[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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Hitherto we have entreated of sin, wherewith all mankind is infected: in the next place succeedeth the punishment of sin, which is threefold:
The first is in this life, and that diverse ways:
The first concerneth the body, either in:
I. The provision with trouble for the things of this life, (Gen. 3:17).
II. Or a proneness to disease.
Matt. 9:2 Son be of good comfort, thy sins be forgiven thee. John 5:14 Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing fall upon thee. Deut. 28:21,22 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he hath consumed thee from the land, &c.
III. Or shame of nakedness, (Gen. 3:7).
IV. Or in women’s pains in childbirth.
Gen. 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly increase thy sorrows, and conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.
The soul is punished with trembling of conscience, care, trouble, hardness of heart, and madness.
Deut. 28:28 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishing of heart.
The whole man is punished:
I. With fearful subjection to the regiment of Satan.
Col. 1:13 Which freed us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Heb. 2:14 He also himself took part with them, that he might destroy through death, him that had power of death, that is, the devil.
II. A separation from the fellowship of God, and trembling at his presence.
Eph. 4:18 Having their cogitation darkened, and being strangers from the life of God. Gen. 3:10 I heard thy voice in the garden, and was afraid, because I was naked, therefore I hid myself.
III. Upon a man's goods, diverse calamities and damages.
Deut. 28:29 Thou shalt ever be oppressed with wrong, and be spoiled, and no man shall succor thee, &c. to the end of the chapter.
To this place may be referred distinction of lordships: and of this cometh a care to enlarge them, and bargaining with all manner of civil servitudes.
IV. The loss of that lordly authority, which man had over all creatures; also their vanity, which is not only a weakening, but also a corrupting of that excellency of the virtues and powers which God at the first put into them.
Rom. 8:20,21 The creature is subject to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him, which hath subdued it under hope, &c.
V. In a man's name, infamy and ignominy sometimes after his death. Jer. 24:9.
The second, is at the last gasp, namely death, or a change like unto death:
Rom. 6:23 The wages of sin is death.
The third is, after this life, even eternal destruction from God’s presence, and his exceeding glory:
2 Thess. 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting perdition, from the presence of God, and the glory of his power.