Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A56123
|
Truth unvail'd 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 Prudom.
|
Prudom, Robert.
|
1699
(1699)
|
Wing P3883; ESTC R218355
|
94,157
|
208
|
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. Advertisement Lately published The Paraselene dismantled of its Cloud or Baxterianism Barefac'd 〈…〉 from a literal Transcript of the Judgment of Mr. Baxter and others in the most radical Doctrines of Faith compared with those of the Orthodox both Conformist and Nonconformist and transferr'd over by way of Test to the Papist and Quaker By Thomas Edwards Esq Sold by John Darby in Bartholomew-Close John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-church street Eben Tracy at the three Bibles on London Bridg and Eliz. Harris at the Harrow in Little 〈◊〉 Price bound 6 s.
took he Counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the Path of Judgment and taught him Knowledg and shew'd him the way of Vnderstanding Behold the Nations are as a drop of a Bucket and are counted as the small Dust of the Balance Behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing The Majesty and the infinite Power that is in God when some glimmering of it is beheld by the Soul how doth it lay it in the Dust before him and make it willing to be resigned up unto him to be disposed of by him For as his own Pleasure and his own Glory was the moving Cause why he created Angels and Men so in disposing of them according to his own good Pleasure who shall say to the most High Why dost thou thus God will be honoured by all his Creatures in a way of Mercy or in a way of Justice That he secured part of the Angels in the state wherein he created them is infinite Grace to them that he gave up others that fell from him to follow the Counsel of their own Wills and to persist in a course of Rebellion against him that so they might glorify the Attribute of his Justice is no Injustice in him the Evil which they brought upon themselves being a voluntary Act of their own That part of the Offspring of Adam are rescued out of their fallen state by rich and free Grace whilst the rest are left to the Light or Law of the first Covenant under which the great Creator hath placed them determining to proceed towards them according to the Tenor of that Covenant which they stand under before him is his own good pleasure In clearing up the Soveraignty of God I shall proceed a little further and before I leave it open two or three Scriptures in Job Chap. 2.3 And the Lord said unto Satan Hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright Man one that feareth God and escheweth Evil and still he holdeth fast his Integrity altho thou movedst me against him to destroy him that is in his outward Estate without cause From hence I observe that Sin was not the moving cause why that great outward Calamity fell upon Job but an Act of God's Soveraignty over his Creature intending to bring Glory to himself out of the Misery of his Servant of whom he might dispose as he pleased without the least Injustice And Job beholding God dealing with him in a way of Soveraignty his Soul was kept in a right frame before him ver 9 10. Then said his Wife unto him Dost thou still retain thy Integrity Curse God and die But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women Shall we receive Good at the hand of God and shall we not receive Evil The best Support for God's Children when under Affliction is to look at the Soveraignty of God that so they may be kept from murmuring against him When we look up unto God as no ways bound to us but as he is pleased himself it makes us stoop before him and when the Soul goeth from its Duty here it goeth from that which should support it in Peace and Quietness An Example we have in Job when he begun to stand upon terms with God how was his Spirit unsettled as Chap. 31. from ver 1 to the 35th and then he breaks forth O that one would hear me Behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me And in ver 37. I would declare unto him the number of my steps as a Prince would I go near unto him Look forward into Job 40. from ver 1 to 15. and we find that God doth come forth to answer Job but how doth he answer him Doth he give Job an account why he brought such Calamity upon him No he stands upon his Soveraignty ver 2. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him He that reproveth God let him answer it Doth Job now make good what he said that he would declare unto him the number of his steps as a Prince doth he go nigh unto him No he falls under him ver 3 4. Then Job answered the Lord and said Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Here is the end of the Creatures standing upon terms with God and here is the safety of God's Children to endeavour to witness a humble submissive frame of Spirit to him I have treated hitherto of the Soveraignty of God I come now under the second Head to shew that Election proceeds from God as an Act of Grace and Goodness the advancing of his own Glory being that which is carried on in the Decree of Election Rom. 9.23 And that he might make known the Riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory For altho God was infinitely happy in himself yet so great is his condescending Grace to those whom he doth by his eternal Decree choose to be Vessels of Mercy that he is pleased to manifest of his Goodness to them and to take them into a state of eternal Glory with himself nothing foreseen at all in them being the moving Cause of God's choosing of them the only Cause being the good Pleasure of his Will 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which is given us in Christ Jesus before the World began Chap. 2.19 Nevertheless the Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth them that are his This Doctrine administreth great Comfort to the Saints who feel the Work of Election upon their Hearts that their Salvation standeth by God's eternal Decree that cannot be changed and not in themselves that daily might lose it How doth this make the Saints love God to the uttermost who hath manifested so great Love to them How doth this serve to humble them that they had nothing of themselves for their Salvation but it freely came from God Thirdly I shall proceed to shew how the Lord Jesus Christ is made the Head of the Elect and the way through which electing Love doth pass to every elect Person I shall prove it by these following Reasons 1st Because that our Nature in him was fitted as a Tabernacle for the receiving of the eternal Word the second Person in the Godhead the Holy Ghost by his incomprehensible Power working his Conception supernaturally purifying that Matter of which his Human Nature was taken in the Womb of the Virgin so that his Nature had not the least Defilement in it The Divine Nature and the Human Nature became united in him to him run all the Promises and to all the Elect as they are united in him 2 Cor. 1.20 For all the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen unto the Glory of God by us that through him