A89737:158
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.
For the clearer understanding of the Nature of a Person; as also that there are three, and but three Persons: the Consideration of a Personal Act is of much use.
The Acts,1 or Works of God, are of three sorts: Essential, whose Principle is the Divine Essence, subsisting in three Relative Properties, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: its object the creature. Personal, whose both Principle, and Object, or Term, is one, or more of the three Persons. Or mixed, the Principle whereof is the Divine Essence; the Object or Term, one of the Persons; such is the Incarnation, having the Essence for its Principle, the second Person for its term.
The Acts,1 or Works of God, are of three sorts: Essential, whose Principle is the Divine Essence, subsisting in three Relative Properties, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: its object the creature. Personal, whose both Principle, and Object, or Term, is one, or more of the three Persons. Or mixt, the Principle whereof is the Divine Essence; the Object or Term, one of the Persons; such is the Incarnation, having the Essence for its Principle, the second Person for its term.
- 1What a Personal Ast is: the attending Whereunto helps much to clear both the Nature of a Person, and the Trinity of Persons. Modi subsistendi proveniunt ex actibus divinae Essentiae immanentibus. Keck. The. l. 1. c. 3.
A Personal Act is the Divine Essence, (or God) working eternally, and necessarily upon it self. The first way of the Divine Essence acting upon it self, produceth the first Person. The second way of its acting upon it self, produceth the second Person. The third way of its acting or working upon it self, produceth the third Person. Hence godly and judicious Divines, observing the distinction of the Persons in the Divine Nature, to arise from immanent acts therein: and that God, being a perfect Act, must necessarily both understand, and will; and consequently (there being no Act without an Object, nor any necessary Object from Eternity but himself) that he must needs be both Act and Object;