Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A30749
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A reply to Doctor Wallis, his discourse concerning the Christian Sabbath by Tho. Bampfield.
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Bampfield, Thomas, 1623?-1693.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing B630; ESTC R12510
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69,562
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84
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21 23. 1 Tim. 2. 8. God is a Spirit and his true worshippers did do and shall worship him in spirit and in truth And I know no colour now for the Holiness of Places for which yet as the Dr. p. 3. some are zealous I agree with him that Christmas is of Human Institution which I think he admits by the words so be it p. 3. which I think does also lay aside all other Holy Days which are but of Human Institution and p. 13. about Christmas the Doctor says It is not agreed amongst Chronologies either what Year or what Month much less what day of that Month our Saviour was Born yet he says we keep December the 25th in memory of his Birth as supposing him to have been then Born And p. 45. he says No Man at this Day knows what Day it was and p. 13. That we are at so great uncertainty as we reckon the Year 1692 from his Circumcision to begin the first of January and the same Year his Conception not till the 25th of March after as if his Birth and Circumcision had been a quarter of a Year before his Conception And so the Doctor leaves those days If I mistake not utterly uncertain In p. 12. he tells us The Pascal Tables which should direct us what day to keep Easter on do put us further out then if we had none at all I agree with the Doctor p. 2 3. that our Lord Jesus Christ according to his Divinity was God and is so the true God the God that made Heaven and Earth the God who delivered the Law at Mount Synai and I think those three the father the Son and the Holy Spirit are on Jehovah Deut. 6. 4. 5. Jehovah Aelohenu Jehovah our Mightiest is Jehovah Aechad is one Jehovah was is and will be one Jehovah i. e. the Lord our God is one Lord and Mark 12. 29 30. The Lord our God is one Lord which are the words of Jesus And I agree also that the Blessing and Sanctifying the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. was by Jehovah the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit which goes far in this Question and I think proves the seventh Day to be the Lord's Day And when he has acknowledged the Father Son and the Holy Spirit to be three yet but one God the Lord Jehovah c. he adds p. 3. But he cannot agree that Christ as God and Man in Contradistinction to the Father and Holy Spirit did all those things for he that is Christ was not then Man Which Words of the Doctor of what he does agree and what he cannot agree insinuates as if I had said that Christ as God-Man did all those things which the Doctor cannot agree whereas he must needs know that is not so for I neither say nor ever thought till that I read it in Mr. G. T. and the Doctor that Christ was Incarnate at the making of the World or at his giving of the Law on Sinai so as the Doctor has not well surmized in this and any Reader may see it is not so for Christ took our Nature on him about 4000 years after the Creation and I find not a word of any Contradistinction between the Father and the Holy Spirit and the Son in the Enquiry but the direct contrary viz. their oneness with the Son in those Works which they both cannot but know And he adds p. 3. what he should rather say about our Lord Jesus Christ's blessing the seventh Day because he was not then the Lord Christ God and Man c. seems to make the Surmize somewhat worse upon which he says that I p. 64. lay great stress for neither I nor any other that I know has said or thought that Christ when he Blessed the seventh Day was then in the Flesh so that in this I think the Doctor blamable But the Doctor does acknowledge that the Son is Jehovah i. e. that he is Lord for which see Enquiry p. 9. 10. c. and I think he does believe that the Son of God is Jesus that is the Saviour the only Saviour and that he is Christ that is the anointed for that Glorious Blessed Work of Redemption that is the Messiah he is called as I think often in the Old-Testament For the Father has chosen us in him before the foundation of the World in him that is in the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ as Christ is expresly named Eph. 1. 2 3 4. And in Colos 1. 16. speaking of Christ as he by whom all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth v. 17. and he is before all things he that is Christ is expresly Colos 1. 2 3. there named the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ who v. 19. created all things and Christ is named our Lord Jesus Christ in every Epistle from Rom. to the Heb. for so far I searched a little and that frequently and sometime after also Mr. G. T. whom the Doctor in this Objection seems to follow writes of this great Mystery in two or three places under the like and greater mistakes and so at present I leave him But for the Doctor to impose upon his Readers herein as he does p. 2 3. seems blameable And why he thus begins in a Case which relates to the Deity of Christ with such Insinuations for which he has no colour that I know from the Enquiry wherein Christ's Deity and his being Jehovah is directly affirmed unless it be at first to infuse some Prejudice I am not willing to conjecture And as to this if the Holy Spirit by Paul names Christ the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ in whom the Father hath chosen his before the foundation of the world by whom all things were created and who was before all things I see no reason why Mr. G. T. and the Doctor should vary from the Apostles expressions and divers other Scriptures And such Artifices the Reader may discern afterward I agree also with the Doctor That God who made the world in six days rested the seventh day Gen. 2. 2 3. Exod. 20. 11. And that he blessed the sabbath day and hallowed or Sanctified it Doctor p. 3. and here he does read it not a seventh bue the seventh Day the same Hebrew word here in Gen. 2. 2 3. Hashebigni which is used in Exod. 20. 10 11. which some would render there a seventh and the Reason and Sence of Gen. 2. 2 3. does require that it be rendered as the word signifies the Seventh Day for no man that I know does imagine that the Lord Gen. 2. 2 3. Blessed and Sanctified any other Day of the Week for Rest but that only on which he Rested and that was expresly not a but the Seventh and no other day of the Week and so I think for all after Seventh days in the Circulation of after Weeks and Christ in the time of his Incarnation kept not a Sabbath
sixth and seventh Days which Seventh day is called the Sabbath throughout the Scriptures how ever that may seem to the Doctor I make no Scruple to call the Days of the Week by the same Names as the Lord calls them and if the Doctor will retain the old Idol Names without Scruple notwithstanding his own acknowledgement whence they are and notwithstanding the Word against them I cannot help it and it seems to me the most subtile of those who are so fond of holding fast the Idol Names of Days do doubt the consequence of laying them aside as if it might by degrees introduce both true Names and Things What is said p. 68. 69 70. upon the occasion of Scruples about Spiritual Worship and Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth I think does much concern all that fear God But because he does not speak out directly but only falls upon Scrupulosities and Shadows and Circumstances seemingly though I think it pretty plain what he reflects upon I shall reply but a little to that and do refer the Reader to the Enquiry p. 32. where he may find in few words what I think from the second Command besides many other Scriptures of Forms of Worship Graven Printed or Written and not instituted by the Lord but invented And in Reply to another I think Luke 11. 2. compared with Matth. 6. 5 6 7 8 9. about the Lords Prayer that the same Cautions of into thy Closet shut thy Door and in secret and in secret c. Matth. 6. 6. do refer to and explain Luke 11. 2. By which Cautions I think he should be governed and Enquiry p. 32. he may see what I think from Eph. 5. 18 19. Col. 3. 16. about singing all which and much more some may count little things Scruples and causeless Scruples nice Speculations and needless Scrupulosities whereby as such may pretend men are diverted from the Substantials of serious Religion and spiritual Worship which I think are very hard Reflections Now I doubt that not only the Romish World but some others not of that way as far as I can discern are yet at some distance from their Duty in those cases who are held to the Frames wherein they walk by the Authority of Men and who for years past have taken a liberty to comply with the Worship of the Country where they live and take all down without chewing as they find them and so I doubt esteem those who differ from them who upon the most diligent Search and long Experiance Worship God as they think according to the Word as scrupulous and as standing for little Circumstances and Shadows and so Conscientious Lively Spiritual Worshipping as but Shadows and not substance of Christian Worship and such Worshippers as diverters of others from serious Religion many of whose Rods do yet bud and blossom and bring forth Almonds which if God so please I shall be heartily glad to hear of their Rods who reflect upon them Which little Circumstances and Shadows as they are called do not at all as some pretend influence the substance of spiritual Worship but are meer scruples and minute things and here it seems we have some thoughts of spiritual Prayer c. as before of Preaching And thus the very Life and Power of Christian Worship is as I think reflected upon by some who have Frames of right Worship 2 Tim. 3. 5. and some of them correct Frames that is who have a way of Worship which has some similitude or likeness to right Worship who change their Glory for that which doth not profit and drink the Waters of other Rivers instead of Living Fountains between which several Waters there is an internal difference as great and manifest as there is between good wholesome running and living Springs and dead Water which may be some short and weak Reply to the Reflections before mentioned And if it were not to avoid offence I had written and might write more on this subject which so much concerns all Mankind certainly to know how to Worship Jehovah aright and which for all Mankind Ministers and others old and young who have the Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament and common Sence and can speak and are by Grace made willing is demonstrably as easie to be put in practice without Crutches and to be taught even to Children without more adoe as for such to be taught for just Reasons to speak for any thing they stand in need of and would desire another in whose power it is to give unto them And upon this occasion I had thought on some Lines about Swearing to a Point and about abjuring Endeavours whether lawful peaceable and honest Praying and Preaching Endeavours be excluded but to avoid offence have crossed them out And to return Tho it be all one to the Doctor whether the days be called Saturday Sunday or Alpha Beta Gamma in this we differ a little he takes them as it seems as he finds them in the World and I take them as I find them in the Word and I know no principle amongst men which does so effectually answer and cure all blamable scruples and unquietnesses of Mind as a sincere Obedience to all the Wills of God which he that will do shall know John 7. 17. which I doubt taking all as one finds them though it may lull in security will never perform Pag. 66. He blames the whole of Judicial Astrology as precarious and only a Trick to amuse credulous People and make a gain of them which is truly blameable yet amongst two sorts of People is now very common As to what is said p. 68. about meeting once upon a Sabbath day besides Morning and Evening Worship c. I Reply that I think that most for the real Service of God and the Good of his People which God has directed in his Word which Rule unless some necessity intervene will be always found free from all Inconveniences and for that I refer the Reader to the Enquiry p. 83. 84. Almost all the Questions in these Papers depend much upon this Whether Man shall be allowed to be wiser then God Pag. 69. Whether to begin the Sabbath at Six or Twelve a Clock at Night he thinks a thing not worth contending about And if it be so small a thing not worth contending about Why does he not begin it when the Lord began it that is in the Evening one would think that none should differ with the Lord over all for a small thing and of so little worth when he has in his Word plainly told us his Will And tho he thinks it not much more whether on this or that day so the Sabbath be well kept I do not yet know what he means by well keeping but the words this or that day seem in him very indifferent to either and I doubt will make any Man of that mind very cold in well keeping it I think with the Doctor we are to avoid foolish Questions and to study things which