A53688:1293
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.
3. To the confirmation of his Minor Proposition, the Answer is easy, from the consideration; first of the end of the Exhortations insisted on unto Perseverance; And then of the Promises of Perseverance, themselves, which are no way inconsistent therewith. For the first, (I say) those Exhortations take heed least there be in you an evil heart of unbelief, and the like, are not given to ingenerate a fear of falling away, (which is a thing in it self evil and opposite unto that steadfastness of Faith, and full Assurance, which we should press unto, so far is it from any Act of Faithful Obedience, that God should aim to work in the hearts of his, and apply means thereunto) but only to beget an holy Care and Diligence in them to whom they are made or given for the using of the means appointed of God, for the avoiding of the evil threatened to follow upon a neglect of them; which directly falls in, and sweetly conspires with the End, and Use of the Promises of Perseverance by us urged and insisted upon. Nothing is imported by them, but only the connection that is between the things mentioned in them: as unbelief, and rejection from God. This God aims at in those Exhortations, in their particular respect unto Believers, that by them, they may be stirred up to the use of those means, which he hath appointed for them, to be by them preserved in the Grace, and Mercy which he hath infallibly promised to continue to them.
3. To the confirmation of his Minor Proposition, the Answer is easie, from the consideration; first of the end of the Exhortations insisted on unto Perseverance; And then of the Promises of Perseverance, themselves, which are no way inconsistent therewith. For the first, (I say) those Exhortations take heed least there be in you an evill heart of unbeliefe, and the like, are not given to ingenerate a feare of falling away, (which is a thing in it selfe evill and opposite unto that stedfastnesse of Faith, and full Assurance, which we should presse unto, so farre is it from any Act of Faithfull Obedience, that God should aime to worke in the hearts of his, and apply meanes thereunto) but only to beget an holy Care and Diligence in them to whom they are made or given for the using of the meanes appointed of God, for the avoiding of the evill threatned to follow upon a neglect of them; which directly falls in, and sweetly conspires with the End, and Vse of the Promises of Perseverance by us urged and insisted upon. Nothing is imported by them, but only the connexion that is between the things mentioned in them: as unbeliefe, and rejection from God. This God aimes at in those Exhortations, in their particular respect unto Believers, that by them, they may be stirred up to the use of those meanes, which he hath appointed for them, to be by them preserved in the Grace, and Mercy which he hath infallibly promised to continue to them.