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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	lord_n	sabbath_n	2,994	5	10.1532	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30720	A name, an after-one, or, Onoma Kainon, a name, a new one in the later-day-glory, or, An historical declaration of the life of Shem Acher especially as to some more eminent passages of his day relating to his more thorow lawful call to the office and work of the ministry for about twenty years last past. ...	Bampfield, Francis, 1615 or 16-1683.	1681 (1681)	Wing B627; ESTC R16732	65,787	41

understood by some Ministers and others two Ministers came to him in the Prison a little before the end of the sixth day with vehement earnest importunate desirings beseechings and entreatings and other arguings and charmings that he would forbear tho but one day the next day which was the seventh day to consult and consider of so weighty a matter in so great a change for one week Oh for one week longer His Answer was quick short full and resolved in the Strength of the LORD No he would not put it off one day more it was clear as the Light to him through the whole Scripture and if he should put away from him this Statute of Jehovah tho but for one day he knew not but that the Holy Spirits quicknings teachings and comfortings of him might withdraw and Convictions be darkened and deadned From this time tho Sufferings for Christ came on yet Consolations by Christ did abound and the Scriptures did look with a clearer Face such is also the Experience of many others who are upright-hearted walkers with Christ and thorow followers of Christ in this way of his Command The very next day therefore the seventh day he celebrated as the weekly Sabbath day openly witnessing to it and publickly declaring for it from the Word remembring * Joh. 18. 37. that of his LORD Christ To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear witness unto the Truth every one that is of the Truth heareth my Voice This was the saying of Christ himself a few hours before his Death Since that Shem never met with any Objection that could shake or stagger him but all wrought for his fuller Confirmation and Establishment In the next place his perfecting of Believers Baptism comes to be considered Convictions about this also did quickly spread in the Prison and from thence in other places Having no convenient Accommodations for Dipping under close Confinement he and two more took up Resolutions to pass under that Ordinance when the LORD should give his Prisoner Liberty when he was set free he and the other being at a time in London two Brethren and one Sister being throughly satisfied in each other took Boat and rowed down to Battersey near London and having discovered a convenient place of passing into the Thames River intended there to submit to this Appointment of their LORD the next Morning if not prevented or hindred There they kept Sabbath before the ending of which day somewhat providentially fell out by a difference in Judgment which did put a stop to that whole Action for that time Thus the LORD wisely ordered and graciously over-ruled this Affair for Good For he having before been wrought off from all other whatsoever to bring all entirely to an whole Christ and to his whole Word to Him and to it only had the fairer and fuller opportunity to consider before hand how it might be done in the purest way and to compare what he could meet with afterwards if it might tend to his clearer Inlightning or further Establishment that no one Mark of the Beast might be found upon him at Christ's coming to Glory Before he therefore writes downright to the Case for matter of Fact he will set down what both before and since he hath met with for an answer to this Question Who should be the Administrator and who is fittest for it There were divers of the Perswasion and Practice for Believers Baptism some who had been his Fellow Prisoners others of the same mind who gave him Christian Visits but his Spirit was not satisfied with any one of them For as for the Objection that has been made that a dead Man cannot bury himself as if therefore a Man could not baptize himself Such arguing from some Similitudes are often mistaken and misapplyed and recoil upon the Objecter As in this Case a grown Believer if in any circumstanced Case he have a sufficient Call to baptize himself yet is supposed to be not altogether dead but alive both in Nature and in Grace too and a living Person may do such an Action as may set out a dying burial and rising again Let a Swallow speak in this Case † See Swan's Spaeculum Mundi p. 408. History writes of this Bird that in the beginning of Autumn it gets among the Canes or Reeds where it sinks it self into the Waters thus dying and burying it self and at the beginning of the Spring it riseth up alive again Being in London and making enquiry there his disatisfaction grew on For upon search made concerning either a First-or-After-Administrator of this Ordinance he was informed either by printed Records or by credible Witnesses that the Administrator was Either a Self Baptizer such he knew not one lawfully authorized thereunto which yet he will not totally condemn especially if a Call can be cleared up thereunto from the LORD The Grounds and Reasons whereof are not fit to be brought in here particularly tho the discerning Reader may catch at Hints enough in what doth follow There are Hebrew words which do set out some such Washings that are in two Conjugations one of which Conjugations Hithpahel is always so and the other Passive in Niphal is often significantly * Such as Ruchatz and Hithrachatz Nibtal Nishtaph Shuttaph Heb. 9. 10. Lev. 15. 6 c. Gen. 17. 10 c. Rom. 4. 11. Col. 2. 1 2. In the Greek a Passive Verb has often an Active signification See for this Pasor's Greek Sacred Grammer of the New Testament p. 147 148 149. in many Scripture-Instances Thus also in the Latin there are divers Verbs which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as Passively do work Actively upon a Man's self See Danesius his Paralipomenae p. 78 79 80 81 82 83. In the Greek Words of the Middle Voice have often an Active signification sometimes a Passive now and then both 1 Cor. 10. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 Plur. aor 1 Med. They baptising themselves were baptized in the Cloud and in the Sea Thus it was i●●he Types which Moses sanctifying by the Word and Prayer the Israelites went in and under of themselves Thus Act. 22. 16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aor 1. Imper. Mood baptizing thy self be thou baptized Shem Acher will not say there was nothing at all of this self-baptising by Christ's appointment upon himself tho he resolves it into the Act of another of Christ himself upon him he being the princiipal Baptizer of him Act. 22. 16. The deeper research that Shem Acher doth make into this Scripture the more Note-worthyness doth he see in it There are two Verbs in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both of them relating to one and the same thing that is to Baptismal Washing and they are both of them of the same middle Voice of the same Imperative Mood derived from the same first Aorist of the same Number of the same Gender and of

to promote a Reformation He dipped all his Children This Mr. Slado her Grandfather had a considerable Estate in England which he sold and purchased somewhat in Ireland he had a numerous Progeny and they most of them have prospered well in this World and divers of them fear the LORD several of them are still living Whilst he lived in the City of Limerick in Ireland the Lecturers were entertained at his House Two of his Daughters were there married to Ministers One Mr. Town who married Gnezri-jah's Mother Shem Acher has heard was a Doctor of Divinity having Preferments in Ireland worth Two hundred pounds by the year he kept seven or eight Servants and well bred up a fruitful Family Her Father according to the Light of that day was zealous against Popery often exposing his Life to danger in defence of the Protestant Religion once the bloody Papists attempted to bury him alive but the LORD delivered him In the Irish Rebellion about forty years ago this Doctor with all his Family were persecuted he left his Estate for the Cause of Christ and after many wonderful deliverances in Ireland and at Sea during that Rebellion several of his Family came for England where the LORD took care of them but now they are scattered into several Countries Yet notwithstanding this just Defence made as to Men some do still go on with their defamings both of Shem Acher and of Gnezri-jah about this Matter who leave their Cause with the righteous Judg who knows how they both for several years have much endeavoured to sweeten the Lives of others and to promote Peace and Purity in the Churches tho ill requited by many whose unkindness have contributed much towards the breaking down of her Constitution and the sore distressing of her Spirit so that it is a wonderful Power and Preservation that both her Husband and she are yet alive What careful Thoughts Shem Acher has had for the Churches of the Holy Separation according to his Capacity Opportunity and Ability is known to the searcher of Hearts and there are some Friends who have been acquainted therewith tho hitherto he has been but little encouraged and cannot effect much but some Testimony thereof he has brought in this way by a Treatise of his published in seventy seven called All in One c. by the Visits which he has given to Sabbath-Churches and that Epistle of Love which he this Year sent to them for a Me●ting in London by Messengers for the promoting of such good Work and great Ends as were well worthy for the greatest Princes and ablest Ministers to countenance and prosecute had it been entertained and improved according to its just due value Which Epistle of Love was as followeth Shem Acher a Servant and Minister of Jesus Christ and the Friends in Church-Fellowship with him in London To all the Churches of Seventh-day-Sabbath-Observers who keep the Commandments of God and the Faith and the Testimony of Jesus Sendeth a Christian Salutation of Brotherly Love Mercy Grace Love Peace and Blessing be multiplyed to you from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ WE give thanks to God and the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ who has made known to you and to us his Holy Sabbath and hath so far favoured and honoured us as to use and own our open Confessing and obedient Witnessing of this and of any other Truth and Duty of the present Age whereunto he hath called us forth in his Wisdom and Strength who are but Foolish and Weak in our selves and we earnestly desire you to help together by Prayer with us that both you and we may walk worthy of God who hath thus called us unto his Kingdom and Glory and who has made King Jesus to be Preciousness and Honour to us and his Kingly Law to be Honourable and Glorious in our Esteem Both the Old and New Testament towards the close of each putting us upon a more particular and especial remembrance of Him and of his Law and pronouncing those to be the Blessed Ones who doing his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the Gates into the City There being divers exceeding great and precious Prophecies and Promises relating more peculiarly unto the Revivers and Observers of the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath which shall go a little before the Coming and Appearing of our LORD Jesus Christ in Glory when he will gather in the out-casts of Israel and do his other latter day-Glory-works For there shall be those of such Christian believing Sabbath-keepers who shall build all the old waste places who shall raise up the Foundations from Generation to Generation and who shall be called Menders of Breaches Restorers of Paths to Sabbatize in and the time drawing on Christ's Salvation being at hand to come and his Righteousness to be revealed so that we should look up and lift up our Heads because such our Redemption draweth near We therefore propound this unto your serious Consideration dear Brethren beloved in our LORD that by two or more Messengers from every such Church in England or by Letters and Messages from any of such Churches or of any particular Brethren in Holland New-England or elsewhere we may meet if our LORD will once or oftner upon weighty and urgent occasions and necessities every Year at London or elsewhere at such times as shall be agreed on to keep days of Fasting and of Thanksgiving together by the Prayers of Faith through the Mediation and Intercession of the great Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ to prevail with the Father for larger pourings out of his Spirit upon our selves and upon others for his special presence of Grace with us assisting and blessing of us in all Church-Administrations and at such a general Meeting by Messengers so as that thereby there may be begotten a better Understanding and a more unanimous Accord among our selves a more successful carrying on of Truth Love Peace and Holiness in our Churches a more exact bringing of all the Ordinances of Christ's New Spiritual House to the Laws and Orders of the Prophetical Pattern according to Scripture-Institution and that from cool considerate Conferences there may be given forth right statings of any other Questions that may come before us about which to give our advice mutually to one another by the Rules of the Word of God judging righteous Judgment according unto that without any lording it one over another but in all lowliness of Mind in Humility and Meekness being readily and thankfully made willing to receive further Scripture-Light from any whom our LORD shall use and honour to hold it forth before us and that then and there we may consult which way by a common stock to promote any good work for the maintenance of any Church-Officers for the training up of hopeful young or more aged Men sound and stedfast in the Faith in the Knowledg of the Original Tongue and of other

Scripture-Learning and for the procuring of a more exact literal Translation of the Old-and New-Testament into our Mother-Tongue and for the more religious educating of Children in Families and in Schools and for the relieving of the Poor and for such other good Works and to enquire what may be further a Duty upon us towards the two and the ten Tribes of Judah and of Israel to help forward their Conversion as also what the Spirit has to say more particularly and especially to our Churches and to other Churches in this great providential-Providential-day and such like publick-spirited Inquiries and all this for the promoting of the Honour of our LORD and of his Word Works and Cause the Purity and Peace of Churches and Salvation of Souls Thus through Grace and Mercy obtained from our LORD we discover and declare our readiness to joyn in with you in what is the work of our Day and Generation and so commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you and us up and to give us an Inheritance among all them who are Sanctified Shem Acher Now that Shem Acher's Ends towards the latter-day-Glory might be promoted and that Shem might prosecute so good a design in the use of all those lawful means which his Line could reach into in his place for the finishing of this part of his Testimony for Christ for the Word of Christ for the Law of his ten Words and the annexed Judicials and for the Seventh-day-Sabbath more especially whilst others were following of the King with Petition upon Petition subscribed with multitudes of Hands from Cities Towns and Counties By Shem's direction this following Address was put into the Hands of the King Honoured SIR THe Land doth tremble it is broken it shaketh the right Way and proper Method to heal its Breaches is plain and evident You have seen the Hand of the LORD stretched out against the Popish Plotters in a continued Discovery for many Months of their bloody Design If the LORD Jesus Christ who is the King of Kings would graciously give you a Heart for it and then put it into your Heart openly at the next Session of Parliament to declare that It is your full Purpose and firm Resolution in the Strength and Supplies of the Almighty God to set up the Laws of Christ in the Scriptures of Truth as the one and the only Rule of your Government for which you have their own Authority in express Words The Law of God is the Law of the Land Then will your Name be transmitted to Posterity in the English Chronicle with a Crown Royal upon it Those who honour Christ he will honour This from a mean Handmaid Elizabeth Hooker The Sabbath of my Mighty God make thou it Precious O my God of Deliverance A like Address was made by the same Advice and Hand to the King to the same Effect in answer to that loud awakening Call by that signal Blazing Star for the promoting of the same grand Design of exalting of Christ and of the Word of Christ And a third sometime after to the present Mayor of London for the like End As Paul's manner was accordingly Shem Acher in his place finding some Disciples of Christ at his first coming to live near London to do work for his LORD and for Souls they agreeing to desire him thereunto and expressing this desire to him that seeing they were a few scattered Sheep without a Shepherd not being fully then satisfied to join in Church Fellowship with any particular Church as so constituted and so walking in London they declaring their being satisfied in one another and in him that he would administer the LORD's Supper unto them which after Conference with them and divers of them having profited under his ministerial Labours and having been baptized by him accordingly he did at Bethgnal-Green in the year seventy four withal declaring both he and they that this was a providential Communion in all the Ordinances of Christ's new Spiritual House towards the latter-day-Glory so far as for the present according to our Scripture-Light they can regularly come at them and so long as the LORD should continue them somewhat near together in their Dwellings this was assented unto and agreed upon by those baptized Believers and Seventh-day-Sabbath-Observers A little after this some difference in Judgment arising amongst them which Shem Acher foresaw and told it unto some a remnant of them who were more of one Mind agreed at a meeting in seventy five to own the LORD Jesus Christ to be the one and only LORD and Lawgiver to their Souls and Consciences and the Holy Scriptures of Truth as the one and only Rule of Faith Worship and Life according to which they were to judg of all their Cases Then did they pass into a Church For at that meeting upon this Agreement without any particular Church-Covenant about controverted Matter they did firmly lay all their Churchbottoming and building upon this Rock and Foundation even upon Christ and upon his Word A little before their thus passing into this Church State and Relation the two Sabbath Churches in the City desired his Labours at sometimes with them in the use and exercise of his Gifts which he consented to upon their importunity the LORD assisting him and prospering of his Labours upon the Hearts of several whose longings still encreased to enjoy more of his Ministerial Labours after that he had gathered some Disciples of Christ and was in a Church-way with them and had a distinct Meeting-place in the same City where he met with the Church and others who gave their Attendance at that Assembly where his service was accepted of the Saints so that they were mutually refreshed whereby they had in much experience a savoury taste of the Spirits of one another divers of the Brethren and Sisters of one of those two other Churches of Sabbath-keepers imparting some of their inmost Cases unto Shem Acher who has here upon this occasion a weighty Case to propound As to the Matter of Fact which is attested to be true by the whole Church who knew what doth follow with whom he doth walk Shem Acher doth suppose a Sister of another Sabbath-Church in the same City imparted this Case of her Soul unto him reporting to him that for some years she had been mu●h oppressed in Heart distressed in Spirit broken and distempered in her bodily Constitution for want of that Spiritual Life and Liberty Purity and Peace Sweet and Satisfaction which she enjoyed not where she sat before but since she came under the Ministry of Shem her communicated Experience is that she has met with that Presence of the Holy good Spirit and of Grace sealed upon her Heart here to her Edification Comfort and Healing whereupon she desired to be in full Communion with Shem Acher and with the Friends in Church-Fellowship with him he laying this Gase in the several Circumstances of it to Heart the particulars whereof he

Christ in two Generations had been utterly extinct However the Case was with Paul Shem Acher has been very unkindly and injuriously dealt withal about his Marriage with Gnezri-jah When he with some other Ministers had the Honour to be so many years the LORD's Prisoner at Dorchester it came upon and into the Heart of Gnezri-jah from the time of his and their first Confinement to be as a common Stewardess and Nurse to make and bring in Provision of Food and of other outward Necessaries for them her Spirit and Soul being much drawn forth in Compassion towards the LORD's suffering Servants in fellow-feeling of their Hardships and with great longings after the daily enjoyment of Communion with Father Son and holy Spirit by the LORD's Blessing upon his and others Ministerial Labours at which time ●ho she then had an aged Mother to maintain she did pinch and straiten her self in diet and other-ways to serve and be helpful unto those Ministers which was afterwards understood by Shem Acher and considered by him After some time the other Ministers having obtained their Liberty Shem Acher's Imprisonment was continued for several years all which time this Gnezri-jah was a succourer of him and did continue friendly faithful to him in all his Temptations and was very useful not only to him but also to many other of the Prisoners in divers cases When he was set free his Heart was engaged to preach the Gospel abroad and having need of help Gnezri-jah sometimes travelled with him This being envied and maligned by some to prevent or remove any occasion of Scandal or offence he declared unto some of the Church that he was willing to take Gnezri-jah to him for a Wife according to the Word she being every way the fittest for him she being a Sister in the same way of Church-Fellowship and a Virgin modest and chast many ways look'd upon as excelling almost all of her Sex in the whole Town of Dorchester for Humility Patience Mortifiedness Diligence Faithfulness Zeal and such Commendablenesses as these in the Judgment of all spiritual Discerners who had any intimate acquaintance with her and she having undergone so many Hardships and Difficulties for him and after so many years experience of her fittedness for such a Yoke-fellowship Shem Acher married her When this was made known the Tempter bestirred himself and set some upon opening of their mouths both against him and her that he had married one who had been a kind of Servant to him one much beneath him for Birth a poor Maid without a Portion which was so odiously and unjustly aggravated and spread abroad by some who should have been more friendly both he and she before then and since having been friendly unto them that his Ministry was in a great measure rendred much useless and successless in those Parts which purpose of Marriage a little after compleated together with the Advice of several of the Friends in Fellowship with him to publish a Treatise in the Defence of the Cause of the seventh-day-Seventh-Day-Sabbath was somewhat of the occasion both of his coming to and continuing near and in the City of London Thus must any thing a little colourable serve for a Charge against Shem Acher who has met with a passage in Clarks Lives where he makes mention of a Commendable Act of one Minister of Christ who having bin helped by a mean Handmaid a Virgin during his sore Imprisonment for the Gospel's sake when he was set at Liberty thought he could no other way so requite her as by marrying of her This is recorded to the praise of that Minister but if Shem Acher do the same it must be look'd upon by many as a Scandal and Crime in him As for a Portion he prizeth Grace at a very low rate who doth not really in a case of competition esteem and prefer it above and beyond many Bags of Earthly Treasure And altho Shem Acher might possibly have had several Thousands with another Woman where there was not such a suitableness in other respects yet it was a sweet sensible Evidence upon his Heart in his Conscience about that time that being closely held to that † Psal 119. 72 127. Scripture-term he readily complied with it and conformed to it in the strength and supplies of the holy Spirit The Law of thy mouth O Jehovah is better unto me than Thousands of Gold and of Silver Therefore I love thy Commandments above Gold yea above fine Gold Shem Acher having an Annuity of Fourscore pounds by the year setled upon him during his Life This provided Food convenient and other outward Necessaries for him and out of the rest he was ready to distribute out of the Decimation and otherwise to the Necessities of others proportionably as far as it would go so that now after twenty years or more enjoyment of that Annuity he has not laid up one shilling out of that Means if he die before Gnezri-jah what he has to leave her is mostly his Study of Books and some Houshold-stuff They have not wanted Conveniencies since they came together neither shall either of them want when they are parted asunder by Death for they have Bonds by gracious Covenant under the Hand and Seal of the faithful God to be cared and provided for But Shem Acher not having an Estate to settle any Jointure upon a Wife if she survived he never had any considerable Proffer made him neither did ever meet with any pure Virgin so every way a meet help for him The common corrupt practice amongst many of the Gentry being to settle almost all their Estate upon their Eldest Son which has brought a Curse upon and has bin the Ruin of many Antient and Honorable wealthy Families the LORD in the way his Providence frowning upon such an unscriptural distribution He allowing a * Deut. 21. 17. double portion of their Father's Goods to the First-born whereas younger-Brothers are often put off with some small Allowance to keep them alive This Shem Acher doth mention not at all out of discontent at his Allotment for he doth write as he hath long experienced that his Annuity is the wisest and best Portion and Provision for him it bringing in unto him a Competency and discharging him from Worldly Cares and Earthly Incumbrances all his labour about this being once a Quarter to receive Twenty pounds and to give an Acquittance Only he brings in here this Testimony against the fore-mentioned common corrupt Practice As for Gnezri-jah's Family and Relations An ancient Justice of Peace did declare that her Grandfather was one of the First who appeared for a Reformation against the Superstitions and other Corruptions of the Times to the endangering of his Liberty and Life and that he and a Kinsman of his did lend one hundred pounds to Mr. White of Dorchester for his encouragement who was one of the first and foremost and forwardest of all the Puritane-Ministers in the West publickly by Preaching and otherwise