Works of William Perkins: Volume Six

The Works of William Perkins fills a major gap in Reformed and Puritan theology. Though Perkins is best known today for his writings on predestination, he also wrote prolifically on many subjects. His works filled over two thousand large pages of small print in three folio volumes and were reprinted several times in the decades after his death. His complete works, however, have not been in print since the mid-seventeenth century. This modern typeset edition of the Works includes four volumes of Perkins's expositions of Scripture, three volumes of his doctrinal and polemical treatises, and three volumes of his practical writings. This sixth volume begins with three important works on predestination. The first is A Golden Chain, which treats the main points of theology with an emphasis on 'the order of the causes of salvation and damnation.' The second is A Christian and Plain Treatise of the Manner and Order of Predestination, which gives a strident defense of the sovereignty of God in election and reprobation. The third, A Treatise on God's Free Grace and Man's Free Will, examines the responsibility of man and how that harmonizes with the will of God in ordaining all things. These treatises showcase Perkins's scholarly and pastoral concerns on maters vital to the salvation of sinners. Perkins's A Fruitful Dialogue Concerning the End of the World takes up the folly of pagan approaches to knowledge, particularly astrological predictions about the end of the world. This is followed by two treatises regarding godly ways of training one's memory. In A Short Treatise that Fully Explains Dickson's Wicked System of Artificial Memory, Perkins criticizes Alexander Dickson's art of memory as spiritually dangerous. He then provides a reliable approach in A Handbook on Memory and the Most Reliable Method of Accurate Recall. These two works on memory demonstrate Perkins's dedication to Ramistic methodology.