[A golden chaine: or The description of theologie containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods word; (Printed by Iohn Legat, printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, 1600)]
William Perkins, born in the year of our Lord 1558 in Marston Jabbett, Warwickshire, did rise from modest origins to become a shining luminary in the reformed Church of England. Educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he attained the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, Perkins was elected Fellow of that College, a station in which he diligently exercised his gifts in the sacred discipline and did greatly profit the students in sound doctrine and holy conversation. Ordained within the ecclesiastical polity of the Church of England, Perkins served faithfully as lecturer at the renowned Church of Great St. Andrew’s, Cambridge. There, by the power of the Spirit, he did powerfully expound the Scriptures, laboring to reform men’s lives and to bring them into the obedience of Christ. His ministry was marked by an extraordinary zeal for experimental divinity, wherein he pressed upon men the necessity of true conversion, effectual calling, and a sanctified walk. Perkins excelled in the art of casuistry, providing godly counsel for tender consciences perplexed with the weight of sin, as demonstrated in his manifold treatises, among which The Golden Chaine and The Arte of Prophesying are eminent. He contended earnestly for the doctrines of grace, upholding predestination, the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement, and the authority of Scripture, all in the service of God’s glory and the edification of His elect. He departed this life in Cambridge in 1602, leaving a legacy both deep and wide, whereby his writings continue to guide souls in the straight and narrow path of godliness.
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Certain new Divines of our age have of late erected up a new doctrine of Predestination; in which, fearing, belike, lest they should make God both unjust and unmerciful, they do in the distribution of the causes of salvation and damnation, turn them up side down; as may appear by their description in this table.
But this their doctrine has some foul errors and defects, the which I, according as I shall be able, will briefly touch.
“There is a certain universal or general election, whereby God, without any either restraint, or exception of persons, has decreed to redeem by Christ, and to reconcile unto himself all mankind wholly, fallen in Adam, yea every singular person, as well the Reprobate, as the Elect.”
The very name of Election, does fully confute this: for none can be said to be elected, if so be that God would have all men elected in Christ. For he that elects, or makes choice, cannot be said to take all: neither can he that accepts of all, be said to make choice only of some.
Objection:
“Election is nothing else but dilection, or love: but this we know, that God loves all his creatures; therefore he elects all his creatures.”
Answer. I. I deny that to elect is to love, but to ordain and appoint to love. Rom. 9:13. II. God does love all his creatures, yet not all equally, but every one in their place.
Furthermore, this position does flatly repugn the most plain places of holy Scripture. Tit. 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purge us to be a peculiar people unto himself. John 10 I give my life for my sheep.
Exception:
“All men are the sheep of Christ.”
Answer. John adds, And my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, neither shall they perish. Eph. 5:23 Christ is the head of the Church, and the same is the Savior of his body. v. 25. Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it. Redemption and remission of sins, is the inheritance of the Saints, and of such as are made heirs of the kingdom of Christ, Col. 1:13.
Again, look for whom Christ is an Advocate, and to them only is he a Redeemer: for redemption and intercession, which are parts of Christ’s priesthood, the one is as general and large as the other, and are so surely united and fastened together, as that one cannot be without the other. But Christ is only an Advocate of the faithful. John 17 in that his solemn prayer, he first prays for his own, namely, his disciples, elected, not only to the Apostleship, but also to eternal life: and then, v. 20. he prays likewise for them that should believe in him by their word. Now against these, he opposes the world, for which he prays not that it may attain eternal life. And, Rom. 8 Who shall accuse God’s elect? Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, makes intercession for us. Furthermore, the members of Christ’s Church, are called the Redeemed of the Lord. Psal. 87. Therefore this privilege is not given to all alike.
Exception:
“This universal reconciliation is not in respect of man, but God himself, who, both made it for all, and offers it to all.”