Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	image_n	likeness_n	2,219	5	10.4385	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54177	The new witnesses proved old hereticks, or, Information to the ignorant in which the doctrines of John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton, which they stile, mysteries never before known, revealed, or heard of from the foundation of the world, are proved to be mostly ancient whimsies, blasphemies and heresies, from the evidence of Scripture, reason and several historians : also an account of some discoourse betwixt L.M. and my self, by which his blasphemous, ignorant and unsavory spirit is clearly and truly manifested, in love to the immortal souls of those few, who are concern'd in the belief of his impostures / by a living true witness to that one eternal way of God, revealed in the light of righteousness W.P.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1672 (1672)	Wing P1326; ESTC R15258	38,470	64

Earth behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him 1 Kings 8.27 2 Chron. 2.6 chap. 6.18 If the Earth on which dwells so many Millions of Men be not able to receive God as he is and in comparison of limiting him to any place suitable to such a Body as Muggleton saith he hath the very Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him Certainly this immence and infinite Beeing must be of a larger extent then the Proportion of a Mortal Man his own Creature Thirdly Who hath measured the Waters in the hollow of his hand and meeted out the Heaven with his Span and comprehended the Dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a Ballance Isa 40.12 He that cannot measure the Waters in the hollow of his Hand and meet out the Heaven with his Span and comprehend the Dust of the Earth in a Measure and weigh the Mountains in Scales and the Hills in a Ballance is not the true God but a Godd of mans stature can never do that therefore the true God is not such a one neither can such a one be the true God Fourthly To whom then will ye liken God What Likeness will ye compare unto him the Workman melteth a Graven Image and the Gold-smith spreadeth it over with Gold Have ye not known have ye not heard hath it not been told you from the Beginning have ye not understood from the Foundations of the Earth It is he that sits upon the Circle of the Earth and the Inhabitants thereof are as Grass-Hoppers that stretches out the Heavens as a Curtain and spreads them out as a Tent to dwell in Isa 40.18 19 21 22. In this Passage is a most pregnant Overthrow of this vain Opinion 1. That God of whom man can make a Likeness is not the true God but such a one is Muggleton's therefore not the true God 2. If God was of mans figure and stature then Gold-smiths were able to make his Likeness but this the Scriptures utterly deny and ask what likeness will ye compare unto him therefore God is not in the bodily shape of a man 3. God by his Prophet disdaineth all such vain Conceits and lest any should think so meanly of him he gives his own Character Have ye not heard hath it not been told you from the Beginning it is he that sitteth on the Circle of the Earth and to whom the Inhabitants thereof are as Grass-Hoppers who stretches out the Heavens as a Curtain and spreads them out as a Tent to dwell in Fifthly God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth John 4.24 If God be a Spirit he is either a finite or an infinite Spirit a finite he cannot be and be God therefore an infinite one If God be an infinite and immence Spirit which are tearms reciprocal then not a Body of a little more then five Foot high as blasphemous ignorant and sottish Reeve and Muggleton darkly imagine but the only wise and invisible God is that infinite Spirit therefore not confin'd to any bodily shape Sixthly For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh for sin condemned sin in the Flesh Rom. 8.3 But made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men Phil. 2.7 By the likeness of sinful Flesh and was made in the likeness of men we understand and grant Christ's taking upon him not only a shape of a man but the Flesh and Blood of a Virgin the Question will then be this Whether Christ had this shape before he took it If he had he took it after he had it which is absurd if not he was before he had it and if he was before he had it either he was like his Father or he was not if not then not his Son if he was then because the Scripture declares him to have taken upon him the likeness of a man which supposeth him to have had a Beeing before he took it God is not in the likeness of sinful Flesh nor made in the likeness of men but is the divine immortal Substance of which Christ was the express Image before he took upon him the form of a Servant or was made in the likeness of men which take notice are both joyned together as Expressions of his Condiscension as the following verse also shews and in being found in the fashion of a man as being a new and uncouth thing to him he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death c. This was in the day he took upon him the form of a Servant and likeness of Man making himself of no Reputation and not whilst he was in the form of God when he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God In short If that only makes equal with God which is found in the form of God then that which is in the form of a Servant and in the likeness of men is not in that state equal to God and if that be so as it is if Scripture be true certainly there is ground to believe that Reeve and Muggleton are not a little out of the Way in asserting That God's Form is the Pattern or Image man's Body was made by But here I expect to meet with an Objection that it may be fit to remove as that only one which can carry any colour of an Answer with it Object Most of these Scriptures especially out of the Prophets onely intend to shew God's Soveraign Power and not that he is not a Peson as I assert him to be Thus far Muggleton and his Company I Reply All Scriptures either import a literal or a mystical sense and either would serve us against this false Witness if he sayes they should be construed mystically I will tell him that he must give us the same liberty in that place to do the like Let us make man after our own Image for they only collect from that Passage God's Image by man's likeness but in many of the places urged by me those Members which in a litteral sense denote a Body like to man's are particularly mention'd We will never allow him to allegorize the more litteral and litterize the more allegorical if the one must be litteral let the other be so too especially there being more ground for it To Conclude if he will interpret God's Hands and Arms and Span to signifie his Power as is most true then will I also explain God's Image to be Holiness which is also true But if he will have it that because God made man after his Image and that man has an Head Eyes Nose Mouth Ears Hands c. therefore God has such too I will infer because the Scriptures say He span'd the Heaven with his Right hand and rid upon the Circle of the Earth That he really and bodily did

THE New Witnesses PROVED OLD HERETICKS OR Information to the Ignorant in which the Doctrines of John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton which they stile Mysteries never before known revealed or heard of from the Foundation of the World are proved to be mostly ancient Whimsies Blasphemies and Heresies from the Evidence of Scripture Reason and several Historians ALSO An Account of some discourse betwixt L.M. and my self by which his Blasphemous Ignorant and Unsavory Spirit is clearly and truly manifested in love to the immortal Souls of those Few who are concern'd in the belief of his Impostures By a Living true Witness to that one Eternal Way of God revealed in the Light of Righteousness W.P. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these Reeve and Muggleton also resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was 2 Tim. 3 8 9. Printed in the Year 1672. TO THE READER READER Amongst the many strange Pretentions that have been made to Religion and the Authors and Abettors of variety of Sects through every Generation from the most primitive Christian Times there has not appeared though not a less formidable yet a more compleat Monster on the Stage of Controversie and Opinion then John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton Brethren and Associates in the Blackest Work that ever fallen Men or Angels could probably have set themselves upon What many Ages singly were infested by we are assaulted with at once and as if the scattered Limbs of Heresie had rallied and re-enforced themselves for a new Combate no sooner was the Glorious Truth appearing then they were ready to make their utmost Opposition either by their Enchantments to delude the Souls of some or through their unparalel'd sottish Folly to scandalize the World in general against all Religion as ridiculous and amongst others the true as also Fabulous Yet the Lord God of Eternal Power whose Thoughts and Wayes are not as Mortal Men's but Infinite and Almighty like himself having decreed the Redemption of the fallen Souls of Men by the Illumination of their Understandings and Quickening of their Minds dead in Trespasses and Sins by the living powerful Operation of is own Eternal Spirit of Holiness did appear in so great Glory and Majesty that those Foggs and Mists which began to over-spread the Earth were soon scattered and the Everlasting Light rise and hath effectually shined forth unto the Convincement and Conversion of Thousands from the Ungodliness of this present Evil World and the Fruitless Religions that are profest therein to live a Sober Heavenly Righteous Life and Conversation But Alas Some few have strayed by the Way One hither and Another thither for want of that Subjection and Holy Watch they ought to have lived in unto the Blessed Living Truth of God And as many Snares have been presented to Delude so amongst others their Sottish Imaginations have not been without the power of a Temptation and too effectual upon some the Lord knoweth which though their Number be but very small yet the Concernment of their Immortal Souls is great For who living that have tasted of the sure Mercies of God and enjoyed of the Reward of Faithfulness to the Truth but must needs Pitty Sorrow and Lament on their behalf some that might have run well and would not others that began to do it and Satan hindred No sooner was Adam and Eve made sensible of the Blessedness of their Innocent State then the Serpent endeavoured to beguile them How by Preaching Righteousness Holiness Watchfulness and Godly Fear as without which none should ever see the Lord No nothing less but by Idle Dreams Lucifican Thoughts and Exalted Imaginations above the lowl● Awe and Fear they ought to have lived in towards their Almighty Creator And thus in some measure hath it faired with a few unhappy Souls that have been beguiled by these Imposters I shall not altogether make it my Business to confute his Tenants but since they more then once with an intollerable Pride boast of these things as New Revelations and challenge the whole World to disprove them and upon this single credit it is that their credulous Adherents are so mightily perswaded of their Patrons Sincerity and Infability it being their first Lesson at entrance To abandon all Scripture or inward Witness And that Muggleton to my knowledge in his Discourses and otherwise makes it his brag That he not only knows more then all men ever did or shall know to Eternity but that the Doctrines Reeves and he say they are deputed to declare by vertue of an immediate oral Commission from God himself are such divine Revelations as were never known to Men or Angels before them And consequently since their Followers have nothing for a Proof besides their bare Assertion which is most arrogant and false for they deny all inward Witness It will appear both reasonable and necessary that by an external Judge and Witness they should be tryed and if upon their Arraignment at the Bar they be found only to have patcht up old Phantisms together and published them under the Name of Transcendant Spiritual Treatises Divine Looking-Glasses and the like I hope they will be judg'd by every sober Person to be both horrible Imposters and their Commission to be a meer Counterfeit THE New Witnesses Proved OLD HERETICKS c. I now proceed to perform what has been promised by most Undeniable Proof First REeves and Muggleton declare as a great Secret to the World That God is not an Infinite Spirit in every Place at all Times contrary to the Scriptures which say He measures out the Heavens with his Span nor can the Heaven of Heavens contain him but against men and Angels and by Authority from the holy Spirit to use their own words God is but in the shape of a man and that man in respect of his Body is the Image of God Trans Spirit Treat p. 15. Deu. Look Glass p. 3 4. That this is against Scripture we prove First There is none like to the God of Jeshurun who rideth upon the Heaven in thy Help and in his Excellency on the Sky The Eternal God is thy Refuge and underneath are the Everlasting Arms Deut. 33.26 27. If the God of Jeshurun be the true God and none be like to him then cannot mans bodily shape be the Likeness of the true God consequently if Muggleton's God● be in the likeness of mans bodily shape he is not the True God because he is not that God of Jeshurun which none is like unto Again If the Almighty God were but of the dimention of a middle statured man how could he be said to ride upon the Heavens and the Sky and to have his Everlasting Arms under a People many of whom being singly bigger then himself for by Muggleton's Principles We are still to keep to the Litteral sence Secondly But will God indeed dwell on the

so span the Heavens with a great Hand and rid with a mighty Body upon the Circle of the Earth which how ridiculous and false soever it is is as true as Reeve's or Muggleton's Conceit Thus far indeed they would be in the right by such a Consequence That Almighty God would have a Body but they would grosly lye in the dimensions of it who say 'T is no bigger then a middle statured man Thus much If not too much upon this piece of old vain Anthropomorphitism That this idle Opinion is against that Understanding which God has given Men to judge of the Difference of Things we also prove First If God were a Person of mans stature it would destroy his Ubiquity or Omnipresence which is one of his most divine Properties rightly attributed to him For how is it possible so inconsiderable a Body can be at all places at one and the same time by which to see and understand all things or to administer Strength and Comfort to his scatter'd Flock throughout the World Secondly If they would say he is present by his Spirit as read Reeve's Epistle to his Divine Looking-Glass I affirm against all Muggletonians upon Earth That then not that Body but that Omnipresent Spirit is the truly in infinite God Thirdly But I would fain know how God and his Spirit can be divided or separated Can any man be truly such whose spirit is absent from him What Body is a living Body without a spirit any more than Faith can be living without Works How then can God's Body no bigger then a Mortal Man's be contained in Reeve's and Muggleton's conceited Heaven and his Spirit every where Where God's Spirit is God is he can never be divided from his own Life and Spirit for God is that Spirit or that Spirit is God they are synonimously or equivolently to be taken This the Apostle believed when he told the Athenians That God was nigh to every one of them and in him they lived moved and had their Beeing Fourthly How was it possible for Reeve to hear God speak with a Voice of words from beyond the Stars as one Body speaks to another and no Body hear besides himself nor the visible Firmament or Air to receive any Alteration or Disposure as ever was when Voices of Words have been uttered whether to Moses or of Christ or otherwise If any say It was a spiritual Voice such talk sottishly no Carnal Ear can hear a Spiritual Voice as Reeve himself teacheth page 47. T.S.T. concerning which something may be fitly hinted else-where Fifthly But I would add from their wicked Principles That if Man be God's Image in reference to his Body then because Reeve and Muggleton declare that a select number of men's Bodies and Souls are pre-ordain'd to be eternally damned therefore God has decreed his own Image to everlasting Vengeance and that to glorifie himself too which one Horrible Impiety I desire all to weigh and then there needs no farther undertaking to his Confutation That this OLD and also Exploded HERESIE I prove This wonderful dark Secret is to be read in Theodorus of Heresies the 4th Book and 10th Chapter where he speaks of one Audaeus who lived in Coelosiria in the time of Constantius the Emperor and grounded his Conjecture upon these words Let us make man after our Image Also several Monks inhabiting Aegypt conceited the God that made Heaven and Earth to be no bigger then a Man Of which Opinion with Muggleton was one Theaphilus of Alexandria they were called Anthropomorphits as may at large be seen in Eusebius Pamphilus his 6th Book and 36th Chapter also in Socrates Scholasticus his six and seven Books this was about the Year after Christ 403. and One thousand two hundred sixty nine years since Secondly THeir second Secret is That God did not create the Heavens and Earth out of Nothing but the Substance was with God from Eternity T.S.T. p. 12. That this also inconsistent with SCRIPTURE we prove First In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void Gen. 1.1 2. If they were created before they were formed as saith the place then Creation and Formation are not one and the same thing as Reeve and Muggleton assert in their Transcendent Spiritual Treatise p. 16. so that either the Authority of Scriptures must be denyed or else Creation is first a bringing forth of the Chaos or rude Substance and Formation the Disposition of it into such Parts and Designation unto such Ends or Services as that all wise Creator might think most befitting his great Work Enough might be said on this one particular to confute all with whom the Scriptures remain of any force Secondly Hearken unto me O Jacob and Israel my called I am he I am the first I also am the last my Hand also has laid the Foundation of the Earth Isa 48.12 13. To be first and to have laid the very Foundation of anothers Beeing supposeth that thing neither to be before it nor so much as in time equal with it and therefore denotes priority and superiority Wherefore thus I argue If God was before so much as the Foundation of the Earth was laid then was neither the Earth nor Foundation of it from Eternity with God But the Text affirms That God was first or before the very Foundation was ever laid therefore neither the Earth nor Superstructure as to its Form nor yet its Foundation or first material Principle was Co-eternal In short Nothing can be said to create any thing that is equal in time with it because such Creation supposeth the one to receive its being from the other and since God gave its Foundation or first bottom the very material Principle it follows there could be no Co-eternity betwixt them Thirdly And the Word was God All things were made by him John 1.1 13. If all things were made by him then both Heaven and Earth because they are part of all things were made by him but the place says all things or whatever has beeing were made by him therefore a●● Co-eternity of Earth or Heaven with the Everlasting God is excluded and refuted To this answers that Passage of the Apostle Paul in the Acts God that made the World and all things therein c. Fourthly To c●nclude this Head For by him were all things created and 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 things and by him all things c●n●●st Collos 1 16.17 And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands Heb. 1.10 That which had a Beginning which was made and which was and is upheld by another neither can have been contemporary nor co-eternal with that from which it received its Beeing but that did the Heaven and the Earth and from Almighty God as the place proves Therefore not Co-eternal with him Nor can their idle shift any wayes secure them from the dint of these Scriptures nor the Arguments built

upon them viz. making is fashioning so God made the Heavens and the Earth as a Carpenter makes a Door or a Chest he fashions it of Wood but he does not make the Wood A Distinction fitted for Bodlam then men pretending to be in their Wits Can any rationally think that when God is said to lay the Foundation of the Earth and to make the Heavens and all that live therein that he only fashioned them up Who made the Trees Plants Beasts Fowls Fishes and rational Creatures Do they strain at a Gnat and swallow a Cammel Can they think that it was harder to Almighty God to create out of Nothing the more inanimate or Lifeless part of Heaven and Earth then to compose that variety of excellent Creatures and to infuse that great Spirit and Soul by which they are respectively instincted or acted But how pertinent his Distinction is betwixt fashioning and making we will manifest by that remarkable Passage to our purpose in Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Chap. 2. And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself c. Was Christ a real Man or not if not then Reeve and Muggleton's Fleshly Mortal Notion of the Immortal Son of God falleth to the Ground if a real man then to be fashioned may import to be and the Fashion of a thing passeth for the Beeing of a thing Of what value now their Distinction is they may consider if they please But this Opinion is also against REASON First It is the nature of what is Eternal or from all Everlasting to be Infinite Vnalterable and Almighty for it oweth no Original or Preservation to another and is equivolent in all other Properties to Eternity Now where there is not proportion it is highly to be suspected That there is no such thing at all but is a meer Chimera and real only in a Fiction Secondly That there is no resemblance is manifest the whole visible World is full of Time inconsistent with Eternity as having Beginning and End the Heavens have their set Motions the Earth her distinct Seasons in which are various Revolutions and both filled with divers Temporary Agitations and Motions Therefore it is impossible that Heaven and Earth could have been from Eternity which are so filled with and made up of all the Instances of Time and Mutation for should they The Sun must alwayes shine the Rain descend the Tide flow the Winds blow the Winter last and every Alteration that is in Time be perpetual Thirdly It is utterly impossible that Temporal Beeings could receive their sustenence and growth from what is by nature Eternal there being as great Contrariety at least Difference between them as there is betwixt visible and invisible spiritual and carnal things Fourthly Such as is the Food such should the Life be now if this visible World be eternal then the Food that springs from it should nourish to a Life as Eternal as that World which does produce it Nay since mans Body was made of the Earth we might well infer That mans Body as so made is Eternal and if Eternal as such not Mortal which Experience tells us is an idle Tale. But let this suffice at present But that this Conjecture had other Founders then Reeve and Muggleton I prove and that by two Instances Augustine sayes That there were several that affirmed That the Water was not made by God but was Co-eternal Next a certain Sect called S●luciani taught That the substance of the Creation or whereof the World was made was not made by God but Eternally with God then no Creature and then God as may at large be read in the said Augustine's Book of Heresies this Heresie raigned about Anno 300. after Christ To say nothing of that known Philosopher Aristole who was sometimes Idolator sometimes Athiest Thirdly THe third Secret which only was revealed to Reeve and Muggleton if we will believe them is That the Soul of man is generated or got by the Man and Woman with the Body and that the Body and Soul are inseparable That this is contrary to SCRIPTURE Testimony I prove First And the Spirit to God that gave it Eccle. 12.7 No Carnal Generation can bring forth a pure Spirit External Matter producing only External Matter of its own kind But the soul of Man is a spirit as the words exprest in Reeve's and Muggleton's own T.S.T. p. 44. Therefore no man gets the soul or spirit of a man when he generates the Body Secondly That which returns to God came from God but the soul of every man returns to God and consequently came from him I omit mentioning more Scriptures because the following Principle being a Consequent of this what I prove there is proved here namely The Immortality of the soul against the Atheistical Assertion of the soul's mortality with the body For where there is no Corruption there could be no proper Generation and if the soul be Immortal it was not descended of Mortal Race or begotten of elementory visible matter That this is against all Right UNDERSTANDING I prove First Such as is the Soul such must that be which produceth it but it is Spiritual Now that which generates the Body of Man being only and meerely visible Matter it cannot produce or generate an intellectual Soul or Spirit Secondly If Man got the Soul then would that Soul be as well the Image of the Father as the Body and partake as intirely of the Father's Nature and Disposition in all respects But Experience shews us That Sober Parents have Wild Children and Religious Children Debaucht Parents therefore Parents do not generate the Soul Thirdly If Soul and Body be inseparably generated then the Sexes as well belong to Souls as Bodies the which as it is absurd so would there be Men and Women in that very distinction to all Eternity And who ever read of She Souls or Female Souls Fourthly If Soul and Body were intermixtly and inseparably generated by Man then in all Anatomies it were no more difficult to find out the Soul then any other Part and in case of opening or dissecting of Living men as I have at the Vniversity seen living Beasts by Anatomists it would not be impossible but rationall that one should behold the very Thoughts Purposes and Intents of such Mens Hearts and Souls But because this were most vain we shall conclude The Soul is not generated with nor inseparable from the Body but of an Immaterial Nature That this is no newer then the rest and was esteemed Heresie in the Primitive Times I will Evidence There was a Sect called Lucifrians from one Lucifer of Sardania and the Tertullianists who held That the Soul was transfused by generation from the Parents to their Children and that the Soul is of the Flesh and Substance of the Flesh of which read Socrates in his 3d Book and 7th Chapter also Augustine of Heresies and Theodorus his 3d Book and 5th Chapter about Anno 350. Fourth THE Fourth sublime Mystery of those

There is nothing Mortal that is not Elementary or composed of visible Matter or Substance but the Body is that only part of Man which is so composed And consequently the Body is the onely Mortal Part of Man Secondly That only can be subject to visible and material Generations Agitations Motions Privations Diminutions Increases Alterations Operations and Corruptions which is of a Visible Elementary and Corporal Substance for an Invisible none ever saw subject to any one of them but of such is the Body and not the Soul by Reeve and Muggleton their own assertion of Man's Nature to be of the Faith which is God's Nature Therefore the Body is subject onely to Generation and Corruption and not the Soul That the Soul is not of the same Nature of the Body I thus prove Thirdly That which is intellectual which in its pure Nature knows comprehends governs and orders all visible elementary and corporical Beeings and yet is Invisible Spiritual Rational and Internal as is manifest from its Heavenly Meditations its secret Thoughts its serious Reflects acute Memory and profound Reasonings about the Causes and Effects of all things cannot but be of a Nature more refined exellent and noble then to fall under the same Generations Revolutions and Corruptions those inferior visible Beeings are subject to But such is the Nature of Man's Soul as daily experience manifests to all that will not wilfully Blind their Eyes therefore though Man's Body be Mortal as being of that grosser Substance and elementary Nature yet his Soul is of an immortal Nature and can receive no Alteration of Being by any that may or can happen to the Body which is but a Well Organz'd and disposed Instrument for the Soul to exert or put forth it self by according to the good Pleasure of God and that creaturely Prudence necessary to be eyed in and about all Worldly Concernments Thus much and enough to this Point That this is as Gray-headed as Atheism we may suppose and that it is not only their only Revelation I prove John the 22th Bishop of Rome and some in the Countries of Arabia held this very Doctrine affirming That Souls and Bodies dyed and rose together of which read Origen and Eusebius Pamphilus lib. 6. chap. 36. nor can any be ignorant that converse with Story that long before since and at this day where Reeve and Muggleton were never thought on this wretched Opinion is but too rise Anno 249. 1423. years since Fifthly BUt their most admirable Secret of all is That God descended with his Body in the shape of a Man and dissolved himself into the Virgin 's Womb and so brought forth himself a Man who after he had lived to such an Age was Crucified and really dyed or ceased to be either God or Man for Three Dayes and Nights That this is in three Paticulars highly inconsistent with Scripture I prove First God did not so transmute his divine Nature into Fleshly Mortal Nature 1. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day Then said the Jews unto him Thou art not yet Fifty Years old and hast thou seen Abraham Jesus said unto thems Verily verily I say unto you Before Abraham was I am John 8.56 57 58. If that which was before Abraham and yet then in beeing the same was God as none that own the Scriptures do deny then because that outward visible Body was not before Abraham that was not God The first all grant the second none reasonably doubt for Christ was crucified about the Three and Thirtieth year of his Life And then I hope none will believe the Eternal Deity was Transmuted or Transubstantiated into that Visible Body for so Christ's Answer would not have been true for that Mortal Body which say Reeve and Muggleton was the Eternal God had a Beginning and was not of that Age the Jews said it to be 2. Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed forever Rom. 9. 5. If Christ as concerning the Flesh was not God as the Text manifestly implieth by a Distinction betwixt his Appearance in that Body of Flesh and his Divine Essence or Beeing with their Originals then that fleshly Body was not God or the Eternal God was not Substantially Transmuted into that Fleshly Body Secondly Neither could Elias be God's Deputy to transact in his stead the Affairs of Heaven during that Journey which these Impostors affirm God to have taken from any Scripture Evidence 1. For my Father is greater then I John 14.28 And he kneeled down and prayed Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from Me nevertheless not my Will but thine be done Luke 22.41 42. If Elias was that Father which Christ spake of and prayed and cryed to as Reeve and Muggleton assert then either he that cryed to him was not God but Elias really God and so they both contradict their own Doctrine who tell us That he that was born of the Virgin and dyed on the Cross was the Everlasting Father or else that which needeth and cryeth for help of another was greater then that which was able to succour and deliver it which how absurd it is let all sober men judge therefore he to whom he cry'd and pray'd in all Streights and whom he had affirmed to have received all his Doctrine and Commission from and who was greater then all was the only true God and not any glorified Creature For God could not leave Elias his Deputy and not leave him his Power which if he did be left Himself since without his Almighty Power he were not God Secondly I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and revealed them unto Babes The Hour is come glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie thee And this is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And now Father glorifie thou me with the Glory which I had with thee before the World began John 17.1 3 5. On this place I raise these three brief Arguments 1. If Elias was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ nor Lord of Heaven and Earth but a created Being as all confess then it was not unto Elias that Jesus returned that Heavenly Thanksgiving but to his own Father greater then all who is Lord of Heaven and Earth 2. If he to whom he prayed be that only true God and that to know him and Christ Jesus whom he hath sent be Life Eternal then was it not Elias to whom he prayed because all grant that he is not the only true God nor did he so love the World as to send his only begotten into the World that through believing in him it might obtain Eternal Life This most plainly knocks down all Conceits of a Deputed God that Christ should pray unto because supposing that such a thing could be yet he could not be that only true

his Imaginations called himself Moses and Aaron his Brother as Reeves called himself and Muggleton T.S.T. see Epiphanius Haeres 57. By all which Reader I am not without hopes but it does appear how Falsly and with what Treachery these Persons have dealt with poor silly People who not being satisfied in what they did know haye pin'd their Faith on the sleeves of such as told them things they did not know and so have been given up to believe a Lye For what is more evident then that in this very Tryal he and his deceased Colleague are found guilty of Error Treachery and great Deceit Therefore Reader delay not to passe the Just Sentence of Impostor and Counterfeit upon them and their Commission who would raise to themselves a New Sect out of the Ruins of old Heresies and that under the Pretence of Choice Revelations wherein there is no Proof beyond their bare Assertions and to make them pass forge an Authority from Heaven which loaths both them and their Lyes to back and recommend them as unheard of Mysteries O! sell not thy Reason who ever thou art enslave not thy Judgment nor rob God's Light and Grace of its Office to guide and teach thee in the Denial of those Evils that are to be forsaken and in Imbracing whatsoever ought to be followed Bring not thy self under the Power of an Ignorant Arrogant Blasphemous and Sottish Man but remember that God Almighty who cannot lye hath promised that in the last dayes He would be the Teacher of his People by his Spirit of Truth and where is the Habitation of the most-High but in the Contrite and Humble Hearts of Men For whasoever may or can be known of God is manifested within who having illuminated all and given to every Man a Talent into it Reader have thy Mind retired and wait to have it subject thereunto and thou shalt come to know him whom to know aright is Life Eternal But as I have plainly shown their abominable Cheat in obtruding Old Fables for New Revelations upon People whereby I have discharg'd the first part of my Promise So for a Confirmation of my Judgment concerning Muggleton and to accomplish this abridg'd Discourse take my following Relation with the same impartiallity that I give it thee I Have been twice to visit Lodowick Muggleton and at each time I staid too long to repeat all or the very words which passed betwixt us yet shall I faithfully write something of the matter and words as neer as I at present do remember them P. Art thou the last Witness that ever shall be Muggleton Yes and there shall never be another P. Who sent thee M. God spoke to John Reeve and he spoke to me P. Is that all thou hast to produce only J. R's word for it to this he avoided Again P. Thou sayest God did not create the Earth and the Heavens he only fathom'd them making them Co-eternal with God but Moses said he did Let me see a Bible M. Moses put the Cart before the Horse This I bore for the next Question 's sake P. Paul the Apostle who also wrote by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost saith God created all things or made them and the World is a great part of all things besides if it was before he made it in this sense must it not be God since nothing which is uncreated can be a Creature M. If Paul were living I would have reproved him for that Come not here to Dispute but Believe I say it that 's enough P. Canst thou reprove the Holy Ghost for he spake by it M. Yes P. That 's Blasphemy besides if thou sayst it must I therefore believe it because thou sayst it At this he grew inraged and but for an Acquaintance by and a Friend of his I had doubtless been Curst at that time The next time I came wich a Friend in company I found him sitting by the Chimny Corner quaffing with some of his Followers and Benefactors as what we saw before us did Evidence My first salute was thus P. How is it Lodowick methinks thou lookst with thy old thred-bare black Suit like a sequestered begging Priest M. I am a Priest P. Art thou Of what Order M. The Order of Aaron P. Aaron where be thy Bells then M. I have them in the Mystery P. Mystery for shame don't talk of a Mystery for there was some such thing that did belong to that Order things were altogether External Typical and Figurative Methinks this were enough to show that thou art no wayes concern'd in any Christian Commission who art not a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck but Aaron whose Priesthood is at an end as said the Apostle to the Hebrews chap. 7. so that thou hast Vnchristian'd thy whole Commission and brings it under the Law of a Carnal Commandment and therefore has no Part nor Portion in the Power of an Endless Life as saith the same Apostle He interrupted M. Have a care Life and Death 's before thee therefore chuse Life and live c. P. But Lodowick Thou pretendest to know the Dimensions of God how high may he be M. Betwixt your Height and his meaning a Friend then present P. O Abominable Well L. Muggleton God will blast thee forever thou Presumptuous and Blasphemous Wretch If thou turnest not from the Wickedness with much more M. Thou shalt be Damned God has decreed thou shalt be Damned thou art of the seed of the Serpent P. Why then didst thou set Life and Death before me just now saying thou hadst more mind I should be saved then any of the Quakers if I am ordain'd to be damn'd Is it not great Deceit to exhort a man to chuse what he cannot have though he bid for it and to refuse that which he is unable to avoid But Muggleton I will not say that I serve such a God no my God never ordained thee to be Damned whether thou dost Well or Ill this destroyes all Rewards and Punishments and makes Evil and Good unavoidable M. I would not give a Pinn for that God which would save us both now I have Damn'd thee P. Why dost thou talk of a God for thou sayst Thy God can dye did the Immortal God ever cease to be M. I would not give a Rush for that God which can't dye P. I say thou and thy God shall to the Pit from whence ye came where is Death and Darkness forever how can God cease to be and yet be God since if he ceast every thing that remained in being must have been greater since below ceasing to be is nothing But suppose this Nonsense and Blasphemies how rose he again M. God left Elias with Power P. Then Elias was greater then God for that which raiseth is greater then that which is raised but if the Power never dyed the Power was God and that which dyed not God O Hellish Impudence and Blasphemy O Muggleton thy End will be Destruction M. W. P. I say thou

that is If his Carnal Eye could never see Him because of the Spirituality of the Commission his Carnal-Ear could never hear him for one and the same Reason therefore all a Counterfeit Fourthly Suppose he had seen the Glory of God's Person within him yet that had been impossible unless God's Person had been within him since his Person and his Glory are inseparable as he largely affirms D.L.G. p. 106. and if so how manifest a Contradiction is it to several places of his Writings particularly this The Spirit or Person of Christ may fitly be compared unto the Face of the Natural Sun you may know that the Natural Spirit of the Sun is so ●●●●●dingly Fiery Glorious that no created thing that hath Natural 〈◊〉 is capable of its in-dwelling Brightness but it s own Body or Face only If this be true then Reeve could not behold the Glory of God's Person within him Fifthly But let us suppose that by Reeve's Principles the Glory of God's Person may be beheld yet it is highly against them that it should be beheld within for if the Body and Soul of man are one indivisible and inseparable Substance as he says they are then can there be no Invisible Eye distinct from that which is Carnal to behold an Invisible Glory and if so then could Reeve never see God's Glory Invisibly within him and consequently he had us Commission but out of his own Mouth he is prov'd a Lyar Impostor I shall conclude the whole with Queries to L. Muggleton and his Companions Ten Queries Propounded IF J. Reeve and L. Muggleton were the two True Last Witnesses mention'd in the Revelation how comes it that they bear not the same Testimony when risen that was born before the slaying of the Witnesses since they were not other Witnesses that rise then those that were slain and consequently the Testimonies no more to vary then the Witnesses themselves II. If they be the same Witnesses should they not have Prophesied 1260. Dayes that is Years and have been slain Three Dayes and an Half in spiritual Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was crucified and then have risen from the Dead III. How did they Prophesie so many years How were they Visible Witnesses slain in spiritual Sodom Egypt where Christ was crucified Does not this show the Witnesses to be Spiritual and Mystical like the Place in which they were slain the Hearts of men and their Death to be the same And were they ever such Witnesses so slain so long slain and in that Place as in the Revelation exprest IV. If they be the same Witnesses were they not to Live and Dye and Rise together Has not Reeve been Dead many Years V. If they were the True Witnesses when did they shut the Heavens that it Rained not turn Water into Blood and Smite the Earth with Plagues VI. If John Reeve was the Moses or Principal Vnderstanding and L. Muggleton the Aaron or Mouth only as sayes Reeve then whether Muggleton be anything but an Empty Month now his Vnderstanding Moses is gone VII How can Muggleton upon Reeve ' s Principle be a Witness or Commissioner for God who confesseth He never had any Commission by Voice of Words but from Reeve only whom he trusted though Reeve himself affirms That there is no True Commission but by Voice of Words to the Party sent VIII Whether Men's Trusting upon Muggleton who relyed upon Reeve without any Internal Convictions from the Eternal Spirit be not as Sandy a Foundation at the Darkest Popery IX Whether there ever was a Pope on Earth that usurped or exercised a more Arbitrary Enslaving Power over men's Consciences in Imposing his Faith upon Penalty of Immediate Curse and Eternal Damnation then J. Reeve and L. Muggleton have done and the last remains to do by affirming That whom he Curseth God Himself cannot Bless and whom he Blesseth God Himself cannot Curse though Reeve and Muggleton have Curst and Blest and Curst the same Person and that more then once X. And Lastly Whether upon the whole these men in their Commissions Doctrines Jurisdictions Sentences Lives and Conversations are like unto the Last Witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ or thoseVngodly Proud Boasters Wandering Stars Clouds without Rain Raging Waves Exalted above all that is called God Perverters of the Truth whose Belly is their God who Glory in their Shame whose End is Destruction and Perdition Postcript SInce the finishing of the fore-going Paper it came into my Mind that if I affixt a Postscript touching the Commission it self that might remove all Credit in the same the rest would dye of it self 'T is true this might have been better plac'd in the Front as the best Preludium to the Discourse it self but it failing of that place I was rather willing it should go for a Postscript then lose that Service I am not without Hope it may perform in Publication of it A Brief Examen of REEVE his Commission Saith he I Declare from the Lord Jesus That no man can understand any thing of those things that are Invisible to our Natural Eyes but by the Spirit of Revelation therefore it is written That Faith is the Substance of Things Hoped for and the Evidence of Things not seen in his Transcendent Spiritual Treatise as he calls it pag. 16. If these things are Invisible to Natural Eyes then are they Inaudible by Natural Ears both being Capable and Natural alike And if no man ever can or could See them no man could or can ever Hear them and if no man could or can then Reeve never did And if he never heard with his Carnal Ears for He implies so much that denies the Power of seeing such Spiritual and Invisible Things to natural Eyes then was his Commission a Counterfeit For he affirmed That the 3d 4th 5th of February 1651. He Heard God resident above the Stars speaking to Him then a Bed on Earth by a Voice of Words giving to him his Pretended Commission T.S.T. pag. 5. In short Four Things I recommend to the Serious Consideration of all Sober-minded People with a Story to conclude 1. That a Commission should be given by a Voice of Words from the farthest Heaven to any man upon Earth and neither any other Hear the same no not so much as Muggleton Himself nor yet the Heavens nor Earth to re●●ive any impression or Alter●●ion is an Incredible Thing with all Persons that are in their Wits 2. Not only in this doth his Commission strangely vary from that of Moses but in the Consequence thereof more dangerously in as much as no man living is assured of the Verity of this Commission from any Convincing Testimony either from without or within him a Credulity God himself never exacted or expected from his Creatures for the Reason of God's Complaint against a Rebellious People never was for not believing without Convictions but because the Creation without and his Good Spirit within had so plentifully proved a God and that Fear