A53688:1240
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.
Ans. The latter part of these words plainly discovers the vanity of the former as produced for any such end and Purpose as that in hand: For though I willingly grant, that that which is termed the weakness of the flesh, is enough to make any man what ever fear, that he shall not hold out in the course of his Obedience to the end, if he have no Promise of supportment and preservation by an Almighty power, (notwithstanding it is affirmed that it draweth men only to sins of weakness or infirmity, which I thought had not been called so from the weakness of the flesh, but of Grace in Believers) yet it is the strength, the power the Law, the subtlety of the flesh, or indwelling sin, that is the matter of our plea in this case. Not that which Paul gloried in even his infirmity, but that which made him cry out, Oh! wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death, 1& from the distress by reason whereof he found no deliverance, but only in the Assured Love of God in Jesus Christ. So that notwithstanding this Reply, shaped to fortify the minds of men against their failings, upon the account of the weakness of Grace, rather then of the flesh, (which yet it is not able to do, for if there be no Promise to the contrary, why may not the principle which carrieth men forth to lesser, carry them also forth to greater, & more provoking sins, what boundaries will you prescribe unto these sins of infirmity.) The pretension from the strength of the flesh, (yea from the weakness of it) holdeth good against the Saints establishment in Peace and Assurance, upon the account of their being destitute of any Promise of preservation by God.
Ans. The latter part of these words plainely discovers the vanity of the former as produced for any such end and Purpose as that in hand: For though I willingly grant, that that which is termed the weakenesse of the flesh, is enough to make any man what ever feare, that he shall not hold outin the course of his Obedience to the end, if he have no Promise of supportment and preservation by an Almighty power, (notwithstanding it is affirmed that it draweth men only to sinnes of weaknesse or infirmity, which I thought had not been called so from the weaknesse of the flesh, but of Grace in Believers) yet it is the strength, the power the Law, the subtillty of the flesh, or indwelling sinne, that is the matter of our plea in this case. Not that which Paul gloried in even his infirmity, but that which made him cry out, Oh! wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death,