Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A66428
|
A true representation of the absurd and mischievous principles of the sect, commonly known by the name of Muggletonians
|
Williams, John, 1636?-1709.
|
1694
(1694)
|
Wing W2735; ESTC R38943
|
21,260
|
36
|
the only true God Did Elias give him the Work he was to do And had he a Glory with Elias before the World was Did Elias give him the words he was to give to his and did the Apostles believe that he came out from Elias and was sent by him was Elias in him and he in Elias and were all Believers to be one in Elias and him c. O horrid Blasphemy I think that Chapter alone is enough to rid any of this Frenzy So one while they say Elias had charge of God for a Moment Transcend p. 35. and yet elsewhere from his Birth to his Ascension Revelat. p. 130. n. 16. that he was quickned by the Compact of Elias Transcend p. 37. and yet by his own Power General Epist p. 5. As to the Devils they say 1. But one Angel fell Just contrary to Scripture which tells us of the Angels that fell Jude 6. And this cannot be applied to Cain and his Posterity because according to these Mens Principles they never fell being Devils by Extraction and Propagation and not by Transgression and Apostacy 2. That the Devil entred into the Womb of Eve and there died and out of him came Cain c. The Scripture plainly saith that Cain was the Son of Adam as well as Eve Gen. 4. 1. Adam knew his Wife and she conceived and bare Cain Reeve wisely observes that in the Genealogy of Adam unto Jesus there is no mention made of Cain This is said for want of Knowing that Jesus was descended from Seth and he might as well have said there is no mention of Abel For as Abel died without Children so all the Posterity of Cain perished in the Deluge And it was only the Posterity of Seth that survived and peopled the World again 3. That Cain and none but he is Beelzebub c. Answer The same Scripture that speaks of Beelzebub being Prince of the Devils speaks of him as casting them out and so supposes Beelzebub then in being in his own Person but that cannot then be applied to Cain who is not in Being at all as they hold in his Person 4. There is no Devil without the body of a Man and Devils are only Mens Lusts and Imaginations Answer 1. Then the Devils which the Heathens and Israelites offer'd their Sacrifices and Children to were their own cursed Imaginations Levit. 17. 7. Psal 106. 35. 2. Then the Devil that transported Christ and argued with him and that hurried him into the Wilderness set him upon a Pinacle of the Temple must be his own imagination 3. Then the Devils that enabled the young Man to break his Chains Mark 5. 2. c. and that tore and bruised the Child Luke 9. 39. and that go about to and fro in the Earth Job 1. 7. 1 Peter 5. 8. and that contended with Micbael were only the Lusts of Men that is the Lusts of Men broke Chains bruised and tore Persons walk'd to and fro in the Earth c. which is irreconcileable As to Man they say the Soul is Mortal and turns into Dust with the body Answer The Scripture on the contrary tells us that the Souls of Men are alive after their Departure hence So Matth. 22. 32. Our Saviour proves from that Saying I am the God of Abraham c. that God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living that is God is said to be their God after they were Dead and that he could not have been had they not been in Being after their Decease This again our Saviour's argument shews Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the Soul where he not only makes the Soul and Body two distinct things but so really such that the one may be killed but the other cannot But if the Soul was mortal and turn'd into Dust they would as well kill the Soul as the Body and would kill the Soul by killing the Body So Luke 16. 22. The Beggar that died was carried into Abraham's bosom and the Rich Man was in Hell How not as to their bodies surely for they were left in this World the Rich Man was buried And this was before the Resurrection for it was while their Brethren were alive v. 28. And therefore it must be as to their Souls alone that one was with Abraham and the other in Hell II. They are Deceivers That plead Divine Inspiratition and Infallibility and yet have been guilty of Self-contradiction and have actually mistaken in Principles and matter of Fact It has been just before shew'd that they have grosly err'd in their Principles which are contrary to the Word of God Let us then now proceed to their Self-contradictions to Errors in matters of Fact by which it will appear that what they say of themselves that they are infallible and not guilty of any mistake is one of the number 1. I shall consider their Self-contradictions In one place they say If any man despise this writing of theirs he commits the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost So the General Epistle c. And yet in another it is To persecute others for the sake of Christ is that Sin At one time they tell us that they two were the Forerunners of the End of the World and that this was to be suddenly after they had delivered their Message At another time it is Whosoever shall live to see an end of them two shall suddenly see the Dissolution of the World By the first suddenly they are to be understood of what was immediately to come to pass for they say John Robins the Man of Sin as they make him was to appear a little before the Personal Visible coming of Christ And that the Dissolution of the World was presaged by the many Fires then happen'd in London and by the Condition of the People Now this Message of theirs which the end of the World was suddenly to follow was declared 1651 as appears by their Remonstrance which is above 40 years since And Reeve has been dead above 30 years for it was before Muggleton reprinted the Book call'd his Looking-glass 1661. But why should we wait the end of these two for if they be the Witnesses in the Revelation they are to die by the hands of Violence and to rise again and to ascend up into Heaven in the sight of their Enemies And Muggleton may as well tell us that it was so with John Reeve as he doth that Moses was Translated of whom the Scripture saith that he died and was buried But let us proceed to their palpable mistakes and which yet they affirm to be true as well as themselves to be infallible And this in the first place I take to be one that they affirm That they had more knowledge in the Scriptures than all the Men of the World besides and yet every where betray the grossest ignorance in them 1. As first of all when they say that Moses was
Translated who the Scripture saith died and was buried Deut. 34. 5 6. 2. Muggleton supposes Matthew to have seen the Angel at our Saviour's Resurrection and gives it as a Reason why he speaks but of one saith he perhaps he was no more to his Matthew 's Visible Sight 3. He saith that the Souldiers did see the natural Vail of the Temple rent from the bottom to the top Whereas the Vail was in the most inward part of the Temple and the Souldiers were at Mount Calvary watching the Body of Jesus 4. He saith we read not of Cain in the Genealogy from Adam to Jesus forgetting that Jesus was not descended from Cain but Seth. 5. We may add to this gross Ignorance when he affirms that the Apostles Epistles were written either in Hebrew Greek or Latin and for the most in Greek and Latin Revelat. ch 52. n. 6 7. Whereas those Epistles were written in Greek only 6. He affirms That the Roman Catholicks were the first Professors of the Faith of Christ and of the Apostles Whereas it is notorious in Scripture that the Jews Converted were the first Professors of it and then the Gentiles in Judea Let us proceed to another sort of mistakes 1. They say The first sort of Persons that affirm the Holy One of Israel to consist of three Persons are Athanasius Socinus alias John Biddle As if Athanasius and Socinus were of the same Opinion whereas Athanasius was a zealous Assertor of the Trinity and Socinus and Biddle Oppugners of it And as for Socinus he would not allow the Holy Spirit to be a Person at all and Biddle would have him only a Created Angel and so not God 2. They affirm that no one ever taught their Principles as that God the Father died and that God had a Body and was in the form of a Man c. Whereas there is hardly any thing new but that there have been some as wild and fanciful as themselves in past Ages As 1 The Anthropomorphites and Audians and Manichees held that God had a Human body 2. That there was but one Person in the Deity only called by different Names so held the Noetians Colarbasians and Sabellians 3. That the Father suffer'd so the Cataphrygians Sabellians called therefore Patropassiani and that the Divinity of Christ suffer'd so the Theopaschites 4. That the Soul died with the Body and that there was no Resurrection of the Body so the Valentinians Manichees c. 5. That the Wicked are of the Posterity of Cain So the Valentinians and Sethites Without raking farther into this matter this is sufficient to shew that they are not the first Broachers of these Doctrines 3. They affirm That the Reason of the Eclipse of the Moon is through her near Conjunction with the Sun whereas it 's manifest that it is when it 's opposite to the Sun and that the Earth is between them 4. They affirm That no Man can know the time of Eclipses but by Inspiration whereas they may be as well foretold as the time the Sun will rise at to Morrow 5. He positively affirms from God That the Bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars are in compass not much bigger than they appear to our natural sight whereas it's evident on the contrary that every thing diminishes in its appearance according to the degree of its Elevation And consequently those Heavenly Bodies being vastly remote from the Earth must be vastly greater than they appear to the Eye 6. He affirms That the Sun Moon and Stars neither borrow nor lend light to one another Whereas we see plainly that the Moon borrows light from the Sun and that according as the Earth is between it and the Sun so it 's proportionably obscured 7. He affirms positively from the Lord That the Sun Moon and Stars are only in one Firmament Whereas it's evident on the contrary 1. That the Moon is in an Orb lower than the Sun and both of them lower than the Stars 2. That there are different motions a slower and swifter in the Planets and that those called fixed Stars only move all alike and are in the same Firmament Whether these are Errors or no let all Men judge and if so what becomes of their Infallibility what of their pretence to Divine Illumination CHAP. II. IT remains now to proceed to to the second Question viz. Q. Whether J. Reeve and L. Muggleton are the two Witnesses spoken of in the 11th of the Revelation This they both do avow and L. Muggleton has wrote a Comment upon that Chapter in his way foolish and absurd enough to try how he can work it to his purpose But like one that is not in himself over confident of his performance he sometimes shrinks from it and comes off with a may be as We may be said to be those two Olive trees and the two Witnesses may be said to have finished c. Now what more sneaking and pitiful After they have boldly challeng'd this Character to themselves to give it over again and retire from it as if they fainted under a distrust and the fear of inconsistencies in it As a Specimen of which I shall compare the Text of Scripture and his Exposition together Revelation Ch. 11. TEXT Chap. 78 c. EXPOSITION Ver. 3. I Will give power unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophesie one thousand two hundred and sixty days cloathed in Sackcloth V. 4. They are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth WE J. Reeve and L. Muggleton shall prophesie concerning the Spiritual Estate of Mankind to Eternity and of the end of the World Olive trees because of the Oyl of Joy in our Doctrine Candlesticks because God hath put the Commission of his Spirit into us which is Light V. 5. If any man will hurt them a fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their Enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed Fire proceedeth to pronounce blessing and cursing to Eternity V. 6. These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophesie and have power over waters to turn them into blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will To shut heaven that is the Heaven of Mens hearts That it rain not that is after the Sentence of Eternal death it prevents the motion of the Spirit Turns water into blood that is the motions of peace and hope of Mens Souls which are as water to drink into wrath and so it becomes a Spiritual Plague V. 7. And when they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascended out of the Bottomless Pit shall make War against them and shall overcome them and kill them Finished their Testimony that is the Doctrine of Truth which is that Jesus Christ is God the Father Son and Spirit c. The Beast that is the Spirit of Reason in the