[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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I. A reprobate hath in his mind a certain knowledge of God, of common equity among men, of the difference of good from bad: and this is partly from nature, partly from the contemplation of God's creatures, in which the wisdom, the power, the love, the mercy, the majesty of God is perceived.
II. This knowledge is only general and imperfect, much like the ruins of a prince's palace: it is not sufficient to direct him in doing of a good work. For example, he knoweth that there is a God, and that this God must be worshipped: come to particulars, who God is? what a one he is? how he must be worshipped? Here his knowledge faileth him, and he is altogether uncertain what to do to please God.
III. By reason of this knowledge, the reprobate doth give consent, and in his heart subscribeth to the equity of God's law; as may appear by the saying of Medea:
Video meliora proboque; deteriora sequor. That is, I know what is best to be done, and like it; yet I do the worst.
This approbation in the reprobate cometh from constraint; and is joined with a disliking of the law: in the elect being called, the approbation of the law proceedeth from a willing and ready mind, and is joined with love and liking.
IV. And by reason of this light of nature, a mere natural man, and a reprobate may be subject to some temptations: for example, he may be tempted of the devil, and of his own corrupt flesh, to believe that there is no God at all. As Ovid saith of himself:
Eleg. 3. Solicitor nullos esse putare deos: That is, I am often tempted to think there is no God.
V. The reprobate for all this knowledge, in his heart may be an atheist, as David saith:
The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.
And a man may now a days find houses and towns full of such fools: Nay, this glimmering light of nature, except it be preserved with good bringing up, with diligent instruction, and with good company, it will be so darkened, that a man shall know very little, and lead a life like a very beast: as experience telleth, and David knew very well: who saith:
Man is in honor, and understandeth not; he is like to beasts that perish.