Influence
Although relatively unknown, Perkins has had an influence that is felt by Christians all around the world. Perkins' views on double predestination made him a major target of Jacobus Arminius, the Dutch Reformed clergyman who opposed the doctrine of predestination.
In his lifetime, Perkins attained enormous popularity, with sales of his works eventually surpassing even Calvin's. When he died, his writings were selling more copies than those of many of the most famous of the Reformers combined.
From his position at Cambridge, Perkins was able to influence a whole generation of English churchmen. His pupils include:
- William Ames, Puritan who eventually left England to become professor of theology at Franeker
- John Robinson, the founder of congregationalism in Leiden and pastor of the group which went on to found the Plymouth Colony
- Thomas Goodwin
- Paul Baynes
- Samuel Ward, master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
- Phineas Fletcher, a poet
- Thomas Draxe
- Thomas Taylor
- James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh
- James Montagu, master of Sidney Sussex and later bishop of Winchester
- Richard Sibbes
Read more about this topic: William Perkins (puritan)
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“Exhaust them, wrestle with them, let them not go until their blessing be won, and, after a short season, the dismay will be overpast, the excess of influence withdrawn, and they will be no longer an alarming meteor, but one more brighter star shining serenely in your heaven, and blending its light with all your day.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I am not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal divinities of Greece, rather than to my country’s God. Jehovah, though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a god of the Greeks.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being? There are men, who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race. And if there be such a tie, that, wherever the mind of man goes, nature will accompany him, perhaps there are men whose magnetisms are of that force to draw material and elemental powers, and, where they appear, immense instrumentalities organize around them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)