A53688:1297
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.
If (saith he) such Exhortations as we speak of, be a means to effect the Perseverance, which our Adversaries suppose to be Promised in the Saints, then must the Act of Perseverance in the Saints, necessarily depend upon them; so as that i• cannot, nor will not be effected without them, i.e. without the Saints submitting themselves to them. But persevering upon these terms clearly supposeth a possibility of non-persevering, for whatsoever dependeth upon a mutable condition, and which possibly may not be performed, may be also possible never to come to pass.
If (saith he) such Exhortations as we speake of, be a meanes to effect the Perseverance, which our Adversaryes suppose to be Promised in the Saints, then must the Act of Perseverance in the Saints, necessarily depend upon them; so as that i• cannot, nor will not be effected without them, i.e. without the Saints submitting themselves to them. But persevering upon these tearmes clearely supposeth a possibility of non-persevering, for whatsoever dependeth upon a mutable condition, and which possibly may not be performed, may be also possible never to come to passe.
Ans. 1. Exhortations are improperly said to be a means to effect Perseverance: We say only that they are means to stir up, quicken and increase those Graces in the exercise whereof, the Saints according to the Purpose and Promise of God do persevere.
Ans. 1. Exhortations are improperly said to be a meanes to effect Perseverance: We say only that they are meanes to stirre up, quicken and increase those Graces in the exercise whereof, the Saints according to the Purpose and Promise of God do persevere.
2. The Perseverance of the Saints doth consist in the abiding and continuance of those Graces in them, which those Exhortations do so stir up, & further or increase. And in that regard, there is a connection between the Perseverance of the Saints, and the Exhortations mentioned: yea a dependence of the one on the other. But this dependence ariseth not from the nature of the things themselves, whence such a Certainty as is asserted would not arise, but from the purpose and Appointment of God that they should be effectual to that end: And therefore