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 iâ—â—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
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 muâ—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
forth sooner he has much to say in answer if he would enlarge but in short some hints he has already given which carry forcibleness of right Words in them to the impartially intelligent and spiritually discerning and he hoped that the Experiences of many in this City upon whose Hearts the LORD had sealed to the Office of his Ministry might have put some timely stop to the further spreading of such defameings Besides it is evident to him being led far into the mystery and meaning of this Providence that this is the fittest season for the making of the present Apology and if either some will charge him with Vanity and Pride with Folly and Vain-boasting in writing so much upon his own Defence or if it have another effect than many are well aware off for the putting of separate Churches upon a further search into the Scriptures of Truth about the right constituting of Churches the lawful Call to the Ministerial Office and Work and some other weighty Ordinances spoken unto in this Paper it will much concern those who make the exception duly to ponder who is chargeable Whether the Apologist who in a Cause and Case so circumstanced doth make his honest Defence and just Plea or those unfriendly ones who have compelled him hereunto which advocating for Innocence so far as it is Innocence has Scripture-Warrant †Joh. 29. and 31. Chap. and elsewhere in that Book Acts 22. and 26. chap. 1 Cor. 4. 1. 5. and 2 Cor. 11. throughout and 12. 11 both in the Old and New Testament so that if he have been a Fool in glorying they are others who have necessitated him thereunto PAVL * Acts 19. 18. and 22. 16. 1 Cor. 1. 13. 17. He was baptized upon this eminent Conversion and clear Call to the Office and Work of the Ministry He being sent more to Preach the Gospel than to Baptize though this were in his Commission too They were not very many whom he did Baptize lest any should misjudge that he had baptized in his own Name which he doth expresly deny and disown He is called upon not to tarry but to arise and baptising to be baptized and wash away his Sins calling on the Name of the Lord whereupon he doth submit to this Baptismal Ordinance SHEM ACHER He having had such Calls and such clearings up of this Call to this Ministerial Office of which so large an Account has been given especially at those solemn Seasons of Fasting and Prayer when he set himself more in serious earnest to be satisfied concerning this his Call from Heaven by the Holy Spirits leaving some sealing Testimony thereof upon his Heart according to the Word at such a needful time when he was under some perplexing Doubts and distressing Fears about this Call Being thus prepared for it as is already rehearsed the Light of amongst some others two Truths and Duties of this Age were evidently made known unto him the one of the Seventh-day weekly Sabbath the other of perfecting Believers Baptism he doth leave others here whose Case at present is or hereafter may be more concerned in this Matter if it be not already perfected upon and in them to consider whether then if there be otherways a fittedness for and a Call to the Ministerial Function it may not be proper and useful to enter upon this Office with such * Heb. 6. 1 2. Mat. 3. 13 14 15 16 17. and 4. 1. 17. Act. 9. 18 20. aâ—d 26 16. 20. Exod. 29. 4. Leâ— 8. 6. perfecting of Baptism now they are grown Believers so were the Priests under the Old Testament which is mentioned not at all to reinforce any Old Testament Shadow Figure Type or Ceremony now under the present New Testament Administration of Grace so was Christ so were his Apostles so was Paul let the Spirit of God from his Word speak with Men's Hearts about this I forbear in this place to add any further Arguments for or Advantages by this The occasion of his passing into the Scripture-Path of the weekly seventh-day-Sabbath was this A near and dear Brother and Friend of his from the Country wrote this Case of Conscience to him whether the first day of the Week as commonly observed by almost all Christians or the seventh which is the last day of every Week in the weekly returns of it were indeed the weekly Sabbath according to God's Command or in words to the sâ—me effect for it is now about sixteen years since and he earnestly desired the Opinion and Judgment of Shem Acher upon this Case Upon the Receipt of this Letter he was somewhat startled at this new Proposal though he was not so fully satisfied for some years before about any word-Institution for observing the first day as a Sister in Sabbath-Fellowship converted under his Ministry a shining Ornament to her holy Profession whilst here below but now above with the LORD informed and reminded him that when she propounded the very same Case to him about six or seven years before he gave her a very faint unsatisfactory answer as if he scarce were then a cordial Favourer of that first day for tho he preached up Sabbath-Duties and Priviledges in that Town yet his Assistant was as one part of his Work to engage in the Controversy which was the limitted day At the first receipt of that Case he was full of other work and employ about his own and other Cases and laid it aside for near a Month the Brother whose Spirit was tender in this Case as in many other new Cases sent a second Letter with renewed importunity requiring and expecting a speedy Answer Upon this Shem Acher speaks to Jehovah Aelohim to Father Son and Holy Spirit to Christ God-Man in Prayer about it and then makes Scripture-Testimonies to be †Psal 119. 24. the Men of his Counsel and being under an Obligation to take the whole Scripture along with him for the resolving and determining of this Case and to lay aside all his former Apprehensions and no longer to parle with Humane Traditions Philosophical arguings Carnal reasonings or any other unscriptural Authorities he took his Bible which he has now had about forty years and to which he was well used and so could with the more readiness turn unto apt places beginning with the first Week of the created World and there he found that * Gen. 2. â— 2 3. the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath had Foundation both in Jehovah's Word and in Created Nature as being the only day of the whole Week on which the Creator and Redeemer rested which day he Blessed and which day he Sanctifyed for Sabbath-Purposes and Priviledges and not any other Day of the Week neither first second third fourth fifth nor sixth but only the seventh On he goes with his enquiry through the whole Book of Moses and finds the seventh day Sabbath †Exod. 16. 22. 30. reinforced and the neglect and profaneing thereof reproved before the solemn proclaiming of it
the same Person and therefore both according to consenting Scripture and in right Reason should have the same signification either Active or Passive or both Active and Passive let it then and therefore be here minded and considered that whatever of Passive Significancy the latter of them may have in part as the same Verb of the same middle Voice has in another Mood 1 Cor. 6. 11. which must be made up by the supply of some Preposition hereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Piscator which is wanting and must be put before the Accusative Case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wash thou off according to or concerning of because for or by reason of those Sins of thine yet still at least mainly according to Grammar-Syntax and Propriety it must be Active here and such a Syntax is found in other Authors particularly in Homer Iliad σ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt quà m celerrime Patroclum abluerent a sanie sanguinolentâ So that the foregoing Verb also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be allowed the like Active meaning in this place Baptize thou thy self and others Christ putting baptising into Paul's Commission as one part tho not the principal part of his Ministerial Office It is graâ—ted that the same Verb referring to the same Baptism in the Passive Voice has a Passive Signification Act. 9. 18. which Passive Voice it often Reflexive that is Actively-Passive However in Act. 22. 16. all the words of the Verse do carry an Active Sence with them God can make a Man especially a Minister an Active Administrator of an Ordinance and upon himself so it is in that other Ordinance of the Supper Thus in the Syriack the one Verb here in this place Active the other Reciprocal and Reflexive Pegnil Ithpegnal and Ithpagnal are much after the Use and Form of the Hebrew Conjugation Hithpahel which doth signify the Action of one upon himself such an Action as is Reflected on its own Subject for which cause the Hebrew Grammarians do generally affirm that this Conjugation doth want a Passive Form Conjugatio haec parens est proles and so it is sometimes rendred 2 Sam. 20. 10. Cavet sibi Gen. 49. 1. Congregate vos Isa 52. 2. Excute te Luk. 13. 24. Cavete vobis Isa 29. 9. Cogitabundi estote Act. 9. 26. Ad adjungendum se The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Daniel and in Ezra Hith is in some of those Scriptures used for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aith in the Chaldee and Syriack If any after all this will alledg that Ananias did baptize Paul when they have first if they can make it clear convincing and evident that he did so let them bring forth such an Ananias who has an express immediate Call by a Voice from Christ out of Heaven confirmed also by a Miracle wrought that he has such a Call and Commission thereunto and Shem doth purpose to consider of it Reflective both Active and Passive upon a Man 's own self And there being some Typical Baptisms by the Institution of Jehovah Aelohim in the Old Testament as also another Ordinance of the same Institution which has much the same Significancy with Baptism even Circumcision which doth denote the mortification and putting off of the sinful body of the Flesh through the Circumcision of Christ being buried together with him in Baptism the Sign and Seal whereof Abraham at the first passing into it did both actively and passively administer from the LORD upon himself by the cutting quite away the Flesh of the Foreskin and Circumcised the rest of the Males in his Family of which no more at present till Controvertists leave their heats of Passion in contending and grow cool and become Men of Understanding of a more excellent Spirit But he knew no such Administrator to his satisfaction For if the Historian have not wronged some of the first so baptized in Holland which is too usual one John Smith a Member of Henry Ainsworth's Church there being excommunicated for some scandalous Offence is reported to be one of the first who baptized himself first afterwards baptized others and this Story brought no good report of such an Administrator to Shem Acher Or two Men according to their Principle in their Judgment altogether unbaptized before did baptize one another at the first and afterwards did baptize others and so were many of the Baptizings in London reported originally to be in one if not in two Instances where also no extraordinary Call from God thereunto that ever he yet heard of is pretended or pleaded Or else a private baptized Brother no lawfully called Minister of Christ nor rightly ordained Officer in a true Church did baptize others and so he understands were some of the choicest and best accounted Baptizings in the esteem of many of several of the baptized ones in London carried on by one who always refused to be any Minister or ordained Officer in the Church He has been credibly informed by two yet alive in this City of London who were Members of the first Church of Baptized Believers here that their first Administrator was one who baptized himself or else he and another baptized one another and so gathered a Church which was so opposed in Publick and in Private that they were disputed out of their Church-State and Constitution out of their Call to Office that not being able to justify their Principle and Practice by the Word they were broken and scattered This together with that which goes immediately before he was and is dissatisfied about because when he doth look into both the Typical Administrators in the Old Testament and Antitypical ones in the New still they were in Both * 1 Pet. 3. 20 21. Gen 6 7 8 chapters 1 Cor. 10. 1 2. Isa 40. 3 4 5. Mal 3. 1. Mat. 3. Mark 1. Luke 3. Joh. 1 3 chapters Mat. 21. 23-27 Joh. 3. 22 -26. 4 1 2. Mat. 28. 18 19 20. Acts 8. 12 26 39. Commissioned Ordained Ministers and Officers appointed thereunto either extraordinarily and immediately by the LORD thereunto a Call from whom they could evidence by somewhat extraordinary to themselves and others that it was a special call from Jehovah Aelohim such an Administrator was Noah in the Ark such was Moses under the Cloud and in the Red Sea such was John the Baptist whose Baptism was from Heaven Let the Question here be asked and a sound Answer well returned Who baptized John and whence was his Baptism Such were the Apostles of Christ and other Ministers and Officers ordained by them or extraordinarily and immediately sent forth specially gifted graced and called by Christ thereunto Or else such one or more whom such a company of Believers who had no lawfully called rightly ordained Minister or Church-Officer amongst them before nor any such Minister or Ministers Officer or Officers to ordain or commission such and yet do chuse and undertake to ordain by laying on of hands they
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 Meâ—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
Sins was drawn up signed sealed and delivered received applyed and witnessed to his Soul the Crown of all be on the Head of the free Forgiver since which signal Pardon Shem has not that he remembers had almost any considerable fears of Hell at all to speak of at any time upon him Thus there is * Mat 18. 1 2 3 4. Luke 22. 31 32. Conversion after Conversion In all which Relation concerning his Conversion Covenanting Espousing to and with Jehovah Aelohim he doth not impose his Experiences as a Rule for others to measure the Truth and Soundness of their turning to the LORD by in all and every of the parts degrees and Circumstances of them provided that their Conversion be indeed true and serious sound and sincere according to Word-warrant and approbation it highly concerns them to see well to this and duly to examine themselves by Scripture-Rules about it that they do not deceive themselves If further Evidence be called for he can add these comprehensive Particulars That †Eccles 9 3. Gen 6. 5. Rom. 1 30. Mat. 15. 18 19 20. Mark 7. 21 22 23. there is no one Sin in the Seed of it in corrupt Nature or in the Thought of it at least in the Imagination which ever any of the Sons or Daughters of Adam on Earth or in Hell for the kind of it either thought spake or did recorded in the Word or communicated to him by the voluntary Confession of others which he has not had both some sight of some sense of and some hatred of yea some ways worse than ever he yet read or heard of by inventing of such evil things in the Phancy as he doth not know any other Man or Woman in the World did ever contrive This Universal both Original and Natural Corruption which has so defiled his whole Man in all and every of the parts of it being so direct a Contrariety and Enmity to and against that Holiness and Righteousness which is in God and in his Law having been Shem's Burden both Night and Day for many a long Year * Rom. 7. 17 25. 8. 2 3. 13. 14. 4. throughout 2 Cor. 5. 19 21. Dan. 9. 24. Rom. 3. 19 20 26 Isa 45. 24. Rev. 19. 8. Luke 7. 47. 1 Joh. 1. 9. Col. 2. 13. Isa 38. 17. Mic. 7. 18 19. Psal 103. 12. Isa 43. 25. Psal 32. 1 -5. Rom. 1. 17. Isa 45. 25. Jer. 23. 6. Tho he doth thank God through Christ Jesus his LORD that the Perfect and All sufficient Sanctification of Christ's Humane Nature and the through and perfect Obedience performed by Christ in the whole Course of his Life whilst conversant amongst-Men here on Earth is imputed unto him for Justification in the presence of God and has been so imputed he by Faith putting on the LORD Jesus Christ and being cloathed with his Righteousness whereby his Sins have been forgiven cast behind Jehovah's Back into the bottom of the Sea passed by forgotten and blotted out and not imputed Jehovah Christ being his Righteousness in which he doth stand righteous before the Judgment Seat of God That he knows not any one Saint either on Earth or in Heaven so far as we have Scripture-Records of these in the Word who experienced either edifying Gift or sanctifying Grace or priviledged Enjoyment or useful Serviceableness and such like which he doth not heartily approve of and which more or less he hath not both holily with submission †2 Cor. 5. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Ambitione contendimus we ambitiously endeavour aspired after and some ways so far as he is concerned in his Place and Calling had some workings about it and by improving of Mystical Membership applied as his own That he knows nothing either in a whole Christ or in the whole Word of Christ of Holiness or of Righteousness which he would not have an universal growing Knowledg of and Conformity and Obedience to in all things in his whole Man That all these have been carried on for several years by a very sharp Contest and continued Conflict within more especially against the universal Corruption of his Nature which has very slily and sometimes fiercely assaulted him yet so as that tho there have been many a Foil and Fall in some particular Combates yet that the Issue of the Fights have been Victories Spoils and Triumphings This humble ingenuous Confession Shem Acher doth freely make of those secret Sins which no Man alive can so charge upon him which is one part of his Evidence whereby he doth conform to Christ's Mind * Ezek. 43. 10 11. Lev 5. 5 6. 22. 1 2 3 7. Prov. 28. 13. 1 Joh. 1. 9 10. Psal 32. 1â— 5. 1 â—im 1. 13. 1 Joh. 3. 21. 4. 17. Heb. 4. 16. in his Word where it is required where Promises are made to it where Examples are recorded of it and which will give him the more boldness in the Day of Judgment before the LORD the righteous Judg and before Angels and Men. For these Considerations have brought his Spirit to this self-shaming acknowledgment so that he can die with the more Peace of God in his Conscience when the Hour shall come That the LORD hath graciously in some ascending degree manifested to him and revealed in him that inward Mystery of a †1 Thess 5. 23. Joh. 3. 3. 4 5 6 7 8. Ezek. â—6 26 27. 1 Cor. 2. 10 16. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 5. 16 17 -25. Rom. 8. 1 -27. Eph. 2. 10 4. 4 5 6 15 16 22 23 24. 2 Pet. 1 3 4. New-Creature-Spirit in his regenerate State in Christ as distinct by a New Creation from his own natural constitutive Essential parts as a Man and from the Holy Spirit who was is the begetter of it by the immortal Seed of the Word and as contrary to that Evil Spirit Satan and to the Spirit of the World it being of that same Spirit which Christ as Mediatoral Head received without measure and is one of the highest Advances of a Believer in a growing and withal an humble frame to partake of the Divine Nature That * 1 Cor. 15. 10. Gal. 2. 20. 2 Tim. 2. 1. 1 Joh. 1. 3. 2 Cor. 13. 14. the Steps and Degrees of this Spiritual Growth have been more and more out of corrupt self off from idolized Creatures away from Duty-dependances into more and more of a State of Grace through and by that into a Life of and in Christ and through and by him into a Distinctness and Orderliness of Communion with the Father as the Father with the Son as the Son and with the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit and thence into a more raised Communion with Jehovah himself That all through †Gal. 1. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul went to Jerusalem to visit Peter so to visit him as that he might know from him or declare to him the History oâ— Persons and of things especially of