"It is a by-word among us: It was a very plain sermon: and I say again, the plainer, the better." (William Perkins)

Calvin and Luther we know. But who is William Perkins (1588-1602)? Amazingly enough, many modern scholars state that Perkins rivaled both men in his influence on seventeenth-century English Protestants and New England Colonial Puritans. He has been called the "Prince of Puritan Theologians" and "The Principle Architect of Elizabethan Puritanism." So far reaching was Perkins' influence that historian Samuel Morrison notes that "the typical Plymouth colony library comprised a large and a small Bible, Ainsworth's translation of the Psalms, and the works of William ('Painful') Perkins, a favorite theologian."1

The influence Perkins had in his own day and to the future generations of Puritans who would follow was largely due to the fact that he was a prolific writer. R. T. Kendall writes that "by the end of the sixteenth century Perkins had replaced the combined names of Calvin and Beza as one of the most popular authors of religious works in England," witnessing the publication of "seventy-six editions (including repeated issues) during his lifetime, seventy-one of which came after 1590."2

William Perkins was born in England in the village of Marston Jabbet in 1558. He enrolled at Christ's College in Cambridge in 1577. He graduated B.A. in 1581, completed his M.A. in 1584, and from 1584 to 1595 was a fellow of Christ's College. It would be at Cambridge where he would remain for the rest of his life and ministry. Cambridge was the seedbed of English Puritanism and J. I. Packer states that "the Puritan tradition in preaching was created there at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the leaders of the first great evangelical movement in that university -- William Perkins, Paul Baynes, Richard Sibbes, John Cotton, John Preston, Thomas Goodwin and their fellows."3

Legend has it that Perkins lived less than a pious life until he heard a woman tell her child, "Hold your tongue, or I will give you to drunken Perkins yonder."4 Later on Perkins would be known as "Painful Perkins" because of his extraordinary discipline, methodical ways, and diligence in his preaching duties. In addition to a fellowship at Christ's College, Perkins was awarded a lectureship at the great St. Andrew's Church in the 1580's. He held this position until his death in 1602, and the sermons delivered there comprise a great portion of his works.

Perkins' brand of Puritanism caused him very few troubles because his main interests were practical in nature. He was more concerned about effectively ministering to people rather than opposing the authorities, as some of his contemporaries. Perkins displayed a balance in preaching and temperament that allowed him the freedom to preach to the great and small of his day. He always maintained his alliance with the mainstream of the established church of England while at the same time the Puritanism that he shared -- one borne out of a deep Calvinistic piety and urgent concern for vital religion -- endeared him to the masses.