If the chain is breakable, then the entire system falls apart.

Perkins offers a fine example of a pastoral theologian who managed to combine deep Reformed theological reflection on the Bible with strong pastoral instincts and a love of people. There is much that we can learn from him today.

Recommended works

William Perkins. A Golden Chain. Edited by Mark Smith and Matthew Payne. Lansvale: Tulip Publishing, forthcoming 2020.
A lightly abridged edition with simplified language and structural diagrams. An excellent place to start for reading Perkins.

Joel Beeke & Greg Salazar (eds.) William Perkins: Architect of Puritanism. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2019.
A series of essays on aspects of Perkins’ work.

William Perkins. The Complete Works of William Perkins. 10 Volumes. Edited by Joel R. Beeke, et al. Grand Rapids: Reformed Heritage Books, 2014-2020.
Reformed Heritage Books has done the church a great service in republishing the complete works of Perkins for the first time in 300 years.

Matthew Payne is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney and is researching the life and work of William Perkins. He has served in pastoral ministry, and teaches in high school and tertiary education settings. Matthew's ministry Stretch seeks to make deep doctrinal content available to ordinary Christians through theology training seminars in local churches, and through online articles.