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A66428
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A true representation of the absurd and mischievous principles of the sect, commonly known by the name of Muggletonians
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Williams, John, 1636?-1709.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing W2735; ESTC R38943
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21,260
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36
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A TRUE REPRESENTATIOâ— OF THE Absurd and Mischievous PRINCIPLES OF THE SECT Commonly known by the Name of MUGGLETONIANS LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC XCIV THE PREFACE AFter that I had for the use and satisfaction of a private Friend made some enquiry into the Principles of the contemptible Sect known of late times by the name of Muggletonians I threw the Papers aside as thinking the time not at all well spent that I had employ'd in reading their Books and in the Examination of what is made up of Impiety Nonsence and Absurdities But however I was at last prevailed with to permit them to be made publick which I did submit to not so much for the sake of those poor deluded Souls that are won over to that pernicious Sect that having no shadow of Reason for its support will not submit to the tryal of it and so are uncapable of Argument but for the sake of others And to give the World an instance of the power of Enthusiasm and how far it exposes Persons to be led away by the confidence or craft of any Pretender how ignorant or selfish soever he be And of this sort were the first Ring-leaders of this Sect John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton in the year 1651. a time of Universal Liberty and which gave an opportunity for the worst of Men to vent the absurdest and most infamous Errors The former of these J. Reeve by Profession a Baker pretended that the Lord Jesus spoke to him by Voice of Words three days together and with such a Godlike Majesty that he saith of himself I did not know whether I was a Mortal Man or an Immortal God That the Voice told him that he had given him Understanding in the Scripture more than all the World besides And that he had given L. Muggleton to be his Mouth and that they two were the last Commissioners to the World and the two Witnesses spoken of Revelation 11th who exercis'd a Commission of an higher nature than those of the Prophets and Apostles and that they knew more and had a greater power than any of them as they could bless or curse save or damn to all Eternity irrevocably And therefore whosoever should oppose or vilifie this their Commission and Doctrine would be guilty of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost Accordingly when these two were tried 1653. at the Old Baily before the Ld. Mayor Fowke and ordered to lie in Bridewell six Months they gave Sentence against the said Ld. Mayor the Recorder Steel and the Jury after this manner In obedience to our Commission received from the Holy Spirit c. we pronounce you cursed and damned Soul and Body to all Eternity Now if we come to enquire into their Doctrine there is nothing more absurd false and precarious As they tell us God has a Body like that of a Man of very flesh and bone and that the Trinity or Father Son and Holy Ghost are only variety of Names That God the Father left Heaven for a time and became an absolute mortal Man and died and was buried and that during his absence from Heaven Elias did there represent him and was the Protector of God during his Minority in the Earth and that God was raised from the dead by a compact with Elias who surrendred up all again to him They say farther that there was but one Angel that fell and that he entred into the Womb of Eve by her consent and there died and that Cain was the very Seed of that Serpent Angel and so was Brother to Abel only on the Mother's side And that from him sprung all the Carnal Seed of Reprobates who were not of the Seed of Adam such as Cain and Judas c. They hold farther that there is no Devil at all without the Body of Man and that he is no other than Man's Spirit of unclean Reason and cursed Imagination Nay sometimes they will determine as positively in matters of History and Philosophy and tell us from the Lord that the Epistles of the Apostles were wrote in Hebrew Greek and Latin That the Sun and Stars are but little bigger than they appear to be That the Sun's Eclipse proceeds from its nearness to the Moon and that no one can foretell Eclipses but by Inspiration Marvellous Discourses And which our Astronomers and Almanack-makers are much beholding to them for For whilst Men of Learning in that way thought they went by a certain rule of Nature and constant Observation they think too meanly of themselves These new Commissioned Men instruct them better and tell them they write their Ephemerides and Almanacks by Revelation if they therein infallibly foretell Eclipses as what Astronomer doth not By this we have a taste of these new Prophets pretences and may see that their History Philosophy and Divinity are much alike and the apparent Fruits of Ignorance Confidence and Imagination But I shall leave these to be handled in the following Treatise THE PRINCIPLES OF THE MUGGLETONIANS CONSIDER'D IN the treating upon this Subject there are two Questions to be taken into Consideration viz. 1. Whether John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton are sent from God And 2. Whether they are the Two Witnesses in the 11 th of the Revelation CHAP. I. Whether they are sent from God I Here premise That a man may pretend to be sent and to have a Commission from God when he is not sent and has no such Commission So did John Robins of whom J. Reeve and L. Muggleton say that he is the last and great Antichrist spoken of in the Thessalonians Such also were John Tanee Bull Varnum Evans as they confess So they say the Ranters and Quakers were false Christs and false Apostles Therefore they plead That there was a necessity of the witness of the Spirit because of late and at present so many several Antichristian Spirits are come forth From hence I infer That unless J Reeve and L. Muggleton can prove that they are sent and commissioned from God more than those were whom they grant to be Impostors and Deceivers we have no more reason to believe they came from God and were sent by him than they themselves had reason to believe that the forementioned Deceivers came from God For do they say they were sent from God So did the others also declare 2. Therefore we must enquire into the Evidences and Proofs they bring of their Commission This they grant a proper way So in the Book call'd a Looking-glass If divers Men appear as Witnesses or Prophets immediately sent forth by a Powerful Commission from the Everlasting God are there not certain Divine Seals to distinguish between those Embassadors which are infallible and them that are but fallible In treating upon this I shall enquire Q. 1. What are the Evidences they bring and whether they are not such as other Deceivers have alike pretended to and even exceeded
they have not sufficient Evidence for it Sometimes they say there are six Principles viz. 1. The Person of God 2. Person of Angels 3. Person of the Devil 4. Adam's Condition 5. Joy of Heaven 6. Eternal Death At other times they say there are two Foundations of all Spiritual Understanding viz. The form and nature of the true God and the form and nature of the right Devil But the things of this kind I shall refer to these Heads viz. God Angels and Men. 1. Let us take a view of their Principles that respect God concerning whom they hold 1. That God is not a Spirit but hath a body and is very Flesh and Bone and so they call an infinite Spirit an infinite nothing a cursed lying and imaginary God and a pretended Spiritual God 2. That God was in the form of a Man and like unto the first Adam from all Eternity 3. That the words Father Son and Spirit are only variety of Names and are the same Godhead in a three-fold Condition and that the Man Christ Jesus is the Father Son and Spirit in one Person and that by Declaration of the Spirit the addition of two Persons more proceeds only from the Serpentine Antichristian Devil in Carnal Men. 4. That God the Father uncreated himself from his Eternal and Immortal Glory and entered into the Virgin 's Womb and became Flesh and for a Season became an absolute Mortal Man 5. That the Man Jesus that was Crucified is the only God and that the whole Godhead died and was buried for a Moment 6. That Elias was taken up bodily into Heaven that he might represent God the Father whilst he went his journey into the Flesh and so was the Protector of God for a Moment when God became a Child and was an absolute Creature and watch'd over him all the days of his Mortality from his Birth to his Ascension and that fill'd him with all those great Revelations of his former Glory when he was the Immortal Father That Elias was the God and the Father to whom Christ said My God my God and Father into thy hands and to whom he prayed Father if it be possible c. That Moses who was also Glorified and never died but was Translated and Elias did represent the Person of God the Father in Heaven and were the Angels of whom it s said He shall give his Angels charge over thee lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone that is lest he should at any time be overcome by the Temptations of Reason which is the Devil That Christ was raised from the Dead by a Spiritual Compact with Elias and that he surrendred all up to Christ when he ascended into the Right hand of all Power And all this they say they speak by Revelation from the Holy Spirit 2. As to their Opinions concerning the Holy Angels and Devils they say That the Angels are Persons in form like Men. As to Devils they affirm 1. That there was but one Angel fell 2. That the Angels cast out with him were of his Seed and Generation through his Union with the Entrails of Eve by her consent into whose Womb he presently enter'd where he died and became essentially one with her That Cain was the very Seed of that Reprobate Serpent Angel and so Cain was Brother to Abel only on the Mother's side 3. That Cain and none but he alone is Beelzebub the Prince of Darkness and the Father of all the Angels of Darkness and so the two Seeds of Adam and Cain though mixed together by Carnal Copulation yet are distinct and so Cain and Judas were not of the Seed of Adam 4. That there is no Devil at all without the body of a Man so that that Devil so frequently spoken of in the Letter of Scripture that tempts Men to all Unrighteousness is Man's Spirit of unclean Reason and cursed Imagination 3. As to Men. They say that the Spirit of a Man is Mortal dies turns into Dust and is utterly annihilated until the Resurrection And therefore when Solomon said The Spirit returns to God who gave it those words proceeded not from the Spiritual Knowledge of God in him but from his own Carnal Reason And though he was a wise Man his Wisdom was not Prophetical nor was he a Pen-man of Holy Writ 4. By Inspiration from the unerring Spirit they positively affirm the Substances of Earth and Water were from all Elements I shall briefly reflect upon these As to God 1. He saith God is not a Spirit but hath a Body I answer 1. The Scripture makes a Body and a Spirit two opposite things so that a Body is not a Spirit nor a Spirit a Body Eccles 12. 7. The Body returns to the Dust and the Spirit to God So a Spirit has not flesh and bones Luke 24. 37 39. 2. The Scripture calls God a Spirit but never a Body which it might do if he was a Body and not a Spirit or if a Body as well as a Spirit 2. They say God is in the form of a Man I answer 1. The Scripture saith God is invisible Heb. 11. 27. and as no Man hath seen him so whom no Man can see 1 Tim. 6. 16. 2. It especially takes us off from all such gross conceptions of him John 5. 37. Deut. 4. 12. 3. That the words Father Son and Spirit are only various Names I answer If so then Christ must be begotten of himself and be in the bosom of himself He must then send himself and come by himself to himself and be an Advocate with himself and be greater than himself He must judge no Man and yet commit and take all Judgment to himself And after he has administred the Kingdom he must deliver it from himself to himself And to conclude this point he must be the Father of himself 4. God the Father became flesh Answer Quite contrary to Scripture which saith God sent forth his Son made of a Woman Gal. 4. 4. And God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh Rom. 8. 3. And the Word the only Begotten of the Father was made Flesh John 1. 14. And his Son was made of the Seed of David Rom. 1. 3. 1 John 4. 9. But there is not one word that the Father was made of a Woman and was made Flesh c. and became the Son 5. That the Godhead died c. Just contrary to Scripture which saith God is immortal 1 Tim. 1. 17. and that he only hath Immortality 1 Tim. 6. 16. 6. Elias is all Fable Let any one read the Divine Prayer of our Blessed Saviour just before his Apprehension John 17. and see how it would look if applied to Elias Did Elias give him Power over all flesh c. Was Elias the only true God And would it be Eternal Life to believe in Elias as