Ebook
The doctrine of glorification is a biblical teaching that has been neglected within the Protestant church and, therefore, underdeveloped in our day. For whatever reason that may be, glorification is a doctrine that will affect every aspect of one's overarching theology, especially the doctrine of soteriology. What one ultimately believes about the future will significantly impact their present. This book shows that this neglect or lack of development has not always been the case within the church, especially within Reformed Protestantism. Looking at one of the most influential second-generation reformers and theologians of the English Reformation, William Perkins (1558-1602), it becomes evident that embedded within the Reformed Scholastic tradition lays a robust development and understanding of the doctrine of glorification. Perkins formulated and wrote a great deal on the final state of the believer in Christ, what his rewards are in Christ, and, ultimately, his complete and final transformation and conformity into his image. This book is a historical and systematic treatment of William Perkins's celebrated hope, eschatological glory.
“What we believe about the future determines how we live in the present. Convinced of this, William Perkins regularly devoted his pen and pulpit to a careful examination of the believer’s eschatological hope. In the present volume, Matthew Hartline brings Perkins’s pastoral emphasis to light. It was my privilege to read this work in its various stages of development, and it is now my pleasure to recommend the final product to you.”
—J. Stephen Yuille, professor of church history and spiritual formation, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
“Thanks be to God for the life and teaching of William Perkins, and thanks be to God for Matthew Hartline’s clear and compelling presentation of Perkins’s theology of a believer’s future glorification. Read this book if you are a student of Perkins; read it if you yearn to be crowned with immortal glory.”
—Donald S. Whitney, professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“Matthew Hartline has done us a great service by gleaning from all of William Perkins’s corpus to show that for Perkins all the Christian life is oriented towards the believer’s eternal dwelling with God. In the process, Hartline provides a succinct overview of all of Perkins’s theology, proving Perkins’s statement that ‘Theology is the science of living blessedly forever’ to be true. Readers will be encouraged and challenged to follow the father of Puritanism’s example.”
—Shawn D. Wright, professor of church history, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Matthew Hutton Hartline is a pastor at First Baptist Church in Cobden, Illinois. He is a contributing author of Faith Working Through Love: The Theology of William Perkins (2022).