Confutation of the Quakers, To the reader – Approbation
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 page missing 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 onelyonly 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 gone aſtray; and to the eſtabliſhment of ſuch poor, weak and ſtaggering Chriſtians, as belong to him, is the fervent and hearty prayer of him, who is
Thine in Chriſt J. C. Wramblingham, June 16. 1656.
To the READER.
WEre the opinions of the Quakers regarded only according to their falſeneſſe, or fondneſs, or were their ſtrangneſs to Scripture, ſeconded with a ſutable diſowning of them by men; the Authour of this judicious Treatiſe, might have ſpared his pains in this excellent Confutation of them. Upon my peruſal thereof, it plainly appears, as the errours confuted do oppoſe moſt weakly the evident, and moſt pernitiouſly the fundamental truths of the Word, ſo that this worthy Author hath moſt ſtrongly with Scripture Arguments, overthrown and diſſipated thoſe their fond, yet dangerous errours. When I conſider the weakneſſe of their Arguments, I wonder that any have ever been ſo mad as to entertain their errors formerly, and when I think of the ſtrength and perſpicuity of this Confutation, it ſeems as ſtrange; that any who ſhall peruſe this book, ſhould perſiſt in them, or be drawn off to them for the future. In ſhort, I am perſwaded, that this judicious and dear Confutation of the errors of the Quakers, is like to prove, by Gods bleſſing, a ſingular help to preſerve thoſe from wandring, who as yet remain in the ways of truth, and to reduce thoſe, who are miſled and gone aſtray from the ſame.
William Jenkyn. Black Fryers. Novemb. 11.