A53688:283
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.
Though the words of our Saviour principally lye on the other side of the way, giving a Rule for a condemnatory Judgment of men,1 whose evil Fruits declare the Root to be no better; wherein we cannot well be deceived, the works of the flesh being manifest, and he that worketh wickedness openly, and brings forth the effects of sin visibly,2 in a course, as a Tree doth its fruit, may safely be concluded,3 whatsoever pretence in words he makes, to be a false corrupt Hypocrite; yet by the way of Analogy and proportion, it is a Rule also, whereby our Saviour will have us make a Judgement of those Professors and Teachers, with whom we have to do, as to our Reception and Approbation of them. He bids his Disciples taste, & try the Fruit that such persons bear, and according to that, (not any specious pretences they make, or innocent Appearances which for a season they show themselves in) let their Estimation of them be; Yea but, says Mr Goodwin, we do not only stand bound by the Law of Charity, but by the Law of a Righteous and strict Judgment it self to judge such persons Believers. This distinction between the Law of Charity, and the Law of a Righteous Judgment, I understand not. Though Charity be the principle exerted eminently in such dijudications of men, yet doubtless ⟨p. 13⟩it proceeds by the rules of Righteous Judgment; When we speak of the Judgment of Charity, we intend not a loose conjecture, much less a Judgment contradistinct from that which is Righteous; but a Righteous and strict Judgment, according to the exactest rules whatsoever, that we have to Judge by, free from evil surmises, and such like vices of the mind, as are opposed to the grace of Love. By saying it is of Charity, we are not absolved from the most exact procedure (according to the Rules of judging given unto us) but only bound up from indulging to any Fnvy, Malice, or such like works of the flesh, which are opposite to Charity, in the subject wherein it is: Charity in this assertion denotes only a gracious qualification in the subject, and not any condescension from the Rule: and therefore I something wonder, that Mr Goodwin should make a Judgment of Charity (as afterwards) a mere conjecture, and allow beyond it a Righteous and strict Judgement, which amounts to knowledge.