A89737:853
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.
Obj 6. If in the conversion of a sinner, there be a term from which, namely sin; and a term to which, namely faith: then there must be a departing of the soul from sin, the term from which; before it can attain unto faith, the term to which:
Ans. The In-come of grace to, and the out-going of sin from the soul, is not in strictness, to be compared unto two things, (for sin is not a thing, but a corrupt privation of a thing) succeeding one another in the same place, after the order of a local mutation properly; where one of those things must give way, by being outed from its place, before the other can come in: But the In-come of the Spirit of grace into the soul, is after the manner of a habit, succeeding in the room of its contrary privation, and in such alterations of the subject; the privation doth not first go out, and the habit then come in: but the in-come of the habit, causeth the out-going of the privation: as we see in knowledge, and ignorance in the soul; sight and blindness in the eye; light and darkness in the air; life and death in the body. Death did not first go out of the body of Lazarus, or of the Shunamites child, and then life come in: nor doth darkness first leave the air, and then light come in: but the in-come of life was the expelling of death:1 and the coming in of light, the expelling of […] and so of the rest.
Ans. The In-come of grace to, and the out-going of sin from the soul, is not in strictness, to be compared unto two things, (for sin is not a thing, but a corrupt privation of a thing) succeeding one another in the same place, after the order of a local mutation properly; where one of those things must give way, by being outed from its place, before the other can come in: But the In-come of the Spirit of grace into the soul, is after the manner of a habit, succeeding in the room of its contrary privation, and in such alterations of the subject; the privation doth not first go out, and the habit then come in: but the in-come of the habit, causeth the out-going of the privation: as we see in knowledge, and ignorance in the soul; sight and blindness in the eye; light and darkness in the air; life and death in the body. Death did not first go out of the body of Lazarus, or of the Shunamites child, and then life come in: nor doth darkness first leave the air, and then light come in: but the in-come of life was the expelling of death: