The Works of William Perkins, Volume 7

This seventh volume includes three treatises that strike a helpful balance of emphases on theology, history, and practice.

A Reformed Catholic exists as a systematic, theological presentation of Perkins's Reformed soteriology in contrast with the Church of Rome.

Perkins's Problem of the Forged Catholicism is an exercise in historical theology, proving from the primary source documents of church history that the Roman Catholicism articulated at Trent is not supported by the first twelve hundred years of the church's witness.

A Warning Against Idolatry handles worship practices--including liturgies, ceremonies, customs, and rites--concluding that all the externals of worship must be regulated by Scripture in the strictest sense.

Taken as a whole, Perkins's polemical work against the Church of Rome draws a clear dividing line between Roman Catholicism and the Reformed tradition.

William Perkins (1558-1602) was a well-respected preacher and teacher at Christ's College, Cambridge. His influence on students there produced a generation of Puritan-minded ministers.

SHAWN D. WRIGHT is professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Andrew S. Ballitch is associate pastor of preaching and ministries at Westwood Alliance Church in Mansfield, Ohio, and the author of The Gloss and the Text: William Perkins on Interpreting Scripture with Scripture.