A53688:1201
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.
2. As it is also a part of the Gospel declaring the Faithfulness of God, and the End and Issue of the proposal of the Gospel unto men, and of their receiving or refusing of it, so it is altogether foreign to the Doctrine of Mr Goodwin under contest: & he might as well have said, that the Doctrine of Apostasy is of singular import for the promotion of Holiness, because the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is so; for what force of consequence is betwixt these two? that God is a rewarder of them that Obey him, and a punisher of them that rebel against him, is an incentive to Obedience: therefore the Doctrine that true Believers united to Jesus Christ, may utterly fall out of the Favour of God, and turn from their: Obedience, and be damned for ever, there being no Promise of God for their preservation, is also an incentive to Holiness.
2. As it is also a part of the Gospell declaring the Faithfulnesse of God, and the End and Issue of the proposall of the Gospell unto men, and of their receiving or refusing of it, so it is altogether forraigne to the Doctrine of Mr Goodwin under contest: & he might as well have said, that the Doctrine of Apostacy is of singular import for the promotion of Holinesse, because the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is so; for what force of consequence is betwixt these two? that God is a rewarder of them that Obey him, and a punisher of them that rebell against him, is an incentive to Obedience: therefore the Doctrine that true Believers united to Jesus Christ, may utterly fall out of the Favour of God, and turne from their: Obedience, and be damned for ever, there being no Promise of God for their preservation, is also an incentive to Holinesse.
3. What virtue soever there may be in this truth, for the furtherance and promotion of Holiness in the world, our Doctrine layeth as clear claim to it, as yours; (that is) there is not any thing in the least in it inconsistent therewith all; we grant God threateneth the vengeance of Hell fire, unto those that turn aside from their profession of Holiness, into profaneness, the Gospel it self becoming thereby unto them a savour of death unto death; the Lord thereby proclaiming to all the world, that the wages of sin and infidelity is death, and that he that believeth not, shall be damned; but that any thing can hence be inferred for the Apostasy of true Believers, or how this assertion cometh to be appropriated to that Doctrine, we see not.