Having concluded my modest effort to make William Perkins more known via my particular attention given to his life and ministry, I will now continue on with that same effort via emphasis given to his preaching ministry. Please note again that while there are some misspelled words by modern English standards, they are accurate quotations of the seventeenth-century English resources utilized. Enjoy!William Perkins Preaching MinistrY
Synopsis of the Preacher
As influential a minister, scholar, and writer as Perkins was, his forte was undeniably his God-given ability to preach from the scriptures. His preaching was biblical, expository, lucid, practical, and very powerful. It is said of his preaching that they were all law and all Gospel. All law to expose the sinner’s sin and all Gospel to offer God’s free pardon for that same sin. Moreover, he was quite successful at it. Hence, his preaching was an awakening ministry that aroused sinners to perceive the certainty of their eternal damnation and its only solution through God’s gracious salvation.
Perkins was a sought after preacher. Clark notes that upon the discovery that he preached to the prisoners in Cambridge, which brought about the spiritual renovation of numerous convicts, “many resorted to that place out of the neighbor-Parishes to hear him.” Subsequently, he was chosen as the lecturer/preacher to Great St. Andrew’s parish church in Cambridge, a place of prominent pulpit ministry, where he preached for the remaining years of his life.
Perkins was also an effective soul-caring preacher. His preaching was not so plain that the erudite could not admire them. Yet, they were not so complex that the unlearned could not profit from them. He excelled at ministering to broken souls and those battling with doubtful and troubling consciences. Hence, it was common that “the afflicted in spirit came far and near to him, and received much satisfaction, and comfort by him.” His preaching was truly multifarious in that sense.
Perkins’ extraordinary eloquence was palpable ever since his earliest preaching years. Those familiar with Perkins probably came across the following notation by Fuller: “He would pronounce the word Damne with such an emphasis as left a dolefull Echo in his auditours eares a good while after. And when Catechist of Christ Colledge, in expounding the Commandments, applied them to home, able almost to make his hearers hearts fall down, and haires to stand upright.” Yet, as ingenuous as this report may be, it is actually an inexact representation of Perkins’ the preacher in entirety. Fuller adds that as this ardent young preacher seasoned and matured, “he altered his voice, and remitted much of his former rigidnesse, often professing that to preach mercy was that proper office of the Ministers of the Gospel.” So, his progressing effectiveness as a preacher was more owing to his attention to substance rather than his style.
Perkins was also a preacher who set his heart to practice the scriptures and not only to study and preach/teach the scriptures (cf. Ezra 7:10). In other words, he was a pious preacher—one who perseveringly paid close attention to his life and doctrine (cf. 1 Tim 4:16). Fuller points out that “Amongst those his many vertues worthy our imitation, his humility was eminent, in condescending to the capacity of his meanest Auditors.” Clark states that “his life was so pious, and spotlesse, that Malice was afraid to bite his credit into which he knew that her teeth could not enter.” Even when his friend prayed for the alleviation of pain caused by his deleterious kidney stones, Perkins requested, “Pray not for an ease of my Torment, but for an encrease of my Patience."
Perkins piety fused with his penetrating preaching influenced the ensuing generations of Puritan preachers. Schaefer writes that “William Haller, who, along with Perry Miller and M.M. Knappen, helped bring Puritan studies out of scholarly obsolescence, coined the phrase, ‘the spiritual brotherhood’ for this younger generation of preachers who absorbed the instruction of those like Chaderton and his pupil Perkins.” Moreover, a series of “Puritan worthies” also developed because of Perkins’s ministry. For instance, Perkins' ministry was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of Paul Baynes, his successor at St. Andrews. Baynes in turn was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of the famous Puritan Richard Sibbes, considered the second William Perkins due to his influence upon the rising generation of his contemporary Puritans. Sibbes was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of John Cotton. Cotton was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of John Preston. Preston was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of both Thomas Shephard and Thomas Goodwin. Peter Lewis writes that it was through Perkins’ “thorough and typically Puritan standards of expository preaching and strict and pious living, the younger generation of Puritans was immeasurably influenced by ‘Perkins our wonder.'"
Notes (see William Perkins' Life & Ministry posts for a fuller bibliography for some of the sources listed below):
Perkins was a sought after preacher. Clark notes that upon the discovery that he preached to the prisoners in Cambridge, which brought about the spiritual renovation of numerous convicts, “many resorted to that place out of the neighbor-Parishes to hear him.” Subsequently, he was chosen as the lecturer/preacher to Great St. Andrew’s parish church in Cambridge, a place of prominent pulpit ministry, where he preached for the remaining years of his life.
Perkins was also an effective soul-caring preacher. His preaching was not so plain that the erudite could not admire them. Yet, they were not so complex that the unlearned could not profit from them. He excelled at ministering to broken souls and those battling with doubtful and troubling consciences. Hence, it was common that “the afflicted in spirit came far and near to him, and received much satisfaction, and comfort by him.” His preaching was truly multifarious in that sense.
Perkins’ extraordinary eloquence was palpable ever since his earliest preaching years. Those familiar with Perkins probably came across the following notation by Fuller: “He would pronounce the word Damne with such an emphasis as left a dolefull Echo in his auditours eares a good while after. And when Catechist of Christ Colledge, in expounding the Commandments, applied them to home, able almost to make his hearers hearts fall down, and haires to stand upright.” Yet, as ingenuous as this report may be, it is actually an inexact representation of Perkins’ the preacher in entirety. Fuller adds that as this ardent young preacher seasoned and matured, “he altered his voice, and remitted much of his former rigidnesse, often professing that to preach mercy was that proper office of the Ministers of the Gospel.” So, his progressing effectiveness as a preacher was more owing to his attention to substance rather than his style.
Perkins was also a preacher who set his heart to practice the scriptures and not only to study and preach/teach the scriptures (cf. Ezra 7:10). In other words, he was a pious preacher—one who perseveringly paid close attention to his life and doctrine (cf. 1 Tim 4:16). Fuller points out that “Amongst those his many vertues worthy our imitation, his humility was eminent, in condescending to the capacity of his meanest Auditors.” Clark states that “his life was so pious, and spotlesse, that Malice was afraid to bite his credit into which he knew that her teeth could not enter.” Even when his friend prayed for the alleviation of pain caused by his deleterious kidney stones, Perkins requested, “Pray not for an ease of my Torment, but for an encrease of my Patience."
Perkins piety fused with his penetrating preaching influenced the ensuing generations of Puritan preachers. Schaefer writes that “William Haller, who, along with Perry Miller and M.M. Knappen, helped bring Puritan studies out of scholarly obsolescence, coined the phrase, ‘the spiritual brotherhood’ for this younger generation of preachers who absorbed the instruction of those like Chaderton and his pupil Perkins.” Moreover, a series of “Puritan worthies” also developed because of Perkins’s ministry. For instance, Perkins' ministry was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of Paul Baynes, his successor at St. Andrews. Baynes in turn was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of the famous Puritan Richard Sibbes, considered the second William Perkins due to his influence upon the rising generation of his contemporary Puritans. Sibbes was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of John Cotton. Cotton was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of John Preston. Preston was instrumental in the spiritual conversion of both Thomas Shephard and Thomas Goodwin. Peter Lewis writes that it was through Perkins’ “thorough and typically Puritan standards of expository preaching and strict and pious living, the younger generation of Puritans was immeasurably influenced by ‘Perkins our wonder.'"
Notes (see William Perkins' Life & Ministry posts for a fuller bibliography for some of the sources listed below):
- Peter Lewis, The Genius of Puritanism (Hayward Heath: Carey Publications, 1975), 20-21.
- Hulse, 44.
- Clark, 415.
- Ibid., 415.
- Ibid., 415.
- Fuller, The Holy State and the Profane State, 82.
- Ibid., 82.
- Clark, 417.
- Schaefer, 41.
- Ibid., 41.
- Lewis, 24.
- Schaefer, 41.
- Lewis, p.21.
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