A89737:1447
The orthodox evangelist. Or A treatise wherein many great evangelical truths (not a few…
The orthodox evangelist. Or A treatise wherein many great evangelical truths (not a few whereof are much opposed and eclipsed in this perilous hour of the passion of the Gospel) are briefly discussed, cleared, and confirmed: as a further help, for the begetting, and establishing of the faith which is in Jesus. As also the state of the blessed, where; of the condition of their souls from the instant of their dissolution: and of their persons after their resurrection. By John Norton, teacher of the church at Ipswich in New England.The orthodox evangelist. Or A treatise wherein many great evangelical truths (not a few whereof are much opposed and eclipsed in this perillous hour of the passion of the Gospel) are briefly discussed, cleared, and confirmed: as a further help, for the begeting, and establishing of the faith which is in Jesus. As also the state of the blessed, where; of the condition of their souls from the instant of their dissolution: and of their persons after their resurrection. By John Norton, teacher of the church at Ipswich in New England.
London: printed by John Macock for Henry Cripps, 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 Soul is a Spiritual substance, created after the Image of God, endued with the faculties of Understanding, Will, Memory, and Affections, with a power of reflex acting upon it self (whereby it knoweth that it knoweth) according to the Latitude of the whole revealed Will, and Works of God; infused into the body, as the form thereof, and (being separated there-from) subsists by it self, to be re-united thereunto, at the Resurrection, to abide as the form thereof for ever. More briefly; The Soul of the Saints is a Spiritual, and Immortal ⟨p. 338⟩substance, created after the Image of God, and renewed after the immortal Image of God in Christ.
The Soul is a Spiritual substance, created after the Image of God, indued with the faculties of Understanding, Wil, Memory, and Affections, with a power of reflex acting upon it self (whereby it knoweth that it knoweth) according to the Latitude of the whole revealed Wil, and Works of God; infused into the body, as the form thereof, and (being separated there-from) subsists by it self, to be re-united thereunto, at the Resurrection, to abide as the form thereof for ever. More briefly; The Soul of the Saints is a Spiritual, and Immortal ⟨p. 338⟩substance, created after the Image of God, and renewed after the immortal Image of God in Christ.
The Soul is a Spirit, not a Body consisting of matter, Luk. 24.39. It is a real and very being, as the body is, only of a higher kind; the Body is of the Earth, the Soul is immediately from God. It should not prejudice the being of the Soul, because it is not visible to our eyes; we may as well question the being of God himself, or of the Angels, who are invisible; or our own selves to be Men, for from the Soul it principally is that we are Men, or Women. It is a substance not depending, in respect of its being, upon any other Fellow-creature, as accidents do, whose being is by having their in-being in another Fellow-creature as their subject. Its subsistence exceeds that of the Body, the Soul can subsist without the Body, but the Body continueth not a Body without the Soul. Hence we read of separated Souls, but not of separated Bodies. The Soul is compared to a large vessel,