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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	lord_n	see_v	5,118	5	3.3465	3	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

many ten thousands of Believers as the Greek doth expresly affirm at Jerusalem tho the English Translation doth not so render it Act. 21. 17 20. And the more General Appellation of the Temple doth sometimes in some places include the Synagogues so was the Tabernacle called There were Synagogues in Damascus There were Churches in Judea and Galilee and Samaria There were several Preachers Prophets Teachers in Antioch a City of Syria too many to be confined only to one Congregation whom those of the Church in that City might hear as they most could profit especially was it thus in Jerusalem There were Synagogues at Salamis a City in Cyprus In every City of Judea they had their Synagogues where was Reading and Preaching every Sabbath Day There were Churches in Syria and in Cilicia At Corinth there was a Church and another at Cencrea which belonged to Corinth And this Church at Corinth the Believers and Saints in Church-fellowship there are highly commended by Paul for first giving up of themselves to the LORD Christ to be wholly his in all things to be ruled by his Will and Law and then under Him unto his faithful Ministers so far as these did guide them by the Scripture-Rule according to Christ's Will therein not only those Ministers of Christ who were more particularly related to some Church there not only to Apollos or some one or two more but also to Paul Cephas Barnabas Timothy Titus Sylvanus or any other such providentially teaching there they all doing the same work and being Workers together therein 1 Cor. 1. 12. 3. 4 9 22. 16. 10 11 12. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 5. 18 19 20. 8. 16 24. 12. 12 18. 2 Cor. 8. 5. There were more Ministers than one at Corinth is clear from 1 Cor. 14. 23-32 This with more of the like Collections from Scripture might be improved to great and good uses when the Churches shall be in a spirit and frame for it At present they thus argue from hence If Shem Acher and those with him have received into Church-fellowship this Sister according to the forementioned Precepts and Precedents by Scripture-Warrants and Rules Then neither She nor They c. But Shem Acher and those with him c. Therefore Thus have they made it appear by many solid Arguments that they have not done without great Causes and weighty Reasons what they have done in the Case of this Sister If any will be returning an Answer it is desired and expected that he would according to what he sees here before him first set down the Scriptures and then argue from those Scriptures They have brought in their Testimony for their LORD in this matter He having given Authority to his Officers for the Edification of his Churches and People and not for their Destruction They can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth They love the Truth and Peace they pursue Holiness and would have their All to be done in Love in that Love which is of God and is brotherly and unfeigned 2 Cor. 10. 8 10. 13. 8 11. Rom. 15. 4 7. Zech. 8. 19. Heb. 12. 14. 1 Cor. 16. 14. PAVL * 1 Tim. 1. 13 15. Act. 26. 9 10 11. 1 Tim. 14 15 16 17. Act. 9. chap. 22. chap. 26. Eph. 3. 7 8 9 10 17 18 19. 1 Cor. 15. 8 9 10. Consider well the History of the Acts of the Apostles and the several Epistles of Paul Eph. 3. 8. 2 Cor. 11. 12. chap. throughout 2 Cor. 4. 1 2. 1. 12. Heb. 13. 18. 1. Cor. 15. 10. 2. Cor. 12. 11 12. Phile. v. 9. Phil. 3. 7 21. 2 Tim. 4 6 7 8. He had sound good Evidences and Assurances of his happy State in saving sanctifying Grace Altho in the days of his Unregeneracy he had been one of the Prime of Sinners yet he lived to be one of the most eminent Exalters of free Grace and most serviceable Instruments in Christ's hand of any meer Man that ever lived yet he in great Humility acknowledged himself less than the least of all Saints O what a Name of Honour has he in Scripture-Records for his Doings and Sufferings for Christ How much did he commend himself to every Man's Conscience in the sight of God having this to be his rejoycing the Testimony of his own Conscience that in Simplicity and Sincerity according to God not in fleshly Wisdom but in the Grace of God he had had his Conversation in the World being confident that he had a good Conscience behaving himself well in all things Well nigh about one third part of the New Testament is an Historical Narration concerning him who tho he were so singularly eminent and so growingly excelling in edifying Gifts and in sanctifying Graces and in extraordinary usefulness even to old Age to the very last yet still forgetting those things that were behind he reached forth unto those things that were before pressing toward the Mark for the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus having his Citizenship in Heaven calling upon others to be Followers together of him and to mark them who walk so as they had him for an ensample so far as he followed Christ who when he had fought a good Fight finished his Course and kept the Faith passed triumphingly into Glory being well assured that there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness which the LORD the righteous Judg would give him at that day SHEM ACHER If towards the close of this Narrative any serious Enquirer do desire to be satisfied concerning his Spiritual State that no trouble may remain upon their Heart and Mind to hinder their profiting under his Ministry the God of all Mercy of all Grace and of all Consolation has treasured up much in the Heart of Shem Acher as matter of self-emptying and of Soul-humbling yet withal of exalting of Jehovah Aelohim in Father Son and Holy Spirit of advancing of Christ that All-wonderful one God-Man How unsearchably rich has this Grace how admirably free has this Love been A Spiritual Discerner may gather much together by way of Evidence out of the foregoing History of Shem Acher's Life one more eminent Passage whereof he would here revive in the Memory because it has been one of the most eminent excelling Experiences of his whole Life when his more thorow Conversion by way of Spiritual Espousals had such clear full satisfactory self-Evidence in it as shines in his inner Man to this very hour altho he had somewhat of it before It is that shining Manifestation of those glorious Appearances of Father Son and Holy Spirit in the Heavenly Glory to Shem Acher's Spirit and of the LORD Jesus Christ as to his glorified Humanity and the seed of it in the North above this blew visible Expanse the opening of which Mystery may hold forth a Scripture-Light for the guiding of others in their turning to the LORD covenanting with him and being espousingly united to

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-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-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