A FULL DISCOVERY AND CONFUTATION Of the wicked and damnable Doctrines of the Quakers As also a plain Vindication and confirmation of sundry fundamental points of the Christian Religion denyed or corrupted by the enemies of the Truth in these Times Published for the benefit of such weak Christians who are not so able to discover and oppugne the dangerous doctrines of subtil Seducers when coloured over with fair words and pretences and so are more apt to be taken in their snares Whereunto is annexed an excellent Discourse proving that singing of Psalmes is not only lawful but an Ordinance of God By JONATHAN CLAPHAM a servant of Christ in the work and labour of the Gospel at Wramplingham in Norff. 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie That they might be damned c. LONDON Printed by T. R. E.M. for Adonirem Byfield at the Bible in Popes-head Alley near Lumbard-street 1656. The general heads of the following TREATISE SEct. 1. The Quakers proved enemies to the holy Scriptures Sect. 2. The Quakers deny Christ come in the flesh also his Death Resurrection c. Sect. 3. The Quakers deny the doctrine of the Trinity Sect. 4 The Quakers hold equality with God and the soul to be one being with God Sect. 5. The Quakers corrupt the doctrine of Justification Sect. 6. The Quakers deny the Resurrection of the body the last Judgement Heaven and Hell Sect. 7. The Quakers are enemies to all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ Sect. 8. The Quakers pretend to miracles Sect. 9. The Quakers are no truly mortified persons notwithstanding their pretences thereunto and how Popish Monks have out-stripped them therein Sect. 10. The Quakers doctrine tendeth not to destroy sin though they raile against sin and how they destroy the true doctrine of Sanctification Sect. 11. The Quakers he common sink of all the Heresies of our times and a parallel betwixt them and former hereticks in many particulars Sect. 12. The Quakers enemies to all civility and good manners Sect. 13. The Conclusion by way of admonition to Christians to beware of the heresies of the Times and in particular to avoid the Quakers as pernitious enemies to the Christian Religion and to the souls of men and to have no communion with them TO HIS HIGHNESSE The Lord Protector Of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions thereof SIR IT is a question much controverted in these times whether Jesus Christ besides his spiritual Kingdom in his Chrurches and in the hearts of his people is to have an outward Political Kingdom in the world and there are not a few of godly wise and sober Christians that do conclude affirmatively for the same and that as it seems to me upon undeniable authorities from the holy Scriptures But this being granted it will prove a matter of no lesse difficulty to determine by whom this kingdome shall be administred whether by our Lord Jesus himself in person residing here upon earth or by his Delegates or officers to whom he shall commit the rule and government under himself The former hath yet received small entertainment in my heart as seeing little clear Scripture evidence for it whatever others may see but rather it seeming to clash with some other weighty doctrines of the faith more clearly grounded on the Word and to be attended with such inconveniences as the Authours of this opinion know not well how to remove But for the latter it need not seem so incredible for seeing Jesus Christ hath already so long exercised his spiritual Kingdome and regiment in his Churches by Officers and Delegates thereunto appointed by himself why should it then seem strange to us if his outward political Kingdome should be administred in like manner and as I judge this seemes to have far clearer testimony from the Scripture then the former But are not we in a great strait yet to finde out who are these Officers or Delegates to whom Jesus Christ hath committed the government of this outward Political Kingdome in the world whether to his Churches and Saints under that reduplication as such or to the Civil Magistrate I am not unwilling to acknowledge my own mistake and possibly it may be the mistake of some honest hearts who are zealous now against the present powers upon this account that I have sometimes inclined to the former although I never had thoughts of acting against any established Government for to bring about my conceptions in such things sure it is most dangerous and unwarrantable for private persons to do so The ground of my mistake was an assertion received amongst many wise and holy men and therefore the lesse questioned by me that the Magistrate was no Officer of Jesus Christ as Mediatour whereupon I concluded seeing that Jesus Christ as Mediatour should have an outward Political Kingdom upon earth and the Magistrate as such was no Officer in that Kingdome that there must be some other hands into which this power and Dominion must be committed and who then might lay better Scripture claim to it then the persons above named But I do retract my errour in that particular for I dare not say with the Papists and Quakers I am infallible and cannot erre and do acknowledge the Magistrate to be an Officer of Jesus Christ as Mediatour and therefore in this external Political Kingdom of Christ the rule doth belong to him and not to the Saints as Saints though withal I doubt not but the Lord Jesus will in these last dayes raise up such to be Magistrates as shall be Saints and nursing fathers to his Churches governing more for the honour of Christ and for the welfare and benefit of his Churches then formerly and then shall the kingdoms of the world become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Saints That which induced me to be of this judgement for the Magistrate to be an Officer of Jesus Christ in this outward Political kingdom though he is no Officer in the spiritual Kingdom of his Church as the Erastians contend was the serious consideration of such Scriptures as these Prov. 8.15 16. Mat. 28.18 Isa 49.13 Psalme 2.8 10 11 12. Psalme 72.10 11. and indeed Christ having undertaken the work of mans redemption the Father hath delivered up the whole creation unto him in order to his managing of that work and therefore must Magistracy belong to him as Mediatour Rom. 14.9 Luke 10.22 John 3.15 Eph. 1.20 21 22. It were a work of no great difficulty to answer the arguments brought to the contrary and is already done by some Now this being granted as it doth strongly confirme the title of the Magistrate to his rule and government against all that would under any pretext challenge it from him So it may seriously minde him to consider from whom he hath received his power and authority and to whom he must one day be acountable
as Christ himselfe used John 17. not praying to God through Christ but as if Christ personally inhabiting in them did himself speak to his Father and not such sinful worms as they are also they never speak in the plural number as if the people should joyn with them but ever in the singular I pray thee I thank thee and so though they should acquit themselves of this charge yet they leave all their followers under it as being such Heathens as know not God nor call upon his Name and so liable to that curse Jer. 10 25. Water-baptisme and the Lords Supper are other standing Ordinances instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 28.19 John 4.1 Acts 8.36 1 Cor. 11.23 c. and these are to continue to the end of the world till all Nations be brought into subjection to Christ and then must the end come til Christ come again not in Spirit for so he was already to those to whom these things were spoken but in person as the Son of man in his glory c. But these pretious Ordinances are utterly cast off by the Quakers as their practise evidences it and their books speak it plainly see the paper against the baptized people p. 1 2 3 4 5. they own no baptism with water but that of the Spirit alone no Lords Supper but feeding on Christs flesh and blood by faith when in the mean time they also deny Christ to have a real body of flesh and blood though glorified Singing of Psalmes is another Ordinance of God Mat. 26.30 Col. 2.16 Jam. 5.13 But this is denied utterly by them they have written two pamphlets formerly against my self for vindicating this Ordinance Let the Reader know if they publish a hundred of such like answers to this Treatise as those two against my vindication of singing I shall not trouble my self to write one line in reply to them as judging it altogether needless Church-communion is another Ordinance of Christ when Christians walk together in the fellowship of the Gospel and in all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ as appears by the Apostle planting of Churches in every place where the Gospel was entertained and Christs owning of them by writing to them Rev. 1. and this Ordinance was to continue to the end of the world Rev. 22.16 1 Tim. 6.3 with 1 Tim. 3.15 but the Quakers deny there ever could true Church be found since the Apostles time to this time Burr against Grif. pag. 26. For the Lords-day it is known they are no friends to it they make all days alike many have professed against it and the known practises of their followers evidence they make no conscience thereof although in the fourth Commandment God requires the keeping holy of a seventh day or one day in seven and Christ saith Matth. 5. He that breaketh one of these least Commandments and teachteh men to do so shall be least in the Kingdome of heaven and it 's evident the Apostles and primitive Saints met together every first day of the week and they found the Lord was with them in so doing and in our own Nation God hath so blessed the faithful observation of this day to the encrease of piety and godlinesse that no Christian can deny it but now the devil cannot subvert this day by games and sports which he attempted formerly he tries if he can do it by denying it to be an institution of Christ As for Christian conference a duty so pleasing to God Mal. 3.16 it appeares they are little friends thereto by their sitting mute when they meet together I might instance in other appointments of God instructing their families in the fear of God teaching them the knowledge of Christ c. this though strictly enjoyned in the Scriptures Deut. 6.7 Eph. 6.4 Prov. 22.6 and commended by the godly examples of many precious Saints recorded in Scripture as Abraham Timothies mother c. yet hath been derided by some of them what can we teach them say they God must do all c. besides to this day there are some Masters who suffer their families to do any thing upon the Lords days either sleep at home or walk about the fields c taking no more care of their souls then if they were to die as beasts as indeed they hold as before was shewed thus do the Quakers appear evidently to be enemies to all the holy Ordinances of Christ But because it is a common plea in these apostatizing times that all outward Ordinances are abolished Christians are not bound to worship God in them now they were but for the first times of the Gospel c. I shall adde a little for the establishment of the weak that they may not by the craft of Seducers be brought to cast of the precious Ordinances of Jesus Christ It was before proved that these Ordinances were instituted by Jesus Christ the King of his Church as we shewed in each of them severally and that with expresse intimations of the continuance of them not only for that present age but for all following times to the end of the world who then dare to take upon him to abrogate the same The Laws and Ordinances of men are not abolished but by the same power that first enacted them now what one Word of God can these men bring for the repeal of any one Ordinance of the Gospel may not they on the like account make the great Commandments of beleeving repenting c. be temporary Commandments and not concerning Christians in these times and why should not the other nine Commandments be abolished as well as the fourth which requires a set stinted time for Gods solemn worship and service even every seventh day or as well as any other outward Ordinance commanded by Jesus Christ in the Word Certain we are there be the same grounds and reasons for continuance of these Ordinances of God now as were at first for the institution of them Is not God to be visibly worshipped and adored by us as well as formerly and if so it is more fit we should do it in the way of his appointments then in any way of our own invencieus have not we still need of Ordinances wherein to enjoy communion with God we have no such immediate converse with God now as to see him face to face but only as we behold him in the glasse of his Ordinances whilest we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 only while we are waiting on him in his Ordinances he promises to meet us and be with us spiritually and we finde many sweet visits and manifestations therein we have still need of the communications of his grace and the influences of his Spirit some needing conversion and illumination others confirmation and strengthning all further increasings of God that we may more and more grow up to perfection and are not the Ordinances given to us for these ends and not only till one come to perfection but till all
I should desire in behalf of such as so erre we might shew mutual love and forbearance waiting if any be otherwise minded till the Lord reveal the same unto them but against such grosse and damnable doctrines as were before named Nor do I here call for fire to consume such as be seduced by such doctrines but I cry earnestly for pity and compassion to be shewed toward them to pull them as firebrands out of the fire It cannot but move our bowels to see some of our dear relations friends and neighbours to drink in greedily such poysonous principles through the cunning craftinesse of Seducers that lie in wait to deceive as we know assuredly if the Lord give them not repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth will damn their precious and immortal souls and to see other weak ones stumbled and the efficacy of the Gospel so much impeded in the bringing home souls to God which hath been so prevalent a means in the hand of the Lord till the pretious and fundamental truths of Christ have been called in question and denyed by wicked deceivers amongst us We cannot but cry aloud to God and man whilest we are eye-witnesses of these things It 's true Jesus Christ is able without the help of men to maintain his own truths and to call home and preserve his Elect ones and we doubt not but he will do it where means fail even by miraculous providences and testimonies from heaven but this is no warrant to us to neglect Gods appointed means every one is to contend in their places for the truth nor can we expect miracles till these ordinary means fail May it please your Highnesse to look into the following Treatise and you may see the abominable doctrines of those people amongst us called Quakers faithfully presented to your veiw although I doubt not but you have sufficient knowledge of them already yet I would humbly minde you of them whilest your other weighty employments divert your thoughts otherwise and incite you out of your tendernesse to the honour of Jesus Christ whose Delegate you are out of your love to the Churches and people of God for whose spiritual welfare you have this great power committed to you and out of compassion to the perishing souls of seduced people to put some stop to those seducers now in your Dominions that they may not have such freedom and license by word and writing to broach such damnable doctrines then which no duty can be more incumbent on you as you are an Officer of Jesus Christ in his political Kingdome which we hope he is about to establish in the world more gloriously then in former ages The Lord of heaven and earth blesse your Highnesse with the continuance of his gracious presence with you keep your heart close with himself in these back-sliding times and enrich you with all graces that may fit you for the faithful discharge of your duty in so high and eminent a place that as you have done valiantly in the high places of the field so you govern as righteously and happily in the gates of the City Which is and shall be the prayer of him who is The least and unworthiest of the servants of Christ Jonath Clapham TO THE Christian READER IT cannot but be a far more comfortable employment to any gracious spirit to be exercised in the contemplation of the great and precious truths of the Gospel and as the Bee to be extracting sweetnesse and comfort from them then to be raking in the filthy unsavoury dung-hil of errors heresies or with the Salamander to be living in the fire of Contention But sometimes we must and ought to prefer the most unpleasing duties before the greatest comforts Now what can be a duty more incumbent on true Christians in these days of Apostacy and Errour then to be contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Seeing there is scarce any one doctrine of the Christian faith but is now undermined by some or other of the enemies of the truth amongst us But of all the enemies of Truth in this age none are more proud and wicked though extremely ignorant perverters thereof then that generation of men called Quakers who seem the most numerous and prevailing party of all the rest being increased by the confluence of very many unto them who were before unstable and deluded persons and had forsaken the ways of truth These do most wickedly corrupt or destroy almost all the fundamental points of the Christian Religion as is made to appear in the following Treatise The holy Scriptures they vilifie and set at naught the humanity or man-hood of Christ they utterly deny the true God who is one in essence and three in persons they beleeve not in the great doctrine of Justification before God they wholly corrupt as the Pharisees and Papists do no better do they deale with the doctrine of Sanctification All the Ordinances of Jesus Christ they abrogate the fundamental doctrines of the Resurrection of the dead of the last Judgement of Heaven and Hell they altogether corrupt and deny turning them into allegories as if they had their accomplishment wholly in men now and were not to be fulfilled in another world nor can there hardly be any one truth named but they corrupt or destroy their great designe is to bring men from Christianity to Paganisme to teach men by minding the cended into heaven c. and yet indeed they deny all these and have said expresly his flesh perished and he never had an humane soul One of their followers who is very zealous in their way and a bitter enemy to the Ministers lately told me before several witnesses Jesus Christ was no real and true man now and his body rose not it was dust Now this subtle concealing and denying their opinions doth make simple people who cannot espy their fraud sooner to be deceived by them and therefore it cannot be judged a needless labour to lay open their damnable opinions and confute them and these reasons have induced me to publish this discourse I have onely one thing more to acquaint the Reader with now and that is this these people have already boasted I should be soon answered by them and if I reply not again to them they will glory that I could not I shall desire thee to take notice that if their replies be like the former two books they wrote against me as I have little ground to expect better from them I shall not trouble my self to give them one line by way of answer If any will be so far blinded and hardened as to take the railings non-sense and impertinencies for an answer let them upon their peril do it they shall one day be convinced of their errour and made to see when the Lord in his wrath shall plead with them Now that the merciful Lord would blesse those poor endeavours to the recovery if it may be of some that be already
for it and therefore to use it not only for the promoting of the civil good and benefit of men but especially for the advantage of the spiritual Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the interest of his Churches for it was in this respect that Christ had this power given to him by the Father he gave him to be head over all things to the Church and sure Christ expects that those to whom he commits this power as his Vice-gerents upon earth should use it for the same ends the Father did first betrust it into his hands for And how clear is it in Scripture that all those godly Princes and Magistrates spoken of therein did make it their first and chiefest care to promote Religion and to see that the Worship of God was maintained in purity and that the Church flourished in their Dominions not that they were Officers in the Church and might themselves administer in the holy things this was rebuked in some of them but that they had an external care about the same as sometimes that Christian Emperour Constantine of famous memory said he was Episcopus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb lib. 4. an overseer of things without as those nurse-fathers Hezekiah Josia Asa Jehoshaphat were but not an overseer of things within as Uzziah would have been There is an opinion entertained amongst many in these dayes and some of them good men too that the Magistrate ought to meddle only with matters of the second Table not taking inspection of things appertaining to the first that he is only to maintaine civil peace amongst men and outward righteousnesse not heeding Religion or the Worship of God at all as he is a Magistrate If this once be received by Magistrates Jesus Christ will be little beholden to them they must as well protect the worshippers of Mahomet as of Christ so long as they keep the peace and live in civil honesty amongst men these men beleeve not the Magistrate to be Christs Officer as he is Mediatour and head of his Church if they did they would be of another mind But enough is said against this woful assertion by Mr. Cotton bloody tenet washed by the Elders of N. Eng. in the Synod Anno 1646. and by Mr. Cobbet in his book dedicated to your Highnesse some few yeares since And the blessing of the Lord upon the care of the godly Magistrates in N. E. hath been as a Seal to attest the Lords acceptance of what they have done there about this particular The premises considered I should humbly offer to your Highnesse may my presumption herein be indulged especially two particulars wherein you may imploy that great power wich our Lord Jesus hath betrusted you with as his Delegate for the promoting that great end for which all power was first given to him by the Father to wit the spiritual good and welfare of his Church 1. That you would please to put forth your endeavours towards the uniting of the people of God in these Nations who dissenting in lesser matters do yet maintaine the fundamentals of Religion in whose spirits the vitals of Christianity are still preserved and in whose lives the power and practise of godlinesse doth yet appear And in order hereunto that you would by your authority call together a few of the most judicious godly and peaceable of such Dissenters and lay your most solemn charge upon them that they would after their fervent invocation on the Name of the Lord for direction and assistance in so great a work study an holy and peaceable accommodation and agreement so farre as may be in their principles but especially in such necessary Church practises as the Churches of Christ amongst us may walk together with more Christian love and unity I should hope notwithstanding former disappointments the Lord would at last give them hearts to know what concerns their and the Churches peace after they have had such sad experience of the evil fruits of our divisions And that then you would commend such a pacificatory agreement to the Christian people of these Nations and give some more special encouragement to those who shall be so tender of the Churches peace and union as to practise according to the same This were a work worthy of a Christian Magistrate who by his office is to be an healer Isa 3.6 7 and would give you the honour even to many generations to be called the repairer of the breach and the restorer of paths to dwell in II. That you would please to put some restrictions unto that almost boundlesse Tolleration now amongst us whereby Seducers take liberty to broach such cursed doctrines as are a dishonour to the Name of Christ and reproach and infamy to the Christian Religion such as directly tend to the undermining of the profession and power of godlinesse and to the destruction of souls Nothing can be more evidently contrary to the spiritual welfare of the Church the promoting whereof is the principal end of the Christian Magistrates power and not only the procuring of a civil good which thing I cannot but often hint then the free Tolleration of such pernitious and heretical doctrines It is not a thing unknown That seducers have been more dangerous enemies to the Church then bloody persecutors where persecution hath slain its thousands the deadly poison of false doctrine hath slain its ten thousands and when the one hath killed mens bodies the other hath murdered mens souls the Church hath ever thriven under persecution the blood of the Martyrs being the seed of the Church but it hath been brought very low under Heresies If Magistrates be the Churches Nurs-fathers as the Scripture speaks sure their Office not only obliges them to take care that her children have the milk of the Word dispensed to them but that as much as in them lieth it be dispensed purely and sincerely without the mixture of poyson to destroy them Magistrates are called Shepherds Isa 44 28. and that with respect to the Church and therfore should protect her from ravenous Wolves they are called Gods but they should be poor gods if they took no care of Religion What ample testimonies hath the Lord given to David Solomon Asa Jehoshaphat Hezekiah Iosiah for their care of Religion nor will the names of Constantine Theodotius Iustinian cease to be precious in and for their care of the Church of Christ Even the Heathens Aristotle and Plato acknowledge from the light within them that the chiefe care in a Common-wealth should be about Religion But I presume not to add more words for this there being so much already said in those three Treatises before mentioned for the same and in particular against tolleration of seducers all contrary arguments that have been made being therein fully answered Only I crave leave to adde this further that I am not pleading now against those lesser errours amongst us which will be so long as we are imperfect and know but in part