A53688:1545
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.
First, If from hence the flesh must be though & conceived to be stronger than the Spirit, because it prevails in any act unto sin, notwithstanding the contending of the Spirit, how much more must it be judged to prevail over it and to conquer it if it cause it utterly to cease, and not to strive at all; He that restrains an other that he shall not oppose him at all, hath a greater power than he who conquers him in his resistance; But why doth Mr Goodwin fear least the flesh should be asserted to be stronger in us than the Spirit? Is not his whole design to prove that it is, or may be so, so much stronger and more prevalent than it, that whereas it is confessed on all hands, that the Spirit doth never wholly conquer the flesh that it shall not remain in the Saints in this life, yet that the flesh doth wholly prevail over the Spirit and conquer it to an utter expulsion of it, out of the hearts of them in whom it is.
First, If from hence the flesh must be though & conceived to be stronger than the Spirit, because it prevailes in any act unto sin, notwithstanding the contending of the Spirit, how much more must it be judged to prevaile over it and to conquer it if it cause it utterly to cease, and not to strive at all; He that restraines an other that he shall not oppose him at all, hath a greater power than he who conquers him in his resistance; But why doth Mr Goodwin feare least the flesh should be asserted to be stronger in us than the Spirit? Is not his whole designe to prove that it is, or may be so, so much stronger and more prevalent than it, that whereas it is confessed on all hands, that the Spirit doth never wholly conquer the flesh that it shall not remaine in the Saints in this life, yet that the flesh doth wholly prevaile over the Spirit and conquer it to an utter expulsion of it, out of the hearts of them in whom it is.
Secondly, In the prevalency of the flesh, it is not the Spirit himself that is conquered, but only some motions & actings of him in the heart; Now though some particular actings and motions of his may not come out eventually unto success yet if he generally bears Rule in the heart, he is not to be said (even as in us and acting in us) not to be stronger than the flesh; He is, as in us, on this account, said to be stronger than he that is in the world, because notwithstanding all the opposition that is against us, he preserveth us in our state and condition of Acceptation with God and walking with him with an upright heart in good works and duties for the most part, though sometimes the flesh prevails unto sin, from which yet he recovers us by Repentance.