A89737:163
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 first Person is called the Father, 1. Because he is the first in the order of the Original of the Persons. 2. Because he is of none, though not without the Son. 3. Because understanding himself from Eternity, he doth thereby as it were form and bring forth in himself, a most perfect Image of himself: the contemplation of him according to this Eternal Act, helps us to conceive of his Eternal Begetting.
The second Person is called the Son. The Generation, or the manner, and order, how the Son is of the Father, is taught by these expressions. 1. He is called the Word, Joh. 1.1.14. 1 Joh. 5.7. The Word is either inward or outward: Inward, viz. the cogitation which is as it were the speech of the mind, within it self, and to it self; especially in the reflex acts of the understanding. Outward, viz. the expression, which is the perceivable Image of our cogitation; so the Son is said to be the inward Word of the Father, i. e. the Knowledge of himself, and the outward Word of the Father, because he makes known the Counsel of God unto the World: The Image of the Invisible God, Col. 1.15.1 that is, he is the perfect, and Essential Image of the Father; for God here is taken personally, not essentially.2 The Brightness of his Glory, Heb. 1.3. The Person of the Father is set forth by a Metaphor, taken from the glorious Light; the Person of the Son, by the splendour, refulgence, and brightness of that Light: The Character of his Person in the same verse (for so indeed is the Word,3 it is not the same Word with that which is turned Image,