A53688:1076
The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance
The doctrine of the saints perseverance, explained and confirmed, or, The certain permanency of their 1. acceptation with God & 2. sanctification from God manifested & proved from the 1. eternal principles 2. effectual causes 3. external means thereof ... vindicated in a full answer to the discourse of Mr. John Goodwin against it, in his book entitled Redemption redeemed : with some digressions concerning 1. the immediate effects of the death of Christ ... : with a discourse touching the epistles of Ignatius, the Episcopacy in them asserted, and some animadversions on Dr. H.H. his dissertations on that subject / by John Owen ...The doctrine of the saints perseverance, explained and confirmed, or, The certain permanency of their 1. acceptation with God & 2. sanctification from God manifested & proved from the 1. eternal principles 2. effectuall causes 3. externall meanes thereof ... vindicated in a full answer to the discourse of Mr. John Goodwin against it, in his book entituled Redemption redeemed : with some degressions concerning 1. the immediate effects of the death of Christ ... : with a discourse touching the epistles of Ignatius, the Episcopacy in them asserted, and some animadversions on Dr. H.H. his dissertations on that subject / by John Owen ...
London: printed by Leon. Lichfield, 1654
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. From the nature of the thing it self. There is nothing but the establishment of the very Law of the Gospel, (He that believeth shall be Saved) wrapped up in this interpretation of the Intercession of Christ. But this neither hath Christ any need to intercede for, it being ratified, confirmed, and declared from the beginning, neither is there, or can there any Opposition be made against it, to shake, weaken, or disturb it, in the least: it depending solely on the Truth and Unchangeableness of God, not being vested by any Condition whatsoever, in any other subject: nor would this be availing to his Militant Church, whose preservation he aims at and intends in his Intercession: For the whole of his desires may be granted him to the uttermost, and yet his whole Church at any time militant, perish for ever. Though not one soul should continue believing to the end, though the gates of Hell should prevail against every one, that names the name of Christ in the world, yet that Truth He that believeth, shall be Saved, taken in the sense of our Adversaries, for a Promise to Perseverance in believing, and not a promise to actual true Believers, might stand firm for ever. To say then, that this is the whole Intercession of Christ for his Church, is to say, that in his whole Intercession, he Interceded not at all for his Church:1 He is heard in his Intercession, and he may be heard to the uttermost in this, and yet his whole Church be so far from being saved to the ut most, as utterly to be destroyed and consumed.
1. From the nature of the thing it selfe. There is nothing but the establishment of the very Law of the Gospell, (He that believeth shall be Saved) wrapt up in this interpretation of the Intercession of Christ. But this neither hath Christ any need to intercede for, it being ratified, confirmed, and declared from the beginning, neither is there, or can there any Opposition be made against it, to shake, weaken, or disturbe it, in the least: it depending solely on the Truth and Unchangeablenesse of God, not being vested by any Condition whatsoever, in any other subject: nor would this be availing to his Militant Church, whose preservation he aimes at and intends in his Intercession: For the whole of his desires may be granted him to the uttermost, and yet his whole Church at any time militant, perish for ever. Though not one soule should continue believing to the end, though the gates of Hell should prevail against every one, that names the name of Christ in the world, yet that Truth He that believeth, shall be Saved, taken in the sence of our Adversaries, for a Promise to Perseverance in believing, and not a promise to actuall true Believers, might stand firme for ever. To say then, that this is the whole Intercession of Christ for his Church, is to say, that in his whole Intercession, he Interceded not at all for his Church: