A53688:364
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.
Not to digress farther (in the discovery of the unsatisfactoriness of this pretence) from the pursuit of the Argument in hand; Because Gods gifts are not repented of, therefore do men continue, not in the condition wherein they find them, but wherein they place them: And all Qualifications in men whatever, that are in the least acceptable to God, are so far from being stocks whereon God grafts his Gifts and Graces, that they are Plants themselves, which he plants in whomsoever he pleaseth.
Not to digresse farther (in the discovery of the unsatisfactorinesse of this pretence) from the pursuit of the Argument in hand; Because Gods gifts are not repented of, therefore doe men continue, not in the condition wherein they find them, but wherein they place them: And all Qualifications in men whatever, that are in the least acceptable to God, are so farre from being stocks whereon God grafts his Gifts and Graces, that they are Plants themselves, which he plants in whomsoever he pleaseth.
Yea the Tree is made good before it bear any good fruit, and the Branch implanted into the True Olive, before it receive the sap, or juice, of any one good Qualification. The sum of Mr Goodwins Answer amounts to this; let men be steadfast in a good condition, and Gods Gifts shall steadfastly abide with them, if they change, they also shall be revoked: which is directly opposite to the plain intendment of the place, viz. That the steadfastness of men, depends upon the irrevocableness of Gods Grace, and not è contra: there is not, in his sense, the least intimation in these words, of the permanency of any Gift or Grace of God with any one, on whom it is bestowed, for a Day, an Hour, or a Moment; but notwithstanding this Testimony of the Holy Ghost, they may be given one hour, and taken away the next, they may flourish in a man in the morning, and in the evening be cut down, dried up, and withered: this is not to Answer the Arguings of men, but positively to deny what God affirms. To conclude, God gives not his gifts to men (I mean those mentioned) because they please him, 1but because it pleaseth him so to do: he does not take them away, because they displease him, but gives them so to abide with them, that they shall never displease him, to the height of such a provocation. Neither are the Gifts of God otherwise to be repented of, then by taking them from the Persons, on whom they are bestowed: But this heap being removed, we may proceed.