The Weapons of Quakerism the Weakness of Quakerism, Title page – Dedication
Verus Patroclus: OR, The Weapons of Quakerism, The Weakness of Quakerism: BEING A Discourse, wherein the choicest Arguments for their chief Tenets are Enervat▪ and their best Defences Annihilat; several Abominations, not heretofore so directly Discovered, Unmasked: WITH A Digression Explicative of the Doctrine anent the necessity of the Spirits Operation; AND An Appendix, Vindicating, Rom. 9. From the Depravations of an Arminian. By William Iamison.
Tit. 3.10.
A man that is an Heretick, after the first and second Admonition, reject.
Edinburgh, Printed in the Year, 1689.
TO THE Right Honourable, The EARL of DUNDONNALD, Lord Cochran, &c.
AS, my Lord, amongst the innumerable precious Benefits and Blessings, which God hath graciously vouchsafed to Mankind, or to any part thereof, His Word, Statutes and sacred Oracles infinitly surpass, excel, and, so to speak, obscure all the rest by far, more than the Sun doth eclipse the lesser Luminaries: so according to that common saying, Corruptio optimi, pessima; Nothing by many degrees is so mischievous, noxious, and deadly as the Corruption and Depravation of these lively Oracles; For thus, tho by a cursed accident, The Wine of our Fathers Kingdom is turned into Wormwood, and that Heavenly and unpressed Honey into Gall; whereby the greater part of the visible Church hath perished! For the Poison hath this most unhappy advantage above all others, that it is of an hydropick nature, making the infected, the more they have drunk, so much the more desirous to drink. Hence that sagacious Spirit, the grand Enemy of Mankind, judged this the choicest expedient and mean, for restauration of his falling Kingdom: For to speak nothing o… the first 4000 years of the World, he hath ever, since the very infancy of Christianity, to his outmost, put this in practice, always raising up such as were most famous, or rather infamous, through their corrupting, abusing, and detorting the Word of Life, and Charters of our Salvation: Of which kind, in the early days of Christianity, were Cerinthus, Montanus, the Cataphrygians, Samosatenus, Arrius, and a multitude beside. But these first Essays, by reason of their palpable and direct overturning of the undoubted Fundamentals of Christianity which rendred all their sophistry, tho never so subtile, most suspected, proved inefficacious to do the Business, tho in some respect, infectious enough. Therefore the Lord having by many Means, and in special, by the first four Councils, blown away these pestiferous Mists, and cleared up to mens minds, these grand Truths of the Holy Trinity, the Godhead of Christ, the Unity of his Person, the Distinction of his Natures, and the like. The Method was altered, and the following opposers of Truth acted by the same Spirit, that the former were, went more subtilly to work, not only forbearing to oppose these Fundamentals, but, in shew at le…st, endeavouring to defend and assert them: By which it came to pass, that they were more easily believed in all they said, by the too simple people. In the mean while they secretly and slily sowed their Tares under the specious pretext of Unity, Order, Decency, Ornament, and antient Tradition. Under the covert of these & the like, was the whole Mass of Paganism introduced, guilded only with the varnishing Title of Catholick Doctrine. For thus in stead of the humility of a Gospel-Ministry, was brought in a Prelatick Hierarchy, in imitation of the Pagan Protoflamines, which at length procreated to the World the Man of Sin, to head this degenerating Church in their Wickedness: And so they had Unity, which was worse than Division; and an Order, that became the cause of the most horrid Confusion the World hath hitherto seen. Thus also the simplicity of the Gospel was turned into Heathnish Pageantry; and the glory of the Church of God did degenerat into a meer worldly pomp and grandour. But at length how sad and miserable became the case of the Church, whe… through the power of humane inventions, delivered under the name of Tradition, & the Dictats of the Romish-depute of the old Dragon, such poisonous dregs became the best part of the essentials of their Religion! Justification before God, ascribed to the belief and practice thereof, and Justification by Faith in the Son of God, decried and maligned! Thus were the same fundamental Truths, which had been more openly assaulted by the former Hereticks, now no less powerfully, but more subtilly almost overthrown. But so soon as the Lord, as it were by the dawning of a second-Christian-day, had discovered Romes Abominations, and rendered her hateful to all good Men; the old Artist & his associats changed their method, tho not their design, impugning again more openly, these fundamental Truths they had assaulted in the early days of Christianity; But that the Weapon, already blunted, might yet cut, behold a new Artifice! For these attempts were not made, for the most part, by these who persisted in the company of the now deservedly hated Church of Rome, but by these who were in appearance the Deserters and Opposers thereof: Under the covert of which, they far more securely infected many, who were in communion with the reformed Church, impudently asserting, that the chiefest points of Christianity we…e Popery, on this account that the Papists had not expresly denied them. These were known by many names, as Servetians, Anti-trinitarians, Socinians, and the like. But more general was that of Anabaptists, comprising in it self all these, and many other such Vipers. The true progeny of these Anabaptists are these, now known by the Name of Quakers, the men with whom Ideal, who for design and method, are all on… with the bulk of both antient and modern Hereticks. Two Artifices were alternatively used by the antient Hereticks: and by a continued succession derived unto our present Adversaries, the one of which was to abuse the Scriptures; as if one should mould a Bushel of Jewels, into the shape of a Dog, Toad, or the like hateful Creature. The other, when in spite of all these shifts, they were Convicted out of the Scriptures, to turn upon the Scriptures themselves, as being not free of their own Errors, nor of Divine Authority. How exactly the Quakers write after their Copy, none acquainted with their Doctrines, seeth not. I hope therefore it shal not be unprofitable, if the following Discourse shall unfold more particularly these practices of our Adversaries, which I with a humble confidence can averr; and moreover I make some Discoveries, in particular of this more spiritual Mystery of Iniquity, by none I know hitherto directly undertaken. Moreover, this my Treatise can be judged by none altogether superfluous, who considereth, that the whole Land is ready to be overspread with the Hemlock o… Pelagianism, now known by the name of Arminianism, with which the bulk of the Prelatick Clergy is already infected, for with this Heresie I have several Rancounters. But I will not trouble your Lordship with a further account of this my small Undertaking; Yet this I crave leave to say, that whatever I intended of this kind, it was designed for your Lordship, not for instruction; for to a higher pitch, and that not without ground I presume your Lordship to be arrived, but only for a testimony of my gratitude to your Lordships most Noble and Munificent Grand-Father, whose large bounty to the Learned, and Learners, did liberally extend it self to me also, tho most undeserving. Wherefore if there were any worth in this my small Essay, your Lordship by right of succession may challenge a propriety therein. Neither were your Lordships Vertues unknown to me, while I had the honour of receiving my Education under the same Roo…, and at the same time with your Lordship. But the special motive of my ambition to prefix your Lordships Name to my sheets, is, that your Lordship by undoubted arguments hath proved your self, to be a sincere lover of the now much deserted and maligned Truths of GOD, and a true favourer of his afflicted Church, trampled on these many years by oppressing Lords, that never had lawful Dominion over her: whose Prelatical Yoak and Hierarchy, as it hath proved the stair, by which, beside many other Tyrants, the Pope hath got to the unmeasurable height, at which he is now arrived, so it is ready to become the bridge, and pave the way for his Retroduction into Britain, with this much I thought to have troubled your Lordship several Months ago, but then could not, for May last, my Papers not being admitted to the Press without the allowance of the then publick Inspectors, were given to Doctor Munro, thereunto appointed by the Prelat of St. Andrews, by whom I was prohibited the publication thereof, unless I razed out of them, all mention of Popery whatsoever. So great hath the zeal of these good men been against Popery, that so far as they could, they would not suffer it so much as once to be named. Yet do I not complain of any wrong done to me, but only show to your Lordship, and the World, to how sad a pass things were then brought! Go on therefore, my Lord, espousing the Cause of the true Protestant Interest, in opposition to Popery, and whatsoever hath a tendency thereto: Thus shall your Lordship add the truest lustre to your Nobility, by causing the Heart of the destitute, and widow Church to sing, and bringing the blessing of her that was ready to perish upon your Lordship. And however matters shall succeed, your Lordship shall be Feasted with the Delicacies of a good Conscience, in respect of which, the choicest Banquet of Cleopatra with her Anthony, are far from amounting to the coursest of Commons. In which, that the Lord may prosper your Lordship, and bestow upon your Lordship and Family, his choicest Blessings, is, and shall be, the earnest Prayer of, my Lord,
Your Lordships most humble and devoted Servant, WILL. JAMISON.