many as believed in him shall Reign with him at that time And all faithful Men shall rise again and the Residue to Shame because they believed not in God that came in the Flesh to deliver Thus it is made Clear That God the Father became Flesh but one Evidence more from John befor I conclude this Point He in Admiration of his Lords Love cryed out saying 1 John 3.1 O What Love the Father hath bestowed upon us but the World knoweth him not but we know him Now who was this Father of Love was it any other but the Apostles Jesus his following Words doth shew it as clear as the Light saying thus We who are his Apostles do know him and we further know that when He doth appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is That is Psal 3.21 when he comes to change our vile Bodies and make them like his own glorious Body then shall we see him as he is in himself one personal God Cloathed with Flesh and Bone as a Garment of eternal Glory This is the Faith saith John That maketh Pure and he whose Faith abides in Jesus Christ that came by Water and Blood hath the everlasting Father and he that holdeth this Faith sineth not That is he sineth not to Act he may have the motion to Sin but it preserveth from the Act for that golden Grace of Faith crusheth that Cokatrice Egg of the Motion of Sin before it become a stinging Serpent and so Conquers and Overcomes This is the Doctrin of the Gospel and he that Imbraceth it hath the Father and the Son 2 John 10.9 where and to whom the Blessing and the Salvation of God-speed is given This is the true God and the Amen 1 John 5.20 Revel 3.14 and all other Gods are Idols This is the Muggletonian's Principle which the Ante-Scripturian calls a mischievious Principle Thus you curse the true God and defy the Holy one of Israel chusing to your self a God of your own lying Imagination In Page 19. you further Object against that Principle how that the God-head dyed This say you is quite contrary to Scripture which saith God is Immortal and that he hath Immortality 1. Tim. 1.17 6.16 Also you say That Muggleton teacheth That the Soul of Man is Mortal and turns to Dust To this say you the Scripture tells us That the Souls of Men are alive after their Death Matt. 22 32. And that God is said to be their God after they are Dead Matt. 10.28 And that we are not to fear them that can kill the Body and not the Soul And that Lazarus when he dyed went to Heaven and Dives to Hell Luke 16.22 CHAP. IX ANSWER The Scriptures Acts 20.28 say that God purchased the Church with his Blood Now the Blood of Christ was no other but the Blood of God and when he power'd forth that Blood then did he power forth his Life for Life lay in that Blood Therefore it is said That he powered forth his Soul unto Death Isaiah 53.12 Heb 9.14 and that he offered up himself through the eternal Spirit What is that but that the eternal Spirit entered into Death or passed through Death in a Moment into eternal Life Death being too weak to keep him under Coll 2.9 1 Cor. 15.54 so that whatever Life was in Jesus did enter into Death Therefore he that was the Alpha and Omega Revel 1.18 the First and the Last was Dead but is now Alive and behold he now lives for ever more and is that immortal only wise God blessed for ever So that we do affirm 1 Tim. 6.16 2 John 7. Revel 1.18 That God is immortal and we also know that Eternity did become Time for Flesh was in Time and Time did become Eternity again Now in that you Teach That God cannot dye it is evident that you do not belive that Christ was any God at all so that you Trenitarians Arians and Socinians you are all a like and that you are no more Christians then they For it will necessarily follow That if it were nothing but humane Nature or Life in Christ that died then the Death of any other Man had been equevolent to Christ's Sufferings and as Meritorious as his and so your Spirit God without a Body might have saved you by sheding of any other Man's Blood But the true Christian doth know that no Blood can make Attonement for Sin but the most precious and unvaluable Blood of a God to believe this John 6.54 is to drink his Blood And to believe that that blessed Body of his was no less then the very body of God this is to eate his flesh so that whosoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood so hath by so doing gained the full assurance of Eternal Life this is a standing Truth and shall prevail But how is it possible you should believe this when as you cannnot believe that any Life dies at all for say you The Soul of Man is alive after Death here your Ignorance appears very great for all your Learning Where did you ever find by Scripture That the Soul of any man was ever alive without its body The Scripture no where affirms it if rightly understood they are but old Wives Fables or Monks and Fryers Forgeries and heathenish Principles from their own blind Imaginations As for those Sayings concerning Dives and Lazarus 't is but a Parable Luke 16. and so must have a Spiritual meaning for Souls without Bodies have no Tongues nor Eyes nor Bosoms as that Parable speaks of but that Parable was only to set forth the two Seeds here in Mortality which is largely opened by this Commission of the Spirit And as to Christ speaking of God being the God of the living and not of the dead it was spoken to the Saduces who denyed the Resurrection therefore Christ shews that there was a necessity of a Resurrection Act 2.31 and 13.36 seeing that Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the Prophets were dead and their Sepulchres are with us at this day and if God do not raise them again to that Glory their Faith was pitch'd upon then was he the God of the dead and not of the living in that all dyed to him instead of living to him And as to that saying Fear not them which can kill the body c. That is fear not him that may kill both Soul and Body by a natural death but rather fear him that hath an absolute power in himself to slay both Soul and Body with an Eternal or second Death Moreover when the Scripture saith the body dies doth not that include the soul or natural Life What have you your natural Learning for but to understand the natural sence of words Do you not find that that which our Translation calls body the Greek calleth souls as Numb 6.6 there it is said That he shall come at no dead body in our
apropriates David's Key to belong to it Psal 149.4 which Key lyes in such and the like Sayings The Lord takes Pleasure in his People he will beautifie the Meek with Salvation this is the Key that opens Heaven And as follows Let the high Praises of God be in their Mouth and a two-edged Sword in their Hand and then with the other Key and Sword To execute Vengance upon the Heathen and Punishments upon the People To bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron To execute upon them the Jndgment written And this is the Key that opens and none can shut and shuts and no Man can open Psal 149.9 This Honour saith David belongs to all living Saints For these Keys and Sword belongs to all Saints Isa 54.17 57.4 and David himself in those and the like Sayings had flung into the Fire all that dispised his Spirit of Prophesie of his God's becoming Flesh and Sealed them up in these Words Saying divide their Tongues Psal 55.9 for I have seen Violence in the City Cast them down in thy Anger Consume them in Wrath Psal 59.13 let not them come into thy Righteousness blot them out of the Book of Life and let them not be written with the Righteous Psal 140.10 Let burning Goals fall upon them let them be cast into the Fire The Prophet Jeremiah likewise meeting with the Seed of the Serpent opposing his spiritual Declarations concerning God's becoming Flesh and his Sufferings by that Seed Seals them up to Death Eternal for they were for devising Devises against that Doctrine of his therefore he powereth forth these Imprecasions against them saing O Lord Jor. 18.23 29.22 forgive not their Iniquity neither blot out their Sin from thy Sight c. And then changing his Words he speaks in the Person of God saying Jer. 23.14 They are all unto me as Sodom So that we see that the Prophit's Curse is God's Curse Jer. 6.30 And further saith he The Saints shall call them Reprobate Silver This is Gospel Power the Lawes Curse penetrades down into the Grave Ezâ—k 32.24 26.27 29. the first Death but the Gospels Power and Curss raises it again from the first Death into a second and eternal Death being a living Death and dying Life And thus we see that every true Minister hath Power to set Life and Death before 〈◊〉 And that Ministry that hath not that Power Mark 16.16 John 3.18 is no true Ministry Now what a blind Guide is this that connot see these plain Scriptures but cries out Prove this by Scripture Woe be to all such as are led by these blind Guides Oh that all the Elect were but delivered from their Captivity and Bondage under their Formalities and might come to hear of Truth that their Joy and Peace might abound being the Seale of eternal Life But it is a wonderful thing that such Preachers as those who cannot Believe that any Prophet hath Power as aforesaid and yet they themselves shall take upon them to Judg Mans Faith and Condemn him for it so is it not a wicked thing to deny the Prophets and Apostles Power of the Keys of Heaven and Hell and yet presume to do that thing themselves whilst they acknowledg themselves but falible Men Doth not this Make you justly damned in your selves But it is no wondring at it for what saith the Scripture He hath blinded their Eyes John 12.40 they Stumble at Noon-Day They have all the Spirit of Slumber And now I shall return to Answer this Misrepresentor's false Reflections upon our main Principles yea such as the very Scriptures stands upon and on which eternal Life wholy depends In Page the 18th you bring in John Reeve sciteing him thus Saying God is not a Spirit but hath a Body Your Reflections are thus The Accusation The Scripture makes a Body and a Spirit Tow opposite things so that a Body is not a Spirit nor a Spirit a Body Eccles. 12.7 A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bone Luke 24.37 The Scripture calls God a Spirit but never a Body God is not in form of a Man but is invisible and no Man ever Saw him or can CHAP. VII ANSWER 1. Your Citation is false For John Reeve's Words are thus That God is not a Spirit without a Body By your false Citation you would have your worldly Disciples to think That he affirms That God is a Body without a Spirit But to come to the Point I must tell you That the Body and Soul are not Two contrary Things and if your Solomon Eccles 3.19 told you so with one Breath he tells you the quite contrary in another but many times wise Solomons Verse 20. do not know the meaning of their own Sayings Solomon was a wise Man 1 Kings 3.12 12 24 11.4 but the Wisdom which he craved and that God gave him was but natural so that Solomon's Writings are but the Operations of his natural Reason and from sum intrigate Sayings of his Father David So they are no Scripture for he was no Prophetical Man Matt. 12.42 2. Again If the Body and Soul are two contrary things as you say and in Oposition to each other then was the Body and Soul of Christ at variance with it self and in Oposition with each other and so two oposite Things If so then Christ's Body did not go to Heaven nor never would And belike you do not belive that Christ's Body is in Heaven any more than the Quakers and I know not how you should believe it because your God hath never a Body So Christ is none of your Fatherly God if he have a Body Can a Spirit live and subsist without a Body where do the Scriptures say That God is a Spirit without a Body Did not you learn your own Catechise or if you did have you forgotten doth it not teach saying to your Pupils That God is a Spirit Or a spiritual Substance most Holy Wise Just and Infinite Now if it be so that God hath a Substance then he must on necessity have a Body And if he be Holy Wise and Just he must have a Person to possess his ravishing Glory in and yet to be of uncompounded Purity Exod. 15.3 Is it not said That God was a Man of War that shews that he is in the form of a Man Also Christ told the Pharises Maâ—â— â—â— 17 Josh 9.1 3. That there was no Man perfectly Good but one which was God 3. Moreover if your Soul can be more Wise Just and Holy without your Body then turn it out of the Body and see what Holiness and Justice it can Act without its Body 1 Cor. 6.19 But the Truth of Scripture is That God had a Body and Person from all Eternity Râ—vel 21.23 1.14 10.1 a spiritual Body brighter than the Sun more clear than Christial and that is the Reason why Mortality cannot
THE Muggletonians Principles PREVAILING BEING An Answer in full to a Scandalous and Malitious Pamphlet Intituled A True Representation OF THE Absurd and Mischevious Principles of the Sect called MUGGLETONIANS WHEREIN The aforesaid Principles are Vindicated and proved to be infallibly True AND The Author of that Libel his Scandalous Title and Subject proved as False to Truth as Light is to Darkness And that he knows no more what the true God is nor what the right Devil is nor any true Principle or Foundation of Faith for all his great Learning he so much bosts of then those Jews that put the Lord of Life to Death For learned and taught Reason is but natural and so falls short of the Glory of God as will appear in the following Discourse Things that are despised hath God chosen to bring to nought Things that are 1 Cor. 1.28 By T. T. Printed in the Year of our Lord God 1695. The Epistle to the sober Reader Curtious Reader I Have here in this insuing Treatis Vindicated the Principles of them People called Muggletonians from that Aspersion and Slander that envious Reason hath cast upon it I being a Member of that Body and knowing those Principles to be Truth having lived in the Knowledg and Practice of them above this Thirty Years Now in that Providence should bring thee in to see this my Answer and shalt find some things very strange to thy Understanding And tho perhaps thou canst not apprehend it at first View for Truth yet if thou canst preserve thyself from dispising it thou dost well to thy own Soul Therefore keep thyself from Judging 1 Cor. 2.15 if thou wilt live in Peace because that none can judg of Spiritual Things but Spiritual Men And know this that the un-judging Man is easy and may afterwards come to Believe being in the time of a Commission and so with the Five wise Virgins bring Oyle in their Lamps before the Dore be shut Mart. 25.4 or Death aproach But to Contend against Truth held forth by a Commission from Heaven is an evident Sgn of Rejection for it will prove a Sin against the Holyghost Therefore I advise thee but to take care of these Two Things the one Not to break the Law the other Not to despise Prophesy because they are both Damnable And more People are Damned for breaking the Law than any other Sin for the Sin against the Holyghost is not committed in every Age but only in the time of a Commission so that more People have committed that Sin within this Forty four Years then hath done of Thirteen Hundred and Fifty Years before So that these Two things are to be shun'd the last most especially Matt. 12.32 Rom. 6. ult 1 Cor. 6.11 Ephe. 2.1 because there is no Sacrifise for that Sin but the other is Pardonable in the time of a Commission by having Faith in the Doctrin thereof and living free from the Breach of the Law after as to the Act. This is the Benefit of a true Ministry but no true Ministry no true Conversion from the Act of Sin Jer. 23.32 But the Elect are preserved from the Act of Sin and kept in innocency of Life at such Times and in such Places as Truth is not known by their generated Faith which leads them to that Threefold Precept of the Prophet Micha 1st To do Justice Mich. 6 8. 2dly To loue Mercy and 3dly To walk humbly with God This is the Substance of pure and undefiled Religion Stand fast here and be Happy So that from what thou findest here written thou upon sight thereof must examine thy own Heart and see how it stands in this Case if thou canst prove thy Election by Faith in the true God now he is made manifest it is well for thee and the Benifit will be thine but if thou canst not believe it yet if thou dispisest it not thou art not against us nor against thy own Soul neither are we against thee be of what Religion or Opinion thou wilt but shall leave thee as the Two Seeds shall find thee at the last Day And so wishing well to all sober Men but more especially to such as are not offended with these plain Truths touching the Lord Jesus Christ being that most High and Mighty God and Everlasting Father so abundantly exalted through the Scriptures of Truth as is now explained and fully declared by the Third and Last spiritual Commission which was to finish that sacred Mistery of God's becoming Flesh and now it is finished if thou canst Believe And he that hath Ears to hear let him hear FAREWEL THE MUGGLETONIANS PRINCIPLES PREVAILING CHAP. I. THe Church of God was never without opposition nor Truth without Hatred for in that there are two Seeds there must be a War entroduced because the Seeds are in opposition to each other being from two several Roots Faith and Reason Light and Darkness God and Devil so that the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent will hould continually Enmity Now you that have Accused the Muggletonians Principles for Impiouse and Mischevious let us come to the Tryal of it with you and of you and see how you durst be so bold as to make so false a Representation of the Muggletonians Principles that you should Intitle your Diabolical Pamphlet by the name of a True Representation of the Absurd and Mischevious Principles of the Sect called Muggletonians If you the Writer thereof had cast them Aspersions upon our Persons and not upon our Principles we would have borne it with silence but in that you have judged our Faith to be Blasphemous and Mischevious which we have received from the Bounty and Love of God therefore in dispising and condemning it you dispise and condemn our God so in this Case we must resist you and stand forth for the defence of our Faith And altho it should be where Satans Seat is yet we will not let go our Inheritance for our Inheritance lies in the Belief of our Principles wherein we have the Charter of Heaven sealed to us therefore we will not only vindicate those our Principles which you so wickedly Represent but will also through Grace seal to them with our Blood if your Law can do it and we be called thereunto For we are able to maintain those Principles for Truth therefore let us now come to the Tryal of Truth and let us set our Principles each against the other and them whose Faith and Wisdom is greatest let them hold the other under in Bondage for ever Sir You are come forth to Curse a quiet and still People who meddle not with your Affairs nor Magistrates Affairs We lift not up our Hand nor make use of a Sword of Steel to slay any Man We defraud no Man we wrong no Man neither are we for thrusting you out of your Earthly Possessions no not out of your Pulpits or Parish-Livings we will have none of them But on the contrary
Voice be never so true if it be alone and without the visible Evidence of working Miracles it is of no value As also you say it must be proved by Scripture without which you make it of no value c. CHAP. III. ANSWER 1. THis your way is to overthrow all Prophesy Numb 11.29 2 Pet. 1.19 1 Thes 5.20 You will tie God to worke Miracles or you will not belive him Either God must do as you will have him or he must not be God It is no wonder that you cannot distinguish between a true Voice and a false because God never chose you by Voice nor never will But how should you believe a vocal Voice when as your God has never a Tongue You have made it here plainly appear that you are of the same Spirit of those murthering Jews who bid Christ come down from the Cross and they would belive in him Matt. 27.42 True Doctrin without Miracles is to you most detestable 2. Again Isa 6.8 52.1 was not all true Prophets chosen by voice of Words nevertheless the Seed of the Serpent could never believe them Jer. 15.10 neither could the Priests or Rulers ever abide them and there was few of them but what was either Persecuted or put to Death 1 Kings 18.22 by the Magistrates and their National Priests There was 450. false Prophets mustred up against Too or Three true Prophets as Elijah and Micaiah and one of them must strike Micaiah one the Cheek as aforesaid and this Priest and Ahab's Son flung him down to bracke his Neck But Elijah the Representor of God's Person by Word of Power slew them all Zâ—ph 1.4 as a Tipe of the Destruction of all false Prophets and false Priests at the end of the World Such a Miracle you want When Isaiah Prophesied of his God's becoming Flesh Isaiah â—5 1 not one would believe him neither Priest nor People Therefore said he Lord who hath believed our Report 1 Kings 19. and Elijah said That all were gon after Baall Nor regarded Truth for that was ever hated I hate him said Ahab 1 King 22 8. for he never said Good of me but Evil It 's now as it was then unless we could bring Fire from Heaven as Elijah did there can be no Belief and it must be to destroy them it might Convince them but it would never Convert them Psal 78.32 If Miracles were wrought now what would it avail this bloody unbeliveing World they would but say as the Jews said of Christ Matt. 12 2â— That they were don by the Devil But what said Paul Toungues and Miracles are but for a Signe not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 John 10 4â— but Prophesy serveth for them that believe only John the Baptist a great Prophet and yet did no Miracle Thus you call in question the glorious Truths of God under pretence of John Reeves's Weakness as to outward Miracles that you might believe when as his Commission is all spiritual Now the Seed of Faith believes not because of the Miracles wrought by the Lord or his Prophets but in that they were of the Election and fore-ordain'd to believe for the saving of the Soul and as the Christian Dove waits for a Sign within him or from behind Reason 〈◊〉 30.21 for a Word saying This is the Way walk in it Even so on the contrary the carnal Serpent he requires a natural Sign before his Reason that may be seen with his outward Eye to make him believe spiritual Truths and therefore Reason Cries saying Where are you Miracles and where is your Scripture Evidence to prove it Prove by Scripture Now if this Witness should write nothing but what is exactly set down in Scripture then should they write nothing at all But always true Prophesy hath somthing new to deliver Jâ—r 31.22 Again Did the Prophets and Apostles write Matt. 15.32 2 Pet. 1 21. by Imitation or Study or by Inspiration only they might allude somtimes to the Prophets Words for Convincing of Gainsayers Furthermore the Scriptures in themselves are Words of pure Truth to all that spiritually dissern them and that is such as have the Life and Power of them in their own Souls John 6.63 but they that have not the inner Life and Meaning thereof they study the outward Letter by their Reason to find the Life and Meaning thereof Oâ—ed 6.8 John 7 52. and then this their Imagination the Child of study trumpits out it 's own Conceptions upon it This is the work and way of all the seven Anty Churches of Europe every one of them endeavouring to prove their Ministry by the Letter of the Scripture or by the Light within them but never a one from the glorious Voice of the everliving God without them And from hence though they Judg and Condemn each other for false whilst they are all false yet can they agree to Fight against God and his true Prophets by the Letter of the Scripture And you keep these Chests and Boxes of presions things but the Jewels and Treasure is quite gon and is a Stranger to you you know it not but do Despite unto it and put your own Imaginations into the Letter 2 Pet. â— 3 verse 3. 〈◊〉 â— 10 and so turn and wind it about like a Nose of Wax and make it speak for your Honour and Riches Oh! how profitable hath this Letter of the Scriptures been to Reprobate Preachers Wherefore then we who are called Muggletonians in scorn do boldly affirm That though you have got the Letter of the Scriptures and run away with it as a Dogg doth with a Bone yet none of its spiritual Declarations were ever written for your Instruction Rom. 15.4 Deut. 4.6 Jer. 9.23 but for the Instruction of the Seed of Faith For the Law only belongs to you and it may make you wise but not unto Salvation that 's the Property of the Gospel to the Seed of Faith the Seed of the Lord 's own Body for it is the Man of God that is made Wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 31.15 so that he must be a Man of God and have Faith in those Scriptures before he can be Wise unto Salvation because they are given by Inspiration of the holy Spirit and no Man can know them but by the same Spirit as those had that wrote them These things considered how then is it possible that you should apply Scripture to purpose when your Wisdom is not Inspiration 1 Cor. 4.20 but Education what will your Form do to you without the Power If you have the Words of God and not that Word which is God what good will your Word do you What Commission have you to preach to the People Christ tells you that you are but Thieves and Robbers climbing up to Heaven by Ordinances of your own and your own stollen Doctrine John 10.1 for you steal
the Words from your Neighbour the Seed of Faith and then Cry Thus saith the Lord. What do you bring as an Offering but what you have stolen from others do you delver anything but Trascriptions and Historical Notions the Repetitions of the Letter of the Scriptures and the Sentences of the antient Fathers 2 Cor. 10.16 there is the Line you boast in so that you do no more in ephect but rob the Dead to cloath the Living For have you so muth as opened the Meaning of one Text of Scripture in all your blind Pamphlet you have named the Words and then left them to Answer for them selves as I shall shew hereafter Again you further Object against their Doctrin of Infalibility in that they say They write by an unerring Spirit Now say you an Infalible Spirit implys the highest Certainty But say you his Book is Inconsistant with it self for Muggleton saith I am perswaded in my spirit and I do rather belive that there were Seven Hundred Thousands than Seven Thousands Revel 11.13 though the Revelation of John doth but express it but Seven Thousands Now say you to be perswaded and to belive a Thing to be so are Inconsistant to Infalibility for that admits no less than I am sure of it say you CHAP. IV. ANSWER THE Prophets did both of them write by an infallible and un-erring Spirit the Doctrine of them Six Principles the Knowledg of which John 17.3 Salvation doth depend upon but as to some perticular Points that are besides the Foundation there is not that Nessessity to be so positive But as to the Essential Points of Faith they were written by an un-erring Spirit and are infallibly True and against Men and Angels they affirm it and we as truly believe it to the great Peace and Satisfaction of our Minds For what is it that can satisfy the Mind of Man but Truth having the Seal of Life in it as every true Minister of God hath For every true Minister of God hath Power to set Life and Death before Men and can say Matt. 18.18 Now is fulfilled such and such Things Also he that is sent of God 1 Cor. 2.15 knoweth the Things of God and he that believeth in such a One knoweth the Things of God likewise But how can you judg of Infalibility that do not own your self Infalible but Falible What is Falible but a Lye and must a Lye be the Judg of Truth He that knoweth the Mind of the Lord he may Instruct from the Lord 1 Cor. 2.15 Vers 16. but he that hath not the Infalible Spirit doth from his lying Spirit prescribe Rules to God and would be God's Counsellor Now must such ignorant carnal sleshly Men as these Judg Infalibility that have nor own no other Spirit but what is Falible But to come to the Point and Charge against Lodowick Muggleton For although the Prophets and Apostles were Infalible as to all essential points of Faith yet as to other things that were circumstantial and not so essential in such things Prophets and Apostles may differ about them in their Experience and Judgment Thus Paul withstood Peter Gal. 2.11 and Reproved him and though Paul there gainsaid Peter yet in som other things Paul himself was not positive As for Instance Paul treating on Marriage 1 Cor. 7.6 he speaks as the Prophet Muggleton doth here and tells the Believers That it was his Judment That it were better for them not to Marry And further adds That he thinks â— Vâ—se 39.10 That this his Judment is right and that it was from the Spirit of God Now I presume by what you have said of these that had you been living then and had heard of Paul's talking of having the Infalible Spirit of God you would presently have judged him a false Apostle notwithstanding the Miracles he had done and that he had contradicted himself and that his thinking was inconsistant to his Infalibility and so was not to be Believed Again if you had heard that Paul Circumcised Timothy Asts 16.3.2 Gal. 5.2 and yet nevertheless told the Galatians That if they were Circumcised they could not be Saved I say had you been in those Days Would not you have said That Paul had Contradicted himself and the Scriptures both Matt. 28.2 Luke 24.2 and would not you also have judged the Four Evangelists to have Contradicted one another in several places for as you Judg and Condemn these so you would have Judged them for these were sent by Jesus Christ and Paul was sent by no other God Again in Page 9. you quote John Reeve saying that he saith That he is Indued with a divine Gift to write a Volom as large as the Bible and as pure a Language as that is without looking into any Book or having any real Contradiction in it Upon these Words you make the Reflection fallowing Your Accusation runs thus saying That if the purity of the Language be a Sign of Truth Then say you I am sure it is far from being either True or Infallible For said you they do not write true English nor good Sence as likewise it often fails in the propriety of Words in Concord and Connexion being without Method Purity or Elogancy c. CHAP. V. ANSWER SIR in Answer to this The truly Wise do know that God's Messengers never regard fineness of Speech but soundness of Matter Not so much the Original of Words as the Original of Things even such as they are moved too by the Holy Ghost and not such Language as you are moved too by your Educated Spirit of Reason which is the Angels nature Fallen But in that you have no where contradicted our Principle which shews what the Person and Nature of Angels are therefore there is no Occasion given here to Dispute it but to Return to the matter aforesaid Spiritual Truth or Gospel Life was ever plain and was never delivered with new quined or high-flown Words of Man's Wisdom 1 Cor. 2.1 This made an old learned Philosophical Bishop Judg so hard by the Revelation by John not thinking it John's because of the Rudeness of the stile Dionisius For said he I see his Greek not exactly uttered the Dialect and Phrase not observed I find him said this Bishop using barbarous Phrases And Paul was called a clouter of Skins a Cobler by the Philosophers and a Man of no Breeding And he acknowledged himself but rude in Speech though not in true Wisdom but he had taken some Learning up at the Foot of Gamalial but he laid it down there again as soon as the Spirit of Faith became his Teacher All his Wisdom that he now valued was the Knowledg of Christ Crucified and Risen again which his former Wisdom could not know Acts 22.3 but on the contrary was the Persecutor of him Again Spiritual Truth or Faith was ever brought in Naked and Simple and in poor Array But Falshood doth ever indeavor to
Attire herself in all her Bravery These Rascals said the Pharises are Accursed they know not the Law But said Paul 1 Cor. 12.8 That Learning of theirs will com to nought But as for Truth That guides to Heaven John 1.4 it needs no Gloss to make it seem better then it is for it hath Light enough in it self to shew it the way to Heaven The Scriptures were written in as homely a stile as Reeve's and Muggleton's were only wise Men in Reason have put them into a better Form and now boast of their litteral Accuteness whilst they are out of all spiritual Power and it must be so 1 Cor. 13.1 for he that hath learned nothing of Truth must Teach by an Eloquent Tongue of empty Words only For Sophisters who want substance of Truth must use-their Sophistry to corrupt Truth and adulterate the true Sence and then cover their own Errors with Paint And thus have you done in this Libel of yours for in Page 18. you affirm That John Reeve doth say pretending to quote his Words That the Substances of Earth and Water were from all Elements When as John Reeve's Woords were in that place That the Substance of Earth and Water was from all Eternity Thus you turn their good Sence into Nonsence and so bely them for by this your way of clowding their Words you would darken the Sence and make them appear the more Rediculous and to prevent a further Dispute in that Subject of the Substance of Earth and Water being made of nothing which you were not able to maintain and though you say you would confute that Principle yet passed it by and would say no more of it And so you let it drop Now as to your Elogancy of Speech your Tongues and Languages you bost so much of and you have need of it to paint your Errors as aforesaid we will leave this all to you Babal Builders Revel 18.31 as acquired by your Study and Learning it being your Trade which teacheth your Reason to play upon the Letter of the Scripture as upon a Harp being very mellodious to the outward Ear And by these means you Arts-Masters grow Rich and Honourable according to your skilful Merchandising of the Letter of the Scripture Revel 18.7 and Antient Fathers and Philosophers These must all be made to agree together for the Scripture must either make good Philosophy or else Philosophy must be brought to make good the Scripture and in your wise handling of this you grow Rich some Hundreds some Thonsands a Year equalling the great Men of the Earth and as to others of your Brethren though they be more inferior yet must they be called Masters although they be but Servants yet will they be well paid for no Penny no Paternoster So having found you all in the way of Balam to Bless and Curse for Mony which is your Souls chief Delight there I leave you to go on in your Trade and receive your Wages of Men here and of God hereafter Mâ—â—â— 3.7 Mâ—â—â— 3.11 John â—â—13 Jude 11. Pâ—â—l 3.19 Matt. 1.5 7.23 whom you pretend to serve then will you have a fall Reward A further Accusation against this Witness you have for affirming the Power of Sealing Men up unto Eternal Life and Death as they Receive or Dispise their Doctrin This you deny that any Man ever had this Power Saying That it is quite contrary to the Scripture and the Temper of the Gospel which is Love and then bid us prove it by Scripture CHAP. VI. ANSWER IT is confessed by us Titus 2.11 Ephes 1.5 that the Tmper of the Gospel is Love but then that Gospel and Eternal Love is but to the Seed of the Lords own Body and it must needs be so because that Grace is written in Faiths Nature and though that Seed did fall in Adam John 10.27 yet the Gospeâ— came to seek and to save that which was lost and fell in Adam for the Serpent's Seed never fell in Adam Mâ—â—k 2.17 nor never knew themselves lost So the Gospel belongs not to them but according to their Obedience to their own Law so they have the Blessing of the Law That the Rain may Rain and the Sun may Shine Mart. 5.45 and the Earth bring forth her Increase with long Life and Health And thus Christ which is the Gospel shewed his Love to that Seed when he wept over Jerusalem Luke â— 6 14.14 Now as he was Man he wept to see what temporal Judgments they would bring upon themselves But then on the other hand as he was God Maâ—t 22 13. Jâ—â—â— 6.7 Maâ—t â— 13. 11. 11.34 he rejoiced at their eternal Destruction for upon their despising those Declarations of his he thereupon pronounces upon them eternal Wrath calling such Divels Scrpents and a Generation of Vipers John 12.10 and that they should not escape the Damnation of Hell And John the Baptist pronounced the like Sentence and all the Apostles had the like Power after they had received their Commission As for that Saying of Christ's to them matt 5.44 To Bless and Curs not that was but when they were but private Believers as also it taught that Clemency as not to resist temporal Iujuries matt 16.19 But when they had received the Holy Ghost then was the Keys of Heaven and Hell Committed to their Charge Luke 10.16 and they had Power by them to Bind and to Loose to Remit and to Retain Sin Luke 20.23 What was that but Blessing and Cursing For the Blessing of a Commissionated Prophet or Apostle Psal 24.7 it opens the Gate of Heaven that is it opens the Heart in Love to that God that sent such a Message of glad Tidings of Salvation So on the Contrary the Curse of a Prophet it opens the Gate of Hell That is Acts 7.54 it opens the Heart in Envy Malice and Revenge and whose Heart that spiritual Key doth open no Man can shut and whose Heart they shut no Man can open Therefore it was that Paul said That they were the Saver of Life unto Life 1 Cor. 6.2 Heb. 10.29 Thess 5.20 unto those that believed them and the Saver of Death unto Death unto those that despised them Again Paul and the rest of the Apostles did declare That whoever denyed the Faith of Jesus or despised Prophesie or turned Apostate that there could be no Sacrifise for such Sins 1 John 3.8 5.16 2 Cor. 2.16 neither were such to be Prayed for but upon the contrary to be sealed up unto eternal Death All the Spiritual Declarations of the Prophets reach to the eternal State of Man for they pointing at their God's becoming Flesh and that upon his Death and Resurrection the eternal State of the Two Seeds of Faith and Reason takes being for the Resurrection of Christ gains Power to raise the Dead and give each Seed his Reward And therefore the Gospel
quite contrary and that they move in several Orbes and that each Orbe at so much distance from each other as the Astroligers affirm CHAP. XIV ANSWER 1. IS it not as good Sense and better to believe That the Sun Moon and Stars move all in one Firmament or Heaven as so many as Nine several Heavens as your blind Astrologers teach you And yet our fleshly Eyes can pierce through them all nevertheless every one of these must be so many Thousands of Miles beyond each other and this blind Opinion must be ratified forsooth because the Planets and fixed Stars have several Motions and therefore from hence you will have these several Heavens and these their differences in Motion must shew their difference in Hight and Substance 2. Because Saturn moves so sloly as to be near upon Thirty Years in finishing his Course through the Twelve Signs whereas the Sun finishes his in one Year Therefore from hence do you conclude that he must be of necessity Thirty times higher and Thirty times bigger than the Sun and Thirty times further to go nay and the next Orbe above Saturn to move so slow as to be Forty Thousand Years in finishing his Course Pray how many Millions of Miles is it to that Heaven or Primum Mobila One of your Mathematisians say it is One hundred and seventy Millions eight hundred and three Miles Is this your Wisdom in which you say we are not capable to answer you in I pray Is this good Pulpit Doctrin One of your Ministers that I did know whose Name was Mountney did mount so high as to affirm in the Pulpit to his Parishioners that it was so far to the Primum Mobila That if it were possible to fling a Millstone down from thence that it would be Seven Years before it would reach this Earth And yet in another Doctrin he taught That a departed Soul would be in Heaven in a Moment which is much higher than that primum Mobila And your reverend Doctor More before quoted must be remembred here for he Taught That a Star of the first Magnitude is Twenty thousand times higher than this Earth and Nine hundred thousand times biger than the Moon These are your rare learned Men I wonder how they could get a Line of that length to measure so far and yet to stand upon this Earth But let them go on for the time of their Sophestry is almost at an end But to conclude this Point as you upon our Principles of the Sun Moon and Stars aforesaid do call all Men to be Judges against us so we to retort your Language do call all sober Men to judge whether your Opinion of Sun Moon and Stars be not an Error of the greatest Magnitude and also whether you have done us Justice yea or nay And so much in answer to your first Query CHAP. XV. SIR your Second Query or latter part of your Pamphlet was to prove Lodowick Muggleton false from his Interpretation of the 11th Chapter of the Revelation of John But your Proof is but your Denyal for you do not so much as shew the meaning of one Word in all that Chapter If they could but assended up to Heaven in a Cloud as they had shewed how Moses and Jesus did all had been well enough even as the Jews if they could but have seen Elias to have come in Person as John Baptist did then they would have believed as they said So if you could but have seen these Prophets to assend up in a Cloud then perhaps you would have said you would have believed them But soft say you they are not the Two Witnesses for they cannot assend to Heaven for John Reeve is dead Besides say you they must have been put to Death by the Hands of Violence and then to have risen again and ascended to Heaven in the sight of all Men. This is all the Interpretation you can give of them which is none at all and all the Proof you have against them And as to Lodowick Muggleton's Interpretation of that Chapter you seem to be at a great Loss about it being astonished at his Words For say you I cannot tell how to reconcile his Words and from hence you fling all off to others saying Reconcile them as can for I cannot And what is the Difference and Matter that cannot be Reconciled Why say you he saith That they Two are the Two Witnesses and yet they say That the Body of those Two Witnesses are the Letter of the Scriptures and that the Witnesses or Letter was slain 1350 Years before and yet was slain in them again by the Beast out of the bottomless Pit To this I answer 1st Here you would have the Letter to be slain whenas it was the Spirit and Life of that Letter that was slain for the Life being gone therefore the Letter of the Scripture remained as a dead Body in regard there was none living that could give a true Interpretation of it Now this Spirit and Life was killed 1350 Years ago for the last of the Ten Persecutions did kill and root out all the true ordained Bishops or Ministers of the Gospel so that there was none left to give the Holyghost to others by laying on of Hands so then there was no quickening Power remaining until a new Commission was given which now is fulfilled at this Day for the same Spirit that gave the other Witnesses their Commission hath chose these to be Witnesses 3dly So that they having received that same Spirit of Life from God as the others had therefore it is they only that can and do Interpret the Letter of the Scripture for the Scripture is put into their Hands as the Priesthood was into the Hands of Aaron and they by their Interpretation do put Life into the Scriptures making it to stand upon its Feet in the Consciences of Men and Women with great Power both to the Seed of Faith and to the Seed of Reason John 6.63 15.36 to save and destroy for Words of Truth have Spirit and Life 4thly And as that Spirit of Reason did kill that Spirit of Life that did speak that Letter so that now that Spirit and Life is come into them again they will stand upon their Feet and kill the Spirit of Reason with a Death Eternal for there is now both Body and Life in the Scriptures and it is the Body of the Witnesses of the Spirit which is not a dead Body but a living Body now and so will remain to the end of the World 5thly Again whereas you do affirm That these Witnesses do declare that the Spirit and Life was killed in them by the Beast out of the Bottomless Pit in their Persecutors That saying of yours is utterly false and you did it malitiously on purpose that his Words might not be reconciled for Lodowick Muggleton did say That the Beast out of the Bottomless Pit made War against them and would have killed them if their Law could