Living Blessedly Forever: The Sermon on the Mount and the Puritan Piety of William Perkins

William Perkins described God’s all-sufficiency as His blessedness. This view of God shaped his understanding of Christian piety, leading him to define theology as the science of living blessedly forever. For Perkins, godliness flows from the enjoyment of God.

In Living Blessedly Forever, J. Stephen Yuille demonstrates how Perkins practically taught about God, joy, and the Christian life through his preaching on the Sermon on the Mount. Yuille begins with a brief account of Perkins’s life and ministry, considering several factors that shaped Perkins’s interpretation and application of the Sermon on the Mount. He then examines Perkins’s exposition of Matthew 5-7, identifying six marks of godliness (blessedness, repentance, righteousness, sincerity, contentment, and faithfulness) and concluding with a challenge to join practice with knowledge of the word of Christ.

Yuille’s work is more than a simple look at a sermon series given by a Puritan. While you will learn much about Perkins’s approach to the Sermon on the Mount, you will also be challenged to live blessedly forever.