A53688:1500
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.
His 19th Section containeth his fourth Argument,1 in these words;
- 1§. 6.
If there be no possibility of the Saints falling away finally, then is their Persevering uncapable of reward from God. But their final Perseverance is not uncapable of reward from God; Ergo, The minor Proposition I presume contains nothing but what is the sense of those who deny the conclusion: or how ever it contains nothing but what is the express sense of the Lord Christ, where he saith, that he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved; Therefore I suppose we shall be excused from farther proof of this, without any prejudice to the cause in hand.
If there be no possibility of the Saints falling away finally, then is their Persevering uncapable of reward from God. But their finall Perseverance is not uncapable of reward from God; Ergo, The minor Proposition I presume containes nothing but what is the sence of those who deny the conclusion: or how ever it containes nothing but what is the expresse sence of the Lord Christ, where he saith, that he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved; Therefore I suppose we shall bee excused from farther proofe of this, without any prejudice to the cause in hand.
Ans. I grant, Eternal Life may be called the Reward of Perseverance in the sense that the Scripture useth that word, applied to the matter in hand; It is afterward neither procured by (properly and Morally as the deserving cause) nor proportioned unto the obedience of them by whom it is attained; a Reward it is, that withal, is the free gift of God, and an Inheritance purchased by Jesus Christ; a Reward of Bounty and not of Justice, in respect of them upon whom it is bestowed, but only of faithfulness in reference to the promise of it. A Reward, by being a gracious encouragement, as the end of our obedience, not as the procurement or desert of it; so we grant it a Reward of Perseverance, though those words of our Saviour, he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved, expressed a consequence of things only, and not a connection of causality of the one upon the other: of the foundation of this discourse concerning a possibility of declining, immediate consideration shall be had. He proceeds then.