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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	name_n	write_v	18,504	5	6.4426	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89737	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.	Norton, John, 1606-1663.	1654 (1654)	Wing N1320; Thomason E734_9; ESTC R206951	276,720	371

the will of him that believeth Little upon point do they herein give to grace more then the Jesuits only they judge better doctrinally of the nature of the grace of faith The best of them make free-will and supernatural common grace i. e. Such as those who are not elected may be made partakers of to concur together as co-working partial or fellow-causes in the work of conversion A doctrine which overthrowes grace giveth unto flesh that is to man yet without Christ to glory as a party-worker of saith the total working vvhereof is proper unto Christ in the way of his special grace and is repugnant both unto saving grace and Salvation it self because the faith that is so wrought cannot save To the Orthodox this Proposition Faith is the Effect of grace And this Proposition Faithis the effect of special grace are equipollent By grace they understand grace peculiar and proper unto the Elect therefore flowing from Election and consequently from Christ as their Redeemer and designed Head absolute irresistable and effectual quickening the soul until then dead by infusing a principle of life whereby of unbelievers they are made believers and of unwilling vvilling in respect of which work the soul notwithstanding any supernatural common grace foregoing is meerly paslive having no more causal power thereunto then a dead body hath unto life The truth of this Proposition viz. Faith is the Effect of special grace appears in the proof of these three Conclusions 1. All the Elect first or last shall believe Concl. 1. 2. Only the Elect do believe 3. Faith i. e. Saving Faith is the effect of Election All the Elect first or last shall believe John 6.37 All that the Father giveth me i.e. that from Eternity are committed unto me to redeem shall come unto me John 10.16 Other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also must I bring and they shall hear my voyce and there shall be one fold and one Sheph. ard There are besides the people of the Jews others of his Elect amongst the Gentiles which must be gathered into the fold of the Church as certainly as those Jews which are already therein Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called Hence Vocation is called Election The same work which the Apostle expresseth by the term Calling 1 Cor. 1.26 he expresseth by the term Choosing or Election ver 21 28. God hath chosen the foolish things God hath chosen the weak things things which are despised God hath chosen This also is further manifest in that the Elect before they do believe are described by such Names and Adjuncts as hold forth their special relation unto God and sure salvation by him in due season They before they do believe are said to belong to God Thine they were John 17.6 to be given to Christ John 6.37 to be beloved Rom. 11.28 As concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sake but as touching the Election they are beloved for the Fathers sake To be reconciled to God For if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 Christ calleth them his sheep though they yet believed not John 10.16 His people Acts 18.10 I have much people in this City The Corinthians whilest yet unbelieving Gentiles are here called the people of God They are called the Children of God Concl. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spanh exc de grat Annot. in Sect. 21. Nulla vis infertur sacris literis verbis Christi Si quis dicat peccatū Angelorum primum p●incipale fuisse quod voluerint acquiescere in veritate Evangelii de Christo proposito Zanc de pec lib. 4. cap. 2. Non dans prohib●●s allegari non sol●t ubi inquiretur in verā r●i causam Spanh exerc de grat resp ad erot 32. John 11.52 'T is as certain that all the Elect yet unbelievers shall believe and be saved as it is certain that they are saved who are already in Heaven 2. Only the Elect do believe All men have not faith 2 Thess 3.2 i.e. It is not given to all to believe The Election have obtained it but the rest are blinded Rom. 11.7 They who are not elected are not of God therefore receive not the word in truth Ye hear them not because ye are not of God John 8.47 And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the Book of life Election is the Book of life not to be written in the Book of life is not to be elected Revel 13.8 And whosoever were not found written in the Book of life were cast into the Lake of fire Because there is in the Reprobate a moral impotency to believe Moral impotency is a sinful inability As this inability is contracted by sin so it is sinful it being the duty of all that live under the call of the Gospel to believe John 6.65 1 John 3.23 2. There is also an enmity of malice of the Will John 5.40 And ye will not come unto me Rom. 11.28 As concerning the Gospel they are enemies John 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father you will do he was a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth Namely The truth of the Gospel concerning Christ as some have conceived As God in respect of his Decree freely so in respect of their sin he justly withholds from them grace to cure their unbelief Mat. 13.11 To them it is not given This final withholding of grace is proper to the Reprobate Moral impenitency and enmity or malice of the will are common to the Elect and Reprobate they being alike corrupt by nature Hence God is said to be the physical cause not of their unbelief but why their unbelief remaineth uncured As a Physician able to cure a disease which he is not bound to cure is the cause not of the disease but of the disease being not cured yet is he not the moral and blameable but the physical and unblamable cause thereof because he is not bound to cure it 3. Saving Faith as it is proper to the Elect Conclu 3. so it is the effect of election therefore called the faith of Gods Elect Tit. 1.1 both that gracious motion of the Spirit whereby faith is wrought which for distinctness sake was before called Saving Grace effectually and the grace of faith wrought by that motion proceed from and are the effects of election It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Philip. 2.13 The gift of faith depends upon the will of God John 1.13 Jam. 1.18 Of his own will begat he us He hath mercy upon whom he will Rom. 9.15 It is according to Election Rom. 11.5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the Election of grace Twiss de permissione lib. 2 cr 4. Sect. 6. Redemptio est ex

that is best prepared is not digested without yet is digested with time and the labor of nature The Seed which the husbandman soweth with pains the Earth receiveth not without patience 'T is the Prerogative of God 't is not in the power of man to communicate understanding without study and diligence Though it be in Gods power to give yet according to his ordinary Dispensation he doth not give knowledg unto man without labor and prayer but he giveth unto his a spirit by meditating day and night to search into the deep things of God Who refuseth ripe fruit because it groweth higher then can be had without climbing or the treasures hid in the Earth because they cannot be had without digging And who knoweth but that these poor sheets may find a place with some others especially in the houses and hearts of them of whose house I am out of whose heart they cannot be whilst I am That I may not be as one altogether dead to those whom I should have been glad to have lived and dyed with yea whom I should have been glad to have lived and dyed for My absence from them hath named this Wilderness Gersom their acceptance hereof shall so far name it Ephraim It is with God that knoweth the heart of exiles to comfort exiles 'T is not with me as with Hortensius who though he was weak in writing yet was he able to speak Nor as with Albericus who though weak in speech was able in writing but being contious of my infirmity in both I have added the latter to supply in some measure if God so please the defect of the former Sometimes Pauls writing is more weighty then his speech and some of Christs words after his death were more effectual then in his Life Hence I have desired to sow Seed both by Pen and Tongue present and absent Alive and dead Not knowing whether shal prosper most either this or that or whether they both should be alike good Good Books help both the understanding and memory They are both Teachers and Registers like steeled looking-glasses that do not only reflect but continue reflecting the Image to the beholder Segnius irritant animes demissa per auros Quam quae sunt oculis Subjecta sidelibus The speaker hasteth on and cannot wait the leasure of the hearer but the writer is always at hand attending the capacity of the Reader What is sayd of the poor with a little alteration may be applyed to written Treatises Books you have always with you you may receive good from them when you will Solomon admonisheth not to write superfluously Paul encourageth to write profitably Eccle. 12.12 2 Tim. 4.13 'T is with books as with meats he that refuseth eating as the cure of an unwholesome or unreasonable diet acts the part of a murtherer not of a Physitian He is not a man that distinguisheth not between good and bad He is not a wise man that discerneth not between excess and nothing The Pen-men of corrupt Books must hold up their hands as highly guilty of the evil of the times and superfluous Books do but add to the heap of vanity and vexation of spirit These lose precious hours those lose more precious souls By way of Apologie for this Treatise I shall only say the wise mans admonition I have been conscionably awful of and have aimed at Edification The use of Books is to communicate pertinent truth the excellency of Books is to do it Substantially clearly briefly Abuse takes not away their use nay such books are the cure of evil books The opening of Titus lips is the means to stop deceivers mouths the light of the book of the Gospel consumes the Magicians books to ashes Tit. 1.11 Acts. 19.19 one pin must be forced out by another After forgiveness begged in the Blood of Jesus for what is mine herein Pardon I crave of all pardon and acceptance as I hope for from some so especially from your selves to whom as I could bequeath no greater legacy so then from whom whence could I encourage my self with better expectation for YOU are OUR glory and joy forget not the emphasis in the word OUR Ministers compared with other Christians have little to joy in in this world 'T is not with the Ministers of the present as with the Ministers of late times nor with exiles as with the rest nor with your exiles as with some others Let this our or if you please your condition for therein you have been both partakers with us and supporters of us be your provocation A receiving encouragement whereof is the constant remembrance that you are our companions in this Patmos wherein many of you were before divers of us You know the hearts of strangers for ye are strangers The Lord who in rich grace hath not only Sanctified the tongue of the Preacher but also the pen of the Scribe unto the edification of his So bless all our labours that both Speaker and Hearer Writer and Reader may rejoyce together in that day that they have not run in vain This is the prayer of Your Servant for Jesus sake JOHN NORTON Ipswich in N. Eng. Octob. 7. 1652. To the Judicious Christian Reader THe Penning and Reading of godly Books is a singular improvement of the Communion of Saints as whereby we enjoy sweet and gracious conference with the Saints though unknown to us though absent in place distant in time yea many ages before us and so partake in the Communion of their most precious Gifts as if they were present with us or as if we had been of long acquainted with them which maketh me sometimes to wish that though I cannot nor dare not say that Spiritual Gifts are buried when they are only dispenced in a Pulpit for in a Pulpit they are set upon a Candlestick and give light to all that are in the House of this or that particular Church yet where God giveth an eminent measure of light fit to shine forth to a Nation or to a world of Churches That such Gifts might not be confined to a Pulpit but as clusters of ripe Grapes passing under the press are fit to be transported to all Nations So such Gifts and Labors passing under the Press may be fitly Communicated to all Churches It is indeed a true word which the word of truth hath spoken Eccles 12.12 Of making many books there is no end and much reading is a weariness to the flesh But yet some books there be of which I may say as Fernelius and other Physicians speak of their Pills There are Pillulae sine quibus that is sine quibus esse nolo so there be some libelli sine quibus some books sine quibus esse nolo And this is one of them without which I would neither be my self nor wish thee to be Though most books be accommodated to Popular capacity and they do most good extensively yet there had need to be some which speak accurately that

they who apply their Sermons and writings to Popular capacity may still keep within the compass of exact Truth and they do most good intensively The Holy ●host by Paul giveth the People of God an holy warning See that ye walk circumspectly or as the word is exactly Ephes 5.15 Now if the Rule of a Christian life be walk exactly Surely the Rule of a Scribe taught to the Kingdom of God and gifted for it is write exactly There be some of good judgment who interpret the four Creatures in Revel 4.7 to hold forth the four sorts of Officers in the Church The Lyon for his Courage and Power the Ruling Elder The Ox for his patience and labor in treading out the Corn the Pastor The Man for his Prudence in ordering the humane outward affairs of the Church the Deacon The Eagle for his soaring aloft and quick in sight into remote and hidden things the Teacher How well therefore doth it become this our Reverend Brother the Teacher of an intelligent people the Church at Ipswich to lanch forth into the deep as Christ biddeth his Disciples Luk. 5.4 To spie out and discover the secret and abstruse mysteries of the Kingdom of God Moreover that which adorneth the exactness of the matter of this discourse is Pithy Brevity compacting as many things as words together that as it was the constant desire and affectation and expression of Dr Preston to live long in a little time So it appeareth to be the serious care and endeavour of this our beloved Brother to speak much in few words The Schoolmen though they be none of the soundest Divines yet of late years have crept for a time into more credit amongst Schools then the most judicious and Orthodox of our best new writers Luther Calvin Martyr Bucer and the rest and their books were much more vendible and at a far greater price But what or wherein lay their preheminence Not in the light of Divine Grace whereof most of them were wholly destitute nor in their skill in Tongues and Polite Literatur wherein they were Barbarians nor in their deeper insight into the holy Scriptures in which they were far less conversant then in Peter Lumbard and Aristotle but in their rational disputes with distinct Solidity and Succinct brevity But in the mean time they corrupted the whole body of Divinity with many curious and unprofitable questions with many Philosophical falsly so called and vain Notions and with many subtil devices to uphold the Church of Rome in their then prevailing Antichristian Apostacy What was unsound and corrupt in the Schoolmen our Brother by the guidance of Christ hath faithfully and Religiously avoyded what was commendable and desireable he hath through grace not so much imitated as exceeded Opening the principal heads of Divinity with more then rational evidence even with Scripture light and all with such distinct Solidity as may both clear the understanding and satisfie the Judgment yea and by grace establish the faith of the diligent Reader and that with such Succinct Brevity as avoydeth at once both Perplexity and obscurity together Amongst other disputes which have much exercised the Schoolmen of old and still do busie the Dominicans and Jesuites concerning the concurse of Grace and Free-will therein the Lord hath led this our Brother with a strong hand to search out and declare the abstruse mysteries thereof with such holy Dexterity as that if the dissenting parties were as willing to hearken to the Oracles of God speaking in the Scriptures and opened in this book as the Romanists have often appealed to the Pope and all in vain for the compounding of this Controversie The Doctrines of Grace would be much more clearly delivered and generally accepted with more peace and truth not only amongst them but amongst Protestants also yea and even such Protestants as excell in holiness and knowledg and yet seem and but seem to vary though Logically yet not Theologically in some doctrines of Grace may through grace either judg and speak all one thing or at least condescend placide ferre contrasentientes mildely to bear with difference of judgment in such a case And as for such Protestants as follow Bellarmine and Fevardentius in extenuating the bitterness of the Soul-sufferings of Christ from any sense of spiritual Desertions as if such pangs were incompatible to his pure and innocent Nature and Life I trust the Lord will give them to discern by another book of this Author treating purposely of that Argument the more bitter the cup was which he drank up for us the deeper was the guilt of our sin and the greater was the measure of his Love towards us And unless the whole guilt of our sins be imputed to him and his perfect obedience to the Law be imputed to us we shall fall short both of the matter and form of our justification Now the God of all Grace and Peace and Truth bless these gracious Endevors of his Servant to the free passage of his Truth and Peace in the hearts and Judgments of his Churches and People through our Lord Jesus JOHN COTTON Boston 20 Sept. 1652. CHAP. I. Of the Divine Essence THough nothing is more manifestly known then that God is yet nothing is more difficultly known then what God is Philosophy is here dumb or worse Simonides being asked what God was Cicero de natura deor lib. 1. asketh a days time to answer the question At that days end he asketh two at the end of these two he asketh four and so often doubling the time being asked the reason thereof Because saith he the longer I study the difficulter I find the question We in this life only see his back-parts Exod. 33.23 viz. what he hath revealed of himself in his Word and Works according to our manner and measure So much we see of him that we may live more we cannot see of him and live To see him as he is is reserved to glory God in his Word revealeth himself to be Iehovah Elohim i. e. one God subsisting in three Persons Though Essence and Subsistence that is the divine Nature and the Trinity of Persons in that Nature are the same thing they being distinguished not as a Being and a Being but as the manner of a Being or thing is distinguished from the Being or thing it self yet for the help of our apprehension God being pleased so far to condescend to our capacity as delighting to be understood by us we first consider of the Essence then of the Subsistence The Essence of God absolutely considered is that one pure and meer act by which God is God Because through weakness of our understanding we cannot apprehend it in any measure by one act it hath pleased God to give unto himself many Names and Attributes by the help of which we may the better conceive thereof The Hebrew Names more especially tending to this purpose are observed by Authors to be about ten in number 1. Iehovah Exod. 6.3 signifying Gods