The Works of William Perkins, Volume 2

by William Perkins

Publisher:

Reformation Heritage

, 2015

Overview

This second volume contains Perkins’s Commentary on Galatians. Perkins preached on Galatians each Lord’s Day for over three years. Ralph Cudworth obtained Perkins’s handwritten notes and edited them for publication. Because Perkins did not complete the commentary, Cudworth supplemented the manuscript with his own comments on chapter 6. This commentary of Perkins and Cudworth on Galatians first appeared in print in 1604, two years after Perkins’s death. Perkins’s other writings had already begun to be gathered and published. When the three-volume edition of his collected works first appeared, Galatians occupied over 320 large folio pages in the second volume (1609). It continued to appear as a part of several editions of the Works through their final 1635 reprint. Evidently, interest in the commentary warranted its publication again as a separate volume in 1617. Following the model taught in his treatise The Art of Prophesying, Perkins’s pattern in commenting on Galatians is to explain the text, deduce a few points of doctrine from it, answer objections raised against the doctrine, and then give practical uses of what the passage teaches.

Contents

Top Highlights

“It may be objected that Paul spoke some things of himself, and not from the Lord, ‘not the Lord, but I’ (1 Cor. 7:12). Answer. The meaning is, not the Lord by any express commandment, but I by collection and interpretation of Scripture, and that by the assistance of God’s Spirit (v. 40). Seeing then the writings of the apostles are the immediate and mere⁴ word of God, they must be obeyed as if they had been written without man by the finger of God.” (Page 16)

“The catholic church our mother is to be sought for and to be found in the true visible churches, the certain marks whereof are three. The preaching of the word of God out of the writings of the prophets and apostles with obedience (John 10:27; Eph. 2:20). True invocation of God the Father in the only name of Christ by the assistance of the Spirit (Acts 9:14; 1 Cor. 1:2). The right use of the sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 28:19).” (Page 309)

“For if Christ by His grace make works to justify, then is He not only a Savior, but also an instrument to make us saviors of ourselves—He being the first and principal Savior, and we subordinate saviors unto Him. But if Christ have a partner in the work of justification and salvation, He is no perfect Christ.” (Page 32)

“Ambition so fills the mind with vanity and the heart with worldly desires that it cannot think, or desire to please God” (Page 38)

“we learn that the chief good things to be sought for are the favor of God in Christ, and the peace of a good conscience” (Page 22)

Product Details

• Title: The Works of William Perkins, Volume 2
• Author: William Perkins
• Series: The Works of William Perkins
• Volume: 2
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2020
• Pages: 629
• Era: era:reformation
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Puritans; Theology › Early works to 1800; Bible. N.T. Galatians › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9781601784230, 1601784236
• Resource ID: LLS:WRKSWLLMPRKNSS02
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-08T05:05:36Z

About William Perkins

William Perkins (1558–1602) was a clergyman and Cambridge theologian who was one of the foremost leaders of the Puritan movement in the Church of England. He earned his BA in 1581 and a MA in 1584 from Christ’s College in Cambridge. From 1584 until his death, Perkins served as lecturer, or preacher, at Great St. Andrew’s Church, Cambridge, an influential pulpit across the street from Christ’s College. He also served as a teaching fellow at Christ’s College, catechized students at Corpus Christi College on Thursday afternoons, and worked as a spiritual counselor on Sunday afternoons. His writings were translated into several European languages and greatly influenced British and American Reformed theology, the Dutch Further Reformation, and European Pietism.