A53688:1318
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.
Neither is the third Exception of any more validity, being only a Repetition of what was spoken before, rendered something more impedite, dark, and intricate, by the terms of Physically, Irresistibly, and Necessitated, which how far, and wherein we do allow, hath been frequently declared. The sum of what is spoken amounts to this, Gods real work in and upon the Soul by his Spirit, and Grace, is inconsistent with the exhortations to Obedience: which we have before disproved, and do reject it as an Assertion destructive to all the ⟨p. 276⟩efficacy of the Grace of God, and the whole work of it, upon the Souls of Men.
Neither is the third Exception of any more validity, being only a Repetition of what was spoken before, rendred something more impedite, darke, and intricate, by the termes of Physically, Irresistibly, and Necessitated, which how farre, and wherein we doe allow, hath been frequently declared. The summe of what is spoken amounts to this, Gods reall worke in and upon the Soule by his Spirit, and Grace, is inconsistent with the exhortations to Obedience: which we have before disproved, and do reject it as an Assertion destructive to all the ⟨p. 276⟩efficacy of the Grace of God, and the whole worke of it, upon the Soules of Men.
What his Fourth Argument also is, but a Repetition of the same things before crudely Asserted in other terms, let them apprehend that can; If God work Faith and Love, in the hearts of his Saints, and support them, in them, to the end, what place is left for Exhortations? I say their own proper place, the place of means; of means appointed by God to stir up his to Perseverance, and which himself makes by his Spirit, and the immediate efficacy thereof, effectual to that end and purpose; And I know no use of that Query, Are exhortations effectual to persuade men to Persevere after the end? being built only on his false Hypothesis, and begging of the thing in Question, viz. That if God work Faith and Love, and continuance of them in our hearts effectually by his Grace, there is no need, no use of exhortations, though God so work them, by, and with those exhortations; And this is his first Attempt, upon the first member of the Division made by him self, wherein what success he hath obtained is left to the judgement of the Reader; And, but that I shall not, having now the part of one that Answers incumbent on me, turn aside unto the proof of things denied, I should easily confirm what hath been given in, for the removal of his Objections, from the Testimony of God, by innumerable places of Scripture.