The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance

That perseverance is a gift of God, and that no man either did, or could persevere in Faith and obedience upon the strength of any grace received, (much less of his own Ability, stirred up and promoted by such considerations, as Mr. Goodwin makes the ground and bottom of the perseverance of all that so do) but that the whole was from his Grace. Subservient to this, he maintained, that no one Temptation whatsoever, could be overcome but by some Act of Grace, and that therefore perseverance must needs be a work thereof, it being an abiding in Faith and obedience, notwithstanding, and against Temptation. To this is that of his on Joh: Hom. 53; ⟨image 23⟩quosdam nimia voluntatis suoe fiducia extulit in superbiam, & quosdam nimia volunta tis sua diffidentia dejecit in negligentiam: Illi dicunt quid rogamus Deum ne vincamur tentatione quod in nostrâ est potestate? Isti dicunt, at quid conamur bene vivere, quod in Dei est Potestate? ô Domine, ô Pater qui es in Coelis, ne nos infer as in quamlibet istarum Tentationum, sed libera nos à malo. Audiamus Dominum dicentem, rogavi pro Te Petre, ne fides deficiat tuae; ne sic existimemus fidem nostram esse in Libero Arbitrio ut Divino non egeat adjutorio. &c. That, with both of these sorts of men, the way and work of the Grace of God, is at this day perverted, and obscured, is so known to all, that it needs no Exemplification. Some require no more to the Conquest of Temptations, but men's own rational consideration of their Eternal state and condition, with the tendency of That, whereto they are tempted: Others turning the Grace of God into wantonness, & supinely casting away all heedful regard of walking with God, being enslaved to their lusts and corruptions, under a pretence of God's working all in all. The latter denying themselves to be men, the former to be men corrupted; And in plain terms the Milevitane Council tells us, si quis finxerit ideò Gratiam esse necessariam ad vitanda peccata, quia facit hominem cognoscere peccata, & discernere inter Peccata, & non peccata, quá Discretion per gratiam habitâ, per liberum Arbitrium potest vitare; is procùl, &c. The light of Grace to discern the state of things, the nature of sin, and to consider these aright, the Pelagians allowed, which is all the Bottom of that perseverance of Saints, which we have offered by Mr. Goodwin:

That perseverance is a gift of God, and that no man either did, or could persevere in Faith and obedience upon the strength of any grace received, (much less of his own Ability, stirred up and promoted by such considerations, as Mr. Goodwin makes the ground and bottome of the perseverance of all that so do) but that the whole was from his Grace. Subservient to this, he maintained, that no one Temptation whatsoever, could be overcome but by some Act of Grace, and that therfore perseverance must needs be a work thereof, it being an abiding in Faith and obedience, notwithstanding, and against Temptation. To this is that of his on Joh: Hom. 53;