TRUTH UNVAILD BY Scripture-Light In Three Parts Written for the sake of those that desire to behold it in its native Beauty To which is added An APPENDIX which the Author desires to leave as a Legacy to his Children By a despised Follower of the blessed Jesus ROBERT PRVDOM And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 LONDON Printed and sold by John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-street 1699. In Commendation OF THE Ensuing Treatise THE worthy Author of the ensuing Treatise I bless God that ever I became acquainted with being fully satisfied of the inward Uprightness and Sincerity of his Soul besides his undaunted Resolution and Courage according to his Light in following the Lord Jesus in his despised way and cleaving to his Truth and People who are exposed to the Scorn and Reproach of the World and to many Professors also add to his high Commendation Moreover all that shall vouchsafe to read this Treatise shall find that the blessed God hath graciously bestowed no small Light Gifts and Knowledg upon him in the great Fundamentals of true Christianity the Lord certainly hath raised him up to defend his Truth and Interest in those Northern Parts of this Kingdom where he dwells in a more clear Light than many have attained Besides he is not only furnished with Knowledg but with a sutable Zeal he being willing to work and labour in Christ's Vineyard The Subject he hath wrote upon is such as calls it is true for the Pen of the most discerning Eye many have wrote upon the two Covenants but how cloudily and darkly is palpable to many tho others have most excellently opened them amongst which the Reverend Mr. Nehemiah Cox in my Judgment hath exceeded yet his Stile seems a little too high for ordinary Capacities Our pious Friend tho very concise yet is very clear As far as I can discern 't is evident that God made a twofold Covenant with Abraham and set him up as a twofold Covenant-Head First The one with his natural Seed as such in which Covenant he promised to be his God and the God of all his natural Offspring that sprang from Isaac upon the Condition of their answering the Terms thereof which shews it was a meer Legal Covenant or of the same nature with the Sinai Covenant and in this Covenant he separated all his fleshly Seed from all other People in the World to be his People and visible Church under that Dispensation which consisted partly of the true spiritual Seed or Believers and partly of Unbelievers and in this Covenant he promised them the Land of Canaan and as a Sign or Token of all those Legal Covenant-Blessings he gave them the Rite of Circumcision Now this Church-state was figurative or typical and the Precepts and Ordinances were therefore typical and so continued till Christ came and the Gospel-Church the Antitype of it was established Many not seeing this run into a great Error thinking the Covenant made with Abraham was but one entire Covenant i. e. the Covenant of Grace whereas nothing is more clear than that Circumcision belonged to all the Male Children that sprang from Isaac tho their Parents were ungodly or Unbelievers as well as the Male Children of Believers that were of the same Seed Besides if all the Children of Abraham according to the Flesh were in the Covenant of Grace then one of these two things would follow that they must all be saved or else the Covenant of Grace is not a sure an everlasting or an unchangeable Covenant nor of meer Grace but a conditional Covenant and so Men may fall from Grace and perish eternally Therefore in the Second place The Covenant of Grace which was made with Abraham 't is evident was a distinct Covenant from the Covenant made with his fleshly Seed as such and consisted only in an absolute Promise of God's free Grace through Christ which took in none but God's elect ones and extended not only to the Elect amongst Abraham's Seed but those of the Gentiles also see Rom. 9.4 5 6. Gal. 3.16 29. Moreover it may seem strange that some Pedo-baptists should affirm that every believing Parent is a like common Covenant-Head to all their Seed as Abraham was for that was a Prerogative and Privilege only given to him and if it is as they dream then every believing Parent is the Father of all Nations or of all Believers whether Jews or Gentiles for so was Abraham made by the holy God See my late Replies to Mr. Burket Rector at Mildon and to Mr. James Owen I shall add no more only let you know our Author seems directly to agree with us herein As to our Author's Appendix in which you have an account of his Experiences and most pious Counsels to his Children I am greatly affected therewith the good Lord help not only his but all the Children of Godly Persons to whose hands it shall come to lay those things to Heart I wish from my Soul that every Godly Family throughout this Nation had one of these Books and that a Blessing may attend it shall be the Prayer of him who is yet by Grace preserved through many Trials to serve the Lord Jesus in his Generation according to his small Ability Benjamin Keach Horsly-down this 5th of the 4th Month called June 1699. The EPISTLE to the Christian READER REader in the perusing of the Truths contained in this Book I desire thou mayst with the noble Bereans have recourse to the holy Scriptures which contain in them the Path that the Flock have walk'd in who are gone before to the Mansions of eternal Rest The things laid down call for a more clear Discovery by some of God's Children who are better fitted for so great a Work and I do hope this may be as a Provocation to one of greater Ability to undertake it All that I can say for my self is that what I have done was from an inward Constraint of Soul through Grace I have been conscious to my self of my personal Weakness and therefore I have endeavoured to have my Heart laid at the Feet of the blessed ascended Jesus to whom I have devoted Soul and Body and all that is dear unto me My Soul hath endeavoured to keep sight of my Lord by Faith held before me in the Gospel-Glass and to follow that borrowed Light which shines in the Saints from Christ the Son of Righteousness Having in my youthful Years drunk in the Principles of Free-will General Redemption and falling away from Grace which do fall in naturally with the Judgment of Man while he stands under the first Covenant I was so settled in those Opinions that nothing less than an Almighty Power was able to draw my Mind to call the truth of them into question I was at times check'd by those absolute Promises laid down in the holy Scripture which seem'd to
secure to the Saints the certainty of persevering and of enjoying Heaven at last but was not able to reconcile them with other Scriptures where Promises and Threatnings were annex'd together and seem'd to stand upon terms with the Creature But he who hath been pleased to reveal his Son in me having brought me to see that the Children of Adam are distinguished as standing under the two Covenants of Works and Grace and standing in this different state the Scriptures speak a Language which meets the Experience of each of them I then with great pleasure beheld the Harmony that was in the holy Scriptures and having for many Years been trained in the School of the Covenant of Works I have taken it in my way to clear it before I entred upon that well-ordered Covenant by which all that are once enter'd into it are secured I wish thou mayst not be offended at the plainness of the Stile in which the Truths contained in this Book are laid down and so I rest a Lover of thy Soul Robert Prudom Truth Unvailed BY Scripture-Light c. PART I. CHAP. I. Of the first Adam the Excellency of the State and Condition in which he was created AFter God had made the World and all sorts of living Creatures in it he proceeds to make Man as the Perfection of this lower Region consisting of two Parts a comly Body more beautiful than the rest of the Creatures not attended with the least Infirmity and a rational Soul fitted to hold Communion with God and to bear Rule over the rest of the Creatures From a sight of the Creation and of Man as the Lord of it while he stood in his Obedience to his Creator the Psalmist David breaks forth into a holy Wonderment Psal 8.3 4 5 6. When I consider the Heavens the Work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is Man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels thou hast crowned him with Glory and Honour Thou madest him to have Dominion over the Works of thy Hands thou hast put all things under his feet A curious Canopy over his Head and a furnished World for him to walk in all Creatures giving a willing Subjection to him And the great Creator that he might shew unto Man the Authority that he had invested him withal brings every Beast of the Field and every Fowl of the Air unto Adam to receive its Name and whatsoever Adam call'd every living Creature that was the Name thereof How great was the Happiness of Adam while he stood in that state in which he was created He knew no wants in his Body he had always a furnished Table before him the Earth affording him all the Varieties that Nature brings forth and that without any Toil or Labour he had a Garden and that of God's planting to walk in and furnished with Trees bearing Fruit of every kind What Gardener so skilful as the great Creator and what Fruit so pleasant as that which is of his own making He not only planted the Trees but causeth them by his own Power to bring forth and ripens them to the height of Perfection there were all sorts of Fruits that were pleasant to the sight and good for Food a pleasant River goes forth from this Garden to water it And to add to Adam's Happiness he is blest with the happy company of his Creator Stop a little my Soul and take a view of Adam before Sin entered and the Off-spring of the second Adam when wholly delivered from Sin and clothed upon with their glorified Bodies This beautiful Eden or Earthly Paradise is but a Type of the Heavenly Paradise into this Paradise did the Tempter enter into the Heavenly Paradise he cannot come this Happiness was but short but that which is to come is eternal In this God was enjoyed as Creator in the other God will be enjoy'd as a Father the Son as a Husband to us Thy Maker will be thy Husband the holy Spirit for ever tabernacling in thee the holy Angels and glorified Saints thy Companions O my Soul is this the happy Country that thy Lord hath provided for thee and hast thou indeed the clear Evidences of an Interest in it then surely thou wilt be pressing towards it and learn to live more and more above the things of this World CHAP. II. Of the Image of God in which Adam was created and the nature of that first Covenant-Light while in the state of Innocency THE Apostle John in the first Chapter of his Gospel and the 2d 3d and 4th Verses speaking of the second Person in the Godhead the eternal Word saith The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made In him was Life and that Life was the Light of Men that is That Divine Life which was in the eternal Word Creator did give forth the Beams of its Life and Light in making of the Soul of Man Not that the Soul of Man did thereby become any part of the Godhead to think this is no less than Blasphemy but an Image of God Gen 1.26 27. And God said Let us make Man in our own Image after our Likeness and let him have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over the Cattel and over all the Earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth So God created Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he them This Image of God did not consist in the curious shape of his Body altho the Beauty of it did far exceed the rest of the Creatures for this were to make God to consist of Bodily Parts and so confinable to one place for a Body cannot be in two places as once but this glorious Image consisted in the Faculties of the Soul and the Impressions of the Law upon it The Faculties of the Soul consisted of a spiritual Substance which God breathed into that frame of the Body to give it Life it was not made of any earthly Matter as was the Body but of a spiritual nature like unto its Creator for altho it had not its being from Eternity yet it was to continue to Eternity and from the time of its Creation was never to come under a Dissolution it was not made like the Soul or Life of Beasts of the same Matter whereof the Body was made and therefore dieth with them but was created by God immediately out of nothing in which respect God is said to be the Father of our Spirits Heb. 12.9 Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live As it had Life in it self when it was join'd to the Body so it retaineth Life when it is separated from the Body and liveth for ever It consisteth of these five Faculties 1. The Vnderstanding
it when it hath answered the end for which it was brought upon you the Providence will be changed or you taken from under it home to your Father's House 5thly Endeavour to get imprinted upon your Minds the necessity of having your Zeal in the Worship of God regulated by the Word of God It is good for to be zealously affected always in a good thing mind that it be from the Inlightenings of the Spirit within you that you are led to behold the Truth in the Letter of the holy Scriptures and that by comparing Scripture with Scripture you receive full satisfaction concerning the Truth you lay hold upon Let this go before and then your Zeal in worshipping of God by it and in bearing a Testimony for it follow after How many Persons are exceeding zealous for things which they practise in their Religious Worship that they have no ground for from the holy Scriptures and do place all their hope in this their superstitious Zeal not being brought in the least to witness the dealings of God with their Hearts What mischievous work hath blind Zeal made in the Christian World All the Sufferings and Troubles that have befallen the Children of God in all Ages have come in by it true Zeal desires to destroy Error and to save the Person that is carried away with it false Zeal falls upon the Person and endeavours to ruin the outward Man for the pretended Errors of the inward Man Where Persons are one with you in the Foundation and do walk with God by Faith answerable to their discoveries of Truth tho you should differ from them in many other things let your Moderation be shewn towards them And for those that may differ from you in the Publick Worship of God upon further discoveries of Light received have you a care of condemning any such of being guilty of Error before you are able from the Letter of the Scripture to lay open their Error It is the Scripture laid down in the Letter that is the Rule and not Mens Consequences from it Consequences may be allowed to strengthen the Rule but must not be allowed to be added to it 6thly Endeavour to get imprinted upon your Minds the necessity of a holy Conversation before Men this is that which keeps up the Credit of Religion in the World in despite of all its Adversaries The World knows how to deal with Religion when they meet it in a loose Professor but they know not what to say to it nor how to deal with it when they meet it in a sincere self-denying Christian whose Conversation pleads for the Reality that is in Truth and gives a check to the Opposers of it By a holy Conversation we vindicate the Interest of the Son of God in the World and do invite poor Sinners that are convinced of the Evil that is in Sin to come and taste of that pleasant Fruit that the ways of Holiness do afford to those that walk in them There is a great difference betwixt the ways of Sin and Holiness Sin tho it affords a seeming Pleasure in the committing of it yet draws after it Guilt and Misery Holiness tho in the Acts of it we receive Reproach from the profane World a train of inward Peace and Comfort doth follow it A Profession of Words cannot be taking to any Person where the Conversation doth speak a quite contrary Language To be loose in Conversation under a pure Profession is for a Man to contrive how he may make himself the miserablest of Persons when he comes in Eternity The Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Gospel in Chap. 35. v. 8. saith And an High-way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of Holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the way-faring Men tho Fools shall not err therein It shall be called the way of Holiness the unclean shall not pass over it Where pardoning Grace is inwardly received for all Sins the Soul under the sense of Divine Love hath an inward hatred against the very nature of Sin begotten in it and an inward yearning after Holiness as that which adds Strength and Vigor to the new Creature in the Souls of the Saints Where there is inward Strength and Vigor in the Soul against that Corruption which hinders Communion there will be a watchfulness against those things that tend to the dishonouring of God by our Conversation Holiness inwardly and sincere Obedience outwarldy are so inseparable that whoever hath the one it is impossible but he must have the other As by a growth in Sin Sinners do ripen for Hell and eternal Misery so by Holiness Saints do ripen for Heaven and eternal Glory Holiness makes us meet for the Heavenly Canaan without Holiness no Communion with God in this Life without Holiness no Enjoyment of God in Glory and as it makes us meet for the new Jerusalem so without Holiness no entering into that holy City Rev. 21.27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh Abomination or maketh a Lie but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life I shall conclude this Book and my Directions to you with the words of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians Chap. 4. v. 8 9. Finally my Children whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Vertue think on these things Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen of me do and the God of Peace shall be with you FINIS The Contents PART I. Chap. I. OF the first Adam the Excellency of the State in which he was created page 1. Chap. II. Of the Nature of the first Covenant-light in the state of Innocency page 4. Chap. III. Of Adam's Fall the miserable change of his Condition thereby how all his Offspring were included in it page 13. Chap. IV. Of God's Image on the Heart of Adam how it discovers it self in the Hearts of his fallen Children The nature of the leadings of that first Covenant-light and the Condition of those that stand under the highest attainment of it page 25. PART II. Clearing that the Covenant of Grace and Redemption is but one and the same Chap. I. Of Election bottom'd on the Soveraignty of God How the Eternal Word united to Man's Nature is chose by electing Love as the Head of the Elect c. page 38. Chap. II. Of the Redemption of the Lord Jesus in two parts 1. Perfect Obedience to the Law 2. Satisfaction to the Penalty of it for the Elect c. page 47. Chap. III. Of Christ's Mediatorship in two parts 1. In sending the Spirit to fit for the publishing of the way of Salvation 2. For the Spirit 's accompanying the outward Declaration by opening the Heart c. page 61. PART III. Chap. I. Of the Publication of Gospel-Grace from the Fall to Abraham the Church-state during that Dispensation page 87. Chap. II. Of the Covenant made with Abraham and of the Old Testament Church-state what was required to be a Member of it page 92. Chap. III. Of the Ordinances of the Old Testament Church what they pointed at to the carnal Seed of Abraham and what to his spiritual page 97. Chap. IV. Of the New Testament Church and what 's requir'd to be a Member of it page 116. Chap. V. Of the Ordinances of the New Testament Church what is requir'd to fit for the partaking of them and what they hold out when administred according to the Rude of the Word page 132. PART IV. Being an Appendix which the Author leaves for a Legacy to his Children page 149. 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