A89737:358
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.
'Tis Gods gift as well as the rest, we have graces from God as well as privileges, and therefore he beggeth love as well as mercy and peace; but it must be our act, though we have the grace from above: We would all have mercy and peace, but we are not so zealous to have love kindled in our hearts: Mercy, peace, all this runneth downward, and respects our interest, but love, that mounteth upward, and respects God himself. Certainly they have no interest in mercy, and were never acquainted with true peace, that do not find their hearts inflamed with love to God, and a zeal for his glory; that as he hath ordered all things for our profit, so we may order and refer all things to his glory and honour. Mercy runneth down from God, and begets peace of Conscience, for peace of Conscience is nothing else but a solid taste of Gods mercy; and peace of Conscience begets love, by which we clasp about God again; for love is nothing else but a reverberation or beating back of Gods beam upon himself, or a return of duty in the sense of mercy:* so that God is at the beginning and ending, and either way is the utmost boundary of the Soul; all things are from him and to him.
'Tis Gods gift as well as the rest, we have graces from God as well as priviledges, and therefore he beggeth love as well as mercy and peace; but it must be our act, though we have the grace from above: We would all have mercy and peace, but we are not so zealous to have love kindled in our hearts: Mercy, peace, all this runneth downward, and respects our interest, but love, that mounteth upward, and respects God himself. Certainly they have no interest in mercy, and were never acquainted with true peace, that do not find their hearts inflamed with love to God, and a zeal for his glory; that as he hath ordered all things for our profit, so we may order and refer all things to his glory and honour. Mercy runneth down from God, and begets peace of Conscience, for peace of Conscience is nothing else but a solid taste of Gods mercy; and peace of Conscience begets love, by which we clasp about God again; for love is nothing else but a reverberation or beating back of Gods beam upon himself, or a return of duty in the sense of mercy:* so that God is at the beginning and ending, and either way is the utmost boundary of the Soul; all things are from him and to him.