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
his last part in the world it 's likely he will use his utmost subtilty in deceiving Our great care therefore should be to preserve our selves from the errours of the wicked and to take heed of the leaven of such seducers how many cautions hath the Scripture given to us herein when Christ had foretold of those seducers Mat. 24. he bids Take heed that no man deceive you and believe them not this being the end of his forewarning us that we might be forearmed against them Heresies are reckoned amongst the fruits of the flesh Gal. 5.20 and are therefore sooner drunk in by people then the precious truths of the Gospel for we cannot receive these without the special help of Gods Spirit to let them in to our hearts how soon did the Arian heresie over-spread the world only one Athanasius visibly withstood it All the world wondered after the Beast and worshipped the same Rev. 13.3 4. Popery soon over-ran the West and North parts of the world and Mahumetanisme the East and South even there where those famous Asian Churches sometimes were seated are now the impure Temples of Mahomet no gangrene sooner over-spreads the natural body then errours and heresies do the Ecclesiastick body 2 Tim. 2.17 What care then should Christians have lest they be infected with the same Adde hereunto these are no lesse deadly to the souls of people then gangrenes or plagues are to their bodies such doctrines eat as doth a canker or gangrene saith the Apostle heresies may prove as damnable to men as moral wickednesse 2 Pet. 2.1 lesser errours indeed men may hold and yet be saved whilest they build upon the right foundation Though they build hay or stubble thereupon they may be saved yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3 13. their spirits may be scorched their peace and comfort lost but to miscarry in the foundation is damnable who can reckon up the evil consequences of false doctrines they blind the mind and extinguish the true knowledge of God they harden the heart they undermine the comfort of Christians and destroy the Churches peace they mortally infect the inward vitals of Christianity and outwardly deprave the conversation corrupt principles wil at length produce corrupt practises they provoke the Lord to have a controversie with a people where they are tolerated Rev. 2.14 15 20. and will exclude men the Kingdome of heaven Gal. 5.20 21. Let not any Christian therefore look upon the errours and heresies of the times as things of small concernment but make it his great care to be preserved from the infection of them as men do in the time of pestilence to be preserved from the same I shall for the benefit of such humble and sincere Christians as fear the infection of the errours amongst us and are willing to use such preservations against them as the Scriptures afford collect from thence a few antidotes of special use for that end the blessing of the Lord accompanying them Directions showing how Christians may be preserved from the errours and hreresies of the times I. Labour to be rooted and grounded more in the truth if you would not be shaken with every wind of doctrine Col. 1.23 2 Pet. 2.14 it 's ungrounded and unstable Christians who commonly are seduced who never saw on what grounds they took up their Religion but take it on trust from others and then when they meet with such arguments against the truth as they cannot answer they yeild to errour whereas that may be neverthelesse a truth Mat. 22.29 though they cannot defend it therefore search the Scriptures more and labour to see how the principles of the Christian faith are established upon them and be not ashamed to learn your Catechismes wherein you have the fundamentals of Christianity extracted out of the Scriptures and plainly set down even in the Primitive times they had such first principles of the oracles of God Heb. 5.12 and forms of wholsom words 2 Tim. 1.13 for the better grounding of weak Christians and the greatest proficieoâ—â— did first begin there and therein are contained such truths as may exercise us in searching further into all our life time Luther that eminent servant of Christ professed himself a Scholar in the Catechisme Had the Quakers ever been well grounded in the first principles or rudiments of Religion how is it possible they should so soon have been turned from the truth and denyed the doctrine of Christs humanity of the holy Trinity of Justification of Sanctification of the resurrection of the dead c for my part I know but few of them if any that I can judge ever had any clear distinct knowledge of these things and could tell how they were confirmed by the Scriptures Let therefore weak Christians if they would not be seduced use this direction conscionably give diligence to be setled more in the truth and to get a clear knowledge of the great doctrines of the Gospel such things as be fundamental and necessary to be known unto Salvation are clearly set down in Scripture that weak Christians if they study them with humility prayer and diligence may attain the understanding of them as for more difficult points that they cannot yet comprehend let them not too much be troubled about them but waite till God reveale the same unto them and in the meantime it s far safer for them to adhere in such things to what is commonly received by the people of God and embraced by the Saints in all ages Cant. 1.8 to follow the footsteps of the flock of Christ then to be led away by pretenders to new-light the Scriptures having given so many Cautions to beware of seducers in the last times This first direction is given by the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.17 18. Beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your stedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ II. Rest not in a notional embracing of the truth but receive it with love and obedience and labour to finde your hearts bettered therby and then you shall not so soon be induced to desert the truth and embrace errours when men receive not the truth with love they are soon brought to beleeve lies 2 Thes 2.10 but when men taste the sweetnesse of the wayes of God and are in love with Gospel truths for that goodnesse they find in them they will hold them fast such as have experimented the efficacy of the doctrines of faith changing and renuing their hearts quickning their spirits pacifying and comforting their consciences and quelling their corruptions will not be easily induced to exchange them for errours but it 's those that never found those benefits by the same that so soon part therewithal Let therefore the truths of Christ dwell in your hearts and season them as leaven labour to finde your hearts molded by the same and changed into the image of truth the more you grow in grace the more
you shall be established and kept from falling into the errour of the wicked Heb. 13.9 2 Pet. 3.17 18. And let your obedience to the faith appear to all Rom. 16.19 He that doth the will of God shall know more thereof John 7.17 and shall be established therein It is the great evil of many professors in this age they covet to fill their heads with knowledge and light letting their hearts be empty of holinesse and grace they are much in searching after new lights high notions and discoveries of smaller concernment but little in working upon their spirits the great and saving truths of Christ and in practising known Commandments it 's no wonder if such prove apostates they whose hearts are deceitful under truth may soon be deceived by errour Can we judge that these persons who deny the doctrines of Christs humanity of justification of the resurrection c. ever lived in the power of these truths received down the comfort of them and had their hearts formed into holinesse by them if they had they would have been hereby fortified against such seducers as tempt them to deny these doctrines for my own part I must professe whilst my faith is acting upon these great and precious truths of the Gospel and the comfort and sweetnesse of them is now flowing into my spirit I cannot mention these filthy and abominable errours but it is with highest detestation and abhorrence Let this therefore be the care of every Christian not to rest in a bare notional knowledge but to get a sanctifying experimental and practical knowledge of the things of God III. Be much in prayer that God would give you the spirit of Truth and thereby guide and keep you in the truth Joh. 16.13 In times of infection you use not to stir out of your houses till you pray God to keep you and your families daily had you as sensible apprehensions of the infections and mortall contagion of the heresies now raigning amongst us you would be as much in prayer to God for to keep you and yours daily from them but all the admonitions in the Scripture will hardly perswade people to believe their danger herein 2 Pet. 2 1. 1 Tim. 3.17 are not heresies damnable and extremely infectious and contagious as gangrenes and plagues our own experiences in these times abundantly testifies it if one person in a family be infected with heresie all the rest soon learne it of them even young ones commonly drink it in its more rarely seen that any good is so soon learnt by them and if one house be infected such as live neare thereto or converse with them they are also indangered What need therefore to be much in prayer to God to keep us in these infectious times wherein if it were possible the very elect should be deceived we had need to commend our selves to him who is able to keep us from falling Jude 24. IV. Expose not yourselves to the tentations of Seducers t is in vain to pray to God to keep you from the infection if you wilfully against the expresse Word of God run into the company of Deceivers you are bidden to avoid them Rom. 16.17 to turn away from such 2 Tim. 3.5 6. to beware of them Mat. 7.15 not to go after them Luke 21.8 if they come to you not receive them nor bid them God-speed 2 Joh. 10. What wilful disobedience to all these cleer commands is it when people will venture to go into the company and frequent the meetings of such seducers if Satan take such among his own how justly may God give them up to him as his own this is contrary to the example of the primitive Saints The Apostle John would not stay in the same hath where Cerinthus the heretick was nor would Policarp entertaine acquaintance with Marcion but termed him the first-born of the Devil Ireneus tells us the Apostles and their Disciples were so full of holy fear that they would not communicate with them in the world who had adulterated the Word If you say we may go and hear whether they broach such errors or no what hurt in this we must try all things and hold fast that which is good I answer may you not as well say you will go into the pest-house and see whether the persons there be infected with the plague before you will beware of them how many poor and weak persons are infected with their errours before they can discern what errours they hold And whereas the Apostle 1 Thes 5.21 bids prove all things hold that fast which is good He intends it of the prophecyings spoken of in the former verse all things spoken by the Prophets in the Church should be proved by the Scriptures whether they be so or no and not received only because they say they are of God as the Quakers receive what their teachers deliver to them without trying them by the Scriptures which they deny to be the rule of faith and life but this place makes nothing for the hearing of convicted hereticks and open enemies to the Church If thou beest therefore an humble and sincere Christian that makest conscience of the commands of the Lord then shun deceivers turn away from them go not to their meeting if they come to thee receive them not into thy house nor bid them God-speed but if thou wilt run upon tentations thou hast no promise of God to keep thee it was the devils deceit to perswade men God will protect them out of his way Mat. 4.6 V. Harbour not any sinful lusts in your hearts allow not of any secret sin it 's sin that makes God give up men to errour 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. because they have pleasure in unrighteousness and it 's sin that makes a man like a piece of wax ready to receive the impression of any errour they who are not sound in the fear of God may easily become unsound in the faith of God Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.19 20. first put away a good conscience then made shipwrack of the faith the women that were led captive by seducers 2 Tim. 3. were such as were laden with divers lusts if the heart be corrupt and love sinne it will strongly encline a man to entertaine corrupt principles that will give liberty unto sin how ready will a wicked heart be to close with the wicked errours of the Quakers that there is no resurrection of the flesh no heaven and hell but what is now in this world that after death nothing remains or with the Libertines opinion that sin is no real evil but to him that thinks it evil to him it is evil as Jos Salmon in his touches of good and evil speaks or with the Atheists opinion that there is no God c. look therefore to your hearts to keep them pure if you would not be given up to impure errors love no sin if you would leave no truth VI. Cleave more to the Ministry of the Word and the
sufficiently convince God would have us to heed his word more and try the spirits by that and the grosse and palpable blindnesse of such as want the direction of the Scriptures may shew God is not pleased to use this way of immediate revelations now nor indeed is it the work of God holy Spirit to discover things to us now immediately having already made a full discovery of them in the Scriptures but to open our eyes to see the wonderful things of his Law to apprehend those discoveries of God made in his word and to sanctifie our hearts so as they may close with those truths revealed and rellish them and to remove the natural enmity that is in as to the things of God 3. It hath pleased the Lord of his infinite goodnesse to give his holy Scriptures the Word of God for so now I will call them whether the Quakers will or no that this may be a direction and rule to us of faith and obedience how we are to believe in God and worship and serve him and to direct us to eternal salvation this is a special pledge of Gods love to us though the enemies of truth will not acknowledge it The Lord hath not done so to all Nations neither have the heathen knowledge of his Laws Psalme 147 19 20. and the end of writing them was that we might be directed in our faith and obedience John 20 last These things are written that ye might beleeve c. we are to try the spirits now by them whether they be of God as the noble Bereans did Acts 17.11 we are to go to the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 to search the Scriptures John 5.39 or otherwise we shall be necessarily exposed to errour Matth. 22.29 They are now a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our steps Psal 119.105 and through the words of Gods lips we may be kept from the path of the destroyer Psal 17.4 in a word they are able to make wise to salvation to furnish to all good works they are profitable for doctrine reproof correction instruction in righteousnesse c. 2 Tim. 3.16 17. The Lord accompanying them with the blessing and efficacy of his Spirit And let not any ignorantly pretend it is a disgrace to the Spirit to be tried and regulated by an outward rule for gold may be tryed by a touchstone why may not any doctrine or revelation or practice now though pretended to come from the Spirit be tried by the Scriptures which we are more sure came from the Spirit of God they being a surer word of prophecy then any voice we can heare spoken from heaven 2 Pet. 1.18 19. 4. Now let the weakest Reader if he be not wilfully blinded judg whether these people be not extreamly ingrateful to God for his goodnesse in giving the Scriptures to deny this principal use and end of the Scriptures and whether hereby they declare not themselves enemies thereunto I might shew other uses and ends of the Scriptures that they subvert but this may suffice for this second particular to prove the charge that the Quakers be enemies to the holy Scriptures III. They make Scriptures to be but a declaration of the Saints condition an expression frequently to be found in their writings insinuating thereby as if they belonged not to us now Burroughs p. 30 Glory from North. p. 8 9. but concerned the Saints only in former times for so much its clear they intend by comparing this with the former particular they are the declaration of the Saints conditions in former times but they are no rule of faith and life to us what do they then concern us what need we regard them what benefit have we by them A most unworthy expression when God hath written to us the great things of his word and we account them a strange thing Hosea 8.12 as if they did not at all concern us and the Lord had not spoken those things to us but to others But as it delares their enmity against the Scriptures so is it a very false assertion There be some part of the Scriptures that do more concern us now in these last dayes of the world then they did the Saints in former times as many Prophetick Scriptures in Dauid and the Revelations and for other Scriptures the Apostle faith what ever was written was written for our learning Rom. 15.4 and for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world be come 1 Cor 10.6 11. The example of Christ and his Apostles teaches us to make use of the whole Wood of God they frequently cited the writings of Moses and the Prophets in the book of the Psalmes applying them to that generation why may not we then apply the same as also the writings of the New Testament for our benefit In Heb. 13.5 The Apostle applies that promise made to Joshuah to the beleeving Hebrews I will not have thee nor forsake thee See 1 Cor. 7.1 where the Apostle applies the promises made by the Prophet Jer 31.1 to the Corinthians and presses them to duty from thence and indeed to what end are they written down and by the gracious providence of the Lord preserved to this day but for our use and benefit it 's needlesse to adde more here that which was spoken in the former particular will also clear this IV. They call the Scriptures reproachfully a letter a dead letter c. as may be seen in their writings frequently which is but a piece of Popish Rhetorick for this hath been the language of Papists before them who have called them a dead letter divinity of ink and paper with many more such opprobrious tearms But whether we should beleeve Papists and Quakers in vilifying the Scriptures or credit the holy penmen their commendation of them judge ye David saith The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule the testimonies of the Lord are sure making wise the simple the Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the Commandments of the Lord are pure enlightning the eyes c. and Psalme 119.50 Thy word hath quickened me The Apostle James 1.18 saith he begot us with the word of truth Paul saith faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's not said by the personal word Jesus Christ but by the word that is preached by men not that we exclude the co-operation of Gods Spirit with preaching for we are workers together with God 2 Cor. 6.1 but that the word written and preached might have it's due place and commendation being mighty through God the power of God to salvation and therefore no dead letter It is a grosse perverting of that Scripture 2 Cor. 3.6 to alledge it for to prove the Scriptures to be a dead letter for the Apostle there compares the doctrine or ministration of the Law and the old Covenant with the ministration of the Gospel Covenant disputing against such as commended the
dead even Jesus which delivereth us from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 Let all that professe the Name of Christ take heed of such as preach another Christ then whom they have received and look upon them as Deceivers and Anti-christs as for us we have not so learned Jesus Christ SECT III. The Quakers deny the Doctrine of the Trinity THis charge will not be denied by the Quakers for in this they speak out and do not seek to conceale their opinions they acknowledge not one God subsisting in three persons See Sauls errand to Damascus p. 12. and the sword of the Lord drawn c. p. 4. where this doctrine is called a lie by them Let me therefore shew this to be an abominable errour contrary to the doctrine of the Scriptures to deny three persons subsisting in one God and prove this fundamental article of our faith against their cavils This I cleare from Scripture by these gradations or steps 1. The Scriptures speak clearly that there is in the divine nature three in one or a Trinity in Unity whether these three may be called persons we shall discusse afterwards 1 John 5.7 There be three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one Here is in this Scripture three numbred and their several names set down and yet it 's said they are but one not only agree in one as in the next verse but they are one See Mat. 3.16 17. Mat. 28.19 2 Cor. 13.14 John 14.16 Where are also three counted the Father and I saith Christ and the Spirit of truth and these are distinguished the Spirit is called another It might further be shewed as there be three numbred in Scripture and their several names set down so the Scripture speak also of distinct properties and operations peculiar to each of these three and incommunicable to other The Father begets and not the Son the Spirit proceeds and not the Father c. so the Sonne took flesh and not the Father nor the Spirit II. It 's most evident that this Trinity in Unity or three in one is not a meer notional thing subsisting in the minde and apprehension of man alone but eternally subsisting in the divine being it self it 's a thing founded upon Scripture as before was shewed not a fiction of reason it had been if there never had been any created minde to apprehend it Nor can it be only three names given to one and the same personal being for the Scripture gives more names then three to God there are ten several names given to God in the Old Testament as some observe besides those in the New Testament and further the Scripture counts them as distinct in subsistence and not only in name John 8.17 18. Christ and his Father are counted for two witnesses now one person cannot be two witnesses though he have two names Nor doth this Trinity subsist in the divine nature only as wisdome justice and goodnesse are in God for these attributes of God are no otherwise distinguished then according to mans apprehension of them because our finite and compounded understandings cannot comprehend the glorious perfections of a single and infinite essence but by distinct properties or attributes in themselves they do not differ one from another the same also may be said of Gods decrees but now this distinction of three in one is founded in the very divine being it self as before was shewed Nor yet further are we to understand this three in one to be only three manifestations of God grounded upon some offices or external dispensations to the creature in time there hath been more manifestations of God to man then three since the creation God was manifest various wayes to his people to Moses in the bush and in the mount to Israel in the wildernesse in the pillar of fire and cloud to the Patriarchs to the three children to Daniel to John c. Besides this distinction was in God from eternity before there was any creature made to manifest it unto Christ is the eternal Sonne of God distinct from the Father eternally and before he was made flesh the Spirit was distinguished from Father and Sonne from eternity and not only when he was manifested in descending on Christ in the likenesse of a dove or by falling on the Apostles in fiery tongues See Prov. 8.21 to 31. Mic. 5.2 Joh. 1.1 2 3. Joh. 17.5 Col. 1.15 Gen. 1.2 2 Pet. 1.21 Mat. 1.20 these are all to be exploded as dangerous errours and have been ever rejected by the Church III. Hence it will follow that this must be a Trinity of persons or subsistances in the same divine being three persons subsisting in one God nor let any cavil at the word person for it is a Scripture word Heb. 1.3 if they will stand to the received translation if any will plead the word is more properly rendred there subsistence then person we will not stand upon that so they acknowledge three subsistances in the same divine being for this is all we argue for but how vainly is it to except against the word person so commonly received amongst the people of God and not scrupled at by any but such as have erred dangerously in other things what is a person if we look upon the notation of the name but per se una a thing that hath a subsistence by it self or if we respect the definition of the thing we understand no more by it but an intelligent compleat incommunicable independent subsistence and according to our common custome of speech the word person doth expresse more excellency then the word subsistence singly taken doth the former we ever apply to a reasonable being the other we use to apply to inferiour creatures a beast may be said to subsist though it is no person IV. Yet is there no multiplication of the God-head for still we acknowledge one God one simple undivided essence Deut. 6.4 Isa 44.6 8. Isa 45.21 22. John 10.30 1 John 5.7 If any shall object how can these things be it seems a contradiction for to say there is three persons and yet but one divine being and therefore shall reject this doctrine because they cannot comprehend it I answer it were extreame arrogance for a poor worm to do thus to reject what God hath clearly held forth in his Word because he cannot comprehend it what Art or Science is there in the world but there are many mysteries in it that novices cannot comprehend and can we expect to be more knowing in the things of God that are so high and mysterious above the reason and understanding of man Let sober spirits count it their safest way to beleeve what is clearly revealed by God though they cannot yet comprehend the nature of such mysteries Neverthelesse we do not count it a contradiction to say there is light heat and power in the Sun and yet there are not three Suns but one or that in the soul
there is the vegetative sensitive and rational faculties and yet there are not three souls in man but one why should it seem then a contradiction to believe three persons to subsist in one only God Now let the Reader from hence see what impudence it is in these Quakers to call this doctrine a lie and how dangerously they erre in denying the Trinity what is this but to deny the true God who hath manifested himself thus to be one in three as before they denied the Man Christ and were proved enemies to the Scriptures this errour tends to ouerthrow all faith and Religion and is pernicious to mens salvation for we must believe in God as he reveals himself in his Word and no otherwise and worship and serve him accordingly if we will be saved It was hatched by the enemies of truth it hath been defended on purpose to overthrow the personal Deity of Christ whereby the infinite value of his merits is taken away and to undermine the personality of the Spirit which is so fully evidenced by the divine attributes appropriated to him in Scripture and therefore have the purest Churches of Christ ever disclaimed communion with such as deny the doctrine of the Trinity accounting them subverters of the fundamentals of Religion And thus for this third particular SECT IV. The Quakers hold they are equal with God and that the soul is one being with God THere is nothing may more plainly evidence to the weakest and most ignorant that this wicked Sect is of the Devil the Prince of darknesse what ever they boast of the light of Christ then this wicked Tenet that they dare maintain equality with God and the soul to be one being with God or a part of God as the Manichees of old and Familists have done This doctrine the Devil sought to instil into our first parents at the beginning ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Gen 3.5 What Christian spirit that apprehends the infinite Majesty and holinesse of God and its own basenesse and vilesse but will abhor the very mention of this opinion yet is this maintained and defended by this generation of men In their book called Sauls errand to Damascus is mention made that it was attested at a quarter Sessions at Lancaster that some of them affirmed themselves to be equal with God and that afterwards the same thing was acknowledged before many witnesse nor do they deny this publick evidence was given against them though they would shuffle about it while they covertly plead for the same thing p. 2 5 6. 10. Hubberthorn in his book against Sherlock p. 30. doth most ignorantly and blasphemously alledge that place for this Phil. 2.5 6. Let this minde be in you which also was in Christ who being in the forme of God thought it no robery to be equal with God where the Reader may see how he imitates Satan in corrupting the Scriptures both by leaving out the following words which must necessarily be known before the minde of the Apostle be understood viz. but made himself of no reputation took on him the forme of a servant humbled himself c. the sentence is not compleat without taking in these words and also perverting the scope and drift of the Apostle in that place who is pressing humility ver 3. and urging it from Christs example who though equal with God yet humbled himself it is far of from the Apostles mind there to perswade us to beleeve we are equal with God he is pressing humility they that desire to see fuller evidence for their holding equality with God may see Sword drawn p. 3 and also the many testimonies which the Ministers of New-castle bring for it in their first book p. 3 4. That they hold the soule to be one being with God or a part of God See also testimony for it in the book last cited p. 6. and Sword drawn p. 3 4. Hubberthorne in the book before named p. 29. saith there 's no Scripture which speaks of an humane soul then it seems the soul or spirit in man which the Scripture speaks so much of must either be God himself or the Devil One of them living in these parts did in discourse with my self argue as strongly as he could for the soul to be one being with God and though he did afterward give me the lie in the publick Assembly for reporting it of him yet I have now eight several witnesses of credit to prove the same thing and manifest him to be the liar besides what arguments passed betwixt us which clearly evidenc he pleaded for it Another of them argued with me that the soul after its departure out of the body which say they rots in the grave and never rises again is taken up into God and is one being with him urging that Scripture for it God shall be all in all For confutation of these things I need not say much they are so grosse and horrible Concerning the first Equality with God let but the Reader peruse these Scriptures Isa 40. v. 12 almost to the end of the chapter where the Lord makes a challenge twice repeated v. 18 25. To whom will ye liken me or shall I be equal saith the holy one and in the other verses sets forth his Greatnesse and Majesty he measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meateth out heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in a ballance c. The Nations are as the drop of a bucket to him c. All Nations are before him as nothing yea lesse then nothing and vanity He sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasse-hoppers He bringeth Princes to nothing c. See much more to the same purpose there Read also Job 38.39.40 all the three chapters and this opinion will be sufficiently confuted Oh what arrogance is this for poor wormes to make comparison with the Infinite Eternal Almighty Glorious God But perhaps they will say they equal not self nor the flesh unto God that is to perish but the spirit or soul which is one being with or a part of the divine essence like some in these times which have made reason to be God I shall speak something therefore for the confutation of this 1. The Scriptures speak of the soul or spirit of man to be a created thing made in time Isa 57.16 Zach. 12.1 Psal 33.15 and can this be one being with the eternal uncreated God 2. Many Scriptures speak of the sinfulnesse of the soul Micah 6.9 Lev. 4.2 Ezek. 18.20 James 4.5 2 Cor. 7.1 and can a sinful polluted creature be one being with the holy God 3. Many Scriptures speak of the destruction and death of the soul its perishing in hell Mar. 10.28 Mat. 16.26 Prov. 4 32. and can that soule that perishes in hell be a part of the being of God 4. The Scripture distinguishes betwixt Gods Spirit and ours Rom. 8.16
but feigned friends to holinesse whatever they pretend Alexander the Great is said to have smitten one of his souldiers on the face for railing against his enemy saying to him I hired thee to fight and not to raile against him as little thanks may these men expect to receive from the Lord Jesus another day what ever friendship they pretend to him now and what ever enmity against sinne they professe seeing they do but build the things they would seem to destroy And thus for the tenth general charge against the Quakers SECT XI The Quakers shewed to be the common sink of all the Heresies of our times and a parallel betwixt them and former Hereticks IT hath been observed that after the Christian world had been infested for a long time together with multitudes of cursed errours and heresies at length Popery prevailing in the West and North and Mahumetanisme in the East and South they were all swallowed up in these two as in two great gulfes or common sewers of all that filthy puddle of false doctrine See Danaeus de heres cap. 95 96. In like manner we find amongst our selves that those filthy and abominable errours that have sprung up in these late years of tolleration so plentifully do most of them center in Quakerism and this is become the common sink of them all And indeed there are very few if any at all besides some grosly ignorant persons that have not made any profession of godlinesse who are now lead away by the Quakers but such as have formerly apostatized from the truth and been infected with the leaven of Anabaptisme or Antinomianisme Arminianisme or Socinianisme Familisme or Libertinisme c. So that this Serpent of Quakerisme hath threatned to devour up all these other Serpents and so to become the Dragon that persecutes the Churches in these Nations Now how justly may this render the way of Quakerisme suspected to the weakest and most simple of all in that those that follow it have long since left the way of truth and been unstable running after every new way of errour and scarse any one that hath been accounted a knowing and stable Christian doth follow after them It will not be unprofitable if I here annex a short parallel betwixt the Quakers and some wicked Hereticks in former times for hereby it may appeare that their doctrines are not such new and glorious truths as they would pretend them to be but old and accursed heresies newly raked out of hell and the very smoake of the bottomelesse pit If the reader shall see so much agreement betwixt them and the vilest enemies of the truth that have been in former times he will be convinced thereby ther 's little reason any should be taken with Quakerisme I shall begin with some of those Hereticks spoken of in Scripture and shew what agreement is betwixt the Quakers and them One would think the Quakers should not be guilty of any great complyance with the Pharisees seeing they so much reproach others with the nick-name of Pharisees but alack this is but such a trick as he playd that called his honest neighbour theife first that his neighbours accusation against him might not be credited there are many things wherein the Pharisees and Quakers notably agree The Pharisees were bitter enemies of Jesus Christ and conspired to destroy him and no lesse enemies to him are the Quakers they quite annihilate and destroy as much as in them lyeth his manhood For they deny that he hath an humane created soul so Richard Hubberthorne expresly in a letter sent to my self and can he be a man that hath not an humane soul and no better do they deal with his body for that they make never to have risen from the dead as was before shewed indeed sometimes they will say he arose from the grave as Hubberthorne in the letter aforesaid saith but in the next words he shewes it was in the same person in which he was when the world was made it seems this is all the Man-Christ they now own Further the Pharisees were zealous for the righteousnesse of the Law but enemies to the Doctrine of Justification by faith So the Quakers as was shewed before in the Section of Justification The Pharisees placed all their Religion in outward observances So the Quakers as was before shewed The Pharisees pretended much seeming sanctity gravity austerity when inwardly full of wickednesse So the Quakers would seem holy austere but are full of railing and bitternesse The Pharisees stood much on trivial things mint commine and annice So the Quakers upon cloaths hats thou yea nay c. The Pharisees trusted on their owne righteousnesse and despised others So the Quakers would be accounted the only holy persons and call others Dogges Swine Devils The Pharisees used much severity over their bodies abstinence fasting which God commanded not So the Quakers The Pharisees would be esteemed extraordinary for holinesse and have their sayings received for Oracles So the Quakers say they are perfect and what they speak or write all is infallible and must not be questioned The Pharisees were horrible corrupters of the Scriptures Matth. 5. So the Quakers as hath been shewed The Pharisees were rash censurers of others John 7.19 10.20 Mat. 11.19 So the Quakers The Pharisees would compasse sea and land to make a Proselite whereby he became twofold a child of hell more then before So the Quakers what an exact harmony is here twixt these two sects We read in Scripture of another Sect called Sadduces and with them also the Quakers have some agreement These pretend to righteousness taking their name from Sedek as Josephus shews which signifies just So the Quakers pretend hereunto The Sadduces deny the Resurrection of the body Mat. 22.23 Act. 23.8 So the Quakers Herein also they agree with Hymeneus and Philetus who made it past already acted spiritually in men here 2 Tim. 2.18 The Sadduces denied Heaven and Hell rewards and punishments in the world to come as Josephus reports So the Quakers as was before proved The Sadduces denied Angels and Spirits The Quakers deny the spirit or soul of man distinct from God for Hubberthorne against Sherl saith the Scriptures speak not of an humane soul Were it necessary I could shew their agreement with many ancient Hereticks in the ages succeeded the Apostles they agree with the Arians and Eunomians in denying Christ to have an humane soul with the Manichees in making the soul in a man a part of the being of God With Adamites in going naked With Antitrinitarians Jews and Turks in denying the Trinity yet the Turks though they deny the Trinity do own the Man Jesus Christ more then they for in their Alkoran they say he is a great Prophet and shall come to judge the world at the last day and therefore are better Christians then the Quakers They agree with Pelagians in their conceit of the sufficiency of the common grace given to all men With Socinians in