A53688:484
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.
That which this Expression here peculiarly relates unto,1 is the Declaration of the mind of God, concerning the Priesthood of Aaron and his posterity, which you have Exodus 28. 43. Exodus 29. 91. where the confirming them in their Office is called a perpetual Statute, or a Law for ever; The signification of the term for ever, in the Hebrew especially, relating to Legal Institutions, is known. Their Eternity is long since expired; that then which God here Emphatically expresses, as an Act of Grace and Favour to the House of Aaron, which Eli and his had interest in, was that Statute or Law of the Priesthood: and his purpose and intention (not concerning the Event of things, not that it should continue in any one branch of that Family, but) of his connecting it with their Obedience and Faithfulness in that Office. It is very frequent with God to express his Approbation of our duty, under terms holding out the Event, that would be the Issue of the duty, though it never come to pass: and his disapprobation or rejection of the Sons of Men, under terms that hold out the end of that disobedience, though it be prevented, or removed. In this latter case, he commands Jonah to cry, yet forty days and Nineveh shall perish; not that he purposed the destruction of Nineveh at that time, but only effectually to hold out the end of their sin, that it might be a means to turn them from it, and to prevent that end, which it would otherwise procure. His purpose was to prevent, at least prorogue the ruin of Nineveh, and therefore made use of threatening them with ruin, that they might not be ruined. To say that God purposed not the execution of his purpose, but in such ⟨p. 67⟩and such cases, is a plain Contradiction. The purpose is of Execution, and to say, he purposed not the Execution of his Purposes, is to say plainly, he purposed and purposed not, or he purposed not what he purposed. The examples of Pharaoh and Abraham, in the precepts given to them, are proofs of the former: but I must not insist upon particulars.
That which this Expression here peculiarly relates unto,1 is the Declaration of the mind of God, concerning the Priesthood of Aaron and his posterity, which you have