and a share in the Worship of it But the time of the Old Testament Church-state being expired the aim of the New Testament being to gather together the spiritual Seed of Abraham the fleshly Jew must be broken off and the believing Gentile must take his place that so the Church in the times of the New Testament may consist of the spiritual Seed and if he spared not the natural Jew because there was a want of the Qualification be not high-minded but fear for if thou wantest the Qualification thou hast not long to continue a Member of the Church of Christ in the times of the New Testament I have in treating of this Covenant contain'd in Gen. 17. gone from the common Opinion of Expositors and through Mercy I can appeal unto the Lord that I have desired sincerely to follow the leadings of his holy Spirit in his Word If I have varied in any thing from the holy Scriptures which I desire to follow as my Rule and Guide if any can shew me my Error and will do it in the Spirit of Meekness I shall be greatly obliged to them I must desire the Reader 's favour to overlook the weakness of the Stile in which these Truths are laid down and to look at the Truth it self which shines the clearest when it appears in its own native Beauty If it agree with thy Experience bless God for it for thou mayst see in reading of the Appendix which contains the Author's Experience and Advice to his Children that the Author hath nothing to glory in before the Lord It was by rich and free Grace alone that he was brought to see the Truth and to give Obedience to it It is through rich Grace that he receives strength to walk in it and it is by Grace alone that he hopes to come to that eternal Blessedness that is held forth by it CHAP. IV. Of the New Testament Church and what is required to be a Member of it BEfore I come to the matter contained in this Chapter I shall speak of the Church of Christ in general and so it comprehends the whole Elect Body from the Fall to those that shall be living at Christ's second Personal Appearance Ephes 3.14 15. For this cause I bow my Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Some of the Family are gotten to their rest others are conflicting with the World and some have only their being in the Decree of God to appear at the time appointed for them The Church so considered is the Body of Christ which he hath redeemed by his pretious Blood not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing when presented to the Father at the Last day But of the Church thus considered are many Members who are not brought to be Members of a gathered Church constituted according to the Rule of God's Word That Lot Job and his Friends were of the Body of Christ and so Members of the Church I think no Christian will deny yet it doth not any where appear that those were Members of the Old Testament Church who never imboided together and so became thereby visible to the Nations round about them As Christ in the times of the Old Testament had many Members who were not brought into the Church so hath he likewise in the times of the New Testament The idolatrous Church of Rome hath assumed to her self the name of the Church or the Spouse of Christ and so was owned for many Ages by the great Ones of the World while the Members of Christ were not visible to the World and in many places not one unto another In not distinguishing the Church as it is here laid down some Persons have driven on strange Designs against God's Children by their Cry That out of the Church there is no Salvation Which is true if we consider the Elect Body to whom Christ was given as a Saviour but will not hold true to any particular gathered Church for many Members of Christ are so scatter'd in the World that for many Ages it hath been and at this time is morally impossible that they should be gathered into a Body according to the Rule of the Word Of the Church as taking in the whole Body of the Elect do I reckon Elect Infants Whether only all Believers Infants or Unbelievers Infants likewise be so to whom Grace is applied by the Holy Spirit I leave as a Secret which God is pleased to reserve unto himself But that they are uncapable of Membership in a visible gathered Church in the times of the New Testament and have no Right to the two Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper will appear in the prosecuting of this and the next Chapter if regard be had to the Holy Scriptures as a Rule and Guide unto us By holding forth the Purity of the Church I do not thereby unchurch those several sorts of Protestants that differ from the poor despised Baptists in many things yet do hold with them the Foundation the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer and the one Mediator betwixt God and Man in opposition to the many Mediators brought in by the Idolatrous Church of Rome Yet if regard be had to the Holy Scriptures as a Rule many of the Protestant Churches will appear to have been building upon the Foundation Wood Hay and Stubble they have retained in their several Churches something that hath been handed down unto them from the idolatrous Papists and not from the Authority of the Holy Scriptures Although God hath born with these Churches several Ages as he bore with the Churches of Asia yet it is visible that his Presence is greatly withdrawn from them and may end in the unchurching of them when the Church comes wholly to be delivered out of her Wilderness State if there be not a hearty and speedy return unto him Having by way of Introduction open'd the way into what remains chiefly to be consider'd in this Chapter I shall lay down these two general Heads as that which may take in the whole matter First Treat of the Nature of the Publication of the Gospel under the New Testament Secondly What is required to be admitted a Member of the visible Church according to the Rule laid down in it First I shall treat of the Nature of the Publication of the Gospel under the New Testament and that is in a different manner from the Publication of it in the times of the Old Testament The Lord Jesus Christ was then held forth under such Types and Figures that the end for which they were instituted in the Church was beheld with great difficulty so that the Saints themselves that were waiting for his coming were ignorant of the manner of it and the nature of that Deliverance that should be wrought by him being much upon the expectation of a visible Kingdom in this World and outward Glory attending of it not being brought clearly to distinguish betwixt
he shall neglect to hear these two or three Witnesses then tell it to the Church that is let his Offence and his persisting in it after Admonition be laid before the Church to whom the Offender belongs as a Member but if he neglect to hear the Church in admonishing of him of his Offence then let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican that is as a Person that is a Stranger from the Church and not belonging to it Thirdly A third Reason why the New Testament requires a Work of true Conversion upon the Heart as that which qualifies or fits a Person to be a Member of a visible Church is because as every Member doth receive Grace in a measure so it is their Duty to communicate of that Grace to their fellow Member holding the Head the Lord Jesus Christ who by Faith ties and knits every Member of the Body unto him and from that fulness that is in him gives forth Nourishment to every individual Member so that as they grow up by the strength of Grace they are enabled to add something to the edifying and strengthning of their fellow Members and to add to the Beauty of the Church to whom they do belong for altho many Men that are Members of the Church may not have received such Gifts as to fit them for publick Exercise in the Church much less Women who are strictly forbidden the contrary 1 Cor. 4.34 35. yet in their private Discourses one with another whether Men or Women if the Matter which they discourse of tend not to the advancing of the Lord Jesus Christ and the exalting of the Grace of God through him by which they may be edified such Persons little consider what is required of Church-Members in order to the discharge of their Duty to God and to one another CHAP. V. Of the Ordinances of the New Testament Church what is required to fit for the partaking of them and what they do hold out when administred according to the Rule of the Word THE Apostle Paul lays open the different state of the Church under the Old and New Testament in Heb. 3.5 6. And Moses verily was faithful in all his House as a Servant for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after That is Moses was faithful in giving forth the Pattern of the Old Testament Worship which was figurative of what was to be done by the Messiah at his appearance in the state of his Humiliation He by his appearance performing what was figured out by the Old Testament Worship it must follow that there was an end put to that Worship and with the Worship to the Church-state likewise Ver. 6. But Christ as a Son over his own House whose House are we if we hold fast the Confidence and the rejoicing of the hope unto the end The New Testament Church hath the honour to have the Son of God to be the first Discoverer by his own Mouth what was required to be a Member of it and to be the Appointer of the Ordinances to be continued in it Mat. 16.15 16 17 18. He saith unto them But whom say ye that I am And Simon Peter answered and said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God And Jesus answered and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven And I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Leigh upon the words faith that it was the Judgment of Hilary Cyril Chrysostom Theophilact and Ambrose that by the Rock is not meant Peter's Person but the Faith which he had professed in Christ an inward discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ by Faith accompanied with an outward Profession of the fame is the Matter of which the New Testament Church is built 1 Pet. 2.4 5. To whom coming as to a living Stone disallowed indeed of Men but chosen of God and precious ye also as lively Stones are built up a spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Every Member of the Church is not fitted to be a Publisher of the Gospel but every Member of the Church if such an one as the Word requires is brought through Christ to receive the Grace of God and from an inward feeling of this Grace received to offer up a thankful Heart devoted to him For the gathering in of such Members into the New Testament Church is the Commission given forth to the Apostles and direction is given to admit Persons thus gathered to the initiating Ordinance of Water-Baptism as appears from the words of the Commission and the Practice of the Apostles by virtue of the Commission Mat. 28.18 19 20. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World Here three things lie fair from the words without any wresting of them First Outward Teaching the instrumental Means appointed by Christ and made use of by the Holy Ghost to bring to the inward knowledg of him and the acceptance of Grace through him thereby to be made fit Matter for the Church under the New Testament This I have spoken so fully to in the last and in this Chapter that the visible Church of Christ under the New Testament doth consist of such as are call'd out of the World by true Conversion to lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and Grace through him that I need not enlarge upon this first Head The second thing contained in the Commission is the admittance of such to the initiating Ordinance of Baptism Acts 2.41 Then they that gladly received the Word were baptized and the same day were added to them about three thousand Souls Thirdly Here is the continuation of what is commanded by the Commission in these words And lo I am with you alway unto the end of the World The Apostles liv'd not till the end of the World therefore I am with you and your Successors who shall be fitted by me for the preaching of the everlasting Gospel appointed to gather the Elect unto God until this World come under a Dissolution As by the Commission and the Practice of the Apostles upon the Commission Baptism is appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ as the initiating or entering Ordinance into a visible Church of Christ under the New Testament so his last Supper is appointed by him to be practised by these that are in a visible Church-state Luke 22.19 20. And he took Bread and gave Thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying This is my Body
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
the Lord revealed things to us and our Children PART III. Setting forth the Publication of Gospel-Grace from the Fall to Abraham the State of the Church until that time the Covenant made with him the Nature of the Old Testament Church-State and the New Testament Church-State CHAP. I. Of the Publication of Gospel-Grace from the Fall to Abraham the Church-State during that Dispensation OUR first Parents Adam and Eve having by Disobedience brought themselves and all their Offspring being included in them under the Penalty of the first Covenant the great God whose Mercy Grace and Goodness is over all his Works doth in his threatning against Satan publish the glad Tydings of the Gospel and doth hold forth a Redeemer to come of the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 And I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed it shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel In which Threatning we may observe that in the Word It and His the Person of the Redeemer was held forth unto our first Parents and upon the performance of this Threatning against Satan which did carry Gospel-Grace in it did the Children of God that lived in the World before Abraham relie They by Faith beheld him that was to come and through that Grace which was granted to poor Sinners in him they were brought to walk with God and to enjoy him In the prosecuting of the third Part of this Book I shall by the Assistance of the Spirit of God make it appear That the Gospel as to the Matter of it is one and the same with what is contained in this Threatning against Satan and that what renewals of Grace God hath in a Covenant-way bestowed upon any of his Children as upon Abraham and David they were but as so many Confirmations of the Certainty of a Redeemer to come and tended to streng-then this first Threatning and to confirm the Faith of the Fathers in the certain Performance of it That the Publication of Gospel-Grace did not br with God that were under the found of it is very clear It is not the bare Performance of those Duties required by the Gospel that doth evidence Persons being in Covenant with God but the Principle by which they are enabled to perform them An Instance of which we have in the two Brothers Cain and Abel Gen. 4.3 4 5. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the Fruit of the ground an Offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the Firstlings of his Flock and of the Fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his Offering And unto Cain and his Offering he had not respect and Cain was very wroth and his Countenance fell We cannot think that these two Brothers as they were the Children of Adam and Eve could be ignorant of the Threatning against Satan That the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head But one of them offer'd a more excellent Sacrifice than the other by Faith having a view of this blessed Redeemer upon the account of whose Worthiness and in whose Name he offer'd up his Offering unto God Abel's Soul being led by Faith to the Redeemer and through him unto God meets with the acceptance of his Person and of his Offering Cain who wants Faith hath both his Person and his Offering rejected How small was the number of the Spiritual Seed yea into what a small compass was the outward face of the Church brought when God brought the Flood upon the old World the outward face of the Church confined to Noah's Family Gen. 6.11 12 13. And the Earth was corrupt before God and the Earth was filled with Violence And God looked upon the Earth and behold it was corrupt for all Flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth And God said unto Noah The end of all Flesh is come before me for the Earth is filled with Violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the Earth Although wicked Ham lived in this religious Family whose Father hath this Character given him by God himself Gen. 7.1 And the Lord said unto Noah Come thou and all thy House into the Ark for thee have I seen righteous before me in this Generation And although he was preserved with his Father from the Deluge his Heart is not the least touched with it but he seems rather hardned in his Wickedness as appears by that brutish Act of his to his Father when he lay uncovered in the Tent. Although Christ had a Church in the World from Adam until Abraham's time and as far as Light can be afforded from the holy Scriptures the Church did remain privately in Families yet that all those that were in the Family were Members of the Church much less brought into the Covenant of Grace the Scripture gives us no ground to believe I cannot but a little wonder to behold the Confidence of some Men who do assert That there was no Covenant of Grace before Abraham and in publick in my hearing have affirm'd that to make the Threatning against Satan the Covenant of Grace is to make God covenant with the Devil And again That when God ever took any Person into Covenant with him he also took all the Offspring or all his Seed into Covenant with him To question the Reality of such Assertions is to bring one under the Reproach of being Deniers of the Covenant of Grace as if they had a mind to inhance a kind of Infallibility to themselves by making Persons believe things from their pare Assertions CHAP II. Of the Covenant made with Abraham and of the Old Testament Church-State what was required to be a Member of it THAT the Covenant made with Abraham had something in it peculiar to him as a Believer for the strengthning of his Faith and likewise relating to a numerous Offspring which were to proceed from his Loins is that which I hope to clear up in the following Discourse And first relating to him as a Believer for the strengthning of his Faith in the blessed Redeemer who then was to come He hath this exceeding great Favour bestowed upon him to have the Promise of the Redeemer's coming renew'd unto him and that by a new Promise with this additional Favour annexed to it that the Redeemer according to the Flesh should be of his Seed which must certainly bring a great deal of comfort with it to believing Abraham Gen. 12.3 And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed compared with Gen. 22.18 And in thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed The Apostle Paul recites the very Words of the Promise and calls it a preaching the Gospel before unto Abraham Gal. 3.8 And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all