A53688:525
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.
The words then contain an Exception of True Believers from the danger of total Apostasy,1 upon the account of the stable, fixed, Eternal Purpose of God concerning their Salvation, answerable to that of Rom. 8. 28, 29, 30. the place last considered. The Foundation here mentioned, is the good Pleasure of the Will of God, which he had Purposed in him himself, or determined to exert towards them, for the praise of the Glory of his Grace. Eph. 1. 9. According to which Purpose we are Predestinated. v. 11. And he calls this Purpose the Foundation of God, as being a groundwork, and bottom of the thing, whereof the Apostle is treating; namely the Preservation and Perseverance of True Believers, those who are indeed planted into Christ, notwithstanding the Apostasy of the most Glorious Professors, who being not within the compass of that Purpose, nor built on that Foundation, never attain that peculiar Grace, which by Jesus Christ is to them administered, who have that Privilege. And this further appears by the Confirmation of the certainty of this Foundation of God, which he hath laid, manifested in the next words: It hath this seal, the Lord knows who are his. Whether ye will take this for a Demonstration of the former Assertion, either a posteriori, from the peculiar Love, Favour, Tenderness, and care, which the Lord bears to them which are his, who are built on the Foundation mentioned, whereby, in the pursuit of his Eternal Purpose, he will certainly preserve them from perishing, knowing, owning, and taking care of them in every Condition: or for the Prescience of God, accomplishing his Eternal Purpose, designing them of whom he speaks, as his, (for his they were, and he gave them unto Christ) is to me indifferent. Evident it is that this Confirmation of the Purpose mentioned, is added to assure us of the stability and accomplishment of it; in that none, who are built thereon, or concerned therein, shall fall away. And herein doth the Apostle fully Answer and remove the fore-mentioned Objection: Let men (saith he) appear never so eminent in profession, If once they prove Apostates, they manifest themselves to have been but Hypocrites; that is, such as never had any of the Faith of Gods Elect, which is their peculiar, who are Ordained to Eternal Life.
The words then containe an Exception of True Believers from the danger of totall Apostasie,