The Labors of a Godly and Learned Divine, William Perkins: Including Previously Unpublished Sermons

Collecting material from five different manuscript sources, Matthew N. Payne and J. Stephen Yuille present sermon material from William Perkins that helps us understand how his original listeners heard the grand preacher. Viewing the transcribed sermons enlightens us to the editorial process that eventually turned Perkins’s homilies into published books and commentaries. Yet this collection also contains sermons that never turned into published books, opening up a new window into some of Perkins’s thoughts that has been inaccessible for hundreds of years. Taken as a companion to The Works of William Perkins, this volume is indispensable for all who wish to grasp the ministry of one of England’s greatest practical theologians.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Overview of Documents

Master Perkins’s Prayer before His Sermons

1. Publishing Perkins’s Works

2. Robert Hill Transcription

3. Senate House Commonplace Book

4. Laurence Chaderton Manuscript

5. James Tomlin Manuscript

6. The Hutton Manuscript

7. Funeral Sermon for William Perkins

Appendix 1: Regarding Perkins upon the Lord’s Prayer, 1592

Appendix 2: Perkins’s Sermons on Jude 3–4 (Three Sources Compared)

Appendix 3: Catalogue of Editions of Perkins’s Works