A53688:989
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.
1. That of Head and Members making up one Body,1 is often insisted on: Christ is the Head of his Saints, and they being many are Members of that one Body, and of one another, as the Apostle at large 1 Cor: 12. 12. even as the Body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so is Christ; The body is one, and the Saints are one Body, yea one Christ, that is mystical. They then are the Body: what part is Christ? He is the Head 1 Cor. 11. 3. the Head of every man (that is, every Believer) is Christ; He is the Head of the Church, and the Saviour of the Body; Ephes. 5. 23. he is the Head of the Body the Church, Col: 1. 19. This relation of Head and Members (I say) between Christ and his, holds out the Union that is between them, which consists in their being so. As the Head and the Members make one Body, so Christ and his Members make one mystical Christ; Whence then is it ⟨p. 196⟩that the Head and Members have this their Union, whereby they become one Body; Wherein doth it consist? Is it that from the Head, the Members do receive their influences of life, sense, and guidance, as the Saints do from Christ? Eph. 4. 15, 16. They grow up unto him in all things, who is the Head, from whom the whole body fitly framed together, and compact, by the which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, groweth up to an holy increase. So also Col: 2. 19. holding the Head, from whom the whole body, by bands and joints knit together, increaseth with the increase of God; But evidently this is their Communion, whereunto Union is supposed. Our Union with Christ cannot consist in the Communication of any thing to us, as Members from him the Head: but it must be in that which constitutes him & us, in the Relation of Head and Members; He is our Head, antecedently in order of nature, to any communication of Grace from him as a Head; and yet not antecedently to our Union with him; Herein then consists the Union of Head and Members, that though they are many, and have many Offices, Places, and dependencies, there is but one living, quickening soul, in Head and Members. If a man could be imagined so big, and tall, as that his feet should stand upon the Earth, and his head reach the starry Heavens, yet having but one soul, he is still but one man.