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book_n	church_n	scripture_n	write_v	5,125	5	5.8373	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79837	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.	Clapham, Jonathan.	1656 (1656)	Wing C4407; Thomason E498_7; ESTC R206047	81,821	100

Law above the Gospel and call'd men from the grace of Christ to the works of the Law c. now the Law was but a dead killing letter pronouncing a curse and death not could it quicken spiritually there being no promise in it of writing the Law in our hearts but in the same place he commends his Ministry for the Ministery of the Spirit and of Life therefore this place makes nothing for this wicked cavil of those enemies against the Scriptures V. They equal their books and pamphlets though commonly stuft with non-sense and railing ever with wicked errors to the holy Scriptures then which what can be more disgraceful to the Scriptures and more abominable to all sober spirits This appears clearly to all that have but read their papers for thus they commonly write Moved from the Lord written from the Spirit of the Lord given from the Lord c. and they boast commonly that they speak from God immediately and infallibly as the Apostles did formerly Whether this doth not bring them under that curse Rev. 22.18 for adding to the Scriptures let them look to it VI. They sometimes plead the Church was a long time without the Scriptures and therefore they are not necessary now and if ten thousand of those books were burnt they might do well enough the light in them is sufficient c. This I testifie hath been objected to me and there be others can witnesse it with me For the former part it is an old Popish Argument against the necessity of the Scriptures and I shall only reply what hath been answered the Papists to this formerly Whitaker de perfec Script cap. 7. tells the Papists though of old time when God familiarly shewed himself to the Fathers and by himself manifested to them his will the Scriptures were not necessary yet after God did change the course of teaching his Church and would have the Word written then the Scriptures began to be necessary To the latter part I answer such an expression would suit the mouth of an Irish rebel rather then of any sober Christian and therefore let him repent and pray if perhaps the thought of his heart may be forgiven him VII They appear enemies to the holy Scriptures in their daily practices as their neglecting to use the holy Scriptures Their speakers speak not out of the Scriptures as did Christ Luke 4.17 who opened the book and took his text out of Esay 61.1 and in all his Sermons he opened the Scriptures and proved all things by the Scriptures nor do their speakers exhort people to search the Scriptures to give themselves to reading meditation This they that have been present testifie c. but to look to the light in their consciences let them shew where ever Christ or his Apostles gave such an exhortation to look to the light within them And for their disciples they follow not the example of the noble Bereans Acts 17.11 who searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so but they take all spoken to them as given from God immediately and turn not to the Scriptures to try the doctrines they hear by the Law and testimony When they have no speakers they sit as mutes together looking on the ground or looking at the light within them as they say but not looking on the Scriptures nor conferring about them though sometimes they will read in their Assemblies their quaking letters or books besides some of them have offered to sell their Bibles Now the most ignorant may easily judge by all this what friends they are to the Scriptures I might adde hereunto if it were requisite to shew their enmity to the Scriptures their perverse wresting of the Scriptures in such a manner sometime as shews they have neither knowledge of the Scriptures nor any light of common understanding of men left in them G. Whitehead maintaining of perfection as the Papists do I brought him that place against it Eccles 7.10 not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not he perverted it as if Solomon did speak of a man in an earthy condition Another when that cripture 1 Cor. 6.20 was used to prove that we are not only to give God internal worship and service but outward and bodily he replied the Church was he body that was to glorifie God Again when Paul Rom. 7. cryed out ob wretched man c. he had not the Spirit And that the same Apostle in 1 Cor. 11.14 did not at all condemne long hair And many of them have said that the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.14 saying even so hath the Lord ordained that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel doth not plead for outward bodily maintenance but their living by faith or living spiritually on the Gospel were ever any people more blinded in the world then these how dreadful a judgement is this upon them for leaving the Scriptures and looking to the light in them which appears by these things to be meer darknesse I could fill many pages with such instances of their perverse wrest of the Scriptures but this will appear more fully in the following Sections Let me but summe up these things together and then let the Reader judge whether this first charge is not sufficiently proved against them The proof runs thus if to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God and thereby to insinuate they never came from God if to deny the special use of the Scriptures to be a rule of faith and obedience and to make as if they belonged to the Saints formerly but did not concern us now if to give vilifying expressions to them and to call them a dead letter if to equal foolish and wicked pamphlets with them if to plead there 's no necessity of them if to practise to slight them and perversly to wrest them if any or if all of these together will prove the Quakers to be enemies to the holy Scriptures then the charge stands good against them Let the weakest hereby discern and see and not be deceived by them though they pretend in words never so fairly to the Scriptures And thus for this first charge SECT II. The Quakers deny Christ come in the flesh as also his Death Resurrection Ascension Intercession and coming to Judgement THe Apostle John in his second Epistle ver 7. speaks of many deceivers and Antichrists come into the world who confesse not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh and forbids to receive such into your houses and to bid them God-speed for such as do so are partakers of their evil deeds Let us therefore in the next place enquire whether the Quakers may be justly charged with this crime that if they be found guilty thereof all such as professe to be Christians may disclaime them and take heed of them as Deceivers and Antichrists I shall here first freely give Testimony for the Quakers and do acknowledge in their behalfs that they have the name of Jesus Christ

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

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