A53688:356
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.
Against this plain expression of the Apostle,1 that the gifts and calling of God, are without repentance: Mr Goodwin puts in sundry Exceptions to weaken the Testimony it bears in this case, Cap: 8. Sect: 86. which because they have been already sufficiently evinced of Weakness, Falsehood, and Impertinency, by his Learned Antagonist, I shall only take up that which he mainly insists upon, and farther manifest its utter uselessness for the end for which it is produced Thus then he pleads: The Gifts and Calling of God, may be said to be without repentance, because let men continue the same persons which they were, when the Donation or Collation of any gift was first made by God unto them, he never changes or altereth his Dispensations towards them, unless it be for the better, or in order to their farther good, in which case he cannot be said to repent of what he had given: but in case men shall change, and alter from what they were when God first dealt graciously with them, especially if they shall notoriously degenerate or cast away the Principles, or divest themselves of that very qualification on which as it were God grafted his benefit or gift; in this case though he recall his gift, he cannot be said to repent of his giving it, because the terms on which he gave it please him still, only the Persons to whom he gave it, and who pleased him when he gave it them, have now rendered themselves unpleasing to him.
Against this plaine expression of the Apostle,1 that the gifts and calling of God, are without repentance: Mr Goodwin puts in sundry Exceptions to weaken the Testimony it bears in this case, Cap: 8. Sect: 86. which because they have been already sufficiently evinced of Weakenesse, Falshood, and Impertinency, by his Learned Antagonist, I shall only take up that which he mainly insists upon, and farther manifest its utter uselessenesse for the end for which it is produced Thus then he pleads: The Gifts and Calling of God, may be said to be without repentance, because let men continue the same persons which they were, when the Donation or Collation of any gift was first made by God unto them, he never changes or altereth his Dispensations towards them, unlesse it be for the better, or in order to their farther good, in which case he cannot be said to repent of what he had given: but in case men shall change, and alter from what they were when God first dealt gratiously with them, especially if they shall notoriously degenerate or cast away the Principles, or divest themselves of that very qualification on which as it were God grafted his benefit or gift; in this case though he recall his gift, he cannot be said to repent of his giving it, because the termes on which he gave it please him still, only the Persons to whom he gave it, and who pleased him when he gave it them, have now rendred themselves unpleasing to him.