[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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The fall of Angels, is that by which the understanding, pointing at a more excellent estate, and of its own accord approving the same, together with the will making especial choice thereof, they, albeit they might freely by their integrity, have chosen the contrary, were the sole instruments of their fall from God.
2 Pet. 2.4. If God spared not the angels which sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept unto damnation, &c. Jude 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, &c. John 8.44. He was a murderer from the beginning, and continued not in the truth: for there is no truth in him.
In the fall of Angels [in particular], consider:
First, their corruption, arising from the fall, which is the depravation of their nature; and is either that fearful malice and hatred, by which they set themselves against God, or their insatiable desire to destroy mankind; to the effecting whereof, they neglect neither force nor fraud.
1 John 3.8. He that committeth sin, is of the devil, because the devil sinned from the beginning. For this cause was the Son of God revealed, to dissolve the works of the devil. 1 Pet. 5.8. Your adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Eph. 6.12. You strive not against flesh and blood but against Principalities, and powers, and worldly governors, the princes of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses, which are in supercelestial things.
Their degree, and diversity: for of these Angels, one is chief, and the rest attendants.
I. The chief is Beelzebub, prince of the rest of the devils & the world, far above them all in malice.
Matt. 25.41. Away from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil & his angels. 2 Cor. 4.4. Whose minds the god of this world hath blinded. Rev. 12.7. And there was war in heaven, Michael, and his Angels fought with the dragon, & the dragon & his angels fought.
II. Ministering angels, are such as wait upon the devil, in accomplishing his wickedness.
Their punishment. God, after their fall, gave them over to perpetual torments, without any hope of pardon.
Jude verse 6. 2 Pet. 2.4. God spared not the Angels that had sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept unto damnation.
This he did:
I. First, to admonish men, what great punishment they deserved.
II. Secondly, to show, that grievous sins must more grievously be punished.
The fall of Angels was the more grievous, because both their nature was more able to resist, and the devil was the first founder of sin. Their punishment is easier, or more grievous.
I. Their easier punishment is double:
(I.) The first, is their dejection from heaven.
2 Pet. 2.4. God cast the Angels that sinned into hell.
(II.) The second, is the abridging and limitation of their power.
Job 1.12. The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thine hand, only upon him lay not thine hand.
II. The more grievous pain, is that torment in the deep, which is endless & infinite, in time and measure.
Luke 8.31. And they besought him, that he would not command them to go down into the deep.